Democracy Now!

Mass demonstrations are continuing in Turkey, where Istanbul Mayor Ekrem mamolu has been arrested on corruption charges. Since protests broke out last week, Turkish authorities have detained more than 1,400 people, including students and journalists. mamolu is the main rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoan in the 2028 presidential election and was recently nominated for president by the Republican People's Party. Erdoan has led the country since 2003, but his popularity has dropped in recent years amid increasingly authoritarian policies cracking down on dissent. Everyone knows that this is politically motivated and that Erdoan is scared that he's not going to win against Ekrem mamolu," says Turkish political scientist Ezgi Baaran.

Democratic lawmakers are calling for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Michael Waltz to resign, after they discussed bombing Yemen in a group chat that also included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Waltz had set up the chat on the messaging app Signal and appeared to accidentally add Goldberg, who then got a front-row seat as top officials, including Vice President JD Vance, discussed classified information. The attacks ultimately killed dozens of people in Yemen, including children. Journalist Safa Al Ahmad, who has been reporting on Yemen since 2010, says that while Washington is obsessing over the U.S. national security implications of the group chat, there is almost no criticism of the bombing campaign at the heart of the scandal. They are killing Yemenis with no recourse for Yemenis themselves," says Al Ahmad, who notes that U.S. involvement in attacks on Yemen started almost exactly 10 years ago, when a Saudi-led coalition began bombing the country with support from the Obama administration.There was actually no legal rationale under the Constitution for doing these strikes," adds Branko Marcetic, staff writer for Jacobin. Only Congress is actually able to declare war."

The Social Security benefits of millions of people in the United States are at risk as the Trump administration institutes drastic changes billed as anti-fraud" measures, but which critics say are aimed at weakening the popular program and potentially laying the groundwork to privatize it. The Social Security Administration has already shuttered dozens of offices across the country and is laying off thousands of workers. At the same time, the agency is demanding people make more in-office visits for routine business. The changes are part of government-wide efforts led by billionaire Elon Musk and DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.They are destabilizing the program," says Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works and chair of the Strengthen Social Security Coalition. It's really hard to imagine what they have in mind, what their endgame is, other than destroying our Social Security system."We also speak with Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic, who says Trump's nominee to head the Social Security Administration, financial services executive Frank Bisignano, has a reputation for slashing costs and pushing out staff. All of that is a pretty grim portent" of his plans for the Social Security Administration, if Bisignano is confirmed, says Marcetic. The people that are going to be hurt by it are the actual Social Security beneficiaries."

Israel Kills 38 Palestinians in Gaza; Israeli Court Orders Dr. Abu Safiya Held for 6 Months More, Palestinian Filmmaker Hamdan Ballal Freed After Being Assaulted by Israeli Settlers & Soldiers, Israel Kills 6 in Syria as U.S. Lanches New Attacks on Yemen, Waltz & Hegseth Face Calls to Resign Over Yemen Attack Plans Disclosure on Signal Chat, U.S. Intelligence Agencies Omit Climate Change as National Threat, Russia and Ukraine Agree to Naval Ceasefire in Black Sea, JD Vance to Join Delegation Headed to Greenland Amid Trump Threats to Seize Territory, ACLU Warns Trump Targeting of Another Law Firm Is Despotic, Unpresidential", AAUP & Middle East Studies Assoc. Sue Trump for Creating Climate of Repression on Campuses, Salvadorans Protest U.S. Sending Venezuelans to Imperial Prison", 54 Die in Sudanese Airstrike on Market in North Darfur; South Sudan on Brink of Civil War, 24 Die in South Korea's Largest Wildfires Ever, UNAIDS Warns Millions Could Die from U.S. Aid Cuts, Report: DOGE Employee Known as Big Balls" Once Helped Cybercrime Gang, Senate Committee Advances Nomination of Dr. Mehmet Oz, Backer of Privatizing Medicare, Trump Signs New Voting Executive Order; Critics Warn Millions Could Be Disenfranchised

We go to Gaza for a report on the brutal conditions of Israel's genocide of Palestinians from Abubaker Abed, a 22-year-old journalist who has recently been diagnosed with malnutrition as a result of Israel's total siege of the Gaza Strip. It's unending misery," says Abed. We're here stranded. We're seeing the systematic killing of everyone, as Israel is targeting every single one here in Gaza." In the week since Israel's abrupt desertion of its ceasefire agreement, says Abed, the total suffering in Gaza is much worse than ever before." He pleads for international intervention and accountability. As long as the world allows Israel to do so, this will not stop."

On Monday, Israeli strikes killed two Palestinian journalists: Al Jazeera's Hossam Shabat, who was 23 years old, and Palestine Today's Mohammed Mansour, who was killed in his apartment alongside his wife. This brings the total number of journalists that Israel has killed in Gaza over the past year and a half to 206. Just before his death, Shabat had shared news of Mansour's killing on social media and filed an article with Drop Site News describing Israel's scorched-earth campaign in his hometown of Beit Hanoun. His editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous remembers Shabat as a warm and funny person," dedicated to his job and his community. In recent months, he had been under increasing surveillance by the Israeli military, which labeled him a terrorist and placed him on a hit list." Despite being targeted and openly hunted," Shabat continued nevertheless to cover the genocide of his people."

Hamdan Ballal, the Oscar-winning Palestinian director of No Other Land, was attacked by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta, arrested by Israeli soldiers and held overnight. The group entered their village and started the assault shortly after residents broke their daily Ramadan fast. Ballal's No Other Land co-director Basel Adra witnessed the attack. He tells Democracy Now! that settlers and soldiers together attacked [Ballal] physically, brutally, and abducted him," while soldiers pointed guns and fired warning shots at a group of villagers including women and children. Ballal screamed I'm dying" as he was being beaten. Although the Israeli military has accused Ballal and two other Palestinians of throwing stones at soldiers, another eyewitness, Jewish American peace activist Anna Lippman, says the accusations are groundless. The double standard is so strong here in the West Bank that Palestinians know that if they were to touch a stone, that could mean their life." Adra calls on international intervention to end the violent occupation of Masafer Yatta, where almost every day there is [an] attack." Since this interview was conducted, Ballal has reportedly been released from Israeli custody and returned to his family.

Do Not Let the World Look Away": Israel Kills 2 More Journalists, Incl. Al Jazeera's Hossam Shabat, Israeli Settlers Brutally Attack Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-Winning Filmmaker, in Occupied West Bank, Trump's National Security Team Accidentally Shares Yemen War Plans with Journalist in Signal Chat, U.S. Attacks on Yemen Kills at Least 2 More People in Sana'a, Russian Missiles Injure Dozens in Ukraine's Sumy; Ukraine Kills 6, Incl. 3 Russian Journalists, SCOTUS Rejects Landmark Youth Climate Case, Ending 10-Year Battle That Inspired New Legal Strategy, SCOTUS Rejects Case Challenging NYT v. Sullivan, SCOTUS Hears Arguments in Key Louisiana Redistricting Case, Trump Threatens 25% Tariffs on Countries That Buy Venezuelan Oil, USPS Chief Louis DeJoy Resigns as DOGE Prepares to Gut Agency, U.S. Judge Reaffirms Order Blocking Trump from Expelling Immigrants Using Wartime Order, Columbia Student and Green Card Holder Sues Trump Administration After ICE Attempts to Arrest Her

Education Secretary Linda McMahon says Columbia University is on track to regain its federal funding after the Ivy League institution yielded to the Trump administration's demands on Friday. The demands include banning face masks on campus, hiring 36 new security officers with greater power to arrest and crack down on students and appointing a senior vice provost" to oversee the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies and the Center for Palestine Studies. Students say they will continue to fight for Palestinian rights and for Columbia to divest from Israel, but free speech experts are sounding the alarm. We have no idea what comes next, but groveling before a bully, we all know, just encourages the bully," says Katherine Franke, former professor at Columbia Law School.

Badar Khan Suri is one of the many pro-Palestine scholars being targeted by the Trump administration. Suri, originally from India, is a Georgetown University professor and postdoctoral scholar on religion and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia. Last Monday evening, Suri was ambushed by masked federal agents with the Homeland Security Department as he and his family returned to their home in Rosslyn, Virginia, after attending an iftar gathering for Ramadan. Suri was taken into custody without being charged with or accused of any crime. He was told the federal government had revoked his visa. Over the next 72 hours, Suri was transferred to multiple immigration detention centers, and he is currently jailed at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana, separated from his wife, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent, and his three children. Unlike Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate facing deportation, Suri is not a political activist," says Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown University. He was just a very serious young academic focusing on his teaching and his research."

The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to target free speech on college campuses and one doctoral student at Cornell University who was involved in pro-Palastinian protests on campus now finds himself targeted for deportation once again. Momodou Taal is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Africana Studies at Cornell University who is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the Gambia. He was suspended twice last year for joining a demonstration calling on Cornell to divest from Israel and faced deportation until massive protests pressured Cornell to allow him to reenroll, thereby extending his visa. Earlier this month, Taal, along with two U.S. citizens, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration's executive orders that target foreign nationals who it claims are national security threats. I believed I was going to be a target eventually," says Taal.

Israel Renews Attacks on Gaza's Hospitals as Its Full-Scale War Continues, Erdoan Intensifies Crackdown on Rival mamolu as Court Jails the Detained Istanbul Mayor, Columbia Caves to Trump Demands, Outlines Plans to Militarize Campus, Reinforce Censorship, Trump Orders DOJ and DHS to Punish Law Firms That Challenge His Agenda, Trump to Revoke Temporary Status of 530,000 People from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, WaPo: IRS Could Soon Release Personal Data of Immigrant Taxpayers to DHS, U.S. Judge Blocks ICE from Deporting Activist Jeanette Vizguerra, Social Security Head Briefly Threatens to Shut Down Agency, Pentagon Hosts Elon Musk But Skips Briefing on China After Media Reports, Musk's PAC Offers Wisconsin Voters $100 as He Pours Millions into Key Supreme Court Race, U.S. and Russia Hold Talks in Saudi Arabia as Negotiations Continue to End Ukraine War, Sudanese Army Sweeps Major Sites in Khartoum After Seizing Presidential Palace, South African Ambassador Returns Home to Warm Welcome After Expulsion from D.C., South Korean Court Reinstates Prime Minister Han Duck-soo as President Ahead of Yoon Suk Yeol Ruling, Canadian PM Calls for Snap Election to Take On Trump, Most Significant Crisis of Our Lifetimes", Greenland Pushes Back on Highly Aggressive" Planned Visit by Members of Trump White House, 34,000 Rallygoers Attend Bernie and AOC's Denver Stop on Fighting Oligarchy" Tour

The U.S. government this week released thousands more records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, long a source of fascination and intrigue. This is the final batch of JFK files after the federal government began declassifying documents in the early 1990s. While these latest files contain no major revelations about the assassination, they do include many previously redacted details about the CIA global effort to influence elections, sabotage economies, overthrow governments," says Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst with the National Security Archive, a government transparency organization and research institution. Now at least we know what was being done in our name but without our knowledge."

We speak with the Brennan Center's Faiza Patel, who warns the Trump administration is ramping up efforts to target international students and other visitors and immigrants to the United States over pro-Palestinian speech. The State Department has reportedly launched a new effort using artificial intelligence to help identify and revoke visas for people the government deems to be supporting U.S.-designated terrorist groups, based primarily on the individuals' social media accounts. Foreign students are running scared," says Patel. She also notes that while AI-driven sounds really fancy," the process is more likely to be a basic keyword search prone to rudimentary mistakes."

We get an update on legal efforts to stop the Trump administration from deporting Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who has been detained for two weeks despite being a legal resident with a green card. The Trump administration has explicitly said it is targeting Khalil because of his pro-Palestinian advocacy during protests at Columbia University last year, invoking a rarely used provision of immigration law to claim he could undermine U.S. foreign policy. Federal Judge Jesse Furman recently ordered the case to be moved to New Jersey, even though Khalil himself remains locked up in an ICE jail in Louisiana. In doing so, Judge Furman acknowledged that the right court to hear this is here, in the area where all of these events played out, where Mahmoud's family is, his eight-month-pregnant wife is, his community is and his lawyers are," says Shezza Abboushi Dallal, a member of Khalil's legal team.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday instructing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to start dismantling her agency, although it cannot be formally shut down without congressional approval. Since returning to office in January, Trump has already slashed the Education Department's workforce in half and cut $600 million in grants. Education journalist Jennifer Berkshire says despite Trump's claims that he is merely returning power and resources to the states, his moves were previewed in Project 2025. The goal is not to continue to spend the same amount of money but just in a different way; it's ultimately to phase out spending ... and make it more difficult and more expensive for kids to go to college," Berkshire says. She is co-author of the book The Education Wars: A Citizen's Guide and Defense Manual and host of the education podcast Have You Heard.

Israel Pushes Further into Gaza; Genocide's Death Toll Rises, with 200 Children Killed Since Tuesday, Trump Signs Executive Order to Dismantle the Education Department, U.S. Judge Blocks DOGE from Accessing Personal Info at Social Security Administration, U.S. Judge Slams DOJ for Again Defying Orders as Immigrants Targeted for Deportation over Tattoos, ICE Issues New Contract for GEO Group as NLRB Drops Detainee Abuse Case Against the Prison Co., Trump Rescinds Order Targeting Law Firm After It Agrees to Provide $40M in Legal Services, Reports: Elon Musk Attending Pentagon Briefing on Possible China War Plans, M23 Fighters Capture Another Town in Eastern Congo After Rwanda and DRC Leaders Call for Ceasefire, Sudanese Army Recaptures Presidential Palace in Khartoum, A Coup to the National Will": Arrests and Mass Protests in Turkey After Arrest of Ekrem mamolu, Mediterranean Shipwreck Claims at Least 6 Refugee Lives, with 40 Missing, Off Italian Island, UCLA Students Sue over Suppression of Gaza Protests, Violent Attack by Angry Mob Last Spring, International Student Activist Momodou Taal Sues to Block Trump Orders Targeting Protesters, 1,000+ Jewish Activists and Allies Rally for Mahmoud Khalil, House Democrats Start to Openly Call for New Leadership After Schumer Budget Debacle, AOC Joins Bernie Sanders on His Hugely Popular Fighting Oligarchy" Tour in Red and Swing Districts

A legal battle is continuing between the Trump administration and a federal judge over the president's invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to expel over 130 immigrants from the United States to a mega-prison" in El Salvador over claims that they are members of a Venezuelan gang. Margaret Cargioli, an attorney who is representing one of the men, an LGBTQ asylum seeker who did not have a deportation order when he was effectively disappeared by ICE, says the unilateral expulsion of asylum seekers is extremely unusual and concerning." Cargioli's client was not deported. He was sent there unlawfully," and his disappearance not only puts his asylum case at risk, but also his life. CECOT, the prison in El Salvador that the Venezuelan nationals were sent to, is infamous for torture and other human rights abuses, while Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's authoritarian rule has been marked by a long-running suspension of due process rights. Juan Pappier, who has investigated the prison system in El Salvador for Human Rights Watch, says people who are sent to CECOT will never be allowed out."

The new book Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful by The New York Times business investigations editor David Enrich chronicles an ongoing campaign by the wealthy and powerful to overturn the landmark Supreme Court decision New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which in 1964 established bedrock protections against spurious defamation and libel cases in the U.S. legal system. By subject[ing] people to this torturous, long-running and extremely expensive legal process," those who can afford to pay for expensive and threatening defamation lawsuits can silence any public criticism and suppress others' rights to free speech, says Enrich. It has huge implications for our democracy and the ability of everyone to speak their mind."

A jury in North Dakota has ordered Greenpeace to pay more than $660 million in damages for defaming Energy Transfer Partners, the corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Texas-based pipeline company accused Greenpeace of orchestrating criminal behavior by training and providing funds to the Indigenous-led protests at Standing Rock. Greenpeace and its supporters, including other nonprofits and advocacy groups, argued that the lawsuit is part of a conspicuous attempt by corporations to destroy the right to free speech. Longtime human rights and environmental lawyer Steven Donziger, who was part of the independent trial monitoring team observing the trial, says it was purposely held in a region of the country with deep ties to the fossil fuel industry. Donziger said most of the jurors in the case were connected to the industry and were predisposed" to rule in favor of Energy Transfer despite the false narratives" presented at the trial. Greenpeace plans to appeal the ruling.

Israel Kills Another 100 Palestinians; Death Toll Tops 700 in 3 Days Since Gaza Ceasefire Withdrawal, Israel Forces Gazans to Flee Once Again in Renewed Genocidal Campaign, This Was Not an Accident": U.N. Condemns Deadly Israeli Attack on U.N. Facility, International Legal Coalition Will Pursue Israelis Involved in Gaza War Crimes, U.S. Continues Attacks on Yemen and Houthi Movement, Global Protests for Gaza Continue After Israel Resumes All-Out War, Zelensky Agrees to Pause Energy Attacks; Trump Says He Wants Ownership of Ukraine's Nuclear Plants, An Attack on the 1st Amendment": Greenpeace Ordered to Pay $667M over Standing Rock Protests, Trump to Issue Executive Order to Dismantle Education Department, Education Department Sued for Freezing Student Loan Repayment Plans, Justice Department Removes Guidance to Businesses on Disability Rights, ICE Detains Georgetown Researcher Who Spoke Out for Palestinian Rights, Trump Administration Freezes $175 Million in Funds to UPenn over Trans Athletes, Judge Transfers Case of Jailed Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil to New Jersey, CAIR Calls on Harvard and UNH to Cancel Professorships of Former Biden Advisers, Immigrant Rights Groups Sue ICE over Enforced Disappearance" of 48 People, Pentagon Appeals Judge's Order Freezing Purge of Transgender Military Members, Pentagon Purges Thousands of Articles About Minority and LGBTQ+ Personnel

The Social Security Administration is considering drastic new anti-fraud measures that could disrupt benefit payments to millions of Americans, according to an internal memo first obtained by the political newsletter Popular Information. The changes would force millions of customers to file claims in person at a field office rather than over the phone. An estimated 75,000 to 85,000 elderly and disabled adults per week would be diverted to field offices. This comes even as the Trump administration slashes jobs and closes offices at the agency. Officials in the Social Security Administration who spoke with reporter Judd Legum, founder of Popular Information, have told him that there is an effort to break the organization."

Immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra, who has lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years, was arrested by ICE agents in Colorado on Monday. She was ambushed during her work break by ICE officials and is now being held in a private prison in Aurora. Vizguerra rose to fame during Trump's first term when she evaded immigration officials by staying in a church basement with her four children and was named one of the 100 most influential people of the year by Time magazine in 2017. The courts may not save us, but we save each other," says Jennifer Piper, program director at the American Friends Service Committee, Colorado. Only the people can save each other and make justice and democracy real." We also speak with Vizguerra's 21-year-old daughter Luna Baez, who says her mother had felt under surveillance before her arrest, including by people in unmarked vehicles. It's something that is very, very scary," she says.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement Tuesday criticizing attacks by President Trump and his allies on federal judges. For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision," he said. Roberts's statement came after Trump called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the Trump administration to stop using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants. On Saturday, the administration ignored Boasberg's order to turn around three deportation flights bound for El Salvador. We speak with The Nation's justice correspondent Elie Mystal on the Trump-led breakdown of constitutional order. There's not a coming constitutional crisis," says Mystal. We are in a constitutional crisis right now."

The nearly two-month ceasefire in Gaza has been shattered as Israel carries out a second day of intense airstrikes. At least 27 Palestinians were killed in overnight strikes Tuesday night. This comes a day after Israel killed over 400 Palestinians, including at least 174 children. The bombing is the most savage attack that Gaza has witnessed in over a year," says Muhammad Shehada, a writer and analyst from Gaza. He says the renewed assault in Gaza is linked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's legal and political challenges at home. When you're in crisis, nothing would unite your government, nothing would suppress any sort of protest or opposition, more than killing Palestinians."

At Least 27 Palestinians Are Killed as Netanyahu Says Renewed Gaza Strikes Are Only the Beginning", Protests Demand End to U.S. Support for Israel's Genocide in Gaza, I Am a Political Prisoner": Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil Sends Letter from ICE Jail, Supreme Court Chief Justice Rejects Trump's Call to Impeach Federal Judges, ICE Agents Detain Colorado Immigrant Rights Activist Jeanette Vizguerra, Russia Bombs Ukraine Hours After Trump Discusses Ceasefire Plan with Putin, Federal Judge Rules DOGE's Dismantling of USAID Is Likely Unconstitutional, Trump Fires Democratic Commissioners at Federal Trade Commission, Delaware Lawmakers Advance Billionaires' Bill" Shielding Corporate Executives from Accountability, Presidents of Rwanda and DR Congo Call for Ceasefire After Peace Talks in Qatar, Turkish Police Arrest Erdoan Rival and Restrict Free Expression Ahead of Elections, Hungarian Lawmakers Outlaw LGBTQ+ Pride Events

One of President Donald Trump's most intense fixations since returning to the White House has been to take over and overhaul the Kennedy Center, the national arts and culture institution in Washington, D.C. Trump fired the president of the Kennedy Center, replaced the bipartisan board of trustees with loyalists and made himself chairman of the organization, vowing to shift programming away from woke" art and toward more patriotic themes. On Monday, he visited the Kennedy Center to personally preside over a board meeting. Numerous artists have cut ties with the Kennedy Center since Trump's takeover, but folk musicians Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman performed a concert at the Kennedy Center last week and used the opportunity to protest Trump's policies from the stage. We were considering what the most effective method of protest was" and decided our voices would be loudest on the stage," says Brown. The arts are a fundamental way for people to express ourselves and for us to recognize other people's stories and experiences and struggles," adds Coleman.

The Trump administration has vowed to continue its military strikes against the Houthi movement that controls much of Yemen, and says it will hold Iran responsible for any retaliation from its ally. Since Saturday, U.S. warplanes have launched dozens of large-scale attacks on multiple towns across Yemen, killing dozens of people. The strikes came after the Houthis threatened to resume attacks on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel's ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip. For more on Yemen and the regional dynamics, we speak with Saudi journalist and filmmaker Safa Al Ahmad, who has been reporting on Yemen since 2010. Supporting the Palestinians ... has incredibly increased Houthi popularity," says Al Ahmad.

We speak with Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed in Deir al-Balah, who says the civilian population and the medical system cannot handle more war. Israel launched a massive wave of airstrikes overnight that killed hundreds of people across the territory, effectively shattering the fragile ceasefire signed in January. People have not yet recovered from the endless trauma they have been through during the past 15 months. We haven't taken a breath from what we have been enduring," says Abed.We also speak to Palestinian human rights attorney Diana Buttu, who says Israel is bombing Palestinians because it can," knowing it will face almost no pressure from the United States or other countries. Israel knows that it can get away with it."

Israel has shattered the Gaza ceasefire agreement with Hamas, launching a massive wave of airstrikes overnight that killed hundreds of people across the Palestinian territory and wounded many others. The surprise attacks came amid stalled talks on how to extend the ceasefire signed in January, though Israel has signaled for weeks that it wanted to resume the war on Gaza. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, an American trauma surgeon volunteering at Nasser Hospital, describes some of the horrific injuries he has treated, and says it's heartbreaking" for Palestinians to suffer more bloodshed. It's all because we provide the funding, the diplomatic, the economic and the military support. And we don't have to," he tells Democracy Now! We didn't have to under Biden. We certainly don't have to under Trump."

Israel Unilaterally Ends Gaza Ceasefire with Airstrikes That Kill Hundreds of Palestinians, Prosecutors Cancel Netanyahu's Testimony in Corruption Trial Amid Renewed Gaza Assault, U.N. Calls Israel's West Bank Settlements a War Crime" Amid Settler Attacks on Palestinians, UNICEF Says U.S. Attacks on Yemen Killed Civilians, Contradicting Pentagon's Claims, Lebanon and Syria Halt Cross-Border Fighting; Israel Strikes Syrian Military Sites, I Don't Care What the Judges Think": Trump Administration Rejects Court Orders on Deportations, U.S. Deports Brown University Surgeon to Lebanon Despite Judge's Order, Trump Administration Begins Dismantling EPA's Scientific Research Office, Hundreds Rally in Houston Against Cuts at NASA's Johnson Space Center, DOGE Operatives Force Entry into U.S. Institute of Peace, Trump to Discuss Ukraine Ceasefire Plan in Phone Call with Russian President Putin, M23 Withdraws from DRC Peace Talks, Texas Health Workers Arrested for Providing Abortions Amid Near-Total Ban, Trump Tours Kennedy Center After Installing Himself as Chair, Documentary on U.S. Reporter Killed by Russian Forces in Ukraine Wins SXSW Award

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is facing mounting calls to step down after he voted in favor of the Republicans' spending package Friday. The Republican bill has been described as a blank check" for the White House to keep defunding and dismantling government services and agencies. Calls have been mounting for New York Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to primary Schumer, who was joined by eight other Democratic senators in voting for the bill. This was one of the most utterly embarrassing strategic blunders on behalf of the Democrats that I've seen," says Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid. He criticizes Schumer for his surrender" to Trump and Elon Musk's drastic defunding of the federal government after Schumer himself had warned against it. You don't say there's a fire, and then you give the arsonist a match and gasoline. And that's effectively what Chuck Schumer did."

President Trump has invoked a controversial 18th-century law last used to justify the arrest and internment of 30,000 Japanese, German and Italian nationals during World War II, as part of his ongoing crusade against immigrants. Citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the Trump administration deported more than 130 immigrants who have been accused, often with little to no evidence, of gang affiliation. The ACLU won a judicial order against the deportations, which the Trump administration ignored, allowing the flights to continue to El Salvador, where authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele received the deportees at a notorious supermax prison. We speak to Lee Gelernt, who argued to stop the flights on behalf of the ACLU, about Trump's attacks on established U.S. immigration law. We cover the second Trump's administration's attempts to incarcerate immigrants at the Guantanamo military prison and end birthright citizenship, as well as the ongoing effects of his previous administration's policies of family separation and countrywide travel bans.

President Donald Trump spoke at the Department of Justice Friday in an unprecedented speech in which he threatened to take revenge on his political enemies, from the press to the FBI itself. It was a typical rambling and hate-filled diatribe," says Maryland Congressmember Jamie Raskin. Nobody has ever taken a sledgehammer to the traditional boundary between independent criminal law enforcement, on the one side, and presidential political will and power, on the other." Raskin, who spoke at a press conference in response to Trump's address outside of the Department of Justice, is a former constitutional law professor and served as the Democrats' lead prosecutor for Trump's second impeachment over the January 6 Capitol insurrection. He also responds to Trump's illegal" invocation of the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and his attempt to deport foreign-born university students and faculty. Trump's sweeping efforts to make the United States hostile to immigrants creates danger for everybody," warns Raskin. Finally, Raskin responds to recent divisions within the Democratic Party over a GOP spending bill. He urges congressional Democrats to present a unified plan" and common strategy" for resisting a Republican supermajority loyal to Trump.

U.S. Bombs Yemen, Killing Dozens of Civilians, Trump Administration Defies Court Order Halting Deportation Flights to El Salvador, Trump Mulls Travel Ban Targeting Citizens of Up to 43 Nations, ICE Arrests Second Columbia Student over Palestinian Solidarity Protests, Video Shows Immigration Agents Refused to ID Themselves During Mahmoud Khalil Arrest, We Are Going to Fight Back": Expelled Columbia Labor Leader Vows to Combat Censorship, Retaliation, Far-Right Group Betar Says It Handed Trump Admin Thousands of Names" of Deportation Targets, Storms Kills at Least 40 People as Trump White House Purges Agencies That Study Extreme Weather, Schumer Faces Calls to Step Down Amid Democratic and Public Anger on GOP Spending Bill Vote, New Trump EOs Gut Agencies Serving Unhoused People, Libraries and Media Organizations, Trump Assails Judges, News Outlets and Critics in Rambling Speech at Justice Department, Hundreds of Thousands Rally in Serbia Against Government Corruption, JD Vance Booed by Audience While Attending Concert at Kennedy Center

A pair of federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of fired federal workers at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury. The White House vowed to fight what it called an absurd and unconstitutional order." This comes as the White House and its allies have increasingly targeted judges who rule against the administration. Elon Musk has posted dozens of messages on his social platform X calling for the impeachment of judges who rule against the administration. We speak with retired federal Judge Nancy Gertner, who served as a federal district judge in Massachusetts for 17 years, from 1994 to 2011. The distance between what they are trying to do and what is lawful is so enormous that anyone would rule as these judges are doing," says Gertner.

We speak with the acclaimed Russian American writer M. Gessen, who says Donald Trump has entered his second term prepared to enact his radical Project 2025 agenda, including a crackdown on LGBTQ rights and dissent. Gessen, who has spent decades writing about authoritarianism at home and abroad, argues that while he was something of an accidental president" in his first term, Trump has been transformed by power" and is now increasingly imperialist" and totalitarian."

Over 300 protesters with the group Jewish Voice for Peace flooded the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Thursday wearing red shirts saying Not in Our Name." They demanded the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil and held banners reading opposing fascism is a Jewish tradition." About 100 protesters were arrested and face charges of trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest. Democracy Now! was at the protest. I refuse to allow this administration to speak in my name, to use our names as Jews, to carry out a fascist agenda," protester Josh Dubnau said. The Trump administration is a government that has far-right white supremacists, people that do the Nazi salute, and [Trump's] fine with that."

U.S. Judges Order Agencies to Reinstate Fired Workers, Trump and Musk to Halt Mass Layoffs, A Slap in the Face": Democrats Accuse Schumer of Betrayal" After He Backs GOP Funding Bill, Jewish Protesters Takes Over Trump Tower to Demand Release of Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia Punishes Students in Historic Hind's Hall Protest as Trump Issues Ultimatum to Admin, Harvard Law Students Vote to Divest from Israeli War Machine, Trump and Putin Set to Talk as Zelensky Accuses Moscow of Manipulation" over Truce Conditions, NBC: Pentagon Preparing Plans to Illegally Seize Panama Canal, Syria Signs Transitional Constitution Against Backdrop of Israeli Airstrikes, Military Occupation, U.N. Warns Entire Families" Killed in Syrian Sectarian Violence as Some Alawites Flee to Lebanon, Argentinian Riot Police Crack Down on Pensioner-Led Anti-Government Protests, Cuba Releases 553 Prisoners, Fulfilling Its End of Collapsed Deal with U.S., Trump Resumes Family Detentions, Including Children as Young as 1, DOJ Drops Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against Immigraton Housing Contractor, Raul Grijalva, Longtime AZ Congressman and Defender of Immigrant & Environmental Rights, Dies at 77

We speak with Valerie Costa, an organizer behind the grassroots Tesla Takedown movement peacefully protesting outside Tesla showrooms to oppose billionaire owner Elon Musk's role in government. Since Donald Trump's return to the White House, Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency have led mass firings of federal workers and dismantled entire agencies. As protests against Tesla grow and sales plummet, the company's stock has lost about 40% of its value since the start of the year. This week, President Trump personally intervened on behalf of his adviser and held a promotional event with Musk at the White House, where he said he would buy an electric vehicle and declared attacks on Tesla dealerships to be domestic terrorism." Meanwhile, Musk personally attacked Costa, falsely accusing her of committing crimes" in a post on his X social network. They're peaceful, nonviolent protests," says Costa, an activist and organizer in Seattle. Protesting Tesla ... is ultimately about hitting Elon Musk's bottom line."

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has issued a warning to 60 universities that they're being investigated for antisemitism and could face penalties. Her warning came days after the Trump administration withdrew $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University and as the administration attempts to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil over his involvement in campus antiwar protests at the school. At the same time, President Trump has pledged to abolish the Education Department entirely, with plans announced this week to fire an additional 1,300 employees, effectively cutting the agency's workforce in half. It's pretty clear what this administration is trying to do, and it has nothing to do with antisemitism," says former Education Department official Tariq Habash, who resigned last year to protest the Biden administration's support of Israel's war on Gaza. It has everything to do with Donald Trump's vision for America, which is consolidating his authoritarian power."

We get an update on the Trump administration's attempt to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, whose case has alarmed immigrant advocates and civil rights groups. Khalil, a legal permanent resident who is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New York on Saturday and told his green card was being revoked because of his role in Columbia University student protests last year opposed to Israel's war on Gaza. He has since been moved to an ICE jail in Louisiana with little access to legal counsel or to his family, including his pregnant wife. On Tuesday, a federal judge extended an order blocking Khalil's deportation while he considers whether the arrest was unconstitutional.It's been very clear from the beginning that the government's strategy is to cut Khalil off not just from access to the court here in New York, not just from access to his legal team, but from access to his support base," says Ramzi Kassem, part of Khalil's legal team.

A new report by United Nations experts says Israel has carried out genocidal acts" against Palestinians in Gaza, including the destruction of women's healthcare facilities, intended to prevent births, and the use of sexual violence as a strategy of war. This comes as talks on resuscitating the ceasefire deal continue in Qatar and as Israel continues its total blockade of food, fuel, medicine and other humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory. For more, we speak with two American doctors volunteering at Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza. It's a very difficult situation, and the attacks on the healthcare system that were done in the past 16 months have really undermined its ability to help people," says trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa. We also speak with Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic and hand surgeon, who says about 350 Palestinian medical workers who remain in Israeli prisons without charge must be freed. Many who have been released describe horrific abuse. The physical and mental torture ... presents a tremendous weight on the healthcare system here," says Dr. Perlmutter.

Mahmoud Khalil Speaks to Lawyers After NY Hearing, Judge Extends Block on Deportation, U.N. Experts: Israel Has Committed Genocide Through Attack on Women's Health, EPA Moves to Undo Decades of Regulations on Air, Water, Polluting Industries, NOAA Faces More Layoffs; DOJ Guts Oversight Unit for Corrupt Public Officials, Acting Social Security Commissioner Privately Admits DOGE Cuts Have Imperiled Benefits, USAID Destroys Classified Documents After Judge Orders Trump Admin to Pay Out Foreign Aid, Trump Administration Flies 40 Remaining Immigrants from Guantanamo to Louisiana, Russia Recaptures Ukraine-Occupied Territory as U.S. Envoy Arrives in Moscow for Ceasefire Talks, Canada Hits Back at Trump wIth 25% Reciprocal Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum and Other Goods, Greenland Center-Right Party Wins Surprise Election Victory Amid Trump's Threats to Take Over, Ugandan Forces Deploy to South Sudan as Power-Sharing Deal That Ended Civil War Unravels, Yale Suspends Legal Scholar and Palestinian Rights Supporter Helyeh Doutaghi

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is being flown to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court over his brutal war on drugs," during which police extrajudicially killed thousands of people, including many children. The ICC has been investigating Duterte since 2018. Duterte, now 79, served as president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He once compared himself to Hitler, saying he would be happy to slaughter" 3 million drug addicts, and last year admitted under oath that he oversaw a death squad" of gangsters while he served as mayor of the southern city of Davao. It is really a monumental step in the dispensation of justice," says Filipino scholar and activist Walden Bello, who previously served in the House of Representatives of the Philippines. He notes that despite the Duterte family's protestations, the former president's arrest is the result of a meticulous legal process that offers him a fair trial. Due process is something that he never gave his victims," says Bello.

More than 250,000 have signed a petition to support an impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump, who was twice impeached during his first term. The Impeach Trump Again campaign is being led by the advocacy group Free Speech for People. This president has already committed multiple abuses of power since assuming the presidency, and the framers designed the Constitution to ensure that we would not have a monarch or a tyrant govern this nation," says the group's president, John Bonifaz. When we see these abuses of power, we have to invoke this impeachment clause."

President Donald Trump's growing trade war against other countries is wreaking havoc on financial markets, upending the global trade system and angering long-standing U.S. allies. Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on a range of imports, including aluminum and steel, since his inauguration. Many countries have responded with their own retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, though countries have also delayed or withdrawn some of the levies as the Trump administration makes near-daily changes to its trade policies. We speak with investigative journalist and author Dave Lindorff, who says the Trump administration's drive to bring back manufacturing and other jobs that have been outsourced over the last several decades is ignoring the role of healthcare in raising costs. The fact that we don't have national healthcare here like they have in Canada ... is making American industry not competitive," says Lindorff.

U.S. Resumes Military Aid and Intelligence Sharing as Ukraine Backs 30-Day Ceasefire Plan, MSF Condemns Israel's Gaza Blockade: Aid Should Never Be Used as a Bargaining Chip in War", Israeli Forces Kill 4, Including Palestinian Grandmother, in West Bank Raids, Absolutely Unacceptable and Illegal": Lawmakers Demand Release of Mahmoud Khalil from ICE Jail, House GOP Approves Short-Term Spending Bill with $13 Billion in Nonmilitary Cuts, Department of Education to Fire Additional 1,300 Workers, Cutting Workforce in Half, EU Retaliates as Trump's 25% Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Imports Takes Effect, Have You No Decency?": Republican Congressman Misgenders Rep. Sarah McBride in Transphobic Attack, New York Gov. Hochul Bans 2,000 Prison Guards from Civil Service Jobs After Wildcat Strike, Texas and Louisiana Death Row Prisoners Win Reprieves from Execution

In Syria, over a thousand people have been killed, the vast majority of them civilians, in a spate of massacres largely targeting the country's Alawite religious minority. Syria's longtime ruling family, the Assads, are members of the Alawite sect. The recent clashes began Thursday after coordinated attacks by gunmen linked to the former regime killed over 200 members of the new government's security forces. In response, government forces along with armed groups and individuals poured into Alawite villages throughout the region, carrying out reprisal attacks. Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has denounced the attacks and vowed to hold those responsible to account. Al-Sharaa is trying to present a more acceptable image," after years of Syria's isolation from the global capitalist economy, says Syrian scholar Yasser Munif. His priority is to end the sanctions against Syria and bring the funding for reconstruction. ... He is managing all these tensions and contradictions, and it will be quite the challenge for him to succeed."

Palestinian human rights attorney Noura Erakat responds to the arrest of Columbia University student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil and situates it in the long, bipartisan history of anti-Palestine suppression of free speech. It was the Biden administration, it was the Democratic establishment, that has created the conditions that we are now seeing taken advantage of," she says of Khalil's targeting by the Trump administration for deportation. Erakat calls for continued resistance and study of U.S. imperialism and Zionism in the face of racist repression. This is the precise moment we should be studying Palestine in order to understand ourselves and what's coming and our responsibility in the world as an imperial power."