Democracy Now!

Violent Mob Incited by Trump Launches Failed Coup at U.S. Capitol, Capitol Police Fail to Stop Insurrection as Video Shows Officers Stepping Aside, Posing for Selfies, Joe Biden's Presidential Win Certified Over Objections of 127 Republican Lawmakers, House Lawmakers Seek Immediate Removal of Trump from Office, String of White House Resignations Follow Violent Storming of U.S. Capitol, Twitter and Facebook Temporarily Lock Trump's Accounts After Assault on Capitol, World Looks On in Horror at Trump-Incited Coup Attempt; Leaders Call for Peaceful Transition, Jon Ossoff Vows to Fight to End the Pandemic as Democrats Sweep Georgia Elections, U.S. Hospitalizations Hit New High as Nearly 4,000 Die of COVID-19 on Wednesday, Joe Biden Nominates Merrick Garland for Attorney General, Louisville Police Formally Terminate Two Officers Involved in Breonna Taylor's Killing, Governor Pritzker Condemns Illinois GOP Rep. Mary Miller for Praising Hitler, D.C. Police Chief Warns GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert Against Carrying Her Gun to Congress, LeBron James May Buy WNBA's Atlanta Dream from Outgoing Sen. Kelly Loeffler

In Kenosha, Wisconsin, District Attorney Michael Graveley has announced that no charges will be filed against the white police officer who fired seven shots at Jacob Blake, paralyzing the 29-year-old Black man in August. Officer Rusten Sheskey fired the shots at point-blank range into Blake's back as he leaned into his car, with his three children, aged 3, 5 and 8, inside the vehicle. Prosecutors maintain the shooting was in self-defense because Blake had a small knife in the car. Video of Blake's shooting sparked an uprising in Kenosha in August against systemic racism and police brutality. Blake's family denounced the ruling. "In this situation, again, we see a miscarriage of justice," says Wisconsin state Representative David Bowen. "We do not see a DA that is able to charge an officer who uses his discretion to put seven shots in the back of a Black man."

Thousands who refuse to accept President Trump's 2020 election loss to Joe Biden are protesting in Washington, D.C., as Congress meets to count the Electoral College votes and certify the results. Mayor Muriel Bowser has called in the National Guard ahead of the protests, after anti-democracy protesters clashed with police near Black Lives Matter Plaza. Police arrested six people on charges that include bringing illegal guns to the city. National security reporter William Arkin says it is "an unprecedented moment," with the sitting president actively encouraging the unrest. We also speak with Jason Wilson, an investigative journalist who tracks the political right and extremist movements, who says the Trump presidency has seen a startling merger of the GOP with the far right. "There's not really a sharp dividing line between violent, far-right street activists and the supporters of the president in Congress," says Wilson.

Democrats appear on the brink of taking control of the U.S. Senate after Reverend Raphael Warnock won a special election over Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, while Democrat Jon Ossoff has a slim lead in his runoff against Republican Senator David Perdue. If Ossoff wins his race, the Senate will be split 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote, giving Democrats more power to pass President-elect Joe Biden's legislative agenda. Reverend Warnock, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, which was the spiritual home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., will become the first Black Democrat to ever represent a Southern state, as well as the first Black senator from Georgia and just the 11th Black senator in U.S. history. We speak with Anoa Changa, an Atlanta-based journalist who covers electoral justice and voting rights, who says the Democratic victory in the state is down to grassroots organizers. "Organizing and the amazing work that has been done by a broad coalition of multiracial, mutliethnic organizers across the entire state, from rural to urban to suburban communities, really is the true story of what has been happening in Georgia," says Changa.

Senate Control Within Democrats' Reach as Rev. Warnock Beats Loeffler, Jon Ossoff Leads Over Perdue, Congress to Certify Biden's Win as GOP Plans Challenges, Delay to Proceedings, U.S. Records Record Death Toll as States Ramp Up Vaccination Plans, Nebraska Gov. Ricketts Under Fire for Racist Exclusion of Undocumented Workers in Vaccine Rollout, Up to 1 in 50 U.K. Residents Likely Have the Coronavirus, U.K. Judge Denies Bail for Julian Assange, Days After Rejecting U.S. Extradition Bid, Officials Will Not Charge White Officer Who Shot Jacob Blake in Back, Leaving Him Paralyzed, Iran Issues Interpol Arrest Warrant Request for Trump Amid Mounting Tensions, Hong Kong Arrests 50+ Pro-Democracy Figures in Massive Sweep, Qatar Reestablishes Ties with Saudi Arabia and Other Arab Nations, Ending 3-Year Embargo, EPA Limits Science That Can Be Used in Public Health Policies as Interior Dept. Weakens Bird Protections, Trump Admin Starts Selling Drilling Rights in Pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, DOJ Seeks to Roll Back Protections Against Civil Rights Discrimination, PA GOP State Senators Create Chaos as They Refuse to Seat Elected Democratic Lawmaker, 140 ICE Prisoners on Hunger Strike in NJ, Activists Demand Joe Biden Cancel Student Debt: "We Will No Longer Be Shackled"

Israel has administered COVID-19 vaccines faster than any country in the world, with more than 14% of Israelis receiving vaccines so far. Despite the fast rollout, human rights groups are expressing alarm over Israel's decision not to vaccinate Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, where about 1,500 people have died during the pandemic. Israel has defended its actions citing the Oslo Peace Accords, which put Palestinian authorities in charge of healthcare in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian officials are facing a number of hurdles in launching their own vaccine campaign, including a shortage of money, lack of access to vaccines and lack of infrastructure to distribute a vaccine. "Israel actually is violating international law because it is denying its responsibility as an occupying power," says Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a physician, member of the Palestinian Parliament and head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. "Israelis are getting the vaccines, and Palestinians are getting nothing."

As voters in Georgia cast their ballots in two key runoff races that will determine control of the U.S. Senate, voting rights activists fear many eligible voters will be turned away at the polls. Georgia has been called "ground zero" for Republican voter suppression efforts in the U.S., and in September the ACLU of Georgia revealed 198,000 voters had been wrongly purged from the voting rolls. We air a report into voting in Georgia by investigative journalist Greg Palast, narrated by the actress Debra Messing, and speak with voting rights activist LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund. "I think it's quite interesting and coincidental … that many of them on that list are African American voters," says Brown. "This is voter suppression."

As thousands are expected to descend on Washington, D.C., to join far-right protests over the election results Wednesday, the leader of the Proud Boys hate group, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested on property destruction charges for burning a Black Lives Matter banner off a historically Black church during similar protests last month. Many churches have requested extra protection, and the Metropolitan AME Church is suing the Proud Boys. "Sadly, our nation has a very dark and sordid history of targeting historically Black churches," says Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who represents the church in its lawsuit. "We will use civil rights law as a way of sending a message to extremists that they are not above the law and will be held accountable for their dangerous, toxic and dark actions."

At a campaign rally for the two critical Senate runoff races in Georgia, President Trump used much of the time to focus on himself and again dispute the outcome of November's presidential election. In a rambling speech, Trump cited the same conspiracy theories he used to pressure Georgia's secretary of state in a recorded telephone call to "find" him enough votes to overturn the state's certified election results. Democrats say Trump could be prosecuted for illegally trying to pressure Georgia officials to commit voter fraud, while some Republicans are defending the call. "It is most unfortunate that there are members of Congress in both the House and Senate that are planning to … do grandstanding, frankly, to continue this kind of false and baseless claim that there was something wrong with the 2020 election," says Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She says that for lawmakers to "perpetuate this mythology about irregularities in our election is incredibly un-American."

Medics Ordered to Ration Oxygen as COVID-19 Overwhelms L.A. Hospitals, FDA Recommends U.S. Residents Get 2 Full Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine, U.K. Orders Third Nationwide Lockdown Amid Fears of New Coronavirus Variant, Polls Open in Georgia Special Election with Control of U.S. Senate at Stake, House Democrats Prepare to Censure Trump over Attempt to Overturn Election Results, D.C. Mayor Calls Out National Guard as Trump Supporters Plan Anti-Democracy Rally, Proud Boys Leader Arrested for Illegal Weapons, Destroying Black Lives Matter Banner, Iran Begins Enriching Uranium Beyond Limits of Nuclear Deal Trump Withdrew From, Newly Unionized Workers Demand Google Promote Social & Economic Justice, Some Chicago Teachers Refuse to Return to Classrooms over Coronavirus Safety Fears, Western Shoshone Environmental & Land Rights Activist Carrie Dann Dies at 88

In an hour-long phone call, President Trump pressured Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the state's 2020 election. He made the call nearly two weeks before he is due to leave office and just two days before the runoff elections in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate. The Washington Post obtained a recording of the phone call of Trump both berating and begging Raffensperger, and even threatening him with criminal charges if he refused to investigate false claims of voter fraud and change the certified election results. "It's astounding," says Nsé Ufot, CEO of New Georgia Project and New Georgia Project Action Fund, organizations that played a key role in mobilizing voters for the 2020 election, and again for Tuesday's runoff elections. "This has to be criminal."

In a stunning decision, a British judge has blocked the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, saying he would not be safe in a U.S. prison due to his deteriorated mental state. In 2019, Assange was indicted in the United States on 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act related to the publication of classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The United States has already announced plans to appeal the ruling. Press freedom advocates have campaigned against Assange's prosecution for years, arguing it would set a dangerous precedent for prosecuting journalists. The blocked extradition due to concern over prison safety rather than press freedom shows that "this is not the end of the road," says Assange legal adviser Jennifer Robinson. "This is still a terrible precedent." We also speak with Jameel Jaffer, founding director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, who says that while the decision is a "very significant victory" for Assange, the judge has largely sided with the U.S. prosecution.

U.K. Blocks Extradition of Julian Assange to U.S. Due to Mental Health Concerns, Trump Attempts to Pressure Georgia's Top Election Official into Changing Results of Vote, GOP Lawmakers to Challenge Certification of Biden's Win in Last-Ditch Effort to Overturn Election, 117th Congress Sworn In Amid Pandemic, Pelosi Reelected as House Speaker, U.S. COVID Cases Soar as New Spikes Expected After Holidays and Detection of More Contagious Variant, India Approves 2 Vaccines as U.K. Starts Administering Oxford-AstraZeneca Shot, Israel Vaccinates Over One-Tenth of Population, But Palestinians in Occupied Territories Left Out of Rollout, Massive Blast at Yemen's Aden Airport Kills at Least 26 People, Fifth Afghan Media Worker Killed in Under Two Months, Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Attack on Miners in Balochistan Region of Pakistan, Iraqis Protest on Anniversary of Soleimani's Assassination as Iran Warns U.S. May Be Planning Attack, Journalist and Activist Omoyele Sowore Beaten and Arrested in Nigeria After Peaceful Protest, Police Killing of Somali American Dolal Idd Prompts New Black Lives Matter Protests in Minneapolis, Court Reinstates Jan. 12 Execution of Lisa Montgomery, the Only Woman on Federal Death Row, "Most Prolific Serial Killer in U.S. History," Who Targeted Poor and Marginalized Black Women, Dies, Two Female U.S. Army Soldiers Found Dead in Texas, Census Bureau Misses Deadline, Upending Trump's Plans to Exclude Immigrants from 2020 Count

We continue our conversation with medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer, whose new book, "Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds," tells the story of his efforts to fight Ebola in 2014 and how the history of slavery, colonialism and violence in West Africa exacerbated the outbreak. "Care for Ebola is not rocket science," says Dr. Farmer, who notes that doctors know how to treat sick patients. But the public health response was overwhelmingly focused not on care but containment, Dr. Farmer says, which "generated very painful echoes from colonial rule."

As the United States sets records for COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations, we speak with one of the world's leading experts on infectious diseases, Dr. Paul Farmer, who says the devastating death toll in the U.S. reflects decades of underinvestment in public health and centuries of social inequality. "All the social pathologies of our nation come to the fore during epidemics," says Dr. Farmer, a professor of medicine at Harvard University, chair of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder and chief strategist of Partners in Health.

While the United States, Britain and other wealthy countries race to vaccinate their populations against the coronavirus, a new report finds that as much as 90% of the population in dozens of poorer countries could be forced to wait until at least 2022 because wealthy countries are hoarding so much of the vaccine supply. A growing movement is calling for the development of a people's vaccine and the suspension of intellectual property rights to expand access. We speak with Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni, a policy adviser to the People's Vaccine Alliance, and Achal Prabhala, a public health advocate and coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa.

As President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris prepare to take power, we continue to look at the growing debate over the direction of the Democratic Party. House Majority Whip James Clyburn recently criticized calls to "defund the police" and argued the phrase hurt Democratic congressional candidates. "It is actually insane that we would think the way to respond to the scale of problems that we confront as a nation is to harken back to an older form of politics that … seems to try to triangulate and appeal to this Reagan Democrat that they are so obsessed with," responds Eddie Glaude, author and chair of Princeton University's Department of African American Studies. "It makes no sense that we would go back to the politics that produced Trump in the first place." We also speak to artist and antiracist activist Bree Newsome Bass, who argues Black voters "are scapegoated when it's convenient, and then we are thrown under the bus when it's convenient. … That's a dynamic that has to end."

Scholars Cornel West and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor respond to the global uprising against racism and police violence following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. "We're seeing the convergence of a class rebellion with racism and racial terrorism at the center of it," said Princeton professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. "And in many ways, we are in uncharted territory in the United States."

In a Democracy Now! special, we revisit our June 2020 interview with the legendary activist and scholar Angela Davis about the uprising against police brutality and racism launched in May after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The protests have helped dramatically shift public opinion on policing and systemic racism, as "defund the police" became a rallying cry of the movement. Davis is professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. For half a century, she has been one of the most influential activists and intellectuals in the United States and an icon of the Black liberation movement.

In a historic step, The Kansas City Star, one of the most influential newspapers in the Midwest, has apologized for the paper's racist history. The paper's top editor, Mike Fannin, admitted the Star and a sister paper had reinforced segregation, Jim Crow laws and redlining, and "robbed an entire community of opportunity, dignity, justice and recognition" with its biased coverage over many decades. We speak with Fannin and Mará Rose Williams, a longtime education writer at the paper who led the effort to examine the newspaper's coverage of the Black community following the police killing of George Floyd and the nationwide racial justice uprising this year. "Mainstream newspapers across the country, not just The Kansas City Star, have not done a good job of covering the Black community," says Williams.

When Black doctor Susan Moore died from COVID-19 after posting a video from her hospital bed describing racist treatment by medical staff, her chilling message was compared to the video of George Floyd begging for his life as he was killed by Minneapolis police. We speak to two leading Black women doctors fighting racial disparities in healthcare who wrote The Washington Post opinion piece, "Say her name: Dr. Susan Moore." "It is a typical and ongoing devaluation of our lives and distrust of our word," says Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, a family physician and former president of the American Public Health Association. Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative, says Dr. Moore's complaints about being disrespected by medical staff are "really familiar" to her. "We've found that Black patients, Black birthing people are not valued; they're not listened to," she says.


As the United States reports record deaths and hospitalizations from COVID-19 in the final days of 2020, we look at how the pandemic that ravaged the country this year has shone a stark new light on racism in medical care. In a viral video recorded by Black physician Dr. Susan Moore, she describes racist treatment by medical staff at a hospital in Indianapolis and says they did not respond to her pleas for care, despite being in intense pain and being a doctor herself. In the video, Dr. Moore says she had to beg to receive pain medication and the antiviral drug remdesivir, and accuses a doctor at Indiana University Health North Hospital of ignoring her pleas because she was Black. "I put forth, and I maintain: If I was white, I wouldn't have to go through that," she says. Dr. Moore died December 20, just over two weeks after she posted the video. She was 54 years old.

McConnell Blocks Move to Up Stimulus Checks to $2,000; Progressive Senators Plan Filibuster on NDAA Veto, U.S. Reports Record Deaths and Hospitalizations as New COVID Variant Identified in Colorado, COVID-19 Ravages U.S. Prisons; Cases Four Times Higher Among Prisoners, Biden Slams Slow Rollout of Vaccination, Reiterates Plan for Mask Mandate, U.K. Approves Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as Cases Surge; Germany, South Korea Report Record Deaths, WHO Warns COVID-19 Is Not Necessarily "The Big One", Argentina Legalizes Abortion in Historic, Long-Fought-For Vote, China Sentences Hong Kong Activists Who Fled by Boat to Up to 3 Years; Tony Chung Gets 4 Months for Protest, At Least 15 People Feared Dead in Papua New Guinea After Landslide at Informal Gold Mine, Bangladesh Moves Second Group of Rohingya Refugees to Remote Island Amid Fears of Coercion, Magnitude 6.4 Earthquake in Croatia Kills at Least 7 People, Cuts Power and Water for 10,000s, Two More Louisville Officers Terminated over Police Killing of Breonna Taylor, DOJ Will Not Pursue Criminal Charges Against Officers Who Killed 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice in 2014, Boston Statue of Enslaved Man at Lincoln's Feet Removed After Intense Pressure, Kansas City Star Apologizes for Its Racist History, Nashville Bomber's Girlfriend Reported He Was Making Bombs Over One Year Before Christmas Day Blast, New Info About GA Sen. Kelly Loeffler's Conflicts of Interest Emerge as She Heads to Runoff Next Week, Boeing 737 MAX Makes Its First U.S. Commercial Flight After Being Grounded Since March 2019

The House of Representatives has voted to approve a measure that would increase stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000, sending the bill to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders has said he will filibuster to delay an override on President Trump's veto of this year's $740 billion defense spending bill unless the Senate also holds a vote on the $2,000 checks. At least 12 Republicans would need to join with the Senate's 48 Democrats to reach the necessary 60 votes to approve the increased payments. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is standing in the way of not just expanded stimulus payments, but a whole range of policies he has refused to bring to the floor of the Senate. "We think of ourselves as a democracy, but this one person has blocked the ability of the Senate to go on record of saying whether they're for or against a whole variety of measures that large numbers of Americans think are important," Stiglitz says. He also discusses the global economic crisis.

President Trump's pardon of four former Blackwater contractors has sparked outrage in Iraq and in the United States. Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted in the killing of 14 Iraqis in 2007, when contractors for the mercenary firm opened fire on civilians in Baghdad's Nisoor Square. The four Blackwater guards were convicted in 2014 after years of painstaking work by investigators and prosecutors to address one of the most infamous chapters of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Paul Dickinson, who was the lawyer for several victims of the Blackwater massacre, says Trump's pardons are a fresh insult to Iraqis who lost loved ones and who were promised justice would be served. "Now, after the promises that we made to each one of these victims that we were going to hold people accountable for their criminal actions abroad, that has been taken away from them," he says.

President Trump's pardon of four former Blackwater contractors convicted for their role in a massacre in Baghdad has sparked outrage in Iraq. The Blackwater guards include Nicholas Slatten, who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 2007 Nisoor Square massacre, when he and other Blackwater mercenaries opened fire with machine guns and grenades on a crowded public space in Baghdad, killing 17 unarmed civilians, including women and children. The youngest victim was a 9-year-old named Ali Kinani. We re-broadcast clips from a short documentary, "Blackwater's Youngest Victim," by The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill and filmmaker Rick Rowley, that first aired on Democracy Now! in 2010.

Bernie Sanders Promises Filibuster of Pentagon Bill Unless Senate Votes on $2,000 Stimulus Checks, U.S. COVID-19 Hospitalizations Hit Record High as California Hospitals Ration Care, Russia Admits COVID-19 Death Toll More Than Three Times Higher Than Reported, Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão Tests Positive for Coronavirus, Colombia Vaccination Program to Exclude Undocumented Venezuelans, Joe Biden Says Trump Administration Is Obstructing His Transition Team, Texas GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert Sues VP Pence in Long-Shot Bid to Overturn Biden's Win, U.S. to Open Consulate in Western Sahara After Recognizing Morocco's Claim on the Territory, Honduran Indigenous Environmentalist Félix Vásquez Assassinated in Front of Family, Columbus, OH, Police Officer Adam Coy Fired over Killing of Andre Hill, New York State Bans Most Evictions Until May as Tenants Struggle Amid Pandemic, Minnesota Water Protector Arrested in Nonviolent Direct Action Against Line 3 Pipeline

Dozens of immigrant women detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia have joined a class-action lawsuit against ICE over allegations they were subjected to nonconsensual and invasive gynecological procedures and surgeries that were later found to be unnecessary, and in some cases left them unable to have children. The lawsuit cites sworn testimony from at least 35 women about their treatment by Mahendra Amin, a physician in Ocilla, Georgia, and describes retaliation and threats of deportation for speaking out. "We have more than 40 women who filed sworn testimony in court despite consistent attempts by ICE to silence them," says Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director at Project South and co-counsel for women at Irwin who say they were subjected to these procedures. We also speak with two women who say they underwent unnecessary medical procedures: Wendy Dowe, who was deported to Jamaica after she says her fallopian tubes were removed without her consent, and Elizabeth, who is detained at the Irwin County ICE jail and who says she faced retaliation for speaking up about her unnecessary medical treatment.

Congress is set to override President Trump's veto of the National Defense Authorization Act, the $740 billion annual defense policy bill that funds the U.S. military. Trump vetoed the legislation last week over objections to liability protections for social media companies and because he did not want to rename military bases currently named for Confederate generals. Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna says Trump's reasons for vetoing the bill are "disingenuous," but that he will not be voting to override the veto. "The bottom line is $740 billion is way too much defense spending," says Khanna. "The priorities are wrong."

President Trump has unexpectedly signed a $2.3 trillion spending package that includes a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package. The bill includes direct payments of $600 for most adults, expanded unemployment benefits, aid for small businesses, money for vaccine distribution and a temporary extension of a federal eviction ban. Millions were plunged into uncertainty over the holidays as Trump delayed signing the bill, allowing two unemployment programs to lapse. He is also demanding lawmakers amend the bill to give $2,000 in direct payments to most Americans, a proposal opposed by most Republicans but endorsed by Democratic leaders. "There's no doubt in my mind that Trump is to blame for the delay, for the anxiety people had, and [Mitch] McConnell and Republicans are to blame for not having $2,000," says Rep. Ro Khanna, Democratic congressmember from California.

Trump Reverses Course, Signs Stimulus and Gov't Funding Bill But Makes Demands of Lawmakers, December Deadliest Month in Pandemic as 1 in Every 1,000 Americans Has Now Died of COVID-19, Death of Black Doctor from COVID-19 Provokes Outrage over Racist Disparities in Healthcare, Officials Acknowledge Vaccine Efforts Will Fall Short of Initial Year-End Goal, EU, Latin America Roll Out Vaccine; New COVID Variants ID'd in Africa as Countries Report U.K. Variant, U.K. and EU Reach Post-Brexit Trade Deal After Months of Talks and Years of Uncertainty, Mass Shooting Kills 220+ People in Western Ethiopia, Hundreds of Refugees at Risk of Freezing to Death in Harsh Winter on Bosnian-Croatian Border, At Least 20 Refugees Die at Sea Off the Coast of Tunisia, Niger Holds Second Democratic Elections, Three U.N. Peacekeepers Killed Ahead of Elections in CAR as Women Demand Peace, Top Afghan Election Monitor Yousuf Rasheed Shot Dead, Saudi Arabia Sentences Loujain al-Hathloul to 5+ Years in Prison for Her Activism, Trump Admin Moves Ahead with $500 Million Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia, Trump Issues New Wave of Pardons to Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner, Nashville Bomber Identified as 63-Year-Old White Man, But Motive Remains Unknown, Officer Who Shot and Killed Andre Hill, a Black Man from Ohio, Faces Termination Hearing, Special Forces Soldier Kills 3, Wounds 3 at Illinois Bowling Alley in "Completely Random Act", Judge Delays Execution of Lisa Montgomery, Only Woman on Federal Death Row

The world-renowned British novelist John le Carré died on December 12 at the age of 89. Le Carré established himself as a master writer of spy novels in a career that spanned more than half a century. He worked in the British Secret Service from the late 1950s until the early '60s, at the height of the Cold War — which was the topic of his early novels. His later works focused on the inequities of globalization, unchecked multinational corporate power and the role national spy services play in protecting corporate interests. His best-known books include "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and "The Constant Gardner." Le Carré was also a fierce critic of the U.S. response to the 9/11 attacks and the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq. In 2010, he appeared on Democracy Now! for a rare in-depth interview.

The legendary British author John le Carré has died at the age of 89. In the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, John le Carré was a fierce critic of President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In January 2003, he published a widely read essay called "The United States of America Has Gone Mad." John le Carré read the essay during an appearance on Democracy Now! in 2010.

The United States has become the first nation in the world to recognize Morocco's annexation of Western Sahara. The Trump administration announced the major policy shift on December 10 — International Human Rights Day — as part of a deal that saw Morocco become the fourth Arab nation to normalize ties to Israel in recent months. In this special rebroadcast of a Democracy Now! exclusive documentary, we break the media blockade and go to occupied Western Sahara in the northwest of Africa to document the decades-long Sahrawi struggle for freedom and Morocco's violent crackdown. In late 2016, Democracy Now! managed to get into the Western Saharan city of Laayoune, becoming the first international news team to report from the occupied territory in years. Many of the Sahrawis in this film are currently under police siege or in hiding.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla has been named by Governor Gavin Newsom to replace Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the U.S. Senate, making history as the first Latinx senator to represent the state. Padilla was first elected to public office at 26, when he joined the Los Angeles City Council, and went on to serve two terms in the state Senate, followed by two terms as the state's secretary of state. "This is really a reflection of the historic importance of Latinos," says Fernando Guerra, professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University. He is also the director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles.

President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Connecticut public schools commissioner Miguel Cardona for secretary of education, tapping a third Latinx person to join his Cabinet. Cardona is a former teacher who represents a sharp break from outgoing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who urged career employees at the Education Department earlier this month to "be the resistance" to the incoming administration. He is Puerto Rican and began his career as a fourth grade teacher, becoming the state's top schools official just last August, the first Latinx person to hold the position. "He's not Betsy DeVos, and every educator in America, or almost every educator, will be thrilled about that," says Diane Ravitch, a writer and historian of education who served as assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush. "He's been in public schools throughout his career, and that's a big plus for many people who've been watching the attacks on public education, on teachers, for the past four and more years."

As the U.S. averages more than 200,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, we speak with Dr. Cleavon Gilman, an emergency physician who has been treating patients since the beginning of the U.S. outbreak, first in New York City and now in Yuma, Arizona. Dr. Gilman is also an Iraq War veteran who served as a Marine combat medic, and has kept a public diary of his experiences treating COVID-19 patients. He was fired after tweeting that Arizona's ICU beds were full, and then got his job back after public outcry. "This pandemic is worse than being in Iraq," says Dr. Gilman. "This virus is a Trojan horse, and it just hides in people, and you can bring it home to your family and infect every person in your house."

Trump Calls Stimulus Bill a "Disgrace" as Dems Seize on Call to Up Direct Payments to $2,000, Trump Pardons Blackwater Mercenaries, Ex-GOP Lawmakers, and Border Guards Who Shot a Man, U.N. Official Calls for Julian Assange Pardon; Trump Mulls Granting Immunity to Mohammed bin Salman, Dozens of Al Jazeera Journalists Hacked with Israeli Company's Spyware, Targeted Murders of Journalists Doubled in 2020, with Mexico Worst-Affected Country, Israeli Voters Will Head to Polls for Fourth Time in Less Than 2 Years After Gov't Collapse, Israeli Soldiers Shoot and Kill Palestinian Teenager in Occupied East Jerusalem, Pakistani Human Rights Activist Karima Mehrab Baloch Found Dead in Canada, Alex Padilla Will Replace Kamala Harris in Senate, Becomes CA's First Latinx U.S. Senator, DOJ Sues Walmart for Helping Fuel the Opioid Epidemic, ICE Guards Threaten to Force-Feed Hunger Striker as More Immigrant Prisoners Join Protest, Essential Workers in Chicago Walk Off Job to Demand Fair Pay and Safe Working Conditions

As President Trump continues to look for ways to overturn the 2020 election, he has also continued to raise massive sums of money — over half a billion dollars since mid-October, including more than $250 million since Election Day. The New York Times reports more than $60 million of what Trump raised has gone to a new political action committee that he will control after he leaves office, an unprecedented war chest for an outgoing president. There are few legal limits on what Trump can do with the raised funds, and he could use it to pay off his massive $420 million debt or to fund a potential 2024 run. "This is entirely unprecedented," says Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform at Campaign Legal Center, who has been closely following Trump's fundraising since the election. "It's a loosely regulated political vehicle that Trump can tap into after he leaves the White House to retain influence in the Republican Party and also to potentially benefit himself and his family financially."

More than 40 countries have temporarily suspended some or all travel from the United Kingdom after British health officials announced a highly infectious variant of the novel coronavirus has been spreading in the country. South Africa has detected a similar variant. The new variant is believed to be 70% more contagious, but health experts say existing vaccines will still be effective against it. "What's important to remember is that mutations will naturally happen in the course of a virus that's in the community and circulating," says Dr. Taison Bell, critical care and infectious disease physician at the University of Virginia. "It's not unexpected to have these changes." Bell also describes how he received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine earlier this month.

As Congress passes a $900 billion coronavirus relief package, the first new aid since April, critics say the bill does not go far enough in providing direct aid to those most impacted by the economic downturn. "It needs to be thought of as a relief bill, as a bridge to get us to a Biden presidency, where we can do something that is far more intense and larger in scale," says Darrick Hamilton, professor of economics at The New School and founding director of the Institute for the Study of Race, Stratification and Political Economy.

Congress Approves $900 Billion Coronavirus Relief Bill After Months of Partisan Gridlock, U.S. Hospitalizations Hit Record High Amid Surge of Holiday Travel, First Doses of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Distributed Across U.S., HHS, CDC Chiefs Subpoenaed over White House Interference in Pandemic Response, Over 40 Countries Ban U.K. Travel over Fears of New Coronavirus Variant, Outgoing AG William Barr Refuses Trump's Demand He Seize Voting Machines, Isolated at the White House, Trump Makes Last-Ditch Effort to Overturn 2020 Election, Biden Set to Nominate CT Schools Commissioner Miguel Cardona as Education Secretary, Jamaican Asylum Seekers Walk Free 843 Days After Taking Sanctuary in Philadelphia Church, Prisoners in New Jersey ICE Jail Continue Protests Demanding Release Amid Pandemic, GOP-Led Lawsuit Seeks to Overturn DACA Program Protecting Undocumented DREAMers, Biden May Shield 1 Million Central Americans from Deportation After Devastating Hurricanes, Congress Expands Program to Identify Remains of Asylum Seekers Who Died Crossing Border, Mexican Ex-Governor of Jalisco State Assassinated in Puerto Vallarta, Far-Right Protesters Opposing to Public Health Measures Storm Oregon State Capitol, Statue of Civil Rights Pioneer Barbara Johns to Replace Robert E. Lee at U.S. Capitol

As President-elect Joe Biden unveils key members of his team who will tackle what he called the "existential" threat of the climate crisis, we speak to former Environmental Protection Agency official Mustafa Ali, who led the agency's environmental justice program until resigning in 2017 in protest of the Trump administration's policies. Biden's picks for the Climate Cabinet are the result of "a transformational set of movements," says Ali, who is currently vice president of the National Wildlife Federation. "It also speaks to all the hard, incredible work that environmental justice leaders have been doing to ensure that our president-elect is giving serious thought to vulnerable communities, to the impacts that are happening from the climate crisis."

Under pressure from progressives and communities of color, President-elect Joe Biden vowed Saturday to make environmental justice and science top concerns as he selects his climate team, which he formally introduced Saturday. If confirmed, many will represent historic firsts, including Michael Regan, who will be the first Black man to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Regan's selection comes after weeks of speculation Biden would instead tap Mary Nichols, head of the California Air Resources Board, but faced opposition for what critics called her "bleak track record in addressing environmental racism." Biden also tapped Democratic Congressmember Deb Haaland of New Mexico to lead the Interior Department, making her the first Native American Cabinet secretary in history. We feature highlights from Saturday's speeches by Regan, Haaland and others, including environmental attorney Brenda Mallory, who will chair Biden's Council on Environmental Quality; Gina McCarthy, head of the EPA under President Obama, who will lead a new White House Office of Climate Policy; and former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who will be energy secretary.

As Congress is rushing to pass a new $900 billion coronavirus aid package, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is calling the new relief package "totally inadequate, given the nature of the unprecedented crisis that we face." Sanders took to the floor of the Senate Friday to call for $1,200 emergency checks for every working-class adult and $500 per child. We air portions of his address.

Lawmakers Agree on $900B Stimulus Bill with Reduced Direct Payments, Unemployment and No Local Aid, Moderna Vaccine Ships Out; CDC Recommends People 75+, Other Essential Workers Receive the Shot Next, Coronavirus Surges in U.S. as Tennessee Emerges as Major Hot Spot, U.K. Increasingly Isolated After Highly Infectious Coronavirus Strain Prompts Strict Lockdown, Joe Biden Introduces Diverse Climate Crisis Team, Trump Mulls Martial Law, Sidney Powell as Special Counsel on Election Fraud, Trump Asks SCOTUS to Throw Out PA Votes; Judge Rejects GA Senators' Attempt to Block New Voters, Rockets Fired at U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Ahead of Anniversary of Qassem Soleimani's Assassination, Violent Attacks Continue in Afghanistan as Car Bomb Kills 9 in Kabul, Ghazni Blast Kills 15, 25 Protesters Die as Historic Strike Against Deregulation of Agricultural Markets in India Continues, Cyclone Yasa Kills at Least 4 in Fiji, on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis, NYPD Used Excessive Force in Response to Racial Justice Uprising, Bodycam Footage Shows Police Did Not Immediately Assist Ahmaud Arbery as He Lay on Ground Dying, Seattle Police Clear Encampment in Public Park Amid Pandemic Surge, Apache Nation Organizes Day of Action Against Proposed Copper Mine, Trump Downplays Cyber Espionage Attack That Penetrated Nuclear Weapons Agency, SCOTUS Tosses Challenge to Trump's Plan Excluding Immigrants from Census Count

A shocking exposé in The Intercept reveals CIA-backed death squads in Afghanistan have killed children as young as 8 years old in a series of night raids, many targeting madrassas, Islamic religious schools. In December 2018, one of the death squads attacked a madrassa in Wardak province, killing 12 boys, of whom the youngest was 9 years old. The United States played key roles in many of the raids, from picking targets to ferrying Afghan forces to the sites to providing lethal airpower during the raids. The Intercept reports this was part of a campaign of terror orchestrated by the Trump administration that included massacres, executions, mutilation, forced disappearances, attacks on medical facilities, and airstrikes targeting structures known to house civilians. "These militias … were established in the very early days of the Afghan War by CIA officers, many of whom had been brought back into the fold after the invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001 who had previously been working in Afghanistan during the 1980s," says reporter Andrew Quilty. "This network of militias was set up and appear to be entirely under the control of the CIA but made up entirely of Afghan soldiers."

Indigenous and environmental activists have been holding daily protests against the construction of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to a terminal in Superior, Wisconsin, cutting through Indigenous territory and running under more than 200 streams. Winona LaDuke, director of the group Honor the Earth, says the project's approval amid a historic slump in oil prices and accelerating climate crisis make it unsound on economic and environmental grounds. "This is the end of the fossil fuel era," LaDuke says. "The industry is ending, and there's certainly no reason to approve a new tar sands pipeline."

President-elect Joe Biden has picked New Mexico Congressmember Deb Haaland to become secretary of the interior. If confirmed, Haaland will be the first Native American to serve in a Cabinet position. Haaland's nomination was backed by progressives, as well as more than 120 tribal leaders, who sent a letter to Biden last month urging him to select her for the post. "That was a very, very important step for the Biden administration," says Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth, rural development economist and Native American activist. "Indian people know how to take care of this land."

Millions across the U.S. could be forced from their homes in the middle of the pandemic if Congress does not extend the federal eviction moratorium that is due to expire at the end of December. Congress is expected to push the moratorium back by one month, to January 31, in the $900 billion stimulus bill being debated in Washington, but such an extension would only be a temporary fix to a much wider problem. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that one-third of U.S. households are behind on rent or mortgage payments and will likely face eviction or foreclosure in the next two months. We speak with UCLA researcher Kathryn Leifheit, who says the lifting of state eviction moratoriums this summer led to 430,000 new COVID infections and 10,000 deaths. "We think these deaths are preventable, and they could have been prevented had those moratoriums been kept in place," says Leifheit. We also speak with tenant rights activist Tara Raghuveer, who says the federal evictions moratorium "wasn't good enough to begin with," but allowing it to expire would leave "millions of families vulnerable to eviction within the first 20 days of the next year."