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Jul 17, 2026
Hollywood's blockbuster adaptation of the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey premieres around the world today amid growing calls for a boycott. Human rights campaigners are criticizing director Christopher Nolan over his decision to film part of the film in Western Sahara, a vast territory in northwestern Africa that Morocco has occupied for the past half-century.
"This occupying force is practicing cultural genocide against the Sahrawi people, ethnic cleansing," says María Carrión, the executive director of the Western Sahara International Film Festival. "By staying silent for one year and then using this footage, Nolan has basically become an accomplice to Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara."
Abidin Mohamed Hamudi, a Sahrawi filmmaker speaking to Democracy Now! from Algeria, says he cannot return to his home in Western Sahara, but Nolan "can just go there and film and be complicit in the occupation of my homeland." He calls it "a metaphor of how the Western world uses human rights, democracy narratives whenever they want, and then ignore it in other parts of the world."
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Jul 17, 2026
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and top White House adviser Stephen Miller are pushing for a global crackdown on leftist organizations. The State Department on Thursday hosted a summit "on the resurgence of political terrorism," where Miller described the left as "enemies of civilization" and described efforts to "disrupt, identify, defund, debank, arrest and prosecute these political terrorists that are operating in our country." Rubio announced the U.S. would soon designate more left-wing groups as terrorist organizations. Also on Thursday, the State Department announced new visa restrictions targeting what it calls "members of Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned groups."
"They're putting political groups in the United States and abroad on the same footing as groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS," says independent journalist Ken Klippenstein, who has been closely following the Trump administration's designation of left-wing activism as terrorism.
"This effort to designate left-wing groups as foreign terrorists using these broad terms like 'antifa' will allow them to go after people who are not committing violence but who are simply engaging in the political process," adds former FBI special agent Mike German.
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Jul 17, 2026
Hundreds of community members gathered in Houston on Thursday evening for a public viewing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the 52-year-old Mexican man shot and killed by an ICE agent on July 7. His sons stood by their father's casket for hours greeting mourners who wore blue, Salgado Araujo's favorite color. A mariachi band played, and several altars adorned the chapel: One table held Salgado Araujo's construction tools and hard hats, while another displayed two of his Mexico soccer jerseys. Photos and videos of some of the family's most joyful moments were projected in the background.
Democracy Now!'s María Inés Taracena spoke to some of the attendees outside of the funeral home. "Looking back at history, it brought back memories of Emmett Till, when his mom also let the community grieve with them," said Cesar Espinosa, a local immigrant rights activist. "She wanted to show the world what they had done to her son, and I think today, this family also wanted to show the world what they had done to them."
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Jul 17, 2026
In a primetime address on Thursday, President Trump accused China of meddling in U.S. elections in his latest effort to spread doubt about the U.S. voting system ahead of the midterm elections in November. Trump announced he was declassifying documents that show what he called "shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure," but offered no evidence that China or any other country directly interfered with recent elections.
"If Trump was trying to build … a smoking gun case that the 2020 election was stolen, he failed miserably," says Ari Berman, the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones. "I am still very concerned that this speech is intended to lay the groundwork for the administration to interfere in the midterms."
Berman argues that U.S. elections are "secure" and that results are "audited extensively at the state level" and reviewed at the federal level. He says the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden, was "found to be the most secure in American history."
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Jul 17, 2026
Lifelong activist, organizer and educator Denise Oliver-Vélez has died at the age of 78. She was a central figure in the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s and was the first woman elected to the Young Lords Central Committee, a radical Puerto Rican human rights group modeled on the Black Panther Party, which Oliver-Vélez was also a member of. She later became the first Black female program director in public radio and taught at SUNY New Paltz.
As a founding member of the Young Lords, Democracy Now!'s Juan González worked alongside Oliver-Vélez. "She helped develop many of [the Young Lords'] Serve the People programs and helped to shape and write some of the key literature we produced back then," says González, adding that "Denise was never afraid to speak her mind, to challenge authority and to tell her comrades what they needed to hear — not what they wanted to hear — and she always did it with love and kindness."
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Jul 17, 2026
Iran Claims Eight People Killed as U.S. Bombards Civilian Infrastructure, Wildfires Cause Dense Smoke and Hazardous Air Quality in More Than 20 States, Trump Accuses China of Interfering in 2020 Election, Without Providing Evidence, Trump's Teleprompter Operator Reportedly Earned Over $100K Betting on Presidential Speeches, "Truth Social" Plans to Sell Priority Access to Trump's Posts, Iranian Official Claims Kushner and Witkoff Sought to Exploit Negotiations for Personal Gain, ICE Agent Who Fatally Shot Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero Identified as David Brouillette, Rights Groups Demand Probe of ICE Violently Attempting Arrest of Elderly Man in Nevada, So-Called Border Czar Tom Homan Warns ICE Critics That "Bloodshed" Will Continue, U.S. Tightens Visa Rules for Foreign Students, Journalists and Cultural Exchange Visitors, Denise Oliver-Vélez, Lifelong Activist, Organizer and Educator, Dies at Age 78
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Jul 16, 2026
The Trump administration has introduced a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, a bedrock of successful U.S. wildlife conservation for more than 50 years, dramatically weakening its power to protect natural habitats and opening vulnerable lands to real estate development, oil drilling and other extractive industries. A coalition of conservation groups is suing the Trump administration over the rule change. They are represented by the environmental law group Earthjustice and senior attorney Ben Levitan, who calls this latest Trump administration attack on the environment "a total repudiation of the premise that endangered species need places to have shelter, to have food, to raise their young."
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Jul 16, 2026
Has the United States launched a forever war on Iran? As the Trump administration renews its attacks on Iran, killing at least 35 civilians over the course of five days, political analyst Ali Vaez warns that the U.S. is inciting potentially never-ending "cycles of violence" with its manipulations of the diplomatic process. The U.S.'s unilateral renunciation of the "memorandum of understanding" as a "pretext for another round of war" has further eroded trust between the countries, says Vaez. "There is really no military solution," he concludes. "The best solution is for both sides to agree to return to the MOU and to respect its terms."
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Jul 16, 2026
After ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, last week, they quickly arrested three witnesses: the other men that the 52-year-old father of three was driving to work. The three men, including Salgado Araujo's younger brother Victor, are now being detained by ICE and threatened with deportation.
"There is a Trump militia roaming our streets, our towns, our cities, killing people regardless of immigration status with absolutely no accountability. … They are either not getting training or getting training to shoot directly at people, to murder people, in the streets," says Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, explaining that the three incarcerated witnesses must be protected from deportation for at least as long as they can provide information for the investigations on Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's killing. Victor Salgado Araujo "wants to be accessible as a witness, and it's really hard for him to do that when he's [being detained] 45 minutes away from Houston," says his attorney Ruby Powers. "Being able to be in the United States freely, to be able to give that testimony is what we're asking for."
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Jul 16, 2026
As we continue our conversation with Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, we turn to recent developments involving the United States military. On Wednesday, Jayapal was one of over half of all House Democrats to vote in favor eliminating over $3 billion in military aid to Israel. Although the proposed amendment was ultimately shot down, the final tally with over 100 members voting yes is still a "sea change" in U.S. political support for Israel, says Jayapal. Following Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, "it is the horror of what has unfolded that has finally allowed us to confront the fact that we should not be using taxpayer dollars to send to Israel to perpetrate this kind of violence."
Jayapal also responds to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's new order mandating testosterone testing and offering testosterone replacement therapy for servicemembers aged 30 and over. "Providing testosterone is actually gender affirming care," Jayapal remarks. Last year, Hegseth ordered a halt to all gender-affirming medical procedures for military servicemembers and banned openly trans people from service. These actions are "intrusive behavior," says Jayapal, "where the government is getting involved in prescribing what medication you do or don't take, without your consent."
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Jul 16, 2026
Confirmation hearings are underway for President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, his personal attorney Todd Blanche. Blanche is mired in a number of controversies, most notably his mishandling of the administration's release of the Epstein files while serving as deputy attorney general under Pam Bondi. Washington state Representative Pramila Jayapal, who is co-sponsoring a bill to allow Epstein survivors whose identifying information was improperly publicized by the Department of Justice to sue the federal government for damages, says "Todd Blanche was responsible" for the breach. "He really wanted to discourage anyone else from coming forward with more information. … It's [a] big reason why he shouldn't be the attorney general." Jayapal also discusses the Department of Justice's surveillance of herself and other legislators who viewed Epstein-related documents and Blanche's longstanding personal and professional connections with Trump.
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Jul 16, 2026
U.S. Strikes Iran for Fifth Consecutive Day Targeting Tehran, Israeli Forces Kill Four People in Gaza, Including 6-Year-Old Girl, Israel's Security Cabinet Approves Nearly Half a Billion Dollars for New Settlements in Occupied West Bank, Half of All Democrats on Capitol Hill Support Measure Slashing Military Funding to Israel, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche Grilled During Senate Confirmation Hearing, Trump's Nominee for Director of National Intelligence Refuses to Say Whether Biden Won 2020 Election, New York Times Files Motion to Quash Subpoenas of Its Journalists, Hegseth Announces Plans to Screen Testosterone Levels of Service Members Over the Age of 30, 45-Year-Old Venezuelan Immigrant Dies in ICE Custody in Georgia, 100 Million People in North America Face Air Quality Alerts, Pro-Palestinian Activists Demand Release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya from Israeli Custody
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Jul 15, 2026
Twelve Democratic-led states led by California sued this week to block Paramount Skydance's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount is run by David Ellison, whose father, Larry Ellison, is the billionaire founder of Oracle and a prominent ally and financial backer of President Donald Trump. Under the proposed deal, CNN and CBS News, streaming services HBO Max and Paramount , as well as film and television studios, would all be combined under a single entity controlled by the Ellisons. The states' lawsuit comes after the Trump administration approved the megamerger last month.
"This proposed merger breaks the law," says California Attorney General Rob Bonta. "It's anti-competitive. It will raise prices. It will lower quality."
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Jul 15, 2026
Israeli settlers armed with clubs, rocks and a knife attacked a convoy of journalists in the West Bank on Saturday, the latest targeting of foreign journalists documenting the Israeli occupation. Four settlers have reportedly been detained over the attack. The convoy, which included CNN's Jeremy Diamond, were accompanying the father of Palestinian American Saif Musallet to the site where he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers one year ago. To date, no one has been arrested for Musallet's killing.
Independent journalist and Palestine solidarity activist Adele Shoko, who was in one of the cars, says the attack is part of an "unprecedented" escalation of settler activity in the occupied West Bank, taking place in so-called Area A, which is nominally under the full control of the Palestinian Authority. "Area C is almost entirely ethnically cleansed by the settlers backed by the Israeli state, and they moved to Area B, attacking big villages. But Area A is another level."
We also speak with Jasper Nathaniel, who was also in the convoy and has been attacked multiple times while reporting in the occupied West Bank. He says pro-Israel advocates who accuse journalists, activists and other international observers of staging "publicity stunts" are downplaying how routine settler intimidation and violence has become. "If you spend enough time in the West Bank — and by enough time, I mean a couple days — something like that is going to happen to you," says Nathaniel.
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Jul 15, 2026
We speak with Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil about his lawsuit against top Trump administration officials, two pro-Israel groups and a conservative think tank for conspiring to suppress his constitutional right to free speech.
Khalil, who helped lead protests at Columbia University against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, was one of several international students targeted for deportation by the Trump administration last year over pro-Palestine advocacy.
"I don't want everything that happened to me to go in vain," says Khalil.
The lawsuit names Secretary of State Marco Rubio and several other top administration figures; the Heritage Foundation, which launched Project Esther, a campaign to suppress pro-Palestine protests; the far-right pro-Israel group Betar; and Canary Mission, a long-running operation to identify and harass pro-Palestine activists. The lawsuit was brought under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a Reconstruction-era law to restrict government coordination with vigilante groups like the Klan.
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Jul 15, 2026
Trump Threatens to Attack Civilian Infrastructure as U.S. Continues Attacks on Iran, Senate Democrats Block $1.15 Trillion Pentagon Budget Bill over Iran War, Progressives Push Back as House Democratic Leader Opposes Ending Military Aid to Israel, Israeli Forces Kill More Children in Gaza, ICE Says It Will Halt Traffic Stops After Deadly Shootings by Agents, Minnesota Prosecutors Finally Receive Evidence in Killings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Texas DA Opens Independent Criminal Probe Into ICE Killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, The Guardian: 12 People Detained at Colorado Immigration Jail Contracted Tuberculosis, Report: U.S. Law Enforcement Responsible for Over 400 Misuse of Force Cases Against Civilians, Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil Sues Senior Trump Administration Officials, New York Becomes First State to Impose Data Center Moratorium, Sister of Late GOP Senator Lindsey Graham Sworn In to Fill His Senate Seat, Cuba's National Electric Grid Collapses Again Amid U.S. Oil Blockade
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Jul 14, 2026
We get an update on elections and voting rights in the United States from Mother Jones's national voting rights correspondent, Ari Berman, who warns of President Donald Trump's escalating attempts to "try to claim dictatorial power" and commit an "unprecedented intervention" into the 2026 midterm elections. Whether it takes the form of claims of foreign interference, canceling mail-in voting or requiring proof of citizenship, "[t]he bottom line here is they keep lying about the 2020 election so that they can justify massive interference in the 2026 election," says Berman. "That's something that we all need to be very vigilant about."
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Jul 14, 2026
The killing of 26-year-old Colombian immigrant Joan Sebastian Guerrero by ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine, has put the sparsely populated state back in the national spotlight amid the ongoing fallout from a sexual assault allegation that led insurgent Democratic nominee Graham Platner to suspend his campaign for Senate. The nomination will now be determined by Maine Democratic Party delegates in an accelerated — and more crowded — version of the race's contentious primary. Platner had been running to unseat longtime Republican incumbent Susan Collins, a supporter of Donald Trump and his administration's intensifying immigration enforcement policies. Protesters chanting "Vote her out!" marched to Collins's office after Guerrero's shooting was made public. Collins was the deciding vote to approve an additional $70 billion in federal funding for ICE last month. "Voters all across Maine, they don't think there is a way to reform this agency. They think it needs to be abolished," says Nathan Bernard, a Drop Site News correspondent in Maine.
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Jul 14, 2026
Just days after the killing of a Mexican immigrant in Texas, immigration agents fatally shot another immigrant, also driving to work, this time in a small town in southern Maine. Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, originally from Colombia, was 25 years old and the father of a 3-year-old daughter. He was reportedly authorized to work in the United States, had been issued a Social Security number and was not the target of any warrant. The Department of Homeland Security has defended the shooting, saying that ICE fired on Durán Guerrero in his car out of fear for "public safety." Witnesses say they say they saw agents dragging Durán Guerrero from the car after the shooting as he told them that he had been trying to "stop." For more, we speak to Biddeford, Maine, resident Eisha Khan, the wife of the town's mayor, Liam LaFountain, about the community's "shell-shocked" response to Guerrero's death.
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Jul 14, 2026
Just days after the killing of a Mexican immigrant in Texas, immigration agents fatally shot another immigrant, also driving to work, this time in a small town in southern Maine. Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, originally from Colombia, was 26 years old and the father of a 3-year-old daughter. He was reportedly authorized to work in the United States, had been issued a Social Security number and was not the target of any warrant. The Department of Homeland Security has defended the shooting, saying that ICE fired on Durán Guerrero in his car out of fear for "public safety." Witnesses say they say they saw agents dragging Durán Guerrero from the car after the shooting as he told them that he had been trying to "stop." For more, we speak to Biddeford, Maine, resident Eisha Khan, the wife of the town's mayor, Liam LaFountain, about the community's "shell-shocked" response to Guerrero's death.
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Jul 14, 2026
Just days after the killing of a Mexican immigrant in Texas, immigration agents fatally shot another immigrant, also driving to work, this time in a small town in southern Maine. Joan Sebastian Guerrero, originally from Colombia, was 26 years old and the father of a 3-year-old daughter. He was reportedly authorized to work in the United States, had been issued a Social Security number and was not the target of any warrant. The Department of Homeland Security has defended the shooting, saying that ICE fired on Guerrero in his car out of fear for "public safety." Witnesses say they say they saw agents dragging Guerrero from the car after the shooting as he told them that he had been trying to "stop." For more, we speak to Biddeford, Maine, resident Eisha Khan, the wife of the town's mayor, Liam LaFountain, about the community's "shell-shocked" response to Guerrero's death.
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Jul 14, 2026
Just days after the killing of a Mexican immigrant in Texas, immigration agents fatally shot another immigrant, also driving to work, this time in a small town in southern Maine. Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, originally from Colombia, was 26 years old and the father of a 3-year-old daughter. He was reportedly authorized to work in the United States, had been issued a Social Security number and was not the target of any warrant. The Department of Homeland Security has defended the shooting, saying that ICE fired on Guerrero in his car out of fear for "public safety." Witnesses say they say they saw agents dragging Guerrero from the car after the shooting as he told them that he had been trying to "stop." For more, we speak to Biddeford, Maine, resident Eisha Khan, the wife of the town's mayor, Liam LaFountain, about the community's "shell-shocked" response to Guerrero's death.
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Jul 14, 2026
"They were hunting for Latinos." Outcry is continuing over the ICE shooting death of 52-year-old Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in a majority-Latino neighborhood in Houston, Texas, last week. Events pieced together by eyewitness videos and texts sent by the agents involved in Araujo's killing suggest that agents largely ignored Araujo's cries for help after he was shot. "They really just strung him along for hours until finally sending him to the hospital," says Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC, the largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States. Meanwhile, the three men carpooling with Araujo to work are still languishing in ICE detention, where they were initially pressured to sign self-deportation orders. "But the fact of the matter is, we need them to stay in the United States. They are witnesses to a crime, and the only witnesses to what actually happened on that day."
Houston police have begun investigating the shooting as a homicide, "but my expectation is that their investigation will similarly be hampered by DHS," says Proaño. "I don't believe there will be justice here. There's no way to bring him back."
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Jul 14, 2026
Trump Announces U.S. Naval Blockade of Iran Moving Closer to All-Out War, Tensions Escalate Between Houthis in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, Immigration Agents Fatally Shoot Colombian Man in Maine, Mexican President Sheinbaum Calls for Criminal Probes into the Deaths of Mexicans in the U.S., Federal Judge Blasts Trump's $10 Billion Lawsuit Against the IRS, 12 Democratic-Led States File Lawsuit to Block Paramount's Acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Secretary of State Rubio Announces U.S. Plans to "Systematically Disable" the ICC, Pentagon Announces New Joint Task Force with DOJ to Target Press Leaks, U.S. Border Agents Seize Devices of Journalist Max Blumenthal After He Returned from Reporting Trip to Iran, Trump Signs Executive Order Drastically Reducing Size of Two National Monuments in Utah, South Carolina Governor Appoints Sister of Late GOP Senator Graham to Replace Him, National Weather Service Forecasts Dozens of Temperature Records Will Be Tied or Broken This Week, Keystone Pipeline Operators Agree to Pay Nearly $27 Million over 2022 Oil Spill, Pro-Palestinian Activist and Philanthropist Fergie Chambers Arrested in Spain
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Jul 13, 2026
The United States and Israel earlier this month signed a deal allocating land for a permanent U.S. Embassy in West Jerusalem — years after a temporary embassy was established during Trump's first term in office. Palestinian families have pleaded with the U.S. government to reconsider the embassy's planned location, saying the site in the area known as the Allenby compound was unlawfully taken from them decades ago.
Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, belongs to one of the families that has claims to the land. "So, here we have the U.S. government signing an agreement with the Israeli government to lease land the Israeli government has no right to, to which … we and many other families have title, in order to establish an illegal embassy in Jerusalem, which is in violation of repeated U.N. Security Council resolutions."
Khalidi also comments on the ongoing fight to save the centuries-old Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem, "one of the most sacred and holy sites to Muslims." Israel has gradually taken over the cemetery, replacing it with a museum, parks and parking lots.
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Jul 13, 2026
Armed Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank have carried out a number of attacks in recent days targeting local Palestinians and foreign journalists, as well as detaining U.S. Congressmember Ro Khanna during a fact-finding trip. Khanna said that when Israeli forces arrived, they sided with the settlers. "The U.S. government just merrily goes along funding these atrocities against American citizens, not to speak of atrocities against Palestinians who don't happen to be American citizens," says Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University. "All of this is being done with our tax dollars."
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Jul 13, 2026
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the most prominent supporters of war in Washington, has died at the age of 71 after what his office called a "brief and sudden illness." He was a vocal supporter of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, a leading backer of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and a proponent of more U.S. military support for Ukraine. He also pushed for a permanent occupation of Afghanistan and once called for a preemptive attack on North Korea.
Graham "never met a war of aggression that he didn't passionately back," says Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site News, who adds that the late senator also had a "slavish dedication to Israel over the interests of the United States and the rest of the world."
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Jul 13, 2026
The United States is continuing to bombard Iran amid an intensifying standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command said on Sunday the United States had struck 140 targets in Iran. In retaliation, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted U.S. military facilities across the Middle East.
"U.S. CENTCOM, Central Command, and the Pentagon at large have concealed the impact of Iranian strikes, in some cases entirely," says Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site News, adding that "Trump has dramatically underestimated the Iranians from the very beginning."
The escalating attacks from both sides come after Iran announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz last week and President Trump declared the ceasefire over. Iran insists that, according to the 60-day memorandum of understanding with the United States, commercial ships going through the waterway must "coordinate" their movements with Iranian authorities, which the United States has rejected.
"There is no question, objectively speaking, that it's the United States that's been violating the terms of this agreement. It is quite explicit that Iran is supposed to have managing authority of the Strait of Hormuz," says Scahill.
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Jul 13, 2026
U.S. Continues to Attack Iran as IRGC Retaliates by Striking U.S. Bases Across the Middle East, Armed Israeli Settlers in the Occupied West Bank Detain Congressman Ro Khanna, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina Dies at 71, GOP Senator McConnell Reveals He Was Hospitalized After He Fell, Justice Department Subpoenas Four New York Times Journalists , NYT: U.S. Secretary of State Rubio Serving as De Facto Viceroy of Venezuela, Wildfires Rage in Greece, Spain and France During Europe's Record Heat Wave, Federal Judge Approves DOJ Request to Dismiss Charges Against Five Members of the Proud Boys, Protests Continue in Houston After ICE Fatally Shot Mexican Father Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Justice Department Probes Yale's Admissions Practices, Federal Judge Rejects DOJ Subpoena Seeking Names of Election Workers in Fulton County from the 2020 Election, President of PEN America Resigns After Article on Boycotts of Israeli and Jewish Writers, Civil Rights Leaders Call for Independent Probe of Black Teen's Death in Mississippi
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Jul 10, 2026
A new investigation from the BBC is accusing Instagram of running paid ads in India promoting child sexual abuse material. BBC senior correspondent Divya Arya explains how Instagram's AI-powered review process frequently fails to flag content suggesting illegal and abusive activity, and how the platform's profit-driven algorithms boost accounts paying to advertise this content. Instagram's parent company Meta has denied culpability, "saying that it's absolutely unfair to say that they prioritize revenue over user safety and that they underinvest in safety mechanisms." In response to Arya's findings, the Indian government is now demanding that Meta immediately remove all such ads and child exploitation materials, and submit a detailed explanation on how such advertisements were allowed on its platforms. "This illegal content should not be on the internet, and somebody needs to be held accountable for it," says Arya.
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Jul 10, 2026
This month marks the 60th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, the landmark government transparency law that has helped reveal and publicize critical information about everything from the Vietnam War to FBI surveillance to CIA torture. For decades, FOIA has played a crucial role in uncovering and rectifying government wrongdoing. Today, however, advocates say that the government's resistance to fulfilling FOIA requests has grown, forcing applicants to file expensive lawsuits to obtain records, while records that are released often take years to receive and are filled with so many redactions as to render them essentially "a waste of time."
"It's gotten extremely bad in this last year and a half under Trump, but this has been going on for decades," says Ian Head, who manages the Open Records Project at the Center for Constitutional Rights. These bureaucratic delay and deferral tactics are extremely concerning, he adds, threatening accountability, transparency and democratic processes. "We need to be able to file federal FOIA requests so we can see what this government is doing."
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Jul 10, 2026
As a rose-tinted wave of progressives and democratic socialists win Democratic primaries across the United States, we take a look at two of the organizations behind this recent slate of successful electoral campaigns: the Democratic Socialists of America and Justice Democrats.
From Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York to Melat Kiros in Colorado to Janeese Lewis George in Washington, D.C., major victories from self-described democratic socialists and DSA-backed candidates show that "socialism is losing its scare factor." Ashik Siddique, co-chair of the DSA's National Political Committee, explains that DSA's "goal is to reframe politics around class lines in the United States, which is what the ruling class has been doing forever. We want to transfer power from the 1% to the working class, and to replace capitalism with socialism, which means expanding democracy in every part of our lives."
By equipping progressives with alternatives to the traditional money streams relied upon by establishment Democrats, like the pro-Israel lobby or Big Tech, DSA and the progressive political action committee Justice Democrats hope to propel genuine advocates for the working class, unbought by corporate funding, into the halls of Congress.
"We went into this cycle viewing it as an existential one," says Alexandra Rojas, the executive director of Justice Democrats, which recruited candidates like Avila Chevalier and Adam Hamawy in New Jersey. "We see fascism here at our doorstep, and this is a now-or-never moment for our party."
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Jul 10, 2026
U.S. Denies Involvement as Blasts Rock Southern Iran, Eyewitness and Video Evidence Contradicts ICE Claims in Killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Mexico Seeks Criminal Charges in Deaths of Mexicans in ICE Custody, Vigilantes Intensify Attacks on Immigrants in South Africa, Venezuela Faces Public Health Crisis as Earthquake Death Toll Tops 3,800, U.N. Says Russian Attacks Killed at Least 265 Ukrainian Civilians in June, Palestinian Authority Schedules First Elections Since 2006, Israel Continues Deadly Strikes on Gaza, Withholds Bodies of Palestinians, Housing Bill Sidelined by Trump Is Set to Become Law, Barring Last-Minute Veto, With Midterms Looming, Trump Completes Purge of Election Assistance Commission, Justice Department's Civil Rights Division Warns State Election Officials They Could Be Prosecuted, 28 Die as Fire Consumes Shoe Factory in China's Jinjiang, Death Toll from Severe Flooding in China Rises to 39 as Massive Typhoon Approaches Taiwan
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Jul 09, 2026
Plans for a luxury resort in an ecologically sensitive area have set off more than a month of protests in Albania, where thousands have taken to the streets to oppose the megaproject backed by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. The Flamingo Revolution — named for its feared impact on migratory birds — began as an environmental protest but has now turned into anger at the entire political system, threatening to bring down the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
For more, we speak with two members of the left-wing Lëvizja Bashkë party who call the planned resort a "money laundering operation" that exposes a deeper rot in the country.
"The protests will go on, and the people are very determined," says researcher and labor organizer Bora Mema.
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Jul 09, 2026
The family of Geraldo Lunas Campos is suing over the 55-year-old Cuban immigrant's death at an ICE detention center in Texas earlier this year, with a local coroner ruling his death a homicide from asphyxia. The Department of Homeland Security said Lunas Campos had attempted suicide, but witnesses said he died after being restrained by multiple guards. The family's lawsuit names four guards and multiple private companies overseeing the jail.
Perla Trevizo, a reporter with the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative unit, says Lunas Campos had a history of mental health issues and that he had complained before his death about lack of access to his medication.
"Witnesses say that they believe he was shackled. There were several guards. They took him down," Trevizo says.
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Jul 09, 2026
Immigration and civil rights advocacy groups are demanding an independent investigation into the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant and father of three who was killed by ICE agents in Houston on Tuesday morning. Salgado Araujo, who had been living in the United States for nearly 35 years, worked in construction and was starting his day by picking up other workers in Magnolia Park, a historically Latino neighborhood, when ICE agents targeted him. The Department of Homeland Security says Salgado Araujo "weaponized his vehicle" and attempted to ram agents, a claim made in previous ICE killings that has fallen apart under scrutiny. This latest death comes exactly six months after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis under similar circumstances.
We speak with Cesar Espinosa, executive director of the Houston-based civil rights organization FIEL, Immigrant Families and Students in the Fight. He says the community is demanding answers, including the release of any available video of the incident.
"Everything is hush-hush," he says of the Homeland Security response. "They don't want to release anything. We don't even know if there's bodycam footage."
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Jul 09, 2026
We speak with political analyst Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, about the latest events in the Middle East. The United States has bombed Iran for multiple days after President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire between the countries to be "over." Iran says it has retaliated by attacking U.S. military bases and other strategic sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
Parsi says the renewal of fighting is "a disastrous development" for chances of a long-term peace and a reset in the U.S.-Iran relationship. "Both countries are in dire need of an end to this war."
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Jul 09, 2026
Trump Renews Threat to Commit War Crimes as U.S. Bombs Iran for Second Day, Assassinated Supreme Leader Khamenei to Be Laid to Rest in Iran After Multiday Funeral, Israel Kills School Principal, Her Mother and Two Other Civilians in Lebanon Strike, Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill 9, Including Driver Delivering Food for U.S. Charity, Israeli Soldier Shares Evidence of Torture on Social Media, Amnesty Asks U.S. to Secure Release of Gaza Doctor Following Reports of Torture in Israeli Jails, Trump Says Ukraine Can Manufacture Its Own Patriot Missiles, Maine Democrats Plan Nominating Convention as Graham Platner Suspends Senate Campaign, Kentucky Governor Demands Update on Sen. Mitch McConnell's Health, Judge Orders Release of Trump's $5M Payment to E. Jean Carroll for Sexual Abuse and Defamation, "He Did Not Deserve to Die": Family Demands Justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Shot Dead by ICE, Man Shot in Memphis Is Fourth to Be Killed by Federal Task Force Agents, Former Wisconsin Judge Is Spared Prison Time for "Obstructing" ICE Agents at Her Courthouse
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Jul 08, 2026
A new investigation has uncovered how the United Arab Emirates (UAE) supports a secret network of military training camps for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that enables them to continue their deadly war in Sudan.
"This war, which is often categorized in international media as a civil war, is really a proxy war," says award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Julia Steers. "We're talking about a really extensive network of logistics and training and financial backing from the UAE."
The investigation is a collaboration between Lighthouse Reports, Evident, Sudan War Monitor and Der Spiegel.
Meanwhile, as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warns another humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding the North Kordofan state capital of El Obeid, where the RSF and the Sudanese army are fighting for control. "There's no question that the RSF would not be able to have gotten as far as they have, to have claimed nearly as much territory as they have, without the really robust support of the UAE," says Steers.
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Jul 08, 2026
Trump announced on Tuesday at the NATO summit in Ankara that he would lift U.S. sanctions on Turkey and is considering selling the country F-35 fighter jets. Trump made the comment following a lavish state dinner hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he praised as a "great leader." The mayor of Istanbul and other Turkish politicians, civil society figures and journalists remain jailed on politically motivated charges.
"Here in Ankara, and in Turkey more broadly, this NATO summit is not taking place in a climate of freedom. We saw, in the two weeks leading up to this summit happening, authorities in Ankara arrested over 200 people in dawn raids," says Ruth Michaelson, a journalist based in Istanbul. "There has also been a protest ban enforced in Ankara, and that is a protest ban that extends even to leafleting."
Repression from the Turkish state has not been addressed during the summit; instead, "something that we've been hearing throughout the summit is that Turkey has this indispensable place in NATO," says Michaelson.
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Jul 08, 2026
Maine's Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner has yet to drop out of the race despite losing all major endorsements after a rape allegation by an ex-girlfriend, Jenny Racicot, who says Platner assaulted her in 2021. Platner has denied the claim.
"There's no way to force Platner off the ballot; he has to make the decision," says Amy Fried, professor emerita of political science at the University of Maine. Platner would have to drop out of the race by Monday, "and then there's two weeks for the Maine Democratic Party to pick someone else."
Fried discusses potential Democratic candidates to replace Platner and the legacy of Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins, against whom they would be running in November.
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Jul 08, 2026
U.S. Renews Attacks on Iran and Reimposes Oil Sanctions, Trump Declares Iran Ceasefire "Over," Blasts NATO Allies and Praises Turkish President, Israel's Netanyahu Criticizes Trump's Embrace of Turkish President Erdogan, Pentagon Considers Relocating Gulf Bases to Israel, Israeli Strike Kills Gaza Aid Official Who Organized World Cup Screening, Protesters Outside U.N. Celebrate as Israel's Ben-Gvir Cancels Visit to Policing Summit, ICE Agent Fatally Shoots Mexican Father During Houston Traffic Stop, 85-Year-Old German National Becomes 21st to Die in ICE Custody This Year, French Court Clears Path for Far-Right Politician Marine Le Pen to Run for President, Colombian President-elect Suspends Transition as Outgoing Leader Alleges Fraud, Extreme Weather Rocks China, Europe and U.S. Amid Searing July Heat Wave, Senior ExxonMobil Lawyer Retires, Joins Trump Administration
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Jul 07, 2026
As part of the U.S.-backed "Board of Peace" 20-point plan to end Israel's military assault on Gaza, Hamas is dissolving its civilian governing body in the Gaza Strip. Hamas's head of administration, Mohammed al-Farra, resigned from his position on Monday. Hamas, which has controlled the territory for nearly two decades, has said that its ministries and staff will stay in place, and that it will still oversee security and policing in parts of Gaza left under its control.
The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, NCAG, was formed in January 2026 and is meant to take transitional control. "In practice," says Amjad Iraqi, senior Israel-Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group, "Hamas is still the de facto governing authority on the Palestinian-populated side of Gaza. The NCAG, the Palestinian technocratic committee that's supposed to take over those governing duties, is still basically stuck in Cairo and not allowed to enter into Gaza to assume those duties."
Since the deal was signed in October, Israel has continued to uphold its blockade of Gaza, preventing people and aid from traveling through its heavily policed borders. It has also violated the deal's ceasefire provisions on a near-daily basis, killing nearly 1,100 Palestinians, including women, children and other unarmed civilians. "Very little of this, if any, is actually being called out either by [Board of Peace High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov] or by the U.S. officials, and what they're actually doing is allowing Israel to keep bending the terms of the ceasefire, if not openly violating it," says Iraqi.
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Jul 07, 2026
Israel continues to ignore international calls to free the director of Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, from over 18 months of Israeli detention without charge. After seeing Dr. Abu Safiya on July 2, his attorney Nasser Odeh says the doctor faces "tangible danger to his life" from torture and medical neglect. For more, we speak to Tirza Leibowitz, the deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, about Abu Safiya's case and efforts to secure his release. The group has filed an appeal in the Israeli courts requesting the release of Abu Safiya and 13 other Palestinian doctors who were captured in Gaza and imprisoned by the Israeli military.
We also hear from Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a Chicago-based emergency room physician and former colleague of Hussam Abu Safiya. Ahmad volunteered as a medical practitioner in Gaza in 2024. He says Abu Safiya has become a "symbol of Palestinian resilience" and, in particular, Israel's systematic targeting of Gaza's healthcare system, which continues to this day. "The necessary aid is not entering, the bombing still persists, people are still dying on a regular basis, and these hospitals don't have the supplies that they need to be able to treat their patients," says Ahmad.
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Jul 07, 2026
Millions of people are estimated to be participating in the multiday state funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Iran this week. After ruling the Islamic Republic of Iran for over three dozen years, Khamenei was killed by a joint Israeli-U.S. airstrike on February 28. Now viewed as a martyr by both his religious base and the wider Iranian public, Khamenei has taken on a "new identity" as "the leader of the resistance movement, the leader in the fight against U.S. imperialism," says Tehran-based journalist Reza Sayah, who has been reporting on the funeral proceedings. Sayah also discusses the absence of Khamenei's son and chosen successor Mojtaba Khamenei from the public eye, the Iranian government's position on the thousands of protesters killed by security forces in the early months of 2026 and more.
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Jul 07, 2026
Iran Fires on Two Ships in Strait of Hormuz as Trump Threatens to "Finish the Job", Hamas to Cede Control of Gaza to Technocratic Governing Body, Palestinian Baby Dies as Israeli Forces Block Ambulance at Checkpoint, Maine Democratic Senate Candidate Graham Platner Faces Calls to Resign over Rape Allegation, Progressive Abdul El-Sayed Faces Centrist Haley Stevens as Challenger Exits Michigan Senate Race, Sen. Mitch McConnell is "Continuing His Recovery" Weeks After Apparent Cardiac Arrest, GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr. Says Clinical Depression Led to 117-Day Absence from Congress, Trump Heads to NATO Summit with Plans to Allow Turkey's Purchase of F-35 Jets, Human Rights Expert Says U.K. Government Suppressed Genocide Warnings in Sudan over UAE Ties, U.S. Surges Troops to Venezuela in Wake of Devastating Earthquakes, Family of Cuban Who Died of "Likely Homicide" at Texas ICE Jail Sues for Wrongful Death, 18 Injured in Damascus Explosions as France's Emmanuel Macron Meets Syrian Leader
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Jul 06, 2026
A New York City Council employee who was detained at the Delaney Hall ICE jail in Newark, New Jersey, for more than five months was released from custody in June. Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez was taken by federal immigration officers in January during a routine asylum interview. Rubio Bohorquez, who is from Venezuela, was detained despite holding temporary protected status that should have shielded him from deportation.
"People are sad; detainees are sad. It's people that try to build a future in this country, people that have complied with the law," says Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez of detained immigrants he met while being held in multiple ICE jails. "They have paid their taxes. They are raising families."
Rubio Bohorquez says he fears being detained again, even though his attorney Gwyneth Hesser says that would be in violation of a court order. "But it seems right now that's not that much solace, because sometimes things are happening that are outside of the law," says Hesser.
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Jul 06, 2026
A massive heat dome settled above the eastern half of the United States over the Fourth of July weekend, bringing triple-digit temperatures, disrupting travel and prompting emergency measures for millions of people. At least 25 people died in New Jersey due to extreme heat and humidity, and more than 185 million people — over half of U.S. residents — were under heat alerts over the weekend. This follows a record-shattering European heat wave that's been blamed for thousands of deaths across Spain, France and Germany. Climate scientists say the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming and the reason why heat waves are becoming longer, hotter and more frequent.
"Global warming is accelerating past thresholds that we used to consider unacceptable," says climate journalist David Wallace-Wells. "There are a lot of questions about why we haven't prepared adequately for these heat waves," says Wallace-Wells, but he argues that it is still possible to retrofit the planet to mitigate the climate catastrophe.
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Jul 06, 2026
A grand jury in Washington, D.C., has indicted former U.S. Olympic canoeist David "Davey" Hearn on a felony charge for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 19. He is facing a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted. Hearn, who denies the accusations, says he had noticed a partly detached piece of the Reflecting Pool's blue liner and reached into the water to see what it felt like, when he was quickly arrested and subsequently held in jail for five hours. He is one of at least six people who have been arrested for allegedly vandalizing the Reflecting Pool, which has turned green due to algae blooms despite being painted "American-flag blue" at the behest of President Trump.
"We do think that Davey is being scapegoated for the failures of the White House with respect to the Reflecting Pool, that the blame is being shifted," says Norm Eisen, co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund. "He's innocent, and we intend to vigorously defend the matter."
Eisen speaks about some of the other 300 cases Democracy Defenders Fund is involved in, including legal fights against the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger and the Trump administration's executive order that attempted to end birthright citizenship. He also comments on President Trump having made $2.2 billion last year, mostly fueled by cryptocurrency profits. "It's corruption on a scale we've never seen in American history, and, frankly, seldom in world history," says Eisen.
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Jul 06, 2026
Millions Join Funeral Procession for Iranian Supreme Leader Assassinated in U.S. Strike, Israel Continues Attacks on Lebanon Despite U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire, Dozens Killed in Yemen as Houthis Launch Hodeidah Offensive, Israel Approves New West Bank Settlements and Continues Attacks on Gaza, Family Says Palestinian Doctor Hussam Abu Safiya Was Left Disfigured by Israeli Torture, Thessaloniki Shrouded in Toxic Smoke as Wildfires Follow Record European Heat Wave, At Least 25 Die from Record U.S. Heat Wave Over Fourth of July Weekend, Trump Attacks Opponents as "Communists" in Independence Day Speech Marred by Storms, U.S. to Prosecute Former Olympian for "Damaging" Lincoln Reflecting Pool, Thousands Remain Missing as Death Toll from Venezuelan Quakes Tops 3,300, Russian Attacks on Kyiv Kill at Least 11 After Ukrainian Drones Strike St. Petersburg, Turkey Cracks Down on Dissent as Trump Heads to NATO Summit in Ankara, Pope Visits Lampedusa, Urging Humane Treatment of Migrants and Refugees, Trump Pardons Clean Air Act Violators and Ex-Partner of Jack Abramoff, FIFA Lifts Suspension of U.S. Striker After Trump Intervenes, Amnesty International Says Chinese "Ethnic Unity" Law Would Accelerate Forced Assimilation, Activist Self-Immolates Outside U.N. to Demand Tibet's Independence from China
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Jul 03, 2026
As part of our July Fourth special broadcast, we continue our extended interview with Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI. The book documents the rise of OpenAI and how the AI industry is leading to a new form of colonialism. "One of the things that you really have to understand about AI development today is that there are what I call quasi-religious movements that have developed within Silicon Valley," says Hao. "The concept of artificial general intelligence is not one that's scientifically grounded."
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Jul 03, 2026
In our July Fourth special broadcast, we revisit our interview with longtime technology reporter Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI, which unveils the accruing political and economic power of artificial intelligence companies — especially Sam Altman's OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the exploitation of workers in Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology's detrimental impact on the environment. "This is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms," says Hao in an extended interview.
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Jul 03, 2026
We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" He was addressing the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. The late actor James Earl Jones read the historic address during a performance of Voices of a People's History of the United States, which was co-edited by Howard Zinn.
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Jul 02, 2026
Ahead of the July Fourth holiday and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we speak with the acclaimed scholar Robin D. G. Kelley, who examines how Black radicals have interpreted the document throughout U.S. history in a new essay for Hammer & Hope. Although the declaration famously asserts that "all men are created equal," Kelley says that clearly did not extend to Indigenous or enslaved Black people. "When the drafters developed this declaration, they assumed that human beings were basically white men," he says. But despite the "hypocrisy" of the declaration, many Black radicals still found value in its words, including a "justification for rebellion," says Kelley.
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Jul 02, 2026
In a 6-3 ruling this week that overturned nine decades of precedent, the Supreme Court granted President Donald Trump the power to fire and replace officials at independent government agencies like the Federal Trade Commission. But in a separate 5-4 decision, the justices ruled that Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can stay in her job as she challenges Trump's efforts to fire her.
The seemingly contradictory rulings suggest a two-tier system of regulation, says Alvaro Bedoya, a former FTC commissioner who was fired by Trump last year. The independence and stability of the Federal Reserve is important to "billionaire Wall Street Bankers," and therefore remains protected, says Bedoya. "But then you have this whole series of other agencies that keep your toys safe, that keep health insurers from robbing people blind, that keep supermarkets from merging to make milk, eggs and beef … even more expensive. The court said that all those regulators can report directly to the president and be entirely beholden to his whims."
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Jul 02, 2026
New financial disclosures by President Donald Trump show that he made more than $1.4 billion from his family's various cryptocurrency ventures last year, reaping a windfall after pulling back on regulation of the industry and promoting the United States as "the crypto capital of the world." Other Trump businesses, like his resorts and golf courses, have also flourished since his return to the White House, while the Trump Organization has also licensed the family name to properties in countries that are crucial to U.S. foreign policy interests, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
"It's been an incredibly successful period for the Trump family," says Reuters investigative reporter Tom Bergin.
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Jul 02, 2026
Trump Defends Financial Report Showing His Personal Income Soared to $2.2 Billion in 2025, Sons of Donald Trump and Howard Lutnick Profit from U.S.-Backed Kazakhstan Mining Deal, Rights Groups Demand End to Venezuela Sanctions as Earthquake Death Toll Passes 2,000, Texas Lawmaker Condemns ICE for Attempting to Deport Families to Venezuela After Massive Quakes, Sudan's Currency Plummets as Paramilitaries Besiege City of El Obeid, Russian Drones and Missiles Rain Down on Kyiv, Killing at Least 20, Palestinians Mark 1,000 Days Since Israel Began Full-Scale Assault on Gaza, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Declares Israel's Assault on Gaza a Genocide, Urges Arms Embargo, World's Oceans Experienced Record Heat Wave in June, U.S. Faces Record Heat Over 4th of July Holiday, as Spain Says June Heat Wave Killed 1,000 , ICE Arrests 10,000 Immigrants in Under a Week as White House Demands Speedier Deportations, Seven More Receive Harsh Sentences for "Terrorism" After Attending Protest at Texas ICE Jail, Speaker Mike Johnson Says Trump Won't Veto Housing Bill He Called "A Big Yawn", House Votes to Disclose Lawmakers Behind Taxpayer-Funded Sexual Misconduct Payouts, Actor and Activist Danny Glover Reveals Alzheimer's Diagnosis
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Jul 01, 2026
The Department of Justice is attempting to sabotage a reparations initiative that compensates victims of historic housing discrimination in Evanston, Illinois. For decades, Black residents of Evanston were subjected to redlining and other forms of housing discrimination, which prevented them from obtaining bank loans to purchase property. "Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century, housing has been the primary way that families have built wealth, and we are in a country where there is 10 times as much wealth in the white community as there is in the Black community. … [T]hat gap is a result, primarily, of this type of dispossession on the grounds of housing," explains Howard University law professor Justin Hansford.
Evanston's reparations program, funded through donations and a local tax on recreational marijuana sales, grants Black residents and their descendants up to $25,000 for property down payments, mortgages, home repairs and other related fees. It is the first of its kind in any U.S. city and seen as a model for similar initiatives across the country and the world.
"The effort to bring a lawsuit to stop this particular program is meant to send a message to programs in cities and states around the country that this is something that is dangerous or illegal," says Hansford, who is helping Evanston city officials defend their reparations program from the DOJ's claims that its race-based criteria are unconstitutional. "We want to make sure that everyone knows that it is constitutional to pursue reparations in the United States."
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Jul 01, 2026
President Donald Trump has received another setback in his ongoing quest to control U.S. elections. In a 5-4 split, the Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots do not need to be received by Election Day to be counted, as long as they were postmarked by then. Although a "rare victory for voting rights," the conservative justices' assertion that voting by mail is prone to fraud — a disproven theory that Trump blames his loss in the 2020 election for — is "very disturbing," says Ari Berman, the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones. "My fear is that this is going to embolden Republicans to double down on their efforts to try to get rid of mail voting, including the SAVE America Act, Trump's sweeping voter suppression bill, which he seems desperate to go to any lengths to try to pass," says Berman, who also comments on the court's decision to strike down a federal law limiting campaign spending.
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Jul 01, 2026
The Supreme Court has ruled that states can prohibit transgender student athletes from competing in women's and girls' sports teams, with the court's conservative justices finding that such bans — currently introduced in Idaho and West Virginia — do not violate the Constitution, and all nine justices agreeing that they do not violate Title IX, the federal anti-sex discrimination statute. These bans are part of an "effort that we're seeing escalate to push trans people out of public life," says Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project. They have the ultimate effect of "increasing the legitimacy of the Trump administration's authority over every aspect of our bodily autonomy and everyday life."
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Jul 01, 2026
"Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to 'every free-born person in this land.' … We keep that promise today." So concludes the decision of the Supreme Court in the landmark case Trump v. Barbara, affirming the constitutional right to birthright citizenship and rejecting President Trump's attempt to end it. Trump's executive order had aimed to prevent babies born to undocumented immigrants and temporary foreign residents from automatically becoming American citizens. We speak to Columbia University historian of immigration Mae Ngai about the case and the white nationalist logic behind Trump's challenge.
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Jul 01, 2026
Satellite Images Show Over 58,000 Buildings Damaged by Venezuela Earthquakes, Iran's Top Negotiator Rules Out High-Level Talks Until U.S. Abides by MOU, Israel's Netanyahu Visits Troops in Southern Lebanon, Says Occupation Will Continue, 22 House Democrats Join Republicans to Defeat Lebanon War Powers Resolution, Trump's "Board of Peace" Plans to Operate "Hamas-Free Humanitarian Zones" in Gaza, House Republicans Block Vote on Amendment to Halt U.S.-Israeli Military Integration, Supreme Court Upholds 14th Amendment's Guarantee of Birthright Citizenship in 6-3 Ruling, SCOTUS Rules States Can Ban Trans Athletes from Women's and Girls' Sports, Supreme Court Strikes Down Federal Limits on Political Parties' Campaign Spending, Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros Defeats Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado Primary Election, Over 400,000 Children Appeared in U.S. Immigration Courts Without Lawyers, Rights Groups Accuse Ghana of Complicity in Unlawful "Third Country" Deportations by U.S., South Africans March in Anti-Immigrant Protests as Vigilantes Target the Undocumented
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Jun 30, 2026
Rescue efforts in Venezuela continue as thousands of people remain missing — trapped under the rubble of flattened homes and buildings nearly a week after two back-to-back earthquakes devastated the capital, Caracas, and the nearby city of La Guaira. Rescue teams are desperately searching for survivors, with Venezuelan health officials saying Monday that over 1,700 people are confirmed dead. The toll is expected to rise dramatically as the window for finding survivors closes.
In the face of the wreckage, "we're seeing also a lot of solidarity from the Venezuelan people" who are sharing space and resources with those displaced by the quakes, says Beatriz Ochoa, Latin America head of advocacy for the Norwegian Refugee Council. Looking ahead, "We will need to transition to more medium- and longer-term solutions, so that people can have affordable housing and a more dignified place to sleep and to be able to rebuild their lives," says Ochoa, calling for more international support.
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Jun 30, 2026
The Democratic Socialists of America's slate dominated the New York primaries last week, with Aber Kawas winning the Democratic nomination for a New York state Senate seat in the New York City borough of Queens with a 20-point lead against progressive State Assemblymember Steven Raga. Born and raised in New York to Palestinian parents, Kawas campaigned on affordable housing, universal healthcare, immigration reform, public transit, climate action and opposition to U.S. support for Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Over the past decade, the DSA has grown from about 5,000 members to over 100,000 members in 200 chapters across the United States. "What we are saying is that we want to make sure that people who are struggling are provided the best social services possible by our government," says Aber Kawas of DSA candidates. "That is not a threat to people. That is a really hopeful message that so many Americans and so many people are looking for, and that is why we were able to win in these landslide victories."
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Jun 30, 2026
Ahead of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July Fourth, we speak to award-winning Cherokee author and journalist Rebecca Nagle about what's missing from the conventional story of the American Revolution.
"The last grievance in the Declaration of Independence is about 'merciless Indian savages,'" says Rebecca Nagle. "According to our founders, in their own words, the thing that they were most angry about was Native people." She also argues that the "biggest myth" is that the founders built a democracy, "because they also built an empire," and that the two can't coexist.
Nagle partnered with leading Indigenous scholars on a new documentary podcast called First America. The series challenges the conventional U.S. origin story by examining the experiences of Indigenous peoples, and traces how laws and legal doctrines first used to dispossess Indigenous nations continue to impact questions of executive power, immigration, xenophobia, citizenship, territorial expansion and U.S. foreign policy today.
Nagle links the dark history of the United States' founding to ongoing oppression in the country. "I would be reporting on America's past, and then the same thing would happen in our present," she says. "Rounding people up, putting people in detention, even shooting anybody who gets in the way, these are things that our government has done before — not once, not twice, but many, many times."
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Jun 30, 2026
Iranian Officials Deny Trump's Claims of High-Level Talks in Doha, Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill 8, Including 2 Children, as Smotrich Calls for Gaza Settlements, Rights Group Says Israel Is Killing Palestinian Children in West Bank at Fastest Rate Since 1967, More Than 130 Venezuelans Recently Deported from U.S. Feared Dead in La Guaira Earthquakes, Ukrainian Drones Target Moscow After Russian Attacks on Ukraine Kill 8, SCOTUS to Allow the President to Fire Independent Agency Heads, Except at the Federal Reserve, Divided Supreme Court Upholds Grace Periods for Mail-In Ballots Postmarked by Election Day, SCOTUS Rules Cellphone Location Data Is Protected by the Fourth Amendment, SCOTUS Declines to Hear Trump's Appeal of $5 Million Sex Abuse and Defamation Case, Supreme Court Will Consider Arizona Laws Requiring Proof of Citizenship to Vote, DSA-Backed Insurgents Target Democratic Incumbents as Colorado Holds Primaries, New York City Council Employee with TPS Released from Newark ICE Jail After 5 Months, Trump Bought Stock in Taser Company Before ICE Announced $220 Million Contract, New York Mayor Mamdani Closes Part of Rikers Island Jail
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Jun 29, 2026
The Trump administration's commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the country's founding have drawn criticism for their overt partisanship and conflicts of interest for the Trump family. Surveys show widespread ambivalence and lack of enthusiasm for the semiquincentennial.
StoryCorps founder Dave Isay has set out to capture the national mood with Connect250, an oral history project matching strangers across the United States to interview each other about their lives, families and formative experiences. The series is produced in partnership with NPR's Morning Edition, with the conversations to be preserved in the Library of Congress.
"It's actually a very hopeful project," says Isay. "We have to hold on to hope."
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Jun 29, 2026
"I do not love America, and never have, especially now." Those are the opening words of America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries, a new book from Princeton historian Eddie Glaude. Released ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, the book is a critical look back at how the United States has celebrated previous milestone birthdays, including what narratives were left out of the official commemorations. This comes as President Donald Trump has made himself the center of many events and celebrations for the 250th anniversary, while promoting a "storybook version" of U.S. history that elides the injustice that was baked into the very founding of the country, Glaude tells Democracy Now! in a wide-ranging conversation about race, inequality and the legacy of slavery.
"Donald Trump and his supporters, they want to be white without judgment," says Glaude. "History is a battleground, because history, of course, holds them to account."
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Jun 29, 2026
Nearly 50,000 Remain Missing in Venezuela as Earthquake Rescue Efforts Pivot to Recovery, Iran Denies U.S. Claims of Upcoming Talks Following Weekend Clashes, Israel Renews Attacks on Southern Lebanon After Signing U.S.-Brokered Deal, Children Among the Dead as Israel Continues to Bombard Gaza, Despite Ceasefire Deal, Gaza Humanitarian Convoy Activists Released from Libyan Prison, France's Death Toll Tops 1,000 as Europe Bakes Under Unprecedented Heat Wave, Appeals Court Blocks Trump's Rollback of Pollution Limits from Coal-Fired Plants, Kenyan Activists Arrested at Anti-Government Protests Say They Were Tortured by Police, Trump Taps Former Oklahoma State Trooper Lance Schroyer as Next ICE Director, Mexican Immigrant Dies at For-Profit ICE Jail in Texas, the 20th Such Death in 2026, Tens of Thousands in Budapest Celebrate First Pride Event Since Viktor Orbán's Ouster, Court in Chile Sentences Former Secret Police over 1976 Assassination in Washington, D.C.
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Jun 26, 2026
The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to restrict thousands of lawsuits claiming Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto, had a duty to warn consumers about potential cancer risks from its popular weed killer Roundup. The case before the Supreme Court began in St. Louis, Missouri, where a resident named John Durnell, who had used Roundup for decades and was later diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, sued Monsanto under Missouri state law for not putting a warning label on its product. But because the federal Environmental Protection Agency found no cancer risk in its assessment of Roundup, the court has ruled against Durnell.
"The ruling essentially says that only the EPA can make a determination that something is harmful to us and has to carry a warning label," explains reporter Nate Halverson, who has been documenting health and environmental harms allegedly linked to Roundup, as well as efforts to hold Monsanto accountable. In his reporting, Halverson found that scientific studies cited by the EPA in its Roundup assessment were "ghostwritten" by Monsanto itself — and "that ghostwritten information has now made its way into the Supreme Court's decision."
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Jun 26, 2026
Thousands of Haitians and Syrians living in the United States are newly at risk of deportation after the Supreme Court ruled to allow the Trump administration to strip them of "temporary protected status," or TPS. The program, designed for foreign citizens of countries the U.S. government believes are too unstable or dangerous to be returned to, often due to natural disasters or war, has been a major target of attack by the Trump administration and its anti-immigrant agenda.
"We are looking at the catastrophic deficit in the workforce in the United States if we allow this deportation machine and cruelty to take effect," our guest, Haitian Bridge Alliance's Guerline Jozef, says.
"This is just part of the Trump administration's efforts to feed the detention and deportation machine and essentially halt immigration," adds Lupe Aguirre of the International Refugee Assistance Project. "It's about maintaining their campaign promises to root out people that they see as undesirable."
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Jun 26, 2026
The death toll from twin earthquakes that hit Venezuela Wednesday night is expected to reach into the thousands as rescuers continue to search for bodies trapped in the rubble. Hospitals are rapidly reaching a breaking point, and thousands of survivors have been left homeless. Reporter Andreína Chávez's building was one of the countless residences in Venezuela's capital Caracas and its surrounding region that were damaged by the massive quakes. Chávez was on the street when the earthquakes struck, and says she "saw at least three buildings partially collapse right in front of [her]."
As Venezuelans band together to find survivors, the country is calling for international support and resources to step up critical rescue and recovery efforts. "We weren't prepared for a disaster of this magnitude," says Chávez. "Venezuela is a country that has been under U.S. sanctions … as well as a country that has an infrastructure that is very deteriorated. We have public services that are very deteriorated, and all of that has been something that has really added to this tragedy."
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Jun 26, 2026
The Supreme Court has sided with the Trump administration in a major blow to the rights of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The court ruled 6 to 3 along partisan lines to sanction so-called metering at the southern border, which allows immigration officers at ports of entry to block asylum seekers from setting foot on U.S. soil.
"In a time of increasing conflict and climate catastrophe, this will result in many more deaths," warns Erika Pinheiro of Al Otro Lado, the lead plaintiff in the case. When the turnback policy was first introduced, recounts Melissa Crow of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, who served as co-counsel for the plaintiffs' case, many asylum seekers became "so desperate that they ended up trying to enter between ports of entry, either by swimming across the Rio Grande or by traversing the desert under harrowing conditions, and many, many of them didn't make it to the other side."
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Jun 26, 2026
Over 500 Are Dead and Thousands Remain Missing Following Twin Earthquakes in Venezuela, U.N. Shipping Agency Halts Strait of Hormuz Evacuations as Projectile Strikes Cargo Ship, Israeli Airstrikes Kill 2 in Lebanon as Netanyahu Says Occupation Will Continue Indefinitely, Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration to Block Asylum Seekers at U.S. Border, Supreme Court Will Allow Trump to End TPS for 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, Supreme Court Blocks Cancer Patients from Suing Bayer over Popular Weed Killer, U.S. Plans to Deport Over 500 Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, Federal Agents Confront Election Worker at Syracuse Polling Place over Instagram Post, Judge Blocks Trump's Order Creating "Confirmed Citizen Lists" and Restricting Mail-in Voting, JD Vance Praises Richard Nixon, Downplays Watergate Scandal, New York City to Freeze Rents for Nearly 1 Million Apartments for Next Two Years
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Jun 25, 2026
Democracy Now! speaks with science fiction author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow about AI and his latest book, The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence — Before It's Too Late.
Doctorow comments on AI's "bad unit economics" and the connection between automation and labor. "When labor drives automation, it's usually in service to making the product better, and when capital drives automation, it's usually in service to making more of the product," says Doctorow.
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Jun 25, 2026
A group of anti-ICE protesters in Texas were sentenced to 30 to 100 years in jail on Tuesday, after federal prosecutors accused them of being an "antifa terror cell." The activists attended a protest outside the Prairieland ICE jail in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4 of last year, during which fireworks were set off and a police officer was shot and wounded. All nine defendants were found guilty after being tried before a federal judge in Texas. Matt Sledge, political reporter for The Intercept, warns that "we just have to watch for this playbook to be applied elsewhere."
"Now anyone engaged in basic protests with the wrong political beliefs can be labeled a domestic terrorist, when they have no intention of violence, not engaged in any violence, not interested in any violence," says Sufia Khalid, deputy director of the National Security Criminal Defense Center, who represents one of the Prairieland defendants.
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Jun 25, 2026
Thousands are feared dead in Venezuela after back-to-back powerful earthquakes struck the country Wednesday evening, collapsing buildings in the capital Caracas and surrounding areas. Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez has declared a state of emergency as rescue workers frantically search for survivors in the rubble of "dozens" of collapsed buildings. Historian Alejandro Velasco, who has family in Venezuela, reports that "many Venezuelans abroad are trying to get in touch with their loved ones in Venezuela and are having a hard time doing so."
The current death toll is at 164, with 1,000 people injured, but the U.S. Geological Survey warns there's a high chance the death toll could rise into the tens of thousands — or even top 100,000.
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Jun 25, 2026
Thousands Feared Dead After Twin Earthquakes Rock Venezuela, White House Requests $87.6 Billion in Supplemental Funds, Mostly for Iran War, Israel Kills Two in Southern Lebanon, Straining U.S.-Iran Ceasefire, Drone Kills 12-Year-Old in Gaza as U.N. Inquiry Finds Israel Targets Children in Ongoing "Genocide", Palestinian Journalist's "Shocking" Photo Shows Effects of Torture, Medical Neglect in Israeli Jails, Professor Fired for Pro-Palestinian Activism Reinstated by San José State, Trump Clashes with GOP Senators over Iran and Blocks Housing Bill to Force SAVE Act Vote, Ukrainian Drones Kill 3 in Russian-Held Donetsk as Russia Bombards Team Clearing Landmines, Moscow Court Sentences Politician to Seven Years in Prison for Antiwar Messages, Appeals Court Allows Trump Administration to Resume Mass Deportations Without Trial, Pentagon Restores Flu Vaccine Mandate After Outbreak Sickens Hundreds at Air Force Base, "Five Eyes" Intelligence Alliance Warns AI Models Pose Huge Cybersecurity Risks, Keiko Fujimori, Daughter of Peru's Former Dictator, Poised to Win Razor-Thin Presidential Runoff
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Jun 24, 2026
A new documentary explores a growing body of scientific research documenting the wide range of gender and sexual diversity found in the animal kingdom, from pregnant male seahorses to matriarchal monkey troops. Second Nature, directed by queer filmmaker Drew Denny, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Elliot Page, who says he joined the project because "I was so moved by it and found it so affirming as a trans and queer person."
Learning about animal life beyond binary concepts of sex and gender was life-changing, Denny shares about her inspiration for the film. "I finally felt in my body, for the first time, that I belong here on Earth, just like anybody else." Featuring interviews with evolutionary biologists and eye-opening footage of the natural world, Second Nature is now showing in major cities across the United States.
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Jun 24, 2026
Mayor Zohran Mamdani may be the new kingmaker of New York City politics. In a sweeping affirmation of his affordability-focused agenda, all three congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani in a set of contested Democratic primary elections declared victory Tuesday night. Manhattan and the Bronx's Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brooklyn's Claire Valdez and Brad Lander were all joined on the campaign trail by the progressive NYC mayor in the weeks leading up to election night. Like Mamdani, Avila Chevalier and Valdez are members of the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which backed their campaigns.
We speak to John Tarleton, editor-in-chief of the New York City local independent newspaper The Indypendent, about the insurgent left of the Democratic Party and the potential national ramifications of the Zohran-DSA machine. The races also functioned as a referendum on the growing split in the Democratic Party over Israel/Palestine. While the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC funneled an estimated $50 million into their opponents' campaigns, Valdez, Avila Chevalier and Lander refused to take any funding from pro-Israel groups and consistently emphasized their support of efforts to restrict U.S. military aid for Israel. "If you ignore the Palestinian cause of Palestinian liberation, you do so at your own peril," says Tarleton.
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Jun 24, 2026
A wave of progressive candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won big in New York last night. DSA members Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated two Democratic Party establishment picks for Congress, Antonio Reynoso and five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat. Other DSA candidates, including Palestinian American Aber Kawas, running for New York state Senate, notched wins further downballot. And Mamdani-backed candidate Brad Lander defeated Dan Goldman, another congressional incumbent.
Darializa Avila Chevalier joins Democracy Now! in her first live broadcast interview since her upset win. After weathering a vicious and often racist campaign conducted by her AIPAC-funded opponent Espaillat, Avila Chevalier is projected to become the first Dominican American woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, representing New York's 13th Congressional District.
"Americans are tired of this politics of death, politics of cynicism, and want to make sure that our resources are coming back to our communities and investing in the life and the needs of the people here," says Avila Chevalier, a former student organizer at Columbia University who has been active in the pro-Palestine and immigrant rights movements for over a decade. She credits part of her decision to run to her experience advocating for fellow student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil's release from federal ICE detention last year. "When I was first considering whether or not this was a race that I wanted to throw my hat in, I just kept thinking about Mahmoud and the millions of people like him and [Khalil's wife] Noor, who are so fearful right now, and what it would have meant to them to have a representative who was actually fighting for them."
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Jun 24, 2026
Mamdani-Endorsed Progressives Sweep New York House Primaries, Congress Directs Trump to End U.S. War on Iran, France Experiences Hottest Day on Record as U.N. Warns of More Frequent Climate Disasters, Anti-ICE Protesters Sentenced to Decades in Prison over "Terrorism" at Texas ICE Jail, Supreme Court Ruling Gives U.S. "Blank Check" to Weaken Green Card Holders' Rights, Trump's Efforts to Ram Through SAVE America Act Meets Resistance from GOP Senators, Trump Loyalist Bill Pulte Begins Purge at National Intelligence Office, WaPo: Tulsi Gabbard's Political Rise Was Highly Influenced by Guru of Hare Krishna Offshoot, Congress Approves Housing Bill Limiting Institutional Investors and Easing New Construction
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Jun 23, 2026
A new report by CorpWatch titled "MAGA Inc." reveals which allies of President Trump are profiting off of the administration's policies. Pratap Chatterjee, executive director of CorpWatch, says that prison companies and Big Tech companies have cashed out on policies of mass deportation. "The people that we think are profiting the most out of MAGA [are in] the business of deportation, the business of gathering data," says Chatterjee. Palantir, in particular, has provided the government with information to support the surveillance of immigrants and data to support war efforts.
The Trump family is also expanding their fortune through cryptocurrency, according to the report. "These are schemes by which you can move money anonymously around the world, something that drug dealers, gun manufacturers or gun dealers and criminals love," says Chatterjee. "This is the sort of business that is now benefiting the Trump family."
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Jun 23, 2026
Today is Election Day in New York, with a number of primary challengers hoping to unseat Democratic establishment politicians. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have a packed slate of 10 candidates across congressional, state Assembly and state Senate races. "People are really looking for something else other than these corporate Democrats," says Liza Featherstone, author and columnist for Jacobin. Describing the DSA as a key part of the "grassroots base" of the left wing of the Democratic Party, Featherstone says DSA members want elected leaders who have come out of movements themselves, not just lifelong politicians who only turn to movements for endorsements every four years.
Palestine is a key issue in many of the races, with DSA challengers taking a strong stand against genocide, while some incumbents have received large donations from AIPAC-linked super PACs. "People are absolutely disgusted with the U.S. relationship with Israel, absolutely appalled by the killing that we've seen," says Featherstone. Today's primary results will show to what extent the DSA is seen as a genuine alternative to the establishment wing of the Democratic Party.
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Jun 23, 2026
Acclaimed conservationist Mona Khalil was killed by an Israeli strike on her beachside home in the village of al-Mansouri in southern Lebanon. The 76-year-old spent more than 25 years working to protect endangered sea turtles, and her work helped turn a stretch of southern Lebanon's coastline into one of the most important nesting sites for endangered sea turtles in the eastern Mediterranean.
Khalil lived in "the Orange House" — her grandmother's home, which she helped transform into a refuge for endangered sea turtles, an ecotourism site and a training ground in ecological conservation for a generation of volunteers. "This is not a project that belongs to me," she once said. "It belongs to Lebanon. It belongs to the whole world."
A refugee of the Lebanese civil war, Khalil returned to Lebanon from the Netherlands in 1999 and began her conservation work after seeing a turtle laying eggs on the beach near her family's seaside home. Since then, Mona rarely left her home and the beach she had spent years protecting.
"Mona was like a symbol of hope, of life and of resistance in south Lebanon, and probably that's one of the reasons she was killed," says Rami Khashab, a Lebanese herpetologist who worked alongside Khalil. "They are trying to kill the hope of the Lebanese people."
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Jun 23, 2026
Israel is continuing to attack Gaza despite the so-called ceasefire. Israeli strikes killed Ahmed Wishah, a cameraman with Al Jazeera, and at least six people, including two children, on Saturday. Wishah's brother Mohammed, who also worked for Al Jazeera, was killed in an Israeli strike this April. Israel has now killed over 260 journalists in Gaza, including at least 12 working for Al Jazeera, since October 2023.
"We don't see the type of outrage that we would see if a Western journalist was killed by a country that is not a U.S. ally," says Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Middle East and North Africa editor at Drop Site News. "It's really a shameful state of affairs." Kouddous also comments on the expansion of Israel's "genocidal tactics" in Gaza that have now been "exported outside of Palestine in places like Lebanon."
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Jun 23, 2026
Israel is continuing to attack Gaza despite the so-called ceasefire. Israeli strikes killed Ahmed Wishah, a cameraman with Al Jazeera, and at least six people, including two children, on Saturday. Wishah's brother Mohammed, who also worked for Al Jazeera, was killed in an Israeli strike this April. Israel has now killed over 260 journalists in Gaza, including at least 12 working for Al Jazeera, since October 2023.
"We don't see the type of outrage that we would see if a Western journalist was killed by a country that is not a U.S. ally," says Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Middle East and North Africa editor at Drop Site News. "It's really a shameful state of affairs." Kouddous also comments on the expansion of Israel's "genocidal tactics" in Gaza that have now been "exported outside of Palestine in places like Lebanon."
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Jun 23, 2026
Top Negotiator Says Iran Will Permanently Manage Strait of Hormuz, Pentagon Seeks $80 Billion in Additional Iran War Funding, Israeli Forces Kill 2 In Lebanon After Iran Warns Continued Attacks Could Scuttle Ceasefire, U.N. Commission of Inquiry Finds Israel Is Committing Genocide by Killing Gaza's Children, "Not Afraid to Stand Up to Genocide": United Auto Workers Vote to Divest from Israel, Pentagon Says Latest Attack on Alleged Drug Boat Killed Two, Leaving Six Survivors, U.N. Warns Paramilitaries Are Poised to Commit Atrocities in Sudan's el-Obeid, Confirmed Cases of Ebola Top 1,000 in DRC, NYC Mayor Mamdani Orders Protections for Outdoor Workers Facing Extreme Heat, Interior Dept. Seeks to Roll Back Fees and Regulations for Coal, Oil and Gas Extraction, Judge Blocks Trump's National Citizenship Database That "Threatens the Sacred Right to Vote", Federal Judge Derails Trump's Retribution Campaign Against Minnesota Officials, Supreme Court Postpones Considering Trump's Appeal of E. Jean Carroll Verdicts for 15th Time, Alan Greenspan, Fed Chief Whose Policies Fueled Economic Inequality, Dies at 100
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Jun 22, 2026
Right-wing Trump ally Abelardo de la Espriella has clinched a narrow victory in Sunday's runoff presidential election in Colombia, defeating leftist Senator Iván Cepeda, an ally of current President Gustavo Petro. De la Espriella ran a fearmongering, "tough-on-crime" campaign, promising to build mega-prisons inspired by El Salvador's authoritarian President Nayib Bukele, to bomb "narcoterrorist camps" and to abandon Petro's peace efforts. His reported victory is also a win for U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration is waging an intensifying "war on drugs" across Latin America, targeting left-wing leaders like Petro with false allegations and threats of military intervention.
"De la Espriella clearly represents a criminal approach to politics: lying, propaganda, coordination and collusion with criminal narcotrafficking, restriction of rights, and money laundering," says longtime Colombian activist Manuel Rozental. With his victory, says Rozental, "We expect to have military operations and a U.S. intervention within the country. We expect to have human rights abuses. We expect to have militarization. And it's all for the extraction of resources and the link of drug trafficking to the U.S. government, U.S. interests and global mafia."
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Jun 22, 2026
Keir Starmer has announced his resignation as the United Kingdom's prime minister and leader of the Labour Party following growing pressure from within his own party to step down. During his time in office, Starmer faced mounting opposition over his embrace of austerity measures amid a cost-of-living crisis in Britain, as well as his brutal crackdown on Palestine solidarity protesters. Former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is widely expected to become the next prime minister. Some leaders of the British left have warned Burnham may do little to shift from Starmer's policies, including his position on Israel.
Starmer "really lost support in the party because he was perceived as too right-wing for it and because he was too boring. He lacked charisma," explains our guest, the Australian British human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson.
Robertson also discusses Britain's Court of Appeal's ruling that the government's proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization is lawful, making it a criminal offense to belong to or support the organization. Four Palestine Action activists were recently sentenced as terrorists over their involvement in a 2024 raid on a British factory operated by one of Israel's largest arms manufacturers, Elbit Systems.
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Jun 22, 2026
Mediators from Pakistan and Qatar say the United States and Iran made "encouraging progress" during 18 hours of negotiations in Switzerland, where the two sides agreed to a roadmap toward reaching a final deal within 60 days. The talks took place despite Iran on Saturday announcing it was closing the Strait of Hormuz after Israel killed 83 people in Lebanon on Friday. Israel said it would agree to a new ceasefire in Lebanon but is also refusing to end its occupation of southern Lebanon.
"Iran has, through its throttling of the Strait of Hormuz, enormous leverage to produce pain on not just the United States, but global markets," says award-winning journalist Spencer Ackerman. "We're going to await how the Iranians will ultimately play that card when it comes to Lebanon."
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, fellow at the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center, says that by demanding the ceasefire extend to Lebanon, "the Islamic Republic focused on creating a rift between Israel and the U.S., and I think, possibly, along with the successes in the war front politically, that was one of the most successful projects that they followed."
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Jun 22, 2026
Progress Cited in U.S.-Iran Talks Despite Trump's Threat to Resume Bombing, Despite "Ceasefire," Israel Killed 83 in Lebanon on Friday, Lebanese Turtle Conservationist Mona Khalil, 76, Dies After Israeli Attack on Her Home, Gaza: Israel Kills Al Jazeera Cameraman Ahmed Wishah, Keir Starmer Resigns as PM Amid Mounting Pressure from Labour Party, Trump-Backed Far-Right Lawyer Wins Colombian Presidential Election, Bolivia Declares State of Emergency, Military Deployed to Quell Protests, Under Intense U.S. Pressure, Cuban Lawmakers Approve Sweeping Economic Changes, Salah Sarsour, Head of Wisconsin's Largest Mosque, Released from ICE Jail, Car Hits Protester Outside Delaney Hall ICE Jail During Father's Day Vigil, U.S. to Stop Funding HIV & AIDS Program in South Africa, Trump Claims Without Proof That Vandals Caused Greening of Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
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Jun 19, 2026
"Another Wasted Life." That's the name of a remarkable new song by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Grammy-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens. She released a video of the song on October 2 to mark International Wrongful Conviction Day. The song was inspired by Kalief Browder, a Bronx resident who died by suicide in 2015 at the age of 22 after being detained at Rikers Island jail for nearly three years, after being falsely accused at the age of 16 of stealing a backpack. He was held in solitary confinement for two years and was repeatedly assaulted by guards and other prisoners.
In the video for "Another Wasted Life," Rhiannon Giddens features 22 people who were wrongly incarcerated. Together, they collectively served more than 500 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit. The video includes two men, David Bryant and Tyrone Jones, who each spent 40 years in prison. Another seven of the men each spent over 25 years locked up after wrongful convictions. Rhiannon Giddens made the video in partnership with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
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Jun 19, 2026
As part of our Juneteenth special broadcast, we feature our interview with pioneering musical artist Rhiannon Giddens, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her opera Omar, about Omar ibn Said, a Muslim scholar in Africa who was sold into slavery in the 1800s.
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Jun 19, 2026
We feature a special broadcast marking the Juneteenth federal holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. We begin with our 2021 interview with historian Clint Smith, originally aired a day after President Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Smith is the author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. "When I think of Juneteenth, part of what I think about is the both/andedness of it," Smith says, "that it is this moment in which we mourn the fact that freedom was kept from hundreds of thousands of enslaved people for years and for months after it had been attained by them, and then, at the same time, celebrating the end of one of the most egregious things that this country has ever done." Smith says he recognizes the federal holiday marking Juneteenth as a symbol, "but it is clearly not enough."
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Jun 18, 2026
The new documentary Shoot the People profiles the Nigerian British photographer and activist Misan Harriman, the first Black photographer to shoot the cover of British Vogue and an outspoken advocate of Palestinian rights. We speak to Harriman in New York City ahead of the film's U.S. premiere, about his work, the repression and criminalization of pro-Palestine protest in the United Kingdom — including the unprecedented sentencing of four activists with the group Palestine Action as terrorists — and more. "I genuinely believe that through art and culture, we can see that the sum of all of our parts is stronger than the powerful few," says Harriman.
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Jun 18, 2026
The Department of Justice has intervened in a legal case involving the world's first trillionaire, Elon Musk, asking a Mississippi federal court to toss a lawsuit from the NAACP against Musk's company xAI, a subsidiary of SpaceX. The NAACP says xAI is violating the Clean Air Act by running dozens of unpermitted gas-burning turbines in majority-Black neighborhoods to fuel its data centers in Memphis, Tennessee. The Department of Justice, however, is arguing that the lawsuit violates national security by "seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial-intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War's military operations."
"We should be concerned about this type of authoritarian rule," says NAACP attorney Abre' Conner, who adds that communities themselves "should be the ones to make the decisions about our health, about pollution in communities, about stopping sacrifice zones from being furthered because of an agenda that does not serve everyday people."
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Jun 18, 2026
World leaders are returning home from the annual G7 summit, having failed to address issues such as income inequality, climate change and territorial conflict, while entertaining the wealthy executives of the artificial intelligence and fossil fuel industries. Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar calls the G7 "a club of the super-rich super-elites" and slams the summit's focus on business, and business as usual, at the expense of humanitarian efforts and improving the lives of "the common people."
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Jun 18, 2026
The United States and Iran have officially signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war in Iran. The 14-point agreement includes an immediate end to fighting on all fronts including Lebanon, an end to the U.S. naval blockade on Iran and the full resumption of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. It also proposes easing oil sanctions on Iran, unfreezing Iranian assets and launching a $300 billion investment fund to rebuild Iran, all while tabling the question of Iran's nuclear program, which is instead set to be negotiated over in the coming months.
"The United States is more eager for this war to end than Iran is," says professor Vali Nasr, who teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. "In Iran, they're very triumphant." We discuss the long-term effects of the war, from the growing U.S. distrust of Israel, to the new generation of political leaders in the Islamic Republic, to the evolution of Iran into a major power player in an increasingly multipolar world.
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Jun 18, 2026
Trump and Pezeshkian Sign Memorandum Aimed at Ending U.S. War on Iran, Israel Attacks Lebanon, Killing One and Wounding Three, Despite U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Deal, Ukrainian Drones Attack Moscow, Sparking Massive Oil Refinery Fire, Israeli Attacks on Gaza Have Killed Over 1,000 Palestinians Since October "Ceasefire", Rep. Ro Khanna Is First U.S. Lawmaker to Sign Anti-AIPAC PEACE Pledge, Peace Activists Celebrate as Maryland Public Pension System Divests from Israeli Bonds, U.N. Says Gang Violence Has Displaced 1.5 Million Across Haiti, Haitian Immigrants Call on Supreme Court to Toss Case Seeking to End Protected Status, Advocates Say Jailed Immigrants "Disappeared" After Transfer from "Alligator Alcatraz", Georgia GOP Rejects Trump's Push to Redraw Legislative Maps Ahead of 2028 Elections, Trump Administration Sues to Halt Reparations for Black Residents in Chicago Suburb, Bill Pulte to Become Acting U.S. Spy Chief After Trump Calls Off Hearing for Nominee Jay Clayton, Pentagon Releases Names of 8 People Killed in B-52 Crash, "Pure Retaliation": FTC Sues Trans Health Association over Gender-Affirming Care
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