Democracy Now!

The White House convened a virtual summit on the climate crisis this week, with 40 leaders representing the world's major economies pledging cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. President Joe Biden said the U.S. would cut its emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade — nearly double the target set by the Obama administration six years ago. Biden's pledge fulfills "a basic requirement of the U.S. being in the Paris Climate Agreement," says New Republic staff writer Kate Aronoff, but still does not go far enough. "This is well, well below what the United States really owes the rest of the world, based on its historical responsibility for causing the climate crisis and the massive, massive resources this country has to transition very quickly off of fossil fuels."

Mourners gathered in Minnesota Thursday for the funeral of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was shot dead by a white police officer during a traffic stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center. Daunte's mother, Katie Wright, fought back tears as she remembered her son. "When he walked in the room, he lit up the room. He was a brother, a jokester, and he was loved by so many. He's going to be so missed." We air excerpts of Wright's funeral service.

Biden Pledges to Halve U.S. Emissions Compared to 2005 Levels as Virtual Climate Summit Opens, House Committee Hears Testimony on Role of Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Preventing Climate Action, New York City Sues Big Oil over Decades of False Advertising About Climate Crisis, India Posts World Record Coronavirus Case Count for Second Consecutive Day, South Africa Resumes Use of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine, Study Confirms Elevated Risk of COVID-19 for Expectant Mothers and Babies, House Votes to Make "Washington, Douglass Commonwealth" the 51st State, Senate Passes Bill Targeting Anti-Asian Hate Crimes, Pro-Trump Sen. Josh Hawley Votes No, House Passes NO BAN Act to Prohibit Religion-Based Immigration Orders, Report: Haitian President Jovenel Moïse Sanctioned Attacks on Civilians, Dems Introduce Act to Sanction President Juan Orlando Hernández, Cut Aid to Honduran Police & Army, Indigenous Governor Sandra Liliana Peña Killed in Cauca, Colombia, Kuwaiti Women Demand Justice and Protections After Stabbing Murder Stokes Outrage, NYC Woman Who Gave Birth While Handcuffed Reaches Settlement with City, NYPD, SCOTUS Rules Against Limiting Life Prison Terms for Juveniles, Protesters Demand Justice for Andrew Brown Jr., Lawyer Demands Release of Bodycam Footage

On Earth Day, we speak with two of the more than two dozen Indigenous authors of a new book that looks at the history of resistance against colonialism and capitalism and lays out a vision for the future to address the climate crisis. "The Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth" details the centuries of Indigenous resistance that created the movement at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access pipeline and what movements centering justice for Indigenous people must look like. The book offers a "people's program to prevent extinction," says Melanie Yazzie, assistant professor of Native American studies and American studies at the University of New Mexico and co-author of "The Red Deal." "The plan is really clear. The stakes are really clear," Yazzie says. "We draw centrally from Indigenous movements over the last couple of decades for decolonization." We also speak with Uahikea Maile, an assistant professor of Indigenous politics at the University of Toronto - St. George and one of the book's co-authors.

We look at the state of the pandemic and vaccine rollout in the United States and around the world with Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Hotez is part of a team at Baylor University that is working with a private Indian company to develop a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine. The task of developing a simple vaccine is "daunting," Dr. Hotez says. "We're talking about 5 billion doses of vaccine. And the question is: Where do you get 5 billion doses of vaccine?" he says. "We're trying to come through with something that uses the same old-school technology as the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine that's been around for four decades."

We go to Mumbai, India, for an update on the state of crisis in the country as COVID-19 cases surge and hospitals run out of oxygen. India recently recorded 315,000 new cases in a single day, the highest daily toll in any country since the start of the pandemic, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has continued to hold large campaign rallies. Public health experts have blamed the surge on a number of factors, including the government's reluctance to impose another round of lockdowns, the spread of a double mutant variant of the virus, a recent Hindu festival attended by millions, and a slow vaccination drive. India has led efforts to force Big Pharma to waive patent rights on COVID-19 vaccines, but the United States and other wealthy nations have blocked such a move at the World Trade Organization. "It is an apocalyptic situation in India right now," says journalist Rana Ayyub. "Clearly, we have not learned our lessons from the pandemic last year."

India Reports Over 315,000 COVID-19 Infections, the Single Worst Daily Toll of Pandemic, Latin American Nations Suffer "Worst Moment" of Coronavirus Pandemic, U.S. Vaccination Pace Slows as White House Hits Goal of 200 Million Doses in 100 Days, Department of Justice Launches Civil Probe into Minneapolis Police Misconduct, Funeral Services Held for Daunte Wright, 20-Year-Old Black Man Killed by White Minnesota Cop, NC Protesters Demand Release of Footage Showing Police Killing of Andrew Brown, Columbus Police Body-Camera Footage Shows Officer Shot 16-Year-Old Ma'Khia Bryant Four Times, GOP Lawmakers in Iowa and Oklahoma Pass Anti-Protest Bills, EU to Cut Carbon Emissions by 55% from 1990 Levels, Environmental Groups Urge U.S. to Do More to Curb Emissions as Biden Hosts Climate Summit, U.S. Capitol Cop Instructed Personnel to Monitor for Anti-Trump Protesters on Jan. 6, Hundreds Arrested in Russia During Pro-Navalny Protests, President Putin Warns Western Nations Against Crossing "Red Line", Human Rights Watch Condemns Thai Crackdown, Detention of Activists Who Insult the Monarchy, Senate Confirms Vanita Gupta as Associate Attorney General , U.S. Judge Orders Los Angeles to Shelter All Unhoused Residents of Skid Row, Manhattan District Attorney Will Stop Prosecuting Sex Work, Bernie Sanders and Pramila Jayapal Unveil Bill That Would Tax Wall Street to Make College Free

A Minnesota jury's conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin on three counts for murdering George Floyd does not go far enough in dismantling police brutality and state-sanctioned violence, says historian and author Khalil Gibran Muhammad. "We know that while the prosecution was performing in such a way to make the case that Derek Chauvin was a rogue actor, the truth is that policing should have been on trial in that case," Muhammad says. "We don't have a mechanism in our current system of laws in the way that we treat individual offenses to have that accountability and justice delivered." Muhammad also lays out the racist history of slave patrols that led to U.S. police departments, which he details his book, "The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America."

The police murder of George Floyd added jet fuel to a nationwide push to defund the police. We go to Minneapolis to speak with Kandace Montgomery, co-executive director of Black Visions Collective, about their response to the guilty verdict for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd and an update on the push to divest from Minneapolis police and invest in communities.

A jury in Minneapolis has convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin on three counts for murdering George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds last year. The jury reached its decision after 10 hours of deliberation. Derek Chauvin will be sentenced in two months. He faces up to 40 years in prison for the most serious charge, second-degree murder. He is the first white police officer in Minnesota to ever be convicted of killing a Black man. We feature reactions from people gathered outside the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, comments from George Floyd's brother and nephew, as well as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Jury Finds Derek Chauvin Guilty on All Counts for Murdering George Floyd, Police Shoot Dead 16-Year-Old Ma'Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio, Judge Denies Dismissal of Prison Sentence for Officer Who Shot and Killed Walter Scott in 2015, India Faces COVID "Storm"; AMLO Gets COVID Vaccine; U.S. Warns Against Travel to 80% of Globe, Johnson & Johnson Resumes European Rollout After Regulator Says Benefits Outweigh Blood Clot Risk, AOC and Sen. Markey Reintroduce Green New Deal as Biden Sets Ambitious Emissions Target, Idriss Déby's Son Named Interim Leader Following Chadian President's Death, Journalists in Over 100 Countries Have Been Blocked from Reporting on Pandemic, Prominent Pakistani Journalist Absar Alam Shot and Injured, 250 NGOs Call on Wealthy Countries to Fund Hunger Relief as 270 Million Face Acute Food Insecurity, Biden Administration Voices Support for Making Washington, D.C., a State, L.A. Plans to Launch Guaranteed Basic Income Program, Standing Rock Activist Who Was Jailed After Refusing to Testify Before Grand Jury Is Released, Mumia Abu-Jamal Undergoes Successful Heart Surgery as Advocates Continue to Call for His Release

Authorities in Indianapolis say the mother of Brandon Hole, the former FedEx employee who shot and killed eight people at a company facility last Thursday, called police in 2020 to say her son might commit "suicide by cop," prompting them to seize his pump-action shotgun. But officials say they did not push for Hole to have a hearing under Indiana's "red flag" law, which allows police or courts to seize guns from people who show warning signs of violence. "The very thing that the law is designed to prevent — going and buying a new gun — was not even ever sought," says Nick Suplina, managing director for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety.

As the Sikh community in Indianapolis and across the United States is in mourning after a gunman killed eight people at a FedEx facility last week, where four of the victims are Sikh, we speak with Simran Jeet Singh, scholar, activist and senior fellow for the Sikh Coalition, which is calling for a full investigation into the possibility of racial or ethnic hatred as a factor in the killings in Indianapolis. A majority of the workers at the warehouse are Sikh, and while authorities have not shared evidence Brandon Hole was targeting Sikh workers when he attacked the FedEx facility, police revealed Monday they previously found evidence that Hole had browsed white supremacist websites. The mass shooting took place as more than 15 states across the U.S., including Indiana, mark April as Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month. "This community, in Indianapolis, all around the world, is really devastated," says Singh. "Given the pattern of violence against Sikhs, we are demanding a full investigation into the possibility of bias and racism in this attack."

We look at the long history of police killings of Black men during traffic stops in Minnesota with state Representative John Thompson, a community activist who was elected last year and has attended protests demanding justice for George Floyd and other victims of police brutality. His friend Philando Castile was killed by police during a 2016 traffic stop in a suburb of St. Paul. "We have every right to be angry, we have every right to be mad, and we have every right to use our voices," Thompson says. "We have a problem here in this state with policing." Thompson is part of the People of Color and Indigenous Caucus that has called on fellow lawmakers in St. Paul to halt budget negotiations until police accountability laws are passed.

As jury deliberations are underway in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder and manslaughter for killing George Floyd last May, we go to Minneapolis to discuss final arguments and what is next in the case. We speak with civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, who says the prosecution "started strong and ended strong" by reminding "the jury that they could believe what they had seen with their own eyes."

Jury Begins Deliberations in Derek Chauvin Murder Trial, Thousands Protest in Minnesota as Derek Chauvin Murder Trial Wraps Up, U.N. Warns Planet Is "On the Verge of the Abyss" from Relentless Climate Change, Hundreds of Climate Scientists Warn Against Criminalizing Peaceful Protests, White House Holds Virtual Climate Summit as U.S. and China Pledge Cuts to Emissions, Migrant Workers Flee India's Capital Ahead of Lockdown as Coronavirus Cases Soar, Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Joins Fight for Vaccine Equity, President Biden Urges All U.S. Residents 16 and Over to Get Vaccinated, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to Replace Raúl Castro as Communist Party Leader, St. Vincent Faces "Monumental Challenge of Humanitarian Relief" from Volcanic Eruption, Wildfire at University of Cape Town Destroys Priceless South African Antiquities, Homicide Case Against Capitol Rioters in Doubt After Autopsy Finds Officer Died of Natural Causes, Marjorie Taylor Greene Cancels Plans for Racist "America First Caucus" Amid GOP Pushback, Amazon Hit with 23 Unfair Labor Practices Complaints over Union-Busting Campaign in Alabama, Walter Mondale, Former Vice President and Failed Presidential Candidate, Dies at 93, Chadian President Idriss Déby Killed on Frontlines of Fight Against Rebels

Amid nationwide protests over police abuse, we speak with Cariol Horne, the Buffalo police officer whom a New York court has just vindicated for stopping a fellow cop from choking a handcuffed Black man during an arrest. In 2006, Horne, who is Black, saw a white officer repeatedly punching the man in the face before putting him in a chokehold. After Horne heard the man say "I can't breathe," she intervened by grabbing the officer's arm. Horne was sanctioned by the Buffalo Police Department, reassigned, then fired in 2008, just months before she was eligible to receive her full pension. A new ruling makes her eligible for back pay and pension benefits. Horne says she is now calling on state governments and Congress to follow the lead of Buffalo, which passed Cariol's Law, legislation that makes it the duty of officers to intervene in cases of brutality. "I knew that I did the right thing," Horne says. We also speak with Intisar Rabb, a Harvard Law professor who is one of three attorneys representing Horne. Cariol's Law "should spread far and wide" to other cities and states, Rabb says.

We speak with the lawyer for a lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps who is suing two Virginia police officers who pepper-sprayed him, pushed him to the ground and pointed their guns at him during a traffic stop at a gas station last December. Video of the encounter has gone viral and shows Caron Nazario, who is a Black and Latino man, was wearing his Army uniform during the stop. When Nazario says he's afraid to get out of his car, one officer responds, "You should be." Nazario says he drove about a mile to the gas station after he noticed a police car flashing its lights at him — a common practice to avoid pulling over on a dark road. It is shocking that a police officer "felt it appropriate to threaten a man with state-sanctioned murder" for simply asking why he was pulled over, says Jonathan Arthur, Nazario's attorney. "My client's looking just to hold these officers accountable under law."

As protests continue in Chicago and nationwide over the police killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, we get an update from community activist and independent journalist Mateo Zapata, who says, "People in Chicago are just tired of seeing Black and Brown youth murdered by police." Released bodycam video showed Adam had his hands up in the air when he was shot by an officer. We also speak with Rutgers professor Lilia Fernández, who studies Latino Chicago history and says police brutality toward this community is "not a new phenomenon" and goes back many decades. "Adam Toledo would not be dead today if he were white, if he were from an affluent family or if he lived in a predominantly white neighborhood," Fernández says.

Police Brutalize Protesters in Minneapolis as Chauvin Trial Moves Toward Verdict, Protests Continue in Chicago over Police Killing of 13-Year-Old Adam Toledo, Florida Poised to Pass "Anti-Riot" Bill, Criminalizing Dissent & Blocking Cuts to Police Budgets, Four of the Indianapolis Mass Shooting Victims Were from Sikh Community; Gunman Bought Arms Legally, Mass Shootings in Texas, Wisconsin Claim at Least 6 Lives in One Day, Globe Tops 3 Million COVID Deaths as India and Brazil Struggle to Contain Devastating Surges, CDC to Issue Guidance for J&J Vaccine After Pause over Blood Clot Reports, Alexei Navalny Transferred to Hospital as Health Deteriorates, Russia Expels 10 U.S. Diplomats in Retaliation for U.S. Sanctions, Police Kill Five People as 2,000 Workers Protest Unpaid Wages in Bangladesh, Syria Announces Presidential Election on May 26, Biden Reverses Decision to Limit Refugee Intake to Just 15,000 After Backlash, Two Black Transgender Women Killed in NC; 10-Year-Old Activist Speaks Out Against Anti-Trans Bills

The United States has imposed new sanctions on Russia and expelled 10 Russian diplomats after the Biden administration accused Moscow of being involved in major cyberattacks. The Treasury Department claimed Russia interfered in the 2020 election and was behind the SolarWinds hack, which compromised the computer systems of nine U.S. government agencies and scores of private companies. The sanctions target 32 Russian entities and individuals and bar U.S. banks from purchasing Russian government debt. Russia vowed to retaliate against the new sanctions and accused the Biden administration of degrading bilateral relations. "The most dangerous aspect of this is it introduces something new into international relations, because despite the way that it's being described, this was not an attack on the U.S.," says Anatol Lieven, senior fellow for Russia and Europe at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. "Never previously have sanctions been imposed in response to an espionage case, for the very good reason that every country, including the United States, engages in espionage."

In the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, a key witness for the defense was the former Maryland chief medical examiner, Dr. David Fowler, who contradicted most other expert witnesses in the trial and suggested heart trouble and other issues, not the police restraint, caused George Floyd's death. The decision by Chauvin's legal team to rely on Fowler's testimony shocked many in Maryland, where he is being sued by the family of 19-year-old Anton Black, an African American teenager from Maryland who died in 2018 after he was electrocuted with a Taser, pinned in a prone position and crushed under the weight of three white police officers and a white civilian as he struggled to breathe and lost consciousness. After an autopsy, Dr. Fowler ruled Black's death an accident, and no one was charged with a crime. The wrongful death lawsuit says Dr. Fowler delayed release of an autopsy report for months and covered up police responsibility for Black's death. Sonia Kumar, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Maryland, says there is "a pattern of conduct in Maryland involving police violence against Black people that then are characterized as anything other than homicides." We also speak with Richard Potter, the founder of the Coalition for Justice for Anton Black and president of the Talbot County branch of the NAACP, who says officials in Anton Black's case spent months dragging their feet after the teenager's death. "Nobody was giving the family any information in terms of a cause of death," he says.

Protesters in Chicago took to the streets to condemn the police killing of Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Latinx boy, after bodycam video released by the Chicago police showed Toledo had his hands up in the air when a police officer shot him dead on March 29. Police initially described the incident as an "armed confrontation," but the video shows Toledo raised his hands after being ordered to do so. He was killed within 20 seconds of the officer leaving his car to chase him down a dark alley following a report of gunshots in the area. "A Chicago police officer murdered Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old. There is no other way to describe what we saw in the video," says Rey Wences, a community organizer based in Chicago's Little Village. We also speak with Rossana Rodríguez-Sanchez, a Chicago alderperson, who says city officials spent weeks disparaging Adam Toledo before releasing the bodycam footage. "Lori Lightfoot ran as a reformer. She ran on transparency," Rodríguez-Sanchez says of Chicago's mayor. "She's doing exactly the opposite of that."

Eight Killed After Gunman Opens Fire at Indianapolis FedEx Warehouse, 13-Year-Old Adam Toledo Had Hands Up When He Was Shot Dead by Chicago Officer, Family of Daunte Wright Demands More Serious Charges for Officer Who Fired Fatal Shot, Derek Chauvin, Accused of Murdering George Floyd, Declines to Testify in His Own Defense, Court Vindicates Buffalo Cop Fired for Stopping a Fellow Officer from Choking Handcuffed Man, Dr. Fauci Shuts Down Rep. Jim Jordan in Heated Exchange over Public Health Measures, Pfizer Says COVID-19 Booster Vaccines Likely Needed Within a Year, India Reports Record 217,000 New Cases as Millions Gather for World's Largest Pilgrimage, Brazilian Senate Probes Bolsonaro's Pandemic Response as Daily Death Toll Remains World's Worst, Aid Groups Say Eritrean Troops Are Not Withdrawing from Tigray as Crisis Deepens, Biden Admin Imposes Sanctions on Russia for Hacking, Election Interference, Annexation of Crimea, Hong Kong Sentences Jimmy Lai, Other Pro-Democracy Activists to 8-18 Months in Prison, Rep. McCollum Intros Bill Barring Israel from Using U.S. Aid to Violate Palestinian Rights, Democrats Unveil Bill to Expand SCOTUS: "The Court Is Broken"

U.S. health officials have delayed a decision on whether to resume the use of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine after reports of blood clots in six women who received doses. Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at the UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital, says it's "prudent" to investigate reports of blood clots but notes the issue "is very rare" and unlikely to cause more than a temporary delay. She also says it's important to raise "vaccine optimism" by continuing to tout the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines. "Eventually we are going to get back to the normalcy of not masking and distancing. We're just in this twilight period right now because we are not fully vaccinated," she says.

Congressmember Ro Khanna of California says hundreds of billions of dollars in annual defense spending could be better used on diplomacy, humanitarian aid, public health and other initiatives. He's one of 50 House Democrats who signed a letter to President Joe Biden in March urging a "significantly reduced" Pentagon budget, which has grown to over $700 billion. "The Pentagon increases make no sense," says Khanna. "If you're ending the forever war in Afghanistan … then why are we increasing, at the same time, the defense budget?" Khanna also discusses the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed war in Yemen, a major U.S. arms deal with the United Arab Emirates and more.

Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna says President Joe Biden's plan to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan is a "courageous" decision. "I'm very glad that we have a president who has finally recognized that this is not a militarily winnable war," says Khanna. President Biden announced this week he plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, bringing the longest war in U.S. history to a close. Khanna says he is open to a U.N. peacekeeping force, as some have suggested, to ensure Afghanistan does not fall into deeper chaos once American troops leave. "Withdrawing militarily does not mean that we can stop engaging," says Khanna.

Biden Vows to Pull Combat Troops from Afghanistan by 20th Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks, Minnesota Police Officer Kimberly Potter Charged with Manslaughter for Shooting Daunte Wright, Witness for Derek Chauvin's Defense Claims George Floyd Died of Heart Disease, Drugs and Car Fumes, Expert Witness for Derek Chauvin's Defense Sued over Black Teen's Death at Hands of Maryland Police, New York Police Deploy Advanced Surveillance Robot in Public Housing Complex, Boston Cop Allowed to Stay on the Force for 20+ Years After Child Sexual Abuse Complaint, Maryland State Trooper Shoots Dead 16-Year-Old with Airsoft Pellet Gun, Gun Control Advocates Call for Action as Memorial Unveiled; VA Blocks Measure Limiting Gun Possession, CDC Delays Decision on Resuming J&J Vaccinations as U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Passes 564,000, Southeast Asian Nations See New Surges After Successful Containment Efforts Early in Pandemic, Ex-World Leaders and Nobel Laureates Call on Biden to Waive Patent Rules for COVID Vaccines, Washington, D.C., Statehood Bill Advances to Full Vote Despite GOP Opposition, Washington State Bars For-Profit Prisons and Immigration Jails, Court Throws Out Death Sentence for Raymond Riles, Texas's Longest-Serving Death Row Prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal Scheduled for Heart Surgery as Health Deteriorates Following COVID Diagnosis, House Panel Votes to Advance Slavery Reparations Bill for First Time in Over 30 Years, Senators Advance Bill on Anti-Asian Hate Crimes; Biden Names Erika Moritsugu as AAPI Liaison

A scathing new report by the Capitol Police's internal watchdog reveals officials knew Congress was the target of the deadly January 6 insurrection, yet officers were instructed to refrain from deploying more aggressive measures that could have helped "push back the rioters." Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports domestic terrorism incidents surged to a record high in 2020, fueled by white supremacist, anti-Muslim and anti-government extremists on the far right. The Post found that, since 2015, right-wing extremists have been involved in 267 plots or attacks, leading to 91 deaths. Reporter A.C. Thompson, who explores the threat of far-right extremism in the new PBS "Frontline" documentary "American Insurrection," says there was a "massive pool of radicalized individuals" ahead of the January 6 attack who were being pushed toward violence by "an abundance of lies by the former president, by this entire conspiratorial right-wing media and social media ecosystem." We also speak with director Rick Rowley, who says many white supremacist groups began to splinter during the intense backlash to the violence in Charlottesville in 2017, but Trump gave the groups new life ahead of the January 6 insurrection. "Many elements inside the white supremacist movement found in him a path into the mainstream," says Rowley. "They took off their swastikas, and they wrapped themselves in the flag."

The Biden administration has unveiled plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The War in Afghanistan has killed more than 100,000 Afghan civilians and over 2,300 U.S. servicemembers and has cost the U.S. trillions of dollars. The announcement comes just a week before the scheduled start of a new round of peace talks in Istanbul between the Taliban and the U.S.-backed Afghan government, but the Taliban said it would boycott the talks because Biden is going back on a deal made by President Trump to have all U.S. troops out by May 1. Afghan American scholar Zaher Wahab says withdrawing is the right decision. "The United States and its allies should never have attacked and occupied Afghanistan," Wahab says. "It was wrong. It was illegal. And I think it was immoral." We also speak with Matthew Hoh, senior fellow with the Center for International Policy, who in 2009 resigned from the State Department in protest of the escalation of the War in Afghanistan. "This is a step that is necessary for the peace process to go forward, and that's what the Afghan people desperately need," he says. "It has been well over 40 years of fighting. Millions of Afghans have been killed or wounded. The devastation on the Afghan people is hard to imagine."

Biden Announces U.S. Will Withdraw Its Troops from Afghanistan by September 11, Protests Continue After Police Killing of Daunte Wright as His Family Demands Justice, Derek Chauvin Murder Trial Continues with Defense Calling Its First Witnesses, Iran Ramps Up Uranium Enrichment Following Natanz Attack and Amid Talks on 2015 Nuclear Deal, White House Moves Forward with $23 Billion Weapons Sale to UAE, Russian Troops Amass on Eastern Border as U.S. and NATO Pledge Support for Ukraine, U.S. Sends Unofficial Delegation to Taiwan as China Warns Against Foreign Intervention, Burkina Faso to Try Ex-President Blaise Compaoré for Murder of Iconic Leader Thomas Sankara, Facebook Allowed Honduran Pres. Juan Orlando Hernández to Use Fake Accounts to Appear More Popular, More Countries Delay Use of J&J Vaccine After Blood Clot Reports, India Reports New Daily Case Record, Announces More Lockdown as COVID Surges, U.N. Secretary-General Calls for Wealth Tax on Pandemic Profiteers, Watchdog Report Says Officers Instructed to Hold Back in Response to Jan. 6 Insurrection, Matt Gaetz Ally Reportedly Working with DOJ, Says Rep. Gaetz Exchanged Money for Sex, Biden Taps Robert Santos to Become Census Bureau's First Director of Color, FDA Will Allow Pregnant People to Receive Abortion Pill by Mail During Pandemic, Wisconsin Declares State of Emergency as Firefighters Battle Hundreds of Wildfires, New York Becomes First State to Divest Pension Fund from Tar Sands Companies

We look at President Biden's nomination of Kristen Clarke to become the first Black woman to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the conservative smear campaign against the veteran civil rights lawyer. The far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson has devoted at least five segments to attacking Clarke's nomination, including baseless accusations of anti-Semitism. Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP, says "the right-wing attack machine" springs into action whenever Black nominees are up for confirmation. "They make sport, quite frankly, of trying to defame their character, destroy their reputation, and they see women of color as being very vulnerable," says Jealous. He also addresses the state of police-community relations in the U.S. and efforts to stop police impunity for killing Black people.

We get the latest on the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd, with Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong. She says prosecutors in the case have successfully chipped away at the "blue wall of silence" by getting current police officials to testify against Chauvin. However, she says it's likely that "the only reason that these officers have testified is because the world is watching."

Protests continue in the Minneapolis area after a white police officer shot and killed a 20-year-old Black man, Daunte Wright, during a traffic stop Sunday in the suburb of Brooklyn Center. The deadly shooting took place about 10 miles from where former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for killing George Floyd. Just before he was killed, Wright called his mother to say he was being pulled over — allegedly because an air freshener was obscuring his rearview mirror. The Brooklyn Center police chief claims Kimberly Potter, a 26-year police veteran who has served as the police union president for the department, accidentally pulled a gun instead of a Taser. The Star Tribune reports Daunte Wright is the sixth person killed by Brooklyn Center police since 2012. Five of the six have been men of color. "Unfortunately, there has not been a serious attempt to change the phenomenon of driving while Black, which is something that happens to Black people on a routine basis in the Twin Cities and across the state of Minnesota," says Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong. We also speak with Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who says policing in the United States is as dangerous to Black and Brown people as ever. "They are deadly. They kill Black and Brown people," says Hussein.

Brooklyn Center Police Chief Claims Officer Mistook Gun for Taser in Killing of Daunte Wright, Prosecution Rests Case in Murder Trial of Minneapolis Ex-Cop Derek Chauvin, U.S. to Pause Use of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Amid Reports of Rare Blood Clots, WHO Warns of Exponential Rise in COVID-19 Cases, COVID-19 Cases Surge in the Philippines as Duterte Appears in Public for First Time in Two Weeks, European Union Officials Consider Use of Russian COVID-19 Vaccine, Biden Admin Strikes Deals with Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to Further Militarize Borders, As Volcano Erupts, Only Vaccinated Residents of St. Vincent Allowed to Evacuate on Cruise Ships, Japan to Release 1 Million Metric Tons of Radioactive Water into Pacific Ocean, Los Angeles DA Requests Extradition of Harvey Weinstein to Face Rape and Assault Charges, Will Smith and Antoine Fuqua to Move Film Production from Georgia over Voter Suppression Law, Georgia Prisoners Shackled and Placed in Solitary Confinement Days After Giving Birth, Fox News Won't Punish Tucker Carlson over Racist "Great Replacement" Conspiracy Theory, Domestic Terrorism Surged to Record Levels in 2020, Fueled by Far-Right Extremism, NCAA Supports Trans Athletes Against GOP Efforts to Ban Them from Competition

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, Standing Rock Sioux tribal historian, has died of cancer at the age of 64, and we look back on her work, through interviews on her land and in the Democracy Now! studio. Allard co-founded the Sacred Stone Camp on Standing Rock Sioux land in April 2016 to resist the Dakota Access pipeline, to which people from around the world traveled, making it one of the largest gatherings of Indigenous peoples in a century. "We say mni wiconi, water of life. Every time we drink water, we say mni wiconi, water of life. We cannot live without water," LaDonna Brave Bull Allard said in a September 2016 interview with Democracy Now! "I don't understand why America doesn't understand how important water is. So we have no choice. We have to stand. No matter what happens, we have to stand to save the water."

Former U.S. attorney general and longtime human rights lawyer Ramsey Clark has died at the age of 93, and we look back on his life. Clark was credited as being a key architect of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. He served as attorney general from 1967 to 1969, during which time he ordered a moratorium on federal executions and opposed J. Edgar Hoover's wiretapping of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., though he was also involved in the prosecution of antiwar activists. After leaving office, Clark became a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy. "The world is the most dangerous place it's ever been now because of what our country has done, and is doing, and we have to take it back," Ramsey Clark said while addressing a protest against the inauguration of George W. Bush on January 20, 2005. We also play an excerpt from an interview with Clark about defending the Hancock 38, a group of peace activists arrested at a U.S. drone base near Syracuse, New York.

Labor organizer and scholar Jane McAlevey says there were many warning signs that the historic Amazon union drive in Bessemer, Alabama, would fail. Workers at the Amazon warehouse voted overwhelmingly against forming a union after a months-long vote by mail, with Amazon using widespread intimidation and misinformation to undermine the effort. But McAlevey says organizers made a number of missteps in their campaign and didn't do enough to engage workers in the warehouse. "There's a strategy and a method for every part of a hard campaign. Do we always win when we follow them? No. Do we stand a better chance of winning them? Yes," says McAlevey.

The largest union drive in the history of Amazon has ended with the company on top. After a months-long battle, 738 workers at Amazon's Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse voted to unionize, and 1,798 voted no. Ballots from another 505 workers were challenged, mostly by Amazon. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union that led the drive says Amazon illegally interfered in the vote, and it plans to file unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. Amazon, which is led by the world's richest man, Jeff Bezos, spent millions to defeat the closely watched election, and even got a private mailbox installed at the warehouse so it could pressure workers to mail their ballots from work and monitor votes. "It's important that people don't misread the results of this election," says Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. "People were not saying that they were satisfied with Amazon's working conditions in any way. They were saying that they were afraid to vote for the union."

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President Joe Biden has ordered a series of executive actions on gun control in the wake of mass shootings in Georgia, Colorado and elsewhere, calling gun violence in the U.S. an "epidemic" and an "international embarrassment." The most significant executive order aims to crack down on so-called ghost guns — easily assembled firearms bought over the internet without serial numbers, which account for about a third of guns recovered at crime scenes. Biden has also nominated gun control advocate David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, but acknowledged this week that major new gun control measures, like an assault weapons ban and universal background checks, will require legislation from Congress. "We are calling on Congress to carry the torch here and pass additional laws to keep Americans safe and save American lives," says Brian Lemek, executive director of Brady PAC.

A new Amnesty International report lays out how the pandemic has significantly exacerbated inequality across the Americas over the past year. Over 1.3 million people have died in the region from COVID-19, making the Americas the hardest-hit area in the world. Women, refugees, migrants, underprotected health workers, Indigenous peoples, Black people and other groups historically excluded and neglected by governments have borne the brunt of the pandemic, according to the report, which also points out the rise in gender violence and lethal crackdown on human rights defenders. "It's not a surprise that the Americas has been the region worst hit by the pandemic," says Erika Guevara-Rosas, a human rights lawyer and Americas director for Amnesty International. "Growing inequality, corruption, violence, environmental degradation and impunity created a fertile ground for the Americas to become the epicenter."

Since last year, approximately 440 Cubans have died from COVID-19, giving Cuba one of the lowest death rates per capita in the world. Cuba is also developing five COVID-19 vaccines, including two which have entered stage 3 trials. Cuba has heavily invested in its medical and pharmaceutical system for decades, in part because of the six-decade U.S. embargo that has made it harder for Cuba to import equipment and raw materials from other countries. That investment, coupled with the country's free, universal healthcare system, has helped Cuba keep the virus under control and quickly develop vaccines against it, says Dr. Rolando Pérez Rodríguez, the director of science and innovation at BioCubaFarma, which oversees Cuba's medicine development. "We have long experience with these kinds of technologies," he says. We also speak with Reed Lindsay, journalist and founder of the independent, Cuba-focused media organization Belly of the Beast, who says U.S. sanctions on Cuba continue to cripple the country. "Cuba is going through an unbelievable economic crisis, and the sanctions have been absolutely devastating," says Lindsay.

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As people try to find a safe way to gather and travel during the pandemic, there is growing interest in documenting who has been vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19. The World Health Organization has warned so-called vaccine passports may not be an effective way to reopen, and healthcare professionals argue vaccine certificates may further exacerbate vaccine inequality. New York is already testing a digital vaccine passport app made by IBM called the Excelsior Pass, while countries including the U.K. and Israel have issued their own versions of electronic vaccine certificates. The U.S. government has ruled out the introduction of mandatory vaccine passports at the federal level, but many private companies are now developing COVID-19 tracking systems. ACLU policy analyst Jay Stanley says smartphone-based vaccine passport apps "raise a lot of questions" around privacy, access and discrimination. "We have systems in place already for proving you've been vaccinated," he says. "Is that system so broken that we need to construct an entirely new electronic system?"

The Biden administration is facing criticism from human rights groups after it announced this week it will leave in place a Trump-era policy to allow military commanders to use landmines across the globe. A Pentagon spokesperson described landmines as a "vital tool in conventional warfare" and said restricting their use would put American lives at risk, despite Biden's campaign promise to promptly roll back Trump's policy. Jody Williams, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, says landmines were invented "in order to maim people" and have a devastating impact on children, women and the elderly around the world. "It is an indiscriminate weapon that has no place on this planet."

The United States and Iran are holding more indirect talks as part of a push to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, after former President Donald Trump pulled out of the accord nearly three years ago. The two countries agreed to set up two expert-level working groups along with other signatories of the 2015 deal, which is formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. While Iran formally remains in the JCPOA, it has faced international criticism for increasing production of nuclear materials it says are for peaceful purposes. The United States has imposed some 1,600 different sanctions on Iran in a move that has also made it harder for Iranians to import food and medicine, a situation that became even more dire during the pandemic. The main hurdle to reviving the nuclear deal is doubt over the U.S. commitment to diplomacy, says Seyed Hossein Mousavian, Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University and former spokesperson for Iran on its nuclear negotiations with the European Union. "The U.S. needs to do some serious steps to revive the trust," Mousavian says.

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After a year of layoffs, cuts and austerity, the faculty and staff of four unions at Rutgers University have voted in support of an unusual and pioneering agreement to protect jobs and guarantee raises after the school declared a fiscal emergency as a result of the pandemic. A key part of the deal is an agreement by the professors to do "work share" and take a slight cut in hours for a few months in order to save the jobs of other lower-paid workers. "The historic nature of this agreement is that it encompasses all four unions," says Christine O'Connell, president of the union representing Rutgers administrators. "This agreement protects jobs." We also speak with Todd Wolfson, president of the Rutgers Union of graduate workers, faculty and postdocs, who says the unions' core demand was stopping further layoffs. "That core demand was met, and there's no layoffs through the calendar year and into next year."

As the first anniversary of the police killing of George Floyd approaches, we speak with author and journalist Victoria Law, who says despite the mass movement to fight systemic racism sparked by Floyd's death, persistent myths about policing, incarceration and the criminal justice system still hinder reform. "Why do we think prisons keep us safe? Obviously, Derek Chauvin wasn't afraid of being arrested or imprisoned when he killed George Floyd," says Law, who examines these issues in her new book, "'Prisons Make Us Safer': And 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration."