Democracy Now!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Kremlin says it has dropped criminal charges against Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenaries after he attempted to lead an aborted mutiny against the Russian military. Prigozhin has reportedly arrived in Belarus. We speak with James Risen, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Intercept, who covered the 1991 attempted coup in Moscow and says Prigozhin may have had a chance to complete his march on Moscow and topple the government, but he lost his nerve. Risen says the rebellion exposed Russian President Vladimir Putin's rule as hollow. Prigozhin is clearly a threat, as long as he's alive, to Putin," warns Risen.

Putin Tells Wagner Mercenaries to Join Russian Military or Face Exile in Belarus, Zelensky Visits Frontline Troops; Biden Administration Announces New Arms for Ukraine, UNICEF Warns 100,000 Sudanese Child Refugees in Chad Face New Dangers, Israeli Settlers Storm Palestinian Village in West Bank, Torching Homes and Firing Guns, Supreme Court Orders Louisiana to Redraw Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Map, Supreme Court to Allow Sexual Assault Survivors to Sue Ohio State University, Supreme Court Sides with Biden on ICE Deportations, Audio Reveals Trump Showed Highly Confidential" Document to Publisher, Writer and Aides, Federal Jury to Weigh Death Penalty for Pittsburgh Synagogue Mass Shooter, Colorado Jury Sentences Club Q Shooter to Over 2,000 Years in Prison, Jury Deliberations Begin in Trial of Cop Who Failed to Intervene in Parkland High School Shooting, 3 San Antonio Cops Charged with Murdering Woman in Her Own Home, Honduran Military Takes Over Prisons as Government Launches Crackdown on Gangs, Ex-Head of Mexico's Anti-Kidnapping Unit Arrested over Disappearance of 43 Students at Ayotzinapa

Saturday marked the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that saw the conservative majority overturn Roe v. Wade and end the federal right to abortion. Abortion rights activists rallied in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere across the country to demand access to reproductive healthcare. In the year since the ruling, more than a dozen states have passed new abortion bans, and about 25 million women of childbearing age now live under tighter restrictions than before the court intervened. However, thanks to grassroots organizing efforts and underground abortion networks, Abortions are still happening in every state in the country every day," says Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent for The Nation. Littlefield discusses how abortion activists are working to continue providing care, as well as what to expect from the anti-abortion movement as it seeks to further restrict reproductive rights.

As part of our roundtable discussion, we speak with political science professor Kimberly Marten, expert on the Wagner Group, who says this weekend's mutiny by the mercenary group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is part of a game of smoke and mirrors" between Russian power players. She details Prigozhin's long history as Putin's servant" and says Wagner is not really a private military group," but has a long history of being contracted by the Russian state. We're just at the beginning of what's going to happen, but neither Prighozin nor Putin came out looking very good," says Marten.

As we continue to look at the fallout of this weekend's mutiny in Russia by Wagner mercenary troops, we go to Kyiv to speak with Ukrainian political scientist and historian Denis Pilash, who notes that despite infighting inside Russia, the military still carried out devastating strikes across Ukraine. He adds that the Wagner revolt still shattered an illusion of consensus inside Russia. The myth of civility - one of the pillars of Putin's regime - has eroded completely," says Pilash.

We speak with Nina Khrushcheva in Moscow after an extraordinary weekend that saw the most significant challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin's leadership since the beginning of his invasion of Ukraine 16 months ago. On Friday, the head of the powerful Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, accused the Russian military of attacking his forces and began a march on Moscow - but the revolt quickly fizzled out. By Saturday, Wagner troops had returned to base, and Prigozhin had agreed to exile in Belarus, while Putin denounced the episode as treason." Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at the New School and the great-granddaughter of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, says that while Putin has reasserted his control over the state for now, the episode didn't really show him in the strong light."

Wagner Group's Prigozhin Exiled to Belarus After Calling Off Advance on Moscow, Paramilitaries Seize Police HQ in Sudan's Capital; U.N. Warns Fighting Has Displaced 2.5 Million, Russian Warplanes Bomb Syria's Idlib, Killing at Least 9 Civilians, Guatemalan Presidential Race Headed to Runoff After Weekend Election, Rival Candidates Claim Victory in Sierra Leone Election as Police Raid Opposition HQ, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis Reelected as Syriza Falls Short and Far-Right Makes Gains, Beijing Suffers Record-Breaking Heat Wave with More Dangerous Temperatures Forecast, A Marine Wildfire": Record North Atlantic Heat Threatens Ocean Life, Paris Climate Finance Summit Wraps Without Agreement on Shipping Tax, Supporters and Opponents of Abortion Rights Hold Competing Rallies on Anniversary of Dobbs Ruling, Turkish Police Attack Pride Marchers; Hundreds Marry in Mexico City LGBTQIA Celebration

We speak with journalist and author Antony Loewenstein about his new book, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World. Loewenstein explains that Israel's military-industrial complex has used the Occupied Palestinian Territories for decades as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology that it then exports around the world for profit. You find in over 130 countries across the globe in the last decades, Israel has sold ... a range of tools of occupation and repression that have initially been tested in Palestine on Palestinians," Loewenstein says.

This week, Israel has launched several attacks on Palestinians with weapons used in the conflict for the first time in nearly 20 years, including deploying U.S.-made Apache helicopter gunships inside the West Bank and firing a targeted assassination aerial strike. Jewish settlers have also raided Palestinian villages in the West Bank, attacking residents and setting fire to homes and vehicles. Mariam Barghouti, senior Palestine correspondent for Mondoweiss, calls the attacks an intensification to completely take over Palestine." She adds that the growing violence is reflective of the leadership of Israel's minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who recently called for the renewing of Defensive Shield, a military operation which used similar weaponry in 2002 that has been condemned for crimes against humanity." This all comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government has agreed to accelerate the process for approving new settlements in the West Bank despite criticism from the United Nations, European Union and United States.

As many as 700 migrants are feared to have died after an overloaded fishing vessel capsized last week off the coast of Greece. As search and rescue efforts continue with dwindling expectations, the Greek Coast Guard is facing backlash over its failure to help rescue passengers before the boat sank. Most of the migrants were women and children; many were from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria and Palestine. They are presumed victims of what may be one the deadliest migrant shipwrecks ever recorded, yet the story has received far less public attention than the search for five passengers aboard a submersible to view the wreck of the Titanic. All five of those passengers were confirmed by the U.S. Coast Guard to have likely died Sunday, days before wall-to-wall media coverage began to speculate about their plight.We discuss this disparity and the European refugee crisis at large with two guests: Giorgos Kosmopoulos, a senior migration campaigner for Amnesty International, and Laurence Bondard, spokesperson and operations communications manager for SOS Mediterranee, a nongovernmental rescue organization that operates in the central Mediterranean. Bondard has sailed on seven rescue missions with the NGO, part of a growing necessity in the region, where European countries have withheld the resources available for sea rescue. In the last decade, more than 30,000 refugees are estimated to have drowned in the Mediterranean.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Receives Lavish Welcome in U.S. State Visit, Activists ID Hundreds Killed by Paramilitaries and Arab Militias in Sudan's Darfur Region, Greek Authorities Rescue 145 Migrants Stranded on Turkey-Greece Border, Search for Missing Tourists Ends as Debris from Sub Is Found Near Wreckage of Titanic, Beijing Suffers Warmest June Day on Record; Southern U.S. and Mexico Bake Under Heat Wave, Mexican Environmentalists Alvaro Arvizu and Cuauhtemoc Marquez Found Murdered, French Government Bans Earth Uprising" Direct-Action Climate Group, Supreme Court Rules Against Navajo Nation in Dispute over Water Rights, New York House Speaker Won't Schedule Vote on Undocumented Immigrant Healthcare Bill

We speak with Dr. Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, who met this week with President Biden in a closed-door discussion with other artificial intelligence experts and critics about the need to explore the promise and risk of AI. The computer scientist and coding expert has long raised alarm about how AI and algorithms are enabling racist and sexist bias. We discuss examples, and she lays out what should be included in the White House's Vision for Protecting Our Civil Rights in the Algorithmic Age."

Officials in Beijing have denounced U.S. President Joe Biden for describing Chinese President Xi Jinping as a dictator," calling it a breach of diplomatic protocol. Biden's remark at a fundraising event this week came just days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China to help thaw relations at a time of growing competition and suspicion between the two superpowers. What Biden said, in fact, is true in every word," says Ho-fung Hung, professor of political economy and sociology at Johns Hopkins University, though he adds that China's response is also expected, as Biden's comments are a violation of diplomatic protocol."

President Joe Biden is hosting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a four-day state visit this week amid growing concerns about the Indian leader's human rights record. Modi has been prime minister since 2014, during which time he has cracked down on dissent, curtailed the free press, targeted Muslims and other minorities and pushed an aggressive form of Hindu nationalism that violates the pluralistic vision of modern India's founders. For years, Modi was banned from even entering the United States over his role in anti-Muslim riots in 2002 that left over 1,000 dead in Gujarat, where Modi was the chief minister. Despite criticism of the state visit from some progressive lawmakers, the White House sees India as a key partner in countering Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region. We go to Mumbai to speak with Rana Ayyub, Indian journalist and global opinions writer for The Washington Post.

Nearly 40 Asylum Seekers Drown as Ship Sinks En Route to Canary Islands, Israeli Drone Strike in West Bank Kills Three Palestinians, Putin Claims Ukraine's Counteroffensive Hits Lull" Due to Heavy Losses, Russian Court Denies Pretrial Release to Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich, More Progressives to Boycott Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Speech to Congress, Capitol Rioter Sentenced to 12+ Years in Prison for Attacking Officer with Stun Gun, House Republicans Censure Rep. Adam Schiff over Trump-Russia Claims, House Speaker McCarthy Rejects Immediate Vote on Resolution to Impeach Biden, Prosecutors Disclose Discovery of Video Showing Treatment of Guantanamo Prisoner Who Faced Torture, Opponents of Cop City" Begin Gathering Signatures for Atlanta Ballot Referendum, U.S. Regulators Approve First-Ever Sales of Lab-Grown Meat, 250+ Groups Petition Biden Administration to Drop Opposition to Youth Climate Lawsuit

Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son, is pleading guilty to federal tax offenses and a separate felony gun charge for which he is avoiding prosecution, according to a plea agreement with the Justice Department announced Tuesday. The deal caps a multiyear probe by the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Delaware. As a result, Hunter Biden is unlikely to spend any time behind bars despite the sweeping investigation into his personal and business conduct that Republicans have attempted to portray as unethical influence peddling directly implicating the president in corruption. But is this the end of Hunter Biden's legal trouble? We speak with The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein about the plea deal, as well as what other evidence the FBI may have about Hunter Biden.

We speak with Minneapolis City Councilmember Robin Wonsley, the first Black Democratic Socialist on the City Council, about the Justice Department's newly released probe into the city's police department that found systemic problems with discrimination and excessive force and concluded: The patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible." Wonsley says none of this is new," and demands a strong community role in public safety reforms expected to follow the report.

The Democratic majority in Minnesota's state Legislature, along with Democratic Governor Tim Walz, have enacted sweeping progressive reforms this year, with many praising the ambitious agenda as a Minnesota Miracle." Democrats have successfully codified abortion rights; protections for transgender people; driver's licenses for undocumented residents; new gun control rules; the restoration of voting rights for previously incarcerated people; a $1 billion investment in affordable housing that includes rent assistance; stronger protections for workers seeking to unionize; and paid family, medical and sick leave, among other measures.Peter Callaghan, a staff writer at MinnPost, says Democrats are using their governing trifecta after years of pent-up demand" from progressives. We also speak with Robin Wonsley, Democratic Socialist city councilmember in Minneapolis, about how Minnesota Governor Tim Walz faced backlash from labor organizers in May after he issued the first veto in his entire tenure blocking a bill that would have granted minimum wage and better worker protections for Uber and Lyft drivers. The veto came just hours after Uber threatened to pull out of Minnesota.

In New York, a battle is brewing over a bill called Coverage for All that would use a surplus of federal funds to pay people who are undocumented to enroll in the state's Essential Plan under the federal Affordable Care Act, potentially granting 250,000 people access to healthcare. Immigrant advocates are rallying for the bill's inclusion in a two-day special legislative session despite Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul's resistance, calling the bill a chance for the state to make history." We speak to its sponsor, New York Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, as well as Elisabeth Benjamin, co-founder of the Health Care for All New York campaign, about the Coverage for All bill, the growing crisis of medical debt, the end of COVID-era Medicaid protections, and the larger fight for universal healthcare.

Federal Judge Strikes Down Arkansas Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth, Settlers Attack Palestinian Villages After 4 Israelis Shot Dead in Occupied West Bank, At Least 41 Women Die Inside Honduran Prison, Top Aide to Jair Bolsonaro Caught in Possession of Plans to Stage Military Coup, Pentagon to Send Ukraine More Arms After Finding $6.2 Billion Accounting Error", Heavy Fighting Resumes in Sudanese Capital of Khartoum as Ceasefire Ends, Amnesty Calls for End of Racist Treatment of Haitian Asylum Seekers, Reps. Tlaib and Omar to Boycott Narendra Modi Address to Congress, Hunter Biden Reaches Deal with Federal Prosecutors, Disciplinary Hearing Held for Attorney John Eastman over Role in Effort to Overturn 2020 Election, Judge Sets Aug. 14 Trial Date for Donald Trump for Mishandling Classified Documents, Sen. Bernie Sanders Launches Probe of Dangerous Working Conditions at Amazon, ProPublica Reveals Justice Alito Took Undisclosed Luxury Trip with GOP Billionaire Megadonor, Heat Dome Over Texas and Mexico Shatters Temperature Records, Search Continues for Submersible Exploring Wreck of the Titanic, Official Death Toll Reaches 81 in Migrant Shipwreck Near Greece, But Hundreds More Feared Dead

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

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

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

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

Blinken Meets with Xi Jinping in Beijing in Attempt to Stabilize" U.S-China Relations, Israel Deploys U.S.-Made Apache Helicopter Gunships in Deadly Raid on Jenin Refugee Camp, Sudan Health Minister Says Death Toll Has Topped 3,000 Since Fighting Broke Out, 37 Students Among Dead in Deadly Attack on School in Uganda, African Leaders Go to Moscow & Kyiv to Urge End to War in Ukraine, Pentagon Papers Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, 92, Dies, Justice Department Accuses Minneapolis Police of Unlawful Use of Force, Report: DOJ & FBI Waited a Year to Probe Trump for Role in Jan. 6 Insurrection, In Fox Interview, Trump Admits Telling Aide to Move Boxes of Classified Documents, 19 Mass Shootings Reported Across U.S. in Another Deadly Weekend, Report: 1.5 Million Dropped from Medicaid in Recent Months, Deadly Heat Wave in India Kills 170 as Temps Top 110 Degrees Fahrenheit, World Refugee Day: Fear Grows Death Toll from Migrant Shipwreck Could Top 700, U.N. Adopts Historic High Seas Treaty

We continue our Juneteenth special with more from Harry Belafonte, the legendary actor, singer and civil rights activist, who died in April at the age of 96. Belafonte last appeared on Democracy Now! in 2016 at a special event at the historic Riverside Church in New York to celebrate Democracy Now!'s 20th anniversary. He co-headlined the event with Noam Chomsky. It was the first time they had done a public event together. Belafonte spoke about Donald Trump, who had just been elected president, and ongoing struggles for freedom and justice in the United States. We just have to get out our old coats, dust them off, stop screwing around and just chasing the good times, and get down to business," he said. There's some ass-kicking out here to be done. And we should do it."

We dedicate part of our Juneteenth special to remembering the life and legacy of the legendary actor, singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, who died in April at the age of 96. Belafonte appeared on Democracy Now! numerous times, and we feature two interviews. We begin with our 2011 interview at the Sundance Film Festival, where a documentary about his life, titled Sing Your Song, premiered, and discuss his political awakening and activism in detail. Going into the South of the United States, listening to the voices of rural Black America, listening to the voices of those who sang out against the Ku Klux Klan and out against segregation, and women, who were the most oppressed of all, rising to the occasion to protest against their conditions, became the arena where my first songs were to emerge," Belafonte recalled.

We feature a special broadcast on the newly created Juneteenth federal holiday commemorating the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. We begin with our 2021 interview with historian Clint Smith, originally aired a day after President Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Smith is the author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. When I think of Juneteenth, part of what I think about is the both/andedness of it," Smith says, that it is this moment in which we mourn the fact that freedom was kept from hundreds of thousands of enslaved people for years and for months after it had been attained by them, and then, at the same time, celebrating the end of one of the most egregious things that this country has ever done." Smith says he recognizes the federal holiday marking Juneteenth as a symbol, but it is clearly not enough."

Olympic track star Tori Bowie was eight months pregnant and in labor when she died on May 2, according to an autopsy. She was alone in her home at the time and may have suffered from respiratory distress and eclampsia, a rare but life-threatening pregnancy complication. Her baby also died. Bowie, a three-time Olympic medalist, was just 32 years old, and her death has led to an outpouring of grief and anger from friends and supporters who say it's part of a larger Black maternal health crisis. Across the United States, Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth complications than white women. What they're failing to do is listen to Black women," says Dr. Carla Williams, a doula and OB-GYN who says she opted for home births after a negative hospital experience with her first pregnancy. More work needs to be done in order to take care of the birthing population the way that it should be."

We speak with the parents of Mika Westwolf, a 22-year-old Indigenous woman struck and killed in March by a driver as she was walking home along the highway in the early morning hours. The parents and allies are on a Justice to Be Seen" march to call for justice and an investigation. Westwolf was a member of the Blackfeet Tribe and was also Dine, Cree and Klamath. The driver has been identified as Sunny White, a suspected white nationalist whose children are reportedly named Aryan" and Nation" and were in the car at the time of the crash. White has not been charged in connection with Westwolf's death, but it's part of an apparent pattern in which many Indigenous people are killed or hit by vehicles along Highway 93. They need to hear us and see us," says Westwolf's mother, Carissa Heavy Runner. Listen to our stories and feel our pain and see our pain." Erica Shelby, a tribal legal advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women, discusses the details of the case and how she is in Washington, D.C., to demand action from lawmakers. Everybody has the same story about the same players, the same agencies, the same police, the same attorneys," says Shelby. Enough is enough."

We speak with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland about his call for the U.S. State Department to declassify a report on the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank last year. The Al Jazeera reporter was covering an Israeli military raid just outside the Jenin refugee camp and was clearly marked as press. It's my belief that the United States has an absolute obligation to get to the bottom of what happened, to hold the individuals accountable, or, in this case, potentially the IDF unit accountable," says Van Hollen. The report is by the U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

We speak with Cherokee journalist Rebecca Nagle about a major victory at the Supreme Court in a case that could have gutted Native American sovereignty. In a surprise 7-2 ruling Thursday, the court upheld the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which protects Native children from being removed from their tribal communities for fostering or adoption in non-Native homes. The court rejected an argument from Republican-led states and white families who argued the system is based on race. Nagle has covered the case closely for The Nation and her podcast, This Land, and says the far right is attacking the Indian Child Welfare Act as part of a broader conservative agenda to destabilize federal Indian law. She calls the decision really encouraging," noting it is good not just for Native nations and families, but for the rule of law."