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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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Jun 17, 2026
Israel has killed over 260 journalists and media workers in Gaza since October 7, 2023. With Israel's latest and ongoing assault on Lebanon, the death toll of journalists there has reached 28. Irish filmmaker Seán Murray investigates Israel's killings of journalists in his new feature documentary Journacide: The War on Truth. He says the term "journacide" applies to Israel's military actions because of the "explicit nature of the targeting and killing of journalists" as a way to silence the truth. Murray calls it "the Gaza doctrine that is now being applied in Lebanon."
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Jun 17, 2026
The United States and Iran are set to formally sign an agreement Friday to end military hostilities, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin negotiations on a long-term peace accord between the two countries.
According to terms of the memorandum of understanding obtained by CNN and other media outlets, there is to be "an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon." The leaked text also promises sanctions relief for Iran and access to the country's frozen assets held abroad, as well as a $300 billion fund for reconstruction and development. The memo reiterates Iran's long-held position that it will never produce nuclear weapons, with the fate of its nuclear program delayed until further negotiations.
Israel has vowed to ignore the U.S.-Iran agreement and maintain its occupation of southern Lebanon, with many Israeli leaders and commentators expressing outrage about the apparent terms of the deal for being too conciliatory to Iran. President Trump, meanwhile, has expressed criticism of Israel's actions in Lebanon.
"Trump's had enough," says Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg, speaking to Democracy Now! from Tel Aviv. "He hasn't had enough because he cares about the Palestinians or about Lebanon. He's had enough of Netanyahu's disrespect. He's had enough of the notion that it's actually Netanyahu who's calling the shots."
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Jun 17, 2026
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have announced criminal charges against 15 people in connection with anti-ICE protests in the Twin Cities. The defendants are accused of "conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers" and of allegedly "violently" impeding immigration enforcement in Minneapolis during Trump's so-called Operation Metro Surge, during which thousands of federal immigration agents were deployed and fatally shot two U.S. citizens.
The indictment focuses on Direct Action Minnesota, or DAMN, a broad activist coalition that prosecutors have linked to anti-fascist, or "antifa," groups. Last fall, President Trump categorized antifa as a "domestic terror organization" even though it is not an actual group.
"All 15 of the defendants are members of the community, active in mutual aid, union members, workers, neighbors," says defense attorney Bruce Nestor, who represents one of the 15 defendants. "The point of this is to spread fear to try to divide us."
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Jun 17, 2026
Israel Kills 4 in Lebanon Despite U.S.-Iran Deal to End War, Israeli Drone Hits Journalist in Southern Lebanon, Israeli Supreme Court Rejects Appeal by Detained Palestinian Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, U.S. Strikes Another Boat in Pacific; Pentagon Officials Admit Past Strike May Have Killed Victims of Human Trafficking, Federal Conspiracy Charges Filed Against 15 in Minneapolis Who Opposed ICE Crackdown, Police Fatally Shoot 1-Year-Old After Shoplifting Call at a Walmart in Mississippi, DOJ Moves to Block NAACP Suit Against Elon Musk's Data Center, Citing National Security, FBI Says It Disrupted Extremist Plot to Attack White House During UFC Fight, U.N.: Drone Strikes in Sudan Have Killed Over 1,000 So Far in 2026, Doctors Without Borders Dismisses 18 in Chad Tied to Sexual Abuse of Sudanese Refugees, Guardian: U.S. Military Strike in Somalia Killed 12 Civilians, Including 8 Children, Africa CDC Warns Ebola Outbreak in DRC Could Become Worst on Record, Texas Faces Screwworm Outbreak a Year After DOGE Cut Funding for Key Program, Elections Held in Oklahoma, Alabama and Georgia, Sacramento Gov't Body Agrees to Fully Fund Access Sacramento TV Station
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Jun 16, 2026
President Donald Trump's name has been removed from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., after a judge ordered its addition was illegal. The Kennedy Center's board, which was handpicked by Trump, voted to add Trump's name to the center late last year. The battle over the Kennedy Center's name comes during a broader push by Trump to overhaul the institution, which is closed for "renovations" amid mass cancellations by artists.
"We, the American people, have rarely been afforded the decency of a public conversation or process," says Marc Bamuthi Joseph, who was fired from his role as vice president and artistic director of the Kennedy Center's Social Impact initiative in March 2025. "There were no procedural protocols in the affixing of this person's name on a national memorial, and so … this does feel like a small victory for the rule of law."
The removal of Trump's name "really does mean something. We have been fighting for it since it went up in December," says Mallory Miller, who was fired from her job as assistant manager of dance programming at the Kennedy Center in August 2025. Miller is the co-founder of Hands Off the Arts, which has been rallying outside the Kennedy Center every week. "This is just the first step in rebuilding the trust that has been lost," says Miller, pointing out that Trump "is still the boss" at the Kennedy Center and that workers at the center are still being fired.
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Jun 16, 2026
Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire on Friday with the largest initial public offering in stock market history for his rocket and AI company SpaceX. The company is based in South Texas in a city controlled by Musk known as Starbase, which SpaceX has used for rocket launches since 2014. Environmental and conservation groups recently filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a land swap approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would give SpaceX more than 700 acres of a national wildlife refuge in South Texas.
With Starbase, "SpaceX has already burned down dozens of acres of wildlife habitat, is dumping polluted water on our beach, has sent rocket debris into our communities, into communities in Mexico," says Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, which is part of the lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Elon Musk is using our impoverished community as his laboratory to blow up dangerous experimental SpaceX rockets."
While groups like the South Texas Environmental Justice Network are organizing opposition to Musk's operations in South Texas, local officials are ignoring constituents' complaints that SpaceX is degrading the environment and their quality of life, says Hinojosa. "We've seen elected officials take money from SpaceX here and lobby in favor of more bills that benefit SpaceX."
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Jun 16, 2026
The U.S. and Iran reached a memorandum of understanding on Sunday extending the ceasefire by 60 days. It is set to be formally signed in Geneva on Friday. The text of the agreement has not yet been released, but Iran has agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while the U.S. will lift its naval blockade. According to Iran, the deal calls for a permanent and immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon. But Israel, which is not a party to the agreement, says it plans to keep troops in parts of southern Lebanon. "The Israelis are trying to destroy this deal, and they will continue to try," says Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. "It will require persistent, consistent pressure by Trump on the Israelis in order to hold them back."
We also discuss how The Free Press, founded by Bari Weiss, published an article last week claiming the State Department had opened a probe into Parsi that could lead to his deportation. The State Department issued a statement just hours later claiming that it had "no plans to revoke the green card of Mr. Parsi at this time."
"I do believe that there were elements inside the State Department that wanted to move in this direction," says Parsi. "They thought that this hit piece would help move things forward, but I think, frankly, it backfired."
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Jun 16, 2026
Israel's Netanyahu Says He Won't Withdraw from Lebanon, Defying Terms of U.S. Deal with Iran, Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill Four, Including Paramedic and His Son, Israeli Settlers Try to Burn Palestinians Alive in West Bank Arson Spree, Israel Jails Palestinian American Student Sama Safi Without Charges, Ukraine Strikes Moscow Oil Refinery as Kyiv Begins EU Accession Process, Haitian Immigrant's Death Ruled a Homicide After ICE Abandons Her at Pittsburgh Bus Stop, U.S. Deports Belizean Immigrant Who Led Hunger Strike at Adelanto ICE Jail, Activists Demand Release of Milwaukee Muslim Leader Salah Sarsour from Indiana ICE Jail, NYT: White House Debated Suspending Habeas Corpus and Invoking Insurrection Act, U.K. to Ban Children Under 16 from Accessing Social Media, British Appeals Court Upholds Government Ban on Palestine Action Under Terrorism Act, South African Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, Who Wrote Anti-Apartheid Anthem, Dies at 91
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Jun 15, 2026
The Trump administration has approved media conglomerate Paramount's $111 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros., one year after Paramount and Skydance Media signed a similar merger that placed Paramount's movie studio, streaming service and broadcast network CBS under the control of the multibillionaire Ellison family, founders of Skydance and close allies of Donald Trump. The Warner Bros. merger, if completed, would bring an even larger slice of the industry's market share into Ellison control. It's been contested for months as a likely violation of antitrust laws amid a wider trend of corporate consolidation in the media and entertainment industry. "This has been one of the most shallow and corrupt merger review processes we've ever seen," says Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the advocacy organizations Free Press and Free Press Action (not to be confused with Paramount Skydance's conservative news outlet The Free Press), about the Justice Department's greenlighting of the merger.
The deal will place two of the largest U.S. broadcast news networks — CBS News and CNN — under the control of a single company that "has shown it is willing to warp and manipulate news coverage to please the president," Aaron says. He warns that the many violations of press freedom committed by CBS News since its acquisition last year could soon be seen at CNN, including "getting rid of independent journalists asking hard questions [and] spiking stories about crimes being committed by the Trump administration." In a consolidated media landscape, he adds, "we get fewer and fewer choices, and we get more and more of the same kind of cookie-cutter content produced."
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Jun 15, 2026
Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman is in Belfast, where several days of racist riots have targeted immigrants and ethnic minorities with violence, threats and property destruction. It is the third consecutive summer of organized mob violence against immigrants in Northern Ireland, with roots in the extant paramilitary structures that remain there after decades of sectarian warfare. Our broadcast from the Northern Ireland capital features guests Sinéad Marmion, an immigration lawyer, and Patrick Corrigan, the Northern Ireland director of Amnesty International UK. Both were among the tens of thousands who attended a recent rally in Belfast condemning racism and standing in solidarity with immigrants. "The vast majority of people in Belfast, as across Northern Ireland, are antiracist and very welcoming to the people who have come here to make their lives from around the world," says Corrigan. "We wanted to send, most importantly, a message to them, to say, 'You are welcome. This is your city. This is your home, just as much as it is ours.'"
As mob violence drives residents from their homes and leaves many fearing for their lives, "it's the community that has picked up the pieces. It's women in the community, it's migrant women in the community, that have organized and mobilized the response. And our authorities have been left wanting," says Marmion. "We have political parties that are stoking the flames and encouraging what they call a 'legitimate concern on immigration,' … and the conversation, resultingly, is always toxic."
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Jun 15, 2026
More than 100 days into hostilities, Iran and the United States say they have reached a preliminary deal to end the war. Israel, however, is not a party to the tentative deal and says it plans to keep occupying areas of southern Lebanon — a position still contested by Iran and the key sticking point to the partial ceasefire deal agreed to by the U.S. and Iran in April. Although the new agreement is set to be signed Friday, Israel's unrelenting assault on Lebanon could once again spoil any deal.
"This is going to become the center of whether any actual agreement takes place," says Drop Site News's Jeremy Scahill, who joins Democracy Now! to break down what we know about this latest round of diplomacy. As the U.S. now intends to end the war without accomplishing its initial goals of regime change and nuclear capitulation, it appears that Trump has "finally accepted some version of his manufactured and almost entirely false victory narrative." Scahill, who has spoken extensively to Iranian officials about the negotiations, says it remains to be seen if Iran can successfully "decouple" the U.S.-Israeli alliance from Israel's expansionary front in Lebanon, or whether it has relinquished too much of its own "strategic leverage" by agreeing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
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Jun 15, 2026
U.S. and Iranian Negotiators Say They'll Sign a Deal on Friday to End the War, Israel Strikes Lebanon After Trump Touts Emerging Peace Deal with Iran, Gaza Death Toll Tops 73,000 as Israel Continues Daily Ceasefire Violations, Four Activists Sentenced as "Terrorists" for Sabotage at Israeli Arms Factory, Russian Attacks Kill 11 in Ukraine, Set Fire to Centuries-Old Monastery, Afghan Police Open Fire on Protesters Opposing Gender Apartheid, Killing Two, Lawmakers Demand U.S. Halt Plans to Deport Afghan Refugees to DRC, Trump Claims U.S. Strike Inside Venezuela Killed Gang Leader, Cuba's Humanitarian Crisis Deepens as U.S. Blocks Delivery of Desperately Needed Fuel, Thousands March in Albania's Capital to Oppose Jared Kushner's Luxury Resort, Trump Celebrates 80th Birthday with UFC Cage Fights on White House Lawn, DOJ Clears Paramount's Acquisition of Warner Bros., Claiming It Will "Increase Competition", Donald Trump's Name Removed from Facade of Kennedy Center
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Jun 12, 2026
We speak with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rick Rowley about his new documentary, Hell's Army. The film tracks the Wagner Group, the notorious Russian mercenary army that has fought in Ukraine and other parts of the world. The group's founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was a confidant to Putin until a failed 2023 mutiny against the government. He died in a suspicious plane crash two months later.
"We realized that he could be killed, the leader of this army could be killed, but its model continues," says Rowley. "Around the world, oligarchs are turning to mercenary armies, and it's a scourge that needs to be stopped."
Hell's Army has its North American premiere Friday in Washington, D.C.
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Jun 12, 2026
Palestinian activist and green card holder Mohsen Mahdawi, who was targeted by the Trump administration last year as part of a crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activism, faces a new deportation threat. A federal immigration judge has sided with the administration and renewed removal proceedings against him, reviving a case that had been dismissed by an earlier immigration judge. Now he is taking his case directly to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, telling Democracy Now! that he is "technically without a backup plan" and relying on the federal courts for justice "because I believe that what the Trump administration has done is unconstitutional."
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Jun 12, 2026
The Trump administration is continuing its assault on higher education, but in a departure from its earlier high-profile fights with individual institutions like Harvard, it is now rewriting the federal rules that govern all universities and colleges. Rules are being proposed by the Education Department and other agencies to impose the administration's preferred policies on thousands of schools — including on racial equity, transgender rights, immigration and antisemitism — or face funding cuts and possible disaccreditation.
The pressure from the federal government comes at a time of intensifying austerity at many schools. Last week, one of New York's most iconic universities, The New School, laid off 19 full-time faculty and 68 staff members. Along with coerced "voluntary" separations and early retirements since December 2025, these mass firings constitute a major gutting of The New School's full-time faculty.
"It's a chilling message to all of academia," says Jeremy Varon, professor of history at The New School and president of the university's chapter of the American Association of University Professors. "We fear that the number will grow as universities act more and more like corporations, concerned above all with the bottom line."
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Jun 12, 2026
We continue our conversation with acclaimed Iranian environmental scientist Kaveh Madani, who comments on U.S. strikes targeting Iranian water reservoirs, which have exacerbated the country's water shortage. He criticizes the "normalization of targeting civil infrastructure as a part of a war."
"Who suffers from the consequences of this? The poor community, the vulnerable communities," says Madani.
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Jun 12, 2026
The environmental toll of the artificial intelligence boom continues to mount as tech companies use ever more power to run their data centers and enormous amounts of water for cooling. A new investigation by U.N. scientists warns that AI's water use in 2030 will match the needs of 1.3 billion people, while its power use will be triple that of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria combined — countries with a total population of 650 million.
"Most people understand AI as a digital technology, as a virtual thing, as something that is in the clouds," says Iranian environmental scientist Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. "What we tried to do in this report was to remind people that there's some physics to all of this."
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Jun 12, 2026
Trump Claims "Great Settlement" Has Been Reached to End War, But Iran Says Nothing Has Been Finalized, India Condemns Deadly U.S. Strikes on Boats After 3 Sailors Killed Near Oman, Musk Poised to Become World's First Trillionaire as SpaceX Goes Public, Trump Taps Jay Clayton to Head National Intelligence After Bipartisan Opposition to Bill Pulte, Detained Palestinian Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Appears in Israeli Court with Signs of Torture, Family Says, U.S. Issues New Sanctions on Cuba's Oil & Gas Company, Two Top U.K. Military Officials Resign in Row with Starmer over Military Spending, "Albania Is Not For Sale": Protests Mount over Proposed Jared Kushner Luxury Development, "Dignity Has No Passport": Pope Leo Visits Canary Island to Show Solidarity with Migrants, Detained Women Join Hunger and Labor Strike at Delaney Hall ICE Jail in NJ, Report: State Dept. Opens Probe of Iranian-Born Trita Parsi, Critic of Trump's War, Protests Held as World Cup Opens in Mexico, Landlord Waives Back Rent for Tenants After Being Targeted by NYC Mayor Mamdani
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Jun 11, 2026
A key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is set to expire Friday unless it is reauthorized by Congress. Section 702 allows for the warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals believed to be outside of the U.S., yet, in practice, it also sweeps up and stores vast amounts of data from people inside the country, including their emails, texts and cellphone data. The FISA provision was enacted in 2008 to legalize George W. Bush's warrantless wiretapping program that was developed after 9/11.
A bipartisan group of senators is opposing the reauthorization of Section 702 due to President Trump's naming of MAGA loyalist Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, to replace Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her resignation in May. Pulte has no known background in intelligence. He currently serves as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where he has used his position to carry out Trump's campaign of retribution against his political enemies.
"It took this nomination of a completely unqualified guy to get enough members of Congress to really stop [Section 702]," says Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It's time to take a look and listen hard about the privacy protections that are needed, at a minimum, for this program to go forward." Cohn notes that the "massive national security surveillance state that was built after 9/11 has always been a threat to freedom."
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Jun 11, 2026
"People are really, really afraid … that ICE will go and raid communities where people are watching and gathering together" to watch the FIFA World Cup, says Nelini Stamp. She is an organizer with the Our Copa campaign, a grassroots initiative that aims to protect immigrant fans, center the sport's working-class roots, and host accessible local watch parties during the World Cup. "We will keep each other safe as much as possible during these games," says Stamp.
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Jun 11, 2026
We continue our World Cup coverage in Mexico City, where local protesters are using the global event to bring attention to their causes. A sit-in by a teachers' union is targeting World Cup festivities. And "the mothers of disappeared people have been protesting, trying to reach the stadium in the far south of the city," says José Luis Granados Ceja, who covers Latin America for Drop Site News. Meanwhile, due to high ticket prices, "the people who love this sport are not going to be able to attend the games. They have been extraordinarily inaccessible to the population," adds Granados Cejas.
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Jun 11, 2026
The FIFA World Cup kicks off today with two games in Mexico. This will be the biggest World Cup in history, with teams from 48 countries playing over 100 games in 16 host cities across Canada, Mexico and the United States. With a new FIFA pricing system in place, tickets are significantly more expensive for this World Cup than for previous tournaments. And Trump's harsh immigration policies are having another chilling effect on the games. Out of the 39 countries under either a full or partial U.S. travel ban, four — Iran, Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal — are expected to play in the World Cup. Players from the latter three countries received visa exemptions, while the Iranian team must train in Tijuana, Mexico.
"This World Cup is shaping up to be one of extreme exclusion," says author and former professional soccer player Jules Boykoff. "Working-class fans basically have no chance of buying a ticket to these games … and you have people who have chosen not to come to the United States because they fear getting scooped up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement."
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Jun 11, 2026
The U.S. struck Iran on Wednesday for a second day in a row, and President Trump is threatening more strikes. Iran has claimed it launched retaliatory missiles at a U.S. Navy fleet in Bahrain, as well as at U.S. air bases in Kuwait and Jordan. Iran has also declared the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz, despite claims by the U.S. that it now effectively controls the strait. Iran's Foreign Ministry says the U.S. strikes have rendered the ceasefire "practically meaningless."
The last time that the U.S. and Iran spoke directly was in April, but talks have been continuing through intermediaries. It is Israel, not the U.S. and Iran, that doesn't want the war to end, argues journalist Rami Khouri. "Israel has made it clear that it's not going to do what the U.S. tells it," says Khouri. He adds that the U.S. doesn't know how to get out of the war or how to "rein in" Israel. "So, I expect we're going to see a continuation of these tit-for-tat military strikes."
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Jun 11, 2026
U.S. Continues to Strike Iran for a Second Day in a Row, U.S. Attacks Tanker Off the Coast of Oman, Killing 3 Indian Sailors, Amnesty International Accuses Israel of Ethnic Cleansing in the West Bank, FBI Conducts Raids of Pro-Palestinian Activists in Michigan, Anti-Immigrant Riots Continue in Belfast as Police Deploy Water Cannons to Quell Second Night of Unrest, U.S. Inflation Hits Highest Level in 3 Years Driven by Increasing Gas Prices, New Jersey Health Inspectors Find Unsafe and Unsanitary Food Prep at Delaney Hall, GAO Report Finds Sweeping Failures at ICE Jail in Fort Bliss, Texas, U.S. Measles Cases Top 2,000 for Second Straight Year, NYT: RFK Jr. Disengaged in Running Health and Human Services Department
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Jun 10, 2026
We continue to follow the impact of the Trump administration's ongoing assault on scientific research in the United States with an update from climate scientist Peter Kalmus, who says he has been forced to resign from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) after 15 years at his "dream job." In an immense loss to the government's capacity to monitor and assess atmospheric conditions, the JPL has lost about 30% of its staff since President Trump took office for the second time, says Kalmus, who warns that the dismantling of federally funded scientific infrastructure comes as rising global temperatures put the Earth in "extreme danger." "We're on this escalator towards warmer and warmer and warmer temperatures, and world leaders are not doing anything about it."
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Jun 10, 2026
We're joined by ocean policy expert David Helvarg to discuss the Trump administration's dismantling of the Ocean Observatories Initiative, the "cutting-edge eyes [and] ears" of the ocean. The program's closure, proposed in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 playbook for Trump's second administration, involves the decommissioning of a vast network of ocean floor sensors that collect data on marine ecosystems, ocean currents and global climate data, protecting the world's oceans and providing critical information about extreme weather. In their place is the increasingly unregulated expansion of resource extraction driven by the fossil fuel industry, "essentially developing the ocean for offshore oil drilling and mining — basically, as a gas station and a garbage dump."
Helvarg, the author of Forest of the Sea: The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp, also discusses "the world's other forest crisis": the loss of over half of kelp forests to warming ocean temperatures, throwing coastal ecosystems deeply out of balance. "We have an ocean," adds Helvarg. "It's full of life. It's at risk. And we need to better understand the other 71% of our blue marble planet to protect it — and not to let a few individuals and corporations destroy it."
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Jun 10, 2026
James Dolan, the billionaire owner of New York City's Madison Square Garden and its affiliated sports teams, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, is under fire after a bombshell investigation by Wired magazine revealed the inner workings of the arena's extensive surveillance network. Dolan employs facial recognition technology to track and profile arena attendees. This reportedly included a trans woman who, according to a former security staffer, was targeted solely due to her gender identity, as well as lawyers who have been banned because their firms are involved in lawsuits against him. Dolan's "spy machine" feeds information to Madison Square Garden's sizable security forces, who operate beyond the arena itself, "acting as a kind of second ersatz police force in Midtown Manhattan," explains Noah Shachtman, one of the authors of the Wired investigation. "It captures everyone, and some people get labeled as threats, even when they're clearly not." Dolan's blacklist also extends to his other venues, including Radio City Music Hall, also in New York City, and Sphere, in Las Vegas. Even for those who never step foot in Madison Square Garden, Shachtman says, the system there "isn't an outlier. It's a model."
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Jun 10, 2026
After the downing of an Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz, the United States and Iran have begun trading missile and drone strikes in the most serious escalation of hostilities since the April ceasefire agreement. President Trump posted on social media Wednesday morning that Iran has taken "too long to negotiate a deal" and would now have to "pay the price!!!" For more, we speak to Mohammad Eslami at Tehran University, who says Trump's "lies and broken promises" have shattered Iranians' trust in a diplomatic solution. "Every night, there are lots of peoples chanting all around the street against Trump. And also, … unfortunately, many of them are chanting against negotiation with Donald Trump," he says. "Right now they are asking the Iranian [forces] to retaliate."
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Jun 10, 2026
Trump Says Iran Is Taking Too Long to Negotiate a Ceasefire Deal and Will Now Have to "Pay the Price", Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 13 People in Southern Lebanon, U.N. Report: Armed Groups in Gaza Have Beaten, Maimed and Executed Dozens of Palestinians, Kenyan Police Forces Fatally Shoot a Man During Protest Against U.S. Ebola Facility, World Cup Referee from Somalia Returns Home After U.S. Denies Him Entry, Anti-Immigration Riots Roil Belfast as Firefighters Escort Immigrant Families from Their Homes, Federal Judge Permanently Blocks Alabama from Executing Inmate by Nitrogen Gas, House GOP Approves $70 Billion to Fund Trump's Immigration Crackdown, AP: Trump Admin Separated Dozens of Immigrant Children from Their Parents for a Second Time, Epstein's Former Assistant Groff Testifies Before House Oversight Committee, Trump Family Promotes Commemorative Coins for White House UFC Fight, Progressive Candidate Platner Overwhelmingly Wins Maine's Democratic Primary for Senate, GOP Congressmember Nancy Mace Loses GOP Primary for Governor of South Carolina, Republican Steve Hilton Advances to General Election in California's Gubernatorial Race
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Jun 09, 2026
President Trump on Monday attended the third game of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The San Antonio Spurs beat the New York Knicks, who hadn't lost a game since late April. The crowd booed when Trump was shown on the jumbotron.
"This was supposed to be a day about the Knicks. It was supposed to be a celebration of New York," says Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation and host of the Edge of Sports podcast. "And instead it was about one authoritarian, malignant narcissist."
Anticipation for the FIFA World Cup is "joyless," adds Zirin. "This is the first time that travel warnings are being issued to fans coming here. Even warnings are being issued to people who live in the United States by immigration groups because of the threats of ICE being at the stadiums."
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Jun 09, 2026
Ahead of the initial public offering for SpaceX, we speak with historian Quinn Slobodian, author of Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. He says Elon Musk is "creating a situation where he becomes deeply reliant on state contracts" as the U.S. government then becomes reliant on Musk. "It's not about demolishing the government," Slobodian says of his work with DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency that Musk led for the Trump administration. "It's about making the government more compatible, ready for the kind of products that Musk offers, and to make him then an indispensable part of the infrastructure." Slobodian goes on to warn that Musk's wealth is helping to fuel his anti-immigrant, racist political ideology. "We really should be worried about the possibility of those things to live together: tech-driven prosperity and right-wing racist politics."
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Jun 09, 2026
Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX is set to go public this week targeting a $1.8 trillion valuation, potentially making it the largest initial public offering in history. It is also projected to make Elon Musk, already the world's richest man, the world's first trillionaire.
The nonprofit newsroom More Perfect Union has released a new report from business reporter Eric Gardner called "We Uncovered a Hidden Wealth Transfer in the SpaceX IPO. You're Holding the Bag." It details how Musk convinced Nasdaq to forgo the usual waiting period to include SpaceX in its index fund, potentially exposing retirement savers to what many professional investors believe will be an overinflated stock price. While Musk and early investors are positioned to see their wealth skyrocket, the SpaceX IPO could hurt these regular investors, says Gardner. "He has essentially financially engineered the IPO as a massive wealth transfer from everyday investors to insiders," Gardner says of Musk.
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Jun 09, 2026
Israel is continuing to carry out attacks on Lebanon amid ongoing talks between the U.S. and Iran to end the war. Iran is maintaining its demand that Lebanon be included in a ceasefire deal. Lylla Younes, an investigative journalist based in Beirut, says President Trump's claims that he wants peace with Iran are "absurd" because the United States continues to support "Israel's aggression in southern Lebanon." She argues that "an angry phone call between Netanyahu and Donald Trump is ultimately meaningless" as long as Israel is granted "impunity and arms." Younes also talks about reporting she did for Drop Site News on the ethnic cleansing in Ain Arab, a village in southern Lebanon.
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Jun 09, 2026
Trump Again Claims He's Nearing a Deal with Iran, as Tehran Says U.S. and Israel Broke Ceasefire, Israel Bombs Lebanese City of Tyre After Ordering All Residents to Flee, Israeli Strike on Gaza Refugee Camp Kills 8-Year-Old Palestinian Leaving School, Nigeria's Military Says It Has Freed 360 People Abducted by Boko Haram, Progressive L.A. Councilmember Nithya Raman Advances to November Runoff Against Incumbent Mayor Bass, Trump Formally Nominates Former Personal Lawyer Todd Blanche as Attorney General, Immigrant from Republic of Georgia Dies in Louisiana ICE Jail, New Jersey Gov. Sherrill Says ICE Strictly Limited Her Inspection of Delaney Hall, Trump's "Border Czar" Tom Homan Threatens Surge of Immigration Agents to New York, NYC Mayor Mamdani Pushes Back Against Border Czar Homan's Threats, Federal Judge Rules Against Trump's $100,000 Annual Fee on H-1B Visa Applications, Trump Loudly Booed During Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden
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Jun 08, 2026
Peru's presidential runoff is too close to call as ballots continue to be counted from Sunday's election between Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, and leftist lawmaker Roberto Sánchez. Peruvian election officials say final results could take up to a month to confirm.
Peruvian economist and public policy expert Gustavo Guerra-García Picasso says "democracy has been undermined" by Fujimori and her right-wing coalition, and that "reforms must be implemented quickly to restore a presidential system with checks and balances."
We also speak with historian Greg Grandin, who situates the Peru election in a wider battle between right and left across Latin America — with the Trump administration conducting "an unprecedented program of aggression" against leftists.
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Jun 08, 2026
Voters are casting ballots in primary elections Tuesday in Maine, one of a handful states that could decide which party controls the Senate after this year's midterm elections. Democrats believe they have their best shot in years to unseat Republican Senator Susan Collins, but their presumptive nominee has been mired in controversy.
Graham Platner is a 41-year-old oyster farmer and Marine veteran who entered the race as a populist progressive. Democratic Governor Janet Mills, who was urged to run by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, suspended her campaign in April amid polls predicting Platner would easily beat her — though she remains on the ballot. Platner's past, however, has cast a shadow on his campaign. The initial controversies focused on offensive posts Platner made on Reddit years ago and on a tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol, which he has since apologized for and covered up. In recent weeks, sexually explicit text messages came to light that Platner had sent to women after getting married in 2023. The New York Times then reported that several women who had dated Platner recalled "unsettling" and abusive behavior by him, which he has denied.
For more, we speak with Kim Villanueva, national president of the National Organization for Women PAC, which supports Mills in the primary, and Maine resident Shay Stewart-Bouley, executive director of Community Change, Inc., who says Platner is speaking to people's material concerns and that voters may be "forgiving" for his "messy" personal life.
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Jun 08, 2026
Iran and Israel exchanged fire overnight in the most serious escalation since a U.S.-Iranian truce was reached in April. Iran launched a wave of missiles at northern Israel in retaliation for Israeli attacks near Beirut on Sunday. Israel responded with attacks on Iran, with explosions reported in Tehran, Tabriz and Isfahan. This comes as peace talks appear stalled between the United States and Iran, largely over Iran's insistence that any agreement must include Lebanon and halt Israel's attacks on that country. President Donald Trump has also repeatedly expressed frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and reports from NBC News and The New York Times indicate the Pentagon is growing increasingly concerned over Israel spying on U.S. officials.
"I was not surprised by the Iranian attack on Israel," says analyst Trita Parsi, who notes that Iran's leaders want to "extend their deterrence" to Lebanon. "What is perhaps a bit surprising is … that the Israelis defied Trump's expressed wishes."
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Jun 08, 2026
Iran Says It's Halting Attacks on Israel After Both Countries Exchange Fire, Israeli Strikes Hit Beirut Despite a U.S.-Brokered So-Called Ceasefire, Israeli Strikes Kill at Least Seven Palestinians in Gaza, Russian Drone Hits Nuclear Fuel Facility Near Chernobyl, Killing 3 People, Hegseth Uses D-Day Anniversary to Attack European Immigration Policies, Saying Continent Facing New "Invasion", Federal Lawsuit Seeks to Block White House UFC Event Set for Trump's 80th Birthday, Trump Storms Out of Interview with NBC News's Welker After She Questions Him About Slush Fund, Ex-"60 MInutes" Anchor Pelley Claims Bari Weiss Wanted to Push False Narratives on Renee Good's Killing, New Jersey Boosts Legal Funding for Immigrants Held at Delaney Hall ICE Jail, Hunger Strikers at Adelanto ICE Jail Moved to Solitary Confinement After Talking to Lawmakers, 12 Injured as Gunfire Erupts at Toledo, Ohio, Street Festival, Brussels Warns Albania That Jared Kushner's Luxury Resort Could Violate EU Environmental Rules
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Jun 05, 2026
The British government earlier this week barred left-wing political commentators Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur from entering the U.K. ahead of several speaking events. The Home Office said it was canceling their travel permits because "their presence in the U.K. may not be conducive to the public good." Piker and Uygur, who are related, are both outspoken in their criticism of Israel. While the government did not cite a specific reason for the ban, some lawmakers and pro-Israel groups had accused the two of promoting antisemitism, which they reject.
"I find what the British government did here to be objectionable. I find it to be disgusting. I also find it to be terrifying," Piker tells Democracy Now! "I think it's a sign that we're … headed down a very different — dare I say, fascist — direction in the Western world."
Piker also discusses his participation in a recent humanitarian mission to Cuba, for which he is reportedly under investigation by the Trump administration, and his support for progressive and antiwar candidates in this year's midterm elections. "We don't have a lot of time. Fascism is here," Piker says.
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Jun 05, 2026
We speak with Dr. Adam Hamawy, the former U.S. Army combat surgeon who just won the Democratic nomination in New Jersey's 12th Congressional District. He is now the heavy favorite to win the Democratic-leaning district in November and, if elected, would become New Jersey's first Muslim member of Congress. Hamawy is an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights and volunteered in Gaza during Israel's genocidal assault on the territory. He has been endorsed by prominent progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, who credits Hamawy with saving her life after her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004.
"I was running on something very simple: that we should be spending on healthcare, not bombs," Hamawy tells Democracy Now!, criticizing the $1 trillion Pentagon budget. "We need to be spending some of that right here at home to restore our nation, to fund universal healthcare like Medicare for All, to fund tuition-free public college, to rebuild our roads and bridges, to address the housing crisis."
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Jun 05, 2026
Senate Approves $70 Billion in Additional ICE and Border Patrol Funding, Hezbollah Rejects Extension of U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire Between Israel and Lebanon, WFP Warns Strait of Hormuz Closure Has Pushed Millions More into Hunger, Israeli Strike on Gaza Leaves Family of Five Burned Alive in Their Home, Trump Administration Scraps Ocean Sensors That Track Climate Change and Predict Storms, Trump Administration Seeks More Control Over Scientific Research Grants, White House Announces $700 Million in Federal Funds for Coal Industry, Lawmaker Grills Marco Rubio over Trump's Apparent Naps at Public Events, Kalshi Reports Disgraced Former Congressman George Santos for Insider Trading, Democrats Oppose Rule Change Allowing Crypto and Private Equity Investments in Pension Funds, Residents of Monterey Park, California, Vote to Ban Data Centers, GOP Congressman Wins Uncontested New Jersey Primary Even Though He Hasn't Been Seen in Months, Pam Bondi Testified Todd Blanche "Was in Charge" of "Entire Release" of Epstein Files, Peruvians March Against Keiko Fujimori Ahead of Presidential Vote, Warning of Return to Dictatorship, Colorado Appeals Court Reverses Homicide Convictions of Paramedics in Elijah McClain's Death, Marjane Satrapi, Author of Comic Memoir "Persepolis" About Life in Iran, Dies at 56
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Jun 04, 2026
The Trump administration five months ago launched an energy blockade against Cuba, coming on top of the over six-decade-long embargo, the longest in U.S. history. The expanded U.S. sanctions have exacerbated the island's economic crisis, forcing Cubans to live with rolling blackouts, inflation and shortages of basic goods.
"The situation there is dire," says Cuban American historian Ada Ferrer. "It has been for quite some time, and it's gotten worse and worse over the last five months."
Acknowledging the devastating effects the U.S. embargo has on the island, Ferrer says the Cuban government's priority "is not the well-being of the Cuban people." She points out that despite the current deterioration of the industry, Cuba continues to invest in tourism, "ignoring sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, education, health — all of which are in horrible decline."
Ferrer also discusses her new book, Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter.
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Jun 04, 2026
Former U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino led the Trump administration's militarized immigration crackdowns in Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Bovino was eventually removed from his position in January after immigration agents under his command killed 37-year-old VA nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
We speak with Amanda Moore, a reporter who focuses on far-right extremism and state violence. She spent months following Bovino and the immigration crackdown in the United States for Mother Jones and other outlets. "[Border Patrol] would snipe us with rubber bullets from rooftops by the detention centers," says Moore.
We also get a comment from reporter Charles R. Davis about other right-wing figures in the Trump administration.
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Jun 04, 2026
Hundreds of far-right activists gathered in Portugal on Saturday for the annual "Remigration Summit" advocating for the mass deportation of immigrants. Former U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and white nationalist leader Jared Taylor were VIP guests alongside elected officials from Germany and Spain's far-right parties. In an interview ahead of the event, Bovino cited Nazi Germany's lead general, Erwin Rommel, as an inspirational figure.
"Remigration is basically the policy response to the 'great replacement' conspiracy theory," says Charles R. Davis, a journalist based in Vienna, Austria. Davis explains "great replacement" as a theory that there is a "global elite plot, typically by Jews," to replace white people in Europe and North America with immigrants. "It's an argument for mass deportations," not just of recently arrived immigrants, but of "those who were allowed in over the last hundred years who were not really, as they see it, European or American," says Davis. "This is basically rooted in Nazi ideology."
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Jun 04, 2026
Hundreds of immigrants detained at the ICE jail known as Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, have been on a hunger and labor strike for nearly two weeks. They are protesting the conditions at the jail, including spoiled food that has had maggots in it, overcrowding and inadequate medical care. Detainees are also forced to work for around $1 per day. In retaliation against the strike, guards at Delaney Hall have reportedly beaten participants, and family visitation was temporarily suspended. The strikers are demanding their release from the ICE jail and that the most vulnerable populations are freed first.
Detainees' family members, along with immigration advocates and anti-ICE protesters, have been rallying outside Delaney Hall since the strike began. Democracy Now!'s María Taracena was outside Delaney on Tuesday. She spoke to a detainee who had just been released, a community organizer, a lawyer and family members who were waiting to visit their loved ones inside the ICE jail.
Police have erected barricades half a mile around Delaney Hall, "making it more and more difficult to go and visit those who are on labor and hunger strike," says Natalie, a New Jersey mutual aid organizer with the group Eyes on ICE. "I was trying to see my father. He recently got put in," says the daughter of a man being held in Delaney Hall. She is struggling to find legal support for her father. "He does not deserve to go to another country when he belongs in this one."
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Jun 04, 2026
House Votes 215-208 to Approve Resolution Seeking to End Trump's War on Iran, Rep. Rashida Tlaib Advances Resolution to End U.S. Involvement in Israel's War on Lebanon, Lebanon Agrees to Extend U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire with Israel, Trump Says U.S. Bombed Iran on Tuesday, Contradicting Rubio's Claim That Iran War is "Over", Israeli Airstrikes Kill Nine Palestinians in Gaza, British Government Bans Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur from Entering U.K., Trump Nominates Todd Blanche as the Next U.S. Attorney General, Trump Signs Executive Order Making It Easier to Fire 8,000 Highly Paid Government Workers, Rural Communities in Bolivia Seize Oil Field, Calling on President Paz to Resign, Thousands Demonstrate Against Chilean Far-Right President Kast, Labor Protests Rock Mexico City Days Before World Cup, Protests Erupt in Albania over Massive Resort Development Linked to Jared Kushner
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Jun 03, 2026
We continue our coverage of the fallout from the dropped federal case against the "Broadview 6," six people who attended a protest outside Chicago's Broadview ICE jail in September. They were later indicted for conspiracy to impede a federal agent, despite many not having met prior to appearing together in court. "I didn't find out that I had been indicted until a month after this happened," says Kat Abughazaleh, who was not arrested at the protest, but weeks later, as she was running for Congress. Michael Rabbitt, a Democratic ward committeeperson in Chicago, says that when he received a text informing him about a warrant for his arrest, "I actually thought it was a scam. I honestly didn't think it was real."
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Jun 03, 2026
Calls are growing for the interim U.S. attorney in Chicago, Andrew Boutros, to resign over his handling of the "Broadview 6" case — six individuals charged with federal crimes for protesting outside Chicago's Broadview ICE jail in September. The remaining charges against four of the Broadview 6 were recently dismissed after the case collapsed in court due to widespread prosecutorial misconduct. "This DOJ has completely corrupted the grand jury process," says attorney Chris Parente, who represented one of the Broadview 6. "When they decide that they want to get a political indictment through, they will do whatever it takes, even acting in an unethical way."
Parente, himself a former federal prosecutor, says federal prosecutors heavily misrepresented the case and forced an indictment despite the grand jury initially voting against it. What's "even worse," he adds, is the U.S. attorney's subsequent cover-up of the prosecutors' conduct, refusing to release the grand jury transcripts for months and later redacting and withholding full pages from the judge who ordered their release. "As a former federal prosecutor, your job is not to win any case. It's to do the right thing. And I've never seen a case like this, where from the jump they did the wrong thing at every single turn."
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Jun 03, 2026
In "yet another deeply alarming appointment," President Donald Trump has picked major Trump campaign donor Bill Pulte to replace former Congressmember Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, the nation's top spy chief who reports directly to the president. Pulte is "not somebody who has any of the requisite experience for this incredibly important office," says Matt Platkin, a former attorney general for New Jersey. Pulte is also expected to continue in his other high-level positions as chair of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and chair of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where he is accused of abusing his power to pursue political prosecutions against Trump's enemies.
We also speak to Harvard Law School professor Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge, about legal challenges to Trump's mass deportation campaign, particularly involving widespread abuses committed by DHS and ICE. "What we're seeing now is an effort for the courts to catch up to those abuses, and they are. Legislation is going to be needed to make this even more clear," says Gertner.
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Jun 03, 2026
After widespread bipartisan outcry, the Justice Department says it is permanently abandoning plans for a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund. Widely branded as a "slush fund," it was expected to reward President Donald Trump's supporters, including those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The fund was announced in May as part of a settlement in Trump's personal lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax data. That case was recently reopened, after dozens of former federal judges filed a motion alleging that Trump's actions were "collusive." As Nancy Gertner, one of the judges who joined the motion, explains, "What happened in this case was, essentially, Trump was suing himself. There was no question that Trump was on both sides of the 'v.'" Gertner and her fellow judges are represented by attorney Matt Platkin, who says, "It is illegal for the president to ask for any IRS audit to be opened or closed. That is a federal crime."
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Jun 03, 2026
Iran Launches Missiles and Drones at Kuwait and Bahrain in Retaliation for U.S. Attacks, Israel Kills at Least Eight People in Southern Lebanon, Israeli Forces Kill at Least Four Palestinians in Gaza, Trump Picks MAGA Loyalist Bill Pulte to Serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence, Pentagon Hires Jan. 6 Insurrectionist for Counterterrorism Role, DOJ Kills $1.8B Anti-Weaponization Fund, But Trump's IRS Settlement Remains, Former Border Patrol Chief Bovino Attends Anti-Immigrant Summit in Portugal, New Jersey Attorney General Files Lawsuit Against Private Prison Company GEO Group, SCOTUS Allows Alabama to Adopt New GOP-Friendly Congressional Map, CBS News Fires "60 Minutes" Correspondent Scott Pelley, MAGA-Supporting Republican Steve Hilton Leads California Governor's Race, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Advances to Runoff, Challenged by Reality TV Star and City Councilmember, Deb Haaland Advances in Bid to Become New Mexico's First-Ever Indigenous Governor, Trump-Backed Gubernatorial Candidate Loses GOP Primary in Iowa, Dr. Adam Hamawy, Who Volunteered in Gaza, Wins Democratic Nomination for New Jersey House Seat
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Jun 02, 2026
We speak with journalist, academic and author Steven Thrasher about his new book, The Overseer Class, in which he explores how members of historically marginalized groups rise to positions of power within institutions in lieu of structural change. He identifies Black police officers as a prominent example of this phenomenon. As public opinion in the United States has grown more critical of law enforcement, "Black cops are kind of rehabilitating police departments, as are women cops and LGBTQ cops," Thrasher says. "Those are the people who I call overseers, the ones who rule between the ruling class and the working class."
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Jun 02, 2026
More than 200 people have now been killed in U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Since September, the Pentagon has struck more than 60 vessels, claiming, without evidence, that the boats were engaged in "narco-trafficking" operations. Human rights groups have roundly condemned the attacks as extrajudicial killings.
"The U.S. is not in active conflict with any of these groups," says Amanda Klasing, the national director of government relations and advocacy at Amnesty International USA. "These are law enforcement operations, … so the individuals on these boats have a right to life and a right to due process."
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Jun 02, 2026
Israeli drones have killed at least eight people in Lebanon despite an announcement Monday by U.S. President Donald Trump that both Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop fighting. Trump's intervention came as Israel threatened new strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, leading Iran to suspend indirect negotiations with the U.S. to protest Israel's expanding military offensive in Lebanon. Since March 2, Israel has killed more than 3,400 people in Lebanon while seizing large swaths of the country and displacing about one-fifth of the population.
Lebanon is "a weak state, it doesn't have a lot of leverage, and a lot of people are concerned," says Associated Press reporter Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut. "They sort of feel beholden to the regional and global powers on their fate."
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Jun 02, 2026
Israel Kills 8 in Lebanon After Trump Says He Told Netanyahu to Call Off Beirut Attack, Rep. Rashida Tlaib Calls on Congress to Pass Lebanon War Powers Resolution, Iran Suspends Talks with U.S. Amid Israel's Attacks on Lebanon, Israel Continues to Violate Gaza Ceasefire, Killing 3 More Palestinians, "I Am Offended": NYC Mayor Mamdani Blasts Appearance by Israel's Smotrich at March, Russian Strikes Kills at Least 18 in Ukraine, Trump Appears to Abandon Proposed $1.8 Billion "Slush Fund" for MAGA Supporters, Anthropic Confidentially Files for IPO, as Sen. Sanders Calls for 50% Tax on Stock of AI Companies, Newark Mayor Baraka Set to Announce Legal Strategy to Shut Down Delaney Hall, Ghana's Parliament Approves Bill Criminalizing LGBTQ Activities, Defense Secretary Hegseth Designates Pentagon Press Office as a Classified Space, Veteran "60 Minutes" Correspondent Pelley Blasts CBS News Leadership, "Critical Incident: A Death at the Border" Wins Outstanding Investigative Documentary at News Emmys, Voters Head to the Polls in Several States for Primary Elections
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Jun 01, 2026
A federal jury last week convicted three people on felony conspiracy charges over their involvement in an anti-ICE protest in Spokane, Washington, last June. The "Spokane Three" are awaiting sentencing and face up to six years in prison for conspiracy to impede or injure ICE officers. They had attempted to block the transfer of a group of detained immigrants by sitting in front of a bus. Six of the nine protesters originally charged took plea deals, but the Spokane Three decided to fight the charges.
"If I had taken a plea deal, it would have essentially been me lying and saying that I did something that I didn't do. I didn't assault anybody," says Bajun Mavalwalla, a U.S. military veteran and one of the Spokane Three.
"What we have here is a really large reach of the conspiracy statute," adds journalist and author Aaron Glantz, highlighting that no officers were hurt in the June protest. "What happened was a relatively minor demonstration."
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Jun 01, 2026
President Donald Trump has tapped David Venturella, a former ICE official and executive at the private prison company GEO Group, to replace Todd Lyons as head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. GEO Group saw its profits jump from $32 million in 2024 to more than $254 million in 2025 as the Trump administration expanded government contracts with ICE jails nationwide.
Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director at Detention Watch Network, says private prison companies have an "intricate" relationship with ICE. "It's really a revolving door," she says, pointing out that Venturella worked for ICE under Presidents Bush and Obama, then went to GEO Group before this latest appointment by President Trump. "It's really hard to see where the interests of ICE end and those of private prison companies begin," says Ghandehari.
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