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2026-07-10 14:33:32 UTC

FOIA Under Attack: Landmark Transparency Law Turns 60; Fed Gov't Blocking More Documents Than Ever
[[Seg3 redacted doc 2]][1]
This month marks the 60th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, the landmark government transparency law that has helped reveal and publicize critical information about everything from the Vietnam War to FBI surveillance to CIA torture. For decades, FOIA has played a crucial role in uncovering and rectifying government wrongdoing. Today, however, advocates say that the government’s resistance to fulfilling FOIA requests has grown, forcing applicants to file expensive lawsuits to obtain records, while records that are released often take years to receive and are filled with so many redactions as to render them essentially “a waste of time.”
“It’s gotten extremely bad in this last year and a half under Trump, but this has been going on for decades,” says Ian Head, who manages the Open Records Project at the Center for Constitutional Rights. These bureaucratic delay and deferral tactics are extremely concerning, he adds, threatening accountability, transparency and democratic processes. “We need to be able to file federal FOIA requests so we can see what this government is doing.”
[1]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/7/10/freedom_of_information_act_turns_60
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/7/10/freedom_of_information_act_turns_60

2025-10-10 15:01:00 UTC

After Gaza Ceasefire, "Massive Political Pressure" Needed to Prevent Israel from Restarting the War
A ceasefire came into effect in Gaza on Friday after the Israeli government approved the first phase of the U.S.-backed plan to end two years of war in the Palestinian territory. The deal calls for a pause in Israeli attacks, the release of the remaining Israeli captives held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, as well as an influx of badly needed humanitarian aid for the starving population of Gaza. Israeli forces have pulled back but continue to control roughly half the territory, with the ceasefire agreement calling for further withdrawals in later phases.
“This is a deal that really should have been made long, long ago,” says Amjad Iraqi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. “We’ve known that the parameters of this truce have been on the table for well over a year, if not since the very beginning of the war.”
Palestinian human rights attorney Diana Buttu says while people are happy for a pause in the slaughter, she finds it “repulsive” that Palestinians had to bargain with their own oppressors. “It should have been that the world put sanctions on Israel to stop the genocide, rather than forcing Palestinians to negotiate an end to it.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/10/gaza_ceasefire_deal

2025-10-10 15:00:55 UTC

2025 Nobel Peace Prize for Anti-Maduro Leader María Corina Machado "Opposite of Peace": Greg Grandin
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado, a leading Venezuelan opposition figure. Machado was set to run for president last year, but she was disqualified by the government of President Nicolás Maduro, with fellow opposition leader Edmundo González standing in for her. Venezuela’s National Electoral Council ultimately declared Maduro the winner of the contested election, and he was sworn in for his third term in January.
Machado has voiced support for U.S. sanctions against Venezuela and other efforts to topple the government; she aims to privatize the country’s state oil industry and has praised right-wing Latin American leaders, including Argentina’s Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.
Friday’s Nobel announcement comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has openly campaigned for the award.
“It’s a perplexing choice,” says Greg Grandin, a historian of Latin America. “They’ve given it to somebody who’s completely aligned with the most militarist and darkest face of U.S. imperialism.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/10/nobel_peace_prize

2025-10-10 15:00:49 UTC

"Enshittification": Cory Doctorow on Why Big Tech Sucks, Keeps Getting Worse & What to Do About It
Writer Cory Doctorow returns to *Democracy Now!* to discuss his new book *Enshittification*, which explores the term he coined in 2022 to describe how online platforms like Facebook degrade over time as companies seek to maximize profit at the expense of their users, and it has since become shorthand for describing a pervasive sense of dropping standards across various aspects of modern life.
Enshittification is “the collapse of discipline,” says Doctorow. “America’s ruling class has managed to neutralize all the discipline that it ever faced. Their weirdest, worst ideas are the ones that we’re all stuck with.”
Doctorow also elaborates on a point he makes in his book: “Donald Trump’s election represents the ultimate triumph of enshittification in the political realm.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/10/cory_doctorow

2025-10-02 06:55:19 UTC

Headlines for October 1, 2025
Israel Kills 51 Palestinians in 24 Hours as Gaza-Bound Global Sumud Flotilla Sails into “High-Risk Zone”, Trump Gives Hamas “Three or Four Days” to Respond to Gaza Ceasefire Deal, Parents of Israeli Soldiers March Alongside Hostage Families Calling for an End to Gaza War, Federal Judge Rules Trump Admin Unlawfully Targeted Noncitizens for Pro-Palestinian Activism, Trump and Hegseth Address 800 Military Generals and Admirals in Unprecedented Meeting, U.S. Gov’t Shuts Down After Senate Funding Bill Fails, ICE Agents Assault Group of Reporters Documenting Arrests at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, Probe Launched After Local Journalist Was Shot by a Pepper Ball by Immigration Agents, Federal Authorities Rappel into Chicago Apartment Complex and Arrest Alleged Undocumented Immigrants, Mexican Immigrant Dies a Week After Shooting at Dallas ICE Facility, Pentagon Preserves Medals of Honor Awarded to Soldiers in the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, Powerful Earthquake Kills at Least 69 People in the
Philippines, Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change Among Winners of 2025 Right Livelihood Award
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/1/headlines

2025-10-02 06:55:14 UTC

Chicago Mayor on Trump's Threat to Use "Dangerous" Cities as "Training Grounds for Our Military"
We speak to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson as President Trump singles out the city as a training ground for the military and National Guard deployment. Militarized federal agents from the FBI and Border Patrol have already joined ICE agents for a city-wide crackdown against immigrants and protesters. Felony charges have been brought against protesters at ICE’s Broadview detention center. “This is yet another example of how this president is militarizing forces, ultimately with the goal to occupy cities,” says Johnson, who calls Trump’s threats a “political stunt” and an “affront to democracy.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/1/chicago_brandon_johnson

2025-10-02 06:55:09 UTC

A "Green Light" for War Crimes? What Trump & Hegseth's Lecture to Generals Really Means
At an unprecedented gathering of hundreds of top generals and admirals from U.S. military installations around the world, President Trump delivered a rambling speech Tuesday alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. They laid out their vision of a “warrior” culture in the U.S. military and claimed the United States is facing an “invasion from within.” Eugene Fidell, a military scholar at Yale Law School, says the meeting was a means of “exacting loyalty, special loyalty, from the most senior officers and enlisted personnel” and that by promoting a solely “white male” image of the U.S. armed forces, the administration has made clear it “wants to turn back the hands of the social clock.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/1/trump_hegseth_military_culture

2025-10-02 06:55:03 UTC

Mahmoud Khalil Hails Judge's Scathing Ruling Against Trump Efforts to Deport Pro-Palestinian Students
A Reagan-appointed judge has issued a scathing ruling rebuking the Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestine students. Judge William G. Young called the case *AAUP v. Rubio* “perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court” and ruled that contrary to the State Department’s claims, “non-citizens lawfully present here in [the] United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us.”
For more, we’re joined by lawyer Alex Abdo, who worked on the case; Todd Wolfson, president of the plaintiff, the American Association of University Professors; and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, whose arrest and targeting by the Trump administration in March kicked off a heightened scrutiny of immigrants living and working on U.S. college campuses. “If free speech means anything in this country, it means masked government agents can’t pick you up off the street and throw you into jail because of what you’ve said,” explains Abdo. He adds that the ruling will help support Khalil against the Trump administration’s ongoing attempt to deport him. Details that emerged during the trial revealed that the Trump administration is continuing to target Khalil “to make an example out of me.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/1/aaup_v_rubio

2025-09-30 14:46:34 UTC

Headlines for September 30, 2025
Netanyahu Agrees to 20-Point “Peace Plan” for Gaza; Trump Warns Hamas to Agree or Face Destruction, Netanyahu Apologizes to Qatar over Airstrike That Targeted Hamas Delegation in Doha, Another Palestinian Baby Starves to Death as Israeli Attacks Kill More Civilians in Gaza, Journalist Charged with Hate Crime After Photographing Protest of New York Times’s Gaza Coverage, Vance Warns “We’re Headed to a Shutdown” as Trump and Democratic Leaders Fail to Reach Spending Deal, U.N. Reinstates Sanctions on Iran over Nuclear Program, Trump Admin Strikes Deal with Iran to Deport Iranian Nationals, YouTube Agrees to Pay $24.5M to Settle Trump Lawsuit, HUD Fires Two Whistleblowers Over Trump Admin’s Efforts to Dismantle Civil Rights Enforcement, Trump Again Threatens to Cut Off Federal Aid to NYC If Mamdani Is Elected Mayor, Trump Admin Allocates Public Land to Coal Mining and Provides $625M for Coal-Fired Power Plants, OpenAI Plans to Build 5 New Data Centers With Help of SoftBank and Oracle,
Sen. Sanders: Nearly 700 Prescription Drugs Have Increased in Price Despite Trump’s Pledges
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/30/headlines

2025-09-30 14:46:29 UTC

Trump's Gaza Plan Is Mere "Repackaging of Genocide" for Israel's Benefit: Diana Buttu
After a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump unveiled a 20-point peace plan for the Gaza Strip on Monday that aims to end Israel’s war on Gaza, free the remaining Israeli hostages and remove Hamas from power. Netanyahu expressed support for the deal, but he has already backed away from key elements, including a call for Israel to eventually pull its troops out of Gaza. Hamas has not responded yet to the deal. As part of his 20-point peace plan, Trump announced the establishment of an international transitional governing body called the “Board of Peace,” which Trump would head.
Palestinian human rights attorney Diana Buttu says the deal is “certainly not a plan that is going to end the genocide. What they’re simply attempting to do is repackage it.” Buttu also notes that while Trump met with Netanyahu before announcing the plan, Palestinians were not consulted. Buttu asks, “Why is it that Palestinians have been forced to negotiate an end to their genocide?”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/30/diana_buttu

2025-09-30 14:46:24 UTC

"Break the Blockade and End the Siege": Nelson Mandela's Grandson Speaks from Gaza Aid Flotilla
As the Israeli blockade of Gaza continues, a nearly 50-boat flotilla carrying humanitarian aid is currently some 150 nautical miles from Gaza. The grandson of Nelson Mandela, Nkosi Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, speaks with *Democracy Now!* from the Global Sumud Flotilla.
South Africans “are beneficiaries of international solidarity. Those that rallied behind our cause and stood side by side in supporting the anti-apartheid movement ensured that we attained our freedom in our lifetime,” says Mandela. “This is why today we utilize our voice to support the oppressed and most vulnerable nations across the globe.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/30/sumud_flotilla

2025-09-30 14:46:19 UTC

"The Government Has Been Shut Down" Since Trump Took Office: David Dayen
The U.S. government appears to be headed to a shutdown at midnight Wednesday after President Trump and Democratic leaders failed to reach an agreement on a spending bill. Democrats are looking to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and reverse cuts to Medicaid and other healthcare programs that were implemented by the tax and spending bill passed earlier this year.
“The president is all too happy to fund programs he likes and defund programs he doesn’t like,” says David Dayen, executive editor of *The American Prospect*. “That’s the textbook definition of a government shutdown. And we’ve been in that state since the inauguration, practically, and now we’re just going to admit it.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/30/government_shutdown

2025-09-30 14:46:13 UTC

"We Do Not Want Federal Troops": Oregon Rejects Trump's Plan to Send Forces to Portland
President Trump has directed 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to be deployed to Portland, claiming troops are necessary to “protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.” Trump’s order comes after he signed an executive order claiming the decentralized antifa movement is a “domestic terror organization.” “There is nothing going on right now in Portland or any part of Oregon that requires him to send in the federal military,” says Sandy Chung, executive director of the ACLU of Oregon.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/30/oregon

2025-09-30 14:46:08 UTC

Chicago Activist on Organizing Community ICE Patrols as Trump Escalates Immigration Crackdown
Tension between immigration agents and community activists is growing in Chicago, where ICE agents have deployed tear gas and pepper balls against ongoing protests outside Chicago’s Broadview ICE detention facility.
*Democracy Now!* speaks with community activist Cristóbal Cavazos, who says that the people of Chicago have been steadfast in their mobilization against ICE, with communities engaging in daily protests and community safety patrols. “We’re really doing some historic mobilization here in Chicago, and we’re super proud,” says Cavazos. “The key word here is 'resistance.'”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/30/chicago

2025-09-19 13:49:38 UTC

Headlines for September 19, 2025
Israeli Forces Advance Deeper into Gaza City, Killing at Least 21 Palestinians Since Dawn, U.S. Vetoes U.N. Security Council Draft Resolution Calling for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli Far-Right Minister Smotrich Calls Gaza Strip a “Real Estate Bonanza”, Delivery Driver Kills Two Israeli Soldiers at Jordan-West Bank Crossing, Afghanistan Rejects Trump’s Calls for the U.S. to Retake Bagram Air Base, Trump Threatens to Revoke Broadcast Licenses of Networks over Negative Coverage, Trump Asks SCOTUS for Emergency Order to Remove Lisa Cook from Federal Reserve Board of Governors, At Least 11 Democratic Officials Arrested at Federal Plaza in Anti-ICE Protest in NYC, Report: ICE Placed More Than 10,000 People in Solitary Confinement, Trump-Appointed Judge Blocks Trump Administration from Immediately Deporting Guatemalan Children, CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel Votes to Restrict Access to MMRV Vaccine, After Deadly U.S. Strikes on Boats, Venezuela Mobilizes More Than 2,500 Soldiers to La
Orchila Island, Hundreds of Thousands of Protesters Take Part in Demonstrations in France
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/19/headlines

2025-09-16 14:31:15 UTC

Headlines for September 16, 2025
U.N. Inquiry Finds Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza, Israel Launches Major Ground Offensive to Seize Gaza City, Lebanon Says Israeli Airstrike on Residential Building Injured 12 Civilians, Secretary of State Rubio Meets with Qatar’s Emir in the Wake of Israel’s Deadly Strike in Doha, Trump Says U.S. Strikes a Second Venezuelan Boat, Killing 3 People, JD Vance Vows to “Dismantle” Institutions on the Political Left in the Wake of Kirk’s Killing, Utah Law Allowing Open Carry on Campuses Criticized After Kirk’s Assassination, Trump Signs Order Deploying National Guard Troops to Memphis, Trump Lashes Out at New York Governor Hochul for Endorsing Mamdani in NYC Mayoral Race, NYT: UAE Chips Deal Linked to $2B Investment in Trump Family Cryptocurrency Firm, Billionaire Larry Ellison Could Add TikTok to Media Empire as U.S. and China Reach Deal, Senate Confirms White House Adviser Stephen Miran as Fed Governor, Maurene Comey, Who Prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein, Sues Over Her “Politically
Motivated” Firing, On El Salvador’s Independence Day, Protesters Demand Release of Jailed Human Rights Defenders
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/16/headlines

2025-09-16 14:31:09 UTC

ICE Kills Immigrant Father After Traffic Stop, Detains Day Laborer Who Sued Chicago Police
ICE’s “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago is entering its second week of ramped-up immigration enforcement. Community members are mourning the loss of Silverio Villegas Gonzales, a 38-year-old single father and Mexican immigrant who was shot and killed by ICE agents while trying to avoid arrest at a traffic stop. Villegas Gonzales was unarmed and had no criminal record. His family has organized a [fundraiser][1] to help cover the costs of his funeral and burial. ”ICE stopped a man right after he dropped off his child at school, because he’s Brown, because maybe he looked like he worked a minimum-wage job, and then shot him to death,” says Congressmember Delia Ramirez, a Democrat from Illinois, who is calling for a full investigation into Villegas Gonzales’s death and for ICE to be defunded. “The footage, the witnesses we have talked to do not match what the ICE reports show,” she says, calling ICE a “terror organization” with “no guardrails.”
Meanwhile, ICE agents have “abducted” a man who is suing a group of off-duty Chicago police officers, working as security for Home Depot, for abuse. Kevin Herrera, the legal director of Raise the Floor Alliance and an attorney for Willian Giménez González, says Giménez is being retaliated against for his lawsuit, which accuses the security guards of beating and bringing trespassing charges against immigrant day laborers in order to push them into the criminal legal system. “Willian was double-profiled, and now he’s suffering consequences within the ICE detention system,” says Herrera.
[1]: https://www.gofundme.com/f/silverio-villegas-gonzalez
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/16/chicago_ice_raids_trump_national_guard

2025-09-16 14:31:04 UTC

Block the Bombs to Israel: Rep. Delia Ramirez Denounces Genocide in Gaza
Congressmember Delia Ramirez, one of the co-sponsors of the Block the Bombs Act, which would withhold offensive weapons that violate international law and humanitarian norms deals from Israel, responds to a U.N. commission’s recent conclusion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. She provides an update on the bill and says, “It’s indefensible for anyone to, in this moment, try to make an excuse of what’s happening and allowing it to happen under our watch.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/16/delia_ramirez_block_the_bombs_israel

2025-09-16 14:30:59 UTC

Bishop William Barber Condemns Charlie Kirk Murder and the Right's Religious Nationalism
We speak to Bishop William J. Barber II about conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk’s killing and the right-wing weaponization of his death. Barber says outrage over political violence should also extend beyond Kirk’s assassination, to what he refers to as the political violence of policy, including the hundreds around the world who die of poverty, war and disease every day. “You cannot claim that you believe in a god or Christ of love and justice and mercy and grace and truth, and then you push policies that *prey* on the very persons, in the very communities, that the Scriptures, that the example of Jesus and the prophet tells us we should not only *pray* for, but we should also be lifting up and helping up and protecting.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/16/william_barber_charlie_kirk_assassination

2025-09-16 14:30:54 UTC

U.S. Acts As "Judge, Jury & Executioner" in Venezuelan Boat Strikes, Killing at Least 14
On Monday, President Trump announced the U.S. bombed a boat in international waters, killing three people. The attack was the second to target what the Trump administration claims are drug smugglers from Venezuela. A previous strike on another boat killed 11 people. In a third incident, the U.S. Navy raided a fishing boat in Venezuelan waters, detaining nine fishermen for eight hours. This escalating U.S. military action follows a secret directive that Trump signed approving the use of military force in Latin America and an ongoing buildup of U.S. military presence in the Caribbean.
“We have a very clear example of political theater, an attempt at provocation, an ongoing effort at regime change, and the strategy of trying to use the military to interdict drug trafficking, which has failed incredibly in Mexico, Colombia, everywhere else the U.S. has applied it,” says Venezuelan historian Miguel Tinker Salas, who adds the Trump administration is “misleading the public in indicating that these were drug traffickers with no evidence whatsoever.” He says its attempt to manufacture a crisis in Venezuela is reminiscent of the lead-up to the U.S. war on Iraq.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/16/venezuela_miguel_tinker_salas

2025-09-15 18:53:22 UTC

Headlines for September 15, 2025
Israel Continues Bombardment of Gaza City, Killing 25 Palestinians Today, Arab Leaders Hold Emergency Meeting in Qatar to Discuss Israel’s Strike in Doha, Israeli Army Raids Home of Oscar-Winning Filmmaker Basel Adra, Tyler Robinson, Accused of Assassinating Charlie Kirk, to Appear in Court Tuesday, More Than 100,000 Anti-Immigration Protesters March in London, Ukrainian Drones Attack Russian Oil Refinery, as Romania Says a Russian Drone Entered Its Airspace, The International Federation of Journalists Condemns Israel for Killing at Least Nine Yemeni Journalists, U.S. Expresses Regret over ICE Raid Targeting South Korean Workers in Georgia, Sushila Karki Sworn In as Nepal’s Interim Prime Minister, Vows to Serve for Only Six Months, Venezuelan Gov’t Accuses U.S. Navy of Raiding Fishing Boat in Venezuelan Waters, Trump Vows to Call a National Emergency and Federalize Washington, D.C., ICE Fatally Shoots Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez During Traffic Stop in Chicago, ICE Agents Abduct Willian
Gimenez, Who Accused Off-Duty Chicago Police Officers of Abusing Migrants, Homeless Advocates Denounce Fox News Host Calling for Unhoused People to Be Executed, New York Gov. Hochul Endorses Mamdani for Mayor of New York City, Spanish Vuelta Bike Race Interrupted by Pro-Palestinian Protests, Actors Display Signs of Support for Palestinians at Emmy Awards Ceremony
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/15/headlines

2025-09-15 18:53:09 UTC

"The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk": Journalist Chris Hedges on the Weaponization of Kirk's Killing
Journalist Chris Hedges warns that President Trump and his allies are “weaponizing” the shocking assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk to crush dissent.
“We’ve reached a very frightening turning point,” says Hedges. “We’ve already seen an assault on civil liberties, on institutions, universities, the media, that are tasked with maintaining an open society. That will now be accelerated.”
Even though authorities are still trying to determine a motive in the killing, Trump has blamed “radicals on the left” for political violence, and top White House adviser Stephen Miller vowed to dismantle many progressive organizations. Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old accused of shooting Kirk during a college event in Utah last week, grew up in a Republican family, and bullet casings found at the scene were engraved with references to various online and video games memes. Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox has claimed Robinson had “leftist ideology,” but did not share any evidence to support the claim. There has also also been speculation that Robinson may have been influenced by a far-right movement known as Groypers, which is tied to the white nationalist Nick Fuentes and had previously targeted Kirk for harassment.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/15/chris_hedges_charlie_kirk

2025-09-15 18:52:58 UTC

Judith Butler: Jewish Prof. Among 160 Named in UC Berkeley "Antisemitism" Files Handed to Trump Admin
The University of California, Berkeley has provided Trump officials with the names of at least 160 students, faculty and staff in cases of alleged antisemitism on campus, in response to the administration’s sweeping crackdown on Palestinian solidarity activism. The administration has already threatened to cut off federal funding from academic institutions and has targeted international students involved in the pro-Palestine movement.
“There is no good evidence that antisemitism is rampant on campus,” says the philosopher Judith Butler, who teaches at UC Berkeley and whose name was among those shared with the Trump administration. “To take a position against genocide is certainly not an antisemitic thing to do. Most Jews are against genocide, and we were taught to be against genocide, and we were taught, as well, that 'never again' is a slogan that should apply to all people.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/15/judith_butler

2025-08-21 14:26:11 UTC

Headlines for August 21, 2025
Israel Calls Up 60,000 Reservists as It Begins Gaza City Invasion, Israel Approves Settlement Splitting West Bank in Two and Further Dooming Palestinian State, State Department Fires Officer Who Expressed Condolences for Journalists Killed by Israel in Gaza, State Department Sanctions More ICC Officials for Investigating U.S. and Israeli War Crimes, Russia Escalates Attacks on Ukraine, Casting Doubt on Trump’s Call for a Putin-Zelensky Summit, Colombia’s President Warns U.S. Against Invading Venezuela, Texas House Approves Congressional Map Gerrymandered to Help GOP in 2026 Midterms, Appeals Court Clears Path for Trump to End TPS for Immigrants from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua, Trump Administration Officials Visit National Guard Troops in D.C., Drawing Jeers and Protests , Trump Calls on Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to Resign, Judge Rejects DOJ Request to Unseal Grand Jury Transcripts Related to Jeffrey Epstein, Missouri Community Defeats Secretive Project to Build Massive AI
Data Center, “No Azure for Apartheid”: 18 Arrested at Protest of Microsoft’s Work with Israel’s Military
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/21/headlines

2025-08-21 14:26:06 UTC

"I Just Want to Die": Desperate Med Student in Gaza Sends Messages to Doctor Denied Entry
Israel’s military says it has established a foothold on the outskirts of Gaza City and is calling up an additional 60,000 reservists ahead of a full-scale invasion of Gaza’s largest urban area. This follows days of escalating airstrikes and artillery fire that have killed scores of Palestinians in one of the world’s most densely populated regions.
Dr. Mimi Syed is an emergency medicine physician who’s been on two medical missions in Gaza working in hospitals that were under Israeli siege and was just denied reentry into Gaza, mere hours before she was scheduled to travel there for a third medical mission. Syed was planning to bring in a small amount of aid to the besieged enclave. “As a doctor, I shouldn’t have to smuggle in baby formula,” she says. “I shouldn’t have to smuggle in protein.”
Syed also received harrowing voice memos from a Palestinian medical student in Gaza with whom she had become friends. The medical student lives in Gaza City and received evacuation orders as Israeli forces prepare to invade. “I no longer have any hope,” said the student in a recorded message.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/21/dr_mimi_syed_gaza_israel_medicine

2025-08-21 14:26:00 UTC

"The West Bank Is the Prize": Israel Approves New Settlements to "Bury" Palestinian State
Israel gave final approval Wednesday for a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank, sabotaging efforts at creating a future Palestinian state. The project has been on hold for over 20 years, largely due to pressure from previous U.S. administrations. The “E-1” settlement would see the construction of about 3,400 new housing units and would sever one of the last remaining territorial links between major Palestinian cities like Ramallah in the northern West Bank and southern cities including Bethlehem, as well as cut off East Jerusalem. “The West Bank is nearly 6,000 kilometers squared in size, and it has been the prize for Israel,” says Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer and journalist based in Ramallah. Barghouti says Israeli officials have blatantly expressed their intent to bury the prospect of a Palestinian state. “Israel is not engaging in just a war in Gaza,” she says. “It is engaging in a war of annihilation of Palestinians.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/21/mariam_barghouti_west_bank_israel_palestine

2025-08-21 14:25:55 UTC

Smithsonian Head Lonnie Bunch in 2020 on Telling "Unvarnished" History, Meeting Trump & More
President Trump said Tuesday the Smithsonian Institution was too narrowly focused on negative aspects of U.S. history, including “how bad slavery was.” Trump’s social media post minimizing the horrors of chattel slavery came after the White House ordered a far-reaching review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions in order to ensure they align with Trump’s interpretation of U.S. history.
In early 2020, *Democracy Now!* spoke with the newly appointed secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Lonnie G. Bunch III, in Washington, D.C.. Bunch was previously the Founding Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture. He shares stories of the work of building the museum and its collections, and the time when President Trump made a visit during his first term. “The museum has become a pilgrimage site, a site of resistance, a site of remembering what America could be and a site to engage new generations,” said Bunch.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/21/lonnie_bunch_smithsonian_2020_interview

2025-08-21 07:59:34 UTC

Headlines for August 20, 2025
Three More Palestinians Starve to Death in Gaza as Israeli Attacks Kill 56 in a Day, Israeli Hostages’ Families Lead Protests in Tel Aviv to Demand Gaza Ceasefire Deal, A Record 383 Humanitarian Workers Were Killed Last Year, Led by Israeli Attacks in Gaza, Venezuela Mobilizes 4.5 Million Soldiers as Trump Deploys U.S. Marines to Caribbean, Mexican President Denies Trump Administration’s Claims She’s Collaborating with DEA, Advocates Rally in Support of 18-Year-Old L.A. High School Student Abducted by ICE, Video Shows CBP Officers in California Firing Bullets at Family After Stopping Their Vehicle, Boston Mayor Rejects DOJ Ultimatum to End Sanctuary City Policies, U.S. Attorney in D.C. Seeks to Maximize Charges Against Arrestees, with Exemptions for Firearms, Trump Says Smithsonian Museums Should Not Focus on “How Bad Slavery Was”, Judge Orders Mississippi to Redraw Supreme Court Districts That Diluted Black Voters’ Power, DOJ Set to Begin Releasing Epstein-Related Files to Congress,
Minnesota Court Overturns Conviction of Water Protector Who Opposed Enbridge Pipeline
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/20/headlines

2025-08-21 07:59:19 UTC

"Unprecedented and Not Normal": ACLU Sues over Legal Black Hole at "Alligator Alcatraz" ICE Jail
We speak with ACLU lawyer Eunice Cho about a new federal lawsuit brought on behalf of immigrants held at the detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” The detainees allege being routinely subjected to human rights abuses, denied due process and access to legal counsel, while families have complained of being unable to find their loved ones “disappeared” into the facility. “These are basic constitutional rights that are afforded to anybody that is held in government custody. And what was happening at Alligator Alcatraz is simply unprecedented and not normal,” says Cho, senior counsel at the ACLU National Prison Project.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/20/aclu_alligator_alcatraz

2025-08-14 14:19:04 UTC

Headlines for August 14, 2025
Israel Kills Over 100 Palestinians in a Day and Presses South Sudan to Resettle Gaza’s Population, Protests Worldwide Decry Israel’s Assassination of Journalists, New Zealand Parliament Ejects MP Who Called Out Colleagues’ “Spineless” Inaction on Gaza, “Bury the Idea of a Palestinian State”: Israeli Minister Announces Plan for New Settlements, U.N. Secretary-General Warns Israel over Sexual Violence Committed by Its Armed Forces, Trump Warns Russia of “Severe Consequences” Unless Putin Agrees to Ukraine Ceasefire, Trump Plans “Long-Term” Takeover of Washington, D.C., Police Department, The New Yorker: Trump Family Has Made $3.4 Billion from Presidency, U.N. Security Council Rejects RSF’s Declaration of Rival Government in Sudan, Peru’s President Grants Blanket Amnesty to Police and Soldiers Accused of Human Rights Abuses, Trump Administration Revokes Visas of Doctors Tied to Cuban Charity, 27 Dead, Dozens Missing as Ships Carrying Asylum Seekers Sink Off Italian Coast, Spain Asks for
Help Battling Raging Wildfires, 400 Die Amid Arizona Heat Wave; Melting Glacier Brings Floodwaters to Alaska’s Capital, 5 Chicago Officers Involved in Fatal Shooting of Dexter Reed Won’t Face Charges, Nations Struggle to Forge Plastic Pollution Treaty Amid Opposition by Chemical Industry and U.S.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/14/headlines

2025-08-14 14:18:58 UTC

"The Fort Bragg Cartel": Book Exposes U.S. Special Forces' Involvement in Drug Trafficking & Murder
As President Trump threatens to use U.S. special forces against drug cartels abroad, a new book, *The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces*, reveals some of the most secretive and elite special forces in the Army are heavily involved in narcotrafficking themselves. “There’s at least 14 cases that I’m tracking of Fort Bragg-trained soldiers who have been either arrested, apprehended or killed in the course of trafficking drugs in the last five years or so,” says author Seth Harp. The book also looks at “how U.S. military intervention often stimulates drug production,” including in Afghanistan, which he says became the biggest narco-state in the world during the 20-year U.S. occupation. “Most of the drug trafficking and drug production was being carried out and done by warlords, police chiefs, militia commanders, who were on the U.S. payroll in a corrupt structure,” says Harp.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/14/fort_bragg_cartel_seth_harp

2025-08-14 14:18:53 UTC

Colombian Sen. Cepeda on Sentencing of Far-Right Ex-Pres. Uribe, U.S. Ally, Paramilitary Accomplice
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was recently sentenced to 12 years of house arrest after he was found guilty of bribing imprisoned members of paramilitary groups to coax them into retracting damaging testimony exposing Uribe’s ties to U.S.-backed, right-wing paramilitary groups. Uribe was a staunch U.S. ally who ruled Colombia from 2002 to 2010, during which time there were thousands of extrajudicial killings of civilians, who were then purposely mislabeled as rebel fighters in what became known as the “false positives” scandal. “Álvaro Uribe is a very powerful figure. He is the leading figure of the far right in Colombia and, I would say, a leading figure of the far right in the Americas,” says leftist Colombian Senator Iván Cepeda. His own father, leading leftist politician Manuel Cepeda, was assassinated in 1994 by right-wing paramilitaries working with the government.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/14/ivan_cepeda_colombia_uribe_guilty_verdict

2025-08-13 14:32:40 UTC

Headlines for August 13, 2025
Israeli Forces Kill 123 Palestinians in a Day Amid Campaign to Seize Gaza City, Protesters Demand Justice for Anas al-Sharif and Other Journalists Assassinated by Israel, Israeli Peace Activists Demand Closure of Notorious Gaza Aid Group, Foreign Ministers of 26 Nations Demand Israel Restore Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces Kill 40 in Camp for Displaced People in Darfur, Zelensky and European Leaders to Hold Call with Trump Ahead of Putin Summit, Pentagon Readies Rapid Deployment Force for U.S. Cities, State Department Scrubs Reporting on Human Rights Abuses Committed by Trump’s Allies, Federal Appeals Court Grants DOGE Access to Sensitive Personal Data of Millions, White House Orders Smithsonian to Align Exhibitions with Trump’s Views, Federal Judge Orders ICE to Improve Conditions at Notorious Manhattan Detention Site, L.A. Immigrant Advocates Hold Boycotts to Protest Corporate Collusion with ICE
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/13/headlines

2025-08-13 14:32:35 UTC

YouTube Star Ms. Rachel on Her Gaza Advocacy: "My Deep Care for Children Doesn't Stop at Any Border"`
We speak with Rachel Griffin Accurso, the educator known to millions around the world as Ms. Rachel, who has become a leading advocate for children in Gaza. Her YouTube channel for young children became wildly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic and today has more than 16 million subscribers. Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, Accurso has used her social media reach to speak out for Palestinian children facing hunger, disease, injury and death. She has been hailed as the heir to Mister Rogers, the legendary PBS children’s entertainer who also used his position in families’ living rooms to speak out on social issues.
“I see all children as precious and equal. My deep care for children doesn’t stop at any border,” Accurso tells *Democracy Now!* in a wide-ranging interview.
We also speak with Tareq Hailat, director of the Treatment Abroad Program for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, who helped connect Accurso with a 3-year-old girl from Gaza named Rahaf who lost both her legs in an Israeli airstrike. Accurso and Rahaf filmed a video, in which they sing a dance together.
Hailat describes Accurso as “one of the most significant, if not the most significant, voices for Palestinian human rights” in the world. “Her advocacy has touched the hearts of people that never would have ever heard about Gaza or the Palestinian children, and that’s why her voice is so vital,” he says.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/13/ms_rachel

2025-08-12 15:35:45 UTC

"Slide Towards Fascism": Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Racist Roots of Trump D.C. Takeover
After announcing the federal takeover of law enforcement in D.C. in the White House briefing room, President Trump painted a grim picture of the capital — including “roving mobs of wild youth” — that contrasts with crime figures showing D.C. reached a 30-year low in violent crime last January. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, professor of African American studies and public affairs at Princeton University, says the move is an extension of Trump’s “use of racist rhetoric, racist ideas, and the use of policing to enact a domestic policy agenda.”
“This is a man who has consistently scapegoated Black and Brown people to either gain celebrity or political capital. And now as president the second time, he is enacting an authoritarian agenda,” says Muhammad.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/12/khalil_gibran_muhammad

2025-08-12 15:35:40 UTC

Trump's New Secret Directive OKs Military Action in Latin America Under Guise of Drug War
President Trump secretly signed a directive approving the Pentagon’s use of military force on foreign soil to target Latin American drug cartels, according to a *New York Times* report. The order gives the Pentagon authority to direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels designated by the Trump administration to be terrorist organizations. “I think it’s directed mostly in Venezuela,” says Alexander Aviña, associate professor of Latin American history at Arizona State University. The U.S. “has used the war on drugs as another way to advance the U.S. imperial geopolitical designs in the Western Hemisphere.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/12/trump_mexico_cartels_military

2025-08-11 14:48:57 UTC

Headlines for August 11, 2025
Israeli Military Assassinates Five Al Jazeera Journalists in Gaza, U.N. Security Council Holds Emergency Meeting over Israel’s Plan to Expand Military Operations in Gaza, As Many As 100,000 People Rally in Tel Aviv to Oppose Netanyahu’s Plan to Escalate War in Gaza, Major Protests Held All Over the World Against Israel’s Plans to Expand War in Gaza, Footage Shows Palestinian Activist Odeh Hadalin Filmed Moment He Was Fatally Shot by Israeli Settler, Sudan: 63 People Die of Malnutrition in City of El Fasher in Northern Darfur, President Trump and Russian President Putin to Hold Summit in Alaska on Friday, NYT: Trump Secretly Signs Directive Approving Pentagon to Target Drug Cartels, DOJ Launches Probes into New York Attorney General Letitia James and U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, Peruvian Immigrant Held at NYC ICE Facility Sues Trump Administration, WaPo: Trump Removes IRS Commissioner After a Conflict over Tax Data of Immigrants, Defense Secretary Hegseth Reposts Video of Pastor Saying
Women Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Vote, President Trump Threatens Homeless People to Immediately Move Out of Washington, Trump Administration Wants to Settle with UCLA for $1 Billion, Armenia and Azerbaijan Sign Agreement Aimed at Ending Decades of Conflict, Colombia Presidential Candidate Miguel Uribe Dies After Being Shot in June, Nagasaki Commemorates 80th Anniversary of U.S. Atomic Bombing
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/11/headlines

2025-08-11 14:48:52 UTC

"Silencing the Coverage": Israel Assassinates 5 Al Jazeera Journalists in Targeted Strike in Gaza
We speak with Al Jazeera managing editor Mohamed Moawad after Israel assassinated five of the network’s journalists in Gaza, including veteran correspondent Anas al-Sharif, in an airstrike Sunday on a media tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital. Al Jazeera has condemned the attack as an attempt to silence reporting on Israel’s planned seizure and occupation of Gaza. The strike also killed Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed Noufal, and came just weeks after the United Nations and press freedom advocates warned al-Sharif’s life was at risk following Israeli accusations linking him to Hamas.
“The pattern is clear: degrading, delegitimizing, smearing, and then killing,” says Moawad. He says the network, which is one of the few international outlets with local journalists, is now “scrambling” to cover the conflict as Israel prepares a renewed assault and occupation of the territory. “They went after Al Jazeera because we are the only international organization covering the conflict from the frontline.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/11/al_jazeera

2025-08-11 14:48:47 UTC

"This Is Orchestrated Killing": MSF Condemns GHF Aid Sites, Saying They Were Set Up to Be Death Traps
Doctors Without Borders is demanding the closure of Israeli- and U.S.-backed food distribution centers in Gaza run by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. About 1,400 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food at GHF sites since May. A new report from Doctors Without Borders — also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF — gathers testimony from its medics and others about the apparently deliberate targeting of Palestinians seeking food.
“The GHF is singularly disorganized, reckless, dangerous, and we cannot help but come to the conclusion that these are deliberately set-up death traps,” says Doctors Without Borders CEO Avril Benoît. She stresses that the starvation crisis in Gaza is entirely a result of Israel’s ongoing siege of the territory. “People are starving because Israel wants them to,” says Benoît.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/11/msf_ghf

2025-08-11 14:28:36 UTC

"They Will Be Held Accountable": California AG Takes Trump to Court for Deploying National Guard
We speak with California Attorney General Rob Bonta ahead of the start of California’s court case challenging the Trump administration’s move to federalize the state’s National Guard to support immigration raids. Bonta argues the use of the military for civilian law enforcement in Los Angeles clearly violated the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. “This is something that is deeply rooted in our history and our law as something that is prohibited, and Mr. Trump is blatantly engaged in this unlawful conduct,” says Bonta. The case is one of dozens of lawsuits Bonta’s office has filed against Trump, with some wins already.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/11/trump_california

2025-08-08 14:59:18 UTC

Headlines for August 8, 2025
Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Plans to Take Over Gaza City, Two Palestinians Killed While Seeking Humanitarian Aid, Palestinian American Medical Student Sues Emory University for Suspending Her over Gaza Remarks, Medford City Council Approves Ordinance Divesting from Human Rights Abusers, Including Israel, GOP Senator Cornyn Says FBI Approved Request to Arrest Texas Democratic Lawmakers, Trump Calls for a New Census Excluding Undocumented Immigrants, DOJ Hires Jan. 6 Rioter Who Encouraged Killing Police Officers, Trump Administration Purges FBI Officials Who Probed Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Trump Administration Taps Fort Bliss Army Base to Receive 1,000 Immigrant Detainees, Former “Superman” Actor Says He’ll Join ICE in Support of Mass Deportation Campaign, L.A. Activists Call for 24-Hour Boycott of Companies Complicit in ICE Raids, Federal Judge Orders Florida to Halt Construction at “Alligator Alcatraz” ICE Jail, Trump Orders Deployment of Federal Cops in D.C. Amid False
Claims of Surging Crime, CNN: Vice President Vance Led Huddle of Top Trump Administration Officials over Jeffrey Epstein, Trump Opens Path for Private Equity and Cryptocurrency Investments in 401(k) Plans, Air Force Will Deny Early Retirement Benefits to Transgender Service Members
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/8/headlines

2025-08-08 14:59:12 UTC

Gaza Takeover: Mouin Rabbani on Israel's "Indefinite, Genocidal Military Campaign"
Israel’s security cabinet has announced the approval of a plan to occupy Gaza City, moving its ongoing military offensive north and displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians to camps in central Gaza. Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani emphasizes that the new strategy is simply “the first phase of a larger plan” for the permanent displacement, occupation and annexation of the entire Gaza Strip, as confirmed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a recent interview with Fox News. “We are dealing here with a genocide,” says Rabbani, where “Israel is acting in the full confidence that whatever it does, it will enjoy, if not the support, at least the consent of its key sponsors and allies in the West.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/8/mouin_rabbani

2025-08-08 14:59:07 UTC

"They Poisoned the World": The Corporate Cover-Up & Fightback Against PFAS, "Forever Chemicals"
In a major victory for environmental advocates, chemical giant DuPont and its related companies have agreed to pay $2 billion to clean up four industrial sites in New Jersey that are contaminated with “forever chemicals,” or PFAS, which have been found to persist in everything from rainwater to human breast milk. It is the third such settlement New Jersey has reached in less than three years, and marks a growing movement against the widespread use of PFAS, a class of chemicals still used to produce countless industrial and consumer goods, even though they have been linked to cancer and birth defects for over half a century. For more, we’re joined by investigative journalist Mariah Blake, the author of a new book on PFAS and the fight against them, to discuss the history of the pervasive toxins and the dangers they pose to human health.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/8/forever_chemicals

2025-08-08 14:59:02 UTC

Epstein Survivor Jess Michaels: Victims Want "Accountability & Justice," Not Political Grandstanding
Jess Michaels lives with the PTSD from her 1991 assault by the serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. She is part of a national chorus of voices calling on the Trump administration to release files related to the federal case against Epstein, who reportedly died by suicide while awaiting trial in 2019. Trump’s personal relationship with Epstein has been under heavy scrutiny since he broke a campaign promise to publicize details about the Epstein case and instead moved to cut a new deal with convicted Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. The decision has fractured his right-wing base, but as demands for transparency grow within the MAGA movement, Michaels says survivors are still struggling to be heard. “You never hear the words 'Epstein victim' or 'Epstein survivor' out of this White House,” she says, slamming the politicization of survivors’ pain and trauma. “The victims of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell have been speaking up for almost two decades,” Michaels says. “It is
appalling that there is so little justice for this issue.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/8/jess_michaels

2025-08-07 14:10:08 UTC

Headlines for August 7, 2025
4 More Palestinians Starve to Death in Gaza as Israeli Settlers Attack Aid Convoys from Jordan, “This Is Orchestrated Killing”: MSF Calls for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Aid Sites to Be Shut Down, Netanyahu Convenes Security Cabinet to Consider Plans for Israeli Military Takeover of Gaza, Israeli Authorities Release Body of Odeh Hadalin as the Israeli Army Blocks People From Attending His Funeral, Report: Microsoft is Storing Vast Trove of Israeli Intelligence Used to Attack Palestinians, U.S. Tariffs on Dozens of Countries Take Effect Today, Trump and Putin Could Meet in the Coming Days to Discuss Ukraine War, Report: U.S. Plans to Weaken Criticism of Human Rights Abuses in El Salvador, Israel, and Russia, Guardian: RSF Attack on Sudan’s Zamzam Camp in Darfur May Have Killed More Than 1,500 Civilians, United Nations Says Rwanda-Backed M23 Rebels Killed Over 300 Civilians in Congo Last Month, France, Spain and Portugal Battle Wildfires Amid Heat Wave, New JAMA Study Suggests Los
Angeles Fires Led to More Than 400 Additional Deaths, Department of Homeland Security Removes Age Limits for ICE Recruits, Trump Threatens to Federalize D.C. After Former DOGE Staffer Was Assaulted in Attempted Carjacking, 5 Soldiers Shot by Army Sergeant at Fort Stewart Base in Georgia, GOP Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska Angrily Confronted by Crowd During Town Hall, Tucson City Council Votes Unanimously to Reject Project Blue, a Proposed Data Center Linked to Amazon, Stanford Student Newspaper Sues Trump Administration For Revoking Visas Over Protected Speech
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/7/headlines

2025-08-07 14:10:02 UTC

"War in Perpetuity": M. Gessen Warns Putin Won't Make Peace with Ukraine Because It Risks His Own Survival
White House officials have confirmed that President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet as early as next week to discuss the war in Ukraine. It would be the first U.S.-Russia summit in more than four years. Trump reportedly plans to follow up that meeting with another three-way meeting between himself, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. We speak with *The New York Times* opinion columnist M. Gessen, who says Putin is “fully invested in continuing this war forever.” The war on Ukraine “is not the kind of thing that you can roll back in a totalitarian state,” says Gessen. “It destabilizes the politics, it destabilizes the psychology of the country, and at this point it destabilizes the economy of the country to try to retrofit it back to a civilian economy.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/7/m_gessen_christo_grozev_putin_assassins

2025-08-07 14:09:55 UTC

From India to Brazil, Trump Intensifies Trade War Against BRICS Nations as New Tariffs Take Effect
Huge tariffs on more than 90 countries took effect shortly after midnight on Thursday. President Trump slapped one of the highest tariff rates of 50% on India — set to go into effect on August 27 — unless India stops buying Russian oil. *Democracy Now!* speaks with Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, on the hypocrisy of the tariffs. “There’s so many double standards in this particular recent announcement of Trump, because it’s not just that other countries, like China, are buying Russian oil,” says Ghosh. “The European Union is buying Russian oil. The U.S. is buying various Russian exports.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/7/jayati_ghosh_trump_tariffs

2025-08-07 14:09:49 UTC

"Tightening the Chokehold": Amjad Iraqi on Israel's Plans to "Empty Out" Gaza and Annex West Bank
Israel’s security cabinet is considering plans to expand Israel’s assault on Gaza toward a full military takeover, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly pushing for a monthslong offensive on Gaza City and central Gaza refugee camps. The cabinet meeting comes as Israel’s forced starvation of Gaza claimed at least four new victims over the past 24 hours, according to health officials. “Israeli politicians have really made it no secret that they envision and want to see the mass displacement of Palestinians as southward as possible, if not completely ejected from the Gaza Strip,” says Amjad Iraqi, senior Israel-Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group. Given that Israel’s allies have allowed the state to act with impunity, Iraqi adds, “you also cannot separate Gaza and the West Bank.” The Israeli government is “deciding that it could actually pursue and replicate many of the same policies in the West Bank.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/7/amjad_iraqi_gaza_walking_corpses

2025-08-06 14:19:22 UTC

Headlines for August 6, 2025
5 More Palestinians Die of Starvation in Gaza as Israel Continues Deadly Attacks on Aid Seekers, Texas Governor Seeks to Remove Democratic Caucus Chair Amid Lawmakers’ Exodus to Block GOP Maps, Rwanda Agrees to Receive “Third Country” Immigrants Deported from the U.S., Cuban Immigrant on Hunger Strike for Over 14 Days to Protest His Detention at ICE Jails, Senate Investigation Finds Hundreds of Human Rights Violations at Immigration Jails, Advocates Launch Protest Camp Outside New York City Immigration Offices, Trump Administration Pilot Program Will Require Some Visa Applicants to Pay $15,000 Bonds, RFK Jr. Cancels $500M in Contracts and Funding for mRNA Vaccines, Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Plan to Raid FEMA Disaster Relief Funds, EPA to Terminate $7B in Federal Grants for Rooftop Solar Energy, Top Trump Officials to Huddle at VP Vance’s Home to Discuss White House’s Epstein Strategy, Tennessee Executes Prisoner with Implanted Heart Device Despite Concerns of Painful
Shocks, Trump Administration to Restore Confederate Monuments, Including Statue Toppled by Protesters, U.S. Envoy Meets Putin at Kremlin Ahead of Trump’s Deadline for a Ukraine Ceasefire, NASA Plans to Place Nuclear Reactor on the Moon, Japan Marks 80th Anniversary of U.S. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/6/headlines

2025-08-06 14:19:17 UTC

Trump's War on the Truth: Robert Reich on Firing of BLS Head & Push to Replace Fed Chair
We speak to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich about how President Trump’s firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, hours after the agency released a weaker-than-expected jobs report, undermines a key agency. Trump claimed, without offering any evidence, that the numbers were “rigged” in order to make him look bad. The BLS report showed just 73,000 jobs were added in July and that far fewer jobs had been created in May and June than previously estimated. Trump’s dismissal of Erika McEntarfer is another sign of growing authoritarianism in the United States, says Reich, who served as labor secretary in the Clinton administration. “This is another example of Trump basically riding roughshod over our democratic institutions and truth,” says Reich.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/6/robert_reich_bls

2025-08-06 14:19:11 UTC

"Coming Up Short": Robert Reich on His Memoir, Rising U.S. Inequality & Fighting Against Bullies
We speak with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich about his new memoir, *Coming Up Short*, which tells his life story alongside the growth of inequality in America. Reich was born in 1946 as part of the baby-boom generation that enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity and social mobility in the decades after World War II. But he says those conditions were squandered as wealth concentration grew worse, labor unions were gutted and wages stagnated — helping to give rise to Donald Trump’s brand of authoritarianism. “We allowed big money to take over,” says Reich. “We, the baby boomers, although we did a lot of good things, we took for granted what we were given. … And Donald Trump is kind of the essence of what you do when you take your eyes off the prize.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/6/robert_reich_memoir

2025-08-06 14:19:06 UTC

80 Years After Hiroshima & Nagasaki, U.S. Keeps Covering Up Horrors of Atomic Bombing: Greg Mitchell
This week marks 80 years since the first use of nuclear weapons in war, when the United States dropped a pair of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in the bombings. Many died instantly, and many others died more slowly from severe burns and radiation sickness. Some estimates put the combined death toll over 250,000 killed. We speak with veteran journalist Greg Mitchell, whose new documentary, [streaming at PBS.org][1] and airing on PBS, reexamines a remarkable episode in the U.S. occupation of Japan after the end of World War II, when the U.S. military held an all-star football game in the ruins of Nagasaki, reflecting what Mitchell calls a “careless” and “heartless” U.S. attitude. *The Atomic Bowl* is “horrifying history” that is worth reexamining, says Mitchell, because “there is not a real taboo on using nuclear weapons, because so many historians, so many in the media continue to
support the use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima and even Nagasaki.”
[1]: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-atomic-bowl-football-at-ground-zero-and-nuclear-peril-today-smqa3o/
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/6/hiroshima

2025-08-05 15:01:50 UTC

Headlines for August 5, 2025
Eight More Palestinians Starve to Death as Netanyahu Plans to Fully Occupy Gaza Strip, Mike Johnson Visits Illegal West Bank Settlement After Israeli Forces Kill Another U.S. Citizen, Netanyahu’s Government Votes Unanimously to Remove Attorney General Prosecuting Corruption, Over 40 Arrested Outside Trump International Hotel in NYC Protesting Israel’s Starvation of Gaza, Activists from 44 Countries Plan Largest-Ever Gaza Aid Flotilla in September, Sudan’s Army Repels Attack on North Darfur’s Capital as Civil War Leads to “Protracted Famine”, Over 1 Million Afghans Expelled from Iran Face Torture and Famine Exacerbated by U.S. Aid Cuts, Texas Republicans Approve Arrest Warrants for Democrats Who Fled State to Halt Gerrymandering, “We Are At War”: New York Gov. Hochul to Abandon Nonpartisan Redistricting, Purdue Student Yeonsoo Go Released from ICE Custody; L.A. Plaintiff Details Abuse in ICE Jail, Former Prison Guard Sentenced to 15 Years for Fatal Beating of Robert Brooks, “Political
Warfare”: Jeffrey Epstein Survivors Blast Trump over DOJ Files, Millions Face Air Quality Alerts as Wildfire Smoke Covers Swaths of North America, Global Plastic Pollution Found Responsible for $1.5 Trillion in Damages Annually
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/5/headlines

2025-08-05 15:01:45 UTC

Oscar-Winning Director Demands Israel Return Body of Palestinian Activist After Settler Killed Him
We get an update from the occupied West Bank, where U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson led a delegation to an illegal settlement amid escalating settler violence against Palestinians. Israel is refusing to release the body of Palestinian activist Odeh Hadalin, who was shot to death by an Israeli settler a week ago. Eyewitness Ty Kavanaugh, a former U.S. Navy medic who is volunteering with Palestinian health organizations in the occupied West Bank, says Israeli soldiers worked with settlers, including the shooter, to identify both Palestinian villagers and international allies to arrest in the aftermath of the shooting. “It seemed like they were trying to pen everybody in just to antagonize people. They want them to throw rocks. … And they were trying to find excuses to arrest international observers or volunteers or the people who happened to be there,” says Kavanaugh. Multiple members of Hadalin’s family continue to languish in jail, even as the shooter, Yinon Levi, has been released
from house arrest and now walks free. Levi owns both an illegal farming outpost in the West Bank and a demolition company that contracts with the Israeli military. “This is not [a] random attack … This is a state policy,” says Basel Adra, a close friend of Hadalin’s who worked with him on the Oscar-winning documentary *No Other Land*. He remembers Hadalin as a “voice of the community” who dedicated his life to advocating for Palestinian rights and existence.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/5/odeh_hadalin

2025-08-05 15:01:40 UTC

"End the Starvation": Jewish Rabbis & Allies Outside NY Trump Hotel Call for U.S. to Stop Arming Israel
Police arrested over 40 people outside the Trump International Hotel in New York City as hundreds gathered for a peaceful action led by Jewish leaders calling for the end to Israel’s starvation and ethnic cleansing of Gaza. *Democracy Now!* was at the demonstration and spoke to some of the protesters, including Motaz Azaiza, renowned photojournalist from Gaza, and Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari, who was arrested. “We’re here to say, 'Let Gaza live,' to risk everything to say, 'Never again,'” says Fornari.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/5/if_not_now

2025-08-05 15:01:34 UTC

Labor Leader Chris Smalls Describes Israeli Arrest & Assault After Military Raids Gaza Flotilla
Former Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls joins us for one of his first interviews since he returned to the United States after he was beaten, arrested and detained by the Israeli military for attempting to bring aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza. Smalls calls Israel’s assault and starvation of Gaza a “working-class issue,” and was the only Black member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s latest attempt to break Israel’s near-total blockade of Gaza. He describes his assault by Israeli soldiers, who “attacked me out of the 21 volunteers because of the color of my skin.” Smalls was later one of the last to be released from Israel’s Givon Prison, where he contracted scabies. “I can tell you right now, from my own experience, that Palestinians and people of color are not safe amongst the Israeli government,” he says.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/5/chris_smalls

2025-08-05 15:01:29 UTC

Texas Showdown: Dem. Lawmakers Flee State to Stop Gerrymandering, Warn Trump Will Try It Again
More than 50 Democrats in the Texas Legislature have left the state to block the passage of a new congressional map, which was gerrymandered to give Republicans five extra seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The new map would especially harm Latino and Black representation in Congress, but President Trump is pushing for it in order to retain a Republican majority in the 2026 midterm election. “Texas is essentially just going to be the guinea pig. Once Trump is able to get what he needs out of Texas, he’s essentially just going to do it in other states, and we cannot allow that,” says Texas state Representative Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, who joins us from Illinois. Because Republicans hold the majority in both chambers of the Texas Legislature, state Democrats have fled Texas to other U.S. states to prevent the Legislature from making quorum, or the minimum number of legislators required to conduct a legislative session. The process, known as quorum-breaking, has rarely been
used before, but, says Hernandez, “We are in unprecedented times.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/5/texas_gerrymandering

2025-08-04 14:36:00 UTC

Prof. Rashid Khalidi Slams "Crushing Repression" at Columbia, Cancels Course over Trump Settlement
Rashid Khalidi, the renowned Edward Said professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, says he is withdrawing from teaching his fall course after the school has agreed to pay a $200 million settlement in a major new deal with President Trump, who accused the university of failing to protect Jewish students during campus protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza. Columbia will also pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and agreed to end the consideration of race in admissions and hiring. Columbia has accepted values that “are dear to people who want to protect Israel from criticism at all costs while it slaughters people by the hundreds daily,” says Khalidi. In his piece in *The Guardian*, he wrote, “The university’s draconian policies and new definition of antisemitism make much teaching impossible.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/4/rashid_khalidi_columbia_higher_education_trump

2025-08-04 14:35:55 UTC

"It Is Our War": Palestinian American Scholar Rashid Khalidi on U.S. Complicity in Gaza Genocide
As Palestinians face dire starvation caused by the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, at least 181 Palestinians, including 94 children, have now died from hunger-related causes in Gaza. At the same time, in the West Bank, dozens of women are on hunger strike after an Israeli settler killed a Palestinian activist, Odeh Muhammad Hadalin. Israel is now refusing to return Hadalin’s body to the family as his alleged killer walks free. *Democracy Now!* speaks with Rashid Khalidi, author of *The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine*, who has family in the West Bank. “I think it’s time for this idealized vision of Israel to shatter and for people to come to terms with the fact that we are funding and financing this ethnic cleansing, this genocide, this theft, day by day by day, of people’s land in the West Bank,” says Khalidi.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/4/rashid_khalidi_gaza_genocide

2025-07-29 14:35:25 UTC

Headlines for July 29, 2025
Global Hunger Monitor Warns Israel’s Siege on Gaza Has Led to “Worst-Case Scenario of Famine”, Trump Breaks from Netanyahu to Acknowledge “Real Starvation” of Palestinians, Netanyahu Proposes Annexing Parts of Gaza Strip, Trump Administration Blasts France’s Moves to Recognize Palestinian State, Protesters in Greece Scuffle with Riot Police as Israeli Cruise Ship Docks, Palestinian Activist and Teacher Odeh Muhammed Hadalin Killed by Israeli Settler in Masafer Yatta, Russian Airstrikes Hit Prison in Ukraine, Killing 17 People, Gunman Kills 5 People in Midtown Manhattan Skyscraper, Including Himself, Federal Judge Rules Trump Admin Cannot Block Medicaid Payments to Planned Parenthood, Epstein Co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell Urges SCOTUS to Overturn Conviction, Oklahoma Schools Chief Faces Scrutiny for Screening Explicit Images of Nude Women in His Office, Third Whistleblower Claims Emil Bove Lied During Senate Confirmation Last Month, Federal Judges in Albany Reject Trump’s Appointment
of John Sarcone III as U.S. Attorney, New Jersey Federal Courts Face Chaos as Trump Seeks to Install Alina Habba as U.S. Attorney, Rights Groups Blast Christopher Nolan for Filming in Moroccan-Occupied Western Sahara
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/29/headlines

2025-07-29 14:35:14 UTC

"Deliberate, Systematic Starvation": Aid Leader Demands End to Israel's War & Siege on Gaza
The Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the largest independent aid organizations in Gaza, says it has been unable to bring new supplies into the territory as starvation grows more dire for Palestinians. *Democracy Now!* speaks with Jan Egeland, NRC’s secretary general, who says Western powers who have been complicit in Israel’s blockade of Gaza have their “fingerprints … all over a crime scene, and history will judge.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/29/jan_egeland_gaza_aid_restrictions

2025-07-29 14:35:08 UTC

"Our Genocide": Israeli Human Rights Groups Accuse Israel of Destroying Palestinian Society in Gaza
For the first time, two leading Israeli human rights groups — B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel — have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. B’Tselem’s report, “Our Genocide,” says, “Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip.” We speak with B’Tselem’s outreach director, Sarit Michaeli, in Tel Aviv, who says Israel’s actions in Gaza are “the textbook definition of genocide.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/29/btselem_report_gaza_our_genocide

2025-07-28 14:47:12 UTC

Headlines for July 28, 2025
147 Palestinians Starve to Death; Netanyahu Denies Starvation in Gaza, Israeli Forces Raid Handala Aid Ship to Gaza, Pentagon Kills Senior Islamic State Leader in Syria, U.S. and EU Announce Trade Deal; U.S. to Impose 15% Tariff on EU Imports, Anti-Trump Protests Held in Scotland During Trump’s Visit, Federal Judge Dismisses Trump Administration Lawsuit Against Chicago over Sanctuary Policies, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche Holds Second Day of Meetings with Ghislaine Maxwell, Thailand and Cambodia Agree to Ceasefire, Doctors Without Borders: 652 Children Have Died of Malnutrition in Nigeria, Islamic State Rebels Kill 38 People at a Church in Eastern Congo, Ukraine and Russia Trade Drone Attacks, Killing 5 People, Trump Admin. Tries to Keep Secret Renovation Costs for Qatari Luxury Jet Gifted to Trump, Darren Beattie, Who Spoke at White Nationalist Gathering, Now Head of U.S. Institute of Peace, Trump Administration Releases $5B in Frozen Education Funding for Public Schools, 11
Disability Activists Arrested at Trump Tower Protest; Thousands Protest Medicaid Cuts Across U.S.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/28/headlines

2025-07-28 14:47:01 UTC

Gaza Flotilla Activist Slams "Israeli Piracy on the High Seas" After Aid Ship Seized in Int'l Waters
For the second time in as many months, Israel has raided a civilian ship in international waters to stop it from reaching Gaza to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid. The *Handala* was sailing toward the besieged Palestinian territory with baby formula, diapers, food and medicine on board when Israeli forces boarded it on Saturday and detained 21 crew and passengers. “Their blockade is, by all international standards, unlawful,” says Palestinian American human rights attorney Huwaida Arraf, who was among the activists on board and was just released from Israeli detention. She calls on the international community to hold Israel accountable and says the Freedom Flotilla Coalition will continue organizing aid ships to break the blockade of Gaza.
“Why is it that we had to be at sea in international waters, in a small boat, going to confront one of the most brutal militaries in the world? It is because … our countries are allowing Israel to deliberately starve Palestinians as part of this genocidal campaign that it has been carrying out,” says Arraf.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/28/handala_abducted

2025-07-25 15:02:17 UTC

Headlines for July 25, 2025
Israeli Attacks Kill 62 Palestinians Across Gaza as Malnutrition Cases Soar, U.N.: Over 1,000 Palestinians Killed Trying to Access Food, France to Formally Recognize Palestine as a State, Cambodia Claims Thailand Is Committing War Crimes in Border Clashes, Venezuelan Immigrant Sent to CECOT Sues U.S. for $1.3M, WaPo: ICE Directs Agents to Increase Use of GPS Ankle Monitors, CBP Says Immigrants Should Carry Green Cards and Proof of Immigration Status, Senate Advances Nomination of Emil Bove to Lifetime Appointment on Federal Court, Trump Signs Rescission Bill Clawing Back $9B for Foreign Aid and Public Broadcasting, Trump Administration Approves $8B Merger Between Paramount and Skydance
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/25/headlines

2025-07-25 15:02:12 UTC

Ben Crump on Breonna Taylor, William McNeil, Saniyah Cheatham & Demand to Release Malcolm X Files
We speak to civil rights lawyer Ben Crump about the ongoing epidemic of anti-Black police violence and impunity for law enforcement in the United States. Crump first comments on the sentencing of Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police officer who fired 10 bullets into Breonna Taylor’s home in 2020 during a botched raid, to 33 months in prison for use of excessive force. Although Hankison’s actions were “a violation of [Taylor’s] Fourth Amendment rights,” the Trump Justice Department had recommended only one day in prison for his sentencing. In court, “there was nobody advocating for Breonna,” says Crump.
We then discuss the announcement of no charges against the officers who assaulted William Anthony McNeil Jr., a Black man who was violently arrested and beaten during a traffic stop in Florida, as well as the death of 18-year-old Saniyah Cheatham in NYPD custody. Crump says, “For many minorities in America, it is a constant threat for us, especially Black people, this constant racial profiling.”
Finally, Crump continues to call for the public release of FBI files concerning the assassination of Malcolm X. If the government “wants to be transparent,” he says, referring to the release this year of files on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., “then they need to be consistent across the board.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/25/ben_crump_breonna_taylor

2025-07-25 15:02:06 UTC

"Why Is the World Letting It Happen?": U.K. Surgeon, Back from Gaza, on Starving Children
Dr. Nick Maynard, a surgeon who has just returned from volunteering in Gaza for the past month, describes a pattern reminiscent of “target practice” visible in the injuries medical staff are treating in Gaza. As evidence grows of deliberate massacres of Palestinians seeking aid at the U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid sites, Maynard says the pattern of injuries suggests that Israeli military forces and other security contractors staffing the sites are “playing some sort of game” in their targeting of civilians, shooting at the head one day, “the abdomen tomorrow, the testicles the day after that.” Because of Israel’s blockade on food and medicine outside of the sparse supplies available at these dangerous aid sites, Maynard continues, normally survivable injuries have become fatal. “Because they’re so malnourished, their tissues don’t heal. Their immune systems are suppressed. … They often end up breaking down, causing terrible infections inside the body, and frequently these patients die.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/25/nick_maynard_gaza

2025-07-25 15:02:01 UTC

Freedom Flotilla Sails to Gaza to Break Israel's "Engineered Famine": Activist Huwaida Arraf
A second group of international activists with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition are en route to Gaza to challenge Israel’s blockade. Their ship, named the *Handala_, launched from Italy five days ago carrying humanitarian aid desperately needed by Gaza’s starving population. The Freedom Flotilla’s most recent attempt to deliver aid was prevented by the Israeli military when their ship was [raided and seized in international waters][1]*flotilla. Seven out of the 21 volunteers aboard the *Handala* are U.S. citizens, including our guest, the Palestinian American human rights attorney Huwaida Arraf. Arraf has participated in Freedom Flotilla missions [for over a decade][2], and was a member of the 2010 sailing in which 10 activists were killed during a raid on their boat by Israeli forces. Ahead of the current mission, crew members reported two instances of suspected sabotage. “But that did not stop us,” she says. “The blockade was illegal at 2008; it is illegal and deadly and part of a
genocide now. … The entire world is allowing Israel — has allowed Israel to turn Gaza into an extermination camp.”
[1]: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/11/freedom
[2]: https://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/3/huwaida
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/25/freedom_flotilla_handala

2025-07-25 15:01:55 UTC

Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Gaza Siege, American Killed by Israeli Settlers & Epstein's Financial Network
Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, responds to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s latest attempt to break the Israeli siege on Gaza, the lethal beating of a U.S. citizen by Israeli civilians in the occupied West Bank and the Trump administration’s attempt to conceal information related to the federal criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein.
On the killings of Palestinian American Sayfollah “Saif” Musallet and Palestinian Mohammad Razek Hussein Al-Shalabi by settlers, Tlaib excoriates both the U.S. government, for “doing absolutely nothing, as per usual,” and the Israeli government, for sanctioning daily settler violence. “The goal here is, and the Knesset told us,” says Tlaib, referencing a recent motion passed by the Israeli legislature to annex the West Bank, “to ethnically cleanse anyone who is Palestinian.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/25/rashida_tlaib

2025-07-24 15:28:28 UTC

Headlines for July 24, 2025
WHO Warns Gaza Is Suffering Man-Made Mass Starvation, Israel’s Knesset Approves Motion to Annex Occupied West Bank, World Court Rules States Have Obligation to Cut Emissions, Trump Administration to Strip EPA of Power to Combat Climate Crisis, WSJ: DOJ Informed Trump His Name Appears in Epstein Files, Columbia Agrees to Pay $221M in Settlements to Trump Administration, Education Department to Probe Universities That Gave Scholarships to DACA Recipients, Federal Appeals Court Rules Trump’s Attempt to End Birthright Citizenship Is Unconstitutional, Venezuela to Probe Salvadoran Officials over Mistreatment of Venezuelans in CECOT Prison, Federal Judge Rules Kilmar Abrego Garcia Should Be Freed from Criminal Detention, Trump Administration to Spend $1.2B Building Largest U.S. Immigration Jail in Texas, 12 Killed in Border Clashes Between Thailand and Cambodia, State Department Plans to Shut Down HIV/AIDS Relief Program That Has Saved Millions, Trump Signs Executive Orders Deregulating AI
Industry, SCOTUS Allows Trump to Fire Democrats from Consumer Product Safety Commission
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/24/headlines

2025-07-24 15:28:22 UTC

"Wasting Away" in Gaza: Oxfam, 100+ Groups Decry Israel's "Man-Made" Mass Starvation of Palestinians
As Gazans face mass starvation due to Israel’s blockade, more than 100 humanitarian organizations are demanding action to end Israel’s siege of Gaza. Their warning comes as the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the number of starvation-related deaths in Gaza has climbed to at least 113 people. We go to Gaza City for an update from Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s emergency food security and livelihoods lead. “We are really exhausted, and we’ve become unable to bear the situation any longer,” says Alsaqqa, who adds he has lost nearly 15 pounds since the Israeli blockade began.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/24/oxfam

2025-07-24 15:28:17 UTC

"One Meal Every Three Days": Journalist & Aid Worker Back from Gaza on Stark Reality on the Ground
The BBC, Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse have all called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza as starvation there becomes imminent. In a statement, the news outlets said, “We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families.” We speak with Afeef Nessouli, a journalist who just returned from Gaza, where he volunteered as an aid worker. “It has been an incredibly awful experience to see people sort of become sicker and sicker from hunger,” says Nessouli, who describes visiting community kitchens in Gaza that have run out of food. “Many of us would just have one meal a day,” he says of his seven weeks in Gaza. Now, his colleagues who remain in Gaza “are having one meal every three days.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/24/gaza_afeef

2025-07-24 15:28:11 UTC

"Duty to Repair": Vanuatu Climate Minister on World Court Ruling Countries Must Address Climate
In a landmark decision, the International Court of Justice found that polluting countries are now legally obligated to address global warming. In a unanimous ruling by a panel of 15 judges, the court said high-emitting countries do have legal obligations under international law to address the “urgent and existential threat” of climate change. The case was brought forward by the island nation Vanuatu, which has faced the brunt of the climate crisis with extreme weather events and rising sea levels. “Countries in the Pacific, communities in the Pacific, are suffering from something which they did not cause,” says Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s minister for climate change. “It’s been caused by private actors that are being regulated by states in the West.” Sébastien Duyck, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, which supported Vanuatu in its case, agrees. He says, “What we really need is to end an era of impunity and just actually rely on existing legal
principles to hold polluters accountable, whether they are corporate or governmental.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/24/vanuatu

2025-07-23 14:42:07 UTC

Palestinian American Student & Dad: 200 Relatives Killed in Gaza; VCU Withholds Diploma for Protest
Virginia Commonwealth University is withholding the diploma of a Palestinian American student because of her campus activism. In a hearing Tuesday, officials examined the case of VCU student Sereen Haddad, who was told she would not receive her diploma at her graduation this year because of her participation in a peaceful memorial commemorating violent police arrests at a student encampment for Palestine in 2024. Sereen Haddad is the daughter of Tariq Haddad, a cardiologist who grew up in Gaza. [Dr. Haddad made headlines last year][1] for rejecting an invitation to meet with then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken because of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s actions in Gaza. The Haddads have lost more than 200 members of their extended family in the nearly two-year-long assault.
We speak to the duo about the repression and retaliation that Sereen has faced for her student activism as she awaits a final decision by the university on the conferral of her degree. “Whatever VCU decides, I have made peace with the fact that I don’t need a university who is materially invested in a genocide’s approval,” she tells *Democracy Now!* “I am on the right side of history, and I don’t need a university to tell me that.”
[1]: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/2/5/tariq_haddad_blinken
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/23/sereen_haddad

2025-07-22 14:53:32 UTC

Headlines for July 22, 2025
15 More Palestinians Die of Malnutrition as Gaza’s Starvation Crisis Deepens, 28 Countries Call for Immediate End to Israel’s Assault on Gaza, Ex-Officer in Breonna Taylor Killing Sentenced to 33 Months in Prison, Officers Caught on Camera Beating Black Motorist Will Not Face Charges, Pentagon to Withdraw 700 Marines from Los Angeles, ICE Detains Former Haitian Presidential Candidate in Florida, 21 Attorneys General Sue Trump Admin over Federal Benefits to Undocumented immigrants, CBO: Trump’s Tax and Spending Bill to Add $3.4T to National Debt, Speaker Mike Johnson Backtracks on Call for DOJ to Release Epstein Files, Trump Admin Releases Over 240K Pages of FBI Records on Martin Luther King Jr., Judge Hears Harvard’s Challenge to Trump Admin’s $2.6 Billion Cuts to Research Funds
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/22/headlines

2025-07-22 14:53:27 UTC

ICE Detained 6-Year-Old with Cancer for Over a Month: "He and His Sister Cried Every Night
As Congress approved some $45 billion to expand ICE’s immigration detention capacity, including the jailing of families and children, we look at the case of one family. In May, plainclothes ICE agents detained a 6-year-old boy from Honduras who has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, along with his 9-year old sister and their mother, as they left their immigration court hearing in Los Angeles. In detention, the boy missed a key doctor’s appointment, and the family said his sister cried every night. As pressure grew over their conditions, the family was released on July 2. “The little boy doesn’t want to leave his home. He’s terrified. He sobs, cries and screams when his mother takes him out of the house,” says attorney Elora Mukherjee, who represents the boy and his family and is director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School. She says the young children are traumatized after their month in ICE detention.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/22/elora_mukherjee

2025-07-22 14:53:21 UTC

Trump Revokes Bond for Asylum Seekers, Forcing Immigrants to Fight Their Cases "Behind Bars"
ICE is reportedly racing to build more detention tent camps nationwide after Congress allocated an unprecedented $45 billion in new funding over the next four years to lock up immigrants, as part of Trump’s massive tax and spending package. The Department of Homeland Security is also preparing to start detaining immigrants at more military bases, including in New Jersey and Indiana, as well as to transfer more immigrants to the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to NPR. This comes as the Trump administration is moving to revoke access to bond hearings for people who entered the U.S. through “non-approved channels.” The new policy could potentially impact millions of undocumented people and orders officers to detain immigrants for the length of their removal proceedings — a process which can take months or even years. “This administration is using every tool that it has to target the immigrant community, to scare the immigrant community,” says Adriel Orozco, senior
policy counsel at the American Immigration Council. Orozco notes that most immigrants will likely never get the chance to fight their case before a judge under Trump’s aggressive deportation policies.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/22/adriel_orozco

2025-07-22 14:53:16 UTC

"You Feel Like Your Life Is Over": HRW Report Exposes Abuses in Trump's Immigration Jails in Florida
A new report titled “You Feel Like Your Life Is Over” details the dangerous and abusive conditions faced by immigrants held at three ICE jails in Miami, Florida, since Trump returned to office. One testimony describes how detention officers made men eat while shackled with their hands behind their backs. One man said, “We had to bend over and eat off the chairs with our mouths, like dogs.” The report describes how detained immigrants are also routinely denied access to legal counsel and critical medical attention, while some have been held incommunicado in solitary confinement as an apparent punishment for seeking mental healthcare. *Democracy Now!* spoke with Belkis Wille, associate director in Human Rights Watch’s Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division. The immigration “system is abusive and is treating immigrants in detention in a dehumanizing manner,” she says.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/22/belkis_willie

2025-07-22 14:53:10 UTC

"Life After": Film Exposes How Medicaid Cuts, Assisted Dying Laws May Bring Disabled to Early Graves
As the federal government begins to implement some $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts called for in President Trump’s budget bill passed by the Republican-led Congress, a new investigative documentary, *Life After*, examines the moral dilemmas and profit motives surrounding assisted dying that could increasingly confront members of the disabled community. Reid Davenport, who directed the film, notes the “film is not about suicide. It is about the phenomenon that leaves disabled people desperate to find their place in a world that perpetually rejects them.” People with disabilities “already experience huge health disparities,” adds Colleen Cassingham, who produced the film. “When you introduce a policy like assisted suicide, it takes a group of people who are already incredibly marginalized by our system and gives the institutions and the people with power a profit motive for denying those people care.” *Life After* is now screening in person [at select theaters and virtually online][1].
[1]: https://www.lifeafterfilm.com/screenings
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/22/life_after

2025-07-21 15:03:15 UTC

Headlines for July 21, 2025
Israeli Tanks & Snipers Kill 79 Palestinians at Aid Site in Northern Gaza, At Least 19 Palestinians Starve to Death as U.N. Warns Gaza Has “Reached New Levels of Desperation”, Pope Leo Calls for End to “Barbarity of War” After Israeli Fatal Attack on Gaza Church, U.K. Police Arrest Another 100 for Supporting Banned Group Palestine Action, Gaza-Bound Freedom Flotilla Ship Sets Sail for Gaza, Syrian Gov’t Announces New Ceasefire in Suwayda After 1,000+ Killed, U.S.-Venezuelan Prisoner Swap Frees 250 Men Held in El Salvador, Human Rights Watch Exposes Abuse at Krome Immigration Jail in Florida, 82-Year-Old Torture Survivor Secretly Sent from Pennsylvania to Guatemala After Losing Green Card, Queens High School Student Reunites with Family After Month in ICE Detention, Journalist Mario Guevara Still Faces Deportation Even After Charges Were Dropped Against Him, “Don’t You Dare Ever Say That Again”: DHS Secretary Kristin Noem Denies ICE Is Racially Profiling Latinos, DRC and M23 Fighters
Sign Deal to End Fighting in Eastern Congo, Brazilian Police Raid Home of Bolsonaro; Court Orders Ankle Bracelet for Ex-President Charged with Coup Plot, EPA to Shut Down Scientific Research Arm, Trump Calls on Washington Commanders & Cleveland Guardians to Resume Using Old Team Names, Trump Signs Cryptocurrency Bill to Regulate Stablecoins, Trump Sues Murdoch over WSJ Report About Trump Letter to Jeffrey Epstein, Writers Guild Calls for Probe of Paramount’s Cancellation of Stephen Colbert Show, Democrats Endorse Omar Fateh to Be Next Mayor of Minneapolis
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/21/headlines

2025-07-21 15:03:09 UTC

"Precisely Designed Mass Starvation": Aid Access as Weapon in Israel's War on Gaza, Researchers Find
The starvation crisis in Gaza is deepening under Israel’s brutal blockade and amid regular massacres of civilians attempting to secure aid at the only officially sanctioned aid sites, run by Israeli troops and American mercenaries. The so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and the onset of famine are the subjects of a new report by analysts Davide Piscitelli and Alex de Waal for the research organization Forensic Architecture on the “architecture of genocidal starvation” in Gaza. “I’ve been working on this field of famine, food crisis and humanitarian action for more than 40 years, and there is no case, over those four decades, of such minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed mass starvation of a population as is happening in Gaza today,” says de Waal, who is also the author of *Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine*.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/21/forensic_architecture

2025-07-21 15:03:03 UTC

"Like a Video Game": How Israel Deploys Grenade-Firing Drones in Gaza to Kill, Threaten and Displace
The independent news outlets *+972 Magazine* and *Local Call* are reporting that Israel is increasingly using grenade-firing drones to enforce evacuation orders. Israeli soldiers have admitted that they deliberately target civilians and likened their use of the weapons to a “video game.” Israeli journalist Meron Rapoport explains how soldiers are instructed to initiate strikes on all residents, not just belligerent targets. “Once a commander defines an imaginary red line that no one is allowed to cross, anyone who does is marked for death,” says Rapoport.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/21/israeli_drones

2025-07-21 15:02:56 UTC

Former EPA Official on Trump Gutting Science Research Office: "People Are Not Going to Be Protected"
The Trump administration has shuttered the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific arm, the EPA Office of Research and Development. Hundreds of chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists will lose their jobs under the administration’s plan to aggressively tear down environmental regulations and defund the EPA. Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, a former top administrator in the Office of Research and Development, says the loss of the division means the loss of essential services like air and water quality monitoring that protects public health. “We are losing a treasure trove of historical knowledge, of scientific expertise, and really it’s going to limit what information, what science would be available for the agency to consider in protecting our health and our environment,” she says.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/21/epa

2025-07-21 15:02:50 UTC

"I Do Solemnly Swear": Audio Series Highlights Federal Workers' Voices on Trump's Unraveling of Gov't
A new audio series published by the group Federal Workers Against DOGE looks at the plight of fired federal workers whose jobs and careers were cut short by the Trump administration’s systematic defunding of government services in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy and the reallotment of resources to anti-immigration enforcement. *I Do Solemnly Swear*, co-created and directed by filmmaker Laura Nix, features interviews with current and former employees of federal agencies including the FAA, CDC, EPA, IRS and more. “I felt it was very important to focus on not just the illegality of the firings, but the impact on Americans,” says Nix. “We’ve depended for a very long time [on] these benefits, the safety of our highways, our water, our airspace, [but] we’re learning that these are all being taken away.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/21/i_do_solemnly_swear

2025-07-18 15:19:29 UTC

"Stunning Reversal": Trump Stonewalls on Epstein Files After Campaigning on Full Transparency
A major rift has formed within Donald Trump’s MAGA base over his reversal of a campaign promise to release the “Epstein files” to the public. Many supporters see his denials of the existence of a “client list” belonging to Jeffrey Epstein, the powerful and well-connected investor who was charged with the sexual trafficking and assault of numerous teenage girls and young women before his death, as a betrayal of Trump’s promises to “drain the swamp” and expose what many supporters believe is proof of criminal corruption among primarily Democratic “elites.” Trump’s insistence that his supporters drop their fixation on Epstein-related “conspiracy theories that his people have long nurtured” is “making it exceedingly difficult for some of his biggest supporters and boosters to not start at least suspecting that he has something to hide,” says *Rolling Stone*'s Asawin Suebsaeng, who has been reporting on the fallout from Trump and his Attorney General Pam Bondi's handling of the Epstein
case.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/18/epstein_files_trump_asawin_suebsaeng

2025-07-01 15:01:23 UTC

Headlines for July 1, 2025
Israel Bombs Crowded Gaza Cafe, Killing Dozens, Including Children, Israel Continues Attacks on Gaza Aid Sites; Babies Starve as Infant Formula Is Exhausted, Veterans End 40-Day Fast with Protest Demanding U.S. Stop Arming Israel, Senators Near Final Vote on Bill to Slash Social Programs While Showering Tax Breaks on the Wealthy, Justice Department Seeks to Strip Some Naturalized Immigrants of Citizenship, Trump to Attend Opening of $450 Million “Alligator Alcatraz” ICE Jail in Florida, ICE Raids Terrorize Farmworkers, Causing Crops to Rot in Fields Amid Severe Labor Shortage, Advocates Call on FIFA to Ban Immigration Agents from World Cup Games, ProPublica Investigation Finds Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations, SCOTUS Will Hear Republicans’ Challenge to Campaign Finance Limits, Iran Says Israeli Attack on Evin Prison Killed 71, Rejects U.N. Inspection of Bombed Nuclear Sites, Europe Swelters Under Record-Breaking Heat Wave as Wildfires Erupt in France, Turkey,
Nearly Half of Tuvalu’s Population Applies to Relocate to Australia Amid Rising Seas, Hong Kong’s League of Social Democrats Disbands Amid Beijing’s Crackdown on Dissent
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/1/headlines

2025-06-12 15:01:44 UTC

Headlines for June 12, 2025
No Survivors Expected After Air India Aircraft Carrying at Least 242 People Crashes, U.S. Pulls Iraq Embassy Personnel Amid Mounting Fears of Israeli Attack on Iran, More Gazans Seeking Aid Amid the 120 Palestinians Killed by Israel Over Past Day, 11-Year-Old Adam al-Najjar Evacuated to Italy for Treatment After Israel Killed Father and 9 Siblings, Israeli Forces Continue Raids on Occupied West Bank, Killing 3 Palestinians Over Past 2 Days, California Seeks to Limit Marine and Nat’l Guard Authority in L.A. Amid Ongoing ICE Protests and Raids, Anguished Families Have Not Heard from Loved Ones Since Abductions by ICE, Prosecutor Charges 2 L.A. Protesters, Warns Gov’t Will Pursue Others as Protests Spread Across U.S., “We Will Not Be Intimidated”: CHIRLA Responds After Hawley Accuses It of “Bankrolling” L.A. Unrest, GOP Lawmakers to Probe 200 Immigration Nonprofits over Manufactured Border “Crisis”, China and U.S. Reportedly Reach Trade Deal, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro Says He Discussed
“Alternatives” for Staying in Power After Election Loss, Khartoum Could Soon Face Famine as Devastating Sudanese War Grinds On, Immigrants in Northern Ireland Targeted in Spate of Race Riots, Judge Rules Mahmoud Khalil Can’t Be Detained for Political Expression, Paving Way for Possible Release, CUNY Students End Hunger Strike for Gaza, Call for Supporters to Fight for Summer of Liberation, 200+ New Yorkers Occupy Maersk Building, Demanding End to Its Participation in Gaza Genocide, EPA Moves to Repeal Limits on Power Plant Emissions, Mercury, DNC Forces Out 25-Year-Old Activist David Hogg over His Campaign to Back Progressive Insurgents, House Voting on Defunding of Public Media, NYC Jury Convicts Harvey Weinstein on Sex Crime Charge, Again, as Further Deliberations Continue
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/12/headlines

2025-06-12 15:01:39 UTC

Ex-U.S. Diplomat Joins March to Gaza, Says Biden Official Matthew Miller Has "Blood on His Hands"
Activists from around the world are arriving in Egypt ahead of the Global March to Gaza, set to launch June 15, when thousands plan to march to the Rafah border to call for an end to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians and its blockade of the territory. Dozens who flew to Cairo for the march have reportedly been detained, interrogated and deported by Egyptian security forces, but organizers say the event will proceed as planned. Former U.S. diplomat Hala Rharrit, who is taking part in the march, spoke with *Democracy Now!* earlier this week and said she could not turn a “blind eye” to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. “What type of world are we going to be allowing our children to grow up in, if we stand by while an entire civilian population is forcibly starved?” Rharrit asks.
Rharrit was the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department before she resigned in 2024 to protest the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. She accuses her former colleague Matthew Miller of “careerism” after he recently admitted on a podcast that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, even though he regularly denied that while serving as a spokesperson for the State Department under Biden.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/12/global_march_to_gaza

2025-06-12 15:01:23 UTC

The U.S. Accepts "Fruits of Migrant Labor" But Not Immigrants' Humanity: Day Laborer Organizer in L.A.
We go to Los Angeles, where immigrant workers and families are feeling the impact of ICE raids on worksites like Home Depot. While hundreds have been detained, countless others are left to wonder whether they can safely go to work or school, fearing for their families. “The life of an immigrant in Los Angeles and across this country … is full of uncertainties,” says Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. “Families don’t know whether they’re going to see their parents when they leave in the morning to go to work.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/12/los_angeles_protests_immigrants