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Jan 21, 2022
As the Biden administration marks its first year in office this week, we look at the president's ongoing defense of Trump-era anti-immigration policies. Department of Justice lawyers were in court Wednesday to defend the Trump-era order known as Title 42, which has been used to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants at the border without screening them for asylum. The policy was touted as a way to control the spread of COVID-19, even though top CDC officials say it's not needed to contain the virus. We speak with the ACLU's Lee Gelernt, who is the lead lawyer challenging the Biden administration's use of Title 42. He accuses the Biden administration of "trying to hide behind CDC" to play politics and says the policy violates international law and is inhumane, as it forces migrants back into dangerous situations they fled from. "The U.S. government is pushing them back over the border," he says. "The cartels are sitting there at the end of the bridge waiting for them, and yet we continue to push them over." Gelernt discusses how he was also a part of negotiations to financially compensate migrant parents separated from their children under Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, but Biden cut off the talks after facing Republican criticism.
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Jan 21, 2022
The World Food Program has warned Afghanistan faces a "tsunami of hunger" as the economy continues to collapse, due in part to U.S. sanctions and the freezing of Afghan assets following the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Meanwhile, President Biden once again defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan on Wednesday without acknowledging the humanitarian crisis that followed his exit. We speak with journalist Jane Ferguson, who recently traveled to Afghanistan to report on the collapse of basic government services and the various factors that led to the collapse of the economy, which she says was "completely reliant on international aid." She also speaks about the "massive pressure" the White House is under to respond to the humanitarian crisis, as well as the Taliban's handling of the growing women's rights movement. "What these women really need is more eyes on their movement, more of them on air, more of their voices being put on television and in the newspapers," she says. Her most recent New Yorker piece is titled "Afghanistan Has Become the World's Largest Humanitarian Crisis."
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Jan 21, 2022
As many of the world's wealthiest people wrap up virtual talks today at the World Economic Forum based in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam reports the incomes of 99% of the world's population dropped during the pandemic while the world's 10 richest men saw their wealth double. Meanwhile, vaccine profits have minted at least nine new billionaires at Moderna, BioNTech and China's CanSino, amassing a combined new wealth of over $19 billion. To discuss the rise of billionaires and the policies that got us here, we speak with New York Times global correspondent Peter Goodman, author of the new book "Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World." Goodman says billionaires' championing of "stakeholder capitalism" is ruining U.S. democracy, and attributes the Omicron variant to "our unwillingness to challenge patents."
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Jan 21, 2022
U.S. Secretary of State Meets Russian Counterpart Amid Impasse over Buildup on Ukraine Border, Jan. 6 Committee Asks Ivanka Trump to Testify; Georgia DA Requests Grand Jury for Trump Probe, Jamaal Bowman Among 28 Arrested at Peaceful Voting Rights Protest, Sen. Mitch McConnell Suggests Black Voters Are Not "Americans", Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Proposes First-of-Its-Kind Election Police Force, FBI Searches Home of Arizona Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, U.S. Bombed Syrian Dam in 2017 Despite Warning That Tens of Thousands Could Die, Market Explosion in Lahore, Pakistan, Kills 3 People, Massive Blast and Fire Kills at Least 17, Causes Major Destruction in Ghanian Town, 14-Year-Old Indigenous Colombian Environmentalist Shot Dead in Ambush, Pope Benedict Mishandled at Least 4 Sexual Abuse Cases When He Was an Archbishop, SCOTUS Dismisses Another Legal Challenge to Unconstitutional Texas Abortion Law, Civil Rights Trial of Ex-Cops Involved in George Floyd Murder Begins in Minneapolis, DOJ Drops Case Against Chinese American MIT Professor Amid Accusations of Ethnic Profiling, Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Kill Millions Worldwide, Protesters Decry Femicides, Anti-LGBTQ Murders in Juárez
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Jan 20, 2022
As President Biden marks one year in office, we speak with former four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader and The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel, who say Biden has failed so far to sell his agenda to the American people and bring about the transformative policy he campaigned on — from quelling the pandemic to passing his landmark Build Back Better legislation. The two also critique the U.S. mainstream press for asking "war-inciting questions," with Nader saying "the self-censorship of the press is overwhelming."
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Jan 20, 2022
As President Biden marked one year in office this week, conservative Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema joined with Republican senators to block a proposed change to filibuster rules that would have allowed two voting rights bills to move forward, foreclosing the chance to stop hundreds of anti-voting laws passed after the 2020 election. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders blasted his colleagues for opposing the rules change, and Georgia's Raphael Warnock likened the fight for voting rights to the civil rights movement. We air excerpts from their speeches.
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Jan 20, 2022
President Biden said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a "serious and dear price" if he orders his reported 100,000 troops stationed along the Russian-Ukraine border to invade Ukraine, a scenario Biden says is increasingly likely. This comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukraine's president on Wednesday, similarly warning Russia could attack Ukraine on "very short notice." We speak with The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel, who says the hawkish U.S. approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a waste of national resources, and says the U.S. should pursue diplomacy instead of throwing around threats of expanding NATO into Eastern Europe. "More attention should be paid to how we can exit these conflicts, how we can find a way for an independent Ukraine," says vanden Heuvel, who calls the Ukraine conflict a civil war turned into a proxy war. "If there is creative diplomacy, I think you could see a resolution of this crisis."
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Jan 20, 2022
Voting Rights Bill Dies in Senate as Democrats Manchin & Sinema Allow GOP Filibuster, Biden Predicts Russia Will Invade Ukraine, Says Putin "Will Regret Having Done It", Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Bid to Shield Records from January 6 Committee, Global Coronavirus Cases Hit Record High, Czech Singer Hana Horkad Dies After Deliberately Infecting Herself with Coronavirus, West Virginia's Republican Governor Urges Vaccinations After Bout of COVID-19, Florida Health Dept. Puts Top Official on Leave for Promoting COVID Vaccine to Staff , Aid Flights Land in Volcano-Stricken Tonga Amid Water Shortages, Threat of COVID-19, Judge Clears Indigenous Land Protector Amber Ortega over 2020 Protest at U.S.-Mexico Border Wall, University of Michigan to Pay $490 Million to 1,000 Survivors of Sexual Assault by School Doctor, Kansas DA Says No One Will Face Charges for Killing Black Teen Cedric Lofton, Prisoners Say They Were Unwillingly Given Ivermectin as Medical Experiment, New York Housing Activists Call for Passage of Good Cause Eviction Bill as Eviction Moratorium Ends, Theodore Roosevelt Statue Removed from Outside NYC's Natural History Museum
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Jan 19, 2022
Activist and scholar Angela Davis has released a new edition of her 1974 autobiography, first published and edited by Toni Morrison nearly 50 years ago. The book details Davis's remarkable early life, from growing up in a section of Birmingham, Alabama, known as Dynamite Hill due to the frequency of bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, to her work with the Black Panther Party and the U.S. Communist Party. It also follows her 16-month incarceration, during which she faced the death penalty and was eventually acquitted on all charges, which influenced Davis's focus thereafter on transforming the criminal justice system and building a movement for abolition. The edition includes a new introduction, which links the racial justice uprisings and events of the past decade to her lifelong learnings and work. "What struck me was how much has changed," says Davis, on her process of publishing the new edition. "Both how much has changed and how little has changed."
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Jan 19, 2022
Abolitionist scholars Angela Davis, Beth Richie and Gina Dent discuss their new book, published Tuesday, titled "Abolition. Feminism. Now." As abolition becomes increasingly mainstream following the racial justice uprisings of 2020, they argue feminism is at the root of the politics and practice of abolition, which they define as the elimination of the carceral and intimate gender-based violence paired with social investments in more "opportunities for freedom" and safety within communities. The book, which was also co-authored by scholar and activist Erica Meiners, highlights feminist histories — particularly from queer, grassroots and women of color — that have been erased but are central to the movement. "We want to be able to imagine a world in which that violence has been reduced and eventually eradicated," says Davis. "Abolition feminism is the perspective that allows us to move in that direction."
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Jan 19, 2022
In a major development, a federal judge on Tuesday approved a plan to restructure Puerto Rico's massive debt. The proposal was presented by the territory's U.S.-imposed Fiscal Control Board, and it reduces the biggest portion of the island's debt, about $33 billion, by some 80%. Last year, union leaders pressured the board to remove cuts to pension plans from the current version of the debt restructuring deal. Opponents of the agreement say it will only worsen Puerto Rico's economic struggles. "In terms of whether it really resolves the financial crisis of Puerto Rico going forward, that remains to be seen," says Democracy Now! co-host Juan González, a close observer of Puerto Rican history and politics, who warns the unelected fiscal board could remain in charge of the island's finances for years to come. "There's some positives in this, but there's a lot of uncertainty still to go."
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Jan 19, 2022
U.S. Gov't Launches Site to Mail Free COVID Tests, Issues N95 Masks Amid Winter Surge, Sonia Sotomayor Tends to SCOTUS Business Remotely After Neil Gorsuch Refuses to Wear Mask, Japan Sets New Curbs, Hong Kong Culls 2,000 Exposed Hamsters, as Asian Nations See COVID Surges, WHO Warns Only 7% of African Population Fully Inoculated Amid Ongoing Vaccine Apartheid, Blinken Meets with Ukrainian President Zelensky Ahead of Talks with Russian Counterpart, Israel Demolishes Sheikh Jarrah Home, Arrests Palestinians Resisting Displacement, Saudi-UAE Airstrikes Kill 20 People, Following Houthi Attack on UAE Target, Suicide Bombing in Somalia Kills 4 People, Days After Another Blast Targets Gov't Spokesperson, Mexican Journalist Margarito Martínez Shot Dead in Tijuana, Senators Debate Voting Rights Legislation Which Appears Doomed to Fail, House Jan. 6 Cmte. Subpoenas Trump Legal Team; NY Says It Has Evidence of Trump Org. Fraud, New Yorkers Gather to Mourn Michelle Go, Condemn Attacks on Asian American Community, NJ Public Schools to Start Teaching AAPI History; Florida Expands Efforts to Ban Teaching of Racism, Portland Police Under Fire for Training Materials Which Mock Protesters, Advocate Violence, Airlines Cancel Flights over Concerns About Expansion of 5G Service in U.S.
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Jan 18, 2022
During Saturday's synagogue attack in Colleyville, Texas, the gunman Malik Faisal Akram repeatedly called for the release of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year sentence in a U.S. federal prison located just miles from the synagogue. Siddiqui was convicted in 2010 on charges that she intended to kill U.S. military officers while being detained in Afghanistan two years earlier. However, many questions remain unanswered about her time in U.S. custody, and her conviction was secured without physical evidence and on U.S. officials' testimony alone, says Siddiqui's lawyer, Marwa Elbially. Elbially says there's a false impression of Siddiqui in the U.S. as a terrorist, even though terrorist charges were never brought against her, and Pakistan officials have voiced concern about her arrest and detention. We also speak with Mauri' Saalakhan, director of operations for The Aafia Foundation, who calls Siddiqui's case an unprecedented miscarriage of justice.
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Jan 18, 2022
On Saturday, an armed British man named Malik Faisal Akram took a rabbi and three congregants hostage at a synagogue outside of Fort Worth, Texas, resulting in an 11-hour standoff that ended once the rabbi threw a chair at Akram, who was later shot dead by the police. The standoff — which left all four hostages unharmed — has been identified by President Biden and federal authorities as an antisemitic act of terror. We speak with Rabbi Nancy Kasten, who says despite false media narratives painting the hostage crisis as an outgrowth of hostility between Muslims and Jews, the local Muslim community mobilized in support of the Jewish community this weekend. She also notes Muslim communities are less protected under federal and state law, which "creates a lot of opportunity for very misguided and false information to be perpetrated about the Muslim community."
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Jan 18, 2022
Senate Democratic leadership insists they will debate two critical voting rights bills even though Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have publicly denounced their party's plan to make changes to Senate filibuster rules that would give Democrats the votes needed to pass the landmark legislation. Meanwhile, thousands marched in support of the legislation and the necessary filibuster rule changes in Washington, D.C., on Monday, the federal holiday marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We speak with movement leader William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, who criticizes the Democrats for bifurcating the Build Back Better economic legislation from voting rights and says movements must plan sustained, nonviolent direct action to ensure politicians pass legislation that benefits poor and low-wealth people.
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Jan 18, 2022
MLK's Family Leads Protests Demanding Passage of Voting Rights Legislation, U.S. COVID-19 Hospitalizations Hit New Record High, China Won't Sell Winter Olympics Tickets to Public After Beijing Logs First Omicron Case, Novak Djokovic Deported for Violating COVID-19 Rules, Will Miss Australian Open, Hostages in Texas Synagogue Escape; Police Shoot and Kill Gunman, Volcano Erupts Near Tonga, Devastating Islands and Triggering Pacific Tsunamis , Sudanese Forces Kill Seven More Anti-Coup Protesters, Palestinian Family Threatens Self-Immolation, Resisting Eviction from East Jerusalem Home, Authorities in Indian-Administered Kashmir Shut Down Independent Press Club, Salvadorans Protest Following Reports That Phones of Journalists and Civil Society Groups Were Hacked, North Korea Carries Out Fourth Missile Test This Month, New Jersey Chemical Fire Nearly Caused "Catastrophic" Release, World's Richest Saw Their Wealth Double as Pandemic Pushed 160 Million People into Poverty
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Jan 17, 2022
Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born January 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People's Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Vietnam War. We play his "Beyond Vietnam" speech, which he delivered at New York City's Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, as well as his last speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop," that he gave on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated.
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Jan 14, 2022
As the United States heads into the Martin Luther King Day holiday weekend, attempts by Democrats to pass major new voting rights legislation appear to have stalled. We examine the new award-winning documentary "Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America," which follows civil rights attorney Jeffery Robinson as he confronts the enduring legacy of anti-Black racism in the United States, weaving together examples from the U.S. Constitution, education system and policing. "The entire purpose of this film is to ask people to take a long hard look at our actual history of white supremacy and anti-Black racism," says Robinson, the former deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "That is something that has been really erased from the common narrative and creation story about America." We also speak with Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler, the directors of the film.
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Jan 14, 2022
As Afghanistan faces a dire humanitarian crisis, we look at how more Afghans may die from U.S. sanctions than at the hands of the Taliban. The U.S.'s attempts to block support for the new de facto government have prevented vital funding from flowing to the nation's civil servants, particularly in education and the health sector. Dr. Paul Spiegel says conditions in the hospitals he visited in Kabul as part of a World Health Organization emergency team are rapidly deteriorating, and he describes the lack of heat and basic amenities as winter descended. "There's been a drought. There's food insecurity. And all of this has been exacerbated due to this economic crisis and due to lack of the U.N. and NGOs being able to pay people in the field," says Spiegel. "What we see now is that it's not the Taliban that is holding us back. It is the sanctions," says Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
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Jan 14, 2022
Voting Rights Bills Appear Doomed in Senate as Sinema & Manchin Oppose Filibuster Change, Supreme Court Strikes Down Vaccination-or-Test Mandate for 84 Million U.S. Workers, White House Orders Another Half-Billion Coronavirus Tests for U.S. Residents, New York Mayor Considering Virtual Learning Option as COVID-19 Cases Surge in Classrooms, Head of Oath Keepers Among 11 Charged with Seditious Conspiracy over Jan. 6 Insurrection, RNC May Try to Block Future Candidates from Presidential Debates, U.N. Calls for Urgent Funding to Avert Millions of Deaths in Afghanistan, Specter of War Remains After Talks Fail to Resolve Tensions on Russia-Ukraine Border, Prince Andrew Loses Military and Royal Titles as U.S. Sex Assault Case Proceeds, Australia Revokes Novak Djokovic's Visa for 2nd Time, Days Ahead of Australian Open, 2021 Was the 6th Hottest Year on Record, Protesters Call on Gov. Hochul, Lawmakers to Pass Sweeping New York Climate Bill, NJ Gov. Delays Power Plant Contract After Community Organizes to Protect Newark Neighborhood
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Jan 13, 2022
We speak with The Nation's national affairs correspondent John Nichols on the occasion of his new book, "Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis," which takes aim at the CEOs and political figures who put profits over people during the coronavirus pandemic. The chapters cover notorious figures such as former President Trump, Mike Pompeo, Jared Kushner and Jeff Bezos. "In the United States alone, hundreds of thousands of deaths occurred that did not have to occur," says Nichols. "Globally it's in the millions, and the U.S. could have played a huge role in addressing that."
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Jan 13, 2022
Jeremy Menchik, a self-described "human guinea pig" who volunteered for Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine trials, dropped out to protest the company's greed in reaping profits from the ongoing pandemic while doing little to resolve global vaccine inequity. Menchik is launching a new website — mrna4all.org — where other vaccine trial participants can join the effort to pressure vaccine makers to scale up production to vaccinate the world. "That they have to be accountable to their guinea pigs and they have to advance policies for public health not just private profit … I think that must be unnerving to them," says Menchik, an associate professor at Boston University. "We have to treat this pandemic as a global crisis, as a global public health emergency."
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Jan 13, 2022
Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman warns the Republican Party is laying the groundwork to steal the 2022 midterms and future elections through a combination of gerrymandering, voter suppression and election subversion, that together pose a mortal threat to voting rights in the United States. Republicans, many of whom are election deniers, are campaigning for positions that hold immense oversight over the election process. "What's really new here are these efforts to take over how votes are counted," says Berman. "That is the ultimate voter suppression method, because if you're not able to rig the election on the front end, you can throw out votes on that back end."
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Jan 13, 2022
WHO: Confirmed Coronavirus Infections Surge to 15 Million in a Week, French Teachers Strike as COVID-19 Cases Overwhelm Schools, British PM Boris Johnson Faces Calls to Resign for Defying Lockdown to Attend Cocktail Party, Biden Deploys Military Teams to Hospitals Overwhelmed by COVID-19 Patients, GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy Won't Cooperate with "Illegitimate" January 6 Committee, Confronted over Lies About 2020 Election, Donald Trump Cuts Short NPR Interview , Biden Meets with Senate Democrats as Push to Pass Voting Rights Legislation Intensifies , Ohio's Top Court Rejects GOP's Gerrymandered Voting Maps, Israeli Forces Kill 80-Year-Old Palestinian American Man in Violent Arrest, German Court Finds Ex-Syrian Intel Officer Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity, Five More Guantánamo Prisoners, Held for Years Without Charge, Granted Release, Mogadishu Car Blast Kills 8, Archbishop of Santa Fe Makes Plea for Global Nuclear Disarmament, Texas Sheriff Told Deputies to Seize Cash from Undocumented Motorists, 8,400 Kroger Workers Go on Strike as Study Highlights Economic Plight of Grocery Workers, California Governor Unveils Healthcare Plan to Cover Undocumented Immigrants
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Jan 12, 2022
In Newark, New Jersey, residents of the largely Black and Latinx community of Ironbound are calling on Governor Phil Murphy to stop plans to build a $180 million gas-fired power plant that could worsen the poor local air quality and exacerbate the climate crisis. As the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission holds a vote to begin construction on Thursday, activists are urging the governor to enforce the environmental justice law that he passed last year. "If we don't set a good precedent for New Jersey, what does that mean for the country and other states that are trying to pass similar laws?" says Maria Lopez-Nuñez, member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
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Jan 12, 2022
A massive fire in an apartment building in the Bronx, New York, killed 17 people, including eight children, on Sunday. The city is blaming the fire on a malfunctioning space heater. Housing advocates say the real issue is the lack of safe, affordable public housing, citing lack of heat provided by the building during subzero winter temperatures and poor fire safety systems. Tenants and activists note one of the building's co-owners is a member of Mayor Eric Adams's transition team, and are demanding an extension to the eviction moratorium set to expire on January 15. "All of them are really asking for accountability, not just from the state and city agencies but first and foremost from their landlord and the building owners," says reporter Claudia Irizarry Aponte, who covers the Bronx for the nonprofit newsroom The City.
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Jan 12, 2022
We go to Atlanta, Georgia, where President Biden and Vice President Harris spoke on Tuesday to pressure Congress to pass critical voting rights legislation. Biden endorsed changing the Senate rules to prevent a minority of senators from filibustering the bills. We speak to two leaders in the voting rights movement about the importance of passing the bills, particularly for people of color. "Right now 40 senators can stop 100 senators from having a vote, and that is absolutely unheard of anywhere else in our democracy," says Ben Jealous, who attended Biden's speech and is president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP. Biden should prioritize voting rights and "follow up the speech yesterday with actions," says Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter, who boycotted Biden's address.
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Jan 12, 2022
Biden Supports Senate Bypassing Filibuster Rule to Pass Voting Rights Legislation, FDA Head Says "Most People" Will Get COVID; Students Protest School Safety Protocols, Red Cross Warns of Blood Supply Crisis Amid Pandemic, Anthony Fauci Accuses Sen. Rand Paul of Endangering His Life by Spreading Lies Around Pandemic, 19 People Reported Killed in Tigray Airstrikes on Same Day Biden Speaks with Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed, Coast Guard Rescues 176 Haitian Migrants from Boat as Biden Admin Continues Mass Deportations, DOJ Forms Domestic Terrorism Unit, NC Protesters Demand Justice for Jason Walker, a Black Man Shot Dead by Off-Duty Officer, Rikers Prisoners on Hunger Strike over Violence, Inhumane Conditions at NYC Jail, U.S. Navy to Stop Operations at Hawaiian Fuel Facility Which Sickened Military Families, Clyde Bellecourt, Founder of American Indian Movement, Dies at 85, Buffalo Gets 2nd Unionized Starbucks Shop; Alabama Amazon Workers Prepare for Union Vote Redo, Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick Wins Special U.S. House Election in Florida, Coins Featuring Acclaimed Novelist Maya Angelou Debut as Part of American Women Quarters Program
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Jan 11, 2022
Former Guantánamo Bay detainee Mansoor Adayfi was imprisoned for 14 years without charge before being released in 2016 to Serbia. Adayfi says those released from Guantánamo become "stateless men" who experience a brutal legal limbo even after being cleared of all charges, often released to countries where they have no history or connection with their families. Even exonerated former detainees of Guantánamo "live in the stigma of Guantánamo, viewed by the hosting countries as terrorists, as killers," says Adayfi. He joins advocates everywhere in calling for President Biden to shut the prison down.
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Jan 11, 2022
Twenty years ago today, the U.S. military began imprisoning Muslim men at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. We speak with the prison's former Muslim chaplain, James Yee, who was jailed and held in solitary confinement for 76 days after being falsely accused of espionage. All charges were eventually dropped, and he received an honorable discharge. Yee describes how boys as young as 12 to 15 years old were treated as enemy combatants on the prison complex and the widespread Islamophobia that put even Muslim Americans under heavy surveillance. "During my time I was there, it was clear that these individuals were not in any way associated with terrorism whatsoever," says Yee.
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Jan 11, 2022
On the 20th anniversary of the first prisoner's arrival at Guantánamo Bay, we spend the hour with former detainees, starting with Moazzam Begg, who was imprisoned for three years at the military prison and eventually released without ever being charged with a crime. He now advocates on behalf of victims of the so-called war on terror, calling on the Biden administration to follow through on promises to shut down the military prison and release the remaining 39 prisoners. Twenty years after the detention center opened, Begg reflects on the absurdity and lawlessness of Guantánamo, describing how its torture methods were not only unethical but ultimately extracted very little credible intelligence. "The legacy of this place is imprisonment without trial, torture, the absence of the rule of law, the removal of the presumption of innocence," says Begg.
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Jan 11, 2022
U.S. Coronavirus Cases and Hospitalizations Soar to Record Highs, Warming Oceans Set New Temperature Records in 2021 as Climate Crisis Worsened, U.N. Appeals for Nearly $5 Billion in Afghanistan Aid as 1 Million Children Face Severe Malnutrition, Amid Talks with U.S., Russia Says Ukraine Must Never Be Allowed to Join NATO, North Korea Tests Hypersonic Missile for Second Time in a Week, Lithuania Pays $113,000 to Guantánamo "Forever Prisoner" Tortured at CIA Black Site, Former DEA Informant Arrested over Alleged Role in Plot That Assassinated Haiti's President, El Salvador Reopens Probe into 1989 Massacre of Jesuits by U.S.-Trained Death Squad, Biden and Harris Visit Georgia, Calling on Congress to Pass Voting Rights Bills, NC Voters Sue to Block Rep. Madison Cawthorn's Reelection Bid over His Support for Insurrection, Fox News Promotes Jesse Watters Despite Record of Violent and Racist Rhetoric, Safety Doors Failed at Bronx Apartment Where Fire Killed 17, Arson Blamed for New Year's Fire That Destroyed Tennessee Planned Parenthood Clinic, In a First, Doctors Transplant Heart of Genetically Altered Pig into a Human, Washington Post Investigation Finds 1,700 U.S. Congressmembers Enslaved People, Mourners Gather for Funeral of Valentina Orellana-Peralta, 14-Year-Old Killed by Police Bullet
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Jan 10, 2022
The Omicron variant's transmission rate is exponentially higher than Delta, leaving healthcare workers across the U.S. in dire straits. Waves of doctors, nurses and other health professionals are unionizing, and some have quit the profession over exploitative conditions. The staffing shortage has added on to the strains of increasing hospitalizations due to COVID-19, limited availability of necessary equipment and lack of federal support for preventative measures such as paid medical leave. "This is the cost of two years spent pushing prematurely for a return to normal," says Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and science writer at The Atlantic. Yong also discusses the debate over keeping schools open during the COVID-19 surge, and challenges to President Biden's vaccine mandates affecting nearly 100 million workers.
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Jan 10, 2022
As an Australian judge allows unvaccinated tennis star Novak Djokovic to be released from immigration detention amid controversy over his COVID vaccine exemption, we look at how his case has intensified international scrutiny over Australia's inhumane treatment of refugees jailed in the same rundown hotel. "No one is telling us when we get out of this indefinite detention," says Mehdi Ali, an Iranian refugee currently detained by the Australian government at the Park Hotel in Melbourne. We also speak with former Australian soccer player Craig Foster, who advocates for asylum seekers.
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Jan 10, 2022
Kazakhstan's authoritarian President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has described last week's protests as an attempted coup and defended his call for Russian-led troops into the country to put down the unrest. Demonstrations were triggered by a rise in fuel prices and widened to broader anti-government protests. Over 160 people were killed in the violence, including a 4-year-old girl, and thousands were detained. "The Russian troops will probably get out, but Tokayev, if he keeps power ... probably will be somehow in debt of Putin, and Putin may have [the] position to decide, or help decide, certain moves in Kazakhstan," says Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at The New School.
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Jan 10, 2022
U.S. and Russian officials are meeting today in Geneva as NATO calls on Russia to remove its troops from along the Ukrainian border. The Russian military has also mobilized soldiers to suppress protests in Kazakhstan. We go to Moscow to speak with Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at The New School, who says President Vladimir Putin is expanding Russia's sphere of influence but will not invade Ukraine. "It's not that he wants to take more territory. I think he wants to get heard," says Khrushcheva.
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Jan 10, 2022
Bronx Building Blaze Kills 19 People, Including 9 Children, Injures Dozens, Judge Sentences Men Who Murdered Ahmaud Arbery to Life in Prison, 25% of U.S. Hospitals Face Critical Staff Shortages; Chicago Schools Remain Closed Amid Omicron Surge, Airstrike Kills 56 Displaced People in Tigray as Region's Humanitarian Situation Worsens, Military Court Sentences Aung San Suu Kyi to 4 More Years in Prison, Fire in Cox's Bazar Destroys Homes of 5,000 Rohingya Refugees, Reprisal Attacks in Nigeria's Zamfara State Kill 200 Civilians, Tennis Star Novak Djokovic Released from Immigration Detention as Australian Visa Reinstated, Russia and U.S. Hold Diplomatic Talks over Ukraine Against Backdrop of Kazakhstan Violence, European Airlines Operating Highly Polluting Empty Flights to Keep Airport Landing Privileges, California Democrats, Healthcare Advocates Ramp Up Push for Universal Healthcare System, Chinese Victim of Anti-Asian Hate Crime in NYC Dies of His Injuries, Columbia Student Workers End 10-Week Strike, Winning Better Wages and Benefits, Legendary Film Star Sidney Poitier, Oscar Winner and Civil Rights Activist, Dies at 94
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Jan 07, 2022
We get an update from Sudan, where at least three pro-democracy protesters were killed by security forces on Thursday, bringing the death toll to at least 60 since the military coup on October 25. Thursday's protest came four days following Abdalla Hamdok's resignation as Sudan's prime minister, after he was deposed in the October coup and then shortly restored to power by the military in November. However, protesters on the ground find Hamdok's resignation insignificant and consider him irrelevant to the fight for full democratic control over the government, says Sudanese activist Marine Alneel, who joins us from Khartoum. The civilian slogan is now "no negotiation, no partnership, no legitimacy," she explains, saying protesters are no longer interested in preserving the joint military-civilian governing deal signed after mass protests in 2019 that toppled longtime leader Omar al-Bashir. "In 2019, many people were displeased with the partnership, and now mostly people are outright rejecting any form of partnership with the military," she says.
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Jan 07, 2022
We look at the skyrocketing number of COVID infections. Coronavirus cases hit record highs this week, with global cases climbing 70% from last week to 9.5 million and the U.S. reporting a single-day record of 1 million new cases on Monday. In the U.S., the extraordinary volume of cases is filling up emergency rooms nationwide and exhausting healthcare workers, says emergency room physician Dr. Craig Spencer, who has been treating coronavirus patients since the pandemic began. "We're much better at treating this disease now," says Spencer, "but the problem is that the amount of volume that we're seeing threatens to really wash away any added benefit from either a milder variant or even all that experience that we've learned and those tools that we've built up over the past few years." Spencer also critiques the U.S. government's role in prolonging the pandemic, saying, "Global vaccine inequity has been one of the most profound and disappointing aspects of this pandemic over the past year."
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Jan 07, 2022
President Joe Biden warned about the looming threat of autocracy during his speech marking the first anniversary of the January 6 Capitol attack on Thursday and denounced his predecessor Donald Trump for inciting the rioters. In a statement responding to Biden's speech, Trump continued to falsely claim the 2020 election was rigged. To discuss further, we are joined by historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on the psychology of authoritarianism, who says Trump has grown his "personality cult" since his election loss and converted the GOP into "a far-right authoritarian party which has enshrined violence as part of the practice of power." She also discusses Trump's recent endorsement of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been recognized by European Union leadership as a threat to democracy, and calls Florida Governor Ron DeSantis a "mini-Trump" who is planning for "an authoritarian system at the state level."
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Jan 07, 2022
On Jan. 6 Anniversary, Biden Warns of Trump's "Dagger at the Throat of Democracy", Supreme Court to Weigh Vaccine Mandates as U.S. Coronavirus Cases Hit Record High, WHO Warns Omicron Is Overwhelming Hospitals and Killing People, Not "Mild", As Omicron Shatters Pandemic Records, Brazil's Bolsonaro Blasts Child Vaccinations, Kazakh President Orders Troops to Shoot Without Warning as Protest Death Toll Mounts, 3 Eritrean Refugees, Including 2 Children, Killed by Airstrike in Ethiopia's Tigray, Israelis Kill Two Palestinians in West Bank; Far-Right Protesters Attack Palestinian Reporter, Two Journalists Murdered in Haiti Amid Spiking Gang Violence, Head of U.S. Prisons Resigns as COVID Ravages Incarcerated Population , Unionized Starbucks Workers Walk Off Job; Nurses Demand Permanent Protections Amid Pandemic, Activists Arrested While Halting Construction on Sunoco Fracked Gas Pipeline in PA, Murder Trial for Ex-Police Officers Involved in George Floyd Murder Set for Jan. 20, Journalist & Civil Rights Activist Mel Reeves Dies at 64 from COVID-19
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Jan 06, 2022
Former Pentagon adviser Ryan Goodman says former President Trump could have used the Insurrection Act to hold onto power during the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters. "There needs to be reform of the Insurrection Act," says Goodman, who authored the report "Crisis of Command: The Pentagon, the President, and January 6" for Just Security, where he is co-editor. He also discusses how Republican leadership from Congress, as well as agency heads from the FBI and the Justice Department, waged a coordinated response around Trump's claims of voter fraud in an attempt to increase Republican voter turnout in Georgia. "The Justice Department used a lot of its resources, including the FBI investigations, to basically affect the outcome of the Georgia runoffs," says Goodman. "That's an extraordinary politicized use of the Justice Department and the FBI to do anything like that, to try to use it to shape an outcome of the election."
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Jan 06, 2022
One year since Trump supporters staged a violent mob attack on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden's presidency, we discuss exactly what was happening behind the scenes in the intelligence community that day. We are joined by Newsweek national security reporter William Arkin, who appeared on Democracy Now! just hours prior to the Capitol attack and predicted a violent outcome hours later. Arkin says the intelligence community failed to prepare for the strength of Trump's movement and needs to beef up its approach in anticipation for the next insurrection or coup attempt. "It's really stunning to me that we haven't looked more closely at what the role of the federal agencies were, what the intelligence was and what the intelligence agencies knew," says Arkin.
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Jan 06, 2022
Many events marking the first anniversary of the deadly January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol are focusing on voting rights, as false claims about voter fraud have fueled Republican efforts to restrict voting access, especially for Black voters. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed Tuesday to proceed with a vote to change the filibuster rule to prevent Republicans from blocking new voting rights legislation. Professor Carol Anderson, author of "White Rage" and "One Person, No Vote," says former President Trump's false claims about voter fraud prompted a wave in 2021 of some of the most aggressive and racist assaults on voting rights in recent U.S. history. "It is Jim Crow 2.0," Anderson says of Republican voter suppression waged through state legislation. "It is designed to make sure we have minority rule in the United States, that we don't have a democracy."
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Jan 06, 2022
On the first anniversary of the deadly insurrection of January 6, when right-wing and white supremacist supporters of Donald Trump attacked the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, we speak with Elie Mystal of The Nation about the Department of Justice investigation, led by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who pledged Wednesday to bring everyone involved to "justice." Mystal says Garland should be more aggressive and also pursue Donald Trump. "I want actual evidence that this man is willing to take on the powerful, politically connected Republicans who did this to us, and so far I don't see that evidence," says Mystal. So far, 725 rioters have been arrested on smaller charges.
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Jan 06, 2022
Biden to Call Out Trump's "Singular Responsibility" for Jan. 6 Insurrection, Jimmy Carter: U.S. Is at "Genuine Risk of Civil Conflict and Losing Our Precious Democracy", CDC Endorses Boosters for 12-to-15-Year-Olds as COVID Cases Skyrocket, Dozens Killed in Kazakhstan as Protests Grow in Former Soviet Republic, North Korea Acknowledges Testing Hypersonic Missile, Chilean Constitutional Assembly Elects New President to Rewrite Pinochet-Era Document, 12 Die, Including 8 Children, in Philadelphia House Fire, Ghislaine Maxwell Seeks New Trial After Two Jurors Admit Being Sexual Abuse Survivors, As Guantánamo Turns 20, Pentagon Is Building a New Secret Courtroom, Pacific Gas & Electric Blamed for Starting Another Devastating Fire in California, New Manhattan DA Calls for Not Prosecuting Some Nonviolent Offenses, Bomb Threats Probed at Nine Historically Black Colleges & Universities, California Man Attacks Vaccination Clinic Workers Calling Them "Murderers", Australia Cancels Visa for Tennis Star Novak Djokovic over Vaccine Rules, Antiracist Activists Cleared for Dumping Slave Trader Statue into a River in U.K., 750,000 Sign Petition to Strip Tony Blair of Knighthood, Plaintiff in 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Case Granted Posthumous Pardon
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Jan 05, 2022
The January 6 insurrection resulted in criminal charges for over 700 rioters, and the FBI has since called it an act of domestic terrorism. Philadelphia Inquirer national columnist Will Bunch says there is growing evidence that links Trump and his inner circle to the Capitol attack. He argues understanding what was happening behind the scenes at the Pentagon, which has operational control over the National Guard in D.C., can help explain Trump's botched attempt to overturn the 2020 election and the insurrection that followed. "I think they fully believed that they would be able to call out the National Guard," says Bunch, explaining Trump's strategy to incite violence between his supporters and counterprotesters in an attempt to make military orders to disrupt the certification. Bunch predicts Trump and allies will delay cooperation with the House probe into the attack until Republicans can gain congressional power in 2022 and dismiss the investigation.
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Jan 05, 2022
Thursday marks one year since a violent mob of thousands of far-right and white supremacist Trump supporters descended on the U.S. Capitol, disrupting Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election and resulting in five deaths and hundreds of injuries. We look at where these movements are one year later, with the updated investigative documentary "American Insurrection" by Frontline in collaboration with ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism's Investigative Reporting Program. Director Rick Rowley explains how the far-right social movements have grown since the insurrection and says "the locus of the organizing has shifted really from a national platform to a local one, which makes it more difficult to track and increases the potential for local or regional violence." Rowley and Frontline correspondent A.C. Thompson interviewed January 6 select committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson about what makes this a moment for "far-right mobilization" and discussed the significance of the widespread contradictory beliefs by many on the far right that antifa and Black Lives Matter dressed up as Trump supporters and carried out the January 6 riot, but that those who tried to overturn the election are patriots.
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Jan 05, 2022
Chicago Cancels Classes After Union Vote to Move to Remote Learning, CDC Keeps in Place New Rule About 5-Day Isolation, Amid Surge, Delhi to Enforce Weekend Curfew as Hong Kong Bans Flights from U.S., U.K., Jan. 6 Committee Seeks to Question Fox's Sean Hannity over Insurrection, "Do You Realize You Are Describing a Coup?" Ex-Trump Official Defends Plan to Overturn Election, Report: 650,000 Messages Posted on Facebook Attacking Election Results Before Jan. 6, Manchin Says Changing Filibuster Rules to Pass Voting Rights Is "Heavy Lift", Canada Reaches $31 Billion Settlement with First Nations over Child Welfare Abuses, U.S. Charges Ex-Colombian Commando in Assassination of Haitian President, Palestinian Prisoner Wins Freedom After 141-Day Hunger Strike, B'Tselem: Israel Killed 313 Palestinians Last Year, Demolished 300 Residential Structures, Sudanese Forces Fire at Protesters Demanding Civilian Rule, Kazakhstan Declares State of Emergency Amid Protests over Fuel Hikes, Albany County DA Drops Sex Crime Charges Against Andrew Cuomo, Rep. Bobby Rush to Resign After 15 Terms, GOP Activist & Vaccine Mandate Critic Kelly Ernby, 46, Dies from COVID-19, Julian Assange Marks 1,000th Day Locked Up in Belmarsh High-Security Prison
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Jan 04, 2022
The French humanitarian group Utopia 56 has filed a manslaughter lawsuit against British and French officials for failing to help 27 migrants who drowned to death in the English Channel in November. The only two survivors say they were ignored when they made distress calls and told their location to French and English rescue services after their boat capsized and started sinking in the freezing waters off the French port city of Calais. We speak with Nikolaï Posner of Utopia 56, who says the lawsuit is meant to "bring the truth and the transparency on what happened."
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Jan 04, 2022
As the Omicron variant sets record-high COVID-19 infection rates across the United States, we look at the conditions in the sprawling network of jails run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement where the Biden administration is holding more than 22,000 people. "There's still a lot of people detained. There's no social distancing. People are still facing COVID," says longtime immigrant activist Maru Mora Villalpando, who adds that most COVID infections are coming from unvaccinated workers who are coming from outside of the jails. She describes how people held in GEO Group's Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, say conditions have gotten even worse during the pandemic, after a federal judge ruled the company must pay detained people minimum wage for work like cooking and cleaning instead of paying them a dollar a day. GEO Group responded by suspending its "voluntary work program."
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Jan 04, 2022
Pandemic relief programs have helped millions of families get through the economic shocks of COVID-19, but undocumented immigrants — many of whom are essential workers — have been largely shut out of such federal aid. Those undocumented workers who have received limited assistance are now losing the pandemic aid they had only started receiving in August through the Biden administration's expanded child tax credit program, which expired and is being blocked from further implementation into Build Back Better legislation. "These families, in spite of the fact that they were essential workers, endured this really punishing income gap," says journalist Julia Preston, who reported on an undocumented immigrant community in New Bedford, Massachusetts, who sustain the United States' largest commercial fishing port. Preston and Ariel Goodman wrote the article "Essential But Excluded" for The Marshall Project and say the difference in income amounts on average to almost $35,000.
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Jan 04, 2022
Global Coronavirus Cases Hit Record High, U.S. Logs 1M Daily Coronavirus Cases for First Time; FDA Approves Booster Shots for Teens, Schumer Promises Senate Vote on Filibuster Reform by MLK Holiday as Voting Rights Bills Languish, Protests Erupt on Anniversary of Trump's Assassination of Qassem Soleimani, Haitian PM Ariel Henry Says He Survived Assassination Attempt, Brazilian Far-Right President Jair Bolsonaro Hospitalized with Intestinal Blockage, Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Found Guilty of Defrauding Investors, Court Unseals Settlement Between Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew Accuser Virginia Giuffre, Corporations Gave $8 Million to GOP Lawmakers Who Sought to Overturn 2020 Election, New York AG Subpoenas Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. in Real Estate Fraud Probe, Mexican President Renews Asylum Offer to Julian Assange
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Jan 03, 2022
A devastating climate change-fueled wildfire destroyed nearly 1,000 homes outside of Boulder and Denver, Colorado, with little notice last Thursday. The fire was fanned by winds that gusted up to 110 miles per hour, and came after a year of drought across the western U.S. and amid an unusually warm December. We speak with Jennifer Balch, director of the Earth Lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who says the climate crisis is extending the scale and scope of wildfire season in the state. "We've known that there's a link between climate change and wildfires for over a decade, and it takes just a little bit of warming to lead to a lot more burning," says Balch.
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Jan 03, 2022
The United States faces a shortage of rapid COVID-19 tests amid the Omicron surge even as many inexpensive at-home rapid testing models have been ready for distribution — but refused approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. One scientist, Harvard-trained Irene Bosch, submitted a rapid test to the FDA for emergency approval in March 2020 and even had a factory ready to produce it. Bosch describes how the FDA's rejection came from unclear standards set by the administration early on in the pandemic, and says earlier approval of testing like hers could have saved lives.
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Jan 03, 2022
As COVID cases skyrocket, we speak to Dr. Peter Hotez at Texas Children's Hospital about the Omicron surge, as well as his groundbreaking work developing an affordable patent-free coronavirus vaccine. Last week the Indian government gave emergency approval to the new low-cost, patent-free vaccine called Corbevax, which Hotez co-created. He says it could reach billions of people across the globe who have lacked access to the more expensive mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna. "We can really make a vaccine for the world," says Hotez. Hotez also addresses problems stemming from ongoing vaccine hesitancy.
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Jan 03, 2022
Omicron-Driven Surge Causes Travel Disruptions, Sets Records for Infections, Child Hospitalizations, Climate-Fueled Colorado Wildfire Razes 1,000 Homes; Two People Still Missing, Ghislaine Maxwell Found Guilty in Federal Sex Trafficking Trial as Attention Turns to Prince Andrew, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok Resigns as More Protesters Killed in Anti-Coup Demonstrations, Hong Kong Independent Media Outlet Citizen News Shutters Amid Crackdown on Press Freedom, Germany Shuts Down Half of Six Remaining Nuclear Power Plants, As Jan. 6 Anniversary Looms, Rep. Liz Cheney Says Trump's Inner Circle Tried to Get Him to Stop Riot, Twitter Bans Account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over COVID-19 Misinformation, Karen Ferguson, Who Fought to Expand Workers' Pension Rights, Dies at 80, Colorado Governor Shortens 110-Year Sentence of Truck Driver, Large Fire Damages South African Parliament in Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, Anti-Apartheid Leader and Human Rights Champion, Laid to Rest
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Dec 31, 2021
Democracy Now! first aired on nine community radio stations on February 19, 1996, on the eve of the New Hampshire presidential primary. In the 25 years since that initial broadcast, the program has greatly expanded, airing today on more than 1,500 television and radio stations around the globe and reaching millions of people online. We celebrate 25 years of The War and Peace Report with an hour-long retrospective, including highlights from the show's early years, some of the most controversial interviews, and groundbreaking reports from East Timor, Standing Rock, Western Sahara and more.
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Dec 30, 2021
Noam Chomsky decries what he calls the torture of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He also critiques the Biden administration's reckless foreign policy. "The trajectory is not optimistic," Chomsky says. "The worst case is the increasing provocative actions towards China. That's very dangerous."
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Dec 30, 2021
Noam Chomsky warns the Republican Party is "marching" the world to destruction by ignoring the climate emergency while embracing proto-fascism at home. Chomsky talks about the January 6 insurrection, how neoliberalism is a form of class warfare and how President Biden's climate plans fall short of what is needed.
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Dec 30, 2021
Today, a special broadcast: an hour with Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author, who just turned 93 years old. Chomsky spoke to Democracy Now! prior to the discovery of the Omicron coronavirus variant, but he predicted new variants would emerge. "If you let the virus run rampant in poor countries, everyone understands that mutation is likely, the kind of mutation that led to the Delta variant, now the Delta Plus variant in India, and who knows what will develop," Chomsky said.
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Dec 29, 2021
We go to New Delhi, India, to speak with acclaimed Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy about the pandemic, U.S. militarism and the state of journalism. Roy first appeared on Democracy Now! after receiving widespread backlash for speaking out against the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. At the time, her emphatic antiwar stance clashed with the rising tides of patriotism and calls for war after 9/11. "Now the same media is saying what we were saying 20 years ago," says Roy. "But the trouble is, it's too late."
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Dec 29, 2021
Acclaimed poet Martín Espada recently won the National Book Award for Poetry for his anthology "Floaters." He became just the third Latinx poet to win the award. "Floaters" is titled after the photo of the Salvadoran father and daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande in June 2019 trying to cross into the United States, one that sparked outrage at the humanitarian crisis at the U.S. southern border. Espada discusses U.S. immigration policy and reads the poem "Letter to My Father: October 2017," which looks back at his father's native Puerto Rico.
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Dec 29, 2021
U.S. Coronavirus Infections Hit All-Time High, Omicron Drives Record Rates of Infection in Several European Countries, Taliban Fire Warning Shots at Dozens of Women Protesters in Kabul, U.N. Envoy Warns of Civilian Toll as Saudi-Led War on Yemen Escalates, Mahmoud Abbas Meets Israeli Defense Minister, Death Toll from Brazil Flooding Rises to 20, Kodiak, Alaska, Hits 67°F as Climate Emergency Fuels Extreme December Weather, Climate Emergency Cost Global Economy Nearly $200 Billion in 2021, South African Court Halts Shell Oil's Offshore Oil Exploration Plans, Russia Shutters International Memorial, Which Chronicled Soviet Abuses, Chinese Police Close Hong Kong News Outlet Stand News, Arrest Staffers, Family of Valentina Orellana-Peralta Demands Justice for 14-Year-Old Killed by LAPD, Colorado Gunman's Shooting Spree Leaves 5 Dead, 2 Injured, Judge Rejects First Amendment Claims of Proud Boys in Capitol Riot Conspiracy Case, Jan. 6 Committee Defers Request for Trump Records as White House Cites National Security, Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Dies at 82
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Dec 28, 2021
Mumia Abu-Jamal remembers South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on Sunday at the age of 90. Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting to end apartheid in South Africa. In 2007, Tutu visited Mumia when he was still on death row. "His spirit reflected a giant," says Abu-Jamal. "He struggled for change with his prophetic voice, his sweet humor, his deep love and his boundless sense of compassion."
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Dec 28, 2021
World-renowned author, activist and professor Angela Davis talks about navigating the pandemic and an inadequate two-party political system during a time of racial uprising in the United States. She also talks about imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Biden presidential campaign and the protests that erupted from the police killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
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Dec 28, 2021
World-renowned author, activist and professor Angela Davis talks about the prison abolition movement from her time as a Black Panther leader to today. In her tireless efforts as an abolitionist and a teacher, Davis continues to be a fierce advocate of education and the interconnected struggles of oppressed peoples. Davis talks about Indigenous genocide, Palestine, critical race theory and the role of independent media. "Democracy Now! helps us to place our own domestic issues and struggles within the context of global battles against fascism," says Davis.
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Dec 28, 2021
Legendary poet, singer, author and activist Patti Smith has been awarded a key to New York City. Smith's music has inspired countless bands and helped earn her the title of the queen of punk. Her song "People Have the Power" has become an anthem at protests across the globe. Patti Smith has also been a longtime activist, performing regularly at antiwar rallies and political benefits. She gave an emotional acceptance speech during a ceremony Monday with outgoing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. We also air a clip of her live performance with singer Michael Stipe at Democracy Now!'s 20th anniversary celebration in 2016.
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Dec 28, 2021
World Coronavirus Cases Hit Record High as Omicron Surges, Israel Tests Fourth Vaccine Doses as COVID Surges in Largely Unvaccinated African Nations, Biden Warns Governors of Looming Shortages of Hospital Beds as COVID-19 Cases Near Pandemic Highs, CDC Recommends Shorter Isolation for People with Asymptomatic Coronavirus Infections, Afghan Taliban Bans Women from Road Trips Without Male Escort, Talks on Reviving Iran Nuclear Deal Resume in Vienna, Iraq's Top Court Ratifies Results of October's Contested Election, Russia to Hold Talks with U.S. and NATO Allies over Ukraine Border Tensions, New German Government Moves to Legalize Recreational Marijuana, Biden Signs NDAA, Lifting Pentagon Budget to Record-Shattering $778 Billion, LAPD Video Shows Officer Fatally Shooting Suspect and 14-Year-Old in Department Store
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Dec 27, 2021
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African anti-apartheid icon, has died at the age of 90. In 1984 Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work fighting to end white minority rule in South Africa. After the fall of apartheid, Archbishop Tutu chaired the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where he pushed for restorative justice. He was a leading voice for human rights and peace around the world. He opposed the Iraq War and condemned the Israeli occupation in Palestine, comparing it to apartheid South Africa. We reair two interviews Archbishop Tutu did on Democracy Now!, as well as two speeches on the Iraq War and the climate crisis.
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Dec 27, 2021
U.S. Coronavirus Cases Skyrocket as Omicron Spreads at Unprecedented Pace, China Orders Lockdown for 13 Million in Xi'an; Pope Francis Calls for Universal Access to Vaccines, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Who Battled Apartheid and Championed Human Rights, Dies at 90, Israel Plans to Double Population of Illegal Settlements in Occupied Golan Heights, Burmese Military Accused of Massacring Dozens of Civilians , Iraqi Kurds Hold Funerals for Family Members Who Drowned Crossing English Channel , Dams Burst After Torrential Rains in Brazil; U.S. Records Record High December Temperatures, Sarah Weddington, Who Successfully Argued Roe v. Wade at Supreme Court, Dies at 76, El Salvador Frees Women Jailed for "Homicide" After Miscarriages, Literary Icon Joan Didion Dies at 87, Georgia Poll Workers Sue Rudy Giuliani, One America News for Defamation, Minnesota Cop Kim Potter Guilty of Manslaughter for Killing Daunte Wright, LAPD Fatally Shoots 14-Year-Old Girl in Department Store Dressing Room, Parents of 43 Missing Mexican Students Demand Answers in 2014 Disappearances
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Dec 24, 2021
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Glenn Greenwald and Chris Hedges discuss mass surveillance, government secrecy, internet freedom and U.S. attempts to extradite and prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. They spoke together on a panel moderated by Amy Goodman at the virtual War on Terror Film Festival after a screening of "Citizenfour" — the Oscar-winning documentary about Snowden by Laura Poitras.
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Dec 23, 2021
In a major victory for labor rights, 1,400 unionized Kellogg's workers have ended their nearly three-month strike across four states after approving a new contract that provides a wage increase and enhanced benefits for all. The prior agreement that Kellogg's tried to bargain only offered wage increases and improved benefits to longtime workers, whereas the new agreement ensures newer workers have a guaranteed option to receive the same improvements. We speak with Kellogg's worker Kevin Bradshaw, who will return to work on Monday alongside his co-workers. "We didn't have any takeaways and no concessions, so I would say that, in essence, that we did win," says Bradshaw.
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Dec 23, 2021
In a major victory for labor rights, 1,400 unionized Kellogg's workers have ended their nearly three-month strike across four states after approving a new contract that provides a wage increase and enhanced benefits for all. The prior agreement that Kellogg's tried to bargain only offered wage increases and improved benefits to longtime workers, whereas the new agreement ensures newer workers have a guaranteed option to receive the same improvements. We speak with Kellogg's worker Kevin Bradshaw, who will return to work on Monday alongside his co-workers. "We didn't have any takeaways and no concessions, so I would say that, in essence, that we did win," says Bradshaw.
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Dec 23, 2021
A new report titled "How The Koch Network Hijacked The War On COVID" reveals how a right-wing network linked to billionaire Charles Koch has played a key role in fighting public health measures during the pandemic, including mask and vaccine mandates, contact tracing and lockdowns. The groups include the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), Donors Trust, the Hoover Institution and Hillsdale College. We speak about the contents of the report with co-author Walker Bragman, who says the right-wing network's attack on public health is designed to "maintain corporate profit at the expense of human life."
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Dec 23, 2021
Oxfam America has accused Moderna of misleading its investors about an ongoing dispute over whether it needs to share vaccine patent rights with the U.S. government. Oxfam filed a shareholders complaint against Moderna with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the company's resistance to recognizing the role played by three scientists with the National Institutes of Health in developing the vaccine. We speak with Robbie Silverman, senior corporate advocacy manager at Oxfam America, who says the federal government owns a right to license the vaccine to manufacturers. "It is simply not sufficient just to vaccinate the U.S. or just to vaccinate rich countries, because the virus knows no national boundaries," says Silverman, who claims Moderna is "essentially doing almost nothing to vaccinate low-income countries, and that has negative impacts for all of us."
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Dec 23, 2021
South Africa Says Omicron Coronavirus Surge Has Peaked, WHO Warns Blanket Booster Programs Divert Vaccine Supply, Prolonging Pandemic, FDA Approves COVID-19 Pill; Most Monoclonal Antibody Treatments Fail Against Omicron, New York Coronavirus Cases Surge to Record High; Supreme Court to Weigh Vaccine Mandates, Proud Boys Member Pleads Guilty to Capitol Riot Conspiracy, Will Cooperate with FBI, FBI Undercover Teams Infiltrated Portland Racial Justice Protests, U.S. Relaxes Limits on Aid as Afghanistan Faces Dire Humanitarian Crisis, U.N. Calls for Probe into Reports That Sudanese Security Forces Raped Anti-Coup Protesters, 3 Dead, Dozens Missing After Boat Carrying Refugees Sinks in Aegean Sea, Biden Admin Extends Pause on Student Debt Repayment, Explosion at ExxonMobil Oil Refinery in Texas Injures at Least 4, Taylor Energy Agrees to Pay $43 Million in Settlement over U.S.'s Longest-Ever Oil Spill, NYC Divests $3 Billion in Retirement Funds from Fossil Fuels, Alabama Amazon Workers Say Two Warehouse Workers Died Within Hours of Each Other, Oscars Documentary Shorts Shortlist Includes "Takeover," Which Recounts Young Lords' 1970 Protest
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Dec 22, 2021
A group of 11 Haitian asylum seekers is suing the Biden administration, accusing the U.S. government of physical abuse, racial discrimination and other rights violations when they were forced to shelter under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas. The class-action lawsuit comes after images of Border Patrol agents whipping Haitian asylum seekers from horseback went viral in September, drawing outrage from rights groups. The plaintiffs in the case are also demanding the U.S. government allow the return of the thousands of Haitian asylum seekers deported from the Del Rio encampment. Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which filed the class-action lawsuit, says the Biden administration's policies harm vulnerable people. "We believe that the lawsuit will force the administration to be accountable for what we continue to see as anti-Black racism within the immigration system," she says. "Immigration is a Black issue. We cannot disconnect that from the reality after what we saw under the bridge in Del Rio."
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Dec 22, 2021
President Biden has announced a plan to begin distributing 500 million at-home COVID tests starting in January in response to the latest surge in cases, linked to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. His plan also includes the establishment of new federal testing sites and the deployment of military medical personnel to help overwhelmed hospitals around the country. Dr. Tsion Firew, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center, says nurses and other healthcare providers are quitting or retiring in large numbers as the pandemic drags on, leading to an even greater strain on those still on the frontlines. "It's just very frustrating and also overburdening our healthcare system," she says.
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Dec 22, 2021
U.S. air power has been central in the country's wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, with officials promising that drones and other sophisticated weapons allow the U.S. military to carry out precision airstrikes that spare civilians caught in war zones. But a groundbreaking investigation by The New York Times reveals the U.S. military's air wars have been plagued by bad intelligence, imprecise targeting and a lack of accountability for thousands of civilian deaths, many of them children. The two-part series by reporter Azmat Khan is based on a trove of internal Pentagon documents, as well as on-the-ground reporting from dozens of airstrike sites and interviews with scores of survivors. "What you have is a scale of civilian death and injury that is vastly different than what they claim," says Khan, who spent five years on the investigation.
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Dec 22, 2021
U.S. air power has been central in the country's wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, with officials promising that drones and other sophisticated weapons allow the U.S. military to carry out precision airstrikes that spare civilians caught in war zones. But a groundbreaking investigation by The New York Times reveals the U.S. military's air wars have been plagued by bad intelligence, imprecise targeting and a lack of accountability for thousands of civilian deaths, many of them children. The two-part series by reporter Azmat Khan is based on a trove of internal Pentagon documents, as well as on-the-ground reporting from dozens of airstrike sites and interviews with scores of survivors. "What you have is a scale of civilian death and injury that is vastly different than what they claim," says Khan, who spent five years on the investigation.
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Dec 22, 2021
Biden Announces New Measures, Defends Vaccine Mandates, Amid Omicron Surge, TX Man Is 1st Omicron-Linked U.S. Death; States Announce Incentives, New Rules to Fight Surge, Rep. Barbara Lee, Govs. Hogan and Walz Announce Breakthrough COVID Infections, U.S. Military to Announce Highly Effective COVID Vaccine, Israel Rolling Out 4th Dose of COVID Vaccine; France Expected to Reach 100,000 New Cases Per Day, Oxfam Files Complaint Against Moderna; EU Approves Novavax COVID Vaccine, Biden Says There Is Still Hope for Build Back Better as Mining Union Urges Manchin to Support Bill, Kellogg's Workers End 11-Week Strike After Reaching Deal on New Contract, 160 Refugees Drowned Off Coast of Libya over the Weekend, U.N.'s World Food Programme Forced to Cut Back Yemen Aid Due to Funds Shortage, UAE Agency Put Pegasus Spyware on Phone of Jamal Khashoggi's Fiancée Months Before His Murder, Maya K'iche' Communities Block Roads, Protest Weekend Massacre Related to Guatemala Land Dispute, Rep. Perry Refuses Interview with Jan. 6 Cmte.; Michael Flynn Sues to Block Release of Phone Records, Incoming NYC Mayor Eric Adams Attacks Council Members, Defends Support of Solitary Confinement, New Report Warns "Tidal Wave" of Voter Suppression Laws Set to Intensify in 2022, 110-Yr. Prison Term for Truck Driver in Fatal Crash Prompts Outcry; Colorado DA Requests Resentencing
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Dec 21, 2021
The United States Navy is facing growing calls to permanently shut down one of their fuel storage facilities in Hawaii after a petroleum leak contaminated the water supply that serves over 90,000 families around the naval base of Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu. The storage site, called the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, has long been protested by environmental activists in part because of its location just 100 feet above the primary groundwater aquifer for Honolulu and the rest of Oahu. We speak with two Native Hawaiian guests: civil rights lawyer Camille Kalama and Kamanamaikalani Beamer, a former commissioner of the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management. "This is the most critical threat that we've ever had to our groundwater resources," says Beamer. "The Navy assured us and promised our state Water Resource Management Commission that this would never happen, and yet here we are."
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Dec 21, 2021
Former student activist and leftist Gabriel Boric will become Chile's youngest president after easily defeating the far-right candidate José Antonio Kast with over 55% of the vote. Boric has vowed to fight for progressive social reforms and overhaul the neoliberal economic policies left by the U.S.-backed dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. We speak with Chilean writer Pablo Abufom and feminist activist Javiera Manzi, who say Boric's victory signals an opening for progressive policy in Chile and Latin America more broadly.
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Dec 21, 2021
An emergency court in Egypt has sentenced leading human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah to an additional five years in prison on the charge of "spreading false news undermining national security" for sharing a post on Twitter. El-Fattah has been imprisoned since his arrest in September 2019, just six months after he was released following a five-year prison term for his role in the peaceful demonstrations of 2011 that led to the fall of Egypt's longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak. "Alaa wasn't even in the courtroom," says El-Fattah's aunt, the acclaimed Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif, who was in the courtroom at the time of his sentencing. "What Alaa did was he had one retweet, and they are punishing him for that with a five-year prison sentence."
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Dec 21, 2021
WHO Urges Cancellation of Holiday Gatherings as Omicron Spreads at Record Pace, Omicron Variant Surpasses Delta, Now Accounts for Three-Quarters of U.S. Cases, New York Confirms Record Number of Coronavirus Infections for Fourth Straight Day, NHL Cancels Hockey Games Amid COVID Surge; Record Number of NFL Players Test Positive, White House to Make Half-Billion COVID-19 Home Test Kits Available for Free, Himalayan Glaciers Melt at Accelerating Rate as Climate Emergency Deepens, EPA Rule Would Require Gas-Powered Cars to Average 55 Miles Per Gallon by 2026, Burmese Military Massacred 40 Men and Buried Bodies in Mass Graves, Reports BBC, Egyptian Court Sentences Leading Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah to 5 More Years in Prison, Haitian Asylum Seekers Sue U.S. over Abuse and Racial Discrimination at Border, Humanitarian Aid Group Says British and French Rescue Crews Let 27 Refugees Drown, Pentagon to Crack Down on Extremism in Its Ranks, January 6 Committee Seeks Information from Republican Rep. Scott Perry, Jury Deliberations Open in Ghislaine Maxwell Sex-Trafficking Trial , Chris Noth Dropped from CBS's "The Equalizer" Following Sexual Assault Claims, Jury Weighs Manslaughter Charges for MN Officer Kim Potter, Who Killed Daunte Wright, Harvard Won't Require SAT or ACT Scores for Applicants Through 2026
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Dec 20, 2021
Longtime immigrant rights leader Jean Montrevil has been granted three years of protection from deportation as part of a settlement for the First Amendment lawsuit Montrevil filed against the U.S. government that argued federal immigration officials targeted him for deportation due to his activism. Montrevil was abruptly deported to Haiti in 2018 but was allowed under the Biden administration to return home to New York in October to reunite with his family. We speak with Jean Montrevil, who says the news has given him "peace of mind" to enjoy the holiday season without fear of getting detained or deported, as well as Montrevil's lawyer Alina Das, who attributes the highly unusual decision to the strength of the immigrant rights movement. "It is the power of organizing that brought the government to the negotiating table," says Das.
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Dec 20, 2021
President Biden's signature $1.75 trillion Build Back Better package appears to be dead after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced on Fox News this Sunday he would not support the plan to expand the social safety net and combat the climate crisis. Without Manchin, Senate Democrats do not have enough votes to pass the landmark legislation, which has already been approved by the House. We speak with Congressmember Jamaal Bowman, who is one of six progressive Democrats in the House who correctly predicted that his party's decision to vote on the infrastructure bill prior to the Build Back Better package — as opposed to voting on them together — would risk throwing the $1.75 trillion package into jeopardy. "Special interests have been heavily involved in the negotiation process for Build Back Better throughout this entire year," says Bowman. President Biden "all but promised that he would be able to deliver Manchin," continues Bowman, "and as we can see, that has not happened."
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Dec 20, 2021
With the emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, the United States is now averaging over 130,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, and health officials warn the U.S. could see a million new cases a day by February. We speak with health expert Dr. Carlos del Rio, who says that vaccination complemented by booster shots is the best defense against severe illness. "Everybody's going to get infected. You're going to be exposed to this virus because it's essentially going to be everywhere," says del Rio.
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Dec 20, 2021
Build Back Better in Jeopardy After Sen. Joe Manchin Announces He Will Not Vote in Favor, Federal Company Vaccine Mandate Reinstated; New Data Show Moderna Booster Helps Fight Omicron, Southwest CEO Tests Positive After Senate Hearing; Sens. Booker and Warren Announce They Have COVID, Omicron Sends COVID Cases Surging, Prompts New Restrictions in Israel, U.K., the Netherlands, 35-Year-Old Progressive Activist Gabriel Boric Will Be Chile's Next President, Death Toll from Super Typhoon Rai Rises to 375 in Philippines; Floods Kill 8 in Malaysia, Hong Kong's "Patriots Only" Election Sees Record Low Turnout, Hundreds of Thousands of Sudanese Protesters March Against Military Rule, U.N. Human Rights Council to Probe War Crimes in Ethiopia, Islamic Countries Pledge Humanitarian Trust Fund for Afghanistan, NYT Reveals Widespread Pattern of Civilian Deaths and Cover-Ups in U.S. Air Wars, Capitol Rioter Gets 5 Years in Prison, Stiffest Sentence Yet for January 6 Insurrection, Rahm Emanuel, Who Covered Up Police Killing of Laquan McDonald, Confirmed as Ambassador to Japan, Claudette Colvin, Who Resisted Segregation in Alabama, Has Juvenile Court Record Expunged, Black Panther Russell "Maroon" Shoatz, Who Spent 22 Years in Solitary Confinement, Dies at 78
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Dec 17, 2021
Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia implored conservative members of his party to stop obstructing voting rights legislation in a powerful speech on the floor of the Senate Tuesday. While Warnock did not name Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the two have come out against doing away with the filibuster in order to allow Democrats to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Warnock said there was no chance of Republicans joining the effort to safeguard democracy and that only a change to the filibuster could secure passage of the bills. "Who is being asked to foot the bill for this bipartisanship? And is liberty itself the cost?" Warnock said.
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Dec 17, 2021
We look at the life and legacy of trailblazing Black feminist scholar and activist bell hooks, who died at the age of 69 on Wednesday. We speak with her longtime colleague Beverly Guy-Sheftall, professor of women's studies at Spelman College, who remembers her as "a person who would sit with young people and community people and students and help them understand this world in which we live, which is full of all kinds of domination." Working in the tradition of intersectionality and Black radical feminism, hooks's critiques of "imperialist white supremacist heteropatriarchy" called attention to the interlocking systems of oppression in hopes of eradicating them, Guy-Sheftall says.
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Dec 17, 2021
The county of Williamson, Texas, has announced a settlement of $5 million in the wrongful death of Javier Ambler II in 2019. The 40-year-old Black man died after being repeatedly tased by police during a traffic stop. Police bodycam footage showed Ambler telling officers, "I have congestive heart failure," and "I can't breathe," as they continued to tase him. This comes as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act languishes in Congress and activists urgently demand lawmakers to vote to stop the nationwide police killings of people of color. "We must see action," says Benjamin Crump, attorney for Ambler's family. "If not, don't expect action from us to come to the polls."
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Dec 17, 2021
The former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter, who faces manslaughter charges for fatally shooting 20-year-old Black man Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, is expected to take the stand in her own defense Friday. Potter claims she reached for her Taser and drew a pistol by mistake. "Black people should not be killed in America over misdemeanor, pretextual traffic stops," says Benjamin Crump, attorney for Wright's family.
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Dec 17, 2021
Former police officer Derek Chauvin has pleaded guilty to violating George Floyd's civil rights, marking the first time he publicly admitted to his role in Floyd's death. Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes, killing him with the excessive use of force in 2019. Floyd's dying words, "I can't breathe," became a rallying cry for social justice protests and calls to defund the police across the country. Chauvin also pleaded guilty for violating the civil rights of a 14-year-old juvenile in 2017. "To be held accountable on both levels, on state level and federal level, we believe, sends a very clear message that the deliberate indifference and the denial of constitutional rights of marginalized people of color won't be tolerated," says Benjamin Crump, attorney for multiple families of victims of police brutality.
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Dec 17, 2021
Biden Warns of "Winter of Severe Illness and Death" for Unvaccinated Americans, CDC Recommends Moderna and Pfizer Vaccines Over Johnson & Johnson, Citing Rare Blood Clots, Thousands of ICE Prisoners Denied Access to COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters, FDA Relaxes Restrictions on Access to Abortion Pills , Federal Judge Throws Out Opioid Settlement That Shielded Sackler Family from Lawsuits, Lucía Hiriart, Widow of Chilean Dictator Pinochet, Dies on Eve of Presidential Election, At Least Seven Die as Super Typhoon Rai Slams Philippines with 160 MPH Winds, Workers at Candle Factory Destroyed by Tornado Sue Company over "Flagrant Indifference", Striking Kellogg's Workers Win Tentative Contract; L.A. Cake Factory Workers Are 6 Weeks into Strike, Calls Mount to Overrule Senate Parliamentarian Who Rejected Immigration Proposal , U.S. May Stop Detaining Migrant Families But Pulls Out of "Zero Tolerance" Compensation Talks, Haitian Gang Releases 12 Remaining North American Missionaries Held Hostage for Ransom, Haitian Immigrant Activist Jean Montrevil Wins Chance to Pursue Permanent Status in U.S., Rohingya Genocide Survivor Testifies to Argentine Court in Universal Jurisdiction Case
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Dec 16, 2021
Afghanistan under the new Taliban government faces a humanitarian catastrophe this winter as the United States and other donors have cut off financial aid. The United Nations warns nearly 23 million people in Afghanistan — or more than half the population — face potentially life-threatening food shortages, with nearly 9 million already on the brink of famine. In addition, people face lack of proper healthcare, unemployment and housing shortages. "The international aid organizations, for them, it's just another country … where they take pictures and make their careers out of it," says Pashtana Durrani, activist and executive director of the educational nonprofit LEARN Afghanistan. "For me, it's my country, and people are starving in it."
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Dec 16, 2021
As Afghanistan spirals into a humanitarian crisis after the abrupt U.S. withdrawal earlier this summer, we look at years of failed U.S. diplomacy that allowed the Taliban to seize power and leave the small nation in a state of disrepair. A New Yorker magazine investigation shows how the U.S. repeatedly undermined the Kabul-based government in a rush to leave the country. "I've been reporting in general and around Afghanistan for a long time. I was still shocked by the degree of cynicism that the United States often brought to this endeavor to seek peace, particularly during the Trump years," says New Yorker staff writer Steve Coll, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who has covered Afghanistan for decades
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Dec 16, 2021
As the coronavirus variant Omicron spreads across the world at an unprecedented rate, a group of vaccine experts has just released a list of over 100 companies in Africa, Asia and Latin America with the potential to produce mRNA vaccine. They say it is the one of the most viable solutions to fight vaccine inequity around the world and combat the spread of coronavirus variants, including Omicron. We speak to Achal Prabhala, one of the vaccine experts who compiled the list. If mRNA technology could be shared with the listed companies, "we could vaccinate the world in as close to six months from now," says Prabhala. "These are very much the people's vaccines. It's just that they are private property."
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Dec 16, 2021
Unprecedented December Storms Hit Central U.S. as Biden Tours Kentucky Tornado Damage, U.K. and South Africa Set Coronavirus Records as Omicron Spreads Rapidly, Senate Approves Record $778 Billion Pentagon Budget, Build Back Better Act Stalls in Senate Again as Joe Manchin Rejects Expanded Child Tax Credit, Civil Rights Leaders Demand Senate Democrats Pass Federal Voting Rights Legislation, Democrats Call on Biden to Extend Student Loan Pause, Grant Debt Forgiveness, Syrian Conflict Has Stripped Civilians of Access to Healthcare, Created Humanitarian Disaster, Protesters Demand Mexico Decriminalize Immigration to U.S. After Recent Death of 55 Migrants, Keechant Sewell Named NYPD's First Black Woman Commissioner; 2 Top Officers Falsified Vaccine Cards, Derek Chauvin Changes Plea to "Guilty" in George Floyd Federal Civil Rights Case, Texas County Settles in Police Killing of Black Motorist Javier Ambler, Ghislaine Maxwell Trial Moves to Defense Arguments After 2 Weeks of Harrowing Survivor Testimony, bell hooks, Pioneering Black Feminist, Prolific Writer and Social Critic, Dies at 69
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