Democracy Now!

L.A. Wildfires Kill 5; Officials Order 130,000 Residents to Evacuate as Angelenos Brace for More Blazes, Israel Kills 70 Palestinians in Gaza; 15 Incubated Newborns Could Die Unless Hospital Receives Fuel, Let's Call It Mexican America": Pres. Sheinbaum Fires Back After Trump's Gulf of America" Remark, DOJ Plans to Release Findings on Trump's 2020 Election Subversion Efforts, But Not on Classified Docs, Russian Attack Kills 13 in Zaporizhzhia; Biden Admin Sends Final $500M to Ukraine, Chad Says It Fended Off Armed Attack on Presidential Residence, Lebanon Elects Joseph Aoun as President After 2-Year Vacuum, Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iranian Imprisonment, Longshoremen Reach Tentative Deal, Averting Major Ports Strike, SEIU Rejoins AFL-CIO, Expanding Umbrella Labor Group to 15 Million Workers, North Carolina's GOP Justices Block Certification of Democratic Justice Who Won Nov. Election, Advocates Demand New York Lawmakers Protect Immigrants Ahead of Trump's Inauguration, Washington National Cathedral to Host State Funeral for President Jimmy Carter

Eleven Yemeni men imprisoned without charge or trial at the Guantanamo Bay detention center for more than two decades have just been released to Oman to restart their lives. This latest transfer brings the total number of men detained at Guantanamo down to 15. Civil rights lawyers Ramzi Kassem and Pardiss Kebriaei, who have each represented many Guantanamo detainees, including some of the men just released, say closing the notorious detention center has always been a question of political will," and that the Biden administration must take action to free the remaining prisoners and end of the system of indefinite detention" as soon as possible.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday he is stepping down as leader of Canada's Liberal Party, following rising discontent over his leadership and growing dissent within his government. Trudeau had served as Canada's prime minister since 2015. His resignation comes as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to annex Canada. For more, we speak with Canadian activist and electoral candidate Avi Lewis for the New Democratic Party, who says that, like Joe Biden," Trudeau waited way too long" to step down from candidacy in upcoming national elections. Lewis calls Trump's aggressive rhetoric on Canada a cartoon threat" that comes out of the real estate mogul's long-running use of force" in his personal and business dealings.

Massachusetts Congressmember Jim McGovern calls on President Biden to pardon environmental activist Steven Donziger, who has been targeted for years by oil and gas giant Chevron. Donziger sued Chevron on behalf of farmers and Indigenous peoples who suffered the adverse health effects of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon. I visited Ecuador. I saw what Chevron did. It is disgusting" and grotesque," says McGovern. Donziger stood up for these people who had no voice." In return, Chevron has spent millions prosecuting him instead of holding itself to account, he adds, while a pardon from the president would show that the system can still stand up to corporate greed and excesses."

Calls are growing for President Biden to posthumously exonerate Ethel Rosenberg following newly publicized documents proving that the FBI knew of her innocence long before she was prosecuted by the federal government more than 60 years ago. Rosenberg and her husband Julius were charged with sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union and executed on June 19, 1953. A federal pardon or exoneration would be the right thing to do," says Massachusetts Congressmember Jim McGovern, who is part of an effort led by the Rosenbergs' son Robert Meeropol to get history right." Ethel Rosenberg was framed," says Meeropol. She was not a spy."

At a news conference Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump renewed his threats against Gaza, Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal as he continues to push an agenda of extreme U.S. imperialism. Democratic Congressmember Jim McGovern calls Trump's comments outrageous," ridiculous" and, ultimately, a distraction from his planned abandonment of social services. We also discuss social networking behemoth Meta's announcement that it is ending its fact-checking program, in what's being seen as a capitulation to Trump and conservative media disinformation campaigns, and how President Biden's unqualified support for Israel's assault on Gaza violates multiple U.S. human rights laws.

Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 51, Including Five Children, in Israeli-Designated Safe Zone", Far-Right Israeli Minister Calls for Destruction of West Bank Cities, Ireland Joins South Africa's Genocide Case Against Israel at International Court of Justice, U.S. Concludes Sudanese Paramilitary Group Has Committed Genocide, Trump Threatens Military Action to Seize Greenland, Panama Canal; Says Canada Should Join U.S., Pope Names Trump Critic and Immigrant Rights Defender as Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Congress Approves Bill to Deport Immigrants Charged with Minor Crimes, L.A. Orders Mass Evacuations as Fast-Moving Wildfires Threaten Homes and Lives, Meta to End Fact-Checking on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, Washington Post Lays Off 4% of Workforce Following Reader Exodus over Harris Non-Endorsement, New Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Rule Wipes Medical Debt from Credit Reports, Jimmy Carter Lies in State at U.S. Capitol Ahead of State Funeral

As the remains of Jimmy Carter arrive in Washington, D.C., as part of a weeklong state funeral, we speak with historian Greg Grandin about the former U.S. president's legacy. Carter, who served a single term from 1977 to 1981, promised to restore faith in government after the twin traumas of Watergate and the Vietnam War and to reorient U.S. foreign policy toward upholding human rights. He came to power promising ... a new kind of doctrine, that the United States was moving away from both the ideological excess and the support for dictatorships that led to wars like Vietnam or coups in Chile," says Grandin. Pretty quickly, events got ahead of him." Carter's mixed and confused" legacy was nowhere more apparent than in Latin America, where he moved to limit aid to some right-wing dictatorships while supporting others, especially in Central America. He also began funding the mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan, which ultimately led to the Taliban and the 9/11 terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda. For all of his decency and humanity, especially compared to the ... clown circus that we're living under now, we have to look at the more unfortunate legacies of Carter's administration," says Grandin.

Israeli forces are continuing their unrelenting attacks across the Gaza Strip, killing scores of Palestinians in the first week of 2025 even as Israeli and Hamas officials resume talks in Qatar aimed at reaching a ceasefire. The official death toll in Gaza is nearing 46,000, although experts say the true figure is likely much higher. The United Nations has warned its efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip are at a breaking point" after Israeli forces opened fire on a World Food Programme convoy over the weekend, and healthcare facilities across much of the territory are destroyed, shuttered or barely functioning. For more on the deteriorating situation in Gaza, we're joined by acclaimed Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha. His latest piece for The New Yorker is headlined Requiem for a Refugee Camp," examining Israel's destruction of Jabaliya. He describes the double devastation of Palestinians who have not only been displaced during the 1948 Nakba but also during Israel's current genocide of Gaza, placing refugees farther and farther from [the] dream of return."

We speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joshua Kaplan about his latest blockbuster article for ProPublica chronicling the rise of a freelance vigilante" through the ranks of the right-wing militia movement in an effort to surveil and disrupt their operations. Kaplan's source, a wilderness survival trainer named John Williams, says he went undercover after being shocked by the January 6 insurrection, when members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and other armed right-wing groups led the riot at the U.S. Capitol. He's an extraordinarily talented liar," Kaplan says of Williams. These militia guys loved him." Williams would eventually gain the trust of senior leaders in Utah and beyond, collecting information that revealed a sprawling extremist movement with connections to law enforcement, lawmakers and more. Kaplan says Williams's infiltration revealed the militia movement is surging across the country, despite the failed 2021 insurrection. Now with Donald Trump promising to pardon many of the Capitol riot participants, this same movement appears set to expand even further over the next few years. The ramifications could be massive," says Kaplan. They have the potential to trigger a renaissance for militant extremists."

U.N.'s Humanitarian Efforts in Gaza Hit Breaking Point" Amid Israeli Attacks on Aid Workers, Canada's Justin Trudeau Resigns as Liberal Party Leader and Prime Minister, Vice President Kamala Harris Certifies Donald Trump's 2024 Election Victory, Trump Seeks to Block Release of Special Counsel Jack Smith's Findings, Rudy Giuliani Found in Contempt of Court in Georgia Election Workers' Defamation Case, Biden Bans New Offshore Oil Drilling Along Most of U.S. Coastline, U.S. Transfers 11 Yemeni Prisoners from Guantanamo to Oman; 15 Prisoners Remain, Pentagon Reaches Historic Settlement with LGBTQ+ Vets Dismissed Under Don't Ask, Don't Tell", Minneapolis City Council Approves Consent Decree Mandating Federal Oversight of Police, At Least 95 Die as Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake Strikes Tibet, Austrian Far-Right Party Tasked with Forming Ruling Coalition, French Neo-Nazi Leader Jean-Marie Le Pen Dies at 96

Billionaire Trump associate Elon Musk's latest disinformation campaign is targeting the U.K. government, which Musk appears to believe is not sufficiently anti-immigrant. Musk, who has already shaped the incoming Trump administration's economic policy by proposing cuts to government spending and tech-oriented privatization of services, signifies a new era" in American politics, says our guest Quinn Slobodian, who is chronicling right-wing tech billionaires' accelerating attempts to mold the world according to their destructive" and nihilist" beliefs. In a far-reaching conversation, Slobodian touches on Musk's clear admiration of authoritarian strongmen, market deregulation and white supremacist rhetoric.

The American Historical Association, the oldest learned society in the United States, has adopted the Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza," condemning Israel's intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system." We speak to Sherene Seikaly and Barbara Weinstein, two scholars who supported the resolution and helped push for the groundbreaking vote. Seikaly, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says, This moment was one I never thought I would experience," hailing the resolution as an opportunity for historians to narrate our past and imagine our future." Weinstein, who teaches at New York University and previously served as the president of the American Historical Association, adds, Over the years it has become increasingly clear that we can't have a narrow definition of what our roles are as historians."

Israel Bombs Gaza Over 100 Times in 3 Days, Killing Scores of Palestinians, Netanyahu's Office Downplays Reports of Progress in Gaza Ceasefire Talks, Attack on Israeli Bus and Cars in Occupied West Bank Kills 3 and Wounds 8, Biden Approves Sale of $8 Billion in Additional Bombs, Missiles and Arms to Israel, Israeli Embassy Helps Army Reservist Flee Brazil to Avoid War Crimes Inquiry, Ukraine Launches Surprise Cross-Border Offensive in Russia's Kursk Region, House Speaker Mike Johnson Narrowly Retains Gavel After Trump Intervenes, We Have a Territories & Colonies Problem": Del. Plaskett Blasts Silencing of 4 Million U.S. Citizens, Congress to Certify Trump's Electoral College Win Four Years After MAGA Rioters Stormed Capitol, NY Judge Upholds Trump's Election Subversion Felony Conviction But Will Not Sentence Him to Prison, Trump Welcomes Far-Right Italian PM Giorgia Meloni to Mar-a-Lago, Prominent Cartoonist Quits Washington Post After Editors Kill Caricature of Trump and Bezos, Pyongyang Tests Ballistic Missile as Blinken Visits a South Korea in Political Turmoil, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Reportedly on Cusp of Resigning

The Pentagon announced this week it launched a wave of airstrikes on Sana'a and other parts of Yemen on Tuesday. U.S. Central Command said it targeted command and weapons production facilities of Ansarallah, the militant group also known as the Houthis that rules most of Yemen. The attacks came just after Israel bombed the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah and the main airport in Sana'a, killing at least six people. A Houthi spokesperson said Wednesday the movement would continue attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and against Israel aimed at ending that country's war on Gaza. These are strikes on Yemeni infrastructure. These are strikes on Yemeni civilians," Yemeni American scholar Shireen Al-Adeimi says of the Israeli and U.S. strikes. The only thing that will stop Ansarallah from rerouting ships in the Red Sea and stopping their attacks ... is an end to the genocide in Gaza and an end to the starvation of the Palestinian people."

As the genocide in Gaza enters its 15th month, we look at From Ground Zero, a collection of 22 short films made in Gaza by Palestinian filmmakers surviving Israel's bombings and brutal blockade. The film has been shortlisted for this year's Academy Awards in the category for best international feature. In spite of all what happened, we were trying to search for hope," says filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, director of From Ground Zero, now playing in U.S. theaters. Masharawi was born in Gaza and has lost many relatives during the war. He says the film is an opportunity to focus on the normal stories" of survival and perseverance, calling it cinema for humanity."

We look at what we know about two deadly incidents that unfolded in the United States on New Year's Day: a truck attack in New Orleans in which a driver killed at least 14 people before being shot dead by police, and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, part of an apparent suicide. The FBI has identified the New Orleans suspect as 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who had posted videos to social media before the attack pledging allegiance to the Islamic State militant group. In the Las Vegas case, the driver was 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado, an active-duty Army Green Beret, who is believed to have shot himself before the blast. Investigators say they have not found a link between the two incidents despite both men being connected to the military, but Army veteran and antiwar organizer Mike Prysner says military service is now the number one predictor of becoming what is called a mass casualty offender, surpassing even mental health issues." Prysner says the U.S. military depends on social problems like alienation and inequality in order to gain new recruits, then spits them back out" in often worse shape, with people exposed to violence sometimes turning to extremism. We have these deep-rooted problems in our society that give rise to these incidents of mass violence. Service members and veterans ... can actually be a part of changing society and getting to the root of those issues and moving society forward," he says, citing uniformed resistance to the Vietnam and Iraq wars as examples.

How to Hide a Genocide": Al-Haq Report Shows How Israel Hides Behind Safe Zones", Doha Ceasefire Talks Set to Resume as UNSC Takes Up Israeli Attacks on Gaza Hospitals, 3,500 Children in Gaza Could Die of Malnutrition as Hunger Grips Besieged Territory, Texas Veteran Who Killed 15 People on Bourbon Street Previously Planned to Harm Family, Driver of Cybertruck That Exploded Outside Trump Hotel ID'd as U.S. Army Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, Fate of House Speaker Mike Johnson Uncertain as 119th Congress Is Sworn In, Biden Awards Presidential Citizens Medal to Republican Ex-Rep. Liz Cheney, Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down FCC Net Neutrality Rules, Biden to Block Nippon Steel's Takeover Bid of U.S. Steel, China Sanctions U.S. Arms Makers as Xi Jinping Acknowledges Uncertainties" of Trump Trade War, Security Forces Block South Korean Police from Arresting Disgraced President Yoon Suk Yeol, Dozens of Asylum Seekers Drown in Shipwrecks Near Tunisia and Libya Attempting to Reach Europe, Biden to Designate Two New National Monuments in California

As we move into 2025, we look at how the world is cracking down on migrants and asylum seekers, and the dangers they face when trying to flee their countries due to persecution, economic conditions, the climate crisis and more. As Greek prosecutors open a murder investigation of unknown perpetrators" following a damning expose of the deadly crackdown on asylum seekers by the Greek coast guard, we revisit the BBC film, Dead Calm: Killing in the Med? The investigation revealed evidence the coast guard routinely abducted and abandoned asylum seekers in the Mediterranean Sea. The film found the Greek coast guard caused the deaths of dozens of migrants over a period of three years, including of nine asylum seekers who had reached Greek soil but were taken back out to sea and thrown overboard. We really have no real clue about the true numbers of the people that are crossing [the Mediterranean Sea]. Many people don't make it," producer Lucile Smith told Democracy Now! in an interview last year, when the film was released. And when people do arrive, they tend to disappear, because ... if you are caught by the authorities in Greece, you will be most likely subjected to some very serious violence."

For our first live interview of 2025, we go to Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip to get an update from Palestinian journalist Shrouq Aila, the head of Ain Media, a media company founded by her late husband, Roshdi Sarraj, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023. Aila describes worsening conditions in the winter rain and cold, and the complete hollowing out of infrastructure as Palestinians are struggling to survive. Being here in Gaza means I'm doing a change," she says about her duty" to report. Her dedication to reporting on Israel's now 15-month-long assault on Gaza was recently honored by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Israeli Assault on Gaza Continues as Data Show 6% of Palestinians Have Fled or Been Killed, Palestinian Authority Bans Al Jazeera in West Bank After Critical Coverage, Biden Says Texan Who Killed 15 in New Orleans Pledged Allegiance to ISIS Before New Year's Assault, One Dead, 7 Injured After Tesla Cybertruck Explodes Outside Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, FBI Finds 150+ Pipe Bombs in Home of Far-Right Extremist Who Used Biden's Photo for Target Practice, Pentagon Says It Targeted Houthis in U.S. Airstrikes That Followed Israeli Attacks on Yemen, Russian Attack Kills 2 In Kyiv on New Year's Day as Ukraine Halts Flow of Russian Gas to Europe, Russia Battles Massive Oil Spill Near Crimea, Honduras May Cancel Military Cooperation with U.S. Unless Trump Cancels Mass Expulsion Plans, Ivory Coast to Expel French Soldiers, Following Other Former French Colonies in Africa, South Korea's Yoon Resists Arrest Warrant over Failed Martial Law Declaration, Flight Data Recorder Recovered from South Korean Airline Crash That Killed 179, North Carolina Governor Commutes Death Sentences of 15 Death Row Prisoners

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 continue to discuss the new HBO Original film Surveilled and explore the film's investigation of high-tech spyware firms with journalist Ronan Farrow and director Matthew O'Neill. We focus on the influence of the Israeli military in the development of some of the most widely used versions of these surveillance technologies, which in many cases are first tested on Palestinians and used to enforce Israel's occupation of Palestine, and on the potential expansion of domestic U.S. surveillance under a second Trump administration. Ever-increasing surveillance is dangerous for democracy," says Farrow. We're making and selling a weapon that is largely unregulated." As O'Neill emphasizes, We could all be caught up."

Is that a spy in your pocket? In a holiday special we speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow and filmmaker Matthew O'Neill about Surveilled, their new HBO documentary looking at how high-tech surveillance spyware is threatening democracy across the globe. As part of the reporting for the documentary, Farrow traveled to Israel for a rare interview with a former employee of NSO Group, the Israeli software company that makes Pegasus. He warns that it's not just repressive governments" that abuse Pegasus and other surveillance technology, but also a growing number of democratic states like Greece, Poland and Spain. U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies under both the Biden and Trump administrations have also considered such spyware, although the extent to which these tools have been used is not fully known. Surveillance technology has historically always been abused. Now the technology is more advanced and more frightening than ever, and more available than ever, so abuse is more possible," says Farrow.

International outrage is growing over Israel's abduction of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabaliya refugee camp, who was detained after Israeli forces raided and shut down the last major hospital in northern Gaza last week. A new United Nations report finds that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in the Gaza Strip have pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse." Displaced Palestinians throughout the territory are dying from the ongoing Israeli bombardment, as well as injuries, infections and diseases due to Israel's restrictions on medical care and medical supplies. At least six babies have also died of hypothermia in recent days amid plunging winter temperatures. Living conditions are just deplorable. They are not compatible with human life," says Dr. Mimi Syed, an emergency medicine physician who just left Gaza after volunteering there for a month. We also speak with trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who previously volunteered at the European Hospital in Khan Younis. It's very likely that tens or even hundreds of thousands of people are going to die of the combination of malnutrition, displacement, exposure to the elements and hypothermia this winter," says Sidhwa.

Gaza is entering its second winter under attack from Israel, and talks to reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas appear to have stalled yet again. For more on efforts to end the war and secure the release of captives on both sides, we speak with veteran Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin, who has acted as a backchannel to Hamas leaders in the current and previous conflicts. We need to put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the agenda again and make sure this is the last war we fight," says Baskin.

Russian missile and drone attacks are continuing across Ukraine as the country already faces a cold, dark winter after Russia's strikes destroyed about half of the country's energy infrastructure. This comes as Russia and Ukraine completed a prisoner swap, repatriating more than 300 prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates ahead of the new year. The Biden administration, meanwhile, has approved billions more in military and economic assistance to Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump returns to office with a pledge to curtail aid and end the war. Since Russia's invasion nearly three years ago, Congress has approved $175 billion in total assistance to Ukraine. Putin doesn't want peace," says Oleksandra Matviichuk, a leading Ukrainian human rights lawyer, who says Russia's goal is to restore its empire by force. Russian occupation means torture, rapes, enforced disappearances, denial of your own identity, forcible adoption of your children, filtration camps and mass graves," she says.

U.N. Warns 136 Israeli Attacks on Medical Centers Have Left Gaza Healthcare Near Total Collapse", Israel's U.N. Ambassador Warns Houthis to Halt Attacks or Face Miserable Fate", Syria's New Foreign Minister Calls for Strategic" Ties to Ukraine, More Than 300 Russian and Ukrainian Soldiers Repatriated in Prisoner Swap, Biden Releases Another $2.5 Billion in Military Aid to Ukraine Ahead of Trump's Inauguration, Kenyan Police Tear-Gas Protesters Demanding Justice for Abducted Government Critics, U.S. Releases Tunisian Imprisoned at Guantanamo for 22 Years Without Charge, Trump Loses Appeal on 2023 Verdict Finding Him Liable for Sexually Abusing E. Jean Carroll, Taliban Bans NGOs That Employ Afghan Women, Says Women Should Not Be Seen in Windows, Iran Confirms Arrest of Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala in Tehran

Former President Jimmy Carter died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, at 100 years old. The 39th president served a single, tumultuous term in the White House from 1977 to 1981. As we begin our look at his life and legacy, we hear Carter's own words in a Democracy Now! interview discussing his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Carter criticized Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza, and argued Israel's settlements in the Occupied Territories were the main barrier to peace. Americans don't want to know and many Israelis don't want to know what is going on inside Palestine. It's a terrible human rights persecution that far transcends what any outsider would imagine," said Carter in 2007. And there are powerful political forces in America that prevent any objective analysis of the problem in the Holy Land."

Since October 7, 2023, Israel's onslaught in Gaza has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians and injured more than 108,000. At the same time, Gaza officials continue to accuse Israel of deliberately blocking aid deliveries. Human rights organizations are condemning Israel for attacking Palestinian lifesaving infrastructure, including Gaza's water supply and medical system. All of this has led to the world's leading specialist on the subject of genocide to declare Israel is carrying out a combination of genocidal actions, ethnic cleansing and annexation of the Gaza Strip." Omer Bartov, an Israeli American professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, describes why he believes Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza right now. There was actually a systematic attempt to make Gaza uninhabitable, as well as to destroy all institutions that make it possible for a group to sustain itself, not only physically but also culturally," says Bartov, who warns impunity for Israel would endanger the entire edifice of international law. This is a total moral, ethical failure by the very countries that claim to be the main protectors of civil rights, democracy, human rights around the world."

Gaza's Health Ministry has confirmed that close to 46,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's ongoing assault, but Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah estimates the true number is closer to 300,000. This is literally and mathematically a genocidal project," says Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon who worked in Gaza for over a month treating patients at both Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist hospitals. Israel continues to attack what remains of the besieged territory's medical infrastructure. On Sunday, an Israeli attack on the upper floor of al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City killed at least seven people and wounded several others. On Friday, Israeli troops stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, northern Gaza's last major functioning hospital, and set the facility on fire. Many staff and patients were reportedly forced to go outside and strip in winter weather. The director of Kamal Adwan, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, was arrested, and his whereabouts remain unknown. It's been obvious from the beginning that Israel has been wiping out a whole generation of health professionals in Gaza as a way of increasing the genocidal death toll but also of permanently making Gaza uninhabitable," says Abu-Sittah. On the 7th of October, the Israelis crossed that genocidal Rubicon that settler-colonial projects cross."

Sixth Palestinian Child Dies of Hypothermia in Gaza as Israel Continues Unrelenting Attacks, Family Blames Palestinian Security Forces for Killing of West Bank Journalist Shatha al-Sabbagh, Syria's De Facto Leader Says It Could Take Four Years to Organize Elections, Israelis Hold Nationwide Rallies to Demand Gaza Ceasefire Deal and Netanyahu Resignation, South Korean Airliner Crash Kills All But Two of 181 People Aboard, Azerbaijan's Leader Calls on Putin to Admit Russia Shot Down Airliner, Georgia's Outgoing President Refuses to Quit as Mikheil Kavelashvili Is Inaugurated, Former President Jimmy Carter Dies at 100, Rare December Tornadoes Claim 4 Lives in Southern U.S. States, Video Reveals NY Prison Guards Beat Prisoner Robert Brooks to Death While Handcuffed

Silicon Valley and tech billionaires are lining up to support the incoming Trump administration. With the world's richest man, Elon Musk, as one of Trump's closest advisers, Trump has hosted Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for dinners at Mar-a-Lago. Amazon, Meta and OpenAI's Sam Altman have all announced donations of $1 million each to Trump's inaugural committee. Trump has placed tech executives all over his new administration, including PayPal co-founder Ken Howery, venture capitalists Scott Kupor and Sriram Krishnan, and tech boss David Sacks, whom Trump has picked to be czar" of crypto and artificial intelligence. The core things come down to displacing workers with artificial intelligence, displacing the currency with crypto, and getting rid of any kind of taxation on wealth that might come up," says author and former tech investor Roger McNamee, who encourages people to consider using less Silicon Valley tech products. We have been accepting all kinds of invasions of privacy, all kinds of surveillance, all kinds of manipulation in exchange for convenience. ... Could we do with less convenience for a while in exchange for regaining human autonomy?"

Donald Trump has set his sights on the Americas, threatening to retake the Panama Canal if Panama doesn't lower fees for U.S. ships. The United States controlled the waterway until 1977, when President Jimmy Carter signed a landmark treaty to give Panama control of the canal. Trump has also recently floated the idea of annexing Canada, and even a possible soft invasion" of Mexico. Pulitzer Prize-winning Yale historian Greg Grandin explains the practical impossibilities of such plans but analyzes the political impacts of Trump's statements. There's no way the United States is going to fill out greater America. This is red meat for the Trump base," says Grandin. It's classic Trump."

We speak with a Greenlandic member of the Danish Parliament, Aaja Chemnitz, about incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's plans to make America larger, in part by taking ownership of Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark. Greenland's prime minister rejected the idea this week, saying, We are not for sale and will never be for sale." Trump's statement on Greenland was made as he announced he was picking PayPal co-founder Ken Howery as his pick for United States ambassador to Denmark. We're open for business. We're not for sale," says Chemnitz. The decision on what should happen with the future of Greenland is up to the Greenlandic people."

In northern Gaza, the director of the besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital says five medical workers were among 50 people killed in Israeli strikes near the hospital. Israeli forces then stormed the hospital and forced hundreds, including patients, into the streets. This all comes as The New York Times has confirmed past reporting by +972 Magazine that on October 7, 2023, Israel loosened military rules meant to protect noncombatants in Gaza. Award-winning Israeli journalist Gideon Levy decries the moral decay of Israel, which has gone so far as to open a luxurious rest area for soldiers in northern Gaza: It's the same moral blindness to what's going on around you." Levy also discusses his latest piece, headlined The IDF's Own Sickening 'Zone of Interest' in the Heart of Gaza."

Israel Forces Evacuation of Northern Gaza Hospital After Attack That Killed 50, Watchdog Finds 75,000 in Gaza at Risk of Famine, Buries Report After U.S. Ambassador to Israel Objects, Israel Bombs Yemeni Capital and Port City of Hodeidah, Killing 6 and Wounding Dozens, Famine Spreads as Fighting Escalates in Sudan, Prompting Exodus of Refugees, More Than 10,000 Asylum Seekers Have Died at Sea Attempting to Reach Spain in 2024, CDC Warns Sample of First Severely Ill U.S. Bird Flu Patient Contains Troublesome Mutations, South Korean Parliament Impeaches Acting President 2 Weeks After Former President's Ouster, New York Gov. Signs Bill to Hold Climate Polluters Accountable But Vetoes Anti-Deforestation Bill, L.A. Deputy Who Beat Trans Man Fired Along with 7 Others Amid FBI Probe

More than 3,100 Indigenous students died at boarding schools in the United States between 1828 and 1970 - three times the number of deaths reported earlier this year by the Department of Interior, according to a new investigation by The Washington Post. Many of the students had been forcibly removed from their families and tribes as part of a government policy of cultural eradication and assimilation. The new report was led by Dana Hedgpeth, an enrolled member of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe of North Carolina, and expanded its reach beyond federal records to achieve a full public accounting of the death toll of what many scholars and survivors have described as prison camps," not schools. Hedgpeth shares how some tribes have now been able to recover the remains of children who had been buried at the boarding schools and return them for traditional burials in their ancestral homelands. The impact of these schools is still being felt in many ways," she says.

We go to Damascus for an update on the state of affairs in Syria after the surprise collapse of the long-reigning Assad regime, with BBC Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab. She is reporting in Syria for the first time in over a decade, after she was forced to flee the country in 2013. She relays the sense of freedom and joy" now present on the streets of Damascus, where ordinary Syrians, for the first time in generations, feel that they are liberated and they are proud of where they are today." Current estimates put the number of forced disappearances under the Assad government at 300,000 likely tortured in prisons and buried in mass graves. We discuss Syria's new transitional government, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and whether it can fulfill its promises of inclusion and accountability for all Syrians. There's no way for peace and stability to happen in Syria without a prosecution, without a legal system that will hold those who have blood on their hands accountable, for the sake of reconciliation in the country," says Sinjab.

After a 15-year career in the Foreign Service, Michael Casey resigned from the State Department in July over U.S. policy on Gaza and is now speaking out publicly for the first time. He was deputy political counselor at the United States Office for Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem for four years before he left. Casey says he resigned after getting no action from Washington" for his recommendations on humanitarian actions for Palestinians and toward a workable two-state solution. We don't believe Palestinian sources of information," Casey says about U.S. policymakers. We will accept the Israeli narrative over all others, even if we know it's not correct." He also discusses what to expect for Gaza under the incoming Trump administration.

Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill Dozens, Including Five Journalists; Three Babies Freeze to Death, Russia Launches Massive Christmas Attack on Ukraine's Energy Grid, Azerbaijani Airlines Crash in Kazakhstan Leaves Behind 38 Dead, 29 Survivors, Turkey's Erdoan Threatens to Bury" Syrian Kurds Unless They Lay Down Arms, Dozens Killed in Violence Across Mozambique Following Disputed Election Result, Gunmen Kill 2 Haitian Journalists Covering Reopening of Port-au-Prince Hospital, Judge Voids Arkansas Law Criminalizing Booksellers and Librarians Providing Harmful" Books to Minors

His name might not be familiar to many, but his songs are sung by millions around the world. Today, we take a journey through the life and work of Yip Harburg, the Broadway lyricist who wrote such hits as Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and who put the music into The Wizard of Oz, the movie that inspired the hit Broadway musical and now Hollywood blockbuster, Wicked. Born into poverty on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Harburg always included a strong social and political component to his work, fighting racism and poverty. A lifelong socialist, Harburg was blacklisted and hounded throughout much of his life. We speak with Harburg's son, Ernie Harburg, about the music and politics of his father. Then we take an in-depth look at The Wizard of Oz, and hear a medley of Harburg's Broadway songs and the politics of the times in which they were created.

As foreign powers look to shape Syria's political landscape after the toppling of the Assad regime, the country's Kurdish population is in the spotlight. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan continues to threaten the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Turkey regards as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party militants who have fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for 40 years. Turkey's foreign minister recently traveled to Damascus to meet with Syria's new de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the Islamist group HTS. Turkey is a major threat to Kurds and to democratic experiments that Kurds have been implementing in the region starting in 2014," says Ozlem Goner, steering committee member of the Emergency Committee for Rojava, who details the persecution of Kurds, the targeting of journalists, and which powerful countries are looking to control the region. Turkey, Israel and the U.S. collectively are trying to carve out this land, and Kurds are under threat."

The U.S. House Ethics Committee has released its damning report on former Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, whom Trump had picked to be his attorney general before the Florida politician was forced to withdraw from consideration. The bipartisan committee's report found Gaetz regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him" and possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on multiple different occasions." The report also found Gaetz had violated Florida's statutory rape law by paying a 17-year-old high school student for sex in 2017. The Ethics Committee also investigated a trip Gaetz made in 2018 to the Bahamas where he accepted transportation and lodging in violation of the House rules and laws on gifts. The report is detailed. There are extensive records showing these payments," says Naomi Feinstein, staff writer at Miami New Times.

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