|
Sep 17, 2024
We speak with filmmaker Pamala Yates about her new documentary, Borderland: The Line Within, which explores the human impact of restrictive U.S. immigration policies and border militarization. The film tells the stories of asylum seekers fleeing violence in their home countries, activists fighting to protect the rights of undocumented immigrants, and others caught up in what Yates calls "the border-industrial complex, the billions of dollars of our tax money that is being spent to capture, incarcerate and deport immigrants." She says the immigrants shown in the film are not victims but "leaders" who are "building strength in immigrant communities." We also speak with Gabriela Castañeda, an immigrant rights organizer with the Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania, or MILPA, whose work is featured in the documentary. She faults both Republicans and Democrats for promoting anti-immigrant policies instead of using those same resources to improve the country. "What's happening right now is that the immigrants are used as scapegoats. We are blamed for all the problems in the United States," she says. Borderland continues the work of Yates over four decades and her past films, When the Mountains Tremble, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator and 500 Years: Life in Resistance.
|
|
Sep 17, 2024
We speak with Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley, author of the new book Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, which examines the global rise of authoritarianism in the United States, Russia, Israel and beyond. He says attacks on education are a key part of the fascist toolkit to undermine democracy and pluralism. "They're attacking the institutions, the universities, because the universities provide critical inquiry into the kind of myths that's required for these kinds of politics," says Stanley.
|
|
Sep 17, 2024
Top United Nations human rights experts have condemned Western nations for supporting Israel's devastating war on Gaza, urging the world to stop an unfolding genocide in Palestine. This comes as the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, is accusing Israel in a new report of carrying out a deliberate starvation campaign in Gaza. "What we are witnessing in Gaza is the starvation of 2.3 million Palestinians. We've never seen a civilian population made to go hungry so quickly and so completely," says Fakhri, who joins us from Brazil. We also speak with Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, who says Israel's assault on Gaza is part of a larger plan of "getting as much control as possible over maximum land with minimum Palestinian people."
|
|
Sep 17, 2024
Netanyahu Expands War Aims to Include Return of Israelis Displaced by Fighting with Lebanon, Israeli Assaults Have Killed 11,000 Students, Says Palestinian Education Ministry, U.N. Special Rapporteur Blasts Western Nations for Supporting Israel's Assault on Gaza, Trump and JD Vance Blame Democrats' Rhetoric for Inspiring Assassination Attempts, Prosecutors Allege Gunman Spent 12 Hours Lying in Wait to Attempt Trump Assassination, Ohio Orders Daily Bomb Sweeps in Springfield Schools Amid Right-Wing Attack on Haitian Community, Putin Boosts Active-Duty Troops, Warns NATO over Ukraine's Long-Range Attacks, Taliban Suspends U.N.-Led Polio Vaccination Campaign, Man Sets Himself on Fire Near Boston's Israeli Consulate to Protest Gaza Genocide, NYPD Officer Shoots and Hospitalizes Four People over Subway Fare Evasion, "Give People a Choice": Atlantans Disrupt City Council Meeting to Demand Referendum on Cop City
|
|
Sep 16, 2024
As Israeli forces launch repeated attacks on civilian areas in Gaza, expand their deadly incursion into the West Bank and threaten retaliation for strikes by Hezbollah and Houthis, we discuss ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas with Palestinian writer Amjad Iraqi and former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy. Despite apparent divisions among Israeli leadership over the terms of an acceptable deal — if such a deal even exists — all of the Israeli proposals are "united by an assumption that Israel is going to be maintaining overarching control of the Gaza Strip," says Iraqi. Meanwhile, in the United States, what Levy calls "the Biden administration's slavish devotion to running cover" for Israel's genocidal assault is threatening the Democratic Party's attempt to hold onto executive power after the upcoming presidential election.
|
|
Sep 16, 2024
As Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance continue to spread debunked, racist lies that Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people's pets, we speak with Guerline Jozef from the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an immigrant advocacy group, about threats of violence that have forced closures and evacuations at hospitals, colleges and City Hall in Springfield, with some threats citing anger over the city's resettlement of Haitian immigrants. This comes as Trump continues to promise mass deportations if he is reelected, starting in Springfield, even though the Haitians there were welcomed under the Temporary Protected Status program.
|
|
Sep 16, 2024
Suspect in Custody After Another Apparent Assassination Attempt Against Trump, Bided Admin OKs More Weapons for Israel as Death Toll of Gaza Genocide Tops 41,200, Israeli Sniper Kills UNRWA Employee in Occupied West Bank, Houthi-Launched Missile Strikes Central Israel, No Casualties Reported, Biden and Harris Have Not Contacted the Family of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the U.S. Citizen Killed by Israel, Ohio's Haitian Community Under Attack as Trump and JD Vance Spew More Racist Lies, Congolese Court Sentences 37 People to Death over Plot to Overthrow President, At Least 8 Refugees Died While Attempting to Cross English Channel, Outspoken Honduran Land and Water Defender Juan López Is Killed, Venezuela Arrests 6 Foreigners, Incl. 3 U.S. Citizens, in Alleged Presidential Assassination Plot, Mexico Court Overhaul Goes into Effect Despite Judicial Uproar, August 2024 Was Hottest Ever as Typhoon Yagi Kills 400 Across Asia, European Flooding Wreaks Havoc, Mayor Eric Adams's Chief Legal Adviser Resigns, Paramedic Who Injected Elijah McClain with Deadly Dose of Ketamine Is Released Early from Prison
|
|
Sep 13, 2024
We speak with V, the playwright formerly known as Eve Ensler, about "How We Do Freedom: Rising Against Fascism," a daylong educational event to be held at New York City's Judson Memorial Church on Saturday. V is the founder of the global activist movements V-Day and One Billion Rising that is organizing the event. "The rise of fascism, from India to Italy, from Afghanistan to U.S., [is] the most pressing concern everywhere," says V, who ties the crisis to growing loneliness and isolation. "One of the antidotes to fascism we know is community, is solidarity, is coming together, is talking, is being part of something that is bigger than yourself."
|
|
Sep 13, 2024
A federal jury in Florida has found members of the pan-Africanist group African People's Socialist Party guilty of conspiring with the Russian government to "sow discord" and "interfere" in U.S. elections. They face up to five years in federal prison. In a major victory for the activists, however, the jury acquitted them of the more serious charge of acting as foreign agents. "The trial of the Uhuru Three is proving to be one of the most important First Amendment cases thus far in the 21st century," says attorney Jenipher Jones, who is on the legal support committee for defendants. "It remains clear that when covert government repression tactics fail against activists, the government will use the overt means of charges and cages against folks that they simply disagree with."
|
|
Sep 13, 2024
Supporters of Leonard Peltier are calling on President Biden to grant clemency to the Indigenous leader and activist, who marked his 80th birthday behind bars on Thursday after nearly a half-century in prison for a crime he says he did not commit. The ailing Peltier, who uses a walker and has serious health conditions, including diabetes, has always maintained his innocence over the 1975 killing of two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation. His conviction was riddled with irregularities and prosecutorial misconduct, and he is considered to be the longest-serving political prisoner in the United States. For much of the last four years, Peltier has been held under near-total lockdown. For more on Peltier and the campaign to free him, we speak with Nick Tilsen, president of the NDN Collective, and two attorneys on Peltier's legal defense team, Jenipher Jones and Moira Meltzer-Cohen.
|
|
Sep 13, 2024
In Sudan, a recent United Nations fact-finding mission documented "harrowing" human rights violations committed by both the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, schools, hospitals, water and power supplies. Civilians have also been subjected to torture, arbitrary detention and gruesome sexual violence. Over 20,000 people have been killed and 13 million displaced over the past 16 months. The war has also destroyed the country's healthcare system and caused an outbreak of diseases like cholera, malaria and dengue. Sky News correspondent Yousra Elbagir, whose reporting helped uncover details of a June 2023 massacre of civilians by the RSF in North Darfur, says the world is showing "complete apathy and neglect" over the violence in Sudan today. We also speak with Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, who says advanced weapons made in countries including Russia, China and Iran are ending up in Sudan and are "very likely to be used to commit human rights violations and war crimes."
|
|
Sep 13, 2024
In Sudan, a recent United Nations fact-finding mission documented "harrowing" human rights violations committed by both the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, schools, hospitals, water and power supplies. Civilians have also been subjected to torture, arbitrary detention and gruesome sexual violence. Over 20,000 people have been killed and 13 million displaced over the past 16 months. The war has also destroyed the country's healthcare system and caused an outbreak of diseases like cholera, malaria and dengue. Sky News correspondent Yousra Elbagir, whose reporting helped uncover details of a June 2023 massacre of civilians by the RSF in North Darfur, says the world is showing "complete apathy and neglect" over the violence in Sudan today. We also speak with Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, who says countries including Russia, China and Iran are supplying both sides with advanced weapons that are "very likely to be used to commit human rights violations and war crimes."
|
|
Sep 13, 2024
U.N. Evacuates 100 Gaza Patients for Treatment in UAE, Says 25% of War Injuries "Life-Changing", Calls Mount for U.S. to Investigate, Hold Israel Accountable for Killing Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, North Dakota Judge Strikes Down State's Near-Total Abortion Ban, 33,000 Boeing Workers in PNW Go on Strike for Better Pay, Improved Safety Standards, Florida Judge Finds Uhuru 3 Guilty of Conspiracy, Clears Activists of "Russian Agent" Charges, Georgia Judge Tosses 2 More Charges Against Trump in Election Subversion Case, Springfield, OH, City Hall Evacuated over Bomb Threat Amid Trump/Vance-Fueled Anti-Haitian Attacks, U.S. Approves $1.3 Billion in Military Aid to Egypt Despite Widespread Human Rights Abuses, At Least 30 Killed in Northeastern Nigeria as Heavy Rains Spawn Flooding, Democrats Unveil Bill to Make Fossil Fuel Companies Pay $1 Trillion over Climate Crisis, NYC Police Commissioner Resigns as FBI Expands Probe into Mayor's Inner Circle, Chile's President Calls for Repeal of Dictatorship-Era Amnesty Law
|
|
Sep 12, 2024
We're joined by award-winning Cherokee writer and journalist Rebecca Nagle, whose new book, By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land, has just been released. By taking a look at the more than a century-long fight for tribal sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma, Nagle investigates the development and future of tribal law since the beginning of colonial relations between Indigenous peoples and European settlers, from the Trail of Tears to the "war on terror." "A lot of times we treat Native American history like this distant chapter and the legal terrain it created as some sort of siloed backwater of American law, but actually it's foundational," she says.
|
|
Sep 12, 2024
As the climate crisis continues to accelerate, wealthy governments in the West are clamping down on climate protest. According to a new report from Climate Rights International, demonstrators around the world are being arrested, charged, prosecuted and silenced, simply for using their rights to free expression. One of those prosecuted is activist Joanna Smith, who last year applied washable school finger paint on the exterior glass case enclosing Edgar Degas's renowned wax sculpture, Little Dancer, at the National Gallery of Art to draw attention to the urgency of the climate crisis. She was charged and later sentenced to two months in federal prison for her civil disobedience. We speak to Smith just a week after her release, and to Linda Lakhdir, the legal director of Climate Rights International. "Countries who have held themselves up as beacons of rule of law are essentially repressing peaceful protest," says Lakhdir. Smith says the nonviolent action she took was intended to highlight the disparity between a sculpture of a child protected from the elements with a strong plexiglass case and the billions of children around the world left unsafe and vulnerable by climate change's effects. "The crisis is here now, it's unfolding in front of us, and our governments are failing us," she explains.
|
|
Sep 12, 2024
At least 196 environmental defenders were killed last year, most of them Indigenous or Afro-descendant. The deadliest country was Colombia, where at least 79 land, water and climate defenders were killed. "2023 was yet another appalling year for those who want to protect their lands and their environment," and this violence is likely to "intensify as the consequences of the climate crisis become more apparent," says Laura Furones, senior adviser to the land and environmental defenders campaign at Global Witness, which published the numbers in a new report.
|
|
Sep 12, 2024
Israel Strikes Gaza's al-Jaouni School for 5th Time, Kills 18 Palestinians, Incl. 6 UNRWA Staffers, Israel's Assault on West Bank Continues as Death Toll in Occupied Territory Reaches 50 Over 2 Weeks, Biden Calls Israel's Killing of Turkish American Activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi "Totally Unacceptable", Kyiv Pushes for U.S. Greenlight on Long-Range Missiles as Russian Army Retakes Parts of Kursk, Protesters March to Demand End to Ethnic Violence in India's Manipur State, 3.2 Million Afghan Children Face Acute Malnutrition, Spanish Congress Recognizes Edmundo González as Venezuela's President-Elect, Peruvian Ex-Dictator Alberto Fujimori Dies at 86, Grieving Ohio Father Blasts Trump and Vance for Politicizing Son's Death, Report Finds Doctors Far More Likely to Order C-Sections for Black Patients, Black Enrollment Drops at Harvard After Supreme Court Rolls Back Affirmative Action, Amnesty Asks Biden to Grant Clemency to U.S. Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier, Who Turns 80 Today
|
|
Sep 11, 2024
Tuesday night's presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump focused heavily on abortion rights and the aftermath of the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Trump repeated his false claim that Democrats support infanticide, and claimed that allowing individual states to set their own laws on abortion was an improvement. Harris highlighted the risk to pregnant people now navigating a patchwork of laws and restrictions in the U.S. and promised to restore protections for reproductive rights as president. "Kamala Harris was finally out there channeling the outrage and the profound sense of violation that many people across this country feel in the wake of the Dobbs decision," says Amy Littlefield, the abortion access correspondent for The Nation.
|
|
Sep 11, 2024
We speak with consumer advocate Ralph Nader and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz about Tuesday's debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Stiglitz says Trump's policies, including a plan for major new tariffs, would result in "more inflation and slower growth" and wreak havoc on the U.S. economy. Nader says that while "it's easy to look good against Trump," Harris is not fundamentally challenging corporate greed, the military-industrial complex, environmental destruction and more.
|
|
Sep 11, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump had their first and only scheduled debate Tuesday, providing a stark contrast between the two candidates with just eight weeks to go before the November 5 election. Harris repeatedly put Trump on the defensive as they debated abortion, immigration, Israel's war on Gaza, race, January 6 and other issues. Trump repeated his false claim that he won the 2020 election and again questioned Harris's race, painted diverse cities as inherently unsafe, repeated a debunked claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets and more. Carol Anderson, professor of African American studies at Emory University, says Trump's basic pitch is that "white Americans need to be fearful" of people of color. "What he is basically saying is, 'I'm your white savior.'"
|
|
Sep 11, 2024
Tuesday night's debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris focused heavily on immigration, with the Republican nominee attacking the current administration for not closing the border, and spreading xenophobic and racist conspiracy theories about asylum seekers. "Donald Trump resorted to the same deranged and despicable rhetoric that is meant to divide people. From his very first answer, he was demonizing immigrants," says journalist Jean Guerrero, who has written extensively about immigration, including the book Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda. Guerrero says that while Harris "was able to project strength on the border" and undermine Trump on his "signature issue," she did not do enough to challenge the narrative about immigrants bringing crime and disorder to the country. "I wish that she had countered him on immigration in a more sustained way."
|
|
Sep 11, 2024
Presidential Debate Reveals Sharp Contrast Between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Israel Used U.S.-Made 2,000-Pound Bombs in Assault on Gaza Encampment for Displaced Palestinians, Israeli Airstrike on West Bank Kills 5 Palestinians in Tubas, Blinken Calls Israel's Killing of U.S. Activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi "Unprovoked and Unjustified", Canada Suspends Some Arms Export Licenses to Israel, Antiwar Protesters Rally Outside U.S. Presidential Debate, Australian Arms Expo, Protesters Storm Mexican Senate to Oppose Judicial Overhaul Plan, Missouri High Court OKs Ballot Measure to Enshrine Abortion Rights, Tropical Storms Wreak Havoc in Vietnam, U.S. Gulf Coast, Colombia Tops List of Deadliest Nations for Environmental Defenders in 2023
|
|
Sep 10, 2024
Former presidential candidate and celebrated consumer advocate Ralph Nader discusses Israel's war on Gaza, the U.S. presidential election and more. Nader's latest article, "Exposing the Gaza Death Undercount," can be read in the Capitol Hill Citizen, which he also founded. The official death toll in Gaza has been suspended at around 40,000 for months, as Israel's devastation of the territory makes it increasingly difficult to properly recover and identify the dead. Nader says that the true cost in Palestinian lives could already be "well over 300,000," and that "if the true count was known, it would devastate the mythology that the Biden administration and Congress are furthering, that the Israeli government does not purposely target civilian populations."
|
|
Sep 10, 2024
The legendary actor James Earl Jones has died at the age of 93. Across a career that spanned film and stage, he won numerous acting awards and gave voice to iconic characters including Star Wars' Darth Vader and The Lion King's Mufasa. In tribute to Jones, we play an excerpt of his reading of Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" from a performance of Voices of a People's History of the United States. He was introduced by the late historian Howard Zinn.
|
|
Sep 10, 2024
We speak to acclaimed historian, activist and filmmaker Tariq Ali about Western governments' support for Israel's war on Gaza and popular protest in support of Palestine, which Ali calls the "biggest divide we've seen in politics almost since the Vietnam War." He argues that this division is "challenging the very nature of democracy" and the international rule of law. Ali also shares his analysis of South Asian politics — in Pakistan, where former Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused the United States of engineering his ouster, and in Bangladesh, where a student-led uprising recently toppled the authoritarian regime of its former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Finally, we cover developments in Europe. In France, President Emmanuel Macron has appointed conservative leader Michel Barnier as prime minister, despite the electoral gains of the country's left-wing coalition. This comes as far-right and anti-migrant sentiment spreads throughout the Global North.
|
|
Sep 10, 2024
Israeli Strike Kills 40 Displaced Palestinians in Gaza "Safe Zone", Funeral Held for Turkish American Activist Killed by Israeli Forces in West Bank, 1 Killed, 3 Wounded in Major Ukrainian Drone Attack on Russia, Texas Sues to Gain Access to Medical Records of Patients Who Travel for Abortions, DOJ Charges 2 Leaders of White Supremacist Group Who Were Plotting Assassinations, "Race War", JD Vance, Trump Campaign Pile on Racist Attacks Against Ohio's Haitian Community, Mother of Apalachee HS Shooter Warned School After Receiving "I'm Sorry, Mom" Text, Tens of Thousands Ordered to Evacuate as Wildfires Rage Across Western States, Google and Apple Lose EU Appeals as Google's Second U.S. Antitrust Lawsuit Opens, Miami Police Video Shows Officers Violently Detaining NFL Star Tyreek Hill, James Earl Jones, Prolific and Beloved Actor Who Voiced Darth Vader and Mufasa, Has Died at 93
|
|
Sep 09, 2024
Israel is continuing its military assault across the occupied West Bank, with soldiers storming the Palestinian city of Tulkarm after midnight Monday, just days after Israeli forces withdrew from Tulkarm and Jenin following a brutal incursion that lasted over one week. Israeli troops have also raided other towns and villages across the occupied territory as part of the largest Israeli military operation in the West Bank in about two decades, deploying hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. Israel has killed dozens of Palestinians since launching the operation on August 28. "The brutality is truly unprecedented," says Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti, who adds that in many of the targeted areas, Israel has "bulldozed the overwhelming majority of the civilian infrastructure." Her recent piece for 972 Magazine is titled "Inside the brutal siege of Jenin."
|
|
Sep 09, 2024
As friends and family mourn the killing of Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, we speak with the parents of Rachel Corrie, another American killed while volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement to protect Palestinians from attacks and displacement. Corrie was just 23 years old when she was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza in 2003 as she attempted to use her body to stop the destruction of Palestinian homes. Cindy and Craig Corrie have since devoted their lives to their daughter's cause and founded the nonprofit Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. They say the news of Eygi's death brought back painful memories. "It thrusts us back to that moment on March 16, 2003, about noon, when we were in Charlotte, North Carolina, and got the word about Rachel," says Cindy Corrie. "It's a parent's nightmare." Craig Corrie echoes calls by Eygi's family for an independent probe into her killing. "Israel does not do investigations; they do cover-ups."
|
|
Sep 09, 2024
A funeral is being held today in the occupied West Bank for Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was shot dead Friday by Israeli forces while taking part in a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita. The 26-year-old recent graduate of the University of Washington was a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement. Witnesses say she was fatally shot in the head by an Israeli sniper after the demonstration had already dispersed. The Turkish government has said it holds Israel responsible for Aysenur's death, while the U.S. government has offered condolences and called for Israel to investigate the incident. At least 17 Palestinian protesters have been killed in Beita in protests against illegal Israeli settlements since 2020.
Juliette Majid, a friend of Eygi at the University of Washington, remembers the slain activist as being "passionate about justice" and involved in various causes. "She's no longer with us, but her spirit and her love and who she was and who she impacted in our community are still with us every day," says Majid. Filipino American activist Amado Sison, who also volunteered in the occupied West Bank and was himself shot in the leg by Israeli forces on August 9 during a weekly protest in Beita, says the U.S. government must demand an independent investigation and end Israeli impunity. "If they took it seriously that a U.S. citizen was shot a month ago, maybe Aysenur would be here right now," he says.
|
|
Sep 09, 2024
U.N.: Israel Carrying Out "Starvation Campaign" as the Entire Gaza Strip Remains in Urgent Need of Food, Israeli Forces Kill American Activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi in Occupied West Bank, Israelis Take to Streets for Mass Protests Calling for Hostage Deal, Removal of Netanyahu, Israel Temporarily Closes Border Crossings with Jordan After Shooting of 3 Israeli Security Guards, Separate Israeli Attacks Kill 3 Paramedics in Lebanon, 16 People in Syria, Trump's NY Election Interference Sentencing Pushed to After Nov. Election, Sudan Rejects U.N. Call for Internat'l Peacekeeping Force as Video Emerges of RSF's Ethnic Massacres, Protesters Slam France's Macron for Ignoring People's Will, Vote Results by Naming Right-Wing PM, Opposition Leader Edmundo González Flees Venezuela, Seeks Asylum in Spain, Pope Francis in East Timor Amid Uproar over $12M Cost of Papal Visit, Specter of Church Sexual Abuse, Typhoon Yagi Kills Dozens in Vietnam After Barreling Through Philippines, Southern China, Boeing Reaches Tentative Deal with 30,000 Unionized Workers in Hopes of Averting Possible Strike, "What If I Wasn't Tyreek Hill?": Miami Police Detain, Handcuff Football Stars Before NFL Game
|
|
Sep 06, 2024
Democracy Now! is joined by the nephew of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has endorsed Trump's Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Fred Trump III's new memoir, All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got to Be This Way, shares fresh insights into the Trump family and acts as a platform to advocate for individuals with developmental disabilities. Fred Trump's own son William has a rare genetic disorder that causes severe developmental and intellectual disabilities. He says Donald Trump once told him to abandon William, saying, "He doesn't recognize you. Let him die, and move down to Florida." After a meeting in the Oval Office about dedicating more resources to people with disabilities, Fred Trump says his uncle said, "Those people, the costs. They should just die."
"How could one human being say that about any other human being, least of all your grandnephew?" says Fred Trump, who calls on the next president to support disabled Americans. "The Harris campaign and her positions are ones that I believe. Now, that being said, I have yet to hear anything regarding disability actions … and I will put their feet to the fire on this."
|
|
Sep 06, 2024
The United Nations is warning the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains "beyond catastrophic" as more than 1 million Palestinians in Gaza did not receive any food rations in August amid Israel's relentless assault. Israel's 11-month campaign has killed more than 15,000 children and enabled the besieged territory's first polio outbreak in a quarter-century. INARA founder Arwa Damon just got back from spending two weeks in Gaza, where the nonprofit currently provides medical and mental healthcare to Palestinian children. "Israel has decimated every single aspect of any sort of infrastructure within the Gaza Strip, from sewage to water to electricity to you name it," says Damon, who reports that humanitarian assistance has diminished significantly while displaced Palestinians play a "macabre, dark, twisted game" of trying to escape constant Israeli bombing.
|
|
Sep 06, 2024
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced more U.S. aid for Ukraine just days after the country was hit by one of the deadliest airstrikes since Russia's invasion in early 2022. On Tuesday, a pair of Russian missiles struck a military academy and hospital in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava, killing at least 51 people and injuring more than 270. "The sense … is that the U.S. is giving Ukraine enough so that it doesn't lose, but not enough so that it can actually make significant and needed gains," says award-winning journalist Arwa Damon, who is in Ukraine providing medical and mental healthcare with her organization INARA, the International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance. "This has been going on for well over two years right now, and they really want to begin to be able to see a way out."
|
|
Sep 06, 2024
Israel Hinders Polio Vaccination; U.N. Warns Gazans Getting No Food in "Beyond Catastrophic" Scenario, Israel Continues Assault on West Bank, Leaves Devastating Scenes After Attacking Jenin and Tulkarm, Georgia Authorities Charge Father of Apalachee High School Mass Shooter, Harris Calls for 28% Capital Gains Tax Rate, Proposes Tax Benefits for Small Businesses, DOJ Indicts Russians over Election Subversion Scheme Involving Social Media "Propaganda" Accounts, Activists Demand Justice After Ugandan Olympic Runner Rebecca Cheptegei Is Killed by Her Partner, DRC Finally Gets First Mpox Vaccine Doses, Nicaragua Expels 135 Prisoners Jailed by Daniel Ortega's Crackdown on Opposition, Honduran Pres. Xiomara Castro Warns of Possible U.S. Coup Against Her Gov't, Haiti Expands State of Emergency Nationwide as Blinken Visits Port-au-Prince, Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty to 9 Tax Evasion Charges, FBI Raids Homes of Four Top Members of NYC Mayor Eric Adams's Inner Circle, 50 Climate Activists Arrested at Citibank HQ Demanding Fossil Fuel Divestment
|
|
Sep 05, 2024
As the fall term gets underway for students across the United States, we speak with journalist and academic Natasha Lennard about how college administrators are attempting to quash Gaza solidarity actions following mass protests at campuses across the country in the spring. One example is New York University, which recently updated its student policy to make criticisms of Zionism potentially punishable under its anti-discrimination rules. "It's extremely dangerous," says Lennard, who teaches at The New School. "It performs de facto apologia for Israel, and to have that put into writing by a university so clearly is just open for further abuses."
|
|
Sep 05, 2024
Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke last appeared on Democracy Now! in January to discuss an attack on Columbia's campus targeting pro-Palestinian student activists with a foul-smelling liquid that led to multiple hospitalizations. Following her interview, Franke now faces termination after two Columbia professors filed a complaint against her claiming she had created a hostile environment for Israeli students; she also became a target for Republican lawmakers.
Franke joins Democracy Now! to discuss the campaign against her, the ongoing crackdown on pro-Palestine activism at Columbia and more. "There's an overreaction by the university, a weaponization of the disciplinary system against students and faculty in ways that in my over 40 years at Columbia I have never seen," she says.
We are also joined by attorney Kathleen Peratis, who is representing Franke along with the Center for Constitutional Rights after she quit her former law firm, Outten & Golden, because it dropped Franke as a client, saying she was too controversial. "What happened at Outten & Golden is the kind of thing that's happening all over," says Peratis.
|
|
Sep 05, 2024
We speak with journalist, author and academic Steven Thrasher, the chair of social justice reporting at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He was singled out by name during a congressional hearing about pro-Palestine protests on college campuses earlier this year, with one Republican lawmaker calling him a "goon" for protecting students in an encampment from violent arrest. Northwestern filed charges against Thrasher for obstructing police that were later dropped, but students returning to Northwestern for the fall term will not see him in their classrooms because he has been suspended as Northwestern says he is under investigation. In his first interview about the affair, Thrasher tells Democracy Now! that he stands by his actions and that he has "received no due process" from his employer. He says the university has previously celebrated him, including in "glowing" job reviews and by publicizing his work. "What they don't like is that I am now applying the same social justice journalism principles that I've applied to race and that I've applied to LGBTQ people, to COVID and HIV, that I was now applying those to Palestine," says Thrasher.
|
|
Sep 05, 2024
A 14-year-old student opened fire Wednesday at a high school in Winder, Georgia, just outside Atlanta, killing two fellow students — both also 14 years old — and two teachers, while injuring at least nine others. The teen shooter, who used an AR-platform-style weapon in his deadly rampage, surrendered to school resource officers and faces multiple murder charges as an adult. The violence in Georgia marks the deadliest U.S. school shooting of 2024 and comes after the teenager was interviewed by police last year following tips to the FBI about online threats of a school shooting.
"We were shocked, of course, but we were not surprised," says Georgia state Representative Dr. Michelle Au, a practicing physician in Atlanta. She had proposed a gun safety bill that was blocked by Republicans in the state who hold both legislative chambers and the governor's office. "Georgia actually has some of the most lax gun laws in the country, which is of course correlated with having a very high incidence of preventable gun violence."
We also speak with Kris Brown, president of the gun violence prevention organization Brady, who says hard-line Republican lawmakers with "extreme" views of the Second Amendment are "fine with it being a death sentence to their fellow Americans."
|
|
Sep 05, 2024
Israel Continues Deadly West Bank Incursion, Destroying Streets, Homes, Water & Health Infrastructure, Israel's Genocide in Gaza Continues as New Leak Details How Netanyahu Torpedoed Ceasefire Deals, U.S. Criticizes Netayahu's Failure to Reach Ceasefire But Continues to Arm His War on Gaza, Portland, Maine, to Divest from Israeli Companies Tied to Israel's Assault on Palestinians, "From the River to the Sea": Meta Says Palestinian Solidarity Slogan Is Not Hate Speech, 14-Year-Old with Assault Rifle Kills Two Teachers and Two Students at Georgia High School, U.K. Prime Minister Apologizes for Grenfell Fire as Report Makes Clear Disaster Was Preventable, AfD Becomes First Far-Right Party to Win German State Election Since Nazis, Macron Appoints Conservative Politician as New PM, Eschewing Demands for a Progressive Leader, Biden Administration Considers Making Sweeping Asylum Restrictions Permanent, Harris Agrees to Terms of Debate with Trump; Liz Cheney Endorses Harris for President
|
|
Sep 04, 2024
Historian and journalist Betsy Phillips discusses her new book, Dynamite Nashville: Unmasking the FBI, the KKK, and the Bombers Beyond Their Control, which chronicles three bombings in 1957, 1958 and 1960 aimed at supporters of the civil rights movement in Nashville. The book has sparked a reopening of the formerly cold cases, the likely perpetrators of which Phillips names in her book. Phillips details what she uncovered through her research about the connections between the white supremacist terror campaign of the previous century and ongoing neo-Nazi activity in Nashville and the U.S. today.
|
|
Sep 04, 2024
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects growing domestic and international calls to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal, we go to Jerusalem to speak to Gershon Baskin of the human rights advocacy group International Communities Organization. Baskin has spent years as a back-channel Israeli negotiator with Hamas in ceasefire deals, including throughout Israel's current war on Gaza. "It's very clear that Netanyahu doesn't want to end the war," says Baskin, who calls for all remaining stakeholders, including Hamas, the United States and Israeli protesters, to increase pressure on the defiant prime minister.
|
|
Sep 04, 2024
The World Health Organization has completed the first phase of a critical polio vaccination campaign in central Gaza. After health officials confirmed Gaza's first polio case in 25 years, the Israeli military agreed to calls for limited humanitarian pauses on its attacks in order for aid organizations to carry out vaccinations. But "there's real practical, operational problems with this current pause," says Yanti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children US, whose staff is part of the vaccine drive. "It is not a ceasefire at all. It is an eight-hour pause every day." As Israel has repeatedly attacked civilians awaiting the provision of aid over the course of its war, it is "difficult to reach normal coverage numbers" — especially for the two-dose vaccine course necessary to vaccinate against polio. Soeripto also discusses outbreaks in other current war zones, including the recent outbreak of mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and warns that "these diseases often cause even more casualties than bombs and bullets."
|
|
Sep 04, 2024
Israeli Attacks Kill 42 in Gaza as WHO Cites Progress in Polio Vaccination Efforts, Israeli Raids on West Bank Kill 33 Palestinians in a Week, Doctors Demand Justice for Palestinian Medical Workers Tortured in Israeli Custody, Thousands of Israelis Continue Protests Demanding Gaza Ceasefire and Hostage Deal, Russia Continues Deadly Airstrikes as Ukraine's President Orders Cabinet Reshuffle, At Least 129 Killed as Prisoners Try to Escape DRC's Notorious Makala Prison, Boko Haram Attack in Northeastern Nigeria Leaves 81 Dead, 12 Asylum Seekers Die Attempting to Cross English Channel, Phoenix Records 100th Day Over 100° as Heat Wave Bakes Southwestern U.S., Trump Pleads "Not Guilty" to Amended Indictment in Election Interference Case, Montana GOP Senate Candidate Tim Sheehy Recorded Making Racist Comments, Indictment Alleges Former Aide to New York Gov. Hochul Worked as Chinese Government Agent, Trial of "Uhuru Three" Opens in Florida as Group Rejects Russian Influence Claims
|
|
Sep 03, 2024
After nearly two decades of obstruction by the U.S. military, The New Yorker has obtained and published 10 photos of the aftermath of the 2005 Haditha massacre, when U.S. marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians in revenge for an IED bombing that killed a service member. The graphic images show dead Iraqi men, women and children, many of them shot in the head at close range. The victims ranged in age from 3 to 76. Release of the photos came only after producers of the investigative podcast In the Dark sued the Navy, the Marine Corps and U.S. Central Command to force them to turn over the photos and other records. "What the photos clearly show is that these were innocent people who do not appear to be doing anything threatening at the time of their deaths," says Madeleine Baran, host and lead reporter of the podcast. Four marines were charged for the killings, but the charges were dismissed in three cases, and the last ended with a plea deal that did not result in a single day in prison. Baran says the survivors of the massacre, who cooperated with producers to get the photos released, are still waiting for justice. "What they want is the world to know what happened to their family, to know that their family were good people, not insurgents, and they want justice," she says.
|
|
Sep 03, 2024
About 10,000 hotel workers with the union UNITE HERE went on strike across the United States over the Labor Day long weekend to fight for raises, fair workloads and respect in the workplace. The multiday strike affects Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotels in several major cities, including Boston, San Francisco and Seattle. We speak with striking worker Rebeca Laroque, who has worked as a room attendant for over 12 years at the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich, Connecticut, and UNITE HERE Local 2 President Lizzy Tapia in San Francisco. "We're working hard, and then the money they pay, you cannot afford nothing with this, because everything is going up," says Laroque. "That's why we ask for a better wage, health insurance and pension, because we cannot afford nothing."
|
|
Sep 03, 2024
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested this weekend to demand a ceasefire following the deaths of six more hostages in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reject the terms of a deal that would remove Israeli troops from southern Gaza. This comes after nearly 11 months of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in the territory, according to local health authorities. "Our politicians won't listen to anything, because they're driven out of self-interest," says Israeli peace activist Yonatan Zeigen, whose mother Vivian Silver was killed in the October 7 Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be'eri. Despite the feeling of solidarity on the streets, Zeigen says there is a sense of "hopelessness" in the mass protests in Israel. We also speak with Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, who says the outrage in Israel is still mostly confined to critics of Netanyahu and has not yet penetrated his base of support, and that the United States has a major role in the continued violence and Netanyahu's refusal to agree to a ceasefire. "If President Biden would have really liked to put an end to this war, he could have done it within days by stopping or at least conditioning … the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel. He didn't do it," Levy notes.
|
|
Sep 03, 2024
Israeli Attack on U.N.-Operated Shelter in Gaza Kills 8 Palestinians in Bread Line, Polio Mass Vaccination Campaign Begins in Gaza Despite Ongoing Israeli Attacks, Israeli Military Returns Body of 58-Year-Old Palestinian Man with Signs of Torture and Abuse, Israeli Military Attacks Journalists Covering West Bank Raids, Kills Gaza TikTok Star , Hundreds of Thousands of Israelis Protest After Army Recovers Bodies of 6 Hostages, U.K. Suspends Some Weapons Shipments to Israel , CENTCOM Says 7 U.S. Military Personnel Are Injured in Raid on ISIS in Iraq, The New Yorker Publishes Images from U.S. Marines' 2005 Massacre of Iraqi Civilians, Attacks by Russia and Ukraine Leave Civilians Dead and Wounded, Venezuela Accuses U.S. of "Piracy" After President Maduro's Plane Is Seized , 10,000 U.S. Hotel Workers Go on Strike to Demand Higher Pay and Increased Staffing
|
|
Sep 02, 2024
As part of our Labor Day special, we remember the longtime labor organizer and scholar Jane McAlevey, who died in July at the age of 59. She dedicated her life to empowering rank-and-file workers, training tens of thousands around the world to effectively strengthen their unions. She gave one of her last interviews to Democracy Now! in April after she announced she was entering hospice. "We like to win," says McAlevey, "and we like to teach workers how to win. What are the methods? What is it we can do?"
|
|
Sep 02, 2024
In 1980, historian Howard Zinn published his classic work, A People's History of the United States. The book would go on to sell over a million copies and change the way many look at history in America. We begin today's special with highlights from a production of Howard Zinn's Voices of a People's History of the United States, where Zinn introduced dramatic readings from history. We hear Alfre Woodard read the words of labor activist Mother Jones and Howard's son Jeff Zinn read the words of an IWW poet and organizer Arturo Giovannitti.
|
|
Aug 30, 2024
Investigative journalist David Sirota, founder and editor-in-chief of The Lever, is the host of a new podcast series exploring how extremist ideologues and wealthy oligarchs have developed a system of legalized corruption in the U.S. Master Plan traces the decadeslong conservative-led plan to increase the role of money in politics. "This was a plan, a specific plan, to deregulate the campaign finance laws," says Sirota.
|
|
Aug 30, 2024
In her first major interview since replacing Joe Biden on the ballot, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris was questioned about her shifting statements on fracking, which has been linked to a surge in methane gas emissions over the past decade. Harris, who has previously made comments opposing fracking, vowed not to ban it if elected. The vice president went on to highlight the Biden-Harris administration's environmental record, which activists have criticized for vastly expanding oil production rather than drawing down the country's reliance on fossil fuels. "The data is telling us that what Kamala Harris said about fracking — that we can do it without dealing with reducing the supply of fossil fuels — it's just not borne out by the numbers," explains The Lever's David Sirota, who adds, "Ultimately, consequences for that will be on the United States, for the entire world."
|
|
Aug 30, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris gave her first major interview Thursday since becoming the Democratic nominee, laying out her plans for "an opportunity economy" if she becomes president. Sociologist Nikhil Goyal, author of Live to See the Day: Coming of Age in American Poverty, says Harris's support for policies like an expanded child tax credit shows a clear contrast between herself and Republican nominee Donald Trump. "He fights for the billionaire class," while Harris is "on the side of working people," says Goyal.
|
|
Aug 30, 2024
We turn to Kamala Harris's position on Israel's war on Gaza, which many are calling a genocide. After she was asked about calls to condition U.S. arms shipments to Israel by CNN reporter Dana Bash, Harris refused to consider halting the flow of weapons and instead affirmed her support of Israel. This position violates both federal and international law, argues Palestinian American political analyst Yousef Munayyer, and, coupled with her campaign's denial of a requested Palestinian American speaking spot from "uncommitted" voters at the DNC, he warns that "Harris could be worse than Biden" when it comes to U.S. support for Israel.
|
|
Aug 30, 2024
In her first major interview since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris was questioned by CNN's Dana Bash about her policy positions and campaign platform. We begin with a look at Harris's increasingly rightward stance on immigration and border policy with immigration activist Erika Andiola. As she touted her support for hard-line border security and asylum policies, Harris positioned herself as tougher on immigration than Trump. "Republican talking points … now truly have become Democrat talking points," says Andiola.
|
|
Aug 30, 2024
WHO Readies to Start Gaza Polio Vaccine Drive After Israel Agrees to 3-Day Partial Pause, Israeli Forces Continue Deadly Assault on West Bank's Jenin, Leave Tulkarm and Tubas in Ruins, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz Give First TV Interview as Democratic Ticket, JD Vance Says Kamala Harris "Can Go to Hell" at Pennsylvania Rally, Arlington Nat'l Cemetery Files Report After Trump Aides Attack an Employee, South Korea Court Finds Climate Law Violates Rights of Future Generations, Heavy Flooding Brings Death, Displacement and Disease in Sudan, Yemen and Bangladesh, Record Wildfires in Brazil Rage Across Amazon, Pantanal Wetlands, Klamath River Flows Freely Again After Crews Take Down Last Dam, East Timor Marks 25 Years of Independence, Immigrant Prisoners in California Are on Labor and Hunger Strike Against Their Inhumane Detention, 4 Arrested at UMich Gaza Protest; Pro-Palestinian Students at Columbia, NYU Face Censorship, Painters' Union to Divest Pension Fund from Israeli Firms to Protest Gaza Genocide, Video Game Performers Enter Second Month of Strike, Seeking Protections from AI, First Arrest Made as New York's Nassau County Bans Face Masks in Public
|
|
Aug 29, 2024
As Ukrainian forces press their counteroffensive deeper into Russian territory, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned of the heightened risk of a nuclear catastrophe from fighting near the Kursk power plant. The war between the two countries, now in its third year, has also impacted the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, controlled by Russian forces in the occupied southeastern part of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both signaled the war is likely to drag on for the foreseeable future. For more on the risk of nuclear disasters and possible peace talks to end the fighting, we speak with Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair of the Russian environmental organization Ecodefense, and foreign policy expert Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy and a former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders.
|
|
Aug 29, 2024
The Taliban government in Afghanistan is drawing renewed outrage over a new law banning women's voices in public, forcing them to completely cover their bodies and faces out of the home, and more. This comes after the Taliban banned women from working in most fields and ended girls' education past primary school following their takeover of the country in 2021. We speak with Sima Samar, an Afghan human rights advocate and doctor who chaired the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission from 2002 until 2019; she also briefly served as minister of women's affairs in the interim Afghan government in 2002, after a U.S.-led coalition toppled the first Taliban government for its support of al-Qaeda. "You cannot see such a law in any other regime on this planet," she says. "This is a crime against humanity. It is gender apartheid."
|
|
Aug 29, 2024
At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 30 more wounded in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has launched its largest military operation in two decades. Israeli forces have simultaneously raided four cities and refugee camps in the north, with hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. Much of the violence has been centered on Jenin, a frequent target of raids by Israeli forces, but this latest military operation is the largest since the Second Intifada. Ahmed Tobasi, artistic director at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp, says Israel's tactics are about "punishing the people, punishing the civilians," with an ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing. "They want Palestine empty from Palestinians." He also calls on the U.S. public to speak out against continued military support for Israel, saying the killings in both Gaza and the West Bank are only possible because Israel has "the green light from the U.S. government."
|
|
Aug 29, 2024
We get an update from Gaza, where at least 68 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours as Israel continues its relentless assault on the territory. After nearly 11 months of war, the official Gaza death toll now stands at over 40,600, although the true figure is estimated to be much higher. The World Food Programme announced it is pausing the movement of all staff in Gaza until further notice after Israeli forces shot at one of its clearly marked vehicles despite receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities. This comes just two days after U.N. humanitarian efforts in Gaza virtually ground to a halt due to new Israeli evacuation orders that disrupted operations again. Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza over the past week, displacing a quarter of a million people in Deir al-Balah alone, including from the Al-Aqsa Hospital, where tens of thousands of residents and wounded were seeking shelter. Journalist Akram al-Satarri, speaking from just outside the hospital, describes "continuous military operations, continuous devastation, continuous targeting and [an] increased number of Palestinians affected by those ongoing operations either by being killed or being injured or by becoming displaced because of the new evacuation orders."
|
|
Aug 29, 2024
Israeli Attacks Kill Another 68 Palestinians in Gaza; Mother of First Polio Patient Decries Baby's Fate, WFP Suspends Staff Travel in Gaza After Israel Attacks Convoy, Israel Escalates Invasion of Occupied West Bank, Kills at Least 18 Palestinians, EU Weighs Sanctions on Israeli Ministers Propagating "Hate Messages Against Palestinians", Egypt Rejects Israeli Troops on Border; Namibia Blocks Vessel Heading to Israel with Weapons, U.S. Rejects Resumption of Nuclear Talks After Overture by Iran, Hong Kong Convicts Pro-Democracy Editors of Stand News of Sedition, U.S. National Security Adviser Meets Chinese President Xi Jinping, Honduras Ends Extradition Treaty with U.S. over Ambassador's Narcotrafficking Allegations, Rights Groups Sound Alarm as Texas GOP Purges 1 Million Voters from Rolls, Union Workers at Cornell University Win Historic Pay Increases After 10-Day Strike
|
|
Aug 28, 2024
Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing accusations he is using his office to suppress Latino voters in the state. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the country's oldest Latino civil rights group, is calling on the Justice Department to investigate Paxton over a series of police raids on the homes of LULAC members, state lawmakers and other community leaders in the San Antonio area last week. Previously, Paxton had tried and failed to shut down the Houston-based and immigrant-led civil rights group Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha (FIEL) by claiming it engaged in electioneering. We're joined by the director of FIEL, Cesar Espinosa, and the CEO of LULAC, Juan Proaño, who both share how their organizations have been impacted by the attorney general's harassment and intimidation. Proaño calls the targeting of Latino leaders and organizations a pattern of "blatant discrimination" and says, "We see these as tactics essentially for Republicans to stay in control of the government in Texas."
|
|
Aug 28, 2024
New voting rules in key battleground states could impact the 2024 election results. In Georgia, Democrats are suing to halt a set of Trump-backed election rules which Democrats say could be used to block certification of election results if they win in November. "It appears that Georgia Republicans are laying the groundwork not to certify the presidential election if Kamala Harris wins," explains Ari Berman, who is the voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones magazine. Berman also discusses Tim Walz and JD Vance's voting rights records and a recent voting rights law out of Arizona that requires new voters to prove their U.S. citizenship.
|
|
Aug 28, 2024
The Israeli military has launched its biggest operation in the occupied West Bank in close to two decades, with hundreds of troops, backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones, conducting simultaneous raids in the northern cities of Jenin and Tulkarm. At least nine Palestinians were killed overnight, with an additional 11 injured. In total, at least 652 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October — nearly 150 of them children — most of them during near-daily raids by the Israeli military. Israeli officials have indicated that the raids are just the first stage of an even larger operation in the West Bank. "They are trying to repeat the Nakba. … They are trying to repeat the same ethnic cleansing, the same genocide that is committed in Gaza," says Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, who joins us from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. "Their goal is ethnic cleansing. Their goal is annexation of the West Bank."
|
|
Aug 28, 2024
9 Palestinians Killed as Israel Launches Largest Raid on West Bank in Two Decades, Israeli Attacks Kill Dozens in Gaza, Including 8 at School Sheltering Displaced Palestinians, Israeli Forces Rescue Bedouin Arab Man Kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, Zelensky Rules Out Ceasefire as Russia Continues "Largest Aerial Assault" of Its War on Ukraine, IAEA Chief Warns Ukraine's Advance on Russian Power Plant Threatens Nuclear Catastrophe, Afghan Taliban Approves Gender Apartheid Law Banning Women from Speaking in Public, Indian Police Fire Tear Gas as Protesters Decry Rape and Murder of Medical Trainee, Jack Smith Files Amended Indictment of Trump over Jan. 6 Insurrection, Trump Adds Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to Transition Team, Mexico Freezes Diplomatic Relations After U.S. and Canada Criticize Judicial Reform Plan
|
|
Aug 27, 2024
As sky-high rents and a housing shortage become major issues in the 2024 presidential election, the U.S. Justice Department has sued software company RealPage, alleging its algorithm enabled landlords nationwide to collude in raising rents on tenants. The DOJ says the price-fixing scheme has impacted millions of renters across the United States. ProPublica reporter Heather Vogell, whose investigation first exposed RealPage, says as much as 70% of big apartment buildings in some neighborhoods are owned by property managers using RealPage, with landlords seeing the software "as a way to have a rising tide that lifts all boats." We also speak with tenant rights organizer Tara Raghuveer, who says RealPage is guilty of "some of the grossest, most extractive business practices" documented in recent years, but the firm is hardly alone. "For so much of the market which is a catastrophic failure, landlords' business model is predicated on tenants' instability," says Raghuveer.
|
|
Aug 27, 2024
We speak with Human Rights Watch researcher Milena Ansari about the organization's new report detailing the torture of Palestinian medical workers in Israeli prisons. HRW spoke with eight doctors, paramedics and nurses who were picked up in Gaza before being transferred to the notorious Sde Teiman camp and other facilities, where they say they suffered beatings, starvation, humiliation, electric shocks and other forms of abuse. The men also describe threats of sexual violence during brutal interrogations and seeing another prisoner bleeding after being gang-raped with an M16 rifle by three soldiers. The findings track with other reports from researchers and survivors, and HRW has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for its attacks on healthcare workers. "We're really ringing the alarm about the situation inside the Israeli custody and detention facilities," says Ansari, who says evidence is mounting of a "systematic pattern of ill-treatment and abuse."
|
|
Aug 27, 2024
U.N. Forced to Halt Aid in Gaza Amid Dire Humanitarian Needs Due to Nonstop Evacuation Orders, U.S. Has Sent Over 50,000 Tons of Arms and Military Equipment to Israel Since Genocide Started, Israeli Forces and Illegal Settlers Continue Deadly Attacks in Occupied West Bank, Greek Tanker in Red Sea with 150,000 Tons of Crude Has Been on Fire for Days After Houthi Strike, Russia Ramps Up Attacks on Ukraine in Wake of Kyiv's Surprise Incursion, Baloch Separatists Claim Attacks That Kill 40 in Southwestern Pakistan, "There's No Lifeboat to Take Us Back:" U.N. Head Demands Urgent Action Before Pacific Islands Wiped Out, Uganda Cracks Down on Climate Protesters Speaking Out Against EACOP, Arrests 20 Activists, 130 Killed in Heavy Flooding in War-Torn Sudan; Arbaat Dam Collapses in Red Sea State, French President Macron Shuns Progressive Coalition as Talks on Future Gov't Hit a Wall, Jake Sullivan Is First U.S. Nat'l Security Adviser to Visit China in 8 Years Amid Simmering Tensions, Trump and Vance Downplay Anti-Abortion Record and Plans, Special Counsel Jack Smith Seeks to Reinstate Classified Docs Case Against Trump, Texas Officials Raid Homes of Latino Elected Leaders, DNC and Georgia Dems Sue to Block New GOP Rules That Could Delay Election Results and Sow Chaos, Georgia Unveils Statue of John Lewis Outside Decatur Courthouse, U.S. Judge Blocks Biden Immigration Policy for Spouses of U.S. Citizens, Nashville Mayor Urges City Lawmakers to Pass New Safety Rules After Nazi Gatherings in TN City, Climate Reporter Peter Dykstra, Who Called Out Corporate Media Cover-Up of Climate Crisis, Dies at 67
|
|
Aug 26, 2024
We end today's show in conversation with New York City Councilmember Yusef Salaam. He was one of five teenagers from Harlem — four Black and one Latino — wrongfully accused and convicted of raping and nearly killing 28-year-old white investment banker Trisha Meili in 1989. Meili had been jogging in Central Park when she was assaulted, and the accused teens became known as the Central Park Five. They faced a barrage of racism from the public and news media during their trial, including from real estate mogul and future U.S. president Donald Trump. All of the boys were convicted and served at least six years, with one, Korey Wise, having been tried as an adult, spending over a decade in prison. All were later exonerated after DNA evidence corroborated a separate man's confession to the attack. Redubbed the Exonerated Five, four of the five members addressed the Democratic National Convention last week, slamming Trump, who called for their execution and says he still believes the men are guilty, as hateful and dangerous. "The reality was that we were guilty of the color of our skin," says Salaam, who successfully ran for city council last year.
|
|
Aug 26, 2024
A federal judge in Kentucky has thrown out felony charges against two former Louisville police officers for their roles in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020. Instead, the judge ruled that Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, is legally responsible for her death because he fired his gun to fend off intruders, after plainclothes police officers broke down the couple's front door and barged in just after midnight. Taylor, a Black 26-year-old emergency medical technician and aspiring nurse, was asleep. Since then, only one officer has been found guilty of playing a role in Taylor's death, admitting to falsifying a no-knock warrant that claimed police had evidence of drug dealings taking place in Taylor's home. No drugs were ever found and the two cops who fatally shot Taylor have never been charged. This lack of accountability is part of a "systematic pattern of disrespect" of Black women, says civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Breonna Taylor's family. Crump also discusses the latest developments in the cases against police officers accused of excessive force in the widely publicized deaths of Tyre Nichols in Tennessee and Roger Fortson in Florida.
|
|
Aug 26, 2024
Palestinian American journalist Rami Khouri responds to the latest exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah and the drawn-out ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, which Khouri calls a "fictitious political dynamic" that is primarily used as diplomatic cover for Israel's warfare. "The ceasefire talks should not be taken very seriously as an effort to bring about a ceasefire," he says. "It's pretty clear now that the ceasefire negotiations today are the equivalent of the so-called peace process in the bigger Arab-Israeli conflict over the last 40 years."
|
|
Aug 26, 2024
U.N. Seeks "Immediate Deescalation" After Israel and Hezbollah Exchange Heavy Fire, Human Rights Watch: Israel Has Tortured Detained Palestinian Medical Workers, No Deal Yet as Ceasefire Talks Continue in Egypt, Russia Launches Wave of Attacks on Ukraine, Member of Reuters Team Killed in Russian Attack on Ukrainian Hotel, Two Journalists Killed in Turkish Drone Strike in Iraqi Kurdistan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Suspends Campaign & Endorses Donald Trump, Kamala Harris Raises Record $540 Million in a Month, Trump's Bedminster Resort to Host Gala Honoring Jan. 6 Defendants, DOJ Sues RealPage for Helping Corporate Landlords Collude to Raise Rents, Felony Charges Tossed Against Two Former Cops Charged in Breonna Taylor Killing, Second Memphis Officer Pleads Guilty in Police Killing of Tyre Nichols, Sheriff's Deputy in Florida Charged in Connection to Killing of Airman Roger Fortson, French Authorities Detain CEO of Telegram Messaging App, Militant Group Kills Up to 200 in Burkina Faso, At Least 13 Migrants Die After Boat Sinks Near Yemen, Extinction Rebellion Protesters Block Norwegian Oil Terminal, Summer of Heat: Dozens of Climate Activists Arrested Outside Home of Citi CEO Jane Fraser, Federal Court Bars Biden Administration from Using Civil Rights Law to Block New Fossil Fuel Projects
|
|
Aug 23, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday, vowing in her speech to the Democratic National Convention to continue the Biden administration's tough line on immigration. While describing the United States as "a nation of immigrants" and promising to "reform our broken immigration system," Harris also said that, as president, she would revive a harsh border bill that Republicans blocked from passing this year that limits asylum rights, speeds up deportations and hires more border agents. The Biden administration implemented many parts of the border bill through executive action after Donald Trump pushed Republican lawmakers to vote it down. "Our politics have been pushed so far to the right on immigration by Donald Trump that we have to fight back … to realign our politics on immigration back to where they were just a few years ago," says Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas.
|
|
Aug 23, 2024
The city of Chicago, which hosted the 2024 Democratic convention, is home to the highest concentration of Palestinian Americans in the United States. In the suburbs of the city, residents of Bridgeview — known as "Little Palestine" — have been hard hit by Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed over 40,200 Palestinians. We take a tour of Little Palestine, where Palestinian flags and signs reading "Free Palestine" adorn many of the streets and businesses, and traditional pastry and coffee shops have colorful murals of Palestinian landscapes on their walls. And we speak with residents about how they are organizing against anti-Palestinian racism and pushing for an end to uncritical U.S. support for Israel.
|
|
Aug 23, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris made history Thursday as the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to be nominated to lead a major party's presidential ticket. There are now just two-and-a-half months left before the November 5 election, when she will face Republican nominee Donald Trump at the polls. For more, we speak with two political organizers — Maurice Mitchell, national director for the Working Families Party, and Mohammed Khader, manager of policy and advocacy campaigns at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights — and with historian and activist Barbara Ransby.
|
|
Aug 23, 2024
The Democratic National Convention wrapped up in Chicago on Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepting the presidential nomination, capping a week of political showmanship and celebration for many party members. "One of the things that struck me most was the level of choreographed mass spectacle of this convention that would be really worthy of Leni Riefenstahl," says Democracy Now! co-host Juan González. He says Democrats and Republicans presented "the two faces of American capitalism" at their respective conventions this summer, with the GOP home to "white supremacist capitalism" while Democrats promote a "multiracial neoliberal capitalism." He adds that despite the constant chants of "U.S.A." throughout the week, "the reality is that the United States has never been lower in its prestige and never more discredited around the world than it is today."
|
|
Aug 23, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris made history Thursday as the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent in the United States to be nominated to lead a major party's presidential ticket. We speak with historian Barbara Ransby about two Black women pioneers who helped pave the way for her historic nomination: former Congressmember Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress who sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1972, and civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who led the fight to desegregate the party's Southern delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
|
|
Aug 23, 2024
Thousands of protesters marched on the DNC on Thursday night calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel. Protesters rallied into the night as Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on the DNC stage. Demonstrators had planned to march toward the convention site but were blocked by hundreds of police in riot gear who forced the march to disperse. We hear from some of the protesters who took to the streets.
|
|
Aug 23, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday after a four-day convention in Chicago where her campaign refused to allow a Palestinian American to take the stage to address Israel's war on Gaza. We hear Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, who was among the list of speakers offered by the Uncommitted National Movement that the Harris campaign rejected, reading the speech she would have given on the convention floor had the DNC and the Harris campaign allowed her onstage.
|
|
Aug 23, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, making history as the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to be nominated for president by a major party. Her ascent to the top of the Democratic Party comes just over a month after President Biden dropped out of the race. We play excerpts from her speech and speak with historian Barbara Ransby, who says that while the nomination "breaks a barrier," it's important to note the "contradictions," as well. ??"Yes, it breaks barriers. Yes, it is a historic moment in a certain sense. But we have to also talk about the gravity of this moment and the politics that Kamala Harris brings with her," says Ransby, who criticizes Harris for her pro-Israel policy and for refusing to let Palestinian Americans address the convention. "I was glad to hear her mention the suffering of the Palestinian people, but, of course, it didn't ring true. It rang a little bit hollow, because the Biden administration could stop much of that suffering by not sending 2,000-pound bombs and $3 billion a year to the Israeli government."
|
|
Aug 23, 2024
Kamala Harris Accepts Democratic Presidential Nomination, Backs Israel While Calling for End to War, Uncommitted Delegates Walk DNC Halls Arm in Arm After Being Denied Opportunity to Take the Stage, New Round of Ceasefire Talks in Cairo as Israel Rebuffs Demand to Withdraw Troops from Gaza, Israeli Forces Kill 3 Palestinians, Destroy Homes in West Bank Raid on Tulkarm, Desperately Needed U.N. Food Trucks Begin to Enter Darfur After Sudan Military Reopens Chad Border, Arkansas's Top Court Rejects Abortion Ballot Measure over Technicality, SCOTUS Allows AZ GOP to Demand New Voters Prove Citizenship When Registering, NLRB Rules Amazon Must Bargain with Subcontracted Unionized Delivery Workers, Israel's War on Palestinian Territories Has Driven a Spike in Water-Related Violence, U.N. Head Meets with Displaced Samoans, Warns Pacific Island Nations Face Existential Climate Threat, Flooding Causes Death, Misery for Millions in Bangladesh; Amazon Wildfires Spurred by Historic Drought, Billions of Crabs in Bering Sea Died Off in 2022 Due to Higher Water Temps in Arctic, Modi in Ukraine After Visiting Moscow; Putin Accuses Ukraine of Attacking Nuclear Plant in Kursk, Thousands More Rohingya Forces to Flee Burma Amid Deadly Attacks by Armed Groups, MIT Enrollment of Black Students Plummets After SCOTUS Affirmative Action Ruling, University of California Bans Protest Encampments in Wake of Student Uprising for Gaza, FDA Approves New COVID Vaccines Amid Major Summer Surge in Cases, Deadlier Strain of Mpox Detected in Thailand
|
|
Aug 22, 2024
Climate activists disrupted a DNC-adjacent event sponsored by ExxonMobil on Wednesday, the same day that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz formally accepted his nomination as vice-presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. Walz has faced harsh criticism from Indigenous and environmental rights groups in Minnesota for his authorization of the Line 3 oil pipeline through Native treaty lands in the state. We host a roundtable discussion on the climate crisis and the Democratic Party's response with Ojibwe lawyer and founder of the Giniw Collective Tara Houska; climate organizer Collin Rees, who was part of the ExxonMobil action at the DNC; and climate scientist Michael Mann.
|
|
Aug 22, 2024
Tanya Haj-Hassan is a pediatric intensive care physician who has volunteered in Gaza multiple times over the past 10 months. She joins us to recount what she witnessed there and to explain why she is calling for an end to U.S. support for the Israeli military and the resumption of comprehensive humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Over the course of Israel's assault, Haj-Hassan has treated victims of "massacre after massacre," with injuries and casualties "enabled by American bombs." She joins demands for Palestinian voices to be allowed to address the convention onstage and argues that Democratic Party leadership's refusal is part of a systematic "process of dehumanization" targeting Palestinians.
|
|
Aug 22, 2024
As "uncommitted" delegates continue their sit-in just outside the Democratic National Convention in protest of the party's refusal to meet demands to platform a Palestinian American speaker on the main stage, we hear from two uncommitted delegates who have made a concerted effort to bring Israel's war on Gaza to the forefront and to push the Harris campaign on its policy in the Middle East. Asma Mohammed, a campaign manager for Vote Uncommitted Minnesota and a delegate from Minnesota, says there is widespread disappointment and betrayal among delegates who feel their voices in support of Palestinian rights are being ignored. "This level of silencing, this level of exclusion [does] not belong in our Democratic Party," adds Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement and an uncommitted delegate from Michigan.
|
|
Aug 22, 2024
Democracy Now! spoke with Minnesota Congressmember Ilhan Omar late Wednesday outside the Democratic National Convention, where members of the "uncommitted" movement launched a sit-in to demand a Palestinian American be allowed to address the convention from the main stage. Omar said she joined protesters outside the DNC because "there is no compassion in turning our heads away from the piles of dead bodies" in Gaza. "A ceasefire is only possible if we use every leverage that we have, and the biggest leverage that we have is to stop sending bombs," says Omar, explaining why she is calling for an arms embargo against Israel and an end to "this genocidal war."
|
|
Aug 22, 2024
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz formally accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president at the DNC on Wednesday. A former public school teacher, high school football coach and National Guard member, Walz spent six terms in Congress before his successful run for governor in 2018. We take a look at his record, including his "moderate" record on police brutality following the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, with two guests: Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic and Minneapolis City Councilmember Jeremiah Ellison, who is the son of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Walz's progressive wins in Minnesota appear to have swayed Kamala Harris's selection, says Marcetic, as Harris hopes to mirror parts of his agenda on the federal level. "I think that he's sincere in his efforts to see change," says Jeremiah Ellison, who is also an "uncommitted" delegate and goes on to discuss the uncommitted movement's strategy at the DNC.
|
|
Aug 22, 2024
Delegates from the Uncommitted National Movement and their allies launched a sit-in protest Wednesday night outside the convention hall in Chicago after the DNC refused to honor their request to let a Palestinian American speak onstage, despite allowing family members of an Israeli American hostage to address the convention. We hear voices from the sit-in with uncommitted delegates and their allies. "Today I watched my party say, 'Our tent can fit anti-choice Republicans,' but it can't fit an elected official like me?" said Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, referring to convention addresses given by anti-Trump Republicans. Romman was among the list of speakers offered by the uncommitted movement that the DNC refused to allow on onstage. "We can't take no for an answer here," Minneapolis City Councilmember Jeremiah Ellison, an uncommitted delegate from Minnesota, tells Democracy Now!.
|
|
Aug 22, 2024
Tim Walz Touts Record as MN Gov. as He Accepts VP Nomination, Uncommitted Mvt. and Allies Launch Sit-In After DNC and Harris Refuse to Let Palestinian Take Main Stage, "Exxon Lies, People Die!": Climate Activists Condemn Corporate Sponsorship at DNC, Israel's Genocide Continues Amid Dimming Hopes for Ceasefire, New Report Details Israel's Pattern of Kidnapping, Torturing and Humiliating Gazan Children, Israel and Hezbollah Continue Cross-Border Fighting Amid Fears of a Broader Conflict, Emmy Awards Stands Firm on Nomination of Gazan Reporter Bisan Owda After Pushback from Israel Lobby, Israel Kills at Least 2 More Journalists in Gaza: Ibrahim Muharab and Hamza Murtaja, Canada's Two Main Rail Freight Companies Shut Down, Locking Out 10,000 Workers, Judge Tosses FTC Ban on Noncompete Agreements Which Affect 30 Million U.S. Workers, RFK Expected to Drop Out, Endorse Trump, U.K. Gov't Official Resigns over British Arms Sales to Israel to Use in War Crimes, NYT: Biden Admin Shifts U.S. Nuclear Strategy to Focus on China, Taliban Bans U.N. Special Rapporteur from Entering Afghanistan, France's Attempt to Give Their Citizens Voting Rights in New Caledonia Undermines Kanak Rights, ACLU Sues Oregon Police Dept. for Illegally Spying on Progressive Activists, Harris Campaign Raises $500M Amid Transparency Concerns over Large Donations, TX Appeals Court to Review Acquittal of Black Mother Who Was Sentenced to Prison for Trying to Vote
|
|
Aug 21, 2024
We speak with former Michigan Congressmember Andy Levin, a former synagogue president, who lost his 2022 Democratic primary in a race that saw millions spent by pro-Israel groups to unseat the progressive Jewish lawmaker. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and other lobby groups have used the same playbook over the years to defeat members of Congress who do not toe the line, and Levin says the Democratic Party has to act to stop such "dark money" from deciding elections and push for a new policy on Israel-Palestine that brings peace. "We need to all get along there, and we need to work together here to make that happen," he says.
|
|
Aug 21, 2024
A group of American doctors who treated patients in Gaza held a press conference in Chicago on Tuesday to describe the suffering they saw among Palestinians injured and killed in Israel's war on the territory. The press conference, taking place during the Democratic National Convention, was organized by the Uncommitted National Movement, which is pressuring Democrats for an end to blanket U.S. support for Israel. Among those who spoke was Dr. Ahmed Yousaf, who returned from Gaza just weeks earlier. "When we got to the hospital, everything I saw on TikTok and Instagram and all the television, all the stuff that we had in alternative media … it was 100 times worse than I could have ever imagined," he said.
|
|
Aug 21, 2024
We play highlights from the second night of the Democratic National Convention, which ended with keynote speeches by Michelle and Barack Obama. The former first lady and president promoted Vice President Kamala Harris as a transformative leader while criticizing Donald Trump. "Who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those 'Black jobs'?" Michelle Obama said.
|
|
Aug 21, 2024
Immigration has become one of the central issues of the 2024 race, with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump vowing to expand the draconian policies of his first term and deport 10 million immigrants from the country amid what he calls an "invasion." Democrats, meanwhile, are touting their own border crackdown at the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago. President Joe Biden celebrated his executive action to block many asylum seekers at the southern U.S. border, and Vice President Kamala Harris promises to hire thousands more border agents if she is elected. We host a roundtable discussion in Chicago with Oscar Chacón, executive director of Alianza Americas, an immigrant rights group; Maria Hinojosa, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, founder of Futuro Media and host of the Latino USA podcast; and Marisa Franco, director and co-founder of Mijente, a national digital organizing hub for Latinx and Chicanx communities.
|
|
Aug 21, 2024
The Israeli military has ordered new forced evacuations in parts of central Gaza, signaling the expansion of ground operations and the latest displacement of Palestinians, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times over the course of Israel's war on the territory. At least 50 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, pushing the official death toll past 40,200. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his ninth visit to the Middle East since October without securing any breakthrough for a ceasefire deal. In Chicago, where Democrats are gathered for the DNC, Gaza has been mentioned only in passing from the main stage of the convention. The party's official platform adopted this week does not call for an arms embargo on Israel and reasserts unwavering U.S. support for Israel. "There's been an almost competition between Democrats and Republicans on 'how much can we show Israel that we support them and that we have their back?'" says human rights lawyer Zaha Hassan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and previously the senior legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team during Palestine's bid for U.N. membership. "Why should Israel ever compromise its positions if they know that by holding out, they'll get more goodies from the U.S.?"
|
|
Aug 21, 2024
Kamala Harris Accepts Democratic Nom; Obamas, Bernie Sanders Take to the DNC Stage on Night Two, Chicago PD Arrests Protesters at Israeli Consulate; 16 Activists from U.K.'s Palestine Action in Prison, U.S. Doctors Share Horrors They Witnessed in Gaza at DNC Press Conference, Israel Continues Its Genocidal War, Attacking Another Gaza School and Pushing Gazans Out of Deir al-Balah, Released Palestinian Describes Detention at Ofer Prison, Site of "Systematic Torture and Humiliation", Israeli Strikes in Lebanon Kill at Least 6 as Cross-Border Fighting Adds to Growing Tensions, Report Says Countries and Oil Co's Supplying Israel May Be Complicit in Genocide Under Int'l Law, Russia Says It Intercepted Major Drone Attack on Moscow as Ukraine Pushes Ahead in Kursk, Arizona and Montana Join at Least 6 Other States in Putting Abortion Rights on the Nov. Ballot, RFK Jr.'s Running Mate Says They Could End Their Campaign and Join Team Trump, Nurses at Univ. of Illinois Hospital Strike over Unfair Labor Practices, Work Safety Issues, Bob Menendez Is Resigning, Will Be Replaced with NJ Gov. Aide Until New Senator Elected in Nov., Panama Deports 29 Colombian Migrants on U.S.-Funded Flight, Migrant Deaths Surge on U.S. Southern Border Amid Extreme Heat, Biden's Hard-Line Immigration Policy, NYC Evicts Makeshift Migrant Camp; NY State Greenlights Shelter Eviction of 30,000 Migrant Families, Six Unhoused People Dying Each Day in Los Angeles Amid Brutal Crackdown, Failed Policies, Mass Shooting in Bosnia Kills at Least 3 School Workers, U.S. Sanctions Ex-Haitian President Michel Martelly for Drug Trafficking, Money Laundering, East Palestine Residents Consider $600 Million Settlement with Norfolk Southern, Maryland Officials Warn PFAS Levels at Harford County Schools Too High for Drinking, Air Force Refuses to Clean Up Contamination of Tucson Waters, Cites
|
|
Aug 20, 2024
During President Biden's speech on the first night of the DNC, protesters briefly unfurled a banner that read "Stop Arming Israel," before it was wrested away by convention staff. We speak to three members of the group Delegates Against Genocide who organized and carried out the action: Esam Boraey, a human rights activist and delegate from Connecticut; Florida DNC member Nadia Ahmad; and progressive Jewish activist Liano Sharon, an elected delegate from Michigan. "We were there specifically to confront President Joe Biden," says Ahmad, explaining why the protesters chose to disrupt Biden's speech. "He's the one who can stop this genocide by picking up the phone and making a phone call, and he has chosen not to do that."
|
|
Aug 20, 2024
During President Biden's speech on the first night of the DNC, protesters briefly unfurled a banner that read "Stop Arming Israel," before it was wrested away by convention staff. We speak to three members of the group Delegates Against Genocide who organized and carried out the action: Esam Boraey, a human rights activist and delegate from Connecticut; Florida DNC member Nadia Ahmad; and progressive Jewish activist Liano Sharon, an elected delegate from Michigan. "We were there specifically to confront President Joe Biden," says Ahmad, explaining why the protesters chose to disrupt Biden's speech. "He's the one who can stop this genocide by picking up the phone and making a phone call, and he has chosen not to do that."
|
|
Aug 20, 2024
We discuss Chicago's storied history of organized labor and the state of the labor movement today with Alex Han, a longtime union organizer and now the executive director of the Chicago-based progressive magazine In These Times, and with Stacy Davis Gates, the current president of the Chicago Teachers Union, of which Chicago's Mayor Brandon Johnson — who opened the 2024 DNC last night — was previously a member. As the Democratic Party increasingly embraces union rights as a major part of its policy platform, "It's pretty remarkable to think of how far we've come. It's also important, sitting here in Chicago, [to] understand how far we still have to go," says Han.
|
|
Aug 20, 2024
Labor rights were in the spotlight during the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, as union leaders, including UAW President Shawn Fain, took to the stage. We play part of Fain's address, in which he called Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump "a scab" and praised Democratic nominee Kamala Harris's labor record.
|
|
Aug 20, 2024
The acclaimed television host Phil Donahue died Sunday at the age of 88. Donahue's commitment to bringing major social and political issues to the American public spanned decades, a mission that was perhaps best encapsulated by his platforming of antiwar perspectives during the leadup to the Iraq War. He was fired in 2003 from his eponymous MSNBC talk show for doing so. In 2013, Democracy Now! spoke to Donahue about his firing. We play an excerpt from that interview and speak to journalist Jeff Cohen, who served as a senior producer on MSNBC's Donahue before its cancellation. "Phil was a progressive. He was for peace and justice. He exuded it. It's what made him tick," recalls Cohen.
|
|
Aug 20, 2024
This year, the Democratic National Convention held its first-ever panel on Palestinian human rights. The panel came after persistent grassroots organizing against U.S. support for Israel's assault on Gaza. We play excerpts, including from the Arab American Institute's James Zogby, a former executive member of the Democratic National Committee; Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care surgeon who recently worked in Gaza; and Layla Elabed, co-chair of the Uncommitted National Movement.
Later that day, during President Biden's convention speech, protesters standing near the Florida delegation unfolded a banner proclaiming "Stop Arming Israel." Democracy Now was at the scene. We speak with one of the protesting delegates, Liano Sharon, an elected DNC delegate from Michigan, as he was escorted off the convention floor. Sharon, who is Jewish, told Democracy Now! that he participated in the action because "'never again' means never again for anyone, anywhere, ever, period."
|
|
