Democracy Now!

Muqtada al-Sadr Tells Supporters to End Protests After Violence in Baghdad Kills 30, Pakistan Appeals for International Aid as Record Rainfall Brings “Climate Dystopia”, Residents of Jackson, Mississippi, Warned “Do Not Drink the Water” as Floodwaters Rise, “Doomed” Greenland Ice Will Add Nearly a Foot to Global Sea Level Rise, U.N. Ocean Treaty Talks Aimed at Protecting Marine Wildlife End in Failure, Ukraine Begins Counteroffensive to Retake Russian-Occupied Kherson, Biden Will Ask Congress to Approve $1.1 Billion Weapons Sale to Taiwan, Federal Judge Rejects 9/11 Families’ Bid to Seize Billions from Afghan Central Bank Funds, U.S. to Stop Shipping Free COVID-19 Tests as Funding Dries Up, Moderna Sues Pfizer, Claiming COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Rights, Capitol Rioter Who Menaced Sen. Chuck Schumer Gets 55-Month Prison Term, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Must Testify to Grand Jury About Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, 20-Year-Old Gunman with Assault Rifle Kills Two at Grocery Store in Bend, Oregon, Federal Judge Strikes Down Texas Law Barring Adults Under 21 from Carrying Handguns, Families of Gun Violence Victims Lead Rally at Texas Capitol Demanding Gun Controls

Hundreds of farmworkers concluded a 24-day march to Sacramento spanning 335 miles to demand California Governor Gavin Newsom support legislation that would make it easier for farmworkers to cast their ballots in union elections by mail. Newsom has threatened to veto the bill, which would keep farmworkers safe from employer retaliation, explains Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, the labor union that helped organize the march. We also speak with Irene de Barraicua, operations director of Líderes Campesinas, who describes the ongoing threats women agricultural workers and others face on the ground, including sexual harrassment, wage theft and exposure to toxic chemicals.

The Justice Department has released a redacted version of the affidavit used by the FBI to raid former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The affidavit revealed authorities were concerned Trump still had possession of top-secret documents that could have compromised U.S. intelligence sources and methods, and said there was “probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction was found.” We speak with former FBI special agent Mike German, who says the FBI investigation of Trump has so far followed “a very cautious, restrained and methodological approach” and deviated greatly from the “militaristic approach” the FBI typically uses to target social justice organizations. He also says the threats against FBI agents from Trump supporters are “serious” and “persistent.”

Pakistan has declared a national emergency as massive floods continue to devastate the country, displacing 33 million people and bringing the death toll to over 1,000 since June. We speak with Shah Meer Baloch, Islamabad-based reporter for The Guardian, who describes how the floods have swept away homes, roads and bridges in what Baloch and Pakistan’s top climate official have called a serious “climate catastrophe.” We also speak with Asad Rehman, executive director of War on Want, who says Pakistan and other poor countries are “stuck in a toxic interplay between a climate catastrophe that they are not responsible for, increasing hunger, structural inequality and a rigged economic system.” He calls on rich countries to reach zero net emissions by 2030 instead of pursuing geoengineering schemes like carbon capture and storage — a tactic that is funded in President Biden’s new Inflation Reduction Act.

“Serious Climate Catastrophe”: Unprecedented Floods Displace Millions in Pakistan, Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, Warns Residents to “Get Out Now” as Floodwaters Rise, DOJ Releases Affidavit Used to Justify FBI Search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Anti-Radiation Iodine Tablets Handed Out as Fighting Rages Near Russian-Held Nuclear Plant, Russia Blocks Draft of U.N. Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, 32 Killed, Over 150 Injured as Rival Militias Clash in Libya’s Capital, EPA to Reclassify “Forever Chemicals” as Hazardous, Fed Chair Says U.S. Must Suffer “Pain” of Higher Interest Rates to Battle Inflation, Asylum Seeker Dies by Suicide at For-Profit ICE Jail in New Mexico, Ethiopian Forces Blamed for Airstrike on Tigray Kindergarten That Killed 7, 6 of 43 Kidnapped Mexican Students Were Kept Alive for Days Before Their 2014 Murder, Thousands Rally to Oppose Corruption Charges Against Argentina’s Vice President, California Governor Threatens to Veto Bill Making It Easier for Farmworkers to Unionize

Millions of pregnant people in the United States have now lost access to abortion in their state since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Anti-abortion “trigger laws” have gone into effect in numerous states across the country, including Texas, where it became a felony to perform an abortion starting Thursday,​​ punishable by up to life in prison. We speak to Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a Texas-based abortion provider, and Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, about how doctors are navigating the legal environment after the end of Roe v. Wade. “What I’ve seen over the last seven years of providing abortion care in Texas is that politics has found its way into my exam room, into my health center. It’s soaked its way into everything I do as a healthcare provider,” says Kumar, who adds that conservative politicians have attacked both abortion and trans healthcare in similar ways. Meanwhile, Timmaraju says even anti-abortion laws that allow abortion under extreme circumstances undercut bodily autonomy by leaving life in the hands of a panel of judges or hospital staff. “It’s an absolutely intolerable way to manage reproductive healthcare in this country,” she says.

One year after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover of the government, the country is in a humanitarian crisis that includes widespread hunger and poverty. Meanwhile, the U.S. refuses to release $7 billion in foreign assets that belong to Afghanistan’s central bank. “At least preventing starvation in Afghanistan is still our duty,” says Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which held a recent symposium on Afghanistan.

Six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the war has reached a stalemate. We speak with Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who says a possible path to a general ceasefire can begin with securing the safety of the region around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Nuclear Catastrophe Narrowly Averted at Russian-Held Plant, Says Ukraine’s Zelensky, IAEA Chief Says U.N. Inspectors Will Tour Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant “Very Soon”, Biden Orders U.S. Airstrikes in Syria Against Fighters with Alleged Links to Iran, Rohingya Muslims in Exile Mark Five Years Since Start of Genocide in Burma, Greenpeace Warns U.N. Ocean Biodiversity Treaty “On the Brink of Failure”, Peru Sues Repsol for $4.5 Billion over Massive Oil Spill, North Dakota Judge Puts Temporary Hold on Anti-Abortion “Trigger Law”, South Carolina GOP Lawmaker Voices Regret over “Fetal Heartbeat” Abortion Ban, Federal Court Extends Injunction Against Arkansas Anti-Trans Law, Biden Administration Moves to Codify DACA Under Federal Law, Judge Orders DOJ to Release Parts of Affidavit Used in Trump Search Warrant, Fox News Sued for $1.6 Billion over False Claims About Electronic Voting, Chipotle Workers in Michigan Become First to Unionize, Starbucks Accused of Illegally Withholding Wages from Pro-Union Workers, Qatar Deports Migrant Workers Who Demanded Unpaid Wages

We speak with one of the reporters who this week exposed the secretive Chicago industrial mogul who has quietly given $1.6 billion to the architect of the right-wing takeover of the courts — the largest known political advocacy donation in U.S. history. The donor is Barre Seid, who donated all of his shares in his electronics company, Tripp Lite, to the nonprofit group run by Leonard Leo, who helped select former President Trump’s conservative Supreme Court nominees. “This transaction was all structured in a way that really gamed the rules around donations to nonprofits,” says Andrew Perez, a reporter for The Lever, who co-authored an exposé about Seid headlined “Inside The Right’s Historic Billion-Dollar Dark Money Transfer.”

Oklahoma plans to execute a person a month for the next two years, starting today. We get an update from Connie Johnson, former state senator and murder victim family member with the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and speak with world-renowned anti-death-penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean. “Our death penalty is broken. It always was from the beginning,” Prejean tells Democracy Now! “I recognize that this is torture and an abuse of human rights. In time, with our help, as we continue to get the word out, the American people are going to see that, too. And we are going to end this thing.” Oklahoma has a history of botched executions, wrongful convictions and prosecution misconduct. “We get it wrong here often,” says Johnson. “We don’t want anyone executed.”

“Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis,” a new short documentary from The Intercept, profiles Black women educators and activists struggling under the weight of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars in student loan debt. It is directed by Astra Taylor and Erick Stoll, narrated by former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, and was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. “A system where Black women do not have to be subject to crushing debt is a system that would benefit everyone,” says Shamell Bell, one of the women featured in the film.

In a much-anticipated move, President Biden has signed an executive order Wednesday for student debt relief that could help more than 40 million borrowers by canceling up to $20,000 of their federal loans. Many advocates for canceling student debt say Biden’s plan doesn’t go far enough, while Republicans decry the plan as “student debt socialism.” We speak to Astra Taylor, writer, filmmaker and co-director of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors and one of the original advocates for a debt jubilee that would cancel all student debt. Despite the mixed reaction, “this is incredibly significant when you think about where we began as a movement not that long ago,” says Taylor, who also notes that debt strikes and the fight for full cancellation will continue.

President Biden to Cancel Up to $20,000 of Student Debt Per Borrower, Federal Judge Blocks Part of Idaho’s “Trigger Ban” Criminalizing Abortion Care, Russian Missile Attack on Ukrainian Train Station Kills at Least 25 Civilians, U.N. Chief Slams “Senseless War” in Ukraine on 6-Month Anniversary of Russian Invasion, Russian Dissident Arrested After Calling Russia’s War in Ukraine an “Invasion”, Fighting Shatters Truce in Ethiopia’s War-Torn Tigray Region, California to Phase Out Sales of Gasoline-Powered Cars by 2035, Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo Fired over Failed Response to Massacre, Oklahoma Prepares to Kill Prisoner James Coddington After Gov. Stitt Denies Clemency, Nearly 50,000 U.S. Prisoners Face Prolonged Solitary Confinement , Columbus Teachers Reach Tentative Deal to End Strike, Israeli Supreme Court Rejects Palestinian Hunger Striker’s Bid to End Detention Without Trial

We remember the legendary historian, author, professor, playwright and activist Howard Zinn, who was born 100 years ago today. Zinn was a regular guest on Democracy Now! from the start of the program in 1996 up until his death in 2010 at age 87. After witnessing the horrors of World War II as a bombardier, Zinn became a peace and justice activist who picketed with his students at Spelman College during the civil rights movement and joined in actions such as opposing the Vietnam War. He later spoke out against the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. “I believe neutrality is impossible, because the world is already moving in certain directions. Wars are going on. Children are starving,” Zinn said in a 2005 interview. “To be neutral … is to collaborate with whatever is going on, to allow it to happen.” His classic book, “A People’s History of the United States,” retells the country’s history from the perspective of everyday people who resisted oppression and exploitation by more powerful forces.

After Campaigning for Abortion Rights, Democrat Pat Ryan Wins New York Special Congressional Election, Charlie Crist to Challenge Ron DeSantis in Florida Gubernatorial Race, 25-Year-Old Gun Control Activist Maxwell Alejandro Frost Wins Florida Congressional Primary, U.S. to Give Ukraine $3 Billion on 6-Month Anniversary of Russian Invasion, U.N. Warns of “Catastrophic Consequences” If Fighting Continues Near Ukrainian Nuclear Plant, Report: U.N. Faces Record Aid Shortfall to Address Humanitarian Crises, Reports: Biden to Announce Move to Cancel Some Student Debt, Jury Convicts Two Boogaloo Movement Members in Plot to Kidnap Michigan Governor, National Archives Says Trump Took 700 Pages of Classified Documents from White House, Ex-Louisville Cop Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Warrant for Raid on Breonna Taylor’s Home, Charges Dropped Against Atlanta Cops in Shooting Death of Rayshard Brooks, Justice Department Launches Probe into Arkansas Officers After Brutal Beating, U.S. Bombs Syria in Attempt to Take Out Sites Affiliated with Iran, Ex-Malaysian Prime Minister Begins 12-Year-Sentence, Thai Court Suspends Prime Minister over Term Limit Dispute, Mexican Reporter Fredid Román Shot Dead, 15th Journalist Killed This Year in Mexico, Texas Declares Emergencies in 20 Counties After Massive Floods, 5-Year-Old Guatemalan Girl Drowns Trying to Cross Rio Grande, Ex-Security Head of Twitter Warns of “Extreme, Egregious Deficiencies” in Security Protocols at Social Media Giant

Primaries in New York’s redrawn congressional districts have led to heated battles within the Democratic Party that could have national implications. In the newly created 10th Congressional District, Dan Goldman, a conservative Democrat and heir to a multimillion-dollar Levi Strauss fortune, is running against a diverse field of candidates that includes Mondaire Jones, Yuh-Line Niou, Carlina Rivera and Elizabeth Holtzman. The New York Times endorsed Goldman without noting its publisher’s connection to the millionaire. Many congressional seats have been “thrown into chaos by redistricting” and seem to favor more conservative candidates, says Alex Sammon, staff writer at The American Prospect who has been closely following local races.

We speak to the Pakistani British historian and writer Tariq Ali about new anti-terrorism charges brought against former Prime Minister Imran Khan after he spoke out against the country’s police and a judge who presided over the arrest of one of his aides. His rivals have pressed for severe charges against Khan to keep him out of the next elections as his popularity grows across the country, says Ali. Ali also discusses devastating floods in Pakistan, which have killed nearly 800 people over the past two months, and have never happened “on this scale.”

Mexican authorities arrested former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam on Friday for his failure to conduct a thorough investigation into the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in 2014. This came a day after a truth commission formed by current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the students’ disappearance was a “crime of the state.” The students had been traveling in Iguala when their buses were intercepted by local police and federal military forces in September 2014; some of their remains were found later. Dozens of soldiers and police officers are also expected to face charges. With a high-level official being held accountable in the case, there is hope “that there will be justice, and we will finally know what happened to these 43 students,” says Andalusia Soloff, independent journalist who has reported on the Ayotzinapa case since its inception and published a graphic novel about the disappeared students.

FBI Seized 150 Documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Home in August 8 Search, Ukraine Cancels Independence Day Celebrations, Fearing Russian Attacks, Russia Blames Ukrainian Special Forces for Car Bomb That Killed Daughter of Putin Ally, U.S. Launches Massive Joint Military Exercise with South Korea, Iran Accuses U.S. of “Procrastination” in Talks over Revived Nuclear Deal, Thousands Protest in Haiti, Demanding Basic Services and Ouster of PM Ariel Henry, Longtime NJ Resident Patrick Julney Held for Ransom After U.S. Deports Him to Haiti, Flash Floods Sweep Northern Texas as 15 Inches of Rain Falls on Dallas, Pfizer Asks for FDA Approval of Omicron-Specific Booster Shot, Top U.S. Infectious Disease Expert Dr. Anthony Fauci to Retire in December, New York Will Administer One-Fifth Doses of Monkeypox Vaccine to Stretch Supply, California Gov. Newsom Vetoes Bill to Establish Safe Drug Injection Sites, Billionaire Barre Seid Gave Record $1.6 Billion to Dark Money Group Pushing Right-Wing Courts

We speak with one of the more than 650 workers calling on Google’s parent company Alphabet to protect the location and browser history of people searching for information on abortion. A petition led by the Alphabet Workers Union also demands the company block advertisements that misleadingly direct users to so-called crisis pregnancy centers, a tactic employed by anti-abortion activists to lure patients to discourage them from seeking abortions. “Systems like Google, that know everything about you, can now be used against you,” says Alejandra Beatty, technical program manager at Alphabet healthcare subsidiary Verily and southwest chapter lead with the Alphabet Workers Union. She says organizers are also asking Google to extend its abortion benefits — including relocation support for employees hoping to move to states where abortion isn’t criminalized, and travel and healthcare costs for any out-of-state abortion procedures — to contractors who make up about half of the company’s workforce.

A federal judge has blocked key portions of Florida’s new “Stop WOKE Act” that attempts to block discussions of racism and white privilege in workplaces and public schools. The preliminary injunction comes as the law is being challenged by business owners, students, educators and the American Civil Liberties Union. We speak with Diane Roberts, journalist and professor of English at Florida State University, who says faculty have either become so scared that many have left the university or are considering leaving. “A lot of people will self-censor, and I think that was the idea all along,” she says, noting this is especially true for untenured faculty. Roberts also discusses DeSantis’s potential run for president. Her new Washington Post op-ed is headlined “DeSantis aims to scare academics. Unfortunately, it’s working.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s primary election in Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security made its first arrests of people it alleged engaged in voter fraud in the 2020 election. Almost all those charged were people who were formerly incarcerated and mistakenly thought they were eligible to vote. People of all political affiliations “are now being dragged from their homes in handcuffs because all they ever wanted to do was participate in democracy,” says Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, who spearheaded an initiative to reenfranchise people with prior felony convictions, before it was overturned by Republicans.

A landmark ruling orders pharmacy chains Walmart, CVS and Walgreens to pay a combined $650 million for their role in fueling the opioid crisis, as other cases have focused on opioid makers and wholesalers that distribute the addictive painkillers. A federal judge in Ohio found the pharmacy chains accountable for filling prescriptions even after suspecting doctors were operating pill mills. “It’s high time that all the players in this terrible chain of manufacture, prescribing, dispensing, are held responsible for their actions,” says Barry Meier, author of “Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covered the opioid crisis for decades at The New York Times. He also discusses similar rulings against Walgreens and others in San Francisco and Florida.

21 Killed and Over 100 Wounded as al-Shabab Gunmen Seize Hotel in Somali Capital, World Food Programme Warns 20 Million in Horn of Africa at Risk of Starvation, Dozens Killed as Monsoon Rains Trigger Flooding and Landslides Across South Asia, Ex-Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Charged Under Anti-Terrorism Law, Car Bomb Kills Daughter of Putin Ally in Moscow; Ukraine Denies Involvement, Putin Says He’ll Support IAEA Mission to Russian-Occupied Nuclear Power Plant, From Odessa, U.N. Chief Calls for More Ukrainian Food and Fertilizer Shipments, Mexico Arrests Former Attorney General over Massacre of 43 Students in Ayotzinapa, Israel Summons Heads of Palestinian NGOs It Branded “Terrorist Organizations”, Singapore to Repeal Law Criminalizing Sex Between Men But Won’t Legalize Marriage Equality, Louisiana Board Withholds New Orleans Flood Aid over City Council’s Defense of Abortion, Arkansas Police Filmed Brutally Kicking & Punching Man on Sidewalk, 2,000 Workers on Strike at Large U.K. Container Port, Carl Kabat, Catholic Priest & Anti-Nuclear Activist, Dies at 88

A coalition of immigrant rights organizations have sued the data broker LexisNexis for collecting detailed personal information on millions of people and then selling it to governmental entities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The lawsuit alleges LexisNexis has helped create “a massive surveillance state with files on almost every adult U.S. consumer,” and accuses ICE of using information collected by LexisNexis to circumvent local policies in sanctuary cities. We speak with Cinthya Rodriguez, organizer with the immigrant justice group Mijente, who explains how “one of the biggest data brokers in the world” is “getting rich off of the backs of community members,” particularly among immigrant communities of color and activists.

Israeli forces raided and closed the offices of seven Palestinian civil society rights groups in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, six of which Israeli authorities had designated as terrorist groups last year. The raid came as the United Nations condemned Israel for killing 19 Palestinian children in recent weeks, and 100 days after Israeli forces shot dead Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while covering an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp. We speak to Sahar Francis and Brad Parker, with two of the human rights groups Israel raided. Parker, senior adviser for policy and advocacy at Defense for Children International – Palestine, describes how 100 Israeli soldiers gathered outside his organization’s building before dozens broke into the offices to confiscate items and files, sealed the building and left behind notices declaring the organization unlawful. He calls the raid “part of a years-long campaign to delegitimize and essentially criminalize the work that we do to expose grave violations against Palestinians at the hands of Israeli authorities.” In Ramallah, Sahar Francis of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association says the attack “aims to silence us.”

Kenya is facing a political crisis following last week’s presidential election, with the apparent runner-up rejecting the results of the vote and the apparent president-elect announcing plans to form a new government. We speak with Nairobi-based writer and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola, who says the Kenyan elections yield “terrible candidates,” with the most recent election results following a decades-long tradition of election interference and miscommunication. “There’s always been a reason to doubt the results,” says Nyabola. She also discusses how the digital age has uplifted election systems like Kenya’s as examples of how to thwart democracy for the West, and the impact of the drought in the Horn of Africa, where the United States says more than 18 million people are facing severe hunger.

Russia Rejects U.N. Call for Demilitarized Zone Around Ukrainian Nuclear Plant, Judge Orders Redaction and Release of Affidavit Used in FBI Search of Trump’s Home, Secret Service Didn’t Inform Capitol Police of Threats to Pelosi Before Capitol Riot, Texas Elections Officials Quit over Death Threats Following Trump’s 2020 Loss, Ex-Trump Organization CFO Alan Weisselberg Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud, Rivers Run Dry in China and Europe as Climate Crisis Fuels Record Droughts, 10 Arrested at Protest of Fossil Fuel Concessions in Inflation Reduction Act, U.S. Will Add 1.8 Million Doses to Monkeypox Vaccine Stockpile, Biden Admin Plans to Stop Paying for COVID Vaccines, Tests and Treatments, Bodycam Footage Reveals Details of Denver Police Shooting That Injured 6 Bystanders, Judge Rules Starbucks Must Offer to Rehire Fired Union Organizers in Memphis, Protesters in Argentina Demand Relief from Poverty and High Inflation, Mexico Truth Commission Confirms Ayotzinapa Massacre Was a “State Crime”

As Brazil approaches presidential elections, “The Territory” documents the struggle of the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people in the Brazilian Amazon against the deforestation and destruction of their land by farmers and others illegally extracting resources, which has expanded under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. We speak with director Alex Pritz and two people featured in the film, ahead of its release on Friday: Bitaté Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, an Uru-eu-wau-wau leader, and activist Neidinha Bandeira. “The Indigenous populations [in Brazil] are being massacred,” says Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, who helped film how his people are fighting to preserve nearly 7,000 square miles of their territory. “We will never stop fighting for our territory and for our rights.”

We look at the recent murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous researcher Bruno Pereira in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and what it says about Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who once vowed, “There won’t be one more inch of Indigenous reserve.” Phillips and Pereira went missing in June, and their remains were found dismembered about two weeks later. This week, a Brazilian Senate commission investigating the murders recommended a military operation in the Javari Valley to address the rise in organized crime there. Police have arrested five people linked to the murders and identified a suspect arrested earlier as the leader of an illegal fishing organized crime group in the Amazon region. “When the president dismantles public policies and public institutions that should serve Indigenous rights, when the government persecutes its civil servants whose mandate it should be to protect the Indigenous peoples and the policies applied to them, we become more vulnerable,” says Indigenous lawyer Eliésio Marubo, who led a search and rescue mission for Phillips and Pereira and recently returned to Brasília after visiting with U.S. lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to call for an independent investigation into the murders.

This week former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva formally launched his campaign to challenge Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro this October. Fear is growing Bolsonaro might try to stay in office even if he loses, possibly with help from the Brazilian military. Lula, a union leader who held office from 2003 through 2010, is running on a platform to lift up Brazil’s poor, preserve the Amazon rainforest and protect Brazil’s Indigenous communities. In 2018, he was jailed on trumped-up charges, paving the way for the far-right Jair Bolsonaro to rise to power, but his convictions were annulled last year, restoring his political rights to challenge Bolsonaro. The presidential front-runners hold “two visions for Brazil,” says reporter Michael Fox, former editor of NACLA and host of the new podcast “Brazil on Fire.”

WHO Chief Says Worst Humanitarian Crisis in Tigray Ignored Due to Victims’ “Skin Color”, Russian Strikes on Kharkiv Kill 12, Wound Dozens, Rudy Giuliani Testifies to Atlanta Grand Jury over Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Trump Struggles to Find Criminal Defense Lawyers Willing to Represent Him, Mike Pence Calls for End to GOP Attacks on FBI After Search of Trump’s Home, CVS, Walgreens and Walmart Ordered to Pay Ohio Counties $650M over Opioid Epidemic, Court Temporarily Halts SC Abortion Ban; Florida Court Rejects 16-Year-Old’s Plea for Abortion, Bombing at Mosque Kills 21 in Kabul, Afghanistan, Israeli Soldiers Raid Offices of 7 Palestinian NGOs, Force Them to Close, Debtors Pledge Payment Strike Unless Biden Soon Cancels Student Loan Debts

We look at the outcome of Tuesday’s primaries for opponents of former President Trump. In Wyoming, Liz Cheney, Trump’s chief House Republican foe, lost her primary to a Trump-backed challenger. In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski, another Republican Trump critic, will move forward to the general election alongside a Trump challenger who also advanced under the state’s ranked-choice voting system. The races “show a clear signal: Standing up to Donald Trump in the Republican Party, by and large, leads to your defeat,” says John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation. Despite Cheney’s defeat, Nichols says she is an “extreme right-wing conservative” who is “signaling an openness to running for president of the United States.” Nichols also discusses how former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is projected to advance in the race for Alaska’s at-large congressional seat.

President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law Tuesday, a sweeping $739 billion bill to address the climate crisis, reduce drug costs and establish a 15% minimum tax for large corporations. Biden has praised the IRA as one of the most significant measures in the history of the United States, though many climate groups and Indigenous land and water defenders have criticized the package for including major handouts to the fossil fuel industry and other corporate entities. Professor Ashley Dawson, who is a member of the Public Power campaign in New York, says the law’s tax credit provisions give “big banks deciding power over what projects get built and where they get built and who builds them.” He supports a democratically controlled “public alternative” which would have the power to build out renewable infrastructure at the speed needed to mitigate the climate emergency.

We speak with CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin on the aftermath of the largest oil fire in Cuba’s history, the sentencing of Saudi women rights activist Salma al-Shehab and the ballooning of the Pentagon budget. Benjamin is calling on the Biden administration to remove Cuba off a state sponsor of terrorism list — which she says is holding up the transfer of humanitarian funds to the country’s people. Benjamin also discusses the political reversal of Arizona Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who once joined antiwar protests but now supports unprecedented funding to the Pentagon.

The Biden administration has ruled out releasing roughly $7 billion of frozen U.S.-held Afghan assets, a year after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and occupation, even as the United Nations warns a staggering 95% of Afghans are not getting enough to eat. “This money belongs to the Afghan people. And the U.S., for 365 days, has been holding their money in a New York vault while Afghan people are boiling grass to eat, are selling their kidneys, are watching their children starve,” says Unfreeze Afghanistan co-founder Medea Benjamin. We also speak with Shah Mehrabi, chair of the audit committee of the central bank of Afghanistan, who says the return of funds is necessary to bring back price stability, which would put cash back into the hands of Afghan people so they can afford basic necessities.

Pro-Trump Challenger Wins in a Landslide Over Rep. Liz Cheney in Wyoming Primary, Biden Signs Inflation Reduction Act, Praises It as “Biggest Step Forward on Climate Ever”, FBI Interviewed Two Ex-White House Lawyers as Part of Trump Probe, Putin Accuses U.S. of Dragging Out War in Ukraine & Provoking China, Report: Israeli Military Privately Admits It Killed 5 Palestinian Kids in Gaza Strike, Political Crisis in Kenya over Disputed Presidential Election, Lula Launches Campaign in Brazil: We Want a Government That Distributes Books, Not Weapons, Iran Submits Response to “Final Text” of New Nuclear Agreement, Colorado River Drought Forces Water Cuts to Arizona and Nevada, Jill Biden & Lloyd Austin Test Positive for COVID, Immigrant Rights Groups Sue Data Broker LexisNexis over Selling Personal Data to ICE, Academy of Motion Picture Arts Apologizes to Indigenous Activist Sacheen Littlefeather over 1973 Ceremony

Dozens of civil rights groups have joined an urgent push for the compassionate release of longtime political prisoner Mutulu Shakur from prison. The 72-year-old Black liberation activist is said by prison doctors to have less than six months to live, after being diagnosed with stage 3 bone marrow cancer. Shakur was part of the Black nationalist group Republic of New Afrika that worked with the Black Panther Party and others, and is the stepfather of the late rapper icon Tupac Shakur. He was convicted in 1988 of conspiracy in several armed robberies, one of which resulted in the deaths of a guard and two police officers, and also for aiding the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur. We speak with Nkechi Taifa, a lawyer and longtime supporter of Shakur, as well as Brad Thomson, attorney with the People’s Law Office, which has filed urgent lawsuits to secure Shakur’s release. “He is in a desperate medical situation,” says Thomson, who calls any claims that Shakur would reoffend if released “patently false and absolutely outrageous.” “It is time for him to live out his remaining days in the comfort of his family and friends,” says Taifa.

Lawyers and journalists sued the CIA and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo Monday for spying on them while they met Julian Assange when he was living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had political asylum. The lawsuit is being filed as Britain prepares to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act by publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. We speak with the lead attorney in the case, Richard Roth, who details how a private security company stationed at the London Embassy sent images from Assange’s visitors’ cellphones and laptops as well as streamed video from inside meetings to American intelligence. He says the offenses breach a range of client privileges and could sway a U.S. judge to dismiss the case if Assange is successfully extradited.

“Defund the FBI” is the growing call by Republicans after the FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. We get response from Alex Vitale, author of “The End of Policing,” who lays out reasons to defund the FBI that have nothing to do with Trump. Vitale reviews the history of the FBI, which he says has “always been a tool of repression of left-wing movements,” and calls the FBI investigation into Trump a “shortsighted” attempt to shut down some of the most extreme parts of the right wing. He uplifts efforts to “reduce the power and scope of the FBI in ways that limit their ability to demonize and criminalize those on the left.”

Rudy Giuliani Is Target of Georgia Prosecutors’ Criminal Probe of 2020 Election Interference, Sen. Lindsey Graham Must Testify to Georgia Grand Jury About Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Justice Department Opposes Calls to Unseal Affidavit Used to Search Trump’s Home, GOP Incumbents Who Criticized Trump Face Primary Challengers in Alaska, Wyoming, Biden Admin Rejects Unfreezing Afghanistan’s Central Bank Assets, Ukraine’s Military Takes Credit for Explosion at Russian Ammunition Depot in Crimea, William Ruto Declared Winner of Kenya’s Razor-Thin Presidential Race, Saudi Activist Gets 34 Years in Prison for Tweets Demanding Women’s Rights, Saudi Aramco Posts Record $48.4 Billion Quarterly Profit, German Protesters Block Train Tracks Demanding Halt to Construction of LNG Terminals, Lawsuit Alleges CIA Spied on Journalists and Julian Assange’s Lawyers, Prisoner’s Death by Suicide Is 12th This Year at New York’s Rikers Island Jail, Over 2,000 Mental Health Workers Begin Strike at Kaiser Permanente Clinics in California

Renowned Indian British novelist Salman Rushdie is in critical condition and faces a long road to recovery after he survived an assassination attempt Friday morning in western New York. Rushdie is one of the most highly acclaimed writers in the world today and has lived underground for many years after facing systematic threats of assassination for his writing. We feature Rushdie in his own words, when he gave a rare speech in 2004 on the freedom of expression at an event hosted by PEN America. “Will we become our enemy or not? Will we become repressive as our enemy is repressive? Will we become intolerant as our enemy is intolerant, or will we not?”

One year ago today, the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, promising to bring stability after two decades of war and U.S. occupation. But the country now faces a grave humanitarian crisis and a severe rollback of women’s rights. We speak with Afghan journalist Zahra Nader, editor-in-chief of Zan Times, a new women-led outlet documenting human rights issues in Afghanistan. “The people of Afghanistan did not make this decision, and they did not choose the Taliban,” says Nader, who explains how imperial occupations of her home country led to the political instability today. Nader also describes the hunger crisis as 95% of Afghans face hunger, and calls for more international attention on Afghanistan.

A search warrant made public on Friday reveals the FBI is investigating former President Donald Trump for three federal crimes, including violating the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records, after removing top-secret documents when they raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last week. Meanwhile, Trump is calling the investigation a hoax, and Republican threats are growing against the FBI. We speak with Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law, who calls Trump’s reaction to the FBI search a “call to violence,” setting the stage for a “replay” of January 6. “We really need to try to understand what former President Trump intended to do with this material” despite the backlash, says Greenberg.

Senators Ask to See Top-Secret Records Seized by FBI from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Home, Salman Rushdie Faces Long Road to Recovery After Surviving Assassination Attempt, House Passes Sweeping $739 Billion Climate, Healthcare and Tax Bill, Idaho Supreme Court to Allow Near-Total Abortion Ban to Take Effect Aug. 25, Kansas Orders Hand Recount of Vote That Affirmed Reproductive Rights, China Renews Warning to U.S. as Another Congressional Delegation Visits Taiwan, Taliban Uses Rifle Butts to Beat Women Protesters in Kabul, U.N. Warns 95% of Afghans Are Going Hungry One Year After Fall of Kabul to Taliban , U.N. Rights Chief Blasts Israel’s “Unconscionable” Killing of 19 Children in 10 Days, Spanish Wildfire Explodes in Size as Historic Drought Grips Europe, Colombia: Gustavo Petro Replaces Military Commanders & Moves to Resume Peace Talks, Family of Austin Tice Still Hopeful 10 Years After His Disappearance in Syria

We speak to Walden Bello, the longtime Filipino activist and former vice-presidential candidate. He was arrested Monday on “cyber libel” charges, which he says was just a tactic by the new administration to suppress his vocal criticism of them. The arrest took place just weeks after the inauguration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the former U.S.-backed dictator. Bello says people are “worried that this is a foretaste of things to come. … They don’t respond to criticisms. Instead, they use the law and they use instruments of intimidation to silence you.”

A jury in California has convicted a former worker at Twitter of spying for Saudi Arabia by providing the kingdom private information about Saudi dissidents. The spying effort led to the arrest, torture and jailing of Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, who ran an anonymous satirical Twitter account. His sister, Areej al-Sadhan, and the lawyer for the family, Jim Walden, are calling on the Biden administration to push for his release. “The brutality of the Saudi officials have no limits,” says Areej al-Sadhan. “Twitter and other social media companies have more than a little responsibility for what’s happening, not just with respect to Abdulrahman’s case and the case of other disappeared Saudi human rights activists and outspoken dissidents, but across a much broader array of misconduct,” says Walden.

One year after the Taliban seized power again in Afghanistan, we look at the new government’s crackdown on women’s rights while millions of Afghans go hungry. We speak to journalist Matthieu Aikins, who visited the capital Kabul for the first time since the U.S. evacuation one year ago. He writes the country is being “kept on humanitarian life support” in his recent article for The New York Times Magazine. The Biden administration’s economic sanctions are causing Afghanistan to spiral into a financial crisis, making the U.S. “at once both the largest funder of humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan and one of the main causes of the humanitarian crisis with these sanctions,” says Aikins.

AG Merrick Garland Calls for Release of Warrant Used in FBI Search of Trump’s Home, WaPo: FBI Searched Trump’s Residence for Classified Nuclear Arms Documents, Armed Trump Supporter Shot Dead in Ohio After Attempting to Breach FBI Field Office, Former Virginia Cop Sentenced to 7+ Years in Prison for Role in Capitol Insurrection, Evidence Mounts That DHS Watchdog Buried Evidence of Missing Secret Service Texts, CDC Further Relaxes COVID-19 Guidance, U.N. Atomic Agency Sounds Alarm as Fighting Rages Near Russian-Occupied Nuclear Plant, Russia Says It’s Negotiating Prisoner Swap with U.S. for Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, Pentagon Claims Airstrikes Killed 4 al-Shabab Militants in Somalia, At Least Five Killed as Protests in Somali Breakaway Region Turn Violent, U.N. Registers 1 Millionth Person Displaced by Drought in Somalia, Firefighters from Across Europe Battle Massive Blaze Near Bordeaux, France, Protests Erupt Across Brazil as Bolsonaro Threatens to Reject October Election, Brazilian Police Make Five More Arrests over Murder of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, San Francisco DA Who Replaced Chesa Boudin Got Six-Figure Consulting Fee in Recall Effort