Democracy Now!

The interim prime minister of Haiti has declared a state of siege and imposed martial law following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, who died in an armed attack on his home. The first lady of Haiti was injured in the attack and airlifted to a hospital in Miami, where she is reportedly in stable but critical condition. Haitian authorities say police have killed four suspects and detained two others, but the individuals have not been identified. No evidence linking them to the assassination has been made public. It is unclear who is now in charge of Haiti, which was already facing a political, security and economic crisis prior to the assassination of the president. Haitians are "in mourning," whether they supported Moïse or not, says Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. "Today the streets of Haiti are empty because people are trying to make sense of what just happened." She calls on the Biden administration to stop deporting Haitians and to allow more people who fled to the U.S. to apply for temporary protected status.

Haiti Declares "State of Siege" After Assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Japan Declares Virus Emergency Through Tokyo Olympics as Global COVID-19 Deaths Pass 4 Million, North America Recorded Hottest June on Record Amid Worsening Climate Crisis, Line 3 Pipeline Foes Say Enbridge Spilled Drilling Chemicals in Minnesota River, U.S. Soldiers and Diplomats Come Under Fire in Iraq and Syria, Human Rights Commission Calls for Demilitarization of Colombia's Police, Unhoused Atlanta Residents Form Union, Occupy City Hall Pressing Demands , Dozens of States Sue Google for Creating App Store Monopoly , Trump Sues Big Tech CEOs; D.C. Court Suspends Giuliani's Law License, Surfside Search-and-Rescue Mission Ends with Dozens Still Missing, Darnella Frazier's Uncle Killed by Officer Pursuing Suspect in High-Speed Chase , NY Governor Declares Gun Violence Emergency, U.S. Says Assange Would Be Kept Out of Supermax Prison as U.K. Court Reopens Door to Extradition

After months of controversy, acclaimed journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones has announced that she will join the faculty at Howard University, one of the country's most prestigious historically Black universities, instead of joining the faculty at her alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she went to graduate school. The decision by Hannah-Jones comes after her tenure was initially denied by the UNC board of trustees in May, when it was unanimously approved by the faculty. The board typically rubber-stamps tenure for professors who have won such approval from their peers, and it reversed the decision after protests from alumni, faculty and students. Hannah-Jones has been a target of right-wing vitriol since she spearheaded the award-winning 1619 Project for The New York Times, which sought to reevaluate the role of slavery in the founding of the United States. Joe Killian, investigative reporter for NC Policy Watch whom Nikole Hannah-Jones credits with breaking the story about the "discrimination I faced in the UNC tenure debacle," says the tenure fight is a "microcosm" of the wider ideological divisions in the United States. He notes that the Chapel Hill board of trustees is filled with political appointees whose interests do not align with those of the student body. "The board at Chapel Hill is stacked with white men, stacked with people who are conservative, and it doesn't look anything like the university itself," Killian says.

The next mayor of New York City will likely be the Brooklyn borough president and former police officer Eric Adams, according to a newly released tally in the Democratic primary race which accounts for most absentee ballots. Adams would be the city's second Black mayor and ran to the right of his party, promising to tackle crime. Democracy Now! co-host Juan González has covered Adams for three decades and says Adams captured the votes of people concerned about an increase in gun violence and crime, which González suspects stems from police "standing down" in response to the movement to defund them.

Haiti is reeling from a new crisis after President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in an attack on his home in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince early Wednesday. In a statement, Haitian Prime Minister Claude Joseph said "a group of unidentified individuals" attacked the private residence of the president, killing him and injuring the first lady. Moïse, who had led Haiti since 2017, was accused of orchestrating a coup to stay in power beyond February 7, when his term officially ended. For months Haitians have staged large protests against Moïse demanding he leave office, but Moïse clung to power with support from the Biden administration, which backed his claims that his term should end next year. Dahoud Andre, a longtime Haitian community activist and member of the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti, says rumors are flying about who could be behind the killing. "As of now, we have no clue where this assassination came from," Andre says, adding that "the Haitian people loathed Jovenel Moïse" and describing him as a "tool" of the United States. We also speak with Kim Ives, editor of Haiti Liberté, who says the assailants appear to have been well resourced in their attack. "Clearly this was a fairly sophisticated operation," Ives says.

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse Assassinated, Eric Adams Set to Become New York City's Next Mayor After Clinching Primary, Nikole Hannah-Jones Rejects Tenure at UNC, Heads to Howard University with Ta-Nehisi Coates, Biden Admin Extends Temporary Protected Status for Yemenis, Pentagon Cancels $10 Billion Cloud Computing Contract with Microsoft, White House Quietly Hosts Brother of Mohammed bin Salman, Lebanon on Brink of Economic Collapse as People Face Hunger, Poverty and Political Uncertainty, Far-Right Israeli Gov't Fails to Renew Apartheid "Citizenship Law", Iran Hosts Intra-Afghan Talks Amid Taliban Advances, U.S. Withdrawal, 84-Year-Old Indian Priest and Activist Dies in Police Custody, Indigenous Land Defender Assassinated in Chiapas, Colombian Special Tribunal Accuses Soldiers of Killing 120 Civilians as Part of Drugs War, 140 Children Taken by Gunmen as Nigeria's Kidnapping Crisis Mounts, Dutch Reporter Peter R. de Vries in Critical Condition After Being Shot on the Street, EU Bans Common Single-Use Consumer Plastics, Heat Wave May Have Killed 1 Billion Shellfish, Other Sea Creatures on Canadian Coast

An international human rights commission has arrived in Colombia to investigate the right-wing government's brutal crackdown on protesters after a general strike was called in April. More than 80 people have died since the protests began, with many killed by police and paramilitary forces. We go to Bogotá to speak with Mario Murillo, an award-winning journalist and professor who has closely reported on Colombia for decades and says the current round of violence is "a continuation" of a right-wing backlash to the 2016 peace accords between the government and FARC guerrillas, which ended more than 50 years of conflict. Murillo says right-wing forces have worked since the signing of that agreement "to completely derail that peace process" and crush social movements.

Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna, the chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Environment, has announced plans to ask the CEOs of Exxon and other fossil fuel companies to testify before the committee about their role in blocking congressional action to address the climate emergency. Khanna made the request after Greenpeace UK released a video of two lobbyists discussing Exxon's secretive efforts to fight climate initiatives in Washington, revealing how the oil giant supported a carbon tax to appear proactive about climate change while privately acknowledging that such a tax has no chance of being passed. We feature the complete video and speak to one of the activists involved with it. "The reality is that almost nothing has changed in the Exxon playbook," says Charlie Kronick, senior climate adviser at Greenpeace UK. "This has been going on for decades."

A former U.S.-trained Honduran military officer and businessman has been found guilty of plotting the assassination of Berta Cáceres, the award-winning Lenca land and water defender killed in 2016. The Honduran Supreme Court ruled unanimously that David Castillo, the former president of the hydroelectric corporation DESA, was a co-perpetrator in Cáceres's murder. Cáceres was assassinated as she led the fight against the construction of DESA's massive hydroelectric dam on a river in southwestern Honduras that is sacred to the Lenca people. Seven hired hitmen were convicted of her murder in 2018 and sentenced in 2019. Castillo's conviction this week comes just days after Honduras marked the 12th anniversary of the 2009 U.S.-backed coup. "This is the first time in 12 years that we have seen any kind of justice in Honduras," says Honduran scholar Suyapa Portillo Villeda, an associate professor at Pitzer College and the author of "Roots of Resistance: A Story of Gender, Race, and Labor on the North Coast of Honduras."

WHO Warns Against Dropping Public Health Measures as Delta Coronavirus Variant Spreads , President Biden Says Getting Vaccinated Is "Most Patriotic Thing You Can Do", U.N. Says 400,000 in Ethiopia's Tigray Region Are in Famine, with 1.8 Million on the Brink, U.S.-Trained Honduran Ex-Military Officer Found Guilty of Participating in Murder of Berta Cáceres, Tropical Storm Elsa Makes History as Worsening Climate Crisis Bakes Northern Hemisphere, "Eye of Fire" Erupts from Ruptured Pipeline Near Gulf of Mexico Oil Platform, Black Community in Memphis Defeats Oil Pipeline That Threatened Water Supply, Jessica Reznicek Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison for Eco-Sabotage on Dakota Access Pipeline, Israel Bombs Gaza Strip as Palestinians Launch Incendiary Balloons, Mapuche Leader Elisa Loncón to Lead Rewrite of Chile's Pinochet-Era Constitution, Eswatini Protesters Killed, Tortured Amid Demands for End to Absolute Monarchy, Surfside Condo Disaster Death Toll Rises to 28, with 117 Still Missing, 11 Heavily Armed Men with "Rise of the Moors" Militia Group Arrested in Massachusetts, Track Star Sha'Carri Richardson Suspended Ahead of Olympics over Positive Marijuana Test, Native Hawaiian Activist Haunani-Kay Trask, Who Opposed U.S. Imperialism, Dies at 71

As gun violence soars in the United States, we look at the Second Amendment and its racist roots with Carol Anderson, author of the new book, "The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America." In the book, Anderson details how the Second Amendment was written to empower local militia groups to put down slave revolts and protect plantation owners. She writes the Second Amendment is "rooted in fear of Black people, to deny them their rights, to keep them from tasting liberty." Carol Anderson joined us from Atlanta, where she is a professor at Emory University. She is also the author of "One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy" and "White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide."

Amanda Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history when she spoke at the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. She was 22 years old when she read "The Hill We Climb," a poem she finished right after the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6. We continue our July Fourth special broadcast with Gorman's remarkable address.

We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" He was addressing the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. James Earl Jones reads the historic address during a performance of "Voices of a People's History of the United States," which was co-edited by Howard Zinn. The late great historian introduces the address.

Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has announced she is deploying 50 members of the South Dakota National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border at the request of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. In an extraordinary twist, the deployment is being paid for by billionaire Republican megadonor Willis Johnson, who lives in Tennessee. Critics say Noem is turning the National Guard into a private mercenary force targeting migrants, but the governor's plans for the National Guard could encompass other activities. Water protector and land back attorney Bruce Ellison has obtained documents that indicate the same force could be deployed to suppress Indigenous activists resisting pipelines — including through "lethal force," Ellison says. We also speak to Tara Houska, Indigenous lawyer, activist and founder of the Giniw Collective, who adds the Department of Homeland Security has also been involved in suppressing resistance to construction of the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline in northern Minnesota.

Resistance to construction of the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline continues in northern Minnesota, where more than a dozen water protectors this week locked themselves to construction vehicles at two worksites, and to the pipeline itself. Just last month, 179 people were arrested when thousands shut down an Enbridge pumping station for two days as part of the Treaty People Gathering. If completed, Line 3 would carry more than 750,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands oil a day across Indigenous land and fragile ecosystems. The pipeline has the backing of the Biden administration, and this week Indigenous leaders and climate justice activists blockaded access to the White House, calling on Biden to stop fossil fuel projects and invest in climate justice initiatives in his infrastructure plans. Indigenous lawyer and activist Tara Houska, founder of the Giniw Collective, describes the resistance to Line 3 as an "all-out ground fight" led by young people. "This, to me, is an extension of the fight that's happening all over Mother Earth, protecting the last beautiful places, protecting the sacred," Houska says.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has charged former President Donald Trump's family business with operating a 15-year tax fraud scheme, accusing the Trump Organization of helping executives evade taxes by giving them compensation off the books. Allen Weisselberg, the company's chief financial officer, who has worked with Trump for decades, was also charged with grand larceny for avoiding taxes on $1.7 million in perks that he did not report as income. Weisselberg surrendered Thursday and pleaded not guilty, and he could face up to a decade in prison if convicted. Legal experts suggest prosecutors targeted Weisselberg with the hope he will flip and help investigators in other ongoing probes into the former president's company. "Donald Trump, while not named in the indictment, is all over the document in terms of actions he had to take," says David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who has followed Donald Trump and his finances for more than 30 years. "Donald Trump and the people around him believe that they shouldn't be subject to the law."

In a pair of major rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court has gutted more of the Voting Rights Act while making it easier for billionaires to secretly bankroll political campaigns. In a 6-3 vote, the conservative justices upheld two Arizona election laws that have been widely criticized for their impact on minority voters, sending a signal that other voting restrictions in Republican-led states are also likely to be ruled constitutional if challenges are brought to the high court. In a separate case, the court's conservative majority struck down a California law that required charities to privately disclose their top donors to the state attorney general, which could open the door to more "dark money" spending in campaigns. Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP, says the Supreme Court's actions reflect the conservative takeover of the federal judiciary. "They are hijacking our democracy from the top to aid and abet these Republican governors who have sought to hijack it from the bottom," he says.

Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Voter Suppression Law in Latest Blow to Voting Rights Act, Supreme Court Strikes Down California Donor Law in Major Win for Dark Money Groups, Trump Organization Charged with Criminal Tax Fraud, CFO Charged with Grand Larceny, WHO Warns Delta Coronavirus Variant Driving Massive Third Wave Across Africa, Venezuela Begins Administering Cuban-Made Abdala COVID-19 Vaccine, Extreme Heat Wave Scorches Canada, Nearly Wiping Out Canadian Town of Lytton, Pelosi Appoints Republican Liz Cheney to Select Committee to Probe Capitol Insurrection, Attorney General Merrick Garland Halts Federal Executions, U.S. Troops Withdraw from Bagram Airbase as Afghanistan's Future Hangs in the Balance, 10 Sentenced for Child Trafficking in Ivory Coast Cocoa Industry as Corporations Go Unpunished, Turkish Women Condemn Government Withdrawal from Treaty on Gender-Based Violence, NFL Slaps Washington Football Team with $10 Million Fine for Systemic Sexual Harassment, Boy Scouts of America Reach $850 Million Settlement with Survivors of Sexual Abuse, "No Pride in Genocide": Protests and Vigils Eschew Canada Day Celebrations

The Ethiopian military has withdrawn its forces from Mekelle, the capital of the war-torn Tigray region, after the government declared a ceasefire. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed denied reports his military was defeated by Tigrayan forces, and said he had successfully pacified the city. Ahmed, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, launched the offensive against Tigray separatists in November. Since then, thousands have been killed, over a million civilians have been displaced, and some 350,000 people are now on the brink of famine. Alemayehu Fentaw Weldemariam, a constitutional law scholar, political theorist and conflict analyst, says Prime Minister Ahmed's "unilateral" ceasefire hides the reality of what happened. "He was defeated," he says. We also speak with Stanley Chitekwe, chief of nutrition at UNICEF Ethiopia, who says the organization is seeing "very high levels of malnutrition" in Tigray, including among children under 5. "This malnutrition situation may deteriorate into famine," he warns.

After the Biden administration launched airstrikes targeting an Iranian-backed militia in Syria and Iraq, military historian Andrew Bacevich says the United States needs to reassess its decades-long hostility toward Iran. "The demonization of Iran is now a well-established reality of our contemporary politics. It's a mistake," he says. "Over the past 40 years or so, we've decided that Iran needs to be classified as an evil power, and I think that that inclination makes it very difficult for us to come to a reasoned understanding of how we got so deeply enmeshed in the Persian Gulf and how it is that we end up basically in the pocket of the Saudis." Bacevich also discusses the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and warns that a Taliban takeover of the country could spark another refugee crisis.

Donald Rumsfeld, considered the chief architect of the Iraq War, has died at the age of 88. As defense secretary for both Presidents George W. Bush and Gerald Ford, Rumsfeld presided, his critics say, over systemic torture, massacres of civilians and illegal wars. We look at Rumsfeld's legacy with retired Colonel Andrew Bacevich, whose son was killed in Iraq. Bacevich is the president of the antiwar think tank the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He says the Iraq War should be the most important item inscribed on Rumsfeld's headstone. "He was a disaster," Bacevich says. "He was a catastrophically bad and failed defense secretary who radically misinterpreted the necessary response to 9/11, and therefore caused almost immeasurable damage to our country, to Iraq, to the Persian Gulf, more broadly."

Trump Organization CFO Surrenders After Grand Jury Indictment, Bill Cosby Released from Jail After Court Overturns Sexual Assault Conviction on Technicality, Hundreds Feared Dead in Pacific Northwest in Unprecedented Heat Wave, Indigenous Groups Blockade White House Urging End to Fossil Fuel Projects, ExxonMobil Lobbyist Tricked into Disclosing How Firm Fights Climate Initiatives, Death Toll in Miami Beach Building Collapse Reaches 18; 145 Still Missing, Highly Contagious Delta COVID Variant Drives Cases, from Bangladesh to Russia, Brazilians Call for Bolsonaro Impeachment as COVD Death Toll Tops 500K, Iraq War & Torture Architect Donald Rumsfeld, 88, Dies, Just Two Republicans Back House Plan to Establish Jan. 6 Select Committee, Billionaire Funds Deployment of South Dakota National Guard to U.S.-Mexico Border, Amazon Seeks to Force New FTC Chair to Recuse Herself over Past Amazon Criticism, China Marks 100th Anniversary of Chinese Communist Party, U.S. & Japan Held Secret War Games & Military Exercises Targeting China, U.N. Sec.-Gen. Guterres Urges U.S. to Lift Sanctions on Iran, 182 More Unmarked Graves Found at First Nations Residential Schools in Canada, Report: Palestinian Authority Asks Israel for Munitions to Quell West Bank Protests, State Department to Allow "X" Gender Marker on Passports, Absentee Ballots Will Decide NYC Democratic Mayoral Primary, UNC-Chapel Hill Board Votes to Give Tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones

As the death toll from the 13-story apartment building collapse in Florida rises to 12, with nearly 150 people still missing, we examine how the disaster raises new questions about how rising sea levels will impact oceanside buildings in Miami and other cities. "The reason this is so important is that either this is something unique to the building or this is a general problem that all the condos along the coasts of the world are going to have to deal with," says Harold Wanless, a professor in geography and urban sustainability at the University of Miami who leads a project called The Invading Sea, a collaborative effort by news organizations across Florida to address the threat of sea level rise.

House lawmakers are set to vote to create a select committee that will investigate the deadly January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, while Republican leaders still aren't saying whether they will participate in the panel. Congressmember Nikema Williams of Georgia says it's vital to properly investigate the January 6 insurrection. "I experienced this attack on the Capitol my third day of being a member of Congress, having just been sworn in," Williams says. "I signed up to serve the people, but I never imagined that I would be unsafe as a member of Congress." Williams also discusses ongoing negotiations about infrastructure spending and the push to pass a sweeping voting rights bill.

After President Biden signed legislation this month to create a federal holiday commemorating June 19 as Juneteenth, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and Georgia Congressmember Nikema Williams reintroduced what is being called the "Abolition Amendment" to amend the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which banned slavery and involuntary servitude "except as a punishment for crime" — a clause that has allowed the widespread use of forced prison labor. "Eliminating the loophole … is one way to continue moving forward with addressing the problems of our past and building for the future," says Democratic Congressmember Nikema Williams. "American prisons are run by incarcerated labor," adds Jorge Renaud, national criminal justice director for LatinoJustice, who experienced forced labor while serving 27 years in a Texas prison.

As the U.S. marks 50 years since President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs on June 17, 1971, we speak with journalist Maya Schenwar, editor-in-chief of the news website Truthout, whose sister Keeley died of a drug overdose in February 2020 at the age of 29. Schenwar says her sister's death came after "a long cycle of criminalization" that made her chances of recovery much harder. "She became so afraid of being rearrested," says Schenwar, who notes that many drug users avoid seeking medical help because of the fear of police involvement and incarceration. "Why are we supporting criminalization at the expense of people's actual survival?" she asks. Drug overdoses have soared during the pandemic, causing over 92,000 deaths in the United States in the 12-month period ending in November — the most since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began keeping track over two decades ago. Experts say the pandemic and the increasing availability of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have contributed to the death toll.

Israeli Forces Begin Demolitions in East Jerusalem's Silwan, Attack Protesters, U.S. Military May Be Near End of Afghan Withdrawal as Top General Warns of Possible Civil War, Russia Tests Missiles in Crimea After Start of Ukraine-NATO's Black Sea Military Drill, Israel's Foreign Minister Inaugurates Embassy in UAE, Former South African President Jacob Zuma Sentenced to Prison for Contempt of Court, COVID Surge Brings Indonesia to "Edge of Catastrophe"; Virus Lowered Brazil's Life Expectancy, Vaccinated Angelenos Urged to Keep Masking Amid Delta Variant Spread; 800 Line 3 Workers Got COVID, Pfizer & Moderna Vaccines Could Offer Years of Protection; SCOTUS Allows Eviction Moratorium to Stand, NYC Board of Elections Posts, Then Retracts, Updated Tally in Mayor's Race After Counting Error, Maricopa County Will Replace Voting Machines Handled by GOP-Hired Firm in 2020 Election Audit, House Votes to Remove Confederate Statues from the Capitol, Rep. Cori Bush Introduces Bill to End Police Response in Mental Health and Substance Use Crises, NYT: Far-Right Spies Infiltrated Democratic Groups During 2020 Elections, SCOTUS Rules Asylum Seekers Who Were Once Deported Can Be Denied Bond, Locked Up Indefinitely, Immigrant Prisoners in New Jersey Attacked by Guards, Moved to Undisclosed Location, Dozens of Deaths in Canada Linked to Searing Heat Wave, Climate Activists Demand Congress End Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Migrant children held by the Biden administration are reporting suicide and escape attempts and conditions of spoiled food, extreme heat and panic attacks in the largest so-called emergency shelter for migrant children in the U.S., at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. More than 14,000 migrant children are currently in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which has set up 15 emergency sites like the one at Fort Bliss to get them out of overcrowded Border Patrol holding facilities. Vice President Kamala Harris did not visit the Fort Bliss tent city on her recent visit to the southern border, and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was met with protests when he toured the facility Monday. "We have seen so many instances of potential abuse inside that specific detention center," says Fernando García, founding director of the Border Network for Human Rights, who met with Harris during her visit. "Instead of investing in jails," he says the administration should take a more humane approach and "build welcoming centers to expedite family reunification."

Criticism is growing of recent U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, which the Biden administration says targeted Iran-backed militias. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi condemned the attack as a "blatant and unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty and Iraqi national security." The U.S. airstrikes come as the Biden administration is holding indirect talks with Iran about reviving the Iranian nuclear deal. Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, says the U.S. needs to end its "constant tit for tat" with Iran across the Middle East. "By failing to pivot away from that and instead bombing targets inside of Iraq, we are giving more fuel to this conflict," he says.

As western states battle record-breaking heat waves, climate activists are calling on the Biden administration and congressional Democrats to pass an infrastructure bill that includes major investments in green energy, including a fully funded Civilian Climate Corps. President Biden says he reached a bipartisan deal with senators on a slimmed-down infrastructure spending bill, but Democrats hope to pass a second, larger infrastructure package with a budget reconciliation process that would not require any Republican votes. The bipartisan deal is "completely unacceptable" on its own, says New York Democratic Congressmember Jamal Bowman. "If we want to maintain control and the opportunity to do great work in 2022, it's time for Democrats to deliver in this moment.'' We also speak with David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, who explains why the bipartisan infrastructure bill has been described as a "stalking horse" for privatization, and notes record heat and crumbling infrastructure are "screaming for a change in priorities in America because of the climate crisis."

Pacific Northwest's Stifling Heat Breaks All-Time Records for Second Straight Day, Moscow Storms Break Russia's Record-Setting June Heat Wave, Dozens of Youth Climate Activists Arrested at White House Demanding Action on Climate Crisis, "An Overt Political Blockade": Minnesota Police Barricade Line 3 Pipeline Protest Camp, Ethiopia Declares Ceasefire After Separatists Claim Tigray's Capital City , Iranian-Backed Militia Strikes Back After Biden Orders Bombings in Iraq and Syria, Federal Judge Throws Out Antitrust Lawsuits Seeking to Break Up Facebook , Trump Reportedly Asked to Send Coronavirus-Infected Americans to Guantánamo Bay, Death Toll Reaches 11 in Florida Condo Collapse, with 150 Still Missing , Juul Reaches $40 Million Settlement with North Carolina over Teen Nicotine Addiction, SCOTUS Won't Hear Challenge to Ruling Declaring Transgender Student Segregation Unconstitutional, California Bans State-Funded Travel to 17 States with Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws, Human Rights Court Holds Honduran State Responsible for Killing of Trans Woman Vicky Hernández, Mexican Supreme Court Decriminalizes Adult Use of Marijuana, U.N. Demands End to Impunity for Officers Who Violate Human Rights of Black People , Olympian Gwen Berry Turns Back on U.S. Flag in Protest Against Systemic Racism

The Supreme Court has ruled 6 to 3 that a California labor law violated the constitutional rights of property owners by giving union organizers access to workers on privately owned farms during their work breaks. The union-busting decision strikes down a crucial part of a landmark 1975 labor law that was the United States' first to recognize agricultural workers' rights to collective bargaining and grew out of efforts by the United Farm Workers to demand better pay and working conditions for California's agricultural workers. "This ruling is a setback for unions, for workers' rights," says Camila Chávez, executive director of the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

We speak with legal writer and author Adam Cohen about the growing question of whether liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer should step down so that he can be replaced while there is a Democratic president and Senate. Justice Breyer is 82 and the oldest member of the high court. "If Breyer doesn't step down now, there's a very real chance that Republicans will eventually fill that seat and maybe turn a 6-3 conservative majority, which has already been terrible, into a 7-2 conservative majority," Cohen says.

Mike Gravel, former presidential candidate and Democratic U.S. senator from Alaska, has died at the age of 91. We look at how, in the 1970s, Gravel was fiercely opposed to the Vietnam War and the draft and played a seminal role in the release of the Pentagon Papers, the 7,000 pages of top-secret documents outlining the secret history of the U.S. War in Vietnam. While the papers were leaked to The New York Times and The Washington Post, Gravel spearheaded a one-man push on June 29, 1971, to read some 4,100 pages of the document into the Congressional Record, so that it would become public record and then anyone could read it and publish it. We feature an extended speech by Gravel in 2007 describing in detail how he received the Pentagon Papers from journalist Ben Bagdikian, who in turn had gotten them from Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. Gravel told the extended story during an event moderated by Amy Goodman at the 2007 Unitarian Universalist Association's General Assembly.

One of the main witnesses in Julian Assange's extradition case has admitted he made false claims against Assange in exchange for immunity from prosecution, a bombshell revelation that could have a major impact on the WikiLeaks founder's fate. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if brought to the U.S., where he was indicted for violations of the Espionage Act related to the publication of classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes. According to a new article in the Icelandic newspaper Stundin, the convicted hacker Sigurdur "Siggi" Thordarson falsely claimed he was a prominent WikiLeaks representative instructed by Assange to carry out hacking attacks, but he was in fact only tangentially involved with the organization. The article suggests the U.S. Justice Department collaborated with Thordarson to generate the indictment for Assange that was submitted to the British courts. "This is just the latest revelation to demonstrate why the U.S. case should be dropped," says Jennifer Robinson, a human rights attorney who has been advising Assange and WikiLeaks since 2010. "The factual basis for this case has completely fallen apart."

Iraq Condemns Violation of Sovereignty After U.S. Launches Airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, Judge Sentences Ex-Cop Derek Chauvin to 22.5 Years in Prison for Murdering George Floyd, WHO Urges Vaccinated People to Keep Taking COVID Precautions as Delta Variant Spreads Across Globe, Bangladesh, Australia, South Africa Among Nations Ordering New Restrictions Amid Surge in Cases, Biden Says U.S. Will Continue to Support Afghan Gov't After Withdrawal as Taliban Takes New Territory, 9 Dead, 150+ Missing in Miami Condo Collapse as 2018 Report Shows Building Was Vulnerable, VP Kamala Harris Visits El Paso on U.S.-Mexico Border, Thousands of Cook County Workers Strike for Better Pay and Affordable Healthcare, Justice Department Sues Georgia over Voter Suppression Law, Manhattan District Attorney Set to File Criminal Charges Against Trump Organization, Trump Sought to Use Insurrection Act to Crush Black Lives Matter Protests in 2020, Millions Worldwide Celebrate LGBTQ Pride, Defying Police Harassment, Johnson & Johnson Reaches $230 Million Settlement with New York over Role in Opioid Epidemic, Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, Who Read Pentagon Papers into Congressional Record, Dies at 91

The parents of a student killed in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School duped a former president of the National Rifle Association into giving a high school graduation speech defending gun rights in front of 3,044 empty white chairs — one chair for each student who could not graduate this year because they were killed by gun violence. David Keene, who still serves on the NRA board, thought he was giving a rehearsal speech for graduating students at the James Madison Academy in Las Vegas, but no such school exists. Video of the speech was turned into a viral video promoting universal background checks. The stunt was organized by the group Change the Ref, which was founded by Manuel and Patricia Oliver, whose son Joaquin was shot dead in the Parkland, Florida, massacre. Manuel Oliver says the video has led to an outpouring of support from across the U.S. "We need to do these more often, because it shows that the NRA, the gun industry and the gun lobby are not as powerful as they say," he says.

The Taliban have continued seizing districts in Afghanistan ahead of the U.S. military pullout set for September 11, now holding twice as much territory as they did two months ago. According to a Wall Street Journal report, U.S. intelligence agencies believe the government of Afghanistan could collapse within six months of the U.S. withdrawal. The Biden administration is reportedly planning to keep 650 troops in Afghanistan after the September 11 deadline, and the U.S. is also looking for nearby military bases for future aerial bombings and other operations. Afghan American scholar Zaher Wahab says Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who is meeting with President Joe Biden this week, is "terribly isolated, out of touch and without much support" as the government continues to lose ground. "The situation in Afghanistan seems to be unraveling rather fast," says Wahab.

An Ethiopian military bombing of a marketplace in the Tigray region killed at least 64 people in one of the deadliest attacks since government forces invaded the region last November. The bombing came just a day after Ethiopians voted in national and regional elections, but polls could not open in some areas due to ongoing fighting. The country is still waiting for results that will determine if the ruling coalition, led by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, stays in power. Thousands of people have been killed, and an estimated 2 million people have been displaced, since Ahmed ordered the Ethiopian military to invade Tigray, which is home to Ethiopia's former governing party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front. The invasion has led to massive food shortages, with aid groups warning 350,000 people in Tigray are on the brink of famine. "Both the famine and the bombing are not separate things from what has been happening in Tigray for the last eight months," says Ethiopian journalist Tsedale Lemma, who says what was cast as a minor "enforcement" action has "morphed into a civil war" with no clear resolution. "The war is not ending. There is no end in sight," says Lemma.

Biden and Senators Reach Compromise Infrastructure Bill That Excludes Climate and Jobs Programs, Biden Administration Backs Permits for Enbridge Line 3 Tar Sands Pipeline, Climate Crisis Driving Record-High Temperatures in Pacific Northwest, Federal Fire Agency Warns Historic Drought Is Increasing Demand for Firefighters, "Half-Measures and Broken Promises": European Parliament Commits to Climate Neutrality by 2050, Climate Crisis Pushes 1 Million People in Madagascar to "Edge of Starvation", 751 Unmarked Graves Found at Former Residential School for Indigenous Children in Saskatchewan, U.S. Bans Solar Panel Parts Produced in Xinjiang by Forced Labor, At Least Four Dead, Dozens Missing After Miami-Area Apartment Building Collapses, Pelosi Announces Select Committee to Investigate U.S. Capitol Insurrection, Michigan Senate Report Discredits Trump and GOP Voter Fraud Claims, New York Court Suspends Rudy Giuliani's Law License over 2020 Election Lies, Judge to Deliver Derek Chauvin's Sentence for Murder of George Floyd, Pandemic Exacerbating Vulnerability of Children in Conflict, West Bank Protesters Condemn Palestinian Authority After Death of Prominent Critic Nizar Banat

Pressure is growing on Democrats to abolish the Senate filibuster in order to pass a major voting rights bill and other legislation. Republicans this week used the filibuster to prevent debate on the For the People Act, which would restore the protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act gutted by the Supreme Court eight years ago. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who is a lead sponsor of the For the People Act and self-described "Chief Filibuster Antagonist," says Republicans have broken the Senate's "social contract" of bipartisan cooperation in favor of total obstruction of all Democratic priorities. "The majority makes the decision, not the minority," he adds. Meanwhile, as much of the Pacific Northwest faces record-shattering temperatures, 30 degrees or more above average, including Merkley's home state of Oregon, lawmakers in Washington continue to negotiate over an infrastructure bill Democrats say needs to include major new funding to address the climate crisis. Merkley explains why he said, "If there's no climate, there's no deal."

Ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris's visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, immigrant rights activists marched on the White House to call on the Biden administration to stop detaining trans asylum seekers, who often face severe abuse, discrimination and medical neglect in custody. Their actions included a service honoring and mourning the deaths of several trans people who died due to ICE negligence. Eight immigrant rights groups also sent a letter to the White House demanding the release of all transgender people and people with HIV/AIDS from immigrant detention centers. Jennicet Gutiérrez, a community organizer and advocate with Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, says transgender immigrants often face "tremendous challenges" that force them to seek asylum in the U.S. "Many are rejected from their homes. They're not supported and held with everything that they deserve. And they have no choice but to be out on the streets, trying to survive," Gutiérrez says.

President Joe Biden has vowed to crack down on illegal gun dealers and to boost funding for police departments as part of an effort to combat a spike in gun violence across the country. Rejecting calls by activists to defund the police, Biden said cities could expand their police forces by diverting federal money allocated for the pandemic. He also pledged to strengthen enforcement of existing gun laws. The rise in gun violence can be traced back to "a lack of resources" in many communities, says Erica Ford, a longtime anti-violence activist in New York City and CEO and founder of LIFE Camp, Inc. "There's no job opportunities. There's no education opportunities," Ford says. "These preconditions that we face in our community help the disease of violence rise to a level that is unaddressable at the time because we don't have the tools and resources to address them."

White House to Crack Down on Illegal Gun Dealers and Increase Police Funding, Revs. Jesse Jackson and William Barber Arrested at Nonviolent Protest Against Senate Filibuster, CDC Links COVID-19 Vaccines to Rare Cases of Myocarditis But Says Benefits Far Outweigh Risks, Supreme Court Rules Cheerleader's Profane Social Media Post Was Protected Speech, SCOTUS Cuts Off Union Organizers' Access to Farm Workers in Major Defeat for Organized Labor, ICE Force-Fed Immigrant Prisoners Who Went on Hunger Strike Against Poor Conditions, U.N. General Assembly Votes Overwhelmingly to Condemn U.S. Embargo on Cuba for 29th Time, Britain Disputes Russia's Claim of Naval Confrontation in Waters Near Russian-Annexed Crimea, Brazil Environment Minister Steps Down; Police Attack Indigenous Activists in Brasília, First Capitol Rioter Sentenced as Nancy Pelosi Set to Announce Cmte to Probe Jan. 6 Insurrection, Top Pentagon Chief Fends Off GOP Attacks over Military Teaching About Historical Racism, Connecticut Legalizes Recreational Marijuana, NY Judge Dismisses New York City Law Banning Chokeholds, Parents of Shooting Victim Trick Ex-NRA Head into Giving Fake Graduation Speech for Gun Control PSA

The White House says it will miss its goal of getting 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4. Vaccinations are available for anyone age 12 and up in the U.S., but just 45% of people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, and only 16 states have fully vaccinated more than half of their populations. Epidemiologist Dr. Ali Khan says despite more than 150 million people in the U.S. now being vaccinated against the coronavirus, the highly contagious Delta variant is quickly becoming a concern. "Our expectation should be, by July, this will be the dominant variant," he says.

As Senate Republicans use the filibuster to block debate on the most sweeping voting rights bill considered by Congress in decades, we look at what is in the bill and the next steps forward. Elizabeth Hira, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice's Democracy Program, describes the For the People Act as "a massive democracy reform package" that seeks to address systemic flaws in U.S. elections. "This bill creates a wholesale opportunity for us to fix all of the things that have been wrong in our democracy." We also speak with Reverend William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, who says Republican opposition to the bill exposes their cruelty. "They are committed to keeping alive voter suppression that started with the Southern strategy. They are today's Strom Thurmond," says Barber.

We look at the early results from New York's highly anticipated primary election Tuesday. In the heated mayoral race, Brooklyn borough president and former New York police officer Eric Adams is leading, but it will likely take several weeks to announce a winner with the new ranked-choice voting system. Civil rights attorney Maya Wiley is currently in second place, followed closely by former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang has conceded after receiving less than 12% of the tallied vote even after the media covered him as a front-runner. "My sense is that Adams will probably prevail," says Democracy Now! co-host Juan González, who adds it has been largely overlooked that Adams and his billionaire backers are big supporters of charter schools, which could shape the city's public school system.

Republicans Block Major Voting Rights Bill as Democrats Vow to Continue Fight, Air Raid in Tigray Kills Dozens, Adding to Conflict-Fueled Devastation, Japan Restarts First Nuclear Reactor in Over 3 Years Amid Widespread Opposition, Rights Groups Sound Alarm as Nicaragua's Gov't Escalates Crackdown on Opposition, Shooting in Mexican Border Town Kills at Least 15 People in Crossfire, At Least 3 Arab Israeli Journalists Have Come Under Attack in Past Month, U.S. Gov't Seizes PressTV.com and Other Websites Linked to Iran, Hong Kong Newspaper Apple Daily Shuts Down Days After Police Raid Newsroom, Arrest Editors, Catalan Separatist Leaders Released After Spanish Pardon, 200+ Groups Call for Permanent End to U.S. Global Gag Rule, NYT: Saudi Men Involved in Jamal Khashoggi's Murder Were Trained by U.S. Group, Biden Admin to Reconsider Cases of Rejected Asylum Seekers Subjected to "Remain in Mexico" Plan, Interior Dept. to Probe Impact of Historic Boarding Schools for Native American Children, Nikole Hannah-Jones Will Not Join UNC-Chapel Hill Faculty Without Tenure

More than a thousand coal miners at Warrior Met Coal are now in the third month of their strike in the right-to-work state of Alabama. The miners walked off the job on April 1 after their union, the United Mine Workers of America, called the first strike to hit the state's coal mining industry in four decades. Workers are fighting for improvements to wages and benefits after they agreed to drastic cutbacks in 2016, when Warrior Met Coal took control of the mines after the previous company went bankrupt. Today a group of striking mine workers traveled from Alabama to Wall Street to protest the investment firms backing Warrior Met. "These are the companies that fund Warrior Met and allow Warrior Met to pay their executives millions of dollars a year, while the miners, the workers themselves who are creating that value, are struggling to get by on sometimes as little as $22 an hour," says labor journalist and organizer Kim Kelly.

As lawmakers in Washington continue to negotiate over an infrastructure bill that Democrats say needs to include major new funding to address the climate crisis, much of the U.S. is experiencing record heat, with many western states seeing record temperatures, drought and water shortages. "The climate crisis is here now," says climate and energy researcher Leah Stokes, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "The climate crisis is really happening right now, and every single year we delay on passing a climate bill, the worse the crisis gets."