Democracy Now!

During a major summit in Lithuania, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine is closer than ever" to joining NATO, but the military alliance is resisting calls to give Kyiv a timeline to membership. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is attending the NATO summit and is meeting with President Biden and other world leaders. This comes as a number of nations have announced new military assistance for Ukraine. The main condition for Ukraine membership [to NATO] is an end to this war," says Andreas Zumach, defense correspondent for the left-wing German daily Die Tageszeitung. We also speak with CodePink's Medea Benjamin, who has just returned from a visit to Ukraine, where she says people are being fed a daily diet of irrational expectations" by the government about how Ukrainian forces are winning the war. The truth, she says, is there is a stalemate on the ground," and calls for countries to come to the negotiation table.

NATO Promises Ukraine Eventual Membership, But No Timeline Offered, U.N. Condemns Russian Veto to Extend Aid Delivery Route in Syria, Taliban Evicts Hundreds of Displaced Families from Kabul Camp, Killing 2 Children, Iowa GOP Passes 6-Week Abortion Ban That's Set to Go into Effect This Week, Vermont Floodwaters Recede, But Officials Warn More Destructive Rain Could Be on Its Way, Court Halts Section of Construction on Mountain Valley Pipeline, EU Approves Nature Restoration Law in Win for Environment, Greek Coast Guard May Have Caused Disastrous June Shipwreck, Which Likely Killed Over 500 Migrants, We Are Asking for Liberation": Protests in Haiti Demand End to Insecurity and Gang Rule, Lawsuit Accuses Google of Scraping Personal Data from Millions to Train AI Systems, Trump's Multiple Legal Challenges Pile Up Ahead of 2024 Election, Amazon Workers Strike in U.K. and Germany on Prime Week"; Delivery Drivers Strike in SoCal, SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood Studios Have Until Midnight Wednesday to Reach Deal and Avert Strike

Chris Gloninger resigned from his position as chief meteorologist for KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday after receiving death threats as a direct result of reporting on climate change. One man behind the emails has pleaded guilty to harassment. We speak with Gloninger, now a senior climate scientist at the Woods Hole Group, about the difficulties scientists and journalists face when reporting on the climate crisis. Meteorologists need to be doing this more, not less," says Gloninger.

We take a closer look at the impact of the massive heat dome in Texas, where extreme heat is bearing down on some of the state's most vulnerable populations, including workers and prisoners. At least three people have died after working in triple-digit heat, just as Republican Governor Greg Abbott signs into law a new measure that overrides mandatory water breaks for workers. Meanwhile, 32 people have been reported to have died in Texas prisons, most of which lack air conditioning and are prone to increased rates of heat-induced cardiac events. We are joined on Democracy Now! by Steven Monacelli in Dallas, who is The Texas Observer's special investigative correspondent. His recent piece is headlined Texans Die from Heat After Governor Bans Mandatory Water Breaks."

A massive heat dome is starting to engulf the southern United States this week. It could grow to be one of the worst in the region's history, breaking records for intensity and longevity and impacting some 50 million people in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Southern California and Nevada. Heat domes are a key part of heat waves and have become hotter and longer due to climate change, making heat the leading cause of weather-related death in the United States. Along the Southwest border, more than 100 migrants have already died from heat this year amid the Biden administration's continued crackdown on asylum seekers. We hear from Laurie Cantillo, a board member and volunteer with Humane Borders, which works to maintain water stations for migrants crossing the Sonoran Desert and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument along the Arizona-Mexico border, as well as Eddie Canales, director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, who condemns the U.S.'s policy of migrant deterrence as inhumane and ineffective and says that migrant deaths will continue to happen until we have a policy [to receive] workers ... [and] to deal with the lack of human rights in their home [countries]."

At today's NATO summit in Lithuania, member countries are expected to debate Ukraine's request to join the military alliance, which would provide additional military support for its war with Russia. Opponents to Ukrainian membership, however, warn that such a move would needlessly escalate what Russia sees as a proxy war with the United States against NATO encroachment on its western border. For more, we speak to journalist Katrina vanden Heuvel, whose recent piece for The Guardian, co-authored with James Carden, is headlined Now is not the time for Ukraine to join NATO."

Sweden may soon join NATO after over a year of negotiations with Turkey over its bid for accession to the transatlantic military alliance. Turkey's right-wing President Recep Tayyip Erdoan had staunchly opposed Sweden's bid due to the country's strong presence of Kurdish exiles, including members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist" organization. Erdoan attributed his unexpected change of heart to Turkey's own bid to join the European Union, which has been stalled for years, suggesting he will open the doors to Sweden in NATO if Turkey is in turn granted entry to the EU. We hear from Swedish peace activist Kerstin Bergea in Stockholm, who says the decision to join NATO has lacked sufficient public debate in the country and who calls the move a historic mistake." Bergea is president of the 140-year-old Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, one of the oldest peace groups in the world.

Turkey Drops Opposition to Sweden's Membership as NATO Summit Opens in Lithuania, Kremlin Says Putin Spoke with Wagner Group Leaders, Including Prigozhin, After Mutiny, Historic Floods Hit Northeastern U.S. as Heat Wave Bakes Southern States, Witnesses Say Palestinian Shot by Israeli Troops Was Left to Bleed Out at Checkpoint, Protests Erupt as Israeli Lawmakers Advance Bill to Gut Judiciary, U.S. and Israel Launch Joint War Games, Rights Groups Condemn Tunisia's Government for Abandoning Asylum Seekers at Libyan Border, Iowa's GOP-Controlled Legislature Convenes Special Session to Consider Abortion Ban, Nebraska Mother Pleads Guilty to Helping Daughter with Criminalized Abortion, Sen. Tuberville Stalls Confirmation of Top U.S. Generals over Reproductive Healthcare Benefits, Freedom of the Press Has Gone Up in Smoke": Protesters Demand U.S. Drop Charges Against Assange

With a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced across the United States this year, we speak with Delaware state Senator Sarah McBride about her bid for an open seat in the House of Representatives that could make her the first openly transgender member of Congress. Trans people are part of the rich fabric of America. We have something to offer for the table," says McBride about the necessity of political representation as trans and queer people face increasing attacks on their civil rights. McBride is a Democrat who became the first openly transgender state senator, and the highest-ranking transgender elected official in the country, when she was elected in 2020.

A federal appeals court has ruled the Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth could go into effect for now, reversing a lower court order. It marks the first time a federal court has allowed such a ban on transition care to fully take hold in the United States, amid a wave of Republican-led attacks on trans rights targeting medical care, education, sports and beyond. This is going to cause very serious harm to transgender adolescents," says attorney Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is among the groups suing Tennessee over the law. We also speak with journalist Holly McCall, editor-in-chief of the Tennessee Lookout, which recently revealed how Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti's office has sought and received patient records and other sensitive information from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center related to its gender-affirming care.

The Biden administration is drawing outrage after announcing it will send cluster bombs to Ukraine as part of a new weapons package. When deployed, cluster munitions spread smaller bomblets" across a wide area and regularly kill civilians, either on initial impact or from unexploded segments that go off later. Their use has been banned by 123 countries that signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but the United States, Russia and Ukraine are not signatories to the treaty. This comes as a new Human Rights Watch report documents how Ukrainian civilians have been killed or injured by cluster munitions, including by Ukrainian forces. We speak to Mary Wareham, advocacy director of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch, who calls the Biden administration's decision appalling," and to writer and activist Norman Solomon, author of War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, who says the U.S.'s military hypocrisy demonstrates a willingness to sacrifice human beings and human rights on behalf of [its] strategic interests."

Biden Visits U.K. Ahead of NATO Summit Amid Condemnation of Plan to Send Ukraine Cluster Bombs, U.S. Destroys Final Chemical Weapons More Than a Decade Behind Schedule, White Nationalist Mass Murderer Who Killed 23 People at El Paso Walmart Gets 90 Life Sentences, Dozens Killed in South Asian Flooding; Torrential Downpours Hit Northeast U.S, Tennessee Court Reinstates Ban on Transgender Healthcare, U.N. Warns Sudan Could Plunge into Full-Scale Civil War" as Airstrikes Kill Dozens, Pentagon Claims U.S. Airstrikes in Somalia Killed 10 al-Shabab Fighters and No Civilians, Pentagon Claims Drone Strike Killed Islamic State Leader Osama al-Muhajer, La Jornada Journalist Luis Martin Sanchez Iniguez Found Murdered in Mexico, Dutch Government Collapses over PM Mark Rutte's Harsh Anti-Immigrant Policies, Afghan Ex-Interpreter for U.S. Forces Killed During Shift as Lyft Driver in Washington, D.C., Protesters at U.N. Demand Israel Release Palestinian Political Prisoner Walid Daqqah, Biden Announces Crackdown on Junk" Health Insurance Plans, Oklahoma Judge Tosses Reparations Suit by Last Known Survivors of Tulsa Race Massacre

On the 10th anniversary of the 2013 coup in Egypt when General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi removed the country's first democratically elected president from power, we speak with author Shadi Hamid about Lessons for the Next Arab Spring," in which he details how the Obama administration helped to kill the democratic uprising across the Middle East. Washington, and Obama in particular, gave what amounted to a green light to the Egyptian military to proceed with the coup," says Hamid. The U.S. then refused to call it a coup or to impose any consequences, while continuing to send billions in foreign aid to the military dictatorship, which continues to rule the country to this day.

In Guatemala, election officials have rejected an attempt by the ruling business and political elite to overturn the results of last month's first round of the presidential election. Sandra Torres, the former first lady, accused of corruption, and her allies challenged the results of June's first-round elections, which saw the progressive, anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arevalo win second place and force a runoff. On Thursday, an electoral court said the final results of the first round had not changed after the review. Protests erupted in Guatemala City after the review suspended certification of election results. It was really difficult for us to compete in this election, and now they are saying we manipulated the results," says Samuel Perez Alvarez, a Guatemalan congressmember who leads the progressive political party Movimiento Semilla. This regime is not only corrupt, but authoritarian." The runoff election will be held in August between Torres and Arevalo.

A damning new database reveals thousands of lobbyists are working for fossil fuel companies at the same time they represent hundreds of cities, universities, tech companies and even environmental groups that claim to be taking steps to address the climate crisis. We speak with The Guardian's environmental reporter Oliver Milman. It's clear that the wielding of political power and influence is far more important to them than staying true to any kind of ideals of distancing themselves fully from the fossil fuel industry," says Milman.

This week unprecedented temperatures driven by climate change shattered heat records around the world. More records could be broken soon, as scientists say 2023 is set to be one of the warmest years in the history of planet Earth. We can't stop global warming at this point," says Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org. All we can do is try to stop it short of the place where it cuts civilizations off at the knees." McKibben says these temperatures are the inevitable result" of fossil fuel use, criticizes politicians for their simultaneous embrace of renewable energy and fossil fuels, and calls on activists to disrupt the status quo: This is the last of these moments we're going to have when the world is summoned to action by events and when there's still time to make at least some difference in the question of how hot it ultimately gets."

Earth's Average Temperature Hits All-Time High for Third Consecutive Day, Climate Protesters Disrupt Wimbledon Tennis Matches, Shut Down Welsh Coal Mine, Biden Administration Will Arm Ukraine with Banned Cluster Munitions, NBC News: Former U.S. Officials Hold Secret Talks with Russians over Ukraine War, Rocket Fire from Southern Lebanon Prompts Cross-Border Shelling by Israel, An Honest Mistake": Israeli Police Officer Acquitted of Killing Autistic Palestinian, U.N. Secretary-General Condemns Deadly Israeli Assault on Palestinians in Jenin, U.N. Pushes for International Security Force in Haiti Amid Spiraling Instability and Gang Violence, Janet Yellen Criticizes Chinese Business and Trade Policies During Trip to Ease Tensions, FDA Greenlights Alzheimer's Treatment Leqembi, 45% of U.S. Tap Water Contaminated by Forever Chemicals", One-Fifth of United Methodist Congregations to Split from Church Amid Rift over LGBTQ Members, Nepal Paves Way to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

We speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California about several topics. He has reintroduced a bill in the House to limit Supreme Court justices to 18-year terms, which he says would help rebalance the high court, now dominated by a 6-3 conservative majority, and is especially needed after several controversial Supreme Court rulings striking down President Biden's student debt relief plan, giving businesses the right to discriminate against LGBTQ people on religious grounds, rolling back environmental protections and more. Most Americans have seen that the Supreme Court is just wildly out of touch with the facts of modern life," he says. Khanna also talks about his lone vote against the Pentagon budget, and he responds to critics of the key role he played in welcoming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a state visit at the White House, which was roundly condemned by human rights advocates, given Modi's track record of violence and bigotry.

We speak with BBC Arabic correspondent Rasha Qandeel, whose new documentary investigates Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's role in producing the highly addictive amphetamine known as Captagon and how this is impacting his relations with other states in the region. This is going to be a main factor in a lot of changes in the Middle East," says Qandeel, who notes that curbing the drug trade has already played a role in recent moves by Arab states to normalize relations with Syria.

The United Nations General Assembly has approved a resolution to establish an independent body to investigate what happened to more than 130,000 people who went missing during the conflict in Syria over the last 12 years. The Syrian government opposed the resolution, along with Russia, China, Belarus, North Korea, Cuba and Iran. This is one of the most painful chapters in the Syrian crisis," says Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and CEO of the medical nonprofit MedGlobal, as well as a former medical school classmate of President Bashar al-Assad.

Press freedom groups around the world have condemned the brutal attack on Russian journalist Elena Milashina, who was beaten by unknown assailants in the Chechen capital of Grozny on July 4. Milashina, a reporter for Novaya Gazeta, was in town to report on Chechnya's ongoing attacks on LGBTQ people when she was assaulted along with lawyer Alexander Nemov. The attackers broke her fingers, shaved her head and doused her in liquid iodine, which leaves long-lasting stains on a person's skin. For more, we speak with human rights monitor Anna Dobrovolskaya, the former executive director of Memorial Human Rights Center before the rights group was shut down by the Russian government in late 2021. It's a very clear signal that next time it will be even more brutal than that," Dobrovolskaya says of the attack.

We remember the acclaimed Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who died as a result of injuries from a Russian strike on a restaurant in Kramatorsk last week, which also killed 12 other people. Amelina was part of a human rights group, Truth Hounds, investigating Russian war crimes. Amelina's friend Andrey Kurkov, a fellow author and the former president of PEN Ukraine, says the young writer's death is just the latest in a long string of artists lost to the Russian invasion. We don't know when the war is going to end, but it will cost a lot for Ukrainian culture," says Kurkov.

IAEA Sees No Evidence of Explosives Planted at Russian-Held Nuclear Plant in Ukraine, Belarus President Says Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin Is in Russia, Biden Welcomes Swedish PM to White House, Pressing NATO Membership for Sweden, U.S. Judge Restricts Biden Administration's Ability to Stem Misinformation on Social Media, Meta Launches Twitter Competitor Threads"; Canada Blocks Facebook and Instagram Ads, Biden Nominates Elliott Abrams, Death Squad Backer Convicted of Lying to Congress, to Gov't Commission, Hunger and Malnutrition Surge in Ethiopia's War-Torn Tigray After U.S. and WFP Halt Food Aid, Mass Protests in Tel Aviv After Police Commander Resigns Amid Ongoing Uproar over Judicial Reform, UPS Workers Move Closer to Strike; L.A. Hotel Workers Return to Jobs; NLRB Rules for Starbucks Union

The Supreme Court has ruled 6 to 3 along ideological lines in favor of a Christian Colorado web designer who refused to create websites for same-sex couples even though the state bans such discrimination. We're entering into a terrible moment where a Pandora's box has been opened," says president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, who warns permission has been granted to use religion as a way to discriminate against your fellow people." Raushenbush discusses the use of Christianity to advance discrimination, the importance of the Respect for Marriage Act, and what this decision could mean for other groups. It's just bad for religion, it's bad for freedom, and it's bad for America," he says.

The Supreme Court has blocked President Biden's student debt relief plan, which sought to cancel up to $20,000 in individual loans, adding up to over $400 billion of federal student debt. The decision comes as a major blow to some 40 million qualified borrowers. Biden has announced his administration will pursue a new path" for debt relief. It was a blow to debtors," says Astra Taylor, organizer with the Debt Collective and advocate for debt abolition. It was a blow to anyone who cares about democracy." Taylor says the ruling raises major concerns over the constitutional jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and explains why groups like the Debt Collective are placing the moral culpability of debt onto creditors.

In France, more than 3,000 people have been arrested after a week of nationwide protests following the police killing of Nahel Merzouk, a teenager of North African descent, captured on video. Nahel's family and friends held his funeral Saturday at a mosque in Nanterre. We speak with Rokhaya Diallo, a French journalist in Paris, who explains this killing is part of a long pattern of racist policing that has divided the country. I wish there was a real and profound discussion about police brutality, about racialized policing," says Diallo.

Israel attacked the Jenin refugee camp this weekend in what some are calling the largest military operation in the occupied West Bank in 20 years. Israel claims to have attacked militants in the camp, but camp residents say they were targeted by airstrikes and ground troops. Palestinian health officials say the massive two-day military offensive killed 12 Palestinians and injured at least 140 more. This continues a pattern of escalating violence by Israel against Palestinians, including attacks by settlers against residents of the occupied West Bank. We speak with Mustafa Sheta, general manager of The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, who shares his firsthand account of the attack and describes it as an effort to end the concept and the idea of resistance in Palestine." Amjad Iraqi, senior editor at +972 Magazine, describes Israel's doctrine of mowing the lawn" in Palestine and calls this weekend's events part of the maintenance of an apartheid regime."

Israel Kills at Least 13 Palestinians in Worst West Bank Raid in 2 Decades, Unrest Grows in France Following Police Killing of Arab Teen as Country Reckons with Its Racism, Ukraine Mourns Killing of Writer Victoria Amelina in Russian Attack as War Rages On, Veteran Russian Journalist Elena Milashina Brutally Attacked While Reporting in Chechnya, SCOTUS Blocks Biden's Student Debt Relief Plan as Administration Pivots to New Path", SCOTUS Sides with Christian Web Designer Who Wants to Discriminate Against LGBTQ Clients, At Least 15 Gun Deaths Mar July 4th Festivities in Mass Shootings Across U.S., U.S. Judge Blocks Part of Florida's New Voter Suppression Law, World Records Highest-Ever Average Global Temperature, U.N. Nuclear Agency Greenlights Japanese Plan to Dump Fukushima Radioactive Waste Water into Pacific, U.N. to Withdraw Troops from Mali Amid Ongoing Insecurity, Guatemala Reviews Ballots After 1st Round Sends Progressive Bernardo Arevalo to Presidential Runoff, Brazilian Court Bars Jair Bolsonaro from Public Office Until 2030

In a special broadcast, we look at voices of a people's history inspired by the late great historian Howard Zinn's groundbreaking book, A People's History of the United States, which helped reshape how history is taught in classrooms. Twenty years ago, Zinn and Anthony Arnove began organizing public readings of historical texts referenced in A People's History of the United States. The two would go on to publish a book collecting theses texts under the title Voices of a People's History of the United States. While Zinn died in 2010, his work continues to inspire millions across the country and the globe. Arnove and Hailey Pessin have just published a new book titled Voices of a People's History of the United States in the 21st Century: Documents of Hope and Resistance. It gathers more than 100 speeches, essays and other documents of activism, protest and social change. We speak with them about the book, and feature readings from texts featured in it.

We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" He was addressing the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. James Earl Jones reads the historic address during a performance of Voices of a People's History of the United States, which was co-edited by Howard Zinn. The late great historian introduces the address.

Whistleblower Dan Ellsberg joined us after the Justice Department charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for publishing U.S. military and diplomatic documents exposing U.S. war crimes. Assange is locked up in London and faces up to 175 years in prison if extradited and convicted in the United States. Ellsberg died in June, and as we remember his life and legacy, we revisit his message for other government insiders who are considering becoming whistleblowers: My message to them is: Don't do what I did. Don't wait 'til the bombs are actually falling or thousands more have died."

As we remember Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who died in June, we look at how he was also a lifelong anti-nuclear activist, stemming from his time working as a nuclear planner for the U.S. government. In December 2017, he joined us to discuss his memoir, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. This was an actual war plan for how we would use the existing weapons," he noted, many of which I had seen already that time."

Over the past 50 years, Daniel Ellsberg remained an antiwar and anti-nuclear activist who inspired a new generation of whistleblowers. In his last interview with Democracy Now!, in April, he spoke about the war in Ukraine and why it required a diplomatic solution, and about the latest leak of Pentagon documents by Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who has been indicted on six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information. We asked Ellsberg about what the leaks say about the war in Ukraine, and discussed his decision in 2021 to leak a classified government report that he had kept in his possession for decades, which revealed the U.S. had drawn up plans to attack China with nuclear weapons during the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis. Ellsberg warned the possibility of a nuclear first strike by the United States was an insane" policy that would end most life on Earth. The belief that we can do less bad by striking first than if we strike second is what confronts us in Ukraine with a real possibility of a nuclear war coming out of this conflict," Ellsberg said.

In a special broadcast, we remember the life and legacy of Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who died in June at the age of 92, just months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, then a top military strategist working for the RAND Corporation, risked life in prison by secretly copying and then leaking 7,000 pages of top-secret documents outlining the secret history of the U.S. War in Vietnam. The leak would end up helping to take down President Nixon, accelerate the end of the War in Vietnam and lead to a major victory for press freedom. Henry Kissinger once called Ellsberg the most dangerous man in America." Over the past 50 years, Ellsberg remained an antiwar and anti-nuclear activist who inspired a new generation of whistleblowers. We mark his death with excerpts from some of our interviews with Ellsberg over the years about Vietnam, as well as Ukraine, tensions with China, the threat of nuclear war and working toward a more honest discourse about U.S. policy. To this day, the very idea that the U.S. is ... an empire is a taboo, and a very unfortunate one, because it makes it impossible to understand what's going on," Ellsberg said.

On the final day of the Supreme Court's term, we speak with David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, about recent revelations detailing many of the Supreme Court conservative justices' close relationships to Republican megadonors, and how allegations of financial impropriety further delegitimize the court's standing as an objective legal authority. These are lifetime appointments," says Dayen. This is what arrogance looks like."

The Supreme Court has struck down President Biden's plan to provide relief to 40 million student borrowers of up to $20,000 in student loan debt. We speak to David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, about how one of the key complainant states, Missouri, hinged its opposition on the argument that its state agency, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, or MOHELA, will be harmed by the debt relief plan. However, Dayen reports, MOHELA is a complete unwilling participant" in the case.

In one of the last cases in the Supreme Court's current session, the justices ruled in favor of a wedding website designer who wants to be allowed to refuse service to same-sex couples. Lorie Smith of Colorado filed the lawsuit with help from the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom as part of the group's ongoing attempt to roll back the rights of LGBTQ people. But as reporter Melissa Gira Grant discovered, part of the case may be built on a lie. Smith has never actually built a wedding website; the lone request Smith claims to have received from a gay couple supposedly originated with a straight man in another state who told Grant he had never asked for a website and that he has been married to a woman for many years. He had no idea that his information was in this case," says Grant, who wrote about the case for The New Republic.

The conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court has declared race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities across the country to be unlawful, effectively ending affirmative action in education. The landmark 6-3 ruling was along ideological lines and strikes down decades of precedent, but stops short of banning legacy admissions and allows military academies to continue using affirmative action. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the court, assailed the majority's let-them-eat-cake obliviousness" to questions of racism and equity. We host a roundtable discussion on the ruling and its impact with Wisdom Cole, national director of the NAACP Youth and College Division; Janelle Wong, director of Asian American studies and a professor of American studies and government and politics at the University of Maryland; and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, founder of Futuro Media and host of the Latino USA podcast.

Supreme Court Bars Affirmative Action at Colleges, Exempts Military and Legacy Admissions, California Task Force Recommends Reparations for Harms of Slavery and Racial Discrimination, Supreme Court's Samuel Alito Ruled Against EPA as Wife Leased Land to Oil and Gas Firm, Death Toll from Heat Wave Hits 112 in Mexico, 14 in Southern U.S., Mike Pence Pledges Support for Arming Ukraine During Surprise Trip to Kyiv, Biden Mulls Cluster Bombs for Ukraine as Reports Emerge of Kyiv's Use of Banned Landmines, 400 Arrested Across France in Third Night of Protests over Police Killing of 17-Year-Old, U.K. Court Rules Conservatives' Plan to Deport Asylum Seekers to Rwanda Unlawful", Protests Erupt in Baghdad Over Qur'an Burning Outside Swedish Mosque, Officer Who Failed to Intervene in Parkland Massacre Found Not Guilty of Criminal Charges, NYC Mayor Faces Tenant Anger over Rent Hikes as Record 100,000 Unhoused People Enter Shelters, Christine King Farris, Last Surviving Sibling of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dies at 95

A highly anticipated court ruling is expected soon in Montana, where a groundbreaking, youth-led climate trial just ended after five days of dramatic testimony on who can be held responsible for the climate crisis. The landmark case was led by 16 children and young adults, ranging in age from 5 to 22, who accuse the state of Montana of violating their constitutional rights as it pushed policies that encouraged the use of fossil fuels, devastated the environment and severely impacted their health. The case is the first of its kind to go to trial in the United States, and a federal judge in Oregon just cleared the way for another children's climate case against the U.S. government. For more, we are joined by Grace Gibson-Snyder, a 19-year-old plaintiff in the Montana case, and by Nate Bellinger, lead attorney in the trial.

We speak with author Genevieve Guenther about climate silence" and how the corporate media routinely fails in reporting on worsening extreme weather events. You need to connect the dots from what you're reporting to the climate crisis, and then through the climate crisis to the use of fossil fuels that is heating up our planet," says Guenther, whose forthcoming book is titled The Language of Climate Politics.

As wildfire smoke fills the skies and record heat waves cook much of North America, Canadian climate activist Tzeporah Berman says governments need to be pushed to phase out fossil fuels more rapidly. We need people to stand up to this industry. We need activism to protest in the streets, to demand our governments stand up to this industry. And we also need international cooperation," says Berman. She also discusses Canada's investment in the Trans Mountain Pipeline and how governments around the world are propping up the fossil fuel industry rather than embracing a transition to clean energy. Her recent article for The Guardian is headlined Canada is on fire, and big oil is the arsonist."

After the Wagner Group's aborted mutiny in Russia, the Biden administration has imposed new sanctions on companies accused of profiting from the activities of the Wagner Group in Africa. This comes as Russian military police raided Wagner mercenary bases in Syria. Meanwhile, in Belarus, where Wagner Group leader Prigozhin is now exiled, The New York Times is reporting on construction of a new military base for Wagner fighters given the option of relocating there after the failed uprising. We speak with political scientist Kimberly Marten, who has been studying the Wagner Group for years and says that despite recent events, Russia's war in Ukraine and its presence in other countries is unlikely to be affected. Wagner itself does not exist as an entity," she says, describing it as a contracting mechanism" for the Russian military and not truly independent from the government. It would be really easy for the Kremlin to just put in place some other individual as the titular CEO of all these various companies."

Over 200 Million in U.S. and Canada Face Extreme Weather Alerts from Smoke and Heat, Fighting Resumes in Sudan as Eid al-Adha Ceasefire Collapses, French Police Arrest 150 in Second Night of Protests over Police Killing of 17-Year-Old, U.S. Ambassador Offers Rare Rebuke of Israel at United Nations, U.S. Navy Deploys Largest Nuclear-Armed Submarine to South Korea, Biden Holds Flurry of Fundraisers with Wealthy Donors, Touts Bidenomics" Plan for Economy, Mississippi Sheriff's Deputies Fired After 2 Black Men Sue, Alleging Assault, Torture and Racism, Ex-Marine Pleads Not Guilty to Homicide Charges for Killing Jordan Neely on NYC Subway, EPA Drops Civil Rights Probe of Louisiana Regulators over Cancer Alley", 3M and Solvay Settle Claims over Pollution from Forever Chemicals", U.S. Logs First Domestically Transmitted Cases of Malaria in 2 Decades, Teamsters Union President Says a Strike of 340,000 UPS Workers Appears Inevitable"

In Honduras, communities are fighting back against privatization and foreign exploitation after Honduran President Xiomara Castro and Congress repealed a law that established so-called Economic Development and Employment Zones, where private companies have functional and administrative autonomy" from the national government. Now a Delaware-based company called Prospera has launched a case to challenge the repeal of the law under the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement and is seeking almost $11 billion, which amounts to nearly two-thirds of the country's entire 2022 budget. This is an example of the extreme investor rights" of this international trade agreement directly opposing Honduran sovereignty, says Melinda St. Louis, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. We also speak with local leader Venessa Cardenas of Crawfish Rock, the area directly impacted by the Prospera ZEDE on the island of Roatan, about the stress of losing control over their community. We don't know when our home will be taken from us," says Cardenas. We, of course, have the rights to be free and previously consulted on any type of project that is being done in our community."

Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, says it's grotesque and immoral" that poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, higher than homicide and respiratory illness, citing recent findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Why do we hear so much about crime rates and opioids and gun violence in America, but poverty kills more people than all of those things?" asks Barber. He joins us to talk about the intensifying efforts of the Poor People's Campaign to end poverty and empower poor and low-wage workers and support The Third Reconstruction" resolution in Congress. This weekend, the Poor People's Campaign led a Moral Poverty Action Congress in Washington, D.C., focused on ending poverty in the United States.

The Supreme Court's term is ending this week with rulings on several blockbuster cases. On Tuesday, voting rights advocates welcomed a decision in a major election law case that preserved checks and balances in elections. In a 6-3 decision, the justices dismissed the so-called independent state legislature theory that state lawmakers have nearly unlimited power to make rules for federal elections. This ruling will empower state courts around the country to block gerrymanders, to police the legislatures and to keep legislators from trying to entrench themselves or advance their party with these egregious maps," says Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice. Now the country awaits the Supreme Court's decisions on affirmative action and student debt, which Waldman calls hugely consequential." Waldman's new book is The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America.

Supreme Court Rejects GOP's Radical Independent State Legislature Theory", Canadian Wildfire Smoke Brings Hazy Skies to Europe, Very Unhealthy" Air Alerts in U.S. Cities, Russian Missile Strikes Restaurant in Ukraine's Kramatorsk, Killing 9 and Wounding Dozens, Belarusian President Says He Convinced Wagner Chief to Call Off Mutiny in Russia, U.S. Sanctions Companies Profiting from Wagner Group Mining Concessions in Africa, Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio Wins Reelection, Nurses in Texas and Kansas Hold One-Day Strike to Demand Safe Staffing Levels, DOJ Report Finds Misconduct by Prison Guards Led to Jeffrey Epstein's Suicide in 2019, New York City to Spend $90,000 Purchasing Submachine Guns for Rikers Prison Guards, Exonerated Central Park Five" Member Yusef Salaam Wins Primary for Harlem City Council Seat, Tenants Rally Against Planned Demolition of Manhattan Public Housing Complexes

Veteran national security reporter James Risen joins us for an in-depth look at his new book, The Last Honest Man, about the work of Senator Frank Church to rein in the FBI, CIA and other agencies after the Vietnam War, Watergate and other fiascos had shaken the public's trust in the U.S. government. Church, a Democrat, chaired a Senate committee that in 1975 began investigating the intelligence community and uncovered numerous abuses, including assassination plots and widespread domestic surveillance. Risen's book also includes new details about Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg's previously unknown role in the work of the committee. The Church Committee, I think, is probably the most important congressional investigation in modern American history," says Risen, who says it marked a before and after" in U.S. national security policy and helped to limit abuses by the government in the decades that followed.

As former President Donald Trump faces Espionage Act charges, newly leaked audio reveals he showed a classified Pentagon document to multiple people in 2021 detailing a plan to attack Iran, contradicting Trump's recent claim that he did not have classified documents. We speak with veteran national security reporter James Risen, who says Trump is a thief and should not be compared to whistleblower Reality Winner or others, but also notes, I am no fan of the Espionage Act. I don't think that it should be on the books."