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Apr 17, 2024
On Wednesday, 4,000 Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, begin voting in a closely watched election on whether to organize with the United Auto Workers in what could be the union's first big victory as they try to expand into the southern United States after huge contract wins in 2023 with Detroit companies General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. Journalist Hamilton Nolan argues this is "probably the most important union election that this country has seen in years," as unions attempt to challenge southern states' economic policy of creating cheap, exploited labor to attract major corporations. "The South is really funneling money to international corporations for free, and the UAW is trying to put an end to that."
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Apr 17, 2024
Democracy Now! speaks with two of the Google employees who were arrested staging sit-ins on Tuesday at the company's offices in New York City and in Sunnyvale, California, to protest the tech giant's work with the Israeli government. Organized by the group No Tech for Apartheid, the protesters are demanding Google withdraw from Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud computing services to the Israeli military. "Google execs basically chose to arrest workers for speaking out against the use of our technology to power the first AI-powered genocide," says Google software engineer Mohammad Khatami, who was arrested in New York. Google worker-organizer Ray Westrick, who was arrested occupying CEO Thomas Kurian's office, says "more people are willing to organize and risk their jobs in order to take a stand against complicity in genocide." We also speak with No Tech for Apartheid organizer and former Google worker Gabriel Schubiner, who calls on the tech industry to divest from Google and Amazon services. "Technology workers actually have a lot of power to shift this paradigm and to remove technology from this deep complicity with the Israeli occupation," Schubiner says.
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Apr 17, 2024
One year ago this week, a devastating conflict erupted in Sudan when a fragile alliance between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces collapsed. The war initially began around the capital city of Khartoum but quickly spread to other parts of Sudan, including Darfur, Port Sudan and the Gezira state, situated in the country's agricultural heartland. One year on, the conflict has driven nearly 9 million people from their homes, collapsed the country's health system and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crisis. "This is essentially a war between two generals," says Khalid Mustafa Medani, chair of the African studies program at McGill University, who explains why the warring parties have "absolutely no legitimacy in civil society" and how the fighting is weaponizing international aid. "Despite the severity of this conflict, there is only one solution and only one interest on the part of the majority of Sudanese — 99% of Sudanese — and that is the restoration of full civilian democracy."
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Apr 17, 2024
U.N.: Israel Is Still Unlawfully Restricting Aid into Gaza, Report: Israeli Assault on Gaza Has Left 19,000 Children Orphaned, U.K. Tells Israel: Do "As Little as Possible to Escalate" Tensions with Iran, Israel Urged to Stop Supporting Violent Jewish Settlers After Deadly West Bank Attacks, Nine Google Workers Arrested at Sit-In Protesting Firm's Work with Israel, Columbia University Students Launch Gaza Solidarity Encampment, Seven Jurors Selected for Trump Hush Money Criminal Trial, Supreme Court Considers Tossing Out Jan. 6 Convictions for Violating Federal Obstruction Law, Extradition of Julian Assange Edges Closer as U.S. Gives Assurances to U.K. over His Rights, Indian Security Forces Kill 29 Maoist Rebels Ahead of Election, Rep. Massie Backs Ousting House Speaker Mike Johnson, Maine Joins National Popular Vote Compact, Former U.S. Marine Sentenced to Prison for Firebombing Planned Parenthood Clinic, Federal Court Blocks WV Transgender Sports Ban; Supreme Court Lets Idaho Ban Gender-Affirming Care for Now, New York Police Officers Cleared of Wrongdoing in Fatal Police Shooting of Kawaski Trawick
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Apr 16, 2024
We speak with veteran journalist Peter Maass about the Israeli war on Gaza and his new opinion piece for The Washington Post headlined "I'm Jewish, and I've covered wars. I know war crimes when I see them." Maass, who was a senior editor at The Intercept until earlier this year, has spent decades covering wars, including the Bosnian genocide in the 1990s that killed about 100,000 people over nearly four years. He says many of the same war crimes he reported then are part of Israel's current assault, including sniper attacks on civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure, attacks on bread lines and besieging whole populations by preventing food and other aid from entering. "What seems to be unfolding in Gaza is even worse than what I saw in Bosnia," says Maass.
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Apr 16, 2024
The Western corporate media is failing in its coverage of Israel's war on Gaza, says Palestinian independent journalist Dalia Hatuqa. "A lot of what's missing from the bigger portrait … is the Palestinian voice," says Hatuqa, who applauds local journalists in Gaza for providing the world a crucial window into what's happening there while international reporters are blocked by Israel from entering the territory. "Nobody knows Gaza better than the Gazan journalists on the ground." Hatuqa also speaks about her latest piece for The Century Foundation about rising Israeli state and settler violence in the occupied West Bank, which she says can accurately be described as pogroms. "The fog of war has allowed Israel to perpetuate crimes at a very large scale, not only throughout the West Bank, but including occupied East Jerusalem."
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Apr 16, 2024
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, one of the most vocal supporters of Julian Assange, says the United States must drop its espionage case against the jailed WikiLeaks founder. He faults the Australian government for pushing for a plea deal that would allow Assange to walk free from Belmarsh Prison in London in exchange for an admission of guilt. "Julian is never going to plead guilty as if journalism is a crime," says Varoufakis. He also discusses his new book Technofeudalism, which argues that platforms like Amazon have destroyed the idea of buyers and sellers operating in an open market. "Capitalism was killed by capital," he says.
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Apr 16, 2024
As Germany intensifies its crackdown on pro-Palestinian voices, we speak with Greek economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis, one of the planned speakers at a conference in Berlin last weekend that was forcibly shut down by police. The Palestine Congress was scheduled to be held for three days, but police stormed the venue as the first panelist spoke. Germany's Interior Ministry had also banned some conference speakers from even entering the country, including Varoufakis, the Palestinian British surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah and the Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta. "This is not about protecting Jewish lives and Jews from antisemitism. It's all about protecting the right of Israel to commit any war crime of its choice," says Varoufakis.
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Apr 16, 2024
Gazans Continue to Lose Children, Parents, Loved Ones as Israeli Attacks Continue with Impunity, Palestinian Doctors Uncover New Mass Grave at Al-Shifa in Wake of Israeli Siege, Sheikh Jarrah: Israeli Court Orders Three Palestinian Families Be Forced Out of Their Homes, Iran and Israel Both Vow to Respond in Kind to Any Further Attacks, Coordinated Demonstrations Across the U.S. and the World Disrupt Travel, Weapons Industry, Yale Students Launch Hunger Strike; USC Cancels Graduation Speech by Muslim Student, Judge Threatens to Jail Trump If He Disrupts Hush Money Trial as Jury Selection Continues, 3 Iraqi Survivors of Abu Ghraib Bring Torture Case Against U.S. Contractor to Trial, Torrential Rains Kill at Least 100 People Across Pakistan and Afghanistan, NOAA Warns World Is Experiencing Its 4th Coral Bleaching Event Due to Warming Oceans, Fourth Body Recovered from Baltimore Key Bridge Collapse as FBI Launches Probe, Judge Sentences Armorer of Alec Baldwin Western "Rust" to 18 Months for Death of Halyna Hutchins, SCOTUS Declines to Hear Case Targeting Organizers of Group Protests, Faith Ringgold, Trailblazing Artist, Author and Activist, Dies at 93
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Apr 15, 2024
Donald Trump is making history today in New York as the first former U.S. president to stand trial for criminal charges. Trump faces 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to hide hush money payments he made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels and others, just weeks before winning the 2016 election. He is accused of violating federal campaign finance laws for failing to disclose the payments and instead recording them as a "legal expense." Each of the 34 counts carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. "What Donald Trump is accused of is the type of crime that's prosecuted in New York every single day … [a] garden-variety, ordinary grift," says Ron Kuby, a longtime New York criminal defense and civil rights lawyer who is following the trial closely. Kuby explains what we can expect from the trial — the first of four different criminal cases Trump is currently embroiled in, but likely the only one he will stand for ahead of the 2024 election — in the coming days.
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Apr 15, 2024
The Middle East is bracing for the possibility of regional war after Iran responded to Israel's bombing of the Iranian Consulate in Damascus with a major drone and missile attack Saturday. The attack caused little damage inside Israel, as it intercepted nearly all of the drones and missiles with help from the United States, Britain, France and Jordan. Iran's government described the attack as a defensive maneuver after Israel's unprovoked strike on its embassy killed some of Iran's top military brass. This was "a performative operation to send a message," says journalist Reza Sayah, who joins us from Tehran. But while Iran "does not want to escalate matters," Israel may be preparing to do just that. Washington, D.C.-based analyst Trita Parsi says that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been trying to instigate conflict between the U.S. and Iran for "more than two decades," and given that Biden has demonstrated an unwillingness to "draw any red lines for Israel publicly," these latest provocations could become a prime "opportunity" for such a war. Crucially, Iranian restraint "cannot last forever," warns our final roundtable guest, the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, who touches on both Iran's own sovereignty and increasing global pressure for Israel to end its war on Gaza. "Gaza is still starving and bleeding, and we shouldn't forget it," says Levy.
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Apr 15, 2024
"The Middle East Is on the Brink": U.N. Calls for Maximum Restraint After Iran Directly Attacks Israel for First Time, Death Toll from Israel's War on Gaza Reaches 33,800 as Nuseirat Camp Comes Under Intense Fire, Israeli Settlers Attack Palestinian Villages in Occupied West Bank, Burning Homes, Killing at Least 1, Trump's Criminal Hush Money Trial Kicks Off in New York, War in Sudan Marks 1 Year: 15,000 Killed, 8.6M Displaced, 25M in Need of Immediate Aid, Australian Police Say Mass Stabber at Sydney Mall Was Targeting Women, House Reauthorizes FISA Clause Which Has Been Used to Spy on U.S. Citizens, Kamala Harris Tells Arizona Voters Trump Is to Blame for State's Draconian Abortion Ban, German Police Shut Down Palestine Congress After Barring Prominent Speakers, "??McCarthyism Is Real": Hobart and William Smith Colleges Suspend Prof. for Defending Palestinians
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Apr 12, 2024
We go to Part 2 of our conversation with Israeli scholar Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London and chair of the Committee on Academic Freedom for British Society of Middle East Studies. Gordon talks about the "massive surveillance apparatus" Israel has imposed on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the use of artificial intelligence tools to bomb targets despite the high error rate in those systems, and the shock of the October 7 attack by Hamas that killed some 1,200 Israelis. "The state seemed not to be functioning, so most Israelis were in great pain, were in great fear," he says. "My fear is that most Israelis are still trapped, still stuck in that October 7th moment and unwilling to lift their eyes to see basically the genocide unfolding in the Gaza Strip."
Watch Part 1 of this interview: Road to Famine: Israeli Law Prof. Neve Gordon on Israel's History of Weaponizing Food Access in Gaza
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Apr 12, 2024
We speak with The New Yorker war correspondent Luke Mogelson about the war in Ukraine, where the government has just passed a controversial bill that expands military conscription and cracks down on draft dodgers in an effort to replenish the depleted ranks of the army, more than two years since Russia launched its invasion. Military leaders have warned that Russian forces outnumber Ukrainian troops tenfold in the east. Mogelson says the Ukrainian military ranks are filled with "predominantly working-class men from rural areas or smaller villages," while people in Kyiv and other large cities, where the elites live, can more easily avoid the full impact of the war. "You can really feel the gap between the two worlds widening," says Mogelson, adding that most people realize the war cannot be sustained indefinitely and that "at some point there needs to be a negotiation" to end the fighting. Mogelson is the winner of this year's prestigious George Polk Award for magazine reporting for his article "Two Weeks at the Front in Ukraine."
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Apr 12, 2024
President Biden hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House on Thursday, the first meeting of its kind, which comes as the U.S. moves to expand its military presence in the South China Sea to counter China. The Philippines has deepened military ties with both the United States and Japan in recent years as maritime confrontations with China have escalated. The trilateral summit at the White House resembled a "council of war," according to Filipino scholar Walden Bello. He says the U.S. is the primary driver of tensions with China, building up its military footprint in the region as Pentagon officials openly muse about war, while China has focused primarily on its economic reach. "This militarization of the Pacific is very dangerous," says Bello.
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Apr 12, 2024
Gazan Children Play Among Ruins as Israeli Bombs Rain Down on Eid, Samantha Power, Top USAID Official, Admits Northern Gaza Is Experiencing Famine, U.S. Sends Top General to Israel Amid Reports of Iranian Retaliation for Israel's Damascus Attack, Morocco Sentences Activist to 5 Years for Criticizing Normalization Deal with Israel, Mexico Brings Grievances Against Ecuador to ICJ Amid Mounting Diplomatic Row, Ukraine Passes Contested Draft Bill with No Limits on Wartime Military Service, Poland Begins Debate on Rolling Back Abortion Ban Under New Liberal Leader, Biden Cancels Another $7.4 Billion in Student Debt, Biden Admin Closes "Gun Show Loophole", Far-Right Flank of House Block Reauthorization of Controversial Section 702 of FISA, "Goon Squad" Convicts Get State Sentences of 15-45 Years for Torturing Black Men, Climate Crisis Triggers Great Barrier Reef's Worst-Ever Coral Bleaching, 10 Years After Chibok Abduction, Leaders No Longer Fighting for Survivors and Remaining Captives
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Apr 11, 2024
In Arizona, Republican lawmakers have blocked efforts by Democrats to repeal an 1864 law — first written before women had the right to vote and recently revived by the state's Supreme Cour — that bans nearly all abortions under threat of criminal penalties including jail time. To respond, we host a trio of reproductive justice advocates in Arizona. Dr. DeShawn Taylor, an OB-GYN physician, abortion provider and the CEO of the only Black woman-operated abortion clinic in Arizona, emphasizes that her practice "will continue to provide abortions until we are made to stop," but warns that in the future "abortions likely will not happen in Arizona because of those criminal penalties." Meanwhile, organizers like Chris Love and Alejandra Pablos are fighting back. Love is a spokesperson for Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of reproductive rights organizations working to put a constitutional amendment on abortion on the state's upcoming November ballot. The petition for the proposed ballot measure is still collecting signatures. "We know what we want: We want people to have the care that they need," concludes Pablos, who organizes for reproductive, racial and immigrant' rights.
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Apr 11, 2024
We speak with two doctors who've just returned after two weeks at the European Hospital in Gaza. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa and Dr. Mark Perlmutter are co-authors of a new piece for Common Dreams titled "As Surgeons, We Have Never Seen Cruelty Like Israel's Genocide in Gaza." They describe a hospital "hanging on by a thread," with the majority of patients being young children, and bombing targeted at Muslim Palestinians "concentrated at the time of evening prayer." "Genocide was the overwhelming impression that I got," says Perlmutter. "This is dehumanization. The purpose of this is to kill a population." He also says, of U.S. responsibility in this genocide, "We're buying the bullets and the gun for the gunman who's going to the school and killing the children." "If our support stops, the occupation stops," adds Sidhwa, urging other Americans to push political leaders and public discourse against the country's support of Israel. "We have to raise the domestic cost for these policies." Dr. Sidhwa and Dr. Perlmutter worked with the Palestinian American Medical Association in collaboration with the World Health Organization in Gaza. Collectively, they have previously volunteered medical assistance in the West Bank, Haiti and Ukraine, and after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the Boston Marathon bombing.
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Apr 11, 2024
Israel Kills Three Sons & Four Grandchildren of Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh, UNICEF Convoy Hit by Israeli Gunfire, Preventing Delivery of Aid to Northern Gaza, U.S. Envoy Admits All of Gaza May Face "Imminent Risk of Starvation", Biden Pledges "Ironclad" Support for Israel as Fears Grow Iran May Launch Retaliatory Attack, Republican Lawmakers in Arizona Block Repeal of 1864 Abortion Ban, Biden Hosts Japanese & Filipino Leaders as U.S. Expands Military Presence Near China, South Korea PM Offers to Resign After Conservatives Suffer Major Defeat, Russia Hits Major Power Plant Near Kyiv in Latest Strike on Ukrainian Energy Infrastructure, Mass Flooding in Kazakhstan and Russia Displaces Over 110,000 People, Ocean Heat Records Set Every Day for Past Year, Ex-VP in Ecuador on Hunger Strike After Arrest During Raid on Mexican Embassy, EPA Issues New Rules on PFAS & Chemical Plants, Biden Says He Is Considering Dropping Prosecution of Julian Assange, Ex-Trump CFO Sentenced to Five Months in Prison for Lying Under Oath, Cornel West Taps Black Lives Matter Activist Melina Abdullah to Be Running Mate, RFK Jr. Staffer Fired After Admitting Campaign Aims to Help Trump Win in November, Islamic Center at Rutgers University Vandalized as Eid Begins, Palestinian American Law Student Protests Backyard Dinner Hosted by UC Berkeley Law School Dean, German School Rescinds Job Offer to Jewish Philosopher Nancy Fraser over Her Criticism of Israel
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Apr 10, 2024
Democracy Now! speaks with two former Israeli soldiers who are members of Breaking the Silence, an anti-occupation group of Israeli army veterans. The group's education director, Tal Sagi, describes growing up in a settlement and joining the military without understanding what occupation was. "We've been told that this is security and we have to control millions of lives and we don't have other options," says Sagi, who says Israeli society is not open to ending the occupation. "We're trying to say that there are other options." We also speak with Breaking the Silence deputy director Nadav Weiman about why the group is touring U.S. colleges and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. "We stood in checkpoints. We raided homes. We attacked Gaza from the air. We fought from the ground," says Weiman. "So, when you bring reality, you bring real conversation about the occupation, and you bring real conversation about Gaza."
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Apr 10, 2024
President Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies in Gaza a "mistake" and urged Israel to call for a temporary ceasefire to allow in more aid in a televised interview on Tuesday. While Israel has pledged to open new aid crossings, the U.N. said on Tuesday that there has been "no significant change in the volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza," and the Biden administration has not actually changed its policies or withheld any arms transfers to Israel. "Words are cheap, and statements are a dime a dozen," says Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani, who explains Israel can safely ignore statements if policy remains unchanged. "What really matters is not what these people say, but what they do." Rabbani also speaks about the United Nations considering Palestinian statehood, ongoing negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire, and Israel attacking the Iranian Consulate in Syria.
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Apr 10, 2024
In a historic ruling, Arizona's conservative Supreme Court has upheld an 1864 law banning almost all abortions in the state. The court sent out this warning: "Physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman's life, are illegal." The 160-year-old law predates Arizona becoming a state and was passed decades before women could even vote. Although Arizona's Attorney General Kris Mayes said she will not enforce the "draconian law," the ruling sent shockwaves across the nation. "The central strategy of the anti-abortion movement is to roll back the clock to the Victorian era, because they know that they cannot win through the democratic process," says Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent at The Nation, who says conservatives supporting these unpopular restrictions face an uphill battle this fall. "Democrats are banking on this being a huge way to lift their boats in the next election." Activists are preparing a November ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the Arizona Constitution, and reproductive rights will be a key issue in the state's closely watched Senate race.
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Apr 10, 2024
Arizona Supreme Court Revives 1864 Law Banning Abortion, Biden: Israel Should "Just Call for a Ceasefire"; Netanyahu Is Making a "Mistake" in Gaza, Israel Continues to Attack Gaza as Palestinians Mark End of Ramadan, Lloyd Austin Denies Israel Is Commiting Genocide; About 50 Protesters Arrested on Capitol Hill, Turkey Restricts Exports to Israel to Protest Gaza Assault, Trump Loses 10th Attempt to Delay Hush Money Trial, Missouri Executes Brian Dorsey; 70 Prison Guards Pushed for His Life to Be Spared, Parents of Oxford High School Shooter Sentenced to Between 10-15 Years in Prison, NYC Reaches $28 Million Settlement over Hanging at Rikers Prison, Bodycam Video Shows Chicago Officers Fired Nearly 100 Shots at Dexter Reed During Fatal Shooting, Norfolk Southern Agrees to Pay $600 Million over East Palestine Derailment
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Apr 09, 2024
Rwanda is holding a week of commemorations to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, a period of around 100 days in which up to 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militias while powerful countries, including the United States, stood by and refused to stop the mass killings. Shortly after the genocide, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame took power and has since ruled Rwanda with an iron fist, leading a harsh crackdown on the press and opposition groups. We look back at the 1994 genocide and discuss the country's trajectory since then with two guests: Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch and now a visiting professor at Princeton, and Noël Zihabamwe, a survivor of the genocide whose parents were killed during the violence in 1994 and whose brothers were disappeared by the Kagame regime in 2019. Zihabamwe now lives in Australia and runs the African Australian Advocacy Center.
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Apr 09, 2024
Lawyers representing Germany at the International Court of Justice delivered their concluding remarks at The Hague today in a case brought by Nicaragua, which has accused Germany of facilitating the commission of genocide in Gaza by providing military and financial aid to Israel. Germany is Israel's second-largest arms supplier, and Nicaragua has asked the United Nations' top court for emergency measures to halt its material support to Israel. While the United States is the leading arms supplier to Israel, it "has a much more limited acceptance" of the ICJ's jurisdiction, according to our guest Kenneth Roth. A visiting professor at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and formerly the longtime executive director of Human Rights Watch, Roth details Nicaragua's case against Germany, as well as the U.S. government's stance toward Israel. Despite President Biden's public condemnation of the recent World Central Kitchen aid convoy attack and the "huge leverage" of ongoing U.S. military assistance, the administration's warnings to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are "empty words," says Roth. "Joe Biden never backs them up with consequences," and his reelection campaign is taking progressive voters for granted as domestic dissent grows in the lead-up to the 2024 election, Roth adds.
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Apr 09, 2024
Award-winning journalist Arwa Damon has just returned from a humanitarian trip to Gaza in her capacity as the founder of INARA, the International Network for Aid Relief and Assistance, a nonprofit currently providing medical and mental healthcare to children. Damon describes the overwhelming need for aid under Israel's siege of the territory. "Nothing goes in and out of Gaza without Israel's approval. That includes aid, and that includes people," she says, calling the Israeli military's rules for what is allowed in "illogical" and arbitrary. "The zone needs to be flooded, not only with aid … but also with humanitarian workers," concludes Damon. We also discuss the mental health crisis gripping the population, U.S. military assistance to Israel and how anti-Arab racism and fearmongering in Western media coverage has and hasn't changed in the post-9/11 era.
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Apr 09, 2024
Netanyahu Says Date for Rafah Invasion Has Been Set as Israel Continues Its Deadly Attacks, UNSC Considers Palestine Request for U.N. Membership; Germany Tells ICJ It Is Not Abetting Genocide, Elizabeth Warren, a Legal Expert, Admits Israel's Actions in Gaza Meet Definition of Genocide, "We Are Repulsed by Your Actions": New Irish Prime Minister Sends Message to Netanyahu, Iran Opens New Consulary Site in Damascus, Accuses U.S. of Greenlighting Israel's Attack, ACLU Warns Against UMich Censorship Policy over Palestinian Rights Activism, Trump Boasts Overturning Roe v. Wade But Backs State Authority Over Abortion, Panama Papers Trial Kicks Off 8 Years After Tax Evasion Scandal, Mozambique Shipwreck Kills Some 100 People, Including Children, Biden Announces New Student Debt Relief as He Campaigns in Wisconsin, European Rights Court Hands Win to Swiss Seniors, Defeat to Portuguese Youth in Historic Climate Cases, Brazil's Indigenous Communities Receive Gov't Apology; Literary Recognition for Aílton Krenak
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Apr 08, 2024
Three of the most significant greenhouse gases contributing to global heating — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — reached new record highs again last year, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Global CO2 levels are now over 50% higher than they were before mass industrialization, due to the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and livestock agriculture. Meanwhile, climate scientists continue to raise alarm over the catastrophic impacts of rising temperatures in Antarctica after researchers in 2022 recorded the largest hike in temperature ever measured in the coldest region on Earth. "All of these records that are being broken should be absolutely no surprise to the public," says NASA climate scientist Peter Kalmus, speaking with Democracy Now! in his personal capacity and not on behalf of the agency. "The cause is the fossil fuel industry. The only way out of this heat nightmare is to end the fossil fuel industry." Kalmus also discusses Monday's solar eclipse across much of North America, saying the celestial event should cause introspection about humanity's place in the universe and lead to better stewardship of the planet. "We live on a very fragile and beautiful rock in space, the only place we know in the cosmos to support life," he says.
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Apr 08, 2024
Walid Daqqa, one of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, has died from cancer. The novelist had spent the past 38 years locked up for his involvement with an armed group that abducted and killed an Israeli soldier in 1984. Rights groups had been pressuring Israel to release Daqqa, who had already finished serving his prison term, saying he was in dire need of medical attention. Last month Amnesty International called for his release, saying that since October 7, he had been tortured, humiliated and denied family visits. "Walid Daqqa suffered from medical negligence for years," says Palestinian politician Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. "The most inhuman behavior was the fact that they did not allow his wife and his daughter, his only daughter, to visit him since the 7th of October, and while knowing he was in terminal stage, just about to die."
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Apr 08, 2024
Israel's war on Gaza hit the six-month mark on Sunday, a grim milestone. Over 33,100 Palestinians have been killed, including 14,000 children. Nearly 76,000 have been injured, and tens of thousands are missing. About 1.7 million people have been displaced, and the United Nations is warning that famine is imminent. Meanwhile, Palestinians are returning to Khan Younis after the Israeli military announced it had withdrawn its ground troops from the area four months after invading it, leaving Gaza's second-largest city almost unrecognizable, with much of it turned to rubble. Israel is also still vowing to invade Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, which is sheltering more than half of Gaza's population. Speaking from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian physician and politician Dr. Mustafa Barghouti says growing outrage against Israel, including among some Western leaders, is largely due to regular people who have been protesting in solidarity with Palestinians. "We have to thank the people of these countries," says Barghouti. We also speak with writer Muhammad Shehada, chief of communications at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and a columnist at The Forward. He says the last six months have exposed the Israeli military's "complete disregard for human life," with routine evidence of summary executions, torture and other crimes that rarely get reported in corporate Western media. "They're not even trying to hide it," says Shehada.
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Apr 08, 2024
Palestinians Return to a Decimated Khan Younis as Hunger Grips Gaza, Death Toll Tops 31,000, "Al-Shifa Has Become a Graveyard": Video Reveals Complete Destruction of Gaza Hospital by Israel, Nicaragua Accuses Germany of Enabling Genocide in Gaza at World Court, 40 Democratic Lawmakers, Including Pelosi, Urge Biden to Halt Arms Transfers to Israel, Ceasefire Talks Continue in Cairo as Gaza Death Toll Mounts, Israelis Escalate Protests Against Benjamin Netanyahu, Prominent Palestinian Political Prisoner and Novelist Walid Daqqa Dies of Cancer, 20 Pomona College Students Arrested After Occupying President's Office, IAEA Warns Drone Attacks on Zaporizhzhia Could Lead to Nuclear Disaster, Biden to Host Japanese & Filipino Leaders as Nations Hold War Games in South China Sea, Mexico Cuts Diplomatic Ties with Ecuador After Raid on Mexican Embassy in Quito, "International Community Failed All of Us": Rwanda Marks 30 Years Since 1994 Genocide, Trump Raises $50M in Lavish Fundraiser as He Promises More Billionaire Tax Cuts If Reelected, Police Arrest Suspect in Act of Arson on Bernie Sanders's Vermont Office, FAA Probing Loss of Engine Cover During Takeoff on Southwest Airlines Boeing Aircraft, 6 New York Inmates Will View Eclipse from Prison Courtyard After Winning Case Against Lockdown
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Apr 05, 2024
We continue our conversation with Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham about the award-winning new documentary No Other Land, which he co-directed with Palestinian activist Basel Adra, about land dispossession in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank. While accepting the audience award for best documentary at the Berlinale, Abraham said Israel was practicing apartheid, a comment for which he later received death threats. "You have German politicians who are not Jewish who labeled me as an antisemite. For what? For calling for a ceasefire? For calling for equality between Israelis and Palestinians? For using the word 'apartheid,' which should be common sense to describe these parallel systems of inequality?" says Abraham, who calls for an end to the "apartheid reality" in Israel and Palestine. "If there is no full political equality and really full freedom to everybody who lives in this land, then there can be no future here. We are going to continue to fight to change this."
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Apr 05, 2024
The Israeli publications 972 and Local Call have exposed how the Israeli military used an artificial intelligence program known as Lavender to develop a "kill list" in Gaza that includes as many as 37,000 Palestinians who were targeted for assassination with little human oversight. A second AI system known as "Where's Daddy?" tracked Palestinians on the kill list and was purposely designed to help Israel target individuals when they were at home at night with their families. The targeting systems, combined with an "extremely permissive" bombing policy in the Israeli military, led to "entire Palestinian families being wiped out inside their houses," says Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist who broke the story after speaking with members of the Israeli military who were "shocked by committing atrocities." Abraham previously exposed Israel for using an AI system called "The Gospel" to intentionally destroy civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including apartment complexes, universities and banks, in an effort to exert "civil pressure" on Hamas. These artificial intelligence military systems are "a danger to humanity," says Abraham. "AI-based warfare allows people to escape accountability."
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Apr 05, 2024
Israel Says It Will Allow Aid in Gaza After U.S. Warns of Possible "Policy Change", Biden Continues to Funnel Arms to Israel Despite Killing of Aid Workers, Warning to Netanyahu, New Video Shows Israeli Military Killing Innocent Gazan Walking with Airdropped Aid Package, Euro-Med Says Israel Killed 563 People Around Aid Sites; Palestine Red Crescent Says 15 Staff Killed, "Kill Them, But Nicely": Gazans Condemn U.S. Hypocrisy as Israeli Bombs and Missiles Rain Down, HRW Says Israel's Oct. 31 Attack on 6-Story Apartment Building a Likely War Crime, "We Are All Complicit": Israeli Doctor Details Amputations, Inhumane Treatment of Gazan Detainees, Israeli Forces Fire Tear Gas on Worshipers at Al-Aqsa on Muslim Holy Day, Israel Escalates Threats Against Iran After Deadly Attack on Iranian Consulate in Syria, "No Business as Usual While Gaza Is Destroyed": Activists Blockade Lockheed Martin Facility in NorCal, Columbia Suspends 6 Students Amid Crackdown on Palestinian Solidarity Activism, Peruvian Congress Rejects Impeachment Attempt Against President Dina Boluarte, Supporters of Death Row Prisoner Brian Dorsey Make Bid to Save His Life Ahead of Planned Execution, Housing Activists Take Aim at Real Estate Board of New York for Blocking Good Cause Eviction Law, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Peace Activist & Advocate for Survivors of Church Sexual Abuse, Dies at 94
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Apr 04, 2024
Senegal has inaugurated the youngest elected president in Africa. Newly elected President Bassirou Diomaye Faye nominated Ousmane Sonko to be his prime minister this week, capping a remarkable three-week period that saw the two opposition figures go from prison to ruling Senegal, vowing to fight poverty, injustice and corruption. Faye and Sonko were released from prison in mid-March after previous President Macky Sall had attempted to delay the vote, sparking fears of an anti-democratic election process. Faye's ultimate triumph, running on a platform of pan-Africanism and reform, has been a cause for celebration among many Senegalese, including former Prime Minister Aminata Touré, who says "democracy prevailed," giving the country's younger generation a long-awaited opportunity to "shake up the system," adds the Senegalese lawyer and political analyst Ibrahima Kane. Both join the show from Senegal's capital Dakar.
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Apr 04, 2024
As the world reels from the World Central Kitchen attack in which seven aid workers in Gaza were struck and killed by three separate Israeli missiles while delivering aid for starving Palestinians, we speak with prominent Israeli scholar Neve Gordon about Israel's history of weaponizing food access in the Gaza Strip via the destruction of Palestinian agricultural land, labor restrictions and blockade, "controlling and managing the population through food insecurity." Neve Gordon is a professor of human rights law and author of multiple books on Israel's occupation of Palestine whose latest essay for The New York Review of Books is titled "The Road to Famine in Gaza." Now as aid deliveries dry up amid fears of further attacks on humanitarian workers, Gordon emphasizes that "Israel has been controlling the food basket and using it as a weapon since the beginning of the occupation until today."
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Apr 04, 2024
This week the White House canceled a planned Ramadan dinner after many Muslim American leaders refused to attend as the Biden administration indicates it plans to continue arming Israel. Instead, Biden held a scaled-back meeting Tuesday with Muslim American community figures. The curtailed meeting was itself met with protests, including from Palestinian American emergency room physician Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who walked out after handing Biden a letter from an 8-year-old orphaned Palestinian girl named Hadeel that read, "I beg you, President Biden, stop them from entering Rafah." Ahmad tells Democracy Now! that he also told Biden, "Make no mistake about it. It's going to be a bloodbath," before walking out. Ahmad is a board member for MedGlobal who recently spent three weeks in Gaza volunteering at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. He joins us today to discuss the meeting with Biden, in which Ahmad, the only Palestinian American in attendance, was told he and other attendees would be the first people who had actually been in Gaza after October 7 to directly brief the president. "This meeting was not going to be impactful," says Ahmad, who shares how Biden's continued backing of Israel, even after its attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy left an American citizen dead, indicates that "nobody is safe" in the Gaza Strip.
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Apr 04, 2024
José Andrés Condemns "Systematic Targeting" of World Central Kitchen Aid Workers, Israeli Military Uses AI to Target Palestinians for Assassination, Palestinians Search Ruins of Al-Shifa for Loved Ones After Israel Obliterates Hospital, Netanyahu's Main Rival Benny Gantz Calls for September Elections in Israel, U.K. Under Pressure to Halt Israeli Arms Sales; Spain to Recognize Palestinian Statehood by July, Russian Drones Kill 4 People in Kharkiv, Including Rescue Workers, Russian Court Sentences Pussy Riot Activist Pyotr Verzilov to 8 Years in Absentia, Turkey Restores Election Victory of Pro-Kurdish Mayoral Candidate Following Unrest, Kenya's Public Sector Doctors Enter Third Week on Strike, Zimbabwe Declares National Disaster over Drought; Philippines Schools Close Amid Extreme Heat Wave, New York Judge Overseeing Trump Hush Money Case Rejects Bid to Delay April 15 Trial, 109-Year-Old Survivors of Tulsa Race Massacre Appeal to Oklahoma Supreme Court in Reparations Case, Martin Luther King Jr. Was Assassinated 56 Years Ago, April 4, 1968
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Apr 03, 2024
As Benjamin Netanyahu faces mass protests at home and increasing diplomatic pressure abroad, we speak with Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and president of the U.S./Middle East Project. He says Netanyahu is desperate to save his political prospects, primarily by continuing the war on Gaza for as long as possible and undercutting ceasefire talks. "Prime Minister Netanyahu needs this war to continue and is willing and has already gone to extreme lengths to do so," says Levy, who faults the Biden administration for not applying any real pressure on him. "Stop telling me that Netanyahu is a problem. You're the problem, because you're the enabler, you're the facilitator."
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Apr 03, 2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel says he will "act immediately" to ban Al Jazeera in the country after the Knesset passed a law Monday that allows the government to shut down foreign news networks deemed to be threats to national security. Al Jazeera, one of the few outlets with local reporters in Gaza, denounced the move and said it was part of a pattern of Israeli attacks on the Qatar-based network, including targeting its journalists in Gaza since October 7 and the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank in 2022. For more, we speak with Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and president of the U.S./Middle East Project, who says Netanyahu's move to ban Al Jazeera is "red meat to his own base … in a situation in which the war is not going particularly well for Israel. He's looking for distractions."
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Apr 03, 2024
We speak with Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, about Israel's ongoing attacks against aid workers in the Gaza Strip. Israel has admitted it killed seven volunteers with World Central Kitchen on Monday after repeatedly bombing their clearly marked vehicle convoy, leading the humanitarian relief group to suspend its operations in Gaza and further restricting distribution of badly needed food amid a growing famine in the territory. Other aid groups have followed suit, citing the lack of safety. This comes after Israel had earlier banned UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, from bringing aid into northern Gaza, where the need is greatest. Egeland says even Israel's international backers need to rein in "a war machine out of control" that is causing so much death and destruction. "If you have a conflict where there is a world record in killing protected categories of personnel, then the law is broken to pieces. There's no other way to see it." He also calls for an end to international arms sales to Israel and resumed funding and support for UNRWA.
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Apr 03, 2024
We get an update on the crisis in Haiti, where deadly violence has continued to escalate between armed groups and police fighting for control of the capital Port-au-Prince. The country's political future remains unclear, with recently resigned Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is stranded outside of Haiti, raising questions this week over the constitutionality of a "transitional council" formed to serve as an interim governing body until elections are scheduled. Meanwhile, Canadian forces have been sent to Jamaica to train troops from Caribbean nations to join the U.N.-authorized mission to Haiti. Haitian American scholar Jemima Pierre says the transitional council is essentially a front for U.S. interests, and warns there will be "inevitable war crimes" if foreign troops are deployed to Haiti. "It's a terrible situation, but I think the idea that there's a Haitian-led solution coming is actually a false one," says Pierre. We are also joined by Kim Ives, editor of the English section of Haiti Liberté, who says Haiti is in the midst of a "revolutionary process," led by Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier. Ives says that far from being a gang leader, Chérizier has built a coalition to fight the criminal groups in the country and was central to the ouster of Ariel Henry. "You always have to demonize, criminalize the people's resistance, and that's what we're seeing today when they try to put all the armed groups of Haiti's popular classes into one bag called 'the gangs,'" says Ives.
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Apr 03, 2024
U.N. Chief: Israeli Attack on World Central Kitchen Aid Workers Is "Unconscionable", Biden "Outraged" over Aid Attack, But U.S. Claims Israel Hasn't Violated International Law, USAID Officials Privately Warn Biden That Gaza Famine Is "Unprecedented in Modern History", Israeli Police Fire Water Cannons at Anti-Netanyahu Protesters, Iran Urges U.N. to Take Action After Israeli Bombing of Iranian Consulate in Syria, "Uncommitted" Vote Movement Grows as Democratic Voters Voice Dismay over Biden's Gaza Policy, Palestinian American Doctor Walks Out of White House Ramadan Meeting with Biden, Senegal: Bassirou Diomaye Faye Inaugurated as President Weeks After Being Freed from Jail, Mayoral Candidate in Mexico Assassinated While Campaigning in Celaya, Taiwan Hit by Largest Earthquake in 25 Years, John Eastman Disbarred in California over Advising Trump on 2020 Coup Attempt, In BDS Victory, Pitzer College Ends Study Abroad Program with Israeli School
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Apr 02, 2024
Iran has vowed to retaliate after Israel bombed the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing at least seven people, including three senior Iranian commanders and at least four other Iranian officers. Among the dead is senior commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the highest-ranking Iranian military officer to be killed since the U.S. assassinated General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020. While Israel sees strikes on foreign soil as "part of their self-defense strategy," Iran feels it must respond to this "breaching serious diplomatic norms," says Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost, who reports the pace and audacity of Israel's international attacks have escalated since October. "While Israel is receiving huge amounts of American support, while Gaza is suffering and Israel is pummeling that Strip, we now see them risking a two-front war, maybe a three-front war."
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Apr 02, 2024
Democracy Now! speaks with an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Air Force on hunger strike to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Senior Airman Larry Hebert is on day three of his hunger strike outside the White House, where he has been holding a sign that reads "Active Duty Airman Refuses to Eat While Gaza Starves." "It's just completely wrong and immoral for civilians to be starved and bombed and targeted in any manner," says Hebert. "I'm hoping that other active-duty members will be more public with their concern over the atrocities happening in Gaza." Hebert was inspired by the actions of Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., in February to demand a Gaza ceasefire. "What really infuriated me was the silence thereafter. … I don't know a single member of our government or leaders in the military that really spoke on Aaron, even uttered his name," says Hebert, who is now looking to leave the military after learning more about U.S. foreign policy. "I can't see myself continuing service."
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Apr 02, 2024
The Washington Post reports the Biden administration has recently authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel. The arms package includes more than 1,800 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, which can be used to level entire city blocks. The U.S. is also sending 500 MK-82 500-pound bombs and 25 F-35 fighter jets. "It has been doing this on a weekly basis since the conflict began, just an open tab of arms," says Josh Paul, former State Department official who worked on arms transfers before resigning in October to protest increasing arms sales to Israel. "These are the arms that Israel is using to kill not only thousands of civilians but hundreds of aid workers, as well."
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Apr 02, 2024
Israel is facing global condemnation after killing several international aid workers in Gaza. The workers with charity group World Central Kitchen were killed by an Israeli airstrike after unloading more than 100 tons of food aid carried by ship from Cyprus into Gaza. The charity staff, including three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national and an American-Canadian dual citizen, and their Palestinian driver were struck while traveling in a clearly marked convoy branded with the charity's logo. World Central Kitchen said the attack occurred after the workers left a warehouse in Deir al-Balah, even though the charity had coordinated in advance about the convoy with the Israeli military. "Every single humanitarian aid worker … is already recognized by the Israeli army," says journalist Akram al-Satarri, reporting live from Rafah. "It's the full responsibility of the Israeli government now to clarify and … demystify the circumstances that led to that catastrophic incident." Al-Satarri also reports on Israel's move to ban the outlet Al Jazeera and on his experience living in Gaza right now, where food and medical supplies are scarce under Israel's strict blockade. "The famine is not looming. The famine is already taking place."
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Apr 02, 2024
World Central Kitchen Suspends Aid Operations After Israeli Airstrike Kills 7 of Its Workers, Biden Admin Could Send Another $18M in Arms to Israel Despite Mounting Deaths, Public Opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu Plans to Ban Al Jazeera, One of the Few Major Outlets Reporting Inside Gaza, Tehran Vows Revenge After Israeli Attack in Syria Kills 7 Iranian Officials, Incl. Top Commander, Primary Voters Urged to Protest Biden Support for War on Gaza at the Ballot Box, Florida's Top Court Approves 6-Week Abortion Ban But Offers Hope with Abortion Ballot Measure, Germany Decriminalizes Cannabis for Personal Use, Armed Violence Claims More Lives in Haiti Amid Stalled Leadership Talks, NY Judge Expands Trump Gag Order as Ex-President Pays $175M Bond in Civil Fraud Case, Izzy Award Honors In These Times, Mohammed El-Kurd, Lynzy Billing, Trina Reynolds-Tyler, Sarah Conway
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Apr 01, 2024
On Sunday, tens of thousands rallied across Israel calling for the return of hostages and the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the largest nationwide protests since the October 7 attacks. From Tel Aviv, we're joined by Oren Ziv, a reporter and photographer for 972 Magazine who has been covering the Israeli protests. Ziv says the majority of Israelis generally support the war on Gaza but are increasingly turning against Netanyahu's far-right government, whose refusal to entertain a ceasefire is seen as an obstacle to the return of Israeli hostages.
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Apr 01, 2024
As Christians around the world celebrated Easter Sunday, Palestinian Christians from the occupied West Bank were prevented from reaching Jerusalem for Good Friday to walk the Via Dolorosa, the path Jesus is said to have followed on the way to his crucifixion more than 2,000 years ago. Meanwhile, Jesus's birthplace of Bethlehem is uncharacteristically empty of tourists this year as Israel's assault on Gaza and crackdown on the West Bank escalate. "Nothing can wash the blood from your hands," said the Reverend Munther Isaac at an Easter vigil for Gaza on Saturday, about Western complicity in Israel's genocide of Palestinians. Isaac is a Palestinian Christian theologian and the pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. He joins Democracy Now! to discuss the history of Palestinian Christians in Gaza, Israel's occupation of Bethlehem and its strangling of freedoms in the West Bank, U.S. Christians' support of Israel and more.
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Apr 01, 2024
Israeli forces withdrew from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City today after a two-week raid that has left most of the medical complex in ruins. Since October, Gaza's health sector has been completely decimated, leaving only a dozen hospitals partially functional as the entire medical infrastructure is relentlessly shelled, besieged and raided. We speak to British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who spent over a month treating patients at Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist hospitals. He pays tribute to Dr. Ahmad Maqadmeh, a fellow surgeon who was found killed today alongside his mother at Al-Shifa. "I blame the Western journalists, who perpetuated the narrative that militarized the hospital as a justifiable and acceptable target," says Abu-Sittah about Maqadmeh's death. "This was a war Israel declared on Palestinian children," he later concludes, "because Palestinian children represent the Palestinian tomorrow that is incompatible with the Zionist settler-colonial project." Plus, we hear from a trauma surgeon currently volunteering at the European Hospital in Khan Younis. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa describes the scene at the hospital as a squalid shelter for thousands of refugees. "There's no privacy, no dignity for any of these people," he says.
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Apr 01, 2024
Israel Ends Siege on Al-Shifa Hospital After Killing More Than 400 Palestinians, Israeli Airstrike on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital Kills Four; Injured Include Seven Journalists, Israel Creates "Kill Zones" in Gaza Where Soldiers Are Ordered to Shoot and Kill Everyone, Biden Admin Authorizes Billions of Dollars in New Bombs & Fighter Jets for Israel, Mass Protests in Israel Call for Ceasefire & Removal of Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Land Day Protests Held Across Globe, Smith College Students Continue Occupation Calling for School to Divest From Weapons Manufacturers, Pope Francis Repeats Call for Ceasefire in Gaza, Rep. Walberg (R-MI) Calls for Gaza to Be Bombed "Like Nagasaki and Hiroshima", Blast Injures Three U.N. Military Observers & Translator in Lebanon, Trump Posts Video of a Hogtied Biden, Continues to Verbally Attack New York Judge's Daughter, Recep Tayyip Erdogan Suffers Major Blow as Turkish Cities Vote for Opposition Party Mayors, Peruvian Police Raid President Dina Boluarte's Home Amid "Rolexgate" Investigation, Transgender Day of Visibility Sees Rallies, Celebrations, and GOP Attacks, Eight Chinese Migrants Found Dead on Mexican Beach After Boat Capsizes, California Fast-Food Workers Are Now Making at Least $20/Hour, Louis Gossett Jr., First Black Actor to Win Best Supporting Actor Oscar, Dies at 87
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Mar 29, 2024
Republicans are on a "crusade" against responsible investing, says Andrew Behar, CEO of the nonprofit group As You Sow that promotes corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy. His group was subpoenaed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this week as Republicans probe whether investments that take into account environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns violate antitrust laws. Republicans have introduced bills in dozens of states across the U.S. to limit state bodies from working with banks and other financial firms that take things like climate change into consideration in their investments. ESG is "a framework for assessing risk," Behar says. "Basic good business says you want to assess and address risk, and that's what they're trying to suppress."
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Mar 29, 2024
As the death toll in Gaza tops 32,600, we speak with UNICEF spokesperson James Elder in Rafah near the Egyptian border, now home to some 1.5 million Palestinians seeking shelter from the fighting. He says Israel's continued obstruction of aid into the territory is a "man-made and preventable" crisis of hunger and acute malnutrition that could be ended if Israel just opened access to more aid trucks, especially in northern Gaza, where desperate people could be reached in as little as 10 minutes. "When I'm on the street, every person, the first thing they want to tell me in English or Arabic is 'We need food, we need food,'" Elder tells Democracy Now! "They are saying that because their assumption is the world doesn't know, because how would this be allowed to happen if the world knew?" He also reiterates UNICEF's call for a full ceasefire and warns against Israel's planned ground invasion of Rafah, which he describes as "a city of children."
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Mar 29, 2024
Pro-Palestine protesters disrupted the largest one-night fundraiser in presidential campaign history on Thursday. The event at Radio City Music Hall in New York City included numerous celebrities and featured President Biden alongside former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, raising a record $25 million for Biden's reelection campaign. The main event was an onstage conversation with the three U.S. presidents moderated by late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert, but people began disrupting it just 10 minutes into their conversation, as Biden was talking, with protesters calling on the president to stop arming Israel and to enforce a ceasefire in Gaza. Meanwhile, thousands of protesters were also massed outside the venue to protest the Biden administration's support for Israel's assault on Gaza. We play voices from inside and outside the event.
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Mar 29, 2024
Search and rescue teams have recovered the bodies of two men from the Patapsco River following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, but four others remain missing and are presumed dead. All six victims were immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, part of a road crew that was filling potholes on the bridge when a cargo ship ran into one of the bridge supports, causing the entire structure to drop into the water. "The construction workers are absolutely essential," says Gustavo Torres, executive director of the immigrant rights group CASA, which counted two of the victims as members. "Immigrants face higher injury and death rates … than nonimmigrants, and they are significantly less likely to have insurance." He says the disaster has highlighted the difficult, often dangerous work done by immigrants in communities across the United States, and calls on political leaders to stop dehumanizing rhetoric. "What we need right now is comprehensive immigration reform. We don't need more attacks against the immigrant community."
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Mar 29, 2024
ICJ Orders Israel to Allow "Unhindered" Aid into Gaza in New Order as Starvation Deaths Mount, Reports: Israeli Airstrikes on Hezbollah Targets in Syria Kill 40 People, Including Civilians, Hebrew University Reinstates Palestinian Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian Following Outcry, "Let Gaza Live!": Activists Disrupt Glitzy Biden Fundraiser with Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Activist Vivien Sansour Highlights Destruction of Gaza's Soil, Trees Since War, South Carolina, Florida Will Vote in Racially Gerrymandered Districts in November, Texas Acquits Crystal Mason, Who Faced 5-Year Sentence, Legal Nightmare for Voting Error, Biden Administration Restores Endangered Species Act Protections Stripped by Trump, FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years for Defrauding Customers, Judge Dismisses Elon Musk Lawsuit Against Center for Countering Digital Hate, Colombia Expels Argentine Diplomats After Far-Right President Javier Milei Insults Leftist Leaders, Outrage After Saudi Arabia Named as Chair of U.N. Commission on the Status of Women
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Mar 28, 2024
Despite a U.N.-backed report sounding the alarm on imminent famine in northern Gaza, Israeli authorities announced Sunday they will no longer approve the passage of any UNRWA food convoys into northern Gaza. "Our ability to adequately continue saving lives is really being obstructed," says UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai. "What's going to happen to UNRWA if we can no longer truly operate?" The decision came as President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion appropriations bill that strips funding to UNRWA for the next year. The U.S. first suspended aid to UNRWA in late January, when the Israeli government claimed 12 of the agency's 30,000 employees were involved in Hamas's attacks on October 7. The unsubstantiated allegation prompted top donors to cut funding to UNRWA, though many of them have resumed funding as the agency welcomes new donor countries and an unprecedented number of civil society donations. Seeing the U.S., the agency's largest donor, "withhold funding … is a huge blow to us," says Alrifai. "Stripping UNRWA of funding not only shrinks its ability to respond to the looming famine in Gaza, but also puts at risk the schools, the access of kids to proper education, the vaccines, the mother and child care — everything across the region."
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Mar 28, 2024
A State Department official working on human rights issues in the Middle East resigned Wednesday in protest of U.S. support for Israel's assault on Gaza. Annelle Sheline, who worked as a foreign affairs officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, was not planning on publicly resigning, but her colleagues asked her to "please speak out" against the Biden administration's unconditional support for Israel. "At the end of the day, many people inside [the State Department] know that this is a horrific policy, and can't believe that the United States government is engaged in such actions that contravene American values so directly, but the leadership is not listening," says Sheline. "I'm trying to speak on behalf of those many, many people who feel so betrayed by our government's stance." Sheline describes being moved by the words of Aaron Bushnell, the active-duty U.S. airman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in protest of the war on Gaza, who implored everyone to take a stand against genocide. "I have a young daughter, and I thought about, in the future, if she were to ask me, 'What were you doing when this was happening? You were at the State Department.' I want to be able to tell her that I didn't stay silent."
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Mar 28, 2024
Almost six months into Israel's assault, Gaza's health sector has been completely decimated. Before October 7, Gaza had 36 hospitals. Now only two are minimally functional, and 10 are partially functional, according to the United Nations. The rest have shut down completely after either being shelled, besieged and raided by Israeli troops, or running out of fuel and medicine. Israel's assault has killed over 32,500 Palestinians, including over 14,000 children, and wounded nearly 75,000. We speak with Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician who just spent two weeks volunteering and living at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza, about what she witnessed and the conditions of healthcare in the beleaguered and devastated territory. "This is not a humanitarian crisis. This is the worst of what humanity is capable of, and it's entirely all man-made," says Haj-Hassan. "This is an utter and complete failure of humanity, and, to be frank, I feel ashamed to be an American citizen. I feel ashamed to be part of a society that has allowed this to continue."
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Mar 28, 2024
Video Shows Israeli Forces Shooting and Bulldozing Two Gazan Civilians as One Was Waving White Flag, Israeli Siege on Al-Shifa Hospital Continues: Journalist, at Least 13 Children Among Those Killed, Israel Kills Four Palestinians in Raid on Jenin in Occupied West Bank, Another State Dept. Official Makes Public Exit to Protest U.S. Support for Israeli Genocide, "A Dangerous Precedent in U.S. Foreign Policy": Center for American Progress Blasts State Dept., Ireland to Intervene in South Africa's Genocide Case at ICJ; Protests Continue in Amman, Jordan, 2 Bodies Recovered from Baltimore Bridge Collapse; 4 Others Presumed Dead, Alabama Democrat Flips State Seat After Running on Abortion Rights, IVF Access, Court Upholds Undated Ballots Law in PA; MT Supreme Court Strikes Down GOP Voter Suppression Laws, White Supremacists Who Murdered Ahmaud Arbery Ask Court to Overturn Federal Hate Crime Convictions, Trump Lashes Out at Judge Hours After He Imposed Gag Order on Ex-President, Joe Lieberman Dies, Leaves Behind Legacy of Championing War on Iraq, Blocking Healthcare Access, Phoenix Approves Measure to Protect Workers from Extreme Heat as Florida Blocks Similar Efforts, Argentina Convicts 11 Ex-Officials for Disappearances, Torture, Murders During Military Dictatorship, Indonesia Arrests 13 Soldiers over Torture Death in West Papua, Death Toll in Moscow Terror Attack Reaches 143 as Immigrant Communities Report Spike in Attacks, U.N. Secretary-General Guterres Calls for Slavery Reparations
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Mar 27, 2024
An immigration battle continues on the border between Texas and Mexico, as Texas's state government increases its militarization of the region, deploying hundreds of National Guard troops and constructing new infrastructure on the border. Meanwhile, a new federal spending bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden has increased funding for ICE and CBP, and state and federal courts have been wrangling over the legality of SB4, a new Texas state law that gives local police sweeping powers to arrest and deport anyone they suspect has entered the United States without authorization. We hear more from Fernando García, founder and executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights, in El Paso. García says the influx of special forces with "no training with how to deal with a civilian population," alongside the "show me your papers'' atmosphere created by SB4, is increasing the daily violence faced by Latinx residents on the U.S. side of the border, all while "illegally impeding" the right to seek asylum by those in "desperate" straits on the Mexico side. Instead of capitulating to anti-immigrant politicians, he continues, "We needed for the federal government to stop Texas, stop the governor" from targeting "Latinos, people of color, migrants and people looking for asylum, for protection."
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Mar 27, 2024
Six people are missing and presumed dead after a 984-foot cargo ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing the bridge's collapse early Tuesday morning. All six have been identified as immigrant construction workers originally hailing from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Maryland Governor Wes Moore said the crew on the ship was able to issue an emergency mayday call before colliding with the bridge, which allowed authorities to stop incoming traffic and prevent more casualties. However, reports say the workers already on the bridge were not given similar warnings. "The question we should be asking about is why the folks on that bridge … had no direct line to emergency dispatch when they are clearly working in a potentially hazardous environment," says journalist Maximillian Alvarez, the editor-in-chief of the Baltimore-based organization The Real News Network, who has been closely following the story and how it has affected immigrant and working-class communities. "What does this story actually show us? That immigrants are filling our potholes at night so that we can have a smooth drive to work in the morning," Alvarez says. "I hope people can see this and see the humanity in us."
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Mar 27, 2024
Democratic Arizona state Senator Eva Burch made headlines last week after speaking on the floor of the state Senate about her plans to obtain an abortion after receiving news that her pregnancy was nonviable. Arizona has banned all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. "I felt like it was really important for me to bring people along, so that people could really see what this looks like," says Burch, a former nurse practitioner who worked at a women's health clinic before running for office, about why she decided to publicly tell her story. "I wanted to pull people into the conversation so we can be more honest about what abortion care looks like" and "hopefully move the needle in the right direction," she adds.
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Mar 27, 2024
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday on the abortion pill mifepristone, which is available by mail and can be taken at home, even in states that have severely limited or banned abortions. The case was brought by a group of anti-choice medical associations that have sought to overturn moves by the Food and Drug Administration to increase access to the drug, which is used for roughly two-thirds of all U.S. abortions. This was the first abortion-related Supreme Court hearing since the court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. A decision is expected by July. "Overall the justices showed that they were skeptical of the claims brought by the plaintiffs in this case," says Michele Goodwin, a law professor at Georgetown University and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy. Goodwin summarizes the arguments presented by both sides, the justices' responses and the legal implications of the upcoming ruling.
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Mar 27, 2024
Supreme Court Appears Poised to Preserve Access to Abortion Pill Mifepristone, UNICEF: "Paper Thin" Children Dying in Gaza of Malnutrition and Dehydration, U.N. Special Rapporteur Outlines How Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza, Report: 69% of Israeli Arms Imports Come from United States, U.S. State Dept.: We Have Not Found Israel to Be Violating International Law in Gaza, "They Have a Point": Biden Responds to Pro-Palestinian Protesters, Israeli Airstrike on Lebanese Health Center Kills Seven Paramedics, Six Immigrant Construction Workers Still Missing After Baltimore Bridge Collapse, Russian Court Extends Detention of Evan Gershkovich, Police in India Detain Dozens of Protesters as Pre-election Crackdown Grows, NY Judge Issues Gag Order on Trump Ahead of Hush Money Trial, NBC Cuts Ties with Ex-RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel After Staff Protests, RFK Jr. Taps Nicole Shanahan to Be Running Mate, Homes of Sean "Diddy" Combs Raided in Federal Sex Trafficking Probe
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Mar 26, 2024
We look at Donald Trump's ongoing legal battles with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston, who has been covering Trump since the 1980s. The next major case against Trump is his hush money trial, set to begin April 15, in which he is accused of falsifying business records to cover up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an extramarital affair quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign. This comes as Trump is on the hook to produce $175 million to cover a civil fraud judgment in New York, where his bond was originally set at $454 million. Other cases against Trump, including over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents after he left office, are still ongoing. "Donald Trump has committed serious criminal acts his whole life, and … he's finally being held to account," says Johnston.
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Mar 26, 2024
We speak with former top U.N. human rights official Craig Mokhiber after the Security Council voted Monday on a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all remaining hostages. The United States abstained from the vote, allowing it to pass after nearly six months of obstructing similar efforts at the Security Council. Mokhiber, who resigned in October over the U.N.'s failure to address rights violations in Israel-Palestine, says "Israel has the world record" for violating U.N. resolutions and is certain to violate this ceasefire resolution, as well, even though it expressed "the very broad consensus across the global community against Israel's onslaught on Gaza." Israel continued bombing Gaza after Monday's vote, and top Israeli leaders have vowed to continue the war that has killed over 32,000 Palestinians so far. "What this genocide has done is it has revealed the weaknesses, the political compromises, the moral failings of the United Nations and other international institutions," says Mokhiber, who adds that continued pressure from civil society is needed to end the bloodshed.
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Mar 26, 2024
Former U.K. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn reacts to the United Nations Security Council's resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which passed 14-0 on Monday after the United States declined to use its veto by abstaining from the vote. Corbyn calls the war and suffering in Gaza "a global disgrace" and says the ceasefire must be enforced. "It's time to stand with the Palestinian people."
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Mar 26, 2024
The British High Court in London has put the extradition of Julian Assange on hold until the United States provides assurances that he would get a fair trial in the U.S. without facing the death penalty. If those assurances are not met, Assange will be granted the right to a full appeal hearing. Speaking outside the court Tuesday, Stella Assange called for the Biden administration to "drop this shameful case" against her husband. "Julian should never have been imprisoned for a single day," she said. We speak with MP Jeremy Corbyn, who led the U.K. Labour Party from 2015 to 2020 and who has been calling for all charges against Assange to be dropped. "The pressure needs to now go on to the Biden administration," Corbyn says. "If Julian goes down for this, every serious journalist around the world is going to be slightly more cautious about exposing war crimes, about exposing corporate greed."
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Mar 26, 2024
U.K. High Court Delays Possible Extradition of Julian Assange Until U.S. Provides "Assurances", UNSC Approves Its First Gaza Ceasefire Resolution Ater U.S. Abstains, Israeli Attack on Rafah Home Kills at Least 18 People, Half of Them Children, U.N.-Commissioned Report Lays Out Evidence of Israeli Genocide in Gaza, Baltimore Bridge Collapse Plunges Vehicles into Freezing River; Officials Warn of "Mass Casualties", Bassirou Diomaye Faye Clinches Senegalese Presidency, Vows to Fight Corruption and Inequality, Ecuador's Youngest Mayor Brigitte García Killed in Targeted Shooting, NBC News Faces Backlash After Hiring Former RNC Chair, Election Denier Ronna McDaniel, Trump's Bond in Civil Fraud Case Lowered to $175M as Judge Sets April 15 Date for Hush Money Trial, SCOTUS Hearing Arguments in Case That Could Restrict Nationwide Access to Abortion Pill, NYC Home Health Aides End Hunger Strike, Vow to Continue Fighting for an End to 24-Hour Workdays
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Mar 25, 2024
Sudan is on track to become the world's worst hunger crisis, according to the United Nations. For over a year, fighting between the Sudanese military and the rival Rapid Support Forces has disrupted the country, displacing over 8 million people who experience extreme hunger in the areas with the most intense fighting. The increasing demand comes as the U.N.'s appeal for $2.7 billion for Sudan is less than 5% funded. Funding is also drying up in Chad, where some 1.2 million Sudanese have taken refuge. "This is the largest sort of mass mortality crisis that we are facing in the world and the largest that we have probably faced for many decades," says Alex de Waal, the author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine, who laments the "shocking" cuts to the World Food Programme that is essential to the global emergency response system. "If it doesn't work, we are going to find ourselves facing the kinds of crises of mass mortality that we have simply not seen for half a century or longer."
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Mar 25, 2024
In Gaza, millions of Palestinians are starving after five months of U.S.-backed attacks by Israel, while Israel continues to prevent the delivery of essential provisions. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on social media, "This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity." The head of the World Health Organization says children in Gaza are already dying of malnutrition. "This is fundamentally a political crisis," says Alex de Waal, the author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine, who explains that even with a ceasefire and humanitarian aid, "a crisis like this cannot be stopped overnight," and that "This will be a calamity that will be felt for generations."
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Mar 25, 2024
ISIS-K, an affiliate of the Islamic State, has claimed responsibility for an attack on a popular concert hall in Moscow that killed at least 137. Authorities say gunmen opened fire inside the Crocus City Hall building during a sold-out rock concert and then set part of the venue on fire. More than 100 people were injured in the attack, and many remain in critical condition. Authorities have detained 11 suspects, four of whom, all reportedly citizens of Tajikistan, are charged with terrorism and face life sentences. As more details emerge about the attack, we speak with professor of international affairs at The New School Nina Khrushcheva about the history of Muslim fundamentalist attacks in Russia and Putin's "unfortunate" decision to ignore Western intelligence warnings about terrorist attacks. We're also joined by longtime Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker Joshua Yaffa, who details possible motivations for ISIS-K and how Putin is attempting to fit this attack into his narrative opposing Ukraine and the West. "First and foremost, he cares about preserving his own power and the continued stability of his ruling system," says Yaffa, who explains how Putin tries to control political blowback by equating ISIS-K with any group he opposes, including Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption network and the so-called worldwide LGBT movement. "This is important to understand both in trying to determine how this attack happened in the first place and also what might Putin's response be moving forward."
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Mar 25, 2024
At Least 137 People Killed in ISIS-Claimed Attack on Moscow Concert Hall, Israel Continues to Starve Gaza, Blocking Food Aid as It Escalates Attack on Gaza's Ailing Hospitals, Kamala Harris Warns Against Israeli Invasion of Rafah, Does Not Rule Out "Consequences" from U.S., China, Russia Veto U.S.'s "Ambiguous" Conditional Ceasefire Resolution at U.N. Security Council, Bernie Sanders, AOC Among Lawmakers Who Opposed $1.2 Trillion Spending Bill over Defunding of UNRWA, Gaza Solidarity Protests Fill Streets of Dublin, Santiago and Other Large Cities, Activists Protest Metropolitan Museum's Complicity in Israel's War and Occupation of Palestine, Senegalese Opposition Candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye Leads Early Election Results, Russian and Ukrainian Attacks Hit Energy and Oil Targets, 150 Kidnapped School Children Rescued in Northwestern Nigeria, Brazilian Police Arrest Suspected Masterminds of Marielle Franco's Assassination, Trump's Assets Could Be Imminently Seized by NY Attorney General Letitia James, Congress: Another GOP Rep. Quits; Tammy Murphy Exits NJ Senate Race; MJT Wants to Oust Mike Johnson
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Mar 22, 2024
In Mississippi, six former sheriff's deputies have been sentenced to between 10 and 40 years in prison for raiding a home and torturing, shooting and sexually abusing two Black men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, in January 2023. The six former deputies, all of whom are white, called themselves the "Goon Squad" and have been linked to at least four violent attacks on Black men since 2019. Two of the men attacked and tortured by the group subsequently died. To discuss the case and the verdict, we're joined by Eddie Parker and attorneys Malik Shabazz and Trent Walker. "Never have we seen this many police officers sentenced to this kind of time in one week," says Shabazz, who calls the verdict "historic." Jenkins, Parker and Shabazz are currently suing the Rankin County Sheriff's Department over its track record of civil rights violations and racist targeting of Black residents.
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Mar 22, 2024
As Israel continues its relentless assault on Gaza, causing mass famine, injury and death, we get an update on the malnutrition and mental health crises in Gaza from Dr. Nahreen Ahmed, a pulmonary and critical care doctor and the medical director of the humanitarian aid group MedGlobal. She is recently back from a two-week volunteer trip to Gaza, where she says these crises are growing so rapidly "that even if aid was increased tomorrow, we would still be in a severe situation where the amount of food would not be enough in the immediate term." It is a "horrific experience for all involved," she concludes.
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Mar 22, 2024
At the U.N. Security Council, China and Russia have vetoed a U.S. draft resolution on the war in Gaza. The U.S. resolution appeared to call for a ceasefire, but it was written in a way to make the resolution unenforceable. Our guest Phyllis Bennis says this was mere "wordplay" and a "convoluted" attempt by the Biden administration to play both sides, as it comes under increasing internal and external criticism over its close relationship with Israel. Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and an international adviser to Jewish Voice for Peace. She has written several books on U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East. When it comes to dissent over U.S. support of Israel, "the pressure is mounting in ways that I've certainly never seen," she says, adding that it's imperative for the public to continue pushing for more action, as "it's crucial that the weapons sales be cut" and a real ceasefire be reached immediately.
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Mar 22, 2024
Al-Shifa Evacuees Describe Terror of Israeli Attack on Besieged Hospital, Video Shows Israeli Forces Targeting and Killing Group of Unarmed Gazans, Antony Blinken Meets Netanyahu in Tel Aviv as He Acknowledges Severe Hunger Crisis in Gaza, Dozens of Ex-U.S. Officials Warn Biden Against Enabling Israeli Abuses in Occupied West Bank, Sudan Could Soon Become the World's Worst Hunger Crisis, Biden Admin Urged to Halt Haiti Deportations as Deadly Unrest Continues, 70 Rohingya Refugees Could Be Dead After Boat Capsizes Off Aceh Coast, France Pushes Law to Curb Devastating Impacts of Fast Fashion, Russian Strikes Kill 3 People, Cut Off Power for 1 Million Ukrainians, DOJ Files Major Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple, New Florida Law Bans Unhoused People from Sleeping in Public Spaces, Home Health Aides in NYC Go on Hunger Strike to Demand End to 24-Hour Workdays, Georgia GOP Moves to Punish Employers Who Voluntarily Recognize Unions, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Reintroduce Green New Deal for Public Housing Act
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Mar 21, 2024
A new report by the research group Forensic Architecture counters Israel's argument at the International Court of Justice that it followed humanitarian policies to safeguard civilian life in Gaza. South Africa argued in January before the ICJ that Israel was guilty of genocide during its war on Gaza. The report argues that what Israel says are humanitarian evacuations in Gaza actually amount to the forced displacement of Palestinians, which is a war crime. It found that since October 7, Israel has issued imprecise and sometimes contradictory evacuation orders, attacked people even in so-called safe zones and evacuation routes, and failed to provide the necessities of life for those civilians, all while pushing the population further and further south into areas that are then also attacked or evacuated at a later time. "We cannot see it as anything else but part of the genocidal campaign," says Forensic Architecture director Eyal Weizman, who accuses Israel of using humanitarian principles as yet another weapon against Palestinians in Gaza. He says Israel's objective is to "exercise pain on the civilian population" in order to deter "ongoing resistance to the Israeli occupation."
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Mar 21, 2024
We speak with British surgeon Dr. Nick Maynard, who recently led an emergency medical team at Gaza's Al-Aqsa Hospital, about Israel's ongoing attacks on healthcare infrastructure and the worsening humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory, where Israel's brutal assault has killed about 32,000 Palestinians since October 7. Maynard is part of a group of international doctors with experience in Gaza who met with officials at the United Nations and in Washington, D.C., this week to express alarm over civilian suffering. Medical workers in Gaza are "working under extremely challenging conditions with a huge lack of resources and working in a healthcare system that is being systematically dismantled by the attacks on it," he tells Democracy Now! "It's very, very clear to all of us who have been on the ground in Gaza that the only way to try and stop this humanitarian catastrophe is for an immediate ceasefire."
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Mar 21, 2024
Israeli's Assault on Al-Shifa Hospital Enters 4th Day, Attacks Continue Throughout Gaza Strip, U.S. Submits Ceasefire Resolution to UNSC; Netanyahu Tells GOP Israel Will Continue Attacking Gaza, Lawmakers Pushing to Cut Off U.S. Funding for UNRWA for Another Year Amid Soaring Hunger in Gaza, "Completely Contrary to Human Rights": AMLO Blasts Texas's SB4, Says Mexico Will not Accept Deportees, Georgia Executes Prisoner Willie Pye After 4-Year Pause in Capital Punishment, Two More "Goon Squad" Officers Sentenced to 40 and 17.5 Years for Torture of Two Black Men, Assange's Lawyers Say No Deal on the Table After WSJ Reports DOJ Could Offer Plea Agreement, Irish Leader Leo Varadkar Resigns: "The Time Has Come to Pass on the Baton", Hong Kong Passes New Hard-Line National Security Law, Further Aligning Territory with Beijing, Indonesian Election Authority Confirms Presidential Election Victory for Prabowo Subianto, EPA Announces New Limits on Tailpipe Emissions in Push to Transition to Electric Vehicles, Biden Administration Cancels Another $6 Billion in Federal Student loans, GOP Impeachment Campaign Against Biden Losing Steam as Even Conservative Support Wanes
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Mar 20, 2024
Building on an unprecedented wave of settler violence in 2023, Israeli attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have intensified since October 7, with over 400 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and settlers over the past five months. Last week, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on three Israeli settlers and two Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank for assaulting, harassing and threatening Palestinians, and violently expelling many from their land. Investigative journalist Shane Bauer traveled to the territory to map out the violence against Palestinians that has escalated since October 7, and visited the illegal outposts of "two very dangerous men" targeted by the sanctions: Neria Ben-Pazi and Moshe Sharvit. "The elephant in the room here is that [Moshe Sharvit], along with Neria Ben-Pazi, is supported by the state of Israel directly," says Bauer. "According to the language of the sanctions, that would mean that the State of Israel itself and all the various organizations that are supporting him should themselves be sanctioned, but of course they haven't been." Bauer describes how "the line between settlers and the army virtually disappeared after October 7," as far-right Israeli cabinet members push for "a formalization of apartheid," in the West Bank.
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Mar 20, 2024
We speak with Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland about the U.S. response to Israel's brutal offensive on Gaza, which has killed over 32,000 Palestinians. Van Hollen expresses "strong frustration with the Biden administration," which "needs to do a lot more" to hold Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accountable. Defying Biden's warnings against a full-scale ground operation in Rafah, Netanyahu continues to promise an invasion of the city, where 1.4 million forcibly displaced people from across Gaza are sheltering. "At the end of the day, Prime Minister Netanyahu simply ignores the president of the United States, and so we need to do more to make Netanyahu accountable for our requests," says Van Hollen, who warns Biden against "getting dragged into the planning of a Rafah invasion" and becoming "complicit in Netanyahu's actions." The senator also discusses U.S. funding of UNRWA and Israeli leaders blocking aid for Gaza. "For goodness' sakes, lift the restrictions that are in place that are creating this humanitarian disaster in Gaza."
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Mar 20, 2024
Appeals Court Puts Texas Anti-Immigrant SB4 on Hold for Now, WHO Warns Infants in Gaza on the "Brink of Death" as Israel Keeps Limiting Aid Deliveries, Israel Kills Dozens in Ongoing Raid on Al-Shifa Hospital, Canada to Halt Weapons Shipments to Gaza, Trump-Backed Bernie Moreno Wins GOP Senate Primary in Ohio, Democratic Voters Voice Dismay over Biden's Support for Israeli Assault on Gaza, Trump: Jewish Democrats "Should Be Ashamed of Themselves", Kushner Praises Gaza's "Valuable" Waterfront Property, Says Israel Should Force Palestinians Out, Doctors Without Borders Says EU-Funded Libyan Coast Guard Disrupt Attempts to Aid Migrants at Sea, Cuba Blasts U.S. Embargo as Protesters Decry Power Blackouts & Food Shortages, U.N. Weather Agency Issues "Red Alert" After 2023 Shattered Heat Records, Two Members of Mississippi Police "Goon Squad" Sentenced for Torturing Black Men, Arizona State Lawmaker Goes Public with Plan to Have an Abortion
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Mar 19, 2024
As presidential front-runners Donald Trump and Joe Biden scapegoat and attack immigrants on the campaign trail, stoking racist and xenophobic fears for votes, we speak to the director of a groundbreaking new film, unseen, that aims to reframe the narrative. Using experimental cinematography to promote accessibility for blind and low-vision audiences, unseen follows Pedro, who is blind and undocumented, as he works toward a degree in social work. Director Set Hernandez, themself an undocumented immigrant and a co-founder of the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective, discusses the film's uplifting of the "undocumented and disabled perspective," in opposition to political narratives that exclude and dehumanize immigrant communities.
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Mar 19, 2024
Haiti is being gripped by escalating violence and turmoil as armed groups battle for control in the streets. Last week, unelected Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced he would resign, after a coalition of armed groups opposing the de facto leader declared an uprising. Negotiations to establish a transitional presidential council are being led by the U.S.-backed Caribbean political alliance CARICOM as a refugee crisis brews, with the Biden administration floating the idea of housing Haitian asylum seekers in Guantánamo Bay. We speak to Dan Foote, who resigned from his post as U.S. special envoy for Haiti in September 2021 over the Biden administration's "inhumane" treatment of Haitian asylum seekers and U.S. interference in Haitian politics. "We're holding Haiti hostage through this CARICOM political process," says Foote, who says Haitian sovereignty must be respected in order to break the cycle of intervention, unrest and violence. "Everybody has an answer for Haiti. Unfortunately, historically, none of those answers have worked."
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Mar 19, 2024
A new U.N.-backed report has found that famine is imminent in northern Gaza with nearly a third of Gaza's population experiencing the highest levels of catastrophic hunger. This comes as Israel launches another major raid at Al-Shifa Hospital, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have taken shelter since the start of the conflict. In the south, daily bombing continues while the Israeli government threatens a full-scale ground invasion on the border city of Rafah. "The world should impose sanctions on Israel," says the Palestinian National Initiative's Mustafa Barghouti, who joins us from the occupied West Bank. Barghouti responds to Israel's latest military actions and claims, gives an update on the status of ceasefire negotiations, addresses conditions in Israeli prisons and more. "It's a massacre. It's a huge genocide," he says. "The ultimate goal of Israel is ethnic cleansing."
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Mar 19, 2024
Famine in Northern Gaza Imminent; U.N., EU Blast "Man-Made" Hunger Crisis by Israel and U.S., Gazans Say Israel's Assault on Rafah Has Already Started as Biden Warns Netanyahu Against Invasion, Journalist Ismail al-Ghoul Released After Al-Shifa Raid; Officer Who Secured Food Aid Is Among Dead, Israel Arrests West Bank Reporter Rula Hassanein; 13th Palestinian Dies in Israeli Prison Since Oct. 7, Gang Violence in Haiti Spills Over into Previously Shielded Upscale Areas of Capital, Armed Groups in Nigeria Kidnap 100 People in Kaduna, Gambian Lawmakers Advance Repeal of Female Genital Mutilation Ban, South Sudan Schools Close Due to Extreme Heat, Two Dozen Civilians Reportedly Killed in Burmese Military Strikes in Rakhine, 30,000 Children and Women Held in Abusive Camps in Northern Syria, Protesters Condemn Javier Milei's Austerity Regime Amid Social and Economic Crises, Trump Unable to Secure $454M Bond in NY Civil Case; Peter Navarro to Begin Sentence for Contempt, SCOTUS Considers Free Speech Cases Involving Guns, Government's Authority Over Social Media, EPA Announces Total Ban on Asbestos
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Mar 18, 2024
We mark the 21st anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old U.S. peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli soldier driving a military bulldozer on March 16, 2003. Corrie was in Rafah with the International Solidarity Movement to monitor human rights abuses and protect Palestinian homes from destruction when she was killed. To this day, nobody has been held accountable for her death, with the Israeli military ruling it an "accident" and the Supreme Court of Israel rejecting an appeal from her parents in 2015. Rachel Corrie has since become a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian people, and her legacy must be used "to direct attention back to Rafah" and prevent an escalation in the war, says her friend and fellow activist Tom Dale, who witnessed her final moments. We also speak with Corrie's parents, Cindy and Craig, who say they have met many Palestinians over the years who continue to honor their daughter's memory. "For Palestinians everywhere, Rachel's story has been very important," says Cindy Corrie. "They tell us over and over again how much it meant." After Corrie was killed, they devoted their lives to her cause and founded the nonprofit Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice.
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Mar 18, 2024
We get an update from Rafah as the World Food Programme warns of worsening catastrophic hunger in the Gaza Strip and Israel continues to block most aid from entering the territory. Despite growing international criticism, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he plans for a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah, where over 1.4 million Palestinians are penned in after repeated forced evacuations from elsewhere in Gaza since October 7. "I'm hoping from the U.S. government to put a serious pressure on the Israeli government in order to prevent such a catastrophe," says Mohammed Abu Lebda, a poet and translator from Rafah, who says an Israeli ground invasion could kill up to 100,000 more Palestinians. Abu Lebda describes the daily hardships in Rafah, including the severe mental toll, Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza has unleashed. "I'm not sure that I'm going to be the person that I used to be before the war," he says. "I'm 100% sure that I was changed, and I was changed forever."
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Mar 18, 2024
Israel Attacks Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital Again as Hunger Grips the Besieged Territory, "Totally Inappropriate": Netanyahu Responds to Schumer's Call for New Israeli Elections, "We See Our History in Their Eyes" Irish Leader Calls for Gaza Ceasefire in White House Address, Basque Demonstrators Evoke Picasso's "Guernica" in Tribute to Gaza's Victims, Putin Wins Fifth Term as President as Yulia Navalnaya, Volodymyr Zelensky Condemn Election, Donald Trump Warns of "Bloodbath" If He Loses Election to Biden Again, Special Prosecutor Quits Trump's Election Subversion Case in Georgia; DA Fani Willis Stays On, U.S. Nationals Leave Haiti as Political and Humanitarian Crises Spiral, Niger Orders Departure of U.S. Troops, Senegal Releases Opposition Leaders Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye Ahead of Elections, U.N. Warns 18 Million People in Sudan Face Acute Food Insecurity, U.N. Considers AI Resolution as Rights Groups Condemn EU's "AI Act" for Empowering Law Enforcement, NYC Preserves "Right to Shelter" Policy But Excludes Migrant Adults from Its Protections, U.S. Court Halts New SEC Rule Requiring Climate Risk Disclosures from Fossil Fuel Industry
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Mar 15, 2024
Israeli scholar Maya Wind's new book, Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom, documents how Israeli universities directly constrain Palestinian rights by supporting and even developing the policies of occupation and apartheid used by the Israeli state. "In the West, Israeli universities are considered bastions of pluralism and democracy. But in fact … they are a central pillar of Israel's regime of oppression against Palestinians," says Wind, who also discusses Israel's "scholasticide, [or] the intentional destruction of Palestinian education," and the movement of conscientious objectors to Israel's mandatory conscription, in which she took part when she refused to enlist in the army at age 18 and served 40 days in a military prison.
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Mar 15, 2024
Hebrew University in Jerusalem has suspended an internationally renowned Palestinian professor for saying that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a feminist scholar whose work focuses on the impacts of militarization, surveillance and violence on the lives of Palestinian women and children. She made the remarks in an interview on Israel's Channel 12 on Monday, where she also said it was time to "abolish Zionism." Shalhoub-Kevorkian has been under pressure to resign from her position at Hebrew University's Faculty of Law Institute of Criminology and at the School of Social Work and Public Welfare since October, when she signed a petition of over 1,000 academics calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. This comes as no universities have been left standing in the Gaza Strip, and nearly 5,000 university students and staff have been killed during Israel's assault. "I am calling for abolishing Zionism because I see it as very violent towards the people and as causing criminality," says Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who discusses the atmosphere of silencing and reprisals against those who criticize Israel's policies toward Palestinians. "Anti-Zionism is to refuse to accept continued dispossession, is to refuse to accept this ideology of supremacy, is to refuse to accept the securitized ideas of one group against the other."
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Mar 15, 2024
In what is believed to be the first time a president or vice president has publicly toured an abortion clinic, Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Planned Parenthood location in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Thursday. The visit was the latest in a nationwide tour by Harris to highlight reproductive rights. In her remarks outside the clinic, she lauded Minnesota's efforts to protect abortion rights in the face of what she describes as a "very serious health crisis," with restrictive laws and outright abortion bans in more than a dozen states. Clinics in Minnesota have seen a drastic rise in appointments for reproductive healthcare as one of the last remaining access states in the region, says our guest Megan Peterson, who adds that it is "really important" that the Biden team not take pro-abortion voters "for granted." Peterson is the executive director of Gender Justice Action, a reproductive rights group working in Minnesota and North Dakota. We also speak to professor Michele Goodwin, who calls the consequences of state-level abortion bans since Dobbs v. Jackson a "trail of horrors" that are "antithetical to human rights."
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Mar 15, 2024
Israeli Soldiers Kill at Least 29 More Palestinians Seeking Aid, Hamas Offers New Ceasefire and Hostage Exchange Plan; Abbas Appoints New Palestinian PM, Schumer Calls for Elections in Israel, Warns U.S. Could Have "More Active Role" in Israeli Politics, 100 Activists Arrested After Occupying NYT Building, McGill Students Are on Hunger Strike to Demand University Divest from Israel, Prominent Authors Turn Down Prestigious PEN World Voices Festival over Org's Response to Gaza, Dozens Feared Dead in Mediterranean After Europe-Bound Migrant Vessel Broke Down at Sea, 300 Detained Immigrants and Allies Are on Hunger Strike in Washington State, Kamala Harris Decries "Healthcare Crisis" as She Visits Minnesota Abortion Clinic, Jury Convicts James Crumbley of Involuntary Manslaughter for Son's Mass Shooting, "Why Did You Shoot My Baby?": Bodycam Footage Shows CA Deputy Killing Autistic Teen Ryan Gainer, Bernie Sanders Introduces Legislation to Reduce Workweek to 32 Hours
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Mar 14, 2024
In a rare bipartisan effort, the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday requiring TikTok to be sold by its China-based owner, ByteDance, or face a ban throughout the United States. Backers claim the popular social media app could give the Chinese government access to U.S. residents' personal data and potentially affect the 2024 elections. The fight over TikTok comes at a time of rising anti-China rhetoric in both major parties, as well as alarm among conservatives that content supportive of Palestinian rights and critical of Israel is popular with many young users of the app. The fate of the TikTok legislation now rests in the Senate, and President Joe Biden says he will sign it into law if it reaches his desk. Former President Donald Trump, who tried to crack down on TikTok while in office, now opposes the effort. "It is singling out TikTok and China without any evidence whatsoever that they are engaging in any nefarious or spying activity," Ramesh Srinivasan, professor of information studies at UCLA, says of the legislation. "What we need is expansive, comprehensive digital rights legislation that really applies to every social media company and gives Americans power over their own data."
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Mar 14, 2024
Journalist Mehdi Hasan warns U.S. media coverage of the 2024 election is largely unable to capture the threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump and the modern Republican Party. "We need to speak very clearly about what that fascist threat is," says Hasan, who warns media outlets cannot "normalize his extremism and racism and bigotry," because the right to free press itself could be under threat if he regains power. "One of our two major parties has been fully radicalized and is now in bed with white supremacists. … Let's be plain about that."
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Mar 14, 2024
Acclaimed journalist Mehdi Hasan joins us to discuss U.S. media coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza and how the war is a genocide being abetted by the United States. Hasan says U.S. media is overwhelmingly pro-Israel and fails to convey the truth to audiences. "Palestinian voices not being on American television or in American print is one of the biggest problems when it comes to our coverage of this conflict," he says. Hasan has just launched a new media company, Zeteo, which he started after the end of his weekly news program on MSNBC and Peacock earlier this year. Hasan's interviews routinely led to viral segments, including his tough questioning of Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev, but the cable network announced it was canceling his show in November. The move drew considerable outrage, with critics slamming MSNBC for effectively silencing one of the most prominent Muslim voices in U.S. media. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to threaten a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, which human rights groups warn would be a massacre. President Biden has said such an escalation is a "red line" for him, but Netanyahu has vowed to push ahead anyway. "Where is the outcry here in the West?" asks Hasan of reports of Israeli war crimes, including the killing of over 100 journalists in the past five months in Gaza and the blockade of aid from the region. "It's a stain on [Biden's] record, on America's conscience."
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Mar 14, 2024
At Least 5 People Killed, Including U.N. Staffer, as Israel Bombs UNRWA Gaza Aid Site, 27 Gazans Have Died of Hunger, Including 23 Babies and Children, as Israel Continues to Block Aid, U.N.: Israel Violated International Law When It Killed Reuters Reporter Issam Abdallah in Lebanon, Activists from San Francisco to New York Disrupt Business as Usual to Shine Light on Gaza Genocide, Jewish Voice for Peace Occupies Hakeem Jeffries's Office as 20 Orgs Launch "Reject AIPAC" Coalition, U.S. House Votes in Favor of TikTok Ban Bill Amid First Amendment and Other Questions, Reports: Biden Weighs Detaining Haitians in Guantánamo If Crisis Leads to Increase in Migration, Sudan: 230,000 Children and People Recovering from Birth Are at Risk of Death by Starvation, Torrential Rains in La Paz, Bolivia, Kill at Least One Person, Destroy Homes, Methane Emissions Remain Far Above Levels Needed to Curb Climate Catastrophe, "You Are Not an Ally. You Are a Murderer": Climate Defiance Confronts Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, Boeing Deleted Footage of Work on Alaska Airlines Door That Blew Off 737 MAX, U.S. Court Upholds Texas Law Barring Minors from Getting Birth Control Without Parental Consent, Georgia Judge Throws Out 6 Charges in Trump Election Subversion Case, Autopsy Finds Nex Benedict Died of Suicide the Day After Being Attacked in High School Bathroom, David Mixner, LGBTQ Rights Leader Who Pushed Politicians to Reject Homophobia, Dies at 77
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