Democracy Now!: Recent Episodes
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Democracy Now! is an independent daily TV & radio news program, hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González. We provide daily global news headlines, in-depth interviews and investigative reports without any advertisements or government funding. Our programming shines a spotlight on corporate and government abuses of power and lifts up the stories of ordinary people working to make change in extraordinary times. Democracy Now! is live weekdays at 8am ET and available 24/7 through our website and podcasts.
We look at how Columbia University ignored women, undermined prosecutors and protected obstetrician Robert Hadden while he preyed on hundreds of his patients for more than two decades, as detailed in a new investigation from ProPublica and New York magazine. Hadden was sentenced in July to 20 years in federal prison for sexually abusing his patients, but survivors say no one has been held accountable at Columbia, and are still demanding justice. We speak with a survivor who reported Hadden to police after he assaulted her during a supposedly routine pregnancy exam in 2012, leading to his arrest, but Columbia allowed him to go back to work, and he assaulted more women. We are also joined by Laura Beil and Bianca Fortis, who co-wrote the new report. Beil also hosts the podcast Exposed: Cover-Up at Columbia University.
We get an update from Libya, where at least 6,000 are feared dead after a catastrophic cyclone hit the eastern city of Derna, causing two dams to burst and flooding whole sections of the city. Storm victims are being buried in mass graves as hope is dwindling for those who have been unable to locate friends and family members. Libya’s infrastructure has crumbled over years of civil war, NATO intervention and political instability; Derna’s dams have not been maintained since 2002. Ahead of the storm, the government did not declare an emergency or carry out evacuations. “It’s obviously our government’s fault,” says Libyan youth climate activist Nissa Bek in Tripoli. She notes Libya’s lack of investment in risk mitigation or climate adaptation means the scale of the disaster was not a surprise. “I’m hoping that this tragedy could be the turning point for all of this, and for them to actually take the climate crisis more seriously,” adds Bek.
Rescue Efforts Continue in Libya’s Inundated Derna as Bodies Line the Ground Outside Main Hospital, Kevin McCarthy, Under Pressure from GOP’s Far Right, Orders Impeachment Inquiry Against Biden, Kim Jong-un Vows “Unconditional Support” to Vladimir Putin as Leaders Meet in Russia, Hanoi Apartment Building Fire Kills at Least 30 People, Including Children, Filipina Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa and Her News Site Rappler Cleared of Final Tax Evasion Charge, Child Poverty Rates Doubled in 2022 After GOP, Joe Manchin Allowed Child Tax Credit to Expire, Patients, Doctors Sue over Denial of Care Due to Abortion Bans in Idaho, Tennessee and Oklahoma, Five Ex-Memphis Officers Indicted on Federal Charges for Murder of Tyre Nichols, Family Demands Justice for Police Killing of Pregnant Black Mother Ta’Kiya Young, Justice Department’s Antitrust Case Against Google Opens This Week, New York University to Divest from Fossil Fuels After Years of Student Organizing, Indigenous Activists Gather in D.C. to Demand Release of Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier
As the COVID-19 era pause on federal student debt payments comes to an end and some 40 million Americans will resume payments next month, we speak with Debt Collective organizer Astra Taylor about Biden’s new Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan and her organization’s new tool that helps people apply to the Department of Education to cancel the borrower’s debt. Taylor also discusses her new book, The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, in which she writes, “How we understand and respond to insecurity is one of the most urgent questions of our moment, for nothing less than the future security of our species hangs in the balance.” She notes organizing is about “the alchemy of turning our vulnerabilities, turning our oppression, turning our insecurities into solidarity so that we can change the structures that are undermining our self-esteem and well-being.”
On the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-backed military coup in Chile that deposed democratically elected socialist leader Salvador Allende, we discuss the U.S. contribution to the coup and declassified records obtained by the National Security Archive’s Chile Documentation Project with Peter Kornbluh. His book, The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, has been revised and published in Chile for the first time. “There’s a lot known about the U.S. role in Chile, but there’s a lot to be reminded of, as well, and then there are the secrets that remain,” says Kornbluh, who says countries around the world must learn from Chile’s history to counter growing misinformation and authoritarianism today. “Very authoritarian voices are rising to dangerous levels that actually threaten our democracy.”
As the G20 met in India this weekend, invitations to dinners during the G20 used the name Bharat instead of India. Bharat is a Sanskrit term which is already India’s second official name but is not widely used internationally. Economics professor Jayati Ghosh speculates Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears to be moving toward the name Bharat as a “knee-jerk reaction” to a coalition of 26 opposition political parties called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A.) ahead of 2024 elections. “It would be funny if it weren’t also so expensively ridiculous,” says Ghosh, who taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi for 35 years. “The immediate bringing in of this measure is really a panicky response to the fact that the opposition parties are coming together.”
We get an update on the G20 summit, which welcomed the African Union as a permanent member and took place for the first time in India as the country faces criticism for bulldozing slums near the site of the meeting. “What we are seeing is a period of significant realignments,” says economics professor Jayati Ghosh, who critiques the meeting for a lack of action and largely performative events such as a negotiated joint statement which stopped short of condemning Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. “This G20 has done nothing for the major problems of our time,” says Ghosh, who calls on the group of world leaders to act on climate change and wealth inequality. “The G20 is a collection of potentially very powerful governments — that don’t necessarily represent the interests of their own people, I might add — but nonetheless, this collection has not done very much over the last 12 to 13 years.”
Thousands Feared Dead in Libya as Torrential Rains Cause Dams to Collapse, Greece Warns of Infectious Diseases After Cyclone Brings Unprecedented Flooding, Death Toll from Morocco Earthquake Nears 3,000, U.S. Breaks Record for Billion-Dollar Climate Disasters, U.N. Human Rights Chief on Climate Inaction: “The Dystopian Future Is Already Here”, Ukraine Seizes Russian-Held Oil and Gas Platforms in Black Sea, NATO Plans Largest War Games Since Cold War; U.S. Launches Military Exercises with Armenia, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un Arrives in Russia for Talks with Putin, France Defies Niger Coup Leaders’ Ultimatum to Abandon Military Bases, Biden Administration Will Unfreeze Iranian Oil Revenue as Part of Prisoner Swap, Former Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo Calls Israel an “Apartheid State”, FDA Approves New COVID-19 Booster Shots, Protesters Occupy House Speaker’s Office to Demand Renewed Funding for HIV/AIDS, Atlanta Officials Refuse to Process 116,000 Signatures for Public Referendum on Cop City
As the Africa Climate Summit wraps up in Nairobi, we get an update from Kenyan climate justice organizer Eric Njuguna. He says the focus by Western leaders and multinational companies on establishing carbon markets in Africa amounts to a “ticket to pollute” without directly addressing the need to phase out fossil fuels. Njuguna says a key demand from activists is to create access to climate financing without new debt burdens on the continent’s governments. “Africa is bearing the brunt of the climate crisis and people are dying,” says Njuguna.
The Biden administration is expected to send armor-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium to Ukraine as part of the latest military aid package, even though the weapons are radioactive and their use causes contamination that is hazardous to human health. It’s the latest escalation in the war between Ukraine and Russia that nonproliferation activists warn could possibly lead to a nuclear confrontation. The United Kingdom already provided Ukraine with depleted uranium munitions earlier this year, one of which sparked contamination fears when it was reportedly destroyed by Russian forces over the weekend, and the Biden administration followed that up by sending cluster bombs, which have been banned by an international treaty ratified by more than 110 nations. “On top of dealing with unexploded cluster munitions, they’re also going to have this huge hazard of depleted uranium to contend with, as well,” Phil Miller, chief reporter for the independent news outlet Declassified UK, says of the risk to civilians.
Georgia is intensifying its crackdown against opponents of Cop City, with the state’s Republican attorney general announcing sweeping indictments of 61 people on racketeering charges over protests and other activism related to the $90 million police training facility planned to be built in Atlanta. The RICO charges were approved by the same grand jury that indicted former President Trump and 18 others on RICO charges in the same county by the Democratic district attorney, and come after many of the same people were earlier charged with domestic terrorism and money laundering as part of the Stop Cop City movement, which is still seeking to block construction of the new police complex. “They are choosing to use the legal process in an essentially violent way to target protesters,” says attorney Devin Franklin with the Southern Center for Human Rights, which is organizing legal representation for the defendants in the case. We also speak with Keyanna Jones, a Stop Cop City organizer with Community Movement Builders, who notes the indictments are dated from May 25, 2020, the day Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. “Since that date, this country has been upended by governments across the nation trying to build Cop Cities in order to quell protest,” says Jones. “The government is simply upset that people seek to … use their First Amendment right to protest when we see injustice coming from those in authority.”
Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison for Jan. 6 Seditious Conspiracy, Blinken Visits Kyiv to Unveil New $1 Billion Aid Package for Ukraine, Meadows, Eastman & Clark Plead Not Guilty in Georgia Election Case, Special Counsel Jack Smith Warns Trump’s Remarks May Be Prejudicing Jury Pool in D.C., Trial Begins for Trump’s Former Trade Adviser Peter Navarro, 61 Cop City Activists Face RICO Charges in Atlanta for Protests Against Police Facility, U.N. Head Warns “Climate Breakdown Has Begun”, Brazil: 21 Die After Cyclone Triggers Floods & Landslides, Seven Killed After Massive Rainstorm Hits Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, India Bulldozes Poor Areas Ahead of G20 Summit in Delhi, Lula Announces Brazil Will Recognize Two More Indigenous Territories, Saudi Arabia and Iran Exchange Ambassadors, Ending Diplomatic Rift, Montse Tomé Becomes First Woman to Coach Spanish Women’s National Soccer Team, Federal Court Strikes Down Alabama’s Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Map, Impeachment Trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Begins, NYPD Agrees to Respond to Protests Differently to Settle Suits Stemming from BLM Protests, Former NM Governor Bill Richardson, 75, Dies
We go with Democracy Now! correspondent Juan Carlos Dávila to the Dominican Republic, where many Haitian migrants and their descendants work on sugar plantations under conditions amounting to forced labor and live in heavily underresourced communities known as bateyes. Many bateyes do not have electricity or running water. We speak to local residents and members of the Reconocido movement, which fights for the rights of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, about the workers’ inhumane treatment and their lack of legal status in the country, as well as about efforts to improve living conditions in the bateyes, such as an initiative spearheaded by the Puerto Rican environmental group Casa Pueblo to install solar panels in the communities. “The right of energy has to be for everyone,” says Casa Pueblo’s executive director, Arturo Massol-Deyá, who shares how his organization is working in solidarity with batey residents to disrupt the cycle of poverty and prepare for climate adaptation.
We continue our discussion with Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas about U.S. policy in Latin America by looking at one of its long-term effects: migration to the U.S. As people flee instability in their home countries brought about by U.S. trade and military policy, U.S. border authorities have implemented increasingly dangerous measures to stop migrants from traveling safely, including a deadly floating barrier of circular saw blades in the Rio Grande. This is all fueled by racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric spouted by right-wing extremists and politicians, whom Casar characterizes as “the arsonists trying to blame the firefighters for the flames.”
We speak to Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas, who has just returned from a congressional trip to meet with newly left-leaning governments in Brazil, Colombia and Chile ahead of the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-backed Chilean coup, which overthrew democratically elected President Salvador Allende and installed a 17-year military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet. Casar was joined by other progressive Latinx members of Congress, including New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Texan Joaquin Castro. During the trip, the lawmakers called for the Biden administration to declassify more documents revealing the U.S. role in the coup. It was the first time an all-Latinx American congressional delegation traveled to Latin America, Casar says, and marked a “historic” attempt by young, progressive lawmakers to break from Cold War-era American interventionism on the continent and to move toward a relationship “based on mutual respect and supporting democracy.”
The Biden administration has taken a major step to rein in price gouging for prescription drugs in the United States. Medicare will now be able to negotiate prices on 10 of the most expensive drugs used to treat diabetes, cancer, heart disease and more. That list is set to expand over the years. In what’s seen as a blow to Big Pharma, the White House says the move, a part of the Inflation Reduction Act, will benefit more than 9 million people in the U.S. and lead to $100 billion in savings over the next decade. Pharmaceutical companies have already filed at least eight lawsuits contesting the new rule. “We’re paying far more than the rest of the world, and there’s no rational basis for it,” says Peter Maybarduk of the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. Maybarduk joins us to discuss how the new negotiation process aims to break up drug monopolies and disband the pharmaceutical industry’s profit incentive.
Military Officers in Gabon Seize Power, Place Pres. Bongo Under House Arrest Days After Reelection, Hurricane Idalia Slams Florida Coast as Officials Warn of Life-Threatening Storm Surge, Biden Admin Announces First 10 Medications That Will Be Subject to Medicare Negotiations, Uganda Sees First Charges of “Aggravated Homosexuality” After Passing Homophobic New Law, Militia Kills 14 Villagers in Latest Violent Attack in Eastern DRC, Denmark Introduces Law to Criminalize Burning the Qur’an, Hundreds of Prisoners Are on Hunger Strike in Bahrain’s Largest Prison, Pakistani Court Suspends Imran Khan’s Corruption Sentence, But Ex-PM Remains Jailed in Separate Case, Dozens of States Consider Bills Barring Chinese Entities and Citizens from Buying Land, Air Pollution Shortens Average Life Span by 2.3 Years, Worse Than Being a Smoker, Greek Evros Wildfire Largest Ever Recorded in EU, Louisiana Wildfires Kill 2; Maui Search for Wildfire Victims Moves from Land to Water, Biden Administration Forced to Roll Back Wetlands Protections After SCOTUS Ruling, U.N. Body Says Governments Should Address Children’s Demands to Fight Climate Crisis
Congressmember Maxwell Frost of Florida says this weekend’s shooting in Jacksonville, carried out by a white supremacist who targeted Black people at a dollar store, did not happen in isolation. He points to Republican efforts to loosen gun laws and racist rhetoric from party leaders as part of the problem of far-right violence. “All of these things are connected,” says Frost, who also applauded people for booing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at a prayer vigil in Jacksonville. “In moments like these, we have to stand strong on ensuring that leaders who contributed to the problem can’t use our communities as campaign stops.”
As the Jacksonville community mourns the loss of three people killed Saturday in a racist shooting, more details are emerging about the white supremacist who went to a Dollar General store looking to target Black people before killing himself. Authorities say he left behind a suicide note and other writings outlining his racist ideology. The 21-year-old gunman had legally bought the two weapons he used in the shooting, including an AR-15-style rifle marked with swastikas. The shooting occurred as thousands gathered in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to mark the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech. Activists in Jacksonville had also been preparing commemorations of Ax Handle Saturday, when a white mob led by the Ku Klux Klan violently attacked Black civil rights protesters on August 27, 1960. “This hurricane of racism that we've been dealing with in the Jacksonville community is not new,” says Jacksonville-based historian and civil rights leader Rodney Hurst, who helped lead desegregation protests in the city during the 1960s.
We continue to look at Donald Trump’s mounting legal battles with constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis. Trump’s federal trial for election interference is set to begin in Washington, D.C., in March, but his legal team argued this week for a two-year delay, citing the case of the Scottsboro Boys, nine young Black men who were falsely accused of raping a white woman and convicted in a rushed trial before the Supreme Court ultimately intervened. “It’s offensive,” Kreis says of the comparison. “To claim that Donald Trump is a victim of some unlawful, unruly criminal justice process akin to 1930s Alabama is simply false.”
A judge on Monday set Donald Trump’s federal trial for plotting to overturn the 2020 election to begin in Washington, D.C., on March 4 — at the height of the presidential primary season and one day before Super Tuesday. Meanwhile, Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows testified before a federal judge in Georgia on Monday as part of an effort to move his trial from state to federal court. Meadows is one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the Georgia racketeering case, and any decisions on his fate could affect the others. Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright says at the heart of the Georgia case was an attempt to disenfranchise Black people who had helped push Joe Biden over the top in the state’s presidential election. “They were specifically going after Black voters,” Albright says of Trump and his allies. We also speak with law professor Anthony Michael Kreis, who attended Monday’s hearing in Georgia and says Trump’s mounting legal battles present “a real test for our constitutional order and our political system.”
Trump’s Federal Criminal Trial for Election Interference Set for March 2024, UNC-Chapel Hill Campus Locks Down After Faculty Member Shot Dead, Tennessee Republicans Vote Once Again to Silence Rep. Justin Jones, Sudan’s Military Ruler Rules Out Peace Talks with Rival Paramilitaries, French Ambassador to Niger Rejects Junta’s Ultimatum to Leave Within 48 Hours, Guatemalan Tribunal Certifies Bernardo Arévalo’s Victory, But Electoral Registry Suspends His Party, Hurricane Idalia Strengthens and Takes Aim at Florida’s Gulf Coast, Four Migrants Die as Boat Capsizes Off Greek Island of Lesbos, Biden Administration Knew Saudi Border Guards Were Killing Asylum Seekers, HRW: “More Palestinian Children Will Be Killed” Unless Israel Pressured to Change Course, In Beijing, Commerce Chief Touts U.S. Trade Ties with China, Denver to Pay $4.7 Million to Settle Police Brutality Claims of Black Lives Matter Activists
The city of White Plains, New York, has settled a lawsuit by the family of a man who was shot in his home by police after accidentally pressing his medical alert badge in 2011. Kenneth Chamberlain repeatedly told police he was fine and asked them to leave, but they refused, called him racial slurs and broke into his home before killing him. After a decade of legal action, the family agreed to a $5 million settlement with the city, but the local police association blasted the agreement and said it was not an admission of misconduct. “It doesn’t equate to accountability,” says Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., who now works to challenge police brutality and continues to ask for unsealed records related to his father’s death. “We need actual structural change,” says Mayo Bartlett, a human rights lawyer representing the Chamberlain family, who argues police misconduct must be addressed through legislation. “It has to be something that’s codified in law.”
After thousands gathered Saturday in Washington, D.C., to mark the 60th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington, we speak with Gary Younge, author of The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream. “There is this notion of King’s dream speech as being folded into America’s liberal mythology: America is always getting better, it’s always getting more wonderful,” says Younge, who wrote his book on the speech to reflect America’s current struggle with white supremacy and attacks on people of color. “As things can go forwards, so can they go backwards.”
On Saturday, a white supremacist gunman killed three Black people at a store in Jacksonville, Florida, in a racially motivated attack. Authorities say the 21-year-old white gunman initially tried to enter the historically Black college Edward Waters University, but he was turned away by a security guard before driving to a nearby Dollar General and opening fire with a legally purchased attack-style rifle. America’s gun problem “makes its racism more lethal,” says Gary Younge, author of Dispatches from the Diaspora: From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter. “There’s been a significant increase in the number of hate crimes, particularly in anti-Black hate crimes, and one has to be able to connect that to the political situation that surrounds us,” says Younge, who says the shooter’s actions are reflective of the current attacks on Black history and represent a backlash to increased racial consciousness following the murder of George Floyd.
White Supremacist Shooter Kills 3 Black People in Jacksonville; DOJ Investigating as Hate Crime, Rallygoers, Rights Leaders Gather in D.C. on 60th Anniversary of March on Washington, Mnangagwa Declares Victory in Zimbabwe Presidential Election as Challenger Chamisa Calls Fraud, Gabon Shuts Down Internet, Imposes Curfew Following Voting Delays in Nationwide Elections, Niger’s Coup Leaders Order Troops to Be on Maximum Alert, Expel French Ambassador, 7 People Shot Dead at Church Rally in Haiti as Gang Violence Spirals, Russian Officials Say DNA Analysis Confirms Yevgeny Prigozhin Died in Plane Crash, Ex-Guatemalan Colonel Sentenced to 20 Years for 1982 Indigenous Massacre, Judge Agrees to Release Imprisoned Ex-Guatemalan Pres. Otto Pérez Molina to House Arrest, Texas, Missouri Bans on Trans Healthcare for Young People Take Effect, Hearings on Trump’s 2 Election Interference Trials Have Major Implications for His Fate, 2024 Race, EU Legislation on Big Tech Takes Effect in Hopes of Regulating Harmful and Illegal Online Practices, Trump Returns to X with His Mugshot; Paying X Users May Have to Send Personal Data to Israeli Firm
Tennessee’s Republican-dominated state Legislature is still facing public outcry over the state’s permissive gun laws in the wake of Nashville’s Covenant School shooting, which killed three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members in March. Since then, the state House, under the control of Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton, has censured its own representatives and deployed state troopers to crack down on public participation. Earlier this week, Republicans imposed new penalties on lawmakers believed to be too disruptive and banned visitors from carrying signs — a ban that has since been challenged by the ACLU for violating the First Amendment. Amid the new rules, visitors can still carry guns into the building. For more, we’re joined by Tennessee state Representative Justin Jones, one of three Democratic representatives expelled by the state Legislature earlier this year for joining gun violence protests on the House floor. We speak to him about his return to the Legislature after being reinstated in a special election last month, and his continued struggle in “the people’s house” against what he describes as “authoritarian” rule.
While being booked for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump made history as the first former president to have his mugshot taken and released to the public. Shortly after the image of Trump scowling at a police camera started to circulate, the embattled real estate mogul and politician began using it to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign. “Mugshots have these various ways of being deployed … to craft a narrative, or to reinforce a narrative,” says Emory University professor Carol Anderson, who contrasts the novelty of Trump’s mugshot with the usage of mugshots by the media and the state to convey an image of Black criminality. As L.A. Times reporter Keri Blakinger explains, “the widespread distribution of mugshots undermines the presumption of innocence” and exacerbates racial bias. Blakinger is also the author of the memoir Corrections in Ink, which details her experience serving time in prison in upstate New York. “If he were treated like any other defendant, [Trump] would have been given a bail amount he couldn’t afford and left to die in a filthy cell,” she notes, cautioning that “the more that we celebrate some of these broken features of the system, the more ingrained they become.”
Former President Donald Trump was booked Thursday at Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail on 13 felony charges for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. He paid $20,000, or 10% of his $200,000 bond, through a local bail bondsman, allowing him to be released after about 20 minutes at the jail. He is expected to face trial as early as October. In Atlanta, we speak with two guests: Carol Anderson, a professor of African American studies at Emory University and the author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy, among other books on race and civil rights in American politics, and Hugo Lowell, a reporter for The Guardian who has closely covered Trump’s criminal case in Georgia. Anderson discusses the Trump campaign’s use of a long legacy of racism and voter suppression in an attempt to “overthrow democracy” via an “assault on Black humanity,” while Lowell shares what’s next for Trump and his 18 other co-defendants, including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Kenneth Cheseboro, who first suggested the plot to create fake electors.
Donald Trump Booked at Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail, Released on $200,000 Bond, Ukrainian Forces Launch Amphibious Assault on Russian-Occupied Crimea, U.S. Intelligence Says Russian Mercenary Leader Yevgeny Prigozhin Was Assassinated, Opposition Leader Accuses Zimbabwe’s President of Vote Rigging and Voter Suppression, China Bans Japanese Seafood After Release of Radioactive Wastewater from Fukushima, Record Heat Waves Put 2023 on Track to Become Hottest Year in Human History, Maui County Sues Hawaii’s Largest Utility over Wildfires That Killed at Least 115, Fracking in Pennsylvania Linked to Cancer and Host of Other Health Issues, Tennessee Special Session on Gun Control Brings Chaos, No Concrete Measures, 150,000 Autoworkers Edge Near Strike as Workers Demand Wage Increases on Par with CEOs, Minnesota Mayor Vetoes Guaranteed Minimum Wage for App Drivers, Brazilian Supreme Court Says Homophobic Slurs Can Be Punishable by Prison, FIFA Looks to Discipline Spanish Soccer Head After He Forcibly Kissed Woman Player
The first Republican presidential primary debate highlighted “deep divisions within the Republican Party about foreign policy,” says The Nation's national affairs correspondent John Nichols. He says the nationalist “America First” ideology championed by former President Donald Trump is now being pushed even further by Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis, who are critical of U.S. funding to Ukraine, while more establishment candidates like Nikki Haley insisted on continued support for the country's defense against Russia.
On the same day a heat wave forced Milwaukee, Wisconsin, public schools to close for the day, moderators at the first Republican presidential debate in the city asked candidates if they believed climate change was caused by human activity. Their answers ranged from avoidance to outright denial. “I think this sums up the Republican Party at this point,” says John Nichols, national affairs correspondent at The Nation. “The moderate position in the Republican Party is avoidance, but I think a very … popular position within the party is one of actual denial.” Nichols added that the heat index was 114 degrees in Milwaukee on the day of the debate. “We saw peak climate denial in a Republican debate, and it’s kind of amazing at this late stage in history.”
We feature highlights on climate change, foreign policy and Trump from the first Republican presidential debate of the 2023 race and speak with John Nichols, The Nation's national affairs correspondent. We also look at how former president and front-runner Donald Trump refused to attend the debate ahead of turning himself in at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia, to face racketeering charges for running a criminal enterprise with 18 co-defendants to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. The debate felt like “an argument at the kids' table on Thanksgiving rather than a classic political debate,” says Nichols, who says candidates were attempting to become Trump’s vice president or project themselves as leaders in a post-Trump Republican Party.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, longtime leader of the private Russian mercenary Wagner Group, has reportedly died in a plane crash two months after his group launched a short-lived armed mutiny against Vladimir Putin. Several other key figures with the Wagner Group were also reportedly killed in the crash. The crash was “not unexpected,” says Kimberly Marten, Barnard College professor of political science, who has been researching and writing about the Wagner Group for years. “We know that Putin takes revenge on people who are disloyal,” says Marten, who expects the Wagner Group’s operations in several African countries to continue, but says political infighting in Russia has weakened the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Yevgeny Prigozhin and Other Russian Mercenary Leaders Reportedly Die in Plane Crash, Bipartisan Senate Delegation to Kyiv Urges $21 Billion in New U.S. Aid to Ukraine, U.S. Approves $500 Million in Additional Arms Sales to Taiwan for F-16 Fighter Jets, BRICS Alliance Expands to Include Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE, Protesters Demand China End Support for East African Crude Oil Pipe Line, Wildfires Rage in Turkey, Greece, as Heat Wave Bakes Much of U.S., British Columbia Premier Says Historic Wildfires and Global Climate Havoc Linked to Global Heating, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell Surrender to Georgia Jail in 2020 Election Interference Case, 8 GOP Hopefuls Square Off in Primary Debate Shunned by Front-Runner Donald Trump, South Carolina Supreme Court Upholds Abortion Ban, Reversing Previous Ruling, Politico: D.C. Investigating Far-Right Judicial Activist Leonard Leo and His Dark Money Network, India Lands Spacecraft Near Moon’s South Pole in First for Humanity
We look at the 70th anniversary of the August 19, 1953, U.S.- and U.K-backed coup in Iran, which took place two years after Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalized Iran’s oil industry that had been controlled by the company now known as British Petroleum. “If nationalization in Iran of oil was successful, this would set a terrible example to other countries where U.S. oil interests were present,” explains Ervand Abrahamian, Iranian historian and author of Oil Crisis in Iran: From Nationalism to Coup d’Etat and The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations. While the CIA has historically taken credit for Mosaddegh’s overthrow, “the British have not admitted their leading role,” notes Iranian filmmaker Taghi Amirani, whose documentary film Coup 53 uncovers the influence of MI6 agents who sought to preserve their imperial-era access to Iranian oil and pulled in the Americans by promising a “slice.” Seventy years later, says Amirani, “We are still living with the ripples of this disastrous event.”
We speak to the author of a new Human Rights Watch report that details how border guards in Saudi Arabia have killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers — many of whom are fleeing human rights abuses in Ethiopia’s Tigray region — trying to cross the Yemen-Saudi border since March 2022. The report documents Saudi border guards shooting women and children, firing explosive weapons at migrants and “executing” people at close range. Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that it will conduct a joint investigation with the Saudi government, but Saudi Arabia has previously denied similar allegations. “I don’t have any faith that they would conduct an independent investigation on these mass killings,” says Nadia Hardman, a researcher at Human Rights Watch and the author of the report, titled “'They Fired on Us Like Rain.'”
Bodies of 18 Asylum Seekers Uncovered in Greek Forest Ravaged by Wildfire as Europe Roasts, Zimbabwe Votes in Rematch of Presidential Race Between Incumbent Mnangagwa and Chamisa, African Union Suspends Niger over Military Coup, 500 Children Killed in Sudan Conflict; 30,000 Lose Access to Nutrition Centers After NGO Ends Services, Japan to Start Releasing Fukushima Nuclear Wastewater into Pacific Despite Major Objections, Hun Manet to Succeed Father as Cambodia’s New PM After Transfer Approved by Cambodian Lawmakers, BRICS Expansion, Common Currency on the Agenda as World Leaders Meet in South Africa, Drone Strikes Kill 3 in Belgorod; U.S. Urges Citizens to Leave Belarus, 16 People Killed and Dozens Injured, Including Migrants to U.S., After Bus Crash in Mexico, Plainfield, NJ Official Removed from City Board After Video of Anti-Immigrant Rant Prompts Outrage, Trump Lawyer John Eastman Surrenders to Georgia Jail in 2020 Election Interference Case, Trump Skips First GOP Presidential Debate as 8 Hopefuls Take to Milwaukee Stage, Appeals Court Reinstates Alabama Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth, U.S. Judge Blocks Part of Georgia Ban on Gender-Affirming Care, Atlanta Mayor Orders Probe into Death of Black Man Who Died After Being Tased by Police
Ecuadorian voters have overwhelmingly supported a ban on future oil extraction in a biodiverse section of the Amazon’s Yasuní National Park — a historic referendum result that will protect Indigenous Yasuní land from development. We speak with Helena Gualinga, a youth Kichwa Sarayaku environmental activist from Ecuador who has fought against oil drilling all her life and says the results of the vote not only set a “crucial precedent” as the first time a country has voted by democratic ballot initiative on resource extraction in the Amazon, but also demonstrates that “Ecuador is a country that is committed to protecting the Amazon rainforest and to protecting Indigenous peoples.”
As a two-day BRICS summit gets underway in South Africa, we speak with author and analyst Vijay Prashad about whether the bloc — which comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — can meaningfully challenge U.S. and Western domination in world affairs by building an alternative forum for countries of the Global South. BRICS countries represent 40% of the world’s population and a quarter of the world’s economy, and the group is now considering a possible expansion to more than 20 other countries. ”BRICS is an instrument to push forward their political views, which they feel are not taken seriously,” says Prashad, director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Prashad explains the history of BRICS and its New Development Bank and responds to criticism that BRICS falsely portrays itself as an anti-imperialist project. The BRICS countries “are not a socialist bloc,” says Prashad, but they “don’t want to do what the West tells them — they’re driving their own agenda.”
Former President Donald Trump has agreed to turn himself in to authorities in Georgia on Thursday to face 13 felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. His bail is set at $200,000. Trump has now been indicted four times this year, even as he continues to dominate the Republican field for the 2024 presidential nomination. In Atlanta, we speak with independent journalist George Chidi, who helped expose the Trump campaign after witnessing a secret meeting of Republican operatives at the state Capitol in 2020. The gathering was part of a scheme to use fake electors to claim the state’s Electoral College votes for Trump despite his loss to Joe Biden. Chidi was recently subpoenaed to testify before the Fulton County grand jury in the Trump investigation but did not end up testifying. We also speak to Chidi about Atlanta’s efforts to build the massive Cop City police training complex.
As former President Donald Trump prepares to surrender in Atlanta on Thursday to face charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, we speak with journalist George Chidi, who has documented the inhumane conditions inside the Fulton County Jail, where Trump will appear before a judge. “A lot of people are getting killed” inside the jail, says Chidi. “The jail is the largest mental health provider in this county, and that’s a tragedy all on its own.” He also discusses the death of Lashawn Thompson, who was found dead inside his cell after being eaten alive by insects, according to family. Chidi writes The Atlanta Objective newsletter, and his recent piece for Atlanta magazine is headlined “The real behind the wall: A look inside the infamous, deadly Fulton County Jail.”
Biden Pledges Federal Support to Maui Wildfire Survivors, House Democrats Demand Probe of Prisoner Deaths Amid Unrelenting Summer Heat, Ukraine’s Zelensky Wins Promise of F-16 Fighter Jets as War Toll Nears 500,000 Soldiers, Real Estate Tycoon Srettha Thavisin Selected as Prime Minister of Thailand, Trump to Pay $200,000 Bail After Surrendering to Georgia Authorities on Thursday , Mike Pence and Mark Meadows Dispute Trump’s Claim He Declassified Documents, Texas Authorities Reposition Deadly Floating Barrier in Rio Grande Ahead of Court Hearing, Atlanta Activists Gather 100,000+ Signatures for Referendum to Stop Cop City, Video Shows Raid by Kansas Deputies on Home of 98-Year-Old Newspaper Publisher, California Store Owner Shot Dead by Man Who Tore Down Pride Flag and Shouted Slurs
In Canada, the province of British Columbia has declared a state of emergency where entire towns have been burned to the ground in the country’s worst wildfire season ever. Evacuation orders are in place for more than 35,000 people, and 30,000 more have been told to be prepared to evacuate. Nearly all 20,000 residents have already left the city of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories. Scientists say climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires because they are fueled by the increasingly hot and dry weather. “There’s a symbiosis here between how the climate is changing relative to the length of a potential fire season and the fuels that provide energy to fires,” says Bob Gray, a wildland fire ecologist, speaking to us from Chilliwack, British Columbia. Gray warns that Canada’s firefighting workforce is stretched thin, relying on a network of provincial firefighters, contractors and international firefighters.
BRICS — the five-country bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — is holding a monumental summit in Johannesburg this week where the group will discuss a number of major issues, including expanding membership and how to improve financial cooperation. Over 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, and 23 countries have formally applied to join the bloc, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Indonesia, Egypt and Ethiopia. The summit is a “very unstable situation,” as member countries vary greatly on priorities and many potential candidates for membership are “mostly tyrannies, carbon-addicted economies,” says Patrick Bond, director of the Centre for Social Change at the University of Johannesburg. “Some of these machinations are hegemonic projects to stop dissent at home and actually call for a unity that does not benefit the masses,” says South African activist and scholar Trevor Ngwane, who criticizes BRICS as “projecting a false hope to the masses” for posing as an alternative to U.S. and Western imperialism.
In Guatemala, progressive presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo has won a landslide victory in a runoff election against former first lady Sandra Torres. Arévalo, a member of the Semilla party, took nearly 60% of the vote Sunday after months of political persecution. In June, Arévalo stunned many in Guatemala when he placed second in the first round of voting after running on an anti-corruption platform. Soon after, the attorney general’s office suspended Arévalo’s Semilla party, and police raided their offices. In Guatemala City, we speak with Guatemalan human rights lawyer Frank LaRue and award-winning investigative journalist Allan Nairn about this historic election. LaRue and Nairn agree this election proves that Guatemalans want a change from the country’s history of corruption and military dictatorships, but the situation remains tense in the country as oligarchs will most likely attempt to disrupt Arévalo’s transition to power. “This could be the beginning of a turn in Guatemalan history,” says Nairn, who predicts the next phase of this election process will be people demonstrating popular support to force a transition of power. “They may have to take to the streets to defend the results of this vote.”
Progressive Bernardo Arévalo Wins Guatemala Presidency in Landslide, Ecuador Sends Progressive Luisa González and Businessman Daniel Noboa to Presidential Runoff, Ecuadorian Voters Back Referendum to Ban Oil Extraction in Yasuní National Park, Tropical Storm Hilary Lashes SoCal, Mexico as Wildfires Rage in Washington and Canada, Niger Coup Leader Proposes 3-Year Transition as Junta Supporters Remain Defiant of ECOWAS Threats, Six Children Killed by Fire at Camp for Congolese Displaced by Floods, Egyptian Arab Spring Activist Ahmed Douma Pardoned After Decade in Prison, Human Rights Watch: Saudi Border Guards Have Killed Hundreds of Ethiopian Asylum Seekers, Biden Pledges Deeper Ties with Japan and South Korea, Citing Threats by China and DPRK, Biden Administration Urges COVID-19 Booster Shots for All This Fall, New York Bans Release of Radioactive Water from Decommissioned Nuclear Plant
The Smithsonian has formed a task force to address the massive collection of human remains held by its museums, which includes 255 human brains that were removed primarily from dead Black and Indigenous people, as well as other people of color, without the consent or knowledge of their families. The so-called racial brain collection was revealed by a Washington Post investigation. It was mostly collected in the first half of the 20th century at the behest of Ales Hrdlicka, a racist anthropologist who was trying to scientifically prove the superiority of white people. We speak with reporters Nicole Dungca and Claire Healy about the series and what they found. Dungca is also president of the Asian American Journalists Association.
We speak with renowned Florida educator Marvin Dunn about the fight to protect the teaching of Black history in the face of racist curriculum changes in the state that justify slavery and downplay violence against African Americans. Ahead of the first day of school, Dunn helped lead a “Teach No Lies” march to the Miami-Dade County School Board Wednesday to protest the new education standards. “We are now in a confused, demoralized state of education in Florida,” says Dunn, author, professor emeritus at Florida International University and co-founder of the Miami Center for Racial Justice. He has been leading tours of teachers and young people to places like Rosewood, site of a 1923 massacre of Black residents by a white mob.
With the death toll from the Maui wildfires at 111 and as many as 1,000 still missing, we speak with Hawaiian law professor Kapuaʻala Sproat about the conditions that made the fires more destructive and what’s yet to come for residents looking to rebuild their lives. Decades of neocolonialism in Hawaii have redirected precious water resources toward golf courses, resorts and other corporate ventures, turning many areas into tinderboxes and leaving little water to fight back against the flames. Now many Hawaiians say there is a power grab underway as real estate interests and other wealthy outsiders look to buy up land and water rights on the cheap as people are still reeling from the loss of their family members, livelihoods and communities. “Plantation disaster capitalism is, unfortunately, the perfect term for what’s going on,” says Sproat, who just published a piece in The Guardian with Naomi Klein. She is professor of law at Ka Huli Ao Native Hawaiian Law Center and co-director of the Native Hawaiian Rights Clinic at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa School of Law. “The plantations, the large landed interests that have had control over not just the land, but really much of Hawaii’s and Maui Komohana’s resources for the last several centuries, are using this opportunity, are using this time of tremendous trauma for the people of Maui, to swoop in and to get past the law.”
Canada Orders More Evacuations as Wildfires Rage Across the Country, Hawaii’s Head of Emergency Quits as Hawaiians Warn of Climate Gentrification After Lahaina Tragedy, Hurricane Hilary Intensifies to Category 4 Storm, Thousands Evacuated as Tenerife Wildfires Burn “Out of Control”, Biden Hosts Leaders of Japan and South Korea as China Slams Summit as Provocation, U.S. Intelligence Predicts Ukraine Counteroffensive Will Fall Short, China Defense Minister Visits Belarus; Pres. Lukashenko Says He Would Deploy Russian Nukes, 1,000 Palestinian Prisoners Go on Hunger Strike as Israel Continues Deadly Attacks in West Bank, Progressive Presidential Candidate Bernardo Arévalo Seeks Change as Guatemala Heads to Polls, Ecuador Voting in Snap Election with Progressive Candidate Favored to Win, Outrage and Calls for Justice After Torching of Christian Homes and Churches in Pakistani City, Trump Asks to Push Jan. 6 Trial to 2026, Cancels Plans for Presser “Exonerating” Him from GA Indictment, Prosecutors Seek 33-Year Prison Sentence for Ex-Leaders of Far-Right Proud Boys, Canadian Police Arrest Forest Defenders as Crackdown on Fairy Creek Activists Resumes, Latinx Children Living in States with Harsh Anti-Immigrant Laws More Vulnerable to Health Issues
An explosive leaked document obtained by The Intercept appears to show direct U.S. involvement in former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ouster in 2022 because of his stance on the war in Ukraine. Khan is currently jailed and facing trial over a slew of corruption charges that his supporters say are intended to keep him from running for office again. The former cricket star was elected in 2018 but lost power in 2022 after a no-confidence vote in Parliament, which he says was engineered by the country’s powerful military with support from the U.S. The diplomatic cable published by The Intercept shows State Department officials pressured their Pakistani counterparts to push Khan out because of his neutrality over the war in Ukraine, promising that “all will be forgiven” if he was to be removed. “This document has been at the center of Pakistan’s political crisis for the past year and a half,” says Murtaza Hussain, senior writer at The Intercept. “Now that we’ve seen this document for the first time, it does seem to validate many of [Khan’s] claims.”
Armenia is calling on the United Nations Security Council to address a worsening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan home to ethnic Armenians that has been under a blockade for eight months. Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought multiple wars over the territory since the collapse of the Soviet Union, most recently in 2020. Azerbaijan closed the only road into the region in December, severely restricting the movement of food, medicine and other supplies for the roughly 120,000 people living there. “We cannot accept a new Armenian genocide in 2023,” says Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Argentine lawyer who served as the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. He issued a report earlier this month on the blockade. We also speak with Anna Ohanyan, professor of political science and international relations at Stonehill College, who says Azerbaijan is relying on “the use of hunger as a weapon” in order not to engage politically with the largely self-governing region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
As Egyptians mark the 10th anniversary of the Rabaa massacre, we speak with human rights advocate Hossam Bahgat about how the mass killing shaped the country in the ensuing years. On August 14, 2013, Egyptian security forces opened fire on a sit-in where tens of thousands of people had camped out in Cairo to protest the ouster of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. An estimated 900 protesters were killed, but no one has been held responsible over the past 10 years. The minister of defense at the time, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has since risen to the presidency, ruling Egypt for nearly a decade as a close U.S. ally while jailing tens of thousands of political prisoners. “The massacre established a new normal” and inaugurated “a decade of shame,” says Bahgat, founder and executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which has obtained a leaked copy of a government report on the massacre that implicated Egyptian authorities in the mass killing and found most victims were civilians.
Hawaii Officials Defend Response to Wildfires; Gov. Calls for Moratorium on Lahaina Land Purchases, Yellowknife Orders Evacuation of 20,000 Residents as Record Wildfires Continue to Devastate Canada, Appeals Court Backs Restrictions on Abortion Pill, Sending Case to Supreme Court, 60 Asylum Seekers Feared Dead Near Cape Verde, ECOWAS Military Chiefs Meet over Niger Coup Amid Mounting Humanitarian Concerns, Libya Fighting Kills 55 People, U.N. Warns of “Spiralling” Humanitarian Situation in Sudan as Army Leader Says Talks Needed, NATO Official Apologizes for Saying Ukraine Could Give Up Territory in Exchange for Joining NATO, TX Woman Jailed for Threatening to Kill Judge in Trump Jan. 6 Case; Trump Supporters Dox GA Jurors, Kansas Prosecutor Withdraws Search Warrant Used in Last Week’s Marion County Record Raid, North Carolina GOP Overrides Gov. Veto on 3 Anti-Trans Bills, Protesters Decry Erasure, Rewriting of Black History from Florida Schools, “Children Are Locked Away in Cages”: ACLU Demands Louisiana Remove Children from Angola Prison
In a landmark climate case, a judge in Montana has ruled in favor of a group of young people who had sued the state for violating their constitutional rights as it pushed policies that encouraged the use of fossil fuels. In her decision, Montana Judge Kathy Seeley wrote, “Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate.” We speak with plaintiff Olivia Vesovich about the historic ruling, which she calls “the most life-changing news that I’ve ever heard.” “It’s a real watershed moment,” adds Julia Olson, chief legal counsel and executive director of Our Children’s Trust, a not-for-profit law firm representing the 16 youth plaintiffs between ages 5 and 22. “There’s going to be huge ripple effects as other courts start stepping up and doing their role in our democracy to be a check on the other branches of government.”
The Kansas Bureau of Investigations has launched a probe into the shocking police raid on the newsroom of the Marion County Record and the home of its publisher and co-owner, Eric Meyer. Last week, police seized computers, hard drives, servers and phones. Eric Meyer lived with his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, who was co-publisher of the family-owned newspaper. She died one day after the raids. We get an update from Sherman Smith, editor-in-chief of the nonprofit news outlet the Kansas Reflector, who was speaking to Joan Meyer on the phone as the raid was underway. “If the police in Marion County are allowed to get away with this, it becomes open season on journalists everywhere in Kansas,” says Smith. He discusses the reported dispute between the newspaper and a local restaurant owner who accused it of illegally obtaining information about a drunk driving incident, and how the paper had also been actively investigating Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody over sexual misconduct charges at a previous job in Kansas City. Details about that investigation were on a computer seized in the raid.
In the wake of ProPublica’s bombshell report detailing even more lavish gifts from right-wing billionaires to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, five House Democrats are calling on the Justice Department to investigate Thomas under the Ethics in Government Act for accepting the series of gifts from wealthy benefactors without following disclosure laws. Federal judges are required to disclose gifts worth more than $1,000 — including travel. ProPublica’s report documents Justice Thomas accepting 38 destination vacations, 26 private jet flights, 12 VIP passes to sporting events and eight helicopter flights, all paid for by wealthy patrons. We speak with co-author of the ProPublica investigation Brett Murphy about the process of revealing these lavish gifts and why even other judges consider it “an unprecedented amount of largesse for a justice to be accepting, let alone accepting and not disclosing.”
Hawaii Officials ID First 2 Victims of Maui Wildfires as Hawaiians Warn of Real Estate Vultures, 2 Years After Taliban Takeover, Women and Girls, Refugees and Ordinary Afghans Face Dire Conditions, Landslide Kills at Least 32 People at Burmese Jade Mine, North Korea Acknowledges U.S. Soldier Travis King Crossed the Border, Claims He Was Fleeing Racism, Paraguayan President Santiago Peña Pledges to Continue Taiwan Support at Inauguration, Rights Groups Challenge Imprisonment of Minors at Angola Prison, Woman Sentenced to 30 Years for Helping Cover Up Murder of Fort Hood Soldier Vanessa Guillén, Trump and Allies Expected to Surrender to Georgia Police by Aug. 25 in 2020 Election Indictment, 3 Candidates Have Not Yet Signed GOP Loyalty Pledge One Week Ahead of First Primary Debate, Planned Parenthood Arsonist Gets 10 Years in Prison, Arkansas Orders Credits Be Withheld for AP African American Studies in High School, Florida Colleges Drop AP Psychology as Chilling Effect from Draconian Censorship Law Takes Hold, Rights Groups Sue Oklahoma to Halt Funding of First Religious Public School in U.S.
Ralph Nader, the longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate, discusses “serial law violator” Donald Trump’s criminal indictments, particularly the second federal case brought by special prosecutor Jack Smith that accuses Trump of conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and of inciting the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. Nader says there is a glaring omission in the charges, and says Trump should be additionally charged under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which could bar him from again running for political office due to having “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States.
We’re joined in Atlanta by LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, to discuss Donald Trump’s latest criminal indictment. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is charging Trump and more than a dozen of his allies with plotting to steal Electoral College votes during the 2020 presidential election. “There was an attempt to disenfranchise voters in the state of Georgia,” says Brown, who also describes Trump’s targeting of poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss and how Georgia’s status as one of five states where the governor cannot grant pardons will affect the upcoming trial. “If he is convicted in the state, he is going to jail.”
Former President Donald Trump now faces a fourth criminal indictment regarding his actions during his 2020 reelection campaign, after a Georgia grand jury indicted him and 18 of his allies for attempting to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results. We speak to Michael Isikoff, a veteran investigative journalist who is writing a book on the Georgia investigation, about this “sprawling indictment,” which uses Georgia’s expansive RICO statute to lay out how Trump’s team pressured election officials, intimidated election workers, broke into election offices, lied to the Georgia Legislature and more.
Georgia Grand Jury Indicts Trump & 18 Others for Trying to Overturn 2020 Election, Maui Fires: Death Toll Rises to 99; 1,300 People Remain Unaccounted For, Montana Judge Rules in Favor of Youth Plaintiffs in Landmark Climate Case, NASA: Last Month Was Hottest July Ever Recorded “By a Long Shot”, More Than 50 Die in Northern India Due to Heavy Rain & Landslides, Another Political Leader Assassinated in Ecuador Days Before National Elections, Ethiopian Airstrike Kills 26 in Amhara Days After State of Emergency Declared, Explosion at Gas Station in Russian Republic of Dagestan Kills at Least 35, Israel Kills Two Palestinians, Including Teen, Near Jericho, Palestinian Family Ordered to Pay $13,000 to Cover Costs of Their Own Eviction, Egypt Marks 10 Years Since Rabaa Massacre, the “Worst Single-Day Killing of Protesters in Modern History”, “Goon Squad” Officers in Mississippi Plead Guilty to Torturing Two Black Men After House Raid, Nebraska Judge Upholds Ban on Abortion & Gender-Affirming Care for Minors, Report: Population of Unhoused People in U.S. Increases by Record 11%, Smithsonian Still Holds “Racial Brain Collection” Gathered by Racist Anthropologist in Early 20th Century
Ecuador is reeling from the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead Wednesday after a campaign rally in the capital Quito less than two weeks before the August 20 general election. Villavicencio was running on a platform opposing corruption and organized crime. Authorities have arrested six Colombian nationals and say they are members of a drug trafficking group, but many questions remain about who was behind the murder. “We see that there are clear links between the current government and these mafia organizations,” says vice-presidential candidate Andrés Arauz, who is running mate to Luisa González of the Citizen Revolution Movement. “We need to take care of our democracy. We are really in a moment of great despair in Ecuador.” Arauz ran for president in 2021 and previously served as director of Ecuador’s central bank and a minister in former leftist President Rafael Correa’s government.
We speak with leading climate scientist Michael Mann about the devastating Maui wildfires and how the climate crisis makes such disasters more frequent and more intense. “This is the climate crisis. It’s here and now,” says Mann, director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, pressure is mounting for President Biden to declare an official climate emergency.
The death toll from the Maui wildfires is now about 100 and is expected to continue to climb in what is now the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century and the worst natural disaster in Hawaii’s history. As recovery efforts continue, many residents are asking why Hawaii’s early warning system, with about 80 alarms on the island of Maui alone, did not get activated to alert residents about the approaching flames. We speak with Kaleikoa Kaeo, professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii Maui College, who gives a history of colonialism in Maui and how the transformation of the island for mass tourism, such as changes to agriculture and water management practices, helped to turn the area into a tinderbox. “Our people who have lived there since time immemorial are suffering because of the consequences that have been imposed really from outside foreign forces,” says Kaeo.
Maui Wildfire Death Toll Nears 100 as Residents Continue Search for Missing Loved Ones, Nigerien Military Leaders Announce Plan to Prosecute Deposed President Bazoum, At Least 6 Asylum Seekers Drown in Channel; 2 Off Tunisian Coast, 3-Year-Old Toddler from Venezuela Dies on Migrant Bus from Texas to Chicago, Taiwan Vice President Defies Chinese Intimidation While on U.S. Visit, Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian in West Bank as Int’l Group of Academics Slams Israeli Apartheid, Jordan Cracks Down on Online Speech with “Draconian” Cybercrime Law, U.N. Completes Transfer of 1 Billion+ Barrels of Oil from Red Sea Decaying Tanker, Pakistan Names Caretaker PM Amid Mounting Doubts Country Will Be Ready for Nov. Elections, Argentine Far-Right Populist Javier Milei Becomes Presidential Front-Runner After Primary, Ecuador Presidential Debate Proceeds with Empty Podium for Slain Anti-Graft Candidate Villavicencio, Media Organizations Blast Kansas Police for Raid and Seizure of Local Marion County Newspaper, Judge Orders Sam Bankman-Fried to Jail for Interfering with Witnesses Ahead of Fraud Trial, Hunter Biden Case Gets Special Counsel as Trial Looks Increasingly Likely, Fulton County DA Expected to Indict Trump This Week over Bid to Overturn Georgia 2020 Loss, Atlanta Effort to Get “Stop Cop City” on Nov. Ballot Successfully Passes Signature Threshold
We speak to a fire scientist about how the climate emergency fueled this week’s historic wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui. “This is something that is absolutely unprecedented,” says Clay Trauernicht, a professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, where he focuses on wildland fire management in Hawaii and the Pacific. He explains how colonial landscape changes to the islands — prioritizing monocrop agriculture and land use for tourism — paired with the worsening atmospheric effects of climate change have set the conditions that sparked the devastating wildfires and allowed them to rage indiscriminately.
In Lahaina, the area in west Maui that is of historical importance to Indigenous people, entire neighborhoods were wiped out by this week’s historic wildfires, including the Na 'Aikane o Maui Cultural Center, which had a massive archive that was lost to the flames. We are joined by Noelani Ahia, a Kanaka Maoli activist, who describes the community's reaction to the destruction of Indigenous cultural documents, art and artifacts. “In the blink of an eye, it was burned to the ground, and all of those things were lost,” says Ahia. She also describes mutual aid efforts now underway and notes, “The people on the ground know what the community needs.”
We speak with Kaniela Ing, national director of the Green New Deal Network and seventh-generation Kanaka Maoli, Native Hawaiian, about the impact of this week’s devastating wildfires and their relationship to climate change. The catastrophic fires have destroyed nearly all buildings in the historic section of Lahaina, which once served as the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. What is now being described as the worst natural disaster in Hawaii’s history was created by conditions such as dry vegetation, hurricane-level winds and developers redirecting water and building over wetlands, which are directly related to the climate crisis. “Anyone in power who denies climate change, to me, are the arsonists here,” says Ing. “We’re living the climate emergency.”
From Maui, we hear from a survivor of Hawaii’s historic wildfires, which have taken at least 55 lives to date. Vixay Phonxaylinkham, a resident of California, was on vacation with his wife and five children when they had to jump into the ocean to escape the raging fires and floated on a piece of wood for hours. “We stuck together. We held on. We’re not going to die this way. We’re here. We’re alive,” said Phonxaylinkham.
Maui Wildfire Death Toll Rises to 55 as Residents Survey Unfathomable Devastation, ECOWAS Says Use of Force Is Possible in Niger Coup Response as Bloc Activates “Standby Force”, One Dead, Six Arrested over Assassination of Ecuadorian Presidential Candidate Fernando Villavicencio, 23 Rohingya Refugees Drown, Dozens Missing After Shipwreck, Americans Jailed in Iran Transferred to House Arrest on Way to Possible Release, SCOTUS Blocks Purdue Pharma Settlement Deal That Would Protect Sackler Family from Civil Liability, Louisiana Gov. Orders Pardon Board to Review Clemency Requests for 56 Death Row Prisoners, Trump and Mar-a-Lago Aide Plead Not Guilty; DOJ Requests January Start Date for 2020 Election Trial, Mexico Demands Texas Remove Floating Barrier of Buoys with Saw Blades in Rio Grande, Democrats Ramp Up Calls for Justice Clarence Thomas to Step Down After New Corruption Revelations, Jess Search, Documentary Champion Driven by Film’s Transformative Power, Dies at 54
As the world marks 78 years since the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we speak with two activists arrested while protesting the placement of U.S. nuclear weapons in the Netherlands, Germany and other European countries as a violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for NATO’s so-called nuclear sharing program. “We’re very concerned about the legality,” says Susan Crane, who was arrested Tuesday during protests at the Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands. We also speak with John LaForge, co-director of Nukewatch, who just served a 50-day sentence in Germany for a similar protest at the Büchel Air Base. “The attempt to interfere with the threatened use of these weapons is justified as an act of crime prevention,” says LaForge. Actions are planned today at Büchel Air Base in Germany.
We speak with Ukrainian peace activist Yurii Sheliazhenko, whom Ukrainian authorities have charged with justifying Russian aggression, days after his Kyiv apartment was raided and searched. Sheliazhenko is executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement and has vocally opposed any escalation of the conflict, calling for a ceasefire and peace talks to end the war. “It is total nonsense that a pacifist is accused in justification of war,” Sheliazhenko told Democracy Now! in an interview just after he returned from being interrogated. He notes the security services are under the authority of President Volodymyr Zelensky, and says “direct involvement” from the leader in suppressing peace activism “is inappropriate in [a] democratic society.”
West African leaders from ECOWAS, backed by the United States and France, met today to consider military action to restore the ousted Niger President Mohamed Bazoum following last month’s military coup. Neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso have threatened that any intervention in Niger would amount to a declaration of war on them, as well. This comes as leaders of the coup in Niger have appointed a 21-member cabinet as they forge ahead with building a new government. The coup “is a consequence of the militarization of Nigerien society” by the United States and France, which both have strong military presence in the region, explains Horace Campbell, chair of the Global Pan African Movement, North American delegation. He notes anti-French sentiment is a powerful force in Niger and across Africa as people reject the former colonizer’s influence: “The French are inordinately dependent on the exploitation and plunder of Africa.”
At Least 36 Dead, Town of Lahaina Burned to the Ground as Wildfires Devastate Hawaii, Ecuadorian Anti-Corruption Presidential Candidate Fernando Villavicencio Assassinated, Biden Seeking More Funding for War in Ukraine, Arming Taiwan, Niger Coup Leaders Accuse France of Destabilizing Country as ECOWAS Summit Kicks Off, The Intercept: U.S. State Dept. Pushed for Pakistan’s Now-Imprisoned Ex-PM Imran Khan to Be Removed, Death Toll from Mediterranean Refugee Shipwreck Rises to 41 as Black Africans Expelled from Tunisia, Venezuela Wins Fight to Recover $1.5B of Frozen Funds from Novo Banco, Biden Bans U.S. Companies from Investing in Chinese High-Tech Goods, Trump Indictments Expected Next Week over Attempts to Reverse 2020 Election Loss in Georgia, FBI Kills Utah Man Who Threatened to Assassinate President Biden, CNN: Former U.S. Coast Guard Leadership Covered Up Sweeping Rape and Sex Abuse Report, Report Reveals Justice Clarence Thomas Received Even More Gifts from Right-Wing Billionaires, Palestinian Bedouin Community Forced to Evacuate Due to Violent Threats from Israeli Settlers
Porcha Woodruff was eight months pregnant when Detroit police mistakenly arrested her for robbery and carjacking based on a faulty facial recognition match. She was held in jail for 11 hours, where she started having contractions, and had to be taken to the hospital upon her release on a $100,000 bond. “Being under that type of stress could have ultimately led me to lose my child,” says Woodruff. According to the ACLU, Woodruff is at least the sixth person — all of whom are Black — to report being falsely accused of a crime as a result of facial recognition technology. It is yet another case of what has been termed algorithmic bias, in which technology is trained on biased information, automating and further cementing existing oppression. “No one would take what I was saying seriously. It was as if I was already a suspect,” says Woodruff about her experience. She and attorney Ivan Land are now suing the city of Detroit for false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.
Six white former police officers in Mississippi who called themselves the “Goon Squad” have pleaded guilty to raiding a home on false drug charges and torturing two Black men while yelling racist slurs at them, and then trying to cover it up. We speak with Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker about how, on January 24, six deputies in Braxton, Mississippi, raided the home they were staying in and attacked them, and how they are speaking out to demand justice. Meanwhile, the deputies have been linked to at least four violent attacks on Black men since 2019, in which two of the men died. We also speak with civil rights attorney Malik Shabazz, who is representing Jenkins and Parker in a federal lawsuit against the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department. Shabazz asserts that the majority-white Rankin County, which is 20 miles away from majority-Black Jackson, Mississippi, is “infested with white supremacists” who “have decided 'Rankin County is for whites'” and seek to enforce it through state-sanctioned violence and torture, overseen and covered up by Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey. “We demand that Bryan Bailey step down,” says Shabazz. Parker adds, “We want justice for everyone that has gone through this with Rankin County.”
Voters in Ohio overwhelmingly rejected a Republican attempt to restrict abortion rights on Tuesday. The supermajority of Republicans in the Ohio Legislature had pushed for a ballot initiative that would have made it harder to amend the state constitution ahead of the November election, when voters will decide if the right to an abortion should be enshrined in the Ohio Constitution. A majority of Ohio voters support the right to abortion. “The voters of the state of Ohio did not buy what the Republicans were selling,” says former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, now a senior fellow at the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School, who notes the victory also prevents Republicans from restricting support for other popular measures that could become ballot initiatives, such as raising the minimum wage.
Ohio Voters Reject GOP Attempt to Impose Higher Barrier to Enshrining Abortion Rights in Constitution, SCOTUS Allows Biden Admin to Regulate Ghost Guns for Now, Sudan Conflict Rages On: 4 Million Displaced, 24 Million in Need of Aid, U.N. Warns Burmese Military Is Escalating Attacks on Civilians, Brazil Summit Produces Pledge to Protect Amazon But Fails to Adopt Vow to End Deforestation by 2030, King Center Backs Referendum on Cop City; ACLU, NAACP Call for Probe into Targeting of Activists, Hawaii Wildfires Prompt Evacuations as People Take to Ocean to Escape Fire and Smoke, Community Members, Loved Ones of Murdered Dancer O’Shae Sibley Pay Tribute at Philly Funeral, Zoom’s Altered User Policy Language Raises Alarm over Privacy Rights, Use of User Data in AI, L.A. City Workers Go on 1-Day Strike; Hotel Workers Report Retaliation from Security for Striking
A federal lawsuit brought by Iraqi torture survivors appears finally headed to trial after a federal judge refused to dismiss the case last week. The Iraqis are suing the U.S. military contractor CACI, which provided interrogators at Abu Ghraib, the notorious Iraqi prison where the men were tortured by U.S. guards. The lawsuit, which alleges CACI was complicit in that torture, was first filed in 2008. Since then, CACI has attempted 18 times to have the case dismissed. Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing the torture survivors in the case, says the men suffered a range of abuse including sexual humiliation, beatings and more. “They’re all suffering the aftereffects, psychological and physical, of their time at Abu Ghraib,” he says.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced a plan to house as many as 2,000 asylum seekers at a tent complex on Randalls Island in the East River. Tens of thousands of asylum seekers have been sent to New York since last year and must wait 150 days to file for a work permit, leaving them no options to make a stable living. As the Adams administration claims the city has surpassed its ability to shelter new arrivals, migrants have been stuck in the city’s shelter system for months or repeatedly been forced to sleep in the streets, including last week when dozens waited outside Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel for days, sleeping shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalk, in hopes for a bed and shelter. We speak with Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition and NYIC Action, who calls for an investment in public resources and to support people as they move out of the shelter system into permanent housing. “We want to flip this on its head and actually support people to get out as quickly as possible.”
We get an update from the Texas border, where human rights advocates are condemning Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” for its human rights abuses. Texas troopers have reportedly separated over two dozen migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border in a major change of policy. This comes amid a deadly heat wave and after the first deaths linked to floating barrels wrapped in razor wire that Abbott put in the Rio Grande to block asylum seekers from crossing. “We’re calling for an end to the use of all of these detractions that are getting in the way of people being able to seek protection,” says Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, which is based in El Paso, Texas.
In an escalation of tensions, the Biden administration has deployed thousands of U.S. Marines and sailors to the Middle East in order to deter Iran from seizing oil tankers and other commercial ships near the Strait of Hormuz. The move comes after the Navy said Iran tried to seize two commercial oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last month, after seizing dozens more since 2019. Iran responded by equipping its Navy with drones and missiles. “It’s really baffling to see why we’re taking such immense risks that could bring the U.S. into war for achieving things that are of little value when it comes to peace and stability in the region or U.S. interests in the region,” says Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who says the Biden administration is risking a new war for stronger relations with Saudi Arabia. He argues the Biden administration has made critical mistakes in its relations with Iran by continuing Trump administration-era maximum-pressure sanctions.
ECOWAS to Hold Emergency Summit Thursday on Niger Coup as U.S. Freezes Funds to Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso Warn Against Foreign Military Intervention in Niger, Ukraine: Russian Missile Strikes in Pokrovsk Targeted Rescue Workers, Ohio Election Day: Anti-Abortion GOP Megadonor Funds Effort to Make It Harder to Amend State Constitution, George Floyd Murder: Ex-Cop Tou Thao Sentenced to Nearly 5 Years in Prison, Judge Dismisses Trump Defamation Countersuit Against E. Jean Carroll, Over 1 Million Lose Power in Deadly U.S. Storm; Death Toll Rises from Record Heat Waves, Mass Flooding Kills Six in Slovenia in Nation’s “Worst Natural Disaster”, South American Leaders Gather in Brazil to Discuss Preserving Amazon Rainforest, India: 300 Muslim Homes & Businesses Demolished in Possible “Exercise of Ethnic Cleansing”, Britain Begins Housing Asylum Seekers on a Barge Described as a “Potential Deathtrap”, New York City to House as Many as 2,000 Migrants in Tent Complex on Island, Biden to Preserve a Million Acres of Land Near Grand Canyon as New National Monument, Chicago Police Arrest Man Who Fatally Shot 9-Year-Old Girl Riding Scooter for Making Too Much Noise, Alabama Brawl: Police Issue Arrest Warrants After White Boaters Attacked Black Dockworker, 11,000 City Workers in Los Angeles Begin One-Day Strike
We speak with acclaimed scholar and activist Kimberlé Crenshaw about her new book #SayHerName, which honors the stories of 177 Black women and girls killed by police between 1975 and 2022 whose deaths received little media coverage or other attention. “We can’t give these women back to their families, but we can make sure that they are not lost to history,” Crenshaw tells Democracy Now! She also discusses the ongoing right-wing “attack on Black knowledge,” such as Florida’s new education curriculum that claims slavery had “personal benefit” for enslaved people, as well as the recent death of civil rights scholar Charles Ogletree.
A shocking story of wrongful arrest in Detroit has renewed scrutiny of how facial recognition software is being deployed by police departments, despite major flaws in the technology. Porcha Woodruff was arrested in February when police showed up at her house accusing her of robbery and carjacking. Woodruff, who was eight months pregnant at the time, insisted she had nothing to do with the crime, but police detained her for 11 hours, during which time she had contractions. She was eventually released on a $100,000 bond before prosecutors dropped the case a month later, admitting that her arrest was based in part on a false facial recognition match. Woodruff is the sixth known person to be falsely accused of a crime because of facial recognition, and all six victims have been Black. “That’s not an accident,” says Dorothy Roberts, director of the University of Pennsylvania Program on Race, Science and Society, who says new technology often reflects societal biases when built atop flawed systems. “Racism gets embedded into the technologies.”
The family of Henrietta Lacks, a Black cancer patient whose cells were taken by Johns Hopkins University Hospital without her consent in 1951, has reached a deal over the unethical use of her cells with pharmaceutical company Thermo Fisher Scientific. Henrietta Lacks’s family has denounced the racist medical system that allowed the biotech company to make billions in profit from the “HeLa” cell line, which helped produce remedies for multiple diseases, including the first polio vaccine. Details of the settlement were not made public, but the plaintiffs celebrated the lawsuit’s resolution last Tuesday, on Henrietta Lack’s birthday. For more on the case and the history of medical racism in the United States, we speak with Dorothy Roberts, director of the University of Pennsylvania Program on Race, Science and Society. She is the author of several books, including Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century. “What happened to Henrietta Lacks didn’t just happen to her. It’s part of a long history of experimentation and exploitation of Black people in biomedical research,” says Roberts.
We look at the fight for reproductive rights in the United States with Dorothy Roberts, director of the University of Pennsylvania Program on Race, Science and Society, who has long warned against the criminalization of pregnancy and has been hailed as a pioneer in the reproductive justice movement. A judge in Texas ruled Friday the state’s abortion ban was too restrictive in cases of dangerous pregnancy complications, allowing doctors to perform abortions in such instances without risk of criminal prosecution, but the state’s Attorney General’s Office filed an immediate appeal and effectively blocked the order. This comes as Ohio voters head to the polls this week to vote on a ballot measure that could raise the threshold for changing the state’s constitution to 60%, an effort fueled by right-wing activists to prevent a simple majority of voters from enshrining abortion rights later this year. “We’re in a battle in this nation on this question of being free or being compelled to give birth,” says Roberts.
Nigerien Coup Leaders and Supporters Remain Defiant as ECOWAS Deadline to Restore Bazoum Passes, Attacks by Ukrainian and Russian Forces Intensify as World Leaders Meet in Jeddah for Peace Talks, Ukrainian Authorities Charge Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko, Raid His Home, Russian Court Sentences Alexei Navalny to Another 19 Years in Prison, Ex-Pakistani PM Imran Khan Calls for Supporters to Keep Up Protests as He Receives 3-Year Sentence, Rahul Gandhi, Lawmaker Critical of Narendra Modi, Reinstated to Indian Parliament, Another Bloody Weekend in the West Bank as Israelis Kill at Least 5 Palestinians, Incl. Teenagers, Saudi Arabia, U.K. Issue Warnings to Citizens in Lebanon Amid Clashes in Palestinian Refugee Camp, At Least 16 Asylum Seekers Died at Sea in Recent Days en Route to Europe, Court Rules Lifetime Disenfranchisement of People with Felonies in Mississippi Is Unconstitutional, Texas Judge Rules Abortion Ban Is Too Restrictive; TX AG Blocks Order, Keeping Ban in Place for Now, Ohio Voters Cast Ballots in GOP Measure That Could Affect Abortion Rights , FDA Approves First-Ever Pill to Treat Postpartum Depression, Teenager Charged with Hate Crime in Brooklyn Murder of Black Dancer O’Shae Sibley, Charles Ogletree, Prominent Civil Rights Defender and Harvard Law Professor, Has Died at Age 70, Trump Faces Deadline in DOJ Protective Order Request as He Can’t Stop Posting About His Indictments, A Black Mother Is Suing After She Was Wrongfully Arrested Due to Faulty Facial Recognition ID, Japanese Leaders Call for Global Nuclear Disarmament on the 78th Anniversary of Hiroshima Bombing
Last Wednesday, Nigerien military officers announced they had overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum, a close ally of the United States and France. ECOWAS, an economic bloc of West African countries, has threatened to take military action unless the coup is reversed by Sunday. But the leader of Niger’s new military junta has vowed to defy any attempts to restore the former president to power, while Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea — all, like Niger, former French colonies that have undergone military coups in the past three years — have warned against any foreign intervention in Niger. Meanwhile, Niger’s new leaders have announced the country will end military cooperation with France, whose outsized presence in its former colony is a major source of resentment in the resource-rich but still poverty-stricken nation. We speak to Nick Turse, an investigative journalist and contributing writer for The Intercept. He recently revealed that one of the leaders of the coup in Niger, Brigadier General Moussa Salaou Barmou, was previously trained by the U.S. military, as were the leaders of nearly a dozen other coups in West Africa since 2008. We also speak to Olayinka Ajala, a senior lecturer in politics and international relations at Leeds Beckett University, who says Niger and its neighbors must tread carefully in order to avoid a “very bloody” military conflict.
On Thursday, former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss. Trump appeared before a magistrate judge in Washington’s federal courthouse two days after he was indicted. A key part of the election interference charges Trump faces relates to a Civil War-era rights law that protects the right of citizens to have their vote counted. We speak with Carol Anderson, author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy and White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, about Trump’s attempt to wipe out the votes of Americans of color and the intimidation of Black voters and election workers. “This is the kind of terror that is reminiscent of what happened during Reconstruction that led to the KKK Act that Trump is charged with,” says Anderson. “That kind of terror was the intimidation of Black people who were exercising the right to vote.”
Trump Pleads Not Guilty to Charges He Plotted to Overturn 2020 Election, Third Trump Ally Charged over Alleged Plot to Tamper with Michigan Voting Machines, Amnesty Warns of “Rampant” War Crimes Against Civilians in Sudan, Ukraine Says Sea Drones Damaged Russian Warship in Black Sea, Blinken Accuses Russia of Assaulting Global Food System with Attacks on Ukraine’s Granaries, Greenpeace Activists Cover U.K. Prime Minister’s Home with Anti-Oil Message, Tribunal Finds Mexico Guilty of Ecocide and Ethnocide over Mayan Rail Project, Appeals Court Allows Biden Administration to Continue Blocking Asylum Claims at U.S. Border, Minnesota Trooper Kills Black Father Ricky Cobb II During Traffic Stop, Mississippi Police Officers Plead Guilty to Civil Rights Violations in Torture of 2 Black Men, Louisiana Ex-Trooper Acquitted for Beating Black Motorist During Traffic Stop , Ron DeSantis Increases Violent Rhetoric on Campaign Trail, Texas A&M Reaches $1M Settlement with Black Professor Whose Tenure Offer Was Rescinded, “They Could Not Beat People Power”: Voters Reelect TN Dems Expelled by GOP for Gun Violence Protest
The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has sued the FBI, the Colorado Springs Police Department and local officers for illegally spying on local activist Jacqueline “Jax” Armendariz Unzueta and the Chinook Center, a community organizing hub in Colorado Springs. “This was one of the worst moments of my life,” says Unzueta, who describes the investigation by law enforcement as “incredibly invasive.” The lawsuit accuses the agencies of “unconstitutional and invasive search and seizure of the phones, computers, devices, and private chats of people and groups whose message the Colorado Springs Police Department dislikes.” This comes after revelations the FBI had infiltrated the Chinook Center by sending an undercover police detective named April Rogers to volunteer at the center in 2020, first exposed by the investigative reporter Trevor Aaronson, who writes for The Intercept and created the Alphabet Boys podcast. “For more than a year, she was undercover for the FBI,” says Aaronson, who reports the officer, who used the name Chelsie, surveilled the Chinook Center and unsuccessfully attempted to entrap local activists in gun-running conspiracies. This was part of a broader FBI effort to infiltrate racial justice and left-wing groups in Colorado after the police killing of George Floyd.
After the Center for Countering Digital Hate reported that hate speech has soared on the website formerly known as Twitter, now rebranded as “X,” Elon Musk responded by filing a lawsuit against the center over the research, calling the group “evil” and its CEO Imran Ahmed a “rat.” X accuses the watchdog group of unlawfully accessing data to “falsely claim it had statistical support showing the platform is overwhelmed with harmful content.” This comes as Musk has laid off about 80% of the workforce at X, including a large number of content moderators, and shut down its Trust and Safety Council. “When there is hate and disinformation being algorithmically amplified into billions of timelines, it’s perfectly right that people that oppose the spread, the production and distribution of hate seek to research it and seek to put that out into the public sphere,” says Ahmed. While Musk calls himself a “free speech absolutist,” silencing critics is his “go-to tactic to avoid accountability,” says Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights at Free Press.
A federal jury has sentenced to death the gunman who killed 11 worshipers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in the deadliest act of antisemitism in U.S. history. Robert Bowers was found guilty of federal hate crimes for the 2018 massacre. This is the first time federal prosecutors have successfully sought the death penalty under the Biden administration, which has imposed a moratorium on executions. We are joined by Cantor Michael Zoosman, co-founder of L’Chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty. “For 'never again' to have any meaning, it must also mean never again to state-sponsored murder of defenseless prisoners who are otherwise no longer a threat, safely behind bars,” says Zoosman. “This is a lesson that 21st century Judaism should share with the world.”
Trump to Be Arraigned on Charges over Jan. 6 and Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Federal Jury Unanimously Sentences Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter to Death, Memphis Police Say Gunman Attempted Mass Shooting at Jewish School, Iran Orders Two-Day National Holiday as Temperatures Soar to 123°F, Death Toll from China Floods Rises to 20 After Beijing Receives Heaviest Rains in 140+ Years, Scorching Temperatures Drive Deaths and Illnesses in Japan, South Korea, Unprecedented Winter Heat Wave Brings 100° Temperatures to Chile and Argentina, Nigerien Junta Leader Vows to Resist Any Attempts to Remove Coup Leaders as Foreign Exodus Continues, Tunisian President Replaces Prime Minister Amid Ongoing Political and Economic Crises, Brazilian Police Accused of Retribution in Killings of Dozens in Raids Targeting Gangs, Body Found in Rio Grande Floating Barrier Amid New Reports of Migrant Abuse, Fitch Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating in Wake of Partisan Debt Ceiling Fight, Pope Francis Meets with Survivors of Clergy Sexual Abuse in Portugal
Nearly a year and a half after Russia invaded Ukraine, we speak with defense and international affairs expert Rajan Menon about the state of the war and prospects for peace. “The difficulty is that neither side, neither Ukraine nor Russia, feels that it is losing the war,” says Menon, director of the Grand Strategy program at Defense Priorities and a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. “We are liable to see this war continue for several months, if not more than that.” Menon is the author of several books, including Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War Order, and recently visited Ukraine.
We unpack the explosive new criminal charges against Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, marking his third indictment in four months as he continues to campaign for reelection in 2024. The four-count indictment unveiled Tuesday by special counsel Jack Smith alleges Trump conspired to defraud the United States by preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory, pushing fraud claims he knew to be untrue, pressuring state and federal officials to alter the results, and inciting a violent assault on the Capitol. The most serious charge against Trump carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and he is set to appear in federal court later this week for his arraignment. “Donald Trump tried to strip away, from all of us, our democracy and our individual rights to vote to protect himself and remain in power,” says Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. We also speak with former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut, who says this case could represent a turning point even among Republicans and reassert the rule of law. “Presidents are not kings,” says Aftergut.
Trump Indicted over His Efforts to Overturn the 2020 Election, Michigan Prosecutors Charge 2 Trump Allies for Tampering with Voting Machines in 2020, ACLU Sues FBI, Colorado Springs Police for Surveillance of Activists During 2020 Uprising, U.S. Judge OKs Trial for Lawsuit Brought by Abu Ghraib Torture Survivors, Burma’s Military Junta Grants Partial Pardon to Aung San Suu Kyi, Delays Elections, Indigenous Groups in Argentina Protest Lithium Extraction on Their Land, Sweden Says It Will Not Alter Free Speech Laws After Burning of Qur’an Sparks Protests, Rep. Cori Bush Reintroduces Unhoused Bill of Rights, Migrants Sleep on NYC Streets as Advocates, Officials Call for Permanent Housing, Work Authorization, Gilgo Beach Serial Killer Suspect Appears in Court, New York Public Hospital Nurses Win Pay Parity with Private Hospital Employees, Yellow Trucking Co. to Shut Down, Costing 30,000 People Their Jobs, Henrietta Lacks’s Family Settles with Biotech Co. That Made Billions Thanks to “HeLa” Cell Line, Roberto Cintli Rodríguez, Chicano Writer, Professor and Activist, Has Died at 69
In an in-depth interview, we look at the life and legacy of the groundbreaking musician Sinéad O’Connor, who converted to Islam and also started using the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat in 2018. O’Connor died last week at the age of 56 and was known for her music as much as for her outspoken activism. In 1992, she performed Bob Marley’s “War” on Saturday Night Live, then proceeded to rip up a photo of Pope John Paul II on live TV to protest systemic child abuse in the Catholic Church, of which she was a survivor. The move provoked widespread uproar. O’Connor was also an ally to LGBTQ communities, an opponent of police brutality on some of her earliest records, a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights, and marched for abortion rights decades before it was legalized in Ireland. We are joined by Jamie Manson, president of advocacy group Catholics for Choice, and Allyson McCabe, music journalist and author of the recent book Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters.
Democracy Now! co-host Juan González remembers his longtime friend and comrade, Juan Ramos, a founder and leader of the Young Lords chapter in Philadelphia in the early 1970s who recently died after a long bout with Alzheimer’s. “It’s really not possible to overestimate the influence that Juan Ramos had on the social and political and liberation struggles of the Puerto Rican, Latino community, but also all communities, in Philadelphia,” shares González. Ramos was a lifelong activist and became a founder and first president of the Puerto Rican Alliance, which led numerous battles to defend bilingual education, oppose police brutality, and which spearheaded a large squatters’ movement in abandoned HUD-owned houses that eventually won titles to those homes for more than 150 Puerto Rican families. He also helped found the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights in the 1980s, served in the administration of Mayor John Street and was himself elected to the Philadelphia City Council for one term, and became a union organizer and a deacon of a Catholic Church in his parish in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia.
We look at the growing crisis in Niger, where the country’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, was overthrown last week by his own presidential guard. One of the coup’s leaders, Brigadier General Moussa Salaou Barmou, was trained by the U.S., making the Nigerien coup the 11th in West Africa since 2008 to involve U.S.-trained military officers. The U.S. has approximately 1,000 troops in Niger, where it’s also spent $100 million building a drone base in its ongoing “war on terror.” The Biden administration has so far refused to describe last week’s event as a coup, because doing so would force Washington to cut security aid to Niger. While the reasons for the coup are still unclear, it is part of a worrying trend in the region, where “countries that have oversized involvement of the military in political life … are far more likely to have an ongoing pattern of military coups,” according to Stephanie Savell, the co-director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
Russian Attack on Kryvyi Rih Kills 6 as Ukraine Steps Up Drone Attacks on Moscow, Burkina Faso and Mali Warn Against Foreign Intervention in Niger After Last Week’s Coup, Two Killed as Protests Erupt over Senegal Government’s Arrest of Opposition Leader, Death Toll Climbs as Fighting Continues Between Rival Palestinian Groups in Lebanon, Torrential Rains Trigger Deadly Floods in Northern China; U.S. Heat Wave Enters Third Month, U.K.'s Rishi Sunak to Authorize Over 100 New Oil and Gas Leases in North Sea, U.S. Prepares U.N. Security Council Resolution to Deploy Multinational Force to Haiti, Filmmaker K.K. Kean, Who Documented Haiti's History and Culture, Dies at 84, Biden Reverses Trump Plan to Move U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama, At Least 4 Million Have Lost Medicaid Coverage Since Pandemic-Era Eligibility Rule Expired, Antony Blinken Rejects Australian Officials’ Calls to End U.S. Pursuit of Julian Assange
Former New York gynecologist Robert Hadden has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for sexually assaulting patients over more than two decades while working as an OB-GYN at the Columbia University Medical Center starting in the late 1980s. Hadden’s federal conviction relates to four survivors, and he has been accused of abusing at least 245 women under the guise of medical examinations. Lawyers representing survivors say Columbia had a long history of ignoring Hadden’s behavior in order to protect its reputation instead of acting in the victims’ interests, and Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital have paid out $236 million to settle claims by over 200 former patients of Hadden. For more, we speak with two survivors: Laurie Maldonado was a gynecology and obstetrics patient of Hadden’s between 2003 and 2012 and gave testimony at his trial, and Marissa Hoechstetter was a patient from 2010 to 2012 and gave a victim impact statement. “Every visit was an opportunity for him to commit abuse and assault,” says Maldonado. “Columbia very much knew about his behavior, and ultimately was thinking only about their own liability,” adds Hoechstetter, who has continued to push for institutional accountability to inform patients of Hadden’s guilt and put power into the hands of survivors through legislation. In response to advocacy from survivors, New York state passed the Adult Survivors Act, which was enacted last November and created a special one-year lookback window to allow sexual assault survivors to file a lawsuit, and lawyers are now filing another round of cases.
For the past 14 years, relatives of four men jailed on terrorism charges in Newburgh, New York, have accused the FBI of entrapment. On Thursday, a federal judge agreed and ordered the release of three of the men known as the Newburgh Four: David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen. The men had been sentenced in 2010 to 25 years in prison for a government-orchestrated bombing plot of a New York synagogue. In a stunning decision, the judge accused the FBI of inventing a conspiracy. With the men set to be released within 90 days, we speak with lawyers Kathy Manley and Stephen F. Downs from the Coalition for Civil Freedoms about the monumental ruling, the legal issues with entrapment and what the ruling means for the many cases like this one. “This was the government’s standard operating procedure right after 9/11,” says Downs. “They were out there going to create as many terrorists as they could to show the public that they were on the job.” The fourth man convicted, James Cromitie, is expected to seek compassionate release.
Suicide Bomb at Political Rally Kills at Least 54 in Pakistan, Russia Says It Downed Ukrainian Drones Over Moscow as Medvedev Warns of Nuclear War, AU Says Ceasefire Only Way to Ensure Flow of Grain After Putin Promises Deliveries to Africa, Sudanese Refugees in Chad Struggle Amid Extreme Heat and Water Scarcity, U.S. Local Leaders Call on Congress to Pass Extreme Heat Emergency Act, Youth Activist Confronts White House Press Secretary over Biden’s Fossil Fuel Projects, Turkish Forest Defenders Brave Arrest to Save Land from Coal Mine Expansion, ECOWAS Threatens to Remove Niger’s Coup Leaders by Force, Kenyan Government to Negotiate with Opposition Groups Following Nationwide Protests, At Least Five Killed as Rival Palestinian Groups Clash in Lebanon, Palestinian Rivals Fatah and Hamas Form “Reconciliation Committee”, Department of Justice Launches Civil Rights Probe of Memphis Police, Federal Court Blocks Arkansas Censorship Law Criminalizing Librarians and Booksellers
On what would have been Emmett Till’s 82nd birthday, President Joe Biden designated a new national monument in Mississippi and Illinois honoring Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Emmett Till was just 14 years old when a white mob abducted him from his great-uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, in 1955 before torturing and lynching him. His mother’s decision to hold an open-casket funeral revealing his mutilated body shocked the country and served as a galvanizing moment in the civil rights movement. This comes amid efforts to suppress such history from being included in school textbooks, led by Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. We speak with Emmett Till’s cousin, Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., who was Till’s best friend and witnessed his abduction.
As nearly half of Americans face heat advisories, President Biden announced new steps Thursday to provide relief, and Texas Congressmember Greg Casar held an eight-hour thirst strike Tuesday on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to highlight the need for a federal workplace heat standard, including mandatory water breaks for workers. This comes as Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently signed legislation overturning local rules for mandatory workplace water breaks. “It is a slap in the face. It is dangerous. It will get people killed. But most of all, it’s disrespectful to working people,” says Casar. “I’m outraged, but, unfortunately, not surprised.” At least 2,000 workers in the United States die every year from heat exposure, and the risk is likely to increase as the planet continues to warm due to the climate crisis.
July is on pace to be the hottest month ever recorded, and the impact of the soaring temperatures is being felt across the globe in massive heat waves, wildfires, flooding and more. On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the world has entered the “era of global boiling,” and President Joe Biden gave a major speech to unveil new measures to combat the crisis but resisted calls to declare a climate emergency. David Wallace-Wells, an opinion writer for The New York Times and a columnist for The New York Times Magazine, says the world is not moving quickly enough to phase out fossil fuels, and even some of the progress that has been made is easily erased by massive wildfires like those burning in Canada right now. We also speak with Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter at The Guardian US, who wrote an exposé on “Project 2025,” a right-wing plan to dismantle environmental policies and many regulatory protections if a Republican takes the White House in the next election. She calls the document’s drafters “a who’s who of the far right.”
Federal Prosecutors File More Charges Against Trump over Mishandling of Classified Documents, U.N. Leader Declares New Era of “Global Boiling” Amid Hottest Month in Human History, Biden Pledges Protections Against Climate Change as 170 Million Across U.S. Face Heat Alerts, Supreme Court Will Allow Construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline to Resume, Nigerien Military Leaders Pledge Support for Coup Plotters Who Deposed President, Masalit Leader Says 10,000 Have Been Killed by Militias in Sudan’s Darfur Region, After Pulling Out of Black Sea Grain Deal, Putin Pledges Free Grain to 6 African Nations, Senate Passes Record $886B Military Budget, Rejecting Sanders Amendment Cutting Pentagon Funding, El Salvador to Hold Mass Trials for Suspected Gang Members; Honduras to Build Island Prison, At Least 31 People Killed in Ecuador Prison Riot, For First Time, Gun Suicides Among Black Adolescents Surpasses Rate for White Teens, Houston to Eliminate Librarians in 28 Schools; Booksellers Sue over Texas Book Ban Bill
A shocking new investigation by Insider reveals patrol dogs in U.S. prisons have attacked at least 295 people since 2017, with Virginia setting dogs on prisoners more than any other state. These attacks can leave people with grievous physical and psychological scars, sometimes permanently disabling and disfiguring them. The report also finds ties between procedures in U.S. prisons and the abuses committed by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib, where soldiers used attack dogs to terrify Iraqi detainees along with other forms of torture and humiliation. For more, we speak with journalist Hannah Beckler, an investigations editor at Insider, and Xavia Goodwyn, who says prison guards hurled racial slurs at him during a dog attack at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison in 2015. “Everything just went mayhem,” Goodwyn recalls.
An Ohio police officer filmed unleashing a police dog on an unarmed Black truck driver during a July 4 traffic stop has been fired. We speak with legal scholar Madalyn Wasilczuk, who has helped represent teenagers in Louisiana attacked by police dogs and who says that dogs do not receive the proper amount of scrutiny when used in policing. “They’re seen as these valorized K-9 cop heroes, and we don’t focus so much on the real violence that they do,” says Wasilczuk. “Videos like this really highlight the problems.” Wasilczuk explains that the use of police dogs in apprehension is part of a widespread pattern of racialized violence by police that dates back to slavery.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Delaware halted a plea deal reached between Hunter Biden and federal prosecutors in which the president’s son would avoid facing prosecution on a separate gun charge by pleading guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges. Trump-appointed Judge Maryellen Noreika said the deal lacked legal precedent, and identified several sections of the agreement that were interpreted differently by the prosecution and defense. A new plea deal could be reached within the next six weeks. This comes as Republicans have been intensifying their attacks on the Biden family in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. “They’re very much trying to move beyond Hunter Biden, which they understand they’ve beaten that issue to death, and trying to move to Joe Biden,” says Ryan Grim, Washington bureau chief for The Intercept.
Military Officers Claim to Have Deposed Niger’s President, World Leaders Condemn Apparent Coup in Niger, Human Rights Watch Documents Atrocities by Mali’s U.S.-Backed Army and Wagner Group, U.S. to Hold Talks with Taliban Representatives, 14-Year-Old Palestinian Shot Dead in Qalqilya Is 37th Child Killed by Israeli Troops in 2023, Ghana Outlaws Capital Punishment, Chilean Teachers Hold One-Day Nationwide Strike, Fed Hikes Interest Rates Again Despite Rising Black Unemployment Rate, GOP Leader Mitch McConnell Freezes Mid-Sentence During News Conference, U.S. Judge Blocks Hunter Biden Plea Deal, Former Columbia OB-GYN Robert Hadden Sentenced to 20 Years for Sexually Assaulting Patients, Ohio Cop Who Sicced Dog on Unarmed Black Man Fired After Video Goes Public, Singer Sinéad O’Connor, Shunned for Standing Up for the Rights of the Most Vulnerable, Dies at 56
We speak with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump about two recent cases of anti-Black racism making headlines in the United States: Florida’s new curriculum standards that teach students the “benefits” of transatlantic slavery to enslaved people, and a set of lawsuits against Northwestern University accusing the school’s athletic teams of widespread and institutionalized hazing, including physical, racial and sexual abuse. Crump is representing former Northwestern football players in one of the lawsuits. Republican presidential contender and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has doubled down on the Florida Board of Education’s new rules that require educators to teach students that enslaved Black people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” Crump, who says he may sue the state over the changes, notes, “It has the potential to cause serious psychological trauma to African American students, and we will not stand for it.” Meanwhile, Crump has called the cases at Northwestern the beginning of the “me too” movement for college sports.
This week, a witness to the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965 revealed for the first time that he overheard a New York police officer asking if Malcolm’s assassin was “with us.” The eyewitness, Mustafa Hassan, spoke Tuesday alongside Malcolm X’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz and civil rights attorney Ben Crump at a press conference at the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. Democracy Now! spoke to Hassan at the press conference. He told us, “My testimony would have changed the outcome of the trial. It would have pointed the finger of guilt at the establishment.” We’re also joined on the show by Ben Crump, who calls this latest revelation “astonishing.” .
North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea Monday, hours after a second American nuclear-armed submarine arrived in South Korea. Meanwhile, peace activists are gathering in Washington, D.C., for a national mobilization to call on President Biden and Congress to officially end the Korean War, 70 years after the signing of the July 27, 1953, Korean Armistice that ended active military conflict. To discuss the renewed call for peace and the history of “the dirtiest war of the 20th century,” we’re joined by two guests: Bruce Cumings, professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of several books on Korea, and Christine Ahn of the organization Women Cross DMZ and the coordinator of the campaign Korea Peace Now! Ahn calls for the U.S. government to “atone” for its role in the war by replacing the ceasefire with a peace agreement, not feeding into the peninsula’s nuclear hostilities.
Atlantic Ocean Current at Risk of Collapse in Coming Years; Ocean Temps in Florida Surge to 101.1°, Judge Blocks Biden Asylum Ban in Victory for Immigration Rights, Ex-Marine Trevor Reed Injured on Ukrainian Frontlines a Year After Release from Russian Prison, Russian Sociologist and Dissident Boris Kagarlitsky Facing Terrorism Charges, U.N. Operation Underway to Pump 1.1 Million Barrels of Oil from Decaying Tanker Near Yemen, Demonstrators Mark 2 Years Since Tunisian President Kais Saied Launched Power Grab, Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen Announces Transfer of Power to Son, Days After Winning Election, Modi Faces No-Confidence Vote Amid Mounting Horror of Ethnic Violence in India’s Manipur State, Report: Mexican Military, Security Forces Complicit in Killing and Cover-Up of Ayotzinapa Students, Northwestern Student Athletes Sue over Abusive Hazing Practices, Teamsters Reach Tentative Deal with UPS One Week Ahead of Feared Strike, New Bill Seeks to Increase Min. Wage to $17/Hour; Sanders Slams $7.25 “Starvation Wage”, Rep. Greg Casar Goes on Water Strike to Demonstrate Need for Federal Heat Protections for Workers, Juan Ramos, Leader of Phila. Young Lords, Councilmember & Puerto Rican Rights Activist, Dies at 71
Kurdish peace activist Kani Xulam is in New York City after his solo 300-mile, 24-day walk from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to the United Nations headquarters. His arrival Monday coincided with the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, which partitioned Kurdistan into four parts — British Iraq, French Syria, Turkey and Iran — which left the Kurdish people without a recognized sovereign state. “We have been struggling ever since to have a say,” declares Xulam. Kurds have experienced decades of conflict, cultural genocide and a protracted struggle for independence.
Amid a widening crackdown on abortion access, 19 Republican attorneys general in states where abortion is illegal are demanding the right for local governments to access the private medical records of patients in order to see if they obtained abortions out of state. We speak to Tamarra Wieder, state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates in Louisville, Kentucky, where residents are crossing state lines to access abortion care due to the state’s near-total abortion ban. Wieder says the act of seeking healthcare “should not be turned against us,” adding that this latest attack on reproductive rights, if it is carried out, would set “a precedent of fear” that would “chill care.” She also discusses the Nebraska teenager who used abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, and the Texas women who are suing to overturn the state’s abortion ban, which put their lives in danger when they were unable to end their pregnancies, even when they were nonviable.
We speak with two Israeli journalists in Tel Aviv after lawmakers in Israel passed a highly contested bill Monday weakening the power of the Supreme Court by preventing it from blocking government decisions it deems unreasonable. The bill is part of a broader set of judicial reforms pushed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that has sparked months of unprecedented protests, which continued last night. Journalist Haggai Matar says that while the Supreme Court “is not an ally to Palestinians,” its rare rulings in favor of Palestinians are a driving factor in the right wing’s overhaul, as well as decisions meant to curb public corruption. Palestinian leaders have criticized both Netanyahu’s government for pushing the judicial reform, as well as the massive protest movement for not speaking up for Palestinian rights as Israel continues its deadly crackdown in the West Bank. It’s time for the U.S. to show Israel there are consequences for apartheid and anti-democratic legislation, says Gideon Levy, columnist for Haaretz. “What kind of democracy can exist in an apartheid state?” he asks.
Study Finds Human Activity Responsible for Record July Heat Waves , Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Arrested Again at Swedish Oil Terminal Protest, Wildfires Fueled by Extreme Heat Kill at Least 34 in Algeria, Asylum Seekers Trapped on Tunisia-Libya Border Appeal to U.N. for Rescue, Department of Justice Sues Texas over Rio Grande Barrier, Mass Protests Continue in Israel as Lawmakers Vote to Radically Limit Judiciary’s Power, Sudanese Army Warns Kenya Against Sending Peacekeepers, Ukrainian Drones Strike Russian Arms Depot in Crimea, Buildings in Moscow, Russia Bombs Grain Hangar in Southern Ukraine After Withdrawal from Black Sea Grain Deal, Guatemalan Police Raid Offices of Progressive Opposition Party Ahead of August Runoff Vote, Capitol Rioter Filmed Beating Police Officer Sentenced to 52 Months in Prison, U.S. Designates National Monuments to Emmett Till and His Mother in Illinois and Mississippi
The movie Oppenheimer about J. Robert Oppenheimer — the “father of the atomic bomb” — focuses on Oppenheimer’s conflicted feelings about the weapons of mass destruction he helped unleash on the world, and how officials ignored those concerns after World War II as the Cold War started an arms race. Journalist Greg Mitchell says that while the film is well made and worth seeing, “the omissions are quite serious.” He says there is little mention of the dangers of radiation and no focus on the impact of the bomb on its victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film also does not question the necessity of using the bomb in the first place, upholding the “official narrative … that has held sway since 1945,” says Mitchell. Mitchell is a documentary filmmaker and the author of numerous books, including The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood — and America — Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. He was editor of Nuclear Times magazine from 1982 to 1986 and has written about this new film for Mother Jones and on his Substack, and in an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times headlined “'Oppenheimer' is here. Is Hollywood still afraid of the truth about the atomic bomb?”
In a landmark $13 million settlement, New York City has agreed to pay 1,300 people attacked by police while protesting the Minnesota police murder of George Floyd in 2020. Sow v. City of New York yielded the largest total payout to protesters in a class-action suit in U.S. history, totaling about $10,000 per person. The suit focused on how police violated protesters’ civil and constitutional rights by making mass arrests and using excessive force that included improper use of pepper spray and using a tactic called kettling to trap and arrest protesters before a curfew went into effect. The case used a video analysis tool developed by SITU Research that can quickly analyze massive amounts of police body-camera video, aerial footage and social media videos. “The settlement is historic and incredibly important,” says civil rights attorney and co-counsel for the plaintiffs Gideon Oliver. “It’s also in some ways only as important as what we make it mean.” We also speak with Dara Pluchino, a social worker and plaintiff in the case, who describes her experience being kettled. “Once the curfew hit, then that is when chaos occurred and violence occurred.”
As a record-breaking heat wave continues in Arizona, reporters with The Intercept say they have observed U.S. Border Patrol holding about 50 migrants inside a chain-link pen in the Sonoran Desert, at the Ajo Border Patrol Station. This comes as the group Humane Borders reports the bodies of at least 13 people were found over the past month in the Sonoran Desert where many migrants cross. “You really can’t overstate how deadly this ecosystem is,” says reporter Ryan Devereaux, who describes the well-funded border agencies’ lack of support for border crossers. Roland Gutierrez, Democratic state senator running against Ted Cruz for Senate, says, “We need to revamp the whole system.”
The U.S. Justice Department is threatening to sue the state of Texas after Republican Governor Greg Abbott installed barrels wrapped in razor wire in the Rio Grande in an attempt to block migrants from crossing the river. This comes just after a whistleblower state trooper at the Texas Department of Public Safety recently protested the state’s inhumane policies in a letter to superiors. “What’s happening at the border in Texas right now is criminal,” says Democratic Texas Senator Roland Gutierrez. “There’s state crimes, there’s federal crimes, and there’s international crimes.”
30,000 Flee Rhodes as Greece Battles Dozens of Wildfires; Italy Hit by Ice Storms After Record Heat, Monsoon Brings Deadly Floods, Landslides in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Triggers Dengue Outbreak, Nova Scotia Inundated with 3 Months’ Worth of Rain; Washington Wildfire Tops 52,000 Acres, Right Underperforms Expectations in Spain Election; Separatist Parties Emerge as Kingmakers, Hun Sen Retains Cambodian Leadership, Likely to Hand Power to Son, After Suppressing Opposition, Israel Passes Contentious Judicial Reform as Protesters Say They Won’t Back Down, Israeli Forces Kill Two More Palestinian Teenagers in Occupied West Bank, 44-Year-Old Prisoner’s Death at Rikers Is Seventh So Far This Year, Body-Camera Video Shows Ohio Police Officer Unleashing Police Dog on Black Driver, Video Shows L.A. Sheriff’s Deputy Brutally Beating Trans Man, Trump’s Trial for Mishandling Classified Documents Set for May 2024, Biden Says 7 Silicon Valley Giants Have Committed to AI Safety and Transparency, 8,000+ Authors Demand End to AI’s Use of Their Works Without Consent
In an in-depth interview about her work, we speak with Isabel Allende, one of the world’s most celebrated novelists, author of 26 books that have sold more than 77 million copies and have been translated into 42 languages. Her books include The House of the Spirits, Paula and Daughter of Fortune, and her latest novel is The Wind Knows My Name, which looks at the trauma of child-family separation, from Nazi Germany to the U.S.-Mexico border, and those on the frontlines helping migrant children. “That idea of separating the kids is extremely cruel, but it keeps happening,” Allende tells Democracy Now! The Chilean American author says the “miracle of literature” is being able to instill compassion in readers who may otherwise see the stories of refugees as abstract numbers. “It brings people close. By telling the story of one child, you can somehow connect with the reader and create that sense of empathy that is so often lacking.”
A damning new investigation by journalists Maria Hinojosa and Zeba Warsi examines how immigration officials have failed to properly address complaints of sexual abuse from people held in detention centers. The report from Futuro Investigates and Latino USA details how women in jails run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, have been sexually abused, often in a medical setting when they are at their most vulnerable. It comes more than a decade after Hinojosa’s report for PBS Frontline about sexual abuse in ICE detention. But allegations of abuse have continued. “If you complain, you are going to be threatened,” says Hinojosa, who notes there is still “constant coercion” in detention, despite earlier claims of reform.
Russia Targets Ukrainian Grain Supplies; Ukraine Starts Deploying U.S.-Supplied Cluster Bombs, Nebraska Teen Who Used Abortion Pill Gets Sentenced to 90 Days in Jail, Women Suing Texas over Abortion Ban Share Harrowing Personal Accounts, Florida’s New Black History Standards Say Slavery Had “Personal Benefit”, Florida Rights Groups Sue over Law Cracking Down on Immigrant Communities, Florida Rights Group Sue for Illegal Intimidation of People with Felonies Seeking to Vote, GA to Purge Nearly 200,000 Voters; AL Legislature Ignores SCOTUS Redistricting Order, Alabama Executes James Barber as It Resumes Lethal Injections, Video of Mob Sexually Assaulting Manipur Women Sets Off Protests Across India, 1,200-Barrel Oil Spill Coats Ecuadorian Coastline, Lawyers Warn NYPD Still Abusing Protesters After $13M Settlement for Violence in 2020 BLM Uprising, Senate Panel Passes Legislation to Impose Code of Ethics for SCOTUS with Zero GOP Support, IATSE Averts Strike That Threatened to Grind Broadway to a Halt
We speak with first-grade teacher Melissa Tempel, who was fired last week for a viral tweet in which she criticized the Waukesha, Wisconsin, board of education’s decision to ban her students from singing “Rainbowland” during a school concert earlier this year. The hit song about inclusivity by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton includes the lyrics “We are rainbows, me and you / Every color, every hue / Let’s shine on through.” The school district said Tempel’s firing was not about the song but about the way she protested the decision. Tempel says the Waukesha school district’s so-called controversial content policy, which bans discussions about race, LGBTQ identity and other speech considered political, is “disturbing” and “dangerous.”
As world leaders from the United States to France welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we look at press freedom in India under the leader of the Hindu nationalist party BJP. One of India’s last bastions of free media, NDTV, has been taken over by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, believed to have close ties to Modi. NDTV’s former executive editor and longtime anchor Ravish Kumar, one of India’s most prominent TV journalists who has reported critically on Modi’s Hindu nationalist policies, is the subject of Vinay Shukla’s film While We Watched, which is being released this week in theaters in the United States. We speak to Kumar and Shukla about the “anti-opposition, anti-minorities, anti-Muslim” state of media in India, where dissent is suppressed and pro-Modi nationalism is the de facto rule. “No sober society can afford to have a kind of rogue media, which is so weaponized,” says Kumar.
More Temperature Records Fall as U.S. Heat Wave Intensifies, Migrants Face Intense Heat in Mexico as They Wait to Apply for Asylum at U.S. Border, Receding Floodwaters in Northern India Prompt Warnings over Waterborne Diseases, Russia Bombards Ukraine’s Black Sea Ports and Threatens Cargo Ships, Kenyan Police Crack Down as Protesters Rally Against Tax Hikes and Inflation, Taliban Guards Attack Women Protesting Closure of Beauty Parlors and Salons, Iraqis Storm Swedish Embassy in Baghdad to Protest Qur’an Burning in Stockholm, Egyptian President Pardons Rights Researcher and Lawyer for Political Prisoner , Morocco Invites Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to State Visit , Mass Protests in Peru Demand Departure of President Dina Boluarte, Cost of Maintaining U.S.’s Nuclear Command Swells, Expected to Hit $117B Over Next Decade, Chuck Schumer OKs Vote on Pentagon Abortion Policy as Tuberville Blocks Military Appointments, U.S. Judge Upholds $5M Verdict in Favor of E. Jean Carroll, Denies Trump Request for New Trial, Immigrant Teenage Student Dies of Poultry Factory Injury, NYC Will Pay $13 Million to Settle Claims of Police Brutality During 2020 Protests, Broadway Could Shut Down as IATSE Votes on Strike Covering Some Members, Hollywood Strikes Continue Amid Reports of Shady Retaliation Tactics , Stanford President Resigns After Freshman Reporter Shines Light on Manipulated Data
Multiple reports are reinvestigating the neo-Nazi fighters and militias involved in the war both in Russia and Ukraine. “You have neo-Nazis on both sides of this conflict,” says Ukrainian American journalist Lev Golinkin, a longtime reporter on the far right in Ukraine and Russia who is critical of the Western media’s normalization of groups like the Azov Battalion. “We are sending a very dangerous message that if you’re the right type of neo-Nazis, we will not only work with you, we will celebrate you,” Golinkin notes. We also speak with national security reporter Ben Makuch, whose investigations reveal the networks connecting Ukrainian and Russian militias and American neo-Nazis. An anti-Putin Russian militia that carried out attacks inside Russia in May was led by a neo-Nazi who has maintained links with American neo-Nazis. In a new piece, Makuch also shares the story of an American military veteran wanted for murder who is now fighting for ultranationalist groups in Ukraine. “We know there has been secretive pipelines and networks,” says Makuch. “That still exists.”
A new investigation reveals the extent of the CIA’s involvement in the war in Ukraine, where the agency operates clandestinely in what, under a formal declaration of war, would be the domain of the military. We’re joined on the show by the author of the investigation, William Arkin, a national security reporter and senior editor at Newsweek, who says that the CIA has “got its hand in a little bit of everything” in Ukraine. According to various sources, the CIA is shuttling weapons into Ukraine using a “gray fleet” of commercial aircraft that crisscrosses Central and Eastern Europe, sending personnel into Ukraine on secret missions and assisting Ukrainians with new weapons and systems, all while using Poland as its clandestine hub to coordinate its operations inside the country. At the same time, the U.S.'s nonaligned status appears to place a limit on its intelligence, keeping it in the dark on both Zelensky and Putin's next moves.
Trump Says He’s the Target of Federal Criminal Probe of Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Michigan Attorney General Charges 16 GOP “Fake Electors” with Felonies, Chinese Coal Consumption Hits Record High as Temperatures Soar, Floodwaters Lap Walls of India’s Taj Mahal; Heat Index in Iran Tops 150°F, Wildfires Erupt in Greece as Europe Swelters in Record Heat, ACLU Asks Court to Release Children from Angola Prison as Heat Index Tops 130°, Whistleblower Says Texas Officers Were Ordered to Push Migrant Children into Rio Grande, ICC to Probe Reports of Ethnic Cleansing in Darfur as Violence Escalates Across Sudan , South Africa Says Vladimir Putin Will Not Attend BRICS Summit as ICC Seeks His Arrest, Syria Says Two Soldiers Injured by Israeli Airstrikes on Damascus, Palestinian Medical Workers Receive Body Armor Amid Spike in Israeli Assaults, Israelis Continue Mass Protests as Lawmakers Prepare Vote on Gutting of Courts , Biden Vows Continued Support to Israel as Progressives Boycott Speech of President Herzog , Israel Recognizes Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara, Which It Has Occupied Since 1975, Thai Court Suspends Reformist Pita Limjaroenrat, Top Candidate to Become Prime Minister, Illinois Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Eliminating State’s Racist Cash Bail System
As Hollywood actors enter their fifth day on the picket lines and some 340,000 Teamsters working at UPS prepare to carry out one of the largest single-employer strikes in U.S. history, we speak with historian and labor organizer John Womack Jr. about his new book, Labor Power and Strategy, focused on how to seize and build labor power and solidarity. Labor actions around the world are gaining headlines this week. In Italy, over 1,000 flights were disrupted as airport and airline workers went on a two-day strike for higher wages and better benefits. Members of the Union of Southern Service Workers at a South Carolina Waffle House participated in a three-day strike protesting safety and pay conditions.
On Saturday, Basel Adra, reporter for Local Call and +972 Magazine, was detained while covering an Israeli settler attack in the West Bank area of Masafer Yatta. After he refused to hand over his video footage, Israeli soldiers handcuffed and blindfolded him and then sat him in a chair in the blazing sun for hours. The Union of Journalists in Israel denounced Basel’s detention, describing it as a “serious violation of freedom of the press.” Adra joined the show to discuss the difficulty of witnessing the crimes of Israeli forces against Palestinians as a local journalist. “I’m a Palestinian journalist, and there is a hate from them toward me just because I … film them when they are doing these crimes,” says Adra, who calls for international groups to fight for freedom of the press for Palestinians. “They know that there is no consequences for their acts and their violence toward us.” This incident comes during a pattern of escalating violence against Palestinians, including attacks by settlers against residents of the occupied West Bank.
As President Biden meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House today, several progressive Democrats have announced plans to boycott Herzog’s address to a joint session of Congress. This comes after Biden invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the United States this year despite recently criticizing the makeup of Netanyahu’s far-right Cabinet as “one of the most extremist” he has seen. The visits from Israeli leadership are an attempt to “normalize apartheid,” says Palestinian human rights attorney Noura Erakat, who compares today’s U.S. support of Israel to the nation’s support for South African apartheid. “The United States is complicit and a pillar of Israeli apartheid in its provision of unequivocal financial, diplomatic and military support.” Erakat also applauds the efforts of activists and politicians who have shifted Democrats’ sympathies more toward Palestine than Israel, according to a recent Gallup poll.
U.N. Warns Russia’s Suspension of Black Sea Grain Deal Puts Millions at Risk of Hunger, Russia Attacks Ukraine’s Odesa One Day After Ending Black Sea Grain Export Deal, Major Typhoon Strikes Southern China Amid Record Heat Wave, Smoke Blankets Eastern U.S. as Phoenix Suffers Record Number of Consecutive 110°+ Days, John Kerry Says “Under No Circumstances” Will U.S. Commit to Climate Reparations, U.N. Begins Effort to Drain Oil from Stricken Supertanker Off Yemeni Coast, Judge Puts Iowa’s Six-Week Abortion Ban on Hold, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Says Federal Government Should Take Over NYC’s Troubled Rikers Jail, NYC Mayor Appoints Edward Caban as First Latino Police Commissioner, New Experimental Drug Shows Promise at Slowing Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Condemned over Claims COVID-19 Was “Ethnically Targeted”, Sen. Joe Manchin’s Address to Billionaire-Funded Group Fuels Speculation of 2024 Presidential Run, UPS to Train Nonunion Employees Ahead of Potential Strike by 340,000 Workers, Jesse Jackson Steps Down as President of Rainbow PUSH Coalition
On Friday, July 14, Amy Goodman moderated a wide-ranging panel on human rights in Venice, Italy, to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The panel’s speakers included United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, former Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström and Eamon Gilmore, the European Union special representative for human rights. They discussed the U.S. sending cluster bombs to Ukraine, the war in Sudan, Palestine, as well as the role of civil society and the media in elevating human rights issues.
The world is in the grips of a dangerous heat wave that has sent temperatures skyrocketing to deadly levels throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. Unless urgent action is taken to reduce carbon emissions, the United Nations says, Earth could pass a temperature threshold in the next decade when climate disasters are too extreme to adapt to. We speak with longtime climate journalist Jeff Goodell, author of the new book, The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, about how the climate crisis is raising temperatures, the toll such heat can have on the human body, and how “heat is the primary driver for this climate transformation we are undergoing right now,” fueling natural disasters such as floods, wildfires and more.
Unrelenting Heat Scorches Planet, Shattering Records from U.S. to China, Climate Change-Fueled Floods and Wildfires Bring Death and Misery Across the Globe, Russia Withdraws from Black Sea Grain Deal After Explosions on Kerch Bridge Kill 2, Russia Says It’s Prepared to Use Cluster Bombs; Putin Visit to South Africa Could Result in Arrest, U.N. Says Nearly 300 Migrant Children Have Drowned in Mediterranean Crossings This Year, Libyan Border Guards Apprehend Asylum Seekers Abandoned by Tunisia in Desert, Mexico Apprehends Hundreds of U.S.-Bound Asylum Seekers, Mexican Journalist Nelson Matus Assassinated in Guerrero, Iran’s Morality Police Resume Patrols 10 Months After Mahsa Amini’s Death Sparked Protests, DOJ Opens Civil Rights Probe of Atlanta-Area Jails After Deaths of Prisoners, House GOP Approves Record Military Budget with Anti-Abortion and Anti-LGBTQIA Provisions, Biden Administration to Cancel $39 Billion in Student Debt for 800,000+ Borrowers
The United Nations this week released its annual report on nutrition, finding that the pandemic, extreme weather shocks and the war in Ukraine have all contributed to food insecurity around the world — now higher than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials estimate that the world saw an increase of more than 100 million people facing hunger in 2022 compared to 2019. For more, speak with Million Belay, general coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa and a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, as well as Raj Patel, research professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System.
This week’s NATO summit in Lithuania ended with the military alliance agreeing to extend membership to Ukraine at some point in the future but declining to give a firm timeline. Meanwhile, Sweden is set to become the newest member, bringing the alliance to 32 countries, after it started in 1949 with just 12 founding members. Historian Grey Anderson says that while NATO is officially about common defense, its true purpose has always been more about giving the United States a dominant role in European affairs. He adds that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has “remarkably strengthened” both NATO and U.S. power on the continent.
Television and film actors are going on strike after a breakdown in negotiations between the SAG-AFTRA union and Hollywood studios. More than 160,000 members of the union are taking part in the first major actors’ strike since 1980. This also marks the first time since 1960 that actors and screenwriters have been on strike at the same time, with members of the Writers Guild of America on the picket lines since early May. Both unions say pay has not kept up in the streaming age, with even hit shows and movies no longer a guarantee of stable income. The major studios are also pushing for adoption of artificial intelligence tools that could include scanning the likeness of actors to be reused in perpetuity. “There seems to be a concerted effort by these companies to try to break the entertainment unions,” says Shaan Sharma, a Los Angeles Local board member of SAG-AFTRA and a member of the negotiating committee.
Russia Threatens to End Ukraine Grain Deal as U.N. Warns 1 in 10 Worldwide Faced Hunger in 2022, Senior Russian Commander Fired After Blasting Military’s Handling of Ukraine War, Russian Lawmakers Approve New Restrictions on Transgender Rights, FDA Approves First Over-the-Counter Oral Contraceptive, Unaccompanied 15-Year-Old Migrant from Guatemala Dies in U.S. Custody, Phoenix Poised to Surpass Record Number of Consecutive 110° Days, Unionized Actors Join Writers on Picket Line, Bringing Hollywood to a Standstill, Federal Jury Finds Pittsburgh Synagogue Gunman Eligible for Death Penalty, Fox News Hit with New Lawsuit by Trump Supporter over Jan. 6 Falsehoods, Egypt to Sell $1.9 Billion in State Assets as It Battles Economic Crisis, Self-Groping Videos Go Viral in Italy After High School Staffer Cleared of Assaulting Student
The Democratic Republic of the Congo produces nearly three-quarters of the world’s cobalt, an essential component in rechargeable batteries powering laptops, smartphones and electric vehicles. But those who dig up the valuable mineral often work in horrific and dangerous conditions, says Siddharth Kara, an international expert on modern-day slavery and author of Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. In an in-depth interview, he says the major technology companies that rely on this cobalt from DRC to make their products are turning a blind eye to the human toll and falsely claiming their supply chains are free from abuse, including widespread child labor. “The public health catastrophe on top of the human rights violence on top of the environmental destruction is unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the modern context,” says Kara. “The fact that it is linked to companies worth trillions and that our lives depend on this enormous violence has to be dealt with.”
After the closing of a major NATO summit in Lithuania, President Biden vowed to support Ukraine and warned the war may continue for a long time, before flying to Finland, the newest member of NATO, which shares an 830-mile border with Russia. The goal of this summit may have been to make Ukraine seem more aligned with NATO, but “they actually revealed that the alliance was split” when they did not offer a timeline for Ukraine’s membership, says Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Wertheim says the real result of this summit was Ukraine moving to an “armed neutrality” or “Israel model,” where international allies supply long-term economic and security assistance to the country. The NATO summit also resulted in a communiqué criticizing China’s growing military power, saying Beijing’s actions are threatening the security of NATO nations.
As NATO Summit Wraps, Biden Pledges Ukraine Will Join Military Alliance “Some Day”, Russian General with Advance Knowledge of Wagner Rebellion Disappears, U.N. Security Council to Meet Following North Korean Ballistic Missile Test, U.N. Calls for Probe After 87 Bodies Discovered in Mass Grave in Sudan’s Darfur , Guatemala AG Suspends Progressive Semilla Party as Court Sends Leader Bernardo Arévalo to Runoff, Thailand’s Coup-Installed Senate Rejects Popular Reformist Candidate Pita Limjaroenrat, 20 Million in Indian Capital Face Drinking Water Shortages Amid Historic Flooding, Spain Faces Highs of 45°C as Report Finds 2022’s Heat Wave Killed 61,000+ in Europe, 112 Million Under Heat Alerts Across U.S., Marine Biologists Warn Ocean Heat Threatens Mass Die-Off of Caribbean Coral Reefs, Leaders of Colombia and Brazil Pledge to Protect Amazon from Deforestation, Telecom Giants Hid Dangers of Lead in Sprawling Cable Network; EPA Clamps Down on Lead Dust, Clarence Thomas Aide Received Payments from Lawyers with Supreme Court Cases, GOP House Members Accuse Christopher Wray of Politicizing FBI in Heated Hearing, Actors Set to Strike After “Insulting” Offer by Hollywood Studios to SAG-AFTRA Union, Mutulu Shakur, Black Liberation Activist, Dies 7 Months After Release from 37 Years in Prison
Parts of Vermont experienced their worst flooding this week in nearly a century after two months’ worth of rain fell over the course of 48 hours. Nearly 100 people have been rescued, and locals are deeply concerned for the unhoused residents. “The state has really been hammered,” says journalist David Goodman in Waterbury. The host of the public affairs podcast and radio show The Vermont Conversation explains how the town adapted to flooding caused by Hurricane Irene, and calls for the state to adapt rather than simply replace damaged infrastructure: “In a climate changed world, that doesn’t work.”
The United Nations has warned that Sudan is on the brink of a “full-scale civil war” as fighting between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has forced over 3 million people from their homes. After multiple failed ceasefires, Egypt is hosting a summit this week with the goal to “develop effective mechanisms” with neighboring countries to settle the conflict. Sudanese activist Marine Alneel says Sudanese civilians are in the midst of a deadly healthcare crisis as hospitals have been shut down and medical supplies are severely limited. Alneel warns of an impending famine and a potential shelter and housing scarcity due to the upcoming rainy season. We also go to Cairo to speak with Khalid Mustafa Medani, chair of the African Studies Program at McGill University, who calls the fighting “a drastic escalation” and warns the negotiations in Egypt are following the same fatal mistakes as those that occurred after the Sudanese military ousted President Omar al-Bashir by focusing on military leaders instead of including civil leaders, activists and neighbors in the region.
During a major summit in Lithuania, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine is “closer than ever” to joining NATO, but the military alliance is resisting calls to give Kyiv a timeline to membership. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is attending the NATO summit and is meeting with President Biden and other world leaders. This comes as a number of nations have announced new military assistance for Ukraine. “The main condition for Ukraine membership [to NATO] is an end to this war,” says Andreas Zumach, defense correspondent for the left-wing German daily Die Tageszeitung. We also speak with CodePink’s Medea Benjamin, who has just returned from a visit to Ukraine, where she says people are “being fed a daily diet of irrational expectations” by the government about how Ukrainian forces are winning the war. The truth, she says, is “there is a stalemate on the ground,” and calls for countries to come to the negotiation table.
NATO Promises Ukraine Eventual Membership, But No Timeline Offered, U.N. Condemns Russian Veto to Extend Aid Delivery Route in Syria, Taliban Evicts Hundreds of Displaced Families from Kabul Camp, Killing 2 Children, Iowa GOP Passes 6-Week Abortion Ban That’s Set to Go into Effect This Week, Vermont Floodwaters Recede, But Officials Warn More Destructive Rain Could Be on Its Way, Court Halts Section of Construction on Mountain Valley Pipeline, EU Approves Nature Restoration Law in Win for Environment, Greek Coast Guard May Have Caused Disastrous June Shipwreck, Which Likely Killed Over 500 Migrants, “We Are Asking for Liberation”: Protests in Haiti Demand End to Insecurity and Gang Rule, Lawsuit Accuses Google of Scraping Personal Data from Millions to Train AI Systems, Trump’s Multiple Legal Challenges Pile Up Ahead of 2024 Election, Amazon Workers Strike in U.K. and Germany on “Prime Week”; Delivery Drivers Strike in SoCal, SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood Studios Have Until Midnight Wednesday to Reach Deal and Avert Strike
Chris Gloninger resigned from his position as chief meteorologist for KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday after receiving death threats as a direct result of reporting on climate change. One man behind the emails has pleaded guilty to harassment. We speak with Gloninger, now a senior climate scientist at the Woods Hole Group, about the difficulties scientists and journalists face when reporting on the climate crisis. “Meteorologists need to be doing this more, not less,” says Gloninger.
We take a closer look at the impact of the massive heat dome in Texas, where extreme heat is bearing down on some of the state’s most vulnerable populations, including workers and prisoners. At least three people have died after working in triple-digit heat, just as Republican Governor Greg Abbott signs into law a new measure that overrides mandatory water breaks for workers. Meanwhile, 32 people have been reported to have died in Texas prisons, most of which lack air conditioning and are prone to increased rates of heat-induced cardiac events. We are joined on Democracy Now! by Steven Monacelli in Dallas, who is The Texas Observer’s special investigative correspondent. His recent piece is headlined “Texans Die from Heat After Governor Bans Mandatory Water Breaks.”
A massive heat dome is starting to engulf the southern United States this week. It could grow to be one of the worst in the region’s history, breaking records for intensity and longevity and impacting some 50 million people in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Southern California and Nevada. Heat domes are a key part of heat waves and have become hotter and longer due to climate change, making heat the leading cause of weather-related death in the United States. Along the Southwest border, more than 100 migrants have already died from heat this year amid the Biden administration’s continued crackdown on asylum seekers. We hear from Laurie Cantillo, a board member and volunteer with Humane Borders, which works to maintain water stations for migrants crossing the Sonoran Desert and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument along the Arizona-Mexico border, as well as Eddie Canales, director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, who condemns the U.S.’s policy of migrant deterrence as inhumane and ineffective and says that “migrant deaths will continue to happen until we have a policy [to receive] workers … [and] to deal with the lack of human rights in their home [countries].”
At today’s NATO summit in Lithuania, member countries are expected to debate Ukraine’s request to join the military alliance, which would provide additional military support for its war with Russia. Opponents to Ukrainian membership, however, warn that such a move would needlessly escalate what Russia sees as a proxy war with the United States against NATO encroachment on its western border. For more, we speak to journalist Katrina vanden Heuvel, whose recent piece for The Guardian, co-authored with James Carden, is headlined “Now is not the time for Ukraine to join NATO.”
Sweden may soon join NATO after over a year of negotiations with Turkey over its bid for accession to the transatlantic military alliance. Turkey’s right-wing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had staunchly opposed Sweden’s bid due to the country’s strong presence of Kurdish exiles, including members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey considers a “terrorist” organization. Erdoğan attributed his unexpected change of heart to Turkey’s own bid to join the European Union, which has been stalled for years, suggesting he will open the doors to Sweden in NATO if Turkey is in turn granted entry to the EU. We hear from Swedish peace activist Kerstin Bergeå in Stockholm, who says the decision to join NATO has lacked sufficient public debate in the country and who calls the move “a historic mistake.” Bergeå is president of the 140-year-old Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, one of the oldest peace groups in the world.
Turkey Drops Opposition to Sweden’s Membership as NATO Summit Opens in Lithuania, Kremlin Says Putin Spoke with Wagner Group Leaders, Including Prigozhin, After Mutiny , Historic Floods Hit Northeastern U.S. as Heat Wave Bakes Southern States, Witnesses Say Palestinian Shot by Israeli Troops Was Left to Bleed Out at Checkpoint, Protests Erupt as Israeli Lawmakers Advance Bill to Gut Judiciary, U.S. and Israel Launch Joint War Games, Rights Groups Condemn Tunisia’s Government for Abandoning Asylum Seekers at Libyan Border, Iowa’s GOP-Controlled Legislature Convenes Special Session to Consider Abortion Ban, Nebraska Mother Pleads Guilty to Helping Daughter with Criminalized Abortion, Sen. Tuberville Stalls Confirmation of Top U.S. Generals over Reproductive Healthcare Benefits, “Freedom of the Press Has Gone Up in Smoke”: Protesters Demand U.S. Drop Charges Against Assange
With a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced across the United States this year, we speak with Delaware state Senator Sarah McBride about her bid for an open seat in the House of Representatives that could make her the first openly transgender member of Congress. “Trans people are part of the rich fabric of America. We have something to offer for the table,” says McBride about the necessity of political representation as trans and queer people face increasing attacks on their civil rights. McBride is a Democrat who became the first openly transgender state senator, and the highest-ranking transgender elected official in the country, when she was elected in 2020.
A federal appeals court has ruled the Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth could go into effect for now, reversing a lower court order. It marks the first time a federal court has allowed such a ban on transition care to fully take hold in the United States, amid a wave of Republican-led attacks on trans rights targeting medical care, education, sports and beyond. “This is going to cause very serious harm to transgender adolescents,” says attorney Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is among the groups suing Tennessee over the law. We also speak with journalist Holly McCall, editor-in-chief of the Tennessee Lookout, which recently revealed how Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office has sought and received patient records and other sensitive information from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center related to its gender-affirming care.
The Biden administration is drawing outrage after announcing it will send cluster bombs to Ukraine as part of a new weapons package. When deployed, cluster munitions spread smaller “bomblets” across a wide area and regularly kill civilians, either on initial impact or from unexploded segments that go off later. Their use has been banned by 123 countries that signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but the United States, Russia and Ukraine are not signatories to the treaty. This comes as a new Human Rights Watch report documents how Ukrainian civilians have been killed or injured by cluster munitions, including by Ukrainian forces. We speak to Mary Wareham, advocacy director of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch, who calls the Biden administration’s decision “appalling,” and to writer and activist Norman Solomon, author of War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, who says the U.S.’s military hypocrisy demonstrates a “willingness to sacrifice human beings and human rights on behalf of [its] strategic interests.”
Biden Visits U.K. Ahead of NATO Summit Amid Condemnation of Plan to Send Ukraine Cluster Bombs, U.S. Destroys Final Chemical Weapons More Than a Decade Behind Schedule, White Nationalist Mass Murderer Who Killed 23 People at El Paso Walmart Gets 90 Life Sentences, Dozens Killed in South Asian Flooding; Torrential Downpours Hit Northeast U.S, Tennessee Court Reinstates Ban on Transgender Healthcare, U.N. Warns Sudan Could Plunge into “Full-Scale Civil War” as Airstrikes Kill Dozens, Pentagon Claims U.S. Airstrikes in Somalia Killed 10 al-Shabab Fighters and No Civilians, Pentagon Claims Drone Strike Killed Islamic State Leader Osama al-Muhajer, La Jornada Journalist Luis Martín Sánchez Iñiguez Found Murdered in Mexico, Dutch Government Collapses over PM Mark Rutte’s Harsh Anti-Immigrant Policies, Afghan Ex-Interpreter for U.S. Forces Killed During Shift as Lyft Driver in Washington, D.C., Protesters at U.N. Demand Israel Release Palestinian Political Prisoner Walid Daqqah, Biden Announces Crackdown on “Junk” Health Insurance Plans, Oklahoma Judge Tosses Reparations Suit by Last Known Survivors of Tulsa Race Massacre
On the 10th anniversary of the 2013 coup in Egypt when General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi removed the country’s first democratically elected president from power, we speak with author Shadi Hamid about “Lessons for the Next Arab Spring,” in which he details how the Obama administration helped to kill the democratic uprising across the Middle East. “Washington, and Obama in particular, gave what amounted to a green light to the Egyptian military to proceed with the coup,” says Hamid. The U.S. then refused to call it a coup or to impose any consequences, while continuing to send billions in foreign aid to the military dictatorship, which continues to rule the country to this day.
In Guatemala, election officials have rejected an attempt by the ruling business and political elite to overturn the results of last month’s first round of the presidential election. Sandra Torres, the former first lady, accused of corruption, and her allies challenged the results of June’s first-round elections, which saw the progressive, anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arévalo win second place and force a runoff. On Thursday, an electoral court said the final results of the first round had not changed after the review. Protests erupted in Guatemala City after the review suspended certification of election results. “It was really difficult for us to compete in this election, and now they are saying we manipulated the results,” says Samuel Pérez Álvarez, a Guatemalan congressmember who leads the progressive political party Movimiento Semilla. “This regime is not only corrupt, but authoritarian.” The runoff election will be held in August between Torres and Arévalo.
A damning new database reveals thousands of lobbyists are working for fossil fuel companies at the same time they represent hundreds of cities, universities, tech companies and even environmental groups that claim to be taking steps to address the climate crisis. We speak with The Guardian's environmental reporter Oliver Milman. “It's clear that the wielding of political power and influence is far more important to them than staying true to any kind of ideals of distancing themselves fully from the fossil fuel industry,” says Milman.
This week unprecedented temperatures driven by climate change shattered heat records around the world. More records could be broken soon, as scientists say 2023 is set to be one of the warmest years in the history of planet Earth. “We can’t stop global warming at this point,” says Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org. “All we can do is try to stop it short of the place where it cuts civilizations off at the knees.” McKibben says these temperatures are the “inevitable result” of fossil fuel use, criticizes politicians for their simultaneous embrace of renewable energy and fossil fuels, and calls on activists to disrupt the status quo: “This is the last of these moments we’re going to have when the world is summoned to action by events and when there’s still time to make at least some difference in the question of how hot it ultimately gets.”
Earth’s Average Temperature Hits All-Time High for Third Consecutive Day, Climate Protesters Disrupt Wimbledon Tennis Matches, Shut Down Welsh Coal Mine, Biden Administration Will Arm Ukraine with Banned Cluster Munitions, NBC News: Former U.S. Officials Hold Secret Talks with Russians over Ukraine War, Rocket Fire from Southern Lebanon Prompts Cross-Border Shelling by Israel, “An Honest Mistake”: Israeli Police Officer Acquitted of Killing Autistic Palestinian, U.N. Secretary-General Condemns Deadly Israeli Assault on Palestinians in Jenin, U.N. Pushes for International Security Force in Haiti Amid Spiraling Instability and Gang Violence, Janet Yellen Criticizes Chinese Business and Trade Policies During Trip to Ease Tensions, FDA Greenlights Alzheimer’s Treatment Leqembi, 45% of U.S. Tap Water Contaminated by “Forever Chemicals”, One-Fifth of United Methodist Congregations to Split from Church Amid Rift over LGBTQ Members, Nepal Paves Way to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage
We speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California about several topics. He has reintroduced a bill in the House to limit Supreme Court justices to 18-year terms, which he says would help rebalance the high court, now dominated by a 6-3 conservative majority, and is especially needed after several controversial Supreme Court rulings striking down President Biden’s student debt relief plan, giving businesses the right to discriminate against LGBTQ people on religious grounds, rolling back environmental protections and more. “Most Americans have seen that the Supreme Court is just wildly out of touch with the facts of modern life,” he says. Khanna also talks about his lone vote against the Pentagon budget, and he responds to critics of the key role he played in welcoming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a state visit at the White House, which was roundly condemned by human rights advocates, given Modi’s track record of violence and bigotry.
We speak with BBC Arabic correspondent Rasha Qandeel, whose new documentary investigates Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s role in producing the highly addictive amphetamine known as Captagon and how this is impacting his relations with other states in the region. “This is going to be a main factor in a lot of changes in the Middle East,” says Qandeel, who notes that curbing the drug trade has already played a role in recent moves by Arab states to normalize relations with Syria.
The United Nations General Assembly has approved a resolution to establish an independent body to investigate what happened to more than 130,000 people who went missing during the conflict in Syria over the last 12 years. The Syrian government opposed the resolution, along with Russia, China, Belarus, North Korea, Cuba and Iran. “This is one of the most painful chapters in the Syrian crisis,” says Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and CEO of the medical nonprofit MedGlobal, as well as a former medical school classmate of President Bashar al-Assad.
Press freedom groups around the world have condemned the brutal attack on Russian journalist Elena Milashina, who was beaten by unknown assailants in the Chechen capital of Grozny on July 4. Milashina, a reporter for Novaya Gazeta, was in town to report on Chechnya’s ongoing attacks on LGBTQ people when she was assaulted along with lawyer Alexander Nemov. The attackers broke her fingers, shaved her head and doused her in liquid iodine, which leaves long-lasting stains on a person’s skin. For more, we speak with human rights monitor Anna Dobrovolskaya, the former executive director of Memorial Human Rights Center before the rights group was shut down by the Russian government in late 2021. “It’s a very clear signal that next time it will be even more brutal than that,” Dobrovolskaya says of the attack.
We remember the acclaimed Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who died as a result of injuries from a Russian strike on a restaurant in Kramatorsk last week, which also killed 12 other people. Amelina was part of a human rights group, Truth Hounds, investigating Russian war crimes. Amelina’s friend Andrey Kurkov, a fellow author and the former president of PEN Ukraine, says the young writer’s death is just the latest in a long string of artists lost to the Russian invasion. “We don’t know when the war is going to end, but it will cost a lot for Ukrainian culture,” says Kurkov.
IAEA Sees No Evidence of Explosives Planted at Russian-Held Nuclear Plant in Ukraine, Belarus President Says Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin Is in Russia, Biden Welcomes Swedish PM to White House, Pressing NATO Membership for Sweden, U.S. Judge Restricts Biden Administration’s Ability to Stem Misinformation on Social Media, Meta Launches Twitter Competitor “Threads”; Canada Blocks Facebook and Instagram Ads, Biden Nominates Elliott Abrams, Death Squad Backer Convicted of Lying to Congress, to Gov’t Commission, Hunger and Malnutrition Surge in Ethiopia’s War-Torn Tigray After U.S. and WFP Halt Food Aid, Mass Protests in Tel Aviv After Police Commander Resigns Amid Ongoing Uproar over Judicial Reform , UPS Workers Move Closer to Strike; L.A. Hotel Workers Return to Jobs; NLRB Rules for Starbucks Union
The Supreme Court has ruled 6 to 3 along ideological lines in favor of a Christian Colorado web designer who refused to create websites for same-sex couples even though the state bans such discrimination. “We’re entering into a terrible moment where a Pandora’s box has been opened,” says president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, who warns “permission has been granted to use religion as a way to discriminate against your fellow people.” Raushenbush discusses the use of Christianity to advance discrimination, the importance of the Respect for Marriage Act, and what this decision could mean for other groups. “It’s just bad for religion, it’s bad for freedom, and it’s bad for America,” he says.
The Supreme Court has blocked President Biden’s student debt relief plan, which sought to cancel up to $20,000 in individual loans, adding up to over $400 billion of federal student debt. The decision comes as a major blow to some 40 million qualified borrowers. Biden has announced his administration will pursue a “new path” for debt relief. “It was a blow to debtors,” says Astra Taylor, organizer with the Debt Collective and advocate for debt abolition. “It was a blow to anyone who cares about democracy.” Taylor says the ruling raises major concerns over the constitutional jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and explains why groups like the Debt Collective are placing the moral culpability of debt onto creditors.
In France, more than 3,000 people have been arrested after a week of nationwide protests following the police killing of Nahel Merzouk, a teenager of North African descent, captured on video. Nahel’s family and friends held his funeral Saturday at a mosque in Nanterre. We speak with Rokhaya Diallo, a French journalist in Paris, who explains this killing is part of a long pattern of racist policing that has divided the country. “I wish there was a real and profound discussion about police brutality, about racialized policing,” says Diallo.
Israel attacked the Jenin refugee camp this weekend in what some are calling the largest military operation in the occupied West Bank in 20 years. Israel claims to have attacked militants in the camp, but camp residents say they were targeted by airstrikes and ground troops. Palestinian health officials say the massive two-day military offensive killed 12 Palestinians and injured at least 140 more. This continues a pattern of escalating violence by Israel against Palestinians, including attacks by settlers against residents of the occupied West Bank. We speak with Mustafa Sheta, general manager of The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, who shares his firsthand account of the attack and describes it as an effort “to end the concept and the idea of resistance in Palestine.” Amjad Iraqi, senior editor at +972 Magazine, describes Israel’s doctrine of “mowing the lawn” in Palestine and calls this weekend’s events part of “the maintenance of an apartheid regime.”
Israel Kills at Least 13 Palestinians in Worst West Bank Raid in 2 Decades, Unrest Grows in France Following Police Killing of Arab Teen as Country Reckons with Its Racism, Ukraine Mourns Killing of Writer Victoria Amelina in Russian Attack as War Rages On, Veteran Russian Journalist Elena Milashina Brutally Attacked While Reporting in Chechnya, SCOTUS Blocks Biden’s Student Debt Relief Plan as Administration Pivots to “New Path”, SCOTUS Sides with Christian Web Designer Who Wants to Discriminate Against LGBTQ Clients, At Least 15 Gun Deaths Mar July 4th Festivities in Mass Shootings Across U.S., U.S. Judge Blocks Part of Florida’s New Voter Suppression Law, World Records Highest-Ever Average Global Temperature, U.N. Nuclear Agency Greenlights Japanese Plan to Dump Fukushima Radioactive Waste Water into Pacific, U.N. to Withdraw Troops from Mali Amid Ongoing Insecurity, Guatemala Reviews Ballots After 1st Round Sends Progressive Bernardo Arévalo to Presidential Runoff, Brazilian Court Bars Jair Bolsonaro from Public Office Until 2030
In a special broadcast, we look at voices of a people’s history inspired by the late great historian Howard Zinn’s groundbreaking book, A People’s History of the United States, which helped reshape how history is taught in classrooms. Twenty years ago, Zinn and Anthony Arnove began organizing public readings of historical texts referenced in A People’s History of the United States. The two would go on to publish a book collecting theses texts under the title Voices of a People’s History of the United States. While Zinn died in 2010, his work continues to inspire millions across the country and the globe. Arnove and Hailey Pessin have just published a new book titled Voices of a People’s History of the United States in the 21st Century: Documents of Hope and Resistance. It gathers more than 100 speeches, essays and other documents of activism, protest and social change. We speak with them about the book, and feature readings from texts featured in it.
We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. James Earl Jones reads the historic address during a performance of Voices of a People’s History of the United States, which was co-edited by Howard Zinn. The late great historian introduces the address.
Whistleblower Dan Ellsberg joined us after the Justice Department charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for publishing U.S. military and diplomatic documents exposing U.S. war crimes. Assange is locked up in London and faces up to 175 years in prison if extradited and convicted in the United States. Ellsberg died in June, and as we remember his life and legacy, we revisit his message for other government insiders who are considering becoming whistleblowers: “My message to them is: Don’t do what I did. Don’t wait ’til the bombs are actually falling or thousands more have died.”
As we remember Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who died in June, we look at how he was also a lifelong anti-nuclear activist, stemming from his time working as a nuclear planner for the U.S. government. In December 2017, he joined us to discuss his memoir, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. “This was an actual war plan for how we would use the existing weapons,” he noted, “many of which I had seen already that time.”
Over the past 50 years, Daniel Ellsberg remained an antiwar and anti-nuclear activist who inspired a new generation of whistleblowers. In his last interview with Democracy Now!, in April, he spoke about the war in Ukraine and why it required a diplomatic solution, and about the latest leak of Pentagon documents by Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who has been indicted on six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information. We asked Ellsberg about what the leaks say about the war in Ukraine, and discussed his decision in 2021 to leak a classified government report that he had kept in his possession for decades, which revealed the U.S. had drawn up plans to attack China with nuclear weapons during the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis. Ellsberg warned the possibility of a nuclear first strike by the United States was an “insane” policy that would end most life on Earth. “The belief that we can do less bad by striking first than if we strike second is what confronts us in Ukraine with a real possibility of a nuclear war coming out of this conflict,” Ellsberg said.
In a special broadcast, we remember the life and legacy of Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who died in June at the age of 92, just months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, then a top military strategist working for the RAND Corporation, risked life in prison by secretly copying and then leaking 7,000 pages of top-secret documents outlining the secret history of the U.S. War in Vietnam. The leak would end up helping to take down President Nixon, accelerate the end of the War in Vietnam and lead to a major victory for press freedom. Henry Kissinger once called Ellsberg “the most dangerous man in America.” Over the past 50 years, Ellsberg remained an antiwar and anti-nuclear activist who inspired a new generation of whistleblowers. We mark his death with excerpts from some of our interviews with Ellsberg over the years about Vietnam, as well as Ukraine, tensions with China, the threat of nuclear war and working toward a more honest discourse about U.S. policy. “To this day, the very idea that the U.S. is … an empire is a taboo, and a very unfortunate one, because it makes it impossible to understand what’s going on,” Ellsberg said.
On the final day of the Supreme Court’s term, we speak with David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, about recent revelations detailing many of the Supreme Court conservative justices’ close relationships to Republican megadonors, and how allegations of financial impropriety further delegitimize the court’s standing as an objective legal authority. “These are lifetime appointments,” says Dayen. “This is what arrogance looks like.”
The Supreme Court has struck down President Biden’s plan to provide relief to 40 million student borrowers of up to $20,000 in student loan debt. We speak to David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, about how one of the key complainant states, Missouri, hinged its opposition on the argument that its state agency, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, or MOHELA, will be harmed by the debt relief plan. However, Dayen reports, MOHELA is a “complete unwilling participant” in the case.
In one of the last cases in the Supreme Court’s current session, the justices ruled in favor of a wedding website designer who wants to be allowed to refuse service to same-sex couples. Lorie Smith of Colorado filed the lawsuit with help from the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom as part of the group’s ongoing attempt to roll back the rights of LGBTQ people. But as reporter Melissa Gira Grant discovered, part of the case may be built on a lie. Smith has never actually built a wedding website; the lone request Smith claims to have received from a gay couple supposedly originated with a straight man in another state who told Grant he had never asked for a website and that he has been married to a woman for many years. “He had no idea that his information was in this case,” says Grant, who wrote about the case for The New Republic.
The conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court has declared race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities across the country to be unlawful, effectively ending affirmative action in education. The landmark 6-3 ruling was along ideological lines and strikes down decades of precedent, but stops short of banning legacy admissions and allows military academies to continue using affirmative action. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the court, assailed the majority’s “let-them-eat-cake obliviousness” to questions of racism and equity. We host a roundtable discussion on the ruling and its impact with Wisdom Cole, national director of the NAACP Youth and College Division; Janelle Wong, director of Asian American studies and a professor of American studies and government and politics at the University of Maryland; and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, founder of Futuro Media and host of the Latino USA podcast.
Supreme Court Bars Affirmative Action at Colleges, Exempts Military and Legacy Admissions, California Task Force Recommends Reparations for Harms of Slavery and Racial Discrimination, Supreme Court’s Samuel Alito Ruled Against EPA as Wife Leased Land to Oil and Gas Firm, Death Toll from Heat Wave Hits 112 in Mexico, 14 in Southern U.S., Mike Pence Pledges Support for Arming Ukraine During Surprise Trip to Kyiv, Biden Mulls Cluster Bombs for Ukraine as Reports Emerge of Kyiv’s Use of Banned Landmines, 400 Arrested Across France in Third Night of Protests over Police Killing of 17-Year-Old, U.K. Court Rules Conservatives’ Plan to Deport Asylum Seekers to Rwanda “Unlawful”, Protests Erupt in Baghdad Over Qur’an Burning Outside Swedish Mosque, Officer Who Failed to Intervene in Parkland Massacre Found Not Guilty of Criminal Charges, NYC Mayor Faces Tenant Anger over Rent Hikes as Record 100,000 Unhoused People Enter Shelters, Christine King Farris, Last Surviving Sibling of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dies at 95
A highly anticipated court ruling is expected soon in Montana, where a groundbreaking, youth-led climate trial just ended after five days of dramatic testimony on who can be held responsible for the climate crisis. The landmark case was led by 16 children and young adults, ranging in age from 5 to 22, who accuse the state of Montana of violating their constitutional rights as it pushed policies that encouraged the use of fossil fuels, devastated the environment and severely impacted their health. The case is the first of its kind to go to trial in the United States, and a federal judge in Oregon just cleared the way for another children’s climate case against the U.S. government. For more, we are joined by Grace Gibson-Snyder, a 19-year-old plaintiff in the Montana case, and by Nate Bellinger, lead attorney in the trial.
We speak with author Genevieve Guenther about “climate silence” and how the corporate media routinely fails in reporting on worsening extreme weather events. “You need to connect the dots from what you’re reporting to the climate crisis, and then through the climate crisis to the use of fossil fuels that is heating up our planet,” says Guenther, whose forthcoming book is titled The Language of Climate Politics.
As wildfire smoke fills the skies and record heat waves cook much of North America, Canadian climate activist Tzeporah Berman says governments need to be pushed to phase out fossil fuels more rapidly. “We need people to stand up to this industry. We need activism to protest in the streets, to demand our governments stand up to this industry. And we also need international cooperation,” says Berman. She also discusses Canada’s investment in the Trans Mountain Pipeline and how governments around the world are propping up the fossil fuel industry rather than embracing a transition to clean energy. Her recent article for The Guardian is headlined “Canada is on fire, and big oil is the arsonist.”
After the Wagner Group’s aborted mutiny in Russia, the Biden administration has imposed new sanctions on companies accused of profiting from the activities of the Wagner Group in Africa. This comes as Russian military police raided Wagner mercenary bases in Syria. Meanwhile, in Belarus, where Wagner Group leader Prigozhin is now exiled, The New York Times is reporting on construction of a new military base for Wagner fighters given the option of relocating there after the failed uprising. We speak with political scientist Kimberly Marten, who has been studying the Wagner Group for years and says that despite recent events, Russia’s war in Ukraine and its presence in other countries is unlikely to be affected. “Wagner itself does not exist as an entity,” she says, describing it as a “contracting mechanism” for the Russian military and not truly independent from the government. “It would be really easy for the Kremlin to just put in place some other individual as the titular CEO of all these various companies.”
Over 200 Million in U.S. and Canada Face Extreme Weather Alerts from Smoke and Heat, Fighting Resumes in Sudan as Eid al-Adha Ceasefire Collapses, French Police Arrest 150 in Second Night of Protests over Police Killing of 17-Year-Old, U.S. Ambassador Offers Rare Rebuke of Israel at United Nations, U.S. Navy Deploys Largest Nuclear-Armed Submarine to South Korea, Biden Holds Flurry of Fundraisers with Wealthy Donors, Touts “Bidenomics” Plan for Economy, Mississippi Sheriff’s Deputies Fired After 2 Black Men Sue, Alleging Assault, Torture and Racism, Ex-Marine Pleads Not Guilty to Homicide Charges for Killing Jordan Neely on NYC Subway, EPA Drops Civil Rights Probe of Louisiana Regulators over “Cancer Alley”, 3M and Solvay Settle Claims over Pollution from “Forever Chemicals”, U.S. Logs First Domestically Transmitted Cases of Malaria in 2 Decades, Teamsters Union President Says a Strike of 340,000 UPS Workers “Appears Inevitable”
In Honduras, communities are fighting back against privatization and foreign exploitation after Honduran President Xiomara Castro and Congress repealed a law that established so-called Economic Development and Employment Zones, where private companies have “functional and administrative autonomy” from the national government. Now a Delaware-based company called Próspera has launched a case to challenge the repeal of the law under the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement and is seeking almost $11 billion, which amounts to nearly two-thirds of the country’s entire 2022 budget. This is an example of the “extreme investor rights” of this international trade agreement directly opposing Honduran sovereignty, says Melinda St. Louis, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. We also speak with local leader Venessa Cárdenas of Crawfish Rock, the area directly impacted by the Próspera ZEDE on the island of Roatán, about the stress of losing control over their community. “We don’t know when our home will be taken from us,” says Cárdenas. “We, of course, have the rights to be free and previously consulted on any type of project that is being done in our community.”
Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, says it’s “grotesque and immoral” that poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, higher than homicide and respiratory illness, citing recent findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Why do we hear so much about crime rates and opioids and gun violence in America, but poverty kills more people than all of those things?” asks Barber. He joins us to talk about the intensifying efforts of the Poor People’s Campaign to end poverty and empower poor and low-wage workers and support “The Third Reconstruction” resolution in Congress. This weekend, the Poor People’s Campaign led a Moral Poverty Action Congress in Washington, D.C., focused on ending poverty in the United States.
The Supreme Court’s term is ending this week with rulings on several blockbuster cases. On Tuesday, voting rights advocates welcomed a decision in a major election law case that preserved checks and balances in elections. In a 6-3 decision, the justices dismissed the so-called independent state legislature theory that state lawmakers have nearly unlimited power to make rules for federal elections. This ruling will “empower state courts around the country to block gerrymanders, to police the legislatures and to keep legislators from trying to entrench themselves or advance their party with these egregious maps,” says Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice. Now the country awaits the Supreme Court’s decisions on affirmative action and student debt, which Waldman calls “hugely consequential.” Waldman’s new book is The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America.
Supreme Court Rejects GOP’s Radical “Independent State Legislature Theory”, Canadian Wildfire Smoke Brings Hazy Skies to Europe, “Very Unhealthy” Air Alerts in U.S. Cities, Russian Missile Strikes Restaurant in Ukraine’s Kramatorsk, Killing 9 and Wounding Dozens, Belarusian President Says He Convinced Wagner Chief to Call Off Mutiny in Russia, U.S. Sanctions Companies Profiting from Wagner Group Mining Concessions in Africa, Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio Wins Reelection, Nurses in Texas and Kansas Hold One-Day Strike to Demand Safe Staffing Levels, DOJ Report Finds Misconduct by Prison Guards Led to Jeffrey Epstein’s Suicide in 2019, New York City to Spend $90,000 Purchasing Submachine Guns for Rikers Prison Guards, Exonerated “Central Park Five” Member Yusef Salaam Wins Primary for Harlem City Council Seat, Tenants Rally Against Planned Demolition of Manhattan Public Housing Complexes
Veteran national security reporter James Risen joins us for an in-depth look at his new book, The Last Honest Man, about the work of Senator Frank Church to rein in the FBI, CIA and other agencies after the Vietnam War, Watergate and other fiascos had shaken the public’s trust in the U.S. government. Church, a Democrat, chaired a Senate committee that in 1975 began investigating the intelligence community and uncovered numerous abuses, including assassination plots and widespread domestic surveillance. Risen’s book also includes new details about Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg’s previously unknown role in the work of the committee. “The Church Committee, I think, is probably the most important congressional investigation in modern American history,” says Risen, who says it marked a “before and after” in U.S. national security policy and helped to limit abuses by the government in the decades that followed.
As former President Donald Trump faces Espionage Act charges, newly leaked audio reveals he showed a classified Pentagon document to multiple people in 2021 detailing a plan to attack Iran, contradicting Trump’s recent claim that he did not have classified documents. We speak with veteran national security reporter James Risen, who says Trump is a thief and should not be compared to whistleblower Reality Winner or others, but also notes, “I am no fan of the Espionage Act. I don’t think that it should be on the books.”
The Kremlin says it has dropped criminal charges against Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenaries after he attempted to lead an aborted mutiny against the Russian military. Prigozhin has reportedly arrived in Belarus. We speak with James Risen, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Intercept, who covered the 1991 attempted coup in Moscow and says Prigozhin may have had a chance to complete his march on Moscow and topple the government, but he lost his nerve. Risen says the rebellion exposed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule as hollow. “Prigozhin is clearly a threat, as long as he’s alive, to Putin,” warns Risen.
Putin Tells Wagner Mercenaries to Join Russian Military or Face Exile in Belarus, Zelensky Visits Frontline Troops; Biden Administration Announces New Arms for Ukraine, UNICEF Warns 100,000 Sudanese Child Refugees in Chad Face New Dangers, Israeli Settlers Storm Palestinian Village in West Bank, Torching Homes and Firing Guns, Supreme Court Orders Louisiana to Redraw Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Map, Supreme Court to Allow Sexual Assault Survivors to Sue Ohio State University, Supreme Court Sides with Biden on ICE Deportations, Audio Reveals Trump Showed “Highly Confidential” Document to Publisher, Writer and Aides, Federal Jury to Weigh Death Penalty for Pittsburgh Synagogue Mass Shooter, Colorado Jury Sentences Club Q Shooter to Over 2,000 Years in Prison, Jury Deliberations Begin in Trial of Cop Who Failed to Intervene in Parkland High School Shooting, 3 San Antonio Cops Charged with Murdering Woman in Her Own Home, Honduran Military Takes Over Prisons as Government Launches Crackdown on Gangs, Ex-Head of Mexico’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit Arrested over Disappearance of 43 Students at Ayotzinapa
Saturday marked the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that saw the conservative majority overturn Roe v. Wade and end the federal right to abortion. Abortion rights activists rallied in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere across the country to demand access to reproductive healthcare. In the year since the ruling, more than a dozen states have passed new abortion bans, and about 25 million women of childbearing age now live under tighter restrictions than before the court intervened. However, thanks to grassroots organizing efforts and underground abortion networks, “Abortions are still happening in every state in the country every day,” says Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent for The Nation. Littlefield discusses how abortion activists are working to continue providing care, as well as what to expect from the anti-abortion movement as it seeks to further restrict reproductive rights.
As part of our roundtable discussion, we speak with political science professor Kimberly Marten, expert on the Wagner Group, who says this weekend’s mutiny by the mercenary group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is part of a game of “smoke and mirrors” between Russian power players. She details Prigozhin’s long history as “Putin’s servant” and says Wagner “is not really a private military group,” but has a long history of being contracted by the Russian state. “We’re just at the beginning of what’s going to happen, but neither Prighozin nor Putin came out looking very good,” says Marten.
As we continue to look at the fallout of this weekend’s mutiny in Russia by Wagner mercenary troops, we go to Kyiv to speak with Ukrainian political scientist and historian Denis Pilash, who notes that despite infighting inside Russia, the military still carried out devastating strikes across Ukraine. He adds that the Wagner revolt still shattered an illusion of consensus inside Russia. “The myth of civility — one of the pillars of Putin’s regime — has eroded completely,” says Pilash.
We speak with Nina Khrushcheva in Moscow after an extraordinary weekend that saw the most significant challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leadership since the beginning of his invasion of Ukraine 16 months ago. On Friday, the head of the powerful Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, accused the Russian military of attacking his forces and began a march on Moscow — but the revolt quickly fizzled out. By Saturday, Wagner troops had returned to base, and Prigozhin had agreed to exile in Belarus, while Putin denounced the episode as “treason.” Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at the New School and the great-granddaughter of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, says that while Putin has reasserted his control over the state for now, the episode “didn’t really show him in the strong light.”
Wagner Group’s Prigozhin Exiled to Belarus After Calling Off Advance on Moscow, Paramilitaries Seize Police HQ in Sudan’s Capital; U.N. Warns Fighting Has Displaced 2.5 Million, Russian Warplanes Bomb Syria’s Idlib, Killing at Least 9 Civilians, Guatemalan Presidential Race Headed to Runoff After Weekend Election, Rival Candidates Claim Victory in Sierra Leone Election as Police Raid Opposition HQ, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis Reelected as Syriza Falls Short and Far-Right Makes Gains, Beijing Suffers Record-Breaking Heat Wave with More Dangerous Temperatures Forecast, “A Marine Wildfire”: Record North Atlantic Heat Threatens Ocean Life, Paris Climate Finance Summit Wraps Without Agreement on Shipping Tax, Supporters and Opponents of Abortion Rights Hold Competing Rallies on Anniversary of Dobbs Ruling, Turkish Police Attack Pride Marchers; Hundreds Marry in Mexico City LGBTQIA Celebration
We speak with journalist and author Antony Loewenstein about his new book, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World. Loewenstein explains that Israel’s military-industrial complex has used the Occupied Palestinian Territories for decades as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology that it then exports around the world for profit. “You find in over 130 countries across the globe in the last decades, Israel has sold … a range of tools of occupation and repression that have initially been tested in Palestine on Palestinians,” Loewenstein says.
This week, Israel has launched several attacks on Palestinians with weapons used in the conflict for the first time in nearly 20 years, including deploying U.S.-made Apache helicopter gunships inside the West Bank and firing a targeted assassination aerial strike. Jewish settlers have also raided Palestinian villages in the West Bank, attacking residents and setting fire to homes and vehicles. Mariam Barghouti, senior Palestine correspondent for Mondoweiss, calls the attacks “an intensification to completely take over Palestine.” She adds that the growing violence is reflective of the leadership of Israel’s minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who recently called for the renewing of Defensive Shield, a military operation which used similar weaponry in 2002 that has been condemned for “crimes against humanity.” This all comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has agreed to accelerate the process for approving new settlements in the West Bank despite criticism from the United Nations, European Union and United States.
As many as 700 migrants are feared to have died after an overloaded fishing vessel capsized last week off the coast of Greece. As search and rescue efforts continue with dwindling expectations, the Greek Coast Guard is facing backlash over its failure to help rescue passengers before the boat sank. Most of the migrants were women and children; many were from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria and Palestine. They are presumed victims of what may be one the deadliest migrant shipwrecks ever recorded, yet the story has received far less public attention than the search for five passengers aboard a submersible to view the wreck of the Titanic. All five of those passengers were confirmed by the U.S. Coast Guard to have likely died Sunday, days before wall-to-wall media coverage began to speculate about their plight. We discuss this disparity and the European refugee crisis at large with two guests: Giorgos Kosmopoulos, a senior migration campaigner for Amnesty International, and Laurence Bondard, spokesperson and operations communications manager for SOS Méditerranée, a nongovernmental rescue organization that operates in the central Mediterranean. Bondard has sailed on seven rescue missions with the NGO, part of a growing necessity in the region, where European countries have withheld the resources available for sea rescue. In the last decade, more than 30,000 refugees are estimated to have drowned in the Mediterranean.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Receives Lavish Welcome in U.S. State Visit, Activists ID Hundreds Killed by Paramilitaries and Arab Militias in Sudan’s Darfur Region, Greek Authorities Rescue 145 Migrants Stranded on Turkey-Greece Border, Search for Missing Tourists Ends as Debris from Sub Is Found Near Wreckage of Titanic, Beijing Suffers Warmest June Day on Record; Southern U.S. and Mexico Bake Under Heat Wave, Mexican Environmentalists Álvaro Arvizu and Cuauhtémoc Márquez Found Murdered, French Government Bans “Earth Uprising” Direct-Action Climate Group, Supreme Court Rules Against Navajo Nation in Dispute over Water Rights, New York House Speaker Won’t Schedule Vote on Undocumented Immigrant Healthcare Bill
We speak with Dr. Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, who met this week with President Biden in a closed-door discussion with other artificial intelligence experts and critics about the need to explore the promise and risk of AI. The computer scientist and coding expert has long raised alarm about how AI and algorithms are enabling racist and sexist bias. We discuss examples, and she lays out what should be included in the White House’s “Vision for Protecting Our Civil Rights in the Algorithmic Age.”
Officials in Beijing have denounced U.S. President Joe Biden for describing Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator,” calling it a breach of diplomatic protocol. Biden’s remark at a fundraising event this week came just days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China to help thaw relations at a time of growing competition and suspicion between the two superpowers. “What Biden said, in fact, is true in every word,” says Ho-fung Hung, professor of political economy and sociology at Johns Hopkins University, though he adds that China’s response is also expected, as Biden’s comments are a “violation of diplomatic protocol.”
President Joe Biden is hosting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a four-day state visit this week amid growing concerns about the Indian leader’s human rights record. Modi has been prime minister since 2014, during which time he has cracked down on dissent, curtailed the free press, targeted Muslims and other minorities and pushed an aggressive form of Hindu nationalism that violates the pluralistic vision of modern India’s founders. For years, Modi was banned from even entering the United States over his role in anti-Muslim riots in 2002 that left over 1,000 dead in Gujarat, where Modi was the chief minister. Despite criticism of the state visit from some progressive lawmakers, the White House sees India as a key partner in countering Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region. We go to Mumbai to speak with Rana Ayyub, Indian journalist and global opinions writer for The Washington Post.
Nearly 40 Asylum Seekers Drown as Ship Sinks En Route to Canary Islands, Israeli Drone Strike in West Bank Kills Three Palestinians, Putin Claims Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Hits “Lull” Due to Heavy Losses, Russian Court Denies Pretrial Release to Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich, More Progressives to Boycott Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Speech to Congress, Capitol Rioter Sentenced to 12+ Years in Prison for Attacking Officer with Stun Gun, House Republicans Censure Rep. Adam Schiff over Trump-Russia Claims, House Speaker McCarthy Rejects Immediate Vote on Resolution to Impeach Biden, Prosecutors Disclose Discovery of Video Showing Treatment of Guantánamo Prisoner Who Faced Torture, Opponents of “Cop City” Begin Gathering Signatures for Atlanta Ballot Referendum, U.S. Regulators Approve First-Ever Sales of Lab-Grown Meat, 250+ Groups Petition Biden Administration to Drop Opposition to Youth Climate Lawsuit
Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, is pleading guilty to federal tax offenses and a separate felony gun charge for which he is avoiding prosecution, according to a plea agreement with the Justice Department announced Tuesday. The deal caps a multiyear probe by the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Delaware. As a result, Hunter Biden is unlikely to spend any time behind bars despite the sweeping investigation into his personal and business conduct that Republicans have attempted to portray as unethical influence peddling directly implicating the president in corruption. But is this the end of Hunter Biden’s legal trouble? We speak with The Intercept’s Ken Klippenstein about the plea deal, as well as what other evidence the FBI may have about Hunter Biden.
We speak with Minneapolis City Councilmember Robin Wonsley, the first Black Democratic Socialist on the City Council, about the Justice Department’s newly released probe into the city’s police department that found systemic problems with discrimination and excessive force and concluded: “The patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible.” Wonsley says “none of this is new,” and demands a strong community role in public safety reforms expected to follow the report.
The Democratic majority in Minnesota’s state Legislature, along with Democratic Governor Tim Walz, have enacted sweeping progressive reforms this year, with many praising the ambitious agenda as a “Minnesota Miracle.” Democrats have successfully codified abortion rights; protections for transgender people; driver’s licenses for undocumented residents; new gun control rules; the restoration of voting rights for previously incarcerated people; a $1 billion investment in affordable housing that includes rent assistance; stronger protections for workers seeking to unionize; and paid family, medical and sick leave, among other measures. Peter Callaghan, a staff writer at MinnPost, says Democrats are using their governing trifecta after years of “pent-up demand” from progressives. We also speak with Robin Wonsley, Democratic Socialist city councilmember in Minneapolis, about how Minnesota Governor Tim Walz faced backlash from labor organizers in May after he issued the first veto in his entire tenure blocking a bill that would have granted minimum wage and better worker protections for Uber and Lyft drivers. The veto came just hours after Uber threatened to pull out of Minnesota.
In New York, a battle is brewing over a bill called Coverage for All that would use a surplus of federal funds to pay people who are undocumented to enroll in the state’s Essential Plan under the federal Affordable Care Act, potentially granting 250,000 people access to healthcare. Immigrant advocates are rallying for the bill’s inclusion in a two-day special legislative session despite Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul’s resistance, calling the bill a chance for the state to “make history.” We speak to its sponsor, New York Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, as well as Elisabeth Benjamin, co-founder of the Health Care for All New York campaign, about the Coverage for All bill, the growing crisis of medical debt, the end of COVID-era Medicaid protections, and the larger fight for universal healthcare.
Federal Judge Strikes Down Arkansas Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth, Settlers Attack Palestinian Villages After 4 Israelis Shot Dead in Occupied West Bank, At Least 41 Women Die Inside Honduran Prison, Top Aide to Jair Bolsonaro Caught in Possession of Plans to Stage Military Coup, Pentagon to Send Ukraine More Arms After Finding $6.2 Billion “Accounting Error”, Heavy Fighting Resumes in Sudanese Capital of Khartoum as Ceasefire Ends, Amnesty Calls for End of Racist Treatment of Haitian Asylum Seekers, Reps. Tlaib, Omar & Raskin to Boycott Narendra Modi Address to Congress, Hunter Biden Reaches Deal with Federal Prosecutors, Disciplinary Hearing Held for Attorney John Eastman over Role in Effort to Overturn 2020 Election, Judge Sets Aug. 14 Trial Date for Donald Trump for Mishandling Classified Documents, Sen. Bernie Sanders Launches Probe of Dangerous Working Conditions at Amazon, ProPublica Reveals Justice Alito Took Undisclosed Luxury Trip with GOP Billionaire Megadonor, Heat Dome Over Texas and Mexico Shatters Temperature Records, Search Continues for Submersible Exploring Wreck of the Titanic, Official Death Toll Reaches 81 in Migrant Shipwreck Near Greece, But Hundreds More Feared Dead
Whistleblower Dan Ellsberg joined us after the Justice Department charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for publishing U.S. military and diplomatic documents exposing U.S. war crimes. Assange is locked up in London and faces up to 175 years in prison if extradited and convicted in the United States. Ellsberg died Friday, and as we remember his life and legacy, we revisit his message for other government insiders who are considering becoming whistleblowers: “My message to them is: Don’t do what I did. Don’t wait ’til the bombs are actually falling or thousands more have died.”
Daniel Ellsberg was best known for leaking the Pentagon Papers, but he was also a lifelong anti-nuclear activist, stemming from his time working as a nuclear planner for the U.S. government. In December 2017, he joined us to discuss his memoir, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. “This was an actual war plan for how we would use the existing weapons,” he noted, “many of which I had seen already that time.”
Over the past 50 years Daniel Ellsberg remained an antiwar and anti-nuclear activist who inspired a new generation of whistleblowers. In his last interview with Democracy Now! in April, he spoke about the war in Ukraine and why it required a diplomatic solution, and about the latest leak of Pentagon documents by Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who has been indicted on six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information. We asked Ellsberg about what the leaks say about the war in Ukraine, and discussed his decision in 2021 to leak a classified government report that he had kept in his possession for decades, which revealed the U.S. had drawn up plans to attack China with nuclear weapons during the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis. Ellsberg warned the possibility of a nuclear first strike by the United States was an “insane” policy that would end most life on Earth. “The belief that we can do less bad by striking first than if we strike second is what confronts us in Ukraine with a real possibility of a nuclear war coming out of this conflict,” Ellsberg said.
We remember the life and legacy of Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who died Friday at the age of 92, just months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, then a top military strategist working for the RAND Corporation, risked life in prison by secretly copying and then leaking 7,000 pages of top-secret documents outlining the secret history of the U.S. War in Vietnam. The leak would end up helping to take down President Nixon, accelerate the end of the War in Vietnam and lead to a major victory for press freedom. Henry Kissinger once called Ellsberg “the most dangerous man in America.” Over the past 50 years, Ellsberg remained an antiwar and anti-nuclear activist who inspired a new generation of whistleblowers. We mark his death with excerpts from some of our interviews with Ellsberg over the years about Vietnam, as well as Ukraine, tensions with China, the threat of nuclear war and working toward a more honest discourse about U.S. policy. “To this day, the very idea that the U.S. is … an empire is a taboo, and a very unfortunate one, because it makes it impossible to understand what’s going on,” Ellsberg said.
Blinken Meets with Xi Jinping in Beijing in Attempt to “Stabilize” U.S-China Relations, Israel Deploys U.S.-Made Apache Helicopter Gunships in Deadly Raid on Jenin Refugee Camp, Sudan Health Minister Says Death Toll Has Topped 3,000 Since Fighting Broke Out, 37 Students Among Dead in Deadly Attack on School in Uganda, African Leaders Go to Moscow & Kyiv to Urge End to War in Ukraine, Pentagon Papers Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, 92, Dies, Justice Department Accuses Minneapolis Police of Unlawful Use of Force, Report: DOJ & FBI Waited a Year to Probe Trump for Role in Jan. 6 Insurrection, In Fox Interview, Trump Admits Telling Aide to Move Boxes of Classified Documents, 19 Mass Shootings Reported Across U.S. in Another Deadly Weekend, Report: 1.5 Million Dropped from Medicaid in Recent Months, Deadly Heat Wave in India Kills 170 as Temps Top 110 Degrees Fahrenheit, World Refugee Day: Fear Grows Death Toll from Migrant Shipwreck Could Top 700, U.N. Adopts Historic High Seas Treaty
We continue our Juneteenth special with more from Harry Belafonte, the legendary actor, singer and civil rights activist, who died in April at the age of 96. Belafonte last appeared on Democracy Now! in 2016 at a special event at the historic Riverside Church in New York to celebrate Democracy Now!'s 20th anniversary. He co-headlined the event with Noam Chomsky. It was the first time they had done a public event together. Belafonte spoke about Donald Trump, who had just been elected president, and ongoing struggles for freedom and justice in the United States. “We just have to get out our old coats, dust them off, stop screwing around and just chasing the good times, and get down to business,” he said. “There's some ass-kicking out here to be done. And we should do it.”
We dedicate part of our Juneteenth special to remembering the life and legacy of the legendary actor, singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, who died in April at the age of 96. Belafonte appeared on Democracy Now! numerous times, and we feature two interviews. We begin with our 2011 interview at the Sundance Film Festival, where a documentary about his life, titled Sing Your Song, premiered, and discuss his political awakening and activism in detail. “Going into the South of the United States, listening to the voices of rural Black America, listening to the voices of those who sang out against the Ku Klux Klan and out against segregation, and women, who were the most oppressed of all, rising to the occasion to protest against their conditions, became the arena where my first songs were to emerge,” Belafonte recalled.
We feature a special broadcast on the newly created Juneteenth federal holiday commemorating the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. We begin with our 2021 interview with historian Clint Smith, originally aired a day after President Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Smith is the author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. “When I think of Juneteenth, part of what I think about is the both/andedness of it,” Smith says, “that it is this moment in which we mourn the fact that freedom was kept from hundreds of thousands of enslaved people for years and for months after it had been attained by them, and then, at the same time, celebrating the end of one of the most egregious things that this country has ever done.” Smith says he recognizes the federal holiday marking Juneteenth as a symbol, “but it is clearly not enough.”
Olympic track star Tori Bowie was eight months pregnant and in labor when she died on May 2, according to an autopsy. She was alone in her home at the time and may have suffered from respiratory distress and eclampsia, a rare but life-threatening pregnancy complication. Her baby also died. Bowie, a three-time Olympic medalist, was just 32 years old, and her death has led to an outpouring of grief and anger from friends and supporters who say it’s part of a larger Black maternal health crisis. Across the United States, Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth complications than white women. “What they’re failing to do is listen to Black women,” says Dr. Carla Williams, a doula and OB-GYN who says she opted for home births after a negative hospital experience with her first pregnancy. “More work needs to be done in order to take care of the birthing population the way that it should be.”
We speak with the parents of Mika Westwolf, a 22-year-old Indigenous woman struck and killed in March by a driver as she was walking home along the highway in the early morning hours. The parents and allies are on a “Justice to Be Seen” march to call for justice and an investigation. Westwolf was a member of the Blackfeet Tribe and was also Diné, Cree and Klamath. The driver has been identified as Sunny White, a suspected white nationalist whose children are reportedly named “Aryan” and “Nation” and were in the car at the time of the crash. White has not been charged in connection with Westwolf’s death, but it’s part of an apparent pattern in which many Indigenous people are killed or hit by vehicles along Highway 93. “They need to hear us and see us,” says Westwolf’s mother, Carissa Heavy Runner. “Listen to our stories and feel our pain and see our pain.” Erica Shelby, a tribal legal advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women, discusses the details of the case and how she is in Washington, D.C., to demand action from lawmakers. “Everybody has the same story about the same players, the same agencies, the same police, the same attorneys,” says Shelby. “Enough is enough.”
We speak with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland about his call for the U.S. State Department to declassify a report on the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank last year. The Al Jazeera reporter was covering an Israeli military raid just outside the Jenin refugee camp and was clearly marked as press. “It’s my belief that the United States has an absolute obligation to get to the bottom of what happened, to hold the individuals accountable, or, in this case, potentially the IDF unit accountable,” says Van Hollen. The report is by the U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
We speak with Cherokee journalist Rebecca Nagle about a major victory at the Supreme Court in a case that could have gutted Native American sovereignty. In a surprise 7-2 ruling Thursday, the court upheld the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which protects Native children from being removed from their tribal communities for fostering or adoption in non-Native homes. The court rejected an argument from Republican-led states and white families who argued the system is based on race. Nagle has covered the case closely for The Nation and her podcast, This Land, and says the far right is attacking the Indian Child Welfare Act as part of a broader conservative agenda to destabilize federal Indian law. She calls the decision “really encouraging,” noting it is “good not just for Native nations and families, but for the rule of law.”
Greek Police Arrest 9 as Hopes Fade for Hundreds of Migrants Missing in Deadly Shipwreck, Texas Governor Greg Abbott Condemned for Busing 42 Migrants to Los Angeles, Texas Governor Signs Bill Restricting Trans Athletes in College Sports, Supreme Court Affirms Indian Child Welfare Act in Major Victory for Tribal Sovereignty , 3 Killed, Over 75 Injured as Tornado Strikes Texas Panhandle, Mass Death of Birds on Mexico’s Coast Caused by Warm Ocean Temperatures, U.N. Leader Calls Fossil Fuels “Incompatible with Human Survival” as Temperatures Pass 1.5°C Threshold, African Leaders Visit Kyiv, Pressing for Ukraine-Russia Peace Negotiations, As Ukraine’s Military Suffers Heavy Losses, U.S. Leaders Ask Allies to “Dig Deep” on Arms Shipments, Accused Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira Indicted on Same Espionage Charges Faced by Donald Trump, West Coast Dockworkers Agree to Tentative Union Contract, Nevada Lawmakers Approve $380 Million in Public Funding to Move Oakland A’s to Las Vegas Stadium
The proposed 900-mile East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which would carry crude oil from Uganda south to neighboring Tanzania before being exported to refineries in the Netherlands, is facing continued resistance from climate activists around the world. Protesters disrupted the annual shareholder meeting of potential EACOP lender Standard Bank in Johannesburg Monday. Among them was our guest Kumi Naidoo, the former head of Greenpeace International and Amnesty International. Naidoo was forcibly removed from the building during the peaceful protest. “It’s extraction at its worst — it’s colonial,” Naidoo says of the pipeline. We speak to him about stemming climate change at its source by cutting off the flow of capital to carbon-polluting projects.
Belarus says Russia has begun transferring tactical nuclear weapons to the former Soviet state, which shares a nearly 700-mile border with Ukraine, escalating the risk of a nuclear confrontation in Europe. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has urged allies to “dig deep” to provide more arms and ammunition to help Ukraine as it launches its counteroffensive against Russia. The Ukraine conflict has intensified the “new Cold War” between the United States and its allies, on one side, and Russia and China, on the other, says Gilbert Achcar, professor of international relations at SOAS University of London. He pegs the start of this new geopolitical standoff to the Kosovo War in 1999, which NATO entered without U.N. approval and over the objections of Russia and China. He says the United States had a “window of opportunity” in the 1990s to reshape the world for more cooperation and multilateralism. “Instead of going for peaceful options, options leading to a long-term peace in international relations and enhancing the role of the United Nations, it made the opposite choices,” including the expansion of NATO, says Achcar. His new book is titled The New Cold War: The United States, Russia, and China from Kosovo to Ukraine.
Fighting between rival military factions in Sudan targeting medical facilities has left the country’s healthcare system on the verge of collapse. With a limited amount of power, water and medical supplies, and doctors fleeing the country for safety, less than a third of hospitals in the country’s conflict zones remain open. Calling this situation a calamity, Dr. Khidir Dalouk, advocacy director of the Sudanese American Physicians Association, joins the show to share the perspective of healthcare workers in the country. “We, as physicians, have sworn an oath to treat and take care of civilians and military, whether it’s in peace or it’s in war.” Meanwhile, a new report shows 2022 was the most severe year of attacks against healthcare facilities and personnel worldwide in the last decade, with over half of the documented attacks in Ukraine and Burma. Attacks on medical facilities are a widespread and common problem in conflict when military leaders ignore international rules protecting healthcare, according to Christina Wille, director of Insecurity Insight, which contributed to the new report, “Ignoring Red Lines: Violence Against Health Care in Conflict.”
West Darfur Governor Assassinated After Accusing Paramilitaries and Militias of “Genocide”, Vladimir Putin Admits Russia Is Running Short of Weapons and Drones as Ukraine Fighting Rages, President Alexander Lukashenko Says Russia Sent Nuclear Arms to Belarus, Protesters Take to Polish Streets After Death of Pregnant Woman Who Was Denied Abortion Care, DOJ Charges 2 over Planned Parenthood Firebombing; Google Made $10M from Anti-Abortion Ads, Southern Baptist Convention Votes to Uphold Expulsion of Women-Led Churches, India and Pakistan Brace for Cyclone Biparjoy, Minnesota Records Record Air Pollution as Canadian Wildfire Smoke Spreads Over Region, Biden Vetoes Effort to Block Large Vehicle Emissions Rule, House Falls Short in Effort to Override Veto of D.C. Police Accountability Law, New York Grand Jury Indicts Ex-Marine Who Killed Street Performer Jordan Neely in Chokehold, Fed Pauses Interest Rate Hikes, EU Moves to Rein In AI as U.N. Considers Global Regulatory Agency, Arizona Mother Recounts Horror of Deepfake Kidnapping Scam, Fears Mount of AI-Driven Misinformation in 2024 Elections, Guatemala Court Sentences Journalist José Rubén Zamora to 6 Years in Prison
We speak to Lina Alhathloul, the sister of a Saudi dissident who was jailed and tortured, about how the kingdom is using its oil fortune to reshape its image by taking over the world of professional golf with the merger of its own LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. This comes after President Biden pledged to make Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a “pariah” after the brutal assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Lina Alhathloul discusses Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and its latest diplomatic moves with regional and international powers, including its reestablishment of ties with Iran.
The majority of former President Donald Trump’s charges for mishandling classified documents stem from the Espionage Act, a World War I-era law that has often been used to silence dissent and go after whistleblowers. We speak with Chip Gibbons of Defending Rights & Dissent, who calls for reforming the Espionage Act. Regardless of Trump’s conduct, the Espionage Act is “basically unconstitutional” and should not be used as it is currently written, says Gibbons, and notes Trump himself used the Espionage Act to go after whistleblowers when he was in office.
As former President Donald Trump was arrested and arraigned at a federal courthouse in Miami, where he pleaded not guilty to 37 felony charges around his handling of classified documents, we speak with Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. He predicts Trump “will challenge every aspect of this prosecution,” but says there is no reason the trial can’t begin within the next year. Trump is the first president to ever be arraigned on federal charges, just months after he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges in New York in a state investigation involving hush-money payments during the 2016 election campaign. This all comes as the former president, who was impeached twice and is now facing multiple indictments, is now running again for the White House.
Trump Pleads Not Guilty to 37 Charges Before Telling Supporters “They’re Coming After You”, Judge Allows E. Jean Carroll to Add Trump CNN Town Hall Remarks to Defamation Lawsuit, Russian Strikes Kill 6 in Ukraine; U.S. to Send More Weapons, Incl. Depleted Uranium Tank Shells, South African Activists Take Aim at Standard Bank in Fight to Stop East African Pipeline, Greta Thunberg Warns Global Climate Decisions at COP28 Could Be “Death Sentence” for Humanity, Olympic Track Star Tori Bowie Was 8 Months Pregnant and in Labor When She Died of Complications, Black Civil Rights Attorney Arrested by Lexington, MS, Police She Is Investigating for Corruption, Montana Indigenous Groups Demand Justice in Killing of 22-Year-Old Mika Westwolf, Cornel West Moves to Green Party in 2024 Presidential Run, LAist Cuts Staff by 12%; L.A. Times to Lay Off 74 Employees, UPS Workers Win Fight to Get Air-Conditioned Vehicles as Union Members Vote on Strike, At Least 59 Migrants Dead in 2023’s Deadliest Shipwreck Off Greek Coast, Forced Displacement Hits a Record 110 Million People Around the World, 100 People Die in Nigeria After Boat Capsizes on Niger River, Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Teen During Raid in Occupied West Bank, Massachusetts Launches Community Bank to Address Climate and Affordable Housing
Prominent Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora faces 40 years in prison in his sentencing hearing Wednesday for what press freedom and human rights groups say are inflated charges of money laundering. Zamora is the founder and president of the investigative newspaper El Periódico and has long reported on Guatemalan government corruption. El Periódico was forced to shut down last month after months of intensifying harassment and persecution from President Alejandro Giammattei’s right-wing government. The government has held Zamora “as a hostage” for nearly a year as part of its wider crackdown on the press, says his son José Carlos Zamora, a journalist based in Miami who is advocating for his father’s release.
President John F. Kennedy’s “peace speech” at American University 60 years ago was a searing critique of Cold War politics and laid out a hopeful vision for a world built on cooperation and empathy, even among rival countries. Kennedy called for “not merely peace for Americans, but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time, but peace for all time.” We feature an extended excerpt of Kennedy’s remarks and speak with The Nation publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel about how the speech remains relevant today. The Biden administration “could certainly take a page” from Kennedy’s policies, she says, urging the U.S. to avoid needless escalation during this time of renewed hostility between the United States and Russia over the war in Ukraine.
Donald Trump is set to surrender today at the federal courthouse in Miami to face charges for retaining and mishandling classified documents, including top-secret information about U.S. nuclear weapons programs. Trump’s supporters, including many prominent members of the Republican Party, have threatened violence and suggested revolt in response to what they see as a politically motivated targeting of the former president, while Trump himself has claimed to reporters that he is innocent of wrongdoing. His capture of the Republican base is the work of a “cult leader,” argues Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on fascism and authoritarianism, adding that today’s GOP is an “autocratic party operating inside a democracy.” Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, also discusses the death this week of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who she says helped to mainstream far-right extremism in Italian politics.
Donald Trump Travels to Miami to Face Federal Charges over Classified Documents, Russian Missile Attack on Ukrainian City of Kryvyi Rih Kills at Least 10, NATO Opens Largest-Ever Aerial War Games in Germany as Allies Expand Support for Ukraine, U.S. Spent More on Nuclear Arms in 2022 Than All Other Nations Combined, Iran’s Supreme Leader Says He’s Open to Reviving Nuclear Agreement, Pace of Executions Surged in Iran After Anti-Government Protests, 45 Killed as Militia Attacks Camp for Displaced People in Congo’s Djugu Territory, U.S. Will Rejoin UNESCO and Pay $600 Million in Back Dues, Warm Ocean Waters Leave Thousands of Fish Dead on Texas Beaches, Montana Court Hears Landmark Youth Climate Lawsuit, Chase Bank to Pay $290 Million to Settle Class-Action Suit Brought by Epstein Survivors, Body Found in I-95 Collapse Wreckage; Officials Warn Major U.S. Artery Will Be Closed for “Months”
June is Pride Month, a time to celebrate the LGBTQIA community, and today we look at those represented by the “I” which stands for “intersex.” In a broadcast exclusive, we are joined by the filmmaker and three stars of a new documentary, Every Body, which follows their work as intersex activists who share childhoods marked by shame, secrecy and nonconsensual surgeries. We speak with actor and screenwriter River Gallo, political consultant Alicia Roth Weigel, scholar Sean Saifa Wall and Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning director Julie Cohen, who says she was able to document “a movement that’s in the midst of truly blossoming.” Weigel adds, “There is no one way to look intersex. There is no one way to be intersex,” emphasizing that the movement for informed consent and body autonomy is broad and intersectional. The film will be released in theaters on June 30.
We speak with The Nation's Elie Mystal about the Justice Department's unsealed, sweeping 37-count indictment of former President Donald Trump for retaining and mishandling classified documents, including top-secret information about U.S. nuclear weapons and secret plans to attack a foreign country. Trump is the first U.S. president to face federal criminal charges. He has denied any guilt. The new indictment joins his indictment earlier this year in New York, where he is accused of committing financial fraud.
Ukraine Says It Liberated 4 Villages as Counteroffensive Gets Underway, Law Enforcement Braces for Unrest Ahead of Trump Court Hearing as Supporters Issue Violent Threats, Deadly Battles Resume in Sudan After Ceasefire Ends; South Sudan Violence Kills 20 Displaced People, New Haven Reaches $45 Million Settlement with Randy Cox, Who Was Paralyzed in Police Van, I-95 Highway in Philadelphia Could Be Closed for Months After Tanker Truck Fire Leads to Collapse, New York City Establishes First-of-Its-Kind Minimum Wage for App Delivery Workers, Four Indigenous Children Found Alive 40 Days After Plane Crash, Colombia Signs Ceasefire Agreement with ELN Rebels, Torrential Rains in Northwest Pakistan Kill at Least 25, More Than 20 Killed in Somalia After Discarded Mortar Shell Explodes, Scandal-Plagued Italian Media Tycoon and Ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi Dies at 86, 2 Nonbinary Performers Win Tony Awards as Unscripted Ceremony Acknowledges Writers Strike
We look at a federal indictment of four U.S. citizens for alleged election interference that has received little press attention despite its major implications for free speech and activism in the country. In April, the Biden administration charged four members of a pan-Africanist group with conspiring with the Russian government to sow discord in U.S. elections. Omali Yeshitela, chair of the African People’s Socialist Party, faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, along with Penny Hess, Jesse Nevel and Augustus Romain Jr. Three Russians were also named in an indictment unsealed by the Justice Department on Tuesday. This follows a violent FBI raid on the activists’ properties in Missouri and Florida last summer. “It’s very clear that this is about more than what the government has said it’s about,” says Yeshitela, arguing the real objective in the case is “to destroy our movement.”
In a surprise 5-4 decision Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a racially gerrymandered voting map in Alabama, upholding a key plank of the Voting Rights Act that the conservative majority has spent years whittling away at. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the court’s liberal justices in finding that Alabama’s Republican-drawn congressional districts unlawfully disadvantage Black voters by diluting their voting power, a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act banning voting practices that discriminate based on race and color. The court ordered Alabama’s Legislature to redraw the map. For more on the decision and the state of voting rights across the country, we are joined by three guests: Khadidah Stone is a named plaintiff in the case and works for the civic engagement organization Alabama Forward; Tish Gotell Faulks is legal director at the ACLU of Alabama; and Davin Rosborough is a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Voting Rights Project who helped represent the plaintiffs.
In a historic first, the Justice Department has indicted former President Donald Trump on multiple felony charges related to his mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government’s attempts to recover them. Trump is the first former president ever to face federal criminal charges and could potentially spend years in prison if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in a Miami court on Tuesday. This latest news adds to Trump’s legal woes, with the former president also facing charges in New York related to hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 and another probe in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. For more, we speak with Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor and currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy. “We do not have kings here. We have the rule of law, and no one is above it, including a former president,” says Aftergut.
Donald Trump Indicted on Federal Criminal Charges over Mishandling of Classified Documents, Smoke from Canadian Wildfires Spreads South and West Across United States, Supreme Court Orders Alabama to Redraw Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Maps, SCOTUS Upholds Ability of Medicaid Recipients to Sue States That Violate Their Rights, SCOTUS Justices Thomas and Alito Get Extensions on Financial Disclosure Filings, U.S. Halts Food Aid to Ethiopia, Accuses Military of Diverting Deliveries Away from Civilians, Israeli Forces Shoot Palestinian Journalist During Demolition of Home in Ramallah, Aid Groups Say New EU Measures for Asylum Seekers Do Nothing to Aid Humanitarian Disaster, China, Cuba and U.S. Reject Reports of Chinese Surveillance Base in Cuba, Mexican Authorities Probe Extrajudicial Killing of 5 Men by Military as Zapatistas Protest Violence, Pat Robertson, Televangelist Who Made a Career by Spewing Racism, Homophobia and Misogyny, Dies
The acclaimed war correspondent Anjan Sundaram joins us to discuss the state of conflict reporting and why some of the world’s deadliest wars go unreported. We cover conflict in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, as well as the future of the international media economy. Due in part to the lingering “colonial” structure of global media, Sundaram says, “these enormous wars, some of the biggest in our world today — and some of the greatest since World War II — are still relatively underreported in the international news.”
Record-breaking Canadian wildfires continue to fill skies across much of North America with smoke, putting about 100 million people under air quality alerts. New York City recorded the worst air quality of any major city in the world as a result of the haze. Around the world, air pollution is already responsible for as many as 10 million deaths per year, and the problem is likely to get worse, says New York Times opinion writer David Wallace-Wells. He explains how today’s smoky skies are a glimpse of our future in the climate crisis, when warmer temperatures and dry conditions will continue to increase the size and severity of wildfires across the globe. “It’s not just that we’re getting more fires, and it’s not even that they’re getting larger. They’re also getting much more intense, which means that they are cooking much of the landscape,” says Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. We also hear from Cree/Iroquois/French journalist Brandi Morin, who just returned from reporting on the wildfires raging in the remote Indigenous community of Fort Chipewyan in Canada’s North, which she calls the “epicenter of the effects of climate change because it’s downstream from one of the largest oil production developments in the world, Alberta’s oil sands.”
Wildfire Smoke Shrouds Huge Swaths of North America, Turns New York City’s Skies Orange, Hundreds of Trapped Children Rescued from Orphanage in Sudan’s Capital, Ukraine Dam Breach Prompts Warnings over Disease, Abandoned Farms and Floating Landmines, Germany Prepares to Host Largest-Ever NATO Air Exercises, Prosecutors Inform Trump He’s Target of Federal Criminal Investigation, Mike Pence Announces 2024 Presidential Bid, Rebukes Trump over Jan. 6 Actions, Ron DeSantis Takes Credit for Flying Asylum Seekers to California, CNN Ousts CEO Chris Licht After Short-Lived, Chaotic Tenure, DHS Says Cop City Protesters Are Not Domestic Terrorists, as Labeled by Georgia Law Enforcement, Black Activists in Mississippi Sue State over Law Cracking Down on Peaceful Protest, Biden Vetoes Bill Canceling Student Loan Relief, EU Court Rules Against Polish Move to Undermine Courts as 500,000 March Against Government
Cornel West, the iconic academic and social critic, has declared his candidacy for president of the United States in the 2024 election. He is running with the People’s Party, a progressive alternative to the two major parties that grew out of Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign. With 2024 shaping up to be a rematch between “neofascist” Donald Trump and “milquetoast neoliberal” Joe Biden, West says voters need a real alternative focused on tackling inequality, racism, war and corporate greed. “There’s an indifference to the plight of the vulnerable,” West tells Democracy Now! He also discusses the war in Ukraine, censorhip, right-wing extremism, and allegations of sexual harassment and assault against People’s Party founder Nick Brana, among other topics.
The Human Rights Campaign has declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States over a wave of discriminatory laws passed in states across the country. There have been more than 70 anti-LGBTQ+ bills signed into law so far in 2023 — more than double last year’s number, which was previously the worst year for discriminatory legislation. These laws have primarily targeted the transgender community, with many states banning gender-affirming medical care and participation in sports by trans youth. The Human Rights Campaign, which is the largest organization devoted to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in the U.S., made its declaration on Tuesday, just a few days into Pride Month. “There is an imminent health and safety crisis facing our community,” says the group’s president, Kelley Robinson.
Air Quality Alerts Issued as Thick Smoke Blankets Large Swaths of U.S. and Canada, Heat Waves Stifle Puerto Rico, South Asia; Bangladesh Closes Schools Amid Ongoing Power Cuts, Arctic Summers Could Be Ice-Free by Next Decade, Activists Shut Down Manchin Talk at D.C. Event over Climate Destruction, Mountain Valley Pipeline, Ukraine Dam Collapse Wreaks Havoc Along Dnipro River as Thousands Forced to Evacuate, Mexico’s AMLO Claims Major Win After His Party Clinches Mexico’s Governorship, Fresh Protests Take Over French Streets in Hopes of Reviving Campaign Against Retirement Reform, Blinken Tightens Ties and Pushes U.S. Middle East Agenda with MBS in Saudi Arabia, PGA Tour Announces Surprise Merger with Saudi Arabia’s LIV Tour, UNRWA and WFP Facing Major Funding Shortages for Work in Palestine Despite Dire Need, Sen. Van Hollen Calls on Biden Admin to Release Report on Israeli Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, Gunman Kills Two People, Injures 5, After High School Graduation in Richmond, VA, Ajike Owens, a Black Mother of 4, Shot Dead by White Neighbor Who Had Just Harassed Her Children, HRC Issues First-Ever State of Emergency for LGBTQ+ People in the U.S., Judge Sides with FL Families Seeking Care for Trans Children; LA Advances Gender-Affirming Care Ban, Texas Sheriff Recommends Criminal Charges over 2022 Migrant Flights to Martha’s Vineyard, Merck Sues Biden Admin over Medicare Negotiation Law, Trump Lawyers Meet with Special Counsel as Possible Indictment Nears, SAG-AFTRA Members Back Strike Authorization as Writers Remain on Strike
Evacuation efforts are underway in southern Ukraine, where floodwaters are rising after a dam on the Dnipro River was breached overnight in the Ukrainian city of Nova Kakhovka. The breach has created an additional humanitarian disaster in an area that’s seen heavy fighting since Russia’s invasion. Ukraine’s government says floodwaters are threatening 80 towns and villages, as well as the city of Kherson, home to 300,000 people. The breach could also limit drinking water supplies across Kherson and Crimea. Ukrainian officials accused Russia’s military of deliberately sabotaging the dam, calling it an act of “ecocide,” while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian artillery fire for the breach. The disaster has raised fears of a nuclear accident at Europe’s largest nuclear power station, the six-reactor Zaporizhzhia plant, which is upstream of the dam breach and relies on a reservoir formed by the dam for critical cooling systems. We go to Kyiv to speak with Olexi Pasyuk, deputy director of the Ukrainian NGO Ecoaction, to discuss the environmental implications.
A growing number of politicians, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, are calling on the United States to drop its case against WikiLeaks founder and Australian citizen Julian Assange, who has been locked up for four years in London’s Belmarsh prison awaiting possible extradition to face espionage and hacking charges for publishing leaked documents about U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among Assange’s supporters is Australian human rights attorney Jen Robinson, who has been a legal adviser to Assange since 2010. She joins us from London, where she calls for the case against Assange to be dropped and warns that continuing his prosecution “threatens free speech around the world.”
Residents in Atlanta shattered the record for turnout at a city council meeting Monday, as thousands lined up to voice their opposition to the construction of a massive police training facility known as Cop City. Ultimately, the Atlanta City Council voted 11-4 to approve $30 million in additional funding for the project, bringing the total to $67 million — more than double the original estimate. The contentious vote comes after a SWAT team raided the Atlanta Solidarity Fund last Wednesday and arrested three people who had been raising money to bail out protesters opposed to Cop City, charging them with money laundering and charity fraud. Forty-two protesters still face charges including domestic terrorism for opposing Cop City, and activists continue to demand answers over the fatal police shooting of environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán in January. For more on Cop City, we speak with Reverend James Woodall from the Southern Center for Human Rights, who spoke at the City Council meeting, as well as Atlanta Solidarity Fund organizer Marlon Kautz, one of the three people arrested in last week’s SWAT raid. Kautz says the charges are “malicious political prosecutions” with the intent to “suppress a political movement.”
Ukraine and Russia Blame One Another as Dam Breach Forces Mass Evacuations Along Dnipro River, Torrential Rains Trigger Flooding and Landslides in Haiti, Killing at Least 42, Firefighters Battle Massive Blazes in Canada’s Nova Scotia Province, Global Carbon Dioxide Levels Surge to Highest Levels in 4 Million Years, China Accuses U.S. Military of “Provocative” Actions , U.S. Defense Secretary Pledges Military Cooperation with India to Counter China, Palestinian Toddler Shot in Head by Israeli Soldiers Dies of Injuries, Blinken Promotes Saudi-Israeli Ties in AIPAC Speech, Atlanta City Council Votes 11-4 to Fund $67 Million “Cop City” Training Center, Missouri Prepares to Execute Michael Tisius Despite Clemency Pleas from Former Jurors, Oklahoma Approves First-Ever Publicly Funded Religious Charter School, Trump’s Attorneys Meet Special Counsel Jack Smith Amid Mounting Grand Jury Investigations, Cornel West Will Run for President in 2024 as People’s Party Candidate, Brazilian President Unveils Plan to End Amazon Deforestation by 2030
When high school students in Rockland County, New York, invited renowned activist and professor Angela Davis to speak, the event got shut down in two different venues over protests that she was “too radical.” But the students persevered, and Angela Davis addressed a packed church Thursday night. “I talked about the importance of recognizing that through struggle, through organized struggle, through the efforts of people who come together and join hands and join their voices together, we’ve made changes in this country,” says Davis. We also speak with community activist Nikki Hines, who supported students at Rockland County High School when they invited Davis to speak and who says “misinformation” drove the protests.
More than six months since the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed while reporting in the occupied West Bank, “there is still no accountability in what happened,” says journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous. He is the correspondent on a new Al Jazeera documentary for the program “Fault Lines” that investigates Abu Akleh’s May killing. It draws on videos and eyewitness accounts of Abu Akleh’s killing to establish that Abu Akleh was fatally shot in the head by Israeli forces, a finding supported by numerous other press investigations. The Biden administration also recently opened an FBI probe into her killing, but Israel is refusing to cooperate and has continued to deny responsibility. Abu Akleh, who was one of the most recognizable faces in the Arab world, had worked for Al Jazeera for 25 years and held U.S. citizenship. We play excerpts from the Al Jazeera documentary, “The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh,” and hear from Shireen’s niece Lina Abu Akleh. “We want there to be accountability. We want there to be justice,” she says.
Senate Votes to Impose Contract on Rail Workers, Rejecting Paid Sick Leave, Supreme Court to Keep Biden Student Debt Relief Plan on Hold as It Considers Challenge, Biden Says He Is Prepared to Meet Putin Under Certain Conditions, Benjamin Netanyahu Coalition Deal Puts Far-Right Party in Charge of Illegal Settlements, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Future Uncertain After Damning Report, Guatemalan Newspaper El Periódico Ceases Print Edition After Being Targeted by Government, Amnesty Report Reveals Systematic Sexual Abuse by Colombian Police Against 2021 Protesters, Biden Proposes Change to Presidential Primary Schedule to Give Voters of Color More Power, Appeals Court Halts Special Master Review of Trump Mar-a-Lago Documents, Uvalde Survivors and Grieving Families Sue over Catastrophic Failures of Local Authorities
New York Mayor Eric Adams announced this week that police and emergency medical workers will start hospitalizing people with mental illness against their will, even if they pose no threat to others. Rights groups and community organizations have slammed the move as inhumane and are demanding better access to housing and other support for people struggling with mental illness and homelessness. “That does require funding. That does require investment. Unfortunately, we don’t get that,” says Jumaane Williams, New York City’s public advocate, who says officials are too quick to use policing as a solution to social inequality. We also speak with Jawanza Williams of social justice group VOCAL-NY, who says Mayor Adams and his administration are intent on obscuring issues of homelessness and mental illness rather than solving them. “Hiding, disappearing people experiencing homelessness, dismantling encampments, preventing people from taking photographs inside of the shelters will not prevent the truth from coming out,” he says.
With a new Congress being sworn in next month, Democratic lawmakers have a busy lame-duck session during which they will try to pass as many bills as possible before losing their majority in the House of Representatives. The Senate has just passed the historic Respect for Marriage Act in a 61-36 vote that protects marriage equality, and lawmakers are also moving to impose a controversial contract on the freight rail industry to avert a possible strike by thousands of rail workers who are demanding sick days and other improvements. Meanwhile, a fight is looming over a funding bill to avoid a government shutdown. For more, we speak with journalist David Dayen, whose recent piece for The American Prospect is headlined “Reconciliation Is Available to End Debt Limit Hostage-Taking.”
Jurors in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday found Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes guilty of seditious conspiracy for plotting to keep Donald Trump in power after the 2020 election, resulting in the deadly January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Kelly Meggs, who led the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers, was also convicted of seditious conspiracy, and three other insurrectionists were found guilty of other felonies. The case marks the first time in nearly three decades that a federal jury has convicted defendants of seditious conspiracy, the crime of conspiring to overthrow, put down or destroy by force the government of the United States. “It’s a win for the Justice Department, and it also sends a message that illegal actions against the government will not go unpunished,” says Kristen Doerer, managing editor of Right Wing Watch. Doerer also discusses other upcoming trials for insurrectionists and how extremist groups have infiltrated military and law enforcement circles.
House Passes Bill to Block Rail Strike at Urging of President Biden, House Democrats Elect Hakeem Jeffries to Head Party, China Moves to Lift Some COVID Restrictions as Protests Continue, Russian Lawmakers Approve Expanding Anti-LGBTQ Law, Palestinian Activist Arrested After Filming Israeli Solider Assaulting Israeli Activist, U.S. Citizen Faces Extradition from UAE to Egypt for Criticizing el-Sisi, Appeals Court Denies Biden Admin Request to Reinstate Student Loan Relief Plan, U.S. Gov’t to Close Berks Immigrant Prison, Which Once Locked Up Asylum-Seeking Families, ICE Posts Personal Data of Asylum Seekers Online, Putting Thousands at Risk, Students with Mental Health Disabilities Sue Yale for Discrimination, Cryptome Founder Says He Should Be Prosecuted with Julian Assange for Publishing Classified Docs, Biden Announces Plan to Help Tribal Communities Respond to Climate Crisis, Including Relocation, DOJ Sues City of Jackson for Failing to Provide Residents with Safe Drinking Water, Coterra Energy Acknowledges Fracking Polluted Water of PA Residents, Will Pay $16 Million, 2022 Right Livelihood Awards Honors Activists from Somalia, Ukraine, Uganda and Venezuela, U.N. Calls for Renewed Push to Combat AIDS, Address Inequalities
Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board has voted to extend a contract with LUMA Energy — the private U.S.-Canadian corporation that took over the island’s power grid and is widely denounced by residents on the island for its inconsistent service and high prices. The privatization of Puerto Rico’s power grid, supported by an unelected board appointed by the U.S. government, represents the “everyday consequences of colonialism,” says independent reporter Bianca Graulau, whose latest documentary is called “País de Apagones,” or “Country of Blackouts.”
The largest higher education strike in U.S. history has entered its third week in an effort to secure livable wages, more child care benefits, expanded family leave and other demands. Some 48,000 academic workers at all 10 University of California campuses are on strike, including teaching assistants, postdoctoral scholars, graduate student researchers, tutors and fellows. We speak with a professor and graduate students at three campuses in the UC system, as a tentative deal with postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers was announced Tuesday by the University of California that does not cover graduate student employees who make up the vast majority of those on strike. “We are the ones who are producing the work. We’re teaching the classrooms. And yet, most of these student workers qualify for food stamps,” says UCLA doctoral student and local union head Enrique Olivares Pesante. UC Davis student researcher Aarthi Sekar describes how international graduate students have also been impacted. We also speak with Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy at UC Santa Barbara.
President Biden is pushing Congress to block a pending nationwide rail strike and push through a contract deal that includes no sick days and is opposed by four of the 12 rail unions. Biden’s latest request is an attempt to “legislate us basically back to work, before we’ve even had a chance to strike,” says locomotive engineer and Railroad Workers United organizer Ron Kaminkow. “Workers should have the right to take off work for a reasonable amount for whatever reason they need it,” says labor professor Nelson Lichtenstein, who urges the rail workers to strike anyway.
Senate Passes Marriage Equality Act in Bipartisan Vote, House to Impose Deal Blocking Rail Strike Despite Objections from Workers, Progressive Dems, U.S. Announces Ukraine Infrastructure Aid as Europe Calls for Tribunal for Russian War Crimes, Oath Keepers Founder Stewart Rhodes Found Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy, Qatari World Cup Official Says 400-500 Migrant Workers Died While Working on FIFA Tournament, Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin Dies at 96, Blast at Religious School in Northern Afghanistan Kills at Least 15
, Missouri Executes Kevin Johnson After SCOTUS Denies Stay
, Democratic Congressmember Donald McEachin Dies, Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Erupts for First Time in Almost Four Decades
, NYC to Start Involuntarily Hospitalizing People with Mental Illness, 16 Communities in Puerto Rico File Climate Lawsuit Against Big Oil
In a remarkable courtroom scene, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg asked a New York judge Monday to dismiss murder charges against Tracy McCarter, who says she acted in self-defense when her estranged husband died from a stab wound in the chest in 2020. Bragg campaigned on a promise to fight to free McCarter of murder charges, though, when elected, advocates say his actions initially fell short. This comes as pressure is growing in New York to end the criminalization of domestic abuse survivors, which happens at a disproportionate rate against Black women. Advocates say 90% of women who are incarcerated in New York have been subjected to domestic violence. McCarter “had done everything we tell domestic abuse survivors to do,” says journalist Victoria Law, who has closely followed McCarter’s case, but the nurse still finds herself “in legal limbo, waiting to see if she can try to start picking up the pieces of her life or if she will be facing trial for murder.”
We speak with author Jules Boykoff about the climate and political implications of the 2022 World Cup. The soccer tournament is being played in the winter for the first time due to Qatar’s extreme summer temperatures. Boykoff says Qatar and FIFA have greenwashed the event by erroneously claiming the World Cup is “fully carbon neutral” despite blocking an independent review of the games. Boykoff also says Qatar is participating in “sportswashing” by using the games to deflect attention from labor abuses. Boykoff’s article in Scientific American is “The World Cup in Qatar Is a Climate Catastrophe.”
As the 2022 World Cup plays out in Qatar, the first Arab country to host the major sporting event, we speak with history professor Abdullah Al-Arian, who says the international media is projecting an “Orientalist outlook” in its coverage of the games. Al-Arian says despite mainstream discourse, football in the Middle East has historically been used by nationalist movements as “a means of organizing collectively on the basis of achieving their own liberation against colonial rule.” His recent New York Times opinion piece is “Why the World Cup Belongs in the Middle East.”
NATO Pledges More Support for Ukraine as Some in Europe Accuse U.S. of Profiting from the War, China Eases Some COVID Restrictions as It Moves to Block New Protests, In Blow to Taiwanese Gov’t, Voters Back Opposition Nationalist Party in Local Elections, Biden Sides with Big Business & Asks Congress to Block Potential Rail Strike, Teenage Gunman Pleads Guilty in Mass Shooting at Buffalo Supermarket in Black Neighborhood, Chesapeake, Virginia, Holds Vigil for Walmart Workers Shot Dead by Store Manager, Five Police Officers in New Haven, CT, Arrested After Man Is Paralyzed in Police Van, Arizona Sues Republican-Led County for Refusing to Certify 2022 Election Results, “Publishing Is Not a Crime”: Major Newspapers Urge Biden to Drop Charges Against Julian Assange, Biden Eases Sanctions on Venezuela and Allows Chevron to Resume Oil Pumping, Israeli Military Demolish Palestinian Primary School Near Hebron, Israel Kills Four Palestinians as U.N. Warns Occupied West Bank Is “Reaching a Boiling Point”, Former British Soldier Convicted of Shooting Irish Man in Back in 1988 During the Troubles, Missouri Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Execution of Kevin Johnson, Mike Pence & White House Condemn Trump for Hosting White Supremacist at Mar-a-Lago, Houston Lifts Boil Water Notice for 2 Million Residents, Judge Orders Amazon to Stop Retaliating Against Union Organizing Efforts, Two Peet’s Coffee Stores Move to Become Chain’s First Unionized Stores
As climate Sahrawi activists in occupied Western Sahara accuse Morocco of greenwashing, the Spanish Film Academy, the Spanish equivalent to the Oscars, has just given its social justice award to the Western Sahara International Film Festival and its film school. We feature our interview at the U.N. climate summit with Mahfud Bechri, who explains how Morocco sells the natural resources and wealth of Western Sahara without the consent of the Sahrawi people as part of an effort to greenwash its military occupation of Western Sahara, and his larger campaign to demand companies end complicity with the occupation. The new social justice award from the Spanish Film Academy recognizes how Spanish support for the Moroccan occupation has led to “a complete media blockade” of the conflict, says María Carrión, executive director of FiSahara, the Western Sahara International Film Festival.
Pressure is growing for Missouri to stop the execution of Kevin Johnson set for Tuesday. At a hearing Monday before Missouri’s Supreme Court, a special prosecutor will request a stay in order to fully investigate how the case was tainted by racism. Meanwhile, Johnson’s 19-year-old daughter has been barred from witnessing his lethal injection because she is under 21. “We understand that the death penalty does not solve anything,” says Michelle Smith, co-director of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, who says Johnson is being “punished more severely” because of his race. Lawmakers are also urging Missouri’s governor to grant Johnson clemency.
Unprecedented protests have erupted in multiple Chinese cities over President Xi Jinping’s strict zero-COVID policies, which have resulted in extended strict lockdowns across the country. The protests were triggered by a deadly fire Thursday at an apartment building in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, where local COVID restrictions reportedly prevented firefighters from reaching the trapped residents. This comes as hundreds of workers at the world’s largest iPhone factory, Foxconn, clashed last week with police over restrictions that have forced many workers to live at the factory. “China now for three years has seen a level of lockdown that is simply inconceivable,” says Cornell labor scholar Eli Friedman, who calls the cross-class, cross-ethnic protests a “movement against surveillance.” Friedman says although China enforces the country’s COVID restrictions, top U.S. corporations like Apple and Tesla are implicated in upholding the closed-loop management system at Foxconn and other Chinese manufacturers.
COVID Protests Spread Across China as Lockdown Anger Boils Over, Zelensky Warns of Further Russian Attacks on Energy Infrastructure as Ukrainians Face Harsh Winter, Ayatollah’s Niece Voices Support for Mass Protests as Iran Cracks Down on Public Figures, Extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir to Head Nat’l Security in Incoming Israeli Gov’t, Anwar Ibrahim Confirmed as Malaysia’s New Prime Minister, Hong Kong Convicts 6 Pro-Democracy Activists over Protest Fund, São Tomé and Príncipe PM Says Gov’t Thwarted Coup, Fragile Ceasefire Takes Effect in DRC as Local Groups Tell Foreign Forces to Leave Country, Rescue Teams Search for Missing People After Ischia Landslide Kills at Least 7, Greta Thunberg and 600+ Swedish Youth Activists Sue Gov’t over Climate Inaction, New Regulations for Preservation of Sharks and Other Species Announced at Int’l Conservation Summit, Georgians Start Voting in Dec. 6 Senate Runoff; GA Supreme Court Reinstates Abortion Ban, Twitter Says It Will Reinstate Suspended Accounts as Advertisers Have Withdrawn en Masse, E. Jean Carroll Sues Trump for Sexual Assault Using New York’s Adult Survivors Act, 70,000+ U.K. University Staff Walk Out; British Nurses Prepare for Historic Strike, Amazon Workers Walk Out on Black Friday over Poor Working Conditions and Low Wages
In a special broadcast, we remember the legendary historian, author, professor, playwright and activist Howard Zinn, who was born 100 years ago this August. Zinn was a regular guest on Democracy Now!, from the start of the program in 1996 up until his death in 2010 at age 87. After witnessing the horrors of World War II as a bombardier, Zinn became a peace and justice activist who picketed with his students at Spelman College during the civil rights movement and joined in actions such as opposing the Vietnam War. He later spoke out against the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. “I believe neutrality is impossible, because the world is already moving in certain directions. Wars are going on. Children are starving,” Zinn said in a 2005 interview. “To be neutral … is to collaborate with whatever is going on, to allow it to happen.”
This year marks 100 years since the birth of the historian Howard Zinn. In 1980, Zinn published his classic work, “A People’s History of the United States.” The book would go on to sell over a million copies and change the way many look at history in America. We begin today’s special with highlights from a production of Howard Zinn’s “Voices of a People’s History of the United States,” where Zinn introduced dramatic readings from history. We hear Alfre Woodard read the words of labor activist Mother Jones and Howard’ son Jeff Zinn read the words of an IWW poet and organizer Arturo Giovannitti.
In an extended interview, acclaimed physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté discusses his new book, “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture.” “The very values of a society are traumatizing for a lot of people,” says Maté, who argues in his book that “psychological trauma, woundedness, underlies much of what we call disease.” He says healing requires a reconnection between the mind and the body, which can be achieved through cultivating a sense of community, meaning, belonging and purpose. Maté also discusses how the healthcare system has harmfully promoted the “mechanization of birth,” how the lack of social services for parents has led to “a massive abandonment of infants,” and how capitalism has fueled addiction and the rise of youth suicide rates.
Lakota historian Nick Estes talks about Thanksgiving and his book “Our History Is the Future,” and the historic fight against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock. “This history … is a continuing history of genocide, of settler colonialism and, basically, the founding myths of this country,” says Estes, who is a co-founder of the Indigenous resistance group The Red Nation and a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe.
This week U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Philippines, where she said the U.S. would defend the Philippines “in the face of intimidation and coercion” from China and vowed to expand the U.S. military presence in the country even after former bases leaked toxic waste into the environment. We recently spoke about the environment and more with Filipino activist Yeb Saño at the U.N. climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. He was previously the chief climate negotiator for the Philippines and is now executive director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia. Saño describes the “loss and damage” fund negotiated between the Global North and Global South as an “expression of human solidarity.” He also discusses Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s commitments to climate action, as well as the threats faced by Filipino environmental activists.
Noam Chomsky remembers the life and legacy of longtime peace and civil rights activist, lawyer and author Staughton Lynd, who has died at the age of 92. Lynd faced professional blowback after he was a conscientious objector during the Korean War and an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, and later supported U.S. soldiers who refused to fight in Iraq. We feature an extended interview excerpt from when he appeared on Democracy Now! in 2006 to discuss the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, his conscientious objector status and the 1993 Ohio prison uprising in Lucasville.
The situation in Iran is “critical” as authorities tighten their crackdown on the continuing anti-government protests after the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the so-called morality police. United Nations human rights officials report Iranian security forces in Kurdish cities killed dozens of protesters this week alone, with each funeral turning into a mass rally against the central government. “The defiance has been astounding,” says Middle East studies professor Nahid Siamdoust, who reported for years from Iran, including during the 2009 Green Movement, and calls the protests a “nationwide revolution.”
Six People Shot Dead at Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, Supreme Court OKs Release of Trump’s Tax Returns to Congress, Zelensky Accuses Russia of Turning Cold Winter into “Weapon of Mass Destruction”, Ukrainian Forces Raid 1,000-Year-Old Orthodox Monastery in Kyiv, On Trip to Moscow, Cuban President Denounces U.S. Sanctions on Russia & NATO Expansion, Turkey Threatens Ground Invasion of Northern Syria in Assault on Kurds, Brazil: Bolsonaro Contests Lula’s Victory, Alleging Voter Machine Problems, Colombia Resumes Peace Talks with ELN Guerrillas, Fatal Bomb Blasts Hit Jerusalem a Day After Deadly Israeli Raid in West Bank, China: Hundreds of Workers Walk Off Job at World’s Largest iPhone Factory, Biden Administration to Extend Pause of Student Loan Payments, Atlanta to Pay $1 Million to Family of Rayshard Brooks, Over 400 Groups Urge Biden to Expand TPS Protection for Haitians, Teachers Union Head Denounces Pompeo for Calling Her “The Most Dangerous Person in the World”, Starbucks Closes First Store to Unionize in Seattle, Elon Musk Has Lost $100 Billion in 2022 But Remains World’s Richest Person
In a wide-ranging interview recorded in Cairo, we speak with Laila Soueif and Sanaa Seif, the mother and sister of British-Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah, about his health, his case, his family and his hopes for freedom. After visiting him in prison, they describe how El-Fattah started a water strike on the first day of the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh to draw international attention to the country’s human rights violations and protest his seemingly indefinite imprisonment. He paused after collapsing and suffering a “near-death experience” when prison officials appeared reluctant to record his full water and hunger strike. Seif says they set a date to restart his hunger strike, once he regains physical and mental strength. Laila Soueif discusses how El-Fattah helped her raise his two younger sisters when her now-deceased husband was in jail for his own activism. They also describe his relationship with his son, Khaled, who is nonverbal and diagnosed with autism, calling El-Fattah a “patient, kind father.” Recalling his most recent trial, they lay out how he was sentenced to five years in prison last December, and explain how El-Fattah’s lawyers never had access to the case trial or were allowed to argue his case. “There is clearly a vendetta” against El-Fattah, notes Seif, who adds “it’s pointless to talk about the legal procedures [since] each step of it is a sham.” Seif also speaks about the mass imprisonment of other political prisoners and the major influence and responsibility the U.S. has in freeing El-Fattah and others. “This whole operation [in Egypt] is a U.S. operation,” says Soueif, who says she wants El-Fattah freed and deported to the U.K. to keep him safe.
Suspect in Colorado LGBTQ Nightclub Massacre Charged with Murder, Hate Crimes, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Warns of Immigrant “Invasion,” Mirroring Language Used by El Paso Shooter, As Russian Attacks Leave Ukraine Without Power, WHO Warns “This Winter Will Be About Survival”, Kamala Harris Pledges “Unwavering Commitment” to Defend Philippines, Death Toll from Java Earthquake Rises to 268, 38 Workers Die as Fire Sweeps Through Factory in Central China, U.S. Rail Workers Reject Tentative Union Contract, Set Stage for Dec. 9 Strike, Alabama Governor Halts Executions After Third Botched Lethal Injection, Missouri Teen Asks to Attend Her Father’s Execution, Oregon Governor Pardons 45,000 People for Cannabis Convictions, Rights Groups Denounce FIFA for Banning Displays of LGBTQ+ Pride at World Cup
As the World Cup begins, we look at the host country of Qatar’s labor and human rights record. “This is the deadliest major sporting event, possibly ever, in history,” says Minky Worden of Human Rights Watch, who describes how millions of migrant workers from the world’s poorest countries have faced deadly and forced labor conditions working on the $2 billion infrastructure. By one count, 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since 2010, when it was awarded the right to host the games. “These are unprecedented labor rights abuses,” says Worden, who claims “there’s no ability if you’re a migrant worker in Qatar to strike for your basic human rights.”
A gunman wearing body armor and armed with an AR-15-style rifle attacked an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs late Saturday night, killing five people and injuring at least 25. Two Club Q patrons managed to disarm the shooter, a 22-year-old suspect with ties to an extremist family, before he was taken into police custody. The attack came on the the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance, and police are investigating the attack as a potential hate crime. “This was an intentional act to push LGBTQ people back into the shadows,” says Denver mayoral candidate Leslie Herod, who is the first LGBTQ+ African American to hold office in the Colorado General Assembly and considers Colorado Springs her hometown. Herod describes a “clear connection” between hateful anti-gay rhetoric and violence toward the LGBTQ community.
Rich countries agreed to establish a “loss and damage” fund at the close of the two-week-long U.N. climate summit in Egypt to help the Global South deal with the worst effects of the climate catastrophe. The fund is a major breakthrough for Global South countries, which have been demanding a similar mechanism for the past 30 years but faced opposition from the United States and other large polluting nations. Climate justice activist Asad Rehman says the fund is a “glimmer of hope” despite the summit ending with a massive expansion of carbon markets and delegates making “no progress” to phase out fossil fuels.
COP27 Delegates Agree on Historic “Loss and Damage” Deal But Make No Progress on Climate Catastrophe, Gunman Kills 5 in Attack on Colorado Springs LGTBQ Nightclub, U.N. Nuclear Body Warns Fighting Near Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant Is “Playing with Fire”, Earthquake Kills at Least 56 People in Indonesia, Beijing Reports First COVID Deaths in 6 Months Amid Public Unrest, World Cup Kicks Off Under Cloud of Rights Abuses; Iran Soccer Captain Backs Protests Back Home, Iranian Actresses Arrested After Supporting Protests and Appearing Publicly Without Hijabs, 11 Civilians Killed as Turkish Airstrikes Target Kurdish-Held Parts of Syria and Iraq, Twitter CEO Elon Musk Restores Donald Trump’s Banned Twitter Account, Ex-Justice Department Prosecutor Jack Smith Named Special Counsel in Trump Criminal Probes, Elizabeth Holmes Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Defrauding Theranos Investors, Calls Mount for Cryptocurrency Oversight After FTX Exchange Collapses, Biden Asks Supreme Court to Allow Student Debt Relief Program to Take Effect, Justice Alito Denies Whistleblower Claim He Leaked Landmark 2014 Decision Ahead of Ruling, New York Schools Banned from Using Native Mascots Without Consent, Hebe de Bonafini, Who Sought Justice for Victims of Argentina’s Dictatorship, Dies at 93
We continue our coverage from the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with prominent Russian environmentalist Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair of the Russian environmental organization Ecodefense and winner of the 2021 Right Livelihood Award for defending the environment and mobilizing grassroots opposition to the coal and nuclear industries in Russia. Slivyak says the Russian war in Ukraine, especially the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, should serve as a warning to immediately transition to renewable energy sources, not nuclear energy, and to stop relying on fossil fuels. “As long as the United States and European Union continue to pay Vladimir Putin for uranium or fossil fuel, that means that this money will be used for the war in Ukraine. That means more people will die in Ukraine,” he adds.
We speak with prominent Ukrainian climate scientist Svitlana Krakovska at the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, about how the Russian war in Ukraine has intensified calls to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Krakovska is the head of the delegation of Ukraine to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. “Fossil fuels: it’s a root, it’s an enabler of the Russian war on Ukraine,” says Krakovska, adding that she feels hopeful that the conference will bring politicians and scientists together to instill positive change.
Ukrainian climate activist Svitlana Romanko joins us after she was suspended from the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, when she accused Russian officials of war crimes and genocide at an event on Wednesday. Romanko is the founder and director of Razom We Stand, an organization demanding a total permanent embargo on Russian oil and gas. “It has been very clear that fossil fuels fund dictatorships all over the world,” says Romanko, who has since left Egypt for her own safety. “We wanted to use our freedom of speaking and freedom of attending public gathering to confront people who came from the country which is in open war and … destroying our people.”
The family of imprisoned British Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah visited him on Thursday for the first time since he ended his full hunger and water strike, which they say occurred after he collapsed inside his prison shower last week. El-Fattah had intensified his strike on the first day of the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh to draw international attention to the country’s human rights violations and protest his seemingly indefinite imprisonment. We go to Cairo to speak with his aunt, Ahdaf Soueif, who was among the visitors and says El-Fattah may resume his hunger strike if the British government does not more aggressively demand his release. “It really breaks my heart to think of him going back on hunger strike when he is so thin and so weak,” but the campaign so far “has left no one in any doubt that Alaa should be free,” she says.
Negotiations over “Loss and Damage” Dominate Final Hours of COP27 Climate Summit, Nancy Pelosi, First Woman House Speaker, Steps Down from Democratic Leadership After 2 Decades, Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, Famous for Her “Whiteboard of Justice,” Wins Reelection, Reelection Bid of Far-Right Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert Headed for Recount, Kremlin Hints at Prisoner Swap Involving Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout, State Department Says Saudi Crown Prince Has Immunity from Lawsuit over Khashoggi Killing, Blaze Kills 21 People at Jabaliya Refugee Camp in Gaza, World Cup Kicks Off in Shadow of Qatar’s Human Rights, Labor Abuses, Adjunct Professors at NYC’s New School Launch Indefinite Strike, Starbucks Workers Walk Out Nationwide to Protest Chain’s Anti-Union Efforts , Hundreds of Twitter Workers Resign After Declining to Go “Hard Core” for Musk , Alabama Execution Called Off over Botched Attempt at Lethal Injection, Staughton Lynd, Civil Rights Activist and War Critic, Dies at Age 92
Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva addressed world leaders at the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Wednesday, vowing to end deforestation of the Amazon rainforest and create a ministry to represent Indigenous peoples in his government. Brazil’s new approach to climate change aims to reverse outgoing far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s policies that have devastated Indigenous lands. “With Lula’s support, we can fight against deforestation and support Indigenous peoples in protecting and confronting the threats they face, including assassinations and human rights violations,” says Gregório Mirabal, an Indigenous leader from the Venezuelan Amazon. His colleague Atossa Soltani, board president of Amazon Watch, translated for him.
Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva addressed world leaders at the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Wednesday, vowing to end deforestation of the Amazon rainforest and create a ministry to represent Indigenous peoples in his government. Brazil’s new approach to climate change aims to reverse outgoing far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s policies that have devastated Indigenous lands. “With Lula’s support, we can fight against deforestation and support Indigenous peoples in protecting and confronting the threats they face, including assassinations and human rights violations,” says Gregório Mirabal, an Indigenous leader from the Venezuelan Amazon. His colleague Atossa Soltani, board president of Amazon Watch, translated for him.
Democracy Now! is broadcasting live from COP27, the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where hundreds of activists protested outside the plenary hall Thursday to demand climate justice. We speak to two Indigenous activists and land defenders at the summit, Eriel Tchekwie Deranger and Tom Goldtooth. “It is frontline communities, land defenders and Indigenous peoples that have experienced the loss of our territories at the hands of oil and gas and extractivism,” says Deranger, executive director of Indigenous Climate Action and member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. “Colonialism has to be addressed in these hallways, and there’s been lack of political will around that,” says Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network and member of the Diné and Dakota nations.
GOP Wins Narrow House Majority; McConnell Reelected Senate Minority Leader, Senate Advances Bill to Codify Marriage Equality into Federal Law, Iran Steps Up Violence Against Protesters, Sentences Five Activists to Death, Russian Missiles Fall Across Ukraine as Grain Export Deal Extended for 120 Days, Poland Blames Russia for Deadly Blast Near Border with Ukraine, Family of Alaa Abd El-Fattah Still Has Not Seen Imprisoned British Egyptian Activist, U.S. Judge Gives Biden Administration 5Week Extension to End Title 42, Sen. Ossoff Grills ICE Official About Invasive Procedures Performed on Prisoners, Immigrant Rights Activists Welcome Migrants Bused to Philadelphia from Texas, Rep. Karen Bass Becomes First Woman, Second Black Person Elected as L.A. Mayor, NLRB Asks Court to Stop Starbucks from Firing More Workers as Retaliation for Unionizing, Joye Braun, Cheyenne River Sioux Water Protector and Policy Advocate, Dies at 53
COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, has been called the African COP, but many African climate activists cannot afford to attend. Broadcasting from the summit, we speak to Omar Elmawi, campaign coordinator for Stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, about the push to stop the construction of a major pipeline that would stretch 900 miles from Uganda to Tanzania. Key financial backers of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline include the French company Total and the China National Offshore Oil Company. “It’s a project that is strongly being opposed by people in Uganda and the whole world, because it’s going to be displacing over 100,000 people in East Africa, and it’s also going to be causing a lot of impacts to nature,” says Elmawi. He adds that the region should transition instead to renewable energy such as solar.
As the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, is underway, we look at how military spending accelerates the climate crisis. Wealthy nations’ investments in armed forces not only exacerbates pollution but also often surpasses their climate financing by as much as 30 times, according to a new report by the Transnational Institute. It shows the money is available, “but it’s been dedicated to military spending,” says co-author Nick Buxton. Governments that import arms, like Egypt, are motivated by the desire for legitimacy and the “power to crack down on the civil society,” adds Muhammad al-Kashef, human rights lawyer and migration activist.
We are broadcasting from COP27, the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where poorer countries in the Global South that are weathering the worst effects of the climate crisis are calling for wealthy nations to pay reparations in the form of climate financing. “We need a global plan to phase out fossil fuels in a just and equitable manner,” says Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy with Climate Action Network and global engagement director of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. He adds that the United States is the main impediment to “loss and damage” climate financing. “Money is available, but [the] U.S. has always blocked money going to poor people who are suffering from climate impacts,” he says.
Poland Says Ukraine Likely Launched Missiles That Killed 2, Not a Deliberate Attack, Russian Missiles Rain Down on Ukraine as Zelensky Calls for G20 to Support Peace Plan, Judge Overturns Georgia Abortion Ban, Trump Announces 2024 Run Amid Ongoing Legal Troubles, Kevin McCarthy Wins GOP Nomination for House Speaker; Sen. Warnock Sues GA over Early Voting Rules, U.S. Judge Blocks Title 42, Which Has Expelled 2 Million Migrants Since 2020, Philadelphia Rights Activists Preparing for New Immigrant Bus from Texas, Intel Report Details How the UAE Spent Hundreds of Millions to Influence U.S. Foreign Policy, Lula Declares “Brazil Is Back” at COP27, Calls for Next Meeting to Take Place in Amazon, 11-Year-Old Licypriya Kangujam Confronts U.K. Minister over Criminalization of Climate Protests, Jennifer Siebel Newsom Testifies Harvey Weinstein Raped Her in 2005, Tesla Construction Workers Describe Exploitative, Dangerous Conditions at Texas Site, Sanitation Co. Accused of Using Child Labor in JBS Slaughterhouses, Walmart Agrees to $3.1 Billion Settlement over Opioids Crisis
At the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, we speak with prominent Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate about the impact of the climate crisis on the continent of Africa. Earlier today she spoke at a COP27 event and blasted world leaders for not doing more. She describes the need for wealthy nations gathered at the U.N. climate conference, particularly the U.S., to finance loss and damage for poorer nations in the Global South. “For the current and historic emitters, they need to take responsibility for the climate crisis, and they need to pay for this crisis,” says Nakate.
Broadcasting from COP27, the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, we speak to leading Egyptian human rights advocate and journalist Hossam Bahgat about how authorities have launched a widespread crackdown on political dissent. Hundreds have been arrested, including lawyers and journalists, and police have been stopping people randomly on the streets of Cairo and other cities to search the contents of their phones. Meanwhile, imprisoned British Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah has sent a letter notifying his family that he has stopped his hunger strike and asked for them to visit on Thursday. Bahgat disagrees with calls to boycott COP27, and gained entry through asking a foreign environmental group to include him. “Sustained engagement with the Egyptian government in public and private about its catastrophic human rights record can actually lead to some change,” says Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
U.N. General Assembly Calls on Russia to Pay Reparations for Ukraine Invasion, After Meeting Xi Jinping, Biden Says U.S. Won’t Provoke New Cold War with China, Egyptian Political Prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah Ends Hunger Strike, Israel Says It Won’t Cooperate with FBI Probe into Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, Thousands Flee Fighting Between Congolese Army and M23 Rebels in Eastern DRC, Katie Hobbs Defeats GOP Election Denier Kari Lake to Win Arizona Governor Race, Arizona Voters Approve In-State College Tuition for Undocumented Immigrants, Second Federal Court Blocks Biden’s Student Debt Relief Program, Nearly 50,000 Student Workers Strike at All 10 University of California Campuses, UVA Lifts Shelter-in-Place Order After Police Arrest Alleged Gunman, Supreme Court Will Allow House Jan. 6 Committee to Subpoena Arizona GOP Leader, Pence Says He Was “Angered” by Trump’s “Reckless” Actions on January 6, 2021, Amazon Plans to Lay Off 10,000 Workers, Digital Currency Prices Plummet as Regulators Probe Collapse of FTX, Google to Pay $392 Million to Settle Probe into Unwanted Tracking of Users’ Locations, Climate Scientists Join Nonviolent Protests at Private U.S. Airports
As the U.N. climate conference takes place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, we look at the effects of the climate crisis for the host country, such as rising temperatures and sea levels in the Nile Delta. Ahmed El Droubi, Greenpeace regional campaign manager for the Middle East and North Africa, says “the most significantly impacted sector in Egypt is definitely the agricultural sector.” Egyptians are calling for wealthy nations to be held accountable for causing the bulk of the climate crisis, only to be met with “temporary solutions that do not address the core of the climate crisis,” he adds.
For the first time since taking office, President Biden met in person with Chinese President Xi Jinping Monday in Bali, Indonesia. We discuss how the meeting might affect rising tensions over Taiwan, where Nancy Pelosi visited earlier this year, and concerns over China’s human rights violations. The goals of the meeting should be “for the two leaders to find a way to cool those tensions down and to find ways to reduce the risk of a military clash arising in the Pacific,” says Michael Klare, defense correspondent at The Nation. As Chinese military drills near Taiwan threaten instability in the region, “the question is what’s the best way to deter China from doing anything,” says Orville Schell, director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society.
Democracy Now! is in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where the COP27 U.N. climate conference has entered its second week amid protests against the host government’s repression and world leaders’ inaction on the climate crisis. We speak with Asad Rehman, executive director of War on Want and lead spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition, who risked arrest to participate in a climate justice protest along with hundreds of others in Egypt on Saturday. “You can’t have the very people burning the planet sitting here and pretending to be drafting the solutions to it, and that’s exactly what’s happening in these climate negotiations,” says Rehman. He says imprisoned Egyptian British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah is “part and parcel of our struggle,” as calls to free El-Fattah continue after he sent proof of life in a letter for the first time since beginning a full hunger and water strike last week. We also speak with Nigerian environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey, who says the perception that this is an African COP is “a big misnomer,” as the African delegates feel largely excluded.
Democrats Retain Control of Senate After Narrow Victories in Arizona and Nevada, House of Representatives Remains Up for Grabs, But Democrats’ Path to Majority Narrows, GOP Election Deniers Lose Races for Key Offices in Battleground States, Ukraine Recaptures Kherson After Eight-Month Russian Occupation, At COP27, Biden Apologizes over Trump’s Actions on Climate, Doesn’t Mention Loss & Damage, Climate Activists Rally at COP27 for Climate Justice, Family of Egyptian Political Prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah Receives “Proof of Life” Letter, Biden Holds First Face-to-Face Meeting of Presidency with China’s Xi Jinping, Turkey Blames Kurdish Separatists for Istanbul Bomb Blast That Killed 6, Iranian Court Issues First Death Sentence over Protests That Erupted in September, U.N. Envoy Calls on U.S. and Allies to Lift Sanctions on Syria, Citing Harm to Civilians, Israeli Troops Kill 19-Year-Old Palestinian Woman During Raid in Occupied West Bank, Ethiopia Agrees to Allow Humanitarian Access to War-Torn Tigray, A Shooter Is at Large After Killing 3 People on University of Virginia Campus, Biden Admin Extends TPS for Hundreds of Thousands, Twitter Lays Off More Workers, Forced to Halt “Checkmark” Subscription as Fake Accounts Flood Site
A new Oxfam analysis finds the investments of the world’s richest people are emitting 3 million tons a year — more than a million times the average person’s output. The report, titled “Carbon Billionaires,” suggests a wealth tax could help fund urgent climate action in developing countries. The analysis shows “how much power and control a few people have over our economic system and, beyond that, our way of life, our survival as humanity,” says Ashfaq Khalfan, climate justice director at Oxfam America. Khalfan also responds to U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s new carbon offset proposal, which he calls a “distraction” that will delay action on public financing of climate action.
Voters in Nevada and a handful of cities across the United States appear poised to expand the use of ranked-choice voting in the aftermath of Tuesday’s midterm elections. The election method allows voters to select multiple candidates in descending order of preference. It is used in many other countries, and supporters say it can reduce polarization and give more voice to independent voters. “The forces for ranked-choice voting are people who really care about our democracy,” says George Cheung, director of More Equitable Democracy, who says ranked-choice voting “allows for truer representation of who we are as a community.”
We speak with Congressmember-elect Delia Ramirez, who won her election for Illinois’s newly redrawn 3rd Congressional District Tuesday, making her the first Latina elected to Congress from Illinois. Ramirez is a progressive Democratic state representative who is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and the wife of a DACA recipient. She campaigned on expanding healthcare and housing access for working people, as well as passing the DREAM Act. “I represent an electorate that is growing — an electorate that expects us to deliver to all people and put the politics to the side and make working families a priority,” says Ramirez. “We understand the importance of multicultural coalition building for all working people.”
Control of Senate Hangs in Balance as Vote Counting Continues in Arizona and Nevada, Arizona Officials Condemn Death Threats Against Election Workers, Republicans Edge Closer to Claiming House Majority , Democrats Tina Kotek and Maura Healey Become First Openly Lesbian Elected Governors , Ukraine Says It Liberated Dozens of Towns and Villages in Russian-Occupied Kherson, WSJ: South Korea to Sell Artillery for Ukraine in Confidential Arms Deal with U.S. , Ukraine’s Zelensky Says Russia’s Invasion Has Worsened Climate Crisis, Egypt Cracks Down on Dissent as Family of Hunger-Striking Political Prisoner Appeals to Biden , Biden to Meet with Xi Jinping Next Week on Sidelines of G20 Summit, China Sticks with “Zero COVID” Policy as Daily Cases Pass 10,000 , Israeli Forces Kill Two Palestinians in West Bank; Palestinian Rights Groups Testify to U.N. Panel, U.S. State Department Blasts Israeli Politician Ben-Gvir for “Celebrating Terrorism”, Crew Finds Noose at Construction Site of Obama Presidential Library, Black Liberation Elder Mutulu Shakur to be Released from Prison with Just Months Left to Live, D.C. Sues NFL, Washington Commanders over Toxic Workplace Cover-Up, U.S. Judge Blocks Biden Student Relief Plan, 48,000 University of California Graduate Workers Poised to Strike Statewide, HarperCollins Workers Go on Strike to Demand Fair Pay and Benefits
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Haaland v. Brackeen, a case challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act and ultimately threatening the legal foundations of federal Indian law. ICWA was created in 1978 to address the systemic crisis of family separation in Native communities waged by the U.S. and requires the government to ensure foster children are adopted by members of their Indigenous tribes, as well as blood relatives, before being adopted by non-Indigenous parents. Now right-wing groups are supporting white foster parents to challenge the law as discriminatory. “Not only are our children on the line, but the legal foundation, the legal structure that defends the rights of Indigenous nations in the United States is literally at stake,” says journalist Rebecca Nagle, who has been reporting on the case for years and says it’s likely the Supreme Court will strike ICWA down. Nagle also comments on the oral arguments, saying the Supreme Court’s majority has “many racist stereotypes in their minds about Native people.”
We look at the wave of progressive prosecutors elected in Tuesday’s midterms and what the results mean for the movement to reform the criminal justice system. Voters have an “understanding that we can’t incarcerate our way to safety,” says law professor Lara Bazelon, who explains how progressive prosecutors won several key races in blue, purple and red states despite Republican candidates across the country campaigning with a focus on crime and public safety. “The progressive narrative, far from being dead, is very much alive.”
The balance of power in Congress is still up in the air two days after Tuesday’s midterm elections, and control of the Senate now rests on three states: Nevada, Arizona and Georgia. Meanwhile, Republicans have not yet won enough House seats to regain the majority, though there are still over 30 House races not yet decided. Many analysts say if Democrats lose control of the House, it may largely be because of New York state, where Republicans have flipped four congressional seats. Sochie Nnaemeka, director of the New York Working Families Party, says the “low-participation, low-energy election” was the result of the Democrats’ “failed strategies at the state level.” And Zohran Mamdani, New York state assemblymember for District 36, explains how GOP-favored redistricting, which he pins on Democratic leadership, “may be part of the reason why we do not hold the House.” Both Nnaemeka and Mamdani are part of a growing coalition calling for the resignation of Jay Jacobs, chair of the state’s Democratic Committee, who they say laid the ground for major Democratic losses to the GOP in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Control of U.S. Senate Hangs on Three Undetermined Races, Kevin McCarthy Announces Bid to Become House Speaker, Election Denier Kari Lake Trails by Razor-Thin Margin in Arizona Gubernatorial Race, Democrats Win Control of Executive and Legislature Branches in Four States, “Our Intention Is to Run Again”: Biden Teases 2024 Plans, Iranian Protesters Face Torture in Prison as Lawmakers Vote in Favor of Death Penalty, Russia Orders Withdrawal of Occupied Ukrainian City of Kherson , Kremlin Threatens to Withdraw from Grain Export Deal Amid Global Food Insecurity Crisis, Hurricane Nicole Cuts Power, Creates Storm Surges on Florida’s East Coast, Sweeping Report Warns of “Far-Reaching and Worsening” Climate Crises Across U.S., 600+ COP27 Delegates Are Linked to Fossil Fuels; Activists Protest for Climate Reparations, Egyptian Authorities Take “Medical Intervention” on Hunger Striker Alaa Abd El-Fattah , Just Stop Oil Activists Have Disrupted the U.K.’s Busiest Highway Every Day This Week, U.K. Activist Throws Eggs at King Charles on Behalf of Victims of Police, Slavery, Colonialism
Pittsburgh community organizer Summer Lee was elected the first Black woman to represent Pennsylvania in Congress after winning the state’s 12th Congressional District in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Lee, currently a state representative, faced off against Republican Mike Doyle — who happened to share the same name as the outgoing Democratic incumbent. We speak with Aimee Allison, president and founder of She the People, who explains how Lee successfully fended off a massive negative ad campaign funded by the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC. Allison also speaks about the mayoral race in Los Angeles, where progressive Karen Bass is in a tight race with billionaire Rick Caruso, as well as other races where strong progressive candidates fell short. “The heartbreaking loss of some of the nation’s best candidates demonstrates that the Democrats need to invest early and very, very strongly in these excellent candidates in order to protect and build up their capacity to turn out the votes,” says Allison.
Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich says President Biden must “push back as hard as he can” if Republicans take control of even one chamber in Congress following Tuesday’s midterm elections. He says the administration needs to be clear there is no compromise on the debt ceiling, which he expects a Republican-controlled Congress would challenge, potentially triggering a repeat of the political crisis in 2011 under former President Obama.
Voters supported the right to abortion in at least four of the five states where reproductive rights were on the ballot in Tuesday’s midterm elections. “Abortion rights are deeply popular, and when you put the question before voters, they say yes,” said The Nation’s Amy Littlefield. She also discusses Vermont becoming the first state to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution, as well as the “historic win” in Kentucky, where voters defeated an anti-abortion ballot initiative.
Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his opponent Republican Herschel Walker will likely head to a runoff if neither candidate wins 50% of the vote needed to win the election outright. Warnock was able to capture more white and rural votes than Stacey Abrams, who lost to Georgia’s incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp, explains LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund. “Voter suppression has had an impact in this election,” says Brown, who joins us from Atlanta and notes how mail-in ballots in Georgia went down since 2018. We also continue our conversation with John Nichols, who describes the impact of gerrymandering in the tight House races and the Ohio Senate race, which he says was a “big loss for Democrats.”
The balance of power in Congress is still up in the air after Democratic candidates outperformed expectations in much of the country in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Control of the Senate now rests on four states: Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. We speak with The Nation’s John Nichols, who says Democratic Senate candidate Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes could still close the gap with Republican incumbent Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, who now has the advantage. He also says that while Republicans look favored to win the Senate seat in Nevada, the race has ended up closer than expected. “Nevada can surprise you at the end,” says Nichols.
Fetterman Beats Oz in PA Sen. Race; Warnock and Walker Likely Headed to Runoff in GA, Democrats Win Governor Races in MD, MA, WI, NY, PA; Republican Govs. Hold On to FL, TX, GA, Abortion Rights Win Big; Mixed Results for Ballot Measures on Marijuana, Voting, Slavery, Climate “Loss and Damage” Efforts Gain Support, But Major Polluter U.S. Refuses to Commit, Olaf Scholz, U.N. Human Rights Chief Call for Release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah in Sharm el-Sheikh, U.S. and Russia to Resume New START Talks Against Backdrop of Ukraine War, Russian Authorities Transfer Brittney Griner to Penal Colony, Al-Hol Refugee Camp in Syria Likened to “Open-Air Prison” for Children, Meta Lays Off 11,000 Workers in Company’s Largest-Ever Staff Cuts, Tropical Storm Nicole to Make Landfall in Florida as Hurricane, Mexico City Mayor Accuses Authorities of Covering Up Murder of Young Woman
We speak to Damon Hewitt, the head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which is spearheading nationwide efforts to protect the vote in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Republicans at the national and state levels have tried to disqualify thousands of absentee and mail-in ballots in an effort to swing close races in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Hewitt describes how litigation has become a major part of the election process, given the increased number of election deniers and white supremacists who now hold positions as election officials. “When the casualness of racism is weaponized in the electoral process, that leads to voter suppression if we don’t stand up,” says Hewitt, who cautions that the final election results in Tuesday’s midterms may take a couple of days. He suggests people report problems to the Election Protection hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE.
We speak with New Yorker staff writer Sue Halpern about the Senate race in New Hampshire, where she says far-right Republican nominee Donald Bolduc is running a “vigorous campaign” against the incumbent Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan and spreading conspiracy theories that some schoolchildren were using litter boxes. “If Maggie Hassan loses, the Democrats might well lose the Senate,” says Halpert, adding that New Hampshire is “a very swingy state” and the midterm outcomes there could surprise many people.
Indigenous voters in Arizona who played a key role in catapulting Joe Biden to victory in 2020 are facing a sweeping rollback of their voting rights that may swing the state back to Republicans in Tuesday’s midterms. “In 2020, Native voters understood that the election of Donald Trump was an existential problem,” says New Yorker staff writer Sue Halpern, whose latest piece explores how voters on Arizona’s Navajo, Apache and Hopi reservations are navigating the 2021 Supreme Court ruling that banned a common method of voting collection used by Indigenous voters. We also speak with Lydia Dosela, who is running efforts to get out the vote on Indigenous reservations in Arizona to make sure “all Native American voices are heard loud and clear.”
The climate movement warns the midterm elections will either advance or torpedo climate initiatives in the U.S. This comes as climate activists and scientists at the U.N. climate summit in Egypt cautioned that the world is heading toward climate disaster without deeper cuts in planet-heating emissions. “We are up against a ticking time bomb of an unrelenting climate crisis and an economic crisis that is bearing down on working people,” says Varshini Prakash of the Sunrise Movement, which has reached 3 million young voters to get out the vote in the midterms. Prakash also explains how parts of President Biden’s climate legislation passed this year could be stalled or reversed if Republicans take back control of Congress in 2023.
The family of the imprisoned Egyptian dissident Alaa Abd El-Fattah says they no longer know if he is still alive or if he is being force-fed, more than 50 hours after he stopped drinking water in an intensification of a six-month hunger strike. We feature an address by Alaa’s sister Sanaa Seif at the U.N. climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. “The symbolic battle has been won by your show of support,” says Seif. “I just hope his body and he is not sacrificed for it.”
Election Day: GOP Sues to Disqualify Thousands of Mail-In Ballots in Key States, African Union Urges Richer Nations at COP27 to Pay Climate Reparations, Report: Ice Levels Collapsing at Levels “Unthinkable Just a Decade Ago”, Egypt: Family of Alaa Abd El-Fattah Demands Proof He Is Still Alive in Prison, Dutch Authorities Arrest 100 Climate Activists for Blocking Jets at Amsterdam Airport, Ukraine Decries Russia’s Forcible Evacuation of Occupied Kherson, U.S. & South Korea Continue Joint Air Drills Amid Mounting Tension on Peninsula, 89 Asylum Seekers Saved at Sea Finally Allowed to Disembark in Italy, Supreme Court Denies Second Challenge to Biden Student Debt Plan, Judge Temporarily Suspends Prison Sentence for Steve Bannon Due to Appeal, Elon Musk Endorses GOP as Account for League of Women Voters Is Suspended
Alarm is growing over how the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, is changing Twitter after he spent $44 billion to buy the influential social media platform. Musk fired nearly half of Twitter’s workforce in a mass layoff Friday that gutted teams dedicated to human rights, artificial intelligence ethics and combating election misinformation, just days before Tuesday’s midterm election. This comes after he met with over half a dozen civil rights groups amid concerns he will let misinformation and hate speech go unchecked. We speak with leaders from two of those groups: Nora Benavidez of Free Press and Free Press Action Fund, and Rashad Robinson of Color of Change. “Self-regulated companies are unregulated companies,” says Robinson, who along with Benavidez says Musk has exacerbated already toxic conditions at Twitter and failed to see the “real and porous relationship between the online world and this offline real world.” Both groups are urging advertisers to boycott Twitter unless Musk takes dramatic actions to safeguard rights on the platform.
Across the United States, local voters will decide critical ballot initiatives related to reproductive freedom, voting rights, marijuana and slavery in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Chris Melody Fields Figueredo of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center says the initiatives like abortion could surprise some people, and says the recent Kansas vote to protect abortion shows reproductive health can transcend party lines. Fields Figueredo also explains how slavery is still enshrined in some state constitutions as a form of punishment, which she says has “led to mass incarceration of Black and Brown communities.”
With Democrats at risk of losing both the House and Senate in Tuesday’s midterms, we speak with Justice Democrats spokesperson Waleed Shahid about the progressives favored to win congressional seats. Texas city councilmember and former labor organizer Greg Casar, Illinois state Representative Delia Ramirez and Pennsylvania community organizer Summer Lee have all been endorsed by Justice Democrats, who are best known for helping catapult members of the Squad to victory in 2018. “I think that we’ll continue to see these progressives expand the horizon on issues that working-class communities care about,” says Shahid, who critiques the Democratic Party for weak messaging on the economy. Shahid also discusses how the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC is pouring money into defeating progressive candidates like Summer Lee.
Biden, Obama Campaign for Fetterman in PA, Warn Voters Against Erosion of Democracy in Final Pitches, Judges Rule on Last-Minute Voting Challenges Days Ahead of Midterms, Rights Advocates Raise Alarm over Firings, Changes at Twitter Under Elon Musk, Ukraine Officials Warn Residents to Prepare for Cold, Dark Winter, WSJ: U.S. Nat’l Sec. Adviser Meeting with Russian Officials over Nuclear Risk, COP27 Kicks Off as U.N. Head Warns “We Are on a Highway to Climate Hell”, COP27 President Says Climate Compensation on Official Summit Agenda, Egyptian Hunger Striker Alaa Abd El-Fattah Gives Up Water as COP27 Opens, COP27 Attendees Warned Egypt May Use App to Spy on Critics and Silence Dissent, Iranian Lawmakers Demand Death Sentences for Anti-Government Protesters, Syrian Government Attack on Displaced People Camp Kills 9, Italian Authorities Leave 250 Asylum Seekers Stranded Aboard Rescue Ships, Airline Crash in Tanzania Leaves 19 Dead, Iowa Teen Who Killed Rapist Escapes Probation Center, CDC Warns of “Tripledemic” of Influenza, RSV and COVID-19
Documents obtained by The Intercept reveal the Department of Homeland Security is working with private tech companies to fight online speech that undermines support for the U.S. government. We speak to one of the co-authors of The Intercept’s report, investigative journalist Lee Fang, who says the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act signed into law in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump expanded the government’s power to reshape online discourse. “These documents raise clear civil liberty concerns, concerns around the First Amendment and if the government is trying to shape the kind of news we see,” says Fang.
As thousands of asylum seekers continue to arrive on buses in New York, we speak with a man from Venezuela about his journey, and two New Yorkers who have been helping since August to welcome them with dignity and ensure they get the housing, food and other assistance they need. “The system here in New York City is not created for this type of community, which is the migrants that are arriving,” says former asylum seeker, Adama Bah. “It is our job as New Yorkers to be able to welcome them in this city that is a so-called sanctuary city,” adds Power Malu, with the group Artists, Athletes and Activists. Bah and Malu also discuss how their work is being repeated nationwide.
Benjamin Netanyahu is set to return as Israel’s prime minister, with Tuesday’s election results showing his Likud Party and far-right allies winning enough seats to form a parliamentary majority. This includes far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, who openly supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, vows to crack down on the LGBTQ community and was once convicted of racist incitement against Arabs. “This is going to be a whole new level of power for the extreme right in the government,” says Natasha Roth-Rowland, editor and writer at +972 Magazine, who studies right-wing Jewish extremism.
Far-Right Coalition Wins Most Seats in Israel’s Knesset, Returning Netanyahu to Power, Russian Troops Signal Withdrawal from Occupied Kherson, UN Nuclear Agency Finds No Evidence to Back Russian “Dirty Bomb” Claims in Ukraine, Imran Khan Survives Assassination Attempt, Accuses Pakistan’s PM of Plotting His Death, UN Warns of Melting Glaciers and Says Rich Countries Aren’t Meeting Climate Pledges, Egyptian Political Prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah to Escalate Hunger Strike as COP27 Opens, Civil Society Groups Urge Biden Not to Send Troops to Haiti, Call for Haitian-Led Dialog, UN General Assembly Votes to Condemn US Embargo of Cuba for 30th Straight Year, Elon Musk Begins Mass Layoffs at Twitter, Meets With Civil Rights Groups, University of California Student Workers Overwhelmingly Approve Nov. 14 Strike, Protesters Demand Closure of Rikers Island Jail After 18th Prisoner Death of 2022
The Ethiopian government and forces in Tigray have reached a truce to end two years of brutal civil war. The new peace deal follows a week of peace talks mediated by the African Union in South Africa. The Ethiopian government wants a unified country and Tigrayans want minoritarian rights upheld, says Adebayo Olukoshi, distinguished research professor at the Wits School of Governance who formerly worked on peace efforts in Tigray with the International IDEA. The agreement comes as “a big relief” and “there’s hope that the two sides will adhere to the agreement,” he says.
We look at the impact of the war in Ukraine on the continent of Africa with Adebayo Olukoshi, an international relations scholar based in Johannesburg, South Africa. African nations import much of their grain. With their significant dependency on Ukrainian wheat and fertilizer in the Global South, “there is a wish for much more investment in diplomacy” between Ukraine and Russia, says Olukoshi. He says many African nations have more amicable relations with Russia due to the Soviet Union’s support for anticolonial struggles before its dissolution.
As G7 leaders discuss supporting Ukrainian defense forces against Russia, we speak with Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group, about the possibility of diplomacy to end the war. It is possible for the U.N. to help broker a peace deal, says Gowan. However, “the Ukrainians are very skeptical about accepting a ceasefire because they fear that Russia will pause hostilities, but it won’t pull its troops back from the territories it’s seized since February,” he adds.
Egyptian authorities have arrested hundreds in a crackdown on dissenting voices ahead of COP27, the U.N. climate conference which starts Sunday in Sharm El-Sheikh. Fifteen Nobel laureates have signed an open letter asking world leaders to pressure Egypt into releasing its many political prisoners, including human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who plans to intensify his six-month hunger strike by forgoing water on the opening day of the climate summit. “He’s organizing all of us from his prison cell,” says Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous.
Ethiopia Agrees to Peace in Tigray After Two Years of War, Ukraine Nuclear Plant on Emergency Generators After Fighting Severs Power Lines, U.N. Security Council Denies Russia Probe of U.S. Biological Weapons Claims, Pentagon Confirms Active-Duty U.S. Troops Are Deployed Inside Ukraine, Oath Keepers Militia Leader Sought to Contact Trump After Jan. 6 Insurrection, Biden Warns U.S. Democracy Imperiled by Political Violence , Trump’s Lawyers Saw Clarence Thomas as Key to Overturning 2020 Election, Wisconsin Candidate Says, “Republicans Will Never Lose Another Election After I’m Elected Governor”, Trump Aide Kash Patel Granted Immunity to Testify Over Mar-a-Lago Documents, Fears of Recession Grow as Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rates Further, Israeli Soldiers Kill 2 More Palestinians As Netanyahu Clinches Premiership, Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan Survives Shooting at Rally, Judge Sentences Parkland Mass Shooter Nikolas Cruz to Life Without Parole, Jackson Officials Say Water Finally Safe to Drink; Flint Residents Ask Judge to Replace Lead Pipes
We look at the high stakes of the midterm elections for workers, including in key battleground states. Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, says they are campaigning to empower working people, especially infrequent voters of color and new immigrants, to vote in their best interests. “We have got to make our votes a demand, and not a show of support for candidates that are with us one day and against us the next,” says Henry.
As the U.S. pours billions in military aid into Ukraine, we host a debate on the Biden administration’s response to the war and U.S. policy toward Russia amid increasing calls among progressives for a diplomatic end to the conflict. We speak to former Bernie Sanders foreign policy adviser Matt Duss, now a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who specialized in the Soviet Union. “Everyone understands that at some point there will need to be a negotiation to bring this war to a close, but I think the tension within the progressive community comes to when and how that diplomacy actually takes place,” says Duss. McGovern stressest that U.S. policymakers must understand Russia’s motivations, saying Russia sees the eastward expansion of NATO as threatening its core interests akin to how the United States viewed the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s. “We need to go back and figure out how this all started in order to figure out how to end it,” says McGovern.
Russia Rejoins Grain Export Deal; Water and Power Restored in Kyiv Following Russian Attacks, Benjamin Netanyahu Poised to Return to Israeli Leadership With Far-Right Alliance, Jair Bolsonaro Refuses to Admit Defeat But Allows Presidential Transition to Move Ahead, North Korea Launches 23 Missiles, Warns U.S. & South Korea Over War Games, U.S. Judge Limits Voter Intimidation By Far-Right Vigilantes; PA Says Undated Absentee Ballots Invalid, Liz Cheney Stumps for Democrat Elissa Slotkin, Backs Tim Ryan Against Trump Supporter J.D. Vance, Abrams Makes Final Push in GA Gov. Race as Biden Speaks to Voters in Florida, SCOTUS Blocks Transfer of Trump Tax Documents, Rules Lindsey Graham Must Testify in GA 2020 Probe, Biden Admin Weighing Sending Haitian Asylum Seekers to Guantánamo Bay, Dozens of Migrants Missing After Two Shipwrecks off Greek Coast, Nobel Laureates Draw Attention to Egypt’s Jailing of Activists Ahead of COP27, Egypt Releases Detained Climate Activist Ajit Rajagopal Amid Crackdown on Protests, Just Stop Oil Activists Take Aim At U.K. Gov’t Buildings to Highlight Climate Crisis, Rapper Takeoff Killed in Houston Shooting, NYC Starbucks/Amazon Go Workers File Union Petition; NLRB Says Ithaca Starbucks Must Reopen, Investigation into 1921 Greenwood Race Massacre Uncovers Another 17 Bodies
The city and state of New York have agreed to pay $36 million to settle lawsuits on behalf of two men wrongly convicted and imprisoned for decades for the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X. Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam were exonerated last year for the murder after investigators found “serious miscarriages of justice” in the case. They each spent more than 20 years in prison for a crime they did not commit, and Islam died in 2009 before his record was cleared. We speak to civil rights lawyer David Shanies, who represented the men in their lawsuit, and scholar Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, who helped spark the reopening of the case, and was featured in the 2020 Netflix documentary series “Who Killed Malcolm X?”
As Israel holds national elections amid increasing crackdowns on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, we speak with Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who is in Jerusalem and has been speaking with Palestinian families in the Occupied Territories. He is calling on Israel to end its decades-long occupation. He describes the ongoing Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes and the growth of illegal settlements, and says the situation is likely to get worse after elections as the political parties expected to make major gains are “in favor of illegal settlements, colonization of occupied land and the displacement of Palestinian families.”
The majority-conservative Supreme Court appears poised to strike down race-conscious college admissions decisions, after hearing arguments Monday against Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The plaintiffs argued the admissions process discriminates against white and Asian American applicants by giving priority consideration to Black, Hispanic and Native American applicants. The decision could jeopardize affirmative action initiatives implemented after the Civil Rights Movement to give more equal opportunities to people disadvantaged by centuries of racial discrimination and the legacy of slavery. John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, says his organization investigated the allegations against Harvard and found no discrimination but rather that “allowing race to be considered benefited Asian Americans.” Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, says rescinding affirmative action programs risks harming students of color and will dramatically decrease the racial diversity that has shown to benefit colleges.
Food Prices Soar as Russia Halts Participation in Deal to Export Ukraine Grain , US and South Korea Launch New War Games; China Warns US Over Nuclear-Armed B52s, Supreme Court Justices Appear Poised to End Affirmative Action in College Admissions, Prosecutors Say Home Invader Wanted to Break Nancy Pelosi’s Kneecaps, Arizona GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Kari Lake Jokes About Pelosi Attack, Trump Asks Supreme Court to Block Release of His Tax Returns , “Their Profits are a Windfall of War”: Biden Suggests New Tax on Big Oil, Jailed Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah to Begin Full Hunger Strike During Climate Summit, U.S. Border Patrol Fires “Less Lethal” Rounds at Venezuelan Asylum Seekers, British Police Investigate Arson Attack on Migrant Center, UK Home Secretary Decries “Invasion” of Asylum Seekers, White Ex-Michigan Cop Charged With Murdering Congolese Refugee Patrick Lyoya, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro Remains Silent After Losing Presidential Run-off Election
Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna says Saudi Arabia should face consequences for its decision to cut oil output by 2 million barrels a day as part of the OPEC+ cartel, raising gas prices in the United States just before the midterm elections where cost-of-living issues are expected to be a major factor. He also discusses the Saudi-led war in Yemen, describing it as “one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world” that must be brought to an end. Khanna recently co-authored legislation calling on the United States to stop arms transfers to Saudi Arabia.
Why did members of the House Progressive Caucus retract a letter to President Biden that called for diplomatic engagement with Russia to end the war in Ukraine? We speak with Congressmember Ro Khanna of California, one of the signatories, who says he continues to stand by the letter despite the decision to withdraw it. “This letter simply affirms that while we stand with Ukraine, we also have those diplomatic channels,” says Khanna, who adds that President Biden and senior military figures have expressed similar sentiments about the need for diplomacy.
Police in California have arrested a 42-year-old man for breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and assaulting her 82-year-old husband with a hammer. Paul Pelosi suffered a skull fracture and other injuries, but is expected to make a full recovery. We speak to Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California as President Biden links the attack on the Pelosis to election conspiracy theories spread by Republicans. Khanna says “he is sickened by what happened” and that simply condemning violence is not enough. “What we need to be responding to is the threat of political violence that is being stoked by conspiracy theories and propaganda and hate speech,” he says.
Leftist presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won Brazil’s runoff election, ousting far-right President Jair Bolsonaro after just one term. Lula won with 50.9% of the vote, though Bolsonaro has yet to concede. Other world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, were quick to congratulate Lula on his victory in an effort to forestall efforts by Bolsonaro and his allies to deny the results. Brazilian socialist organizer Sabrina Fernandes says Lula is trying to return “democratic normality” after four years of Bolsonaro’s environmental destruction, COVID denial and undermining of the country’s institutions. Lula’s victory is also a win for Indigenous peoples, whose sovereignty was disregarded under Bolsonaro amid rampant deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, says freelance journalist Michael Fox.
Brazilians Vote in Lula, Reject Bolsonaro in Historic Election With Far-Reaching Implications, South Korea Reels After Tragic Crowd Surge Kills Over 150 People, Russian Missiles Target More Power and Water Sources; Moscow Pulls Out of Grain Export Deal, Car Explosions in Somali Capital Kill at Least 100 People, Bridge Collapse in India Kills at Least 141 Pedestrians, Democrats Condemn GOP Silence, Enabling of Violence in Wake of Paul Pelosi Attack, Activists Shut Down Park Ave, Take Aim at BlackRock, Chase For Climate Destruction, Protests Continue in Iran Despite Threats; Journalists Seek Justice For Jailed Colleagues, Pakistani Journalist Killed by Truck in Imran Khan Convoy, Haitian Journalist Killed by Police Fire as Press Faces Mounting Challenges, Lebanese President Leaves Office with No Successor Amid Mounting Economic Crisis, Foxconn Workers Flee Factory After COVID Outbreak in Zhengzhou, Concert Stampede Kills 11 in DRC, New York to Pay $36 Million to Two Men Wrongfully Convicted in Malcolm X Assassination, Oldest Guantánamo Prisoner Is Freed After 18 Years Behind Bars Without Charge
We speak with Florida voting rights activist Desmond Meade about how Republicans like Governor Ron DeSantis are attempting to scare formerly incarcerated people with felony convictions from voting. DeSantis launched an election police force to arrest people on trumped-up voter fraud charges. The arrests overwhelmingly targeted Black people and demonstrate “the state’s failure to have a system in place that can assure any American citizen that lives in the state of Florida whether or not they’re eligible to vote,” says Meade, who spearheaded an initiative to re-enfranchise 1.4 million people with prior felony convictions, before it was overturned by Republicans. While several charges of alleged voter fraud in past elections have been dismissed, Meade says the arrests still intimidate qualified voters from casting a ballot.
With Republicans set to make major gains in the November midterms, we speak with reporter Ari Berman, who says Republican control of the Legislature in Wisconsin is a preview of the damage the party could do if empowered in Washington. Berman’s latest piece for Mother Jones is titled “How Wisconsin Became the GOP’s Laboratory for Dismantling Democracy.” It looks at how severely gerrymandered districts there give Republicans nearly two-thirds of the seats in the statehouse with less than 50% of the popular vote, and how they have used those inflated majorities to undermine Democratic Governor Tony Evers by stripping his powers, refusing to confirm his nominees and ignoring his legislative proposals. Berman says the takeover of the Wisconsin Legislature is part of a larger GOP plan to empower swing state officials to assist former President Trump in staging a coup in 2024.
Former President Barack Obama is in Georgia Friday to campaign for Democrats in the closely watched Senate and gubernatorial races. This comes as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was caught on a hot mic Thursday saying the race between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Trump-backed anti-abortion Republican nominee Herschel Walker is “going downhill,” and recent polls show Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is trailing Republican Governor Brian Kemp. We speak with Carol Anderson, professor of African American studies at Emory University, who says 2020 was a “dry run” for Republican plans to subvert democracy. We also speak with reporter Ari Berman, who says the media is lauding Kemp as a “defender of democracy even though he systematically has undermined voting rights.”
Vladimir Putin Says World Faces Most Dangerous Moment Since World War II, Ukraine’s President Warns of Extended Blackouts After Russian Attacks on Power Grid, Pentagon Nuclear Posture Review Won’t Rule Out U.S. First Strike, Fears Rise Over Brazilian Election After Bolsonaro Ally Attacks Police With Rifle and Grenades, Top U.S. and Canadian Officials Meet to Consider Armed Intervention Force in Haiti, U.S. Senators Call on Biden to Expand Protected Status for Haitian Refugees, 260,000 Refugees in US at Risk of Deportation as Talks Over Protected Status Collapse, Families Demand Texas’ Top Public Safety Official Resign Over Uvalde School Shooting, Elon Musk Purchases Twitter for $44 Billion and Fires Top Executives, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez Under Federal Investigation, Communities of Color Hit Hardest by COVID Less Likely to Receive Antiviral Drugs, Ebola Outbreak Spreads to Ugandan Capital, Thousands in Pakistan Mourn Journalist Arshad Sharif, Killed by Police in Kenya, At Least 31 People Killed By Flooding, Landslides in Philippines, Same-Sex Marriage Now Legal In all 32 Mexican States
Public health experts in the United States are warning of a possible “tripledemic” of respiratory illness this winter: an increase in COVID cases, an early flu season and a surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Hospitals in some parts of the U.S. are already seeing a surge in cases of RSV, which usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms but can be very serious for infants. Many respiratory illnesses are “coming back with a vengeance” after ebbing over the last two years due to pandemic mitigation efforts says pediatrician Dr. Christina Propst. She urges parents of infants to continue to avoid crowds, practice good hygiene and keep up-to-date on children’s vaccinations in order to slow the spread of RSV. “It is really important to take these common sense precautions to keep children safe and really to keep our healthcare system afloat at this point,” says Propst.
Peace talks between Ethiopia’s government and rebel forces in Tigray began Monday in South Africa, where the African Union is mediating the highest-level effort so far at ending the bloodshed. The war began in November 2020 when Ethiopian troops, backed by soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, launched an assault on the northern Tigray region against the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. All sides in the conflict have been accused of abuses, with the death toll believed to be in the hundreds of thousands and millions more displaced. Journalist Tsedale Lemma, founder of the English-language magazine Addis Standard, explains what is at stake in the negotiations.
We speak with Phyllis Bennis, Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, about the growing crisis in the occupied West Bank as Israel escalates its daily military raids. At least 120 Palestinians have been killed so far this year, including dozens of children. U.S. President Joe Biden met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog Wednesday but neither mentioned Palestinians in public remarks. “There has to be a change to acknowledge that U.S. support for Israeli apartheid and occupation is what enables these raids to go on with impunity,” Bennis says.
A group of progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives this week sent, then retracted, a public letter urging the Biden Administration to engage in direct diplomacy with Russia to end the war in Ukraine while continuing to arm and support the government in Kyiv. The letter was signed by 30 lawmakers from the Congressional Progressive Caucus and saw an immediate and fierce backlash, as critics said it undermined Ukraine’s position and downplayed Russian atrocities. Progressive Caucus chair Congressmember Pramilya Jayapal issued a retraction less than 24 hours after it was published, blaming her staff for improperly releasing it. Meanwhile, some signatories said they had signed the letter months earlier when the war was at a much different stage and that they were unaware it would be released now. Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, says ignoring diplomatic channels will only prolong the war. “The level of outrage that greeted this very careful sort of commonsense approach shows us how much work is still needed … to stop the kind of control that militarism seems to have on our assumptions about what foreign policy looks like,” says Bennis.
U.N.: Failure by Nations to Meet Climate Pledges Puts World on Track for 2.9 Degrees of Heating by 2100, The Lancet: Immediate Action on Climate Could Save the Lives of Millions, Cholera Spreads in Nigeria After Historic Flooding, Russian Attacks Further Degrade Ukraine Power Grid; 70,000 Evacuate Russian-Held Region, 15 Killed, 40 Wounded at Iranian Holy Site in Attack Claimed by Islamic State, Second Woman Says GOP Senate Candidate Herschel Walker Pressured Her to Have Abortion, Outgoing Rep. Seeks to Clear Up Confusion Over Name “Mike Doyle” in PA Congressional Race, Arizona Democrat Katie Hobbs’ Gubernatorial Campaign Office Burglarized, Judge Orders Mark Meadows to Testify in 2020 Georgia Election Probe, Michigan Jury Convicts 3 More Men in Gov. Whitmer 2020 Kidnapping Plot, Prominent Trump Backers Plead Guilty to Robocalls Spreading Voter Misinformation, Elon Musk Moves Closer to Twitter Takeover As Employees Fear Mass Firings, Pennsylvania Judge Set to Deny New Trial Request for Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prominent Haitian Reporter Survives Shooting as Another Journalist Found Dead
As Republican-led states clamp down on voting rights, we look at how Black voters are helping to organize unprecedented voter turnout ahead of midterms. “We are literally fighting for democracy,” says LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, who says organizing voters is “the winning strategy” despite the resolve of the “consulting class” to invest campaign funds primarily in TV ads.Georgia’s special election Senate races in early 2021 were “not a fluke, “says Brown. “We need to recognize that it is going to be community-led efforts, grassroots democracy groups that are literally our best defense on the frontlines from protecting us against facism.” This comes as President Biden announces he has authorized the transfer of $10 million from the Democratic National Committee to House and Senate Democratic campaign committees.
As the midterms draw closer, we speak with journalist Will Bunch about how extremist Republican candidates increasingly look like they could win. In Pennsylvania, the Republican gubernatorial candidate is Doug Mastriano who attended the January 6th “Stop the Steal” rally and helped arrange buses for pro-Trump protesters to come as well. He later worked with former President Trump’s legal team to overturn the 2020 election results. This comes as racist campaign ads sponsored by a new group called Citizens for Sanity continue to fill the airwaves. “The Democrats are running out of time but I hope they find a way to counter this Republican message on crime because I’m really worried that it’s proven to be very effective so far,” says Bunch.
Hundreds of Penn State students protesting a speaking event with Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes on Monday night were showered with pepper spray by men who appeared to be with the hate group. Penn State, which abruptly called off the talk on Monday, had resisted earlier calls from students, faculty and community members to cancel the event, citing free-speech rights. We speak with one of those students, Sam Ajah, president of the Penn State College Democrats club. “Fascism doesn’t have a place on our campus,” says Ajah, who describes being “disappointed and disgusted” by the university, which attempted to pin the violence on the peaceful protestors.
The candidates for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania met Tuesday for their first and only debate in a race being closely watched across the country as a possible bellwether for the midterm elections. Trump-backed Republican nominee and TV personality Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, sparred with Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman about crime, inflation, abortion and more. The night was a major test for Fetterman, who used a closed captioning device as he recovers from a major stroke that has resulted in auditory processing difficulties. “No matter where you come down politically, it was a very hard night for John Fetterman in terms of where he was at with his stroke recovery and trying to deal with a format like this,” says journalist Will Bunch, who called the debate “one of the most make-or-break nights I’ve seen in my lifetime of covering politics.”
Kherson Could Be Site of “Heaviest of Battles” Amid Fears of Nuclear, Radioactive Weapons Use
, Progressive Dems Withdraw White House Letter Urging Direct Negotiations With Moscow
, Russian Court Upholds Brittney Griner’s Sentence, Upping Pressure on Biden to Negotiate Her Release
, Fetterman and Oz Spar Over Abortion, Economy in Only Debate Before Midterms
, Hochul and Zeldin Lay Out Differences On Abortion, Crime, Guns and 2020 Election, Activists Call on Biden to Declare Emergency in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”, Just 5% of Plastic Products Recycled in U.S., Adidas Ends Partnership With Kanye West Following Antisemitic Rants, Military Airstrike in Burma’s Kachin State Kills 80 People, Mourners Mark 40 Days Since Mahsa Amini’s Death as Iranian Protests Continue, Fire at Ugandan School for the Blind Kills 11 People, Mike Davis, Activist and Author of “Planet of Slums” and “City of Quartz,” Dies at 76
With U.S. midterm elections less than two weeks away, Democrats hoping to keep control of Congress and make gains in state governments are facing significant political headwinds — even in supposedly safe blue states like New York, where the race for governor has tightened ahead of the November 8 vote. For more, we speak with political organizer Mark Green and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader, co-authors of a new report titled “Crushing the GOP, 2022.” They argue Democrats have the better policies but are not conveying them to a public that is eager to vote for a party that will protect democracy and their pocket books. ”This party doesn’t know how to win,” Nader says of Democrats.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has begun a historic third term, cementing his place as the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. The Chinese Communist Party confirmed Xi’s third five-year term at a party congress in Beijing this week, elevating more Xi allies to top roles and demoting some who were seen as potential rivals. Under Xi, China has taken a much stronger role in economic management, as well as a “zero COVID” policy that has imposed severe restrictions in an effort to control outbreaks during the pandemic. He has also overseen a growing surveillance state to silence dissent and target ethnic minorities including Uyghurs. “In the past 10 years since Xi came to power, the horrendous human rights violations Xi Jinping committed was just striking. And now he’s going to have another five years at least,” says Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch. We also speak with Johns Hopkins University professor Ho-fung Hung, who says characterizing the U.S.-China rivalry as a “new Cold War” is misleading, saying the countries are instead engaged in an “inter-capitalist competition” over economic dominance within China and elsewhere in the world.
Rishi Sunak Becomes Third U.K. Prime Minister in Seven Weeks, Representatives of Ethiopia’s Government Meet Tigray Rebels for Peace Talks , IAEA to Investigate Ukraine Nuclear Sites Over Russia’s “Dirty Bomb” Claims, German President Visits Kyiv Amid Calls to Further Arm Ukraine, U.S. Progressive Lawmakers Call on Biden to Pursue Diplomacy With Russia, Russian Court Rejects Brittney Griner’s Appeal of 9-Year Prison Sentence , Heavily Armed Teen Gunman Shoots Six, Two Fatally, at St. Louis High School, Michigan Teen Pleads Guilty to Murder and Terror Charges in Oxford High School Shooting, Charlie Crist and Ron DeSantis Clash in Florida Governor Debate, Justice Clarence Thomas Blocks Lindsey Graham Subpoena in GA Election Interference Probe, Ex-Minneapolis Cop Pleads Guilty to Aiding and Abetting Manslaughter of George Floyd, Israeli Forces Kill 6, Wound Dozens in Overnight Assault on Nablus, Iran Indicts 300+ on Criminal Charges Over Anti-Government Protests , Deadly Cyclone Leaves Millions Without Power in Bangladesh, North and South Korea Exchange Warning Shots Amid Heightened Nuclear Tensions, U.S. Public Health Officials Warn of Surging RSV Cases , Penn State Cancels Talk by Proud Boys Founder Gavin McInnes Amid Student Protests
The ACLU is asking the Supreme Court to overturn an Arkansas anti-BDS law that penalizes state contractors unless they pledge not to boycott the state of Israel. Arkansas is one of more than 30 U.S. states to have passed “copycat” legislation to criminalize the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which seeks to boycott Israel and Israeli goods to protest its violation of Palestinian rights. The ACLU and other rights groups have argued the right to boycott is foundational to U.S. politics and protected free speech, and warn if the anti-BDS laws aren’t challenged, Americans could lose their right to boycott fossil fuel companies, gun manufacturers and more. We speak with ACLU lawyer Brian Hauss and Alan Leveritt, publisher of The Arkansas Times and plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit. “The state of Arkansas is requiring us to take a political position in return for advertising,” says Leveritt, who calls his lawsuit “purely a First Amendment issue.” We also speak with filmmaker Julia Bacha, who followed Leveritt’s story in her documentary “Boycott,” and says “it’s critical to start asking our elected officials why they voted for these bills and what they actually mean.”
The Environmental Protection Agency is launching a civil rights investigation into whether the state of Mississippi discriminated against the majority-Black capital of Jackson when it refused to use federal funds to address the city’s dangerous water crisis. Mississippi has received federal funds to address drinking water needs since 1996 but distributed funds to Jackson just three times over this 26-year span. “For years, Black communities have faced intentional disinvestment” in water infrastructure, says Abre’ Conner of the NAACP, which filed the complaint that led to the investigation. Conner says that through the creation of the EPA’s new civil rights office, the government now has “an opportunity to make right the wrongs that have happened to Black communities and to other historically disadvantaged communities for years.”
We speak with national security expert William Hartung about the Biden administration’s unprecedented military spending on Ukraine and the impact of U.S. arms sales on national and global security. Despite Biden’s campaign promises to curb arms sales, Hartung says the administration has followed an “outmoded ideology” that necessitates the U.S. achieve global military dominance through weapons sales. “There’s a lot of money at stake and it shapes policy in ways that are detrimental to human rights and peace and stability,” says Hartung, who also details the influence of the weapons lobby on government policy.
Kherson Braces For Battle; Russian Strikes Devastate Ukrainian Energy, Water Infrastructure, Xi Jinping Clinches Third Term, As Anti-Government Protest Quietly Spreads, Rishi Sunak to Become Next British Prime Minister After Rivals Withdraw, Italy Swears in Far-Right Giorgia Meloni as Prime Minister, Labor Strikes Spread Across Iran, Adding to Unrest Spurred by Mass Protests, Ibrahim Traore Becomes Second Coup President in Burkina Faso in Under a Year, WH Tells Borrowers to Keep Applying for Student Loan Relief After Judge Issues Temporary Stay, Steve Bannon Vows To Appeal After Receiving Four Month Prison Sentence, House Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Donald Trump, Donald Trump Suggests He’ll Run for President Again in 2024, Judges in Florida and Texas Rule Against GOP Voter Suppression Efforts, Penn Student Protesters Disrupt Football Game to Demand Fossil Fuel Divestment
We speak to law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw and civil rights attorney Barbara Arnwine, who are on an Arc of Voter Justice bus tour of 26 cities across the country to increase Black voter turnout at critical midterm elections in November. They discuss fighting voter suppression and racial gerrymandering, and the high stakes in states where Republicans have instated bans on what they describe as critical race theory. “African American voters are key to all these races,” says Arnwine. “They’re going to vote what’s in the best interests not only of their community, but the entire nation.” Crenshaw says she is handing out banned books and education to voters because “when racism is unspeakable, then democracy — a full multiracial democracy — is unachievable.”
Egypt is preparing to host world leaders next month at the U.N.’s annual climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, a move that prominent environmentalist and author Naomi Klein calls “greenwashing.” While the government embraces superficial causes to mitigate climate change such as recycling or solar panels, “what is not welcome would be pointing out this enormous lucrative network of deals that the military itself is engaged in that are linked to fossil fuels, that are linked to destroying remaining green space in cities like Cairo,” says Klein. She adds that the international community should seize the opportunity to pressure Egypt into releasing its imprisoned political prisoners, who face brutal conditions.
The family of imprisoned Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been staging a sit-in outside the British foreign office to demand the government help release him. El-Fattah, who was recently granted British citizenship, has been on hunger strike for over 200 days to protest being held in harsh conditions during his seemingly endless jail sentence in Egypt. “We’re not sure how much time is left. We’re not sure how much his body can take,” says his sister, Sanaa Seif.
British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday after just 45 days in office, the shortest term in the nation’s history. Her low-tax, low-regulation financial policies were widely criticized after they sent the pound plummeting, causing several senior ministers to quit. We speak to George Monbiot, British journalist at The Guardian, about her short-lived time in office, what this says about the Conservative Party, and who her likely successor will be. “You’d think we’d have a general election after all this chaos, … but that’s not how it works in this country, because we are a democracy in name only,” says Monbiot.
U.K. Conservatives Face Fresh Leadership Crisis as PM Liz Truss Resigns After 45 Days, Chadian Security Forces Kill Protesters Demanding Return to Civilian Rule, At Least 150 Killed as Rival Groups Clash in Southern Sudan’s Blue Nile State, Ukraine Orders Electricity Cuts Following Russian Attacks on Power Stations, Russia Says U.S.-Made Rockets Killed Civilians in Luhansk and Kherson, Ukraine Warns of Flood Risk from Hydroelectric Dam Rigged by Russia to Explode, Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Teen in Latest Raid on Jenin, ACLU Challenges Arkansas Anti-BDS Law, Pakistan Election Commission Bars Ex-PM Imran Khan from Holding Office, Courts Stymie Conservative Efforts to Block Biden’s Student Relief Plan, Lindsey Graham Must Testify in Georgia Grand Jury Probe of Trump Election Meddling, Massive Wildfires Bring Hazardous Air Quality to Pacific Northwest, EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Violations in Jackson, Mississippi, Water Crisis, CA Jury Finds Ex-UCLA Gynecologist Guilty of Sexually Abusing Hundreds of Patients, Mental Health Workers End Strike After Reaching Deal with Kaiser Permanente
We look at the scope, scale and sustainability of the protests in Iran, which have entered their second month, after being sparked in September by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s so-called morality police. More than a thousand protesters have been arrested, while some children have been sent to reeducation camps. The United Nations said Tuesday at least 23 children have been killed in the demonstrations. We speak in depth with Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who was awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her legal work on behalf of women and children in Iran, and she has lived in exile since 2009. Unlike previous protest movements, such as the 2009 Green Movement, she says today’s protesters are demanding fundamental change to the country’s system of government. “For 43 years, people have bottled up all this anger. For 43 years, the regime has turned a deaf ear to the demands of the people, and anyone who said anything against the regime has either ended up in prison or killed or has fled the country,” says Ebadi.
“A Narrow Window to Prevent Genocide”: WHO Warns 6 Million in Tigray Face Health Crisis, Putin Declares Martial Law in Occupied Parts of Ukraine, North Korea Fires Artillery Barrage into Sea Amid Joint U.S.-South Korea War Games, Cholera Outbreak in Syria Spreads to Lebanon , Iranians Cheer Homecoming of Female Rock Climber Who Competed Without Hijab, Biden Releases 15 Million More Barrels of Oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Scientist Rebellion: Climate Protesters Glue Themselves to Volkswagen Exhibition , Cuba Welcomes U.S. Aid for Ian Victims While Condemning U.S. Embargo as “Constant Hurricane”, Supreme Court Rejects Reprieve for Mentally Ill Oklahoma Death Row Prisoner , New York Opens Tent Shelter for 500 Migrant Men, ICE Jails Asylum Seekers Who Survived Fatal Shooting by Texas Brothers , U.S. Judge Says Trump Knowingly Signed Off on False Numbers in Election Fraud Suit, Trump Deposed in E. Jean Carroll Defamation Lawsuit, Judge Sentences Ex-UCLA Student to 42 Months over Jan. 6 Insurrection, Georgetown University Students Confront Mike Pence over Capitol Riot, Pioneering Asian American Actor Anna May Wong to Be Featured on New Quarter
President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he is pardoning everyone convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law, and said the classification of the drug would undergo review. The move will remove many legal barriers for thousands of people to gain jobs, housing, college admission and federal benefits, and fulfills a campaign pledge made by Biden. However, the pardons will only affect about 6,500 people, as the vast majority of drug charges are at the state level and are disproportionately affecting communities of color. “We are demanding that the president actually deschedule and decriminalize cannabis,” says Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.
The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to two human rights groups, the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine and Memorial in Russia, as well as imprisoned Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski. The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised their work criticizing power and protecting fundamental human rights in neighboring countries torn apart by war. We speak to Anna Dobrovolskaya, who served as executive director of Memorial Human Rights Center in Moscow, part of the Nobel-winning group Memorial, before it was shut down by the Russian government. “People can see this as a common victory for civil society, not just in Russia,” says Dobrovolskaya. We also speak with Ole von Uexküll, executive director of the Stockholm-based Right Livelihood Award Foundation; all of Friday’s Nobel winners are also previous Right Livelihood laureates, known informally as the “alternative Nobel Peace Prize.” The hope of these international awards is that Belarus will “immediately release Ales Bialiatski” and that Russia will stop their legal persecution of human rights organizations, says von Uexküll.
Biden Pardons Thousands of People Convicted on Federal Marijuana Charges, Russian Strikes Kill 11 in Zaporizhzhia as IAEA Chief Rejects Russian Control of Nuclear Plant, Biden Says Putin “Not Joking” About Threat to Use Nuclear Weapons, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Honors Human Rights Workers in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, Hurricane Ian Death Toll Rises to 131, Report: World Bank Funded $15 Billion in Fossil Fuel Projects Despite Divestment Pledge, 13 DREAMers Arrested at D.C. Protest Demanding Congress Make DACA Permanent, Prisoners at For-Profit ICE Jail Stage Hunger Strike to Protest Inhumane Conditions, Rochester, NY, Will Pay $12 Million to Family of David Prude, Black Man Killed by Police, Federal Judge Declares Key Parts of New York Gun Law Unconstitutional, Gunmen Kill 20, Including Mayor, in Attack on Southern Mexican City, Julian Assange Supporters Plan Saturday Protests Outside U.K. Parliament, U.S. Justice Department, Federal Investigators Ask U.S. Attorney to Indict Hunter Biden, NFL Concussion Protocol Under Scrutiny as Star Players Suffer Brain Injuries
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a phone call on Tuesday that he will help peace efforts with Russia, just days after India abstained from a United Nations vote condemning the Russian annexation of four regions in Ukraine. We speak to the prominent Indian activist Kavita Krishnan about the different stances of India’s political parties toward the war in Ukraine and the interrelated struggles against authoritarianism in countries such as Iran and India. India’s foreign policy is currently like “walking a tightrope,” says Krishnan. “It would like to have a relationship with Russia. At the same time, it wants to build a bridge with America.”
Protesters in Iran are continuing to demand justice for Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in the hands of the so-called morality police, as well as envisioning a political future beyond the Islamic Republic. The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights estimates at least 154 people have been killed since the protests began. “We saw women, really, what it seemed like for the first time, putting their bodies in direct confrontation with the police,” says Nilo Tabrizy, writer and video journalist at The New York Times. “Today’s movement is not calling for reform. Today’s movement is calling for a new vision of politics … with women at the helm of it,” says Narges Bajoghli, professor of anthropology and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Biden Blames Climate Change for Hurricane Ian’s Path of Destruction in Florida, Ethiopia and Tigray Rebels Agree to Peace Talks as Airstrike Kills More Than 50, Putin Asserts Russian Control Over Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant, NYT: U.S. Believes Ukrainians Were Behind Assassination of Darya Dugina in Russia , Antiwar Protester Who Interrupted Russian TV News Broadcast Flees House Arrest, OPEC and Russia Agree to Slash Crude Output, Boosting Oil Prices , Rep. Ro Khanna Calls on Biden Administration to End Saudi Arms Sales, U.S. Prepares to Ease Sanctions on Venezuela to Allow Chevron Oil Drilling , “Who Voted for This?”: Protesters Reject U.K. Prime Minister’s Call to Lift Fracking Ban, 1 in 8 Birds Threatened with Extinction Due to Habitat Loss, Pollution and Climate Crisis, Michigan Judge Tosses Criminal Charges for Former Officials in Flint Water Crisis, Over 30 Killed in Thailand After Ex-Cop Begins Murderous Rampage at Child Care Center, At Least 15 Migrants Drown and Dozens Go Missing as Ships Sink Off Greek Coast, Japan Condemns Latest North Korean Missile Launch as U.S. Redeploys Aircraft Carrier, French Author Annie Ernaux Wins 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature
The Oath Keepers trial, in which senior leaders of the right-wing extremist group are accused of plotting violence at the January 6 insurrection, began Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C. Prosecutors played a secret audio recording Tuesday of a meeting held by the Oath Keepers after the 2020 election in which founder Stewart Rhodes discussed plans to bring weapons to the capital to help then-President Trump stay in office. We speak to Arie Perliger, author of “American Zealots,” who says the Trump administration lended extremist groups legitimacy and access to a more mainstream audience. “For them, that was a disastrous situation, losing this kind of access,” says Perliger.
Mass protests in Haiti are condemning rising fuel prices and demanding the resignation of the U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ariel Henry. For nearly two months, street protests likened to a civil war have rocked the island nation’s capital Port-au-Prince after the government announced it would raise heavily subsidized fuel prices. We speak to Haitian activist Vélina Élysée Charlier about rising gang violence and how criminal groups are supported by the government. “There is a mafia that is ruling this country, and that mafia doesn’t want to face justice,” says Charlier.
We go to Puerto Rico to look at how the island is recovering from Hurricane Fiona, a Category 1 storm that left much of the island without electricity and clean water. President Biden has promised a $60 million relief package, but some doubt the aid will be distributed swiftly and in a manner that will truly protect the island from future storms, given the failed U.S. response after Hurricane Maria in 2017. Less than 3% of infrastructure money allocated for storm recovery after Maria has actually been used, says Carla Minet, executive director of the Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico. She also discusses how problems have arisen from the transition to a privatized electrical grid.
As President Biden meets with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and survivors of Hurricane Ian, the deadliest storm to hit the state in decades, we get an update from Florida state Representative Michele Rayner on relief efforts underway and the housing crisis exacerbated by the storm. Republicans like Governor DeSantis are “more concerned about sticking it to Joe Biden than actually making sure that they can take care of their people,” says Rayner. She also discusses the treatment of asylum seekers in Florida and the anti-LGBT “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Ukraine Recaptures More Land Days After Russian Annexation, The Pope Urges Stop to “Spiral of Violence and Death” in Ukraine, Supreme Court Appears Poised to OK Racial Gerrymandering in Alabama, Trump Asks Supreme Court to Intervene in Dispute over Classified Documents, Prosecutors Accuse Oath Keepers of Planning “Armed Rebellion” Against U.S. Gov’t, Biden Heads to Florida as Hurricane Ian Death Toll Tops 109, Amazon Suspends 50 Workers at Unionized Warehouse in Staten Island, Ex-Counterintelligence Agent Helped DeSantis Scheme to Send Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, South Korea Missile Test Malfunctions, Sparking Fire at Base, Filipino Journalist Percy Lapid, a Critic of Marcos & Duterte, Is Killed Near Manila, U.N. Urges Extension of Ceasefire in Yemen, 30 Palestinian Prisoners on Hunger Strike Against Israeli Administrative Detention, At Least 15 Die Inside Overcrowded Prison in Ecuador, “Everything Has Been a Lie”: Herschel Walker’s Son Blasts His Father Amid Tight Georgia Senate Race
This weekend marked the 103rd anniversary of the 1919 Elaine massacre, one of the deadliest episodes of racial violence in U.S. history. The violence started on September 30, 1919, when guards stopped two white men from breaking into a meeting between Black sharecroppers in Elaine, Arkansas, who were organizing to demand fair payments for their crops. After an exchange of gunfire, a white man was killed. White mobs, backed by the U.S. military, responded with three days of anti-Black violence, indiscriminately killing hundreds of Black people under the false claim of stopping a Black insurrection. Much of the Black farmers’ land was stolen as a result. We speak to Julia Wright, daughter of the acclaimed Black author Richard Wright, who called Elaine home and wrote about his great-uncle Silas Hoskins’s lynching in Elaine three years prior in 1916. Wright says she saw the lynching in a new light after the murder of George Floyd. “Two lynchings separated by so many years and yet so similar,” says Wright. We also speak with Paul Ortiz, historian at the University of Florida, who recalls the nationwide crusade, which included journalist Ida B. Wells, to seek justice for the Black farmers who remained and were taken into custody after the massacre, and ultimately won their freedom.
The western African nation of Burkina Faso is facing its second military coup in eight months. After a day of gunfire rang out Friday in the capital Ouagadougou, Captain Ibrahim Traoré announced on public television that he had replaced Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba as president. Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch, says Damiba’s inability to improve security in the face of an Islamist insurgency was “the primary reason for the coup d’état.” We also speak with Aziz Fall, coordinator for Justice for Sankara, an international campaign dedicated to uncovering the truth behind the 1987 assassination of Burkina Faso leader Thomas Sankara. He says the legacy of U.S. military intervention and French colonialism has led to instability in the region. “People are outraged with the role of France but also the role of the United States,” says Fall.
As public support of the conservative-dominated Supreme Court falls to a record low, justices are set to hear major cases on affirmative action, voting rights and online speech. The court opened its term Monday with new Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson becoming the first Black woman in U.S. history to hear a Supreme Court case. Although Jackson is a welcome progressive voice on the bench, “all she’ll be able to do is to highlight the extremism of the conservative majority voting bloc on the Supreme Court,” says The Nation’s legal correspondent Elie Mystal. He adds that the term ahead includes challenges to Native American sovereignty, voting rights, LGBT rights and more.
Ukraine’s Zelensky Rules Out Direct Peace Talks with Russia’s Putin, Afghan Women Protest Attack on Girls’ School as Death Toll Climbs to 53, Iran’s Supreme Leader Blames U.S. and Israel for Mass Protests , Haitian Protesters Demand Relief from Soaring Prices, Resignation of U.S.-Backed Leader, 20 Killed in Somalia Car Bombings After U.S. Claims Airstrike Killed al-Shabab Leader, Amnesty Calls on EU to Hold Israel Accountable for “Crime of Apartheid Against Palestinians”, Palestinians Warn U.K. Against Moving Embassy to Jerusalem, North Korean Missile Test Triggers Air Raid Alerts in Japan, In Puerto Rico, Biden Pledges $60 Million in Hurricane Resilience Aid, University of Idaho Warns Employees Against Discussing Abortion and Contraception, Investigation Reveals “Systemic” Abuse of Players at All Levels of U.S. Women’s Soccer
We speak to world-renowned political dissident Noam Chomsky and political writer Vijay Prashad about the Russian war in Ukraine, now in its eighth month. When it comes to continuing the war rather than negotiating a peace settlement, “the United States and Britain are pretty isolated on this,” says Chomsky. “The United States saw Ukraine as a kind of loose nail under which they place their weapons, billions of dollars of weapons … in order to egg Russia on,” says Prashad. Chomsky and Prashad are co-authors of the new book, “The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power,” which covers failed U.S. foreign policy in recent wars and the importance of seeing beyond dominant media narratives.
Brazil’s presidential contest will be settled by a runoff vote on October 30 after leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva fell short of a majority in Sunday’s election, winning 48% of votes compared to incumbent far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who received 43%. Bolsonaro outperformed expectations set by recent polls, which had suggested an outright win for Lula. On Friday, we spoke to world-renowned political dissident Noam Chomsky in Brazil and political writer Vijay Prishad, just back from the country, about the stakes in one of the most important elections in Latin America. The results of the contentious election will determine, among many things, the fate of the Amazon, and another Bolsonaro term would be “devastating for the world,” says Chomsky. Lula is leaning more left than in his previous presidency and has made “very clear that questions of social justice will be at the forefront of his presidency,” says Prashad.
Brazil: Lula & Bolsonaro to Face Off in Presidential Runoff, Ukraine Recaptures Lyman a Day After Russia Annexed Area, Russia Vetoes U.N. Resolution on Annexation as Biden OKs $12B in More Military Spending for Ukraine, Putin Blames U.S. for Sabotaging Nord Stream Pipelines; Blinken Cites Development as “Tremendous Opportunity”, Hurricane Ian Death Toll Reaches 87 as Search Missions Continue, Iran Protests Continue for 16th Day; Group Says 133 People Have Died So Far, 7-Year-Old Palestinian Boy Dies After Being Chased by Israeli Soldiers, 125 Die in Indonesia After Riot Police Fire Tear Gas After Soccer Game, Burkina Faso Sees Second Military Coup in a Year
, U.S. & Venezuela Conduct Prisoner Exchange, Texas Brothers Charged with Manslaughter for Shooting Migrants Getting Water Near Border, Liz Truss Scraps Plans to Lower Taxes for Rich Following Mass Protests
, Supreme Court Begins New Term as Ketanji Brown Jackson Makes History as First Black Female Justice
, Indigenous Activist & Actress Sacheen Littlefeather, 75, Dies
We speak with the award-winning filmmaker Reid Davenport about his directorial debut, “I Didn’t See You There,” in which he reflects on the portrayal of disability in media and popular culture. “Documentary film has traditionally subjugated disabled people, so I wanted to completely turn that on its head” by filming from his perspective without being seen, says Davenport. He says the title of the film is a phrase he has heard from others, and it’s “coded in apology” for ignorance of the way Davenport exists in the world, but that “ignorance is a choice at the end of the day, and an apology is only going to do so much.”
The lobby of DCTV’s new documentary film center in New York will be dedicated to the filmmaker Brent Renaud, who worked out of the historic firehouse alongside Democracy Now! for many years. Renaud was the first journalist to be killed in the Ukraine war after he was shot dead on March 13, 2022, while filming refugees near the capital Kyiv for a documentary series. We speak with Brent’s brother, filmmaker Craig Renaud, who was his partner in the field for decades, and feature some of their work in Iraq and about U.S. soldiers deployed there from the Renauds’ home state of Arkansas. “It’s still surreal at this point,” comments Renaud, who says the theater lobby “couldn’t be a better way to honor him.”
The New York City firehouse studio that housed Democracy Now! from 2001 to 2009 has reopened as a movie theater devoted to documentary films. The opening of Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film comes as Downtown Community Television celebrates 50 years of media activism and training. “We wanted to build something that really respected and paid tribute to documentaries,” says DCTV’s co-founder Jon Alpert, who says the theater is “completely interactive” and will “serve the community.” DCTV is also part of a broad alliance in the Chinatown neighborhood to stop the development of a new jail — a 300-foot-tall “jailscraper” — that Alpert says would likely be “the physical end” of DCTV. Alpert just won the News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary for the last part of his HBO trilogy, “Life of Crime: 1984-2020.”
Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro faces former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s presidential election. Lula is a former union leader who held office from 2003 through 2010. He’s running on a leftist platform to uplift Brazil’s poor, preserve the Amazon rainforest and protect Brazil’s Indigenous communities, and is supported by a broad, grassroots alliance, explains Brazilian human rights advocate Maria Luísa Mendonça. Polls show Lula has a strong lead over Bolsonaro, but it is unclear if he will win the majority of the vote needed to avoid a runoff. This comes as Bolsonaro and his party appear to be attempting to prepare to stage a coup if he loses the election, says reporter Michael Fox, former editor of NACLA and host of the new podcast “Brazil on Fire.” Despite fear over a coup, Fox says people in Brazil “are really hopeful that they’re going to see change on Sunday.”
Hurricane Ian Bears Down on South Carolina After Carving Path of Destruction Across Florida, Putin Announces Plans to Annex Ukrainian Territory Seized by Russia, Sweden Discovers Fourth Leak in Nord Stream Pipeline as NATO Cites Sabotage , Senate Approves $12.3 Billion in New Aid to Ukraine in Stopgap Spending Bill, White House Pledges Renewed Push for Passage of Sen. Manchin’s Permitting Reform Bill, Polls Show Brazil’s Lula with Wide Lead Over Bolsonaro Ahead of Presidential Election, Suicide Bomb Attack on Kabul School Kills 19, Mostly Young Women , India Expands Abortion Access to Single Women and Survivors of Marital Rape, Alito Pushes Back After Justice Kagan Warns Supreme Court’s Legitimacy Has Suffered, Ginni Thomas Tells Jan. 6 Committee She Still Believes 2020 Election Was Stolen, Biden Administration Halts Student Loan Relief After GOP Attorneys General Sue, ICC Opens Trial of Félicien Kabuga, Accused of Financing 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil Top List of Most Dangerous Nations for Environmentalists
Russia has announced it will formally annex four areas of occupied Ukraine on Friday, after organizing referendums in the regions widely denounced by Ukraine and its allies as a sham. We speak with Ukrainian journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk, who explains how armed Russian soldiers went to the houses of Ukrainians in the occupied territories, forcing them to vote. She also describes widespread abuses committed by Russian forces, including mass graves and suspected torture chambers. Meanwhile, more than 200,000 Russians have fled the country over the past week following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial military mobilization to draft at least 300,000 people. Gumenyuk says she hopes the draft will “create some disturbance within Russia” now that the war is impacting middle-class Russians.
As millions of Florida residents in the path of Hurricane Ian were ordered to evacuate, advocates pushed authorities to also evacuate what they say are as many as 176,000 people incarcerated in prisons, jails and immigrant detention centers. Now the storm has left millions without power and many without water. “We’re worried about the conditions in the days and weeks following, with no AC, lack of sanitation and water, lack of food, lack of appropriate staff and access to health,” says Angel D’Angelo, a member of Restorative Justice Coalition and Fight Toxic Prisons.
Authorities say hundreds may be dead after Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday along Florida’s southwestern coast as a powerful Category 4 storm, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the continental United States. We get an update from Tampa and look at links between the climate crisis, rising sea levels and intensifying storms. “It’s just been devastating, and we don’t know the full extent of the damage yet,” reports Seán Kinane, WMNF news and public affairs director. “We are seeing these storms that aren’t otherwise stressed just exploding in intensity,” says Harold Wanless, professor in geography and urban sustainability at the University of Miami.
Hurricane Ian Carves Path of Destruction Along Florida’s Gulf Coast with 150 MPH Winds, 20 Cuban Migrants Missing and Feared Dead After Boat Capsizes Off Florida Coast, DHS Lifts Shipping Restrictions to Allow Hurricane-Ravaged Puerto Rico to Import Fuel, Russia’s Putin Set to Announce Annexation of Occupied Ukrainian Territories, Germany Warns Nord Stream Pipeline Disaster Could Be Among Worst Gas Leaks in History, Finland to Close Its Border with Russia Amid Mass Exodus of Military-Age Men, Kamala Harris Visits Demilitarized Zone, Warning North Korea Over Nuclear Program, Israeli Raid on Jenin Refugee Camp Kills Four Palestinians and Wounds Dozens, Gunman Remains at Large After Wounding 6 Adults at Oakland School for Immigrants, Highland Park Mass Shooting Survivors Sue Smith & Wesson, California Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs Bill Protecting Farmworker Union Rights, Alabama Prisoners Stage Work Stoppage to Protest Squalid Conditions, New Images Reveal Shocking Conditions in New York’s Rikers Island Jail, Right Livelihood Foundation Announces 2022 Award Winners, Truthout Columnist and Antiwar Activist William Rivers Pitt Dies at 51
We speak with Dahlia Lithwick, who covers the courts and the law for Slate, about women who fought the racism, sexism and xenophobia of Trump’s presidency. She profiles many of them in her new book, “Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America.” “Law is slow and takes a long time, but at its best, it really can make us all freer and safer and restore dignity to those that have been harmed,” says Lithwick.
NASA successfully crashed a robotic spacecraft into an asteroid this week, a first-of-its-kind test of technology that could prevent a comet or asteroid from hitting the Earth, though the chances of such a catastrophe are low. We speak with NASA climate scientist Peter Kalmus, who calls the successful mission “bittersweet.” “We’re doing these amazing missions like redirecting asteroids, and yet with all that technology, with all that knowledge, somehow it’s not translating into stopping what is clearly the biggest threat facing humanity, which is global heating,” says Kalmus.
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin abandoned his own energy permitting proposal Tuesday that would have fast-tracked the federal review of energy projects, including the contested Mountain Valley Pipeline. Following intense pressure from a range of climate justice and Appalachian organizers, Manchin asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to drop the permitting reforms from a funding bill after it became clear he did not have the votes to pass the proposal. 350.org founder Bill McKibben says Manchin may try to partner with the GOP to revive the proposal later this year, but still says the news represents an “impressive win by grassroots environmentalism.”
As Hurricane Ian is set to strengthen into a Category 4 or 5 storm and make landfall Wednesday afternoon south of Tampa Bay, the storm already knocked out power in Cuba and killed at least two people Tuesday. Communities across Central Florida are preparing for a “very strong storm,” says Seán Kinane, news and public affairs director at Tampa community radio station WMNF, and many acknowledge the strength of the hurricane is “definitely impacted by climate disruption.”
Florida Braces for Hurricane Ian as Winds Reach 155 MPH, Hurricane Knocks Out Power to All of Cuba, EU Says Leaks to Nord Stream Pipelines Caused by Sabotage, Russia Expected to Annex Occupied Areas of Ukraine After Referendums, Report: Nearly 200K Russians Have Fled Since Putin Mobilization Order, MBS Named Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Giving Him Immunity to Khashoggi Lawsuit, Oath Keepers Seditious Conspiracy Trial Begins, Trump Supporter Sentenced to 7+ Years for Assaulting D.C. Officer on Jan. 6, In Climate Victory, Manchin Drops Proposal to Ease Energy Permitting Rules, Mastriano in 2019: Women Should Face Murder Charges for Violating Abortion Bans, Thousands of Students Walk Out in Virginia to Oppose Youngkin’s Anti-Trans Policies, California Gov. Newsom Signs 13 Abortion Protection Bills & Outlaws “Pink Tax”, IMF Warns U.K. over Plan to Cut Taxes as Value of Pound Plummets, Meredith Tax, Longtime Feminist & Socialist, Dies at 80
We speak with Bishop William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign to get an update on the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, where tens of thousands of residents are still without clean tap water. “It’s an immoral and sinful violation of equal protection under the law and human rights,” says Barber, who led a rally Monday outside the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson demanding the state reverse decades of disinvestment in the majority-Black capital. “Everything we’re talking about was created by bad policy, therefore it can be fixed by good policy.”
Low-income Black and Brown housing activists in Philadelphia are fighting to stop the displacement of residents who live in an affordable housing complex in the largely gentrified neighborhood of University City. The complex, known as University City Townhomes, was built to provide affordable housing to low-income residents, many of whom are elderly and disabled, but the property owner has since announced plans to redevelop the property, which is near the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. We speak with University City Townhomes residents Rasheda Alexander and Sheldon Davids, who have held months of encampments and protests alongside William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. “It was always about greed and money and racism,” says Barber, who notes the move to redevelop the complex is part of a larger assault on poor people and housing services in the United States.
A property management company partly owned by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has agreed to pay a $3.25 million fine to the state of Maryland and to reimburse potentially tens of thousands of tenants in Baltimore. The state of Maryland sued the Kushner-owned company after ProPublica published a 2017 investigation that exposed how the company hounded low-income tenants with a barrage of lawsuits, eviction notices and late fees — even when residents had the legal right to continue living there. We speak with Alec MacGillis, the author of the 2017 ProPublica report, who describes how Kushner was the leading architect in the housing scandal that left many residents paying for uninhabitable units riddled with pests and sewage issues. He says while the settlement is a “relative pittance” for Kushner, it has delivered some “solid form of accountability” for his company’s wrongdoings, and the money will likely make a difference in the lives of those tenants who were harmed.
Dozens of people in Iran have been killed in a series of escalating women-led protests demanding justice for Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in the custody of the so-called morality police. Amini was detained on September 13 for allegedly leaving some of her hair visible in violation of Iran’s hijab law. Iranian American writer Hoda Katebi calls the protests “exciting and beautiful,” bringing together women from across economic and ethnic backgrounds and opening up conversations about the policing of women’s bodies. She says the government is using the protests to “advance nationalist ideas,” crack down on Kurdish communities and propel a false narrative of an uprising against Islam. Katebi’s recent piece for the Los Angeles Times is titled “Iranian women are rising up to demand freedom. Are we listening?”
Russian-Held Parts of Ukraine Hold Final Day of Voting on Whether to Join Russia, Russian Military Mobilization Prompts Mass Exodus of Draft-Age Men, Hurricane Ian Lashes Western Cuba with Sustained 125-Mile-Per-Hour Winds, Hundreds of Thousands Ordered to Evacuate Florida’s Gulf Coast as Hurricane Ian Approaches, Puerto Rico’s Governor Calls on Biden to Waive Shipping Restrictions in Aftermath of Hurricane, Hurricane Ian Forces NASA to Delays Test Launch of New Moon Rocket, NASA Crashes Spacecraft into Asteroid in First-Ever Planetary Defense Test, Protesters Rally at Mississippi Governor’s Mansion to Demand Clean Water for Jackson, Russia Grants Citizenship to NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden, Thousands Protest Outside State Funeral for Japan’s Assassinated Former Leader Shinzo Abe, Two-Thirds of Cuban Voters Approve Referendum on Marriage and Gender Equality
As the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection is set to hold its first fall public hearing, we look at one of the key groups that helped plan and carry out the attack as part of their goal to normalize political violence, with HuffPost journalist Andy Campbell, author of the new book, “We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered In a New Era of America.” He says, “They’ve been on a parade of violence at the behest of Trump and the GOP for six years now.” Campbell recently obtained a document that gives rare insight into how the Proud Boys “meticulously” plan their rallies and how they were going to carry out a march in New York City on January 10. He says GOP rhetoric, parroted by the right-wing media, is normalizing the political violence committed by the Proud Boys and, in effect, “sanitizing them for the rest of the country.”
Italy’s first far-right leader since Benito Mussolini, Giorgia Meloni, has declared victory. Her Brothers of Italy party is allied with Spain’s far-right Vox party, Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice party and the Sweden Democrats party, which emerged out of its neo-Nazi movement. We look at “the return of fascism in Italy” with professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present,” who says that Meloni, a self-declared conservative, “really sees her party as carrying the heritage of fascism into today.” Ben-Ghiat also describes why Meloni is part of a “transnational design” to create a far-right political culture across Europe.
Death Toll in Iran Protests Climbs to 41, Giorgia Meloni Set to Become Italy’s Most Far-Right Leader Since Mussolini, Arizona Judge Reinstates 158-Year-Old Abortion Ban, “Catastrophic Consequences”: U.S. Warns Russia Against Using Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine, 730 Antiwar Protesters Arrested Across 32 Russian Cities, China Calls for Peace Talks to End Russia’s War on Ukraine, 13 Killed in Mass Shooting in Central Russia, 97 Refugees Drown as Boat Sinks Off Syria’s Coast, Typhoon Noru Slams Philippines, Killing 6 and Leaving Millions Without Power, Remnants of Hurricane Fiona Carve Path of Destruction in Eastern Canada, Puerto Rican Farmers Hit Hard by Hurricane Fiona at Harvest Time, Florida Governor Declares State of Emergency as Hurricane Ian Approaches, Vanuatu’s President Calls for Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty, “Fridays for Future” Protesters Demand Climate Action in 450 Locations Worldwide, Video Shows Train Hitting Colorado Police Car Holding Woman Handcuffed in Back Seat, ACLU Demands Closure of For-Profit ICE Jail After Asylum Seeker Dies by Suicide, Kushner-Owned Company Settles Lawsuit over Unfair Rental Practices and Rodent-Infested Apartments
We remember the legendary historian, author, professor, playwright and activist Howard Zinn, who was born 100 years ago this August. Zinn was a regular guest on Democracy Now!, from the start of the program in 1996 up until his death in 2010 at age 87. After witnessing the horrors of World War II as a bombardier, Zinn became a peace and justice activist who picketed with his students at Spelman College during the civil rights movement and joined in actions such as opposing the Vietnam War. He later spoke out against the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. “I believe neutrality is impossible, because the world is already moving in certain directions. Wars are going on. Children are starving,” Zinn said in a 2005 interview. “To be neutral … is to collaborate with whatever is going on, to allow it to happen.”
This year marks 100 years since the birth of the historian Howard Zinn. In 1980, Zinn published his classic work, “A People’s History of the United States.” The book would go on to sell over a million copies and change the way many look at history in America. We begin today’s special with highlights from a production of Howard Zinn’s “Voices of a People’s History of the United States,” where Zinn introduced dramatic readings from history. We hear Alfre Woodard read the words of labor activist Mother Jones and Howard’s son Jeff Zinn read the words of an IWW poet and organizer Arturo Giovannitti.
The housing crisis is worsening in Los Angeles, where an estimated 60,000 people remain unhoused in Los Angeles County and thousands more are on the cusp of evictions, even as 20,000 hotel rooms remain vacant across the region. This comes as a new ballot measure could require hotels to house homeless people in vacant rooms. The measure is backed by California’s largest hospitality union, UNITE HERE Local 11, and attempts to revive a statewide pandemic policy known as Project Roomkey, which, now set to end, provided vouchers for people experiencing homelessness to use at hotels and motels. “Project Roomkey is one piece of the puzzle,” says Kurt Petersen, co-president for UNITE HERE Local 11, who, along with UCLA professor Ananya Roy, notes massive investments are desperately needed to secure permanent affordable housing. We also speak with former Echo Park Lake encampment resident Will Sens Jr., who is in Project Roomkey and says the program provided stability for him and others.
In a primetime address Thursday, President Biden warned Donald Trump and his radical supporters are threatening the foundations of the republic. Biden said, “Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” and that MAGA Republicans present a “clear and present danger to our democracy,” referring to Trump’s campaign slogan of “Make America Great Again.” We speak with Nancy MacLean, author and Duke University historian, who says Biden’s speech was a “wake-up call” for the nation and mainstream media. “He was absolutely right, in my opinion, that the Trump wing of the party and the MAGA Republicans have jumped the rails of constitutional democracy, of the factual universe and of representative democracy.”
Biden Warns “Equality and Democracy Are Under Assault” by MAGA Republicans, Ex-NYPD Officer Who Attacked Capitol Police on Jan. 6 Gets 10-Year Prison Term, Jan. 6 Committee Asks Newt Gingrich to Testify About False Election Claims, Ginni Thomas Pressured Wisconsin GOP Lawmakers to Overturn Biden’s Election Win, IAEA Chief Says Physical Integrity of Ukrainian Nuclear Plant “Violated” by Fighting, Russian Oil Company Chairman Reportedly Dies in Fall from Hospital Window, China and India Join Russian Military for Drills; U.S. Holds Pacific War Games with Allies, Taiwan Shoots Down Drone from China, At Least 18 Killed as Explosion Strikes Mosque in Herat, Afghanistan, Argentina VP Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Survives Assassination Attempt, Chileans Rally Ahead of Sunday Referendum on Replacing Pinochet-Era Constitution, Shireen Abu Akleh’s Niece Says Biden “Isn’t Upholding the Values That He Continues to Preach”, Reports of U.S. Military Sexual Assaults Soared in 2021 to Nearly 36,000, California Lawmakers Approve $54 Billion to Battle Climate Crisis & Extend Life of Nuclear Plant, Family of Donovan Lewis Demands Columbus Police Be Held Accountable, Bernie Sanders to Striking U.K. Rail Workers: “Our Job Is to Take on These Oligarchs”
A national day of action is planned next Thursday as protests grow against Google’s secretive $1.2 billion program known as Project Nimbus, which will provide advanced artificial intelligence tools to the Israeli government and military. We speak with two of the leaders of the protest: Ariel Koren, a former Google employee who says she was pushed out for her activism, as well as Gabriel Schubiner, who currently works at Google and is an Alphabet Workers Union organizer. ”Cloud technology is extremely powerful, and providing that power to a violent military and to an apartheid government is not a neutral act,” says Schubiner on Project Nimbus. The pair also detail how workers are rising up against what Koren says is Google’s “culture of retaliation.”
We speak with glaciologist David Bahr, who co-authored a shocking new study this week revealing Greenland’s melting ice sheet will likely contribute almost a foot to global sea level rise by the end of the century. The report, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, finds that even if the world were to halt all greenhouse gas emissions today, 120 trillion tons of Greenland’s “zombie ice” are doomed to melt. Bahr says if global emissions continue to rise, global sea level rise just from Greenland glacial melt could reach two-and-a-half feet. “The faster we can get to net zero, the better we will all be,” he says.
We look at the life and legacy of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at the age of 91. Gorbachev led the Soviet Union from 1985 until its dissolution in 1991 and has been credited internationally with bringing down the Iron Curtain, helping to end the Cold War and reducing the risk of nuclear war. Inside Russia, many say his policies led to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the collapse in the standard of living for millions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. Katrina vanden Heuvel, publisher of The Nation and a friend to Gorbachev, remembers him as a “believer in independent journalism” and credits him with introducing the “fairest and freest presidential and parliamentary elections to Russia.” Joining us from Moscow, Nina Khrushcheva, great-granddaughter of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, says she knew Gorbachev as “an absolute democrat in comparison to anybody who came before him, including Nikita Khrushchev,” and his policies allowed her the freedom to pursue her academic career in the U.S. as a Russian expat.
IAEA Reaches Ukraine Nuclear Plant as Fighting Prompts Emergency Shutdown of Reactor, WHO Warns Flooding in Pakistan Risks Lives of 3 Million Children, California Temperature Records Toppled as U.S. Southwest Faces Another Heat Wave, Democrat Mary Peltola Upsets Sarah Palin to Win Alaska’s Lone Congressional Seat, Texas Gov. Abbott Orders Asylum Seekers Bused from U.S.-Mexico Border to Chicago, FDA Grants Emergency Use to Boosters Targeting Coronavirus Variants, Saudi Arabia Sentences Woman to 45 Years in Prison for Social Media Posts, Palestinian Man Jailed Without Charge Ends 6-Month Hunger Strike After Winning Release, Israel Sentences Gaza Charity Director to 12 Years in Prison, U.N. Finds China May Have Committed “Crimes Against Humanity” in Xinjiang, Judge Allows New York Concealed Carry Restrictions to Take Effect
On the last day of Black August, as President Biden calls for an assault weapons ban and more funding for police, we speak with UCLA professor Robin D. G. Kelley, who recently published the revised and expanded 20th anniversary edition of his book “Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination,” with an added foreword by poet Aja Monet. The new edition was inspired by the Black Lives Matter uprisings in 2020 and covers topics from critical race theory to state militarism that Kelley says “continues to this day.” Kelley says the book’s legacy conveys that “we don’t have the luxury to just fight for reform. We can’t survive that way. We’ve got to fight for revolutionary change.”
At least 30 people were killed and hundreds more injured in Iraq after armed supporters of the powerful Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr clashed with security forces in the capital of Baghdad following the cleric’s announcement Monday he would be quitting politics. The violence comes after months of political turmoil in Iraq that has seen politicians unable to form a government since parliamentary elections in October, and the prime minister said Tuesday he would “vacate his post” if the complicated political situation in the country continues. “The political parties that came to power are in reality just militias who cannot talk politics, do not understand democracy, do not understand what it means to step down once you did not win,” says Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, who joins us from Baghdad. Mohammed says the fighting fueled by the political parties “held the totality of the Iraqi people in ransom” for almost 24 hours, forcing people to stay at home “because it felt like a civil war.”
We speak with an evacuated resident of Jackson, Mississippi, where over 180,000 residents are on their third day without access to running water. We speak with longtime Jackson activist Kali Akuno, co-founder of Cooperation Jackson, who joins us from New Orleans, where he went when floods recently inundated the majority-Black city and shut down the main water plant. He attributes the water crisis to decades of white flight and the subsequent disinvestment in majority-Black and Brown cities. “What we are experiencing now is literally just the crumbling of the empire’s infrastructure,” notes Akuno, who also says he fears the state government will push to privatize or regionalize Jackson’s water system instead of giving the city adequate resources to stabilize it.
We get an update on the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, from Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, where more than 180,000 residents of the majority-Black city are without running water. President Biden declared a federal emergency on Tuesday. Water has been cut off since the main water treatment plant flooded amid torrential rains. Lumumba says the emergency is the result of three decades of disinvestment from the state. “We’ve been investing the money that we have,” says Lumumba, who took office in 2017 and started alerting the state government of the challenges with the water system starting in 2018. “We can’t do it alone. We don’t have a billion dollars’ worth of resources to make it happen.”
Biden Approves Emergency Declaration over Water Crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, DOJ Filing Says Trump Likely Obstructed Government Probe into Top-Secret Documents, Nuclear Inspectors Head for Russian-Occupied Zaporizhzhia Power Plant, Ukrainian Grain Ship Arrives in East Africa to Ease Starvation, Former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev Dead at 91, World “Sleepwalking Toward the Destruction of the Planet,” Warns U.N. Secretary-General, 6 Million Afghans at Risk of Famine, South Carolina Lawmakers Approve Near-Total Abortion Ban, U.S. Life Expectancy Plummets for Second Year in a Row, Police in Columbus, Ohio, Shoot Dead Unarmed Black Man in Bed, Google Employee Alleges Retaliation for Speaking Out Against Providing AI to Israeli Military and Government
We go to Florida to speak with 25-year-old gun control activist Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who made history last week when he won the Democratic primary for an open U.S. House seat in Orlando. Frost is set to become the first Afro-Cuban and first member of Generation Z elected to Congress if he goes on to win November’s general election for Florida’s heavily Democratic 10th Congressional District. Frost discusses his decade as a movement organizer in Florida and breaks down his stance on Palestine, Cuba and how to reach Trump supporters in Florida.
We look at what’s happened to Afghan refugees who have struggled to flee the country since the last U.S. troops left Afghanistan one year ago today. While the U.S. and allied nations helped evacuate some 122,000 people out of Afghanistan, the U.S. has failed to process requests for “humanitarian parole” — a program granting U.S. entry that costs each Afghan applicant $575 and is what Reveal reporter Najib Aminy says is “one of the last possibilities [for Afghans] to leave the country.” According to documents obtained by Reveal, out of the 66,000 applications filed for humanitarian parole, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has processed less than 8,000 of them and approved just 123. Meanwhile, the agency has already approved more than 68,000 applications from Ukrainians since launching a separate program called Uniting for Ukraine in April after the Russian invasion and has charged these applicants no fee.
We discuss Western hegemony and U.S. policy in Russia, Ukraine and China with Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, whose new article is headlined “The West’s False Narrative About Russia and China.” Sachs says the bipartisan U.S. approach to foreign policy is “unaccountably dangerous and wrongheaded,” and warns the U.S. is creating “a recipe for yet another war” in East Asia.
Muqtada al-Sadr Tells Supporters to End Protests After Violence in Baghdad Kills 30, Pakistan Appeals for International Aid as Record Rainfall Brings “Climate Dystopia”, Residents of Jackson, Mississippi, Warned “Do Not Drink the Water” as Floodwaters Rise, “Doomed” Greenland Ice Will Add Nearly a Foot to Global Sea Level Rise, U.N. Ocean Treaty Talks Aimed at Protecting Marine Wildlife End in Failure, Ukraine Begins Counteroffensive to Retake Russian-Occupied Kherson, Biden Will Ask Congress to Approve $1.1 Billion Weapons Sale to Taiwan, Federal Judge Rejects 9/11 Families’ Bid to Seize Billions from Afghan Central Bank Funds, U.S. to Stop Shipping Free COVID-19 Tests as Funding Dries Up, Moderna Sues Pfizer, Claiming COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Rights, Capitol Rioter Who Menaced Sen. Chuck Schumer Gets 55-Month Prison Term, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Must Testify to Grand Jury About Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, 20-Year-Old Gunman with Assault Rifle Kills Two at Grocery Store in Bend, Oregon, Federal Judge Strikes Down Texas Law Barring Adults Under 21 from Carrying Handguns, Families of Gun Violence Victims Lead Rally at Texas Capitol Demanding Gun Controls
Hundreds of farmworkers concluded a 24-day march to Sacramento spanning 335 miles to demand California Governor Gavin Newsom support legislation that would make it easier for farmworkers to cast their ballots in union elections by mail. Newsom has threatened to veto the bill, which would keep farmworkers safe from employer retaliation, explains Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, the labor union that helped organize the march. We also speak with Irene de Barraicua, operations director of Líderes Campesinas, who describes the ongoing threats women agricultural workers and others face on the ground, including sexual harrassment, wage theft and exposure to toxic chemicals.
The Justice Department has released a redacted version of the affidavit used by the FBI to raid former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The affidavit revealed authorities were concerned Trump still had possession of top-secret documents that could have compromised U.S. intelligence sources and methods, and said there was “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction was found.” We speak with former FBI special agent Mike German, who says the FBI investigation of Trump has so far followed “a very cautious, restrained and methodological approach” and deviated greatly from the “militaristic approach” the FBI typically uses to target social justice organizations. He also says the threats against FBI agents from Trump supporters are “serious” and “persistent.”
Pakistan has declared a national emergency as massive floods continue to devastate the country, displacing 33 million people and bringing the death toll to over 1,000 since June. We speak with Shah Meer Baloch, Islamabad-based reporter for The Guardian, who describes how the floods have swept away homes, roads and bridges in what Baloch and Pakistan’s top climate official have called a serious “climate catastrophe.” We also speak with Asad Rehman, executive director of War on Want, who says Pakistan and other poor countries are “stuck in a toxic interplay between a climate catastrophe that they are not responsible for, increasing hunger, structural inequality and a rigged economic system.” He calls on rich countries to reach zero net emissions by 2030 instead of pursuing geoengineering schemes like carbon capture and storage — a tactic that is funded in President Biden’s new Inflation Reduction Act.
“Serious Climate Catastrophe”: Unprecedented Floods Displace Millions in Pakistan, Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, Warns Residents to “Get Out Now” as Floodwaters Rise, DOJ Releases Affidavit Used to Justify FBI Search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Anti-Radiation Iodine Tablets Handed Out as Fighting Rages Near Russian-Held Nuclear Plant, Russia Blocks Draft of U.N. Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, 32 Killed, Over 150 Injured as Rival Militias Clash in Libya’s Capital, EPA to Reclassify “Forever Chemicals” as Hazardous, Fed Chair Says U.S. Must Suffer “Pain” of Higher Interest Rates to Battle Inflation, Asylum Seeker Dies by Suicide at For-Profit ICE Jail in New Mexico, Ethiopian Forces Blamed for Airstrike on Tigray Kindergarten That Killed 7, 6 of 43 Kidnapped Mexican Students Were Kept Alive for Days Before Their 2014 Murder, Thousands Rally to Oppose Corruption Charges Against Argentina’s Vice President, California Governor Threatens to Veto Bill Making It Easier for Farmworkers to Unionize
Millions of pregnant people in the United States have now lost access to abortion in their state since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Anti-abortion “trigger laws” have gone into effect in numerous states across the country, including Texas, where it became a felony to perform an abortion starting Thursday, punishable by up to life in prison. We speak to Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a Texas-based abortion provider, and Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, about how doctors are navigating the legal environment after the end of Roe v. Wade. “What I’ve seen over the last seven years of providing abortion care in Texas is that politics has found its way into my exam room, into my health center. It’s soaked its way into everything I do as a healthcare provider,” says Kumar, who adds that conservative politicians have attacked both abortion and trans healthcare in similar ways. Meanwhile, Timmaraju says even anti-abortion laws that allow abortion under extreme circumstances undercut bodily autonomy by leaving life in the hands of a panel of judges or hospital staff. “It’s an absolutely intolerable way to manage reproductive healthcare in this country,” she says.
One year after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover of the government, the country is in a humanitarian crisis that includes widespread hunger and poverty. Meanwhile, the U.S. refuses to release $7 billion in foreign assets that belong to Afghanistan’s central bank. “At least preventing starvation in Afghanistan is still our duty,” says Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which held a recent symposium on Afghanistan.
Six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the war has reached a stalemate. We speak with Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who says a possible path to a general ceasefire can begin with securing the safety of the region around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Nuclear Catastrophe Narrowly Averted at Russian-Held Plant, Says Ukraine’s Zelensky, IAEA Chief Says U.N. Inspectors Will Tour Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant “Very Soon”, Biden Orders U.S. Airstrikes in Syria Against Fighters with Alleged Links to Iran, Rohingya Muslims in Exile Mark Five Years Since Start of Genocide in Burma, Greenpeace Warns U.N. Ocean Biodiversity Treaty “On the Brink of Failure”, Peru Sues Repsol for $4.5 Billion over Massive Oil Spill, North Dakota Judge Puts Temporary Hold on Anti-Abortion “Trigger Law”, South Carolina GOP Lawmaker Voices Regret over “Fetal Heartbeat” Abortion Ban, Federal Court Extends Injunction Against Arkansas Anti-Trans Law, Biden Administration Moves to Codify DACA Under Federal Law, Judge Orders DOJ to Release Parts of Affidavit Used in Trump Search Warrant, Fox News Sued for $1.6 Billion over False Claims About Electronic Voting, Chipotle Workers in Michigan Become First to Unionize, Starbucks Accused of Illegally Withholding Wages from Pro-Union Workers, Qatar Deports Migrant Workers Who Demanded Unpaid Wages
We speak with one of the reporters who this week exposed the secretive Chicago industrial mogul who has quietly given $1.6 billion to the architect of the right-wing takeover of the courts — the largest known political advocacy donation in U.S. history. The donor is Barre Seid, who donated all of his shares in his electronics company, Tripp Lite, to the nonprofit group run by Leonard Leo, who helped select former President Trump’s conservative Supreme Court nominees. “This transaction was all structured in a way that really gamed the rules around donations to nonprofits,” says Andrew Perez, a reporter for The Lever, who co-authored an exposé about Seid headlined “Inside The Right’s Historic Billion-Dollar Dark Money Transfer.”
Oklahoma plans to execute a person a month for the next two years, starting today. We get an update from Connie Johnson, former state senator and murder victim family member with the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and speak with world-renowned anti-death-penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean. “Our death penalty is broken. It always was from the beginning,” Prejean tells Democracy Now! “I recognize that this is torture and an abuse of human rights. In time, with our help, as we continue to get the word out, the American people are going to see that, too. And we are going to end this thing.” Oklahoma has a history of botched executions, wrongful convictions and prosecution misconduct. “We get it wrong here often,” says Johnson. “We don’t want anyone executed.”
“Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis,” a new short documentary from The Intercept, profiles Black women educators and activists struggling under the weight of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars in student loan debt. It is directed by Astra Taylor and Erick Stoll, narrated by former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, and was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. “A system where Black women do not have to be subject to crushing debt is a system that would benefit everyone,” says Shamell Bell, one of the women featured in the film.
In a much-anticipated move, President Biden has signed an executive order Wednesday for student debt relief that could help more than 40 million borrowers by canceling up to $20,000 of their federal loans. Many advocates for canceling student debt say Biden’s plan doesn’t go far enough, while Republicans decry the plan as “student debt socialism.” We speak to Astra Taylor, writer, filmmaker and co-director of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors and one of the original advocates for a debt jubilee that would cancel all student debt. Despite the mixed reaction, “this is incredibly significant when you think about where we began as a movement not that long ago,” says Taylor, who also notes that debt strikes and the fight for full cancellation will continue.
President Biden to Cancel Up to $20,000 of Student Debt Per Borrower, Federal Judge Blocks Part of Idaho’s “Trigger Ban” Criminalizing Abortion Care, Russian Missile Attack on Ukrainian Train Station Kills at Least 25 Civilians, U.N. Chief Slams “Senseless War” in Ukraine on 6-Month Anniversary of Russian Invasion, Russian Dissident Arrested After Calling Russia’s War in Ukraine an “Invasion”, Fighting Shatters Truce in Ethiopia’s War-Torn Tigray Region, California to Phase Out Sales of Gasoline-Powered Cars by 2035, Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo Fired over Failed Response to Massacre, Oklahoma Prepares to Kill Prisoner James Coddington After Gov. Stitt Denies Clemency, Nearly 50,000 U.S. Prisoners Face Prolonged Solitary Confinement , Columbus Teachers Reach Tentative Deal to End Strike, Israeli Supreme Court Rejects Palestinian Hunger Striker’s Bid to End Detention Without Trial
We remember the legendary historian, author, professor, playwright and activist Howard Zinn, who was born 100 years ago today. Zinn was a regular guest on Democracy Now! from the start of the program in 1996 up until his death in 2010 at age 87. After witnessing the horrors of World War II as a bombardier, Zinn became a peace and justice activist who picketed with his students at Spelman College during the civil rights movement and joined in actions such as opposing the Vietnam War. He later spoke out against the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. “I believe neutrality is impossible, because the world is already moving in certain directions. Wars are going on. Children are starving,” Zinn said in a 2005 interview. “To be neutral … is to collaborate with whatever is going on, to allow it to happen.” His classic book, “A People’s History of the United States,” retells the country’s history from the perspective of everyday people who resisted oppression and exploitation by more powerful forces.
After Campaigning for Abortion Rights, Democrat Pat Ryan Wins New York Special Congressional Election, Charlie Crist to Challenge Ron DeSantis in Florida Gubernatorial Race, 25-Year-Old Gun Control Activist Maxwell Alejandro Frost Wins Florida Congressional Primary, U.S. to Give Ukraine $3 Billion on 6-Month Anniversary of Russian Invasion, U.N. Warns of “Catastrophic Consequences” If Fighting Continues Near Ukrainian Nuclear Plant, Report: U.N. Faces Record Aid Shortfall to Address Humanitarian Crises, Reports: Biden to Announce Move to Cancel Some Student Debt, Jury Convicts Two Boogaloo Movement Members in Plot to Kidnap Michigan Governor, National Archives Says Trump Took 700 Pages of Classified Documents from White House, Ex-Louisville Cop Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Warrant for Raid on Breonna Taylor’s Home, Charges Dropped Against Atlanta Cops in Shooting Death of Rayshard Brooks, Justice Department Launches Probe into Arkansas Officers After Brutal Beating, U.S. Bombs Syria in Attempt to Take Out Sites Affiliated with Iran, Ex-Malaysian Prime Minister Begins 12-Year-Sentence, Thai Court Suspends Prime Minister over Term Limit Dispute, Mexican Reporter Fredid Román Shot Dead, 15th Journalist Killed This Year in Mexico, Texas Declares Emergencies in 20 Counties After Massive Floods, 5-Year-Old Guatemalan Girl Drowns Trying to Cross Rio Grande, Ex-Security Head of Twitter Warns of “Extreme, Egregious Deficiencies” in Security Protocols at Social Media Giant