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Mar 18, 2024
We mark the 21st anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old U.S. peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli soldier driving a military bulldozer on March 16, 2003. Corrie was in Rafah with the International Solidarity Movement to monitor human rights abuses and protect Palestinian homes from destruction when she was killed. To this day, nobody has been held accountable for her death, with the Israeli military ruling it an "accident" and the Supreme Court of Israel rejecting an appeal from her parents in 2015. Rachel Corrie has since become a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian people, and her legacy must be used "to direct attention back to Rafah" and prevent an escalation in the war, says her friend and fellow activist Tom Dale, who witnessed her final moments. We also speak with Corrie's parents, Cindy and Craig, who say they have met many Palestinians over the years who continue to honor their daughter's memory. "For Palestinians everywhere, Rachel's story has been very important," says Cindy Corrie. "They tell us over and over again how much it meant." After Corrie was killed, they devoted their lives to her cause and founded the nonprofit Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice.
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Mar 18, 2024
We get an update from Rafah as the World Food Programme warns of worsening catastrophic hunger in the Gaza Strip and Israel continues to block most aid from entering the territory. Despite growing international criticism, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he plans for a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah, where over 1.4 million Palestinians are penned in after repeated forced evacuations from elsewhere in Gaza since October 7. "I'm hoping from the U.S. government to put a serious pressure on the Israeli government in order to prevent such a catastrophe," says Mohammed Abu Lebda, a poet and translator from Rafah, who says an Israeli ground invasion could kill up to 100,000 more Palestinians. Abu Lebda describes the daily hardships in Rafah, including the severe mental toll, Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza has unleashed. "I'm not sure that I'm going to be the person that I used to be before the war," he says. "I'm 100% sure that I was changed, and I was changed forever."
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Mar 18, 2024
Israel Attacks Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital Again as Hunger Grips the Besieged Territory, "Totally Inappropriate": Netanyahu Responds to Schumer's Call for New Israeli Elections, "We See Our History in Their Eyes" Irish Leader Calls for Gaza Ceasefire in White House Address, Basque Demonstrators Evoke Picasso's "Guernica" in Tribute to Gaza's Victims, Putin Wins Fifth Term as President as Yulia Navalnaya, Volodymyr Zelensky Condemn Election, Donald Trump Warns of "Bloodbath" If He Loses Election to Biden Again, Special Prosecutor Quits Trump's Election Subversion Case in Georgia; DA Fani Willis Stays On, U.S. Nationals Leave Haiti as Political and Humanitarian Crises Spiral, Niger Orders Departure of U.S. Troops, Senegal Releases Opposition Leaders Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye Ahead of Elections, U.N. Warns 18 Million People in Sudan Face Acute Food Insecurity, U.N. Considers AI Resolution as Rights Groups Condemn EU's "AI Act" for Empowering Law Enforcement, NYC Preserves "Right to Shelter" Policy But Excludes Migrant Adults from Its Protections, U.S. Court Halts New SEC Rule Requiring Climate Risk Disclosures from Fossil Fuel Industry
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Mar 15, 2024
Israeli scholar Maya Wind's new book, Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom, documents how Israeli universities directly constrain Palestinian rights by supporting and even developing the policies of occupation and apartheid used by the Israeli state. "In the West, Israeli universities are considered bastions of pluralism and democracy. But in fact … they are a central pillar of Israel's regime of oppression against Palestinians," says Wind, who also discusses Israel's "scholasticide, [or] the intentional destruction of Palestinian education," and the movement of conscientious objectors to Israel's mandatory conscription, in which she took part when she refused to enlist in the army at age 18 and served 40 days in a military prison.
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Mar 15, 2024
Hebrew University in Jerusalem has suspended an internationally renowned Palestinian professor for saying that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a feminist scholar whose work focuses on the impacts of militarization, surveillance and violence on the lives of Palestinian women and children. She made the remarks in an interview on Israel's Channel 12 on Monday, where she also said it was time to "abolish Zionism." Shalhoub-Kevorkian has been under pressure to resign from her position at Hebrew University's Faculty of Law Institute of Criminology and at the School of Social Work and Public Welfare since October, when she signed a petition of over 1,000 academics calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. This comes as no universities have been left standing in the Gaza Strip, and nearly 5,000 university students and staff have been killed during Israel's assault. "I am calling for abolishing Zionism because I see it as very violent towards the people and as causing criminality," says Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who discusses the atmosphere of silencing and reprisals against those who criticize Israel's policies toward Palestinians. "Anti-Zionism is to refuse to accept continued dispossession, is to refuse to accept this ideology of supremacy, is to refuse to accept the securitized ideas of one group against the other."
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Mar 15, 2024
In what is believed to be the first time a president or vice president has publicly toured an abortion clinic, Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Planned Parenthood location in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Thursday. The visit was the latest in a nationwide tour by Harris to highlight reproductive rights. In her remarks outside the clinic, she lauded Minnesota's efforts to protect abortion rights in the face of what she describes as a "very serious health crisis," with restrictive laws and outright abortion bans in more than a dozen states. Clinics in Minnesota have seen a drastic rise in appointments for reproductive healthcare as one of the last remaining access states in the region, says our guest Megan Peterson, who adds that it is "really important" that the Biden team not take pro-abortion voters "for granted." Peterson is the executive director of Gender Justice Action, a reproductive rights group working in Minnesota and North Dakota. We also speak to professor Michele Goodwin, who calls the consequences of state-level abortion bans since Dobbs v. Jackson a "trail of horrors" that are "antithetical to human rights."
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Mar 15, 2024
Israeli Soldiers Kill at Least 29 More Palestinians Seeking Aid, Hamas Offers New Ceasefire and Hostage Exchange Plan; Abbas Appoints New Palestinian PM, Schumer Calls for Elections in Israel, Warns U.S. Could Have "More Active Role" in Israeli Politics, 100 Activists Arrested After Occupying NYT Building, McGill Students Are on Hunger Strike to Demand University Divest from Israel, Prominent Authors Turn Down Prestigious PEN World Voices Festival over Org's Response to Gaza, Dozens Feared Dead in Mediterranean After Europe-Bound Migrant Vessel Broke Down at Sea, 300 Detained Immigrants and Allies Are on Hunger Strike in Washington State, Kamala Harris Decries "Healthcare Crisis" as She Visits Minnesota Abortion Clinic, Jury Convicts James Crumbley of Involuntary Manslaughter for Son's Mass Shooting, "Why Did You Shoot My Baby?": Bodycam Footage Shows CA Deputy Killing Autistic Teen Ryan Gainer, Bernie Sanders Introduces Legislation to Reduce Workweek to 32 Hours
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Mar 14, 2024
In a rare bipartisan effort, the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday requiring TikTok to be sold by its China-based owner, ByteDance, or face a ban throughout the United States. Backers claim the popular social media app could give the Chinese government access to U.S. residents' personal data and potentially affect the 2024 elections. The fight over TikTok comes at a time of rising anti-China rhetoric in both major parties, as well as alarm among conservatives that content supportive of Palestinian rights and critical of Israel is popular with many young users of the app. The fate of the TikTok legislation now rests in the Senate, and President Joe Biden says he will sign it into law if it reaches his desk. Former President Donald Trump, who tried to crack down on TikTok while in office, now opposes the effort. "It is singling out TikTok and China without any evidence whatsoever that they are engaging in any nefarious or spying activity," Ramesh Srinivasan, professor of information studies at UCLA, says of the legislation. "What we need is expansive, comprehensive digital rights legislation that really applies to every social media company and gives Americans power over their own data."
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Mar 14, 2024
Journalist Mehdi Hasan warns U.S. media coverage of the 2024 election is largely unable to capture the threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump and the modern Republican Party. "We need to speak very clearly about what that fascist threat is," says Hasan, who warns media outlets cannot "normalize his extremism and racism and bigotry," because the right to free press itself could be under threat if he regains power. "One of our two major parties has been fully radicalized and is now in bed with white supremacists. … Let's be plain about that."
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Mar 14, 2024
Acclaimed journalist Mehdi Hasan joins us to discuss U.S. media coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza and how the war is a genocide being abetted by the United States. Hasan says U.S. media is overwhelmingly pro-Israel and fails to convey the truth to audiences. "Palestinian voices not being on American television or in American print is one of the biggest problems when it comes to our coverage of this conflict," he says. Hasan has just launched a new media company, Zeteo, which he started after the end of his weekly news program on MSNBC and Peacock earlier this year. Hasan's interviews routinely led to viral segments, including his tough questioning of Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev, but the cable network announced it was canceling his show in November. The move drew considerable outrage, with critics slamming MSNBC for effectively silencing one of the most prominent Muslim voices in U.S. media. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to threaten a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, which human rights groups warn would be a massacre. President Biden has said such an escalation is a "red line" for him, but Netanyahu has vowed to push ahead anyway. "Where is the outcry here in the West?" asks Hasan of reports of Israeli war crimes, including the killing of over 100 journalists in the past five months in Gaza and the blockade of aid from the region. "It's a stain on [Biden's] record, on America's conscience."
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Mar 14, 2024
At Least 5 People Killed, Including U.N. Staffer, as Israel Bombs UNRWA Gaza Aid Site, 27 Gazans Have Died of Hunger, Including 23 Babies and Children, as Israel Continues to Block Aid, U.N.: Israel Violated International Law When It Killed Reuters Reporter Issam Abdallah in Lebanon, Activists from San Francisco to New York Disrupt Business as Usual to Shine Light on Gaza Genocide, Jewish Voice for Peace Occupies Hakeem Jeffries's Office as 20 Orgs Launch "Reject AIPAC" Coalition, U.S. House Votes in Favor of TikTok Ban Bill Amid First Amendment and Other Questions, Reports: Biden Weighs Detaining Haitians in Guantánamo If Crisis Leads to Increase in Migration, Sudan: 230,000 Children and People Recovering from Birth Are at Risk of Death by Starvation, Torrential Rains in La Paz, Bolivia, Kill at Least One Person, Destroy Homes, Methane Emissions Remain Far Above Levels Needed to Curb Climate Catastrophe, "You Are Not an Ally. You Are a Murderer": Climate Defiance Confronts Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, Boeing Deleted Footage of Work on Alaska Airlines Door That Blew Off 737 MAX, U.S. Court Upholds Texas Law Barring Minors from Getting Birth Control Without Parental Consent, Georgia Judge Throws Out 6 Charges in Trump Election Subversion Case, Autopsy Finds Nex Benedict Died of Suicide the Day After Being Attacked in High School Bathroom, David Mixner, LGBTQ Rights Leader Who Pushed Politicians to Reject Homophobia, Dies at 77
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Mar 13, 2024
It's official: Following Tuesday's primaries, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump appear set for a rematch in November after both candidates secured enough delegates to win their parties' nominations. This past weekend, Republican front-runner Donald Trump hosted Hungary's authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at Mar-a-Lago and openly praised Orbán's autocratic style of rule. To talk more about Orbán and Trump, we spoke Tuesday with Gábor Scheiring, a former Green Party member of parliament in Hungary, who has a new essay titled "I watched Hungary's democracy dissolve into authoritarianism as a member of parliament — and I see troubling parallels in Trumpism and its appeal to workers." He explains that "strongmen" like Orbán and Trump are subverting democracy "from the inside, gradually," using tactics like gerrymandering and control of the courts to seize and consolidate power.
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Mar 13, 2024
Author and civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander's new piece in The Nation reflects on Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s April 4, 1967, speech in New York opposing the war in Vietnam and its lasting lessons for American society today. She describes "revolutionary love" as the transnational "connections between liberation struggles" around the world, and calls for anti-oppression movements in the U.S. to continue working to "end the occupation of Palestine and commit to the thriving of all of the people who have been subjected to endless war and occupation." Revolutionary love, argues Alexander, "is the only thing that can save us now."
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Mar 13, 2024
The European Union's foreign policy chief has accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war by blocking aid from entering Gaza. The World Food Programme managed to deliver aid to Gaza City for the first time Tuesday in three weeks, but the agency said famine is imminent in northern Gaza unless aid deliveries increase exponentially. Meanwhile, as the United States proposes building a seaport off Gaza and airdrops for food aid, Palestinian American journalist Rami Khouri calls the proposals "sheer entertainment" that is "designed primarily to make Americans feel better about themselves."
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Mar 13, 2024
Israel is expanding its attacks in Lebanon for the third day in a row, with Israeli warplanes striking deep in the country amid growing concern about a regional escalation, and Hamas ally Hezbollah launching a barrage of over 100 rockets at Israel in response. Tens of thousands of residents of northern Israel and southern Lebanon have fled their homes as attacks rise. Israel expects "the Americans will come in and help them … knock down Hezbollah's power," says Rami Khouri, a Palestinian American journalist and senior public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut. "This is not something that we should celebrate," adds Khouri, who also discusses the historical context of decades of conflict in the Arab region, and Hezbollah's role in Lebanese politics.
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Mar 13, 2024
Biden & Trump Set for Rematch in November, EU Foreign Policy Chief Accuses Israel of Using Starvation as Weapon of War, Senators Urge Biden to Cut Military Aid to Israel for Blocking U.S. Aid from Entering Gaza, UN: More Children Have Been Killed In Gaza Than In All Other Wars Over Past Four Years, Israel Kills Four in Occupied West Bank, Israel Expands Attacks on Lebanon; Hezbollah Launches 100 Rockets Over Border, Kenya Halts Plan to Deploy Police to Haiti Until New Government Is in Place, Ukraine Drones Attack Russian Oil Refineries as Putin Says Russia Is Ready to Use Nukes, Top Aide to Alexei Navalny Attacked in Lithuania, Democratic and Republican Lawmakers Criticize Special Counsel Robert Hur, House to Vote on Banning TikTok, Rep. Ken Buck to Leave Congress Next Week in Blow to GOP, Florida Settles "Don't Say Gay" Lawsuit, Columbia Sued for Banning Students for Justice in Palestine & Jewish Voice for Peace
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Mar 12, 2024
At one of the largest for-profit immigrant detention centers in the country, human rights advocates report, there were two suicide attempts Monday, just hours apart. The privately run Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, the site of multiple hunger strikes to protest inhumane conditions over the years, also reported 61-year-old Charles Leo Daniel from Trinidad and Tobago died at the facility last week. He had been detained for about four years and was in solitary confinement at NWDC when he was found unresponsive Thursday in what is suspected to be another suicide. This all comes as a federal judge blocked Washington state from fully enforcing a law intended to increase oversight at the for-profit immigrant jail, run by GEO Group. This recent string of events reveals "the importance and the urgency to shut down the detention center now," says La Resistencia's Maru Mora Villalpando, who explains why immigrants are vulnerable and used for votes, for political gain and as scapegoats. "We are in this midst of horrible, horrible situations in detention centers, at the border, in the countries where people need to flee, because it's working for corporations and for governments. … That's why we're not waiting for the government to solve this. We have to save ourselves."
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Mar 12, 2024
We speak with Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, who says the "monstrosity" of Israel's ongoing war on Gaza, including attacks on civilians and restrictions on aid, shows that the International Court of Justice's provisional orders to protect civilians are being ignored. "What should be done is an arms embargo right now and sanctions, because Israel is not in compliance with the critical measures ordered by the ICJ," says Albanese.
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Mar 12, 2024
Palestinians in Gaza marked the first day of Ramadan on Monday amid rising hunger and desperation, with Israel continuing to restrict aid shipments into the besieged territory. United Nations officials have complained that even basic items like medical scissors have resulted in trucks being stopped by Israeli forces at the border. This comes as countries such as the United States conduct dangerous airdrops of essential supplies and have announced plans to build a pier off the coast of Gaza to deliver aid. "It's going to be more simple, more realistic and more efficient if the United States has pushed the Israelis to allow the aid truck to go into the north of Gaza and Gaza City," says Yousef Hammash, advocacy officer with the Norwegian Refugee Council, speaking to us from Rafah. "The only issue that we are facing on delivering the aid on the ground is the restrictions the Israelis put on it." Hammash also describes "living day by day" amid "madness, violence [and] bombardment."
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Mar 12, 2024
Unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry has announced he plans to resign amid rising opposition in Haiti, where a coalition of armed groups opposing the de facto leader have declared an uprising, led mass jailbreaks and taken over the country's airport. At an emergency meeting with international actors in Jamaica, the regional bloc CARICOM has reportedly proposed a plan to set up a seven-member presidential panel that would appoint a new interim prime minister. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the panel would only include Haitians who support the deployment of a U.N.-backed security force, a policy supported by Henry, while large swaths of Haitians voiced opposition to another hand-selected leader. "I'm not sure this solves the problem that's been going on in Haiti," says Haitian American scholar Jemima Pierre, who explains why Henry's resignation and transition announcement attempts to "put a veneer of legality on this situation," while the country continues to operate under occupation by foreign interests. "There's going to be more flare-ups in the next few months … if we don't stop this problem by its root, which is the constant U.S. imposition of its terms on Haitian people and the denial of Haitian sovereignty."
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Mar 12, 2024
Haiti's PM Ariel Henry to Resign After Losing Support of Washington, Gaza Health Officials: Israeli Forces Have Killed 400 Aid Seekers, Israel Blocks Aid Truck Bound for Gaza Because It Contained Medical Scissors, U.S. Intelligence Head: Gaza War Will Have "Generational Impact on Terrorism", Israeli Groups Accuse Netanyahu Gov't of Failing to Abide by ICJ Ruling on Aid, UNRWA Says Israel Tortured & Waterboarded Staffers, Leading to False Confessions, India Enacts Anti-Muslim Citizenship Law Ahead of Election, Boeing Whistleblower Found Dead After Giving Evidence in Lawsuit, Trump Suggests He Supports Social Security and Medicare Cuts, Sen. Katie Britt Blasted for Sharing Misleading Story About Survivor of Sex Trafficking in Mexico, Police in California Fatally Shoot 15-Year-Old Black Teenager with Autism, Swedish Police Remove Greta Thunberg & Other Climate Activists Blocking Parliament
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Mar 11, 2024
Palestinian novelist, poet and activist Susan Abulhawa recently returned from two weeks in the Gaza Strip, where she witnessed firsthand the destruction and misery wrought upon the territory and its people by Israel's relentless assault. Abulhawa spoke with Democracy Now! last Wednesday from Cairo and said "the trauma is immeasurable" for the Palestinians in Gaza. Abulhawa describes hearing stories of abuse, humiliation and torture at the hands of Israeli soldiers as people struggle to find basic necessities to survive. "The degradation is total," says Abulhawa. "And on top of that, they're bombed, day in and out."
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Mar 11, 2024
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was found guilty of cocaine trafficking Friday after a two-week trial in a New York federal court, where prosecutors accused Hernández of ruling the Central American country as a narco-state and accepting millions of dollars in bribes from cocaine traffickers in exchange for protection. He faces a possible life sentence. Hernández served as president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022 and was a close U.S. ally despite mounting reports of human rights violations and accusations of corruption and involvement with drug smuggling during his tenure. Hernández was arrested less than a month after his term ended and was extradited to the United States in April 2022. "The majority feeling is satisfaction, a feeling of progress in achieving justice," says activist Camilo Bermúdez from Tegucigalpa. He is a member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, the organization founded by Berta Cáceres, the Lenca Indigenous environmental defender who was assassinated in 2016 while Juan Orlando Hernández was president. We also speak with Dana Frank, professor of history emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who says the 2009 U.S.-backed coup against President Manuel Zelaya set the stage for the corrupt governments that followed. While U.S. prosecutors may have convicted Hernández, Frank stresses that multiple U.S. administrations "legitimated and celebrated him."
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Mar 11, 2024
Caribbean leaders are holding an emergency meeting in Jamaica today to discuss the crisis in Haiti, where armed groups are calling for the resignation of unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Haiti is under a state of emergency, with tens of thousands displaced amid the fighting, and United Nations officials warn the country's health system is nearing collapse. Ariel Henry was appointed prime minister after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, but he is currently stranded outside the country after a trip to Kenya, where he was seeking a U.N.-backed security force to help him maintain power. For more, we speak with Haitian American scholar Jemima Pierre, who says the unrest in Haiti today can be traced to decisions made two decades ago by the United States and other outside powers. "The root of this crisis is not last week, it's not this week, it's not even Ariel Henry. But we have to go back to 2004 with the coup-d'état," says Pierre. She adds that because successive security plans have been sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, "the whole world is participating in the occupation of Haiti unwittingly."
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Mar 11, 2024
Death Toll in Gaza Tops 31,000; Israel Continues Assault as Ramadan Begins, Biden Vows to Keep Supporting Israel But Says Netanyahu Is "Hurting Israel More Than Helping", Haiti: CARICOM Holds Emergency Meeting as Calls Grow for Ariel Henry to Resign, Pope Francis Urges Ukraine to Negotiate and Have "Courage of the White Flag", Jury Convicts Ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on Drug Trafficking Charges, U.N. Security Council Pushes for Ramadan Ceasefire in Sudan, Biden: I Regret Describing Immigrant as "Illegal" During State of the Union, Trump Meets & Praises Hungary's Authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, U.N.: Iran Responsible for Death of Mahsa Amini, 180,000 Protest in Mexico City Against Femicide on International Women's Day, Protesters Calling for Ceasefire in Gaza Block Traffic & Delay Start of Oscars, Oscars: Director of "The Zone of Interest" Condemns Israeli Occupation, "20 Days in Mariupol" Wins Oscar for Best Documentary
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Mar 08, 2024
In his State of the Union address, President Biden addressed Israel's assault on Gaza, where the humanitarian crisis continues to worsen amid a relentless bombing campaign and siege. We're joined by two guests: Eman Abdelhadi, a Chicago-based Palestinian Egyptian American professor, artist and activist, who on Thursday delivered an alternate State of the Union address called "The State of Genocide," and Neta Heiman Mina, a member of the Israeli chapter of Women Wage Peace, whose 84-year-old mother, Ditza Heiman, was one of the hostages released during the temporary ceasefire and hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas in November. Abdelhadi says that by arming Israel while offering limited aid to the starving population of Gaza, the Biden administration is "effectively holding a gun to Palestinians' heads, shooting at them with one hand and throwing crumbs at them with the other." Meanwhile, Mina calls on the Israeli government "to do everything we can" to return the remaining hostages, including an immediate ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners. "This genocide has been going on for 152 days, and it is 100% an American project," Abdelhadi says, adding that campaigners plan to hold Biden electorally accountable for his continued support for Israel. "We are going to make sure that the DNC knows where we stand on this issue."
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Mar 08, 2024
President Biden delivered his State of the Union address Thursday night. In it, he made his case for a second term ahead of this year's presidential election, criticizing Republican front-runner Donald Trump without mentioning him by name, and highlighting his administration's policies to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, reinstate reproductive rights and provide support to Ukraine. Our guest Katrina vanden Heuvel, the publisher of The Nation, describes current U.S. foreign policy as a "Cold War redux moment" that threatens the success of populist economic policies that have recently taken hold in the Democratic Party after decades of trickle-down, neoliberal economics. She calls for "ending the policing and the global policing which the establishment believes is their right," warning that "if you don't have a transformative foreign policy, you will end up with military Keynesianism."
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Mar 08, 2024
Biden Talks Taxing the Rich, Abortion Rights, Immigration Crackdown and Gaza in Election Year SOTU, Hundreds of Activists Block D.C. Streets, Deliver People's SOTU Calling for End to Genocide, "We Don't Need Aid. We Need Them to Stop the Killing": Gazans Respond to Biden Aid Port Plan, Palestinian Women Prisoners Share Accounts of Inhumane Treatment, Sexual Assault, Israel Hastens Illegal Construction in Occupied West Bank as It Decimates Gaza, At Least 275 Students Abducted in Nigeria, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso Team Up for Security Force Days After 170 People Killed in Burkina Faso, Senegal Sets New Election for March 24 After Protesters and Court Push Back on Macky Sall's Delay, Haiti Extends State of Emergency as PM Ariel Henry Remains Stranded Outside of Country, Narendra Modi Visits Kashmir for First Time Since 2019 Crackdown, Hong Kong Introduces New Draft National Security Law, Expanding Its Control on Dissent, U.S. Court Rejects Case Against Big Tech for Its Complicity in Child Labor in DRC, Google Fires Dozens of Contract Workers After They Unionized, Autopsy Shows Lewiston, Maine, Mass Shooter May Have Suffered from Traumatic Brain Injury, Biden Wins Hawaii Democratic Primary; "Uncommitted" Takes Nearly 30% of Votes, FDA Issues Warning for 6 Brands of Ground Cinnamon, "After Oct. 7, There Are No Longer Any Women": Gazan Women Struggle to Survive on IWD
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Mar 07, 2024
In Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in Monday as prime minister for a second time, days after newly elected members of Parliament were seated amid protests by lawmakers from the party of ousted and jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Sharif will lead a coalition government after none of the major parties won a majority of parliamentary seats in February's election, when Khan supporters accused the military of election tampering. Regardless of actual policy, Khan's enduring popularity as an anti-establishment figure comes from "a young, disaffected population, a set of regimes that historically does not deliver, and underlying structural crises that just get worse," says Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, associate professor of political economy at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. "That's why I think you have this groundswell of opinion which is both anti-domestic elite and also anti-foreign elite."
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Mar 07, 2024
While the Biden administration has been publicly voicing reservations over the mounting death toll in Gaza, a Washington Post investigation revealed the administration has quietly approved and delivered more than 100 separate weapons sales to Israel over the last five months, amounting to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters and other lethal aid. Only two approved foreign military sales to Israel have been made public since the launch of Israel's assault on October 7, which the Biden administration approved using emergency authority to bypass Congress. "It is actually illegal to provide military assistance to a country that is restricting U.S.-funded humanitarian assistance, and we know that this is the case with Israel," says Josh Paul, a veteran State Department official who worked on arms deals and resigned in protest of a push to increase arms sales to Israel amid its assault on Gaza. Paul describes the "production line"-style sale of weapons to Israel and says increasing internal dissent is putting pressure on Biden to change his "dead-end" policy of unconditional support for Israel. "We have a president and a set of policies … that remain set on this course regardless of the harm it is doing to Israeli security, to American global interests and, of course, to so many Palestinians."
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Mar 07, 2024
As Israel continues its relentless bombardment and siege of Gaza, where hunger and dehydration have reached deadly levels, Hamas has accused Israel of "thwarting" efforts to reach a ceasefire deal. A Hamas delegation in Cairo said that Israel has insisted on rejecting elements of a deal for a phased process that would culminate in an end to Israel's assault on Gaza, as well as ensuring the entry of aid and facilitating the return of displaced Palestinians back to their homes in Gaza. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is pushing Hamas to accept the terms on the table, claiming that a "rational" offer had been made for a six-week truce in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. The White House statements seem to be "a very politically calculated move so that they can essentially point the blame at Hamas if this fails," says Tahani Mustafa, senior Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group. Mustafa also provides updates on UNRWA's collapsing operations, repression in the West Bank and the utility of international law for Palestine today.
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Mar 07, 2024
Ceasefire Talks Falter as Famine Plagues Gaza, Aid Remains Blocked by Israel, South Africa Asks ICJ to Help Stop "Imminent Tragedy" in Gaza; Canada to Resume UNRWA Funding, Houthi Attack Kills 3 People in First Known Fatalities in Campaign Against Red Sea Trade Ships, Palestinian Americans Share Stories of Loved Ones in Gaza Killed by Israel, Activists in D.C. Line Israeli Embassy with Palestinian Flags, Banners Condemning Gaza Genocide, Musicians Pull Out of SXSW over Gaza; Brazilian Union Calls for End to Military Cooperation, Deadly Russian Strike Rattles President Zelensky and Greek PM Mitsotakis During Odesa Visit, Yulia Navalnaya Urges Russians to Protest Putin When Voting on March 17, U.S. Reportedly Pressuring Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry to Step Down Amid Mounting Crisis, Nikki Haley Ends Presidential Run; Mitch McConnell Endorses Trump, UAW's Shawn Fain, Palestinian Who Lost 35 Relatives in Gaza Among Guests Invited to SOTU, Alabama Passes Law Protecting IVF Providers from Prosecution, "A Promise Made to the Future": France Enshrines Abortion Rights into Constitution, "A Page Out of the Giuliani Playbook": NY Gov. Hochul Sends National Guard to Patrol Subways, Jury Finds "Rust" Armorer Guilty in 2022 On-Set Killing of Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins
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Mar 06, 2024
We speak with Palestinian novelist, poet and activist Susan Abulhawa, who is in Cairo and just returned from two weeks in Gaza. "What's happening to people isn't just this death and dismemberment and hunger. It is a total denigration of their personhood, of their whole society," says Abulhawa. "What I witnessed personally in Rafah and some of the middle areas is incomprehensible, and I will call it a holocaust — and I don't use that word lightly. But it is absolutely that."
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Mar 06, 2024
We look at Monday's unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states do not have the authority to remove Donald Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment with Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern, who calls the decision a "disaster" that appears tailor-made to let Trump avoid accountability for the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He says despite the superficial unanimity of the 9-0 ruling, it was closer to a 5-4 split, with the five conservative justices who wrote the majority opinion raising additional barriers to keeping insurrectionists from public office.
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Mar 06, 2024
On Super Tuesday, millions of voters cast ballots in primaries across the United States, and we look at key contests in California, North Carolina, Arizona and elsewhere with American Prospect executive editor David Dayen. He says the California race to fill the seat of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein highlighted the ideological fight inside the Democratic Party, with centrist Congressmember Adam Schiff successfully boxing out his more progressive rivals by spending millions to elevate the profile of Republican candidate Steve Garvey. Both men are now headed to the general election, where Schiff is all but certain to win. "It was quite successful," Dayen says of Schiff's strategy.
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Mar 06, 2024
Biden & Trump Nearly Sweep Super Tuesday Primaries; Haley to Drop out, Schiff and Garvey Advance in California in Senate Race to Fill Feinstein's Seat, Mark Robinson, Holocaust-Denying, Gay-Bashing Candidate, Wins NC Gubernatorial Primary, Israel Blocks World Food Programme Aid Delivery to Northern Gaza as Agency Attempts to Avert Famine, Hamas Demands Permanent Ceasefire Before More Hostages Are Released, Lebanon: Israel Kills Hezbollah Fighter Along with His Wife & Son, World Food Programme: Sudan Could Soon Face "World's Largest Hunger Crisis", Gang Leader Jimmy Chérizier: Haiti Is Heading to Civil War Unless Ariel Henry Resigns as PM, ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Two High-Ranking Russian Military Officers, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Announces She Will Not Seek Reelection in Arizona, Sen. Menendez Faces New Charges in Egypt & Qatar Bribery Case, Justice Clarence Thomas Hires Clerk Who Once Wrote "I Hate Black People", Dartmouth Men's Basketball Team Votes to Unionize, Liberty University Fined $14 Million for Failing to Report Sexual Assaults, German Leftist Group Claims Responsibility for Sabotage at Massive Tesla Plant
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Mar 05, 2024
Ahead of the 96th Academy Awards, we're joined by James Wilson, producer of the Oscar-nominated film The Zone of Interest, who raised Israel's assault on Gaza in his BAFTA Award acceptance speech last month. The film follows the fictionalized family of real-life Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss as they live idyllically next to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Wilson says the film serves as a metaphor for the occlusion of "systemic violence, injustice, oppression, from our lives," and challenges audiences' complicity by asking them to identify with Höss and his wife Hedwig. "The idea of this film was to look for the similarities, rather than the differences, between us and the perpetrator," says Wilson.
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Mar 05, 2024
Federal prosecutors in New York have rested their case against former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is accused of turning the Central American country into a narco-state. Hernández is on trial for cocaine trafficking and weapons charges and is the first former head of state to stand trial in the United States since Panamanian dictator and U.S. ally Manuel Noriega was also tried on drug charges after a U.S.-led ouster. Prosecutors accuse Hernández, a longtime U.S. ally accused of human rights violations throughout his presidency, of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from cocaine traffickers in exchange for protection and turning Honduras into a drug trafficking narco-state. If convicted, Hernández could join his brother Juan Antonio in serving a life sentence in the U.S. We speak to two writers who have been attending the trial in New York: historian Dana Frank and author and Honduran screenwriter Oscar Estrada. "There's a narrative here that … the Honduran people can't govern themselves, and then suddenly the U.S. is coming in and heroically imposing the rule of law," says Frank about U.S. public perception of the trial. However, she continues, "It's the opposite. It's the United States that helped destroy the criminal justice system in Honduras."
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Mar 05, 2024
Haiti is under a state of emergency after the country's gangs freed thousands of people from the country's largest prisons and are reportedly uniting to bring down Haiti's de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has yet to return to the country since he traveled to Kenya last week to discuss a deal to bring a U.N. force of 1,000 Kenyan police to the island. "It is a desolation that we are feeling. It is a terror that we are living," says Haitian pro-democracy advocate Monique Clesca about escalating gang violence that has already displaced thousands of Haitians. "We have been terrorized for the last 30 months of Ariel Henry's government," she says, emphasizing "the Biden administration has its hands in the bloodshed." We are also joined by researcher Jake Johnston, who traces the relationship between U.S. intervention and Haiti's unrest, "a process stoked and perpetuated by the international community, and namely the United States," and we speak with Kenyan MP Otiende Amollo, who opposes the plan to send Kenyan "peacekeepers" to Haiti, calling it a move "that flies in the face of the rule of law."
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Mar 05, 2024
Supreme Court Unanimously Rules Trump Can't Be Barred from Ballot over Jan. 6, Super Tuesday: Millions Head to Polls in 15 States, from California to Alabama, Minnesota Activists Urge Voters to Select "Uncommitted" to Protest Biden's Backing of Israel, "Look at Yazan": Palestinian Diplomat Decries Death of Palestinian Boy Who Starved to Death, U.N. Experts Weigh In on Sexual Violence on Oct. 7 & Inside Israeli Jails, Ukraine Sinks Russian Warship in the Black Sea, 20,000 Soldiers Take Part in NATO War Exercise in Finland, Norway and Sweden, Chad: Head of Military Junta Announces Presidential Run Days After Killing of Opposition Leader, South Korea Moves to Suspend Licenses of Striking Doctors, Jack Teixeira Pleads Guilty to Posting Classified Intelligence Documents Online, Five Catholic Worker Activists Arrested Outside General Dynamics Plant
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Mar 04, 2024
Reproductive health and medical groups are asking the Alabama Supreme Court to rehear the case in which the justices ruled frozen embryos should be considered children. The decision sent shockwaves through the world of reproductive medicine regarding potential effects on access to in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments. We speak with Abbey Crain, a journalist and artist who had been undergoing IVF treatments for nearly two years when the court made its ruling. She says her clinic has paused fertility treatments after the decision. "My first reaction was just sheer rage. I was extremely angry and, honestly, fell apart for a little bit," says Crain, who describes the impacts of this decision on patients and the politics of reproductive health in the state today. "These men down the street from me who serve on the Alabama Supreme Court have more say over when I choose to become a mother right now than me."
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Mar 04, 2024
Thousands gathered Friday in Moscow for the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16. The funeral was live-streamed on Navalny's YouTube channel to millions of his supporters, who suspect President Vladimir Putin is behind the dissident's death. "We live in an open dictatorship where any forms of public disobedience are forbidden," says Russian historian and political theorist Ilya Budraitskis, who says Navalny's death has galvanized public opposition for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine. With the war enabling the Kremlin to suppress political freedom, Budraitskis says Russian leaders are "ready to continue" their invasion and are openly advocating for the dismantling of Ukraine. "If Ukraine will be not supported from the West, Russia will continue its offensive and realize its final goal: the elimination of Ukraine as a state."
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Mar 04, 2024
The death toll from Israel's assault on Gaza has surpassed 30,000 as health officials say at least 16 Palestinian children have died in recent days from starvation and dehydration. UNICEF is warning the number of child deaths will likely "rapidly increase" unless the war ends. As Palestinians desperately seek aid being withheld by Israel, officials have accused Israeli forces of attacking crowds gathered to retrieve the little humanitarian supplies entering the besieged territory. Live from Rafah, Gaza-based journalist Akram al-Satarri shares his brother's account of surviving an Israeli attack while attempting to secure food for his kids. "It looks like the objective is to continue the starvation of the people of Gaza and to kill them when they dare to think that they can secure something to feed their children," says al-Satarri, who reports that U.S. airdrops of aid are doing little to relieve the suffering of millions in Gaza while U.S. military aid supports Israeli attacks. "In one hand, they are providing people with food, and in the other hand, they are providing people with death."
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Mar 04, 2024
16 Children Starve to Death in Gaza as UNICEF Warns Child Deaths Will "Rapidly Increase", Kamala Harris Calls for Ceasefire in Gaza as U.S. Begins Airdrops of Food Aid into Gaza, In Global Day of Action on Gaza, Protesters Condemn U.S. Arming of Israel, Israel Boycotts Ceasefire Talks in Cairo; Protesters in Tel Aviv Criticize Netanyahu, Benny Gantz's "Unauthorized" Trip to D.C. Highlights Rift Within Israeli War Cabinet, Israeli Attacks Kill Seven Members of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Environmental Crisis Feared in Red Sea as U.K. Ship Carrying Fertilizer Sinks After Houthi Attack, Haley Beats Trump in D.C. After Ex-President Wins in Michigan, Missouri & Idaho, Ukraine: 12 Killed in Russian Drone Strike on Apartment Building in Odesa, Leaked Audio: Germany Discussed Supplying Ukraine Long-Range Missiles to Attack Crimean Bridge, Thousands of Russians Pay Tribute to Alexei Navalny, U.N. Warns Blocking of Aid Access in Sudan May Be a War Crime, Shehbaz Sharif Elected as Pakistani PM Amid Protests by Imran Khan Supporters, Haiti Declares State of Emergency After Thousands of Prisoners Escape in Jailbreak, Largest Wildfire in Texas History Continues to Expand, CDC Drops 5-Day Isolation Guidance for COVID-19, U.S. Education Department Probes Death of Nonbinary Student Nex Benedict in Oklahoma, Paramedic Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Role in Death of Elijah McClain
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Mar 01, 2024
We speak with Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim of The Intercept about their exposé of a major New York Times piece into alleged mass rapes committed by Hamas militants on October 7 that raises serious questions about the accuracy of the story. The Times article was headlined "'Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7," and its release in late December helped the Israeli government to justify the ongoing war on Gaza and to paint pro-Palestine supporters abroad as not caring about sexual violence. One of the reporters of the Times piece, Israeli freelancer Anat Schwartz, is being investigated by the Times for her social media activity, which included dehumanizing language and endorsements of violence against Palestinians in Gaza. "The New York Times has grave, grave mischaracterizations, sins of omission, reliance on people who have no forensic or criminology credentials to be asserting that there was a systematic rape campaign put in place here," says Scahill, who criticizes the newspaper for not issuing any corrections for their flawed reporting. We also hear from Ryan Grim about how the flawed Times article touched off "extremely intense debate" inside the newsroom. "They're used to external criticism, but the amount of internal criticism they're getting has them on the backfoot," he says.
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Mar 01, 2024
Joe Biden and Donald Trump both visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Thursday, where the two leading presidential candidates each pitched anti-immigration measures to further militarize the border and restrict asylum. Meanwhile, a federal judge blocked a new Texas law set to go into effect that would give police the power to arrest migrants they suspect of entering the U.S. without authorization.?For more, we speak with Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, one of the groups challenging this Texas law. "Clearly, Texas has become a battleground for the soul of this nation," she says, adding that regardless of which party is in power, immigrant communities come under attack.
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Mar 01, 2024
Israeli Attacks Continue Unabated After Gaza Food Aid Massacre, 4 More Children Starve to Death, Defense Dec. Austin Refuses to Draw Line in Sand for Israel After Food Aid Massacre in Gaza, Washington's Largest Union Backs Democratic Vote for "Uncommitted" Ahead of Primary, Lebanese PM Says Gaza Ceasefire Would End Conflict on Its Border with Israel, New Jersey Community Members Warn Against Synagogue's Plan to Host Israeli Real Estate Event, Texas Judge Halts Draconian Immigration Law as Biden and Trump Make Dueling Trips to Border, Human Rights Panel Holds First U.S. Hearing on Climate Crisis-Driven Migration in the Americas, Smokehouse Creek Fire Kills 2 as It Grows to Texas's Largest Wildfire, U.S.'s 2nd Largest, Pakistan Swears In New Parliament as Imran Khan's Allies Protest Alleged Vote Rigging, Iran Holds First Elections Since 2022 Uprising; Low Turnout Expected, Alleged Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira to Plead Guilty, The Intercept, Raw Story and AlterNet Sue OpenAI and Microsoft, Ghana's Parliament Passes Bill Further Persecuting LGBTQ Communities, Thousands Gather at Alexei Navalny Funeral Amid Heavy Police Presence
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Feb 29, 2024
In Gaza City, at least 104 Palestinian refugees were killed Thursday when Israeli troops opened fire on a crowd waiting for food aid. "This isn't the first time people have been shot at by Israeli forces while people have been trying to access food," says the U.N.'s special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, who accuses Israel of the war crime of intentional starvation. This comes as reports grow of Palestinians resorting to animal feed and cactus leaves for sustenance and as experts warn of imminent agricultural collapse. "Every single person in Gaza is hungry," says Fakhri, who emphasizes that famine in the modern context is a human-made catastrophe. "At this point I'm running out of words to be able to describe the horror of what's happening and how vile the actions have been by Israel against the Palestinian civilians."
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Feb 29, 2024
As Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell announces he will step down as the Senate's Republican leader after 17 years — the longest term in Senate history — we speak with Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, who says, "McConnell's legacy has been one of obstruction." He describes McConnell's "aggressive" use of the filibuster, the topic of Merkley's new book, Filibustered!: How to Fix the Broken Senate and Save America, as having "broken the cycle in which government can function." Merkley also discusses Republican manipulation of judicial appointments and the cloture motion in pushing the legislature further right.
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Feb 29, 2024
As over 100 Palestinians are killed by Israeli forces while gathering for food aid in Gaza City, we speak to Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who in November became the second of only five U.S. senators to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. In January, he traveled to the Rafah border crossing in Egypt to witness the system of humanitarian aid deliveries, which he described on the Senate floor as a "complicated, bizarre inspection process." Merkley is now calling for the U.S. to bypass Israel in order to directly send aid to Gaza. Because of the United States' relationship to Israel — "more closely tied than any situation in the world" — Merkley says, "It's the United States that has leverage to address this situation, and the world expects us to take the lead."
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Feb 29, 2024
Israeli Forces Fire at Gazans Waiting for Food Aid, Killing at Least 100, Injuring Over 760 Others, New Yorkers Hold Vigil and Reading of the Names of 30,000 Gazans Killed by Israel Since Oct. 7, Missouri Girl Scout Troop Leaves Organization After Scout Leadership Banned Their Gaza Fundraiser, McConnell to Exit GOP Leadership, Leaving Behind Legacy of Obstruction, Far-Right Judicial Takeover, SCOTUS to Hear Trump Immunity Case as IL Judge Orders Trump Removed from State Ballot, Marianne Williamson "Unsuspends" Her Campaign, SCOTUS Considers Challenge to Bump Stock Ban, Enacted Under Trump, Congress Announces Bipartisan Deal to Extend Gov't Funding Another Few Weeks, "We've Lost Everything": Texas Wildfire Grows to 900,000 Acres, Razing Entire Neighborhoods, Texas Executes Man Despite Doubts over Guilty Conviction; Idaho Calls Off Botched Execution, Guinean Trade Unions Suspend Strike After Labor Leader Released from Detention, Nigerian Workers Launch Strike Amid Soaring Cost of Living, ICC Awards $56 Million to Survivors of LRA Commander Dominic Ongwen, GOP Blocks Senate Measure Protecting IVF Access Nationwide, DOJ Launches Boeing Probe as FAA Gives Co. 3 Months to Submit Safety Plan
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Feb 28, 2024
In an act that has captured the attention of the world, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force, set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington Sunday to protest Israel's assault on Gaza and U.S. support for the military campaign. Bushnell, who live-streamed the action, said, "I will no longer be complicit in genocide," before lighting himself on fire and repeatedly shouted "Free Palestine" as he was engulfed in the flames. He was pronounced dead in the hospital later that day. Democracy Now! speaks with Bushnell's friend and conscientious objector Levi Pierpont, who says his friend's death was not a suicide but was about using his life to send a message for justice. "We have to honor the message that he left," says Pierpont, who says Bushnell died "to get people's attention about the genocide that's happening in Palestine." Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat, lays out the history of self-immolation to protest war and how Bushnell's act could impact U.S. policy for the war on Gaza. "It was an act of courage, an act of bravery, to call attention to U.S. policies," says Wright, who offers support to Pierpont and other veterans advocating for peace live on air.
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Feb 28, 2024
President Joe Biden won the Michigan Democratic primary on Tuesday, but over 100,000 voters cast their ballots for "uncommitted" in an organized campaign protesting U.S. support for Israel's assault on Gaza. The major battleground state is home to one of the largest Arab American populations in the country, but the movement to vote "uncommitted" is now expected to spread to other states, including Minnesota and Washington. "I've rarely seen such an organic and authentic movement come together," says former Democratic congressmember from Michigan Andy Levin. "We really need actual change in policy, and I think we sent that message strongly last night." President of the Arab American Institute James Zogby says that Democratic voters need a reason to come out to the polls. "We gave them a reason with 'uncommitted.' Joe Biden's got to give them a reason in November," says Zogby. "There is genocide unfolding. People want it to end. The president either is going to have to act decisively to end it, or it's going to have an impact in November."
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Feb 28, 2024
Biden Wins in Michigan, But 100,000 Vote "Uncommitted" in Gaza Protest, Haley Warns a Trump Victory in November Would Be "Suicide for Our Country", U.N. Special Rapporteur Accuses Israel of War Crimes By Depriving Food to Gaza, Hamas and Fatah to Hold Talks in Moscow on Forming Palestinian Unified Gov't, 50 Broadcast Journalists Call on Israel & Egypt for Access to Gaza, Netanyahu: Strong U.S. Public Support Helps Perpetuate War on Gaza, Biden Holds Talks with Congressional Leaders over Shutdown & Military Aid Package, Massive Texas Wildfire Forces Closure of Nuclear Weapons Facility, Brazilian Climate Head Warns Climate Change Will Lead to Great Global Instability, Russian Court Jails Campaigner from Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Organization Memorial, Alexei Navalny Funeral to Be Held in Moscow on Friday, Two Protesters Killed in Guinea After Union Called for General Strike, Two Mayoral Candidates Murdered in Mexican City of Maravatío, San Francisco Issues Formal Apology to Black Residents, Mercedes-Benz Workers in Alabama Back Union Drive
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Feb 27, 2024
On his 90th birthday, the legendary consumer advocate, corporate critic and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader joins Democracy Now! for an in-depth conversation about U.S. democracy and why "Congress is a weapon of mass destruction." He says lawmakers have shredded the country's social safety net, refused to rein in the U.S. war machine, allowed white-collar crime to go unpunished, failed to enforce tax fairness and more. "All of these are very unpopular with the American people," Nader says. He also discusses the 2024 presidential race and encourages people to "vote their conscience" and "find some way out of this two-party duopoly gulag." Nader, who publishes the monthly print-only newspaper the Capitol Hill Citizen, was recently profiled in The Washington Post for his ongoing advocacy.
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Feb 27, 2024
It has been two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking a brutal war in which tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have died. With Ukraine running low on both weapons and new recruits, and with more U.S. funding stalled in Congress, we host a discussion on the future of the conflict with peace activist Medea Benjamin of CodePink and Oberlin professor Stephen Crowley, an expert on Russian and Eastern European politics. While both agree on the need to end the war, Crowley says the $60 billion U.S. funding package should be passed in order to give Ukraine a stronger negotiating position. "The only reason to fund Ukraine right now is to get both sides to the negotiating table to end this war," he says. Benjamin, however, says more funding will inevitably be used to continue the fighting. "It will only give the impetus for Zelensky to keep trying to fight a war that is not winnable," she says, adding that progressives are making a mistake to cede the antiwar position to "the extreme right of the Republican Party."
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Feb 27, 2024
Biden Says He Is Hoping for New Ceasefire Deal by Monday as Talks in Qatar Continue, Israel Targets Gazans Seeking Food Aid as Besieged Strip Continues to Face Severe Food Shortages, Palestinian Artist Fathi Ghaben Dies After Israel Denies Permission to Leave Gaza for Treatment, World Court Concludes Hearings on Israel's Occupation of Palestinian Territories, Rights Groups Say Israel Has Failed to Comply with ICJ Order to Prevent Genocide in Gaza, Vigils Held for Aaron Bushnell After Self-Immolation Death to Protest Gaza Genocide, Pentagon Skirts Question About Military Members' Sentiments on U.S. Complicity in Gaza War, JVP Leads Protest Against Biden at 30 Rock Ahead of "Late Night" Appearance, Irish Senate Votes to Impose Sanctions on Israel, Prevent U.S. Arms from Crossing Its Airspace, Israeli Airstrikes Kill 2 in Lebanon; U.S. Launches Preemptive Strikes in Yemen, Michigan Voters Head to Polls as Activists Urge Dems to Vote "Uncommitted" to Protest Gaza Genocide, Navalny Aide Says Putin Foe Was on Verge of Being Released Before His Death, Denmark Finds "Deliberate Sabotage" in Nord Stream Blasts But Drops Probe, Macron Does Not Rule Out Deploying Troops to Ukraine as He Rallies Support for Kyiv, Hungary Ratifies Sweden's NATO Bid, Ending 200 Years of Swedish Neutrality, Attack on Mosque in Burkina Faso Kills Dozens, Within Hours of Deadly Church Attack, Former Professor Donates $1 Billion to Albert Einstein College to Cover All Future Med School Tuition
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Feb 26, 2024
As Israel continues to massacre Palestinians in Gaza with U.S. military and political support, Palestinians in the United States are increasingly being targeted by anti-terrorism laws in an attempt to silence their pro-Palestine activism. "Anti-Palestinian animus is one of the most enduring areas of bipartisan appeal in Washington," says Darryl Li, an anthropologist and lawyer teaching at the University of Chicago. Li shares the history of U.S. anti-terrorism law, which dates back to the 1990s and the Anti-Defamation League-supported passage of a law banning "material support" to U.S.-designated "terror" groups. "The very foundations of terrorism law in the United States, at key moments of their development, were crafted with the agenda of opposing or crushing Palestinian liberation in mind," he says. We also speak with Dima Khalidi, founder and director of Palestine Legal, an organization that provides legal assistance to people who have been targeted by and face prosecution under these laws, which not only have a "huge chilling effect on people, on First Amendment rights," but that also provide "cover for this genocide."
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Feb 26, 2024
A new report on Gaza's escalating health crisis projects that due to the extent of destruction wrought upon the region's infrastructure since October, thousands of Palestinians will continue to die from disease, malnutrition, dehydration and starvation, regardless of whether Israel continues to pursue its military assault. "In case of an escalation, we'd see around 85,000 deaths," warns Zeina Jamaluddine, a nutritionist and epidemiologist who is one of the lead authors of "Crisis in Gaza: Scenario-Based Health Impact Projections" from the London School of Hygiene and Johns Hopkins University. Jamaluddine also says it is not too late to stop the bulk of these forecasted deaths, should a ceasefire be immediately put into place and aid deliveries resumed. "In case of a ceasefire now, we would be saving around 75,000 lives."
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Feb 26, 2024
A famine is unfolding in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have resorted to consuming animal feed amid soaring prices and dwindling supplies of food. The United Nations has already begun reporting deaths from starvation and malnutrition, while aid agencies have been forced to pause deliveries. "Israel is not allowing food into the northern part of Gaza so people would regret not having left," says Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha, who fled Gaza for Cairo in November and has been attempting since then to secure safe passage for his extended family members, including his sister-in-law who has just given birth. He writes about his experiences in a New Yorker piece, "My Family's Daily Struggle to Find Food in Gaza." Abu Toha urges international actors to take action and end Israel's siege of Gaza. "They are killing us every day," he says. "Where is the mind of the people in the world? How could you let this happen?"
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Feb 26, 2024
2-Month-Old Infant Dies of Starvation as Israel Blocks Aid, Gazans Face Famine, Netanyahu Reaffirms Plan to Take Control of Gaza; Palestinian Prime Minister Shtayyeh Resigns, Biden Administration Condemns Israeli Plans for Settlement Expansion in Occupied West Bank, "I Will No Longer Be Complicit in Genocide": U.S. Military Member Dies After Setting Himself on Fire in Protest, NYT Investigating Israeli Freelancer's Anti-Palestinian Social Media History, U.S. and U.K. Air Forces Attack Houthi Targets as Yemenis Take to Street in Solidarity with Gaza, Trump Beats Nikki Haley on Her Home Turf of South Carolina, Winning 60% of GOP Primary Votes, Ukraine Marks 2nd Anniversary of War with Russia, Which Has Killed 31,000 Ukrainian Soldiers, Burkina Faso Church Attack Kills at Least 15 People, South Korea Gives Striking Doctors Until End of February to Return to Work, Protesters in the Philippines Condemn President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s Plans to Change Constitution, New York Jury Finds Ex-NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre Used Group's Money to Fund Lavish Lifestyle, Man Convicted of Murdering Trans Woman Dime Doe in First Such Federal Hate Crime Trial, Vigils Held for Late Gender-Nonconforming Teenager Nex Benedict, "The Apartheid Has to End": Director Yuval Abraham Highlights Palestinian Plight in Berlinale Speech, Johan Galtung, "Father of Peace and Conflict Studies," Dies at 93
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Feb 23, 2024
A federal court in Washington, D.C., heard arguments Thursday in a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of racial discrimination and rights violations of Haitian asylum seekers. The suit was brought on behalf of 11 Haitian asylum seekers who were abused by U.S. border agents as more than 15,000 people, mostly from Haiti, were forced to stay in a makeshift border encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande near the Acuña-Del Rio International Bridge in Texas. One of the plaintiffs is Mirard Joseph, the asylum seeker whose image went viral after being photographed while a Border Patrol agent on horseback lashed him with split reins, grabbed his neck and gripped Joseph by the shirt collar. "This is a critical junction in our country here in the United States as we make sure to uphold human rights and understanding seeking asylum is a human right," says Guerline Jozef, executive director of immigrant advocacy organization Haitian Bridge Alliance, which helped bring the case on behalf of asylum seekers. "We will continue to push forward and make sure that accountability is served but also we have systematic change in the way that we receive people in the United States."
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Feb 23, 2024
As Julian Assange awaits a decision from a British court on his possible extradition to the United States, Democracy Now! speaks with Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of The Guardian, who worked with Assange to publish hundreds of thousands of classified records from the U.S. acquired by WikiLeaks that document war crimes in the Middle East. "What the governments are now trying to do is to frighten journalists off," says Rusbridger. "I think the world should wake up as to what the nature of the threat is going to be to mainstream journalism if this extradition is successful."
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Feb 23, 2024
At a critical hearing this week in London, lawyers for imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asked the British High Court of Justice to grant him a new appeal in what is likely his last chance to avoid extradition to the United States, where he faces a 175-year prison sentence for publishing classified documents that exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange's lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, says the judges were receptive to their arguments that Assange could face the death penalty in the U.S. and that an extradition would set a dangerous precedent for press freedom. "If Julian is extradited and goes on trial under the Espionage Act, this is a case which is going to set precedent which criminalizes journalistic activity and will be used against the rest of the media." A ruling in the case is not expected until next month at the earliest.
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Feb 23, 2024
"We Are on the Edge of a Monumental Disaster": UNRWA Says It's Reached a Breaking Point, Israeli Attack on Homes in Deir al-Balah Kill at Least 40 Palestinians, Incl. Infants, MSF: Traumatized Gazan Children Tell Aid Workers They'd Prefer to Die, Norwegian Pension Fund Divests from Israeli War Machine; UC Davis Students Pass BDS Resolution, "Zionism Misrepresents Judaism": Jewish American Activists Protest AIPAC, NY Politicians, Alexei Navalny's Mother Sees Son's Body, Says She Is Being Blackmailed into Having Private Burial, "The Era of Peace in Europe Is Over": Ukraine Issues Dire Warning as War Grinds into 3rd Year, New York Judge Rejects Trump Attempt to Delay Payment of $455 Million Fine, Third Alabama Clinic Stops IVF Program After Court Ruled Frozen Embryos Have Same Rights as Humans, Indian Farmers Escalate Protests After Death of Young Farmworker, Social Media Censorship, Senegalese President Macky Sall Agrees to Leave Office at End of Term with No Date for New Election, Kenya's Ogiek Fight to Halt Evictions from Mau Forest, Indigenous Guna to Leave Disappearing Island, But Panamanian Gov't Has Not Prepared Relocation Site
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Feb 22, 2024
On the 59th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, two former security guards are speaking out for the first time about how they were falsely arrested by the New York Police Department as part of a conspiracy to remove his protection before he was killed. We hear from Khaleel Sayyed, 81, who says he was detained on trumped-up charges just days before Malcolm X was fatally shot, and we speak with Ben Crump and Flint Taylor, two civil rights attorneys who are working with the family. They are calling on New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, to support the release of key evidence in the case. We are "trying to peel back the layers to finally, after 59 years, get some measure of justice for Malcolm X's family," says Crump. Taylor also places the assassination in the context of police and the FBI targeting Black civil rights leaders through COINTELPRO, such as Fred Hampton, which he helped expose in a landmark case in Chicago.
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Feb 22, 2024
The Alabama Supreme Court has sent shockwaves through the world of reproductive healthcare, relying on anti-abortion language inserted into the state Constitution in 2018 about "rights of the unborn child" to rule that frozen embryos are children. Now Alabama's largest hospital has paused in vitro fertilization treatments as it studies the impact of the ruling, which could set a template for other states to restrict IVF and other medical care. "It was just very shocking," says Angela Granger, an IVF patient who previously received treatment in Alabama and who had been considering returning to the state for future rounds of IVF to get pregnant again. "I just don't trust what's going on to be able to go back at this point." We also speak with Barbara Collura, president of the infertility patient advocacy group RESOLVE, who says the Alabama ruling will have far-reaching implications. "It's going to terrify people all across the country that this might happen in their state," says Collura, who describes embryos as a "microscopic group of cells" not even visible to the human eye. "We do not look at that as a person, as a child or as a baby."
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Feb 22, 2024
"Gaza Has Become a Death Zone" Amid Soaring Hunger, Death and Illness, Itamar Ben-Gvir Calls for More Weapons for Civilians After West Bank Shooting Kills One Israeli, U.S. Addresses ICJ in Lonely, Unconvincing Defense of Israel's Occupation of Palestinian Lands, Biden Weighing Executive Action to Bar Asylum Seekers Who Enter Through Unofficial Ports of Entry, Texas Sues Shelter for Assisting Migrants in Need, Haitian Asylum Seekers Go to Court over Abuse by Federal Agents at U.S.-Mexico Border, Drug Trafficking Trial of Ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández Starts in New York, New Evidence of NYPD Plot to Assassinate Malcolm X Unveiled on 59th Anniversary of Death, Biden Cancels Additional $1.2 Billion in Student Loans, NYC Trans Leaders Respond After Catholic Church Condemns Funeral of Trans Icon Cecilia Gentili, Chicago Sues Big Oil over Climate Crisis, "We Deserve a Livable Future": Climate Defiance Disrupts Event with Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, Fire Burns Down Mississippi John Hurt Museum
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Feb 21, 2024
Leaders at this year's African Union summit have condemned Israel's assault on Gaza and called for its immediate end. Kenyan writer and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola explains the long history of African solidarity with Palestine, continuing with today's efforts to end the destruction of Gaza. African countries "see really an identical experience between Palestinian occupation and what they have endured under colonization," says Nyabola. "It's a question of history. It's a question of solidarity. It's a question of shared experiences of all of these systemic types of violence."
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Feb 21, 2024
As the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israel's assault on Gaza approaches 30,000 and the United States vetoes a ceasefire resolution at the U.N. Security Council for the third time, the Biden administration's support for Israel has come under fierce criticism both around the world and in the U.S. In Michigan, which is a key battleground state and home to one of the largest Arab American populations in the country, a campaign is growing to vote "uncommitted" in next week's Democratic primary in protest of Biden's policies backing Israel. "We're not standing against anyone, but we're simply reaffirming our stance for humanity and for the basic tenets of human rights," says Democratic state Representative Abraham Aiyash, Michigan's highest-ranking Arab and Muslim leader. "The administration needs to change course in foreign policy in the Middle East in order to gain the trust of people who we have lost," says California Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna, who says the U.S. must call for an immediate ceasefire and place conditions on aid to Israel.
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Feb 21, 2024
The final day of a critical appeal for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is underway today at the British High Court of Justice, in what could be Assange's last chance to stop his extradition to the United States. Assange faces a 175-year prison sentence for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the WikiLeaks founder's health is reportedly deteriorating rapidly, his lawyers are arguing the case is politically motivated to target Assange for exposing "state-level crimes." Meanwhile, U.S. lawyers are attempting to portray Assange as a hacker rather than a journalist. "It's clear to everyone that Assange is a journalist. He revealed more criminality by the world's most powerful country than anyone's ever done in history," says Matt Kennard, head of investigations at Declassified UK, who lays out the proceedings so far, what to expect from the British justice system and the precedent an Assange extradition would set for global journalism. "It will be a huge nail in the coffin for investigative journalism, for any kind of publishing of information that state powers don't like, and it will be used by repressive regimes all around the world."
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Feb 21, 2024
U.S. Vetoes UNSC Gaza Ceasefire Resolution for Third Time, WFP Pauses Life-Sustaining Food Delivery in Northern Gaza Amid Worsening Hunger, Yemen's Houthis Escalate Attacks Against U.S. and Israeli Targets over Gaza Assault, Biden to Issue New Russia Sanctions over Nalvany Death Amid Widespread Accusations of Assasination, Russian Defector Maxim Kuzminov Killed in Spain, U.K. High Court Hears U.S.'s Extradition Case Against Julian Assange in 2nd Day of Pivotal Appeal, Coalition Gov't Announced in Pakistan as Top Official Makes Stunning Admission of Election Tampering, U.S. Airstrike in Somalia Killed Two Cuban Doctors, Hunger and Violence Grips Democratic Republic of Congo as Tensions Mount with Rwanda, SCOTUS Turns Down Case on VA High School Admissions Policy Which Increases Diversity, Alabama Supreme Court Rules Frozen Embryos Are People, Nonbinary Oklahoma Teen Dies After Being Assaulted by Fellow Students, Ex-FBI Informant Who Lied About Bidens' Ties to Ukrainian Co. Says Russia Gave Him False Info
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Feb 20, 2024
We speak with an American doctor just back from Gaza about the "unimaginable scale" of its humanitarian crisis. Irfan Galaria, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, recently wrote an op-ed for the L.A. Times describing Israel's assault on Gaza's civilians as "annihilation." Dr. Galaria, who has worked in conflict zones around the world, says he and his team witnessed "a collateral humanitarian crisis of an unimaginable scale," involving the "deliberate attempt" to both target civilians with military assault and to deprive them of aid. "I thought I was going to be prepared, but I was not prepared for what I saw," he says.
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Feb 20, 2024
Arguments are underway at the International Court of Justice, where more than 50 countries are asking the World Court to issue a nonbinding legal opinion against Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza since 1967. The request is separate from South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ. "Israel has been instrumentalizing the rules of international humanitarian law … to further its settler-colonial project in Palestine," says Ahmed Abofoul of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, which submitted an advisory opinion on the case. "I have no doubt that the court will decide that Israel's occupation is illegal," he says. We also discuss what comes after the ruling and Israeli society's reaction to the war.
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Feb 20, 2024
The legal setbacks facing leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are piling up. He now has 30 days to pay $450 million in fines and penalties from a civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. His two eldest sons face a two-year ban and were each ordered to pay $4 million. Trump says he plans to appeal the ruling, which he described as a "complete and total sham." But the appeal is unlikely to succeed, says Russ Buettner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist whose reporting for The New York Times led to the state's case. He lays out how records showed an "overwhelming pattern" of Trump's businesses "lying to their lenders." Buettner, who describes Trump as cash-poor, says the penalties will result in "a blow to his personal finances and his business finances that he really can't handle at this point."
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Feb 20, 2024
U.S. for the First Time Calls for "Temporary Ceasefire" in Draft U.N. Security Council Resolution, UNICEF Warns of "Explosion in Preventable Child Deaths" in Gaza, U.N. Experts Report Sexual Assault, Executions and Other Abuses Against Palestinian Women and Girls, ICJ Continues Hearing on Israel's Occupation of Palestine, 50 Countries to Testify, Israeli Knesset Fails to Oust Liberal Lawmaker Ofer Cassif; Brazil and Israel Deepen Diplomatic Rift, British High Court Hears Appeal in Julian Assange's Likely Last Chance to Avoid Extradition, Haiti Judge Indicts Former First Lady in 2021 Assassination of Her Husband, Pres. Jovenel Moïse, Indian Farmers Resume March Toward New Delhi After Rejecting Gov't Proposal on Crop Prices, Wisconsin Enacts New Congressional Maps After More Than a Decade of GOP-Gerrymandered Districts, Capital One Announces $35 Merger with Discovery; Colorado Sues over Kroger-Albertsons Merger, Immigrants Rights Activists Demand Closure of Tacoma ICE Center, Camp Amache, Former Japanese American Internment Camp, Opens as New National Park in Colorado
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Feb 19, 2024
More than 400 people have reportedly been detained in Russia for publicly mourning the death of Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony on Friday at age 47. He was the most prominent critic of Vladimir Putin in Russia and was serving a 19-year sentence at the time of his death on "extremism" charges. U.S. President Joe Biden and other Western leaders directly have blamed Putin for Navalny's death. Prison authorities say Navalny died of "sudden death syndrome," but his family has not yet been given access to his body to allow for an independent autopsy. For more, we speak with Russian American writer Masha Gessen, who charts Navalny's political evolution from an ethnonationalist libertarian tapping into "xenophobic discontent" to an anti-corruption activist promoting a vision of civic nationalism. "I have no doubt … that he was killed," says Gessen. "Putin was determined to see Navalny die in prison."
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Feb 19, 2024
As Israeli forces raid Nasser Hospital in Gaza, trapping hundreds of patients there and arresting medical staff, we speak with emergency room physician Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who just recently returned to the United States after three weeks volunteering at the hospital. "We're just asking that hospitals not be targeted, that they not be bombed, and that doctors and nurses can provide for their patients without being worried that they may be killed, that they may be abducted or arrested," says Ahmad. "We need a ceasefire now. Hospitals need to be protected and functioning." He also criticizes the American Medical Association for speaking out against Russian attacks on hospitals in Ukraine but staying silent on much more widespread attacks on medical facilities and personnel in Gaza.
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Feb 19, 2024
As the death toll in Gaza tops 29,000, we get an update on one of the largest hospitals in southern Gaza, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which is no longer functional amid a dayslong raid on the facility by Israeli forces. About 200 patients remain trapped there, with Israel preventing the WHO and the U.N. from delivering aid or evacuating the patients. The Gaza Health Ministry says at least eight people died in the hospital after Israel cut off electricity and oxygen supplies, and that soldiers also arrested many hospital staff. Dr. Ahmed Moghrabi, a surgeon who worked at Nasser, sent Democracy Now! a video on Sunday describing what happened when it was stormed by Israeli troops. "They arrested all the medical team who remained at Nasser Hospital. We don't know the fate of my colleagues," said Moghrabi, who had to walk for miles with his family in the night. "Nothing remains in Khan Younis. Nothing. It's like horror movies. No streets, no buildings are there. Only dead bodies."
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Feb 19, 2024
Rights Groups Call for Probe into Navalny's Death; Russian Police Arrest Hundreds of Mourners, Nasser Hospital "No Longer Functional" After Israeli Raid; U.N. Aid Teams Barred from Entry, Israel Warns of Rafah Invasion Within Weeks as Egypt Builds Enclosed Area Amid Fears of "Mass Exodus", World Court Kicks Off Hearings on Israeli Occupation of Palestine, Protest Actions Against Israel's Genocide Continue Around the World, NYC Students Walk Out to Protest Assault on Gaza, Israelis Rally in Tel Aviv to Demand New Elections, Return of Hostages, Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Likens Israel's Assault on Gaza to Holocaust, Houthis and U.S. Escalate Attacks on Red Sea Trade Route, NYT: Israel Responsible for Iranian Pipeline Attacks, Russian Forces Seize Avdiivka as Biden Blames "Congressional Inaction" for Ukrainian Losses, New York Court Orders Trump to Pay Over $355 Million for Lying About Value of Businesses, Greg Abbott to Build Massive Base in Texas Border City of Eagle Pass
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Feb 16, 2024
We look at the case of Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza whose case reverberated around the world when audio of her pleading for emergency workers to save her was published online. Her body was found two weeks later alongside those of her aunt, uncle and three cousins. The bodies of two Palestine Red Crescent paramedics, also missing since they had been dispatched to rescue her, were located in their ambulance just yards away. All had been killed by Israeli fire. "She was killed alone and scared, and our rescue teams were only meters away from her," said Palestine Red Crescent Society spokesperson Nebal Farsakh, who adds that more than a dozen PRCS aid workers have been intentionally targeted during Israel's assault on Gaza. Farsakh also discusses the kidnapping and assault of healthcare workers by Israeli forces laying siege upon Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.
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Feb 16, 2024
Imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to find out next week whether he has exhausted opportunities to avoid extradition to the United States, where he faces life in prison for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. A two-day hearing before the British High Court of Justice is scheduled to take place in London on Tuesday and Wednesday. He has been held in London's infamous Belmarsh Prison since 2019 awaiting his possible extradition. Jennifer Robinson, an Australian human rights attorney and legal adviser to Assange and WikiLeaks, discusses public and governmental support for Assange in Australia, where an "unprecedented" parliamentary resolution was passed Wednesday calling for Assange's release. Robinson calls the charges against Assange a "dangerous precedent for free speech" and says, "It's time that the United States respects our special relationship and listens to the calls of the Australian people and our Parliament and our government and drops this case."
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Feb 16, 2024
The shooting in Kansas City on Wednesday came on the sixth anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, school massacre that left 17 dead and injured 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. To mark the anniversary, gun control advocates have launched a project called "Shotline," which calls lawmakers with AI-generated audio messages that feature the voices of gun violence victims, pushing them to pass stricter gun control laws and prevent future tragedies. One of the victims featured is Parkland student Joaquin Oliver, who was just 17 years old when he was killed. We speak to Joaquin's father, Manuel Oliver, a gun reform activist who worked on the "Shotline" project. He describes the project as the "result of more than six years being ignored" while "begging these politicians to pass laws," and reacts to the news of the Super Bowl parade shooting in Kansas City.
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Feb 16, 2024
In the first 46 days of 2024, there have been 49 mass shootings in the United States — over one per day. In total, almost 5,000 people have died from gun violence this year, including Elizabeth "Lisa" Lopez-Galvan, a radio host and mother of two who was shot and killed Wednesday at a rally held after the Super Bowl victory parade in Kansas City, Missouri. Twenty-two others were wounded, many of them children, when the shooting broke out near the end of the rally. Missouri has some of the weakest gun control laws in the country, with no universal background checks, no assault weapon restrictions, no ban on large-capacity magazines, no waiting periods to purchase a gun and no domestic violence gun laws. "This, unfortunately, is not surprising," says Missouri-born activist and host of the Undistracted podcast, Brittany Packnett Cunningham. Last year, Kansas City set a new high for gun violence, and the city has one of the country's highest murder rates. Packnett Cunningham traces this violence to the influence of the powerful gun lobby, and calls on lawmakers to refuse funding from pro-gun groups like the NRA.
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Feb 16, 2024
Russian Media Reports Alexei Navalny Has Died in Prison, 5 Patients Killed as Israel Attacks Nasser Hospital, Forcing Thousands onto Streets, "A Safe Place in Gaza Is an Illusion": U.N. Says There Is No Way to Evacuate Rafah, 75% of All Journalists Killed in 2023 Died Over 3 Months of Israel's War on Gaza, Stanford Students Ends Monthslong Gaza Ceasefire Sit-In, Will Hold Talks with University Officials, NYC Trump Hush-Money Trial Set for March 25 as Verdict Expected in Trump Org. Civil Fraud Case, Fulton County DA Fani Willis Pushes Back Against Defense Lawyers on Stand, Ex-FBI Informant Charged with Fabricating Story About the Bidens Receiving Millions from Burisma, Russian Antiwar Politician Will Not Run Against Putin in March After Losing Legal Challenges, Senegalese Court Rules President Macky Sall's Delay of Presidential Poll Was Unlawful, Greece Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage Despite Pushback from Orthodox Church, Epstein Assault Survivors Sue FBI for Failing to Act on Accusations Against Deceased Serial Abuser, Climate Groups Sue Biden over Offshore Drilling Plans in Gulf of Mexico, "Red Alert": Half of Amazon Rainforest Could Reach Climate Tipping Point by Mid-Century, Oil and Plastics Industry Duped Consumers and Regulators for Decades in "Plastic Recycling Fraud"
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Feb 15, 2024
The U.S. Senate has approved a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes $14 billion in military funding to Israel, despite the finding by the International Court of Justice that it is plausible Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza. The Senate bill passed on a 70-29 vote, though its fate remains uncertain in the Republican-controlled House, where Speaker Mike Johnson is demanding the inclusion of new anti-immigrant and border enforcement measures before scheduling a vote. William Hartung, a national security and foreign policy expert at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, says the massive spending package's main effect would be "to ship weapons overseas into war zones," noting that lawmakers rarely show the same urgency when it comes to issues like poverty or the climate crisis. "We're putting the bulk of our resources into implements of war."
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Feb 15, 2024
South Africa has urgently requested the International Court of Justice to intervene if Israel proceeds with its planned ground invasion of Rafah. The South African government says Israel's actions in Rafah could lead to significant loss of life, harm and destruction, potentially violating international law and the top U.N. court's January order that Israel must take measures to prevent genocide in Gaza. "The person who, frankly, does have the most power to stop all of this bloodshed is Joe Biden," says Kenneth Roth, the former head of Human Rights Watch, now a visiting professor at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Roth also discusses Israel's "ideological vendetta against UNRWA" and possible war crimes charges against top Hamas and Israeli leaders at the International Criminal Court.
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Feb 15, 2024
We speak with journalist Akram al-Satarri, reporting from Rafah, the southernmost part of Gaza bordering Egypt, where more than a million Palestinians are now packed together following forced relocations from elsewhere in the territory. Israel is threatening to launch a ground invasion of Rafah, which Israel had previously designated as a safe zone. Al-Satarri describes how hunger, thirst and other pressures are impacting the displaced population as the death toll continues to rise from Israel's assault. "Every single time I walk one step in Gaza, I always imagine myself being blown up," he says. "The killing is massive. The killing is thorough. And I think no one in Gaza is protected, no safe haven."
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Feb 15, 2024
Israeli troops stormed Nasser Hospital, the largest hospital in southern Gaza, on Thursday after days of besieging the complex, where thousands of displaced Palestinians have been taking shelter among hundreds of wounded. Israeli forces reportedly demolished the southern wall of the hospital before storming inside. Troops also targeted ambulances, tents of the displaced, and bulldozed mass graves inside the hospital. The assault came hours after Israeli forces bombed a wing of the hospital, killing one patient and wounding several others. Democracy Now! reached Dr. Khaled Alserr, one of the last remaining surgeons inside Nasser Hospital, shortly before the Israeli raid as he described desperate conditions inside. "The situation here is getting worse every time and every minute," Alserr said, describing sniper, drone and tank attacks on the hospital.
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Feb 15, 2024
1 Dead, 22 Injured in Shooting at Super Bowl Victory Parade in Kansas City, Kansas City Mass Shooting Came on Sixth Anniversary of Parkland School Massacre, Israeli Forces Raid and Bomb Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Canada, Australia and New Zealand Warn Israeli Attack on Rafah Would Be "Catastrophic", Palestinian Journalist Mutaz Al-Ghafari Killed with Wife & Child in Gaza City, Netanyahu Blocks Israeli Negotiators from Returning to Cairo for Ceasefire Talks, 11 Killed in Lebanon as Israel Launches Heaviest Strikes Since Oct. 7, Ukrainian Strike Kills 5 at Russian Shopping Mall, Australian Parliament Approves Motion Calling for Release of Julian Assange, California Air Regulators Win "Decisive Victory" Over East Bay Oil Refineries, Uber & Lyft Drivers Hold Largest Ride-Share Strike in U.S. History
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Feb 14, 2024
We look at the killing, arrests and attacks on Palestinian Americans both in the Occupied Territories and in the United States. We speak with the son of Palestinian American Samaher Esmail, who was detained in the West Bank by the Israeli military last week, beaten in custody and denied medication, according to her family. "They came in the middle of the night, raided our home, dragged her out of the house in her pajamas, didn't even give her a chance to wear her hijab," says Suliman Hamed, who says Israeli forces are persecuting Palestinians like Esmail for social media posts. We also speak with Edward Ahmed Mitchell, civil rights attorney and national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, about other cases, including 17-year-old Palestinian American teenager Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour, who was shot dead on Saturday in the town of Biddu in the occupied West Bank; 17-year-old Palestinian American Tawfiq Ajjaq, who was fatally shot in the head in January in the West Bank; and the stabbing of Zacharia Doar, a 23-year-old Palestinian American in Texas. "There is a war happening against Palestinian Americans, a war on their right to free speech, a war on their culture," says Mitchell.
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Feb 14, 2024
For the first time ever, the House has voted to impeach a Cabinet member. After failing on its first try last week, the Republican-led House voted Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the Biden administration's handling of the U.S.-Mexico border. This comes as Congress continues to debate packaging hard-line immigration measures with foreign military aid. "The sad reality is that the politics of immigration policy have really taken over in Congress," says law professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, who discusses the Democrats' "dead-end strategy" of trying to "out-tough the Republican Party when it comes to immigration policy." He also discusses his new book, Welcome the Wretched: In Defense of the "Criminal Alien", which makes the case for not deporting undocumented immigrants even if they commit a crime. "I want immigration law to reflect the reality of the humans that it is supposed to serve."
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Feb 14, 2024
South Africa Urges ICJ to Take Action over Israel's Planned Invasion of Rafah, Israel Blocks Flour Shipment to Gaza; Siege on Gaza Hospital Intensifies, Two Al Jazeera Journalists Seriously Wounded in Israeli Drone Strike in Gaza, Israel Shoots Dead 17-Year-old Palestinian American in Occupied West Bank, Israel Demolishes Home of Palestinian Activist Who Campaigned Against Eviction Efforts, Palestinian Human Rights Lawyer Held Without Charge in Israeli Prison, Hezbollah Vows to Keep Attacking Israel Until "Aggression Stops Against Gaza", Ex-General Prabowo Subianto Appears Headed to Victory in Indonesian Presidential Election, House Republicans Vote to Impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Democrat Tom Suozzi Wins in House Election to Fill Seat of George Santos, Biden Pushes for House to Vote on Ukraine & Israel Military Aid as U.S. Arms Sales Face Scrutiny, "It's Dangerous. It's Un-American": Biden Blasts Trump for Encouraging Russia to Attack NATO Allies, Crackdown Intensifies in Senegal Following Postponement of Presidential Election, Ethiopia Accused of Killing 45 During Raid in Amhara, Texas Megachurch Shooter Legally Bought AR-15 Despite History of Mental Illness, CDC Considers Ending Guidelines for 5-Day Isolation Period for New COVID Infections, Paramount to Lay Off 800, Days After Record-Breaking Super Bowl Broadcast
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Feb 13, 2024
We speak with The Nation's environment correspondent Mark Hertsgaard, executive director of Covering Climate Now, about how journalists under attack by climate deniers must not let fear of retaliation stop them from covering the subject, especially during an election year. "It's not our job as journalists to censor ourselves because one party or one candidate decides that they're going to deny climate science. We owe it to the public to report that to the public without fear or favor," he says. Hertsgaard also discusses the role of climate policy in the 2024 election and the fifth anniversary of progressive lawmakers' first attempt to pass a Green New Deal.
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Feb 13, 2024
We speak with world-renowned climate scientist Michael Mann, who was just awarded more than $1 million in a defamation lawsuit against two right-wing critics who smeared his work connecting fossil fuels to rising global temperatures. He joins us to discuss the importance of resisting climate denialism through free scientific inquiry and expression. "We all pay the price when scientists don't feel empowered to speak out about the implications of their science," says Mann. Mann says he hopes his legal win will protect others who have been silenced by the threat of defamation so that "scientists will feel more comfortable in leaving the laboratory and speaking to the public and policymakers."
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Feb 13, 2024
As Israel continues to threaten to invade Rafah, where over a million Palestinians have sought refuge, we speak to a surgeon who recently returned from a humanitarian mission at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza. "What I saw in Khan Younis were the most horrific scenes in my entire life," says Canadian ophthalmologist Dr. Yasser Khan. He describes the dire conditions of injured civilians in Gaza, the majority of whom are children. "The genocidal intent of Israeli politicians, the Israeli army, is really clear. What is really bizarre is that they haven't hid it," says Khan. "The killing machine that Israel has unleashed on the healthcare system, I think, is unprecedented. … If the bombings are not going to get you, then disease will surely get you."
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Feb 13, 2024
Wednesday's presidential election in Indonesia could see the ascendance of General Prabowo Subianto, who has tried for years to seize power after decades of involvement in mass killings, kidnapping and torture across Indonesia, in occupied East Timor and in independence-seeking Western New Guinea. Subianto is a longtime U.S. protégé and the son-in-law of former Indonesian dictator Suharto. He once mused about becoming "a fascist dictator" and has said the country is "not ready" for democracy. We are joined in Jakarta by longtime investigative reporter Allan Nairn, who has spent decades covering Indonesia and East Timor. Nairn discusses Subianto's bloody, authoritarian record and concerns about potential voter fraud and intimidation.
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Feb 13, 2024
Biden Says Israel Should Not Attack Rafah by Land, Refuses to Set Any Consequences If It Does, Gazan Child Describes Seeing Her Father Die After Israeli Airstrikes Kill Over 100 People in Rafah, West Bank Arrests Top 7,000 Since Oct. 7; U.N. Experts Say Ibn Sina Attack Was a War Crime, "We Cannot Sit By Idly": Protests Erupt Across the U.S. over Planned Invasion of Rafah, Senate Passes $95B Funding Package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, Trump Asks SCOTUS to Intervene in Immunity Case as Federal Election Subversion Case Looms, Police Attack Indian Farmers Marching Toward New Delhi for Fair Crop Prices, Trinidad and Tobago Faces National Emergency After Capsized Vessel Causes Major Oil Spill, Protesters Call Out U.S., Western Complicity in DRC Violence, New York's 3rd Congressional District Votes to Fill George Santos's House Seat
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Feb 12, 2024
Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, talks about "the moral case for a ceasefire" in Gaza and why he joined a group of Christian leaders for a vigil outside the White House in November demanding action from President Biden. "We must speak as one voice — Christians, Muslims and Jews — to say the indiscriminate killing of women and children in this war is immoral," Barber says.
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Feb 12, 2024
As the 2024 election heats up, the Poor People's Campaign has launched a 40-week effort aimed at mobilizing the voting power of some 15 million poor and low-wage voters across the United States ahead of the November election. The campaign's first major coordinated actions are set to occur outside 30 statehouses on March 2, just days before Super Tuesday. "Statehouses are where the political insurrections are taking place," says Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign. The "enormous undertaking" is in response to "an enormous economic and moral problem" of inequality in the United States, he notes, and poor and low-wage workers have the voting power to affect the 2024 elections in every single state in the country. We also speak with economist Michael Zweig, who is a member of the New York State Coordinating Committee of the Poor People's Campaign. His new book on inequality is Class, Race, and Gender: Challenging the Injuries and Divisions of Capitalism.
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