Democracy Now!

President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law on Tuesday, culminating efforts to make lynching a federal crime that started over a century ago. We’re joined by Emmett Till’s cousin and best friend, Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., who was 16 years old when he witnessed Till’s abduction from his great-uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, prior to his brutal killing. Parker recalls the night of Till’s abduction and says, almost 70 years later, he is “thankful” for the new law, while acknowledging that “it shouldn’t have taken that long.” We also speak with author and public historian Michelle Duster, who spoke at Tuesday’s bill signing and is the great-granddaughter of the pioneering investigative journalist Ida B. Wells. “Finally, in 2022, we have justice. We have laws put in place that were fought for so long ago,” says Duster, who thinks the law is “better late than never.”

Kremlin Says Ukraine Airstrike Hit Fuel Depot in Russian City of Belgorod, As Russia Continues Assault on Ukraine, Red Cross Team Attempts Mariupol Evacuation, Russian Troops Leave Chernobyl Amid Reports Troops Dug Trenches in Radioactive Soil, Biden Says U.S. Oil & Gas Producers Should Pump or Face Fines, Protesters Block Transfer of 100,000 Tons of Russian Oil Off Danish Coast, U.N. Afghan Donors’ Conference Falls Far Short of Goal as 9 Million Face Famine, Amnesty Warns El Salvador’s President over Human Rights Abuses in Gang Crackdown, Pope Francis Apologizes to Indigenous Canadians over Abuse of Residential Schoolchildren, Kushner Testifies to January 6 Committee as Prosecutors Widen Probe of Capitol Insurrection, Federal Judge Blocks Florida GOP Voter Suppression Law, Citing Racism, State Department to Allow “X” Gender Marker on U.S. Passports, “Yes” Votes Lead as NY Amazon Workers Vote on Unionization; Alabama Election Too Close to Call, U.S. Airport Workers Hold Protests Nationwide, Demanding Better Pay and Labor Rights

With COVID-19 coverage ending for the uninsured, we look at how uninsured people and communities of color will bear the impact of the end to free COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccines, and how the pandemic has led to a renewed push for Medicare for All. We are joined by Dr. Oni Blackstock, primary care and HIV physician and founder and executive director of Health Justice, and Dr. Adam Gaffney, critical care physician, professor at Harvard Medical School and immediate past president of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Wednesday Russia is preparing a major offensive in the eastern Donbas region. This comes just two days after Kremlin officials announced plans to “fundamentally” cut back military operations near Kyiv and the city of Chernihiv, though attacks have continued on both cities. We speak with Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and Simon Schlegel, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, who say the future of peace largely hinges on the fate of the Donbas region. Schlegel also speaks about the growing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, where now a quarter of the population is displaced, and Lieven talks about the domestic backlash President Vladimir Putin faces from ultranationalists opposed to any peace talks.

Putin Calls Up 134,000 Conscripts as Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Enters Sixth Week, U.N. Says Russia’s Attacks on Civilians May Constitute War Crimes, U.N. Food Agency Warns Ukraine Invasion Could Cause Worst Hunger Crisis Since WWII, Tunisian President Dissolves Parliament, Broadening Power Grab, Yemen’s Houthis Reject Saudi-Led Coalition’s Ceasefire During Ramadan, Biden Administration to Halt Trump-Era Policy Blocking Asylum Seekers in May, Biden Calls on Congress for More COVID-19 Aid as Federal Funds Dry Up, Study Finds Ivermectin Ineffective at Treating COVID-19, Russia Will Allow Germany to Keep Purchasing Gas in Euros and Dollars, Kentucky Lawmakers Approve 15-Week Abortion Ban as Arizona Governor Signs Similar Measure, Arizona and Oklahoma Governors Sign Anti-Trans Bills on Eve of Trans Day of Visibility, Israel Kills 2 Palestinians, Injures 15 in Raid on Jenin Refugee Camp, Indigenous Leaders Seek Apology from Pope Francis over Deaths and Abuse of Schoolchildren

Western countries have opened their doors to millions of Ukrainians fleeing the war in their homeland, presenting a model of how refugees should be welcomed. But their experience stands in stark contrast to how African refugees are treated when attempting to reach Europe to escape war, hunger and despair. In her new book, “My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route,” author Sally Hayden details how a single message from an Eritrean refugee held in a Libyan detention center led her on a years-long journey to document the human rights disaster on Europe’s doorstep. She says that since a 2017 European Union agreement with Libya to stop migrants before they cross the Mediterranean, many refugees have been imprisoned in hellish detention centers run by armed groups with little care for the safety or well-being of the people inside. “Tens of thousands of people have been locked up in detention centers that Pope Francis, among many others, have compared to concentration camps,” says Hayden. “The situation is absolutely horrific.”

As the U.S. says it will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion, immigration officials say they’re preparing for a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border as it ends the Trump-era pandemic restriction Title 42 in response to humanitarian outcry. We speak with Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance about how Haitian refugees are treated, and with award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa about the Haitians she met in a migrant caravan. Jozef says President Biden’s pledge to welcome Ukrainian refugees, while necessary, is a painful display of the double standard faced by Haitian immigrants and other people of color seeking humanitarian relief in the United States. “Why is it that when it comes to people of color, Black and Brown people, we must continue to push and beg to validate our humanity?” asks Jozef. Hinojosa has been reporting on migration for her podcast series “The Moving Border” and says the Biden administration is “appeasing” anti-immigrant forces in the U.S. by continuing rejections, deportations and detentions at the southern border. “What we are seeing is … white supremacy in the context of refugees and desperate people,” says Hinojosa.

The United Nations says more than 4 million refugees have now fled Ukraine as Russia’s invasion nears its sixth week. Russia announced plans Tuesday to “fundamentally” cut back military operations near Kyiv and the city of Chernihiv, but Ukrainian officials say Russian forces continue to carry out strikes in or near both cities. Meanwhile, the outlines of a possible peace deal have emerged in talks between the two sides, with Ukraine offering to become a neutral country and remain nuclear-free in exchange for security guarantees. But Ukrainian officials stress a deal can only be reached once Russia withdraws its forces from the country. For more, we go to Kyiv to speak with Peter Zalmayev, director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, who says Ukrainians remain “very skeptical” of the Russian president’s intentions. “Ukrainians are very much ready to negotiate, but the question is if Vladimir Putin continues to cling to his obsession to try to control all of Ukraine and control its politics and to install a puppet regime.”

Ukraine Remains Skeptical of Russian Claim to Pull Back from Kyiv & Chernihiv, Biden Admits U.S. Is “Helping Train” Ukrainian Troops in Poland, Video Purportedly Shows Ukrainian Troops Shooting Russian POWs in the Leg, CDC & FDA OK Second Booster for Adults 50 and Older, Ady Barkan: In Wake of Deadly Pandemic, We Need Medicare for All, U.N.: Nearly 2,300 Civilians Killed in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo So Far in 2022, World Bank Suspends Afghan Projects After Taliban Bars Girls from High Schools, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Condemns Deadly Attack Outside of Tel Aviv, El Salvador: Over 2,000 Arrested Under New State of Emergency, Jury Awards $14 Million to Racial Justice Protesters Injured by Denver Police, Biden Signs Emmett Till Antilynching Act, Nikole Hannah-Jones Call for Slavery Reparations in Speech to U.N. General Assembly, California Task Force Votes to Limit Reparations to Descendants of Slavery, Outspoken Journalist Rana Ayyub Blocked from Leaving India, YouTube Deletes Entire Archive of Chris Hedges’s RT Show “On Contact”, Workers at Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Bon Appétit Move to Unionize, Record-Setting $850 Million in Public Subsidies Offered to Help Buffalo Bills Build New Stadium, Longtime Vieques Activist Robert Rabin Dies in Puerto Rico

A federal judge ruled Monday that former President Trump and his lawyer John Eastman “likely” committed multiple felonies in their bid to block certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory in the 2020 election, ordering them to turn over hundreds of emails to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Despite the court order and numerous revelations coming out of the January 6 committee, some two-thirds of Republican voters believe Biden’s election was illegitimate. “The stolen election myth is animating the Republican base to this day,” says Frontline correspondent A.C. Thompson, whose new documentary, “Plot to Overturn the Election,” premieres today on PBS and tracks how lies about election fraud made their way to the center of American politics. “They believe that there has been a historic fraud that deprived Trump of his right to rule this country.”

The January 6 committee investigating the deadly attack on the Capitol is reportedly deciding whether to interview Ginni Thomas — the Republican activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — about her efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. The move comes after a series of Thomas’s texts were made public in which she urges Donald Trump’s then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the weeks following the election to take action to prevent a Biden victory. Justice Thomas is the only justice who dissented in the Supreme Court’s decision a few months ago that led to the release of White House documents around January 6. We speak with Ian Millhiser, senior correspondent at Vox, who calls Ginni Thomas “a cheerleader at the highest level” for the attempt to overturn the election. “When you’re a judge, you can’t sit on a case where your wife has an interest,” says Millhiser. “If Clarence Thomas knew that his wife was potentially implicated in this scandal, I think he should have recused himself from this case.” Millhiser’s latest piece is headlined “Clarence Thomas’s long fight against fair and democratic elections.”

Ukrainian and Russian officials have begun a new round of peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for a humanitarian ceasefire to end the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine 34 days ago. The Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison speaks to us from Lviv, just back from reporting in bombed-out Kharkiv, one of Ukraine’s largest cities bordering Russia, where Putin’s army has launched one of its most brutal coordinated attacks. Graham-Harrison describes how the Russian military is “pummeling” civilian neighborhoods because they have not yet been able to take over Kharkiv.

Russia and Ukraine Open New Round of Peace Talks in Turkey, U.N. Calls for Ukraine Ceasefire as Mariupol Mayor Reports Nearly 5,000 Civilian Deaths, Russia’s Leading Independent Newspaper Shuttered After Warnings from State Censor, Biden Has “No Apologies” for Saying Putin Should Not Remain in Power, Biden Budget Plan Calls for Record Military Spending, $32 Billion for Police, Federal Judge Rules Trump Likely Committed Crimes in Bid to Overturn 2020 Election, Afghan Women Protest Taliban Closure of Girls’ Schools, Millions of Indian Workers Strike to Protest Modi’s Economic Policies, Protests Erupt in Madrid After Spain Drops Support for Sahrawi Self-Determination , Gunmen Kill 20 at Cockfight in Michoacán, Mexico, Independent Panel Finds Mexican Military Knew About Attack on Ayotzinapa Students, Will Smith Apologizes for Slapping Oscars Presenter Chris Rock, LGBTQ+ Groups Sound Alarm as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs “Don’t Say Gay” Bill

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have just finished a weeklong visit to former British colonies in the Caribbean. Their trip comes after Barbados cut ties to the monarchy and became a republic last year. During the so-called charm offensive to the British Commonwealth countries, the royals were met with protests calling for reparations for slavery. We speak with senior Jamaican Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna, who met with the royals during their visit and has critiqued the couple for not putting forward an action plan to redress the crimes of slavery committed by the British monarchy against the Jamaican people, adding that any British “condemnation [of slavery] without action is hollow.” Hanna outlines how Jamaica could swiftly break ties with the monarchy through referendum or a change in the Constitution.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted an exodus of nearly 4 million people and an outpouring of support for many of the refugees. But a new report finds dozens of nonwhite people who fled Ukraine are being held in long-term detention centers in Poland and Estonia. We speak with Maud Jullien, investigations editor at Lighthouse Reports, which just published a series of reports in collaboration with The Independent, Der Spiegel, Radio France and others on the detention of African students fleeing Ukraine. She describes how the European Union’s temporary protection directive sets a double standard by permitting the safe entry of Ukrainian citizens into neighboring countries while withholding protection to third-party nationals escaping the same conflict.

The White House is unveiling a new tax plan that would establish a minimum 20% tax rate on all U.S. households worth more than $100 million. “It’s high time that people who have made billions of dollars pay the same taxes … as people who are in service jobs, and this is the first step towards that,” says California Congressmember Ro Khanna. The Democratic lawmaker also talks about the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax, his bill aimed at curbing profiteering by oil companies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is open to Ukraine becoming a neutral country but said such a decision could only be made by a nationwide referendum after Russian troops withdraw. This comes as the White House quickly tried to walk back President Biden’s remarks made during a speech on Saturday in Poland during which he appeared to endorse regime change in Moscow. We get responses from Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna and Quincy Institute President Andrew Bacevich. “The responsibility to negotiate with the Russians, to come to a settlement that is agreeable to Ukrainians, that belongs to President Zelensky,” says Bacevich, who called Biden’s comments “reckless and damaging.” Khanna adds that while “the American president does have a leadership role” in resolving the crisis, Biden’s remarks were not representative of U.S. policy, saying the president “was speaking from the heart.”

Russian Attacks Decimate Mariupol, Target Western City of Lviv During Biden Visit to Poland, Zelensky Signals Compromise on Neutrality But Insists on Territorial integrity Ahead of New Talks, U.S. Officials Say Biden Not Calling for Regime Change After Saying Putin “Cannot Remain in Power”, BP, Shell, Exxon Among Oil Giants Who Have Paid $100 Billion to Russian Gov’t Since 2014, Global Climate Strikers Call for End to Fossil Fuel Dependence Amid Russia’s Attack on Ukraine, Ice Shelf Collapses in Eastern Antarctica Amid Soaring Temperatures, Great Barrier Reef Undergoes 6th Mass Bleaching Event, Fighting Continues in Yemen Amid Humanitarian Disaster as War Enters Its Eighth Year, China Starts 2-Phase Lockdown of Shanghai; Israeli Prime Minister Tests Positive for Coronavirus, Blinken Backs Iran Nuclear Deal Talks While at Historic Israeli-Arab Summit, El Salvador Proclaims State of Emergency as Gang-Related Killings Soar, ICE to Stop Jailing Asylum Seekers in Two Prisons over Dangerous Conditions, Salvadoran Journalist Manuel Durán, Who Spent 15 Months in ICE Jail, Granted Asylum, Biden Proposes 20% Minimum Tax on Billionaires’ Incomes, Staten Island Amazon Workers Cast Ballots in High-Stakes Union Election, Ariana DeBose Becomes First Openly Queer Woman of Color to Win an Oscar for Acting

Vea esta entrevista en españolIn an exclusive broadcast interview, we speak with leading Afro-Colombian environmental activist Francia Márquez Mina, who has just been picked by Colombian presidential front-runner Gustavo Petro to be his running mate. Petro has promised to ban all new fossil fuel exploration if they win in May’s election, and Márquez would become Colombia’s first Black female vice president, in a country where Afro-Colombians make up nearly 10% of the population. Márquez says Colombians have a chance in this election to empower communities who have been left out of decision-making in the past, including Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ and other historically marginalized people. “Today we need to put forward the nobodies, the people who’ve never had a voice, to step into the state so that we can write our own history,” says Márquez. If elected, Petro and Márquez would form Colombia’s first leftist government.

With NATO countries recommitting themselves to the alliance and passing sweeping sanctions against Russia as punishment for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, is this the dawn of a new Cold War? We speak with foreign policy expert William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute, who warns that hawks in Washington are pushing for a massive increase in the U.S. military budget, which is already a record-high $800 billion a year. “There’s a danger that not only will this be a war in Ukraine, but the U.S. will use it as an excuse for a more aggressive policy around the world, arguing that it’s to counter Russia or China or Iran, or whoever the enemy of the moment is.” Hartung also speaks about the Saudi-led war in Yemen, where U.S. support has allowed the conflict to rage for years, killing about 400,000 people. Unlike in Ukraine, where the U.S. has more limited leverage, the Biden administration could “end that killing tomorrow,” Hartung says.

A month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 3.6 million Ukrainians have left the country as refugees, and the war risks becoming “an Afghanistan-like quagmire,” warns Greek lawmaker Yanis Varoufakis, founder of the Progressive International with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. He says the West’s sweeping sanctions on Russia and bottomless military aid to Ukraine risk escalating the conflict and foreclosing chances of a peaceful resolution. “What is exactly the aim? Is it regime change in Russia?” asks Varoufakis. “Well, whenever the United States tried regime change, it didn’t turn out very well and has never been tried with a nuclear power. This is like playing with fire.”

Biden Promises “We Will Respond” If Russia Uses Weapons of Mass Destruction, Mariupol Officials Say Russian Strike on Theater May Have Killed 300 Civilians, Ukraine Says Russia Is Using White Phosphorus Bombs, U.S. to Admit 100,000 Ukrainian Refugees as It Continues Deporting Haitians and Other Asylum Seekers, Ethiopia Declares “Humanitarian Truce” in War-Torn Tigray Region, South Korea Holds War Games as North Korea Confirms Test of New ICBM, U.S. to Increase Liquified Gas Exports to EU Amid Russian War on Ukraine, Climate Activists Blockade Ports in Sydney, Australia, in Defiance of Ramped Up Penalties, Mitch McConnell Says He Will Vote Against Confirming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to SCOTUS, Ginni Thomas Repeatedly Texted Trump Chief of Staff in Effort to Overturn 2020 Election, Texas AG Attacks Austin Schools for Celebrating Pride; Crackdown on LGBTQ Books in Schools Continues, Arizona Lawmakers Move to Limit Trans Rights, Reproductive Rights and Voting Rights, Minneapolis Public School Educators Reach Tentative Deal to End Strike, Washington State Enacts New Gun Control Laws as Parkland Survivors Protest at U.S. Capitol

Anti-abortion bills are sweeping the U.S., with the Guttmacher Institute reporting that 82 restrictions have been introduced in 30 states in 2022 so far. On Wednesday, Idaho signed into law a six-week abortion ban, and lawmakers in Oklahoma passed a near-total ban on abortions — each modeled after a Texas “bounty hunter” law that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization later this year, in which a Mississippi abortion facility is challenging the state’s restrictive abortion law. If Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes the new justice, will it affect the court’s ruling? “Abortion rights don’t fall within that framework of constitutional rights that the Supreme Court feels that it has an obligation to uphold,” says Imani Gandy, senior editor of law and policy for Rewire News Group. “It is presumed that Roe is going to be reversed in a couple months,” says Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and senior legal correspondent for Slate.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson appears poised to become the first Black woman and the first former public defender on the Supreme Court, having weathered attacks from Republicans with little support from Democrats during the third leg of her confirmation hearing on Wednesday. We speak with legal analysts Imani Gandy and Dahlia Lithwick. Republican senators’ behavior was “shocking” in how they embraced and perpetuated misinformation, says Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and senior legal correspondent for Slate. Gandy, senior editor of law and policy for Rewire News Group, says Republican attacks consisted of “white men trying to flex their power over a Black woman, knowing that she could not respond in the way that, for example, Brett Kavanaugh responded in his hearings.”

NATO, the G7 and the European Council held unprecedented emergency meetings in Brussels Thursday as the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its second month. NATO has announced plans to send even more troops to Eastern Europe, where its troop presence has already doubled from last month to 40,000. We speak with Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who says that as the war becomes a prolonged stalemate, the U.S. and other countries should be doing everything possible to facilitate an end to the fighting. “There is something deeply immoral in trying to wage a war of this kind at the expense of other people if a reasonable peace settlement is on the cards,” says Lieven.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has died of cancer at the age of 84. She served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 until 1997, when President Bill Clinton nominated her to become the first female secretary of state. Albright was a staunch supporter of U.S. power and a defender of authoritarian leaders around the world like Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Indonesia’s Suharto. She was a key architect of NATO’s 78-day bombing of Serbia in 1999. Albright also repeatedly defended the Clinton administration’s devastating sanctions against Iraq, infamously saying in a 1996 “60 Minutes” interview that the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children from U.S. sanctions were “worth it.” Democracy Now! confronted Albright on those comments in 2004, when she acknowledged it was a “stupid statement,” but she denied the sanctions on Iraq laid the groundwork for the Bush administration’s invasion.

Chernihiv Rations Water as Russian Assault Traps 150,000 Without Heat or Power , U.S. Formally Declares Russia Has Committed War Crimes in Ukraine, As Biden Joins Emergency Summit, NATO Doubles Troops Deployed to Eastern Europe, German Chancellor Rejects Calls for Immediate Halt to Russian Fossil Fuel Imports, In “Unprecedented” Move, SCOTUS Throws Out Wisconsin Maps That Gave More Power to Black Voters, GOP Attacks Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson; Clarence Thomas Misses Oral Arguments Due to Illness , Idaho Enacts Texas-Style Near-Total Abortion Ban; Oklahoma House Approves Total Abortion Ban, Moderna Will Ask FDA to Greenlight COVID-19 Vaccine for Children Under 6, Taliban Shuts Down Secondary Schools for Girls Mere Hours After They Reopened, North Korea Accused of Testing ICBM for First Time Since 2017, Howard University Faculty Reach Deal to Avoid Strike; Teachers in Sacramento and Minneapolis Strike, Protesters Demand New York Lawmakers Fund Immigrant Workers Excluded from Public Benefits

As the U.S. and its allies ramp up punitive sanctions on Russia and military support for Ukraine, they must be combined with active peace talks, says Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko. This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses to rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons in what has turned into a long, costly war. We also speak with Ishchenko about the rise of pro-Russian political parties in Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to suppress these parties and consolidate Ukrainian media.

Republican senators grilled Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson over her views on critical race theory on the second day of her confirmation hearing to become the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. “The Republicans are mischaracterizing, misquoting, taking out of context words and speeches that Judge Jackson has made,” says Alexis Hoag, professor at Brooklyn Law School. The non sequiturs create a distraction for “a woman who is overqualified for this position,” Hoag adds. Hoag is a former federal public defender and also discusses the significance of Jackson’s background as a federal public defender.

To begin our coverage of day two of the historic nomination hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, we discuss the attacks by Republicans on her work defending suspects at Guantánamo Bay prison. Given that Jackson was one of hundreds of legal professionals in a project that exposed the lies and brutality undergirding Guantánamo, “to criticize her work in that project is nonsensical to me,” says Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who has represented people held at Guantánamo and defended their rights. “Her work should be valorized.”

Russia Pounds Mariupol, Kyiv Announces New Evacuation Routes as U.N. Urges End to “Unwinnable” War, “Oil Fuels War”: Greenpeace Protests Russian Oil Tanker, Republicans Grill Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson over Critical Race Theory, Guantánamo, Trans Rights, BA.2 Subvariant Drives Uptick in NYC COVID Cases; Authorities Move Ahead with Easing of Restrictions, 28 Millions People in Eastern African Nations at Risk of Famine, Guatemalan Anti-Corruption Judge Goes into Exile, Prince William and Kate Middleton Met with Anti-Colonial Protests in Jamaica, Belize, Warren and Khanna Unveil Bill to Protect Water from Corporations, Tornadoes Kill 2 in Texas and Louisiana as Authorities Issue More Warnings in Southern States, Seattle Starbucks Votes to Unionize; California Chevron Workers Go on Strike, Workers Walk Out to Protest Disney’s Response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill

Hundreds of nonviolent antiwar protesters gathered in the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Monday to oppose Russian occupation of the city and object to involuntary military service. Russian forces used stun grenades and machine gun fire to disperse the crowd. Meanwhile, President Biden is expected to travel to a NATO summit this week in Brussels, where Western allies are preparing to discuss the response if Russia turns to using nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Both sides of the war must come together and deescalate, says Kyiv-based Ukrainian peace activist Yurii Sheliazhenko. “What we need is not escalation of conflict with more weapons, more sanctions, more hatred toward Russia and China, but of course, instead of that, we need comprehensive peace talks.”

As Russian forces continue to besiege Ukrainian cities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused them of reducing the southern city of Mariupol to ashes. All foreign journalists have fled the city as heavy shelling has driven most remaining civilians into hiding in their basements. We speak to Belkis Wille, who just left Ukraine after spending over three weeks documenting the effects of the war and describes “an absolute hellscape” in Mariupol. Disabled people and seniors are often unable to retreat into safe hiding places, says Wille, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The people that we spoke to were the lucky ones. They were the ones with the means and the ability to get out of the city.”

Historic confirmation hearings are underway for Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. If confirmed, she will not only be the first Black woman but also the first former federal public defender to serve on the nation’s highest court. The first day of her hearings began Monday and was at times undercut by Republicans who attempted to mischaracterize her record, says Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center. Ultimately, the “depth and breadth of her experience” makes Jackson a refreshing addition to the bench, she adds.

Zelensky Says Russia Is Reducing Mariupol to Ashes; Russian Troops Fire on Kherson Protesters, 96-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor Killed by Russian Artillery Fire in Kharkiv, Russia Summons U.S. Ambassador After Biden Calls Putin “War Criminal”, Biden Says Putin Is Considering Chemical Attack on Ukraine, Four U.S. Marines Killed in Plane Crash During Massive NATO War Games, Russian Judge Sentences Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny to 9 Additional Years, Russia Withdraws from WWII Peace Treaty Talks with Japan, Afghan Officials Estimate More Than 13,000 Infants Have Died of Hunger Since January, SCOTUS Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson Says She Decides Cases from “Neutral Posture”, U.N. Secretary-General Says Paris Climate Agreement Goal Is “On Life Support”, SEC Draft Rule Would Force Corporations to Disclose Greenhouse Gas Emissions, No Survivors Found in Wreckage of Plane That Crashed in China with 132 Aboard

In an exclusive interview, we speak with prominent Sahrawi human rights activist Sultana Khaya in occupied Western Sahara. Moroccan authorities have held her and her family under de facto house arrest for nearly 500 days, where she has been subjected to harassment and sexual abuse. A delegation of U.S.-based activists arrived at her home last week to break the siege and ward off police surveillance. The Moroccan government has targeted advocates like Khaya for their work defending the region’s Sahrawi people and advocating for an independent Western Sahara. Sahrawi people have been waiting “a long time for a referendum” to decide their future, says Khaya. U.S. delegation members plan to stay “for as long as we need to be” to ensure the family’s safety, says peace activist Adrienne Kinne.

While the Biden administration has condemned the Russian invasion of a sovereign, independent Ukraine, it has refused to similarly recognize or support Western Sahara, which has been occupied by Morocco since 1975. Human rights groups have documented brutal suppression of pro-independence activists and the Indigenous population, known as Sahrawis. The disparity between U.S. treatment of the two countries reveals Western hypocrisy and discrimination when it comes to countries that are not white, Christian and European, says Stephen Zunes, professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco. He adds that U.S. policy on Western Sahara emboldens Putin’s claims on Ukraine, as it shows the U.S. lacks principled opposition to illegal territorial expansion. “When Biden says that Russia has no right to unilaterally change international boundaries, that countries cannot expand their territory by force, he’s certainly correct. But he seems to think it’s OK if you’re a U.S. ally like Morocco.”

President Biden reportedly warned Chinese President Xi Jinping via video call Friday that China would face “consequences” if it provided material support to Russia amid the war in Ukraine. The call was part of U.S. efforts to minimize an emerging Sino-Russian alliance, which threatens U.S. influence over the Eurasian landmass, says Alfred McCoy, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As U.S. global power declines, China and Russia “are going to emerge as the new centers of global power on the planet,” he adds.

Ukraine Rejects Russian Deadline to Surrender Mariupol, With 10 Million Ukrainians Forced from Homes, Zelensky Calls for Direct Talks with Putin, Biden Warns Xi of “Consequences” If China Supports Russia over Ukraine Invasion, Passenger Jet with 132 Aboard Crashes in China’s Guangxi Province, China Reports First COVID-19 Deaths Since January 2021, U.S. Public Health Officials Tracking “Stealth” Omicron Subvariant , Temperature Records Shattered in Antarctica and Near North Pole, At Least 25 Asylum Seekers Die in Shipwreck Off Tunisian Coast, U.S. Will Declare Burma’s Military Junta Committed Genocide Against Rohingya, Sri Lanka Seeks IMF Bailout Amid Worst Financial Crisis Since Independence, Gunfight at Arkansas Car Show Leaves 1 Dead, 28 Wounded , South Carolina Readies Firing Squads for Executions, Senate Opens Confirmation Hearings for SCOTUS Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, Texas Wildfires Scorch Nearly 100,000 Acres, Hollywood Celebrities Call on City National Bank to Divest from Coastal GasLink Pipeline

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last year, the country has faced a humanitarian crisis with half of the population experiencing acute hunger. The U.N. Refugee Agency says 3.4 million Afghans are internally displaced due to conflict, the country’s healthcare system is experiencing severe shortages, and workers in schools and hospitals are going without salaries while facing rising food and energy costs — which many attribute to economic restrictions the Biden administration implemented. We look at the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan with journalist Matthieu Aikins, formerly based in Kabul, who went undercover with Afghan refugees to write his book, “The Naked Don’t Fear the Water,” following their journey crossing borders to the West. “It’s very stark, the difference in treatment between the vast majority of refugees who need smugglers to escape and what’s happening in Ukraine right now,” says Aikins. He is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, where in his latest piece he raises the question: Who does the West consider worthy of saving?

The United Nations is warning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to a “hurricane of hunger and a meltdown of the global food system” that would be especially devastating for the Global South. Wheat and fertilizer prices have soared since the war began three weeks ago. Global food prices could jump by as much as 22% this year as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupts exports from two of the world’s largest producers of wheat and fertilizer. Rising fuel prices will also contribute to higher food prices. To talk more about how Russia’s war in Ukraine is leading to a global food crisis, we are joined by Raj Patel, author of “Stuffed and Starved” and a research professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who explains how farmers and working-class people around the world will face the brunt of the impact of growing food prices. He notes the coronavirus, climate change, conflict and capitalism are working to compound one another and underscore the necessity to transition to sustainable, agroecological farming.

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President Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal for the first time Wednesday for atrocities in Ukraine, as the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on whether Russian forces have been using cluster munitions in populated areas in Ukraine. Cluster bombs explode in midair and spew hundreds of smaller “bomblets.” The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said their use in Ukraine may amount to war crimes. We speak to Stephen Goose, director of Human Rights Watch’s Arms Division, about the use of cluster bombs in the war in Ukraine and how Russia, Ukraine and the United States are not signatories to the international treaty banning cluster bombs. “It’s willing to criticize other peoples’ use but insists on the right to use them itself,” Goose says of the U.S.

As the war in Ukraine enters its fourth week, Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have increasingly attacked civilian areas to pound Ukrainian cities into submission, a strategy Russia has employed to devastating effect in Syria, where the Russian Air Force has bombed many cities to rubble in an effort to support the government of Bashar al-Assad since entering the war in 2015. However, the international response to suffering in Ukraine signals a “very clear difference” than in Syria, says Waad Al-Kateab, the award-winning filmmaker whose 2019 Oscar-nominated documentary “For Sama” shows how she and her family lived through five years of fighting in Aleppo. “We really see that what’s happening today in Ukraine might and should be a whole reframing for all the world” to take a stance against Russia’s wars around the world and not just in Ukraine, says Al-Kateab. She is also the founder of the #StopBombingHospitals campaign, which led a protest outside the Russian Embassy in London.

President Biden announced $800 million in new military aid for Ukraine on Wednesday, just days after Congress cleared a $1.5 trillion spending bill that included nearly $14 billion for Ukrainian humanitarian aid and security assistance. Experts warn that sending more lethal weapons could escalate war and result in more losses for Ukraine. “The cost on civilian lives is horrific,” says Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, who says increasing military aid in Ukraine could thwart peace talks between Russia and Ukraine — which appeared to be making progress in the past few days. Her latest piece is headlined “The Best Way to Help Ukraine Is Diplomacy, Not War.”

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to demand the U.S. and NATO allies impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, an idea that President Biden has rejected even as a growing number of Republicans embrace the idea despite the risk it could draw the U.S. directly into the war against Russia and possibly spark a nuclear confrontation. Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, co-authored an open letter signed by foreign policy experts who oppose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. It urges leaders to continue diplomatic and economic measures to end the conflict. “As you start thinking about how a no-fly zone would actually unfold, it becomes very obvious this would be direct involvement in the war against Russia, and rather than end the war, a no-fly zone would enlarge the war and escalate the war,” says Wertheim.

As the U.S. and U.K. push for Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to offset a rise in global energy prices amid sanctions on Russia, the kingdom on Saturday announced it had executed 81 people — the country’s largest mass execution in decades. Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, says the muted criticism of Saudi abuses reveals a double standard when it comes to how Western countries deal with the absolute monarchy, which has been waging a brutal assault on neighboring Yemen for almost seven years with U.S. support. If the U.S. wants the world to oppose Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine, “then it’s got to stop supporting the war in Yemen,” says Whitson, who adds that disparate coverage of the wars in Ukraine and Yemen point to “inherent racism” in Western media.

We speak with Ukrainian reporter Nataliya Gumenyuk, who has been reporting from across Ukraine, including the strategic port cities of Mykolaiv and Odessa in the south of the country. More than 3 million refugees have fled the conflict, and Russian forces are increasingly targeting civilian areas. Gumenyuk says the Russian invasion has reshaped Ukrainian national identity and united the previously fractious country in common purpose. “It’s not just their lives, it’s not just their dignity. It’s really about this right to choose. They are really angry by the fact that another country decides for themselves what [the] government should be, how they should live,” says Gumenyuk, founder of the Public Interest Journalism Lab.

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