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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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Apr 17, 2025
U.S. Judge Finds "Probable Cause" to Hold Trump Admin in Contempt over CECOT Transfers, ICE Violently Arrests Massachusetts Man After He Reveals He's Not the Target of Their Search, California Faith Leaders Condemn Plans to Reopen Dublin Prison as ICE Jail, IRS Could Revoke Harvard's Tax-Exempt Status over Refusal to Bend to Trump, DOJ Sues Maine for Refusing to Comply with Anti-Trans Order, Israel's Genocidal Attacks on Gaza Continue, Slaughtering Children, Displaced Palestinians, Dr. Abu Safiya's Lawyer Warns Kamal Adwan Director Is Being Tortured in Prison, Reports: U.S. in Talks with Yemeni Fighters over Possible Ground Attack Against Houthi Movement, Mass Gaza Protests in Karachi; Police Crack Down on Student Protests in Germany, Netherlands, Protesters Arrested on Roof of U.K. Factory That Supplies Israeli Weapons Maker, Prosecutors Seek to Ban Discussion of Gaza at Upcoming Trial of "Louisville Five" Protesters, Sudan's RSF Declares Rival Government as Civil War Enters Third Year, Tunisian Opposition Politicians Launch Hunger Strike Amid Mass Trial of Dissidents, Colombian Indigenous Leader's Murder Is Third of the Year, "Illegal and Economically Destructive": California Sues Trump over Tariffs, Guards Charged with Murder over Beating Death of New York Prisoner Messiah Nantwi, Puerto Rico's Energy Grid Collapses for Second Time in Four Months
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Apr 16, 2025
Harvard University has pushed back as President Trump ramps up his attacks on higher education. After Harvard rejected demands by the Trump administration to eliminate all DEI initiatives and further crack down on Palestinian rights protests, including reporting international students to federal authorities, the Trump administration said it's freezing $2.2 billion in federal grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard. University President Alan Garber wrote in a letter to the school community on Monday, "The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights."
"This is an effort to try to take over the ideological agenda of the country by taking over universities," says Andrew Manuel Crespo, professor at Harvard Law School and general counsel of the Harvard faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
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Apr 16, 2025
In one of its first major actions under the Trump administration, the Federal Trade Commission is arguing Meta has an illegal monopoly in social media and should be forced to divest Instagram and WhatsApp. CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand Monday as the highly anticipated antitrust trial kicked off in Washington, D.C. If Meta loses the trial, it could be forced to sell off those platforms. "We've let one company, one man, influence the information environment for the world," says Frances Haugen, former Facebook employee and whistleblower.
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Apr 16, 2025
The Trump administration is now seeking to deport Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, who is being held in a prison in northwest Vermont. He was detained by Homeland Security agents when he went to an immigration services center to take a civics test that is the final step in the process of becoming a naturalized citizen. Mahdawi moved to Vermont from the West Bank in 2014 and has been a legal permanent resident, or green card holder, since 2015.
All three members of Vermont's congressional delegation are calling for Mahdawi's release, including Congressmember Becca Balint. "This should terrify every single person living in this country, regardless of your citizenship status," says Balint. "This is Trump creating his own army of brownshirts right here in our country."
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Apr 16, 2025
Judge Overseeing Kilmar Abrego Garcia's Case Considers Contempt Charges for U.S. Officials, Judge Blocks Trump's Order Ending Protections for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans & Venezuelans, "Do Not Attempt to Remain in the United States": CBP Orders U.S. Citizens to "Self-Deport", Video Shows Violent Arrest of Venezuelan Man by Federal Agents Who Wounded Bystander, Republicans Face Protests over Trump's Agenda at Raucous Town Hall Meetings, Israeli War Chief Refuses Calls to End Gaza Siege, U.S. Envoy Says Iran Must Completely End Uranium Enrichment , Trump Escalates Trade War, Saying China Now Faces 245% Tariff, NATO Leader Pledges Support to Kyiv as Trump Blames Ukraine, Not Russia, for Invasion, White House Restricts Access to Wire Service Reporters Including AP and Reuters , Russian Journalists Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for "Extremism", Hungary Amends Constitution to Ban LGBTQ Pride Events , U.K. High Court Ruling Excludes Trans Women from Equality Act Protections, U.S. Threatens Retaliation as U.N. Shipping Agency Reaches Deal to Curb Greenhouse Gases, Climate Activists Demand Protections for Indigenous Communities Ahead of COP30 Summit
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Apr 15, 2025
A new set of documentaries directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney premieres April 15 and April 16 on HBO. The films in The Dark Money Game series investigate the origins and impacts of campaign finance in the U.S. "Our country is being run by a small group of people who have an enormous amount of money, and they dominate our politics," says Gibney. "It's almost as if bribery has become utterly legalized. It's pay to play. It's quid pro quo."
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Apr 15, 2025
As Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa claims victory in a contested election, Noboa's leftist rival Luisa González is challenging the results, calling Noboa a "dictator" who committed election fraud to be reelected. The widow of former candidate Fernando Villavicencio also released a new video seemingly confirming allegations that Noboa had been involved in an attempt to frame a third candidate for Villavicencio's assassination during the 2023 presidential election. Journalist José Olivares, who reported on the allegations for Drop Site, responds to the new video and the Noboa administration's "cozying up" to Donald Trump and his allies, including the notorious private military contractor Erik Prince.
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Apr 15, 2025
We speak to Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council, and José Olivares, an award-winning investigative journalist specializing in Latin American politics, about El Salvador's immigrant detention collaboration with the United States. Over 300 people have been disappeared to El Salvador's dangerous maximum-security prisons, including at least one man who was targeted for removal by mistake. U.S. President Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele now say they have no power to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States, despite a Supreme Court order to "facilitate" his return. "What we saw yesterday was political theater and a set of administration officials lying to the American public," says Gupta about Trump and Bukele's meeting Monday in the Oval Office, which was open to the press. "Donald Trump and his administration can absolutely bring home Mr. Abrego Garcia. That is well within their power and authority." Olivares recounts the origins of U.S.-Salvadoran collaboration and the Salvadoran government's own close ties to the MS-13 criminal organization.
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Apr 15, 2025
Hundreds of members of Jewish Voice for Peace in New York protested outside of the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Monday on the third night of the major Jewish holiday Passover. They gathered in support of a growing number of immigrant activists who have been taken prisoner by ICE, including New York residents Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, both Palestinian participants of pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University last year. Democracy Now! spoke to some of the Passover Seder attendees. "I've always thought of Passover as a celebration of liberation. And liberation can never be just the Jews," said protester Marianne Pita. "The only way to fight for liberation is to fight for everybody."
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Apr 15, 2025
El Salvador's President Rejects Return of Wrongfully Removed Maryland Father, "Homegrowns Are Next": Protests Erupt as Trump Proposes Sending U.S. Citizens to Salvadoran Prisons, Trump Orders Military to Take Control of Vast Stretch of Southern Border, Trump Administration Seeks $45 Billion to Expand ICE Detention Centers, ICE Arrests Mohsen Mahdawi, Columbia Protest Leader and Green Card Holder, Jewish Peace Activists Mark Passover with Protest at New York ICE Office, Trump Administration Freezes $2.2 Billion in Grants to Harvard, Citing DEI and Protests, Death Toll from Israel's Assault on Gaza Passes 51,000, Up to 400,000 Displaced as Sudan's Rapid Support Forces Seize Refugee Camp, Killing Hundreds, Pete Marocco Exits State Department After Gutting USAID, Trump Admin Moves to Cancel $9.3 Billion of USAID, Public Media Funds, Jury Selection Opens in Retrial of Sarah Palin's Defamation Suit Against New York Times, On Tax Day, IRS Workers Brace for Mass Layoffs, Zuckerberg Takes Stand in Meta Antitrust Trial
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Apr 14, 2025
As the Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast Suave returns for its second season, we continue our conversation with journalist Maria Hinojosa and David Luis "Suave" Gonzalez, the subject of the series. Gonzalez was sentenced to life in prison at age 17, but got an unexpected second chance when he was paroled in 2017 following a Supreme Court ruling that found sentences like his unconstitutional. The first season of the podcast followed Gonzalez's case, his decadeslong friendship with Hinojosa and his eventual release from prison. The second season looks at his struggle to reintegrate into society.
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Apr 14, 2025
As the Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast Suave returns for its second season, we speak with journalist Maria Hinojosa and David Luis "Suave" Gonzalez, the subject of the series. Gonzalez was sentenced to life in prison at age 17, but got an unexpected second chance when he was paroled in 2017 following a Supreme Court ruling that found sentences like his unconstitutional. The first season of the podcast followed Gonzalez's case, his decadeslong friendship with Hinojosa and his eventual release from prison. The second season looks at how his freedom is complicated by the long shadow of prison. "I'm on parole for the rest of my life. That's not freedom," Gonzalez tells Democracy Now! "If somebody makes a false phone call and says, 'He looked at me wrong, I feel a threat,' I could go back to prison. … When the United States Supreme Court said that it was unconstitutional to keep a juvenile in prison for life, then it should be unconstitutional to keep that same juvenile on parole for life."
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Apr 14, 2025
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, part of a growing alliance between the two right-wing leaders. In recent months, El Salvador has imprisoned hundreds of people for the Trump administration who were expelled from the United States with little or no due process, ending up in the brutal mega-prison known as CECOT. One of those men is Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration deported despite a protective order meant to prevent his removal from the country. The Trump administration has so far refused to bring Abrego Garcia back, despite a unanimous Supreme Court ruling ordering the government to "facilitate" his return. Bukele, who has described himself as "the world's coolest dictator," has ruled for years under a state of emergency in El Salvador, imprisoning tens of thousands of people without trial as part of a supposed war on gangs. "Never did I imagine that we would be in a situation where the Trump administration, the United States, is looking to El Salvador, to the Bukele administration, saying, 'Huh, we kind of like what you are doing,'" says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, who just returned from a reporting trip to El Salvador.
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Apr 14, 2025
We get an update on the case of Mahmoud Khalil from Diala Shamas, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and part of Khalil's legal team. An immigration judge in Louisiana ruled Friday that the Trump administration has grounds to deport Khalil for taking part in Gaza student protests, despite being a legal permanent resident of the United States. The government's evidence in the case consists of a two-page memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio conceding that Khalil has no criminal history and that the U.S. is seeking to deport him based purely on his "beliefs, statements, or associations." Despite the setback, Khalil still has a separate case playing out in New Jersey, where lawyers are challenging the legality of his detention. "We are moving with urgency. The government is trying to slow down the case in federal court and speed it up in immigration court," says Shamas, who notes that throughout his detention, Khalil has continued to highlight the U.S.-backed Israeli war on Gaza. "That is the reason that he and many others are being subject to this retaliatory policy of arresting, detaining and transferring people simply for their protest."
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Apr 14, 2025
Israel Bombs Last Functioning Hospital in Northern Gaza, 1,600 Israeli Ex-Soldiers and Intelligence Agents Demand End to Assault on Gaza, Return of Hostages, Houthis Say U.S. Attacks on Yemen Killed Seven, Wounded 29, 34 Killed, Over 100 Injured in Sumy, Ukraine, as Russia Bombs Palm Sunday Celebrations, U.S. Demands Control Over Ukrainian Gas Pipeline as Part of Arms-for-Minerals Deal, Trump Administration Ends Protected Status for Cameroonian and Afghan Immigrants, Judge Rules Trump Admin Can Deport Mahmoud Khalil for His Beliefs, State Dept. Has No Evidence Tying Abducted Tufts Student Rumeysa Ozturk to "Antisemitic" Activity, Trump Hosts El Salvador's Bukele at White House Amid Uproar over U.S. Transfers to CECOT, Judge Rules Against Religious Groups, Says ICE Can Raid Houses of Worship, Trump Exempts Smartphones and Other Electronics from Steep Tariffs on China, Democrats Dig In on Suspected Insider Trading by Trump Associates Amid Tariffs Roller Coaster, Trump Plans for More Cuts to Federal Climate Science Research, Trump Moves to Get Rid of Head Start, Which Offers Free Child Care to Poor Families, Bernie Sanders and AOC Address L.A. Crowd of 36,000 as Part of "Fighting Oligarchy" Tour, Ecuadorian Presidential Challenger Alleges Fraud After Incumbent Noboa Wins Reelection, Gabon Coup Leader Brice Oligui Nguema Wins Presidential Election, Suspect Charged in Arson Attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's Home, Firing Squad Executes South Carolina Prisoner Mikal Mahdi, Protest in Cambridge Demands Harvard Refuse to Comply with Trump Threats
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Apr 11, 2025
A feature film about life in the occupied West Bank, The Teacher, opens in New York tonight and in theaters across the U.S. next week. The film, which is inspired by true events, centers a Palestinian schoolteacher who struggles to reconcile his commitment to political resistance with supporting his student. "It's a fiction narrative, this film, but it is deeply, deeply rooted in reality," says Farah Nabulsi, director of The Teacher, which is partially based on the 2011 prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel, in which one Israeli soldier was exchanged for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Nabulsi and Saleh Bakri, the acclaimed Palestinian actor who stars in The Teacher, speak to Democracy Now! about the resonance of the film in the midst of Israel's genocide in Gaza. "The occupation wants us separated," Bakri says. "I want to dismantle these checkpoints … I dream of Palestinians coming together again."
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Apr 11, 2025
Microsoft fired two workers who protested the company's ties to Israel's assault on Gaza at its 50th anniversary celebration last Friday. The workers protested after leaked documents revealed that Microsoft supplies the Israeli military with AI and cloud technology, as well as an Air Force unit known as the Ofek, to build "kill lists." "We wanted everyone to know that Microsoft's cloud and AI are the bombs and bullets of the 21st century," says Vaniya Agrawal, No Azure for Apartheid organizer and a former Microsoft employee who was fired after disrupting an April 4 discussion between current and former Microsoft CEOs, including Bill Gates.
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Apr 11, 2025
A lawyer who represents a pro-Palestinian student protester in Michigan was detained Sunday at the Detroit Metro Airport on his way back from a family vacation. Dearborn attorney Amir Makled was separated from his wife and children and asked to surrender his cellphone by Border Patrol agents. "This wasn't something that was random," says Makled. "They had a whole profile about me." He was eventually released after 90 minutes of questioning and refusing to provide sensitive client information to the agents. Makled believes he was targeted due to his involvement in cases that challenge the current administration of President Donald Trump.
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Apr 11, 2025
In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States, after the Maryland resident was denied due process rights and deported to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. But the court remains vague on how exactly this would happen, and the Trump administration has claimed it has no way of ensuring his safe return. Elsewhere, a federal immigration judge in Louisiana is set to rule today on whether the Trump administration has grounds to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States who was involved in a campus protest at Columbia University. Ahead of today's ruling, Secretary of State Marco Rubio filed a short memo that concedes Khalil has no criminal history, and argues he should be deported as part of U.S. efforts to combat antisemitism. We speak to attorney Ramzi Kassem, who is part of Khalil's legal team, about the cases of Abrego Garcia and Khalil. Kassem says the Supreme Court decision on Abrego Garcia's case is "a step in the right direction and will hopefully lead to his return home."
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Apr 11, 2025
China Hikes Up Tariffs Against U.S. to 125% Amid Escalating Trade War, Democrats to Investigate Trump Allies for Insider Trading over Tariffs, SCOTUS Orders Trump Admin to Return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to U.S. from El Salvador's CECOT Prison, Avelo Airlines Faces Protests, Boycotts After Agreeing to Use Planes for Deportations, U.S. Admits It's Seeking to Deport Mahmoud Khalil for His Beliefs Ahead of Key Ruling, Israel Kills More Palestinians in Gaza, Including Children, as It Presses Ahead with Rafah Seizure, Ahmad Manasra, Jailed by Israel When He Was 13, Freed After Decade Behind Bars, Activists Protest Travis Air Base; Greenpeace UK Activists Dye U.S. Embassy Pond Blood Red, Sudan Tells World Court the UAE Is Abetting Genocide as Civil War Nears 2nd Anniversary, Ukraine's Allies Gather to Rally Military Support for Kyiv Amid Stalled Ceasefire, House GOP Passes Voter ID Bill That Critics Say Would Disenfranchise Millions, "Guilty of Treason": Trump Orders DOJ Probe into Two Former Officials Who Criticized Him, Democrats Attempt to Push Elon Musk Out of Trump Administration by May 30, House GOP Passes Budget Bill to Slash Federal Spending and Taxes on the Wealthy, Death Toll in Dominican Republic Nightclub Disaster Rises to 221, New Zealand Lawmakers Reject Bill to Roll Back Maori Rights
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Apr 10, 2025
Columbia University professor Marianne Hirsch's new article in The Forward is titled "I grew up under a terrifying authoritarian regime. Mahmoud Khalil's arrest is right out of their playbook." She tells Democracy Now! that seeing footage of the ICE arrests of Khalil and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk "brought back these feelings of terror that I had as a child." Hirsch grew up in Romania under the authoritarian regime of Nicolae Ceau?escu and says she sees parallels between the climate of fear she was raised in and the repression of speech and protest on campuses today. Hirsch, who is Jewish, condemns the "anticipatory capitulation" of universities, like Columbia, to the Trump administration's threats to pull funding and says "the reason for this was never to fight antisemitism, but it was to decimate academia."
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Apr 10, 2025
As the U.S. and Iran prepare for talks this weekend in Oman to discuss Iran's nuclear weapons program, we speak to journalist ??Negar Mortazavi about the Trump administration's negotiation strategy of "threats and pressure" and his diplomatic doctrine of "peace through strength." Mortazavi is skeptical that the talks will result in Iran giving up its nuclear weapons program, as Trump's team is demanding, and comments on the impacts of severe sanctions on Iran, which have devastated the country's fragile economy.
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Apr 10, 2025
President Trump has announced a 90-day pause on new tariffs for most countries and a steep increase to tariffs on China. The 125% tariff rate on China comes after China retaliated in an escalating trade war between the two largest economies in the world. For most other countries, a 10% tariff remains in place, but higher tariffs were paused just hours after they went into effect, causing global stock markets to shoot back up after a historic plunge. We speak with two economists, Nancy Qian and Joseph Stiglitz, about the "chaos" of the week since Trump's initial unveiling of his tariff plan on April 2, which he termed "Liberation Day." There is "no economic theory behind what he is doing," says Stiglitz. He calls Trump a "schoolyard bully" who is upending international markets based on a flawed understanding of the role of trade deficits and the feasibility of reintroducing manufacturing to the U.S. economy. "We've just never seen anything like this before," says Qian, who adds that China appears to be digging in for the long, drawn-out trade war that Trump has now ignited.
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Apr 10, 2025
Trump's Trade U-Turn Lowers Tariffs to 10% for Most Countries, Hikes Them to 125% for China, Israel Kills at Least 35 People in Shuja'iyya Attack as Israeli Forces Prepare to Seize Rafah, Deepening Hunger in Gaza as Israel's Illegal Blockade Stretches Through Sixth Week, U.S. Senate Confirms Christian Zionist Mike Huckabee as Israel Ambassador, U.S. Continues Air Attacks on Yemen, Killing at Least 16 People Since Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Levies New Sanctions Against Iran Ahead of Nuclear Negotiations, DOGE Reverses "Death Sentence" Aid Cuts for Several Nations, But Not Yemen or Afghanistan, 8 People Died in South Sudan While Forced to Walk 3 Hours for Care After U.S. Aid Cuts
, Federal Judges Temporarily Block Deportations of Some Immigrants Under 1798 Wartime Law, USCIS to Screen Immigrants' Social Media Sites for So-Called Antisemitic Activity, Germany's Christian Democratic Union Forms Governing Coalition with Social Democrats, Children and Babies Suffer Malnutrition in Greek Refugee Camp, Mexican President Rejects Potential U.S. Drone Strikes on Drug Cartels, House Speaker Johnson Delays Vote on Budget Framework Amid Far-Right Revolt, Trump Orders DOJ to Block States from Enforcing Climate Laws, Trump Executive Orders Seek to Boost U.S. Coal Production and Consumption
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Apr 09, 2025
As federal agencies face crippling cuts and are forced to cut essential services, President Trump has announced he will seek a $1 trillion budget for the Pentagon, a record-setting number that would mark the highest level of U.S. defense spending since World War II. William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, blasts the promised budget as "completely unnecessary" and says that "almost the only beneficiaries are going to be the weapons manufacturers." Hartung also discusses the growing political influence of Silicon Valley defense technology startups, including Alex Karp's Palantir and Elon Musk's SpaceX.
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Apr 09, 2025
An immigration judge has announced she could rule as early as Friday on whether the Trump administration can continue to detain Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student protest leader incarcerated at an immigrant detention center in Louisiana. Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States, was seized by federal agents on March 8 and told his green card had been revoked. His case comes as many legal scholars say the country is facing a constitutional crisis on a number of fronts — from the Trump administration's threats to ignore judicial decisions, to its targeting of law firms, to its use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to expel Venezuelan immigrants without due process. Trump "is trying to neutralize the opposition," says David Cole, professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and former ACLU national legal director. "He wants to violate the law with impunity."
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Apr 09, 2025
Stock Markets Plummet as President Trump's Sweeping Tariffs Take Effect, Israeli Strikes on Gaza City Residences Kill Dozens, with Scores Trapped Under Rubble, Autopsy Shows 17-Year-Old Palestinian Starved to Death in Israeli Prison, Family Demands U.S. Probe into Israel's Killing of 14-Year-Old Palestinian American, "A Death Sentence for Millions": WFP Asks Trump to Reverse Cuts to Emergency Food Aid, Trump Cancels Deportation Relief for 900,000 Immigrants, IRS Acting Administrator Quits over Agreement to Share Immigrants' Tax Data with ICE, New York Mayor Eric Adams Orders Rikers Jail to Reopen ICE Office, Judge Sets Deadline for Evidence in Mahmoud Khalil Deportation Case, Judge Denies Release to Tufts University Student Rumeysa Ozturk, Video Shows Masked Federal Agents Ambushing Georgetown Professor Badar Khan Suri, Trump Administration Freezes Nearly $2 Billion in Funding to Northwestern, Cornell Universities, Panamanians March in Protest as Hegseth Promises to "Take Back" the Panama Canal, Russian Drones Strike Dnipro and Kharkiv as Ukraine Prepares to Negotiate Minerals Deal with U.S., Supreme Court Will Allow Trump Administration to Fire 16,000 Probationary Workers, Elon Musk Mocks Peter Navarro as Fractures Open Within Trump Administration over Tariffs, Federal Judge Orders White House to Restore Access to AP, Citing First Amendment
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Apr 08, 2025
"There has been a systemic erasure of Black history." Professor Christina Greer discusses the Trump administration's crackdown on free speech and efforts to whitewash American history. The erasure of the history of racism and resistance is not only intellectually dishonest, says Greer, but will also cause the U.S. economic and social harm. "We can't move forward as a nation collectively … if we don't understand our collective past," she says.
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Apr 08, 2025
The Supreme Court has paused a lower court order that instructed the Trump administration to immediately bring back a U.S. legal resident who was "mistakenly" sent to El Salvador, giving the court more time to deliberate on the case. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was expelled from the U.S. on March 15 despite holding protected status, will continue to languish under dangerous conditions in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison. The Trump administration claims it's powerless to bring him back to his family in Maryland. "They have dug in their heels at every step of the way," says Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, about the government's defense. "It's ridiculous that this case is at the Supreme Court at all."
Behind Abrego Garcia's ICE arrest and removal is Trump's invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority last deployed during World War II. In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court has approved of the Trump administration's removals of Venezuelan immigrants, but said that those targeted must be given an opportunity to challenge their removal. So far, immigrants expelled to El Salvador have been largely denied their legal rights and detained without clear evidence. They are then incarcerated in the country's "mega-prisons," where rights abuses have flourished under El Salvador's "state of exception." "These conditions constitute, under international law, forced disappearances," says Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal, a human rights organization in Central America.
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Apr 08, 2025
As workers brace for uncertainty and fallout from Trump's tariffs, we hear from two autoworkers, one in Mexico and one in the United States. Israel Cervantes, founder of the National Independent Union for Workers in the Automotive Industry in Mexico, calls for unions across North America to unite against the tariffs, which have already led to layoffs from auto manufacturers. In the U.S., autoworker and UAW member Sean Crawford joins Democracy Now! on his work break to respond to the rhetoric and impact of the tariffs. "They are always harping on foreigners, foreigners, foreigners. But what about the capitalists?" says Crawford, who urges international solidarity against corporations' attempts to sow division among exploited workers. "This nationalistic viewpoint has not been working for us and has resulted in a lot of these layoffs," he says. "I want to see us grow together as a working class."
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Apr 08, 2025
Trump Hosts Netanyahu at White House, Reiterates Plan to Expel Palestinians from Gaza, Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 58 Palestinians in a Day, Including Journalist Ahmed Mansour, Palestinian Red Crescent Calls for Independent Probe into Killing of 15 Paramedics, "Not in Our Name": Protesters Decry U.S.-Backed Assault on Gaza, Microsoft Fires Two Employees Who Protested Use of AI by Israeli Military, Supreme Court Allows Trump to Continue Using Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to Deport Immigrants, ICE Releases Mother and Three Children Jailed After Raid on New York Dairy Farm, Dominican Republic Hardens Border with Haiti as Asylum Seekers Flee Gang Violence, Trump Threatens to Hike Tariffs on Beijing to 104% as Tit-for-Tat Trade War Escalates, Appeals Court Reinstates Two Labor Officials Fired by Trump, DOJ Is "Not a Personal Favor Bank for the President": Fired Employee Speaks Out Despite Intimidation
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Apr 07, 2025
Global stocks continue to fall, and fears of a recession are growing, after Donald Trump rejected calls to scale back his order to institute sweeping tariffs on most of the world. The move will be especially perilous for small, heavily indebted countries in the Global South who face punitive tariffs, including rates of 49% for Cambodia, 37% for Bangladesh and 48% for Laos. "What is really striking is not the sheer stupidity of it … but the wanton cruelty of it," says Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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Apr 07, 2025
An estimated 1 million protested across the United States and around the world Saturday to tell President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk "Hands Off!" They rallied in opposition to the Trump administration's dismantling of federal agencies and programs, the war in Gaza and attacks on LGBTQ people, immigrants, education, healthcare and reproductive rights. We hear voices from the coordinated "Hands Off!" nationwide protests, described as the largest demonstrations to date since Trump returned to office.
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Apr 07, 2025
An estimated 1 million protested across the United States and around the world Saturday to tell President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk "Hands Off!" They rallied in opposition to the Trump administration's dismantling of federal agencies and programs, the war in Gaza and attacks on LGBTQ people, immigrants, education, healthcare and reproductive rights. We hear voices from the coordinated "Hands Off!" nationwide protests, described as the largest demonstrations to date since Trump returned to office.
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Apr 07, 2025
Outrage is growing over Israel's killing of 15 Palestinian medics and rescue workers north of the Gazan city of Rafah in the predawn hours of March 23. Israel initially claimed the convoy had suspiciously approached troops without headlights or flashing lights, but video footage shows the ambulances had their lights on when Israeli troops opened fire, unleashing a barrage of bullets. A paramedic who was inside the vehicle when it came under fire recorded the video on a cellphone and was among the 15 aid workers killed and buried in an unmarked mass grave. Diana Buttu, a Palestinian human rights attorney, calls the killing "the height of dehumanization."
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Apr 07, 2025
Massive Anti-Trump Protests Take Over Streets Nationwide, Global Stocks Plunge from U.S. Tariffs Amid Reports of Rifts in Trump's Team, Israel Kills Another 56 Palestinians in Gaza, Including Journalist Helmi al-Faqawi, Who Was Burned Alive, Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian American Teenager in Occupied West Bank, "Deeply Concerning": Israel Denies Entry to Two British Lawmakers on Parliamentary Delegation, Heavy Rains Complicate Earthquake Recovery in Burma; Trump Admin Fires 3 USAID Relief Workers, 19 People Killed, Half of Them Children, in Russian Attack on Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih, Heavy Flooding Kills 33 in Kinshasa; U.S. and DRC Reportedly on Cusp of Minerals-for-Security Deal, Latest U.S. Strikes in Yemen Kill at Least 4 After Earlier Strike Said to Have Hit Large Eid Celebration, "Shocks the Conscience": Judge Slams Expulsion of Maryland Father to El Salvador, Orders His Return, U.S. Halts and Revokes Visas for South Sudanese Citizens, Chinese Woman Dies by Suicide While in Border Patrol Custody, Trump Admin Continues Crackdown on International Students, Threatens to Withhold Funds from Brown, Major Storms in Central U.S. Kill at Least 18 People, RFK Jr. Attends Texas Funeral of Second Unvaccinated Child to Die of Measles as He Backs Vaccine, Head of National Museum of African American History Steps Down Amid Trump Attack on Smithsonian
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Apr 04, 2025
Can't Look Away: The Case Against Social Media is a new documentary that exposes the real-life consequences of the algorithms of big tech companies and their impact on children and teens. In 2022, social media companies made an estimated $11 billion advertising to minors in the U.S., where 95% of teenagers use social media. One in three teens uses social media almost constantly. "These products, they're not designed to hook us, adults," says Laura Marquez-Garrett, an attorney at the Social Media Victims Law Center in Seattle who is featured in Can't Look Away. "They are designed to hook children."
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Apr 04, 2025
Longtime immigrant farmworker and organizer Alfredo "Lelo" Juarez Zeferino was pulled over last week by a plainclothes agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an unmarked car who broke his car window and forcibly detained him. "Within not even a minute of interaction, of getting pulled over, he was already in handcuffs," says Edgar Franks, the political director of independent farmworkers union, Familias Unidas por la Justicia, which he co-founded with Lelo. "The reason of his detainment was because of how politically active he was." Lelo is currently jailed at the privately run Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, where hundreds have rallied in support of his release.
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Apr 04, 2025
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case that may cut off Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding. Planned Parenthood says the move violates the Medicaid Act's "free choice of provider" provision, which says patients are entitled to choose their own doctors. The case, brought by the state of South Carolina, could impact the care of low-income patients who rely on Planned Parenthood for a range of non-abortion services, including cancer screenings and full physical exams. Federal law already bans Medicaid from funding abortions for patients in most cases. "South Carolina had a hard time trying to prove that it had a right to take away the dignity of patients who choose to go to Planned Parenthood," says Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
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Apr 04, 2025
Many Children Among the 112 Palestinians Killed over Past Day in Israel's Escalating Gaza Attacks, 15 Senators Vote Against $8.8 Billion Arms Sale to Israel, Global Markets, Future of International Trade in Turmoil After Trump Tariffs, South Korean Court Removes Disgraced President Yoon Suk Yeol over Martial Law Decree, At Least 16 Asylum Seekers Drown in Pair of Shipwrecks Near Turkey and Greece, Trump Fires National Security Council Officials Deemed "Disloyal" by Far-Right Activist, Pentagon IG to Probe Pete Hegseth's Use of Signal App to Discuss War Plans, Education Department Warns Public Schools to End DEI Programs or Lose Funding, DOGE Gains Access to Personal Records of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, ICE Arrests 37 Workers at Washington State Roofing Company, Senate Confirms Dr. Mehmet Oz to Lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Judge Blocks Trump Administration's Freeze on $11 Billion in Health Funding, Central U.S. Faces Flooding After Storms Spawn Nearly 100 Tornadoes
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Apr 03, 2025
We speak with New York Immigration Coalition President Murad Awawdeh about a mother and three children who were swept up in an ICE raid not far from the home of Trump's "border czar" Tom Homan in Sackets Harbor, New York, handcuffed and taken to a family detention center in Texas despite having no order of deportation. A protest calling for the family's return is planned for this Saturday, and the mayor has called a state of emergency. Awawdeh also responds to what appears to be a pattern of collaboration with the Trump administration's mass deportation plan among local leaders and institutions in New York, from Eric Adams's mayoral administration to Columbia University. Adams had federal corruption charges against him dropped after agreeing to support increased immigration enforcement, while Columbia had federal funding restored after allowing ICE officers to carry out arrests and searches on campus and in university-owned housing.
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Apr 03, 2025
Jewish students at Columbia University chained themselves to a campus gate across from the graduate School of International and Public Affairs Wednesday, braving rain and cold to demand the school release information related to the targeting and ICE arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a former SIPA student. Democracy Now! was at the protest and spoke to Jewish and Palestinian students calling on the school to reveal the extent of its involvement in Khalil's arrest.
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Apr 03, 2025
As President Trump finally unveils his global tariff plan — setting a baseline 10% tariff on all imported goods, with additional hikes apparently based on individual countries' trade balances with the United States — economists like our guest Richard Wolff warn it will have grave economic effects on American consumers and lead to a recession. Wolff says the Trump administration's tariff strategy is borne out of an ahistorical "notion of the United States as a victim" despite the fact that "we have been one of the greatest beneficiaries in the last 50 years of economic wealth, particularly for people at the top." In response to the growing economic fortunes of the rest of the world and the associated decline in U.S. hegemony, Trump and his allies are "striking out at other people" in desperation and denial of an end to U.S. imperial dominance. "[It's] not going to work," says Wolff.
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Apr 03, 2025
Netanyahu Wants to Further Divide Gaza Strip as Daily Genocidal Attacks Continue, Israeli Attack on Syria Kills 9; Suspected U.S. Strike on Yemen Kills 5, Hungary Withdraws from ICC as Orbán Hosts Netanyahu, Wanted on War Crimes Warrant, Columbia Students Chain Themselves to Gates to Protest University Collaboration with ICE, Trump Slaps Blanket Tariffs on All Imported Goods, Hikes Up "Reciprocal Tariffs" on Trade Partners, Disability Groups Sue Social Security Administration over Service Cuts Amid Web Portal Crashes, NYC Mayor Eric Adams Announces Reelection Bid After Judge Drops Corruption Charges, Court Orders Trump Administration to Restore Legal Aid to Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, Burmese Junta Declares 20-Day Ceasefire as Earthquake Toll Tops 3,000, Pakistan Begins Mass Deportation of 3 Million Afghan Refugees, U.N. Chief Warns South Sudan Against Return to Civil War, Amazon Makes Bid to Buy TikTok with U.S. Ban Set to Take Effect on Saturday, Mourners Demand Justice for Murdered Indigenous Teen Emily Pike, Haitian Human Rights Champion Mario Joseph Dies in Car Crash
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Apr 02, 2025
Since President Donald Trump took office, the U.S. has expelled hundreds of immigrants and asylum seekers to El Salvador without due process to be detained at the supermax mega-prison complex known as CECOT, with many of them accused of belonging to gangs largely on the basis of having tattoos. The Trump administration recently admitted in a court filing that a Salvadoran father with protected status was among those sent to El Salvador. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland with his family and had been granted protected status in 2019, blocking the federal government from removing him. Despite admitting to an "administrative error," the Trump administration says it will not seek to return Abrego Garcia to his family. "Every single day now, news stories are coming out showing that they made a lot of mistakes," says Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. "Their goal is to ramp up deportations and arrests as quickly as they can, and if that leads to a bunch of innocent people getting swept up alongside, the message that the White House is sending is they don't care."
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Apr 02, 2025
Princeton has become the latest university to be targeted by the Trump administration, as the federal government pauses dozens of federal grants to the school. The news comes after the Trump administration threatened to cut off more than $8.7 billion to Harvard and earlier suspended $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania and $400 million to Columbia University. In all cases, the Trump administration has claimed to be fighting antisemitism, citing the schools' responses to student-led campus protests in solidarity with Gaza. "It's time for us to step back … and think more critically about how we run our universities," says former Columbia law professor Katherine Franke, who says students from abroad, even those with green cards and U.S. citizenship, are now "terrified" of being swept up in the Trump administration's crackdown. "It feels like a kind of racial and ethnic cleansing that is happening on our campuses."
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Apr 02, 2025
We go to Madison, Wisconsin, to speak with The Nation's John Nichols about Tuesday's pivotal state Supreme Court election, in which liberal Judge Susan Crawford convincingly defeated conservative candidate Brad Schimel. Crawford's election is a major victory for Democrats after billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk poured about $25 million into the Wisconsin race, helping to make it the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history. "This is a huge signal from a battleground state that Americans are genuinely upset, genuinely angry, I think, with Trump and with Musk," says Nichols. Tuesday also saw a pair of special House elections in Florida where Republicans held both seats, helping to maintain the party's narrow majority in Congress. While Democrats were unlikely to flip the deep-red districts, Nichols notes "there was a huge shift in both of the Florida districts toward the Democratic candidates."
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Apr 02, 2025
Gaza's Residents Go Hungry as U.N. Condemns "Ridiculous" Israeli Claims of Enough Food , U.S. Attacks on Yemen Kill 4 as Pentagon Deploys Second Aircraft Carrier to Middle East, White House Won't Punish Mike Waltz over Disclosure of Yemen War Plans, Federal Judge Rules Mahmoud Khalil's Immigration Case Must Continue in New Jersey, Unions Rally in Defense of Immigrants Snatched by Plainclothes ICE Agents, Germany to Deport 4 Foreign Residents over Gaza Solidarity Protests, Republicans Win Two Open Florida House Seats, But Democrats Make Gains, Liberal Judge Susan Crawford Wins Wisconsin Supreme Court Election After Record Spending Led by Elon Musk, Health and Human Services Department Begins Mass Firing of 10,000 Workers, Trump to Announce New Tariffs on Self-Declared "Liberation Day", Sen. Cory Booker Sets Record in 25-Hour Speech to Protest Trump's Policies, Trump Admin Freezes Millions of Dollars in Funding to Planned Parenthood Affiliates, Federal Judge Blocks Alabama Law Criminalizing Those Who Aid Abortion Access, Supreme Court to Hear Case on South Carolina's Efforts to Defund Planned Parenthood, Feds Seek Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione over Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO
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Apr 01, 2025
The former international head of Doctors Without Borders is speaking out after New York University canceled her presentation, saying some of her slides could be viewed as "anti-governmental" and "antisemitic" because they mentioned the Trump administration's cuts to foreign aid and deaths of humanitarian workers in Israel's war on Gaza. Dr. Joanne Liu, a Canadian pediatric emergency medicine physician, was scheduled to speak at NYU, her alma mater, on March 19 and had been invited almost a year ago to discuss the challenges of humanitarian crises. Censoring speech is "killing the essence of what the university is about," says Liu. "I truly and strongly believe that universities are the temple of knowledge."
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Apr 01, 2025
We get an update on "the darkest hour of need" for the Burmese people, from Maung Zarni, a Burmese human rights activist, after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Burma Friday, leaving at least 2,700 dead, with the death toll expected to rise as rescue efforts continue. Aid groups in the worst-hit areas of Burma, also known as Myanmar, said there was an urgent need for shelter, food and water. The country's civil war has complicated efforts to reach those injured and made homeless in the disaster, and Amnesty International says the military needs to allow aid to reach areas of the country not under its control.
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Apr 01, 2025
In a major labor victory, the Chicago Teachers Union reached a tentative agreement with Chicago Public Schools Monday night that reaffirms sanctuary school protections, protects the ability to teach Black history, gives veteran teachers a raise, and more. The deal comes amid attacks on public education by the Trump administration. "The collective bargaining agreement is a very powerful tool to use, especially in this moment, to ensure that people are protected," says Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union. She also discusses the new posthumous memoir by former CTU President Karen Lewis, titled I Didn't Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education, and lessons Lewis shared for the struggle ahead.
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Apr 01, 2025
As federal unions lead the resistance to cuts by billionaire Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, President Trump has pushed to end collective bargaining rights for nearly half the federal workforce in a new executive order that calls them "hostile" to his agenda. Unions say the order is the biggest attack on the labor movement in U.S. history. "It's designed to silence workers," says Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union. He says they are also planning to join the April 5 mass rallies called by the group Indivisible.
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Apr 01, 2025
Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 42 Palestinians as Army Orders Rafah Residents to Flee, Israel Bombs Beirut Suburb, Killing at Least 4, Top Netanyahu Aides Arrested on Corruption Charges as Anti-Government Protests Continue, Cornell Doctoral Student Momodou Taal Leaves U.S. Amid Deportation Threats, Columbia Grads Tear Up Diplomas to Protest University's Capitulation to Trump over Gaza Protests, Trump Administration Threatens to Withhold $8.7 Billion in Grants to Harvard over Gaza Protests, Iran's Supreme Leader Promises "Reciprocal Blow" to Trump's Threat of Violence, China Holds War Games Off Taiwan After Hegseth Pledges Military Cooperation with Japan, Sen. Cory Booker Holds All-Night Filibuster Against Trump Agenda, Federal Court Temporarily Restores Protected Status for 350,000 Venezuelan Immigrants, U.S. Transfers More Immigrants to Salvadoran Prison, Admits to "Error" in Deportation of Maryland Dad, On Transgender Day of Visibility, Activists Condemn MAGA Attacks on Trans and Nonbinary People
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Mar 31, 2025
We remember media scholar Robert McChesney, the co-founder of the advocacy group Free Press, who died on March 25 at age 72. McChesney was a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a prolific author, with nearly three dozen books on media, democracy and digital rights. He warned decades ago that corporate consolidation of the press was putting too much power in the hands of wealthy interests, and was an early critic of Big Tech's control over online communications. "What we've seen is that the internet was promised to be this great engine of economic competition. It was going to spur economic growth, create all these new businesses, huge amounts of jobs. Remember the term 'new economy' from the late '90s? And instead what we've seen is the internet is arguably the biggest generator of monopoly in history," says McChesney in a 2013 excerpt from one of his many appearances on Democracy Now! over the years. We also speak with his longtime friend and collaborator John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation. "Bob McChesney was one of the great public intellectuals of our era," says Nichols. "He could have easily lived in the ivory tower. Instead, he chose to become an activist."
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Mar 31, 2025
President Donald Trump's efforts to take over cultural institutions and attack diversity, equity and inclusion programs has centered on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the venerable arts institution in Washington, D.C. The Kennedy Center was established by Congress and has been run by a bipartisan board since it opened in 1971, but Trump upended that in February when he moved to install his loyalists in key positions and make himself chair. Last week, the Kennedy Center's new leadership fired at least seven members of its social impact team that worked to reach more diverse audiences and artists, including vice president and artistic director of social impact Marc Bamuthi Joseph. The acclaimed artist and playwright joins Democracy Now! to discuss Trump's changes at the Kennedy Center, which he criticizes for destroying a "sanctuary for freedom of thought and freedom of creative expression." Joseph notes that while the Kennedy Center has not yet made drastic programming changes, the rhetoric from Trump and others "severely restricts and almost criminalizes demographic realities outside of white, straight, male Christianity."
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Mar 31, 2025
Why is billionaire Elon Musk spending about $20 million to shape the outcome of Wisconsin's Supreme Court election on Tuesday, in what has become the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history, giving away $1 million checks to two voters who signed one of his petitions? We speak with longtime Wisconsinite John Nichols of The Nation about the pivotal race on Tuesday that will shape the majority of the state's top court and have a far-reaching impact on issues like abortion and voting rights. The court is also expected to rule on congressional redistricting in the state, which could whittle down the razor-thin Republican majority in the House of Representatives. "The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, has since January been obsessed with this race," says Nichols, who notes that a liberal victory would be widely interpreted as a rebuke of the Republican agenda. "This is a politically volatile moment for Donald Trump."
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Mar 31, 2025
Earthquake Death Toll Passes 2,000 in Burma; Trump's USAID Cuts Slow Rescue Effort, Deadly Israeli Attacks on Gaza Continue as 15 Aid Workers Found in Mass Grave Near Rafah, Israeli Settlers & Soldiers Attack Masafer Yatta Again, But Only Palestinians Are Arrested, Israel Bombs Beirut Suburb for First Time Since November, U.S. Bombing Campaign on Yemen Continues, Trump Refuses to Rule Out Using Military Force to Take Greenland After Vance Visit, Trump Asks Supreme Court to Rule on Alien Enemies Act of 1798, Immigration Protests Held in Dallas & Outside Krome Detention Center in Florida, Report: U.S. Secretly Revoking Immigration Statuses of International Students, Columbia University Board Installs New President After Interim Leader Resigns, Law Firm Skadden Arps Agrees to Provide $100M in Pro Bono Work to Avoid Trump Sanctions, Tesla Takedown: Anti-Elon Musk Protests Held at Over 200 Dealerships, Musk Gives Out $1 Million Checks in Wisconsin Ahead of Critical Supreme Court Election, Trump: "There Are Methods" He Could Use to Stay in Power for a Third Term, After Being Forced Out, Top FDA Vaccine Regulator Decries RFK's "Misinformation & Lies", Sudanese Military Seizes Major Market in Omdurman, Cementing Control of Capital Region, French Court Bars Far-Right Marine Le Pen from Running for Office for Five Years
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Mar 28, 2025
The new documentary The Encampments, produced by Watermelon Pictures and BreakThrough News, is an insider's look at the student protest movement to demand divestment from the U.S. and Israeli weapons industry and an end to the genocide in Gaza. The film focuses on last year's student encampment at Columbia University and features student leaders including Mahmoud Khalil, who was chosen by the university as a liaison between the administration and students. Khalil, a U.S. permanent resident, has since been arrested and detained by immigration enforcement as part of the Trump administration's attempt to deport immigrants who exercise their right to free speech and protest. "Columbia has gone to every extent to try to censor this movement," says Munir Atalla, a producer for the film and a former film professor at Columbia.
We speak with Atalla; Sueda Polat, a Columbia graduate student and fellow campus negotiator with Khalil; and Grant Miner, a former Columbia graduate student and president of the student workers' union who was expelled from the school over his participation in the protests. "Functionally, I was expelled for speaking out against genocide," he says. All three of our guests emphasize their continued commitment to pro-Palestine activism even in the face of increasing institutional repression. The Encampments is opening nationwide in April.
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Mar 28, 2025
We're joined by the four-time Grammy-winning musician Macklemore, a vocal proponent of Palestinian rights and critic of U.S. foreign policy. He serves as executive producer for the new documentary The Encampments, which follows last year's student occupations of college campuses to protest U.S. backing of Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza. He tells Democracy Now! why he got involved with the film and the roots of his own activism, including the making of his song "Hind's Hall," named after the Columbia student occupation of the campus building Hamilton Hall, which itself was named in honor of the 5-year-old Palestinian child Hind Rajab. Rajab made headlines last year when audio of her pleading for help from emergency services in Gaza was released shortly before she was discovered killed by Israeli forces. "We are in urgent, dire times that require us as human beings coming together and fighting against fascism, fighting against genocide, and the only way to do that is by opening up the heart and realizing that collective liberation is the only solution," Macklemore says.
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Mar 28, 2025
Major Earthquake Strikes Burma and Thailand, Collapsing Buildings as Rescuers Rush to Find Survivors, Israeli Attacks on Gaza Continue After It Broke Ceasefire, Killing More Students and Aid Workers, Israel Attacks Southern Lebanon, Beirut in Flagrant Breach of Ceasefire, Marco Rubio Says Rumeysa Ozturk Is One of "More Than 300" Visa Holders Targeted by Trump, U.S. Court in New Jersey Hearing Arguments in Mahmoud Khalil Case, U.S. and Colombia Agree to Share Biometric Data of Immigrants, Protesters in El Salvador Denounce Nayib Bukele's Human Rights Abuses, Collaboration with Trump, Turkish Authorities Escalate Crackdown on Protesters and the Media Amid Political Crisis, U.S. Escalates Yemen Airstrikes, Bringing Total Deaths Since March 15 to at Least 57, U.S. Judge Orders Waltz, Vance, Rubio to Preserve Messages from Signal War Group Chat, HHS Cutting 10,000 More Jobs as DOGE Carries Out Mission to Gut the Government, "We Can Eliminate an Entire District Court": Mike Johnson Escalates Attack on Courts That Defy Trump, Trump Withdraws Elise Stefanik Nom for U.N. Ambassador as GOP Frets Over Slim House Majority, New York County Clerk Refuses to Enforce Texas Penalty Against NY Abortion Provider, Trump EO Orders Gov't Agencies to End Collective Bargaining with Federal Unions, EPA Created Email So Polluters Can More Easily Obtain Exemptions from Environmental Rules, Robert McChesney, Free Press Co-Founder and Staunch Defender of Media and Democracy, Has Died, New Trump EO Aims to Gut Smithsonian Institution
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Mar 27, 2025
Elon Musk was born in 1971 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in a wealthy family under the country's racist apartheid laws. Musk's family history reveals ties to apartheid and neo-Nazi politics. We speak with Chris McGreal, reporter for The Guardian, to understand how Musk's upbringing shaped his worldview, as well as that of his South African-raised colleague Peter Thiel, a right-wing billionaire who co-founded PayPal alongside Musk. "Musk lived what can only be described as a neocolonial life," said McGreal. "If you were a white South African in that period and you had any money at all, you lived with servants at your beck and call."
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Mar 27, 2025
After spending over a quarter of a billion dollars on Donald Trump's presidential election campaign, Elon Musk is pouring money into a Supreme Court election in Wisconsin. Musk has spent more than $18 million to support Trump-backed candidate Brad Schimel over liberal Susan Crawford and has been paying Wisconsin voters $100 to help flip the state's top court. This election could impact abortion rights, unions and Republicans' ability to keep gerrymandered districts in place to control Congress. "The level of corruption at play here, the level of money at play here, really is a warning sign for what's happening to our democracy," says Ari Berman, voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones magazine.
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Mar 27, 2025
Over a thousand protesters gathered near Tufts University on Wednesday after masked plainclothes immigration agents snatched Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts Ph.D. student and Fulbright scholar, from the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts. Surveillance video shows agents approaching her on the streets near her home Tuesday evening and handcuffing her while she screamed for help. Tufts University's president said the school had no prior notice of her arrest. Last March, Ozturk co-wrote a piece in the student newspaper criticizing the Tufts administration's response to Palestinian solidarity protests on campus that were calling for divestment from Israel. Democracy Now!'s Hany Massoud and Ariel Boone were in Somerville at Wednesday's protest. "One of our community members was taken by armed agents of the state who kidnapped her from right outside her home," said Lea Kayali, an activist with the Palestinian Youth Movement. "People are here to stand up for the movement that she was punished for supporting."
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Mar 27, 2025
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has fired at least five members of its social impact team, including its artistic director, the renowned artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph. The team aimed to expand the art center's reach to diverse audiences and to commission new works by Black composers.
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