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A federal appeals court on Thursday delivered the Trump administration a victory in its efforts to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, opening the door for his rearrest. Khalil was a graduate student at Columbia University when he was arrested in March and detained for months. He missed the birth of his son, Deen, while in detention. "The Trump administration is trying everything in its power to come after me, to put the full weight of the government to actually make an example out of me," Khalil tells Democracy Now! "The U.S. government has not brought a shred of evidence that I broke any laws."
The appeals court did not weigh in on the constitutional merits, instead saying Khalil should have appealed his removal order in immigration court before going to a federal judge. "What people need to understand is the immigration courts are not real courts," says Baher Azmy, a member of Khalil's legal team. "They're part of the executive branch."
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With Iran gripped by nationwide protests that activists say have left at least 2,600 people dead, we recently spoke with renowned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whose latest film, It Was Just an Accident, was shot entirely in secret inside Iran and won the Palme d'Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The film has since been shortlisted for an Oscar in the international feature category. Panahi dedicated a recent New York Film Critics Circle Award to Iranian protesters.
It Was Just an Accident centers on a group of former prisoners who kidnap a man they believe was their interrogator and grapple with whether to exact revenge, and Panahi says the film drew directly from his own experience with state violence and repression. Panahi has been repeatedly arrested in Iran, served prison sentences, and was recently sentenced in absentia to an additional year in prison and a two-year travel ban.
In an extended interview, Pahani discussed the protests in Iran, fighting against censorship, and the risk of prolonged cycles of violence. "I have always said this regime will fall. It is impossible for it to not fall, because it's a failed state in every sense," he said. "What I care about is the future of my country. I want the country to stand. I want there to be peace, and I want our children and the children of our children to not be facing bullets."
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As President Trump threatens Iran, Venezuela, Mexico, Greenland and more, renowned historian Alfred McCoy says the United States is "an empire in decline," following a predictable pattern of militarism abroad and political instability at home as it loses power and influence on the world stage. "American politics become increasingly contorted and irrational," says McCoy. "I think the thing to do is to realize that we are an empire in decline, … and it will continue for another decade or two, until American power finally slips away."
McCoy just published his latest book, Cold War on Five Continents: A Global History of Empire and Espionage, on the impact of U.S.-Soviet imperial proxy wars in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
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 Marco Bello/ReutersDonald Trump pulled out of another mainstream interview Thursday-this time nixing a sit-down with NBC News.
The interview, CNN reported, would be in Philadelphia with NBC News' senior business correspondent, Christine Romans. CNN's Brian Stelter said one source suggested that it had only been "postponed."
It was the second time in a week that he had canceled a scheduled appearance outside the conservative news sphere, CNN's Reliable Sources reported Thursday. He had canceled an in-studio appearance on the CNBC flagship show, Squawk Box, which was due on Friday.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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