Democracy Now!

The Biden administration is expected to send armor-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium to Ukraine as part of the latest military aid package, even though the weapons are radioactive and their use causes contamination that is hazardous to human health. It's the latest escalation in the war between Ukraine and Russia that nonproliferation activists warn could possibly lead to a nuclear confrontation. The United Kingdom already provided Ukraine with depleted uranium munitions earlier this year, one of which sparked contamination fears when it was reportedly destroyed by Russian forces over the weekend, and the Biden administration followed that up by sending cluster bombs, which have been banned by an international treaty ratified by more than 110 nations. On top of dealing with unexploded cluster munitions, they're also going to have this huge hazard of depleted uranium to contend with, as well," Phil Miller, chief reporter for the independent news outlet Declassified UK, says of the risk to civilians.

Georgia is intensifying its crackdown against opponents of Cop City, with the state's Republican attorney general announcing sweeping indictments of 61 people on racketeering charges over protests and other activism related to the $90 million police training facility planned to be built in Atlanta. The RICO charges were approved by the same grand jury that indicted former President Trump and 18 others on RICO charges in the same county by the Democratic district attorney, and come after many of the same people were earlier charged with domestic terrorism and money laundering as part of the Stop Cop City movement, which is still seeking to block construction of the new police complex. They are choosing to use the legal process in an essentially violent way to target protesters," says attorney Devin Franklin with the Southern Center for Human Rights, which is organizing legal representation for the defendants in the case. We also speak with Keyanna Jones, a Stop Cop City organizer with Community Movement Builders, who notes the indictments are dated from May 25, 2020, the day Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. Since that date, this country has been upended by governments across the nation trying to build Cop Cities in order to quell protest," says Jones. The government is simply upset that people seek to ... use their First Amendment right to protest when we see injustice coming from those in authority."

Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison for Jan. 6 Seditious Conspiracy, Blinken Visits Kyiv to Unveil New $1 Billion Aid Package for Ukraine, Meadows, Eastman & Clark Plead Not Guilty in Georgia Election Case, Special Counsel Jack Smith Warns Trump's Remarks May Be Prejudicing Jury Pool in D.C., Trial Begins for Trump's Former Trade Adviser Peter Navarro, 61 Cop City Activists Face RICO Charges in Atlanta for Protests Against Police Facility, U.N. Head Warns Climate Breakdown Has Begun", Brazil: 21 Die After Cyclone Triggers Floods & Landslides, Seven Killed After Massive Rainstorm Hits Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, India Bulldozes Poor Areas Ahead of G20 Summit in Delhi, Lula Announces Brazil Will Recognize Two More Indigenous Territories, Saudi Arabia and Iran Exchange Ambassadors, Ending Diplomatic Rift, Montse Tome Becomes First Woman to Coach Spanish Women's National Soccer Team, Federal Court Strikes Down Alabama's Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Map, Impeachment Trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Begins, NYPD Agrees to Respond to Protests Differently to Settle Suits Stemming from BLM Protests, Former NM Governor Bill Richardson, 75, Dies

A military judge at Guantanamo has thrown out the confessions of Saudi man Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri because he had been tortured and waterboarded at secret CIA black sites in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Romania and Morocco before being sent to Guantanamo. Psychologists James Mitchell and John Bruce Jessen, who were paid at least $81 million by the CIA to develop and then implement the CIA's post-9/11 torture program, had waterboarded al-Nashiri at a CIA black site. We get response from Roy Eidelson and discuss his new book, Doing Harm, which investigates the American Psychological Association's complicity in post-9/11 torture programs and the struggle to reform the psychology field. We felt there was a lot at stake," says Eidelson. It took over a decade for us to bring change in terms of APA's policy toward interrogation and detention operations." As the U.N. calls for al-Nashiri's release, Eidelson warns that APA leadership and military personnel are once again pushing guidelines that expand psychologists' role in torture. They want to expand the opportunities that are available for psychologists to work in this arena where 'do no harm' is, at best, secondary, and sometimes off the table entirely," says Eidelson. It feels as though APA is slipping - slipping back into positions that led to awful things."

As federal law enforcement opens an investigation into the Jacksonville, Florida, shooting where a white gunman killed three Black people at a Dollar General as a possible hate crime and act of domestic violent extremism, we speak with civil rights leader Bishop William Barber about the increasing number of racist attacks in America fueled by racism. There is this history of not just who kills, but what kills and what creates the atmosphere," says Barber, who calls for a political movement of love to force out hateful politicians. Barber specifically condemns the Republican Party and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for attacking cultural issues as a distraction for policy failures. The racist rhetoric and the culture wars and the hatred toward women, the hatred toward immigrants, the hatred toward the trans community is a form of deflection," says Barber. He's decided that this is his way to office: distraction, division, deflection, focusing on culture wars so that he cannot be labeled as a failed governor."

Biden Administration to Supply Ukraine with Depleted Uranium Munitions, Russia and Ukraine Trade Drone Attacks; Zelensky Sacks Defense Minister Amid Graft Probe, Putin Rules Out Renewal of Black Sea Grain Deal, U.N. Predicts Conflict in Sudan Will Produce 1.8 Million New Refugees by Year's End, Coup Leader Brice Oligui Nguema Sworn In as Interim President of Gabon, Massive Protests in Niger Demand Withdrawal of French Troops, Chinese Leader Xi Jinping to Skip G20 Summit in India, U.N.-Backed Report Finds Accelerating Spread of Harmful Invasive Species, First Africa Climate Summit Opens in Kenya, Torrential Rains Bring Floods to Spain and Greece; U.S. Swelters in Record September Heat Wave, Minnesota Prisoners Locked Down After Protesting Sweltering Temperatures, Following Climate Protests, Torrential Rain Strands Thousands at Burning Man Festival, Florida Judge Strikes Down Racist GOP-Gerrymandered Congressional Maps, Alabama GOP Defies Supreme Court Order to Redraw Congressional Maps Targeting Black Voters

Salvadoran poet and writer Javier Zamora discusses the roots of his memoir Solito, which details his odyssey as an unaccompanied 9-year-old child through Guatemala and Mexico to reunite with family in Arizona. After surviving that nine-week journey, surviving the United States as an undocumented person was perhaps the main reason why I became a writer," Zamora says. He describes how he works to cope with trauma from his experiences, and how he was inspired to become a writer when he was exposed to the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda as a high school student in California.

As extreme weather disasters intensify, the workers who are hired by corporations to clean up after hurricanes, floods, blizzards and wildfires are increasingly on the frontlines of the climate crisis.For Labor Day 2023, we are rebroadcasting an interview with author and organizer Saket Soni. His book, The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America, focuses on hundreds of Indian workers who were brought to the United States with false promises and subjected to grueling working conditions at a shipyard in Mississippi. When one of those workers called Soni in 2006 for help, it set off an extraordinary chain of events that led to their escape from the work camp and eventually focused national attention on the plight of the workers. As disasters have grown, this workforce has grown. And these workers do all this without legal protections, without legal status," says Soni, the director of Resilience Force, a nonprofit that advocates for immigrant workers who help rebuild communities after climate disasters.

More than two years after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghan evacuees seeking to come to the United States remain arbitrarily detained in other countries like Qatar, Kosovo and the United Arab Emirates. Many of the Afghans are living in camps that are largely coordinated, facilitated or under the control of the U.S. government. The Center for Constitutional Rights and the civil rights group Muslim Advocates recently sued the Pentagon, State Department and the Department of Homeland Security seeking governmental records about the relocation and detention of Afghan evacuees. What this lawsuit hopes to achieve is to provide more information to humanitarian, human rights and civil society organizations ... to intervene and prevent the continued detention of these Afghan civilians," says CCR attorney Sadaf Doost.

As the cost of the climate crisis continues to rise and climate justice groups demand more government action to halt the heating of the planet, we speak with policy expert Rhiana Gunn-Wright, one of the architects of the Green New Deal. She says the Inflation Reduction Act championed by President Biden, which is the largest climate bill in U.S. history, has many provisions that structurally leave out Black people." She urges a more inclusive green transition that centers the needs of communities of color. There is an increasing sort of narrative about the tension between justice and urgency that's presenting a false choice." Gunn-Wright's latest essay, published in the new digital magazine Hammer & Hope, is titled Our Green Transition May Leave Black People Behind."

We speak with climate activist and water protector Mylene Vialard, whose trial for peacefully protesting the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline began this week in Minnesota. Vialard faces up to five years in prison for her 2021 protest, when she attached herself to a 25-foot bamboo tower erected to block a pumping station in Aitkin County. Vialard, who lives in Colorado, had come to Minnesota to take part in a wave of Indigenous-led acts of civil disobedience to stop the pipeline. Between December 2020 and September 2021, police in Minnesota made more than 1,000 arrests. Mylene Vialard is just the second water protector facing felony charges to go to trial. We're destroying our planet. We're destroying our way of life," says Vialard. We also speak with Indigenous lawyer and activist Tara Houska, who was also arrested in 2021 for participating in a nonviolent action against Line 3. She says police violence against environmental and Indigenous activists has gotten exponentially worse" since the 2016 Dakota Access protests at Standing Rock. The crackdown on environmental protests is nationwide," says Houska.

Two former leaders of the right-wing Proud Boys gang were sentenced Thursday for their actions during the January 6 insurrection, with the judge handing down some of the longest sentences yet for people involved in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Joseph Biggs, the former leader of the group's Florida chapter, was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison. Zachary Rehl, the former leader of the Philadelphia chapter, received 15 years. The two men were convicted in May of seditious conspiracy and other charges alongside other Proud Boys leaders, including the group's former national chair, Enrique Tarrio, who is expected to be sentenced next week. The heavy sentences show that the Justice Department and the judge in the case viewed the Proud Boys as top organizers, planners and executors of the riots on January 6," says HuffPost senior editor Andy Campbell, who has written a book about the Proud Boys. He also notes that Proud Boys leaders had close ties to top Trump allies, suggesting Trump was aware of the possibility of violence on January 6 when he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol. We have an engrained extremist crisis at the highest levels of government on the right."

Trump Pleads Not Guilty to Georgia Racketeering Charges, Asks to Sever Case from Co-Defendants, Two Proud Boys Leaders Get 17 and 15 Years in Jail for Jan. 6 Capitol Insurrection, AU Suspends Gabon After Coup; Opposition Seeks Ballot Count After Pre-Coup Election Loss, AFP Reports 48 People Killed by Soldiers in Eastern Congo, Chile Launches Nationwide Search for 1,000 Disappeared During Pinochet Rule, Tribunal Finds U.S-Trained General Responsible for Extrajudicial Killings in Colombia's War on Drugs, Biden Admin Advises Americans to Leave Haiti as It Continues to Deport Haitian Asylum Seekers, China Condemns U.S. Military Aid to Taiwan Under Program for Sovereign Nations, Clarence Thomas Finally Discloses Luxury Travel in Financial Disclosure Filings, Texas Ban on Gender-Affirming Care Goes into Effect as Canada Warns LGBT Citizens Traveling to U.S., No Tech for Apartheid: Protesters Call Out Google for Cloud Contract with Israel

A major New York Times investigation reveals how the United States' aquifers are becoming severely depleted due to overuse in part from huge industrial farms and sprawling cities. The Times reports that Kansas corn yields are plummeting due to a lack of water, there is not enough water to support the construction of new homes in parts of Phoenix, Arizona, and rivers across the country are drying up as aquifers are being drained far faster than they are refilling. It can take millions of years to fill an aquifer, but they can be depleted in 50 years," says Warigia Bowman, director of sustainable energy and natural resources law at the University of Tulsa College of Law. All coastal regions in the United States are really being threatened by groundwater and aquifer problems."

As Hurricane Idalia left a wake of destruction Wednesday, President Joe Biden said, I don't think anybody can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore." Climate activist and scientist Peter Kalmus calls for Biden to declare a climate emergency in order to unleash the government's ability to transition away from fossil fuels. The public just doesn't understand, in my opinion, what a deep emergency we are in," says Kalmus. This is the merest beginning of what we're going to see in coming years." Kalmus blasts the fossil fuel industry for manipulating politics through campaign contributions, and GOP presidential candidates for misleading the public about climate science. As a parent, as a citizen and as a scientist, I find it appalling and disgusting," declares Kalmus. I can't mince words anymore."

Military leaders in Gabon seized power on Wednesday shortly after reigning President Ali Bongo had been named the winner of last week's contested election. Bongo and his family have led the country for close to 60 years, during which they have been accused of enriching themselves at the expense of the country. The military junta announced General Brice Oligui Nguema would serve as transitional leader in what is the latest military coup in a former French colony, joining recent power shifts in Niger, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Chad. The independence of Gabon has never been real," says Thomas Deltombe, French journalist and expert on the French African empire. I think we might be witnessing a second independence, a new decolonization process." We also speak with Daniel Mengara, a professor of French and Francophone studies and founder of the exiled opposition movement Bongo Must Leave, which he continues to head. This is a rare opportunity for the Gabonese people to engage in national dialogue," says Mengara, who warns that the intentions of the coup leaders are still unclear.

Tropical Storm Idalia Weakens After Lashing Florida, Still Carries Threat as It Moves North, Gabon's Military Rulers Announce Transitional Leader Following Coup, Johannesburg Building Fire Kills at Least 73 People, Including Children, U.N. Says Recent Fighting in Ethiopia's Amhara Region Killed 183 People, Migrant Death Toll Near El Paso Hit Record High as Heat Waves Scorched the Southern Border, Texas Judge Blocks Law Barring Cities from Requiring Worker Water Breaks, Labor Dept. Proposes Lifting Salary Threshold for Mandatory Overtime Pay from $35K to $55K, Mitch McConnell Freezes During Press Conference for Second Time in Two Months, NY Attorney General Says Trump Inflated His Wealth by $2.2 Billion, Rudy Giuliani Found Liable in Defamation Lawsuit Brought by Georgia Election Workers, Indigenous Groups Rally in Brazil as Top Court Considers Pivotal Challenge to Ancestral Land Rights

We go with Democracy Now! correspondent Juan Carlos Davila to the Dominican Republic, where many Haitian migrants and their descendants work on sugar plantations under conditions amounting to forced labor and live in heavily underresourced communities known as bateyes. Many bateyes do not have electricity or running water. We speak to local residents and members of the Reconocido movement, which fights for the rights of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, about the workers' inhumane treatment and their lack of legal status in the country, as well as about efforts to improve living conditions in the bateyes, such as an initiative spearheaded by the Puerto Rican environmental group Casa Pueblo to install solar panels in the communities. The right of energy has to be for everyone," says Casa Pueblo's executive director, Arturo Massol-Deya, who shares how his organization is working in solidarity with batey residents to disrupt the cycle of poverty and prepare for climate adaptation.

We continue our discussion with Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas about U.S. policy in Latin America by looking at one of its long-term effects: migration to the U.S. As people flee instability in their home countries brought about by U.S. trade and military policy, U.S. border authorities have implemented increasingly dangerous measures to stop migrants from traveling safely, including a deadly floating barrier of circular saw blades in the Rio Grande. This is all fueled by racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric spouted by right-wing extremists and politicians, whom Casar characterizes as the arsonists trying to blame the firefighters for the flames."

We speak to Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas, who has just returned from a congressional trip to meet with newly left-leaning governments in Brazil, Colombia and Chile ahead of the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-backed Chilean coup, which overthrew democratically elected President Salvador Allende and installed a 17-year military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet. Casar was joined by other progressive Latinx members of Congress, including New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Texan Joaquin Castro. During the trip, the lawmakers called for the Biden administration to declassify more documents revealing the U.S. role in the coup. It was the first time an all-Latinx American congressional delegation traveled to Latin America, Casar says, and marked a historic" attempt by young, progressive lawmakers to break from Cold War-era American interventionism on the continent and to move toward a relationship based on mutual respect and supporting democracy."

The Biden administration has taken a major step to rein in price gouging for prescription drugs in the United States. Medicare will now be able to negotiate prices on 10 of the most expensive drugs used to treat diabetes, cancer, heart disease and more. That list is set to expand over the years. In what's seen as a blow to Big Pharma, the White House says the move, a part of the Inflation Reduction Act, will benefit more than 9 million people in the U.S. and lead to $100 billion in savings over the next decade. Pharmaceutical companies have already filed at least eight lawsuits contesting the new rule. We're paying far more than the rest of the world, and there's no rational basis for it," says Peter Maybarduk of the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. Maybarduk joins us to discuss how the new negotiation process aims to break up drug monopolies and disband the pharmaceutical industry's profit incentive.

Military Officers in Gabon Seize Power, Place Pres. Bongo Under House Arrest Days After Reelection, Hurricane Idalia Slams Florida Coast as Officials Warn of Life-Threatening Storm Surge, Biden Admin Announces First 10 Medications That Will Be Subject to Medicare Negotiations, Uganda Sees First Charges of Aggravated Homosexuality" After Passing Homophobic New Law, Militia Kills 14 Villagers in Latest Violent Attack in Eastern DRC, Denmark Introduces Law to Criminalize Burning the Qur'an, Hundreds of Prisoners Are on Hunger Strike in Bahrain's Largest Prison, Pakistani Court Suspends Imran Khan's Corruption Sentence, But Ex-PM Remains Jailed in Separate Case, Dozens of States Consider Bills Barring Chinese Entities and Citizens from Buying Land, Air Pollution Shortens Average Life Span by 2.3 Years, Worse Than Being a Smoker, Greek Evros Wildfire Largest Ever Recorded in EU, Louisiana Wildfires Kill 2; Maui Search for Wildfire Victims Moves from Land to Water, Biden Administration Forced to Roll Back Wetlands Protections After SCOTUS Ruling, U.N. Body Says Governments Should Address Children's Demands to Fight Climate Crisis

Congressmember Maxwell Frost of Florida says this weekend's shooting in Jacksonville, carried out by a white supremacist who targeted Black people at a dollar store, did not happen in isolation. He points to Republican efforts to loosen gun laws and racist rhetoric from party leaders as part of the problem of far-right violence. All of these things are connected," says Frost, who also applauded people for booing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at a prayer vigil in Jacksonville. In moments like these, we have to stand strong on ensuring that leaders who contributed to the problem can't use our communities as campaign stops."

As the Jacksonville community mourns the loss of three people killed Saturday in a racist shooting, more details are emerging about the white supremacist who went to a Dollar General store looking to target Black people before killing himself. Authorities say he left behind a suicide note and other writings outlining his racist ideology. The 21-year-old gunman had legally bought the two weapons he used in the shooting, including an AR-15-style rifle marked with swastikas. The shooting occurred as thousands gathered in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to mark the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream" speech. Activists in Jacksonville had also been preparing commemorations of Ax Handle Saturday, when a white mob led by the Ku Klux Klan violently attacked Black civil rights protesters on August 27, 1960. This hurricane of racism that we've been dealing with in the Jacksonville community is not new," says Jacksonville-based historian and civil rights leader Rodney Hurst, who helped lead desegregation protests in the city during the 1960s.

We continue to look at Donald Trump's mounting legal battles with constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis. Trump's federal trial for election interference is set to begin in Washington, D.C., in March, but his legal team argued this week for a two-year delay, citing the case of the Scottsboro Boys, nine young Black men who were falsely accused of raping a white woman and convicted in a rushed trial before the Supreme Court ultimately intervened. It's offensive," Kreis says of the comparison. To claim that Donald Trump is a victim of some unlawful, unruly criminal justice process akin to 1930s Alabama is simply false."

A judge on Monday set Donald Trump's federal trial for plotting to overturn the 2020 election to begin in Washington, D.C., on March 4 - at the height of the presidential primary season and one day before Super Tuesday. Meanwhile, Trump's former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows testified before a federal judge in Georgia on Monday as part of an effort to move his trial from state to federal court. Meadows is one of Trump's 18 co-defendants in the Georgia racketeering case, and any decisions on his fate could affect the others. Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright says at the heart of the Georgia case was an attempt to disenfranchise Black people who had helped push Joe Biden over the top in the state's presidential election. They were specifically going after Black voters," Albright says of Trump and his allies. We also speak with law professor Anthony Michael Kreis, who attended Monday's hearing in Georgia and says Trump's mounting legal battles present a real test for our constitutional order and our political system."

Trump's Federal Criminal Trial for Election Interference Set for March 2024, UNC-Chapel Hill Campus Locks Down After Faculty Member Shot Dead, Tennessee Republicans Vote Once Again to Silence Rep. Justin Jones, Sudan's Military Ruler Rules Out Peace Talks with Rival Paramilitaries, French Ambassador to Niger Rejects Junta's Ultimatum to Leave Within 48 Hours, Guatemalan Tribunal Certifies Bernardo Arevalo's Victory, But Electoral Registry Suspends His Party, Hurricane Idalia Strengthens and Takes Aim at Florida's Gulf Coast, Four Migrants Die as Boat Capsizes Off Greek Island of Lesbos, Biden Administration Knew Saudi Border Guards Were Killing Asylum Seekers, HRW: More Palestinian Children Will Be Killed" Unless Israel Pressured to Change Course, In Beijing, Commerce Chief Touts U.S. Trade Ties with China, Denver to Pay $4.7 Million to Settle Police Brutality Claims of Black Lives Matter Activists

The city of White Plains, New York, has settled a lawsuit by the family of a man who was shot in his home by police after accidentally pressing his medical alert badge in 2011. Kenneth Chamberlain repeatedly told police he was fine and asked them to leave, but they refused, called him racial slurs and broke into his home before killing him. After a decade of legal action, the family agreed to a $5 million settlement with the city, but the local police association blasted the agreement and said it was not an admission of misconduct. It doesn't equate to accountability," says Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., who now works to challenge police brutality and continues to ask for unsealed records related to his father's death. We need actual structural change," says Mayo Bartlett, a human rights lawyer representing the Chamberlain family, who argues police misconduct must be addressed through legislation. It has to be something that's codified in law."

After thousands gathered Saturday in Washington, D.C., to mark the 60th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic I Have a Dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington, we speak with Gary Younge, author of The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream. There is this notion of King's dream speech as being folded into America's liberal mythology: America is always getting better, it's always getting more wonderful," says Younge, who wrote his book on the speech to reflect America's current struggle with white supremacy and attacks on people of color. As things can go forwards, so can they go backwards."

On Saturday, a white supremacist gunman killed three Black people at a store in Jacksonville, Florida, in a racially motivated attack. Authorities say the 21-year-old white gunman initially tried to enter the historically Black college Edward Waters University, but he was turned away by a security guard before driving to a nearby Dollar General and opening fire with a legally purchased attack-style rifle. America's gun problem makes its racism more lethal," says Gary Younge, author of Dispatches from the Diaspora: From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter. There's been a significant increase in the number of hate crimes, particularly in anti-Black hate crimes, and one has to be able to connect that to the political situation that surrounds us," says Younge, who says the shooter's actions are reflective of the current attacks on Black history and represent a backlash to increased racial consciousness following the murder of George Floyd.

White Supremacist Shooter Kills 3 Black People in Jacksonville; DOJ Investigating as Hate Crime, Rallygoers, Rights Leaders Gather in D.C. on 60th Anniversary of March on Washington, Mnangagwa Declares Victory in Zimbabwe Presidential Election as Challenger Chamisa Calls Fraud, Gabon Shuts Down Internet, Imposes Curfew Following Voting Delays in Nationwide Elections, Niger's Coup Leaders Order Troops to Be on Maximum Alert, Expel French Ambassador, 7 People Shot Dead at Church Rally in Haiti as Gang Violence Spirals, Russian Officials Say DNA Analysis Confirms Yevgeny Prigozhin Died in Plane Crash, Ex-Guatemalan Colonel Sentenced to 20 Years for 1982 Indigenous Massacre, Judge Agrees to Release Imprisoned Ex-Guatemalan Pres. Otto Perez Molina to House Arrest, Texas, Missouri Bans on Trans Healthcare for Young People Take Effect, Hearings on Trump's 2 Election Interference Trials Have Major Implications for His Fate, 2024 Race, EU Legislation on Big Tech Takes Effect in Hopes of Regulating Harmful and Illegal Online Practices, Trump Returns to X with His Mugshot; Paying X Users May Have to Send Personal Data to Israeli Firm

Tennessee's Republican-dominated state Legislature is still facing public outcry over the state's permissive gun laws in the wake of Nashville's Covenant School shooting, which killed three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members in March. Since then, the state House, under the control of Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton, has censured its own representatives and deployed state troopers to crack down on public participation. Earlier this week, Republicans imposed new penalties on lawmakers believed to be too disruptive and banned visitors from carrying signs - a ban that has since been challenged by the ACLU for violating the First Amendment. Amid the new rules, visitors can still carry guns into the building. For more, we're joined by Tennessee state Representative Justin Jones, one of three Democratic representatives expelled by the state Legislature earlier this year for joining gun violence protests on the House floor. We speak to him about his return to the Legislature after being reinstated in a special election last month, and his continued struggle in the people's house" against what he describes as authoritarian" rule.

While being booked for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump made history as the first former president to have his mugshot taken and released to the public. Shortly after the image of Trump scowling at a police camera started to circulate, the embattled real estate mogul and politician began using it to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign. Mugshots have these various ways of being deployed ... to craft a narrative, or to reinforce a narrative," says Emory University professor Carol Anderson, who contrasts the novelty of Trump's mugshot with the usage of mugshots by the media and the state to convey an image of Black criminality. As L.A. Times reporter Keri Blakinger explains, the widespread distribution of mugshots undermines the presumption of innocence" and exacerbates racial bias. Blakinger is also the author of the memoir Corrections in Ink, which details her experience serving time in prison in upstate New York. If he were treated like any other defendant, [Trump] would have been given a bail amount he couldn't afford and left to die in a filthy cell," she notes, cautioning that the more that we celebrate some of these broken features of the system, the more ingrained they become."

Former President Donald Trump was booked Thursday at Atlanta's Fulton County Jail on 13 felony charges for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. He paid $20,000, or 10% of his $200,000 bond, through a local bail bondsman, allowing him to be released after about 20 minutes at the jail. He is expected to face trial as early as October. In Atlanta, we speak with two guests: Carol Anderson, a professor of African American studies at Emory University and the author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy, among other books on race and civil rights in American politics, and Hugo Lowell, a reporter for The Guardian who has closely covered Trump's criminal case in Georgia. Anderson discusses the Trump campaign's use of a long legacy of racism and voter suppression in an attempt to overthrow democracy" via an assault on Black humanity," while Lowell shares what's next for Trump and his 18 other co-defendants, including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Kenneth Cheseboro, who first suggested the plot to create fake electors.

Donald Trump Booked at Atlanta's Fulton County Jail, Released on $200,000 Bond, Ukrainian Forces Launch Amphibious Assault on Russian-Occupied Crimea, U.S. Intelligence Says Russian Mercenary Leader Yevgeny Prigozhin Was Assassinated, Opposition Leader Accuses Zimbabwe's President of Vote Rigging and Voter Suppression, China Bans Japanese Seafood After Release of Radioactive Wastewater from Fukushima, Record Heat Waves Put 2023 on Track to Become Hottest Year in Human History, Maui County Sues Hawaii's Largest Utility over Wildfires That Killed at Least 115, Fracking in Pennsylvania Linked to Cancer and Host of Other Health Issues, Tennessee Special Session on Gun Control Brings Chaos, No Concrete Measures, 150,000 Autoworkers Edge Near Strike as Workers Demand Wage Increases on Par with CEOs, Minnesota Mayor Vetoes Guaranteed Minimum Wage for App Drivers, Brazilian Supreme Court Says Homophobic Slurs Can Be Punishable by Prison, FIFA Looks to Discipline Spanish Soccer Head After He Forcibly Kissed Woman Player

The first Republican presidential primary debate highlighted deep divisions within the Republican Party about foreign policy," says The Nation's national affairs correspondent John Nichols. He says the nationalist America First" ideology championed by former President Donald Trump is now being pushed even further by Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis, who are critical of U.S. funding to Ukraine, while more establishment candidates like Nikki Haley insisted on continued support for the country's defense against Russia.

On the same day a heat wave forced Milwaukee, Wisconsin, public schools to close for the day, moderators at the first Republican presidential debate in the city asked candidates if they believed climate change was caused by human activity. Their answers ranged from avoidance to outright denial. I think this sums up the Republican Party at this point," says John Nichols, national affairs correspondent at The Nation. The moderate position in the Republican Party is avoidance, but I think a very ... popular position within the party is one of actual denial." Nichols added that the heat index was 114 degrees in Milwaukee on the day of the debate. We saw peak climate denial in a Republican debate, and it's kind of amazing at this late stage in history."

We feature highlights on climate change, foreign policy and Trump from the first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 race and speak with John Nichols, The Nation's national affairs correspondent. We also look at how former president and front-runner Donald Trump refused to attend the debate ahead of turning himself in at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia, to face racketeering charges for running a criminal enterprise with 18 co-defendants to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. The debate felt like an argument at the kids' table on Thanksgiving rather than a classic political debate," says Nichols, who says candidates were attempting to become Trump's vice president or project themselves as leaders in a post-Trump Republican Party.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, longtime leader of the private Russian mercenary Wagner Group, has reportedly died in a plane crash two months after his group launched a short-lived armed mutiny against Vladimir Putin. Several other key figures with the Wagner Group were also reportedly killed in the crash. The crash was not unexpected," says Kimberly Marten, Barnard College professor of political science, who has been researching and writing about the Wagner Group for years. We know that Putin takes revenge on people who are disloyal," says Marten, who expects the Wagner Group's operations in several African countries to continue, but says political infighting in Russia has weakened the country's invasion of Ukraine.

Yevgeny Prigozhin and Other Russian Mercenary Leaders Reportedly Die in Plane Crash, Bipartisan Senate Delegation to Kyiv Urges $21 Billion in New U.S. Aid to Ukraine, U.S. Approves $500 Million in Additional Arms Sales to Taiwan for F-16 Fighter Jets, BRICS Alliance Expands to Include Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE, Protesters Demand China End Support for East African Crude Oil Pipe Line, Wildfires Rage in Turkey, Greece, as Heat Wave Bakes Much of U.S., British Columbia Premier Says Historic Wildfires and Global Climate Havoc Linked to Global Heating, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell Surrender to Georgia Jail in 2020 Election Interference Case, 8 GOP Hopefuls Square Off in Primary Debate Shunned by Front-Runner Donald Trump, South Carolina Supreme Court Upholds Abortion Ban, Reversing Previous Ruling, Politico: D.C. Investigating Far-Right Judicial Activist Leonard Leo and His Dark Money Network, India Lands Spacecraft Near Moon's South Pole in First for Humanity

We look at the 70th anniversary of the August 19, 1953, U.S.- and U.K-backed coup in Iran, which took place two years after Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalized Iran's oil industry that had been controlled by the company now known as British Petroleum. If nationalization in Iran of oil was successful, this would set a terrible example to other countries where U.S. oil interests were present," explains Ervand Abrahamian, Iranian historian and author of Oil Crisis in Iran: From Nationalism to Coup d'Etat and The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations. While the CIA has historically taken credit for Mosaddegh's overthrow, the British have not admitted their leading role," notes Iranian filmmaker Taghi Amirani, whose documentary film Coup 53 uncovers the influence of MI6 agents who sought to preserve their imperial-era access to Iranian oil and pulled in the Americans by promising a slice." Seventy years later, says Amirani, We are still living with the ripples of this disastrous event."

We speak to the author of a new Human Rights Watch report that details how border guards in Saudi Arabia have killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers - many of whom are fleeing human rights abuses in Ethiopia's Tigray region - trying to cross the Yemen-Saudi border since March 2022. The report documents Saudi border guards shooting women and children, firing explosive weapons at migrants and executing" people at close range. Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that it will conduct a joint investigation with the Saudi government, but Saudi Arabia has previously denied similar allegations. I don't have any faith that they would conduct an independent investigation on these mass killings," says Nadia Hardman, a researcher at Human Rights Watch and the author of the report, titled 'They Fired on Us Like Rain.'"

Bodies of 18 Asylum Seekers Uncovered in Greek Forest Ravaged by Wildfire as Europe Roasts, Zimbabwe Votes in Rematch of Presidential Race Between Incumbent Mnangagwa and Chamisa, African Union Suspends Niger over Military Coup, 500 Children Killed in Sudan Conflict; 30,000 Lose Access to Nutrition Centers After NGO Ends Services, Japan to Start Releasing Fukushima Nuclear Wastewater into Pacific Despite Major Objections, Hun Manet to Succeed Father as Cambodia's New PM After Transfer Approved by Cambodian Lawmakers, BRICS Expansion, Common Currency on the Agenda as World Leaders Meet in South Africa, Drone Strikes Kill 3 in Belgorod; U.S. Urges Citizens to Leave Belarus, 16 People Killed and Dozens Injured, Including Migrants to U.S., After Bus Crash in Mexico, Plainfield, NJ Official Removed from City Board After Video of Anti-Immigrant Rant Prompts Outrage, Trump Lawyer John Eastman Surrenders to Georgia Jail in 2020 Election Interference Case, Trump Skips First GOP Presidential Debate as 8 Hopefuls Take to Milwaukee Stage, Appeals Court Reinstates Alabama Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth, U.S. Judge Blocks Part of Georgia Ban on Gender-Affirming Care, Atlanta Mayor Orders Probe into Death of Black Man Who Died After Being Tased by Police

Ecuadorian voters have overwhelmingly supported a ban on future oil extraction in a biodiverse section of the Amazon's Yasuni National Park - a historic referendum result that will protect Indigenous Yasuni land from development. We speak with Helena Gualinga, a youth Kichwa Sarayaku environmental activist from Ecuador who has fought against oil drilling all her life and says the results of the vote not only set a crucial precedent" as the first time a country has voted by democratic ballot initiative on resource extraction in the Amazon, but also demonstrates that Ecuador is a country that is committed to protecting the Amazon rainforest and to protecting Indigenous peoples."

As a two-day BRICS summit gets underway in South Africa, we speak with author and analyst Vijay Prashad about whether the bloc - which comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - can meaningfully challenge U.S. and Western domination in world affairs by building an alternative forum for countries of the Global South. BRICS countries represent 40% of the world's population and a quarter of the world's economy, and the group is now considering a possible expansion to more than 20 other countries. "BRICS is an instrument to push forward their political views, which they feel are not taken seriously," says Prashad, director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Prashad explains the history of BRICS and its New Development Bank and responds to criticism that BRICS falsely portrays itself as an anti-imperialist project. The BRICS countries are not a socialist bloc," says Prashad, but they don't want to do what the West tells them - they're driving their own agenda."

Former President Donald Trump has agreed to turn himself in to authorities in Georgia on Thursday to face 13 felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. His bail is set at $200,000. Trump has now been indicted four times this year, even as he continues to dominate the Republican field for the 2024 presidential nomination. In Atlanta, we speak with independent journalist George Chidi, who helped expose the Trump campaign after witnessing a secret meeting of Republican operatives at the state Capitol in 2020. The gathering was part of a scheme to use fake electors to claim the state's Electoral College votes for Trump despite his loss to Joe Biden. Chidi was recently subpoenaed to testify before the Fulton County grand jury in the Trump investigation but did not end up testifying. We also speak to Chidi about Atlanta's efforts to build the massive Cop City police training complex.

As former President Donald Trump prepares to surrender in Atlanta on Thursday to face charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, we speak with journalist George Chidi, who has documented the inhumane conditions inside the Fulton County Jail, where Trump will appear before a judge. A lot of people are getting killed" inside the jail, says Chidi. The jail is the largest mental health provider in this county, and that's a tragedy all on its own." He also discusses the death of Lashawn Thompson, who was found dead inside his cell after being eaten alive by insects, according to family. Chidi writes The Atlanta Objective newsletter, and his recent piece for Atlanta magazine is headlined The real behind the wall: A look inside the infamous, deadly Fulton County Jail."

Biden Pledges Federal Support to Maui Wildfire Survivors, House Democrats Demand Probe of Prisoner Deaths Amid Unrelenting Summer Heat, Ukraine's Zelensky Wins Promise of F-16 Fighter Jets as War Toll Nears 500,000 Soldiers, Real Estate Tycoon Srettha Thavisin Selected as Prime Minister of Thailand, Trump to Pay $200,000 Bail After Surrendering to Georgia Authorities on Thursday, Mike Pence and Mark Meadows Dispute Trump's Claim He Declassified Documents, Texas Authorities Reposition Deadly Floating Barrier in Rio Grande Ahead of Court Hearing, Atlanta Activists Gather 100,000+ Signatures for Referendum to Stop Cop City, Video Shows Raid by Kansas Deputies on Home of 98-Year-Old Newspaper Publisher, California Store Owner Shot Dead by Man Who Tore Down Pride Flag and Shouted Slurs

In Canada, the province of British Columbia has declared a state of emergency where entire towns have been burned to the ground in the country's worst wildfire season ever. Evacuation orders are in place for more than 35,000 people, and 30,000 more have been told to be prepared to evacuate. Nearly all 20,000 residents have already left the city of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories. Scientists say climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires because they are fueled by the increasingly hot and dry weather. There's a symbiosis here between how the climate is changing relative to the length of a potential fire season and the fuels that provide energy to fires," says Bob Gray, a wildland fire ecologist, speaking to us from Chilliwack, British Columbia. Gray warns that Canada's firefighting workforce is stretched thin, relying on a network of provincial firefighters, contractors and international firefighters.

BRICS - the five-country bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - is holding a monumental summit in Johannesburg this week where the group will discuss a number of major issues, including expanding membership and how to improve financial cooperation. Over 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, and 23 countries have formally applied to join the bloc, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Indonesia, Egypt and Ethiopia. The summit is a very unstable situation," as member countries vary greatly on priorities and many potential candidates for membership are mostly tyrannies, carbon-addicted economies," says Patrick Bond, director of the Centre for Social Change at the University of Johannesburg. Some of these machinations are hegemonic projects to stop dissent at home and actually call for a unity that does not benefit the masses," says South African activist and scholar Trevor Ngwane, who criticizes BRICS as projecting a false hope to the masses" for posing as an alternative to U.S. and Western imperialism.