Democracy Now!

Republican senators in Washington are attempting to block Kristen Clarke, a prominent voting rights advocate, from a top Justice Department position. The Senate Judiciary Committee has deadlocked on an 11-11 vote on whether to move Clarke's nomination for assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to the Senate floor for a full vote. If she wins the vote, Clarke, who has served as the head of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and is a longtime champion of voting rights, a defender against hate and violent extremism, would be the first Black woman to hold the position. Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP, says the campaign against Clarke's nomination is based on falsehoods, including baseless claims of anti-Semitism. "The way that they've lied about her really is a new low," Jealous says, who links Republican obstruction to the party's larger assault on voting rights.

Palestinian scholar Hanan Ashrawi says Israel's latest assault on Gaza is turning life in the besieged territory into "sheer hell," aided by U.S. military and diplomatic support. "Israel has total license to use unbridled power to kill and destroy and maim and get away with it," Ashrawi says. We also speak with Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, who says President Joe Biden's continued defense of Israeli actions reflects long-standing erasure and dehumanization of Palestinians. "One wonders what proportion you have to have of Arab deaths, of Palestinian deaths, over Israeli deaths. Is it 20 to 1 before the United States finally begins to recognize that this is not legitimate self-defense?" Khalidi says. "This is a perfect illustration of the bias that has been a feature of American policy for many, many years."

As the death toll in Gaza reaches at least 119 amid Israel's escalation of its aerial assault, Congressmember Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the first Palestinian American woman elected to Congress, delivered a powerful speech on the House floor Thursday to denounce the violence and attempted erasure of the Palestinian people. "I am the only Palestinian American member of Congress now," Tlaib said. "I am a reminder to colleagues that Palestinians do indeed exist."

As MOVE family members and hundreds of supporters held a memorial Thursday to mark the deadly May 13, 1985, police bombing of their home in Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney announced the resignation of the city's top health official over stunning new revelations he cremated some of the bombing victims' remains, including bone fragments, without the knowledge or permission of the families. This comes amid an ongoing investigation into how the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University came into possession of bones thought to belong to one or two MOVE children killed in the bombing. The police bombing of the home of the radical, Black liberation, anti-police-brutality group killed six adults and five children and burned down two city blocks.

Palestinian Civilian Death Toll Mounts as Israel Pounds Gaza with Airstrikes and Heavy Artillery, Eight Killed in Israel by Palestinian Rocket Fire as Military Chief Threatens "Gaza Will Burn", President Biden Says Israel's Bombing and Shelling of Gaza Not a "Significant Overreaction", India to Make Russia's Sputnik V Vaccine Available Amid Devastating COVID-19 Toll, Japan Expands Coronavirus Emergency as Doctors Join Call to Cancel Summer Olympics, CDC Says Fully Vaccinated U.S. Residents Can Go Maskless in Most Settings, Hackers Post Personal Data of D.C. Police Officers Following Ransomware Attack, Active-Duty Marine Arrested for Assaulting Police Officer During January 6 Insurrection, Protesters "Evict" Enbridge After It Defies Governor's Order to Shut Down Line 5 Pipeline, U.K. Court Delivers Prison Sentence to Ex-Diplomat Who Has Reported on Persecution of Julian Assange, McDonald's Workers to Strike for $15/Hour, Call Out Pay Raise That Benefits Just 5% of Branches

We look at the crisis unfolding in Israel-Palestine with Nathan Thrall, former director of the Arab-Israeli Project at the International Crisis Group and writer now based in Jerusalem, who says despite a buildup of Israeli troops on the Gaza border, Israel wants to avoid a ground invasion of the besieged territory and return to the status quo that existed before the latest round of violence. "Israel's preference and its policy is to have Hamas remain in control of its little island of Gaza after this is finished," Thrall says.

Televised images of Israeli mobs attacking Palestinians have been widely denounced by Israeli media and public figures, but Palestinian writer Budour Hassan says the selective outrage ignores decades of occupation that have led to this point. "There is some mention of these lynch mobs that are attacking Palestinians in mixed cities. What is not mentioned is who emboldened these lynch mobs. We're talking about state-sponsored, decades-long discrimination, isolation and erasure that emboldened these groups," says Hassan, legal researcher for the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights, who joins us from Nazareth.

On Monday, we spoke to writer and poet Mohammed El-Kurd, whose family is facing forceful eviction from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. He also spoke on CNN and MSNBC. After these interviews, Israeli forces arrested him and forcibly removed him from Sheikh Jarrah. It was captured in a dramatic video shared widely on social media. "They just threw me in the street and told me that I couldn't come back into the neighborhood," El-Kurd says. "They've done this many times to us, many of my family members, many of my neighbors. They do this routinely." El-Kurd has been one of the most prominent Palestinian voices in recent weeks describing what is happening in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where Israeli authorities' planned evictions of several Palestinian families to give their homes to Jewish settlers has been widely described as "ethnic cleansing."

The death toll in Gaza has reached at least 83, including 17 children, and hundreds of people have been injured, as Israel's aerial bombardment of the besieged territory continues. Israel is now sending troops to the Gaza border for a possible ground invasion as many Palestinians are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The Biden administration on Wednesday gave Israel a green light to continue its assault, and Israel has reportedly rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire, despite growing international condemnation. Issam Adwan, Gaza project manager for We Are Not Numbers, a youth-led initiative to share Palestinian stories with the wider world, says many international observers make the mistake of viewing the latest violence in isolation. "They think this war is the only violation of human rights Israel is doing to the people of Gaza. Over the past 15 years, we have witnessed three brutal wars, and this is a fourth one," says Adwan.

Gaza Death Toll Soars Amid Israeli Airstrikes as Israeli Troops Mass for Ground Invasion, U.S. Blocks U.N. Resolution on Israel-Palestine as Biden Asserts Israel's "Right to Defend Itself", Chanting "Death to Arabs," Israeli Mobs Attack Arab-Owned Businesses and Assault Driver, India Reports Another 4,100 COVID-19 Deaths as Cases Begin to Decline in Delhi , Nurses Honor 400 Colleagues Who Lost Their Lives to COVID-19, Call for More Protections, U.S. COVID Numbers Fall as Doctors Debate Vaccinating Kids Ahead of Vulnerable People Abroad, U.N. Calls for Doubling Global Vaccine Production as Some Countries Have Yet to Receive Single Dose, Cuba Starts to Roll Out Two Domestic Vaccines , Delayed EPA Report Paints Dire Picture of Human-Caused Climate Crisis, Colonial Pipeline Resumes Operations Amid Fuel Shortages and Price Hikes, House GOP Ousts Liz Cheney from Leadership Role for Calling Out Trump Election Lies, Attorney General Merrick Garland Says White Supremacists Are Top Domestic Violence Threat , Judge Finds "Aggravating Factors" in Derek Chauvin's Murder of George Floyd, Sahrawi Human Rights Activist Sultana Khaya and Sister Raped by Moroccan Agents

As Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner attempts to overhaul the city's criminal justice system, he faces a Democratic primary election next week against Carlos Vega, a former homicide prosecutor who is one of three dozen veteran prosecutors fired by Krasner when he took office in 2018. We speak with Linn Washington, a journalist who has covered Philadelphia's criminal justice system for decades, who says powerful forces, including the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, have unfairly "tarred" Krasner for his reforms. "The FOP represents the very worst of the regressive approach to the criminal justice system, the very elements that Mr. Krasner is trying to reform," Washington says. He also discusses how Krasner's stance on Mumia Abu-Jamal may not cost him reelection but "will stain his reputation as a reformer."

In Pennsylvania, more than half of incarcerated people are jailed due to probation violations. We speak with formerly incarcerated activist LaTonya Myers, who says probation and parole, rather than being a stepping stone to freedom, act as a "streamline to mass incarceration," with punitive rules landing people back behind bars for minor violations. Myers helps people arrested navigate the bail review system as support coordinator with the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund and is featured in the new PBS documentary series "Philly D.A." about Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's attempts to reform the criminal justice system. "We just want a part of the American dream," says Myers. "But it hasn't been American dream for us. It's American nightmare."

Four years ago, the longtime civil rights attorney Larry Krasner shocked the political establishment in Philadelphia by being elected district attorney. Now he faces a tough reelection next week. We delve into his record as captured in a new eight-part series by PBS "Independent Lens" that follows how Krasner, who had sued the Philadelphia Police Department 75 times during his career, ran on a platform of ending mass incarceration and has fought to overhaul the DA's Office. "Is change possible in an institution like this?" asks series co-creator Ted Passon. "Why or why not?" We also speak with co-creator Nicole Salazar about how the series explores "the tensions between the new guard, between Krasner's team and the existing prosecutors in the office."

At Least 50 Palestinians Killed as Israeli Attacks Continue; Protests Call Out Israeli Crimes, Red Cross Warns COVID Cases "Exploding" in Asia as India Continues to Break New Records, Algeria Moves to Ban Unauthorized Protests as Pro-Democracy Movement Gains Steam, French Court Tosses Lawsuit from Agent Orange Victim Against Chemical Companies, Family of Andrew Brown Jr. Views More Footage of Police Killing, Confirms Shooting Was Unjustified, Ahmaud Arbery's Killers Plead Not Guilty to Federal Hate Crimes, Arizona Passes Law to Cut Voters from Early Mail-in Voting List, Liz Cheney Delivers Scathing Rebuke as GOP Prepares to Vote on Her Ouster from House Leadership, Judge Dismisses NRA Bankruptcy Bid, Prosecutors Will Seek Death Penalty for Suspect in Atlanta Spa Massacre, AP Reports Biden Admin Holding 21,000 Migrant Children in Crowded Facilities with No Oversight, Pollution from Animal Farming Causes Tens of Thousands of U.S. Deaths Each Year

This week marks the 36th anniversary of the day the city of Philadelphia bombed its own citizens. On May 13, 1985, police surrounded the home of MOVE, a radical Black liberation organization that was defying orders to vacate. Police flooded the home with water, filled the house with tear gas, and blasted the house with automatic weapons, all failing to dislodge the residents. Finally, police dropped a bomb on the house from a helicopter, killing 11 people, including five children. The fire burned an entire city block to the ground, destroying over 60 homes. But the tragedy didn't end on that day. We look at how Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania have used bones from one or two of the murdered children in their classes for years. "We still don't know all the details about what happened in terms of the chain of custody," says Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, an organizer and writer in West Philadelphia who helped bring the revelations to the public. "You can't even begin to heal because the harm is still being done," adds Mike Africa Jr., a second-generation MOVE member. "Everybody is just retraumatized."

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed at least 26 Palestinians, including nine children, as tension in the region has escalated sharply. Hundreds were also injured by Israeli forces Monday when they stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Hamas responded by firing hundreds of rockets into Israel, which reportedly caused dozens of injuries but no deaths. The tension in Jerusalem has been mounting for weeks as Palestinians have been organizing to block Israel from forcibly evicting dozens of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to give their homes to Jewish settlers. The United Nations has described the planned eviction as a possible war crime. Raji Sourani, award-winning human rights lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, says Israel's latest assault is compounding the suffering of people in the besieged territory. "We have the occupation. We have the blockade for the last 14 years, which paralyzed our entire lives. We have the pandemic, and now we have this fourth war against Gaza," he says. We also speak with Orly Noy, an Israeli political activist and editor of the Hebrew-language news site Local Call, who says the latest outbreak of fighting is likely to help Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cling to power. "Israeli politics is now in a very strange phase," Noy says. "Extreme right-wingers are controlling both sides of the Israeli map."

Israeli Airstrikes Kill 26 Palestinians in Gaza, Including 9 Children, Bodies of Indian COVID-19 Victims Found on Banks of Ganges River, World Health Organization Chief Blasts "Shocking Global Disparity" in Vaccine Access, U.S. Drug Regulator Clears Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine for Use in Children 12 and Older, Democrats Urge President Biden to Lift Iran Sanctions and Return to 2015 Nuclear Deal, Colombian President Warns Indigenous Protesters Amid Mounting Attacks by Vigilantes, Mother's Day Marchers Demand Mexican Government Take Action to Find Missing Children, Moroccan Authorities Raid Home of Western Sahara Independence Activist Sultana Khaya, More Than 2,000 Refugees Arrive on Italy's Lampedusa Island, Overwhelming Aid Workers, At Least Nine Killed in School Shooting in Central Russia, Washington Post: Trump Justice Department Spied on Journalists Covering 2016 Election, Instagram Apologizes for Deleting Posts Supporting #MMIWG2S, Biden Admin Reinstates Protections for Trans People Seeking Healthcare, Governor Expands Drought Emergency Declaration in California, Contempt-of-Court Trial Opens for Steven Donziger, Lawyer Who Sued Chevron for Amazon Oil Spills

Extreme voting restrictions have advanced in several Republican-led states across the U.S., including in Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a sweeping voter suppression bill that will make it harder to vote by mail, limit ballot drop boxes, impose new voter ID requirements and criminalize giving food and water to voters waiting in line at polling places. Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman says these efforts are an extension of former President Trump's "big lie" about voter fraud. "They're trying to make it harder for Democratic constituencies to be able to vote in future elections, and they are trying to institutionalize voter suppression in a way that they couldn't do in 2020," Berman says. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a key Senate panel is set to take up the sweeping voting rights and election overhaul bill known as the For the People Act.

At least 85 people, mostly young girls, were killed in Afghanistan after several bomb blasts outside a school in the capital Kabul. Survivors said the bombs were timed to go off as the girls left school for the day. The neighborhood where the attack occurred is mostly populated by the minority Hazara Shia community, and the Afghan government blamed the Taliban, though the group denies responsibility. The massacre came one week after U.S. and NATO forces started their military withdrawal from Afghanistan and amid a surge in violence. We go to Kabul to speak with Basir Bita, a mentor with Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers whose brother is a survivor of the attack, and Afghan American scholar Zaher Wahab. "Women and children continue to be the main victims of this occupation and invasion and the mayhem," Wahab says, but he dismisses justifications for the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan as "protecting women and girls."

Hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded after Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque for the second time in four days, with reports showing police fired rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinian worshipers. Palestinians have been staging weeks of protests to block Israel from evicting dozens of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem to give their homes to Jewish settlers, which the United Nations has described as a possible war crime. Mohammed El-Kurd, a writer and poet who is organizing to save his family's home in Sheikh Jarrah, says the world is seeing colonialism in action in Palestine. "What's happening in Sheikh Jarrah today is nothing short of ethnic cleansing," El-Kurd says in an interview from Jerusalem. "We are seeing the Israeli government literally doing everything it can to terrorize Palestinians, whereas Israeli settlers can just walk around our neighborhoods, steal our homes and wield their guns, no questions asked whatsoever."

Israeli Forces Attack, Injure Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Amid Protests Against Sheikh Jarrah Expulsions, At Least 85 People, Mostly Schoolgirls, Killed in Kabul Bomb Blasts, As COVID Devastates India, New Surges Prompt Restrictions Across Asia; Brazil Tops 15 Million Cases, WHO Approves Chinese Sinopharm Vaccine, Adding to COVAX Arsenal, Protests Erupt After Iraqi Activist Ehab al-Wazni Killed in Karbala, Colorado Springs Shooting Claims 7 Lives During Weekend Marked by Rash of Mass Shootings, DOJ Proposes Rule to Reign in "Ghost Guns" and Other Unregulated Firearms, DOJ Brings Federal Charges Against Derek Chauvin, 3 Other Ex-Cops in George Floyd's Murder, Judge Says Andrew Brown's Family Can Watch Just a Fraction of Footage Showing Police Killing, Ransomware Attack Targeting Colonial Pipeline Shuts Fuel Shipments Across Eastern U.S., Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar Introduce Bill to Make School Meals Free

Nearly 80 years ago, Richard Wright became one of the most famous Black writers in the United States with the publication of "Native Son," a novel whose 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."

This week, four parents from Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico were reunited with their children in the United States after being separated under former President Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy. They were the first families to be reunited on U.S. soil since the Biden administration began its reunification process. "Although we love to see the reunifications and they're very moving, we have to keep in mind what led to that and that it should never have happened in the first place," says Carol Anne Donohoe, managing attorney for the Family Reunification Project at Al Otro Lado. We also speak with Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, who leads the ACLU's lawsuit over family separations. He notes more than 1,000 children are still separated from their parents, and adds, "We have not even found the parents of 455 children."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs Voter Suppression Bill, Texas and Ohio Republicans Advance Bills to Make It Harder to Vote, India Sets Yet Another World Record for Daily COVID-19 Infections, Study Finds COVID-19 Has Killed 6.9 Million Worldwide, More Than Double Official Count, German Chancellor Angela Merkel Rejects Patent Waiver for COVID-19 Vaccines, Police Raid on Rio de Janeiro Favela Leaves 25 Dead, with Reports of Execution-Style Killings, U.S. Sends Warplanes to Afghanistan Amid Withdrawal as HRW Warns Aid Cuts Jeopardize Women's Health, CodePink Co-Founder Calls Out General Dynamics CEO over Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia, DOJ Says Arizona 2020 Election Recount May Be Violating Civil Rights Laws as Concerns Pile Up, Colorado Republican Calls Colleague "Buckwheat" During Legislative Session, New York AG Says 18 Million Fake Comments Were Posted in Support of 2017 FCC Net Neutrality Repeal, Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed Injured in Bomb Attack, Indigenous and Climate Activists Hold Global Day of Action Against Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline

Former President Donald Trump will continue to stay off Facebook after the company's Oversight Board ruled Wednesday that his ban was justified for creating "an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible." Trump was banned shortly after the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which he helped foment by promoting baseless claims of election fraud. The Oversight Board also said Facebook should reassess its ban and make a final decision in six months. Shoshana Zuboff, professor emerita at Harvard Business School and author of the book "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism," says that Facebook's recent moves follow years of inaction by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "He showed that he was willing to do just about anything to appease Trump … to keep regulation at bay," Zuboff says.

At least 30 people in Colombia have been reportedly killed since a nationwide uprising erupted against the government of right-wing President Iván Duque. Protesters are vowing to remain in the streets amid a deadly crackdown by police and military officers. About 800 people have been injured and 87 people are missing in the midst of the demonstrations, which were initially sparked by a now-withdrawn tax reform proposal, but they have since expanded in scope. People in Colombia are also denouncing rampant police brutality and demanding broader social, economic and political reforms. At least 15 people were killed in a massacre in the city of Cali on April 30 after police repeatedly opened fire on protesters. "The country has been a place of repression," says Emilia Márquez Pizano, sex and gender director with the Colombian nonprofit Temblores, which collects data on police violence in the country. We also speak with Manuel Rozental, a Colombian activist with more than 40 years of involvement in grassroots political organizing and member of the collective Pueblos en Camino. He says "Colombians are fed up" with what he describes as the "fascist mafia regime" of Iván Duque. "They have pushed Colombians into the streets because most Colombians have nothing to lose," Rozental says.

The Biden administration has announced it now supports temporarily waiving the intellectual property rights for COVID vaccines, in what the World Trade Organization is calling a "monumental moment." India and South Africa first proposed the waiver in October, but the United States and other wealthy nations blocked the WTO from even opening negotiations on the proposal. Supporters say the waiver is critically needed to increase the rate of vaccine production for the Global South as COVID-19 rapidly spreads in India, Latin America and other regions where few vaccines are available. Biden's support for the waiver is "an incredibly pleasant surprise" and "late, but still welcome," says Achal Prabhala, coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa. "The proposal is monumental because what it does is it allows for more vaccines to be manufactured in the world," Prabhala says. "The whole world faces a crippling shortage of coronavirus vaccines."

In Reversal, Biden Administration Will Support Waiving Patents for COVID-19 Vaccines, India Sets New Global Record for Daily Coronavirus Cases, CDC Predicts Sharp Drop in U.S. COVID-19 Cases by July If Vaccinations Continue, Trump-Appointed Federal Judge Throws Out National Eviction Moratorium, Study Predicts "Rapid and Unstoppable" Sea Level Rise Unless Paris Climate Goals Are Met, U.N. Warns of Soaring Hunger, Child Mortality and Maternal Deaths During Pandemic, Facebook Oversight Board Upholds Ban on Trump, Active-Duty National Guardsman Arrested over January 6 Insurrection, Top Republicans Prepare to Oust Rep. Liz Cheney from Leadership Role over Anti-Trump Comments, Israel's Yair Lapid Given Chance to Form Coalition Government After PM Netanyahu Fails, 16-Year-Old Palestinian Said Odeh Shot Dead by Israeli Forces in Occupied West Bank, Labor Dept. Voids Trump-Era Rule Making It Easier to Classify Gig Workers as Independent Contractors, South Carolina Legislature Votes to Bring Back Electric Chair, Firing Squads, DNA Evidence Suggests Ledell Lee Was Innocent of Murder for Which He Was Executed in 2017, Olympic Committee to Ban "Black Lives Matter" Slogan and Protests at Tokyo Summer Games, Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Jailed Ahead of July 13 Sentencing

China topped the agenda Tuesday when foreign ministers from G7 nations met in London. This comes as both China and the United States are accusing each other of escalating tensions in the South China Sea. Last week, the Chinese government claimed there has been a 40% increase of activity by U.S. planes in Chinese-claimed areas since Biden took office. Critics increasingly argue Biden's policies on China are risk sparking a new Cold War. "Trump's anti-China policy is now also being followed by the Biden administration," says acclaimed Filipino scholar and activist Walden Bello, co-founder of Focus on the Global South.

The international disparity in vaccine access between rich and low-income countries highlights "the irrationality of global capitalism," says acclaimed Filipino scholar and activist Walden Bello, who urges the Biden administration to sign on to an effort at the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive intellectual property rules on vaccine technology. He also discusses the COVID crisis in the Philippines.

Pressure is growing on the Biden administration to support a temporary waiver on intellectual property rights for COVID-related medicines and vaccines at the World Trade Organization. India and South Africa first proposed the waiver in October, but it was blocked by the United States and other wealthy members of the WTO. Big Pharma has also come out against the proposal and has lobbied Washington to preserve its monopoly control. More than 100 countries have supported the waiver, which they say is critical to ramp up production of vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests in the Global South. Ahead of the kickoff of two days of WTO important meetings in Geneva, we speak with Lori Wallach of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. "The big problem is simply not enough vaccines are being produced," says Wallach. "The world needs 10 to 15 billion doses to reach herd immunity, and right now all of the global production together is on track to make 6 billion doses this year."

India Reports New Record Death Toll as Indian G7 Delegation Self-Isolates in London, Tanzania Adopts Travel Restrictions; Seychelles, Which Has Highest Vaccination Rate, Sees New Surge, Biden Wants 70% of U.S. Adults to Get Vaccine by July 4; Pfizer to Seek EUA for Children 2+ in Sept., House Dems Call on Biden to Allow Vaccine IP Waiver; New York Extends Eviction Moratorium, Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Reported in NY, SF as New Study Shows Surge in Crimes Against AAPI People, Chauvin Lawyer Files Motion for New Trial as AG Seeks Harsher Sentence for Murder of George Floyd, Community Demands Answers After Black LGBTQ Teenager Mikayla Miller Found Dead in April, Women in Puerto Rico Demand Action After Surge in Femicides, Trump's DOJ Threatened MIT Researchers over Report on 2019 Bolivian Election, U.N. Condemns Crackdown on Colombian Protests as Rally Planned Against NYU Event with Ex-Pres. Uribe, Zapatistas Set Sail to Europe to Mark 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance, Mexico Apologizes for Centuries of Abuse Against Maya Indigenous Community, Fighting Intensifies as U.S. Begins Military Retreat from Afghanistan, Richard Cordray, Former Head of CFPB, Tapped to Oversee Federal Student Aid Program, Judge Orders DOJ to Hand Over Memo Used by Bill Barr to Justify Clearing Trump of Obstruction, "New Normal" for U.S. Climate Is Hotter and Wetter, According to New NOAA Data, France Advances New Climate Bill, But Activists Say It Doesn't Go Far Enough

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."

In Reversal, Biden to Raise Cap on Refugees Admitted to U.S., U.S. Allows Four Refugee Families Separated Under Trump to Reunite, India's Official COVID-19 Caseload Tops 20 Million, Nepal's COVID-19 Crisis Becomes "Unmanageable" Amid Exponential Rise in Cases, Argentina Passes 3 Million Confirmed COVID-19 Cases as Brazil Delays Second Vaccine Doses, Biden Under Pressure as World Health Organization Presses for Waiver on Vaccine Patent Rights, U.S. States Roll Back Coronavirus Restrictions as New Cases Fall Below 50,000 Per Day, Andrew Brown Jr. Laid to Rest Amid Mounting Calls to Hold Officers Who Shot Him Accountable, Biden Says Corporations Should Pay "Their Fair Share" of Taxes to Fund Infrastructure Plan, EPA Plans to Phase Out Highly Potent Greenhouse Gases Known as Hydrofluorocarbons, Landmark Trial on Opioid Epidemic Opens in West Virginia Federal Court, Protests Continue to Rock Colombia as Family of 17-Year-Old Protester Killed by Police Demands Justice, El Salvador Rights Groups Warn of "Coup" Against Judiciary Led by President Nayib Bukele, At Least 23 Killed in Mexico City Subway Disaster, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz Threatens to Punish CEOs Who Oppose Voter Suppression Bills, Kansas Republicans Fail to Override Democratic Governor's Veto of Transgender Athlete Ban, Ballroom Legend and Trans Activist Jahaira DeAlto Murdered at 43

Big Pharma has hired an army of lobbyists to pressure U.S. lawmakers to block an effort at the World Trade Organization to loosen intellectual property rules on COVID-19 vaccines, which would allow countries around the world to ramp up production, vaccinate more people and bring the pandemic to an end sooner. Dozens of countries from the Global South, led by India and South Africa, are demanding a temporary waiver on vaccine patents, but rich countries, including the U.S. under both the Trump and Biden administrations, have opposed the move. Lee Fang, investigative journalist at The Intercept, says there is a "glut" of vaccines going to wealthy countries while much of the rest of the world is left waiting. "These initiatives that are based on voluntary agreements with the pharmaceutical companies have not worked," he says. Fang also discusses his reporting on the Biden's administration's ties to the vaccine makers: White House adviser Anita Dunn is co-founder of the consulting firm SKDK, which works closely with Pfizer; Biden's domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, holds up to $5 million in Johnson & Johnson shares; and White House science adviser Eric Lander holds up to $1 million in shares of BioNTech, which co-developed Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine.

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the 1971 May Day protests, when tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C., and brought much of the capital to a standstill through acts of civil disobedience. The mass demonstrations terrified the Nixon administration, and police would arrest over 12,000 people — the largest mass arrest in U.S. history. Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who attended the May Day protests, says it was part of a wave of popular discontent about the war that mobilized millions. "There was a movement of young people who felt that what was happening in the world … was wrong, had to change, and they were ready to risk their careers and their lives to try to change it. And we need that right now," Ellsberg says. He recently spoke with Amy Goodman at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the release of the Pentagon Papers. We play excerpts from that conversation, which also included National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

More than 100 people marched alongside the family of Anthony Alvarez in Chicago Saturday, calling for the police officer who shot and killed him to be charged. Newly released video reveals police killed 22-year-old Alvarez while he was running away during a foot chase. Police have not said why they initially confronted and then chased Alvarez, who was killed just two days after Chicago police shot dead another young Latinx male, 13-year-old Adam Toledo. This comes four years after the Department of Justice found foot pursuits by Chicago police were leading to too many deaths. Now Chicago's mayor and police superintendent say a new police foot pursuit policy is underway. "We need to do a complete overhaul of our Chicago Police Department," says Luis Gutiérrez, former Democratic congressmember for Illinois. "There is this real sense that Brown and Black lives, they don't have the value that they should when Chicago police officers confront our youth."

India Breaks New COVID Records Amid Vaccine Shortages; U.S. Restricts Travel from India, Mourners Remember Slain 16-Year-Old Ma'Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio, Colorado Officers Resign After They Attack 73-Year-Old with Dementia, Laugh About Arrest, Biden Administration Releases Documents on Trump's 2017 Drone Order, 4 Families Separated at U.S Border Will Be Reunited, But Thousands Remain Ripped Apart, Traumatized, Biden Admin Cancels Construction of Trump U.S.-Mexico Border Wall, Migrant Boat Capsizes in San Diego, Killing at Least 4 People, North Korea Issues Warning to U.S. After Biden Says Nuclear Program Presents Global Threat, Burmese Forces Kill at Least 8 Anti-Coup Protesters as Organizers Call for "Spring Revolution", Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 21 People as Violence Surges in Afghanistan, 11 Refugees Drown Off Libyan Coast as U.N. Renews Calls for Urgent Action to Prevent More Deaths, Colombia Withdraws Tax Reform Plans After Days of Deadly Protests, Mitt Romney Greeted with Boos at Utah GOP Convention After Narrowly Avoiding Censure, Oregon State Rep. Facing Charges for Allowing Far-Right Mob to Enter State Capitol in December, Canadian Proud Boys Disband After Being Designated a Terrorist Group in February, NYPD Stops Deploying "Digidog" After Public Outrage, Federal Court Says EPA Must Ban Use of Toxic Pesticide That Harms Children, Workers Mark May 1 Around the World; U.S. Events Call for Passage of PRO ACT, Immigrant Protections

Revelations the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton hold the remains of a child killed by Philadelphia police in the 1985 MOVE bombing are the latest development in a conversation about demanding respectful treatment of African American remains in museum collections, especially those of the enslaved. The Penn Museum also apologized last week for holding more than 1,000 stolen skulls of enslaved people in its Morton Collection, and the president of Harvard University issued a letter in January acknowledging the 22,000 human remains in its collections included 15 from people of African descent who may have been enslaved in the United States, vowing review of the school's ethics policies. "This is a really vast problem," says historian Samuel Redman, author of "Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums," who also describes the repatriation of Native American remains after Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990. "There are individual instances like this that are horrific and we need to pay attention to, but it is a symptom of this much larger problem."

Following protests, two Ivy League schools — the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University — have issued apologies for their handling of the remains of an African American child killed by the Philadelphia police in the 1985 MOVE bombing. Students at Princeton held a protest on campus to support the demands of the MOVE community, who held another protest at the same time at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, and 70 Princeton professors signed on to a letter published in the campus newspaper that called on the university to act. "This routinely happens where vulnerable people are exploited in the name of research," says Aisha Tahir, a Princeton senior who helped organize a protest on campus. "Princeton does not have practices in place which center the preciousness of human life."

A major new report by Human Rights Watch says for the first time that Israel is committing crimes of apartheid and persecution in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The international human rights group says Israeli authorities dispossessed, confined and forcibly separated Palestinians. "For years, prominent voices have warned that apartheid lurked just around the corner. But it's very clear that that threshold has been crossed," says Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. "It's time for the international community to recognize the reality on the ground for what it is — apartheid and persecution — and take the steps necessary to end a situation of this gravity."

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On the eve of his 100th day in office, President Joe Biden gave his first speech to a joint session of Congress and proposed trillions of dollars in new economic measures. He unveiled his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, which includes $1 trillion in new spending and $800 billion in tax credits aimed at expanding access to education and child care. He also called on lawmakers to support his plan to invest heavily in the country's infrastructure and to expand the social safety net in part by funding it with $4 trillion in taxes on the rich and corporations. Economist Jayati Ghosh says Biden's spending plans are "unexpected" but much needed. "It's very important to turn the direction of the nature of public intervention away from protecting the interests of the rich and of large capital to protecting the interests of people," Ghosh says. "This has not been the aim of government policy across the world, and especially in the U.S., for the last three decades." We also speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna, who said Biden's speech "was an explicit rejection of the neoliberal framework."

As new coronavirus cases surge across India, overwhelming hospitals and crematories, calls are growing louder for wealthy countries to stop hoarding excess supply of COVID-19 vaccines and to loosen intellectual property restrictions preventing more countries from making their own vaccines. We speak with economist Jayati Ghosh and Congressmember Ro Khanna of California.

As India faces 1 million new COVID-19 infections every three days, we look at how more infectious variants have been linked to a spread in cases. The so-called India variant has now been detected in at least 19 countries. "This virus behaves differently now, in that it's much more infectious," says Dr. Priya Sampathkumar, an infectious disease physician at the Mayo Clinic.

India has topped 18.3 million COVID-19 cases, after adding 1 million cases in just the past three days amid shortages in vital supplies and overwhelmed hospitals across the country. Makeshift mass cremation facilities have been set up in parks and parking lots, with rows of bodies being burned on funeral pyres. With hospitals overflowing, some patients have been turned away and left to deal with their infections on their own. "This is where Modi has led India," says Indian journalist Rana Ayyub, who says the prime minister "clearly has no plan" for dealing with the crisis ravaging the country's healthcare systems, particularly outside the major cities. "There has always been a crisis of healthcare in rural India, but never has it been so acutely defined as it is now," says Ayyub.

Biden Urges Congress to Back Vast Expansion of Social Safety Net & New Taxes on Rich, India in Public Health Catastrophe as Deaths & Infections Reach New High, Hate Crimes Charges Filed Against Georgia Men in Ahmaud Arbery Murder, NC Judge Delays Release of Police Footage of Andrew Brown Jr. Shooting, Video: Chicago Police Shot Anthony Alvarez Dead as He Was Running Away, FBI Raid Rudy Giuliani's Home & Office, Mass Protests in Colombia Held to Protest Iván Duque & Proposed Tax Reform, U.S. Contractors Are Still Helping Maintain Saudi Warplanes Used in Yemen War, Israel Faces Call to Free Alaa al-Rimawi, Palestinian Journalist on Hunger Strike, Scientists: Glaciers Are Melting 31% Faster Than 15 Years Ago, Senate Votes to Reimpose Regs on Methane Emissions, Houston Sheriff Who Criticized Trump's Immigration Policies Is Nominated to Head ICE, Arizona Governor Signs Sweeping Anti-Abortion Law, Native American Groups Call on CNN to Fire Rick Santorum over Embrace of Genocide

We continue our conversation with The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill, who just published a groundbreaking new project on Joe Biden's decades-long foreign policy record. Scahill says that during his years in the U.S. Senate, Biden "almost never meets a war he doesn't support," becoming one of the most hawkish figures in Washington in the 1990s and 2000s. Scahill also discusses Biden's "war against whistleblowers," from Daniel Ellsberg to Edward Snowden.

An investigation into President Joe Biden's foreign policy record reveals "the history of the evolution of the American empire, from the Vietnam War to the present," says Jeremy Scahill, award-winning journalist and co-founder of The Intercept, which recently published a project titled "Empire Politician" that examines Biden's stances on war and militarism. Scahill says Joe Biden is the first president in decades to come to the White House after spending significant time in Congress, but it's not clear whether that will push him toward greater restraint in matters of war and peace. "Biden has spent his entire life railing against executive overreach, demanding that Congress be in charge of declaring war, and he may well be presented with a conflict around the world where it's going to really call the question on which Joe Biden shows up: Joe Biden, commander in chief, or Joe Biden who spent most of the past 50 years as a senator demanding that Congress be given its proper authority," says Scahill.

As President Joe Biden nears his 100th day in the White House, we look at his foreign policy record, both as president and over the past five decades. A new project created by Jeremy Scahill, award-winning journalist and senior correspondent at The Intercept, examines Biden's stances on war, militarism and the CIA going back to the early 1970s, when he was first elected as a senator in Delaware. We air a video discussing the project, titled "Empire Politician," featuring Scahill.