The Take

New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics estimates that as many as 43,000 children have lost a parent to COVID-19 in the United States. And, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Native Americans, Black Americans, and Latino Americans have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus deaths in the country. With the US so far ahead in its vaccination rollout, many are looking toward getting back to normal. But, for the families of those affected by the almost 600,000 coronavirus deaths in the country, there’s no way back to normal without their loved ones. They’re struggling with grief, but also financial burdens.

What began as a strike against a tax proposal in Colombia has now escalated into a nationwide protest movement over some of Colombia’s most deep-seated issues. Protesters are demanding structural changes to ease inequality and end police violence. After a month of demonstrations, President Ivan Duque’s popularity has hit record lows, and protesters are staying out in the streets. So what’s behind Colombia’s month of unrest?

Obaida Akram Jawabra grew up outside of Hebron in the occupied West Bank and dreamed of becoming a chef. When he was 15, his dreams were put on pause for the first time when he was arrested and imprisoned by the Israeli military. He was later acquitted, but spent two months in jail. On May 17th, as many Palestinians were protesting Israeli air strikes on Gaza and Israeli settlers taking over Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, Obaida, at 17 years old, was shot and killed by Israeli forces. More than 60 other Palestinian children were also killed by Israeli forces in the past month. Today, we take a look at the life of one Palestinian child. In this episode: Farah Bayadsi, Human Rights Attorney

Outreach between Black Lives Matter activists and Palestinians has become more widespread. But the foundation of solidarity between them dates long before Black Lives Matter became a movement. Today, we examine how the Black-Palestinian solidarity came to be and what parallels each side draws from the other.

Los Angeles, California is home to more than 60,000 homeless people — the second largest unhoused population in the United States. As an end to the pandemic and eviction moratoriums draw nearer, we’re asking: what will it take to resolve LA’s crisis of homelessness?

Israeli air strikes in Gaza have killed more than 200 people over the past ten days. Many of us have watched this crisis unfold on our screens, as rockets fire, bombs detonate and buildings collapse. Today we’re going closer to the ground to speak to the people living in this war zone each and every day.

When new statues popped up in a busy intersection in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) no one really said much. A few years later those statues were part of a major investigation led by George Clooney’s The Sentry, an NGO uncovering financial crime. The reason? They were built by a team from North Korea, a country with a long history of statue building and a long list of sanctions against it. Now, the United Nations is trying to enforce statue sanctions but in Central Africa - it can be tough. In this episode: John Dell'Osso: (@j_dellosso) Financial Crime Investigator, The Sentry (@TheSentry_Org)

On May 5, the US government decided to throw its weight behind an increasingly-popular WTO measure: waiving intellectual property protections for COVID vaccines. But what is this waiver? And what could it actually mean for people looking to get inoculated? We explain how seemingly-arcane trade negotiations came to mean life and death for the billions of people waiting on a vaccine.

What started out as protests against forced expulsions in a Palestinian neighborhood has turned into an Israeli crackdown that’s engulfed much of Occupied East Jerusalem, including holy sites like Al Aqsa mosque. But Sheikh Jarrah is just one neighborhood, and displacements are unfolding across the Occupied Territories. As the reverberations in Sheikh Jarrah spread beyond the neighborhood, how will it impact the future of Palestinians in Jerusalem?

Feminist groups and activists in Mexico have taken it upon themselves to help women gain access to abortion, in a country where it’s largely illegal. At great risk to their safety, they use social networks to inform women on how to perform “at home” abortions. They’ve taken to the streets and to their cellphones to push back against the law, while helping women find the support they seek. The local efforts come as Mexico’s Supreme Court prepares to discuss the legal merits of cases surrounding abortion in June. In this episode:  Andalusia Knoll Soloff, multimedia journalist in Mexico https://twitter.com/Andalalucha Connect with The Take:  Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Massacres, gang rapes, forced famine — the list of atrocities being reported in Tigray, Ethiopia is long and growing. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared the military intervention officially over in November, but the situation on the ground clearly doesn’t reflect that. And there are concerns that the situation is starting to resemble a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Radwan Fouad Jomaa lives in Denmark with wife and three kids. He moved there from Syria where he was born and raised. After opposing the government of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, he fled, fearing the worst. Now Denmark is saying his hometown, Damascus, is safe again and he and his family must go home.What will he and hundreds of others like him do? That’s today on The Take.

On World Press Freedom Day, the focus is often the heroics of gathering and delivering information in the face of violence. But during a pandemic, it's the online threats that are hitting harder, and women journalists are being hacked, doxxed, deepfaked and threatened all over the world. We're hearing from our own colleagues who’ve faced these threats head on to ask what we all lose when women journalists are silenced.

Innocent until proven guilty is a bedrock of the US legal system. But right now, hundreds of thousands of people are sitting in jail, waiting for trial. For many of them, the only thing that’s keeping them behind bars during a deadly pandemic is a lack of money to pay bail. So how are organizers campaigning to end cash bail while freeing the people it keeps incarcerated?

Two new reports - one commissioned by the French government and one by Rwanda's government - have underscored the role France played in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. But one critic says Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame’s response to the reports may have more to do with his grip on power than it does on justice. That critic was once part of Kagame’s government but now, he’s gone into hiding. That's this week's episode of The Take. In this episode: David Himbara (@DavidHimbara), educator, political economist, & development strategist