Medicare for All and tuition-free universities have been at the core of the 2020 Democratic presidential campaigns, creating a stark division between progressive candidates and their centrist counterparts. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have proposed to make Medicare for All and public universities cost-free by taxing massive corporations and the super wealthy, and earlier this year, Sanders introduced legislation that would cancel student loan debt. His plan would be paid for with a new tax on Wall Street, he says. It would also make public universities and community colleges free — a key pillar of Sanders’s 2020 education platform. These proposals are not radical ideas in Sweden, a country that has built one of the world’s most extensive social welfare systems. In Sweden, healthcare costs are largely subsided by the state. Daycare and preschool programs are mostly free. College and university are free. Public transportation is subsidized for many users. To explain how Sweden does it, we speak with Mikael Törnwall, Swedish author and journalist focusing on economic issues at Svenska Dagbladet, a Stockholm daily newspaper. His most recent book is titled "Who Should Pay for Welfare?"

In Stockholm, Democracy Now! sat down with one of the winners of this year's Right Livelihood Award: Sahrawi human rights leader Aminatou Haidar. For over three decades, Haidar has led a peaceful campaign to resist the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, which is often called Africa’s last colony. Morocco has occupied Western Sahara — a small region just south of Morocco in northwest Africa — since 1975. Thousands have been tortured, imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the occupation. Peaceful protesters, led by women, are routinely beaten in the streets. Despite this violent repression, Haidar has led countless hunger strikes and demonstrations, and unflinchingly documented the abuses against the Saharawi people for more than 30 years. She is a former political prisoner who was jailed for four years in a secret prison. In granting her the award, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation cited her "steadfast nonviolent action, despite imprisonment and torture, in pursuit of justice and self-determination for the people of Western Sahara." Haidar says it's time for the international community to push for an end to the Morrocan occupation of Western Sahara. "My message is: Let's put an end to our suffering. Let's put an end to this injustice. Let's give a voice to Sahrawi people, let them choose their future."

The Right Livelihood Awards celebrated their 40th anniversary Wednesday at the historic Cirkus Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, where more than a thousand people gathered to celebrate this year's four laureates: Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg; Chinese women's rights lawyer Guo Jianmei, Brazilian indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa and the organization he co-founded, the Yanomami Hutukara Association; and Sahrawi human rights leader Aminatou Haidar, who has challenged the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara for decades. The Right Livelihood Award is known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize." Over the past four decades, it's been given to grassroots leaders and activists around the globe — among them the world-famous NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. At Wednesday's gala, Amy Goodman interviewed Snowden in front of the award ceremony's live audience via video link from Moscow, where he has lived in exile since leaking a trove of secret documents revealing the U.S. government's had built an unprecedented mass surveillance system to spy on Americans and people around the world. After sharing the documents with reporters in 2013, Snowden was charged in the U.S. for violating the Espionage Act and other laws. As he attempted to flee from Hong Kong to Latin America, Snowden was stranded in Russia after the U.S. revoked his passport, and he has lived there ever since. Edward Snowden won the Right Livelihood Award in 2014, and accepted the award from Moscow.

Constitutional Experts Debate Impeachment at House Judiciary Committee Hearing, GOP Rep. Devin Nunes Sues CNN over Story about Nunes’ Ukraine Meeting, Trump Departs NATO Early after Video of Other World Leaders Mocking Him, Report: Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions to Hit Record High in 2019, Colombia Holds Third National Strike in Two Weeks, Workers Strike Across France Today over Macron’s Pensions Plan, Hand Grenade Thrown over Wall of Migrant Shelter in Madrid, India: Rape Survivor Attacked on Her Way to Court in Latest Assault on Women, Head of Japanese Aid Agency Killed in Afghanistan, AG Barr Threatens Communities Critical of Police Brutality, George Zimmerman Sues Trayvon Martin’s Family for $100 Million, Tucson Joins Pima County in Lawsuit over Trump’s Border Wall, Harvard Students Protest University Decision to Deny Tenure to Popular Latina Professor

Pelosi Announces the Impeachment of Trump Is Going Forward; Inside Trump's War with the FBI; The Danger of Turning to Generals to Solve Political Crises backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dueling Legal Scholars and Overheated Republican Rhetoric; "When Does Ordinary Republican Partisanship Turn Into Treason?"; The Pentagon's Reality-Based Approach to Global Warming backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The House Intelligence Report Delivered to the House Judiciary Committee; Court Orders Release of Trump's Dealings with Two Banks; Trump No Longer Knows the Disgraced Prince Andrew backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Will NATO's 70th Anniversary Be a Celebration or a Conflagration?; Bullock Exits but Will Not Pick up a Senate Seat for the Democrats; The Brutal Crackdown by Iran's Corrupt and Cruel Clerics backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

FEATURING FRANK TAMBORELLO – Donald Trump’s administration has just finalized a new rule on states’ discretion in distributing food aid. The rule is likely to result in hundreds of thousands of Americans losing access to food stamps by the middle of next year through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Currently more than 36...

FEATURING REBECCA GORDON – Watching the many hours of impeachment hearings over the past several weeks has been a challenging experience, particularly when House Republican committee members addressed witnesses. The obfuscations and angry defiance with which they have defended President Donald Trump could lead one to believe they inhabit an entirely different plane of reality. ...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked Committees working on the impeachment inquiry to proceed with drawing up Articles of Impeachment against President Donald Trump. In a speech early on Thursday morning Speaker Pelosi made the announcement. She gave no indication of the timeline of the process but it is expected that the House will pass...

FEATURING COREY BRETTSCHNEIDER – The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday took up the baton of the impeachment process from the House Intelligence Committee, holding its first public hearing. Four constitutional scholars and professors were called in to be witnesses, three of them by Democrats and one by Republicans.  Professor Noah Feldman of Harvard University laid...

Today's BradCast offers some historic news and some chilling news. And some that may be both. [Audio link to show follows below.] U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday that she is directing House Democrats to move forward to draw up Articles of Impeachment against Donald J. Trump. It is only the fourth time in [...]

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Congratulations! You've just lived through the hottest ten years on record; GOP Senate confirms former lobbyist as Energy Secretary; California bans all new fracking, for now; PLUS: Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg has a warning for politicians... All that and more in today's Green News Report! PLEASE CLICK HERE TO HELP US [...]

As we try to tell you damned near everyday here on The BradCast, everything is ultimately about elections. All of it. Today's impeachment hearings, I'm happy to say, drove that point home yet again, particularly regarding concerns from our nation's founders about the corrupting nature of foreign influence on U.S. elections. [Audio link to show [...]

On today's BradCast: It was another very bad day in the federal courts for Donald Trump, though another very good one for the Rule of Law (for those who still care about such things), even as a new phase in the President's ongoing impeachment inquiry begins in the U.S. House. [Audio link to full show [...]