Democracy Now!

Human rights activists and dozens of countries are calling for an all-out ban on the use of lethal autonomous weapons, also known as "killer robots" that can make the final order to kill without a human overseeing the process. The robots will be coming under review next week during high-level talks on the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. So far, the Biden administration has rejected calls to ban the weapons, instead proposing the establishment of a "code of conduct" for their use. "This is not just a new weapon, it’s a new form of warfare," says Steve Goose, director of Human Rights Watch's arms division and co-founder of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, says. "The majority of countries want to see a legally binding instrument — a new treaty — that would have prohibitions and regulations on fully autonomous weapons."

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a new investigation into one of the deadliest U.S. airstrikes in recent years after the New York Times exposed an orchestrated cover-up by U.S. military officials to conceal the attack. The March 2019 airstrike killed dozens of women and children during a bombing of one of the last strongholds of the Islamic State of Syria. Evidence has shown that U.S. military officials spent two-and-a-half years covering up the attack by downplaying the death toll, delaying reports, and sanitizing and classifying evidence of civilian deaths. "This is not the case of one little mistake," says Priyanka Motaparthy, director of the Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict and Human Rights Project at Columbia Law School. "This really points to a crisis of accountability in the Pentagon."

Funerals have begun in Oxford, Michigan, for the four students killed when their 15-year-old classmate opened fire in a rampage that also injured seven others. Ethan Crumbley has been charged with terrorism and first-degree murder, and his parents have also been charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly giving him access to a firearm even as he displayed obvious signs he was thinking about committing violent crimes. We’re joined by Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, prompting her to found Sandy Hook Promise; and Kris Brown, president of Brady, one of the oldest gun violence prevention organizations in the country. "We have an epidemic of gun violence in this country,"says Brown. "This was an absolutely preventable act of violence,” adds Hockley, who also discusses her organization’s anonymous reporting system called “Say Something" for students to use if they see a classmate who is at risk of harming themselves or others.

International Travelers Face Tightened Restrictions as Omicron Variant Spreads Worldwide, More Protests Erupt as European Countries Tighten Vaccine Mandates, Parents of Michigan High School Shooting Suspect Arrested After Manhunt, Burmese Court Sentences Deposed Leader Aung San Suu Kyi to 4 Years in Prison, Biden Expected to Announce U.S. Diplomatic Boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics, 15 Dead, Dozens Missing as Indonesian Volcano Erupts, Funerals Held for 15 Civilians Killed by Security Forces in India's Nagaland State, Pope Francis Voices Support for Refugees in Trip to Greek Island of Lesbos, Voters in The Gambia Re-Elect President Adama Barrow, South African Activists, Community Members Protest Shell Oil Exploration on Pristine Coastline, 1,000s Take to Streets in Serbia to Oppose Gov't Deal For Rio Tinto Lithium Mine, Israeli Forces Kill West Bank Palestinian Teen, After Fatal Shooting of Palestinian in Jerusalem, Presidents Biden and Putin Set to Speak Tuesday Amid Tensions on Russia-Ukraine Border, Chilean Activist Javiera Rojas, Who Helped Shut Down Dam Projects, Has Been Killed, CNN Fires Chris Cuomo For Helping Brother, Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo Respond to Sexual Misconduct Claims, Masked, Far-Right Patriot Front Members March in D.C., Get Booed by Bystanders, Bob Dole, Ex-GOP Lawmaker and Presidential Candidate, Dies at 98

We go inside a notorious ICE jail at the height of the pandemic to see how people held there spoke out against dangerous conditions, and faced retaliation before they were ultimately released with no notice. Their story is captured in a new documentary called "The Facility." It investigates the inhumane conditions at Irwin County Detention Center using footage from video calls, where cameras installed in cell blocks to enable pay-per-minute video calls "functioned almost like a portal for a moment in and out of a place meant not to be seen in this way," says director, Seth Freed Wessler. "How can your own government be doing this to you?" asks Nilson Barahona-Marriaga, one of the people featured in interviews with Wessler in the eye-opening footage from inside the jail.

The world was shocked by images of Haitians whipped by U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback as they sought refuge. Thousands were soon deported, but dozens are now detained in an ICE jail in New Mexico where they face inhumane conditions and lack access to legal services. We speak with a lawyer who describes medical neglect, deteriorating mental and physical health, and poor treatment by the staff. "They cannot get the basic tools and have the basic human contact that they need to save their own lives," says immigration attorney Allegra Love of the El Paso Immigration Collaborative.

As the Supreme Court looks poised to uphold Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban and possibly overturn Roe v. Wade, we speak to The Nation's Amy Littlefield about her investigation into the Christian legal army behind the Mississippi law as well as anti-trans laws across the country. She also critiques the mainstream pro-choice movement's failure to center the poor and people of color. "There is a change coming within the movement because of its reckoning with these past missteps including, frankly, the failure to adequately protect Black women and to stand up for the safety of the people whose rights were eroded first," says Littlefield.

Biden Administration to Reinstate and Expand Trump-Era "Remain in Mexico" Policy, Amid Record COVID-19 Surge, Germany to Exclude Unvaccinated From Public Life, Biden Says Lockdowns Not Needed to Combat Looming Winter Surge of COVID-19, Omicron Variant Traced to Manhattan Anime Convention Attended by 50,000+, Congress Passes Stopgap Spending Bill After GOP Threatens Shutdown Over Vaccine Mandates, Rep. Peter DeFazio Becomes 19th House Democrat to Retire Ahead of Midterms, Groups Call on U.N. to Relaunch Yemen War Crimes Probe Which Ended Amid Saudi and UAE Pressure , HRW: Burmese Military Planned Attack That Killed At Least 65 Anti-Coup Protesters , Heatwave In Northern U.S., Canada Breaks Temperature Records, Sets Montana Fields on Fire, Plans for Oregon Pipeline and Export Terminal Dropped After Intense Community Pushback , Shell Pulls Out of Cambo Oil Field Project in Europe's North Sea , Biden and Putin Expected to Hold Talks Over Escalating Tension on Russia-Ukraine Border, U.S. Shuts Down International Calls to Ban "Killer Robots", Michigan Schools Shut Down Amid Fears of Copycat Attacks as New Details Emerge on Teen Shooter, Martha "Marty" Nathan, Activist and Greensboro Massacre Survivor, Dies at 70

On the same day France celebrated the induction of American-born singer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker into the Pantheon, far-right xenophobic writer and pundit Éric Zemmour announced he will run for president of France in the upcoming April 2022 election. Many have pointed out the contradiction in these opposing events, even in President Emmanuel Macron's speech that painted Baker as a model of colorblind unity, when in reality she was outspoken about racial justice. "Celebrating Josephine Baker who was an immigrant … while making things difficult for immigrants of today to access to France is a contradiction," says French journalist Rokhaya Diallo. "France attempts to use the fact that it has been very welcoming to African Americans throughout the 20th century to picture itself as an open and welcoming country."

We speak to Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, about the Supreme Court hearing Wednesday, in which the conservative majority on the court seemed to indicate that they support upholding the restrictive Mississippi law that bans abortion starting at just 15 weeks of pregnancy, and potentially overturn Roe v. Wade. Justice Amy Comey Barrett suggested during questioning that giving up children for adoption would resolve the pro-choice argument that anti-abortion laws force women into motherhood. "Our very right to determine when and if we become pregnant, our self determination, is predicated on our ability to be seen as free and equal citizens in this country," says Johnson. She says if the ban is upheld, the people most impacted will be "low income, Black, Brown and Indigenous communities, people who are trans and nonbinary, people who might not have support at home."

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court indicated it would uphold a restrictive Mississippi law that bans abortion starting at just 15 weeks of pregnancy. The case threatens to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. We feature excerpts from the two hours of oral arguments and speak with lawyer and bioethics professor Katie Watson. "The statute itself simply says abortion after 15 weeks is 'barbaric.' What's barbaric, in my opinion, is forced childbearing," says Watson. "There's no explanation why, at any point, the potential interest of the fetus or the state's interest in that fetus … would supersede the actual person in which it lives."

Supreme Court's Conservatives Signal Support for Mississippi Anti-Abortion Law , U.S. Detects Omicron Coronavirus Variant in California, U.N. Chief Blasts "Travel Apartheid" as Nations Deny Entry to Africans Over Omicron Variant, Russia Expels Some US Ambassadors as Blinken Warns Russia Against Invading Ukraine, Burmese Military Helicopters Attack Villagers in Region Where Resistance to Coup Remains Strong, Women's Tennis Association Suspends Tournaments in China Over Peng Shuai Case, 15-Year-Old Suspect in Michigan High School Shooting to be Tried as an Adult, Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams to Run for Governor in Possible Rematch Against GOP's Brian Kemp, Andre Dickens Elected Atlanta Mayor in Runoff Election, January 6 Committee Recommends Contempt Charge for Former Trump DOJ Official, House Votes in Favor Of Bill Requiring Judges to Report Financial Investments, House Dems Call for Release of Jailed Environmental Lawyer Steven Donziger, Major League Baseball Enacts Player Lockout, Leading To First Work Stoppage Since 1994

As December 1 marks World AIDS Day, we look at the pandemic that preceded COVID-19 and how recorded deaths of complications from the coronavirus this year have surpassed those of HIV/AIDS in the United States. The head of UNAIDS has warned the COVID-19 pandemic may result in an increase in infections and deaths from HIV and AIDS. Both viruses disproportionately impacted vulnerable minority communities. Although treatment rollout for HIV/AIDS was uniquely inhibited by homophobia, racism, and sexism, it was also plagued by corporate greed and U.S. exceptionalism. "We’re seeing very similar dynamics again now with COVID-19," says Steven Thrasher, professor at Northwestern University in the Medill School of Journalism and the Institute of Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. "We have the vaccines, we have medications that are very effective, and they’re again being held from the Global South to protect the profits of pharmaceutical corporations."

Barbados has become the world's newest republic breaking ties with Queen Elizabeth 55 years after it became an independent nation, saying it was time for Barbados to break from its colonial past. The move comes as calls grow for the United Kingdom to pay reparations for enacting a regime of slavery in Barbados. While it was an occasion for celebration, it was also "55 years overdue" and should have happened when Barbados won its independence in 1966, says David Comissiong, Barbados's ambassador to the Caribbean Community and the Association of Caribbean States. "Barbados was a center of British power. You don’t get rid of the imprint of that history so easily."

Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama may soon get another chance to decide whether to unionize. The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Amazon violated U.S. labor law while waging an aggressive anti-unionization campaign against warehouse workers earlier this year in Bessemer, Alabama. This comes as Amazon workers worldwide from Bangladesh to Germany campaigned on Black Friday for fairer working conditions under the banner, "Make Amazon Pay." "If Amazon is trying to eat the world, it’s also bringing many disparate sets of workers and activists and communities together to fight against them," says Alex Press, staff writer at Jacobin.

Omicron Detected in Europe Days Before South Africa Reported Variant; FDA Endorses Merck COVID Pill, Michigan High Schooler Kills 3 Other Students in Shooting Rampage, Mark Meadows to Testify Before House Jan. 6 Cmte, Panel Pursues Jeffrey Clark Contempt Charges , U.S. Removes FARC From Terror Blacklist, HRW: Taliban Have Killed or Disappeared 100+ Ex-Afghan Security Forces Since August, German Court Convicts Ex-Member of Islamic State For Genocide of Iraq's Yazidi Community, France Inducts Josephine Baker into Pantheon As Far-Right, Racist Pundit Announces Presidential Bid, Rep. Ilhan Omar Shares Violent, Islamophobic Threats Received Since Boebert's Racist Comments, SCOTUS Hears Argument in Mississippi Abortion Case Which Threatens to Undo Roe v. Wade, CNN Suspends Chris Cuomo For Helping Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo Handle Sexual Misconduct Reports, Trial of Kimberly Potter, Who Shot and Killed Daunte Wright, Gets Underway in Minnesota, NYC Opens Safe Injection Sites In Bid to Combat Record Overdose Deaths, Phil Saviano, Survivor-Turned-Whistleblower of Catholic Church Child Sex Abuse, Dies

Canadian police continue to arrest Indigenous land defenders blocking construction of Coastal GasLink, a 400-mile pipeline that would carry natural gas through Wet'suwet'en land. Police arrested two people Monday for blockading an access road, less than two weeks after arresting more than 30 in a violent raid on Coyote Camp and elsewhere that ended a 56-day blockade of a drilling site. We get an update from Wet’suwet’en land defender Molly Wickham, also known as Sleydo’, just released from jail. "This is the third time they have come in and raided Wet’suwet’en territory," says Wickham. "We've never signed any documents to cede our land."

As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Latvia for a meeting of NATO foreign secretaries, is war on the horizon? The meeting comes as tension continues to mount between Russia and Ukraine, while how to resolve the countries’ differences remains an open question. Russia has reportedly amassed 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, and aggressions have also recently intensified in eastern Ukraine between Moscow-backed separatists and government forces. "Russia is just trying to send a message of its absolutely inflexible opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine and is also trying to extract concessions from Ukraine and more importantly, Washington," says Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

We go to Honduras, where thousands took to the streets to celebrate the leftist presidential candidate Xiomara Castro’s lead in the polls ahead of the right-wing National Party candidate Nasry Asfura. The historic election saw a record voter turnout and could signal the end of the 12-year brutal regime under the conservative National Party, which rose to power after a coup backed by the U.S. in 2009 overthrew democratically-elected leftist President Manuel Zelaya. Castro, who is Zelaya’s wife, would become the first woman to serve as president of Honduras if her victory is confirmed. "It’s brought hope to the entire country," says Faridd Sierra, a high-school teacher in Comayagua, Honduras. Years of corruption and conservative law-making "showed the Honduras people just how cruel the [National] Party was and … they voted in response," adds Honduran scholar Suyapa Portillo. Castro’s likely win "is a testament to bottom-up organizing," she says.

World Health Organization Warns of "Very High" Risk Posed by Omicron Variant, Nurses Demand COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Waiver; China Pledges 1 Billion Doses for Africa, Centers for Disease Control Strengthens Vaccine Booster Recommendation for Adults, Federal Judge Blocks Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers in 10 States, Pentagon to Investigate U.S. Airstrike That Killed Dozens of Civilians in Syria, Iran Demands Sanctions Relief as Talks on Revived Nuclear Deal Resume in Vienna, Majority of Australian Parliament Workers Face Bullying, Sexual Harassment or Assault, Ghislaine Maxwell Sex Trafficking Trial Gets Underway in New York, CNN to Review Records Detailing How Chris Cuomo Helped His Brother Discredit and Smear Accusers, Rep. Ilhan Omar Hangs Up on Rep. Lauren Boebert, Who Joked Omar Was Suicide Bomber, Amazon Violated Labor Law in Alabama Union Drive, NLRB Rules, Setting Stage for New Election, Pioneering Black Former Congressmember Carrie Meek Dies at 95, Advocates Say Haitian Refugees Face Neglect and Mistreatment at New Mexico ICE Jail, Thousands of Bolivians Rally in La Paz in Defense of Socialist President Luis Arce, Barbados Removes British Monarch as Head of State, Becoming a Parliamentary Republic

Since Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted under claims of self-defense for fatally shooting two people and wounding a third during racial justice protests last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin, another case in the city is drawing new national attention. Human rights advocates are calling for charges to be dropped in the case of Chrystul Kizer, who faces homicide and other charges for killing her white sex trafficker in 2018 after he drugged her and tried to rape her when she was just 17-years-old. Court records show police knew Randall Volar had a history of sexually abusing underage Black girls. Although the court initially ruled Kizer could not use a self-defense argument, an appellate court reversed the decision and the Wisconsin Supreme Court will now consider the ruling. "It has huge ramifications for her, but it also has a huge potential impact for other victims of trafficking," says reporter Anne Branigin. "We have a very clear case where we are not receiving the same support, the same outcry from folks who got behind Kyle Rittenhouse to defend this young Black woman," says Wisconsin state representative David Bowen. "She was trying to defend herself to get out of the sex trafficking she was being abused with."

After a Georgia jury reached a verdict of "guilty" in the closely watched trial of three white men who chased and fatally shot 25-year-old unarmed Black man Ahmaud Arbery, many activists and racial justice advocates following the case have expressed some relief in hearing the conviction. We speak with Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, who says while it might feel important that the murders were held accountable for their actions, "justice would be that Ahmaud Arbery would still be with us today." Garza also discusses the broader context of other trials of white supremacists, like Kyle Rittenhouse, and the role the federal government can play. "Unfortunately, I think the Biden-Harris administration could have been a lot stronger in their condemnation of this kind of behavior and activity," says Garza. "But what we saw was actually more of a milquetoast response, which is especially concerning in this political context of white nationalism and a rise in vigilantism."

We go to Cape Town, South Africa, to speak with a leading health justice advocate about how scientists in the country have identified a new Omicron coronavirus variant, and the World Health Organization warns it could be more transmissible than previous variants. Against the advice of the WHO, several countries have closed their borders to foreign travelers. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa criticized the travel bans and called on wealthy nations to help poorer nations gain greater access to COVID vaccines. The bans are "actually quite racist," says Fatima Hassan, founder and director of Health Justice Initiative. "We need to urgently … vaccinate as many people in Africa as possible."

South Africa Blasts Travel Bans As Countries Race to Curb Spread of Omicron Variant, Federal Govt Sends Health Workers to Michigan, Which Leads U.S. COVID Surge, Jury Finds Ahmaud Arbery's Three White Killers Guilty of Murder, Shipwreck Kills 27 Refugees in Largest Recorded Tragedy in English Channel, Opposition Leader Xiomara Castro Claims Victory After Record Turnout in Honduras Election, Ukraine's Zelensky Says He is Target of Imminent Coup as Allies Warn of Possible Russian Invasion, High Death Toll Reported as Ethiopian Soldiers Press Offensive in Afar Region, Oil Well Rupture Leaves Niger Delta Residents Hungry and Homeless, Police Use Violence to Suppress Protests Demanding Elimination of Violence Against Women, Rep. Ilhan Omar Calls on Congressional Leaders to Punish Rep. Boebert Over Anti-Muslim Remarks, Amazon Faces Climate Protests and Labor Actions on Black Friday

We speak with Mansoor Adayfi, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee who was held at the military prison for 14 years without charge, an ordeal he details in his new memoir, "Don't Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo." Adayfi was 18 when he left his home in Yemen to do research in Afghanistan, where he was kidnapped by Afghan warlords, then sold to the CIA after the 9/11 attacks. Adayfi describes being brutally tortured in Afghanistan before he was transported to Guantánamo in 2002, where he became known as Detainee #441 and survived years of abuse. Adayfi was released against his will to Serbia in 2016 and now works as the Guantánamo Project coordinator at CAGE, an organization that advocates on behalf of victims of the war on terror. "The purpose of Guantánamo wasn't about making Americans safe," says Adayfi, who describes the facility as a "black hole" with no legal protections. "The system was designed to strip us of who we are. Even our names were taken."

Democracy Now! first aired on nine community radio stations on February 19, 1996, on the eve of the New Hampshire presidential primary. In the 25 years since that initial broadcast, the program has greatly expanded, airing today on more than 1,500 television and radio stations around the globe and reaching millions of people online. We celebrate 25 years of The War and Peace Report with an hour-long retrospective, including highlights from the show's early years, some of the most controversial interviews, and groundbreaking reports from East Timor, Standing Rock, Western Sahara and more.

As Democrats in Congress struggle to pass the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act, there is large bipartisan consensus in the U.S. Congress to spend over $7 trillion over the next 10 years in military spending. The United States spends more each year on defense than China, Russia, India, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, and Australia combined. "Democrats have to engage in theater about human rights and international law and due process, but they ultimately, at the end of the day, are just as aggressive as Republicans," says investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill of the Intercept. His most recent piece is titled, "The War Party: From Bush to Obama, and Trump to Biden, U.S. Militarism Is the Great Unifier." We also speak with Scahill about the Biden administration’s ongoing persecution of military whistleblowers, including Daniel Hale.

The survivor of a serial rapist who received probation joins us to speak out after a New York judge sparked international outrage when he ruled it is inappropriate to jail the man who attacked her. Christopher Belter pleaded guilty to raping and sexually assaulting her along with three other teenage girls age 15 and 16, but he will avoid serving time in prison, and instead receive 8 years of probation. Belter is white, and from a prominent family who lives in a wealthy neighborhood near Niagara Falls. "This sentencing is telling rapists it's OK to rape and telling victims that there’s no point in coming forward," says Mara. Her lawyer Steven Cohen of the HoganWillig law firm notes a non-white defendant who pleaded guilty to these crimes would "absolutely and appropriately be in prison."

**Update on Nov. 24:** _Jurors on Wednesday afternoon returned guilty verdicts against all three of the white men charged with killing 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020. Travis McMichael fired the fatal shots and was convicted on all counts, including the charge of malice murder. His father Gregory McMichael, a former police officer, and neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan were convicted of felony murder and other charges._As the jury deliberates in the trial of the three white men charged with hunting down and murdering 25-year-old Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery, we speak with Nicole Lewis, Senior editor of Jurisprudence at Slate about her piece titled, "Why Are Ahmaud Arbery’s Killers So Scared?" She says claims of self-defense from armed white people serve as a "racist dog whistle," and that it is inevitably a one-sided trial when "the McMichaels are the only ones [surviving] that get to claim they’re scared."

A federal jury has ordered a group of white supremacists to pay over $26 million in damages for their role in organizing the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. "Is bankrupting these organizations, is bankrupting these individuals enough to actually stop the growing threat … of white supremacy and Nazism in the United States?" asks Slate senior editor Nicole Lewis. "I don’t think so." Lewis also discusses the Ahmaud Arbery murder case and why claims of self-defense from armed white people serve as a "racist dog whistle." She says it’s inevitably a one-sided trial when "the McMichaels are the only ones [surviving] that get to claim they’re scared."

We feature dramatic video footage just released that shows a violent raid Friday by Canadian federal police on one of the camps set up to keep Coastal GasLink out of sovereign Indigenous territory. Fifteen people in total were arrested, including two journalists. Wet'suwet'en land defender Sleydo', also known as Molly Wickham, has now been released. The new footage was filmed by documentary filmmaker Michael Toledano, who was also just released. The raid ended a 56-day blockade of the drilling site. The 400-mile pipeline within Wet’suwet’en land violates both Indigenous and Canadian laws.

Jury Finds "Unite the Right" Organizers Responsible for Deadly Violence, House Cmte Subpoenas Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers Over Jan. 6 Insurrection, Georgia Jury Deliberates For Second Day In Murder Trial of Men Who Killed Ahmaud Arbery, Kevin Strickland Exonerated and Freed 43 Years After He Was Wrongfully Convicted by All-White Jury, Ethiopian State TV: Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Has Gone to Battlefront in Escalating Conflict, Chun Doo Hwan, U.S.-Backed, Ex-Military Dictator in South Korea, Has Died, Portugal Shutters Last Coal-Fired Plant, U.S. and Other Nations To Tap Oil Reserves In Attempt To Lower Consumer Fuel Prices, Apple Sues Israeli Spyware Firm NSO Group, Federal Jury Finds CVS, Walgreens and Walmart Responsible For Fueling Ohio's Opioid Crisis, Survivors and Families of 2018 Parkland Massacre Settle For $130 Million With DOJ, New York City Poised To Expand Voting Rights to 800,000 Non-Citizen Residents in Local Elections, Malikah Shabazz, One of Malcolm X's 6 Daughters, Found Dead in NYC Home, Indigenous Activist Amber Ortega Faces Prison Time For Protecting Ancestral Lands

We feature an excerpt from our recent interview with world-renowned scholar and political dissident Noam Chomsky about how the Biden administration is continuing a reckless foreign policy, despite taking a softer tone than the Trump administration. "The trajectory is not optimistic," Chomsky says. "The worst case is the increasing provocative actions towards China. That's very dangerous." Chomsky will join us on our 25th anniversary online celebration on the evening of December 7.

Amid a right-wing attack on teaching critical race theory, we speak in-depth with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, which reframes U.S. history by marking the year when the first enslaved Africans arrived on Virginia soil as the foundational date for the United States. The project launched in 2019, and has been expanded into an anthology of 18 essays along with poems and short stories, even as several states have attempted to ban it from school curriculums. “We should all as Americans be deeply, deeply concerned about these anti-history laws because what they’re really trying to do is control our memory and to control our understanding of our country,” says Hannah-Jones. Hannah-Jones’s new book that she co-edited is out this month, titled “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story,” along with an adaptation of the 1619 Project for children, “Born On The Water.” Hannah-Jones describes the role of her own teachers in opening her eyes beyond the usual curriculum that excluded the history she has now uplifted. She also discusses the trial of the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery, and how she felt when she won the Pulitzer Prize on the same day as one of her heroines, the formerly enslaved pioneering anti-lynching journalist, Ida B. Wells.

Jury to Decide Fate of Three White Men Charged With Murdering Black Jogger Ahmaud Arbery, Yemeni Protesters Condemn U.S. Support for Saudi-Led War and Blockade, Senators Move to Block Biden's Planned $650M Weapons Sale to Saudi Arabia, U.S. COVID-19 Cases Surge Ahead of Thanksgiving Holiday, Israel Arrests Relatives of Palestinian Man Behind Jerusalem Attack, El Salvador President Plans "Bitcoin City" as Government Cracks Down on NGOs, Driver of SUV That Plowed into Wisconsin Parade Has Record of Domestic Violence, Trump Allies Roger Stone and Alex Jones Subpoenaed by January 6th Panel, U.S. Added to List of "Backsliding Democracies" for First Time , Biden Renominates Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve Chair, NY Lawmakers Find "Overwhelming Evidence" Andrew Cuomo Sexually Harassed Women, Florida Exonerates Four Black Men Falsely Accused of Raping White Woman in 1949

The parents of Anthony Huber, one of two men killed by Kyle Rittenhouse, say they are heartbroken and angry over the jury’s Friday verdict, and argue it failed to deliver justice for any of Rittenhouse's victims. In a statement Friday, they said: “Make no mistake: our fight to hold those responsible for Anthony’s death accountable continues in full force.” Rittenhouse shot and killed 26-year-old Huber within seconds after Huber attempted to disarm the gunman by hitting him with a skateboard. “Huber stepped in to try to stop this person. And in almost any scenario we call that person a hero,” says Anand Swaminathan, the attorney representing Huber’s parents, who have filed a federal lawsuit against the ​​Kenosha Police Department, the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department as well as the sheriff and police chief.

Jacob Blake Sr., whose son was shot by Kenosha police in 2020 and left partially paralyzed, says the family is part of a larger movement fighting for victims of police violence and racial injustice. "We were always pro-Black activists and then after this happened to my son, we’ve become activists for everyone who’s been affected," he says. The Blake family has a long history of activism going back to the civil rights movement and beyond. Justin Blake, Jacob Blake's uncle, says it's in the family's DNA. "We cannot sit down, we must make change.”

In Missouri, white Kansas City police detective Eric DeValkenaere was found guilty Friday of fatally shooting Cameron Lamb, a Black man, who was backing his truck into his garage in December of 2019. DeValkenaere, who had no arrest warrant nor evidence of a crime at the time of shooting, was convicted of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action. The jury decision was unexpected and may set a precedent for future cases in Missouri. The jury system “worked in Kansas City for the first time in 147 years,” says Jacob Blake Sr., who has been supporting Lamb’s family. “We should have that national coverage because that's a victory.”

Protests erupted nationwide after a jury in Kenosha, Wisconsin, acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse on all five counts for fatally shooting two people and wounding a third last year during protests sparked by the police shooting that left Jacob Blake paralyzed. Kyle Rittenhouse claimed he acted in self-defense when he killed Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum with an AR-15-style rifle. The jury's decision was announced Friday afternoon after about 26 hours of deliberations. To discuss the significance of their verdict, we speak with Jacob Blake Sr. and Justin Blake, the father and uncle of Jacob Blake, who protested outside the trial of Rittenhouse everyday. “This is a tragedy and a slap in the face to all the families that are involved. It made a mockery of the judicial system,” says Justin Blake. “The system of justice works if I look like Kyle Rittenhouse. It does not work if I look like Jacob Blake,” says Jacob Blake Sr. The Blakes say their family had predicted a not guilty outcome. Jacob Blake Sr. also responds to the Biden’s administration’s decision to not seek federal charges against the police officer who shot his son.

Wisconsin Jury Acquits Kyle Rittenhouse For Killing 2 People, Injuring a Third, Serial Rapist Who Pleaded Guilty To Sexually Assaulting 4 Teenagers Avoids Any Jail Time, White Missouri Police Detective Found Guilty in Fatal Shooting of Black Man, SUV Plows Through Christmas Parade in Waukesha, WI, Killing 5 People, Wounding At Least 40, Europe Sees Massive Protests Against COVID Restrictions As Cases Surge, U.S. Regulators Approve COVID Boosters For All Adults as Officials Warn of Possible Winter Surge, Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok Reinstated As Teenager Killed in Ongoing Anti-Coup Protests, Chinese Tennis Star Peng Shuai Appears in Videos and Photos As Concerns Over Safety Remain, Chile Presidential Runoff Will Pit Far-Right Populist Against Progressive Student Protest Leader, Venezuelan Regional Elections Hand Victory to Party of President Nicolás Maduro, Haitian Criminal Gang Frees Two of 17 North American Missionaries Held Hostage, Somali Journalist Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled Killed by Suicide Bomber, Greek Court Delays Trial of Humanitarians Facing "Trumped-Up" Charges for Helping Refugees, House of Representatives Approves $2 Trillion, Ten-Year Build Back Better Bill, Denver Airport Janitors Win Big Wage Increases After Strike

Wielding assault rifles, helicopters and canine units, Canadian police raided Wet'suwet'en territory this week and arrested 14 people in an effort to break up the Indigenous-led blockade of the multibillion-dollar Coastal GasLink pipeline being constructed by TC Energy. The occupation started in September and halted the company's efforts to build a key portion of the over 400-mile pipeline within Wet'suwet'en lands that violates both Wet'suwet'en and Canadian laws. We speak with land defender and matriarch of the Gidimt'en Clan of Wet'suwet'en Nation Molly Wickham, one of the witnesses to the police raid. "This project does not have free, prior, informed consent of the Wet'suwet'en people," says Wickham. "It's as if we don't exist as Indigenous people and that we don't have our own governance and that we don't have our own system of law."

We look at how the fossil fuel industry is shaping children's education in the United States. The Texas State Board of Education is set to vote on whether or not new science standards for middle schoolers should include climate change. The language they choose will ultimately dictate how textbooks nationwide address the issue. The board already watered down the standards after fierce lobbying by fossil fuel companies, despite urging from climate scientists that school curriculums should reflect how human activity, such as the release of greenhouse gases, has affected the climate. We speak with investigative reporter Katie Worth, who visited schools across the United States and found corporate and political interests are blocking the truth about the climate crisis from being taught in classrooms. Her new book is "Miseducation: How Climate Change Is Taught in America." "There's a long history of the fossil fuel industry trying to get their messages to children, because that shapes how future generations will think about their industry and how they will regulate their industry," says Worth.

We speak to legendary activist and scholar Angela Davis about the latest war waged by ultraconservative lawmakers against teaching the racist history of the United States. North Dakota's Republican Governor Doug Burgum signed legislation banning the teaching of critical race theory, defining it as any suggestion that racism is systemically embedded in American society. The law prohibits even discussion of the law in state schools. Critics say the ban also endangers honest narratives of slavery, redlining and the civil rights movement. "What we are witnessing are efforts on the part of the forces of white supremacy to regain a control which they more or less had in the past," says Davis.

We speak with independent researcher Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, whose work is featured in the Netflix documentary "Who Killed Malcolm X?" and helped ignite widespread public support for two men falsely convicted of assassinating the civil rights activist in 1965. Muhammad was in the courtroom this week as a judge exonerated 83-year-old Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam due to revelations uncovered by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the Innocence Project that key evidence was withheld at the trial. Aziz has maintained his innocence and addressed the court after he finally received an official apology, saying his false conviction was "the result of a process that was corrupt to its core." Muhammad says being in the courtroom was "surreal." "To watch the government admit that these brothers were sent to prison for a crime they didn't commit was stunning."

House to Vote on Build Back Better Act After Filibuster-Style Delay by Republican Leader, Julius Jones Granted Clemency Hours Before Scheduled Execution, Henry Montgomery, Sentenced to Life Term at 17, Leaves Angola Prison on Parole, Belarus Shelters Some Asylum Seekers on Polish Border, Deports Iraqi Refugees, As COVID Surges in Europe, Austria Orders New Lockdown and National Vaccine Mandate, 18,000 Cut Off by Flooding in British Columbia; Millions of Kenyans at Risk of Hunger Amid Drought, Amazon Deforestation in Brazil Hits 15-Year Peak; Indigenous Groups in Ecuador Oppose Mining Plans, Delhi School Shutdown Expanded as Toxic Haze Blankets Indian Capital, Narendra Modi Renounces Indian Agricultural Reform After a Year of Farmers' Protests, Chinese Tennis Star Peng Shuai Has Not Been Seen in Weeks After Posting About Assault by Politician, Travis McMichael Admits Ahmaud Arbery Never Threatened Him as Defense Rests , Aurora, CO to Pay $15 Million Settlement to Family of Elijah McClain, GOP Sen. John Kennedy Uses "Red Scare" Tactics to Discredit Biden Treasury Nominee

In an extended interview, we speak with archeologist David Wengrow, who co-authored the new book "The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity" with the late anthropologist David Graeber. The book examines how Indigenous cultures contributed greatly to what we have come to understand as so-called Western ideas of democracy and equality, but argues these contributions have been erased from history. "What the broad sweep of history shows is that living in large-scale, densely populated, technologically sophisticated societies really doesn't require people to simply give up social freedoms," says Wengrow. The two completed the book just weeks before Graeber died unexpectedly last year at the age of 59. Graeber is credited with helping to coin the phrase "We are the 99%." His book "Debt: The First 5,000 Years" made the case for sweeping debt cancellation.

Jurors in Charlottesville, Virginia, are hearing closing arguments today in a civil trial that seeks to hold white supremacists accountable for organizing the deadly "Unite the Right" rally there in 2017 and conspiring to commit racially motivated violence. Two of the white supremacists have been defending themselves in the courtroom: Richard Spencer and Christopher Cantwell. They took the stand Tuesday and tried unsuccessfully to have the judge dismiss the case for lack of evidence, even as they used racial slurs during the trial. Jurors are expected to begin deliberations Friday. Both Spencer and Cantwell have "failed utterly to take responsibility for the roles they played," says Slate legal correspondent Dahlia Lithwick, who lived in Charlottesville during the 2017 rally and is reporting on the trial, which is not being broadcast. She also discusses the homicide trial of white teenage gunman Kyle Rittenhouse and the broad use of the "self-defense" argument by white supremacists on trial.

Republican Congressmember Paul Gosar is the first lawmaker to be censured in more than a decade for posting an animated video on social media where he murders Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacks President Biden. The U.S. House of Representatives also voted Tuesday to censure Gosar and strip him of committee assignments. He has refused to apologize, and after the vote he retweeted the video. Speaking from the House floor before the vote, Congressmember Ocasio-Cortez said, "This is not about me. This is not about Representative Gosar. This is about what we are willing to accept." The co-sponsor of the censure vote, Congressmember Jackie Speier of California, said, "Congressmember Ocasio-Cortez has become the go-to subject of the radical right to stir up their base, as too often is the case for women of color."

White House Plan Would Expand U.S. Vaccine Production by One Billion Doses a Year, House Censures Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar for Violent Video Targeting AOC, "QAnon Shaman" Jacob Chansley Gets 41 Month Prison Term for Role in Capitol Riot, Attorneys for Teen Gunman Kyle Rittenhouse Ask Judge to Declare Mistrial, Travis McMichael, Who Shot and Killed Ahmaud Arbery, Testifies in Own Defense , Students Walk Out of Oklahoma Schools to Protest Planned Execution of Julius Jones, Two Men Convicted of Killing Malcolm X Will Be Exonerated, Biden Administration to Hold Massive Auction for Oil and Gas Leases in Gulf of Mexico, Biden to Host "Three Amigos" Summit With Leaders of Mexico and Canada , Bernie Sanders Blasts Record-Shattering Pentagon Budget Proposal , Sudanese Military Continue Deadly Crackdown on Protests, Bringing Death Toll Since Coup to 39, 200+ Voting Rights Demonstrators Arrested Outside White House, John Deere Workers End Strike After Winning Wage Increases and Bonuses, U.S. Overdose Deaths Topped 100,000 in One Year For First Time Ever, Nat'l Book Awards Go to Jason Mott for Fiction, Tiya Miles for Non-Fiction, Martín Espada for Poetry

Activists are criticizing the British government for excluding Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco since 1975, from the U.N. climate summit in Scotland. Meanwhile, Morocco is counting renewable energy developments in Western Sahara toward its own climate pledges. Sahrawi activists and the Sahrawi government in exile, known as SADR, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, have described this as climate colonialism. Negotiators from Western Sahara independently announced a plan to reduce carbon emissions outside COP26, as the climate crisis has brought extreme weather conditions, including drought, extreme heat and flooding, to the region. In an interview last week in Glasgow, Scotland, while COP26 was underway, Oubi Bouchraya Bachir, a representative of the Polisario Front for Europe and the European Union, estimated 30% of the solar energy produced by Morocco "will be produced from within the illegal context of occupation." We also spoke with climate change consultant Nick Brooks, who has traveled to Western Sahara for decades to carry out archaeological and palaeo-environmental fieldwork and helped release the Sahrawi climate plan adjacent to the COP26. "They have been completely and systematically excluded from international processes of climate governance and climate finance," Brooks said of the Sahrawi.