Democracy Now!

Filmmaker Juan Carlos Davila's new film for PBS, Farmers of the Sea, documents climate change's threats to the fishing industry and food security in Vieques, Puerto Rico. For islands in the Caribbean, explains Davila, we are situated geographically in one of the frontlines of climate change. [We're] not only facing stronger hurricanes now, [but] we could face food shortages, especially the islands that depend so much on the food that comes from the sea."

After failing to overturn birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court, Republican legislators are turning to new tactics to disenfranchise people born on U.S. soil. Their latest targets are those born to noncitizen or permanent resident parents in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico, where the Supreme Court has said citizenship is granted by statute and full constitutional protections do not apply. The proposed End Birthright Citizenship for the Territories Act" would create a subclass of people who can be discriminated against" and disregarded as human beings" in the U.S. territories, says Puerto Rican legal scholar Efren Rivera Ramos, who joins Democracy Now! from Puerto Rico's capital city, San Juan. While the bill's sponsor, Republican Congressmember Morgan Griffith of Virginia, says he's focused only on so-called birth tourism, Rivera Ramos says the language of the law is less clear.The quasi-colonial status of Puerto Rico is also being highlighted by the 10th anniversary of PROMESA, the Obama-era legislation that created a U.S.-appointed fiscal control board to manage the island's finances and restructure debt. In practice, PROMESA has been a failure," says Rivera Ramos, asserting the anti-democratic structure has imposed austerity measures and done little to address corruption, waste and inefficiency that plague the economy.

A youth-led protest movement in India is demanding an end to the country's status quo. Sparked by the leak of national exam questions, tens of thousands of young people have taken to the streets. They are protesting under the banner of the Cockroach Janta (People's) Party - a new party named to reflect the words of India's chief justice, who compared unemployed youth to cockroaches and parasites. The movement has only swelled in response to a violent crackdown on protesters. Although the protesters' initial demands were for the resignation of the country's education minister, everything has shifted to directly attacking [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi," says Indian writer Arundhati Roy, who joins us from New Delhi, the physical center of a movement that first found exponential success online. The erosion of democratic principles under Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata (Indian People's) Party is being contested on a large scale for the first time, says Roy. It's really a generation whose parents and grandparents wore those Modi masks and chanted 'Modi, Modi, Modi,' and got him into power. It is their children now who are saying the emperor has no clothes."

The status of a newly signed U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal is in question after President Trump made the surprise announcement that the deal is off unless Saudi Arabia normalizes relations with Israel. The deal paves the way for Saudi civil nuclear development, although critics warn that it could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the politically volatile Middle East.Saudi Arabia has long maintained that it would not officially recognize Israel by joining the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-negotiated diplomatic deal between Israel and a number of Arab states, until there is a pathway toward the creation of a Palestinian state. The Abraham Accords provision indicates that Israel is calling the shots again," when it comes to U.S. policy in the Middle East, notes Daniel Levy of the U.S./Middle East Project. Levy says it is unlikely that Saudi Arabia will agree to Trump's new conditions, at a cost to U.S. business interests, which stand to profit handily from the sale of nuclear energy technology to the oil-rich kingdom.

U.S. Bombs Iran for 13th Night as Pentagon Lowers" Iran War Death Toll from 18 to 14, House Approves Another War Powers Resolution Seeking to Rein In Trump's Attacks, Iran War Sends Diesel Prices Soaring, Costing U.S. Farmers Additional $1.4 Billion, FAO: Millions Face Prolonged Hunger as Iran War Drives Up Food Prices, Four Palestinians and One Israeli Are Killed as Dozens of Settlers Attack West Bank Town, WaPo: Trump Administration Is Considering Strikes on Mali, Trump Administration Cites Anti-Slavery Law to Impose Tariffs of Up to 12.5% on Trading Partners, DA Promises Criminal Probe as ICE Refuses to Name Officer Who Killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Minnesota Man Who Murdered Democratic Lawmaker and Husband Gets Two Life Sentences, DOJ Drops Subpoenas Against New York Times Reporters After Grilling by Federal Judge, New York City Landlords Sue Mamdani Administration to Reverse Rent Freeze, Brooklyn Protesters Target Crye Precision, Supplier of Tactical Gear to ICE and Israel

Israeli American Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov says Israel's assault on Gaza predicts the future of genocide," with the perpetrator not only enjoying impunity for crimes against humanity but also profiting from the death and destruction. He says Israeli leaders will almost certainly escape accountability because international allies, including the United States and many European states, have failed to uphold international law.The denial of what Israel has done is ubiquitous because there is no [accountability] mechanism that kicks into place," he says. If you don't bring people to account, you're sliding back into what the international community tried to prevent after 1945."

Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi, whose arrest by masked and hooded ICE agents when he arrived for his naturalization interview to become a U.S. citizen made national headlines last year, is facing a new deportation threat after a three-judge panel overturned a lower court ruling that had freed him from ICE custody. Mahdawi was involved in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University, where he was a student, demanding an end to Israel's genocide in Gaza. He says he is being targeted solely for his advocacy.Enough is enough," Mahdawi says. Palestinian people deserve to have safety, freedom and equal rights between the river and the sea, and this government is trying to silence me."That is just textbook censorship, and the First Amendment doesn't allow it," adds ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler, a member of Mahdawi's legal team.

We speak with Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian community leader in Wisconsin, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and a legal permanent resident of the United States for over 30 years. He faces possible deportation after being arrested in March and detained in an ICE jail for 80 days. The Department of Homeland Security claims Sarsour was arrested for lying on his 1993 green card application about a conviction in Israeli military courts when he was a teenager in the occupied West Bank, but Sarsour's lawyers say he is being targeted by the federal government over his advocacy for Palestinian human rights. Although a judge ordered Sarsour's release from detention in June, he still faces deportation proceedings set to resume next week.In ICE detention," says Sarsour, it brought to me these bad memories from my childhood, when I was under the Israeli military occupation and Israeli military rules in Palestine."

House GOP Approves $73B in New Pentagon Funding, $10B for Voting Restrictions, U.S. Strikes Southern Iran, Iraq Border Crossing on 12th Straight Night of Attacks, Nonproliferation Experts Warn U.S. Deal Could Lead to Nuclear-Armed Saudi Arabia, Judge Sets June 2027 Trial Date for Abducted Venezuelan Leaders Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores, Witnesses Say ICE Agents Rammed Their Van Before Fatally Shooting Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Mexican Tourist Who Died Fleeing ICE Agents Was Visiting Florida on Vacation, Lawmakers Press ICE Officials on Training and Vehicle Stops After Killings of Immigrants, Police in Madison, Wisconsin, Fatally Shoot Black Man, Sparking Protests, Protests Erupt After Death of Moroccan-Born Man in Police Custody in Italy, GOP-Led House Ways and Means Committee Subpoenas BreakThrough News, NYC Mayor Mamdani Says He Does Not Have the Authority to Arrest Netanyahu

On February 28, the first day of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, missiles landed on Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in the Iranian city of Minab, in a civilian area near the Strait of Hormuz. At least 121 schoolchildren were killed along with 26 teachers. Forensic Architecture and Sky News analyzed the attack, finding that the neighborhood was bombed a second time while families and rescuers were still on the ground. The Trump administration has repeatedly refused to take responsibility for the school strike, with President Trump even suggesting that images of the destruction were AI-generated.There were images and videos available from the time of the strikes," says Samaneh Moafi, assistant director of research at Forensic Architecture. A second wave of strikes hit, and it's in these ones that we do see the profile of a Tomahawk. And the only party within the war that has this missile is the U.S."

The U.S. is continuing to strike Iran for an 11th straight day. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday revealed the cost of the war on Iran has soared to over $37 billion during an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee. However, independent estimates and media reports based on internal leaks suggest the true figure is much higher. Hegseth is now seeking $80 billion more from Congress, including $67 billion for the war on Iran.You're requesting billions of dollars in supplemental funding for a war that you said would last for weeks and that the president has no plan or ability to end," said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, during the hearing. You are asking for unlimited money for bombs when people can't feed their families."

Andrew and Tristan Tate have been arrested in Miami after British authorities issued new rape and sex trafficking charges against them. The brothers, dual British-U.S. citizens, are prominent in the far-right, hypermasculine online community known as the manosphere." They previously lived in Romania, where in 2023 prosecutors filed a criminal indictment against them for human trafficking, while Andrew faces a rape charge. Despite the charges, they were freed from travel restrictions in Romania early last year after White House officials reportedly took an interest in their case.Andrew Tate has become a really important political force for the MAGA movement," explains Heidi Blake, a reporter for The New Yorker. Despite the Tate brothers' popularity with prominent figures in the U.S. right wing, including Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk, Blake says the fact that the extradition request has been greenlit by the State Department suggests the Trump administration won't be protecting the Tates.Blake's recent investigation, Andrew Tate's Empire of Abuse," documents the Tate brothers' systematic exploitation of women over the past decade.What I was hearing from women I spoke to was an incredibly similar description of the way Andrew Tate would assault them, by choking them either 'til they passed out or 'til they couldn't breathe, raping them," says Blake. Often they describe being beaten over the head, as well, during these assaults."

Defense Secretary Hegseth Testifies U.S. War on Iran Has Cost $37.5 Billion, Yemen's Houthi Rebels Warn Shipping Companies Against Using Saudi Arabian Ports, Israeli Military Builds Giant Barrier Separating the Portion of the Gaza Strip It Controls, Three Villages in Southern Lebanon Begin to Implement Phased Withdrawal of Israeli Forces, Appeals Court Overturns Decision to Release Palestinian Rights Activist Mohsen Mahdawi, Trump Administration Arrests Record Number of Immigrants in June, Federal Judge Prohibits DHS from Deporting Key Witness in Fatal Shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Federal Judge Blocks Trump Admin from Revoking Work Permits of Immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Ends Requirement for Employers to Collect Demographic Data, Police Detain Congress Party Leader Rahul Gandhi as Student-Led Anti-Gov't Protests Continue in India, Trump Admin Pauses More Than $1 Billion in Medicaid Funding to California and Minnesota, Cyclosporiasis Outbreak Sickens Thousands of People in the U.S., French Lawmakers Pass Bill Banning Social Media for Children Under 15, Njoki Njehu, Pan-African Feminist Educator and Advocate, Dies at 60

The tech company Flock, makers of traffic cameras that automatically record and log car license plates for law enforcement agencies, is facing increasing scrutiny over accusations that its vast, AI-sorted database has created a new, nationwide mass surveillance system. With few regulations or oversight on its use, Flock's data can be sold to third parties or shared with federal agencies such as ICE, says the ACLU's Chad Marlow, who works on efforts to regulate and cancel Flock's contracts with local law enforcement. Because Flock's indiscriminate system records information on all cars and drivers that pass its cameras, we have a company working to record the comings and goings of every single person in the country," in what Marlow calls a very un-American take on privacy."

The 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup has concluded, with Spain defeating Argentina to claim the coveted title. Spain's national team players accepted the championship trophy at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino and his close ally, United States President Donald Trump. Former professional soccer player Jules Boykoff, now a scholar who studies the political dimensions of the sport, joins us to discuss the various controversies that swirled around this year's tournament, held in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. this past month.While many of us were engrossed in this World Cup, Immigration and Customs Enforcement ramped up its violent deportation machine," says Boykoff. And so, the World Cup helped Trump advance his agenda. It deflected attention from a lot of people away from his brutal immigration program, and it sets him up well to do the same in Los Angeles in 2028 when the United States hosts the Summer Olympics."

As the Trump administration carries out its campaign against the International Criminal Court, imposing wide-reaching sanctions on judges, prosecutors and groups who have accused Israel of war crimes in front of the international tribunal, we're joined by veteran war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody. Brody says that the U.S. government's rejection of the ICC's jurisdiction is not about American sovereignty," as the Trump administration claims, but about impunity," for both U.S. allies, like Israel, and the U.S. itself. Marco Rubio knows that bombing Iran without Security Council authorization constitutes aggression under the U.N. Charter," says Brody. This is an insurance policy against accountability for crimes that the Trump administration is committing in plain sight."Brody also responds to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's statements that his office may attempt to carry out the ICC arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli prime minister attends the United Nations General Assembly later this year, and to the recent announcement by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega that his country will no longer hold elections, further entrenching the onetime revolutionary's authoritarian rule.

Yemen's Houthis Declare Naval Blockade of Saudi Arabia, Opening New Front in Mideast War, U.S. Bombs Iran for 10th Consecutive Night, Israeli Drone Strike Kills Family of 6 in Gaza City, Khalil al-Hayya, Who Survived Israeli Assassination Attempts, Selected as New Hamas Leader, Judge Halts Paramount Skydance's $110 Billion Takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, Trump Administration Sought Phone Records of New York Times Reporters and Their Families, State Department Alleges Cuba Infiltrated U.S. Politics Through Left-Wing Groups, Justice Department Activates Alien Terrorist Removal Court for First Time Ever, Open Letter by 120 Detained Immigrants Alleges Human Rights Abuses at Arizona's Eloy Detention Center, Former Army Vet Arrested After Setting Fire Near Manhattan ICE Office, Trump Announces 50% Tariff on Imports from Canada, Death Toll from Ebola Outbreak in the DRC Surges to 930, More Than 500 Rohingya Refugees Feared Dead After Boats Capsize Off the Coast of Burma, Youth-Led Protesters Rally Against Modi's Right-Wing Government, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Declares His Nation Will No Longer Hold Elections

Millions of people across North America have experienced hazardous air pollution this month as nearly a thousand active wildfires continue to rage in Canada. In addition to releasing hazardous chemicals and smoke darkening skies across the continent, the fires in Canada have also disproportionately impacted Indigenous communities, forcing thousands to evacuate their homes. Republican politicians have been loath to acknowledge the role of the climate crisis in making extreme weather events like this more frequent and intense, instead blaming Canadian officials for poor forest management. President Donald Trump has even threatened to impose new tariffs on Canada over the record levels of hazardous air.Independent Canadian journalist Rachel Gilmore says that while Trump's comments are extremely offensive" to people in the country, Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney's policies - while acknowledging the science - also do little to mitigate the climate crisis as he approves new oil pipelines that would operate for decades.He's not exactly taking the climate action that we need here in Canada," Gilmore says of Carney.

As calls mount for accountability over the ICE killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, we speak with Democratic Congressmember Al Green, who represents Texas's 9th Congressional District. He demands an independent investigation into the shooting to stop an attempt to cover up" the killing by the Trump administration.Democratic lawmakers led by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will hold a public hearing in Houston on Friday to gather testimony from community members about Salgado Araujo's killing. Green, one of the longest-serving Black members in Congress, highlights the importance of solidarity between different communities facing oppression.Invidious discrimination is the common enemy for Latinos and African Americans, and we have to confront this common enemy together," says Green. We cannot allow people to segregate us."

Houston community members continue to demand justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the 52-year-old Mexican father who was shot and killed by an ICE agent July 7. He had lived in the United States for nearly 35 years and had three U.S. citizen children. The ICE agents involved in his killing have not been identified, and it's unclear whether they remain on active duty.For more on the community response, we get a report from Democracy Now! producers on the ground in Houston. To many people in the city's immigrant communities, Salgado Araujo was Houston's dad," representative of their own families and not a dangerous criminal as the government has tried to portray him.He looks just like all of our parents. He has the same story, the same American dream," a resident named Sonia told Democracy Now!We are demanding justice for Lorenzo, but it's not just that," a mourner said at a rally. These terrorists coming from the government, it's not just in Houston, it's not just in Texas, it's not just in the United States. It's terrorism all over the world."

The United States is expanding its attacks on Iran after three U.S. soldiers were killed over the weekend, the first U.S. fatalities in the conflict since March. Two U.S. service members were killed in an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan, and a third soldier was killed in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation" of a downed Iranian drone. The United States has now bombed Iran for nine consecutive nights, and Iran has retaliated by striking U.S. allies across the Persian Gulf. The war, which has led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has squeezed global supplies of oil and gas.The United States has considerable violence at its disposal, but it has limited political capacity to dictate terms," says Toby Jones, associate professor of Middle East history at Rutgers University. Jones says that while the United States has tried to inflict pain" on Iranian civilians in order to weaken the government, it's hard to say that it's working."

U.S. Continues Strikes Against Iran After Three U.S. Service Members Killed, Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill Several Palestinians Over the Weekend, Dozens of Israeli Settlers Storm Palestinian Village in Occupied West Bank, Israel Strips Crocodiles of Protected Status to Pave Way for Crocodile-Infested Moat, Russia Launches Heavy Ballistic Missile Attack on Kyiv, Killing Six People, Colorado Prison Guard Faces Multiple Charges After Shooting Protesters Outside ICE Jail, ICE Agent Responsible for Fatal Shooting of Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero Once Told Court of Head Injury, Manosphere" Influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate Arrested, Face U.K. Rape and Sex Assault Charges, Andy Burnham Succeeds Keir Starmer as U.K. Prime Minister, Trump Threatens Canada with Tariffs as Millions Suffer from Hazardous Wildfire Smoke, Troy Jackson Emerges as Front-Runner to Replace Platner as Democrat in Maine Senate Race, NYC Mayor Mamdani Seeks to Arrest Israel's Netanyahu: He's a War Criminal"

Hollywood's blockbuster adaptation of the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey premieres around the world today amid growing calls for a boycott. Human rights campaigners are criticizing director Christopher Nolan over his decision to film part of the film in Western Sahara, a vast territory in northwestern Africa that Morocco has occupied for the past half-century.This occupying force is practicing cultural genocide against the Sahrawi people, ethnic cleansing," says Maria Carrion, the executive director of the Western Sahara International Film Festival. By staying silent for one year and then using this footage, Nolan has basically become an accomplice to Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara."Abidin Mohamed Hamudi, a Sahrawi filmmaker speaking to Democracy Now! from Algeria, says he cannot return to his home in Western Sahara, but Nolan can just go there and film and be complicit in the occupation of my homeland." He calls it a metaphor of how the Western world uses human rights, democracy narratives whenever they want, and then ignore it in other parts of the world."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and top White House adviser Stephen Miller are pushing for a global crackdown on leftist organizations. The State Department on Thursday hosted a summit on the resurgence of political terrorism," where Miller described the left as enemies of civilization" and described efforts to disrupt, identify, defund, debank, arrest and prosecute these political terrorists that are operating in our country." Rubio announced the U.S. would soon designate more left-wing groups as terrorist organizations. Also on Thursday, the State Department announced new visa restrictions targeting what it calls members of Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned groups."They're putting political groups in the United States and abroad on the same footing as groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS," says independent journalist Ken Klippenstein, who has been closely following the Trump administration's designation of left-wing activism as terrorism.This effort to designate left-wing groups as foreign terrorists, using these broad terms like 'antifa,' will allow them to go after people who are not committing violence but who are simply engaging in the political process," adds former FBI special agent Mike German.

Hundreds of community members gathered in Houston on Thursday evening for a public viewing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the 52-year-old Mexican man shot and killed by an ICE agent on July 7. His sons stood by their father's casket for hours greeting mourners who wore blue, Salgado Araujo's favorite color. A mariachi band played, and several altars adorned the chapel: One table held Salgado Araujo's construction tools and hard hats, while another displayed two of his Mexico soccer jerseys. Photos and videos of some of the family's most joyful moments were projected in the background.Democracy Now!'s Maria Ines Taracena spoke to some of the attendees outside of the funeral home. Looking back at history, it brought back memories of Emmett Till, when his mom also let the community grieve with them," said Cesar Espinosa, a local immigrant rights activist. She wanted to show the world what they had done to her son, and I think today, this family also wanted to show the world what they had done to them."

In a primetime address on Thursday, President Trump accused China of meddling in U.S. elections in his latest effort to spread doubt about the U.S. voting system ahead of the midterm elections in November. Trump announced he was declassifying documents that show what he called shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure," but offered no evidence that China or any other country directly interfered with recent elections.If Trump was trying to build ... a smoking gun case that the 2020 election was stolen, he failed miserably," says Ari Berman, the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones. I am still very concerned that this speech is intended to lay the groundwork for the administration to interfere in the midterms."Berman argues that U.S. elections are secure" and that results are audited extensively at the state level" and reviewed at the federal level. He says the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden, was found to be the most secure in American history."

Lifelong activist, organizer and educator Denise Oliver-Velez has died at the age of 78. She was a central figure in the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s and was the first woman elected to the Young Lords Central Committee, a radical Puerto Rican human rights group modeled on the Black Panther Party, which Oliver-Velez was also a member of. She later became the first Black female program director in public radio and taught at SUNY New Paltz.As a founding member of the Young Lords, Democracy Now!'s Juan Gonzalez worked alongside Oliver-Velez. She helped develop many of [the Young Lords'] Serve the People programs and helped to shape and write some of the key literature we produced back then," says Gonzalez, adding that Denise was never afraid to speak her mind, to challenge authority and to tell her comrades what they needed to hear - not what they wanted to hear - and she always did it with love and kindness."

Iran Claims Eight People Killed as U.S. Bombards Civilian Infrastructure, Wildfires Cause Dense Smoke and Hazardous Air Quality in More Than 20 States, Trump Accuses China of Interfering in 2020 Election, Without Providing Evidence, Trump's Teleprompter Operator Reportedly Earned Over $100K Betting on Presidential Speeches, Truth Social Plans to Sell Priority Access to Trump's Posts, Iranian Official Claims Kushner and Witkoff Sought to Exploit Negotiations for Personal Gain, ICE Agent Who Fatally Shot Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero Identified as David Brouillette, Rights Groups Demand Probe of ICE Violently Attempting Arrest of Elderly Man in Nevada, So-Called Border Czar Tom Homan Warns ICE Critics That Bloodshed" Will Continue, U.S. Tightens Visa Rules for Foreign Students, Journalists and Cultural Exchange Visitors, Denise Oliver-Velez, Lifelong Activist, Organizer and Educator, Dies at Age 78

The Trump administration has introduced a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, a bedrock of successful U.S. wildlife conservation for more than 50 years, dramatically weakening its power to protect natural habitats and opening vulnerable lands to real estate development, oil drilling and other extractive industries. A coalition of conservation groups is suing the Trump administration over the rule change. They are represented by the environmental law group Earthjustice and senior attorney Ben Levitan, who calls this latest Trump administration attack on the environment a total repudiation of the premise that endangered species need places to have shelter, to have food, to raise their young."

Has the United States launched a forever war on Iran? As the Trump administration renews its attacks on Iran, killing at least 35 civilians over the course of five days, political analyst Ali Vaez warns that the U.S. is inciting potentially never-ending cycles of violence" with its manipulations of the diplomatic process. The U.S.'s unilateral renunciation of the memorandum of understanding" as a pretext for another round of war" has further eroded trust between the countries, says Vaez. There is really no military solution," he concludes. The best solution is for both sides to agree to return to the MOU and to respect its terms."

After ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, last week, they quickly arrested three witnesses: the other men that the 52-year-old father of three was driving to work. The three men, including Salgado Araujo's younger brother Victor, are now being detained by ICE and threatened with deportation.There is a Trump militia roaming our streets, our towns, our cities, killing people regardless of immigration status with absolutely no accountability. ... They are either not getting training or getting training to shoot directly at people, to murder people, in the streets," says Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, explaining that the three incarcerated witnesses must be protected from deportation for at least as long as they can provide information for the investigations on Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's killing. Victor Salgado Araujo wants to be accessible as a witness, and it's really hard for him to do that when he's [being detained] 45 minutes away from Houston," says his attorney Ruby Powers. Being able to be in the United States freely, to be able to give that testimony is what we're asking for."

As we continue our conversation with Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, we turn to recent developments involving the United States military. On Wednesday, Jayapal was one of over half of all House Democrats to vote in favor eliminating over $3 billion in military aid to Israel. Although the proposed amendment was ultimately shot down, the final tally with over 100 members voting yes is still a sea change" in U.S. political support for Israel, says Jayapal. Following Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, it is the horror of what has unfolded that has finally allowed us to confront the fact that we should not be using taxpayer dollars to send to Israel to perpetrate this kind of violence."Jayapal also responds to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's new order mandating testosterone testing and offering testosterone replacement therapy for servicemembers aged 30 and over. Providing testosterone is actually gender affirming care," Jayapal remarks. Last year, Hegseth ordered a halt to all gender-affirming medical procedures for military servicemembers and banned openly trans people from service. These actions are intrusive behavior," says Jayapal, where the government is getting involved in prescribing what medication you do or don't take, without your consent."

Confirmation hearings are underway for President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, his personal attorney Todd Blanche. Blanche is mired in a number of controversies, most notably his mishandling of the administration's release of the Epstein files while serving as deputy attorney general under Pam Bondi. Washington state Representative Pramila Jayapal, who is co-sponsoring a bill to allow Epstein survivors whose identifying information was improperly publicized by the Department of Justice to sue the federal government for damages, says Todd Blanche was responsible" for the breach. He really wanted to discourage anyone else from coming forward with more information. ... It's [a] big reason why he shouldn't be the attorney general." Jayapal also discusses the Department of Justice's surveillance of herself and other legislators who viewed Epstein-related documents and Blanche's longstanding personal and professional connections with Trump.

U.S. Strikes Iran for Fifth Consecutive Day Targeting Tehran, Israeli Forces Kill Four People in Gaza, Including 6-Year-Old Girl, Israel's Security Cabinet Approves Nearly Half a Billion Dollars for New Settlements in Occupied West Bank, Half of All Democrats on Capitol Hill Support Measure Slashing Military Funding to Israel, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche Grilled During Senate Confirmation Hearing, Trump's Nominee for Director of National Intelligence Refuses to Say Whether Biden Won 2020 Election, New York Times Files Motion to Quash Subpoenas of Its Journalists, Hegseth Announces Plans to Screen Testosterone Levels of Service Members Over the Age of 30, 45-Year-Old Venezuelan Immigrant Dies in ICE Custody in Georgia, 100 Million People in North America Face Air Quality Alerts, Pro-Palestinian Activists Demand Release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya from Israeli Custody

Twelve Democratic-led states led by California sued this week to block Paramount Skydance's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount is run by David Ellison, whose father, Larry Ellison, is the billionaire founder of Oracle and a prominent ally and financial backer of President Donald Trump. Under the proposed deal, CNN and CBS News, streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+, as well as film and television studios, would all be combined under a single entity controlled by the Ellisons. The states' lawsuit comes after the Trump administration approved the megamerger last month.This proposed merger breaks the law," says California Attorney General Rob Bonta. It's anti-competitive. It will raise prices. It will lower quality."

Israeli settlers armed with clubs, rocks and a knife attacked a convoy of journalists in the West Bank on Saturday, the latest targeting of foreign journalists documenting the Israeli occupation. Four settlers have reportedly been detained over the attack. The convoy, which included CNN's Jeremy Diamond, were accompanying the father of Palestinian American Saif Musallet to the site where he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers one year ago. To date, no one has been arrested for Musallet's killing.Independent journalist and Palestine solidarity activist Adele Shoko, who was in one of the cars, says the attack is part of an unprecedented" escalation of settler activity in the occupied West Bank, taking place in so-called Area A, which is nominally under the full control of the Palestinian Authority. Area C is almost entirely ethnically cleansed by the settlers backed by the Israeli state, and they moved to Area B, attacking big villages. But Area A is another level."We also speak with Jasper Nathaniel, who was also in the convoy and has been attacked multiple times while reporting in the occupied West Bank. He says pro-Israel advocates who accuse journalists, activists and other international observers of staging publicity stunts" are downplaying how routine settler intimidation and violence has become. If you spend enough time in the West Bank - and by enough time, I mean a couple days - something like that is going to happen to you," says Nathaniel.

We speak with Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil about his lawsuit against top Trump administration officials, two pro-Israel groups and a conservative think tank for conspiring to suppress his constitutional right to free speech.Khalil, who helped lead protests at Columbia University against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, was one of several international students targeted for deportation by the Trump administration last year over pro-Palestine advocacy.I don't want everything that happened to me to go in vain," says Khalil.The lawsuit names Secretary of State Marco Rubio and several other top administration figures; the Heritage Foundation, which launched Project Esther, a campaign to suppress pro-Palestine protests; the far-right pro-Israel group Betar; and Canary Mission, a long-running operation to identify and harass pro-Palestine activists. The lawsuit was brought under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a Reconstruction-era law to restrict government coordination with vigilante groups like the Klan.

Trump Threatens to Attack Civilian Infrastructure as U.S. Continues Attacks on Iran, Senate Democrats Block $1.15 Trillion Pentagon Budget Bill over Iran War, Progressives Push Back as House Democratic Leader Opposes Ending Military Aid to Israel, Israeli Forces Kill More Children in Gaza, ICE Says It Will Halt Traffic Stops After Deadly Shootings by Agents, Minnesota Prosecutors Finally Receive Evidence in Killings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Texas DA Opens Independent Criminal Probe Into ICE Killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, The Guardian: 12 People Detained at Colorado Immigration Jail Contracted Tuberculosis, Report: U.S. Law Enforcement Responsible for Over 400 Misuse of Force Cases Against Civilians, Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil Sues Senior Trump Administration Officials, New York Becomes First State to Impose Data Center Moratorium, Sister of Late GOP Senator Lindsey Graham Sworn In to Fill His Senate Seat, Cuba's National Electric Grid Collapses Again Amid U.S. Oil Blockade

We get an update on elections and voting rights in the United States from Mother Jones's national voting rights correspondent, Ari Berman, who warns of President Donald Trump's escalating attempts to try to claim dictatorial power" and commit an unprecedented intervention" into the 2026 midterm elections. Whether it takes the form of claims of foreign interference, canceling mail-in voting or requiring proof of citizenship, [t]he bottom line here is they keep lying about the 2020 election so that they can justify massive interference in the 2026 election," says Berman. That's something that we all need to be very vigilant about."

The killing of 26-year-old Colombian immigrant Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero by ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine, has put the sparsely populated state back in the national spotlight amid the ongoing fallout from a sexual assault allegation that led insurgent Democratic nominee Graham Platner to suspend his campaign for Senate. The nomination will now be determined by Maine Democratic Party delegates in an accelerated - and more crowded - version of the race's contentious primary. Platner had been running to unseat longtime Republican incumbent Susan Collins, a supporter of Donald Trump and his administration's intensifying immigration enforcement policies. Protesters chanting Vote her out!" marched to Collins's office after Duran Guerrero's shooting was made public. Collins was the deciding vote to approve an additional $70 billion in federal funding for ICE last month. Voters all across Maine, they don't think there is a way to reform this agency. They think it needs to be abolished," says Nathan Bernard, a Drop Site News correspondent in Maine.

Just days after the killing of a Mexican immigrant in Texas, immigration agents fatally shot another immigrant, also driving to work, this time in a small town in southern Maine. Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, originally from Colombia, was 25 years old and the father of a 3-year-old daughter. He was reportedly authorized to work in the United States, had been issued a Social Security number and was not the target of any warrant. The Department of Homeland Security has defended the shooting, saying that ICE fired on Duran Guerrero in his car out of fear for public safety." Witnesses say they say they saw agents dragging Duran Guerrero from the car after the shooting as he told them that he had been trying to stop." For more, we speak to Biddeford, Maine, resident Eisha Khan, the wife of the town's mayor, Liam LaFountain, about the community's shell-shocked" response to Guerrero's death.

They were hunting for Latinos." Outcry is continuing over the ICE shooting death of 52-year-old Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in a majority-Latino neighborhood in Houston, Texas, last week. Events pieced together by eyewitness videos and texts sent by the agents involved in Araujo's killing suggest that agents largely ignored Araujo's cries for help after he was shot. They really just strung him along for hours until finally sending him to the hospital," says Juan Proano, CEO of LULAC, the largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States. Meanwhile, the three men carpooling with Araujo to work are still languishing in ICE detention, where they were initially pressured to sign self-deportation orders. But the fact of the matter is, we need them to stay in the United States. They are witnesses to a crime, and the only witnesses to what actually happened on that day."Houston police have begun investigating the shooting as a homicide, but my expectation is that their investigation will similarly be hampered by DHS," says Proano. I don't believe there will be justice here. There's no way to bring him back."

Trump Announces U.S. Naval Blockade of Iran Moving Closer to All-Out War, Tensions Escalate Between Houthis in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, Immigration Agents Fatally Shoot Colombian Man in Maine, Mexican President Sheinbaum Calls for Criminal Probes into the Deaths of Mexicans in the U.S., Federal Judge Blasts Trump's $10 Billion Lawsuit Against the IRS, 12 Democratic-Led States File Lawsuit to Block Paramount's Acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Secretary of State Rubio Announces U.S. Plans to Systematically Disable" the ICC, Pentagon Announces New Joint Task Force with DOJ to Target Press Leaks, U.S. Border Agents Seize Devices of Journalist Max Blumenthal After He Returned from Reporting Trip to Iran, Trump Signs Executive Order Drastically Reducing Size of Two National Monuments in Utah, South Carolina Governor Appoints Sister of Late GOP Senator Graham to Replace Him, National Weather Service Forecasts Dozens of Temperature Records Will Be Tied or Broken This Week, Keystone Pipeline Operators Agree to Pay Nearly $27 Million over 2022 Oil Spill, Pro-Palestinian Activist and Philanthropist Fergie Chambers Arrested in Spain

The United States and Israel earlier this month signed a deal allocating land for a permanent U.S. Embassy in West Jerusalem - years after a temporary embassy was established during Trump's first term in office. Palestinian families have pleaded with the U.S. government to reconsider the embassy's planned location, saying the site in the area known as the Allenby compound was unlawfully taken from them decades ago.Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, belongs to one of the families that has claims to the land. So, here we have the U.S. government signing an agreement with the Israeli government to lease land the Israeli government has no right to, to which ... we and many other families have title, in order to establish an illegal embassy in Jerusalem, which is in violation of repeated U.N. Security Council resolutions."Khalidi also comments on the ongoing fight to save the centuries-old Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem, one of the most sacred and holy sites to Muslims." Israel has gradually taken over the cemetery, replacing it with a museum, parks and parking lots.

Armed Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank have carried out a number of attacks in recent days targeting local Palestinians and foreign journalists, as well as detaining U.S. Congressmember Ro Khanna during a fact-finding trip. Khanna said that when Israeli forces arrived, they sided with the settlers. The U.S. government just merrily goes along funding these atrocities against American citizens, not to speak of atrocities against Palestinians who don't happen to be American citizens," says Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University. All of this is being done with our tax dollars."

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the most prominent supporters of war in Washington, has died at the age of 71 after what his office called a brief and sudden illness." He was a vocal supporter of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, a leading backer of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and a proponent of more U.S. military support for Ukraine. He also pushed for a permanent occupation of Afghanistan and once called for a preemptive attack on North Korea.Graham never met a war of aggression that he didn't passionately back," says Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site News, who adds that the late senator also had a slavish dedication to Israel over the interests of the United States and the rest of the world."

The United States is continuing to bombard Iran amid an intensifying standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command said on Sunday the United States had struck 140 targets in Iran. In retaliation, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted U.S. military facilities across the Middle East.U.S. CENTCOM, Central Command, and the Pentagon at large have concealed the impact of Iranian strikes, in some cases entirely," says Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site News, adding that Trump has dramatically underestimated the Iranians from the very beginning."The escalating attacks from both sides come after Iran announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz last week and President Trump declared the ceasefire over. Iran insists that, according to the 60-day memorandum of understanding with the United States, commercial ships going through the waterway must coordinate" their movements with Iranian authorities, which the United States has rejected.There is no question, objectively speaking, that it's the United States that's been violating the terms of this agreement. It is quite explicit that Iran is supposed to have managing authority of the Strait of Hormuz," says Scahill.

U.S. Continues to Attack Iran as IRGC Retaliates by Striking U.S. Bases Across the Middle East, Armed Israeli Settlers in the Occupied West Bank Detain Congressman Ro Khanna, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina Dies at 71, GOP Senator McConnell Reveals He Was Hospitalized After He Fell, Justice Department Subpoenas Four New York Times Journalists, NYT: U.S. Secretary of State Rubio Serving as De Facto Viceroy of Venezuela, Wildfires Rage in Greece, Spain and France During Europe's Record Heat Wave, Federal Judge Approves DOJ Request to Dismiss Charges Against Five Members of the Proud Boys, Protests Continue in Houston After ICE Fatally Shot Mexican Father Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Justice Department Probes Yale's Admissions Practices, Federal Judge Rejects DOJ Subpoena Seeking Names of Election Workers in Fulton County from the 2020 Election, President of PEN America Resigns After Article on Boycotts of Israeli and Jewish Writers, Civil Rights Leaders Call for Independent Probe of Black Teen's Death in Mississippi

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, the landmark government transparency law that has helped reveal and publicize critical information about everything from the Vietnam War to FBI surveillance to CIA torture. For decades, FOIA has played a crucial role in uncovering and rectifying government wrongdoing. Today, however, advocates say that the government's resistance to fulfilling FOIA requests has grown, forcing applicants to file expensive lawsuits to obtain records, while records that are released often take years to receive and are filled with so many redactions as to render them essentially a waste of time."It's gotten extremely bad in this last year and a half under Trump, but this has been going on for decades," says Ian Head, who manages the Open Records Project at the Center for Constitutional Rights. These bureaucratic delay and deferral tactics are extremely concerning, he adds, threatening accountability, transparency and democratic processes. We need to be able to file federal FOIA requests so we can see what this government is doing."

A new investigation from the BBC is accusing Instagram of running paid ads in India promoting child sexual abuse material. BBC senior correspondent Divya Arya explains how Instagram's AI-powered review process frequently fails to flag content suggesting illegal and abusive activity, and how the platform's profit-driven algorithms boost accounts paying to advertise this content. Instagram's parent company Meta has denied culpability, saying that it's absolutely unfair to say that they prioritize revenue over user safety and that they underinvest in safety mechanisms." In response to Arya's findings, the Indian government is now demanding that Meta immediately remove all such ads and child exploitation materials, and submit a detailed explanation on how such advertisements were allowed on its platforms. This illegal content should not be on the internet, and somebody needs to be held accountable for it," says Arya.