Democracy Now!

Families of passengers who died in fatal crashes while aboard Boeing 737 MAX jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia are urging the Department of Justice to reopen a Trump-era settlement that allowed the company to evade criminal prosecution. We speak with the father of one of the victims, as well as the director of the new documentary, "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing," which details Boeing's push for profit over safety and is set to air on Netflix February 18. "We ultimately want this agreement reopened so that our input is reflected and it's not a hasty rush job at the end of an administration," says Michael Stumo, father of Ethiopian Airlines crash victim Samya Stumo, who recently met with Attorney General Merrick Garland. Boeing kept the planes running to save money despite internal research showing that their designs had a high probability to cause a crash. "They blamed the pilots, even knowing the system was faulty on this aircraft," says filmmaker Rory Kennedy.

Israeli forces continue to expel Palestinians from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem, a move that the United Nations has described as a possible war crime. We speak to Palestinian poet and activist Mohammed El-Kurd, whose own family is among those facing eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Sheikh Jarrah is also where the Salhiyeh family recently gained attention for threatening self-immolation while protesting their eviction and the demolition of their home. The dispossession of Palestinians has left families facing homelessness in the cold of winter. "This is not a unique situation for our neighborhood," says El-Kurd. "It is happening all across colonized Palestine."

We go to Tijuana, Mexico, where a wave of murdered journalists has raised international alarm and prompted nationwide protests. The three most recently murdered are José Luis Gamboa Arenas, Alfonso Margarito Martínez Esquivel and Lourdes Maldonado López. We speak with Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico correspondent at the Committee to Protect Journalists, who attended López's funeral on Thursday in Tijuana and says Mexican authorities' investigations and security measures have proven "woefully insufficient." He adds that violence against journalists exploded after the Mexican government launched its U.S.-backed war on drugs. "The United States is a player in this violence, whether it likes it or not."

U.S. Calls for Security Council Meeting on Ukraine as Russia Warns of Nuclear Confrontation, Biden Pledges to Nominate Black Woman to Supreme Court in February, Burkina Faso Coup Leader Paul-Henri Damiba, Who Was Trained by U.S. Military, Gives First Speech, Xiomara Castro Sworn In as First Woman President in Honduras's 200-Year History, Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Survivors Sue over Cancer Diagnoses, 70 Confirmed Dead After Tropical Storm Brings Flooding to Southern Africa, Massive Iceberg Breaks Up in Southern Atlantic, with Unknown Environmental Toll, Federal Judge Cancels Biden Administration's Largest-Ever Offshore Drilling Lease Sale, L.A. City Council Moves to End Oil and Gas Drilling, Pittsburgh Bridge Collapses Hours Before Biden Visits City to Promote Infrastructure Bill, U.S. Coast Guard Suspends Search for Migrant Boat Wreck Victims, 39 People Likely Dead, Oklahoma Executes Donald Grant, the First U.S. Prisoner to Be Put to Death in 2022, Amazon Warehouse Workers in Staten Island Will Vote on Forming a Union, NYC Street Vendors Push for New Laws Protecting Their Rights, 20 Years Ago: George W. Bush Gives "Axis of Evil" Speech a Year Before Illegal Invasion of Iraq

As the Federal Reserve signals it will raise interest rates in March, we talk to Christopher Leonard, author of the new book "The Lords of Easy Money," about how the Federal Reserve broke the American economy. He details the issues with quantitative easing, a radical intervention instituted by the federal government in 2010 to encourage banks and investors to lend more risky debt to combat the recession. "The Fed's policies over the last decades have stoked the world of Wall Street," says Leonard. "It has pumped trillions of dollars into the banking system and thereby inflated these markets for stocks, for bonds. And that drives income inequality."

A 60-year U.S. embargo that prevents U.S.-made products from being exported to Cuba has forced the small island nation to develop its own COVID-19 vaccines and rely on open source designs for life-saving medical equipment such as ventilators. We speak to leading Cuban scientist Dr. Mitchell Valdés-Sosa about how massive mobilization helped produce three original vaccines that have proven highly effective against the coronavirus. "In a moment that the whole world was mobilizing to face this tremendous menace that was killing people around the world, the U.S. administration did not lift any of the 400 sanctions that were slapped on Cuba during the Trump administration plus this decades-long embargo," says Valdés-Sosa, director of the Cuban Center for Neuroscience. "Medicines and vaccines are not a commodity. It's not something to get rich with. It's something to save people's lives."

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring after nearly three decades on the bench, giving President Biden a chance to fulfill a campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman in history to serve on the high court. Those worried that identity politics will hinder the most qualified candidate should consider that 108 of 115 justices since the nation's founding have been white men, says Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation. Breyer's retirement comes as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell threatened to stall any nominations that Biden put forth later in the year. Breyer leaves "an institution that I think he really idealized as beyond politics, and at the same time, it's so, so clear that politics drove him out right now," says Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and senior legal correspondent for Slate, who has interviewed Breyer.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to Retire, Handing Biden Chance to Nominate Replacement, U.S. and NATO Offer No Concessions to Russia in Standoff over Ukraine, U.S. Approves $2.5 Billion Arms Sale to Egypt Despite Human Rights Abuses, House Democrats Demand End to U.S. Servicing of Saudi Warplanes Used in War Crimes, 180 Killed as U.S.-Backed Forces Retake Syrian Prison Where Children Are Imprisoned, U.N. Renews Calls to Free Up Aid for Millions of Afghans Facing Starvation, Extreme Poverty, Global COVID Cases Break New Record as COVAX Falls Short on Vaccine Delivery Goal, Spotify Sides with Joe Rogan in Vaccine Misinformation Spat, Will Remove Neil Young Songs, San Jose Will Be the First U.S. City to Mandate Gun Owner Insurance, Interior Department Cancels Mining Leases Near Minnesota Boundary Waters, Texas Students Fire Back After School Board Moves to Ban Books on Social Inequality

The documentary "Takeover," which chronicles the radical actions of the Young Lords, was recently shortlisted for an Academy Award. In 1970, the Puerto Rican collective took over a condemned hospital in the South Bronx to demand the construction of a new hospital, free healthcare for all, and more. "I'm still amazed there's been so much interest in what we did as youngsters more than 50 years ago," says Democracy Now! co-host and Young Lords founding member Juan González. "I hope that some of the lessons of what we did right and what we did wrong will resonate with younger people these days."

We speak to award-winning journalist Jonathan Katz about his new book "Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire." The book follows the life of the Marines officer Smedley Butler and the trail of U.S. imperialism from Cuba and the Philippines to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Panama. The book also describes an effort by banking and business leaders to topple Franklin D. Roosevelt's government in 1934 in order to establish a fascist dictatorship. The plot was exposed by Butler, who famously declared, "War is a racket." The far-right conspiracy to overthrow liberal democracy has historical parallels to the recent January 6 insurrection, says Katz.

As new cases of the highly infectious Omicron variant continue to climb in undervaccinated parts of the world, we speak to the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about how vaccine inequity could lead to even more variants of the coronavirus. Dr. John Nkengasong says only 10% of the population is fully immunized in Africa, a continent of 1.3 billion people, and millions of vaccines donated by COVAX went unused because of their short shelf life. Meanwhile, several countries in Africa have begun manufacturing their own vaccines. "We have to shift our focus to vaccinating — that is, making sure that vaccines that are arriving at the airport actually get into the arm of the people," says Dr. Nkengasong.

U.S. Says Personal Sanctions Against Putin Possible If Russia Invades Ukraine, Aid Ship to Tonga Reports 23 COVID Cases; China Tries to Contain Omicron Ahead of Olympics, Biden Admin Pulls Business Vaccine Requirement; Judge Stays Decision Blocking NY Indoor Mask Mandate, Pfizer Starts Testing Omicron Vaccine; FDA Halts Use of 2 Antibody Therapies , Leonard Peltier Calls Prison Conditions "Torture" Amid COVID Lockdowns and Neglect, Colombian Indigenous Leader José Albeiro Camayo Killed by Armed Group, Pataxó Protesters in Brazil Launch Blockade, Demand Justice 3 Years After Deadly Vale Dam Disaster, Seven Bangladeshi Refugees Die En Route to Italy, Dozens of Migrants Feared Dead After Boat Capsized Off Florida Coast, Florida Bill Backed by Utility Co. Could Wreck State's Solar Industry, Florida Republicans Push Homophobic Bill Banning Discussion of LGBTQ Issues in Schools, Prosecutors Accuse 3 Ex-Officers of Failing to Intervene During George Floyd's Murder, At Least 29 House Dems Will Not Run for Reelection; Alabama Ordered to Redraw Racist Voting Map

In memory of Thich Nhat Hanh, the world-renowned Buddhist monk, antiwar activist, poet and teacher who died Saturday, we reair a speech Hanh gave at Riverside Church in New York in 2001. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Hanh urged the audience to embrace peace in the face of anger, citing his experience of witnessing suffering on both sides during the war in his native Vietnam. "The real enemy of man is not man," says Hanh. "It is ignorance, discrimination, fear, craving and violence." We also speak with Hanh's longtime friend and fellow peace activist, Father John Dear, former director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the organization that first brought Thich Nhat Hanh to the United States in the 1960s. "He was really an embodiment of peace and gentleness and nonviolence," says Dear.

As the Biden administration reviews U.S. nuclear weapons policy, over 60 advocacy groups, including Veterans for Peace and CodePink, recently issued a joint statement calling for the elimination of hundreds of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles. "The notion is if you get rid of those ICBMs, you reduce the risk of accidental nuclear war, and it's a first step towards more rational nuclear policy," says William Hartung, research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. We also speak with Father John Dear, longtime peace activist and Catholic priest who led a campaign for 15 years in New Mexico calling for the disarmament of the national laboratories at Los Alamos. Dear was an adviser to Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on his new pastoral letter titled "Toward Nuclear Disarmament" that calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons arsenals around the globe. The letter is part of a sea change in the Catholic Church under Pope Francis, which condemns "the mere possession of these weapons" as "totally immoral," says Dear.

The U.S. has prepared some 8,500 troops to deploy to Eastern Europe in the event that Russia invades Ukraine, which Russian President Vladimir Putin denies is his goal. On Wednesday, officials from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany are scheduled to meet in Paris to negotiate resolving the crisis. "The security of Europe ought to be principally Europe's business," says Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. "This whole notion of great power competition, which is embedded in the National Defense Strategy, has been used as kind of the magic key to keep Pentagon spending at near-records levels," says national security expert William Hartung, research fellow at the Quincy Institute.

Pentagon Puts 8,500 Troops on High Alert as U.S. Warns Russia Is Preparing Ukraine Invasion, Judge Strikes Down New York Mask Mandate, Sarah Palin Tests Positive for Coronavirus After Flaunting NYC Vaccination Requirement, African Union and United Nations Condemn Burkina Faso Military Coup, Guatemala Convicts Ex-Soldiers of Raping Indigenous Women in 1980s, Lourdes Maldonado López Murdered in Tijuana, Third Journalist Killed in Mexico This Month, Turkish Journalist Sedef Kabas Detained for "Insulting" President Erdogan, Police Will Investigate Breaches of COVID-19 Lockdowns at Boris Johnson's Official Residence, Judge OKs Special Grand Jury to Probe Trump's Efforts to Overturn Election, Virginia Attorney General Fires January 6 Investigator from University Position, Supreme Court to Hear Challenges to Affirmative Action in College Admissions, King Soopers Grocery Workers in Colorado Approve New Contract, Ending Strike, States' Lawsuit Accuses Google of "Deceptive" Location Tracking, Iowa Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Matt Johnson, Who Exposed Cruel Treatment of Pigs

A British judge has ruled that political dissident and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal his extradition to the United States. The ruling dealt a major blow to the Biden administration's efforts to put Assange on trial for espionage charges. Assange has spent over 1,000 days locked up in the Belmarsh high-security prison in London, where he recently suffered a mini-stroke. The "politically driven" prosecution of Assange is punishing "a publisher for doing his work, for having published evidence of U.S. crimes," says Stella Moris, Assange's fiancée. "For every win that we get, Julian's situation doesn't change. And this is punishment through process."

As conservative justices on the Supreme Court threaten to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortions nationwide, we speak to the filmmakers and a subject of "The Janes" about life before Roe, when a collective of women in Chicago built an underground service for women seeking an abortion. Heather Booth, who founded the Jane Collective as a college student, speaks about adopting lessons from the civil rights movement and antiwar sentiments of the time. "You have to stand up to illegitimate authority," says Booth. The directors of the film, Emma Pildes and Tia Lessin, speak about their motivation to encourage others to take action in the face of human rights under threat.

We go to Nuku'alofa, capital of Tonga, to speak with Tongan journalist Marian Kupu on the humanitarian relief efforts underway after an undersea volcano erupted on January 14, blanketing the South Pacific island nation with ash and triggering a tsunami. Kupu was able to flee the worst effects of the initial eruption by driving to higher ground but now reports lingering aftereffects such as water tanks polluted by ash. Although the islands have prepared for hurricanes, climate change has exacerbated a newly volatile environment. "We have never been prepared for volcanic eruptions," says Kupu. "This is something really new for us."

World-renowned Buddhist monk, poet, teacher and antiwar activist Thich Nhat Hanh has died in his native Vietnam at the age of 95. He was exiled from Vietnam for decades beginning in the 1960s after he spoke out publicly against the war. In 1966, he traveled to the United States and met with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helping to persuade King to speak out against the U.S. War on Vietnam. King went on to nominate Thich Nhat Hanh for a Nobel Peace Prize a year later, calling him an "apostle of peace and nonviolence."

U.K. High Court Rules Assange Can Request Appeal of Extradition to U.S., U.S. Judge Blocks Vaccine Mandate for Federal Workers, U.S. Reduces Kyiv Embassy Staff, Weighs Sending Troops to Region as Tensions Mount with Russia, Saudi-Led Airstrikes Kill at Least 82 People in Yemen, Including African Migrants, 150 People Killed in Attack on Syrian Prison, Bus Bomb Kills 7 People in Afghanistan; Taliban Officials Arrive in Oslo for International Talks, Reports: Burkina Faso's President Detained by Soldiers Amid Growing Unrest, Armed Men Detain Sudanese Women's Rights Activist Amira Osman, Palestinians Call for Probe into 1948 Tantura Massacre, January 6 Committee Has Been Speaking with Trump's Attorney General William Barr, Justice Dept. Task Force Makes First Indictment over Threatening Election Officials, Arizona Dems Censure Kyrsten Sinema for Opposing Filibuster Exception for Voting Rights Legislation, Black Lawmakers Protest as Mississippi GOP Senators Vote to Ban Critical Race Theory, $15-an-Hour Minimum Wage for Federal Workers Takes Effect, New Laws Protecting Labor Rights of Delivery Workers Go into Effect in NYC, Hundreds Evacuated in Northern California as Firefighters Battle Rare January Wildfire

As the Biden administration marks its first year in office this week, we look at the president's ongoing defense of Trump-era anti-immigration policies. Department of Justice lawyers were in court Wednesday to defend the Trump-era order known as Title 42, which has been used to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants at the border without screening them for asylum. The policy was touted as a way to control the spread of COVID-19, even though top CDC officials say it's not needed to contain the virus. We speak with the ACLU's Lee Gelernt, who is the lead lawyer challenging the Biden administration's use of Title 42. He accuses the Biden administration of "trying to hide behind CDC" to play politics and says the policy violates international law and is inhumane, as it forces migrants back into dangerous situations they fled from. "The U.S. government is pushing them back over the border," he says. "The cartels are sitting there at the end of the bridge waiting for them, and yet we continue to push them over." Gelernt discusses how he was also a part of negotiations to financially compensate migrant parents separated from their children under Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, but Biden cut off the talks after facing Republican criticism.

The World Food Program has warned Afghanistan faces a "tsunami of hunger" as the economy continues to collapse, due in part to U.S. sanctions and the freezing of Afghan assets following the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Meanwhile, President Biden once again defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan on Wednesday without acknowledging the humanitarian crisis that followed his exit. We speak with journalist Jane Ferguson, who recently traveled to Afghanistan to report on the collapse of basic government services and the various factors that led to the collapse of the economy, which she says was "completely reliant on international aid." She also speaks about the "massive pressure" the White House is under to respond to the humanitarian crisis, as well as the Taliban's handling of the growing women's rights movement. "What these women really need is more eyes on their movement, more of them on air, more of their voices being put on television and in the newspapers," she says. Her most recent New Yorker piece is titled "Afghanistan Has Become the World's Largest Humanitarian Crisis."

As many of the world's wealthiest people wrap up virtual talks today at the World Economic Forum based in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam reports the incomes of 99% of the world's population dropped during the pandemic while the world's 10 richest men saw their wealth double. Meanwhile, vaccine profits have minted at least nine new billionaires at Moderna, BioNTech and China's CanSino, amassing a combined new wealth of over $19 billion. To discuss the rise of billionaires and the policies that got us here, we speak with New York Times global correspondent Peter Goodman, author of the new book "Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World." Goodman says billionaires' championing of "stakeholder capitalism" is ruining U.S. democracy, and attributes the Omicron variant to "our unwillingness to challenge patents."

U.S. Secretary of State Meets Russian Counterpart Amid Impasse over Buildup on Ukraine Border, Jan. 6 Committee Asks Ivanka Trump to Testify; Georgia DA Requests Grand Jury for Trump Probe, Jamaal Bowman Among 28 Arrested at Peaceful Voting Rights Protest, Sen. Mitch McConnell Suggests Black Voters Are Not "Americans", Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Proposes First-of-Its-Kind Election Police Force, FBI Searches Home of Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, U.S. Bombed Syrian Dam in 2017 Despite Warning That Tens of Thousands Could Die, Market Explosion in Lahore, Pakistan, Kills 3 People, Massive Blast and Fire Kills at Least 17, Causes Major Destruction in Ghanian Town, 14-Year-Old Indigenous Colombian Environmentalist Shot Dead in Ambush, Pope Benedict Mishandled at Least 4 Sexual Abuse Cases When He Was an Archbishop, SCOTUS Dismisses Another Legal Challenge to Unconstitutional Texas Abortion Law, Civil Rights Trial of Ex-Cops Involved in George Floyd Murder Begins in St. Paul, DOJ Drops Case Against Chinese American MIT Professor Amid Accusations of Ethnic Profiling, Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Kill Millions Worldwide, Protesters Decry Femicides, Anti-LGBTQ Murders in Juárez

As President Biden marks one year in office, we speak with former four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader and The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel, who say Biden has failed so far to sell his agenda to the American people and bring about the transformative policy he campaigned on — from quelling the pandemic to passing his landmark Build Back Better legislation. The two also critique the U.S. mainstream press for asking "war-inciting questions," with Nader saying "the self-censorship of the press is overwhelming."

As President Biden marked one year in office this week, conservative Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema joined with Republican senators to block a proposed change to filibuster rules that would have allowed two voting rights bills to move forward, foreclosing the chance to stop hundreds of anti-voting laws passed after the 2020 election. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders blasted his colleagues for opposing the rules change, and Georgia's Raphael Warnock likened the fight for voting rights to the civil rights movement. We air excerpts from their speeches.

President Biden said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a "serious and dear price" if he orders his reported 100,000 troops stationed along the Russian-Ukraine border to invade Ukraine, a scenario Biden says is increasingly likely. This comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukraine's president on Wednesday, similarly warning Russia could attack Ukraine on "very short notice." We speak with The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel, who says the hawkish U.S. approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a waste of national resources, and says the U.S. should pursue diplomacy instead of throwing around threats of expanding NATO into Eastern Europe. "More attention should be paid to how we can exit these conflicts, how we can find a way for an independent Ukraine," says vanden Heuvel, who calls the Ukraine conflict a civil war turned into a proxy war. "If there is creative diplomacy, I think you could see a resolution of this crisis."

Voting Rights Bill Dies in Senate as Democrats Manchin & Sinema Allow GOP Filibuster, Biden Predicts Russia Will Invade Ukraine, Says Putin "Will Regret Having Done It", Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Bid to Shield Records from January 6 Committee, Global Coronavirus Cases Hit Record High, Czech Singer Hana Horkad Dies After Deliberately Infecting Herself with Coronavirus, West Virginia's Republican Governor Urges Vaccinations After Bout of COVID-19, Florida Health Dept. Puts Top Official on Leave for Promoting COVID Vaccine to Staff , Aid Flights Land in Volcano-Stricken Tonga Amid Water Shortages, Threat of COVID-19, Judge Clears Indigenous Land Protector Amber Ortega over 2020 Protest at U.S.-Mexico Border Wall, University of Michigan to Pay $490 Million to 1,000+ Survivors of Sexual Assault by School Doctor, Kansas DA Says No One Will Face Charges for Killing Black Teen Cedric Lofton, Prisoners Say They Were Unwillingly Given Ivermectin as Medical Experiment, New York Housing Activists Call for Passage of Good Cause Eviction Bill as Eviction Moratorium Ends, Theodore Roosevelt Statue Removed from Outside NYC's Natural History Museum

Activist and scholar Angela Davis has released a new edition of her 1974 autobiography, first published and edited by Toni Morrison nearly 50 years ago. The book details Davis's remarkable early life, from growing up in a section of Birmingham, Alabama, known as Dynamite Hill due to the frequency of bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, to her work with the Black Panther Party and the U.S. Communist Party. It also follows her 16-month incarceration, during which she faced the death penalty and was eventually acquitted on all charges, which influenced Davis's focus thereafter on transforming the criminal justice system and building a movement for abolition. The edition includes a new introduction, which links the racial justice uprisings and events of the past decade to her lifelong learnings and work. "What struck me was how much has changed," says Davis, on her process of publishing the new edition. "Both how much has changed and how little has changed."

Abolitionist scholars Angela Davis, Beth Richie and Gina Dent discuss their new book, published Tuesday, titled "Abolition. Feminism. Now." As abolition becomes increasingly mainstream following the racial justice uprisings of 2020, they argue feminism is at the root of the politics and practice of abolition, which they define as the elimination of carceral and interpersonal gender-based violence paired with social investments in more "opportunities for freedom" and safety within communities. The book, which was also co-authored by scholar and activist Erica Meiners, highlights feminist histories — particularly from queer, grassroots and women of color — that have been erased but are central to the movement. "We want to be able to imagine a world in which that violence has been reduced and eventually eradicated," says Davis. "Abolition feminism is the perspective that allows us to move in that direction."

In a major development, a federal judge on Tuesday approved a plan to restructure Puerto Rico's massive debt. The proposal was presented by the territory's U.S.-imposed Fiscal Control Board, and it reduces the biggest portion of the island's debt, about $33 billion, by some 80%. Last year, union leaders pressured the board to remove cuts to pension plans from the current version of the debt restructuring deal. Opponents of the agreement say it will only worsen Puerto Rico's economic struggles. "In terms of whether it really resolves the financial crisis of Puerto Rico going forward, that remains to be seen," says Democracy Now! co-host Juan González, a close observer of Puerto Rican history and politics, who warns the unelected fiscal board could remain in charge of the island's finances for years to come. "There's some positives in this, but there's a lot of uncertainty still to go."

U.S. Gov't Launches Site to Mail Free COVID Tests, Issues N95 Masks Amid Winter Surge, Sonia Sotomayor Tends to SCOTUS Business Remotely After Neil Gorsuch Refuses to Wear Mask, Japan Sets New Curbs, Hong Kong Culls 2,000 Exposed Hamsters, as Asian Nations See COVID Surges, WHO Warns Only 7% of African Population Fully Inoculated Amid Ongoing Vaccine Apartheid, Blinken Meets with Ukrainian President Zelensky Ahead of Talks with Russian Counterpart, Israel Demolishes Sheikh Jarrah Home, Arrests Palestinians Resisting Displacement, Saudi-UAE Airstrikes Kill 20 People, Following Houthi Attack on UAE Target, Suicide Bombing in Somalia Kills 4 People, Days After Another Blast Targets Gov't Spokesperson, Mexican Journalist Margarito Martínez Shot Dead in Tijuana, Senators Debate Voting Rights Legislation Which Appears Doomed to Fail, House Jan. 6 Cmte. Subpoenas Trump Legal Team; NY Says It Has Evidence of Trump Org. Fraud, New Yorkers Gather to Mourn Michelle Go, Condemn Attacks on Asian American Community, NJ Public Schools to Start Teaching AAPI History; Florida Expands Efforts to Ban Teaching of Racism, Portland Police Under Fire for Training Materials Which Mock Protesters, Advocate Violence, Airlines Cancel Flights over Concerns About Expansion of 5G Service in U.S.

During Saturday's synagogue attack in Colleyville, Texas, the gunman Malik Faisal Akram repeatedly called for the release of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year sentence in a U.S. federal prison located just miles from the synagogue. Siddiqui was convicted in 2010 on charges that she intended to kill U.S. military officers while being detained in Afghanistan two years earlier. However, many questions remain unanswered about her time in U.S. custody, and her conviction was secured without physical evidence and on U.S. officials' testimony alone, says Siddiqui's lawyer, Marwa Elbially. Elbially says there's a false impression of Siddiqui in the U.S. as a terrorist, even though terrorist charges were never brought against her, and Pakistan officials have voiced concern about her arrest and detention. We also speak with Mauri' Saalakhan, director of operations for The Aafia Foundation, who calls Siddiqui's case an unprecedented miscarriage of justice.

On Saturday, an armed British man named Malik Faisal Akram took a rabbi and three congregants hostage at a synagogue outside of Fort Worth, Texas, resulting in an 11-hour standoff that ended once the rabbi threw a chair at Akram, who was later shot dead by the police. The standoff — which left all four hostages unharmed — has been identified by President Biden and federal authorities as an antisemitic act of terror. We speak with Rabbi Nancy Kasten, who says despite false media narratives painting the hostage crisis as an outgrowth of hostility between Muslims and Jews, the local Muslim community mobilized in support of the Jewish community this weekend. She also notes Muslim communities are less protected under federal and state law, which "creates a lot of opportunity for very misguided and false information to be perpetrated about the Muslim community."

Senate Democratic leadership insists they will debate two critical voting rights bills even though Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have publicly denounced their party's plan to make changes to Senate filibuster rules that would give Democrats the votes needed to pass the landmark legislation. Meanwhile, thousands marched in support of the legislation and the necessary filibuster rule changes in Washington, D.C., on Monday, the federal holiday marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We speak with movement leader William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, who criticizes the Democrats for bifurcating the Build Back Better economic legislation from voting rights and says movements must plan sustained, nonviolent direct action to ensure politicians pass legislation that benefits poor and low-wealth people.

MLK's Family Leads Protests Demanding Passage of Voting Rights Legislation, U.S. COVID-19 Hospitalizations Hit New Record High, China Won't Sell Winter Olympics Tickets to Public After Beijing Logs First Omicron Case, Novak Djokovic Deported for Violating COVID-19 Rules, Will Miss Australian Open, Hostages in Texas Synagogue Escape; Police Shoot and Kill Gunman, Volcano Erupts Near Tonga, Devastating Islands and Triggering Pacific Tsunamis , Sudanese Forces Kill Seven More Anti-Coup Protesters, Palestinian Family Threatens Self-Immolation, Resisting Eviction from East Jerusalem Home, Authorities in Indian-Administered Kashmir Shut Down Independent Press Club, Salvadorans Protest Following Reports That Phones of Journalists and Civil Society Groups Were Hacked, North Korea Carries Out Fourth Missile Test This Month, New Jersey Chemical Fire Nearly Caused "Catastrophic" Release, World's Richest Saw Their Wealth Double as Pandemic Pushed 160 Million People into Poverty

Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born January 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People's Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Vietnam War. We play his "Beyond Vietnam" speech, which he delivered at New York City's Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, as well as his last speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop," that he gave on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated.

As the United States heads into the Martin Luther King Day holiday weekend, attempts by Democrats to pass major new voting rights legislation appear to have stalled. We examine the new award-winning documentary "Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America," which follows civil rights attorney Jeffery Robinson as he confronts the enduring legacy of anti-Black racism in the United States, weaving together examples from the U.S. Constitution, education system and policing. "The entire purpose of this film is to ask people to take a long hard look at our actual history of white supremacy and anti-Black racism," says Robinson, the former deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "That is something that has been really erased from the common narrative and creation story about America." We also speak with Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler, the directors of the film.

As Afghanistan faces a dire humanitarian crisis, we look at how more Afghans may die from U.S. sanctions than at the hands of the Taliban. The U.S.'s attempts to block support for the new de facto government have prevented vital funding from flowing to the nation's civil servants, particularly in education and the health sector. Dr. Paul Spiegel says conditions in the hospitals he visited in Kabul as part of a World Health Organization emergency team are rapidly deteriorating, and he describes the lack of heat and basic amenities as winter descended. "There's been a drought. There's food insecurity. And all of this has been exacerbated due to this economic crisis and due to lack of the U.N. and NGOs being able to pay people in the field," says Spiegel. "What we see now is that it's not the Taliban that is holding us back. It is the sanctions," says Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Voting Rights Bills Appear Doomed in Senate as Sinema & Manchin Oppose Filibuster Change, Supreme Court Strikes Down Vaccination-or-Test Mandate for 84 Million U.S. Workers, White House Orders Another Half-Billion Coronavirus Tests for U.S. Residents, New York Mayor Considering Virtual Learning Option as COVID-19 Cases Surge in Classrooms, Head of Oath Keepers Among 11 Charged with Seditious Conspiracy over Jan. 6 Insurrection, RNC May Try to Block Future Candidates from Presidential Debates, U.N. Calls for Urgent Funding to Avert Millions of Deaths in Afghanistan, Specter of War Remains After Talks Fail to Resolve Tensions on Russia-Ukraine Border, Prince Andrew Loses Military and Royal Titles as U.S. Sex Assault Case Proceeds, Australia Revokes Novak Djokovic's Visa for 2nd Time, Days Ahead of Australian Open, 2021 Was the 6th Hottest Year on Record, Protesters Call on Gov. Hochul, Lawmakers to Pass Sweeping New York Climate Bill, NJ Gov. Delays Power Plant Contract After Community Organizes to Protect Newark Neighborhood

We speak with The Nation's national affairs correspondent John Nichols on the occasion of his new book, "Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis," which takes aim at the CEOs and political figures who put profits over people during the coronavirus pandemic. The chapters cover notorious figures such as former President Trump, Mike Pompeo, Jared Kushner and Jeff Bezos. "In the United States alone, hundreds of thousands of deaths occurred that did not have to occur," says Nichols. "Globally it's in the millions, and the U.S. could have played a huge role in addressing that."

Jeremy Menchik, a self-described "human guinea pig" who volunteered for Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine trials, dropped out to protest the company's greed in reaping profits from the ongoing pandemic while doing little to resolve global vaccine inequity. Menchik is launching a new website — mrna4all.org — where other vaccine trial participants can join the effort to pressure vaccine makers to scale up production to vaccinate the world. "That they have to be accountable to their guinea pigs and they have to advance policies for public health not just private profit … I think that must be unnerving to them," says Menchik, an associate professor at Boston University. "We have to treat this pandemic as a global crisis, as a global public health emergency."

Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman warns the Republican Party is laying the groundwork to steal the 2022 midterms and future elections through a combination of gerrymandering, voter suppression and election subversion, that together pose a mortal threat to voting rights in the United States. Republicans, many of whom are election deniers, are campaigning for positions that hold immense oversight over the election process. "What's really new here are these efforts to take over how votes are counted," says Berman. "That is the ultimate voter suppression method, because if you're not able to rig the election on the front end, you can throw out votes on that back end."

WHO: Confirmed Coronavirus Infections Surge to 15 Million in a Week, French Teachers Strike as COVID-19 Cases Overwhelm Schools, British PM Boris Johnson Faces Calls to Resign for Defying Lockdown to Attend Cocktail Party, Biden Deploys Military Teams to Hospitals Overwhelmed by COVID-19 Patients, GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy Won't Cooperate with "Illegitimate" January 6 Committee, Confronted over Lies About 2020 Election, Donald Trump Cuts Short NPR Interview , Biden Meets with Senate Democrats as Push to Pass Voting Rights Legislation Intensifies , Ohio's Top Court Rejects GOP's Gerrymandered Voting Maps, Israeli Forces Kill 80-Year-Old Palestinian American Man in Violent Arrest, German Court Finds Ex-Syrian Intel Officer Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity, Five More Guantánamo Prisoners, Held for Years Without Charge, Granted Release, Mogadishu Car Blast Kills 8, Archbishop of Santa Fe Makes Plea for Global Nuclear Disarmament, Texas Sheriff Told Deputies to Seize Cash from Undocumented Motorists, 8,400 Kroger Workers Go on Strike as Study Highlights Economic Plight of Grocery Workers, California Governor Unveils Healthcare Plan to Cover Undocumented Immigrants

In Newark, New Jersey, residents of the largely Black and Latinx community of Ironbound are calling on Governor Phil Murphy to stop plans to build a $180 million gas-fired power plant that could worsen the poor local air quality and exacerbate the climate crisis. As the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission holds a vote to begin construction on Thursday, activists are urging the governor to enforce the environmental justice law that he passed last year. "If we don't set a good precedent for New Jersey, what does that mean for the country and other states that are trying to pass similar laws?" says Maria Lopez-Nuñez, member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

A massive fire in an apartment building in the Bronx, New York, killed 17 people, including eight children, on Sunday. The city is blaming the fire on a malfunctioning space heater. Housing advocates say the real issue is the lack of safe, affordable public housing, citing lack of heat provided by the building during subzero winter temperatures and poor fire safety systems. Tenants and activists note one of the building's co-owners is a member of Mayor Eric Adams's transition team, and are demanding an extension to the eviction moratorium set to expire on January 15. "All of them are really asking for accountability, not just from the state and city agencies but first and foremost from their landlord and the building owners," says reporter Claudia Irizarry Aponte, who covers the Bronx for the nonprofit newsroom The City.

We go to Atlanta, Georgia, where President Biden and Vice President Harris spoke on Tuesday to pressure Congress to pass critical voting rights legislation. Biden endorsed changing the Senate rules to prevent a minority of senators from filibustering the bills. We speak to two leaders in the voting rights movement about the importance of passing the bills, particularly for people of color. "Right now 40 senators can stop 100 senators from having a vote, and that is absolutely unheard of anywhere else in our democracy," says Ben Jealous, who attended Biden's speech and is president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP. Biden should prioritize voting rights and "follow up the speech yesterday with actions," says Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter, who boycotted Biden's address.

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Former Guantánamo Bay detainee Mansoor Adayfi was imprisoned for 14 years without charge before being released in 2016 to Serbia. Adayfi says those released from Guantánamo become "stateless men" who experience a brutal legal limbo even after being cleared of all charges, often released to countries where they have no history or connection with their families. Even exonerated former detainees of Guantánamo "live in the stigma of Guantánamo, viewed by the hosting countries as terrorists, as killers," says Adayfi. He joins advocates everywhere in calling for President Biden to shut the prison down.