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May 17, 2021
We speak with Palestinian reporter Youmna al-Sayed, who was among the journalists who had to flee for their lives when Israel bombed and leveled a 12-story Gaza building that housed the offices of media organizations including the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Israel has claimed, without evidence, that the building was being used by Hamas operatives, but al-Sayed says it's part of a pattern of Israeli attacks on media. "This is no coincidence," she says.
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May 17, 2021
Matthias Schmale, director of UNRWA operations in Gaza, says civilians in the besieged territory are facing "terror from the skies" amid Israel's bombardment, which has already killed nearly 200 people. "The price the civilian population is paying for this is unacceptable. This has to stop. This is terror on a civilian population."
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May 17, 2021
Israel's assault on Gaza has entered its second week, as Israel killed at least 42 Palestinians in Gaza Sunday in the deadliest day so far when it bombarded the besieged area with airstrikes, artillery fire and gunboat shelling. Israel has killed nearly 200 Palestinians, including 58 children and 34 women, and destroyed over 500 homes in Gaza, leaving 40,000 Palestinians homeless. Israel also leveled a 12-story building housing the offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. "This is a total destruction from the Israeli occupation against the native Palestinians in Gaza," says Palestinian academic and activist Refaat Alareer, who lives in Gaza. "This is not new. This is a continuation of Israeli aggression against Palestinians that started in 1948, the Nakba."
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May 17, 2021
Israel's Deadly Assault on Gaza Enters Second Week: 200 Palestinians Killed and Media Attacked, India, Nepal Battle Devastating COVID Wave as More Asian Countries Impose Restrictions Amid Surge, Nurses' Union Challenges New CDC Mask Guidelines; Judge Keeps Eviction Ban in Place for Now, Blast in Afghan Mosque Kills 12 as Fighting Intensifies Between Taliban and Gov't Forces, Chilean Voters Select Delegates to Draft New Constitution, Colombian Protests Call for End to State Violence After Suicide of Teen Sexually Abused by Police, GOP Replaces Liz Cheney with Trump Loyalist Elise Stefanik, Texas Set to Enact Draconian Abortion Ban That Would Criminalize Patients, Medical Providers, Columbus, OH to Pay $10 Million Settlement to Family of Andre Hill, Black Man Killed by Police, Jackson, MI Leaders Apologize for 1970 Jackson State Killings, Philadelphia Says Remains of Police Bombing Victims Were Not Destroyed
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May 14, 2021
Republican senators in Washington are attempting to block Kristen Clarke, a prominent voting rights advocate, from a top Justice Department position. The Senate Judiciary Committee has deadlocked on an 11-11 vote on whether to move Clarke's nomination for assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to the Senate floor for a full vote. If she wins the vote, Clarke, who has served as the head of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and is a longtime champion of voting rights, a defender against hate and violent extremism, would be the first Black woman to hold the position. Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP, says the campaign against Clarke's nomination is based on falsehoods, including baseless claims of anti-Semitism. "The way that they've lied about her really is a new low," Jealous says, who links Republican obstruction to the party's larger assault on voting rights.
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May 14, 2021
Palestinian scholar Hanan Ashrawi says Israel's latest assault on Gaza is turning life in the besieged territory into "sheer hell," aided by U.S. military and diplomatic support. "Israel has total license to use unbridled power to kill and destroy and maim and get away with it," Ashrawi says. We also speak with Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, who says President Joe Biden's continued defense of Israeli actions reflects long-standing erasure and dehumanization of Palestinians. "One wonders what proportion you have to have of Arab deaths, of Palestinian deaths, over Israeli deaths. Is it 20 to 1 before the United States finally begins to recognize that this is not legitimate self-defense?" Khalidi says. "This is a perfect illustration of the bias that has been a feature of American policy for many, many years."
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May 14, 2021
As the death toll in Gaza reaches at least 119 amid Israel's escalation of its aerial assault, Congressmember Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the first Palestinian American woman elected to Congress, delivered a powerful speech on the House floor Thursday to denounce the violence and attempted erasure of the Palestinian people. "I am the only Palestinian American member of Congress now," Tlaib said. "I am a reminder to colleagues that Palestinians do indeed exist."
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May 14, 2021
As MOVE family members and hundreds of supporters held a memorial Thursday to mark the deadly May 13, 1985, police bombing of their home in Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney announced the resignation of the city's top health official over stunning new revelations he cremated some of the bombing victims' remains, including bone fragments, without the knowledge or permission of the families. This comes amid an ongoing investigation into how the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University came into possession of bones thought to belong to one or two MOVE children killed in the bombing. The police bombing of the home of the radical, Black liberation, anti-police-brutality group killed six adults and five children and burned down two city blocks.
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May 14, 2021
Palestinian Civilian Death Toll Mounts as Israel Pounds Gaza with Airstrikes and Heavy Artillery, Eight Killed in Israel by Palestinian Rocket Fire as Military Chief Threatens "Gaza Will Burn", President Biden Says Israel's Bombing and Shelling of Gaza Not a "Significant Overreaction", India to Make Russia's Sputnik V Vaccine Available Amid Devastating COVID-19 Toll, Japan Expands Coronavirus Emergency as Doctors Join Call to Cancel Summer Olympics, CDC Says Fully Vaccinated U.S. Residents Can Go Maskless in Most Settings, Hackers Post Personal Data of D.C. Police Officers Following Ransomware Attack, Active-Duty Marine Arrested for Assaulting Police Officer During January 6 Insurrection, Protesters "Evict" Enbridge After It Defies Governor's Order to Shut Down Line 5 Pipeline, U.K. Court Delivers Prison Sentence to Ex-Diplomat Who Has Reported on Persecution of Julian Assange, McDonald's Workers to Strike for $15/Hour, Call Out Pay Raise That Benefits Just 5% of Branches
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May 13, 2021
We look at the crisis unfolding in Israel-Palestine with Nathan Thrall, former director of the Arab-Israeli Project at the International Crisis Group and writer now based in Jerusalem, who says despite a buildup of Israeli troops on the Gaza border, Israel wants to avoid a ground invasion of the besieged territory and return to the status quo that existed before the latest round of violence. "Israel's preference and its policy is to have Hamas remain in control of its little island of Gaza after this is finished," Thrall says.
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May 13, 2021
Televised images of Israeli mobs attacking Palestinians have been widely denounced by Israeli media and public figures, but Palestinian writer Budour Hassan says the selective outrage ignores decades of occupation that have led to this point. "There is some mention of these lynch mobs that are attacking Palestinians in mixed cities. What is not mentioned is who emboldened these lynch mobs. We're talking about state-sponsored, decades-long discrimination, isolation and erasure that emboldened these groups," says Hassan, legal researcher for the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights, who joins us from Nazareth.
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May 13, 2021
On Monday, we spoke to writer and poet Mohammed El-Kurd, whose family is facing forceful eviction from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. He also spoke on CNN and MSNBC. After these interviews, Israeli forces arrested him and forcibly removed him from Sheikh Jarrah. It was captured in a dramatic video shared widely on social media. "They just threw me in the street and told me that I couldn't come back into the neighborhood," El-Kurd says. "They've done this many times to us, many of my family members, many of my neighbors. They do this routinely." El-Kurd has been one of the most prominent Palestinian voices in recent weeks describing what is happening in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where Israeli authorities' planned evictions of several Palestinian families to give their homes to Jewish settlers has been widely described as "ethnic cleansing."
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May 13, 2021
The death toll in Gaza has reached at least 83, including 17 children, and hundreds of people have been injured, as Israel's aerial bombardment of the besieged territory continues. Israel is now sending troops to the Gaza border for a possible ground invasion as many Palestinians are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The Biden administration on Wednesday gave Israel a green light to continue its assault, and Israel has reportedly rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire, despite growing international condemnation. Issam Adwan, Gaza project manager for We Are Not Numbers, a youth-led initiative to share Palestinian stories with the wider world, says many international observers make the mistake of viewing the latest violence in isolation. "They think this war is the only violation of human rights Israel is doing to the people of Gaza. Over the past 15 years, we have witnessed three brutal wars, and this is a fourth one," says Adwan.
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May 13, 2021
Gaza Death Toll Soars Amid Israeli Airstrikes as Israeli Troops Mass for Ground Invasion, U.S. Blocks U.N. Resolution on Israel-Palestine as Biden Asserts Israel's "Right to Defend Itself", Chanting "Death to Arabs," Israeli Mobs Attack Arab-Owned Businesses and Assault Driver, India Reports Another 4,100 COVID-19 Deaths as Cases Begin to Decline in Delhi , Nurses Honor 400 Colleagues Who Lost Their Lives to COVID-19, Call for More Protections, U.S. COVID Numbers Fall as Doctors Debate Vaccinating Kids Ahead of Vulnerable People Abroad, U.N. Calls for Doubling Global Vaccine Production as Some Countries Have Yet to Receive Single Dose, Cuba Starts to Roll Out Two Domestic Vaccines , Delayed EPA Report Paints Dire Picture of Human-Caused Climate Crisis, Colonial Pipeline Resumes Operations Amid Fuel Shortages and Price Hikes, House GOP Ousts Liz Cheney from Leadership Role for Calling Out Trump Election Lies, Attorney General Merrick Garland Says White Supremacists Are Top Domestic Violence Threat , Judge Finds "Aggravating Factors" in Derek Chauvin's Murder of Geroge Floyd, Sahrawi Human Rights Activist Sultana Khaya and Sister Raped by Moroccan Agents
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May 12, 2021
As Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner attempts to overhaul the city's criminal justice system, he faces a Democratic primary election next week against Carlos Vega, a former homicide prosecutor who is one of three dozen veteran prosecutors fired by Krasner when he took office in 2018. We speak with Linn Washington, a journalist who has covered Philadelphia's criminal justice system for decades, who says powerful forces, including the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, have unfairly "tarred" Krasner for his reforms. "The FOP represents the very worst of the regressive approach to the criminal justice system, the very elements that Mr. Krasner is trying to reform," Washington says. He also discusses how Krasner's stance on Mumia Abu-Jamal may not cost him reelection but "will stain his reputation as a reformer."
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May 12, 2021
In Pennsylvania, more than half of incarcerated people are jailed due to probation violations. We speak with formerly incarcerated activist LaTonya Myers, who says probation and parole, rather than being a stepping stone to freedom, act as a "streamline to mass incarceration," with punitive rules landing people back behind bars for minor violations. Myers helps people arrested navigate the bail review system as support coordinator with the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund and is featured in the new PBS documentary series "Philly D.A." about Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's attempts to reform the criminal justice system. "We just want a part of the American dream," says Myers. "But it hasn't been American dream for us. It's American nightmare."
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May 12, 2021
Four years ago, the longtime civil rights attorney Larry Krasner shocked the political establishment in Philadelphia by being elected district attorney. Now he faces a tough reelection next week. We delve into his record as captured in a new eight-part series by PBS "Independent Lens" that follows how Krasner, who had sued the Philadelphia Police Department 75 times during his career, ran on a platform of ending mass incarceration and has fought to overhaul the DA's Office. "Is change possible in an institution like this?" asks series co-creator Ted Passon. "Why or why not?" We also speak with co-creator Nicole Salazar about how the series explores "the tensions between the new guard, between Krasner's team and the existing prosecutors in the office."
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May 12, 2021
At Least 50 Palestinians Killed as Israeli Attacks Continue; Protests Call Out Israeli Crimes, Red Cross Warns COVID Cases "Exploding" in Asia as India Continues to Break New Records, Algeria Moves to Ban Unauthorized Protests as Pro-Democracy Movement Gains Steam, French Court Tosses Lawsuit from Agent Orange Victim Against Chemical Companies, Family of Andrew Brown Jr. Views More Footage of Police Killing, Confirms Shooting Was Unjustified, Ahmaud Arbery's Killers Plead Not Guilty to Federal Hate Crimes, Arizona Passes Law to Cut Voters from Early Mail-in Voting List, Liz Cheney Delivers Scathing Rebuke as GOP Prepares to Vote on Her Ouster from House Leadership, Judge Dismisses NRA Bankruptcy Bid, Prosecutors Will Seek Death Penalty for Suspect in Atlanta Spa Massacre, AP Reports Biden Admin Holding 21,000 Migrant Children in Crowded Facilities with No Oversight, Pollution from Animal Farming Causes Tens of Thousands of U.S. Deaths Each Year
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May 11, 2021
This week marks the 36th anniversary of the day the city of Philadelphia bombed its own citizens. On May 13, 1985, police surrounded the home of MOVE, a radical Black liberation organization that was defying orders to vacate. Police flooded the home with water, filled the house with tear gas, and blasted the house with automatic weapons, all failing to dislodge the residents. Finally, police dropped a bomb on the house from a helicopter, killing 11 people, including five children. The fire burned an entire city block to the ground, destroying over 60 homes. But the tragedy didn't end on that day. We look at how Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania have used bones from one or two of the murdered children in their classes for years. "We still don't know all the details about what happened in terms of the chain of custody," says Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, an organizer and writer in West Philadelphia who helped bring the revelations to the public. "You can't even begin to heal because the harm is still being done," adds Mike Africa Jr., a second-generation MOVE member. "Everybody is just retraumatized."
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May 11, 2021
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed at least 26 Palestinians, including nine children, as tension in the region has escalated sharply. Hundreds were also injured by Israeli forces Monday when they stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Hamas responded by firing hundreds of rockets into Israel, which reportedly caused dozens of injuries but no deaths. The tension in Jerusalem has been mounting for weeks as Palestinians have been organizing to block Israel from forcibly evicting dozens of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to give their homes to Jewish settlers. The United Nations has described the planned eviction as a possible war crime. Raji Sourani, award-winning human rights lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, says Israel's latest assault is compounding the suffering of people in the besieged territory. "We have the occupation. We have the blockade for the last 14 years, which paralyzed our entire lives. We have the pandemic, and now we have this fourth war against Gaza," he says. We also speak with Orly Noy, an Israeli political activist and editor of the Hebrew-language news site Local Call, who says the latest outbreak of fighting is likely to help Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cling to power. "Israeli politics is now in a very strange phase," Noy says. "Extreme right-wingers are controlling both sides of the Israeli map."
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May 11, 2021
Israeli Airstrikes Kill 26 Palestinians in Gaza, Including 9 Children, Bodies of Indian COVID-19 Victims Found on Banks of Ganges River, World Health Organization Chief Blasts "Shocking Global Disparity" in Vaccine Access, U.S. Drug Regulator Clears Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine for Use in Children 12 and Older, Democrats Urge President Biden to Lift Iran Sanctions and Return to 2015 Nuclear Deal, Colombian President Warns Indigenous Protesters Amid Mounting Attacks by Vigilantes, Mother's Day Marchers Demand Mexican Government Take Action to Find Missing Children, Moroccan Authorities Raid Home of Western Sahara Independence Activist Sultana Khaya, More Than 2,000 Refugees Arrive on Italy's Lampedusa Island, Overwhelming Aid Workers, At Least Nine Killed in School Shooting in Central Russia, Washington Post: Trump Justice Department Spied on Journalists Covering 2016 Election, Instagram Apologizes for Deleting Posts Supporting #MMIWG2S, Biden Admin Reinstates Protections for Trans People Seeking Healthcare, Governor Expands Drought Emergency Declaration in California, Contempt-of-Court Trial Opens for Steven Donziger, Lawyer Who Sued Chevron for Amazon Oil Spills
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May 10, 2021
Extreme voting restrictions have advanced in several Republican-led states across the U.S., including in Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a sweeping voter suppression bill that will make it harder to vote by mail, limit ballot drop boxes, impose new voter ID requirements and criminalize giving food and water to voters waiting in line at polling places. Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman says these efforts are an extension of former President Trump's "big lie" about voter fraud. "They're trying to make it harder for Democratic constituencies to be able to vote in future elections, and they are trying to institutionalize voter suppression in a way that they couldn't do in 2020," Berman says. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a key Senate panel is set to take up the sweeping voting rights and election overhaul bill known as the For the People Act.
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May 10, 2021
At least 85 people, mostly young girls, were killed in Afghanistan after several bomb blasts outside a school in the capital Kabul. Survivors said the bombs were timed to go off as the girls left school for the day. The neighborhood where the attack occurred is mostly populated by the minority Hazara Shia community, and the Afghan government blamed the Taliban, though the group denies responsibility. The massacre came one week after U.S. and NATO forces started their military withdrawal from Afghanistan and amid a surge in violence. We go to Kabul to speak with Basir Bita, a mentor with Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers whose brother is a survivor of the attack, and Afghan American scholar Zaher Wahab. "Women and children continue to be the main victims of this occupation and invasion and the mayhem," Wahab says, but he dismisses justifications for the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan as "protecting women and girls."
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May 10, 2021
Hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded after Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque for the second time in four days, with reports showing police fired rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinian worshipers. Palestinians have been staging weeks of protests to block Israel from evicting dozens of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem to give their homes to Jewish settlers, which the United Nations has described as a possible war crime. Mohammed El-Kurd, a writer and poet who is organizing to save his family's home in Sheikh Jarrah, says the world is seeing colonialism in action in Palestine. "What's happening in Sheikh Jarrah today is nothing short of ethnic cleansing," El-Kurd says in an interview from Jerusalem. "We are seeing the Israeli government literally doing everything it can to terrorize Palestinians, whereas Israeli settlers can just walk around our neighborhoods, steal our homes and wield their guns, no questions asked whatsoever."
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May 10, 2021
Israeli Forces Attack, Injure Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Amid Protests Against Sheikh Jarrah Expulsions, At Least 85 People, Mostly Schoolgirls, Killed in Kabul Bomb Blasts, As COVID Devastates India, New Surges Prompt Restrictions Across Asia; Brazil Tops 15 Million Cases, WHO Approves Chinese Sinopharm Vaccine, Adding to COVAX Arsenal, Protests Erupt After Iraqi Activist Ehab al-Wazni Killed in Karbala, Colorado Springs Shooting Claims 7 Lives During Weekend Marked by Rash of Mass Shootings, DOJ Proposes Rule to Reign in "Ghost Guns" and Other Unregulated Firearms, DOJ Brings Federal Charges Against Derek Chauvin, 3 Other Ex-Cops in George Floyd's Murder, Judge Says Andrew Brown's Family Can Watch Just a Fraction of Footage Showing Police Killing, Ransomware Attack Targeting Colonial Pipeline Shuts Fuel Shipments Across Eastern U.S., Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar Introduce Bill to Make School Meals Free
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May 07, 2021
Nearly 80 years ago, Richard Wright became one of the most famous Black writers in the United States with the publication of "Native Son," a novel whose searing critique of systemic racism made it a best-seller and inspired a generation of Black writers. In 1941, Wright wrote a new novel titled "The Man Who Lived Underground," but publishers refused to release it, in part because the book was filled with graphic descriptions of police brutality by white officers against a Black man. His manuscript was largely forgotten until his daughter Julia Wright unearthed it at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. "The Man Who Lived Underground" was not published in the 1940s because white publishers did not want to highlight "white supremacist police violence upon a Black man because it was too close to home," says Julia Wright. "It's a bit like lifting the stone and not wanting the worms, the racist worms underneath, to be seen."
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May 07, 2021
This week, four parents from Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico were reunited with their children in the United States after being separated under former President Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy. They were the first families to be reunited on U.S. soil since the Biden administration began its reunification process. "Although we love to see the reunifications and they're very moving, we have to keep in mind what led to that and that it should never have happened in the first place," says Carol Anne Donohoe, managing attorney for the Family Reunification Project at Al Otro Lado. We also speak with Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, who leads the ACLU's lawsuit over family separations. He notes more than 1,000 children are still separated from their parents, and adds, "We have not even found the parents of 455 children."
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May 07, 2021
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs Voter Suppression Bill, Texas and Ohio Republicans Advance Bills to Make It Harder to Vote, India Sets Yet Another World Record for Daily COVID-19 Infections, Study Finds COVID-19 Has Killed 6.9 Million Worldwide, More Than Double Official Count, German Chancellor Angela Merkel Rejects Patent Waiver for COVID-19 Vaccines, Police Raid on Rio de Janeiro Favela Leaves 25 Dead, with Reports of Execution-Style Killings, U.S. Sends Warplanes to Afghanistan Amid Withdrawal as HRW Warns Aid Cuts Jeopardize Women's Health, CodePink Co-Founder Calls Out General Dynamics CEO over Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia, DOJ Says Arizona 2020 Election Recount May Be Violating Civil Rights Laws as Concerns Pile Up, Colorado Republican Calls Colleague "Buckwheat" During Legislative Session, New York AG Says 18 Million Fake Comments Were Posted in Support of 2017 FCC Net Neutrality Repeal, Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed Injured in Bomb Attack, Indigenous and Climate Activists Hold Global Day of Action Against Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline
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May 06, 2021
Former President Donald Trump will continue to stay off Facebook after the company's oversight board ruled Wednesday that his ban was justified for creating "an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible." Trump was banned shortly after the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which he helped foment by promoting baseless claims of election fraud. The oversight board also said Facebook should reassess its ban and make a final decision in six months. Shoshana Zuboff, professor emerita at Harvard Business School and author of the book "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism," says that Facebook's recent moves follow years of inaction by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "He showed that he was willing to do just about anything to appease Trump … to keep regulation at bay," Zuboff says.
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May 06, 2021
At least 30 people in Colombia have been reportedly killed since a nationwide uprising erupted against the government of right-wing President Iván Duque. Protesters are vowing to remain in the streets amid a deadly crackdown by police and military officers. About 800 people have been injured and 87 people are missing in the midst of the demonstrations, which were initially sparked by a now-withdrawn tax reform proposal, but they have since expanded in scope. People in Colombia are also denouncing rampant police brutality and demanding broader social, economic and political reforms. At least 15 people were killed in a massacre in the city of Cali on April 30 after police repeatedly opened fire on protesters. "The country has been a place of repression," says Emilia Márquez Pizano, sex and gender director with the Colombian nonprofit Temblores, which collects data on police violence in the country. We also speak with Manuel Rozental, a Colombian activist with more than 40 years of involvement in grassroots political organizing and member of the collective Pueblos en Camino. He says "Colombians are fed up" with what he describes as the "fascist mafia regime" of Iván Duque. "They have pushed Colombians into the streets because most Colombians have nothing to lose," Rozental says.
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May 06, 2021
The Biden administration has announced it now supports temporarily waiving the intellectual property rights for COVID vaccines, in what the World Trade Organization is calling a "monumental moment." India and South Africa first proposed the waiver in October, but the United States and other wealthy nations blocked the WTO from even opening negotiations on the proposal. Supporters say the waiver is critically needed to increase the rate of vaccine production for the Global South as COVID-19 rapidly spreads in India, Latin America and other regions where few vaccines are available. Biden's support for the waiver is "an incredibly pleasant surprise" and "late, but still welcome," says Achal Prabhala, coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa. "The proposal is monumental because what it does is it allows for more vaccines to be manufactured in the world," Prabhala says. "The whole world faces a crippling shortage of coronavirus vaccines."
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May 06, 2021
In Reversal, Biden Administration Will Support Waiving Patents for COVID-19 Vaccines, India Sets New Global Record for Daily Coronavirus Cases, CDC Predicts Sharp Drop in U.S. COVID-19 Cases by July If Vaccinations Continue, Trump-Appointed Federal Judge Throws Out National Eviction Moratorium, Study Predicts "Rapid and Unstoppable" Sea Level Rise Unless Paris Climate Goals Are Met, U.N. Warns of Soaring Hunger, Child Mortality and Maternal Deaths During Pandemic, Facebook Oversight Board Upholds Ban on Trump, Active-Duty National Guardsman Arrested over January 6 Insurrection, Top Republicans Prepare to Oust Rep. Liz Cheney from Leadership Role over Anti-Trump Comments, Israel's Yair Lapid Given Chance to Form Coalition Government After PM Netanyahu Fails, 16-Year-Old Palestinian Said Odeh Shot Dead by Israeli Forces in Occupied West Bank, Labor Dept. Voids Trump-Era Rule Making It Easier to Classify Gig Workers as Independent Contractors, South Carolina Legislature Votes to Bring Back Electric Chair, Firing Squads, DNA Evidence Suggests Ledell Lee Was Innocent of Murder for Which He Was Executed in 2017, Olympic Committee to Ban "Black Lives Matter" Slogan and Protests at Tokyo Summer Games, Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Jailed Ahead of July 13 Sentencing
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May 05, 2021
China topped the agenda Tuesday when foreign ministers from G7 nations met in London. This comes as both China and the United States are accusing each other of escalating tensions in the South China Sea. Last week, the Chinese government claimed there has been a 40% increase of activity by U.S. planes in Chinese-claimed areas since Biden took office. Critics increasingly argue Biden's policies on China are risk sparking a new Cold War. "Trump's anti-China policy is now also being followed by the Biden administration," says acclaimed Filipino scholar and activist Walden Bello, co-founder of Focus on the Global South.
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May 05, 2021
The international disparity in vaccine access between rich and low-income countries highlights "the irrationality of global capitalism," says acclaimed Filipino scholar and activist Walden Bello, who urges the Biden administration to sign on to an effort at the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive intellectual property rules on vaccine technology. He also discusses the COVID crisis in the Philippines.
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May 05, 2021
Pressure is growing on the Biden administration to support a temporary waiver on intellectual property rights for COVID-related medicines and vaccines at the World Trade Organization. India and South Africa first proposed the waiver in October, but it was blocked by the United States and other wealthy members of the WTO. Big Pharma has also come out against the proposal and has lobbied Washington to preserve its monopoly control. More than 100 countries have supported the waiver, which they say is critical to ramp up production of vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests in the Global South. Ahead of the kickoff of two days of WTO important meetings in Geneva, we speak with Lori Wallach of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. "The big problem is simply not enough vaccines are being produced," says Wallach. "The world needs 10 to 15 billion doses to reach herd immunity, and right now all of the global production together is on track to make 6 billion doses this year."
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May 05, 2021
India Reports New Record Death Toll as Indian G7 Delegation Self-Isolates in London, Tanzania Adopts Travel Restrictions; Seychelles, Which Has Highest Vaccination Rate, Sees New Surge, Biden Wants 70% of U.S. Adults to Get Vaccine by July 4; Pfizer to Seek EUA for Children 2 in Sept., House Dems Call on Biden to Allow Vaccine IP Waiver; New York Extends Eviction Moratorium, Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Reported in NY, SF as New Study Shows Surge in Crimes Against AAPI People, Chauvin Lawyer Files Motion for New Trial as AG Seeks Harsher Sentence for Murder of George Floyd, Community Demands Answers After Black LGBTQ Teenager Mikayla Miller Found Dead in April, Women in Puerto Rico Demand Action After Surge in Femicides, Trump's DOJ Threatened MIT Researchers over Report on 2019 Bolivian Election, U.N. Condemns Crackdown on Colombian Protests as Rally Planned Against NYU Event with Ex-Pres. Uribe, Zapatistas Set Sail to Europe to Mark 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance, Mexico Apologizes for Centuries of Abuse Against Maya Indigenous Community, Fighting Intensifies as U.S. Begins Military Retreat from Afghanistan, Richard Cordray, Former Head of CFPB, Tapped to Oversee Federal Student Aid Program, Judge Orders DOJ to Hand Over Memo Used by Bill Barr to Justify Clearing Trump of Obstruction, "New Normal" for U.S. Climate Is Hotter and Wetter, According to New NOAA Data, France Advances New Climate Bill, But Activists Say It Doesn't Go Far Enough
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May 04, 2021
A new four-part documentary series, "Exterminate All the Brutes," delves deeply into the legacy of European colonialism from the Americas to Africa. It has been described as an unflinching narrative of genocide and exploitation, beginning with the colonizing of Indigenous land that is now called the United States. The documentary series seeks to counter "the type of lies, the type of propaganda, the type of abuse, that we have been subject to all of these years," says director and Haitian-born filmmaker Raoul Peck. "We have the means to tell the real story, and that's exactly what I decided to do," Peck says. "Everything is on the table, has been on the table for a long time, except that it was in little bits everywhere. … We lost the wider perspective."
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May 04, 2021
In Reversal, Biden to Raise Cap on Refugees Admitted to U.S., U.S. Allows Four Refugee Families Separated Under Trump to Reunite, India's Official COVID-19 Caseload Tops 20 Million, Nepal's COVID-19 Crisis Becomes "Unmanageable" Amid Exponential Rise in Cases, Argentina Passes 3 Million Confirmed COVID-19 Cases as Brazil Delays Second Vaccine Doses, Biden Under Pressure as World Health Organization Presses for Waiver on Vaccine Patent Rights, U.S. States Roll Back Coronavirus Restrictions as New Cases Fall Below 50,000 Per Day, Andrew Brown Jr. Laid to Rest Amid Mounting Calls to Hold Officers Who Shot Him Accountable, Biden Says Corporations Should Pay "Their Fair Share" of Taxes to Fund Infrastructure Plan, EPA Plans to Phase Out Highly Potent Greenhouse Gases Known as Hydrofluorocarbons, Landmark Trial on Opioid Epidemic Opens in West Virginia Federal Court, Protests Continue to Rock Colombia as Family of 17-Year-Old Protester Killed by Police Demands Justice, El Salvador Rights Groups Warn of "Coup" Against Judiciary Led by President Nayib Bukele, At Least 23 Killed in Mexico City Subway Disaster, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz Threatens to Punish CEOs Who Oppose Voter Suppression Bills, Kansas Republicans Fail to Override Democratic Governor's Veto of Transgender Athlete Ban, Ballroom Legend and Trans Activist Jahaira DeAlto Murdered at 43
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May 03, 2021
Big Pharma has hired an army of lobbyists to pressure U.S. lawmakers to block an effort at the World Trade Organization to loosen intellectual property rules on COVID-19 vaccines, which would allow countries around the world to ramp up production, vaccinate more people and bring the pandemic to an end sooner. Dozens of countries from the Global South, led by India and South Africa, are demanding a temporary waiver on vaccine patents, but rich countries, including the U.S. under both the Trump and Biden administrations, have opposed the move. Lee Fang, investigative journalist at The Intercept, says there is a "glut" of vaccines going to wealthy countries while much of the rest of the world is left waiting. "These initiatives that are based on voluntary agreements with the pharmaceutical companies have not worked," he says. Fang also discusses his reporting on the Biden's administration's ties to the vaccine makers: White House adviser Anita Dunn is co-founder of the consulting firm SKDK, which works closely with Pfizer; Biden's domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, holds up to $5 million in Johnson & Johnson shares; and White House science adviser Eric Lander holds up to $1 million in shares of BioNTech, which co-developed Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine.
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May 03, 2021
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the 1971 May Day protests, when tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C., and brought much of the capital to a standstill through acts of civil disobedience. The mass demonstrations terrified the Nixon administration, and police would arrest over 12,000 people — the largest mass arrest in U.S. history. Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who attended the May Day protests, says it was part of a wave of popular discontent about the war that mobilized millions. "There was a movement of young people who felt that what was happening in the world … was wrong, had to change, and they were ready to risk their careers and their lives to try to change it. And we need that right now," Ellsberg says. He recently spoke with Amy Goodman at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the release of the Pentagon Papers. We play excerpts from that conversation, which also included National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
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May 03, 2021
More than 100 people marched alongside the family of Anthony Alvarez in Chicago Saturday, calling for the police officer who shot and killed him to be charged. Newly released video reveals police killed 22-year-old Alvarez while he was running away during a foot chase. Police have not said why they initially confronted and then chased Alvarez, who was killed just two days after Chicago police shot dead another young Latinx male, 13-year-old Adam Toledo. This comes four years after the Department of Justice found foot pursuits by Chicago police were leading to too many deaths. Now Chicago's mayor and police superintendent say a new police foot pursuit policy is underway. "We need to do a complete overhaul of our Chicago Police Department," says Luis Gutiérrez, former Democratic congressmember for Illinois. "There is this real sense that Brown and Black lives, they don't have the value that they should when Chicago police officers confront our youth."
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May 03, 2021
India Breaks New COVID Records Amid Vaccine Shortages; U.S. Restricts Travel from India, Mourners Remember Slain 16-Year-Old Ma'Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio, Colorado Officers Resign After They Attack 73-Year-Old with Dementia, Laugh About Arrest, Biden Administration Releases Documents on Trump's 2017 Drone Order, 4 Families Separated at U.S Border Will Be Reunited, But Thousands Remain Ripped Apart, Traumatized, Biden Admin Cancels Construction of Trump U.S.-Mexico Border Wall, Migrant Boat Capsizes in San Diego, Killing at Least 4 People, North Korea Issues Warning to U.S. After Biden Says Nuclear Program Presents Global Threat, Burmese Forces Kill at Least 8 Anti-Coup Protesters as Organizers Call for "Spring Revolution", Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 21 People as Violence Surges in Afghanistan, 11 Refugees Drown Off Libyan Coast as U.N. Renews Calls for Urgent Action to Prevent More Deaths, Colombia Withdraws Tax Reform Plans After Days of Deadly Protests, Mitt Romney Greeted with Boos at Utah GOP Convention After Narrowly Avoiding Censure, Oregon State Rep. Facing Charges for Allowing Far-Right Mob to Enter State Capitol in December, Canadian Proud Boys Disband After Being Designated a Terrorist Group in February, NYPD Stops Deploying "Digidog" After Public Outrage, Federal Court Says EPA Must Ban Use of Toxic Pesticide That Harms Children, Workers Mark May 1 Around the World; U.S. Events Call for Passage of PRO ACT, Immigrant Protections
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Apr 30, 2021
Revelations the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton hold the remains of a child killed by Philadelphia police in the 1985 MOVE bombing are the latest development in a conversation about demanding respectful treatment of African American remains in museum collections, especially those of the enslaved. The Penn Museum also apologized last week for holding more than 1,000 stolen skulls of enslaved people in its Morton Collection, and the president of Harvard University issued a letter in January acknowledging the 22,000 human remains in its collections included 15 from people of African descent who may have been enslaved in the United States, vowing review of the school's ethics policies. "This is a really vast problem," says historian Samuel Redman, author of "Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums," who also describes the repatriation of Native American remains after Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990. "There are individual instances like this that are horrific and we need to pay attention to, but it is a symptom of this much larger problem."
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Apr 30, 2021
Following protests, two Ivy League schools — the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University — have issued apologies for their handling of the remains of an African American child killed by the Philadelphia police in the 1985 MOVE bombing. Students at Princeton held a protest on campus to support the demands of the MOVE community, who held another protest at the same time at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, and 70 Princeton professors signed on to a letter published in the campus newspaper that called on the university to act. "This routinely happens where vulnerable people are exploited in the name of research," says Aisha Tahir, a Princeton senior who helped organize a protest on campus. "Princeton does not have practices in place which center the preciousness of human life."
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Apr 30, 2021
A major new report by Human Rights Watch says for the first time that Israel is committing crimes of apartheid and persecution in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The international human rights group says Israeli authorities dispossessed, confined and forcibly separated Palestinians. "For years, prominent voices have warned that apartheid lurked just around the corner. But it's very clear that that threshold has been crossed," says Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. "It's time for the international community to recognize the reality on the ground for what it is — apartheid and persecution — and take the steps necessary to end a situation of this gravity."
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Apr 30, 2021
India COVID Cases Continue to Soar as Arundhati Roy Decries "Crime Against Humanity", Deaths Soar in Latin America; Brazil COVID Death Toll Tops 400,000, 44 Ultra-Orthordox Jews Die in Stampede at Religious Site, Abbas Postpones Palestinian Elections, USAID Watchdog Criticizes Trump's Politicization of Aid to Venezuela, Thousands Flee into Thailand as Burmese Junta Launches Airstrikes Near Border, Florida Approves Sweeping Voter Suppression Bill, West Virginia, Florida & Texas Bills Target Trans Youth, Biden Vows to Close Private Detention Centers in Response to Georgia Protesters, Right-Wing Extremists Face New WMD Charge in Plot to Kidnap Michigan Governor, New York Man Convicted for Threatening Lawmakers After Insurrection, Reports: Justice Department Seeks to Indict Chauvin for Civil Rights Violations, Study Finds Link Between Tear Gas Exposure and Abnormal Menstrual Cycles, Supreme Court Sides with Guatemalan Man Challenging Deportation, FDA Moves to Ban Menthol Cigarettes, But ACLU Warns Move Could Backfire, North Carolina Man Shoots Dead Sheriff's Deputies & 2 Relatives, Indian Point Nuclear Point Shuts Down Today, Germany Court Sides with Youth Climate Activists in Historic Ruling
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Apr 29, 2021
On the eve of his 100th day in office, President Joe Biden gave his first speech to a joint session of Congress and proposed trillions of dollars in new economic measures. He unveiled his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, which includes $1 trillion in new spending and $800 billion in tax credits aimed at expanding access to education and child care. He also called on lawmakers to support his plan to invest heavily in the country's infrastructure and to expand the social safety net in part by funding it with $4 trillion in taxes on the rich and corporations. Economist Jayati Ghosh says Biden's spending plans are "unexpected" but much needed. "It's very important to turn the direction of the nature of public intervention away from protecting the interests of the rich and of large capital to protecting the interests of people," Ghosh says. "This has not been the aim of government policy across the world, and especially in the U.S., for the last three decades." We also speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna, who said Biden's speech "was an explicit rejection of the neoliberal framework."
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Apr 29, 2021
As new coronavirus cases surge across India, overwhelming hospitals and crematories, calls are growing louder for wealthy countries to stop hoarding excess supply of COVID-19 vaccines and to loosen intellectual property restrictions preventing more countries from making their own vaccines. We speak with economist Jayati Ghosh and Congressmember Ro Khanna of California.
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Apr 29, 2021
As India faces 1 million new COVID-19 infections every three days, we look at how more infectious variants have been linked to a spread in cases. The so-called India variant has now been detected in at least 19 countries. "This virus behaves differently now, in that it's much more infectious," says Dr. Priya Sampathkumar, an infectious disease physician at the Mayo Clinic.
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Apr 29, 2021
India has topped 18.3 million COVID-19 cases, after adding 1 million cases in just the past three days amid shortages in vital supplies and overwhelmed hospitals across the country. Makeshift mass cremation facilities have been set up in parks and parking lots, with rows of bodies being burned on funeral pyres. With hospitals overflowing, some patients have been turned away and left to deal with their infections on their own. "This is where Modi has led India," says Indian journalist Rana Ayyub, who says the prime minister "clearly has no plan" for dealing with the crisis ravaging the country's healthcare systems, particularly outside the major cities. "There has always been a crisis of healthcare in rural India, but never has it been so acutely defined as it is now," says Ayyub.
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Apr 29, 2021
Biden Urges Congress to Back Vast Expansion of Social Safety Net & New Taxes on Rich, India in Public Health Catastrophe as Deaths & Infections Reach New High, Hate Crimes Charges Filed Against Georgia Men in Ahmaud Arbery Murder, NC Judge Delays Release of Police Footage of Andrew Brown Jr. Shooting, Video: Chicago Police Shot Anthony Alvarez Dead as He Was Running Away, FBI Raid Rudy Giuliani's Home & Office, Mass Protests in Colombia Held to Protest Iván Duque & Proposed Tax Reform, U.S. Contractors Are Still Helping Maintain Saudi Warplanes Used in Yemen War, Israel Faces Call to Free Alaa al-Rimawi, Palestinian Journalist on Hunger Strike, Scientists: Glaciers Are Melting 31% Faster Than 15 Years Ago, Senate Votes to Reimpose Regs on Methane Emissions, Houston Sheriff Who Criticized Trump's Immigration Policies Is Nominated to Head ICE, Arizona Govenor Signs Sweeping Anti-Abortion Law, Native American Groups Call on CNN to Fire Rick Santorum over Embrace of Genocide
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Apr 28, 2021
We continue our conversation with The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill, who just published a groundbreaking new project on Joe Biden's decades-long foreign policy record. Scahill says that during his years in the U.S. Senate, Biden "almost never meets a war he doesn't support," becoming one of the most hawkish figures in Washington in the 1990s and 2000s. Scahill also discusses Biden's "war against whistleblowers," from Daniel Ellsberg to Edward Snowden.
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Apr 28, 2021
An investigation into President Joe Biden's foreign policy record reveals "the history of the evolution of the American empire, from the Vietnam War to the present," says Jeremy Scahill, award-winning journalist and co-founder of The Intercept, which recently published a project titled "Empire Politician" that examines Biden's stances on war and militarism. Scahill says Joe Biden is the first president in decades to come to the White House after spending significant time in Congress, but it's not clear whether that will push him toward greater restraint in matters of war and peace. "Biden has spent his entire life railing against executive overreach, demanding that Congress be in charge of declaring war, and he may well be presented with a conflict around the world where it's going to really call the question on which Joe Biden shows up: Joe Biden, commander in chief, or Joe Biden who spent most of the past 50 years as a senator demanding that Congress be given its proper authority," says Scahill.
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Apr 28, 2021
As President Joe Biden nears his 100th day in the White House, we look at his foreign policy record, both as president and over the past five decades. A new project created by Jeremy Scahill, award-winning journalist and senior correspondent at The Intercept, examines Biden's stances on war, militarism and the CIA going back to the early 1970s, when he was first elected as a senator in Delaware. We air a video discussing the project, titled "Empire Politician," featuring Scahill.
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Apr 28, 2021
FBI Opens Probe into Police Killing of Andrew Brown as Autopsy Confirms He Was Shot in Back of Head, Video of Police Killing of Mario Gonzalez Prompts Comparison to George Floyd, Call for Probe, India Tops 200,000 COVID Deaths as Hospitals, Cremation Sites Are Overwhelmed, Turkey Orders Coronavirus Lockdown; Brazil Rejects Russia's Sputnik V Vaccine, CDC Says Vaccinated People Can Go Unmasked in Most Outdoor Settings, Seattle City Council Calls on Biden to Support IP Waiver for COVID Vaccine Patents, Biden Proposes Crackdown on Tax Evaders, Changes to Capital Gains Tax to Fund American Families Plan, Protesters Killed in Chad as Political Turmoil Deepens Following Death of President Déby, Conflict in Ethiopia's Amhara Region Killed at Least 200 People This Month, 2 Spanish Journalists Killed in Burkina Faso Ambush While Documenting Poaching, Testimony in El Mozote Massacre Trial Highlights U.S. Cover-up of Mass Killings, Democrats and Election Experts Warn Census Results Underrepresent Latinx Community, ICE Will Not Be Allowed to Make Courthouse Arrests; Mayorkas Launches Probe into Extremism at DHS, ICE Flight Transfers 64 Asylum Seekers from U.S.-Mexico Border to Northwest Detention Center, Scientists Say New Malaria Vaccine Could Be Up to 77% Effective, Idaho Signs Draconian Anti-Abortion Bill, Nurses at Massachusetts' Saint Vincent Hospital on Strike over Ongoing Staff and Safety Concerns
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Apr 27, 2021
Outrage is growing in Philadelphia after explosive revelations that the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University have been in possession of remains thought to belong to two children who were among 11 people killed in the 1985 police bombing of the Philadelphia home of the radical, Black liberation and anti-police-brutality group MOVE. We show an excerpt of a training video — now removed from the internet — by an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University who has been using the bones of at least one of the young bombing victims for the past 36 years — without the knowledge or consent of the families — and get response from a MOVE family member. "It makes you wonder: What else do they have?" says Mike Africa Jr., a second-generation MOVE member who grew up with the children whose remains have now been located. "What else are they covering up? What else are they lying about?"
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Apr 27, 2021
Hundreds of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to protest the police killing of Andrew Brown Jr., a 42-year-old Black father shot dead in his car on April 21. On Monday, authorities allowed Brown's family and attorney to watch a 20-second video clip of the shooting. The family says it shows Brown was shot in the back of the head while his hands were on the steering wheel of a car, calling it an "execution." Seven sheriff's deputies have already been placed on paid administrative leave; two other deputies have resigned, and another retired over the past week. But supporters say authorities must provide greater accountability and release the full footage of the shooting. "They waited 120 hours to get 20 seconds," says Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and president of Repairers of the Breach. "That is absolutely ridiculous." Barber notes police killed Brown Jr. on the same day Virginia cops shot Isaiah Brown after he called 911, the day after Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd on the same day a Columbus police officer killed 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant.
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Apr 27, 2021
Anthony Brown Had Hands on Steering Wheel, Was Shot by Officers in Back of Head, Lawyer Says , Justice Department to Investigate Louisville Police, 13 Months After Breonna Taylor's Killing, Coronavirus Infections Hit New Global High, Fueled by India's "Heartbreaking" Outbreak, U.S. to Ship Up to 60 Million Doses of AstraZeneca Vaccine Abroad, Biden Orders $15/Hour Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors, Proposes Capital Gains Tax Hike, Supreme Court to Hear Torture Survivor's State Secrets Case & NRA-Backed Challenge to NY Gun Law, 2020 Census Results Alter Balance of Power in House of Representatives, Florida Senate Passes Sweeping Voter Suppression Law, Head of Firm Hired by Arizona GOP to Audit Election Results Promoted Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theories, California Gov. Gavin Newsom to Face Recall Election , Oklahoma Governor Signs Bills Outlawing Nearly All Abortions, Human Rights Watch Says Israeli Authorities Committed Crimes of Persecution and Apartheid, U.S. Homeland Security Department to Train Guatemalan Border Agents, Refugees Stuck at U.S.-Mexico Border Demand Entry to Pursue Asylum Claims, Texas Fisherwoman Diane Wilson Holds Hunger Strike to Stop Dredging for Oil Exports
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Apr 26, 2021
As President Joe Biden makes history by explicitly describing the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a "genocide," we speak with Peter Balakian, Pulitzer Prize-winning Armenian American poet and professor at Colgate University. On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman Empire began a systematic, premeditated campaign targeting the Armenian people, an unarmed Christian minority living under Turkish rule. More than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture and forced death marches. Another million Armenian people fled into permanent exile. "It's an important statement," responds Balakian to Biden's decision. "The plan was systematic," he says of the genocide. "It involved the implementation of parliamentary acts, military intervention, mobilization of killing squads in order to arrest and deport every Armenian family from Turkey."
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Apr 26, 2021
Many of the anti-protest laws pushed by Republicans include measures that provide civil or criminal immunity to drivers who hit demonstrators with their vehicles. A pending Oklahoma measure would offer both. "It's declaring open season," says Susan Bro, whose daughter Heather Heyer was killed in 2017 when a white supremacist plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. "Since when do we allow the public to become judge, jury and executioner? Because that's what this amounts to: Let's go hunt protesters."
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Apr 26, 2021
Many of the anti-protest laws pushed by Republicans include measures that provide civil or criminal immunity to drivers who hit demonstrators with their vehicles. A pending Oklahoma measure would offer both. "It's declaring open season," says Susan Bro, whose daughter Heather Heyer was killed in 2017 when a white supremacist plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. "Since when do we allow the public to become judge, jury and executioner? Because that's what this amounts to: Let's go hunt protesters."
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Apr 26, 2021
We look at a slew of anti-protest laws pending in Republican-led states, and some that have already passed, such as in Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed a controversial measure known as the "anti-riot bill" that is widely viewed as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement and calls to "defund the police." Under the new law, a public gathering of three or more people can be classified as a "riot," and anyone who "willingly" participates in such a gathering can be charged with a third-degree felony. Many of the anti-protest bills pending in other states have the exact same language as the Florida plan. "These are really extreme laws," says Nick Robinson, a senior legal adviser with the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, which has tracked 81 anti-protest bills introduced in 34 states so far this year. They "expand the definition of rioting" in order "to target protesters," Robinson tells Democracy Now!
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Apr 26, 2021
Relatives and supporters of Jacob Blake staged a sit-in with arrests outside the Kenosha police headquarters in Wisconsin to protest the department's decision to allow police officer Rusten Sheskey to return to work. Sheskey, who is white, fired seven shots at point-blank range into the back of Jacob Blake last August, leaving the 29-year-old African American father partially paralyzed and sparking massive protests. Sheskey had been on administrative leave but faced no charges for the shooting. "There's been so many injustices carried on through this investigation," says Jacob Blake Sr., the father of Jacob Blake, who has also filed a lawsuit against the officer. "Our demand is for him to be fired."
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Apr 26, 2021
India Reports 5th Day of Record COVID Cases as Calls Mount in U.S. to Share Excess Vaccines, Anger and Grief After at Least 82 People Killed in Baghdad COVID Hospital Fire, Thailand, Japan Impose New COVID Restrictions; EU to Allow Entry to Vaccinated Tourists from U.S., U.S. States Resume J&J Vaccines After Green Light from FDA and CDC, Family of Andrew Brown Expected to See Bodycam Video of His Killing by North Carolina Police, Protesters Condemn News White Cop Rusten Sheskey, Who Shot Jacob Blake, Will Return to Work, Maryland Will Review Cases Handled by Ex-Medical Examiner David Fowler, Virginia Sheriff's Deputy Shoots Black Man During 911 Response, 1 Hour After Giving Him a Ride Home, Biden Officially Recognizes Armenian Genocide, U.S. Has Started Early Stages of Withdrawal from Afghanistan, 130 Asylum Seekers Feared Dead in Shipwreck Off Libyan Coast, Palestinians Celebrate as Israel Reopens Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, 53 Crew Members Dead After Indonesian Submarine Sinks in Bali Strait, Democrats Expand Narrow House Majority with Win in Louisiana Special Election, Oscars See Historic Wins for Asians; Director Travon Free Shines Light on Racism, Police Brutality, Legendary Free-Form Radio Host Bob Fass Dies at 87
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Apr 23, 2021
As President Biden convenes a major climate summit, we speak with two leading climate activists from Africa about the "climate debt" rich countries owe the Global South and the major emissions cuts still needed in order to avert the worst effects of the planetary emergency. "Given the scale of the crisis right now, the only thing that is going to get us out of it is not going to be baby steps in the right direction," says Kumi Naidoo, special adviser for the Green Economy Coalition's Social Contract Initiative, as well as the former head of Greenpeace International. "It's going to be big, bold, courageous, structural and systemic change to every aspect of society." We also speak with Dipti Bhatnagar, international program coordinator for Climate Justice and Energy at Friends of the Earth International, who says that while new pledges by the U.S. to cut emissions are "going in the right direction," it's still not enough. "We're calling on the U.S. to do its fair share of emissions reductions, and what that means is four times of what the U.S. has put on the table."
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Apr 23, 2021
We look at the link between migration and the climate emergency, which studies have estimated could displace over 200 million people by 2050, including many in Central American countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Last year, two hurricanes, Iota and Eta, devastated the region and forced thousands to flee north. A new report finds that the climate crisis is already a driver in migration from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, which reiterates the necessity of planning "ahead for the major migration flows," says Camila Bustos, human rights associate at the University Network for Human Rights. "What we're really telling the Biden administration is to take this data, look into it, think critically and creatively about solutions, and revise immigration policy."
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Apr 23, 2021
The White House convened a virtual summit on the climate crisis this week, with 40 leaders representing the world's major economies pledging cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. President Joe Biden said the U.S. would cut its emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade — nearly double the target set by the Obama administration six years ago. Biden's pledge fulfills "a basic requirement of the U.S. being in the Paris Climate Agreement," says New Republic staff writer Kate Aronoff, but still does not go far enough. "This is well, well below what the United States really owes the rest of the world, based on its historical responsibility for causing the climate crisis and the massive, massive resources this country has to transition very quickly off of fossil fuels."
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Apr 23, 2021
Mourners gathered in Minnesota Thursday for the funeral of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was shot dead by a white police officer during a traffic stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center. Daunte's mother, Katie Wright, fought back tears as she remembered her son. "When he walked in the room, he lit up the room. He was a brother, a jokester, and he was loved by so many. He's going to be so missed." We air excerpts of Wright's funeral service.
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Apr 23, 2021
Biden Pledges to Halve U.S. Emissions Compared to 2005 Levels as Virtual Climate Summit Opens, House Committee Hears Testimony on Role of Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Preventing Climate Action, New York City Sues Big Oil over Decades of False Advertising About Climate Crisis, India Posts World Record Coronavirus Case Count for Second Consecutive Day, South Africa Resumes Use of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine, Study Confirms Elevated Risk of COVID-19 for Expectant Mothers and Babies, House Votes to Make "Washington, Douglass Commonwealth" the 51st State, Senate Passes Bill Targeting Anti-Asian Hate Crimes, Pro-Trump Sen. Josh Hawley Votes No, House Passes NO BAN Act to Prohibit Religion-Based Immigration Orders, Report: Haitian President Jovenel Moïse Sanctioned Attacks on Civilians, Dems Introduce Act to Sanction President Juan Orlando Hernández, Cut Aid to Honduran Police & Army, Indigenous Governor Sandra Liliana Peña Killed in Cauca, Colombia, Kuwaiti Women Demand Justice and Protections After Stabbing Murder Stokes Outrage, NYC Woman Who Gave Birth While Handcuffed Reaches Settlement with City, NYPD, SCOTUS Rules Against Limiting Life Prison Terms for Juveniles, Protesters Demand Justice for Andrew Brown Jr., Lawyer Demands Release of Bodycam Footage
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Apr 22, 2021
On Earth Day, we speak with two of the more than two dozen Indigenous authors of a new book that looks at the history of resistance against colonialism and capitalism and lays out a vision for the future to address the climate crisis. "The Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth" details the centuries of Indigenous resistance that created the movement at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access pipeline and what movements centering justice for Indigenous people must look like. The book offers a "people's program to prevent extinction," says Melanie Yazzie, assistant professor of Native American studies and American studies at the University of New Mexico and co-author of "The Red Deal." "The plan is really clear. The stakes are really clear," Yazzie says. "We draw centrally from Indigenous movements over the last couple of decades for decolonization." We also speak with Uahikea Maile, an assistant professor of Indigenous politics at the University of Toronto - St. George and one of the book's co-authors.
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Apr 22, 2021
We look at the state of the pandemic and vaccine rollout in the United States and around the world with Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Hotez is part of a team at Baylor University that is working with a private Indian company to develop a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine. The task of developing a simple vaccine is "daunting," Dr. Hotez says. "We're talking about 5 billion doses of vaccine. And the question is: Where do you get 5 billion doses of vaccine?" he says. "We're trying to come through with something that uses the same old-school technology as the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine that's been around for four decades."
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Apr 22, 2021
We go to Mumbai, India, for an update on the state of crisis in the country as COVID-19 cases surge and hospitals run out of oxygen. India recently recorded 315,000 new cases in a single day, the highest daily toll in any country since the start of the pandemic, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has continued to hold large campaign rallies. Public health experts have blamed the surge on a number of factors, including the government's reluctance to impose another round of lockdowns, the spread of a double mutant variant of the virus, a recent Hindu festival attended by millions, and a slow vaccination drive. India has led efforts to force Big Pharma to waive patent rights on COVID-19 vaccines, but the United States and other wealthy nations have blocked such a move at the World Trade Organization. "It is an apocalyptic situation in India right now," says journalist Rana Ayyub. "Clearly, we have not learned our lessons from the pandemic last year."
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Apr 22, 2021
India Reports Over 315,000 COVID-19 Infections, the Single Worst Daily Toll of Pandemic, Latin American Nations Suffer "Worst Moment" of Coronavirus Pandemic, U.S. Vaccination Pace Slows as White House Hits Goal of 200 Million Doses in 100 Days, Department of Justice Launches Civil Probe into Minneapolis Police Misconduct, Funeral Services Held for Daunte Wright, 20-Year-Old Black Man Killed by White Minnesota Cop, NC Protesters Demand Release of Footage Showing Police Killing of Andrew Brown, Columbus Police Body-Camera Footage Shows Officer Shot 16-Year-Old Ma'Khia Bryant Four Times, GOP Lawmakers in Iowa and Oklahoma Pass Anti-Protest Bills, EU to Cut Carbon Emissions by 55% from 1990 Levels, Environmental Groups Urge U.S. to Do More to Curb Emissions as Biden Hosts Climate Summit, U.S. Capitol Cop Instructed Personnel to Monitor for Anti-Trump Protesters on Jan. 6, Hundreds Arrested in Russia During Pro-Navalny Protests, President Putin Warns Western Nations Against Crossing "Red Line", Human Rights Watch Condemns Thai Crackdown, Detention of Activists Who Insult the Monarchy, Senate Confirms Vanita Gupta as Associate Attorney General , U.S. Judge Orders Los Angeles to Shelter All Unhoused Residents of Skid Row, Manhattan District Attorney Will Stop Prosecuting Sex Work, Bernie Sanders and Pramila Jayapal Unveil Bill That Would Tax Wall Street to Make College Free
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Apr 21, 2021
A Minnesota jury's conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin on three counts for murdering George Floyd does not go far enough in dismantling police brutality and state-sanctioned violence, says historian and author Khalil Gibran Muhammad. "We know that while the prosecution was performing in such a way to make the case that Derek Chauvin was a rogue actor, the truth is that policing should have been on trial in that case," Muhammad says. "We don't have a mechanism in our current system of laws in the way that we treat individual offenses to have that accountability and justice delivered." Muhammad also lays out the racist history of slave patrols that led to U.S. police departments, which he details his book, "The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America."
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Apr 21, 2021
The police murder of George Floyd added jet fuel to a nationwide push to defund the police. We go to Minneapolis to speak with Kandace Montgomery, co-executive director of Black Visions Collective, about their response to the guilty verdict for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd and an update on the push to divest from Minneapolis police and invest in communities.
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Apr 21, 2021
A jury in Minneapolis has convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin on three counts for murdering George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds last year. The jury reached its decision after 10 hours of deliberation. Derek Chauvin will be sentenced in two months. He faces up to 40 years in prison for the most serious charge, second-degree murder. He is the first white police officer in Minnesota to ever be convicted of killing a Black man. We feature reactions from people gathered outside the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, comments from George Floyd's brother and nephew, as well as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Apr 21, 2021
Jury Finds Derek Chauvin Guilty on All Counts for Murdering George Floyd, Police Shoot Dead 16-Year-Old Ma'Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio, Judge Denies Dismissal of Prison Sentence for Officer Who Shot and Killed Walter Scott in 2015, India Faces COVID "Storm"; AMLO Gets COVID Vaccine; U.S. Warns Against Travel to 80% of Globe, Johnson & Johnson Resumes European Rollout After Regulator Says Benefits Outweigh Blood Clot Risk, AOC and Sen. Markey Reintroduce Green New Deal as Biden Sets Ambitious Emissions Target, Idriss Déby's Son Named Interim Leader Following Chadian President's Death, Journalists in Over 100 Countries Have Been Blocked from Reporting on Pandemic, Prominent Pakistani Journalist Absar Alam Shot and Injured, 250 NGOs Call on Wealthy Countries to Fund Hunger Relief as 270 Million Face Acute Food Insecurity, Biden Administration Voices Support for Making Washington, D.C., a State, L.A. Plans to Launch Guaranteed Basic Income Program, Standing Rock Activist Who Was Jailed After Refusing to Testify Before Grand Jury Is Released, Mumia Abu-Jamal Undergoes Successful Heart Surgery as Advocates Continue to Call for His Release
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Apr 20, 2021
Authorities in Indianapolis say the mother of Brandon Hole, the former FedEx employee who shot and killed eight people at a company facility last Thursday, called police in 2020 to say her son might commit "suicide by cop," prompting them to seize his pump-action shotgun. But officials say they did not push for Hole to have a hearing under Indiana's "red flag" law, which allows police or courts to seize guns from people who show warning signs of violence. "The very thing that the law is designed to prevent — going and buying a new gun — was not even ever sought," says Nick Suplina, managing director for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety.
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Apr 20, 2021
As the Sikh community in Indianapolis and across the United States is in mourning after a gunman killed eight people at a FedEx facility last week, where four of the victims are Sikh, we speak with Simran Jeet Singh, scholar, activist and senior fellow for the Sikh Coalition, which is calling for a full investigation into the possibility of racial or ethnic hatred as a factor in the killings in Indianapolis. A majority of the workers at the warehouse are Sikh, and while authorities have not shared evidence Brandon Hole was targeting Sikh workers when he attacked the FedEx facility, police revealed Monday they previously found evidence that Hole had browsed white supremacist websites. The mass shooting took place as more than 15 states across the U.S., including Indiana, mark April as Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month. "This community, in Indianapolis, all around the world, is really devastated," says Singh. "Given the pattern of violence against Sikhs, we are demanding a full investigation into the possibility of bias and racism in this attack."
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Apr 20, 2021
We look at the long history of police killings of Black men during traffic stops in Minnesota with state Representative John Thompson, a community activist who was elected last year and has attended protests demanding justice for George Floyd and other victims of police brutality. His friend Philando Castile was killed by police during a 2016 traffic stop in a suburb of St. Paul. "We have every right to be angry, we have every right to be mad, and we have every right to use our voices," Thompson says. "We have a problem here in this state with policing." Thompson is part of the People of Color and Indigenous Caucus that has called on fellow lawmakers in St. Paul to halt budget negotiations until police accountability laws are passed.
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Apr 20, 2021
As jury deliberations are underway in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder and manslaughter for killing George Floyd last May, we go to Minneapolis to discuss final arguments and what is next in the case. We speak with civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, who says the prosecution "started strong and ended strong" by reminding "the jury that they could believe what they had seen with their own eyes."
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Apr 20, 2021
Jury Begins Deliberations in Derek Chauvin Murder Trial, Thousands Protest in Minnesota as Derek Chauvin Murder Trial Wraps Up, U.N. Warns Planet Is "On the Verge of the Abyss" from Relentless Climate Change, Hundreds of Climate Scientists Warn Against Criminalizing Peaceful Protests, White House Holds Virtual Climate Summit as U.S. and China Pledge Cuts to Emissions, Migrant Workers Flee India's Capital Ahead of Lockdown as Coronavirus Cases Soar, Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Joins Fight for Vaccine Equity, President Biden Urges All U.S. Residents 16 and Over to Get Vaccinated, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to Replace Raúl Castro as Communist Party Leader, St. Vincent Faces "Monumental Challenge of Humanitarian Relief" from Volcanic Eruption, Wildfire at University of Cape Town Destroys Priceless South African Antiquities, Homicide Case Against Capitol Rioters in Doubt After Autopsy Finds Officer Died of Natural Causes, Marjorie Taylor Greene Cancels Plans for Racist "America First Caucus" Amid GOP Pushback, Amazon Hit with 23 Unfair Labor Practices Complaints over Union-Busting Campaign in Alabama, Walter Mondale, Former Vice President and Failed Presidential Candidate, Dies at 93, Chadian President Idriss Déby Killed on Frontlines of Fight Against Rebels
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Apr 19, 2021
Amid nationwide protests over police abuse, we speak with Cariol Horne, the Buffalo police officer whom a New York court has just vindicated for stopping a fellow cop from choking a handcuffed Black man during an arrest. In 2006, Horne, who is Black, saw a white officer repeatedly punching the man in the face before putting him in a chokehold. After Horne heard the man say "I can't breathe," she intervened by grabbing the officer's arm. Horne was sanctioned by the Buffalo Police Department, reassigned, then fired in 2008, just months before she was eligible to receive her full pension. A new ruling makes her eligible for back pay and pension benefits. Horne says she is now calling on state governments and Congress to follow the lead of Buffalo, which passed Cariol's Law, legislation that makes it the duty of officers to intervene in cases of brutality. "I knew that I did the right thing," Horne says. We also speak with Intisar Rabb, a Harvard Law professor who is one of three attorneys representing Horne. Cariol's Law "should spread far and wide" to other cities and states, Rabb says.
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Apr 19, 2021
We speak with the lawyer for a lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps who is suing two Virginia police officers who pepper-sprayed him, pushed him to the ground and pointed their guns at him during a traffic stop at a gas station last December. Video of the encounter has gone viral and shows Caron Nazario, who is a Black and Latino man, was wearing his Army uniform during the stop. When Nazario says he's afraid to get out of his car, one officer responds, "You should be." Nazario says he drove about a mile to the gas station after he noticed a police car flashing its lights at him — a common practice to avoid pulling over on a dark road. It is shocking that a police officer "felt it appropriate to threaten a man with state-sanctioned murder" for simply asking why he was pulled over, says Jonathan Arthur, Nazario's attorney. "My client's looking just to hold these officers accountable under law."
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Apr 19, 2021
As protests continue in Chicago and nationwide over the police killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, we get an update from community activist and independent journalist Mateo Zapata, who says, "People in Chicago are just tired of seeing Black and Brown youth murdered by police." Released bodycam video showed Adam had his hands up in the air when he was shot by an officer. We also speak with Rutgers professor Lilia Fernández, who studies Latino Chicago history and says police brutality toward this community is "not a new phenomenon" and goes back many decades. "Adam Toledo would not be dead today if he were white, if he were from an affluent family or if he lived in a predominantly white neighborhood," Fernández says.
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Apr 19, 2021
Police Brutalize Protesters in Minneapolis as Chauvin Trial Moves Toward Verdict, Protests Continue in Chicago over Police Killing of 13-Year-Old Adam Toledo, Florida Poised to Pass "Anti-Riot" Bill, Criminalizing Dissent & Blocking Cuts to Police Budgets, Four of the Indianapolis Mass Shooting Victims Were from Sikh Community; Gunman Bought Arms Legally, Mass Shootings in Texas, Wisconsin Claim at Least 6 Lives in One Day, Globe Tops 3 Million COVID Deaths as India and Brazil Struggle to Contain Devastating Surges, CDC to Issue Guidance for J&J Vaccine After Pause over Blood Clot Reports, Alexei Navalny Transferred to Hospital as Health Deteriorates, Russia Expels 10 U.S. Diplomats in Retaliation for U.S. Sanctions, Police Kill Five People as 2,000 Workers Protest Unpaid Wages in Bangladesh, Syria Announces Presidential Election on May 26, Biden Reverses Decision to Limit Refugee Intake to Just 15,000 After Backlash, Two Black Transgender Women Killed in NC; 10-Year-Old Activist Speaks Out Against Anti-Trans Bills
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Apr 16, 2021
The United States has imposed new sanctions on Russia and expelled 10 Russian diplomats after the Biden administration accused Moscow of being involved in major cyberattacks. The Treasury Department claimed Russia interfered in the 2020 election and was behind the SolarWinds hack, which compromised the computer systems of nine U.S. government agencies and scores of private companies. The sanctions target 32 Russian entities and individuals and bar U.S. banks from purchasing Russian government debt. Russia vowed to retaliate against the new sanctions and accused the Biden administration of degrading bilateral relations. "The most dangerous aspect of this is it introduces something new into international relations, because despite the way that it's being described, this was not an attack on the U.S.," says Anatol Lieven, senior fellow for Russia and Europe at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. "Never previously have sanctions been imposed in response to an espionage case, for the very good reason that every country, including the United States, engages in espionage."
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Apr 16, 2021
In the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, a key witness for the defense was the former Maryland chief medical examiner, Dr. David Fowler, who contradicted most other expert witnesses in the trial and suggested heart trouble and other issues, not the police restraint, caused George Floyd's death. The decision by Chauvin's legal team to rely on Fowler's testimony shocked many in Maryland, where he is being sued by the family of 19-year-old Anton Black, an African American teenager from Maryland who died in 2018 after he was electrocuted with a Taser, pinned in a prone position and crushed under the weight of three white police officers and a white civilian as he struggled to breathe and lost consciousness. After an autopsy, Dr. Fowler ruled Black's death an accident, and no one was charged with a crime. The wrongful death lawsuit says Dr. Fowler delayed release of an autopsy report for months and covered up police responsibility for Black's death. Sonia Kumar, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Maryland, says there is "a pattern of conduct in Maryland involving police violence against Black people that then are characterized as anything other than homicides." We also speak with Richard Potter, the founder of the Coalition for Justice for Anton Black and president of the Talbot County branch of the NAACP, who says officials in Anton Black's case spent months dragging their feet after the teenager's death. "Nobody was giving the family any information in terms of a cause of death," he says.
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Apr 16, 2021
Protesters in Chicago took to the streets to condemn the police killing of Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Latinx boy, after bodycam video released by the Chicago police showed Toledo had his hands up in the air when a police officer shot him dead on March 29. Police initially described the incident as an "armed confrontation," but the video shows Toledo raised his hands after being ordered to do so. He was killed within 20 seconds of the officer leaving his car to chase him down a dark alley following a report of gunshots in the area. "A Chicago police officer murdered Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old. There is no other way to describe what we saw in the video," says Rey Wences, a community organizer based in Chicago's Little Village. We also speak with Rossana Rodríguez-Sanchez, a Chicago alderperson, who says city officials spent weeks disparaging Adam Toledo before releasing the bodycam footage. "Lori Lightfoot ran as a reformer. She ran on transparency," Rodríguez-Sanchez says of Chicago's mayor. "She's doing exactly the opposite of that."
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Apr 16, 2021
Eight Killed After Gunman Opens Fire at Indianapolis FedEx Warehouse, 13-Year-Old Adam Toledo Had Hands Up When He Was Shot Dead by Chicago Officer, Family of Daunte Wright Demands More Serious Charges for Officer Who Fired Fatal Shot, Derek Chauvin, Accused of Murdering George Floyd, Declines to Testify in His Own Defense, Court Vindicates Buffalo Cop Fired for Stopping a Fellow Officer from Choking Handcuffed Man, Dr. Fauci Shuts Down Rep. Jim Jordan in Heated Exchange over Public Health Measures, Pfizer Says COVID-19 Booster Vaccines Likely Needed Within a Year, India Reports Record 217,000 New Cases as Millions Gather for World's Largest Pilgrimage, Brazilian Senate Probes Bolsonaro's Pandemic Response as Daily Death Toll Remains World's Worst, Aid Groups Say Eritrean Troops Are Not Withdrawing from Tigray as Crisis Deepens, Biden Admin Imposes Sanctions on Russia for Hacking, Election Interference, Annexation of Crimea, Hong Kong Sentences Jimmy Lai, Other Pro-Democracy Activists to 8-18 Months in Prison, Rep. McCollum Intros Bill Barring Israel from Using U.S. Aid to Violate Palestinian Rights, Democrats Unveil Bill to Expand SCOTUS: "The Court Is Broken"
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Apr 15, 2021
U.S. health officials have delayed a decision on whether to resume the use of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine after reports of blood clots in six women who received doses. Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at the UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital, says it's "prudent" to investigate reports of blood clots but notes the issue "is very rare" and unlikely to cause more than a temporary delay. She also says it's important to raise "vaccine optimism" by continuing to tout the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines. "Eventually we are going to get back to the normalcy of not masking and distancing. We're just in this twilight period right now because we are not fully vaccinated," she says.
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Apr 15, 2021
Congressmember Ro Khanna of California says hundreds of billions of dollars in annual defense spending could be better used on diplomacy, humanitarian aid, public health and other initiatives. He's one of 50 House Democrats who signed a letter to President Joe Biden in March urging a "significantly reduced" Pentagon budget, which has grown to over $700 billion. "The Pentagon increases make no sense," says Khanna. "If you're ending the forever war in Afghanistan … then why are we increasing, at the same time, the defense budget?" Khanna also discusses the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed war in Yemen, a major U.S. arms deal with the United Arab Emirates and more.
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Apr 15, 2021
Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna says President Joe Biden's plan to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan is a "courageous" decision. "I'm very glad that we have a president who has finally recognized that this is not a militarily winnable war," says Khanna. President Biden announced this week he plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, bringing the longest war in U.S. history to a close. Khanna says he is open to a U.N. peacekeeping force, as some have suggested, to ensure Afghanistan does not fall into deeper chaos once American troops leave. "Withdrawing militarily does not mean that we can stop engaging," says Khanna.
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Apr 15, 2021
Biden Vows to Pull Combat Troops from Afghanistan by 20th Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks, Minnesota Police Officer Kimberly Potter Charged with Manslaughter for Shooting Daunte Wright, Witness for Derek Chauvin's Defense Claims George Floyd Died of Heart Disease, Drugs and Car Fumes, Expert Witness for Derek Chauvin's Defense Sued over Black Teen's Death at Hands of Maryland Police, New York Police Deploy Advanced Surveillance Robot in Public Housing Complex, Boston Cop Allowed to Stay on the Force for 20 Years After Child Sexual Abuse Complaint, Maryland State Trooper Shoots Dead 16-Year-Old with Airsoft Pellet Gun, Gun Control Advocates Call for Action as Memorial Unveiled; VA Blocks Measure Limiting Gun Possession, CDC Delays Decision on Resuming J&J Vaccinations as U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Passes 564,000, Southeast Asian Nations See New Surges After Successful Containment Efforts Early in Pandemic, Ex-World Leaders and Nobel Laureates Call on Biden to Waive Patent Rules for COVID Vaccines, Washington, D.C., Statehood Bill Advances to Full Vote Despite GOP Opposition, Washington State Bars For-Profit Prisons and Immigration Jails, Court Throws Out Death Sentence for Raymond Riles, Texas's Longest-Serving Death Row Prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal Scheduled for Heart Surgery as Health Deteriorates Following COVID Diagnosis, House Panel Votes to Advance Slavery Reparations Bill for First Time in Over 30 Years, Senators Advance Bill on Anti-Asian Hate Crimes; Biden Names Erika Moritsugu as AAPI Liaison
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Apr 14, 2021
A scathing new report by the Capitol Police's internal watchdog reveals officials knew Congress was the target of the deadly January 6 insurrection, yet officers were instructed to refrain from deploying more aggressive measures that could have helped "push back the rioters." Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports domestic terrorism incidents surged to a record high in 2020, fueled by white supremacist, anti-Muslim and anti-government extremists on the far right. The Post found that, since 2015, right-wing extremists have been involved in 267 plots or attacks, leading to 91 deaths. Reporter A.C. Thompson, who explores the threat of far-right extremism in the new PBS "Frontline" documentary "American Insurrection," says there was a "massive pool of radicalized individuals" ahead of the January 6 attack who were being pushed toward violence by "an abundance of lies by the former president, by this entire conspiratorial right-wing media and social media ecosystem." We also speak with director Rick Rowley, who says many white supremacist groups began to splinter during the intense backlash to the violence in Charlottesville in 2017, but Trump gave the groups new life ahead of the January 6 insurrection. "Many elements inside the white supremacist movement found in him a path into the mainstream," says Rowley. "They took off their swastikas, and they wrapped themselves in the flag."
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Apr 14, 2021
The Biden administration has unveiled plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The War in Afghanistan has killed more than 100,000 Afghan civilians and over 2,300 U.S. servicemembers and has cost the U.S. trillions of dollars. The announcement comes just a week before the scheduled start of a new round of peace talks in Istanbul between the Taliban and the U.S.-backed Afghan government, but the Taliban said it would boycott the talks because Biden is going back on a deal made by President Trump to have all U.S. troops out by May 1. Afghan American scholar Zaher Wahab says withdrawing is the right decision. "The United States and its allies should never have attacked and occupied Afghanistan," Wahab says. "It was wrong. It was illegal. And I think it was immoral." We also speak with Matthew Hoh, senior fellow with the Center for International Policy, who in 2009 resigned from the State Department in protest of the escalation of the War in Afghanistan. "This is a step that is necessary for the peace process to go forward, and that's what the Afghan people desperately need," he says. "It has been well over 40 years of fighting. Millions of Afghans have been killed or wounded. The devastation on the Afghan people is hard to imagine."
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Apr 14, 2021
Biden Announces U.S. Will Withdraw Its Troops from Afghanistan by September 11, Protests Continue After Police Killing of Daunte Wright as His Family Demands Justice, Derek Chauvin Murder Trial Continues with Defense Calling Its First Witnesses, Iran Ramps Up Uranium Enrichment Following Natanz Attack and Amid Talks on 2015 Nuclear Deal, White House Moves Forward with $23 Billion Weapons Sale to UAE, Russian Troops Amass on Eastern Border as U.S. and NATO Pledge Support for Ukraine, U.S. Sends Unofficial Delegation to Taiwan as China Warns Against Foreign Intervention, Burkina Faso to Try Ex-President Blaise Compaoré for Murder of Iconic Leader Thomas Sankara, Facebook Allowed Honduran Pres. Juan Orlando Hernández to Use Fake Accounts to Appear More Popular, More Countries Delay Use of J&J Vaccine After Blood Clot Reports, India Reports New Daily Case Record, Announces More Lockdown as COVID Surges, U.N. Secretary-General Calls for Wealth Tax on Pandemic Profiteers, Watchdog Report Says Officers Instructed to Hold Back in Response to Jan. 6 Insurrection, Matt Gaetz Ally Reportedly Working with DOJ, Says Rep. Gaetz Exchanged Money for Sex, Biden Taps Robert Santos to Become Census Bureau's First Director of Color, FDA Will Allow Pregnant People to Receive Abortion Pill by Mail During Pandemic, Wisconsin Declares State of Emergency as Firefighters Battle Hundreds of Wildfires, New York Becomes First State to Divest Pension Fund from Tar Sands Companies
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Apr 13, 2021
We look at President Biden's nomination of Kristen Clarke to become the first Black woman to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the conservative smear campaign against the veteran civil rights lawyer. The far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson has devoted at least five segments to attacking Clarke's nomination, including baseless accusations of anti-Semitism. Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP, says "the right-wing attack machine" springs into action whenever Black nominees are up for confirmation. "They make sport, quite frankly, of trying to defame their character, destroy their reputation, and they see women of color as being very vulnerable," says Jealous. He also addresses the state of police-community relations in the U.S. and efforts to stop police impunity for killing Black people.
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Apr 13, 2021
We get the latest on the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd, with Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong. She says prosecutors in the case have successfully chipped away at the "blue wall of silence" by getting current police officials to testify against Chauvin. However, she says it's likely that "the only reason that these officers have testified is because the world is watching."
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Apr 13, 2021
Protests continue in the Minneapolis area after a white police officer shot and killed a 20-year-old Black man, Daunte Wright, during a traffic stop Sunday in the suburb of Brooklyn Center. The deadly shooting took place about 10 miles from where former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for killing George Floyd. Just before he was killed, Wright called his mother to say he was being pulled over — allegedly because an air freshener was obscuring his rearview mirror. The Brooklyn Center police chief claims Kimberly Potter, a 26-year police veteran who has served as the police union president for the department, accidentally pulled a gun instead of a Taser. The Star Tribune reports Daunte Wright is the sixth person killed by Brooklyn Center police since 2012. Five of the six have been men of color. "Unfortunately, there has not been a serious attempt to change the phenomenon of driving while Black, which is something that happens to Black people on a routine basis in the Twin Cities and across the state of Minnesota," says Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong. We also speak with Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who says policing in the United States is as dangerous to Black and Brown people as ever. "They are deadly. They kill Black and Brown people," says Hussein.
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