Democracy Now!

We're joined in Atlanta by LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, to discuss Donald Trump's latest criminal indictment. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is charging Trump and more than a dozen of his allies with plotting to steal Electoral College votes during the 2020 presidential election. There was an attempt to disenfranchise voters in the state of Georgia," says Brown, who also describes Trump's targeting of poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss and how Georgia's status as one of five states where the governor cannot grant pardons will affect the upcoming trial. If he is convicted in the state, he is going to jail."

Former President Donald Trump now faces a fourth criminal indictment regarding his actions during his 2020 reelection campaign, after a Georgia grand jury indicted him and 18 of his allies for attempting to overturn the state's 2020 presidential election results. We speak to Michael Isikoff, a veteran investigative journalist who is writing a book on the Georgia investigation, about this sprawling indictment," which uses Georgia's expansive RICO statute to lay out how Trump's team pressured election officials, intimidated election workers, broke into election offices, lied to the Georgia Legislature and more.

Georgia Grand Jury Indicts Trump & 18 Others for Trying to Overturn 2020 Election, Maui Fires: Death Toll Rises to 99; 1,300 People Remain Unaccounted For, Montana Judge Rules in Favor of Youth Plaintiffs in Landmark Climate Case, NASA: Last Month Was Hottest July Ever Recorded By a Long Shot", More Than 50 Die in Northern India Due to Heavy Rain & Landslides, Another Political Leader Assassinated in Ecuador Days Before National Elections, Ethiopian Airstrike Kills 26 in Amhara Days After State of Emergency Declared, Explosion at Gas Station in Russian Republic of Dagestan Kills at Least 35, Israel Kills Two Palestinians, Including Teen, Near Jericho, Palestinian Family Ordered to Pay $13,000 to Cover Costs of Their Own Eviction, Egypt Marks 10 Years Since Rabaa Massacre, the Worst Single-Day Killing of Protesters in Modern History", Goon Squad" Officers in Mississippi Plead Guilty to Torturing Two Black Men After House Raid, Nebraska Judge Upholds Ban on Abortion & Gender-Affirming Care for Minors, Report: Population of Unhoused People in U.S. Increases by Record 11%, Smithsonian Still Holds Racial Brain Collection" Gathered by Racist Anthropologist in Early 20th Century

Ecuador is reeling from the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead Wednesday after a campaign rally in the capital Quito less than two weeks before the August 20 general election. Villavicencio was running on a platform opposing corruption and organized crime. Authorities have arrested six Colombian nationals and say they are members of a drug trafficking group, but many questions remain about who was behind the murder. We see that there are clear links between the current government and these mafia organizations," says vice-presidential candidate Andres Arauz, who is running mate to Luisa Gonzalez of the Citizen Revolution Movement. We need to take care of our democracy. We are really in a moment of great despair in Ecuador." Arauz ran for president in 2021 and previously served as director of Ecuador's central bank and a minister in former leftist President Rafael Correa's government.

We speak with leading climate scientist Michael Mann about the devastating Maui wildfires and how the climate crisis makes such disasters more frequent and more intense. This is the climate crisis. It's here and now," says Mann, director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, pressure is mounting for President Biden to declare an official climate emergency.

The death toll from the Maui wildfires is now about 100 and is expected to continue to climb in what is now the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century and the worst natural disaster in Hawaii's history. As recovery efforts continue, many residents are asking why Hawaii's early warning system, with about 80 alarms on the island of Maui alone, did not get activated to alert residents about the approaching flames. We speak with Kaleikoa Kaeo, professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii Maui College, who gives a history of colonialism in Maui and how the transformation of the island for mass tourism, such as changes to agriculture and water management practices, helped to turn the area into a tinderbox. Our people who have lived there since time immemorial are suffering because of the consequences that have been imposed really from outside foreign forces," says Kaeo.

Maui Wildfire Death Toll Nears 100 as Residents Continue Search for Missing Loved Ones, Nigerien Military Leaders Announce Plan to Prosecute Deposed President Bazoum, At Least 6 Asylum Seekers Drown in Channel; 2 Off Tunisian Coast, 3-Year-Old Toddler from Venezuela Dies on Migrant Bus from Texas to Chicago, Taiwan Vice President Defies Chinese Intimidation While on U.S. Visit, Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian in West Bank as Int'l Group of Academics Slams Israeli Apartheid, Jordan Cracks Down on Online Speech with Draconian" Cybercrime Law, U.N. Completes Transfer of 1 Billion+ Barrels of Oil from Red Sea Decaying Tanker, Pakistan Names Caretaker PM Amid Mounting Doubts Country Will Be Ready for Nov. Elections, Argentine Far-Right Populist Javier Milei Becomes Presidential Front-Runner After Primary, Ecuador Presidential Debate Proceeds with Empty Podium for Slain Anti-Graft Candidate Villavicencio, Media Organizations Blast Kansas Police for Raid and Seizure of Local Marion County Newspaper, Judge Orders Sam Bankman-Fried to Jail for Interfering with Witnesses Ahead of Fraud Trial, Hunter Biden Case Gets Special Counsel as Trial Looks Increasingly Likely, Fulton County DA Expected to Indict Trump This Week over Bid to Overturn Georgia 2020 Loss, Atlanta Effort to Get Stop Cop City" on Nov. Ballot Successfully Passes Signature Threshold

We speak to a fire scientist about how the climate emergency fueled this week's historic wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui. This is something that is absolutely unprecedented," says Clay Trauernicht, a professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawaii at Mnoa, where he focuses on wildland fire management in Hawaii and the Pacific. He explains how colonial landscape changes to the islands - prioritizing monocrop agriculture and land use for tourism - paired with the worsening atmospheric effects of climate change have set the conditions that sparked the devastating wildfires and allowed them to rage indiscriminately.

In Lahaina, the area in west Maui that is of historical importance to Indigenous people, entire neighborhoods were wiped out by this week's historic wildfires, including the Na 'Aikane o Maui Cultural Center, which had a massive archive that was lost to the flames. We are joined by Noelani Ahia, a Kanaka Maoli activist, who describes the community's reaction to the destruction of Indigenous cultural documents, art and artifacts. In the blink of an eye, it was burned to the ground, and all of those things were lost," says Ahia. She also describes mutual aid efforts now underway and notes, The people on the ground know what the community needs."

We speak with Kaniela Ing, national director of the Green New Deal Network and seventh-generation Kanaka Maoli, Native Hawaiian, about the impact of this week's devastating wildfires and their relationship to climate change. The catastrophic fires have destroyed nearly all buildings in the historic section of Lahaina, which once served as the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. What is now being described as the worst natural disaster in Hawaii's history was created by conditions such as dry vegetation, hurricane-level winds and developers redirecting water and building over wetlands, which are directly related to the climate crisis. Anyone in power who denies climate change, to me, are the arsonists here," says Ing. We're living the climate emergency."

From Maui, we hear from a survivor of Hawaii's historic wildfires, which have taken at least 55 lives to date. Vixay Phonxaylinkham, a resident of California, was on vacation with his wife and five children when they had to jump into the ocean to escape the raging fires and floated on a piece of wood for hours. We stuck together. We held on. We're not going to die this way. We're here. We're alive," said Phonxaylinkham.

Maui Wildfire Death Toll Rises to 55 as Residents Survey Unfathomable Devastation, ECOWAS Says Use of Force Is Possible in Niger Coup Response as Bloc Activates Standby Force", One Dead, Six Arrested over Assassination of Ecuadorian Presidential Candidate Fernando Villavicencio, 23 Rohingya Refugees Drown, Dozens Missing After Shipwreck, Americans Jailed in Iran Transferred to House Arrest on Way to Possible Release, SCOTUS Blocks Purdue Pharma Settlement Deal That Would Protect Sackler Family from Civil Liability, Louisiana Gov. Orders Pardon Board to Review Clemency Requests for 56 Death Row Prisoners, Trump and Mar-a-Lago Aide Plead Not Guilty; DOJ Requests January Start Date for 2020 Election Trial, Mexico Demands Texas Remove Floating Barrier of Buoys with Saw Blades in Rio Grande, Democrats Ramp Up Calls for Justice Clarence Thomas to Step Down After New Corruption Revelations, Jess Search, Documentary Champion Driven by Film's Transformative Power, Dies at 54

As the world marks 78 years since the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we speak with two activists arrested while protesting the placement of U.S. nuclear weapons in the Netherlands, Germany and other European countries as a violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for NATO's so-called nuclear sharing program. We're very concerned about the legality," says Susan Crane, who was arrested Tuesday during protests at the Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands. We also speak with John LaForge, co-director of Nukewatch, who just served a 50-day sentence in Germany for a similar protest at the Buchel Air Base. The attempt to interfere with the threatened use of these weapons is justified as an act of crime prevention," says LaForge. Actions are planned today at Buchel Air Base in Germany.

We speak with Ukrainian peace activist Yurii Sheliazhenko, whom Ukrainian authorities have charged with justifying Russian aggression, days after his Kyiv apartment was raided and searched. Sheliazhenko is executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement and has vocally opposed any escalation of the conflict, calling for a ceasefire and peace talks to end the war. It is total nonsense that a pacifist is accused in justification of war," Sheliazhenko told Democracy Now! in an interview just after he returned from being interrogated. He notes the security services are under the authority of President Volodymyr Zelensky, and says direct involvement" from the leader in suppressing peace activism is inappropriate in [a] democratic society."

West African leaders from ECOWAS, backed by the United States and France, met today to consider military action to restore the ousted Niger President Mohamed Bazoum following last month's military coup. Neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso have threatened that any intervention in Niger would amount to a declaration of war on them, as well. This comes as leaders of the coup in Niger have appointed a 21-member cabinet as they forge ahead with building a new government. The coup is a consequence of the militarization of Nigerien society" by the United States and France, which both have strong military presence in the region, explains Horace Campbell, chair of the Global Pan African Movement, North American delegation. He notes anti-French sentiment is a powerful force in Niger and across Africa as people reject the former colonizer's influence: The French are inordinately dependent on the exploitation and plunder of Africa."

At Least 36 Dead, Town of Lahaina Burned to the Ground as Wildfires Devastate Hawaii, Ecuadorian Anti-Corruption Presidential Candidate Fernando Villavicencio Assassinated, Biden Seeking More Funding for War in Ukraine, Arming Taiwan, Niger Coup Leaders Accuse France of Destabilizing Country as ECOWAS Summit Kicks Off, The Intercept: U.S. State Dept. Pushed for Pakistan's Now-Imprisoned Ex-PM Imran Khan to Be Removed, Death Toll from Mediterranean Refugee Shipwreck Rises to 41 as Black Africans Expelled from Tunisia, Venezuela Wins Fight to Recover $1.5B of Frozen Funds from Novo Banco, Biden Bans U.S. Companies from Investing in Chinese High-Tech Goods, Trump Indictments Expected Next Week over Attempts to Reverse 2020 Election Loss in Georgia, FBI Kills Utah Man Who Threatened to Assassinate President Biden, CNN: Former U.S. Coast Guard Leadership Covered Up Sweeping Rape and Sex Abuse Report, Report Reveals Justice Clarence Thomas Received Even More Gifts from Right-Wing Billionaires, Palestinian Bedouin Community Forced to Evacuate Due to Violent Threats from Israeli Settlers

Porcha Woodruff was eight months pregnant when Detroit police mistakenly arrested her for robbery and carjacking based on a faulty facial recognition match. She was held in jail for 11 hours, where she started having contractions, and had to be taken to the hospital upon her release on a $100,000 bond. Being under that type of stress could have ultimately led me to lose my child," says Woodruff. According to the ACLU, Woodruff is at least the sixth person - all of whom are Black - to report being falsely accused of a crime as a result of facial recognition technology. It is yet another case of what has been termed algorithmic bias, in which technology is trained on biased information, automating and further cementing existing oppression. No one would take what I was saying seriously. It was as if I was already a suspect," says Woodruff about her experience. She and attorney Ivan Land are now suing the city of Detroit for false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

Six white former police officers in Mississippi who called themselves the Goon Squad" have pleaded guilty to raiding a home on false drug charges and torturing two Black men while yelling racist slurs at them, and then trying to cover it up. We speak with Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker about how, on January 24, six deputies in Braxton, Mississippi, raided the home they were staying in and attacked them, and how they are speaking out to demand justice. Meanwhile, the deputies have been linked to at least four violent attacks on Black men since 2019, in which two of the men died. We also speak with civil rights attorney Malik Shabazz, who is representing Jenkins and Parker in a federal lawsuit against the Rankin County Sheriff's Department. Shabazz asserts that the majority-white Rankin County, which is 20 miles away from majority-Black Jackson, Mississippi, is infested with white supremacists" who have decided 'Rankin County is for whites'" and seek to enforce it through state-sanctioned violence and torture, overseen and covered up by Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey. We demand that Bryan Bailey step down," says Shabazz. Parker adds, We want justice for everyone that has gone through this with Rankin County."

Voters in Ohio overwhelmingly rejected a Republican attempt to restrict abortion rights on Tuesday. The supermajority of Republicans in the Ohio Legislature had pushed for a ballot initiative that would have made it harder to amend the state constitution ahead of the November election, when voters will decide if the right to an abortion should be enshrined in the Ohio Constitution. A majority of Ohio voters support the right to abortion. The voters of the state of Ohio did not buy what the Republicans were selling," says former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, now a senior fellow at the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School, who notes the victory also prevents Republicans from restricting support for other popular measures that could become ballot initiatives, such as raising the minimum wage.

Ohio Voters Reject GOP Attempt to Impose Higher Barrier to Enshrining Abortion Rights in Constitution, SCOTUS Allows Biden Admin to Regulate Ghost Guns for Now, Sudan Conflict Rages On: 4 Million Displaced, 24 Million in Need of Aid, U.N. Warns Burmese Military Is Escalating Attacks on Civilians, Brazil Summit Produces Pledge to Protect Amazon But Fails to Adopt Vow to End Deforestation by 2030, King Center Backs Referendum on Cop City; ACLU, NAACP Call for Probe into Targeting of Activists, Hawaii Wildfires Prompt Evacuations as People Take to Ocean to Escape Fire and Smoke, Community Members, Loved Ones of Murdered Dancer O'Shae Sibley Pay Tribute at Philly Funeral, Zoom's Altered User Policy Language Raises Alarm over Privacy Rights, Use of User Data in AI, L.A. City Workers Go on 1-Day Strike; Hotel Workers Report Retaliation from Security for Striking

A federal lawsuit brought by Iraqi torture survivors appears finally headed to trial after a federal judge refused to dismiss the case last week. The Iraqis are suing the U.S. military contractor CACI, which provided interrogators at Abu Ghraib, the notorious Iraqi prison where the men were tortured by U.S. guards. The lawsuit, which alleges CACI was complicit in that torture, was first filed in 2008. Since then, CACI has attempted 18 times to have the case dismissed. Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing the torture survivors in the case, says the men suffered a range of abuse including sexual humiliation, beatings and more. They're all suffering the aftereffects, psychological and physical, of their time at Abu Ghraib," he says.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced a plan to house as many as 2,000 asylum seekers at a tent complex on Randalls Island in the East River. Tens of thousands of asylum seekers have been sent to New York since last year and must wait 150 days to file for a work permit, leaving them no options to make a stable living. As the Adams administration claims the city has surpassed its ability to shelter new arrivals, migrants have been stuck in the city's shelter system for months or repeatedly been forced to sleep in the streets, including last week when dozens waited outside Manhattan's Roosevelt Hotel for days, sleeping shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalk, in hopes for a bed and shelter. We speak with Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition and NYIC Action, who calls for an investment in public resources and to support people as they move out of the shelter system into permanent housing. We want to flip this on its head and actually support people to get out as quickly as possible."

We get an update from the Texas border, where human rights advocates are condemning Republican Governor Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star" for its human rights abuses. Texas troopers have reportedly separated over two dozen migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border in a major change of policy. This comes amid a deadly heat wave and after the first deaths linked to floating barrels wrapped in razor wire that Abbott put in the Rio Grande to block asylum seekers from crossing. We're calling for an end to the use of all of these detractions that are getting in the way of people being able to seek protection," says Marisa Limon Garza, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, which is based in El Paso, Texas.

In an escalation of tensions, the Biden administration has deployed thousands of U.S. Marines and sailors to the Middle East in order to deter Iran from seizing oil tankers and other commercial ships near the Strait of Hormuz. The move comes after the Navy said Iran tried to seize two commercial oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last month, after seizing dozens more since 2019. Iran responded by equipping its Navy with drones and missiles. It's really baffling to see why we're taking such immense risks that could bring the U.S. into war for achieving things that are of little value when it comes to peace and stability in the region or U.S. interests in the region," says Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who says the Biden administration is risking a new war for stronger relations with Saudi Arabia. He argues the Biden administration has made critical mistakes in its relations with Iran by continuing Trump administration-era maximum-pressure sanctions.

ECOWAS to Hold Emergency Summit Thursday on Niger Coup as U.S. Freezes Funds to Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso Warn Against Foreign Military Intervention in Niger, Ukraine: Russian Missile Strikes in Pokrovsk Targeted Rescue Workers, Ohio Election Day: Anti-Abortion GOP Megadonor Funds Effort to Make It Harder to Amend State Constitution, George Floyd Murder: Ex-Cop Tou Thao Sentenced to Nearly 5 Years in Prison, Judge Dismisses Trump Defamation Countersuit Against E. Jean Carroll, Over 1 Million Lose Power in Deadly U.S. Storm; Death Toll Rises from Record Heat Waves, Mass Flooding Kills Six in Slovenia in Nation's Worst Natural Disaster", South American Leaders Gather in Brazil to Discuss Preserving Amazon Rainforest, India: 300 Muslim Homes & Businesses Demolished in Possible Exercise of Ethnic Cleansing", Britain Begins Housing Asylum Seekers on a Barge Described as a Potential Deathtrap", New York City to House as Many as 2,000 Migrants in Tent Complex on Island, Biden to Preserve a Million Acres of Land Near Grand Canyon as New National Monument, Chicago Police Arrest Man Who Fatally Shot 9-Year-Old Girl Riding Scooter for Making Too Much Noise, Alabama Brawl: Police Issue Arrest Warrants After White Boaters Attacked Black Dockworker, 11,000 City Workers in Los Angeles Begin One-Day Strike

We speak with acclaimed scholar and activist Kimberle Crenshaw about her new book #SayHerName, which honors the stories of 177 Black women and girls killed by police between 1975 and 2022 whose deaths received little media coverage or other attention. We can't give these women back to their families, but we can make sure that they are not lost to history," Crenshaw tells Democracy Now! She also discusses the ongoing right-wing attack on Black knowledge," such as Florida's new education curriculum that claims slavery had personal benefit" for enslaved people, as well as the recent death of civil rights scholar Charles Ogletree.

A shocking story of wrongful arrest in Detroit has renewed scrutiny of how facial recognition software is being deployed by police departments, despite major flaws in the technology. Porcha Woodruff was arrested in February when police showed up at her house accusing her of robbery and carjacking. Woodruff, who was eight months pregnant at the time, insisted she had nothing to do with the crime, but police detained her for 11 hours, during which time she had contractions. She was eventually released on a $100,000 bond before prosecutors dropped the case a month later, admitting that her arrest was based in part on a false facial recognition match. Woodruff is the sixth known person to be falsely accused of a crime because of facial recognition, and all six victims have been Black. That's not an accident," says Dorothy Roberts, director of the University of Pennsylvania Program on Race, Science and Society, who says new technology often reflects societal biases when built atop flawed systems. Racism gets embedded into the technologies."

The family of Henrietta Lacks, a Black cancer patient whose cells were taken by Johns Hopkins University Hospital without her consent in 1951, has reached a deal over the unethical use of her cells with pharmaceutical company Thermo Fisher Scientific. Henrietta Lacks's family has denounced the racist medical system that allowed the biotech company to make billions in profit from the HeLa" cell line, which helped produce remedies for multiple diseases, including the first polio vaccine. Details of the settlement were not made public, but the plaintiffs celebrated the lawsuit's resolution last Tuesday, on Henrietta Lack's birthday. For more on the case and the history of medical racism in the United States, we speak with Dorothy Roberts, director of the University of Pennsylvania Program on Race, Science and Society. She is the author of several books, including Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century. What happened to Henrietta Lacks didn't just happen to her. It's part of a long history of experimentation and exploitation of Black people in biomedical research," says Roberts.

We look at the fight for reproductive rights in the United States with Dorothy Roberts, director of the University of Pennsylvania Program on Race, Science and Society, who has long warned against the criminalization of pregnancy and has been hailed as a pioneer in the reproductive justice movement. A judge in Texas ruled Friday the state's abortion ban was too restrictive in cases of dangerous pregnancy complications, allowing doctors to perform abortions in such instances without risk of criminal prosecution, but the state's Attorney General's Office filed an immediate appeal and effectively blocked the order. This comes as Ohio voters head to the polls this week to vote on a ballot measure that could raise the threshold for changing the state's constitution to 60%, an effort fueled by right-wing activists to prevent a simple majority of voters from enshrining abortion rights later this year. We're in a battle in this nation on this question of being free or being compelled to give birth," says Roberts.

Nigerien Coup Leaders and Supporters Remain Defiant as ECOWAS Deadline to Restore Bazoum Passes, Attacks by Ukrainian and Russian Forces Intensify as World Leaders Meet in Jeddah for Peace Talks, Ukrainian Authorities Charge Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko, Raid His Home, Russian Court Sentences Alexei Navalny to Another 19 Years in Prison, Ex-Pakistani PM Imran Khan Calls for Supporters to Keep Up Protests as He Receives 3-Year Sentence, Rahul Gandhi, Lawmaker Critical of Narendra Modi, Reinstated to Indian Parliament, Another Bloody Weekend in the West Bank as Israelis Kill at Least 5 Palestinians, Incl. Teenagers, Saudi Arabia, U.K. Issue Warnings to Citizens in Lebanon Amid Clashes in Palestinian Refugee Camp, At Least 16 Asylum Seekers Died at Sea in Recent Days en Route to Europe, Court Rules Lifetime Disenfranchisement of People with Felonies in Mississippi Is Unconstitutional, Texas Judge Rules Abortion Ban Is Too Restrictive; TX AG Blocks Order, Keeping Ban in Place for Now, Ohio Voters Cast Ballots in GOP Measure That Could Affect Abortion Rights , FDA Approves First-Ever Pill to Treat Postpartum Depression, Teenager Charged with Hate Crime in Brooklyn Murder of Black Dancer O'Shae Sibley, Charles Ogletree, Prominent Civil Rights Defender and Harvard Law Professor, Has Died at Age 70, Trump Faces Deadline in DOJ Protective Order Request as He Can't Stop Posting About His Indictments, A Black Mother Is Suing After She Was Wrongfully Arrested Due to Faulty Facial Recognition ID, Japanese Leaders Call for Global Nuclear Disarmament on the 78th Anniversary of Hiroshima Bombing

Last Wednesday, Nigerien military officers announced they had overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum, a close ally of the United States and France. ECOWAS, an economic bloc of West African countries, has threatened to take military action unless the coup is reversed by Sunday. But the leader of Niger's new military junta has vowed to defy any attempts to restore the former president to power, while Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea - all, like Niger, former French colonies that have undergone military coups in the past three years - have warned against any foreign intervention in Niger. Meanwhile, Niger's new leaders have announced the country will end military cooperation with France, whose outsized presence in its former colony is a major source of resentment in the resource-rich but still poverty-stricken nation. We speak to Nick Turse, an investigative journalist and contributing writer for The Intercept. He recently revealed that one of the leaders of the coup in Niger, Brigadier General Moussa Salaou Barmou, was previously trained by the U.S. military, as were the leaders of nearly a dozen other coups in West Africa since 2008. We also speak to Olayinka Ajala, a senior lecturer in politics and international relations at Leeds Beckett University, who says Niger and its neighbors must tread carefully in order to avoid a very bloody" military conflict.

On Thursday, former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss. Trump appeared before a magistrate judge in Washington's federal courthouse two days after he was indicted. A key part of the election interference charges Trump faces relates to a Civil War-era rights law that protects the right of citizens to have their vote counted. We speak with Carol Anderson, author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy and White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, about Trump's attempt to wipe out the votes of Americans of color and the intimidation of Black voters and election workers. This is the kind of terror that is reminiscent of what happened during Reconstruction that led to the KKK Act that Trump is charged with," says Anderson. That kind of terror was the intimidation of Black people who were exercising the right to vote."

Trump Pleads Not Guilty to Charges He Plotted to Overturn 2020 Election, Third Trump Ally Charged over Alleged Plot to Tamper with Michigan Voting Machines, Amnesty Warns of Rampant" War Crimes Against Civilians in Sudan, Ukraine Says Sea Drones Damaged Russian Warship in Black Sea, Blinken Accuses Russia of Assaulting Global Food System with Attacks on Ukraine's Granaries, Greenpeace Activists Cover U.K. Prime Minister's Home with Anti-Oil Message, Tribunal Finds Mexico Guilty of Ecocide and Ethnocide over Mayan Rail Project, Appeals Court Allows Biden Administration to Continue Blocking Asylum Claims at U.S. Border, Minnesota Trooper Kills Black Father Ricky Cobb II During Traffic Stop, Mississippi Police Officers Plead Guilty to Civil Rights Violations in Torture of 2 Black Men, Louisiana Ex-Trooper Acquitted for Beating Black Motorist During Traffic Stop, Ron DeSantis Increases Violent Rhetoric on Campaign Trail, Texas A&M Reaches $1M Settlement with Black Professor Whose Tenure Offer Was Rescinded, They Could Not Beat People Power": Voters Reelect TN Dems Expelled by GOP for Gun Violence Protest

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has sued the FBI, the Colorado Springs Police Department and local officers for illegally spying on local activist Jacqueline Jax" Armendariz Unzueta and the Chinook Center, a community organizing hub in Colorado Springs. This was one of the worst moments of my life," says Unzueta, who describes the investigation by law enforcement as incredibly invasive." The lawsuit accuses the agencies of unconstitutional and invasive search and seizure of the phones, computers, devices, and private chats of people and groups whose message the Colorado Springs Police Department dislikes." This comes after revelations the FBI had infiltrated the Chinook Center by sending an undercover police detective named April Rogers to volunteer at the center in 2020, first exposed by the investigative reporter Trevor Aaronson, who writes for The Intercept and created the Alphabet Boys podcast. For more than a year, she was undercover for the FBI," says Aaronson, who reports the officer, who used the name Chelsie, surveilled the Chinook Center and unsuccessfully attempted to entrap local activists in gun-running conspiracies. This was part of a broader FBI effort to infiltrate racial justice and left-wing groups in Colorado after the police killing of George Floyd.

After the Center for Countering Digital Hate reported that hate speech has soared on the website formerly known as Twitter, now rebranded as X," Elon Musk responded by filing a lawsuit against the center over the research, calling the group evil" and its CEO Imran Ahmed a rat." X accuses the watchdog group of unlawfully accessing data to falsely claim it had statistical support showing the platform is overwhelmed with harmful content." This comes as Musk has laid off about 80% of the workforce at X, including a large number of content moderators, and shut down its Trust and Safety Council. When there is hate and disinformation being algorithmically amplified into billions of timelines, it's perfectly right that people that oppose the spread, the production and distribution of hate seek to research it and seek to put that out into the public sphere," says Ahmed. While Musk calls himself a free speech absolutist," silencing critics is his go-to tactic to avoid accountability," says Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights at Free Press.

A federal jury has sentenced to death the gunman who killed 11 worshipers at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue in the deadliest act of antisemitism in U.S. history. Robert Bowers was found guilty of federal hate crimes for the 2018 massacre. This is the first time federal prosecutors have successfully sought the death penalty under the Biden administration, which has imposed a moratorium on executions. We are joined by Cantor Michael Zoosman, co-founder of L'Chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty. For 'never again' to have any meaning, it must also mean never again to state-sponsored murder of defenseless prisoners who are otherwise no longer a threat, safely behind bars," says Zoosman. This is a lesson that 21st century Judaism should share with the world."

Trump to Be Arraigned on Charges over Jan. 6 and Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Federal Jury Unanimously Sentences Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter to Death, Memphis Police Say Gunman Attempted Mass Shooting at Jewish School, Iran Orders Two-Day National Holiday as Temperatures Soar to 123F, Death Toll from China Floods Rises to 20 After Beijing Receives Heaviest Rains in 140+ Years, Scorching Temperatures Drive Deaths and Illnesses in Japan, South Korea, Unprecedented Winter Heat Wave Brings 100 Temperatures to Chile and Argentina, Nigerien Junta Leader Vows to Resist Any Attempts to Remove Coup Leaders as Foreign Exodus Continues, Tunisian President Replaces Prime Minister Amid Ongoing Political and Economic Crises, Brazilian Police Accused of Retribution in Killings of Dozens in Raids Targeting Gangs, Body Found in Rio Grande Floating Barrier Amid New Reports of Migrant Abuse, Fitch Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating in Wake of Partisan Debt Ceiling Fight, Pope Francis Meets with Survivors of Clergy Sexual Abuse in Portugal

Nearly a year and a half after Russia invaded Ukraine, we speak with defense and international affairs expert Rajan Menon about the state of the war and prospects for peace. The difficulty is that neither side, neither Ukraine nor Russia, feels that it is losing the war," says Menon, director of the Grand Strategy program at Defense Priorities and a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. We are liable to see this war continue for several months, if not more than that." Menon is the author of several books, including Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War Order, and recently visited Ukraine.

We unpack the explosive new criminal charges against Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, marking his third indictment in four months as he continues to campaign for reelection in 2024. The four-count indictment unveiled Tuesday by special counsel Jack Smith alleges Trump conspired to defraud the United States by preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory, pushing fraud claims he knew to be untrue, pressuring state and federal officials to alter the results, and inciting a violent assault on the Capitol. The most serious charge against Trump carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and he is set to appear in federal court later this week for his arraignment. Donald Trump tried to strip away, from all of us, our democracy and our individual rights to vote to protect himself and remain in power," says Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. We also speak with former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut, who says this case could represent a turning point even among Republicans and reassert the rule of law. Presidents are not kings," says Aftergut.

Trump Indicted over His Efforts to Overturn the 2020 Election, Michigan Prosecutors Charge 2 Trump Allies for Tampering with Voting Machines in 2020, ACLU Sues FBI, Colorado Springs Police for Surveillance of Activists During 2020 Uprising, U.S. Judge OKs Trial for Lawsuit Brought by Abu Ghraib Torture Survivors, Burma's Military Junta Grants Partial Pardon to Aung San Suu Kyi, Delays Elections, Indigenous Groups in Argentina Protest Lithium Extraction on Their Land, Sweden Says It Will Not Alter Free Speech Laws After Burning of Qur'an Sparks Protests, Rep. Cori Bush Reintroduces Unhoused Bill of Rights, Migrants Sleep on NYC Streets as Advocates, Officials Call for Permanent Housing, Work Authorization, Gilgo Beach Serial Killer Suspect Appears in Court, New York Public Hospital Nurses Win Pay Parity with Private Hospital Employees, Yellow Trucking Co. to Shut Down, Costing 30,000 People Their Jobs, Henrietta Lacks's Family Settles with Biotech Co. That Made Billions Thanks to HeLa" Cell Line, Roberto Cintli Rodriguez, Chicano Writer, Professor and Activist, Has Died at 69

In an in-depth interview, we look at the life and legacy of the groundbreaking musician Sinead O'Connor, who converted to Islam and also started using the name Shuhada' Sadaqat in 2018. O'Connor died last week at the age of 56 and was known for her music as much as for her outspoken activism. In 1992, she performed Bob Marley's War" on Saturday Night Live, then proceeded to rip up a photo of Pope John Paul II on live TV to protest systemic child abuse in the Catholic Church, of which she was a survivor. The move provoked widespread uproar. O'Connor was also an ally to LGBTQ communities, an opponent of police brutality on some of her earliest records, a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights, and marched for abortion rights decades before it was legalized in Ireland. We are joined by Jamie Manson, president of advocacy group Catholics for Choice, and Allyson McCabe, music journalist and author of the recent book Why Sinead O'Connor Matters.

Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez remembers his longtime friend and comrade, Juan Ramos, a founder and leader of the Young Lords chapter in Philadelphia in the early 1970s who recently died after a long bout with Alzheimer's. It's really not possible to overestimate the influence that Juan Ramos had on the social and political and liberation struggles of the Puerto Rican, Latino community, but also all communities, in Philadelphia," shares Gonzalez. Ramos was a lifelong activist and became a founder and first president of the Puerto Rican Alliance, which led numerous battles to defend bilingual education, oppose police brutality, and which spearheaded a large squatters' movement in abandoned HUD-owned houses that eventually won titles to those homes for more than 150 Puerto Rican families. He also helped found the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights in the 1980s, served in the administration of Mayor John Street and was himself elected to the Philadelphia City Council for one term, and became a union organizer and a deacon of a Catholic Church in his parish in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia.

We look at the growing crisis in Niger, where the country's democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, was overthrown last week by his own presidential guard. One of the coup's leaders, Brigadier General Moussa Salaou Barmou, was trained by the U.S., making the Nigerien coup the 11th in West Africa since 2008 to involve U.S.-trained military officers. The U.S. has approximately 1,000 troops in Niger, where it's also spent $100 million building a drone base in its ongoing war on terror." The Biden administration has so far refused to describe last week's event as a coup, because doing so would force Washington to cut security aid to Niger. While the reasons for the coup are still unclear, it is part of a worrying trend in the region, where countries that have oversized involvement of the military in political life ... are far more likely to have an ongoing pattern of military coups," according to Stephanie Savell, the co-director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

Russian Attack on Kryvyi Rih Kills 6 as Ukraine Steps Up Drone Attacks on Moscow, Burkina Faso and Mali Warn Against Foreign Intervention in Niger After Last Week's Coup, Two Killed as Protests Erupt over Senegal Government's Arrest of Opposition Leader, Death Toll Climbs as Fighting Continues Between Rival Palestinian Groups in Lebanon, Torrential Rains Trigger Deadly Floods in Northern China; U.S. Heat Wave Enters Third Month, U.K.'s Rishi Sunak to Authorize Over 100 New Oil and Gas Leases in North Sea, U.S. Prepares U.N. Security Council Resolution to Deploy Multinational Force to Haiti, Filmmaker K.K. Kean, Who Documented Haiti's History and Culture, Dies at 84, Biden Reverses Trump Plan to Move U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama, At Least 4 Million Have Lost Medicaid Coverage Since Pandemic-Era Eligibility Rule Expired, Antony Blinken Rejects Australian Officials' Calls to End U.S. Pursuit of Julian Assange

Former New York gynecologist Robert Hadden has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for sexually assaulting patients over more than two decades while working as an OB-GYN at the Columbia University Medical Center starting in the late 1980s. Hadden's federal conviction relates to four survivors, and he has been accused of abusing at least 245 women under the guise of medical examinations. Lawyers representing survivors say Columbia had a long history of ignoring Hadden's behavior in order to protect its reputation instead of acting in the victims' interests, and Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital have paid out $236 million to settle claims by over 200 former patients of Hadden. For more, we speak with two survivors: Laurie Maldonado was a gynecology and obstetrics patient of Hadden's between 2003 and 2012 and gave testimony at his trial, and Marissa Hoechstetter was a patient from 2010 to 2012 and gave a victim impact statement.Every visit was an opportunity for him to commit abuse and assault," says Maldonado. Columbia very much knew about his behavior, and ultimately was thinking only about their own liability," adds Hoechstetter, who has continued to push for institutional accountability to inform patients of Hadden's guilt and put power into the hands of survivors through legislation. In response to advocacy from survivors, New York state passed the Adult Survivors Act, which was enacted last November and created a special one-year lookback window to allow sexual assault survivors to file a lawsuit, and lawyers are now filing another round of cases.

For the past 14 years, relatives of four men jailed on terrorism charges in Newburgh, New York, have accused the FBI of entrapment. On Thursday, a federal judge agreed and ordered the release of three of the men known as the Newburgh Four: David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen. The men had been sentenced in 2010 to 25 years in prison for a government-orchestrated bombing plot of a New York synagogue. In a stunning decision, the judge accused the FBI of inventing a conspiracy. With the men set to be released within 90 days, we speak with lawyers Kathy Manley and Stephen F. Downs from the Coalition for Civil Freedoms about the monumental ruling, the legal issues with entrapment and what the ruling means for the many cases like this one. This was the government's standard operating procedure right after 9/11," says Downs. They were out there going to create as many terrorists as they could to show the public that they were on the job." The fourth man convicted, James Cromitie, is expected to seek compassionate release.

Suicide Bomb at Political Rally Kills at Least 54 in Pakistan, Russia Says It Downed Ukrainian Drones Over Moscow as Medvedev Warns of Nuclear War, AU Says Ceasefire Only Way to Ensure Flow of Grain After Putin Promises Deliveries to Africa, Sudanese Refugees in Chad Struggle Amid Extreme Heat and Water Scarcity, U.S. Local Leaders Call on Congress to Pass Extreme Heat Emergency Act, Youth Activist Confronts White House Press Secretary over Biden's Fossil Fuel Projects, Turkish Forest Defenders Brave Arrest to Save Land from Coal Mine Expansion, ECOWAS Threatens to Remove Niger's Coup Leaders by Force, Kenyan Government to Negotiate with Opposition Groups Following Nationwide Protests, At Least Five Killed as Rival Palestinian Groups Clash in Lebanon, Palestinian Rivals Fatah and Hamas Form Reconciliation Committee", Department of Justice Launches Civil Rights Probe of Memphis Police, Federal Court Blocks Arkansas Censorship Law Criminalizing Librarians and Booksellers

On what would have been Emmett Till's 82nd birthday, President Joe Biden designated a new national monument in Mississippi and Illinois honoring Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Emmett Till was just 14 years old when a white mob abducted him from his great-uncle's home in Money, Mississippi, in 1955 before torturing and lynching him. His mother's decision to hold an open-casket funeral revealing his mutilated body shocked the country and served as a galvanizing moment in the civil rights movement. This comes amid efforts to suppress such history from being included in school textbooks, led by Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. We speak with Emmett Till's cousin, Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., who was Till's best friend and witnessed his abduction.

As nearly half of Americans face heat advisories, President Biden announced new steps Thursday to provide relief, and Texas Congressmember Greg Casar held an eight-hour thirst strike Tuesday on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to highlight the need for a federal workplace heat standard, including mandatory water breaks for workers. This comes as Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently signed legislation overturning local rules for mandatory workplace water breaks. It is a slap in the face. It is dangerous. It will get people killed. But most of all, it's disrespectful to working people," says Casar. I'm outraged, but, unfortunately, not surprised." At least 2,000 workers in the United States die every year from heat exposure, and the risk is likely to increase as the planet continues to warm due to the climate crisis.

July is on pace to be the hottest month ever recorded, and the impact of the soaring temperatures is being felt across the globe in massive heat waves, wildfires, flooding and more. On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world has entered the era of global boiling," and President Joe Biden gave a major speech to unveil new measures to combat the crisis but resisted calls to declare a climate emergency. David Wallace-Wells, an opinion writer for The New York Times and a columnist for The New York Times Magazine, says the world is not moving quickly enough to phase out fossil fuels, and even some of the progress that has been made is easily erased by massive wildfires like those burning in Canada right now. We also speak with Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter at The Guardian US, who wrote an expose on Project 2025," a right-wing plan to dismantle environmental policies and many regulatory protections if a Republican takes the White House in the next election. She calls the document's drafters a who's who of the far right."