Democracy Now!

Pelosi Vows “Ironclad” Support for Taiwan; China to Hold New Military Drills Near Island, Kansas Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Constitutional Amendment Banning Abortion, Justice Department Sues Idaho over Abortion Ban, Trump-Backed Election Deniers Win GOP Primaries in Arizona for Senate & Secretary of State, Michigan GOP Lawmaker Who Voted to Impeach Trump Loses Primary, Haley Stevens Defeats Andy Levin After AIPAC Spent $3M+ to Defeat Ex-Synagogue President in Michigan, Russia Accuses U.S. of Direct Involvement in Ukraine War, U.N. Brokers Deal to Extend Yemen Ceasefire by Two Months, U.S. Approves $5 Billion in Missile Sales to Saudi Arabia & the United Arab Emirates, Trump Backers in Arizona Feared Fake Elector Plot “Could Appear Treasonous”, Report: Pentagon Wiped Data from Phones of Top Officials After Jan. 6 Insurrection, Senate Approves Bill to Help Veterans Exposed to Toxic Burn Pits

As New York City declares monkeypox a public health emergency, and California and Illinois have also declared states of emergency over the rapid spread of monkeypox, we speak with LGBTQ+ scholar Steven Thrasher, author of the new book, “The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide,” which explores how social determinants impact the health outcomes of different communities. “This disease is one that in theory can infect anyone, but it has worked its way particularly into communities with men who have sex with men,” says Thrasher. “This does not mean that it’s a 'gay disease,' and shouldn’t be stigmatized that way, but we shouldn’t be ashamed to think about who it is affecting and how it is affecting people and to deal with it with a great sense of urgency.”

We go to Kansas, where voters today are deciding whether to pass a constitutional amendment that would override a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling establishing a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. If the amendment passes, it will clear the way for Republican state lawmakers to ban the procedure, which they have vowed to do. Kansas is the first state in the country to vote on the right to abortion and one of the last states in the region to still allow abortion, with clinics there having reported an influx of patients from neighboring states, including Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, after the Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade. Republicans are “strategically using tactics of voter suppression” to ensure the amendment passes by requiring strict registration guidelines and drafting “incredibly confusing” language in the amendment, says reproductive health reporter Amy Littlefield. Despite this, she says the abortion rights community feels “cautiously optimistic” that the enormous grassroots mobiliziation in response to the overruling of Roe “might just be enough” to strike down the amendment.

President Biden claimed Monday a CIA drone strike killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul, Afghanistan. Trained as a surgeon in Egypt, where he was born into a prominent family, al-Zawahiri was a key figure in the jihadist movement since the 1980s. The U.S. has long accused al-Zawahiri of being a key 9/11 plotter along with Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in 2011. The Taliban has since criticized the attack, saying the drone strike was a “violation of international principles.” For more, we’re joined by Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwary and national security expert Karen Greenberg, who say the Taliban’s apparent sheltering of al-Zawahiri in a prominent Kabul neighborhood was shocking. “This is a strike inside the heart of Kabul in an area that is very, very well known to the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies,” says Sarwary, whose sources report at least 12 Arab nationals were killed in the strike despite Biden announcing there were no civilian casualties.

U.S. Drone Strike in Afghanistan Kills al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri , Kentucky Flood Toll Rises to 37; California’s McKinney Fire Claims 2 Lives, White House Agrees to Complete Pipeline to Win Sen. Manchin’s Support for Climate Bill, Indigenous Protesters at U.S. Interior Department Reject Drilling on Public Lands, Militia Recruiter Sentenced to 7 Years for Role in Capitol Insurrection, China Warns Pelosi Visit to Taiwan Could Have “Disastrous Consequences” for U.S., Humanity Is “One Miscalculation Away from Nuclear Annihilation,” U.N. Leader Warns , Supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr Protest in and Around Iraq’s Parliament, Republicans Who Opposed Trump Face Challengers as Five States Hold Primary Elections, Kansas Holds Referendum on Constitutional Right to Abortion, New York, California and Illinois Declare Monkeypox a Public Health Emergency

We spend the hour with an activist who replaced Angela Davis on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List: Bernardine Dohrn, a leader in the radical 1960s organization called the Weather Underground. When Dohrn and her activist husband Bill Ayers literally went underground to avoid arrest, they then raised a family as they continued to fight for revolution. Now a new podcast that was created, written and hosted by their son, Zayd Ayers Dohrn, explores their family history. Dohrn and Ayers discuss how they were radicalized, how they raised their children underground and why they resurfaced, and respond to whether they think their actions — like bombing the Pentagon to protest the war in Vietnam — perpetuated violence. We feature excerpts of the family from the podcast, as well as of former Weather Underground leaders who were captured and went to prison, like the late Kathy Boudin, mother of former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who then became a brother to Zayd, and Kakuya Shakur, daughter of Assata Shakur, who is still in exile in Cuba. “This is an important part of the story to the collateral damage to the next generation,” says Ayers Dohrn. “None of those kids chose to be part of the revolution. They, we, were born into it and still had to suffer the consequences.”

Death Toll in Kentucky Flooding Rises to 28, Wildfire in California’s Klamath National Forest Explodes in Size , Oil Giants Rake In Record Profits Amid Global Surge in Prices, Sen. Sinema Remains Uncommitted on Manchin-Schumer Deal on Climate, Healthcare and Taxes, House Approves Federal Assault Weapons Ban; Senate GOP Expected to Filibuster, First Grain Ship Leaves Ukraine Since Russia Invaded in February, House Speaker Pelosi Will Visit Taiwan Despite Warnings from China, Pope Asks Forgiveness for “Genocide” of Canada’s Indigenous Children, Trump-Appointed DHS Watchdog Dropped Efforts to Recover Deleted Jan. 6 Texts, FBI Raids Black Liberation Group Accused of Spreading Russian Propaganda, Guatemalan Police Arrest Muckraking Journalist José Rubén Zamora, NBA Legend and Civil Rights Leader Bill Russell Dies at 88, Pioneering Black Actress Nichelle Nichols, Who Played Lt. Uhura on “Star Trek,” Dies at 89

The first case of monkeypox behind bars was reported in Chicago this week, and health experts are warning that jails could accelerate the spread as they are dangerously unprepared to combat against a virus that spreads through close physical contact. We speak with Dr. Homer Venters, the former chief medical officer for New York City’s Correctional Health Services, whose new op-ed for The Hill is headlined ”CDC must act to prevent monkeypox explosion in prisons.”

As tens of millions of people in the United States live under heat alerts this summer, we look at conditions faced by those in prisons and jails with poor cooling systems and lack of access to running water. “Although heat has been an ongoing issue in Texas, this year it’s exacerbated by a staffing crisis that’s been years in the making,” says Keri Blakinger, the first formerly incarcerated reporter for The Marshall Project. “This is a drastically underappreciated problem,” adds Dr. Homer Venters, the former chief medical officer for New York City’s Correctional Health Services.

Before a deal emerged this week on a bill to address the climate emergency, six congressional staffers were arrested Monday on Capitol Hill as they held a nonviolent civil disobedience protest inside the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, urging him to reopen negotiations on the bill. We speak with Saul Levin, one of the staffers who was arrested, and discuss the role the action had in pushing the bill forward. “Our lives depend on passing climate policy this year,” says Levin. “We hope that this had an impact.” We’re also joined by Leah Stokes, a professor of environmental politics who advised Senate Democrats on the legislation.

President Biden is hailing a Senate bill negotiated by Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer as “the most significant legislation in history to tackle the climate crisis.” While it faces hurdles before passage, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act would invest $369 billion into renewable energy and other measures to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Leah Stokes, a professor of environmental politics who advised Senate Democrats on the legislation, says that while the bill is not perfect, it represents a major step forward. “We just do not have another decade left to wait if we really want to be on track to cut carbon pollution in half this decade,” says Stokes.

As the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) invests millions in Democratic primaries to defeat progressives who support Palestine, we speak to one of the candidates: Michigan Congressmember Andy Levin, whose primary is on Tuesday. He is a self-described Zionist who supports a two-state solution, but earlier this year a former president of AIPAC described him as “arguably the most corrosive member of Congress to the U.S.-Israel relationship.” “What you have here is a real threat to the Democratic Party being able to choose our own nominees that we send to the general election in November,” says Levin. Levin was among 17 House Democrats arrested Tuesday in a pro-abortion protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court.

Biden Urges Congress to Swiftly Pass Deal on Climate, Healthcare & Economy, Torrential Rains Trigger Deadly Floods and Mudslides in Kentucky, Congress Approves Bill to Subsidize U.S. Semiconductor Industry, GOP Senators Block Bill to Aid Veterans Exposed to Toxic Burn Pits, Russia and Ukraine Trade Blame After Strike on Prison Kills 40 POWs , President Biden Holds Lengthy Phone Call with Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, “What About My Life?”: 12-Year-Old West Virginian Demands Lawmakers Reject Abortion Ban, Supreme Court’s Samuel Alito Mocks Critics of His Ruling Striking Down Abortion Rights, At Least Five Haitian Migrants Drown Off Coast of Puerto Rico, Central American Migrants Narrowly Escape Suffocation in Abandoned Trailer in Mexico, Trader Joe’s Workers in Massachusetts Organize Grocery Chain’s First-Ever Union, Indigenous Protesters in Canada Demand Pope Francis Rescind “Doctrine of Discovery”

As next month marks one year since the United States officially withdrew from Afghanistan, we look at the Taliban-ruled country’s devastating economic and humanitarian crisis that has unfolded since. Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwary describes the dire situation as “an epic failure by the Taliban as the de facto rulers in terms of not stopping their crackdown against the Afghan people” while they cope with flash floods, food shortages and more. He adds that the U.S. exit deal with the Taliban “completely sidelined the previous government” and failed to kickstart a peace process, contributing to instability in the country.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, many in Western countries are expressing their opposition to the war by becoming hostile to Russian culture. Nina Khrushcheva argues that Russian music, films, books and art are not the right targets for antiwar activism in her latest article, “Don’t Cancel Russian Culture.” If Russians feel that the West is inhibiting Russian culture, “they will blame the West more than they blame the oppressive regime that is there in Russia,” says Khrushcheva, professor at The New School and great-granddaughter of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Meanwhile, Russia is cracking down on cultural producers who dare to oppose the invasion.

We look at how the Russian war in Ukraine is impacting the Russian people, with many Russian dissidents who oppose the invasion choosing to flee abroad after facing violent crackdowns at home. Ilya Budraitskis is a Russian historian and political writer who left his home in Moscow after the war in Ukraine began, and recently launched the media outlet Posle. Meanwhile, Putin’s Russia looks like an extremely “conformist” society, where “some 200 kilometers from your home you have a full-scale war with the army of your country that started this war, and you pretend not to follow the news, not to disturb your normal way of life with this terrifying information,” says Budraitskis.

We speak to Oksana Dutchak, a Ukrainian feminist and co-editor of the leftist journal Spilne, who fled to Germany because of the “inability to live under the constant pressure of fear” as Russian invaded. She says Western leftists and feminists who have misgivings about Western military support for Ukraine often overlook that Ukrainians are fighting for self-determination and against imperialism. “What does it mean to stop the war? How it should be stopped? There are questions which should be in the center if you want to give a political answer to the challenges Ukrainian society is facing,” she adds.

In Reversal, Sen. Joe Manchin Will Back Legislation on Climate, Healthcare and Taxes, Progressive Lawmakers and Activists Demand Biden Declare Climate Emergency, Fed Raises Key Interest Rate by 0.75%, Citing Inflation, Former Trump WH Aide Cassidy Hutchinson Is Cooperating with DOJ Probe into Jan. 6, Russia Bombs Ukrainian Military Base Near Kyiv; U.S. Estimates 75,000 Russian Casualties, Secretary of State Blinken Says He’ll Discuss Prisoner Exchange with Russian Counterpart, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un Threatens Nuclear Response If Provoked by U.S., President Biden Says He Has Recovered from COVID-19, Judges in North Dakota and Wyoming Block Abortion “Trigger” Bans, Marriage Equality Bill, Approved by House, Nears Senate Vote, Man Indicted in Highland Park Mass Shooting, Democrats Grill Arms Industry CEOs on Selling Military-Style Guns to Civilians, Former Minneapolis Officers Sentenced for Violating George Floyd’s Civil Rights

We speak with Marxist economist Richard Wolff about how experts forecast another economic recession in the United States, with inflation at a historic high and a federal minimum wage that hasn’t changed for 13 years. The Federal Reserve plan to combat rising inflation by raising interest rates delivers a “body blow to a working class” already suffering from decades of upward wealth redistribution and a pandemic, says Wolff, emeritus professor of economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst and visiting professor at The New School. His latest book is “The Sickness Is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself.”

We look at the looming possibility of a global recession amid rising inflation, the pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine. World financial institutions and wealthier countries should take stronger actions such as writing off debts that are crippling developing nations, says Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “This is just completely lack of political will. It’s not because we don’t know what to do.” Her piece in The Guardian is headlined “There is a global debt crisis coming — and it won’t stop at Sri Lanka,” and she also discusses other countries on the brink of an economic collapse, including Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Panama and Argentina.

China warned that there could be serious consequences, including a military response, if U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi follows through on plans to visit Taiwan in August, according to the Financial Times. If the trip happens, Pelosi would become the most senior U.S. official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. “The question is: Is this signal just intended to really stick it to China very quickly, without actually benefiting Taiwan, or is it something that should be best not done?” says Taiwanese American journalist Brian Hioe.

Washington Post: DOJ Investigating Trump as Part of Probe to Overturn 2020 Election, Emails Show Trump Team Admitted Election Plot Involved “Fake” Electors & “Fake” Votes, Audio: Ex-Defense Sec. Says Trump Did Not Order Troops Deployed to Capitol on Jan. 6, Oregon Declares State of Emergency over Heat Wave, St. Louis Hit with Over Nine Inches of Rain; 1 Dead in Massive Flooding, 15 Die in Democratic Republic of the Congo as Protests Escalate over U.N. Troops, Russia to Withdraw from International Space Station, Jailed Basketball Superstar Brittney Griner Appears in Russian Court, Family of Shireen Abu Akleh Meet Blinken & Demand U.S. Probe into Her Killing, Senate Panel Decries “Abusive and Inhumane” Conditions at Federal Prison in Atlanta, “Night of Terror”: 28 Women Held in Indiana Jail Accuse Guards of Letting Men Attack Them, Bernie Sanders Denounces Plan to Give $76B “Blank Check” to Semiconductor Industry

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives have introduced the Puerto Rico Status Act, which would allow residents of the longtime U.S. colony to begin the process of self-determination and decide on the island’s territorial status. The bill sets up three options for residents to choose from in a referendum — U.S. statehood, independence or sovereignty in free association with the United States — and commits Congress to abide by the results. We speak to San Juan’s former Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz about the shortcomings of the bill, which she says lacks clarity on what each status would mean for Puerto Ricans. Among the concerns are whether Spanish would be taught as a primary language in government-funded public schools. Many do not understand “the rush to do it and, in doing so, not allowing the Puerto Rican people to have all the information to exercise their freedom to choose,” says Cruz.

Human rights activists are sounding the alarm in Burma, where the military junta has executed four men imprisoned for their pro-democracy activism and opposing last year’s coup. It is the first series of reported executions in Burma in three decades. We speak to exiled Burmese dissident and human rights activist Maung Zarni, who says the international community should hold the Burmese regime accountable for its humanitarian crimes, especially in light of the overwhelming response to the Russian war in Ukraine. “This is a regime that has committed every single grave crime in international law that has ever been established and coded in the law books,” says Zarni.

Pope Francis is on a historic trip to Canada this week to apologize for the mistreatment suffered by thousands of Indigenous children in residential schools run by the Catholic Church. Many survivors say the apology comes over half a century too late and the church should take further actions to prevent the psychological, physical and sexual abuse from recurring in Catholic-run institutions. We go to Toronto to speak to Mi’kmaq lawyer Pamela Palmater, who says the apology was little more than “pomp and circumstance” for the church, which ultimately “doesn’t take responsibility for their policies and practices.” Her Toronto Star op-ed is headlined “Another pope’s apology isn’t enough when Catholic Church’s cover-ups and hypocrisy continue to this day.”

Pope Apologizes for Catholic Church’s “Evil” Abuses Against Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, Tunisian Voters Approve President’s Power Grab in Referendum Boycotted by Opposition, Russia Continues Attacks on Black Sea Coast as Ukraine Readies Grain Exports, EU Prepares for Rationing as Russia Further Restricts Gas Exports, Thousands Evacuate as Oak Fire Burns 17,000 Acres Near Yosemite Park, Congressional Staffers Arrested at Sit-In Climate Protest in Sen. Chuck Schumer’s Office, Biden Says He’s Recovering Well from COVID-19; Sens. Murkowski, Manchin Test Positive, U.S. Monkeypox Cases Hit 3,400, Most of Any Nation, New Evidence Shows Trump Edited Jan. 7 Speech to Avoid Condemning Capitol Rioters, Indiana GOP Opens Special Session to Debate Near-Total Ban on Abortions, New York Exonerates Sixth Man Wrongfully Charged in Central Park Jogger Case

With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the battleground for abortion access now shifts to the states, even as the U.S. faces the worst rates of maternal mortality among all rich nations, with Black maternal mortality three to four times higher than the national average. Now a new documentary examines the crisis of Black maternal mortality through the families of two young Black women who died after giving birth. “Aftershock” is co-directed by Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt, who join us to discuss how Black women navigate a healthcare system built against them and efforts underway to reduce racial disparities. “We know that Black women’s health and infants’ health is the marker of the health of a nation,” notes Lee. “In a system that puts profit over people, doesn’t listen and center birthing people already, Black women are even more affected by this due to the systemic racism that’s ingrained into our system,” adds Eiselt.

The January 6 hearings have provided jaw-dropping revelations about former President Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and his role in unleashing a deadly mob on the Capitol, but the House committee has not yet recommended criminal charges against Trump. Congressmember Ro Khanna says whether to charge the former president is ultimately the Justice Department’s call, but he stresses the need for accountability. “It’s not enough for the Justice Department to just prosecute the individuals who showed up on January 6,” Khanna says. “I’m hoping that the accountability will go up the food chain.”

Four corporations control 90% of the baby formula market in the United States, and as a national baby formula shortage drags on, it has impacted working-class families of color the most. We get an update from Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California, who just wrote an open letter urging leaders of federal agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration to take bolder action to address the shortage. Khanna discusses efforts to increase production domestically and supplement the shortage with formula from other nations, and why he is calling for President Biden to go further and pass antitrust laws to reduce reliance on corporate monopolies for vital products. “Why is it that we are so dependent on one or two manufacturers in this country?” says Khanna. “This is a problem not just in baby formula.”

Nearly 17,000 monkeypox infections have now been reported across 75 countries, and the World Health Organization declared the spread of monkeypox a global emergency. Meanwhile, the U.S. has stopped short of declaring a public health emergency even with nearly 3,000 cases reported in 44 states. New York alone has reported 900 cases of monkeypox, with rollout of the vaccine inhibited by short supply. We speak to Joe Osmundson, professor of microbiology at New York University, about the queerphobic myths about the viral spread, the global inequity of vaccine distribution and more. “This should have been an easy virus to contain,” says Osmundson. “The immense frustration in our community has been watching hundreds of people get sick, not because they’re having sex, not because of their queer identity, but because they’ve wanted to get vaccinated and those vaccines have not been available.” Osmundson also describes how he helped a friend get treatment for monkeypox. His new book is “Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between.”

Russian Missile Attack Threatens Nascent Grain Export Deal with Ukraine, Burmese Military Executes Four Activists Who Opposed Coup, Pope Visits Canada to Apologize for Abuse of Indigenous Children at Residential Schools, WHO Declares Monkeypox Outbreak a Global Health Emergency, Steve Bannon Found Guilty of Contempt for Defying House Jan. 6 Committee, Murdoch-Owned NY Post: After Jan. 6, Trump Is “Unworthy” to Be President Again, China Warns U.S. over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Planned Visit to Taiwan, 17 Haitian Asylum Seekers Drown as Boat Capsizes Near Bahamas, 1,000+ Migrants Rescued at Sea Attempting to Reach Europe, Tunisian Opposition Groups Boycott Vote on Whether to Give President More Power, California Wildfire Explodes in Size as Millions Across U.S. Face Extreme Heat, “Climate Clock” Shows Less Than 7 Years to Prevent Catastrophe, Tennessee to Investigate Officers’ Violent Arrest of Black Man

The January 6 committee aired never-before-seen outtakes of President Trump’s speech on January 7, one day after the insurrection. He is seen initially reading a script that read “this election is now over. Congress has certified the results.” But Trump insisted on changing the script. “I don’t want to say the election is over,” Trump says in the video. “I just want to say Congress has certified the results, without saying the election is over.”

During their eighth and final hearing until the fall, the January 6 House select committee aired new testimony from an anonymous national security official detailing how Mike Pence’s Secret Service agents feared for their lives during the breach of the Capitol. “There were calls to say goodbye to family members,” said the anonymous official. Despite knowledge of the growing mob, Trump decided to publish a tweet at 2:24 p.m. saying Mike Pence “lacked the courage” to stop the certification. The tweet poured “gasoline on the fire,” said Trump’s ex-deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews, who testified live on Thursday. Meanwhile, Trump was still reaching out to Republican senators, including Senator Josh Hawley, who was seen in footage racing to safety just hours after he raised his fist to the massing mob.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol held a primetime hearing on Thursday night focused on former President Donald Trump’s refusal to take action as his supporters attacked the Capitol on January 6. Lawmakers dissected the three-hour period on January 6 after Trump urged his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” For 187 minutes, Trump refused to call off the mob or reach out to law enforcement or military leaders to try to stop the violence. Instead, Trump called Republican senators, urging them to stop the certification. “For hours Donald Trump chose not to answer the pleas from Congress, from his own party and from all across our nation to do what his oath required,” said Congressmember Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair.

White House Says President Biden Has “Very Mild Symptoms” of COVID-19 , White House Defends Coronavirus Safeguards After Maskless Biden Gets Infected, House Jan. 6 Committee Spotlights Trump’s Refusal to Call Off Armed Mob Attacking Capitol, Secret Service Under Criminal Investigation for Deleted Jan. 6 Messages, Just 8 GOP Reps. Join Democrats as House Votes to Safeguard Right to Contraception, U.S. Records First Polio Case in Nearly 10 Years, Turkey Says Ukraine and Russia Have Reached Agreement over Grain Exports, Dangerous Heat Warnings to Continue into Weekend for Much of Europe, U.S., Ranil Wickremesinghe Sworn In as Sri Lankan President as Soldiers Assault Protesters, Italian PM Mario Draghi Resigns, Setting Stage for Sept. 25 Election, Guantánamo Prisoner Who Survived Torture and Arbitrary Detention for 20+ Years Cleared for Release, 18 Killed as Police Raid Impoverished Rio de Janeiro Neighborhood, Ex-Cop Thomas Lane Sentenced to 30 Months for Violating George Floyd’s Civil Rights, Senate Democrats Unveil Bill to Legalize, Tax and Regulate Cannabis

Following the resignation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss have advanced to a runoff to succeed Johnson as Conservative leader, which would also make them prime minister. Both candidates would be “utterly devastating” for the U.K., says Guardian columnist George Monbiot. “What these people have to do to become prime minister is really to appeal to the worst instincts of humanity.”

A massive heat wave has scorched much of Europe this week, with the U.K. shattering its record for highest temperature ever recorded Tuesday. We’re joined by author and environmental activist George Monbiot, whose latest column for The Guardian is headlined “This heatwave has eviscerated the idea that small changes can tackle extreme weather.” Monbiot criticizes what he calls “micro-consumerist bollocks” — an approach that presents “micro-solutions” to the “macro-problem” of climate change. “The only thing that delivers quickly and effectively is system change,” says Monbiot, who also breaks down how new technology can eliminate the West’s reliance on animal agriculture, which is one of the leading causes of the climate crisis. He also discusses the role of industrial animal agriculture in the climate crisis, which is often overshadowed by a focus on fossil fuels.

As heat waves scorch much of the globe, we look at who bears the brunt of the climate emergency and go to Kampala, Uganda, to speak with climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate. “The climate crisis has been here. It has been impacting the lives of so many people on the African continent, which is responsible for less than 4% of the global emissions,” says Nakate. “Media has a huge responsibility to cover the climate crisis, but it has a much bigger responsibility to cover the climate crisis in the places where people are already suffering some of the worst impacts.” This comes as a new study finds U.S. greenhouse emissions have caused nearly $2 trillion in damages to other, mostly poor, countries.

President Biden outlined new efforts to combat the climate crisis in a speech Wednesday but stopped short of declaring a national climate emergency — a move sought by the U.S. climate movement and many progressive lawmakers. This comes after Senator Joe Manchin just scuttled Biden’s Build Back Better climate legislation and as more than 100 million people in the United States are under heat advisories. We speak with Jean Su, energy justice director and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, who co-wrote a report detailing how the president can use emergency powers to address the climate crisis. “We’ve wasted too much time thinking about Senator Manchin and relying on Congress,” says Su. “We have to go full force on executive action.”

Georgia Law Takes Effect Banning Most Abortions and Granting “Personhood” to Embryos & Fetuses, House Schedules Vote on Bill Protecting Access to Contraception, Russia’s Lavrov Says Kremlin Seeks to Control More Ukrainian Territory, Ukraine’s First Lady Appeals to U.S. Congress for More Weapons, Russia-to-Germany Gas Pipeline Resumes Operations at Reduced Rate of Flow, Wildfires Destroy Homes in Texas as Extreme Heat Grips Much of U.S., Joe Biden Calls State of Climate an “Emergency” But Stops Short of Formal Declaration, Citizenship Question Added to 2020 Census to Help GOP Candidates, Trove of Documents Reveals, WI Assembly Speaker Says Trump Called Him “Within the Last Week” Pushing Stolen Election Claim, Arizona GOP Censures House Speaker After He Testifies to Jan. 6 Committee, Former Trump Aide Publishes Racist, Sexist Tirade After Meeting Jan. 6 Committee, Giuliani Ordered to Testify in Georgia Criminal Probe of 2020 Election Interference, Federal Prosecutors Rest Case in Trial of Steve Bannon for Contempt of Congress, House Select Committee to Highlight Trump’s Jan. 6 Actions in Primetime Hearing, Asadullah Haroon Gul Repatriated to Afghanistan, El Salvador Extends State of Emergency as Families Protest Arbitrary Arrests, Protesters Paralyze Panama, Demanding Economic Justice as Cost of Living Soars

On Tuesday, 17 Democratic lawmakers, almost all women, were arrested outside the Supreme Court while protesting the court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade. We speak with Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who was one of several Democratic House members who has shared her personal experience of getting an abortion, about what a post-Roe America looks like. “Abortion and the right to make decisions about our own bodies is so innately tied to our ability to control everything in our lives,” says Jayapal. She argues Congress should be prepared to pass national legislation protecting other critical precedents that are now vulnerable to the ultra-conservative Supreme Court, like the right to contraception and marriage equality.

We speak with Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, after a man was arrested on suspicion of hate crime after neighbors said he allegedly pointed a gun at her home and threatened to kill her. He was found outside of her home last Saturday night with a .40-caliber handgun yelling “Go back to India. I’m going to kill you,” and has since been released from jail as prosecutors say they lack evidence to bring a hate crime case against him, though his weapons have been seized. Jayapal is the first Indian American woman to serve in the House of Representatives. “We need to take away the tools from people who just find it too easy these days to express their hatred, their white supremacy, their racism in violent ways,” says Japayal, who blames the violence against her in part on former President Trump’s boosting of right-wing extremism.

A new 988 suicide and crisis hotline launched Saturday that people can call, text or chat. The three-digit shortcut phases out the 1-800-273-TALK number. Until now, the 988 lifeline was only available in some parts of the United States. We speak with Congressmember Jamie Raskin, who helped introduce legislation that provides funding for states to implement the rollout. His son Tommy tragically died by suicide at the age of 25 in December 2020 after a battle with depression. “We’re living in a very tough time … with COVID-19, with the opioid crisis, with gun violence, with the civil division and polarization,” notes Rep. Raskin. “These things have made it very rough on young people. The surgeon general has declared a national mental health emergency.”

We speak to Maryland Democratic Congressmember Jamie Raskin, member of the House January 6 select committee, about the pro-Trump Republican who won Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary in the state and helped organized buses to the insurrection. Dan Cox is the latest in a slate of Republicans across the U.S. to advance in the party after supporting Trump’s election lies. If elected, Cox has vowed to conduct a forensic audit of the 2020 election. He also wants to ban abortion in Maryland and end what he describes as “sexual indoctrination” in schools. “He obviously speaks to an extreme-right faction in our state that has swallowed Trumpist indoctrination,” says Raskin. “You could not have a purer distillation of dangerous extremist ideology than what is propounded by Dan Cox.”

Ahead of the eighth hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, we speak with Congressmember Jamie Raskin, a member of the select committee, and get an update on how the Secret Service has only provided a single text exchange from the insurrection and may have purged the messages after oversight officials requested them. “We want all of the evidence, we’re determined to get all of the evidence, but the picture is very clear at this point about what happened. This was an organized hit against American democracy in order to overturn a presidential election,” says Raskin. The committee will hold its eighth hearing on Thursday.

Britain Breaks Temperature Record as Fires Spread Across Europe, President Biden Faces Pressure to Declare National Climate Emergency, Trump-Backed Far-Right Election Denier Wins GOP Gubernatorial Primary in Maryland, With Big Help from AIPAC, Glenn Ivey Defeats Donna Edwards in Maryland Congressional Primary, Secret Service Claims It Has Preserved Just One Text Exchange from Jan. 6 Insurrection, Fake Republican Electors in Georgia Face Possible Prosecution, House Passes Respect for Marriage Act, 17 Democratic Lawmakers Arrested at Abortion Protest Outside the Supreme Court, Indiana Doctor to Sue State AG for Defamation over Her Care of 10-Year-Old Rape Survivor, Protests Continue in Sri Lanka as Ex-PM Picked to Be New President, Pakistan Rejects Call for Early Elections as Party of Ousted PM Imran Khan Gains Seats, Putin Meets with Leaders of Iran and Turkey, U.S. Kills Two in Airstrikes in Somalia, “A Horrific Execution”: San Bernardino Police Killing of Robert Adams Sparks Outrage, Chipotle Closes Store in Maine After Workers Filed to Unionize

We speak with pioneering scholar and activist Kimberlé Crenshaw about the growing Republican effort to ban critical race theory — an academic field that conservatives have invoked as a catchall phrase to censor a variety of curriculums focusing on antiracism, sex and gender. Crenshaw has launched what she calls a “counterterrorism offensive” against the Republican efforts with a “summer school” inspired by the Freedom Summer movement of the 1960s. The school debunks the “bothsidesism” debate Crenshaw says is upheld by mainstream media, and highlights the importance of critical race theory in building a multiracial democracy. “There’s no daylight between the protection of our democracy and the protection of antiracism,” says Crenshaw.

Pro-Israel lobby groups have spent “shocking” amounts of money to change the course of multiple Democratic congressional primaries over the past year alone, reports our guest Peter Beinart. The latest is in Maryland, where former Congressmember Donna Edwards is being outspent sevenfold by corporate attorney Glenn Ivey in her bid to win back her old seat in the state’s 4th Congressional District. Beinart, the editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, says the AIPAC-led PACs disguise their attack ads with local issues but in reality are designed to oust candidates who take stances in support of Palestinian rights and working people.

Outraged residents of Uvalde, Texas, confronted members of the city’s school board Monday, nearly two months after an 18-year-old gunman shot dead 19 fourth graders and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. The school board’s meeting came a day after a Texas House panel released a damning report that identified multiple “systemic failures’’ in the response by local, state and federal law enforcement to the school massacre, finding it took nearly 400 officers more than an hour to confront the gunman after they rushed to the school. For more, we speak with Roland Gutierrez, state senator for Texas’s 19th District, which includes Uvalde. “Texas is in a crisis of neglect of infinite proportions, and Greg Abbott is doing nothing about it,” says Gutierrez, who is calling on the Texas governor to call a special session to raise the minimum age to buy AR-15 guns, as well as properly fund the victims’ funerals — none of which Abbott has attended.

Death Toll from Europe’s Heat Wave Tops 1,100, Londoners Hold Climate Protest as Temperatures Approach 40°C, U.N. Secretary-General Says Climate Goal of Limiting Warming to 1.5°C on “Life Support”, Ukraine’s First Lady to Meet with Jill Biden, Will Address U.S. Congress, Banned Russian Channel TV Rain Resumes Broadcasting, from Exile, Putin Arrives in Iran for Talks on Wars in Syria and Ukraine, Gazprom Won’t Guarantee Restart of Gas in Russia-to-Germany Pipeline, U.S. State Dept. Denies UAE’s Explanation for Arrest of Khashoggi Lawyer Asim Ghafoor, U.S. COVID Cases Surge Amid Lax Public Health Measures, CDC Warns of Spread of Monkeypox Amid Shortages of Vaccines and Testing, Ghana Confirms Its First Cases of Deadly Marburg Virus, Democrats Seek to Codify Right to Medical Abortion as States Crack Down on Reproductive Rights, Florida Prosecutor Seeks Death Penalty as Parkland High School Shooter’s Sentencing Trial Opens, White 18-Year-Old Accused of Racist Massacre at Buffalo Supermarket Pleads Not Guilty, Brazil’s Bolsonaro Casts Doubt on Electoral System, Stoking Fears of an October Coup