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Nov 12, 2026
Alaska is the only Senate race yet to be called. Democratic challenger Mary Peltola is narrowly leading Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan with about 86% of votes counted. Alaska uses ranked-choice voting, a system where voters choose not only their top candidate, but can also indicate an order of preference for remaining candidates on the ballot. If no candidate wins a majority as the top choice, then second-choice votes are added to the totals and so on until there is a winner.
Rob Richie, president and founder of Expand Democracy and a senior adviser with FairVote, explains how ranked-choice voting has shaped the Alaska race and how it is "a system that promotes [candidates] reaching out, engaging, and, for voters, a lot of freedom."
Richie adds that Peltola is "heavily favored to win at this point."
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Nov 12, 2026
With Democrats set to take control of both chambers of Congress in January, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says he will not support Chuck Schumer for another term as the Democratic Senate leader, calling for the party to move in "a new and bold direction." Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin has said she will not support Schumer unless he presents a plan to govern differently, and several senators-elect have called for new leadership or declined to endorse Schumer. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen is considering challenging Schumer. Meanwhile, Hakeem Jeffries is facing questions about his leadership of House Democrats after 11 of the party's members missed a key vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
After "a big win for the populist wing of the Democratic Party, … it would be a betrayal for that election to result immediately in the Democratic Party simply responding by reelecting the same leadership," says David Sirota, editor-in-chief of The Lever.
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Nov 12, 2026
Democrat Scott Colom has defeated incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith to become Mississippi's first African American senator since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. The electoral breakthrough is particularly meaningful given Mississippi's history in the civil rights movement. In 1964, three civil rights activists — James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman — were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan after traveling to the state to register Black voters. We speak with two of their relatives about Colom's stunning upset.
"I believe that people were voting for help. And they evidently saw something in Mr. Colom that made them feel like that they could hope again and that he was the help that was needed," says Angela Lewis, the daughter of James Chaney.
"The people of Mississippi have spoken," adds David Goodman, the brother of Andrew Goodman. "And we have to cease and desist this divide-and-conquer business, because it's not in our collective interest as the United States of America."
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Nov 12, 2026
Democrat Scott Colom has made history as Mississippi's first Democratic senator since 1982 — and its first African American senator since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. Colom narrowly defeated Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in a state that President Trump won by nearly 23 points in 2024. Colom's victory brings the incoming Senate Democratic caucus to 55. Colom gave his victory speech on Wednesday at the historically Black Tougaloo College, just miles from where civil rights activist Medgar Evers was murdered in 1963 by a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
"There were times that I couldn't get donors to answer the phone; they did not believe a moment like this was possible. But I kept the faith," said Colom. "There are so many people that had faith in Mississippi at times where it seemed impossible, people like Medgar Evers."
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Nov 12, 2026
Democrats' Senate Majority Expands to 55 as Scott Colom Claims Historic Win in Mississippi, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Relocates to Military Base After "Iranian Threats", Progressives Call on Democratic Lawmakers to Stop Funding Attacks on Iran, Sen. Van Hollen Criticizes Schumer for Siding with AIPAC and Crypto Lobbies in Primaries, Rep.-elect Don Leonard Says Senior Dems Threatened to Make His Life "Living Hell" over Jeffries Vote, Israeli Strike on Nasser Hospital in Gaza Kills at Least Six People Including Surgeon, Hegseth and His Entourage Scolded for Breaking Decorum at Arlington National Cemetery, Trump's Triumphal Arch Faces Lawsuit from Members of Kennedy Family, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Resigns, SpaceX Plans $24 Billion Data Center in South Texas, Oakland City Council Unanimously Extends Data Center Moratorium for a Year, Millions Take Part in General Strike in Spain
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Nov 11, 2026
We speak with Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak, filmmakers and subjects of the new documentary Birds of War, which tells their epic love story through years of upheaval in the Middle East. Boulos, a London-based Lebanese journalist working for the BBC, and Habak, a Syrian activist and cameraman, first connected while covering the Syrian civil war and stayed in touch through years of war, revolution and exile, forming a relationship that is chronicled in the documentary by drawing on 13 years of their personal videos, voice notes and other correspondence.
The film also examines the unequal relationship between international news organizations and local journalists whose work they rely on, the fraught political history between Syria and Lebanon, and how Boulos and Habak's personal connection overcame those divisions.
"Without our journalistic relationship, [we] would have never been together. I would have never opened my heart to somebody like him," says Boulos. "We can be any race, any gender, any religion, any background, but at the same time we're all humans."
Birds of War premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact.
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Nov 11, 2026
Voters in Providence, Rhode Island, approved a ballot measure last week that could result in the city divesting from Israel. The successful grassroots campaign makes Providence the first U.S. city to pass a binding divestment measure through a popular vote. The measure instructs the city to divest from countries and companies implicated in "ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal military occupation, or genocide." The language does not mention Israel by name. We speak with one of the key backers of the divestment measure, Mayor-elect David Morales, a 28-year-old democratic socialist who made history on election night as the youngest mayor ever elected in Providence.
"What we saw was our neighbors coming out in the thousands to demonstrate that we are ready for change," Morales says, promising to enact his affordability-focused platform. "It's the responsibility of local government to take action. And for that reason, we are seeing a rise in democratic socialism and the representation of democratic socialists all across the country."
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Nov 11, 2026
We speak with historian Kai Bird about American Scoundrel, a new biography of the notorious political fixer Roy Cohn, who rose to fame as chief counsel to Joe McCarthy during the senator's anti-communist campaign, served as a lawyer for the New York mob, and was an influential voice in Republican circles until his death from AIDS-related complications in 1986. His most impactful relationship, however, would prove to be with a young Donald Trump, whom he mentored in business and politics during the 1970s and '80s.
Facing political setbacks during his first term as president, Trump reportedly asked, "Where's my Roy Cohn?" Bird, who co-authored American Scoundrel with his wife Susan Goldmark, says Trump may have found his Cohn in Stephen Miller, the architect of the administration's mass deportation policies whom Trump just elevated to chief of staff.
"It's not really a surprise that, cornered and wounded by the recent election results, he reaches out and pulls up Stephen Miller, who's very similar in his willingness to go on the offensive and never back down, and to say outrageous things to try to change the narrative," says Bird.
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Nov 11, 2026
House GOP Blocks Impeachment Charges Against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Sanders Says He Will Not Back Schumer for Senate Majority Leader, Rep. Jordan Elected as House GOP Leader as Senator Thune Reelected as Senate Republican Leader, Trump's Former Lawyer Alina Habba Mildon Fired by Concord Partners, U.S. Gov't Received Over $12 Billion in Revenue from Venezuela's Oil Exports, NYT: Immigrants Deported Back to Home Countries Despite Court Orders, WaPo: ICE Hired 19 Officers with Past Allegations of Misconduct, Violence and Criminal Charges, Immigrants Jailed at Northwest Detention Center in Washington Hold Hunger Strike, Israeli Forces Kill at Least Eight Palestinians in Gaza, Israeli Soldiers Kill 14-Year-Old Palestinian Boy in West Bank, Russia and Ukraine Hold First Peace Talks in Nine Months, Independent Russian Newspaper Novaya Gazeta Closes Moscow Office, Egyptian Court Postpones Criminal Trial of Mada Masr's Editor-in-Chief Lina Attalah, Federal Appeals Court Rules Trump Admin Illegally Fired Head of Voice of America, Greta Thunberg Attends U.N. Climate Summit for the First Time Since 2021, Thousands of Protesters Rally in Indonesia over Government's Response to Fires
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Nov 10, 2026
Progressive candidate Will Lawrence of Michigan has defeated Republican incumbent Tom Barrett, flipping the state's 7th Congressional District, a closely watched swing district that includes Lansing. Lawrence, the co-founder of the youth-led climate organization Sunrise Movement, refused corporate PAC money, instead building a people-powered grassroots mobilization campaign. He focused on lowering the costs of housing and healthcare, opposing the war on Iran, and challenging the power of Big Tech.
"I'm fighting for a federal moratorium on new data center development, along with a pause on advanced AI development," says Lawrence. "These developers come into small towns, and they say, 'We're going to suck up a bunch of water. We're going to use more energy than the current capacity of the grid. We don't know what's going to happen to your property values, but if everything goes well, we're going to put 10 or 20 million people out of work, and if it goes poorly, we may kill everybody by accident.'"
Lawrence also says he will back Hakeem Jeffries for House speaker, but that he will demand Democratic leadership listen to progressive concerns.
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Nov 10, 2026
The prominent journalist Abed Abu Shehadeh, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, has been released from Israeli custody after five days in detention. He was arrested on Wednesday by armed police and Shin Bet agents who conducted a nighttime raid on his home in the Israeli city of Jaffa. Abu Shehadeh's detention was related to his reporting on the October 27 Israeli election and the role of Palestinian political parties. Ahead of the election, he interviewed Azmi Bishara, a Palestinian intellectual and former member of the Israeli Knesset who has lived in exile in Qatar since fleeing Israel amid allegations that he aided Hezbollah during the 2006 Lebanon war. Israeli authorities detained Abu Shehadeh on suspicion of "contacting a foreign agent," in connection to his interview with Bishara.
"Men with ski masks knock on your door at 11 at night. They tell you that they have an arrest warrant. They raid the house. They wake your wife, your children," says Shehadeh. "It tells how messianic and dangerous the extreme right in Israel has become, willing to use this unprecedented power against journalists."
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Nov 10, 2026
The House of Representatives is moving toward a vote this week on whether to impeach Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Outgoing Republican Congressmember Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Monday. They include violating the 1973 War Powers Resolution by continuing to attack Iran after Congress ordered the Trump administration to stop, illegally waging war against Yemen, ignoring laws designed to reduce civilian casualties, overseeing "extrajudicial killings" by bombing the boats of alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, abducting President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela without congressional authorization, and suppressing the free speech rights of Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in retaliation for his participation in a video reminding troops not to obey illegal orders. If the House votes for impeachment, it will prompt a Senate trial that could end with removal from office.
"Under Hegseth, the U.S. military has been hijacked," says retired Air Force Master Sergeant Wes Bryant, who served as chief of civilian harm assessment at the Pentagon from 2024 to 2025. "America has portrayed itself to the world as a far-right dictatorship bent on global domination, and Hegseth and his wielding of the U.S. military with free rein from Donald Trump is really the primary enforcer of that."
Bryant adds that "Hegseth should be the first domino," but that Trump, as well as "many of our senior military leaders," should also be impeached.
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Nov 10, 2026
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Pentagon Retreats from Second U.K. Base Due to Alleged Threat from Iran, Trump Raises New Election Conspiracy Theory After Democrats Sweep Midterms, Schumer Faces Pressure to Step Aside as Chris Van Hollen Hints at Run for Senate Majority Leader, Senate Advances Bill to Speed Construction of Fossil Fuel Projects and Data Centers, 5 Arrested at Anthropic's NYC Offices as Protesters Demand Halt to IPO Plans, African National Congress Suffers Its Worst Election Result Since South Africa Ended Apartheid, Dozens Drown in Capsized Boats While Attempting to Reach European Soil, U.S. Cancels Deportation Flight of Iranians at Last Minute , ICE Detains 8-Year-Old Haitian Boy in San Diego After Routine Immigration Check-In , SCOTUS Allows Trump Admin to Resume Border Wall Construction in Big Bend National Park, Proposed USDA Policy Would Cut Food Aid for Millions of People , New York Focus Uncovers 2023 Sexual Assault Lawsuit by Two Former Cornell Students, Russell Brand Sentenced to 10.5 Years in Prison, Proposition 40 Billionaire Tax Fails to Pass in California, Online Magazine Salon Closes After 31 Years of Publication, Palestinian American Ahmed Moor Launches 2028 Democratic Primary Challenge Against Sen. Fetterman
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Nov 09, 2026
Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of Egypt's leading independent news outlet Mada Masr, faces a criminal trial this week on charges of "spreading false information," just two weeks after being convicted of operating an unlicensed website and fined more than $50,000. A judge also ordered the publication to be shut down. The cases are part of a broader crackdown on independent Egyptian media under the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, including the arrest of the entire newsroom of another outlet, _ Matsadaash_. More than 100 organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists, have condemned the arrests and prosecutions and called on Egyptian authorities to drop the charges.
"Putting us in jail is not going to solve the country's problems," Attalah told Democracy Now! in an interview Friday. "We need to be operating as journalists in our newsrooms as opposed to being defendants in courtrooms."
Attalah says she and Mada Masr will appeal the ruling to shut them down, hoping to "use this crisis" as a way to fight censorship in Egypt and expand the space for independent reporting.
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Nov 09, 2026
The next Congress will include about 100 new lawmakers in the House of Representatives, the largest freshman wave in decades. That also includes six newly elected members of the Democratic Socialists of America, bringing the total number of DSA members in Congress to eight. One of the incoming DSA congressmembers will be California's Angela Gonzales-Torres, who worked two other jobs while campaigning and was massively outspent by her opponent, incumbent Democratic Congressmember Jimmy Gomez.
In her first national TV interview, Gonzales-Torres tells Democracy Now! she will prioritize immigrant justice, Medicare for All and fighting corruption, when she is sworn in. She also explains why she has not yet committed to supporting Hakeem Jeffries for House speaker.
"As of right now, my vote is no," she says. "Over 100,000 Angelenos voted for courage. They voted for change."
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Nov 09, 2026
Stephen Miller, the architect of the Trump administration's mass deportation policies, has replaced Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. In a recent 60 Minutes interview, President Donald Trump acknowledged that his immigration policies may be "too tough" and contributed to his party's steep losses in the midterm elections, but in elevating Miller, he is "choosing to double down," says journalist Jean Guerrero. "Stephen Miller enables [Trump] in this instinct to choose cruelty over everything else," she says.
Guerrero is a New York Times contributing opinion writer, USC journalism professor and author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda.
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Nov 09, 2026
Democrats Build on Sweeping Gains in Midterm Elections, Claiming 254 House Seats, Trump Replaces White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles with Stephen Miller, Former Top Federal Health Official Accuses Wiles of Putting Lobbyists and Campaign Funds Ahead of Public Health, Petition Urging Jeffries to Remove Himself from Race to Become House Speaker Surpasses a Million Signatures, 30 People Killed in Yemen in Missile Attack, Israeli President Herzog Picks Opposition Leader Eisenkot to Form Next Government, Israeli Forces Release Palestinian Journalist Abed Abu Shehadeh, Storm Triggers Mass Flooding in Gaza, Killing 5 Palestinians, as Israel Bars Imports of Shelter, Hundreds of Thousands March in Amsterdam Demanding Action to Stop Gaza Genocide, Protesters Take Direct Action to "Stop Dirty Data Centers" in Europe, Nvidia Share Prices Plummet as CEO Jensen Huang Admits to Affair with Alleged Chinese Spy, U.S. Is Absent as United Nations Climate Talks Open in Antalya, Turkey, Disgraced Paraguayan Ex-President Charged with Corruption over Bank Collapse
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Nov 06, 2026
Tuesday was a historic night for progressive Democrats and, in particular, candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. Six new DSA-endorsed candidates were elected to the House, and democratic socialists won mayoral races in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Providence.
"The Democratic Socialists of America had a phenomenal night, and this movement is only going to continue to grow," says prominent leftist political commentator Hasan Piker. "Now, here's the problem: Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are two of the least popular politicians in the country right now, and there are demands to change the leadership in the Democratic Party to reflect the desires of this new coalition that was developed on November 3."
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Nov 06, 2026
The midterms saw a landslide of Latinos vote for Democrats. In Texas, California, Kansas and Colorado, Latinos who had voted for Republicans just two years ago voted for Democrats in large numbers, helping secure Democratic control of both the House and the Senate. Latino lawmakers will make up about a fifth of the Democratic majority in the House. And in an historic victory, the two most populous states in the country, California and Texas, will soon be led by Democratic Latino governors.
"Texas has been suddenly transformed into a battleground state," says Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez. "Texas has been the biggest and most important red state in the country for decades, and I've been predicting for years that it is the key link for achieving a realignment of national politics."
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Nov 06, 2026
Mississippi's race for the U.S. Senate remains too close to call: Democrat Scott Colom is narrowly leading Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by nearly 2,000 votes with 96% of votes counted as of Friday morning. Donald Trump carried Mississippi by 23 points in 2024. If elected, Colom would be the first Democrat to win the state in 40 years and the first African American since 1875, during the Reconstruction era. Colom, the former district attorney for northeast Mississippi, made the issue of affordability central to his campaign. He has sharply criticized national Democrats for writing off Mississippi and failing to invest in his campaign early on.
"The entire country shifted left. But when you look at it regionally, the biggest shifts took place in the South — Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana," says Cliff Albright, executive director of Black Voters Matter. That "wave of energy" was "largely led by Black voters who were most under attack with the mid-decade racial gerrymandering that was taking place. It clearly backfired, and all it did was to wake up a sleeping giant."
"Without the extreme gerrymandering, without the extreme voter restrictions that have been seen throughout the South, [the] wave would have been even bigger," adds Chris Kromm, executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies. "There's a real opportunity for engaging more voters and really pushing the region in a more progressive direction."
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Nov 06, 2026
Democrats Lead in Alaska and Mississippi Senate Races as House Majority Approaches 260 Seats, Incoming Freshman Senators Call for New Leadership to Replace Top Democrat Chuck Schumer, Pete Hegseth Defends Iran War, Demands $350B in Additional Funding and Vows to Fight Impeachment, Marco Rubio Reportedly Considers Resigning as Secretary of State Ahead of Presidential Run, Harmeet Dhillon Resigns as Head of DOJ's Civil Rights Division, DSA Candidates Win Mayor's Races in L.A., D.C., Ann Arbor and Providence, Democratic Socialist Angela Gonzales-Torres Beats AIPAC-Backed Democrat for L.A. House Seat, Sunrise Movement Co-Founder William Lawrence Flips Battleground House District in Michigan, Gov. Gavin Newsom Commutes Death Sentences of All Death Row Prisoners, U.S. Held Secret Talks with Tehran in Bid to Deport Iranians, Despite "Threat of Certain Death", Over 600,000 March in France as Unions Hold Strike to Protest Austerity and Rising Prices , Paraguay's Trump-Supported President Resigns, Faces Criminal Probe Following Bank's Collapse, Russell Brand Found Guilty of Rape and Sexual Assaults
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Nov 05, 2026
Democrats regained control of both the House and the Senate in Tuesday's historic midterm elections, a comeback fueled largely by voter anger over high prices and the war on Iran. But surveys also found that corruption was a major concern, with 76% of voters telling a Harris poll that elected officials care more about enriching themselves than improving the economy for ordinary people. A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 63% of Americans considered it inappropriate for Trump and his family to profit from cryptocurrency, while 69% said his private business interests influence his decisions as president.
"If this election was about corruption and cost, then this next Congress needs to be focused on accountability and affordability," says Donald Sherman, the president and CEO of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW.
"Congress needs to do oversight not just on the administration's corruption, not just on the president's profiteering, but also on corporate America, what they have gotten out of engaging in the president's pay-to-play environment, how corporate America and the outside influence of money in our political system has undermined the public voice in our policy discussions."
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Nov 05, 2026
The Democratic Socialists of America made major gains in this year's U.S. midterms, electing not just the largest-ever socialist bloc to Congress, but also winning dozens of races at the state, county and municipal levels. Democracy Now! spoke with Congressmember-elect Melat Kiros on election night following her victory in Denver, Colorado. She identified Medicare for All as her top priority and said progressives must lay the groundwork "so that in '29, when we have the House, the Senate and the White House, we can sign it into law on day one."
Kiros is a 29-year-old Ethiopian immigrant and lawyer. In 2023, Kiros wrote an open letter about the danger of conflating antisemitism and criticism of Israel, for which she was fired by her law firm. She won a major upset in the Democratic primary earlier this year against longtime incumbent Congressmember Diana DeGette.
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Nov 05, 2026
We examine the results of Tuesday's historic U.S. midterm elections with Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief of Bolts. In addition to taking back the House and Senate, Democrats also made major gains at the state level and will control a majority of governorships for the first time in 16 years. Democrats also flipped 12 state legislative chambers.
"The size of the wins for Democrats in statewide races was wild," says Nichanian. He identifies protecting abortion access, bolstering unions and ending police cooperation with ICE as some of the priorities Democrats are likely to pursue.
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Nov 05, 2026
Vance Blames Republican Election Losses on the U.S. War on Iran, Florida's GOP Gov. DeSantis Calls Election "Extinction-Level Event for Republicans", Yemeni Government Claims to Have Thwarted Large-Scale Attack by Ansar Allah in Taiz, Israeli Attacks Kill at Least Four Palestinians in Gaza, Israeli Court Extends Detention of Palestinian Journalist Abed Abu Shehadeh, United Nations Ends Peacekeeping Mission in Western Sahara, South Africans Begin Voting in Municipal Elections, World Health Organization Approves Trials of Two New Ebola Vaccines, Paraguay Central Bank Takes Over Lender with Close Ties to President Peña, Colombia Toughens Terms for Armed Groups Who Surrender, Ending "Total Peace" Approach, Striking Bangladeshi Garment Workers Win Concessions Amid Protests over Poverty Wages, Court Blocks Trump Administration from Deporting Afghans to Pakistan or Afghanistan, Google Plans to Cut Off Search Access to Schools That Reject AI
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Nov 04, 2026
Black voters in Georgia on Tuesday said, "Not today, Satan," according to professor Carol Anderson, professor of African American studies at Emory University. Despite the Trump administration's efforts to disenfranchise Black voters in the South this election cycle and the Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act, she says there was "massive turnout" that propelled Democrats to victory. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms defeated billionaire Republican healthcare executive Rick Jackson, becoming the first Black woman ever elected governor in the United States. Incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff also handily won his bid for reelection.
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Nov 04, 2026
Texas Democrats have shattered more than three decades of Republican dominance in the state, winning races for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and even railroad commissioner. They are also poised to possibly take control of the Texas House of Representatives for the first time since 2003. The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, lost his bid for a fourth term to Democratic state Representative Gina Hinojosa, who defeated him by nearly 700,000 votes. She will be Texas's first Latina governor. And James Talarico will be the first Democrat to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate since 1993.
"We're celebrating these wonderful candidates who won office, and we're also starting to think about what it means to hold power," says Mike Siegel, a city council member from Austin, Texas, who founded Ground Game Texas, a statewide voter turnout organization. "We need to start thinking very quickly about how we will protect public education, how we will stop data centers and the encroachment of AI on our society, how we will protect public schools, how we stop collaboration with ICE."
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Nov 04, 2026
In a stunning repudiation of President Trump, Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, flipping seven Senate seats: Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina. Meanwhile, progressive Democrat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed defeated former Republican Congressmember Mike Rogers for an open Senate seat in Michigan with over 52% of the vote. El-Sayed campaigned on a platform of Medicare for All, tackling economic inequality and getting big money out of politics — as well as ending military aid to Israel. He is the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. El-Sayed faced vitriolic, Islamaphobic attacks by top Republicans throughout the campaign.
"Last night wasn't just about Dr. Abdulrahman being a Muslim, winning and going to the United States Senate," says Palestinian American organizer and author Linda Sarsour, who has been campaigning for El-Sayed. "It demonstrated that progressives can win in states like Michigan" and that "we can win on standing up for the human rights of the Palestinian people."
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Nov 04, 2026
Voters Deliver Stunning Rebuke of Trump with Democrats Regaining Control of Congress, Historic Night in Texas as Democrats Win Senate Seat and Governorship, Progressive Michigan Democrat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed Elected First Muslim Senator, Democrat Annie Andrews Wins South Carolina Senate Seat in a Stunning Upset, Mississippi's Senate Race Remains Too Close to Call, Democrat Troy Jackson Unseats Five-Term GOP Senator Susan Collins, New Hampshire Democrat Chris Pappas Becomes First Openly Gay Senator, Adam Hamilton Becomes First Kansas Democrat Elected to the Senate Since 1932, Democrat Amy Acton Defeats Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio Governor's Race, Democrat Deb Haaland Becomes First Native American Female Governor in U.S. History, Midterm Elections Result in Several Historic Firsts, The Democratic Socialists of America Score Big Wins in Congress, Voters Approve Ballot Measures Expanding Reproductive Rights, Trump Announces U.S. to Stop Providing Israel $4 Billion in Annual Military Aid, DOJ Tells Alaska Democrats They May Be Targets of Federal Probe over Alleged "Spoiler" Candidate, Trump Administration Presses for Long-Term U.S. Military Occupation of Venezuela
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Nov 03, 2026
In 2024, Donald Trump won the presidency with the support of 44% of Hispanic voters, suggesting that a major realignment in party preferences might be underway. But just two years later, it appears much of that support has eroded. Sixty-one percent of Hispanic voters say they will now support Democrats in the midterms, including 11% who previously had voted for President Trump.
We get a bird's-eye view of what to expect from the Latino vote from Marisa Franco, the co-founder and director of the advocacy organization Mijente. While ICE brutality will be at the front of voters' minds, she says, Democrats cannot continue to take Latino voters for granted. "The vast majority of Latinos are working-class. Quite simply, they voted for Trump because they were looking at issues of economy, cost, inflation," explains Franco. "And at the end of the day, these same issues have worsened under Trump's administration, under Republican control. So people, I think, are looking for someone who's going to explain what's happening and propose solutions and be dogged about finding them."
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Nov 03, 2026
New York City is preparing to send two DSA members, presumptive election night winners Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, to Capitol Hill. DSA-backed candidates made historic gains in this year's Democratic primaries, with at least five expected to join current DSA members Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the House. But can socialism really make headway in the halls of Congress? Democracy Now! fellows Amba Guerguerian and Diego Ramos report.
"Our task is going to be winning our colleagues over to our position and finding common ground," Valdez tells Democracy Now! "Some of the most popular policies in our country's history have been socialist policies," says Avila Chevalier. "They have been the things that working people have organized for and won."
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Nov 03, 2026
As President Donald Trump continues to cast doubt on the integrity of U.S. elections, signaling his intentions to challenge results unfavorable to Republicans, we go to Washington, D.C., where a federal judge ruled Monday night that the Department of Justice can deploy election monitors to polling sites across the country, as long as they are not law enforcement officers with the power to make arrests. "In some respects, this is a victory for voters. Every voter in our country deserves to be able to cast a ballot today, free from intimidation," says Kristen Clarke of the NAACP, which sued to challenge the DOJ's plans to deploy ICE agents and other armed officers to the polls.
The NAACP was also part of a coalition that intervened when the Trump administration attempted to force California to set aside about 20,000 mail-in ballots that it alleged were sent incorrectly to noncitizens. "This was a baseless, error-prone, shoddy 11th-hour attempt to hijack the election in California, plain and simple, and it's now been rejected by four courts," Clarke says. The administration's attacks on voters "are not bearing fruit," she adds. "We anticipate and are ready for anything that they may throw our way."
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Nov 03, 2026
As President Donald Trump continues to cast doubt on the integrity of U.S. elections, signaling his intentions to challenge results unfavorable to Republicans, we go to Washington, D.C., where a federal judge ruled Monday night that the Department of Justice can deploy election monitors to polling sites across the country, as long as they are not law enforcement officers with the power to make arrests. "In some respects, this is a victory for voters. Every voter in our country deserves to be able to cast a ballot today, free from intimidation," says Kristen Clarke of the NAACP, which sued to challenge the DOJ's plans to deploy ICE agents and other armed officers to the polls.
The NAACP was also part of a coalition that intervened when the Trump administration attempted to force California to set aside about 20,000 mail-in ballots that it alleged were sent incorrectly to noncitizens. "This was a baseless, error-prone, shoddy 11th-hour attempt to hijack the election in California, plain and simple, and it's now been rejected by four courts," Clarke says. The administration's attacks on voters "are not bearing fruit," she adds. "We anticipate and are ready for anything that they may throw our way."
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Nov 03, 2026
As voters in the United States head to the polls, we take a look at what's on the ballot with Chris Melody Fields Figueredo of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. "This is a consequential election, and voters are going to be able to vote on democracy itself, whether they can participate in elections, how congressional districts are drawn, whether they will have autonomy of their own bodies," says Fields Figueredo, who previews some of the over 145 ballot initiatives being considered across the country, including California's billionaire wealth tax and measures concerning reproductive, voting and LGBTQ rights.
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Nov 03, 2026
WSJ: U.S. Carries Out Strikes Around Strait of Hormuz on Eve of Midterm Elections, SCOTUS Rejects Trump Admin's Attempt to Force California to Set Aside 20,000 Mail-In Ballots, Federal Judge Denies Attempt by NAACP to Block DOJ from Deploying Election Monitors, Michigan Democratic Senate Nominee Dr. El-Sayed Raises $2.4 Million in One Day, Aide to Georgia GOP Senate Candidate Mike Collins Posted Online Slurs and Calls to Violence, Elon Musk Spent Record-Shattering $474 Million on Midterm Elections, Former Head of Chicago FBI Sues DOJ, Alleging Politically Driven Prosecutions, New York Records First Measles Death in Over 3 Decades, Houthis Advance on Aden as Fighting Worsens Yemen's Hunger Crisis, Displaced Palestinians Return to Hebron as Israel Ends 10-Day Siege, Russian Strike on Humanitarian Aid Center in Ukraine Leaves Dozens Injured or Dead, Bangladeshi Garment Workers' Strike Demands End to Poverty Wages
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Nov 02, 2026
Vanity Fair recently published an excerpt from longtime investigative reporter Mathhew Cole's new book, Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East.
The excerpt alleged that during President Trump's first term, Saudi and Emirati leaders secretly put at least $2 billion into bank accounts and gave access to Kushner. At the time, Jared Kushner was serving as senior adviser to President Trump, his father-in-law. He is now Trump's special envoy. Kushner's lawyers responded by demanding that Vanity Fair retract the article and threatening legal action against the book publisher, Simon & Schuster.
Jared Kushner denied the report, saying, "The allegations made by this author are completely insane, categorically false, and never happened. We denied every one of these claims on the record, yet the author failed to provide a single shred of evidence to substantiate any of them." His lawyers say no such bank accounts existed and that the allegations are unsupported by the verifiable evidence.
In an extended interview with Democracy Now!, author Matthew Cole stood by his reporting. "This book is a result of more than 50 sources. There was an enormous amount of fact-checking and legal vetting that went into this book," says Cole. "There's plenty of information and reporting in the book that lets us establish and understand that there was … an unholy alliance between Jared Kushner and the leader of the UAE, the leader of Saudi Arabia and, at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel."
On Friday, Congressmember Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called on Kushner to recuse himself from Middle East and Ukraine negotiations and to produce a "comprehensive list of bank accounts or other financial
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Nov 02, 2026
Democratic Congressmember Stevens Endorses MAGA Republican Rogers in Michigan's Senate Election, Federal Judge Orders Trump Admin to Halt Pressure Campaign Against Election Officials, Federal Judge Rejects DOJ's Lawsuit Seeking to Block Certification of Alaska's Senate Election If GOP Loses, Federal Appeals Panel Refuses DOJ's Request for California to Segregate Ballots Supposedly from Noncitizens, GOP Senator Marshall Releases New Ad About His Medical Practice after Democratic Attacks, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy Hospitalized After Stroke, Federal Judge Dismisses Trump's $10 Billion Lawsuit Against Wall Street Journal over Epstein Reporting, Federal Court Refuses to Dismiss NAACP Lawsuit Against Elon Musk's SpaceX, Thousands Rally in Tel Aviv Demanding Opposition Form a Jewish-Arab Coalition to Oust Netanyahu, Israeli Strikes Kill Eight Palestinians in Gaza, Tens of Thousands of People Protest Across Germany, 320,000 People Participate in France's Third Weekend of Protests, Anti-Government Protests Continue to Roil India, Calling for Resignation of Chief Election Commissioner, U.K. Bars Swedish Climate Scholar and Palestinian Rights Advocate Andreas Malm from Entering the Country, Houston Grand Jury Indicts ICE Agent for Running Over Immigrant Construction Worker, AP: Trump Admin Plans to Deport Afghan Immigrants Via Pakistan
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Oct 30, 2026
We speak with Forensic Architecture's Eyal Weizman about his new book, Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide, a meticulous investigation into Israel's genocide in Gaza, the physical destruction of the territory and its impact on the Palestinian people.
Forensic Architecture was founded in 2010 as an interdisciplinary research group focused on investigating state violence and human rights violations. Since 2023, Forensic Architecture has focused on producing evidence for South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Weizman says "ungrounding" is "a kind of destruction that we have not seen anywhere else," with Israeli bulldozers "terraforming" the landscape to erase all traces of Palestinian life. With thousands of bodies still unrecovered from under destroyed buildings, Israel's flattening, extraction and reshaping of the rubble in Gaza is a continuation of its crimes, says Weizman.
"Israel is actively and against court order, against the order of the ICJ, destroying the evidence of the genocide that it has perpetrated," he says.
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Oct 30, 2026
DOJ Opens Criminal Probe of California Mail-In Ballots Despite Judge's Order, Corporations Spend $737M on Midterm Elections as Super-Rich Give $4.2B to Super PACs, Trump Returns to South Carolina to Rally GOP Support as Pollsters Declare Senate Race a Toss-Up, DOJ Ramps Up Criminal Probe of Alaska Senate Candidate Mary Peltola's Campaign with Subpoenas, Famine Declared in Yemeni City of Taiz Amid Houthi Siege, Sen. Chris Murphy Calls Trump's Plans to Renew Attacks on Iran "Insane", Russian Strike Kills 14 at Crowded Train Station in Ukraine as Another Ship Is Sunk in Black Sea, Ukraine Halts Attacks on Russian Refineries at Trump's Request, as Russian Diesel Heads Toward U.S., GEO Group Signs 10-Year Contract to Continue Operating Notorious Tacoma ICE Jail, El Salvador Deploys 2,000 Troops to Haiti, Flávio Bolsonaro Declares He's Brazil's "Legitimate" Leader After Trump Helps Him Flee to Miami
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Oct 29, 2026
Several tech workers at Google's AI unit DeepMind have resigned in protest over the tech giant's work with the U.S. and Israeli militaries. Last week, DeepMind research engineer Sofia Liguori announced her resignation in a letter to her colleagues titled "Stay Human." She denounced what she called "Google's complicity in the Gaza genocide" and the increasing integration of Google's technology into military and surveillance systems.
"I felt I could not, in good faith, send this message of building AI to benefit humanity while ignoring that our company was complicit in a genocide," Liguori tells Democracy Now! "The problem is that when the focus is on the model capabilities and on the potential for agents 'going rogue,' we are shifting the attention from a specific human choice … which is this unrestrained, unregulated integration of the systems without red lines."
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Oct 29, 2026
Immigrant rights and labor icon Dolores Huerta died Wednesday at the age of 96. Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 and then the United Farm Workers of America, working with Cesar Chavez. From 1965 to 1970, the union organized the historic Delano grape strike, which ended in major gains for farmworkers' labor rights.
In the years that followed, Huerta became heavily involved in the women's liberation and immigrant rights movements and became a major supporter of the Democratic Party. In March, The New York Times published an investigation into Cesar Chavez's history of sexual abuse of women and girls in the farmworkers' movement, prompting Huerta to reveal that she, too, had been raped by Chavez. Huerta said the assaults led to the births of two of her children.
Dolores Huerta appeared on Democracy Now! many times over the years. We remember her legacy with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, who says, "Dolores was not only a labor organizer, a civil rights organizer, a feminist, committed, always optimistic about the possibilities of this country, but she loved life, and I want people to remember that."
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Oct 29, 2026
Arab Parties Could Determine Next Israeli Prime Minister as Election Produces No Clear Winner, Israel Bombs Gaza Ministry as Settlers Attack Palestinians and Activists in West Bank, City of Cambridge, MA, Votes to Divest from Businesses Tied to Israel's Military, Three More Oil Tankers Erupt in Flames Near Strait of Hormuz, Pentagon Tells Congress U.S. War on Iran Has Cost $47 Billion, NYT: Democrats Recruited Another Dan Sullivan to Sow Confusion in Alaska Senate Race, Tennessee GOP House Candidate Blames "Youthful Indiscretions" for Unsolicited Nude Photos, Judge Says U.S. Request to Set Aside California Ballots Would "Wreak Havoc and Disrupt the Election", Right-Wing Activist James O'Keefe Charged with Unlawful Voting in Minnesota over Islamophobic Stunts, Hasan Piker Files $72 Million Defamation Lawsuit Against Scott Jennings, Labor Organizer and Civil Rights Activist Dolores Huerta Dies at 96, United Nations Condemns U.S. Economic Embargo of Cuba, Judge Overseeing Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores Case Dies at 92, Spain Train Crash Kills 68 People, Dozens Injured, Alexander Brothers Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison for Sex Trafficking
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Oct 28, 2026
We get analysis of the Israeli elections, the upcoming U.S. midterms, the pro-Palestine movement and more from Palestinian American scholar Rashid Khalidi and Pakistani British writer Tariq Ali. They are co-authors of the new book The Neck and the Sword: Palestine's Unfinished Struggle. The book, an extended conversation between Khalidi and Ali over two years, offers an overview of Palestinian intellectual and political history, drawing its title from a famous phrase used by the renowned Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani to describe the futility of "peace talks" between occupier and occupied, saying it was akin to a "conversation between the sword and the neck."
Kanafani was assassinated by Israel in 1972, "murdered simply because his words were too dangerous for Israel to tolerate," says Khalidi.
Public opinion about Israel has grown increasingly negative in the United States and across much of the world in the wake of the genocide in Gaza, and it's "not going to shift back," says Khalidi. "People have seen something that cannot be unseen. They've seen genocide. They've seen slaughter. And Israel has no defense."
"Even in countries with no history of a Palestine solidarity movement, suddenly the Palestine flag emerges," says Ali. "Why? Because their governments are trying to stop dissent on this issue, so they are defying their governments."
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Oct 28, 2026
Political Gridlock in Israel After No Clear Winner Emerges from Tuesday's National Election, Israeli Troops Violently Disperse Protest in Occupied West Bank, Iranian Director Jafar Panahi Sentenced to Five Years and One Month in Prison, Lina Attalah, Editor of Independent Egyptian Outlet Mada Masr, Released from Police Custody, Ansar Allah Claim Attack on Saudi Arabia's Largest Oil Refinery, NYT: Trump Admin Considering Lifting U.S. Sanctions on Russian Government's Investment Fund, Flávio Bolsonaro Flees to the U.S. Following Defeat in Brazil's Presidential Election, Pentagon Strikes Alleged Drug Boat in the Eastern Pacific, Killing Five People, Alex Pretti's Parents Accuse Federal Gov't of Protecting CBP Officers Who Fatally Shot Their Son, Roberto Jimenez Gutierrez Dies in ICE Custody, AP: ICE Has Detained a Mentally Ill U.S. Citizen for Nearly a Year, SCOTUS Declines to Restore Biden-Era Rule Allowing Immigration Judges to Suspend Deportation Cases, CDC Deputy Director Steps Down After Four Months on Job
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Oct 27, 2026
A court in Cairo has ordered the closure of the independent Egyptian news site Mada Masr. The court also ordered the site's editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah, to be detained until she pays a fine of over $50,000. She was convicted on charges of managing an unlicensed website. Mada Masr is "the flagship independent media outlet in Egypt and a pillar of independent media in the region," says Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Drop Site News, who previously worked at Mada Masr. The independent outlet was founded in 2013 "in the midst of Egypt's revolution and counterrevolution" and has "managed to survive all of those years in one of the most hostile media environments" in the world. Still, "what happened today is an unprecedented escalation" because Attalah and Mada Masr had never before been referred to trial.
Kouddous adds that the attack on Mada Masr comes less than a month after Egyptian authorities arrested an entire newsroom at the independent fact-checking outlet Matsadaash. They remain behind bars.
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Oct 27, 2026
With the U.S. midterm elections just a week away, the affordability crisis — intensified by President Trump's tariffs and war on Iran — has emerged as a major campaign issue. Across the country, families are struggling to make ends meet, while oil and gas companies have reported record profits during recent periods of price shocks.
Economist Isabella Weber's new book, Anti-Fascist Economics: In Defense of Affordability, Dignity, and Democracy, warns economic insecurity can fuel the rise of authoritarian movements, and argues protecting democracy requires making life affordable for everybody.
Anti-fascist economics is "not about getting rid of the market," says Weber. "It's about having public players that behave differently, and by behaving differently, changing the dynamic of the market as a whole and literally creating an alternative so that people are not dependent on often very concentrated and private providers as the only choice," she explains, providing current examples of governments enacting such policies from New York City to Mexico City to Rome.
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Oct 27, 2026
A competitive Senate race has gripped the once reliably Republican state of Alaska. If Democratic challenger Mary Peltola wins the election against incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, it could tip the balance of power in Washington. Attorneys for Peltola and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have submitted a motion to dismiss a Department of Justice lawsuit filed last week that seeks to block the certification of the election results in Alaska if Sullivan loses. President Trump confirmed on Friday he had ordered the DOJ to file the lawsuit, which alleges that the appearance of another candidate on the ballot with a similar name, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., would mislead voters. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled ahead of the primary that Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher who is running unaffiliated, could appear on the ballot.
The ACLU — on behalf of two Alaska voters, the League of Women Voters of Alaska and Common Cause — has moved to intervene in the case and has also filed a motion asking the court to dismiss it.
"There is no merit to this claim," says Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. "We've asked the court to consider sanctions, because the courts shouldn't be used to launder baseless claims into distrust in our elections. There should be consequences for that."
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Oct 27, 2026
Netanyahu Battles to Hold Power as Israel Holds First Election in Four Years, U.N. Commission of Inquiry Finds Israel Committed Genocide in Gaza, War Crimes in West Bank, Humanitarian Crisis Grows as Houthis Lay Siege to Yemen's Third-Largest City, Seven Are Killed as Jordan Bombs Syria Following Deadly Church Attack , Health Worker Killed in DRC as Ebola Cases Approach 10,000, Russia and Ukraine Trade Drone Attacks Despite Local Ceasefire in Russian-Occupied Oleshky, Far-Right Presidential Candidate Bolsonaro Concedes Defeat in Brazil Election, Trump Continues Campaign Tour of Deep-Red States with Rally in Mississippi, Trump's Investments in Oil and Gas Stocks Doubled in Value in the Past Year, House Judiciary Committee Releases Report on Trump's Epstein Ties with New Assault Allegations, Federal Judge Rules Firing of Maurene Comey Was Unconstitutional, Justice Department Unseals Charges Against Former FBI Director James Comey , Anthropic Seeks IPO as It Reports Losses of Over $80 Billion, Egyptian Court Orders Closure of Independent News Site Mada Masr
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Oct 26, 2026
Israeli parliamentary elections are being held on Tuesday, the first since Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack and Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently embroiled in a corruption scandal in Israel, is up for reelection. On Friday, after two Israeli soldiers were killed at a checkpoint near Hebron, just days before Israeli polls are set to open, Netanyahu announced heavy restrictions on the movement of Palestinians out of the West Bank. Since then, Israeli forces have detained and expelled thousands of Palestinian residents from the area and begun home demolitions to clear the way for future Israeli settlements.
"The reason that they're doing this is because this entire election is about who is going to be tougher on Palestinians," says Palestinian human rights lawyer Diana Buttu. "What [Netanyahu is] trying to do in the lead-up to this is say to Israelis that 'I'm the only person who can provide you with security.' So, while lighting the place on fire, he's also selling water." Buttu explains that Netanyahu's opponents across the Israeli political spectrum are equally punitive toward Palestinians. "The fact that you have all of these parties that are advocating major war crimes and nobody is blinking says something very deep about Israeli society, but also about an international community that has fostered this and that has allowed this to brew for all of these years."
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Oct 26, 2026
Serbia's longtime leader Aleksander Vucic has been swept out of power by a historic student-led opposition movement against Vucic's right-wing Serbian Progressive Party. Candidates from the Student List, who are not students themselves but largely first-time politicians selected by student-led popular assemblies, won a majority of seats in Sunday's parliamentary elections, marking a seismic shift in Serbian politics. Their victory comes two years into a student-led movement sparked by the collapse of a roof at a train station in the city of Novi Sad, which killed 16 people. The disaster became a focal point for anti-government protests over corruption, cronyism, political violence and democratic backsliding.
"Students really changed the whole political landscape of the country, and maybe even more important, they changed political imagination. They changed our understanding of what's politically possible for all of us," says journalist Lela Vujanic, who speaks to us from Belgrade about the groundbreaking elections. "This was a great democratic opening and democratic awakening, not only for the students, but for the rest of the country also."
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Oct 26, 2026
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won a record fourth term in office, defeating far-right challenger Flávio Bolsonaro by 4 million votes in a runoff election on Sunday. Flávio Bolsonaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who remains under house arrest for plotting a coup against Lula four years ago. The younger Bolsonaro, who narrowly defeated Lula in the first round of voting earlier this month, is now refusing to concede.
Lula's surprise comeback comes after weeks of student-led organizing and campaigning on his behalf, and amid accusations that U.S.-based tech companies were suppressing Lula's reach online in favor of his Trump-aligned opponent. "The amount of organizing, the amount of marches and rallies, campaigning, pamphlets that we've seen the last three weeks has been something that I have never seen in my entire life, ever, covering elections for decades in so many different countries. It is absolutely unprecedented," says Brazil-based journalist Michael Fox. "It is an absolute game-changer for the region."
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Oct 26, 2026
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Wins Historic Fourth Term as President, Longtime Serbian Leader Vucic Concedes Defeat to Student-Led Movement, French Police Arrest More Than 1,300 People During Saturday Protests, Thousands of Protesters March in Italian Cities on Saturday, Israeli Forces Exact Collective Punishment on Hebron in the Occupied West Bank, Eight Palestinians Killed in Israeli Attacks Across the Gaza Strip, Spanish Court Hands Over Jailed U.S. Activist James "Fergie" Chamber's Phone to FBI, U.S. Military Grants SpaceX Access to Pentagon's Most Secretive Satellite Tracking Data, Number of People on Food Stamps Falls by 13% After One Big Beautiful Bill, Appeals Court Rules Immigrants Jailed by ICE Have No Constitutional Right to Bond, Trump Orders DOJ Lawsuit Seeking to Block Results in Alaska Senate Election
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Oct 23, 2026
At least 59 people have died in ICE custody since the start of President Donald Trump's second term, the highest number in more than a decade. Many deaths have been linked to medical neglect, including four of five recent deaths at California's Adelanto Processing Center, according to a 2026 report by the state attorney general. Al Jazeera English's Fault Lines investigated deaths at the facility, which is operated by the private prison company GEO Group, in the new documentary Dying in Detention.
"GEO Group has made over a billion dollars in profits from immigration detention. They have given more than a million dollars … to help reelect Donald Trump," says correspondent Natasha Del Toro. "That raises a lot of questions for us about the relationship between GEO and the federal government, and some of these conflicts of interest."
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Oct 23, 2026
Brazilian voters are heading to the polls on Sunday for the presidential runoff between incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and far-right Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, with polls showing a tight race that will decide whether Brazil remains led by the left or joins the right-wing surge across Latin America.
According to The Intercept Brasil, Bolsonaro's campaign paid 600,000 Brazilian reais (about $119,000 USD) to a U.S. company, Elytron, that specializes in election manipulation, including through online disinformation and "psychological warfare techniques" to undermine opponents.
Reporter Laís Martins says that while it's not clear whether or how the Bolsonaro campaign used Elytron's services, it adds to suspicion of U.S. interference in the election, including Meta's restrictions on President Lula's social media profiles. "We've seen evidence pile up that something is not right, that this playing field is not equal," says Martins.
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Oct 23, 2026
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have both defended Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy after his campaign released a TV ad that appears to accuse Democratic nominee Amy Acton of lying about being sexually abused as a child. Acton's stepfather was indicted in 1978 on charges of sexually assaulting her when she was between 10 and 12 years old, though he fled before he could be convicted. Acton's mother, who lost custody of her two children, sided with her husband and remained with him as a fugitive until his death in 2004. In the controversial campaign ad, the elderly Donna Arthur says her daughter Amy has "lied her entire life" and can't be trusted as governor, which has been widely interpreted as casting doubt on what Acton has said about being abused as a minor.
"Vivek Ramaswamy is now using that personal trauma as an effort to exploit what she went through and win this race," says Abby Vesoulis, a reporter for Mother Jones. "He's currently polling beneath Amy Acton, which shows, I think, that this ad is a desperate attempt to somehow pull off a victory despite poor odds."
Vesoulis says outrage over the ad, even among Republican voters, is tied to simmering anger about how the Trump administration has handled the Epstein files. She also discusses abuse allegations against Ohio Republican Congressmember Max Miller, who is running for reelection.
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Oct 23, 2026
Netanyahu Moves to Fully Lock Down West Bank Ahead of Israeli Elections, As Trump Threatens New Strikes, U.S. Ambassador Says Iran War Could Last Another Year, Study: European Heat Waves Killed 50,000 in 2026 as Toll of Climate Crisis Grows, French Student Union Denounces Macron Ban on "Illegitimate" Protests, Serbia: 150,000 Rally in Student-Led Protest Ahead of Sunday's Election, Students Lead Protests in Indonesia over Economic Crisis & Forest Fires, Press Crackdown in Egypt: Mada Masr Editor Lina Attalah Referred to Trial, Elon Musk Invests $1 Billion in Skydance, Threatens Democratic Lawmakers, Book Claims Saudi and Emirati Leaders Set Up Secret Bank Accounts for Jared Kushner, NYT: Justice Department Investigates Ex-DHS Adviser Corey Lewandowski, Ecuador: Opposition Leader Arrested in Noboa's Widening Crackdown on Left, Cuba Accuses U.S. of Threatening to Punish Nations Who Support U.N. Resolution Against Embargo, ICE Agents Filmed Trying to Rip Toddlers from Guatemalan Father's Arms in Providence, Pentagon OKs Testing Heat Ray Weapon on Migrants Along U.S.-Mexico Border, DOJ Charges Virginia Senate Leader, Louise Lucas, Polling Firm Admits It Fabricated Polls
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Oct 22, 2026
A court in India on Wednesday ordered the release of two leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party, the youth-led movement that has led historic waves of protests in India since the summer. Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were detained amid massive protests last week after they scaled a barricade to enter a site popular for protest, unfurled the national flag and called for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Kumar oversaw the deletion of 130 million names from the voter rolls in India since June of last year. Opposition parties say those impacted are primarily Muslims and other minorities less likely to support the BJP, the Hindu nationalist ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"You have a deep and wide — an ideologically wide — historical culture of resistance in India," says acclaimed writer and activist Arundhati Roy. At the same time, the Modi government "has three things in its playbook: One is false-flag attacks, two is engineering communal riots, and the third is massive repression. And I don't think we've seen its hand yet."
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Oct 22, 2026
The growing controversy over AIPAC's impact on U.S. politics is the subject of a new Zeteo documentary titled Night Flower: Inside AIPAC's Fight for Influence. The film examines AIPAC's history and its role in shaping U.S. policy toward Israel, and questions whether its activities warrant further scrutiny under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. "It says that you have to register under this law if you are acting at the request of a foreign government," says Dion Nissenbaum, the filmmaker behind Night Flower: Inside AIPAC's Fight for Influence. "And we talked to numerous people who showed us several examples of how AIPAC is acting at the request of Israel."
Referencing the title of the film, Night Flower, Zeteo editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan says AIPAC "blossoms in the dark, shrivels in the light. We're trying to put some sunlight onto AIPAC."
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Oct 22, 2026
One of the most closely watched races in the midterm elections is in Michigan between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers. El-Sayed is a former public health official who is campaigning on a platform of Medicare for All, ending military aid to Israel, and getting corporate money out of politics. Rogers is a former Republican congressman backed by President Trump.
If elected, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim to serve in the U.S. Senate. During Wednesday's debate in Michigan, Rogers repeated the claim, without providing evidence, that El-Sayed has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed has repeatedly denied the accusation.
"If Abdul El-Sayed wins, it will be a reminder that the left can win in a swing state like Michigan," says Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief of Zeteo. "And it will be actually a moment to say, 'You know what? Americans rejected Islamophobia.'"
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Oct 22, 2026
U.S. and Israeli Militaries Draft Plans to Resume Strikes on Iran After Midterm Elections, Saudi Arabia Says Four People Are Killed as Houthis Attack Oil Field, King Fahd Airport, Russia Kills More Civilians in Ukraine as U.S. Envoy Witkoff Praises Putin as a "Humanitarian", Nigeria Reports First Case of Ebola in Over a Decade, U.N. Says World Has Lost Chance to Limit Global Heating, U.K. Approves Plans to Extract Natural Gas from North Sea Deposit, Chemical Tank Leak in Ohio Forces Evacuations, Ohio GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Commissions Ugly Attack Ad Featuring Opponent's Estranged Mother, Trump Travels to South Carolina to Boost GOP Senator Darline Graham, Supreme Court Bars Trump Administration from Denying Gender-Affirming Care to Prisoners, Majority of Websites on Internet Left Vulnerable After Critical Security Flaws Are Discovered, Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion Fine, Police Violently Restrain Three People During Utah Data Center Protest
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Oct 21, 2026
We're joined by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, co-authors of the book End Times Fascism, for a wide-ranging conversation on the multitrillion-dollar global investment in artificial intelligence and its reverberating effects around the world.
Klein recently spoke at the People's AI Assembly, alongside other critics of the artificial intelligence industry, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former chair of the Federal Trade Commission Lina Khan. "The resistance to AI is taking many forms, and it's really a resistance to oligarch power, which is concentrated in the hands of these tech companies," Klein tells Democracy Now! "After 50 years of outsourcing and hollowing out of public functions of the state, the very last stage is the outsourcing of thinking, of intelligence itself."
Taylor, a co-founder of the Debt Collective, warns that the "circular" debt financing of much of the AI economy is "a waste of resources that also endangers the public." The AI buildout "is so intense, so frenetic and so redundant" that it risks causing a major economic crash akin to the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, Taylor says. If that happens, she adds, "Naomi and I think we need to use this moment, just like during the Great Depression and the New Deal era, to demand a real renovation, transformation, of our public services."
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Oct 21, 2026
Student-led anti-corruption and cost-of-living protests in Albania are calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, among other demands. Hundreds of injuries and arrests have been reported amid a violent police crackdown, along with widespread damage to public and private property. The student demands are an outgrowth of the "Flamingo Revolution," which erupted earlier this year in opposition to a luxury resort being developed on the ecologically sensitive Sazan Island. The planned resort is backed by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, President Trump's son-in-law and daughter, and has been fast-tracked by the Rama government.
"Students find no future in Albania," says Bora Mema, a founding member of the left-wing political party Lëvizja Bashkë, about the motivations behind the burgeoning pro-democracy movement. "Many of us have to migrate because the only development model that the government proposes is to clean the toilets of the rich and the mafia in luxurious resorts, like the one that Trump and Kushner and the national oligarchs and mafia in Albania are constructing."
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Oct 21, 2026
Ansar Allah Attacks Taiz as 250,000 Yemenis Displaced Since Fighting Erupted in July, Saudi Arabia Executes Bangladeshi Man and Woman in Mecca, Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill Seven Palestinians, Brad Lander Detained by the IDF in the Occupied West Bank, Congressmember Tlaib Calls on DOJ to Arrest Israeli Military Commander Accused of Killing Hind Rajab, Russia Frees 74-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Imprisoned for Fighting as a Mercenary in Ukraine, France Plans Massive Surge in Police Forces for Protests Planned for This Weekend, Italian Government Deploys 500 Troops to Milan After Protests, Trump Tells Reporters Congressmember Ilhan Omar Could Go to Jail, L.A. Election Officials Say DOJ's List of Alleged Noncitizen Voters Contains People Born in the U.S., Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Hinojosa Files Lawsuit for Emails Between Musk and Governor Abbott, NYT: Billionaire Received Pardon After Family Company Gave Alina Habba $50 Million Deal, ProPublica: Defense Contractor Made Campaign Cash-for-Contracts Deal with Late Sen. Graham and Rep. Clyburn
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Oct 20, 2026
As voters across the United States cast ballots on November 3, Californians are weighing whether to approve a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of billionaires in the state. The tax would apply to roughly 250 Californians who now hold an estimated $2.3 trillion in wealth. Supporters say the wealth tax could raise up to $100 billion, with about 90% going toward healthcare. The remaining funds would support education and food assistance programs.
If Proposition 40 passes, it will mark the first time a government in the U.S. successfully taxes the wealth — rather than just the income — of the ultra-rich.
"It's past time that billionaires pay their fair share," says Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, which is backing the initiative.
We also speak with California Congressmember Ro Khanna, who criticizes fellow Democrats like Governor Gavin Newsom for opposing Proposition 40. "We can either be a Democratic Party that stands for the working class in the tradition of the New Deal, or we can continue to cater to the donor class," says Khanna.
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Oct 20, 2026
We speak with the acclaimed South African human rights lawyer and international jurist Navi Pillay, who was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Pillay has been the United Nations high commissioner for human rights and a judge at both the International Criminal Court and at an international tribunal investigating the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Most recently, she led the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry that concluded Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Hours after Pillay was announced as winner of the Nobel Prize, the United States imposed sweeping new sanctions against the International Criminal Court.
"It's extremely shocking to me, totally unacceptable, that the United States administration can today impose sanctions against the International Criminal Court," says Pillay, speaking to Democracy Now! from The Hague.
Navi Pillay is now 85 years old. She was born into an Indian Tamil family in apartheid South Africa in 1941. The first woman to start a law practice in Natal, South Africa, in 1967, Pillay began her legal career defending anti-apartheid activists including Nelson Mandela, exposing torture, and helping establish key rights for prisoners on Robben Island. Mandela, as president, later appointed Pillay to the High Court of South Africa, making her the first woman of color on that bench.
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Oct 20, 2026
Finland to Purchase 1 Million Landmines as Russia Continues Attacks on Ukraine, Trump Lashes Out Against Zelensky: "It's Time for Somebody Else to Negotiate on Behalf of Ukraine"
, Drone Strike in Sudan Kills 80 People, Trump Stumps for Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, Continuing Tour of Deep Red States, CBS News Correspondent Apologizes for Partisan Post Targeting Michigan Senate Candidate El-Sayed, Drop Site News: Mike Rogers's Wife Won Lucrative Contracts While Rogers Served as Intel Chair
, Seventh Person Dies in ICE Custody in Texas, Mississippi Attorney General Rules Police Officer Justified in Fatal Shooting of Black Toddler, Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil Appeals to the Supreme Court, Brazilian Protesters Rally Outside Meta Offices over Alleged Election Interference, Video Shows ICE Agents in Long Beach, California Brutalizing U.S. Citizen
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Oct 19, 2026
The prominent Guatemalan anti-corruption lawyer Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa was fatally shot along with another man on Saturday at a sports center in Guatemala City. For years, Solórzano Foppa had been outspoken against Guatemala's most powerful politicians, business leaders and companies. He was known for his anti-corruption work as head of the Criminal Investigations Directorate within the Public Prosecutor's Office and later as head of Guatemala's tax authority, when he helped prosecute dozens of powerful Guatemalan business figures.
"In more recent years, he developed a social media presence, and he was forcefully denouncing corruption," says Roman Gressier, a journalist based in Guatemala City. "We were thinking about [the killing of Solórzano Foppa] not only as an assassination, but also having a deep effect on freedom of expression."
"Juan Francisco was a young lawyer coming from a background of pro-democracy and revolutionary activists," says Silvia Solórzano Foppa, Juan Francisco's mother. Her son was 43 years old when he was killed.
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Oct 19, 2026
Israeli settlers backed by IDF soldiers brutally assaulted Palestinian olive farmers in the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, on Friday. Witnesses say dozens of masked Israeli settlers armed with clubs, sticks, slingshots and guns hurled rocks at Palestinian farmers, set olive trees ablaze and drove people from their fields. Veteran Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, a 64-year-old American, was documenting the attack when settlers began beating her. She suffered stab wounds, a broken rib, four broken vertebrae and a severe hand injury. Levine was wearing a clearly marked press vest and a helmet at the time of the attack. According to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, Israeli settlers have carried out at least 170 attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since September 27, which marked the start of this year's olive harvest.
"It looked like they were killing her," says independent American journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who witnessed the attack on Levine and helped intervene. "The Palestinian youth, the shabab, stepped up. They ran out ahead, and they started beating the settlers back by throwing stones at them, which is the only thing that allowed me to then run out front and grab Heidi." As the journalists and Palestinians retreated into Abu Falah, "The Israeli military jeep that had been standing by the settlers who were attacking us then drives into the village itself, … and they start firing into crowds of Palestinian people."
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Oct 19, 2026
Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in over 140 cities across France on Saturday, demanding relief from the high cost of living, more funding for public services and improvements to deteriorating schools, among other grievances. The demonstrations were the latest — and largest — in a series of protests that began in September with high schooler-led demonstrations against overcrowded classrooms and crumbling school infrastructure. Some cities saw property destruction, arson and theft on Saturday, with city halls and other symbols of the state coming under attack. Officials said nearly 1,000 police officers were injured and some 2,400 people were arrested.
"What is frustrating to see is how little the police violence is addressed and talked about, which is really the main violence and the real violence today that is taking place in France," says Rayyan Seriket, a member of the French student union.
"We're talking about shattered jaws, high schoolers and adolescents who have been blinded," adds Harrison Stetler, an independent journalist and teacher based in Paris.
This all comes as Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally party is leading in the polls six months ahead of France's elections. "This situation is essentially what Marine Le Pen hopes for," says Stetler.
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Oct 19, 2026
Hundreds of Thousands March in Over 140 Cities in France on Saturday, Millions of Protesters Participate in "No Kings" Demonstrations on Saturday in the U.S., Thousands March in Tunisia Against President Kaïs Saïed, Protests Continue to Roil Albania, as Demonstrators Call for Prime Minister to Resign, Brazil's Lula Holds First and Only Debate with Flávio Bolsonaro Ahead of Presidential Runoff, Ukraine and Russia Trade Drone and Missile Strikes After Trump Waives Sanctions on Moscow, Israeli Settler Attack on Palestinian Olive Harvest Wounds Dozens, Including WaPo Photographer, Mass Funeral Held for 75 Palestinians Whose Remains Were Uncovered from Gaza Rubble, Trump Backs Netanyahu for Prime Minister Days Before Israeli Election, "There's a Failure in the Leadership": Widower Confronts JD Vance over Iran War Deaths, Houthis Strike Military Training Camp as UAE Joins Saudi-Led Attacks on Yemen, Guatemalan Anti-Corruption Lawyer Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa Is Murdered, Trump Administration Seeks to Denaturalize and Deport Rep. Ilhan Omar, Tom Homan Confirms, Katie Zacharia Ousted as Press Secretary After Just Five Days on the Job
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Oct 16, 2026
Longtime tech worker organizers Clarissa Redwine and JS Tan's new book, Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World's Most Powerful Industry, draws on the authors' experiences at major tech companies to chronicle the rise and fall of the tech worker movement, its early victories, and the repression and slide to corporate control that followed.
"Over the course of the 2010s, what we saw was that the tech industry wasn't quite the industry that it had promised to its workers and to the public. Rather than making the world more open, more democratic, we saw it really be the culprit of misinformation," says Tan, who was pushed out of Microsoft after raising objections to the company's ties to fossil fuel companies.
Silicon Valley's slide to the right was influenced by corporate backlash to labor's demands, explains Redwine, who was fired from Kickstarter for union organizing. She says she hopes to inspire a new generation of tech workers to organize "within these tech oligarchs' own empires, to stand up and push back."
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Oct 16, 2026
We're joined by Latino USA host Maria Hinojosa as she shares the story of Estrella Diamantina González, an undocumented transgender woman and trafficking survivor from Mexico caught up in the United States' criminal and immigration systems. This summer, after serving a nine-year sentence in a Texas men's prison, Diamantina González was released, but she wasn't free. She was immediately transferred to an immigration detention facility and then deported. Hinojosa, who has been reporting on Diamantina González's ordeal for the last decade, followed her to Mexico in the new audio documentary "Estrella: Bittersweet Freedom for a 'Bad Mexican.'"
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Oct 16, 2026
Earlier this week, ICE confirmed it had secretly used a federal government warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey, to stage and to process detentions in September, despite an order from a judge barring the site's use until an environmental study was complete. "ICE and this administration cherry-picks which laws it adheres to, and then breaks due process and equal protection for the many," says New Jersey Democratic Congressmember Analilia Mejia. "This administration is just moving with a level of impunity and cruelty that, frankly, should shock every single American."
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Oct 16, 2026
Earlier this week, ICE confirmed it had secretly used a federal government warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey, to stage and to process detentions in September, despite an order from a judge barring the site's use until an environmental study was complete. "ICE and this administration cherry-picks which laws it adheres to, and then breaks due process and equal protection for the many," says New Jersey Democratic Congressmember Analilia Mejía. "This administration is just moving with a level of impunity and cruelty that, frankly, should shock every single American."
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Oct 16, 2026
Teenage Shooter Kills Three Children and Teacher in Bend, Oregon, Neo-Nazi Teen Allegedly Attempted Mass Shooting at Illinois Hindu Temple, But Rifle Jammed, Trump Cancels Hegseth's Plans to Live-Stream Firing Squad Execution, Pentagon to Withhold Internal Report on Attack on Iranian School Until After Midterms, Houthis Attack Presidential Palace in Aden, Killing 5, U.S. Approves Sale of Helicopter Gunships to Israel Amid Continued Attacks on Gaza, Children's Book on Palestine Withdrawn as Authors Accuse Publisher of "Sanitizing" History, Israeli Firm Used Targeted Ads to Infect Al Jazeera Devices with Zero-Click Spyware, Turkish Police Raid Headquarters of Opposition-Aligned Broadcaster, Donors Gave $330 Million to White House Ballroom While Benefiting from Trump's Policies, Student-Led Protests Spread Beyond France to Albania and Argentina
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Oct 15, 2026
We speak with tech journalist Paris Marx about his new book, Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech's Data Empires. In the book, Marx exposes the deceptive ways tech companies are taking resources from vulnerable communities in order to build massive AI data centers. "We have seen the tech companies that, back in 2019, 2020, wanted us to see them as climate leaders … completely throw their targets out the window in order to pursue generative AI and this data center buildout," says Marx. He notes that after failing to connect to electrical grids in the locations where they were building data centers, some AI companies have pivoted to building "on-site gas plants," further increasing dependency on fossil fuels.
Tech companies "want us to believe" that AI models are "starting to become so powerful that within 10 years they could decide that they want to wipe out humanity or a significant chunk of humanity," says Marx. "That is a mix of science fiction and delusion … and it is also a very effective way to distract from the real harms that we're seeing from these generative AI products."
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Oct 15, 2026
The energy needs of the AI boom and the construction of massive data centers in states across the country have created a backlash from both Democratic and Republican voters. The battle against data centers is at the heart of a campaign in Tennessee: Democratic state Representative Justin J. Pearson is opposed to the Colossus data centers built by Elon Musk's xAI in the Memphis area. Pearson is running against Republican state Senator Brent Taylor in Tennessee's 9th Congressional District, which, after recent redistricting, includes parts of Memphis, as well as rural and suburban counties.
"Across the 15 counties that I've traveled, I've yet to meet anyone, including folks who are Republicans who are voting for us, who want data centers," says Pearson. "Gas is high; groceries are high; healthcare costs are high; wages are low. Yet the billionaire class continues to profit off of our pain and pillage our communities and our pocketbooks."
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Oct 15, 2026
The Trump administration on Friday placed sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court that target the institution as a whole. This comes on top of earlier sanctions against individual ICC judges and personnel. The administration has been escalating attacks on the ICC since the court issued arrest warrants in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. It announced the sanctions just hours after former ICC Judge Navi Pillay — the South African jurist who led the United Nations commission of inquiry that concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza — was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
"This is really an insurance policy against accountability for crimes that the United States and its ally Israel are committing in plain sight," says war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody, a member of the International Commission of Jurists. The sanctions, which prevent U.S.-based banks and companies from transacting with the ICC, constitute an "existential attack" on the court, he says.
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Oct 15, 2026
WFP Warns Growing Conflict in Yemen Has Cut Off Aid Deliveries to 800,000 People, Two Cargo Ships Sunk Near Strait of Hormuz as Iran Steps Up Attacks, Ukraine Resumes Strikes on Russian Energy Sites as Zelensky Says He Feels "Betrayed" by Trump, Seven Sailors Are Missing Off Romania's Coast After Suspected Drone Attack in Black Sea, Trial of Ukrainian Ex-Officer Accused of Blowing Up Nord Stream Pipelines Gets Underway in Germany, U.S. Deploys Hundreds of Soldiers to Assist "War on Drugs" in Colombia and Honduras, Costa Rica Opens High-Security Prison Modeled on El Salvador's Notorious CECOT, Publisher Pulls Sally Rooney's Books from U.K. Shelves over Her Support of Palestine Action, Judge Pauses U.S. Sanctions on Pro-Palestinian Groups That Support International Criminal Court, NYC to Stop Investing Pension Funds in Israeli Bonds, U.S. Inflation Rate Hits 3.7%, Driven by Energy Prices, Trump Continues Tour of Deep Red GOP Strongholds Ahead of Midterm Elections, WSJ: Trump Administration's Probe of Rep. Ilhan Omar Aimed at Stripping Her Citizenship, Houston DA Considering Criminal Charges for ICE Agent Who Ran Over Fleeing Man, White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia Failed California Bar Exam
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Oct 14, 2026
Israeli forces have raided what they say are the offices of several Palestinian NGOs in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian officials say a child was injured from Israeli gunfire, while others suffered from tear gas inhalation. At least one journalist was reportedly detained in the raids, which come four years after the forced closure of multiple NGOs that the Israeli government designated as "terrorist" organizations.
"This is part of the whole propaganda show that this government is actually implementing just before the Israeli election," says human rights lawyer Sahar Francis. "They just wanted to cause harassment, and this is the main message: the persecution and the collective punishment for the whole Palestinian community." Francis was formerly the general director at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, one of the organizations that Israel claims to have raided this week despite the fact that it was already forced to close its West Bank offices in 2022.
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Oct 14, 2026
On Monday, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security raided the Washington, D.C., home of Congressmember Ilhan Omar. Omar has faced years of racist targeting from President Trump over her ethnicity and immigrant background. She immigrated to the United States as a refugee from Somalia when she was a child. Omar is the first Somali American elected to federal office, the first woman of color to represent Minnesota and, along with Michigan's Rashida Tlaib, one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress.
"Congresswoman Omar has been under attack by this administration for the last decade. … She's a symbol of everything that this administration hates: an immigrant who stands up for her community, who fought to be here in this country, and now is doing her job and her duty to serve her constituents," says our guest Zaynab Mohamed, a fellow Somali immigrant who represents Minneapolis in Minnesota's state Senate. As Trump spews racist invective against the Somali American community in Minnesota, Mohamed says, "We will continue to do everything we can to reject this type of hate and rhetoric from this administration."
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Oct 14, 2026
The midterm elections are in less than three weeks, on November 3. With Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress on the line, the Trump administration has thrown its time and resources into holding rallies in newly competitive states. We take a look at key Senate races in Georgia, Texas, Michigan and Maine with The Lever's David Sirota. Ultimately, says Sirota, election results will hinge on voter turnout. "Will there be that surge of turnout based on how unpopular Trump is and how bad the affordability crisis is?" And, if they win, can Democrats then "deliver" on their promises?
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Oct 14, 2026
Fighting Escalates in Yemen Between the Houthis and Saudi-Backed Gov't Forces, NYT: Israel Levels 48 Villages and Towns It Occupies in Southern Lebanon, Kimberly Guilfoyle Resigns as U.S. Ambassador to Greece, WSJ: Texas GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton Partied in Dubai with Two Indicted Fugitives, Federal Agents Subpoena Relatives of Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar, Maine GOP Senator Susan Collins Faces Off Against Democratic Challenger Troy Jackson in Debate, Reuters: DOJ Gives California Officials 48 Hours to Review List of Alleged Noncitizen Voters, Man Shot by ICE in New York Held in Solitary Confinement with Bullet Still Lodged in His Neck, Immigrants Sue ICE for Keeping Their Documents Long After Their Release, Cornell University Bans All Fraternities from Hosting Parties, Ebola Cases Surpass 9,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sixth Person Dies of Measles in Pennsylvania, Vatican Announces Pope Leo Diagnosed with Lung Cancer, Trump Reportedly Has Doubts of Live-Streaming Execution of Fort Hood Shooter, 600,000 People Left Without Electricity in Ukraine After Russian Strikes, Indian Court Orders Two Leaders of Youth-Led Cockroach Janta Party Jailed for Five Days, Tens of Thousands March in Solidarity with Students in France, Anti-Government Student Protests Erupt in Albania
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Oct 13, 2026
We speak with the Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney about his new documentary Musk, an expansive, nearly four-hour examination of the world's first trillionaire and how he has amassed unprecedented power in business, technology and politics. The film traces Elon Musk's early ventures and the rise of SpaceX and Tesla, examining the role of government support in their growth. It also explores his acquisition of Twitter, now X; his alliance with President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement; and his role in the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, whose cuts devastated federal programs, including USAID.
Gibney says Musk has carefully crafted an image of a "polymath" who can solve the world's most pressing problems, but that he is really "kind of a ruthless businessman" willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, including "a series of elaborate cons" to win government support for his companies.
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Oct 13, 2026
Yemen's Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, have repeatedly attacked the Saudi capital of Riyadh in recent days. On Saturday, a missile strike on the airport in Riyadh killed at least 12 and injured over 300 in the deadliest attack on Saudi soil in over a decade. President Trump is now weighing whether to join the Saudi fight against the Houthis in Yemen.
This latest escalation comes after Ansar Allah captured key areas along Yemen's Red Sea coastline in recent weeks, driving back the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government and taking control of the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.
"Yes, the Houthis are attacking Saudi Arabia with airstrikes, but there is now, actively, a real ground war going on within Yemen, and that is a far more relevant and important issue for the Yemenis on a day-to-day basis because they are now back into a full-scale civil war," says Middle East scholar Helen Lackner.
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Oct 13, 2026
Houthis Warn of "Swift and Painful" Response If U.S. Joins Saudi-Led Attacks on Yemen, 139 Migrants Die and 84 Go Missing as Yemen-Bound Boat Capsizes Off Djibouti, Iran's IRGC Says It Struck Another Tanker in Strait of Hormuz, Bulgaria Summons Russian Ambassador as Drones Attack Black Sea Ships, Bipartisan Group of Senators Calls on Trump to Reverse Plans to Buy Diesel from Russia, Homeland Security Agents Raid Rep. Ilhan Omar's D.C. Home Amid Trump's Attacks, NYT: Elon Musk Gives GOP $366M in Campaign Contributions During 2025-26 Election Cycle, GOP Senator Graham Spars with Democratic Opponent Annie Andrews, Israeli Forces Raid Offices of Palestinians NGOs in Occupied West Bank, Netanyahu Seeks to Identify and Prosecute IDF Soldiers in Investigative Documentary NAZA, Israeli Academic and Independent Analyst Ori Goldberg Dies at Age 50
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Oct 12, 2026
On Indigenous Peoples' Day, we feature a conversation with one of the world's most prominent champions for Indigenous rights, Leonard Peltier. "Indigenous Day is a day that's been long overdue for any type of recognition," says Peltier. "I am not going to give up, because we are not free yet. We are in danger. Trump and these organizations, they're talking about doing away with our reservations and our treaties and everything else. … We're going to stay here. You're not going to get rid of us."
Peltier is a longtime political prisoner who spent nearly half a century behind bars for a crime he says he did not commit — the 1975 fatal shooting of two FBI agents. In the final hours of his administration last year, President Biden commuted Peltier's sentence, but his conviction has not been overturned, and he remains under home confinement on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota.
"It was one crime against the justice system after another in order to frame Leonard for the assassination of these two federal agents," says David France, co-director of the new documentary Free Leonard Peltier. "And although he and his team were able to prove over and over that every bit of evidence used against him in his conviction was brought into question, he was never able to get a retrial."
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Oct 12, 2026
Tens of thousands of people in India have taken to the streets in recent days to protest the deletion of 130 million names from the voter rolls, a large majority of which are believed to be opposed to Narendra Modi's ruling BJP party. The demonstrations, joined by leaders from India's opposition parties, are being led by students and the youth-led "Cockroach" movement. Tens of thousands of security forces, including paramilitary and police, were out on the streets over the weekend cracking down on the uprising, detaining protesters en masse, including lawyers, journalists and protest leaders.
The demonstrations "represent an outpouring of anger, of frustration at what many Indians feel is the fact that their democracy has been taken away," says Shoaib Daniyal, political editor of Scroll, who was arrested on Saturday along with 7,000 other protesters. He points out that "the deletions have affected Muslims far more than they have affected other Indians."
On Monday, in one of largest recent protests in India's capital of New Delhi, India's main opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi of the Congress Party, led a march to the Supreme Court of India. "This march has become a people's march, with all of them heading towards this constitutional authority, which they feel should safeguard the rights of Indian people, especially this very basic right to vote," says Jahnavi Sen, managing editor of The Wire.
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Oct 12, 2026
Houthi Attack on Riyadh Airport Kills One Person, a Day After Another Strike Killed 12 People, Pentagon Quietly Raises Count of U.S. Troops Killed in Iran War, Two Palestinians Killed in Gaza Today, Russia Bombs Ukrainian Power Plant After Trump Declares Energy Ceasefire, Protests Against Right-Wing Government of Indian Prime Minister Modi Rock Delhi, DOJ Probing Whether Major TV Networks Broke Federal Antitrust Law, Federal Judge Orders Trump Admin to Stop Running Taxpayer Funded Ads Promoting the President, Federal Judge Issues Temporary Order Blocking Deportation of Man Shot by ICE Agents in NYC, ICE Agent in Houston Runs Over Man with Vehicle, Breaking Both His Legs, "I Can Call Him Whatever the Hell I Want": Trump Misnames Michigan Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Christa Pike Discharged from Hospital and Sent Back to Prison After Surviving Botched Execution, U.S. Imposes Further Sanctions on ICC After Navi Pillay Wins Nobel Peace Prize, Conservative TV Personality Katie Zacharia Appointed White House Press Secretary
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Oct 09, 2026
University students across the United States held a national day of action in solidarity with "Jane Doe," the anonymous former student whose lawsuit alleging she was gang-raped by seven Cornell University Chi Phi fraternity members in 2024 has reignited outrage over how campuses and local law enforcement mishandle sexual assault cases and fail survivors. We go to Cornell's campus in Ithaca, New York, where faculty have introduced a no-confidence resolution against the university administration.
"The number one message that Cornell students have is that Jane Doe's ordeal is the tip of the iceberg, that there have been many, many other cases where women have been sexually assaulted and raped at Cornell University, and they're afraid of coming forward. They're afraid of going to the authorities because the investigation may be botched or they may be shamed," says Paul Ortiz, a professor of labor history and the lead sponsor of the resolution.
"Rape culture and sexual assault culture thrives on campus," adds Saya Taylor, a Cornell sophomore and a member of the group Students for a Democratic Cornell. "The true outrage in this case doesn't just come from what happened to Jane Doe. It comes from the fact that it could have happened to anybody, and they still would have not received any justice."
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Oct 09, 2026
The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, the South African jurist who led the United Nations commission of inquiry that concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Pillay's long career in international human rights law includes work as a defense attorney for anti-apartheid activists, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, a former judge at the International Criminal Court and the U.N.'s high commissioner for human rights from 2008 to 2014.
"Everybody in the human rights movement reveres Navi Pillay," says war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody, who calls the award "a stinging rebuke to Donald Trump." Brody, a member of the United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, also comments on the Trump administration's decision to deport a Nicaraguan opposition activist, Jeffrey Jarquín, from the United States, where he was in the process of seeking asylum. Upon his return to Nicaragua, Jarquín was immediately imprisoned at the same facility in which he was once tortured.
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Oct 09, 2026
Protests have erupted in New York City after a federal immigration agent shot and wounded a man in the Bronx on Thursday afternoon. As masked agents reportedly posing as construction workers attempted to arrest 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, they opened fire on his car. Belgal was shot in the neck. His 5-year-old child, who was in the back seat, was physically unharmed. Belgal was taken to a local hospital, where hundreds, including our guests, Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier and New York City Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa, gathered to demand his release.
"What we saw yesterday was a prime example of why [ICE] is a terror to our communities, why it should not exist," says Avila Chevalier. She was among multiple people assaulted by officers with the NYPD unit that specializes in protest policing, known as the Strategic Response Group (SRG). Four others were arrested at Thursday evening's protest. Avila Chevalier, who was knocked down to the ground by officers, says, "This is why we also must demand that we get rid of and disband the SRG, because this type of response should have never happened for folks who were just simply trying to protect their neighbor."
"I personally witnessed the NYPD escalating aggressively towards our community, barricading the community in … I also witnessed NYPD helping the ICE vehicles whisk away our neighbors and come in and out of the hospital," adds De La Rosa.
"We have become less safe with the presence of ICE, and we need to make sure that we are actually upholding the sanctuary policies of the city. There is no reason why NYPD should be collaborating this way," says Avila Chevalier.
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Oct 09, 2026
Protests Erupt in New York After ICE Agent Shoots and Wounds Man, Video Shows Bystanders Attempting to Intervene in Violent ICE Arrest in New Jersey, Family Seeks Damages from U.S. over ICE Killing of Silverio Villegas González, USS Abraham Lincoln Arrives in San Diego After Arduous Deployment in Support of Iran War, Michigan Senate Candidates Clash over Trump's Wars, U.S. Support for Israel in First Debate, Ukraine Says Russian Attacks Killed 78 Civilians in Two Days, Navi Pillay Wins Nobel Prize for "Efforts to Promote Peace and International Law", DOJ Seeks Charges Against Former White House Aide and Jan. 6 Whistleblower Cassidy Hutchinson, Kimberly Guilfoyle Asked MAGA Donor to Pay $100K Credit Card Bill, Promising Access to "Trump World", Pentagon Plans to Live-Stream First U.S. Public Execution Since 1936, Former Student Who Alleged Gang Rape at Cornell Fraternity Faces Violent Threats, Arizona Congressional Candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia Says She Was Raped, Trump Bought Millions of Dollars of SpaceX Bonds Days Before Space Policy Order
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Oct 08, 2026
This week marks 25 years since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, the beginning of what would become the longest war in U.S. history. After installing a pro-Western government in Kabul in December 2001, U.S. and other NATO troops would remain in the country for the next two decades battling a stubborn insurgency — until a chaotic U.S. withdrawal in August 2021 that saw the Taliban return to power.
"During the 20 years of America's longest war in Afghanistan, we could clearly see that failure was coming," says journalist Emran Feroz, just back from a month of reporting in Afghanistan. He says the relative economic and political gains under the Western-backed government were undercut by widespread corruption and violence, particularly in rural Afghanistan. "You had torture prisons next to Burger King and KFC and Starbucks."
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Oct 08, 2026
As the development of artificial intelligence accelerates, more voices inside and outside the industry are warning that the technology poses major risks to humanity. The new film, The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, features interviews with leading AI executives, researchers, as well as critics, who all voice similar concerns. Since the film's release earlier this year, a number of AI-driven hacks and other incidents have further alarmed people studying this topic.
"I'm really scared, and I'm struggling in my own life to sort of compartmentalize what I learned, what I know, what I understand, what I see happening around me," says filmmaker Daniel Roher. He began work on The AI Doc as he was about to become a father and wondered what kind of world his children would inherit.
We also speak with Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, a leading AI safety advocate who is featured in the film. He says part of the risk of AI development is that it has the logic of an "arms race," with companies and countries racing to gain supremacy rather than building guardrails.
"The race changes as soon as the fear of all of us losing becomes bigger than the fear of me losing to you," he says.
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Oct 08, 2026
The 87-year-old pensioner in Spain whose eviction from her lifelong home sparked nationwide protests has died. María del Carmen Abascal, better known as Maricarmen, died on Wednesday just hours before she was set to sign a new rental agreement. She was forcibly removed from her Madrid apartment last month on a stretcher after the private investment company that owns the building hiked her rent. After massive public outcry, the landlord had agreed to allow her back into her apartment.
Independent Spanish journalist María Carrión says that although Maricarmen's story galvanized much of the country, evictions like hers are "a daily occurrence" in Spain.
"Rents have gone up 80% in the last 10 years, while salaries have not kept up," Carrión says. "Young people cannot leave their homes. They cannot become independent or start families. And this is what people are trying to change from the street."
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Oct 08, 2026
"Maricarmen," Whose Eviction from Lifelong Home Sparked Housing Protests Across Spain, Dies at 87, France's Education Minister Meets Student Leaders as Mass Protests Demand Education Reforms, WHO Demands Answers as Russia Denies Reports of Second Case of Plague, Protesters Repeatedly Interrupt Trump at Rally for Texas GOP Senate Candidate Ken Paxton, DHS Conducts Massive "Election Fraud" Operation as ICE Ramps Up Pace of Arrests Ahead of Midterms, Yemen's Displaced Population Tops 200,000 as Saudi-Backed Forces Battle Houthis, Russian Missile Strike Kills 22 in Ukraine, Tanker Struck North of Qatar After Iran Warns Ships Against Bypassing Strait of Hormuz Blockade, Venezuela's Second-Largest Refinery Idles as Natural Gas Line Rupture Triggers Fire, Trump Admin Temporarily Allows Truckers to Fill Up on Dyed Diesel, Tropical Storm Isaias Intensifies to Become First Atlantic Hurricane of the Season, Death Row Prisoner Christa Pike Walking and Speaking After Failed Execution Attempt, Democratic Congressmembers Call for Criminal Probe into Epstein Associate Leon Botstein
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Oct 07, 2026
In Gaza, October 7, 2023, is viewed as the beginning of the genocide. Over the past three years, Israel killed over 74,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, but many believe that number is a vast undercount. The killing continues despite a so-called ceasefire that took effect about a year ago.
"Every single aspect of the life of the people of Gaza has changed once and forever," since October 7, says Akram al-Satarri, a Gaza-based journalist. He points out that a large majority of structures in the Gaza Strip have been reduced to rubble and that Israel controls around 70% of Gaza. "The Israeli Air Force is still hovering all around different parts of the Gaza Strip, and the IDF is still hunting Gazans, disturbing the already disturbed life, spreading death and displacement once and once again."
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Oct 07, 2026
Twelve Days That Shook the Middle East: Origins of a Genocide is the new book by Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara discussing the crucial 12 days between Benjamin Netanyahu's October 7 speech and Biden's "rare" Oval Office speech on October 19. "October 7 was bloody, and it was horrific. … But Netanyahu and his government had to go overboard, to exaggerate, to lie, to deceive about what exactly happened" in order to justify their actions in Gaza, says Bishara. "Genocides don't start with bombs; they start with ideology. And in this case, the ideology has been decades in the making."
"During the Biden administration, the United States was basically complicit in genocide," adds Bishara.
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Oct 07, 2026
Israelis and Palestinians are marking three years since October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel. Nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed, and around 250 were taken hostage. It was the deadliest such attack in Israel's history, after which Israel immediately began bombing the Gaza Strip, killing at least 5,000 people by October 23, 2023. At least 74,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon lost both of his parents, who lived on a kibbutz just north of the Gaza border, in the Hamas attack. In the aftermath, Inon called for peace and reconciliation rather than revenge. He has spent much of the past three years working closely with Palestinian peace activist Aziz Abu Sarah.
"The Israeli government exploited the trauma, the pain, the fear of the Israelis after the October 7th massacre to change the status quo from conflict management to ethnic cleansing," says Inon. "Those who choose ethnic cleansing, those who choose bloodshed, those who choose destruction must be sanctioned," he adds.
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