Democracy Now! Audio

President Joe Biden vows to accelerate the vaccination effort and bring more normalcy to the U.S. by July 4; Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz on the $1.9 trillion relief package and how to ensure vaccine equity and debt relief for developing countries; CNN's Nima Elbagir discusses her shocking report from inside Yemen on the world's most devastating humanitarian crisis; The British royal family comes under intense criticism over racism. Get Democracy Now! delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for the Daily Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe

Questionable corruption charges against former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are annulled, clearing the way for a 2022 presidential run against Jair Bolsonaro; The Biden administration holds about 3,500 migrant children after a surge in crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border; We look at the global flight over COVID-19 vaccine patents.

We look at the potential impact of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package as President Biden prepares to sign it into law; Bill McKibben on Rutgers University's decision to divest from fossil fuels; Cornel West decides to leave Harvard after a fight over tenure.

The murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is thrown into question as judges consider adding a third-degree murder charge; Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott orders the state to fully reopen and lifts a statewide mask mandate; We look at the 50th anniversary of the FBI field office break-in that exposed COINTELPRO, the secret Counterintelligence Program that targeted civil rights, Black Power and antiwar groups.

The story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was jailed for 14 years and tortured at Guantánamo but never charged with a crime, is told in the new feature film "The Mauritanian"; We speak with Slahi, the film's director, one of its lead actors and Slahi's lawyer as Biden faces calls to close the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo.

As the Senate begins debate on President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, we look at the fight to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 with Reverend William Barber; The House votes to pass H.R. 1; Abolitionist Mariame Kaba on the House's passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

We speak with Harvard professor Marcia Castro about rising cases of COVID-19 in Brazil; Co-authors Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick discuss their new book, "Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics."

We look at how Asian American communities in New York and the Bay Area are responding to the spike in racist hate crimes; Calls are mounting for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign or be impeached over sexual harassment allegations and his cover-up of thousands of COVID deaths in nursing homes; Farmworkers face an uphill battle to get vaccinated, even though they are essential workers.

Republicans in the Georgia House pass a sweeping bill to make it harder to vote; We look at the racial vaccination gap and calls to lower the age cutoff for vaccine eligibility for Black Americans; How people have struggled to access abortions during the pandemic.

A newly declassified U.S. intelligence report confirms Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman directly ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi; The Biden administration faces criticism for bombing Syria in an attack targeting Iranian militias; The House passes a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package, and progressive Democrats call for the Senate to keep a provision for a $15/hour federal minimum wage; In a bloody crackdown in Burma, the military junta kills 18 protesters during pro-democracy protests in the deadliest day since the military coup.

The FBI and New York Police Department are facing new calls to open their records into the assassination of Malcolm X after the release of a deathbed confession of a former undercover NYPD officer who admitted to being part of a conspiracy targeting Malcolm. We speak to a cousin of the former officer, as well as Malcolm's daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz.

Pressure grows on the Biden administration to support a push by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization to loosen intellectual property rules to make COVID-19 vaccines easier to make and distribute; As the House prepares to pass a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, Rep. Jan Schakowsky urges her Senate colleagues not to oppose the inclusion of a $15-an-hour minimum wage hike in the stimulus package; Author Brendan O'Connor on the roots of the January 6 Capitol attack and how "the right-wing donor class" is implicated in the violence.

Interior Secretary nominee Deb Haaland testifies before the Senate in her bid to become the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history; Asylum seekers brave freezing weather while living in tents in the refugee camp in Matamoros, Mexico, while awaiting entry into the United States; Examining the Biden administration's reversal of Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy.

As the U.S. passes 500,000 COVID-19 deaths, we speak to New York emergency room doctor Craig Spencer about the pandemic and how to make vaccines available to more people around the world; To mark Black History Month, we remember the visionary Black science-fiction writer Octavia Butler, who gave one of her last interviews before her death to Democracy Now! in 2005, and we speak with Octavia Butler scholar adrienne maree brown about the writer's lasting influence.

Naomi Klein on how deregulation and reliance on fossil fuels paved the way for the power fiasco in Texas; Some residents report astronomically high energy bills in the aftermath of the winter storms; Conditions inside Texas prisons, already dire, become intolerable for those behind bars.