Democracy Now!

The legendary journalist Bill Moyers died in June at the age of 91. Moyers, whose long career included helping found the Peace Corps and serving as press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson, was an award-winning champion of public television and independent media. We feature one of his numerous interviews on Democracy Now!, where we discussed the history of public broadcasting in the United States and the powerful role of money in corporate media. The power of money trumps the power of democracy today, and I'm very worried about it," he said in a 2011 interview.

In this holiday special, we speak to the acclaimed Indian writer Arundhati Roy on her new memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me. The book focuses on her mother Mary Roy and how Arundhati was shaped by her, both as a source of terror and of inspiration. We also talk to Arundhati about Gaza and the rise of authoritarianism from India to the United States.

His name might not be familiar to many, but his songs are sung by millions around the world. Today, we take a journey through the life and work of Yip Harburg, the Broadway lyricist who wrote such hits as Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and who put the music into The Wizard of Oz, the movie that inspired the hit Broadway musical and now Hollywood blockbuster, Wicked. Born into poverty on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Harburg always included a strong social and political component to his work, fighting racism and poverty. A lifelong socialist, Harburg was blacklisted and hounded throughout much of his life. We speak with Harburg's son, Ernie Harburg, about the music and politics of his father. Then we take an in-depth look at The Wizard of Oz, and hear a medley of Harburg's Broadway songs and the politics of the times in which they were created.

Calls are growing to release Palestinian protester Leqaa Kordia, who was arrested at a 2024 Columbia University Gaza solidarity protest. The charges were dismissed, but when she went to her ICE check-in this past March, she was arrested and immediately sent to the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where she has been held ever since. Although Columbia University student protesters like Mohsen Mahdawi and Mahmoud Khalil have been freed from ICE detention, her case sort of fell between the cracks," says Laila El-Haddad, Palestinian writer and journalist from Gaza, who just visited Kordia. El-Haddad also criticizes the Trump administration's effort to crack down on any dissent and use immigration law, to weaponize immigration law to silence dissent and to criminalize free speech, especially when that speech relates to Palestine."

Democracy Now! speaks with longtime immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra, who was just released Monday from ICE jail after nearly 10 months in a Colorado detention center. Vizguerra was ambushed by ICE agents during her work break in March. A judge ordered her detention was unconstitutional, and she was released on bond Monday. Vizguerra describes her time in detention and says she is very emotional" and glad to be reunited with her children, and plans to keep fighting for her rights and for others. Her detention was intentional to try and silence people across the country, not only immigrant leaders, but also citizens," says Jennifer Piper, a supporter and program director for American Friends Service Committee Colorado.

As the DOJ releases the largest batch of files yet on the federal investigation into Epstein, we look at some of the most significant revelations with investigative journalist Vicky Ward, who has spent decades reporting on the deceased sexual predator, his powerful associates and the impact of his crimes. Survivors have condemned the Department of Justice for not complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required all files to be released last Friday. I mean, that was the first indication of the contemptuous, cavalier attitude that has gone on inside this Justice Department," says Ward. It's heartbreaking, frankly, to see these files being dribbled out."

Russia and China Strongly Condemn U.S. Pressure Against Venezuela at the U.N. Security Council, Israeli Defense Minister Vows Israel Will Build Settlements in Gaza, Greta Thunberg Arrested in London for Protesting in Solidarity with Palestine Action, Epstein Files Mention 10 Possible Co-Conspirators", SCOTUS Blocks Trump's Deployment of National Guard Troops to Chicago, DOJ Sues Illinois Governor Pritzker over State Law Restricting Immigration Arrests, Federal Judge Rules Trump Admin Must Restore Disaster Aid to Democratic States, Trump Admin Bans Abortion Care for Veterans, Trump Admin to Start Garnishing Wages of Defaulted Student Loan Borrowers, Sudan's Prime Minister Presents Peace Plan to the United Nations Security Council, Longtime Immigrant Rights Activist Jeanette Vizguerra Released from ICE Custody, Betty Reid Soskin, the Oldest U.S. Park Ranger, Dies at 104

We speak to independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who has recently returned from documenting Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Nathaniel describes being ambushed by settlers in October, on the first day of the olive harvest, in an attack that left one middle-aged Palestinian woman with a brain hemorrhage. It was clear that this was a planned ambush," says Nathaniel. They were out for blood." Earlier this week, the Israeli Cabinet approved 19 more settlements in the occupied West Bank. What's happening right now is these really violent settlers are going out into the fields. They're stealing land from Palestinians," explains Nathaniel. [Then the government will] retroactively legalize the land that was stolen, and basically reward the violent settlers by giving them the stamp of state legitimacy."

The new head of CBS News, Bari Weiss, is facing accusations of censorship after she abruptly canceled a segment from Sunday's episode of 60 Minutes just three hours before broadcast. The segment centered on the stories of Venezuelan immigrants sent to El Salvador's brutal CECOT prison by the Trump administration. When so much of our ability to communicate out facts to the world is concentrated in a small number of people, and there's a squeezing of independent media and the ability to get independent perspectives and voices out more broadly, I think we're working with an information ecosystem that is highly dangerous," says Alexa Koenig of the Human Rights Center at University of California, Berkeley. The center's research on torture and other human rights violations at CECOT was to be featured in the segment.

House Democrats Demand DOJ Investigate Double Tap" Boat Strike as War Crime or Murder, Trump Says U.S. Navy WIll Begin Building Trump-Class Battleships" for Golden Fleet", Israel Kills Palestinians in Gaza City in Latest Violations of October 10 Ceasefire, Israeli Defense Minister Vows to Build Settlements in Northern Gaza, U.S. Lawmakers Call for Maximum Diplomatic Pressure" on Israel over Gaza Ceasefire Violations, Israeli Strike on Lebanon Kills 3 in Latest Violation of Ceasefire Deal with Hezbollah, Denmark to Summon U.S. Ambassador After Trump Appoints Special Envoy to Greenland, Trump Admin Recalls Nearly 30 U.S. Ambassadors and Other Senior Diplomats, Trump Admin Announces Pause of Leases for All Large Offshore Wind Farms, Federal Judge Says ICE Agents Violated Constitutional Rights in Raid of a Nutritional Bar Plant, Federal Judge Says U.S. Must Give Due Process to Venezuelans Deported to CECOT, DOJ Posts Thousands of Additional Documents from the Epstein Files on Website, Then Removes Them, Larry Ellison Offers $40 Billion Guarantee in Paramount's Hostile Bid for Warner Bros.

Climate scientists and meteorologists are sounding the alarm after White House budget director Russell Vought announced the Trump administration will break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, known as NCAR. He is executing the playbook of Project 2025," says Michael Mann, scientist and co-author of Science Under Siege. Without NCAR, we will not have the sorts of observational data and climate models that we need to inform climate policy."

There's been a sharp rise of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank under Israel's current far-right government. Israel's Cabinet approved a proposal for the construction of 19 new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on Sunday. Amnesty International researcher Budour Hassan says the move entrenches the apartheid system we're seeing in the West Bank." Experts warn that the settlements further threaten the possibility of creating a Palestinian state.

Democracy Now! speaks with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna on the latest developments in Congress and about escalating U.S. attacks on alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela. Why are we going into a regime change war when the president promised no endless wars?" he asks.Khanna also defends New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani after Congress passed a resolution condemning the horrors of socialism." I call myself a progressive capitalist, but democratic socialism does not mean that you're going to seize the means of production," Khanna says. What they're talking about is taxing billionaires more, which I agree with."

The Justice Department failed to publish thousands of documents by last Friday's congressionally imposed deadline to release all of its files related to the serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The delay drew criticism from Epstein's survivors and members of Congress. Democracy Now! speaks with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna, who is leading an effort to hold Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt for failing to release the files. What are they hiding, and who are they protecting?" asks Khanna.

U.S. Pursues Two Oil Tankers Near Venezuela, Ramping Up Pressure on Maduro, Trump Appoints Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as U.S. Special Envoy to Greenland, WHO Declares Gaza No Longer Faces Famine, But Progress Remains Extremely Fragile, Israel's Security Cabinet Approves 19 New Jewish Settlements in the Occupied West Bank, U.S. Military Launches Airstrikes Against ISIS in Syria, Russian Missile Strike on Odesa Kills 8 People as a Russian General Dies in Car Bomb Explosion, Justice Department Under Fire over Incomplete and Heavily Redacted Release of Epstein Files, GOP Congressmember Stefanik Drops Out of New York Governor's Race, CBS News Cancels Segment from 60 Minutes" on Deportations to El Salvador's CECOT Prison, ACLU Sounds Alarm over Surge of Deaths of Immigrants Jailed by ICE, Pakistani Court Sentences Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan and Wife to 17 Years in Corruption Case, Tens of Thousands Join State Funeral of Assassinated Bangladeshi Student Leader, Australian Prime Minister Booed at Memorial Service for Victims of Bondi Beach Massacre

The Trump administration is ramping up efforts to strip more naturalized immigrants of their U.S. citizenship, with The New York Times reporting that officials are seeking 100 to 200 cases per month. The news comes less than two weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case to decide the constitutionality of President Trump's executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship.During the first Trump administration, they had 25 [denaturalization] cases per year, and ... for the 15 years before the first Trump administration, they had fewer than 15 cases per year," says Mae Ngai, professor of Asian American studies and history at Columbia University. So this is an incredible escalation."

We get an update on the extraordinary case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who first made headlines in March when he was wrongfully deported to El Salvador and held in the notorious CECOT mega-prison. Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States after months of public outrage, but his ordeal continued as the Trump administration has threatened to deport him to Uganda, Eswatini and Liberia, despite having no ties to those African countries. Last week, a federal judge ordered him released from an ICE jail in Pennsylvania and blocked further arrests as a denial of due process.Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia's attorneys, says the administration's actions are primarily meant to punish him" for standing up for his rights. It's also about the government using him, more or less at random, to stand for the principle that they get to do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want - and, specifically, courts can't stop them."

The Trump administration on Thursday announced new measures to target hospitals and doctors providing care to trans youth. Under the new rules unveiled by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads Medicaid and Medicare, the government would strip federal funding for any hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care. The new rules were announced a day after the House of Representatives narrowly approved a bill that aims to criminalize providing gender-affirming medical care for any transgender person under 18 and subject providers to hefty fines and prison time.This is a drastic departure from any concern about science, concern about parents and their rights," says Chase Strangio, co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBTQ & HIV Project. It is putting hospitals in an impossible situation, and just another example of this administration undermining and threatening all of our health and welfare."We also speak with Dr. Jeffrey Birnbaum, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist who works with transgender youth in New York City. He says the families he works with are terrified right now," but vows to continue his work. I refuse to stop providing this care, knowing that I could potentially face 10 years in prison and a felony charge. I'm willing to go down that route, if necessary."

Mexico's President Calls for Dialogue and Peace as Pentagon Strikes More Alleged Drug Boats, Suspect in Brown University Shooting Found Dead as Investigators Link Him to MIT Murder, Another Infant Freezes to Death in Gaza as Israel Continues to Violate Oct. 10 Ceasefire, Steve Witkoff Hosts Gaza Talks in Miami as U.S. Further Sanctions ICC over Israel War Crimes Probe, Palestine Action Members Hospitalized While on Hunger Strike to Protest Indefinite Detention in U.K., DOJ Races to Redact Documents Ahead of Deadline to Release Epstein Files, ICE Entered NYC Shelters Without Judicial Warrants and Despite Sanctuary City Laws, Milwaukee Judge Found Guilty of Felony Obstruction for Helping Immigrant Evade ICE, HHS Moves to Slash Federal Funds to Hospitals That Provide Gender-Affirming Care to Minors, Trump Signs Executive Order Speeding Reclassification of Cannabis, Trump Appears to Fall Asleep Again in Public, Further Fueling Speculation About His Health, Trump's Presidential Walk of Fame" Now Features Bronze Plaques with Hyperpartisan Captions, Trump's Hand-Picked Board Adds Trump's Name to John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Trump Media Company Announces Merger with Nuclear Fusion Firm Amid AI Data Center Boom, Protests Erupt in Bangladesh After Student Leader Is Murdered by Masked Assailants

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, backed by the United Arab Emirates, is accused of attempting to cover up its mass killings of civilians by burning and burying bodies, according to a new report by Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab. This comes as drone strikes have plunged several cities into darkness, including Khartoum and the coastal city of Port Sudan. We have the expansion of the war through Darfur, El Fasher, now Western Kordofan, which is an extremely important region economically. ... And now we have this potential of the expansion of this war to South Sudan," says Sudanese scholar Khalid Mustafa Medani. We have a humanitarian crisis that has expanded, but we also have a military stalemate."

Former immigration judge Tania Nemer, who was fired in February, is now suing the Trump administration, alleging that she was discriminated against despite strong performance reviews. Nemer is one of about 100 immigration judges who have been fired or reassigned since Trump took office. The system is notoriously backlogged, with more than 3 million cases pending. I was pulled away in the middle of the hearing," she says.Nemer filed a discrimination complaint with the Department of Justice, which officials dismissed, citing Article II of the Constitution on presidential powers. I've been practicing employment law and representing federal employees for almost 30 years, and I have never seen a federal agency dismiss a complaint for this reason," says Nemer's attorney, James Eisenmann.

President Trump praised the state of the U.S. economy in a primetime address Wednesday evening, even though new government statistics show the nation's unemployment rate is at a new four-year high of 4.6%. Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says Trump's aides should be wondering about the man's sanity" after Wednesday's speech. This is utterly divorced from reality." Though Trump blames former President Biden for the poor economy, Baker notes that Trump had inherited an incredibly strong economy by almost every measure imaginable."

House Rejects Resolutions Seeking Congressional Approval for Boat Strikes or Attack on Venezuela, Senate Overwhelmingly Approves Record $901 Billion Military Spending Bill, Israeli Army Shells Gaza Residential Area in Latest Violation of U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire, House Passes Healthcare Bill That Does Not Address Skyrocketing Insurance Premiums, House Advances Bill That Would Criminalize Gender-Affirming Care for Minors, Trump Touts Economic Record in Primetime Address as U.S. Unemployment Ticks Higher, Dan Bongino Announces Resignation as FBI's Second-in-Command, Pentagon Opens Formal Inquiry into Sen. Mark Kelly, Who Told Service Members to Defy Illegal Orders, Jack Smith Had Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" Trump Conspired to Overturn 2020 Election, Trump Attempts to Pardon Colorado Clerk Who Tampered with Voting Machines After 2020 Election, White House Says It's Breaking Up National Center for Atmospheric Research, Senate Confirms Billionaire Private Astronaut Jared Isaacman as NASA Chief, NYT: Trump Admin Ramping Up Efforts to Denaturalize Immigrants, Minneapolis Police Chief Criticizes Federal Immigration Agents for Dragging Woman Down Street, Federal Judge Rules Trump Admin Broke Law by Limiting Congressmembers from Visiting ICE Jails, Federal Judge Rules in Favor of Human Rights Activist Jeanette Vizguerra, FCC Chair Brendan Carr Says Agency Is Not Independent

As the Trump administration is expected to release investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein later this week, a recent New York Times investigation delves into one of the biggest mysteries about the deceased sexual predator: how the college dropout with no financial training rose through the world of finance and amassed his wealth, which enabled his abuse and insulated him from scrutiny for decades.David Enrich, deputy investigations editor at The New York Times and lead author of the report, headlined Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich," says Epstein's early success in business was due to a series of lucky breaks, lies and scams that nevertheless convinced sophisticated investors and business titans to give him their money.

Jose Antonio Kast has won Chile's presidential election, with the far-right leader getting about 58% of the vote in Sunday's runoff against Jeannette Jara, a member of the Communist Party who served as labor minister under outgoing President Gabriel Boric. Kast has openly praised former U.S.-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet and is the son of a Nazi who fled Germany after World War II. Kast campaigned on fighting crime and carrying out mass deportations of immigrants.It is a political and ethical earthquake," says acclaimed Chilean American writer Ariel Dorfman, who served as a cultural adviser to socialist President Salvador Allende from 1970 to 1973. He pins much of the blame for Kast's rise on an uninspired left" that has lost its way since the end of dictatorship and turned its back on the troubles of the people."

President Trump has ordered what he called a total and complete blockade" of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, as the United States escalates pressure on the government of President Nicolas Maduro. The move comes amid a major U.S. military buildup in the region and days after U.S. forces seized an oil tanker carrying Venezuelan oil. Since September, the U.S. military has carried out at least 25 airstrikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific near Venezuela, killing at least 95 people.The administration's actions against Venezuela signal the total renunciation of liberal internationalism" and further abandonment of a world governed by common laws," says Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Yale University professor Greg Grandin. This comes as Latin America is on a knife's edge between the left and the right," with the Trump administration eager to boost its authoritarian allies across the region, says Grandin.

Trump Orders Blockade on Sanctioned Oil Tankers Entering and Leaving Venezuela, ICC Rejects Israel's Bid to Block War Crimes Probe in Gaza, First Funerals Held Today for Victims of Bondi Beach Massacre, Manhunt Still Underway for Brown University Shooting Suspect, MIT Professor Fatally Shot in His Home, Trump's Chief of Staff Wiles Says He Has an Alcoholic's Personality" in Explosive Vanity Fair Interview, Speaker Johnson Says He Will Not Call for a Vote to Extend Healthcare Subsidies, Trump Expands Travel Ban to 20 More Countries, NYT: Trump Admin Transfers 22 Cuban Immigrants to Guantanamo, Drone Attacks Killed Over 100 Civilians in Sudan This Month, M23 Rebel Group Announces Exit from Key Town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Toxic Air Pollution Forces Schools in India to Cancel In-Person Classes and Employees to Work from Home, Greeks Protest Against Low Wages as Parliament Approves New Budget, Warner Bros Rejects Paramount's $108 Billion Hostile Takeover Bid

At least a dozen people have died in Gaza as winter storms batter displaced Palestinians forced to shelter in makeshift tents among the rubble of collapsing buildings severely damaged by Israeli bombing. That rubble is being eyed by U.S.-based contractors, who are already vying for lucrative contracts to rebuild Gaza under the Trump-backed ceasefire deal. People are lining up and treating this the way they they treated reconstruction in Iraq," says Aram Roston, whose latest investigation for The Guardian US looks at how the company behind the notorious Florida immigration detention jail nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz" has been involved in rebuilding plans spearheaded by Trump's so-called Board of Peace.Roston also discusses his reporting on the CIA's involvement in U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean. It plays this key role in picking the targets that are chosen by the military for destruction."

New York City housing advocate Patrick Markee's new book, Placeless: Homelessness in the New Gilded Age, looks at homelessness through the lens of housing affordability. Homelessness, which affects millions across the United States, has roots in structural economic changes, right-wing economic policies and systemic racism," explains Markee. There's a reason that other advanced capitalist countries in this world ... don't have the levels of homelessness that we have, and that's because, there, government plays a much larger role in creating and even owning affordable housing."

The two victims in Saturday's mass shooting at Brown University have been identified: freshman Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and sophomore Ella Cook. We speak to another sophomore, Zoe Weissman, who came to Brown from Parkland, Florida, where she was a student at the middle school adjacent to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the mass shooting that occurred there in 2018. Because I've already processed all the grief and the sadness before," says Weissman about surviving a second school shooting in her young life, my most predominant emotion right now is, honestly, anger ... because we are the only country where this happens, and ... the only country that has more guns than people."

Pentagon Says It Blew Up Three More Alleged Drug Boats as Trump Declares Fentanyl a WMD, Palestinians in Gaza Face Flooded Tents and Collapsed Buildings from Winter Storm, Australia's Prime Minister Says Bondi Beach Gunmen Were Inspired by ISIS, Social Media Sites Amplify False Accusations Against Man Who Shares Bondi Beach Attacker's Name, Manhunt for Brown University Gunman Enters Fourth Day, Trump Loyalist Announces First Indictment of Left-Wing Activists After Trump's Antifa Order, Veterans Administration to Cut Another 35,000 Healthcare Jobs, Former CDC Leaders Who Criticized RFK Jr. Will Lead New California Public Health Agency, Trump Sues BBC for $10 Billion over Edits to Jan. 6 Speech, Trump Blames Trump Derangement Syndrome" for Killing of Rob and Michele Reiner

A deadly mass shooting at Brown University left two students dead and nine others injured on Saturday. One student, Mia Tretta, had survived a shooting in 2019 when she was shot in the stomach as a high school student. Her best friend was killed in the shooting, and she had selected Brown University for Rhode Island's strong gun control laws. Now she has survived yet another school shooting. Physically and emotionally, a school shooting takes your whole life and flips it upside down," says Tretta, who criticizes politicians who refuse to enact meaningful gun reform. We know that every single act of gun violence is 100% preventable."

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, one of Iran's most prominent human rights activists, was rearrested Friday when Iranian authorities violently raided a memorial ceremony she attended at a mosque in Iran's northeastern city of Mashhad. She's been seen as a huge threat to the Islamic Republic's regime," says Porochista Khakpour, Iranian American author and essayist. They find her moral authority extremely intimidating."Mohammadi has spent more than 10 years of her life in and out of prison, most recently when she was arrested in November 2021 and accused - among other charges - of threatening Iran's national security and spreading propaganda" against the state for her decadeslong work fighting for human rights, women's rights and democracy in Iran.

At least 15 people were fatally shot during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney's famed Bondi Beach this Saturday, and at least another 42 people were injured, marking Australia's worst mass shooting in nearly three decades. Victims included a 10-year-old girl, two rabbis and a Holocaust survivor who died while shielding his wife from bullets.After Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu blamed Australia's recognition of a Palestinian state for the shooting, Antony Loewenstein, member of the Jewish Council of Australia, says the shooting is being weaponized by the worst people imaginable to support incredibly draconian policies."

At Least 15 People Killed in Mass Shooting at Hanukkah Event in Australia, Gunman Still at Large After Deadly Shooting at Brown University, Filmmaker Rob Reiner and His Wife Found Dead in Los Angeles Home, Trump Vows to Retaliate After 3 Americans Were Killed in ISIS Attack in Syria, Hamas Confirms Death of Senior Commander, Israel's Security Cabinet Approves Plans to Formally Recognize 19 Settlement Outposts in West Bank, At Least 37 People Killed in Flash Floods in Morocco, U.S. Seized Oil Tanker Near Venezuela as Warrant Was Set to Expire, Chile Elects Far-Right Candidate Jose Antonio Kast as President, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi Arrested in Iran, Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Campaigner Jimmy Lai Found Guilty in National Security Trial, Belarus Releases 123 Political Prisoners as U.S. Lifts Sanctions, Rep. Omar Says Federal Agents Pulled Over Her Son, Asking Him to Provide Proof of Citizenship, House Democrats Release Photos Showing Epstein's Ties to Clinton, Trump and Other Powerful Men, National Trust for Historic Preservation Sues to Stop Construction of White House Ballroom, JetBlue Plane Narrowly Avoids Midair Collision" with U.S. Military Aircraft Near Venezuela

Democratic lawmakers repeatedly called on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign as they confronted her on Trump's immigration crackdown during a heated House Homeland Security Committee hearing Thursday. We speak with Congressmember Delia Ramirez, who reiterated her call during the hearing for Noem to resign and announced that she would begin taking steps for her impeachment.The Department of Homeland Security is operating as a criminal organization" under Noem's leadership, Ramirez tells Democracy Now! She thinks that she is above the law as long as Republicans are in leadership. ... We can't allow her to think this is a laughable matter as people are dying under her watch."

As the Trump administration expands its immigration crackdown nationwide, President Trump is simultaneously creating new pathways for wealthy noncitizens to obtain U.S. visas. Earlier this week, Trump officially launched a program allowing affluent visitors to fast-track permission to live and work in the United States. For a $1 million payment, applicants can receive a so-called Trump Gold Card, which promises to speed up U.S. residency applications in record time." The administration says it will also soon offer a $5 million Trump Platinum Card" that would allow participants to avoid paying some U.S. taxes. The announcement comes as new rules published this week would require visitors from 42 countries in the visa waiver program to submit up to five years of social media history, along with phone numbers, email addresses and biometric data.Shev Dalal-Dheini, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, says the changes show that if you're wealthy, if you can pay to play, then you're welcome to come to the United States. But if you're not - if you're coming as a tourist, or you're coming to seek humanitarian protection - then we're going to make it much tougher for you to come here and really put a lot of hurdles along the way in the guise of security and vetting."

Award-winning Palestinian reporter Mohammed Mhawish, who left Gaza last year, joins us to discuss his new piece for New York magazine about Israel's surveillance practices. It describes how Palestinians throughout the genocide in Gaza have been watched, tracked and often killed by Israeli forces who have access to their most intimate details, including phone and text records, social relations, biometric data and more.This all-encompassing surveillance system is reshaping how people speak, how they're moving, how they're even thinking," says Mhawish. It manufactured behavior for people, so they shrink their lives to reduce risk, they rehearse what version of themselves feels safest to present, and that creates an enormous psychological burden."Mhawish also describes the terror of when his family's house was bombed, killing two of his cousins and two neighbors in an attack he says was linked to Israeli surveillance of his reporting activities. I was being watched and tracked," he says.

As Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dramatically reshapes U.S. immunization policy, we speak with Dr. Fiona Havers, a former top vaccine expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who resigned in June.Last week, Kennedy's handpicked advisers on a federal vaccine panel voted against universal hepatitis B shots for newborns, reversing 35 years of CDC guidance that all newborns receive the vaccine within 24 hours of birth. The Trump administration also recently altered the CDC's website to include false claims linking autism and vaccines, in keeping with Kennedy's spreading of vaccine misinformation going back decades. CNN is reporting the FDA is also considering putting a black box" warning on COVID-19 vaccines.This administration is causing a lot of confusion and is using, basically, the CDC to spread misinformation now about vaccines," says Dr. Havers. She also discusses her decision to resign from the CDC and the chaos the Trump administration has caused at the agency, calling RFK Jr.'s changes a hostile takeover" to advance anti-science views."

U.S. Tightens Sanctions on Venezuela and Plans to Seize More Oil Tankers as Trump Threatens War, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Won't Rule Out Regime Change in Venezuela, 12 Die in Gaza Strip Amid Winter Storm and Israeli Ceasefire Violations, Health Insurance Costs Are Set to Explode After Republicans Reject Extended Tax Credits, Hundreds Quarantined in South Carolina as Measles Spreads Rapidly in Unvaccinated Communities, Rep. Haley Stevens Seeks Impeachment of Health Secretary: "RFK Jr. Has Turned His Back on Science", Indiana Republicans Revolt Against Trump's Demand to Gerrymander Congressional Map, Kilmar Abrego Garcia Reunites with Family After Judge Orders His Release from ICE Jail, ICE Agents in Minneapolis Racially Profile and Violently Arrest Somali American U.S. Citizen, You Lied on the Record": House Democrats Grill Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Justice Department Fails for Second Time to Win Grand Jury Indictment of New York AG Letitia James, House Republicans Cross Aisle to Advance Bill Restoring Federal Workers' Union Rights, Disney Agrees to Allow OpenAI's Sora App to Make Videos Using Copyrighted Characters, Trump Signs Executive Order Blocking States from Regulating AI

Palestinians were battered with rain and freezing temperatures overnight as winter storm Byron hit the Gaza Strip. Soaked tents and makeshift shelters flooded, causing some mattresses to float and improvised roofs to blow away. An 8-month-old baby girl, Rahaf Abu Jazar, died from hypothermia. Moureen Kaki, an aid worker living in Gaza, says conditions at hospitals have not improved since the announcement of the so-called ceasefire. It is not really a ceasefire," she says. It's just a slower form of death."

The acclaimed academic and writer Mahmood Mamdani speaks with Democracy Now! about the rise of his son, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. The professor cites Zohran's refusal to budge, to soften his critique of the state of Israel" as a critical aspect of his rise to power. His refusal to change his stance told the electorate that this was a man of principle, that affordability was not just merely rhetoric, that he could be taken seriously at his word," Mahmood says.

We speak with the acclaimed academic and writer Mahmood Mamdani, who has just released a new book, Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State. Mamdani, who has taught at Columbia for decades, was raised in Uganda and first came to the United States in the 1960s to study. He and his family were later expelled from Uganda during Idi Amin's dictatorship. The book is about the reversal of the anti-colonial movement" in Uganda, says Mamdani. The anti-colonial movement fought to create a nation out of a fragmented country ... and I speak of slow poison as a gradual, piecemeal, step-by-step cutting up of the country so that you no longer have a single citizenship."

U.S. troops seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, a major escalation that the Venezuelan government called international piracy." We speak with New York University professor Alejandro Velasco about the Trump administration's intentions in the country, which has the world's largest known oil reserves. Though the Pentagon has claimed the conflict is aimed at combating narcoterrorism, Velasco says the violence is actually an effort to get rid of leftist governments in the region."

Caracas Condemns U.S. Seizure of Oil Tanker Off Venezuela's Coast as International Piracy", He'd Better Wise Up, or He'll Be Next": Trump Threatens Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Child Freezes to Death as Torrential Rains Flood Tents of Gaza's Displaced Palestinians, Five Palestine Action Supporters Hospitalized While on Hunger Strike to Protest Imprisonment, House of Representatives Passes $901 Billion National Defense Authorization Act, NTSB Chair Says New Military Bill Would Make Washington, D.C., Airspace Less Safe, Federal Reserve Votes to Cut Interest Rates by Quarter Point, 200+ Environmental Groups Demand Halt to Construction of New U.S. Data Centers, Report: Wealthiest 0.001% Hold Three Times More Wealth Than the Poorest Half of Humanity, Federal Judge Orders Trump Administration to End Deployment of Troops to Los Angeles, Trump Launches Trump Gold Card" Visa Program for Wealthy Noncitizens, Trump Administration Abruptly Cancels Naturalization Ceremonies for Immigrants from 19 Nations, At Least 33 People Killed After Myanmar Military Bombs Hospital, Bolivia's Former President Luis Arce Arrested over Alleged Graft

What are the lessons from the Montgomery bus boycott launched 70 years ago this month? The boycott, which sparked the civil rights movement, began after the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated city bus to a white man. Historian and biographer Jeanne Theoharis, author of The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, argues, Part of what her courage is, is the ability to step forward again and again, without any sense that this is going to change anything, and say, 'This is the line. And I refuse.'" Theoharis's new piece for The Guardian is What we get wrong about the Montgomery bus boycott - and what we can learn from it."

Nineteen-year-old Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was detained and deported, despite a lack of removal order, when attempting to head home from Babson College in Boston to surprise her family in Texas for Thanksgiving. This is the first arrest of its kind I've seen," says her attorney, Todd C. Pomerleau, who says the student has been the victim of character assassination." After Lopez Belloza was taken down near the border on a bus, had shackles around her ankles, chain around her waist, shackles around her wrist," her family attempted to speak out to the press about the rights violations she suffered. They are now being harassed by law enforcement, as well.

Bruna Ferreira, a DACA recipient and mother of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's nephew, has lived in the United States since she was 6 years old, but was recently arrested by ICE in her own driveway in what her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, calls a brazen, unconstitutional arrest, a clear violation of her rights." Ferreira was transported to a remote detention center in Louisiana following her arrest in Massachusetts, and just released Tuesday. All of a sudden, now the Leavitts have a problem with 'criminal illegal aliens.' Yet one of them was about to marry one of their loved ones, and there was no problem," says Pomerleau.

Lights on 24/7. Overflowing toilets and lack of access to showers. Solitary confinement in a 2*2-foot box. These are some of the torturous conditions documented in a new report from Amnesty International investigating human rights violations at two ICE detention centers in Florida: the Krome North Service Processing Center and the Everglades Detention Facility, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz" by Trump and his supporters. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is denying the report's findings, calling them fabricated and politically motivated. We speak to the report's lead researcher, Amy Fischer, about the intentional development within immigration detention that is aiming to make it increasingly cruel, increasingly abusive, so that people are forced to give up their immigration claims [because] the conditions are so cruel that they can't handle it anymore."

The world's largest conflict by scale is in Sudan, where tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced since fighting broke out between the UAE-backed paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese military (SAF) in April 2023. Last week, the RSF attacked a kindergarten, killing over 40 children. Almost every part of Sudan is somehow impacted by this war," which has been rife with reports of child killings and widespread sexual violence, says Sudanese political analyst Kholood Khair. Satellite imagery reviewed by researcher Nathaniel Raymond of the Yale School of Public Health depicts the RSF-captured city of El Fasher as a ghost town," indicating a major civilian massacre carried out by the UAE-supported paramilitary group. Khair draws attention to the shortfall in humanitarian funding being directed to Sudan, and urges international actors to financially support civil society groups and the U.N. crisis response fund. Nobody is helping them. No one is putting money and resources to them to enable them to save lives."