We speak with healthcare activist Ady Barkan, the 37-year-old lawyer and father who, since his ALS diagnosis in 2016, has devoted his life to campaigning for universal healthcare. He has continued to speak out even after losing his voice and now uses a computerized system that converts his eye movements to speech. Barkan is the subject of “Not Going Quietly,” a new documentary following his cross-country activism.

Prominent Mexican news anchor Azucena Uresti took to the airwaves this week to stand up to one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels, the Jalisco New Generation, after the group posted a video online directly threatening her life. Uresti regularly reports on cartel violence and organized crime.

The Taliban claim to have seized 17 provincial capitals across Afghanistan, including Kandahar and Herat, the country’s second- and third-largest cities, as the group continues its sweep through the country. The Taliban now have almost full control of the south, west and north of Afghanistan and are advancing on the capital Kabul, where the United States is preparing to evacuate its embassy in case of a Taliban defeat of the Afghan government.

More than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, over 3.5 million people have died around the world, including nearly 500,000 in the United States. Historian and writer John Barry says the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus was a predictable development based on how previous pandemics have developed. “This is not unusual, what we’re going through,” he says.