Democracy Now!

With the U.S. marking at least 242 mass shootings so far in 2021, according to the Gun Violence Archive, we speak with policy expert Julia Weber about the link between gun violence and domestic violence. "We know that this is a massive crisis that we need to address much more effectively," says Weber, the implementation director at the Giffords Law Center. A 2020 Bloomberg analysis looking at nearly 750 mass shootings over a six-year span found about 60% of the shootings were either domestic violence attacks or committed by men with histories of domestic violence.

Athletes around the globe are voicing support for tennis superstar Naomi Osaka, who withdrew from the French Open after being fined and threatened with disqualification for declining to take part in press conferences due to their effect on her mental health. Prominent athletes, from Stephen Curry to Serena Williams, have come forward to support 23-year-old Osaka, who is a four-time Grand Slam tournament winner. The escalating fines and criticism Osaka faced from tennis officials were "a disproportionate response" to her actions, says Amira Rose Davis, an assistant professor of history and women's, gender and sexuality studies at Penn State and co-host of the sports podcast "Burn It All Down." She adds that Black women athletes are often subjected to insensitive questioning from the media that can perpetuate racist and sexist narratives. "The media is overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly older, overwhelmingly male," Davis says.

President Biden traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, one of the single greatest acts of racist terrorism in U.S. history. Over a span of 18 hours, a white mob burned down what was known as "Black Wall Street," the thriving Black neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa, and killed an estimated 300 African Americans. Duke University professor William Darity says it's "very impressive" that a sitting U.S. president highlighted the Tulsa race massacre and its lingering effects, but he says he's skeptical that Biden's economic proposals do enough to close the racial wealth gap. "We need something much more potent and much more substantial," Darity says. "If we were going to bring the share of Black wealth into consistency with the share of the Black population, it would require an expenditure of at least $11 trillion."

Biden Addresses Voting, Racial Wealth Gap as He Visits Tulsa Race Massacre Site on 100th Anniversary, 100+ Scholars Call for Congressional Action to Enact Federal Voting Rights Protections, Biden Ends Contested Trump-Era "Remain in Mexico" Policy, Rights Groups Call for End to Repressive, Invasive Technologies in Immigration Practices, Washington State's Most Populous County Bans Use of Facial Recognition Technology, Biden Administration Suspends Oil & Gas Leases in ANWR But Defends Massive "Willow" Project, Three Bombs Kill 10 People, Disable Electric Grid in Kabul, Sri Lanka Shoreline Coated in Plastic Debris from Sinking, Burning Cargo Ship, World Bank Urges U.S. to Free Up Vaccines for Latin America; Pandemic Recedes in U.K., Worsens in DRC, Florida Enacts Ban on Transgender Youth in School Sports, JBS, World's Largest Meat Producer, Halts Slaughterhouse Operations After Cyberattack, Democrat Melanie Stansbury Clinches New Mexico House Seat in Special Election, Puerto Ricans Set to Go on Strike After Weeks of Protest Against Privatization of Electric Grid

The Canadian government is facing pressure to declare a national day of mourning after the bodies of 215 children were found in British Columbia on the grounds of a school for Indigenous children who were forcibly separated from their families by the government. The bodies were discovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, which opened in 1890 and closed in the late 1970s. Over the span of a century, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were separated from their families and sent to residential schools to rid them of their Native cultures and languages and integrate them into mainstream Canadian society. "These children are just some of the children who died in the schools," says Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. "There are many others in unmarked graves across the country." In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada concluded that residential schools were part of "a conscious policy of cultural genocide" against Canada's First Nations population.

A major new report on police killings suggests far more people of color have died in police custody than previously known. The report by the Raza Database Project and UnidosUS found that deaths of Latinos, Asian and Indigenous peoples have been historically undercounted. Researchers documented the deaths of 32,542 people who have been killed by police since 2000, 60% of whom constitute people of color, who make up just 40% of the U.S. population. "We found many more killings than expected," says Roberto Rodríguez, professor at the University of Arizona and director of the Raza Database Project, a network of researchers, scholars, journalists, activists and family members of victims killed by law enforcement. "There is no systematic effort to count, to collect this data. The FBI is supposed to, but they don't. It's up to the media and independent researchers, and it's really difficult," Rodríguez says. We also speak with Marissa Barrera, who became an advocate against police violence after police in Woodland, California, killed her brother, Michael Barrera, in 2017. "All the other families that I work with, they have similar stories just as bad," Barrera says. "We go through the same things."

Democratic lawmakers in Texas staged a dramatic walkout to prevent the Republican-controlled Legislature from passing a sweeping bill to rewrite election laws in the state. Critics say the bill will lead to mass voter suppression, especially of Black and Latinx voters, by eliminating drive-thru and 24-hour voting, as well as ballot drop boxes. The Republican bill would also make it easier for elections to be overturned even if there is no evidence of fraud. Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat representing House District 116 in the state Legislature, says the legislation would have "a tremendous impact" on ballot access in the state. "Just like every bad policy, Hispanics, Latinos and Asian Americans will be disproportionately impacted," Fischer says. "The time is now for a national response."

Texas Democratic Lawmakers Stage Walkout Against Sweeping GOP Voter Suppression Bill, Peru Revises COVID Death Toll to Become Nation with Highest Per Capita Death Rate , WHO Calls for Pandemic Preparedness Treaty, Warning "The Pathogens Are Winning", Tens of Thousands March in Cities Across Brazil Demanding Impeachment of Jair Bolsonaro, Colombian Police Continue Deadly Crackdown on Anti-Government Protests, China to Allow Married Couples to Have Up to Three Children as Birth Rate Continues to Fall, Bodies of 215 Indigenous Children Discovered at Canadian Boarding School, Israeli Opposition Parties Nearing Deal to End Netanyahu's 12-Year Reign as Prime Minister, National March for Palestine Demands Congress and Biden Admin Hold Israel Accountable, Two Killed and Over 20 Injured in Florida Mass Shooting; Suspects Remain at Large, Pressure Grows for Democrats to End Filibuster as GOP Stonewalls January 6 Commission, At Pro-Trump Conference, Michael Flynn Calls for Military Coup Against U.S. Government, Arizona Plans Executions Using Same Poison Gas Used in Nazi Death Camps, Eric Riddick Released from Prison After Serving 29 Years for Crime He Says He Didn't Commit , Illinois Lawmakers Pass Bill Barring Police Interrogators from Lying to Minors, Imprisoned Anti-Fascist Activist Says Prison Guards Allowed White Supremacists to Beat Him, Naomi Osaka Quits French Open, Citing Mental Health Challenges

Nearly 80 years ago, Richard Wright became one of the most famous Black writers in the United States with the publication of "Native Son." The novel's searing critique of systemic racism made it a best-seller and inspired a generation of Black writers. In 1941, Wright wrote a new novel titled "The Man Who Lived Underground," but publishers refused to release it, in part because the book was filled with graphic descriptions of police brutality by white officers against a Black man. His manuscript was largely forgotten until his daughter Julia Wright unearthed it at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. "The Man Who Lived Underground" was not published in the 1940s because white publishers did not want to highlight "white supremacist police violence upon a Black man because it was too close to home," says Julia Wright. "It's a bit like lifting the stone and not wanting the worms, the racist worms underneath, to be seen."

A new four-part documentary series, "Exterminate All the Brutes," delves deeply into the legacy of European colonialism from the Americas to Africa. It has been described as an unflinching narrative of genocide and exploitation, beginning with the colonizing of Indigenous land that is now called the United States. The documentary series seeks to counter "the type of lies, the type of propaganda, the type of abuse, that we have been subject to all of these years," says director and Haitian-born filmmaker Raoul Peck. "We have the means to tell the real story, and that's exactly what I decided to do," Peck says. "Everything is on the table, has been on the table for a long time, except that it was in little bits everywhere. … We lost the wider perspective."

Memorial Day marks the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, one of the deadliest episodes of racial violence in U.S. history, when the thriving African American neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma — known as "Black Wall Street" — was burned to the ground by a white mob. An estimated 300 African Americans were killed and over 1,000 injured. Whites in Tulsa actively suppressed the truth, and African Americans were intimidated into silence. But efforts to restore the horrific event to its rightful place in U.S. history are having an impact. Survivors testified last week before Congress, calling for reparations. President Biden is set to visit Tulsa on Tuesday. We speak with documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson, whose new film premiering this weekend explores how Black residents sought out freedom in Oklahoma and built a thriving community in Greenwood, and how it was all destroyed over two days of horrific violence. Nelson notes many African Americans migrated westward after the Civil War "to start a new life" with dignity. "Greenwood was one of over 100 African American communities in the West," he says. "Greenwood was the biggest and the baddest of those communities."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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