Democracy Now!

As Democrats prepare to take control of Congress in January, party leaders say they intend to hold Trump officials accountable with stepped-up hearings and investigations. The administration, however, has responded with threats to launch its own investigations into lawmakers for carrying out their oversight responsibilities.The oversight function of Congress is well established by the founders. It's a normal part of government. The separation of powers requires oversight," says Brad Adams, co-founder of The Rule of Law Project, which seeks to provide outside accountability due to what he describes as the administration's refusal to investigate obvious cases of corruption."

Israel's latest bombing of Nasser Hospital in Gaza on Thursday killed six Palestinians, including surgeon Dr. Rizk Abu Shaira. He was featured in the recent documentary American Doctor, which follows international medical volunteers in Gaza's battered hospitals as they work alongside Palestinian colleagues.Israel claimed, without providing evidence, that it targeted a senior Hamas militant in the hospital strike. Israel has repeatedly bombed medical facilities in Gaza since the start of the genocide in October 2023, even though such attacks are prohibited under international law.It's just barbarism. I don't know why we're supporting this," says Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, one of the titular American doctors in the documentary, who demands accountability for Israel's actions and a change in U.S. policy toward the country. That's an American-made bomb dropped by an American-made airplane burning American-supplied jet fuel."Sidhwa also comments on the catastrophic flooding in Gaza that has swamped the temporary shelters of tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians as Israel continues to block the entry of shelter materials into the territory. As a result, babies are going to die of hypothermia in Gaza for the fourth year in a row," Sidhwa says.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned Thursday after reports of multiple extramarital affairs, including with an employee and a Chinese businesswoman whom U.S. intelligence officials accuse of spying for Beijing. The company says Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO as the board searches for a permanent replacement.Nvidia's computer chips are at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom, driving the company's value above $4 trillion and making Huang one of the most influential business leaders in the world. His spectacular fall from the company he co-founded in 1993 comes as the U.S. stock market has become highly dependent on a handful of AI-related companies and amid intense competition between the United States and China over control of the technology, with access to Nvidia's chips becoming a major point of contention between the two countries.Tech critic Paris Marx notes that the AI industry's circular financing," in which companies are both clients and investors for one another, has created systemic risk.We also speak with Ramesh Srinivasan, director of the AI Futures Lab at UCLA, who says the soap opera" of the Huang scandal has exposed how precarious the governance of this AI truly is," with only a handful of people and firms controlling incredibly powerful technology that feeds off of all of us and the planet."

Sen. Chris Van Hollen Will Challenge Chuck Schumer for Senate Majority Leader, Youth Climate Activists Protest in Chuck Schumer's Office to Demand New Senate Leadership, Nvidia's Colette Kress to Serve as Interim CEO as Jensen Huang Resigns Amid Scandals, Microsoft Outage Disrupts Communications for Millions Across 74 Countries, Iran Says It Blew Up U.S. Early-Warning Radar as Trump Declares, We Don't Need a Deal with Iran", Houthis Claim Fresh Attacks on Saudi Oil Facilities Including East-West Pipeline, Russia and Ukraine Continue Deadly Strikes as U.S. Envoys Meet Putin and Zelensky, Infant Dies of Hypothermia in Gaza as Calls Grow for Israel to Allow Imports of Winter Supplies, ICE Detention of USF Professor Draws Protests and Demands for Her Release, Protesters in San Diego Demand ICE Release 8-Year-Old Haitian Boy to Relatives, 23 Immigrants Died of Medical Neglect in ICE Custody in First Year of Trump's Second Term, NYC Mayor Mamdani Orders Inspections at 100 Sites After Deadly Building Collapse in Brooklyn

Alaska is the only Senate race yet to be called. Democratic challenger Mary Peltola is narrowly leading Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan with about 86% of votes counted. Alaska uses ranked-choice voting, a system where voters choose not only their top candidate, but can also indicate an order of preference for remaining candidates on the ballot. If no candidate wins a majority as the top choice, then second-choice votes are added to the totals and so on until there is a winner.Rob Richie, president and founder of Expand Democracy and a senior adviser with FairVote, explains how ranked-choice voting has shaped the Alaska race and how it is a system that promotes [candidates] reaching out, engaging, and, for voters, a lot of freedom."Richie adds that Peltola is heavily favored to win at this point."

With Democrats set to take control of both chambers of Congress in January, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says he will not support Chuck Schumer for another term as the Democratic Senate leader, calling for the party to move in a new and bold direction." Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin has said she will not support Schumer unless he presents a plan to govern differently, and several senators-elect have called for new leadership or declined to endorse Schumer. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen is considering challenging Schumer. Meanwhile, Hakeem Jeffries is facing questions about his leadership of House Democrats after 11 of the party's members missed a key vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.After a big win for the populist wing of the Democratic Party, ... it would be a betrayal for that election to result immediately in the Democratic Party simply responding by reelecting the same leadership," says David Sirota, editor-in-chief of The Lever.

Democrat Scott Colom has defeated incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith to become Mississippi's first African American senator since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. The electoral breakthrough is particularly meaningful given Mississippi's history in the civil rights movement. In 1964, three civil rights activists - James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman - were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan after traveling to the state to register Black voters. We speak with two of their relatives about Colom's stunning upset.I believe that people were voting for help. And they evidently saw something in Mr. Colom that made them feel like that they could hope again and that he was the help that was needed," says Angela Lewis, the daughter of James Chaney.The people of Mississippi have spoken," adds David Goodman, the brother of Andrew Goodman. And we have to cease and desist this divide-and-conquer business, because it's not in our collective interest as the United States of America."

Democrat Scott Colom has made history as Mississippi's first Democratic senator since 1982 - and its first African American senator since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. Colom narrowly defeated Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in a state that President Trump won by nearly 23 points in 2024. Colom's victory brings the incoming Senate Democratic caucus to 55. Colom gave his victory speech on Wednesday at the historically Black Tougaloo College, just miles from where civil rights activist Medgar Evers was murdered in 1963 by a member of the Ku Klux Klan.There were times that I couldn't get donors to answer the phone; they did not believe a moment like this was possible. But I kept the faith," said Colom. There are so many people that had faith in Mississippi at times where it seemed impossible, people like Medgar Evers."

Democrats' Senate Majority Expands to 55 as Scott Colom Claims Historic Win in Mississippi, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Relocates to Military Base After Iranian Threats", Progressives Call on Democratic Lawmakers to Stop Funding Attacks on Iran, Sen. Van Hollen Criticizes Schumer for Siding with AIPAC and Crypto Lobbies in Primaries, Rep.-elect Don Leonard Says Senior Dems Threatened to Make His Life Living Hell" over Jeffries Vote, Israeli Strike on Nasser Hospital in Gaza Kills at Least Six People Including Surgeon, Hegseth and His Entourage Scolded for Breaking Decorum at Arlington National Cemetery, Trump's Triumphal Arch Faces Lawsuit from Members of Kennedy Family, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Resigns, SpaceX Plans $24 Billion Data Center in South Texas, Oakland City Council Unanimously Extends Data Center Moratorium for a Year, Millions Take Part in General Strike in Spain

We speak with Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak, filmmakers and subjects of the new documentary Birds of War, which tells their epic love story through years of upheaval in the Middle East. Boulos, a London-based Lebanese journalist working for the BBC, and Habak, a Syrian activist and cameraman, first connected while covering the Syrian civil war and stayed in touch through years of war, revolution and exile, forming a relationship that is chronicled in the documentary by drawing on 13 years of their personal videos, voice notes and other correspondence.The film also examines the unequal relationship between international news organizations and local journalists whose work they rely on, the fraught political history between Syria and Lebanon, and how Boulos and Habak's personal connection overcame those divisions.Without our journalistic relationship, [we] would have never been together. I would have never opened my heart to somebody like him," says Boulos. We can be any race, any gender, any religion, any background, but at the same time we're all humans."Birds of War premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact.

Voters in Providence, Rhode Island, approved a ballot measure last week that could result in the city divesting from Israel. The successful grassroots campaign makes Providence the first U.S. city to pass a binding divestment measure through a popular vote. The measure instructs the city to divest from countries and companies implicated in ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal military occupation, or genocide." The language does not mention Israel by name. We speak with one of the key backers of the divestment measure, Mayor-elect David Morales, a 28-year-old democratic socialist who made history on election night as the youngest mayor ever elected in Providence.What we saw was our neighbors coming out in the thousands to demonstrate that we are ready for change," Morales says, promising to enact his affordability-focused platform. It's the responsibility of local government to take action. And for that reason, we are seeing a rise in democratic socialism and the representation of democratic socialists all across the country."

We speak with historian Kai Bird about American Scoundrel, a new biography of the notorious political fixer Roy Cohn, who rose to fame as chief counsel to Joe McCarthy during the senator's anti-communist campaign, served as a lawyer for the New York mob, and was an influential voice in Republican circles until his death from AIDS-related complications in 1986. His most impactful relationship, however, would prove to be with a young Donald Trump, whom he mentored in business and politics during the 1970s and '80s.Facing political setbacks during his first term as president, Trump reportedly asked, Where's my Roy Cohn?" Bird, who co-authored American Scoundrel with his wife Susan Goldmark, says Trump may have found his Cohn in Stephen Miller, the architect of the administration's mass deportation policies whom Trump just elevated to chief of staff.It's not really a surprise that, cornered and wounded by the recent election results, he reaches out and pulls up Stephen Miller, who's very similar in his willingness to go on the offensive and never back down, and to say outrageous things to try to change the narrative," says Bird.

House GOP Blocks Impeachment Charges Against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Sanders Says He Will Not Back Schumer for Senate Majority Leader, Rep. Jordan Elected as House GOP Leader as Senator Thune Reelected as Senate Republican Leader, Trump's Former Lawyer Alina Habba Mildon Fired by Concord Partners, U.S. Gov't Received Over $12 Billion in Revenue from Venezuela's Oil Exports, NYT: Immigrants Deported Back to Home Countries Despite Court Orders, WaPo: ICE Hired 19 Officers with Past Allegations of Misconduct, Violence and Criminal Charges, Immigrants Jailed at Northwest Detention Center in Washington Hold Hunger Strike, Israeli Forces Kill at Least Eight Palestinians in Gaza, Israeli Soldiers Kill 14-Year-Old Palestinian Boy in West Bank, Russia and Ukraine Hold First Peace Talks in Nine Months, Independent Russian Newspaper Novaya Gazeta Closes Moscow Office, Egyptian Court Postpones Criminal Trial of Mada Masr's Editor-in-Chief Lina Attalah, Federal Appeals Court Rules Trump Admin Illegally Fired Head of Voice of America, Greta Thunberg Attends U.N. Climate Summit for the First Time Since 2021, Thousands of Protesters Rally in Indonesia over Government's Response to Fires

Progressive candidate Will Lawrence of Michigan has defeated Republican incumbent Tom Barrett, flipping the state's 7th Congressional District, a closely watched swing district that includes Lansing. Lawrence, the co-founder of the youth-led climate organization Sunrise Movement, refused corporate PAC money, instead building a people-powered grassroots mobilization campaign. He focused on lowering the costs of housing and healthcare, opposing the war on Iran, and challenging the power of Big Tech.I'm fighting for a federal moratorium on new data center development, along with a pause on advanced AI development," says Lawrence. These developers come into small towns, and they say, 'We're going to suck up a bunch of water. We're going to use more energy than the current capacity of the grid. We don't know what's going to happen to your property values, but if everything goes well, we're going to put 10 or 20 million people out of work, and if it goes poorly, we may kill everybody by accident.'"Lawrence also says he will back Hakeem Jeffries for House speaker, but that he will demand Democratic leadership listen to progressive concerns.

The prominent journalist Abed Abu Shehadeh, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, has been released from Israeli custody after five days in detention. He was arrested on Wednesday by armed police and Shin Bet agents who conducted a nighttime raid on his home in the Israeli city of Jaffa. Abu Shehadeh's detention was related to his reporting on the October 27 Israeli election and the role of Palestinian political parties. Ahead of the election, he interviewed Azmi Bishara, a Palestinian intellectual and former member of the Israeli Knesset who has lived in exile in Qatar since fleeing Israel amid allegations that he aided Hezbollah during the 2006 Lebanon war. Israeli authorities detained Abu Shehadeh on suspicion of contacting a foreign agent," in connection to his interview with Bishara.Men with ski masks knock on your door at 11 at night. They tell you that they have an arrest warrant. They raid the house. They wake your wife, your children," says Shehadeh. It tells how messianic and dangerous the extreme right in Israel has become, willing to use this unprecedented power against journalists."

The House of Representatives is moving toward a vote this week on whether to impeach Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Outgoing Republican Congressmember Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Monday. They include violating the 1973 War Powers Resolution by continuing to attack Iran after Congress ordered the Trump administration to stop, illegally waging war against Yemen, ignoring laws designed to reduce civilian casualties, overseeing extrajudicial killings" by bombing the boats of alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, abducting President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela without congressional authorization, and suppressing the free speech rights of Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in retaliation for his participation in a video reminding troops not to obey illegal orders. If the House votes for impeachment, it will prompt a Senate trial that could end with removal from office.Under Hegseth, the U.S. military has been hijacked," says retired Air Force Master Sergeant Wes Bryant, who served as chief of civilian harm assessment at the Pentagon from 2024 to 2025. America has portrayed itself to the world as a far-right dictatorship bent on global domination, and Hegseth and his wielding of the U.S. military with free rein from Donald Trump is really the primary enforcer of that."Bryant adds that Hegseth should be the first domino," but that Trump, as well as many of our senior military leaders," should also be impeached.

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Pentagon Retreats from Second U.K. Base Due to Alleged Threat from Iran, Trump Raises New Election Conspiracy Theory After Democrats Sweep Midterms, Schumer Faces Pressure to Step Aside as Chris Van Hollen Hints at Run for Senate Majority Leader, Senate Advances Bill to Speed Construction of Fossil Fuel Projects and Data Centers, 5 Arrested at Anthropic's NYC Offices as Protesters Demand Halt to IPO Plans, African National Congress Suffers Its Worst Election Result Since South Africa Ended Apartheid, Dozens Drown in Capsized Boats While Attempting to Reach European Soil, U.S. Cancels Deportation Flight of Iranians at Last Minute, ICE Detains 8-Year-Old Haitian Boy in San Diego After Routine Immigration Check-In, SCOTUS Allows Trump Admin to Resume Border Wall Construction in Big Bend National Park, Proposed USDA Policy Would Cut Food Aid for Millions of People, New York Focus Uncovers 2023 Sexual Assault Lawsuit by Two Former Cornell Students, Russell Brand Sentenced to 10.5 Years in Prison, Proposition 40 Billionaire Tax Fails to Pass in California, Online Magazine Salon Closes After 31 Years of Publication, Palestinian American Ahmed Moor Launches 2028 Democratic Primary Challenge Against Sen. Fetterman

Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of Egypt's leading independent news outlet Mada Masr, faces a criminal trial this week on charges of spreading false information," just two weeks after being convicted of operating an unlicensed website and fined more than $50,000. A judge also ordered the publication to be shut down. The cases are part of a broader crackdown on independent Egyptian media under the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, including the arrest of the entire newsroom of another outlet, Matsadaash. More than 100 organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists, have condemned the arrests and prosecutions and called on Egyptian authorities to drop the charges.Putting us in jail is not going to solve the country's problems," Attalah told Democracy Now! in an interview Friday. We need to be operating as journalists in our newsrooms as opposed to being defendants in courtrooms."Attalah says she and Mada Masr will appeal the ruling to shut them down, hoping to use this crisis" as a way to fight censorship in Egypt and expand the space for independent reporting.

The next Congress will include about 100 new lawmakers in the House of Representatives, the largest freshman wave in decades. That also includes six newly elected members of the Democratic Socialists of America, bringing the total number of DSA members in Congress to eight. One of the incoming DSA congressmembers will be California's Angela Gonzales-Torres, who worked two other jobs while campaigning and was massively outspent by her opponent, incumbent Democratic Congressmember Jimmy Gomez.In her first national TV interview, Gonzales-Torres tells Democracy Now! she will prioritize immigrant justice, Medicare for All and fighting corruption, when she is sworn in. She also explains why she has not yet committed to supporting Hakeem Jeffries for House speaker.As of right now, my vote is no," she says. Over 100,000 Angelenos voted for courage. They voted for change."

Stephen Miller, the architect of the Trump administration's mass deportation policies, has replaced Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. In a recent 60 Minutes interview, President Donald Trump acknowledged that his immigration policies may be too tough" and contributed to his party's steep losses in the midterm elections, but in elevating Miller, he is choosing to double down," says journalist Jean Guerrero. Stephen Miller enables [Trump] in this instinct to choose cruelty over everything else," she says.Guerrero is a New York Times contributing opinion writer, USC journalism professor and author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda.

Democrats Build on Sweeping Gains in Midterm Elections, Claiming 254 House Seats, Trump Replaces White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles with Stephen Miller, Former Top Federal Health Official Accuses Wiles of Putting Lobbyists and Campaign Funds Ahead of Public Health, Petition Urging Jeffries to Remove Himself from Race to Become House Speaker Surpasses a Million Signatures, 30 People Killed in Yemen in Missile Attack, Israeli President Herzog Picks Opposition Leader Eisenkot to Form Next Government, Israeli Forces Release Palestinian Journalist Abed Abu Shehadeh, Storm Triggers Mass Flooding in Gaza, Killing 5 Palestinians, as Israel Bars Imports of Shelter, Hundreds of Thousands March in Amsterdam Demanding Action to Stop Gaza Genocide, Protesters Take Direct Action to Stop Dirty Data Centers" in Europe, Nvidia Share Prices Plummet as CEO Jensen Huang Admits to Affair with Alleged Chinese Spy, U.S. Is Absent as United Nations Climate Talks Open in Antalya, Turkey, Disgraced Paraguayan Ex-President Charged with Corruption over Bank Collapse

Tuesday was a historic night for progressive Democrats and, in particular, candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. Six new DSA-endorsed candidates were elected to the House, and democratic socialists won mayoral races in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Providence.The Democratic Socialists of America had a phenomenal night, and this movement is only going to continue to grow," says prominent leftist political commentator Hasan Piker. Now, here's the problem: Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are two of the least popular politicians in the country right now, and there are demands to change the leadership in the Democratic Party to reflect the desires of this new coalition that was developed on November 3."

The midterms saw a landslide of Latinos vote for Democrats. In Texas, California, Kansas and Colorado, Latinos who had voted for Republicans just two years ago voted for Democrats in large numbers, helping secure Democratic control of both the House and the Senate. Latino lawmakers will make up about a fifth of the Democratic majority in the House. And in an historic victory, the two most populous states in the country, California and Texas, will soon be led by Democratic Latino governors.Texas has been suddenly transformed into a battleground state," says Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez. Texas has been the biggest and most important red state in the country for decades, and I've been predicting for years that it is the key link for achieving a realignment of national politics."

Mississippi's race for the U.S. Senate remains too close to call: Democrat Scott Colom is narrowly leading Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by nearly 2,000 votes with 96% of votes counted as of Friday morning. Donald Trump carried Mississippi by 23 points in 2024. If elected, Colom would be the first Democrat to win the state in 40 years and the first African American since 1875, during the Reconstruction era. Colom, the former district attorney for northeast Mississippi, made the issue of affordability central to his campaign. He has sharply criticized national Democrats for writing off Mississippi and failing to invest in his campaign early on.The entire country shifted left. But when you look at it regionally, the biggest shifts took place in the South - Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana," says Cliff Albright, executive director of Black Voters Matter. That wave of energy" was largely led by Black voters who were most under attack with the mid-decade racial gerrymandering that was taking place. It clearly backfired, and all it did was to wake up a sleeping giant."Without the extreme gerrymandering, without the extreme voter restrictions that have been seen throughout the South, [the] wave would have been even bigger," adds Chris Kromm, executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies. There's a real opportunity for engaging more voters and really pushing the region in a more progressive direction."

Democrats Lead in Alaska and Mississippi Senate Races as House Majority Approaches 260 Seats, Incoming Freshman Senators Call for New Leadership to Replace Top Democrat Chuck Schumer, Pete Hegseth Defends Iran War, Demands $350B in Additional Funding and Vows to Fight Impeachment, Marco Rubio Reportedly Considers Resigning as Secretary of State Ahead of Presidential Run, Harmeet Dhillon Resigns as Head of DOJ's Civil Rights Division, DSA Candidates Win Mayor's Races in L.A., D.C., Ann Arbor and Providence, Democratic Socialist Angela Gonzales-Torres Beats AIPAC-Backed Democrat for L.A. House Seat, Sunrise Movement Co-Founder William Lawrence Flips Battleground House District in Michigan, Gov. Gavin Newsom Commutes Death Sentences of All Death Row Prisoners, U.S. Held Secret Talks with Tehran in Bid to Deport Iranians, Despite Threat of Certain Death", Over 600,000 March in France as Unions Hold Strike to Protest Austerity and Rising Prices, Paraguay's Trump-Supported President Resigns, Faces Criminal Probe Following Bank's Collapse, Russell Brand Found Guilty of Rape and Sexual Assaults

Democrats regained control of both the House and the Senate in Tuesday's historic midterm elections, a comeback fueled largely by voter anger over high prices and the war on Iran. But surveys also found that corruption was a major concern, with 76% of voters telling a Harris poll that elected officials care more about enriching themselves than improving the economy for ordinary people. A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 63% of Americans considered it inappropriate for Trump and his family to profit from cryptocurrency, while 69% said his private business interests influence his decisions as president.If this election was about corruption and cost, then this next Congress needs to be focused on accountability and affordability," says Donald Sherman, the president and CEO of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW.Congress needs to do oversight not just on the administration's corruption, not just on the president's profiteering, but also on corporate America, what they have gotten out of engaging in the president's pay-to-play environment, how corporate America and the outside influence of money in our political system has undermined the public voice in our policy discussions."

The Democratic Socialists of America made major gains in this year's U.S. midterms, electing not just the largest-ever socialist bloc to Congress, but also winning dozens of races at the state, county and municipal levels. Democracy Now! spoke with Congressmember-elect Melat Kiros on election night following her victory in Denver, Colorado. She identified Medicare for All as her top priority and said progressives must lay the groundwork so that in '29, when we have the House, the Senate and the White House, we can sign it into law on day one."Kiros is a 29-year-old Ethiopian immigrant and lawyer. In 2023, Kiros wrote an open letter about the danger of conflating antisemitism and criticism of Israel, for which she was fired by her law firm. She won a major upset in the Democratic primary earlier this year against longtime incumbent Congressmember Diana DeGette.

We examine the results of Tuesday's historic U.S. midterm elections with Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief of Bolts. In addition to taking back the House and Senate, Democrats also made major gains at the state level and will control a majority of governorships for the first time in 16 years. Democrats also flipped 12 state legislative chambers.The size of the wins for Democrats in statewide races was wild," says Nichanian. He identifies protecting abortion access, bolstering unions and ending police cooperation with ICE as some of the priorities Democrats are likely to pursue.

Vance Blames Republican Election Losses on the U.S. War on Iran, Florida's GOP Gov. DeSantis Calls Election Extinction-Level Event for Republicans", Yemeni Government Claims to Have Thwarted Large-Scale Attack by Ansar Allah in Taiz, Israeli Attacks Kill at Least Four Palestinians in Gaza, Israeli Court Extends Detention of Palestinian Journalist Abed Abu Shehadeh, United Nations Ends Peacekeeping Mission in Western Sahara, South Africans Begin Voting in Municipal Elections, World Health Organization Approves Trials of Two New Ebola Vaccines, Paraguay Central Bank Takes Over Lender with Close Ties to President Pena, Colombia Toughens Terms for Armed Groups Who Surrender, Ending Total Peace" Approach, Striking Bangladeshi Garment Workers Win Concessions Amid Protests over Poverty Wages, Court Blocks Trump Administration from Deporting Afghans to Pakistan or Afghanistan, Google Plans to Cut Off Search Access to Schools That Reject AI

Black voters in Georgia on Tuesday said, Not today, Satan," according to professor Carol Anderson, professor of African American studies at Emory University. Despite the Trump administration's efforts to disenfranchise Black voters in the South this election cycle and the Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act, she says there was massive turnout" that propelled Democrats to victory. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms defeated billionaire Republican healthcare executive Rick Jackson, becoming the first Black woman ever elected governor in the United States. Incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff also handily won his bid for reelection.

Texas Democrats have shattered more than three decades of Republican dominance in the state, winning races for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and even railroad commissioner. They are also poised to possibly take control of the Texas House of Representatives for the first time since 2003. The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, lost his bid for a fourth term to Democratic state Representative Gina Hinojosa, who defeated him by nearly 700,000 votes. She will be Texas's first Latina governor. And James Talarico will be the first Democrat to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate since 1993.We're celebrating these wonderful candidates who won office, and we're also starting to think about what it means to hold power," says Mike Siegel, a city council member from Austin, Texas, who founded Ground Game Texas, a statewide voter turnout organization. We need to start thinking very quickly about how we will protect public education, how we will stop data centers and the encroachment of AI on our society, how we will protect public schools, how we stop collaboration with ICE."

In a stunning repudiation of President Trump, Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, flipping seven Senate seats: Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina. Meanwhile, progressive Democrat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed defeated former Republican Congressmember Mike Rogers for an open Senate seat in Michigan with over 52% of the vote. El-Sayed campaigned on a platform of Medicare for All, tackling economic inequality and getting big money out of politics - as well as ending military aid to Israel. He is the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. El-Sayed faced vitriolic, Islamaphobic attacks by top Republicans throughout the campaign.Last night wasn't just about Dr. Abdulrahman being a Muslim, winning and going to the United States Senate," says Palestinian American organizer and author Linda Sarsour, who has been campaigning for El-Sayed. It demonstrated that progressives can win in states like Michigan" and that we can win on standing up for the human rights of the Palestinian people."

Voters Deliver Stunning Rebuke of Trump with Democrats Regaining Control of Congress, Historic Night in Texas as Democrats Win Senate Seat and Governorship, Progressive Michigan Democrat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed Elected First Muslim Senator, Democrat Annie Andrews Wins South Carolina Senate Seat in a Stunning Upset, Mississippi's Senate Race Remains Too Close to Call, Democrat Troy Jackson Unseats Five-Term GOP Senator Susan Collins, New Hampshire Democrat Chris Pappas Becomes First Openly Gay Senator, Adam Hamilton Becomes First Kansas Democrat Elected to the Senate Since 1932, Democrat Amy Acton Defeats Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio Governor's Race, Democrat Deb Haaland Becomes First Native American Female Governor in U.S. History, Midterm Elections Result in Several Historic Firsts, The Democratic Socialists of America Score Big Wins in Congress, Voters Approve Ballot Measures Expanding Reproductive Rights, Trump Announces U.S. to Stop Providing Israel $4 Billion in Annual Military Aid, DOJ Tells Alaska Democrats They May Be Targets of Federal Probe over Alleged Spoiler" Candidate, Trump Administration Presses for Long-Term U.S. Military Occupation of Venezuela

In 2024, Donald Trump won the presidency with the support of 44% of Hispanic voters, suggesting that a major realignment in party preferences might be underway. But just two years later, it appears much of that support has eroded. Sixty-one percent of Hispanic voters say they will now support Democrats in the midterms, including 11% who previously had voted for President Trump.We get a bird's-eye view of what to expect from the Latino vote from Marisa Franco, the co-founder and director of the advocacy organization Mijente. While ICE brutality will be at the front of voters' minds, she says, Democrats cannot continue to take Latino voters for granted. The vast majority of Latinos are working-class. Quite simply, they voted for Trump because they were looking at issues of economy, cost, inflation," explains Franco. And at the end of the day, these same issues have worsened under Trump's administration, under Republican control. So people, I think, are looking for someone who's going to explain what's happening and propose solutions and be dogged about finding them."

New York City is preparing to send two DSA members, presumptive election night winners Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, to Capitol Hill. DSA-backed candidates made historic gains in this year's Democratic primaries, with at least five expected to join current DSA members Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the House. But can socialism really make headway in the halls of Congress? Democracy Now! fellows Amba Guerguerian and Diego Ramos report.Our task is going to be winning our colleagues over to our position and finding common ground," Valdez tells Democracy Now! Some of the most popular policies in our country's history have been socialist policies," says Avila Chevalier. They have been the things that working people have organized for and won."

As President Donald Trump continues to cast doubt on the integrity of U.S. elections, signaling his intentions to challenge results unfavorable to Republicans, we go to Washington, D.C., where a federal judge ruled Monday night that the Department of Justice can deploy election monitors to polling sites across the country, as long as they are not law enforcement officers with the power to make arrests. In some respects, this is a victory for voters. Every voter in our country deserves to be able to cast a ballot today, free from intimidation," says Kristen Clarke of the NAACP, which sued to challenge the DOJ's plans to deploy ICE agents and other armed officers to the polls.The NAACP was also part of a coalition that intervened when the Trump administration attempted to force California to set aside about 20,000 mail-in ballots that it alleged were sent incorrectly to noncitizens. This was a baseless, error-prone, shoddy 11th-hour attempt to hijack the election in California, plain and simple, and it's now been rejected by four courts," Clarke says. The administration's attacks on voters are not bearing fruit," she adds. We anticipate and are ready for anything that they may throw our way."

As voters in the United States head to the polls, we take a look at what's on the ballot with Chris Melody Fields Figueredo of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. This is a consequential election, and voters are going to be able to vote on democracy itself, whether they can participate in elections, how congressional districts are drawn, whether they will have autonomy of their own bodies," says Fields Figueredo, who previews some of the over 145 ballot initiatives being considered across the country, including California's billionaire wealth tax and measures concerning reproductive, voting and LGBTQ+ rights.

WSJ: U.S. Carries Out Strikes Around Strait of Hormuz on Eve of Midterm Elections, SCOTUS Rejects Trump Admin's Attempt to Force California to Set Aside 20,000 Mail-In Ballots, Federal Judge Denies Attempt by NAACP to Block DOJ from Deploying Election Monitors, Michigan Democratic Senate Nominee Dr. El-Sayed Raises $2.4 Million in One Day, Aide to Georgia GOP Senate Candidate Mike Collins Posted Online Slurs and Calls to Violence, Elon Musk Spent Record-Shattering $474 Million on Midterm Elections, Former Head of Chicago FBI Sues DOJ, Alleging Politically Driven Prosecutions, New York Records First Measles Death in Over 3 Decades, Houthis Advance on Aden as Fighting Worsens Yemen's Hunger Crisis, Displaced Palestinians Return to Hebron as Israel Ends 10-Day Siege, Russian Strike on Humanitarian Aid Center in Ukraine Leaves Dozens Injured or Dead, Bangladeshi Garment Workers' Strike Demands End to Poverty Wages

Vanity Fair recently published an excerpt from longtime investigative reporter Matthew Cole's new book, Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East.The excerpt alleged that during President Trump's first term, Saudi and Emirati leaders secretly put at least $2 billion into bank accounts and gave access to Kushner. At the time, Jared Kushner was serving as senior adviser to President Trump, his father-in-law. He is now Trump's special envoy. Kushner's lawyers responded by demanding that Vanity Fair retract the article and threatening legal action against the book publisher, Simon & Schuster.Jared Kushner denied the report, saying, The allegations made by this author are completely insane, categorically false, and never happened. We denied every one of these claims on the record, yet the author failed to provide a single shred of evidence to substantiate any of them." His lawyers say no such bank accounts existed and that the allegations are unsupported by the verifiable evidence.In an extended interview with Democracy Now!, author Matthew Cole stood by his reporting. This book is a result of more than 50 sources. There was an enormous amount of fact-checking and legal vetting that went into this book," says Cole. There's plenty of information and reporting in the book that lets us establish and understand that there was ... an unholy alliance between Jared Kushner and the leader of the UAE, the leader of Saudi Arabia and, at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel."On Friday, Congressmember Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called on Kushner to recuse himself from Middle East and Ukraine negotiations and to produce a comprehensive list of bank accounts or other financial instruments" that he had access to during his time in government.

Democratic Congressmember Stevens Endorses MAGA Republican Rogers in Michigan's Senate Election, Federal Judge Orders Trump Admin to Halt Pressure Campaign Against Election Officials, Federal Judge Rejects DOJ's Lawsuit Seeking to Block Certification of Alaska's Senate Election If GOP Loses, Federal Appeals Panel Refuses DOJ's Request for California to Segregate Ballots Supposedly from Noncitizens, GOP Senator Marshall Releases New Ad About His Medical Practice after Democratic Attacks, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy Hospitalized After Stroke, Federal Judge Dismisses Trump's $10 Billion Lawsuit Against Wall Street Journal over Epstein Reporting, Federal Court Refuses to Dismiss NAACP Lawsuit Against Elon Musk's SpaceX, Thousands Rally in Tel Aviv Demanding Opposition Form a Jewish-Arab Coalition to Oust Netanyahu, Israeli Strikes Kill Eight Palestinians in Gaza, Tens of Thousands of People Protest Across Germany, 320,000 People Participate in France's Third Weekend of Protests, Anti-Government Protests Continue to Roil India, Calling for Resignation of Chief Election Commissioner, U.K. Bars Swedish Climate Scholar and Palestinian Rights Advocate Andreas Malm from Entering the Country, Houston Grand Jury Indicts ICE Agent for Running Over Immigrant Construction Worker, AP: Trump Admin Plans to Deport Afghan Immigrants Via Pakistan

We speak with Forensic Architecture's Eyal Weizman about his new book, Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide, a meticulous investigation into Israel's genocide in Gaza, the physical destruction of the territory and its impact on the Palestinian people.Forensic Architecture was founded in 2010 as an interdisciplinary research group focused on investigating state violence and human rights violations. Since 2023, Forensic Architecture has focused on producing evidence for South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.Weizman says ungrounding" is a kind of destruction that we have not seen anywhere else," with Israeli bulldozers terraforming" the landscape to erase all traces of Palestinian life. With thousands of bodies still unrecovered from under destroyed buildings, Israel's flattening, extraction and reshaping of the rubble in Gaza is a continuation of its crimes, says Weizman.Israel is actively and against court order, against the order of the ICJ, destroying the evidence of the genocide that it has perpetrated," he says.

DOJ Opens Criminal Probe of California Mail-In Ballots Despite Judge's Order, Corporations Spend $737M on Midterm Elections as Super-Rich Give $4.2B to Super PACs, Trump Returns to South Carolina to Rally GOP Support as Pollsters Declare Senate Race a Toss-Up, DOJ Ramps Up Criminal Probe of Alaska Senate Candidate Mary Peltola's Campaign with Subpoenas, Famine Declared in Yemeni City of Taiz Amid Houthi Siege, Sen. Chris Murphy Calls Trump's Plans to Renew Attacks on Iran Insane", Russian Strike Kills 14 at Crowded Train Station in Ukraine as Another Ship Is Sunk in Black Sea, Ukraine Halts Attacks on Russian Refineries at Trump's Request, as Russian Diesel Heads Toward U.S., GEO Group Signs 10-Year Contract to Continue Operating Notorious Tacoma ICE Jail, El Salvador Deploys 2,000 Troops to Haiti, Flavio Bolsonaro Declares He's Brazil's Legitimate" Leader After Trump Helps Him Flee to Miami

Several tech workers at Google's AI unit DeepMind have resigned in protest over the tech giant's work with the U.S. and Israeli militaries. Last week, DeepMind research engineer Sofia Liguori announced her resignation in a letter to her colleagues titled Stay Human." She denounced what she called Google's complicity in the Gaza genocide" and the increasing integration of Google's technology into military and surveillance systems.I felt I could not, in good faith, send this message of building AI to benefit humanity while ignoring that our company was complicit in a genocide," Liguori tells Democracy Now! The problem is that when the focus is on the model capabilities and on the potential for agents 'going rogue,' we are shifting the attention from a specific human choice ... which is this unrestrained, unregulated integration of the systems without red lines."

Immigrant rights and labor icon Dolores Huerta died Wednesday at the age of 96. Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 and then the United Farm Workers of America, working with Cesar Chavez. From 1965 to 1970, the union organized the historic Delano grape strike, which ended in major gains for farmworkers' labor rights.In the years that followed, Huerta became heavily involved in the women's liberation and immigrant rights movements and became a major supporter of the Democratic Party. In March, The New York Times published an investigation into Cesar Chavez's history of sexual abuse of women and girls in the farmworkers' movement, prompting Huerta to reveal that she, too, had been raped by Chavez. Huerta said the assaults led to the births of two of her children.Dolores Huerta appeared on Democracy Now! many times over the years. We remember her legacy with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, who says, Dolores was not only a labor organizer, a civil rights organizer, a feminist, committed, always optimistic about the possibilities of this country, but she loved life, and I want people to remember that."

Arab Parties Could Determine Next Israeli Prime Minister as Election Produces No Clear Winner, Israel Bombs Gaza Ministry as Settlers Attack Palestinians and Activists in West Bank, City of Cambridge, MA, Votes to Divest from Businesses Tied to Israel's Military, Three More Oil Tankers Erupt in Flames Near Strait of Hormuz, Pentagon Tells Congress U.S. War on Iran Has Cost $47 Billion, NYT: Democrats Recruited Another Dan Sullivan to Sow Confusion in Alaska Senate Race, Tennessee GOP House Candidate Blames Youthful Indiscretions" for Unsolicited Nude Photos, Judge Says U.S. Request to Set Aside California Ballots Would Wreak Havoc and Disrupt the Election", Right-Wing Activist James O'Keefe Charged with Unlawful Voting in Minnesota over Islamophobic Stunts, Hasan Piker Files $72 Million Defamation Lawsuit Against Scott Jennings, Labor Organizer and Civil Rights Activist Dolores Huerta Dies at 96, United Nations Condemns U.S. Economic Embargo of Cuba, Judge Overseeing Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores Case Dies at 92, Spain Train Crash Kills 68 People, Dozens Injured, Alexander Brothers Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison for Sex Trafficking

We get analysis of the Israeli elections, the upcoming U.S. midterms, the pro-Palestine movement and more from Palestinian American scholar Rashid Khalidi and Pakistani British writer Tariq Ali. They are co-authors of the new book The Neck and the Sword: Palestine's Unfinished Struggle. The book, an extended conversation between Khalidi and Ali over two years, offers an overview of Palestinian intellectual and political history, drawing its title from a famous phrase used by the renowned Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani to describe the futility of peace talks" between occupier and occupied, saying it was akin to a conversation between the sword and the neck."Kanafani was assassinated by Israel in 1972, murdered simply because his words were too dangerous for Israel to tolerate," says Khalidi.Public opinion about Israel has grown increasingly negative in the United States and across much of the world in the wake of the genocide in Gaza, and it's not going to shift back," says Khalidi. People have seen something that cannot be unseen. They've seen genocide. They've seen slaughter. And Israel has no defense."Even in countries with no history of a Palestine solidarity movement, suddenly the Palestine flag emerges," says Ali. Why? Because their governments are trying to stop dissent on this issue, so they are defying their governments."

Political Gridlock in Israel After No Clear Winner Emerges from Tuesday's National Election, Israeli Troops Violently Disperse Protest in Occupied West Bank, Iranian Director Jafar Panahi Sentenced to Five Years and One Month in Prison, Lina Attalah, Editor of Independent Egyptian Outlet Mada Masr, Released from Police Custody, Ansar Allah Claim Attack on Saudi Arabia's Largest Oil Refinery, NYT: Trump Admin Considering Lifting U.S. Sanctions on Russian Government's Investment Fund, Flavio Bolsonaro Flees to the U.S. Following Defeat in Brazil's Presidential Election, Pentagon Strikes Alleged Drug Boat in the Eastern Pacific, Killing Five People, Alex Pretti's Parents Accuse Federal Gov't of Protecting CBP Officers Who Fatally Shot Their Son, Roberto Jimenez Gutierrez Dies in ICE Custody, AP: ICE Has Detained a Mentally Ill U.S. Citizen for Nearly a Year, SCOTUS Declines to Restore Biden-Era Rule Allowing Immigration Judges to Suspend Deportation Cases, CDC Deputy Director Steps Down After Four Months on Job

A court in Cairo has ordered the closure of the independent Egyptian news site Mada Masr. The court also ordered the site's editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah, to be detained until she pays a fine of over $50,000. She was convicted on charges of managing an unlicensed website. Mada Masr is the flagship independent media outlet in Egypt and a pillar of independent media in the region," says Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Drop Site News, who previously worked at Mada Masr. The independent outlet was founded in 2013 in the midst of Egypt's revolution and counterrevolution" and has managed to survive all of those years in one of the most hostile media environments" in the world. Still, what happened today is an unprecedented escalation" because Attalah and Mada Masr had never before been referred to trial.Kouddous adds that the attack on Mada Masr comes less than a month after Egyptian authorities arrested an entire newsroom at the independent fact-checking outlet Matsadaash. They remain behind bars.

With the U.S. midterm elections just a week away, the affordability crisis - intensified by President Trump's tariffs and war on Iran - has emerged as a major campaign issue. Across the country, families are struggling to make ends meet, while oil and gas companies have reported record profits during recent periods of price shocks.Economist Isabella Weber's new book, Anti-Fascist Economics: In Defense of Affordability, Dignity, and Democracy, warns economic insecurity can fuel the rise of authoritarian movements, and argues protecting democracy requires making life affordable for everybody.Anti-fascist economics is not about getting rid of the market," says Weber. It's about having public players that behave differently, and by behaving differently, changing the dynamic of the market as a whole and literally creating an alternative so that people are not dependent on often very concentrated and private providers as the only choice," she explains, providing current examples of governments enacting such policies from New York City to Mexico City to Rome.

A competitive Senate race has gripped the once reliably Republican state of Alaska. If Democratic challenger Mary Peltola wins the election against incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, it could tip the balance of power in Washington. Attorneys for Peltola and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have submitted a motion to dismiss a Department of Justice lawsuit filed last week that seeks to block the certification of the election results in Alaska if Sullivan loses. President Trump confirmed on Friday he had ordered the DOJ to file the lawsuit, which alleges that the appearance of another candidate on the ballot with a similar name, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., would mislead voters. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled ahead of the primary that Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher who is running unaffiliated, could appear on the ballot.The ACLU - on behalf of two Alaska voters, the League of Women Voters of Alaska and Common Cause - has moved to intervene in the case and has also filed a motion asking the court to dismiss it.There is no merit to this claim," says Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. We've asked the court to consider sanctions, because the courts shouldn't be used to launder baseless claims into distrust in our elections. There should be consequences for that."