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Jul 26, 2024
Just hours before Friday's opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics, a series of apparently coordinated arson attacks were reported on France's high-speed rail network. No one has claimed responsibility yet. Before the games, protests highlighted the displacement of thousands of migrants, unhoused people and other vulnerable communities as "social cleansing." We go to Paris for an update with Jules Boykoff, former professional soccer player, author and scholar focusing on the Olympic Games, and Paul Alauzy, Paris-based activist with the collective Revers de la Médaille (Other Side of the Medal). "We are not anti-Olympics," says Alauzy. "You can support the games, but you need to know that they have a big social impact and they come with a cost. And they come with a cost of the lives of hundreds, thousands of people being mistreated." We also discuss how Palestinian athletes are taking part in this year's Olympics amid the Israeli war on Gaza, the health risks of competing during rising heat and COVID, the environmental impact of major sporting events and more.
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Jul 26, 2024
As Paris hosts today's opening ceremony for the 2024 Olympics, we speak with Lebanese photojournalist Christina Assi of Agence France-Presse, who carried the Olympic torch Sunday in Paris to honor journalists wounded or killed on the job. Assi lost her leg in the same Israeli attack that killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah in southern Lebanon on October 13, and says carrying the Olympic torch was a great opportunity to highlight the "atrocities" happening in the region. "There was all the indications that we are press and we were just doing our jobs," Assi recalls of the attack. "We weren't holding guns. We were holding cameras."
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Jul 26, 2024
We speak to two doctors who are part of a group of 45 U.S. doctors, surgeons and nurses who have volunteered in Gaza since October 7 and wrote an open letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, demanding an immediate ceasefire and an international arms embargo of Israel. The group includes evidence of a much higher death toll than is usually cited: more than 92,000 people, which represents over 4% of Gaza's population. The doctors write, "With only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both. Israel's continued, repeated displacement of the malnourished and sick population of Gaza, half of whom are children, to areas with no running water or even toilets available is absolutely shocking." The conditions in Gaza are "unacceptable," and "people know this is wrong but no one is speaking up," says Dr. Thalia Pachiyannakis, an obstetrician and gynecologist who volunteered at the Nasser Medical Complex. "We all saw evidence of a death toll that is certainly much higher than what is reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health," adds Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon who volunteered at the European Hospital.
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Jul 26, 2024
WFP Makes More Cuts to Food Rations in Gaza as Israeli Attacks Increase Displacement Crisis, Palestinian Detainees Tortured and Abused at Hands of Israeli Prison Authorities, Netanyahu Meets with Biden and Harris After Address to Congress, "He Never Should Have Been Allowed on U.S. Soil": Protesters Decry Netanyahu Meeting with Biden, Kamala Harris Receives Obama, Pelosi Endorsements, Says She Is Ready to Debate Trump, California Gov. Newsom Orders Evictions of Unhoused People in Wake of SCOTUS Ruling, Sonya Massey's Killer Was Discharged from Military for "Misconduct," Had 6 Police Jobs Over 4 Years, U.S. Authorities Arrest Two Leaders of Sinaloa Cartel, Kenya's Ruto Appoints Opposition Members in New Cabinet in Bid to Appease Protesters, Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro Campaigns for Third Term as President Ahead of Sunday's Election, Vandals Sabotage French Rail Network on Eve of Paris Olympics, "Extreme Heat Is the New Abnormal": U.N. Head Calls for Urgent Action as Planet Swelters
, Half of Alberta Tourist Town Is Destroyed by Fast-Moving Wildfire, "Forever Chemicals" Increasingly Detected in Commonly Used Pesticides, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Sued for Halting Traffic Congestion Pricing Plan, American Federation of Teachers Prepares to Join General Strike on May Day 2028
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Jul 25, 2024
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, many Democratic lawmakers skipped the speech and held an alternative event on Capitol Hill to promote peace. The panel discussion featured Maoz Inon and Aziz Abu Sarah, Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers who have both lost family members to violence. Inon's parents, Bilha and Yakovi Inon, were killed in the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. When Abu Sarah was a child, his teenage brother was arrested and held in Israeli prison for a year and died shortly after his release from internal injuries he suffered while being tortured in prison. Both Inon and Abu Sarah join Democracy Now! to talk about how they are hoping to use these tragedies to foster peace in Israel-Palestine.
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Jul 25, 2024
We speak with Palestinian human rights lawyer Noura Erakat about Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress, in which he defended Israel's brutal war on Gaza, lied repeatedly about the dire humanitarian conditions on the ground and refused to talk about how to reach a ceasefire to end the bloodshed. Although more than 100 Democrats skipped the speech, Erakat says the jubilant reaction from lawmakers in attendance showed U.S. leaders cheering "for what is essentially a war on children."
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Jul 25, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress on Wednesday to defend the ongoing war on Gaza as thousands of people outside protested his appearance. The speech came two months after Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced he was seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for committing war crimes in Gaza. Over 100 Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, skipped the speech, but those in attendance gave Netanyahu numerous standing ovations as he painted a distorted picture of what's happening in Gaza, making no mention of efforts to reach a ceasefire or the more than 16,000 Palestinian children killed in Israel's assault. Foreign policy analyst Phyllis Bennis says the speech was "horrifying," but says it showed that "support for Israel has become a thoroughly partisan issue." Bennis adds that peace activists in the U.S. have built a broad consensus against the war on Gaza and military support for Israel, and says Vice President Kamala Harris has an opportunity to chart a new path on Middle East policy as she runs for president.
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Jul 25, 2024
U.S. Lawmakers Delivers Standing Ovations for War Criminal Netanyahu; 100 Democrats Skip Speech, Thousands of Protesters Condemn U.S. Support for Israeli Genocide Outside Netanyahu Address, "Everyone in Gaza Is Sick, Injured, or Both": U.S. Doctors Demand Biden Admin Stop Arming Israel, "She Wanted to Bring Life Back to Our Home": Gazan Mourns Daughter Murdered at 9 Months Pregnant, Biden Returns to D.C., Addresses Decision to Drop Reelection Bid and Back Harris for President, Kamala Harris Vows to Restore Reproductive Rights Through Congress
, "Childless Cat Ladies with Miserable Lives": J.D. Vance Mocks Democratic Leaders in Resurfaced Tape, At Least 25 Killed as Typhoon Gaemi Lashes Taiwan and the Philippines, Climate Activists Disrupt Air Travel in Protests Demanding End to Fossil Fuels
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Jul 24, 2024
D'Vontaye Mitchell died last month in Milwaukee after he was violently pinned to the ground by four security guards outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel, just a few minutes from where the Republican National Convention would take place. Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney who is representing the family, says that the killing is "just inexplicable," with nobody charged for Mitchell's death so far. "You have a video of a man being killed. You have witnesses who have given statements. But yet you're saying you still have to investigate? Why is it different when it's a Black victim laying dead on the ground?"
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Jul 24, 2024
The family of Sonya Massey is demanding justice after they say authorities tried to cover up her fatal shooting by a sheriff's deputy in Springfield, Illinois, by initially claiming it was "self-inflicted." Police body-camera footage showed this was a lie. The 36-year-old mother of two was shot dead in her own home on July 6 after she called 911 for help. "This is the worst police shooting video that I've seen. It is so senseless," says Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing the family. "[Massey] needed a helping hand. She did not need a bullet to the face."
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Jul 24, 2024
Some 400 Jewish activists, including over a dozen rabbis, were arrested Tuesday during a sit-in inside the Capitol to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress and demand an immediate U.S. weapons embargo on Israel. "It is absolutely shameful that congressional leadership has invited a war criminal, who is currently leading a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, to address a joint session of Congress," says Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action. Lawmakers have rolled out a "blood-soaked red carpet to a war criminal" by inviting Benjamin Netanyahu, adds Palestinian American organizer Linda Sarsour, co-founder of the Muslim advocacy group MPower Action. Tuesday's civil disobedience protest was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace. We are also joined by Noa Grayevsky, member of Jewish Voice for Peace-Portland, who joined the protest and whose cousin's close friend was taken hostage on October 7.
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Jul 24, 2024
As the death toll from Israel's war on Gaza tops 39,100, tens of thousands of protesters plan to march on Capitol Hill today during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to a joint session of Congress. Dozens of Democratic lawmakers plan to boycott the speech, including Senators Dick Durbin, Chris Van Hollen, Jeff Merkley, Patty Murray and Bernie Sanders. "Congress has made a terrible mistake in inviting Netanyahu," says award-winning Israeli scholar David Harel, who co-authored a New York Times essay, "We Are Israelis Calling on Congress to Disinvite Netanyahu." Harel says Netanyahu "does not represent a majority of Israelis."
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Jul 24, 2024
Protesters Gather in D.C. as Israeli PM Netanyahu Prepares to Address Congress, 400 Jewish Protesters Arrested in U.S. Capitol Demanding U.S. End Support to Israel, Families of Israeli Hostages Rally in D.C. Demanding Ceasefire and Prisoner Exchange, Gaza Death Toll Tops 39,100 as Israeli Lawmakers Label U.N. Relief Agency a "Terror Organization", Biden Returns to White House as Kamala Harris Campaigns in Wisconsin, "100% She Was a DEI Hire": Republicans Launch Racist and Sexist Attacks on Kamala Harris, Embattled NJ Sen. Bob Menendez to Resign Ahead of Sentencing on Bribery, Corruption Charges, Secret Service Director Resigns over Failures During Trump Assassination Attempt , Youth-Led Protests in Kenya Demand Ouster of President over Corruption, Debt, 229 Killed as Heavy Rains Trigger Landslides in Southern Ethiopia, Monday Breaks Record for Planet's Hottest Day Ever Recorded
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Jul 23, 2024
The death toll in Bangladesh from a crackdown on massive student protests has risen to at least 174, with more than 2,500 people arrested, after police and soldiers were granted "shoot-on-sight" orders amid the unrest. The protests were in response to a highly contested quota system for civil service jobs, with 30% of government positions reserved for relatives of veterans who fought in the country's independence war against Pakistan in 1971. The country's high court rolled that back Sunday to only 5%, but students are still demanding that a curfew be fully lifted, schools reopened, and detained students and protest leaders released. "The collective anger that you're seeing is over inequality, lack of opportunity, and a perception that those who are close to the ruling class and ruling elite are getting all the benefits," says journalist Salil Tripathi, author of a book on the Bangladeshi war of independence.
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Jul 23, 2024
The Israeli military says it has begun vaccinating its soldiers against poliovirus after the paralytic disease was found in several wastewater samples in Gaza. The World Health Organization warns the risk of further spread remains high while Gaza's children go unvaccinated during Israel's assault, which has devastated Gaza's water and sanitation infrastructure. Public health officials have called it a major setback for global efforts to eradicate polio. "Right now, fortunately, we don't know of any polio patients in Gaza. But we anticipate that it will come," says Dorit Nitzan, director of the masters program in emergency medicine at Ben-Gurion University and former regional emergency director for the World Health Organization's European office. "The prescription is ceasefire, vaccines and good public health conditions."
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Jul 23, 2024
As Democratic support coalesces behind Vice President Kamala Harris in her run for the White House, we speak with Lily Greenberg Call, who worked on Harris's presidential campaign in 2019 and went on to join the Biden administration before resigning from her position in the Interior Department to protest U.S. support for Israel's war on Gaza. She was the first Jewish political appointee to publicly quit because of the administration's Middle East policy, part of a wave of resignations over the war. She says Harris must seize the opportunity to "chart a new path" on Gaza and overall Israel-Palestine policy. "People are watching, through social media, a genocide being live-streamed, and they're realizing that it's their tax dollars and American weapons being used to kill children — and they're not OK with it," says Greenberg Call.
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Jul 23, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris has the backing of enough Democratic delegates to secure the party's presidential nomination, with Democrats planning to hold a virtual roll call in the coming days to formalize her place atop the ticket ahead of the Democratic National Convention in August. The Democratic Party has quickly coalesced around Harris following President Joe Biden's stunning decision Sunday to drop his reelection bid, but questions remain about whether she will significantly alter Middle East policy. The "uncommitted" movement of voters seeking to pressure Democrats to stop U.S. support for Israel's war on Gaza "breathed a sigh of relief" when Biden dropped out, says Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid, an adviser to the movement, and activists are hopeful for Harris to take a new approach. Shahid adds that the Democratic Party cannot cast itself as a champion of democracy standing against far-right authoritarianism while continuing to arm the extremist Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it "makes a mockery of our party's claim to be fighting on the right side of history."
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Jul 23, 2024
Kamala Harris Wins Support of Enough Democratic Delegates to Clinch Nomination, Bodies of Dead and Wounded Fill Khan Younis Hospital as Israeli Assault Grinds On, Israel to Vaccinate Soldiers Against Polio After Virus Is Found in Gaza Wastewater, 7 Killed in Latest Israeli Raids on West Bank, Netanyahu to Face Protests and Boycotts in D.C. Visit, Will Meet with Kamala Harris, Secret Service Director Faces Bipartisan Calls to Resign After Trump Assassination Attempt , Jan. 6 Rioter Who Gave Nazi Salute on Capitol Steps Gets Nearly Five Years in Prison, Ohio State Senator Says Only "Civil War" Would Save U.S. from Harris Presidency, J.D. Vance Attacks Kamala Harris, Defends Soda Consumption in First Solo Campaign Rally, Climate Clock Ticks Below Five Years to Avert Worst of Climate Catastrophe, Veteran Anti-Whaling Activist Paul Watson Arrested in Greenland, Could Be Extradited to Japan , Russia Sentences Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to 6.5 Years in Prison, "Genocide Is Not an Olympic Event": Protesters Call for Ban on Israel Ahead of Paris Games, Bangladesh Death Toll Hits 174, with Over 2,500 Arrests, Amid Ongoing Uprising Against Gov't Job Quotas
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Jul 22, 2024
The International Court of Justice has ruled Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and should come to an end "as rapidly as possible." This is one of the most significant rulings issued by an international court on the matter since Israel's military occupation of the territories began in 1967. We speak with Palestinian human rights lawyer Diana Buttu on the historic ruling and what impact it could have on Israel. "The court makes it clear not only that Israel's occupation is illegal, but it also says that all countries around the world have an obligation to make sure that Israel doesn't get away with it," says Buttu. "It's up to the international community now to put sanctions on Israel to end this military occupation."
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Jul 22, 2024
Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown remembers longtime Texas Democratic Congressmember Sheila Jackson Lee, who was a tireless fighter for civil rights and progressive causes throughout her three decades in the U.S. House. Jackson Lee has died at the age of 74 after announcing last month she had pancreatic cancer. Lee was an early and outspoken opponent of the disastrous and illegal invasion of Iraq, as well as an advocate for reparations to the descendants of enslaved African Americans. "She has left a legacy of service, a legacy of love," says political organizer LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter. "She was someone you could always depend on."
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Jul 22, 2024
As President Biden drops his reelection bid and endorses Vice President Kamala Harris, we discuss the next steps forward and whether there should be an open convention. James Zogby, former executive member of the Democratic National Committee, says an open convention is "what democracy needs from our party right now." Meanwhile, Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown says an open convention is a risk that would cause "chaos" within the Democratic Party. "This is a moment that we have to defeat Trump," says Brown.
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Jul 22, 2024
Journalist Mehdi Hasan joins us to respond to President Joe Biden's announcement Sunday he is ending his campaign to seek reelection just four months before Election Day. In a letter posted on social media, Biden wrote he was stepping aside "in the best interest of my party and the country," and then endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris. She quickly received the backing of many powerful Democrats, but Harris could still face a challenge for the party's nomination in the four weeks before the Democratic National Convention. Questions about Biden's candidacy had been growing since at least last year. The activist group RootsAction launched a campaign called Don't Run Joe 20 months ago, and during the primary more than a half-million voters chose "uncommitted" instead of Biden to protest his support for Israel's war on Gaza. Hasan says that this is a "big, big moment for American democracy," and when it comes to Harris, we need to "pressure her in a way that we failed to pressure Joe Biden."
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Jul 22, 2024
President Biden Ends Reelection Bid & Endorses Kamala Harris, Israel Kills 39 in Khan Younis as Official Death Toll Tops 39,000, ICJ Rules Israel's Occupation of West Bank and East Jerusalem Is Illegal, Netanyahu Heads to Washington to Address Congress Despite ICC Arrest Warrant for Gaza Genocide, Israel Attacks Yemen's Hodeidah, Killing 6 People, After Houthi Drone Strike on Tel Aviv, Injured AFP Journalist Christina Assi Carries Olympic Torch to Honor Slain and Wounded Media Workers, Bangladesh Rolls Back Gov't Job Quota Rule Following Student Protests That Killed at Least 160, 40 Asylum Seekers Die Off Haitian Coast Amid Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis, U.S. Ambassador to U.N. Travels to Haiti; Court Charges 40 in 2018 Massacre, Incl. Jimmy Chérizier, Calls to End Microsoft's Monopoly After Global Outage Wreaked Havoc Last Week, Illinois Officer Charged with Murder for Fatally Shooting Sonya Massey in Her Home, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Civil Rights Pioneer in Congress, Dies at at 74
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Jul 19, 2024
As anger grows in Milwaukee over the police killing of 43-year-old Samuel Sharpe during the Republican National Convention, we speak with his sister, Angelique Sharpe, who says the family is fighting for transparency from the authorities and the full video of the fatal incident. "We really want justice for my brother," says Angelique, who also explains that her brother's life had been threatened by a "bully" and that he had actually called the police for help before he was killed. Samuel Sharpe was an unhoused Black man shot 27 times by police on Tuesday — but the officers were from Ohio, part of a deployment of thousands of outside law enforcement members in Wisconsin for the RNC. We are also joined by Wisconsin state Representative Darrin Madison, a Democratic Socialist, who says both Sharpe's death and the killing of D'Vontaye Mitchell by hotel security guards weeks earlier point to a larger problem of anti-Black violence in Milwaukee.
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Jul 19, 2024
The Washington Post reports the word "abortion" was not mentioned a single time from the stage during the first three days of the Republican National Convention. Reporter Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent at The Nation, says the silence from Trump and others at this week's RNC in Milwaukee does not reflect a change in attitude from the Republican Party, which is still fiercely opposed to reproductive rights. "Republicans can read the polls. They know that abortion has triumphed in all seven instances where it's been on the ballot since the Dobbs decision. They know that a rising number of people support abortion rights," says Littlefield, who predicts that "abortion is going to have a huge impact on this election" and calls for "a Reproductive Justice New Deal."
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Jul 19, 2024
Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, joins us as the Republican National Convention wraps up in Milwaukee. On the final night, Donald Trump's invective-filled speech, coming just days after the attempt on his life, was promoted as an address about unity. But Barber says it was only "a unity of rejection" on offer — rejecting the rights of women, immigrants, workers, poor people, disenfranchised voters and more. "They may have toned down their voices, but they did not tone down their extreme policies," he says.
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Jul 19, 2024
A march through downtown Milwaukee Thursday called for justice for Samuel Sharpe and D'Vontaye Mitchell, two Black men killed before and during the Republican National Convention amid a massive security buildup. Sharpe was a 43-year-old unhoused Black man who was shot dead by police officers from Ohio who were in Wisconsin as part of a group of 4,500 law enforcement officials in Milwaukee for the RNC. The shooting took place a mile from the RNC's proceedings. Weeks earlier, security guards at the Hyatt Regency Hotel killed D'Vontaye Mitchell, a 43-year-old Black father who died after security guards pinned him to the ground. Democracy Now! was at the protest, and we feature the voices of grieving family members who spoke out.
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Jul 19, 2024
We host a roundtable the morning after Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president on Thursday, just five days after surviving an assassination attempt, delivering the longest acceptance speech in convention history. Trump began with a somber recounting of what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a bullet grazed his right ear, and soon went off script to deliver a rambling diatribe against various political enemies and repeatedly demonized immigrants. "The first three or four days of the convention were pitched as a display of unity," says Benjamin Wallace-Wells of The New Yorker, who says the nominee "got in the way" of the party's plans. "Trump was just straightforwardly weird." Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist ??Maria Hinojosa, founder of Futuro Media, says the vicious anti-immigrant rhetoric from Trump and almost every other speaker throughout the week is built on lies. "If everything that he said is true, then our American economy would be tanking, right? And, actually, there would be rampant crime across the streets. That is not the truth. And even Trump supporters … know that's not the truth," says Hinojosa. We also speak with former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, who says both Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance are promoting a false populism that does not actually support workers or challenge the power of big money. "We do need a president that will put the working-class people ahead of corporations. We do need a president that will line up the supposed values of this country with policy. The problem is, President Donald J. Trump is not it, and neither is J.D. Vance," says Turner, a senior fellow at The New School's Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy.
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Jul 19, 2024
Trump Accepts GOP Nomination with Longest-Ever Convention Speech, 2nd Dem. Senator Calls on Biden to Step Down Amid Reports He May Be on Verge of Ending Campaign, Israel Bombs Another U.N. School; Families Grieve Loved Ones as Bodies Exhumed from Al-Amal Hospital, Israel's "Weaponization of Water" Leading to Death, Disease as Polio Virus Is Detected in Gaza, Houthis Claim Responsibility for Strike in Tel Aviv That Kills One, Death Toll Climbs to 28 in Bangladesh Student Protests as Crackdown Intensifies, Microsoft Outage Grounds Planes, Causes Global Chaos, U.K. Court Hands 4- and 5-Year Prison Sentences to Climate Activists for Planning Nonviolent Protest, Court Blocks Student Debt Relief Plan as Biden Admin Cancels Another 1.2B in Federal Loans, DOJ Sues U.S.'s Largest Contractor Housing Immigrant Children over Systemic Sexual Abuse, Lou Dobbs, Racist and Xenophobic Fox News Star, Dies, WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich Convicted of Espionage, Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison, Israeli Settlers Ramp Up Attacks in Occupied West Bank; U.K. Resumes UNRWA Funding, Long-standing Rwandan President Paul Kagame Wins Reelection with Over 99% of Vote, Indigenous Leaders in Peru Declare State of Emergency After Murder of Mariano Isacama Feliciano, Amnesty Says Peruvian President Dina Boluarte Criminally Responsible for Deaths of Protesters, Uber and Lyft Drivers Take to NYC Streets to Call for End to "Lockout" Policies
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Jul 18, 2024
The Democratic National Committee is moving ahead with a plan to virtually nominate Joe Biden ahead of the Democratic convention in Chicago despite growing calls for him to step aside and as a new Associated Press poll shows nearly two-thirds of Democrats want Biden to withdraw from the race following his disastrous debate with Donald Trump. Top Democrats including Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are reportedly privately lobbying for Biden to step aside. With Biden as the presidential candidate, "Democrats have a vanishingly thin chance of recapturing the House," says Chris Lehmann, who rejoins us to discuss the "unprecedented" and contentious fight over Biden's reelectability occurring within the Democratic Party ahead of its convention next month.
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Jul 18, 2024
American historian and the author of White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, Nancy Isenberg, calls Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance a peddler of the "self-made man myth." Isenberg criticizes Hilbilly Elegy, the memoir that propelled him to fame, as a deceptive way of selling this myth and the conservative politics it comes with. "Much of what his memoir says tells us nothing about real class conditions," Isenberg says, pointing to her own historical and sociological research on the rural poor in the United States.
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Jul 18, 2024
Politico reporter Ian Ward interviewed Ohio Senator J.D. Vance at length for a recent profile and joins us to discuss Vance's biography and ideology after he formally accepted the Republican vice-presidential nomination to run with Donald Trump, whom he once staunchly opposed.
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Jul 18, 2024
We continue to look at the record of Donald Trump's vice-presidential running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, with a focus on his foreign policy actions, with Matt Duss of the Center for International Policy, former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders. Vance is "very aligned with Trump," says Duss, such as in his support of the Abraham Accords, the Arab-Israeli normalization deal signed under the Trump administration that sought to increase Israel's power in the region at the expense of Palestinian rights.
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Jul 18, 2024
After Ohio Senator J.D. Vance makes his nomination official as the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2024, we spend the show looking at his record. We begin with a discussion on Vance's professed economic populism with independent journalist Zaid Jilani and The Nation's Chris Lehmann. Jilani argues Vance's pro-working class image is not only genuine, but that he may also hold enough sway to bring the Republican Party closer to the labor movement. "Big business does fear Vance to some extent," he says. Lehmann counters, "I don't see the Republican Party, at the end of the day, moving toward these … redistributive policies," citing its hostility toward immigrants, who are a major driver of economic growth. "The forgotten working class is going to stay forgotten," he concludes.
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Jul 18, 2024
Biden Tests Positive for COVID, Cancels Campaign Events, Amid Mounting Calls to Step Aside, Biden Says He Is a Zionist, Before Claiming He "Did More for Palestinians Than Anybody", Israeli Soldiers Sicced a Dog on a Gazan Man with Down Syndrome, Less Than Half of U.N. Health Facilities in Gaza Are Operational, Israel Passes Resolution Rejecting Palestinian Statehood, J.D. Vance Tops RNC Speakers on Day 3 as He Accepts VP Nomination, Reporter Says WSJ Fired Her Due to Leadership Role with Hong Kong Media Union, Colombia Ends Ceasefire Agreement with FARC Faction, At Least 6 Heat-Related Deaths Recorded in Texas After Hurricane-Triggered Power Outage, Extreme Rains in Eastern Afghanistan Kill at Least 47, Injure Hundreds, "I Can't Breathe": Eric Garner Remembered 10 Years After NYPD Choked Him to Death, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Civil Rights Activist and Musical Icon, Has Died at 81, "Everything Is a Challenge": U.N Aid Coordinator Discusses Plight of Displaced Gazans, CodePink Facing Death Threats After Republican Lawmaker Falsely Claims a Member Attacked Him, Elon Musk Plans to Move SpaceX from CA to TX After Newsom Signs New Law Protecting Trans Students, Lawmakers Seek Data on Child Labor Violations in Federal Work Program, Puerto Rico Sues Oil Giants over Climate Crisis
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Jul 17, 2024
The Democratic National Committee is moving to confirm President Joe Biden as the party's presidential nominee with a "virtual roll call" as early as next week, despite serious doubts from many Democratic lawmakers and voters about his viability following a disastrous debate performance in late June. "Joe Biden could be nominated for president next week, even though the convention is almost a month away," says The Nation's John Nichols.
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Jul 17, 2024
Anti-immigrant hate speech and misinformation about the U.S.-Mexico border took center stage on the second day of the Republican National Convention. Donald Trump's campaign screened an ad that scapegoated migrants and asylum seekers for rising crime in the U.S. and falsely claimed Biden's so-called open border policies have facilitated the smuggling of fentanyl. Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera and Voces de la Frontera Action, says Trump's platform is "promoting hateful rhetoric" and the GOP has become a "white supremacist party and is a real threat to democracy."
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Jul 17, 2024
Ohio Senator J.D. Vance is preparing to make his first speech Wednesday at the Republican National Convention after being tapped by Donald Trump to be his running mate. On Tuesday, ProPublica published a newly uncovered speech Vance made a year before he was elected to the Senate in which he said "the devil is real," praised conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, denigrated transgender people and more. We speak with reporter Andy Kroll, who says the video "gives this unvarnished look into what J.D. Vance believes and into what he says to an audience of his peers." Kroll also responds to President Biden's proposed Supreme Court reforms, sparked in part by ProPublica's reporting on ethical violations committed by sitting justices.
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Jul 17, 2024
Activists and community members in Milwaukee gathered in the streets Tuesday to condemn the police killing of 43-year-old Milwaukee resident Samuel Sharpe. The officers who killed Sharpe, an unhoused Black veteran, are from Ohio, part of a group of 4,500 law enforcement officials in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention. But the shooting took place a mile from the RNC's proceedings. Sharpe appeared to be in the middle of an altercation with another man when the police officers charged toward him before fatally shooting him. Journalist Bob Hennelly, who is in Milwaukee to cover the convention, says the shooting is what happens "when you militarize your politics."
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Jul 17, 2024
A federal jury on Tuesday convicted New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of corruption on all 16 counts he faced. He was found guilty of bribery, wire fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt. Award-winning investigative reporter Bob Hennelly, who has been covering Menendez for decades, says it's a "condemnation of the political culture of New Jersey that's corrupt."
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Jul 17, 2024
As the Republican National Convention enters its third day, we speak with political science professor Clarence Lusane on how Donald Trump is trying to increase his appeal with Black voters. A number of Black lawmakers have spoken at the RNC, including South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. Lusane says that "Donald Trump never has anything positive to say about the Black community," and that his effort to showcase diversity at the RNC is to "gaslight the Black community."
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Jul 17, 2024
On Tuesday night, several of Donald Trump's former rivals endorsed the Trump ticket, including former Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Vivek Ramaswamy. Much of the evening focused on the Republican Party's hard-line border and immigration policies. The 2024 Republican platform backs Trump's pledge to carry out the "largest deportation operation in American history" and to stop what it calls a "migrant crime epidemic." We speak with journalist Jean Guerrero, who says what was shown at the RNC was the "politics of hate" and that the Republican Party is not letting up on its "anti-immigrant hatemongering."
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Jul 17, 2024
"Where Is the World?": Gaza Mourns Victims as Israel Continues to Target Humanitarian Refuges, CCR Files FOIA Request for Gov't Communications Around ICC's Israeli War Crimes Case, Israeli Attacks in Southern Lebanon Kill 5 Syrians, Incl. 3 Children, Federal Jury Convicts New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez on All 16 Corruption Counts, Milwaukee Community Outraged After Ohio Police Kill a Black Man, Samuel Sharpe, 1 Mile from RNC, RNC Dominated by Xenophobic Hate Speech on Day 2 as Republicans Line Up Behind Trump, Rep. Adam Schiff Warns Dems Could Lose Presidency and Senate If Biden Remains in the Race, Biden Proposes Limiting Rent Hikes at 5%, Rep. Greg Casar Challenges GOP to Back PRO Act as Union Leaders Warn Against Trump-Vance Ticket, One Dead in Kenya as Anti-Gov't Protests Step Up Demands for Pres. Ruto to Resign, Jan. 6 Rioters Could See Charges and Convictions Lessened or Even Dropped After SCOTUS Ruling, Biden Expected to Back Term Limits, Ethics Code for SCOTUS Justices, Yemen's Houthis Attack More Vessels in Red Sea as Israel's War on Gaza Continues, Tens of Thousands, Incl. Unaccompanied Children, Pour into Sudan's Qadarif as Conflict Rages On, 6 Killed in Bangladesh as Student Protests Seek End to Gov't Job Quota, French PM Attal Resigns But Remains as Caretaker Amid Impasse over New Gov't, French Police Evict Immigrants Ahead of Olympics; Amnesty Blasts France over Hijab Ban for Athletes, Amazon Prime Day Resulted in Nearly Half of Warehouse Workers Becoming Injured
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Jul 16, 2024
A lawsuit led by Palestinians and Palestinian Americans that accused President Joe Biden and other top U.S. officials of enabling genocide in Gaza was rejected Monday by a federal appeals court, which upheld a lower court's dismissal of the lawsuit. The three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court ruled that courts cannot review the executive branch's decisions on foreign policy, even when there is a risk of breaking domestic and international law. We speak with Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which helped represent the plaintiffs in the case. She says the court has "essentially given a blank check" for U.S. governments to do whatever they want in times of war.
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Jul 16, 2024
As Donald Trump and his new running mate J.D. Vance try to soften their anti-abortion position ahead of the 2024 election, new documents uncovered by The Lever show Vance lobbied just last year to let police track people who cross state lines for abortions. Vance, a first-term senator from Ohio, pressured federal regulators to kill a privacy rule designed to prevent state and local police in anti-abortion states from using private medical records to prosecute people who access abortion services elsewhere. "What's really shocking and scary about this story is that the rule was just implemented by the Biden administration, it wasn't signed into law. So, an incoming Trump administration could potentially repeal it," says reporter Veronica Riccobene.
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Jul 16, 2024
We speak with journalist Robert Kuttner about Donald Trump's selection of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance to be his running mate in the 2024 election. Vance rose to fame in 2016 after writing the memoir Hillbilly Elegy about his upbringing in Appalachia. He was elected to the Senate in 2022 with the backing of right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, who spent $10 million on his candidacy. While he was a vocal critic of Trump's politics, once comparing him to Hitler, Vance has since embraced the MAGA movement and is now one of the most vocal defenders of the former president. Vance's elevation is "very dangerous" because it lets Republicans pretend to care about working-class voters, says Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. "Vance is much more effective at connecting Trump's cultural and social and racist populism to what looks like pocketbook populism, except it's a fake," he says. "We are really screwed if we can't find somebody who can beat this ticket — and the ticket is beatable. You just need a stronger candidate than Biden."
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Jul 16, 2024
"We were given a genocidal man and a fascist man, and that is a terrible decision to pick from," says one of the protesters who joined a broad coalition of progressive groups and unions to march in Milwaukee against the Republican Party Monday on the first day of the Republican National Convention. We speak with people calling for an end to racist policies supported by the GOP; defending the rights of women, LGBTQ people and abortion access; supporting Palestine and more.
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Jul 16, 2024
As the Republican National Convention opened on Monday, Donald Trump scored a major legal victory when a Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida dismissed the criminal case against the former president for illegally keeping classified national security documents after his presidency ended. Judge Aileen Cannon ruled Attorney General Merrick Garland had no power to appoint Jack Smith as a special counsel. Her ruling stunned many legal experts, and the Justice Department plans to appeal. This comes after the conservative-dominated Supreme Court recently granted Trump, and presidents more generally, almost complete immunity from prosecution for "official" actions taken in office. "This was an opinion in search of a result," says Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston, who has covered Trump for decades. "This is just deeply offensive, and I suspect it will be overturned, but the real result is there is no prospect that Donald Trump will be tried before the November elections."
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Jul 16, 2024
As Donald Trump selected Ohio Senator J.D. Vance to be his vice-presidential candidate Monday, we look at the record of the 39-year-old political rookie, who rose to fame after writing the memoir Hillbilly Elegy and who once compared Trump to Hitler and called him unfit for the presidency. He was elected to the Senate in 2022 with backing from right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, and he has since embraced the MAGA movement and become one of Trump's most loyal supporters. For more on Vance's rise and his appeal to the Republican base, we go to Pikeville, Kentucky, to speak with famed sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild, who has been speaking with Trump supporters for her forthcoming book, Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right, which is a follow-up to her 2016 book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, described as "a Rosetta stone" for understanding the rise of Donald Trump.
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Jul 16, 2024
Trump Names Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as Running Mate, "We Are Here, and We Care": Protesters Rally Outside RNC, Cheri Honkala Arrested While Attempting to Deliver Citizen's Arrest to Republican Officials, Trump-Appointed Judge Dismisses Classified Docs Case Against Trump; DOJ Plans to Appeal, GOP Calls for Secret Service Dir. to Resign After Trump Assassination Attempt, Biden Says He Made Mistake in Language Used Against Trump as He Appeals for "Cooling Down" Rhetoric, UNRWA Gaza City Headquarters Flattened as Israeli Strikes Continue to Kill Palestinians, Turkey Vows to Bring Israel to Justice over Its Destruction of Gaza's Only Cancer Hospital, Accumulating Waste in Gaza Leads to Deepening Sanitation and Public Health Crises, Blinken Says Gaza Death Toll "Unacceptably High" as U.S. Continues to Fund Israel's Slaughter, EU Sanctions Israeli Settlers in Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Zelensky Says He Hopes to Host International Peace Summit in Kyiv in November, Russian Court Sentences Journalist Masha Gessen in Absentia to 8 Years in Prison, Children Caught Up in El Salvador's Gang War Are Suffering Major Abuses, Rights Groups Accuse Buffalo ICE Prison of Chronic Abuse, Retaliation Against Immigrants, "J.D. Vance Is a Climate Supervillain": Climate Groups Blast Trump's VP Pick, Panel of Federal Judges Dismisses Genocide Case Against Biden and Top U.S. Officials, Judge Dismisses Giuliani's Bid for Bankruptcy Protection, Climate Groups Call for Moratorium on Deep Sea Mining, Bolivia Announces Discovery of Natural Gas "Mega Field", Much of U.S. Faces More Blistering Heat Amid Record Seasonal Highs, Gambian Lawmakers Defeat Move to Reinstate Female Genital Mutilation, Upholding 2015 Ban, At Least 22 Students Dead After School Collapse in Central Nigeria, Peter Buxtun, Whistleblower Who Exposed the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Dies at 86
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Jul 15, 2024
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, holds significance for today's Republican Party, not only as the site of the 2024 Republican National Convention, but also as a bellwether for American conservatism, argues Dan Kaufman, author of The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics. Kaufman shares Wisconsin's history of progressive state politics, and how that progressivism was overtaken and eroded by Republican governance, particularly under former Governor Scott Walker, who dismantled organized labor's power in the state. "Walker himself boasted that, 'If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere,'" explains Kaufman. "So, in terms of becoming a national laboratory, [Wisconsin] became an important symbol for the transformation of Republican politics."
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Jul 15, 2024
In Milwaukee, Democracy Now! speaks with members of an unhoused encampment that's been set up just minutes from the site of the Republican National Convention to protest policies that have exacerbated poverty and a housing crisis nationwide. The encampment is organized by the Poor People's Army, which is also set to host a protest rally and march on the first day of the convention. Cheri Honkala, the national spokesperson for the Poor People's Army, also joins us in Milwaukee. "People are not surviving poverty in this country," Honkala says of the motivation behind the march, in which hundreds of protesters, many of whom are themselves struggling with homelessness, are expected to join.
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Jul 15, 2024
In the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, we speak to writer Jeff Sharlet, author of The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. Sharlet says, "The Trump campaign and this kind of authoritarianism is driven by not just the use of violence, not just the invocation of violence, but a kind of reverence of violence, a redemption through violence." Sharlet, who researches the rise of far-right extremism in the United States, also responds to Project 2025, the far-right policy platform that is expected to guide Trump's potential second term in office.
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Jul 15, 2024
The Israeli military carried out one of its deadliest attacks in weeks when it bombed al-Mawasi in Khan Younis — designated as a "safe zone" — killing at least 90 Palestinians and injuring hundreds more on Saturday. Israel claimed it was targeting Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, but the group denied that Deif had been hit. Israel also struck a makeshift mosque during noon prayer in the Shati refugee camp in west Gaza City, killing 20, and a United Nations school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing 22. We speak with writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada, chief of communications at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, who says, "We've got a situation where Israel is being told, 'You can do whatever you want, anything you want at all.'"
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Jul 15, 2024
Saturday's assassination attempt of Donald Trump is widely viewed as the Secret Service's biggest failure since 1981, when a gunman shot President Ronald Reagan just over two months into his first term. Reagan was hospitalized for nearly two weeks. Three other people were injured, including Reagan's press secretary James Brady, who was shot in the head and left partially paralyzed. Brady and his wife Sarah would go on to become prominent gun control advocates pushing for a bill that became known as the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. Brady was also involved in a gun control organization that changed its name to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, now known simply as Brady. "Reasonable and appropriate gun violence prevention measures save lives," says Kris Brown, the president of Brady. Brown advocates for critical gun control measures that would interrupt the Republican Party's vision of "guns everywhere, for anyone, at any time."
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Jul 15, 2024
We begin our weeklong coverage from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was shot in his right ear. One person in the crowd was killed, and two others critically injured. The shooter was killed at the scene after members of the Secret Service opened fire on him on a nearby roof. The Nation's national affairs correspondent John Nichols joins us in Milwaukee to detail the long history of political violence in the United States and says it may not prove as significant to the presidential election as many believe. "There is a tendency after a shooting like this to assume it's going to have a huge political impact — and it may. I'm not dismissing that. But what I will tell you is that there's history that suggests that the country is horrified, the country reacts with sympathy, but it doesn't necessarily say, 'Oh, well, we have to elect this wounded warrior or this wounded candidate.'"
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Jul 15, 2024
FBI Seeks Motive in Trump Assassination Attempt; President Biden Calls for "Cooling Down" Rhetoric, Biden Pulls TV Ads After Trump Shooting and Amid Mounting Calls for His Withdrawal from Election, Trump Arrives in Milwaukee as Protests Call Attention to Poverty, Inequality Ahead of RNC, Israeli Attacks Kill 91 Gazans in al-Mawasi "Safe Zone," Dozens of Others in Schools, Shelters, West Bank Protesters March in Jenin After al-Mawasi Massacre, Rwanda Votes in Election Widely Expected to Keep Paul Kagame in Power, Pakistani Gov't Moves to Ban Imran Khan's PTI Party After Set of Legal Wins for Khan, Ecuador Convicts 5 in Pre-Election Assassination of Presidential Candidate Fernando Villavicencio, U.S. Has Continued to Deport Immigrants for Nonviolent Drug Offenses That Have Been Decriminalized, Many Houstonians Remain Without Power One Week After Hurricane Beryl Amid Stifling Heat Wave, "There Is No Alternative to UNRWA": Guterres Calls for World to Support Palestinian Agency, Israel Launches New Strikes in Syria as Syrians Vote in Parliamentary Elections, Sudanese Officials in Geneva for Talks Amid Devastating Civil War, At Least 9 Killed in Mogadishu Bombing Outside Cafe That Was Airing Euro 24 Finals, Bolivian Union Leaders Support President Luis Arce in Rally Weeks After Coup Attempt, Finland Passes Measure Allowing Border Agents to Deny Entry to Asylum Seekers, Judge Dismisses Charges Against Alec Baldwin in Fatal Shooting of DP Halyna Hutchins on Movie Set
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Jul 12, 2024
We speak with reporter Oren Ziv of 972 Magazine, whose latest investigation details how Israeli forces in Gaza have been authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will. Six soldiers who fought in Gaza describe a near-total absence of firing regulations, with soldiers shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, leaving corpses to rot on the streets and more. "It seems soldiers were shooting not from a tactical reason or a real military reason, but just out of being bored, to pass the time or just because they could," says Ziv. "Soldiers felt they can do whatever they want, that they won't be accountable. And all this is done also with the awareness of the commanders." We also hear from Yuval Green, one of the reservists who spoke to Ziv and who now refuses to continue serving in the Israeli military. "I believe that continuing this war and continuing the death of Palestinians and Israeli soldiers is not right. I believe that right now the right thing to do is to sign the ceasefire treaty that is going to release the hostages and end this war," Green says.
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Jul 12, 2024
As the world watched Thursday night, President Biden held his first solo press conference this year, after hosting a NATO conference in which he accidentally referred to Ukrainian President Zelensky as Russian President Putin before quickly correcting himself. While speaking with reporters, Biden defended his record and vowed to "finish the job," but at one point referred to Kamala Harris as "Vice President Trump." As more Democrats continue to call for him to step aside, we host a roundtable discussion on Biden and Trump and the 2024 race, and the impact on U.S. foreign policy, with American Prospect executive editor David Dayen; longtime labor, racial justice and international activist Bill Fletcher Jr., co-founder of the Ukrainian Solidarity Network; and CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, co-author of the books NATO: What You Need to Know and War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.
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Jul 12, 2024
Biden Remains Defiant, But Fails to Quell Mounting Doubts, as He Holds First Solo Presser This Year, Spanish PM Urges NATO to End "Double Standards" in Treatment of Ukraine and Gaza, Israel Continues Deadly Attack on Gaza City, Leaving Dozens Dead, Neighborhoods in Ruins, 70 Media Organizations Call for Israel to Allow Int'l Journalists to Enter Gaza Strip, Israeli Military Report Admits Failures on Oct. 7, Leaves Questions Unanswered, 1 Million Remain Without Power in Houston as Record-Breaking Heat Leads to 28 U.S. Deaths, 60 People Could Be Dead After Buses Swept into River by Landslide, Kenya's Ruto Dismisses Cabinet 2 Weeks After Scrapping Tax Bill That Set Off Mass Protests, Saudi Court Sentences Man to 2 Decades in Prison for Tweets Critical of MBS, UAE Sentences Dozens of Government Critics to Prison in Mass Trial, U.S. Court Rules Activist DeRay Mckesson Cannot Be Held Responsible for Protest Injury, Arkansas Blocks Abortion Ballot Amendment on Technicality
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Jul 11, 2024
Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy discusses ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the ruling party in the Gaza Strip, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's continued hostility to compromise and the Biden administration's ineffectual mediation. Contrary to its claims of brokering peace, the U.S. "will continue to send the weapons" Israel uses to devastate Gaza, unremittingly fueling an increasingly unpopular war, says Levy, who is now president of the U.S./Middle East Project.
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Jul 11, 2024
As calls mount for President Joe Biden to step down as the presumptive Democratic Party nominee over concerns surrounding his mental and physical capacity to lead, we host a debate between two longtime members of the Democratic Party: Wajahat Ali, who recently authored a column subtitled "Biden Is Very Old and Out of Touch, and Here's Why You Should Vote for Him," and Norman Solomon of RootsAction.org, which sponsors the Step Aside Joe campaign. At 81 years old, Biden is already the oldest person to ever serve as president of the United States. His recent public appearances, including a poor performance at his first presidential debate against presumptive Republican Party nominee Donald Trump — who, if reelected, would be the second-oldest person to ever serve as president — have renewed questions about his health and ability. Biden has thus far resisted pressure to suspend his reelection campaign, even as the U.S. liberal coalition fractures over his candidacy. Ali says that now is the time to unite over a candidate to prevent a second Trump presidency, and that without a clear alternative, only Biden can run a winnable campaign. Meanwhile, Solomon argues that Biden's performance thus far has already critically weakened his chances of winning the election. "Uniting behind a losing candidate is a bad idea," he says.
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Jul 11, 2024
Israel Continues Deadly Attacks on Gaza City, Pulls Out of Shuja'iyya After Decimating It, Ceasefire Talks Continue After Doha Meeting Btw. CIA Dir. Burns and Officials from Qatar, Egypt and Israel, U.S. Resuming Delivery of 500-Pound Bombs to Israel, NATO Reaffirms Weapons, Membership Support for Ukraine, Attacks Beijing for Ties with Russia, Russia Issues Arrest Warrant for Yulia Navalnaya, Sentences 2 Women to Prison for Theater Production, U.N. Report Confirms Ugandan, Rwandan Support of M23 Rebels in Eastern Congo, Biden to Deliver Press Conference Amid Spiraling Debate over His Run for Presidency, "They Don't Want You to Vote": Rep. Summer Lee Blasts Racist GOP Voter Suppression Bill, Nevada County Refuses to Certify Results of 2 Local Elections, AOC Launches Impeachment Effort Against Justices Thomas and Alito, Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduces ETHICS Act to Ban Lawmakers from Stock Trading, Jury Deliberations Beginning in Sen. Bob Menendez's Corruption Trial, Chicago Mayor Addresses Gun Violence After Weekend of Shootings Kills 19, Injures 100, Bullet-Dispensing Vending Machines Have Been Installed in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama, 14 More Victims Buried on 29th Anniversary of Srebrenica Genocide
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Jul 10, 2024
President Biden is hosting heads of government from NATO member nations for a three-day summit in Washington, D.C., to mark the 75th anniversary of the expanding nuclear-armed military alliance as leaders pledge to continue supporting Ukraine against Russia's invasion. We get response from German lawmaker Sevim Dagdelen, who is in D.C. to protest the summit and is the author of the new book NATO: A Reckoning with the Atlantic Alliance. She lays out how NATO is based on a series of myths about its purpose, respecting democracy and upholding human rights — as exemplified by member states' staunch support for Israel's war on Gaza. "You have rising contradictions and crisis within the European Union and the NATO states," Dagdelen says.
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Jul 10, 2024
A panel of United Nations independent experts has accused Israel of engaging in a campaign of starvation and genocide in Gaza as the effects of the famine are being felt across Gaza. Palestinian physician and activist Mustafa Barghouti says "what we see today is a purposeful act of starvation" and that the real intention of the Israeli government has never changed. "Their main goal is the total ethnic cleansing of all of Gaza people and all of the Gaza Strip." Barghouti joins us from Washington, D.C., on his first U.S. visit in more than a decade.
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Jul 10, 2024
We get an update from journalist Akram al-Satarri in Gaza, as Israel orders the full evacuation of all civilians from Gaza City after one of the deadliest days in Gaza in weeks. An Israeli airstrike killed at least 30 Palestinians at a school housing displaced people near Khan Younis, mostly women and children. "There's no safe haven" anywhere in Gaza, says al-Satarri. "The people who are bearing the brunt of those bombardments are the Palestinian displaced people." He also responds to ceasefire talks.
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Jul 10, 2024
Israeli Strike Kills 30 in Khan Younis as Army Orders All of Gaza City's Residents to Flee, U.N. Experts Declare Israel's "Targeted Starvation Campaign" Has Led to Famine and Genocide, Mourners Bury 13-Year-Old Child Killed in Israeli Raid on West Bank, U.N. Security Council Members Condemn Russia's Assault on Ukrainian Children's Hospital, Biden Launches NATO's 75th Anniversary Summit Pledging Air Defenses to Ukraine , Putin Awards Russia's Highest Civilian Honor to Visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi, France's National Rally to Lead New Far-Right Bloc in European Parliament , Military Leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Form New Alliance to Replace ECOWAS, Democratic Senators Call for Criminal Probe of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Rep. Mikie Sherrill Calls on Biden to End 2024 Campaign, Joining Other House Democrats, Trump-Appointed Judge Upholds Ban on Protests Outside Republican National Convention, Family Demands Justice After Hotel Security Guards Kill Black Milwaukee Resident Dvontaye Mitchell
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Jul 09, 2024
We speak with journalist Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept, about how he just announced he is leaving after more than a decade and launched a new investigative journalism outlet Monday called Drop Site News, alongside colleague Ryan Grim. "What Ryan and I are trying to do is build a lean, sustainable, reader-supported news organization that's going to take big swings at powerful people … and to operate with no fear or favor of those in power," says Scahill. "Our pledge … is to be accountable to the readers, the viewers and the listeners."
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Jul 09, 2024
With the war on Gaza now in its 10th month, we speak with journalist Jeremy Scahill about the state of negotiations for a possible ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. Scahill recently spoke to senior Hamas officials about the ongoing ceasefire negotiations and the group's broader goals. He is a co-founder of The Intercept, and he recently announced he was leaving after more than a decade to launch a new investigative journalism outlet, Drop Site News, alongside colleague Ryan Grim. Scahill's new article, "On the Record with Hamas," examines the militant group's motivations to launch the October 7 attacks in Israel, as well as its stance on the negotiations, based on interviews with a number of senior Hamas officials and other sources. "October 7 didn't happen in a vacuum," says Scahill. "The primary motivation, Hamas members told me, was to try to shatter the status quo on Gaza. They felt that the situation was becoming untenable."
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Jul 09, 2024
As Israel's war on Gaza enters its 10th month, we speak with Mohammed Abu Hashem, a Palestinian American who ended a 22-year career in the U.S. Air Force after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed his aunt in October. "It was clear to me that I needed to step away," says Abu Hashem, who served as a first sergeant in the 316th Civil Engineer Squadron of the U.S. Air Force. He recently co-signed a letter with 11 other former U.S. officials who rsesigned over the Biden administration's policy toward Gaza, Palestine and Israel. "The American people deserve to have a government that follows ethical and moral standards," says Abu Hashem, who also talks about briefly meeting Aaron Bushnell before the airman died by self-immolation in February to protest U.S. support for Israel.
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Jul 09, 2024
Thousands Flee Gaza Homes and Hospitals as Israel Issues New Mass Expulsion Order, Hamas Accuses Netanyahu of Creating Obstacles to Ceasefire Talks, U.N. Rights Monitor Blames Russian Missile for Attack on Kyiv Children's Hospital, Biden Welcomes NATO Leaders to Washington, D.C., for 75th Anniversary Summit, 2 Million Lose Electricity as Hurricane Beryl Slams into Texas Coast , June Sets Global Heat Record for 13th Consecutive Month, Women Dies of Heatstroke at Sweltering California Prison Amid Record-Breaking Heat Wave, Climate Activists Arrested at Protest Demanding Citibank Divest from Fossil Fuels, Biden Says He Will Not Withdraw from Election in Letter to Democrats , Mass Deportations, State-Led Abortion Bans: GOP Adopts Trump's Convention Platform, Sudanese Flee Southeastern Sennar State as Fighting Spreads 15 Months into Bloody Civil War, Brazil Ratifies Trade Agreement with Palestine, Bolsonaro Indicted for Money Laundering in Brazil; Lula Relaunches Probe into Ex-Dictatorship
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Jul 08, 2024
Voters in Iran elected Masoud Pezeshkian as president Saturday. The heart surgeon and former health minister defeated hard-liner Saeed Jalili in a runoff vote held just weeks after President Ebrahim Raisi and other top officials died in a helicopter crash. Pezeshkian has criticized Iran's mandatory hijab law for women and has promised to disband Iran's morality police, as well as better relations with the United States and other Western countries in the hopes of lifting sanctions. Journalist Reza Sayah in Tehran says that while Pezeshkian spoke the language of the reformist movement, he also strived to show "he's not going to be a disruptive force to the establishment." We also speak with Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi, who says "elections in Iran are a farce" and that no candidate who reaches the presidency can really challenge the system. "The president does not change a lot."
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Jul 08, 2024
A leftist coalition pulled off a surprise victory in the second round of parliamentary elections in France on Sunday, becoming the largest bloc in Parliament and successfully keeping the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen out of government. The New Popular Front, which won 182 seats in the National Assembly, still fell short of the 289 seats required for an absolute majority. President Emmanuel Macron's centrist coalition came second with 163 seats, while the National Rally and its allies won 143 seats after having led the first round of voting a week earlier. We go to Paris to speak with author and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi and journalist Rokhaya Diallo about the historic election result.
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Jul 08, 2024
Labour's landslide victory in Thursday's U.K. election gives the party a "wide but thin" mandate, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik, who says the new government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has to work hard to solidify its gains "if it's not going to be a temporary win." She also discusses her new piece, "Pro-Palestine votes aren't 'sectarian'. Dismissing them would be a dangerous mistake for Labour."
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Jul 08, 2024
As the British Labour Party won a landslide in Thursday's election, ending 14 years of Conservative rule, we speak with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was reelected as an independent. He discusses Keir Starmer's plans as Britain's new prime minister and says the party now needs to offer meaningful change to the public, including on demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. "Whilst Labour has this huge parliamentary majority, their national share of the vote was only around a third of all votes cast. It's a very low mandate," says Corbyn. He says a key demand from many voters is a push for a ceasefire in Gaza and the end of U.K. weapons sales to Israel. "The issue of Gaza has had a massive effect on the general election in Britain, and it's not going to go away."
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Jul 08, 2024
France's Leftist Coalition Pulls Off Shock Victory in Upset for Far Right and Macron's Centrist Gov't, U.K.'s Labour Party Returns to Power with Keir Starmer as New PM After 14 Years of Conservative Rule, Iran Elects More Moderate Candidate Masoud Pezeshkian as New President, The Lancet: Gaza's True Death Toll Could Be 186,000 or Higher, Another Israeli Attack on an UNRWA School Kills at Least 16 Gazans, Including Children, 5,300 New Illegal Settlements Approved in Occupied West Bank, Israelis Protest Against Netanyahu, Demand Ceasefire and Hostage Deal, Haaretz: Israeli Officials OK'd Using Hannibal Directive to Turn Border Area on Oct. 7 into "Extermination Zone", Democrats Split on Biden's Fitness to Lead Party to Victory as He Continues to Stumble in Public, Boeing Agrees to DOJ Plea Deal over 737 MAX Crashes to Avoid Criminal Trial, NATO Members Pledge $43B to Ukraine as Russian Strikes Kill 29, Damage Infrastructure, Heat Wave Sizzles Much of U.S. as Wildfires Displace Californians, Hurricane Beryl Makes Landfall in Texas After Ravaging Yucatán and Caribbean Nations, Karen Community in Utica, NY, Mourning After Police Killing of 13-Year-Old Nyah Mway, Jane McAlevey, Beloved Labor Organizer and Author, Has Died at 59
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Jul 05, 2024
We continue our July 5 special broadcast by revisiting our recent conversation with Christian Cooper, author of Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World and host of the Emmy Award-winning show Extraordinary Birder. We spoke with Cooper after New York City's chapter of the Audubon Society officially changed its name to the New York City Bird Alliance as part of an effort to distance itself from its former namesake John James Audubon, the so-called founding father of American birding. The 19th century naturalist enslaved at least nine people and espoused racist views. Christian Cooper is a Black birder and a longtime board member of the newly minted New York City Bird Alliance. In 2020, he made headlines after a white woman in Central Park called 911 and falsely claimed Cooper was threatening her life. Cooper also shares stories of his life and career, including his longtime LGBTQ activism and how his father's work as a science educator inspired his lifetime passion for birdwatching.
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Jul 04, 2024
In a special broadcast, we look at voices of a people's history inspired by the late great historian Howard Zinn's groundbreaking book, A People's History of the United States, which helped reshape how history is taught in classrooms. Twenty years ago, Zinn and Anthony Arnove began organizing public readings of historical texts referenced in A People's History of the United States. The two would go on to publish a book collecting theses texts under the title Voices of a People's History of the United States. While Zinn died in 2010, his work continues to inspire millions across the country and the globe. Arnove and Hailey Pessin have just published a new book titled Voices of a People's History of the United States in the 21st Century: Documents of Hope and Resistance. It gathers more than 100 speeches, essays and other documents of activism, protest and social change. We speak with them about the book, and feature readings from texts featured in it.
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Jul 04, 2024
We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" He was addressing the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. James Earl Jones reads the historic address during a performance of Voices of a People's History of the United States, which was co-edited by Howard Zinn. The late great historian introduces the address.
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Jul 03, 2024
As Democrats discuss whether President Joe Biden should stand down as the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate following his disastrous debate performance, we speak with James Zogby, senior member of the Democratic National Committee, about his call for an open and transparent nomination process to select new candidates leading up to the Democratic National Convention next month, where the final nominee would be voted on. "I want to see a unified, energized party with a lot of excitement because they were part of a historic process of change," says Zogby, who is president of the Arab American Institute.
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Jul 03, 2024
The Israeli military has issued new evacuation orders for eastern Khan Younis and Rafah, where more than 250,000 Palestinians are seeking shelter following multiple previous forced displacements. Monday's order prompted a flight from European Hospital, one of the few remaining partially functioning hospitals in Gaza, which has now shut down. "The situation is dire," says Dr. James Smith, an emergency medical doctor who spent nearly two months treating patients in the Gaza Strip before returning to London in June. "We have an obligation as healthcare workers, as public health advocates, to state very clearly … our demands not only for an immediate and sustained ceasefire, but an end to the Israeli occupation."
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Jul 03, 2024
As the earliest Category 5 storm ever observed in the Atlantic carves a path of destruction through the Caribbean, we get an update on damage from Hurricane Beryl from the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, where the storm hit Tuesday. He describes the disaster scenes he witnessed and discusses the rising challenge of extreme weather fueled by the climate crisis. "The developed countries, the major emitters, are not taking this matter seriously," says Gonsalves. He says the world must dramatically reduce emissions and that the current political and economic system is "driving all of us towards, if not extinction, to a terrible, inhospitable place called Earth."
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Jul 03, 2024
Hurricane Beryl Threatens Jamaica with Life-Threatening Winds and Waves, Israeli Strike Kills Prominent Gaza Doctor and 8 Members of His Family, Sewage Floods Khan Younis After Israeli Assault Decimates Sanitation System, 12 U.S. Government Officials Who Quit over Gaza Assault Urge Ex-Colleagues to Speak Out, New York Court Delays Trump Felony Sentencing Trial Until Sept. 18 , Rudy Giuliani Disbarred in New York over Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Democrats Show Signs of Panic as Biden Blames Dismal Debate Performance on Exhaustion, 121 Killed in Stampede at Overcrowded Religious Festival in Uttar Pradesh, India, Protesters in Kenya Condemn Police Brutality After William Ruto's Bloody Crackdown on Dissent, Indigenous Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier Denied Parole Again, Attorney Martin Stolar, Who Spent Decades Defending Social Justice Activists, Dies at 81
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Jul 02, 2024
On what would have been assassinated Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba's 99th birthday, we speak with author and analyst Vijay Prashad, who has just published a lengthy article on Lumumba and the Democratic Republic of the Congo's ongoing struggle for control over its own resources. Sunday marked the 64th anniversary of Lumumba's historic speech marking his country's independence from Belgium, in which he delivered a blistering critique of colonialism. Lumumba's rise to become the first elected prime minister of Congo came after decades of brutal violence under Belgian rule and the extraction of vast wealth in rubber, ivory and other commodities from the country. Lumumba was assassinated soon after taking office in a plot involving the CIA and Belgium, leading to decades of dictatorship under Mobutu Sese Seko, wars, poverty and resource exploitation that continues to ravage the country to this day. "The issue of control over resources is fundamental," says Prashad, director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. "The Congolese have never been able to put forward a national project around how to unite the people. … This has always been suborned by external intervention."
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Jul 02, 2024
The world-renowned linguist and dissident Noam Chomsky was discharged from a São Paulo hospital in Brazil last month as he continues to recover from a stroke last year that impacted his ability to speak. His wife, Valeria Wasserman Chomsky, told a Brazilian newspaper he still follows the news and raises his left arm in anger when he sees images of Israel's war on Gaza. False reports that Chomsky had died went viral online in June. We speak with historian Vijay Prashad, who co-authored his latest book with Chomsky, The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power, and was able to visit him twice while in Brazil. He describes Chomsky as "a beloved friend, adviser, confidante, but in some ways the one who helped explain what was happening in the world for decades." When Prashad was with Chomsky, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also stopped by.
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Jul 02, 2024
In a historic decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled on Monday that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution. The 6-3 ruling by the court's right-wing majority — including all three justices appointed by Trump — was issued on the final day of the Supreme Court's term and just four months ahead of November's presidential election. It will further delay Trump's criminal trial for leading the January 6 insurrection. The ruling upends more than two centuries of legal precedent, for the first time shielding U.S. presidents from criminal accountability. "In one fell swoop, this court has essentially left the American people to the whims of the president of the United States — any president of the United States, but particularly Mr. Trump," says Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. We also speak with Lisa Graves, executive director of the watchdog group True North Research, who says the Supreme Court's conservative wing has left the country "unmoored from the rule of law" by adopting such an expansive view of presidential power. "This decision is the most reckless and dangerous decision ever issued by the U.S. Supreme Court," says Graves.
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Jul 02, 2024
Supreme Court Grants Trump Broad Immunity from Criminal Prosecution, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to File Articles of Impeachment Against Supreme Court Justices, Israel Orders Another Mass Expulsion of Palestinians from Khan Younis, Freed Palestinian Prisoners Describe Torture and Degrading Treatment in Israeli Jails, "A Full-Fledged War Crime": Rights Groups Condemn Israeli Military over Human Shields, Beryl Becomes Earliest-Ever Category 5 Hurricane After Devastating Windward Islands, Pakistan Resumes Mass Expulsion of Afghans; Taliban Joins U.N.-Led Talks in Doha, Newly Sworn Panamanian President Touts Deal with U.S. to Crack Down on Migrants, Venezuela's Maduro Agrees to Direct Talks with U.S. over Devastating Economic Sanctions, ACLU Finds 95% of Asylum Seekers' Deaths in ICE Custody Were Preventable
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Jul 01, 2024
Chris Lehmann, D.C. bureau chief for The Nation, discusses the ongoing fallout from Thursday's first presidential debate of 2024 and mounting pressure on President Biden to drop out of the race amid questions about his age and mental fitness. "It appears that Biden and his inner circle of advisers are doubling down," says Lehmann. "They took this incredible risk to do this debate … and they're now saying it's a greater risk to change horses."
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Jul 01, 2024
We look at the unfolding ethics scandal at The Washington Post that has rocked one of the nation's leading news outlets and raised questions about its future. The controversy centers on CEO and publisher Will Lewis, who has reportedly pressured journalists inside and outside the newsroom not to run unflattering stories about him. His efforts to reshape the newsroom in the face of steep financial losses have also alarmed staff, and British editor Robert Winnett, Lewis's pick for a top editorial role, withdrew amid concern over his history of using fraudulently obtained information in newspaper articles. Lewis is also implicated in the long-running U.K. phone hacking scandal. Both Lewis and Winnett are veterans of conservative British papers owned by Rupert Murdoch, and The Guardian recently revealed that Lewis advised then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on how to cover his tracks amid public outrage over violations of COVID precautions at the height of the pandemic. "At the most basic level of how journalism should operate, executives in charge of news in the public interest should not be suppressing news. It's a pretty simple bar, and Will Lewis has failed to clear it," says Chris Lehmann, D.C. bureau chief for The Nation.
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Jul 01, 2024
We look at the unfolding ethics scandal at The Washington Post that has rocked one of the nation's leading news outlets and raised questions about its future. The controversy centers on CEO and publisher Will Lewis, who has reportedly pressured journalists inside and outside the newsroom not to run unflattering stories about him. His efforts to reshape the newsroom in the face of steep financial losses have also alarmed staff, and British editor Robert Winnett, Lewis's pick for a top editorial role, withdrew amid concern over his history of using fraudulently obtained information in newspaper articles. Lewis is also implicated in the long-running U.K. phone hacking scandal. Both Lewis and Winnett are veterans of conservative British papers owned by Rupert Murdoch, and The Guardian recently revealed that Lewis advised then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on how to cover his tracks amid public outrage over violations of COVID precautions at the height of the pandemic. "At the most basic level of how journalism should operate, executives in charge of news in the public interest should not be suppressing news. It's a pretty simple bar, and Will Lewis has failed to clear it," says Chris Lehmann, D.C. bureau chief for The Nation.
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Jul 01, 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday approved a power grab by corporate interests who want to strip federal agencies of their power to regulate public health, the climate and environment, worker protection and more. In the 6-3 ruling, the court's conservative majority overturned a precedent known as the Chevron doctrine that stems from a Reagan-era ruling called Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which established that judges should defer to federal agencies on interpreting a law if Congress did not specifically address the issue. We speak with Mustafa Ali, former head of the environmental justice program at the Environmental Protection Agency, who describes it as "a very devastating decision," and to The Nation's justice correspondent, Elie Mystal. "It's taking power out of our hands, out of the democracy's hands, and putting it in the hands of the court," says Mystal, who also addresses other recent rulings from the court at the end of its term, including the highly anticipated ruling on presidential immunity.
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Jul 01, 2024
France's far right has won the first round of voting in a snap election, followed closely by the left, as President Emmanuel Macron's coalition is trounced. We go to Paris for an update as the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen shocked the French establishment after winning the most votes in the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday. A broad alliance of left-wing parties calling itself the New Popular Front came second, while President Emmanuel Macron's centrist bloc fell to third place. Macron called the snap election after the National Rally won the most seats in last month's vote for European Parliament, even though his own presidential term runs until 2027. A second round of voting on July 7 will decide the final makeup of the National Assembly, but if the National Rally wins outright, it will mark the first time the far right has governed in France since the Nazi occupation during World War II. "This decision was timed at a moment when the far right was at its strongest historical position in modern French political history, and they've capitalized on that," says Harrison Stetler, an independent journalist and teacher based in Paris. He says that while the left has already committed to forming "a republican front against the far right," Macron's centrist forces have sent "mixed signals" on joining forces after a campaign in which they recklessly portrayed both the left and the right as equally dangerous to the country.
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Jul 01, 2024
Far-Right Party Leads After First Round of French Parliamentary Elections, 23 Palestinians Killed in One Day as Israel Intensifies Assault on Gaza City, 130,000 March in Tel Aviv to Demand Gaza Ceasefire, Prisoner Swap, Thousands Flee Looting and Fighting as RSF Captures Key Sudanese City, Beryl Makes Landfall After Becoming Earliest-Ever Category 4 Atlantic Hurricane, Supreme Court Overturns Decades of Precedent in Major "Power Grab" for Corporations, Supreme Court Rules That Cities Can Criminalize Sleeping in Public, Steve Bannon to Report to Prison After Contempt of Congress Conviction, Democrats Have "Serious Conversation" About Biden's Disastrous Debate Performance, Reformer Masoud Pezeshkian to Face Saeed Jalili in Iran Runoff Presidential Vote, Georgian Parliament Advances Anti-LGBTQ Legislation That Would Ban Pride Events, Biden Pardons Thousands of Veterans Convicted Under Gay Sex Ban, "Queers to Biden: Stop Arming Israel": Protests Erupt as Biden Speaks at Stonewall Monument
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Jun 28, 2024
Joe Biden and Donald Trump's exchange on foreign policy in Thursday's presidential debate revealed that "the two candidates are extreme militarists, and one of them, Donald Trump, is a proponent and expresser of fascistic politics," says activist Norman Solomon. In the brief section on Gaza, Biden boasted of his support for Israel as it pummels the Gaza Strip, while Trump criticized Biden, saying Israel should be allowed to "finish the job," and said Biden is "like a Palestinian."
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Jun 28, 2024
Thursday's CNN debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump was "a really, really rough night for those who are fighting for immigrant rights," says Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network. "Trump repeatedly was stoking a moral panic on immigration, and Biden had very little in response." Both candidates boasted about restricting immigration and militarizing the border, while casting immigrants as dangerous and violent. Their rhetoric was reflective of an increasing anti-immigration shift in both parties, "stoking a crime panic" that is "really terrifying to see," says Shah.
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Jun 28, 2024
Abortion rights were a key focus of Thursday's CNN debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the first to be held since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Trump took credit for nominating the conservative justices who helped overturn the law, and falsely claimed that Democrats support abortions "even after birth." "We have no examples of that whatsoever," says Michele Goodwin, professor of constitutional law and global health policy at Georgetown University. "There is no such thing as abortion after birth." Goodwin says that while "Americans support reproductive freedom," Biden's messaging was weak in the debate.
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Jun 28, 2024
We speak with two leading economists about Thursday's CNN debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, where the candidates sparred over tariffs, taxes, inflation and more. Trump repeatedly claimed that immigrants coming to the United States are stealing "Black jobs," which is a "fascist notion," says Darrick Hamilton, founding director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School. Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says Biden has much to boast about, including strong job growth and falling inflation, but that Biden's delivery was "very muddled."
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Jun 28, 2024
The first 2024 presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump was held on Thursday night. It marked the first time a sitting president debated a former one. It also marked the two oldest candidates ever to run for president, with a combined age of 159. The 90-minute discussion hosted by CNN was more of an incoherent debacle than any substantive debate. Biden was halting and disjointed. He was hard to hear, muffled his lines and often appeared to lose his train of thought. Meanwhile, Trump repeatedly lied — his false claims not challenged by CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. "Joe Biden really failed to rise to this moment," says Chris Lehmann, D.C. bureau chief for The Nation. "I expected nothing great, but it was so much worse."
We also speak with Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and the co-founder of RootsAction.org, which sponsors the "Step Aside Joe!" campaign. He says Biden's performance in the debate showed "he is clearly impaired" and unable to defeat Trump, which is "a gift to the extreme right wing."
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Jun 28, 2024
Scores of Palestinians Are Killed and Wounded in Fresh Israeli Attacks on Gaza, Israeli Defense Minister Meets U.S. Officials, Threatens to Bomb Lebanon "Back to the Stone Age", House of Representatives Votes 269-144 to Ban State Department from Citing Gaza Death Toll, Trump Lies Throughout First Presidential Debate as Biden Delivers Fumbling Performance, Supreme Court Rejects Settlements That Shielded Sackler Family from Opioid Lawsuits, SCOTUS Ruling on SEC Severely Curtails Power of U.S. Agencies to Fine Violators, SCOTUS Blocks EPA's "Good Neighbor Plan" in Major Blow to Efforts to Curb Air Pollution, Ex-Uvalde Schools Police Chief Indicted over Botched Response to 2022 Mass Shooting, Iranians Vote on New President a Month After Death of Ebrahim Raisi, Ukraine Signs Security Agreement with European Leaders and Formally Opens EU Accession Talks, Military Personnel from 29 Nations Including Israel Begin World's Largest Maritime War Games
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Jun 27, 2024
We look at the targeting of journalists in Gaza with journalist Shrouq Aila, who joins us from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Aila's husband Roshdi Sarraj, a fellow journalist and co-founder of the production company Ain Media, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home in October. Aila recounts how Sarraj's shielding of her and her 1-year-old daughter saved their lives. "Everything went into dust, in just a second," she says. As she mourned, Aila continued her work as a journalist and took over Sarraj's place at Ain Media, saying her commitment as a journalist means a "duty of documenting the reality of the ground," no matter what.
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