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The world's richest countries have responded by militarizing their borders and treating the humanitarian crisis as a security issue. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attended this year's U.N. climate summit, marking the first time a top alliance leader came to the climate talks since they began. On Tuesday, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at COP26 raised the issue of security during a press conference. "The richest countries are building a climate wall against the consequences of climate change rather than dealing with the causes and rather than providing the money that would enable people to stay," says Nick Buxton, with the Transnational Institute and co-author of their new report, "Global Climate Wall: How the world's wealthiest nations prioritise borders over climate action." We also speak with Santra Denis, executive director of the Miami Workers Center, about the focus of the It Takes Roots grassroots delegation at COP26. She says that in order to protect frontline communities and workers, the U.S. should focus on investing in low-carbon and adaptation industries instead of border control.

Today a draft agreement at COP26 was released, calling on nations to accelerate the phasing out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies and make pledges to cut emissions by the end of 2022. The draft also urges wealthy nations to "urgently scale-up" financial support for developing countries to help them adapt to the climate crisis. This comes as a new report by the group Climate Action Tracker estimates world temperatures are on track to rise by 2.4 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels based on current pledges to cut emissions — far higher than the 1.5 degree goal set in the 2015 Paris Agreement. To discuss the latest developments at COP26, we speak with Nigerian environmental activist and poet Nnimmo Bassey. "There's no force behind what's being proposed," says Bassey, who adds that the current trajectory of negotiations will have devastating effects on Africa. "That means setting the continent on fire. It is just sacrificing the continent." Bassey also discusses the role of China in Africa and the impact of the climate crisis on the continent. He has attended climate summits for years but says this may be his last one.

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Stella Moris, partner of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, says British authorities have so far blocked attempts for her and Assange to marry while he is being held in Belmarsh prison. Supporters have also raised concerns Assange has become suicidal. "They are killing him. If he dies, it is because they are killing him," Moris says. "They are torturing him to death."

Britain's High Court is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison under espionage charges for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes. We get an update from Assange's partner, Stella Moris, who is in Glasgow as part of her campaign to free Julian and to highlight how WikiLeaks has also revealed evidence of how corporations and states have undermined the goals of prior climate summits. Moris says WikiLeaks is an "extraordinary tool … to understand the relationships between the states and the fossil fuel companies, [and] how these interests are intertwined."

Climate activists protested outside the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow Monday spotlighting the role of the U.S. military in fueling the climate crisis. The Costs of War project estimates the military produced around 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon emissions between 2001 and 2017, with nearly a third coming from U.S. wars overseas. But military carbon emissions have largely been exempted from international climate treaties dating back to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol after lobbying from the United States. We go to Glasgow to speak with Ramón Mejía, anti-militarism national organizer of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and Iraq War veteran; Erik Edstrom, Afghanistan War veteran turned climate activist; and Neta Crawford, director of the Costs of War project. "The United States military has been a mechanism of environmental destruction," says Crawford.

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The Glasgow U.N. climate summit is inundated with fossil fuel lobbyists, according to a recent report published by Global Witness that found "if the fossil fuel lobby were a country delegation at COP, it would be the largest with 503 delegates — two dozen more than the largest country delegation." We speak with Louis Wilson, senior adviser at Global Witness, and Andrea Ixchíu, a Maya K'iche' leader, journalist and human rights defender based in Guatemala, about the vast presence of the fossil fuel industry at COP26 and the subsequent greenwashing taking place. "We don't allow tobacco lobbyists into health conferences, so it begs the question why fossil fuel lobbyists are being allowed into the most important climate conference in a generation," says Wilson.

Activists held a memorial in Glasgow for those unable to attend this year's U.N. climate summit: 1,005 land and environmental defenders who have been murdered since the 2015 Paris Agreement. One in three of those defenders killed was an Indigenous person. This comes as 2020 was the most dangerous year on record for environmental and land defenders. We speak with Andrea Ixchíu, a Maya K'iche' leader, journalist and human rights defender based in Guatemala. Ixchíu says that the Guatemalan government, influenced by transnational corporate interests, has launched an assault on Indigenous land defenders: "They [Indigenous leaders] are not allowed to be in their communities defending their land and their territory because of the militizariation." Speaking on COP26, Ixchíu says, "We do not just want to be observers," and "If you want to create more solutions to the climate crisis, it's really important to give land back to Indigenous communities." We're also joined by Global Witness senior adviser Louis Wilson, who helped organize the memorial and discusses the cases of murdered South African activist Fikile Ntshangase, who was a leading force in the fight against the Tendele coal mine before she was killed last October, and Óscar Eyraud Adams, a Mexican water activist killed last September as he fought for the water rights of the Indigenous peoples impacted by the excessive use of aquifers by large beer and wine companies.

Saturday's massive climate rally outside of the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow was led by Indigenous frontline activists. We hear from Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner, a poet and climate change activist from the Marshall Islands, and Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate. "We did nothing to contribute to this crisis, and we should not have to pay the consequences," said Jetn̄il-Kijiner. "We will survive climate change. We refuse to leave. We refuse to go anywhere. And our sovereignty is not up for debate."

Eighteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg called COP26 a "failure" when she addressed the Fridays for Future rally in Glasgow, which drew around 25,000 demonstrators. Her address comes after Thunberg dismissed climate leaders a month prior to the U.N. climate summit for political inaction. "The COP has turned into a PR event where leaders are giving beautiful speeches and announcing fancy commitments and targets, while behind the curtains the governments of the Global North countries are still refusing to take any drastic climate action," said Thunberg on Friday. "This is not a conference. This is now a Global North greenwash festival."

More than 100,000 people took to the streets of Glasgow this weekend in a pair of climate rallies outside the U.N. climate summit. The first protest was organized by Fridays for Future, an international movement of students which grew out of Greta Thunberg's climate strike outside the Swedish parliament in 2018. We hear from climate activists Evelyn Acham, Mikaela Loach, Raki Ap, Helena Gualinga and Jon Bonifacio. In her address, Loach slammed the leaders of rich nations at COP26: "[They] steal our sacred words and use them to defend and uphold the oppressive systems of capitalism and white supremacy." Gualina also spoke about the increasing violence against environmental defenders: "Behind every murder that happens in the Amazon, every killing that happens to a land defender, there is a company behind that, there is a government behind that, there is a name behind that."

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Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley addressed the audience at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow this week. "We must act in the interests of all our people," she said. "If we don't, we will allow the path of greed and selfishness to sow the seeds of our common destruction." She implored global leaders to "try harder" to keep global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius, as anything above this would mean "a death sentence" for vulnerable island countries, including Barbados.

Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley addressed the audience at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow this week. "We must act in the interests of all our people," she said. "If we don't, we will allow the path of greed and selfishness to sow the seeds of our common destruction." She implored global leaders to "try harder" to keep global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius, as anything above this would mean "a death sentence" for vulnerable island countries, including Barbados.

After nearly a week of speeches, negotiations and protests at the COP26 U.N. climate summit, we speak with Meena Raman, head of programs at Third World Network, who says developing countries need more time and resources to adapt to the climate crisis and end the use of fossil fuels. Without a just transition that addresses inequality, she says, many countries will continue to suffer from both poverty and environmental devastation. "When the rich world has not been able to phase out fossil fuels, … it's really dubious to preach to the developing world that they have to get out of fossil fuels," says Raman.

After nearly a week of speeches, negotiations and protests at the COP26 U.N. climate summit, we speak with Meena Raman, head of programs at Third World Network, who says developing countries need more time and resources to adapt to the climate crisis and end the use of fossil fuels. Without a just transition that addresses inequality, she says, many countries will continue to suffer from both poverty and environmental devastation. "When the rich world has not been able to phase out fossil fuels, … it's really dubious to preach to the developing world that they have to get out of fossil fuels," says Raman.

Youth activists are taking to the streets outside the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow to demand world leaders do more to avert a climate catastrophe. The protest is being organized by Fridays for Future, an international movement of students which grew out of Greta Thunberg's climate strike outside the Swedish parliament in 2018. We hear from Elizabeth Wathuti of Kenya. "Over 2 million of my fellow Kenyans are facing climate-related starvation," Wathuti said earlier this week. "The decisions you make here will determine whether the children will have food and water."

Youth activists are taking to the streets outside the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow to demand world leaders do more to avert a climate catastrophe. The protest is being organized by Fridays for Future, an international movement of students which grew out of Greta Thunberg's climate strike outside the Swedish parliament in 2018. We hear from Elizabeth Wathuti of Kenya. "Over 2 million of my fellow Kenyans are facing climate-related starvation," Wathuti said earlier this week. "The decisions you make here will determine whether the children will have food and water."

Only one Black juror, along with 11 white jurors, has been selected to hear the murder trial of three white men who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old Black man who was jogging through the suburbs of Brunswick, Georgia. The defendants — Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, as well as their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan — claim they were attempting a citizen's arrest when they chased and killed Arbery. Prosecutors asked Judge Timothy Walmsley to reinstate eight Black potential jurors, arguing defense lawyers struck them because of their race. The judge declined to change the jury's racial makeup before the start of the trial Friday. We speak to attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Arbery family. "There was intentional discrimination," he says. "I don't know how you can conclude anything else." We also speak with Crump about the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the white teenager who faces seven charges, including homicide, for fatally shooting two men and wounding a third amid racial justice protests last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Crump represents Jacob Blake, the Black man whose shooting by police sparked the protests.

Only one Black juror, along with 11 white jurors, has been selected to hear the murder trial of three white men who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old Black man who was jogging through the suburbs of Brunswick, Georgia. The defendants — Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, as well as their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan — claim they were attempting a citizen's arrest when they chased and killed Arbery. Prosecutors asked Judge Timothy Walmsley to reinstate eight Black potential jurors, arguing defense lawyers struck them because of their race. The judge declined to change the jury's racial makeup before the start of the trial Friday. We speak to attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Arbery family. "There was intentional discrimination," he says. "I don't know how you can conclude anything else." We also speak with Crump about the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the white teenager who faces seven charges, including homicide, for fatally shooting two men and wounding a third amid racial justice protests last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Crump represents Jacob Blake, the Black man whose shooting by police sparked the protests.

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World's Biggest Polluters Remain on Sidelines as Over 40 Nations Pledge to Phase Out Coal, House Schedules Votes on Infrastructure Bill & Build Back Better Act, "We Want to Live!": Climate Activists Confront Sen. Joe Manchin over Climate Emergency, White House Announces Vaccine Mandate for Over 100 Million U.S. Workers by January 4, U.S. to Cancel Contract with COVID-19 Vaccine Maker That Ruined Millions of Doses, Moderna Reports $3.3B Third-Quarter Profit; Protesters Demand It Share Vaccine Recipe, U.S. Proposes New $650 Million Missile Sale to Saudi Arabia, Despite Yemen War Crimes, Two Indigenous Mapuche Leaders Shot Dead in Chile, U.S. Sanctions Nicaraguan Gov't as President Ortega Sidelines Opponents Ahead of Election, Press Freedom Tribunal in The Hague to Hold Governments Accountable for Journalist Killings, DOJ Sues Texas over Voter Suppression Law; NC's GOP Passes Gerrymandered Maps, Second Manhattan Grand Jury Will Consider Financial Crimes by Trump Org., Rittenhouse Trial Judge Removes Juror Who Joked About Shooting of Jacob Blake, Clemency Recommended for OK Man Facing Execution; Judge Denies New Trial for TX Death Row Prisoner, Weeks-Long Indigenous Blockade Protects Wet'suwet'en Land from Coastal GasLink Pipeline, Striking Alabama Coal Miners Return to NYC; 34K Kaiser Permanente Workers Poised to Strike

We speak with Harjeet Singh, senior adviser with the Climate Action Network, who is at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow. Activists like Singh are pressuring world leaders to join the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, which would supplement the Paris Agreement by directly targeting the fossil fuel industry and outlining clear actions that every country could take to drastically decrease carbon emissions. "This treaty talks about ending fossil fuel expansion, phasing out, and also just transition," says Singh. He also speaks about his home country of India, which has only recently become one of the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases and has fewer resources to adapt while "rich countries have been polluting for more than 100 years."

We speak to Farhana Yamin, one of the most prominent climate lawyers in Britain, who has been deeply involved in international climate negotiations for decades, including the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, and has also engaged in direct action to effect change. Yamin is currently working with the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group that represents 48 of the countries most threatened by the climate crisis, at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow. We last spoke with Farhana in 2019 after she was arrested for supergluing her hands to the ground outside Shell's headquarters in London as part of an Extinction Rebellion action. She applauds the demonstrators outside the conference who are bringing political pressure on those inside. She says the net zero emissions goal that many global leaders are discussing "has to have emissions that are real, and those emissions cannot be bought at the expense of vulnerable people and countries."

We speak to Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the low-lying island nation of the Maldives, at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow. Nasheed is one of the world's leading climate advocates, who once held a cabinet meeting underwater to bring attention to the threat of global warming, pledged to make the Maldives the first carbon-neutral country and installed solar panels on the roof of his presidential residence. Now serving as speaker of parliament, Nasheed survived an assassination attempt earlier this year that required 16 hours of surgery. As a result of the sea level rising four millimeters a year in the Maldives, Nasheed says the country faces devastating consequences such as contaminated water, loss of biodiversity, inclement weather and coastal erosion. "We want to see countries agree that this is an emergency, and we want to see countries do things that they do in an emergency," he says.

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We speak to Mitzi Tan, a climate activist based in the Philippines, who will join Greta Thunberg of Sweden and Vanessa Nakate of Uganda in speaking at a major march and rally in Glasgow on Saturday. Among their demands are reparations from the Global North to the Global South to help rebuild the lives of those most impacted by the climate crisis. Tan has recently protested outside the offices of Standard Chartered Bank in London, which funds the most fossil fuel companies based in the Philippines, which she says contributes directly to their yearly typhoons that cause insurmountable destruction. "At this point, none of us have a choice. We all have to join the struggle of the most marginalized," says Tan.

As we cover the fight against Big Coal with climate activists attending the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, we look at the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which has experienced some of the most extreme weather over the last two decades. Hurricane Maria destroyed the island's electrical grid four years ago and left residents in the dark for months. The fragile power system is still unreliable for people, prompting mass protests and renewed calls for lawmakers to move away from dirty power and turn the island into a center for renewable energy, a movement featured in the new film "El poder del pueblo," or "The Power of the People." We speak with lawyer and environmental justice advocate Ruth Santiago, who is featured in the film and is a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. She lives near Puerto Rico's largest fossil fuel-burning power complex, that includes the U.S.-owned AES coal plant known as La Carbonera in the municipality of Guayama — home to many of the island's Afro-Puerto Rican residents. She discusses how they are organizing to expand rooftop solar energy projects amid worsening power outages under the new private consortium LUMA, which she says people now refer to as "Hurricane LUMA."

On day three of the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, we look at the fight against Big Coal, starting with leading South African climate activist Kumi Naidoo. South Africa is one of the world's largest coal producers, and the United States has joined the European Union and other wealthy nations to announce a new deal to provide $8.5 billion to the country to help it decommission its coal plants and invest in renewable energy. "Let's see if the money actually flows and if those countries actually follow up with that commitment," says Naidoo, global ambassador for Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity and the former head of Amnesty International and Greenpeace. He says the deal puts pressure on the South African government to "ensure a just transition and make the right investments in wind, solar and other clean energy technologies."

We speak with The Nation's John Nichols about key outcomes from Tuesday's election night. In a major blow for Democrats, Republican Glenn Youngkin, who President Biden warned is an extremist in the vein of former President Trump, won the Virginia governor's race against former Governor Terry McAuliffe. Youngkin campaigned for so-called parents' rights — a catch-all phrase adopted by right-wing opponents of vaccine and mask mandates, transgender rights and critical race theory. Tuesday's elections also saw closely watched races in New Jersey, New York City, Buffalo and Boston, where Michelle Wu made history by becoming the first woman and first person of color elected as mayor. Nichols says disappointing results for Democrats are tied to the party's infighting in Washington and the inability to pass major legislation despite holding the White House and Congress: "You can't fail to deliver on your promises and then expect to win elections. And that's a big message for Democrats."

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We look at Monday's Supreme Court oral arguments on the constitutionality of Texas's near-total ban on abortions with legendary lawyer Kathryn "Kitty" Kolbert, who argued the 1992 landmark Supreme Court case credited with saving Roe v. Wade. "'Save Roe' has been our mantra for so many years, and it no longer works because of the ultraconservatie nature of this Supreme Court," Kolbert says. Instead, people must protect abortion rights by "electing people who will preserve women's rights, and begin to think of that as our most important task."

A new ad released by the United Nations Development Program shows a computer-generated dinosaur speaking in the U.N. General Assembly hall, warning diplomats that "going extinct is a bad thing" and calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies. The dinosaur is voiced by Jack Black.

We speak with Brianna Fruean, an activist from Samoa, who implored global leaders at the U.N. climate summit to consider how small islands like Samoa, Tutuila and Tonga might drown without urgent action against rising sea levels. She told the audience, "If you're looking for inspiration on climate leadership, take a look at young Pacific people." Many Pacific islands are in danger of vanishing in the next decade if sea levels and global temperatures continue to rise. "If we are able to save the islands, we are able to save the world," Fruean tells Democracy Now!

Countries attending the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow have made new pledges to cut their emissions, but activists say it's not enough to avert the worst of the climate crisis. India has vowed to reduce its carbon emissions to net zero by 2070. Over 100 leaders have agreed to end deforestation by 2030. The United States is announcing a new plan to reduce methane emissions, among other measures. Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, is in Glasgow for the talks and warns the heavy focus on "net zero" rather than absolute carbon reductions suggests leaders are not planning to make serious changes. "It's a continuing war against Mother Earth, against Father Sky," says Goldtooth. "It is an issue of life and death to many of our Indigenous peoples, from the North to the South." Climate campaigner Bill McKibben says the movement to divest from fossil fuels has had a major impact but that business interests are still holding back a transition to renewable energy. "Money is the oxygen on which the fires of global warming keep burning," says McKibben.

As President Biden addressed the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow on Monday, warning that "climate change is already ravaging the world," back home his climate agenda was dealt a major setback when Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia criticized the slimmed-down $1.85 trillion Build Back Plan. "The air went out of this conference" when Biden showed up with no major climate legislation passed, says Bill McKibben of 350.org in Glasgow. "It makes it extremely difficult to proceed when the world's carbon champion — the country that's poured more carbon into the atmosphere by far than any other — won't provide leadership."

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In a major development, a Guantánamo Bay detainee described his torture at CIA black sites for the first time in court last week, prompting military jurors to call his treatment a "stain on the moral fiber of America." On Thursday, Majid Khan became the first Guantánamo prisoner to describe publicly the torture he experienced after being detained in Pakistan and then being held at CIA black sites, including forced feedings, waterboarding and other physical and sexual abuse. Khan was sentenced Friday to 26 years but under a previous deal is scheduled for release in February 2022. His unprecedented testimony only represents the "top part of the iceberg," says Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center of Constitutional Rights, which has helped represent Majid Khan. "We need more meaningful accountability for what the United States government did to Majid and many dozens of other detainees in the so-called global war on terror."

As the U.K. government tries to claim the mantle of climate leadership at the U.N. Climate Change Conference, we speak with Mary Church, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland. She describes how activists are calling on U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to block the development of the giant Cambo oil field off the coast of Scotland, which would run counter to the U.N. goals of phasing out fossil fuels. "We know that fossil fuels need to be phased out long, long before 2050, but this proposal is to keep on drilling oil until 2050," says Church, adding that the extraction of 800 million barrels of oil would be "the equivalent of 10 years of Scotland's annual emissions."

This year's U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow may be the whitest and most privileged one ever, with thousands from the Global South unable to attend because of lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines and travel restrictions. The global inequity in vaccine access mirrors the disproportionate impact of the climate crisis that has fallen mostly on poor countries least responsible for emissions, says climate activist Dipti Bhatnagar in Mozambique. "The people who need to be there, who need to hold people accountable, are not going to be there," says Bhatnagar, climate justice and energy coordinator at Friends of the Earth International, who was unable to attend the climate conference in Scotland because of a lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines. "What is going to come out of this COP is going to be largely illegitimate because of the way that they've organized it and because of the intentions behind it."

As U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders gather amid massive protests in Glasgow for COP26, the U.N. Climate Change Conference, we look at the growing pressure on countries to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avert the most damaging effects of the climate crisis. Leaders of the G20, representing the 20 wealthiest nations, gathered ahead of COP26 and pledged to do more to curb emissions but offered few specifics on reaching that goal, despite representing the countries responsible for about 80% of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. "What we're seeing here is lots of tough talk on climate, but lack of plans, lack of policies and refusal to put money on the table," says Asad Rehman, executive director of War on Want and lead spokesperson for the COP26 Coalition. Rehman also gives an overview of the demands from protesters, and plans for the next two weeks.

World Leaders, Activists Descend on Glasgow for COP26 as Future of Humanity Hangs in the Balance, G20 Members Agree to Minimum Corporate Tax Rate, Vaccines Push, Make Little Progress on Climate, Global COVID Death Toll Tops 5 Million; FDA Approves Vaccines for 5- to 11-Year-Olds, SCOTUS Rejects Religious Objection to Vaccine for Maine Health Workers; NYC Mandate Takes Effect, Biden Admin Issues New Memo to End "Remain in Mexico" as Migrant Caravan Takes Break on Trek to U.S., Veteran Reporter Fredy López Arévalo Is at Least the Ninth Murdered Journalist in Mexico This Year, 10 People Killed in Marib Fighting as 20 Million Yemenis Face Urgent Humanitarian Crisis, Sudanese Soldiers Kill 3 Protesters as Rallies Continue Against Military Coup, Third Bomb Attack in Under a Week Kills Two Children in Uganda, Texas Homeowner Who Killed Unarmed Driver Will Use "Stand Your Ground" Law as Defense, Philadelphia Bans Cops from Stopping Drivers for Low-Level Traffic Violations, Labor Board Ruling Boosts Union Drive of Buffalo, NY Starbucks Workers, Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Texas's Near-Total Ban on Abortions

Virginia's Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin caused public uproar this week when he released a political ad featuring a white mother who advocated banning Toni Morrison's novel "Beloved" from schools. The woman, Laura Murphy, describes the book as "some of the most explicit material you can imagine." In 2013, Murphy fought to have the "Beloved bill" passed, which was eventually vetoed by Governor Terry McAuliffe, who is running again for governor against Youngkin in the current race. Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tells the story of a family of former enslaved people set after the American Civil War. Dana Williams, professor of African American literature at Howard University, says the fight over "parents' rights" has become a racist dog whistle. "Books like 'Beloved' really do force us to have real conversations about history," she says.

We look at the Virginia gubernatorial race, where former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe is facing Republican Glenn Youngkin, the former CEO of a private equity firm. President Joe Biden, who has campaigned with McAuliffe, warns Youngkin is an extremist in the vein of former President Trump. A major point of contention is Youngkin's push for "parents' rights" — a catch-all phrase adopted by right-wing opponents of vaccine and mask mandates, transgender rights and critical race theory. Julia Manchester, national politics reporter for The Hill, says that Youngkin has essentially portrayed elected school board officials as "political figures trying to influence Virginia students' education."

A human rights network of 60 organizations working along the U.S.-Mexico border released a letter to Congress on Wednesday urging them to investigate "shadow police units" that have helped cover up beatings and killings by Border Patrol agents for more than three decades. The shadow units, identified in the letter as "Border Patrol Critical Incident Teams," are said to possibly be "the largest and longest standing shadow police unit that is operating today in the federal government." New details came to light when attorneys investigating the 2010 Border Patrol killing of Mexican father Anastasio Hernández Rojas found a secretive special investigative unit tampered with and even destroyed evidence in the case to shield the agents involved. Investigative journalist John Carlos Frey, who reported on the case and helped uncover the shadow groups, says agents "tampered with evidence, they obstructed justice, and they violated the law," adding that Border Patrol is being permitted to "investigate itself without any oversight."

Democrats in Washington remain divided over two key bills at the center of President Biden's domestic agenda: a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the $1.85 trillion Build Back Better plan, which has been cut down from $3.5 trillion. Even though Biden's latest framework is almost half the size of the original proposal, conservative Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are still refusing to commit to its passage. The new proposal strips out several key provisions, including paid family leave, free community college, expanded Medicare coverage for dental and vision, and prescription drug reform. Key elements still in the framework include provisions to provide universal pre-K education, an expanded child tax credit for another year, affordable child care, affordable housing, free school meals, expanded Medicare for hearing services, as well as $555 billion in climate initiatives. Economist Darrick Hamilton, founding director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School, says that despite the smaller size of the package, it would still transform the U.S. economy after decades of austerity and budget cuts. "This is a pivotal change," he says.

Biden Unveils Stripped-Down Build Back Better Act After Sens. Manchin, Sinema Demand Cuts, Big Oil Executives Grilled by House Democrats over Deception on Climate Crisis, As Climate Crisis Worsens, 10 World Heritage Forests Become Net Carbon Emitters, China Won't Commit to New Emissions Targets Ahead of COP26 Climate Summit , Protesters at Site of COP26 Climate Summit Demand Real Action to Limit Warming to 1.5°C, Ahead of G20, Protesters Demand Biden Make COVID-19 Vaccines Available to Poor Countries, Sudanese Protester Deaths Mount After Monday's Military Coup, Guantánamo Bay Prisoner Describes Surviving CIA Torture in "Black Sites", Biden Admin in Talks to Compensate Families Who Were Separated at Border Under Trump, Federal Jury Says GEO Group Must Pay Minimum Wage for Labor by Immigrant Prisoners, Facebook Rebrands as "Meta" as Scandals Pile Up , Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo Charged with Groping Former Aide at Executive Mansion, DOJ to Pay $88 Million to Survivors of 2015 Black Church Massacre, Neo-Nazi on Trial for "Unite the Right" Delivers Racist Opening Statement, Oklahoma Executes John Marion Grant as Witnesses Describe Torturous, Drawn-Out Killing, Lisa Brodyaga, Beloved and Pioneering Immigrant Rights Lawyer, Dies at 80

Wealthy nations have received over 16 times more COVID-19 vaccines per person than poorer nations dependent on the COVAX program backed by the World Health Organization, according to a new Financial Times analysis. COVAX, which was set up to ensure global equitable access to vaccines, has delivered only 400 million doses after promising 1.4 billion this year. Higher-income countries struck separate vaccine deals with manufacturers, leaving COVAX with less negotiating power. While the United States rolls out booster shots and stockpiles six vaccines per person, less than 3% of people in low-income countries have received at least a single dose. Infectious disease expert Dr. Monica Gandhi says she will not receive a booster as a healthcare worker because of the global vaccine inequity, and argues the push for boosters "detracts from the fact that we in no way have fulfilled a moral and ethical obligation to the world." We also speak with Kate Elder, senior vaccines adviser for Doctors Without Borders, who says that it is a structural issue caused by global leaders who are not "equitably sharing vaccines around the world."

As an appeals court in London is deciding whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes, we go to London to speak with British writer and activist Tariq Ali. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison in the U.S. under the Espionage Act for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ali calls the case "a political trial" and a "punitive attempt by the British government … to try and punish Julian on behalf of the United States." We also discuss the significance of WikiLeaks revelations in exposing U.S. drone strikes, civilian deaths, torture and other abuses committed in Afghanistan, which Ali examines in his new book, "The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle Foretold."