Democracy Now!

As the United States sets new records for COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations, we speak with one of the world's leading experts on infectious diseases, Dr. Paul Farmer, who says the devastating death toll in the U.S. reflects decades of underinvestment in public health and centuries of social inequality. "All the social pathologies of our nation come to the fore during epidemics," says Dr. Farmer, a professor of medicine at Harvard University, chair of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, and co-founder and chief strategist of Partners in Health.

California Put Back on Lockdown as U.S. Coronavirus Toll Hits New Record High, Biden Will Call on U.S. Residents to Wear Masks for First 100 Days of His Presidency, Italy to Ban Holiday Travel as Daily COVID-19 Deaths Near 1,000, U.N. Secretary-General Warns Impact of Pandemic May Last for Decades, California Farmworkers Infected by Coronavirus at Three Times the Rate of Other Workers, Wisconsin Supreme Court Won't Hear Trump Lawsuit Seeking to Overturn Election, Trump Vows to Veto Military Spending Bill over Anger at Twitter, Facebook, U.S. Pulls Baghdad Embassy Staff on Anniversary of Assassination of Iranian General, Egypt Frees Jailed Human Rights Workers After International Outcry, Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh Being Moved to Isolated Island in "Dangerous Mass Detention", Lawyers Working to Reunite Immigrant Families Finally Obtain Data from U.S. Government, Asylum Seekers Protest on U.S.-Mexico Border to Demand Resumption of Legal Proceedings, U.S. Bans Cotton Imports from Chinese Company It Say Uses Uyghur Slave Labor, Protesters in Bhopal Call for Justice 36 Years After World's Deadliest Industrial Disaster, Trump Admin to Start Selling Drilling Rights in Arctic Wildlife Refuge in January, Bond Fire in SoCal Rages as California's Worst Fire Season Ever Continues, Georgia Sen. David Perdue Traded 2,600 Stocks in One Term, Florida Attorney Under Investigation for Violating Voting Laws in Georgia, Black Mother Attacked by Philadelphia Police Speaks Out: "My Son Is Petrified", Democrats Push to Cut "Slavery Loophole" from Constitution, "Alternative Nobel" Honors Iranian Lawyer, Nicaraguan Land Defender, Belarusian Activist & U.S. Civil Rights Lawyer

As COVID rages through India, which has the second-highest number of reported cases worldwide, hundreds of thousands of farmers are converging on the capital New Delhi to demand the government repeal new laws that deregulate agricultural markets, saying the reforms give major corporations power to set crop prices far below current rates and devastate the livelihoods of farmers. Agriculture is the leading source of income for more than half of India's 1.3 billion people. The farmer revolt comes as some 250 million workers across the country took part in the largest strike in history against the Modi government's neoliberal labor reforms. We speak with P. Sainath, a longtime Indian journalist and the founder of People's Archive of Rural India, or PARI, who describes why working-class Indians are standing up against "absolutely vicious" new rules that were rammed through Parliament, and the protests show no signs of stopping.

The United Nations has reached a deal with Ethiopia's government to allow humanitarian access to the northern Tigray region and start providing aid. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched military action against regional forces one month ago, setting off a bloody conflict and adding to the already alarming number of displaced people and refugees in the country and neighboring nations. Ethiopia has declared victory after announcing it took control of the capital of Tigray, but the Tigray People's Liberation Front says they are continuing to fight. CNN senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir says what is happening Ethiopia is "a conflict over power that has descended into potentially a form of ethnic cleansing," with Tigray people saying they're being "targeted based on the ethnic distinction on their ID cards."

A CNN investigation has exposed the Nigerian Army's role in a deadly attack on protesters in the capital city of Lagos in October, when soldiers opened fire on protesters gathered at Lekki toll gate, a key roadway and protest site. At least 12 people were killed in the massacre, which the Army initially denied, and capped weeks of demonstrations against the notorious Nigerian police unit known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS. Senior CNN international correspondent Nima Elbagir says the massacre "had a chilling effect" on the protest movement and enraged many Nigerians. "We kept hearing from these families who were still looking for their loved ones how hurtful it had been for them to hear the Nigerian government deny that they had anything to do with this huge and grievous loss," says Elbagir.

U.S. Breaks Records for COVID-19 Hospitalizations and Deaths on Worst Day Yet of Pandemic, CDC Shortens Coronavirus Quarantine Recommendations, White House and State Department Plan In-Person Holiday Parties as Pandemic Rages, Russia to Begin Vaccinating Doctors and Teachers Against COVID-19 Next Week, Trump Posts Lie-Filled Video Alleging Massive Election Conspiracy, Georgia Secretary of State Blames Trump's Conspiracy Theories for Violent Threats, Trump-Backing Lawyers Urge Georgia Republicans Not to Vote in Senate Runoff, As 2020 Breaks Climate Records, U.N. Urges End to Humanity's "War on Nature", Afghan Government and Taliban Reach Breakthrough in Peace Talks, Iran Warns It Will Increase Uranium Enrichment Unless U.S. Sanctions Are Soon Lifted, Reports: Saudi Arabia to End 3+ Year Blockade Against Qatar, Ivanka Trump Deposed in D.C. Lawsuit over Misuse of Inaugural Funds, Labor Group Accuses Google of Firing Workers for Protesting Company, Union Organizing, Workers Slam Trump Move to Freeze Federal Pay Amid Raging Pandemic, U.S. Women's Soccer Team Reaches Settlement in Dispute over Unequal Working Conditions, Eddie Benton-Banai, Native Activist Who Co-Founded the American Indian Movement, Dies at 89

We speak with the co-author of a major new biography of Malcolm X, "The Dead Are Arising," which recently won the 2020 National Book Award for Nonfiction and offers a sweeping account of Malcolm X's life by weaving together hundreds of interviews with Malcolm X's family, friends, colleagues and enemies. The book is based on decades of research by Les Payne, who died in 2018, and finished by his daughter, Tamara Payne. "The reason why he admired Malcolm is because Malcolm was dealing with the conditions that Black people are facing even internally and how we viewed ourselves in this situation," she says, and describes how her father lived through the civil rights movement and strongly connected with Malcolm X's teachings.

For his incoming economic team, President-elect Joe Biden has picked several people associated with the investment giant BlackRock, which has been called "the fourth branch of government." This includes his choice of Brian Deese, a former adviser to Barack Obama, to be his director of the National Economic Council. Deese was the global head of sustainable investing for BlackRock, which is the world's largest asset manager, with over $7 trillion in its portfolio. This comes as progressives are demanding a Cabinet free of Wall Street influence. "BlackRock has very smartly cultivated its reputation as a sort of 'good guy' on Wall Street" that is contradicted by their conduct, notes Kate Aronoff, staff writer at The New Republic. "Time after time, they have sought to shirk regulation and — in the last year especially, and while Brian Deese has been there — really greenwashed their image."

President-elect Joe Biden announced his top economic advisers this week, setting the tone for his administration's recovery plan, including Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress think tank, as head of the Office of Management and Budget. While Tanden would be the first woman of color and the first South Asian woman in the role, critics oppose her organization's cozy relationship with corporate funders, her record of antagonizing and undermining progressive Democrats, and her aggressive foreign policy positions. Briahna Joy Gray, former national press secretary for the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, says there has been "a lot of emphasis on the identity of the individuals picked" for Biden's incoming team, but representation alone is not enough. "Several of these individuals have real problems, and none of them truly represent a progressive in the mindset of most Americans, especially those who identified with Bernie Sanders."

U.K. Becomes First Country to Approve Use of Pfizer-BioNTech Coronavirus Vaccine, CDC Recommends Healthcare Workers, Nursing Home Residents and Staff Receive First Vaccines, COVID-19 Was Likely on U.S. Soil in Mid-December 2019, Senators Unveil $908 Billion Bill, But Passage Remains Uncertain as Millions Face Unemployment, Hunger, Trump Considers Pardons for Family, Associates as DOJ Probes Pardon Bribery Scheme, William Barr Says DOJ Found No Evidence of Widespread Voter Fraud in 2020 Election, Georgia Election Official Slams Trump, GOP Leaders for Enabling Violence Against Election Workers, U.N. Reaches Deal for Humanitarian Access to Tigray as Food Runs Out for Refugees, Bobi Wine Suspends Presidential Campaign in Uganda After Targeted Attacks, Hong Kong Sentences Joshua Wong to 13.5 Months for "Illegal Assembly", Climate Groups Take Big Oil to Court: "Shell Is on a Collision Course with the Global Climate Target", Fraser Island Devastated by Massive Bushfire Amid Record-Breaking Australian Heat Wave, New Zealand Declares Climate Emergency, Saudi Arabia to Try Women's Rights Activist Loujain al-Hathloul in Terrorism Court, SCOTUS Considers Whether U.S. Companies Can Be Held Liable for Enslavement Abroad, 19-Year-Old Black Oregon Teenager Shot Dead by White Man for Playing Music Too Loudly, Hollywood Actor and Activist Elliot Page Comes Out as Transgender, Miguel Algarín, Poet, Writer & Founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Dies at 79

December 1 is World AIDS Day, and as the world waits on an effective vaccine for COVID-19, we look at the ongoing AIDS epidemic and how the coronavirus has threatened treatment for those living with HIV. Author and journalism professor Steven Thrasher says the coronavirus has amplified racial, class and other disparities, just as AIDS has done for decades, and that treatments must have an antiracist and anti-capitalist foundation in order to be successful. "HIV/AIDS has continued to kill way too many people. Almost 700,000 people died last year," says Thrasher. "The problem is not just the drugs. It's the conditions around people's lives that lead them to become affected by viruses."

As distribution of coronavirus vaccines draws near, a recent poll suggests that 42% of Americans are reluctant to take the vaccine. In response, some, including former Maryland congressmember and presidential candidate John Delaney, are pushing to pay people to get vaccinated, a move being discouraged by many, including Dr. Monica Peek, a physician, associate professor of medicine and health disparities researcher at the University of Chicago. She says there are major concerns about how to ensure at-risk groups get vaccinated while overcoming public doubts about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, but paying people to get vaccinated would be a mistake. "We need to have the public trust that this vaccine will be safe, and we cannot cut corners," she says.

As the drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna seek emergency approval for their coronavirus vaccines, public health bodies and regulators are weighing how to distribute the vaccines and who will get access to them. The pandemic is disproportionately impacting African American, Latinx and Indigenous communities, exposing long-standing inequities and systemic racism in the U.S. healthcare system. These same communities are underrepresented in the clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines, due in part to centuries of abusive treatment at the hands of medical researchers. We speak with Dr. Chris Pernell, a public health physician in Newark, New Jersey, who is participating in Moderna's vaccine trial, in part as a way to honor her late father who died from COVID and to ensure African Americans are included in the studies. "Being a public health physician, I needed a way to be a part of the solution," she says. "I knew it was important for Black and Brown persons to participate if we were ever to get at a truly effective solution."

NY Governor Warns of "Nightmare of Overwhelmed Hospitals" as U.S. Topples Coronavirus Records, Trump Coronavirus Adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, Who Fought Public Health Measures, Resigns, Millions of U.S. Workers Shortchanged on Unemployment Benefits During Pandemic, Study Finds Evictions in 2020 Led to 10,700 Additional Pandemic Deaths, Trump Campaign Lawyer Calls for Murder of Cybersecurity Official Fired by Trump, Trump Appeal for Legal Help Nets $170 Million, Most of Which Will Fund Political Action Committee , Trump Lashes Out at Republican Governors Who Refused to Overturn Election Results, Ransomware Attack Shutters Baltimore County Schools , Federal Court Orders ICE to End Indefinite Detention of Asylum Seekers in New York, Guatemalan Protesters Demand Resignation of President Alejandro Giammattei, Major U.S. Corporations Oppose Bill Banning Goods Produced by Forced Labor in China, French MPs to Rewrite Law Banning Publication of Images of Police, Brazilian Amazon Deforestation Hits 12-Year High Under President Bolsonaro, Minnesota Gives Final Approval to Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline, Goldman Environmental Prize Holds Virtual Ceremony for 2020 Winners

We look at the unprecedented five federal executions President Trump's Department of Justice has scheduled before Inauguration Day, starting with Brandon Bernard on International Human Rights Day and ending with Dustin Higgs on January 15, Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Four of the people set to die are Black men, and the other is Lisa Montgomery, a severely mentally ill white woman who faced a lifetime of sexual abuse and would be the first woman executed in nearly 70 years. "When you give absolute power over life and death to government officials, they can really do what they want," responds Sister Helen Prejean, one of the world's most well-known anti-death-penalty activists. She also discusses the life and legacy of Bill Pelke, who co-founded the group Journey of Hope and partnered with Prejean to campaign against the death penalty and spare the life of the woman who was 15 years old when she killed his grandmother.

We look at one of the most shocking cases in the slew of federal executions the Trump administration has scheduled in its final months: Lisa Montgomery, who was convicted in 2007 for a gruesome murder of a pregnant woman, is set be the first woman to be executed by the federal government in 70 years, if her January 12 execution goes forward. Advocates say Montgomery suffers from mental illnesses caused by a life of abuse and sexual assault, and that she deserves clemency. "She is profoundly mentally ill," Cornell law professor Sandra Babcock says. "Why the rush to execute someone like Lisa Montgomery, among all of these other people? That, to me, illustrates the brutality that we are witnessing right now."

Sister Helen Prejean, one of the world's best-known anti-death-penalty activists, says the spate of federal executions carried out by the Trump administration reflects a "fundamental flaw" in the law, which does not set limits on use of the death penalty. "When you give absolute power over life and death to government officials, they can really do what they want," she says.

Iran's top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated Friday while driving on a highway outside Tehran. Iran accuses Israel of orchestrating the killing, which is the latest in a string of assassinations targeting scientists involved with Iran's nuclear program. Between 2010 and 2012, four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated, and analysts say Fakhrizadeh's death was designed to make it harder for President-elect Joe Biden to rejoin the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran when he takes office. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. "Israel has always denied involvement, but it's really the only country with both the motivation and the capability to conduct such attacks," says Iranian American journalist Negar Mortazavi, host of "The Iran Podcast." She says the assassination could be an attempt "to provoke Iran into a violent retaliation and basically pull Iran into a wider military conflict with the United States," as well as to complicate future diplomacy between Iranian leaders and the Biden administration.

U.S. Coronavirus Surge Accelerates Over Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend, Supreme Court Ruling Puts Religious Freedom Over COVID-19 Public Health Measures, Joe Biden Names All-Women White House Communications Team, Biden Appoints Cecilia Rouse and Neera Tanden to Top Economic Positions, Trump Lashes Out at Reporters as Effort to Overturn 2020 Election Result Fails, Iran Blames Israel for Assassination of Top Nuclear Scientist, Ethiopian PM Declares Victory in Tigray After Shelling Regional Capital, At Least 110 Massacred in Suspected Boko Haram Attack in Nigeria, Nigeria's Military Admits Soldiers Had Live Rounds at Lekki Toll Gate Massacre, Opposition to French National Security Law Mounts Amid New Police Brutality Cases, Indian Farmworkers Protest Market Deregulation Plans, Thai Protesters Warn of Possible Coup as They Continue to Call for Democratic Reforms, Palestinian Man Who Completed 103-Day Hunger Strike Freed from Israeli Prison, Canada Bans Export of Some Drugs Ahead of New Rule Allowing U.S. States to Import in Bulk, New DOJ Rule Could Allow Executions by Firing Squad, Alaska's Pebble Mine Fails to Obtain Key Permit, in Victory for Environmental and Indigenous Groups, Trump Pardons Michael Flynn, Who Admitted to Lying to FBI, Amazon Workers Demand Fair Pay and Treatment in Global Day of Action

In this special rebroadcast of a Democracy Now! exclusive documentary, we break the media blockade and go to occupied Western Sahara in the northwest of Africa to document the decades-long Sahrawi struggle for freedom and Morocco's violent crackdown. Morocco has occupied the territory since 1975 in defiance of the United Nations and the international community. Thousands have been tortured, imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the Moroccan occupation. A 1,700-mile wall divides Sahrawis who remain under occupation from those who fled into exile. Earlier this month, a three-decade ceasefire in Western Sahara ended after the Moroccan military broke into a southern no-go buffer zone on November 13 to attack Sahrawi civilians and exchanged fire with the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi liberation movement seeking independence. Morocco's action came shortly after a top U.S. general met with the commander of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces Southern Zone, which includes occupied Western Sahara. As Morocco and the Polisario engage on the battlefront, dozens have been arrested in the occupied territory. In late 2016, Democracy Now! managed to get into the Western Saharan city of Laayoune, becoming the first international news team to report from the occupied territory in years. Many of the Sahrawis in this film are currently under police siege or in hiding.

As President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris prepare to take power, we continue to look at the growing debate over the direction of the Democratic Party. House Majority Whip James Clyburn recently criticized calls to "defund the police" and argued the phrase hurt Democratic congressional candidates. "It is actually insane that we would think the way to respond to the scale of problems that we confront as a nation is to harken back to an older form of politics that … seems to try to triangulate and appeal to this Reagan Democrat that they are so obsessed with," responds Eddie Glaude, author and chair of Princeton University's Department of African American Studies. "It makes no sense that we would go back to the politics that produced Trump in the first place." We also speak to artist and antiracist activist Bree Newsome Bass, who argues Black voters "are scapegoated when it's convenient, and then we are thrown under the bus when it's convenient. … That's a dynamic that has to end."

About 160 million voters cast ballots in this election, setting a new record, and President-elect Joe Biden's lead in the popular vote has jumped to over 6 million. Much of the increased turnout was powered by people of color, while the total number of votes cast by white Americans barely increased from the last presidential election. "The main story is that in an election which saw historic turnout, people of color — and especially Latinos — had an unprecedented increase in voting," says Democracy Now! co-host Juan González. "After decades of political experts talking about the growing Latino vote, this year it actually happened."

As COVID-19 rampages through the U.S., we look at how the rapid spread of the disease is affecting Native American communities, which have already faced disproportionate infection and death rates throughout the pandemic. We speak to Jodi Archambault, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and former special assistant to President Obama for Native American affairs. We also speak with Protect the Sacred founder Allie Young of the Navajo Nation.

A massive fight is brewing in Minnesota against the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved a permit for the project this week. After years of resistance, pipeline construction is now set to begin by the end of the month despite the concerns of Indigenous communities, who say it would violate tribal sovereignty and contaminate the land and water. The controversial proposed pipeline would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to a terminal in Superior, Wisconsin, cutting through Indigenous territory in Minnesota and running under more than 200 streams. Construction could also bring thousands of temporary workers to Minnesota even as COVID-19 cases are spiking in the state. "It's been a long, seven-year fight against this particular project," says Tara Houska, an Indigenous lawyer, activist and founder of the Giniw Collective, who is Ojibwe from Couchiching First Nation. Minnesota leaders, she says, "are willing to put our children's futures on the line to allow through a Canadian corporation to do as it wishes and to suppress the rights of our citizens."

President-elect Joe Biden declared "America is back" this week as he revealed some of the people who will staff his administration in key national security posts, vowing to roll back Donald Trump's "America First" foreign policy and embrace multilateralism. Among his picks are longtime adviser Tony Blinken for secretary of state, diplomatic veteran Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the United Nations, and former Secretary of State John Kerry for a new Cabinet post as climate czar. Historian, author and activist Barbara Ransby says Biden's picks so far mostly come from the centrist establishment of the Democratic Party and lack progressive voices. "We need people who have compassion, who have accountability to the most vulnerable, who pledge to defend the planet, people who have a clear understanding and commitment to fighting white supremacy and police violence," says Ransby. We also speak with investigative journalist David Sirota, who says Biden's picks represent "an attempt to restore the old Washington." Sirota served as an adviser and speechwriter for Senator Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign.

President-elect Joe Biden has introduced key members of his national security team this week, including his picks for secretary of state, national intelligence director, national security adviser, homeland security chief and ambassador to the United Nations. Biden has yet to announce his defense secretary, but progressives are already raising alarm over reports that he intends to nominate Michèle Flournoy, a hawkish Pentagon veteran with close ties to the defense industry. If nominated, Flournoy would become the first woman to lead the Department of Defense. "She represents the epitome of what is worst about the Washington blob, the military-industrial complex's revolving door," says CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin. "Her whole history has been one of going in and out of the Pentagon … where she supported every war that the U.S. engaged in, and supported increases in the military budget."

U.S. Sees Deadliest Day in Pandemic in Over 6 Months as Hospitalizations Reach Record High, U.S. to Begin Pfizer Vaccine Distribution by Mid-December, France Readies to Ease Restrictions as Italy and Spain Record Highest Death Tolls of Second Wave, Russia Says Sputnik Vaccine Over 95% Effective, Biden National Security Appointments Focus on Multilateralism, International Cooperation, Trump Takes Credit for Historic Dow Jones Surge, Plans Election Hearing with Giuliani at Gettysburg, Donors Pledge $12 Billion in Afghan Aid as 14 Killed in Bamiyan in Latest Act of Violence, Ethiopia Warns of Imminent Attack in Tigray Capital as Rights Group Says Tigray Attack Killed 600+ Civilians, Protesters Decry Police Attack on Refugees in Paris as France Debates Law Censoring Images of Police, At Least 4 People Killed Off Coast of Canary Islands Amid Growing Refugee Crisis, Reports: Trump to Pardon Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Activists Call on Dianne Feinstein to Resign Following News She Will Cede Top Spot on Judiciary Cmte., U.S. Temporarily Halts Deportation of Immigrants Who May Have Been Forcibly Sterilized in GA Prison, Hudson County, NJ, Renews 10-Year Contract with ICE Despite Vocal Public Opposition, Two U.S. Citizens Who Were Detained for Speaking Spanish Reach Settlement Deal with U.S. Gov't, U.S. Deported 33 Unaccompanied Children in Violation of Legal Ruling Issued Earlier the Same Day, Purdue Pharma Pleads Guilty to Criminal Charges, Admits It Fueled Opioid Epidemic, Scotland Becomes First Country to Make Period Products Free and Easily Accessible

At least 37 transgender and gender nonconforming people were violently killed in 2020, making it the deadliest year for trans and gender nonconforming people on record, according to a new Human Rights Campaign report. Of those killed, 22 were Black, and seven were Latinx. More than 200 trans and gender nonconforming people have lost their lives to violence since 2013, when HRC began recording and reporting violence toward trans people. The media often perpetuates systemic discrimination by covering trans and gender nonconforming people "when we're celebrities or when we're dead," says Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative at the Human Rights Campaign, noting that the true number of deaths is likely much higher. "It is important that the media counteract some of the negative imagery around us by telling stories that uplift our community, that provide a more holistic view of who we are."

The family of a former meatpacker who died from COVID-19 alleges in a lawsuit that managers at a Tyson Foods plant in Iowa knew working conditions would result in illness, and even placed bets on how many workers would be infected. The family of Isidro Fernandez, who died in April, says the plant manager set up a winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager on coronavirus infections. Since the start of the pandemic, at least six workers have died and more than 1,000 tested positive for COVID-19 at the Iowa facility. Tyson Foods has suspended the managers involved in the alleged betting scheme, but worker rights advocates say it is further evidence of abuse and exploitation in the meat industry. "These companies are treating them like animals. They're treating them as disposable," says Magaly Licolli, executive director of Venceremos, an advocacy group for poultry plant workers.

As the U.S. enters the holiday season, millions of people across the country are struggling to find enough to eat, with the hunger relief group Feeding America warning that some 54 million U.S. residents currently face food insecurity amid a massive public health and economic crisis. Food insecurity in the U.S. has intensified after the expiration of federal assistance programs in the CARES Act, and the United Nations World Food Programme predicts acute hunger could affect 270 million people worldwide by the end of 2020 — an 82% increase since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. We speak with author and filmmaker Raj Patel, host of the food politics podcast "The Secret Ingredient," who says hunger was already at alarming levels in the U.S. before the pandemic, and it's only gotten worse. "The long story here is the continuing war on the American working class," Patel says.

We speak with Democracy Now! co-host Juan González about the deaths of two leading figures he reported on: New York City Mayor David Dinkins and beloved Puerto Rican social leader Carlos "Taso" Zenón. "Most people forget [Dinkins] was a Democratic Socialist before democratic socialism was in vogue," notes González. He also recalls how Dinkins backed the movement against apartheid in South Africa, ordering the city to divest its pension fund from companies doing business there, and brought Nelson Mandela to the city right after he was freed. González also recalls how Zenón was a longtime activist who for decades led the fight against the U.S. Navy's occupation of the island of Vieques, his hometown, where the U.S. government tested weapons and held military training exercises.

Trump Administration Clears Path for President-elect Biden's Transition to Begin, Biden Taps Janet Yellen for Treasury Secretary, Avril Haines for DNI & Alejandro Mayorkas for DHS, U.S. Coronavirus Hospitalizations Surge to Record High as Nurses Warn of Unpreparedness, California Gov. Gavin Newsom & Family in Quarantine After Possible Coronavirus Exposure, HUD Secretary Ben Carson Says Access to Experimental COVID-19 Drug "Saved My Life", Hong Kong Protest Leaders Face 3 Years in Prison After Pleading Guilty to Unlawful Assembly, Somalia Receives Two Years' Worth of Rain from Record-Shattering Indian Ocean Cyclone, Reuters: U.S. Dropped Drug Charges Against Ex-Mexican General in Exchange for Cartel Leader's Arrest, Florida Police Face Investigation into Officers' Killing of Two Black Teens, Omaha Protesters Demand Justice for Kenneth Jones, African American Man Killed by Police, San Francisco DA Charges Police Officer over Killing of Unarmed Black Man in 2017, Hamza "Travis" Nagdy, Leader of Breonna Taylor Protests in Louisville, KY, Killed in Shooting, Asylum Seekers in Tacoma ICE Jail on Hunger Strike to Protest Brutal Conditions, 9 Asylum Seekers Continue Hunger Strike in New Jersey's Bergen County Jail, GM Recalls 7 Million Vehicles over Airbags, Will End Support for Lower Fuel Efficiency, Carlos "Taso" Zenón, Who Led Protests Against U.S. Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico, Dies at 84, David Dinkins, First and Only African American Mayor of NYC, Dies at 93

With the world pinning its hopes on a successful coronavirus vaccine to curb the pandemic, corporate watchdogs say much of the research and development of the medicines rely on publicly funded research. "The investment in these vaccines, as for most drugs, has really been underwritten by the taxpayer, by the government," says Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.

As part of the unprecedented attempt to keep President Trump in office despite his election loss, Republicans have focused on Michigan, where the party is seeking a delay in the certification of the vote results and to throw out votes from Detroit, which is overwhelmingly Black. A group of Michigan Republicans met with President Trump at the White House last week in what was widely viewed as an attempt by Trump to personally pressure the lawmakers to block Biden from being awarded the state's 16 electoral votes. "This is an attempt to disenfranchise the African American vote and to give the election to Trump," says Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit branch of the NAACP. "If we were in a different country, this would be called a coup, a political coup."

As President Trump's unprecedented campaign to overturn the results of the presidential election drags on, over two dozen lawsuits filed by his legal team have been dismissed or withdrawn. The Trump team is now focusing on delaying or blocking the certification of the election in several states while trying to toss out votes in cities with large Black populations, including Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta. New York Times Magazine staff writer Emily Bazelon says the Trump legal team's efforts have so far lacked real substance, with the president's lawyer Rudy Giuliani "treating court as if it's cable news." She also says more Republican lawmakers need to stand up against Trump's attempt to subvert democracy.

U.S. Holiday Travel Surges as U.S. COVID-19 Cases Soar Past 12 Million, Housing Activists in Tacoma Take Over Empty School Building for Emergency Pandemic Housing, G20 Pledges Fair Distribution of Vaccine as U.N. Warns Some Countries Face Financial Ruin, Hunger, India and Brazil Pass Grim Coronavirus Milestones; Gaza Warns Health System Will Soon Be Overwhelmed, Biden to Name Adviser Tony Blinken as Sec. of State, Linda Thomas-Greenfield as U.N. Ambassador, 50+ House Dems Back Deb Haaland for Interior Sec.; Progressive Orgs Endorse Joaquin Castro as HFAC Chair, Michigan GOP Threatens to Delay Election Certification as Trump Continues to Challenge Results, Ethiopian PM Warns Tigray Residents of "No Mercy" Attack, Benjamin Netanyahu and Prince Mohammed bin Salman Held Secret Meeting During Pompeo's Saudi Trip, Fatal Beating of Black Man by Brazilian Police Spurs Nationwide Protests, Guatemalans Demand President Resign Amid Budget Cuts and Devastating Aftermath of 2 Hurricanes, New Report Shows Devastating Toll of Afghan War on Children as Deadly Attacks Continue, U.S. Withdraws from Open Skies Treaty, Protests Mount over Controversial French Law That Would Ban Publication of Images of Police, Kyle Rittenhouse, Who Killed Two Protesters, Released on $2 Million Bail, ICE Arrested 150+ Immigrants Who Were Granted Voluntary Removal in Latest Crackdown, Tennessee Can Enforce Ban on Down Syndrome Abortions

In Egypt, the executive director of the country's leading human rights group has been arrested as part of an unprecedented crackdown on activists and journalists. Gasser Abdel-Razek was arrested at his home just days after two other staffers for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights were also arrested. The move signals a major escalation of repression from the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has imprisoned thousands of people since he came to power after the 2013 overthrow of former President Mohamed Morsi. "These arrests are a huge blow to civil society in Egypt," says Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Democracy Now! correspondent and reporter for Mada Masr, the country's last independent media outlet. "It has really sent shockwaves throughout the community here."

President Trump has called Republican leaders of Michigan's state Legislature to the White House today in his latest attempt to overturn the election. The Trump campaign is pushing Republican state lawmakers to ignore the will of the voters and appoint pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College. We speak to Astra Taylor, who has looked closely at the state of our democracy in the film "What Is Democracy?" and her book, "Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone."

The incoming Biden administration is facing increasing pressure to cancel federal student loan debt, something Joe Biden is reportedly considering through executive action, which would not require Congress to pass legislation. Astra Taylor, a member of the Debt Collective, says canceling student debt would be a boon to debtors and the wider economy, and could be part of a larger wave of progressive action from the Biden administration. "There was a sense right after the election … that because Democrats didn't take the Senate, that it would be impossible for a Biden administration to govern," says Taylor. "There are things that Biden can do if he's willing to play hardball, if he's willing to actually understand that's what Republicans do, and the Democrats can do the same."

Indigenous, racial justice and climate activists staged an occupation outside the Democratic National Convention in Washington Thursday, calling on President-elect Joe Biden to take immediate climate action and to approve the Green New Deal. Advocates are also calling for a Cabinet free of lobbyists and others with close industry ties. A number of lawmakers spoke at the protest, including Congressmember-elect Cori Bush from Missouri and Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. We air excerpts of their remarks.

CDC Warns Against Thanksgiving Travel as U.S. Coronavirus Cases Hit Another Record High, Trump Absent as Coronavirus Task Force Holds First News Briefing Since August, Mexico Becomes Fourth Nation to Record 100,000 Coronavirus Deaths, Georgia Secretary of State to Certify Biden's Win Despite Trump Allies' Pressure, Trump Summons Michigan GOP Leaders to White House, Plotting to Overturn Election , Trump Campaign Lawyers Allege Massive Plot to Subvert Election, Offering No Proof, Food Pantries Report Long Lines as Unemployment Claims Rise to 743,000 in One Week, Protesters at Democratic Party Headquarters Demand Biden Support Green New Deal, Rights Groups Demand Temporary Protective Status for Refugees from Hurricane-Ravaged Countries, Federal Court Halts Trump Administration's Rapid Deportation of Refugee Children, Orlando Hall, Sentenced by All-White Jury, Gets Lethal Injection in 8th Federal Execution of 2020 , 37 Dead After Ugandan Police Arrest Opposition Candidate Then Crack Down on Protests , Argentine President Sends Lawmakers a Bill to Overturn Strict Anti-Abortion Laws

Climate and racial justice activists are mobilizing with union members and newly elected members of Congress at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee to call on President-elect Joe Biden to address the intersecting crises of the pandemic, economy and climate change. They're also calling for Biden to create a "corporate-free Cabinet," following his recent announcement of aides that included people with close ties to the pharmaceutical and fossil fuel industries. Waleed Shahid, spokesperson for the progressive group Justice Democrats, says it will be important to maintain pressure on the incoming administration in order to fulfill grassroots demands. "Unlike President Obama in 2008, there is not much of a honeymoon period," Shahid says.

President-elect Joe Biden has said he will rejoin the Iran nuclear deal once in office, but his attempts at reviving diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran could be complicated by President Donald Trump, who is reportedly considering bombing Iran's main nuclear site in the final weeks of his presidency. The New York Times reports Trump's advisers have attempted to dissuade the president, warning that a strike could escalate into a broader conflict, but officials tell the newspaper that Trump may still be looking for ways to attack Iran or Iranian assets. We speak with Narges Bajoghli, professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University.

As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll breaks worldwide records and passes 250,000, hospitals are at capacity, and overwhelmed healthcare workers still lack personal protective equipment. Health officials say conditions will worsen further with holiday travel and family gatherings for Thanksgiving. "I can't really overemphasize how important the next few days are," says Ed Yong, science writer at The Atlantic. "The people who get infected at Thanksgiving, they are going to slam into those hospitals in the two weeks after that, and some of those people are going to be dead before Christmas."

U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Passes 250,000; Nearly 1% of U.S. Population Currently Infectious, Pfizer to Seek Emergency Authorization of COVID-19 Vaccine, Touting 95% Efficacy, Lawsuit Alleges Tyson Foods Managers Wagered on Meatpackers' Coronavirus Infection Rate, COVID-19 Surge Overwhelms Hospitals as Healthcare Workers Fall Ill, Biden Says Trump's Refusal to Concede Could Set Back Vaccine Rollout by Months, Arizona Secretary of State Faces Death Threats as Trump Promotes Election Conspiracy Theories, Democratic Congressmembers Reelect Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, Australian Military Apologizes to Afghan People over Troops' War Crimes, U.S. Secretary of State Tours Illegal Israeli Settlements, Declares BDS Movement "Anti-Semitic", Hurricane Iota Death Toll Climbs to 30, with Isla de Providencia 98% Destroyed, Haitians March on U.S. Embassy Demanding Biden End U.S. Support for Haiti's Authoritarian President, U.S. Dropped Charges Against Ex-General After Mexico Threatened to Expel DEA Agents, Court Clears Path for More Federal Executions, Families of Passengers on Doomed Flights Protest as FAA Clears Boeing 737 MAX Planes, Philadelphia City Council Formally Apologizes for 1985 Police Bombing That Killed 11, Colin Kaepernick Demands Freedom for Renowned Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, National Book Award for Nonfiction Goes to "The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X"

Native American voters saw a massive increase in turnout this year and helped deliver key swing states for Joe Biden, but Indigenous peoples and the role they played in defeating Donald Trump have been largely ignored in mainstream media analyses. We speak with Allie Young, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and founder of Protect the Sacred, who organized a horseback trail ride to the polls. She says it was important to her to motivate Indigenous youth to turn out. "I was hearing on the ground that they weren't feeling very motivated to participate in this election," she says. "I wanted to communicate to them that this is an election that we just cannot sit out."

As COVID-19 rampages through the U.S., we look at how the rapid spread of the disease is affecting Native American communities, which have already faced disproportionate infection and death rates throughout the pandemic. "We're having a lot of people perish. We're having a lot of death, a lot of hospitalizations," says Jodi Archambault, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and former special assistant to President Obama for Native American affairs. We also speak with Allie Young, founder of Protect the Sacred, who says the Navajo Nation has "worked hard to flatten the curve" of COVID-19 infections but is still vulnerable due to lax public health measures in nearby areas. "We have to travel to these territories where they're not wearing masks, they're not thinking about their neighbors who've been impacted," says Young.

Some Republican governors are dropping their resistance to mask mandates, as public health officials in the United States brace for a COVID-19 surge from the Thanksgiving holiday amid already record-high infection rates. However, Republican resistance to other public health safety measures continues as coronavirus cases in Texas reach record highs for a second time during the pandemic. El Paso County, an area along the U.S.-Mexico border where 80% of residents are Latinx, is also facing one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the U.S. and now has 10 mobile morgues to hold bodies. Some prisoners are being paid just $2 an hour to move the bodies as the number of cases and deaths has completely overwhelmed local hospitals. "We're at capacity," says Dr. Emilio Gonzalez-Ayala, a leading pulmonary disease and critical care specialist in El Paso. "We're beyond the limit where we can continue to admit to the hospital patients that come in critically ill."

Sen. Chuck Grassley Contracts COVID-19 on One of Deadliest Days of Pandemic, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown Blasts GOP for Failure to Wear Masks, Take Basic COVID-19 Measures, Trump Fires Cybersecurity Official Who Called Election "Most Secure in American History", Wayne County, MI, Officials Reverse Decision to Block Certification of Biden's Win After Massive Outcry, Climate Activists Condemn Biden's Appointment of Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Major Fossil Fuel Ally, Senate Blocks Confirmation of Trump Nominee Judy Shelton to Federal Reserve Board, Dozens of House Dems Call on Mike Pompeo to Condemn Israeli Razing of Bedouin Community, Iran Warns of "Crushing Response" If Trump Attacks in Waning Days of Presidency, Ethiopian PM Says Military Entering "Final Phase" as Conflict's Humanitarian Toll Mounts, 120 Indigenous Otomí Families Occupy Government Offices Demanding End to Violence and Neglect, U.S. Drops Charges Against Mexican Ex-Defense Sec. Accused of Drug Trafficking, Rights Abuses, Trump Admin Pushing Through New Rules to Take Benefits Away from Those in Need, Religious Leaders, Nobel Laureates Call on Gov. Cuomo to Grant Clemency to Activist David Gilbert, Frontline Airport Workers Call for Healthcare Protections Ahead of Thanksgiving Travel Boom

Hurricane Iota made landfall in Nicaragua Monday as a Category 4 storm, just two weeks after Hurricane Eta devastated communities across Central America and caused widespread destruction. Iota is the strongest November hurricane to ever hit Nicaragua. "It's caused a lot of damages to the most vulnerable peoples, which tends to be Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and Black communities all across Central America," says Giovanni Batz, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis, who has been in touch with people reeling from Hurricane Eta.