Democracy Now!

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

In Guatemala, progressive presidential candidate Bernardo Arevalo has won a landslide victory in a runoff election against former first lady Sandra Torres. Arevalo, a member of the Semilla party, took nearly 60% of the vote Sunday after months of political persecution. In June, Arevalo stunned many in Guatemala when he placed second in the first round of voting after running on an anti-corruption platform. Soon after, the attorney general's office suspended Arevalo's Semilla party, and police raided their offices. In Guatemala City, we speak with Guatemalan human rights lawyer Frank LaRue and award-winning investigative journalist Allan Nairn about this historic election. LaRue and Nairn agree this election proves that Guatemalans want a change from the country's history of corruption and military dictatorships, but the situation remains tense in the country as oligarchs will most likely attempt to disrupt Arevalo's transition to power. This could be the beginning of a turn in Guatemalan history," says Nairn, who predicts the next phase of this election process will be people demonstrating popular support to force a transition of power. They may have to take to the streets to defend the results of this vote."

Progressive Bernardo Arevalo Wins Guatemala Presidency in Landslide, Ecuador Sends Progressive Luisa Gonzalez and Businessman Daniel Noboa to Presidential Runoff, Ecuadorian Voters Back Referendum to Ban Oil Extraction in Yasuni National Park, Tropical Storm Hilary Lashes SoCal, Mexico as Wildfires Rage in Washington and Canada, Niger Coup Leader Proposes 3-Year Transition as Junta Supporters Remain Defiant of ECOWAS Threats, Six Children Killed by Fire at Camp for Congolese Displaced by Floods, Egyptian Arab Spring Activist Ahmed Douma Pardoned After Decade in Prison, Human Rights Watch: Saudi Border Guards Have Killed Hundreds of Ethiopian Asylum Seekers, Biden Pledges Deeper Ties with Japan and South Korea, Citing Threats by China and DPRK, Biden Administration Urges COVID-19 Booster Shots for All This Fall, New York Bans Release of Radioactive Water from Decommissioned Nuclear Plant

The Smithsonian has formed a task force to address the massive collection of human remains held by its museums, which includes 255 human brains that were removed primarily from dead Black and Indigenous people, as well as other people of color, without the consent or knowledge of their families. The so-called racial brain collection was revealed by a Washington Post investigation. It was mostly collected in the first half of the 20th century at the behest of Ales Hrdlicka, a racist anthropologist who was trying to scientifically prove the superiority of white people. We speak with reporters Nicole Dungca and Claire Healy about the series and what they found. Dungca is also president of the Asian American Journalists Association.

We speak with renowned Florida educator Marvin Dunn about the fight to protect the teaching of Black history in the face of racist curriculum changes in the state that justify slavery and downplay violence against African Americans. Ahead of the first day of school, Dunn helped lead a Teach No Lies" march to the Miami-Dade County School Board Wednesday to protest the new education standards. We are now in a confused, demoralized state of education in Florida," says Dunn, author, professor emeritus at Florida International University and co-founder of the Miami Center for Racial Justice. He has been leading tours of teachers and young people to places like Rosewood, site of a 1923 massacre of Black residents by a white mob.

With the death toll from the Maui wildfires at 111 and as many as 1,000 still missing, we speak with Hawaiian law professor Kapuaala Sproat about the conditions that made the fires more destructive and what's yet to come for residents looking to rebuild their lives. Decades of neocolonialism in Hawaii have redirected precious water resources toward golf courses, resorts and other corporate ventures, turning many areas into tinderboxes and leaving little water to fight back against the flames. Now many Hawaiians say there is a power grab underway as real estate interests and other wealthy outsiders look to buy up land and water rights on the cheap as people are still reeling from the loss of their family members, livelihoods and communities. Plantation disaster capitalism is, unfortunately, the perfect term for what's going on," says Sproat, who just published a piece in The Guardian with Naomi Klein. She is professor of law at Ka Huli Ao Native Hawaiian Law Center and co-director of the Native Hawaiian Rights Clinic at the University of Hawaii at Mnoa School of Law. The plantations, the large landed interests that have had control over not just the land, but really much of Hawaii's and Maui Komohana's resources for the last several centuries, are using this opportunity, are using this time of tremendous trauma for the people of Maui, to swoop in and to get past the law."

Canada Orders More Evacuations as Wildfires Rage Across the Country, Hawaii's Head of Emergency Quits as Hawaiians Warn of Climate Gentrification After Lahaina Tragedy, Hurricane Hilary Intensifies to Category 4 Storm, Thousands Evacuated as Tenerife Wildfires Burn Out of Control", Biden Hosts Leaders of Japan and South Korea as China Slams Summit as Provocation, U.S. Intelligence Predicts Ukraine Counteroffensive Will Fall Short, China Defense Minister Visits Belarus; Pres. Lukashenko Says He Would Deploy Russian Nukes, 1,000 Palestinian Prisoners Go on Hunger Strike as Israel Continues Deadly Attacks in West Bank, Progressive Presidential Candidate Bernardo Arevalo Seeks Change as Guatemala Heads to Polls, Ecuador Voting in Snap Election with Progressive Candidate Favored to Win, Outrage and Calls for Justice After Torching of Christian Homes and Churches in Pakistani City, Trump Asks to Push Jan. 6 Trial to 2026, Cancels Plans for Presser Exonerating" Him from GA Indictment, Prosecutors Seek 33-Year Prison Sentence for Ex-Leaders of Far-Right Proud Boys, Canadian Police Arrest Forest Defenders as Crackdown on Fairy Creek Activists Resumes, Latinx Children Living in States with Harsh Anti-Immigrant Laws More Vulnerable to Health Issues

An explosive leaked document obtained by The Intercept appears to show direct U.S. involvement in former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's ouster in 2022 because of his stance on the war in Ukraine. Khan is currently jailed and facing trial over a slew of corruption charges that his supporters say are intended to keep him from running for office again. The former cricket star was elected in 2018 but lost power in 2022 after a no-confidence vote in Parliament, which he says was engineered by the country's powerful military with support from the U.S. The diplomatic cable published by The Intercept shows State Department officials pressured their Pakistani counterparts to push Khan out because of his neutrality over the war in Ukraine, promising that all will be forgiven" if he was to be removed. This document has been at the center of Pakistan's political crisis for the past year and a half," says Murtaza Hussain, senior writer at The Intercept. Now that we've seen this document for the first time, it does seem to validate many of [Khan's] claims."

Armenia is calling on the United Nations Security Council to address a worsening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan home to ethnic Armenians that has been under a blockade for eight months. Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought multiple wars over the territory since the collapse of the Soviet Union, most recently in 2020. Azerbaijan closed the only road into the region in December, severely restricting the movement of food, medicine and other supplies for the roughly 120,000 people living there. We cannot accept a new Armenian genocide in 2023," says Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Argentine lawyer who served as the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. He issued a report earlier this month on the blockade. We also speak with Anna Ohanyan, professor of political science and international relations at Stonehill College, who says Azerbaijan is relying on the use of hunger as a weapon" in order not to engage politically with the largely self-governing region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

As Egyptians mark the 10th anniversary of the Rabaa massacre, we speak with human rights advocate Hossam Bahgat about how the mass killing shaped the country in the ensuing years. On August 14, 2013, Egyptian security forces opened fire on a sit-in where tens of thousands of people had camped out in Cairo to protest the ouster of Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. An estimated 900 protesters were killed, but no one has been held responsible over the past 10 years. The minister of defense at the time, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has since risen to the presidency, ruling Egypt for nearly a decade as a close U.S. ally while jailing tens of thousands of political prisoners. The massacre established a new normal" and inaugurated a decade of shame," says Bahgat, founder and executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which has obtained a leaked copy of a government report on the massacre that implicated Egyptian authorities in the mass killing and found most victims were civilians.

Hawaii Officials Defend Response to Wildfires; Gov. Calls for Moratorium on Lahaina Land Purchases, Yellowknife Orders Evacuation of 20,000 Residents as Record Wildfires Continue to Devastate Canada, Appeals Court Backs Restrictions on Abortion Pill, Sending Case to Supreme Court, 60 Asylum Seekers Feared Dead Near Cape Verde, ECOWAS Military Chiefs Meet over Niger Coup Amid Mounting Humanitarian Concerns, Libya Fighting Kills 55 People, U.N. Warns of Spiralling" Humanitarian Situation in Sudan as Army Leader Says Talks Needed, NATO Official Apologizes for Saying Ukraine Could Give Up Territory in Exchange for Joining NATO, TX Woman Jailed for Threatening to Kill Judge in Trump Jan. 6 Case; Trump Supporters Dox GA Jurors, Kansas Prosecutor Withdraws Search Warrant Used in Last Week's Marion County Record Raid, North Carolina GOP Overrides Gov. Veto on 3 Anti-Trans Bills, Protesters Decry Erasure, Rewriting of Black History from Florida Schools, Children Are Locked Away in Cages": ACLU Demands Louisiana Remove Children from Angola Prison

In a landmark climate case, a judge in Montana has ruled in favor of a group of young people who had sued the state for violating their constitutional rights as it pushed policies that encouraged the use of fossil fuels. In her decision, Montana Judge Kathy Seeley wrote, Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate." We speak with plaintiff Olivia Vesovich about the historic ruling, which she calls the most life-changing news that I've ever heard." It's a real watershed moment," adds Julia Olson, chief legal counsel and executive director of Our Children's Trust, a not-for-profit law firm representing the 16 youth plaintiffs between ages 5 and 22. There's going to be huge ripple effects as other courts start stepping up and doing their role in our democracy to be a check on the other branches of government."

In the wake of ProPublica's bombshell report detailing even more lavish gifts from right-wing billionaires to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, five House Democrats are calling on the Justice Department to investigate Thomas under the Ethics in Government Act for accepting the series of gifts from wealthy benefactors without following disclosure laws. Federal judges are required to disclose gifts worth more than $1,000 - including travel. ProPublica's report documents Justice Thomas accepting 38 destination vacations, 26 private jet flights, 12 VIP passes to sporting events and eight helicopter flights, all paid for by wealthy patrons. We speak with co-author of the ProPublica investigation Brett Murphy about the process of revealing these lavish gifts and why even other judges consider it an unprecedented amount of largesse for a justice to be accepting, let alone accepting and not disclosing."

The Kansas Bureau of Investigations has launched a probe into the shocking police raid on the newsroom of the Marion County Record and the home of its publisher and co-owner, Eric Meyer. Last week, police seized computers, hard drives, servers and phones. Eric Meyer lived with his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, who was co-publisher of the family-owned newspaper. She died one day after the raids. We get an update from Sherman Smith, editor-in-chief of the nonprofit news outlet the Kansas Reflector, who was speaking to Joan Meyer on the phone as the raid was underway. If the police in Marion County are allowed to get away with this, it becomes open season on journalists everywhere in Kansas," says Smith. He discusses the reported dispute between the newspaper and a local restaurant owner who accused it of illegally obtaining information about a drunk driving incident, and how the paper had also been actively investigating Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody over sexual misconduct charges at a previous job in Kansas City. Details about that investigation were on a computer seized in the raid.

Hawaii Officials ID First 2 Victims of Maui Wildfires as Hawaiians Warn of Real Estate Vultures, 2 Years After Taliban Takeover, Women and Girls, Refugees and Ordinary Afghans Face Dire Conditions, Landslide Kills at Least 32 People at Burmese Jade Mine, North Korea Acknowledges U.S. Soldier Travis King Crossed the Border, Claims He Was Fleeing Racism, Paraguayan President Santiago Pena Pledges to Continue Taiwan Support at Inauguration, Rights Groups Challenge Imprisonment of Minors at Angola Prison, Woman Sentenced to 30 Years for Helping Cover Up Murder of Fort Hood Soldier Vanessa Guillen, Trump and Allies Expected to Surrender to Georgia Police by Aug. 25 in 2020 Election Indictment, 3 Candidates Have Not Yet Signed GOP Loyalty Pledge One Week Ahead of First Primary Debate, Planned Parenthood Arsonist Gets 10 Years in Prison, Arkansas Orders Credits Be Withheld for AP African American Studies in High School, Florida Colleges Drop AP Psychology as Chilling Effect from Draconian Censorship Law Takes Hold, Rights Groups Sue Oklahoma to Halt Funding of First Religious Public School in U.S.

Ralph Nader, the longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate, discusses serial law violator" Donald Trump's criminal indictments, particularly the second federal case brought by special prosecutor Jack Smith that accuses Trump of conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and of inciting the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. Nader says there is a glaring omission in the charges, and says Trump should be additionally charged under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which could bar him from again running for political office due to having engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the United States.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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