Democracy Now!

We speak with Harvard journalism analyst Laura Hazard Owen, who says reporters will have to abandon “conventional journalism wisdom” to cover abortion stories following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. “Reporters are going to need to accept that it’s going to be really hard to sort of do the things that they’ve been trained to do when they’re writing about these cases,” says Hazard Owen, explaining why privacy laws and the criminalization of doctors will make it harder to identify pregnant people and fact-check different abortion stories that involve young victims or occur in Republican-controlled states. Her latest piece is titled “Unimaginable abortion stories will become more common. Is American journalism ready?”

A scorching heat wave continues to fuel wildfires across southern Europe and parts of North Africa, resulting in hundreds of heat-related deaths and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes. The record-breaking temperatures come as Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has effectively killed President Biden’s Build Back Better climate legislation after stringing Biden along for 18 months. “It’s appalling, but it’s not unexpected. It’s why we have to keep building movements bigger,” says Bill McKibben, climate author, educator, environmentalist and founder of the organizations Third Act and 350.org.

We speak with climate author and activist Bill McKibben, who is pushing for the climate movement to demand the release of Egyptian prisoner and human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah ahead of the next U.N. climate conference, which will be hosted in Egypt. McKibben says releasing El-Fattah to the U.K., which has agreed to house him, would be “the easiest of gestures” by Egypt, whose authoritarian leader met Saturday with President Biden. “The spread of authoritarian governments around the world is one of the things that’s making it difficult to deal with the existential challenge that climate change [presents],” says McKibben.

President Biden met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Friday, as the Saudis agreed to increase oil production as well as open their airspace to Israeli commercial flights. Biden says he told the crown prince he held him responsible for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident, though Biden’s claims were later contradicted by a top Saudi official. We speak with Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, who says Biden’s friendly fist bump with the crown prince will become the “legacy of President Biden as a man who broke his promises” on holding Saudi Arabia accountable and sends a troubling message to other wealthy oil-producing countries. Whitson also calls for the UAE to give civil rights lawyer Asim Ghafoor, who represented Khashoggi, “due process” after he was detained by officials while traveling through Dubai’s airport and sentenced to three years in prison for fraud charges he denies.

Biden Denounced for Fist-Bumping Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Biden Meets UAE President Days After Khashoggi Lawyer Asim Ghafoor Detained in Dubai, Hundreds Die in Europe Heat Wave; Wildfires Force Thousands to Evacuate, Biden Concedes Defeat as Sen. Manchin Walks Away from Talks on Climate, Taxing the Rich, Ukraine’s President Fires Spy Chief and Top Prosecutor, Alleging “Treason”, House Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Secret Service over Deleted Text Messages, Report on Uvalde Mass Shooting Cites “Systemic Failures” by Nearly 400 Officers on Scene, Gunman Kills Three and Injures Two in Indiana Shopping Mall, House Passes Reproductive Rights Bills; GOP Promises Senate Filibuster, Biden Abandons Plans to Nominate Anti-Abortion GOP Lawyer to Federal Bench, AIPAC Pours Nearly $6M into Maryland Primary in Effort to Defeat Donna Edwards, Autopsy Reveals Akron Police Shot Jayland Walker 46 Times, Families Lay to Rest Guatemalan Teens Who Died in Sweltering Migrant Trailer in Texas

The release of the first images from NASA’s new flagship James Webb Space Telescope brought renewed attention to the controversy over naming the telescope after James Webb, who led NASA ahead of the Apollo moon landings in the 1960s. He also played a key role in purging LGBTQ+ people from NASA in what was known as the “lavender scare,” and before that at the State Department under President Truman. We speak with Lucianne Walkowicz, one of four astronomers who led a petition to rename the telescope. Although the petitioners value the insights the telescope contributes, “the way that NASA has dug in its heels about naming the telescope after James Webb has really cast a pall over that,” says Walkowicz. They are also the co-founder of the JustSpace Alliance, which made a new documentary about the push to rename the telescope. We feature an extended excerpt from “Behind the Name: James Webb Space Telescope,” which also examines the push to name the telescope after Harriet Tubman, who “observed the night sky and used the stars for celestial navigation in the service of … people’s freedom.”

NASA released revolutionary new images of the cosmos this week that were taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space observatory to date. Launched in 2021, the JWST was designed to study star and planet formation with exponentially more accuracy and detail than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. “We can actually essentially watch the formation of stars,” says astrophysicist Katie Mack. “There’s a chance that it might find signatures consistent with life in the atmospheres of other stars.” We feature NASA’s new images, like the Southern Ring Nebula, and Mack discusses what humans can learn from the new science about the cosmos, and ourselves.

Biden Pledges to “Stand Up for Media Freedom” After Snubbing Shireen Abu Akleh’s Family, House Passes Record $839 Billion Military Budget in Bipartisan Vote, Texas Sues Biden Administration to Block Abortion Care in Cases of Medical Emergency, Indiana AG to Investigate Doctor Who Provided Abortion Care to 10-Year-Old Rape Survivor, Sri Lankan President Formally Resigns After Fleeing to Singapore, Scorching Heat Wave Fuels Wildfires Across Southern Europe, Sen. Manchin Says He Won’t Support Legislation to Tax the Rich and Combat Climate Crisis, IMF Warns Russia’s War on Ukraine Could Push Global Economy into Recession, European Union Asks Members to Curb Use of Natural Gas, Will Allow Increased Burning of Coal, Massive Protests in Argentine Capital Demand End to IMF-Imposed Austerity, Mexico Agrees to Pay $1.5 Billion to Further Militarize U.S. Border, Victims of Texas Migrant Truck Disaster Laid to Rest in Mexico, Leaked Audio Reveals Trump Planned to Declare Victory in 2020 Regardless of Election Outcome, Secret Service Erased Text Messages Sent Around Time of Capitol Insurrection

COVID-19 cases are rising as the BA.5 Omicron variant puts more people in the hospital amid high rates of reinfection, which is the focus of a new piece by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Yong in The Atlantic that is headlined “Is BA.5 the 'Reinfection Wave'?” Yong warns the premature rollback of protective policies, like mask mandates and public health funding, has left people more vulnerable to reinfection. Meanwhile, a concerning number of Americans continue to distrust the vaccine. Rather than focusing on community-based measures that will protect the most vulnerable first, “the Biden administration’s posture has been moving toward an era of individual responsibility,” says Yong.

President Biden is set to meet with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday as part of a four-day visit to restore key relationships and build security cooperation in the Middle East. Human rights activists are outraged that the U.S. is willing to support a leader responsible for human rights violations including in the brutal war in Yemen, the state-sanctioned killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and more. One of Biden’s aims is to convince Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, an answer to pressures at home over skyrocketing gas prices from the Russian war in Ukraine. “If we’re willing to sacrifice for oil prices, there are much less heinous sacrifices to be making than to continue military support for the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” says Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now.

President Biden will be visiting the Palestinian territories and meeting President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday. Ahead of Biden’s trip, the family of Shireen Abu Akleh demanded Biden call out Israel over her killing while covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken invited Shireen Abu Akleh’s family to visit the United States. “We will continue to call for justice, and we will continue to call on the U.S to carry out a transparent investigation by an independent body,” says Shireen Abu Akleh’s niece, Lina Abu Akleh. “In addition, we continue to call on the U.N. and the ICC to carry out an investigation and hold Israel accountable and put an end to this grotesque impunity that Israel continues to enjoy.” We speak with Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian American professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University.

President Biden is in Israel as part of a four-day trip to the Middle East, where he reaffirmed his support for Israel despite growing disapproval among members of the Democratic Party over the state’s brutal treatment of Palestinians. The Biden administration faces criticism over plans to build a U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on land that was illegally confiscated by Israel from Palestinians in 1948, as well as the State Department’s whitewashed investigation of Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing, which multiple other independent investigations have determined was caused by an Israeli bullet. “By not engaging in dismantling the structures of discrimination and oppression … that Israel maintains, the United States is in fact supporting those structures,” says historian Rashid Khalidi, whose family is among the Palestinians whose seized lands are set to be used for the embassy.

Israeli Officials Roll Out Red Carpet as President Biden Begins Mideast Trip, Biden Discusses Iran Nuclear Program with Israeli PM, Won’t Rule Out U.S. Use of Force, Biden to Be First U.S. President to Fly Directly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, House to Vote on Unprecedented $839 Billion Military Budget, Sri Lanka Protests Turn Deadly as President Leaves Maldives for Singapore, Russian Missiles Kill at Least 12 in Vinnytsia, Ukraine and Russia Near Deal on Grain Shipments from Black Sea Port, South Carolina Abortion Providers Sue to Block Six-Week Abortion Ban, Man Arrested in Ohio Child Rape Case Labeled “Fake News” by Republicans, Justice Dept. Asks Jan. 6 Committee to Hand Over Evidence on Pro-Trump Electors, Man Arrested for Threatening to Kill Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Gun Violence Survivors Rally at U.S. Capitol to Call for Assault Weapons Ban

Chilling live testimony at the seventh hearing of the January 6 House select committee hearing came from former Donald Trump supporters who detailed their own radicalization in response to Trump’s actions leading up to the deadly insurrection. “I think we need to quit mincing words and just talk about truths. And what it was going to be was an armed revolution. I mean, people died that day. Law enforcement officers died this day. There was a gallows set up in front of the Capitol. This could have been the spark that started a new civil war, and no one would have won there,” said Jason Van Tatenhove, former spokesperson for right-wing extremist conspiracy group the Oath Keepers. “It makes me mad,” said Stephen Ayres, a former Trump supporter from Ohio who pleaded guilty last month for illegally entering the Capitol on January 6. “I was hanging on every word he was saying. Everything he was putting out, I was following it. If I was doing it, hundreds of thousands or millions of other people are doing it, or maybe even still doing it.” Both men expressed regret for their actions.

The seventh House select committee hearing on the January 6 attack at the Capitol examined in detail how then-President Trump went against the advice of top aides to claim President Biden’s win was fraudulent and to strategize a means to overturn the election. Tuesday’s hearing focused in part on a tweet Trump sent on December 19, 2020, in which he called for a “big protest” at the coming joint session of Congress on January 6 and told his supporters, “Be there, will be wild!” Committee member, Democratic Congressmember Jamie Raskin lays out how Trump sent the tweet just about an hour after a tense meeting at the White House between his official and unofficial advisers that was described in testimony as “unhinged,” and features excerpts of deposition testimony from Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, White House lawyer Eric Herschmann and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, among others.

In its seventh public hearing, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol presented evidence and witness testimony that revealed how then-President Trump was a driving force behind assembling a violent mob that would target the Capitol. While Trump’s own Cabinet members and legal advisers found no evidence of voter fraud and advised him to concede the election, he continued to tweet messages to followers that painted the election as stolen. “President Trump is a 76-year-old man; he is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices. As our investigation has shown, Donald Trump had access to more detailed and specific information showing that the election was not actually stolen than almost any other American, and he was told this over and over again,” said committee vice chair, Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney in her opening remarks. “No rational or sane man in his position could disregard that information and reach the opposite conclusion. And Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind.”

Jan. 6th Panel Ties Trump to Most Violent Extremists at Capitol Insurrection, Sri Lanka’s President Flees to Maldives Amid Massive Anti-Government Protests, As Biden Starts Mideast Tour, Family of Slain Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh Demands Justice, Video Shows Delayed Police Response as Uvalde Gunman Rampaged Through School, New Arizona Law Makes It Illegal to Film Police in Many Circumstances, Arizona Judge Blocks Law Classifying Fetuses and Embryos as People, Louisiana Judge Temporarily Blocks Trigger Abortion Ban, Ukrainian Missile Kills Seven in Russian-Occupied Town, Russia Prepares for New Offensive in Donetsk Province, Nord Stream 1 Russia-to-Europe Gas Pipeline Shut Down for Maintenance, U.N. Security Council Extends Syria Aid for Six Months, British Military Killed at Least 54 Afghans Under Suspicious Circumstances, John Bolton Says He “Helped Plan Coups” in Foreign Countries, NASA Releases Unprecedented First Images from New Flagship Space Telescope

Heeding outrage from reproductive rights activists, President Biden signed an executive order Friday to ensure access to abortion medication and emergency contraception in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. We speak to the heads of two major reproductive health centers in the Deep South about how they are providing patient care now that abortion is criminalized. Diane Derzis is CEO of Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, which was at the center of the Supreme Court case that led to the overturning of Roe. The clinic closed soon after Roe was overturned last month, and plans to reopen in Las Cruces, New Mexico. We also speak to Robin Marty, operations director of the West Alabama Women’s Center, which just reopened on Monday to offer a selective range of sexual health services after discontinuing abortion services. “The only way to stop this is to absolutely pass federal law that protects a woman’s access to the most private decision in our lives,” says Derzis. “We are going to be a safe place that does not ask questions and simply sees people with bleeding issues and does what we are legally allowed to under the law,” says Marty.

As the Pentagon authorizes an additional $400 million for Ukraine’s defense on Friday, bringing estimated total U.S. security spending on Ukraine under President Biden to a staggering $8 billion, we speak to Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, about the pressure on news media to follow a single approved narrative on the Ukraine war. The independent media outlet recently had their PayPal account shut down and received notice from NewsGuard, a fact-checking group, that they are under review for publishing fake news. “American and European audiences have been fed the idea that Russia has been failing in this war and that Ukraine still has a chance to win, but I think we’re starting to see reality seep into the reporting,” says Lauria.

Thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka have stormed the homes of the president and prime minister and are refusing to leave until they officially resign, as the president faces accusations of corruption that bankrupted the country and led to a massive economic crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is set to formally step down Wednesday and has reportedly tried to flee the country. We go to the capital Colombo to speak with Bhavani Fonseka, a human rights lawyer and a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, who has been participating in the protest. She describes the months of peaceful protest that led to this moment. “Considering the crisis and considering the demands of the people that there has to be a change, we need to look to general elections as soon as the environment is conducive,” notes Fonseka.

Ukraine Blasts Kremlin Plan to Fast-Track Russian Citizenship for People Under Occupation, HHS Tells Doctors Federal Law Requires Them to Perform Abortions in Medical Emergencies, Protesters in Uvalde, TX Demand Accountability over Robb Elementary Massacre, Father of Parkland School Shooting Victim Interrupts Biden Speech on Guns in Protest, BA.5 Becomes Dominant U.S. Coronavirus Variant Amid Warnings over New Lineages, Sens. Schumer and Blumenthal Test Positive for Coronavirus, Stalling Senate Action, President Rajapaksa Tries to Flee Sri Lanka as Calls for Criminal Charges Grow, As Biden Prepares to Meet MBS, U.S. Considers Lifting Ban on “Offensive” Weapons to Saudi Arabia, Biden Administration Extends TPS for Venezuelans, Keeps Blocking Asylum Seekers at U.S. Border, Jill Biden Faces Backlash from Latinx Groups over “Breakfast Tacos” Remark

President Biden is hosting an event today at the White House with victims of gun violence to mark the signing of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and one of the participating high-profile shooting survivors who will attend is former Arizona Congressmember Gabby Giffords, who survived a 2011 assassination attempt. As mass shootings continue to plague the United States, we speak to the directors of “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down,” a new documentary premiering this week that follows Giffords as she fights to recover from the 2011 attack, and her subsequent advocacy for gun safety legislation. Giffords was just honored last week with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her activism. The film follows “the fight that this woman has had to come back herself and then to come back as a public figure fighting to try to do something about the epidemic of gun violence in our country,” says Julie Cohen, co-director of “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down.” Former President Barack Obama, who attempted to pass gun safety legislation with Giffords’s help but failed, is featured in the documentary during a moment that qualified as “the most disappointed and the angriest he had ever been as president,” adds fellow co-director Betsy West. Cohen and West also directed “My Name Is Pauli Murray” and the Academy Award-nominated ”RBG.”

Sri Lankan President & PM to Resign After Thousands of Protesters Storm Their Homes, Japan: Abe’s Party Secures Supermajority in Upper House Days After His Assassination, Russia Accused of Killing 18 in Rocket Attack on Apartment Complex in Donetsk, G20 Meeting Ends with No New Agreement on War in Ukraine, WNBA All-Stars Honor Brittney Griner as Bill Richardson Prepares to Travel to Russia, Former Oath Keepers Spokesperson to Testify Before Jan. 6 Committee, Wisconsin Supreme Court Bans Most Ballot Drop Boxes, Report: U.S. Planning to Build Israeli Embassy in Jerusalem on Land Seized from Palestinians, Thousands Protest in D.C. to Pressure Biden to Do More to Protect Abortion Access, Louisiana Becomes 10th State to Ban Abortion, Group: Biden’s Climate Legacy at Risk If He Approves Massive Willow Oil & Gas Project in Alaska, California Fire Threatens Giant Sequoia Trees in Yosemite National Park, Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon Reaches New Record, Bolsonaro Supporter Shoots Dead Official in Brazil’s Workers’ Party, Elon Musks Withdraws from $44 Billion Deal to Buy Twitter, 124,000 Leaked Documents Expose How Uber Flouted Laws to Expand Across Globe, 15-Year-Old Black Teenager in Albuquerque Dies in Fire During Police Standoff, 19 Die in Pair of Mass Shootings Targeting Bars in South Africa

The United States is facing accusations of whitewashing the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh after concluding the bullet that killed her likely came from Israeli military gunfire, but stopping short of reaching a “definitive conclusion” in her killing. Abu Akleh was wearing a press uniform while reporting on an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank when she was fatally shot in the head on May 11. Since the killing, several media organizations, including CNN, The New York Times and Al Jazeera, have all determined the Israeli military killed Abu Akleh. “What the U.S. has done is attempt to throw sufficient doubt on the facts of the case and thereby ensure that Israel will not be held accountable for its actions with respect to the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh,” says political analyst Mouin Rabbani, who believes it was a “foregone conclusion” that the U.S. government would “put Israel’s political interests ahead of justice and accountability for a murdered U.S. citizen.”

Pressure is growing on the Biden administration to help free U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner from Russian detention as Griner pleaded guilty Thursday in a Russian court to what her supporters say are trumped-up charges of “large-scale drug possession” and “drug smuggling.” Russian officials arrested the two-time U.S. Olympic basketball gold medalist and eight-time WNBA all-star in February at a Moscow airport after allegedly finding two vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. We speak with two reporters covering the case, Dave Zirin and Maya Goldberg-Safir, who say Griner is an unlawfully detained political prisoner. “We can’t separate this case from the Russian war in Ukraine or from the fact that she is a Black lesbian being held by a prominently anti-gay regime,” says Goldberg-Safir. Zirin also criticizes the U.S. sports community, saying the lack of attention spotlighted on her case in part “reveals the tremendous and deep-rooted sexism and homophobia inside mainstream sports media.”

Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died at the age of 67 after being fatally shot while delivering a speech Friday in the western city of Nara. Abe, the longest-serving prime minister in Japan’s history, was campaigning for a parliamentary election Friday and had a security detail. Police arrested a 41-year-old suspect at the crime scene. We speak with Koichi Nakano, professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, who says the attack has “struck at the heart of the democratic process” and could very likely swing the Sunday election toward right-wing forces. Nakano also speaks on the life and legacy of Abe, who he says was a controversial figure in Japan despite being hailed as a hero of liberal democracy abroad.

Japan’s Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Shot and Killed, Putin Suggests Worst Fighting Is Yet to Come in Russian Invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Senators in Kyiv Call on Congress to Declare Russia a “State Sponsor of Terror”, House Progressives Seek to Cut $100 Billion from Pentagon Budget, WNBA Superstar Brittney Griner Pleads Guilty to Cannabis Charge in Russia, Biden to Sign Executive Order on Abortion Rights, Relatives of Police Shooting Victims Arrested at Protests for Jayland Walker, Federal Judge Sentences Derek Chauvin to 21 Years for Violating George Floyd’s Civil Rights, Sex Trafficking Survivor Chrystul Kizer Cleared to Argue Self-Defense in Homicide Trial, Haitians Demand Justice on Anniversary of President Jovenel Moïse’s Assassination, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Orders State Police to Return Asylum Seekers to Border, California Plans to Produce Insulin to Combat Skyrocketing Drug Prices

We host a conversation about “Left Internationalism in the Heart of Empire,” which is the focus of an essay by Cornell University law professor Aziz Rana in Dissent magazine. Rana argues for the creation of a “transnational infrastructure of left forces across the world” and says movements of the left need “clear alternatives to the hardest questions” of foreign policy crises, such as the Russian war in Ukraine. We also speak with Darryl Li, professor at the University of Chicago, who is one of many scholars who published a response to Rana’s piece in the new issue of Dissent that highlights the importance of a nuanced and solution-oriented critical analysis of U.S. foreign policy.

Protests over fuel shortages are unfolding around the world — in Sri Lanka, Ghana, Peru, Ecuador and elsewhere — over high gas prices. We look at the impact of rising fuel costs on countries in the Global South with Antoine Halff, former chief oil analyst at the International Energy Agency, now at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. He contextualizes the fuel shortage as part of a greater global energy crisis created in part by dependency of nations like Sri Lanka on imports and the imbalance in supply and demand resulting from COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Fuel shortages in Sri Lanka have triggered a wave of protests calling for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This comes as Sri Lanka’s government has forced the closure of all schools and announced plans to cut electricity by up to three hours a day, as well as stop printing currency to quell inflation. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is also facing a dire shortage of food and medicine, and doctors say the country’s entire health system could collapse. “There is no discussion on the part of the government on how we as Sri Lankans are going to come out of this crisis,” says Ahilan Kadirgamar, political economist and senior lecturer at the University of Jaffna, who explains how the government’s doubling down on austerity measures has devastated the working class.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party on Thursday following a wave of departures from his government, including senior Cabinet members. The party will choose a new leader and the country’s next prime minister in the coming days. In the past week, 59 members of Parliament have resigned from the government, and on Wednesday night, a group of Cabinet members went to 10 Downing Street to urge Johnson to step down. This week’s resignations came as Johnson faced increasing criticism for promoting a member of the Conservative Party who was accused of sexual misconduct. “This was one lie too far,” says Priya Gopal, English professor at the University of Cambridge. Gopal says Johnson’s resignation “was more or less inevitable” and the next prime minister is “likely to be a very serious Brexiteering ideologue.”

Boris Johnson Resigns as Tory Leader; Calls Grow for His Immediate Resignation as PM, Investigators Say Highland Park Suspect Considered Another Mass Shooting in Wisconsin, Police Say They Thwarted July 4 Massacre in Richmond, Virginia, 12 Injured in Stampede After Orlando Crowd Mistakes July 4 Fireworks for Gunfire, Texas Abortion Care Provider to Move Its Clinic to New Mexico, Anti-Abortion Activist Says She Prayed with Sitting Supreme Court Justices, El Salvador Woman Charged with Homicide After Loss of Fetus, Sentenced to 50 Years, U.N. Warns That 10% of Humanity Faced Hunger in 2021, Mayor of Mykolaiv, Ukraine, Orders Residents to Evacuate, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin Condemns Russian War Crimes, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Arrives at G20, Biden Speaks with Wife of Brittney Griner, WNBA Star Jailed in Russia, U.S. Announces New Sanctions on Iranian Oil as Talks on Revived Nuclear Deal Stall, Former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to Testify Before Jan. 6 Committee

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday it will hear oral arguments in a case experts warn could be one of the greatest threats to U.S. democracy since the deadly January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. In October, the court will hear Moore v. Harper — a case which seeks to reinstate gerrymandered congressional maps that were struck down by North Carolina’s highest court. A ruling in favor of North Carolina Republicans could revive a marginal right-wing legal theory known as independent state legislature doctrine, potentially stripping state courts of their power to strike down state laws, while expanding the power of GOP-controlled state legislatures to control federal elections. We speak with law professor Carolyn Shapiro, director of the Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Shapiro says a ruling in favor of North Carolina Republicans would be “extremely problematic from the perspective of democracy” and “could cause enormous chaos.”

Boston officials claim they had no prior knowledge of a march through the city by about 100 members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front on Saturday. Local anti-fascist organizers contronted the marchers, who also attacked a local Black artist named Charles Murrell. We speak to Boston civil rights activist Reverend Kevin Peterson, who is an adviser to Murrell; investigative journalist Phillip Martin, who has documented the rise of the neo-Nazi movement in Massachusetts; and Michael Edison Hayden with the Southern Poverty Law Center. Peterson is calling for an internal investigation into the Boston police over its response to Saturday’s violence. His group, the New Democracy Coalition, is also calling for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to develop a race commission to explore what would constitute reparations for Black people.

The death toll in Monday’s mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, has risen to seven after another victim died from their injuries. The suspect has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder over the massacre that also left scores of people injured, including nine people who remain hospitalized. Police say he legally purchased five weapons, including the high-powered rifle used in the shooting, despite visiting his home in 2019 over threats of violence. Reporters also continue to unearth his online history, including videos that appeared to show an obsession with mass shootings and his support for former President Donald Trump. Investigative journalist Michael Edison Hayden, who covers internet radicalization and far-right extremism for the Southern Poverty Law Center, says that same link has been apparent in other mass shootings where disturbed people who are “programming themselves to kill … are also attracted to the nihilism of hard-right authoritarianism in the United States.”

Death Toll in Highland Park July 4th Parade Massacre Rises to 7, Kamala Harris Calls for Renewal of Assault Weapons Ban, Mississippi and Florida Abortion Bans OK’d by State Courts, Georgia Grand Jury Subpoenas Seven Trump Allies Including Giuliani, Graham & Eastman, Ukraine Urges 350,000 to Flee Donetsk as Russia Intensifies Attacks, Report: Russian Military Deploys Heavy Artillery Batteries at Ukrainian Nuclear Plant, Two U.K. Cabinet Ministers Resign in Latest Blow to Boris Johnson, Schools Remains Closed in Sri Lanka Amid Devastating Economic & Energy Crisis, Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Man Near Jenin Amid Raids Across West Bank, Police in Europe Arrest 130 on Charges of Human Smuggling, Turkey Intensifies Crackdown on LGBTQ+ Pride Marches, Four Cabinet Ministers Resign in Ecuador Following Indigenous-Led Protests, Justice Department Reaches Settlement with Men Detained After 9/11, Judge Tosses Trump-Era Changes to Endangered Species Act

Uvalde, Texas, school district police chief Pete Arredondo has resigned from his new position on Uvalde’s City Council after facing widespread criticism over his handling of the May 24 school massacre when an 18-year-old gunman shot dead 19 fourth graders and two teachers. State authorities say Arredondo was the incident commander who ordered officers to wait in the school’s hallway for over an hour instead of confronting the gunman. We speak with Sewell Chan, editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune, which has led an investigation into the failed police response to the school shooting. “The heavy militarization of the region raises profound questions about why the police and law enforcement response was so lacking,” said Chan. We also feature the Tribune’s video report on a 1970 Mexican American student-led walkout that took place in Uvalde.

Mass racial justice protests broke out this weekend in Akron, Ohio, after police released multiple body-camera videos showing eight officers chasing and killing 25-year-old Jayland Walker after a minor traffic violation on June 27. Walker was an unarmed Black man. The video ends with the police firing about 90 rounds and shooting Walker about 60 times, according to an autopsy report, and lawyers for the family of Walker say police handcuffed him after the attack before trying to provide aid. “The video shows that a Black man was spotted driving at night in an area he probably shouldn’t have been spotted, was profiled, was then chased and gunned down like he wasn’t human at all. Any other narrative is a disgrace to what we’ve seen in the video,” says Ray Greene Jr., executive director of the Freedom BLOC, a Black-led collective based in Akron that pressured the state to release the video. We are also joined by former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner.

Six people were killed and at least two dozen injured when a rooftop gunman armed with a high-powered rifle attacked a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park on Monday morning. The police eventually arrested Robert Crimo III, a 21-year-old white resident of Highland Park and aspiring musician, whose music videos depicted mass murder and school shootings. We speak with Nina Turner, former Ohio state senator and national co-chair of the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, who says mass shootings in the U.S. are partly fueled by racism, sexism and “toxic masculinity” that equates gun ownership with manhood. “We have neglected to deal with a violent past and a violent present in the United States of America,” says Turner.

Six Killed in Highland Park, IL as Gunman Opens Fire on 4th of July Parade , Protests Erupt as Video Shows Akron, OH Police Shot Jayland Walker Over 60 Times, FDA Wants Reformulated Vaccines to Combat New Coronavirus Lineages, Texas Supreme Court Allows Century-Old Abortion Law to Take Effect, 10-Year-Old Rape Survivor Barred from Receiving Abortion by Ohio “Trigger Law”, Russia Declares Victory in Luhansk as Ukraine Withdraws from Lysychansk, Brittney Griner Writes Biden from Russian Jail: “I’m Terrified I Might Be Here Forever”, Biden Proposes New Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling, Betraying Campaign Pledge, Torrential Rains Force 50,000 to Evacuate Homes Around Sydney, Australia, At Least Seven Killed as Glacier Collapses Amid Record Heat in Italian Alps, U.S. Accused of “Whitewash” After Clearing Israel of Intentionally Killing Shireen Abu Akleh, Draft Constitution Delivered to Chilean President, Will Face Sept. 4 Nationwide Referendum

As the Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade, we speak with law professor Michele Goodwin, who has written extensively about how the criminalization of abortion polices motherhood. She discusses how on the eve of the court’s oral arguments in the Dobbs case in November, she wrote about how an abortion saved her life. She describes how the U.S. has historically endangered and denied essential health services to Black and Brown women, and calls new abortion restrictions “the new Jane Crow,” warning that they will further criminalize reproductive health and encourage medical professionals to breach their patients’ confidentiality and report self-administered abortions to law enforcement.

As protests continue across the country in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, we speak with two leading legal scholars. Kathryn “Kitty” Kolbert is co-founder of the Center for Reproductive Rights and argued the landmark case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992, which upheld Roe v. Wade. She is the co-author of “Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom.” Michele Goodwin is chancellor’s professor at University of California, Irvine School of Law and author of “Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood.” Her new piece for The New York Times is headlined “No, Justice Alito, Reproductive Justice Is in the Constitution.”

Amanda Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history last year when she spoke at the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. She was 22 years old when she read “The Hill We Climb,” a poem she finished right after the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6. We continue our July Fourth special broadcast with Gorman’s remarkable address.

We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. James Earl Jones reads the historic address during a performance of “Voices of a People’s History of the United States,” which was co-edited by Howard Zinn. The late great historian introduces the address.

As activists across the U.S. are mobilizing to defend reproductive rights, we speak to the Dutch physician Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, who has dedicated her life to circumventing anti-abortion laws, including providing abortions on ships in international waters and sending abortions pills around the world. She also discusses navigating censorship on social media platforms, telemedicine, the future of contraception and more. “This is not the moment anymore to stay within the law,” says Dr. Gomperts, referring to the end of Roe v. Wade. “This is the moment to make sure that women have access to safe abortions despite the law, because this is such an unjust law that is creating so much social inequality and that will affect, really, the most poor women in the country.”

We go to San Antonio, where 53 migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. died earlier this week after being confined to a sweltering tractor-trailer. Human rights advocates blamed the tragedy on restrictive immigration policies like the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as MPP or the “Remain in Mexico” program. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Biden has the power to end the Trump-era policy, which forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to stay on the Mexican side of the border in unsafe conditions while their cases were resolved in the U.S. “Every single migration-related death is preventable by policy that actually focuses on welcome and care,” says Claudia Muñoz, co-executive director of Grassroots Leadership.

In a blow to climate activism, the Supreme Court on Thursday severely limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to place emission caps on power plants. In the case, West Virginia v. EPA, several states led by West Virginia and fossil fuel companies fought against the regulations imposed by the Obama administration under the Clean Air Act. The 6-3 ruling by the court’s conservative justices ultimately weakens the federal agency’s authority to limit carbon emissions and combat the worst effects of the climate crisis. We look at the decision’s impact on vulnerable communities, particularly lower-income, Black and Brown residents who live close to coal-fired power plants, as well as the climate emergency more broadly. “They’ve put people’s lives in danger, and they have also put in place steps that will accelerate the climate crisis,” says Mustafa Ali, formerly head of the environmental justice program at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Supreme Court Ruling Sharply Limits EPA’s Power to Combat Climate Crisis, Lawsuits Seek to Block Biden Administration from Restarting Oil and Gas Lease Sales, Protesters Demand Action on Climate and Pollution at U.N. Ocean Conference, SCOTUS to Hear Case on Power of State Courts to Halt Gerrymandering & Voter Suppression, Supreme Court Rules 5-4 to Allow Biden to End “Remain in Mexico” Border Policy, Alleged Driver of Truck in Texas Human Smuggling Tragedy Appears in Court, French Police Arrest 10 Suspected Smugglers over Drownings of 27 Asylum Seekers, Ketanji Brown Jackson Sworn In as First Black Women Supreme Court Justice, Over 180 Arrested Protesting for Abortion Rights Outside Supreme Court , Judges Temporarily Halt Kentucky and Florida Abortion Bans, Sens. Manchin, Sinema Reject Biden’s Plea for Filibuster “Carve-Out” on Abortion, Russian Missiles Kill 19 in Odessa, Ukraine, WNBA Star Brittney Griner Appears in Moscow Court, Faces 10 Years in Prison, Sudanese Forces Kill 8 Protesters Demanding End to Military Rule, Ecuadorian Indigenous Leaders Win Gov’t Concessions, Reach Deal to End Protests

Eight years after the deadly Flint water crisis began, the state’s Supreme Court has thrown out charges against former Governor Rick Snyder and eight other former officials for their complicity in the public health emergency. Snyder’s administration made the decision to switch the city’s water source from the Detroit system to the Flint River as a cost-saving measure and then failed to protect residents from the resulting lead and bacterial poisoning in the majority-Black city. “It really feels like justice is becoming an illusion for Flint residents,” says Nayyirah Shariff, director of Flint Rising. “No one is being held accountable, no one is seeing justice, no one is seeing reparations in Flint,” adds her fellow activist and Flint resident, Melissa Mays. Democracy Now! first spoke to the two organizers in 2016 in our documentary, “Thirsty for Democracy: The Poisoning of an American City.”

As the Supreme Court ends its term, Justice Stephen Breyer is officially retiring, and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson takes his place as the country’s first Black woman justice, joining a court dominated by conservatives. We speak to ACLU national legal director David Cole about what can be done in the face of lifetime judicial appointments to the nation’s highest court who often rule counter to majority opinion in the country. “This is a radical court that is intruding upon our liberties,” says Cole. “It’s doing it all in the name of a commitment to a historic vision of the Constitution as it was drafted, when it was drafted, and imposing that on the American people, notwithstanding the fact that two centuries have intervened and circumstances are dramatically different today.”