Democracy Now!

France Approves COVID Health Pass; Germany Considers Restrictions for Unvaccinated People, COVID Cases Skyrocket in Southeast Asia, with Children Making Up 12.5% of Indonesian Death Toll, Fauci Says U.S. "Going in the Wrong Direction"; St. Louis Reintroduces Indoor Mask Mandate, 4,000 Homebound Detainees Could Be Sent Back to Prison After Pandemic Emergency Order Lifted, Tunisia's President Sacks Prime Minister, Suspends Parliament Following Protests, Afghanistan Sees Record Number of Casualties in 2021; U.S. Could Continue Airstrikes Beyond August, U.S. Launches Second Drone Strike in Somalia in Under a Week, Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Teen, Injure Hundreds Protesting Illegal West Bank Settlement, Sierra Leone Abolishes Colonial-Era Death Penalty, Protests Demand Resignation of Guatemalan President After Firing of Top Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Mexico Sends Food and Medical Supplies to Cuba, Condemns U.S. Blockade, Monsoon Floods Kill 135 People in India, Dixie and Bootleg Wildfires Rage in West as Another Heat Wave Settles Across Much of U.S., Pelosi Adds Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Trump Critic, to House Insurrection Committee, Mississippi Urges Supreme Court to Overturn Roe v. Wade, Immigrant Communities Rally in NYC to Demand Pathway to Citizenship, Bob Moses, Civil Rights Leader and Educational Pioneer, Dies at the Age of 86

Nearly 100 women from around the United States were arrested outside the Supreme Court as they marked the 173rd anniversary of the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls with a protest calling for voting rights and economic justice. We speak with Reverend Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and one of those who was arrested. She says Congress needs to scrap the filibuster, pass voting rights legislation and pass a "bold infrastructure bill" that addresses economic inequality, as well as the climate. She also discusses the work of her father, historian Athan Theoharis, who recently died after a lengthy career dedicated to exposing FBI misconduct.

Nearly 600 water protectors have been arrested during ongoing protests in Minnesota against the construction of the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline at the Shell River, which the partially completed pipeline is set to cross in five places. On Monday, authorities arrested Indigenous leader Winona LaDuke and at least six others. She was just released from jail yesterday and joins us after three nights in jail. LaDuke describes how the Canadian multinational corporation Enbridge, which is building the pipeline, has funded more than 40 police squads from around the state to crack down on protests, saying, "It is a civil crisis when a Canadian multinational controls your police force." LaDuke is executive director of Honor the Earth. She says Enbridge's efforts to finish construction come as investors are increasingly pulling out of the fossil fuels sector. "Who wants to have the last tar sands pipeline? It's the end of the party."

As the Summer Olympics begin in Tokyo after the International Olympic Committee pushed forward during a pandemic despite widespread opposition in Japan, we speak with a protester outside the Olympic stadium and former Olympic athlete Jules Boykoff. "The people have been frustrated actually ever since the awarding of the Olympics in 2013," says Satoko Itani, associate professor of sports, gender and sexuality at Kansai University. "The vast majority of Japanese people don't want these games." Boykoff argues the "saga in Tokyo has exposed an International Olympic Committee that openly disrespects the will of locals, that brushes off inconvenient facts from experts … And the IOC tends to prioritize its profits over all else."

Tokyo Olympics Kick Off Amid COVID Surge, Protests; Italy Unveils New Pass for Vaccinated People, Missouri Hospital Worker Warns COVID Surge Will Get Worse; 20% of L.A.'s Cases Are Vaccinated People, U.S. Imposes New Cuba Sanctions as 400+ Noted Activists, Political Figures Call for End to Embargo, Rep. Hank Johnson, Prominent Black Voting Rights Advocates Arrested at Pro-Democracy Demonstration, Indian Farmworkers Renew Protests Against Neoliberal Agricultural Reforms, South Africa Updates Death Toll from Unrest to at Least 337 People, 20 Refugees Likely Dead After Mediterranean Shipwreck, U.S. Launches Airstrikes in Afghanistan; House Votes to Issue More Special Visas for Afghans, Senate Cmte. Votes in Favor of Upping Military Budget by $25 Billion, Protesters Condemn UAE Plan to Extradite Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner, Demand Justice for All Detainees, Labor and Healthcare Advocates Call on Biden to Stop Closure of Largest U.S. Generic Drugs Plant, House Cmte. Considers AOC's Public Banking Proposal to Democratize Financial Services, UNESCO Refrains from Listing Great Barrier Reef as "In Danger" Despite Major Climate-Induced Damage

As the impacts of the climate emergency continue to be felt around the globe, white men overwhelmingly dominate the airwaves on climate coverage. We speak with co-editors of the new book "All We Can Save," an anthology of essays by 60 women at the forefront of the climate justice movement. "We are simply not seeing very much climate coverage at all in the mainstream media," says Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist and co-founder of the Urban Ocean Lab. Katharine Wilkinson, visiting professor at Sewanee: The University of the South in Tennessee, emphasizes women and girls around the world are "disproportionately impacted by climate change" and must lead the search for solutions. "There is a growing body of research that centering women's leadership on climate is not just something that sounds nice. It's actually a critical strategy for how we win," Wilkinson says.

As the world’s richest man flies his Blue Origin rocket into suborbital space, here on Earth calls are growing to tax the rich and let Amazon unionize. Billionaire Jeff Bezos has faced strong criticism after Tuesday’s flight, for which he thanked Amazon workers and customers who "paid for all of this." Bezos traveled to the edge of space just days after another billionaire, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, took a similar trip on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft. "The richest and most powerful people in the world are turning their eyes away from the planet and to the stars," says Paris Marx, a writer and host of the podcast "Tech Won't Save Us." "We need to question whether we should be dedicating so much resources to this kind of grand vision of a future that may never arrive," Marx says. We also speak with journalist Peter Ward, author of the book "The Consequential Frontier: Challenging the Privatization of Space," who says billionaires who have monopolized large sectors of the economy are seeking to do the same for space infrastructure. "It's not the worst thing to have the private sector involved. It's just it can't be where they have complete control," Ward says.

WHO: Global COVID Cases Jumped 12% Over Past Week, Pelosi Rejects GOP Reps. Jordan & Banks for Jan. 6 Select Committee, Armed DEA Agent Arrested for Taking Part in Jan. 6 Insurrection, Republicans Block $1 Trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, Opioid Crisis: States Reach $26 Billion Settlement with J&J and Drug Distributors, Four Colombian Mercenaries Tied to Moïse Assassination Were Trained at Fort Benning in U.S., U.S. Launches First Drone Strike on Somalia Under President Biden, Biden Administration Seeks 9-Year Sentence for Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale, Argentina Issues Gender-Neutral ID Cards in First for Latin America, Federal Courts Block Anti-Trans Laws in Arkansas and West Virginia, Israel Asks U.S. States to Probe Ben & Jerry's for Violating Anti-BDS Laws, Report: Government Informants Played Key Roles in Plot to Kidnap Michigan Governor, Texas Starts Jailing Immigrants on State Charges After Crossing U.S. Border, Biden Taps Leading Antitrust Attorney to Key DOJ Post, Head of U.N. Climate Talks: Nations "Must Consign Coal Power to History", 3 Die in Iran Protests Sparked by Historic Drought, Toronto Police Arrest 26 While Evicting Unhoused Residents at Encampment, Tokyo Olympic Committee Fires Director of Opening Ceremony over Holocaust Joke, Spanish Swimmer Slams Olympic Rules Preventing Her from Breastfeeding Son During Games

Two weeks after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Ariel Henry has been sworn in as Haiti's new prime minister, after acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph announced he was relinquishing power. Henry is a neurosurgeon who was appointed by President Jovenel Moïse shortly before he was assassinated, but not formally sworn in. Both Joseph and Henry had claimed power following Moïse's death. Over the weekend, the United States and other members of the so-called Core Group threw their support behind Henry, who will become Haiti's seventh prime minister in four years. Monique Clesca, a Haitian pro-democracy advocate based in Port-au-Prince, says despite the polarization and turmoil in the country, it is ultimately up to Haitians to find a political solution. ​​"It is not up to the United States State Department to tell us who should be the prime minister of Haiti," Clesca says. "It is offensive. It should not be done. It is unacceptable."

The role of Colombian mercenaries in the assassination two weeks ago of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse has come under scrutiny after The Washington Post reported some of the Colombians received U.S. military training while they were part of the Colombian armed services. One of the mercenaries has been identified as former special commando Grosso Guarín, who was once assigned to a secretive elite military detachment of Colombia's Urban Anti-Terrorist Special Force group that carried out kidnappings and assassinations. Another Colombian mercenary arrested in Haiti was Francisco Eladio Uribe Ochoa, who was once investigated for his role in executing civilians in Colombia and then disguising them as combatants — a practice known as false positives. The Colombian military has been accused of killing over 6,400 civilians in this way. Joining us from Bogotá, Colombia, reporter Mario Murillo says the involvement of Colombian mercenaries stems from the "hyper-militarization of the country," rooted in decades-long counterterrorism and counternarcotics operations that have doubled the size of the Colombian military. "We're talking about thousands of soldiers who have been going around the world," he says, calling them highly trained "artists of war."

We go to Colombia for an update on anti-government protests in several cities on the country's Independence Day, when right-wing President Iván Duque presented a new tax reform bill to Congress. The last tax proposal failed in April after it prompted a general strike and massive demonstrations that focused on deepening economic inequality and human rights abuses. The latest demonstrations came after some of the organizers were arrested and harassed over the weekend and protesters have faced intense crackdowns and brutality from Colombian police forces in recent months. "It was amazing that it took place, notwithstanding the fear tactics that were being used by the government leading up to the July 20th mobilizations," says award-winning journalist Mario Murillo, in Bogotá. We also speak with Colombian activist María del Rosario Arango Zambrano in Cali, a city with a long history of activism and resistance. "The repression has been especially brutal here, not only by security forces but also by paramilitary groups," she says.

COVID-19 cases in the United States have tripled over the past month as the highly contagious Delta variant rapidly spreads across the country, particularly in areas with low vaccination rates. Deaths from COVID-19 have increased by nearly 50% over the past week, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the Delta variant is now responsible for 83% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. "Things are much worse than people might realize," says Ed Yong, science writer at The Atlantic who has been reporting on the Delta variant's spread in Missouri, one of the hardest-hit areas in the U.S. "The more we let this pandemic linger on, rage on around the world, the less protected any of us will be — including those of us who currently luxuriate under the umbrella of vaccination." Yong recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his coverage of the pandemic.

"Once in a 1,000 Years" Rains and Flooding Kill at Least 25 People in China, Record-Breaking Wildfires Continue to Rage in Siberia, Western U.S., Releasing Toxic Fumes, Tokyo Olympic Events Start Even as Head of Organizing Committee Puts Games in Doubt, Thailand, Iran Impose COVID Lockdowns as France Launches "Health Pass" Amid Major Spike, Delta Variant Accounts for 83% of New U.S. Cases; Millions of Surplus Vaccines Could Go to Waste, Senators Unveil Legislation to Curb Presidential War Powers, Giving Authority Back to Congress, Immigrant Justice Activists Block New Jersey ICE "Black Site", Judge Blocks Arkansas Near-Total Abortion Ban, Veracruz Becomes Latest Mexican State to Decriminalize Abortion Before 12 Weeks of Pregnancy, Protesters Call for Release of Afro-Indigenous Garífuna Leaders in Honduras, State Department Bans Former Honduran President Lobo from Entering U.S., Emmanuel Macron, Cyril Ramaphosa, Imran Khan Among 14 Heads of State Targeted by NSO Group, Jeff Bezos Thanks Amazon Workers and Customers for Paying for His 10-Minute Suborbital Flight, Trump Associate Tom Barrack Arrested, Charged with Acting as Foreign Agent for UAE, Harvey Weinstein Extradited to Los Angeles to Face More Rape Charges, South Carolina State University Forgives $10 Million of Student Debt Using Stimulus Funds, Americans Owe $140 Billion in Medical Debt to Collection Agencies

After a federal judge struck down DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, we look at what may come next with Cesar Espinosa, a DACA recipient and executive director of the Houston, Texas-based, immigrant-led civil rights organization FIEL. He says the latest ruling is "heartbreaking," and urges lawmakers to create a legislative solution for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. "We want to see Congress and the president take action."

Fifty-six-year-old Abdul Latif Nasser is the first Guantánamo Bay prisoner to be released under the Biden administration. He was imprisoned for nearly two decades without charge and had been cleared for release since 2016. Thirty-nine prisoners remain at Guantánamo. "Legally speaking, morally speaking, that space that has been created has no significance other than the harm it is placing on people," says Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International.

As WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if he is extradited to the U.S. under the Espionage Act for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard says his detention since 2010 "is arbitrary and that he should be released." She adds that allegations made against him by the U.S. authorities "raise a large number of problems and red flags in relation to freedom of the press."

Mexico appears to have submitted more phone numbers for potential surveillance to the Israeli cybersurveillance company NSO Group than any other client country, according to an investigation of the company by an international collaboration of media outlets called The Pegasus Project. The Guardian found the mobile phone number of Mexican journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto was selected as a possible target for surveillance by a Mexican NSO Group client just weeks before Pineda's assassination in Guerrero in 2017. Nina Lakhani, senior reporter at The Guardian, says Mexico was NSO Group's first client and authorities there have a long record of "dire human rights abuses." She notes Mexico's use of Pegasus proves the technology is not only used to go after criminality. "The line between good and bad in Mexico is blurred," Lakhani says.

Calls are growing for stricter regulations on the use of surveillance technology after revelations that countries have used the powerful Pegasus spyware against politicians, journalists and activists around the world. The Pegasus software, sold by the Israeli cybersecurity company NSO Group, can secretly infect a mobile phone and harvest its information. While the company touts Pegasus as intended for criminals and terrorists, leaked data suggests the tool is widely abused by governments to go after political opponents and dissidents, according to reporting from The Pegasus Project, an international consortium of 17 media organizations. We feature a PBS "Frontline" report on the shocking findings that the Israeli government allowed NSO to continue to do business with Saudi Arabia even after the Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated in 2018 in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and allegedly used Pegasus to surveil Khashoggi's fiancée. "Contrary to what NSO is claiming, the spyware Pegasus is used to target people absolutely unrelated to criminal activities or terrorism," says Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International. She adds that The Pegasus Project has exposed that abuse of powerful surveillance technology "is systematic, and it is global."

Report: COVID Death Toll in India May Be Over 4 Million, As COVID Cases Rise in All 50 States, Biden Urges Unvaccinated to Get the Shot, Pediatricians Recommend Universal Masking in Schools, Ariel Henry to Become Haitian PM After Getting Support from U.S. & Core Group, Socialist Teacher & Union Leader Pedro Castillo Wins Peruvian Presidential Election, 35 Killed in Market Blast in Baghdad on Eve of Eid al-Adha, Rockets Land Near Afghan Presidential Palace During Outdoor Eid Prayers, In Victory for BDS Movement, Ben & Jerry's to Stop Selling Ice Cream in Israeli Settlements, Morocco Sentences Journalist Omar Radi to 6 Years in Prison, Trump Supporter Sentenced to Eight Months in Prison for Capitol Insurrection, McCarthy Names 5 to Select Committee Probing Jan. 6 Insurrection, Bootleg Fire Becomes Third-Largest Fire Ever in Oregon, Winona LaDuke & Water Protectors Arrested in Enbridge Pipeline Protest, 100 Arrested in D.C. at Poor People's Campaign's Women's Moral March, Trans Model Leyna Bloom Appears on Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover, NHL Prospect Luke Prokop Comes Out as Gay in First for League

The remains of nine Indigenous children were buried by the Rosebud Sioux in South Dakota after being transferred back from the former Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, where the children were forcibly sent over 140 years ago. Carlisle was the first government boarding school off reservation land, and it set the standard for other schools with its motto, "Kill the Indian, Save the Man." The schools were known for their brutal assimilation practices that forced students to change their clothing, language and culture. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe negotiated the return of the children's remains buried at the school, and a caravan of Rosebud Sioux youth returned them to their tribe this week. Dozens of other Native American and Alaskan Native families have asked Carlisle to return their relatives' bodies. Knowledge of the boarding schools is still being recovered as many survivors are reluctant to revisit the trauma, says Christopher Eagle Bear, a member of the Sicangu Youth Council. "These schools, they played a key part in trying to sever that connection to who we are as Lakota," he says. "They took away our language, and they made it impossible for us to be who we really are."

As the U.S. continues to deal with the fallout from the devastating opioid epidemic that has killed over 500,000 people in the country since 1999, we speak with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, whose latest documentary, "The Crime of the Century," looks at the pharmaceutical industry's methods in promoting and selling the powerful drugs. "I realized that the big problem here was that we had been seeing it as a crisis, like a natural disaster, like a flood or a hurricane, rather than as a series of crimes," says Gibney. "You had these terrible incentives, where the incentive is not to cure the patient. The incentive is to just make as much money as possible." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says U.S. drug overdose deaths skyrocketed to a record 93,000 last year — a nearly 30% increase. It is the largest one-year increase ever recorded, with overdoses rising in 48 of 50 states.

COVID Cases on the Rise Among Olympic Athletes Days Ahead of Tokyo Opening Ceremony, Boris Johnson Self-Isolates as U.K. Reopens; Mass Protests in France over COVID Measures, Delta Variant Spreads Across Africa, Latin America, Where Vaccines Are Sorely Lacking, Young Children at Risk as U.S. Cases Surge in Areas with Low Vaccination Rates, DOJ Set to Challenge U.S. Judge Ruling Declaring DACA Unlawful, Israeli Spyware Company's Software Targeted Phones of Journalists and Politicians Around the World, Death Toll in Western Europe Flash Floods Nears 200; 70 Major Wildfires Rage in Western U.S., Colombian Police Say Former Haitian Gov't Official Ordered Assassination of Jovenel Moïse, Israeli Forces Violently Evict Palestinian Worshipers from Al-Aqsa Mosque, Egyptian Rights Activist Esraa Abdel Fattah Freed from Prison, Abdul Latif Nasser Released from Guantánamo Bay After 19 Years Without Charge, Thousands of Families Displaced Amid Heightened Violence in Afghanistan, Award-Winning Photojournalist Danish Siddiqui Killed While Covering Afghan Conflict, Shooting Disrupts MLB Game in Washington, D.C., in Another Weekend of Gun Violence Across U.S., Illinois Bans Police from Lying to Minors During Interrogations, Rosebud Sioux Bury Remains of Indigenous Children Who Died in U.S. Gov't Schools, Workers at Kansas Frito-Lay Factory Strike Against Horrific Conditions, Civil Rights Pioneer Gloria Richardson, Who Fought for Desegregation, Economic Justice, Dies at 99

We look at the corporate profiteering off people who lost their homes and loved ones to recent fires in California, where wildfires continue to rage amid record temperatures. A major investigation by KQED and NPR's California Newsroom found a special trust set up to distribute $13.5 billion to survivors of wildfires caused by PG&E — the state's largest utility company — instead spent lavishly on its own administration while distributing almost nothing to the 70,000 fire victims, many of whom still live in trailers. Those who profited while the fire victims waited for help included Wall Street bankers and prestigious law firms. The investigation has prompted a bipartisan call from state lawmakers for the state attorney general to investigate. "A lot of fire survivors are looking at this situation and wondering: Why is this taking so long?" says Lily Jamali, a co-host for KQED's The California Report and the reporter behind the exposé. "They're getting really impatient, and they're very unhappy with the way this process has been run so far."

We speak with leading climate scientist Michael Mann about the catastrophic impact of the climate crisis around the world. He says he and other scientists predicted the extreme weather events now wreaking havoc. "We said that if we don't stop burning fossil fuels and elevating the levels of carbon pollution in the atmosphere and we continue to warm up the planet, we will see unprecedented heat waves and wildfires and floods and droughts and superstorms," says Mann. His new book is titled 
"The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet."

As a special congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection prepares to hold its first hearings later this month, we speak with author Michael Wolff, whose new book, "Landslide," provides fresh details about former President Donald Trump's efforts to undermine the 2020 election, how he spurred his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol and why he still holds the reins in the party. "There's no question Donald Trump runs the Republican Party," Wolff says. "We have two realities here: the reality of Donald Trump in charge, and the other reality which is that everybody knows that there's something wrong with Donald Trump."

COVID-19 Cases Rise in Nearly Every U.S. State as Delta Variant Becomes Dominant, Surgeon General Calls on Social Media Giants to Stop Spread of Anti-Vaccine Misinformation, Coronavirus Infections Continue Exponential Rise in Southeast Asia and Africa, German Chancellor Confronted over Blocking Patent Waiver for COVID-19 Vaccines, WHO Warns 23 Million Children Missed Vaccinations in 2020 Due to Pandemic, 110 Dead, 1,300 Missing as Once-in-a-Century Flooding Hits Germany and Belgium, Smoke Blankets Much of North America as Western Wildfires Grow in Size, Research Shows Parts of Amazon Rainforest Now Emit More Greenhouse Gas Than They Absorb, U.S. Military Trained Colombian Soldiers Arrested for Assassinating Haitian President, Biden Brands Cuba a "Failed State" Without Acknowledging Role of U.S. Blockade in Crisis, South Africa Sends 25,000 Troops into Street After Days of Protests and Unrest, Dutch Crime Reporter Peter R. de Vries Dies One Week After He Was Shot on the Street, IRS Begins Child Tax Credit Rollout to 60 Million Families, Biden's ICE Nominee Says He Would Let Local Law Enforcement Continue to Collaborate with Agency, FBI Failed to Intervene in Abuse Claims Against Larry Nassar, Leading to 100+ More Sex Crimes, Capitol Police Arrest Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty and Others as They March to Defend Democracy

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled a sharp increase in the number of people going hungry worldwide, along with conflict and the impacts of climate change. A new report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world found about one-tenth of the global population were undernourished last year, more than 2.5 billion people did not have access to sufficiently nutritious food, and one in five children now face stunted growth. Saskia de Pee, the World Food Programme's head of systems analysis for nutrition, describes how the impact is "going to be long-term."

We go to South Africa, where more than 70 are dead and at least 3,000 people have been arrested since demonstrations erupted after former President Jacob Zuma began his 15-month jail sentence for refusing to testify in a corruption probe. Protesters also expressed frustration with entrenched poverty and inequity as South Africa battles a devastating wave of COVID-19. "This was really a perfect storm that has built up," says Sithembile Mbete, a senior lecturer in political sciences at the University of Pretoria in Johannesburg. "The protests and the unrest has stopped being about former President Zuma and has become more about the socioeconomic conditions that people find themselves in and the problems of hunger."

As the United States continues to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan after 20 years of war and occupation, the Taliban say they now control most Afghan territory, surrounding major population centers and holding more than two-thirds of Afghanistan's border with Tajikistan. Former President George W. Bush made a rare criticism of U.S. policy, saying, "I'm afraid Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm." But a leading Afghan women's rights activist says the plight of women in the country has always served as a "very good excuse" for U.S. military goals, while conditions in the country have barely improved. "Unfortunately, they pushed us from the frying pan into the fire as they replaced the barbaric regime of the Taliban with the misogynist warlords," says Malalai Joya, who in 2005 became the youngest person ever elected to the Afghan Parliament. She says the decades of U.S. occupation have accomplished little for the people of Afghanistan. "No nation can donate liberation to another nation," she says.

1 Million Acres Burn in Western U.S. and Canada as Another Heat Wave Builds, Russia Deploys Military to Battle Siberian Wildfires Amid Record Heat, Global COVID-19 Cases Rise Again, Fueled by Surges in Southeast Asia and Africa, Anti-Vaccination Protesters March in France and Greece, U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths Rose by 30% in 2020 to Record High, Biden Selects Dr. Rahul Gupta, Who Oversaw West Virginia Response to Opioid Crisis, as "Drug Czar", Sen. Schumer Unveils Proposal to Decriminalize Marijuana at the Federal Level, Haitian Police Arrest More Suspects in Assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Cuba Lifts Restrictions on Essential Goods Brought in by Travelers, Taliban Captures Key Border Crossing with Pakistan, Indigenous Children's Remains Returned to Families Amid Reckoning over Genocidal U.S. Gov't Schools, General Mark Milley Says Trump's Election Fraud Claims Felt Like "Reichstag Moment", Johnson & Johnson Recalls Sunscreens Containing Carcinogen, Family of Andrew Brown, Who Was Gunned Down by Police, Files Civil Rights Lawsuit, Jamaica Seeks Reparations for Slavery from Britain

After months of decline in COVID-19 cases in the United States due in part to widely available vaccines, the number of new cases per day is on the rise again. Pfizer representatives met with U.S. regulators and vaccine experts to seek emergency use authorization for a second booster dose of its vaccine, as health experts are continuing to highlight the growing gap in administered vaccinations between rich and low-income countries. "In the United States, we have access to multiple vaccines," says Dr. Abraar Karan, an internal medicine doctor and infectious disease fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine. "Many countries have not seen any vaccine at all." He also says it's too early to say whether a third vaccine dose is necessary, as Pfizer has insisted. "I hope the science is what guides this, not the financial aspects," he says.

We speak with two of the Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled to Washington, D.C., to block suppressive new voting laws in their home state and who are calling on Congress to quickly pass legislation protecting voting rights. Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott threatened them with arrest the moment they return to their state and said he would keep them "in chamber" in order to pass the new voting bills, but the fugitive lawmakers say they intend to stay in Washington for as long as necessary. "We're staying out," says Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat representing Dallas in the Texas House. "We're not going to be bullied and intimidated by anybody, including the governor or our colleagues," adds Trey Martinez Fischer, who represents San Antonio. "We have a job to be the voice of our constituents."

We go to Havana, Cuba, to look at what is behind protests that brought thousands of people into the streets of Havana and other cities in rare anti-government protests denouncing the island's economic crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cuba is facing its harshest phase of the pandemic with skyrocketing infections, and people are scrambling to cope amid shortages of medicine, food and other resources due to catastrophic U.S. sanctions. Thousands of others in Cuba led counterprotests in support of the Cuban Revolution and President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Cuban journalist Daniel Montero, a journalist with the independent news organization Belly of the Beast, says many people were demanding an end to communism on the island, but the protests were not entirely driven by ideology. "We just want more food. We just want medicine. We just want the basics," he says many protesters told him in interviews.

Biden Condemns Republican "Election Subversion" But Does Not Call for End to Filibuster, U.S. Starts Vaccinating ICE Prisoners; Calls Mount for Germany to Support Vaccine IP Waivers, More Suspects Sought in Moïse Assassination as Groups Call on U.S. to Welcome Haitian Asylum Seekers, 72 Killed Amid Growing Unrest in South Africa, Mourners Gather in Ramallah for Funeral of Human Rights Activist Suha Jarrar, U.N. Rapporteur Says Israeli Settlements Constitute War Crimes, Calls for International Action, More Unmarked Graves Found at Another Canadian School for First Nations Children, Reproductive Rights Groups Sue Texas over 6-Week Abortion Ban, Fracking Companies Pumped Toxic PFAS into the Ground After Obama's EPA Approved Its Use, Jailed Immigrants File Complaint over Abuse and Neglect at Bergen County ICE Facility, Senate Dems Reach $3.5 Trillion Budget Plan That Could Forgo GOP Support, Care Workers Demand Proper Compensation and Benefits in Infrastructure Legislation, Sunrise Mvt Activists Camp Out at Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Offices to Demand Climate Action

The award-winning documentary "Fly So Far" looks at the criminalization of abortion in El Salvador through the incredible story of Teodora Vásquez, a woman who in 2008 was sentenced to 30 years in prison after she had a stillbirth at nine months pregnant. Vásquez was released in 2018 after more than a decade behind bars. El Salvador has enforced a total ban on abortions since 1998, and dozens of people have been convicted and imprisoned after having miscarriages, stillbirths and other obstetric emergencies in the Central American country. The film highlights the stories of women convicted of aggravated homicide for having a miscarriage or an obstetric emergency, as well as the ongoing resistance of women and the LGBTQ+ community in El Salvador. Filmmaker Celina Escher, director of "Fly So Far," says women and girls in El Salvador face high rates of violence, rape and femicide, as well as hostility from the right-wing government. "Women have to live this violence every day," she says.

The Supreme Court is set to review a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy that intends to challenge Roe v. Wade, raising concern for advocates about how reproductive rights can be preserved without the landmark ruling. "I think it's very, very likely that the court will either eradicate the right to choose abortion as we now know it completely or so undermine it to make it meaningless for most of American women," says Kathryn Kolbert, longtime public interest attorney who argued the case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the Supreme Court in 1992, which is credited with saving Roe v. Wade. She lays out her argument in a new book published today, "Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom." We also speak with co-author Julie Kay, a human rights attorney who argued for a human rights framework for abortion rights in Ireland before the European Court of Human Rights. "We're not just talking about privacy or even equality," Kay says of the fight for abortion access in the United States and beyond. "We're really looking at liberty, dignity and the ability to have full participation in all aspects of life."

We speak with one of the Texas Democrats who has fled the state to block the Republican-dominated Legislature from passing new voter restrictions in the battleground state, which already has some of the toughest voting rules in the country. Without the Democratic lawmakers, the Texas House won't have enough members present to reach a quorum. "Republicans have simply turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the needs of the citizens of Texas," says Texas state Representative Jarvis Johnson. "We realized at that point there was no more negotiation that could be done, and we took the last tool in our toolbox." We also speak with Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, who says the Texas legislation's aim is to "suppress the Hispanic, Mexican American and the African American vote."

Texas House Democrats Flee State to Stop GOP-Backed Voter Suppression Bills, Dozens Killed, 100+ Injured as Fire Tears Through COVID Ward in Iraq, Conflict, Climate Crisis and COVID-19 Cause Sixfold Rise in People Suffering Famine , WHO Blasts Calls for Extra Booster Shots While Billions Lack Vaccine Access, FDA Warns of Very Rare Guillain-Barré Cases Tied to Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine, Suspects in Assassination of Haitian President Had Ties to U.S. Law Enforcement, Cuban President Calls for End to Blockade as Biden Voices Support for Cuban Protesters, 32 Killed Across South Africa in Protests That Erupted After Jailing of Former President , Press Freedom Groups Demand Release of Jailed Moroccan Journalist Soulaimane Raissouni, Protests Erupt in Tbilisi, Georgia, over Killing of Journalist by Homophobic Mob, Guatemalan Protesters Demand Resignation of President over Mishandling of Pandemic, Federal Judge Blasts "Fantastical" Claims of Voter Fraud by Pro-Trump Attorneys, 2,500 Chicago-Area Workers Win Tentative Contract, Ending 18-Day Strike

As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, less than 0.1% of vaccine doses have been administered in low-income countries, according to data available at the end of March, with more than 86% of shots being administered in high- and upper-middle-income countries. "We are not protecting ourselves from the virus, and we frankly are setting up the virus and COVID for being around for generations," says New York Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She calls on the United States to use tools like the Defense Production Act to mobilize mass production of vaccines to export for free around the world.

As lawmakers return to Washington, D.C., following a two-week recess, we speak with Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about efforts to pass major infrastructure funding that could address child care, climate change, education and poverty. President Joe Biden has already struck a $1 trillion infrastructure agreement with a centrist group of lawmakers concentrated on roads, bridges and highways, but a fight is brewing over a larger package that Democrats want to pass in the Senate using the budget reconciliation process, which can pass with just 50 votes and avoid a filibuster. "The Progressive Caucus is rather united in the fact that we will not support bipartisan legislation without a reconciliation bill, and one that takes bold and large action on climate, drawing down carbon emissions, but also job creation and increasing equity and resilience for impacted communities, particularly frontline communities," says Ocasio-Cortez, who represents New York's 14th Congressional District. "That's where we've drawn a strong line."

The winner of the New York City Democratic primary election for mayor, Eric Adams, focused on what he called his more conservative plans to address an increase in gun violence, and is set to meet with President Biden today at the White House. "The way that we counter these increases in incidents [of crime] is through economic opportunity and community investment in communities where these surges are happening," responds New York Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "The message should not be that we should continue to overpolice and oversurveil people in order to create reductions in crime and increase public safety."

After the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse at his home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's interim government says it has asked the United Nations and the United States to send troops to help secure key infrastructure. The U.S. has so far declined, but has sent an inter-agency team from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the situation in Haiti is "extraordinarily delicate and extremely fragile," and that the U.S. should not send troops to the country. "Our role should be in supporting a peaceful transition and democratic process for selecting a new leader," she says.

Political turmoil continues in Haiti following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, with multiple people claiming leadership of the country and gangs unleashing a new wave of violence in the streets. Haitian police say they have arrested a key figure in the assassination, 63-year-old Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-born doctor based in Florida who arrived in Haiti in June with "political objectives." Sanon is one of three Haitian Americans now arrested in the attack, along with 18 Colombians. Five Colombians are still at large, and three were reportedly killed. The United States, meanwhile, has sent Homeland Security and FBI officials to Haiti to aid in the investigation but has so far declined a request to send military forces to the country. "We are in an extraconstitutional situation," says Magali Comeau Denis, a former Haitian minister of culture and communication who acts as coordinator for the Commission to Find a Haitian Solution, a civil society group to resolve the ongoing political crisis. She says none of the people claiming authority in the country right now has any legitimacy, and that political actors and civil society groups need to come together to create a broad consensus on how to move forward. "There is no other legal answer to that situation of exception."

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Lebanon is days away from a "social explosion," according to the country's prime minister, amid what the World Bank has described as one of the worst economic depressions in modern history. The country's currency has lost more than 90% of its value, unemployment has skyrocketed, and fuel prices have soared. Most homes and businesses, and even hospitals, only have power for a few hours each day, and pharmacies are running low on medicine. The U.N. has warned over three-quarters of households in Lebanon do not have enough food or money to buy food. Lebanon is also facing a massive political crisis following the devastating explosion at the Port of Beirut last August, which killed over 200 people, injured 7,000 and left more than a quarter-million Beirut residents unhoused. Nisreen Salti, an economics professor at the American University of Beirut, says "the entire system crumbled" in Lebanon due to decades of structural inequality. "The business and political class that benefited from the system was able to plunder the economy for 20-odd years," Salti says. We also speak with Middle East scholar Ziad Abu-Rish of Bard College. He says the economic crisis and the port explosion, for which there have been no major prosecutions, both reveal the impunity with which the country's elites operate. "Part of the problem is the total lack of accountability," Abu-Rish says.

The government of the southern African nation of Eswatini, which was known as Swaziland up until 2018, is brutally cracking down on the largest anti-government protests in the country since it became independent from Britain 53 years ago. Eswatini, bordered by Mozambique and South Africa, is currently facing an economic crisis with a shortage of gas, food and other resources. More than half of Eswatini's citizens live in poverty, while King Mswati III is known for his lavish lifestyle, including owning expensive cars. Amnesty International reports at least 20 protesters have been killed by state security forces, and dozens of others tortured, detained or abducted. We speak with a women's rights activist in Manzini, Eswatini, who asked for her face and voice to be obscured due to safety concerns. She says the situation is especially dire for women. "Their situation is very bad," the activist says. "We've been facing the scourge of gender-based violence, but this situation will exacerbate."

As President Joe Biden met with civil rights groups this week to discuss how to fight voter suppression efforts, Texas lawmakers followed other battleground states controlled by Republicans with a new push to overhaul the state's election laws. New restrictions would include a ban on drive-thru voting and 24-hour or late-night voting options, and election officials could be penalized for sending out unsolicited absentee applications. The measures would also impose stringent signature-matching requirements and increase the power of partisan poll observers, which can result in intimidation. "This would make it the worst voter suppression bill in the country," says Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter, who urges Democrats across the United States to take part in walkouts and other maneuvers to impede voter suppression bills. "What we need right now, along with civil disobedience on the streets, is legislative disobedience," Albright says.

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We look at growing opposition to the Palestinian Authority after the killing of a prominent activist, Nizar Banat, a vocal critic of the ruling body who died in PA custody after security forces violently arrested him at his home. Banat's killing has sparked protests calling for President Mahmoud Abbas to step down. "The Palestinian Authority now is acting like a police state without the state," says Palestinian writer Mariam Barghouti. "The Palestinian Authority has often collaborated with Israel at the expense of Palestinians."

Taliban fighters are escalating their offensive across much of Afghanistan, attacking major cities and seizing more territory as the U.S. military withdrawal from the country nears completion after nearly 20 years of war. The Taliban now reportedly control a third of all 421 districts and district centers in Afghanistan. Taliban representatives met with the Afghan government in Iran for high-level peace talks and said in a joint statement that "war is not the solution" to the country's problems. We go to Kabul to speak with reporter Ali Latifi, who says Afghan security forces are arming local groups across the country to oppose the Taliban. "They're really putting a lot of weight behind these uprising movements," says Latifi. "It's really a big gamble at this moment." We also speak with Sima Samar, longtime Afghan women's and human rights defender who previously served as the country's minister of women's affairs, who says the U.S. should have waited until a firm ceasefire was in place between warring factions before removing troops. "The withdrawal was not in the right time," she says. "Afghanistan should not be abandoned."