Democracy Now!

The French humanitarian group Utopia 56 has filed a manslaughter lawsuit against British and French officials for failing to help 27 migrants who drowned to death in the English Channel in November. The only two survivors say they were ignored when they made distress calls and told their location to French and English rescue services after their boat capsized and started sinking in the freezing waters off the French port city of Calais. We speak with Nikolaï Posner of Utopia 56, who says the lawsuit is meant to "bring the truth and the transparency on what happened."

As the Omicron variant sets record-high COVID-19 infection rates across the United States, we look at the conditions in the sprawling network of jails run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement where the Biden administration is holding more than 22,000 people. "There's still a lot of people detained. There's no social distancing. People are still facing COVID," says longtime immigrant activist Maru Mora Villalpando, who adds that most COVID infections are coming from unvaccinated workers who are coming from outside of the jails. She describes how people held in GEO Group's Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, say conditions have gotten even worse during the pandemic, after a federal judge ruled the company must pay detained people minimum wage for work like cooking and cleaning instead of paying them a dollar a day. GEO Group responded by suspending its "voluntary work program."

Pandemic relief programs have helped millions of families get through the economic shocks of COVID-19, but undocumented immigrants — many of whom are essential workers — have been largely shut out of such federal aid. Those undocumented workers who have received limited assistance are now losing the pandemic aid they had only started receiving in August through the Biden administration's expanded child tax credit program, which expired and is being blocked from further implementation into Build Back Better legislation. "These families, in spite of the fact that they were essential workers, endured this really punishing income gap," says journalist Julia Preston, who reported on an undocumented immigrant community in New Bedford, Massachusetts, who sustain the United States' largest commercial fishing port. Preston and Ariel Goodman wrote the article "Essential But Excluded" for The Marshall Project and say the difference in income amounts on average to almost $35,000.

Global Coronavirus Cases Hit Record High, U.S. Logs 1M Daily Coronavirus Cases for First Time; FDA Approves Booster Shots for Teens, Schumer Promises Senate Vote on Filibuster Reform by MLK Holiday as Voting Rights Bills Languish, Protests Erupt on Anniversary of Trump's Assassination of Qassem Soleimani, Haitian PM Ariel Henry Says He Survived Assassination Attempt, Brazilian Far-Right President Jair Bolsonaro Hospitalized with Intestinal Blockage, Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Found Guilty of Defrauding Investors, Court Unseals Settlement Between Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew Accuser Virginia Giuffre, Corporations Gave $8 Million to GOP Lawmakers Who Sought to Overturn 2020 Election, New York AG Subpoenas Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. in Real Estate Fraud Probe, Mexican President Renews Asylum Offer to Julian Assange

A devastating climate change-fueled wildfire destroyed nearly 1,000 homes outside of Boulder and Denver, Colorado, with little notice last Thursday. The fire was fanned by winds that gusted up to 110 miles per hour, and came after a year of drought across the western U.S. and amid an unusually warm December. We speak with Jennifer Balch, director of the Earth Lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who says the climate crisis is extending the scale and scope of wildfire season in the state. "We've known that there's a link between climate change and wildfires for over a decade, and it takes just a little bit of warming to lead to a lot more burning," says Balch.

The United States faces a shortage of rapid COVID-19 tests amid the Omicron surge even as many inexpensive at-home rapid testing models have been ready for distribution — but refused approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. One scientist, Harvard-trained Irene Bosch, submitted a rapid test to the FDA for emergency approval in March 2020 and even had a factory ready to produce it. Bosch describes how the FDA's rejection came from unclear standards set by the administration early on in the pandemic, and says earlier approval of testing like hers could have saved lives.

As COVID cases skyrocket, we speak to Dr. Peter Hotez at Texas Children’s Hospital about the Omicron surge, as well as his groundbreaking work developing an affordable patent-free coronavirus vaccine. Last week the Indian government gave emergency approval to the new low-cost, patent-free vaccine called Corbevax, which Hotez co-created. He says it could reach billions of people across the globe who have lacked access to the more expensive mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna. "We can really make a vaccine for the world," says Hotez. Hotez also addresses problems stemming from ongoing vaccine hesitancy.

Omicron-Driven Surge Causes Travel Disruptions, Sets Records for Infections, Child Hospitalizations, Climate-Fueled Colorado Wildfire Razes 1,000 Homes; Two People Still Missing, Ghislaine Maxwell Found Guilty in Federal Sex Trafficking Trial as Attention Turns to Prince Andrew, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok Resigns as More Protesters Killed in Anti-Coup Demonstrations, Hong Kong Independent Media Outlet Citizen News Shutters Amid Crackdown on Press Freedom, Germany Shuts Down Half of Six Remaining Nuclear Power Plants, As Jan. 6 Anniversary Looms, Rep. Liz Cheney Says Trump's Inner Circle Tried to Get Him to Stop Riot, Twitter Bans Account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over COVID-19 Misinformation, Karen Ferguson, Who Fought to Expand Workers' Pension Rights, Dies at 80, Colorado Governor Shortens 110-Year Sentence of Truck Driver, Large Fire Damages South African Parliament in Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, Anti-Apartheid Leader and Human Rights Champion, Laid to Rest

Democracy Now! first aired on nine community radio stations on February 19, 1996, on the eve of the New Hampshire presidential primary. In the 25 years since that initial broadcast, the program has greatly expanded, airing today on more than 1,500 television and radio stations around the globe and reaching millions of people online. We celebrate 25 years of The War and Peace Report with an hour-long retrospective, including highlights from the show's early years, some of the most controversial interviews, and groundbreaking reports from East Timor, Standing Rock, Western Sahara and more.

Noam Chomsky decries what he calls the torture of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He also critiques the Biden administration's reckless foreign policy. "The trajectory is not optimistic," Chomsky says. "The worst case is the increasing provocative actions towards China. That's very dangerous."

Noam Chomsky warns the Republican Party is "marching" the world to destruction by ignoring the climate emergency while embracing proto-fascism at home. Chomsky talks about the January 6 insurrection, how neoliberalism is a form of class warfare and how President Biden's climate plans fall short of what is needed.

Today, a special broadcast: an hour with Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author, who just turned 93 years old. Chomsky spoke to Democracy Now! prior to the discovery of the Omicron coronavirus variant, but he predicted new variants would emerge. "If you let the virus run rampant in poor countries, everyone understands that mutation is likely, the kind of mutation that led to the Delta variant, now the Delta Plus variant in India, and who knows what will develop," Chomsky said.

We go to New Delhi, India, to speak with acclaimed Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy about the pandemic, U.S. militarism and the state of journalism. Roy first appeared on Democracy Now! after receiving widespread backlash for speaking out against the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. At the time, her emphatic antiwar stance clashed with the rising tides of patriotism and calls for war after 9/11. "Now the same media is saying what we were saying 20 years ago," says Roy. "But the trouble is, it's too late."

Acclaimed poet Martín Espada recently won the National Book Award for Poetry for his anthology "Floaters." He became just the third Latinx poet to win the award. "Floaters" is titled after the photo of the Salvadoran father and daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande in June 2019 trying to cross into the United States, one that sparked outrage at the humanitarian crisis at the U.S. southern border. Espada discusses U.S. immigration policy and reads the poem "Letter to My Father: October 2017," which looks back at his father's native Puerto Rico.

U.S. Coronavirus Infections Hit All-Time High, Omicron Drives Record Rates of Infection in Several European Countries, Taliban Fire Warning Shots at Dozens of Women Protesters in Kabul, U.N. Envoy Warns of Civilian Toll as Saudi-Led War on Yemen Escalates, Mahmoud Abbas Meets Israeli Defense Minister, Death Toll from Brazil Flooding Rises to 20, Kodiak, Alaska, Hits 67°F as Climate Emergency Fuels Extreme December Weather, Climate Emergency Cost Global Economy Nearly $200 Billion in 2021, South African Court Halts Shell Oil's Offshore Oil Exploration Plans, Russia Shutters International Memorial, Which Chronicled Soviet Abuses, Chinese Police Close Hong Kong News Outlet Stand News, Arrest Staffers, Family of Valentina Orellana-Peralta Demands Justice for 14-Year-Old Killed by LAPD, Colorado Gunman's Shooting Spree Leaves 5 Dead, 2 Injured, Judge Rejects First Amendment Claims of Proud Boys in Capitol Riot Conspiracy Case, Jan. 6 Committee Defers Request for Trump Records as White House Cites National Security, Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Dies at 82

Mumia Abu-Jamal remembers South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on Sunday at the age of 90. Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting to end apartheid in South Africa. In 2007, Tutu visited Mumia when he was still on death row. "His spirit reflected a giant," says Abu-Jamal. "He struggled for change with his prophetic voice, his sweet humor, his deep love and his boundless sense of compassion."

World-renowned author, activist and professor Angela Davis talks about navigating the pandemic and an inadequate two-party political system during a time of racial uprising in the United States. She also talks about imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Biden presidential campaign and the protests that erupted from the police killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

World-renowned author, activist and professor Angela Davis talks about the prison abolition movement from her time as a Black Panther leader to today. In her tireless efforts as an abolitionist and a teacher, Davis continues to be a fierce advocate of education and the interconnected struggles of oppressed peoples. Davis talks about Indigenous genocide, Palestine, critical race theory and the role of independent media. "Democracy Now! helps us to place our own domestic issues and struggles within the context of global battles against fascism," says Davis.

Legendary poet, singer, author and activist Patti Smith has been awarded a key to New York City. Smith's music has inspired countless bands and helped earn her the title of the queen of punk. Her song "People Have the Power" has become an anthem at protests across the globe. Patti Smith has also been a longtime activist, performing regularly at antiwar rallies and political benefits. She gave an emotional acceptance speech during a ceremony Monday with outgoing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. We also air a clip of her live performance with singer Michael Stipe at Democracy Now!'s 20th anniversary celebration in 2016.

World Coronavirus Cases Hit Record High as Omicron Surges, Israel Tests Fourth Vaccine Doses as COVID Surges in Largely Unvaccinated African Nations, Biden Warns Governors of Looming Shortages of Hospital Beds as COVID-19 Cases Near Pandemic Highs, CDC Recommends Shorter Isolation for People with Asymptomatic Coronavirus Infections, Afghan Taliban Bans Women from Road Trips Without Male Escort, Talks on Reviving Iran Nuclear Deal Resume in Vienna, Iraq's Top Court Ratifies Results of October's Contested Election, Russia to Hold Talks with U.S. and NATO Allies over Ukraine Border Tensions, New German Government Moves to Legalize Recreational Marijuana, Biden Signs NDAA, Lifting Pentagon Budget to Record-Shattering $778 Billion, LAPD Video Shows Officer Fatally Shooting Suspect and 14-Year-Old in Department Store

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African anti-apartheid icon, has died at the age of 90. In 1984 Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work fighting to end white minority rule in South Africa. After the fall of apartheid, Archbishop Tutu chaired the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where he pushed for restorative justice. He was a leading voice for human rights and peace around the world. He opposed the Iraq War and condemned the Israeli occupation in Palestine, comparing it to apartheid South Africa. We reair two interviews Archbishop Tutu did on Democracy Now!, as well as two speeches on the Iraq War and the climate crisis.

U.S. Coronavirus Cases Skyrocket as Omicron Spreads at Unprecedented Pace, China Orders Lockdown for 13 Million in Xi'an; Pope Francis Calls for Universal Access to Vaccines, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Who Battled Apartheid and Championed Human Rights, Dies at 90, Israel Plans to Double Population of Illegal Settlements in Occupied Golan Heights, Burmese Military Accused of Massacring Dozens of Civilians , Iraqi Kurds Hold Funerals for Family Members Who Drowned Crossing English Channel , Dams Burst After Torrential Rains in Brazil; U.S. Records Record High December Temperatures, Sarah Weddington, Who Successfully Argued Roe v. Wade at Supreme Court, Dies at 76, El Salvador Frees Women Jailed for "Homicide" After Miscarriages, Literary Icon Joan Didion Dies at 87, Georgia Poll Workers Sue Rudy Giuliani, One America News for Defamation, Minnesota Cop Kim Potter Guilty of Manslaughter for Killing Daunte Wright, LAPD Fatally Shoots 14-Year-Old Girl in Department Store Dressing Room, Parents of 43 Missing Mexican Students Demand Answers in 2014 Disappearances

The Pentagon has announced new rules to slow the spread of extremism in the military, one of which will discipline soldiers for liking or resharing white nationalist and other extremist content on social media. The Pentagon announcement comes just two weeks before the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, where more than 80 of the 700 individuals charged with the attack had ties to the U.S. military. Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project Susan Corke says these rule changes are welcomed by her organization but don't go far enough to stop extremism in the armed forces. "It shouldn't have taken January 6 to rouse us to really address the problem of extremism in the military," says Corke.

In a major victory for labor rights, 1,400 unionized Kellogg's workers have ended their nearly three-month strike across four states after approving a new contract that provides a wage increase and enhanced benefits for all. The prior agreement that Kellogg's tried to bargain only offered wage increases and improved benefits to longtime workers, whereas the new agreement ensures newer workers have a guaranteed option to receive the same improvements. We speak with Kellogg's worker Kevin Bradshaw, who will return to work on Monday alongside his co-workers. "We didn't have any takeaways and no concessions, so I would say that, in essence, that we did win," says Bradshaw.

A new report titled "How The Koch Network Hijacked The War On COVID" reveals how a right-wing network linked to billionaire Charles Koch has played a key role in fighting public health measures during the pandemic, including mask and vaccine mandates, contact tracing and lockdowns. The groups include the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), Donors Trust, the Hoover Institution and Hillsdale College. We speak about the contents of the report with co-author Walker Bragman, who says the right-wing network's attack on public health is designed to "maintain corporate profit at the expense of human life."

Oxfam America has accused Moderna of misleading its investors about an ongoing dispute over whether it needs to share vaccine patent rights with the U.S. government. Oxfam filed a shareholders complaint against Moderna with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the company's resistance to recognizing the role played by three scientists with the National Institutes of Health in developing the vaccine. We speak with Robbie Silverman, senior corporate advocacy manager at Oxfam America, who says the federal government owns a right to license the vaccine to manufacturers. "It is simply not sufficient just to vaccinate the U.S. or just to vaccinate rich countries, because the virus knows no national boundaries," says Silverman, who claims Moderna is "essentially doing almost nothing to vaccinate low-income countries, and that has negative impacts for all of us."

South Africa Says Omicron Coronavirus Surge Has Peaked, WHO Warns Blanket Booster Programs Divert Vaccine Supply, Prolonging Pandemic, FDA Approves COVID-19 Pill; Most Monoclonal Antibody Treatments Fail Against Omicron, New York Coronavirus Cases Surge to Record High; Supreme Court to Weigh Vaccine Mandates, Proud Boys Member Pleads Guilty to Capitol Riot Conspiracy, Will Cooperate with FBI, FBI Undercover Teams Infiltrated Portland Racial Justice Protests, U.S. Relaxes Limits on Aid as Afghanistan Faces Dire Humanitarian Crisis, U.N. Calls for Probe into Reports That Sudanese Security Forces Raped Anti-Coup Protesters, 3 Dead, Dozens Missing After Boat Carrying Refugees Sinks in Aegean Sea, Biden Admin Extends Pause on Student Debt Repayment, Explosion at ExxonMobil Oil Refinery in Texas Injures at Least 4, Taylor Energy Agrees to Pay $43 Million in Settlement over U.S.'s Longest-Ever Oil Spill, NYC Divests $3 Billion in Retirement Funds from Fossil Fuels, Alabama Amazon Workers Say Two Warehouse Workers Died Within Hours of Each Other, Oscars Documentary Shorts Shortlist Includes "Takeover," Which Recounts Young Lords' 1970 Protest

A group of 11 Haitian asylum seekers is suing the Biden administration, accusing the U.S. government of physical abuse, racial discrimination and other rights violations when they were forced to shelter under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas. The class-action lawsuit comes after images of Border Patrol agents whipping Haitian asylum seekers from horseback went viral in September, drawing outrage from rights groups. The plaintiffs in the case are also demanding the U.S. government allow the return of the thousands of Haitian asylum seekers deported from the Del Rio encampment. Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which filed the class-action lawsuit, says the Biden administration's policies harm vulnerable people. "We believe that the lawsuit will force the administration to be accountable for what we continue to see as anti-Black racism within the immigration system," she says. "Immigration is a Black issue. We cannot disconnect that from the reality after what we saw under the bridge in Del Rio."

President Biden has announced a plan to begin distributing 500 million at-home COVID tests starting in January in response to the latest surge in cases, linked to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. His plan also includes the establishment of new federal testing sites and the deployment of military medical personnel to help overwhelmed hospitals around the country. Dr. Tsion Firew, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center, says nurses and other healthcare providers are quitting or retiring in large numbers as the pandemic drags on, leading to an even greater strain on those still on the frontlines. "It's just very frustrating and also overburdening our healthcare system," she says.

U.S. air power has been central in the country's wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, with officials promising that drones and other sophisticated weapons allow the U.S. military to carry out precision airstrikes that spare civilians caught in war zones. But a groundbreaking investigation by The New York Times reveals the U.S. military's air wars have been plagued by bad intelligence, imprecise targeting and a lack of accountability for thousands of civilian deaths, many of them children. The two-part series by reporter Azmat Khan is based on a trove of internal Pentagon documents, as well as on-the-ground reporting from dozens of airstrike sites and interviews with scores of survivors. "What you have is a scale of civilian death and injury that is vastly different than what they claim," says Khan, who spent five years on the investigation.

Biden Announces New Measures, Defends Vaccine Mandates, Amid Omicron Surge, TX Man Is 1st Omicron-Linked U.S. Death; States Announce Incentives, New Rules to Fight Surge, Rep. Barbara Lee, Govs. Hogan and Walz Announce Breakthrough COVID Infections, U.S. Military to Announce Highly Effective COVID Vaccine, Israel Rolling Out 4th Dose of COVID Vaccine; France Expected to Reach 100,000 New Cases Per Day, Oxfam Files Complaint Against Moderna; EU Approves Novavax COVID Vaccine, Biden Says There Is Still Hope for Build Back Better as Mining Union Urges Manchin to Support Bill, Kellogg's Workers End 11-Week Strike After Reaching Deal on New Contract, 160 Refugees Drowned Off Coast of Libya over the Weekend, U.N.'s World Food Programme Forced to Cut Back Yemen Aid Due to Funds Shortage, UAE Agency Put Pegasus Spyware on Phone of Jamal Khashoggi's Wife Months Before His Murder, Maya K'iche' Communities Block Roads, Protest Weekend Massacre Related to Guatemala Land Dispute, Rep. Perry Refuses Interview with Jan. 6 Cmte.; Michael Flynn Sues to Block Release of Phone Records, Incoming NYC Mayor Eric Adams Attacks Council Members, Defends Support of Solitary Confinement, New Report Warns "Tidal Wave" of Voter Suppression Laws Set to Intensify in 2022, 110-Yr. Prison Term for Truck Driver in Fatal Crash Prompts Outcry; Colorado DA Requests Resentencing

The United States Navy is facing growing calls to permanently shut down one of their fuel storage facilities in Hawaii after a petroleum leak contaminated the water supply that serves over 90,000 families around the naval base of Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu. The storage site, called the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, has long been protested by environmental activists in part because of its location just 100 feet above the primary groundwater aquifer for Honolulu and the rest of Oahu. We speak with two Native Hawaiian guests: civil rights lawyer Camille Kalama and Kamanamaikalani Beamer, a former commissioner of the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management. "This is the most critical threat that we've ever had to our groundwater resources," says Beamer. "The Navy assured us and promised our state Water Resource Management Commission that this would never happen, and yet here we are."

Former student activist and leftist Gabriel Boric will become Chile's youngest president after easily defeating the far-right candidate José Antonio Kast with over 55% of the vote. Boric has vowed to fight for progressive social reforms and overhaul the neoliberal economic policies left by the U.S.-backed dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. We speak with Chilean writer Pablo Abufom and feminist activist Javiera Manzi, who say Boric's victory signals an opening for progressive policy in Chile and Latin America more broadly.

An emergency court in Egypt has sentenced leading human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah to an additional five years in prison on the charge of "spreading false news undermining national security" for sharing a post on Twitter. El-Fattah has been imprisoned since his arrest in September 2019, just six months after he was released following a five-year prison term for his role in the peaceful demonstrations of 2011 that led to the fall of Egypt's longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak. "Alaa wasn't even in the courtroom," says El-Fattah's aunt, the acclaimed Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif, who was in the courtroom at the time of his sentencing. "What Alaa did was he had one retweet, and they are punishing him for that with a five-year prison sentence."

WHO Urges Cancellation of Holiday Gatherings as Omicron Spreads at Record Pace, Omicron Variant Surpasses Delta, Now Accounts for Three-Quarters of U.S. Cases, New York Confirms Record Number of Coronavirus Infections for Fourth Straight Day, NHL Cancels Hockey Games Amid COVID Surge; Record Number of NFL Players Test Positive, White House to Make Half-Billion COVID-19 Home Test Kits Available for Free, Himalayan Glaciers Melt at Accelerating Rate as Climate Emergency Deepens, EPA Rule Would Require Gas-Powered Cars to Average 55 Miles Per Gallon by 2026, Burmese Military Massacred 40 Men and Buried Bodies in Mass Graves, Reports BBC, Egyptian Court Sentences Leading Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah to 5 More Years in Prison, Haitian Asylum Seekers Sue U.S. over Abuse and Racial Discrimination at Border, Humanitarian Aid Group Says British and French Rescue Crews Let 27 Refugees Drown, Pentagon to Crack Down on Extremism in Its Ranks, January 6 Committee Seeks Information from Republican Rep. Scott Perry, Jury Deliberations Open in Ghislaine Maxwell Sex-Trafficking Trial , Chris Noth Dropped from CBS's "The Equalizer" Following Sexual Assault Claims, Jury Weighs Manslaughter Charges for MN Officer Kim Potter, Who Killed Daunte Wright, Harvard Won't Require SAT or ACT Scores for Applicants Through 2026

Longtime immigrant rights leader Jean Montrevil has been granted three years of protection from deportation as part of a settlement for the First Amendment lawsuit Montrevil filed against the U.S. government that argued federal immigration officials targeted him for deportation due to his activism. Montrevil was abruptly deported to Haiti in 2018 but was allowed under the Biden administration to return home to New York in October to reunite with his family. We speak with Jean Montrevil, who says the news has given him "peace of mind" to enjoy the holiday season without fear of getting detained or deported, as well as Montrevil's lawyer Alina Das, who attributes the highly unusual decision to the strength of the immigrant rights movement. "It is the power of organizing that brought the government to the negotiating table," says Das.

President Biden's signature $1.75 trillion Build Back Better package appears to be dead after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced on Fox News this Sunday he would not support the plan to expand the social safety net and combat the climate crisis. Without Manchin, Senate Democrats do not have enough votes to pass the landmark legislation, which has already been approved by the House. We speak with Congressmember Jamaal Bowman, who is one of six progressive Democrats in the House who correctly predicted that his party's decision to vote on the infrastructure bill prior to the Build Back Better package — as opposed to voting on them together — would risk throwing the $1.75 trillion package into jeopardy. "Special interests have been heavily involved in the negotiation process for Build Back Better throughout this entire year," says Bowman. President Biden "all but promised that he would be able to deliver Manchin," continues Bowman, "and as we can see, that has not happened."

With the emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, the United States is now averaging over 130,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, and health officials warn the U.S. could see a million new cases a day by February. We speak with health expert Dr. Carlos del Rio, who says that vaccination complemented by booster shots is the best defense against severe illness. "Everybody's going to get infected. You're going to be exposed to this virus because it's essentially going to be everywhere," says del Rio.

Build Back Better in Jeopardy After Sen. Joe Manchin Announces He Will Not Vote in Favor, Federal Company Vaccine Mandate Reinstated; New Data Show Moderna Booster Helps Fight Omicron, Southwest CEO Tests Positive After Senate Hearing; Sens. Booker and Warren Announce They Have COVID, Omicron Sends COVID Cases Surging, Prompts New Restrictions in Israel, U.K., the Netherlands, 35-Year-Old Progressive Activist Gabriel Boric Will Be Chile's Next President, Death Toll from Super Typhoon Rai Rises to 375 in Philippines; Floods Kill 8 in Malaysia, Hong Kong's "Patriots Only" Election Sees Record Low Turnout, Hundreds of Thousands of Sudanese Protesters March Against Military Rule, U.N. Human Rights Council to Probe War Crimes in Ethiopia, Islamic Countries Pledge Humanitarian Trust Fund for Afghanistan, NYT Reveals Widespread Pattern of Civilian Deaths and Cover-Ups in U.S. Air Wars, Capitol Rioter Gets 5 Years in Prison, Stiffest Sentence Yet for January 6 Insurrection, Rahm Emanuel, Who Covered Up Police Killing of Laquan McDonald, Confirmed as Ambassador to Japan, Claudette Colvin, Who Resisted Segregation in Alabama, Has Juvenile Court Record Expunged, Black Panther Russell "Maroon" Shoatz, Who Spent 22 Years in Solitary Confinement, Dies at 78

Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia implored conservative members of his party to stop obstructing voting rights legislation in a powerful speech on the floor of the Senate Tuesday. While Warnock did not name Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the two have come out against doing away with the filibuster in order to allow Democrats to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Warnock said there was no chance of Republicans joining the effort to safeguard democracy and that only a change to the filibuster could secure passage of the bills. "Who is being asked to foot the bill for this bipartisanship? And is liberty itself the cost?" Warnock said.

We look at the life and legacy of trailblazing Black feminist scholar and activist bell hooks, who died at the age of 69 on Wednesday. We speak with her longtime colleague Beverly Guy-Sheftall, professor of women's studies at Spelman College, who remembers her as "a person who would sit with young people and community people and students and help them understand this world in which we live, which is full of all kinds of domination." Working in the tradition of intersectionality and Black radical feminism, hooks's critiques of "imperialist white supremacist heteropatriarchy" called attention to the interlocking systems of oppression in hopes of eradicating them, Guy-Sheftall says.

The county of Williamson, Texas, has announced a settlement of $5 million in the wrongful death of Javier Ambler II in 2019. The 40-year-old Black man died after being repeatedly tased by police during a traffic stop. Police bodycam footage showed Ambler telling officers, "I have congestive heart failure," and "I can't breathe," as they continued to tase him. This comes as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act languishes in Congress and activists urgently demand lawmakers to vote to stop the nationwide police killings of people of color. "We must see action," says Benjamin Crump, attorney for Ambler's family. "If not, don't expect action from us to come to the polls."

The former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter, who faces manslaughter charges for fatally shooting 20-year-old Black man Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, is expected to take the stand in her own defense Friday. Potter claims she reached for her Taser and drew a pistol by mistake. "Black people should not be killed in America over misdemeanor, pretextual traffic stops," says Benjamin Crump, attorney for Wright's family.

Former police officer Derek Chauvin has pleaded guilty to violating George Floyd's civil rights, marking the first time he publicly admitted to his role in Floyd's death. Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes, killing him with the excessive use of force in 2019. Floyd's dying words, "I can't breathe," became a rallying cry for social justice protests and calls to defund the police across the country. Chauvin also pleaded guilty for violating the civil rights of a 14-year-old juvenile in 2017. "To be held accountable on both levels, on state level and federal level, we believe, sends a very clear message that the deliberate indifference and the denial of constitutional rights of marginalized people of color won't be tolerated," says Benjamin Crump, attorney for multiple families of victims of police brutality.

Biden Warns of "Winter of Severe Illness and Death" for Unvaccinated Americans, CDC Recommends Moderna and Pfizer Vaccines Over Johnson & Johnson, Citing Rare Blood Clots, Thousands of ICE Prisoners Denied Access to COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters, FDA Relaxes Restrictions on Access to Abortion Pills , Federal Judge Throws Out Opioid Settlement That Shielded Sackler Family from Lawsuits, Lucía Hiriart, Widow of Chilean Dictator Pinochet, Dies on Eve of Presidential Election, At Least Seven Die as Super Typhoon Rai Slams Philippines with 160 MPH Winds, Workers at Candle Factory Destroyed by Tornado Sue Company over "Flagrant Indifference", Striking Kellogg's Workers Win Tentative Contract; L.A. Cake Factory Workers Are 6 Weeks into Strike, Calls Mount to Overrule Senate Parliamentarian Who Rejected Immigration Proposal , U.S. May Stop Detaining Migrant Families But Pulls Out of "Zero Tolerance" Compensation Talks, Haitian Gang Releases 12 Remaining North American Missionaries Held Hostage for Ransom, Haitian Immigrant Activist Jean Montrevil Wins Chance to Pursue Permanent Status in U.S., Rohingya Genocide Survivor Testifies to Argentine Court in Universal Jurisdiction Case

Afghanistan under the new Taliban government faces a humanitarian catastrophe this winter as the United States and other donors have cut off financial aid. The United Nations warns nearly 23 million people in Afghanistan — or more than half the population — face potentially life-threatening food shortages, with nearly 9 million already on the brink of famine. In addition, people face lack of proper healthcare, unemployment and housing shortages. "The international aid organizations, for them, it's just another country … where they take pictures and make their careers out of it," says Pashtana Durrani, activist and executive director of the educational nonprofit LEARN Afghanistan. "For me, it's my country, and people are starving in it."

As Afghanistan spirals into a humanitarian crisis after the abrupt U.S. withdrawal earlier this summer, we look at years of failed U.S. diplomacy that allowed the Taliban to seize power and leave the small nation in a state of disrepair. A New Yorker magazine investigation shows how the U.S. repeatedly undermined the Kabul-based government in a rush to leave the country. "I've been reporting in general and around Afghanistan for a long time. I was still shocked by the degree of cynicism that the United States often brought to this endeavor to seek peace, particularly during the Trump years," says New Yorker staff writer Steve Coll, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who has covered Afghanistan for decades.

As the coronavirus variant Omicron spreads across the world at an unprecedented rate, a group of vaccine experts has just released a list of over 100 companies in Africa, Asia and Latin America with the potential to produce mRNA vaccine. They say it is the one of the most viable solutions to fight vaccine inequity around the world and combat the spread of coronavirus variants, including Omicron. We speak to Achal Prabhala, one of the vaccine experts who compiled the list. If mRNA technology could be shared with the listed companies, "we could vaccinate the world in as close to six months from now," says Prabhala. "These are very much the people's vaccines. It's just that they are private property."

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