Democracy Now!

The U.S. Senate voted 53-47 on Thursday to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. She will be the first Black woman and first former public defender to serve on the country’s top court. While Jackson’s confirmation was a “monumental moment in United States history,” it was undercut by the “shameful spectacle” of Republican senators behaving disrespectfully toward Jackson, says law professor Michele Goodwin. The confirmation process remains broken more than three decades after Anita Hill faced hostile questioning, she adds.

Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmed as First Black Woman Supreme Court Justice, Ukraine Blames Russia for Attack on Train Station That Killed at Least 39 Civilians, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Asks NATO for “Weapons, Weapons and Weapons”, United Nations Suspends Russia from U.N. Human Rights Council, Nobel Laureate Dmitry Muratov Attacked on Russian Train, Shanghai Residents Report Shortages of Food and Medicine During COVID Lockdown, COVID-19 Drives Two-Year Decline in U.S. Life Expectancy, House Speaker Pelosi, Senators Collins & Warnock Test Positive for Coronavirus, Colombian Military Ambush Killed Civilians, Say Witnesses, Rights Groups Accuse Ethiopian Troops of War Crimes in Tigray, Violence Against Journalists Has Skyrocketed Under Mexican President AMLO, El Salvador Journalists Call “Gag Order” Law on Gangs an Attempt at Censorship, Pakistan’s Top Court Clears Path for Vote of No Confidence in PM Imran Khan, Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Blamed for Fatal Attack on Tel Aviv Bar, Puerto Rico Plunged into Darkness After Fire at Major Power Plant, New York AG Asks Judge to Fine Donald Trump $10,000 a Day for Contempt of Court, DHS Inspector General Ordered Aides to Hide Reports of Abuse and Misconduct, As Biden Signs Postal Service Reform Bill, Climate Activists Demand Electrified USPS Fleet

President Biden announced Tuesday he would extend the pandemic pause on federal student loan payments until August 31, but debtors are demanding total cancellation. We speak with Astra Taylor, co-director of the Debt Collective, who discusses the implications of the latest extension, economically and politically. Taylor says Biden should stop letting loan servicers profiteer from borrowers and cancel student loans, which would immediately narrow the racial wealth gap.

Far-right nationalist prime minister and longtime Putin-ally Viktor Orbán won his fourth consecutive election in Hungary, aided by biased media coverage and campaign regulations that favored the sitting prime minister. We speak to historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat about the future of Hungary under the Fidesz party, which, aside from passing anti-LGBTQ legislation and stoking xenophobia, has also been an important ally for Russian President Vladimir Putin. “He’s very much a conduit for the infiltration and spread of Putin ideas in a more palatable frame,” says Ben-Ghiat. She also discusses how Orbán has become a model for many Republicans in the United States, and notes the Conservative Political Action Conference will be held in Istanbul next month.

A new report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns the opportunity to mitigate the worst effects of global warming by maintaining global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius is quickly closing and that humanity has less than three years to slash greenhouse gas emissions. “Fossil fuel is at the root of our problems. It is at the root of the despotisms we see in Russia or in Saudi Arabia or indeed the Koch brothers’ efforts to deform our own democracy,” says Bill McKibben, environmentalist and founder of 350.org. It is time to demand world leaders sign a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty, says Ukrainian climate activist Svitlana Romanko. Romanko is also with the Laudato Si’ Movement, which exists to implement the second encyclical of Pope Francis about “care for our common home” and recognizes the war in Ukraine has been funded by fossil fuels. Pope Francis says he plans to visit Ukraine, and Romanko says his “leadership may create a difference in this war.”

Over a month into Russia’s war in Ukraine and after multiple countries imposed sanctions on Russian fossil fuels, Ukraine’s pipelines are still carrying Russian gas into Europe. Ukrainian climate activist Svitlana Romanko says Ukraine cannot shut off the gas flow if EU governments refuse to implement an embargo on Russian imports. “There should be a collaboration on both sides of this supply chain,” says Romanko. A natural solution would be to urgently transition Europe to renewable energy sources, as “Vladimir Putin can’t embargo the sun” and “can’t interdict the wind,” adds Bill McKibben, environmentalist and founder of 350.org.

House Democrats grilled CEOs of Big Oil companies, like ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell, Wednesday about rising gas prices and profiteering from the Ukraine war. We get response from environmentalist Bill McKibben and speak with Ukrainian environmental lawyer ​​Svitlana Romanko about how the war in Ukraine is impacting energy markets around the world. “These are predatory companies that have used every excuse — and this is one of the grossest — to try and increase their profit margins,” says McKibben. “Dismantling and ending Putin’s horrific war against Ukraine will dismantle the system that enables this fossil fuel industry to overprofit,” adds Romanko.

Civilians Warned to Flee Eastern Ukraine as Russian Forces Redeploy, Biden Administration Adds More Russian Banks and Putin’s Daughters to Sanctions List, Hungary’s PM Breaks with European Union, Says He’ll Pay for Russian Gas in Rubles, Turkey Suspends Trial of 26 Saudis Accused of Jamal Khashoggi Murder Plot, Scientists Around the World Join Climate Change Rebellion, Top Democrats Test Positive for Coronavirus After Elite D.C. Party, Minneapolis Cop Who Fatally Shot Amir Locke Won’t Face Charges, Congress Holds Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino Held in Contempt over Jan. 6 Probe, Kentucky Governor Vetoes Bill Banning Trans Women & Girls from School Sports Teams, Ohio “Don’t Say Gay” Bill Would Also Ban Teaching of “Divisive” Concepts on Race, New York Mayor Eric Adams Orders Cops to Clear Unhoused Residents’ Encampments, Media Critic Eric Boehlert Dies in Bike Accident

Women in Afghanistan are protesting a number of gender-based restrictions from the Taliban, including an order in March to shut down public high schools for girls. In response, U.S. officials canceled talks with Taliban leaders in Doha, continuing to freeze billions in Afghan assets while Afghanistan spirals into economic catastrophe. We speak with Masuda Sultan and Medea Benjamin, two co-founders of Unfreeze Afghanistan, a coalition advocating for the release of funding for Afghan civilians. They recently visited Afghanistan as part of a U.S. women’s delegation and say the U.S. has a responsibility to alleviate the suffering there, which it had a major role in causing over two decades of war. “It seems that every time there is a showdown between the Taliban and the international community, it’s the Afghan people that suffer,” says Sultan. “We are now having a kind of economic warfare against the Afghan people,” adds Benjamin.

As the Russian assault on Ukraine continues, more videos are emerging that show evidence of Russian brutalities and possible war crimes, such as executions and torture. Russian officials have denied the accusations, calling them Ukrainian propaganda. We speak with Washington Post video journalist Jon Gerberg, who has been filing video reports from the war for the past six weeks, and see extended interviews from civilians he interviewed. As Russian forces retreat from Ukrainian cities, “we are pulling back the veil of the more active conflict that was keeping us as journalists from some of these areas,” says Gerberg. “This is a war that in over a month has had an unbelievable impact on both the men and women fighting it and the men and women who are stuck in the middle of it as civilians.”

Zelensky Blasts U.N. for Failing to Stop Russian Atrocities in Ukraine, Russia Denies Killing Civilians in Bucha, Accuses Ukraine of Spreading Propaganda, U.S. Pledges $100M to Ukraine to Buy More Javelin Missiles as War Enters New Phase, Gen. Mark Milley: Ukraine War Will Be “Very Protracted Conflict” Lasting Years, Aid Groups Warn West Africa Faces Worst Food Crisis in a Decade, Human Rights Watch: Malian & Russian Forces Summarily Executed 300 Detained Men, Oklahoma Lawmakers Approve Near-Total Ban on Abortions, Colorado Governor Signs Reproductive Health Equity Act, Obama & Biden Reunite at White House to Mark 12 Years of Affordable Care Act, GOP Threaten to Block COVID-19 Aid Bill over Title 42, Biden Administration Extends Pandemic Pause on Student Loan Debt, House Jan. 6 Committee Interviews Ivanka Trump, U.S. Approves $95M in Military Aid for Taiwan as AUKUS Develops Hypersonic Missiles, Protests Escalate in Peru over Rising Prices & Curfew, First Starbucks in NYC Unionizes as CEO Claims Company Is Being “Assaulted” by Organizing Efforts, Peggy Bellecourt, Co-Founder of American Indian Movement, Dies at 78, 19-Month-Old Gazan Baby Dies After Israel Refused to Allow Her to Leave for Treatment

The newly released “Poor People’s Pandemic Report” shows poor people died from COVID at twice the rate of wealthy Americans and that people of color were more likely to die than white populations. “Our country has gotten used to unnecessary death, especially when it’s the death of poor people,” says Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign.

We go to El Salvador for an update on how the government under President Nayib Bukele has arrested over 6,000 people since a 30-day state of emergency was imposed following a wave of violence. The state of exception has suspended freedom of assembly and weakened due process rights for those arrested, including an extension of how long people can be held without charge. Nelson Rauda, a journalist at the newspaper El Faro who has been a target of harassment and surveillance by the Salvadoran government, says the impact of the state of exception has a class divide. “If you have resources … you might go about the state of exception as if nothing is happening,” he says. “For the majority of the country which comes from the lower-income population, it’s been difficult. It’s military checkpoints and police checkpoints and stop-and-frisk.”

Pakistan is facing a constitutional crisis after Prime Minister Imran Khan dissolved the country’s National Assembly and called for new elections in an effort to block an attempt to remove him from power. Khan was facing a no-confidence vote in Parliament that would have unseated him, but his allies blocked the vote from happening. Pakistan’s Supreme Court is now hearing a pivotal case on whether it was within the authority of the speaker of the National Assembly to reject the motion for a vote of no confidence, says Pakistani journalist Munizae Jahangir.

Ukraine’s Government Says Russia’s Massacre in Bucha Is Likely “Tip of the Iceberg”, Russia Denies Troops Massacred Civilians in Ukraine Despite Mounting Evidence, Biden Says Putin Should Face Trial for War Crimes, U.N. Report Warns It’s “Now or Never” to Avert Climate Catastrophe, WHO Says 99% of Earth’s Population Breathes Polluted Air, Indigenous Leaders Rally in Brazil’s Capital to Defend Land Rights, Iran Says U.S. Is Responsible for Stalled Talks on Reviving Nuclear Deal, More Than 90 Asylum Seekers Die Attempting to Cross Mediterranean from Libya, ICE Told to Dismiss “Low Priority” Immigration Enforcement Cases to Clear Backlog, Ketanji Brown Jackson Nomination to SCOTUS Advances as 3 GOP Senators Back Confirmation, Nonprofit Newsrooms Win Izzy Award for Exposing Corruption in New York & Chicago, Protesters Outside Department of Education Demand Student Debt Relief, Threaten Strike

Ukrainian officials are accusing Russia of committing war crimes for killing civilians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and EU leaders condemned images of dead civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where corpses were found littering the streets after Russian troops withdrew from the area, some with their hands bound behind their backs. On Friday, Amnesty International also published a report that independently verified Russia has violated international law in using banned cluster munitions and other weapons that indiscriminately kill civilians. “What’s been going on during the entire more than a month now of conflict merits serious investigation and accountability for the perpetrators,” says Joanne Mariner, crisis response director at Amnesty International, who co-authored the report. “Given this relentless bombardment of civilian neighborhoods and districts, we’re calling for the establishment of safe humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to escape.”

We speak with the two best friends who led a drive to organize workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Staten Island, New York, and made history Friday after a majority voted to form the first Amazon union in the U.S. We speak with Christian Smalls, interim president of the new union and former Amazon supervisor, about how he led the effort after Amazon fired him at the height of the pandemic for demanding better worker protections. “I think we proved that it’s possible, no matter what industry you work in, what corporation you work for,” says Smalls. “We just unionized Amazon. If we can do that, we can unionize anywhere.” We also speak with Derrick Palmer, who works at the Amazon JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island and is the vice president of the Amazon Labor Union, about intimidation tactics the company used. Reporter Josefa Velásquez covered the union drive for The City and discusses what the victory means for the broader labor movement.

Ukraine Accuses Russia of War Crimes as Photos Appear to Show Atrocities in Bucha, Lithuania Becomes First EU Nation to Halt Russian Gas Imports, Journalists Mantas Kvedaravicius and Maksim Levin Killed in Ukraine, Houthi Rebels and Saudi-Led Coalition Agree to Two-Month Ceasefire in Yemen, Coronavirus Cases Surge in China and U.K., Amazon Workers in Staten Island, NY Vote to Unionize in Historic First, U.S. Will Require New Cars to Average 49 MPG by 2026, U.N. Climate Report Delayed as Countries Push to Include Role for Fossil Fuels, Pakistani Prime Minister Dissolves Parliament to Block No-Confidence Vote, Authoritarian PM Viktor Orbán Wins Fourth Term as Hungary’s Leader, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic Reelected in Landslide , Sri Lankans Protest Dire Economic Conditions Amid State of Emergency , Rodrigo Chaves Wins Costa Rica Presidential Election, Honduras Seizes Assets of Ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández, Who Faces U.S. Drug Charges, Sufyian Barhoumi, Held 20 Years at Guantánamo Without Trial, Released to Algeria, Mass Shooting Leaves Six Dead and 12 Injured in Sacramento, CA, Senate Judiciary Committee to Vote on SCOTUS Nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

Imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is “crumbling” physically and psychologically, says journalist Chris Hedges, who last week attended Assange’s wedding to his longtime partner Stella Moris at London’s Belmarsh prison. Assange has been behind bars for nearly three years awaiting a possible extradition to the United States on espionage charges for publishing documents revealing war crimes committed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hedges says Assange exposed the “most important information” of this generation, along with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

YouTube has deleted the entire archive of “On Contact,” an Emmy-nominated television show by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges which was hosted on the Russian government-funded news channel RT America. We speak with Hedges, who connects the YouTube censorship of his show to a growing crackdown on dissenting voices in American media. “There’s less and less space for those who are willing to seriously challenge and question entrenched power,” says Hedges, who says “opaque entities” like YouTube shouldn’t have the power to take down outlets like RT America, despite the channel’s source of funding. “Are we better off not hearing what Russia has to say?” asks Hedges.

President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law on Tuesday, culminating efforts to make lynching a federal crime that started over a century ago. We’re joined by Emmett Till’s cousin and best friend, Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., who was 16 years old when he witnessed Till’s abduction from his great-uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, prior to his brutal killing. Parker recalls the night of Till’s abduction and says, almost 70 years later, he is “thankful” for the new law, while acknowledging that “it shouldn’t have taken that long.” We also speak with author and public historian Michelle Duster, who spoke at Tuesday’s bill signing and is the great-granddaughter of the pioneering investigative journalist Ida B. Wells. “Finally, in 2022, we have justice. We have laws put in place that were fought for so long ago,” says Duster, who thinks the law is “better late than never.”

Kremlin Says Ukraine Airstrike Hit Fuel Depot in Russian City of Belgorod, As Russia Continues Assault on Ukraine, Red Cross Team Attempts Mariupol Evacuation, Russian Troops Leave Chernobyl Amid Reports Troops Dug Trenches in Radioactive Soil, Biden Says U.S. Oil & Gas Producers Should Pump or Face Fines, Protesters Block Transfer of 100,000 Tons of Russian Oil Off Danish Coast, U.N. Afghan Donors’ Conference Falls Far Short of Goal as 9 Million Face Famine, Amnesty Warns El Salvador’s President over Human Rights Abuses in Gang Crackdown, Pope Francis Apologizes to Indigenous Canadians over Abuse of Residential Schoolchildren, Kushner Testifies to January 6 Committee as Prosecutors Widen Probe of Capitol Insurrection, Federal Judge Blocks Florida GOP Voter Suppression Law, Citing Racism, State Department to Allow “X” Gender Marker on U.S. Passports, “Yes” Votes Lead as NY Amazon Workers Vote on Unionization; Alabama Election Too Close to Call, U.S. Airport Workers Hold Protests Nationwide, Demanding Better Pay and Labor Rights

With COVID-19 coverage ending for the uninsured, we look at how uninsured people and communities of color will bear the impact of the end to free COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccines, and how the pandemic has led to a renewed push for Medicare for All. We are joined by Dr. Oni Blackstock, primary care and HIV physician and founder and executive director of Health Justice, and Dr. Adam Gaffney, critical care physician, professor at Harvard Medical School and immediate past president of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Wednesday Russia is preparing a major offensive in the eastern Donbas region. This comes just two days after Kremlin officials announced plans to “fundamentally” cut back military operations near Kyiv and the city of Chernihiv, though attacks have continued on both cities. We speak with Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and Simon Schlegel, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, who say the future of peace largely hinges on the fate of the Donbas region. Schlegel also speaks about the growing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, where now a quarter of the population is displaced, and Lieven talks about the domestic backlash President Vladimir Putin faces from ultranationalists opposed to any peace talks.

Putin Calls Up 134,000 Conscripts as Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Enters Sixth Week, U.N. Says Russia’s Attacks on Civilians May Constitute War Crimes, U.N. Food Agency Warns Ukraine Invasion Could Cause Worst Hunger Crisis Since WWII, Tunisian President Dissolves Parliament, Broadening Power Grab, Yemen’s Houthis Reject Saudi-Led Coalition’s Ceasefire During Ramadan, Biden Administration to Halt Trump-Era Policy Blocking Asylum Seekers in May, Biden Calls on Congress for More COVID-19 Aid as Federal Funds Dry Up, Study Finds Ivermectin Ineffective at Treating COVID-19, Russia Will Allow Germany to Keep Purchasing Gas in Euros and Dollars, Kentucky Lawmakers Approve 15-Week Abortion Ban as Arizona Governor Signs Similar Measure, Arizona and Oklahoma Governors Sign Anti-Trans Bills on Eve of Trans Day of Visibility, Israel Kills 2 Palestinians, Injures 15 in Raid on Jenin Refugee Camp, Indigenous Leaders Seek Apology from Pope Francis over Deaths and Abuse of Schoolchildren

Western countries have opened their doors to millions of Ukrainians fleeing the war in their homeland, presenting a model of how refugees should be welcomed. But their experience stands in stark contrast to how African refugees are treated when attempting to reach Europe to escape war, hunger and despair. In her new book, “My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route,” author Sally Hayden details how a single message from an Eritrean refugee held in a Libyan detention center led her on a years-long journey to document the human rights disaster on Europe’s doorstep. She says that since a 2017 European Union agreement with Libya to stop migrants before they cross the Mediterranean, many refugees have been imprisoned in hellish detention centers run by armed groups with little care for the safety or well-being of the people inside. “Tens of thousands of people have been locked up in detention centers that Pope Francis, among many others, have compared to concentration camps,” says Hayden. “The situation is absolutely horrific.”

As the U.S. says it will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion, immigration officials say they’re preparing for a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border as it ends the Trump-era pandemic restriction Title 42 in response to humanitarian outcry. We speak with Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance about how Haitian refugees are treated, and with award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa about the Haitians she met in a migrant caravan. Jozef says President Biden’s pledge to welcome Ukrainian refugees, while necessary, is a painful display of the double standard faced by Haitian immigrants and other people of color seeking humanitarian relief in the United States. “Why is it that when it comes to people of color, Black and Brown people, we must continue to push and beg to validate our humanity?” asks Jozef. Hinojosa has been reporting on migration for her podcast series “The Moving Border” and says the Biden administration is “appeasing” anti-immigrant forces in the U.S. by continuing rejections, deportations and detentions at the southern border. “What we are seeing is … white supremacy in the context of refugees and desperate people,” says Hinojosa.

The United Nations says more than 4 million refugees have now fled Ukraine as Russia’s invasion nears its sixth week. Russia announced plans Tuesday to “fundamentally” cut back military operations near Kyiv and the city of Chernihiv, but Ukrainian officials say Russian forces continue to carry out strikes in or near both cities. Meanwhile, the outlines of a possible peace deal have emerged in talks between the two sides, with Ukraine offering to become a neutral country and remain nuclear-free in exchange for security guarantees. But Ukrainian officials stress a deal can only be reached once Russia withdraws its forces from the country. For more, we go to Kyiv to speak with Peter Zalmayev, director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, who says Ukrainians remain “very skeptical” of the Russian president’s intentions. “Ukrainians are very much ready to negotiate, but the question is if Vladimir Putin continues to cling to his obsession to try to control all of Ukraine and control its politics and to install a puppet regime.”

Ukraine Remains Skeptical of Russian Claim to Pull Back from Kyiv & Chernihiv, Biden Admits U.S. Is “Helping Train” Ukrainian Troops in Poland, Video Purportedly Shows Ukrainian Troops Shooting Russian POWs in the Leg, CDC & FDA OK Second Booster for Adults 50 and Older, Ady Barkan: In Wake of Deadly Pandemic, We Need Medicare for All, U.N.: Nearly 2,300 Civilians Killed in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo So Far in 2022, World Bank Suspends Afghan Projects After Taliban Bars Girls from High Schools, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Condemns Deadly Attack Outside of Tel Aviv, El Salvador: Over 2,000 Arrested Under New State of Emergency, Jury Awards $14 Million to Racial Justice Protesters Injured by Denver Police, Biden Signs Emmett Till Antilynching Act, Nikole Hannah-Jones Call for Slavery Reparations in Speech to U.N. General Assembly, California Task Force Votes to Limit Reparations to Descendants of Slavery, Outspoken Journalist Rana Ayyub Blocked from Leaving India, YouTube Deletes Entire Archive of Chris Hedges’s RT Show “On Contact”, Workers at Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Bon Appétit Move to Unionize, Record-Setting $850 Million in Public Subsidies Offered to Help Buffalo Bills Build New Stadium, Longtime Vieques Activist Robert Rabin Dies in Puerto Rico

A federal judge ruled Monday that former President Trump and his lawyer John Eastman “likely” committed multiple felonies in their bid to block certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory in the 2020 election, ordering them to turn over hundreds of emails to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Despite the court order and numerous revelations coming out of the January 6 committee, some two-thirds of Republican voters believe Biden’s election was illegitimate. “The stolen election myth is animating the Republican base to this day,” says Frontline correspondent A.C. Thompson, whose new documentary, “Plot to Overturn the Election,” premieres today on PBS and tracks how lies about election fraud made their way to the center of American politics. “They believe that there has been a historic fraud that deprived Trump of his right to rule this country.”

The January 6 committee investigating the deadly attack on the Capitol is reportedly deciding whether to interview Ginni Thomas — the Republican activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — about her efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. The move comes after a series of Thomas’s texts were made public in which she urges Donald Trump’s then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the weeks following the election to take action to prevent a Biden victory. Justice Thomas is the only justice who dissented in the Supreme Court’s decision a few months ago that led to the release of White House documents around January 6. We speak with Ian Millhiser, senior correspondent at Vox, who calls Ginni Thomas “a cheerleader at the highest level” for the attempt to overturn the election. “When you’re a judge, you can’t sit on a case where your wife has an interest,” says Millhiser. “If Clarence Thomas knew that his wife was potentially implicated in this scandal, I think he should have recused himself from this case.” Millhiser’s latest piece is headlined “Clarence Thomas’s long fight against fair and democratic elections.”

Ukrainian and Russian officials have begun a new round of peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for a humanitarian ceasefire to end the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine 34 days ago. The Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison speaks to us from Lviv, just back from reporting in bombed-out Kharkiv, one of Ukraine’s largest cities bordering Russia, where Putin’s army has launched one of its most brutal coordinated attacks. Graham-Harrison describes how the Russian military is “pummeling” civilian neighborhoods because they have not yet been able to take over Kharkiv.

Russia and Ukraine Open New Round of Peace Talks in Turkey, U.N. Calls for Ukraine Ceasefire as Mariupol Mayor Reports Nearly 5,000 Civilian Deaths, Russia’s Leading Independent Newspaper Shuttered After Warnings from State Censor, Biden Has “No Apologies” for Saying Putin Should Not Remain in Power, Biden Budget Plan Calls for Record Military Spending, $32 Billion for Police, Federal Judge Rules Trump Likely Committed Crimes in Bid to Overturn 2020 Election, Afghan Women Protest Taliban Closure of Girls’ Schools, Millions of Indian Workers Strike to Protest Modi’s Economic Policies, Protests Erupt in Madrid After Spain Drops Support for Sahrawi Self-Determination , Gunmen Kill 20 at Cockfight in Michoacán, Mexico, Independent Panel Finds Mexican Military Knew About Attack on Ayotzinapa Students, Will Smith Apologizes for Slapping Oscars Presenter Chris Rock, LGBTQ+ Groups Sound Alarm as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs “Don’t Say Gay” Bill

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have just finished a weeklong visit to former British colonies in the Caribbean. Their trip comes after Barbados cut ties to the monarchy and became a republic last year. During the so-called charm offensive to the British Commonwealth countries, the royals were met with protests calling for reparations for slavery. We speak with senior Jamaican Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna, who met with the royals during their visit and has critiqued the couple for not putting forward an action plan to redress the crimes of slavery committed by the British monarchy against the Jamaican people, adding that any British “condemnation [of slavery] without action is hollow.” Hanna outlines how Jamaica could swiftly break ties with the monarchy through referendum or a change in the Constitution.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted an exodus of nearly 4 million people and an outpouring of support for many of the refugees. But a new report finds dozens of nonwhite people who fled Ukraine are being held in long-term detention centers in Poland and Estonia. We speak with Maud Jullien, investigations editor at Lighthouse Reports, which just published a series of reports in collaboration with The Independent, Der Spiegel, Radio France and others on the detention of African students fleeing Ukraine. She describes how the European Union’s temporary protection directive sets a double standard by permitting the safe entry of Ukrainian citizens into neighboring countries while withholding protection to third-party nationals escaping the same conflict.

The White House is unveiling a new tax plan that would establish a minimum 20% tax rate on all U.S. households worth more than $100 million. “It’s high time that people who have made billions of dollars pay the same taxes … as people who are in service jobs, and this is the first step towards that,” says California Congressmember Ro Khanna. The Democratic lawmaker also talks about the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax, his bill aimed at curbing profiteering by oil companies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is open to Ukraine becoming a neutral country but said such a decision could only be made by a nationwide referendum after Russian troops withdraw. This comes as the White House quickly tried to walk back President Biden’s remarks made during a speech on Saturday in Poland during which he appeared to endorse regime change in Moscow. We get responses from Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna and Quincy Institute President Andrew Bacevich. “The responsibility to negotiate with the Russians, to come to a settlement that is agreeable to Ukrainians, that belongs to President Zelensky,” says Bacevich, who called Biden’s comments “reckless and damaging.” Khanna adds that while “the American president does have a leadership role” in resolving the crisis, Biden’s remarks were not representative of U.S. policy, saying the president “was speaking from the heart.”

Russian Attacks Decimate Mariupol, Target Western City of Lviv During Biden Visit to Poland, Zelensky Signals Compromise on Neutrality But Insists on Territorial integrity Ahead of New Talks, U.S. Officials Say Biden Not Calling for Regime Change After Saying Putin “Cannot Remain in Power”, BP, Shell, Exxon Among Oil Giants Who Have Paid $100 Billion to Russian Gov’t Since 2014, Global Climate Strikers Call for End to Fossil Fuel Dependence Amid Russia’s Attack on Ukraine, Ice Shelf Collapses in Eastern Antarctica Amid Soaring Temperatures, Great Barrier Reef Undergoes 6th Mass Bleaching Event, Fighting Continues in Yemen Amid Humanitarian Disaster as War Enters Its Eighth Year, China Starts 2-Phase Lockdown of Shanghai; Israeli Prime Minister Tests Positive for Coronavirus, Blinken Backs Iran Nuclear Deal Talks While at Historic Israeli-Arab Summit, El Salvador Proclaims State of Emergency as Gang-Related Killings Soar, ICE to Stop Jailing Asylum Seekers in Two Prisons over Dangerous Conditions, Salvadoran Journalist Manuel Durán, Who Spent 15 Months in ICE Jail, Granted Asylum, Biden Proposes 20% Minimum Tax on Billionaires’ Incomes, Staten Island Amazon Workers Cast Ballots in High-Stakes Union Election, Ariana DeBose Becomes First Openly Queer Woman of Color to Win an Oscar for Acting

Vea esta entrevista en españolIn an exclusive broadcast interview, we speak with leading Afro-Colombian environmental activist Francia Márquez Mina, who has just been picked by Colombian presidential front-runner Gustavo Petro to be his running mate. Petro has promised to ban all new fossil fuel exploration if they win in May’s election, and Márquez would become Colombia’s first Black female vice president, in a country where Afro-Colombians make up nearly 10% of the population. Márquez says Colombians have a chance in this election to empower communities who have been left out of decision-making in the past, including Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ and other historically marginalized people. “Today we need to put forward the nobodies, the people who’ve never had a voice, to step into the state so that we can write our own history,” says Márquez. If elected, Petro and Márquez would form Colombia’s first leftist government.

With NATO countries recommitting themselves to the alliance and passing sweeping sanctions against Russia as punishment for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, is this the dawn of a new Cold War? We speak with foreign policy expert William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute, who warns that hawks in Washington are pushing for a massive increase in the U.S. military budget, which is already a record-high $800 billion a year. “There’s a danger that not only will this be a war in Ukraine, but the U.S. will use it as an excuse for a more aggressive policy around the world, arguing that it’s to counter Russia or China or Iran, or whoever the enemy of the moment is.” Hartung also speaks about the Saudi-led war in Yemen, where U.S. support has allowed the conflict to rage for years, killing about 400,000 people. Unlike in Ukraine, where the U.S. has more limited leverage, the Biden administration could “end that killing tomorrow,” Hartung says.

A month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 3.6 million Ukrainians have left the country as refugees, and the war risks becoming “an Afghanistan-like quagmire,” warns Greek lawmaker Yanis Varoufakis, founder of the Progressive International with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. He says the West’s sweeping sanctions on Russia and bottomless military aid to Ukraine risk escalating the conflict and foreclosing chances of a peaceful resolution. “What is exactly the aim? Is it regime change in Russia?” asks Varoufakis. “Well, whenever the United States tried regime change, it didn’t turn out very well and has never been tried with a nuclear power. This is like playing with fire.”

Biden Promises “We Will Respond” If Russia Uses Weapons of Mass Destruction, Mariupol Officials Say Russian Strike on Theater May Have Killed 300 Civilians, Ukraine Says Russia Is Using White Phosphorus Bombs, U.S. to Admit 100,000 Ukrainian Refugees as It Continues Deporting Haitians and Other Asylum Seekers, Ethiopia Declares “Humanitarian Truce” in War-Torn Tigray Region, South Korea Holds War Games as North Korea Confirms Test of New ICBM, U.S. to Increase Liquified Gas Exports to EU Amid Russian War on Ukraine, Climate Activists Blockade Ports in Sydney, Australia, in Defiance of Ramped Up Penalties, Mitch McConnell Says He Will Vote Against Confirming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to SCOTUS, Ginni Thomas Repeatedly Texted Trump Chief of Staff in Effort to Overturn 2020 Election, Texas AG Attacks Austin Schools for Celebrating Pride; Crackdown on LGBTQ Books in Schools Continues, Arizona Lawmakers Move to Limit Trans Rights, Reproductive Rights and Voting Rights, Minneapolis Public School Educators Reach Tentative Deal to End Strike, Washington State Enacts New Gun Control Laws as Parkland Survivors Protest at U.S. Capitol

Anti-abortion bills are sweeping the U.S., with the Guttmacher Institute reporting that 82 restrictions have been introduced in 30 states in 2022 so far. On Wednesday, Idaho signed into law a six-week abortion ban, and lawmakers in Oklahoma passed a near-total ban on abortions — each modeled after a Texas “bounty hunter” law that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization later this year, in which a Mississippi abortion facility is challenging the state’s restrictive abortion law. If Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes the new justice, will it affect the court’s ruling? “Abortion rights don’t fall within that framework of constitutional rights that the Supreme Court feels that it has an obligation to uphold,” says Imani Gandy, senior editor of law and policy for Rewire News Group. “It is presumed that Roe is going to be reversed in a couple months,” says Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and senior legal correspondent for Slate.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson appears poised to become the first Black woman and the first former public defender on the Supreme Court, having weathered attacks from Republicans with little support from Democrats during the third leg of her confirmation hearing on Wednesday. We speak with legal analysts Imani Gandy and Dahlia Lithwick. Republican senators’ behavior was “shocking” in how they embraced and perpetuated misinformation, says Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and senior legal correspondent for Slate. Gandy, senior editor of law and policy for Rewire News Group, says Republican attacks consisted of “white men trying to flex their power over a Black woman, knowing that she could not respond in the way that, for example, Brett Kavanaugh responded in his hearings.”

NATO, the G7 and the European Council held unprecedented emergency meetings in Brussels Thursday as the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its second month. NATO has announced plans to send even more troops to Eastern Europe, where its troop presence has already doubled from last month to 40,000. We speak with Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who says that as the war becomes a prolonged stalemate, the U.S. and other countries should be doing everything possible to facilitate an end to the fighting. “There is something deeply immoral in trying to wage a war of this kind at the expense of other people if a reasonable peace settlement is on the cards,” says Lieven.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has died of cancer at the age of 84. She served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 until 1997, when President Bill Clinton nominated her to become the first female secretary of state. Albright was a staunch supporter of U.S. power and a defender of authoritarian leaders around the world like Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Indonesia’s Suharto. She was a key architect of NATO’s 78-day bombing of Serbia in 1999. Albright also repeatedly defended the Clinton administration’s devastating sanctions against Iraq, infamously saying in a 1996 “60 Minutes” interview that the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children from U.S. sanctions were “worth it.” Democracy Now! confronted Albright on those comments in 2004, when she acknowledged it was a “stupid statement,” but she denied the sanctions on Iraq laid the groundwork for the Bush administration’s invasion.

Chernihiv Rations Water as Russian Assault Traps 150,000 Without Heat or Power , U.S. Formally Declares Russia Has Committed War Crimes in Ukraine, As Biden Joins Emergency Summit, NATO Doubles Troops Deployed to Eastern Europe, German Chancellor Rejects Calls for Immediate Halt to Russian Fossil Fuel Imports, In “Unprecedented” Move, SCOTUS Throws Out Wisconsin Maps That Gave More Power to Black Voters, GOP Attacks Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson; Clarence Thomas Misses Oral Arguments Due to Illness , Idaho Enacts Texas-Style Near-Total Abortion Ban; Oklahoma House Approves Total Abortion Ban, Moderna Will Ask FDA to Greenlight COVID-19 Vaccine for Children Under 6, Taliban Shuts Down Secondary Schools for Girls Mere Hours After They Reopened, North Korea Accused of Testing ICBM for First Time Since 2017, Howard University Faculty Reach Deal to Avoid Strike; Teachers in Sacramento and Minneapolis Strike, Protesters Demand New York Lawmakers Fund Immigrant Workers Excluded from Public Benefits

As the U.S. and its allies ramp up punitive sanctions on Russia and military support for Ukraine, they must be combined with active peace talks, says Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko. This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses to rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons in what has turned into a long, costly war. We also speak with Ishchenko about the rise of pro-Russian political parties in Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to suppress these parties and consolidate Ukrainian media.

Republican senators grilled Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson over her views on critical race theory on the second day of her confirmation hearing to become the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. “The Republicans are mischaracterizing, misquoting, taking out of context words and speeches that Judge Jackson has made,” says Alexis Hoag, professor at Brooklyn Law School. The non sequiturs create a distraction for “a woman who is overqualified for this position,” Hoag adds. Hoag is a former federal public defender and also discusses the significance of Jackson’s background as a federal public defender.

To begin our coverage of day two of the historic nomination hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, we discuss the attacks by Republicans on her work defending suspects at Guantánamo Bay prison. Given that Jackson was one of hundreds of legal professionals in a project that exposed the lies and brutality undergirding Guantánamo, “to criticize her work in that project is nonsensical to me,” says Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who has represented people held at Guantánamo and defended their rights. “Her work should be valorized.”