Contributing Writers

Will the U.S. and Iran revive the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by the Trump administration? President Biden is facing heat from lawmakers in both parties who oppose the deal, which would relax U.S. sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. At the crux of the debate is the Iranian request for Biden to lift the designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, which would have a high political cost for the administration.

The United Nations General Assembly voted to suspend Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday, a resolution that accused Russia of committing human rights abuses in Ukraine. We speak with human rights lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck about the apparent double standards and weaknesses in the current international criminal justice system in light of the U.S. committing similar crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nations like the U.S.

Anti-abortion legislation is sweeping the U.S., including in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. We speak with Michele Goodwin, author of “Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood,” about the links between current conflicts between state and federal law and their historic precedents, such as Brown v. Board of Education and the Fugitive Slave Acts.

The U.S. Senate voted 53-47 on Thursday to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. She will be the first Black woman and first former public defender to serve on the country’s top court. While Jackson’s confirmation was a “monumental moment in United States history,” it was undercut by the “shameful spectacle” of Republican senators behaving disrespectfully toward Jackson, says law professor Michele Goodwin.

President Biden announced Tuesday he would extend the pandemic pause on federal student loan payments until August 31, but debtors are demanding total cancellation. We speak with Astra Taylor, co-director of the Debt Collective, who discusses the implications of the latest extension, economically and politically. Taylor says Biden should stop letting loan servicers profiteer from borrowers and cancel student loans, which would immediately narrow the racial wealth gap.

Far-right nationalist prime minister and longtime Putin-ally Viktor Orbán won his fourth consecutive election in Hungary, aided by biased media coverage and campaign regulations that favored the sitting prime minister. We speak to historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat about the future of Hungary under the Fidesz party, which, aside from passing anti-LGBTQ legislation and stoking xenophobia, has also been an important ally for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A new report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns the opportunity to mitigate the worst effects of global warming by maintaining global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius is quickly closing and that humanity has less than three years to slash greenhouse gas emissions. “Fossil fuel is at the root of our problems.

Over a month into Russia’s war in Ukraine and after multiple countries imposed sanctions on Russian fossil fuels, Ukraine’s pipelines are still carrying Russian gas into Europe. Ukrainian climate activist Svitlana Romanko says Ukraine cannot shut off the gas flow if EU governments refuse to implement an embargo on Russian imports. “There should be a collaboration on both sides of this supply chain,” says Romanko.

House Democrats grilled CEOs of Big Oil companies, like ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell, Wednesday about rising gas prices and profiteering from the Ukraine war. We get response from environmentalist Bill McKibben and speak with Ukrainian environmental lawyer ​​Svitlana Romanko about how the war in Ukraine is impacting energy markets around the world.

The newly released “Poor People’s Pandemic Report” shows poor people died from COVID at twice the rate of wealthy Americans and that people of color were more likely to die than white populations. “Our country has gotten used to unnecessary death, especially when it’s the death of poor people,” says Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign.

We go to El Salvador for an update on how the government under President Nayib Bukele has arrested over 6,000 people since a 30-day state of emergency was imposed following a wave of violence. The state of exception has suspended freedom of assembly and weakened due process rights for those arrested, including an extension of how long people can be held without charge.

Women in Afghanistan are protesting a number of gender-based restrictions from the Taliban, including an order in March to shut down public high schools for girls. In response, U.S. officials canceled talks with Taliban leaders in Doha, continuing to freeze billions in Afghan assets while Afghanistan spirals into economic catastrophe. We speak with Masuda Sultan and Medea Benjamin, two co-founders of Unfreeze Afghanistan, a coalition advocating for the release of funding for Afghan civilians.

As the Russian assault on Ukraine continues, more videos are emerging that show evidence of Russian brutalities and possible war crimes, such as executions and torture. Russian officials have denied the accusations, calling them Ukrainian propaganda. We speak with Washington Post video journalist Jon Gerberg, who has been filing video reports from the war for the past six weeks, and see extended interviews from civilians he interviewed.

Ukrainian officials are accusing Russia of committing war crimes for killing civilians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and EU leaders condemned images of dead civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where corpses were found littering the streets after Russian troops withdrew from the area, some with their hands bound behind their backs.