Democracy Now!

We speak to two prominent Israeli thinkers, historian Omer Bartov and journalist Gideon Levy, about the founding beliefs of Zionism. Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, is the author of the new book Israel: What Went Wrong? Bartov says the early Zionist movement had liberatory intentions, aiming to emancipate the persecuted Jewish minority in Europe and modeling itself after other contemporary ethnonationalist movements. He then argues that while Israel had the opportunity to become a normal state" and issue a constitution that would provide equality to all its citizens, would define its borders and create a legal framework" that could also acknowledge and redress the Nakba, it chose another path. Instead of remedying its foundational violence, he says, the modern Israeli state has become increasingly militaristic, centralized, expansionist, racist and, as we've seen since October 2023, genocidal." Though Bartov does not identify as an anti-Zionist, he says Israel must discard Zionism, it must put it on the garbage heap of history, and it must redefine itself, going all the way back to 1948."Levy, on the other hand, says Zionism has never been reformable, because the movement, from its very beginning, started wrong, without the belief or the conviction that we can live together." He contests Bartov's assertion that early Zionist intentions became warped over the 20th century, and says instead that the violent dispossession of Palestinians is embedded into the premise of the movement. This very same attitude, this very same policy never stopped ever since '48," Levy contends. His latest piece in Haaretz is titled Zionism Didn't Go Wrong, It Was Always Built This Way."Both Bartov and Levy also respond to the Israeli government's threat to file a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times for publishing a column by longtime opinion writer Nicholas Kristof about systemic sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. That has become the policy of the country - to abuse, to humiliate, to rape systematically," says Bartov. Levy explains Israel's reaction is to attack the messenger."

Palestinians around the world are marking Nakba Day, 78 years after their forced mass displacement led to the establishment of the Jewish-majority state of Israel. Decades later, Palestinians still face widespread oppression and violence from the Israeli state as it continues its expansionary project. Israel tried, since 1948 until today, to destroy us as a people, as a group, and they failed at it. Our people are still there, resilient," says Palestinian writer Muhammad Shehada, who was born in Gaza and now lives in Denmark. Shehada discusses the ongoing process of the Nakba, including its latest intensification after October 7, 2023. Now this veneer of civility has fallen off. The mask was taken off. And now it's a matter of national pride in Israel to brag about annihilating Palestinians."Shehada also describes current conditions in Gaza - still under Israeli blockade and occupation - and what he calls the disarmament trap" of unfairly weighted negotiations designed to strip Palestinians of political autonomy. The 'realistic' proposal that Israel is putting on the table is surrender, capitulate, become fully defenseless, weaponless, and entrust the very army that carried out a genocide against you to be merciful towards you once you are an easier target than you ever were before."Finally, he responds to the Israeli government's recent threat to file a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, after the paper published a column by longtime opinion writer Nicholas Kristof about systemic sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. It's the newspaper of record. It'll be spread and disseminated widely to an American audience," says Shehada about the allegations levied in Kristof's piece. So we see, basically, an Israeli panic attack in return."

House Narrowly Rejects Latest War Powers Resolution to End Trump's Attacks on Iran, CENTCOM Commander Denies U.S. Killed Civilians in Iran: No Way That We Can Corroborate That", Iran's Foreign Minister Asks BRICS Nations to Unite Against U.S. Bullying", Trump Departs China Without Agreements on Taiwan, Iran or Strait of Hormuz, CIA Chief Travels to Havana as Cuba's Oil Reserves Run Dry Amid U.S. Fuel Blockade, UNICEF Says Israeli Attacks Have Killed or Wounded 59 Children in a Week, Despite Ceasefire Deal, Israeli Nationalists March Through Jerusalem's Old City, Chanting Death to Arabs", 24 Killed as Russian Missile Slams into Kyiv Apartment Building, Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks, Who Oversaw Mass Deportation Campaign, Abruptly Resigns, Court Orders Trump Administration to Return Colombian Woman Deported to Congo, Supreme Court Preserves Broad Access to Abortion Medication Mifepristone, ABC: Trump Set to Unveil $1.7 Billion IRS Compensation Fund" to Benefit MAGA Allies, Boeing to Pay Family of Samya Stumo Nearly $50M over Fatal Crash of 737 MAX Jet, Bolivian Unions Lead Nationwide Strikes Demanding Ouster of President Paz, Richard Glossip Freed on Bond After Nearly 30 Years on Oklahoma's Death Row

We speak with the acclaimed artist and author Molly Crabapple about her new book, Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. Although largely forgotten today, the Jewish Labor Bund was once a powerful secular, socialist revolutionary party that fought for freedom and dignity for Jews in Europe. The movement formed in the waning days of the Russian Empire in an atmosphere of intense antisemitism, but it rejected, from the very start, calls to create a Jewish ethnostate in Palestine," Crabapple says. They felt that Zionism was a capitulation to the same bigots that wanted to kick Jews out of Europe."Bund members - known as Bundists - navigated profound historical changes from the founding of the movement in 1897 until its ultimate destruction in the Holocaust. But Crabapple, who learned Yiddish for the book, says the Bund is not just Jewish history.This is a history that belongs to all rebels. It belongs to everyone who believes in the necessity of human solidarity," she says.

U.S. President Donald Trump is in Beijing for a highly anticipated summit with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping. It is the first U.S. state visit to China since 2017, during Trump's first administration. Trade, the Iran war, artificial intelligence and the fate of Taiwan are some of the issues being discussed, although it's not clear if any new agreements are likely. Trump traveled to China with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, along with a delegation of top U.S. executives including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Elon Musk of Tesla and Jensen Huang of Nvidia.The summit comes after years of rising hostility between the two superpowers, but leaders recognize the importance of improving the bilateral relationship, says Zhao Hai, director of international political studies at the Institute of World Economics and Politics in Beijing. This is a very critical historical moment [at] a crossroad, and both sides now are working together to establish a stable relationship that will have a global ramification," he says.We also speak with Jake Werner, a historian of modern China and director of the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He says the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the resulting economic chaos have strengthened China's position.China has ties to all the countries in the region. It has acted in the past to help broker the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran," says Werner. So it has some experience in this realm, sort of acting as a broker towards peace."

Xi Jinping Warns U.S. of Potential Conflict" over Taiwan After Beijing Summit with Trump, Senate Narrowly Rejects Iran War Powers Resolution for Seventh Time, Children Among the Dead as Israel Continues Bombing Lebanon Despite Ceasefire, Israeli Police Kill Palestinian Attempting to Scale West Bank Wall to Find Work, Study Finds Israel Increased Attacks on Gaza After Halting Strikes on Iran, Judge Temporarily Blocks U.S. Sanctions Against U.N. Expert on Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israeli Prime Minister Claims He Made Secret" Visit to the UAE in March, U.S. Senate Votes to Confirm Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve Chair, Trump Admin Withholds $1.3 Billion in Medicaid Reimbursement Payments from California, Former Private Prison Official to Be Named Acting Director of ICE, Louisiana Police to Pay More Than $4.8 Million to Settle Wrongful Death of Ronald Greene, U.N. Warns Drones Cause More Than 80% of Civilian Deaths in Sudan, Mexican President Denies Reports CIA Officers Assassinated Cartel Members, Israel Qualifies for the Eurovision Song Contest Final Amid Protests and Calls for Boycott

Salah Sarsour, a prominent Palestinian immigrant, green card holder and president of Wisconsin's largest mosque, the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, has been locked up in an ICE jail since late March. Despite his lawful permanent resident status, the government says he could be subject to deportation for failing to disclose a conviction by Israeli military authorities when he was a teenager in the occupied West Bank. Sarsour says he never understood the charges presented against him in Hebrew and that he was tortured in Israeli custody. Supporters view the case as an escalation of the Trump administration's crackdown on Pro-Palestinian speech. Munjed Ahmad, a member of Salah Sarsour's legal team, says, Salah's case will be a litmus test. Will we allow the administration to gut those rights and to strip people from their free speech?"Ahmad is joined by Sarsour's son Kareem, who calls Trump's federal immigration agents kidnappers" and says his family initially had no idea what had happened to his father. While incarcerated, Salah Sarsour missed the birth of his ninth grandchild. He's a community pillar," says Kareem Sarsour. The entire thing shook us as a family."

As the supercharged" construction of new data centers to power artificial intelligence blankets the country, a growing resistance movement to these massive corporate projects amid a lack of public oversight is not far behind. As organizer Astra Taylor explains, local fights across the country are leveraging this industry chokepoint" to force important questions, from the distribution of land, water and energy resources to democratic governance over an industry currently driven by a billionaire Big Tech agenda." While AI boosters frame the technology as inevitable, Taylor says, I think that many people are more skeptical than that. ... That's part of what it means to have democratic governance over AI, to say, 'No, we don't need this technology to take over every facet of our existence.'"

Trump's commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Martin Makary, has resigned. During Makary's 13-month tenure, he attempted to split the difference between Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again agenda and a more traditional approach to regulation, ultimately angering both camps. Nobody was happy with what he did," says Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.Shortly before his resignation, Makary had drawn the ire of President Trump for attempting to block the approval of fruit-flavored vapes, and anti-abortion groups for not placing harsher restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone. But even before Makary took the helm, mass layoffs and the loss of scientific expertise had already thrown the FDA, which has oversight powers extending to more than a fifth of the U.S. economy, in turmoil.The FDA's deputy commissioner for food, Kyle Diamantis, will now assume Makary's position in an acting capacity. Diamantas, a personal friend of Donald Trump Jr., does not have a background in medicine. The abrupt leadership shakeup is worrisome for the future of health and medicine in the United States, says Dr. Robert Steinbrook, the health research director at watchdog organization Public Citizen. We need a strong public health agency," he explains. [But] when you pick them apart for particular theories and the idiosyncrasies of the Health and Human Services secretary, you destroy things which take years, if not decades, to rebuild."

Pentagon Comptroller Says Cost of Iran War Has Risen to $29 Billion, U.S. Inflation Rate Rose to 3.8% in April, WSJ Receives Subpoenas for Records of Journalists Reporting on Internal Discussions of Iran War, Peace Activists Disrupt Politico Defense Summit, Confronting Iranian Opposition Leader Reza Pahlavi, Israeli Attacks Kill 8 in Lebanon in Latest Breaches of U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire, Senators Grill FBI Director Kash Patel over Reports of Excessive Drinking, U.S. Negotiates with Denmark to Open New Military Bases in Greenland, CNN: CIA Officers in Mexico Are Directly Involved in Targeted Assassinations" of Cartel Members, Immigration Lawsuits Surge Under Trump's Mass Deportation Campaign, House Field Hearing in Palm Beach Brings Epstein Survivors to The Scene of the Crime"

We were hearing, every day, the screams of other Palestinians who were being tortured inside this investigation center."Spanish citizen Saif Abukeshek, an activist of Palestinian origin, speaks with Democracy Now! about spending 10 days in Israeli detention after he was abducted in international waters. He was among 175 international activists sailing to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which has for years tried to breach Israel's maritime blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians.Abukeshek and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila were the only flotilla members detained for questioning" inside Israel, where they say they faced severe physical abuse in detention. Abukeshek, speaking from Turkey, says being dual nationals provided them some protection because of international attention. Imagine how Palestinians are being treated. Imagine the violations that people from Palestine are receiving," he says.

We speak with Kristen Clarke, general counsel of the NAACP, about growing threats to democracy in the United States following the Supreme Court's gutting of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Republican lawmakers across the South are responding to the ruling by racing to redraw their congressional maps, which is expected to lead to a historic drop in the number of Black representatives in Congress.The Supreme Court's devastating decision in the Louisiana v. Callais case has really turned our country upside down," says Clarke, who previously served as assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department in the Biden administration. She says that given the history of racial discrimination in the United States, particularly in the Deep South, it is unsurprising" to see lawmakers race at lightning speed to eradicate the gains that have been made over the decades."Clarke also discusses President Trump's efforts to take federal control of elections in at least eight states, which Clarke says is part of his administration's goal to lock out certain voters" and commit mass disenfranchisement."

Trump Warns Iran Ceasefire Is On Life Support", Saudi Aramco Warns Of Catastrophic Consequences" Unless Strait of Hormuz Reopens, Israeli Military Issues New Evacuation Orders for Residents of Southern Lebanon, Israeli Forces Continue Deadly Violations of U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire, Palestinian Family Says Israeli Settlers Forced Them to Exhume West Bank Gravesite, EU to Impose Sanctions on Israeli Settlers in the Occupied West Bank, Protests Erupt at Real Estate Expo Advertising Properties for Sale in the Occupied West Bank, SCOTUS Allows Alabama to Adopt Congressional Map Eliminating a Black-Majority District, Trump Set to Arrive in China with Entourage of Billionaires, Senate Democrats Blast GOP Plan to Spend $1 Billion in Taxpayer Funds on Trump's Ballroom, Haiti's Prime Minister Says Country Is Too Unstable to Hold Presidential Elections, Philippines Senator Flees Federal Agents Serving ICC Arrest Warrant

Two weeks before Rami Elghandour was expected to address newly minted engineering graduates at his alma mater Rutgers University, the CEO of biotech firm Arcellx received a shocking call from school administrators. Citing vague" complaints about his social media posts on Israel and Palestine, the school abruptly withdrew its convocation invitation. We speak to Rami Elghandour about the decision, which he tells Democracy Now! he finds not only heartbreaking," but also illogical. Having a different point of view is not harming these students in any way to lead to this sort of outcome," he says. Elghandour, an executive producer of the Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab, adds that the silencing of pro-Palestine speech stems from a false equivalency" between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine voices. There are two sides, but they couldn't be more historically different."

Outraged by the civilian casualties from the war on Iran, protester Guido Reichstadter scaled the 168-foot Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. He remained on the bridge for over five days. Upon descending, he was arrested and charged by law enforcement for trespassing. Reichstadter says he undertook his protest as a form of nonviolent opposition against both the Trump administration's war on Iran and the unchecked acceleration of artificial intelligence systems - some of which have been used by the United States military to select targets for deadly missile strikes. We the people, in whose name these murders are being committed, we've got the power and the responsibility to nonviolently withdraw our support, our cooperation, from the system, from the regime," he explains. Reichstadter is a former U.S. Marine who left the service after refusing to deploy to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. He is now an outspoken social justice activist and the founder of the grassroots coalition Stop AI.

This year's local election results from the United Kingdom are in. The far-right, anti-immigrant Reform UK party made substantial gains, while the ruling Labour Party suffered heavy losses, signaling what London-based journalist Daniel Trilling calls a wider fragmenting of politics" and a generational shift away from the two-party political system. We get an overview of major developments to the U.K. political scene from Trilling, including how Donald Trump's transformation of the U.S. right-wing movement has inspired Nigel Farage's Reform UK party, and how the Labour Party's crackdown on pro-Palestine activism led to rising support for the left-wing Green Party. Trilling also discusses how populist sentiment continues to influence other countries in Europe after Hungary's extremist leader Viktor Orban suffered a major election defeat last month.

Trump Blasts Iran's Response to U.S. Ceasefire Proposal as Totally Unacceptable", Iranian Political Prisoner Narges Mohammadi Hospitalized After Collapsing in Prison, Israeli Strikes on Lebanon Kill Dozens, Including Infant and Medics, Despite Ceasefire Deal, Israeli Forces Kill Three Palestinians in Latest Violations of Gaza Ceasefire, Israel Deports Two Activists It Abducted from Gaza-Bound Humanitarian Aid Flotilla, Palestine International Marathon Includes Amputees Who Lost Limbs to Israeli Attacks, Gaza Documentary Censored by BBC Wins BAFTA Award, Party of Far-Right U.K. Populist Nigel Farage Makes Historic Gains in Local Elections, Virginia High Court Strikes Down Voter-Approved Congressional Map in Major Win for GOP, Justice Department Rushes to Deport Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil, Couple Jailed by ICE Reunites with Terminally Ill Son One Day Before He Dies of Cancer, Pentagon Says Latest Boat Strike Killed Two, Leaving One Survivor, U.S. Military Surges Surveillance Flights Off Cuba's Coast, Ukraine and Russia Exchange Fire as U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire Fails to Hold, Hungary's Peter Magyar Sworn In as Prime Minister, Ending 16 Years of Rule by Viktor Orban

As Iran and the United States maintain rival blockades on the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters, we look at the more than 20,000 seafarers stranded on commercial ships since the outbreak of the war and unable to move out of the region. These maritime workers are often working-class men from developing countries across the Global South who form the crews on about 1,500 oil tankers, cargo ships and other vessels currently stuck on the water. Unpaid for several weeks, they lack the visas to disembark in any of the Gulf countries near the ships.There is lack of food, there is lack of provisions, there is lack of water," says Mohamed Arrachedi of the International Transport Workers' Federation, joining us from Bilbao, Spain. The seafarers are just exposed and absolutely vulnerable."We also speak with Manoj Yadav, general secretary of Forward Seamen's Union of India, who says the mental health of the workers is rapidly deteriorating as many have also lost connection to their families.They are trained for serving on board merchant vessels. They are not trained for the war," Yadav says.

Construction crews in Arizona who are building President Trump's expanded border wall have razed a portion of a Native American archeological site in the Sonoran Desert estimated to be at least 1,000 years old. Aerial photos reveal that bulldozers caused extensive damage to a 280-by-50-foot etching in the desert sand known as an intaglio, which holds special significance for the Hia-Ced O'odham people.Lorraine Marquez Eiler, co-founder of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance and an elder of the Hia-Ced O'odham, says locals informed both the work crews and Border Patrol officials about the significance of the intaglio.On Thursday, late afternoon, they were still talking about how to protect the area and went home feeling that they were still working together. On Friday, for whatever reason, the contractors bulldozed the area," says Marquez Eiler.This wall cuts through sovereign ancestral lands that existed long before the U.S.-Mexico border," adds Congressmember Adelita Grijalva, whose district includes the area. The federal government is prioritizing this rapid construction of an unnecessary wall without any meaningful tribal consultation."

As the Trump administration continues to expand the ICE detention system, concerns are growing over abuses inside immigration jails, including use of physical violence, pepper spray and electric shocks against detainees. Earlier this year, more than 70,000 people were being detained by ICE in jails across the country.Congressmember Adelita Grijalva from Arizona, who visited two ICE jails recently, says detainees who spoke to her described dire conditions, medical neglect and more. People are losing weight. Water is undrinkable," she says. There are a lot of really significant abuses happening. There's no rhyme or reason as to what's going on."

A new investigation by Reuters details how the Trump administration is seeking to gain federal control over elections in at least eight states, employing investigations, raids and demands for access to balloting systems and voter ID records for the campaign.What we're seeing is the Trump administration, in some ways, is seeking to relitigate the 2020 election, and they're also seeking to impose federal authority over the administration of elections," says investigative journalist Ned Parker.Parker also discusses the Trump administration's campaign of retribution against the president's perceived enemies, for which he and his colleagues at Reuters just won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. What we found in our count of 470 targets was that it really cut across all aspects of American society," he says.

Trump Downplays Renewed U.S. Strikes on Iran as Just a Love Tap" and Claims Ceasefire Is Holding, UAE Expels Pakistani Workers as Strait of Hormuz Crisis Leaves 20,000 Sailors Stranded, Israeli Attacks Kill 12 in Lebanon, Including Paramedic and Two Children, U.S. Imposes More Sanctions on Cuba as Brazil's President Says Trump Ruled Out Military Action, Dozens Killed as al-Qaeda-Linked Insurgents Attack Villages in Mali, Tennessee Republicans Approve New Congressional Map Diluting Power of Black Voters, New York to Ban ICE Agents from Wearing Masks and Raiding Schools, Hospitals or Churches, Chicago Teen with Terminal Cancer Pleads to Reunite with Parents Who Were Jailed by ICE, U.S. and Israel Worked with Disgraced Ex-President of Honduras to Destabilize Leftist Governments, El Salvador's President Freezes Assets of Staffers at Newspaper That Reported on Corruption, U.K. Identifies Another Suspected Case of Hantavirus from Stricken Cruise Ship, Trump Economic Adviser Celebrates Soaring Credit Card Debt as Iran War Drives Rapid Inflation

The country's most important civil rights law no longer effectively exists, and that's going to have ramifications on American democracy for a very long time." Mother Jones correspondent Ari Berman reacts to the Supreme Court's recent 6-3 decision rejecting key principles of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Since the court issued its ruling last week, Republican-controlled states have begun to redraw their voting maps in a gerrymandering arms race" that could lead to the largest drop in Black representation since the Jim Crow era," explains Berman. We're returning to the days of literacy tests and poll taxes - not through those devices, but through specifically trying to eliminate Black office holders. And Southern legislators are very clear they are going to do this. They feel unshackled by the Supreme Court ruling. They are being pressured by President Trump to do it, and they feel like all the guardrails are off right now."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won big in state-level elections this week, with the Hindu nationalist BJP now controlling over 70% of the country. Leading opposition politician and Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has refused to recognize the results as legitimate, accusing the Modi government of mass disenfranchisement. Ahead of elections, 9 million names were deleted from the rolls under a process called Special Intensive Revision" (SIR). The process, conducted by India's Election Commission, vitiates and creates an electoral advantage by pitting Hindu voters against Muslim voters," says political scientist Gilles Verniers. Rather than the advertised purge of deceased and duplicate voters, SIR appears to have primarily affected Muslims and other minorities. Nearly 3 million voters in West Bengal, where more than a quarter of the population is Muslim, were unable to cast their vote.From New Delhi, journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani says blatant election interference has destroyed Indians' faith in democratic elections. The general public does not think the elections are free and fair in India," she explains. So this is a sad day for democracy, for people who believe that not only today, but tomorrow's India should also be democratic."

Gaza is facing an environmental and biological apocalypse" under Israeli bombardment and blockade, reports Palestinian aid worker Eyad Amawi of the Gaza Relief Committee. Israel's destruction of infrastructure has become a generator for disease," with sewage contamination and rodent infestation now an everyday hazard for refugees living in tent camps. [It's] no longer just bombardment or physical destruction. It is the collapse of every essential condition required for human survival: water, food, health, dignity, shelter, safety, everything." Amawi also comments on the extended detention of two international activists with the Global Sumud Flotilla. Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek will not be released before this weekend, according to the latest update from the Israeli military. Neither has been charged with any crime.

Israel Bombs Beirut in Further Violation of April Ceasefire, Trump Threatens Iran with Heaviest Bombing Yet, Then Predicts It'll All Work Out", Trump Abandons Project Freedom" After Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Suspend Access to Bases and Airspace, Satellite Photos Reveal Iran Has Hit Far More U.S. Military Targets Than Previously Reported, Israel Begins Bypass Road Linking Jerusalem to West Bank Settlements, U.N. Calls on Israel to Immediately and Unconditionally Release Abducted Gaza Flotilla Activists, U.S. Renews Deportation Proceedings Against Palestinian Student Activist Mohsen Mahdawi, Rutgers Rescinds Invitation to Graduation Speaker over Support for Palestinians, University of Michigan Apologizes for Professor's Commencement Address Praising Pro-Palestinian Student Activists, Protesters Gather Outside New York Synagogue to Demonstrate Against West Bank Real Estate Expo, Russia Fires Dozens of Drones at Ukraine, Hitting a Kindergarten, Tennessee Protesters March to State Capitol as Lawmakers Unveil Gerrymandered Congressional Map, FBI Raids Office of State Senator L. Louise Lucas, FBI Launches a Criminal Leak Probe on Atlantic Journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick, Commerce Secretary Lutnick Grilled by Congress over Epstein Ties, Federal Judge Releases Purported Suicide Note from Epstein

Leading scholar in the field of critical race theory Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality," which she has described as a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects." Crenshaw, a professor of law at UCLA and Columbia University and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, has just published a new book, Backtalker: An American Memoir.Backtalker is a frame that I use to encourage people to talk back against claims that the world as we have experienced it is the way it can only be, that there is no reason to continue to advocate for change," says Crenshaw. She also discusses the Supreme Court's recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act and the sociopolitical environment that allowed for Clarence Thomas to be appointed to the Supreme Court despite Anita Hill's claims of sexual harassment against him.

The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, warning residents of 12 towns and villages, including some north of the Litani River - beyond its current zone of occupation - to leave their homes. Those warnings were followed by reports of airstrikes in the south.Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a fragile temporary ceasefire in mid-April that has since been extended, but fighting has continued at a lesser scale. More than 1 million Lebanese, nearly one-fifth of Lebanon's population, have been displaced.So this is dozens of villages that now no one can technically access. They're calling it a 'forward defensive zone,'" says Lylla Younes, an investigative journalist based in Beirut. There's nothing defensive about it. It's an offensive operation, and they're using the word 'cleanse' to describe what they're doing there. They're just bulldozing homes."

Reporters Without Borders warns press freedom has fallen to its lowest level since the group began publishing its annual World Press Freedom Index in 2002. The index has charted how press freedoms have deteriorated in the United States and elsewhere over the past 25 years. The U.S. was ranked 17th in the world in 2002. In the latest index, the U.S. is down to 64th, falling seven places since last year.It's tempting to lay all of this at the feet of President Donald Trump, and to be clear, he is the single biggest threat to American press freedom today," says Clayton Weimers, the North America director for Reporters Without Borders. But the mere fact that we fell from 57th last year tells us that this isn't just a Trump problem. We have structural deficiencies that are imperiling the future of press freedom in this country." Weimers cites these deficiencies as the consolidation of U.S. media and loss of journalism jobs, emboldened" politicians' attacks on reporters, and violence against journalists by law enforcement agents.Weimers also comments on the January FBI raid on the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner shooting and Israel's attacks on journalists in Lebanon and Gaza.

Trump Announces Pause of So-Called Project Freedom Operation in Strait of Hormuz, Husband of Imprisoned Iranian Human Rights Activist Narges Mohammadi Speaks Out After Her Hospitalization, Israeli Strikes Kill at Least Three Palestinians in Gaza, Israeli Court Extends Detention of Two Gaza Flotilla Activists, Four Palestine Action Activists Convicted over Raid at Factory Operated by Israeli Defense Firm Elbit, House Democrats Urge U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Acknowledge Israel's Secret Weapons Program, Pentagon Launches Another Strike on a Vessel in the Eastern Pacific, Killing Three People, New Report Casts Blame on U.S. Sanctions for Cuba's Increasing Infant Mortality Rate, Guardian: ICE Hires Private Security Company Accused of Torture to Help Track Down Undocumented Children, CNN: Department of Veterans Affairs Probes Staffers Who Attended Vigils Honoring Alex Pretti, Senate GOP Tucks In $1 Billion for Trump's White House Ballroom in Immigration Enforcement Package, Trump-Backed Challengers Unseat Five Indiana GOP State Senators Who Voted Against Redistricting Plan, Activists Protest at the Philippines Consulate Calling for Probe into Killing of 19 People in Negros

As more people cut the cord and drop their cable TV subscriptions, public access channels are losing a vital source of revenue. For decades, cable television companies have paid franchise fees to local municipalities as compensation for use of the public right of way, through which the companies route cables and utilities. Those fees have funded local stations focused on public, educational, and governmental access programming.As there's migration to digital entertainment and to streaming, there is no local investment - there's no local jobs, there's no local programming," says Michael Max Knobbe, executive director of BronxNet in New York.We also speak with Joe Barr, executive director of Access Sacramento in California, who says the station is of the community, by the community, for the community." He adds that as the corporate media continues to consolidate, it really could be a dire situation for getting a broad spectrum of viewpoints."

As President Trump continues to attack media organizations and journalists, we speak with a sitting member of the Federal Communications Commission about how the administration has weaponized the FCC to go after his perceived enemies in the media. Anna Gomez is the sole Democratic commissioner on the FCC, which is currently operating with just three commissioners instead of the usual five. She criticizes the agency's recently announced review of ABC television licenses, which comes after President Trump called for the firing of ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. Under Chair Brendan Carr, the FCC has repeatedly gone after critics of the president by threatening to revoke valuable broadcast licenses.This administration is using any point of leverage that it has to go after its critics," says Gomez, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2023.Gomez also discusses how media consolidation impacts public choice, including the pending merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, which would bring an unprecedented number of properties under the ownership of the Trump-aligned Ellison family.

We speak with Middle East history professor Toby Jones about the ongoing crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, where overlapping blockades by Iran and the United States have disrupted shipping and the wider global economy since the start of the war in late February. Jones says this latest conflict is part of a decadeslong project by the United States to exert imperial control over the oil-rich region, but that it's now in danger of a strategic loss signaling a deeper imperial decline.Through an unprovoked assault on Iran, Trump has accelerated, or at least clarified, the real limits of American imperial power," says Jones. He's definitely put the United States in a much more vulnerable and weakened position globally as a result of this war."

Trump Threatens Iran Will Be Blown off the Face of the Earth" If It Targets U.S. Navy Ships, Protester Remains on D.C. Bridge for Fifth Consecutive Day to Oppose Iran War, Iran Hangs Three Men over January Anti-Government Protests, Israeli Military Says It's Ready for Renewed Full-Scale Assault on Gaza, Israeli Forces in Nablus Kill Palestinian Man as His Wife Gives Birth, Pentagon Says It Blew Up Another Boat in Caribbean, as Claimed Death Toll Rises to 188, Ukrainian Attacks on Russian Refineries Trigger Black Sea Oil Spills and Toxic Rain, Federal Appeals Court Blocks Ex-Prisoner Who Won Election from Taking Office in New Orleans, Protesters Disrupt Alabama State Legislature over GOP Plans to Redraw Congressional Maps, WaPo: ICE Guards Used Physical Violence or Deployed Chemical Agents on Jailed Immigrants, SCOTUS Blocks Lower Court Ruling Cutting Access to Abortion Pill Mifepristone, Indian Prime Minister Modi's Nationalist Party BJP Wins Key Election in West Bengal, Palestinian Photographer Among 2026 Pulitzer Prize Winners, Animal Rights Advocates Reach Deal with Ridglan Farms to Release 1,500 Beagles, Labor Unions Stage Ball Without Billionaires" as Bezos-Sponsored Met Gala Faces Protests

We discuss the ongoing crisis in the Strait of Hormuz with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft's Trita Parsi. U.S. officials are denying Iranian reports that a U.S. vessel was struck by Iranian missiles amid the two countries' dual blockade of the strait. The warring nations still say they are observing a fragile temporary ceasefire as negotiations continue for a possible longer-term deal. However, says Parsi, both sides are making maximalist demands," so a diplomatic solution is unlikely. As long as Trump continues to listen to those forces, the very same forces that also sold him this blockade that has backfired, we're not going to see a diplomatic breakthrough. It requires a far more disciplined and flexible approach to the negotiations, and right now we're not seeing that from either side."

We get a firsthand account of the violent raid, arrest and detention of members of the Global Sumud Flotilla, after Israeli forces intercepted the humanitarian mission in international waters Thursday. We were held in a makeshift prison with shipping containers and barbed wire. Many people were subject to aggressive physical force. Of the 56 aid-carrying vessels attempting to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, more than a third were seized by the Israeli military," recounts flotilla member Hannah Smith. Some flotilla members had to be rescued after one boat was left sinking," Smith reports.Two members, Saif Abukeshek of Spain and Thiago Avila of Brazil, are now being held without charges in an Israeli prison. It is a favorite tactic of the Israeli regime to try to bully people into silence and submission, to threaten people, and they've gotten away with it for decades," says Rania Batrice, a Palestinian American member of the Global Sumud Flotilla's communications team. Abukeshek's wife, Sally Issa, says her husband started a hunger strike, and he was treated very bad, so bad that all the activists on the boat could hear him screaming." The Spanish and Brazilian governments have denounced the arrests as flagrantly illegal" and are demanding their citizens' release.

In a major blow to abortion access, a federal appeals court decision siding with the state of Louisiana has placed major restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone. The medication, used in roughly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S., can no longer be sent by mail or prescribed through telemedicine. But previous abortion restrictions show that curtailing access doesn't reduce the prevalence of abortions. Instead, they make the procedure more dangerous, and even deadly. They're trying to stop the unstoppable. And as a result, these restrictions are pretty draconian and increasingly absurd," says The Nation's abortion access correspondent Amy Littlefield, who also explains what alternate steps patients and providers can now take to access medication abortion. The decision is expected to be challenged at the Supreme Court, making the anti-abortion movement top of mind once again in a midterm election year."

U.S. Denies Warship Was Struck in Strait of Hormuz Despite Iranian Claim, Israel Kills 41 in Lebanon Despite Ceasefire, Issues New Displacement Orders for Southern Towns, Israel Jails Flotilla Activists Seized in International Waters, as Lawyers Report Torture, Beatings, Pentagon Pulls 5,000 Troops from Germany After Chancellor Cites U.S. Humiliation" in Iran War, Reporters Without Borders: Press Freedom Falls to Its Lowest Level in 25 Years, Trump Expands Sanctions on Cuba's Government as U.S. Fuel Blockade Roils Cuban Economy, Cuban Immigrant Dies in Georgia ICE Jail, the 18th Such Death in 2026, 1,000-Year-Old Archaeological Site Damaged by Construction of Trump's Border Wall, FBI Reassigned a Quarter of Its Employees to Immigration Enforcement Under Trump, Appeals Court Blocks Distribution of Abortion Medication Mifepristone by Mail, Southern States Scramble to Redraw Congressional Maps After Supreme Court Guts Voting Rights Act, No School, No Work, No Shopping": Millions Participate in U.S. May Day Actions

On International Workers' Day, we take a look at the state of workers' rights and freedoms in India, where pressure on fuel supplies from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has deepened the cost-of-living crisis and labor unrest is on the rise. In mid-April, tens of thousands of workers from the industrial hubs around New Delhi blocked roads to demand a fair wage and better working conditions.Various governments in India and the central government have been trying to dilute labor laws," says Neha Dixit, an investigative journalist and author based in New Delhi. And there have been constant protests and strikes against this."Dixit's new book is The Many Lives of Syeda X: A People's History of Invisible India.

As workers around the world rally to mark May Day, International Workers' Day, we speak with organizers in Los Angeles and Chicago. The May Day Strong coalition here in the United States says 3,000 protests and events are scheduled across the country with organizers calling for no school, no work, no shopping."The largest May Day protest in Los Angeles is planned at MacArthur Park. Pedro Trujillo, the coordinator of the Los Angeles May Day Coalition, says the July presence of immigration agents with SWAT gear and armored vehicles in MacArthur Park laid the foundation for a high May Day turnout. That's why we see such a strong coalition coming together, over 120 organizations and unions here in Los Angeles endorsing this march. We haven't seen this level of support, of engagement, in a very long time," says Trujillo.We are creating a coalition to resist the tyranny of billionaires in this moment," adds Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. Billionaires put a president in place to dismantle democracy, a right-wing Congress to watch it and a right-wing Supreme Court to block us from doing anything about it."

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week on President Trump's push to strip temporary protected status from 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians living in the United States. The TPS program grants protection from deportation and work authorization to immigrants whose home countries are deemed unsafe to return to, most often because of war or natural disaster. The case could ultimately have ramifications for more than 1 million TPS holders from over a dozen countries.TPS holders from Haiti and Syria say their countries remain unsafe and that DHS did not follow proper procedure. The lawsuit brought by Haitian TPS holders also accuses the administration of being motivated by racism - an allegation supported by a lower court ruling in February.Haiti is still in bad shape, and [TPS holders] cannot return there. So, you can imagine now the uncertainty that they live with on a daily basis," says Viles Dorsainvil, a plaintiff in Trump v. Miot, the case brought by Haitian TPS holders. Dorsainvil is the co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, Ohio. President Trump targeted the Haitian community in Springfield in 2024, falsely saying Haitian residents were eating pet dogs and cats. We've been scapegoated as a community," says Dorsainvil.

Senate Republicans Block Iran War Powers Resolution for Sixth Time Ahead of 60-Day Deadline, Israel Continues Deadly Strikes on Southern Lebanon in Latest Ceasefire Violations, Israeli Military Claims Control of Two-Thirds of Gaza in New Maps, Israeli Ceasefire Violations Kill Three and Wound 10 in Gaza, Including Aunt of Poet Mosab Abu Toha, Physicians for Human Rights Petitions Israel to Release Gaza Doctors Jailed Without Charges, Palestinian Journalist Ali al-Samoudi Freed from Israeli Jail Showing Signs of Torture, Starvation, Columbia University Students Rally on Second Anniversary of Hind's Hall" Protests, Congress Votes to Reopen Homeland Security Department, Ending Longest-Ever Partial Shutdown, Texas Court Interpreter Meenu Batra Walks Free After Weeks of Confinement in ICE Jail, Trump Swaps Nomination of MAHA Influencer Casey Means for Fox News Contributor Nicole Saphier, Maine's Governor Drops U.S. Senate Bid, Paving Way for Graham Platner to Win Democratic Nomination, Congressional Progressive Caucus Unveils Affordability Agenda" Ahead of Midterm Elections, ProPublica: Trump Administration Seeks to Slash SSI Benefits for 400,000 Disabled Adults, New York Mayor Mamdani Snubs King Charles III: Return the Koh-i-Noor Diamond", Antiwar Activist John Miller, Who Co-founded East Timor Action Network, Dies at 70

We speak with author and activist Bill McKibben about the worsening climate crisis and why the world must rapidly transition to renewable energy in order to stave off the worst impacts. He says the Iran war has exposed the utter folly" of fossil fuel dependence. Sunlight has to travel 93 million miles to reach the Earth, but none of those miles go through the Strait of Hormuz," says McKibben. That makes it a very appealing alternative, especially now that it's cheaper than burning coal and gas and oil."

We speak with Lebanese-born academic Gilbert Achcar about the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, U.S. foreign policy under President Trump and more. Achcar says Trump's military actions in Venezuela and Iran are not as dramatic a departure from U.S. policy as some commentators have suggested, calling it an old-new imperial doctrine." While the George W. Bush administration believed in regime change," says Achcar, Trump is just going back to 19th-century gunboat diplomacy: You bomb a country until they submit."Achcar's new book is Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective.

Attorney and civil rights activist Maya Wiley responds to the Justice Department's fraud case against the Southern Poverty Law Center, which centers on the group's history of paying individuals to infiltrate white supremacist groups in order to monitor their activities. The SPLC has rejected the charges as politically motivated, saying its informant program was used to monitor threats of violence and that the information gathered was routinely shared with local and federal law enforcement.It's political persecution," says Wiley, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a civil rights coalition that includes the SPLC. There's a pattern in the development of tyranny in countries across the globe where the person who wants to have that power finds ways to discredit the lawful advocacy of organizations that are fighting to ensure that democracy survives," she says.

The U.S. Supreme Court has effectively gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining major provision of the landmark 1965 law that was a crowning achievement of the civil rights movement.In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, a majority of justices ruled Wednesday that Louisiana must redraw a congressional map that was designed to create a second majority-Black district in the state, where African Americans have long faced racial segregation and barriers to voting. They said the electoral map relied too heavily on race," an interpretation that is set to usher in another wave of redistricting across the South to help Republicans win more seats in Congress.This is central to whether or not we maintain a multiracial democracy in this country," says lawyer and civil rights activist Maya Wiley, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She calls Wednesday's ruling a free pass to discriminate."

Supreme Court Strikes Down Louisiana Congressional Map and Guts Key Provision of Civil Rights Act, Supreme Court Weighs Trump's Power to End Protected Status for Syrians, Haitians, Iran's Currency in Freefall as Trump Says U.S. Could Block Ports for Months, Hegseth Clashes with Congressmembers Who Accuse Him of Lying and Incompetence over Iran, Israel's Latest Attacks on Lebanon Kill 9 as U.N.-Backed Report Warns 1.2 Million Face Hunger, Israeli Military Intercepts Global Sumud Flotilla, Arrests 175 Activists, Two Jewish Men Stabbed in London Neighborhood of Golders Green, U.S. Prosecutors Indict Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya and Nine Other Mexican Officials, Senate Republicans Kill War Powers Resolution to Limit Trump's Blockade of Cuba, House Votes to Extend U.S. Surveillance Powers Under FISA's Section 702

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that could determine whether thousands of cancer patients can keep suing the manufacturers of the popular weed killer glyphosate, known as Roundup. Critics of Roundup have long alleged a link between the herbicide and cancer. It was developed by Monsanto, which was bought by Bayer in 2018.Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting recently released a major investigation by Nate Halverson that looks at how the U.S. Forest Service has been rapidly expanding its use of Roundup despite concerns about its safety. The majority of glyphosate is still used in agriculture, but ... we were able to show that the fastest-growing use is actually now for forestry," says Halverson.

The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday it would be leaving OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, on May 1. The UAE has long disagreed with Saudi Arabia over oil production quotas and says it is leaving the group to focus on national interests" and increase its production capacity.The fact that the UAE has pulled out means that this cartel will have less ability to be able to push up the price when it wants," says Akshat Rathi, senior climate reporter at Bloomberg News. We've already seen some of it not working, because there are all these other producers, like the U.S.A., but also places like Guyana, that are increasing their production a lot."Meanwhile, Rathi adds that as countries across the globe brace for the ripple effects of the energy shocks created by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, transitions to clean energy could be accelerated. In the past, when countries were faced with this kind of energy shock, they had options that were quite limited," says Rathi. But now countries can try and deploy as much renewables so that they can build energy supply at home."

Negotiations between the United States and Iran to end the war are at an impasse as the conflict enters its third month. The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday that Trump has told aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iranian ports to ramp up the pressure on Tehran.Iran is saying it will enter into direct talks with the U.S. when President Trump lifts what Iran considers to be the illegal military naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz," says Drop Site News co-founder Jeremy Scahill. Iran has maintained that it's not shut down the strait, but that it's just shut it down for any vessels that are linked to the U.S. war in any way."Scahill says a disorganized Trump administration is pushing a total propaganda narrative" that it has the upper hand in negotiations, while Iran believes it has the three M's" on its side: munitions, markets and the midterms.