Democracy Now!

President Biden has spared the lives of 37 of 40 federal death row prisoners by commuting their sentences to life in prison. This comes just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House with a promise to restart and expand federal executions. Death is in no way decreasing violence or is in no way giving anybody closure," says Herman Lindsey, who spent three years on death row before being exonerated in 2009 and condemns politicians like Trump who use executions as a political tool." Most politicians use that to put the fear into people and use it as a voting tool." President Biden's action comes after years of advocacy by civil rights and Catholic groups. Last week, he had a phone call with Pope Francis, who reportedly called for the sentences of death row prisoners to be commuted. He shares that faith and put it into action in a pretty courageous way, to speak out about the needs of healing the criminal justice system, that too often is wrong," says Sister Simone Campbell, the former executive director of the Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice.

Israel Attacks Two Hospitals in Northern Gaza, Israel Detains 100 in West Bank; Palestinian Authority Clashes with Palestinian Fighters in Jenin, Israel Confirms It Assassinated Haniyeh as It Threatens to Kill Houthi Leaders Next, Greenland Is Not for Sale: PM Responds to Donald Trump's Remark, El Salvador: Lawmakers Vote to Overturn Ban on Mineral Mining, Mass Protest in Cuba Denounces U.S. Sanctions, House Ethics Report Finds Matt Gaetz Spent Tens of Thousands of Dollars on Sex and Drugs, Family of Rep. Kay Granger Reveals She Has Dementia; Texas Republican Has Missed Every Vote Since July, Amazon Accused of Trying to Flood Picket Lines of Striking Workers in Queens, NYC, Starbucks Strikes Expands to Three More Cities, Missouri Governor Commutes Sentence of White Cop Who Killed Cameron Lamb, Family of Slain Cop City Protester Tortuguita Sues Three Police Officers, D.C. Police Officer Convicted of Tipping Off Proud Boys Leader, Taxpayers Against Genocide Sue Two California Democrats for Funding Israeli Military

Christmas celebrations are canceled in the West Bank and the city of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ's birthplace, for the second year in a row in response to Israel's genocidal attack on Gaza and ethnic cleansing of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We feature an excerpt of the Christmas sermon of Reverend Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, titled Christ Is Still in the Rubble," referencing a sermon he gave at this time last year titled Christ in the Rubble," about the loss of Palestinian life to Israel's assault of Gaza. We also go to Bethlehem to speak with Reverend Isaac. He shares his message to the U.S. and the rest of the world. Our fear here in Bethlehem is that there is no one who's going to hold Israel accountable," he says. We're tired and sick of these wars, which are enabled by American tax money and American politics."

In France, sentences have been handed down in the trial of Dominique Pelicot and 51 other men convicted of rape against Pelicot's ex-wife, Gisele. Dominique Pelicot had repeatedly and systematically drugged and facilitated the rape of Gisele Pelicot, approaching other men online to visit their home and assault her over a period of 10 years. Pelicot waived anonymity and fought for a public trial in the historic case, a decision that shaped the public discourse on sexual violence and the prevalence of chemical submission and drug-assisted sexual assault. We were all here to wait for Gisele, but also we were all here for one another," says Diane de Vignemont, a French journalist who reported on the Pelicot trial and found a sisterhood" that formed among women attendees to the trial, many of whom shared their own experiences with sexual assault.

After the Republican-led Congress passes a government spending bill but rejects a last-minute demand for a debt limit suspension from President-elect Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, we look at the richest man in the world's growing influence, with The American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner. At the end of the day, Musk got exactly what he wanted," says Kuttner, referring to Musk's influence in the removal of an anti-China trade provision in the bill. It's a classic case of Musk rolling Trump. ... I don't think this is going to end well."

Biden Commutes Sentences of 37 Men on Federal Death Row, UNRWA Warns World Must Not Become Numb" to Israel's Escalating Attacks on Gaza, Doctor at Kamal Adwan Decries Israeli Attacks on Hospital in Northern Gaza, This Is Cruelty. This Is Not War." Pope Francis Condemns Israel on Gaza, Syria: Diplomats from U.S., Turkey, Jordan and Qatar Meet with HTS Leader, Congress Passes Spending Bill to Avert Government Shutdown, House Ethics Report Finds Gaetz Committed Statutory Rape, Panama Rejects Trump's Threat to Retake Panama Canal, Trump Says U.S. Ownership of Greenland Is An Absolute Necessity", Five Die in Germany as Car Drives Into Christmas Market, Int'l Court Rules Against El Salvador's Strict Abortion Ban, U'wa Indigenous People in Colombia Win Major Victory at Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Washington Post: 3,100 Indigenous Students Died at U.S. Boarding Schools, Top NYPD Uniformed Officer Resigns Under Investigation for Sexual Misconduct, Report: Netanyahu to Skip Auschwitz Event to Avoid Being Arrested for War Crimes

We speak with Yale historian and author Timothy Snyder, an expert on authoritarianism, about how corporate America has responded to Donald Trump's reelection. Snyder's 2017 book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century came out just a month after Trump began his first term, and opened with the warning: Do Not Obey in Advance." That message has been widely cited following ABC News's decision to settle a Trump defamation case by donating $15 million to his future presidential library. Major tech leaders have also cozied up to the president-elect in recent days, including with major donations to Trump's inauguration. There is a problem when the people who have the most money set the example of yielding to power first," says Snyder. It's textbook anticipatory obedience."

We continue to look at the U.S. health insurance industry and how patients can fight back against their providers with advocate Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York and co-founder of the Health Care for All New York campaign. She says her advice for patients is to always appeal denials and to seek outside help when possible, including advocacy groups like hers and external review boards. She also stresses that much of the chaos of the U.S. health system is due to corporate greed. Everyone has an incentive to charge more," says Benjamin. If we had Medicare for All, we wouldn't be paying as much, and we would probably have much better health outcomes."

Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has been charged with first-degree murder and second-degree murder as an act of terrorism. Thompson's assassination has brought renewed attention to the practices of the health industry and especially UnitedHealth Group, which reported $22 billion in profits last year. For more, we speak with Kevin Dwyer, who has firsthand experience with UnitedHealthcare denying him lifesaving medication for cystic fibrosis. The thought of getting this medication that could stop my decline was everything to me. And it was devastating when I got the denial," says Dwyer, who only got approved after his case became a national news story. It shouldn't take this, but unfortunately it does," says Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York and co-founder of the Health Care for All New York campaign.

Thousands of Amazon workers on Thursday launched the largest strike against the retail giant in U.S. history, pressuring the company at the height of the holiday period to follow the law and bargain with those who have organized with the Teamsters union. The strike includes warehouse workers and drivers at seven distribution centers in some of Amazon's largest markets, including New York, Atlanta and San Francisco; Teamsters have also set up picket lines at many other warehouses nationwide. We're engaging in a coordinated action to try to put the pressure on Amazon to stop breaking the law, come to the table," says Connor Spence, president of Amazon Labor Union-IBT Local 1, which represents workers in New York. This is an unfair labor practice strike over their refusal to bargain." We also speak with Ronald Sewell, an Amazon associate in Georgia, who says workplace safety is a major driver of worker discontent, including insufficient access to water and overheating. The danger is real. It's not something that we're making up," says Sewell.

Israel's Genocide in Gaza Claims 77 Palestinian Lives Over Past Day, Israeli Settlers Vandalize West Bank Mosque Amid Continuing Israeli Attacks Across Occupied Territory, U.S. Officials in Damascus as Syrian Kurds Seek to Fend Off Possible Turkish Incursion, Syrian Youth, Women Gather to Demand Respect for Human Rights from Incoming Gov't, Striking Amazon Workers in NYC Met with Police Crackdown as Labor Action Spreads Across U.S., Starbucks Workers Launch Escalating Strike Action, U.S. Gov't Inches Closer to Shutdown After House Rejects New, Trump-Endorsed Spending Bill, Fulton County DA Fani Willis Barred from Georgia's Election Subversion Case Against Trump, Luigi Mangione Faces Federal Murder Charges for Shooting Death of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Another Member of NYC Mayor Eric Adams's Inner Circle Is Indicted, Biden Sets Out Goal to Reduce Emissions by Up to 66% by 2035, EPA, Energy Dept. Workers Condemn Biden Admin for Funding Bombs Over Climate Crisis, Three WFP Workers Killed in Sudan Air Attack as Agency Warns 1.7 Million People Facing Famine, Macron Met with Angry Crowds as He Toured Cyclone-Devastated Mayotte, Where Aid Has Been Scarce, Crowd Crush at Nigerian School Fair Kills 35 Children, Ecuador Successfully Completes Debt-for-Nature Swap as Part of Amazon Preservation Effort

When you're in prison, the retaliation starts. ... I don't think my judge sentenced me to go through this." The U.S. government has agreed to pay a record-breaking amount of nearly $116 million to settle lawsuits brought by 103 people who survived sexual abuse and assault at a federal women's prison in California. The facility, FCI Dublin, was shuttered earlier this year. Its former warden is now himself imprisoned after being convicted of sexually abusing incarcerated people under his care. Aimee Chavira, who was formerly incarcerated at FCI Dublin and is part of the class-action sexual abuse lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons, says the settlement, while welcomed, doesn't change anything. No amount of money will change what was done to us and what did happen." Community organizer Courtney Hanson helped advocate for survivors with the Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition. She calls for policy changes to ensure that this type of staff sexual abuse stops happening" in prisons across the country.

Human Rights Watch is accusing Israel of committing acts of extermination and genocide by deliberately restricting safe water for drinking and sanitation to the Gaza Strip. The report details how Israel has cut off water and blocked fuel, food and humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip, and deliberately destroyed or damaged water and sanitation infrastructure and water repair materials. We speak to one of the report's editors, Bill Van Esveld, the acting Israel and Palestine associate director at Human Rights Watch, who describes a clear state policy of depriving people in Gaza of water," that HRW is, for the first time in the current Israeli assault on Gaza, characterizing as a genocidal act.

We were not prepared for what we were going to see," says Human Rights Watch researcher Hiba Zayadin, who recently visited one mass execution site turned mass grave in Syria, following the sudden fall of the authoritarian Assad family from power. More than 150,000 Syrians remain unaccounted for after being held in Assad's prisons, and many are believed to be buried in mass graves. We speak to Zayadin about what's been uncovered so far and the struggle to preserve evidence, particularly in the face of a new regime that has not prioritized tracking records of the Assad government's crimes, and of Israel's ongoing shelling of crucial sites. Every minute that passes where there is inaction, where these documents, these sites are not being preserved, are not being secured, is just one more family possibly never knowing what happened to their loved ones," she says.

Israeli's Attacks Continue Across Gaza Despite Talks of Nearing Ceasefire, Twin Palestinian Sisters Killed by Israeli Attack as They Attempted to Leave Gaza, Haaretz: Israeli Soldiers Arbitrarily Kill Palestinians, Then Declare Them Terrorists, Israel Bombs Yemen, Killing at Least 9, Senate Passes $895B Pentagon Bill, Includes Ban on Healthcare for Military Trans Family Members, Government Shutdown Looms After House Republicans Reject Compromise Spending Deal, GOP Introduces DOGE Act to Slash Billions from Social Programs, House Ethics Committee to Release Report on Matt Gaetz's Sex Trafficking and Drug Use, Trump Appoints Failed Senate Candidate and Ex-NFL Star Herschel Walker as U.S. Ambassador to Bahamas, Gisele Pelicot's Ex-Husband Is Found Guilty of Mass Rape, Sentenced to 20 Years, U.S. to Pay $116 Million to Rape Club" Survivors at Federal Women's Prison in California, Texas Father Fights to Reunite Family After ICE Deports Mother and Children to Mexico, We Just Do What the Israelis Want Us to Do": State Department Official Quits over U.S. Policy on Gaza, Supreme Court Will Hear Challenge to Potential Ban on Social Media App TikTok, Indiana Carries Out First Execution in 15 Years, Killing Joseph Corcoran, Thousands of Amazon Workers Begin Strike for Union Recognition

We speak with The Nation's Chris Lehmann about President-elect Donald Trump's escalating attacks on the press and how major media figures and institutions are capitulating preemptively" to the pressure. ABC News recently settled a defamation suit brought by Trump by making a $15 million donation to his future presidential library, despite experts saying the case was easily winnable. Trump is also suing The Des Moines Register for publishing a poll before the election that showed him losing to Vice President Kamala Harris. What's happening is a very clear pattern in Trump's public life," says Lehmann. This is a show of power."

We speak with the husband and sister of Ayenur Ezgi Eygi, the 26-year-old Turkish American activist killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in September, who have criticized the Biden administration for failing to independently investigate her death. The recent University of Washington graduate was fatally shot in the head after taking part in a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita, which she attended as an international observer. Witnesses say she was shot by an Israeli sniper after the demonstration had already dispersed. Members of Eygi's family spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this week but left the meeting with little hope the U.S. would hold Israel accountable. Accountability starts with an investigation by the U.S. of the killing of one of its own citizens by an ally," says Eygi's husband Hamid Ali. The answer to the question of why my wife is not getting justice is because Israel enjoys this level of impunity throughout its existence that no other country, no other state in the world enjoys."

A new lawsuit accuses the State Department of failing to ever sanction Israeli military units under the Leahy Law, which was passed in 1997 to prevent the United States from funding foreign military units credibly implicated in gross human rights violations. The case was brought by five Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and the United States and is supported by the human rights group DAWN. Former State Department official Charles Blaha, who served as director of the human rights office tasked with implementing the Leahy Law, says there is a mountain of evidence of Israel carrying out torture, extrajudicial killings, rape, enforced disappearances and other abuses. Despite all that, the State Department has never once held any Israeli unit ineligible for assistance under the Leahy Law," says Blaha, now a senior adviser at DAWN. We also speak with Palestinian American writer Ahmed Moor, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, who has family in Gaza and says the last year of genocide has made the lawsuit more urgent. The conditions of basic life are not being met. Gaza is unlivable," says Moor.

Israeli Attacks Kill Dozens of Palestinians Amid Signs of Breakthrough in Gaza Ceasefire Talks, Israeli Forces Kill Two More Palestinians in Occupied West Bank, U.N. Envoy Warns Syria's War Has Not Ended" as Turkish-Backed Forces Challenge Kurdish Fighters, Netanyahu Vows Israeli Forces Will Remain in Syria Indefinitely, Haaretz: Israel and Saudi Arabia Reach Breakthrough in Talks to Normalize Ties, Human Rights Groups Condemn FIFA's Selection of Saudi Arabia to Host 2034 World Cup, U.S. to Transfer 3 More Prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Trump Sues Iowa Pollster and Des Moines Register for Brazen Election Interference", Democrats Select Gerry Connolly Over AOC as Ranking Member of House Oversight Committee, Macron to Visit Cyclone-Ravaged Mayotte Amid Anger over Slow Response to Crisis, CNN Admits It Misidentified Assad Intelligence Officer as Freed Syrian Prisoner, Manhattan DA Charges Alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO Assassin with Murder and Terrorism, Ocean Defender Paul Watson Freed from Prison as Denmark Rejects Japan's Extradition Bid

As the official death toll in Gaza tops 45,000 and Israel's wars throughout the Middle East continue, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in court for a long-awaited corruption trial, making him the country's first sitting leader to face criminal charges. He is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. For more on this extraordinary case, we speak with acclaimed filmmaker Alex Gibney, whose latest documentary The Bibi Files features leaked behind-the-scenes footage of police interrogations of Netanyahu, his wife and those accused of bribing him. The film has been banned in Israel, and Netanyahu even tried unsuccessfully to stop it from screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, but Gibney says it is being widely shared inside Israel through unofficial channels. Strictly speaking, this is a film about corruption," Gibney tells Democracy Now! It starts with petty corruption - being bribed with gifts and cigars, champagne, jewelry - but then the ultimate corruption is how he's tried to elude a reckoning for his misdeeds, and in so doing, he wraps himself in the mantle of prime minister and then wages endless war."

We speak with organizer Astra Taylor of the Debt Collective, which is urging President Joe Biden to cancel more student debt, including for older debtors, before the end of his term. According to the White House, the administration has approved $175 billion in student debt relief for nearly 5 million borrowers over the past four years, but advocates say Biden can still do more in his final weeks as president. This is a Titanic moment for the Biden administration. They have crashed into the authoritarian iceberg of the Trump administration, and it is their duty to fill as many lifeboats as possible," says Taylor. She faults the administration for insisting on a case-by-case approach to debt relief instead of canceling debt for larger swaths of debtors, including many with ironclad claims," urging the White House to use all the legal tools at its disposal.

President Joe Biden's decision to grant clemency to a corrupt former judge has sparked widespread outrage, including from members of his own party. Biden announced nearly 1,500 commutations and pardons last week in what the White House described as the largest single-day act of clemency from a president, but among those whose sentences were reduced is former Pennsylvania Judge Michael Conahan - one of two judges in the notorious kids for cash" scandal. In 2011, Conahan was sentenced to 17.5 years for accepting nearly $3 million in kickbacks for sending 2,300 children, some as young as 8 years old, to for-profit prisons on false charges. His co-conspirator, former Judge Mark Ciavarella, remains in prison. We speak with filmmaker Robert May, director of the Kids for Cash documentary, and Sandy Fonzo, mother of Edward Kenzakoski, who was incarcerated as a teenager as part of the kickback scheme and later died by suicide. It's just reopening wounds that have never healed," Fonzo says of the commutation. She describes her son as strong" and proud" before his time in detention, but says he came out broken" and never fully recovered. It stole his youth, his childhood."

Israeli Forces Attack Gaza Safe Zone" and Again Assault Kamal Adwan Hospital, Family Asks Blinken to Launch Independent Probe of Israel's Killing of Ayenur Ezgi Eygi, Nobody Is Going to Silence Ireland": Irish PM Blasts Israel's Closure of Dublin Embassy, U.S. Officials Warn Turkey Is Preparing Invasion of Syrian Kurdish Autonomous Region, Rights Groups Warn Mass Graves in Syria Could Hold Over 100,000 Victims of Assad Family, Kyiv Says It Killed Russian General Responsible for Chemical Weapons Attacks in Ukraine, 15-Year-Old Girl Guns Down Student and Teacher Before Killing Herself at Madison School, HRW: 1,360 Children Ripped from Their Families at Border Under Trump's 1st Term Were Never Reunited, NY Judge Rejects Trump's Attempt to Throw Out Felony Conviction, Justin Trudeau Faces Deepening Political Turmoil After Finance Minister Quits, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Loses No-Confidence Vote, Setting Up Early Elections, Brazil Arrests Jair Bolsonaro's 2022 Running Mate as Coup Investigation Advances, Amazon Workers in 3 Cities Could Be on Verge of Historic Strike, Uhuru 3" Receive 3 Years' Probation, Avoiding Prison, over Russian Influence" Legal Saga

Private healthcare companies are facing increased scrutiny following the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson over what appears to be dissatisfaction with the company's exploitative policies and frequent denials of care. Recent investigations from ProPublica and reporter Annie Waldman find that UnitedHealthcare is aggressively trying to limit mental health coverage and treatment for thousands of children with autism in its latest effort to cut costs and curtail care.

Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein joins us to discuss the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as he walked to a shareholders conference in New York City earlier this month, and his accused killer, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione. Thompson's vigilante-inflected death has inflamed public discourse over the predatory practices of the private healthcare industry. People working these call centers are themselves upset at having to deny claims," says Klippenstein. Last week, he published what is believed to be Mangione's manifesto," which details Mangione's anger at the industry and his motivation for the killing. Meanwhile, healthcare companies appear to be scrambling to protect their public reputation. I speculate that it is the absence of discourse around our healthcare system that fed into the rage we're seeing now," adds Klippenstein. To miss that as part of this story is just malpractice."

The South Korean National Assembly voted Saturday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, 10 days after his ill-fated attempt to declare martial law in the country. Yoon had falsely accused political rivals of North Korean sympathies in his declaration, invoking previous eras of military dictatorship on the Korean Peninsula in the years following its partition. For more on what to expect from the upcoming judicial vote over Yoon's removal, we speak to Korean activist Dae-Han Song. Yoon's waning popular support is not promising for his political future and has reignited public appetite for democratic reforms, explains Song.

Israel is continuing to bomb Syria a week after longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Israeli forces have launched over 800 strikes on Syria over the past week. Meanwhile, the Israeli government has approved a plan to expand illegal settlements in the occupied Golan Heights. Israel is setting new precedents in the Middle East," says Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara. It's acting so lawlessly against Syria, as a rogue state basically." Bishara also discusses Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the Syria strategy of other actors in the region, including neighboring U.S. allies that had previously attempted to normalize relations with Assad and extremist groups that have formed partially in response to U.S. aggression.

Israel Continues to Bomb Syria, Pushes Ahead with Plan to Invade and Settle More of Golan Heights, Israel Kills Khaled Nabhan, Palestinian Man Who Mourned His Granddaughter Reem: Soul of My Soul", Israel Kills 3 More Reporters Incl. Mohammed Balousha, Who Exposed Killing of ICU Babies at Al-Nasr, Jenin Residents Demonstrate Against Deadly Palestinian Authority Raids, Georgian Dream Lawmakers Appoint Far-Right Mikheil Kavelashvili as President, Tropical Cyclone Chido Rips Through Mayotte, Thousands Feared Dead, Drone Strike Kills at Least 9 at El Fasher's Main Hospital in Darfur, South Korea Impeaches President Yoon Suk Yeol After Failed Martial Law Attempt, Trump & Vance Attend Military Football Game with Cabinet Picks, Ex-Marine Who Killed Subway Performer, Another News Outlet Chooses Obedience": ABC News Settles Defamation Suit with $15M Trump Donation, Biden's Clemency Order Includes Kids-for-Cash" Judge, Doctor Who Watered Down Cancer Drugs

Three activists with the Uhuru Movement will be sentenced by a Florida judge Monday as part of a legal saga that began when the FBI raided the group in 2022, accusing the antiwar Black liberation group of working as Russian agents. The Uhuru 3" are Omali Yeshitela, chair of the African People's Socialist Party, and white solidarity activists Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel. A jury acquitted them in September of acting as illegal agents of the Russian government, but convicted them on the lesser charge of conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government - something they reject. The activists face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine but plan to appeal the ruling. Yeshitela spoke with Democracy Now! ahead of the sentencing hearing and called it ridiculous" that prosecutors suggested the movement's antiwar position was inspired by Russia. The Black liberation movement in this country has historically been opposed to those wars, and that's been a strategic problem for the United States," Yeshitela said. It's a thought crime that they have convicted us for, and we fought it all along, and we continue to fight that."

Laila Soueif is on the 75th day of a hunger strike calling for the U.K. government to push for the release of her son, jailed Egyptian British author and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah. Charged with spreading false news, Alaa remains imprisoned in Egypt despite having completed his sentence in September. Human rights group say he has been subjected to torture, beatings and horrific treatment while in prison. Since neither government appears to do anything about political prisoners except when there is a crisis, I'm hoping to create a crisis," says Soueif, who vows to reunite her son and grandchild, 13-year-old Khaled. Alaa has missed all of his childhood. They need to be together, and until that happens, I'm not going to go back on my word. I'm on hunger strike until either I collapse or that happens."

We go live to Damascus for the first time since the fall of longtime authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad, where the country's populace is still reeling from the power struggle that forcibly displaced more than a million people over the last months. Investigative reporter Sarah El Deeb joins Democracy Now! while looking over the joyous scenes in the city, but reports there is a marked contrast between the sense of relief over the departure of Bashar al-Assad but then the sadness and the concern and no answers for where the loved ones have gone." El Deeb describes exploring Syria's notorious prisons, the manhunt for U.S. citizens in the country, and how in the Gaza Strip Israeli soldiers have separated Palestinian families during raids.

Mass Crowds Gather for First Friday Prayers Since Assad Ouster, U.N. Calls on Israel to Stop Bombing Syria and Occupying Demilitarized Zone, 96% of Gaza Children Think Death Is Imminent: Study Highlights Devastating Emotional Toll of Genocide, Reporters Without Borders: Palestine Remains Most Dangerous Place for Journalists, Russia Rains Missiles Down on Kyiv, Targeting Ukrainian Power Infrastructure, Lawmakers Introduce Second Impeachment Motion Against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, French President Macron Names Centrist Francois Bayrou as New Prime Minister, Tuvalu May Soon Be Uninhabitable": Plaintiffs Lay Out Urgent Crisis as ICJ Climate Hearings Wrap Up, Climate Activists Blockade Energy Dept. Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Hospitals Are Reporting Birthing Patients for Positive Drug Tests Their Providers Administered, Luigi Mangione to Fight Extradition to New York as NYPD Warns of CEO Hitlist", Woman Arrested and Charged for Threatening" Insurance Co. by Saying Delay, Deny, Depose", New York Immigrants' Rights Advocates Protest as Trump's Border Czar Meets Mayor Eric Adams, Mufid Abdulqader Freed After 16 Years Behind Bars for Work with Pro-Palestinian Charity, New York Police Arrest Faculty and Students Demanding NYU Divest from Israel's Wars and Occupations, New Jersey Prohibits Book Bans in School and Public Libraries

President-elect Trump, himself found liable in court for sexual abuse, has picked a striking number of suspected sexual predators for key positions in his incoming administration. Trump's early pick of former Florida Congressmember Matt Gaetz for attorney general was shot down amid a firestorm over sexual misconduct allegations. Now Trump is pushing hard to keep the rest of his picks on track, including Fox host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary. Hegseth paid an undisclosed amount to a woman who accused him of sexual assault. Meanwhile, a woman who worked for RFK Jr. as a babysitter accused him of sexual assault at his home in 1998. Even one of the few women Trump has chosen, professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon for education secretary, was sued for allegedly ignoring complaints that a WWE ringside announcer sexually abused children for years. Trump really is the embodiment of a male entitlement," says Deborah Tuerkheimer, professor of law at Northwestern University. Tuerkheimer says the president and these Cabinet picks are a bellwether for how society responds to abuse. The #MeToo movement was about and continues to be about not just individual allegations, but this larger question of who's held accountable and what kind of cultural toleration do we have for abuse by powerful men."

International humanitarian leader Jan Egeland joins Democracy Now! to discuss aiding civilians in war-torn areas of Ukraine, Syria, Sudan and Gaza. In Ukraine, residents are bracing for another winter of war as a Russian offensive reaches within two miles of the key eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk. The population is exhausted, so imagine how it is in the trenches with those soldiers. Many of them have continuously been in battle for two years now," says Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. The courageous humanitarian aid workers ... are targeted like the civilian population. Even ambulances are repeatedly hit."

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria continues to reshape the country and the greater Middle East. In Damascus, leaders of the armed group HTS have retained most services of the civilian government but vowed to dissolve Assad's security forces and shut down Assad's notorious prisons. People have this sense of regained freedom," says Syrian architect and writer Marwa al-Sabouni in Homs. Still, she warns oppression in the country has left the populace weakened and vulnerable. Syria is up for grabs now. ... We are completely disarmed." In northeast Syria, more than 100,000 people have been displaced due to fighting between Turkish-backed forces and U.S.-backed Kurdish forces. Israel continues to seize more land in the Golan Heights and has carried out over 480 airstrikes on Syria since Sunday. Swiss Syrian left-wing activist and scholar Joseph Daher explains how civil society is attempting to rebuild democracy through struggle from below," and how that could unleash popular support for Palestine. Israel wanted a weak Assad and is not happy with the fall of this regime," says Daher. A democratization process in the Middle East is the biggest threat for Israel."

Israel Bombs Syria's Ports; Turkish-Backed Rebels Seize Territory Held by Kurdish Militias, Families of Syria's Disappeared Search for Loved Ones in Sednaya Prison, Israel Kills Dozens of Palestinians in Strikes Across Gaza Strip, Incl. Humanitarian Workers, Israeli Sniper Kills Kamal Adwan Surgeon Dr. Saeed Jouda, UNGA Overwhelmingly Votes for Gaza Ceasefire; WSJ: Hamas Agrees to 2 Key Israeli Ceasefire Demands, Israeli Forces Withdraw from Southern Lebanese Town as Israel's Violations of Truce Continue, U.N. Experts Urge World to Hold Israel Accountable, Call on U.S. and Germany to Halt Arms Supplies, 11-Year-Old Girl from Sierra Leone Appears to Be Lone Survivor of Refugee Shipwreck That Killed 40+, Christopher Wray Resigns as Trump Hopes to Confirm Conspiracy Theorist Kash Patel as Head of FBI, Trump Taps Kari Lake to Lead VOA, Kimbery Guilfoyle as U.S Amb. to Greece, Tom Barrack as Turkey Amb., Sens. Manchin, Sinema Join GOP to Sink Democratic Control of National Labor Relations Board, House Votes 281-140 in Favor of $895 Billion Military Spending Bill, Older Student Loan Borrowers Rally at Education Department Demanding Biden Cancel Crushing Debts, Dozens of Democrats Join Activists in Demanding Biden Certify Equal Rights Amendment, Biden Commutes Sentences of 1,500 Nonviolent Offenders in Largest-Ever Presidential Clemency

We continue our look at the tragic deaths of two Black men who were killed while experiencing mental health crises. Award-winning piano virtuoso Herman Whitfield III died in 2022 after he was repeatedly tasered, handcuffed and pinned to the ground by Indianapolis police officers. Whitfield's family had called 911 to ask for help as their son experienced a mental health crisis in their home, but instead of sending an ambulance as requested, police officers showed up and attacked Whitfield, even as he said he couldn't breathe while being restrained. Whitfield's death was ruled a homicide, but on Friday a jury acquitted the two Indianapolis officers. Herman was killed in our home right in front of us," says Gladys Whitfield, Herman's mother. In a case where an individual is having a mental health crisis, the officers are supposed to take time, try to negotiate, talk to the person, use persuasion and just try to deescalate." Whitfield is also a former public interest law attorney and a current federal administrative law judge.

We speak with the uncle of Jordan Neely after a New York jury on Monday acquitted veteran Daniel Penny in the death of the beloved New York street performer on a Manhattan subway train last year. Penny was found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide. The judge dismissed a more serious manslaughter charge. Penny will not face any prison time for the killing. Neely was in the midst of a mental health crisis on May 1, 2023, when Penny attacked and held him in a chokehold for several minutes, even after Neely stopped moving. That trial just was ridiculous," says Christopher Neely, who had tried to help his nephew and bring him home amid his mental health struggles. He says the family was already resigned to Penny not serving any prison time, but still wanted some measure of accountability at trial. I was just hoping and praying that we would get some justice, but we didn't get no justice."

Nearly 200 Haitians in Port-au-Prince were killed over the weekend on the orders of a powerful gang leader who reportedly targeted elderly practitioners of voodoo because he blamed them for sickening his son. The massacre is the latest chapter in Haiti's ongoing political crisis, with gangs now controlling much of the capital despite a Kenyan-led security mission to stabilize the country and support the U.S.-backed Transitional Presidential Council. Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch called for what it described as a full-fledged United Nations mission to Haiti." Human rights lawyer Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, says what we are seeing is the predictable result of dismantling democracy" by successive U.S. administrations, though foreign interference in Haiti goes back two centuries. He says that given the security situation today, it is absolutely indefensible" for the Biden administration to continue deportations at this time, which the Trump administration is poised to intensify.

President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to abolish birthright citizenship, which he cannot do unilaterally because it is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. But his rhetoric has still alarmed immigrant rights advocates who are concerned about Trump's mass deportation plans and how they would impact mixed-status families. Trump and his border czar" Tom Homan have both suggested deporting the U.S. citizen children of parents who are undocumented. No one is safe under Donald Trump," says Illinois Congressmember Delia Ramirez, whose husband Boris Hernandez came to the United States at 14 as an undocumented immigrant and only recently received a green card. She calls Trump's immigration plans un-American, unconstitutional and undemocratic."

Israel Declares Sterile Zone" in Syria Amid Massive Bombing Campaign, Syria's Interim Leader Calls for Return of Millions of Refugees, Israeli Attacks Across Gaza Kill Dozens, Including Children, Israel's Yoav Gallant Welcomed to White House Despite ICC Arrest Warrant for Crimes Against Humanity, At Least 127 Killed as Sudan's Army Battles Rapid Support Forces, South Korean Police Raid Offices of President Yoon Suk Yeol, Judge Halts Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against Trump's Nominee to Lead Education Department, Justice Department Report Reveals How Trump Spied on Congress and Journalists, 2024 Remains on Track to Surpass 2023 as Hottest Year in Human History, Climate Protesters in Albany Demand New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Make Polluters Pay", Abolitionists Call on Biden to Commute Death Sentences of Federal Prisoners, Federal Court Blocks Kroger's Anti-Competitive" $25 Billion Merger with Albertsons, Atomic Bombing Survivors Accept Nobel Peace Prize, Call for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

New York prosecutors have charged a suspect with murder for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was gunned down in Midtown Manhattan on December 4. The suspect has been identified as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, who was captured in Pennsylvania on Monday after a five-day nationwide search. Police say Mangione was found with a handwritten manifesto, which they have not released. Although little is known about the motive for Thompson's killing, there has been an outpouring of rage on social media directed at the health industry, with many sharing stories of having claims for vital care denied and losing precious time with loved ones during illness. Former healthcare executive Wendell Potter, now an advocate for reform, says the anger being expressed now has always been barely below the surface" and was one of the reasons he left the industry. I couldn't, in good conscience, continue to support an industry that ... established themselves firmly between a patient and his or her doctor," says Potter. What we're seeing, sadly, in some form or fashion probably was inevitable."We also speak with Derrick Crowe of the People's Action Institute, which runs the Care Over Cost campaign, helping people fight back against health insurance claims denials. These corporations have too much power in this country. They are blocking progress on issues like gun violence and on the epidemic of care denials in this country, either through prior authorizations or through claims denials," says Crowe.

A new report by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem documents a shocking rise in harassment, detention and abuse of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. The report includes testimony from 20 Palestinians who were attacked by soldiers in the city center of Hebron between May and August 2024, apparently chosen at random and detained for spurious or arbitrary reasons. The victims describe being punched, kicked and sexually abused, beaten with rifles, clubs or chairs, being whipped with a belt, having foul-smelling liquid poured on them, and, in one case, even being stabbed by Israeli soldiers. The violence in Hebron is part of a larger Israeli war against the entire Palestinian people" and directly connected to the genocidal assault on Gaza, says B'Tselem international outreach director Sarit Michaeli. She says that given the dehumanization of Palestinians by top officials in Israel since October 7 of last year, it's not surprising that Israeli soldiers who listen to Israeli leaders will act in a way that reflects this dehumanization." Michaeli adds that such abuses are often broadcast and celebrated. None of this is being done in a secretive way. It's all being done in broad daylight."

As Syrians celebrate the fall of the Assad regime after more than five decades of iron rule, many are grappling with the enormity of what has happened to their country, with nearly 14 years of war leaving much of the country in ruins, killing over 350,000 people and displacing 14 million more. Meanwhile, foreign powers, including Israel, Turkey and the United States, have carried out strikes across parts of the country, and Israel has invaded and occupied additional land in the Golan Heights. For more on the monumental changes underway, we speak with Syrian American political economist Omar Dahi, the director of the Security in Context research network, who has been involved in several peace-building initiatives since the start of the conflict in 2011. He says many Syrians have mixed emotions" about this moment, celebrating the end of Assad while mourning the immense human cost of the war and confronting the difficult road ahead to rebuild the country. Politics is finally possible," Dahi says.

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Whatever's coming next, I don't believe at all that [it] would be worse than what we've been through, what we lived through," says Syrian activist and filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab as she celebrates the fall of Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship to Syrian opposition groups. Al-Kateab, who was forced to flee her hometown of Aleppo with her family in 2016 and now resides in the United Kingdom, says the end of Assad's rule has reignited the dream of a free Syria." Her Oscar-nominated documentary film For Sama, released in 2019, offered a rare glimpse into Syria's civil war. The devastating personal account was filmed over the course of five years during the uprising in Aleppo and is dedicated to Al-Kateab's daughter Sama.

The fall of the Assad family's 50-year regime in Syria brings with it many more questions than answers," says the executive director of the Arab Studies Institute, Bassam Haddad. While the regional and global implications are not good," as Israel in particular is celebrating the loss of Assad's material support for Palestinian and Lebanese armed resistance, Haddad says the immediate relief of those suffering under Assad's totalitarian regime should not be ignored or invisibilized. Haddad also discusses the political prospects for the rebel forces led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which he says will likely form a coalition with other groups as the future of Syria is determined in the coming days and weeks.

We needed to turn this page. ... We've been under this inhuman condition for 54 years." Following a lightning 12-day offensive, armed opposition groups have overthrown President Bashar al-Assad's regime and his family's five-decade rule in Syria. Assad has fled to Russia, where he has been granted asylum, while tens of thousands of political prisoners have been freed. The uprising was led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a Turkish-backed group listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations. The release of prisoners from conditions of hunger, humiliation, extreme despair" is a welcome and hopeful sign for the new balance of power in Syria, says the writer, dissident and political prisoner in Syria from 1980 to 1996, Yassin al-Haj Saleh, but it remains to be seen if others who were disappeared during the Syrian civil war, including al-Haj Saleh's wife Samira, will be recovered or their fates identified.

Bashar al-Assad Ousted as Syrian Leader Following 12-Day Offensive, Israel & U.S. Bomb Syria as Questions Swirl over Future of Post-Assad Syria, Israel Kills Dozens in Gaza; Electricity, Oxygen & Water Cut at Kamal Adwan Hospital, Trump Calls for Ukraine Ceasefire After Meeting Zelensky & Macron, Biden Administration to Send Ukraine Another $1 Billion, Trump Vows to Pardon Jan. 6 Rioters, Calls for Jailing of House Jan. 6 Committee Members, Trump Calls for End to Birthright Citizenship, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol Survives Impeachment Vote, Faces Treason Probe, U.N.: 184 Haitians Killed in Cite Soleil Area of Port-au-Prince, Former Ghana President John Dramani Mahama Wins Election, Defeating Ghana's VP, Second-Degree Manslaughter Dismissed Against Daniel Penny in Death of Jordan Neely, Indianapolis Police Officers Acquitted in Killing of Herman Whitfield, Pope Francis Unveils Nativity Scene of Jesus in Crib Lined with a Palestinian Keffiyeh

France has been plunged into political chaos after lawmakers from across the political spectrum voted to oust Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a no-confidence vote Wednesday, a major blow to President Emmanuel Macron, who had hand-picked the conservative lawmaker to lead the National Assembly. Macron called a snap election earlier this year to counter the rise of the racist National Rally party of Marine Le Pen, but he then refused to work with the leftist New Popular Front that won the most seats, opting for an establishment pick instead. With the government's collapse, Macron has vowed to name a new prime minister and stay on to finish his own term, which ends in 2027, despite his growing unpopularity. We're in this unprecedented situation of turmoil," says journalist Cole Stangler in Marseilles. He says Macron's decision to call early elections was a self-inflicted wound" that ended up empowering the far right and making it virtually impossible for any faction to lead. We have a mathematical problem. France needs to have a government, and you have three pretty evenly split blocs," says Stangler.