Democracy Now!

Top leaders from Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are all absent from the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced he would boycott the conference after the U.S. said it would not invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. We speak with historian Alejandro Velasco and Roberto Lovato, award-winning Salvadoran American journalist and author, who calls the conference ​​”a failure of hemispheric proportions and a global embarrassment for the United States and for the Biden administration.” Lovato calls the Biden administration’s condemnation of some countries as anti-democratic hypocritical and says the absence of so many Latin American countries represents a decline in U.S. hegemony.

Progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was ousted by voters Tuesday in a special recall election, after facing well-funded tough-on-crime attacks by the real estate industry. “He made enemies with very, very deep pockets,” says Lara Bazelon, professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law and chair of Boudin’s Innocence Commission, who describes the primary challenge as a “perfect storm” to take down Boudin. Bazelon also discusses the mayoral race in Los Angeles, where billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso and Congressmember Karen Bass will head to a runoff in November after placing first and second in Tuesday’s primary. She says the two candidates will be competing for the Latinx voting bloc, which could ultimately determine the outcome of the election.

SF Voters Recall DA Chesa Boudin; L.A. Mayor’s Race Headed for Runoff, “My Mother’s Life Mattered”: Son of Buffalo Victim Pleads with Congress to Take Action, Matthew McConaughey: The Second Amendment Has Been Hijacked by “Deranged Individuals”, Gabby Giffords Speaks at Memorial for Gun Violence Victims at the National Mall, Arizona Police Officers Placed on Leave After Refusing to Help Drowning Man, North Carolina County to Pay Andrew Brown Jr.'s Family $3 Million over Police Killing, Millions at Risk of Starvation If Ukrainian Ports Don't Reopen, Latin American Leaders Boycott Summit of the Americas, State Dept. and Pentagon Failed to Count Civilians Killed by U.S. Weapons in Yemen, FBI Seizes Data from Retired Gen. John Allen in Qatar Lobbying Probe, Lebanon Arrests 64 Attempting to Sail to Europe, Federal Judge Rejects Louisiana’s Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Map, Louisiana Becomes 18th State to Enact Trans Student Athlete Ban, Yellen Warns Inflation Remains High; Fed Chair Aims to “Get Wages Down”, “Memphis 7” Starbucks Store Votes to Unionize

Criminal justice reporter Keri Blakinger speaks with us about her new memoir, out today, called “Corrections in Ink,” which details her path from aspiring professional figure skater to her two years spent in prison after she was arrested in her final semester of her senior year at Cornell University with six ounces of heroin. Blakinger says her relatively short jail sentence was a lucky case, which she attributes to progressive drug reform as well as her racial privilege. Blakinger went on to become an investigative journalist and now works at The Marshall Project, where she is the organization’s first formerly incarcerated reporter.

Police and bikers in Uvalde, Texas, are restricting a growing number of journalists from reporting on the aftermath of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 fourth graders and two teachers dead. “None of us can ever recall being treated in such a manner and our job impeded in such a manner,” says Nora Lopez, executive editor of San Antonio Express-News and president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. “Newsgathering is a constitutional right, so at some point this will cross into basically official oppression,” she says. Lopez also says residents are now afraid to speak with the press after one parent of two Robb Elementary students reported police had threatened to arrest her if she spoke with reporters about how she rushed the school to try to save her children.

We speak with Texas Democratic state Senator Roland Gutierrez about how the police botched the response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a small town that is part of Gutierrez’s congressional district. The shooting left 19 fourth graders and two teachers dead after the police waited over an hour before anyone confronted the gunman. Gutierrez says he can “get no answers” from the state’s Department of Public Safety about why the police waited or which officials were present in the school in response to the shooting. He is calling on Texas Governor Greg Abbott to hold a special legislative session to pass comprehensive gun safety measures in response to the massacre.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a vote of no confidence held by members of his own Conservative Party on Monday. The 211-148 vote came just days after Johnson was booed by conservative royalists when he arrived at a service to honor the queen’s 70-year reign. We speak with Priya Gopal, English professor at the University of Cambridge, who says the vote signals a division within the country’s Conservatives and an opening for progressives. “This reflects a mood shift among voters who handed Johnson a huge majority at the last elections,” says Gopal. She also explains how Johnson may be forced to resign if he isn’t able to gain enough parliamentary support to pass legislation.

Ukraine Says Russia Has Killed or Wounded 40,000 Since Invasion, U.N. Official Warns of Rape and Sexual Violence Committed by Russian Forces in Ukraine, Mexico’s AMLO Skips Summit of the Americas After Biden Bans Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, Caravan of Asylum Seekers Departs Southern Mexico for U.S. Border, U.K.'s Boris Johnson Narrowly Survives No-Confidence Vote by Conservative MPs, GOP's John Cornyn Says Senators Need More Time for Bipartisan Talks on Gun Violence, New York Governor Signs Package of Gun Control Bills, Proud Boys Leader Charged with Seditious Conspiracy over January 6 Capitol Riot, Jessica Cisneros Requests Recount in Texas Primary Runoff Against Rep. Henry Cuellar, Journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous Expert Bruno Pereira Go Missing in Brazil’s Amazon

We speak with the chair of the California Reparations Task Force, which is the first in the United States and has just released a landmark report calling for “comprehensive reparations” for Black people harmed by a historical system of state-sanctioned oppression. While the state report is unprecedented, reparations are “first and foremost a federal responsibility,” says attorney Kamilah Moore.

The House committee investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol will hold its first public hearing on Thursday after 10 months of meeting in private. The hearing will be the first of eight and is expected to draw on roughly 1,000 depositions and interviews. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Will Bunch says the success of the hearings will hinge on whether the committee can convince the public that the January 6 attack “wasn’t just a one-off event” but rather “part of an ongoing threat to democracy.” Bunch also speaks about the Pennsylvania Senate race, which he says “is life or death for democracy,” as well as the mass shooting in Philadelphia on Saturday, which left three dead and 11 injured.

Russian missiles struck Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv for the first time in over a month on Sunday. This comes as Russian and Ukrainian forces continue to battle over control of the eastern city of Severodonetsk and Russian President Vladimir Putin is warning Western nations against supplying longer-range missile systems to Ukraine. “The longer this war goes on, the much more difficult it is to end it,” says Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher of The Nation magazine and columnist for The Washington Post. Vanden Heuvel says U.S. corporate media is responsible for what she calls a “one-sided debate” on Ukraine, which is greenlighting unprecedented spending on weapons over the importance of negotiations.

Putin Warns U.S. and NATO Against Sending Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine, Finland and Sweden Join NATO War Games in Baltic Sea, Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff Warned Secret Service of Threat Posed by Donald Trump, U.S. Mass Shootings Over the Weekend Leave 15 Dead and 60 Wounded, Buffalo-Area GOP Rep. Chris Jacobs Faces Backlash over Guns, Won’t Run for Reelection, Sen. Chris Murphy Optimistic About Bipartisan Talks on Gun Violence, “They Could Have Saved Many More Lives”: Uvalde Mother Blasts Police Response, 49 Killed, Hundreds Injured in Bangladesh Chemical Fire, At Least 50 Killed in Southwestern Nigeria as Gunmen Attack Catholic Church, North Korea Tests Missile After U.S. and South Korea Hold Naval War Games, Washington Post: U.S. Support Critical to Saudi Airstrikes in Yemen That Killed Civilians, Biden Excludes Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from Summit of the Americas, Spanish Court Summons Mike Pompeo over CIA Plot to Kidnap or Kill Julian Assange, Gina Haspel Personally Observed Torture at Secret CIA Black Site, Psychologist Testifies, U.K. Conservatives to Hold Vote of No Confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Atmospheric CO2 Hits 420 Parts Per Million, 50% Higher Than Pre-Industrial Levels, Wisconsin Judge Found Bound and Murdered in Own Home, Ohio Legislature Bans Transgender Girls from Female-Only School Sports

The Biden administration this week canceled almost $6 billion in student loan debt for borrowers who attended the now-defunct network of for-profit schools known as Corinthian Colleges, which defrauded thousands of students before being shut down in 2015. We speak to two activists from the Debt Collective, a group working to end the student loan crisis, about the ongoing fight for full federal student debt cancellation. Pamela Hunt was a former Corinthian College student who accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt and was one of the original 15 students who refused to pay their loans. “It’s a very monumental win,” she says, adding that her crushing debt prevented her from becoming a homeowner and contributed to the stress of her cancer diagnosis. “If student debt is illegitimate, why not cancel all of it?” says Braxton Brewington, press secretary of the Debt Collective.

We speak to San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who was elected in 2019 after promising to end cash bail, curb mass incarceration and address police misconduct. He now faces a recall campaign, with opponents blaming rising crime rates on his policies, even though sources like the San Francisco Chronicle report that crime rates have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Boudin says the recall campaign is spearheaded by wealthy donors, the real estate industry and Republicans who desire a conservative DA who will not hold police and other powerful actors accountable. Opponents who attack Boudin’s social justice reform without any of their own proposals “are a scourge to democracy,” says Boudin. “We don’t need to jail our way out of poverty or other social programs.”

As President Biden calls on Congress to enact new gun control measures, we go to Buffalo to speak with Cariol Horne, a racial justice advocate and former Buffalo police officer. She says the nation must address white supremacy, as well as gun control, following last month’s massacre in Buffalo, when a white supremacist attacked a grocery story, fatally shooting 10 people, all of whom were Black. “He victimized everyone in that community, even the people who arrived on the scene after it happened and watched the carnage that he left behind,” says Horne. “This is racist terrorism. We have to call it what it is.” Horne also talks about how she was fired from the Buffalo police force for stopping a white officer from choking a Black man who was handcuffed.

In Primetime Address, Biden Asks Congress to Pass Gun Control Laws, Three Killed and Two Wounded in Mass Shootings in Iowa and Wisconsin, House Committee Advances Package of Gun Controls, Ohio GOP Approves Bill to Arm Educators After One Day of Gun Training, Zelensky Says Russia Controls One-Fifth of Ukrainian Territory, Biden to Visit Saudi Arabia, Will Ask Mohammed bin Salman to Pump More Oil, Yemen’s Houthis Extend Ceasefire with Saudi-Led Coalition, Israel Kills Four Palestinians in 48 Hours, Including 17-Year-Old Odeh Sadaka, Funerals Held for Haitians Who Died in Mexico While Waiting for U.S. to Hear Asylum Claims, House Select Committee to Hold Primetime Public Hearing on Jan. 6 Insurrection, Journalist Ricardo Ávila, Who Covered Social Movements, Murdered in Honduras, “Massive Human Rights Violations”: Amnesty Says 18 Killed in Crackdown on El Salvador Gangs, Activist Sultana Khaya Arrives in Spain After 500+ Days of House Arrest in Western Sahara

In a devastating new report, Oxfam says one person is likely dying from hunger every 48 seconds in drought-ravaged Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. We speak with Shannon Scribner, director of humanitarian work at Oxfam America, about how the hunger crisis has worsened since an earlier report was released 10 years ago. She says climate change and the recent war in Ukraine have worsened already dire conditions in East Africa. Researchers have been warning for years that drought and famine would be on the horizon, says Scribner. “We really need a system that is more responsive to those early warnings.”

As U.S. lawmakers struggle to reach a consensus on legislation to curb gun violence in the wake of mass shootings, the U.S. also remains the largest international supplier of arms, funneling billions in military weaponry into wars in Ukraine and Yemen. Until there is a serious curtailment of U.S. militarism, it will continue to prioritize U.S. lives over lives abroad, says Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, whose new piece is headlined, “How About Some Gun Control at the Pentagon?” International arms control advocate Rebecca Peters describes U.S. efforts to block weapons control efforts at the United Nations and adds that New Zealand’s swift action on gun control following the Christchurch mosque killings in 2019 should give the U.S. impetus to do the same.

Friday marks the 100th day of the Russian war in Ukraine, and the United States warns the war could continue for many more months. We speak with Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His latest piece for The Atlantic argues that the U.S. is right to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia; however, without a clear strategy for peace and ending the war, the U.S. is at risk of repeating the mistakes made during the Cold War, when “containment of the Soviet Union in Europe was turned into a global crusade against communism.”

Five Dead in Mass Shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Buffalo Grocery Shooting Suspect Indicted for Domestic Terrorism and Murder, Uvalde Incident Commander Ordered Border Patrol Not to Enter Classroom During Massacre, Gov. Abbott Refuses to Convene Legislative Session on Gun Violence, McConnell Won’t Cite Guns as Key Source of Uvalde Massacre, Russia Captures Most of Severodonetsk, Last Major City Held by Ukraine in Luhansk, U.S. to Send Another $700 Million in Military Aid to Ukraine, Ghufran Harun Warasneh Is Second Palestinian Journalist Killed by Israeli Forces in 2022, House Democrats Urge Blinken to Halt Expulsion of Palestinians, WHO Warns of Undetected Monkeypox Spread as Confirmed Cases Top 550, U.S. Coronavirus Czar Warns of Unnecessary Deaths Without New COVID Funding, Biden Says He Was Unaware of Baby Formula Crisis Until April, Justice Department Criminal Probe into Fake 2020 Electors Focuses on Trump’s Lawyers, GOP Operative Outlines Plan to Block Vote Counts at Democratic-Majority Precincts, Biden Administration Cancels $5.8 Billion in Corinthian Colleges Student Loan Debt, Florida Abortion Providers File Suit to Block 15-Week Ban, Jury Awards Millions to Johnny Depp for Defamation After Ex-Wife Amber Heard Describes Abuse, Protests Erupt After Video Shows Brazilian Police Gassing Man to Death

Civil rights groups are challenging a series of racist U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have been used for over a century to legally justify discrimination against people in Puerto Rico and other U.S.-occupied territories. The rulings are known as the Insular Cases and have allowed the federal government to deny Puerto Ricans living on the island voting rights, access to public social programs like Medicaid and food stamps, and other equal protections guaranteed to those residing on the mainland. The renewed effort to overturn the Insular Cases comes after the Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration to continue denying Supplemental Security Income benefits to seniors and people with disabilities living in Puerto Rico. We speak with Lía Fiol-Matta, senior counsel for LatinoJustice PRLDEF, which is helping to lead the new campaign, and with Democracy Now! co-host Juan González, who has long reported on this issue. “The Insular Cases established a doctrine that has no constitutional basis,” says Fiol-Matta.

Calls are growing for the Pentagon to acknowledge that a U.S. drone strike on March 29, 2018, in Yemen mistakenly struck civilians. Adel Al Manthari was the only survivor of the drone strike, which killed his four cousins as they were driving a car across the village of Al Uqla. The Pentagon refuses to admit the men were civilians and it made a mistake. Now supporters are demanding the U.S. pay for the devastating injuries Al Manthari sustained and fund the surgery he urgently needs. “He’s effectively fighting for his quality of life and his dignity and to survive,” says Aisha Dennis, project manager on extrajudicial executions for the rights group Reprieve. “It’s a scandal that the Pentagon can completely dodge responsibility,” says Kathy Kelly, peace activist and a coordinator of the Ban Killer Drones campaign, which is fundraising for Al Manthari’s medical care.

In the aftermath of the mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo, demand for gun control at the state and federal level is mounting. We speak with Frank Smyth, longtime investigative journalist who has been covering the National Rifle Association, about the gun lobby’s grip on U.S. lawmakers. He says the Democratic strategy to “find common ground” with conservatives is failing, as the growing gun rights movement refuses to do the same, and discusses how the NRA’s history of hypocrisy and corruption has weakened the formal, centralized power of the group. “The NRA is imploding … but the ideology that they have cooked at the same time they are waning is stronger than ever,” says Smyth.

Uvalde School Police Chief Refuses to Cooperate with State Investigation, Sworn In as City Councilmember, Uvalde Shooting: 911 Dispatch Audio Reveals Police Were Alerted to Children’s Calls for Help, U.S. to Send Longer-Range Rockets to Ukraine, Russia Cuts Off Some Natural Gas Supplies to Europe, Senegalese President Criticizes Russia Sanctions for Worsening Food Crisis, U.N. Warns of “Exponential Rise” in Civilian Killings, Abuses in Mali, Rebel Group Kills 27 in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sri Lanka Battles Food, Fuel and Medical Supply Shortages as Economic Crisis Worsens, Justice Dept. Subpoenas Former Trump Adviser Peter Navarro, Missouri Investigates Kansas City Police Shooting of Pregnant Black Woman Leonna Hale, Minneapolis to Pay $600K to Photojournalist Who Was Shot in Eye by Police, Jury Acquits Ex-Clinton Lawyer for Lying to FBI in Trump-Russia Probe, 11 Die, 20 Missing in Rare May Hurricane in Mexico, HHS Launches Office of Environmental Justice, WHO Warns Tobacco Is Poisoning the Planet

Colombia’s highly anticipated presidential elections on Sunday resulted in victory for two anti-establishment candidates: leftist Gustavo Petro and Trump-like right-wing millionaire Rodolfo Hernández. The two will face off in a runoff election on June 19, the outcome of which will determine whether Colombia addresses worsening inequality under Petro or ushers in a new era of populist conservatism under Hernández. Both options seem to answer to previous years’ mass uprisings in the country that protested the corruption within the state leadership. “What is going on in Colombia is a popular uprising now being expressed through the electoral process against the status quo,” says Colombian activist Manuel Rozental. “People want to vote against the establishment because there are very few and very small avenues to act politically otherwise.”

The incompetence of the local police response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary has drawn attention to the inadequacy of police for stopping gun violence. We speak with Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where police took three hours to respond after an emergency call, and 13 people may have bled to death during that time. “We have to be honest about stopping gun violence before it erupts in the halls of our school, instead of waiting to assess whether or not police officers responded in the right way once it’s over,” says Wolf, who is now a gun control and LGBTQ rights advocate.

Democratic Texas state Senator Roland Gutierrez, who represents the town of Uvalde, has been meeting with family members of victims from last week’s mass shooting and interrupted a press conference by Republican Governor Greg Abbott last week to demand a special session of the state Legislature to address gun violence. “The failure begins with Greg Abbott, who’s undergone seven or eight mass shootings in his tenure, and he’s done nothing but give greater access to militarized weapons,” says Gutierrez. “We have to take militarized weapons off the street, and if we’re not going to do that, maybe that’s a federal issue.”

Uvalde Police Waited Over an Hour to Confront Shooter as Students Begged for Help, Texas State Senator Confronts Gov. Greg Abbott: “We Have to Do Something”, Canada to Freeze Purchases and Transfers of Handguns, Thousands Protest Outside NRA Convention as Trump Calls for More Guns in Schools, French Journalist Among the Dead as Russian Forces Press into Severodonetsk, EU Pledges to Gradually Ban Most Russian Oil Imports, with Hungary Exempted, Iran Seizes Greek Oil Tankers After Greece Confiscates Iranian Oil, Flooding and Landslides Kill at Least 91 in Brazil, Agatha Hits Mexico as Eastern Pacific’s Strongest-Ever May Hurricane, “Earth Is Already Too Hot and Unsafe”: Vanuatu Declares Climate Emergency, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro to Face Rodolfo Hernández in Presidential Runoff, China Eases COVID Restrictions in Shanghai and Beijing, 20-Year-Old Emanuel Sullivan Becomes 22nd Rikers Island Prisoner to Die Since 2021, Starbucks Labor Organizers Win 100th Unionized Store

Alabama has become the first U.S. state to make it a felony to provide gender-affirming medical care to trans youth. The Alabama law is the latest in a series of escalating conservative attacks on LGBTQ people in the United States. “This is all happening in the same context that we’re seeing the criminalization of abortion care, that we’re continuing to see the massive suppression of votes across the country,” says ACLU attorney Chase Strangio, deputy director for trans justice with the organization’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “All of these things are interconnected and creating chaos and fear among individuals, families and communities.”

During a recent meeting of the House Judiciary Committee, Democratic Congressmember Lucy McBath of Georgia shared her personal story about accessing reproductive care after experiencing a stillbirth. In doing so, she pointed out how anti-abortion politicians and legislators fail to see the medical necessity of abortion in instances such as hers. “We can be the nation that rolls back the clock, that rolls back the rights of women, and that strips them of their very liberty, or we can be the nation of choice, the nation where every woman can make her own choice,” says McBath.

As the Supreme Court appears poised to strike down Roe v. Wade, we speak with law professor Michele Goodwin, author of “Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood.” She describes how the U.S. has historically endangered and denied essential health services to Black and Brown women, and calls new abortion restrictions “the new Jane Crow,” warning that they will further criminalize reproductive health and encourage medical professionals to breach their patients’ confidentiality and report self-administered abortions to law enforcement.

Heavy fighting is continuing in eastern Ukraine as Russia attempts to seize the entire Donbas region, where fighting began in 2014. We speak to independent journalist Billy Nessen, who just left the city of Severodonetsk, where Russian shelling has exponentially increased. He says a possible Russian capture of Severodonetsk would be a “big propaganda victory for Russia,” but predicts that Ukrainians are not yet at the point where they are willing to concede.

Wednesday marked two years since George Floyd was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, setting off worldwide protests against police violence. But has anything in Minneapolis changed? We spoke with longtime local activist Robin Wonsley Worlobah, who is also now Minneapolis’s first Black democratic socialist city councilmember. Wonsley Worlobah says the mayor has “not enacted any meaningful and effective oversight over one of the most dysfunctional, racist and violent policing departments in the country right now.” She says a big-business, pro-police coalition worked with politicians to build a multimillion-dollar campaign against the Black Lives Matter movement, successfully preventing any changes to the city’s police budget and public safety system. “If there was a way to go backwards, we’ve done it.”

Shortly before the massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, we spoke with author and journalist Mark Follman about the epidemic of mass shootings in the United States. Follman is the author of the new book “Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America,” in which he closely examines how a community-based prevention method called “behavior threat assessment” can help prevent mass shootings. The method “brings together collaborative expertise, primarily in mental health and law enforcement” to recognize behavioral signs in perpetrators that often lead to shootings. Follman also discusses the “copycat” issue among mass shooters and explains why he thinks it’s harmful for the media to sensationalize perpetrators of mass shootings.

Criticism Mounts over Slow Police Response to Uvalde School Shooting, “Joe Died of a Broken Heart”: Husband of Teacher Slain in Uvalde Dies of Heart Attack, Toronto Schools Lock Down as Police Shoot Man Carrying Gun Near Elementary School, U.S. Students Walk Out of Classes to Demand Gun Control Laws, GOP Senators Filibuster Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, Democrats Demand Action on Gun Control as Senate Breaks for Recess , Some Texas Republicans Cancel Plans to Attend NRA Convention in Houston, Russian Forces Advance in Eastern Ukraine, Capture Strategic Town of Lyman, Sudanese Forces Fire on Protesters Demanding End to Military Rule, Leftist Gustavo Petro Leads Polls Ahead of Colombia’s Presidential Election, Study Finds 1 in 5 Adults Who Survive COVID-19 Suffer Long-Term Symptoms, Former Black Panther Sundiata Acoli Freed from Prison After Half-Century, Oklahoma Governor Signs Bill Banning Most Abortions at Fertilization, Justice Department Won’t Charge FBI Agents Who Botched Larry Nassar Sex Abuse Probe, “Only Yes Means Yes”: Spanish Parliament Passes Sexual Consent Bill

As fighting continues in Ukraine, we speak with journalist Patrick Cockburn, who says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is peddling a “vague triumphalism” which is “obscuring just how dangerous and how bad the situation has become.” His recent CounterPunch piece is headlined “London and Washington are Being Propelled by Hubris — Just as Putin was.”

The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday it would try to temporarily pause “immigration enforcement activities” in the town of Uvalde, Texas, so families could freely seek assistance and reunite with their loved ones following Tuesday’s massacre at Robb Elementary, which left 19 students and two teachers dead. The school’s population is nearly 90% Latinx, and Uvalde is part of a heavily militarized border zone in South Texas. Officials must take proactive steps to protect immigrants, especially those who are survivors of crime, says César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, author of “Crimmigration Law,” who grew up in the region and is professor of law at Ohio State University.

After the 1996 Port Arthur mass shooting, Australia passed sweeping new gun control measures that largely ended mass shootings in the country. We speak with Rebecca Peters, an international arms control advocate who led the campaign to reform Australia’s gun laws after the massacre. She recalls how in just 10 days the prime minister brokered a deal with local officials to pass higher standards around gun safety that would prevent any mass shootings for the next 20 years. “We don’t think at all about the possibility of being murdered as we go about our daily lives in Australia,” says Peters.

As people mourn Tuesday’s mass shooting that left dead 19 students and two teachers, Republicans who still oppose any new gun control measures face growing outrage. “This is a uniquely American problem, and it’s happening with such frequency and such devastation, it’s almost hard to wrap your mind around,” says Robin Lloyd, managing director of the gun violence prevention group Giffords. The NRA has weakened in recent years, but she says the corporate gun lobby is “alive and well” and has prevented any meaningful U.S. gun safety measures for over two decades.

Chilling Details Emerge of Gunman’s Final Moments Ahead of Texas School Massacre, Beto O’Rourke to Texas Governor: “This Is Totally Predictable When You Choose Not to Do Anything”, Pope Francis Demands Action on Gun Violence After Texas School Shooting, Ukraine’s Zelensky Blasts Henry Kissinger over Proposal to “Appease” Russia, Russian Duma Votes to Abolish Upper Age Limit for Military Enlistment, Citing War in Ukraine, Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán Seizes Emergency Powers, 14 Killed in Attacks Across Afghanistan, Mideast Sandstorms Lead to Hospitalizations, Missed Classes and Halt to Public Services, Crop Yields Plummet in Pakistan Amid Extreme Heat, Biden Administration to Ban Mining Waste Disposal from Alaska’s Bristol Bay, Climate Activists in Davos Demand World Leaders Act on Climate & Russian Invasion, Brazilian Military Police Raid Leaves at Least 23 Dead in Rio de Janeiro Favela, Biden Issues Executive Order on Policing on Anniversary of George Floyd’s Murder, Goldman Environmental Foundation Awards 2022 Prizes for Grassroots Activism

We speak with Manuel Oliver, co-founder of the gun reform group Change the Ref, about Tuesday’s mass shooting at an elementary school that left 19 children and two adults dead in Uvalde, Texas. Oliver is the father of Joaquin, one of the 17 students killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He encourages those closely affected by Tuesday’s shooting to channel their grief into action on gun control, and calls on celebrities to commit to the fight.

Hours after Tuesday’s mass shooting that killed at least 19 students and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy passionately addressed Republicans on the Senate floor in a call for action on gun control. “I’m here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues: Find a path forward here,” said Murphy. “Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.”

The National Rifle Association still plans to host its annual meeting Friday in Houston, Texas, despite Tuesday’s mass shooting at an elementary school that left 19 children and two adults dead in the state. More than 55,000 people are set to attend and hear speeches by former President Trump and Republican Texas lawmakers including Governor Greg Abbott and Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn. Michael Spies, senior staff writer at The Trace, says the NRA convention will serve as a “Republican pep rally” to uphold “an absolutist vision of the Second Amendment,” and argues the Republican Party’s devotion to unrestricted gun access goes beyond the NRA, whose power he says is slowly weakening. “The machine works on autopilot now,” says Spies, who also discusses a pending Supreme Court case which could do away with a New York law requiring gun owners to hold a permit to carry concealed guns.

Nineteen children and two teachers were shot dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday by an 18-year-old who had earlier shot and critically wounded his grandmother. The gunman was shot and killed by law enforcement. The attack was the deadliest school shooting since the massacre in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, in 2012 and comes just 10 days after an 18-year-old self-described white supremacist attacked a grocery store in the heart of Buffalo’s African American community. We go to Austin to speak with Nicole Golden, executive director of Texas Gun Sense, who says Texas lawmakers have widely opposed gun violence prevention legislation supported by the majority of Texas voters. She also denounces Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s recommendation to arm teachers.

19 Children, 2 Teachers Killed at Elementary School Mass Shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Senate to Hold Hearing for Biden’s Pick to Head ATF, Georgia: Kemp and Raffensperger Defeat Trump-Endorsed Candidates, Texas: Rep. Henry Cuellar-Jessica Cisneros Race Is Too Close to Call, North Korea Tests Missiles, Including Possible ICBM, Japan Accuses China and Russia of Flying Warplanes Near Its Airspace, World Food Programme Calls on Russia to Lift Ukraine Blockade to Allow for Grain Exports, AP and CNN Investigations: Israeli Forces Killed Al Jazeera Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, U.N. Human Rights Chief to Visit Xinjiang; Hacked Chinese Police Documents on Uyghurs Published, Nigeria: Boko Haram Kills at Least 50 in Borno State Attack, Climate Activists Disrupt Shell Shareholder Meeting, Iraqi Man Arrested for George W. Bush Assassination Plot Involving FBI Informants, Trans Girls Banned from Competing in Girls’ School Sports in Indiana, GLAAD Condemns Ricky Gervais Netflix Special

President Biden is on his first trip to Asia as president to meet with other leaders from the “Quad” — Japan, India and Australia — as part of efforts to counter China’s growing power in the region. During the trip, Biden has contradicted longstanding U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan by vowing to defend it militarily if China attacks. “This idea that the United States is obligated to come to the defense of Taiwan if it [China] attacked, is simply not U.S. policy,” says Michael Swaine, director of the Quincy Institute’s East Asia program. Swaine says the official U.S.-China policy on Taiwan — which prioritizes peaceful unification over military force — has been subtly weakened by both sides, and “President Biden’s recent comment weakens it even further.”

We look in depth at “The Ransom,” a new series in The New York Times that details how France devastated Haiti’s economy by forcing Haiti to pay massive reparations for the loss of slave labor after enslaved Haitians rebelled, founding the world’s first Black republic in 1804. We speak with historians Westenley Alcenat and Gerald Horne on the story of Haiti’s finances and how Haitian demands for reparations have been repeatedly shut down. Alcenat says the series “exposes the rest of the world to a knowledge that actually has existed for over a hundred years,” and while he welcomes the series, he demands The New York Times apologize for publishing racist Haitian stereotypes in 2010 by columnist David Brooks. Horne also requests The New York Times make the revelatory documents that the series cites accessible to other historians. He says the series will “hopefully cause us to reexamine the history of this country and move away from the propaganda point that somehow the United States was an abolitionist republic when actually it was the foremost slaveholder’s republic.”

U.N.: Conflicts Displace Record 100 Million People Around the Globe , At Least 17 Rohingya Refugees Drown Attempting to Flee Burma by Boat, 3 Dead, 4 Missing After Boat Carrying Asylum Seekers Capsizes Off Mexican Coast, Refugees at U.S. Border Protest Title 42 Expulsions, 3 Killed in Yemen’s Capital as Houthis Shoot Down Saudi Spy Drone, Russian Cluster Bombs Fall on Kharkiv , Ukraine’s Zelensky Says He’ll Only Negotiate with Russia’s Putin, Russian Diplomat Resigns over Ukraine War: “I’ve Never Been So Ashamed of My Country”, Pfizer: Vaccine 80% Effective Against Symptomatic Omicron Infection in Young Kids, CDC Says Gay and Bisexual Men at Higher Risk of Contracting Monkeypox, Supreme Court Limits Legal Options for Death Row Prisoners with Ineffective Counsel, Amnesty International: Worldwide Use of Death Penalty Surged in 2021, Mike Pence Breaks with Donald Trump over Georgia Gubernatorial Endorsement, Activists Erase $1.7 Million in Student Debt for Black Women at Bennett College, DOJ Says Federal Agents Must Intervene in Excessive Force Cases, Shell Consultant Quits, Citing “Huge Risks from Climate Change”

This week marks the second anniversary of the police murder of George Floyd. We speak with Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, who have just published an in-depth new book, “His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice,” that tells the story of structural racism in the U.S. through Floyd’s own story. “This is an American story. It shows how American poverty works, how American wealth works, and George Floyd was on the wrong side of the line because of the color of his skin,” says Olorunnipa. “He was living in a world where he was trying to get better, but there weren’t a lot of supports to do it,” says Samuels. “It’s important for us not to leave behind the millions of other George Floyds that are operating in silence, not getting the same attention, and who are experiencing some of the same struggles and troubles that he did during his life.”

In what is being described as a “greenslide,” voters in Australia topple the prime minister, ending nearly a decade of conservative rule. The main issue? Climate change. Voters elected Anthony Albanese of the center-left Labor Party as their new prime minister on Saturday, ousting the right-wing, pro-coal Scott Morrison, who had served as Australia’s prime minister since 2018. The Labor Party won the most seats in Parliament, and voters overwhelmingly backed candidates pushing for stronger climate action. “We have lived through the most catastrophic climate in Australia since the last election,” says Australian climate scientist and activist Tim Flannery, who describes a wave of climate-fueled fires, floods and drought under the rule of right-wing, pro-coal Morrison. “Climate is the most important issue this last election,” in part “because of the catastrophic impacts we’ve seen in Australia since the previous election just three years ago,” says Flannery.