|
Oct 15, 2021
We get an update from New Jersey, where the People's Organization for Progress is leading a 67-mile march to demand the state Legislature pass legislation to hold police accountable. The nine-day march wraps up Saturday, and activists are demanding passage of a state policy that would give police review boards subpoena power, ban and criminalize chokeholds, establish requirements for use of deadly force and end qualified immunity in New Jersey. At the national level, they are calling for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. "We know that electoral politics alone is not enough," says Larry Hamm, chair of the People's Organization for Progress, when asked about his activism following his run for the U.S. Senate this past year. "The primary antidote to police brutality is the organized and mobilized people."
|
|
Oct 15, 2021
We take an in-depth look at the growing humanitarian crisis at the world's largest jail complex, Rikers Island in New York City. After touring the jail, New York City Public Advocate ??Jumaane Williams describes it as "a disaster." In response to mounting public pressure, most of the women and transgender people at Rikers are being transferred to two prisons, including a maximum-security facility, even as most are still awaiting trial. "It's like putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound," says Anisah Sabur, who was formerly incarcerated at Rikers and one of the prisons and is now a leader with the HALT Solitary Campaign. Prosecutors and judges "hold the keys to Rikers," notes Jullian Harris-Calvin, director of the Greater Justice New York program at the Vera Institute of Justice, who says they must be pressured to continue bail reform and not fall prey to misconceptions about crime rates, and instead adopt measures to adequately address public safety. "We need to make bail affordable or just release them," Harris-Calvin says.
|
|
Oct 15, 2021
This week over 530 climate activists were arrested during Indigenous-led civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., calling on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and stop approving fossil fuel projects. Indigenous leaders have issued a series of demands, including the abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, whose offices they occupied on Thursday for the first time since the 1970s. The protests come just weeks before the start of the critical U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, which President Biden and senior Cabinet members are expected to attend. "We're not going anywhere," says Siqiñiq Maupin, with Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, who traveled from Alaska to D.C. and was among those arrested during the BIA occupation. "We do not have time for negotiations, for compromises. We need to take this serious and take action now." We also speak with Joye Braun, with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Indigenous Environmental Network, who was deeply involved in the Standing Rock protests to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. "The United States government brought the frontlines to us, to the Indigenous people, to our doorsteps," says Braun. "And we wanted to bring the frontlines to his doorstep to let him see that we are very serious about climate change and declaring a climate emergency."
|
|
Oct 15, 2021
Bomb Attack on Mosque in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province Kills at Least 32, Lebanon Holds Day of Mourning After Beirut Violence Leaves Seven Dead, U.K. and EU Nations Block COVID Vaccine Patent Waiver at World Trade Organization, FDA Panel Recommends Moderna Vaccine Boosters for Some Groups, Biden Welcomes Kenyan President Kenyatta Amid Pandora Papers Scandal, Chilean Lawmakers Move to Impeach President Piñera over Pandora Papers Revelations, ICE Sued over "Cruel, Inhumane" Restraints Used on African Asylum Seekers, House Memo Shines Spotlight on Police Use of Tear Gas, a Chemical Banned in Wars, Appeals Court Keeps Texas Abortion Ban in Place, Texas School Official Instructs Educators to Teach Students "Opposing" Views on Holocaust, Actor Lili Bernard Sues Bill Cosby, Says He Drugged and Raped Her, Kenyan Police Arrest Husband of Murdered, Record-Breaking Runner Agnes Tirop, Jan. 6 Committee to Recommend Criminal Charges Against Steve Bannon, President Biden to Attend COP26 in November with Team of Cabinet Members and Top Officials, Climate Activist Confronts Shell CEO: "You Are Directly Responsible for Climate Deaths"
|
|
Oct 14, 2021
As the House committee probing the January 6 attack on the Capitol ramps up its investigation, new details continue to emerge about former President Donald Trump's efforts to stay in the White House despite losing the 2020 election. The Senate Judiciary Committee recently revealed Trump directly asked the Justice Department nine times for help overturning the election. One of Trump's lawyers also wrote a memo detailing how Trump could stage a coup by getting electors from seven states thrown out, thus denying Biden's victory. The House select committee may also file charges against top Trump adviser Steve Bannon if he refuses to testify and hand over documents. John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation, says Trump's continued grip on the Republican Party and his likely run for president in 2024 make the investigations vital to safeguarding democracy. "We really are looking at the prospect that Trump will seek to implement exactly the strategy that he was trying to implement before January 6 again in 2024," says Nichols.
|
|
Oct 14, 2021
After weeks of pleading for help, an Afghan interpreter, who helped rescue then-Senator Joe Biden when he was stranded 13 years ago in Afghanistan, has finally escaped Afghanistan. Aman Khalili describes his journey out of the country, and we speak with the reporter who broke the story. "I was in the safehouse for 15 days," Khalili tells Democracy Now! Khalili is "representative of a group of people that are still appealing for help from America and anyone else that can help them," says Dion Nissenbaum, with The Wall Street Journal.
|
|
Oct 14, 2021
At least five people were shot today in Beirut after snipers opened fire on a protest as Lebanon faces a growing economic and political emergency amid widespread corruption. Over the weekend, Lebanon fell into darkness for 24 hours after the nation's electric grid collapsed. Within the past year, the Lebanese currency has fully collapsed as it continues to grapple with the aftermath of last year's deadly port explosion. This comes as the country's political class is expected to accelerate even harsher austerity and privatization efforts in exchange for international support, says Lara Bitar, editor-in-chief of The Public Source, a Beirut-based independent media organization, adding, "The international community holds huge responsibility in constantly allowing the political class to reproduce itself, of throwing it a lifeline whenever it is in crisis."
|
|
Oct 14, 2021
Biden Says Port of Los Angeles Will Operate 24/7 to Ease Logjam That's Fueling Inflation, WHO Advisory Team to Investigate Origins of COVID-19 Pandemic, Pressure Grows to Waive Patent Rights for COVID Vaccines and for U.S. to Release Moderna Recipe, Florida Health Department Fines County That Defied Ban on Vaccine Mandates, Biden Admin to Massively Expand Wind Farms Along U.S. Coastlines, IAE Says Governments Must Do Far More to Avert Climate Catastrophe, Police Arrest Another 90 Activists as Climate Protests Continue in Front of White House, Texas Approves Heavily Gerrymandered Redistricting Map in Favor of GOP, White Voters, DOJ Asks SCOTUS to Reinstate Death Penalty for Boston Marathon Bomber, Heavy Gunfights in Beirut Follow Shooting at Protest Which Killed at Least 5 People, Czechs Vote Out Populist Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Man Armed with Bow and Arrow Kills 5 People in Norway Attack, "Striketober": 10,000 John Deere Workers Go on Strike; Kaiser Permanente & IATSE Workers Could Be Next
|
|
Oct 13, 2021
We continue to look at the humanitarian crisis along the border, where more people are dying trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border than ever before, as President Biden has increased funding for border enforcement and militarization even as he vowed not to expand Trump's border wall. We go to Brooks County in South Texas, which has recorded at least 98 migrant deaths so far this year, nearly triple the number from 2020. "People are being expelled without any due process regarding their asylum claim," says Eddie Canales, director of the South Texas Human Rights Center. "There really hasn't been a change in policy," said Canales, when asked about Biden's approach to asylum seekers. We also speak with filmmaker Lisa Molomot, co-director of the new documentary "Missing in Brooks County," which follows the story of two families searching for lost loved ones who went missing there after crossing the border, driven further into the desert by inland checkpoints and the policy in place since 1994 called "prevention through deterrence."
|
|
Oct 13, 2021
Armando Alejo Hernández went missing in the desert after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in May of 2021, but not before sending several last audio messages to his eldest son describing the difficult terrain and asking for help. "He wasn't feeling so good, and he was out of water and food," says Hernández's 17-year-old son Derek. "The group got ahead, and then he lost the group." Hernández was an undocumented worker in the United States for more than a decade before being deported in 2016. His wife and two sons, who are U.S citizens by birth, have pleaded with Border Patrol and the Mexican Consulate for help, without any luck so far. "This year we are going to break the record of migrants dying at the border," warns Fernando García of the El Paso-based Border Network for Human Rights, one of many organizations demanding that the Biden administration "fulfill their promise to change the inhumane policies at the border."
|
|
Oct 13, 2021
U.S. Reopens Borders with Canada and Mexico for Vaccinated Travelers; FDA Considers Moderna Booster, Southwest, American Airlines Rebuff TX Vaccine Mandate Ban; WI Moms Sue Schools for Endangering Kids, House Votes to Temporarily Raise Debt Ceiling, Progressive Dems Say Reconciliation Package Must Not Sacrifice Urgently Needed Social Programs, 155 Activists Arrested as Climate Actions Continue in D.C.; Indigenous Leaders March in Latin America, Nonprofit Pursues Jair Bolsonaro at ICC for "Crimes Against Humanity" for Destroying the Amazon, EU Pledges $1.15 Billion in Aid for Afghanistan as European and U.S. Delegates Meet with Taliban, Decaying Oil Tanker Off Yemen Coast Could Cut Off Access to Water and Food for 9 Million People, New Tunisan Gov't, First Woman Prime Minister Sworn In Amid Political Crisis, Ethiopia Launched Attacks Against Tigray Amid Mounting Humanitarian Disaster, Military and Police Crack Down on Student Protests in Eswatini, Michigan Officials Say Lead-Contaminated Water in City of Benton Harbor Not Safe to Consume, Consumer Protections Advocate Rohit Chopra Sworn In to Lead CFPB, DHS Orders ICE to Halt Massive Workplace Raids, Jury Finds Two Parents Guilty in "Varsity Blues" College Admissions Scandal, Amazon and Google Workers Condemn Project Nimbus Contract with Israeli Military, Novelist Sally Rooney Denies Translation Rights to Israeli Company in Show of Support for BDS
|
|
Oct 12, 2021
We look at growing tensions between China and Taiwan as China's military said Monday it had conducted beach landing and assault drills in the province across from Taiwan. Taiwan's president responded on Sunday saying Taiwan would not bow to pressure from China. This comes as The Wall Street Journal has revealed a small team of U.S. special operations forces and marines have been secretly operating in Taiwan for at least a year to help train Taiwanese military forces for a possible conflict with China. We speak with Ethan Paul of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who warns U.S. interference could cause "a conflict that could engulf the entire region." His latest article is "Biden doesn't understand the 'new Cold War.'"
|
|
Oct 12, 2021
Voter turnout at the fifth parliamentary election in Iraq hit an all-time low, with many Iraqis refusing to vote as widespread faith in the democratic process and politics falters. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has been a vocal opponent of foreign invasion, won the most seats. He has also been accused of kidnapping and killing his critics. "The election has more to do with making this regime and this system look good than responding to the demands of the people," says Nabil Salih, Iraqi journalist and photographer, who also discusses protests that sped up the election and conditions in Iraq's hospitals. His latest piece for Middle East Eye is "Iraq's streets are littered with the memories of our dead."
|
|
Oct 12, 2021
Clifford Owensby says Dayton police violently arrested him last month even though he is paraplegic and repeatedly told them he could not use his legs to get out of the car during a traffic stop. New police bodycam video shows the officers dragging Owensby out of his car and yanking him by his hair as he shouted for help. Owensby had his 3-year-old child in the car at the time of arrest. He has now filed a complaint with Dayton's branch of the NAACP. "The officers should be placed at least on administrative leave," says Derrick Foward, president of the Dayon Unit NAACP. Foward says that Owensby is expected to bring a case against Dayton police once all the evidence is collected, and he attributes the quick release of the bodycam video to recent police reforms advocated for in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
|
|
Oct 12, 2021
WHO: Climate Change Is "The Single Biggest Health Threat Facing Humanity", Heavy Flooding in China Kills 15, Destroys 20,000 Homes, 135 Arrested in Indigenous Peoples' Day Climate Action Outside White House, Greenpeace Installs Statue of Boris Johnson Splattered in Oil Outside 10 Downing St., Wealthy Nations Denounced for Hoarding COVID-19 Vaccines, Parliamentary Report: COVID-19 Response Was One of Biggest Public Health Failures in U.K. History, Gov. Greg Abbott Bans All Entities in Texas from Enforcing Vaccine Mandates, Iraqi Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr Sees Biggest Gains in Parliamentary Election, U.N. Urges World Leaders to Address Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan, Pandora Papers: Ecuador's President Faces Probe over Use of Tax Havens, Guatemalan Prosecutor in Landmark Ríos Montt Trial Is Transferred in Blow to Human Rights, Honduras: Mayoral Candidate & Daughter of Berta Cáceres Targeted Ahead of November Elections, Trump Pays Tribute to Insurrectionist Shot Dead on Jan. 6, Raiders Football Coach Resigns over Racist, Sexist and Homophobic Emails, GLAAD Criticizes Dave Chappelle Special on Netflix over Anti-Trans Jokes, Sister Megan Rice, Nun Who Broke into Nuclear Weapons Facility, Dies at 91
|
|
Oct 11, 2021
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Russian independent journalist Dmitry Muratov and Filipina journalist Maria Ressa for "their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression." Muratov runs the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which has lost more journalists to murder than any other Russian news outlet. Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor-in-chief of The Nation and reporter on Russia for the last 30 years, recounts the trajectory of Muratov's career, noting his newspaper's humble beginnings and his unexpected rise to becoming an advocate for freedom of the press. "Investigative journalism in Russia today is very dangerous," says vanden Heuvel. Despite the danger, van Heuvel says that Novaya readership is skyrocketing with younger journalists lining up to work at the newspaper.
|
|
Oct 11, 2021
In response to the completion of the contested Line 3 pipeline, which is now reportedly operational, thousands of Indigenous leaders and climate justice advocates are kicking off the "People vs. Fossil Fuels'' mobilization, an Indigenous-led five-day action of civil disobedience at the White House to demand President Biden declare a climate emergency, divest from fossil fuels and launch a "just renewable energy revolution." "This pipeline doesn't respect treaty rights," says Winona LaDuke, longtime Indigenous activist and founder of Honor the Earth, a platform to raise awareness of and money for Indigenous struggles for environmental justice. "They're just trying to continue their egregious behavior. It's so tragic that, on the one hand, the Biden administration is like, 'We're going to have Indigenous Peoples' Day, but we're still going to smash you in northern Minnesota and smash the rest of the country.'" LaDuke faces criminal charges linked to her protest of pipelines in three different counties.
|
|
Oct 11, 2021
We continue our look at Indigenous Peoples' Day with Jennifer Marley, a citizen of San Ildefonso Pueblo and a member of the grassroots Indigenous liberation organization The Red Nation, which helped lead a campaign in 2015 to officially recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Marley slams President Biden's formal recognition of Indigenous Peoples' Day as a federal holiday and discusses how Native lands are disproportionately used for resource extraction and how The Red Nation connects their local struggles to international decolonization campaigns, as well.
|
|
Oct 11, 2021
President Biden has formally recognized Indigenous Peoples' Day as a federal holiday, following a growing movement to debunk the myth of Christopher Columbus as a beneficent discoverer and replace it with recognition that the arrival of Columbus in the Bahamas unleashed a brutal genocide that massacred tens of millions of Native people across the hemisphere. But the holiday will continue to be shared with Columbus Day, which many argue glorifies the nation's dark history of colonial genocide that killed millions of Native people. "It's just not appropriate to celebrate Columbus and Indigenous peoples on the same day. It's a contradiction," says author and historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. "Genocidal enslavement is what Columbus represents."
|
|
Oct 11, 2021
Merck Seeks FDA Approval for Antiviral COVID-19 Pill, COVID-19 Death Toll in Brazil Tops 600,000, "Shameful and Dangerous": Oxfam Slams New Deal on Global Minimum Corporate Tax, Up to 72 Die in Suicide Blast at Shiite Mosque in Afghanistan, Record Low Turnout Reported for Iraq's Parliamentary Elections, Lights Go Out in Lebanon After Electrical Grid Collapses, Taiwan Vows Not to Bow to Pressure from China as Tension Escalates, Libya: Six Refugees Shot Dead at Overcrowded Prison Camp, 70,000 March in Brussels Demanding Action on Climate Emergency, Report: Sen. Sinema Wants to Cut $100B in Climate Funds, Abortion Ban Reinstated in Texas After Federal Appeals Court Ruling, Police in Dayton, Ohio, Denounced for Dragging Paraplegic Black Man Out of Car, Justice Department: No Federal Charges in Police Shooting of Jacob Blake, Biden Administration Urged to Halt Efforts to Expand Immigration Detention, 126 People, Mostly Haitians, Found Locked in Shipping Container in Guatemala, Jan. 6 Committee Considers Charges Against Steve Bannon for Defying Subpoena, AQ Khan, Who Admitted to Role in Global Nuclear Proliferation Scandal, Dies at 85
|
|
Oct 08, 2021
As Republican lawmakers attempt to make it harder to vote in states across the country, we look at the life and legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer, the civil rights pioneer who helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Historian Keisha Blain writes about Hamer in her new book, "Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America." In addition to fighting for voting rights, Hamer challenged state-sanctioned violence and medical racism that Black women faced. Blain based the book's title on a frequent saying of Fannie Lou Hamer's: "Whether you are Black or white, you are not free until I am free."
|
|
Oct 08, 2021
The family of Henrietta Lacks has filed a lawsuit against biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific for making billions in profit from the "HeLa" cell line. Henrietta Lacks was an African American patient at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Doctors kept her tissue samples without her consent for experimental studies while treating her for cervical cancer in 1951. Benjamin Crump, one of the lawyers for the case, filed 70 years after her death, calls Henrietta Lacks a "cornerstone of modern medicine," as her cells have since played a part in cancer research, the polio vaccine and even COVID-19 vaccines. Ron Lacks, author and grandson of Henrietta Lacks, laments the fact that the family was never notified when his grandmother died, and that part of what motivates the lawsuit is to ensure "no other family should ever go through this."
|
|
Oct 08, 2021
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday morning to Filipina journalist Maria Ressa and Russian newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov for their work to "safeguard freedom of expression." Ressa has repeatedly been arrested by the government of Rodrigo Duterte for the groundbreaking work of her news site Rappler, which has exposed Duterte's deadly war on drugs that has killed tens of thousands. "The Nobel Peace Prize committee realized a world without facts means a world without truth," said Ressa today after winning the prize. We reair a 2019 interview when Ressa came into the Democracy Now! studio.
|
|
Oct 08, 2021
Pfizer-BioNTech Requests Emergency Use Authorization for Vaccine for Children Aged 5-11, COVID Deaths in Russia Top 900/Day; Venezuela Accuses IMF of Withholding Pandemic Funds, Senate Cmte. Says Trump Repeatedly Asked DOJ for Help Overturning Election Loss, Senate Votes to Lift Debt Ceiling Until Early December, Minneapolis Police Joke About "Hunting Activists" During 2020 Racial Justice Uprising, Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, WSJ: U.S. Military Secretly Training Taiwanese Forces for Possible Conflict with China, Gunmen Kill 2 School Teachers in Kashmir Amid Mounting Attacks on Civilians, Family of Argentinian Reporter Found Dead During 2019 Bolivian Coup Demands Probe , U.N. Agency to Close Probe into Yemen War After Pressure from Saudis and Allies, Biden Admin to Turn Pennsylvania Prison into For-Profit ICE Jail, Immigrant Advocates Petition Int'l Rights Body to Call for End of Title 42, Texas to Appeal U.S. Judge Ruling Which Blocked State's Abortion Ban, Reuters: AT&T Helped Build Far-Right, Pro-Trump One America News Network, Biden Admin Restores Protections for Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments
|
|
Oct 07, 2021
Amid the mounting humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian government has been using the commercial airline Ethiopia Airlines to shuttle weapons and military vehicles from neighboring country Eritrea since the beginning of their civil war, according to a new CNN investigation. This comes as the United Nations estimates more than 5 million people in the country's Tigray region are now in need of humanitarian assistance in order to survive, but U.N. officials say Ethiopia's government is blocking the movement of medicine, food and fuel into Tigray. In response, Ethiopian officials expelled seven senior U.N. officials from Ethiopia last week, giving them just 72 hours to leave the country. We look at the latest developments with Nima Elbagir, award-winning senior international correspondent for CNN, and also air her full report documenting ethnic cleansing.
|
|
Oct 07, 2021
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case brought by Abu Zubaydah, the Guantánamo prisoner who was the first subject of the CIA's torture program. Zubaydah's legal team has spent years trying to obtain testimony from two psychologists who helped the CIA design and implement his torture, and the Biden administration is continuing the Trump's administration strategy to keep key information about Zubaydah's torture in Poland classified despite the fact that the two psychologists are willing to testify. Several justices contradicted the Biden administration, suggesting Zubaydah, the only witness besides the psychologists to the torture in Poland, testify himself, and expressing frustration that Zubaydah is still being held incommunicado at Guantánamo. We speak with Abu Zubaydah's attorney, Joe Margulies, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Raymond Bonner, who has long followed the case. "The legal justification for continuing to hold [Guantánamo detainees] has disappeared," says Margulies.
|
|
Oct 07, 2021
A federal judge has temporarily blocked Texas's near-total ban on abortions, granting the Justice Department's emergency request to halt the law while courts consider its legality. In his ruling, Judge Robert Pitman slammed the Texas ban's unconstitutionality, writing, "This Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right." "Judge Robert Pitman ruled and said what advocates in Texas and clinics operators in Texas have been saying all along … a near-total ban on abortion in the state of Texas is flagrantly unconstitutional," says Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent for The Nation. Abortion clinics in the state are already moving quickly to resume abortions.
|
|
Oct 07, 2021
Federal Judge Temporarily Halts Texas's Near-Total Ban on Abortions, Senate GOP Leader McConnell to Allow Debt Limit Extension into December, WHO Approves Use of First-Ever Vaccine Against Malaria, U.S. COVID Deaths in 2021 Surpass 2020's Total, U.N. to Pay Salaries of Aid Workers in Afghanistan, U.N. Appoints Envoy to Western Sahara After Two-Year Vacancy, Education Department to Expand Student Loan Forgiveness for Public Workers, Crude Oil Spills from Galveston Bay, TX Refinery, Biden Administration Restores Key Environmental Review Provisions to NEPA, Appeals Court Blocks California Law Banning Private Prisons, Shooter Injures Four at Texas High School; Student Taken into Custody, Colorado Workers Sue Amazon for Refusing to Pay for Time Spent at Mandated COVID Screenings, Bernie Sanders Challenges Joe Manchin to Name Benefits He Wants Stripped from Build Back Better Act, Immigrant Justice Advocates Demand Schumer Include Immigration Reform in Reconciliation Package, Nobel Prize in Literature Goes to Tanzanian Author Abdulrazak Gurnah
|
|
Oct 06, 2021
Derecka Purnell draws from her experience as a human rights lawyer in her new book, published this month, "Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom," to argue that police reform is an inadequate compromise to calls for abolition. Since the murders of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville in 2020, many states have passed laws aimed at reforming police, but congressional talks at the federal level have broken down. Purnell reflects upon her personal journey as a Black woman who believed in police reform before pivoting to abolition, saying, "I became a part of social movements who pushed me to think more critically … about building a world without violence and how to reduce our reliance on police."
|
|
Oct 06, 2021
California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency after a devastating oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach sent up to 144,000 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean. Investigators say a split in an underwater pipeline, likely damaged by a ship anchor, is the source of the oil spill. The pipeline owner, Texas-based Amplify Energy, didn't report the leak until 12 hours after the Coast Guard was first notified, and beaches in the area are expected to be closed for months as crews race to minimize the environmental damage. "California's offshore oil platforms are a ticking time bomb," says Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "It's time to shut them down."
|
|
Oct 06, 2021
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified to Congress Tuesday, denouncing the company for prioritizing "astronomical profits" over the safety of billions of users, and urging lawmakers to enact strict oversight over Facebook. Haugen's testimony gave a rare glimpse into the secretive tech company, which she accused of harming children, sowing division by boosting hateful content, and undermining democracy. "Facebook wants you to believe that the problems we're talking about are unsolvable. They want you to believe in false choices," Haugen said at the hearing. Roger McNamee, a former mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, says a U.S. business culture "where CEOs are told to prioritize shareholder value at all cost" is partly to blame for Facebook's design. "We have abdicated too much power to corporations. We have essentially said we're not going to regulate them." We also speak with tech reform activist Jessica González, who says Haugen's testimony has exposed how little Facebook regulates its platform outside the English-speaking world. "Facebook has not adequately invested to keep people safe across languages," says González. "There is a very racist element to the lack of investment."
|
|
Oct 06, 2021
Whistleblower Tells Lawmakers to Regulate Facebook Before It Causes More Harm, Schumer Sets Up Debt Limit Vote Amid Ongoing GOP Obstructionism, Voters Confront AZ Sen. Kyrsten Sinema over Reconciliation Bill as She Heads Back to D.C., Missouri Executes Man with Intellectual Disability Despite High-Profile Pleas, China-Taiwan Tensions Mount as Biden Reaffirms U.S.-Sino Commitment to Diplomatic Agreement, Amnesty Says Taliban Killed 13 Ethnic Hazaras After Taking Power; Kabul Faces Winter Power Outages, U.N. Rejects Expulsion of Top Officials from Ethiopia as Millions in Urgent Need of Humanitarian Assistance, Romanian Lawmakers Oust Prime Minister After 9 Months in Power, French Trade Unions Protest Against Low Pay, Pension & Unemployment Reforms, Kellogg's Workers Go on Strike over Threats to Healthcare, Wages, President of NYC Police Union Resigns After FBI Raids Headquarters, Descendants of Henrietta Lacks Sue Pharmaceutical Co. for Using Her Cells Without Consent, USPS Now Offers Check Cashing in Four Locations, Could Lead to Expansion of Postal Banking Services
|
|
Oct 05, 2021
The Pandora Papers, described as "the world's largest-ever journalistic collaboration," have revealed the secret financial dealings of the world's richest and most powerful people. "We've uncovered a system that benefits a few at the expense of the many," says Ben Hallman, senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who details some of the project's main revelations so far. We also speak with Vanessa Ogle, professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley and an expert on tax havens, who says the growth of tax havens like the Bahamas and Switzerland is directly linked to wealth extraction from the developing world. "The seed money for the expansion of these tax havens comes out of the colonial world," she explains.
|
|
Oct 05, 2021
An unprecedented leak at Facebook reveals top executives at the company knew about major issues with the platform from their own research but kept the damning information hidden from the public. The leak shows Facebook deliberately ignored rampant disinformation, hate speech and political unrest in order to boost ad sales and is also implicated in child safety and human trafficking violations. Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen leaked thousands of documents and revealed her identity as the whistleblower during an interview with "60 Minutes." She is set to testify today before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection. "????Their value system, which is about efficiency and speed and growth and profit and power, is in conflict with democracy," says Roger McNamee, who was an early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg and author of "Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe." He says Facebook executives are prioritizing profits over safety. We also speak with Jessica González, co-CEO of the media advocacy organization Free Press and co-founder of Change the Terms, a coalition that works to disrupt online hate, who says this demonstrates Facebook is "unfit" to regulate itself. "We need Congress to step in."
|
|
Oct 05, 2021
Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen to Urge Congress to Take Action, Johnson & Johnson Seeks FDA OK for Booster Shot, New York Healthcare Provider Fires 1,400 for Refusing to Get Vaccinated, Biden Accuses GOP of Playing "Russian Roulette" with U.S. Economy, Activists Confront Sen. Sinema in Arizona Bathroom, State Department Lawyer Blasts Biden for "Inhumane" Expulsions of Haitians, California Declares State of Emergency After Offshore Oil Pipeline Spill, Biden Administration to Open Up 80 Millions of Acres for Drilling in Gulf of Mexico, Report: 14% of World's Coral Reefs Lost Since 2009 Due to Climate Emergency, Biden Reverses Trump-Era Domestic Gag Rule on Title X Family Planning Clinics, Judge Ignores Federal Prosecutors and Sentences Insurrectionist to Jail, Hollywood Crew Workers Vote to Authorize Strike, Commission Estimates 330,000 Children Sexually Abused in French Catholic Church, Masked Jewish Settlers Attack Palestinians in "Pogrom" as Settler Violence Surges, Bangladesh Probes Murder of Prominent Rohingya Activist, Duterte Announces Plan to Retire from Politics Amid ICC Probe, U.N. Investigators Document Possible War Crimes in Libya by Warring Factions, National Women's Soccer League in Crisis Amid Coach Abuse Scandal, CVS, Walgreens and Walmart on Trial for Opioid Epidemic, Missouri Prepares to Execute Ernest Lee Johnson, an Intellectually Disabled Black Man
|
|
Oct 04, 2021
Thousands of youth climate activists marched through the streets of Milan last week demanding world leaders meet their pledges to the Paris Climate Agreement and keep global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. The protest came at the end of a three-day youth climate conference, ahead of the United Nations' COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. Activists at the Youth4Climate conference slammed political inaction on the climate crisis and world leaders' vague pledges to reduce carbon emissions. "Historically, Africa is responsible for only 3% of global emissions," said Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate. "And yet Africans are already suffering some of the most brutal impacts fueled by the climate crisis." Swedish activist Greta Thunberg mocked the jargon politicians use to talk about climate and the environment. "Net zero, blah, blah, blah. Climate neutral, blah, blah, blah. This is all we hear from our so-called leaders: words — words that sound great but so far has led to no action," said Thunberg. "Our hopes and dreams drown in their empty words and promises."
|
|
Oct 04, 2021
After thousands of people marched in hundreds of rallies across the United States to protest against tightening abortion restrictions, we speak with Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson, who says the weekend actions represent "a movement moment" for reproductive rights. "More than 80% of Americans believe that Roe should be the law of the land," she says. "And yet, in state after state, these horrific restrictions and bans are continuing to further erode our ability to access our constitutional right."
|
|
Oct 04, 2021
Thousands marched Saturday in more than 600 demonstrations across the United States to protest increasing state restrictions on abortion. The "Bans Off Our Bodies" rallies were sparked in part by a near-total ban on abortion that went into effect in Texas on September 1, which bans the procedure after about six weeks and lets anyone sue the doctor and others who help a person obtain an abortion. Ahead of Saturday's nationwide actions, several Democratic House members shared their own experiences getting abortions during a hearing Thursday, including California Congressmember Barbara Lee, who said she was just 16 when she had to travel to Mexico for a so-called back-alley abortion in the days before Roe v. Wade, and Congressmember Cori Bush, who described getting an abortion after she was raped at 17. "To all the Black women and girls who have had abortions and will have abortions: We have nothing to be ashamed of," Bush said. "We deserve better. We demand better. We are worthy of better."
|
|
Oct 04, 2021
Rallies Across U.S. Call for Reproductive Justice Amid GOP Assault on Abortion, U.S. Tops 700K COVID Deaths; CA Announces Student Vaccine Mandate as NYC Educator Mandate Starts, Major Orange County Oil Spill Blankets Beaches, Kills Wildlife, Pandora Papers Expose Secret Financial Dealings of World Leaders, Billionaires and Other Elites, Facebook Whistleblower Says Co. Repeatedly Put Profit Over Safety, Calls for Regulations, Kabul Blast Kills Five People as Afghan Humanitarian Crisis Grows, 8 Killed at Indian Farmworker Protest, 4,000 Refugees, Including Children, Arrested in Raids by Libyan Authorities, 3 Million in Northern Syria Face Water Shortages After Decade of War, Qatar Holds First-Ever Legislative Election in Poll That Excludes Many from Voting, Canary Islands Volcanic Eruption Grows More Powerful, Taiwan Scrambles Warplanes After Chinese "Air Incursion", With Democrats at Impasse, Biden Proposes Scaling Back $3.5T Spending Bill, House Passes Bill to End Racist Sentencing Disparity for Cocaine Offenses, Lawyer Steven Donziger, Who Led Suit Against Chevron, Sentenced to Six Months for Contempt, George Floyd Memorial Statue Defaced in New York City
|
|
Oct 01, 2021
Friends and relatives of the late radical attorney Michael Ratner respond to the recent controversy over Yale University professor Samuel Moyn's claim that Ratner "prioritized making the war on terror humane" by using the courts to challenge the military's holding of prisoners at Guantánamo. Ratner's longtime colleagues blast Moyn for failing to recognize how the late attorney had dedicated his life to fighting war and U.S. imperialism. "Michael opposed war with every fiber of his being in every medium he had access to: the courtroom, the classroom, in the media," says Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center of Constitutional Rights. "And he knew that legal challenges to protect humans from authoritarian abuses and violence and torture were necessary."
|
|
Oct 01, 2021
We look at the life and legacy of the late Michael Ratner, the trailblazing human rights lawyer and former president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, with three people who knew him well: Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center of Constitutional Rights; Vince Warren, the organization's executive director; and ??Lizzy Ratner, Ratner's niece and a senior editor at The Nation magazine. Michael Ratner spent decades opposing government abuse and fought to close the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay, first in the 1990s when it was used to hold thousands of Haitian asylum seekers and later when the George W. Bush administration opened a military prison there to detain hundreds of people from the so-called war on terror. Ratner died in 2016 at age 72. His posthumous memoir, "Moving the Bar: My Life as a Radical Lawyer," has just been published.
|
|
Oct 01, 2021
Congress Extends Gov't Funding as Pelosi Delays House Infrastructure Vote Amid Democratic Split, Court Allows Biden to Continue Mass Expulsions Without Due Process Under Title 42, Merck Applies for Emergency Use of Antiviral Drug That Could Halve Number of Severe COVID Cases, Rep. Cori Bush Opens Up About Having an Abortion After Rape as House Members Share Abortion Stories, Over 50% of Police Killings Go Unreported, Police Kill Black People at 3.5x Higher Rate Than Whites, Protesters Demand Accountability After Officials Suspend Probe into 2020 Beirut Port Blast, Salvadorans Protest New Cryptocurrency, Power Grab by President Bukele, Judge to Sentence Steven Donziger, Lawyer Who Sued Chevron for Amazon Oil Spills, Footage from Animal Rights Group Shows Mistreatment of Chickens at Foster Farms, Biden Admin Restores Migratory Bird Protections as Another 23 Plant & Animal Species Go Extinct, Youth Activists Rally in Milan to Demand Climate Justice Ahead of November's COP26, NYC Taxi Drivers Hold 24/7 Protest to Demand Debt Relief from Purchase of Medallions, Chicago Tortilla Plant Workers Escalate Protests Against El Milagro, Canadian Gov't to Pay Billions in Compensation to First Nations Children for Welfare Discrimination
|
|
Sep 30, 2021
Wall-to-wall coverage of the case of Gabby Petito — a 22-year-old white woman and blogger who went missing while traveling with her fiancé Brian Laundrie and whose remains were found in a national park in Wyoming — has renewed attention on what some call "missing white woman syndrome," the media's inordinate focus on white female victims and the disparity in coverage for women of color. We host a roundtable discussion with Amara Cofer, host and executive producer of the podcast "Black Girl Gone"; Mary Kathryn Nagle, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and lawyer focused on tribal sovereignty; and Melissa Jeltsen, a freelance reporter who covers violence against women. "There is an underrepresentation of Black women, of women of color in these stories," says Cofer.
|
|
Sep 30, 2021
Activists continue to call on Democratic leaders to pass the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act, which expands the social safety net and includes measures to address the climate crisis. Progressives remain resolute in their opposition to passing a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill unless it is paired with the larger package. The Build Back Better Act represents "economic investment in the lives of poor and low-wealth people in this country," says Reverend William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign. "The question here is not 'What will it cost if we do this?' What will it cost if we don't do this?"
|
|
Sep 30, 2021
As Government Shutdown Looms, Biden's Legislative Agenda Hangs in the Balance, Second Alaska Hospital to Ration Care Amid Surge in Unvaccinated COVID Patients, YouTube to Ban Anti-Vaccine Misinformation, CDC Urges Pregnant People to Get Vaccinated, Protesters Target Moderna CEO and Top Biden Aide, Demanding Vaccine Equity , U.N. Warns Tigray Blockade Leading to Famine, Dire Medical Shortages for Millions, Pentagon Knew U.S. Drone Strike in Kabul Missed Target, Hit Civilians Weeks Before Public Admission, Ecuador Prison Riot Claims 116 Lives , North Korea Says It Tested New Hypersonic Missile, La Palma Residents Lock Down as Volcano Lava Reaches Atlantic Ocean, House Cmte. Subpoenas Organizers of Jan. 6 Rallies, Incl. Trump Campaign Spokesperson , Baby Food Makers Kept Selling Products with Arsenic Levels Exceeding FDA-Approved Limits, Land Defenders Vow to Continue Struggle as Enbridge Announces Oil Will Start Flowing Through Line 3, Canadian Judge Ends Injunction That Led to Violent Crackdown on Indigenous Fairy Creek Activists, Wet'suwet'en Land Protectors Set Up Blockades Against Incursion by Coastal GasLink, Right Livelihood Award Goes to Environmental Activists, Rights Defenders Across the Globe
|
|
Sep 30, 2021
Democracy Now! is an independent daily TV & radio news program, hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González. We provide daily global news headlines, in-depth interviews and investigative reports without any advertisements or government funding. Our programming shines a spotlight on corporate and government abuses of power and lifts up the stories of ordinary people working to make change in extraordinary times. Democracy Now! is live weekdays at 8am ET and available 24/7 through our website and podcasts.
|
|
Sep 29, 2021
The center-left Social Democratic Party in Germany has narrowly claimed victory in an election that marks an end to the 16-year era of Angela Merkel's conservative chancellorship. We look at what this means for Europe and the world with Yanis Varoufakis, a member of the Greek Parliament and the former finance minister of Greece. The SDP's narrow victory should be viewed critically, says Varoufakis, noting that the party "ruthlessly" practiced austerity in 2008 and 2009. "Not much has changed," Varoufakis says. "It's not as if an opposition party won."
|
|
Sep 29, 2021
Progressives in the House of Representatives say they will oppose the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would seek a vote on the measure separately from the Build Back Better Act, the $3.5 trillion bill that expands the social safety net and combats the climate crisis. Conservative Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, who receive major donations from financial institutions, fossil fuel companies and other industries, continue to oppose the $3.5 trillion package. While the $1 trillion infrastructure bill is "kind of a half-measure," the Build Back Better Act "really could be best described as the Democratic platform," says David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect.
|
|
Sep 29, 2021
Progressives Hold Firm on Opposing Infrastructure Bill Without Vow to Pass Build Back Better Act, Vanessa Nakate, Greta Thunberg Condemn Climate Inaction, U.S. Military Leaders Acknowledge "Strategic Failure" in Afghanistan During Senate Questioning, Gen. Milley Denies Going Around Chain of Command During Trump Term, Pfizer-BioNTech Submits Vaccine Data on 5-to-11-Year-Olds to FDA; Mask Mandate Bans Halted in SC and AZ, Cuba Starts Shipping Abdala Vaccine; COVID Surges in Russia and Syria; Japan Lifts State of Emergency, Fumio Kishida, from Ruling Party Establishment, Set to Become Next Japanese Prime Minister, Report Finds WHO Workers Responsible for at Least 20 Cases of Sexual Abuse and Assault in DRC, Haiti Elections Delayed Amid Mounting Crises, Berliners Vote to Expropriate Housing Units from Developers, Mega Landlords, Court Annuls Trade Deals Between EU and Occupied Western Sahara, Capital Gazette Mass Murderer Receives Multiple Life Sentences, Judge Blocks Key Part of Arizona Anti-Abortion Law Involving Genetic Abnormalities, Chile to Debate Expanded Abortion Access as Rallies Call for Reproductive Justice In Latin America
|
|
Sep 28, 2021
We go to Chicago for an update on workers at El Milagro tortilla plants who staged a temporary walkout last week to protest low pay, staff shortages and abusive working conditions, including intimidation and sexual harassment. El Milagro claims an ongoing tortilla shortage is due to supply chain issues, but organizers say the company has lost staff due to their poor treatment of workers, including their mishandling of the pandemic, resulting in dozens of infections and five deaths. Workers gave El Milagro management until this Wednesday to respond to their demands. "The company, instead of offering better wages and hiring more people, is just cranking up the machines," says Jorge Mújica, strategic campaigns organizer at Arise Chicago, a community group that helps people fight workplace exploitation.
|
|
Sep 28, 2021
Did the CIA under the Trump administration plan to kidnap and assassinate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during a shootout in London? That is one of the explosive findings in a new exposé by Yahoo News that details how the CIA considered abducting and possibly murdering Assange while he took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden for rape allegations, charges that were dropped in 2017. More than 30 former officials say former CIA Director Mike Pompeo was apparently motivated to get even with WikiLeaks following its publication of sensitive CIA hacking tools, which the agency considered "the largest data loss in CIA history." Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, lays out the plans and describes how the abduction plan "was one of the most contentious intelligence debates of the entire Trump era," noting it ultimately spurred the Justice Department to fast-track its legal case against Assange. We also speak with Assange's legal adviser Jennifer Robinson, who says the latest revelations should alarm American citizens, as well as journalists around the world. "This is the CIA talking about conspiracy to kidnap and murder an Australian citizen and an award-winning journalist and editor who has done nothing but publish truthful information."
|
|
Sep 28, 2021
R&B singer R. Kelly is guilty of a series of charges, including racketeering based on sexual exploitation of children, kidnapping, forced labor and transporting people across state lines for sex. Jurors in the federal trial returned their verdict Monday after 11 accusers — nine women and two men — and 34 other witnesses detailed Kelly's pattern of sexual and other abuse against dozens of women and underage girls for nearly two decades. "He just became more egregious, more bold, with the kind of crimes that he was committing against Black girls and women," says dream hampton, executive producer of the documentary series "Surviving R. Kelly," which helped publicize Kelly's predations and fueled demands for accountability. "It was time for it to end."
|
|
Sep 28, 2021
As Government Shutdown Looms, Senate GOP Blocks Bill to Fund Government and Raise Debt Ceiling, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Solicits Funds from Lobbyists Opposing Democrats' $3.5T Spending Bill, R. Kelly Found Guilty on All Counts in Sex Trafficking Trial, Biden Receives COVID-19 Booster, Urges Unvaccinated to Get First Shots, New York National Guard May Fill Roles of Healthcare Workers Who Refuse Vaccinations, CIA Pushed Trump Administration to Kidnap or Assassinate WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, International Criminal Court Probe on Afghanistan War Crimes Excludes U.S. and Allies, Taliban Tightens Restrictions on Afghan Women's Rights, Tunisians Protest Power Grab by President Kais Saied, Biden Administration Seeks to Protect Young Immigrants After Texas Judge Voids DACA , Pioneering Black Filmmaker and Artist Melvin Van Peebles Dies at 89, Myron Dewey, Who Documented Resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline, Killed in Car Accident
|
|
Sep 27, 2021
We speak with Mansoor Adayfi, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee who was held at the military prison for 14 years without charge, an ordeal he details in his new memoir, "Don't Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo." Adayfi was 18 when he left his home in Yemen to do research in Afghanistan, where he was kidnapped by Afghan warlords, then sold to the CIA after the 9/11 attacks. Adayfi describes being brutally tortured in Afghanistan before he was transported to Guantánamo in 2002, where he became known as Detainee #441 and survived years of abuse. Adayfi was released against his will to Serbia in 2016 and now works as the Guantánamo Project coordinator at CAGE, an organization that advocates on behalf of victims of the war on terror. "The purpose of Guantánamo wasn't about making Americans safe," says Adayfi, who describes the facility as a "black hole" with no legal protections. "??The system was designed to strip us of who we are. Even our names were taken."
|
|
Sep 27, 2021
Haitians Condemn Mass Deportations and Inhumane Treatment by the U.S., Social Democrats to Form Coalition Gov't in Germany After Edging Out Merkel's Long-Standing Bloc, Israeli Forces Kill 5 Palestinians in West Bank; Political Leader Khalida Jarrar Released from Prison, Mahmoud Abbas Gives Israel One Year to End Occupation, Vanuatu to Ask for ICJ Opinion on Climate Crisis, Activists Take to Streets for Global Climate Strike, PG&E Charged with Manslaughter over 2020 Zogg Fire as Wildfires Rage in California, Al-Shabab Suicide Attack Kills at Least 8 People in Mogadishu, Canada's Catholic Bishops Apologize for Abuse of Indigenous Children, Swiss Voters Approve Bid to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage, San Marino Votes to Legalize Abortion, House Approves Bill to Protect Abortion Rights, But Measure Unlikely to Pass Senate, House Sets Up Vote for Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill as Larger Spending Package Moves Forward, Judge Blocks NYC Teacher Vaccine Mandate as Hochul Eyes Plans to Replace Unvaccinated Health Workers, Workers at Chicago Tortilla Plant Walk Out to Protest Low Pay and Poor Working Conditions, Frances "Sissy" Farenthold, Trailblazing Texas Politician and Activist, Dies at 94
|
|
Sep 24, 2021
Longtime diplomat Daniel Foote, the U.S. special envoy to Haiti, has resigned in protest over the Biden administration's mass deportation of Haitian asylum seekers and meddling in Haiti's political affairs. The resignation comes days after U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback were filmed chasing, grabbing and whipping Haitian asylum seekers who had gathered in a makeshift camp in Del Rio, Texas. "I am outraged," says Maxine Waters, a Democratic congressmember from California who is a longtime advocate for the rights of people in Haiti. She says refugees must be able to seek asylum in the U.S. without such "inhumane" treatment, and urges the Biden administration to do more to protect vulnerable people. "The United States can do better than this," Waters says.
|
|
Sep 24, 2021
The Taliban are already restricting women's rights in Afghanistan — just a month since they overran the capital of Kabul — by blocking female students from returning to schools and universities, and telling many women workers to stay home. The new Taliban government has closed the Ministry of Women's Affairs that was established soon after the Taliban were toppled in 2001, and replaced it with the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, ??charged with enforcing strict Islamic law. Former Afghan Member of Parliament Belquis Roshan calls for international solidarity with the women of Afghanistan and an end to imperial interventions in the country. "International solidarity, we can initiate … by creating harmony and unity and working together — not with governments, but the people," says Roshan in an exclusive interview with V, the award-winning playwright formerly known as Eve Ensler. V joins us along with Madinah Wardak, a mental health social worker of Afghan descent and founder of the digital platform Burqas & Beer, ahead of a global day of action in support of Afghan women.
|
|
Sep 24, 2021
As the Delta variant continues to surge across the United States, so too has the housing and eviction crisis, with more than 11 million households now behind on rent. Most of those evicted are Black or Latinx, and the majority are single women with children. We speak with a single mother and a high school student who have faced eviction and went to Washington, D.C., this week to help Congressmember Cori Bush and Senator Elizabeth Warren introduce the Keeping Renters Safe Act to reinstate the federal pandemic eviction moratorium. "We need the eviction moratorium and the National Tenant Bill of Rights," says Vivian Smith, a tenant activist with the Miami Workers Center. We also speak with Faith Plank, a 17-year-old housing activist in Morehead, Kentucky, who was evicted in March and says she has felt "the pain of that eviction" every day since. "I can't focus on school when I'm worried about how I'm going to go to bed tonight," says Plank.
|
|
Sep 24, 2021
Haiti Envoy Resigns over Mass Deportations, Blasts "Catastrophic" History of U.S. Interventions, Immigrant Rights Activists Demand an End to ICE Jails on Day of Nationwide Action, CDC Dir. Walensky Approves Pfizer Boosters for High-Risk Workers, Overruling Agency Panel, South African and Bolivian Presidents Highlight Global Vaccine Inequity at UNGA, Guyana's President Calls Out Disproportionate Effects of Climate Crisis on Small Island Nations, EPA Slashes Use of Industrial Chemicals Widely Used in Air Conditioners, Refrigerators, House Approves Increased $768 Billion Pentagon Budget, Rejecting Bids to Rein In Military Spending, House Approves Amendment Ending U.S. Support for Saudi-Led Bombing of Yemen, Rep. Tlaib Condemns U.S. Support for Israeli War Crimes & Abuses as House Approves Military Funding, Exiled Catalan Separatist Leader Arrested in Italy, "Texans Are in Crisis": Abortion Providers Ask SCOTUS to Review Texas Abortion Ban, House Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Four Aides and Allies to Trump, GOP-Ordered Maricopa County Recount Ends with 261 Fewer Votes for Trump, 99 More Votes for Biden, Derek Chauvin to Appeal 22.5-Year Sentence for Murdering George Floyd, One Killed, 14 Injured After Tennessee Mass Shooting, Facebook Official to Face Senate Questioning After Reports Instagram Harmful to Adolescent Girls
|
|
Sep 23, 2021
Criticism is growing of AUKUS, a new trilateral military partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States that the countries say is needed to counter China's growing power in the Indo-Pacific region. As part of the agreement, the U.S. has agreed to help Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, replacing a previous deal Australia had with France. China has denounced the deal, saying the countries are "severely damaging regional peace and stability, intensifying an arms race, and damaging international nuclear non-proliferation efforts." Anthropologist David Vine, who tracks U.S. military bases overseas, says AUKUS will not only intensify regional tensions but also grow the U.S. military footprint in Australia. "There is no reason to be building new military bases in Australia or any part of the world," he says.
|
|
Sep 23, 2021
More than 500 civil society groups boycotted the United Nations Food Systems Summit in New York for giving corporations an outsized role in framing the agenda. We speak with ??leading food advocates in Ethiopia, India and the United States, who lay out their concerns: Million Belay, general coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa; Raj Patel, journalist and research professor at the University of Texas at Austin; and Shalmali Guttal, executive director of Focus on the Global South. "There is growing hunger in the world, and there is growing inequality and growing poverty and unemployment," Guttal says. "This industrialized, globalized, corporate-led food system is failing us."
|
|
Sep 23, 2021
With hunger growing across the globe during the pandemic, the United Nations is holding its first Food Systems Summit, but the gathering is facing fierce criticism for giving corporations an outsized role framing the agenda. The United Nations' own experts on food, human rights and the environment released a statement warning the summit could "serve the corporate sector" over the needs of workers, small producers, women and Indigenous peoples around the world. U.N. figures show the pandemic has increased the number of hungry people to 811 million, and nearly one in three people worldwide — almost 2.4 billion — lack access to adequate nutrition. "When you've got conflict, climate and capitalism compounded with COVID, you see a really apocalyptic situation," says journalist and academic Raj Patel, author of "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World's Food System."
|
|
Sep 23, 2021
Biden Pledges More Vaccine Donations as Poorer Nations Demand Patent Waivers for COVID-19 Shots, Alaska Hospitals, Overwhelmed by COVID-19, Begin Rationing Care, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Taps Anti-Mask Vaccine Skeptic as Surgeon General, DHS Looks to Expand Immigrant Detention at Guantánamo as Humanitarian Crisis at Border Grows, Black Congressmembers Condemn Inhumane, Racist Treatment of Haitian Asylum Seekers, Over 300 Migrant Children Still Separated from Their Families, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Calls for an End to Sanctions, Respect for International Law, Adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Survives Assassination Attempt, WHO Slashes Recommended Limits for Air Pollution, Which Kills 7 Million People Per Year, Police Reform Legislation Collapses After Bipartisan Talks Fail to Reach Agreement, 12 Prisoners Have Died in New York City Jails in 2021, NYC Set to Pass New Laws Protecting App-Based Gig Workers After Push by Delivery Workers, Protesters in Namibia Condemn Proposed Deal with Germany over Genocide Reparations, California Expands Rights for Amazon Warehouse Workers
|
|
Sep 22, 2021
We look at a new Reuters special report examining corruption and the drug trade in Honduras, which human rights groups say are pushing tens of thousands of people to flee the Central American country for the United States. "People really describe feeling that their life has become unlivable in Honduras," Reuters correspondent Laura Gottesdiener says. This comes less than six months after a federal court in New York sentenced Tony Hernández, the brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, to life in prison for drug trafficking and listed the president as a co-conspirator. We also speak with Adriana Beltrán, executive director of the Seattle International Foundation, who says the instability in Honduras today is directly linked to the U.S.-backed coup of 2009 that deposed President Manuel Zelaya. "To a large extent, the crisis that you continue to see in Honduras and its democracy has its roots in the coup," Beltrán says. "Honduras has been struggling to build representative democracy, to fight corruption and crime."
|
|
Sep 22, 2021
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has criticized the United States for intensifying its embargo at a time when Cuba is facing a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths. "The Biden administration policy toward Cuba today has been the Trump administration policy toward Cuba," says Carlos Fernández de Cossío, director general for U.S. affairs in the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He says Cuba also rejects U.S. claims about "Havana syndrome," the name given to mysterious neurological symptoms some American diplomats and CIA officers say they have experienced in foreign postings, including in Cuba. "The U.S. government has no answer to explain what has happened," says Fernández de Cossío. We also speak with Fernández de Cossío about the U.S.'s "double standard" in its treatment of refugees, and the brutal tactics being used against Haitian asylum seekers along the border.
|
|
Sep 22, 2021
World Leaders Address Climate Crisis, Pandemic at UNGA as Guterres Warns World "On Edge of Abyss", House Dems Pass Bill to Avert Gov't Shutdown, Raise the Debt Limit, But Fate in Senate Is Precarious, Cori Bush and Elizabeth Warren Intro Eviction Ban Bill as Housing Activists Rally in D.C., J&J Says Second Dose of Vaccine Increases Efficacy to 94%, Chinese City of 10 Million Goes into Partial Shutdown After Single COVID Case Confirmed, Mexican Authorities Target Haitian Asylum Seekers Fleeing Dangerous Conditions in U.S., Immigrant Rights Activists Demand Dems and Biden Establish Pathway to Citizenship, At Least 8 Refugees Died at Sea Off Spanish Coast Since Sunday, La Palma Evacuates 1,000s as Volcano Lava Buries Homes, Threatens Environmental Disaster, Texas Continues Crackdown on Reproductive Rights, Restricting Use of Abortion-Inducing Meds, Bernie Sanders, Healthcare Activists Slam Big Pharma's Greed as Many Americans Die or Go Untreated, House Dems Unveil Legislation to Rein In Presidential Powers, Trump Campaign Allowed Lawyers to Spew False Election Fraud Claims, Charles Mills, Renowned Political Philosopher and Author of "The Racial Contract," Has Died
|
|
Sep 21, 2021
Tuesday marks 10 years since the state of Georgia executed Troy Anthony Davis for a crime many believe he did not commit. He was put to death despite major doubts about evidence used to convict him of killing Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail, including the recantation of seven of the nine non-police witnesses at his trial. As the world watched to see whether Davis's final appeal for a stay of execution would be granted by the U.S. Supreme Court, Democracy Now! was the only news outlet to continuously broadcast live from the prison grounds in Jackson, Georgia. We revisit parts of our six-hour special report, featuring interviews with Davis's supporters and family members who held an all-day vigil and those who witnessed his death by lethal injection, and speak with two people who were there when Davis was executed: Kimberly Davis, Troy Davis's sister and an anti-death penalty activist, and Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP. "We know that Troy Davis did make a mark on the world," says Kimberly Davis. "We want to continue to fight until we demolish the death penalty, one state at a time."
|
|
Sep 21, 2021
We speak with California Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna about border guards whipping Haitians, U.S. immigration policy, raising the refugee cap, investigating the full 20 years of the War in Afghanistan and bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq.
|
|
Sep 21, 2021
Democrats are still divided over President Biden's sweeping $3.5 trillion spending plan to expand the social safety net, increase taxes on the rich and corporations, improve worker rights and combat the climate crisis. Senate Democrats are hoping to use the budget reconciliation process to pass the bill, but this will only work if the entire Democratic caucus backs the deal, and conservative Democrats have balked at the price tag. Progressive Democrats in the House, meanwhile, say they won't vote for a separate $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the Senate unless the reconciliation bill is part of the package. "We want to pass the full agenda that President Biden has set forth," says Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressmember from California. "This is what President Biden campaigned on, and we need to deliver." Khanna also discusses U.S. immigration policy, raising the refugee cap, investigating the full 20 years of the War in Afghanistan and bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq.
|
|
Sep 21, 2021
U.S. Border Patrol Agents on Horseback Whip Haitian Asylum Seekers, Biden to Raise U.S. Cap on Refugee Admissions to 125,000 Per Year, Fears Grow of Coronavirus Superspreader Event at U.N. General Assembly, U.N. Leader Calls for Countries to Meet $100 Billion Climate Fund Commitments, Student Activists to Lead Global Climate Strike on Friday, U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Surpass Toll of 1918 Flu Pandemic, Wealthy Nations on Track to Waste 100 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses This Year, Sudan's Government Says It Thwarted a Coup Attempt by Bashir Loyalists, Justin Trudeau Reelected as Canada's Prime Minister But Doesn't Win Majority, Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Roe v. Wade; Texas Doctor Sued for Performing Abortion, 10 Women and Girls Killed Each Day in Mexico, Warns Amnesty International, Prosecution Rests in R. Kelly Sex Trafficking Trial, Man Jailed for Parole Violation Becomes 11th Prisoner to Die at Rikers Jail This Year, "Hotel Rwanda" Dissident Paul Rusesabagina Sentenced to 25 Years on Terrorism Charges
|
|
Sep 20, 2021
More than a dozen civil society groups in India have written an open letter to Johnson & Johnson and the U.S. government, urging the pharmaceutical giant to cancel export of Indian-made COVID-19 vaccine doses to rich countries and instead focus on distributing them in the Global South. "The 600 million doses that Johnson & Johnson is manufacturing currently … in India should go where the vaccines are most needed, which is the Indian subcontinent, the African continent and the COVAX Facility," says public health activist Achal Prabhala, who co-authored the letter and is coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa.
|
|
Sep 20, 2021
We look at the attack on reproductive rights in the United States, as the Department of Justice sues Texas over a new law that bans abortions after six weeks into a pregnancy. The law makes no exception for rape or incest and allows anyone in Texas to sue patients, medical workers or even a patient's family or friends who "aid and abet" an abortion. "What we see time and time again is when we ban abortion, it doesn't stop the need for people to access abortion," says Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a staff physician at Planned Parenthood Center for Choice in Houston, Texas.
|
|
Sep 20, 2021
Miami Herald Haiti and Caribbean correspondent Jacqueline Charles discusses new revelations about the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. In her piece, "Grenade-dropping drones, a paranoid president, guards who ran: Latest on Haiti assassination," she reports the night President Jovenel Moïse was shot "was actually the second time in a span of weeks that his life was in danger, according to testimony from one of the Colombians in custody and one of the Haitian Americans."
|
|
Sep 20, 2021
Thousands of asylum seekers, primarily from Haiti, have sheltered in a makeshift camp at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Del Rio International Bridge, as the Biden administration has vowed to carry out mass deportations. On Sunday alone, the Biden administration said it sent three deportation flights to Haiti, with several more flights expected in the coming days. "For them to be deporting young children into Haiti right now, … it is unacceptable," says Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. We also speak with Jacqueline Charles, Haiti and Caribbean correspondent for the Miami Herald, who says reporters have had almost no access to the camp. "You cannot access this bridge, so we don't know what is happening," Charles says. "This is a huge issue, the lack of transparency around this."
|
|
Sep 20, 2021
Thousands of asylum seekers, primarily from Haiti, have sheltered in a makeshift camp at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Del Rio International Bridge, as the Biden administration has vowed to carry out mass deportations. On Sunday alone, the Biden administration said it sent three deportation flights to Haiti, with several more flights expected in the coming days. "For them to be deporting young children into Haiti right now, … it is unacceptable," says Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. We also speak with Jacqueline Charles, Haiti and Caribbean correspondent for the Miami Herald, who says reporters have had almost no access to the camp. "You cannot access this bridge, so we don't know what is happening," Charles says. "This is a huge issue, the lack of transparency around this."
|
|
Sep 20, 2021
Pentagon Admits Drone Strike Killed Afghan Civilians as Victims' Families Demand Probe, Women and Girls Increasingly Left Out of Education, Public Life in Afghanistan After Taliban Takeover, Biden Admin Starts Deporting Haitian Asylum Seekers Without Due Process as Humanitarian Crisis Mounts, Senate Parliamentarian Says Dems Cannot Use Spending Bill to Create Pathway to Citizenship, FDA Panel Says Booster Shots Should Be Offered to People 65 and High-Risk Patients, CA Firefighters Protect Trees with Foil Blankets as Wildfire Threatens Sequoia National Park, U.N. Warns Planet Headed Toward Catastrophic 2.7°C Warming, Biden Unveils Plan to Curb U.S. Emissions, But Climate Agenda Could Be Blocked by Manchin, Activists Demand JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Bank of America Stop Investing in Fossil Fuels, France Recalls U.S. and Australia Ambassadors Amid Row over Trilateral Nuclear Pact, Russian Parliamentary Election Hands Victory to Putin as Critics Allege Voting Fraud, Canadians Vote in Snap Election Called by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ex-Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Dies at 84, Two Years After He Resigned Amid Protests, Tunisian Protesters Decry "Autocracy" of President Kais Saied, Who Suspended Parliament, Supporters of January 6 Insurrectionists Outnumbered by Police at Capitol Hill Rally, Nabisco Workers Approve New Contract, Ending Weeks-Long Strike, New York Gov. Hochul Signs "Less Is More Act" to End Jail Time for Nonviolent Parole Violations
|
|
Sep 17, 2021
On the 10th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, we examine the legacy of the historic protests with three veterans of the movement: Nelini Stamp, now the director of strategy and partnerships at the Working Families Party; Jillian Johnson, a key organizer in Occupy Durham who now serves on the Durham City Council and is the city's mayor pro tempore; and writer and filmmaker Astra Tayor, an organizer with the Debt Collective. Occupy Wall Street "broke the spell" protecting the economic status quo and marked a major shift in protests against capitalism, Taylor says. "Occupy kind of inaugurated this social movement renaissance," she tells Democracy Now! "We've been in an age of defiant protest ever since Occupy Wall Street."
|
|
Sep 17, 2021
This week some of gymnastics' biggest stars shared scathing testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the FBI's failure to stop Larry Nassar, the USA Gymnastics doctor and serial sexual abuser. ??Lawyers say that after the FBI was first told of Nassar's crimes, he abused another 120 people before his 2016 arrest. We feature the testimony of Simone Biles, the four-time Olympic gold medalist, who is widely considered to be the greatest gymnast of all time, and speak with gymnast Rachael Denhollander, who was the first to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual abuse and says the case exposes a systemic failure to take sexual abuse seriously. "Something we need to be asking as we're watching this unfold is: What are we not seeing?" Denhollander says. "What happens to the survivors who don't have an army of 500 women? What happens to the survivors who don't have Olympians headlining their case and raising the profile of the gross negligence and corruption that's taking place in our system?" We also speak with Mark Alesia, who was an investigative reporter at The Indianapolis Star in 2016 and helped to break the story about Nassar's sexual abuse of gymnasts. "The FBI did not take the gymnasts' complaints seriously," Alesia says.
|
|
Sep 17, 2021
U.S. Resumes Deportation Flights to Haiti as 10,000 Haitian Asylum Seekers Cross Rio Grande, Haitian Prime Minister, Accused of Aiding President's Murder, Sacks Justice Minister, Federal Judge Bars Biden Administration's Use of Trump-Era Rule to Fast-Track Deportations, U.N. Warns Time Is Rapidly Running Out to Limit Global Heating to 1.5 Degrees Celsius, U.S. Reports 3,400 COVID Deaths in One Day; One-Quarter of ICU Beds Are At or Near Capacity, France, China Blast U.S.-U.K.-Australia Nuclear Partnership, Biden Calls for Corporations and Super Wealthy to Pay Fair Share of Taxes, Police Put Fence Around Capitol Ahead of Pro-Insurrection Rally, Ohio GOP Rep. Who Voted to Impeach Trump After Jan. 6 Resigns Amid Threats, U.S. Soccer to Offer Same Contract to Women's and Men's Teams After Years of Discriminatory Pay, West African Bloc Sanctions Military Coup Leaders in Guinea, 10,000s March Against Unemployment, Poverty in Argentina Amid Mounting Political Crisis
|
|
Sep 16, 2021
Thousands in El Salvador took to the streets Wednesday to protest President Nayib Bukele's growing consolidation of power and a new law making El Salvador the world's first country to recognize the highly volatile cryptocurrency bitcoin as legal tender. Protesters in El Salvador are also criticizing a recent court ruling that paves the way for Bukele to run for reelection in 2024. El Salvador's turn to bitcoin comes as a "surprise" to many, but has been pushed by Bukele as a way to lessen remittance fees, says Jorge Cuéllar, an assistant professor of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean studies at Dartmouth College. "There's no reason why bitcoin should be at the top of the government agenda in a moment of pandemic, of water stress, of food insecurity, of depressed wages," Cuéllar says. "People are very suspicious of this."
|
|
Sep 16, 2021
As the debate over booster vaccine shots heats up in the United States, global health leaders have issued an urgent call for global vaccine equity. The WHO reports vaccination rates on the African continent fall far below its target for 70% of the population of all countries to be vaccinated by mid-2022. "The science is not completely behind the need for booster shots yet," says Zane Dangor, special adviser to the foreign minister of South Africa, who has called on the U.S. to come up with a proposal for allowing other countries to manufacture vaccines. "This is an emergency that affects all of us because variants are coming from areas where there are large numbers of unvaccinated people," adds infectious disease specialist Dr. Joia Mukherjee.
|
|
Sep 16, 2021
Violence in Afghanistan's countryside has reportedly dropped after the Taliban takeover and the withdrawal of U.S. troops, but the country continues to face an ongoing humanitarian and economic crisis, with millions of children at risk of starvation. Joining us from Kabul, New Yorker reporter Anand Gopal says he was shocked by the "sheer level of violence" Afghan women outside the cities have experienced in the last two decades of war. "The level of human loss was really extraordinary," Gopal says. "I think we've grossly undercounted the number of civilians who died in this war."
|
|
Sep 16, 2021
1 in 500 U.S. Residents Have Died of COVID-19; FDA Scientists Skeptical of Vaccine Boosters, Pope Calls Out Anti-Vaccine Sentiment in Catholic Church, USA Gymnasts to Senate: FBI Failed to Investigate Reports of Larry Nassar's Sexual Abuse, Survivor Recounts Walking in on R. Kelly Sexually Assaulting Aaliyah When She Was Just 13 or 14, Chinese Court Rejects Landmark #MeToo Case, But Survivor Vows to Appeal, ICC to Open Full Probe into Rodrigo Duterte's Deadly War on Drugs in Philippines , Brazil's Top Court Delays Ruling on Case That Could Reshape Indigenous Sovereignty , U.S., U.K. and Australia Form New Coalition to Counter China's Power, New Book Says Gen. Milley Took Covert Measures to Prevent Trump from Starting War, Launching Nukes, DOJ to Ban Chokeholds During Arrests and "No-Knock" Warrants , Philadelphia to Pay $2 Million to Black Mother Attacked by Police After Being Yanked from Car
|
|
Sep 15, 2021
Apple has released an emergency software update to fix a security flaw in its iPhones and other products researchers found was being exploited by the Israeli-based NSO Group to infect the devices with its Pegasus spyware. The security exploit exposes "widespread abuse that we have associated with NSO Group and other companies like it," says Ronald Deibert, director of the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which discovered the security flaw. "This is … the most important crisis around global civil society right now." Over 1.65 billion Apple products in use around the globe have been vulnerable to the spyware since at least March.
|
|
Sep 15, 2021
Following the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, advocates are calling for lawmakers to establish a pathway for legal residency for as many as 2,000 immigrant responders and cleanup workers at ground zero. An estimated 6,000 undocumented immigrants took part in the recovery efforts after 9/11, but many didn't seek medical help or went uncounted for their symptoms because they feared deportation. Undocumented workers exposed themselves to toxins and "sacrificed their lives" to assist with the cleanup, and, 20 years later, still lack recognition and medical aid, says Rosa Maria Bramble Caballero, a licensed clinical social worker who has helped immigrant 9/11 workers for 15 years. A path to citizenship would "not only acknowledge their work, but also help them have other options of other types of work," Caballero says. "We have not really honored them as we should."
|
|
Sep 15, 2021
We speak with reporter Matthieu Aikins about how his investigation for The New York Times found an August 29 U.S. drone strike, which the Pentagon claimed targeted a facilitator with the militant group ISIS-K, actually killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children and Zemari Ahmadi, an Afghan engineer who had worked since 2006 for an American aid group. A review of video evidence by the Times shows Zemari loading canisters of water at the charity's office, after the Pentagon claimed surveillance video showed Zemari loading what they thought were explosives into a car at an unknown compound earlier in the day. "We put together evidence that showed that what the military interpreted as a series of suspicious moves from the sky was, according to his co-workers and colleagues and video evidence, just an ordinary day for this aid worker," says Aikins.
|
|
Sep 15, 2021
Californians overwhelmingly rejected a Republican-led recall effort against Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday that cost close to $300 million in taxpayer funds. The failed recall was seen as a battle against the far right and a referendum on several key issues ahead of the 2022 midterms, including the pandemic, immigrant rights, the climate crisis and the related unhoused crisis. California voters cast their ballots in the recall because "as attention started being focused nationally on this election, people started realizing what was at stake," says Sasha Abramsky, "Left Coast" correspondent for The Nation. "There was this real risk that California could sort of almost accidentally stumble into a far-right governorship," Abramsky says.
|
|
Sep 15, 2021
Gov. Gavin Newsom Claims Victory in Right-Wing Recall Effort, Biden Calls for Vaccinating 70% of World in One Year as WHO Slams Ongoing Vaccine Inequity, Gov't Pandemic Assistance Led to Drop in U.S. Poverty Rates in 2020, Biden Warns Extreme Weather Is Killing More Americans, Costing Billions Each Year, Haitian Prime Minister Fires Prosecutor After He Seeks to Charge Henry in Killing of Jovenel Moïse, South and North Korea Both Fire Ballistic Missiles as Tensions Mount on Peninsula, DOJ Charges 3 Ex-Military and Intelligence Officers over UAE Hacking Activities, DOJ Seeks to Block Texas's Near-Total Abortion Ban, Senate Dems Introduce "Freedom to Vote" Act After Making Concessions on Election Protections, "A Humanitarian Crisis": New York Officials Call Out Horrific Conditions at Rikers
|
|
Sep 14, 2021
Tension is rising between Canadian police and activists who have been staging a months-long anti-logging resistance in Vancouver Island's ancient forests. The protest has been underway for two years, led by environmental and First Nations activists, and is considered to be Canada's largest act of civil disobedience ever. Canadian authorities have arrested nearly 1,000 people at Fairy Creek in British Columbia, and the protests show no sign of slowing down. "We have a long history of asserting ourselves as coastal people, where our inherent right is not only based in our relationship to our communities but is based on our relationship and our legal systems and with the land," says Kati George-Jim, a Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth woman who joined the blockade in September 2020 and has been arrested numerous times. "The police have no jurisdiction, and industry don't have jurisdiction, on stolen land," she says. We also speak with lawyer Noah Ross, who says police have used excessive violence to break up protests. "There's been many, many instances where people of color have been specifically targeted," says Ross.
|
|
Sep 14, 2021
According to the Costs of War Project, the wars launched by the United States following 9/11 have killed an estimated 929,000 people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. The true death toll may never be known, but the vast majority of the victims have been Muslim. "Racism is baked into the security logic of the national security state in the U.S., as well as in terms of how it operates abroad," says Islamophobia scholar Deepa Kumar, a professor of media studies at Rutgers University. "The war on terror was sold to the American public using Orientalist and racist ideas that these societies are backward." Kumar is the author of "Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire: 20 Years After 9/11," an updated version of her 2012 book that examined how the war on terror ushered in a new era of anti-Muslim racism.
|
|
Sep 14, 2021
Donors Pledge $1.2B in Aid to Afghanistan as U.N. Warns of Looming Humanitarian Catastrophe, Secretary of State Blinken Defends U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan, 1 Million Public School Students Return to New York City Classrooms Despite COVID-19 Surge, Departing FDA Scientists Blast Biden's Plan for COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters, Pressure Mounts on Germany to Support COVID-19 Patent Waiver as WTO Panel Meets, Public Citizen: Biden Could Share Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Recipe with the World, Hurricane Nicholas Brings Storm Surge and Heavy Rain to Gulf Coast, Biden Calls for Urgent Action on Climate Crisis After Touring Western Wildfire Destruction, "Tax the Rich": Progressives Say House Democrats' Tax Plan Falls Short, Israel Bombs Gaza Strip for Third Consecutive Night Amid Palestinian Rocket Fire, U.S. to Withhold 10% of $1.3 Billion in Military Aid to Egypt, Citing Human Rights, White Supremacist with Bayonet and Machete Arrested Near DNC Headquarters, Apple to Patch Software Flaw That Left 1.65 Billion Devices Vulnerable to "Zero-Click" Spyware, Left-Leaning Coalition Wins Landslide Election in Norway After Climate-Focused Campaign
|
|
Sep 13, 2021
On the 50th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, we look at the cover-up that began immediately after New York state police stormed the prison and opened fire, killing 29 inmates and 10 hostages. David Rothenberg, a member of the Attica Observers Committee brought into Attica to help negotiate a peaceful resolution, says the prison was "an institution that only knew how to run by punishment," laying the groundwork for the uprising. "The event itself is almost a microscopic view of the failure of our criminal justice system and our prison system," says Rothenberg. We also speak with filmmaker Michael Hull, director of the new HBO Max documentary "Betrayal at Attica," about how the film includes never-before-seen evidence from the archive of Attica Brothers defense attorney Elizabeth Fink, including deposition interviews from the 1974 civil suit she successfully led on their behalf against the state of New York. "The state police conducted the retaking of the prison. They also conducted the investigation of themselves. So they started destroying and obfuscating evidence on September 13, 1971," says Hull.
|
|
Sep 13, 2021
On the 50th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, the deadliest prison uprising in U.S. history, we speak with Tyrone Larkins, a formerly incarcerated survivor, who was shot three times in the brutal crackdown of September 13, 1971. He describes Attica as "the roughest place that I've ever seen in my life," as he recalls what led to the rebellion on September 9, 1971, when prisoners overpowered guards and took over much of Attica prison in upstate New York to protest conditions. At the time, prisoners spent most of their time in their cells and got one shower per week. Larkins lays out how tense negotiations with politicized prisoners followed, and says the rebellion was on its way to being resolved through diplomacy when Governor Nelson Rockefeller ordered state police to storm the facility. Police opened fire, killing 29 inmates and 10 hostages.
|
|
Sep 13, 2021
U.S. Marks 20th Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks, FBI Releases First Declassified Document on Saudi Links to 9/11 Hijackers, George W. Bush Compares "Violent Extremists at Home" to 9/11 Attackers , Capitol Police Want to Reinstall Fencing Ahead of Far-Right "Justice for J6" Rally , Taliban Government Orders Segregated Schools and Dress Codes for Women, No Evidence of Bomb in Vehicle Hit by U.S. Drone Strike That Killed 10 Afghan Civilians, Appeals Court Sides with Florida Gov. DeSantis, Reinstates Ban on Mask Mandates, Lebanon Announces New Government Headed by Former Prime Minister, Wildfires Rage in Spain and California as Monsoon Floods Kill 17 in Pakistan, Global Witness: Record Number of Environmental Activists Killed in 2020, 4,000 Indigenous Women Take to Streets of Brazil Ahead of High Court Ruling on Tribal Sovereignty, U.S. Army Was Training Guinean Soldiers When They Launched Military Coup, Fighting in Burma Kills 20 as U.N. Weighs Whether to Recognize Junta or National Unity Government, Iran and U.N. Atomic Watchdog Reach Deal to Resume Monitoring of Nuclear Sites, North Korea Tests "Strategic" Long-Range Cruise Missiles, Biden Campaigns with Newsom in California on Last Day of Recall Vote, Chileans Commemorate Sep. 11, 1973, Coup That Overthrew Allende and Imposed Brutal Dictatorship
|
|
Sep 10, 2021
On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we revisit a conversation we hosted in January of 2002 between Masuda Sultan, an Afghan American woman who lost 19 members of her family in a U.S. air raid, and Rita Lasar, a New Yorker who lost her brother in the World Trade Center attack. Lasar would become an active member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Masuda later wrote the memoir, "My War at Home."
|
|
Sep 10, 2021
Twenty years ago, Rep. Barbara Lee was the only member of Congress to vote against war in the immediate aftermath of the devastating 9/11 attacks that killed about 3,000 people. "Let us not become the evil that we deplore," she urged her colleagues in a dramatic address on the House floor. The final vote in the House was 420-1. This week, as the U.S. marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Rep. Lee spoke with Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman about her fateful vote in 2001 and how her worst fears about "forever wars" came true. "All it said was the president can use force forever, as long as that nation, individual or organization was connected to 9/11. I mean, it was just a total abdication of our responsibilities as members of Congress," Rep. Lee says.
|
|
Sep 10, 2021
Biden Orders Vaccine Mandates for Federal Workers and Large Employers, International Flights Resume from Kabul Airport; Taliban Torture Journalists Covering Protests, Syrian Army Enters Daraa, Birthplace of Uprising Against Assad a Decade Ago, Biden Admin Extends TPS for 400,000 People Through 2022, Whistleblower Details Abuse of Migrant Children at Fort Bliss Base in Texas, SCOTUS Stays Execution of Texas Death Row Prisoner, DOJ Sues Texas over Unconstitutional Abortion Ban , Biden Withdraws Gun Control Advocate as ATF Nominee, Names Ally to Big Polluters for Key Energy Post, EPA Seeks Permanent Block on Pebble Mine Project in Alaska's Bristol Bay , Harvard Divests from Fossil Fuels After Years-Long Student Campaign , Nabisco Workers in 5 States Continue Strike, as Buffalo Starbucks Workers Fight to Unionize
|
|
Sep 09, 2021
In his new book, Yale historian Samuel Moyn explores whether the push to make U.S. wars more "humane" by banning torture and limiting civilian casualties has helped fuel more military interventions around the world. He looks in detail at the role of President Obama in expanding the use of drones even as he received the Nobel Peace Prize. "What happened after 2001 is that, in the midst of an extremely brutal war on terror, a new kind of war emerged. … It was important to Americans to see their wars fought more humanely," says Moyn. "Even though this represents a kind of progress, it also helped Americans sustain war and helped make the war on terror endless." Moyn's new book is "Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War."
|
|
Sep 09, 2021
As this week marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., we look at a new five-part documentary series on Netflix about the attacks and the response from the United States, both at home and abroad. "Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror" features a wide range of interviews with survivors of the attacks, U.S. officials, former CIA members and veterans, as well as soldiers in the Afghanistan National Army, Taliban commanders, and Afghan officials, warlords and civilians. "What we really wanted to do was tell the story not just of what happened that day, but how we got there and where our response to those attacks took us as a country," says director Brian Knappenberger. We also speak with co-executive producer Mohammed Ali Naqvi, an award-winning Pakistani filmmaker, who says the film was an attempt to go "beyond the binary narrative of good versus evil."
|
|
Sep 09, 2021
WHO Calls for Halt to COVID Booster Shots in 2021, Says Vaccines Should Go to Poorer Countries, COVAX Cuts 2021 Vaccine Forecast; Australia Joins Call for Waiver on Vaccine Patents, Los Angeles Schools Poised to Require Vaccinations for Students 12 and Older , Afghanistan Evacuations Continue as Taliban Reestablishes Ministry of "Virtue and Vice", Main Suspect in 2015 Paris Attacks Tells Court He Was a Soldier for the Islamic State, Human Rights Campaign President Fired in Latest Fallout from Cuomo Sexual Harassment Probe, Virginia Removes Statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, 17 Patients Die as Floods Hit Mexican Hospital; Record Drought Worsens Brazil's Energy Crisis, Super Typhoon Chanthu Hurtles Toward Philippines and Southeast China, Ida's Death Toll Hits 82 as Hundreds of Thousands Remain Without Power in South, Biden Admin Aims to Boost U.S. Solar Output to 45% of All Energy Use by 2050, Indigenous Activists Lead Months-Long Campaign to Protect Vancouver Island's Ancient Forests
|
|
