Democracy Now!

India Hits 100,000 Daily COVID Cases; More Nations Enter Lockdown; Pope Calls for Vaccine Equality, U.S. Vaccinations Pick Up Speed, But Health Experts Say Country Is Still at Risk for New Wave, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Killed After Man Rams Car into Security Checkpoint, Veteran Minneapolis Police Officer Calls Chauvin Kneeling on Floyd's Neck "Totally Unnecessary", U.S. and Iran Holding Talks Via Nuclear Deal Signatories in Attempt to Revive 2015 Accord, Jordan Arrests Ex-Crown Prince, Other Top Figures Accused of Plotting Coup Against King, Demonstrations Continue Against New U.K. Bill That Would Empower Police to Suppress Protests, Five Civilians Killed in Mogadishu Suicide Bombing, 22 Indian Police Officers Killed After Battle with Maoist Fighters, Massive Flooding Kills at Least 100, Submerges Thousands of Homes in Indonesia, Florida Wastewater Pond on Brink of Catastrophic Collapse, Texas Police Officers Fired for Killing Black Man Jailed for Marijuana Possession, Chicago Protests Erupt over Police Killing of 13-Year-Old Adam Toledo, MLB Moves All-Star Game from Atlanta to Protest Georgia Voter Suppression Law, Steelworkers Begin Second Week of Strike over Unfair Labor Practices at Allegheny Technologies

As the number of COVID-19 cases surges in Brazil, the country is also facing a major crisis on the political front. The heads of Brazil's Army, Navy and Air Force all quit in an unprecedented move, a day after far-right President Jair Bolsonaro ousted his defense minister as part of a broader Cabinet shake-up. The developments have alarmed many in Brazil who believe Bolsonaro, who is a former Army captain, will install ultra-loyalists to the military posts to consolidate his power ahead of next year's election, when he is expected to be challenged by former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is trying to "show his authority" as his popularity dwindles, says Celso Amorim, former Brazilian foreign minister. "As he becomes smaller in terms of support … he becomes more dangerous."

Protesters in Portland, Oregon, took to the streets for more than three straight months following the police killing of George Floyd. In July, former President Donald Trump threatened to jail protesters for 10 years for damaging federal buildings in Portland. But months later he praised right-wing insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol. Trump's actions were "absolutely abhorrent," says Oregon Governor Kate Brown. "We are continuing to work to hold federal officials accountable."

As Republican lawmakers across the U.S. move to make it harder for voters to cast ballots by mail, we look at Oregon's long history of vote-by-mail. Oregon, where 92% of residents are now registered to vote, was the first state in the country to institute voting by mail and to establish automatic voter registration in an effort to "ensure access to this very fundamental right," says Oregon's Democratic Governor Kate Brown, who is also the national chair of Vote from Home. The nationwide crackdown on voting rights is taking place because "Republicans don't want to hear voices" of Black, Brown, Indigenous people and women, Brown says. "We have to hold these legislators who voted for these racist policies … accountable."

Activists are demanding accountability from Georgia-based companies in opposing a law that heavily restricts voting rights in the state, which many are calling the worst voter suppression legislation since the Jim Crow era. While some companies, including Coca-Cola and Delta, have weighed in on the Republican-backed crackdown on voting rights, Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter, says voicing opposition is not enough. "We're calling for a repeal of this voter suppression law, and we're asking these companies to divest future support that they've given," Albright says. "Stand by the words that you said in the midst of the summer of protest about Black Lives Matter when you had all these glowing statements about racial justice and racial equity. If you said it back in the summer, now is the time for you to actually put some actions behind it."

Ex-Supervisor Says Derek Chauvin's Fatal Restraint of George Floyd Violated Use-of-Force Policies , Texas Senate Passes Republican-Led Voter Suppression Bill, Texas Rangers Baseball Stadium to Open at Full Capacity Despite Surging Coronavirus Cases, U.N. Warns Burma Headed for Civil War as Military Junta Continues Brutal Crackdown, At Least 51 Dead, Dozens More Injured in Taiwan Train Crash , Arizona ICE Jail Violated Prisoners' Rights and Failed to Prevent COVID-19 Outbreak, Biden Holds First Cabinet Meeting as Debate over Infrastructure Plan Continues, Unemployment Claims Rise as Pandemic Recovery Remains Uneven , Ex-U.S. Intelligence Analyst Daniel Hale Pleads Guilty to Leaking Documents About U.S. Drone Program, New Mexico Poised to Legalize Marijuana, Virginia Gov. Pushes to Expedite Legalization, Virginia Supreme Court OKs Removal of Confederate Statues in Charlottesville, Lawmakers Say Rep. Matt Gaetz Showed Nude Photos and Videos on the House Floor, LGBTQ Students Sue Education Dept. for Discrimination at Federally Funded Colleges

Brazil now accounts for about a quarter of all COVID-19 daily deaths worldwide, more than any other country, and its overall death toll of more than 310,000 is surpassed only by the United States. Far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro faces intense pressure to abandon his opposition to vaccinations, lockdowns and mask-wearing. Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, professor of neurobiology at Duke University and former coordinator of the largest scientific COVID-19 task force in Brazil, says Bolsonaro "has played on the side of the virus" by opposing any efforts to control the outbreak. "Since the beginning, he downplayed the severity of the pandemic."

After the third dramatic day in the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, we speak with Mel Reeves, who has been following the case as community editor at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, the oldest Black-owned newspaper in the state. Reeves discusses the testimony heard so far, and juror selection, and says more is at stake than just what happened to George Floyd. "It is political. The system of policing is on trial," says Reeves. "You can see now how the police operate when they run into Black people." We also speak with Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, who says the defense is following a familiar strategy of blaming the victim. "This is what they do in trial after trial, is work to put the community and work to put the victim on trial, to make the victim someone who deserved to be killed." Robinson also describes the influence of police unions on preventing police accountability.

Jurors in Minneapolis heard another series of dramatic testimonies during the third day of the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for killing George Floyd. A teenage clerk named Christopher Martin at the Minneapolis convenience store outside which Floyd was killed told jurors during questioning that he felt guilty for reporting the fake $20 bill to his manager, who called the police on George Floyd. Jurors also heard a recording of Charles McMillian, who witnessed George Floyd's death last year, approaching Chauvin to say, "I don't respect what you did," as Floyd's body was being loaded into an ambulance. We air dramatic excerpts from witness testimony on the third day of the murder trial in Minneapolis.

Witness in Derek Chauvin Murder Trial Breaks Down After Viewing Footage of George Floyd's Killing, Four Killed as Gunman Opens Fire on Office Complex in Orange County, California, Biden Defends Infrastructure Plan as Progressives Push for $10 Trillion to Fight Climate Crisis, Wisconsin Supreme Court Voids Governor's Mask Mandate as COVID-19 Cases Rise Across U.S., Brazil's Cemeteries Hold Nighttime Funerals as COVID-19 Deaths Reach New Highs, Yemen Receives First COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments as Doctors Report Surge in Cases, Global Deforestation Increased by 12% in 2020 with Amazon Most Severely Affected, U.S. Court Sentences Tony Hernández, Brother of Honduran President, to Life for Drug Trafficking, Hong Kong Court Convicts 7 Prominent Pro-Democracy Activists, BBC China Correspondent Leaves Beijing for Taiwan After Mounting Threats and Intimidation, Authorities Charge Man with Smuggling in Fatal SoCal Crash That Killed 13 Migrants, Pentagon Reverses Trump Ban on Transgender Military Members, Microsoft Gets $22 Billion Pentagon Contract to Produce Augmented Reality Headsets for Soldiers, New York Ends Solitary Confinement Lasting More Than 15 Days, Virginia Passes Voting Rights Act Amid Nationwide Republican Crackdown on Ballot Access, Black Execs Call on Co.'s to Oppose Voter Suppression; Delta & Coca-Cola CEOs Finally Condemn GA Law, Texas Court to Review Case of Black Mother Sentenced to 5 Years for Filling Out Provisional Ballot

We get an update on political prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal and Sundiata Acoli, who contracted COVID-19 but have yet to be released. Acoli is a former member of the Black Panther Party who is now 84 years old and has been in prison in New Jersey for nearly half a century, even though he has been eligible for parole for almost three decades. He was denied parole again in February. His crime involved the killing of a state trooper. Last year, he contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalized, and he reportedly has early-stage dementia. We speak with his longtime advocate, Soffiyah Elijah with Alliance of Families for Justice, about whether he will live long enough to appear before the parole board again, and what could happen when his case is reviewed later this year by New Jersey's Supreme Court.

A New York judge has ordered the state to provide COVID-19 vaccines to all incarcerated people, saying that officials "irrationally distinguished between incarcerated people and people living in every other type of adult congregate facility, at great risk to incarcerated people's lives during this pandemic." Soffiyah Elijah, executive director of the Alliance of Families for Justice, says advocates have been pushing the state "since the beginning of the pandemic to prioritize the health and safety of incarcerated people," but those efforts were met with silence. "It's unfortunate that it took court intervention in order to make the state do what it's supposed to do," says Elijah. She also addresses calls for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to sign a bill passed by lawmakers called the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, that would end the excessive use of solitary confinement.

On Trans Day of Visibility, we look at the wave of anti-trans laws being enacted across the U.S., with dozens more anti-trans bills making their way through state legislatures. The Arkansas Senate has approved one of the most harmful bans on access to healthcare for transgender youth by prohibiting the use of gender-affirming care, including hormones and puberty blockers. Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi have enacted new laws aimed at banning trans athletes from joining sports teams, and in South Dakota, two executive orders bar trans women and girls from playing school sports. "We are truly witnessing an escalation of attacks on trans people unlike anything I've ever seen in government," says Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice with the ACLU's LGBT & HIV Project. We also speak with journalist and activist Raquel Willis, who says higher visibility for trans people is not enough. "We can't just rest on some of the social strides that we've made," says Willis. "We also need to be using that action to change our material realities and protect our rights."

More than 500 people have been killed in Burma during protests against the February 1 military coup that toppled Burma's democratically elected civilian government. At least 141 people were killed over the weekend alone, when soldiers opened fire on civilians demonstrating against military rule in dozens of cities and towns across the country. Children were among the dead, including a 5-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, according to Amnesty International. Burmese troops also fired on a funeral service for a 20-year-old student protester. "We wake up to more bad news every morning, more deaths," says Aron Aung, a Burmese student studying at the New York Institute of Technology, who also describes how women are helping lead the resistance.

Eyewitnesses Give Chilling Testimony of Police Killing of George Floyd, Brazil in Crisis as COVID Deaths Soar & Military Chiefs Quit in Protest, U.S. COVID Deaths Top 550,000; Florida Undercounted Thousands of Deaths, Bloomberg Employees Got Special Access to Vaccines at NYU Hospitals, China Delivers 100,000 COVID Vaccines to Palestine, White House Unveils $2 Trillion Jobs & Infrastructure Plan, Two Police Deputies Indicted in Texas for Killing Javier Ambler After Traffic Stop, Capitol Police Officers Sue Trump as GOP Welcomes Oath Keepers Founder in Texas, Man Arrested for Viciously Attacking Filipino Woman in NYC Hate Crime, U.N. Accuses France of Killing 19 Civilians in Bombing of Wedding Party, Children Videotaped Crying in Overpacked CPB Jail in Donna, Texas, Washington State Lawmakers Vote to Ban For-Profit Prisons, New York Legislature Votes to Legalize Recreational Marijuana, GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz Faces DOJ Probe for Sex Trafficking over Relationship with Teen, Watergate Burglar G. Gordon Liddy, 90, Dies, Black Panther Activist "Chip" Fitzgerald Dies After 51 Years in Prison

We speak with Salvadoran American journalist Roberto Lovato about how decades of U.S. military intervention in Central America have contributed to the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the border. Some 18,000 unaccompanied migrant children are now in U.S. custody, according to the latest figures, and more than 5,700 are in Customs and Border Protection facilities, which are not equipped to care for children. This comes as a record number of asylum seekers are arriving at the southern border, fleeing extreme poverty, violence and climate change in their home countries. "You have the ongoing epidemic of U.S. policy and the crisis, that is not of migration as much as it's the crisis of capitalism, backed by the kind of militarism and militarized policing that you see not just in the United States, but in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, on and on," Lovato says. "The border is the ultimate machete of memory. It cuts up our memory so that we forget 30 years of genocide, mass murder, U.S.-sponsored militarism and policing, failed economic policies."

As the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin continues, we speak with Minneapolis civil rights lawyer Nekima Levy Armstrong, who says prosecutors in the case clearly established that "the actions of Derek Chauvin played the most critical role in cutting off the air supply of George Floyd," leading to his death, while the defense appears to be resorting to a strategy of victim-blaming. "I was really dismayed to see them try to deflect blame to bystanders and to blame George Floyd himself for his own death," says Armstrong, a former president of the Minneapolis NAACP.

The trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin has begun in Minneapolis, where Chauvin is charged with second- and third-degree murder, as well as manslaughter, for killing George Floyd in May 2020 by kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes. The death of Floyd, who was a 46-year-old Black man and father originally from Houston, Texas, sparked international protests calling for racial justice. We air excerpts from the first day of the trial, including opening statements from special prosecutor Jerry Blackwell and Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, and dramatic witness testimony from the Minneapolis 911 dispatcher, Jena Scurry, who alerted a police supervisor after seeing live surveillance footage showing officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for an extended period of time, and Donald Williams, a mixed martial artist, who described seeing Derek Chauvin using what he called a "blood choke" on Floyd.

First Witnesses Testify in Murder Trial of Ex-Cop Derek Chauvin, Who Killed George Floyd, Civil Rights Groups File Second Legal Challenge to Georgia Voter Suppression Bill, WHO Says COVID-19 Pandemic Likely Began in Animal Hosts, Rather Than Laboratory Escape, CDC Director Warns of "Impending Doom" as Coronavirus Cases Rise Across U.S., CDC Extends Federal Eviction Moratorium to June 30, Wealthiest 1% of Americans Account for One-Third of Unpaid Taxes to IRS, Protests Erupt in Mexico Demanding Justice for Salvadoran Refugee Killed by Police, Suez Canal Reopens After Salvage Teams Clear Stuck Container Ship, 60 Child Asylum Seekers Test Positive for COVID-19 in San Diego Convention Center, Arkansas Anti-Trans Bill Would Deny Gender-Affirming Healthcare to Minors, "He Towered Over Me": 10th Woman Accuses New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of Sexual Misconduct, Ghislaine Maxwell Charged with Sex Trafficking 14-Year-Old Girl, Indigenous Activists Criminally Charged in South Dakota over Keystone XL Pipeline Resistance

As opening statements begin in Minneapolis for the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, we speak with UCLA historian and author Robin D.G. Kelley, who says a guilty verdict alone would not represent justice for George Floyd. "The real victory would be to end policing as we know it, to end qualified immunity, to end the conditions that enabled Derek Chauvin to take George Floyd's life and his colleagues to kind of stand there and watch," says Kelley.

As thousands of Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, decide whether to form the company's first union, historian Robin D.G. Kelley says it could be a watershed moment for labor organizing in the United States. "This is definitely the most significant labor struggle of the 21st century, no doubt," he says. "The South has been the epicenter of the country's most radical democratic movements, which is why it's completely unsurprising that Bessemer, Alabama, would be the place where you'd have a renewed labor movement."

A Suez Canal service firm now says the huge container ship blocking the canal has been refloated and is on the move. The 200,000-ton ship, the Ever Given, got stuck on March 23, blocking one of the world's most important trade routes, which is used for about 12% of all global trade. The impact of the canal shutdown has raised new questions about global trade practices, including the reliance on massive cargo ships, the conditions of workers on the vessels, and environmental degradation. "As years have gone by, the ships have gotten bigger and bigger and bigger," says Laleh Khalili, professor of international politics at Queen Mary University of London. She notes that it was an earlier closure of the canal, during the Suez Crisis in the 1950s, that led shipping companies to build ever larger "megaships" like the Ever Given.

Opening Statements Begin in Trial of Ex-Cop Derek Chauvin for Killing George Floyd, Burmese Forces Kill Over 100 People in Deadliest Day of Post-Coup Crackdown, More States Open Up Vaccine Eligibility as Cases Rise in More Than Half of U.S. States, Mexico Revises COVID Death Toll by 60%, Chile and Brazil Confront Massive Surges, WHO Warns Coronavirus on the Rise in African Countries as Vaccinations Remain Lowest in World, Suicide Bombing Attacks Catholic Church Mass in Indonesia, Dozens Killed in Attacks in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado Province, Iran and China Sign 25-Year, $400 Billion Strategic Deal, 9-Year-Old Girl Dies Crossing Rio Grande into U.S., Historic Vote on Whether to Unionize Alabama Amazon Warehouse Wraps Up Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders Pushes to Lower Medicare Eligibility Age from 65 to 55, Tennessee GOP Gov. Bill Lee Signs Anti-Trans Bill Targeting Student Athletes, Minnesota Supreme Court Reverses Rape Conviction Because Survivor Had Been Drinking, Yale University Psychiatrist Terminated over Tweet About Trump Lawyer Alan Dershowitz, House Bill Would Shield USPS from Cuts Favored by Trump-Appointed Postmaster General, Dominion Voting Systems Sues Fox News for $1.6 Billion over Lies About 2020 Election, New York's Excluded Workers Complete Hunger Strike to Demand Pandemic Relief

Evanston, Illinois, has become the first city in the United States to make reparations available to its Black residents for past discrimination and the lingering effects of slavery. The Chicago suburb's City Council voted 8 to 1 to distribute $400,000 to eligible Black households, with qualifying residents receiving $25,000 for home repairs or down payments on property. The program is being funded through donations and revenue from a 3% tax on the sale of recreational marijuana, and the city has pledged to distribute $10 million over 10 years. "There's no way to express how significant this is," says Danny Glover, an actor and activist who is a member of the National African American Reparations Commission. "Imagine how that resonates beyond Evanston, Illinois. Imagine the kind of discourse that happens, the discussions in community by ordinary citizens about reparations." We also speak with Robin Rue Simmons, a member of the Evanston City Council and reparations advocate, and Dino Robinson, a historian and executive director of the Shorefront Legacy Center, the only community archive for Black history on Chicago's suburban North Shore.

As workers in Bessemer, Alabama, continue to vote on whether to establish the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the United States, we speak with actor and activist Danny Glover, who recently joined organizers on the ground to push for a yes vote. "This election is a statement," says Glover, one of the most high-profile supporters of the closely watched union drive. Nearly 6,000 workers, most of them Black, have until March 29 to return their ballots. If workers successfully unionize, it could be a watershed moment for the U.S. labor movement, setting off a wave of union drives at Amazon facilities across the country. "Once unions are there, once workers have representation on all levels, once they have a seat at the bargaining table, it's another kind of expression and a new relationship," says Glover.

Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp has signed a sweeping elections bill that civil rights groups are blasting as the worst voter suppression legislation since the Jim Crow era. The bill grants broad power to state officials to take control of election management from local and county election boards. It also adds new voter ID requirements, severely limits mail-in ballot drop boxes, rejects ballots cast in the wrong precinct and allows conservative activists to challenge the eligibility of an unlimited number of voters. Since the 2020 election, Republican state lawmakers have introduced over 250 bills in 43 states to limit voter access. The elections bill is "extremely egregious" in its restriction of voting rights, says journalist Anoa Changa. "They're continuing to put processes in place that reinforce these narratives that … have long existed within the Republican toolkit to help get their base fearful in terms of what might come in terms of Black voters and other voters of color."

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Signs Sweeping Bill to Suppress African American Vote , Georgia Lawmaker Arrested on Felony Charges for Knocking on Governor's Office Door in Protest, President Biden Says U.S. Unlikely to Honor May 1 Afghanistan Withdrawal Deadline, U.S. COVID-19 Cases Rise as Biden Doubles Vaccine Goal to 200 Million Shots in 100 Days, Mexico's Official COVID-19 Death Toll Tops 200,000; True Toll Could Be 50% Higher , ISIS-Linked Prisoners in Syria Face Conditions That Amount to Torture, Says Human Rights Watch , Netanyahu Fails to Clinch Israeli Election as Extreme-Right Party Gains Seats, Suez Canal Blockage Disrupts Global Trade, Could Take Weeks to Clear , Biden Says U.S. Will Respond to Escalation from North Korea After Ballistic Missile Test, Sen. Warren Takes Treasury Sec. Yellen to Task over BlackRock's Lack of Gov't Oversight, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Facilitated Access to COVID Testing for Family Members, NY Takes Major Step Toward Legalizing Recreational Marijuana, NYC Set to Enact Law Diminishing Liability Protections for Police Officers, USC Settles for Over $1 Billion with 700+ Women Who Accused University Doctor of Sexual Assault , Los Angeles Police Arrest Protesters, Reporters as They Evict Echo Park Encampment , Republican AGs Sue Biden Administration over Oil and Gas Leasing Moratorium, Water Protectors Arrested as Indigenous Leaders Continue Struggle Against Enbridge Line 3

As the world's worst humanitarian crisis enters its seventh year in Yemen, we look at the toll of the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led air war. A new report by the Yemen Data Project summarizing the impact of air raids over the past six years finds the bombing campaign has killed almost 1,500 civilians every year on average, a quarter of them children. Journalist Iona Craig, who heads up the Yemen Data Project, says there have been almost 23,000 air raids since the war began in 2015. "We're still seeing mass civilian casualty events," says Craig. "We're still seeing a large number of airstrikes on residential areas and, of course, on civilian infrastructure, which has been absolutely decimated over the last six years of the conflict."

We get an update on a massive fire at the world's largest refugee camp: the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. The fire killed at least 15 people and displaced 45,000 this week, with hundreds possibly still missing. Bangladeshi authorities are investigating the cause of the fire, which destroyed about 17,000 shelters as the blaze ripped through the crowded camp, leaving behind scenes of utter destruction and despair as people were separated from their loved ones. Nearly a million Rohingya refugees live in southern Bangladesh, often in squalid and dangerous conditions, after fleeing a brutal military crackdown in Burma in 2017. Tun Khin, Rohingya activist and president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, says it is a "very, very tragic moment for the Rohingya people."

Nearly one in five people facing charges related to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol had some connection to the military, including at least two active-duty troops, prompting Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to order a 60-day stand-down across the services to address extremism. Ahead of the first deadline on April 6, the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing Wednesday on extremism in the U.S. military. We speak with one of the experts who testified. "People who are connected with the military are prime targets for extremists," says Lecia Brooks, chief of staff at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Despite the decades of inaction, she says, "the conversation is moving forward" in Washington, as lawmakers are finally speaking openly about white supremacy and white nationalism.

A new report reveals that as a record number of people in the United States lost their jobs and struggled to put food on the table during the past year of the pandemic, the combined wealth of the 657 billionaires in the country grew more than $1.3 trillion, nearly 45%, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who saw his personal wealth increase by $65 billion — more than $7 million every hour. "They are often leading companies who have benefited from the pandemic conditions by having, essentially, their competition shut down," says Chuck Collins, author of the report on pandemic profiteers by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness. "These folks have reaped enormous windfalls in this pandemic." The massive gains come as pressure grows on lawmakers to impose new taxes on the top 1%, with both Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders proposing new measures to address growing economic inequality.

Nearly 20,000 Died in Gun Violence in U.S. in 2020 as Gun Sales Jumped by 64%, Biden Taps Harris to Oversee Border Effort as Military Moves to House Migrant Children in Texas, EPA: GEO Group Used Pesticide as COVID Disinfectant Inside Immigration Jail, Deportations of Haitians Soar Under Biden Despite Political Crisis in Haiti, COVID Death Toll in Brazil Tops 300K as Health System Faces Near Collapse, Doctors Without Borders Urges Israel to Help Vaccinate Palestinians, McConnell Accuses Democrats of "Power Grab" by Pushing for Voting Rights, U.S. Claims China Is Threat to NATO as China Accuses West of Hypocrisy on Human Rights, Virginia Becomes First Southern State to Abolish Death Penalty, New Details Revealed About U.S. Support for 1976 Coup in Argentina & Dictatorship, Boston's New Mayor Vows to Fight City's Shocking Racial Wealth Gap, World's Biggest Banks Lent $3.8 Trillion for Fossil Fuel Projects After Paris Accord, NYPD Issued 217,000 "Secret Subpoenas" to Target Outspoken Cops, Critics & Journalists, Dr. Rachel Levine Confirmed as Assistant Secretary of Health, Becomes Highest-Ranking Trans Official, Equal Pay Day: Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe Calls for Gender Pay Equity

As the United States struggles to make sense of two new mass shootings — in Atlanta, Georgia, and Boulder, Colorado — we look at one country that fought to change its culture of gun violence and succeeded. In April of 1996, a gunman opened fire on tourists in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23 more. Just 12 days after the grisly attack and the public outcry it sparked, Australia announced new gun control measures. "We had a massacre about once a year," Rebecca Peters, an international arms control advocate and one of the leaders of the campaign to reform Australia's gun laws, told Democracy Now! in 2016. But since the new gun control measures were passed, Australia has had almost no mass shootings and now has one of the lowest levels of gun violence anywhere.

The massacre in a Boulder grocery store came just after a Colorado judge ruled in favor of the National Rifle Association's challenge to the city's ban on assault weapons, which was passed in 2018 after this type of weapon was used in the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. Despite increasingly regular mass shootings, the NRA has pushed for expanded gun rights since the 1970s and insisted that more guns, not fewer, would prevent gun deaths. "The NRA's ideology is something that they've convinced the overwhelming majority of elected officials in the GOP, especially on the national level, to believe," says investigative journalist Frank Smyth, author of "The NRA: The Unauthorized History."

Following Monday's massacre in Boulder, Colorado, we speak with Colorado state Representative Tom Sullivan, who entered politics after his son Alex was killed in the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting. He explains how the state's painful history of mass shootings, going back to Columbine High School in 1999, shows even in places most affected by gun violence, it can be difficult to make lasting and effective change. "It's imperative that we get the federal government to partner with us on these things," Sullivan says.

Calls Mount for Democrats to Enact Gun Control Reform in Wake of Boulder Massacre, Philippines Tightens Lockdown Amid New Surge; Brazil Reports Record 3,200 COVID-19 Deaths, No Clear Winner in 4th Israeli Election in Under Two Years, Forcing Netanyahu to Seek Coalition, Military Crackdown on Anti-Coup Protests in Burma Claims Life of 7-Year-Old Girl, Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed Acknowledges Eritrean Soldiers' Involvement in Tigray Conflict, U.N. Warns 1 Million Could Be Displaced in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado Region, One-Quarter of Civilians Killed in Yemen from 2018-2020 Were Children, Two Dead in Record-Breaking Australian Floods, Indigenous Environmental Activist Juan Carlos Cerros Escalante Shot Dead in Honduras, Guatemalan Indigenous Leaders Seek U.S. Asylum, Demand Justice for Water & Land Defenders Back Home, Jury Selection Complete in Derek Chauvin's Trial for Murdering George Floyd, Columbia Student Workers Continue Strike for Fair Wages, Protection from Harassment & Discrimination, Senate Confirms Vivek Murthy as Surgeon General, Shalanda Young as Deputy Director of OMB, WH to Add AAPI Liaison After Sens. Duckworth & Hirono Protest Lack of Asian American Appointees, Standing Rock Water Defender Jailed After Refusing Testimony to Protect Fellow Protesters, Evanston City Council to Pay Housing-Related Reparations in Nationwide First

Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, are in the final days of voting on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and become the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the United States. Ballots have been sent to nearly 6,000 workers, most of whom are Black, in one of the most closely watched union elections in decades. Amazon has fought off labor organizing at the company for decades, but workers in Baltimore, New Orleans, Portland, Denver and Southern California are now also reportedly considering union drives. "Amazon is trying to intimidate workers. They want them to be afraid," says Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. We also go to Bessemer to speak with Michael Foster, an RWDSU member-organizer leading the union drive at Amazon’s warehouse, who says casting a ballot in the union election, amid Amazon's attempts to discourage warehouse workers from supporting the union drive, is "the only way that we can allow our voices to be heard." We also discuss how this week marks the 110th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the deadliest workplace accident in New York City's history and a seminal moment for American labor.

As thousands of asylum seekers continue to wait in Mexico for a chance to enter the United States, investigative journalist Jean Guerrero says Mexican social media influencers connected to right-wing U.S. media outlets and political figures are whipping up "hysteria" about the southern border. She says they are spreading false conspiracy theories about an orchestrated "invasion" and "child trafficking" funded by Democrats that are endangering vulnerable people. "It's been incredibly damaging," says Guerrero.

There are now over 15,000 unaccompanied migrant children in U.S. custody as the number of people seeking asylum at the southern border shows no sign of slowing down. The Biden administration has sharpened its rhetoric in recent weeks, insisting that the "border is closed" and pushing Mexico and Guatemala to stem the flow of migrants. The Biden administration has also maintained one of the most controversial Trump policies, which allows the U.S. to deny almost all asylum seekers on public health grounds. "What is happening at the southern border is shameful," says Luz Lopez, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center focused on immigration. "We as a country should remain vigilant and hold any administration accountable, regardless of political party, with respect to our treatment of children seeking refuge, who are fleeing countries that are in turmoil, largely because of our geopolitical policies over the past several decades."

Man with AR-15 Assault Rifle Kills 10 in Boulder, CO, Supermarket, Colorado Judge Overturned Boulder's Ban on Assault Weapons One Week Ahead of Massacre, CDC Warns Against Relaxing Public Health Measures at "Critical Point in the Pandemic", AstraZeneca Submitted "Outdated Information" in COVID-19 Vaccine Emergency Use Application, WHO Decries "Grotesque" Vaccination Gap Between Rich and Poor Nations, Saudi Arabia Proposes Yemen Ceasefire; Houthis Demand End to Devastating Blockade First, Hundreds Missing, Tens of Thousands Displaced by Fire in Rohingya Refugee Camp, 137 Killed in Niger Attacks After Constitutional Court Confirms Presidential Election, Boston Mayor and Former Union Leader Marty Walsh Confirmed as Secretary of Labor, White House Readying $3 Trillion Infrastructure and Jobs Bills, Biden Administration Will Cancel $1 Billion in Loans to Students Defrauded by For-Profit Colleges, Trump-Appointed Postmaster General Unveils Sweeping Austerity Plan for USPS, January 6 Insurrectionists Face Sedition Charges; GOP Sen. Ron Johnson Claims Many Weren't Violent, Sidney Powell's Lawyers Say "No Reasonable Person" Should Have Believed Her Claims of Election Fraud, Supreme Court Weighs Reinstating Death Sentence for Boston Marathon Bomber, Mexican Husband of Atlanta Shooting Victim Was Handcuffed by Police for Hours After Attack

Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnamese American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses why he chooses to use the term "refugee" in his books, and speaks about his own experience as a refugee. His new novel tells the story of a man who arrives in France as a refugee from Vietnam, and explores the main character's questioning of ideology and different visions of liberation. Titled "The Committed," the book is a sequel to "The Sympathizer," which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2016. Nguyen says his protagonist is "a man of two faces and two minds" whose ability to see beyond Cold War divisions makes him the perfect figure to satirize the facile stories people tell themselves about the world. "He's always going beyond the surface binaries to look underneath." Nguyen is the chair of English and professor of English and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California. His other books include "The Refugees" and the edited collection "The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives."

Protests condemning hate crimes against Asian Americans continue, following the deadly shootings in Atlanta where a white gunman attacked three Asian-owned spas and killed eight people, six of them women of Asian descent. Hundreds of people gathered outside the Georgia state Capitol in Atlanta and around the U.S. demanding an end to anti-Asian racism and honoring the lives of the eight people who were killed: Xiaojie Tan, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Suncha Kim, Hyun Jung Grant, Soon Chung Park, Daoyou Feng and Paul Andre Michels. Anti-Asian hate in the United States is "not anything new," says Viet Thanh Nguyen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnamese American writer. "The history of anti-Asian violence in this country goes back to as long as we've had Asian immigrants in this country." He also speaks about the dangers of anti-China rhetoric from both Republican and Democratic leaders and how that contributes to suspicion of Asian Americans.

Nationwide Protests Call for an End to Anti-AAPI Violence After Atlanta Massacre, AstraZeneca Vaccine Is 79% Effective in U.S. Trial, Shows No Risk of Blood Clotting, CDC Updates School Distancing Guidelines to 3 Feet; Miami Beach Imposes Emergency Curfew, Drug Companies Plan to Hike COVID Vaccine Prices After Pandemic Is Over, Pakistani PM Khan Has COVID; Tokyo Olympics Bars Int'l Spectators; More European Nations Lock Down, U.S. Says "Border Is Closed" as Number of Unaccompanied Children in Gov't Custody Tops 15,000, Defense Sec. Austin in Afghanistan Amid Questions over May 1 Troop Withdrawal Deadline, Women, Rights Groups Slam Turkish Gov't for Withdrawing from Int'l Domestic Violence Treaty, 6 People Killed, Over a Dozen Injured in Aleppo Hospital Shelling, 2-Year-Old Malian Girl Dies of Hypothermia After Refugee Boat Reaches Canary Islands, Israelis Protest Netanyahu's Corruption Ahead of Tuesday's Elections, Samia Suluhu Hassan Becomes Tanzania's First Woman President, Pakistani Court Sentences Men to Death for Rape That Sparked Nationwide Protests, FBI Probes Cuomo for Shielding Campaign Donors from COVID Liability as New Accuser Speaks Out, New York GOP Rep. Tom Reed Apologizes for Sexual Misconduct, Won't Seek Reelection, Julia Letlow, Whose Husband Died of COVID-19 After Election to Congress, Wins GOP Primary, House Bill Would Bring Self-Determination to Puerto Rico, Youth Activists Hold Global Strike for the Climate, Egyptian Feminist Author, Activist and Former Political Prisoner Nawal El Saadawi Dies at 89

Amid a national reckoning with structural racism and the dangers of white supremacy, author Heather McGhee's new book details how racism in the United States hurts not just people of color but also white people. In "The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together," McGhee details how zero-sum thinking has worsened inequality and robbed people of all stripes of the public goods and support they need to thrive. We speak with McGhee about the cost of racism, Republican voter suppression efforts and what people can accomplish when they come together in solidarity across racial lines. "Fundamentally, racism has been the most powerful tool wielded against the best of America — against American democracy, against cross-racial solidarity, against the American dream itself," says McGhee.

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, whose election in January helped bring the chamber under Democratic control, used his first speech on the floor of the Senate this week to assail Republican efforts to restrict voting rights. He called the raft of voter suppression bills being introduced in states across the country "Jim Crow in new clothes," denounced false claims of voter fraud spread by Donald Trump and others, and called on Congress to pass the For the People Act, also known as H.R. 1, a sweeping voting reform bill that would greatly expand access to the ballot. "Make no mistake: This is democracy in reverse," said Warnock, who is the first Black senator elected in Georgia. "Rather than voters being able to pick the politicians, the politicians are trying to cherry-pick their voters."

House Holds First Hearing in Decades on Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans, European Nations Resume Using AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine After Blot Clot Fears, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Challenged by Sen. Rand Paul, Declares "Masks Are Not Theater" , Senate Confirms Xavier Becerra to Lead HHS, William Burns as CIA Director, Deb Haaland Sworn In as Interior Secretary, Becomes First Native American Cabinet Member, House Passes Bills with Path to Citizenship for Farmworkers & DACA Recipients, 14,000+ Unaccompanied Children Held by U.S. as One Texas Facility Reports Over 50 COVID Cases, 12 GOP Lawmakers Oppose Medals for U.S. Capitol Police Who Battled Insurrectionists, U.S. and China Trade Barbs in First High-Level Talks Under President Biden, Human Rights Groups Blast 18 Month Prison Sentence for Egyptian Activist Sanaa Seif

The United States and the United Kingdom are facing international criticism for moving to expand their nuclear arsenals, defying a growing global movement in support of nuclear disarmament. The U.S. is planning to spend $100 billion to develop a new nuclear missile which could travel 6,000 miles carrying a warhead 20 times stronger than the one dropped on Hiroshima, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just announced plans to lift the cap on its nuclear stockpile, ending three decades of gradual nuclear disarmament in the U.K. "We're seeing this united, uniform response of nuclear-armed states to what the rest of the world is calling for, which is the total elimination of nuclear weapons," says Alicia Sanders-Zakre, a policy and research coordinator at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Martial law has been declared in more parts of Burma as the military junta intensifies its crackdown following the February 1 coup. At least 217 protesters have been killed and over 2,000 have been arrested or detained since the coup began, according to one Burmese group. Protests are continuing across the country amid a crackdown on communications, in which much of Burma is under an internet blackout and independent newspapers have stopped publishing. Despite international criticism, the Burmese military is tightening its grip on power. People are continuing to protest even as they face the risk of arrest, police brutality and death, says Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, a Burmese human rights activist with Burma Campaign UK who is the daughter of longtime Burmese dissident Mya Aye. "Protesters keep coming out on the street calling for democracy and human rights because we don't want to live under another military dictatorship."

Deadly shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors that left eight people dead have stoked outrage and renewed fears about rising anti-Asian racism in the United States, which has already seen a rise in violence directed at Asian Americans during the pandemic. Police say the shooting suspect, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, denies a racial motive behind the killings, blaming "sex addiction" and a "really bad day" instead, but six of the eight victims are women of Asian descent. Connie Wun, co-founder of AAPI Women Lead and a researcher on violence against girls of color, says it's impossible to "disconnect race from sexism" in the Atlanta killings. "There's a long-standing history around the hypersexualization, the ongoing sexual violence against Asian women. This has happened across the globe," Wun says.

Suspect in Atlanta Spa Killings Charged with Murder Amid Surge in Anti-Asian Hate Crimes, House Votes to Reauthorize Violence Against Women Act, Which Lapsed Under President Trump, WHO on AstraZeneca COVID-19 Shots: "Use of the Vaccine Far Outweighs the Risks", Brazil's COVID-19 Cases and Deaths Hit New Highs, Pushing Hospitals to Brink of Collapse, U.N. Reports Pandemic Has Caused 239,000 Child and Maternal Deaths in South Asia, Tanzanian President John Magufuli, Who Denied COVID-19, Dies After Rumored Coronavirus Infection, President Biden Says U.S. Might Not Honor Afghanistan Withdrawal Agreement, Russia Recalls Ambassador to U.S. After Biden Calls President Putin a "Killer", U.S. Senate Takes Up Voting Rights Bill as GOP State Lawmakers Press Voter Suppression Legislation, House Democrats Reintroduce Medicare for All Bill as Millions Face Pandemic Without Insurance, IRS Extending Tax Deadline to May 17 Amid Major Backlog, Bernie Sanders Introduces Bill to Tax Companies with Excessive CEO Pay, Uber Is Reclassifying All 70,000 of Its U.K. Drivers as Workers, U.K. to Start Recording Misogyny-Driven Attacks as Hate Crimes as Opposition Mounts to Anti-Protest Bill, Japanese Court Rules Same-Sex Marriage Ban Is Unconstitutional, Federal Agents Arrest Heavily Armed Man Outside Residence of VP Kamala Harris