Contributing Writers

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he is pardoning everyone convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law, and said the classification of the drug would undergo review. The move will remove many legal barriers for thousands of people to gain jobs, housing, college admission and federal benefits, and fulfills a campaign pledge made by Biden.

The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to two human rights groups, the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine and Memorial in Russia, as well as imprisoned Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski. The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised their work criticizing power and protecting fundamental human rights in neighboring countries torn apart by war.

The Oath Keepers trial, in which senior leaders of the right-wing extremist group are accused of plotting violence at the January 6 insurrection, began Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C. Prosecutors played a secret audio recording Tuesday of a meeting held by the Oath Keepers after the 2020 election in which founder Stewart Rhodes discussed plans to bring weapons to the capital to help then-President Trump stay in office.

Mass protests in Haiti are condemning rising fuel prices and demanding the resignation of the U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ariel Henry. For nearly two months, street protests likened to a civil war have rocked the island nation’s capital Port-au-Prince after the government announced it would raise heavily subsidized fuel prices. We speak to Haitian activist Vélina Élysée Charlier about rising gang violence and how criminal groups are supported by the government.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a phone call on Tuesday that he will help peace efforts with Russia, just days after India abstained from a United Nations vote condemning the Russian annexation of four regions in Ukraine.

Protesters in Iran are continuing to demand justice for Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in the hands of the so-called morality police, as well as envisioning a political future beyond the Islamic Republic. The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights estimates at least 154 people have been killed since the protests began.

The Oath Keepers trial, in which senior leaders of the right-wing extremist group are accused of plotting violence at the January 6 insurrection, began Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C. Prosecutors played a secret audio recording Tuesday of a meeting held by the Oath Keepers after the 2020 election in which founder Stewart Rhodes discussed plans to bring weapons to the capital to help then-President Trump stay in office.

Mass protests in Haiti are condemning rising fuel prices and demanding the resignation of the U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ariel Henry. For nearly two months, street protests likened to a civil war have rocked the island nation’s capital Port-au-Prince after the government announced it would raise heavily subsidized fuel prices. We speak to Haitian activist Vélina Élysée Charlier about rising gang violence and how criminal groups are supported by the government.

We go to Puerto Rico to look at how the island is recovering from Hurricane Fiona, a Category 1 storm that left much of the island without electricity and clean water. President Biden has promised a $60 million relief package, but some doubt the aid will be distributed swiftly and in a manner that will truly protect the island from future storms, given the failed U.S. response after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

As President Biden meets with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and survivors of Hurricane Ian, the deadliest storm to hit the state in decades, we get an update from Florida state Representative Michele Rayner on relief efforts underway and the housing crisis exacerbated by the storm. Republicans like Governor DeSantis are “more concerned about sticking it to Joe Biden than actually making sure that they can take care of their people,” says Rayner.

We speak to world-renowned political dissident Noam Chomsky and political writer Vijay Prashad about the Russian war in Ukraine, now in its eighth month. When it comes to continuing the war rather than negotiating a peace settlement, “the United States and Britain are pretty isolated on this,” says Chomsky.

This weekend marked the 103rd anniversary of the 1919 Elaine massacre, one of the deadliest episodes of racial violence in U.S. history. The violence started on September 30, 1919, when guards stopped two white men from breaking into a meeting between Black sharecroppers in Elaine, Arkansas, who were organizing to demand fair payments for their crops. After an exchange of gunfire, a white man was killed. White mobs, backed by the U.S.

The western African nation of Burkina Faso is facing its second military coup in eight months. After a day of gunfire rang out Friday in the capital Ouagadougou, Captain Ibrahim Traoré announced on public television that he had replaced Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba as president.