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Jul 03, 2025
As we broadcast, the House was soon set to vote on the so-called big, beautiful bill before the July 4 deadline imposed by President Trump. Should the House pass the legislation, the bill would be sent to Trump's desk to be signed into law. The bill massively increases funding for ICE, cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid over a decade and adds $3.3 trillion to the nation's debt.
"It makes people in the country who are in the bottom 30%, working hard to pay their bills, poorer, because it's stripping away healthcare from them, stripping away food assistance from them. And it is all in the name of giving tax breaks to the wealthiest. … The top 20% in this country get 60% of the benefits," says Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna.
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Jul 03, 2025
In his first live broadcast interview since being released from ICE detention, Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil tells Democracy Now! about his experience behind bars, the ongoing threat of deportation that hangs over him and why he continues to speak out against the U.S.-backed Israeli war on Gaza. The Columbia University graduate was the first pro-Palestinian campus protester to be jailed by the Trump administration. Khalil is now reunited with his wife Noor and newborn son Deen, after he was released on bail last month by a federal judge. Khalil says the Trump administration's attempts to silence him are "a distraction from the genocide in Palestine."
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Jul 03, 2025
GOP Leaders Advance to Final House Vote on Bill to Slash Social Programs and Cut Taxes on the Rich, Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill 300 Palestinians in 2 Days, Including Hospital Director, 33 More Palestinians Slaughtered While Seeking Food at Militarized Gaza Aid Sites, U.S. Approves $510 Million Sale of Bomb Guidance Kits to Israel, U.K. Lawmakers Approve Ban on Palestine Action, Adding It to List of "Terrorist" Groups, U.N. Rapporteur Identifies 60 Firms Profiting from Gaza Slaughter and West Bank Occupation, "No God Bombs Children": Peace Activists Protest Gathering of Christian Zionist Lobby Group, "A Hugely Important Decision": Judge Strikes Down Trump's Ban on Asylum Claims at Southern Border, Attorneys Say Kilmar Abrego Garcia Was Brutally Tortured at Salvadoran Prison, Stateless Palestinian Woman Released After 5 Months in Texas ICE Jail, Court Rejects Trump Admin Bid to Rearrest Georgetown Peace Scholar Badar Khan Suri, Elderly Cuban Immigrant Dies in ICE Jail, the 13th Such Death This Year, Sean "Diddy" Combs Acquitted of Sex Trafficking But Found Guilty on Lesser Charges, Wisconsin Supreme Court Strikes Down 176-Year-Old Abortion Ban, Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter Who Threatened Cops Takes Job at DOJ "Weaponization" Office, Trump Reduces Tariffs on Vietnam as Trump Organization Looks to Expand Investments
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Jul 02, 2025
In an effort to fulfill the Trump administration's daily immigration arrest "quotas," federal agents and deputized local law enforcement are racially profiling and snatching people off the streets without due process. These arrests, carried out by armed and masked agents, are sowing terror and confusion in communities across the United States. Stephano Medina, a lawyer with the California Center for Movement Legal Services, shares how ICE regularly denies that it has taken people into custody, leading to family members scrambling for information about their loved ones. "It's arrest now, ask questions later," adds Dominique Boubion, an attorney representing Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen who was taken by ICE last month in what Velez has since described as a "kidnapping."
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Jul 02, 2025
Deep in the Florida Everglades, at an abandoned airfield surrounded by barren swampland, local law enforcement authorities are opening the doors to a huge tent facility that hopes to lock up immigrants swept up in the Trump administration's mass deportation machine. Republicans have branded the still-unapproved facility "Alligator Alcatraz," with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier boasting that the state can afford to keep staff and safety costs low because the wild animals of the swamp will provide security and prevent escapes. Immigrant rights advocates warn that the cramped facility will further isolate immigrants who are being rounded up indiscriminately and detained without charge, and could lead to life-threatening overheating and overcrowding. We speak to Nery Lopez of Detention Watch Network and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council for more about the "inhumane" proposed detention camp.
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Jul 02, 2025
The budget bill just passed by the Senate provides more than $170 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement and detention. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, who worked on an analysis published by the American Immigration Council, says the new budget would make ICE "the single largest federal law enforcement agency in the history of the nation."
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Jul 02, 2025
After a contentious round of last-minute negotiations, President Trump's budget bill has passed in the Senate, squeaking by thanks to Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. Three Republicans joined Senate Democrats in voting "no" on the bill, which gives tax cuts to the rich and makes historic cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a slim majority, for a final vote before Trump's July 4 deadline. Citizen groups, including the grassroots political organization ?Indivisible?, are calling on Americans, particularly those living in Republican and swing districts, to contact their House representatives and urge them to vote against the bill. "It's not a done deal," says Indivisible's co-founder and co-executive director Ezra Levin. "They do not have the votes."
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Jul 02, 2025
Senate Narrowly Approves Massive Bill to Gut Social Programs and Cut Taxes on the Rich, "We Will Not Accept This Intimidation": NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Rejects Trump's Threats, Israel Continues Attacks on Aid Seekers as Gaza's Largest Hospital Is Forced to Halt Dialysis , Study Finds U.S. Foreign Aid Cuts Could Kill 14 Million People by 2030, Trump Administration Withholds $6.8 Billion in Public School Funding, Judge Blocks RFK Jr.'s Plan to Radically Downsize Department of Health and Human Services, Trump Jokes About Alligators Eating Immigrants During Tour of New Florida ICE Jail, Trump Administration Transfers More Immigrants to Guantánamo , Trump Administration Sues Los Angeles over Sanctuary City Policies, Judge Pauses DHS's Termination of Protected Status for Haitian Immigrants, SCOTUS Rejects ExxonMobil's Appeal of $14 Million Fine for Air Pollution at Texas Plant, UPenn Bans Trans Athletes; DOJ Claims Harvard Violated Civil Rights Law During Gaza Protests, Paramount Will Pay Trump $16 Million to Settle Lawsuit Alleging "60 Minutes" Bias, Jury Continues Deliberations After Reaching Partial Verdict in Sean Combs Sex Trafficking Trial
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Jul 01, 2025
A heat wave is raising temperatures to dangerous levels across much of Europe, just days after a heat wave in North America saw over 3,000 temperature records set. For more, we speak with climate scientist Michael Mann, who warns that heat domes and flooding have nearly tripled since the 1950s. "At some level, this isn't that complicated. You make the planet hotter, you're going to have more frequent and intense heat extremes," says Mann, a professor of environmental science at the University of Pennsylvania. Mann's upcoming book, co-authored with vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez, is Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World.
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Jul 01, 2025
"There are many things that happened in this war that are clearly war crimes," Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, says about Israel's war on Gaza. Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman spoke with the top U.N. rights watchdog in Geneva this week at the headquarters of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Türk, who has characterized Israel's actions in Gaza as ethnic cleansing, discusses the ongoing suffering of the civilian population, how Israel has attacked the U.N. and its workers, and why he continues to hope "for both Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace."
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Jul 01, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting the United States next week to meet with President Donald Trump and other top officials in the U.S. administration, supposedly to "capitalize on the success" of the 12-day war against Iran. This comes after nearly 21 months of Israel's war on Gaza that has killed at least 56,000 Palestinians, with daily violence only increasing. "There's basically an airstrike every other minute," says Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada. "There's nonstop artillery fire, gunfire, machine gunfire, as well as Israeli quadcopter drones that are swarming Gaza and shooting people at random." While there have been news reports of a possible ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Shehada says "there are no negotiations," and therefore no end in sight to the daily bloodshed.
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Jul 01, 2025
We speak with American neurosurgeon Dr. Abdul Basit Khan in Gaza, where he is volunteering at the Nasser Hospital. He describes treating patients with blast injuries and gunshot wounds from Israeli attacks, all while coping with a lack of basic medical supplies and widespread hunger. "Food insecurity is rampant, from all levels of society. Even the physicians are not eating," he says. Multiple blasts were heard during the interview, with Dr. Khan describing his patients as people "living in tents being indiscriminately bombed" by Israeli forces. "This is the worst thing I've ever seen in my entire life, by far."
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Jul 01, 2025
Israel Bombs Crowded Gaza Cafe, Killing Dozens, Including Children, Israel Continues Attacks on Gaza Aid Sites; Babies Starve as Infant Formula Is Exhausted, Veterans End 40-Day Fast with Protest Demanding U.S. Stop Arming Israel, Senators Near Final Vote on Bill to Slash Social Programs While Showering Tax Breaks on the Wealthy, Justice Department Seeks to Strip Some Naturalized Immigrants of Citizenship, Trump to Attend Opening of $450 Million "Alligator Alcatraz" ICE Jail in Florida, ICE Raids Terrorize Farmworkers, Causing Crops to Rot in Fields Amid Severe Labor Shortage, Advocates Call on FIFA to Ban Immigration Agents from World Cup Games, ProPublica Investigation Finds Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations, SCOTUS Will Hear Republicans' Challenge to Campaign Finance Limits, Iran Says Israeli Attack on Evin Prison Killed 71, Rejects U.N. Inspection of Bombed Nuclear Sites, Europe Swelters Under Record-Breaking Heat Wave as Wildfires Erupt in France, Turkey, Nearly Half of Tuvalu's Population Applies to Relocate to Australia Amid Rising Seas, Hong Kong's League of Social Democrats Disbands Amid Beijing's Crackdown on Dissent
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Jun 30, 2025
We go to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, where activists are shining a light on Morocco's brutal occupation of Western Sahara and its Indigenous people, the Sahrawi. The Sahrawi journalist and activist Asria Mohamed speaks with Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman about "Jaimitna," an art installation that evokes the tents of Sahrawi people living in refugee camps. The installation features various melhfas, traditional clothing worn by Sahrawi women, and includes their stories. "These women, they spent years and years in prison. They have been tortured. They have been beaten up. They have been raped," Mohamed says. We also speak with María Carrión, executive director of FiSahara, the Sahara International Film Festival, who says the story of the Sahrawi must be better known. Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975 in defiance of the United Nations and the international community. The first Trump administration recognized Moroccan sovereignty in 2020 as part of a larger effort to normalize relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
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Jun 30, 2025
The Supreme Court's term ended Friday with a decision that promises to further expand the power of the president. Conservative justices argued lower federal courts cannot issue nationwide injunctions — a decision that limits judicial checks on presidential power. "We have an imperial court that has created an imperial presidency," says Dahlia Lithwick, writer and host of the legal podcast Amicus. The 6-3 decision, split along ideological lines, could dramatically reshape legal citizenship in the United States and clears the path for many other Trump orders to potentially go into effect. The court also ruled on a case that will allow parents to pull their children from classes including LGBTQ books. The conservative justices "cast these books as coercive simply because they have LGBT characters," says Chase Strangio, lawyer and co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBTQ & HIV Project.
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Jun 30, 2025
Senate lawmakers are debating President Trump's 940-page so-called big, beautiful bill as Republicans race to meet a Trump-imposed July 4 deadline and are set to vote on key amendments. Senate Republicans have deepened the cuts to Medicaid while cutting taxes for the wealthy and increasing the national deficit. "Basically, you have Republicans taking food and medicine and other things away from vulnerable people in order to finance tax cuts for the rich," says David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect.
Dr. Adam Gaffney, a critical care physician and professor at Harvard Medical School, co-authored a report that found the bill could lead to 1.3 million Americans going without medications, 1.2 million Americans being saddled with medical debt, 380,000 women going without mammograms, and over 16,500 deaths annually. "I work in the ICU. I see patients with life-threatening complications of untreated illness because they didn't get care because they couldn't afford it. What happens when we add to that number massively?" says Gaffney.
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Jun 30, 2025
Tens of Thousands Flee Gaza City as Israel Issues New Forced Evacuation Orders , Haaretz: Israeli Forces Ordered to Fire on Unarmed Crowds Seeking Food, Netanyahu Corruption Trial Further Delayed as Trump Calls for Charges to Be Thrown Out, Russia Launches "Largest Aerial Assault" on Ukraine Since Full-Scale Invasion, Ukraine Withdraws from Landmine Ban Treaty, Following Poland, Finland and Baltic States, Supreme Court Strips Lower Courts of Power to Issue Nationwide Injunctions, Senators Debate GOP Budget Bill in All-Night Session Ahead of Trump-Imposed Deadline, Under Fire for Opposing Medicaid Cuts, Sen. Thom Tillis Says He Won't Seek Reelection , Trump Administration Ends Protected Status for Over 500,000 Haitian Immigrants, Judge Rules Trump Administration Breached 2023 Settlement over Family Separations , University of Virginia President Resigns Amid Trump Administration Attacks over DEI, Trump Administration to End Conservation Rule Protecting Nearly 60 Million Acres of Forests, Canada Scraps Tax on Big Tech Companies After Trump Threatens Tariff Increase, Istanbul Police Arrest Dozens Ahead of Pride Parade; 100,000 March in Hungary Despite LGBTQ Ban
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Jun 27, 2025
The legendary journalist Bill Moyers has died at the age of 91. Moyers, whose long career included helping found the Peace Corps and serving as press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson, was an award-winning champion of public television and independent media. We feature one of his numerous interviews on Democracy Now! where we discussed the history of public broadcasting in the United States and the powerful role of money in corporate media. "The power of money trumps the power of democracy today, and I'm very worried about it," he said in a 2011 interview. His comments hold particular resonance as the Trump administration moves to strip federal funding from PBS and NPR today.
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Jun 27, 2025
Democrat Pramila Jayapal is holding a series of "shadow hearings" in Congress on Trump's immigration actions. Jayapal, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Integrity, Security and Enforcement, explains how Trump's immigration crackdown has created a "Catch-22" for asylum seekers, who are being targeted for "expedited removal" at their own immigration hearings. "If you show up, you could get detained and deported. … If you don't show up, then you are now in violation of the immigration regulations, and you're deemed as an absconder." Jayapal also comments on Trump's "big, beautiful budget bill," which she calls the "big, bad, betrayal bill" for its cuts to Medicaid and other social services.
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Jun 27, 2025
Over 100 days have passed since the Trump administration's unprecedented removal of more than 230 immigrants to El Salvador's notorious mega-prison CECOT. They were removed without any due process in the United States. Democracy Now! spoke with the loved ones of Andry Hernández Romero, a 33-year-old gay makeup artist and asylum seeker who was told he would be sent home to Venezuela, according to his mother. But instead, he was sent to CECOT, where reports of torture and abuse are rampant. His mother Alexis Romero and his best friend Reina Cardenas have not seen or heard from him in three months. He has been identified in photos taken at CECOT by a photojournalist. Hernández Romero "was detained from the moment he showed up for his asylum appointment," says Cardenas. "He never had due process." Adds Margaret Cargioli, a lawyer for the family, "He sought asylum because he was persecuted due to his political opinion and because he's LGBTQ. … It is quite astonishing that in the United States, people are being disappeared in this manner."
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Jun 27, 2025
The Supreme Court has sided with South Carolina's efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. Lower court rulings allowed Medicaid patients to sue over the state's restrictions on Medicaid funding for their healthcare clinics, which the Supreme Court overturned in a 6-3 decision on Thursday. Rebecca Grant, who writes about reproductive rights, says South Carolina's restrictions will likely be taken up by other states and could result in the closure of potentially hundreds of reproductive healthcare clinics. Grant outlines the alternative healthcare methods that many are forced to turn to in the face of dangerous and — since the fall of Roe v. Wade — increasingly draconian abortion restrictions. "We know throughout history that making abortion illegal or trying to ban it does not make it go away," she says. This underground network of abortion access in the United States is the subject of Grant's new book, Access: Inside the Abortion Underground and the Sixty-Year Battle for Reproductive Freedom.
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Jun 27, 2025
Israel Continues Deadly Attacks on Gaza Aid Sites as 17,000 Palestinian Children Suffer Malnutrition, Senate Democrats Question Trump's Claim of "Obliterated" Iran Nuclear Sites, U.S. and China Agree to "Framework" for Trade Deal, Senate Parliamentarian Deals Major Blow to Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill", Supreme Court Sides with South Carolina in Campaign to Defund Planned Parenthood, Supreme Court Grants Reprieve to Condemned Texas Prisoner Minutes Before Lethal Injection, Masked ICE Agents Arrest L.A. Resident and U.S. Citizen Andrea Velez on Her Way to Work, Walmart Worker and U.S. Citizen Is Released from Detention After Violent Arrest by Federal Agents, Attorney General Pam Bondi Denies Knowledge of Masked and Hooded ICE Agents, Federal Judge Will Allow ICE to Force-Feed Hunger Striking Asylum Seeker, Canadian Citizen and Mexican Immigrant Become the Latest to Die in ICE Custody, Advisory Panel Stacked With RFK Jr. Appointees Recommends Against Flu Vaccinations, NYC Mayor Adams Announces Reelection Bid as Independent; Cuomo to Remain on the Ballot, Legendary Television Journalist Bill Moyers Dies at 91
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Jun 26, 2025
President Donald Trump has returned to Washington after a NATO summit where leaders agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, more than doubling the current target of 2%. The increase comes after years of pressure from Trump, who accuses other countries in the military alliance of not spending enough. "What he is interested in is catering to the military-industrial complex of the United States," says Gilbert Achcar, emeritus professor of development studies and international relations at SOAS, University of London. "When he asks these NATO countries to increase their military expenditure, he means 'buy more U.S. weapons.' That's what he is doing. He's a salesperson for the military-industrial complex."
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Jun 26, 2025
The Trump administration is intensifying its campaign against vaccinations, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrawing U.S. funding for the world's preeminent international vaccine organization. The group — known as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — is the world's largest funder of life-saving vaccinations and says it has helped vaccinate more than 1.1 billion children in 78 lower-income countries, preventing nearly 19 million future deaths. Kennedy also recently stacked an important vaccine advisory panel with unqualified appointees, many of them holding anti-vaccine views.
"Anti-vaccine activists have been shouting from the sidelines for decades. Now they're making policy," says Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
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Jun 26, 2025
We speak with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich about the victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York Democratic primary for New York mayor, the rise of Donald Trump, and the role of big money in politics. "This is the one thing that I agree with Donald Trump about: The economy is rigged — but it's rigged against working-class people. And I think Mamdani understood that. He understood that people have got to want a change, but also they want affordability. They want an economy that is working for them."
We also speak with him about his decades-long career as a teacher and The Last Class, a new documentary that follows Reich over his last semester at the University of California, Berkeley. The class, and much of Reich's career, has focused on rising inequality and its impact on society. "Most Americans feel powerless," says Reich. "This is a crisis right now."
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Jun 26, 2025
Trump Pushes Back Over Leaked Report Finding US Bombs Failed to Destroy Iran's Nuclear Program, Iran's Supreme Leader Claims Victory over Israel in First Public Remarks Since Ceasefire, Israeli Continues Deadly Attacks on Palestinians Seeking Food at Aid Sites, Israeli Soldiers Kill 3 Palestinians as Dozens of Israeli Settlers Attack West Bank Village, Some Republican Senators Balk at Medicaid Cuts in Trump's Budget Reconciliation Bill, "Forced to Choose Between Rent and Food": Protesters Decry Cuts to Social Programs in GOP Bill, Trump Moves Housing Department Offices to Virginia, Displacing National Science Foundation, CDC Workers Hold Protest in Atlanta as RFK Jr. Pulls Funding from Global Vaccine Group, CNN: Trump Plans to Reject Hundreds of Thousands of Asylum Claims to Speed Deportations, "All About Political Intimidation": Rep. LaMonica McIver Pleads Not Guilty to Assault at ICE Jail, Whistleblower Alleges Trump Judicial Nominee Emil Bove Sought to Ignore Court Orders, Protests Erupt as Billionaire Jeff Bezos Takes Over Venice for Lavish Wedding Celebration
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Jun 25, 2025
As ICE increases its raids on immigrant communities, footage of the arrest of one man, Narciso Barranco, shows seven federal agents — all masked — pinning the 48-year old gardener to the ground and repeatedly punching him in the head before pushing him into an unmarked vehicle. His son, Marine veteran Alejandro Barranco, recently visited him in an ICE detention center. "He looked beat up, he looked rough, he looked defeated. He was sad. It's just not right," he says.
Barranco, whose three children have all served in the U.S. military, was arrested while working as a landscaper at an IHOP restaurant in Santa Ana. "We are seeing an extreme abuse of power on the screens of our phones," says Santa Ana councilmember John Hernandez, who adds that Barranco is a "hardworking Santa Ana resident of over three decades, who has raised three children who have all decided to sacrifice their freedom for this country that we love."
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Jun 25, 2025
At the NATO summit in the Hague, almost all European nations reached an agreement to raise military spending to 5% of each county's GDP. This comes as President Trump said the U.S. would not come to the defense of other NATO nations unless they hit 5% in military spending. "Trump wants to move towards a much, much more instrumental and crudely material, transactional politics," says Richard Seymour, writer, broadcaster and activist. "I think this is a version of imperial decline that Trump is trying to manage."
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Jun 25, 2025
In Gaza, at least 41 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since midnight, including more Palestinians targeted by Israeli forces while seeking food and humanitarian aid. This comes as UNICEF is warning Gaza is facing what amounts to a "man-made drought" with children at risk of dying from thirst due to Israel's blockade. We go to Dr. Mark Brauner, an emergency medicine physician who is currently volunteering at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. He describes "execution-style" killings of Palestinians at food distribution sites and the desperate lack of baby formula leading to the deaths of children suffering from malnutrition and starvation.
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Jun 25, 2025
History was made Tuesday night as democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani carried out a stunning upset and defeated Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. As the results became clear Tuesday night, Cuomo conceded and called Mamdani to congratulate him. The New York state assemblymember will now be the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City in November's general election. "Tonight we made history," Mamdani told supporters. "In the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it is done. My friends, we have done it."
Moe Mitchell, national director for the Working Families Party, says Mamdani's campaign helped "create a multiracial working class alignment against authoritarianism [and] for a type of politics that is hopeful, that is visionary, that says we want something, we don't simply want to fight against something."
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Jun 25, 2025
Trump Rejects Pentagon Assessment That U.S. Strikes Failed to "Obliterate" Iran's Nuclear Program, Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill Dozens, Including Palestinians Seeking Humanitarian Aid, Russian Missile Attack on Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Region Kills 19, Wounds Hundreds, Leaders of NATO Member Nations Agree to Boost Military Spending to 5% of GDP, Protesters Reject NATO's Call to Vastly Boost Military Spending, Zohran Mamdani Claims Historic Victory Over Andrew Cuomo in NYC Democratic Mayoral Primary, Court Orders Return of Salvadoran Immigrant Deported Due to "Administrative Errors", Trump Adviser Stephen Miller Holds Six-Figure Investment in Tech Firm Profiting from Deportations, Senate Health Committee Chair Criticizes "Unqualified" Vaccine Advisory Panel Named by RFK Jr., Kenyans Mark One-Year Anniversary of Youth-Led Uprising That Was Violently Suppressed, Nigeria Posthumously Pardons the "Ogoni Nine," Including Slain Environmental Activist Ken Saro-Wiwa
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Jun 24, 2025
"You can't, as the president, engage in strikes on a foreign country when there's no imminent threat, without coming to Congress for authorization," says Ro Khanna, Democratic congressmember and member of the House Armed Services Committee, criticizing President Trump's decision to bomb Iran's nuclear sites as "blatantly unconstitutional" and a clear instance of executive overreach. Khanna and Republican congressmember Thomas Massie recently introduced a bipartisan Iran War Powers resolution in a bid to prevent further U.S. involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict. Khanna shares how anti-war voices in U.S. politics are too often silenced by powerful and wealthy interest groups and urges the Democratic Party to harness widespread anti-war sentiment in opposition to Trump's increasingly authoritarian foreign policy.
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Jun 24, 2025
Tuesday's New York City mayoral primary could determine the future of the most populous city in the United States. We speak to John Tarleton, editor-in-chief of the The Indypendent, about the race, which pits the young, progressive socialist Zohran Mamdani against Andrew Cuomo, an establishment Democrat and the former state governor who resigned in 2020 amid an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment. Tarleton discusses Mamdani's unique grassroots campaign, the influence of the powerful real-estate industry and why everything may come down to New York City's ranked-choice voting system.
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Jun 24, 2025
Today's mayoral primary in New York City features two very different frontrunners, the scandal-ridden former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, and the young Democratic Socialist state assemblymember, Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani's ascendant grassroots campaign has taken the Democratic establishment by surprise. He last appeared on Democracy Now!in October, as he launched his campaign centered on bringing down the high cost-of-living for working-class New Yorkers. On the campaign trail today, he joins us again as polls place him neck-and-neck with Cuomo, to share why his campaign and candidacy has resonated with so many. "This race is one way in which we can show that we can actually deliver a city that New Yorkers can afford, and we can do so by building a movement the city has never seen before."
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Jun 24, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump is touting a ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran, despite what he said were violations of the deal by both sides shortly after he announced it. Trump said he was especially angry with Israel and urged the country to stand down as he faces mounting criticism over the prospect of another U.S. war in the Middle East. "Part of the reason why Trump also was quite eager to get to a ceasefire, why he's so frustrated with what the Israelis are doing right now, is precisely because he's very much aware of the strain that all of this has caused within his own support base," says political analyst Trita Parsi. Parsi says the breakdown of the global Non-Proliferation Treaty on nuclear weapons could lead to dangerous consequences, as countries like Iran see incentive to build their own nuclear deterrence.
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Jun 24, 2025
Trump Lashes Out After Israel Violates Fragile Truce with Iran, Nuclear Watchdog Warns of "Significant Damage" to Iran's Fordow Site After U.S. Bombing, Israel Kills More Palestinians at "Aid" Sites as Blockade Starves Another Child to Death
, Danish Shipping Giant Maersk to Divest from Firms Linked to Israeli Settlements, UK Government Uses Anti-Terrorism Law to Ban the Protest Group Palestine Action, Supreme Court Will Allow Trump to Transfer Immigrants to Third Countries, At Least for Now, Lawyers and Advocates Warn of ICE "Disappearances" Amid Ongoing Raids, ICE Separates Mother from Breastfeeding Baby After Arrest at Routine Green Card Appointment, "Alligator Alcatraz": Florida Plans to Build $450 Million Immigration Prison in Everglades, Senate Confirms Rodney Scott as CBP Chief, Despite Role in Cover-Up of 2010 Killing, Indigenous Groups Warn Against More Border Wall Construction in Arizona, Attack on Hospital in Sudan Kills More Than 40 People, Six Die in Clashes Between Bolivian Police, Supporters of Former President Evo Morales, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Plans New Nuclear Plant to Replace Indian Point, Family of Queens Teen Shot Dead by Police Sues NYPD and New York City, Final Poll Shows Mamdani With an Edge Over Cuomo as New Yorkers Hold Mayoral Primary
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Jun 23, 2025
Democracy Now! was there when Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil reunited with his family over the weekend after being released on bail by a federal judge Friday, ending his detention in a Louisiana ICE jail after more than 100 days. Khalil was seized by federal agents at his home in New York on March 8, with the Trump administration seeking to deport him even though he is a legal permanent resident with a green card and married to a U.S. citizen. Khalil's wife Noor Abdalla was eight months pregnant at the time of the arrest and gave birth to their son while he was jailed. "I just want to go back and continue the work I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights," says Khalil, who played a prominent role in the Palestine solidarity protests at Columbia University last spring. He addressed over 1,000 supporters at a rally Sunday before leading a march to the gates of the school. We feature part of Khalil's comments and also hear from Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and members of Khalil's legal team.
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Jun 23, 2025
"Netanyahu's purpose was to drag Trump in," Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, says of the U.S. attack on Iran. Over the weekend, the U.S. directly joined the war between Israel and Iran when it bombed three nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, though it's unclear how far the strikes have set back the Iranian nuclear program. Israel and the United States accuse Iran of developing nuclear weapons, while Iran says its program is for civilian use. United Nations inspectors and U.S. intelligence assessments have said Iran is not building weapons. "The danger now is that, having brought the U.S. into this, Israel will seek to go further up the escalatory ladder," says Levy. "It wants the chaos."
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Jun 23, 2025
After President Trump's attack on Iran over the weekend, civil society leaders are organizing to demand an end to the violence. We speak with Iranian American scholar Kaveh Ehsani, associate professor of international studies at DePaul University in Chicago, who helped organize a petition against the war signed by more than 1,000 academics in the United States, Europe and Iran. "What this is doing is immiserating further the lives of ordinary people," says Ehsani.
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Jun 23, 2025
Israel and Iran continue to exchange fire, just days after the United States entered the war by bombing three key nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday. President Trump ordered the attack on the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan facilities without seeking congressional approval, in a move that could spread further violence across the Middle East. We speak with two Iranian scholars who have taken part in the country's previous nuclear negotiations. "Iranians see the United States as the aggressor, as helping the Israeli regime slaughter Iranians," says University of Tehran professor Mohammad Marandi. "There's anger across the board." The U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran are an "obvious" and "clear violation of international law and regulations," says Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a visiting researcher at Princeton University who served as spokesperson for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the European Union from 2003 to 2005.
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Jun 23, 2025
U.N. Warns of "Spiral of Chaos" After U.S. Strikes Iran, Israel Continues Its Attacks, Protesters Decry U.S. Attack on Iran Amid Fears of All-Out War, Mahmoud Khalil Released From ICE Jail, Returns to New York, Amnesty Finds Israel Completely Razed Southern Gaza Town in More "Evidence of Israel's Genocide", U.K. Gov't to Ban Activist Group Palestine Action After Air Force Base Breach, Suicide Bomb Kills 22 At Orthodox Church in Damascus, Border Patrol Agents Brutally Beat and Detain SoCal Immigrant Worker Amid Ongoing Raids, U.S. Judge Orders Release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia But He Faces Likely Detainment by ICE, Russian Air Attacks Kills at Least 10 in Kyiv, Belarus Opposition Leader Sergei Tikhanovsky Vows to Continue Fight After Release from Prison, Panama Declares State of Emergency Over Worker Rebellion, Texas to Display Ten Commandments in Public School Classrooms
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Jun 20, 2025
As New Yorkers head to the polls in the primaries for upcoming local elections, voters will have the chance to vote for not one, but up to five of their preferred candidates for mayor and other races. Ranked-choice voting is a relatively new system — introduced in New York following a referendum in 2019 — that has grown in popularity across the U.S.. "It gives voters more choices and more power in determining the ultimate winner of an election," says John Tarleton, editor-in-chief of The Indypendent, which is closely following the New York mayoral election.
Election day is June 24 with early voting already underway in New York.
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Jun 20, 2025
A Columbia University graduate has been denied entry into the United States and deported following 12 hours of detention at the Los Angeles International Airport. Australian writer Alistair Kitchen says agents questioned him about his views on Israel and Palestine and downloaded the contents of his phone. "They were waiting for me when I got off the plane. I didn't even make it into the queue for passport processing," says Kitchen. "Customs and Border Protection are using the immense power and discretion that they have to search and then to deny entry… because they disagree with some people's speech."
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Jun 20, 2025
A Columbia University graduate has been denied entry into the United States and deported following 12 hours of detention at the Los Angeles International Airport. Australian writer Alistair Kitchen says agents questioned him about his views on Israel and Palestine and downloaded the contents of his phone. "They were waiting for me when I got off the plane. I didn't even make it into the queue for passport processing," says Kitchen. "Customs and Border Protection are using the immense power and discretion that they have to search and then to deny entry… because they disagree with some people's speech."
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Jun 20, 2025
In a 6-3 decision on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender youth, paving the way for other bans on trans healthcare to remain in effect in 24 other states. According to the ACLU, over 100,000 transgender people under the age of 18 now live in a state with a ban on their healthcare. "This is a fight that extends back 100 years, and we will keep fighting for 100 more years," says Chase Strangio, the first openly trangender attorney to make oral arguments before the Supreme Court and the co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBTQ & HIV Project.
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Jun 20, 2025
As Israeli warplanes continue to pummel Tehran and other parts of the country, President Trump has given mixed messages on whether the U.S. will join Israel's war on Iran. Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered a message on Thursday that Trump will decide on direct U.S. involvement in the next two weeks. Leavitt delivered the message shortly after Trump met with his former advisor Steve Bannon who has publicly warned against war with Iran. The U.S. is reportedly considering dropping "bunker buster" bombs on underground Iranian nuclear facilities. "It's reminiscent of the beginning of the Iraq War, when they said it's going to be a cakewalk," says William Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
A U.S.-based Iranian human rights group reports that the Israeli attacks have killed at least 639 people in Iran, while Iran's retaliatory strikes in Israel have killed an estimated two dozen.
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Jun 20, 2025
Mass Protests in Tehran as Iranian FM Meets Counterparts, Trump Says He'll Decide on Strike in "2 Weeks", Israeli Strikes Kill Hundreds in Iran as Thousands Flee Violence, Israel Says 24 Killed in Iranian Attacks, Deplores Targeting of Hospital After Decimating Gaza Health System, Israel's Genocidal Attacks Continue in Gaza As Seeking Aid Remains a Deadly Pursuit, U.N. Condemns Israel's Grave Violations Against Children in Gaza Genocide, West Bank Attacks, SCOTUS Upholds Tennessee's Ban on Gender-Affirming Care For Trans Youth, HHS Shutters National Suicide Hotline for LGBTQ Youth, New Rules Will Further Restrict Lawmakers' Ability to Inspect ICE Jails, Dodgers Reportedly Block ICE From Stadium Amid Criticisms They've Failed Immigrant Community, Miami Herald: U.S. Detains at Least 20 Haitians At Guantánamo, DRC and Rwanda Reach Provisional Peace Agreement , "Symbolically, We Went Far Beyond Rafah": Global March to Gaza Ends, Judge Blocks EPA From Withdrawing Environmental Justice Grants With $600 Million, 1,000 Safeway Workers Strike in Colorado as SoCal Grocery Workers Authorize Their Own Strike, Trump's Pardons Have Cost Victims $1.3 Billion in Fines and Restitution
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Jun 19, 2025
"Another Wasted Life." That's the name of a remarkable new song by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Grammy-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens. She released a video of the song on October 2 to mark International Wrongful Conviction Day. The song was inspired by Kalief Browder, a Bronx resident who died by suicide in 2015 at the age of 22 after being detained at Rikers Island jail for nearly three years, after being falsely accused at the age of 16 of stealing a backpack. He was held in solitary confinement for two years and was repeatedly assaulted by guards and other prisoners.
In the video for "Another Wasted Life," Rhiannon Giddens features 22 people who were wrongly incarcerated. Together, they collectively served more than 500 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit. The video includes two men, David Bryant and Tyrone Jones, who each spent 40 years in prison. Another seven of the men each spent over 25 years locked up after wrongful convictions. Rhiannon Giddens made the video in partnership with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
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Jun 19, 2025
As part of our Juneteenth special broadcast, we feature our interview with pioneering musical artist Rhiannon Giddens, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her opera Omar, about Omar ibn Said, a Muslim scholar in Africa who was sold into slavery in the 1800s.
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Jun 19, 2025
We feature a special broadcast marking the Juneteenth federal holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. We begin with our 2021 interview with historian Clint Smith, originally aired a day after President Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Smith is the author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. "When I think of Juneteenth, part of what I think about is the both/andedness of it," Smith says, "that it is this moment in which we mourn the fact that freedom was kept from hundreds of thousands of enslaved people for years and for months after it had been attained by them, and then, at the same time, celebrating the end of one of the most egregious things that this country has ever done." Smith says he recognizes the federal holiday marking Juneteenth as a symbol, "but it is clearly not enough."
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Jun 18, 2025
New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested outside an immigration courtroom Tuesday. Lander has been volunteering as an observer and escort for people with immigration hearings in recent weeks. In this case, while accompanying a man named Edgardo, a group of ICE agents approached the two men, who were walking arm in arm. Lander asked repeatedly to see a judicial warrant before being handcuffed and detained. Lander was later released after New York Governor Kathy Hochul condemned the arrest and visited New York City to lobby for his release. Five other mayoral candidates also condemned Lander's arrest, although current Mayor Eric Adams has stayed silent. Adams "has sold this city out to Donald Trump to try to get his own pardon," says Lander. "Let's be clear: It's only himself he cares about, and he is putting New York's immigrants in harm's way."
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Jun 18, 2025
As Israel's attack on Iran overshadows Israel's ongoing assault on the region, we speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha on the deepening crisis in his home of the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of starving, desperate civilians have been killed and wounded while attempting to access critical aid. Witnesses have described massacres committed by Israeli soldiers and U.S. security contractors at U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid sites that are the only officially sanctioned sources of food, water and medicine entering the Gaza Strip. "People have to go to these so-called distribution sites, and they know they will be killed," says Abu Toha. "Israel is not letting anyone survive, not in Gaza, not in Iran, not in Syria, not in Lebanon."
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Jun 18, 2025
"We're at a moment of immense danger," warns HuffPost correspondent Akbar Shahid Ahmed, as the Trump administration appears increasingly amenable to escalating conflict with Iran. Ahmed shares what we know about the U.S. military buildup and the "magical thinking" of regime change rhetoric among Washington, D.C., policymakers that could turn into a "hugely devastating" war with Iran. Above all, says Ahmed, Trump's boasts about being an antiwar leader have not come true: "We haven't seen him solve any of the wars that he said he would address."
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Jun 18, 2025
Donald Trump has threatened to directly target Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and may be moving closer to ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iran. Meanwhile, Khamenei has rejected Trump's calls for "unconditional surrender," warning that Iran will meet any U.S. military action in Iran with "irreparable harm." In Tehran, many civilians have already evacuated after multiple Israeli strikes killed hundreds. "There's nothing sophisticated about slaughtering everyone in an apartment building to murder one or two people," says Mohammad Marandi about the strikes. Marandi, who has remained in Tehran, was part of the U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations in 2015. He calls Trump's threat "an act of terror" but emphasizes that U.S. and Israeli vilification of Iran has "united the country more than ever before."
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Jun 18, 2025
Iran's Supreme Leader Warns U.S. Military Attack Will Be "Met with Irreparable Harm", Trump Dismisses U.S. Intelligence Findings That Iran Is Not Building a Nuclear Weapon, Sen. Tim Kaine: U.S. Attack on Iran Would Be "Catastrophic Blunder", Tucker Carlson vs. Ted Cruz Highlights MAGA Split on Trump Attacking Iran, Death Toll from Israeli Tank Attack on Gaza Aid Seekers Reaches 70, U.N. Experts: Israel Is Committing the Crime Against Humanity of Extermination in Gaza, ICE Agents Arrest NYC Comptroller Brad Lander at Immigration Courthouse, Sen. Alex Padilla Recounts Being Handcuffed at Kristi Noem Press Conference, Armed ICE Raids Continue Around Los Angeles, Democratic Lawmakers Probe How Palantir Is Helping Trump Build Nationwide Database of Americans, Judge Orders NIH Grants Restored: "I've Never Seen Government Racial Discrimination Like This", Senate Republicans Propose Expanding House Cuts to Medicaid, CNN: EPA Weakens Fossil Fuel Industry Violations in Midwest, NAACP to Sue over Elon Musk's xAI Data Center in Memphis, Big Banks Financed $7.9 Trillion in Fossil Fuel Funding Since Paris Climate Deal Signed, Brain-Dead Georgia Woman Taken Off Life Support After Baby Was Delivered, Saudi Arabia Executes Journalist Turki al-Jasser
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Jun 17, 2025
We speak with Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba's deputy foreign minister, about the Trump administration's tightening restrictions on the country. Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has reinstated Cuba's designation as a so-called state sponsor of terrorism, recommitted to upholding the decadeslong economic embargo and targeted Cuban immigrants for deportation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now going after Cuba's medical program that sends Cuban doctors and healthcare workers to assist other countries. The island nation was also among the countries on Trump's travel ban that went into effect last week, severely limiting Cuban nationals from entering the U.S. This all comes as the Trump administration is reportedly planning to transfer thousands of immigrants to be detained at Guantánamo Bay. Fernández de Cossío says the influence of anti-Cuban politicians in the U.S. is "greater than any previous moment," which allows them to push "this narrow approach, which is not relevant to the interests of most Americans."
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Jun 17, 2025
Federal and state officials in Minnesota have announced murder and stalking charges against Vance Boelter, the man accused of assassinating Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband in their home, as well as for shooting state Senator John Hoffman and his wife. Authorities say Boelter visited the homes of two other lawmakers on the night of the killings and had a hit list that included Planned Parenthood centers and the names of more Democratic politicians. One of the names on that list was Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who joins Democracy Now! to discuss how the shootings have shaken his state, the risk of spreading political violence, and his own friendship with Hortman. "Right up until we lost her, she was fiercely fighting for people," says Ellison, who faults President Trump for exacerbating political tensions. "We must stop political violence."
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Jun 17, 2025
Israel is intensifying its war on Iran, bombing the headquarters of the country's national TV network on Monday and assassinating another top military leader. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also suggested killing Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has responded with barrages of long-range missiles targeting Israel. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has shown little interest in containing Israel's assault, posting on social media that "everyone should immediately evacuate" the capital Tehran.
"How can a city, a metropolis of 10 million people, suddenly evacuate? And to where?" says Iranian American journalist Negar Mortazavi. She notes that while Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is civilian in nature, these attacks could push the leadership into militarizing it and pursuing nuclear weapons.
We also speak with Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg, who says the war on Iran has allowed Israel's establishment to "draw the world's attention away from Gaza," countering rising domestic and international criticism. "Netanyahu felt the global sentiment shifting … and because of that, he attacked Iran."
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Jun 17, 2025
Israel Bombs Iranian State TV Headquarters, Killing 3 in Latest Attack on Press, Tehran Faces Ongoing Attacks as Netanyahu Refuses to Rule Out Assassinating Supreme Leader, Trump Leaves G7 Early, Says He Is Not Seeking Ceasefire in Iran, Israeli Tank Fire Kills Dozens of Palestinian Aid Seekers in Latest Gaza Massacre, European Parliamentarian Rima Hassan Speaks Out After Being Abducted by Israel Aboard Aid Boat, Russian Missile & Drone Attack on Kyiv Kills 14, Injures 100 , Murder & Stalking Charges Filed Against Suspect in Minnesota Lawmaker Assassinations, ICE to Resume Raids on Farms, Hotels & Restaurants, Reversing Trump Pledge, Journalist in Georgia Faces Deportation After Arrest While Reporting on No Kings Protest, Judge Blocks NYC Mayor's Plan to Let ICE Reopen Office Inside Rikers Jail, Indigenous Lawyer Elected to Head Mexico's Supreme Court, Report: New Rules Allow VA Doctors to Refuse to Treat Democrats, Unmarried Veterans, States Agree to $7.4B Settlement with Purdue Pharma to Settle OxyContin Lawsuits, NAACP Breaks with 116-Year Tradition by Not Inviting Trump to Address Convention
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Jun 16, 2025
After the biggest manhunt in Minnesota history, authorities have detained 57-year-old Vance Boelter, who is accused of fatally shooting democratic lawmaker and former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in their Minnesota home early on Saturday in what authorities say were politically motivated assassinations. He is also accused of wounding state Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette at their home in a separate shooting.
"Melissa Hortman was an outstanding leader that was very loved and respected by many people, and what this means for us is that we lost a leader that was very important to us," says Patricia Torres Ray, a former Minnesota state senator and a former colleague of both Hortman and Hoffman.
Police say they found three AK-47 assault rifles, a 9mm handgun and a hit list written by the gunman that contained the names of about 70 people, including prominent Democratic lawmakers and abortion providers and advocates. Flyers for Saturday's No Kings rallies were also found, prompting many organizers in Minnesota to cancel their protests.
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Jun 16, 2025
More than 5 million people joined No Kings Day protests Saturday in the largest day of action against President Trump since his return to office. Protests were held in over 2,100 cities and towns across the country. The protests coincided with a poorly attended, multimillion-dollar military parade on President Trump's birthday, June 14. Democracy Now! spoke with anti-Trump protesters at the Washington, D.C., military parade and at New York City's No Kings protest.
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Jun 16, 2025
More than 5 million people joined No Kings Day protests Saturday in the largest day of action against President Trump since his return to office. Protests were held in over 2,100 cities and towns across the country. The protests coincided with a poorly attended, multimillion-dollar military parade on President Trump's birthday, June 14. Democracy Now! spoke with anti-Trump protesters at the Washington, D.C., military parade and at New York City's No Kings protest.
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Jun 16, 2025
Fighting between Israel and Iran has entered a fourth day, after Israel launched a sweeping, unprovoked attack. Iran's Health Ministry reports a total of 224 people have been killed, with 1,277 people hospitalized, by Israeli attacks. Iran has responded by launching a wave of missile attacks on Tel Aviv, Haifa and other Israeli cities, killing at least 24 people and injuring more than 500.
We speak with Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, who says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "basically bombed away President Trump's only possibility for a diplomatic win early on in his second term." Vaez also argues President Trump is the only world leader with the ability to "stop this cycle of escalation from expanding into a much more disastrous regional conflagration."
Iranian-born Israeli political activist Orly Noy says Netanyau launched strikes on Iran to salvage his dwindling political popularity. The Israeli people are very susceptible to believing "the imaginary threats that Netanyahu uses," says Noy.
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Jun 16, 2025
Tehran Accuses U.S. and Israel of Coordinated Attack as Conflict Between Israel and Iran Continues, Suspect Detained in Assassination of Minnesota Dem. Lawmaker Melissa Hortman and Husband, No Kings Day Protests Draw Over 5 Million Across the U.S., Salt Lake City Fashion Designer Killed After Shooter Causes Chaos at No Kings Protest, Trump's $45B Birthday & Military Parade Draws Small Crowd Amid Massive Nationwide Protests, Israel Has Killed Over 300 Palestinians Seeking Aid in Gaza, Egypt Arrests, Deports and Attacks Global March for Gaza Convoy, U.S. Judge Keeps Mahmoud Khalil Behind Bars over Trump "Immigration Fraud" Accusation, Trump Threatens to Expand Mass Deportation and Immigration Raids in U.S. Cities, Immigrant Justice Leaders Violently Arrested and Detained in Vermont, Trump Admin Could Expand Travel Ban to Another 3 Dozen Countries Incl. Egypt and the DRC, Early Voting Underway in NYC Mayoral Primary with Progressive Mamdani Pitted Against Disgraced Cuomo
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Jun 13, 2025
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the termination of all remaining overseas employees of USAID to complete the dismantling of the six-decade-old agency. USAID was an early target of Elon Musk and DOGE. We look at the dismantling of USAID and what it means for people around the world to lose this lifeline, as detailed in a new Amnesty International report. "We talked to somebody who actually saw IVs being ripped out of arms when the stop-work order came down," says Amnesty's Amanda Klasing, who describes the consequences of the U.S.'s retraction of critical aid to countries in the Global South and refutes the Trump administration's claims that no deaths can be traced to the cuts. Now, lacking funding from the wealthiest country in the world, aid workers like Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council are turning to other countries' governments to bridge the gap. Egeland says, "The U.S. is leaving international solidarity and compassion completely," even though, as Klasing notes, "It's been the leader of humanitarian aid, and it should remain so."
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Jun 13, 2025
Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota joins Democracy Now! to discuss the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump administration, including its crackdown on anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, targeting of pro-Palestine students on college campuses and plans for a massive military parade coinciding with Trump's birthday on June 14. "We are in the midst of the creation of a police state," says Omar. "It will be a dark day if we do not stand up for ourselves, for our Constitution and for our republic."
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Jun 13, 2025
Israel has launched a large-scale military attack on Iran, killing top military officials, nuclear scientists and civilians in the deadliest attack on the country in decades. Iran has launched drones at Israel in response. The unprovoked attack, which Israel described as a "preemptive strike," comes just days before scheduled nuclear talks between Iran and the United States. Iranian-born analyst Trita Parsi says the Trump administration appears to have been coordinating with Israel for "negotiating leverage" in an attempt to force Iran to "capitulate" on nuclear disarmament. Whether this gambit will succeed remains to be seen, though Parsi and Israeli journalist Gideon Levy say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is betting it does not. Netanyahu has long indicated a willingness to wage war with Iran and likely hopes to draw the United States into a major regional conflict. "This was the project of his life," says Levy.
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Jun 13, 2025
Israel Launches Major Unprovoked Attack on Iran, Stoking Fears of All-Out War, UNGA Adopts Gaza Ceasefire Resolution; Internet Blackout Adds to Misery in Gaza, "The World Must Rise": Freedom Flotilla Activist Implores Int'l Community to Help Stop Gaza Genocide, Appeals Court Keeps Nat'l Guard Under Trump's Control in L.A. Amid Ongoing ICE Raids and Protests, "We Will Kill You": Florida Sheriff Threatens Protesters Ahead of Nationwide Anti-Trump Demos, Federal Agents Handcuff, Forcibly Remove CA Sen. Alex Padilla from Kristi Noem Presser, DHS Orders 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to "Self-Deport" or Face Arrest, Harvard Scientist Kseniia Petrova Released on Bail After 4 Months Locked Up, SCOTUS Rules Atlanta Family Can Sue Gov't in Wrongful Raid Case, One Man Survived the Air India Boeing Crash That Killed 290 Others, Nairobi Protests Condemn Police Brutality, Impunity After In-Custody Death of Blogger, RFK Jr. Appoints Vaccine Skeptics to CDC Advisory Panel After Abrupt Firing Last Week, Senate Confirms Scandal-Ridden Billy Long to Head the IRS, an Agency He Once Tried to Dismantle, House Approves Trump Request to Rescind $9.4B for Foreign Aid and Public Media, Judge Declares Mistrial in Third Rape Charge of Harvey Weinstein's NYC Retrial
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Jun 12, 2025
We go to Los Angeles, where immigrant workers and families are feeling the impact of ICE raids on worksites like Home Depot. While hundreds have been detained, countless others are left to wonder whether they can safely go to work or school, fearing for their families. "The life of an immigrant in Los Angeles and across this country … is full of uncertainties," says Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "Families don't know whether they're going to see their parents when they leave in the morning to go to work."
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Jun 12, 2025
As immigrant rights protests spread to Chicago, we speak with Democratic Congressmember Delia Ramirez, who is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and married to a DACA recipient and recently called on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign. She responds to President Trump's threat to deploy troops in more major cities to quell protests. "What you are seeing is the beginning of fascism," says Ramirez, who represents parts of Chicago. "For fascists, they select a public enemy. And today, it's an immigrant. … Tomorrow, it's anyone they find undesirable."
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Jun 12, 2025
Nearly two dozen congressmembers are backing legislation, the Block the Bombs Act, that would withhold offensive weapons from Israel that violate international law and humanitarian norms. "What Bibi Netanyahu wants is to continue to escalate this ground invasion and starvation of Palestinians, to absolutely take over Gaza and destroy Palestinian life," says Congressmember Delia Ramirez, one of the co-sponsors.
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Jun 12, 2025
Activists from around the world are arriving in Egypt ahead of the Global March to Gaza, set to launch June 15, when thousands plan to march to the Rafah border to call for an end to Israel's genocide against Palestinians and its blockade of the territory. Dozens who flew to Cairo for the march have reportedly been detained, interrogated and deported by Egyptian security forces, but organizers say the event will proceed as planned. Former U.S. diplomat Hala Rharrit, who is taking part in the march, spoke with Democracy Now! earlier this week and said she could not turn a "blind eye" to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. "What type of world are we going to be allowing our children to grow up in, if we stand by while an entire civilian population is forcibly starved?" Rharrit asks.
Rharrit was the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department before she resigned in 2024 to protest the Biden administration's Gaza policy. She accuses her former colleague Matthew Miller of "careerism" after he recently admitted on a podcast that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, even though he regularly denied that while serving as a spokesperson for the State Department under Biden.
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Jun 12, 2025
No Survivors Expected After Air India Aircraft Carrying at Least 242 People Crashes, U.S. Pulls Iraq Embassy Personnel Amid Mounting Fears of Israeli Attack on Iran, More Gazans Seeking Aid Amid the 120 Palestinians Killed by Israel Over Past Day, 11-Year-Old Adam al-Najjar Evacuated to Italy for Treatment After Israel Killed Father and 9 Siblings, Israeli Forces Continue Raids on Occupied West Bank, Killing 3 Palestinians Over Past 2 Days, California Seeks to Limit Marine and Nat'l Guard Authority in L.A. Amid Ongoing ICE Protests and Raids, Anguished Families Have Not Heard from Loved Ones Since Abductions by ICE, Prosecutor Charges 2 L.A. Protesters, Warns Gov't Will Pursue Others as Protests Spread Across U.S., "We Will Not Be Intimidated": CHIRLA Responds After Hawley Accuses It of "Bankrolling" L.A. Unrest, GOP Lawmakers to Probe 200 Immigration Nonprofits over Manufactured Border "Crisis", China and U.S. Reportedly Reach Trade Deal, Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro Says He Discussed "Alternatives" for Staying in Power After Election Loss, Khartoum Could Soon Face Famine as Devastating Sudanese War Grinds On, Immigrants in Northern Ireland Targeted in Spate of Race Riots, Judge Rules Mahmoud Khalil Can't Be Detained for Political Expression, Paving Way for Possible Release, CUNY Students End Hunger Strike for Gaza, Call for Supporters to Fight for Summer of Liberation, 200 New Yorkers Occupy Maersk Building, Demanding End to Its Participation in Gaza Genocide, EPA Moves to Repeal Limits on Power Plant Emissions, Mercury, DNC Forces Out 25-Year-Old Activist David Hogg over His Campaign to Back Progressive Insurgents, House Voting on Defunding of Public Media, NYC Jury Convicts Harvey Weinstein on Sex Crime Charge, Again, as Further Deliberations Continue
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Jun 11, 2025
Israel continues to detain eight individuals who were captured Monday when Israeli Navy commandos intercepted a Gaza-bound boat carrying humanitarian aid. Four other passengers on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla have been deported, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. We get an update from Sergio Toribio, one of the 12 on board the Madleen, who has just been deported back to his home country of Spain. He describes how Israeli commandos boarded the ship in international waters and held them on the boat for over 24 hours while towing them to Israel. "They kidnapped us," he says.
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Jun 11, 2025
Condemnation is growing of President Trump's travel ban that went into effect Monday, banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and the Republic of Congo. It also imposes heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. President Trump is "destroying what this nation stands for," says Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition. "Immigration in the U.S. is an American value." Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, called on communities to "fight to make sure that people have the right to migrate." The administration is "literally separating families," says Jozef.
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Jun 11, 2025
A nationwide "No Kings" movement plans to hold over 1,800 anti-Trump rallies across the United States on June 14, the same day as President Trump's military parade in Washington, D.C., as he celebrates his 79th birthday. Organizers are protesting President Trump's mass deportations, militarized crackdown against protesters, defiance of court orders, and attacks on civil rights. "We're going to show him on June 14 that real power lies in the people," says Leah Greenberg?, co-founder and co-executive director of ?Indivisible. Tanks and other armored vehicles are being transported to Washington, D.C., for the parade, which Marine Corps veteran JoJo Sweatt calls an "egregious overspend." President Trump threatened heavy force would be used on anyone who protests at the parade in D.C.
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Jun 11, 2025
Newsom Slams Trump for Sending Troops to L.A.: "Democracy Is Under Assault Before Our Eyes", Trump Claims Anti-ICE Protests in L.A. Are Part of "Foreign Invasion", Curfew Enacted in Downtown L.A. as Protests Continue, Pentagon: Troop Deployment to L.A. Will Cost $134 Million, Texas Gov. Abbott Deploys National Guard as Anti-ICE Protests Grow, As Tanks Arrive in D.C., Trump Says "Very Heavy Force" Will Be Used on Protesters at Military Parade, 31 More Palestinians Killed Near Aid Distribution Site in Gaza, U.K. & Allies Impose Sanctions on Israeli Officials Smotrich & Ben-Gvir for Inciting Violence, Greta Thunberg Returns Home to Sweden After Gaza-Bound Aid Ship Is Seized, Argentina Supreme Court Upholds Prison Sentence for Ex-President Kirchner, Record 1.3 Million People Displaced in Haiti as Violence Escalates, Terry Moran Out at ABC News After Calling Stephen Miller a "World-Class Hater", Rep. Sherrill and Ciattarelli to Face Off in NJ Gubernatorial Race, Rubio Orders Termination of Remaining USAID Overseas Staff
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Jun 10, 2025
Activists from around the world are planning a Global March to Gaza on June 15 in support of Palestinians enduring the Israeli blockade. The first Biden State Department diplomat to publicly resign over Gaza policy, Hala Rharrit, plans to attend the march along with thousands of others who will walk from Cairo to the Rafah border. "Silence does not ensure that we will be OK," says Rharrit. "It's quite the opposite. Silence ensures the injustice spreads." Rharrit had served as the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department. She joins us from Dubai as she prepares for the march.
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Jun 10, 2025
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who was wrongfully sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in March, is now in federal custody in Tennessee after being returned to the United States over the weekend. He now faces federal criminal charges that he was illegally transporting undocumented immigrants within the U.S. "He's still far away from what we want, which is for him to be freed and returned to his family," says Chris Newman, a lawyer for Abrego Garcia's family and legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. Newman draws connections between the L.A. anti-ICE protests and Abrego Garcia's first encounter with law enforcement in 2019 at a Home Depot, where a now-fired Maryland police officer accused him of being a potential MS-13 gang member and handed him over to ICE.
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Jun 10, 2025
The Trump administration is sending 700 marines and an additional 2,000 members of the National Guard into Los Angeles following four days of protests against militarized immigration raids. Rob Bonta, attorney general of California, sued to block the use of National Guard troops on Monday. "Unfortunately, I think [Trump] wants conflict," said Bonta. "He wants something to erupt so that that provides the basis for him to try to grasp and seize additional power." Bonta's office is pursuing more than two dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration.
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Jun 10, 2025
President Trump has inflamed tensions over immigration raids in Los Angeles, which his top adviser Stephen Miller described as an insurrection. "They want protesters to react violently to distract from what is really happening, which is that families are being separated, our communities are being devastated, and the people of Los Angeles are standing up to say, 'We will not stand for this,'" says Jean Guerrero, New York Times contributing opinion writer and author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda. Meanwhile, she notes Trump's budget bill would fund a massive expansion of federal immigration enforcement and turn it into a threat to the civil rights of everyone.
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Jun 10, 2025
Trump Sends U.S. Marines into L.A., Doubles National Guard Presence Amid Anti-ICE Protests, Union Leader David Huerta Charged and Released on Bond After ICE Arrest, Australia Condemns LAPD Shooting of Reporter, One of Many Attacks on Reporters Covering L.A. Protests, Democratic Reps. Barred from Visiting ICE Detention Facilities, Israeli Attacks Kill 60 People in Gaza, Including More Palestinians Awaiting Aid, Israeli Attack Kills 3 Paramedics, Another Journalist During Gaza Rescue Operation, Israel Launches Strikes on Yemen's Hodeidah, Israel Deports 4 Freedom Flotilla Activists; Another 8 Refused Voluntary Deportation, Global March to Gaza, Tunisian Convoy Head Toward Rafah Crossing to Break Siege, RFK Jr. Fires Entire CDC Vaccination Panel, Hundreds of NIH Employees "Dissent" to Challenge Agency Firings, Termination of Grants and Contracts, Shooter Kills at Least 9 People in Austria High School Shooting, Jair Bolsonaro's Attempted Coup Trial Kicks Off in Brazil
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Jun 09, 2025
Eleven peace activists and one journalist on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla ship, the Madleen, were detained by Israeli soldiers as their ship carrying vital humanitarian aid for starving Palestinians approached Gaza. The ship was intercepted by Israeli forces in the middle of the night in international waters. Its supplies were seized and communications jammed. The unarmed activists will likely be transported to Israeli detention or "immediately deported," says Ann Wright, a U.S. military veteran who has participated in four Freedom Flotilla journeys and now serves on the steering committee of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. She calls on citizens of countries around the world to push for the activists' release and an end to Israel's war on Gaza.
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Jun 09, 2025
As protests against ICE raids spread across the city, President Trump has deployed the California National Guard to Los Angeles, the first time in decades that a president has deployed the National Guard without a governor's request. Trump's border "czar" Tom Homan threatened to arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, while Newsom says he plans to sue. "This is absolutely unprecedented. It's extremely dangerous," says legal expert Elizabeth Goitein. "It's going to escalate tensions rather than deescalating them."
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Jun 09, 2025
In Los Angeles, mass street protests have broken out in response to immigration raids. Local police and Border Patrol are cracking down on protesters, while the Trump administration has called in the California National Guard. "They shot thousands of rounds of tear gas, flashbang grenades, all kinds of repressive instruments," says Ron Gochez, community organizer with Union del Barrio who helped organize some of the protests. He notes many of the protests have also been successful at turning back immigration agents, preventing ICE arrests and detention. "If we organize ourselves, if we resist, we can defend our communities from ICE terror, from the Border Patrol or from any federal agency that wishes to separate our families."
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Jun 09, 2025
Trump Deploys National Guard to L.A. as Protests Continue over Militarized ICE Raids, Officers in L.A. Fire Rubber Bullets, Flashbang Grenades & Tear Gas at ICE Protesters & Journalists, Federal Agents Detain SEIU Labor Leader David Huerta in Los Angeles, Israel Intercepts Gaza-Bound Flotilla Carrying Greta Thunberg & Other Activists, More Palestinians Fatally Shot Attempting to Get Aid in Gaza, Russia Escalates Attacks on Ukraine After Trump Likened War to Playground Fight, New Trump Travel Ban Goes into Effect, Bars Citizens from 12 Nations, Kilmar Abrego Garcia Back Brought Back to U.S. to Face Newly Unsealed Charges, Supreme Court OKs DOGE Access to Social Security Records of Millions, Supreme Court Tosses Mexico Lawsuit Against U.S. Gun Manufacturers, Colombian Senator Shot During Campaign Rally in Bogotá, Another Critic of Bukele Is Arrested in Escalating Crackdown on Dissent, "Open Borders, Break Down Walls": Pope Leo Warns Against Nationalist Political Movements, U.N. Ocean Conference Opens in France as Momentum Grows to Ratify High Seas Treaty, NOAA: Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere Reaches Highest Level in Millions of Years
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Jun 06, 2025
We speak with Dr. Rupa Marya, a physician, activist, author and composer, who this week filed two free speech complaints against her former employer, the University of California, San Francisco. The school fired her last month after a lengthy suspension over her criticism of Israel's war on Gaza and its impact on healthcare in the Palestinian territory. "I didn't expect that my career-ending move would be to say 'stop bombing hospitals,' for expressing support for Palestinian liberation and for criticizing the U.S.-backed genocide," says Marya. She was named one of the top 20 most influential women in biomedicine by Nature and served on multiple national advisory boards. Since her firing, over 1,000 healthcare workers and students have signed open letters demanding her reinstatement and denouncing UCSF's suppression of political expression.
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Jun 06, 2025
We get an update from the Madleen, the Freedom Flotilla ship sailing to Gaza with vital humanitarian aid for Palestinians. Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, one of 12 people on the ship, says "spirits are high" despite the constant presence of drones overhead and threats from the Israeli government. "Palestine is now the strategic place for all peoples to unite and fight against oppression, exploitation and the destruction of nature," says Ávila. "People's power is the ultimate power, and love and solidarity can beat any hateful, racist and supremacist ideology, like Zionism." Earlier this week, the ship made a detour to respond to a mayday call to help dozens of migrants aboard a deflating vessel. The Madleen is expected to reach Gaza on Monday, though Israeli officials have said they will not allow it to land.
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Jun 06, 2025
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has filed a federal lawsuit, after he was arrested by masked federal agents outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement jail in Newark. "They arrested me without any evidence," says Baraka of his decision to sue. "They humiliated me. They cuffed me. They dragged me in the car, took me to the cell. … It was completely unwarranted." President Trump's Justice Department is also suing Newark over its sanctuary policies, along with three other New Jersey cities, including Jersey City, where the mayor, Steve Fulop, is running for governor. Baraka is also running for governor in the primary election this Tuesday, June 10.
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Jun 06, 2025
President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" now before the Senate could result in over 51,000 preventable deaths each year in the United States. That's according to public health experts at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, who sent a letter warning about the bill's impact to the Senate Finance Committee. An estimated 16 million people stand to lose their health coverage as a result of the changes in the bill, which "imposes onerous paperwork and fails to safeguard healthcare tax credits," says Alison Galvani, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Modeling at Yale and one of the signatories to the letter. She also notes universal healthcare would have the opposite effect and save tens of thousands of lives each year. "There are a lot of ways we can improve how expensive our healthcare is, but taking healthcare away from people is not how to do it," says Galvani.
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Jun 06, 2025
Is the Donald Trump-Elon Musk bromance finally over? President Trump is threatening to cut off billions of dollars in federal contracts with Musk after the two billionaires engaged in a dramatic online feud just days after Musk called Trump's budget bill a "disgusting abomination." Musk appeared to back the impeachment of Trump and claimed the president is named in the Jeffrey Epstein files. "They are people who always have their eye on the bottom line, but they also are, obviously, titanically sized egos," says author Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history at Boston University, who is working on a new book about Elon Musk. "This is just a sign of how dangerous it is to put … the whole future of the American economy and the political scene in the hands of two sole human beings."
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Jun 06, 2025
Trump and Musk Trade Threats and Insults as Deepening Rift Threatens Trump's Signature Bill, Netanyahu Acknowledges Israel Armed Gangs Accused of Looting Humanitarian Aid , Israel Attacks Beirut's Suburbs and Southern Lebanon in Latest Ceasefire Violation, French Stevedores Refuse to Move Military Cargo Bound for Israel, House Progressives' "Block the Bombs Act" Would End Transfer of Offensive Arms to Israel, State Department Sanctions ICC Judges over War Crimes Investigations, Trump Withdraws Nomination of Elon Musk Ally to Lead NASA, Trump Administration Waives Environmental Laws to Speed Border Wall Construction, ICE Agents and Their Prisoners Left Stranded in Shipping Container in Djibouti, Judge Grants Release to Massachusetts High School Student After 6 Days in ICE Custody, Trump Administration Returns Wrongly Deported Guatemalan Immigrant, Lawsuit Alleges Jared Polis Collaborated with ICE to Share Residents' Personal Data , Judge Halts Deportation of Family of Egyptian Man Charged in Boulder Attack, Ethics Complaint Accuses Attorney General Pam Bondi of "Serious Professional Misconduct"
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Jun 05, 2025
We're joined by award-winning investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr, who in 2018 exposed the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal and is now taking on what she terms the "broligarchy," the billionaire Silicon Valley businessmen who now wield major influence in U.S. government and society. "This is a new type of power, and the world hasn't seen this before, in which you have state power now with this enormous surveillance engine machine," says Cadwalladr. She warns that the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump administration is being facilitated by unregulated surveillance technology. "People should be freaked out. … They want as much information about the population as possible, so that they can surveil them, they can control them, they can search out their enemies, they can target them, and they can punish them, and they can silence them."
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Jun 05, 2025
We speak to political scientist Neve Gordon and medical anthropologist Guy Shalev about their new article, "The Shame of Israeli Medicine," which looks at the "complicity of the Israeli medical establishment with Israel's egregious violations of international law." The article's third author, Osama Tanous, is a Palestinian citizen of Israel and has not been able to make media appearances for fear of reprisal by the Israeli government. "The Israeli medical establishment in general identifies with Israel's colonial project and puts the colonial project over the most basic ethical principles of their profession," says Gordon, who previously served as the inaugural director of the organization Physicians for Human Rights Israel. Shalev, the current executive director of the group, connects the Israeli military's targeting of healthcare workers and infrastructure in Gaza with its silencing of the great number of Palestinians who make up the medical workforce in Israel. The authors call for an international boycott of Israeli medical institutions, until "Israel stops its colonial project, [and] after the Palestinians receive liberation and self-determination."
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Jun 05, 2025
A group of veterans and their allies have entered their third week of a "Fast for Gaza" outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The group is calling for an end to arms sales to Israel and of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. We hear from multiple hunger strikers on their decisions to join the planned 40-day action and why they are pressuring the U.N. in particular. "We wake up each morning, and we don't worry about whether or not our children have been buried under rubble overnight. We're not drinking poisoned water. We're not surrounded by rubble. We're not dealing with the horrible traumas that people in Palestine and Gaza are dealing with," says peace activist Kathy Kelly, who started her hunger strike two weeks ago. "What would make us stop? Well, certainly, if there were a permanent, unconditional, immediate ceasefire."
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Jun 05, 2025
We get an update on the case of former Columbia University student protest negotiator Mahmoud Khalil from Baher Azmy, a member of Khalil's legal team at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Khalil has been detained in Louisiana for nearly three months, in what Azmy calls one of "our immigration gulags." Khalil's legal team is now challenging the State Department's determination that his presence in the United States harms the country's foreign policy interests.
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Jun 05, 2025
President Trump has signed a new travel ban barring citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States. The ban applies to Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and the Republic of Congo. The Trump administration is calling some of the countries "terrorist safe havens" and citing high visa overstay rates for others. Compared to the first Trump administration's sweeping travel bans, which targeted travelers from Muslim-majority countries, this latest iteration is more likely to withstand legal challenges, says Baher Azmy, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which challenged the previous bans. However, the new order will be just as "devastating," says Azmy.
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Jun 05, 2025
Trump Signs Travel Ban Targeting Citizens of 12 Countries , United States Vetoes Another U.N. Security Council Resolution Calling for Gaza Ceasefire, Israel Attacks Al-Ahli Hospital, Killing at Least 3 Journalists, Protesters Demand U.S. and U.K. Lawmakers Act to Stop Genocide in Gaza, Deadly Russian Attacks on Ukraine Follow Putin's Threat of Retaliation over Drone Strikes, Iran's Supreme Leader Rejects Trump Administration Demand to End Uranium Enrichment, Human Rights Watch Says U.S. Committed Apparent War Crime in Yemen Port Attack, Trump Targets Columbia's Accreditation and Harvard's International Students, Trump Proposes 90% Cuts to All 37 U.S. Tribal Colleges, Mexico Says It Will Reciprocate After Trump Doubles Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum, CBO Says "Big Beautiful Bill" Would End Health Coverage for 11 Million, Add $2.4 Trillion to Debt, Rep. Jerry Nadler Demands Investigation After DHS Agents Handcuff Staffer, El Salvador Court Orders Prominent Anti-Corruption Lawyer Jailed for 6 Months Ahead of Trial
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Jun 04, 2025
The new book Empire of AI by longtime technology reporter Karen Hao unveils the accruing political and economic power of AI companies — especially Sam Altman's OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the exploitation of workers in Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology's detrimental impact on the environment. "This is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms," says Hao.
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Jun 04, 2025
As Gaza faces over three months of Israeli blockade, a group of 12 activists is sailing to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. The Madleen ship was launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and initially planned to sail from Malta last month, but the group's ship was damaged in a drone attack. The new mission includes the renowned Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who speaks with Democracy Now! live from the Madleen. "We deem the risk of silence and the risk of inaction to be so much more deadly than this mission," says Thunberg.
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