Democracy Now!

For the first time in U.S. history, the Justice Department has criminally charged the child of a sitting president. Federal prosecutors have indicted President Biden's son Hunter Biden on felony charges of illegally possessing a handgun and making false statements in order to obtain a revolver in 2018. Special counsel David Weiss brought the charges after a Trump-appointed federal judge in July rejected a deal that would have seen Hunter Biden plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax counts in order to avoid jail time. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000. This comes as Republican lawmakers have opened an impeachment inquiry of President Biden. Maybe this will become the norm ... to impeach the president if the president is from the opposite party," says Ryan Grim, D.C. bureau chief for The Intercept, who adds that Republican infighting is threatening House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's leadership and likely to lead to a shutdown of the federal government. It does seem like they are headed for a shutdown of their own making."

New York University announced it plans to divest from fossil fuels in an August letter addressed to Sunrise NYU. We speak with co-founders of the campus climate group, Alicia Colomer and Dylan Wahbe, about the university finally divesting after decades of pressure from student advocates. I would encourage every single student to get organized and join the movement," says Wahbe, who says a broad coalition of student groups and university unions ultimately forced the board of trustees to move on this issue. Stop the fossil fuel money from coming and polluting our universities in the first place so that universities can become real climate leaders," says Colomer, who is also managing director of Fossil Free Research, which works to end the fossil fuel industry's influence on higher education and climate research.

Ahead of a March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City on Sunday, some 400 scientists endorsed the demands of the march in an open letter to President Biden, blasting him for claiming he would listen to the science" while his policies fail to align with what the science tells us must happen to avert calamity." We speak with Rose Abramoff, an Earth scientist and one of the signatories, who was arrested last week blocking construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. We feel like the science has come to such a complete consensus and we just want fossil fuels to stop," says Abramoff. I wouldn't feel the need to risk my job with activism, to risk felony level charges by locking myself to a pipeline drill if I felt like the voice of the scientific community was being properly heard."

For the first time in history, the United Auto Workers has launched a strike against the Big Three U.S. automakers - Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler - all at once. UAW President Shawn Fein announced targeted strikes at three facilities: a General Motors plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Stellantis complex in Toledo, Ohio; and a Ford assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan. The action could grow to more locations in the coming days to ramp up pressure on the companies. The members are fired up, and we're ready and we're united," says electrician Marcelina Pedraza, a member of UAW Local 551 at a Ford assembly plant in Chicago. This is an important moment in history for us to win back a lot of the things we've lost in these past few years." As the three auto companies made a combined $21 billion in profits in the first six months of 2023, the UAW is looking to take back contract benefits they conceded in the 2008 financial crisis so manufacturers would not go bankrupt. That partnership was a poison pill for workers. The UAW new leadership knows that," says labor reporter Alex Press, who sees this strike as the labor movement not just clawing back concessions, but going on the offensive."

UAW Launches Unprecedented Strike Against Big Three U.S. Auto Makers, Confirmed Death Toll from Libya Floods Tops 11,000 as U.N. Says Catastrophe Could Have Been Averted, Deaths From Phoenix Heat Wave Top 200, With Another 350+ Heat-Related Deaths Under Investigation, Exxon Leaders Secretly Undermined Science After Publicly Acknowledging Climate Crisis, Climate Activists Block Entry to NYC's Citibank Ahead of Global Actions to #EndFossilFuels, Hunter Biden Indicted on Federal Gun Charges, Thousands of Asylum Seekers Arrive in Italy's Lampedusa, Migrant Survivors Sue Greece Over Shipwreck That Killed Hundreds, Wisconsin GOP Attempts to Oust Top Election Official Ahead of 2024 Presidential Vote, Wisconsin Planned Parenthood to Resume Abortions Next Week Amid Ongoing Legal Battles, Democrats Push For $16 Billion in Childcare Funding as Pandemic Relief Runs Out

We spend the hour with acclaimed journalist and author Naomi Klein, whose new book Doppelganger out this week explores what she calls the mirror world," a growing right-wing alternate universe of misinformation and conspiracies that, while identifying real problems, opportunistically exploits them to advance a hateful and divisive agenda. Klein explains her initial motivation for the book was her own alter-ego, the author Naomi Wolf, for whom she has often been mistaken. Both Naomis entered public consciousness in the 1990s with books critiquing corporate influence, but in recent years Wolf has become one of the most prominent vaccine deniers and purveyors of COVID-19 misinformation - making the ongoing confusion about their identities a source of frustration. It's very destabilizing," says Klein, who still urges people to seriously engage with the dangerous ideas propagated in mirror worlds, rather than simply look away. It's so hard to look at the reality that we are in right now, with the overlay of endless wars and climate disasters and massive inequality. And so whether we're making up fantastical conspiracy theories or getting lost in our own reflections, it's all about not looking at that reality that is only bearable if we get outside our own heads and collectively organize."

Mayor of Flooded Libyan City Says Death Toll Could Rise to 20,000, Environmental Damage Has Brought Earth Outside Safe Operating Space for Humanity", Morocco Rejects Offers of Foreign Aid as Earthquake Death Toll Nears 3,000, Human Rights Groups Accuse World Leaders of Failing to Act on Atrocities in Sudan, Ukraine Says Attack on Russian Black Naval Sea Fleet Struck Two Warships, Senate Subpoenas Saudi Wealth Fund as It Probes PGA-LIV Merger, New England and Eastern Canada Brace For Hurricane Lee, UAW on Cusp of Historic Strike as Automakers Fail to Meet Worker Demands Despite Massive Profits, Inhumane and Shameful": Bush-Appointed Judge Rules DACA Unlawful For Second Time, United Nations: U.S.-Mexico Border Has Become the Deadliest Land Migration Route, Wisconsin GOP Attempt to Impeach Liberal Judge Who Could Overturn Abortion Ban, Gerrymandering, Mitt Romney Will Not Seek Re-Election, Says GOP Operates in Shadow of Donald Trump"

We look at how Columbia University ignored women, undermined prosecutors and protected obstetrician Robert Hadden while he preyed on hundreds of his patients for more than two decades, as detailed in a new investigation from ProPublica and New York magazine. Hadden was sentenced in July to 20 years in federal prison for sexually abusing his patients, but survivors say no one has been held accountable at Columbia, and are still demanding justice. We speak with a survivor who reported Hadden to police after he assaulted her during a supposedly routine pregnancy exam in 2012, leading to his arrest, but Columbia allowed him to go back to work, and he assaulted more women. We are also joined by Laura Beil and Bianca Fortis, who co-wrote the new report. Beil also hosts the podcast Exposed: Cover-Up at Columbia University.

We get an update from Libya, where at least 6,000 are feared dead after a catastrophic cyclone hit the eastern city of Derna, causing two dams to burst and flooding whole sections of the city. Storm victims are being buried in mass graves as hope is dwindling for those who have been unable to locate friends and family members. Libya's infrastructure has crumbled over years of civil war, NATO intervention and political instability; Derna's dams have not been maintained since 2002. Ahead of the storm, the government did not declare an emergency or carry out evacuations. It's obviously our government's fault," says Libyan youth climate activist Nissa Bek in Tripoli. She notes Libya's lack of investment in risk mitigation or climate adaptation means the scale of the disaster was not a surprise. I'm hoping that this tragedy could be the turning point for all of this, and for them to actually take the climate crisis more seriously," adds Bek.

Rescue Efforts Continue in Libya's Inundated Derna as Bodies Line the Ground Outside Main Hospital, Kevin McCarthy, Under Pressure from GOP's Far Right, Orders Impeachment Inquiry Against Biden, Kim Jong-un Vows Unconditional Support" to Vladimir Putin as Leaders Meet in Russia, Hanoi Apartment Building Fire Kills at Least 30 People, Including Children, Filipina Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa and Her News Site Rappler Cleared of Final Tax Evasion Charge, Child Poverty Rates Doubled in 2022 After GOP, Joe Manchin Allowed Child Tax Credit to Expire, Patients, Doctors Sue over Denial of Care Due to Abortion Bans in Idaho, Tennessee and Oklahoma, Five Ex-Memphis Officers Indicted on Federal Charges for Murder of Tyre Nichols, Family Demands Justice for Police Killing of Pregnant Black Mother Ta'Kiya Young, Justice Department's Antitrust Case Against Google Opens This Week, New York University to Divest from Fossil Fuels After Years of Student Organizing, Indigenous Activists Gather in D.C. to Demand Release of Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier

As the COVID-19 era pause on federal student debt payments comes to an end and some 40 million Americans will resume payments next month, we speak with Debt Collective organizer Astra Taylor about Biden's new Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan and her organization's new tool that helps people apply to the Department of Education to cancel the borrower's debt. Taylor also discusses her new book, The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, in which she writes, How we understand and respond to insecurity is one of the most urgent questions of our moment, for nothing less than the future security of our species hangs in the balance." She notes organizing is about the alchemy of turning our vulnerabilities, turning our oppression, turning our insecurities into solidarity so that we can change the structures that are undermining our self-esteem and well-being."

On the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-backed military coup in Chile that deposed democratically elected socialist leader Salvador Allende, we discuss the U.S. contribution to the coup and declassified records obtained by the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project with Peter Kornbluh. His book, The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, has been revised and published in Chile for the first time. There's a lot known about the U.S. role in Chile, but there's a lot to be reminded of, as well, and then there are the secrets that remain," says Kornbluh, who says countries around the world must learn from Chile's history to counter growing misinformation and authoritarianism today. Very authoritarian voices are rising to dangerous levels that actually threaten our democracy."

As the G20 met in India this weekend, invitations to dinners during the G20 used the name Bharat instead of India. Bharat is a Sanskrit term which is already India's second official name but is not widely used internationally. Economics professor Jayati Ghosh speculates Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears to be moving toward the name Bharat as a knee-jerk reaction" to a coalition of 26 opposition political parties called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A.) ahead of 2024 elections. It would be funny if it weren't also so expensively ridiculous," says Ghosh, who taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi for 35 years. The immediate bringing in of this measure is really a panicky response to the fact that the opposition parties are coming together."

We get an update on the G20 summit, which welcomed the African Union as a permanent member and took place for the first time in India as the country faces criticism for bulldozing slums near the site of the meeting. What we are seeing is a period of significant realignments," says economics professor Jayati Ghosh, who critiques the meeting for a lack of action and largely performative events such as a negotiated joint statement which stopped short of condemning Russia's aggression in Ukraine. This G20 has done nothing for the major problems of our time," says Ghosh, who calls on the group of world leaders to act on climate change and wealth inequality. The G20 is a collection of potentially very powerful governments - that don't necessarily represent the interests of their own people, I might add - but nonetheless, this collection has not done very much over the last 12 to 13 years."

Thousands Feared Dead in Libya as Torrential Rains Cause Dams to Collapse, Greece Warns of Infectious Diseases After Cyclone Brings Unprecedented Flooding, Death Toll from Morocco Earthquake Nears 3,000, U.S. Breaks Record for Billion-Dollar Climate Disasters, U.N. Human Rights Chief on Climate Inaction: The Dystopian Future Is Already Here", Ukraine Seizes Russian-Held Oil and Gas Platforms in Black Sea, NATO Plans Largest War Games Since Cold War; U.S. Launches Military Exercises with Armenia, North Korea's Kim Jong-un Arrives in Russia for Talks with Putin, France Defies Niger Coup Leaders' Ultimatum to Abandon Military Bases, Biden Administration Will Unfreeze Iranian Oil Revenue as Part of Prisoner Swap, Former Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo Calls Israel an Apartheid State", FDA Approves New COVID-19 Booster Shots, Protesters Occupy House Speaker's Office to Demand Renewed Funding for HIV/AIDS, Atlanta Officials Refuse to Process 116,000 Signatures for Public Referendum on Cop City

We look at the 50th anniversary of what is sometimes called the other 9/11" - the U.S.-backed coup in Chile, when General Augusto Pinochet ousted President Salvador Allende and inaugurated almost two decades of brutal military rule. Allende died in the presidential palace on September 11, 1973, marking the end of Chile's first socialist government. During Pinochet's military dictatorship, more than 3,000 people were disappeared or killed, and some 40,000 more were tortured as political prisoners as Chile remained a close partner to the United States during the Cold War. We're still living in some sense under the shadow of Pinochet, and of course we're living under the gigantic light ... of Salvador Allende," says renowned Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman, who served as a cultural adviser to Allende from 1970 to 1973 before going into exile following the coup. His latest novel, The Suicide Museum, explores the mystery around Allende's death and whether it was a suicide or murder.

We get an update from Morocco, which has declared three days of mourning after the strongest earthquake to hit the region in at least a century. About 2,500 people died in the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the country on Friday, with another 2,500 injured and the death toll expected to rise. The epicenter was in the High Atlas Mountains located about 44 miles from Marrakech, where many villages remain largely inaccessible and lack both electricity and running water. The earthquake also damaged parts of Marrakech, including its old city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We speak with Moroccan scholars Abdellah El Haloui, in Marrakech, where he is head of the English Department at Cadi Ayyad University, and Brahim El Guabli, associate professor of Arabic studies at Williams College, originally from Ouarzazate, Morocco, which was hit by the earthquake.

6.8-Magnitude Quake Kills 2,500+ in Morocco as Rescuers Struggle to Reach Remote Areas, African Union Joins G20; U.S., EU, India Unveil Alternative to China's Belt and Road", In Vietnam, Biden Denies Strengthening Ties with Vietnam Is an Effort to Contain" China, Dutch Police Detain 2,400, Unleash Water Cannons on Massive Climate Protest, Activists Confront Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer over Climate Crisis Hypocrisy, Airstrike in Khartoum Kills 40+ Civilians Amid Ongoing Fighting Between Sudanese Army and RSF, At Least 4 Die as Fighting Resumes Between Rival Groups in Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lebanon, Maldives Presidential Election Headed to Sept. 30 Runoff, Chile Marks 50th Anniversary of U.S.-Backed Military Coup That Overthrew Elected President, New York Medical Examiner Identifies Remains of Two More 9/11 Victims, Georgia Grand Jury That Indicted Trump and 18 Others Also Recommended Charging Sen. Lindsey Graham, Federal Court Orders Louisiana to Transfer Children from Angola Prison, Philly Cop Mark Dial Charged with Murdering Eddie Irizarry During Traffic Stop, Spanish Soccer Chief Luis Rubiales Resigns Amid Furor over Forcible Kiss of Jenni Hermoso, Coco Gauff Thanks Women's Tennis Trailblazers After Winning US Open

Oxfam Says G20 Leaders Are Falling Drastically Short on Climate Action, Hong Kong Flooded as 6 Inches of Rain Falls in One Hour, 380 Remain Missing in Hawaii a Month After Wildfires Scorched Lahaina, Amid Record Heat in D.C., Protesters at White House Demand Biden Declare Climate Emergency, Climate Protesters Disrupt U.S. Open Tennis Tournament Amid Searing Heat, Spectator Ejected from US Open After Shouting Nazi Slogan at German Player, NATO Head Says Ukrainian Counteroffensive Making Gradual" Progress, New Book Says Elon Musk Intervened to Thwart Attack by Ukraine on Russian-Occupied Crimea, North Korea Unveils Tactical, Nuclear-Armed Submarine" as Kim Jong-un Set to Meet with Putin, Ex-Trump Adviser Peter Navarro Convicted of Contempt of Congress, Fulton Cty. DA Requests Protection for Trump Grand Jurors, Calls Out Congressional Harassment, Shawndre Delmore Is the 10th Person to Die at Fulton County Jail This Year, More Activists Arrested Protesting Atlanta's Cop City as Police Crackdown Intensifies, Actor and Scientologist Danny Masterson Gets 30+ Years in Prison for Rape

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is seeing a dramatic deterioration of infrastructure and displacement of citizens as a result of armed violence, flooding and the world's largest hunger crisis. In recent months, rampant violence of armed groups has forced more than half a million people to flee their homes, while the United Nations says some 3,000 families also lost their homes after recent intense flooding and mudslides in the eastern part of the country. Twenty-five million people are facing starvation as displaced citizens are unable to access their land to grow their own food, and the humanitarian response has so far failed to address the crisis. The crisis is beyond belief," says Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland, who just visited the DRC and reports that the international community still looks for the country's resources while ignoring its plight. The Congo is not ignored by those who want to extract the riches of that place. It's ignored by the rest of the world who would want to come to the relief of the children and families of the Congo."

On the same day U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kyiv to announce $1 billion in new U.S. aid to Ukraine, 17 Ukrainians were killed in a Russian missile attack on a Donetsk market. It's very painful for me to see all the streets and cities that I spent my childhood in to be completely destroyed by the ongoing war," says Hanna Perekhoda, Ukrainian historian from the Donetsk region on a speaking tour of the U.S. calling for an end to the war by driving out Putin's occupation. If we let Russian authoritarians win, it will mean that the authoritarian forces also in our countries, in the U.S., for example, will grow stronger." Perekhoda is joined on the speaking tour by Russian historian Ilya Budraitskis, who agrees that this war is about Putin's regime maintaining its power. This criminal war is not just a war against Ukraine. It's a war of the Russian regime against its own society," says Budraitskis.

Russian Missile Strike Kills 17 and Wounds Dozens in Ukraine's Donetsk, Russia Accused of Violating Territorial Integrity of Romania, a NATO Ally, Sudanese Army Shelling Kills 32 Civilians in Omdurman, Gabon Coup Leaders Say Deposed Leader Ali Bongo Has Been Freed from House Arrest, U.N. to End Food Aid for Another 2 Million Afghans as 15 Million Face Hunger, Biden to Cancel Oil & Gas Leases in Alaska Wildlife Refuge, But Willow Project Remains, Judge Sets October Trial for 2 Trump Co-Defendants in Georgia Election Interference Case, Federal Judge Finds Trump Liable for Defaming Writer E. Jean Carroll for Second Time, Mitch McConnell Rebuffs Retirement Speculation After Recent Health Problems, Justice Department Plans to Indict Hunter Biden This Month, Mexico Set to Elect First Woman President in 2024, Mexico's Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion, Texas Finds New Ways to Criminalize Abortion, Targeting People Who Travel for the Procedure, U.S. Judge Orders Texas to Take Down Deadly Floating Border Barrier, Jenni Hermoso Files Sexual Assault Complaint Against Luis Rubiales over Forcible Kiss at World Cup, Leonard Mack Exonerated by DNA Evidence Nearly Half a Century After Wrongful Conviction, Nancy Buirski, Award-Winning Documentarian & Founder of Full Frame Film Festival, Dies at 78

As the Africa Climate Summit wraps up in Nairobi, we get an update from Kenyan climate justice organizer Eric Njuguna. He says the focus by Western leaders and multinational companies on establishing carbon markets in Africa amounts to a ticket to pollute" without directly addressing the need to phase out fossil fuels. Njuguna says a key demand from activists is to create access to climate financing without new debt burdens on the continent's governments. Africa is bearing the brunt of the climate crisis and people are dying," says Njuguna.

The Biden administration is expected to send armor-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium to Ukraine as part of the latest military aid package, even though the weapons are radioactive and their use causes contamination that is hazardous to human health. It's the latest escalation in the war between Ukraine and Russia that nonproliferation activists warn could possibly lead to a nuclear confrontation. The United Kingdom already provided Ukraine with depleted uranium munitions earlier this year, one of which sparked contamination fears when it was reportedly destroyed by Russian forces over the weekend, and the Biden administration followed that up by sending cluster bombs, which have been banned by an international treaty ratified by more than 110 nations. On top of dealing with unexploded cluster munitions, they're also going to have this huge hazard of depleted uranium to contend with, as well," Phil Miller, chief reporter for the independent news outlet Declassified UK, says of the risk to civilians.

Georgia is intensifying its crackdown against opponents of Cop City, with the state's Republican attorney general announcing sweeping indictments of 61 people on racketeering charges over protests and other activism related to the $90 million police training facility planned to be built in Atlanta. The RICO charges were approved by the same grand jury that indicted former President Trump and 18 others on RICO charges in the same county by the Democratic district attorney, and come after many of the same people were earlier charged with domestic terrorism and money laundering as part of the Stop Cop City movement, which is still seeking to block construction of the new police complex. They are choosing to use the legal process in an essentially violent way to target protesters," says attorney Devin Franklin with the Southern Center for Human Rights, which is organizing legal representation for the defendants in the case. We also speak with Keyanna Jones, a Stop Cop City organizer with Community Movement Builders, who notes the indictments are dated from May 25, 2020, the day Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. Since that date, this country has been upended by governments across the nation trying to build Cop Cities in order to quell protest," says Jones. The government is simply upset that people seek to ... use their First Amendment right to protest when we see injustice coming from those in authority."

Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison for Jan. 6 Seditious Conspiracy, Blinken Visits Kyiv to Unveil New $1 Billion Aid Package for Ukraine, Meadows, Eastman & Clark Plead Not Guilty in Georgia Election Case, Special Counsel Jack Smith Warns Trump's Remarks May Be Prejudicing Jury Pool in D.C., Trial Begins for Trump's Former Trade Adviser Peter Navarro, 61 Cop City Activists Face RICO Charges in Atlanta for Protests Against Police Facility, U.N. Head Warns Climate Breakdown Has Begun", Brazil: 21 Die After Cyclone Triggers Floods & Landslides, Seven Killed After Massive Rainstorm Hits Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, India Bulldozes Poor Areas Ahead of G20 Summit in Delhi, Lula Announces Brazil Will Recognize Two More Indigenous Territories, Saudi Arabia and Iran Exchange Ambassadors, Ending Diplomatic Rift, Montse Tome Becomes First Woman to Coach Spanish Women's National Soccer Team, Federal Court Strikes Down Alabama's Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Map, Impeachment Trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Begins, NYPD Agrees to Respond to Protests Differently to Settle Suits Stemming from BLM Protests, Former NM Governor Bill Richardson, 75, Dies

A military judge at Guantanamo has thrown out the confessions of Saudi man Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri because he had been tortured and waterboarded at secret CIA black sites in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Romania and Morocco before being sent to Guantanamo. Psychologists James Mitchell and John Bruce Jessen, who were paid at least $81 million by the CIA to develop and then implement the CIA's post-9/11 torture program, had waterboarded al-Nashiri at a CIA black site. We get response from Roy Eidelson and discuss his new book, Doing Harm, which investigates the American Psychological Association's complicity in post-9/11 torture programs and the struggle to reform the psychology field. We felt there was a lot at stake," says Eidelson. It took over a decade for us to bring change in terms of APA's policy toward interrogation and detention operations." As the U.N. calls for al-Nashiri's release, Eidelson warns that APA leadership and military personnel are once again pushing guidelines that expand psychologists' role in torture. They want to expand the opportunities that are available for psychologists to work in this arena where 'do no harm' is, at best, secondary, and sometimes off the table entirely," says Eidelson. It feels as though APA is slipping - slipping back into positions that led to awful things."

As federal law enforcement opens an investigation into the Jacksonville, Florida, shooting where a white gunman killed three Black people at a Dollar General as a possible hate crime and act of domestic violent extremism, we speak with civil rights leader Bishop William Barber about the increasing number of racist attacks in America fueled by racism. There is this history of not just who kills, but what kills and what creates the atmosphere," says Barber, who calls for a political movement of love to force out hateful politicians. Barber specifically condemns the Republican Party and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for attacking cultural issues as a distraction for policy failures. The racist rhetoric and the culture wars and the hatred toward women, the hatred toward immigrants, the hatred toward the trans community is a form of deflection," says Barber. He's decided that this is his way to office: distraction, division, deflection, focusing on culture wars so that he cannot be labeled as a failed governor."

Biden Administration to Supply Ukraine with Depleted Uranium Munitions, Russia and Ukraine Trade Drone Attacks; Zelensky Sacks Defense Minister Amid Graft Probe, Putin Rules Out Renewal of Black Sea Grain Deal, U.N. Predicts Conflict in Sudan Will Produce 1.8 Million New Refugees by Year's End, Coup Leader Brice Oligui Nguema Sworn In as Interim President of Gabon, Massive Protests in Niger Demand Withdrawal of French Troops, Chinese Leader Xi Jinping to Skip G20 Summit in India, U.N.-Backed Report Finds Accelerating Spread of Harmful Invasive Species, First Africa Climate Summit Opens in Kenya, Torrential Rains Bring Floods to Spain and Greece; U.S. Swelters in Record September Heat Wave, Minnesota Prisoners Locked Down After Protesting Sweltering Temperatures, Following Climate Protests, Torrential Rain Strands Thousands at Burning Man Festival, Florida Judge Strikes Down Racist GOP-Gerrymandered Congressional Maps, Alabama GOP Defies Supreme Court Order to Redraw Congressional Maps Targeting Black Voters

Salvadoran poet and writer Javier Zamora discusses the roots of his memoir Solito, which details his odyssey as an unaccompanied 9-year-old child through Guatemala and Mexico to reunite with family in Arizona. After surviving that nine-week journey, surviving the United States as an undocumented person was perhaps the main reason why I became a writer," Zamora says. He describes how he works to cope with trauma from his experiences, and how he was inspired to become a writer when he was exposed to the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda as a high school student in California.

As extreme weather disasters intensify, the workers who are hired by corporations to clean up after hurricanes, floods, blizzards and wildfires are increasingly on the frontlines of the climate crisis.For Labor Day 2023, we are rebroadcasting an interview with author and organizer Saket Soni. His book, The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America, focuses on hundreds of Indian workers who were brought to the United States with false promises and subjected to grueling working conditions at a shipyard in Mississippi. When one of those workers called Soni in 2006 for help, it set off an extraordinary chain of events that led to their escape from the work camp and eventually focused national attention on the plight of the workers. As disasters have grown, this workforce has grown. And these workers do all this without legal protections, without legal status," says Soni, the director of Resilience Force, a nonprofit that advocates for immigrant workers who help rebuild communities after climate disasters.

More than two years after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghan evacuees seeking to come to the United States remain arbitrarily detained in other countries like Qatar, Kosovo and the United Arab Emirates. Many of the Afghans are living in camps that are largely coordinated, facilitated or under the control of the U.S. government. The Center for Constitutional Rights and the civil rights group Muslim Advocates recently sued the Pentagon, State Department and the Department of Homeland Security seeking governmental records about the relocation and detention of Afghan evacuees. What this lawsuit hopes to achieve is to provide more information to humanitarian, human rights and civil society organizations ... to intervene and prevent the continued detention of these Afghan civilians," says CCR attorney Sadaf Doost.

As the cost of the climate crisis continues to rise and climate justice groups demand more government action to halt the heating of the planet, we speak with policy expert Rhiana Gunn-Wright, one of the architects of the Green New Deal. She says the Inflation Reduction Act championed by President Biden, which is the largest climate bill in U.S. history, has many provisions that structurally leave out Black people." She urges a more inclusive green transition that centers the needs of communities of color. There is an increasing sort of narrative about the tension between justice and urgency that's presenting a false choice." Gunn-Wright's latest essay, published in the new digital magazine Hammer & Hope, is titled Our Green Transition May Leave Black People Behind."

We speak with climate activist and water protector Mylene Vialard, whose trial for peacefully protesting the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline began this week in Minnesota. Vialard faces up to five years in prison for her 2021 protest, when she attached herself to a 25-foot bamboo tower erected to block a pumping station in Aitkin County. Vialard, who lives in Colorado, had come to Minnesota to take part in a wave of Indigenous-led acts of civil disobedience to stop the pipeline. Between December 2020 and September 2021, police in Minnesota made more than 1,000 arrests. Mylene Vialard is just the second water protector facing felony charges to go to trial. We're destroying our planet. We're destroying our way of life," says Vialard. We also speak with Indigenous lawyer and activist Tara Houska, who was also arrested in 2021 for participating in a nonviolent action against Line 3. She says police violence against environmental and Indigenous activists has gotten exponentially worse" since the 2016 Dakota Access protests at Standing Rock. The crackdown on environmental protests is nationwide," says Houska.

Two former leaders of the right-wing Proud Boys gang were sentenced Thursday for their actions during the January 6 insurrection, with the judge handing down some of the longest sentences yet for people involved in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Joseph Biggs, the former leader of the group's Florida chapter, was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison. Zachary Rehl, the former leader of the Philadelphia chapter, received 15 years. The two men were convicted in May of seditious conspiracy and other charges alongside other Proud Boys leaders, including the group's former national chair, Enrique Tarrio, who is expected to be sentenced next week. The heavy sentences show that the Justice Department and the judge in the case viewed the Proud Boys as top organizers, planners and executors of the riots on January 6," says HuffPost senior editor Andy Campbell, who has written a book about the Proud Boys. He also notes that Proud Boys leaders had close ties to top Trump allies, suggesting Trump was aware of the possibility of violence on January 6 when he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol. We have an engrained extremist crisis at the highest levels of government on the right."

Trump Pleads Not Guilty to Georgia Racketeering Charges, Asks to Sever Case from Co-Defendants, Two Proud Boys Leaders Get 17 and 15 Years in Jail for Jan. 6 Capitol Insurrection, AU Suspends Gabon After Coup; Opposition Seeks Ballot Count After Pre-Coup Election Loss, AFP Reports 48 People Killed by Soldiers in Eastern Congo, Chile Launches Nationwide Search for 1,000 Disappeared During Pinochet Rule, Tribunal Finds U.S-Trained General Responsible for Extrajudicial Killings in Colombia's War on Drugs, Biden Admin Advises Americans to Leave Haiti as It Continues to Deport Haitian Asylum Seekers, China Condemns U.S. Military Aid to Taiwan Under Program for Sovereign Nations, Clarence Thomas Finally Discloses Luxury Travel in Financial Disclosure Filings, Texas Ban on Gender-Affirming Care Goes into Effect as Canada Warns LGBT Citizens Traveling to U.S., No Tech for Apartheid: Protesters Call Out Google for Cloud Contract with Israel

A major New York Times investigation reveals how the United States' aquifers are becoming severely depleted due to overuse in part from huge industrial farms and sprawling cities. The Times reports that Kansas corn yields are plummeting due to a lack of water, there is not enough water to support the construction of new homes in parts of Phoenix, Arizona, and rivers across the country are drying up as aquifers are being drained far faster than they are refilling. It can take millions of years to fill an aquifer, but they can be depleted in 50 years," says Warigia Bowman, director of sustainable energy and natural resources law at the University of Tulsa College of Law. All coastal regions in the United States are really being threatened by groundwater and aquifer problems."

As Hurricane Idalia left a wake of destruction Wednesday, President Joe Biden said, I don't think anybody can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore." Climate activist and scientist Peter Kalmus calls for Biden to declare a climate emergency in order to unleash the government's ability to transition away from fossil fuels. The public just doesn't understand, in my opinion, what a deep emergency we are in," says Kalmus. This is the merest beginning of what we're going to see in coming years." Kalmus blasts the fossil fuel industry for manipulating politics through campaign contributions, and GOP presidential candidates for misleading the public about climate science. As a parent, as a citizen and as a scientist, I find it appalling and disgusting," declares Kalmus. I can't mince words anymore."

Military leaders in Gabon seized power on Wednesday shortly after reigning President Ali Bongo had been named the winner of last week's contested election. Bongo and his family have led the country for close to 60 years, during which they have been accused of enriching themselves at the expense of the country. The military junta announced General Brice Oligui Nguema would serve as transitional leader in what is the latest military coup in a former French colony, joining recent power shifts in Niger, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Chad. The independence of Gabon has never been real," says Thomas Deltombe, French journalist and expert on the French African empire. I think we might be witnessing a second independence, a new decolonization process." We also speak with Daniel Mengara, a professor of French and Francophone studies and founder of the exiled opposition movement Bongo Must Leave, which he continues to head. This is a rare opportunity for the Gabonese people to engage in national dialogue," says Mengara, who warns that the intentions of the coup leaders are still unclear.

Tropical Storm Idalia Weakens After Lashing Florida, Still Carries Threat as It Moves North, Gabon's Military Rulers Announce Transitional Leader Following Coup, Johannesburg Building Fire Kills at Least 73 People, Including Children, U.N. Says Recent Fighting in Ethiopia's Amhara Region Killed 183 People, Migrant Death Toll Near El Paso Hit Record High as Heat Waves Scorched the Southern Border, Texas Judge Blocks Law Barring Cities from Requiring Worker Water Breaks, Labor Dept. Proposes Lifting Salary Threshold for Mandatory Overtime Pay from $35K to $55K, Mitch McConnell Freezes During Press Conference for Second Time in Two Months, NY Attorney General Says Trump Inflated His Wealth by $2.2 Billion, Rudy Giuliani Found Liable in Defamation Lawsuit Brought by Georgia Election Workers, Indigenous Groups Rally in Brazil as Top Court Considers Pivotal Challenge to Ancestral Land Rights

We go with Democracy Now! correspondent Juan Carlos Davila to the Dominican Republic, where many Haitian migrants and their descendants work on sugar plantations under conditions amounting to forced labor and live in heavily underresourced communities known as bateyes. Many bateyes do not have electricity or running water. We speak to local residents and members of the Reconocido movement, which fights for the rights of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, about the workers' inhumane treatment and their lack of legal status in the country, as well as about efforts to improve living conditions in the bateyes, such as an initiative spearheaded by the Puerto Rican environmental group Casa Pueblo to install solar panels in the communities. The right of energy has to be for everyone," says Casa Pueblo's executive director, Arturo Massol-Deya, who shares how his organization is working in solidarity with batey residents to disrupt the cycle of poverty and prepare for climate adaptation.

We continue our discussion with Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas about U.S. policy in Latin America by looking at one of its long-term effects: migration to the U.S. As people flee instability in their home countries brought about by U.S. trade and military policy, U.S. border authorities have implemented increasingly dangerous measures to stop migrants from traveling safely, including a deadly floating barrier of circular saw blades in the Rio Grande. This is all fueled by racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric spouted by right-wing extremists and politicians, whom Casar characterizes as the arsonists trying to blame the firefighters for the flames."

We speak to Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas, who has just returned from a congressional trip to meet with newly left-leaning governments in Brazil, Colombia and Chile ahead of the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-backed Chilean coup, which overthrew democratically elected President Salvador Allende and installed a 17-year military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet. Casar was joined by other progressive Latinx members of Congress, including New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Texan Joaquin Castro. During the trip, the lawmakers called for the Biden administration to declassify more documents revealing the U.S. role in the coup. It was the first time an all-Latinx American congressional delegation traveled to Latin America, Casar says, and marked a historic" attempt by young, progressive lawmakers to break from Cold War-era American interventionism on the continent and to move toward a relationship based on mutual respect and supporting democracy."

The Biden administration has taken a major step to rein in price gouging for prescription drugs in the United States. Medicare will now be able to negotiate prices on 10 of the most expensive drugs used to treat diabetes, cancer, heart disease and more. That list is set to expand over the years. In what's seen as a blow to Big Pharma, the White House says the move, a part of the Inflation Reduction Act, will benefit more than 9 million people in the U.S. and lead to $100 billion in savings over the next decade. Pharmaceutical companies have already filed at least eight lawsuits contesting the new rule. We're paying far more than the rest of the world, and there's no rational basis for it," says Peter Maybarduk of the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. Maybarduk joins us to discuss how the new negotiation process aims to break up drug monopolies and disband the pharmaceutical industry's profit incentive.

Military Officers in Gabon Seize Power, Place Pres. Bongo Under House Arrest Days After Reelection, Hurricane Idalia Slams Florida Coast as Officials Warn of Life-Threatening Storm Surge, Biden Admin Announces First 10 Medications That Will Be Subject to Medicare Negotiations, Uganda Sees First Charges of Aggravated Homosexuality" After Passing Homophobic New Law, Militia Kills 14 Villagers in Latest Violent Attack in Eastern DRC, Denmark Introduces Law to Criminalize Burning the Qur'an, Hundreds of Prisoners Are on Hunger Strike in Bahrain's Largest Prison, Pakistani Court Suspends Imran Khan's Corruption Sentence, But Ex-PM Remains Jailed in Separate Case, Dozens of States Consider Bills Barring Chinese Entities and Citizens from Buying Land, Air Pollution Shortens Average Life Span by 2.3 Years, Worse Than Being a Smoker, Greek Evros Wildfire Largest Ever Recorded in EU, Louisiana Wildfires Kill 2; Maui Search for Wildfire Victims Moves from Land to Water, Biden Administration Forced to Roll Back Wetlands Protections After SCOTUS Ruling, U.N. Body Says Governments Should Address Children's Demands to Fight Climate Crisis

Congressmember Maxwell Frost of Florida says this weekend's shooting in Jacksonville, carried out by a white supremacist who targeted Black people at a dollar store, did not happen in isolation. He points to Republican efforts to loosen gun laws and racist rhetoric from party leaders as part of the problem of far-right violence. All of these things are connected," says Frost, who also applauded people for booing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at a prayer vigil in Jacksonville. In moments like these, we have to stand strong on ensuring that leaders who contributed to the problem can't use our communities as campaign stops."

As the Jacksonville community mourns the loss of three people killed Saturday in a racist shooting, more details are emerging about the white supremacist who went to a Dollar General store looking to target Black people before killing himself. Authorities say he left behind a suicide note and other writings outlining his racist ideology. The 21-year-old gunman had legally bought the two weapons he used in the shooting, including an AR-15-style rifle marked with swastikas. The shooting occurred as thousands gathered in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to mark the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream" speech. Activists in Jacksonville had also been preparing commemorations of Ax Handle Saturday, when a white mob led by the Ku Klux Klan violently attacked Black civil rights protesters on August 27, 1960. This hurricane of racism that we've been dealing with in the Jacksonville community is not new," says Jacksonville-based historian and civil rights leader Rodney Hurst, who helped lead desegregation protests in the city during the 1960s.