Democracy Now!

We go to Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where tens of thousands of people are evacuating the city of Goma after a volcanic eruption killed dozens on May 22 and amid warnings that Mount Nyiragongo, one of the world's most active volcanoes, could blow yet again. We speak with Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who says the volcano is worsening an already acute crisis in the country, where rising violence and displacement have left more than 20 million in need of humanitarian aid. "It's the largest neglected emergency on Earth," he says. "We need to talk about the war, the misery, the hunger and the whole looting of DRC from strong capital, from all over the world, that want to have the minerals that is in the ground under here." He also discusses the war in Yemen, how relatively small investments in humanitarian aid can help millions of people around the world and why rich countries have a responsibility to make vaccines accessible.

As the United Nations human rights chief warns Israel may have committed war crimes in Gaza, we look at how Israel killed 12 Palestinian children being treated for trauma from past Israeli bombings. Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, says Gaza has become "the home of hopelessness," particularly for young people in the besieged territory. "We humanitarian workers are sick and tired of building and rebuilding and see it all torn down again," Egeland says of Israel's repeated attacks on Gaza. "We are accumulating rubble, we're accumulating dead children, and we're accumulating hopelessness, if it continues like this."

U.N. Human Rights Chief Says Israel May Have Committed War Crimes in Gaza, African Nations Need 20 Million AstraZeneca Doses Within Weeks to Complete Vaccinations , Public Citizen Says a $25 Billion Investment Could Vaccinate the World, Senate GOP Ready to Filibuster Commission on January 6 Insurrection , Biden Reportedly Offered Japan Ambassadorship to Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Amazon Announces Deal to Acquire MGM Studios; WarnerMedia to Merge with Discovery , Elizabeth Warren Grills Bank CEOs for Preying on Customers During Pandemic, San Jose Gunman Expressed Hate for Co-Workers for Years, Had History of Sexual Violence, Washington Prosecutors Charge Tacoma Police Officers with Murdering Manuel Ellis, Up to 1 Million Ordered to Evacuate Goma, DRC Amid Fears of Another Volcanic Eruption, Australian Court Rules Government Has Duty to Protect Young People from Climate Disaster

President Joe Biden has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of COVID-19 as new questions are being raised over whether an accidental leak from a Chinese virology lab is to blame for the pandemic. The Wall Street Journal reports three employees of the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill with COVID-like symptoms in the autumn of 2019 and were hospitalized in November of that year, before the first recorded case of COVID-19. China has criticized the Biden administration's call for a new probe, saying the lab leak hypothesis is a "conspiracy created by U.S. intelligence agencies." In March, the World Health Organization said its investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic found it was "extremely unlikely" that the novel coronavirus emerged from a laboratory, but many scientists are calling on the WHO to further investigate the possibility. We speak with infectious disease expert Dr. Monica Gandhi, who says there are real questions about whether information about the virus was withheld early on, delaying public health measures and vaccine development, but she stresses that "designing" a virus in a lab is very difficult. "I personally do not think that you can create these type of viruses in a lab. Only nature can do this," Dr. Gandhi says. She also discusses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's loosening of public health restrictions and how the U.S. can use its vaccine surplus to help other countries. "The solution of the pandemic is immunity. And the only way to get to immunity is to vaccinate the world," she says.

Pressure is growing on organizers to cancel the Tokyo Olympics as Japan struggles to contain a fourth wave of COVID-19 cases. The games, which were delayed by a year due to the pandemic, are scheduled to begin July 23 even though less than 3% of the Japanese population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the lowest rates in the developed world. Jules Boykoff, author and former Olympic athlete who played for the U.S. Olympic soccer team, says the "extremely lopsided" contracts the International Olympic Committee signs with host countries give the body ultimate authority over whether or not to cancel the event. "More than 80% of the people in Japan oppose hosting the Olympics this summer, and yet the IOC insists on pressing ahead," says Boykoff. We also speak with Satoko Itani, professor of sport, gender and sexuality studies at Kansai University, who says there is growing public anger at the government and a "sense of unfairness" that the games are going ahead during a pandemic. "They feel that the people are not protected," they say.

Transit Worker Fatally Shoots 9, Then Himself, at San Jose Rail Yard, Senate Republicans Blast Biden's ATF Nominee over His Support for Gun Controls, Texas "Constitutional Carry" Bill to Allow People to Openly Carry Handguns Without Permits, Dutch Court Orders Shell Oil Company to Halve Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2030, Australia Orders Coronavirus Lockdown for 7 Million; Taiwan Battles Its Worst COVID Outbreak, Biden Orders Probe into COVID-19 Origins; States Offer Prizes to Vaccinated Residents, Iran Nuclear Deal Talks Offer Hope as IAEA Head Expresses Concern over Uranium Enrichment, Another Political Candidate Killed in Mexico Amid Surge of Pre-Election Assassinations, ACLU Sues Arkansas over Ban on Healthcare for Transgender Youth, Tamir Rice's Mother, Samaria Rice, Asks Ohio Court to Block Reinstatement of Cop Who Killed Her Son, Lee Evans, Olympian and Antiracism Activist, Dies at 74

Despite decades of warnings against the practice, police departments across the country continue to hogtie people during arrests, sometimes with fatal results. On September 8, 2018, Marcus Smith, a 38-year-old homeless Black man in Greensboro, North Carolina, was facing a mental health crisis and asked police officers for help. Instead, eight white officers brutally and fatally hogtied him. Police videos show officers pushed Smith face down on the street and tied a belt around his ankles, then attached it to his cuffed hands so tightly that his knees were lifted off the pavement. Smith's family filed a lawsuit in 2019 alleging wrongful death, accusing the police department of a cover-up. "The Greensboro Police Department, spearheaded by the chief of police at that time, watched the video and then chose to put out a press release that … ignored and left out the crucial factor that he was hogtied," says Flint Taylor, one of the lawyers for the Smith family and a founding partner of the People's Law Office in Chicago. We also speak with Marshall Project reporter Joseph Neff, who says there is little data about instances of police hogtying. "It's hard to know how extensive it is, because there's no reporting requirement," he says.

Protests and vigils were held across the U.S. to mark one year since the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd's death sparked a national uprising and global movement against systemic racism and police brutality. Elizabeth Hinton, an associate professor of history and African American studies at Yale University and a professor of law at Yale Law School, connects the Black Lives Matter protests to a long history of Black rebellion against police violence in her new book "America on Fire" and notes that the U.S. has had previous opportunities to address systemic racism and state violence, but change remains elusive. "Every time inequality and police violence is evaluated, all of these structural solutions are always suggested, and yet they're never taken up," Hinton says.

George Floyd's Family Calls for Passage of Policing Act as Nation Marks One Year Since His Killing, Blinken Says U.S. Will Reopen Jerusalem Consulate, Pledges Aid for Gaza as U.S. OKs New Arms Sales to Israel, Israel Arrests Hundreds of Palestinians; UNRWA Head Apologizes for Remarks on Israeli Assault, U.S. Joins Calls to Further Probe Origins of COVID-19, 50% of U.S. Adults Fully Vaccinated; Moderna's Vaccine Is 100% Effective in 12- to 17-Year-Olds, Kristen Clarke Sworn In as First Black Woman to Lead the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, Iraqi Security Forces Kill Protester at Rally Demanding Accountability for Murdered Activists, Presidents Biden and Putin Set to Meet for June Summit in Geneva, Samoa in Political Turmoil as First Elected Woman Prime Minister Shut Out of Parliament, Protests Continue in Colombia as Strike Movement and Gov't Indicate Progress in Ongoing Talks, Manhattan DA Convenes Grand Jury to Consider Possible Indictments in Trump Org. Investigation, Kevin McCarthy Condemns Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene After She Compared Mask Mandates to Holocaust, Jewish Groups Call for Federal Action Amid Rise in Antisemitic Attacks, Washington, D.C's Attorney General Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Amazon, Josep Almudéver Mateu, Last Surviving Member of the International Brigades, Dies at 101

George Floyd's murder on May 25, 2020, sparked a global uprising against systemic racism and police brutality and put the spotlight on decades-long movements dedicated to abolition and criminal justice reform. Memorial events and marches are celebrating George Floyd's life and commemorate the first anniversary of his murder, and President Joe Biden is hosting some of his family at the White House as negotiations continue in Congress over legislation that bears his name, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Monifa Bandele, who sits on the steering committee for Communities United for Police Reform and is an organizer with the Movement for Black Lives, says the racial justice uprising that followed Floyd's death served as a "clarion call" to defund police and reinvest those resources. "What you see emerging from the communities is a much more powerful demand to actually shift the realities so that our children are not marching again in another 50 years," Bandele says.

In her first TV interview, we speak with Emily Wilder, the young reporter fired by the Associated Press after she was targeted in a Republican smear campaign for her pro-Palestinian activism in college. Wilder is Jewish and was a member of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace at Stanford University before she graduated in 2020. She was two weeks into her new job with the AP when the Stanford College Republicans singled out some of her past social media posts, triggering a conservative frenzy. The AP announced Wilder's firing shortly thereafter, citing unspecified violations of its social media policy. "Less than 48 hours after Stanford College Republicans began to post about me, I was fired," says Wilder. "I was not given an explanation for what social media policy I had violated." Over 100 AP journalists have signed an open letter to management protesting the decision to fire Wilder, which came just days after Israel demolished the building housing AP offices and other media organizations in Gaza. Journalism professor Janine Zacharia, a former Jerusalem bureau chief for The Washington Post who taught Wilder at Stanford, says the episode is an example of how much pressure news organizations face on Middle East coverage. "I am very aware, perhaps more than most, to the sensitivities around the questions of bias and reporting on the conflict," says Zacharia. "In this case it wasn't about bias."

U.S. Secretary of State Reaffirms Israel's "Right to Self-Defense" After Meeting with Israeli PM, Israel to End All COVID-19 Restrictions; Gaza Assault Increases Risk to Unvaccinated Palestinians, WHO Director Decries "Scandalous Inequity" on Vaccinations "That's Perpetuating the Pandemic", Los Angeles to Fully Reopen Classrooms in the Fall, with Remote Learning Options, Mexico City Protesters Demand Vaccines for Students Before a Return to Classes, China Blasts Wall Street Journal Report Suggesting Coronavirus Escaped from Wuhan Lab, European Union Sanctions Belarus over "Hijacking" of Ryanair Plane and "Kidnapping" of Journalist, Edward Snowden Compares Belarus Plane Diversion to Downing of Evo Morales's 2013 Flight, Daniel Ellsberg Leaks Documents Showing U.S. Military Sought Nuclear Strike on China in 1958, "SANE Act" Would Cut $73 Billion from U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Through 2030, Malian Soldiers Arrest Prime Minister and President in Second Coup Within a Year, U.S. Journalist Jailed in Burma After Reporting on Military Coup, British Black Lives Matter Activist Sasha Johnson in Critical Condition After Gunshot to the Head, Supreme Court Won't Hear Case of Death Row Prisoner Who Sought Firing Squad Over Lethal Injection, Federal Court Strikes Down Georgia Bill Requiring Contractors to Pledge Not to Boycott Israel

The Biden administration is granting more than 100,000 Haitians in the United States the chance to gain temporary protected status, or TPS, which includes work permits and protection from deportation while Haiti suffers a political crisis. Haitian President Jovenel Moïse continues to refuse calls to step down, even as human rights groups report he has sanctioned attacks against civilians in impoverished neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, with targeted assassinations and threats against government critics carried out with impunity. President Joe Biden deported more Haitians during his first two months than Donald Trump did in the last year of his presidency. "It's a break for people who have been looking over their shoulders, who have been worried and concerned about what happens if they're not given this relief and either become undocumented or detained and deported back to Haiti," says Nana Gyamfi, executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. "It's a break, but that's all it is. It's a break, and we obviously want more."

As the world marks the anniversary of George Floyd's murder, attorney Lee Merritt says there is still a long way to go in reforming "the deadliest police culture in the modern world." Merritt, who has represented the Floyd family and other victims of police brutality, says Republicans and Democrats should come together to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Floyd's death in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, set off a nationwide uprising and global movement calling for an end to racism and for the defense of Black lives.

New bodycam footage is raising more questions about the deadly arrest of a Black man, Ronald Greene, in Louisiana during a 2019 traffic stop in the city of Monroe. Family members said police originally told them Greene died in a car accident, but the Associated Press obtained video of Louisiana state troopers electrocuting, beating and dragging Greene. Greene's family has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit, and Greene's death is also being federally investigated. Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney representing the family of Ronald Greene, says the family had to fight for a year and a half before being allowed to view police video of Greene's death, which revealed "the full extent of just how brutal and gratuitous" the violence was. "We're looking for criminal charges to move forward against these officers at the state level and at the federal level."

The United Nations is appealing to the world to address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza following the 11-day Israeli assault that killed 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, and injured more than 1,700 people. The U.N. is estimating that at least 6,000 residents of Gaza were left homeless after their homes were bombed by Israel, which has maintained a blockade on Gaza for the past 14 years. Tensions also remain high in Jerusalem, where dozens of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli security forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Friday and Israeli authorities are continuing the campaign to forcibly evict Palestinians from their homes so Jewish settlers can move in. Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian writer and poet who is organizing to save his family's home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, says Israeli aggression against Palestinians has continued despite the ceasefire. "Colonial violence is still business as usual in occupied Palestine at large," El-Kurd says.

Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Holds as Gazans Face Grief and Destruction After Israeli Assault, India's Official COVID Death Toll Passes 300,000, Latin America Tops 1 Million Deaths, Average of Daily U.S. Coronavirus Infections Falls Below 30,000 for First Time Since June, Biden Administration to Extend Temporary Protected Status to 100,000 Haitians in U.S., Belarus Uses Fake Bomb Threat to Divert Plane and Arrest Journalist Critical of President, Deposed Burmese Leader Aung San Suu Kyi Appears in Court for First Time Since February 1 Coup, Bangladeshi Journalist Rozina Islam, Who Reported on Corruption, Granted Bail After Arrest, Powerful Cyclone Grows East of India a Week After a Cyclone Killed at Least 140 in India's West, 15 Dead, Thousands Left Homeless in Democratic Republic of Congo as Volcano Erupts Near Goma, Weekend Mass Shootings Around U.S. Leave 11 Dead, 69 Injured, Minneapolis Honors George Floyd, One Year After His Murder at Hands of Police Officer, "You Shouldn't Be Able to Breathe": Video Shows TN Man Asphyxiated with Officers' Knees on His Back, Alden Global Capital Hedge Fund to Purchase Tribune Newspaper Chain

Reverend William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and president of Repairers of the Breach, says the United States needs a "Third Reconstruction" aimed at lifting 140 million poor and low-income people out of poverty. Barber worked with Congressmembers Barbara Lee and Pramila Jayapal to unveil a congressional resolution for a Third Reconstruction this week, which includes measures to expand voting rights, implement immigration reform, raise the minimum wage, establish a federal jobs program and more. "There is not a scarcity of resources," says Barber. "What there is is a scarcity of social justice conscience."

We speak with Reverend William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and former head of the North Carolina NAACP, who is in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to call for an expedited independent investigation into the police killing of Andrew Brown Jr., the 42-year-old Black father who was killed there last month by a bullet in the back of his head after seven deputies blocked him in his driveway while serving an arrest warrant. On Tuesday, the Pasquotank County district attorney announced a state investigation had found the officers who shot Brown were justified and will not face criminal charges. Barber says the district attorney "represented a kind Southern arrogance that we've seen in Southern judicial systems, where these Southern DAs and officers think they're above the law."

Israeli forces shot and killed Obaida Jawabra, a 17-year-old boy, earlier this week in the al-Arroub refugee camp located near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. Obaida was shot in the chest, and witnesses say Israeli soldiers blocked an ambulance from reaching the teenager. He was taken to a local hospital by private car and later pronounced dead. Obaida, who was arrested by Israeli soldiers multiple times and featured in a 2019 short film, "Obaida," about Israeli soldiers detaining Palestinian children, is at least the fourth Palestinian teenager shot dead by soldiers in the occupied West Bank this year. The killing of Obaida Jawabra "shows the brutality of the Israeli army when they target these children," says Palestinian writer and researcher Mariam Barghouti. "Obaida — and I say this with complete sorrow — is just one name in a long list of many."

In Gaza, thousands of people have taken to the streets to celebrate after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, ending Israel's 11-day bombardment of the territory. At least 243 Palestinians, including 66 children, were killed in the airstrikes and bombings. Rockets fired from Gaza also killed 12 people in Israel. Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, welcomes the ceasefire but stresses Palestinians demand more than just the end of bombing. "We need [the] end of occupation, end of the blockade, self-determination, independence, dignity and freedom," Sourani says. We also speak with Israeli political activist and journalist Orly Noy, who says U.S. President Joe Biden is still clinging to false claims about Israel's self-defense. "This was not about the protection of the Israeli citizens," says Noy, editor of the Hebrew-language news site Local Call. "Over 240 casualties in Gaza had nothing to do with the security of Israeli citizens. Over 60 children dead in Gaza had nothing to do with the security of Israel."

Israel and Hamas Agree to Gaza Ceasefire After 11 Days of Intense Fighting, U.N. Chief Decries "Hell on Earth" After Israeli Strikes Sever Power, Water and Sewer Lines in Gaza, WTO Chief Pushes European Officials to Drop Opposition to Patent Waiver for COVID Vaccines, New York Launches $5 Million Lottery Incentive to Get Vaccinated , South Korean President to Discuss Denuclearization and Vaccines at White House Meeting, ICE to End Contracts with Two County Jails Where Immigrants Faced Abuses, Salvadoran Officials Exhume Dozens of Women's Bodies on Property of Former Detective, Amnesty Calls for U.S. to Stop Selling Weapons Used to Repress and Kill Protesters in Colombia, Video Shows Violence of Mob at January 6 Insurrection as House Boosts Capitol Security Funds, AZ Secretary of State Says Voting Machines May Have Been Compromised by GOP-Backed Auditors, Biden Signs Law Addressing Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans, AP Fires Journalist over Social Media Posts Defending Palestinian Rights, Faculty Protest After University of North Carolina Denies Tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones

On Sunday, many Arab, Muslim and Palestinian communities boycotted President Biden's virtual Eid celebration. We play a statement of solidarity from legendary activist and scholar Angela Davis on Sunday for "Eid with Palestine: A Protest of the White House Eid Event." Davis also co-wrote piece for The Nation with our guest Noura Erakat about how Erakat's 26-year-old cousin Ahmad Erekat was shot by Israeli occupation forces after his car appeared to have accidentally crashed into a booth at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank while he was on the way to pick up his mother and sister on her wedding day. Erakat says Israel still refuses to release his body to his family. "All Palestinians are deemed a threat for their mere existence," says Erakat. "What we see happen to Ahmad has been a pattern."

As Israel faces international condemnation for its assault on Gaza, we look at growing accusations that Israel is an apartheid state. Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the human rights group B'Tselem, describes the findings of their report that details how Israel is committing "apartheid." Israel's treatment of Palestinians is "not complicated," El-Ad says. "Believe your eyes. Follow your conscience. The reason that it looks like apartheid is simply because it is apartheid." We get response from Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz and a member of its editorial board, who wrote a recent piece, "We Can Keep Lying to Ourselves on 'Apartheid,' but Israel Has Crossed the Line." We also speak to Noura Erakat, Palestinian human rights attorney and legal scholar.

A Palestinian man in a wheelchair, his pregnant wife and 3-year-old daughter are among the latest victims in Israel's ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza, which is now in its 11th day. Israeli airstrikes and shelling have killed at least 231 Palestinians, including 65 children, and health officials say 1,700 Palestinians have been wounded. Over 1,300 housing units have been completely demolished or severely damaged. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far rejected calls for a ceasefire, but Hamas officials say a truce could be reached within a day. President Joe Biden's defense of Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza is a continuance of unconditional U.S. government support of Israel, says Israeli journalist Gideon Levy. "When will be the stage in which the world or the American president will say, 'Enough is enough. This is not self-protection'?" We also speak with Noura Erakat, Palestinian human rights attorney and legal scholar, who says the shift in rhetoric and support for a free Palestine among some lawmakers and people in the U.S. is significant and "reflects years of movement work on the ground."

Palestinian Death Toll Hits 231 as Israel Pounds Gaza Strip for 11th Straight Day, U.S. Blocks Gaza Ceasefire Resolutions at U.N. as Some Democrats Urge Halt to Israel Arms Sales, India Sets New Record High for Daily Coronavirus Deaths, New York City Restaurants Reopen at Full Capacity, European Union to Welcome Vaccinated Travelers, 35 House Republicans Defy Leadership, Vote in Favor of Commission on January 6 Insurrection, 107-Year-Old Viola Fletcher Recounts Horror of Tulsa Race Massacre in Congressional Hearing, Harrowing Video Shows Louisiana State Troopers Brutalizing Ronald Greene in 2019, North Carolina Jury Awards $75 Million in Damages to Brothers Wrongfully Imprisoned for 30+ Years, Texas Executes Quintin Jones, a Black Man, Rejecting Clemency Pleas from Victim's Family, Emergent BioSolutions Reaped Millions in Federal Contracts But Has Yet to Deliver Any COVID Vaccines, Massive Ice Sheet Breaks Off Antarctica, Becomes World's Largest Iceberg, Climate Activists Protest Shell Sponsorship of London Science Museum Exhibit, AOC, Bernie Sanders Join McDonald's Workers' Strike Demanding $15/Hour Minimum Wage

In North Carolina, the Pasquotank County District Attorney's Office has found the April 21 police shooting of Andrew Brown Jr., a 42-year-old Black father, in Elizabeth City was justified. Meanwhile, Andrew Brown Jr.'s family and their attorneys have said body-camera and dashcam videos of his killing show it was an "execution" and that he was not a threat. Andrew Brown Jr.'s family has requested the full release of the body-camera video, and the FBI is conducting a federal civil rights investigation into the killing. "We are disappointed, but we are not surprised," Bakari Sellers, one of the attorneys representing the family of Andrew Brown Jr., says of the district attorney's decision. "The video speaks for itself. Show people the video."

As Israel's deadly attack on Gaza continues, we speak with Amira Hass, Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who says Israel's bombing campaign is purposely wiping out entire families. "Israel has all the information about every Palestinian family, whether it is in the West Bank or Jerusalem or Gaza, let alone Palestinians in Israel," Hass tells Democracy Now! "When the Israeli army decides to bomb such a house without bothering to tell the people to leave it, it means they take into their head a calculation that their military target is more important" than people's lives, she says.

The Israeli bombing campaign of Gaza has killed at least 222 Palestinians, including 63 children, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects growing international calls for a ceasefire. The Norwegian Refugee Council has revealed 11 of the children killed in Gaza were taking part in a program to help them deal with trauma from growing up in the besieged enclave. At least six residents of Gaza died in Israeli strikes overnight, including the radio journalist Yousef Abu Hussein. In the West Bank, Israeli forces on Tuesday killed at least four Palestinians taking part in a historic general strike to protest Israeli atrocities, which united Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and inside Israel. Israel's bombing campaign has destroyed much of Gaza's infrastructure, from sewage systems to clean drinking water supplies. "Israel is turning Gaza into a wasteland," says Aya Alghazzawi, a Palestinian activist based in Gaza who writes for We Are Not Numbers.

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As the Israeli bombing of Gaza enters its ninth day, Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, Gaza and inside Israel are staging a historic general strike. This comes as violence is also spreading across Israel, with Jewish mobs attacking Palestinians in mixed Jewish and Arab communities. Last week, extremist Israeli settlers were filmed attacking Palestinian-owned shops in a Tel Aviv suburb. Another harrowing video shows ultranationalist Israelis dragging a man they believed to be an Arab from his car and beating him mercilessly. Some settlers were filmed on live television chanting "Death to Arabs," and screenshots shared by an Israeli disinformation watchdog group show far-right Israeli WhatsApp and Signal groups coordinating attacks on Palestinians. We speak with Palestinian journalist and activist Rami Younis, who says Israeli media's unwillingness to cover the widespread incitement is a "perfect example of how structural violence is maintained and nurtured in Israel."

As the Palestinian death toll in Gaza tops 200, the leading Israeli human rights group B'Tselem is accusing Israel of committing war crimes by killing blockaded civilians and destroying infrastructure on a massive scale. Executive director Hagai El-Ad says Israel has not done enough to distinguish between military and civilian targets or to act with proportionality. "We've seen war crimes in previous military assaults on Gaza," he says. "And, in fact, the impunity of the previous times in which war crimes were committed is what has paved the way for the continuation of more such crimes being committed." Earlier this year, B'Tselem released a landmark report denouncing Israel as an "apartheid regime."

The ongoing Israeli attack on Gaza, which has now killed at least 213 people, "really is an act of genocide," says Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian parliament and head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society who has been leading efforts to manage the pandemic in the West Bank and Gaza. He says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces multiple corruption charges, is using the latest violence to save his political future. "This man and his government is using Palestinian blood, and maybe even Israeli blood, to stay in power, to evade the three cases of corruption that he has to face, and he's doing anything to keep his seat."

The death toll in Gaza has reached 213, including at least 61 children, as Israel continues to attack the besieged area by air, land and sea using U.S.-made warplanes and bombs. The death toll in Israel stands at 11 from rockets fired from Gaza. Israel is facing increasing criticism for targeting doctors in its attack, and its airstrikes have reportedly damaged at least 18 hospitals and clinics, according to the World Health Organization. The attacks on medical staff and facilities are a "nightmare," says Dr. Rasha, a Palestinian internal medicine physician working in Gaza who asked not to use her full name for safety reasons. "I think this is targeted to increase the overwhelming of the already overwhelmed healthcare system," she says.

Gaza Death Toll Reaches 213 as Israel Strikes Homes, Health Clinics and COVID-19 Testing Site, In Phone Call with Israeli PM, Biden Urges Ceasefire But Won't Demand One, Eritrean Troops Disguised as Ethiopians Block Aid in Tigray as U.N. Warns Millions Face Hunger, India Reports Deadliest Day of Pandemic as Cyclone Compounds Coronavirus Crisis, U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Hit 14-Month Low as Biden Pledges to Ship 20M Vaccine Doses Abroad, Supreme Court to Hear Mississippi Abortion Case in Major Challenge to Roe v. Wade, Steven Donziger, Who Sued Chevron over Amazon Oil Spills, Blasts Contempt Trial as "Charade", Republicans in Arizona's Maricopa County Blast GOP-Ordered Recount of 2020 Ballots, Rep. AOC and Other Democrats Urge Biden Administration to "End the Carceral Approach to Immigration", 5,000 Asylum Seekers Swim from Morocco to Spanish Enclave of Ceuta, "Trans People Don't Exist in El Salvador": Protesters Demand Passage of Gender Identity Law

We speak with Palestinian reporter Youmna al-Sayed, who was among the journalists who had to flee for their lives when Israel bombed and leveled a 12-story Gaza building that housed the offices of media organizations including the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Israel has claimed, without evidence, that the building was being used by Hamas operatives, but al-Sayed says it's part of a pattern of Israeli attacks on media. "This is no coincidence," she says.

Matthias Schmale, director of UNRWA operations in Gaza, says civilians in the besieged territory are facing "terror from the skies" amid Israel's bombardment, which has already killed nearly 200 people. "The price the civilian population is paying for this is unacceptable. This has to stop. This is terror on a civilian population."

Israel's assault on Gaza has entered its second week, as Israel killed at least 42 Palestinians in Gaza Sunday in the deadliest day so far when it bombarded the besieged area with airstrikes, artillery fire and gunboat shelling. Israel has killed nearly 200 Palestinians, including 58 children and 34 women, and destroyed over 500 homes in Gaza, leaving 40,000 Palestinians homeless. Israel also leveled a 12-story building housing the offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. "This is a total destruction from the Israeli occupation against the native Palestinians in Gaza," says Palestinian academic and activist Refaat Alareer, who lives in Gaza. "This is not new. This is a continuation of Israeli aggression against Palestinians that started in 1948, the Nakba."

Israel's Deadly Assault on Gaza Enters Second Week: 200 Palestinians Killed and Media Attacked, India, Nepal Battle Devastating COVID Wave as More Asian Countries Impose Restrictions Amid Surge, Nurses' Union Challenges New CDC Mask Guidelines; Judge Keeps Eviction Ban in Place for Now, Blast in Afghan Mosque Kills 12 as Fighting Intensifies Between Taliban and Gov't Forces, Chilean Voters Select Delegates to Draft New Constitution, Colombian Protests Call for End to State Violence After Suicide of Teen Sexually Abused by Police, GOP Replaces Liz Cheney with Trump Loyalist Elise Stefanik, Texas Set to Enact Draconian Abortion Ban That Would Criminalize Patients, Medical Providers, Columbus, Ohio, to Pay $10 Million Settlement to Family of Andre Hill, Black Man Killed by Police, Jackson, Mississippi, Leaders Apologize for 1970 Jackson State Killings, Philadelphia Says Remains of Police Bombing Victims Were Not Destroyed

Republican senators in Washington are attempting to block Kristen Clarke, a prominent voting rights advocate, from a top Justice Department position. The Senate Judiciary Committee has deadlocked on an 11-11 vote on whether to move Clarke's nomination for assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to the Senate floor for a full vote. If she wins the vote, Clarke, who has served as the head of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and is a longtime champion of voting rights, a defender against hate and violent extremism, would be the first Black woman to hold the position. Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP, says the campaign against Clarke's nomination is based on falsehoods, including baseless claims of anti-Semitism. "The way that they've lied about her really is a new low," Jealous says, who links Republican obstruction to the party's larger assault on voting rights.

Palestinian scholar Hanan Ashrawi says Israel's latest assault on Gaza is turning life in the besieged territory into "sheer hell," aided by U.S. military and diplomatic support. "Israel has total license to use unbridled power to kill and destroy and maim and get away with it," Ashrawi says. We also speak with Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, who says President Joe Biden's continued defense of Israeli actions reflects long-standing erasure and dehumanization of Palestinians. "One wonders what proportion you have to have of Arab deaths, of Palestinian deaths, over Israeli deaths. Is it 20 to 1 before the United States finally begins to recognize that this is not legitimate self-defense?" Khalidi says. "This is a perfect illustration of the bias that has been a feature of American policy for many, many years."

As the death toll in Gaza reaches at least 119 amid Israel's escalation of its aerial assault, Congressmember Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the first Palestinian American woman elected to Congress, delivered a powerful speech on the House floor Thursday to denounce the violence and attempted erasure of the Palestinian people. "I am the only Palestinian American member of Congress now," Tlaib said. "I am a reminder to colleagues that Palestinians do indeed exist."

As MOVE family members and hundreds of supporters held a memorial Thursday to mark the deadly May 13, 1985, police bombing of their home in Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney announced the resignation of the city's top health official over stunning new revelations he cremated some of the bombing victims' remains, including bone fragments, without the knowledge or permission of the families. This comes amid an ongoing investigation into how the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University came into possession of bones thought to belong to one or two MOVE children killed in the bombing. The police bombing of the home of the radical, Black liberation, anti-police-brutality group killed six adults and five children and burned down two city blocks.

Palestinian Civilian Death Toll Mounts as Israel Pounds Gaza with Airstrikes and Heavy Artillery, Eight Killed in Israel by Palestinian Rocket Fire as Military Chief Threatens "Gaza Will Burn", President Biden Says Israel's Bombing and Shelling of Gaza Not a "Significant Overreaction", India to Make Russia's Sputnik V Vaccine Available Amid Devastating COVID-19 Toll, Japan Expands Coronavirus Emergency as Doctors Join Call to Cancel Summer Olympics, CDC Says Fully Vaccinated U.S. Residents Can Go Maskless in Most Settings, Hackers Post Personal Data of D.C. Police Officers Following Ransomware Attack, Active-Duty Marine Arrested for Assaulting Police Officer During January 6 Insurrection, Protesters "Evict" Enbridge After It Defies Governor's Order to Shut Down Line 5 Pipeline, U.K. Court Delivers Prison Sentence to Ex-Diplomat Who Has Reported on Persecution of Julian Assange, McDonald's Workers to Strike for $15/Hour, Call Out Pay Raise That Benefits Just 5% of Branches

We look at the crisis unfolding in Israel-Palestine with Nathan Thrall, former director of the Arab-Israeli Project at the International Crisis Group and writer now based in Jerusalem, who says despite a buildup of Israeli troops on the Gaza border, Israel wants to avoid a ground invasion of the besieged territory and return to the status quo that existed before the latest round of violence. "Israel's preference and its policy is to have Hamas remain in control of its little island of Gaza after this is finished," Thrall says.

Televised images of Israeli mobs attacking Palestinians have been widely denounced by Israeli media and public figures, but Palestinian writer Budour Hassan says the selective outrage ignores decades of occupation that have led to this point. "There is some mention of these lynch mobs that are attacking Palestinians in mixed cities. What is not mentioned is who emboldened these lynch mobs. We're talking about state-sponsored, decades-long discrimination, isolation and erasure that emboldened these groups," says Hassan, legal researcher for the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights, who joins us from Nazareth.

On Monday, we spoke to writer and poet Mohammed El-Kurd, whose family is facing forceful eviction from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. He also spoke on CNN and MSNBC. After these interviews, Israeli forces arrested him and forcibly removed him from Sheikh Jarrah. It was captured in a dramatic video shared widely on social media. "They just threw me in the street and told me that I couldn't come back into the neighborhood," El-Kurd says. "They've done this many times to us, many of my family members, many of my neighbors. They do this routinely." El-Kurd has been one of the most prominent Palestinian voices in recent weeks describing what is happening in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where Israeli authorities' planned evictions of several Palestinian families to give their homes to Jewish settlers has been widely described as "ethnic cleansing."

The death toll in Gaza has reached at least 83, including 17 children, and hundreds of people have been injured, as Israel's aerial bombardment of the besieged territory continues. Israel is now sending troops to the Gaza border for a possible ground invasion as many Palestinians are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The Biden administration on Wednesday gave Israel a green light to continue its assault, and Israel has reportedly rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire, despite growing international condemnation. Issam Adwan, Gaza project manager for We Are Not Numbers, a youth-led initiative to share Palestinian stories with the wider world, says many international observers make the mistake of viewing the latest violence in isolation. "They think this war is the only violation of human rights Israel is doing to the people of Gaza. Over the past 15 years, we have witnessed three brutal wars, and this is a fourth one," says Adwan.

Gaza Death Toll Soars Amid Israeli Airstrikes as Israeli Troops Mass for Ground Invasion, U.S. Blocks U.N. Resolution on Israel-Palestine as Biden Asserts Israel's "Right to Defend Itself", Chanting "Death to Arabs," Israeli Mobs Attack Arab-Owned Businesses and Assault Driver, India Reports Another 4,100 COVID-19 Deaths as Cases Begin to Decline in Delhi , Nurses Honor 400 Colleagues Who Lost Their Lives to COVID-19, Call for More Protections, U.S. COVID Numbers Fall as Doctors Debate Vaccinating Kids Ahead of Vulnerable People Abroad, U.N. Calls for Doubling Global Vaccine Production as Some Countries Have Yet to Receive Single Dose, Cuba Starts to Roll Out Two Domestic Vaccines , Delayed EPA Report Paints Dire Picture of Human-Caused Climate Crisis, Colonial Pipeline Resumes Operations Amid Fuel Shortages and Price Hikes, House GOP Ousts Liz Cheney from Leadership Role for Calling Out Trump Election Lies, Attorney General Merrick Garland Says White Supremacists Are Top Domestic Violence Threat , Judge Finds "Aggravating Factors" in Derek Chauvin's Murder of George Floyd, Sahrawi Human Rights Activist Sultana Khaya and Sister Raped by Moroccan Agents

As Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner attempts to overhaul the city's criminal justice system, he faces a Democratic primary election next week against Carlos Vega, a former homicide prosecutor who is one of three dozen veteran prosecutors fired by Krasner when he took office in 2018. We speak with Linn Washington, a journalist who has covered Philadelphia's criminal justice system for decades, who says powerful forces, including the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, have unfairly "tarred" Krasner for his reforms. "The FOP represents the very worst of the regressive approach to the criminal justice system, the very elements that Mr. Krasner is trying to reform," Washington says. He also discusses how Krasner's stance on Mumia Abu-Jamal may not cost him reelection but "will stain his reputation as a reformer."