Democracy Now!

Greek Police Arrest 9 as Hopes Fade for Hundreds of Migrants Missing in Deadly Shipwreck, Texas Governor Greg Abbott Condemned for Busing 42 Migrants to Los Angeles, Texas Governor Signs Bill Restricting Trans Athletes in College Sports, Supreme Court Affirms Indian Child Welfare Act in Major Victory for Tribal Sovereignty, 3 Killed, Over 75 Injured as Tornado Strikes Texas Panhandle, Mass Death of Birds on Mexico's Coast Caused by Warm Ocean Temperatures, U.N. Leader Calls Fossil Fuels Incompatible with Human Survival" as Temperatures Pass 1.5C Threshold, African Leaders Visit Kyiv, Pressing for Ukraine-Russia Peace Negotiations, As Ukraine's Military Suffers Heavy Losses, U.S. Leaders Ask Allies to Dig Deep" on Arms Shipments, Accused Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira Indicted on Same Espionage Charges Faced by Donald Trump, West Coast Dockworkers Agree to Tentative Union Contract, Nevada Lawmakers Approve $380 Million in Public Funding to Move Oakland A's to Las Vegas Stadium

The proposed 900-mile East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which would carry crude oil from Uganda south to neighboring Tanzania before being exported to refineries in the Netherlands, is facing continued resistance from climate activists around the world. Protesters disrupted the annual shareholder meeting of potential EACOP lender Standard Bank in Johannesburg Monday. Among them was our guest Kumi Naidoo, the former head of Greenpeace International and Amnesty International. Naidoo was forcibly removed from the building during the peaceful protest. “It’s extraction at its worst — it’s colonial,” Naidoo says of the pipeline. We speak to him about stemming climate change at its source by cutting off the flow of capital to carbon-polluting projects.

Belarus says Russia has begun transferring tactical nuclear weapons to the former Soviet state, which shares a nearly 700-mile border with Ukraine, escalating the risk of a nuclear confrontation in Europe. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has urged allies to “dig deep” to provide more arms and ammunition to help Ukraine as it launches its counteroffensive against Russia. The Ukraine conflict has intensified the “new Cold War” between the United States and its allies, on one side, and Russia and China, on the other, says Gilbert Achcar, professor of international relations at SOAS University of London. He pegs the start of this new geopolitical standoff to the Kosovo War in 1999, which NATO entered without U.N. approval and over the objections of Russia and China. He says the United States had a “window of opportunity” in the 1990s to reshape the world for more cooperation and multilateralism. “Instead of going for peaceful options, options leading to a long-term peace in international relations and enhancing the role of the United Nations, it made the opposite choices,” including the expansion of NATO, says Achcar. His new book is titled The New Cold War: The United States, Russia, and China from Kosovo to Ukraine.

Fighting between rival military factions in Sudan targeting medical facilities has left the country’s healthcare system on the verge of collapse. With a limited amount of power, water and medical supplies, and doctors fleeing the country for safety, less than a third of hospitals in the country’s conflict zones remain open. Calling this situation a calamity, Dr. Khidir Dalouk, advocacy director of the Sudanese American Physicians Association, joins the show to share the perspective of healthcare workers in the country. “We, as physicians, have sworn an oath to treat and take care of civilians and military, whether it’s in peace or it’s in war.”Meanwhile, a new report shows 2022 was the most severe year of attacks against healthcare facilities and personnel worldwide in the last decade, with over half of the documented attacks in Ukraine and Burma. Attacks on medical facilities are a widespread and common problem in conflict when military leaders ignore international rules protecting healthcare, according to Christina Wille, director of Insecurity Insight, which contributed to the new report, “Ignoring Red Lines: Violence Against Health Care in Conflict.”

West Darfur Governor Assassinated After Accusing Paramilitaries and Militias of “Genocide”, Vladimir Putin Admits Russia Is Running Short of Weapons and Drones as Ukraine Fighting Rages, President Alexander Lukashenko Says Russia Sent Nuclear Arms to Belarus, Protesters Take to Polish Streets After Death of Pregnant Woman Who Was Denied Abortion Care, DOJ Charges 2 over Planned Parenthood Firebombing; Google Made $10M from Anti-Abortion Ads, Southern Baptist Convention Votes to Uphold Expulsion of Women-Led Churches, India and Pakistan Brace for Cyclone Biparjoy, Minnesota Records Record Air Pollution as Canadian Wildfire Smoke Spreads Over Region, Biden Vetoes Effort to Block Large Vehicle Emissions Rule, House Falls Short in Effort to Override Veto of D.C. Police Accountability Law, New York Grand Jury Indicts Ex-Marine Who Killed Street Performer Jordan Neely in Chokehold, Fed Pauses Interest Rate Hikes, EU Moves to Rein In AI as U.N. Considers Global Regulatory Agency, Arizona Mother Recounts Horror of Deepfake Kidnapping Scam, Fears Mount of AI-Driven Misinformation in 2024 Elections, Guatemala Court Sentences Journalist José Rubén Zamora to 6 Years in Prison

We speak to Lina Alhathloul, the sister of a Saudi dissident who was jailed and tortured, about how the kingdom is using its oil fortune to reshape its image by taking over the world of professional golf with the merger of its own LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. This comes after President Biden pledged to make Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a “pariah” after the brutal assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Lina Alhathloul discusses Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and its latest diplomatic moves with regional and international powers, including its reestablishment of ties with Iran.

The majority of former President Donald Trump’s charges for mishandling classified documents stem from the Espionage Act, a World War I-era law that has often been used to silence dissent and go after whistleblowers. We speak with Chip Gibbons of Defending Rights & Dissent, who calls for reforming the Espionage Act. Regardless of Trump’s conduct, the Espionage Act is “basically unconstitutional” and should not be used as it is currently written, says Gibbons, and notes Trump himself used the Espionage Act to go after whistleblowers when he was in office.

As former President Donald Trump was arrested and arraigned at a federal courthouse in Miami, where he pleaded not guilty to 37 felony charges around his handling of classified documents, we speak with Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. He predicts Trump “will challenge every aspect of this prosecution,” but says there is no reason the trial can’t begin within the next year. Trump is the first president to ever be arraigned on federal charges, just months after he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges in New York in a state investigation involving hush-money payments during the 2016 election campaign. This all comes as the former president, who was impeached twice and is now facing multiple indictments, is now running again for the White House.

Trump Pleads Not Guilty to 37 Charges Before Telling Supporters “They’re Coming After You”, Judge Allows E. Jean Carroll to Add Trump CNN Town Hall Remarks to Defamation Lawsuit, Russian Strikes Kill 6 in Ukraine; U.S. to Send More Weapons, Incl. Depleted Uranium Tank Shells, South African Activists Take Aim at Standard Bank in Fight to Stop East African Pipeline, Greta Thunberg Warns Global Climate Decisions at COP28 Could Be “Death Sentence” for Humanity, Olympic Track Star Tori Bowie Was 8 Months Pregnant and in Labor When She Died of Complications, Black Civil Rights Attorney Arrested by Lexington, MS, Police She Is Investigating for Corruption, Montana Indigenous Groups Demand Justice in Killing of 22-Year-Old Mika Westwolf, Cornel West Moves to Green Party in 2024 Presidential Run, LAist Cuts Staff by 12%; L.A. Times to Lay Off 74 Employees, UPS Workers Win Fight to Get Air-Conditioned Vehicles as Union Members Vote on Strike, At Least 59 Migrants Dead in 2023’s Deadliest Shipwreck Off Greek Coast, Forced Displacement Hits a Record 110 Million People Around the World, 100 People Die in Nigeria After Boat Capsizes on Niger River, Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Teen During Raid in Occupied West Bank, Massachusetts Launches Community Bank to Address Climate and Affordable Housing

Prominent Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora faces 40 years in prison in his sentencing hearing Wednesday for what press freedom and human rights groups say are inflated charges of money laundering. Zamora is the founder and president of the investigative newspaper El Periódico and has long reported on Guatemalan government corruption. El Periódico was forced to shut down last month after months of intensifying harassment and persecution from President Alejandro Giammattei’s right-wing government. The government has held Zamora “as a hostage” for nearly a year as part of its wider crackdown on the press, says his son José Carlos Zamora, a journalist based in Miami who is advocating for his father’s release.

President John F. Kennedy’s “peace speech” at American University 60 years ago was a searing critique of Cold War politics and laid out a hopeful vision for a world built on cooperation and empathy, even among rival countries. Kennedy called for “not merely peace for Americans, but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time, but peace for all time.” We feature an extended excerpt of Kennedy’s remarks and speak with The Nation publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel about how the speech remains relevant today. The Biden administration “could certainly take a page” from Kennedy’s policies, she says, urging the U.S. to avoid needless escalation during this time of renewed hostility between the United States and Russia over the war in Ukraine.

Donald Trump is set to surrender today at the federal courthouse in Miami to face charges for retaining and mishandling classified documents, including top-secret information about U.S. nuclear weapons programs. Trump’s supporters, including many prominent members of the Republican Party, have threatened violence and suggested revolt in response to what they see as a politically motivated targeting of the former president, while Trump himself has claimed to reporters that he is innocent of wrongdoing. His capture of the Republican base is the work of a “cult leader,” argues Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on fascism and authoritarianism, adding that today’s GOP is an “autocratic party operating inside a democracy.” Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, also discusses the death this week of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who she says helped to mainstream far-right extremism in Italian politics.

Donald Trump Travels to Miami to Face Federal Charges over Classified Documents, Russian Missile Attack on Ukrainian City of Kryvyi Rih Kills at Least 10, NATO Opens Largest-Ever Aerial War Games in Germany as Allies Expand Support for Ukraine, U.S. Spent More on Nuclear Arms in 2022 Than All Other Nations Combined, Iran’s Supreme Leader Says He’s Open to Reviving Nuclear Agreement, Pace of Executions Surged in Iran After Anti-Government Protests, 45 Killed as Militia Attacks Camp for Displaced People in Congo’s Djugu Territory, U.S. Will Rejoin UNESCO and Pay $600 Million in Back Dues, Warm Ocean Waters Leave Thousands of Fish Dead on Texas Beaches, Montana Court Hears Landmark Youth Climate Lawsuit, Chase Bank to Pay $290 Million to Settle Class-Action Suit Brought by Epstein Survivors, Body Found in I-95 Collapse Wreckage; Officials Warn Major U.S. Artery Will Be Closed for “Months”

June is Pride Month, a time to celebrate the LGBTQIA community, and today we look at those represented by the “I” which stands for “intersex.” In a broadcast exclusive, we are joined by the filmmaker and three stars of a new documentary, Every Body, which follows their work as intersex activists who share childhoods marked by shame, secrecy and nonconsensual surgeries. We speak with actor and screenwriter River Gallo, political consultant Alicia Roth Weigel, scholar Sean Saifa Wall and Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning director Julie Cohen, who says she was able to document “a movement that’s in the midst of truly blossoming.” Weigel adds, “There is no one way to look intersex. There is no one way to be intersex,” emphasizing that the movement for informed consent and body autonomy is broad and intersectional. The film will be released in theaters on June 30.

We speak with The Nation's Elie Mystal about the Justice Department's unsealed, sweeping 37-count indictment of former President Donald Trump for retaining and mishandling classified documents, including top-secret information about U.S. nuclear weapons and secret plans to attack a foreign country. Trump is the first U.S. president to face federal criminal charges. He has denied any guilt. The new indictment joins his indictment earlier this year in New York, where he is accused of committing financial fraud.

Ukraine Says It Liberated 4 Villages as Counteroffensive Gets Underway, Law Enforcement Braces for Unrest Ahead of Trump Court Hearing as Supporters Issue Violent Threats, Deadly Battles Resume in Sudan After Ceasefire Ends; South Sudan Violence Kills 20 Displaced People, New Haven Reaches $45 Million Settlement with Randy Cox, Who Was Paralyzed in Police Van, I-95 Highway in Philadelphia Could Be Closed for Months After Tanker Truck Fire Leads to Collapse, New York City Establishes First-of-Its-Kind Minimum Wage for App Delivery Workers, Four Indigenous Children Found Alive 40 Days After Plane Crash, Colombia Signs Ceasefire Agreement with ELN Rebels, Torrential Rains in Northwest Pakistan Kill at Least 25, More Than 20 Killed in Somalia After Discarded Mortar Shell Explodes, Scandal-Plagued Italian Media Tycoon and Ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi Dies at 86, 2 Nonbinary Performers Win Tony Awards as Unscripted Ceremony Acknowledges Writers Strike

We look at a federal indictment of four U.S. citizens for alleged election interference that has received little press attention despite its major implications for free speech and activism in the country. In April, the Biden administration charged four members of a pan-Africanist group with conspiring with the Russian government to sow discord in U.S. elections. Omali Yeshitela, chair of the African People’s Socialist Party, faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, along with Penny Hess, Jesse Nevel and Augustus Romain Jr. Three Russians were also named in an indictment unsealed by the Justice Department on Tuesday. This follows a violent FBI raid on the activists’ properties in Missouri and Florida last summer. “It’s very clear that this is about more than what the government has said it’s about,” says Yeshitela, arguing the real objective in the case is “to destroy our movement.”

In a surprise 5-4 decision Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a racially gerrymandered voting map in Alabama, upholding a key plank of the Voting Rights Act that the conservative majority has spent years whittling away at. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the court’s liberal justices in finding that Alabama’s Republican-drawn congressional districts unlawfully disadvantage Black voters by diluting their voting power, a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act banning voting practices that discriminate based on race and color. The court ordered Alabama’s Legislature to redraw the map. For more on the decision and the state of voting rights across the country, we are joined by three guests: Khadidah Stone is a named plaintiff in the case and works for the civic engagement organization Alabama Forward; Tish Gotell Faulks is legal director at the ACLU of Alabama; and Davin Rosborough is a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Voting Rights Project who helped represent the plaintiffs.

In a historic first, the Justice Department has indicted former President Donald Trump on multiple felony charges related to his mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government’s attempts to recover them. Trump is the first former president ever to face federal criminal charges and could potentially spend years in prison if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in a Miami court on Tuesday. This latest news adds to Trump’s legal woes, with the former president also facing charges in New York related to hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 and another probe in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. For more, we speak with Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor and currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy. “We do not have kings here. We have the rule of law, and no one is above it, including a former president,” says Aftergut.

Donald Trump Indicted on Federal Criminal Charges over Mishandling of Classified Documents, Smoke from Canadian Wildfires Spreads South and West Across United States, Supreme Court Orders Alabama to Redraw Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Maps, SCOTUS Upholds Ability of Medicaid Recipients to Sue States That Violate Their Rights, SCOTUS Justices Thomas and Alito Get Extensions on Financial Disclosure Filings, U.S. Halts Food Aid to Ethiopia, Accuses Military of Diverting Deliveries Away from Civilians, Israeli Forces Shoot Palestinian Journalist During Demolition of Home in Ramallah, Aid Groups Say New EU Measures for Asylum Seekers Do Nothing to Aid Humanitarian Disaster, China, Cuba and U.S. Reject Reports of Chinese Surveillance Base in Cuba, Mexican Authorities Probe Extrajudicial Killing of 5 Men by Military as Zapatistas Protest Violence, Pat Robertson, Televangelist Who Made a Career by Spewing Racism, Homophobia and Misogyny, Dies

The acclaimed war correspondent Anjan Sundaram joins us to discuss the state of conflict reporting and why some of the world’s deadliest wars go unreported. We cover conflict in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, as well as the future of the international media economy. Due in part to the lingering “colonial” structure of global media, Sundaram says, “these enormous wars, some of the biggest in our world today — and some of the greatest since World War II — are still relatively underreported in the international news.”

Record-breaking Canadian wildfires continue to fill skies across much of North America with smoke, putting about 100 million people under air quality alerts. New York City recorded the worst air quality of any major city in the world as a result of the haze. Around the world, air pollution is already responsible for as many as 10 million deaths per year, and the problem is likely to get worse, says New York Times opinion writer David Wallace-Wells. He explains how today’s smoky skies are a glimpse of our future in the climate crisis, when warmer temperatures and dry conditions will continue to increase the size and severity of wildfires across the globe. “It’s not just that we’re getting more fires, and it’s not even that they’re getting larger. They’re also getting much more intense, which means that they are cooking much of the landscape,” says Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. We also hear from Cree/Iroquois/French journalist Brandi Morin, who just returned from reporting on the wildfires raging in the remote Indigenous community of Fort Chipewyan in Canada’s North, which she calls the “epicenter of the effects of climate change because it’s downstream from one of the largest oil production developments in the world, Alberta’s oil sands.”

Wildfire Smoke Shrouds Huge Swaths of North America, Turns New York City’s Skies Orange, Hundreds of Trapped Children Rescued from Orphanage in Sudan’s Capital, Ukraine Dam Breach Prompts Warnings over Disease, Abandoned Farms and Floating Landmines, Germany Prepares to Host Largest-Ever NATO Air Exercises, Prosecutors Inform Trump He’s Target of Federal Criminal Investigation, Mike Pence Announces 2024 Presidential Bid, Rebukes Trump over Jan. 6 Actions, Ron DeSantis Takes Credit for Flying Asylum Seekers to California, CNN Ousts CEO Chris Licht After Short-Lived, Chaotic Tenure, DHS Says Cop City Protesters Are Not Domestic Terrorists, as Labeled by Georgia Law Enforcement, Black Activists in Mississippi Sue State over Law Cracking Down on Peaceful Protest, Biden Vetoes Bill Canceling Student Loan Relief, EU Court Rules Against Polish Move to Undermine Courts as 500,000 March Against Government

Cornel West, the iconic academic and social critic, has declared his candidacy for president of the United States in the 2024 election. He is running with the People’s Party, a progressive alternative to the two major parties that grew out of Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign. With 2024 shaping up to be a rematch between “neofascist” Donald Trump and “milquetoast neoliberal” Joe Biden, West says voters need a real alternative focused on tackling inequality, racism, war and corporate greed. “There’s an indifference to the plight of the vulnerable,” West tells Democracy Now! He also discusses the war in Ukraine, censorhip, right-wing extremism, and allegations of sexual harassment and assault against People’s Party founder Nick Brana, among other topics.

The Human Rights Campaign has declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States over a wave of discriminatory laws passed in states across the country. There have been more than 70 anti-LGBTQ+ bills signed into law so far in 2023 — more than double last year’s number, which was previously the worst year for discriminatory legislation. These laws have primarily targeted the transgender community, with many states banning gender-affirming medical care and participation in sports by trans youth. The Human Rights Campaign, which is the largest organization devoted to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in the U.S., made its declaration on Tuesday, just a few days into Pride Month. “There is an imminent health and safety crisis facing our community,” says the group’s president, Kelley Robinson.

Air Quality Alerts Issued as Thick Smoke Blankets Large Swaths of U.S. and Canada, Heat Waves Stifle Puerto Rico, South Asia; Bangladesh Closes Schools Amid Ongoing Power Cuts, Arctic Summers Could Be Ice-Free by Next Decade, Activists Shut Down Manchin Talk at D.C. Event over Climate Destruction, Mountain Valley Pipeline, Ukraine Dam Collapse Wreaks Havoc Along Dnipro River as Thousands Forced to Evacuate, Mexico’s AMLO Claims Major Win After His Party Clinches Mexico’s Governorship, Fresh Protests Take Over French Streets in Hopes of Reviving Campaign Against Retirement Reform, Blinken Tightens Ties and Pushes U.S. Middle East Agenda with MBS in Saudi Arabia, PGA Tour Announces Surprise Merger with Saudi Arabia’s LIV Tour, UNRWA and WFP Facing Major Funding Shortages for Work in Palestine Despite Dire Need, Sen. Van Hollen Calls on Biden Admin to Release Report on Israeli Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, Gunman Kills Two People, Injures 5, After High School Graduation in Richmond, VA, Ajike Owens, a Black Mother of 4, Shot Dead by White Neighbor Who Had Just Harassed Her Children, HRC Issues First-Ever State of Emergency for LGBTQ+ People in the U.S., Judge Sides with FL Families Seeking Care for Trans Children; LA Advances Gender-Affirming Care Ban, Texas Sheriff Recommends Criminal Charges over 2022 Migrant Flights to Martha’s Vineyard, Merck Sues Biden Admin over Medicare Negotiation Law, Trump Lawyers Meet with Special Counsel as Possible Indictment Nears, SAG-AFTRA Members Back Strike Authorization as Writers Remain on Strike

Evacuation efforts are underway in southern Ukraine, where floodwaters are rising after a dam on the Dnipro River was breached overnight in the Ukrainian city of Nova Kakhovka. The breach has created an additional humanitarian disaster in an area that’s seen heavy fighting since Russia’s invasion. Ukraine’s government says floodwaters are threatening 80 towns and villages, as well as the city of Kherson, home to 300,000 people. The breach could also limit drinking water supplies across Kherson and Crimea. Ukrainian officials accused Russia’s military of deliberately sabotaging the dam, calling it an act of “ecocide,” while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian artillery fire for the breach. The disaster has raised fears of a nuclear accident at Europe’s largest nuclear power station, the six-reactor Zaporizhzhia plant, which is upstream of the dam breach and relies on a reservoir formed by the dam for critical cooling systems. We go to Kyiv to speak with Olexi Pasyuk, deputy director of the Ukrainian NGO Ecoaction, to discuss the environmental implications.

A growing number of politicians, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, are calling on the United States to drop its case against WikiLeaks founder and Australian citizen Julian Assange, who has been locked up for four years in London’s Belmarsh prison awaiting possible extradition to face espionage and hacking charges for publishing leaked documents about U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among Assange’s supporters is Australian human rights attorney Jen Robinson, who has been a legal adviser to Assange since 2010. She joins us from London, where she calls for the case against Assange to be dropped and warns that continuing his prosecution “threatens free speech around the world.”

Residents in Atlanta shattered the record for turnout at a city council meeting Monday, as thousands lined up to voice their opposition to the construction of a massive police training facility known as Cop City. Ultimately, the Atlanta City Council voted 11-4 to approve $30 million in additional funding for the project, bringing the total to $67 million — more than double the original estimate. The contentious vote comes after a SWAT team raided the Atlanta Solidarity Fund last Wednesday and arrested three people who had been raising money to bail out protesters opposed to Cop City, charging them with money laundering and charity fraud. Forty-two protesters still face charges including domestic terrorism for opposing Cop City, and activists continue to demand answers over the fatal police shooting of environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán in January. For more on Cop City, we speak with Reverend James Woodall from the Southern Center for Human Rights, who spoke at the City Council meeting, as well as Atlanta Solidarity Fund organizer Marlon Kautz, one of the three people arrested in last week’s SWAT raid. Kautz says the charges are “malicious political prosecutions” with the intent to “suppress a political movement.”

Ukraine and Russia Blame One Another as Dam Breach Forces Mass Evacuations Along Dnipro River, Torrential Rains Trigger Flooding and Landslides in Haiti, Killing at Least 42, Firefighters Battle Massive Blazes in Canada’s Nova Scotia Province, Global Carbon Dioxide Levels Surge to Highest Levels in 4 Million Years, China Accuses U.S. Military of “Provocative” Actions , U.S. Defense Secretary Pledges Military Cooperation with India to Counter China, Palestinian Toddler Shot in Head by Israeli Soldiers Dies of Injuries, Blinken Promotes Saudi-Israeli Ties in AIPAC Speech, Atlanta City Council Votes 11-4 to Fund $67 Million “Cop City” Training Center, Missouri Prepares to Execute Michael Tisius Despite Clemency Pleas from Former Jurors, Oklahoma Approves First-Ever Publicly Funded Religious Charter School, Trump’s Attorneys Meet Special Counsel Jack Smith Amid Mounting Grand Jury Investigations, Cornel West Will Run for President in 2024 as People’s Party Candidate, Brazilian President Unveils Plan to End Amazon Deforestation by 2030

The Sackler family, the billionaire owners of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, have secured immunity from all current and future civil litigation related to their role in fueling the opioid epidemic. The legal shield was granted last week by a federal appeals court in exchange for the family agreeing to pay up to $6 billion to thousands of plaintiffs in various lawsuits that are now suspended as part of the deal. While the Sacklers appear safe from further civil litigation, they could — and should — be criminally charged, says Ed Bisch, who lost his son Eddie to an OxyContin-related overdose in 2001 at age 18. “Fines without any prosecutions, there is no deterrent. They look at it as the cost of doing business,” says Bisch. We also speak to Christopher Glazek, the investigative reporter who was the first to publicly report how the Sackler family had significantly profited from selling OxyContin while fully aware that the highly addictive drug was directly fueling the opioid epidemic in America. “The Sacklers lied about how addictive the drug was, in order to convince doctors and patients that it wasn’t dangerous,” says Glazek.

David Sirota of The Lever talks about how Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s fundraising for his 2024 presidential bid could be hindered by a federal pay-to-play rule that restricts campaign contributions from financial executives to state officials who control pension investment decisions.

President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a debt ceiling deal into law that averts a catastrophic default by the United States through January 1, 2025, hailing it as a “big win” for the country. Critics say the agreement protects wealthy corporations and tax dodgers while imposing new cuts on key social programs and expanding work requirements for some recipients of food stamps. The legislation has also been called a “dirty deal” by climate activists because it rolls back environmental regulations and fast-tracks the approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline through West Virginia and Virginia, a pet project of powerful Democratic West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. “The working class of this country was deeply harmed by this bill,” says investigative journalist David Sirota of The Lever. He also faults Democratic leaders for not raising the debt ceiling after the midterm elections, when the party still had control of Congress. “What you see is a picture of a party that wanted this outcome,” says Sirota.

Authorities Point to Signal Failure in India Train Disaster That Killed 275+ Passengers, Ukrainian Military Says It’s Moving Forward Near Bakhmut as Russia Claims to Thwart Offensive, At Least 40 Killed in Darfur as Ceasefire Expires, Deadly Fighting Continues in Sudan, Biden Signs Debt Ceiling Bill, Averting Default But Sacrificing Food Assistance, Climate Goals, Interior Dept. Announces 20-Year Halt on New Oil and Gas Leasing at Chaco Canyon, DuPont and Spinoff Companies Will Pay $1.2 Billion to Settle “Forever Chemicals” Lawsuit, 170+ Nations Agree to Draft Treaty on Plastic Pollution, Saudi Arabia Will Slash Oil Production by 1 Million Barrels Per Day, Deadly Protests Erupt in Senegal After Arrest of Opposition Leader Ousmane Sonko, German Police Arrest Dozens Protesting Conviction of Anti-Fascist Activists, “State-Sanctioned Kidnapping”: California Blasts Migrant Flights, Authorities Denied Care to 8-Year-Old Who Died in Border Patrol Custody, Federal Judge Rejects Tennessee Law Banning Drag Shows, West Coast Dock Workers Strike; Directors Guild Reaches Tentative Deal with Hollywood Studios, Reporters and Staff at Gannett Newspapers Launch One-Day Strike, Amazon Fires Leader of Union Organizing Drive in Bessemer, Alabama

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that members of the Sackler family can receive immunity from all current and future civil litigation related to their role in creating and fueling the opioid epidemic. The billionaire Sacklers own Purdue Pharma, maker of the highly addictive opioid OxyContin. The legal shield could lead to a settlement in the range of $6 billion for thousands of plaintiffs, including states, local governments and tribes. Opioid overdoses have killed over 500,000 people in the U.S. over the past two decades, according to the CDC. For more, we speak with Ed Bisch, founder of the group Relatives Against Purdue Pharma, whose 18-year-old son, Eddie, died of an OxyContin-related overdose in 2001. He says drug company executives responsible for the opioid crisis should be prosecuted by the Department of Justice. And in Mexico City, Christopher Glazek is the investigative reporter who was the first to publicly report how the Sackler family had significantly profited from selling OxyContin while fully aware it was directly fueling the opioid epidemic in America. “The Sacklers did what they’ve always done: They struck a deal, they paid a bribe, and they’re getting away with it,” Glazek says of the latest settlement.

We get an update on the armed police SWAT team raid and arrest of three organizers with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has been raising money to bail out protesters opposed to the construction of a massive police training facility known as Cop City in the Weelaunee Forest, one of the city’s largest green spaces and the former site of a prison farm. Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson were charged with money laundering and fraud. The arrests come as 42 protesters face charges including domestic terrorism for opposing Cop City and just days before the Atlanta City Council is set to vote on the project. These new and unprecedented arrests are a clear attack on “the infrastructure of the movement,” says Kamau Franklin, founder of the organization Community Movement Builders and a vocal Cop City opponent. He joins us from Atlanta for the latest on the protests and the state repression campaign against them.

Dianne Feinstein returned to the Senate last month after a prolonged absence due to poor health and as questions continue to grow about her fitness for office. Feinstein said she would resume her duties with a lighter schedule, but the 89-year-old senator is reportedly suffering from mental decline that leaves her heavily reliant on her aides. Congressmember Ro Khanna of California is among a growing number of Democrats who have called on Feinstein to retire. “The reality is that she’s not able to do the job,” says Khanna. “She just has a staff that’s running everything, and it’s a very, very sad situation.”

After a contentious battle with the Republican House majority, President Biden and Congress have agreed on a bipartisan deal suspending the debt ceiling until January 1, 2025. Among other concessions to Republicans, the deal caps domestic spending below the current rate of inflation, allows for larger increases to the military budget, implements new work requirements for social programs and fast-tracks the approval and construction of the controversial 300-plus-mile-long fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline through West Virginia and Virginia. Our guest, California Congressmember Ro Khanna, is among a number of progressive Democrats who voted against the legislation. He calls it a “punch in the gut to climate activists” that “came on the backs of the poor, of students, of the most vulnerable, of women.”

Senate Approves Debt Deal Limiting Domestic Spending and Rolling Back Climate Protections, Senate Votes to Rescind Biden’s Student Debt Relief Plan, Russia Fires More Missiles at Kyiv Amid Fresh Cross-Border Attacks from Ukraine, U.N. Warns Foundering Black Sea Grain Deal Could Exacerbate Food Crisis, Zelensky Presses EU and NATO to Grant Ukraine Membership; China Calls for Peace Talks, Protesters Disrupt Arms Convention as Canadian Defense Minister Touts Cybersecurity Plans, Rights Groups Slam “Sham Trial” for Iranian Journalists Who Helped Expose Death of Mahsa Amini, Workers Protest Florida’s Latest Anti-Immigrant Law Targeting Farm Laborers, Republican States Challenge DACA in Court Before Judge Who Ruled Against Program in 2021, Chicago Will Use $50 Million in City Surplus Funds to Assist Asylum Seekers Sent from Texas, SCOTUS Decision Will Make It Easier for Employers to Sue Workers Who Strike, Amazon’s Corporate Workers Walk Out to Protest Climate Inaction, Labor Issues, Bill Cosby Sued for 1969 Sexual Assault as Part of California’s Survivor Lookback Law, NYC to Stop Reporting Prison Deaths as Federal Investigator Probes Recent Death at Rikers

Advocates for student debt relief are raising the alarm over a controversial part of the bipartisan deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling that would end the freeze on student loan repayments by the end of August. The moratorium has been in place since 2020. Meanwhile, the fate of the Biden administration’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers is going to be decided by the Supreme Court, where it is likely to face skepticism from the conservative majority. “This is President Biden turning his back on student debtors,” says Braxton Brewington, press secretary of the Debt Collective.

We host a roundtable discussion with three experts in artificial intelligence on growing concerns over the technology’s potential dangers. Yoshua Bengio, known as one of the three “godfathers of AI,” is a professor at the University of Montreal and founder and scientific director at Mila–Quebec AI Institute. Bengio is also a signatory of the Future of Life Institute open letter calling for a pause on large AI experiments. He is joined on Democracy Now! by Tawana Petty, the director of policy and advocacy at the Algorithmic Justice League, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about the harms of AI, particularly its encoding of racism, sexism and other forms of oppression, and by Max Tegmark, a professor at MIT and president of the Future of Life Institute, which aims to address the existential risk of AI upon humanity.

House Approves Debt Ceiling Deal Slammed by Progressives as “Extortion” , 19 Killed, 100+ Injured as Shells Fall on Market Near Sudan’s Capital, U.S. to Send Additional $300 Million in Weapons to Ukraine, Failed North Korean Rocket Launch Triggers Evacuation Alert in Seoul, Protests Mount over Planned Release of Radioactive Water from Fukushima Plant into Pacific, Tennessee Woman Is Left Infertile After She’s Denied Abortion Care, Georgia Police Arrest 3 Organizers of Bail Fund for Cop City Protesters, Danny Masterson Found Guilty of Raping Women He Met Through Church of Scientology, NASA Holds First Public Meeting on “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena”, Mike Pence, Chris Christie and Doug Burgum to Enter Crowded 2024 GOP Presidential Race, CUNY Law Graduate Faces Death Threats After Condemning Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians

We look at the impact of the reelection of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Sunday in a tight runoff vote, extending his 20-year rule for a further five years. Erdoğan received just over 52% of the vote, beating challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, an economist and former civil servant who unified a broad coalition but failed to unseat Erdoğan despite growing dissatisfaction with his governance and deep economic pain within the country. We speak with Cihan Tuğal, UC Berkeley sociologist and author of The Fall of the Turkish Model: How the Arab Uprisings Brought Down Islamic Liberalism.

We go to Kampala, Uganda, to discuss the impact of one of the most draconian anti-LGBTQ laws in the world, just signed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. The new law makes same-sex relationships punishable by life imprisonment. Some LGBTQ people could receive the death sentence. Homophobia in Uganda is heavily influenced by American evangelists, who function as “exporters of hate,” notes Pepe Onziema, a Ugandan human rights activist, causing LGBTQ Ugandans to “end up as collateral damage.”

We look at how a new Supreme Court ruling awards a major victory to polluters and land developers. In a 5-4 decision last week, the justices sharply limited the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to protect and preserve wetlands under the Clean Water Act. The ruling ends protections for about half of all the wetlands in the contiguous United States, jeopardizing access to safe drinking water for millions. “That just defies science, physics, commonsense,” says Earthjustice’s Sam Sankar, who urges Congress to take action to once again protect the country’s critical water resources.

As lawmakers push through the bipartisan deal to raise the debt limit, it is being called a “dirty debt ceiling deal” by opponents because it includes language meant to speed completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The controversial $6.6 billion pipeline would go through Virginia and West Virginia and carry 2 billion cubic feet of fracked gas across more than a thousand streams and wetlands in Appalachia. Over 750 frontline communities and environmental justice organizations oppose its construction, but the project has long had the backing of powerful West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, the biggest recipient of fossil fuel money in Congress. “They can’t build this pipeline and follow the law,” says Maury Johnson, a West Virginian who lives in the path of the massive pipeline and says approval of the deal would show corporations they can simply “throw a bunch of money to politicians” in order to overcome environmental concerns and local opposition from residents.

Debt Limit Deal Heads to House Vote Amid Objections on Both the Left and Right, NYC Climate Protesters Call on Sen. Schumer to Remove Climate Concessions Before Passing Debt Deal, Climate Crisis: Canada Wildfires Grow; Heat Wave Scorches Asia; EU Ups Summer Firefighting Force, Tech Experts Warn Against “Risk of Extinction from AI”, Hotline Workers at Nat’l Eating Disorder Association Are Being Replaced by Chatbot, Sudan’s Army Suspends Participation in Ceasefire Talks, NATO to Deploy 700 More Troops to Kosovo Amid Mounting Tensions, Over 1 Million Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh at Risk of Humanitarian Aid Shortages, Malta May Have Violated International Law by Neglecting Calls for Help from Refugee Ship, U.N. Launches Operation to Remove Oil from Decaying Tanker Off Yemen’s Coast, Indigenous Groups in Brazil Protest Against Bill Restricting Protections for Tribal Land, Court Grants Immunity to Sackler Family in Purdue Pharma Legal Saga over Opioid Epidemic, Joshua Valles Is the Third Rikers Island Detainee to Die in 2023, Elizabeth Holmes Reports to Prison to Start 11-Year Sentence for Defrauding Theranos Investors, Federal Trial Begins for 2018 Massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue

We speak in depth with journalist Jonathan Eig about his new book, King: A Life, the first major biography of the civil rights leader in more than 35 years, which draws on unredacted FBI files, as well as the files of the personal aide to President Lyndon Baines Johnson, to show how Johnson and others partnered in the FBI’s surveillance of King and efforts to destroy him, led by director J. Edgar Hoover. Eig also interviewed more than 200 people, including many who knew King closely, like the singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte. The book has also drawn attention for its revelation that King was less critical of Malcolm X than previously thought.

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are urging lawmakers to support a deal to suspend the debt ceiling until January 1, 2025, in order to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt for the first time in history. The two leaders reached a tentative agreement over the Memorial Day long weekend, but it must still be approved by Congress before a June 5 deadline, when the government is expected to run out of money to pay its bills. Both progressive lawmakers and members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus have expressed some opposition to the deal, which calls for nondefense discretionary spending to remain mostly flat while boosting military spending by about 3%. New work requirements would be established for some recipients of federal aid programs, and it cuts funding to the IRS and lifts a moratorium on student loan payments in place since the pandemic. The deal also speeds up the approval and construction of the proposed $6.6 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia. We speak with Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative and a former policy adviser to Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Debt Ceiling Deal Would Cap Nonmilitary Spending, Add Welfare Work Requirements, Slash IRS Funds, Sudan’s Rival Military Factions Extend Shaky Truce, Drone Attacks on Moscow Follow Russian Airstrikes on Kyiv, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Wins Reelection in Presidential Runoff, Israeli Settlers Move to Reestablish Illegal Outpost in Occupied West Bank, Libyan Court Sentences 23 Men to Death over ISIS Takeover of Sirte, Ugandan President Signs Draconian Anti-LGBTQ Bill That Includes Death Penalty, Lula Welcomes Venezuelan President Maduro to Brazil, Blasts U.S. Sanctions, 16 Killed Across U.S. in Memorial Day Mass Shootings, South Carolina Court Puts Temporary Hold on Near-Total Abortion Ban, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Impeached and Suspended over Corruption Allegations, Texas GOP Approves Bill Giving Secretary of State Power to Overturn Houston-Area Elections