Experts estimate that a language is lost every two weeks — and that half of the world’s 7,000 spoken languages could be lost by the end of the century. Quechua is the most widely spoken Indigenous language in the Americas, with approximately 7 to 10 million speakers living primarily in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. But like so many Indigenous languages, Qechua is vulnerable due to cultural pressures and discrimination. The new documentary Runa Simi — “our language” in Quechua — follows Fernando Valencia, a Peruvian voice actor, Indigenous activist, radio host and single father, who has dubbed many online clips of animated movies into Quechua from his home in Cusco, Peru. In the film, Fernando pursues his most ambitious goal yet: […]

A team of researchers led by Democracy Now!’s Juan González at the University of Illinois Chicago recently released an in-depth study on how, through a program called Tax Increment Financing (TIF), Chicago has spent some $16 billion in property taxes it collected over the past 40 years to fund downtown development. The money was supposed to be used to eliminate urban blight. ”TIF funding has actually exacerbated economic inequities throughout the city, pouring more than half of the billions of dollars that it collected into downtown neighborhoods, while 70 other community areas around the city were left to share the other half,” says González.

Amy Goodman is back to hosting Democracy Now! after taking time off following a medical procedure to remove skin cells on her nose that tested positive for squamous cell cancer. “I think it’s important that … we don’t have to be picture-perfect on TV or video. We are not plastic; we are people. And people get by in all sorts of ways around the world,” says Goodman. She reminds listeners and viewers to check in with the dermatologist: “A spot, a bump on their skin, a mole or a blemish anywhere, or just a rough spot, something scaly, might be cancerous.”

We get a report from Nepal, where at least 547 people are confirmed to have died and over 1,500 are still missing after a glacial collapse on Wednesday sent a wall of ice, mud and rock into a Himalayan river, triggering catastrophic flooding in the Nepal-Tibet border region that swept away entire communities. Nepali authorities say they have rescued more than 3,700 people so far. Geologists say the flash floods were set off by a landslide and glacial avalanche so powerful it set off its own seismic signal. Climate scientists warn the region is warming much faster than the global average, leading to the rapid retreat of glaciers. “Scientists and civil society have been warning about the very fact that these kind of events might happen in […]

Calls to shut down the ICE jail known as the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas continue to grow following the detention and deportation of 5-year-old Liam Tadeo and his father Victor Martinez Nieto to Mexico. According to the family’s lawyer, Nieto had begged officers to let his son go as they were arrested on their way to soccer practice in Austin last week. Nieto wanted Liam released to his mother, but ICE reportedly refused. The arrest happened just days before Liam was set to start kindergarten. Texas Democratic Congressmember Joaquin Castro previously attempted to visit Liam and his father at Dilley but was denied by ICE. Last month, Castro led a group of more than 110 Democratic House members in a nationwide call […]