Democracy Now!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IAEA Reaches Ukraine Nuclear Plant as Fighting Prompts Emergency Shutdown of Reactor, WHO Warns Flooding in Pakistan Risks Lives of 3 Million Children, California Temperature Records Toppled as U.S. Southwest Faces Another Heat Wave, Democrat Mary Peltola Upsets Sarah Palin to Win Alaska’s Lone Congressional Seat, Texas Gov. Abbott Orders Asylum Seekers Bused from U.S.-Mexico Border to Chicago, FDA Grants Emergency Use to Boosters Targeting Coronavirus Variants, Saudi Arabia Sentences Woman to 45 Years in Prison for Social Media Posts, Palestinian Man Jailed Without Charge Ends 6-Month Hunger Strike After Winning Release, Israel Sentences Gaza Charity Director to 12 Years in Prison, U.N. Finds China May Have Committed “Crimes Against Humanity” in Xinjiang, Judge Allows New York Concealed Carry Restrictions to Take Effect

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

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

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

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

Biden Approves Emergency Declaration over Water Crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, DOJ Filing Says Trump Likely Obstructed Government Probe into Top-Secret Documents, Nuclear Inspectors Head for Russian-Occupied Zaporizhzhia Power Plant, Ukrainian Grain Ship Arrives in East Africa to Ease Starvation, Former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev Dead at 91, World “Sleepwalking Toward the Destruction of the Planet,” Warns U.N. Secretary-General, 6 Million Afghans at Risk of Famine, South Carolina Lawmakers Approve Near-Total Abortion Ban, U.S. Life Expectancy Plummets for Second Year in a Row, Police in Columbus, Ohio, Shoot Dead Unarmed Black Man in Bed, Google Employee Alleges Retaliation for Speaking Out Against Providing AI to Israeli Military and Government

We go to Florida to speak with 25-year-old gun control activist Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who made history last week when he won the Democratic primary for an open U.S. House seat in Orlando. Frost is set to become the first Afro-Cuban and first member of Generation Z elected to Congress if he goes on to win November’s general election for Florida’s heavily Democratic 10th Congressional District. Frost discusses his decade as a movement organizer in Florida and breaks down his stance on Palestine, Cuba and how to reach Trump supporters in Florida.

We look at what’s happened to Afghan refugees who have struggled to flee the country since the last U.S. troops left Afghanistan one year ago today. While the U.S. and allied nations helped evacuate some 122,000 people out of Afghanistan, the U.S. has failed to process requests for “humanitarian parole” — a program granting U.S. entry that costs each Afghan applicant $575 and is what Reveal reporter Najib Aminy says is “one of the last possibilities [for Afghans] to leave the country.” According to documents obtained by Reveal, out of the 66,000 applications filed for humanitarian parole, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has processed less than 8,000 of them and approved just 123. Meanwhile, the agency has already approved more than 68,000 applications from Ukrainians since launching a separate program called Uniting for Ukraine in April after the Russian invasion and has charged these applicants no fee.

We discuss Western hegemony and U.S. policy in Russia, Ukraine and China with Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, whose new article is headlined “The West’s False Narrative About Russia and China.” Sachs says the bipartisan U.S. approach to foreign policy is “unaccountably dangerous and wrongheaded,” and warns the U.S. is creating “a recipe for yet another war” in East Asia.

Muqtada al-Sadr Tells Supporters to End Protests After Violence in Baghdad Kills 30, Pakistan Appeals for International Aid as Record Rainfall Brings “Climate Dystopia”, Residents of Jackson, Mississippi, Warned “Do Not Drink the Water” as Floodwaters Rise, “Doomed” Greenland Ice Will Add Nearly a Foot to Global Sea Level Rise, U.N. Ocean Treaty Talks Aimed at Protecting Marine Wildlife End in Failure, Ukraine Begins Counteroffensive to Retake Russian-Occupied Kherson, Biden Will Ask Congress to Approve $1.1 Billion Weapons Sale to Taiwan, Federal Judge Rejects 9/11 Families’ Bid to Seize Billions from Afghan Central Bank Funds, U.S. to Stop Shipping Free COVID-19 Tests as Funding Dries Up, Moderna Sues Pfizer, Claiming COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Rights, Capitol Rioter Who Menaced Sen. Chuck Schumer Gets 55-Month Prison Term, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Must Testify to Grand Jury About Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, 20-Year-Old Gunman with Assault Rifle Kills Two at Grocery Store in Bend, Oregon, Federal Judge Strikes Down Texas Law Barring Adults Under 21 from Carrying Handguns, Families of Gun Violence Victims Lead Rally at Texas Capitol Demanding Gun Controls

Hundreds of farmworkers concluded a 24-day march to Sacramento spanning 335 miles to demand California Governor Gavin Newsom support legislation that would make it easier for farmworkers to cast their ballots in union elections by mail. Newsom has threatened to veto the bill, which would keep farmworkers safe from employer retaliation, explains Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, the labor union that helped organize the march. We also speak with Irene de Barraicua, operations director of Líderes Campesinas, who describes the ongoing threats women agricultural workers and others face on the ground, including sexual harrassment, wage theft and exposure to toxic chemicals.

The Justice Department has released a redacted version of the affidavit used by the FBI to raid former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The affidavit revealed authorities were concerned Trump still had possession of top-secret documents that could have compromised U.S. intelligence sources and methods, and said there was “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction was found.” We speak with former FBI special agent Mike German, who says the FBI investigation of Trump has so far followed “a very cautious, restrained and methodological approach” and deviated greatly from the “militaristic approach” the FBI typically uses to target social justice organizations. He also says the threats against FBI agents from Trump supporters are “serious” and “persistent.”

Pakistan has declared a national emergency as massive floods continue to devastate the country, displacing 33 million people and bringing the death toll to over 1,000 since June. We speak with Shah Meer Baloch, Islamabad-based reporter for The Guardian, who describes how the floods have swept away homes, roads and bridges in what Baloch and Pakistan’s top climate official have called a serious “climate catastrophe.” We also speak with Asad Rehman, executive director of War on Want, who says Pakistan and other poor countries are “stuck in a toxic interplay between a climate catastrophe that they are not responsible for, increasing hunger, structural inequality and a rigged economic system.” He calls on rich countries to reach zero net emissions by 2030 instead of pursuing geoengineering schemes like carbon capture and storage — a tactic that is funded in President Biden’s new Inflation Reduction Act.

“Serious Climate Catastrophe”: Unprecedented Floods Displace Millions in Pakistan, Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, Warns Residents to “Get Out Now” as Floodwaters Rise, DOJ Releases Affidavit Used to Justify FBI Search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Anti-Radiation Iodine Tablets Handed Out as Fighting Rages Near Russian-Held Nuclear Plant, Russia Blocks Draft of U.N. Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, 32 Killed, Over 150 Injured as Rival Militias Clash in Libya’s Capital, EPA to Reclassify “Forever Chemicals” as Hazardous, Fed Chair Says U.S. Must Suffer “Pain” of Higher Interest Rates to Battle Inflation, Asylum Seeker Dies by Suicide at For-Profit ICE Jail in New Mexico, Ethiopian Forces Blamed for Airstrike on Tigray Kindergarten That Killed 7, 6 of 43 Kidnapped Mexican Students Were Kept Alive for Days Before Their 2014 Murder, Thousands Rally to Oppose Corruption Charges Against Argentina’s Vice President, California Governor Threatens to Veto Bill Making It Easier for Farmworkers to Unionize

Millions of pregnant people in the United States have now lost access to abortion in their state since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Anti-abortion “trigger laws” have gone into effect in numerous states across the country, including Texas, where it became a felony to perform an abortion starting Thursday,​​ punishable by up to life in prison. We speak to Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a Texas-based abortion provider, and Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, about how doctors are navigating the legal environment after the end of Roe v. Wade. “What I’ve seen over the last seven years of providing abortion care in Texas is that politics has found its way into my exam room, into my health center. It’s soaked its way into everything I do as a healthcare provider,” says Kumar, who adds that conservative politicians have attacked both abortion and trans healthcare in similar ways. Meanwhile, Timmaraju says even anti-abortion laws that allow abortion under extreme circumstances undercut bodily autonomy by leaving life in the hands of a panel of judges or hospital staff. “It’s an absolutely intolerable way to manage reproductive healthcare in this country,” she says.

One year after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover of the government, the country is in a humanitarian crisis that includes widespread hunger and poverty. Meanwhile, the U.S. refuses to release $7 billion in foreign assets that belong to Afghanistan’s central bank. “At least preventing starvation in Afghanistan is still our duty,” says Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which held a recent symposium on Afghanistan.

Six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the war has reached a stalemate. We speak with Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who says a possible path to a general ceasefire can begin with securing the safety of the region around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Nuclear Catastrophe Narrowly Averted at Russian-Held Plant, Says Ukraine’s Zelensky, IAEA Chief Says U.N. Inspectors Will Tour Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant “Very Soon”, Biden Orders U.S. Airstrikes in Syria Against Fighters with Alleged Links to Iran, Rohingya Muslims in Exile Mark Five Years Since Start of Genocide in Burma, Greenpeace Warns U.N. Ocean Biodiversity Treaty “On the Brink of Failure”, Peru Sues Repsol for $4.5 Billion over Massive Oil Spill, North Dakota Judge Puts Temporary Hold on Anti-Abortion “Trigger Law”, South Carolina GOP Lawmaker Voices Regret over “Fetal Heartbeat” Abortion Ban, Federal Court Extends Injunction Against Arkansas Anti-Trans Law, Biden Administration Moves to Codify DACA Under Federal Law, Judge Orders DOJ to Release Parts of Affidavit Used in Trump Search Warrant, Fox News Sued for $1.6 Billion over False Claims About Electronic Voting, Chipotle Workers in Michigan Become First to Unionize, Starbucks Accused of Illegally Withholding Wages from Pro-Union Workers, Qatar Deports Migrant Workers Who Demanded Unpaid Wages

We speak with one of the reporters who this week exposed the secretive Chicago industrial mogul who has quietly given $1.6 billion to the architect of the right-wing takeover of the courts — the largest known political advocacy donation in U.S. history. The donor is Barre Seid, who donated all of his shares in his electronics company, Tripp Lite, to the nonprofit group run by Leonard Leo, who helped select former President Trump’s conservative Supreme Court nominees. “This transaction was all structured in a way that really gamed the rules around donations to nonprofits,” says Andrew Perez, a reporter for The Lever, who co-authored an exposé about Seid headlined “Inside The Right’s Historic Billion-Dollar Dark Money Transfer.”

Oklahoma plans to execute a person a month for the next two years, starting today. We get an update from Connie Johnson, former state senator and murder victim family member with the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and speak with world-renowned anti-death-penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean. “Our death penalty is broken. It always was from the beginning,” Prejean tells Democracy Now! “I recognize that this is torture and an abuse of human rights. In time, with our help, as we continue to get the word out, the American people are going to see that, too. And we are going to end this thing.” Oklahoma has a history of botched executions, wrongful convictions and prosecution misconduct. “We get it wrong here often,” says Johnson. “We don’t want anyone executed.”

“Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis,” a new short documentary from The Intercept, profiles Black women educators and activists struggling under the weight of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars in student loan debt. It is directed by Astra Taylor and Erick Stoll, narrated by former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, and was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. “A system where Black women do not have to be subject to crushing debt is a system that would benefit everyone,” says Shamell Bell, one of the women featured in the film.

In a much-anticipated move, President Biden has signed an executive order Wednesday for student debt relief that could help more than 40 million borrowers by canceling up to $20,000 of their federal loans. Many advocates for canceling student debt say Biden’s plan doesn’t go far enough, while Republicans decry the plan as “student debt socialism.” We speak to Astra Taylor, writer, filmmaker and co-director of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors and one of the original advocates for a debt jubilee that would cancel all student debt. Despite the mixed reaction, “this is incredibly significant when you think about where we began as a movement not that long ago,” says Taylor, who also notes that debt strikes and the fight for full cancellation will continue.

President Biden to Cancel Up to $20,000 of Student Debt Per Borrower, Federal Judge Blocks Part of Idaho’s “Trigger Ban” Criminalizing Abortion Care, Russian Missile Attack on Ukrainian Train Station Kills at Least 25 Civilians, U.N. Chief Slams “Senseless War” in Ukraine on 6-Month Anniversary of Russian Invasion, Russian Dissident Arrested After Calling Russia’s War in Ukraine an “Invasion”, Fighting Shatters Truce in Ethiopia’s War-Torn Tigray Region, California to Phase Out Sales of Gasoline-Powered Cars by 2035, Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo Fired over Failed Response to Massacre, Oklahoma Prepares to Kill Prisoner James Coddington After Gov. Stitt Denies Clemency, Nearly 50,000 U.S. Prisoners Face Prolonged Solitary Confinement , Columbus Teachers Reach Tentative Deal to End Strike, Israeli Supreme Court Rejects Palestinian Hunger Striker’s Bid to End Detention Without Trial

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

After Campaigning for Abortion Rights, Democrat Pat Ryan Wins New York Special Congressional Election, Charlie Crist to Challenge Ron DeSantis in Florida Gubernatorial Race, 25-Year-Old Gun Control Activist Maxwell Alejandro Frost Wins Florida Congressional Primary, U.S. to Give Ukraine $3 Billion on 6-Month Anniversary of Russian Invasion, U.N. Warns of “Catastrophic Consequences” If Fighting Continues Near Ukrainian Nuclear Plant, Report: U.N. Faces Record Aid Shortfall to Address Humanitarian Crises, Reports: Biden to Announce Move to Cancel Some Student Debt, Jury Convicts Two Boogaloo Movement Members in Plot to Kidnap Michigan Governor, National Archives Says Trump Took 700 Pages of Classified Documents from White House, Ex-Louisville Cop Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Warrant for Raid on Breonna Taylor’s Home, Charges Dropped Against Atlanta Cops in Shooting Death of Rayshard Brooks, Justice Department Launches Probe into Arkansas Officers After Brutal Beating, U.S. Bombs Syria in Attempt to Take Out Sites Affiliated with Iran, Ex-Malaysian Prime Minister Begins 12-Year-Sentence, Thai Court Suspends Prime Minister over Term Limit Dispute, Mexican Reporter Fredid Román Shot Dead, 15th Journalist Killed This Year in Mexico, Texas Declares Emergencies in 20 Counties After Massive Floods, 5-Year-Old Guatemalan Girl Drowns Trying to Cross Rio Grande, Ex-Security Head of Twitter Warns of “Extreme, Egregious Deficiencies” in Security Protocols at Social Media Giant

Primaries in New York’s redrawn congressional districts have led to heated battles within the Democratic Party that could have national implications. In the newly created 10th Congressional District, Dan Goldman, a conservative Democrat and heir to a multimillion-dollar Levi Strauss fortune, is running against a diverse field of candidates that includes Mondaire Jones, Yuh-Line Niou, Carlina Rivera and Elizabeth Holtzman. The New York Times endorsed Goldman without noting its publisher’s connection to the millionaire. Many congressional seats have been “thrown into chaos by redistricting” and seem to favor more conservative candidates, says Alex Sammon, staff writer at The American Prospect who has been closely following local races.

We speak to the Pakistani British historian and writer Tariq Ali about new anti-terrorism charges brought against former Prime Minister Imran Khan after he spoke out against the country’s police and a judge who presided over the arrest of one of his aides. His rivals have pressed for severe charges against Khan to keep him out of the next elections as his popularity grows across the country, says Ali. Ali also discusses devastating floods in Pakistan, which have killed nearly 800 people over the past two months, and have never happened “on this scale.”

Mexican authorities arrested former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam on Friday for his failure to conduct a thorough investigation into the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in 2014. This came a day after a truth commission formed by current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the students’ disappearance was a “crime of the state.” The students had been traveling in Iguala when their buses were intercepted by local police and federal military forces in September 2014; some of their remains were found later. Dozens of soldiers and police officers are also expected to face charges. With a high-level official being held accountable in the case, there is hope “that there will be justice, and we will finally know what happened to these 43 students,” says Andalusia Soloff, independent journalist who has reported on the Ayotzinapa case since its inception and published a graphic novel about the disappeared students.

FBI Seized 150 Documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Home in August 8 Search, Ukraine Cancels Independence Day Celebrations, Fearing Russian Attacks, Russia Blames Ukrainian Special Forces for Car Bomb That Killed Daughter of Putin Ally, U.S. Launches Massive Joint Military Exercise with South Korea, Iran Accuses U.S. of “Procrastination” in Talks over Revived Nuclear Deal, Thousands Protest in Haiti, Demanding Basic Services and Ouster of PM Ariel Henry, Longtime NJ Resident Patrick Julney Held for Ransom After U.S. Deports Him to Haiti, Flash Floods Sweep Northern Texas as 15 Inches of Rain Falls on Dallas, Pfizer Asks for FDA Approval of Omicron-Specific Booster Shot, Top U.S. Infectious Disease Expert Dr. Anthony Fauci to Retire in December, New York Will Administer One-Fifth Doses of Monkeypox Vaccine to Stretch Supply, California Gov. Newsom Vetoes Bill to Establish Safe Drug Injection Sites, Billionaire Barre Seid Gave Record $1.6 Billion to Dark Money Group Pushing Right-Wing Courts

We speak with one of the more than 650 workers calling on Google’s parent company Alphabet to protect the location and browser history of people searching for information on abortion. A petition led by the Alphabet Workers Union also demands the company block advertisements that misleadingly direct users to so-called crisis pregnancy centers, a tactic employed by anti-abortion activists to lure patients to discourage them from seeking abortions. “Systems like Google, that know everything about you, can now be used against you,” says Alejandra Beatty, technical program manager at Alphabet healthcare subsidiary Verily and southwest chapter lead with the Alphabet Workers Union. She says organizers are also asking Google to extend its abortion benefits — including relocation support for employees hoping to move to states where abortion isn’t criminalized, and travel and healthcare costs for any out-of-state abortion procedures — to contractors who make up about half of the company’s workforce.

A federal judge has blocked key portions of Florida’s new “Stop WOKE Act” that attempts to block discussions of racism and white privilege in workplaces and public schools. The preliminary injunction comes as the law is being challenged by business owners, students, educators and the American Civil Liberties Union. We speak with Diane Roberts, journalist and professor of English at Florida State University, who says faculty have either become so scared that many have left the university or are considering leaving. “A lot of people will self-censor, and I think that was the idea all along,” she says, noting this is especially true for untenured faculty. Roberts also discusses DeSantis’s potential run for president. Her new Washington Post op-ed is headlined “DeSantis aims to scare academics. Unfortunately, it’s working.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s primary election in Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security made its first arrests of people it alleged engaged in voter fraud in the 2020 election. Almost all those charged were people who were formerly incarcerated and mistakenly thought they were eligible to vote. People of all political affiliations “are now being dragged from their homes in handcuffs because all they ever wanted to do was participate in democracy,” says Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, who spearheaded an initiative to reenfranchise people with prior felony convictions, before it was overturned by Republicans.

A landmark ruling orders pharmacy chains Walmart, CVS and Walgreens to pay a combined $650 million for their role in fueling the opioid crisis, as other cases have focused on opioid makers and wholesalers that distribute the addictive painkillers. A federal judge in Ohio found the pharmacy chains accountable for filling prescriptions even after suspecting doctors were operating pill mills. “It’s high time that all the players in this terrible chain of manufacture, prescribing, dispensing, are held responsible for their actions,” says Barry Meier, author of “Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covered the opioid crisis for decades at The New York Times. He also discusses similar rulings against Walgreens and others in San Francisco and Florida.

21 Killed and Over 100 Wounded as al-Shabab Gunmen Seize Hotel in Somali Capital, World Food Programme Warns 20 Million in Horn of Africa at Risk of Starvation, Dozens Killed as Monsoon Rains Trigger Flooding and Landslides Across South Asia, Ex-Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Charged Under Anti-Terrorism Law, Car Bomb Kills Daughter of Putin Ally in Moscow; Ukraine Denies Involvement, Putin Says He’ll Support IAEA Mission to Russian-Occupied Nuclear Power Plant, From Odessa, U.N. Chief Calls for More Ukrainian Food and Fertilizer Shipments, Mexico Arrests Former Attorney General over Massacre of 43 Students in Ayotzinapa, Israel Summons Heads of Palestinian NGOs It Branded “Terrorist Organizations”, Singapore to Repeal Law Criminalizing Sex Between Men But Won’t Legalize Marriage Equality, Louisiana Board Withholds New Orleans Flood Aid over City Council’s Defense of Abortion, Arkansas Police Filmed Brutally Kicking & Punching Man on Sidewalk, 2,000 Workers on Strike at Large U.K. Container Port, Carl Kabat, Catholic Priest & Anti-Nuclear Activist, Dies at 88

A coalition of immigrant rights organizations have sued the data broker LexisNexis for collecting detailed personal information on millions of people and then selling it to governmental entities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The lawsuit alleges LexisNexis has helped create “a massive surveillance state with files on almost every adult U.S. consumer,” and accuses ICE of using information collected by LexisNexis to circumvent local policies in sanctuary cities. We speak with Cinthya Rodriguez, organizer with the immigrant justice group Mijente, who explains how “one of the biggest data brokers in the world” is “getting rich off of the backs of community members,” particularly among immigrant communities of color and activists.

Israeli forces raided and closed the offices of seven Palestinian civil society rights groups in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, six of which Israeli authorities had designated as terrorist groups last year. The raid came as the United Nations condemned Israel for killing 19 Palestinian children in recent weeks, and 100 days after Israeli forces shot dead Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while covering an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp. We speak to Sahar Francis and Brad Parker, with two of the human rights groups Israel raided. Parker, senior adviser for policy and advocacy at Defense for Children International – Palestine, describes how 100 Israeli soldiers gathered outside his organization’s building before dozens broke into the offices to confiscate items and files, sealed the building and left behind notices declaring the organization unlawful. He calls the raid “part of a years-long campaign to delegitimize and essentially criminalize the work that we do to expose grave violations against Palestinians at the hands of Israeli authorities.” In Ramallah, Sahar Francis of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association says the attack “aims to silence us.”

Kenya is facing a political crisis following last week’s presidential election, with the apparent runner-up rejecting the results of the vote and the apparent president-elect announcing plans to form a new government. We speak with Nairobi-based writer and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola, who says the Kenyan elections yield “terrible candidates,” with the most recent election results following a decades-long tradition of election interference and miscommunication. “There’s always been a reason to doubt the results,” says Nyabola. She also discusses how the digital age has uplifted election systems like Kenya’s as examples of how to thwart democracy for the West, and the impact of the drought in the Horn of Africa, where the United States says more than 18 million people are facing severe hunger.

Russia Rejects U.N. Call for Demilitarized Zone Around Ukrainian Nuclear Plant, Judge Orders Redaction and Release of Affidavit Used in FBI Search of Trump’s Home, Secret Service Didn’t Inform Capitol Police of Threats to Pelosi Before Capitol Riot, Texas Elections Officials Quit over Death Threats Following Trump’s 2020 Loss, Ex-Trump Organization CFO Alan Weisselberg Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud, Rivers Run Dry in China and Europe as Climate Crisis Fuels Record Droughts, 10 Arrested at Protest of Fossil Fuel Concessions in Inflation Reduction Act, U.S. Will Add 1.8 Million Doses to Monkeypox Vaccine Stockpile, Biden Admin Plans to Stop Paying for COVID Vaccines, Tests and Treatments, Bodycam Footage Reveals Details of Denver Police Shooting That Injured 6 Bystanders, Judge Rules Starbucks Must Offer to Rehire Fired Union Organizers in Memphis, Protesters in Argentina Demand Relief from Poverty and High Inflation, Mexico Truth Commission Confirms Ayotzinapa Massacre Was a “State Crime”

As Brazil approaches presidential elections, “The Territory” documents the struggle of the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people in the Brazilian Amazon against the deforestation and destruction of their land by farmers and others illegally extracting resources, which has expanded under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. We speak with director Alex Pritz and two people featured in the film, ahead of its release on Friday: Bitaté Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, an Uru-eu-wau-wau leader, and activist Neidinha Bandeira. “The Indigenous populations [in Brazil] are being massacred,” says Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, who helped film how his people are fighting to preserve nearly 7,000 square miles of their territory. “We will never stop fighting for our territory and for our rights.”