Democracy Now!

China warned that there could be serious consequences, including a military response, if U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi follows through on plans to visit Taiwan in August, according to the Financial Times. If the trip happens, Pelosi would become the most senior U.S. official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. “The question is: Is this signal just intended to really stick it to China very quickly, without actually benefiting Taiwan, or is it something that should be best not done?” says Taiwanese American journalist Brian Hioe.

Washington Post: DOJ Investigating Trump as Part of Probe to Overturn 2020 Election, Emails Show Trump Team Admitted Election Plot Involved “Fake” Electors & “Fake” Votes, Audio: Ex-Defense Sec. Says Trump Did Not Order Troops Deployed to Capitol on Jan. 6, Oregon Declares State of Emergency over Heat Wave, St. Louis Hit with Over Nine Inches of Rain; 1 Dead in Massive Flooding, 15 Die in Democratic Republic of the Congo as Protests Escalate over U.N. Troops, Russia to Withdraw from International Space Station, Jailed Basketball Superstar Brittney Griner Appears in Russian Court, Family of Shireen Abu Akleh Meet Blinken & Demand U.S. Probe into Her Killing, Senate Panel Decries “Abusive and Inhumane” Conditions at Federal Prison in Atlanta, “Night of Terror”: 28 Women Held in Indiana Jail Accuse Guards of Letting Men Attack Them, Bernie Sanders Denounces Plan to Give $76B “Blank Check” to Semiconductor Industry

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives have introduced the Puerto Rico Status Act, which would allow residents of the longtime U.S. colony to begin the process of self-determination and decide on the island’s territorial status. The bill sets up three options for residents to choose from in a referendum — U.S. statehood, independence or sovereignty in free association with the United States — and commits Congress to abide by the results. We speak to San Juan’s former Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz about the shortcomings of the bill, which she says lacks clarity on what each status would mean for Puerto Ricans. Among the concerns are whether Spanish would be taught as a primary language in government-funded public schools. Many do not understand “the rush to do it and, in doing so, not allowing the Puerto Rican people to have all the information to exercise their freedom to choose,” says Cruz.

Human rights activists are sounding the alarm in Burma, where the military junta has executed four men imprisoned for their pro-democracy activism and opposing last year’s coup. It is the first series of reported executions in Burma in three decades. We speak to exiled Burmese dissident and human rights activist Maung Zarni, who says the international community should hold the Burmese regime accountable for its humanitarian crimes, especially in light of the overwhelming response to the Russian war in Ukraine. “This is a regime that has committed every single grave crime in international law that has ever been established and coded in the law books,” says Zarni.

Pope Francis is on a historic trip to Canada this week to apologize for the mistreatment suffered by thousands of Indigenous children in residential schools run by the Catholic Church. Many survivors say the apology comes over half a century too late and the church should take further actions to prevent the psychological, physical and sexual abuse from recurring in Catholic-run institutions. We go to Toronto to speak to Mi’kmaq lawyer Pamela Palmater, who says the apology was little more than “pomp and circumstance” for the church, which ultimately “doesn’t take responsibility for their policies and practices.” Her Toronto Star op-ed is headlined “Another pope’s apology isn’t enough when Catholic Church’s cover-ups and hypocrisy continue to this day.”

Pope Apologizes for Catholic Church’s “Evil” Abuses Against Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, Tunisian Voters Approve President’s Power Grab in Referendum Boycotted by Opposition, Russia Continues Attacks on Black Sea Coast as Ukraine Readies Grain Exports, EU Prepares for Rationing as Russia Further Restricts Gas Exports, Thousands Evacuate as Oak Fire Burns 17,000 Acres Near Yosemite Park, Congressional Staffers Arrested at Sit-In Climate Protest in Sen. Chuck Schumer’s Office, Biden Says He’s Recovering Well from COVID-19; Sens. Murkowski, Manchin Test Positive, U.S. Monkeypox Cases Hit 3,400, Most of Any Nation, New Evidence Shows Trump Edited Jan. 7 Speech to Avoid Condemning Capitol Rioters, Indiana GOP Opens Special Session to Debate Near-Total Ban on Abortions, New York Exonerates Sixth Man Wrongfully Charged in Central Park Jogger Case

With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the battleground for abortion access now shifts to the states, even as the U.S. faces the worst rates of maternal mortality among all rich nations, with Black maternal mortality three to four times higher than the national average. Now a new documentary examines the crisis of Black maternal mortality through the families of two young Black women who died after giving birth. “Aftershock” is co-directed by Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt, who join us to discuss how Black women navigate a healthcare system built against them and efforts underway to reduce racial disparities. “We know that Black women’s health and infants’ health is the marker of the health of a nation,” notes Lee. “In a system that puts profit over people, doesn’t listen and center birthing people already, Black women are even more affected by this due to the systemic racism that’s ingrained into our system,” adds Eiselt.

The January 6 hearings have provided jaw-dropping revelations about former President Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and his role in unleashing a deadly mob on the Capitol, but the House committee has not yet recommended criminal charges against Trump. Congressmember Ro Khanna says whether to charge the former president is ultimately the Justice Department’s call, but he stresses the need for accountability. “It’s not enough for the Justice Department to just prosecute the individuals who showed up on January 6,” Khanna says. “I’m hoping that the accountability will go up the food chain.”

Four corporations control 90% of the baby formula market in the United States, and as a national baby formula shortage drags on, it has impacted working-class families of color the most. We get an update from Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California, who just wrote an open letter urging leaders of federal agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration to take bolder action to address the shortage. Khanna discusses efforts to increase production domestically and supplement the shortage with formula from other nations, and why he is calling for President Biden to go further and pass antitrust laws to reduce reliance on corporate monopolies for vital products. “Why is it that we are so dependent on one or two manufacturers in this country?” says Khanna. “This is a problem not just in baby formula.”

Nearly 17,000 monkeypox infections have now been reported across 75 countries, and the World Health Organization declared the spread of monkeypox a global emergency. Meanwhile, the U.S. has stopped short of declaring a public health emergency even with nearly 3,000 cases reported in 44 states. New York alone has reported 900 cases of monkeypox, with rollout of the vaccine inhibited by short supply. We speak to Joe Osmundson, professor of microbiology at New York University, about the queerphobic myths about the viral spread, the global inequity of vaccine distribution and more. “This should have been an easy virus to contain,” says Osmundson. “The immense frustration in our community has been watching hundreds of people get sick, not because they’re having sex, not because of their queer identity, but because they’ve wanted to get vaccinated and those vaccines have not been available.” Osmundson also describes how he helped a friend get treatment for monkeypox. His new book is “Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between.”

Russian Missile Attack Threatens Nascent Grain Export Deal with Ukraine, Burmese Military Executes Four Activists Who Opposed Coup, Pope Visits Canada to Apologize for Abuse of Indigenous Children at Residential Schools, WHO Declares Monkeypox Outbreak a Global Health Emergency, Steve Bannon Found Guilty of Contempt for Defying House Jan. 6 Committee, Murdoch-Owned NY Post: After Jan. 6, Trump Is “Unworthy” to Be President Again, China Warns U.S. over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Planned Visit to Taiwan, 17 Haitian Asylum Seekers Drown as Boat Capsizes Near Bahamas, 1,000+ Migrants Rescued at Sea Attempting to Reach Europe, Tunisian Opposition Groups Boycott Vote on Whether to Give President More Power, California Wildfire Explodes in Size as Millions Across U.S. Face Extreme Heat, “Climate Clock” Shows Less Than 7 Years to Prevent Catastrophe, Tennessee to Investigate Officers’ Violent Arrest of Black Man

The January 6 committee aired never-before-seen outtakes of President Trump’s speech on January 7, one day after the insurrection. He is seen initially reading a script that read “this election is now over. Congress has certified the results.” But Trump insisted on changing the script. “I don’t want to say the election is over,” Trump says in the video. “I just want to say Congress has certified the results, without saying the election is over.”

During their eighth and final hearing until the fall, the January 6 House select committee aired new testimony from an anonymous national security official detailing how Mike Pence’s Secret Service agents feared for their lives during the breach of the Capitol. “There were calls to say goodbye to family members,” said the anonymous official. Despite knowledge of the growing mob, Trump decided to publish a tweet at 2:24 p.m. saying Mike Pence “lacked the courage” to stop the certification. The tweet poured “gasoline on the fire,” said Trump’s ex-deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews, who testified live on Thursday. Meanwhile, Trump was still reaching out to Republican senators, including Senator Josh Hawley, who was seen in footage racing to safety just hours after he raised his fist to the massing mob.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol held a primetime hearing on Thursday night focused on former President Donald Trump’s refusal to take action as his supporters attacked the Capitol on January 6. Lawmakers dissected the three-hour period on January 6 after Trump urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” For 187 minutes, Trump refused to call off the mob or reach out to law enforcement or military leaders to try to stop the violence. Instead, Trump called Republican senators, urging them to stop the certification. “For hours Donald Trump chose not to answer the pleas from Congress, from his own party and from all across our nation to do what his oath required,” said Congressmember Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair.

White House Says President Biden Has “Very Mild Symptoms” of COVID-19 , White House Defends Coronavirus Safeguards After Maskless Biden Gets Infected, House Jan. 6 Committee Spotlights Trump’s Refusal to Call Off Armed Mob Attacking Capitol, Secret Service Under Criminal Investigation for Deleted Jan. 6 Messages, Just 8 GOP Reps. Join Democrats as House Votes to Safeguard Right to Contraception, U.S. Records First Polio Case in Nearly 10 Years, Turkey Says Ukraine and Russia Have Reached Agreement over Grain Exports, Dangerous Heat Warnings to Continue into Weekend for Much of Europe, U.S., Ranil Wickremesinghe Sworn In as Sri Lankan President as Soldiers Assault Protesters, Italian PM Mario Draghi Resigns, Setting Stage for Sept. 25 Election, Guantánamo Prisoner Who Survived Torture and Arbitrary Detention for 20+ Years Cleared for Release, 18 Killed as Police Raid Impoverished Rio de Janeiro Neighborhood, Ex-Cop Thomas Lane Sentenced to 30 Months for Violating George Floyd’s Civil Rights, Senate Democrats Unveil Bill to Legalize, Tax and Regulate Cannabis

Following the resignation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss have advanced to a runoff to succeed Johnson as Conservative leader, which would also make them prime minister. Both candidates would be “utterly devastating” for the U.K., says Guardian columnist George Monbiot. “What these people have to do to become prime minister is really to appeal to the worst instincts of humanity.”

A massive heat wave has scorched much of Europe this week, with the U.K. shattering its record for highest temperature ever recorded Tuesday. We’re joined by author and environmental activist George Monbiot, whose latest column for The Guardian is headlined “This heatwave has eviscerated the idea that small changes can tackle extreme weather.” Monbiot criticizes what he calls “micro-consumerist bollocks” — an approach that presents “micro-solutions” to the “macro-problem” of climate change. “The only thing that delivers quickly and effectively is system change,” says Monbiot, who also breaks down how new technology can eliminate the West’s reliance on animal agriculture, which is one of the leading causes of the climate crisis. He also discusses the role of industrial animal agriculture in the climate crisis, which is often overshadowed by a focus on fossil fuels.

As heat waves scorch much of the globe, we look at who bears the brunt of the climate emergency and go to Kampala, Uganda, to speak with climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate. “The climate crisis has been here. It has been impacting the lives of so many people on the African continent, which is responsible for less than 4% of the global emissions,” says Nakate. “Media has a huge responsibility to cover the climate crisis, but it has a much bigger responsibility to cover the climate crisis in the places where people are already suffering some of the worst impacts.” This comes as a new study finds U.S. greenhouse emissions have caused nearly $2 trillion in damages to other, mostly poor, countries.

President Biden outlined new efforts to combat the climate crisis in a speech Wednesday but stopped short of declaring a national climate emergency — a move sought by the U.S. climate movement and many progressive lawmakers. This comes after Senator Joe Manchin just scuttled Biden’s Build Back Better climate legislation and as more than 100 million people in the United States are under heat advisories. We speak with Jean Su, energy justice director and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, who co-wrote a report detailing how the president can use emergency powers to address the climate crisis. “We’ve wasted too much time thinking about Senator Manchin and relying on Congress,” says Su. “We have to go full force on executive action.”

Georgia Law Takes Effect Banning Most Abortions and Granting “Personhood” to Embryos & Fetuses, House Schedules Vote on Bill Protecting Access to Contraception, Russia’s Lavrov Says Kremlin Seeks to Control More Ukrainian Territory, Ukraine’s First Lady Appeals to U.S. Congress for More Weapons, Russia-to-Germany Gas Pipeline Resumes Operations at Reduced Rate of Flow, Wildfires Destroy Homes in Texas as Extreme Heat Grips Much of U.S., Joe Biden Calls State of Climate an “Emergency” But Stops Short of Formal Declaration, Citizenship Question Added to 2020 Census to Help GOP Candidates, Trove of Documents Reveals, WI Assembly Speaker Says Trump Called Him “Within the Last Week” Pushing Stolen Election Claim, Arizona GOP Censures House Speaker After He Testifies to Jan. 6 Committee, Former Trump Aide Publishes Racist, Sexist Tirade After Meeting Jan. 6 Committee, Giuliani Ordered to Testify in Georgia Criminal Probe of 2020 Election Interference, Federal Prosecutors Rest Case in Trial of Steve Bannon for Contempt of Congress, House Select Committee to Highlight Trump’s Jan. 6 Actions in Primetime Hearing, Asadullah Haroon Gul Repatriated to Afghanistan, El Salvador Extends State of Emergency as Families Protest Arbitrary Arrests, Protesters Paralyze Panama, Demanding Economic Justice as Cost of Living Soars

On Tuesday, 17 Democratic lawmakers, almost all women, were arrested outside the Supreme Court while protesting the court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade. We speak with Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who was one of several Democratic House members who has shared her personal experience of getting an abortion, about what a post-Roe America looks like. “Abortion and the right to make decisions about our own bodies is so innately tied to our ability to control everything in our lives,” says Jayapal. She argues Congress should be prepared to pass national legislation protecting other critical precedents that are now vulnerable to the ultra-conservative Supreme Court, like the right to contraception and marriage equality.

We speak with Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, after a man was arrested on suspicion of hate crime after neighbors said he allegedly pointed a gun at her home and threatened to kill her. He was found outside of her home last Saturday night with a .40-caliber handgun yelling “Go back to India. I’m going to kill you,” and has since been released from jail as prosecutors say they lack evidence to bring a hate crime case against him, though his weapons have been seized. Jayapal is the first Indian American woman to serve in the House of Representatives. “We need to take away the tools from people who just find it too easy these days to express their hatred, their white supremacy, their racism in violent ways,” says Japayal, who blames the violence against her in part on former President Trump’s boosting of right-wing extremism.

A new 988 suicide and crisis hotline launched Saturday that people can call, text or chat. The three-digit shortcut phases out the 1-800-273-TALK number. Until now, the 988 lifeline was only available in some parts of the United States. We speak with Congressmember Jamie Raskin, who helped introduce legislation that provides funding for states to implement the rollout. His son Tommy tragically died by suicide at the age of 25 in December 2020 after a battle with depression. “We’re living in a very tough time … with COVID-19, with the opioid crisis, with gun violence, with the civil division and polarization,” notes Rep. Raskin. “These things have made it very rough on young people. The surgeon general has declared a national mental health emergency.”

We speak to Maryland Democratic Congressmember Jamie Raskin, member of the House January 6 select committee, about the pro-Trump Republican who won Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary in the state and helped organized buses to the insurrection. Dan Cox is the latest in a slate of Republicans across the U.S. to advance in the party after supporting Trump’s election lies. If elected, Cox has vowed to conduct a forensic audit of the 2020 election. He also wants to ban abortion in Maryland and end what he describes as “sexual indoctrination” in schools. “He obviously speaks to an extreme-right faction in our state that has swallowed Trumpist indoctrination,” says Raskin. “You could not have a purer distillation of dangerous extremist ideology than what is propounded by Dan Cox.”

Ahead of the eighth hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, we speak with Congressmember Jamie Raskin, a member of the select committee, and get an update on how the Secret Service has only provided a single text exchange from the insurrection and may have purged the messages after oversight officials requested them. “We want all of the evidence, we’re determined to get all of the evidence, but the picture is very clear at this point about what happened. This was an organized hit against American democracy in order to overturn a presidential election,” says Raskin. The committee will hold its eighth hearing on Thursday.

Britain Breaks Temperature Record as Fires Spread Across Europe, President Biden Faces Pressure to Declare National Climate Emergency, Trump-Backed Far-Right Election Denier Wins GOP Gubernatorial Primary in Maryland, With Big Help from AIPAC, Glenn Ivey Defeats Donna Edwards in Maryland Congressional Primary, Secret Service Claims It Has Preserved Just One Text Exchange from Jan. 6 Insurrection, Fake Republican Electors in Georgia Face Possible Prosecution, House Passes Respect for Marriage Act, 17 Democratic Lawmakers Arrested at Abortion Protest Outside the Supreme Court, Indiana Doctor to Sue State AG for Defamation over Her Care of 10-Year-Old Rape Survivor, Protests Continue in Sri Lanka as Ex-PM Picked to Be New President, Pakistan Rejects Call for Early Elections as Party of Ousted PM Imran Khan Gains Seats, Putin Meets with Leaders of Iran and Turkey, U.S. Kills Two in Airstrikes in Somalia, “A Horrific Execution”: San Bernardino Police Killing of Robert Adams Sparks Outrage, Chipotle Closes Store in Maine After Workers Filed to Unionize

We speak with pioneering scholar and activist Kimberlé Crenshaw about the growing Republican effort to ban critical race theory — an academic field that conservatives have invoked as a catchall phrase to censor a variety of curriculums focusing on antiracism, sex and gender. Crenshaw has launched what she calls a “counterterrorism offensive” against the Republican efforts with a “summer school” inspired by the Freedom Summer movement of the 1960s. The school debunks the “bothsidesism” debate Crenshaw says is upheld by mainstream media, and highlights the importance of critical race theory in building a multiracial democracy. “There’s no daylight between the protection of our democracy and the protection of antiracism,” says Crenshaw.

Pro-Israel lobby groups have spent “shocking” amounts of money to change the course of multiple Democratic congressional primaries over the past year alone, reports our guest Peter Beinart. The latest is in Maryland, where former Congressmember Donna Edwards is being outspent sevenfold by corporate attorney Glenn Ivey in her bid to win back her old seat in the state’s 4th Congressional District. Beinart, the editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, says the AIPAC-led PACs disguise their attack ads with local issues but in reality are designed to oust candidates who take stances in support of Palestinian rights and working people.

Outraged residents of Uvalde, Texas, confronted members of the city’s school board Monday, nearly two months after an 18-year-old gunman shot dead 19 fourth graders and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. The school board’s meeting came a day after a Texas House panel released a damning report that identified multiple “systemic failures’’ in the response by local, state and federal law enforcement to the school massacre, finding it took nearly 400 officers more than an hour to confront the gunman after they rushed to the school. For more, we speak with Roland Gutierrez, state senator for Texas’s 19th District, which includes Uvalde. “Texas is in a crisis of neglect of infinite proportions, and Greg Abbott is doing nothing about it,” says Gutierrez, who is calling on the Texas governor to call a special session to raise the minimum age to buy AR-15 guns, as well as properly fund the victims’ funerals — none of which Abbott has attended.

Death Toll from Europe’s Heat Wave Tops 1,100, Londoners Hold Climate Protest as Temperatures Approach 40°C, U.N. Secretary-General Says Climate Goal of Limiting Warming to 1.5°C on “Life Support”, Ukraine’s First Lady to Meet with Jill Biden, Will Address U.S. Congress, Banned Russian Channel TV Rain Resumes Broadcasting, from Exile, Putin Arrives in Iran for Talks on Wars in Syria and Ukraine, Gazprom Won’t Guarantee Restart of Gas in Russia-to-Germany Pipeline, U.S. State Dept. Denies UAE’s Explanation for Arrest of Khashoggi Lawyer Asim Ghafoor, U.S. COVID Cases Surge Amid Lax Public Health Measures, CDC Warns of Spread of Monkeypox Amid Shortages of Vaccines and Testing, Ghana Confirms Its First Cases of Deadly Marburg Virus, Democrats Seek to Codify Right to Medical Abortion as States Crack Down on Reproductive Rights, Florida Prosecutor Seeks Death Penalty as Parkland High School Shooter’s Sentencing Trial Opens, White 18-Year-Old Accused of Racist Massacre at Buffalo Supermarket Pleads Not Guilty, Brazil’s Bolsonaro Casts Doubt on Electoral System, Stoking Fears of an October Coup

We speak with Harvard journalism analyst Laura Hazard Owen, who says reporters will have to abandon “conventional journalism wisdom” to cover abortion stories following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. “Reporters are going to need to accept that it’s going to be really hard to sort of do the things that they’ve been trained to do when they’re writing about these cases,” says Hazard Owen, explaining why privacy laws and the criminalization of doctors will make it harder to identify pregnant people and fact-check different abortion stories that involve young victims or occur in Republican-controlled states. Her latest piece is titled “Unimaginable abortion stories will become more common. Is American journalism ready?”

A scorching heat wave continues to fuel wildfires across southern Europe and parts of North Africa, resulting in hundreds of heat-related deaths and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes. The record-breaking temperatures come as Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has effectively killed President Biden’s Build Back Better climate legislation after stringing Biden along for 18 months. “It’s appalling, but it’s not unexpected. It’s why we have to keep building movements bigger,” says Bill McKibben, climate author, educator, environmentalist and founder of the organizations Third Act and 350.org.

We speak with climate author and activist Bill McKibben, who is pushing for the climate movement to demand the release of Egyptian prisoner and human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah ahead of the next U.N. climate conference, which will be hosted in Egypt. McKibben says releasing El-Fattah to the U.K., which has agreed to house him, would be “the easiest of gestures” by Egypt, whose authoritarian leader met Saturday with President Biden. “The spread of authoritarian governments around the world is one of the things that’s making it difficult to deal with the existential challenge that climate change [presents],” says McKibben.

President Biden met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Friday, as the Saudis agreed to increase oil production as well as open their airspace to Israeli commercial flights. Biden says he told the crown prince he held him responsible for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident, though Biden’s claims were later contradicted by a top Saudi official. We speak with Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, who says Biden’s friendly fist bump with the crown prince will become the “legacy of President Biden as a man who broke his promises” on holding Saudi Arabia accountable and sends a troubling message to other wealthy oil-producing countries. Whitson also calls for the UAE to give civil rights lawyer Asim Ghafoor, who represented Khashoggi, “due process” after he was detained by officials while traveling through Dubai’s airport and sentenced to three years in prison for fraud charges he denies.

Biden Denounced for Fist-Bumping Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Biden Meets UAE President Days After Khashoggi Lawyer Asim Ghafoor Detained in Dubai, Hundreds Die in Europe Heat Wave; Wildfires Force Thousands to Evacuate, Biden Concedes Defeat as Sen. Manchin Walks Away from Talks on Climate, Taxing the Rich, Ukraine’s President Fires Spy Chief and Top Prosecutor, Alleging “Treason”, House Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Secret Service over Deleted Text Messages, Report on Uvalde Mass Shooting Cites “Systemic Failures” by Nearly 400 Officers on Scene, Gunman Kills Three and Injures Two in Indiana Shopping Mall, House Passes Reproductive Rights Bills; GOP Promises Senate Filibuster, Biden Abandons Plans to Nominate Anti-Abortion GOP Lawyer to Federal Bench, AIPAC Pours Nearly $6M into Maryland Primary in Effort to Defeat Donna Edwards, Autopsy Reveals Akron Police Shot Jayland Walker 46 Times, Families Lay to Rest Guatemalan Teens Who Died in Sweltering Migrant Trailer in Texas

The release of the first images from NASA’s new flagship James Webb Space Telescope brought renewed attention to the controversy over naming the telescope after James Webb, who led NASA ahead of the Apollo moon landings in the 1960s. He also played a key role in purging LGBTQ+ people from NASA in what was known as the “lavender scare,” and before that at the State Department under President Truman. We speak with Lucianne Walkowicz, one of four astronomers who led a petition to rename the telescope. Although the petitioners value the insights the telescope contributes, “the way that NASA has dug in its heels about naming the telescope after James Webb has really cast a pall over that,” says Walkowicz. They are also the co-founder of the JustSpace Alliance, which made a new documentary about the push to rename the telescope. We feature an extended excerpt from “Behind the Name: James Webb Space Telescope,” which also examines the push to name the telescope after Harriet Tubman, who “observed the night sky and used the stars for celestial navigation in the service of … people’s freedom.”

NASA released revolutionary new images of the cosmos this week that were taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space observatory to date. Launched in 2021, the JWST was designed to study star and planet formation with exponentially more accuracy and detail than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. “We can actually essentially watch the formation of stars,” says astrophysicist Katie Mack. “There’s a chance that it might find signatures consistent with life in the atmospheres of other stars.” We feature NASA’s new images, like the Southern Ring Nebula, and Mack discusses what humans can learn from the new science about the cosmos, and ourselves.

Biden Pledges to “Stand Up for Media Freedom” After Snubbing Shireen Abu Akleh’s Family, House Passes Record $839 Billion Military Budget in Bipartisan Vote, Texas Sues Biden Administration to Block Abortion Care in Cases of Medical Emergency, Indiana AG to Investigate Doctor Who Provided Abortion Care to 10-Year-Old Rape Survivor, Sri Lankan President Formally Resigns After Fleeing to Singapore, Scorching Heat Wave Fuels Wildfires Across Southern Europe, Sen. Manchin Says He Won’t Support Legislation to Tax the Rich and Combat Climate Crisis, IMF Warns Russia’s War on Ukraine Could Push Global Economy into Recession, European Union Asks Members to Curb Use of Natural Gas, Will Allow Increased Burning of Coal, Massive Protests in Argentine Capital Demand End to IMF-Imposed Austerity, Mexico Agrees to Pay $1.5 Billion to Further Militarize U.S. Border, Victims of Texas Migrant Truck Disaster Laid to Rest in Mexico, Leaked Audio Reveals Trump Planned to Declare Victory in 2020 Regardless of Election Outcome, Secret Service Erased Text Messages Sent Around Time of Capitol Insurrection

COVID-19 cases are rising as the BA.5 Omicron variant puts more people in the hospital amid high rates of reinfection, which is the focus of a new piece by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Yong in The Atlantic that is headlined “Is BA.5 the 'Reinfection Wave'?” Yong warns the premature rollback of protective policies, like mask mandates and public health funding, has left people more vulnerable to reinfection. Meanwhile, a concerning number of Americans continue to distrust the vaccine. Rather than focusing on community-based measures that will protect the most vulnerable first, “the Biden administration’s posture has been moving toward an era of individual responsibility,” says Yong.

President Biden is set to meet with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday as part of a four-day visit to restore key relationships and build security cooperation in the Middle East. Human rights activists are outraged that the U.S. is willing to support a leader responsible for human rights violations including in the brutal war in Yemen, the state-sanctioned killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and more. One of Biden’s aims is to convince Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, an answer to pressures at home over skyrocketing gas prices from the Russian war in Ukraine. “If we’re willing to sacrifice for oil prices, there are much less heinous sacrifices to be making than to continue military support for the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” says Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now.

President Biden will be visiting the Palestinian territories and meeting President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday. Ahead of Biden’s trip, the family of Shireen Abu Akleh demanded Biden call out Israel over her killing while covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken invited Shireen Abu Akleh’s family to visit the United States. “We will continue to call for justice, and we will continue to call on the U.S to carry out a transparent investigation by an independent body,” says Shireen Abu Akleh’s niece, Lina Abu Akleh. “In addition, we continue to call on the U.N. and the ICC to carry out an investigation and hold Israel accountable and put an end to this grotesque impunity that Israel continues to enjoy.” We speak with Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian American professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University.

President Biden is in Israel as part of a four-day trip to the Middle East, where he reaffirmed his support for Israel despite growing disapproval among members of the Democratic Party over the state’s brutal treatment of Palestinians. The Biden administration faces criticism over plans to build a U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on land that was illegally confiscated by Israel from Palestinians in 1948, as well as the State Department’s whitewashed investigation of Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing, which multiple other independent investigations have determined was caused by an Israeli bullet. “By not engaging in dismantling the structures of discrimination and oppression … that Israel maintains, the United States is in fact supporting those structures,” says historian Rashid Khalidi, whose family is among the Palestinians whose seized lands are set to be used for the embassy.

Israeli Officials Roll Out Red Carpet as President Biden Begins Mideast Trip, Biden Discusses Iran Nuclear Program with Israeli PM, Won’t Rule Out U.S. Use of Force, Biden to Be First U.S. President to Fly Directly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, House to Vote on Unprecedented $839 Billion Military Budget, Sri Lanka Protests Turn Deadly as President Leaves Maldives for Singapore, Russian Missiles Kill at Least 12 in Vinnytsia, Ukraine and Russia Near Deal on Grain Shipments from Black Sea Port, South Carolina Abortion Providers Sue to Block Six-Week Abortion Ban, Man Arrested in Ohio Child Rape Case Labeled “Fake News” by Republicans, Justice Dept. Asks Jan. 6 Committee to Hand Over Evidence on Pro-Trump Electors, Man Arrested for Threatening to Kill Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Gun Violence Survivors Rally at U.S. Capitol to Call for Assault Weapons Ban

Chilling live testimony at the seventh hearing of the January 6 House select committee hearing came from former Donald Trump supporters who detailed their own radicalization in response to Trump’s actions leading up to the deadly insurrection. “I think we need to quit mincing words and just talk about truths. And what it was going to be was an armed revolution. I mean, people died that day. Law enforcement officers died this day. There was a gallows set up in front of the Capitol. This could have been the spark that started a new civil war, and no one would have won there,” said Jason Van Tatenhove, former spokesperson for right-wing extremist conspiracy group the Oath Keepers. “It makes me mad,” said Stephen Ayres, a former Trump supporter from Ohio who pleaded guilty last month for illegally entering the Capitol on January 6. “I was hanging on every word he was saying. Everything he was putting out, I was following it. If I was doing it, hundreds of thousands or millions of other people are doing it, or maybe even still doing it.” Both men expressed regret for their actions.

The seventh House select committee hearing on the January 6 attack at the Capitol examined in detail how then-President Trump went against the advice of top aides to claim President Biden’s win was fraudulent and to strategize a means to overturn the election. Tuesday’s hearing focused in part on a tweet Trump sent on December 19, 2020, in which he called for a “big protest” at the coming joint session of Congress on January 6 and told his supporters, “Be there, will be wild!” Committee member, Democratic Congressmember Jamie Raskin lays out how Trump sent the tweet just about an hour after a tense meeting at the White House between his official and unofficial advisers that was described in testimony as “unhinged,” and features excerpts of deposition testimony from Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, White House lawyer Eric Herschmann and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, among others.

In its seventh public hearing, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol presented evidence and witness testimony that revealed how then-President Trump was a driving force behind assembling a violent mob that would target the Capitol. While Trump’s own Cabinet members and legal advisers found no evidence of voter fraud and advised him to concede the election, he continued to tweet messages to followers that painted the election as stolen. “President Trump is a 76-year-old man; he is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices. As our investigation has shown, Donald Trump had access to more detailed and specific information showing that the election was not actually stolen than almost any other American, and he was told this over and over again,” said committee vice chair, Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney in her opening remarks. “No rational or sane man in his position could disregard that information and reach the opposite conclusion. And Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind.”

Jan. 6th Panel Ties Trump to Most Violent Extremists at Capitol Insurrection, Sri Lanka’s President Flees to Maldives Amid Massive Anti-Government Protests, As Biden Starts Mideast Tour, Family of Slain Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh Demands Justice, Video Shows Delayed Police Response as Uvalde Gunman Rampaged Through School, New Arizona Law Makes It Illegal to Film Police in Many Circumstances, Arizona Judge Blocks Law Classifying Fetuses and Embryos as People, Louisiana Judge Temporarily Blocks Trigger Abortion Ban, Ukrainian Missile Kills Seven in Russian-Occupied Town, Russia Prepares for New Offensive in Donetsk Province, Nord Stream 1 Russia-to-Europe Gas Pipeline Shut Down for Maintenance, U.N. Security Council Extends Syria Aid for Six Months, British Military Killed at Least 54 Afghans Under Suspicious Circumstances, John Bolton Says He “Helped Plan Coups” in Foreign Countries, NASA Releases Unprecedented First Images from New Flagship Space Telescope

Heeding outrage from reproductive rights activists, President Biden signed an executive order Friday to ensure access to abortion medication and emergency contraception in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. We speak to the heads of two major reproductive health centers in the Deep South about how they are providing patient care now that abortion is criminalized. Diane Derzis is CEO of Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, which was at the center of the Supreme Court case that led to the overturning of Roe. The clinic closed soon after Roe was overturned last month, and plans to reopen in Las Cruces, New Mexico. We also speak to Robin Marty, operations director of the West Alabama Women’s Center, which just reopened on Monday to offer a selective range of sexual health services after discontinuing abortion services. “The only way to stop this is to absolutely pass federal law that protects a woman’s access to the most private decision in our lives,” says Derzis. “We are going to be a safe place that does not ask questions and simply sees people with bleeding issues and does what we are legally allowed to under the law,” says Marty.

As the Pentagon authorizes an additional $400 million for Ukraine’s defense on Friday, bringing estimated total U.S. security spending on Ukraine under President Biden to a staggering $8 billion, we speak to Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, about the pressure on news media to follow a single approved narrative on the Ukraine war. The independent media outlet recently had their PayPal account shut down and received notice from NewsGuard, a fact-checking group, that they are under review for publishing fake news. “American and European audiences have been fed the idea that Russia has been failing in this war and that Ukraine still has a chance to win, but I think we’re starting to see reality seep into the reporting,” says Lauria.

Thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka have stormed the homes of the president and prime minister and are refusing to leave until they officially resign, as the president faces accusations of corruption that bankrupted the country and led to a massive economic crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is set to formally step down Wednesday and has reportedly tried to flee the country. We go to the capital Colombo to speak with Bhavani Fonseka, a human rights lawyer and a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, who has been participating in the protest. She describes the months of peaceful protest that led to this moment. “Considering the crisis and considering the demands of the people that there has to be a change, we need to look to general elections as soon as the environment is conducive,” notes Fonseka.