Democracy Now!

An Eritrean man took his own life after being deported from the United States earlier this month. Zeresenay Ermias Testfatsion died by suicide at the Cairo International Airport. He was 34 years old. Testfatsion sought asylum in the United States in 2017, fleeing violence in Eritrea. He spent more than a year detained in South Florida and Ohio before he was deported. Friends and family are demanding to know why he was deported to Eritrea, despite his fears that he would be tortured or even killed there. We speak with Christine Ho, founder of a volunteer visitation program that provides support for immigrants and asylum-seekers inside Broward Transitional Center, the immigrant detention center in South Florida where Testfatsion was jailed for more than a year.

Human Rights Watch has a new report that exposes dangerously substandard medical care in ICE detention facilities around the country and reveals that more people died in immigration detention in fiscal year 2017 than any year since 2009. Physicians reviewed 15 deaths in immigration detention from December 2015 to April 2017, determining that substandard medical care contributed or led to eight of the 15 deaths. “What we found is ICE, the agency that's detaining now 40,000 people… and wants to expand, cannot provide adequately for the safety of the people that it holds," says Clara Long, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. She's the author of the report "Code Red: The Fatal Consequences of Dangerously Substandard Medical Care in Immigration Detention."

More 2,300 children have been separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border after their parents were charged with illegal entry under the Trump administration's ongoing "zero tolerance" policy. As concerns grow about poor coordination between Customs and Border Patrol, which takes the children, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which puts them into detention and foster care, _The Intercept_ has a new report on one of the first reunifications. We speak with journalist Debbie Nathan about a Guatemalan woman whose 5-year-old son was taken from her last month by immigration authorities in Texas after she sought asylum, and has been reunited with him after 38 days in detention. We also speak with Clara Long, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "It was a lot of work that took place outside of the government system," Nathan says. “It was really a wonderful thing, but it was exceptional."

Military Prepares Four Bases to Hold 20,000 Immigrant Children, Ex-Head of Office of Refugees Accuses Trump Administration of “Child Abuse”, Republicans Postpone Harsh Immigration Bill, Melania Trump Heads to Border Wearing “I Really Don’t Care” Jacket, ICE Arrests 146 in Ohio in Largest Immigration Raid in Years, Parents with Babies Protest at ICE Field Office, Guatemalan Mother Seeks Sanctuary in NYC Church, Cynthia Nixon: ICE Has Turned Into a "Terrorist Organization", Hundreds Shut Down Highway Protesting Police Killing of Antwon Rose, Lancet Study: Police Killings of Black Americans Harms Mental Health of Black Population, NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Agrees to Plea Deal, Trump Proposes Merging Departments of Labor and Education, Nikki Haley Slams U.N. For Examining Poverty in United States, 100 Arrested in Poor People's Campaign Action at U.S. Capitol, Israel Considers Bill to Criminalize Filming Israeli Soldiers, Benjamin Netanyahu's Wife Indicted for Fraud

A new investigation has uncovered rampant sexual violence against Yemeni prisoners held in prisons run by the United Arab Emirates in Yemen. The Associated Press reports that in March, 15 officers lined up the prisoners in the southern city of Aden and ordered them to undress before searching their anal cavities, claiming they were looking for contraband cell phones. The prisoners screamed and cried and those who resisted were beaten and threatened by dogs.Hundreds of prisoners reportedly suffered similar abuse. A Pentagon spokesman quoted in the piece said the allegations were not substantiated. The UAE is a key ally of the United States and has partnered with Saudi Arabia in its military assault on Yemen. We speak with Maggie Michael, the reporter who broke these stories. She is the Associated Press based in Cairo. Her latest exposé is headlined “Detainees held without charges decry Emiratis’ sexual abuses.” Last year, she reported on prisons in a piece headlined, "In Yemen’s secret prisons, UAE tortures and US interrogates."

Shocking reports have revealed that immigrant children were subdued and incapacitated with powerful psychiatric drugs at a detention center in South Texas. Legal filings show that children held at Shiloh Treatment Center in southern Houston have been “forcibly injected with medications that make them dizzy, listless, obese and even incapacitated,” according to reports by Reveal. Meanwhile, according to another Reveal investigation, taxpayers have paid more than $1.5 billion over the past four years to companies operating immigration youth facilities despite facing accusations of rampant sexual and physical abuse. For more, we speak with the reporter who broke these stories: Aura Bogado. She is an immigration reporter with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. Her latest stories are, "Immigrant children forcibly injected with drugs, lawsuit claims" and "Migrant children sent to shelters with histories of abuse allegations."

The government has no plans to reunite thousands of children who have been separated from their parents at the border, despite President Trump’s executive order claiming to end family separations. We speak with Zenén Jaimes, advocacy director for the Texas Civil Rights Project. He is part of their team that goes to the federal courthouse in McAllen each day since Trump began his "zero tolerance" policy, and collects information from parents who had their children taken away from them before they were taken to court to face criminal charges for crossing the border.

President Donald Trump’s executive order ending family separations at the border opts to indefinitely detain families together instead. The Nation reports that this policy will directly benefit the two largest prison companies in the United States: GEO Group and CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America. We speak with Bob Libal, the executive director of the Austin-based civil and human rights group Grassroots Leadership. They sued the state of Texas when it tried to classify ICE's family detention centers as "child care" facilities. They won, but the detention centers continue to operate without a license. His new article in the Texas Observer is headlined, "It’s Time to Decriminalize Immigration.” It is co-authored with Judy Greene.

President Trump has signed an executive order claiming to end the separation of children from their parents at the border, but critics warn the order could lead to the indefinite detention of entire families. The government has no plans to reunite the thousands of children already separated from their families with their parents. We go to Washington, D.C. to speak with Franco Ordoñez, White House correspondent for the McClatchy Washington Bureau. His latest story is headlined, "Trump's immigration order replaces one crisis with another."

Trump Signs Executive Order to Jail Immigrant Families Together, Without Limit, House to Debate Anti-Immigrant Bills Providing $25B to Militarize Border, Migrant Children Secretly Transported to NYC Foster Care in Dead of Night, Reveal: Migrant Youths Sent to Detention Centers With Abuse Histories, Airlines Refuse to Transport Separated Migrant Children, Portland ICE Office Closes Amid 24/7 Protest Over Family Separations, Scathing New Report Gives U.S. "F" Grade over Refugee Treatment, Hungary Approves Law Criminalizing Those Who Help Migrants, U.N. Investigators: Syrian Gov't Committed War Crimes in Eastern Ghouta, EPA Releases Long-Suppressed "Nightmare" Study on Water Contamination, Nearly 100 U.S. Meteorologists to Stage On-Air Climate Change Protest, Climate Change Fuels Floods in Texas, Ivory Coast, India, Bangladesh, Former Archbishop of D.C. Removed Over Sexual Abuse Accusations, Disney Raises 21st Century Fox Takeover Bid to $71 Billion, UNC Student Faces Possible Expulsion Over Confederate Statue Protest

In 2004, investigative reporter Sy Hersh exposed the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq that shocked the world. Shocking photos of U.S. military personnel humiliating and torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib sparked global outcry, as well as national hearings, investigations and finger pointing. We speak with Sy Hersh about his investigation, nearly 15 years later.

While Sy Hersh was working at The New York Times Washington bureau, he would watch reporters call then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger nearly every day, diligently writing down his comments and then reproducing them as front-page news. This is one of many stories Hersh tells in his new memoir, "Reporter." We speak with award-winning investigative journalist Sy Hersh about his many years reporting on Kissinger. He says, "What I always said about Kissinger, publicly, and again and again, is that when people ... can't sleep and they count sheep, I think Kissinger has to count burned and maimed Cambodian and Vietnamese babies the rest of his life. But, of course, he doesn't."

Soon after President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974, Seymour Hersh got a call from a source at a California hospital. He learned that Nixon had beaten his wife so severely in 1974 that she sought treatment at an emergency room. Hersh did not report the story. Years later, he received criticism for this choice. We speak with Sy Hersh in New York City. He says of his decision not to report on Nixon beating his wife, "I was obtuse to the notion that it was a crime. … I didn't get it."

Before investigative reporter Sy Hersh exposed many of the government's deepest secrets, from Nixon's bombing of Cambodia to the CIA's role undermining the Chilean government of Salvador Allende, he served as press secretary for Democrat Eugene McCarthy during his 1968 presidential bid. We speak with Hersh in New York City about this little-discussed time in his life.

In 1970, Seymour Hersh won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on how the U.S. slaughtered more than 500 Vietnamese women, children and old men in the village of My Lai on March 16, 1968. The event became known as the My Lai massacre. We speak with Seymour Hersh in New York City.

"Our Country's biggest enemy is the Fake News," President Trump tweeted last week, in his latest attack on the nation's press. A week earlier, federal prosecutors revealed they had secretly captured years' worth of phone and email data from journalist Ali Watkins, who broke several high-profile stories related to the Senate Intelligence Committee. A former top aide on the committee, James Wolfe, has been charged with lying to the FBI about his contacts with the press. Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders recently dropped the United States to number 45 in its annual ranking of press freedom. When the group first published its list in 2002, the United States came in at number 17. We speak with the nation's best-known investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh. He has a new book out looking back on his more than half-century of scoops and digging up secrets. It's titled "Reporter: A Memoir."

Governors Recall National Guard Troops from Border over Separation of Families, Intercept: U.S. Has Separated At Least 3,700 Children from Parents Since October, AP: Babies Jailed in "Tender Age Shelters" Across South Texas, Recalling Nazi Propaganda, Trump Says Immigrants "Infest" United States, As Trump Holds Refugee Children Hostage, GOP Pushes Sweeping Anti-Immigrant Bills, "Mr. President: Don't You Have Kids?": Trump Heckled by Latino Lawmakers, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Heckled at Mexican Restaurant, Members of Sessions' Church Accuse Him of Child Abuse & Immorality for Child Separation, Hundreds Protest Family Separation Practice in Cities Across United States, 10-Year-Old Mexican Girl with Down Syndrome Separated from Parents and Jailed in U.S., U.S. Withdraws from U.N. Human Rights Council, Canada to Become Second Country in World to Legalize Marijuana, AP: Prisoners Face Rampant Sexual Abuse in UAE Prison in Yemen, Charleston Apologies for Its Role in Transatlantic Slave Trade

The political crisis in Nicaragua is intensifying. More than 178 people have been killed since widespread demonstrations to oust Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega began in mid-April, when his government announced plans to overhaul and slash social security. Amnesty International has accused the Nicaraguan government of using "pro-government armed groups to carry out attacks, incite violence, increase their capacity for repression and operate outside the law." But the Nicaraguan government has blamed part of the violence on armed members of the opposition who are trying to overthrow the democratically elected government. We speak with Paul Oquist, senior minister for national policy in the Nicaraguan government.

President Trump is continuing to blame Democrats for his administration’s practice of separating at least 2,000 children from their parents in recent weeks. He also doubled down on the practice in an address Monday, ahead of his meetings today with Republicans to discuss compromise legislation on a hardline immigration bill. We speak with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas. She has represented the 18th Congressional District since 1995, which includes most of central Houston. She is just back from the Texas border with Mexico, where she joined a delegation of lawmakers who visited a processing center in McAllen, Texas, and the Southwest Key Programs' Casa Padre, which houses 1,500 children in Brownsville, Texas.

Outrage is growing over the Trump administration’s separation of children from their parents along the U.S.-Mexico border. On Monday, ProPublica released audio from inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, in which children estimated to be between the ages of 4 and 10 years old are heard crying "Mama" and "Papi" after being separated from their parents. In another part of the audio, a Border Patrol agent is heard joking, in Spanish, "Well, we have an orchestra here. What’s missing is a conductor.” Video footage released by the U.S. Border Patrol Monday shows migrant children in concrete-floored chain link cages, in an old warehouse in McAllen, Texas. A new Quinnipiac Poll shows roughly two-thirds of U.S. voters oppose separating children from their parents at the border. About 7 percent of Democratic voters support the Trump policy, while 55 percent of Republicans support it. We speak with Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Democratic congressmember from Washington state. She has just helped announce a march on Washington and cities nationwide on June 30 against family separation. She is vice ranking member of the House Budget Committee and vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. On June 9 she visited a detention center in her home state and spoke with some of the 200 asylum-seekers held at the Sea-Tac Bureau of Prisons facility.

Despite Outrage, Trump Defends Practice of Separating Immigrant Children from Parents, ProPublica Releases Audio of Separated Children Sobbing “Mama” and “Papi”, Microsoft Facing Threats of Boycott for Collaboration with ICE, U.S. and South Korea Cancel Joint Military Exercises, After Trump’s Meeting with Kim, Trump Directs Pentagon to Create Military Branch to Dominate Space, Afghan Peace Activists Finish 435-Mile March to Kabul, Demand Extension of Ceasefire, Judge Strikes Down Kansas Proof-of-Citizenship Voter ID Laws, Former CIA Software Engineer Accused of "Vault 7" Leak Indicted, Leftist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Challenging NY Rep. Joe Crowley in Next Week’s Primary

Hundreds of fighters have been killed and more than 4,000 civilians have fled their homes in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah since the U.S.-backed coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, launched an all-out offensive last week. Coalition aircrafts bombarded Hodeidah's main airport Monday, wounding dozens and preventing aid organizations from reaching parts of the city. As humanitarian organizations warn of a catastrophe for a quarter of a million civilians living in Hodeidah amid a conflict that has already killed 15,000 civilians, we'll speak with Yemeni scholar Shireen Al-Adeimi, whose recent report is headlined "Attack on Yemen Port Shows U.S.-Backed Coalition Willing to Use Starvation as a Weapon."

On Saturday, President Trump blamed the widely condemned family separation practice on Democrats, tweeting, "Democrats can fix their forced family breakup at the Border by working with Republicans on new legislation." Trump is set to meet Tuesday with Republican lawmakers to discuss a so-called compromise immigration bill they claim would end family separation while lifting limits on how long families can be detained, and which also includes a promise of $25 billion for Trump's border wall. Democracy Now! correspondent Renée Feltz discusses a history of family separation that has stemmed from previous legislative compromises with Democrats, and looks ahead to calls for them to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), if they gain control of the House in November.

A youth care worker who quit his job at a Tucson detention center for unaccompanied minors is speaking out about inadequate facilities, untrained staff and inhumane policies, after witnessing the devastation of family separations firsthand. Antar Davidson says he quit after he was forced to tell children who were separated from their mother not to hug one another. The facility is run by Southwest Key, a nonprofit that operates 27 facilities and has signed a lease to detain hundreds of separated children, including many who are a younger than 12 years old, in a "baby jail" in a former warehouse and homeless shelter in Houston. For more, we speak with Antar Davidson.

Protests have erupted nationwide against the Trump administration's new policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Most of the parents apprehended by Customs and Border Patrol are now charged with criminal entry—and, in many cases, criminal re-entry—then taken to jails or prisons to serve their time before they are sent to immigrant detention centers. In the meantime, their children are being sent to shelters and foster care programs around the country. The Associated Press reports that between April 19 and May 31, nearly 2,000 children were separated from their parents. Hundreds of protesters also met at a family processing center in McAllen, Texas, where nearly half of all children have been removed from their parents. And in New Jersey, a group of Democratic lawmakers visited a private immigrant detention facility in the town of Elizabeth to speak with asylum-seeking parents held there after they were separated from their children. Meanwhile, on Sunday, in Houston, people marched in the rain outside a former warehouse and homeless shelter where the government plans to detain hundreds of separated children, including many who are a so-called tender age—children who are younger than 12 years old.

Father's Day Protests Demand End to Practice of Separating Children from Parents, Afghanistan: Taliban & Gov't Soldiers Celebrate Historic 3-Day Ceasefire over Eid, Yemen: Thousands Flee U.S.-Backed, Saudi-Led Offensive on Hodeidah Port City, Nigeria: 31 People Killed in Suspected Boko Haram Suicide Attacks, Report: India Facing Worst Water Crisis in Its History, Colombia: Right-Wing Politician Iván Duque Wins Presidential Runoff, 600 Refugees Disembark in Spain After Being Blocked by Italy, Israel Pushes Bill to Criminalize Filming IDF Soldiers, Political Cartoonist Rob Rogers Fired After Making Fun of Trump, Thousands Gather in Detroit for 20th Year of Allied Media Conference, NYC: Sixth Taxi Cab Driver Dies by Suicide in Recent Months, MOVE Member Debbie Africa Freed After Nearly 40 Years in Prison

More than 300 Catholic bishops have blasted the Trump administration's immigration policies, calling for an end to the separation of migrant children from their parents and condemning Attorney General Jeff Sessions's policy of ending the right of domestic violence survivors to seek asylum in the United States. On Thursday, Sessions quoted the Bible to justify his department's immigration policies. Sessions was speaking to an invitation-only crowd in Fort Wayne, Indiana. "I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes," stated Sessions. Critics seized on his reference to Romans 13, noting it was a favorite passage of defenders of the Confederacy used to justify slavery. We speak to the Rev. William Barber.

The release of the U.N. report on extreme poverty in the United States comes amid a nationwide, weeks-long direct action campaign known as the new Poor People's Campaign, aimed at fighting poverty and racism in the United States. Nearly 2,000 people have been arrested around the country since the campaign began in March, 50 years after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the first Poor People's Campaign. We speak with Reverend Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the new Poor People's Campaign.

A group of top Democrats are demanding the Trump administration present a plan to Congress to address growing poverty in the United States, following an excoriating report by the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston. Alston slammed the Trump administration's policies for worsening the state of poverty in the United States. The report details how 40 million Americans live in poverty, and 18.5 million Americans live in extreme poverty. It also details how the United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries and one of the lowest rates of intergenerational social mobility. We speak with Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty. He will be presenting his report next week in Geneva.

On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that domestic and gang-related violence will generally no longer be grounds for asylum, a far-reaching shift that could affect thousands of people, particularly women from Central America fleeing gender-based violence. This decision reverses the Board of Immigration Appeals' grant of asylum to a Salvadoran domestic violence survivor known as A.B., who fled to the U.S. for her life after surviving 15 years of beatings, rape and death threats from her husband. In ruling against A.B., Sessions also overturned a groundbreaking precedent from 2014 in which the immigration appeals court affirmed that domestic violence survivors are deserving of protection. We speak with Karen Musalo, professor of law and the director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She is of the attorneys representing Ms. A.B.

Republicans Draft Immigration Bill That Would End Family Separations, U.S. Catholic Bishops Blast "Immoral" Trump Immigration Policy, AG Sessions Quotes Scripture to Justify Immigration Policies, White House Press Secretary Confronted over Family Separations, Texas Children's Detention Center Features Trump Mural, Quote, New York Sues Trump Foundation over "Repeated Self-Dealing", DOJ Inspector General: Comey Mishandled Clinton Email Probe, Nicaragua: General Strike Called Amid Mounting Violence Against Protests, Russian Police Arrest British LGBT Protester as World Cup Opens, Argentine Lawmakers Advance Bill to Decriminalize Abortions, Bill Clinton: Norms Have Changed on "What You Can Do to Somebody Against Their Will", American Medical Association Demands Gun Control, Divests from Fossil Fuels, Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King Retweets Neo-Nazi, U.S. to Repatriate Remains of Native Children Who Died in Boarding Schools, Civil Rights Leader Dorothy Cotton, Who Advised MLK, Dies at 88

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to build tent cities on military bases near the U.S.-Mexico border to accommodate the increasing numbers of migrant children being held in detention centers. According to McClatchy, Department of Health and Human Services officials are due to visit Fort Bliss, an Army base near El Paso, Texas, in the coming weeks to look at the land where they're considering building a tent city. HHS detention shelters are 95 percent full and hold more than 10,000 children. The number of migrant children in custody has recently surged by over 20 percent, and a tent city could temporarily accommodate an additional 1,000 to 5,000. In Washington, D.C., we speak with the reporter who broke the story, Franco Ordoñez. He is the White House correspondent for the McClatchy Washington Bureau.

Under President Trump's new "zero tolerance" policy, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called for people seeking asylum to follow the law and go to official ports of entry to request help. But asylum seekers at international bridges across the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas have been blocked by Border Patrol agents who say they are unable to process them. In some cases, asylum seekers—including women and young children—have been told to wait for days and even weeks on international bridges over the border, often in extreme heat. Residents on both sides of the border have responded by bringing food, water and clothing to people as they wait to be processed. Democracy Now! producer Renée Feltz followed some of them as they delivered aid, and interviewed Jennifer Harbury, a human rights lawyer who has lived in the Rio Grande Valley for over 40 years, about the significance of the United States rejecting legal requests by asylum seekers, detaining them at length, and in some cases deporting them after separating them from their children.

We look at growing outrage over the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant families who cross the U.S.-Mexico border, many fleeing dangerous conditions and seeking asylum. At least 600 immigrant children were removed from their parents last month, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the new rule. On Wednesday, 10 members of Congress protested by blocking the entrance to the headquarters of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency tasked with carrying out the forced removal of children from their parents. More protests in at least 60 cities are planned today by the group Families Belong Together, which formed in response to the new policy. We go to the epicenter of this "zero tolerance" crackdown, the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, where more than half of all migrant families and children have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents since mid-May, for a special report by Democracy Now! correspondent Renée Feltz, who spoke with residents taking action in response to the widely condemned practice of separating families.

White House Will Back House Immigration Bills Condemned by Advocates, Canada Appeals to U.S. Senators to End Trump's Trade War, Journalist's Lawsuit Against Federal "Kill List" to Proceed, Antarctic Ice Melt Speeding Up, Threatening Coastal Cities Worldwide, Harvard Scientists Warn Trump's EPA Policies Could Kill 80,000+ Per Decade, Yemen: U.N. Warns of Catastrophe Amid Saudi-Led Assault on Port City, U.N. General Assembly Condemns Israel's Massacre of Gaza Protesters, West Bank Palestinians Protest PA Sanctions Against Gaza Strip, Mexican Congressional Candidate Assassinated After Debate, Bolivian Police Crack Down on Protests Calling for Education Funding, Argentina Lawmakers Debate Bill to Decriminalize Some Abortions, Trump Says North Korea Not a Nuclear Threat, Praises Kim Jong-un, Democratic Leaders Blast Trump for Halting Korea War Games, Massachusetts Sues Purdue Pharma Executives over OxyContin Deaths, L.A. Prosecutors Looking into Sylvester Stallone Rape Allegations, Texas: No New Trial for Woman Sentenced to 5 Years for Illegal Voting, Protests Erupt as Jersey City Confiscates Indypendent Newspaper Boxes

Nine religious leaders were arrested on the steps of the Supreme Court on Monday in Washington, D.C., after participating in a national day of action for the new Poor People's Campaign. They were handcuffed for five hours and jailed overnight in cells with cockroaches before being brought into court in ankle irons. The religious leaders were among 100 people arrested in Washington, D.C., Monday as part of the protests against poverty and racism. We speak with Rev. Liz Theoharis, who was one of the nine arrested Monday.

Demonstrators descended on Washington Monday in the latest protest staged by the new Poor People's Campaign, which organizers say is the most expansive wave of nonviolent direct action in the U.S. this century. Campaign organizers Reverends William Barber and Liz Theoharis and around 100 others were arrested for protesting a Supreme Court ruling that dealt a major setback to voting rights by upholding Ohio's controversial voter purge law. At least 300 people were arrested nationwide. Nearly 2,000 people have been arrested around the country since the campaign launched, 50 years after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the first Poor People's Campaign. Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman and Carla Wills were in the streets of Washington, D.C., covering the action.

The Supreme Court has ruled 5 to 4 to uphold Ohio's aggressive purging of voters from the rolls. The ruling means that states can remove people from voter rolls if they miss a few elections and then fail to respond to notices from election officials. One survey found nearly 150,000 people were removed from the voting rolls in recent years in Ohio's three largest counties alone. Critics say the court's decision is yet another victory for conservatives trying to restrict voting rights. We speak with Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones and a reporting fellow at The Nation Institute. His latest article is headlined "The Supreme Court Is Helping Republicans Kill a Key Voting Rights Law."

In Yemen, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has launched an all-out offensive against the key port city of Hodeidah. The offensive is expected to be the biggest battle in the ongoing 3-year war between the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels. The war has already killed 15,000 civilians, sparked the world's worst cholera epidemic and pushed the country to the brink of famine. Humanitarian organizations have warned the offensive could be a catastrophe for a quarter of a million civilians living in the port city, and for the rest of the Yemen, which is highly dependent on aid that travels through this port. For more, we speak with Congressmember Ro Khanna in Washington, D.C. He recently co-authored a bipartisan letter calling for Defense Secretary James Mattis to help prevent an attack on Hodeidah.

Judge Approves AT&T's $85 Billion Merger with Time Warner, U.S.-Backed, Saudi-Led Coalition Launches Offensive Against Yemen's Key Port City, Afghanistan: More Than a Dozen Killed in Taliban Attacks on Eve of Ceasefire, Israeli Police Again Question Netanyahu over Corruption Scandal, Maine Gov. Threatens Not to Certify Primary Results over Ranked-Choice Voting, South Carolina: Republican Mark Sanford Loses Primary, After Criticizing Trump, Corey Stewart Wins VA Republican Senate Primary on Anti-Immigrant, Pro-Confederate Platform, McClatchy: U.S. Considering Housing Immigrant Children in Tent Cities on Military Bases, Hundreds Gather in Orlando to Honor 49 People Killed in Pulse Nightclub Massacre

As President Trump prepared for his historic summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats penned a letter last week threatening to maintain or even strengthen sanctions against North Korea if Trump did not ensure that the country completely dismantle all of its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The lawmakers wrote, "Any deal that explicitly or implicitly gives North Korea sanctions relief for anything other than the verifiable performance of its obligations to dismantle its nuclear and missile arsenal is a bad deal." Progressives have blasted the letter for its hardline stance. Fifteen Democratic congressmembers, including Ro Khanna of California, penned a letter to President Trump, writing, "diplomacy is the only path to resolve the tensions between our countries." In Washington, D.C., we are joined by Rep. Ro Khanna.

President Trump's historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un follows another historic meeting only weeks earlier between Kim and South Korean leader Moon Jae-in, where the two leaders agreed to work to formally end the Korean War. After Tuesday's summit in Singapore, Trump called the Korean War "an extremely bloody conflict" and expressed hope that the war would soon formally end. For more, we speak with University of Chicago historian Bruce Cumings, author of several books on Korea, including "Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History" and "North Korea: Another Country."

On Tuesday, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sat down for two hours in private, with only their two interpreters, for a historic summit held in Singapore. In a joint statement following the meeting, Trump and Kim pledged to recover the remains of American prisoners of war and those missing in action from the Korean War. The commitment was one of four plans outlined by the leaders after their historic summit, where they promised to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. For more, we're joined by Christine Ahn, founder and international coordinator of Women Cross DMZ, a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War.

President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have wrapped up a historic summit pledging to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, with President Trump announcing the end of U.S.-South Korean war games. The summit marked the first-ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. For more, we speak with investigative journalist Tim Shorrock in Singapore.

In Historic Summit, Trump & Kim Jong-un Pledge to Pursue Denuclearization of Korean Peninsula, Jeff Sessions: Domestic & Gang-Based Violence Will No Longer Be Grounds for Asylum, Honduran Asylum Seeker Who Died by Suicide After Being Separated from Child Was Fleeing Violence, "Systemic Traumatization": Psychologists Slam Policy of Separating Families at Border, Supreme Court Rules 5-4 to Uphold Ohio's Decision to Purge Voting Rolls, Dozens Arrested Nationwide at 5th Week of Poor People's Campaign Protests, Ivanka Trump & Jared Kushner Earned $82M While Working at White House Last Year, Yemen: U.S.-Backed Saudi Coalition Bombs Doctors Without Borders Cholera Clinic, Syria: Nearly 1 Million People Internally Displaced During First 4 Months of 2018, Vietnam: Over 100 People Detained Protesting Special Economic Zones, Naples Mayor Condemns Italy's Decision to Turn Away Refugee Boat as "Crime Against Humanity", Education Dept. Probing Handling of Sexual Abuse Claims Against USC Gynecologist

Last week Donald Trump abruptly called off a planned visit by the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles, tweeting, "Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!" While not a single Eagles player kneeled during the national anthem in the 2017 season, Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins did protest by raising a fist during the national anthem, in what has become one of the most enduring images of the protests. Last week, Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins silently held up a series of signs to reporters in a team locker room in response to their questions about the cancellation of the team's White House visit. For more, we speak with Michael Eric Dyson, professor, political analyst and author. His latest book is "What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America."

This month marks 50 years since the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. On June 5, 1968, Kennedy was shot dead shortly after winning the California Democratic primary, a major boost in his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. His death came just two months after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and five years after the assassination of his own brother, President John F. Kennedy. We speak with Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson about his new book that looks at Kennedy's evolution on civil rights. It is titled "What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America."

A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found the U.S. suicide rate rose by 25 percent over the past two decades. Topping the list was North Dakota, where suicides have risen by 57 percent from 1999 levels. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. For more, we speak with Dr. J. John Mann about this public health crisis. He is a psychiatry professor at Columbia University, a division director at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a past president of the International Academy of Suicide Research and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Trump and Kim Arrive in Singapore Ahead of Historic Summit, Trump Slams Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau After G7 Summit, Israeli Troops Kill 4 Palestinians & Wound 600 More in Crackdown on Nonviolent Protest, Pentagon: U.S. Special Operations Soldier Alexander Conrad Killed in Somalia, Reports: Dozens Killed in Russian and Syrian Gov't Bombing in Idlib Province, Red Cross Evacuates 71 Staff Members from Yemen, Honduran Asylum Seeker, Separated from His Wife & Child, Dies by Suicide in Texas Jail, Rep. Pramila Jayapal: Separating Immigrant Mothers and Children Is Horrific, Judge Halts Deportation of NYC Delivery Worker Pablo Villavicencio, Pope Francis Warns Oil Company Executives Climate Change Threatens Humanity, India Moves to Ban Single-Use Plastics by 2022, Women March Across United Kingdom to Celebrate 100 Years of Female Suffrage, Philippines: Journalist Dennis Denora Killed in Mindanao, Robert De Niro Slams President at Tony Awards

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has announced an unconditional ceasefire with the Taliban to last until June 20. The ceasefire comes after Muslim clerics in Afghanistan issued a fatwa—or religious ruling—against suicide bombings, after an attack Monday, claimed by ISIS, killed 14 people who had gathered for a clerics' peace summit in Kabul. This comes as the BBC is reporting that the number of bombs dropped by the U.S. Air Force has surged dramatically since President Trump announced his Afghanistan strategy and committed more troops to the conflict last August; new rules of engagement have made it easier for U.S. forces to carry out strikes against the Taliban. We speak to Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare. She has made many trips to Afghanistan and just returned from a trip this week.