Democracy Now!

In New Mexico, a 23-year-old gunman wearing a red MAGA hat opened fire last week on Jacob Johns and other Indigenous activists opposing plans to reinstall a statue honoring the 16th century conquistador Juan de Onate, New Mexico's first colonial governor. Johns, the prominent climate activist, was airlifted from Espanola to an Albuquerque hospital and required emergency surgery. We speak with Malaya Peixinho, who participated in Thursday's gathering, about how the statue of the colonial leader has divided the local community. It is a really controversial thing to talk about Onate," says Peixinho, who believes funds for the statue could go to social programs instead. That feels more important than funding a statue being resurrected." The shooter, Ryan Martinez, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for shooting Johns and aiming the gun at Peixinho, who calls the charges fair" and blames police for not intervening. They didn't show up for us," says Peixinho.

Over 50 years since the United States forced them out in order to build a military base on the island of Diego Garcia, exiled residents of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean continue to pressure Britain and the U.S. to pay reparations and apologize for expelling residents. We speak with prominent Chagossian activist Olivier Bancoult, who is visiting the United States to meet with lawmakers and State Department officials. The U.S. is fully responsible for what happened to our people," says Bacoult. We want the Biden administration to apologize and to make reparation for what they did wrong to our people." Located halfway between Africa and Indonesia and about 1,000 miles south of India, the military base on Diego Garcia played a key role in the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a crime against humanity," says author of Base Nation David Vine, who adds that there are more than 20 cases of the U.S. displacing local populations for military bases. The Chagossians are not alone."

U.N. Approves Armed Intervention Force for Haiti, U.N. Mission Arrives in Nagorno-Karabakh as Some 120,000 Ethnic Armenians Flee Azerbaijan's Takeover, Supreme Court Opens New Term with Case on Reduced Sentences for Nonviolent Offenders, Supreme Court Won't Halt Execution of Texas Prisoner Sentenced over Junk Science" Testimony, Clarence Thomas Recuses Self from Appeal of Trump Legal Adviser Who Communicated with Ginni Thomas, GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz Files Resolution to Remove Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker, Laphonza Butler to Be Sworn In as First-Ever Out Lesbian Black Senator, Trump Assails Judge and Prosecutors as Civil Trial Opens in Manhattan Court, Labor Department Opens Probe of Child Labor at Perdue and Tyson Foods, WHO Approves Second Vaccine Against Malaria for Children, Dolores Sanchez, Publisher of Bilingual Newspapers for L.A.'s Latinx Community, Dies at 87, Journalists Mark 5th Anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi's Murder with Calls for Accountability

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, and we look at how Black and Brown survivors of domestic abuse are further criminalized by police and prisons - and how activists have been organizing to win their freedom. In her first broadcast interview, we speak with Tracy McCarter, a nurse and grandmother who was jailed after her abusive husband, a white man, died of a stab wound when she defended herself during an altercation. McCarter, who is Black, describes being a criminalized survivor of both domestic violence and the criminal legal system. She was held at the notorious Rikers jail for nearly seven months and had her murder charges dropped in November after a campaign led by the grassroots abolitionist organization Survived and Punished. This comes as one-third of women imprisoned in New York for homicide were abused by the person they killed. It became clear to me that I wasn't going to be considered a person whose life was important enough to defend," says McCarter, a registered nurse and graduate student at the time of her arrest, who shares her story and explains how racism affected her case. We also speak with Brooklyn Law School professor Jocelyn Simonson, a member of the I Stand With Tracy" solidarity campaign and author of the new book, Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People Are Dismantling Incarceration.

California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving woman to ever serve in the Senate, has died at the age of 90. Feinstein had previously announced plans to retire at the end of this term, sparking an ongoing race to replace her open seat that's been led by California Congressmembers Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. California Governor Gavin Newsom has tapped Laphonza Butler, the president of the Democratic pro-abortion organization EMILY's List and a former leader of the California SEIU, as Feinstein's temporary replacement. Butler will become the only Black woman in the Senate and California's first openly LGBTQ+ senator. For more on Newsom's choice of Butler, the race to replace Feinstein and the late senator's political legacy, we continue our conversation with journalist Sasha Abramsky, whose latest piece for The Nation is titled Dianne Feinstein's Empty Seat."

Congress passed an 11th-hour short-term funding bill this weekend, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown for the next 45 days, but the House is in a state of turmoil as far-right lawmakers threaten to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for working on the bipartisan bill. It's a crisis entirely of Kevin McCarthy's own making," says our guest Sasha Abramsky, the West Coast correspondent for The Nation, who also calls McCarthy's impeachment inquiry into President Biden the most ill-prepared, ill-thought-out, poorly advised Republican inquiry you could possibly imagine," and discusses Republicans' embrace of Vladimir Putin to contrast with establishment Democrats' support of Ukraine in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Kevin McCarthy Reverses Course, Passes Deal with House Democrats to Avert Gov't Shutdown at 11th Hour, Gavin Newsom Picks EMILY's List President Laphonza Butler to Fill Dianne Feinstein's Senate Seat, Dianne Feinstein, Longest-Serving Woman Senator, Dies at 90 After Months of Declining Health, Record Rains Turn NYC Streets into Rivers as Gov. Hochul Warns Extreme Weather Is New Normal", Labor News: UAW Ramps Up Strike; Kaiser Permanente Health Workers Inch Closer to Major Strike, Migrants Killed Near U.S. Border; Traffic Deaths Expose Dangers for Migrants Traveling Through Mexico, Russia-Friendly Candidate Wins Slovakia's Parliamentary Election, Right-Wing Opposition Leader Loses Bid to Form New Spanish Government, Mohamed Muizzu Wins Runoff Election to Become Maldives President, Protesters Rally to Oppose Police Training Center in San Pablo, CA, Donald Trump Arrives in New York for Start of Civil Fraud Trial, Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded to Scientists Whose Work on mRNA Led to COVID Vaccines

Cuba has released footage showing an individual throwing two Molotov cocktails inside the Cuban Embassy compound in Washington, D.C., last Sunday, condemning it as a terrorist attack. An investigation is underway, but no arrests have been made. Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio says the country is demanding a speedy investigation, adding that it is the latest in a series of attacks against Cuban diplomatic missions in recent years. Meanwhile, international pressure continues to grow for the Biden administration to lift the embargo on Cuba and remove it from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba's relationship with terrorism is as a victim," Fernandez de Cossio says of the terror designation. The reason is not very clear to us, beyond the wish of trying to make life as unbearable as possible for the people of Cuba as a way of trying to extract from Cuba political concessions."

Poland says it's preparing to seek the extradition of a 98-year-old Ukrainian Nazi after he received a standing ovation in the Canadian House of Commons last week following a speech by visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Yaroslav Hunka was invited by the speaker of the House, who has since resigned his post, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized for the episode on Wednesday. Hunka fought during World War II with a Nazi unit composed of Ukrainian volunteers who were involved in numerous atrocities, including massacres of Jewish civilians. But Hunka is not an outlier, according to Ukrainian American journalist Lev Golinkin, who says Canada took in many Ukrainian Nazi collaborators after the war. That includes the grandfather of Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who spent years painting him as a victim rather than the Nazi propagandist he was. Of course Hunka didn't think anything would happen, because you had the deputy prime minister who was caught whitewashing a Nazi collaborator, and nothing happened," says Golinkin.

The government of Nagorno-Karabakh is dissolving itself after decades of struggle for autonomy from Azerbaijan, just days after Azerbaijani forces carried out a military blitz to seize the breakaway region, which has a majority of ethnic Armenians. More than half the territory's 120,000 people have reportedly fled to Armenia, while thousands more remain without food, shelter and clean drinking water. Basically, this is ethnic cleansing," says Roubina Margossian, managing editor of EVN Report, an independent media outlet based in Armenia. This is the victory of a dictatorship over a democracy."

Ahead of Shutdown, Biden Says GOP Extremists Are Trying to Burn the Place Down", Biden Warns Trump & MAGA Movement Are a Threat to Democracy, Activist Disrupts Biden Speech, Urges Him to Declare Climate Emergency, 18 Youth Climate Activists Arrested for Occupying Speaker McCarthy's Office, GOP Witnesses Admit No Evidence Yet to Support Impeaching Biden, GOP Lawmakers Refuse to Say Trump Should Be Held Accountable If Convicted, NY Appeals Court Rejects Trump Effort to Delay Civil Fraud Trial, Dozens Killed in Two Blasts in Pakistan, U.N.: Over 2,500 Migrants Have Died or Gone Missing This Year Trying to Cross the Mediterranean, Protesters in Niger Rally Outside French Military Base Demanding Immediate Troop Withdrawal, Former Bolivian President to Pay Damages for 2003 Indigenous Massacre, Mexico: Three Arrests Made After Bodies of Six Kidnapped Teenagers Found, Texas Man Pleads Guilty for Role in Death of 53 Migrants Trapped Inside Truck, MAGA Gunman Attacks Protest in New Mexico over Reinstallment of Conquistador Statue, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Sues Tesla over Racial Abuse of Black Workers, California: Gov. Newsom Raises Minimum Wage for Fast-Food Workers to $20, Rep. Bowman and Sen. Markey Introduce Green New Deal for Public Schools Act

Senator Bob Menendez appeared in court Wednesday to face corruption charges yet refused to resign. A growing number of politicians have called for Menendez to step down, after federal agents discovered large amounts of cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz in the Democrat's New Jersey home. There's a possibility that this cycle that we see will not recur," says David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, who says even the New Jersey political machine is shunning" Menendez after his second corruption indictment in less than 10 years.

On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission and 17 states filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, but the details of the suit remain unclear as much of it is redacted to the public. We speak with David Dayen, author of Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power, about the significance of this lawsuit, which comes just two weeks after the opening of a landmark antitrust trial against Google. Suddenly there is all this activity in the antitrust space after a period of dormancy for about 40 years," says Dayen, who says the charge is being led by FTC Chair Lina Khan. Khan represents an aggressive set of antitrust enforcers that the Biden administration has put in and really reversed this troubling trend of the last 40 years."

Former presidential candidate Ralph Nader responds to Wednesday's second Republican debate, saying, It's pretty embarrassing that this is what they put forward to become the president of the most powerful country in the world." Nader discusses the debate's topics of social media, former President Donald Trump and wealth inequality in America. Nader also calls for the Democratic Party to stop engaging in candidate suppression" and respect third-party candidates such as Cornel West to run for public office as a constitutional right.

Donald Trump skipped the second Republican presidential debate of the 2024 race on Wednesday, declining once again to share a stage with competitors for the nomination whom he leads in the polls by double digits. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie criticized Trump for his absence, but most of the seven candidates avoided direct attacks on the front-runner. Instead, they largely aimed their fire at President Joe Biden - and each other. We air highlights from the debate, including the candidates' remarks on the UAW strike, immigration and the economy.

GOP Presidential Candidates Attack an Absent Trump, Each Other at Chaotic Debate, Trump Calls on Unions to Support Him in 2024 as He Addresses Nonunion Auto Plant, Las Vegas Hotel and Casino Workers Overwhelmingly Vote to Authorize Strike, U.S. Gov't on Cusp of Shutdown Amid Republican House Dysfunction, Nagorno-Karabakh's Gov't to Self-Dissolve by Jan. 1 as 50,000 People Flee, Burkina Faso Military Coup Leaders Say They Thwarted Another Coup Attempt, North Korea Expels Soldier Travis King Back to the U.S., Palestinian Rights Advocates Condemn U.S. Visa Waiver for Israeli Travelers, Ethiopian Researchers Verify at Least 1,329 Hunger Deaths in Tigray, Justin Trudeau Apologizes over Nazi Soldier Applause After House Speaker Steps Down, Dutch Climate Activists Have Been Blocking a Major Highway for 20 Days, Environmentalists Slam U.K. Approval of Rosebank Oil Project in North Sea, European Court Hears Historic Case from Portuguese Youth Suing 32 Nations over Climate Crisis, Bob Menendez and Co-Defendants Plead Not Guilty to Bribery as 30 Dems Calls for His Resignation, Outrage in Philadelphia After Judge Dismisses Charges Against Cop Who Shot and Killed Eddie Irizarry

In a historic show of support for striking autoworkers, President Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to join a picket line Tuesday when he joined UAW members outside a General Motors facility in Wayne, Michigan. The American Prospect's executive editor David Dayen says the Biden administration's support for the union is a big shift from how the Democratic Party has treated organized labor in recent decades. The mentality of the Obama administration and the Biden administration, as far as it relates to worker power, couldn't be more stark," he says. The union launched a strike against the Big Three manufacturers - Ford, GM and Stellantis, parent company of Chrysler - earlier this month in a bid to raise pay and benefits amid record profits for the companies. There are now 18,000 workers on strike at 41 facilities across 21 states, and UAW President Shawn Fain has threatened to keep expanding the strike if needed. Dayen recently went to a picket line in Ontario, California, and reported that striking workers have twice had guns pulled on them by nonunion truckers seeking to use a distribution center to move auto parts to dealers.

As we mark Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States, Congressmember Jesus Chuy" Garcia says it's important to celebrate the contributions of activists who fought racial and economic inequality. The Illinois Democrat is the first Mexican immigrant from the Midwest elected to Congress and recently delivered a speech on the House floor to mark the 40th anniversary of the killing of Chicago activist Rudy Lozano, whom Garcia considered a friend and mentor. Lozano was murdered in 1983, after working to build multiracial support for the historic election of Chicago's first Black mayor, Harold Washington. Activists like Rudy Lozano ... were responsible for movements that have empowered Latino, African American, Asian and other discriminated communities over a 40-year span," says Garcia. He also recalls the work of Bert Corona, who started the Mexican American labor organization CASA, which had nationwide chapters that served as organizing hubs and protested the Vietnam War.

A sharp increase in the number of people attempting to cross into the United States is straining resources in border communities, as thousands of asylum seekers arrive at the southern U.S. border each day seeking safety from violence, conflict, extreme poverty and the impacts of the climate crisis. Congressmember Jesus Chuy" Garcia of Illinois says decades of U.S. military interventions, sanctions and the war on drugs are all important factors" in what is driving the migration, particularly from South and Central America. We need a system that responds both compassionately and responds to the root causes of why people come to this country," he says. We also speak with Fernando Garcia, founder and executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso, who says the lack of leadership from the federal government is causing hardship along the border for both asylum seekers and local communities struggling to welcome the newcomers. Nothing has been done - not by this administration, obviously, and much less from the previous administration. So we are seeing the same situations over and over," he says.

Stick with It": Biden Joins Striking Autoworkers on Picket Line in Michigan, WGA Ends 148-Day Strike After Reaching Tentative Deal as Writers Prepare to Vote on Ratification, SCOTUS Again Rejects Alabama's Gerrymandered Maps, Judge Rules Trump Illegally Inflated Value of Assets Ahead of NY Attorney General Trial, FCC to Reinstate Net Neutrality Rules Repealed Under Trump, FTC, 17 States Sue Amazon over Illegal Practices to Maintain E-Retail Monopoly, Senate Advances Stopgap Funding Deal as House Remains at Stalemate over Far-Right Demands, Hunter Biden Sues Giuliani for Illegally Accessing His Private Data, At Least 100 Killed in Iraq as Blaze Tears Through Wedding Party, Death Toll from Fuel Depot Blast Climbs to 68 as Tens of Thousands Flee Nagorno-Karabakh, Canada's House Speaker Steps Down After Leading Applause for Former Nazi Soldier, Ukraine Is Clarifying" Whether Russian Black Sea Commander Is Dead After Claiming He Was Killed, Saudi Arabia Simultaneously Tightens Ties with Both Israel and Palestine, JPMorgan Chase Settles Jeffrey Epstein Lawsuit with U.S. Virgin Islands for $75 Million

A political battle is brewing in Washington, D.C., over plans to build a National Museum of the American Latino and the portrayal of American Latino history. Last year, the Smithsonian Institution opened a temporary preview exhibition inside the National Museum of American History that has become the focus of controversy within the Latino community, as Republican lawmakers and others challenge what one conservative writer described in The Hill as an unabashedly Marxist portrayal of history." We speak to two historians who were hired to develop a now-shelved exhibit on the Latino civil rights movement of the 1960s for the museum. Felipe Hinojosa is a history professor at Baylor University in Texas, and Johanna Fernandez is an associate professor of history at the City University of New York's Baruch College. We discuss their vision for the first national museum dedicated to Latino history, which Hinojosa describes as complex" and nuanced," and how conservative backlash has sought to stymie and rewrite their work. These conservatives are using fear to essentially push through their agenda," says Fernandez, who warns that the rising wave of censorship throughout the U.S. could be a repeat of the Red Scare."

As part of events marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-backed military coup in Chile that ousted democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende and led to the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Chilean President Gabriel Boric visited Washington, D.C., Saturday to deliver a historic address. He spoke at the site where former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier was assassinated in 1976 by agents of the Pinochet dictatorship, along with his co-worker Ronni Moffitt. We feature excerpts from the address and speak with Letelier's son, Juan Pablo Letelier, a former member of the Chilean House and Senate with the Socialist Party, about his father's assassination and the Boric administration's work toward redress for the families of victims of Pinochet's regime.

Fuel Depot Explosion Kills 20 Amid Exodus of Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia Strikes Black Sea Port in Odesa, Damaging Grain Silo, U.N. Commission Finds Russian Forces Have Committed Rape and Widespread and Systematic" Torture, Mexico Accedes to U.S. Demands to Deport Migrants from Northern Border Cities, Sen. Bob Mendendez Refuses Calls to Step Down, Says He'll Fight Federal Bribery Charges, Donald Trump Suggests Gen. Mark Milley Should Be Put to Death, Fulton County Judge Moves to Protect Jurors in Trump Election Interference Case, Trump Campaign Reverses Claim Trump Purchased Handgun, Which Would Be Illegal, British Regulator Clears Path for Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision, SAG-AFTRA Video Game Actors Authorize Strike, Libya Charges Officials Over Dam Collapse That Killed Thousands, Protesters at Indian Embassies in Canada Demand Justice for Assassinated Sikh Leader, Molotov Cocktail Thrown at Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C.

On Friday, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and his wife were accused by federal prosecutors of accepting bribes in exchange for using his position to increase U.S. assistance to Egypt and to do favors for three New Jersey businessmen, including Wael Hana, an Egyptian American who ran a lucrative business certifying halal meat exports. Egypt is a major meat importer," says Lina Attalah, publisher of the independent Cairo-based news website Mada Masr that investigated the monopolization of halal certification in 2019. What was straightforward financial corruption had this major political tentacle that affects bilateral relations to a great extent." Menendez has stepped down as head of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, but as he faces growing pressure to resign from his role as senator, New Jersey-based reporter Bob Hennelly says, the state's political establishment that enabled him for years now appears ready to let him fend for himself. Democrats really can't afford to have Bob Menendez hanging around," says Hennelly, who reports that Menendez has faced serious corruption charges in the past but retained his Senate seat. This is what he does."

A new damning investigation from ProPublica reveals Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas attended multiple fundraisers in connection with the billionaire Koch brothers, who have spent millions on conservative causes and funneled vast donations into Republican campaigns. None of this was disclosed as it should have been on his annual financial disclosures," says Justin Elliott, reporter for ProPublica covering Supreme Court corruption and ethics. He's spending time with people like the Kochs who have active interest and, in fact, cases at the Supreme Court." This comes as a Supreme Court precedent known as Chevron is set to be revisited, with conservatives seeking to limit the power of federal agencies to issue regulations in areas ranging from the environment to labor rights to consumer protection. If this Chevron doctrine is overturned by the Supreme Court, it's going to make it much, much easier to challenge a regulation if you, as a company, don't like it," says Elliott.

The Writers Guild of America has announced that a tentative deal has been reached between striking writers and Hollywood studios, four months after the strikes shut down production of scripted movies and television. The WGA leadership will meet Tuesday to vote on the deal, which includes many of the demands of the striking writers, including higher pay and residual payments for streaming content and new rules about the use of artificial intelligence. It's not a done deal yet," says labor writer Alex Press, who says it's ultimately up to rank-and-file members to approve the plan.

Bob Menendez Under Fire as Calls Mount to Step Down After Bribery Indictment, WGA Reaches Tentative Deal with Major Studios That Could End 146-Day Strike, Biden to Join UAW Picket Line as Auto Union Expands Strike to 38 Locations Across 20 States, France to Withdraw Troops and Ambassador from Niger After Failing to Overturn Coup, 21 People Killed in Somalia Bombing as Defense Secretary Austin Praises Fight Against al-Shabab, Ghanaians Take to Streets to Protest Worsening Economic Crisis, Israeli Forces Kill 2 Palestinians in West Bank Raid, Ramp Up Attack on Gaza, Top Canadian Lawmaker Apologizes for Nazi Soldier Standing Ovation at House Session with Zelensky, U.S. Surveillance Helped Canada Conclude India Was Involved in June Killing of Canadian Sikh Leader, Thousands Flee Nagorno-Karabakh as Armenia Warns of Ethnic Cleansing, Four Killed as Serb Gunmen Ambush Kosovo Police Patrol and Storm Monastery, Nebraska Mother Who Helped Daughter Obtain Abortion Sentenced to Two Years in Prison, Pope Says European Countries Have a Duty to Rescue Migrants at Sea

Fears are growing of another U.S. government shutdown as soon as October 1, with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unable to overcome opposition from far-right lawmakers in his own party to pass spending measures to keep the government funded. For more on what's happening on Capitol Hill, we speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California, who says the chaos of a shutdown will hurt many ordinary people as federal workers go unpaid and public services suffer. McCarthy has just failed to do the most basic function of a speaker of the House: keep the government open and functioning." Khanna also discusses the UAW strike against the Big Three automakers and growing tension between Canada and India over the alleged assassination of a Sikh leader on Canadian soil by Indian agents.

President Biden has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House later this year after the two leaders met on the sidelines of the United Nations this week. The invitation is a major victory for Netanyahu and comes as his far-right government guts the power of the judiciary and moves closer to full annexation of the West Bank, with Israeli forces killing hundreds of Palestinians so far this year. We speak with Palestinian American analyst Yousef Munayyer, a scholar at the Arab Center Washington DC, as well as journalist Alex Kane, whose latest piece for Jewish Currents is headlined Biden's Legacy Will Be Apartheid." The article looks at the decades-long Biden-Netanyahu relationship and how reluctant the U.S. administration has been to impose consequences despite Israel's growing extremism. When Biden says his support for Israel is ironclad, it basically means that his support for Israel is unconditional even as it consolidates an apartheid rule in the Occupied Territories and escalates ethnic cleansing processes that are going on right now," says Kane. Munayyer adds that Biden's push for normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel - a key goal for his administration - will further legitimize Israeli repression.

As billionaire Rupert Murdoch announces he will resign as head of his media empire, we speak with Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of the watchdog group Media Matters for America, about the right-wing mogul's influence on journalism and politics over the last seven decades. The 92-year-old Murdoch will step down as chair of Fox Corporation and News Corporation in November, with his son Lachlan to head both companies that control Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post and more. Carusone says as the elder Murdoch steps back, it's important to make sure that his legacy doesn't get sugarcoated, that we are really cognizant of the scale of damage that he's created," which includes climate denialism and the growing influence of the far right in politics. Carusone also warns that Lachlan Murdoch is more conservative than his father, with a nihilist" worldview that could make Fox News and other properties even more extreme.

As Government Shutdown Looms, McCarthy Says GOP Hard-Liners Want to Burn the Whole Place Down", Ukraine's Zelensky Visits Washington, D.C., Seeking Additional Aid to Counter Russia, Brazil's Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Indigenous Communities' Land Claims, Guatemalan President-elect Rallies Supporters as Prosecutors Seek to Ban His Party, U.S. to Grant Temporary Protected Status to 472,000 Venezuelans in U.S., 3-Year-Old Child Dies in Rio Grande Near Deadly Border Buoys Installed by Texas Governor, India Suspends Visas for Canadians After Trudeau Accuses Modi Government of Killing Sikh Leader, Rupert Murdoch Steps Down as Leader of Right-Wing Media Empire, Hands Power to Son, Rights Groups Slam Arrest of Reporter Who Exposed French Role in Killings of Civilians in Egypt, Baton Rouge Police Officers Accused of Torturing Civilians in Unmarked Warehouse, Ex-White House Aide Says Giuliani Groped Her; Ex-NYC Mayor Sued by Law Firm for Unpaid Fees, Alabama Auto Workers Strike for Livable Wages as UAW Prepares to Escalate Strike Against Big 3"

Colombian President Gustavo Petro says the U.S.-backed coup in Chile 50 years ago, when General Augusto Pinochet deposed socialist President Salvador Allende, left a lasting scar across Latin America. Many progressives took up arms against corrupt governments, often led by Nazis," Petro says, fueling decades of conflict that is only now beginning to fade. Today, having closed out that cycle of weapons and violence, we need to rethink democracy," Petro told Democracy Now! in an exclusive interview this week at Colombia's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. He also discussed how the U.S. war on drugs exacerbated violence in countries including Colombia throughout the Cold War and beyond.

In Part 3 of our interview with leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro, he describes how hard-line U.S. policies are preventing the Americas from addressing issues like migration, calling on the Biden administration to open up a plural dialogue" to bring the region closer together. He notes many people moving through Latin America to seek asylum in the United States are from Venezuela, a country that has been devastated by U.S. sanctions. He calls for an end to punitive economic sanctions against both Venezuela and Cuba, both to slow migration and to address historic injustice. The scars of history - the invasions from before, the old imperialism, the old domination - continue to weigh against humanity."

In Part 2 of our interview with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, he says climate change is a vital matter" the world must address collectively. But unlike world trade, which is governed by a set of common rules, there is no organizing rubric for decarbonizing the world economy in time to prevent catastrophe. There's no courts for this. There's no justice. So everybody can just slip by," Petro says. He says the amount of money rich countries have provided to hasten the clean energy transition falls far short of commitments made in the 2015 Paris Agreement and is a drop in the bucket compared to what is being spent on the war in Ukraine.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro joins Democracy Now! for an exclusive broadcast interview after his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he spoke of the need to end wars and stop the climate crisis. Petro is the first leftist to ever govern Colombia. He was elected in 2022 after campaigning to fight inequality and poverty, increase taxes on the wealthy, expand social programs, restore peace and end Colombia's dependence on fossil fuels. He is a former M-19 guerrilla who went on to become the mayor of Bogota and a senator before rising to the presidency. In Part 1 of the interview, Petro discusses his position on the war in Ukraine, the occupation of Palestine and the need for consistent international norms. We're neutral in any war, not because we don't believe that there is an occupation [in Ukraine], but because, basically, we don't believe in those who are inviting us to participate in war," says Petro, because many of the countries of Latin America ... have suffered invasions by the same countries that today are extending an invitation to reject the invasion of Ukraine."

U.N. Chief Warns Climate Ambition Summit, Humanity Has Opened the Gates of Hell", Biden Announces Climate Corps as Activists Demand He Declare Climate Emergency, Study Finds Climate Change Made Libya Flood Catastrophe 50 Times More Likely, U.N. Warns Fighting Between Sudan's Rival Military Factions Is Sickening and Killing Children, CNN: Ukraine Likely Behind Drone Strikes on Wagner-Backed Paramilitary in Sudan, Nagorno-Karabakh Residents Seek Security Guarantees as Peace Talks Get Underway, Patients Billed Up to $190 for COVID-19 Shots That Insurance Plans Are Required to Cover, Senate Confirms Top Military Officer, Circumventing Anti-Abortion Protest of Sen. Tuberville, Merrick Garland Defends Justice Department Handling of Hunter Biden Case in Combative Hearing, Trial Opens for Colorado Officers Whose Violent Arrest of Elijah McClain Led to His Death, School Book Bans Surged 33% Over Prior Year with Florida Leading the Charge

A Minnesota judge has dismissed criminal charges against three Indigenous water protectors who were arrested for protesting oil extraction on treaty-ceded Anishinaabe land. Winona LaDuke, Tania Aubid and Dawn Goodwin were arrested in January 2021 after police saw video shared on social media of the three women singing, dancing and praying near construction crews for Canadian energy company Enbridge's Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline. In a landmark opinion, Judge Leslie Metzen affirmed the protesters' free speech rights, writing that to criminalize their behavior would be the crime." We go to the White Earth Indian Reservation to speak to Winona LaDuke, an Anishinaabekwe enrolled member of the Mississippi band of Ashinaabeg and a longtime environmental activist, about the case and the ongoing protests against Line 3. I'm glad to not be in jail," says LaDuke. I'm not a criminal, and Enbridge is."

A delegation of Australian lawmakers has arrived in Washington, D.C., to urge the Biden administration to halt its prosecution of WikiLeaks founder and Australian citizen Julian Assange. More than 60 members of Australia's Parliament from across the political spectrum have called for Assange's release. We speak to Australian Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, who co-founded the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group, about the growing Australian movement to free Assange and its implications for U.S.-Australia relations. Whish-Wilson warns that Assange's extradition to the U.S. to stand trial on espionage charges is something you would expect from a totalitarian regime" and would set a dangerous precedent for press freedoms around the world.

At the United Nations General Assembly this week, multiple world leaders voiced support for the imprisoned founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro. We air an excerpt of Democracy Now!'s exclusive interview with Petro, who calls Assange's continued incarceration the greatest mockery of freedom of press ... brought to bear by the country that built the concept."

We speak to Arjun Sethi, a Sikh community activist, civil rights lawyer and professor at Georgetown Law, about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's public accusations that the Indian government arranged the assassination of a prominent Sikh leader and Canadian citizen outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia in June. India has denied the allegations. Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a prominent leader in the Khalistan movement, a Sikh separatist movement that advocates for the formation of an independent Sikh homeland in the northwest Indian state of Punjab. He had been designated a terrorist by India's Hindu nationalist government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has long been accused of targeting Sikh leaders at home and abroad. Sethi says that India's extension of minority group persecution to foreign soil shows the world just how emboldened the Modi administration is."

Ceasefire Announced in Nagorno-Karabakh After Azerbaijani Military Operation Kills 100, Israelis Kill at Least 5 Palestinians in Last 2 Days as Gaza Blockade Tightens, Biden Meeting with Netanyahu in New York as U.S. Pushes for Saudi-Israeli Normalization, Houthi and Saudi Negotiators Wrap Another Round of Talks on Possible End to Yemen War, Volodymyr Zelensky Warns Russian War on Ukraine Threatens the World, Iranian President Calls on U.S. to Recommit to Nuclear Deal, Says Americanization" of World Failed, Latin American Nations Challenge Old World Order at UNGA and G77, Gov't Shutdown Inches Closer as McCarthy Faces Hard-Right Revolt, Fails to Advance 2 Spending Bills, Pennsylvania Automates Voter Registration; Lindsay Powell Wins Election, Keeping PA House Blue, Conservative Group Sues West Point over Affirmative Action Policy, Climate Activists Take Aim at Bank of America over Its Funding of Fossil Fuel Projects

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During the rally at Sunday's March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City, activists decried President Joe Biden's continued investment in fossil fuels and his refusal to declare a national emergency over the worsening effects of climate change. Louisiana climate justice activist Roishetta Ozane said Biden is personally accountable" for climate change-fueled natural disasters, while 16-year-old Fridays for Future organizer Helen Mancini proclaimed, There is not enough time to put this off another term." Both emphasized the role of impacted communities - from those living in the shadow of toxic production plants to youth facing the prospect of an increasingly uninhabitable planet - in demanding climate action, a call echoed by Teamsters Local 808's Chris Silvera, who declared that the fight for climate justice is a workers' fight."

We continue our coverage of the March to End Fossil Fuels, where protesters noted the United States is projected to account for more than one-third of planned global oil and gas expansion from today through 2050. It is the top oil and gas producer in the world, one of just 20 countries that will be responsible for 90% of new fossil fuel production over the next few decades. We feature speeches from Sunday's rally by Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate and Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They were among more than 75,000 attendees of what was the largest climate mobilization in the world since 2020. We call upon countries, and in particular the United States, to end new development of fossil fuels that are destroying livelihoods and lives, because we cannot eat coal and we cannot drink oil," said Nakate, while Ocasio-Cortez said ongoing grassroots mobilization too big and too radical to ignore" is needed to end fossil fuels and begin a just transition to a green economy.

Tens of thousands of people filled the streets of midtown Manhattan Sunday to send a clear message to the world and leaders coming to the city for the U.N. General Assembly this week: End fossil fuels. As part of more than 200 actions around the world leading up to the first-ever United Nations Climate Ambition Summit this Wednesday, more than 700 grassroots groups together called on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency, stop all federal approvals for new fossil fuel projects, phase out production of fossil fuels on federal public lands, and build a new clean energy future. Speakers at the massive march's rally included New York Democratic Congressmember Jamaal Bowman, environmental justice activist Sharon Lavigne, former Irish President Mary Robinson, actor Susan Sarandon and climate scientist Peter Kalmus. Every little bit of fossil fuel we burn makes the planet a little hotter," warned Kalmus, while Bowman and Robinson condemned fossil fuel investment as subsidizing" the planet's own self-destruction." Added Kalmus, This is a task of cosmic importance. ... We are on the brink of losing absolutely everything."

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