Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is facing total calamity, with the country's death toll at over 275,000 and nearly all ICUs at peak capacity. Luiz Henrique Mandetta was Brazil's health minister until he was fired by Bolsonaro at the height of the country's first wave. He joins the show from Sao Paulo to discuss how it all went so wrong, and where Brazil goes from here.

10 years ago today, the war in Syria erupted and calamity followed. As the world stood by and watched, the country faced a brutal crackdown under Bashar Al-Assad, a flourishing of extreme Islamic terrorists across the region, and foreign powers entering the fight to prop up Syria’s dictator. Filmmakers Waad Al-Kateab and Gianfranco Rosi join the program to reflect on the past decade of turmoil.

Starting Monday, President Biden will travel the nation in the wake of signing into law a historic sweeping relief package. It amounts to almost $2 trillion in the form of direct payments, investments in public health, schools, and pensions – and some estimate it could slash America’s poverty rate by a third and halve the number of poor children.

Alexander McLean is an attorney and founder of Justice Defenders, a group which aims to provide legal training for inmates and guards in multiple different countries so that they can defend themselves within often unequal justice systems. He joins the show to explain their incredible results, alongside Jane Manyonge, currently an inmate in a Kenyan prison for women and now a trained paralegal.

The film "The Father" is racking up nominations this awards season. Adapted from the international hit play, the film pulls off the feat of bringing the audience inside the head of its aging protagonist, played by Anthony Hopkins, as dementia strips away his ability to process the world around him. Writer and director Florian Zeller joins the program to discuss his inspiration.

A unanimous UN Security Council statement has been issued condemning the violence – a notable diplomatic achievement by Ambassador Barbara Woodward, who ensured China, Russia, India and Vietnam were all on board. What more can the international community do to stop the violence and restore democracy to Myanmar? Ambassador Woodward joins the program to discuss.

The U.N. is ringing alarm bells on Myanmar, as their special rapporteur for human rights says the junta’s brutal crackdown on peaceful protests are likely crimes against humanity. Indeed, the country’s own ambassador to the U.N. recently made an emotional speech against the military coup, asking the international community to provide security. He joins the program to explain why he's speaking out.

Voting rights are still under fire, with bills restricting access to the ballot working their way through legislatures in more than 40 states, including Georgia. Activist Nse Ufot is working to change that, as CEO of The New Georgia Project, a non-partisan group that register voters. She speaks with Michel Martin about why so many of these bills are about race and class.

Next week sees the first international travel for President Biden’s cabinet officials since his inauguration, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin fly to Japan and South Korea. What is the U.S. strategy here? Department of Defense spokesperson John Kirby joins Christiane from the Pentagon.

Walter Isaacson is a widely published author and biographer, and his latest effort couldn’t be better timed. "The Code Breaker" explores the groundbreaking work of Nobel Prize-winning chemist Jennifer Doudna and the technology known as CRISPR, which holds spectacular scientific promise -- and also serious ethical conundrums.

Starting in 2019, a guaranteed basic income effort known as SEED started giving 125 individuals $500 a month for two years, with volunteers chosen from neighborhoods where the median income was around $46,000 or below. Director Sukhi Samra and researcher Amy Castro Baker have closely analyzed the results of this experiment, and they discuss their findings with Hari Sreenivasan.

Last month, Bumble founder and CEO Emily Wolfe Herd became the youngest woman to take a major American company public. She joins Christiane to talk about her personal journey and dating in the age of COVID-19.

Does the world now have a duty to intervene? That is the big question after a blistering new report concludes China bears responsibility for genocide against the Uyghur people. Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues David Scheffer joins the program alongside Uyghur activist Jewher Ilham, whose father is serving a life sentence in China.

The British Royal Family is dealing with the shockwaves from Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah, in which audiences got a glimpse into their everyday lives after the fairytale wedding. Sir Peter Westmacott served as Prince Charles’ deputy private secretary, and joins the show to offer his reflections.

Reaction to the Sussexes interview on both sides of the Atlantic has exposed sharp dividing lines between British and American attitudes, and has raised hard questions about racist views within the royal household. Author and columnist Bonnie Greer is well placed to comment, having grown up in Chicago and lived in the UK for the past several decades.

While millions of Europeans and Americans are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, there are entire nations in Africa that are still waiting for their initial dose. Dr. Ayoade Alakija is co-chair of the African Vaccine Delivery Alliance and is working to help secure vaccines for the continent.

This year, the global pandemic has hit women hardest -- especially those in the workforce. One man who talks the talk and walks the walk when it comes to achieving parity is Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. Gender equality is at the center of De Croo's post-COVID plan to build back. He also is author of "The Age of Women: Why Feminism Also Liberates Men."