Democracy Now!

In Chile, voters this weekend will determine a close runoff election between far-right candidate José Antonio Kast and leftist Gabriel Boric, a former student leader. If Boric, who holds a narrow lead, wins the race, he would become Chile's youngest and most progressive president in years. Meanwhile, Kast's win would make him "an authoritarian taking power with anti-immigrant, anti-abortion, nationalistic and very hateful rhetoric in relation to everything that is progressive," says Chilean American author Ariel Dorfman.

The United States is continuing talks with Iran over its nuclear program after President Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. With a new Iranian administration after April's controversial election, many worry that if talks fail, tensions between the two countries could turn into military escalation fueled by pressure from Israel. "The new hard-line team has been coming in to the negotiation table with more demands than the previous administration," says Iranian American journalist Negar Mortazavi. "They want sanctions relief from the U.S. in exchange for them scaling back part of their nuclear program."

The U.S. House voted to recommend the Department of Justice charge former President Trump's former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows with criminal contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack. The vote came after the committee released a series of text messages from Republican lawmakers and Fox News hosts to Meadows on January 6 that begged him to convince Trump to tell his followers to leave the Capitol. The messages show that Trump and his inner circle were "in the know" in the plot to overturn the election, says Daily Beast reporter Jose Pagliery.

U.S. Tops 800,000 COVID Deaths as Officials Around the World Warn of Omicron's Rapid Spread, House Votes to Hold Mark Meadows in Contempt; D.C. Sues Oath Keepers, Proud Boys over Insurrection, Judge Dismisses Trump Attempt to Shield Tax Docs from House; NY Probe into Trump Org. Continues, Another GOP Rep. Attacks Ilhan Omar as House Passes Anti-Islamophobia Bill, Congress Votes to Increase Debt Ceiling by $2.5 Trillion, Averting Default, UAE Suspends Talks with U.S. on $23 Billion Arms Sale, Presidents Putin and Xi Meet Amid Mounting Tensions with U.S., Belarusian Opposition Leader Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison, Fuel Tank Explosion Kills at Least 62 People in Haiti's Second-Largest City, Mexican Families Remember Disappeared Loved Ones, Thermostat Reached Unprecedented 100.4 Degrees in 2020 Arctic Heat Wave, Muhammad Aziz, Exonerated in Murder of Malcolm X, Sues State of New York over Wrongful Conviction, Killing of Mario Gonzalez by Alameda Police Ruled a Homicide, Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo Ordered to Repay $5.1 Million Received on Pandemic Book Deal, Ex-NFL Player Had Severe Brain Trauma When He Shot Dead 6 People and Took His Own Life, Voting Rights Advocates Are on Hunger Strike to Demand Passage of Freedom to Vote Act

As unionizing efforts have taken the U.S. by storm, we look at the history of the U.S. labor movement and how unions have acted as a bulwark against corporate power. Worker organizing at Starbucks, Kellogg's and Amazon shows that unions help enforce health and safety measures and protect workers who speak out. "A working-class consciousness ebbs and flows," says Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "A union is a way of capturing that consciousness and making it the law of the land."

Kellogg's announced it would begin permanently replacing the 1,400 workers who have been on strike for over two months to demand fair wages and better working conditions. The move comes after an overwhelming majority of Kellogg's workers rejected a new five-year agreement they say falls short of their demands and sparked widespread public backlash, including from President Biden. "We are fighting for equal pay and equal benefits, regardless of what the company is putting out there. And trying to replace us is something that they're using as a scare tactic," says Kevin Bradshaw, a striking Kellogg's worker and president of Local 252G in Memphis, Tennessee.

We look at the historic workers' victory at the Elmwood Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York, where workers successfully voted to unionize last week, making them the first to do so among the coffee chain's 9,000 locations in the United States, and sparking new efforts at stores across the country. We speak to one of the 19 employees who voted in favor of forming a union about confronting the company and overcoming the challenges. Starbucks hired "the most notorious union-busting law firm in the country and literally ran not even a textbook anti-union campaign but an almost unprecedented anti-union campaign," says Jaz Brisack, a barista at the Starbucks located in Buffalo.

A shocking exposé reveals how a secretive Customs and Border Protection division investigated as many as 20 journalists and their contacts by using government databases intended to track terrorists. Those investigated include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press reporter Martha Mendoza, along with others at The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. We speak to Jana Winter, the investigative correspondent who broke the story at Yahoo News, who says it's unclear if the surveillance program was discontinued. "These were career officials who are still running this secretive unit with no rules and no procedures for how they access these databases," says Winter. "They target Americans who are located in the United States who are not suspected of any crime whatsoever."

Eight Killed by Tornado at Kentucky Factory Whose Workers Were Ordered to Remain on Site, Ice Sheet Holding Back Vast Antarctic Glacier Poised to Collapse Within Five Years, U.K. Reports First Death Linked to Fast-Spreading Omicron Coronavirus Variant, New York City to Require Proof of Vaccination for Kids 5 and Up to Enter Public Spaces, Pentagon Won't Punish Anyone over Kabul Drone Strike That Killed 10 Civilians, Sudanese Police Fire Tear Gas at Protesters Demanding End to Military Rule, Report: Colombian Police Killed at Least 11 People Protesting Police Brutality, Danish Ex-Minister Gets Prison for Illegally Separating Families of Asylum Seekers, Fox News Hosts Called White House on January 6 Urging End to Capitol Riot, USA Gymnastics Will Pay $380 Million to Survivors of Larry Nassar Abuse, Julian Assange Suffered "Mini-Stroke" in Prison While Fighting U.S. Extradition, Ex-Cop Kim Potter Failed to Test Taser on Day She Fatally Shot Daunte Wright, 350 U.S. School Shootings Have Followed the Sandy Hook Massacre 9 Years Ago

We go to Kampala, Uganda, to speak to climate activist Vanessa Nakate on the occasion of her first book being published, "A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis." In an extended interview, she describes the challenges of being a young Ugandan woman from a continent that contributes less than 4% of the world’s carbon emissions yet suffers the worst consequences of the climate crisis and is often ignored by the Global North. "There won't be climate justice if specific groups of people are being left behind," says Nakate, founder of the Africa-based Rise Up Movement. "We are facing the same storm, but we are definitely in different boats."

At least 100 people are feared dead after 30 deadly tornadoes devastated towns in eight states, from Kentucky to Arkansas, in a supercell thunderstorm that raged more than 200 miles, leaving behind scenes some compared to a war zone. President Biden has declared a major federal disaster and called for an investigation into the role climate change played in the storms. We speak to climate scientist Michael Mann about the role of climate change in the storms and climate denialism among Republican leaders. "Make no mistake, we have been seeing an increase in these massive tornado outbreaks that can be attributed to the warming of the planet," says Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University.

Biden Declares Major Federal Disaster in KY; 100+ Feared Dead After Tornadoes Rip Through 8 States, U.S. Health Officials Say Boosters Could Curb Winter COVID Surge as NY Tightens Mask Rules, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Tests Positive for COVID-19, Over Half a Billion People Faced Extreme Poverty Due to Healthcare Costs During Pandemic, SCOTUS Says Providers Can Sue over Texas Abortion Law But Limits Scope and Keeps Ban in Place, Gov. Gavin Newsom Says He Will Use Texas Abortion Ban as Model for CA Gun Control Laws, NYT: Secret Unit Launched 10,000s of Strikes Against ISIS, Killing Syrian Civilians in the Process, Israeli PM Meets with UAE Crown Prince After Establishing Diplomatic Ties in 2020, Tigrayan Forces Retake Control of UNESCO Town Lalibela as PM Abiy Ahmed Heads Back to Frontlines, Argentine Protesters Reject Deal with IMF on Debt, New Caledonia Votes to Remain French Territory in Referendum Boycotted by Independence Groups, International Donors Release $280 Million in Aid to Afghanistan, Treasury Department Announces New Sanctions on China, Bangladesh, Burma and North Korea, Daunte Wright's Girlfriend Testifies About Fatal Shooting by Officer Kim Potter, Former New Orleans Police Monitor Elected as Louisiana's First Black Woman Sheriff, Customs and Border Protection Unit Used Anti-Terrorism Tools on Journalists, Seattle Socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant Survives Corporate-Backed Recall

We speak with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney on his new film, "The Forever Prisoner," which follows the story of Guantánamo prisoner Abu Zubaydah, who was the first so-called high-value prisoner subjected to the CIA's torture program and has been indefinitely imprisoned since 2006 without charge. Nearly two decades after the start of the U.S. so-called war on terror, there are still 39 people detained in Guantánamo, where for years prisoners have detailed rampant torture and other horrific conditions. The Biden administration has so far refused to outline a clear plan and timeline for Guantánamo's closure.

Filipina journalist Maria Ressa and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov accepted the Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their "efforts to safeguard freedom of expression." "There are so many more journalists persecuted in the shadows with neither exposure nor support, and governments are doubling down with impunity," said Ressa in her acceptance speech at Friday's Nobel ceremony, which we play in full.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could soon face charges in the United States after a U.K. court ruled Friday in favor of the U.S. government's appeal to extradite him. U.K. Judge Timothy Holroyde said he was satisfied with a pledge from the United States that Assange would not be held in a so-called ADX maximum-security prison in Colorado, despite a U.K. district court ruling in January that said Assange should not be extradited because it would be "oppressive" due to his mental health and that he would likely die by suicide in a U.S. prison. "They can't guarantee his safety in the U.S. prison system. He will likely die here, if not beforehand," says Gabriel Shipton, filmmaker and Julian Assange's brother. "Think about what the precedent will mean around the world if every regime can now point to us and say, 'We want to extradite these journalists,'" adds Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.

U.K. Court Will Allow Extradition of Julian Assange to U.S. to Face Espionage Charges, Venezuela's Juan Guaidó, Who Led Failed Coup Efforts, Speaks at White House Democracy Summit, Federal Court Rejects Trump's Bid to Keep January 6 Records Secret, New York Attorney General Letitia James Ends Gubernatorial Bid, Will Subpoena Trump, National Guard Called Out as COVID-19 Cases Overwhelm U.S. Hospitals, WHO Warns Rich Countries Against Vaccine Hoarding as Omicron Variant Spreads , Truck Carrying Asylum Seekers Crashes in Mexico, Killing 54 and Injuring Over 100, Award-Winning Filipino Journalist Jesus Malabanan, Who Covered Duterte's Drug War, Shot Dead, Police Thwart Possible Columbine-Inspired Mass Shooting at Florida College, Starbucks Workers in Buffalo Vote to Form Coffee Chain's First Unionized Shop, Texas Court Finds Abortion Ban Unconstitutional, But Stops Short of Injunction, Reproductive Rights Groups Press California to Become Abortion Sanctuary State, Actor Jussie Smollett Found Guilty of Falsely Reporting a Hate Crime, Environmental Lawyer Steven Donziger Released to Serve Rest of Prison Sentence from Home, New Zealand Aims to Phase Out Cigarette Use with Sweeping Anti-Tobacco Legislation

An explosive new investigation details how the European Union has created a shadow immigration system that captures migrants arriving from Africa before they reach Europe and sends them to brutal militia-run detention centers in Libya. "This is a climate migration story," says Ian Urbina, investigative journalist and director of The Outlaw Ocean Project, who authored the report for The New Yorker magazine. "The policy of the EU of outsourcing migration control to a failed state in Libya … is a really doomed strategy, and it's only going to get more perilous as more waves of people start trying to reach safer places." Urbina's piece is titled "The Invisible Wall: Inside the Secretive Libyan Prisons That Keep Migrants Out of Europe."

As calls grow for Biden to extend the moratorium on student debt, we speak with the Debt Collective's Astra Taylor and feature her new film for The Intercept, "Your Debt Is Someone Else's Asset," animated by artist Molly Crabapple. The $15 trillion in U.S. household debt is "a form of wealth transfer" from the poor to the rich, Taylor says. "People are in debt by design."

President Biden may soon approve the largest military spending bill since World War II, which ramps up spending to counter China and Russia. Separately, the Senate voted down a bipartisan bid by Senators Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul and Mike Lee to halt $650 million in U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia amid the devastating ongoing war in Yemen. "The last thing we need to do is be throwing more money at the Pentagon," says William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. "This whole idea that China and Russia are military threats to the United States has primarily been manufactured to jump up the military budget."

As Coronavirus Cases Surge, Study Finds World Dangerously Unprepared for Next Pandemic, Senate Approves Bill to Reverse Vaccine Mandate for Large Employers, Olaf Scholz Sworn In as German Chancellor, Ending Angela Merkel Era, Canada, U.K. and Australia Join U.S. Diplomatic Boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics, Western Sahara Activists Accuse Moroccan Authorities of Brutality and Sexual Assault, India's Military Chief Among 13 Killed in Helicopter Crash, Biden Orders Transition to Renewable Energy for Federal Buildings and Vehicles, Lawmakers Grill Instagram Head over App's Damaging Effects on Children, Mark Meadows Sues Jan. 6 House Cmte.; "Stop the Steal" Rally Organizer Cooperating with Panel , "She Showed Him How to Kill Someone": Manslaughter Trial of Kim Potter Gets Underway, CA Justice Dept. Probing Torrance Police After Revelation of Racist, Homophobic Text Messages, Labor Board Counts Votes in Starbucks' First U.S. Union Elections; Kellogg's Workers Continue Strike, Sen. Warren Blames Big Tech for Price Hikes as Amazon Employee Shares Inhumane Working Conditions

Animal rights activist Wayne Hsiung has been convicted on felony charges of burglary and larceny for removing a sick baby goat from a goat meat farm in North Carolina in 2018. Hsiung is the co-founder of the animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere. He was given a suspended sentence and 24 months probation. He describes how the prosecutor in the case hugged him at the end of the trial and says the case revolves around a simple question: "Are the living creatures of this Earth property or are they living creatures that deserve some form of dignity and respect?"

In the largest strike happening right now in the United States, 3,000 student workers at New York City's Columbia University are on their fifth week of strike. Today the student workers are calling on others to help them shut down the university. Striking student worker, Johannah King-Slutzky, accuses Columbia's administration of an "illegal form of retaliation" for threatening to replace the striking student workers who do not return to work by Friday. On Monday, many Columbia faculty members walked out of their classes in a show of solidarity. "Graduate student labor is the invisible labor of the university," says Jack Halberstam, professor of gender studies and English at Columbia University. "We're bankrupting a whole generation in order to provide more profits for the university."

During a virtual summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Biden threatened to impose new economic sanctions and other measures if Russia invades Ukraine. The talks were held amid growing tension between the two countries over the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe and Russia's deployment of tens of thousands troops along the border of Ukraine. Editorial director and publisher at The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel says the U.S. has a "one-sided narrative" of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that neglects to acknowledge its own role in escalating tensions. "​​This [the Russia-Ukraine conflict] is a civil war but it has become a proxy war between the United States, Russia, NATO."

Biden Warns of Economic Sanctions in Virtual Talks With Putin Amid Russia-Ukraine Tension, House Passes Massive $768 Billion Pentagon Budget, Votes Down Amendment to Stop Arms Sales to Saudis, House Jan. 6 Cmte Warns Mark Meadows Could Be Charged With Contempt if No-Show at Deposition, COVID Booster Shots Could Help Slow Down Spread of Omicron Variant, Young People Facing Mental Health Crisis, Exacerbated by Pandemic, France Arrests Saudi Suspect in Khashoggi Murder, Chile Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage, Ecuadorian Court Shuts Down Mining Plans in Cloud Forest, Citing Constitutional Rights of Nature, Prison Fire in Burundi Kills at Least 38 People, Rohingya Refugees Sue Facebook Over Role in 2017 Genocide, Billionaires' Wealth Skyrocketed During Pandemic, as 100 Million People Pushed Into Extreme Poverty, Immigrants Rights Activists Demand Path to Citizenship in Build Back Better Package, House Probe Finds Irwin County ICE Center May Have Defrauded U.S. Gov't In Medical Abuse Scheme, Senate Confirms Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus to Lead CBP, Jessica Rosenworcel as FCC Chair, Biden Pick for Top Financial Regulator Post Withdraws After Facing Opposition From GOP, House Democrats Re-Introduce Bill Banning Fracking, New Fossil Fuel Plants and Oil and Gas Exports, Billionaire CEO of Better.com Fires 900 Employees Over Zoom, Greg Tate, Influential Cultural Critic and "Godfather of Hip-Hop Journalism", Has Died

At least fifteen lives have been saved, so far, after the nation's first supervised illegal drug injection sites opened in New York City about a week ago. The facilities provide clean needles and the opioid reversal medication Naloxone, as well as medical care and drug dependency treatment options. This comes as U.S. overdose deaths topped 100,000 during the first year of the pandemic. While the New York facilities are the first to be government-approved, advocates have long fought for better and safer resources for people with addiction, and there are now over 120 drug injection sites operating worldwide. We speak with Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, who says safe drug prevention sites are effective tools to keep people who use drugs alive, especially in Black and Latino communities that face the added threat of mass incarceration from decades of discriminatory policies.

In a controversial move, the Biden administration has resumed and expanded the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy that forces non-Mexican asylum-seekers who arrive at the southern U.S. border to wait in Mexico while their cases are resolved in U.S. courts — a process that can take months or even years. We speak with Kennji Kizuka, associate director of research and analysis for refugee protection at Human Rights First, who documented how this puts asylum seekers in grave danger.

As the Biden administration faces increased pressure to address global vaccine inequity, USAID administrator Samantha Power announced a plan Monday for the United States to spend an additional $400 million to help increase vaccine access internationally. The move came days after Vanity Fair revealed a $2.5 billion plan to thwart Omicron-like variants has been stalled inside the Biden administration. We speak with reporter Katherine Eban, who broke the story, and says vaccines are piling up in countries that lack the health infrastructure to distribute them quickly. "The problem is shifting from not enough doses to not enough support on the ground to administer doses." She says the Biden administration has "good-faith" goals to reduce vaccine inequity, but "they have not gone and asked Congress for money in part because they're facing a narrow Senate majority."

The eight top Pfizer and Moderna shareholders made over $10 billion last week when their stock holdings skyrocketed after the discovery of the new Omicron variant. This comes as global public health advocates warn the world will keep seeing more coronavirus variants unless wealthy nations and vaccine manufacturers do more to address vaccine inequity. "The companies that make the most are doing the least to share their technology," says Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now U.K., which is documenting Big Pharma’s profits. "The priority is making enormous amounts of money for some of the richest people in the world."

Today marks the 93rd birthday of world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky, who spoke with Democracy Now! from his home in Tucson, Arizona, and said he finds hope in the activism of young people "to create a much better world than the one we have."Chomsky is among the special guests for Democracy Now's 25th anniversary event airing Tuesday evening, alongside Angela Davis, Arundhati Roy and many more. The virtual celebration begins at 8 p.m. ET. Watch it live "here":https://www.democracynow.org/live/celebrate_25_years_of_democracy_now.

Justice Department Sues Texas Over Political Maps That Diminish Power of Voters of Color, New York City Announces First-in-Nation Vaccine Mandate For Private Employers, Biden Meets Putin as Russian Troops Mass on Ukraine Border, Russia and India Agree to Deepen Military Ties, Haitian Kidnappers Release 3 More Missionaries, 12 Remain Hostages, Civil Rights Office's Warnings Over Haiti Deportations Went Ignored by DHS and ICE , Biden Administration Reinstates and Expands Trump-Era "Remain in Mexico" Policy, Trump-era Oil & Gas Drilling Boom Continues Under Biden, Despite Campaign Pledge , Top Mike Pence Aide Will Cooperate With January 6th Committee, Devin Nunes Will Quit Congress to Become CEO of Trump Media Company, Jussie Smollett Testifies in Own Defense, Denying He Staged a Hate Crime, Animal Rights Activist Convicted of Felonies for Rescuing Sick Baby Goat, Justice Department Ends Emmett Till Murder Probe Without Filing Charges

Human rights activists and dozens of countries are calling for an all-out ban on the use of lethal autonomous weapons, also known as "killer robots" that can make the final order to kill without a human overseeing the process. The robots will be coming under review next week during high-level talks on the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. So far, the Biden administration has rejected calls to ban the weapons, instead proposing the establishment of a "code of conduct" for their use. "This is not just a new weapon, it’s a new form of warfare," says Steve Goose, director of Human Rights Watch's arms division and co-founder of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, says. "The majority of countries want to see a legally binding instrument — a new treaty — that would have prohibitions and regulations on fully autonomous weapons."

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a new investigation into one of the deadliest U.S. airstrikes in recent years after the New York Times exposed an orchestrated cover-up by U.S. military officials to conceal the attack. The March 2019 airstrike killed dozens of women and children during a bombing of one of the last strongholds of the Islamic State of Syria. Evidence has shown that U.S. military officials spent two-and-a-half years covering up the attack by downplaying the death toll, delaying reports, and sanitizing and classifying evidence of civilian deaths. "This is not the case of one little mistake," says Priyanka Motaparthy, director of the Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict and Human Rights Project at Columbia Law School. "This really points to a crisis of accountability in the Pentagon."

Funerals have begun in Oxford, Michigan, for the four students killed when their 15-year-old classmate opened fire in a rampage that also injured seven others. Ethan Crumbley has been charged with terrorism and first-degree murder, and his parents have also been charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly giving him access to a firearm even as he displayed obvious signs he was thinking about committing violent crimes. We’re joined by Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, prompting her to found Sandy Hook Promise; and Kris Brown, president of Brady, one of the oldest gun violence prevention organizations in the country. "We have an epidemic of gun violence in this country,"says Brown. "This was an absolutely preventable act of violence,” adds Hockley, who also discusses her organization’s anonymous reporting system called “Say Something" for students to use if they see a classmate who is at risk of harming themselves or others.

International Travelers Face Tightened Restrictions as Omicron Variant Spreads Worldwide, More Protests Erupt as European Countries Tighten Vaccine Mandates, Parents of Michigan High School Shooting Suspect Arrested After Manhunt, Burmese Court Sentences Deposed Leader Aung San Suu Kyi to 4 Years in Prison, Biden Expected to Announce U.S. Diplomatic Boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics, 15 Dead, Dozens Missing as Indonesian Volcano Erupts, Funerals Held for 15 Civilians Killed by Security Forces in India's Nagaland State, Pope Francis Voices Support for Refugees in Trip to Greek Island of Lesbos, Voters in The Gambia Re-Elect President Adama Barrow, South African Activists, Community Members Protest Shell Oil Exploration on Pristine Coastline, 1,000s Take to Streets in Serbia to Oppose Gov't Deal For Rio Tinto Lithium Mine, Israeli Forces Kill West Bank Palestinian Teen, After Fatal Shooting of Palestinian in Jerusalem, Presidents Biden and Putin Set to Speak Tuesday Amid Tensions on Russia-Ukraine Border, Chilean Activist Javiera Rojas, Who Helped Shut Down Dam Projects, Has Been Killed, CNN Fires Chris Cuomo For Helping Brother, Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo Respond to Sexual Misconduct Claims, Masked, Far-Right Patriot Front Members March in D.C., Get Booed by Bystanders, Bob Dole, Ex-GOP Lawmaker and Presidential Candidate, Dies at 98

We go inside a notorious ICE jail at the height of the pandemic to see how people held there spoke out against dangerous conditions, and faced retaliation before they were ultimately released with no notice. Their story is captured in a new documentary called "The Facility." It investigates the inhumane conditions at Irwin County Detention Center using footage from video calls, where cameras installed in cell blocks to enable pay-per-minute video calls "functioned almost like a portal for a moment in and out of a place meant not to be seen in this way," says director, Seth Freed Wessler. "How can your own government be doing this to you?" asks Nilson Barahona-Marriaga, one of the people featured in interviews with Wessler in the eye-opening footage from inside the jail.

The world was shocked by images of Haitians whipped by U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback as they sought refuge. Thousands were soon deported, but dozens are now detained in an ICE jail in New Mexico where they face inhumane conditions and lack access to legal services. We speak with a lawyer who describes medical neglect, deteriorating mental and physical health, and poor treatment by the staff. "They cannot get the basic tools and have the basic human contact that they need to save their own lives," says immigration attorney Allegra Love of the El Paso Immigration Collaborative.

As the Supreme Court looks poised to uphold Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban and possibly overturn Roe v. Wade, we speak to The Nation's Amy Littlefield about her investigation into the Christian legal army behind the Mississippi law as well as anti-trans laws across the country. She also critiques the mainstream pro-choice movement's failure to center the poor and people of color. "There is a change coming within the movement because of its reckoning with these past missteps including, frankly, the failure to adequately protect Black women and to stand up for the safety of the people whose rights were eroded first," says Littlefield.

Biden Administration to Reinstate and Expand Trump-Era "Remain in Mexico" Policy, Amid Record COVID-19 Surge, Germany to Exclude Unvaccinated From Public Life, Biden Says Lockdowns Not Needed to Combat Looming Winter Surge of COVID-19, Omicron Variant Traced to Manhattan Anime Convention Attended by 50,000+, Congress Passes Stopgap Spending Bill After GOP Threatens Shutdown Over Vaccine Mandates, Rep. Peter DeFazio Becomes 19th House Democrat to Retire Ahead of Midterms, Groups Call on U.N. to Relaunch Yemen War Crimes Probe Which Ended Amid Saudi and UAE Pressure , HRW: Burmese Military Planned Attack That Killed At Least 65 Anti-Coup Protesters , Heatwave In Northern U.S., Canada Breaks Temperature Records, Sets Montana Fields on Fire, Plans for Oregon Pipeline and Export Terminal Dropped After Intense Community Pushback , Shell Pulls Out of Cambo Oil Field Project in Europe's North Sea , Biden and Putin Expected to Hold Talks Over Escalating Tension on Russia-Ukraine Border, U.S. Shuts Down International Calls to Ban "Killer Robots", Michigan Schools Shut Down Amid Fears of Copycat Attacks as New Details Emerge on Teen Shooter, Martha "Marty" Nathan, Activist and Greensboro Massacre Survivor, Dies at 70

On the same day France celebrated the induction of American-born singer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker into the Pantheon, far-right xenophobic writer and pundit Éric Zemmour announced he will run for president of France in the upcoming April 2022 election. Many have pointed out the contradiction in these opposing events, even in President Emmanuel Macron's speech that painted Baker as a model of colorblind unity, when in reality she was outspoken about racial justice. "Celebrating Josephine Baker who was an immigrant … while making things difficult for immigrants of today to access to France is a contradiction," says French journalist Rokhaya Diallo. "France attempts to use the fact that it has been very welcoming to African Americans throughout the 20th century to picture itself as an open and welcoming country."

We speak to Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, about the Supreme Court hearing Wednesday, in which the conservative majority on the court seemed to indicate that they support upholding the restrictive Mississippi law that bans abortion starting at just 15 weeks of pregnancy, and potentially overturn Roe v. Wade. Justice Amy Comey Barrett suggested during questioning that giving up children for adoption would resolve the pro-choice argument that anti-abortion laws force women into motherhood. "Our very right to determine when and if we become pregnant, our self determination, is predicated on our ability to be seen as free and equal citizens in this country," says Johnson. She says if the ban is upheld, the people most impacted will be "low income, Black, Brown and Indigenous communities, people who are trans and nonbinary, people who might not have support at home."

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court indicated it would uphold a restrictive Mississippi law that bans abortion starting at just 15 weeks of pregnancy. The case threatens to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. We feature excerpts from the two hours of oral arguments and speak with lawyer and bioethics professor Katie Watson. "The statute itself simply says abortion after 15 weeks is 'barbaric.' What's barbaric, in my opinion, is forced childbearing," says Watson. "There's no explanation why, at any point, the potential interest of the fetus or the state's interest in that fetus … would supersede the actual person in which it lives."

Supreme Court's Conservatives Signal Support for Mississippi Anti-Abortion Law , U.S. Detects Omicron Coronavirus Variant in California, U.N. Chief Blasts "Travel Apartheid" as Nations Deny Entry to Africans Over Omicron Variant, Russia Expels Some US Ambassadors as Blinken Warns Russia Against Invading Ukraine, Burmese Military Helicopters Attack Villagers in Region Where Resistance to Coup Remains Strong, Women's Tennis Association Suspends Tournaments in China Over Peng Shuai Case, 15-Year-Old Suspect in Michigan High School Shooting to be Tried as an Adult, Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams to Run for Governor in Possible Rematch Against GOP's Brian Kemp, Andre Dickens Elected Atlanta Mayor in Runoff Election, January 6 Committee Recommends Contempt Charge for Former Trump DOJ Official, House Votes in Favor Of Bill Requiring Judges to Report Financial Investments, House Dems Call for Release of Jailed Environmental Lawyer Steven Donziger, Major League Baseball Enacts Player Lockout, Leading To First Work Stoppage Since 1994

As December 1 marks World AIDS Day, we look at the pandemic that preceded COVID-19 and how recorded deaths of complications from the coronavirus this year have surpassed those of HIV/AIDS in the United States. The head of UNAIDS has warned the COVID-19 pandemic may result in an increase in infections and deaths from HIV and AIDS. Both viruses disproportionately impacted vulnerable minority communities. Although treatment rollout for HIV/AIDS was uniquely inhibited by homophobia, racism, and sexism, it was also plagued by corporate greed and U.S. exceptionalism. "We’re seeing very similar dynamics again now with COVID-19," says Steven Thrasher, professor at Northwestern University in the Medill School of Journalism and the Institute of Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. "We have the vaccines, we have medications that are very effective, and they’re again being held from the Global South to protect the profits of pharmaceutical corporations."

Barbados has become the world's newest republic breaking ties with Queen Elizabeth 55 years after it became an independent nation, saying it was time for Barbados to break from its colonial past. The move comes as calls grow for the United Kingdom to pay reparations for enacting a regime of slavery in Barbados. While it was an occasion for celebration, it was also "55 years overdue" and should have happened when Barbados won its independence in 1966, says David Comissiong, Barbados's ambassador to the Caribbean Community and the Association of Caribbean States. "Barbados was a center of British power. You don’t get rid of the imprint of that history so easily."

Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama may soon get another chance to decide whether to unionize. The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Amazon violated U.S. labor law while waging an aggressive anti-unionization campaign against warehouse workers earlier this year in Bessemer, Alabama. This comes as Amazon workers worldwide from Bangladesh to Germany campaigned on Black Friday for fairer working conditions under the banner, "Make Amazon Pay." "If Amazon is trying to eat the world, it’s also bringing many disparate sets of workers and activists and communities together to fight against them," says Alex Press, staff writer at Jacobin.

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Canadian police continue to arrest Indigenous land defenders blocking construction of Coastal GasLink, a 400-mile pipeline that would carry natural gas through Wet'suwet'en land. Police arrested two people Monday for blockading an access road, less than two weeks after arresting more than 30 in a violent raid on Coyote Camp and elsewhere that ended a 56-day blockade of a drilling site. We get an update from Wet’suwet’en land defender Molly Wickham, also known as Sleydo’, just released from jail. "This is the third time they have come in and raided Wet’suwet’en territory," says Wickham. "We've never signed any documents to cede our land."

As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Latvia for a meeting of NATO foreign secretaries, is war on the horizon? The meeting comes as tension continues to mount between Russia and Ukraine, while how to resolve the countries’ differences remains an open question. Russia has reportedly amassed 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, and aggressions have also recently intensified in eastern Ukraine between Moscow-backed separatists and government forces. "Russia is just trying to send a message of its absolutely inflexible opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine and is also trying to extract concessions from Ukraine and more importantly, Washington," says Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

We go to Honduras, where thousands took to the streets to celebrate the leftist presidential candidate Xiomara Castro’s lead in the polls ahead of the right-wing National Party candidate Nasry Asfura. The historic election saw a record voter turnout and could signal the end of the 12-year brutal regime under the conservative National Party, which rose to power after a coup backed by the U.S. in 2009 overthrew democratically-elected leftist President Manuel Zelaya. Castro, who is Zelaya’s wife, would become the first woman to serve as president of Honduras if her victory is confirmed. "It’s brought hope to the entire country," says Faridd Sierra, a high-school teacher in Comayagua, Honduras. Years of corruption and conservative law-making "showed the Honduras people just how cruel the [National] Party was and … they voted in response," adds Honduran scholar Suyapa Portillo. Castro’s likely win "is a testament to bottom-up organizing," she says.

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