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Apr 25, 2024
Student protests calling for university divestment from Israel and the U.S. arms industry have rocked campuses from coast to coast. The nonviolent protests, which have been characterized as "antisemitic" for their criticism of Israel, have been met with an intensifying police crackdown as university administrators threaten academic discipline and arrests. On Wednesday, local and state troopers violently arrested dozens at the University of Texas at Austin. Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia University in New York City, the site of a high-profile student encampment and one of the first to be met with police action, where he called on university president Minouche Shafik to resign. We hear from two Jewish students involved in protests at their schools. Joshua Sklar, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin and an organizer with Jewish Voice of Peace Austin, says concern over campus antisemitism is insincere, and that, in fact, "The people who are being targeted are Muslim students, Arab students, and especially Palestinian students." Sklar and Sarah King, a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest who was arrested at the campus's Gaza Solidarity Encampment, also point out that a large percentage of protesters are Jewish anti-Zionists concerned about their safety from state repression. "The threat is really coming from Columbia University, which has set the police on hundreds of its students who are entrusted to its care," says King.
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Apr 25, 2024
Amnesty International has released its annual report assessing human rights in 155 countries. The report highlights Israel's assault on Gaza with evidence of war crimes continuing to mount, as well as U.S. failures to denounce rights violations committed by Israel. It also points to Russia's ongoing aggression against Ukraine, and the rise of authoritarianism and massive rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar. We speak to Agnès Callamard, the organization's secretary general, who warns "the international system is on the brink of collapse" and decries the failure of rights mechanisms and Israel's top ally, the United States, to rein in its "unprecedented" assault on Gaza.
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Apr 25, 2024
At least 320 bodies have been discovered buried in a mass grave at the destroyed Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, just weeks after a similar mass grave containing up to 400 bodies was discovered amid the ruins of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Some of the bodies, which include children, medical staff and patients, appear to have been executed or buried alive. Meanwhile, Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza as its assault of the beleaguered enclave surpasses 200 days. "Every single body that is being unearthed, you find tens of people rushing for the sake of identifying whether those are their relatives," says Akram al-Satarri, a journalist based in Gaza. "Some of the people were tied. Some of the people had medical accessories on their hands, like the cannulas. And when they were unearthed from the ground, it was apparent that they were buried alive. Some people were tortured. Some of the bodies were extremely mutilated, which means that those bodies, some of their organs were taken by the Israeli occupation."
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Apr 25, 2024
Biden Signs $95B in Foreign Aid, as New Report Details U.S. Weapons Transfer Violates Int'l Law, WFP Renews Famine Warning in Gaza, Where 70% of North Faces Catastrophic Hunger, Aid Groups Warns Lebanon on "Brink of Imploding" After Months of Cross-Border Attacks, USC Students Continue Protest Despite Mass Arrests, Inspired by Gazans' "Spirit of Resistance", Police Move In on Peaceful Gaza Solidarity Protests at UT Austin, Princeton, Emerson and More, House Speaker Mike Johnson Faces Heckling at Columbia After Calling for National Guard on Campus, SCOTUS Hears Case on Idaho Abortion Ban, Which Only Allows Emergency Care If Patient Risks Death, Three Arizona Republicans Join Democrats to Repeal 1864 Abortion Ban in State House, Arizona Grand Jury Indicts Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani in "Fake Electors" Case, Iran Sentences Rapper Toomaj Salehi to Death for Supporting Popular Protests, TikTok Vows to Challenge Law Forcing It to "Ban or Divest", 33 Climate Activists Arrested After Shutting Down Citigroup HQ
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Apr 24, 2024
We speak with Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba's deputy minister of foreign affairs, about high-level U.S.-Cuban migration talks held last week in Washington. He says U.S. policies that expedite permanent residency for Cubans in the United States play a major role in the movement of people between the two countries, but adds that the main driver of migration is the decadeslong U.S. embargo. "The economic conditions of the people of Cuba push them to migrate, and an important fact in provoking those conditions are U.S. deliberate policies of destroying the Cuban economy and make it unworkable." Fernández de Cossío also discusses the 2024 election and policy overlap between the Trump and Biden administrations, Cuba's position on the U.S.-backed Israeli war on Gaza, recent protests inside Cuba over living conditions and more.
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Apr 24, 2024
Hundreds of climate activists gathered at the global headquarters of Citigroup in New York on Wednesday to demand the banking giant stop financing fossil fuel companies. The protests come on the heels of a first-of-its-kind Earth Day hearing where environmental activists from around the world gathered in New York this week to condemn what they call Citigroup's environmental racism. Citibank is the world's second-largest funder of coal, oil and gas. "They always say, 'We care about the planet,' … but actions speak louder than words," says Alice Hu, climate campaigner for New York Communities for Change. "Citibank has poured over $332 billion into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreements were signed in 2015." We also speak with Roishetta Ozane, a Black environmental leader from Sulphur, Louisiana, who has been leading the fight against the expansion of Citigroup-funded liquified natural gas projects in her community. She says she has seen the health impacts of such projects on her own family. "I'm fighting not only for myself and my community, but for my children. And by fighting for my children, I'm fighting for everyone's children," says Ozane.
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Apr 24, 2024
Months ago, a State Department panel urged the Biden administration to disqualify multiple Israeli military and police units from receiving U.S. aid over serious human rights abuses, including rape and torture. According to ProPublica, Secretary of State Blinken received the recommendation in December but has still not taken any action. "[Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu, Benny Gantz, they have been publicly and fiercely lobbying against any proposed sanctions," says ProPublica reporter Brett Murphy. "Gantz said he called Blinken personally and they talked about it. They want him to reverse course."
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Apr 24, 2024
Thousands of Jewish Americans and allies gathered in Brooklyn on Tuesday for a "Seder in the Streets to Stop Arming Israel" on the second night of Passover, held just a block from the home of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, to protest ongoing U.S. support for the Israeli assault on Gaza. "Too many of our people are worshiping a false idol," said award-winning author and activist Naomi Klein, one of several speakers at Tuesday's rally. "They are enraptured by it. They are drunk on it. They are profaned by it. And that false idol is called Zionism."
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Apr 24, 2024
Hundreds of protesters were arrested in Brooklyn on Tuesday when Jewish New Yorkers and allies gathered for what they called a "Seder in the Streets to Stop Arming Israel" on the second night of Passover. The demonstration, held one block away from the home of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, came just hours before the Senate overwhelmingly approved a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes about $17 billion in arms and security funding to Israel. "At the core of the Passover story is that we cannot be free until all people are free," Beth Miller, the political director of Jewish Voice for Peace, told Democracy Now! "The Israeli government and the United States government are carrying out a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, over 34,000 people killed in six months in the name of Jewish safety, in the false name of Jewish freedom."
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Apr 24, 2024
Senate OKs $95 Billion for Ukraine, Israel & Taiwan, U.S. Refuses to Back U.N. Calls for Probe into Mass Graves at Gaza Hospitals, Seder in the Streets: Hundreds Arrested in Brooklyn Protesting U.S. Arming of Israel, Crackdown Continues on College Campuses Against Pro-Palestinian Students, National Enquirer Publisher Admits to "Catch and Kill" Effort to Help Trump Win in 2016, Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Idaho's Near-Total Abortion Ban, Rep. Summer Lee Wins Primary: "Opposing Genocide Is Good Politics and Good Policy", Ahead of Blinken Visit, China Condemns U.S. for Placing Missile Launchers in the Philippines, Argentina: Hundreds of Thousands Protest Milei's Plans to Cut Education Spending, Indian Elections: Modi Accused of Hate Speech After Describing Muslims as "Infiltrators", FTC Bans Most Noncompete Clauses, "Blood on Your Hands!": Protesters Decry Tennessee Vote to Arm Teachers, Justice Dept. to Pay $139 Million to Gymnasts over Mishandling of Abuse Claims Against Dr. Larry Nassar, Mumia Abu-Jamal Turns 70; Supporters to Rally in Philadelphia
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Apr 23, 2024
Democracy Now! speaks with the great labor organizer and writer Jane McAlevey about the historic victory for Volkswagen employees at a Chattanooga, Tennessee, factory who voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers union. The plant will become the first foreign-owned car factory in the South to unionize. "This win wasn't just a win — it was what we would call a beatdown," says McAlevey, who says the UAW's recent success is a result of direct democracy and smart, strategic organizing that could lead to the unionizing of Mercedes workers in Alabama. "It'll be a massive change in the U.S. South." We also speak with McAlevey about her terminal cancer diagnosis and why she's "going to fight until the last dying minute, because that's what American workers deserve."
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Apr 23, 2024
Fifty-six years ago today, hundreds of students at Columbia University in New York started a revolt on campus, occupying school buildings and disrupting class to protest the school's ties to the Vietnam War and racism in New York. Democracy Now! co-host Juan González, who participated in the 1968 protests when hundreds of students were injured by police and arrested, speaks about the rebellion and how it compares to Columbia's crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters occupying campus today. "What really strikes me about this response is the total flouting of any kind of democratic process by the current administration compared to what happened in 1968," says González. "These students are protesting a genocide that is occurring before the eyes of the entire world and that is being funded by U.S. arms. And if anyone has the right to rebel and to stand up against injustice, these students do."
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Apr 23, 2024
Palestinian solidarity protests and encampments are appearing on college campuses from Massachusetts to California to protest Israel's attacks on Gaza and to call for divestment from Israeli apartheid. This week, police have raided encampments and arrested students at Yale and New York University. Palestinian American scholar and New York University professor Helga Tawil-Souri describes forming a faculty buffer to protect students, negotiating with police, and the ensuing crackdown that led to over 100 arrests Monday night. Uptown in New York City, the encampment at Columbia University is entering its seventh day despite mass arrests of protesters last week. "In my opinion, the NYPD were called in under false pretenses by the president of the university," says Joseph Slaughter, professor at Columbia University. "The university is being run as a sort of ad-hocracy at this point, the senior administration making up policies and procedures and prohibitions on the fly, changing them in the middle of the night."
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Apr 23, 2024
More Bodies Uncovered at Nasser Hospital Grave as U.N. Warns of Intergenerational Trauma in Gaza, U.N. Commission Says Israel Still Has Not Provided Evidence of Oct. 7 Allegations Against UNRWA, Gaza Solidarity Encampments and Protests Burgeon Across College Campuses Amid Police Crackdown, PEN American Forced to Cancel Awards Ceremony Amid Fallout over Gaza Stance, Google Fires Another 20 Employees in Retaliation for Project Nimbus Protest, Prosecution and Defense Offer Opening Arguments in Trump's Hush Money Trial, Liberal Justices Challenge Oregon City's Homelessness Ban as SCOTUS Considers Key Case, U.K. Rams Through Plan to Deport Asylum Seekers to Rwanda Despite Major Legal and Rights Concerns, Two Mexican Mayoral Candidates Killed in One Day, Less Than 2 Months Away from Elections, Biden Administration Issues Rule Protecting Privacy of Reproductive Healthcare, Biden Announces $7B Solar Energy Plan, Including Thousands of American Climate Corps Jobs, Black and Indigenous Climate Leaders Organize Against Citigroup's Funding of Fossil Fuels, Students File Complaints Against Universities' Ties to Fossil Fuel Industry, South Korean Youth Activists Take Government to Court over Climate Crisis
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Apr 22, 2024
President Biden has signed legislation to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act despite years of protest from rights groups and privacy experts who say the law is routinely used to conduct warrantless surveillance on millions of American citizens. The Senate approved the FISA bill on Friday in a 60-34 vote, and critics say it not only reauthorizes domestic spying but also dramatically expands its scope. "It's an enormous amount of data that they're collecting and very few rules" limiting its collection, says investigative journalist James Bamford. He warns that personal information collected by U.S. intelligence is also shared with Israel, which uses the data to target people in Gaza. "The U.S. has got to stop supplying all this data and the targeting materials," he says. Bamford's new article for The Nation is headlined "The NSA Wants Carte Blanche for Warrantless Surveillance."
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Apr 22, 2024
As the death toll in Gaza tops 34,000 Palestinians killed since October 7, Israeli forces and settlers have continued to ramp up violence in the occupied West Bank. The army killed at least 14 people during a two-day raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm over the weekend, and separately killed a Palestinian ambulance driver near Nablus as he was trying to reach Palestinians injured in an attack by Jewish settlers. Ramallah-based writer Mariam Barghouti says the Israeli military and armed settlers "are trying to continue the illegal annexation of lands in the West Bank" and says Israel is deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, just as in Gaza, to make life unbearable. She also responds to reports that the Biden administration is preparing to sanction the Netzah Yehuda battalion, a notorious unit within the Israeli military composed of ultra-Orthodox soldiers that is accused of carrying out human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank. "It should not be against a select few. This entire regime is engaging in crimes against humanity, and it is U.S.-sponsored. It is being paid for by American tax dollars."
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Apr 22, 2024
We speak with Mahmood Mamdani, a professor of government at Columbia who has spoken with many of the pro-Palestine protesters camping out on school grounds to show solidarity with Gaza and demand the school divest from Israel. He says there is growing outrage from faculty after the school's leadership called in the police to raid the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and conduct mass arrests, while administrators have started suspending and evicting some students. "There has been no due process on the Columbia campus," says Mamdani.
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Apr 22, 2024
Columbia University canceled in-person classes Monday as campus protests over the war in Gaza enter a sixth day. The protests have swelled after the school administration called in the police to clear a student encampment last week, resulting in over 100 arrests. Solidarity protests and encampments have now sprouted up on campuses across the country, including at Yale, MIT, Tufts, NYU, The New School and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Palestinian reporter Jude Taha, a journalism student at Columbia University, describes events on campus as "an unprecedented act of solidarity" that student organizers are modeling on antiwar protests in 1968. She says Columbia University President Minouche Shafik's claims of an unsafe environment on campus are contradicted by the generally calm and productive atmosphere among the protesters, adding that the school's heavy-handed response, including suspensions and evictions, is being seen as "an intimidation tactic" by organizers.
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Apr 22, 2024
House Approves $95B in Foreign Military Funding, Incl. Another $26B for Israel, Gaza: Over 200 Bodies, Including Children, Found in Mass Grave at Nasser Hospital, "She Came Out an Orphan": Doctors Deliver Child of Pregnant Gazan Killed in Israeli Strike, West Bank Palestinians Go on General Strike After Israeli Massacre on Nur Shams Camp Kills 14, Israeli Settlers Shoot Dead Palestinian Medic as He Was Attempting to Aid Injured People, Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Resigns over Oct. 7 Attack, Columbia Cancels In-Person Classes as Gaza Campus Protests Multiply, USC Calls Off Prominent Guest Speeches at Graduation Amid Fallout over Censoring Valedictorian, Biden Signs Reauthorization of FISA's Section 702 Despite Privacy and Rights Concerns, Trump's Criminal Hush Money Trial Seats Jury; Opening Arguments Start, Ecuadorians Back President Noboa's Security Plan Tackling Organized Crime, U.S. Military to Withdraw from Niger, Shut Down Drone Base, Volkswagen Workers in Tennessee Vote to Unionize with United Auto Workers, Biden Administration Expands Title IX Protections to Include LGBTQ Students, Alameda DA Charges 3 Police Officers with Manslaughter in 2021 Killing of Mario Gonzalez, China: Record Rainfall Kills 3, Displaces 60,000 in Guangdong, On Earth Day, Biden Announced $7 Billion in Solar Investments
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Apr 19, 2024
The Gaza Collective Photo Essay project, organized by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), collected work from 14 Palestinian photographers who were each asked to share one image that captured the devastation of the Gaza Strip over the last six months. We speak with Charlotte Cans, head of photography at OCHA, about the project. "It's one thing to say there's a war and it's horrible, and it's another thing to see an image of a child being pulled out from the rubble. It really hits you differently," Cans says of the motivation behind the project. "It was really important to elevate the stories coming from Palestinian photojournalists, who are the only window into what is going on in Gaza."
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Apr 19, 2024
As Israel continues bombarding the Gaza Strip, we speak with a Palestinian photographer who recently fled the territory with his family. Ahmed Zakot has been documenting Gaza for the last 25 years, and two of his photographs were just featured in a project by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and published by Rolling Stone earlier this month in a piece titled "Gaza's Carnage Through the Eyes of Palestinian Photojournalists." One of Zakot's photos shows a Gaza neighborhood lit up by Israeli airstrikes at night, while the second is of thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes with their belongings in a scene reminiscent of the 1948 Nakba that displaced some 700,000 Palestinians from their homes. "It reminds me [of] what my grandfather told me about this displacement. It's the same [that] happened since 1948 — now we are in 2024," Zakot says.
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Apr 19, 2024
Columbia University President Nemat "Minouche" Shafik on Thursday called on New York police to forcibly clear a student occupation on the lawn of the school, which had been dubbed the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, resulting in over 100 arrests. The protesters were demanding the Ivy League school divest from firms and institutions that profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but Shafik ordered the raid a day after being questioned on Capitol Hill about ongoing pro-Palestinian protests on campus. The move caused outrage among students and many faculty, who decried it as censorship and a violation of academic freedom. The renowned professor and presidential candidate Cornel West, chair of the Columbia-affiliated Union Theological Seminary, joined students Thursday in solidarity with their protest and told Democracy Now! they "represent the best … of the human spirit," and lauded them for "fighting in the face of domination and occupation and subjugation, and doing it with tremendous determination."
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Apr 19, 2024
Israeli police arrested the internationally renowned feminist Palestinian academic Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian at her home in Jerusalem on Thursday on charges of incitement to violence. Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who holds both Israeli and U.S. citizenship, was suspended by Hebrew University last month after saying in an interview Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, though the university later reinstated her. We speak with anthropologist Sarah Ihmoud, who describes Shalhoub-Kevorkian as a mentor and inspiration to her and many others. "We hold the Hebrew University of Jerusalem responsible for the arrest and detention because of its persistent and public repression of her academic freedom, which led directly to yesterday's arrest," says Ihmoud, who teaches at College of the Holy Cross and is co-founder of the Palestinian Feminist Collective. "We see this as yet another example of Israel attacking Palestinians wherever they are, whoever they are. It underscores that no Palestinian is safe under Israel's racist apartheid rule."
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Apr 19, 2024
Israel Launches Retaliatory Strike in Iran as U.S. Issues New Sanctions Against Tehran, Columbia Protests Continue a Day After NYPD Arrests 100 , Dismantles Gaza Solidarity Encampment, USC Students Rally to Demand Commencement Speech by Valedictorian Asna Tabassum Be Reinstated, U.S. Vetoes Bid to Advance Full Palestinian Membership at U.N., New Report Refutes Israeli Account of 6-Year-Old Hind Rajab's Killing by IOF, Activists Prepare to Set Sail on a New Gaza Freedom Flotilla, House Speaker Johnson Attaches TikTok Ban Bill to Ukraine, Israel Funding Package, U.S. Deports 70 Haitian Asylum Seekers Despite Humanitarian and Security Disaster in Haiti, U.S. Reinstates Venezuela Sanctions Ahead of July Elections, Senate Advances FISA's Contested Section 702, Which Has Led to Warrantless Spying on U.S. Citizens, The Jury in Donald Trump's NYC Criminal Trial Has Been Seated
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Apr 18, 2024
New reporting indicates that the Biden administration has approved Israel's plan to attack Rafah in exchange for Israel not launching counterstrikes on Iran. "Israel is almost certainly going to respond to the Iranian strike in some way," says Mairav Zonszein, a senior Israel analyst for the International Crisis Group. Now "it has the benefit of being able to dangle both threats": an invasion on Rafah that would heavily increase the death toll of Palestinians in Gaza, or an attack on Iran that would likely spark a wider regional war. While Israeli approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drastically waned, Zonszein suggests that its military campaign shows no signs of stopping. "Israeli society is largely a right-wing society. It is a society that has not spoken about or thought about Palestinians or the occupation except when it's forced to. And it's a society that has gotten used to acting with impunity."
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Apr 18, 2024
Students at Columbia University and Barnard College in New York have set up dozens of tents to occupy the South Lawn of the campus to create a Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Democracy Now! spoke to some of the student-activists, who say they are occupying the space, despite the administration's threats of suspension and disciplinary action, as part of a demand that the Ivy League school divest from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli occupation. "It seems like the repression is only getting worse and worse," says Maryam Alwan, a student-activist with Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.
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Apr 18, 2024
In nearly four hours of grueling congressional testimony before the Republican-led Committee on Education and the Workforce, the president of Columbia University, Nemat "Minouche" Shafik, said she had taken serious action against accusations of antisemitism on campus in recent months amid Israel's assault on Gaza, including dismissing or removing five faculty members from the classroom, suspending 15 students and suspending two student groups — Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. Shafik's visit to Capitol Hill is the latest in a series of hearings on alleged antisemitism at elite U.S. private schools. In December, similar hearings led to the resignations of the presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. Our guests Nara Milanich and Rebecca Jordan-Young, both professors at Barnard College and Columbia University, respond to the televised hearings. "What happened at those hearings yesterday should be of grave concern to everybody," warns Jordan-Young. "What we got was a live performance [of President Shafik] throwing the entire university system under the bus." Adds Milanich, "Antisemitism here is being used as a wedge. It's being used as a Trojan horse for a very different political agenda."
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Apr 18, 2024
Amid widespread repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campuses across the United States, we speak to University of Southern California valedictorian Asna Tabassum, whose commencement speech has been canceled for what the university claimed were "safety" reasons after Tabassum became the subject of an online anti-Palestinian hate campaign led by pro-Israel groups. "When I had asked for details regarding the security concerns," says Tabassum of learning about the cancellation, "I was offered no information and was told it was not appropriate for me to know." Tabassum, a first-generation South Asian American Muslim graduating with a major in biomedical engineering and a minor in resistance to genocide, says the unprecedented cancellation of her speech has been "heartbreaking."
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Apr 18, 2024
Israel Continues to Pound the Gaza Strip Amid Reports U.S. Approves of Rafah Land Invasion, Palestinian Boy Who Narrowly Escaped Death in Nov. Israeli Airstrike Is Killed in Aid Airdrop, ProPublica: Blinken Ignored His Agency's Recommendation to Disqualify Some Israeli Units from Aid, Detained U.N. Workers Accuse Israel of Obtaining False Confessions Through Torture, Journalist Attempts Citizen's Arrest of EU Leader Ursula von der Leyen for Enabling Gaza Genocide, "McCarthyism Is Alive and Well": Google Fires Employees for Protesting Contract with Israeli Military, 29 Writers Withdraw from PEN Prizes to Protest "Complicity in Normalizing Genocide", "Stop Killing Palestinian Children!": Activists Disrupt Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin Hearing, Speaker Johnson Unveils 3 Separate Bills to Fund Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, Senate Democrats Dismiss GOP-Led Impeachment Against Alejandro Mayorkas, Major Rains Lead to Death and Displacement Across the Gulf, in Kenya, Police Evict Hundreds from France's Largest Squat Ahead of Paris Olympics, "This Is a Criminal Cover-Up": Boeing Whistleblowers Slam Leadership for Ignoring Safety Issues
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Apr 17, 2024
On Wednesday, 4,000 Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, begin voting in a closely watched election on whether to organize with the United Auto Workers in what could be the union's first big victory as they try to expand into the southern United States after huge contract wins in 2023 with Detroit companies General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. Journalist Hamilton Nolan argues this is "probably the most important union election that this country has seen in years," as unions attempt to challenge southern states' economic policy of creating cheap, exploited labor to attract major corporations. "The South is really funneling money to international corporations for free, and the UAW is trying to put an end to that."
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Apr 17, 2024
Democracy Now! speaks with two of the Google employees who were arrested staging sit-ins on Tuesday at the company's offices in New York City and in Sunnyvale, California, to protest the tech giant's work with the Israeli government. Organized by the group No Tech for Apartheid, the protesters are demanding Google withdraw from Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud computing services to the Israeli military. "Google execs basically chose to arrest workers for speaking out against the use of our technology to power the first AI-powered genocide," says Google software engineer Mohammad Khatami, who was arrested in New York. Google worker-organizer Ray Westrick, who was arrested occupying CEO Thomas Kurian's office, says "more people are willing to organize and risk their jobs in order to take a stand against complicity in genocide." We also speak with No Tech for Apartheid organizer and former Google worker Gabriel Schubiner, who calls on the tech industry to divest from Google and Amazon services. "Technology workers actually have a lot of power to shift this paradigm and to remove technology from this deep complicity with the Israeli occupation," Schubiner says.
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Apr 17, 2024
One year ago this week, a devastating conflict erupted in Sudan when a fragile alliance between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces collapsed. The war initially began around the capital city of Khartoum but quickly spread to other parts of Sudan, including Darfur, Port Sudan and the Gezira state, situated in the country's agricultural heartland. One year on, the conflict has driven nearly 9 million people from their homes, collapsed the country's health system and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crisis. "This is essentially a war between two generals," says Khalid Mustafa Medani, chair of the African studies program at McGill University, who explains why the warring parties have "absolutely no legitimacy in civil society" and how the fighting is weaponizing international aid. "Despite the severity of this conflict, there is only one solution and only one interest on the part of the majority of Sudanese — 99% of Sudanese — and that is the restoration of full civilian democracy."
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Apr 17, 2024
U.N.: Israel Is Still Unlawfully Restricting Aid into Gaza, Report: Israeli Assault on Gaza Has Left 19,000 Children Orphaned, U.K. Tells Israel: Do "As Little as Possible to Escalate" Tensions with Iran, Israel Urged to Stop Supporting Violent Jewish Settlers After Deadly West Bank Attacks, Nine Google Workers Arrested at Sit-In Protesting Firm's Work with Israel, Columbia University Students Launch Gaza Solidarity Encampment, Seven Jurors Selected for Trump Hush Money Criminal Trial, Supreme Court Considers Tossing Out Jan. 6 Convictions for Violating Federal Obstruction Law, Extradition of Julian Assange Edges Closer as U.S. Gives Assurances to U.K. over His Rights, Indian Security Forces Kill 29 Maoist Rebels Ahead of Election, Rep. Massie Backs Ousting House Speaker Mike Johnson, Maine Joins National Popular Vote Compact, Former U.S. Marine Sentenced to Prison for Firebombing Planned Parenthood Clinic, Federal Court Blocks WV Transgender Sports Ban; Supreme Court Lets Idaho Ban Gender-Affirming Care for Now, New York Police Officers Cleared of Wrongdoing in Fatal Police Shooting of Kawaski Trawick
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Apr 16, 2024
We speak with veteran journalist Peter Maass about the Israeli war on Gaza and his new opinion piece for The Washington Post headlined "I'm Jewish, and I've covered wars. I know war crimes when I see them." Maass, who was a senior editor at The Intercept until earlier this year, has spent decades covering wars, including the Bosnian genocide in the 1990s that killed about 100,000 people over nearly four years. He says many of the same war crimes he reported then are part of Israel's current assault, including sniper attacks on civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure, attacks on bread lines and besieging whole populations by preventing food and other aid from entering. "What seems to be unfolding in Gaza is even worse than what I saw in Bosnia," says Maass.
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Apr 16, 2024
The Western corporate media is failing in its coverage of Israel's war on Gaza, says Palestinian independent journalist Dalia Hatuqa. "A lot of what's missing from the bigger portrait … is the Palestinian voice," says Hatuqa, who applauds local journalists in Gaza for providing the world a crucial window into what's happening there while international reporters are blocked by Israel from entering the territory. "Nobody knows Gaza better than the Gazan journalists on the ground." Hatuqa also speaks about her latest piece for The Century Foundation about rising Israeli state and settler violence in the occupied West Bank, which she says can accurately be described as pogroms. "The fog of war has allowed Israel to perpetuate crimes at a very large scale, not only throughout the West Bank, but including occupied East Jerusalem."
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Apr 16, 2024
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, one of the most vocal supporters of Julian Assange, says the United States must drop its espionage case against the jailed WikiLeaks founder. He faults the Australian government for pushing for a plea deal that would allow Assange to walk free from Belmarsh Prison in London in exchange for an admission of guilt. "Julian is never going to plead guilty as if journalism is a crime," says Varoufakis. He also discusses his new book Technofeudalism, which argues that platforms like Amazon have destroyed the idea of buyers and sellers operating in an open market. "Capitalism was killed by capital," he says.
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Apr 16, 2024
As Germany intensifies its crackdown on pro-Palestinian voices, we speak with Greek economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis, one of the planned speakers at a conference in Berlin last weekend that was forcibly shut down by police. The Palestine Congress was scheduled to be held for three days, but police stormed the venue as the first panelist spoke. Germany's Interior Ministry had also banned some conference speakers from even entering the country, including Varoufakis, the Palestinian British surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah and the Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta. "This is not about protecting Jewish lives and Jews from antisemitism. It's all about protecting the right of Israel to commit any war crime of its choice," says Varoufakis.
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Apr 16, 2024
Gazans Continue to Lose Children, Parents, Loved Ones as Israeli Attacks Continue with Impunity, Palestinian Doctors Uncover New Mass Grave at Al-Shifa in Wake of Israeli Siege, Sheikh Jarrah: Israeli Court Orders Three Palestinian Families Be Forced Out of Their Homes, Iran and Israel Both Vow to Respond in Kind to Any Further Attacks, Coordinated Demonstrations Across the U.S. and the World Disrupt Travel, Weapons Industry, Yale Students Launch Hunger Strike; USC Cancels Graduation Speech by Muslim Student, Judge Threatens to Jail Trump If He Disrupts Hush Money Trial as Jury Selection Continues, 3 Iraqi Survivors of Abu Ghraib Bring Torture Case Against U.S. Contractor to Trial, Torrential Rains Kill at Least 100 People Across Pakistan and Afghanistan, NOAA Warns World Is Experiencing Its 4th Coral Bleaching Event Due to Warming Oceans, Fourth Body Recovered from Baltimore Key Bridge Collapse as FBI Launches Probe, Judge Sentences Armorer of Alec Baldwin Western "Rust" to 18 Months for Death of Halyna Hutchins, SCOTUS Declines to Hear Case Targeting Organizers of Group Protests, Faith Ringgold, Trailblazing Artist, Author and Activist, Dies at 93
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Apr 15, 2024
Donald Trump is making history today in New York as the first former U.S. president to stand trial for criminal charges. Trump faces 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to hide hush money payments he made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels and others, just weeks before winning the 2016 election. He is accused of violating federal campaign finance laws for failing to disclose the payments and instead recording them as a "legal expense." Each of the 34 counts carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. "What Donald Trump is accused of is the type of crime that's prosecuted in New York every single day … [a] garden-variety, ordinary grift," says Ron Kuby, a longtime New York criminal defense and civil rights lawyer who is following the trial closely. Kuby explains what we can expect from the trial — the first of four different criminal cases Trump is currently embroiled in, but likely the only one he will stand for ahead of the 2024 election — in the coming days.
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Apr 15, 2024
The Middle East is bracing for the possibility of regional war after Iran responded to Israel's bombing of the Iranian Consulate in Damascus with a major drone and missile attack Saturday. The attack caused little damage inside Israel, as it intercepted nearly all of the drones and missiles with help from the United States, Britain, France and Jordan. Iran's government described the attack as a defensive maneuver after Israel's unprovoked strike on its embassy killed some of Iran's top military brass. This was "a performative operation to send a message," says journalist Reza Sayah, who joins us from Tehran. But while Iran "does not want to escalate matters," Israel may be preparing to do just that. Washington, D.C.-based analyst Trita Parsi says that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been trying to instigate conflict between the U.S. and Iran for "more than two decades," and given that Biden has demonstrated an unwillingness to "draw any red lines for Israel publicly," these latest provocations could become a prime "opportunity" for such a war. Crucially, Iranian restraint "cannot last forever," warns our final roundtable guest, the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, who touches on both Iran's own sovereignty and increasing global pressure for Israel to end its war on Gaza. "Gaza is still starving and bleeding, and we shouldn't forget it," says Levy.
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Apr 15, 2024
"The Middle East Is on the Brink": U.N. Calls for Maximum Restraint After Iran Directly Attacks Israel for First Time, Death Toll from Israel's War on Gaza Reaches 33,800 as Nuseirat Camp Comes Under Intense Fire, Israeli Settlers Attack Palestinian Villages in Occupied West Bank, Burning Homes, Killing at Least 1, Trump's Criminal Hush Money Trial Kicks Off in New York, War in Sudan Marks 1 Year: 15,000 Killed, 8.6M Displaced, 25M in Need of Immediate Aid, Australian Police Say Mass Stabber at Sydney Mall Was Targeting Women, House Reauthorizes FISA Clause Which Has Been Used to Spy on U.S. Citizens, Kamala Harris Tells Arizona Voters Trump Is to Blame for State's Draconian Abortion Ban, German Police Shut Down Palestine Congress After Barring Prominent Speakers, "??McCarthyism Is Real": Hobart and William Smith Colleges Suspend Prof. for Defending Palestinians
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Apr 12, 2024
We go to Part 2 of our conversation with Israeli scholar Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London and chair of the Committee on Academic Freedom for British Society of Middle East Studies. Gordon talks about the "massive surveillance apparatus" Israel has imposed on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the use of artificial intelligence tools to bomb targets despite the high error rate in those systems, and the shock of the October 7 attack by Hamas that killed some 1,200 Israelis. "The state seemed not to be functioning, so most Israelis were in great pain, were in great fear," he says. "My fear is that most Israelis are still trapped, still stuck in that October 7th moment and unwilling to lift their eyes to see basically the genocide unfolding in the Gaza Strip."
Watch Part 1 of this interview: Road to Famine: Israeli Law Prof. Neve Gordon on Israel's History of Weaponizing Food Access in Gaza
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Apr 12, 2024
We speak with The New Yorker war correspondent Luke Mogelson about the war in Ukraine, where the government has just passed a controversial bill that expands military conscription and cracks down on draft dodgers in an effort to replenish the depleted ranks of the army, more than two years since Russia launched its invasion. Military leaders have warned that Russian forces outnumber Ukrainian troops tenfold in the east. Mogelson says the Ukrainian military ranks are filled with "predominantly working-class men from rural areas or smaller villages," while people in Kyiv and other large cities, where the elites live, can more easily avoid the full impact of the war. "You can really feel the gap between the two worlds widening," says Mogelson, adding that most people realize the war cannot be sustained indefinitely and that "at some point there needs to be a negotiation" to end the fighting. Mogelson is the winner of this year's prestigious George Polk Award for magazine reporting for his article "Two Weeks at the Front in Ukraine."
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Apr 12, 2024
President Biden hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House on Thursday, the first meeting of its kind, which comes as the U.S. moves to expand its military presence in the South China Sea to counter China. The Philippines has deepened military ties with both the United States and Japan in recent years as maritime confrontations with China have escalated. The trilateral summit at the White House resembled a "council of war," according to Filipino scholar Walden Bello. He says the U.S. is the primary driver of tensions with China, building up its military footprint in the region as Pentagon officials openly muse about war, while China has focused primarily on its economic reach. "This militarization of the Pacific is very dangerous," says Bello.
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Apr 12, 2024
Gazan Children Play Among Ruins as Israeli Bombs Rain Down on Eid, Samantha Power, Top USAID Official, Admits Northern Gaza Is Experiencing Famine, U.S. Sends Top General to Israel Amid Reports of Iranian Retaliation for Israel's Damascus Attack, Morocco Sentences Activist to 5 Years for Criticizing Normalization Deal with Israel, Mexico Brings Grievances Against Ecuador to ICJ Amid Mounting Diplomatic Row, Ukraine Passes Contested Draft Bill with No Limits on Wartime Military Service, Poland Begins Debate on Rolling Back Abortion Ban Under New Liberal Leader, Biden Cancels Another $7.4 Billion in Student Debt, Biden Admin Closes "Gun Show Loophole", Far-Right Flank of House Block Reauthorization of Controversial Section 702 of FISA, "Goon Squad" Convicts Get State Sentences of 15-45 Years for Torturing Black Men, Climate Crisis Triggers Great Barrier Reef's Worst-Ever Coral Bleaching, 10 Years After Chibok Abduction, Leaders No Longer Fighting for Survivors and Remaining Captives
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Apr 11, 2024
In Arizona, Republican lawmakers have blocked efforts by Democrats to repeal an 1864 law — first written before women had the right to vote and recently revived by the state's Supreme Cour — that bans nearly all abortions under threat of criminal penalties including jail time. To respond, we host a trio of reproductive justice advocates in Arizona. Dr. DeShawn Taylor, an OB-GYN physician, abortion provider and the CEO of the only Black woman-operated abortion clinic in Arizona, emphasizes that her practice "will continue to provide abortions until we are made to stop," but warns that in the future "abortions likely will not happen in Arizona because of those criminal penalties." Meanwhile, organizers like Chris Love and Alejandra Pablos are fighting back. Love is a spokesperson for Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of reproductive rights organizations working to put a constitutional amendment on abortion on the state's upcoming November ballot. The petition for the proposed ballot measure is still collecting signatures. "We know what we want: We want people to have the care that they need," concludes Pablos, who organizes for reproductive, racial and immigrant' rights.
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Apr 11, 2024
We speak with two doctors who've just returned after two weeks at the European Hospital in Gaza. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa and Dr. Mark Perlmutter are co-authors of a new piece for Common Dreams titled "As Surgeons, We Have Never Seen Cruelty Like Israel's Genocide in Gaza." They describe a hospital "hanging on by a thread," with the majority of patients being young children, and bombing targeted at Muslim Palestinians "concentrated at the time of evening prayer." "Genocide was the overwhelming impression that I got," says Perlmutter. "This is dehumanization. The purpose of this is to kill a population." He also says, of U.S. responsibility in this genocide, "We're buying the bullets and the gun for the gunman who's going to the school and killing the children." "If our support stops, the occupation stops," adds Sidhwa, urging other Americans to push political leaders and public discourse against the country's support of Israel. "We have to raise the domestic cost for these policies." Dr. Sidhwa and Dr. Perlmutter worked with the Palestinian American Medical Association in collaboration with the World Health Organization in Gaza. Collectively, they have previously volunteered medical assistance in the West Bank, Haiti and Ukraine, and after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the Boston Marathon bombing.
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Apr 11, 2024
Israel Kills Three Sons & Four Grandchildren of Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh, UNICEF Convoy Hit by Israeli Gunfire, Preventing Delivery of Aid to Northern Gaza, U.S. Envoy Admits All of Gaza May Face "Imminent Risk of Starvation", Biden Pledges "Ironclad" Support for Israel as Fears Grow Iran May Launch Retaliatory Attack, Republican Lawmakers in Arizona Block Repeal of 1864 Abortion Ban, Biden Hosts Japanese & Filipino Leaders as U.S. Expands Military Presence Near China, South Korea PM Offers to Resign After Conservatives Suffer Major Defeat, Russia Hits Major Power Plant Near Kyiv in Latest Strike on Ukrainian Energy Infrastructure, Mass Flooding in Kazakhstan and Russia Displaces Over 110,000 People, Ocean Heat Records Set Every Day for Past Year, Ex-VP in Ecuador on Hunger Strike After Arrest During Raid on Mexican Embassy, EPA Issues New Rules on PFAS & Chemical Plants, Biden Says He Is Considering Dropping Prosecution of Julian Assange, Ex-Trump CFO Sentenced to Five Months in Prison for Lying Under Oath, Cornel West Taps Black Lives Matter Activist Melina Abdullah to Be Running Mate, RFK Jr. Staffer Fired After Admitting Campaign Aims to Help Trump Win in November, Islamic Center at Rutgers University Vandalized as Eid Begins, Palestinian American Law Student Protests Backyard Dinner Hosted by UC Berkeley Law School Dean, German School Rescinds Job Offer to Jewish Philosopher Nancy Fraser over Her Criticism of Israel
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Apr 10, 2024
Democracy Now! speaks with two former Israeli soldiers who are members of Breaking the Silence, an anti-occupation group of Israeli army veterans. The group's education director, Tal Sagi, describes growing up in a settlement and joining the military without understanding what occupation was. "We've been told that this is security and we have to control millions of lives and we don't have other options," says Sagi, who says Israeli society is not open to ending the occupation. "We're trying to say that there are other options." We also speak with Breaking the Silence deputy director Nadav Weiman about why the group is touring U.S. colleges and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. "We stood in checkpoints. We raided homes. We attacked Gaza from the air. We fought from the ground," says Weiman. "So, when you bring reality, you bring real conversation about the occupation, and you bring real conversation about Gaza."
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Apr 10, 2024
President Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies in Gaza a "mistake" and urged Israel to call for a temporary ceasefire to allow in more aid in a televised interview on Tuesday. While Israel has pledged to open new aid crossings, the U.N. said on Tuesday that there has been "no significant change in the volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza," and the Biden administration has not actually changed its policies or withheld any arms transfers to Israel. "Words are cheap, and statements are a dime a dozen," says Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani, who explains Israel can safely ignore statements if policy remains unchanged. "What really matters is not what these people say, but what they do." Rabbani also speaks about the United Nations considering Palestinian statehood, ongoing negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire, and Israel attacking the Iranian Consulate in Syria.
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Apr 10, 2024
In a historic ruling, Arizona's conservative Supreme Court has upheld an 1864 law banning almost all abortions in the state. The court sent out this warning: "Physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman's life, are illegal." The 160-year-old law predates Arizona becoming a state and was passed decades before women could even vote. Although Arizona's Attorney General Kris Mayes said she will not enforce the "draconian law," the ruling sent shockwaves across the nation. "The central strategy of the anti-abortion movement is to roll back the clock to the Victorian era, because they know that they cannot win through the democratic process," says Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent at The Nation, who says conservatives supporting these unpopular restrictions face an uphill battle this fall. "Democrats are banking on this being a huge way to lift their boats in the next election." Activists are preparing a November ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the Arizona Constitution, and reproductive rights will be a key issue in the state's closely watched Senate race.
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Apr 10, 2024
Arizona Supreme Court Revives 1864 Law Banning Abortion, Biden: Israel Should "Just Call for a Ceasefire"; Netanyahu Is Making a "Mistake" in Gaza, Israel Continues to Attack Gaza as Palestinians Mark End of Ramadan, Lloyd Austin Denies Israel Is Commiting Genocide; About 50 Protesters Arrested on Capitol Hill, Turkey Restricts Exports to Israel to Protest Gaza Assault, Trump Loses 10th Attempt to Delay Hush Money Trial, Missouri Executes Brian Dorsey; 70 Prison Guards Pushed for His Life to Be Spared, Parents of Oxford High School Shooter Sentenced to Between 10-15 Years in Prison, NYC Reaches $28 Million Settlement over Hanging at Rikers Prison, Bodycam Video Shows Chicago Officers Fired Nearly 100 Shots at Dexter Reed During Fatal Shooting, Norfolk Southern Agrees to Pay $600 Million over East Palestine Derailment
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Apr 09, 2024
Rwanda is holding a week of commemorations to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, a period of around 100 days in which up to 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militias while powerful countries, including the United States, stood by and refused to stop the mass killings. Shortly after the genocide, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame took power and has since ruled Rwanda with an iron fist, leading a harsh crackdown on the press and opposition groups. We look back at the 1994 genocide and discuss the country's trajectory since then with two guests: Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch and now a visiting professor at Princeton, and Noël Zihabamwe, a survivor of the genocide whose parents were killed during the violence in 1994 and whose brothers were disappeared by the Kagame regime in 2019. Zihabamwe now lives in Australia and runs the African Australian Advocacy Center.
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Apr 09, 2024
Lawyers representing Germany at the International Court of Justice delivered their concluding remarks at The Hague today in a case brought by Nicaragua, which has accused Germany of facilitating the commission of genocide in Gaza by providing military and financial aid to Israel. Germany is Israel's second-largest arms supplier, and Nicaragua has asked the United Nations' top court for emergency measures to halt its material support to Israel. While the United States is the leading arms supplier to Israel, it "has a much more limited acceptance" of the ICJ's jurisdiction, according to our guest Kenneth Roth. A visiting professor at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and formerly the longtime executive director of Human Rights Watch, Roth details Nicaragua's case against Germany, as well as the U.S. government's stance toward Israel. Despite President Biden's public condemnation of the recent World Central Kitchen aid convoy attack and the "huge leverage" of ongoing U.S. military assistance, the administration's warnings to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are "empty words," says Roth. "Joe Biden never backs them up with consequences," and his reelection campaign is taking progressive voters for granted as domestic dissent grows in the lead-up to the 2024 election, Roth adds.
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Apr 09, 2024
Award-winning journalist Arwa Damon has just returned from a humanitarian trip to Gaza in her capacity as the founder of INARA, the International Network for Aid Relief and Assistance, a nonprofit currently providing medical and mental healthcare to children. Damon describes the overwhelming need for aid under Israel's siege of the territory. "Nothing goes in and out of Gaza without Israel's approval. That includes aid, and that includes people," she says, calling the Israeli military's rules for what is allowed in "illogical" and arbitrary. "The zone needs to be flooded, not only with aid … but also with humanitarian workers," concludes Damon. We also discuss the mental health crisis gripping the population, U.S. military assistance to Israel and how anti-Arab racism and fearmongering in Western media coverage has and hasn't changed in the post-9/11 era.
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Apr 09, 2024
Netanyahu Says Date for Rafah Invasion Has Been Set as Israel Continues Its Deadly Attacks, UNSC Considers Palestine Request for U.N. Membership; Germany Tells ICJ It Is Not Abetting Genocide, Elizabeth Warren, a Legal Expert, Admits Israel's Actions in Gaza Meet Definition of Genocide, "We Are Repulsed by Your Actions": New Irish Prime Minister Sends Message to Netanyahu, Iran Opens New Consulary Site in Damascus, Accuses U.S. of Greenlighting Israel's Attack, ACLU Warns Against UMich Censorship Policy over Palestinian Rights Activism, Trump Boasts Overturning Roe v. Wade But Backs State Authority Over Abortion, Panama Papers Trial Kicks Off 8 Years After Tax Evasion Scandal, Mozambique Shipwreck Kills Some 100 People, Including Children, Biden Announces New Student Debt Relief as He Campaigns in Wisconsin, European Rights Court Hands Win to Swiss Seniors, Defeat to Portuguese Youth in Historic Climate Cases, Brazil's Indigenous Communities Receive Gov't Apology; Literary Recognition for Aílton Krenak
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Apr 08, 2024
Three of the most significant greenhouse gases contributing to global heating — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — reached new record highs again last year, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Global CO2 levels are now over 50% higher than they were before mass industrialization, due to the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and livestock agriculture. Meanwhile, climate scientists continue to raise alarm over the catastrophic impacts of rising temperatures in Antarctica after researchers in 2022 recorded the largest hike in temperature ever measured in the coldest region on Earth. "All of these records that are being broken should be absolutely no surprise to the public," says NASA climate scientist Peter Kalmus, speaking with Democracy Now! in his personal capacity and not on behalf of the agency. "The cause is the fossil fuel industry. The only way out of this heat nightmare is to end the fossil fuel industry." Kalmus also discusses Monday's solar eclipse across much of North America, saying the celestial event should cause introspection about humanity's place in the universe and lead to better stewardship of the planet. "We live on a very fragile and beautiful rock in space, the only place we know in the cosmos to support life," he says.
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Apr 08, 2024
Walid Daqqa, one of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, has died from cancer. The novelist had spent the past 38 years locked up for his involvement with an armed group that abducted and killed an Israeli soldier in 1984. Rights groups had been pressuring Israel to release Daqqa, who had already finished serving his prison term, saying he was in dire need of medical attention. Last month Amnesty International called for his release, saying that since October 7, he had been tortured, humiliated and denied family visits. "Walid Daqqa suffered from medical negligence for years," says Palestinian politician Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. "The most inhuman behavior was the fact that they did not allow his wife and his daughter, his only daughter, to visit him since the 7th of October, and while knowing he was in terminal stage, just about to die."
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Apr 08, 2024
Israel's war on Gaza hit the six-month mark on Sunday, a grim milestone. Over 33,100 Palestinians have been killed, including 14,000 children. Nearly 76,000 have been injured, and tens of thousands are missing. About 1.7 million people have been displaced, and the United Nations is warning that famine is imminent. Meanwhile, Palestinians are returning to Khan Younis after the Israeli military announced it had withdrawn its ground troops from the area four months after invading it, leaving Gaza's second-largest city almost unrecognizable, with much of it turned to rubble. Israel is also still vowing to invade Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, which is sheltering more than half of Gaza's population. Speaking from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian physician and politician Dr. Mustafa Barghouti says growing outrage against Israel, including among some Western leaders, is largely due to regular people who have been protesting in solidarity with Palestinians. "We have to thank the people of these countries," says Barghouti. We also speak with writer Muhammad Shehada, chief of communications at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and a columnist at The Forward. He says the last six months have exposed the Israeli military's "complete disregard for human life," with routine evidence of summary executions, torture and other crimes that rarely get reported in corporate Western media. "They're not even trying to hide it," says Shehada.
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Apr 08, 2024
Palestinians Return to a Decimated Khan Younis as Hunger Grips Gaza, Death Toll Tops 31,000, "Al-Shifa Has Become a Graveyard": Video Reveals Complete Destruction of Gaza Hospital by Israel, Nicaragua Accuses Germany of Enabling Genocide in Gaza at World Court, 40 Democratic Lawmakers, Including Pelosi, Urge Biden to Halt Arms Transfers to Israel, Ceasefire Talks Continue in Cairo as Gaza Death Toll Mounts, Israelis Escalate Protests Against Benjamin Netanyahu, Prominent Palestinian Political Prisoner and Novelist Walid Daqqa Dies of Cancer, 20 Pomona College Students Arrested After Occupying President's Office, IAEA Warns Drone Attacks on Zaporizhzhia Could Lead to Nuclear Disaster, Biden to Host Japanese & Filipino Leaders as Nations Hold War Games in South China Sea, Mexico Cuts Diplomatic Ties with Ecuador After Raid on Mexican Embassy in Quito, "International Community Failed All of Us": Rwanda Marks 30 Years Since 1994 Genocide, Trump Raises $50M in Lavish Fundraiser as He Promises More Billionaire Tax Cuts If Reelected, Police Arrest Suspect in Act of Arson on Bernie Sanders's Vermont Office, FAA Probing Loss of Engine Cover During Takeoff on Southwest Airlines Boeing Aircraft, 6 New York Inmates Will View Eclipse from Prison Courtyard After Winning Case Against Lockdown
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Apr 05, 2024
We continue our conversation with Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham about the award-winning new documentary No Other Land, which he co-directed with Palestinian activist Basel Adra, about land dispossession in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank. While accepting the audience award for best documentary at the Berlinale, Abraham said Israel was practicing apartheid, a comment for which he later received death threats. "You have German politicians who are not Jewish who labeled me as an antisemite. For what? For calling for a ceasefire? For calling for equality between Israelis and Palestinians? For using the word 'apartheid,' which should be common sense to describe these parallel systems of inequality?" says Abraham, who calls for an end to the "apartheid reality" in Israel and Palestine. "If there is no full political equality and really full freedom to everybody who lives in this land, then there can be no future here. We are going to continue to fight to change this."
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Apr 05, 2024
The Israeli publications 972 and Local Call have exposed how the Israeli military used an artificial intelligence program known as Lavender to develop a "kill list" in Gaza that includes as many as 37,000 Palestinians who were targeted for assassination with little human oversight. A second AI system known as "Where's Daddy?" tracked Palestinians on the kill list and was purposely designed to help Israel target individuals when they were at home at night with their families. The targeting systems, combined with an "extremely permissive" bombing policy in the Israeli military, led to "entire Palestinian families being wiped out inside their houses," says Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist who broke the story after speaking with members of the Israeli military who were "shocked by committing atrocities." Abraham previously exposed Israel for using an AI system called "The Gospel" to intentionally destroy civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including apartment complexes, universities and banks, in an effort to exert "civil pressure" on Hamas. These artificial intelligence military systems are "a danger to humanity," says Abraham. "AI-based warfare allows people to escape accountability."
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Apr 05, 2024
Israel Says It Will Allow Aid in Gaza After U.S. Warns of Possible "Policy Change", Biden Continues to Funnel Arms to Israel Despite Killing of Aid Workers, Warning to Netanyahu, New Video Shows Israeli Military Killing Innocent Gazan Walking with Airdropped Aid Package, Euro-Med Says Israel Killed 563 People Around Aid Sites; Palestine Red Crescent Says 15 Staff Killed, "Kill Them, But Nicely": Gazans Condemn U.S. Hypocrisy as Israeli Bombs and Missiles Rain Down, HRW Says Israel's Oct. 31 Attack on 6-Story Apartment Building a Likely War Crime, "We Are All Complicit": Israeli Doctor Details Amputations, Inhumane Treatment of Gazan Detainees, Israeli Forces Fire Tear Gas on Worshipers at Al-Aqsa on Muslim Holy Day, Israel Escalates Threats Against Iran After Deadly Attack on Iranian Consulate in Syria, "No Business as Usual While Gaza Is Destroyed": Activists Blockade Lockheed Martin Facility in NorCal, Columbia Suspends 6 Students Amid Crackdown on Palestinian Solidarity Activism, Peruvian Congress Rejects Impeachment Attempt Against President Dina Boluarte, Supporters of Death Row Prisoner Brian Dorsey Make Bid to Save His Life Ahead of Planned Execution, Housing Activists Take Aim at Real Estate Board of New York for Blocking Good Cause Eviction Law, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Peace Activist & Advocate for Survivors of Church Sexual Abuse, Dies at 94
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Apr 04, 2024
Senegal has inaugurated the youngest elected president in Africa. Newly elected President Bassirou Diomaye Faye nominated Ousmane Sonko to be his prime minister this week, capping a remarkable three-week period that saw the two opposition figures go from prison to ruling Senegal, vowing to fight poverty, injustice and corruption. Faye and Sonko were released from prison in mid-March after previous President Macky Sall had attempted to delay the vote, sparking fears of an anti-democratic election process. Faye's ultimate triumph, running on a platform of pan-Africanism and reform, has been a cause for celebration among many Senegalese, including former Prime Minister Aminata Touré, who says "democracy prevailed," giving the country's younger generation a long-awaited opportunity to "shake up the system," adds the Senegalese lawyer and political analyst Ibrahima Kane. Both join the show from Senegal's capital Dakar.
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Apr 04, 2024
As the world reels from the World Central Kitchen attack in which seven aid workers in Gaza were struck and killed by three separate Israeli missiles while delivering aid for starving Palestinians, we speak with prominent Israeli scholar Neve Gordon about Israel's history of weaponizing food access in the Gaza Strip via the destruction of Palestinian agricultural land, labor restrictions and blockade, "controlling and managing the population through food insecurity." Neve Gordon is a professor of human rights law and author of multiple books on Israel's occupation of Palestine whose latest essay for The New York Review of Books is titled "The Road to Famine in Gaza." Now as aid deliveries dry up amid fears of further attacks on humanitarian workers, Gordon emphasizes that "Israel has been controlling the food basket and using it as a weapon since the beginning of the occupation until today."
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Apr 04, 2024
This week the White House canceled a planned Ramadan dinner after many Muslim American leaders refused to attend as the Biden administration indicates it plans to continue arming Israel. Instead, Biden held a scaled-back meeting Tuesday with Muslim American community figures. The curtailed meeting was itself met with protests, including from Palestinian American emergency room physician Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who walked out after handing Biden a letter from an 8-year-old orphaned Palestinian girl named Hadeel that read, "I beg you, President Biden, stop them from entering Rafah." Ahmad tells Democracy Now! that he also told Biden, "Make no mistake about it. It's going to be a bloodbath," before walking out. Ahmad is a board member for MedGlobal who recently spent three weeks in Gaza volunteering at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. He joins us today to discuss the meeting with Biden, in which Ahmad, the only Palestinian American in attendance, was told he and other attendees would be the first people who had actually been in Gaza after October 7 to directly brief the president. "This meeting was not going to be impactful," says Ahmad, who shares how Biden's continued backing of Israel, even after its attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy left an American citizen dead, indicates that "nobody is safe" in the Gaza Strip.
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Apr 04, 2024
José Andrés Condemns "Systematic Targeting" of World Central Kitchen Aid Workers, Israeli Military Uses AI to Target Palestinians for Assassination, Palestinians Search Ruins of Al-Shifa for Loved Ones After Israel Obliterates Hospital, Netanyahu's Main Rival Benny Gantz Calls for September Elections in Israel, U.K. Under Pressure to Halt Israeli Arms Sales; Spain to Recognize Palestinian Statehood by July, Russian Drones Kill 4 People in Kharkiv, Including Rescue Workers, Russian Court Sentences Pussy Riot Activist Pyotr Verzilov to 8 Years in Absentia, Turkey Restores Election Victory of Pro-Kurdish Mayoral Candidate Following Unrest, Kenya's Public Sector Doctors Enter Third Week on Strike, Zimbabwe Declares National Disaster over Drought; Philippines Schools Close Amid Extreme Heat Wave, New York Judge Overseeing Trump Hush Money Case Rejects Bid to Delay April 15 Trial, 109-Year-Old Survivors of Tulsa Race Massacre Appeal to Oklahoma Supreme Court in Reparations Case, Martin Luther King Jr. Was Assassinated 56 Years Ago, April 4, 1968
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Apr 03, 2024
As Benjamin Netanyahu faces mass protests at home and increasing diplomatic pressure abroad, we speak with Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and president of the U.S./Middle East Project. He says Netanyahu is desperate to save his political prospects, primarily by continuing the war on Gaza for as long as possible and undercutting ceasefire talks. "Prime Minister Netanyahu needs this war to continue and is willing and has already gone to extreme lengths to do so," says Levy, who faults the Biden administration for not applying any real pressure on him. "Stop telling me that Netanyahu is a problem. You're the problem, because you're the enabler, you're the facilitator."
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Apr 03, 2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel says he will "act immediately" to ban Al Jazeera in the country after the Knesset passed a law Monday that allows the government to shut down foreign news networks deemed to be threats to national security. Al Jazeera, one of the few outlets with local reporters in Gaza, denounced the move and said it was part of a pattern of Israeli attacks on the Qatar-based network, including targeting its journalists in Gaza since October 7 and the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank in 2022. For more, we speak with Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and president of the U.S./Middle East Project, who says Netanyahu's move to ban Al Jazeera is "red meat to his own base … in a situation in which the war is not going particularly well for Israel. He's looking for distractions."
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Apr 03, 2024
We speak with Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, about Israel's ongoing attacks against aid workers in the Gaza Strip. Israel has admitted it killed seven volunteers with World Central Kitchen on Monday after repeatedly bombing their clearly marked vehicle convoy, leading the humanitarian relief group to suspend its operations in Gaza and further restricting distribution of badly needed food amid a growing famine in the territory. Other aid groups have followed suit, citing the lack of safety. This comes after Israel had earlier banned UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, from bringing aid into northern Gaza, where the need is greatest. Egeland says even Israel's international backers need to rein in "a war machine out of control" that is causing so much death and destruction. "If you have a conflict where there is a world record in killing protected categories of personnel, then the law is broken to pieces. There's no other way to see it." He also calls for an end to international arms sales to Israel and resumed funding and support for UNRWA.
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Apr 03, 2024
We get an update on the crisis in Haiti, where deadly violence has continued to escalate between armed groups and police fighting for control of the capital Port-au-Prince. The country's political future remains unclear, with recently resigned Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is stranded outside of Haiti, raising questions this week over the constitutionality of a "transitional council" formed to serve as an interim governing body until elections are scheduled. Meanwhile, Canadian forces have been sent to Jamaica to train troops from Caribbean nations to join the U.N.-authorized mission to Haiti. Haitian American scholar Jemima Pierre says the transitional council is essentially a front for U.S. interests, and warns there will be "inevitable war crimes" if foreign troops are deployed to Haiti. "It's a terrible situation, but I think the idea that there's a Haitian-led solution coming is actually a false one," says Pierre. We are also joined by Kim Ives, editor of the English section of Haiti Liberté, who says Haiti is in the midst of a "revolutionary process," led by Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier. Ives says that far from being a gang leader, Chérizier has built a coalition to fight the criminal groups in the country and was central to the ouster of Ariel Henry. "You always have to demonize, criminalize the people's resistance, and that's what we're seeing today when they try to put all the armed groups of Haiti's popular classes into one bag called 'the gangs,'" says Ives.
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Apr 03, 2024
U.N. Chief: Israeli Attack on World Central Kitchen Aid Workers Is "Unconscionable", Biden "Outraged" over Aid Attack, But U.S. Claims Israel Hasn't Violated International Law, USAID Officials Privately Warn Biden That Gaza Famine Is "Unprecedented in Modern History", Israeli Police Fire Water Cannons at Anti-Netanyahu Protesters, Iran Urges U.N. to Take Action After Israeli Bombing of Iranian Consulate in Syria, "Uncommitted" Vote Movement Grows as Democratic Voters Voice Dismay over Biden's Gaza Policy, Palestinian American Doctor Walks Out of White House Ramadan Meeting with Biden, Senegal: Bassirou Diomaye Faye Inaugurated as President Weeks After Being Freed from Jail, Mayoral Candidate in Mexico Assassinated While Campaigning in Celaya, Taiwan Hit by Largest Earthquake in 25 Years, John Eastman Disbarred in California over Advising Trump on 2020 Coup Attempt, In BDS Victory, Pitzer College Ends Study Abroad Program with Israeli School
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Apr 02, 2024
Iran has vowed to retaliate after Israel bombed the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing at least seven people, including three senior Iranian commanders and at least four other Iranian officers. Among the dead is senior commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the highest-ranking Iranian military officer to be killed since the U.S. assassinated General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020. While Israel sees strikes on foreign soil as "part of their self-defense strategy," Iran feels it must respond to this "breaching serious diplomatic norms," says Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost, who reports the pace and audacity of Israel's international attacks have escalated since October. "While Israel is receiving huge amounts of American support, while Gaza is suffering and Israel is pummeling that Strip, we now see them risking a two-front war, maybe a three-front war."
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Apr 02, 2024
Democracy Now! speaks with an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Air Force on hunger strike to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Senior Airman Larry Hebert is on day three of his hunger strike outside the White House, where he has been holding a sign that reads "Active Duty Airman Refuses to Eat While Gaza Starves." "It's just completely wrong and immoral for civilians to be starved and bombed and targeted in any manner," says Hebert. "I'm hoping that other active-duty members will be more public with their concern over the atrocities happening in Gaza." Hebert was inspired by the actions of Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., in February to demand a Gaza ceasefire. "What really infuriated me was the silence thereafter. … I don't know a single member of our government or leaders in the military that really spoke on Aaron, even uttered his name," says Hebert, who is now looking to leave the military after learning more about U.S. foreign policy. "I can't see myself continuing service."
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Apr 02, 2024
The Washington Post reports the Biden administration has recently authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel. The arms package includes more than 1,800 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, which can be used to level entire city blocks. The U.S. is also sending 500 MK-82 500-pound bombs and 25 F-35 fighter jets. "It has been doing this on a weekly basis since the conflict began, just an open tab of arms," says Josh Paul, former State Department official who worked on arms transfers before resigning in October to protest increasing arms sales to Israel. "These are the arms that Israel is using to kill not only thousands of civilians but hundreds of aid workers, as well."
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Apr 02, 2024
Israel is facing global condemnation after killing several international aid workers in Gaza. The workers with charity group World Central Kitchen were killed by an Israeli airstrike after unloading more than 100 tons of food aid carried by ship from Cyprus into Gaza. The charity staff, including three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national and an American-Canadian dual citizen, and their Palestinian driver were struck while traveling in a clearly marked convoy branded with the charity's logo. World Central Kitchen said the attack occurred after the workers left a warehouse in Deir al-Balah, even though the charity had coordinated in advance about the convoy with the Israeli military. "Every single humanitarian aid worker … is already recognized by the Israeli army," says journalist Akram al-Satarri, reporting live from Rafah. "It's the full responsibility of the Israeli government now to clarify and … demystify the circumstances that led to that catastrophic incident." Al-Satarri also reports on Israel's move to ban the outlet Al Jazeera and on his experience living in Gaza right now, where food and medical supplies are scarce under Israel's strict blockade. "The famine is not looming. The famine is already taking place."
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Apr 02, 2024
World Central Kitchen Suspends Aid Operations After Israeli Airstrike Kills 7 of Its Workers, Biden Admin Could Send Another $18M in Arms to Israel Despite Mounting Deaths, Public Opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu Plans to Ban Al Jazeera, One of the Few Major Outlets Reporting Inside Gaza, Tehran Vows Revenge After Israeli Attack in Syria Kills 7 Iranian Officials, Incl. Top Commander, Primary Voters Urged to Protest Biden Support for War on Gaza at the Ballot Box, Florida's Top Court Approves 6-Week Abortion Ban But Offers Hope with Abortion Ballot Measure, Germany Decriminalizes Cannabis for Personal Use, Armed Violence Claims More Lives in Haiti Amid Stalled Leadership Talks, NY Judge Expands Trump Gag Order as Ex-President Pays $175M Bond in Civil Fraud Case, Izzy Award Honors In These Times, Mohammed El-Kurd, Lynzy Billing, Trina Reynolds-Tyler, Sarah Conway
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Apr 01, 2024
On Sunday, tens of thousands rallied across Israel calling for the return of hostages and the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the largest nationwide protests since the October 7 attacks. From Tel Aviv, we're joined by Oren Ziv, a reporter and photographer for 972 Magazine who has been covering the Israeli protests. Ziv says the majority of Israelis generally support the war on Gaza but are increasingly turning against Netanyahu's far-right government, whose refusal to entertain a ceasefire is seen as an obstacle to the return of Israeli hostages.
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Apr 01, 2024
As Christians around the world celebrated Easter Sunday, Palestinian Christians from the occupied West Bank were prevented from reaching Jerusalem for Good Friday to walk the Via Dolorosa, the path Jesus is said to have followed on the way to his crucifixion more than 2,000 years ago. Meanwhile, Jesus's birthplace of Bethlehem is uncharacteristically empty of tourists this year as Israel's assault on Gaza and crackdown on the West Bank escalate. "Nothing can wash the blood from your hands," said the Reverend Munther Isaac at an Easter vigil for Gaza on Saturday, about Western complicity in Israel's genocide of Palestinians. Isaac is a Palestinian Christian theologian and the pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. He joins Democracy Now! to discuss the history of Palestinian Christians in Gaza, Israel's occupation of Bethlehem and its strangling of freedoms in the West Bank, U.S. Christians' support of Israel and more.
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Apr 01, 2024
Israeli forces withdrew from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City today after a two-week raid that has left most of the medical complex in ruins. Since October, Gaza's health sector has been completely decimated, leaving only a dozen hospitals partially functional as the entire medical infrastructure is relentlessly shelled, besieged and raided. We speak to British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who spent over a month treating patients at Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist hospitals. He pays tribute to Dr. Ahmad Maqadmeh, a fellow surgeon who was found killed today alongside his mother at Al-Shifa. "I blame the Western journalists, who perpetuated the narrative that militarized the hospital as a justifiable and acceptable target," says Abu-Sittah about Maqadmeh's death. "This was a war Israel declared on Palestinian children," he later concludes, "because Palestinian children represent the Palestinian tomorrow that is incompatible with the Zionist settler-colonial project." Plus, we hear from a trauma surgeon currently volunteering at the European Hospital in Khan Younis. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa describes the scene at the hospital as a squalid shelter for thousands of refugees. "There's no privacy, no dignity for any of these people," he says.
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Apr 01, 2024
Israel Ends Siege on Al-Shifa Hospital After Killing More Than 400 Palestinians, Israeli Airstrike on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital Kills Four; Injured Include Seven Journalists, Israel Creates "Kill Zones" in Gaza Where Soldiers Are Ordered to Shoot and Kill Everyone, Biden Admin Authorizes Billions of Dollars in New Bombs & Fighter Jets for Israel, Mass Protests in Israel Call for Ceasefire & Removal of Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Land Day Protests Held Across Globe, Smith College Students Continue Occupation Calling for School to Divest From Weapons Manufacturers, Pope Francis Repeats Call for Ceasefire in Gaza, Rep. Walberg (R-MI) Calls for Gaza to Be Bombed "Like Nagasaki and Hiroshima", Blast Injures Three U.N. Military Observers & Translator in Lebanon, Trump Posts Video of a Hogtied Biden, Continues to Verbally Attack New York Judge's Daughter, Recep Tayyip Erdogan Suffers Major Blow as Turkish Cities Vote for Opposition Party Mayors, Peruvian Police Raid President Dina Boluarte's Home Amid "Rolexgate" Investigation, Transgender Day of Visibility Sees Rallies, Celebrations, and GOP Attacks, Eight Chinese Migrants Found Dead on Mexican Beach After Boat Capsizes, California Fast-Food Workers Are Now Making at Least $20/Hour, Louis Gossett Jr., First Black Actor to Win Best Supporting Actor Oscar, Dies at 87
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Mar 29, 2024
Republicans are on a "crusade" against responsible investing, says Andrew Behar, CEO of the nonprofit group As You Sow that promotes corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy. His group was subpoenaed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this week as Republicans probe whether investments that take into account environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns violate antitrust laws. Republicans have introduced bills in dozens of states across the U.S. to limit state bodies from working with banks and other financial firms that take things like climate change into consideration in their investments. ESG is "a framework for assessing risk," Behar says. "Basic good business says you want to assess and address risk, and that's what they're trying to suppress."
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Mar 29, 2024
As the death toll in Gaza tops 32,600, we speak with UNICEF spokesperson James Elder in Rafah near the Egyptian border, now home to some 1.5 million Palestinians seeking shelter from the fighting. He says Israel's continued obstruction of aid into the territory is a "man-made and preventable" crisis of hunger and acute malnutrition that could be ended if Israel just opened access to more aid trucks, especially in northern Gaza, where desperate people could be reached in as little as 10 minutes. "When I'm on the street, every person, the first thing they want to tell me in English or Arabic is 'We need food, we need food,'" Elder tells Democracy Now! "They are saying that because their assumption is the world doesn't know, because how would this be allowed to happen if the world knew?" He also reiterates UNICEF's call for a full ceasefire and warns against Israel's planned ground invasion of Rafah, which he describes as "a city of children."
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Mar 29, 2024
Pro-Palestine protesters disrupted the largest one-night fundraiser in presidential campaign history on Thursday. The event at Radio City Music Hall in New York City included numerous celebrities and featured President Biden alongside former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, raising a record $25 million for Biden's reelection campaign. The main event was an onstage conversation with the three U.S. presidents moderated by late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert, but people began disrupting it just 10 minutes into their conversation, as Biden was talking, with protesters calling on the president to stop arming Israel and to enforce a ceasefire in Gaza. Meanwhile, thousands of protesters were also massed outside the venue to protest the Biden administration's support for Israel's assault on Gaza. We play voices from inside and outside the event.
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Mar 29, 2024
Search and rescue teams have recovered the bodies of two men from the Patapsco River following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, but four others remain missing and are presumed dead. All six victims were immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, part of a road crew that was filling potholes on the bridge when a cargo ship ran into one of the bridge supports, causing the entire structure to drop into the water. "The construction workers are absolutely essential," says Gustavo Torres, executive director of the immigrant rights group CASA, which counted two of the victims as members. "Immigrants face higher injury and death rates … than nonimmigrants, and they are significantly less likely to have insurance." He says the disaster has highlighted the difficult, often dangerous work done by immigrants in communities across the United States, and calls on political leaders to stop dehumanizing rhetoric. "What we need right now is comprehensive immigration reform. We don't need more attacks against the immigrant community."
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Mar 29, 2024
ICJ Orders Israel to Allow "Unhindered" Aid into Gaza in New Order as Starvation Deaths Mount, Reports: Israeli Airstrikes on Hezbollah Targets in Syria Kill 40 People, Including Civilians, Hebrew University Reinstates Palestinian Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian Following Outcry, "Let Gaza Live!": Activists Disrupt Glitzy Biden Fundraiser with Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Activist Vivien Sansour Highlights Destruction of Gaza's Soil, Trees Since War, South Carolina, Florida Will Vote in Racially Gerrymandered Districts in November, Texas Acquits Crystal Mason, Who Faced 5-Year Sentence, Legal Nightmare for Voting Error, Biden Administration Restores Endangered Species Act Protections Stripped by Trump, FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years for Defrauding Customers, Judge Dismisses Elon Musk Lawsuit Against Center for Countering Digital Hate, Colombia Expels Argentine Diplomats After Far-Right President Javier Milei Insults Leftist Leaders, Outrage After Saudi Arabia Named as Chair of U.N. Commission on the Status of Women
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Mar 28, 2024
Despite a U.N.-backed report sounding the alarm on imminent famine in northern Gaza, Israeli authorities announced Sunday they will no longer approve the passage of any UNRWA food convoys into northern Gaza. "Our ability to adequately continue saving lives is really being obstructed," says UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai. "What's going to happen to UNRWA if we can no longer truly operate?" The decision came as President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion appropriations bill that strips funding to UNRWA for the next year. The U.S. first suspended aid to UNRWA in late January, when the Israeli government claimed 12 of the agency's 30,000 employees were involved in Hamas's attacks on October 7. The unsubstantiated allegation prompted top donors to cut funding to UNRWA, though many of them have resumed funding as the agency welcomes new donor countries and an unprecedented number of civil society donations. Seeing the U.S., the agency's largest donor, "withhold funding … is a huge blow to us," says Alrifai. "Stripping UNRWA of funding not only shrinks its ability to respond to the looming famine in Gaza, but also puts at risk the schools, the access of kids to proper education, the vaccines, the mother and child care — everything across the region."
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Mar 28, 2024
A State Department official working on human rights issues in the Middle East resigned Wednesday in protest of U.S. support for Israel's assault on Gaza. Annelle Sheline, who worked as a foreign affairs officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, was not planning on publicly resigning, but her colleagues asked her to "please speak out" against the Biden administration's unconditional support for Israel. "At the end of the day, many people inside [the State Department] know that this is a horrific policy, and can't believe that the United States government is engaged in such actions that contravene American values so directly, but the leadership is not listening," says Sheline. "I'm trying to speak on behalf of those many, many people who feel so betrayed by our government's stance." Sheline describes being moved by the words of Aaron Bushnell, the active-duty U.S. airman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in protest of the war on Gaza, who implored everyone to take a stand against genocide. "I have a young daughter, and I thought about, in the future, if she were to ask me, 'What were you doing when this was happening? You were at the State Department.' I want to be able to tell her that I didn't stay silent."
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Mar 28, 2024
Almost six months into Israel's assault, Gaza's health sector has been completely decimated. Before October 7, Gaza had 36 hospitals. Now only two are minimally functional, and 10 are partially functional, according to the United Nations. The rest have shut down completely after either being shelled, besieged and raided by Israeli troops, or running out of fuel and medicine. Israel's assault has killed over 32,500 Palestinians, including over 14,000 children, and wounded nearly 75,000. We speak with Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician who just spent two weeks volunteering and living at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza, about what she witnessed and the conditions of healthcare in the beleaguered and devastated territory. "This is not a humanitarian crisis. This is the worst of what humanity is capable of, and it's entirely all man-made," says Haj-Hassan. "This is an utter and complete failure of humanity, and, to be frank, I feel ashamed to be an American citizen. I feel ashamed to be part of a society that has allowed this to continue."
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Mar 28, 2024
Video Shows Israeli Forces Shooting and Bulldozing Two Gazan Civilians as One Was Waving White Flag, Israeli Siege on Al-Shifa Hospital Continues: Journalist, at Least 13 Children Among Those Killed, Israel Kills Four Palestinians in Raid on Jenin in Occupied West Bank, Another State Dept. Official Makes Public Exit to Protest U.S. Support for Israeli Genocide, "A Dangerous Precedent in U.S. Foreign Policy": Center for American Progress Blasts State Dept., Ireland to Intervene in South Africa's Genocide Case at ICJ; Protests Continue in Amman, Jordan, 2 Bodies Recovered from Baltimore Bridge Collapse; 4 Others Presumed Dead, Alabama Democrat Flips State Seat After Running on Abortion Rights, IVF Access, Court Upholds Undated Ballots Law in PA; MT Supreme Court Strikes Down GOP Voter Suppression Laws, White Supremacists Who Murdered Ahmaud Arbery Ask Court to Overturn Federal Hate Crime Convictions, Trump Lashes Out at Judge Hours After He Imposed Gag Order on Ex-President, Joe Lieberman Dies, Leaves Behind Legacy of Championing War on Iraq, Blocking Healthcare Access, Phoenix Approves Measure to Protect Workers from Extreme Heat as Florida Blocks Similar Efforts, Argentina Convicts 11 Ex-Officials for Disappearances, Torture, Murders During Military Dictatorship, Indonesia Arrests 13 Soldiers over Torture Death in West Papua, Death Toll in Moscow Terror Attack Reaches 143 as Immigrant Communities Report Spike in Attacks, U.N. Secretary-General Guterres Calls for Slavery Reparations
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Mar 27, 2024
An immigration battle continues on the border between Texas and Mexico, as Texas's state government increases its militarization of the region, deploying hundreds of National Guard troops and constructing new infrastructure on the border. Meanwhile, a new federal spending bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden has increased funding for ICE and CBP, and state and federal courts have been wrangling over the legality of SB4, a new Texas state law that gives local police sweeping powers to arrest and deport anyone they suspect has entered the United States without authorization. We hear more from Fernando García, founder and executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights, in El Paso. García says the influx of special forces with "no training with how to deal with a civilian population," alongside the "show me your papers'' atmosphere created by SB4, is increasing the daily violence faced by Latinx residents on the U.S. side of the border, all while "illegally impeding" the right to seek asylum by those in "desperate" straits on the Mexico side. Instead of capitulating to anti-immigrant politicians, he continues, "We needed for the federal government to stop Texas, stop the governor" from targeting "Latinos, people of color, migrants and people looking for asylum, for protection."
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Mar 27, 2024
Six people are missing and presumed dead after a 984-foot cargo ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing the bridge's collapse early Tuesday morning. All six have been identified as immigrant construction workers originally hailing from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Maryland Governor Wes Moore said the crew on the ship was able to issue an emergency mayday call before colliding with the bridge, which allowed authorities to stop incoming traffic and prevent more casualties. However, reports say the workers already on the bridge were not given similar warnings. "The question we should be asking about is why the folks on that bridge … had no direct line to emergency dispatch when they are clearly working in a potentially hazardous environment," says journalist Maximillian Alvarez, the editor-in-chief of the Baltimore-based organization The Real News Network, who has been closely following the story and how it has affected immigrant and working-class communities. "What does this story actually show us? That immigrants are filling our potholes at night so that we can have a smooth drive to work in the morning," Alvarez says. "I hope people can see this and see the humanity in us."
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Mar 27, 2024
Democratic Arizona state Senator Eva Burch made headlines last week after speaking on the floor of the state Senate about her plans to obtain an abortion after receiving news that her pregnancy was nonviable. Arizona has banned all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. "I felt like it was really important for me to bring people along, so that people could really see what this looks like," says Burch, a former nurse practitioner who worked at a women's health clinic before running for office, about why she decided to publicly tell her story. "I wanted to pull people into the conversation so we can be more honest about what abortion care looks like" and "hopefully move the needle in the right direction," she adds.
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Mar 27, 2024
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday on the abortion pill mifepristone, which is available by mail and can be taken at home, even in states that have severely limited or banned abortions. The case was brought by a group of anti-choice medical associations that have sought to overturn moves by the Food and Drug Administration to increase access to the drug, which is used for roughly two-thirds of all U.S. abortions. This was the first abortion-related Supreme Court hearing since the court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. A decision is expected by July. "Overall the justices showed that they were skeptical of the claims brought by the plaintiffs in this case," says Michele Goodwin, a law professor at Georgetown University and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy. Goodwin summarizes the arguments presented by both sides, the justices' responses and the legal implications of the upcoming ruling.
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Mar 27, 2024
Supreme Court Appears Poised to Preserve Access to Abortion Pill Mifepristone, UNICEF: "Paper Thin" Children Dying in Gaza of Malnutrition and Dehydration, U.N. Special Rapporteur Outlines How Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza, Report: 69% of Israeli Arms Imports Come from United States, U.S. State Dept.: We Have Not Found Israel to Be Violating International Law in Gaza, "They Have a Point": Biden Responds to Pro-Palestinian Protesters, Israeli Airstrike on Lebanese Health Center Kills Seven Paramedics, Six Immigrant Construction Workers Still Missing After Baltimore Bridge Collapse, Russian Court Extends Detention of Evan Gershkovich, Police in India Detain Dozens of Protesters as Pre-election Crackdown Grows, NY Judge Issues Gag Order on Trump Ahead of Hush Money Trial, NBC Cuts Ties with Ex-RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel After Staff Protests, RFK Jr. Taps Nicole Shanahan to Be Running Mate, Homes of Sean "Diddy" Combs Raided in Federal Sex Trafficking Probe
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Mar 26, 2024
We look at Donald Trump's ongoing legal battles with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston, who has been covering Trump since the 1980s. The next major case against Trump is his hush money trial, set to begin April 15, in which he is accused of falsifying business records to cover up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an extramarital affair quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign. This comes as Trump is on the hook to produce $175 million to cover a civil fraud judgment in New York, where his bond was originally set at $454 million. Other cases against Trump, including over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents after he left office, are still ongoing. "Donald Trump has committed serious criminal acts his whole life, and … he's finally being held to account," says Johnston.
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Mar 26, 2024
We speak with former top U.N. human rights official Craig Mokhiber after the Security Council voted Monday on a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all remaining hostages. The United States abstained from the vote, allowing it to pass after nearly six months of obstructing similar efforts at the Security Council. Mokhiber, who resigned in October over the U.N.'s failure to address rights violations in Israel-Palestine, says "Israel has the world record" for violating U.N. resolutions and is certain to violate this ceasefire resolution, as well, even though it expressed "the very broad consensus across the global community against Israel's onslaught on Gaza." Israel continued bombing Gaza after Monday's vote, and top Israeli leaders have vowed to continue the war that has killed over 32,000 Palestinians so far. "What this genocide has done is it has revealed the weaknesses, the political compromises, the moral failings of the United Nations and other international institutions," says Mokhiber, who adds that continued pressure from civil society is needed to end the bloodshed.
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Mar 26, 2024
Former U.K. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn reacts to the United Nations Security Council's resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which passed 14-0 on Monday after the United States declined to use its veto by abstaining from the vote. Corbyn calls the war and suffering in Gaza "a global disgrace" and says the ceasefire must be enforced. "It's time to stand with the Palestinian people."
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Mar 26, 2024
The British High Court in London has put the extradition of Julian Assange on hold until the United States provides assurances that he would get a fair trial in the U.S. without facing the death penalty. If those assurances are not met, Assange will be granted the right to a full appeal hearing. Speaking outside the court Tuesday, Stella Assange called for the Biden administration to "drop this shameful case" against her husband. "Julian should never have been imprisoned for a single day," she said. We speak with MP Jeremy Corbyn, who led the U.K. Labour Party from 2015 to 2020 and who has been calling for all charges against Assange to be dropped. "The pressure needs to now go on to the Biden administration," Corbyn says. "If Julian goes down for this, every serious journalist around the world is going to be slightly more cautious about exposing war crimes, about exposing corporate greed."
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Mar 26, 2024
U.K. High Court Delays Possible Extradition of Julian Assange Until U.S. Provides "Assurances", UNSC Approves Its First Gaza Ceasefire Resolution Ater U.S. Abstains, Israeli Attack on Rafah Home Kills at Least 18 People, Half of Them Children, U.N.-Commissioned Report Lays Out Evidence of Israeli Genocide in Gaza, Baltimore Bridge Collapse Plunges Vehicles into Freezing River; Officials Warn of "Mass Casualties", Bassirou Diomaye Faye Clinches Senegalese Presidency, Vows to Fight Corruption and Inequality, Ecuador's Youngest Mayor Brigitte García Killed in Targeted Shooting, NBC News Faces Backlash After Hiring Former RNC Chair, Election Denier Ronna McDaniel, Trump's Bond in Civil Fraud Case Lowered to $175M as Judge Sets April 15 Date for Hush Money Trial, SCOTUS Hearing Arguments in Case That Could Restrict Nationwide Access to Abortion Pill, NYC Home Health Aides End Hunger Strike, Vow to Continue Fighting for an End to 24-Hour Workdays
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