Ballot initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the ohio constitution. We will go to ohio and then to detroit where a woman was falsely arrested and jailed while eight months pregnant due to faulty facial recognition software. Porcha woodruff is the first woman and at least the sixth person to report being falsely accused of a crime as a result of ai facial recognition. All six people have been black. Then to mississippi where six white former Police Officers who called themselves the goon squad have pleaded guilty to raiding a home and torturing two black men. Not only do they brazenly committees acts commit these acts they left him lying in a pool of blood. Gathered on the porch of the house to decide how to cover it up. Amy we will speak to the two men who survived this horrific police assault. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In a major victory for reproductive rights and democracy, ohio voters rejected raising the threshold for passing constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60 . The special election tuesday, pushed by the Republicanled Legislature and funded by an illinois billionaire, came three months ahead of the november election in which voters will decide if the right to an abortion should be enshrined in the ohio constitution. The outcome of tuesdays election means only of voters half need to cast ballots in favor of the prochoice amendment. An ap poll found a majority of ohio voters support the right to abortion. Well speak with former ohio state senator nina turner after headlines. The Supreme Court has upheld the biden administrations ability to regulate ghost guns, Assembly Kits which allow buyers to build untraceable guns at home. The federal government can require manufacturers of ghost gun kits include serial numbers and conduct background checks on customers while a challenge to the rule is heard in lower courts. Justices john roberts and Amy Coney Barrett joined with the three liberal members in the 54 ruling. In sudan, deadly fighting shows no sign of slowing down nearly four months since the war between the military and the Paramilitary Rapid support forces, or rsf, broke out. Violence in sudans second most populous city omdurman has escalated over control of a bridge crossing the nile river, used by the rsf to transport weapons. The Health Care System remains on the brink of collapse as medical facilities have been systematically targeted by fighters. The u. N. Said friday the conflict has left 24 Million People, half of sudans population, in need of food and other aid but only 2. 5 million have been able to receive assistance. Over 4 Million People have been internally and externally displaced, with the largest number of refugees crossing into chad. Refugees from west darfur deplored the desperate situation they were forced to flee. The situation is tragic. There are problems, arrests and assault. The war is continuing so we left. Whoever finds a way gets out and whoever does not remains in suffering. Amy in burma, a United Nations investigation has found the Burmese Military is increasingly committing war crimes ranging from Sexual Violence to mass executions. The crimes also include the indiscriminate targeting of civilians with bombs, the burning of homes and buildings, and at times the destruction of entire villages. In april, at least 165 people, including children and babies, were killed after Burmese Military jets rained fire and bombs on the village of pazigyi. It was one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since the military junta seized power in a 2021 coup. Burmese armed forces claimed they were targeting terrorists. In brazil, eight south american leaders agreed to form an alliance to protect the amazon as they met during a highprofile summit hosted in belem by brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da silva. Bolivia, brazil, colombia, ecuador, guyana, peru, suriname, and venezuela signed on to a declaration which includes pledges to end deforestation, crack down on criminal activity in the amazon, and lift up sustainable development. But the group stopped short of agreeing to a key indigenous demand for all countries to adhere to brazils pledge to end deforestation by 2030 and to colombias pledge to halt any new oil exploration. On tuesday, indigenous groups took to the streets of belem to voice their demands. Because if there is no consent, were not going to authorize these policies. We Indigenous People say no to that. We say yes to life because the amazon is where everything is. Amy back in the United States in atlanta, support is growing for a citywide referendum that could decide the future of cop city, a massive multimilliondollar Police Training complex. The king center, run by bernice king, the daughter of Martin Luther king jr. , has joined cop city opponents in calling on atlanta officials to allow for a public vote on the project. The center criticized atlanta leadership for ignoring the ardent Community Opposition against cop city and the use of public funding. The Campaign Vote to stop cop city is working to meet an august 14 deadline to collect 70,000 signatures from atlanta voters to put a referendum on the November Ballot to stop cop city. This comes as civil and human rights organizations, including the aclu and the naacp, are urging the Homeland Security department to investigate the mass targeting and surveillance of cop city protesters as dozens of forest defenders have been arrested and charged with domestic terrorism. The groups warn of the dangers of vague, overbroad, and stigmatizing terms like domestic violent extremist and militant to describe individuals who may be engaged in protected First Amendment activity. Meanwhile, an Environmental Group has sued the city of atlanta as construction of cop city has already contaminated local water streams. The lawsuit, filed by the south river watershed alliance, could temporarily Block Construction of the project. In hawaii, officials issued an emergency proclamation as wildfires on the big island and maui prompted evacuations and cut power to thousands of residents. 12 people were rescued from the water after jumping into the ocean to escape the smoke and fire. The fires have been driven in part by high winds from Hurricane Dora in the pacific. In philadelphia, the slain dancer and choreographer oshae sibley was laid to rest tuesday. A suspect has been charged with murder as a hate crime. He shouted racist and homophobic slurs at sibley and his friends while they were dancing at a brooklyn gas station last month. Sibleys loved ones paid tribute to the 28yearold dancer at his Funeral Service held at philadelphias met opera house. Shae had the power to touch peoples hearts. Oshae was oshae. Amy the Video Conferencing software zoom has come under fire after it changed its user policy, opening the door to use consumer data to train its ai system. Zoom responded to the backlash monday by denying the company would take user video or chats for ai training without consent. But Digital Rights advocates say zoom could still take user data for other purposes and that users may not easily be able to opt out of ai use if a call host chooses to allow it or is not aware of it. In 2020, democrats called for the ftc to look into zooms privacy policies, accusing it of misleading customers on the security of its encryption. In related news, zoom, an early hallmark of pandemicera remote work, is facing backlash from employees after announcing it will require workers within a 50mile radius of its offices to return to onsite work two days per week. And in california, thousands of Los Angeles City workers walked off the job for 24 hours tuesday, the first such strike in 40 years, to protest repeated labor law violations by their employers. This is city worker alfonzo williams. We all do a wonderful job. We are all needed. We are essential workers out here. We worked through the pandemic. We never wavered. Just bargain in good faith. When you dont bargain in good faith, this is what happens. Amy the oneday work stoppage comes as hollywood writers and actors remain on strike and as Los Angeles Hotel workers have staged periodic walkouts after their contract expired at the end of june. The Hotel Workers union, unite here, filed a labor complaint this week citing a number of violent retaliatory incidents at picket lines perpetrated by Hotel Security guards. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We begin todays show in ohio, where reproductive rights advocates are celebrating after voters overwhelmingly rejected a republican Ballot Initiative to make it harder to amend ohios state constitution. Republicans pushed to have tuesdays special election with the sole purpose of raising the threshold for passing constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60 before november when voters will decide if the right to an abortion should be enshrined in the ohio constitution. The Ballot Initiative also attempted to make it harder to submit future constitutional amendments by requiring signatures from all of ohios 88 counties. Preliminary results show 57 of ohio voters on tuesday rejected the republican Ballot Initiative, known simply as issue one. The Election Results marked a sharp change from 2020 when donald trump won ohio with 53 of the vote. President joe biden hailed the result saying in a statement this measure was a blatant attempt to weaken voters voices and further erode the freedom of women to make their own health care decisions. Ohioans spoke loud and clear, and tonight democracy won. The republican Megadonor Richard Uihlein of illinois, who has long been a key backer of antiabortion groups, had bankrolled the republican effort by giving 4 million to the group protect our constitution. We go now to cleveland where we are joined by former ohio state senator nina turner who is now a senior fellow at the institute on race, power, and political economy at the new school. Welcome to democracy now it is great to have you with us. If you can start off by responding to this overwhelming victory for reproductive rights advocates. Jubilation. The people of the great state of ohio have spoken resoundingly rejecting the gop overreach, which is indeed a beautiful thing and we know that folks in ohio, voters in ohio, all the political ideologies weighed in on this and they said to the gop, you have gone too far. I know the gop themselves made this strictly about abortion. I understand abortion rights activists are celebrating. But this is so much bigger than just abortion access. There will be issues on the ballot to raise the minimum wage. Who knows what other issues will be on the ballot. The people of this state have a right to weigh in as a super majority excuse me, as a simple majority and not a super majority. I am so glad the gop power grab was rejected in this state. Lots to celebrate. Amy lets talk about who is behind this. Richard uihlein. Talk about the millions he poured in and the fact that this was, i mean, the rules for ohio have been in place first century. Since 1912 it has been in play. Obviously, he threw good money i shouldnt say good money. They rejected him, too. It is not lost on many of us that their biggest outside force might as well have taken that money and set it on fire. The voters of the state of ohio did not buy what republicans were selling. It is another example of why we need campaignfinance reform in this state across the board with ultrawealthy key people can decide with the rules of engagement are going to be without regard for the people in these various states, whether it is ohio today. We know other states across the country. It is absolutely wrong. The people of the great state of ohio have set in motion this atmosphere of we are not going to let people just come in here and try to buy an election in the way they did. You remember 2011 very well, amy, when the voters of the state rejected the overreach of the gop. I was in the legislature at that time. To try to take away collective bargaining rights. That was about 62 . This issue last night failed by about 57 of the voters said absolutely not. When it is put into the hands of the voters across the state of ohio, they come together, even the republicans have a super majority in the legislature, control all of the constitutional offices in this state, but im so glad a coalition of democrats, republicans, independents, no party people came together and said not on our watch will we allow this to happen. Amy isnt true republicans, conservative republicans, were not pleased with this massive change and what it can mean for the future for other valid initiatives . If you can talk about how this doesnt only serve abortion rights advocates. Thats right. Thats right. Even Governor John Kasich was against this issue. It really is fundamentally about freedom. The freedom of the people of the state of ohio to put something on the ballot and have the voters of this state way had. While it may be abortion rights right now in the current secretary of state made it very clear the republicans drawn this up to try to defeat what will be on the ballot in november they did not even hide from it. They said this is what it was about. But beyond the issues on the ballot in november, this is about any other issue that the people of this great state have an absolute right to weigh in on. The irony that the party that talks about so much freedom would then use their power to try to take away the voices of the people in the state. He did not work. Whether youre republican, democrat, independent, the fact that if this had if issue one had passed, it impacts what anyone else would want to try to put on the ballot to get the people to weigh in on. Absolutely, this is so much bigger than abortion rights. This is about the rights of the voter of the state to weigh in and stop overreaching as they see fit. Amy nina turner, bigger than the state of ohio, have always had this national perspective, you are top person in Bernie Sanders president ial campaign as well as now you are at the new school. Looking at the map you have california, montana, kansas, michigan, kentucky, vermont all of the states are indicating that the voters, whether republican state or democratic state, want to ensure abortion rights. What does this signify for the elections in november 2024, from president on down . Hopefully, this energy will continue to percolate. I would caution the issue of abortion itself is not going to be enough to animate in a way that would push democrat over the top, but it is part of of a consensus about what true freedom and liberty looks like and having the merrick of people across the country way or whether it is Economic Freedom my freedom to be able to vote, the freedom to love, the freedom to have a living wage. We can see the percolation that is why this is not just about abortion. We see the labor front, the enormous victory by the teamsters at ups, what the writers and actors are doing right now in their protest. We could name starbucks, nurses, teachers. People across this country are not in the mood for this kind of overreach. It is my hope it is the synergy of all of these issues will catapult more people who really do care about changing and enhancing their material conditions of the poor, working poor, and barely middleclass, that that kind of Energy Continues but it wont just be about abortion. It will be about abortion and many other issues that impact the quality of peoples lives. Amy nina turner, thank you for being with us, former ohio state senator, senior fellow at the institute on race, power, and political economy at the new school. Coming up, we go to mississippi where six white former Police Officers who called themselves the goon squad have pleaded guilty to raiding a home and torturing two black men. One of than they shot in the mouth. The two men will join us after break. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. A warning to our audience, this next segment contains descriptions and images of police violence. We turn now to mississippi where six white former Police Officers who called themselves the goon squad have pleaded guilty to raiding a home and torturing two black men earlier this year after first trying to cover up their actions. Some of the officers face life in prison. On january 24, Court Documents show the deputies in braxton, mississippi, after a white neighbor of one of the officers called into complaint there were black men staying there. The officer texted the others are yall available for a mission . That night, the officers burst into a home, handcuffed, beat, tasered the two men Michael Corey jenkins and Eddie Terrell parker, also sexually abused them with a sex toy while shouting racial slurs. One of the officers put a gun in jenkins mouth for a mock execution and pulled the trigger. The bullet lacerated jenkins tongue, broke his jaw,