Democracy Now!

Hours after Tuesday’s mass shooting that killed at least 19 students and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy passionately addressed Republicans on the Senate floor in a call for action on gun control. “I’m here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues: Find a path forward here,” said Murphy. “Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.”

The National Rifle Association still plans to host its annual meeting Friday in Houston, Texas, despite Tuesday’s mass shooting at an elementary school that left 19 children and two adults dead in the state. More than 55,000 people are set to attend and hear speeches by former President Trump and Republican Texas lawmakers including Governor Greg Abbott and Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn. Michael Spies, senior staff writer at The Trace, says the NRA convention will serve as a “Republican pep rally” to uphold “an absolutist vision of the Second Amendment,” and argues the Republican Party’s devotion to unrestricted gun access goes beyond the NRA, whose power he says is slowly weakening. “The machine works on autopilot now,” says Spies, who also discusses a pending Supreme Court case which could do away with a New York law requiring gun owners to hold a permit to carry concealed guns.

Nineteen children and two teachers were shot dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday by an 18-year-old who had earlier shot and critically wounded his grandmother. The gunman was shot and killed by law enforcement. The attack was the deadliest school shooting since the massacre in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, in 2012 and comes just 10 days after an 18-year-old self-described white supremacist attacked a grocery store in the heart of Buffalo’s African American community. We go to Austin to speak with Nicole Golden, executive director of Texas Gun Sense, who says Texas lawmakers have widely opposed gun violence prevention legislation supported by the majority of Texas voters. She also denounces Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s recommendation to arm teachers.

19 Children, 2 Teachers Killed at Elementary School Mass Shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Senate to Hold Hearing for Biden’s Pick to Head ATF, Georgia: Kemp and Raffensperger Defeat Trump-Endorsed Candidates, Texas: Rep. Henry Cuellar-Jessica Cisneros Race Is Too Close to Call, North Korea Tests Missiles, Including Possible ICBM, Japan Accuses China and Russia of Flying Warplanes Near Its Airspace, World Food Programme Calls on Russia to Lift Ukraine Blockade to Allow for Grain Exports, AP and CNN Investigations: Israeli Forces Killed Al Jazeera Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, U.N. Human Rights Chief to Visit Xinjiang; Hacked Chinese Police Documents on Uyghurs Published, Nigeria: Boko Haram Kills at Least 50 in Borno State Attack, Climate Activists Disrupt Shell Shareholder Meeting, Iraqi Man Arrested for George W. Bush Assassination Plot Involving FBI Informants, Trans Girls Banned from Competing in Girls’ School Sports in Indiana, GLAAD Condemns Ricky Gervais Netflix Special

President Biden is on his first trip to Asia as president to meet with other leaders from the “Quad” — Japan, India and Australia — as part of efforts to counter China’s growing power in the region. During the trip, Biden has contradicted longstanding U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan by vowing to defend it militarily if China attacks. “This idea that the United States is obligated to come to the defense of Taiwan if it [China] attacked, is simply not U.S. policy,” says Michael Swaine, director of the Quincy Institute’s East Asia program. Swaine says the official U.S.-China policy on Taiwan — which prioritizes peaceful unification over military force — has been subtly weakened by both sides, and “President Biden’s recent comment weakens it even further.”

We look in depth at “The Ransom,” a new series in The New York Times that details how France devastated Haiti’s economy by forcing Haiti to pay massive reparations for the loss of slave labor after enslaved Haitians rebelled, founding the world’s first Black republic in 1804. We speak with historians Westenley Alcenat and Gerald Horne on the story of Haiti’s finances and how Haitian demands for reparations have been repeatedly shut down. Alcenat says the series “exposes the rest of the world to a knowledge that actually has existed for over a hundred years,” and while he welcomes the series, he demands The New York Times apologize for publishing racist Haitian stereotypes in 2010 by columnist David Brooks. Horne also requests The New York Times make the revelatory documents that the series cites accessible to other historians. He says the series will “hopefully cause us to reexamine the history of this country and move away from the propaganda point that somehow the United States was an abolitionist republic when actually it was the foremost slaveholder’s republic.”

U.N.: Conflicts Displace Record 100 Million People Around the Globe , At Least 17 Rohingya Refugees Drown Attempting to Flee Burma by Boat, 3 Dead, 4 Missing After Boat Carrying Asylum Seekers Capsizes Off Mexican Coast, Refugees at U.S. Border Protest Title 42 Expulsions, 3 Killed in Yemen’s Capital as Houthis Shoot Down Saudi Spy Drone, Russian Cluster Bombs Fall on Kharkiv , Ukraine’s Zelensky Says He’ll Only Negotiate with Russia’s Putin, Russian Diplomat Resigns over Ukraine War: “I’ve Never Been So Ashamed of My Country”, Pfizer: Vaccine 80% Effective Against Symptomatic Omicron Infection in Young Kids, CDC Says Gay and Bisexual Men at Higher Risk of Contracting Monkeypox, Supreme Court Limits Legal Options for Death Row Prisoners with Ineffective Counsel, Amnesty International: Worldwide Use of Death Penalty Surged in 2021, Mike Pence Breaks with Donald Trump over Georgia Gubernatorial Endorsement, Activists Erase $1.7 Million in Student Debt for Black Women at Bennett College, DOJ Says Federal Agents Must Intervene in Excessive Force Cases, Shell Consultant Quits, Citing “Huge Risks from Climate Change”

This week marks the second anniversary of the police murder of George Floyd. We speak with Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, who have just published an in-depth new book, “His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice,” that tells the story of structural racism in the U.S. through Floyd’s own story. “This is an American story. It shows how American poverty works, how American wealth works, and George Floyd was on the wrong side of the line because of the color of his skin,” says Olorunnipa. “He was living in a world where he was trying to get better, but there weren’t a lot of supports to do it,” says Samuels. “It’s important for us not to leave behind the millions of other George Floyds that are operating in silence, not getting the same attention, and who are experiencing some of the same struggles and troubles that he did during his life.”

In what is being described as a “greenslide,” voters in Australia topple the prime minister, ending nearly a decade of conservative rule. The main issue? Climate change. Voters elected Anthony Albanese of the center-left Labor Party as their new prime minister on Saturday, ousting the right-wing, pro-coal Scott Morrison, who had served as Australia’s prime minister since 2018. The Labor Party won the most seats in Parliament, and voters overwhelmingly backed candidates pushing for stronger climate action. “We have lived through the most catastrophic climate in Australia since the last election,” says Australian climate scientist and activist Tim Flannery, who describes a wave of climate-fueled fires, floods and drought under the rule of right-wing, pro-coal Morrison. “Climate is the most important issue this last election,” in part “because of the catastrophic impacts we’ve seen in Australia since the previous election just three years ago,” says Flannery.

Biden Vows to Defend Taiwan Militarily If China Attacks, In “Greenslide,” Australia Ousts Pro-Coal Prime Minister as Labor Party Wins Election, U.S. Considers Sending Special Forces to Kyiv to Protect U.S. Embassy, Zelensky Says War “Will Only Definitively End Through Diplomacy”, U.S. Military Plane Flies 39 Tons of Baby Formula in from Germany, Federal Judge Blocks Biden from Lifting Trump-Era Title 42 Border Policy, Sexual Abuse Scandal Exposed Inside Southern Baptist Convention, WHO Holds Emergency Meeting to Discuss Monkeypox Outbreak, Taliban Orders Female TV Anchors to Cover Faces on Air in Afghanistan, Quds Force Colonel Assassinated in Tehran, Ex-Ambassador Admits France & U.S. Orchestrated 2004 Coup in Haiti to Oust Aristide, Argentina: Judge Rules State Responsible for 1924 Indigenous Massacres, In Defeat for AIPAC, Summer Lee Wins Pennsylvania House Primary, Ginni Thomas Asked Arizona Lawmakers to Help Overturn 2020 Election, Hillary Clinton Approved Plan of Spreading Allegations Linking Trump to Russian Bank in 2016, SF Archbishop Bars Pelosi from Receiving Communion for Supporting Abortion Rights, Protesters Demand Chevron End Labor and Environmental Abuses

During a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Democratic Congressmember Lucy McBath of Georgia shared her personal story about accessing reproductive care after experiencing a stillbirth. In doing so, she pointed out how anti-abortion politicians and legislators fail to see the medical necessity of abortion in instances such as hers. “We can be the nation that rolls back the clock, that rolls back the rights of women, and that strips them of their very liberty. Or we can be the nation of choice — the nation where every woman can make her own choice,” says McBath.

After a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion revealed the intention to overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion has increasingly become a state issue, with conservative states criminalizing the procedure. Oklahoma approved a bill on Thursday that outlaws almost all abortions beginning at fertilization. The measure is modeled after a Texas ban that encourages private citizens to sue abortion providers and people who assist in abortions. The reproductive justice movement now faces not only these intense legal hurdles but also severe underfunding and an overreliance on billionaire-backed foundations that will not be sustainable for very long, warns Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent for The Nation.

As Buffalo, New York, mourns the loss of the 10 people killed Saturday in a racist rampage at a local grocery store in the heart of the city’s African American community, we get an update from longtime community activist and former mayoral candidate India Walton about the lack of attention to the structural issues that made the Black community vulnerable and the ineffectiveness of police. “My question is: What happens when the cameras leave? How do we continue to support the people who have been negatively impacted?” says Walton. “What decreases gun violence, particularly in places like East Buffalo, is going to be good living-wage jobs, affordable housing, a quality education and access to the basic needs that this community has lacked for so long.”

The Buffalo shooter wrote racist screeds online before targeting and killing people in a majority-Black neighborhood. We look at the incident’s similarities to other white supremacist killings, particularly the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Amy Spitalnick is the executive director of Integrity First for America, a nonprofit organization that successfully sued the white supremacist organizers of Unite the Right. Spitalnick says tactics such as live-streaming are characteristic of previous acts of white supremacist terrorism, and calls for systemic change and preventative measures amid a clear pattern of violence. “This is precisely part of a cycle of white supremacist violence in which each attack inspires the next one,” says Spitalnick.

Senate Approves Additional $40 Billion for Weapons and Aid to Ukraine, Russia Rejects U.N. Plea to Allow Ukraine Grain Shipments as Global Food Crisis Grows, Climate Crisis and Conflict Have Internally Displaced Over 60 Million, China Warns U.S. over Taiwan as Biden Kicks Off Six-Day Asia Tour in South Korea, Oklahoma Legislature Passes Nation’s Strictest Abortion Ban, Suspect Pleads Not Guilty to Racist Mass Murder in Buffalo Supermarket, House Democrats Approve Bill to Crack Down on Gasoline Price Gouging, Chicago Police Officer Shoots and Injures Unarmed 13-Year-Old, Hungary’s Far-Right Prime Minister, Promoter of “Great Replacement” Theory, Headlines CPAC Gathering

In a historic milestone, Chile has finalized a draft of its first-ever democratically written constitution to replace the one created under the U.S.-backed neoliberal dictator Augusto Pinochet. The new constitution is expected to enshrine a wide range of human rights and social programs, including free universal access to healthcare, higher education, reproductive rights, as well as more robust environmental safeguards and policies to promote gender and racial equity. It will also for the first time recognize Chile’s Indigenous peoples and offer restitution for historically Indigenous lands, but does not include a measure to nationalize parts of the country’s mining industry. “It has been a demand of social movements, of the civil society in Chile for decades,” says Pablo Abufom, member of Chile’s “Solidaridad” movement.

The white supremacist who shot 10 people dead in Buffalo, New York, was able to buy an assault rifle months after New York state police took him into custody for making a threat about committing violence. The gun store owner who sold the weapon says a background check showed a clean record. We look at how background checks alone are not enough to prevent gun violence, as both mass shootings and weapons sales have skyrocketed in recent years without more legislation at the federal level. Multiple bills proposing harsher gun restrictions have been blocked by filibusters in Congress. “Our demand is that we renew an assault weapons ban at the federal level and also that we restrict the production of high-capacity magazines or large-capacity magazines,” says Kris Brown, president of Brady, one of the oldest gun violence prevention organizations in the U.S.

As the United Nations warns about the devastating global impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, talks to negotiate a peace settlement appear to have collapsed. Russian President Vladimir Putin appears determined to push forward despite a more resilient Ukrainian defense than expected, as both sides seem to be fixated on gaining military and territorial victories. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to pour millions of dollars in weapons into Ukraine. “It does seem that the United States thinks that Ukraine should be supported in its war effort, not its negotiation effort, until the very end,” says Nina Khrushcheva, professor at The New School and the great-granddaughter of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. She also speaks about the current climate of civil society within Russia and the faulty intelligence that led Putin to decide to invade Ukraine.

House Passes Bill Combating Domestic Terrorism in Response to Buffalo Shooting, New York to Probe Social Media Sites Used by Buffalo Shooting Suspect, Russia Claims Victory in Mariupol as Last Ukrainian Fighters Surrender , Bridget Brink Confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine , Russia Expels Diplomats and Closes Moscow Bureau of Canadian Broadcaster, Pentagon Claims Successful Test of Nuclear-Capable Hypersonic Missile, Finland and Sweden Apply for NATO Membership, Agree to New Arms Purchases, President Biden Heads to Asia for Six-Day Tour Amid Tensions with China and North Korea, Israeli Military Won’t Investigate Killing of Al Jazeera Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh , CDC Urges Indoor Mask Use as U.S. Coronavirus Cases Surge Again, Kansas Supreme Court OKs GOP-Gerrymandered Congressional Map, Biden Invokes Defense Production Act to Address Baby Formula Shortage, Woman Dies While Imprisoned at Rikers Island, 21st Prisoner Death Since 2021, Minneapolis Ex-Cop Thomas Lane Pleads Guilty to Role in Killing George Floyd, U.S. Soccer Will Pay Players of All Genders Equally in Landmark Labor Deal, Rep. Lucy McBath Says Outlawing Abortion Will Impact Those Who Have Miscarried

In a rare interview from the frontlines of the Russian invasion, we speak with American journalist Billy Nessen in the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk. It is the easternmost city still held by Ukrainian forces after almost three months of war. He says Russian troops have devastated the city with heavy shelling. The interview with Nessen was interrupted when a shell landed in the building next door. Nessen speaks about the Ukrainian resistance, the Azov Battalion and more, including the U.S. and NATO’s role in the conflict, especially as the U.S. Senate is expected to approve an additional $40 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine. “Obviously the West is determined that Ukraine has to win this war,” says Nessen.

We look at the Democratic Party’s opposition to progressive challengers such as Nina Turner, former Ohio state senator who earlier this month lost her congressional primary challenge after facing massive spending and attacks by super PACs. Turner says the corporate wing of the Democratic Party seeks to consolidate the existing leadership’s power while shutting down champions of progressive policies like Medicare for All. “The Democratic Party as a whole has to make a decision: Is it the party of the corporatists, or is it the party of the people?” says Turner.

We look at Tuesday’s primary elections across five states, which could set the tone for this year’s midterm elections in November. Progressives won in some primary elections despite opposition from within the Democratic Party, as well as deep-pocketed outside groups. “What you’ve seen is a surprising backlash at the voter level to all of the money that flooded in,” says investigative journalist David Sirota of The Lever. “It’s been a pretty good night for progressive candidates, despite all that money.”

In Visit to Buffalo, Biden Denounces White Supremacy as a “Poison”, Dallas Police Investigate Koreatown Shooting as a Hate Crime, Report: Guns Produced in U.S. Nearly Tripled Since Year 2000, Primary Results: Trump-Endorsed Mastriano Wins in Pennsylvania; Cawthorn Loses in North Carolina; Charles Booker Becomes First Black Candidate to Win Major Party Senate Nomination in Kentucky, Finland and Sweden Apply to Join NATO, Russia: Nearly 1,000 Ukrainian Fighters Surrendered at Mariupol Steel Plant, Report: Ukraine-Russia Talks Collapse; European Leaders Push for Ceasefire, U.S. Considers $500 Million Military Aid Package for India, Pentagon: No One to Be Held Accountable for U.S. Airstrike That Killed 70 Civilians in Syria, U.S. Eases Venezuela Oil Sanctions, Justice Dept. Requests Jan. 6 Committee’s Witness Deposition Transcripts, Study: Pollution Kills 9 Million Annually

House lawmakers have raised alarm over a nationwide baby formula shortage after a manufacturer in Michigan shut down over health concerns and was linked to the deaths of two infants. Advocates are calling for greater accountability and investigation into the manufacturer, Abbott Laboratories, even as the Food and Drug Administration is in talks to allow the plant to reopen. We look at how Abbott’s grip on the market for baby formula, amounting to about 20% of all formula distributed in the U.S., contributed to the crisis. An overhaul to the system where the government subsidizes only a few formula brands can help combat the monopolization that has caused this crisis, says David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect.

Before embarking on a murderous rampage in a majority-Black neighborhood, the Buffalo shooter posted a white supremacist manifesto online that fixated on white dominance, white fertility and the survival of the white race. These are all sentiments shared by the Republican Party and its media arms, says author and extremism researcher Talia Lavin, who spent nearly a year impersonating right-wing white supremacists online, assuming false identities to infiltrate their groups, as she worked on her book, “Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy.” She adds that online chat platforms such as 4chan and Telegram are essentially “perpetual motion radicalization machines” where “people who are already radicalized or in the process of being radicalized can imbibe propaganda.” Her recent article for Rolling Stone is headlined “The Buffalo Shooter Isn’t a 'Lone Wolf.' He’s a Mainstream Republican.”

Calls are growing for heavier restrictions on social media platforms after a white supremacist live-streamed his shooting spree in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, resulting in 10 deaths and three wounded. While the video was removed from Twitch within minutes, platforms such as Twitter and Facebook allowed it to circulate for days and gain over a million views. The 18-year-old shooter was radicalized through online forums such as 4chan, according to a racist screed he authored. “What we are dealing with is the backend business models that are creating a structure where certain things are being able to be profited from, certain things travel differently, and hate-filled content has more of a space to be engaged with,” says Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change. Color of Change has called for social media platforms to institute changes to their terms of service and urged Twitch to conduct a racial equity audit.

Investigators Say Suspect in Buffalo Massacre Spent Months Plotting Racist Terror, California Church Shooting Was “Politically Motivated Hate Crime” Against Taiwanese Community, Biden Administration to Redeploy Hundreds of U.S. Troops to Somalia, Ukrainian Fighters in Besieged Mariupol Steel Plant Surrender to Russian Forces, Senate Advances $40 Billion Economic and Military Aid Package for Ukraine, Putin Warns NATO Against Expanding Military Presence in Finland and Sweden, New Zealand PM Tests Positive for Coronavirus, China Says It Has Stamped Out Coronavirus in Shanghai After Weeks-Long Lockdown, New York City Set to Raise COVID Alert to “High” as U.S. Cases Rise Steadily, Supreme Court Sides with Sen. Ted Cruz, Voids Limits on Campaign Loan Repayments, U.S. State Department Eases Trump-Era Restrictions on Cuba, Dozens Wounded as Israeli Forces Attack Funeral for Palestinian Killed by Israeli Police, Catholic Archbishop in Jerusalem Condemns Israeli Violence at Funeral of Shireen Abu Akleh, Hezbollah and Allies Lose Majority in Lebanon Parliament, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Calls on Citizens to Sacrifice as Economic Crisis Deepens, FDA Reaches Agreement with Abbott Laboratories to Restart Baby Formula Production, Legendary LGBTQ Leader Urvashi Vaid Dies at 63

Tens of thousands took to the streets across the U.S. Saturday to protest threats to abortion rights as part of a coordinated day of action, under the banner “Bans Off Our Bodies.” We speak with Renee Bracey Sherman, founder and executive director of pro-abortion group We Testify, about the racist history behind anti-abortion movements and the failure of Democrats to protect reproductive rights over the years. “Abortion restrictions were really to push white people to have more babies and restrict and … control the fertility of Black and Brown people across this country,” says Sherman. Her new piece for Time magazine is headlined “Voting Won’t Save Abortion Rights.”

We speak to prominent antiracist scholar Ibram X. Kendi about the epidemic of young white males who commit white supremacist domestic terrorism. This comes as an 18-year-old white shooter sought out a majority-Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, and killed 10 people on Saturday. Kendi says this phenomenon will only get worse if antiracist education is not introduced to white children and children of color alike at their most vulnerable stages of development. Even before critical race theory was under attack, there was a dearth of educators and education that reinforces “the source of racial disparities and inequities in our community is not the inferiority of a particular racial group but this history and presence of racist policies,” he adds. Kendi’s recent piece for The Atlantic is headlined “The Danger More Republicans Should Be Talking About: White-supremacist ideology is harmful to all, especially the naive and defenseless minds of youth.”

The mass shooter who killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday posted a racist manifesto online before targeting a majority-Black neighborhood. His writings took heavily from conservative conspiracy theories that white people were in danger of being replaced by people of color. This so-called Great Replacement conspiracy theory has been promoted by major far-right media figures including Tucker Carlson of Fox News. “What it does is create a dynamic where believers view immigrants and nonwhite people as an existential threat not only to themselves physically but to their position in society,” says Nikki McCann Ramírez, associate research director at Media Matters for America, who has researched how Carlson uses his show to launder white nationalist ideology. We also speak with prominent antiracist scholar Ibram X. Kendi, who says mainstream conservatives are increasingly parroting extremist talking points.

In one of this year’s deadliest mass shootings, a white supremacist opened fire Saturday on a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 and wounding three others. Eleven of the victims are Black. The 18-year-old suspect posted racist ideology online before live-streaming his attack. We go to Buffalo to speak with India Walton, longtime community activist and former mayoral candidate, about the city’s systemic racism and segregation, which has led to “food apartheid.” Black residents in east Buffalo have just one grocery store, which the shooter targeted. “This is more than half a century of oppression, of systemic racism, and now is the time to renew the call for reparations,” Walton says.

Racist Shooter Kills 10 at Supermarket in Majority-Black Neighborhood of Buffalo, NY, Mass Shooting in California Church Leaves One Dead and Four Critically Injured, Protesters Declare “Summer of Rage” as SCOTUS Prepares to Void Reproductive Rights, Sweden and Finland Formally Request NATO Membership, Sen. Mitch McConnell and GOP Lawmakers Meet Ukraine’s President in Kyiv, Kremlin Accuses U.S. and Allies of “Hybrid War” Against Russia in Ukraine, India Bans Wheat Exports After Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Sets Off Global Food Crisis, Russia Extends Pretrial Jailing of WNBA Star Brittney Griner, Saudi Aramco Made $40 Billion in Profits in Early 2022, 16 Wounded as Israeli Forces Attack Palestinians Marking Nakba Day, Lebanon Holds First Parliamentary Elections Since 2018, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Sworn In as Somali President , Trump-Backed Candidates Put to the Test as Five States Hold Primaries

Finland’s president and prime minister say they plan to end decades of neutrality and join NATO. Sweden is also expected to seek NATO membership. The Kremlin says Russia sees the expansion of NATO on its borders as a threat. “People on both sides will suffer,” says Reiner Braun, executive director of the International Peace Bureau, who warns Russia will escalate in response and move more nuclear weapons near the 830-mile-long Finland-Russia border.

Three journalists were killed within a three-day span this week in Mexico, bringing the toll to 11 so far this year and making Mexico the deadliest country in the world for journalists, behind Ukraine. Most of the murders have gone unsolved. This week journalists across Mexico took to the streets protesting the murder of their colleagues and called for accountability. “A crime against a reporter is a crime against the entire country,” says Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico correspondent at the Committee to Protect Journalists, who calls the numbers staggering and unprecedented.

Calls are growing for President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, the 77-year-old imprisoned Native American activist who has spent 46 years behind bars for a crime he says he did not commit. Amnesty International considers Peltier a political prisoner, and numerous legal observers say his 1977 conviction for alleged involvement in killing two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation was riddled with irregularities and prosecutorial misconduct. “At this point, there’s no reason other than vindictive revenge for him to be in prison,” says writer and activist Nick Estes, co-founder of the Indigenous resistance group The Red Nation. “He survived COVID, he’s in poor health, and the man deserves to be with his people,” says Estes, who calls for a full congressional investigation into the deaths of Indigenous activists on Pine Ridge Reservation, where the shootout that led to Peltier’s arrest occurred.

The Interior Department has documented the deaths of more than 500 Indigenous children at Indian boarding schools run or supported by the federal government in the United States which operated from 1819 to 1969. The actual death toll is believed to be far higher, and the report located 53 burial sites at former schools. The report was ordered by the first Indigenous cabinet member, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose grandparents were forced to attend boarding school at the age of 8. “It’s kind of a misnomer to actually call these educational institutions or schools themselves when you didn’t have very many people graduating, let alone surviving the dire conditions of those schools,” says Nick Estes, historian and co-founder of The Red Nation. Estes says the institutions were part of a “genocidal process” of “dispossession and theft of Indigenous people’s lands and resources.”

White House Marks 1 Million U.S. Deaths from COVID-19, 6 Million Have Fled Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, with 8 Million Internally Displaced, Rand Paul Delays Senate Vote on $40 Billion Ukraine Aid Bill, Moscow Threatens Finland over Plans to Join NATO, The Guardian: Fossil Fuel Company “Climate Bombs” Risk Planetary Catastrophe, Biden Administration Cancels Oil and Gas Lease Sales in Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Five Republican Lawmakers Including Kevin McCarthy, Grand Jury Probes Trump’s Mishandling of Classified Documents, Israeli Forces Assault Funeral Procession for Slain Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Israel Approves 4,000 More Illegal Settlement Homes in Occupied West Bank, Chilean Journalist Francisca Sandoval, Shot Covering May Day Rally, Dies of Wounds, Argentine Protesters Reject IMF Debt and Demand Relief from Soaring Prices, North Korea Reports First COVID-19 Death, Sri Lanka Protesters Demand President’s Ouster, Reject New Prime Minister, 11 Dead as Boat Carrying Haitian Asylum Seekers Capsizes Near Puerto Rico, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Suggests Cutting Off Food to Migrant Children, Trump-Nominated Judges Strike Down California Ban on Assault Rifles for Under-21s, Senate Confirms Jerome Powell to Second Term as Federal Reserve Chair, Bernie Sanders Reintroduces Medicare for All Bill, Saying Healthcare Is a Human Right

We speak with Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, which recognized his “uncompromising and compassionate” writing about colonialism and the refugee experience. He is the first Black writer to win the award since Toni Morrison almost 30 years ago and the first Black African writer to win the prize since 1986. Gurnah discusses his work, which explores displacement, migration and “historical moments that create us.” His latest novel is titled “Afterlives” and will be published in the United States in August 2022.

We speak with renowned Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov, president of PEN Ukraine, about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its third month. “The war looks like the war against Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian history and Ukrainian identity,” says Kurkov. He says daily life in Kyiv is “coming back but very fragile” as Russia is said to be preparing a second attempt to occupy the capital.

Palestinians are holding a state funeral in Ramallah for Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran journalist who was one of the best-known television journalists in Palestine and the Arab world. Abu Akleh, who was a U.S. citizen, was wearing a press uniform and covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank when she was fatally shot in the head on Wednesday. Israel initially claimed she may have been shot by a Palestinian gunman, but later said it was unclear who shot her, after witnesses, including other journalists, said she was shot dead by Israeli forces. “People are shocked all over Palestine, all over the Arab world, actually,” says Rashid Khalidi, professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University. Israel’s “colonial army” has “systematically targeted” Palestinian journalists, says Khalidi. “It’s really important to Israel that nobody see what’s going on in the Occupied Territories.”

Manchin Joins Republicans in Blocking Bill to Codify Roe v. Wade, Palestinians Hold State Funeral for Al Jazeera Reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, Shot Dead by Israelis, Russia Denounces Congress’s $40 Billion Ukraine Aid Bill as Part of U.S. Proxy War, Finland Takes Steps to Join NATO, Ending Decades of Neutrality, Interior Department Begins Documenting Dark History of Indian Boarding Schools, Report: 50% Chance Global Average Temp Increase Will Reach 1.5C in Next 5 Years, New Mexico Wildfire Grows by 50 Square Miles; 20 Homes Burn Down in California, CDC: 108,000 Died from Drug Overdoses in 2021; Most Linked to Synthetic Opioids, CDC: Gun Deaths in U.S. Reach New High of Over 45,000 in 2020, House to Probe Growing Shortage of Baby Formula After Closing of Abbott Plant, Florida Judge Blocks GOP Effort to Remake Congressional Map, Arizona Executes Blind 66-Year-Old Man with Paranoid Schizophrenia, Hong Kong Authorities Arrest 90-Year-Old Catholic Cardinal, North Korea Reports First COVID Case, Declares “Severe National Emergency”

Amazon has fired two workers who helped organize the first successful U.S. union at Amazon’s Staten Island JFK8 warehouse. This comes as the National Labor Relations Board on Monday upheld a complaint that Amazon violated labor law in the Staten Island union vote by holding mandatory worker meetings to dissuade employees from voting to unionize. We speak with the fired workers, Tristan “Lion” Dutchin and Mat Cusick, who say they need the support of the NLRB and pro-worker legislation to protect them against retaliation by Amazon.

In a major development, the National Labor Relations Board announced Tuesday night it is suing Starbucks to immediately rehire seven Memphis Starbucks workers who were illegally fired in retaliation for their union efforts. This comes as the NLRB issued a complaint against Starbucks for 29 unfair labor practice charges, including over 200 violations of federal workers’ protections, stemming from retaliation claims made by members of the Starbucks Workers United in Buffalo, New York, where Starbucks workers’ union organizing effort began in August. “Starbucks is willing to fight tooth and nail to protect the image that they have built over the years,” says one of the Memphis workers, Beto Sanchez. “They love to put up this facade of being a progressive company, of being woke, of being the first in leading areas. But like I’ve seen, they are willing to retaliate and fire workers for airing out their dirty laundry. They are just as bad as any other Fortune 500 company that’s out there.”

We go to Manila to speak with Filipina Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa about Monday’s presidential election in the Philippines, where Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — the only son of the late Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos — appears to have won in a landslide alongside his running mate, the daughter of current President Rodrigo Duterte. Ressa says the Marcos campaign used social media to cover up the historical memory of the family’s brutal policies and the uprising in 1986 that ultimately ended Marcos’s two-decade dictatorship. “These elections are emblematic of the impact of concerted information operations of disinformation where it literally changed history in front of our eyes,” says Ressa. Her forthcoming book is titled “How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future.”

Israeli forces have shot and killed Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian American journalist working for Al Jazeera, as she covered an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp early Wednesday morning. Video released by Al Jazeera shows Abu Akleh was wearing a press uniform when she was shot in the head by what the network says was a single round fired by an Israeli sniper. “She gave voice to the struggles of Palestinians over a career spanning nearly three decades,” says journalist Dalia Hatuqa, remembering her friend and colleague. “Her killing is not an isolated incident. This has been happening for a long time: Israeli attacks against media workers, especially Palestinians, and the relative impunity under which they operate.”

Palestinian American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh Shot Dead While Covering Israeli Raid, House Approves $40 Billion in Weapons and Economic Aid to Ukraine, As Protests Rage, Sri Lanka’s Embattled President Orders Troops to Shoot to Kill, WHO Criticizes China’s Zero-COVID Strategy as “Unsustainable”, Study Warns China Faces “Tsunami” of Omicron Coronavirus Infections , Treasury Secretary Yellen Says Reversing Roe Would Be “Very Damaging” to U.S. Economy, Honduran Ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández Pleads Not Guilty to U.S. Drugs Charges, Elon Musk Prepares to Reverse Twitter’s Ban on Trump: “It Was a Morally Bad Decision”, Labor Board Sues Starbucks to Reinstate Fired Union Organizers , House of Representatives Votes to Allow Congressional Staffers to Unionize, Georgia Police Accused of Racial Profiling over Warrantless Search of HBCU Team Bus, Former Black Panther Sundiata Acoli To Be Released After Half-Century in NJ Prison

We speak with historian Kelly Lytle Hernández, whose new book “Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands” tells the story of the often-overlooked men and women who incited the Mexican Revolution and how it relates to the rise of U.S. imperialism. The movement included intellectuals, workers and others who opposed Mexico’s dictatorial President Porfirio Díaz, who ruled for decades with support from the U.S. government and U.S. business elites. “What we have is Latinx protagonists at the center of the American story,” says Hernández, who teaches history, African American studies and urban planning at UCLA. “If you want to understand the rise of U.S. empire, you want to understand U.S. immigration history, you want to understand the issues of policing we are confronting today, we have to know that these are Latinx histories.”

The Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday, and among the winners was the Futuro Media and PRX team behind the seven-part podcast series “Suave” that follows acclaimed journalist Maria Hinojosa’s decades-long friendship with David Luis “Suave” Gonzalez, who received a life sentence without parole at the age of 17 for first-degree homicide. Gonzalez met Hinojosa in 1993, and they continued to stay in touch through letters, visits and phone calls that Hinojosa recorded, eventually forming the foundation of the podcast. The series chronicles Gonzalez’s journey as he is eventually given the opportunity to experience life on the outside for the first time as an adult, after the 2016 Supreme Court ruling that mandatory sentences of life without parole on juveniles are unconstitutional. “Here is a stranger telling me, a lifer, that I could be the voice for the voiceless. I was lit,” Gonzalez said when he spoke to Democracy Now! in 2021 when the series was first released. Hinojosa credited the success of the podcast to their open and honest relationship. “Suave and I were just very real with each other, over decades,” she said. “I never imagined that it would end up being a podcast that is getting this amount of attention.” Hinojosa founded Futuro Media in 2010 and said Monday it is now “leaving its mark in American history.”

Sri Lanka’s prime minister stepped down Monday following weeks of street protests over the country’s worst economic crisis in its history, which has seen skyrocketing food and fuel prices in the island nation. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s resignation came after supporters of the ruling party stormed a major protest site in the capital Colombo, attacking protesters and prompting clashes with police. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the outgoing prime minister’s brother, has declared a state of emergency and remains in power, despite protesters’ demands for the resignations of all members of the political dynasty that has dominated Sri Lanka’s politics for decades. “The gross mismanagement of our economy by this regime combined with the history of neoliberal policies is what has brought Sri Lanka to its knees,” says Ahilan Kadirgamar, a political economist and senior lecturer at the University of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka.

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