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May 20, 2025
Columbia University activist and student Mohsen Mahdawi graduated on Monday — after he was released from ICE jail late last month. As he crossed the stage, students erupted in thunderous applause. Democracy Now! spoke with Mahdawi after the ceremony. "I am coming here to be in the middle of this fire because I am a peacemaker, because I am a firefighter," says Mahdawi, who plans to attend Columbia University's graduate School of International and Public Affairs in the fall.
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May 20, 2025
A damning new report reveals how Israel is systematically making Gaza unlivable. The independent news outlet 972 Magazine has spoken to Israeli soldiers who describe how they have been using bulldozers and explosives to intentionally flatten Gaza.
In the southern city of Rafah, 73% of buildings are completely destroyed, with only about 4% of the infrastructure remaining undamaged. "The real aim is to make it impossible for the Palestinians to return to these areas," says Meron Rapoport, co-author of the 972 Magazine report.
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May 20, 2025
The U.N.'s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned Tuesday that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza over the next 48 hours if more aid does not enter the besieged territory. The warning comes as Israel expands its military assault, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to take control of the entire Gaza Strip. "The suffering is really beyond description," says Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam's food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza, who speaks with Democracy Now! from Gaza City.
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May 20, 2025
U.N. Warns 14,000 Babies on Cusp of Death in Gaza as Food Supplies Start to Trickle In, Israeli Attacks on Gaza's Beleaguered Hospitals Destroy Already Scarce Supplies, Houthi Fighters Launch "Naval Blockade" in Escalating Actions Against Israeli Genocide, SCOTUS Allows Trump to Terminate Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan Immigrants, DOJ Charges NJ Rep. LaMonica McIver over Newark ICE Visit, Lifts Charges Against Mayor Baraka, Trump Reverses Demand for Moscow to Declare Ukraine Ceasefire After Call with Putin, Europe to Lift Sanctions on Syria, United Kingdom and EU Agree to "Reset" Five Years Post-Brexit, Indian Authorities Expelled Rohingya Refugees by Pushing Them into the Sea with Life Jackets, WHO Approves Global Pandemic Treaty, Warns People in 70 Countries Not Getting Medical Care, Billionaire, Trump-Pardoned Real Estate Developer Charles Kushner Confirmed as French Ambassador, Transpo Sec. Sean Duffy, AG Pam Bondi Among Trump Insiders Who Profited from Tariffs Roller Coaster, Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes More Vetoes Bill to Study Reparations, New Orleans Police Used Real-Time Facial Recognition Tracking Despite Ban, Palestinian American Student Denied Diploma After Protesting Israel's Assault on Gaza, Oklahoma Adds False Conspiracy Theories About 2020 Election to High School Curriculum, Trump Administration to Allow Sales of Device That Turns Rifles into Machine Guns, Missouri GOP Moves to Repeal Abortion Rights Enshrined by Voters in November Referendum
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May 19, 2025
On the 100th birthday of Malcolm X, we speak with one of his daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, and civil rights attorney Ben Crump as they continue to press the U.S. government for answers about his assassination. The iconic Black revolutionary was just 39 years old when he was gunned down on February 21, 1965, in Harlem's Audubon Ballroom. In 2023, the family of Malcolm X filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against various government bodies, including the FBI, CIA and NYPD, for concealing evidence of their involvement in the assassination. Now his family is calling for President Trump to release more details about the assassination, just as he released thousands of unredacted files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and vowed in an executive order to release files on the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"When I think of my father most, he was such a young man. He was in his twenties when the world learned of him, 39 when he was assassinated," says Shabazz.
"We continue to fight for justice for Malcolm X, by any means necessary," says Crump. "We implore the federal government to release all of the FBI papers on Malcolm X."
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May 19, 2025
Sunday in New York, Dr. Noor Abdalla accepted a diploma on behalf of her husband, Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, at an alternative graduation ceremony held by the People's University for Palestine. Abdalla gave birth to the couple's first child Deen last month, while Khalil remained imprisoned at a Louisiana ICE detention center over a thousand miles away after he was abducted by ICE from university housing in March. ICE denied Khalil's request to be present at the birth. "You showed up," Abdalla said, reading a statement from Khalil addressed to attendees of the crowd. "You reminded me that while institutions may abandon us, the people never will."
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May 19, 2025
A new report in The New York Times takes a deep dive into Project Esther, a policy blueprint to crush the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States from the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank best known for spearheading Project 2025. Project Esther was formed during the Biden administration and lays out plans for surveilling, silencing and punishing pro-Palestinian activists, including deporting non-U.S. citizens and withholding funds from universities. Many of the Heritage Foundation's proposals appear to have been taken up by the Trump administration.
"Project Esther aims to rebrand all critics of Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters as providing material support for terrorism," says investigative reporter Katie Baker. "They're very explicit that this is what they're doing. … This is all laid out online, and it has been for months."
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May 19, 2025
Palestinians in Gaza are fleeing Khan Younis after the Israeli military issued expulsion orders for the besieged territory's second-largest city. This comes as Israel's bombardment of Gaza intensifies, killing hundreds of Palestinians over the weekend, including at least five journalists. Health facilities have been under constant attack. Israel on Sunday announced the start of a renewed ground invasion it calls Operation Gideon's Chariots. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Sunday that Israel would allow limited food supplies into Gaza as the population of more than 2 million faces famine after 11 weeks of a total Israeli blockade, but there are few details about when such aid shipments could arrive. Gaza's Health Ministry confirms Israel has killed at least 53,300 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, a death toll believed to be a vast undercount.
"The situation, as anyone who's following the news can see, is thoroughly apocalyptic," says Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani. "There is not only an unprecedented siege, but also an unprecedented intensification of Israel's genocidal military campaign in the Gaza Strip." Rabbani also stresses that any progress on aid, lifting the siege or reaching a ceasefire is dependent on the Trump administration using its leverage over Israel. "It will take no more than a phone call from Washington," he says.
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May 19, 2025
Israel Kills Hundreds More Palestinians Over the Weekend as It Orders Expulsion from Khan Younis, Israel Says It Will Allow Limited Food into Gaza as Over 2 Million Palestinians Face Famine, Italian Lawmakers Protest Gaza Blockade at Rafah Crossing; 100,000 Dutch Protesters Take to Streets, Joe Biden Diagnosed with Aggressive Cancer Amid Mounting Uproar over His Failed 2024 Candidacy, House Republicans Slash Medicaid, Food Stamps to Give Tax Cuts to the Richest, SCOTUS Blocks Use of Alien Enemies Act to Expel Venezuelan Immigrants, AG Pam Bondi Sold Up to $5 Million in Trump Media Shares as Trump Announced Tariffs, FBI Investigating Perished "Anti-Natalist" Suspect in Palms Springs Fertility Clinic Bombing, Trump and Putin to Speak After Turkey Peace Talks Last Week Yielded Little Progress, Centrist Nicu?or Dan Defeats Far-Right Rival in Romanian Elections, ICC Chief Prosecutor Steps Aside Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe, El Salvador Arrests Prominent Anti-Corruption Lawyer, a Critic of President Bukele, Global Hunger Soared in 2024, Driven by War, Student Hunger Strikes for Gaza Continue; UCLA Activist Hospitalized After 9 Days Without Food, Mahmoud Khalil's Wife and Baby Accept "People's Diploma," Honor Students Who Speak Up for Palestine, Tornadoes Sweep Through Missouri and Kentucky, Killing 28 People, New Jersey Transit Strike Ends After Tentative Deal, Two Mexican Sailors Dead After Navy Ship Crashes into Brooklyn Bridge
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May 16, 2025
The Supreme Court has heard oral arguments in a case challenging Trump's now-halted order to end birthright citizenship. Multiple lower courts have already ruled that the order is unconstitutional. Trump's lawyers are seeking to reinterpret the 14th Amendment, which has guaranteed citizenship to any child born in the United States for over a century. Legal expert Andrea Flores, an immigration lawyer at FWD.us, says the government's weak arguments about implementing the unprecedented anti-immigrant order indicate that "The administration is not prepared to do this. They just want the authority to reinterpret amendments."
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May 16, 2025
House Republicans have successfully pushed forward President Trump's budget proposals to slash Medicaid and food stamps, putting millions of low-income Americans at risk. Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, a healthcare consumer advocacy organization, says the $175 billion reduction is "literally the biggest cut to the Medicaid program in history."
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May 16, 2025
In his first live interview since his release from ICE detention, Columbia University student and Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi recounts the traumatic experience of his arrest and incarceration. Mahdawi, a green card holder who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, was arrested in Vermont on April 14 when he appeared for what he was told would be a citizenship interview, and spent more than two weeks in U.S. immigration custody, where he was held in retaliation for his speech in support of Palestinian rights. Mahdawi's detention has led him to reflect on the "interconnectedness between injustices," as multiple members of his family in Palestine have been "unjustly" incarcerated in Israeli jails. "Now I can feel their pain," says Mahdawi. Despite the U.S. government and pro-Israel groups' attempts to silence his calls for an end to genocide in Gaza, he adds, "I share my pain with the world."
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May 16, 2025
Israel Kills 150 Palestininians in Gaza in Bloodiest Day Since It Shattered Ceasefire, Israeli Soldiers Kill Five Palestinians in Occupied West Bank's Tamoun, Rep. Rashida Tlaib Reintroduces Nakba Resolution Amid Israel's Genocide on Gaza, Trump Leaves Gulf Region After Touting Billions in Deals; Democrats Move to Block Some Arms Sales, Trump Says Nuclear Deal Sent to Tehran; Iran Slams U.S. Hypocrisy over Its Arming of Israel's Genocide
, Ukrainian and Russian Delegations Meet in Turkey After Putin Refuses to Take Part in Peace Talks, SCOTUS Hears Case Stemming from Trump's Attack on Birthright Citizenship, DHS Requests 20,000 National Guard to Help Execute Mass Deportations, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Cheered by Supporters After Pleading Not Guilty to Trespassing at ICE Jail, NYU Withholds Diploma of Commencement Speaker Who Condemned Israel's Genocide in Gaza, Georgia Abortion Ban Forces Family to Keep Brain-Dead Pregnant Woman on Life Support, "Enough Is Enough": New Jersey Transit Workers Strike for Pay Equity
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May 15, 2025
Israel has imposed a complete block on humanitarian aid into Gaza since March 2, with hundreds of trucks with lifesaving aid waiting at the border. Now many of Gaza's kitchens have closed, and Palestinians face mass starvation as rations run low. We speak with Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine. "The majority of people in Gaza are facing emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity," says de Waal. "Rations are getting low, and the poorest and most vulnerable are beginning to starve and die."
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May 15, 2025
A major new report by U.S. academics analyzes Israel's occupation of Palestine under the legal framework of the crime of apartheid. The report was intentionally released on Nakba Day — the day that marks the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes during Israel's violent founding in 1948. Citing dozens of experts, human rights organizations and judicial decisions, it concludes that Israel's treatment of Palestinians "meets the legal threshold of apartheid." Researchers found that Israel imposes "policies that are designed to ensure the perpetual racial subordination of the Palestinian people," says Sandra Babcock, a clinical professor at Cornell Law School who helped author the report.
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May 15, 2025
The Trump administration has suspended refugee resettlement for most of the world, but welcomed 59 white South African Afrikaners Monday who were granted refugee status. President Trump claims Afrikaners face racial discrimination — even though South Africa's white minority still own the vast majority of farmland decades after the end of apartheid — and claims they are escaping "genocide." This accusation "is a conspiracy theory and a myth that has been floating around echo chambers of right-wing populists and white nationalists for many decades now," says Andile Zulu, political essayist and researcher at the Alternative Information and Development Centre in Cape Town. We also speak with Herman Wasserman, a South African professor of journalism at Stellenbosch University, who says the Trump administration is using Afrikaners as "pawns, as props in a campaign that purports to promote whiteness."
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May 15, 2025
Israeli Bombing Claims 100 More Lives in Gaza; Israel Expels Sick and Wounded Patients from Al-Shifa, Palestinians Commemorate 77th Nakba Amid Israeli Genocide, HRW on Gaza: "Israel Blockade Is a Tool of Extermination", Taxpayers Against Genocide Deliver Complaint to Human Rights Commission, Trump Boasts Qatar's "Historic" Deal with Boeing, Heads to UAE, Georgetown's Badar Khan Suri Leaves ICE Jail on Bail, Reunites with Family, SCOTUS Hears Birthright Case; Dems Grill Kristi Noem over Mass Deportations, Trump Admin Charges Russian Harvard Scientist Kseniia Petrova with Smuggling, Zelensky Arrives in Turkey for Peace Talks, But Putin Is a No-Show, Two Children Die of Thirst on Stricken Ship Carrying Refugees in Mediterranean, Rival Armed Groups Trade Fire in Libya's Capital, Hours After Declaring a Ceasefire, Ex-Partner of Sean "Diddy" Combs Testifies About Physical and Sexual Abuse, RFK Jr. on Measles Outbreak: "I Don't Think People Should Be Taking Medical Advice from Me", Protesters Disrupt RFK Jr. Senate Hearing to Oppose Medicaid Cuts, RFK Jr. Orders FDA Review of Medication Abortion Drug Mifepristone, House GOP Approves Massive Cuts to Medicaid and Food Assistance in Emerging Budget Bill
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May 14, 2025
We speak with a Salvadoran journalist who fled El Salvador along with others from the acclaimed news outlet El Faro after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele threatened to arrest them for exposing how Bukele had made secret deals with Salvadoran gangs. Bukele has run the country under a so-called state of exception since 2022, detaining nearly 80,000 people accused of being in gangs, largely without access to due process. "We don't know when we will be able to come back," says Nelson Rauda Zablah, digital editor for El Faro, who notes it is now routine for Bukele's critics to flee for fear of retaliation. He discusses El Faro's reporting, and we feature excerpts from their interview series with two former leaders of the 18th Street Revolucionarios on Bukele's yearslong relationship to gangs. All of this comes as Bukele is working closely with the Trump administration to jail immigrants sent from the United States at CECOT, El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center.
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May 14, 2025
Amid President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East, we continue our interview with DAWN's Sarah Leah Whitson and _HuffPost_'s Akbar Shahid Ahmed about Trump's acceptance of a luxury plane gifted to him by the Qatari government, nuclear negotiations with Iran and Saudi Arabia, a less cooperative relationship with Israel and more.
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May 14, 2025
We look at President Donald Trump's diplomatic visit to the Middle East and discuss his administration's foreign policy in the region with Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost, and Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN. As Trump sells U.S. military power in the Gulf in exchange for investments in U.S. businesses, they warn that Trump's transactional business philosophy is spreading to the administration's dealings around the world. As Whitson puts it, "if you can pay, then you can play." This approach extends to the new Syrian government, as Trump pledges to lift sanctions on the country. However, explains Ahmed, while the thawing of relationships between the U.S. and Arab states has the added effect of divergence from tight-knit U.S.-Israel coordination, these changes can be attributed to Trump's "America First" agenda, rather than any concern for Palestinians, whom Trump is happy to allow Israel to "pummel."
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May 14, 2025
Israel Kills Scores of Palestinians in Attacks on Gaza Homes and Hospitals, U.N. Humanitarian Aid Coordinator Demands States Act to "Prevent Genocide" in Gaza, Trump Meets Syrian President in Saudi Arabia After Pledging to Lift U.S. Sanctions, Trump Agrees to Sell $142 Billion in Arms to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ukraine's Zelensky Challenges Russia's Putin to Face-to-Face Meeting at Peace Talks in Turkey, Capitol Police Arrest 26 Protesters Demanding GOP Drop Plans to Gut Medicaid, House GOP Measure Would Grant Trump the Power to Crush Nonprofits, Trump-Appointed Judge OKs Trump's Use of Alien Enemies Act to Deport Venezuelans, 20 States Sue to Block Trump from Withholding Funds over Opposition to Mass Deportations, Federal Grand Jury Indicts Milwaukee Judge Arrested for Allegedly Obstructing ICE, "Clear Lines They Dare Not Cross": Hakeem Jeffries Warns GOP Against Arresting Democrats, Federal Judge Appoints Manager to Take Control of Rikers Island and Other NYC Jails, José Mujica, the "World's Poorest President" Who Fought Uruguay's Dictatorship, Dies at 89
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May 13, 2025
We speak with 22-year-old Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed in Ireland after he evacuated Gaza last month suffering from malnutrition and under threat for his reporting on Israel's genocide. Abed describes himself as an "accidental war correspondent" and hoped to become a sports journalist and commentator before the start of the war, but spent much of the last two years reporting on daily death and destruction. He says leaving Gaza was "a very agonizing decision" for him and that he feels tremendous guilt for now having access to food, water and medicine while so many Palestinians continue to suffer. "I can't really tell you that I'm safe here. I'm probably a physical survivor, but not an emotional survivor. The images that I took with me from Gaza are still haunting me," says Abed. "My whole family is still in Gaza, my friends, my colleagues. And all of them, I'm just thinking about them every single second all day."
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May 13, 2025
"People are starving to death, and this is a fact that we are witnessing and experiencing nowadays," says Oxfam's food security coordinator in Gaza, Mahmoud Alsaqqa. More than 10 weeks after Israel instituted a total siege on Gaza, blocking all food and other aid from entering, hunger has reached catastrophic levels in the Palestinian territory. This comes as a new United Nations report warns one in every five people in Gaza is facing starvation, while Save the Children says every child is now at risk of famine. The World Food Programme and charities working in Gaza say they have completely run out of supplies and can no longer feed people.
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May 13, 2025
As President Donald Trump meets with leaders in the Middle East this week, we look at how his administration and family have opened wide to foreign powers and wealthy interests willing to spend big to gain influence. Top buyers of Trump's novelty cryptocurrency have spent millions as part of a contest to have dinner with the president. Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric have also signed a number of deals around the world, trading on the family's name and influence, and son-in-law Jared Kushner has taken in billions in investment from Gulf states. "There's very little restraint at the moment," says New York Times investigative reporter Eric Lipton, who is tracking the deals. "They're just pursuing as many profitable deals as they can find."
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May 13, 2025
We speak with Robert Weissman, co-president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, about President Donald Trump's "corrupt deal" to accept a $400 million jumbo luxury jet from the royal family of Qatar — possibly the most valuable such gift a foreign government has ever given. Under the plan, the Boeing 747 known as the "flying palace" would be retrofitted for use as Air Force One, then donated to Trump's presidential library at the end of his term in order to allow him continued use of the jet even after he leaves office. "The first Trump administration was the most corrupt in American history by far. What's going on now is literally orders of magnitude worse," says Weissman.
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May 13, 2025
Israel Bombs Gaza's Nasser Hospital Again, Killing Journalist Hassan Islayeh, United Nations Chief "Alarmed" by Reports of Catastrophic Hunger in Gaza, Hamas Releases Israeli American Soldier Edan Alexander After Talks with Trump Officials, Saudi Crown Prince Welcomes Trump and Billionaire CEOs to Riyadh as Trump Begins Mideast Tour, DHS to End Protected Status for Afghans Who Face Reprisals for Helping U.S. Occupation Forces, Episcopal Church Quits Partnership with U.S. Government Over Resettlement of White South Africans, Colombia to Join China's Belt and Road Initiative, Trump Executive Order Seeks to Lower Drug Prices, But Offers No Means for Enforcement, Trump Fires Copyright Office Chief After Report on Dangers of AI , Sen. Alsobrooks Calls for RFK Jr. to Resign Amid Gutting of Health Agencies, Measles Outbreak, California Gov. Newsom Calls on Local Officials to Criminalize Unhoused Encampments , Mexican Mayoral Candidate Shot Dead at Campaign Rally Ahead of June 1 Election
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May 12, 2025
Jewish Voice for Peace held its largest-ever national member meeting in Baltimore from April 31 through May 4, with more than 2,000 attending. We feature the address of Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, who addressed the conference as it began. "Why is it that our government always has enough money for bombs, to bomb people, to kill people, but never seems to have money to provide people with healthcare, with housing, enough food for their families?" Tlaib asked in her address.
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May 12, 2025
We speak with Congressmember Bonnie Watson Coleman, one of three Democratic lawmakers the Department of Homeland Security has threatened to arrest after they went Friday to inspect a newly reopened private ICE jail. They are accused of assaulting ICE officers. This comes after federal agents arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on trespassing charges after he joined their congressional delegation. The response of Trump officials has been to "lie and to deflect and to try to create legitimacy for illegitimate things that they are doing," says Watson Coleman.
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May 12, 2025
Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested and detained by masked federal immigration police Friday when he joined three Democratic congressmembers set to tour a newly reopened 1,000-bed Immigration and Customs Enforcement jail run by GEO Group, which advocates say lacks proper permits. Baraka says he was asked to leave the premises and left the secure area to join a group of protesters in a public area outside the gate — when he was seized by officers in a chaotic scene. "This is completely insane, and it's a scary moment in the history of this country as we watch democracy slip between our fingers," Baraka tells Democracy Now!
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May 12, 2025
Hunger Monitor Issues Dire Famine Warning for Gaza as Israel's Blockade, Genocide Continues, "We Will Not Emigrate": Palestinians Refuse to Be Expelled as U.N. Group Warns of "Another Nakba", Pope Leo Calls for Ceasefire in Ukraine and Gaza in First Sunday Address, U.S.-Mediated Truce Between India and Pakistan Leads to Temporary Halt in Kashmir Hostilities, Zelensky Says He "Expects" Putin for In-Person Meeting in Turkey This Week, "This Is What Oligarchy Is About": GOP Plans to Slash Medicaid to Offer More Tax Cuts to the Rich, Feds Arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka at ICE Jail; Trump Admin Warns Dem. Lawmakers Could Be Next, Judges Warn Due Process at Risk as ICE Raids Roil Communities Across the U.S., Trump Admin Threat to Suspend Habeas Corpus Alarms Lawmakers, Legal Experts, Rümeysa Öztürk Released from ICE Custody, Greeted by Lawmakers and Supporters as She Returns Home, Columbia, U. of Washington Suspend Protesters as Yale, UCLA Students Join Hunger Strike for Gaza, U.S. and China Agree to Temporarily Lower Reciprocal Tariffs by 115%, Qatar Offers $400 Million Luxury Jet to Trump on Cusp of His Middle East Trip, PKK Announces End to Armed Struggle Against Turkey, Extreme Flooding in DRC Kills Over 100 People, Separate RSF Attacks in Sudan Kill Dozens over Another Bloody Weekend, White South Africans Are Arriving in U.S. After Receiving Refugee Status, Loved Ones of Disappeared People in Mexico Rally on Mother's Day, Newark Airport Turmoil Deepens with Two More Traffic Control Outages
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May 09, 2025
We go to Memphis for an update after jurors acquitted three former Memphis police officers of the murder of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black father who died after the officers brutally beat him during a traffic stop in January 2023. The group beating was caught on video, provoking widespread outrage and calls for police reform. The three officers still face sentencing after they were convicted of separate federal charges, along with two other officers who pleaded guilty to the state charges and will not stand trial. "A lot of us were shocked," says Amber Sherman, of the Memphis community's response. Sherman, a community organizer and member of Black Lives Matter Memphis, joined the family Thursday at a community vigil and protest. She warns this latest acquittal will "embolden" Memphis police as they continue to "do whatever they want."
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May 09, 2025
Ahead of the Mother's Day holiday in the Untied States, we speak to Duha Latif, a mother of two children in Gaza, about life for mothers living under Israeli occupation and assault. Democracy Now! last spoke to Latif over a year ago, when she was attempting to evacuate Rafah with her family. She now resides in a tent in Khan Younis and struggles to feed her family as Israel's blockade has created widespread famine throughout the Gaza Strip. "We are not living. We are enduring," says Latif. Her children, 8-year-old Amir and 3-year-old Karim, are suffering the effects of hunger and malnutrition. "The loss they are living is more than just the absence of food — it's the absence of life as they knew it."
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May 09, 2025
Survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests are calling for Pope Leo XIV to institute a zero-tolerance policy and for the church to investige his handling of prior sexual abuse allegations. "He needs to be transparent. He needs to be honest," says Peter Isely, a survivor of sexual assault by a Catholic priest, and the founder and global affairs chief of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "Wait and see," says James V. Grimaldi, executive editor of National Catholic Reporter. "Don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do." We are also joined by Father Bryan Massingale, professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University.
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May 09, 2025
The first U.S.-born pope has taken the name Pope Leo XIV. Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost is also a naturalized citizen of Peru, where he served the church for two decades. He greeted 1.4 billion Roman Catholics and the world Thursday with a message of peace and has posted statements online in support of migrant rights and criticized the Trump administration. In the first part of our discussion, we go to Rome for an update from James V. Grimaldi, executive editor of National Catholic Reporter, and speak with Father Bryan Massingale, a Catholic priest and professor of theological and social ethics. "We need him to step into that void of moral and ethical leadership that we have in our world right now. And we also need the pope to be a prophet of hope in these uncertain times," says Massingale.
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May 09, 2025
Pope Leo XIV, First U.S. Pontiff, Has Criticized Trump Admin for Mistreatment of Immigrants, Kashmiris Hope for Peace as Tensions Escalate Between Pakistan and India, Community Kitchens in Gaza Shutter as Israel's Genocide Continues with Bombings and Starvation, "An Assault on Children": UNRWA Blasts Israeli Raids on East Jerusalem Schools, U.S. and U.K. Announce Historic Trade Deal, Though Details Remain Thin, Senators Demand Probe of Elon Musk's Conflicts of Interest as State Department Pushes Starlink, Jeanine Pirro Named Top D.C. Prosecutor; Ed Martin Gets New Jobs Despite Support for Insurrectionists, Trump Taps Wellness Influencer and RFK Jr. Ally Casey Means as Surgeon General, Librarian of Congress Fired by Trump Was First Woman & African American to Fill Role, FEMA Director Is Fired One Day After Testifying Agency Should Not Be Eliminated, FBI Agents Visit Homes of Boston Climate Activists, Court Orders Trump Administration to Explain If It Can Bring Back Deportees from El Salvador, Autopsy Finds SC Firing Squad Botched Execution of Mikal Mahdi, Leading to Agonizing Death, Federal Court Rules GOP-Drawn Congressional Map Discriminated Against Black Alabamians, Maker of Pegasus Spyware Ordered to Pay $167 Million in Damages over WhatsApp Hacks
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May 08, 2025
We speak with journalist Mehdi Hasan of Zeteo News about the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, the suppression of pro-Palestine activism and more. Hasan is a former host for Al Jazeera and MSNBC who started his own news outlet last year. On _Zeteo_'s first anniversary, he describes his frustrations while working for mainstream outlets and says the U.S. media continues to ignore Palestinian voices in coverage about the Middle East.
"You are getting a very one-sided view of the conflict," Hasan says. "The real tragedy is that the media has been complicit in the Gaza genocide."
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May 08, 2025
As the Israeli military kills two more Palestinian journalists in Gaza, a new documentary by Zeteo has uncovered critical details about Israel's killing three years ago of the acclaimed Palestinian American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The film, Who Killed Shireen?, identifies for the first time the Israeli soldier who allegedly shot Abu Akleh. We get response from two members of Abu Akleh's family — her brother Anton and her niece Lina — as well as the documentary's executive producer, Dion Nissenbaum, and Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan.
"We've always known that it was an Israeli soldier who killed Shireen," says Lina Abu Akleh, who says the "entire chain of command" must be held accountable, including elected officials.
"The Biden administration and the Israeli government essentially were doing everything they could to cover up what happened that day to Shireen Abu Akleh," says Nissenbaum, who is also the correspondent in the documentary.
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May 08, 2025
"Pools of Blood": Israel Kills 100 Palestinians in Gaza, Incl. Attack on Restaurant and Marketplace, World Central Kitchen Ends Food Distro Due to Israel's Genocidal Blockade, Reuters: Trump and Israel in Talks over U.S.-Led Administration of Gaza, Israel Expelling Hundreds from Homes in West Bank Camps of Nur Shams, Tulkarm, India and Pakistan Exchange More Fire After Indian Attack Kills 31 in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir, Germany Cracks Down on Asylum Seekers One Day After Friedrich Merz Becomes Chancellor, U.S. Judge Warns Plan to Expel Undocumented People to Libya Would Violate Court Order, ICE Poised to Start Massive Raid on Washington, D.C., Businesses, GOP Challenger for North Carolina Supreme Court Backs Down After Attempt to Overturn His Loss Fails, Judge Strikes Down Trump's Executive Order Punishing Law Firm He Doesn't Like, Voice of America Ordered to Carry Programming from Far-Right One America News Network, Russia Declares Unilateral 3-Day Ceasefire in Ukraine, Then Violates It, Memphis Jury Acquits Three Ex-Cops of Murder over 2023 Killing of Tyre Nichols, At Least 79 Gaza Protesters Arrested After Occupying Columbia University Library, Jewish Students Lobby Congress Against Weaponizing Antisemitism to Silence Critics of Israel, Court Orders ICE to Transfer Abducted Tufts Scholar Rümeysa Öztürk to Vermont, Cal State Students Begin Hunger Strike to Protest Israel's Starvation Campaign on Gaza, Black Smoke from Vatican Chimney Signals Cardinals Have Not Yet Selected New Pope
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May 07, 2025
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has found U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who fatally beat Mexican father Anastasio Hernández Rojas responsible for acts of torture. It's the first time the independent commission, which investigates extrajudicial killings and human rights violations, has issued such findings against a U.S. law enforcement agency. In 2010, Rojas was crossing the southern border in an attempt to return to San Diego, where he'd lived for 25 years, to reunite with his wife and five children after being deported. He was stopped by border agents, who brutally beat and tasered him while he was handcuffed, until Rojas died from heart failure. His death was later ruled a homicide.
This comes as President Trump's nominee to head Customs and Border Protection, Rodney Scott, is accused of obstructing the criminal probe into Rojas's killing.
The decision "exposes the unchecked powers of policing in the United States and holds the United States accountable for what is one of the worst violations in human rights, which is the taking of a life," says Andrea Guerrero, executive director of Alliance San Diego.
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May 07, 2025
A historic settlement is being hailed as a landmark victory for hundreds of women who survived abuse by Dr. Robert Hadden, a former Columbia University gynecologist. For over two decades, Columbia ignored his patients who spoke out, undermined prosecutors and shielded the sexual predator. "The university knew all the way back into the '90s about what he was doing and how he was mistreating patients, but did nothing but lie, cover it up and expose more unsuspecting patients to a known serial predator," says Anthony T. DiPietro, an attorney representing survivors in the case against Hadden.
One survivor, Eva Santos Veloz, visited Dr. Hadden at age 18. "This was my first birth," says Veloz. "During my labor, he sexually assaulted me multiple times, not just once."
On Tuesday, lawyers representing the women announced Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian agreed to pay $750 million after the former doctor abused the women under the guise of medical examinations. Legal payouts now top more than $1 billion, following earlier settlements. "The settlement is huge," says Laurie Maldonado, another survivor and plaintiff in lawsuits against Hadden. "It was just a huge win for all of survivors, including Hadden survivors, but all of survivors."
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May 07, 2025
Dozens of people have been killed in the worst fighting between India and Pakistan in more than two decades. India attacked nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir early Wednesday, killing at least 26 people, including a child. Pakistan described the attacks as an act of war and responded by shelling areas controlled by India. Tensions have been soaring between the two nuclear-armed states since gunmen massacred 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir in a rampage that India blamed on Pakistan.
Mirza Waheed, a Kashmiri journalist and award-winning novelist, says that as the countries fight, the people of Kashmir get left behind. "When elephants fight, it's the grass that gets trampled upon," said Waheed.
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May 07, 2025
India and Pakistan Trade Fire After India Launches Airstrikes on Kashmir and Pakistan, Israel Bombs School, Tents Housing Displaced Palestinians in Gaza; U.N. Condemns Weaponization of Aid, Israel Bombs Airport in Yemen's Capital as Trump Announces Deal to Stop U.S. Attacks on Houthis, Amid Russian Attacks, Ukraine Targets Moscow with Drones on Eve of Victory Day Parade, WaPo: Trump Administration Urged Ukraine to Accept U.S. Deportees from Other Nations, "I Am a DOGE Person": Senate Republicans Confirm Frank Bisignano as Social Security Commissioner, Supreme Court Upholds Trump's Ban on Trans Troops While Lawsuits Proceed, Court Rejects Trump's Repeal of Protected Status for Haitian, Cuban and Venezuelan Immigrants, Federal Courts Reject Trump's Use of 1798 Alien Enemies Act to Transfer Venezuelans, Venezuelan Man Unlawfully Sent by U.S. to El Salvador Prison ID'd as Daniel Lozano-Camargo, El Salvador's Bukele Prepares to Arrest Journalists Who Revealed His Agreement with Gangs, "It's Not for Sale": Canada's Mark Carney Rejects Trump's Annexation Threat, Family Sues Florida Deputy over Killing of U.S. Airman Roger Fortson in His Own Home, Jury Begins Deliberations in Trial of 3 Former Officers Charged with Murdering Tyre Nichols
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May 06, 2025
Pediatric nurse Sandra Adler Killen has just returned from a third medical mission to Gaza, where she says, "We have this horrific trifecta of starvation, of lack of medicine and supplies, and bombings." She calls Israel's ongoing assault and siege of civilians in Gaza an "annihilation," with skyrocketing rates of anemia, birth defects and premature births.
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May 06, 2025
Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha has just been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his essays about the Palestinian experience in the face of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on Gaza. He joins Democracy Now! to discuss his work, the necessity of advocating for Palestinian rights, and the violence of Israeli occupation. Abu Toha, who evacuated Gaza in late 2023 after being arrested, beaten and detained by the Israeli military, now resides in Syracuse, New York. He says that, while grateful for the platform granted by the Pulitzer, he cannot celebrate the achievement while "my sisters, my brothers and my parents in Gaza are starving." Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip has trapped millions of Palestinians in famine conditions, unable to evacuate and under threat of daily bombings and Israeli troop movements. "The only celebration for me is when there is an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza [and] the West Bank, and when justice and peace are served in Palestine," says Abu Toha.
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May 06, 2025
Donald Trump has raised nearly a billion dollars from his various cryptocurrency schemes, says researcher Molly White. "He is really allowing for bribery and the types of corruption that we've never seen in the American presidency," White says. She lays out how the Trump family profits from cryptocurrency while directly influencing policy and regulations, encouraging the transfer of wealth to the industry despite its "enormous risk of fraud and collapse."
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May 06, 2025
Israeli Military Strikes Western Yemen, Southern Lebanon, U.N. Warns 66,000 Palestinian Children Suffer Acute Malnutrition Due to Israel's Gaza Blockade, "We Are Finally Going to Conquer the Gaza Strip": Israeli Leaders Outline New Gaza Offensive, Advocates ID Israeli Officer Responsible for Killing of 5-Year-Old Hind Rajab and Her Family, Police Arrest Palestinian Solidarity Protesters at University of Washington, Swarthmore College, Michigan Attorney General Dismisses Charges Against 7 Gaza Protesters at UMich, UCLA Students Sue Police for Firing Rubber Bullets at Gaza Protesters, Vigils at Columbia, Georgetown and Tufts Demand Release of Scholars Abducted by ICE, Flight Cancellations Plague Newark Airport After Controllers Lose Communication with Planes, Latin American Court Condemns Killing and Torture of Mexican Father by CBP Agents in 2010, Trump Offers Undocumented People $1,000 to "Self-Deport", UFW Members Detained by ICE; U.S. in Talks with African Nations over Accepting Deportees, ICJ Dismisses Sudan's Genocide Case Against United Arab Emirates, Canadian Prime Minister in D.C. for Trade Talks After Hostile Comments from White House, New York Police Officer Pleads Guilty in Beating Death of Prisoner Robert Brooks, Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha Wins Pulitzer for Essays on "Physical and Emotional Carnage in Gaza"
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May 05, 2025
An alliance between the far right and Silicon Valley oligarchs has given rise to a form of "end times fascism," says journalist Naomi Klein, who details in a recent essay co-authored with Astra Taylor how many wealthy elites are preparing for the end of the world even as they contribute to growing inequality, political instability and the climate crisis. Klein says that while billionaires dream of escaping to bunkered enclaves or even to space, President Donald Trump and other right-wing leaders are turning their countries into militarized fortress states to keep out immigrants from abroad and ramp up authoritarian control domestically.
"There's always an apocalyptic quality to fascism, but fascism of the 1930s and '40s had a horizon" for a utopian future, says Klein. Today, by contrast, "we're up against people who are actively betting against the future — not just actively betting against it, but fueling the fires that are burning this world."
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May 05, 2025
We go to Wisconsin as the state's Democratic Governor Tony Evers pushes back after Trump border czar Tom Homan says Wisconsin officials could be arrested over local policies that defy Trump's mass deportation agenda. This comes after FBI agents arrested Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan. "I think what we're seeing, in a broader sense, is just an absolute degradation of the rule of law," says Lisa Graves, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice, now the director of the policy research group True North Research and co-host of the podcast Legal AF. Her forthcoming book is Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights.
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May 05, 2025
57 Palestinians Starve to Death as Israeli Siege on Gaza Continues; Israel Seeks to Expand War, Houthis Vow More Attacks on Israel to Protest "Crime of Genocide" in Gaza, Trump Says "I Don't Know" When Asked If He Needs to Uphold Constitution, Gov. Tony Evers Blasts "Chilling Threats" from White House over Wisconsin Immigration Policies, Trump Admin Slaps Terror Designation on 2 Haitian Gangs, Trump Planning to Reopen Alcatraz; WH Posts Image of Trump as Pope, Trump Asks SCOTUS to Allow DOGE Access to Sensitive Social Security Data, "Sovereignty Is Not for Sale": Pres. Sheinbaum Dismisses Trump Plan to Send U.S. Troops to Mexico, Death Toll in RSF Attacks on Al-Nahud Mount to 300, Bombings in South Sudan Kill 7 People, Incl. a Baby, and Destroy MSF Health Facilities, Australia's Albanese Wins Reelection as Voters Reject Trump-Like Conservative Challenger, Hard-Right, Pro-Trump Candidate George Simion Wins First Round of Romanian Elections, Judge Sentences Landlord to 53 Years for Murdering 6-Year-Old Palestinian American Wadea al-Fayoume, John Fetterman's Staff Has Been Raising Concerns over His Mental Fitness, Starbase: New Texas Town Created at Launch Site of Elon Musk's Starlink, Texas Becomes 16th GOP-Led State to Implement School Vouchers, Trump Admin Ends Louisiana Desegregation Order, Opens Probe into Chicago Program for Black Students
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May 02, 2025
As the cases of international students and activists facing deportation begin to play out in the courts, Georgetown professor Nader Hashemi visited an ICE jail in Texas to speak with his colleague Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown professor who was snatched by the Trump administration back in March. Suri is married to a U.S. citizen of Palestinian background. Once Hashemi arrived at the prison, he was shocked to learn that Suri had been designated a high-security prisoner and only granted two hours of fresh air a week.
"Badar Khan Suri was very adamant that the suffering and the pain that he has faced and that his family has been subjected to will be worth it, if it helps expose, number one, the naked authoritarianism the Trump administration, and, number two, if his incarceration keeps the spotlight on the genocide on Gaza," says Hashemi.
A federal immigration judge will rule on Suri's case in the coming days. "Dr. Suri was picked up because he had spoken out for peace," says Mary Bauer, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. "He was arrested very clearly because of his political view and family association."
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May 02, 2025
More than 100 days into President Donald Trump's return to the White House, we speak with the renowned abolitionist, author and activist Angela Davis, who discusses Gaza, Trump and more.
Davis, who spoke at a Jewish Voice for Peace conference in Baltimore on Thursday, says, "We find ourselves in a very difficult moment, a moment of grief, a moment of witnessing the apartheid and the genocide unfolding in a way that we had never imagined before. But at the same time, we recognize that Palestine has never given up. Palestine will never give up."
She also addresses the need for resistance against the Trump administration. "Those of us who are standing for justice and for freedom … it's essential to recognize that we are actually in the majority, that we are on the right side of history, that we should follow the example of the Palestinian people and not give up, not succumb to the assumption that this person was elected, and therefore he and his people get to dictate the direction of history," says Davis.
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May 02, 2025
People around the world celebrated May Day, International Workers' Day, on Thursday, including hundreds of thousands in the United States. Unions and immigrant rights groups led rallies from coast to coast, in every state, with much of their anger directed at the Trump administration.
Workers and activists in New York demanded workers' rights, freedom for Palestine and protections for immigrants. Democracy Now!'s María Inés Taracena spoke to some of the marchers as they took to the streets.
"It's just giving me a huge boost of hope that we're going to get over this authoritarian scheme and we'll come out on top," said Barry Knittle, a protester in New York.
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May 02, 2025
A ship carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip sent out a distress signal overnight after it was bombed by drones in international waters near Malta. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the organizer of the voyage, is blaming Israel for the attack, which set the ship on fire, punched a substantial breach in its hull and cut off communication with those aboard. "We are dealing with a brutal attack on an innocent ship," retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, who was in Malta waiting to board the flotilla, tells Democracy Now! "While we cannot yet identify the source of the drones, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a history of violence that has been directed toward the flotillas from the state of Israel."
The climate activist Greta Thunberg was also set to join the flotilla and said in an online video that activists would "continue to do everything in our power to do our part to demand a free Palestine and demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor."
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May 02, 2025
"We Are Starving the Children of Gaza": WHO Issues Damning Warning as Israeli Genocide Continues, Gaza-Bound Freedom Flotilla Attacked in International Waters, Israel Launches Airstrikes on Syria for Second Time This Week, Mike Waltz Removed as National Security Adviser After "Signalgate," Nominated for U.N. Ambassador, May Day Protests Decry Trump, "Billionaire Takeover," Attacks on Immigrants, Turkish Police Arrest Hundreds in Istanbul May Day Protests, U.S. Judge Blocks Trump's Use of Alien Enemies Act to Expel Immigrants with No Due Process, Bhutanese Community in U.S. Targeted in Trump's Brutal Immigrant Crackdown, Family Says Vietnamese Refugee with Dementia Died of Medical Neglect After Arrest by ICE, Lawmaker Calls for Probe into Whether Haitian Woman Died of Medical Neglect in Florida ICE Jail, Trump Drafts U.S. Postal Inspection Service Officers as Immigration Enforcers, "Foreign Policy for Sale": Trump Cryptocurrency Venture Secures Major Investment from UAE Firm, Trump Orders Cuts to Federal Funds for NPR and PBS "Propaganda", Trump Administration Cuts $1 Billion in Mental Health Grants to Schools, "The Horror Unfolding Knows No Bounds": U.N. Warns of Surging Hunger and Violence in Sudan, 35 House Democrats Join GOP Bid to Block California's Phase-Out of Gas-Powered Cars, Study Details Alarming Decline in North American Bird Populations
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May 01, 2025
A U.S. military strike on a migrant detention center in the north of Yemen has killed at least 68 people, largely migrants from African nations, bringing the death toll from U.S. attacks on the country to over 250 since mid-March. Middle East researcher Helen Lackner says the number of deaths is likely twice the officially recorded number, as the United States has now conducted more than 1,000 strikes on Yemen "on an absolutely nightly basis." Lackner says the humanitarian crisis in Yemen has also been exacerbated by the end of U.S. aid and the U.S.'s designation of the country's Houthi movement as a "foreign terrorist organization." "People who are living in the country are suffering on a daily basis from basically terror and fright or from being attacked and possibly being bombed and killed [at] any time."
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May 01, 2025
The Trump administration has signed a deal with Ukraine to give the United States a long-term stake in the country's oil, gas, coal and mineral resources as part of a joint investment fund with Kyiv. President Trump has sought to frame the agreement as repayment of U.S. military aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia's invasion in February 2022. We speak with investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz, who characterizes the deal as an "unprecedented" resource "grab" that allows Trump to reopen U.S. access to Russian oil and gas, which can be channeled through Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
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May 01, 2025
As May Day protests call for worker and immigrant rights, we talk to a New York father whose 19-year-old son Merwil Gutiérrez, with an open asylum case, was detained in the Bronx and then flown with over 230 other Venezuelans to a mega-prison in El Salvador, where he is being held incommunicado. Witnesses to Gutiérrez's arrest say authorities were searching for a different person but, upon encountering the teenager, decided to arrest him simply because he is Venezuelan. He has no criminal history and no tattoos, the features Trump officials have used to accuse Latin American immigrants of being gang members and expel them from the country without due process. Wilmer Gutiérrez says he fears for his son's safety. "We came here with a dream. We did not think that this injustice was ever going to happen … They shattered our dreams," said Gutiérrez. We also speak with Ethar El-Katatney, editor-in-chief of Documented, the nonprofit newsroom that broke the story of Gutiérrez's arrest. Wilmer Gutiérrez is calling on the governments of the United States and El Salvador to facilitate his son's release. "My son is still a child. His mentality has not matured yet. And right now they are damaging his mind … They are violating all the laws and doing whatever they want."
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May 01, 2025
Columbia University student and Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi has been released on bail by a Vermont judge after more than two weeks in U.S. immigration custody. "I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you," he told supporters as he left a Vermont courthouse. Despite being a legal permanent resident, Mahdawi was arrested by immigration enforcement last month at what he was told would be a citizenship interview, and accused by the State Department of posing a threat to national security over his pro-Palestine campus activism. We get an update from Shezza Abboushi Dallal, part of Mahdawi's legal team, who says his release was facilitated by the prior blocking of his transfer to a jurisdiction more favorable to the Trump administration. Mahdawi will now be able to attend his graduation from Columbia University this month.
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May 01, 2025
"I Am Not Afraid of You": Mohsen Mahdawi Sends Message to Trump After Release from ICE Detention, UNRWA Warns Lives of Gaza's Children in the Balance as Israeli Blockade Stretches into Third Month, Israeli News Investigation Confirms Biden Administration Did Not Try to End Genocide in Gaza, Fighting Near Damascus Kills 30 People; Israel Launches Airstrike on Syria, U.S. and Ukraine Sign Deal for Joint Natural Resources Investment Fund, CNN: Trump Administration in Talks to Send Immigrants and Asylum Seekers to Libya, Rwanda, Trump Repeats Lies About Abrego Garcia, Says He Could Bring Him Back from El Salvador But Will Not, Venezuelans Fearing Deportation to El Salvador Send SOS Message from Texas Immigration Jail, Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Florida Police from Acting as Immigration Agents, Federal Judge Restricts Border Patrol in California After Agents Targeted Day Laborers and Farmworkers, Burkina Faso Protesters Rally in Defense of Interim President After Alleged Coup Attempt, Panamanian Protesters Condemn Deal to Station U.S. Troops Around Panama Canal, Rights Groups Demand Justice for Murdered Environmentalist Marco Antonio Suástegui, Swarthmore Students Set Up Encampment to Demand Divestment from Israel, May Day Protests Across U.S. Take Aim at Trump's Anti-Worker, Anti-Immigrant Policies
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Apr 30, 2025
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen reflects on the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, the president's chaotic trade war, detentions and deportations of pro-Palestinian advocates and more. Nguyen has just released a new book of essays, originally delivered as lectures, that explore otherness and belonging in U.S. history. "I think otherness is a universal condition," says Nguyen. "I'm sure we all have, at one time or another, thought ourselves to be odd or alienated or not fitting in in some way. But the difference for certain people is that otherness is constantly imposed on us."
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Apr 30, 2025
We mark 50 years since the end of the U.S. war on Vietnam with the acclaimed Vietnamese American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen. On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese troops took control of the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon as video of U.S. personnel being airlifted out of the city were broadcast around the world. Some 3 million Vietnamese people were killed in the U.S. war, along with about 58,000 U.S. soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of Lao, Hmong and Cambodians also died, and the impact of the war is still being felt in Vietnam and the region.
Nguyen says while the Vietnam War was deeply divisive in the United States during the 1960s and '70s, American interference in Southeast Asia goes back to President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, when he rejected Vietnamese demands for independence from France. "And from that mistake, we've had a series of mistakes over the past century, mostly revolving around the fact that the United States did not recognize Vietnamese self-determination," says Nguyen.
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Apr 30, 2025
Tech writer and critic Paris Marx discusses the first 100 days of the second Trump administration and the influence of billionaire Elon Musk at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has slashed government programs and the civil service. Marx says even after Musk gave hundreds of millions to Trump's reelection campaign, "it was hard to imagine that he would really play this outsized role in the actual governance of the country." Marx also warns that the DOGE playbook is likely to be exported to "the political right in other countries to try to do something similar with a DOGE organization, kind of wrapping it in this cloak of efficiency and … allowing this further gutting of the state." Marx also talks about how several Canadian tech executives recently launched the initiative called Build Canada, with the goal of firing 100,000 federal government employees, increasing immigration restrictions and building new oil pipelines, and concern about Musk's DOGE approach going global.
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Apr 30, 2025
The Liberal Party in Canada had been massively trailing in the polls. Then it pulled off a victory that seemed impossible just two months ago, largely thanks to one man: President Donald Trump, who repeatedly threatened to make Canada the 51st state. After former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned, former central banker Mark Carney took over as Liberal leader and campaigned as someone willing to stand up to the United States, while painting the opposition Conservatives as too close to a hostile Trump administration. "If you'd asked people around Christmas if the Liberal Party had any chance of forming government in the next election, they would have said, 'Absolutely not,'" says Canadian tech writer and critic Paris Marx, who notes that Carney has quickly moved to weaken some of his party's more progressive policies and cozy up to tech executives. "So, even though we have a Liberal Party coming to power over a Conservative Party, that doesn't mean there aren't things to still be worried about, as we see the way that they might potentially govern."
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Apr 30, 2025
Israel Once Again Bombs Gaza "Safe Zones" as Latest Attacks Kill 39 Palestinians, Palestinian Medic Who Survived Israeli Massacre of Medical Workers Released from Israeli Jail, White House Assails Amazon Plan to Show Cost of Tariffs as Trump Rolls Back Auto Import Duties, House GOP Blocks Democrats' Measures on Elon Musk, DOGE and Trump Administration Scandals, Michigan Congressmember Files Articles of Impeachment Against Trump, Progressive Democrats Join Sen. Bernie Sanders's Reintroduction of Medicare for All Act, NIOSH Temporarily Reverses Cuts to Programs Benefiting Firefighters Including 9/11 Survivors, Mexico Reports Surge in Measles Cases as Texas Outbreak Spills Across Border, Federal Agents Traumatize Oklahoma City Family After Raiding the Wrong Home, Federal Judge Gives Columbia Grad Mahmoud Khalil Chance to Challenge Detention in Court, Columbia Student and Palestinian Activist Mohsen Mahdawi Speaks from Prison Ahead of Court Hearing, Trump Fires Biden-Appointed Board Members of U.S. Holocaust Memorial, Including Doug Emhoff, Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth Boasts of Canceling DEI Program Signed into Law by Trump in 2017, Colombian Journalist Jineth Bedoya Ends Campaign for Justice over Kidnapping and Sexual Assault, Amid Tensions over Kashmir, Pakistani Official Says India Is Preparing a Military Strike
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Apr 29, 2025
The award-winning Palestinian American journalist and author Sarah Aziza has released a new book, The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders, in which she examines her recovery from an eating disorder from which she nearly died in 2019, linking it to the generational trauma experienced as part of her Palestinian family's history of exile. Aziza was born in the U.S. as a daughter and granddaughter of Gazan refugees. "I began to recover memories of my Palestinian grandmother that led to a curiosity … about my family's history in Gaza, in Palestine, the greater Nakba," says Aziza. "And as a daughter of the diaspora, I hadn't tied my own story so viscerally to the story of my people."
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Apr 29, 2025
The award-winning Palestinian American journalist and author Sarah Aziza has released a new book, The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders, in which she examines her recovery from an eating disorder from which she nearly died in 2019, linking it to the generational trauma experienced as part of her Palestinian family's history of exile. Aziza was born in the U.S. as a daughter and granddaughter of Gazan refugees. "I began to recover memories of my Palestinian grandmother that led to a curiosity … about my family's history in Gaza, in Palestine, the greater Nakba," says Aziza. "And as a daughter of the diaspora, I hadn't tied my own story so viscerally to the story of my people."
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Apr 29, 2025
Organizers across the United States are planning a massive day of May Day protests against the Trump administration. Organizers say that they have broad support from groups targeted by the administration, including immigrants, federal workers and more. "Instead of attacking only one community … they are attacking everybody at the same time, and that enabled us to gather a really broad coalition," says Jorge Mújica, strategic organizer for Arise Chicago.
In New York, organizers are calling on people to march alongside them in Foley Square. "We need to fight this corporate takeover," says Nisha Tabassum, lead organizer for worker issues at Make the Road New York. "We are the many; they are the few."
Los Angeles organizers are expecting hundreds of thousands of protesters to join them in opposition to Trump's policies. "We are taking our power back," says Georgia Flowers Lee, National Education Association vice president for United Teachers Los Angeles.
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Apr 29, 2025
Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill Dozens as 65,000 Palestinian Children Suffer Acute Malnutrition, "Persecution, Apartheid and Genocide": South Africa Condemns Israeli Assault on Gaza, Amnesty Condemns U.S. Support for "Live-Streamed Genocide" in Gaza, Survivors Recount U.S. Attack on Civilians in Yemen Detention Center That Killed 68, Anti-Trump Sentiment Boosts Mark Carney and Liberals to Victory in Canadian Elections, Trump Signs Executive Orders to Militarize Police, Punish Sanctuary Cities and Refugees, El Salvador Denies Lawyer Access to Venezuelans Deported by U.S. to Notorious Prison, Trump Administration Dismisses Scientists Writing National Climate Assessment, Trump Appointee Harmeet K. Dhillon Leads Gutting of DOJ's Civil Rights Division, Senate Report: DOGE Machinations Allowed Elon Musk to Avert Over $2B in Possible Legal Liability, Trump Pardons Florida Health Executive Who Evaded Taxes to Fund Luxury Lifestyle, Trump Pardons Las Vegas Councilwoman Who Used Embezzled Funds to Pay for Cosmetic Surgery, Democrats Hold Sit-in on Capitol over Budget That Seeks to Cut Billions for Poor and Working People, Power Back in Spain and Portugal After Massive Iberian Blackout, Vatican to Start Deliberations on Next Pope on May 7
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Apr 28, 2025
Social Security recipients could soon see their benefits interrupted or delayed as a flood of cuts hits the agency, thanks to the efforts of Elon Musk and DOGE. Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor who served as Social Security commissioner under President Biden, says the system is on the brink of collapse as the Trump administration pushes out thousands of staffers and peddles lies about who actually benefits from its services. The former commissioner adds that he believes "they're trying to wreck Social Security's reputation, wreck its ability to serve its customers, wreck its unbeaten string of regular monthly payments, so that, having wrecked it, then they have an emergency under which they can rob it."
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Apr 28, 2025
On Friday, FBI agents arrested a county judge in Milwaukee and charged her with obstructing justice and concealing an individual from arrest. After an undocumented immigrant, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, appeared before her in court on an unrelated misdemeanor charge, Judge Hannah Dugan learned that ICE agents were waiting in the hallway outside her courtroom to arrest him. Dugan told the agents they could not perform the arrest without a judicial warrant and adjourned the hearing, directing Flores-Ruiz to leave her courtroom into a public hallway. Milwaukee-based attorney Ann Jacobs says it appears that two DEA agents who remained in the hallway as Flores-Ruiz left did not take any action toward an arrest while he was still inside the courthouse. He was later pursued and arrested outside. One week later, FBI agents arrested Dugan, accusing her of helping Flores-Ruiz avoid arrest. "The message is crystal clear: ‘If you cross the Trump administration, we will arrest you,'" says Jacobs. "The goal is to chill judges from ruling against the Trump administration," with "the hopes that they can cudgel the judiciary into simply becoming meekly obedient to the executive branch." Dugan's longtime friend Emilio De Torre, who spoke at protests held this week at the FBI's offices in Wisconsin, says FBI Director Kash Patel's public celebration of her arrest is "absolutely disgusting and damaging," and slams the effects of Trump's attacks on civil society. "People here in Milwaukee are not taking kindly to the fact that our community, our economy, our family, now our courthouses and our schools are being disrupted by the heavy-handed overreach that we see."
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Apr 28, 2025
The Trump administration has deported three U.S. citizen children to Honduras: a 4-year-old who was actively receiving treatment for a rare form of stage 4 cancer, his 7-year-old sister, and a 2-year-old girl who was separated from her father and expelled with her undocumented pregnant mother. The mothers were coerced into taking their U.S. citizen children and prohibited from communicating with other family members or their lawyers until they arrived in Honduras. Attorney Gracie Willis, who is representing the 2-year-old girl, says the deportation of a U.S. citizen not given "any way to contest that or express the option to stay in the United States" is unprecedented.
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Apr 28, 2025
U.S. Airstrike Kills 68 African Migrants Jailed in Yemen; 800 U.S. Strikes Since March 15, At Opening of ICJ Hearing, Israel Accused of Using Aid as "Weapon of War", Lebanon Warns Israel Is Undermining Regional Stability After Attack on Beirut Suburb, Suspect Charged in Vancouver Car Ramming That Killed 11 People at Filipino Culture Festival, Canada Votes in Pivotal Snap Elections, with Liberal Mark Carney Expected to Remain in Power, Pope Francis Remembered for His Antiwar Messages During Vatican Funeral, Putin Announces Unilateral 3-Day Ceasefire; Trump and Zelensky Meet Ahead of Pope Francis Funeral, FBI Arrests Milwaukee Judge Accused of Helping an Immigrant Evade Authorities, U.S. Deports Three U.S. Citizen Children to Honduras, ICE Raids in Florida and Colorado End with 900 Arrests, White House Restores Status of Thousands of International Students, Major Blast at Iranian Port Kills at Least 46, Injures 1,000 , India Detains 1,500 People in Kashmir in Wake of Pahalgam Massacre, RSF Kill 31 People in Suspected "War Crime" in Omdurman Amid Mounting Tragedies in Sudan, Far-Right Backers of Itamar Ben-Gvir Attack Palestinian Rights Protesters in New York, Occidental Students End Hunger Strike, Decry Brutal Crackdown on Protest, DOJ Rescinds Journalist Protections in Leak Investigations, "Paramount Began to Supervise Our Content": "60 Minutes" Reporter Scott Pelley Speaks Out on Air, George Santos Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison, Virginia Giuffre, Prominent Epstein Accuser and Survivor Advocate, Has Died
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Apr 25, 2025
We speak with two brothers who are fighting Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI over its massive data center in Memphis, Tennessee, used to run its chatbot Grok. The facility is next to historically Black neighborhoods and is powered by 35 pollution-spewing methane gas turbines the company is using without legal permits. Musk says he wants to continue expanding the project.
"What's happening in Memphis is a human rights violation," says KeShaun Pearson, executive director of the environmental justice organization Memphis Community Against Pollution. "Elon Musk and xAI are violating our human right to clean air and a clean, healthy environment." His brother Justin J. Pearson, a Tennessee state representative for Memphis, says Musk is "perpetuating environmental racism" by ignoring the wishes of local residents: "They are abusing our community, and they're exploiting us."
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Apr 25, 2025
We speak with acclaimed director Ryan Coogler about his latest film Sinners, which is set to be one of the biggest box office hits of the year. Starring Michael B. Jordan, the genre-bending horror film is set in the Mississippi Delta during Jim Crow and is a "cinematic gumbo" of various influences and themes, Coogler tells Democracy Now!
"I wanted to make a film that was kind of raging against the concept of genre and making the audience constantly question it, even while they were watching it," he says. In particular, the film celebrates Delta blues, music made by Black artists "living under a back-breaking form of American apartheid," and what Coogler describes as "our country's most important contribution to global popular culture."
Coogler also discusses his family connection to Mississippi, producing the film with his wife Zinzi Coogler, his highly publicized contract with Warner Bros. and more. Coogler's previous films include Black Panther, Creed and Fruitvale Station.
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Apr 25, 2025
Gaza Death Toll Since Israel Shattered Ceasefire in March Reaches 2,000, Entire Families Wiped Out, Trump Tells Putin to "STOP!" After Deadly Kyiv Attack and Amid Shaky Peace Talks, Reuters: Trump Will Offer $100 Billion Arms Deal to Saudi Arabia, Indian and Pakistani Forces Exchange Fire Amid Mounting Kashmir Tensions, U.S. Judge Blocks Trump Order Requiring Proof of Citizenship to Register to Vote, "The Next Version of 'The Big Lie'": Trump Orders Probe into Dem Fundraising Platform ActBlue, Federal Court Blocks Trump from Withholding Funds to Sanctuary Cities, Trump-Appointed Judge Orders Return of 20-Year-Old Venezuelan from Salvadoran Prison, Federal Judges Block Trump's Cuts to Public Schools That Promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Trump Executive Order Targets College Accreditors' DEI Policies, Police Pepper-Spray Student Protesters Demanding CCNY Divest from Israel, DRC Agrees to Ceasefire with Rwanda-Backed M23 Rebels, Tunisian Authorities Raze Refugee Camps That Housed 7,000, Guatemalan Police Arrest Indigenous Leader Who Led Nationwide Protests, Trump Executive Order Seeks to Expedite Deep Sea Mining, Highland Park Parade Gunman Gets 7 Consecutive Life Sentences
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Apr 24, 2025
Cuts by the Trump administration are putting children at risk, according to a new report by ProPublica. The administration has cut funds and manpower for child abuse investigations, enforcement of child support payments, child care and more. On top of that, Head Start preschools, which offer free child care to low-income parents, are being severely gutted. Democracy Now! speaks with ProPublica reporter Eli Hager on his investigation into Trump's "War on Children."
"It wasn't just cuts to these more liberal-coded programs like support for child care and direct assistance to lower-income families with children, but also these programs that have much more support across the political spectrum, like funds and staffing for investigating child abuse and Child Protective Services," says Hager.
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Apr 24, 2025
As the Trump administration goes after universities, law firms and more, some argue that the free press will eventually become a target. Trump's attacks on the press have already begun, with the president filing a number of baseless lawsuits against organizations like ABC and CBS, including a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS over how the network edited an interview with Kamala Harris last year on 60 Minutes. The White House has also banned the Associated Press from covering some presidential events over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. "I didn't want to be an activist, but when it's a battle for facts, journalism is activism," warns Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, whose new site Rappler faced attacks from former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. We also speak with The American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner, who has a new piece headlined "Is the Press Next?"
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Apr 24, 2025
President Trump is facing increasing criticism from big businesses over his decision to launch a global trade war. On Monday, CEOs of Walmart, Target and Home Depot met with Trump at the White House to warn about Trump's trade policies. A day later, Trump signaled he is open to substantially lowering tariffs on China. Trump has also toned down his attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom he had previously threatened to fire. This all comes as global stock markets remain in turmoil over Trump's trade policies. The Wall Street Journal reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average is headed for its worst April performance since the Great Depression. "This is classic Trump," says Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. "You create a crisis. Then you say, 'Well, actually, I'm going to back off,' and the crisis is over. And you end up with yourself and the country worse than before you started."
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Apr 24, 2025
Israeli Attacks Kill 50 Palestinians in Gaza, Including People Waiting for Food Assistance, Itamar Ben-Gvir Protested by Yale Students, Feted by Trump and GOP, Suspects in Kashmir Massacre Identified; India Closes Border, Cancels Visas for Pakistanis, Russian Air Attack on Kyiv Kills 8 as Trump Ratchets Up Pressure on Ukraine, U.S. Judge Pauses Order Against Trump in Abrego Garcia Case, Florida Police Collaborate with ICE in Crackdown on Immigrant Communities, ICE Arrests 8 Dairy Workers in Largest Immigration Raid in Vermont's Recent History, Southeast Asian Immigrants in California Face Arrest, Deportation After Routine ICE Check-ins, DoorDash Workers Protest Food App's Wage Theft and Other Labor Violations, 12 States Sue Trump over "Arbitrarily Imposed Tariffs", $TRUMP Cryptocurrency Soars After Offering Top Investors "VIP Reception with the President", EU Fines Apple and Meta $800 Million for Violating Antitrust Law, Harvey Weinstein Retrial on Rape Charges Begins in New York, "60 Minutes" Chief Quits as Trump Calls for CBS to Lose Broadcast License, FBI and Police Raid Homes of Palestinian UMich Students Who Joined Campus Protests, Occidental Students Hold Hunger Strike to Demand Divestment from Israeli War Machine, Universities Form "Mutual Defense Compact" Against Trump's Political Interference, Interior Department Plans to Shrink National Monuments Amid Push for Mining, Fossil Fuel Projects, Study Finds Nearly Half of U.S. Residents Are Exposed to Unsafe Levels of Air Pollution, 84% of World's Coral Reefs Suffer Largest-Ever Bleaching Event
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Apr 23, 2025
We spend the hour with acclaimed historian Greg Grandin discussing his new book, America, América: A New History of the New World, which spans five centuries of North and South American history since the Spanish conquest, including the fight against fascism in the 1930s. He examines the U.S.-Latin American relationship under Trump, with a focus on El Salvador, Panama, Ecuador and Cuba. Grandin also has a new piece for The Intercept that draws on the book, headlined "The Long History of Lawlessness in U.S. Policy Toward Latin America." "If the United States really has given up its role as superintending a global liberal order and the world is reverting back to these kind of spheres of power competitions, then Latin America becomes, essentially, much more important," says Grandin. We also continue to examine the legacy of the late Pope Francis, the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina and the first pope from Latin America. Grandin shares how the Catholic Church's involvement in the conquest and colonization of the continent impacted the pope's beliefs.
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Apr 23, 2025
Israel Attacks School Sheltering Displaced Palestinians, Killing 10, Protests Erupt on Yale Campus Ahead of Visit by Israeli Far-Right Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Ukraine Ceasefire Talks Collapse as Marco Rubio Pulls Out, Gunmen Attack Tourists in Indian-Administered Kashmir, Killing 26, World Food Programme Halts Aid to 650,000 in Ethiopia Amid Funding Shortfall, State Department Will Eliminate Programs on Climate Crisis, Human Rights and War Crimes, Families Say Two Venezuelans "Simply Disappeared" Amid U.S. Deportations to El Salvador, Judge Halts Plan to Reopen ICE Office at New York's Rikers Island Jail, Immigrant Advocates Ask U.N. Human Rights Council to Investigate U.S. Open-Air Detention Camps, Democratic Lawmakers Visit Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil at Louisiana ICE Jails, Trump Says He Won't Fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Will Reach Deal to Reduce Tariffs on China, HHS Slashes Funding to Women's Health, Promotes Lab Leak Theory of COVID Origins, As Tesla's Profits Plummet, Elon Musk Says He'll Scale Back DOGE Efforts, EPA to Lay Off or Reassign Hundreds of Staffers Working on Environmental Justice and DEI, Three More Federal Prosecutors Resign over Dismissal of Eric Adams Probe, Supreme Court Conservatives Appear Poised to Allow Parents to Opt Out of Schools with LGBTQ Books
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Apr 22, 2025
This week marks the 70th anniversary of the Bandung Conference, when 29 nations from Asia and Africa gathered in Indonesia for a historic anti-colonial conference that was meant to chart a new path for developing countries amid a tide of decolonization sweeping the globe. The 1955 Bandung Conference announced the arrival on the world stage of peoples from the Global South, and it marked the birth of what would later become the Non-Aligned Movement at the height of the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. Key nations participating included China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Burma and Vietnam. The conference was hosted by Indonesian President Sukarno, a major anti-imperialist figure who would later be overthrown in a U.S.-backed coup.
"They all gathered together because they understood their unity was very important, not only to create a new trade and development order — that was not the only part — but also to fight for peace," says author and journalist Vijay Prashad, director of the Tricontinental think tank. "Bandung represented hope for hundreds of millions of people around the planet in 1955."
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Apr 22, 2025
A federal judge has ordered Rümeysa Öztürk to be transferred to Vermont as she seeks to challenge what her lawyers call her "unconstitutional detention" in an ICE detention center in Louisiana. Öztürk is a Turkish national and a Tufts University Ph.D. student whose abduction off the streets by plainclothes U.S. agents was caught on camera, one of the most controversial examples of the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian international students. She was targeted after co-authoring an opinion piece for the Tufts student newspaper critical of the school's response to Gaza protests. Last week, an immigration judge denied bond for Öztürk, declaring her to be a potential "danger to the community." Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports the State Department found no evidence linking Rümeysa Öztürk to antisemitic activities or public statements in support of terrorism, as the administration has claimed.
For more, we speak with Mudassar Toppa, part of Öztürk's legal team and a staff attorney at CLEAR, a legal nonprofit and clinic at CUNY School of Law. "In this case, the government was clear it was intending to abduct Ms. Öztürk. They didn't want her to know that her visa was revoked, and four days later, they did exactly what they planned and abducted her in broad daylight," says Toppa.
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Apr 22, 2025
As the Vatican prepares the funeral for Pope Francis and church leaders begin to consider his replacement, we look at the late pontiff's environmental legacy. Pope Francis frequently called for action on the climate crisis and urged his followers to be good stewards of the Earth. He also openly criticized the role of wealthy nations and capitalism in causing the climate crisis.
"He brought together the riches of Christian and Catholic tradition to bear with the prophetic work of social movements around the world in confronting a global crisis," says Nathan Schneider, professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Schneider is also a contributing writer at America, a national Catholic weekly magazine published by the Jesuits, where he has been covering Catholic engagement with climate change and the economy.
Pope Francis argued that "our relationship with the Earth depends on justice among people, and that in order to address this environmental crisis, we need to also address the crisis of disposability, of treating not only the planet, but each other, as disposable," says Schneider.
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Apr 22, 2025
House Democrats Visit El Salvador to Press for Release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Relatives Fight U.S. Attempts to Transfer Venezuelan Immigrants to El Salvador Prison, ICE Denies Mahmoud Khalil's Request to Join His Wife for Birth of Their First Child, "The War Must Stop": Detained Palestinian Green Card Holder Mohsen Mahdawi Calls for End to Gaza War, Judge Orders Reinstatement of Canceled Visas for 133 Foreign Students, UNRWA Chief Condemns Israel's Use of Aid to Gaza as a "Bargaining Chip and a Weapon of War", Survivors Recount RSF Massacre on Zamzam Camp for Displaced Sudanese, Putin Floats Direct Ceasefire Talks with Zelensky Amid Continued Russian Attacks, Latest U.S. Airstrikes Hit Yemen's Capital, Marib Governorate and Kamaran Island, Hegseth Blames Press Over Reports of Second Signal Chat in Which He Shared War Plans with Family, White House HHS Cuts Could Slash Budget by 40%, Eliminate Key Programs, Harvard Sues Trump Admin for Freezing Federal Funds, Trump Admin to Start Garnishing Wages on Defaulted Student Loans Next Month, Trump Administration Mulls "Perks" to Boost Birth Rate While Attacking Medicaid, Child Care, Vatican Sets Saturday Funeral for Pope Francis, Judge Sides with 6 Plaintiffs Challenging Trump's Anti-Trans Passport Rules, Protesters in London Decry Top Court's Ruling Attacking Trans and Nonbinary Community
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Apr 21, 2025
As the Trump administration ramps up its attacks on international students and Palestinian activists, Jewish New Yorkers are calling for the release of detained Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested in Vermont when he appeared for what he was told would be a naturalization test. Mahdawi had previously expressed fears that the appointment, which came earlier than usual in the typical naturalization process, could end up being a trap. "These deportations do not keep anyone safe," says Josh Drill, an Israeli American master's student at Columbia University. "They endanger us because they separate Palestinian and Israeli peacemakers who are trying to change the reality."
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Apr 21, 2025
As the Trump administration ramps up its attacks on international students and Palestinian activists, Jewish New Yorkers are calling for the release of detained Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested in Vermont when he appeared for what he was told would be a naturalization test. Mahdawi had previously expressed fears that the appointment, which came earlier than usual in the typical naturalization process, could end up being a trap. "These deportations do not keep anyone safe," says Josh Drill, an Israeli American master's student at Columbia University. "They endanger us because they separate Palestinian and Israeli peacemakers who are trying to change the reality."
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Apr 21, 2025
We continue our look at the life and legacy of Pope Francis with a focus on his advocacy for migrants' rights and next steps for selecting his successor, with input from groups like SNAP,
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It was clear that the subject of migrants and immigrants wasn't just one topic among many that he addressed, as all popes might," says Robert Ellsberg, editor of Pope Francis's book on migrants and refugees. "It really was a kind of signature of his papacy."
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Apr 21, 2025
In his last public appearance before he died, Pope Francis addressed Easter Sunday Mass and repeated his call for a ceasefire in Gaza. "Pope Francis's position on Palestine is just an extension of his theology and pastoral care in general, caring for the marginalized and victims of injustice," says Reverend Munther Isaac, Palestinian Christian theologian and pastor, who joins us for the second of several segments on Pope Francis.
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Apr 21, 2025
Pope Francis has died at the age of 88. The Argentinian-born Jesuit had led the Catholic Church since 2013, when he made history by becoming the first pope from Latin America. Francis was a vocal champion for the poor and marginalized, migrants' rights, and often spoke out about the climate crisis. "When he addressed almost any issue, he would begin with the experience of people at the margins," says Marie Dennis, director of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative.
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Apr 21, 2025
We speak with Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, just back from El Salvador, where he met Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father whom the Trump administration says they forcibly transferred to an El Salvador mega-prison last month by "administrative error." "We will keep fighting for his constitutional rights, because if we deny the constitutional rights for one person, we threaten them for everybody," says Van Hollen. Four more Democratic lawmakers, including Congressmembers Maxwell Alejandro Frost of Florida and Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, have since traveled to El Salvador to continue pressuring for Abrego Garcia's release.
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Apr 21, 2025
Pope Francis Dies at 88, Hours After Calling for Gaza Ceasefire, Palestine Red Crescent Rejects Israeli Probe into March Massacre of 15 Gaza Humanitarian Workers, SCOTUS Blocks Trump from Expelling Another Group of Venezuelan Immigrants Out of Texas, U.S. Judge Orders Trump Admin to Return Jailed Tufts Student Rümeysa Öztürk to Vermont, Minnesota Father Has Student Visa Secretly Revoked in Trump's Mounting Crackdown, Protesters Warn Fascism Is Here as More Anti-Trump Demonstrations Take Over Streets Nationwide, U.S. Airstrikes Kill at Least 12 in Sana'a, Days After U.S. Port Attack in Yemen Kills 80 , NYT: Hegseth Spills Yemen Attack Plans in Another Signal Chat, This Time Including His Family Members, U.S. and Iran Report Progress in Nuclear Talks, Will Meet Again Next Week, Pakistan Expels 80,000 Afghans in Contested New Policy, Russia Launches Barrage of Drones on Ukraine After Easter "Ceasefire", DRC Suspends Party of Ex-President Joseph Kabila, Long-Serving Progressive Congressmember Barbara Lee Elected as Oakland Mayor
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Apr 18, 2025
Fatma Hassona, the 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist and subject of the upcoming documentary film Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, was killed with her family Wednesday by an Israeli missile that targeted her building in northern Gaza. The strike occurred just one day after she learned that the film centered around her life and work had been selected to premiere at the ACID Cannes 2025 film festival. Director Sepideh Farsi remembers Hassona for her talent, integrity and hope. "I can't tell you how devastated I am," says Farsi. She shares that Hassona had joyfully accepted the invitation to Cannes but had emphasized her desire to return to Gaza and remain on her family's land. Farsi adds that there is a chance that Hassona's building had been targeted, "given the high number of journalists and photographers in Gaza who have been killed by the Israeli army." In tribute to Hassona's work, we play the trailer to Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk and share a selection of her photography and poetry.
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Apr 18, 2025
"These were otherwise healthy school-age children who didn't have to die." We speak to the world-renowned pediatrician, virologist and vaccine expert, Dr. Peter Hotez, about the dangerous anti-vaccine agenda of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Amid a growing number of measles cases in the United States, RFK Jr. has promoted skepticism of the efficacy of the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella. At least two unvaccinated children have died from measles, a highly contagious disease that had been effectively eliminated in the U.S. in the past few decades. Hotez, the father of a child on the autism spectrum, also debunks RFK Jr.'s claims that vaccines are linked to autism, and criticizes his "deeply offensive" statements about people living with autism. Evoking eugenic beliefs, the HHS secretary, who now holds the power to determine healthcare policy in the United States, "shows this consistent lack of intellectual curiosity, this kind of simplistic way of thinking and talking about autism," says Hotez.
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Apr 18, 2025
U.S. Airstrikes on Yemen Kill at Least 58, Injure Over 100 Others, Palestinian Photojournalist Fatma Hassona Killed with Family in Israeli Attack, Hamas Rejects Interim Israeli Truce Proposals, Seeks Comprehensive and Full End to War, ICC Demands Hungary Justify Its Failure to Act on Netanyahu Arrest Warrant, Sen. Van Hollen Meets with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador as Legal Defeats Mount for Trump, New Group of Immigrants Threatened with Removal Under Contested Wartime Act, SCOTUS to Hear Arguments in Trump's Attempt to End Birthright Citizenship, U.S.-Born Man Arrested Under Florida's Latest Anti-Immigrant Law After Crossing State Lines, ICE Signs $30 Million Deal with Palantir as It Expands Mass Surveillance of Immigrants, Zohran Mamdani Joins NYC Jewish Community to Say "No Fascists, No Pharaohs" at Passover Action, Boston Jews Call for Release of Rümeysa Öztürk After Judge Denies Bond to Abducted Student, Trump Escalates Attacks on Harvard, Targeting International Students, "The Fight to Win All Fights": Students and Faculty Protest Trump Crackdown on Schools, U.S. Judge Rules Google Illegally Operates Online Ad Monopoly, Trump Threatens to Kick Out Federal Reserve Chair Powell, New Rule Threatens Endangered Species by Allowing Industry to Destroy Protected Habitats, Rubio Says U.S. Will Determine in "A Matter of Days" If It Should "Move On" from Ukraine War, Florida Son of a Sheriff's Deputy Uses Mom's Service Gun to Kill 2 People in Campus Mass Shooting, Grand Jury Indicts Luigi Mangione; Charge Could Lead to Death Sentence
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Apr 17, 2025
We speak with the award-winning author and journalist Omar El Akkad, whose new book about the war on Gaza is titled One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. The book expands on a viral tweet El Akkad sent in October 2023, just weeks into Israel's genocidal assault on the Palestinian territory, decrying the muted response to the carnage and destruction unfolding on the ground. He wrote, "One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this." He joins Democracy Now! and says the book explores how people respond to injustice and grapple with their own role in it. "It's in large part trying to figure out my place in this society," says El Akkad. "I happen to live on the launching side of the missiles, and as a result, it's very, very easy for me to look away. And what happens when you decide you're not going to look away?"
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Apr 17, 2025
President Trump's Africa envoy Massad Boulos has finished a tour of several East African nations, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he discussed a peace deal that could involve the U.S. tapping the country's rich mineral resources, including cobalt and lithium. Several Western mining companies are already reportedly lined up to take part in the U.S.-backed mineral resources partnership. "These people are among the poorest in the world," says Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. "They live on top of the incredible mineral riches that have been plundered by so many companies, so many colonial powers, so many of the neighbors of DRC. I hope the U.S. will really make sure there is an equitable deal, but that can really only happen if there is a peace agreement."
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Apr 17, 2025
Sudan is facing the world's largest humanitarian crisis after two years of war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. Thousands have died, and some 13 million have been forcibly displaced. There are also widespread reports of sexual and ethnically motivated violence and a worsening hunger crisis. Emtithal Mahmoud, a Darfurian refugee and humanitarian activist, describes how the violence has impacted her own family, including in a recent RSF attack on the Zamzam refugee camp where fighters killed and tortured many civilians. "They kidnapped 58 of the girls in my extended family, and we are still searching for them," says Mahmoud. "We need the world to pay attention." Unlike the Darfur crisis of the early 2000s, when it was on the agenda of many world leaders, the current conflict is being largely ignored by the international community, says Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. "It is by far the worst displacement crisis in the world," notes Egeland.
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Apr 17, 2025
Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, joins us as President Trump's defiance of the courts is pushing the United States toward a constitutional crisis, with multiple judges weighing whether to open contempt proceedings against his administration for ignoring court orders. On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg criticized officials for continuing to stonewall his inquiry into why planes full of Venezuelan immigrants were sent to El Salvador last month even after he ordered the flights halted or turned around midair. Boasberg noted in his order that Trump officials have since "failed to rectify or explain their actions," giving the administration until April 23 to respond. This comes as Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador but was blocked from seeing or speaking to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who was sent to CECOT on the March flights in what the Department of Homeland Security has admitted was an "administrative error." Both the Trump administration and the government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele have refused to release and return Abrego Garcia. This week, federal Judge Paula Xinis said the administration had made no effort to comply with the order, and said she could begin contempt proceedings. "The government is providing no information, not even the most basic factual information about what's been happening," says Warren.
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