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Twenty years ago today, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore in southeastern Louisiana, tearing through the Gulf Coast with catastrophic force and gushing winds, driving a massive storm surge toward New Orleans. Thousands were abandoned by state and federal officials, left to fight for survival in the rising floodwaters — many stranded on the rooftops of their sinking homes without water, food or medical care. The storm and its aftermath are the focus of the acclaimed new documentary series, Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time. It offers an historical record of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath and examines how it was a catalyst that revealed preexisting systemic failures. Democracy Now! speaks with the film's Academy Award-nominated director, Traci A. Curry.
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The UK says it is due to the Israeli escalation of the Gaza war but Israel called it discrimination.
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Independent journalist Jordan Flaherty was in New Orleans in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina first hit, and both supported and reported on relief efforts in the aftermath of the storm. Flaherty explains how Katrina's devastation to the city's infrastructure accelerated the existing dispossession of its primarily Black residents, how corruption and mismanagement in the years following the storm diverted aid, and how racist media narratives contribute to the ongoing criminalization of Black New Orleanians. "It's devastating," says Flaherty, warning that the aftermath of Katrina is not only reverberating, but amplifying, today. "The support for the oil and gas industry, the heightened climate change, hurricanes getting bigger, hurricanes getting stronger, less land to protect us in the city, less infrastructure to support us, less of a social safety net … less ways to afford to live in the city, in this country."
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President Trump's extraordinary push to override local authority and militarize cities in Democratic-run states has prompted an unusually united response from state leaders.
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The divide in the Democratic Party over Gaza came into full view at a meeting Tuesday of the Democratic National Committee, where party members debated rival resolutions on the U.S.-Israel relationship.
We speak with Allison Minnerly, a 26-year-old DNC member from Florida, who introduced a resolution for the party to support an arms embargo on Israel, cut off military aid to the country and recognize Palestinian statehood. The measure was blocked by party leaders who instead backed a rival resolution by DNC Chair Ken Martin, which called for a ceasefire in Gaza, increased humanitarian aid and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Martin ultimately withdrew his resolution amid outrage from rank-and-file members, who had overwhelmingly backed the more expansive proposal, and promised the creation of a task force to study the issue further.
"We need to continue this conversation," Minnerly tells Democracy Now! "Palestinian rights and dignity are just too important to ignore at a time like this, and we want the war in Gaza to end."
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It appeared to be among the largest federal raids in the state since President Trump took office.
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