Democracy Now!

Tributes continue to pour in for beloved actor Chadwick Boseman after his death at age 43 following a private four-year battle with colon cancer. Boseman is best known for his iconic role as King T'Challa in the groundbreaking "Black Panther" — the first mainstream Black superhero movie and a smash hit that earned more than $1 billion at the box office. He is also widely acclaimed for his portrayal of major historical figures such as Thurgood Marshall, James Brown and Jackie Robinson. Boseman's death has highlighted the higher rates of colon cancer among Black men and the links to systemic racism. "Cancer, like heart disease, there's all sorts of racial disparities, just as there are with COVID-19 deaths," says professor Ibram X. Kendi, cancer survivor and director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University. "What is happening in our society that is causing so much Black death? Why is Black death so normal?"

Protests Continue in Kenosha as Officials Plead with Trump to Cancel Visit, One Dead in Portland as Pro-Trump Rally Clashes with Antiracist Protesters, U.S. COVID-19 Cases Top 6 Million, Deaths Top 183,000, Under Pressure from Trump, FDA Admits It Might Approve Vaccine Before Trials End, Gaza Extends Lockdown, India Reports Record Daily Numbers as Global COVID-19 Cases Top 25 Million, Chadwick Boseman, Beloved and Groundbreaking Actor, Dies at 43 After Battle with Cancer, "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" Rally Held on 57th Anniverary of March on Washington, Mustapha Adib Set to Become New Prime Minister of Lebanon, Anti-Government Protests Continue in Belarus Amid Crackdown on Press and Dissent, Hundreds of Refugees Stranded in Mediterranean as Banksy-Funded Ship Evacuated, Mass Protests in Mauritius as Environmental Toll from Oil Tanker Spill Worsens, Sudanese Government and Darfur Rebel Groups Sign Peace Deal, U.N. Warns Life of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege Could Be at Risk, Record Flooding in Pakistan Kills At Least 13, Submerges Much of Karachi, Jailed Immigrants in Louisiana Report Unlivable Conditions in ICE Jails After Hurricane Laura, Black National Convention Tackles Elections, Abolition, Trans Rights, Disability Rights & More, Dems Denounce Decision by DNI to Halt In-Person Election Security Briefings, Family of Layleen Polanco Awarded Record $5.9 Million in Settlement over Her Death

Hurricane Laura has slammed ashore as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm, bringing sustained winds of 150 miles per hour to the Gulf Coast. The strongest storm to hit Louisiana in over a century, Laura made landfall near the border of Louisiana and Texas. At least six people have been killed. Residents near Lake Charles were told to stay indoors with windows and doors shut when a chemical fire broke out at a BioLab plant. Hilton Kelley, the executive director of the Community In-Power and Development Association, says local communities are dealing with multiple crises amid the devastation of the hurricane. "People are ingesting all of these dangerous toxins and at the same time dealing with COVID-19 and the extreme heat," he says.

President Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican Party’s nomination on Thursday before a crowd of about 1,500 on the South Lawn of the White House. In defiance of social distancing guidelines, attendees sat shoulder-to-shoulder with few people wearing masks. Trump spoke as the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus neared 180,000 — by far the highest total in the world — and repeatedly defended his administration’s handling of the pandemic. Trump warned of chaos and violence if Joe Biden becomes president, but made no reference to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, or the killing of two protesters in Kenosha by a 17-year-old Trump supporter. We speak with historian Rick Perlstein, who says Trump paints a "picture of the world that bears no resemblance to reality" and that he has driven people to act violently.

In light of the police shooting of unarmed African American father Jacob Blake, we look at the past misconduct of the Kenosha police department. In 2004, Kenosha police killed white 21-year-old Michael Bell in front of his mother and sister. The Kenosha Police Department conducted its own review of the incident, and within two days completely exonerated the officers. Bell’s father, Michael Bell Sr., commissioned an independent inquiry that found the police account of the incident to be forensically impossible. "It was really hard for me to believe that a uniformed person would do that," says Michael Bell Sr., who claims the Kenosha police department "covered up the true facts of the case."

The ACLU of Wisconsin is calling for top Kenosha law enforcement officials to resign in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, who was left paralyzed below the waist after a white officer shot him in the back seven times. The shooting has sparked mass protests in Kenosha and around the U.S., bringing renewed attention to racism and violence in the Kenosha police force. A damning video of Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth has surfaced from a 2018 news conference, when he described Black people accused of shoplifting and crashing a stolen car as "garbage people that fill our communities that are a cancer to our society." We speak with Chris Ott, executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin, who says both Beth and Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis need to go. "When police and law enforcement go into communities in this militarized way, this heavy-handed way, it just inflames tensions, makes things worse and creates dangerous new situations," says Ott.

Trump Assails Biden's "Socialist Agenda" in RNC Acceptance Speech Riddled with Lies, CDC Projects Official U.S. Death Toll Will Top 200,000 in September, Two Navajo Sisters Who Worked as Frontline Health Workers Die of COVID-19, Alabama Professors Ordered Not to Warn Students of Exposure to Infected Classmates, Hurricane Laura Leaves Path of Devastation in Louisiana, Triggers Chemical Plant Fire, Hurricane Topples Confederate Monument That Lake Charles Officials Refused to Remove, Jacob Blake, Left Paralyzed by Officer's Bullets, Reportedly Handcuffed to Hospital Bed, Teenage Militia Member Charged over Shooting Deaths of Kenosha Protesters, ACLU Demands Resignation of Kenosha Police Chief and County Sheriff, Ronnie Long, Wrongly Convicted by All-White Jury, Freed After 44 Years in Prison , Baseball, Basketball and Hockey Games Postponed as Players Protest Police Violence, Thousands to March on Washington on Anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" Speech, U.S. Jobless Claims Continue to Shatter Pre-Pandemic Records, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Resigns, Citing Poor Health, Indigenous Protesters in AZ Block Border Wall Assembly Site, Trump Administration Considered Using "Heat Ray" Against Asylum Seekers in 2018, Cameroonian Refugees on Hunger Strike Denounce Inhumane Conditions at Louisiana ICE Jail, Body of Missing Fort Hood Soldier Elder Fernandes Found Hanging from Tree, Fifth Federal Execution of 2020 Back On Despite Lower Court Ruling on Lethal Injection Drug

As President Trump is set to accept the Republican Party's formal renomination for president amid ongoing scandals and multiple crises, we speak with John Dean, who served as the White House counsel for President Richard Nixon from 1970 to 1973. His testimony during the Watergate scandal helped bring down Nixon. His new book is "Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers." "I worked for the last authoritarian president we had," Dean says. "Trump is of a different cut than Nixon. … He's going to make Nixon look like a choir boy before it's all over."

Vice President Mike Pence headlined the third night of the Republican National Convention, focusing largely on preserving law and order and attacking Joe Biden. We play excerpts of the comments made by Pence, who made no mention of police brutality or the recent police shootings that have sparked protests across the U.S. Pence also failed to mention the white gunman accused of killing two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Professional athletes are taking part in unprecedented collective action in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and against police violence, bringing basketball, baseball and soccer leagues to a grinding halt. The protests and calls to recognize systemic police brutality also extended across tennis arenas. Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation and host of the "Edge of Sports" podcast, says the actions constitute "a sports strike wave" for racial justice. "It's more than a boycott. It's them withdrawing their labor," Zirin says. "It's not just an example for racial justice protesters around the country. I think it's a challenge to the labor movement as a whole."

The police shooting of Jacob Blake has sparked massive protests across the country and in Kenosha, where a white teenager opened fire on Black Lives Matter protesters and killed two people. Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old self-declared militia member and avid Trump supporter, was apprehended in Antioch, Illinois, after fleeing Wisconsin. He has been charged with murder. Wisconsin state Representative David Bowen, who has attended racial justice protests in Kenosha, says he "witnessed firsthand" how freely organized white supremacists targeted protesters without interference from law enforcement, and accuses police of giving Rittenhouse the "Dylann Roof treatment," managing to arrest him without incident, while unarmed Black people are frequently met with deadly force. "This is Exhibit A and Exhibit B of why we need to transform law enforcement and public safety in Wisconsin and in this country," Bowen says.

Hurricane Laura Hits Louisiana with 150 MPH Winds, "Unsurvivable" 20-Foot Storm Surge, Mike Pence Tells Republican National Convention, "We Will Have Law and Order", Kenosha Police Officer Who Shot Jacob Blake ID'd as Rusten Sheskey, 17-Year-Old Trump-Supporting Militia Member Charged with Murdering 2 Protesters, NBA, WNBA, MLS and MLB Games Postponed as Players Protest Police Shootings, Trump Administration Officials Pressured CDC to Weaken Coronavirus Guidelines , Coronavirus Cases Hit Record High in Burma; Doctors Strike in South Korea Amid Outbreaks, Just Two States Are Distributing Trump's Promised Unemployment Supplements, Only Native American on Federal Death Row Executed Over Objections of Navajo Nation, White Supremacist Terrorist Gets Life in Prison for New Zealand Mosque Shootings

A new book on Stephen Miller, the architect of the Trump administration's unprecedented attack on immigrant communities and the immigration system, describes the White House adviser as a dangerous man bringing white nationalist ideology to the highest levels of government. "This is what shapes the immigration policy," says Jean Guerrero, author of "Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda." Miller, descended from Jewish immigrants, has been obsessed with fighting multiculturalism since his teenage years and has steadily climbed the right-wing political ladder to become one of Donald Trump's most trusted associates. He is credited with many of Trump's most vicious anti-immigrant policies, including separating immigrant children from their parents. "Stephen Miller primarily has been targeting families," says Guerrero. "It becomes clear that for Stephen Miller, this is not about national security, this is not about keeping out criminals. This is about reengineering the ethnic flows into this country to keep Brown and Black families out."

At the second night of the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, speakers largely ignored the devastating public health and economic crisis facing the country as the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus nears 180,000 and tens of millions of Americans are out of work and struggling to pay for food and housing. We feature excerpts from the night, which included praise for President Trump's actions in the Middle East and more dire warnings about a Joe Biden presidency, as well as several speeches that appear to violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using their office for partisan political activity.

Protests continue in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where police shot an unarmed Black man in the back seven times as he was getting into his car, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Jacob Blake was reportedly breaking up a fight before police shot him, and the shooting was witnessed by his three young children. On Tuesday, the situation escalated further when at least one white gunman opened fire on a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters. Two people were killed, and a third was injured, as police continued a violent crackdown on protesters demanding justice for Blake. We speak with Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, who says the police response to Blake was completely unjustified. "There's no way that any officer could look at that video and say that that's the way policing should happen," he says. "We need police departments, sheriff's departments to acknowledge that there is a real problem in the culture of policing."

Two Killed as White Militia Member Fires on Black Lives Matter Protesters in Kenosha, WI, Family of Jacob Blake Demands Arrest of Officers Who Shot Him in the Back, Black Lives Matter Protesters Shot At While Marching in Pennsylvania, Republican National Convention Speakers Continue to Flout Hatch Act Ethics Laws, CDC Quietly Drops Test Recommendation for Asymptomatic People Exposed to COVID-19, Far-Right Militia Leader Ammon Bundy Arrested at Idaho State Capitol, Argentina Posts Record Coronavirus Toll; COVID-19 Resurgent in Europe, Hurricane Laura Could Become Category 4 Storm Ahead of Gulf Coast Landfall, Lebanese Border Residents Say Israel Dropped Cluster Bombs, White Phosphorus, African Continent Declared Free of Wild Polio, Belarus Arrests Opposition Leaders as Teachers Join Anti-Government Protests, Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump Rule Making It Harder for Soldiers to Become Citizens

As climate-fueled wildfires engulf California, tens of thousands of firefighters have been deployed across the state to combat the blazes amid a record heat wave and deadly pandemic. We look at how more than 1,300 incarcerated firefighters — who are annually deployed to the frontlines in California for just $1 an hour — are fighting back the blazes as coronavirus outbreaks in state prisons limit how many are available to fight the fires, and lay bare the state's reliance on prison labor to control its ever-growing wildfire season with an exploitative system many have called slave labor. "What they're not saying is we lack the incarcerated firefighters … [who] make up the backbone of the firefighting department," says Rasheed Lockheart, who was a firefighter at San Quentin State Prison until his release in January.

As party loyalists gather for the Republican National Convention, a group of veteran Republican operatives who want to defeat President Trump have launched a $4 million advertising blitz targeting voters in swing states. The anti-Trump ads are funded by The Lincoln Project, a super PAC that can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money. We speak with longtime Republican political consultant Stuart Stevens, a senior adviser to The Lincoln Project who worked as a strategist on five Republican presidential campaigns, about Trump's takeover of the party and efforts by so-called "Never Trump" Republicans to prevent his reelection, and why he says "race is the original sin of the modern Republican Party."

The Republican National Convention opened in Charlotte, North Carolina, with dire warnings that a Joe Biden presidency could destroy the country. We feature excerpts from President Trump's surprise speech after he was formally nominated for a second term, claiming without evidence that Democrats are planning to steal the election, and other speakers throughout the evening who repeatedly praised Trump's handling of the pandemic even as the U.S. coronavirus death toll passes 177,000.

Trump Claims Dems Trying to Steal Election, Biden Will "Destroy" Country, as RNC Kicks Off, WI Calls in National Guard as Protests Intensify over Police Shooting of Unarmed Black Man, FDA Head Says Plasma Treatment Results Were Overstated as Schools Grapple with Reopening, Hong Kong COVID-19 Patient Becomes Reinfected; Reports of Brutal Repression in Xinjiang Pandemic Response, Gaza Goes into Lockdown After New COVID-19 Cases; Libyan Doctors Warn System Can't Cope with Pandemic, Death Toll in Climate-Fueled California Wildfires Climbs to 7 as 600+ Blazes Burn Across the State, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Fails to Answer Basic Questions About the Mail by House Dems, Questions Mount over Possible Deal for U.S. to Sell F-35s to UAE After Normalization Deal with Israel, Bangladesh Still Reeling from Massive Floods Which Submerged One-Third of Country, Activists Say U.K. Detention of Refugee Children Unlawful, Appeals Court Says Rights of Ronnie Long Were Violated When He Was Convicted for Rape 40+ Years Ago, NY Attorney General Investigating Trump Org. for Inflating Assets; Seeking Testimony of Eric Trump, TikTok Sues Trump over App Ban, Reports: Jerry Falwell Jr. Resigns from Liberty University After Pool Attendant Affair Story Breaks

As the Republican National Convention gets underway this week, we look at how the party has openly embraced the far-right conspiracy theory known as QAnon, which claims, among other things, that President Trump is secretly at war with a deep state cabal of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex trafficking operation. Trump has retweeted messages from supporters of the conspiracy theory and recently spoke publicly about it for the first time, describing QAnon believers as "people that love our country." "At this point, it's reached full spread, that we really can't ignore it anymore," says Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, who notes 20 "full QAnon adherents" are on the ballot in November.

President Trump's former campaign CEO and White House adviser, Steve Bannon, is his sixth close associate to face criminal charges by the Department of Justice. Bannon and three others are accused of defrauding donors to We Build the Wall, a private effort to build a wall along the Mexican border, and redirecting funds to fund their own lavish lifestyles. We follow the money and look at how an investigation last month showed a private wall project the funds were used for is already eroding and could be in danger of falling into the river. We speak with Perla Trevizo and Lexi Churchill, two reporters at the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative unit.

The battle over the future of the United States Postal Service is intensifying, with a record number of mail-in ballots expected to be cast in the 2020 presidential election, and Democrats and Republicans locked in a fight over the future of the agency. Historian Philip Rubio, who teaches at North Carolina A&T State University and worked as a mail carrier for two decades before that, says decades of political interference have caused a "manufactured crisis" at the U.S. Postal Service. "The damage has been done," Rubio says of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's changes. "I think he's discouraged a lot of voters who were hoping to vote by mail to vote safely and securely because of the pandemic."

Raging California Wildfires Displace 120,000, Burn 1.2 Million Acres, FDA Approves Blood Plasma Treatment as U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Tops 176,000 , Countries Grapple with Second Wave, as South Korea Warns Country Is in "Grave Situation", House Passes Bill to Halt Changes at USPS as Fears Mount over Mail-in Ballots, House Passes Bill to Provide Emergency Funding for USCIS as Agency Plans Major Staff Cuts, Belarus Protests Continue Demanding Resignation of President Lukashenko, At Least 17 Killed in Colombia Over Deadly Weekend, At Least 14 People Killed in Twin Bombings in the Philippines, U.S. Troops Withdraw from Camp Taji in Iraq, Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny in Coma in German Hospital, Hurricane Laura Kills at Least 9 People in Caribbean as It Heads to Southern U.S., on Heels of Storm Marco, Protesters in Lafayette, Louisiana, Demand Justice for Trayford Pellerin, Shot Dead by Police, Protests Erupt in Kenosha, Wisconsin, After Police Shooting of Jacob Blake, "Alt-Right" Groups Attack Antifascist Protesters in Portland, Oregon, New Law in Tennessee Would Criminalize BLM Protesters, Strip Them of Their Right to Vote, Protesters Take to the Streets of Charlotte, NC as RNC Kicks Off , Longtime White House Adviser Kellyanne Conway to Step Down, Trump's Sister Calls Out President's Family Separation Policy, Lies and Cruelty in Audio Tapes, Lori Loughlin Gets Two-Month Prison Term for College Admissions Bribes, Golden State Killer Sentenced to Life in Prison Without Parole

Harvard professor Cornel West and Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP, discuss the 2020 DNC, Joe Biden's vow to fight systemic racism and "overcome this season of darkness in America," the historic nomination of Kamala Harris as his partner on the ticket, and how the convention was a showcase for a broad anti-Trump coalition, including prominent Republican figures given plum speaking slots, but few voices from the party's insurgent left wing. "At this moment, with the decline and fall of the American empire, it looks as if the system is unable to generate enough energy to seriously reform itself. It remains sanitized, superficial," says Dr. West. "I want fundamental change." Jealous says Biden is someone progressives can work with and pressure. "The theme of this convention was really one of unity," he notes. "This is a time when we have to come together to defeat a president who is the most evil, the most corrupt that any of us have seen."

We air highlights from Joe Biden's highly anticipated speech on the final night of the Democratic National Convention, in which he formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, focused on the dangers of President Trump's reelection and pledged to address the four simultaneous crises of systemic racism, the pandemic, the economic downturn and the climate crisis. "United, we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America," Biden said. The 25-minute speech was delivered from his home state of Delaware.

The 2020 Democratic National Convention has wrapped up, with speakers on the final night including California Governor Gavin Newsom, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and 13-year-old Brayden Harrington, who talked about how Joe Biden had personally helped him with his stutter. We air highlights from the evening's addresses.

Joe Biden Accepts Presidential Nomination, Pledging End to "Season of Darkness", CDC Director: Up to 60 Million U.S. Residents Were Infected with Coronavirus, White House Declares Teachers "Essential Workers" as Unions Threaten Strikes over Coronavirus, Stock Markets Surge Even as 1.1 Million U.S. Workers File New Unemployment Claims, Protesters Call on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to #MakeBillionairesPay, Postmaster General to Face Congressional Grilling over "Sabotage" of Postal Service, Massive California Wildfires Leave 5 Dead, 700,000 Acres Burned, Steve Bannon Arrested, Charged with Pocketing Private Border Wall Funds, Federal Judge Rules NY Prosecutors Can Subpoena Trump's Tax Records, Iraq Is "Open for American Business," Says Iraqi PM in Meeting with Trump, Prominent Iraqi Women's Rights Activist Reham Yacoub Gunned Down in Basra, Israeli Military Attacks Gaza for 10th Consecutive Day, Newly Released Bodycam Footage Shows Two Deaths at Hands of Phoenix Police, Portland's Nightly Anti-Police-Brutality Protests Continue to Face Police Violence, Black Lives Matter Groups Protest New York Police Union's Endorsement of Trump, Uber, Lyft Win Temporary Stay of Order to Reclassify Contract Drivers as Employees

Senator Kamala Harris is the first Indian American and first Black woman to be nominated for vice president on a major party ticket, but, as many historians have noted, Harris is not the first Black woman to run for vice president. That distinction belongs to the journalist and political activist Charlotta Bass, who was the editor of The California Eagle for nearly 30 years, one of the country's oldest Black newspapers, which covered women's suffrage, police brutality, the Klu Klux Klan, and discriminatory hiring and housing practices. Bass joined the Progressive Party ticket in 1952 on an antiracist platform that called for fair housing and equal access to healthcare. Bass's exclusion from the public narrative signals a tendency to "sideline Black radical politics," says author and historian Keisha Blain.

As Kamala Harris makes history as the first woman of color to run on a major party presidential ticket, many Black progressive women remain ambivalent, says Derecka Purnell, a human rights lawyer, abolitionist and columnist for The Guardian newspaper. "It's just unfortunate that you have to protect someone because of their identity … while at the same time if you care about the masses of Black people, the masses of poor people, the masses of immigrants in this country, you know that you have to speak truth and be honest about their record," Purnell says.

Senator Kamala Harris has formally accepted the Democratic vice-presidential nomination, becoming the first woman of color to run on a major party presidential ticket. We feature part of her historic speech.

On the third night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, party leaders argued that U.S. democracy is at risk if President Trump is reelected in November, with a lineup of speeches from former Congressmember Gabby Giffords, senator and former presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and former President Barack Obama, who grew emotional describing the stakes of the election and urged people not to "let them take away your democracy." We air excerpts from the night's events.

Kamala Harris Accepts Democratic Party's Nomination for Vice President, Hundreds of Wildfires Choke California, as Coronavirus Sidelines Prisoner Firefighters, U.S. Records Nearly 1,300 New Coronavirus Deaths as PPE Shortages Persist, NYC Teachers' Union Threatens Strike If Schools Reopen Without Safety Measures, New Zealand Deploys Troops to Enforce Quarantine; Zambian Vice President Positive for Coronavirus, Emails Reveal Swedish Epidemiologist Urged Coronavirus Spread to Attain Herd Immunity, Iran's Official COVID-19 Death Toll Passes 20,000 as Trump Pushes for New Sanctions, European Union Readies Sanctions Against Belarus as Authoritarian Ruler Digs In, Russian Opposition Activist Alexei Navalny Falls into Coma After Apparent Poisoning, Israel Assaults Gaza Strip for Ninth Consecutive Night as Palestinians Protest Israel-UAE Deal, Biden Campaign Attacks Palestinian American Activist Linda Sarsour over Israel Boycott, President Trump Embraces Supporters of Far-Right QAnon Conspiracy Theory, Facebook Bans Anti-Fascist and Anarchist Groups Along with QAnon Conspiracy Pages, Supreme Court to Hear Trump Admin Challenge to Affordable Care Act on Nov. 10, Cincinnati Reds Broadcaster Suspended over Anti-Gay Slur, Michigan Agrees to Pay $600 Million to Flint Water Crisis Victims

After massive public outcry against cuts to mail service ahead of November's election, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has announced he will suspend changes to the U.S. Postal Service until after the election, when a record number of voters are expected to cast ballots by mail. President Trump has admitted he's working to undermine the USPS in order to make it harder to vote by mail in November. We speak with Lisa Graves, executive director of the policy research group True North Research, who says Louis DeJoy is "the most partisan person, in 100 years at least, to head the Postal Service" and warns that U.S. democracy is at stake. "We need to really hold this Postal Service accountable."

The Democratic National Committee has dropped a pledge to eliminate tax breaks and subsidies for the fossil fuel industry from its party platform, after a DNC spokesperson said the amendment was originally included in "error," despite both Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris supporting it on the campaign trail. Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of the Sunrise Movement, says it is "disappointing to see" Democrats back away from the pledge, but adds that as long as social movements sustain pressure, "it will be a priority for the Biden administration, should they win in November." Prakash also discusses hopes for a Green New Deal, the importance of Kamala Harris's place on the ticket and the lack of young voices at the DNC.

As Democrats coalesce around Joe Biden ahead of the November presidential election, we speak with economist Darrick Hamilton, a former Bernie Sanders supporter who took part in the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force, about where the Democratic Party is headed on economic policy. Hamilton says that while Biden's policies are not as radical as the moment requires, he can be pushed by social movements. "We will make Biden do it," Hamilton says, quoting Franklin D. Roosevelt on the need for activists to pressure lawmakers. "But first and foremost, Donald Trump needs to get removed."

As the Democratic Party formally selected Joe Biden as its nominee for president at the virtual Democratic National Convention, one of those who joined in the call to elect him was activist Ady Barkan, who is paralyzed and unable to speak due to terminal ALS. Barkan is a leading advocate of Medicare for All and has publicly challenged Biden, who does not support Medicare for All. "We live in the richest country in history. And yet we do not guarantee this most basic human right. Everyone living in America should get the healthcare they need, regardless of their employment status or ability to pay," Barkan said, using computer assistance.

Joe Biden is the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, after he was formally picked by the party to challenge President Trump in November on the second night of the virtual Democratic National Convention. We feature highlights from the night, which featured speeches from 17 so-called rising stars in the Democratic Party, including voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, who unsuccessfully ran for Georgia governor in 2018, as well as Democratic heavyweights like former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. For a second night in a row, the DNC prominently featured the voices of Republicans and former Republicans backing Biden, including John McCain's widow Cindy McCain, former defense secretary and Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who helped make the case for invading Iraq in 2003 by lying to the United Nations about Iraq's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. The night ended with a keynote address by Jill Biden.

Joe Biden Formally Wins Democratic Presidential Nomination, Postmaster General Promises to Suspend Service Cuts Until After Election, Notre Dame Cancels In-Person Classes Amid COVID-19 Outbreak Linked to Party, Coronavirus Death Toll from U.S. Prisons and Jails Tops 1,000, World Health Organization Says Young People Are Driving Coronavirus Outbreaks, Malian President Deposed in Military Coup Following Weeks of Protests, Senate Intelligence Committee Alleges Trump Campaign Associate Was Russian Agent, Far-Right Activist, Banned from Twitter over Racism, Wins Florida House GOP Primary, RNC to Feature St. Louis Couple Who Threatened to Shoot Black Lives Matter Protesters, Trump Issues Posthumous Pardon to Suffragist Susan B. Anthony, California Under State of Emergency as Heat Wave Sparks Wildfires, Federal Judge Halts Trump Admin Rollback of Transgender Healthcare Protections, Anti-Choice Ethics Panel Convened by Trump Recommends Against Fetal Tissue Research

As this year marks 100 years since the ratification of 19th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing women's right to vote, we look at the connection between the movement for women's suffrage and the movement to abolish slavery. Many states created laws to continue to deny women the vote, and African American women were subjected to the same Jim Crow laws already used to deny the vote to African American men. "To look for African American women and their history of the vote in 1920 is to miss the important chapter that begins in 1920 and doesn't culminate until the Voting Rights Act is adopted in 1965," says author and Johns Hopkins University history professor Martha Jones, whose forthcoming book is "Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All."

The Democratic National Convention faces criticism over the lack of diversity in its primetime programming during this year's virtual event, even as Latinx voters are slated to make up the largest bloc of nonwhite voters in 2020. Only a handful of Latinx speakers and no Muslim speakers are appearing during the broadcasted convention, while Republicans like former Ohio Governor John Kasich were given slots. "There were 35 primetime speakers, and only three of them were Latinx, and I raised a concern about that," says Julián Castro, former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and the only Latinx candidate in the race. "I don't think that represented the beautiful coalition that the Democrats put together."

One of the most memorable speeches of the opening night of the virtual Democratic National Convention was delivered by Kristin Urquiza, who said her father, a supporter of Donald Trump, died after believing the president's assurances that the coronavirus was under control. "My dad, Mark Anthony Urquiza, should be here today, but he isn't," she said. "My dad was a healthy 65-year-old. His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump — and for that, he paid with his life."

Calling the 2020 election "the most important in the modern history of this country," Senator Bernie Sanders, in his speech to the Democratic National Convention, urged people to fight "against greed, oligarchy and bigotry" by voting President Trump out of office in November. "We need Joe Biden as our next president," Sanders said.

On the first night of the Democratic National Convention, former first lady Michelle Obama delivered a searing critique of President Trump, accusing him of being "in over his head" and incapable of carrying out the duties of the office. "If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can," Obama said. We air excerpts from her keynote speech, delivered virtually after the convention was moved online due to the pandemic.

Virtual DNC Kicks Off with Calls for Unity, Speeches by Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders, UNC Switches to Remote Classes After 177 Students Contract COVID-19, Indigenous Groups in Brazil Protest Gov't Inaction on Coronavirus; South Korea Outbreak Grows, Postmaster General Agrees to Testify as Fears Mount over USPS Changes That Could Threaten Election, Special Tribunal Delivers Verdict over 2005 Killing of Ex-Lebanese PM Rafik al-Hariri, Mapuche Protesters Demand Hunger-Striking Leader Be Released, Spanish Royal Family Confirms Exiled Former King Juan Carlos Is in UAE, Trump Admin Finalized Plan to Open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for Oil Drilling, Death Valley Hits 130 Degrees, Possibly the Highest Temperature Ever Recorded, Greenland's Ice Sheet Has Shrunk Past the Point of Return, Ex-DHS Chief of Staff Under Trump Endorses Joe Biden for President, New Bodycam Video Shows Officer Pushing Back Concerned Onlookers During Killing of George Floyd, Louisiana Man Sentenced to Life for Stealing Hedge Clippers to Get New Hearing, Black Man from NC Proves Death Sentence Was Racially Motivated, Has Life Sentence Reinstated, Austin City Council Redirects Police Funds to Abortion Access Services

At least 212 land and environmental defenders were murdered last year — the highest number since the group Global Witness began gathering data eight years ago. Some 40% of those killed were Indigenous peoples. We get an update from Honduras, where the Afro-Indigenous Garífuna community continues to demand the safe return of five Garífuna land defenders who were kidnapped by heavily armed men who were reportedly wearing police uniforms and forced them into three unmarked vehicles at gunpoint. This was the latest attack against the Garífuna community as they defend their territory from destructive projects fueled by foreign investors and the Honduran government. "We are in danger daily — all the leaders of the Garífuna community, all the defendants of the land in Honduras," says Carla Garcia, international relations coordinator at the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras.

We speak with Cori Bush, a nurse and single mother who was formerly homeless, who joins the growing number of young Black progressives likely headed to Congress this November, after she won a stunning primary upset over 10-term incumbent Congressmember William Lacy Clay Jr. in Missouri's 1st Congressional District in the St. Louis area. Bush says her campaign's victory was a result of a grassroots effort from across her district and beyond. "We believed that it's time for a change, it's time for an active leader, someone who knows the streets, someone who knows the struggle of what's happening in our country, especially with COVID-19 and how that's devastated communities," she says. The Black Lives Matter activist says she supports defunding the police and that she's looking forward to working with other progressive women in Congress. "We have to expand the Squad," she says, referring to Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley.

As the Democratic National Convention kicks off virtually in Milwaukee, we speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna, who says he will be voting no on the Democratic platform because it does not support Medicare for All. Khanna, who served as national co-chair of Senator Bernie Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign, says ensuring universal healthcare is crucial for the Democratic Party, especially during a pandemic. "I am very enthusiastic about supporting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to defeat Donald Trump, but I cannot vote for this platform that does not have universal healthcare as a right," says Khanna.

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls lawmakers back from summer recess for an urgent vote this week to stop changes at the U.S. Postal Service that could interfere with the upcoming election, we speak with California Congressmember Ro Khanna, who says millions of ballots could be at risk of going uncounted. "That, in my view, is a deliberate strategy to try to disqualify millions of votes and for the president to try to steal this election," says Khanna. President Trump recently admitted he's working to undermine the Postal Service in order to make it harder to vote by mail in November. Protests took place this weekend outside the homes of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy — a major Trump donor — who has instituted changes at the USPS that have slowed mail delivery and led to a days-long backlog in many parts of the United States, and the Postal Service sent letters to 46 states and Washington, D.C., warning that all mail-in ballots may not get delivered in time for voting.

Pelosi Calls House Back from Recess as Outrage Mounts over Turmoil at USPS, AZ Teachers Halt School Reopening; COVID-19 Data Shows Devastating Effect on Latinx, Black People, New Zealand Postpones Election Amid COVID-19 Spike; Virus Compounds Disaster in Lebanon, Mass Protests Continue in Belarus Amid Reports of Torture in Jails, Student Protests in Thailand Swell, Demanding Democratic Reforms, 16 People Killed After Car Bomb Blast at Hotel in Somalia, At Least 6 People Killed as Protests Intensify in Ivory Coast, Trump Vows to Reinstate U.N. Sanctions Against Iran, Lawyers Say Guards at Immigration Jail "Systematically" Sexually Assaulted Prisoners, Top Homeland Security Officials Were Invalidly Appointed, Says Congressional Watchdog, Far-Right Protesters Attack Antiracist Protesters in Georgia, Michigan and Oregon, Three Officers in Jackson, MS Charged with Murdering Black Man, White Georgia State Trooper Charged with Murdering Black Motorist, Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz Lose Primary Bids, 2 Million Californians Lose Power as Heat Wave Sparks Rolling Blackouts, Robert Trump, Younger Brother of President Donald Trump, Dies at 71