Democracy Now!

We look at the recent murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous researcher Bruno Pereira in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and what it says about Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who once vowed, “There won’t be one more inch of Indigenous reserve.” Phillips and Pereira went missing in June, and their remains were found dismembered about two weeks later. This week, a Brazilian Senate commission investigating the murders recommended a military operation in the Javari Valley to address the rise in organized crime there. Police have arrested five people linked to the murders and identified a suspect arrested earlier as the leader of an illegal fishing organized crime group in the Amazon region. “When the president dismantles public policies and public institutions that should serve Indigenous rights, when the government persecutes its civil servants whose mandate it should be to protect the Indigenous peoples and the policies applied to them, we become more vulnerable,” says Indigenous lawyer Eliésio Marubo, who led a search and rescue mission for Phillips and Pereira and recently returned to Brasília after visiting with U.S. lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to call for an independent investigation into the murders.

This week former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva formally launched his campaign to challenge Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro this October. Fear is growing Bolsonaro might try to stay in office even if he loses, possibly with help from the Brazilian military. Lula, a union leader who held office from 2003 through 2010, is running on a platform to lift up Brazil’s poor, preserve the Amazon rainforest and protect Brazil’s Indigenous communities. In 2018, he was jailed on trumped-up charges, paving the way for the far-right Jair Bolsonaro to rise to power, but his convictions were annulled last year, restoring his political rights to challenge Bolsonaro. The presidential front-runners hold “two visions for Brazil,” says reporter Michael Fox, former editor of NACLA and host of the new podcast “Brazil on Fire.”

WHO Chief Says Worst Humanitarian Crisis in Tigray Ignored Due to Victims’ “Skin Color”, Russian Strikes on Kharkiv Kill 12, Wound Dozens, Rudy Giuliani Testifies to Atlanta Grand Jury over Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Trump Struggles to Find Criminal Defense Lawyers Willing to Represent Him, Mike Pence Calls for End to GOP Attacks on FBI After Search of Trump’s Home, CVS, Walgreens and Walmart Ordered to Pay Ohio Counties $650M over Opioid Epidemic, Court Temporarily Halts SC Abortion Ban; Florida Court Rejects 16-Year-Old’s Plea for Abortion, Bombing at Mosque Kills 21 in Kabul, Afghanistan, Israeli Soldiers Raid Offices of 7 Palestinian NGOs, Force Them to Close, Debtors Pledge Payment Strike Unless Biden Soon Cancels Student Loan Debts

We look at the outcome of Tuesday’s primaries for opponents of former President Trump. In Wyoming, Liz Cheney, Trump’s chief House Republican foe, lost her primary to a Trump-backed challenger. In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski, another Republican Trump critic, will move forward to the general election alongside a Trump challenger who also advanced under the state’s ranked-choice voting system. The races “show a clear signal: Standing up to Donald Trump in the Republican Party, by and large, leads to your defeat,” says John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation. Despite Cheney’s defeat, Nichols says she is an “extreme right-wing conservative” who is “signaling an openness to running for president of the United States.” Nichols also discusses how former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is projected to advance in the race for Alaska’s at-large congressional seat.

President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law Tuesday, a sweeping $739 billion bill to address the climate crisis, reduce drug costs and establish a 15% minimum tax for large corporations. Biden has praised the IRA as one of the most significant measures in the history of the United States, though many climate groups and Indigenous land and water defenders have criticized the package for including major handouts to the fossil fuel industry and other corporate entities. Professor Ashley Dawson, who is a member of the Public Power campaign in New York, says the law’s tax credit provisions give “big banks deciding power over what projects get built and where they get built and who builds them.” He supports a democratically controlled “public alternative” which would have the power to build out renewable infrastructure at the speed needed to mitigate the climate emergency.

We speak with CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin on the aftermath of the largest oil fire in Cuba’s history, the sentencing of Saudi women rights activist Salma al-Shehab and the ballooning of the Pentagon budget. Benjamin is calling on the Biden administration to remove Cuba off a state sponsor of terrorism list — which she says is holding up the transfer of humanitarian funds to the country’s people. Benjamin also discusses the political reversal of Arizona Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who once joined antiwar protests but now supports unprecedented funding to the Pentagon.

The Biden administration has ruled out releasing roughly $7 billion of frozen U.S.-held Afghan assets, a year after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and occupation, even as the United Nations warns a staggering 95% of Afghans are not getting enough to eat. “This money belongs to the Afghan people. And the U.S., for 365 days, has been holding their money in a New York vault while Afghan people are boiling grass to eat, are selling their kidneys, are watching their children starve,” says Unfreeze Afghanistan co-founder Medea Benjamin. We also speak with Shah Mehrabi, chair of the audit committee of the central bank of Afghanistan, who says the return of funds is necessary to bring back price stability, which would put cash back into the hands of Afghan people so they can afford basic necessities.

Pro-Trump Challenger Wins in a Landslide Over Rep. Liz Cheney in Wyoming Primary, Biden Signs Inflation Reduction Act, Praises It as “Biggest Step Forward on Climate Ever”, FBI Interviewed Two Ex-White House Lawyers as Part of Trump Probe, Putin Accuses U.S. of Dragging Out War in Ukraine & Provoking China, Report: Israeli Military Privately Admits It Killed 5 Palestinian Kids in Gaza Strike, Political Crisis in Kenya over Disputed Presidential Election, Lula Launches Campaign in Brazil: We Want a Government That Distributes Books, Not Weapons, Iran Submits Response to “Final Text” of New Nuclear Agreement, Colorado River Drought Forces Water Cuts to Arizona and Nevada, Jill Biden & Lloyd Austin Test Positive for COVID, Immigrant Rights Groups Sue Data Broker LexisNexis over Selling Personal Data to ICE, Academy of Motion Picture Arts Apologizes to Indigenous Activist Sacheen Littlefeather over 1973 Ceremony

Dozens of civil rights groups have joined an urgent push for the compassionate release of longtime political prisoner Mutulu Shakur from prison. The 72-year-old Black liberation activist is said by prison doctors to have less than six months to live, after being diagnosed with stage 3 bone marrow cancer. Shakur was part of the Black nationalist group Republic of New Afrika that worked with the Black Panther Party and others, and is the stepfather of the late rapper icon Tupac Shakur. He was convicted in 1988 of conspiracy in several armed robberies, one of which resulted in the deaths of a guard and two police officers, and also for aiding the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur. We speak with Nkechi Taifa, a lawyer and longtime supporter of Shakur, as well as Brad Thomson, attorney with the People’s Law Office, which has filed urgent lawsuits to secure Shakur’s release. “He is in a desperate medical situation,” says Thomson, who calls any claims that Shakur would reoffend if released “patently false and absolutely outrageous.” “It is time for him to live out his remaining days in the comfort of his family and friends,” says Taifa.

Lawyers and journalists sued the CIA and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo Monday for spying on them while they met Julian Assange when he was living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had political asylum. The lawsuit is being filed as Britain prepares to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act by publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. We speak with the lead attorney in the case, Richard Roth, who details how a private security company stationed at the London Embassy sent images from Assange’s visitors’ cellphones and laptops as well as streamed video from inside meetings to American intelligence. He says the offenses breach a range of client privileges and could sway a U.S. judge to dismiss the case if Assange is successfully extradited.

“Defund the FBI” is the growing call by Republicans after the FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. We get response from Alex Vitale, author of “The End of Policing,” who lays out reasons to defund the FBI that have nothing to do with Trump. Vitale reviews the history of the FBI, which he says has “always been a tool of repression of left-wing movements,” and calls the FBI investigation into Trump a “shortsighted” attempt to shut down some of the most extreme parts of the right wing. He uplifts efforts to “reduce the power and scope of the FBI in ways that limit their ability to demonize and criminalize those on the left.”

Rudy Giuliani Is Target of Georgia Prosecutors’ Criminal Probe of 2020 Election Interference, Sen. Lindsey Graham Must Testify to Georgia Grand Jury About Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Justice Department Opposes Calls to Unseal Affidavit Used to Search Trump’s Home, GOP Incumbents Who Criticized Trump Face Primary Challengers in Alaska, Wyoming, Biden Admin Rejects Unfreezing Afghanistan’s Central Bank Assets, Ukraine’s Military Takes Credit for Explosion at Russian Ammunition Depot in Crimea, William Ruto Declared Winner of Kenya’s Razor-Thin Presidential Race, Saudi Activist Gets 34 Years in Prison for Tweets Demanding Women’s Rights, Saudi Aramco Posts Record $48.4 Billion Quarterly Profit, German Protesters Block Train Tracks Demanding Halt to Construction of LNG Terminals, Lawsuit Alleges CIA Spied on Journalists and Julian Assange’s Lawyers, Prisoner’s Death by Suicide Is 12th This Year at New York’s Rikers Island Jail, Over 2,000 Mental Health Workers Begin Strike at Kaiser Permanente Clinics in California

Renowned Indian British novelist Salman Rushdie is in critical condition and faces a long road to recovery after he survived an assassination attempt Friday morning in western New York. Rushdie is one of the most highly acclaimed writers in the world today and has lived underground for many years after facing systematic threats of assassination for his writing. We feature Rushdie in his own words, when he gave a rare speech in 2004 on the freedom of expression at an event hosted by PEN America. “Will we become our enemy or not? Will we become repressive as our enemy is repressive? Will we become intolerant as our enemy is intolerant, or will we not?”

One year ago today, the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, promising to bring stability after two decades of war and U.S. occupation. But the country now faces a grave humanitarian crisis and a severe rollback of women’s rights. We speak with Afghan journalist Zahra Nader, editor-in-chief of Zan Times, a new women-led outlet documenting human rights issues in Afghanistan. “The people of Afghanistan did not make this decision, and they did not choose the Taliban,” says Nader, who explains how imperial occupations of her home country led to the political instability today. Nader also describes the hunger crisis as 95% of Afghans face hunger, and calls for more international attention on Afghanistan.

A search warrant made public on Friday reveals the FBI is investigating former President Donald Trump for three federal crimes, including violating the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records, after removing top-secret documents when they raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last week. Meanwhile, Trump is calling the investigation a hoax, and Republican threats are growing against the FBI. We speak with Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law, who calls Trump’s reaction to the FBI search a “call to violence,” setting the stage for a “replay” of January 6. “We really need to try to understand what former President Trump intended to do with this material” despite the backlash, says Greenberg.

Senators Ask to See Top-Secret Records Seized by FBI from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Home, Salman Rushdie Faces Long Road to Recovery After Surviving Assassination Attempt, House Passes Sweeping $739 Billion Climate, Healthcare and Tax Bill, Idaho Supreme Court to Allow Near-Total Abortion Ban to Take Effect Aug. 25, Kansas Orders Hand Recount of Vote That Affirmed Reproductive Rights, China Renews Warning to U.S. as Another Congressional Delegation Visits Taiwan, Taliban Uses Rifle Butts to Beat Women Protesters in Kabul, U.N. Warns 95% of Afghans Are Going Hungry One Year After Fall of Kabul to Taliban , U.N. Rights Chief Blasts Israel’s “Unconscionable” Killing of 19 Children in 10 Days, Spanish Wildfire Explodes in Size as Historic Drought Grips Europe, Colombia: Gustavo Petro Replaces Military Commanders & Moves to Resume Peace Talks, Family of Austin Tice Still Hopeful 10 Years After His Disappearance in Syria

We speak to Walden Bello, the longtime Filipino activist and former vice-presidential candidate. He was arrested Monday on “cyber libel” charges, which he says was just a tactic by the new administration to suppress his vocal criticism of them. The arrest took place just weeks after the inauguration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the former U.S.-backed dictator. Bello says people are “worried that this is a foretaste of things to come. … They don’t respond to criticisms. Instead, they use the law and they use instruments of intimidation to silence you.”

A jury in California has convicted a former worker at Twitter of spying for Saudi Arabia by providing the kingdom private information about Saudi dissidents. The spying effort led to the arrest, torture and jailing of Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, who ran an anonymous satirical Twitter account. His sister, Areej al-Sadhan, and the lawyer for the family, Jim Walden, are calling on the Biden administration to push for his release. “The brutality of the Saudi officials have no limits,” says Areej al-Sadhan. “Twitter and other social media companies have more than a little responsibility for what’s happening, not just with respect to Abdulrahman’s case and the case of other disappeared Saudi human rights activists and outspoken dissidents, but across a much broader array of misconduct,” says Walden.

One year after the Taliban seized power again in Afghanistan, we look at the new government’s crackdown on women’s rights while millions of Afghans go hungry. We speak to journalist Matthieu Aikins, who visited the capital Kabul for the first time since the U.S. evacuation one year ago. He writes the country is being “kept on humanitarian life support” in his recent article for The New York Times Magazine. The Biden administration’s economic sanctions are causing Afghanistan to spiral into a financial crisis, making the U.S. “at once both the largest funder of humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan and one of the main causes of the humanitarian crisis with these sanctions,” says Aikins.

AG Merrick Garland Calls for Release of Warrant Used in FBI Search of Trump’s Home, WaPo: FBI Searched Trump’s Residence for Classified Nuclear Arms Documents, Armed Trump Supporter Shot Dead in Ohio After Attempting to Breach FBI Field Office, Former Virginia Cop Sentenced to 7+ Years in Prison for Role in Capitol Insurrection, Evidence Mounts That DHS Watchdog Buried Evidence of Missing Secret Service Texts, CDC Further Relaxes COVID-19 Guidance, U.N. Atomic Agency Sounds Alarm as Fighting Rages Near Russian-Occupied Nuclear Plant, Russia Says It’s Negotiating Prisoner Swap with U.S. for Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, Pentagon Claims Airstrikes Killed 4 al-Shabab Militants in Somalia, At Least Five Killed as Protests in Somali Breakaway Region Turn Violent, U.N. Registers 1 Millionth Person Displaced by Drought in Somalia, Firefighters from Across Europe Battle Massive Blaze Near Bordeaux, France, Protests Erupt Across Brazil as Bolsonaro Threatens to Reject October Election, Brazilian Police Make Five More Arrests over Murder of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, San Francisco DA Who Replaced Chesa Boudin Got Six-Figure Consulting Fee in Recall Effort

As cities nationwide crack down on unhoused populations and soaring rents force people out of their homes, the Los Angeles City Council faced major protests this week when it voted to ban encampments for unhoused people near schools and daycares. The vote expanded an anti-homeless ordinance to include nearly a quarter of the city. “What they’ve done is to just put a finer point on their intention to criminalize folks out of the city of Los Angeles,” says Pete White, executive director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, who spoke in opposition to the measure at the meeting. “Houselessness is a byproduct of a failed housing system.”

Housing activists are in Washington, D.C., this week to meet with Biden administration officials and urge them to take immediate action to address the rent inflation crisis, as prices soar and the end of eviction moratoriums has caused eviction rates to spike again. Aside from gas and groceries, “rent is the largest expense for most American households, and it’s a core driver of inflation,” says Tara Raghuveer, director of KC Tenants and the People’s Action’s Homes Guarantee campaign.

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott is sending busloads of asylum seekers to New York City and other “liberal” cities to oppose what he calls the Biden administration’s “open borders policies.” About 100 asylum seekers arrived Wednesday at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in a bus chartered by Texas, adding to the thousands of asylum seekers the city claims has strained its shelter system in the past few months. Some say they were misled into boarding the buses and signing consent waivers. Immigration activists are calling for the city, state and federal governments to provide better care for those arriving in New York. “What we’re seeing happening right now is Governor Abbott using asylum seekers as political pawns to merely help increase his polling numbers down in Texas,” says Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the ​​New York Immigration Coalition, which is part of an effort to welcome people with dignity, mutual aid and legal services.

After months of failure to revive the Iran nuclear deal, European Union negotiators have drafted a “final” text for the U.S. and Iran to sign. An agreement seems more likely, due to Iran backing down on original demands for the U.S. to take the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps off its terrorist blacklist and for future U.S. presidents to not have the authority to pull out of the deal as the Trump administration did. This comes as tension grows between the two countries after an Iranian man was charged for an alleged assassination plot on multiple U.S. officials. “That doesn’t mean there needs to be a stop to diplomacy,” says Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Ukraine Claims Responsibility for Blast Destroying Nine Russian Warplanes, U.S. Pledges Increased Military Support to Latvia, China Pledges Taiwan Patrols as It Concludes Major War Games, Trump Invokes Fifth Amendment 440+ Times During New York Deposition, GOP Congressmember Who Voted to Impeach Trump Loses Primary to 2020 Election Denier, FBI Alleges Iranian Man Plotted to Murder Ex-National Security Adviser John Bolton, Sierra Leone Government Orders Curfew as Protests Turn Deadly, Kenya Continues to Wait for Election Results, Former Lawyer to Jamal Khashoggi, Asim Ghafoor, Released from UAE Prison, U.S. Economy Added 528,000 Jobs in July as Inflation Rate Fell, Chipotle to Pay $20 Million over Worker Protection Violations, Biden Signs Bill Expanding Benefits for Veterans Affected by Burn Pits

The Biden administration says it is officially ending the controversial Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy that forces asylum seekers to wait in Mexico as their cases wind through court, often in grueling conditions for months or years. We speak to attorney and activist Efrén Olivares with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project about the impact of this policy, as well as ongoing efforts to reunite families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy in 2018. Olivares represented some of the children and their parents, and wrote about them in his new book, “My Boy Will Die of Sorrow: A Memoir of Immigration from the Front Lines.”

Leaders of the African People’s Socialist Party say the FBI carried out a violent raid on its properties with flash grenades and drones early Friday morning in Missouri and Florida. The pan-Africanist group has been a longtime advocate for reparations for slavery and a vocal critic of U.S. foreign policy. The raid appears to be connected to a separate indictment of a Russian man accused of using U.S.-based groups to spread Russian propaganda and tampering with U.S. elections. We speak with Omali Yeshitela, chair of the African People’s Socialist Party, who describes how he was zip-tied while his home was raided. He says the FBI’s implication that their group was taking orders from the Russians is “the most ridiculous, asinine” narrative. “It’s an attack on the right of Black people,” says Yeshitela. “It’s an attack on our struggle for the absolute total liberation of every square inch of Africa.”

Police say they have arrested a primary suspect in the recent killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Authorities say Muhammad Syed, 51, committed at least two of the killings and may have been motivated by anger that his daughter had married outside of her branch of Islam. The four victims are Mohammad Ahmadi, Muhammed Afzaal Hussain, Aftab Hussein and Naeem Hussain. We go to Albuquerque to speak with Samia Assed, human rights activist and organizer, who was the host of a memorial Tuesday night at the Islamic Center of New Mexico, Albuquerque’s longest-standing and largest mosque that at least three of the victims had attended. She discusses the increased police presence in the Muslim community and the suspect’s own identity that contradicted initial assumptions that the killings were anti-Muslim hate crimes. “With this perpetrator being Muslim, I just want to say violence is not exclusive to the Muslim community,” says Assed. “It shouldn’t be a judgment call on who we are.”

Wisconsin: Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes Wins Dem Senate Primary, Minnesota: Election Denier Wins GOP Primary for Secretary of State, Becca Balint Wins Democratic House Primary in Vermont, Republicans Demand Answers from FBI & DOJ over Raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, FBI Seizes Phone of Rep. Scott Perry, Who Played Key Role in Backing Trump’s Attempted Coup, Massive Blasts at Russian Air Base in Crimea Kills One, S. African FM to Blinken: The Palestinians, Like the Ukrainians, “Deserve Their Territory & Freedom”, Israeli Forces Kill Two Palestinian Teenagers in Occupied West Bank, 50 Palestinians Ordered Off Israeli Bus to Make Room for Three Jewish Riders, Arrest Made in Albuquerque After Four Muslim Men Were Killed, Mother and Daughter Face Felony Charges over At-Home Abortion in Nebraska, Asian American Residents in California Sue Siskiyou County Officials for Racial Bias, L.A. City Council Votes to Ban Encampment for Unhoused People Near Schools, Ex-Twitter Employer Convicted for Giving Saudis Private Info on Dissidents, Biden Signs $280 Billion CHIPS Act, Grand Jury Declines to Indict Woman for Role in Lynching of Emmett Till

Two years of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s text messages have now been turned over to the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. The messages were first revealed in court last week in Austin, Texas, just before a jury ordered InfoWars host Alex Jones to pay $4.1 million in compensatory damages and $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of Jesse Lewis, a 6-year-old boy killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. For years Alex Jones spread conspiracy theories that the Newtown shooting was a government hoax and the victims’ families were paid actors, resulting in online harassment and death threats for Sandy Hook families. “He will never change, but it does send a message … that this is just so important to push back against the lies and disinformation,” says New York Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson, who covered the case and is the author of “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth.”

We speak with Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, about his call for the creation of a diverse, interfaith humanitarian delegation to travel to Russia to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced last week to nine years in a penal colony for possessing just two ounces of cannabis oil. “Our priority should be this young lady coming home,” says Barber.

We look at ​​the Democrats’ sweeping $739 billion bill just passed by the Senate in part to address the climate crisis. Democrats in the Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday with votes from West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, and the House will vote on the package Friday. The reason the bill exists at all is due to Senator Bernie Sanders and grassroots organizing to demand action on climate change, says Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. Indigenous lawyer Tara Houska says the bill’s climate provisions cede too much to Big Oil companies in pursuit of renewable energy. “Black and Brown people continue to disparately experience the effects of extractive industry,” she adds. Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, says the bill contains too much compromise. “Part of the bill was putting a pipeline that Black and white and Brown and poor people in frontline communities are fighting right now,” he says.

When the Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate Sunday, Republicans successfully blocked a price cap on insulin. Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, says that despite its flaws, the bill is a win against the pharmaceutical industry’s exploitative profits. “They’re super worried that this is a break in the dam and that it will lead to more negotiation, once we, the American people, see plainly the cost savings that are available,” says Weissman.

Ex-President Donald Trump and supporters expressed outrage on Monday over an FBI raid on his Palm Beach resort Mar-a-Lago. The search, according to multiple media outlets, focused on illegally removed White House records. Robert Weissman, president of the advocacy organization Public Citizen, says while the raid on a former president’s private residence is unprecedented, it is too early to tell how it will impact the ongoing investigation of the January 6 insurrection. “I don’t think that we should jump on board of being too excited and trusting of the FBI,” says Weissman.

Federal Agents Execute Search Warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort, Ukraine Calls for Demilitarized Zone Around Russian-Occupied Nuclear Power Plant, U.S. to Send Ukraine Another $1 Billion in Weapons, Israeli Troops Kill Three, Wound 40 in West Bank Raid, Emergency Protest in New York Demands End to Israeli Assaults on Palestinians, EU Unveils Draft Proposal to Revive 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, Biden Administration to End Trump-Era “Remain in Mexico” Policy After Court Order, Ahmaud Arbery’s Killers Sentenced on Federal Hate Crimes Charges, Family of Teen Killed by Maryland Police Reaches Partial $5 Million Settlement, One Dead, 14 Missing as Fire Spreads at Massive Cuban Oil Depot, Philippines Scholar and Activist Walden Bello Arrested on “Cyber Libel” Charges

CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, ended Saturday in Texas with a speech by former President Trump, after kicking off with far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who just won a fourth term in office. Political scientist Kim Lane Scheppele says American conservatives look to populist leaders turned autocrats in foreign countries like Hungary, Israel and Brazil for strategies to undermine the constitutional democratic process and consolidate power. Orbán, for example, is sharing the “playbook” for “taking over the courts, developing a compliant parliament, shutting down all the independent think tanks, shutting down all the independent agencies of government,” says Scheppele.

President Gustavo Petro’s inauguration Sunday ushers in a new political era for Colombia, with Francia Márquez Mina becoming the first Afro-Colombian woman to be sworn in as vice president. We feature part of Petro’s historic inauguration speech and play part of a recent interview with Simón Mejía, a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning Colombian band Bomba Estéreo, who says the new leftist presidency “brings hope … to the underrepresented people of the periphery of Colombia.” He also speaks about his time working on a new film project called “El Duende” that centers Afro-Colombians, who have long faced violence and repression.

The death toll from three days of an Israeli military bombardment on Gaza has reached at least 44 Palestinians, including 15 children. At least 350 Palestinians were wounded. Bombing has since stopped after Israel and the Islamic Jihad militant group agreed on Sunday to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt, and border crossings reopened on Monday to allow bare necessities in. We go to Gaza to speak with the journalist and activist Issam Adwan, who says Israel’s military operation is meant to bolster the current Israeli government ahead of November elections. “They are using the Palestinian blood to promote a campaign for certain individuals,” says Adwan.

Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill 44 Palestinians, Including 15 Children, Senate Passes $739 Billion Climate and Healthcare Bill, Former Guerrilla Gustavo Petro Sworn In as Colombia’s First Leftist President, China Extends Military Drills Near Taiwan After Pelosi’s Trip, Russia and Ukraine Trade Blame over Attacks on Nuclear Power Site, Indiana Governor Signs Bill Banning Nearly All Abortions, Albuquerque, NM Police Say Killings of Four Muslim Men Likely Linked, Alex Jones Ordered to Pay Sandy Hook Family $45 Million in Compensation, U.N. Chief Guterres Joins Ceremony Marking 77 Years Since U.S. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, Torrential Rains Trigger Flash Floods in California’s Death Valley

We speak with Michael Mable about the life and legacy of his brother, Black Panther activist and political prisoner Albert Woodfox. Woodfox spent nearly 44 years in solitary confinement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary after he was wrongly convicted of murdering a prison guard. Woodfox’s conviction was overturned for the third time in 2013, and he was eventually released in 2016. “His legacy was based upon change,” says Mable. “He was a free man, and he’s free now.” We also speak with his fellow “Angola 3” member Robert King and Woodfox’s longtime attorney Carine Williams. “He understood his reasoning for existing,” says King on Woodfox’s legacy. “He won’t be forgotten.”

Albert Woodfox, who was held in solitary confinement longer than any prisoner in U.S. history, has died at the age of 75 due to complications tied to COVID-19. The former Black Panther and political prisoner won his freedom six years ago after surviving nearly 44 years in solitary over a wrongful murder conviction of a prison guard. Fellow imprisoned Panthers Herman Wallace and Robert King were also falsely accused of prison murders, and they collectively became known as the Angola 3. Democracy Now! interviewed Albert Woodfox in his first live TV interview just three days after his 2016 release, and multiple times afterward. “I’m just trying to learn how to be free,” Woodfox said. “I’ve been locked up so long in a prison within a prison.” Woodfox went on to write his memoir, “Solitary,” and continued to fight for prison reform after his release.

The Department of Justice has announced federal criminal charges against four former and current Louisville police officers over their roles in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor. The charges come after the state of Kentucky failed to prosecute any police officers for Taylor’s death, despite nationwide Black Lives Matter demands to investigate. “How can it be that the federal government and state government are so far apart on this case?” says Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, who calls the federal charges “a great step in the right direction.” Reynolds is demanding an investigation into Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s prosecution of the case — which she says was either “incompetent” or “in collusion” with the police.

DOJ Charges 4 Former and Current Louisville Cops over Breonna Taylor’s Killing, Amnesty Accuses Ukraine’s Military of Endangering Civilians, Russian Court Sentences WNBA Star Brittney Griner to 9 Years in Penal Colony, China Sanctions House Speaker Pelosi over Visit to Taiwan, Sen. Sinema Will Support Reconciliation Bill After Dems End Tax Increase on Rich Investors, Trump-Backed 2020 Election Denier Kari Lake Wins Arizona Gubernatorial Primary, U.S. Declares Monkeypox a Public Health Emergency, New York Warns Polio May Be Spreading After Poliovirus Found in Rockland County Sewage, Florida Governor Suspends State Attorney Who Promised Not to Prosecute Abortion Ban Violations, Former Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez Arrested on Bribery Charges, Alex Jones Ordered to Pay $4.1M in Compensation to Family of Sandy Hook Shooting Victim, Ex-Black Panther Albert Woodfox, Held Nearly 44 Years in Solitary Confinement, Dies of COVID-19

We speak with international affairs scholar Kim Lane Scheppele on the rise and fall of Hungary’s constitutional democracy and how Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gained popularity among the American right ahead of his speech today at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “Orbán presents, especially for the American right, a kind of irresistible combination of culture war issues,” says Scheppele. “These culture war issues in Hungary disguise the fact that underneath the surface Orbán has been changing the laws of the country so that gradually he has shut down all of the independent institutions that might tell him no.” She says U.S. Republicans are now engaging in a very “Orbán-like” campaign to rig elections so they win regardless of the popular vote.

The U.N. warned this week that humanity is “one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation” as tensions escalate globally. We speak with Ira Helfand, former president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, who says the U.N. Security Council permanent members, comprising Russia, China, the U.S., the U.K. and France, are pursuing nuclear policies that are “going to lead to the end of the world that we know.” We also speak with disarmament activist Zia Mian, co-director of Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security, who says non-nuclear weapon states must pressure other countries to sign onto the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Safety conditions at Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant are “completely out of control,” according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. This comes as the Russian military has deployed heavy artillery batteries and laid anti-personnel landmines at the site in recent weeks. “Nuclear plants are extremely vulnerable to external attack in the context of a war zone,” says Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist with Greenpeace, who says something as simple as the loss of power could unleash “massive releases of radioactivity” at rates worse than the Cheronobyl disaster of 1986.

Death Toll Grows to 4 in California’s Biggest Wildfire of 2022, U.N. Secretary-General Condemns “Grotesque Greed” of Fossil Fuel Companies, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Questions Tax Provisions of Democrats’ Reconciliation Bill, Sen. Bernie Sanders Slams Climate Bill’s Tax Breaks and Subsidies for Fossil Fuel Companies, U.S. Senate Votes 95-1 to Allow Finland and Sweden to Join NATO, U.S. and China Hold Competing Military Drills After House Speaker Pelosi Visits Taiwan, Biden Signs Executive Order Supporting Patients Who Travel for Abortion Care, Indiana GOP Rep. Walorski and Two Staffers Killed in Car Crash, Mexican Journalist Killed, Bringing Total to 13 So Far This Year, Alex Jones Admits 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre Was Real, Right-Wing Authoritarian Leader of Hungary Viktor Orbán Meets with Trump, Will Speak at CPAC, Justice Dept. Investigated Over 1,000 Threats to Election Workers in Past Year, Labor Board Orders Striking Coal Miners to Pay $13.3 Million in Damages, Hyundai Subsidiary Accused of Using Child Labor in Alabama, House Bill Would Gut Protections for Gig Economy Workers, Catholic Worker Tom Cornell Dies at 88

Nearly 60% of Kansas voters struck down a ballot measure Tuesday night that would have removed the state’s right to abortion and cleared the way for Republican state lawmakers to ban the procedure. It was the first vote on abortion rights since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. “Voters in Kansas have just proven that the will of the people can be a powerful tool to overrule the will of a Republican-dominated Legislature,” says reproductive health reporter Amy Littlefield, who calls the vote a “landslide.”

The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to expand healthcare and disability benefits to some 3.5 million former U.S. service members poisoned by toxic substances from waste burning pits on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. The PACT Act, which now heads to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law, is set to be the biggest expansion of health benefits to veterans in over 30 years but provides no aid to civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan who continue to bear the brunt of the health and economic impacts of the toxic burn pits. “The campaign for veteran healthcare could have been a joint struggle that included Iraqi [and Afghan] people,” says Purdue University professor Kali Rubaii, who is just back from Fallujah, Iraq, where she was speaking with residents about the impact of the burn pits. She explains how the profit-driven U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan fueled the massive scale of burn pits in the region. We also speak with the Quincy Institute’s Kelley Vlahos, who discusses the congressional lead-up to the bill, which she says put “veterans in the crosshairs.”

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has left Taiwan after a series of high-profile meetings with Taiwan’s pro-democracy president and other lawmakers. Pelosi’s visit made her the most senior U.S. official to visit Taiwan in 25 year and stoked tensions with China, prompting the nation to announce it would carry out new air and naval drills and long-range live-fire exercises in six areas around Taiwan beginning Thursday. The Quincy Institute’s Michael Swaine says President Biden should have done more to prevent the visit and uphold the One China policy, calling the move a “basic violation of the understanding that the United States and China reached at the time of normalization.” Taiwanese American journalist Brian Hioe rebukes Swaine’s claims, saying progressives should focus more on the desires of the Taiwanese than trying to cater to the whims of the two imperial powers of the U.S. and China, adding that the Taiwanese are not threatened by China’s retaliatory military escalation. “We cannot act as progressives or leftists seeing things in a bipolar world, seeing no other agency from any other force,” says Hioe.