Democracy Now!

As Monday’s state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II marks the end of a national period of mourning in Britain, we speak with the U.K.'s first professor of Black studies, Kehinde Andrews, about the generational difference in perceptions of the queen within his Jamaican family, which he lays out in his recent essay, “I Don't Mourn the Queen.” He also describes the brutal legacy of the British slave trade and the British Empire, which makes the monarchy a symbol of white supremacy that should not be mourned, but rather abolished. “This is an old institution — deeply racist, deeply classist, deeply patriarchal. It just needs to go. And this is the perfect time to discuss when it should end,” says Andrews.

More than 1.5 million people are in the dark after Hurricane Fiona knocked the power out across all of Puerto Rico Sunday, triggering floods and landslides. We go to San Juan for an update from Democracy Now! correspondent Juan Carlos Dávila, who describes how privatization of the island’s electrical grid coupled with a legacy of U.S. colonialism “has really caused the crisis.” We also speak with former San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz as President Biden has declared a national emergency and federal aid pours in. “The distribution has to be robust and has to be people-centered and community-centered,” notes Cruz.

Puerto Rico Plunged into Darkness as Hurricane Fiona Knocks Out Power Grid, Alaska’s Strongest Storm in Half-Century Cuts Off Rural Communities, 9 Million Ordered to Evacuate as Typhoon Nanmadol Hits Japan, Climate Week Opens in New York as World Leaders Gather for U.N. General Assembly, United Kingdom Holds State Funeral for Queen Elizabeth II, “Not My King”: Protester Confronts British Monarch over Wealth Inequality, White House Condemns GOP Governors for Sending Asylum Seekers to Liberal States, India’s Modi Criticizes Putin over Ukraine Invasion, Ukraine Says Mass Grave in Territory Liberated from Russia Contains 400 Bodies, Ceasefire Halts Fighting Between Azerbaijan and Armenia That Killed 200, Nearly 100 Killed in Border Clashes Between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Israel Bombs Damascus Airport in Syria, Biden Repeats Vow to Defend Taiwan from China’s Military, Biden Claims “The Pandemic Is Over” Despite 3,000+ U.S. Deaths Per Week, West Virginia Governor Signs Near-Total Ban on Abortion into Law, Man Pleads Guilty to Threatening Merriam-Webster over Gender-Inclusive Edits

In an extended interview, acclaimed physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté discusses his new book, just out, called “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture.” “The very values of a society are traumatizing for a lot of people,” says Maté, who argues in his book that “psychological trauma, woundedness, underlies much of what we call disease.” He says healing requires a reconnection between the mind and the body, which can be achieved through cultivating a sense of community, meaning, belonging and purpose. Maté also discusses how the healthcare system has harmfully promoted the “mechanization of birth,” how the lack of social services for parents has led to “a massive abandonment of infants,” and how capitalism has fueled addiction and the rise of youth suicide rates.

Texas Gov. Abbott Buses Asylum Seekers to VP Kamala Harris’s Home, “We Are Not a Sanctuary State”: Florida Governor Sends Asylum Seekers to Martha’s Vineyard, U.N. to Investigate Mass Graves in Territory Reclaimed from Russia by Ukraine, Russia Warns U.S. Arms Shipments to Ukraine Could Prompt “Direct Military Clash”, Vladimir Putin Meets Xi Jinping, Acknowledges “Questions and Concerns” over Ukraine, Pakistan Suffers Surge of Waterborne Disease as Floodwaters Recede, “An Unprecedented Global Crime”: House Hearings Probe Oil Companies’ Climate Denial, Judge Blocks Proposed Petrochemical Plant in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”, Federal Court Rules Enbridge Trespassed on Indigenous Land to Build Line 5 Pipeline, Boil Water Advisory Lifted for Jackson, Miss., After Nearly 7 Weeks, Patagonia Founder Gives Away $3 Billion Company to Fight Climate Crisis, WHO Says End of Coronavirus Pandemic “Is in Sight” as Deaths Fall to Lowest Rate Since 2020, Federal Judge Names Special Master and Orders DOJ to Delay Review of Documents Held by Trump, Senate Democrats Won’t Hold Vote on Congressional Stock Trading Ban Before Midterm Elections, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele Says He’ll Seek Reelection Despite Prohibition, Mexico Arrests Retired General over 2014 Disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa Students

Nearly 1,500 people have died and tens of millions have been displaced in Pakistan, where catastrophic flooding has left a third of the country underwater, washing away homes, farmlands, bridges, hospitals and schools. “People have lost everything,” says Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a Pakistani artist and the grandson of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto says the flooding has caused an epidemic of malaria and dengue fever, and calls on the International Monetary Fund to cancel the country’s debts and commit to climate reparations.

Ukraine has accused Russia of bombing a dam in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih — where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was born — forcing evacuation in parts of the city due to flooding. The bombing is the latest Russian attack on civilain infrastructure since Ukrainian forces recaptured over 3,000 square miles of territory from Russia during a counteroffensive this past week. For more, we speak with New York-based artist and author Molly Crabapple, who just published a series of sketches documenting her recent travels across Ukraine alongside Ukrainian journalist and motorcyclist Anna Grechishkina. “I wanted to see with my own eyes how Ukrainians were writing and defining their own future,” says Crabapple. Her new piece is titled “In the Shadow of Invasion.”

Railroad workers have reached a new tentative union contract with rail companies, averting a potential strike set to start on Friday that could have shut down rail service across the United States. The deal, which has yet to be released in writing and ratified by union members, is said to grant one paid sick day to workers, allow workers to attend medical appointments without being subject to attendance policies, and give a “semblance of a schedule” to rail workers, who are currently on call to work 24/7. Locomotive engineer Ron Kaminkow, the organizer for Railroad Workers United, says the railway crisis is “30 years in the making,” and describes how resentment has grown among workers as rail company executives slash resources for their employees while raking in record profits.

U.S. Rail Workers Win Tentative Union Contract, Averting Nationwide Strike, 15,000 Minnesota Nurses Return to Work After 3-Day Strike over Pay and Staffing Levels, U.S. Transfers $3.5B in Frozen Afghan Central Bank Funds to Swiss Trust, Reports of Russian Torture Emerge in Territory Reclaimed by Ukraine , U.N. Secretary-General Warns Ukraine Ceasefire Is “Nowhere in Sight” , Indiana Abortion Ban Takes Effect; Ohio Judge Temporarily Halts 6-Week Ban, Woman Whose Fetus Lacked Skull Travels to NYC for Abortion After Louisiana Bans Procedure, R. Kelly Found Guilty of Child Pornography Charges, Sex Trafficked Teen Who Killed Alleged Rapist Ordered to Pay His Family $150,000, Andrew Cuomo Sued by Former Aide Charlotte Bennett for Sexual Harassment, Sweden’s New Government Will Be Led by Far-Right Party Founded by Neo-Nazis

We speak with The New Yorker’s award-winning war correspondent Luke Mogelson about his new book, “The Storm Is Here: An American Crucible.” The book gives an eyewitness account of right-wing extremism and growing civic unrest in the U.S. since 2020, starting with anti-lockdown protests in Michigan and culminating in the January 6 insurrection. Mogelson, who filmed the attack on the U.S. Capitol, says many of the right-wing rioters viewed the insurrection “not as a political act but as something taking place in a more timeless, kind of cosmic spiritual framework.”

We speak with journalist and activist Eamonn McCann about Queen Elizabeth II’s legacy in Ireland and the impact of her recent death on the prospects of Irish unification. This comes as King Charles III visited Northern Ireland Tuesday on his national tour commemorating his mother, whose reign oversaw more than 3,600 deaths over three decades in Northern Ireland in fighting between the Irish Republican Army and forces backed by Britain. “There is a great confidence among nationalist and republican leaders in Northern Ireland that we are now moving inexorably towards a united Ireland,” says McCann, a former member of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Ukraine Claims It Has Recaptured 3,000 Square Miles of Territory from Russia, Sen. Lindsey Graham Introduces Nationwide 15-Week Abortion Ban, West Virgnia Lawmakers Approve Near-Total Ban on Abortion, Pro-Trump Don Bolduc Wins NH GOP Senate Primary, Mary Peltola Sworn In as First Alaskan Native to Serve in Congress, Report: 97 Members of Congress Sold or Bought Stock Related to Committee Work, Mourners Pack Streets of London for Procession Carrying Coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, Biden Administration Works to Prevent Major Railway Strike, Seattle Teachers Suspend Five-Day Strike After Tentative Agreement Reached, William Ruto Sworn In as Kenya’s New President, Toll from Pakistan Flood Rises as Survivors Lack Clean Drinking Water, Former Twitter Security Chief Warns Congress About Major Security Flaws, Alex Jones on Trial Again for Spreading Lies About Sandy Hook Massacre, Former Independent Counsel Ken Starr, 76, Dies

The geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China is reshaping life in the U.S. territory of Guam, where the already-massive military presence is set to expand as the Pentagon builds up its capabilities in the Pacific. “We are directly in the line of fire,” says Julian Aguon, a CHamoru writer and human rights lawyer, who describes the build-up of U.S. troops and military infrastructure on Guam as “nothing less than cataclysmic” for the Indigenous people. Aguon also talks about the ongoing fight for independence in Guam, which he says the U.S. has thwarted for more than a century. “The U.S. is a country that prefers, routinely, power over strength and living over letting live.” Aguon is the author of several acclaimed books, including, “The Fire This Time: Stories of Life Under U.S. Occupation” and “What We Bury at Night: Disposable Humanity.” His most recent book, released Tuesday, is titled “No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies.”

We look at how the death of Queen Elizabeth II is prompting former British colonies in the Caribbean to replace the British monarch as their head of state. Antigua and Barbuda’s prime minister has vowed to hold a referendum soon on whether to become a republic, and Jamaica’s ruling Labour Party also plans a vote. The Caribbean at one point formed the heart of England’s first colonial empire in North America, with millions of enslaved Africans taken to the islands, where many were worked to death. Dorbrene O’Marde, chair of the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Commission, says he is not personally mourning Queen Elizabeth’s death because her reign helped to “cloak the historical brutality of empire in this veneer of grandeur and pomp and pageantry.” We also speak with renowned Jamaican poet and musician Mutabaruka, who says the British monarchy “represents criminal activity” and that the British state needs to make reparations to former colonies like Jamaica to redress the history of abuses. “Actions speak louder than words,” he says.

Ukraine Retakes 6,000 Square Kilometers from Russia, Asks for More Weapons, Dozens Killed in Fresh Clashes Between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Justice Department Seizes Phones of Two Former Trump Aides, DOJ Accepts Raymond Dearie as Special Master to Vet Classified Documents Held by Trump, Pakistan Floodwaters Could Take Up to Six Months to Recede, Wildfire Smoke Brings Hazardous Air Pollution to Western U.S. and Canada, King Charles III Visits Belfast, Northern Ireland, U.K. Police Arrest Protester Who Heckled Prince Andrew over Ties to Jeffrey Epstein, U.N. Report Warns 50 Million Worldwide Are Trapped in “Modern Slavery”, Minnesota Nurses Begin Largest Private Sector Nurses’ Strike in U.S. History, 115,000 Railroad Workers Prepare to Strike Friday to Demand Safer Working Conditions, Black Pastor Sues over Arrest by Alabama Officers While Watering Neighbor’s Flowers, French New Wave Filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard Dies at 91

We look at how corporate involvement in Jackson, Mississippi’s infrastructure helped set the stage for its water crisis, as tens of thousands of residents of the majority-Black city remain under a boil water advisory. The main water treatment plant was damaged after a flood in late August, and while water pressure has been restored to most homes, viral videos show undrinkable brown liquid coming out of many taps. Mississippi’s Governor Tate Reeves has said “privatization is on the table” for the state capital. This could lead to a repeat of problems stemming from a $90 million contract Jackson signed in 2010 with the German multinational conglomerate Siemens to overhaul the city’s water infrastructure and install new water meters meant to raise extra revenue and help the city reinvest in the system. “This contract ended up being a disaster,” says Judd Legum, who wrote about the Siemens deal for his independent political newsletter Popular Information. “There was essentially a lost decade where the system deteriorated further and there were really no substantial investments made, and that’s part of the reason why we see what’s going on today.”

Just after midnight on New Year’s Day of 2021, Newark police officer Rod Simpkins shot 39-year-old Carl Dorsey dead. Simpkins was in an unmarked police minivan and in plainclothes when he arrived at the scene after reportedly hearing gunshots. Within seconds of exiting his car, Simpkins fired his gun at Dorsey. It is unclear if he announced himself as a police officer. The family of the unarmed Black man killed that night is now suing the police and the city of Newark, frustrated that the investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has dragged on for 20 months with no findings so far. “We’re demanding justice for my brother, and we need people to be accountable for what happened to him,” says Madinah Person, Dorsey’s sister. Larry Hamm, chair of the People’s Organization for Progress, says New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin owes the family and the wider community answers. “Two years is too long not to hear anything from the attorney general about this case,” says Hamm.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II has focused global attention on the British royal family and renewed criticism of the monarchy both inside the U.K. and abroad, especially among peoples colonized by Britain. “There’s a degree of psychosis that you can go to another people’s land, colonize them, and then expect them to honor you at the same time,” says Kenyan American author Mukoma Wa Ngugi, who teaches literature at Cornell University and whose own family was deeply impacted by the bloody British suppression of the Mau Mau revolution. He says that with Queen Elizabeth’s death, there needs to be a “dismantling” of the Commonwealth and a real reckoning with colonial abuses. We also speak with Harvard historian Caroline Elkins, a leading scholar of British colonialism, who says that while it’s unclear how much Queen Elizabeth personally knew about concentration camps, torture and other abuses in Kenya during her early reign, the monarchy must reckon with that legacy. “Serious crimes happened on the queen’s imperial watch. In fact, her picture hung in every detention camp in Kenya as detainees were beaten in order to exact their loyalty to the British crown,” says Elkins.

Ukraine’s Military Retakes 1,000 Square Kilometers from Russia in Rapid Advance, “Climate Carnage”: U.N. Secretary-General Tours Parts of Pakistan Devastated by Floods, King Charles III Assumes the British Throne, Sweden’s Election Remains Too Close to Call as Far-Right Party Makes Gains, Stephen Miller Subpoenaed to Testify to Grand Jury About Trump PAC Fundraising, 72 House Democrats Sign Letter Opposing Sen. Manchin’s Permitting Reforms, Environmentalists in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” Defeat Proposed Methanol Plant, U.S. Marks 21st Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks, The Other 9/11: Chile Marks 49 Years Since U.S.-Supported Coup Toppled Salvador Allende, ACLU Asks Montana Judge to Strike Down Anti-Trans Birth Certificate Rule, New York Declares State of Emergency Over Polio Outbreak, Laura Poitras’s Documentary on Opioid Crisis Wins Top Prize at Venice Film Festival

Climate activists from as far away as Alaska, Indigenous peoples and Appalachians rallied in Washington, D.C., Thursday against the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The protest — No Sacrifice Zones! — spoke out against concessions to West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin included in the Inflation Reduction Act that would expedite the pipeline slated to cut through Appalachia, as Senator Bernie Sanders gave an address on the Senate floor calling it a “disastrous side deal” to the Inflation Reduction Act that undermines climate activism. We speak with two environmental activists in D.C. who helped organize the protest, Crystal Cavalier-Keck and Russell Chisholm. “We do not want this dirty deal that Senator Joe Manchin is pushing forward,” says Cavalier-Keck. “This project must be stopped, and these extractive industries that create sacrifice zones must also be stopped,” says Chisholm.

We host a roundtable on the life and legacy of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday at the age of 96. She was the country’s longest-reigning monarch, serving for 70 years and presiding over the end of the British Empire. Her death set off a period of national mourning in the U.K. and has thrown the future of the monarchy into doubt. “The monarchy really has come to represent deep and profound and grave inequality,” says Cambridge scholar Priya Gopal, author of “Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent.” We also speak with Harvard historian Maya Jasanoff, Novara Media editor Ash Sarkar and Pedro Welch, former chair of the Barbados Reparations Task Force, who says the British monarchy’s brutal record in the Caribbean and other parts of the world must be addressed. “The enslavement of our ancestors has led to a legacy of deprivation, a legacy that still has to be sorted out,” says Welch.

Climate Crisis Brings Fire and Floods to California as Global Temperature Records Fall, Sen. Manchin’s “Dirty Side Deal”: Climate Protesters Condemn Democrats’ Permitting Reforms, U.S. Pledges Another $2.7 Billion in Military Aid to Ukraine, Antiwar Groups Plan Week of Protests Demanding Diplomatic End to War in Ukraine, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96 After Seven-Decade Reign, U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss Lifts Fracking Moratorium, Calls for Shale Gas Drilling, South Carolina Lawmakers Vote to Further Restrict Abortion, Michigan Voters Will Determine Fate of Abortion Rights in November Referendum, DOJ Appeals “Special Master” Ruling over Classified Documents Held by Trump, Steve Bannon Surrenders to Face NY Charges of Donor Fraud and Money Laundering, DNC Panel Rejects Ban on “Dark Money” Campaign Contributions, New Vaccine Shows High Efficacy Against Malaria in Clinical Trial, North Korea Alters Nuclear Policy to Allow for First Strike, #NoTechForApartheid: Amazon and Google Workers Protest $1.2 Billion Deal with Israel

New revelations about the secretive right-wing billionaire Barre Seid, who donated $1.6 billion to a conservative nonprofit run by Leonard Leo, known as Donald Trump’s “Supreme Court whisperer,” show he has also used his massive fortune to undermine climate science, fight Medicaid expansion and remake the higher education system in a conservative mold. We speak with The Lever’s Andrew Perez, who reported on what Seid calls “attack philanthropy,” after obtaining emails through an open records request.

We look at the devastating effects of climate change and global inequity in East Africa, and how many countries face drought and a looming famine, with guests in Mogadishu, Somalia, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “The current unprecedented drought, that is a result of four consecutive failed rainy seasons, with the fifth and the sixth projected to also be below average, is causing a huge food insecurity,” says Adam Abdelmoula, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Somalia. “I think the agenda for Africa now is food sovereignty,” adds Million Belay, coordinator at the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is calling for a safety and security protection zone to be immediately set up around the facility in order to avoid a nuclear disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. This week it released a long-awaited report urging Russia and Ukraine to create a demilitarized zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after visiting it last week. “Their warnings are pretty clear: Unless the fighting stops, unless the shelling around and on the plant site stops, … then the plant is really skating on thin ice,” says Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. We also go to Kyiv to speak with Olexi Pasyuk, deputy director of Ukrainian environmental group Ecoaction, who says the IAEA report will have limited impact on the fighting but helps raise awareness of the risks. “This is what Ukraine wanted to hear … that the only way to have it safe is to demilitarize the area,” says Pasyuk.

Ukraine Considers Closing Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Amid Heavy Fighting, Russia Accused of Forcibly Relocating Up to 1.6 Million Ukrainians, Secretary of State Blinken Visits Kyiv, Pledges Billions in New U.S. Aid to Ukraine, U.S. Tests Nuclear-Capable Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, Judge Strikes Down Mandated Coverage of HIV Prevention Drug, Citing “Religious Freedom”, Hundreds of Law Enforcement Officers Listed as Members of Oath Keepers Militia, Haitian Protesters Demand Food, Safety and Resignation of PM Ariel Henry, Israeli Military Kills 20-Year-Old Palestinian During Raid, Earthquake Toll in China’s Sichuan Province Rises to 82 Amid COVID Lockdown, Second Suspect in Canada Stabbings Dies of Apparent Self-Inflicted Wounds After Arrest, Memphis Gunman Kills 4, Injures 3 in Day-Long Rampage, Texas Mass Shootings Rose 62% Following Open Carry Bill, Las Vegas Official Arrested for Murder of Investigative Journalist, Seattle Public School Workers Strike for Better Pay and Resources

We continue to remember the life and legacy of writer and activist Barbara Ehrenreich, who died on September 1 at the age of 81, as we speak with her friend and colleague Alissa Quart, executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, which Ehrenreich founded and which continues to support journalists who cover and embody the struggles of everyday people. “She understood that on a basic level people just needed higher wages and more money, basically, and to make this into a moral or personal vendetta against the poor was an obscenity,” says Quart. Ehrenreich was the author of more than 20 books, including her best-known, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.”

A federal judge on Monday agreed with Donald Trump’s lawyers to appoint an independent arbiter known as a special master to review top-secret documents seized during an FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate. U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated by Trump while he was president, ordered the Justice Department to stop reviewing the documents. The move delays the federal investigation into whether he violated the Espionage Act and other federal laws. Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation, weighs in on the multiple open investigations of Trump and whether the media’s focus on them are actually helping his reelection for president. His latest article is titled “Trump Is a Criminal—Will Any of These 4 Investigations Snare Him?”

The Israeli army has admitted for the first time that Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was likely fatally shot by an Israeli soldier during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank in May. The conclusion to the internal investigation comes after months of outrage from Abu Akleh’s family and human rights activists at Israel’s initial claim that the bullet came from Palestinian fire. The U.S. responded by saying it will pressure Israel to reexamine its rules of engagement. Abu Akleh’s family says it’s not enough, and is demanding a meeting with President Biden. “Real accountability includes holding the soldier who killed Shireen accountable … and changing the entire policy that continues to perpetuate violence against Palestinians,” says Shireen Abu Akleh’s niece, Lina Abu Akleh.

IAEA Calls for Safety Zone Around Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant in Ukraine, Report: FBI Found Docs on Foreign Nation’s Nuclear Capabilities During Mar-a-Lago Search, New Mexico Judge Removes County Commissioner from Office over Role in Jan. 6, Surveillance Video Shows “Fake Elector” & Trump Operatives Entering Elections Office in Georgia, Report: Bannon to Surrender on New York State over Charges in We Build the Wall Fraud, Maura Healey to Face Geoff Diehl in Massachusetts Gubernatorial Race in November, Water Crisis: EPA Head to Visit Jackson as Mississippi Gov. Pushes Privatizing City’s Water, California Heat Wave Continues Sparking Fires & Record Energy Usage, Forest Guardian Murdered in Brazil, Study: 10.5 Million Children Lost Parent or Caretaker Globally from COVID, Russian Court Revokes License of Novaya Gazeta Newspaper, Putin & Xi to Meet Next Week in Uzbekistan, 74 Dead, 26 Missing After Earthquake in China, Uvalde Students Return to Classes for First Time Since Mass Shooting, Juul to Pay $438 Million in Tentative Settlement over Youth Marketing, Seattle Teachers Vote to Strike, Forcing Cancellation of First Day of School, U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Signs Historic Equal Pay Agreement

We remember the author and political activist Barbara Ehrenreich, who has died at the age of 81 after a career exposing inequality and the struggles of regular people in the United States. In a brief interview, Democracy Now! co-host Juan González recalls working with Ehrenreich as part of the Young Lords and says she was instrumental for the movement against the American health-industrial complex. “She’s really one of the towering figures of the radical and progressive movement in America, and it’s a tremendous loss, not only to her family but to all who knew her and benefited from her work,” he says. We also air part of a 2011 interview with Ehrenreich on Democracy Now! upon the re-release of her landmark book, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.” “Jobs that don’t pay enough to live on do not cure poverty. They condemn you, in fact, to a life of low-wage labor and extreme insecurity,” she said.

Voters in Chile have rejected a new constitution that would have replaced the country’s Pinochet-era constitution and expanded rights for Indigenous peoples and abortion seekers, guaranteed universal healthcare and addressed the climate crisis. The new charter was rejected with 62% voting “no,” and President Gabriel Boric has now vowed to continue efforts to rewrite the charter. Corporations and outside interests overwhelmingly outspent supporters of a constitution that “does not put extraction as the center of Chile’s development but people as the center of its development,” says Chilean American author Ariel Dorfman. The rejection of the constitution does not mean a rejection of its principles but the hegemony of the neoliberal status quo and a rampant disinformation campaign, says Chilean feminist Javiera Manzi, who joins us from Santiago and worked with delegates to draft the new charter.

The United Kingdom’s Conservative Party has voted for Liz Truss to become its new leader, replacing Boris Johnson and making her Britain’s next prime minister. Truss served as foreign secretary under Johnson and has a record of “extreme neoliberal policies,” says British journalist George Monbiot. These include supporting tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulating the fossil fuel industry and refusing to regulate agricultural pollution. Monbiot also warns Truss will undermine the country’s model public health system and labor rights for organizing workers.

“Famine Is at the Door”: U.N. Issues Urgent Appeal for Somalia Amid Historic Drought, Emergency Systems Activated at Ukraine Nuclear Plant as Fighting Damages Power Lines, Energy Prices Surge Across Europe After Russia Cuts Off Gas Pipeline, California Temperature Records Shattered as Heat Wave Fuels New Wildfires, Super Typhoon Brings High Winds and 3 Feet of Rain to South Korea, Liz Truss Becomes U.K. Prime Minister After Leadership Battle to Replace Boris Johnson, Chilean Voters Reject Progressive Constitution to Replace Pinochet-Era Document, 35 Killed as Roadside Bomb Hits Burkina Faso Convoy, 6 Killed as Suicide Bomber Targets Russian Embassy in Afghan Capital, Police Search for Second Suspect in Stabbings That Killed 10 in Saskatchewan, Trump-Appointed Judge Orders Review of Documents Seized by FBI at Mar-a-Lago, At Least 9 Drown Crossing Rio Grande; Texas Gov. Abbott Buses More Migrants to Chicago, Israeli Troops Kill 1, Wound 16 at Home Demolition in Occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera Rejects Israeli Army Inquiry into Shireen Abu Akleh’s Killing, Amazon Loses Bid to Overturn Successful Union Campaign by Staten Island Workers, Serena Williams Announces Retirement from Tennis After Final U.S. Open, “Nickel and Dimed” Author Barbara Ehrenreich Dies at 81

We remember the legendary historian, author, professor, playwright and activist Howard Zinn, who was born 100 years ago this August. Zinn was a regular guest on Democracy Now!, from the start of the program in 1996 up until his death in 2010 at age 87. After witnessing the horrors of World War II as a bombardier, Zinn became a peace and justice activist who picketed with his students at Spelman College during the civil rights movement and joined in actions such as opposing the Vietnam War. He later spoke out against the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. “I believe neutrality is impossible, because the world is already moving in certain directions. Wars are going on. Children are starving,” Zinn said in a 2005 interview. “To be neutral … is to collaborate with whatever is going on, to allow it to happen.”

This year marks 100 years since the birth of the historian Howard Zinn. In 1980, Zinn published his classic work, “A People’s History of the United States.” The book would go on to sell over a million copies and change the way many look at history in America. We begin today’s special with highlights from a production of Howard Zinn’s “Voices of a People’s History of the United States,” where Zinn introduced dramatic readings from history. We hear Alfre Woodard read the words of labor activist Mother Jones and Howard’s son Jeff Zinn read the words of an IWW poet and organizer Arturo Giovannitti.

The housing crisis is worsening in Los Angeles, where an estimated 60,000 people remain unhoused in Los Angeles County and thousands more are on the cusp of evictions, even as 20,000 hotel rooms remain vacant across the region. This comes as a new ballot measure could require hotels to house homeless people in vacant rooms. The measure is backed by California’s largest hospitality union, UNITE HERE Local 11, and attempts to revive a statewide pandemic policy known as Project Roomkey, which, now set to end, provided vouchers for people experiencing homelessness to use at hotels and motels. “Project Roomkey is one piece of the puzzle,” says Kurt Petersen, co-president for UNITE HERE Local 11, who, along with UCLA professor Ananya Roy, notes massive investments are desperately needed to secure permanent affordable housing. We also speak with former Echo Park Lake encampment resident Will Sens Jr., who is in Project Roomkey and says the program provided stability for him and others.

In a primetime address Thursday, President Biden warned Donald Trump and his radical supporters are threatening the foundations of the republic. Biden said, “Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” and that MAGA Republicans present a “clear and present danger to our democracy,” referring to Trump’s campaign slogan of “Make America Great Again.” We speak with Nancy MacLean, author and Duke University historian, who says Biden’s speech was a “wake-up call” for the nation and mainstream media. “He was absolutely right, in my opinion, that the Trump wing of the party and the MAGA Republicans have jumped the rails of constitutional democracy, of the factual universe and of representative democracy.”

Biden Warns “Equality and Democracy Are Under Assault” by MAGA Republicans, Ex-NYPD Officer Who Attacked Capitol Police on Jan. 6 Gets 10-Year Prison Term, Jan. 6 Committee Asks Newt Gingrich to Testify About False Election Claims, Ginni Thomas Pressured Wisconsin GOP Lawmakers to Overturn Biden’s Election Win, IAEA Chief Says Physical Integrity of Ukrainian Nuclear Plant “Violated” by Fighting, Russian Oil Company Chairman Reportedly Dies in Fall from Hospital Window, China and India Join Russian Military for Drills; U.S. Holds Pacific War Games with Allies, Taiwan Shoots Down Drone from China, At Least 18 Killed as Explosion Strikes Mosque in Herat, Afghanistan, Argentina VP Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Survives Assassination Attempt, Chileans Rally Ahead of Sunday Referendum on Replacing Pinochet-Era Constitution, Shireen Abu Akleh’s Niece Says Biden “Isn’t Upholding the Values That He Continues to Preach”, Reports of U.S. Military Sexual Assaults Soared in 2021 to Nearly 36,000, California Lawmakers Approve $54 Billion to Battle Climate Crisis & Extend Life of Nuclear Plant, Family of Donovan Lewis Demands Columbus Police Be Held Accountable, Bernie Sanders to Striking U.K. Rail Workers: “Our Job Is to Take on These Oligarchs”

A national day of action is planned next Thursday as protests grow against Google’s secretive $1.2 billion program known as Project Nimbus, which will provide advanced artificial intelligence tools to the Israeli government and military. We speak with two of the leaders of the protest: Ariel Koren, a former Google employee who says she was pushed out for her activism, as well as Gabriel Schubiner, who currently works at Google and is an Alphabet Workers Union organizer. ​​”Cloud technology is extremely powerful, and providing that power to a violent military and to an apartheid government is not a neutral act,” says Schubiner on Project Nimbus. The pair also detail how workers are rising up against what Koren says is Google’s “culture of retaliation.”

We speak with glaciologist David Bahr, who co-authored a shocking new study this week revealing Greenland’s melting ice sheet will likely contribute almost a foot to global sea level rise by the end of the century. The report, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, finds that even if the world were to halt all greenhouse gas emissions today, 120 trillion tons of Greenland’s “zombie ice” are doomed to melt. Bahr says if global emissions continue to rise, global sea level rise just from Greenland glacial melt could reach two-and-a-half feet. “The faster we can get to net zero, the better we will all be,” he says.

We look at the life and legacy of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at the age of 91. Gorbachev led the Soviet Union from 1985 until its dissolution in 1991 and has been credited internationally with bringing down the Iron Curtain, helping to end the Cold War and reducing the risk of nuclear war. Inside Russia, many say his policies led to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the collapse in the standard of living for millions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. Katrina vanden Heuvel, publisher of The Nation and a friend to Gorbachev, remembers him as a “believer in independent journalism” and credits him with introducing the “fairest and freest presidential and parliamentary elections to Russia.” Joining us from Moscow, Nina Khrushcheva, great-granddaughter of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, says she knew Gorbachev as “an absolute democrat in comparison to anybody who came before him, including Nikita Khrushchev,” and his policies allowed her the freedom to pursue her academic career in the U.S. as a Russian expat.

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On the last day of Black August, as President Biden calls for an assault weapons ban and more funding for police, we speak with UCLA professor Robin D. G. Kelley, who recently published the revised and expanded 20th anniversary edition of his book “Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination,” with an added foreword by poet Aja Monet. The new edition was inspired by the Black Lives Matter uprisings in 2020 and covers topics from critical race theory to state militarism that Kelley says “continues to this day.” Kelley says the book’s legacy conveys that “we don’t have the luxury to just fight for reform. We can’t survive that way. We’ve got to fight for revolutionary change.”

At least 30 people were killed and hundreds more injured in Iraq after armed supporters of the powerful Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr clashed with security forces in the capital of Baghdad following the cleric’s announcement Monday he would be quitting politics. The violence comes after months of political turmoil in Iraq that has seen politicians unable to form a government since parliamentary elections in October, and the prime minister said Tuesday he would “vacate his post” if the complicated political situation in the country continues. “The political parties that came to power are in reality just militias who cannot talk politics, do not understand democracy, do not understand what it means to step down once you did not win,” says Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, who joins us from Baghdad. Mohammed says the fighting fueled by the political parties “held the totality of the Iraqi people in ransom” for almost 24 hours, forcing people to stay at home “because it felt like a civil war.”

We speak with an evacuated resident of Jackson, Mississippi, where over 180,000 residents are on their third day without access to running water. We speak with longtime Jackson activist Kali Akuno, co-founder of Cooperation Jackson, who joins us from New Orleans, where he went when floods recently inundated the majority-Black city and shut down the main water plant. He attributes the water crisis to decades of white flight and the subsequent disinvestment in majority-Black and Brown cities. “What we are experiencing now is literally just the crumbling of the empire’s infrastructure,” notes Akuno, who also says he fears the state government will push to privatize or regionalize Jackson’s water system instead of giving the city adequate resources to stabilize it.

We get an update on the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, from Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, where more than 180,000 residents of the majority-Black city are without running water. President Biden declared a federal emergency on Tuesday. Water has been cut off since the main water treatment plant flooded amid torrential rains. Lumumba says the emergency is the result of three decades of disinvestment from the state. “We’ve been investing the money that we have,” says Lumumba, who took office in 2017 and started alerting the state government of the challenges with the water system starting in 2018. “We can’t do it alone. We don’t have a billion dollars’ worth of resources to make it happen.”

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