Democracy Now!

The coronavirus crisis and the movement for racial justice have magnified the challenges faced by people released from prison, whose criminal record makes it hard to find a job and even housing, especially women. We feature a new AJ+ series by Messiah Rhodes, whose mother was in and out of jail throughout his childhood and was able to break the cycle of incarceration. Rhodes says his work serves as a response to calls to defund police. "Instead of giving law enforcement agencies tanks and sci-fi-level weaponry, we should be funding … housing, education, family reunification, mental health support," he says. We also speak with DeAnna Hoskins, president of JustLeadershipUSA, which will host Rebuilding the Table, an event on the official schedule of the Democratic National Convention that centers formerly incarcerated voices.

In a deal brokered by the United States, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to fully normalize relations after years of secretly working together on countering Iran and other issues. Under the deal, Israel has also agreed to temporarily halt plans to annex occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank, which had already been on hold due to international condemnation. We speak with Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, who says the agreement is being falsely characterized as a peace deal. "I don't see that it has anything to do with peace," he says. "On the contrary, it makes the chance of a just, equitable and sustainable peace much, much, much harder."

U.S. Records 1,000+ Daily Coronavirus Deaths Again as 2,000+ Quarantined at Schools, Georgia Governor Drops Lawsuit over Atlanta Mask Mandate, CDC Director Warns U.S. Risks Worst Fall in Public Health History, Senate Adjourns Without Deal on New Coronavirus Aid as Millions Face Hunger and Eviction, Coronavirus Cases Surge in India, Peru, Spain, France and Elsewhere, Israel to Normalize Relations with United Arab Emirates Despite Palestinian Protest, Unexploded Missile Found at U.N.-Run School as Israel Attacks Gaza Strip, Trump Admits He's Undermining the U.S. Postal Service to Thwart Mail-in Voting, USPS Confirms Removal of Public Mailboxes from Oregon Cities, Trump Questions Kamala Harris's Eligibility, Echoing Racist Conspiracy Theory About Obama, Trump Refuses to Answer Question About Lying to the American People, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Met with Kanye West, Who's Running for President, Belarus Releases Political Prisoners as Protests Grow Against Authoritarian President, Afghan Government Releases Taliban Prisoners, Paving Way for Peace Talks, Trump Administration Halts Private Charter Flights to Cuba, Afro-Colombian Teenagers Found Tortured and Murdered in Cali, Brazilian Police Set Fire to Landless Workers' Encampment During Mass Eviction, Protesters Temporarily Halt ICE Arrests of Immigrants in Bend, Oregon, Documents Show Trump Admin Ignored Threat of Border Wall to Endangered Species, Trump Admin Accuses Yale of Discriminating Against White and Asian Applicants, Kentucky AG Meets Breonna Taylor's Family, Over 150 Days After Her Killing by Louisville Police, Western Wildfires Destroy Over 90,000 Acres in California, Oregon and Colorado, UC Santa Cruz to Reinstate 41 Grad Students Fired for Holding Wildcat Strikes

We go to Bolivia, where opponents of the coup government have entered day 11 of a general strike and nationwide highway blockade to protest the repeated postponement of Bolivia's first presidential election since last year's ouster of Evo Morales by the right-wing coup government of Jeanine Áñez, which was followed by an economic collapse and oppression. "Almost all of the key highways have roadblocks … bringing the country to a standstill," says Ollie Vargas, Cochabamba-based reporter with Kawsachun News. "People feel impoverished. They feel persecuted. There's a climate of authoritarianism in the country, persecution against leftists, media outlets."

As Senator Kamala Harris makes history as the first woman of color on a major party ticket, we host a debate on her record as California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney, when she proudly billed herself as "top cop" and called for more cops on the street. San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Niki Solis says Harris was the state's most progressive DA and advocated for "so many policies and so many alternatives to incarceration." Law professor Lara Bazelon says Harris was on the wrong side of history for often opposing criminal justice reform, though her record did change as a senator. "Her office fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that in some cases kept innocent people in prison," Bazelon says.

As Kamala Harris, the first woman of color on a major presidential ticket, hits the campaign trail with Joe Biden for the first time, we play an extended excerpt of her address, in which she blasts President Trump's handling of the economy, immigration, racial justice and the coronavirus pandemic. "The case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open and shut," Harris says. "Just look where they've gotten us: more than 16 million out of work; millions of kids who cannot go back to school; a crisis of poverty, of homelessness, afflicting Black, Brown and Indigenous people the most."

Kamala Harris and Joe Biden Make First Appearance as Running Mates, U.S. Records Highest Coronavirus Death Toll of Summer, NJ Schools Allowed to Reopen as NY Educators Call for Delay to Start of School Year, Florida Sheriff Bans Deputies from Wearing Masks as Coronavirus Cases Spike, New WH Coronavirus Task Force Chief Is Radiologist Who Favors Herd Immunity, New Zealand Imposes New Lockdown as Coronavirus Spreads for First Time in Months, Argentine Doctor Warns of Spike in COVID-19 Deaths as Hospitals Hit Capacity, India Records Record Coronavirus Deaths as Ex-President with COVID-19 Placed on Ventilator, House Speaker Pelosi Says Lawmakers "Miles Apart" on New Stimulus Bill, Iowa Postal Union President Says Mail Sorting Machines Were Removed Amid Dramatic Cuts at USPS, U.N. Sounds Alarm as Belarus Police Open Fire on Anti-Government Protesters, Turkish Police Arrest 25 Women Demanding Turkey Remain in Women's Rights Treaty, State Department IG, Third of the Year, Clears Secretary Pompeo over Saudi Arms Deal, Tucker Carlson Blasts Guest Who Corrected Mispronunciation of Kamala Harris's Name, Trump Nominates Florida Lawyer Who Graduated College in 2009 to Lifetime Judicial Appointment

In her extensively researched new book, "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents," Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson argues the United States' racial hierarchy should be thought of as a caste system, similar to that in India. In a wide-ranging interview, she describes how she also looks at the ways Nazi Germany borrowed from U.S. Jim Crow laws. "The Nazis needed no one to teach them how to hate," Wilkerson says. "But what they did was they sent researchers to the United States to study Jim Crow laws here in the United States, to study and to research how the United States had managed to subordinate and subjugate its African American population."

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's selection of California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate for the November election makes her the first Black woman and the first Indian American on a major party presidential ticket. "It's hard to overstate how historic, how monumental this is," says Aimee Allison, president of She the People, which works to elevate the political voice and leadership of women of color. But in the midst of the largest protest movement in American history against racist policing, Briahna Joy Gray, the former national press secretary for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, says "there's a great deal of frustration" with Harris, who is "known for being the top cop from California."

Joe Biden Taps Kamala Harris as Vice-Presidential Running Mate, Florida, Georgia Record Record Coronavirus Deaths as U.S. Colleges Delay Fall Sports Season, Bodies of COVID-19 Victims Lie Unclaimed Outside Chapel in La Paz, Bolivia, QAnon Conspiracy Theorist Wins Georgia 14th Congressional District GOP Primary, Rep. Ilhan Omar Fends Off Primary Challenger Who Dramatically Outraised Her, Clintons, Obamas Among Top Speakers at Democratic National Convention, Beirut Vigil Marks One Week Since Catastrophic Port Explosion, Thousands of Protesters in Mali Demand President's Ouster, Chicago Man Accused of Firing at Police Held on $1 Million Bond, Family of Elijah McClain Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Aurora, CO, L.A. Sheriff's Deputies Detain Alleged Assault Victims at Gunpoint, Michigan Teen Jailed for Failing to Complete Online School Work Removed from Probation, California Orders Uber, Lyft to Reclassify Drivers as Employees

California's notorious San Quentin State Prison is experiencing the worst coronavirus outbreak in the United States. At least 2,200 prisoners have been infected, and 25 have died. More than 260 staff members have also been infected. We hear from two people incarcerated at San Quentin about conditions inside and the punitive measures authorities have taken against prisoners campaigning for better safety measures, and speak with James King, a member of the Stop San Quentin Outbreak Coalition. "The conditions at San Quentin are horrific," says King, who was incarcerated at San Quentin from 2013 until December 2019. "You have these tightly confined spaces where people are living in close proximity to each other with no ability to physically distance."

As the world passes a grim milestone of 20 million coronavirus cases, we look at how the pandemic humbled and humiliated the world's most powerful country. Over a quarter of the confirmed infections and deaths have been in the United States, which has less than 5% of the world's population. Ed Yong, a science writer at The Atlantic who has been covering the pandemic extensively since March, says existing gaps in the U.S. social safety net and the Trump administration's "devastatingly inept response" made for a deadly combination.

After days of protests, Lebanon's government has resigned following the devastating explosion at the Port of Beirut that killed 200 people and injured thousands. The port blast, the source of which was 2,700 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate left unattended in a warehouse for more than six years, occurred as Lebanon was already facing political, economic and public health crises. We speak with Ziad Abu-Rish, a historian and research fellow at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies and co-director of Bard College's Masters of Arts program in human rights and the arts, who says despite public outrage toppling the government, structural change may be harder to attain. "The fall of cabinets and even the holding of early parliamentary elections are not necessarily signs that fundamental transformation is underway in Lebanon," Abu-Rish says. "For now at least, this is politics as usual."

Lebanese Gov't Steps Down in Wake of Catastrophic Beirut Explosion and Mounting Protests, Trump Mulls Barring Americans from Reentry into U.S.; Coronavirus Cases Rise in Kids, Russia Approves First COVID-19 Vaccine; New Zealand Goes Back into Lockdown, Unrest in Chicago Sparked by Police Shooting Leads to 100+ Arrests, 16 People Arrested in Portland, OR Protests, Including Hate Crime Survivor Demetria Hester, Belarus in Turmoil as Lukashenko Cracks Down on Protests, Opposition Candidate Flees to Lithuania, Bolivia Protests Against Interim Right-Wing Gov't Intensify; Union Calls for General Strike, Fires in Brazilian Amazon on Pace to Create Record-Breaking Destruction, Last Intact Ice Shelf in Canadian Arctic Has Collapsed, EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations, Advocates Call for ICE to Free Persecuted Mexican Prisoner; Family of South Korean Man Demands Probe into Suicide, New Bodycam Footage Reveals More Devastating Details in George Floyd's Killing by Police, NC Jail Staffers Face Manslaughter Charges over Killing of Black Prisoner, Baltimore Gas Blast Kills One Person, Injures Seven, President Trump's Deal with Kodak on Hold Amid SEC Probe, Florida Court Rules School Cannot Discriminate Against Transgender Students

President Trump's latest executive orders to extend unemployment benefits and defer payroll taxes may be unconstitutional. Democrats had hoped to extend a program to give unemployed workers an additional $600 in weekly benefits and to extend a federal moratorium protecting some renters from evictions, but failed to overcome opposition from Republican lawmakers. Under Trump's order, unemployed workers would continue receiving an additional $400 a week, but only once states put up a quarter of the money and set up a new system to distribute the payments — a process that could take months. Trump also signed an executive order on evictions that does not extend the federal moratorium on evictions, and ordered a deferral of payroll taxes that will still need to be paid back next year, after the election. Trump's executive orders amount to "political theater," says David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, but could "set a really dangerous precedent" for the separation of powers in the future.

Democratic lawmakers say the Trump administration is sabotaging the United States Postal Service ahead of the November election, when a record number of votes are expected to be cast by mail. Since taking office, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy — a major Trump donor — has instituted a number of cost-cutting measures that have slowed down the delivery of mail, and overhauled the leadership of the agency in a move that critics say will give him more power. This comes as President Trump continues to attack mail-in voting, claiming the post office can't handle an increase in ballots. We speak with Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, and David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect and author of the new book, "Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power."

The Lebanese government may be on the verge of collapse amid protests over the massive port explosion that devastated much of Beirut and killed at least 200 people and injured thousands. At least four ministers and nine members of Parliament have resigned. "The dominoes are falling," says Dion Nissenbaum, a Beirut-based reporter for The Wall Street Journal, who led an investigation into the official neglect that preceded last week's explosion, and says it has intensified public outrage over long-standing government dysfunction, calling it "the straw that's broken the camel's back here."

Lebanon Unrest Mounting as Death Toll from Catastrophic Port Blast Tops 200, Trump Signs Executive Orders After Coronavirus Bill Stalls, Dems Say They Are Unconstitutional , U.S. COVID-19 Cases Top 5 Million, with More Evidence of Infections in Children and Teens, Coronavirus Surging Across India, Brazil as Europe and Cuba Reimpose Containment Measures, Hong Kong Arrests Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai Under National Security Law, Protesters Take to Streets of Belarus, Accuse Officials of Fraud After Lukashenko Claims 80% of Vote, Mauritius in State of "Environmental Emergency" as Tanker Leeches Fuel into Protected Areas, 8 People Killed in Somalia Suicide Attack, Airstrikes Kill At Least 9 Children in Northern Yemen, Venezuela Sentences 2 Ex-U.S. Soldiers to 20 Years for Failed Coup Attempt, Afghanistan Set to Release 400 Taliban Prisoners Ahead of Peace Talks, Postmaster General, a Trump Ally, Overhauls Leadership of USPS Ahead of Elections, Kai Kahele Wins HI Congressional Primary; Marquita Bradshaw Becomes TN's Dem. Candidate for Senate, Puerto Rico Suspends Primary Voting Due to Lack of Ballots, Louisiana Supreme Court Upholds Life Sentence for Black Man Who Stole Hedge Clippers, Salt Lake City Protesters Face Life in Prison over Broken Windows, Red Paint, Nagasaki Mayor Calls for Nuclear Weapons Ban on 75th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing

"In my family, being kind was considered being weak," says Mary Trump, President Trump's niece, a clinical psychologist and author of "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man." We spend the hour with Mary Trump, discussing her book the president doesn't want people to read, in which she describes his upbringing in a dysfunctional family that fostered his greed, cruelty and racist and sexist behaviors — which he is now inflicting on the world. Mary Trump also discusses the president's mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, his long history of lies and misrepresentations, and the dangers of his reelection. "I believe that this country is on the knife's edge, and I don't want anybody going to cast their vote in November being able to claim that they just don't know who they're voting for," she says.

Study Predicts U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Could Reach 300,000 by December, Georgia High Schoolers Suspended for Sharing Images of Unmasked Students in Crowded Halls, India's COVID-19 Cases Top 2 Million as WHO Warns of Worsening Outbreaks in Africa, Peru's Health System in Collapse as COVID-19 Death Toll Reaches 20,000, Congressional Talks on New Coronavirus Stimulus on Brink of Collapse, "Make Billionaires Pay Act" Would Tax Richest 0.001% to Fund Healthcare for Millions, Police Fire Tear Gas at Anti-Government Protesters as Anger Rages over Beirut Blast, New York Attorney General Files Suit to Dissolve NRA over Executives' Self-Dealing, Trump Claims Biden Would Take Away Guns, "Hurt God", Ohio Governor Mike DeWine Tests Positive, Then Negative, for Coronavirus , State Department Taps Elliott Abrams as Special Representative to Iran, Trump Nominee to Pentagon Post Grilled over Firm's Alleged Ties to Saudi Assassins, Trump Signs Executive Order Effectively Banning WeChat and TikTok, Report: Facebook Gave Preferential Treatment to Right-Wing Pages and Fired Whistleblower, WNBA Players Stage Protest of Anti-BLM Senator and Team Owner Kelly Loeffler, Emails Show Officials Blocked Coronavirus Testing During Outbreak at Mesa Verde ICE Jail, San Quentin State Prison Has Largest Coronavirus Outbreak in U.S.

On the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, when the United States became the only country ever to use nuclear weapons in warfare, we look at how the U.S. government sought to manipulate the narrative about what it had done — especially by controlling how it was portrayed by Hollywood. Journalist Greg Mitchell's new book, "The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood — and America — Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," documents how the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki triggered a race between Hollywood movie studios to tell a sanitized version of the story in a major motion picture. "There's all sorts of evidence that has emerged that the use of the bomb was not necessary, it could have been delayed or not used at all," says Mitchell. "But what was important was to set this narrative of justification, and it was set right at the beginning by Truman and his allies, with a very willing media."

On the 75th anniversary of when the United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing some 140,000 people, we speak with Hideko Tamura Snider, who was 10 years old when she survived the attack. "The shaking was so huge," she recalls. "I remember the sensation, the color and the smell like yesterday." Tamura Snider describes her harrowing journey through a shattered city, suffering radiation sickness following the attack, and her message to President Trump.

Beirut Blast Destroys Grain Silo and Leaves 300,000 Homeless, Adding to Humanitarian Crisis, COVID-19 Deaths Surge in Florida and California as New York City Erects Quarantine Checkpoints, India Records Its Highest One-Day Coronavirus Toll, Facebook Removes Video from Trump's Account Citing COVID-19 Misinformation, Security Team Assigned to Family of Dr. Anthony Fauci Amid Death Threats, Gilead Accused of Neglecting Coronavirus Drug Research in Bid to Maximize Profits, Kodak Under Investigation for Insider Trading Tied to Massive Government Loan, Deutsche Bank Gave Trump Financial Records to New York Prosecutors as Part of Criminal Probe, State Dept. Acting Inspector General Abruptly Quits, Weeks After Trump Fired Predecessor, Joe Biden to Accept Presidential Nomination from Delaware as DNC Goes Virtual, Iowa Restores Voting Rights to Formerly Incarcerated People Convicted of Felonies, Minneapolis Prosecutor Won't Bring Charges Against Officers Who Killed Autistic Man, Florida Governor Admits Unemployment System Intentionally Discourages Benefit Seekers, Daughter of Rep. Louie Gohmert: "My Father Ignored Medical Expertise and Now He Has COVID", Saudi Arabia Accused of Advancing Nuclear Weapons Program With Chinese Help, Turkish Women Protest Plans to Withdraw from Treaty Combating Violence Against Women, AP: 2,000 Unaccompanied Migrant Children Expelled from U.S. Since March, Daisy Coleman, Survivor of 2012 Missouri Rape Case, Dies by Suicide

Calls are growing to break up the Big Tech giants, with a handful of companies controlling more and more of the technology industry, crowding out or acquiring would-be competitors and exercising vast power over the U.S. economy. Lawmakers grilled the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook during a hearing last week on whether their companies are guilty of stifling competition, in a scene reminiscent of the 1994 hearing of tobacco executives who claimed cigarettes were not addictive. This came just days after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos reportedly made $13 billion in a single day, even as the coronavirus pandemic has left millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet. We speak with Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYU Stern, who says we may be seeing "the beginning of the end" of the tech monopolies.

The explosion in the Port of Beirut, which killed at least 100 people and injured about 4,000 others, is the latest blow to Lebanon, which already faces an economic, political and public health crisis amid the coronavirus pandemic. The blast is believed to have been triggered by 2,700 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate inexplicably left unattended in a warehouse for six years. Journalist Rami Khouri says it's further proof of "the cumulative incompetence, corruption, lassitude, amateurism and uncaring attitude by successive Lebanese governments" that have failed the country. "It's the ruling political elite that is responsible for this," he says.

As Beirut reels from a massive explosion that killed at least 100 people and injured thousands, we get an on-the-ground update from pediatrician and writer Dr. Seema Jilani, who treated her own daughter for injuries after the blast. "It was extremely packed because we're just coming out of a four-day lockdown," says Jilani. "Everybody was out." Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab called the explosion a "national catastrophe."

Massive Explosion Tears Through Beirut, Leaving Hundreds Missing and Thousands Injured, Lebanon's PM Says 2,700 Tons of Ammonium Nitrate Sparked "National Catastrophe" in Beirut, Mississippi Becomes Biggest U.S. Coronavirus Hot Spot as Governor Mandates Masks, Georgia Prisoners Live-Stream Video from Prison Uprising Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, Chicago Schools Cancel September Classes as Union Threatens Strike over Coronavirus Safety, U.N. Warns Coronavirus School Closures Have Impacted Over 1 Billion Students, Brazil COVID-19 Deaths Approach 100,000 as Infections Surge in India, Black Lives Matter & Ferguson Activist Cori Bush Pulls Off Huge Upset in Missouri Democratic Primary, Kris Kobach, Architect of Voter Suppression Efforts, Loses Kansas GOP Senate Primary, Rep. Carolyn Maloney & NYC Councilmember Ritchie Torres Win New York Primaries, Former Census Bureau Directors Blast Trump Admin's Early End to Collection Effort, Trump Refuses to Praise Late Civil Rights Icon John Lewis, Aurora, CO Police Detain Black Mother and Four Children at Gunpoint, Ex-Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Placed Under House Arrest , U.S. Appeals Court Finds Former Bolivian President Liable for 2003 Indigenous Massacre, Tropical Storm Isaias Kills At Least 5 People, Leaves Millions Without Power Across East Coast, Heat Wave in Europe Shatters Temperature Records in the U.K., France & Spain, Trump Mispronounces "Yosemite" Twice at White House Event, BP to Slash Oil & Gas Production, Invest Billions into Renewable Energy

In Arizona, heavily armed Border Patrol officers raided the medical camp of humanitarian group No More Deaths and detained 30 migrants whose whereabouts are now unknown. It was the second raid in just two days on the camp, which provides water, food and medical attention to refugees crossing into the United States through the scorching Sonoran Desert. "Immediately after they entered the camp, the first thing they did was round up all of the No More Deaths aid workers and zip-tie them, remove their phones," says Montana Thames, a humanitarian aid worker with No More Deaths. "It was very clear they didn't want any witnesses." No More Deaths also recently published documents revealing the Border Patrol Union, a pro-Trump and anti-immigrant extremist group, had instigated a 2017 raid of the same camp.

People being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement jails are holding work strikes and hunger strikes over the lack of access to personal protective equipment or quality medical care, and to demand their release. We speak with Joe Mejia, an asylum seeker who was among a group of prisoners at Yuba County Jail in California who led a hunger strike while he was held there for nearly 11 months. "That place is dangerous," Mejia says. "It is a death sentence to detainees, especially right now with the coronavirus."

The U.S. government continues to hold tens of thousands of asylum seekers and immigrants in detention centers and jails, ignoring the advice of medical experts as the coronavirus continues to spread. ICE has also continued to transfer and deport people — including those who are infected — making it a global superspreader. We speak with Luis Angel Reyes Savalza, an immigration attorney and co-director of Pangea Legal Services in San Francisco, who himself is undocumented and recently got arrested at a protest outside the mansion of California Governor Gavin Newsom demanding the release of people in state prisons and immigration jails, calling the situation "really alarming."

As the U.S. coronavirus death toll passes 155,000, there is still no national testing program, with widespread shortages and delays hampering efforts to contain the pandemic. This continues months after President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner launched a White House task force with the goal of establishing a national testing plan. We speak to investigative reporter Katherine Eban, whose explosive Vanity Fair report chronicles Kushner's fumbling efforts and the sudden decision to abandon the project on political grounds. "The participants expected that at any moment in early April, the plan would be announced," says Eban. "It vanished into thin air."

Concerns Mount over Politicization of COVID-19 Vaccine, as Trump Lashes Out at "Pathetic" Dr. Birx, WHO Warns There May Never Be a Coronavirus "Silver Bullet", Trump Threatens to Sue Nevada After It Expands Voter Access, Leaked Video Shows George Floyd Pleaded for His Life, Cooperated with Police, Before He Was Killed, Video Shows LAPD Shot Peaceful Protester in the Head as He Held His Arms in the Air, Prosecutor Clears Arkansas Officers Who Pushed Black Man into the Ground for 6.5 Minutes Before He Died, Census Bureau Cuts Short Collection Efforts by One Month, Mexican Man Dies After Falling from Border Wall, Mexican Journalist Pablo Morrugares Shot Dead in Guerrero, 3 Salvadoran Officers Sentenced to 20 Years for Killing a Trans Woman Who Was Deported from the U.S., Egypt Sentences 6 Women to Prison over TikTok Videos as Calls Grow to Free Activist Sanaa Seif, Former Spanish King Juan Carlos Goes into Exile over Corruption Scandal, U.S. to Permanently Station Thousands of Troops in Poland, Manhattan DA Investigating Trump for Bank and Insurance Fraud, NJ Federal Judge, Whose Son Was Killed by Racist, Misogynistic Lawyer, Calls for Privacy for Judges, FDA Expands List of Dangerous Hand Sanitizers to Over 100 Products, John Hume, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Architect of Irish Peace Deal, Dies at 83

Award-winning journalist and human rights activist Omar Radi spoke to us from Casablanca on July 16. Two weeks later, on July 29, last Wednesday, Moroccan authorities arrested him on what press freedom advocates call "retaliatory charges." Now a court has charged Radi with undermining state security by receiving foreign funding and collaborating with foreign intelligence, and also charged him with rape. He is reportedly being held in a prison that is a COVID hot spot, and has not been allowed to have visits from his lawyer or his parents. We feature our interview with Radi, which focuses in part on an Amnesty International report, published about one month before his arrest, that alleges Moroccan authorities hacked his phone using Pegasus spyware from the Israeli company NSO Group.

With President Trump trailing in most polls, he tweeted recently that he was floating the idea of delaying the November election — something he cannot legally do — and continued his attacks on mail-in voting. "We have a president who is probably the most fascist president that we've ever had in this country," responds LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund and the BVM Capacity Building Institute. "He is hellbent on pushing the boundaries, whatever he needs to do, to undermine and undercut democracy."

As President Trump floats the idea of delaying the election, we speak with Nils Gilman, historian and co-founder of Transition Integrity Project, which organized a bipartisan group of experts to game out what a contested November election might look like. "In every scenario except for the one where Biden won in a landslide, we ended up with severe electoral contestation, protests in the streets, crazy stories happening on social media, and the challenges went down to Inauguration Day," Gilman says.

White House's Dr. Birx Warns U.S. Has Entered New Phase in Pandemic as Death Toll Tops 155,000, Lawmakers at Standstill over Coronavirus Bill as Democratic Rep. Grijalva Goes After GOP Response, Worldwide Cases Top 18 Million as Countries Across the Globe Hit Grim New Milestones, Border Patrol Raid Arizona Humanitarian Camp for 2nd Time in 2 Days, Detain 30 Asylum Seekers, SCOTUS Rules Trump Can Move Forward with Border Wall Construction, Trump Admin to Start Charging Fees for Asylum Applications, Islamic State Claims Attack on Afghanistan Jail Which Killed At Least 29 People, Award-Winning Author Tsitsi Dangarembga, Opposition Party Spokesperson Arrested in Zimbabwe, Hong Kong Postpones Elections, Issues Arrest Warrants Under National Security Law, Microsoft in Talks to Acquire TikTok's U.S. Operations, Trump Installs Islamophobic Fox News Pundit in Top Pentagon Post, Bypassing Senate Approval, Appeals Court Overturns Death Penalty for Boston Marathon Bomber, Active Army Sergeant ID'd as Killer of Austin, TX Antiracist Protester, Department of Homeland Security Removes Official Who Surveilled Journalists, Michigan Court Frees Black Teenager Jailed for Missing Online Schoolwork, Protesters in New York Demand End to Discrimination and Anti-Trans, Anti-Sex-Worker Laws

In his stirring eulogy at the funeral service for Congressmember John Lewis, President Barack Obama said expanded voting rights would be the greatest way to honor the civil rights icon's legacy. In a speech that condemned the status of American democracy without ever naming the sitting president, Obama called for Election Day to be declared a national holiday, full congressional representation for Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and the end of the filibuster, which he called a "Jim Crow relic." "You want to honor John? Let's honor him by revitalizing the law he was willing to die for," Obama said in reference to the Voting Rights Act. We feature an extended excerpt from Obama's remarks at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

As mourners gathered at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to honor the life of Georgia Congressmember John Lewis, among those who spoke was civil rights icon Rev. James Lawson, who helped to train John Lewis in nonviolence when Lewis was a student in Nashville. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once described Rev. Lawson as "the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world." Lawson invoked John Lewis's life as a call to action. "We will not be quiet as long as our nation continues to be the most violent culture in the history of humankind," Lawson said. We feature his extended remarks.

As family, friends and dignitaries paid their final respects at the Atlanta funeral of John Lewis, the civil rights leader and 17-term Georgia congressmember was remembered as a singular force for equality and justice. The funeral took place at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, once led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., where senior pastor Rev. Raphael Warnock contrasted Lewis's legacy with "some in high office who are much better at division than vision," and described the late politician as "a true American patriot who risked his life and bled for the hope and promise of democracy."

U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Top 1,000 for Fourth Consecutive Day, U.S. Economy Recorded Worst Quarterly Drop on Record as Coronavirus Spread, New Orleans Protesters Block Eviction Court Proceedings as Rent Comes Due, Brazil's First Lady Tests Positive for COVID-19 as Deaths Top 91,000, Coronavirus Cases Spike in European Countries That Lifted Lockdowns, Donald Trump Suggests Election Delay, Sparking Bipartisan Outrage, U.S. Postal Delays Spark Fears over Mail-In Ballots in November Election, Civil Rights Icon and Georgia Congressmember John Lewis Laid to Rest, Herman Cain, Co-Chair of Black Voices for Trump, Dies of COVID-19 , Baghdad Posts Record 125-Degree High as Middle East Swelters, Nearly One-Third of Bangladesh Under Water Amid Torrential Monsoon Rains , Palestinian Boycott, Divest and Sanctions Leader Arrested in Occupied West Bank, Homeland Security Dept. Gathered Intelligence on Journalists Covering Oregon Protests, ICE "Citizens Academy" Flooded with Fake Applications Amid Fears of Vigilantism, Border Patrol Raids No More Deaths Humanitarian Camp in Arizona, Jeffrey Epstein Victim: Ghislaine Maxwell "Trained Me as a Sex Slave", Jailed Saudi Feminist Activist Marks Birthday in Prison

Noam Chomsky says Israel's planned annexation of the occupied West Bank "basically formalizes" what has already been official policy over the last half-century, from both left-wing and right-wing parties in Israel. He compares Israel's treatment of Palestinians to anti-immigrant policies in the United States, and says the main goal of annexation is to take over as much territory while excluding its Palestinian inhabitants. "Israel does not want to bring Palestinian populations into the greater Israel they're constructing."

As the world races to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Noam Chomsky says any successful treatment must be accessible to everyone, and he warns that President Trump's withdrawal from the World Health Organization will hamper the international body's efforts to distribute medicine in countries racked by poverty and war. "There's at least one country in the world that is showing genuine internationalism, providing medical aid and support for people that need it," Chomsky says, and that is Cuba.

As the U.S. coronavirus death toll tops 150,000, we spend the hour with world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky, who says decades of neoliberal policies that shredded the social safety net and public institutions left the country ill-prepared for a major health crisis. "We should understand the roots of this pandemic," he says.

U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Tops 150,000 as Public Health Experts Call for "Reset" in Response, GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert Tests Positive for Coronavirus After Refusing to Wear Mask in Capitol, Brazil Records Record Daily Coronavirus Toll as Deaths Top 90,000, Mexico's Health Ministry Recommends Masks But Won't Require Them, Vietnam Reports First Coronavirus Cases in Months; Just 1,000 Pilgrims Join Hajj in Mecca, Oregon Governor Says Federal Agents Will Withdraw from Portland Amid Protests, Lawmakers Grill Big Tech CEOs over Anticompetitive Practices, Extended Jobless Benefits Expiring as Lawmakers Fail to Break Stalemate on Coronavirus Relief, Trump Accused of "Blatant Racism" After Trumpeting End of Fair Housing Rule, Police Raid Camp for Unhoused Residents of Denver, Displacing 200, Pentagon to Withdraw 12,000 U.S. Troops from Germany, Trump Admin Stymies Work of Agency Tasked with Preventing Industrial Disasters, New Report: Communities of Color in U.S. Will Be Hardest Hit by Extreme Heat, Press Freedom Group Condemns Morocco for Arresting Journalist Omar Radi, Barack Obama to Give Eulogy at Funeral for John Lewis

We revisit civil rights leader and Congressmember John Lewis's early years of activism with Bernard Lafayette, one of Lewis's closest friends and collaborators. Lafayette participated with Lewis in the first Freedom Rides of 1961 as they attempted to integrate buses and faced brutal beatings by white mobs, and was a fellow leader in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Lewis "knew how to relate to people who were different from him and who had different orientations, different values, different philosophies, and that's why he was such a great leader," Lafayette says. "He found a way to make a way."

We look at the life and legacy of late civil rights icon and Georgia Congressmember John Lewis, who is being mourned across the U.S. and who became the first Black politician to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. "The irony of this moment is that even as we celebrate and honor John Lewis, the patron saint of voting rights, he hailed from the state which in many instances is ground zero for voter suppression," says Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, who serves as senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, was with Lewis in the final days of his life and will preside over his memorial service. "In recent years, voting has become increasingly a partisan issue, and there are those who are not embarrassed by making it difficult for people to vote." Rev. Warnock is also running as a Democrat for Senate in Georgia.

We play highlights from Attorney General William Barr's grilling by the House Judiciary Committee over how he sent militarized federal forces to confront Black Lives Matter protesters, and his opposition to voting by mail, and get response from a close friend of Congressmember John Lewis who is now running for Senate. "In spite of the machinations of Donald Trump and those who do his bidding, including the attorney general, the good news is that we're seeing a multiracial coalition of people pouring out into American streets," responds Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, "saying that we're concerned about the soul of our democracy." Rev. Warnock is running as a Democrat for Senate in Georgia.

U.S. Records Highest One-Day Coronavirus Death Toll Since May, Trump Retweets Doctor Who Warned of Sex with Demons and "Alien DNA", Twitter Suspends Donald Trump Jr. for Spreading COVID-19 Misinformation, Progressives Say GOP Coronavirus Bill Would Bring "Mass Poverty and Mass Hunger", Teachers' Union Prepared to Strike If Schools Aren't Made Safe from Coronavirus, World Health Organization Warns Summer Weather Isn't Slowing Coronavirus, Argentina Reports Record COVID-19 Death Toll as Guatemala Reopens Economy, Attorney General Barr Grilled over Police Violence Against Peaceful Protesters, Portland Demonstrators Ordered Not to Protest Again as Condition of Release from Jail, New York Police in Plainclothes Force BLM Protester into Unmarked Van, "Umbrella Man" at George Floyd Protest in Minneapolis ID'd as White Supremacist Provocateur, George Floyd Hologram Projected Above Toppled Confederate Monument, Detroit Protesters Demand Justice After Video Shows Police Killing of Hakim Littleton, Trump Admin to Reject DACA Applications in Defiance of Supreme Court Ruling, United Nations to Set Up Shelters for Asylum Seekers Stranded at U.S.-Mexico Border, Protesters Demand Driver's Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants in Massachusetts, Thousands of Bolivians March to Protest Delayed Presidential Election, Land and Environmental Defenders Killed at Record Pace in 2019, Joe Biden to Name Running Mate Next Week, Two Transgender Women Murdered, the 20th and 21st Such Killings in the U.S. This Year, WikiLeaks Lawyer Says Julian Assange Faces Additional Charges in "Political Persecution"

Under a shocking new Trump administration policy, hundreds of people who came to the United States seeking asylum were secretly held in hotels for days on end before being expelled from the country, often with little or no paper trail. This includes more than 200 unaccompanied immigrant children — including babies and toddlers — who were taken to hotels near the Texas-Mexico border by a private contractor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "The Trump administration has been just basically expelling them without due process and without any paper trail," says Zenén Jaimes Pérez, advocacy director for the Texas Civil Rights Project, which helped uncover the abuse. We also speak with Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.

As researchers around the world race to find a vaccine for COVID-19, we speak with Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen's Access to Medicines Program, about who is profiting from government efforts to fund vaccines, testing and treatment. The Trump administration has announced major contracts with pharmaceutical companies as part of its $6 billion program, Operation Warp Speed, including with firms that have never brought a vaccine to market. Meanwhile, a New York Times investigation shows corporate insiders from at least 11 companies working on coronavirus research have sold shares worth more than $1 billion since March. "The problem is that the companies, the executives, the hedge funds are feeding on people's hope and desperation, and it only takes a little bit of positive news to send stocks soaring," says Maybarduk. Public Citizen recently released a database that tracks the billions of taxpayer dollars supporting COVID-19 research.