Democracy Now!

Experts are calling it the worst voter suppression bill ever seriously considered by Congress." As the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on a Trump-backed voter ID bill known as the SAVE Act, millions of citizens who lack easy access to its required forms of documentation are now at risk of disenfranchisement. Republicans are singularly focused on making it harder to vote and pursuing this MAGA fever dream," explains Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones. It is the overarching goal of the Republican Party now to make it harder to vote."The groups most at risk of disenfranchisement include people who have changed their names after marriage, older voters who never received birth certificates, rural voters who could find it increasingly difficult to register to vote and trans people who have changed their names or gender markers on government documents. The GOP and MAGA movement's goal, says Imara Jones, the founder and CEO of TransLash Media, is to enshrine anti-trans discrimination in the law, because what they're doing is using trans people as a road test in order to try to figure out how to disenfranchise and marginalize and strip citizenship away from millions of Americans who disagree with them."

As Israel continues to pummel Lebanon in its resumed war against the country and the Hezbollah paramilitary, we get an update from Associated Press reporter Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut. If you compare this particular war to the last one, less than two years ago, what happened in the past three weeks is what happened in the past seven or eight months," says Chehayeb, who describes masses of displaced people and fears of an imminent ground invasion. There is a humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country, and it doesn't appear that these strikes will stop anytime soon."

A major New York Times investigation details the late co-founder of the United Farm Workers Cesar Chavez's sexual abuse of women and girls. The revelations about Chavez's history of grooming and abuse have sent shockwaves through the labor movement and California, where officials are already moving to cancel or rename public celebrations planned in his honor. Chavez is also accused of sexually assaulting fellow labor rights icon and United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, now 95. Huerta says the assaults led to the births of two of her children. She concealed the pregnancies and had kept the children's paternity secret until now.Huerta spoke for the first time at length about her new public disclosures in an exclusive interview with Latino USA host Maria Hinojosa, who joins Democracy Now! to discuss how Huerta is not only coming to terms with her own assaults, [but also] coming to terms with the fact that the movement and the person who she admired as part of the movement is essentially being covered up, disappeared."

U.S. Offensive Seeks to Reopen Strait of Hormuz as Hegseth Confirms He's Seeking $200B for Iran War, Iran Warns of Zero Restraint" If U.S. or Israel Attacks Energy Infrastructure Again, Death Toll from Recent Israeli Attacks on Lebanon Passes 1,000 Amid Fierce Fighting in South, Israel Reopens Rafah Crossing for Small Number of Palestinians to Seek Medicare Care Abroad, Protesters in Tel Aviv Demand Israel End Wars with Iran and Lebanon, Trump Jokes About Pearl Harbor in Meeting with Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi, 19-Year-Old Dies of Apparent Suicide in Florida ICE Jail, Nashville Immigration Reporter Estefany Rodriguez Released on Bond, Bronx High School Student Dylan Lopez Contreras Returns to New York After 10 Months in ICE Jail, Judge Denies Asylum Claim to Family of Liam Conejo Ramos, 5-Year-Old Jailed by ICE, They Underestimated Their Workers": Nearly 4,000 Colorado Meatpackers Enter Fifth Day of Strike, De-ICE These Flights!": Immigration Activists Target NCAA Charter Airline

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee walked out of a closed-door briefing on the Epstein files with Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, less than an hour after it began Wednesday, after Bondi repeatedly declined to say whether she would comply with a subpoena requiring her to appear for a sworn deposition on April 14. Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna, who attended the briefing, said Bondi will have to answer why there are still 3 million documents being hidden" and why there was a cover-up of those files that implicated Donald Trump."Khanna also comments on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, noting that Trump's military actions are a total betrayal of his promise that he was going to focus on American needs."

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have warned a new stage of war" has begun after Israel bombed Iran's South Pars gas field - the largest known natural gas reserve in the world. This comes as the price of oil has spiked to $118 a barrel, a 60% jump since the U.S. and Iran attacked Iran on February 28.Professor of Gulf studies Laleh Khalili lays out the global economic implications of the effective closing of one of the world's major choke points for oil," the Strait of Hormuz. It doesn't benefit the average U.S. citizen ... at the gas stations, but it does benefit the oil companies," says Khalili. The higher the price of oil goes up, the relatively cheaper it becomes to actually have sustainable alternatives. Of course, that means that it benefits China ... since China is way ahead of the rest of the world in producing these technologies."

In a major escalation in the war in the Middle East, Israel has bombed Iran's South Pars gas field, the largest known natural gas reserve in the world, leading Iran to attack energy sites across the Gulf. Iranian American professor of international affairs Vali Nasr says that Iran is prepared for a much longer war than the U.S. and Israel anticipated. The longer this war goes on, the more Iran is building leverage, and the more the strategic calculations of Israel and the United States appear to be falling short," he says. Iran thinks the longer that the war goes on, the less Israel and the United States will be able to defend against Iranian missiles, because they're going to run out of interceptors."In the latest sign the war on Iran could be just beginning, Reuters is reporting President Trump is considering deploying thousands of more U.S. troops to the Middle East. The Pentagon has also asked for $200 billion from Congress.The Iranian president has proposed terms for the end of the war including reparations and guarantees against future war. Nasr suggests that the Iranians are confident" that some of their terms may be met. President Trump may have to accept the fact that he has started a war that is not going to give him what he expected, and he has to settle for an exit in order to be able to go back to the agenda that it had before."

Fuel Prices Soar as Israeli Strike on Iranian Gas Field Triggers Retaliatory Attacks, Pentagon Seeks $200 Billion More for Iran War as Senate Rejects War Powers Resolution, Tulsi Gabbard Dodges Questions About Trump's Claim of Imminent Nuclear Threat" from Iran, Capitol Hill Protest Demands Not One Dime More for Trump's Illegal Iran War", Lebanese Health Ministry: Israeli Attacks Kill 45 People Across Lebanon in the Past Two Days, Iranian Missiles Kill Civilians in Israel and Occupied West Bank, Markwayne Mullin Grilled by Senate Colleagues in Combative DHS Confirmation Hearing, ProPublica: DHS Demanding Access to Federal Parent Locator Service, CBS News: FBI and IRS to Probe Nonprofits over Possible Links to Domestic Terrorism", Democrats Walk Out of Briefing with AG Pam Bondi on DOJ's Handling of Epstein Files, Cesar Chavez Accused of Abusing and Molesting Multiple Women and Girls

The Trump administration is escalating threats against news organizations, with President Trump suggesting outlets should face treason" charges for disseminating false information. Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has also threatened to revoke broadcasters' licenses over their coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. This all comes as allies of President Trump consolidate their control over several major media outlets. Paramount Skydance, led by Trump ally David Ellison, is poised to acquire Warner Bros., which includes CNN.They want these companies to be afraid," says Craig Aaron, CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action. As we've seen, whether it's lawyers, universities, media companies, when the bullying works, you just get more and more bullying."

A top national security official resigned from the Trump administration Tuesday in response to the war on Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby," Joe Kent, who served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, wrote in his resignation letter.We speak with Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in 2023 to protest the Biden administration's Gaza policy. He says Kent is at least the 16th U.S. official in the last few years to resign over policy related to Israel, spanning both the Biden and Trump administrations.We know that there is a very visible, very vocal debate happening in the Democratic Party on that topic. It's clear that there is also a very vocal debate happening within the right wing of American politics," says Paul.

As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran continues, we look at how the Pentagon is using artificial intelligence in its operations. The system, known as Project Maven, relies on technology by Palantir and also incorporates the AI model Claude built by Anthropic. Israel has used similar AI targeting programs in Iran, as well as in Gaza and Lebanon.Craig Jones, an expert on modern warfare, says AI technology is helping militaries speed up the kill chain," the process of identifying, approving and striking targets. You're reducing a massive human workload of tens of thousands of hours into seconds and minutes. You're reducing workflows, and you're automating human-made targeting decisions in ways which open up all kinds of problematic legal, ethical and political questions," says Jones.

Israel Kills Iran's Intelligence Minister in an Overnight Strike on Tehran, Iran Continues to Launch Retaliatory Strikes Against Gulf Countries, Israel Launches Airstrikes on Central Beirut, Demolishing High-Rise Building, Iran's Parliament Speaker Says Strait of Hormuz Won't Return to Its Pre-War Status", U.N. Warns 45 Million People at Risk of Acute Hunger Due to U.S.-Israeli War on Iran, Attorney General Bondi and Deputy AG Blanche Set to Brief Lawmakers on DOJ's Handling of Epstein Files, Senate Democrats Send White House Counteroffer to Fund DHS, HRW: Several Immigrants from El Salvador Deported by the Trump Admin Have Been Forcibly Disappeared, Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Admin from Terminating Temporary Protected Status for Somali Immigrants, NYT: Trump Admin Considers Withholding HIV Treatments from Zambia in Exchange for Greater Access to Country's Minerals, Cuba Restores Power After Nationwide Blackout, DOJ Dismisses Charges Against Army Veteran Who Burned U.S. Flag Across from White House Last Year, Federal Judge Orders Trump Admin to Restore Union Contract with Veterans Affairs Department Workers, Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton Wins Democratic Senate Primary

A jury in Texas has convicted eight people in the first federal anti-terror case since the Trump administration declared antifa" a terror group. Nine defendants alleged to be members of an antifa terror cell" stood trial on federal and state charges including rioting, using explosives and attempted murder. The charges stemmed from their attendance at an anti-ICE protest outside the Prairieland ICE jail on July 4, during which fireworks were set off and a police officer was shot and wounded. Eight protesters now face at least 15 years in jail. Their legal teams plan to appeal. The antifa of it all, from my perspective, was purely political," says one of the defendants' attorneys, Xavier de Janon, who joins Democracy Now! to break down the case.

Cuba's electrical grid has collapsed. The island-wide blackout comes amid a harsh U.S. oil blockade and recent comments from President Donald Trump that he wants to take" Cuba. No oil shipments have reached the country, located just south of Florida, in three months, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by decades of severe U.S. sanctions. Sanctions are literally killing people right now," says Cuban journalist Daniel Montero with Belly of the Beast, speaking from Havana. We understand what this oil embargo means, and [what] sanctions have always meant. This is regime change through starvation." Historian Sara Kozameh, who recently returned from Cuba, adds, Cubans have fought for sovereignty many, many times. And they're not going to just sort of lie there while this is happening."

We get an analysis of the Trump administration's Iran war strategy from former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Harrison Mann. From day two of this war, the Trump administration has not known what to do and how to get out of this," says Mann, who resigned from the U.S. Army's Defense Intelligence Agency in 2024 over the Biden administration's policy in Gaza. As Trump is rumored to be eyeing the oil export hub of Kharg Island for seizure, Mann gives his assessment of a potential ground invasion of Iran. Any attempt to seize this island would be close to a suicide mission," he says. While U.S. leaders struggle to respond to Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on military bases in U.S.-allied Gulf states, Mann notes that the people who drove [Trump] into this war pretty much expected this. I don't think this is a surprise to Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio or Benjamin Netanyahu - who is very much getting what he wanted, which is dragging the U.S. into what he hopes will be a decisive war of annihilation against Iran."

How long will the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran last? Regime change in Iran will not be as easy and quick" as U.S. warmongers may have initially believed, says Iranian American political analyst Trita Parsi. Israel claims that it has successfully assassinated Iran's powerful security chief Ali Larijani, who Parsi says could have played a role in future ceasefire negotiations. The Israelis have fought so hard to get the United States to go into a full-scale war with Iran for more than 20 years," says Parsi. It is in their interest to prolong this war as long as they can, and kill off any potential off-ramps that Trump may be looking for."

Israel Says It Killed Iran's Security Chief Ali Larijani and Commander of Basij Paramilitaries, Iran Says Infant, Toddler, Mother and Grandmother Among Latest Victims of U.S.-Israeli Strikes, Rocket from Lebanon Injures 7 in Northern Israel as Iranian Drone Damages Jerusalem Holy Sites, Baghdad's Green Zone, UAE Oil Field Among Mideast Sites Hit by Iranian Drones, Israel's Attacks on Lebanon Have Driven More Than 1 Million from Their Homes, U.S. Allies Refuse Trump's Call to Send Warships to Strait of Hormuz, Jared Kushner Seeks $5 Billion for Private Equity Firm While Serving as Mideast Negotiator, Leqaa Kordia Released from ICE Jail After More Than a Year in Custody, Federal Judge Blocks RFK Jr.'s Changes to Childhood Vaccinations, Cuba's National Electricity Grid Collapses as Trump Says It Would Be a Big Honor" to Take" Cuba, Afghanistan Says Pakistan Airstrike on Kabul Killed Over 400, Trump Admin Approves BP's $5 Billion Drilling Project Off Louisiana Coast, Voters in Illinois Head to the Polls for Primary Elections

Mr Nobody Against Putin won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature on Sunday. Democracy Now! recently spoke with co-director David Borenstein and the subject of the film, the Russian teacher Pavel Pasha" Talankin, who personally documented Russia's use of wartime propaganda. I need for as many people as possible to see what is happening inside of Russian schools," says Talankin. Putin is forcing propaganda into their schools, and [the children are] absorbing all of this."Borenstein says the film is also a reflection on the value of one person's resistance, about how much one person can do, about how much we can overcome complicity while the systems around us are succumbing to authoritarianism."

Democracy Now! speaks with Iranian Israeli political activist Orly Noy about her recent piece, Longing for My Tehran." It's been a very emotional time since the beginning of the war, not just because we are constantly running in and out of shelters," says Noy, but because this time, the footage of the bombing that I grew accustomed to seeing for over two years from the genocide in Gaza was now coming from my homeland."Noy also comments on Israeli political support for the war on Iran, saying the very few attempts to protest against the war were brutally crushed by the Israeli police." Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is also increasing. Up until now, our worry was about the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. Now it is just about executing Palestinians, both by the army and by the settlers," says Noy.

As the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran extends into a third week, President Trump is demanding other countries send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely shut, as oil prices keep rising. This comes as the U.S. and Israel continue to launch major strikes on Iran, while Iran has retaliated by repeatedly striking Israel and U.S. allies in the Gulf, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. Despite the violence in Iran, pro-war voices are definitely in the diaspora and very strong, but they also exist inside Iran," says Naghmeh Sohrabi, professor of Middle East history at Brandeis University.I think most Iranians want this war to end as soon as possible, and at the same time, they fear nothing more than the day after the war, if this regime remains intact," says Iranian American novelist Amir Ahmadi Arian.

U.S.-Israeli War on Iran Enters Third Week as Iranian Foreign Minister Denies Asking for Ceasefire, Iran Continues Retaliatory Strikes in the Middle East as Six U.S. Service Members Killed in Iraq, Trump Urges Other Countries to Send Warships to Secure the Strait of Hormuz, Israeli Troops Begin Ground Operations in Southern Lebanon, FCC Chair Brendan Carr Threatens to Revoke Broadcasters' Licenses over Iran War Coverage, Israeli Forces Kill 16 Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, Explosion Damages Jewish School in Amsterdam, Trump Administration Reopens U.S. Embassy in Venezuela for the First Time Since 2019, Protesters Reportedly Attack Communist Party Office in Cuba as Energy Crisis Deepens, Haitian Asylum Seeker Found Dead After ICE Released Her at Bus Shelter in Pittsburgh, Afghan Asylum Seeker Who Worked with U.S. Special Forces Dies in ICE Custody, Anti-ICE Protesters Convicted on Terrorism Charges in Texas, Immigration Judge Orders the Release of Palestinian Activist Leqaa Kordia, Sinners" Makes Oscars History as Autumn Durald Arkapaw Becomes the First Woman to Win for Best Cinematography

The global economy has been rocked by the war in the Middle East, with Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz threatening energy flows and sending the price of oil soaring to its highest level in years. The United Nations Security Council responded to the unprovoked U.S.-Israeli war by passing a resolution this week condemning Iran - specifically for its attacks on U.S. allies in the region - while ignoring the role of the Trump administration and the Netanyahu government in instigating the bloodshed. Economist Jeffrey Sachs joins Democracy Now! to discuss the fallout of the war of choice" and why it also constitutes an assault on the United Nations.This is so out of control, without any logic, any rationality, not any humane, moral, legal justification whatsoever," says Sachs. It will lead to world war the way we're going, because we have two malignant narcissists, Netanyahu and Trump, that are leading us to disaster."

Inside Israel, there is no room for any question marks or doubts about this war," says journalist Gideon Levy, a columnist for Haaretz and a member of the newspaper's editorial board. He says war fever has taken over the country, with polls showing 93% support for the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, Lebanon and beyond - at least among the Jewish public. Israel is doing as much as it can," he says. As long as the American support is so massive, so blind and so automatic, this will go on."Levy also criticizes Israel's military censorship system that strictly limits publishing information about war damage and other material deemed to be counter to national security. He says much of it is driven by self-censorship by a press that sees itself as an agency of the government and of the military establishment, and this is very worrying."

We speak with journalist Lylla Younes in Lebanon, where she says Israel's massacres are multiplying" amid the broader U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Israeli strikes have killed nearly 700 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, while attacks have expanded to include areas of central Beirut, which Israel claims are aimed at the powerful Hezbollah militia. This comes as Israel has vowed to expand its incursion into southern Lebanon.The vast majority of southern Lebanon is now under displacement orders," says Younes. That is approximately 15% of the country."

U.S.-Israeli Attacks Have Forced 3.2 Million Iranians to Flee Their Homes, In First Public Statement, Iran's New Supreme Leader Vows to Keep Blocking Strait of Hormuz, 250+ Groups Call on Congress to Reject Request for $50 Billion in Funding for Iran War, Iranian Strike on Oman Kills Immigrant Workers as NATO Shoots Down Missile Fired at Turkey, Lebanon Death Toll Rises as Israel Bombs Central Beirut and Targets Civilian Infrastructure, Israel Drops All Charges Against Soldiers Accused of Sexually Abusing Palestinian Prisoner, Thousands March in Athens to Protest Greek Role in U.S.-Israeli Assault on Iran, A Crime Against Humanity": U.N. Inquiry Condemns Russia's Abduction of Ukrainian Children, Suspect in Michigan Synagogue Attack Lost Family Members to Israeli Airstrike on Lebanon, Former National Guardsman Attacks ROTC Class at Old Dominion University, Killing 1 and Injuring 2, Rights Groups Demand Release of Palestinian Activist Leqaa Kordia, Jailed by ICE for 1 Year, 4,000 Meatpackers in Colorado Authorize Strike at JBS, World's Largest Meat Producer

Democracy Now! recently sat down with Agnes Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International and a former United Nations special rapporteur, while she was in New York City to mark International Women's Day and attend the U.N.'s annual conference on women's rights. Callamard responded to the assassination of Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed, U.S. sanctions against U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese and the rise of Christian nationalism under the Trump administration.

This is all being read inside of Iran as a war on the Iranian people." As oil prices threaten to spike to $200 a barrel amid Iran's pressure campaign against the U.S. and its allies, professor Narges Bajoghli returns to Democracy Now! with an update on the war on Iran and its place in the modern history of U.S.-Iran relations. Bajoghli explains how the combination of harsh sanctions and an insidious propaganda campaign has created a deep political divide within Iran and its diaspora, as Iranians are stuck between theocratic governance and the prospective return of the U.S.-backed monarchy.

Iran Says U.S. and Israeli Strikes Have Killed 1,348 Civilians, Senators Demand Accountability as Pentagon Admits U.S. Struck Iranian Girls' School, Iranian Missiles and Drones Continue to Strike at Israel, Gulf States and Oil Infrastructure, IEA Announces Record Release of Oil Reserves as Iran Warns Prices Could Top $200 Per Barrel, Lebanon Death Toll Tops 630 as Israel Continues Relentless Bombing Campaign, Israel Strikes Gaza Marketplace and Tent Camp, Killing and Wounding Palestinians, RSF Drone Strike in Sudan Kills 17 People, Most of Them Girls, GOP Sen. John Cornyn Reverses Position on Filibuster to Help Pass the SAVE America Act, New Hampshire Democrat's Special Election Victory Is Latest Red Flag for GOP in Midterms, Longtime Epstein Accountant Richard Kahn Testifies to Congress in Closed-Door Deposition, Family of Six Detained at ICE Jail in Texas Describes Harrowing Conditions

Killers of Roe is a new book by the reproductive rights journalist Amy Littlefield on what she describes as the death of abortion rights in the United States. The book is framed as a murder mystery, examining a twisted alliance of believers and opportunists" in the years and decades before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. It started out as a murder mystery because it was a way to entice myself to tell a really difficult story about women dying preventable deaths as a result of anti-abortion policy," says Littlefield.

A Marine Corps veteran suffered a broken arm last week after he disrupted a Senate hearing to voice his opposition to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Democracy Now! speaks with the veteran, Brian McGinnis, who is also a Green Party candidate for Senate in North Carolina. McGinnis is critical of U.S. policy in Israel and the Trump administration's decision to go full speed ahead with military action" in the Middle East.McGinnis is charged with three counts of assault on police officers and resisting arrest, according to Sellano Simmons, an attorney representing McGinnis.

Iranian authorities say the U.S. and Israel killed more than 1,300 civilians, striking over 10,000 civilian sites during the first 12 days of the war. This comes as Israel escalates attacks on Lebanon, killing at least 570 since the war began and displacing nearly 800,000 people. As President Trump dodges questions on how long the war will continue, reporting by Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost, has revealed that a lot of the experts on international law, the laws of war, international humanitarian law have quietly been leaving the Trump administration."

U.S.-Israeli War on Iran Enters Its 12th Day, Pentagon Reportedly Considers Deployment of Special Forces into Iran to Capture Enriched Uranium, NYT: Missile Fragments Add to Mounting Evidence That U.S. Forces Struck Girls' School in Iran, Israel Continues Attacks on Lebanon, Killing 570 and Displacing 750,000, Iran Fires Retaliatory Missiles and Drones at Targets Across the Gulf, U.S.-Israeli War on Iran Causes Oil Prices to Surge, Reuters: Chevron and Shell Close to Finalizing Oil Production Deal with Venezuela, Anthropic Sues Trump Admin After Pentagon Designates It as a Supply Chain Risk", WaPo: Former DOGE Employee Took Social Security Information to New Job, Alabama Governor Commutes Death Sentence of Charles Sonny" Burton, Independent Report Finds That Columbia University's Culture of Silence" Protected Dr. Hadden's Sexual Abuse, Justice Department Reaches Major Settlement with Live Nation, Federal Judge Restricts Immigration Agents from Using Tear Gas on Protests in Portland, Chile's New Right-Wing President Jose Antonio Kast Takes Office

Oil prices surged past $100 a barrel this week as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran threatens global energy supplies and the broader economy. Iranian officials say no oil will be allowed to leave the Middle East until the bombardment stops, raising fears of disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which about 20% of the world's oil and gas flows. This comes as Israel has struck oil depots in Tehran, blanketing the capital in smoke and toxic rain.What we're seeing is just one of the clearest depictions yet of the frailty of a global order that is grounded in fossil fuels. All sides in this war are using fossil fuels as a weapon of war," says independent investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz, who reports on energy and climate.

We speak with Kareem Shaheen, Middle East editor at New Lines Magazine, about the regional response to the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. He says the Gulf countries are in a no-win situation, stuck between a belligerent Israel that has no qualms about using violence to achieve its strategic aims and a desperate Iran lashing out against U.S. allies in the region as it tries to survive. He says that no matter which side prevails, Gulf states have realized how vulnerable they are despite U.S. security guarantees. In either scenario, I don't think that the Gulf states will be happy with the outcome," he says.Shaheen's recent article is The Gulf Fears Whoever Wins This War."

As President Trump gives conflicting statements about the length and objectives of the war he launched with Israel against Iran, fears are growing that the conflict could continue to expand throughout the region and beyond. Lawrence Wilkerson, retired U.S. Army colonel and former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, says the U.S. and Israel are committing wanton war crimes" in Iran. We have bombed civilians relentlessly. We have bombed a school. We have bombed a hospital," says Wilkerson, who also suggests Western media outlets are downplaying the extent of the damage in Israel and how successful Iran has been in defending itself.This is a war with long legs. Trump has completely misinterpreted it," says Wilkerson. The only one who's interpreted it correctly is Bibi Netanyahu, and I think he's ready to use a nuclear weapon, should it become as bad as it looks like it might right now, because Iran has not even began to shoot its most sophisticated missiles."

Trump Denies U.S. Responsibility for Bombing of Girls' School That Killed 175 in Iran, Huge Crowds Rally in Tehran to Support New Supreme Leader and Oppose U.S.-Israeli Assault, State Department Orders U.S. Diplomats to Leave Saudi Arabia as Iran Strikes Gulf Neighbors, U.N. Warns Israel's Assault on Lebanon Has Displaced 700,000 People, Oil Prices Fall After Soaring to Nearly $120 a Barrel as Trump Sends Mixed Messages on Iran War, Ukraine Sends Drone Experts to Counter Iranian Attacks Across Mideast, FBI Requests Arizona Voting Records Related to Joe Biden's 2020 Election Victory, New Mexico Investigators Search Epstein's Former Ranch After Reopening Probe Closed in 2019, DOJ Releases Previously Withheld Documents from Epstein Files Alleging Sexual Assault by Trump, Video Refutes ICE Claim That Ruben Ray Martinez Ran Over" Federal Agent Before Fatal Shooting, Teen Mariachi Musicians Released with Family from ICE Jail After Lawmakers Intervene, Two Men Charged with Terrorism for Allegedly Throwing Bombs Outside NYC Mayor Mamdani's Residence, Judge Rules Kari Lake Unlawfully Led U.S. Agency for Global Media, Voids Cuts and Layoffs

U.S. military commanders have reportedly been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric to push war on Iran, selling the conflict to American troops as an existential holy war" in apocalyptic language that experts fear could exacerbate the violence and death toll of military operations. Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, attributes the rise in extremism at the Pentagon to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who has created a template that the only approved member of the U.S. military is to be straight, Christian, nationalist and male." Weinstein warns that whenever you attach an extremist aspect of any religious faith to that machinery responsible for war ... we end up with one thing: oceans and oceans of blood."

We get an update on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran from Israel, where reports are growing of discrimination against non-Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel attempting to seek shelter from Iranian drone and missile attacks. While Jewish neighborhoods are well protected" by bomb shelters, shelters are much rarer in Palestinian neighborhoods within the highly segregated country, explains Israeli journalist Orly Noy. This is the meaning of a supremacist, racist regime," she says.Noy, whose Iranian Jewish family immigrated to Israel during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, also points out that public focus on Iran has allowed the ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to continue with minimal international outcry. This settler and soldier-led violence, coupled with Israel's ongoing restrictions and humanitarian aid, are part of the continuing genocide, the infliction of measures and policies meant to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians," says Amnesty International's Agnes Callamard. The control over humanitarian organization is very clear. It is meant to control those who dare speak up, those who are on the ground and are witnesses to the ongoing genocide."

Iran has selected Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as Iran's supreme leader. The elder Khamenei was assassinated in a joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike on February 28. Iran selected the hard-liner" Mojtaba Khamenei in defiance of President Trump, who has repeatedly claimed he can choose Iran's next leader. His selection also contradicts the Islamic Republic's previous resistance to hereditary succession. The war changed everything," says Iranian American political analyst Hooman Majd, who adds that Iran's leadership sees the conflict as existential" and is therefore carrying out retaliatory attacks throughout the region to make it painful economically and in many other ways for the United States and for Israel to continue the war."Meanwhile, preliminary investigations by The New York Times, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International indicate that the U.S. military carried out the strike on an elementary school in Minab, Iran, that killed over 100 young girls. It is a war against people," says Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard, who is calling for the school massacre to be investigated as a war crime.Iran is going to be changed forever," says Majd, rejecting claims from U.S. leaders that military intervention has created the conditions for a civilian uprising. For them to be able to rise up and take control of the government is just a pipe dream. I mean, how are they supposed to do that when they're being killed or are running away from missiles almost on a daily basis?"

Toxic Black Raindrops Fall on Tehran Following U.S.-Israeli Attacks on Fuel Depots, Video Shows U.S. Missile Struck Iranian Girls' School, Killing 175, Contradicting Trump's Denials, Mojtaba Khamenei, Son of Ayatollah Assassinated by U.S. and Israel, Named Iran's Supreme Leader, State Department Declares Iran War an Emergency," Speeding Sale of 20,000+ Bombs to Israel, Iran Fires Missiles and Drones at Israel, U.S. Bases and Mideast Nations, Killing Several People, Lebanon Says Israeli Attacks Have Displaced Over Half a Million People, Israeli Settlers' Attacks Kill 6 Palestinians in a Week Across Occupied West Bank, Paramedic and Two Children Among Palestinians Killed in Israel's Latest Attacks on Gaza, Pentagon Reports Seventh Combat Death of U.S. Service Member in Iran War, Oil Surges Past $110 Per Barrel Amid U.S.-Israeli Attack on Iran, Unemployment Rate Hits 4.4% After U.S. Economy Unexpectedly Loses 92,000 Jobs in February, Women Around the World Demonstrate Against Gender-Based Violence, Marking International Women's Day, U.S. and Ecuador Launch Joint Operation to Bomb Drug Traffickers' Training Camp Near Colombian Border, U.S. Military Kills Six Men in an Attack on Alleged Drug Boat in the Eastern Pacific, Trump Gathers Leaders from 12 Latin American Countries for Shield of the Americas" Summit, 35-Year-Old Former Rapper Balendra Shah Set to Become Nepal's Next Prime Minister, Civil Rights Leaders and Former U.S. Presidents Attend Rev. Jesse Jackson's Funeral

President Trump is hosting right-wing leaders from across Latin America in Miami for a summit discussing his so-called Shield of the Americas initiative. This comes as the U.S. deploys special forces to Ecuador and as Trump hints about regime change in Cuba. This summit is ... an opportunity for Trump to play out a moment of imperial fantasy in front of fans in South Florida," says Jake Johnston, director of international research at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago will attend, says the White House.

Kristi Noem has been ousted from her position as homeland security secretary after intensifying calls for her resignation. Noem's tenure has been marked by allegations of corruption, deadly immigration raids and legal challenges. ProPublica reporter Justin Elliott has reported extensively on Noem's tenure, including a $200 million ad campaign that may have been the inciting incident for her firing. This did not go through the normal competitive process," says Elliott. Instead, the ad went to a Delaware LLC that was formed only a few days before."President Trump has announced Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma as the new homeland security secretary. Mullin has been known as a hard-liner," says Chris Stein, senior politics reporter for The Guardian US. Stein adds that the Trump administration will continue its aggressive immigration policies despite the change in leadership.

It is the seventh day of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, and Israel is escalating attacks on Lebanon after ordering the entire population of southern Lebanon to flee. This comes as Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to turn areas of Lebanon into another Gaza in a video shared on social media Thursday. The word on everyone's mouths here is ethnic cleansing," says Lylla Younes, an investigative journalist speaking with Democracy Now! from Beirut. People are basically fleeing north with nowhere to go. Shelters are filling up rapidly. People are sleeping on the pavement in the winter nights."Human rights lawyer Omar Shakir, the new executive director of DAWN, has urged Iran to give the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over apparent crimes committed by the U.S. and Israel in strikes on schools and hospitals. There is more and more evidence emerging every single day of grave war crimes being carried out by the United States and Israel," he says. The Israeli government, because of impunity, is emboldened across the region. And unless we see a strong response from states that are willing to use the tools of accountability, ... the risk to civilians across the region will continue to grow."

House Narrowly Rejects Resolution to Limit Trump's Power to Wage War on Iran, Iran Says U.S. and Israel Have Attacked 3,600 Civilian Sites, Hegseth Says We Have Only Just Begun to Fight" as CENTCOM Prepares for 100 Days of War, Iranian Strikes on Mideast Oil Sites Trigger Global Energy Chaos, Israel's Renewed Assault on Lebanon Kills 123, with Hundreds of Thousands Displaced, Stocks of Medical Supplies in Gaza Critically Low" as Israel Closes Gaza Border Crossings, Trump Fires Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary, Names Sen. Markwayne Mullin as Replacement, ICE Arrests Nashville Journalist Whose Stories Criticized Federal Agents, 169 Are Killed, Including Civilians, as Insurgents Raid Town in South Sudan, More Than 200 Die as Heavy Rains Trigger Landslide at Coltan Mine in Eastern DRC, Bernard Lafayette, Who Joined Freedom Rides to Fight for Voting Rights, Dies at 85, Family and Friends to Honor Rev. Jesse Jackson at Chicago Memorial Service

We speak with filmmaker Craig Renaud, the director of Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud, an HBO documentary about his brother, photojournalist Brent Renaud, who was killed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine in 2022. March 13 marks the fourth anniversary of Brent's death, and the film is both a tribute to him and a bigger story about all the journalists who were being killed," says Craig. As we enter another war ... I hope Brent's work and the work of all the fallen journalists helps people pause for a minute and think about the impact that these wars will have."Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud is nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Academy Awards on March 15.

Geeta Gandbhir has made history as the first woman to receive Oscar nominations for both Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short in the same year. Her feature-length film, The Perfect Neighbor, looks at the case of Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old Black mother of four who was fatally shot in 2023 by her white neighbor. Her documentary short, The Devil Is Busy, chronicles a day on the frontlines in the battle for reproductive rights at a women's healthcare clinic in Atlanta. Gandbhir spoke with Democracy Now! ahead of this year's Academy Awards to discuss her two films and how art and politics intersect.

As the U.S. and Israel continue their bombardment of Iran and the conflict spreads throughout the region, we speak with two former U.S. government officials with experience in Middle East policy. Hala Rharrit is a career diplomat who resigned from the State Department in 2024 to protest the Biden administration's Gaza policy, and Jasmine El-Gamal served as a Middle East adviser at the Pentagon during the Obama administration.This is exactly what American diplomats have been trying to avoid for two decades. And before my resignation, it is exactly what I was warning against," says Rharrit, now in Oman after leaving Dubai with her family for safety.El-Gamal casts doubt on the Trump administration's shifting reasons for the war, including President Trump's feeling" that Iran was about to strike first. It is ludicrous to expect the American people to believe that Iran would have attacked the U.S. preemptively in the middle of negotiations," she says, adding that the contradictory messages show how little they were really thinking this through before they went to war."

Senate Votes 53-47 to Reject Resolution Reining In Trump's War Powers, Pentagon Chief Says U.S. and Israel Will Continue to Attack Iran Without Mercy", Iran Denies Striking Azerbaijan and Turkey as Its Missiles Target U.S. Bases and Oil Tankers, Israel Continues Bombing Beirut and Expands Forced Evacuation Orders in Southern Lebanon, CodePink Disrupts Heritage Foundation Gathering to Protest Support for Iran War, Report Finds Global Heating Is Driving Sea Level Rise Far Faster Than Previously Believed, More Than a Dozen Measles Cases Detected at Texas ICE Tent Camp, ICE Slashed Basic Training to Speed Trump's Mass Deportation Campaign, Minnesota Gov. Walz Condemns ICE Crackdown and Medicaid Funding Freeze as Political Retribution", Cuba Suffers Another Massive Blackout as U.S. Oil Blockade Worsens Humanitarian Crisis, Venezuela Announces Mining Law Reforms Granting Access to U.S. Companies, House Committee Subpoenas Attorney General Pam Bondi to Testify About Epstein Files, Report Finds Catholic Priests in Rhode Island Sexually Abused Hundreds of Children for Decades

Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho joins us to discuss his Oscar-nominated film, The Secret Agent, and the history that inspired it. The film is set in the northern Brazilian city of Recife in the 1970s, during the country's U.S.-backed military dictatorship. "The Secret Agent is very much about the past, but it's very much about the past repeating itself through amnesia," says Mendonca, who draws a comparison between the Cold War-era dictatorship and Brazil's later years under right-wing Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro.This is an excerpt of a longer interview with Mendonca you can watch here.

As Iranian missiles strike military, residential and economic targets in neighboring Gulf states, we speak to Al Jazeera's senior political analyst Marwan Bishara in Doha, Qatar. Bishara says Iran's targeting of U.S. allies in the region may be an Iranian calculation that there is a cost to be paid for American interests" as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other regional powers are forced to respond to an Israeli war of choice." Meanwhile, says Bishara, the U.S. has learned nothing" from its own history. Not only has the Trump administration repeated every single false pretext the Bush administration carried or diffused to justify the war against Iraq," but this threatens to be a far worse war in its implication for American long-term security and for the stability in the region ... It's like the American government [is] addicted to international violence, to wars, to assassinations, to launching those hegemonic wars that they [cannot] end."