Democracy Now!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Federal Prosecutors File More Charges Against Trump over Mishandling of Classified Documents, U.N. Leader Declares New Era of Global Boiling" Amid Hottest Month in Human History, Biden Pledges Protections Against Climate Change as 170 Million Across U.S. Face Heat Alerts, Supreme Court Will Allow Construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline to Resume, Nigerien Military Leaders Pledge Support for Coup Plotters Who Deposed President, Masalit Leader Says 10,000 Have Been Killed by Militias in Sudan's Darfur Region, After Pulling Out of Black Sea Grain Deal, Putin Pledges Free Grain to 6 African Nations, Senate Passes Record $886B Military Budget, Rejecting Sanders Amendment Cutting Pentagon Funding, El Salvador to Hold Mass Trials for Suspected Gang Members; Honduras to Build Island Prison, At Least 31 People Killed in Ecuador Prison Riot, For First Time, Gun Suicides Among Black Adolescents Surpasses Rate for White Teens, Houston to Eliminate Librarians in 28 Schools; Booksellers Sue over Texas Book Ban Bill

A shocking new investigation by Insider reveals patrol dogs in U.S. prisons have attacked at least 295 people since 2017, with Virginia setting dogs on prisoners more than any other state. These attacks can leave people with grievous physical and psychological scars, sometimes permanently disabling and disfiguring them. The report also finds ties between procedures in U.S. prisons and the abuses committed by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib, where soldiers used attack dogs to terrify Iraqi detainees along with other forms of torture and humiliation. For more, we speak with journalist Hannah Beckler, an investigations editor at Insider, and Xavia Goodwyn, who says prison guards hurled racial slurs at him during a dog attack at Virginia's Red Onion State Prison in 2015. Everything just went mayhem," Goodwyn recalls.

An Ohio police officer filmed unleashing a police dog on an unarmed Black truck driver during a July 4 traffic stop has been fired. We speak with legal scholar Madalyn Wasilczuk, who has helped represent teenagers in Louisiana attacked by police dogs and who says that dogs do not receive the proper amount of scrutiny when used in policing. They're seen as these valorized K-9 cop heroes, and we don't focus so much on the real violence that they do," says Wasilczuk. Videos like this really highlight the problems." Wasilczuk explains that the use of police dogs in apprehension is part of a widespread pattern of racialized violence by police that dates back to slavery.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Delaware halted a plea deal reached between Hunter Biden and federal prosecutors in which the president's son would avoid facing prosecution on a separate gun charge by pleading guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges. Trump-appointed Judge Maryellen Noreika said the deal lacked legal precedent, and identified several sections of the agreement that were interpreted differently by the prosecution and defense. A new plea deal could be reached within the next six weeks. This comes as Republicans have been intensifying their attacks on the Biden family in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. They're very much trying to move beyond Hunter Biden, which they understand they've beaten that issue to death, and trying to move to Joe Biden," says Ryan Grim, Washington bureau chief for The Intercept.

Military Officers Claim to Have Deposed Niger's President, World Leaders Condemn Apparent Coup in Niger, Human Rights Watch Documents Atrocities by Mali's U.S.-Backed Army and Wagner Group, U.S. to Hold Talks with Taliban Representatives, 14-Year-Old Palestinian Shot Dead in Qalqilya Is 37th Child Killed by Israeli Troops in 2023, Ghana Outlaws Capital Punishment, Chilean Teachers Hold One-Day Nationwide Strike, Fed Hikes Interest Rates Again Despite Rising Black Unemployment Rate, GOP Leader Mitch McConnell Freezes Mid-Sentence During News Conference, U.S. Judge Blocks Hunter Biden Plea Deal, Former Columbia OB-GYN Robert Hadden Sentenced to 20 Years for Sexually Assaulting Patients, Ohio Cop Who Sicced Dog on Unarmed Black Man Fired After Video Goes Public, Singer Sinead O'Connor, Shunned for Standing Up for the Rights of the Most Vulnerable, Dies at 56

We speak with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump about two recent cases of anti-Black racism making headlines in the United States: Florida's new curriculum standards that teach students the benefits" of transatlantic slavery to enslaved people, and a set of lawsuits against Northwestern University accusing the school's athletic teams of widespread and institutionalized hazing, including physical, racial and sexual abuse. Crump is representing former Northwestern football players in one of the lawsuits. Republican presidential contender and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has doubled down on the Florida Board of Education's new rules that require educators to teach students that enslaved Black people developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." Crump, who says he may sue the state over the changes, notes, It has the potential to cause serious psychological trauma to African American students, and we will not stand for it." Meanwhile, Crump has called the cases at Northwestern the beginning of the me too" movement for college sports.

This week, a witness to the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965 revealed for the first time that he overheard a New York police officer asking if Malcolm's assassin was with us." The eyewitness, Mustafa Hassan, spoke Tuesday alongside Malcolm X's daughter Ilyasah Shabazz and civil rights attorney Ben Crump at a press conference at the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. Democracy Now! spoke to Hassan at the press conference. He told us, My testimony would have changed the outcome of the trial. It would have pointed the finger of guilt at the establishment." We're also joined on the show by Ben Crump, who calls this latest revelation astonishing." .

North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea Monday, hours after a second American nuclear-armed submarine arrived in South Korea. Meanwhile, peace activists are gathering in Washington, D.C., for a national mobilization to call on President Biden and Congress to officially end the Korean War, 70 years after the signing of the July 27, 1953, Korean Armistice that ended active military conflict. To discuss the renewed call for peace and the history of the dirtiest war of the 20th century," we're joined by two guests: Bruce Cumings, professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of several books on Korea, and Christine Ahn of the organization Women Cross DMZ and the coordinator of the campaign Korea Peace Now! Ahn calls for the U.S. government to atone" for its role in the war by replacing the ceasefire with a peace agreement, not feeding into the peninsula's nuclear hostilities.

Atlantic Ocean Current at Risk of Collapse in Coming Years; Ocean Temps in Florida Surge to 101.1, Judge Blocks Biden Asylum Ban in Victory for Immigration Rights, Ex-Marine Trevor Reed Injured on Ukrainian Frontlines a Year After Release from Russian Prison, Russian Sociologist and Dissident Boris Kagarlitsky Facing Terrorism Charges, U.N. Operation Underway to Pump 1.1 Million Barrels of Oil from Decaying Tanker Near Yemen, Demonstrators Mark 2 Years Since Tunisian President Kais Saied Launched Power Grab, Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen Announces Transfer of Power to Son, Days After Winning Election, Modi Faces No-Confidence Vote Amid Mounting Horror of Ethnic Violence in India's Manipur State, Report: Mexican Military, Security Forces Complicit in Killing and Cover-Up of Ayotzinapa Students, Northwestern Student Athletes Sue over Abusive Hazing Practices, Teamsters Reach Tentative Deal with UPS One Week Ahead of Feared Strike, New Bill Seeks to Increase Min. Wage to $17/Hour; Sanders Slams $7.25 Starvation Wage", Rep. Greg Casar Goes on Water Strike to Demonstrate Need for Federal Heat Protections for Workers, Juan Ramos, Leader of Phila. Young Lords, Councilmember & Puerto Rican Rights Activist, Dies at 71

Kurdish peace activist Kani Xulam is in New York City after his solo 300-mile, 24-day walk from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to the United Nations headquarters. His arrival Monday coincided with the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, which partitioned Kurdistan into four parts - British Iraq, French Syria, Turkey and Iran - which left the Kurdish people without a recognized sovereign state. We have been struggling ever since to have a say," declares Xulam. Kurds have experienced decades of conflict, cultural genocide and a protracted struggle for independence.

Amid a widening crackdown on abortion access, 19 Republican attorneys general in states where abortion is illegal are demanding the right for local governments to access the private medical records of patients in order to see if they obtained abortions out of state. We speak to Tamarra Wieder, state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates in Louisville, Kentucky, where residents are crossing state lines to access abortion care due to the state's near-total abortion ban. Wieder says the act of seeking healthcare should not be turned against us," adding that this latest attack on reproductive rights, if it is carried out, would set a precedent of fear" that would chill care." She also discusses the Nebraska teenager who used abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, and the Texas women who are suing to overturn the state's abortion ban, which put their lives in danger when they were unable to end their pregnancies, even when they were nonviable.

We speak with two Israeli journalists in Tel Aviv after lawmakers in Israel passed a highly contested bill Monday weakening the power of the Supreme Court by preventing it from blocking government decisions it deems unreasonable. The bill is part of a broader set of judicial reforms pushed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that has sparked months of unprecedented protests, which continued last night. Journalist Haggai Matar says that while the Supreme Court is not an ally to Palestinians," its rare rulings in favor of Palestinians are a driving factor in the right wing's overhaul, as well as decisions meant to curb public corruption. Palestinian leaders have criticized both Netanyahu's government for pushing the judicial reform, as well as the massive protest movement for not speaking up for Palestinian rights as Israel continues its deadly crackdown in the West Bank. It's time for the U.S. to show Israel there are consequences for apartheid and anti-democratic legislation, says Gideon Levy, columnist for Haaretz. What kind of democracy can exist in an apartheid state?" he asks.

Study Finds Human Activity Responsible for Record July Heat Waves, Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Arrested Again at Swedish Oil Terminal Protest, Wildfires Fueled by Extreme Heat Kill at Least 34 in Algeria, Asylum Seekers Trapped on Tunisia-Libya Border Appeal to U.N. for Rescue, Department of Justice Sues Texas over Rio Grande Barrier, Mass Protests Continue in Israel as Lawmakers Vote to Radically Limit Judiciary's Power, Sudanese Army Warns Kenya Against Sending Peacekeepers, Ukrainian Drones Strike Russian Arms Depot in Crimea, Buildings in Moscow, Russia Bombs Grain Hangar in Southern Ukraine After Withdrawal from Black Sea Grain Deal, Guatemalan Police Raid Offices of Progressive Opposition Party Ahead of August Runoff Vote, Capitol Rioter Filmed Beating Police Officer Sentenced to 52 Months in Prison, U.S. Designates National Monuments to Emmett Till and His Mother in Illinois and Mississippi

The movie Oppenheimer about J. Robert Oppenheimer - the father of the atomic bomb" - focuses on Oppenheimer's conflicted feelings about the weapons of mass destruction he helped unleash on the world, and how officials ignored those concerns after World War II as the Cold War started an arms race. Journalist Greg Mitchell says that while the film is well made and worth seeing, the omissions are quite serious." He says there is little mention of the dangers of radiation and no focus on the impact of the bomb on its victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film also does not question the necessity of using the bomb in the first place, upholding the official narrative ... that has held sway since 1945," says Mitchell. Mitchell is a documentary filmmaker and the author of numerous books, including The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood - and America - Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. He was editor of Nuclear Times magazine from 1982 to 1986 and has written about this new film for Mother Jones and on his Substack, and in an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times headlined 'Oppenheimer' is here. Is Hollywood still afraid of the truth about the atomic bomb?"

In a landmark $13 million settlement, New York City has agreed to pay 1,300 people attacked by police while protesting the Minnesota police murder of George Floyd in 2020. Sow v. City of New York yielded the largest total payout to protesters in a class-action suit in U.S. history, totaling about $10,000 per person. The suit focused on how police violated protesters' civil and constitutional rights by making mass arrests and using excessive force that included improper use of pepper spray and using a tactic called kettling to trap and arrest protesters before a curfew went into effect. The case used a video analysis tool developed by SITU Research that can quickly analyze massive amounts of police body-camera video, aerial footage and social media videos. The settlement is historic and incredibly important," says civil rights attorney and co-counsel for the plaintiffs Gideon Oliver. It's also in some ways only as important as what we make it mean." We also speak with Dara Pluchino, a social worker and plaintiff in the case, who describes her experience being kettled. Once the curfew hit, then that is when chaos occurred and violence occurred."

As a record-breaking heat wave continues in Arizona, reporters with The Intercept say they have observed U.S. Border Patrol holding about 50 migrants inside a chain-link pen in the Sonoran Desert, at the Ajo Border Patrol Station. This comes as the group Humane Borders reports the bodies of at least 13 people were found over the past month in the Sonoran Desert where many migrants cross. You really can't overstate how deadly this ecosystem is," says reporter Ryan Devereaux, who describes the well-funded border agencies' lack of support for border crossers. Roland Gutierrez, Democratic state senator running against Ted Cruz for Senate, says, We need to revamp the whole system."

The U.S. Justice Department is threatening to sue the state of Texas after Republican Governor Greg Abbott installed barrels wrapped in razor wire in the Rio Grande in an attempt to block migrants from crossing the river. This comes just after a whistleblower state trooper at the Texas Department of Public Safety recently protested the state's inhumane policies in a letter to superiors. What's happening at the border in Texas right now is criminal," says Democratic Texas Senator Roland Gutierrez. There's state crimes, there's federal crimes, and there's international crimes."

30,000 Flee Rhodes as Greece Battles Dozens of Wildfires; Italy Hit by Ice Storms After Record Heat, Monsoon Brings Deadly Floods, Landslides in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Triggers Dengue Outbreak, Nova Scotia Inundated with 3 Months' Worth of Rain; Washington Wildfire Tops 52,000 Acres, Right Underperforms Expectations in Spain Election; Separatist Parties Emerge as Kingmakers, Hun Sen Retains Cambodian Leadership, Likely to Hand Power to Son, After Suppressing Opposition, Israel Passes Contentious Judicial Reform as Protesters Say They Won't Back Down, Israeli Forces Kill Two More Palestinian Teenagers in Occupied West Bank, 44-Year-Old Prisoner's Death at Rikers Is Seventh So Far This Year, Body-Camera Video Shows Ohio Police Officer Unleashing Police Dog on Black Driver, Video Shows L.A. Sheriff's Deputy Brutally Beating Trans Man, Trump's Trial for Mishandling Classified Documents Set for May 2024, Biden Says 7 Silicon Valley Giants Have Committed to AI Safety and Transparency, 8,000+ Authors Demand End to AI's Use of Their Works Without Consent

In an in-depth interview about her work, we speak with Isabel Allende, one of the world's most celebrated novelists, author of 26 books that have sold more than 77 million copies and have been translated into 42 languages. Her books include The House of the Spirits, Paula and Daughter of Fortune, and her latest novel is The Wind Knows My Name, which looks at the trauma of child-family separation, from Nazi Germany to the U.S.-Mexico border, and those on the frontlines helping migrant children. That idea of separating the kids is extremely cruel, but it keeps happening," Allende tells Democracy Now! The Chilean American author says the miracle of literature" is being able to instill compassion in readers who may otherwise see the stories of refugees as abstract numbers. It brings people close. By telling the story of one child, you can somehow connect with the reader and create that sense of empathy that is so often lacking."

A damning new investigation by journalists Maria Hinojosa and Zeba Warsi examines how immigration officials have failed to properly address complaints of sexual abuse from people held in detention centers. The report from Futuro Investigates and Latino USA details how women in jails run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, have been sexually abused, often in a medical setting when they are at their most vulnerable. It comes more than a decade after Hinojosa's report for PBS Frontline about sexual abuse in ICE detention. But allegations of abuse have continued. If you complain, you are going to be threatened," says Hinojosa, who notes there is still constant coercion" in detention, despite earlier claims of reform.

Russia Targets Ukrainian Grain Supplies; Ukraine Starts Deploying U.S.-Supplied Cluster Bombs, Nebraska Teen Who Used Abortion Pill Gets Sentenced to 90 Days in Jail, Women Suing Texas over Abortion Ban Share Harrowing Personal Accounts, Florida's New Black History Standards Say Slavery Had Personal Benefit", Florida Rights Groups Sue over Law Cracking Down on Immigrant Communities, Florida Rights Group Sue for Illegal Intimidation of People with Felonies Seeking to Vote, GA to Purge Nearly 200,000 Voters; AL Legislature Ignores SCOTUS Redistricting Order, Alabama Executes James Barber as It Resumes Lethal Injections, Video of Mob Sexually Assaulting Manipur Women Sets Off Protests Across India, 1,200-Barrel Oil Spill Coats Ecuadorian Coastline, Lawyers Warn NYPD Still Abusing Protesters After $13M Settlement for Violence in 2020 BLM Uprising, Senate Panel Passes Legislation to Impose Code of Ethics for SCOTUS with Zero GOP Support, IATSE Averts Strike That Threatened to Grind Broadway to a Halt

We speak with first-grade teacher Melissa Tempel, who was fired last week for a viral tweet in which she criticized the Waukesha, Wisconsin, board of education's decision to ban her students from singing Rainbowland" during a school concert earlier this year. The hit song about inclusivity by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton includes the lyrics We are rainbows, me and you / Every color, every hue / Let's shine on through." The school district said Tempel's firing was not about the song but about the way she protested the decision. Tempel says the Waukesha school district's so-called controversial content policy, which bans discussions about race, LGBTQ identity and other speech considered political, is disturbing" and dangerous."

As world leaders from the United States to France welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we look at press freedom in India under the leader of the Hindu nationalist party BJP. One of India's last bastions of free media, NDTV, has been taken over by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, believed to have close ties to Modi. NDTV's former executive editor and longtime anchor Ravish Kumar, one of India's most prominent TV journalists who has reported critically on Modi's Hindu nationalist policies, is the subject of Vinay Shukla's film While We Watched, which is being released this week in theaters in the United States. We speak to Kumar and Shukla about the anti-opposition, anti-minorities, anti-Muslim" state of media in India, where dissent is suppressed and pro-Modi nationalism is the de facto rule. No sober society can afford to have a kind of rogue media, which is so weaponized," says Kumar.

More Temperature Records Fall as U.S. Heat Wave Intensifies, Migrants Face Intense Heat in Mexico as They Wait to Apply for Asylum at U.S. Border, Receding Floodwaters in Northern India Prompt Warnings over Waterborne Diseases, Russia Bombards Ukraine's Black Sea Ports and Threatens Cargo Ships, Kenyan Police Crack Down as Protesters Rally Against Tax Hikes and Inflation, Taliban Guards Attack WomenProtesting Closure of Beauty Parlors and Salons, Iraqis Storm Swedish Embassy in Baghdad to Protest Qur'an Burning in Stockholm, Egyptian President Pardons Rights Researcher and Lawyer for Political Prisoner, Morocco Invites Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to State Visit, Mass Protests in Peru Demand Departure of President Dina Boluarte, Cost of Maintaining U.S.'s Nuclear Command Swells, Expected to Hit $117B Over Next Decade, Chuck Schumer OKs Vote on Pentagon Abortion Policy as Tuberville Blocks Military Appointments, U.S. Judge Upholds $5M Verdict in Favor of E. Jean Carroll, Denies Trump Request for New Trial, Immigrant Teenage Student Dies of Poultry Factory Injury, NYC Will Pay $13 Million to Settle Claims of Police Brutality During 2020 Protests, Broadway Could Shut Down as IATSE Votes on Strike Covering Some Members, Hollywood Strikes Continue Amid Reports of Shady Retaliation Tactics, Stanford President Resigns After Freshman Reporter Shines Light on Manipulated Data

Multiple reports are reinvestigating the neo-Nazi fighters and militias involved in the war both in Russia and Ukraine. You have neo-Nazis on both sides of this conflict," says Ukrainian American journalist Lev Golinkin, a longtime reporter on the far right in Ukraine and Russia who is critical of the Western media's normalization of groups like the Azov Battalion. We are sending a very dangerous message that if you're the right type of neo-Nazis, we will not only work with you, we will celebrate you," Golinkin notes.We also speak with national security reporter Ben Makuch, whose investigations reveal the networks connecting Ukrainian and Russian militias and American neo-Nazis. An anti-Putin Russian militia that carried out attacks inside Russia in May was led by a neo-Nazi who has maintained links with American neo-Nazis. In a new piece, Makuch also shares the story of an American military veteran wanted for murder who is now fighting for ultranationalist groups in Ukraine. We know there has been secretive pipelines and networks," says Makuch. That still exists."

A new investigation reveals the extent of the CIA's involvement in the war in Ukraine, where the agency operates clandestinely in what, under a formal declaration of war, would be the domain of the military. We're joined on the show by the author of the investigation, William Arkin, a national security reporter and senior editor at Newsweek, who says that the CIA has got its hand in a little bit of everything" in Ukraine. According to various sources, the CIA is shuttling weapons into Ukraine using a gray fleet" of commercial aircraft that crisscrosses Central and Eastern Europe, sending personnel into Ukraine on secret missions and assisting Ukrainians with new weapons and systems, all while using Poland as its clandestine hub to coordinate its operations inside the country. At the same time, the U.S.'s nonaligned status appears to place a limit on its intelligence, keeping it in the dark on both Zelensky and Putin's next moves.

Trump Says He's the Target of Federal Criminal Probe of Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Michigan Attorney General Charges 16 GOP Fake Electors" with Felonies, Chinese Coal Consumption Hits Record High as Temperatures Soar, Floodwaters Lap Walls of India's Taj Mahal; Heat Index in Iran Tops 150F, Wildfires Erupt in Greece as Europe Swelters in Record Heat, ACLU Asks Court to Release Children from Angola Prison as Heat Index Tops 130, Whistleblower Says Texas Officers Were Ordered to Push Migrant Children into Rio Grande, ICC to Probe Reports of Ethnic Cleansing in Darfur as Violence Escalates Across Sudan, South Africa Says Vladimir Putin Will Not Attend BRICS Summit as ICC Seeks His Arrest, Syria Says Two Soldiers Injured by Israeli Airstrikes on Damascus, Palestinian Medical Workers Receive Body Armor Amid Spike in Israeli Assaults, Israelis Continue Mass Protests as Lawmakers Prepare Vote on Gutting of Courts, Biden Vows Continued Support to Israel as Progressives Boycott Speech of President Herzog, Israel Recognizes Morocco's Sovereignty Over Western Sahara, Which It Has Occupied Since 1975, Thai Court Suspends Reformist Pita Limjaroenrat, Top Candidate to Become Prime Minister, Illinois Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Eliminating State's Racist Cash Bail System

As Hollywood actors enter their fifth day on the picket lines and some 340,000 Teamsters working at UPS prepare to carry out one of the largest single-employer strikes in U.S. history, we speak with historian and labor organizer John Womack Jr. about his new book, Labor Power and Strategy, focused on how to seize and build labor power and solidarity. Labor actions around the world are gaining headlines this week. In Italy, over 1,000 flights were disrupted as airport and airline workers went on a two-day strike for higher wages and better benefits. Members of the Union of Southern Service Workers at a South Carolina Waffle House participated in a three-day strike protesting safety and pay conditions.

On Saturday, Basel Adra, reporter for Local Call and +972 Magazine, was detained while covering an Israeli settler attack in the West Bank area of Masafer Yatta. After he refused to hand over his video footage, Israeli soldiers handcuffed and blindfolded him and then sat him in a chair in the blazing sun for hours. The Union of Journalists in Israel denounced Basel's detention, describing it as a serious violation of freedom of the press." Adra joined the show to discuss the difficulty of witnessing the crimes of Israeli forces against Palestinians as a local journalist. I'm a Palestinian journalist, and there is a hate from them toward me just because I ... film them when they are doing these crimes," says Adra, who calls for international groups to fight for freedom of the press for Palestinians. They know that there is no consequences for their acts and their violence toward us." This incident comes during a pattern of escalating violence against Palestinians, including attacks by settlers against residents of the occupied West Bank.

As President Biden meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House today, several progressive Democrats have announced plans to boycott Herzog's address to a joint session of Congress. This comes after Biden invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the United States this year despite recently criticizing the makeup of Netanyahu's far-right Cabinet as one of the most extremist" he has seen. The visits from Israeli leadership are an attempt to normalize apartheid," says Palestinian human rights attorney Noura Erakat, who compares today's U.S. support of Israel to the nation's support for South African apartheid. The United States is complicit and a pillar of Israeli apartheid in its provision of unequivocal financial, diplomatic and military support." Erakat also applauds the efforts of activists and politicians who have shifted Democrats' sympathies more toward Palestine than Israel, according to a recent Gallup poll.

U.N. Warns Russia's Suspension of Black Sea Grain Deal Puts Millions at Risk of Hunger, Russia Attacks Ukraine's Odesa One Day After Ending Black Sea Grain Export Deal, Major Typhoon Strikes Southern China Amid Record Heat Wave, Smoke Blankets Eastern U.S. as Phoenix Suffers Record Number of Consecutive 110+ Days, John Kerry Says Under No Circumstances" Will U.S. Commit to Climate Reparations, U.N. Begins Effort to Drain Oil from Stricken Supertanker Off Yemeni Coast, Judge Puts Iowa's Six-Week Abortion Ban on Hold, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Says Federal Government Should Take Over NYC's Troubled Rikers Jail, NYC Mayor Appoints Edward Caban as First Latino Police Commissioner, New Experimental Drug Shows Promise at Slowing Progression of Alzheimer's Disease, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Condemned over Claims COVID-19 Was Ethnically Targeted", Sen. Joe Manchin's Address to Billionaire-Funded Group Fuels Speculation of 2024 Presidential Run, UPS to Train Nonunion Employees Ahead of Potential Strike by 340,000 Workers, Jesse Jackson Steps Down as President of Rainbow PUSH Coalition

On Friday, July 14, Amy Goodman moderated a wide-ranging panel on human rights in Venice, Italy, to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The panel's speakers included United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, former Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom and Eamon Gilmore, the European Union special representative for human rights. They discussed the U.S. sending cluster bombs to Ukraine, the war in Sudan, Palestine, as well as the role of civil society and the media in elevating human rights issues.

The world is in the grips of a dangerous heat wave that has sent temperatures skyrocketing to deadly levels throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. Unless urgent action is taken to reduce carbon emissions, the United Nations says, Earth could pass a temperature threshold in the next decade when climate disasters are too extreme to adapt to. We speak with longtime climate journalist Jeff Goodell, author of the new book, The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, about how the climate crisis is raising temperatures, the toll such heat can have on the human body, and how heat is the primary driver for this climate transformation we are undergoing right now," fueling natural disasters such as floods, wildfires and more.

Unrelenting Heat Scorches Planet, Shattering Records from U.S. to China, Climate Change-Fueled Floods and Wildfires Bring Death and Misery Across the Globe, Russia Withdraws from Black Sea Grain Deal After Explosions on Kerch Bridge Kill 2, Russia Says It's Prepared to Use Cluster Bombs; Putin Visit to South Africa Could Result in Arrest, U.N. Says Nearly 300 Migrant Children Have Drowned in Mediterranean Crossings This Year, Libyan Border Guards Apprehend Asylum Seekers Abandoned by Tunisia in Desert, Mexico Apprehends Hundreds of U.S.-Bound Asylum Seekers, Mexican Journalist Nelson Matus Assassinated in Guerrero, Iran's Morality Police Resume Patrols 10 Months After Mahsa Amini's Death Sparked Protests, DOJ Opens Civil Rights Probe of Atlanta-Area Jails After Deaths of Prisoners, House GOP Approves Record Military Budget with Anti-Abortion and Anti-LGBTQIA Provisions, Biden Administration to Cancel $39 Billion in Student Debt for 800,000+ Borrowers