Democracy Now!

The United States announced at a NATO summit in Madrid plans to build a permanent military base in Poland, as it formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance after they applied for membership in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We look at the impact of prolonged U.S. military presence in Europe and the overemphasis on Russia or China as enemies to the West at a time when threats to Western liberal democracy seem to be primarily internal. The Quincy Institute’s Anatol Lieven also discusses possibilities for a peace settlement to end the war in Ukraine. “It’s quite impossible now for Russia to win a total victory in Ukraine, but it does also look very unlikely that Ukraine will be able to win a total military victory over Russia,” says Lieven. “We’re going to end up with some sort of compromise.”

Finland and Sweden Invited to Join NATO, Prompting Warnings from Putin, Russia Withdraws from Snake Island, Swaps 144 Prisoners of War with Ukraine, Legal Challenges Seek to Halt Abortion Bans in Ohio and Wisconsin, Biden Reportedly Poised to Nominate Anti-Abortion GOP Lawyer to Federal Bench, SCOTUS Rolls Back Landmark Ruling on Tribal Sovereignty, Pat Cipollone Subpoenaed in Jan. 6 Investigation, Texas Human Trafficking Death Toll Rises to 53, Worst in U.S. History, Xi Jinping Travels to Hong Kong for 25th Anniversary of Return to Chinese Rule, Reporter Killed, Bringing Mexico’s 2022 Journalist Death Count to 12, Far-Right Israeli PM Will Not Run for Reelection, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Son of Late Dictator, Sworn In as President of Philippines, Lone Surviving Perpetrator in Paris Attacks Sentenced to Life in Prison, R. Kelly Sentenced to 30 Years for Sexually Abusing Black Women and Girls, Unserved Warrant Found for White Woman in Emmett Till Lynching Case

Former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, revealed Tuesday to the House January 6 committee that Meadows and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani both sought pardons after the insurrection. Meanwhile, in a video deposition with Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, Flynn repeatedly refused to answer questions from committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney. Cheney concluded the hearing by presenting evidence of possible witness tampering by allies of Trump.

Minutes after rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows seemed unperturbed and reluctant to act, according to live testimony from his former aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, at the public hearing on Tuesday. Then-President Donald Trump, rather than calling off his supporters, defended their chants to hang Vice President Mike Pence for validating the election results. “I remember thinking in that moment, Mark needs to snap out of this,” recalled Hutchinson. “I don’t know how to snap him out of this, but he needs to care.” Hutchinson also notes Meadows and Rudy Giuliani both sought pardons after the insurrection. Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney presented evidence of possible witness tampering by allies of Trump. Meanwhile, in a video deposition with Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, Flynn repeatedly refused to answer questions from Cheney.

In one of the most dramatic revelations at Tuesday’s hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6 attack, star witness Cassidy Hutchinson described how then-President Trump intended to join his supporters in the march to the Capitol and lunged at his Secret Service agent, who tried to prevent him from doing so, and grabbed the steering wheel of the presidential limousine, before he was driven back to the White House. Hutchinson was aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at the time. She also describes another temper tantrum by the president weeks earlier, after Attorney General Bill Barr said publicly there was no election fraud, saying Trump threw a plate of food, leaving “ketchup dripping down the wall.”

In explosive testimony Tuesday, Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, revealed new details to the January 6 select committee about the events leading up to the “Stop the Steal” rally. She indicated then-President Donald Trump and his inner circle, that included personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, expected the event to grow violent and did little to stop it. Hutchinson described how Trump demanded that the Secret Service allow his supporters wielding weapons to enter the Ellipse in order to make his rally seem better attended. “They’re not here to hurt me,” Trump said in dismissing safety concerns, Hutchinson testified. We feature her extended remarks.

Ex-Aide: Trump Attacked His Own Security Detail on Jan. 6 Demanding to Be Taken to Capitol, Report: Trump Urged Security Officials to Halt Weapons Screening at Jan. 6 Rally, Death Toll in Texas Rises to 51 After Migrants Found Trapped in Tractor-Trailer, Texas Court Temporarily Blocks Implementation of State’s Century-Old Abortion Ban, At NATO Summit, Biden Pledges to Expand U.S. Military Presence in Europe, Trump-Backed Mary Miller Wins GOP Primary After Saying Overturning of Roe Is “Victory for White Life”, Boebert Wins GOP Primary in Colorado, Blasts Separation of Church & State, Supreme Court Moves to Further Erode Separation of Church & State, Supreme Court Reinstates Racially Gerrymandered Louisiana Congressional Map, Michigan Supreme Court Tosses Charges Against Officials over Flint Water Crisis, Truth Commission in Colombia Documents 450,000 Deaths, Criticizes U.S. Role in Backing Violence, 51 Dead in Large Prison Fire in Colombia, Philippines Orders Independent News Outlet Rappler to Be Shut Down, Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison

Reproductive health advocates are urging Congress to pass the My Body, My Data Act, which will prevent consumer data that is related to reproductive health from being used as criminal evidence. Protecting how sensitive personal information is collected and stored online is critical to combating anti-abortion laws, says Daly Barnett, staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Barnett also shares practical advice for securing your online privacy now, such as utilizing encryption and creating a culture of consent. “Privacy should just be a default for people,” says Barnett. “It shouldn’t be something that the end users have to fight for, especially when the data is potentially dangerous, that could be used as criminal evidence.”

We look at the fight for privacy rights in a post-Roe America amid concerns that anti-abortion activists could use identifying data from online platforms like Facebook to target abortion seekers. Investigative reporter Grace Oldham describes how this data is already being used by medically unlicensed “crisis pregnancy centers” that actively lure patients to discourage them from seeking abortions. These anti-abortion clinics put people who are considering an abortion at risk to misinformation on reproductive health, or worse, open them to criminal prosecution, says Oldham, whose recent report for Reveal is headlined “Facebook and Anti-Abortion Clinics Are Collecting Highly Sensitive Info on Would-Be Patients.”

Is raising money to send pregnant people to another state to get an abortion aiding and abetting? We speak to Kamyon Conner, executive director of the Texas Equal Access Fund, the first Black woman to head the organization, about how Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has threatened to prosecute anyone violating a statewide abortion ban that was passed in the 1920s and never repealed. Lawmakers are also introducing bills to restrict FDA-approved abortion pills delivered through the mail. This heavily policed environment has placed pro-abortion organizations on high alert even as their work becomes more in demand. “Our abortion fund specifically is on the radar of anti-abortion extremists and our conservative elected officials,” says Conner.

At least 46 migrants were found dead Monday inside a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas in one of the deadliest tragedies in recent decades. It comes as the Biden administration continues to enforce harsh border policies blocking most people from safely entering through ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. Unless Biden revokes punitive immigration policies, “this is going to create more migrants dying in more unprecedented numbers,” says Fernando García, executive director of the El Paso-based Border Network for Human Rights.

46 Migrants Found Dead in Abandoned Tractor-Trailer in Texas, Judges Temporarily Halt Anti-Abortion “Trigger Laws” in Louisiana and Utah, South Dakota Gov. Noem Calls for Ban on Abortion Pills Prescribed Online, Californians Will Vote in November on Constitutional Amendment Protecting Abortion Rights, House Speaker Pelosi Prepares Bills on Abortion Rights, Calls for End to Senate Filibuster, Aide to Trump’s Former Chief of Staff to Testify Publicly Before Jan. 6 Committee, At Least 18 Killed in Russian Missile Strike on Ukraine Shopping Mall, NATO to Massively Increase Number of Troops on High Alert to Over 300,000, Chlorine Gas Explosion Kills 13 and Injures Hundreds at Jordan Port, France Says Western Powers Should Open Oil Markets to Iran and Venezuela, Amid Nationwide Protests, Ecuador’s President Agrees to Curb Fuel Prices , Three Killed as Amtrak Train Hits Dump Truck and Derails in Missouri, Judge Strikes Down Law Granting Noncitizens the Right to Vote in New York City Elections, California Set to Grant Medicaid to All Undocumented Immigrants , U.N. Issues Dire Warning That World Faces “Ocean Emergency”

During an abortion rights rally in Providence, Rhode Island, on Friday, Jennifer Rourke, Democratic candidate for state Senate, was punched multiple times by her Republican opponent Jeann Lugo, an off-duty Providence police officer. A video recording shows Lugo confronting Rourke before striking her in the face. Lugo dropped out of the race after being placed on paid administrative leave and charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct. We speak with Rourke about the attack, and her longtime activism for reproductive rights and her current campaign in Rhode Island. “As a senator, I will work hard to pass the Equality in Abortion Care Act, and that’s to provide coverage to people on Medicaid and state employees to have the abortion care that they need,” says Rourke. She also warns that interracial and same-sex marriage rights are at risk from the Supreme Court.

We look at how reproductive health clinics are reacting to the overturning of Roe v. Wade last week. In at least 13 states, including Missouri, trigger laws that criminalize abortions are either already in effect or expected to soon kick in. Clinics have mobilized to center patient care by moving or referring them to safer states. We speak to Yamelsie Rodríguez, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. Following abortion bans in neighboring states, Planned Parenthood opened a clinic about 15 minutes away in Fairview Heights, Illinois, which has the capacity to serve up to 15,000 abortion-seeking patients a year. She says the clinic has seen a rapid increase in “patients that were traveling from out of state having to flee draconian restrictions and laws in their home state to access basic, fundamental, essential care,” says Rodríguez.

As protests continue across the country in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, 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.”

The conservative-led Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 on Friday to uphold a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, while voting 5 to 4 to overturn Roe v. Wade. Chief Justice John Roberts supported upholding the Mississippi law but not overturning Roe. Nine states have already banned abortion since Friday, and 17 more states are expected to do so soon. We speak with Michele Goodwin, chancellor’s professor at University of California, Irvine School of Law, whose new piece for The New York Times is headlined “No, Justice Alito, Reproductive Justice Is in the Constitution.”

Supreme Court Strikes Down Roe v. Wade, Ending Constitutional Right to Abortion, Battle over Abortion Rights Will Shape 2022 Midterm Elections, Biden Signs Bipartisan Gun Safety Bill into Law, Russian Forces Complete Takeover of Ukraine’s Severodonetsk, G7 Discusses Ways to Counter Russia and China; Russia Defaults on Foreign Debt, At Least 23 Asylum Seekers Killed Attempting to Cross from Morocco to Spanish Enclave, Thousands Protest in Madrid Ahead of NATO Summit, U.S. Releases Asadullah Haroon Gul, Tortured and Jailed at Guantánamo for 15 Years Without Trial, Indian Human Rights Defender Teesta Setalvad Arrested, Funerals Held for Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira After Their Murder in Brazil, Pride Celebrations Overshadowed by SCOTUS Ruling Ending Abortion Rights, Oslo, Norway, Pride Events Canceled After Gunman Opens Fire on Gay Bar, Killing 2, Trump-Appointed Judge Blocks Biden Administration Deportation Guidance

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol revealed Thursday that six Republican members of Congress who supported Donald Trump’s lies sought broad presidential pardons for their involvement in the campaign to discredit the election results: Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona. “The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you’ve committed a crime,” noted Republican committee member, Congressmember Adam Kinzinger.

Former top officials in President Trump’s Justice Department told the House January 6 committee Thursday they threatened to resign en masse when Trump mused about appointing Jeffrey Clark, a loyalist who backed the baseless voter fraud claims, as acting attorney general. “I said, 'Mr. President, within 24, 48, 72 hours, you could have hundreds and hundreds of resignations of the leadership of your entire Justice Department because of your actions,'” said former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue. “’What’s that going to say about you?’”

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol has revealed new details about former President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure the Justice Department to help him stay in power after he lost the 2020 election. In the committee’s fifth televised public hearing Thursday, former top DOJ officials testified about how Trump urged the department to seize voting machines and declare the election results corrupt. One of the former top DOJ officials who testified was Trump’s former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, who described a phone conversation with President Trump in which he tried to reject his repeated false claims. Donoghue also discussed how he and others were pushed to investigate a baseless conspiracy theory that an Italian defense contractor had hacked a satellite, switching votes from Trump to Biden.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a century-old New York state law that limited who can carry concealed weapons in public, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing for the 6-3 majority that the statute violated the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms. The ruling vastly expands gun rights in the U.S. just weeks after mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, and represents “a revolution in Second Amendment law,” says Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern. “It declares that any restriction on the right to self-defense is presumptively unconstitutional.” In light of the Supreme Court decision, a bipartisan gun violence bill passed by the Senate is “one step forward, two steps back.” Stern also discusses a separate ruling in which the court’s conservative majority said a person who is arrested and not told of their right to remain silent cannot subsequently sue police for violating their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination — even if statements they give are ultimately used against them at trial. The decision could be setting the stage for the court to overturn the 1966 Miranda v. Arizona precedent altogether, Stern warns.

Senate Approves Bipartisan Gun Safety Bill by 65-33 Vote, Supreme Court Strikes Down New York Gun Control Law in Major Expansion of Second Amendment, Trump Pushed DOJ to Seize Voting Machines & Declare Election Results “Corrupt”, Six Republican Congressmembers Who Backed Trump’s Election Lies Sought Pardons, Ukraine Orders Troops to Withdraw from Severodonetsk, Russia Meets with Other BRICS Nations at Virtual Meeting, Afghan Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 1,150; U.S. Urged to Unfreeze Afghan Assets, United Nations Blames Israel for Fatally Shooting Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Indigenous Protesters Attempt to Storm National Assembly in Ecuador, Deposed Burmese Leader Aung San Suu Kyi Moved to Solitary Confinement, Supreme Court Protects Police from Lawsuits over Violating Miranda Rights, California Lawmakers Move to Make State a “Legal Sanctuary for Reproductive Choice”, Biden Proposes Expanding Title IX to Protect Trans Students, Report: New England Patriots Plane Used for ICE Deportation Flights

Hundreds of public health and civil society organizations have denounced the World Trade Organization for approving a text last week that they say leaves in place intellectual property barriers that will continue to limit global access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. We host an in-depth discussion about the WTO’s move, and what should come next, with two global health justice advocates, Mihir Mankad and Fatima Hassan. Mankad, who attended the WTO meeting and is a senior adviser for global health advocacy and policy for Doctors Without Borders, says the agreement “may ultimately cause more damage than good.” Hassan, founder and director of Health Justice Initiative in South Africa, believes Global South countries were “bullied into silence” by richer countries during the WTO negotiations.

We speak with food systems experts Sofía Monsalve Suárez and Rachel Bezner Kerr about how to prevent a looming global food shortage. The global food crisis “is not a food shortage crisis” yet, says Suárez, secretary general of FIAN International, a human rights organization working for the right to food and nutrition. “The problem is access to food, that people don’t have money to pay for food, that people are jobless.” Both guests call for a fundamental “transformation” of the global food system, away from food trade systems and instead toward domestic production and food sovereignty.

Experts are warning of a pending global food shortage due to the climate crisis, blocked grain shipments amid the Ukraine war, and a lack of humanitarian aid. Joining us from Mogadishu, Somalia, Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, says poorer countries in Africa aren’t able to financially compete with richer countries to afford basic staples like wheat. Egeland calls on G7 countries to take immediate action to prevent a global famine — which he believes is still stoppable.

A massive 5.9-magnitude earthquake that struck southeastern Afghanistan early Wednesday has killed more than 1,000 people, according to local officials, though the death toll is expected to rise. The earthquake comes as the United Nations reports nearly half of Afghanistan’s population already faces acute hunger. Thousands more have been injured and lost their homes along with everything they own. “Many more will be dead, and we are now rushing with aid,” says Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. He says he agrees with the Taliban government that U.S. sanctions on Afghanistan are making it more difficult for aid organizations like his to supply critical resources to Afghans.

Earthquake Death Toll in Afghanistan Tops 1,000; Heavy Rain & Sanctions Hamper Relief Efforts, House Jan. 6 Panel Moves Hearings to July Following Flood of New Evidence, Justice Department Subpoenas Chair of Georgia GOP over Fake Elector Plot, Uvalde School Police Head Placed on Leave as Local & State Officials Blame Each Other for Mistakes, Ukraine Warns Battles in Luhansk Cities Entering “Fearsome Climax”, Critics Says Biden Push to Suspend Gas Tax Will Aid Oil Companies, Not Consumers, Saudi Arabia and Turkey Move to Mend Ties Four Years After Khashoggi Assassination, Elizabeth Warren Blasts Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Hiking Interest Rates, Minnesota City to Pay $3.25 Million Settlement with Daunte Wright’s Family, Three Men Held at Rikers Island Jail Die in Less Than a Week, Federal Court Upholds Arkansas Anti-BDS Law, Head of Australian Journalism Prize Denounces U.K. Approval of Julian Assange’s Extradition

In some of the most dramatic testimony from the fourth hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, Shaye Moss, a Black election worker in Georgia, and her mother Ruby Freeman described how their lives were forever changed in December of 2020 when Trump’s top campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed they manipulated ballots to rig the election outcome in the state, which was among those he had lost. They faced severe harassment, racism and death threats from Trump supporters and had to be relocated by the FBI for safety. “I don’t want anyone knowing my name. … I don’t want to go anywhere. I second-guess everything that I do,” said Moss, who, like her former colleagues, is no longer an election worker in Fulton County. “Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States to target you?” said Freeman in taped testimony. “The president of the United States is supposed to represent every American — not to target one.”

Tuesday’s hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6 attack included evidence of how then-President Trump and his campaign “were directly involved” in a plot to replace Biden electors with fake electors for Trump in states where he had lost. Investigators displayed fake certifications manufactured by the Trump campaign and said that one group of fake electors even asked for a promise that the campaign would pay their legal fees if they got sued or charged with a crime. The committee also revealed that just minutes before the joint session on January 6, a staffer for Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson told Mike Pence he wished to hand deliver to the vice president the fake electors’ votes from Michigan and Wisconsin — which Pence’s aide unambiguously refused. We feature a video presented to the January 6 committee as evidence that features Casey Lucier, an investigative counsel, describing the plan to organize fake electors for Trump in states where he had lost, with testimony of former Trump staffers, lawyers and other Republican officials.

The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection held its fourth public hearing Tuesday with testimony that included a series of Republican state officials detailing pressure they faced from President Donald Trump and his staff to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Republican Speaker of the Arizona House “Rusty” Bowers described how he was pushed by Trump, John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani to call the Arizona Legislature back into session to investigate what Trump’s team claimed were hundreds of thousands of illegal votes cast by dead people and undocumented immigrants in a greater effort to undo Joe Biden’s win in the state. Bowers refused after Trump’s team wasn’t able to provide evidence of a rigged election — and consequently Bowers and his family became the target of death threats by white supremacist groups and other Trump supporters. “I didn’t want to be used as a pawn,” said Bowers during his live testimony.

Earthquake in Afghanistan Kills at Least 1,000; Over 1,500 Injured, Jan. 6 Committee Accuses Trump of Pressuring State and Local Officials to Overturn Election, Russia Seizes More Areas in Eastern Ukraine, On Visit to Ukraine, Merrick Garland Vows to Probe War Crimes Allegations, I Have “Zero Trust” in U.S. Government: Wife of Brittney Griner, Basketball Star Detained in Russia, Senate Votes to Advance New Bipartisan Gun Legislation, Texas Official: Police Response to Uvalde School Shooting Was “Abject Failure”, Alabama: Katie Britt Defeats Mo Brooks in Republican Senate Primary, Recount Shows Henry Cuellar Beat Jessica Cisneros by Less Than 300 Votes, Supreme Court Says Religious Schools in Maine Can’t Be Excluded from Voucher Program, Coffin Holding Patrice Lumumba’s Tooth Returns to DRC Six Decades After Assassination, Indigenous-Led Protest in Ecuador Condemns Lasso’s Economic Policies, El Salvador Votes to Extend State of Emergency; 40,000 Arrested So Far, Third Suspect Arrested in Brazil in Murder of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, Jury Orders Bill Cosby to Pay $500K for Sexually Assaulting 16-Year-Old in 1975

Colombian President-elect Gustavo Petro spoke to Democracy Now! in 2018 about his vision for the country after he placed second in the presidential election, losing to right-wing politician Iván Duque. Petro is a former M-19 guerrilla and the former mayor of Bogotá. “A new progressivism is emerging,” explained Petro. On Sunday, he succeeded in his new attempt at the presidency, becoming the first leftist president in Colombia, long a conservative stronghold in Latin America. He has vowed to fight worsening climate change, poverty and inequality in Colombia by raising taxes on the rich and expanding social programs, as well as access to education and healthcare.

Following the historic victory in Colombia’s presidential election of former guerrilla member, former senator and former mayor of Bogotá Gustavo Petro and his running mate, the Afro-Colombian environmentalist Francia Márquez Mina, we feature interviews with each of the candidates on Democracy Now! Francia Márquez Mina is set to become Colombia’s first Black vice president. We spoke to her in March, when she was running for president. She later lost in the primary to Petro, who went on to choose her as his running mate. “We are giving impetus to the idea that in Colombia a new form of government is possible, governance that is built up from the Black, Indigenous and peasant peoples from the very different sectors of the community, LGBTIQ+, from the youth, from the women, from the small farmers of Colombia, those who have been no one — that is to say, who have never had a voice in the government,” says Márquez Mina.

Colombia made history Sunday as voters elected former guerrilla member Gustavo Petro as the country’s first leftist president and environmental activist Francia Márquez Mina as the country’s first Black vice president. The pair, gaining over 50% of the vote, defeated right-wing real estate millionaire Rodolfo Hernández but will now face a major challenge to pass legislation in the conservative Congress, where they lack a majority. “The hurdle has been overcome by winning the election, but the main hurdle, the establishment, cannot be changed by the government; it has to be changed from the people, by the people,” says Manuel Rozental, Colombian physician, activist and grassroots organizer. We also speak with Colombia-based journalist Simone Bruno, who says Petro’s election could transform the politics and economy of Latin America.

Gustavo Petro & Francia Márquez Mina Win Colombian Election in Historic Vote, Macron’s Party Loses Majority in Parliament as Left & Far-Right Parties Gain Seats, Russia Moves Closer to Seizing Severodonetsk in Eastern Ukraine, Ukraine Attacks Oil & Gas Platforms Off Coast of Crimea, Russia Says Captured U.S. Veterans Are Not Protected by Geneva Conventions, Russian Journalist Dmitry Muratov Auctions Off Nobel Prize for Ukrainian Child Refugees, Israeli PM Bennett to Resign & Dissolve Parliament, NYT Probe: Al Jazeera’s Shireen Abu Akleh “Most Likely” Shot Dead by Elite Israeli Soldier, Millions Displaced, Over 116 Dead in Flooding in India and Bangladesh, Heat Records Broken Across Globe, from Iran to Spain to the Midwest, Witnesses Say at Least 200 Killed in Ethiopian Massacre, Honduras: Former U.S.-Trained Military Officer Sentenced for Murder of Berta Cáceres, New Surveillance Video Raises Questions About Police Response to Uvalde School Massacre, FDA & CDC Approve COVID-19 Vaccines for Children Under 5, Jan. 6 Committee to Look at How Trump Pressured State Officials to Overturn Election, Adam Kinzinger, Republican on Jan. 6 Committee, Receives Death Threat, In Campaign Ad, Missouri’s Ex-Governor Calls for Moderate Republicans to Be Hunted and Shot, Texas GOP Approves Platform Rejecting 2020 Election Results, Apple Workers in Maryland Vote to Unionize, Thousands Gather in D.C. for Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Rally

In the final part of our Juneteenth special broadcast, we look at Harvard University’s recent report detailing the school’s extensive ties to slavery and pledged $100 million for a fund for scholars to continue to research the topic. The report documents dozens of prominent people associated with Harvard who enslaved people, including four Harvard presidents. Harvard commissioned the study in 2019 as part of a wave of schools reckoning with their pasts and the ongoing legacy of racial discrimination. “Harvard’s ties to slavery begin with the founding of the institution,” says MIT historian Craig Steven Wilder, author of “Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities.” Wilder says that while this history is not new, Harvard worked for decades to erase its complicity in slavery. “We’re really only beginning to reconcile and to really struggle with the deep ties that this institution has to slavery,” he adds.

In March, the United Nations marked the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The New York Times’s groundbreaking 1619 Project, addressed the U.N. General Assembly. As part of our Juneteenth special, we air her full address. “It is time for the nations that engaged in and profited from the transatlantic slave trade to do what is right and what is just. It is time for them to make reparations to the descendants of chattel slavery in the Americas,” Hannah-Jones said. “This is our global truth, a truth we as human beings understand with stark clarity: There can be no atonement if there is no repair.”

In a Juneteenth special, we mark the federal holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. We speak to the writer and poet Clint Smith about Juneteenth and his new book, “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America.” “When I think of Juneteenth, part of what I think about is the both-handedness of it,” Smith says, “that it is this moment in which we mourn the fact that freedom was kept from hundreds of thousands of enslaved people for years and for months after it had been attained by them, and then, at the same time, celebrating the end of one of the most egregious things that this country has ever done.” Smith says he recognizes the federal holiday marking Juneteenth as a symbol, “but it is clearly not enough.”

We speak with Bishop William Barber and Reverend Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign, about plans for Saturday’s Moral March on Washington and to the Polls to demand the government address key issues facing poor and low-income communities. The march will bring together thousands of people from diverse backgrounds to speak out against the country’s rising poverty rates, voter suppression in low-income communities and more. “To have this level of poverty that’s untalked about too often … is actually morally indefensible, constitutionally inconsistent, politically insensitive and economically insane,” says Barber. Theoharis says the lack of universal healthcare in the U.S. is a major source of economic insecurity and has contributed to the COVID-19 death toll. She asks how a rich country “that spends more money on healthcare than any other nation with a comparable economy still has [these] kind of poor health outcomes.”

During Thursday’s third public hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann described in recorded testimony his call with John Eastman, the lawyer advising former President Trump on the plan to overturn the 2020 election. The call took place on January 7, one day after the deadly insurrection. “He started to ask me about something dealing with Georgia and preserving something potentially for appeal. And I said to him, 'Are you out of your F—ing mind?' Right? I said, 'I only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth from now on: orderly transition. … I don't want to hear any other F—ing words coming out of your mouth no matter what, other than orderly transition. Repeat those words to me,'” said Herschmann. Eastman later emailed Rudy Giuliani and requested that he be included on a list of potential recipients of a presidential pardon. Eastman's email stated, “I’ve decided that I should be on the pardon list if that is still in the works.”

We air highlights from the third public hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, which revealed that President Trump pressured Vice President Pence to overturn the 2020 election results even though he knew it was illegal. The hearing included testimony from Pence’s attorney, Greg Jacob, who said the plan’s main architect, attorney John Eastman, actively admitted his strategy violated the law, and yet continued anyway. Right-wing legal expert Michael Luttig advised Pence against following Trump’s orders, calling Trump and his supporters a “clear and present danger to American democracy.”

In a blow to press freedom, the United Kingdom has approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face espionage charges related to the publication of classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes. Home Secretary Priti Patel signed off on the transfer after the U.K. Supreme Court denied Assange’s appeals earlier this year, part of a years-long legal battle that rights groups have decried as an attack on journalism and free speech. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if convicted for violations of the Espionage Act, and his case represents a “once-in-a-lifetime fight for press freedom,” says Gabriel Shipton, Assange’s half-brother.

U.K. Home Secretary Approves Extradition of Julian Assange to U.S., House Jan. 6 Committee: Trump Knew His Plan to Overturn Election Was Illegal, People Over the Pentagon: Reps. Lee & Pocan Push for $100B Military Budget Cut, Ukraine Moves Closer to Joining European Union, Human Rights & Public Health Groups Blast WTO Deal on COVID Patents, Over 2,000 Cows Die in Kansas in Record-Breaking Heat Wave, Biden Declares Montana a Disaster Area After Yellowstone River Flooding, Study: Parts of Arctic Warming Seven Times Faster Than Rest of the Earth, Groups Sue Biden over Drilling Permits in New Mexico and Wyoming, Flooding Forces Abbott to Close Michigan Baby Formula Plant Again, Israel Shoots Three Palestinians Dead in Jenin Raid, Israeli Politician Says He Wishes He Could Get Rid of All Palestinians, Sister of Imprisoned Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah Launches Her Own Hunger Strike

We speak with Jennicet Gutiérrez, an organizer and co-executive director of Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, who declined an invitation to attend the annual White House Pride Month celebration to protest the detention and deportation of LGBTQ immigrants and asylum seekers. At the U.S.-Mexico border, trans people in detention centers are reportedly being misgendered, denied access to essential healthcare, held in inhumane conditions or blocked altogether from entering the country due to the Trump-era Title 42. Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez, a trans asylum seeker from Honduras, died while in ICE custody. Regarding Biden’s recent executive orders to establish some protections against anti-LGBTQ discrimination, Gutiérrez says, “We cannot just applaud and say, 'Yes, you've done enough,’ when, no, that’s the least you can do.”

President Biden celebrated Pride Month at the White House Wednesday as events encouraging celebration of LGBTQ identity and visibility are increasingly being targeted by white supremacist violence and as Republican-controlled states pass a slew of anti-LGBTQ measures. We speak with Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director for Media Matters, who says far-right social media influencers and conservative media outlets are spreading lies that members of the LGBTQ community “aim to confuse, corrupt or sexualize kids.” We also talk to Southern Poverty Law Center investigative reporter Michael Edison Hayden, who has studied the key players in recent attacks and describes a “concerted effort to ramp up this rhetoric tying LGBTQ people baselessly to pedophilia.”

The U.S. has announced another $1 billion in military equipment to Ukraine, adding to billions in military aid to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. Support for a “military-first approach” to Ukraine is fueled by the mainstream media and not only undermines ceasefire talks but also funnels profits directly into the pockets of weapons manufacturers, says William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “The United States is a major player here, and its only policy shouldn’t be sending weapons without some sort of diplomatic strategy to go with it.”

Ukraine War, Food Crisis & Climate Emergency Push World Refugee Total Over 100 Million, Leaders of Germany, France and Italy Visit Ukraine, Xi Jinping Expresses Support for Russia’s “Sovereignty and Security”, U.S. Announces New $1 Billion Arms Package for Ukraine, Ukraine Accused of Shelling a Maternity Ward in Donetsk, Suspect in Brazil Admits to Killing Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira, Jan. 6 Rioter Who Threatened Democrats Got Tour of Capitol a Day Earlier from GOP Lawmaker, Jan. 6 Hearing to Examine How Trump Pressured Pence to Overturn Election, Proud Boys Had Plan Named “1776 Returns” to Occupy Capitol Buildings, New Mexico’s Supreme Court Orders GOP-Led County Commission to Certify Primary Results, FDA Advisory Panel Recommends COVID-19 Vaccines for Young Children, Dr. Anthony Fauci Tests Positive for COVID-19, Activists Stage Die-In at WTO Summit Calling for TRIPS Waiver, Fed Issues Highest Interest Rate Hike Since 1994, Federal Hate Crime Charges Filed Against Buffalo Gunman, Street Outside Saudi Embassy in D.C. Is Renamed Jamal Khashoggi Way

President Biden’s formally announced plan to visit Saudi Arabia next month is a dramatic reversal of earlier promises to treat the Arab nation as a “pariah” in light of its repeated human rights violations. Calls are growing for Biden to hold the Saudi government accountable for the brutal murder and dismemberment of American resident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. But as he faces domestic anger over rising fuel prices, Biden seems to have declining leverage with one of the most oil-rich countries in the world and the top weapons client for the U.S. “The Biden administration has succumbed to the pressures of defense industries and the foreign government lobbyists to continue what are very profitable arms sales,” says Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, founded by Khashoggi.

President Biden addressed the economy and labor rights in an address Tuesday to the AFL-CIO convention as delegates elected Liz Shuler to become the AFL-CIO’s first female president and Fred Redmond to be its first African American secretary-treasurer. Longtime labor journalist Steven Greenhouse was there, and says the exclusion of organizers from Amazon and Starbucks from the convention disappointed those calling for the AFL-CIO and Democratic lawmakers to support the youth-led labor movement.

The 50th anniversary of the Watergate burglary in 1972 this Friday comes as public hearings are underway by the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection. We speak with Garrett Graff, author of “Watergate: A New History,” about critical lessons and historical parallels between the defining controversies of the Nixon and Trump presidencies. Rather than isolated crimes, Watergate and January 6 should be seen as culminating events of U.S. presidencies that share a “dark, criminal, conspiratorial mindset that drives and links together so many of their scandals,” says Graff.