Democracy Now!

In a dramatic hearing Tuesday, the CEO of the startup behind ChatGPT warned Congress about the dangers of artificial intelligence — his company’s own product. We discuss how to regulate AI and establish ethical guidelines with Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Center for AI and Digital Policy. “We don’t have the expertise in government for the rapid technological change that’s now taking place,” says Rotenberg.

The Center for Policy and Research has just published a new report titled “American Torturers: FBI and CIA Abuses at Dark Sites and Guantánamo,” which compiles a series of 40 drawings by Guantánamo Bay prisoner Abu Zubaydah that chronicle the horrific torture he endured since 2002 in CIA dark sites and at Guantánamo Bay, where he has been detained without charge since 2006. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued a new call for the United States to release him immediately. We speak with one of his attorneys, Mark Denbeaux, and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed the Bush-era torture program and was the only official jailed in connection to it.

Calls are growing for the Justice Department to investigate Donald Trump’s attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for allegedly plotting to sell presidential pardons during the Trump administration, after his former employee Noelle Dunphy filed a $10 million lawsuit against Giuliani accusing him of sexual assault and other misconduct. The complaint alleges Giuliani “asked Ms. Dunphy if she knew anyone in need of a pardon, telling her that he was selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split.” Dunphy is not the first person to publicly reveal this scheme; CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou has previously divulged that he was among those asked to pay up in return for a clean slate. “This lawsuit is the first that I heard that money was supposed to be split with President Trump,” he tells Democracy Now! Kiriakou, who did not ultimately get a pardon, says he was told by a Giuliani aide not to bother with a formal application and that it would be handled informally. “It was all supposed to be hush-hush,” he says.

U.N. Warns Global Heating Is Poised to Set Records and May Exceed 1.5°C Within Five Years, Eight Killed as Torrential Rains Bring Massive Flooding to Northern Italy, Burma’s Government-in-Exile Says Death Toll from Cyclone Mocha Has Topped 400, Climate Activists at Africa Energies Summit in London Demand End to Fossil Fuel Projects, U.N. Appeals for $3 Billion in Emergency Aid to Sudan as Humanitarian Disaster Spirals, Accusations of Voting Issues in Turkey as Erdoğan’s Rival Appeals to Nationalists Ahead of Runoff, Florida Signs Draconian Anti-Trans Laws, as Texas GOP Advances Bill to Ban Trans Healthcare, SC House Passes Another 6-Week Abortion Ban; U.S. Appeals Court Hears Arguments in Abortion Pill Case, Montana Becomes First State to Ban TikTok, as Rights Groups Warn of Censorship and Sinophobia, Deutsche Bank Agrees to $75M Settlement for Epstein Survivors as JPMorgan Chase Faces Lawsuit, Ecuadorian President Dissolves National Assembly to Avoid Impeachment, Argentines Call Out Skyrocketing Prices and Austerity as Inflation Hits 109%

On May 13, 1985, police surrounded the home of MOVE, a radical Black liberation organization that was defying orders to vacate from 6221 Osage Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Police flooded the home with water, filled it with tear gas, blasted it with automatic weapons, and finally dropped a bomb on the house from a helicopter, setting it ablaze and killing 11 residents — six adults and five children. The fire ultimately burned the entire city block to the ground, destroying over 60 homes. We speak with second-generation MOVE member Mike Africa Jr., who has launched a “Reclaim Osage” campaign to repurchase the bombed MOVE house after the city previously used eminent domain to seize it and turn it into a police substation before selling it to developers.

More than a dozen former U.S. national security officials have released an open letter calling for a diplomatic end to the Russia-Ukraine war. The call for peace was published as a full-page ad Tuesday in The New York Times and organized by the Eisenhower Media Network. They called the war an “unmitigated disaster” that the U.S. should work to end before it escalates into a nuclear confrontation. We speak with Dennis Fritz, director of the Eisenhower Media Network and a retired command chief master sergeant of the U.S. Air Force. “The majority of my life has been in and out of the Pentagon, and this is probably the most fearful I’ve ever been with a nuclear escalation,” says Fritz.

With the United States just two weeks away from a possible default on its debt for the first time ever, President Joe Biden has cut short a trip to Asia to continue negotiations with congressional leaders in Washington over lifting the federal government’s debt ceiling. Republicans are seeking major budget cuts, as well as new work requirements for recipients of Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, but prominent Democrats are pushing the White House to stand firm. For more, we speak with The American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner, who says the debt ceiling deadline and budget negotiations later this year are part of a larger effort by Republicans to shred the social safety net.

North Carolina Bans Abortion After 12 Weeks as GOP Lawmakers Override Governor’s Veto, Nebraska Lawmakers Advance Bill to Ban Abortion & Ban Gender-Affirming Medical Care, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Florida Hold Elections, Talks over Debt Ceiling Remain Stalled as GOP Pushes Sweeping Cuts, Biden to Head to Hiroshima for G7 Summit But Cuts Rest of Asia Trip Short, Chinese Special Envoy Arrives in Ukraine to Push for War to End, Costs of War Project: Post-9/11 Wars Have Resulted in 4.5 Million Deaths, Ecuador: Guillermo Lasso Dissolves National Assembly to Block Impeachment Push, Biden Administration Grants Key Permit for Mountain Valley Pipeline, Florida Investigates Teacher for Showing Disney Film with a Gay Character, Report: Black Community in U.S. Has Suffered 1.63 Million Excess Deaths over Past 20 Years, DOJ Pressured to Investigate Giuliani for Offering to Sell Presidential Pardons for $2 Million, Congressional Democrats Introduce Resolution to Expel George Santos After DOJ Indictment

We host a roundtable discussion on the human rights crisis unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border and the impact of President Biden ending the Trump-era pandemic policy known as Title 42 last Thursday, after it had been used to expel nearly 3 million migrants without due process. Guerline Jozef is co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, an immigrant advocacy organization that provides humanitarian assistance to Haitians and other Black immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa; Erika Guevara-Rosas is a human rights lawyer and Americas director for Amnesty International; and Erika Pinheiro is an immigration attorney and the executive director of Al Otro Lado, a binational nonprofit helping immigrants on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

We look at a newly confirmed direct connection between a white supremacist leader and a staffer for one of Trump’s staunchest supporters in Congress. The digital director for right-wing Arizona Congressmember Paul Gosar has been revealed as a prominent follower of neo-Nazi online influencer Nick Fuentes. Gosar himself is linked to organizers of the January 6 insurrection and was censured for posting an animated video on social media where he murdered Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacked President Biden. We speak with Talking Points Memo reporter Hunter Walker about his exclusive report, which he says “removes that veil of plausible deniability” from Gosar about his office’s ties to extremists.

As President Biden warned Saturday that white supremacy is the “most dangerous terrorist threat” facing the United States, and members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front marched Sunday on the National Mall, we look at how Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is under fire for expressing support for white nationalists in the U.S. military. Tuberville is a major backer of Donald Trump. In 2020, he defeated Democrat Doug Jones, who served in the Senate from 2018 to 2021 and was a U.S. attorney who successfully prosecuted two members of the Ku Klux Klan involved in the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing that killed four girls. We get response to Tuberville from Jones and look at white supremacists in the military and more with Southern Poverty Law Center senior investigative reporter Michael Edison Hayden.

200,000 Fled Sudan in First Month of Fighting Between Rival Military Factions, Flooding in Somalia Kills at Least 22, Affects Nearly a Half-Million People, Heat Waves Bake China and West Coast of North America, House Republicans Reject Closing Tax Loopholes as June 1 Deadline on Debt Ceiling Looms, SCOTUS to Review South Carolina Congressional Maps Struck Down over Racist Gerrymandering, Trump-Era Special Prosecutor Faults FBI over Probe of Russian Interference in 2016 Campaign, Ex-Associate Sues Rudy Giuliani, Alleging Rape, Abuse and Harassment, 18-Year-Old with Assault Rifle Kills 3, Injures 6 in New Mexico, Vice Media Files for Bankruptcy Following Mass Layoffs of New Staff, San Francisco DA Won’t Bring Charges Against Guard Seen in Video Killing Banko Brown

Palestinians across the globe are marking the 75th anniversary of the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic), when some 700,000 Palestinians fled from or were violently expelled from their homes upon Israel’s founding in 1948. The occasion comes as five days of fighting, that killed 33 Palestinians in Gaza and two people in Israel, was brought to a stop this weekend after the Israeli army and the militant group Islamic Jihad agreed to a Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. Today the United Nations is holding its first-ever high-level special meeting to commemorate the Nakba. We host a roundtable discussion with Munir Nuseibah, a human rights lawyer and director of Al-Quds Human Rights Clinic in Jerusalem; Saleh Hijazi, a member of the Palestinian Boycott National Committee; and Peter Beinart, editor-at-large for Jewish Currents.

Turkey’s closely watched presidential election is headed to a May 28 runoff, as both incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his main rival fell short of the 50% needed to win outright in Sunday’s vote. Erdoğan is facing his toughest challenge since coming to power 20 years ago, as opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu leads a broad coalition in a bid to unseat him amid criticism for his administration’s economic policies, weakening Turkey’s democracy and poor response to the deadly February earthquakes. Kılıçdaroğlu has vowed closer ties with NATO and the EU and to reinforce democratic institutions. We get an update from Istanbul with Turkish historian Kaya Genç, who says Erdoğan’s political survival was a “stunning comeback” that contradicted polls predicting a comfortable first-round victory for Kılıçdaroğlu. “This was a total shock for the Turkish establishment,” he says.

Turkish Elections Head to Runoff as Pres. Erdoğan Fails to Capture 50% of Vote Against Kilicdaroglu, Thai Voters Back Reform Parties in Sharp Rebuke to Monarchy and Military Gov’t, Ukraine Makes Gains in Bakhmut as European Leaders Up Military Support for Zelensky, Israel and Gaza Fighters Agree to Truce After 5 Days of Fighting Kills 33 Palestinians, Powerful Cyclone Kills at Least 6 People in Burma, Destroys Rohingya Refugee Shelters, Death Toll from Kenyan Starvation Cult Tops 200, Including Many Children, Guatemalan Newspaper El Periódico Shutters After Persecution by Giammattei Gov’t, Unaccompanied Honduran Migrant Teen Dies in U.S. Custody, Sen. Tuberville Under Fire for Backing White Nationalists in Military, Buffalo Remembers Victims of Racist Massacre One Year After Tops Supermarket Mass Shooting, North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Vetoes Abortion Ban, Setting Up Possible GOP Override, Texas Woman Killed by Partner After Returning from Colorado, Where She Had an Abortion, Florida Bans Textbooks Dealing with Race, Social Justice; Allows Discrimination in Healthcare, SF Community Members Demand Justice for Banko Brown, a Trans Activist Killed by Security Guard, Jordan Neely’s Family Blasts Manslaughter Charge; Lawyer Implores Bystanders to Help Those in Need

We speak with Serbian journalist Ljiljana Smajlović as Serbia reels from a pair of mass shootings that left 17 people dead, incidents that spurred mass protests and demands for stronger gun control. In light of the massacres, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić vowed to completely disarm the country. More than 6,000 unregistered guns and weapons were turned in after the government announced a month-long amnesty on illegal weapons. “People are stunned. Their sense of security has been taken away completely,” says Smajlović. She notes the shock of the mass shootings is providing a rare opening for the opposition to attempt to weaken the ruling party, which has been in power for more than a decade.

We look at the political crisis in Pakistan as the Islamabad High Court on Friday granted two weeks’ bail to former Prime Minister Imran Khan after his arrest sparked mass protests. Paramilitary forces arrested Khan on corruption charges, but Pakistan’s Supreme Court later ruled his arrest was “invalid and unlawful.” Khan served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was ousted from office in what he called a “U.S.-backed regime change” plot carried out by his political opposition. Mohammed Hanif, an award-winning writer and journalist based in Karachi, says the corruption accusations are part of a larger power struggle in the country, pitting the extremely popular Khan against the country’s establishment, including the military. “Elections are due, and they want to keep him out of the election race. Either they want to disqualify him or put him behind bars,” says Hanif.

The number of asylum seekers from Cuba and Venezuela is expected to grow as the Trump-era Title 42 asylum restriction ends. A group of House Democrats are urging the Biden administration to lift sanctions on the countries, which they say are driving people to leave their homes out of economic desperation. We speak with Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez, author of a new report for the Center for Economic Policy and Research, “The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions.”

The Trump-era Title 42 policy has come to an end, but the Biden administration has instituted what human rights advocates say amounts to a new asylum ban. We get an update from the San Ysidro border crossing near San Diego, California, where hundreds of asylum seekers have been sleeping on the ground under trash bags and foil blankets, with many reporting they’ve not eaten in days. Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program, says Biden’s anti-asylum policies are “reconfiguring the concept of asylum to a point where it no longer offers the promise that it did post-World War II.”

Biden Administration Adds New Obstacles to the Right to Seek Asylum as Title 42 Expires, Ex-Marine Who Choked Jordan Neely to Death Surrenders to New York Authorities, Israeli Air Raids on Gaza Continue, Death Toll Tops 30 as Gazans Describe Terror of Nonstop Attacks, Sudan’s Warring Military and Paramilitary Agree to Protect Civilians and Allow Aid, Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan Released on Bail After Top Court Rules His Arrest Was Unlawful, At Least 7 People Killed in Protests Against Guinea’s Military Government, U.S. Scraps COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for International Visitors as Public Health Emergency Ends, U.S. Judge Strikes Down Federal Law Banning Handgun Sales to 18-20-Year-Olds, Texas Lawmakers Vote for Bill Banning “Glock Switches,” Against Increasing Age of Purchase to 21, SCOTUS Backs Transgender Guatemalan Woman Challenging Her Deportation, SCOTUS Sides with California Law Seeking More Humane Treatment for Farmed Pigs

One year ago, on May 11, 2022, an Israeli soldier fatally shot the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the head as she was reporting on an Israeli military raid just outside the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. She was shot while wearing a blue helmet and blue flak jacket clearly emblazoned with the word “press.” Abu Akleh was one of the most prominent TV journalists in the Arab world and had worked for Al Jazeera for a quarter of a century. She was also a U.S. citizen. But a year after her death, no one has been held accountable despite detailed testimony from eyewitnesses to the shooting. We air excerpts from the Al Jazeera investigation The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, which just won a George Polk Award, and speak with correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous. “There’s still no justice in her case, no accountability whatsoever,” says Abdel Kouddous. He adds that while the White House has been very vocal about the case of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is detained in Russia, the response to Abu Akleh’s killing has been muted. “Shireen was an American citizen, and her family deserves the same calls for justice, the same push for accountability from the White House.”

Scandal-plagued New York Republican Congressmember George Santos pleaded not guilty to 13 federal charges at a courthouse on Long Island Wednesday. He is charged with wire fraud, money laundering, lying on federal disclosure forms, and fraudulently collecting unemployment benefits while earning a $120,000 salary. Santos has been under investigation since his election to Congress last year exposed his history as a serial liar who fabricated his educational background, employment history and religion. He has thus far refused to step down and has denied the allegations against him. We talk to Mother Jones reporter Noah Lanard, who was in the courtroom and says this indictment is just the beginning of Santos’s legal troubles.

Under a law passed last year in New York that allows sexual abuse survivors to sue their abusers in civil court even after the criminal statute of limitations has passed, a jury has found former President Donald Trump to be liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll at a department store in the 1990s. After just three hours of deliberations, the jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million. Following the ruling, Trump appeared in a televised town hall on CNN, where he mocked E. Jean Carroll while the Republican audience laughed at his remarks. We discuss the verdict, Trump’s response and the legal system’s treatment of sexual assault cases with Jane Manning, a former sex crimes prosecutor who is now the director of the Women’s Equal Justice Project.

Children Among the Dead as Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza Kill 27 Palestinians, Rep. Rashida Tlaib Leads Capitol Hill Nakba Event Despite Speaker McCarthy’s Efforts to Cancel It, 8 Killed in Growing Unrest Across Pakistan over Arrest of Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan, Five Killed as Gunman Opens Fire on Historic Synagogue in Tunisia, Japan Plans to Open NATO Liaison Office, Rep. George Santos Pleads “Not Guilty” to 13 Federal Charges, Sen. Dianne Feinstein Returns to Capitol Hill After Lengthy Illness, Daniel Perry Gets 25-Year Sentence for Murdering Texas Protester; Gov. Abbott Has Pledged a Pardon, Trump Praises Jan. 6 Rioters, Touts “Big Lie” and Mocks E. Jean Carroll in Unhinged Town Hall, FDA Advisers Vote in Favor of Making Popular Birth Control Pill Available Over the Counter, Climate Disaster: Asia Heat Wave, Spain Drought, Canada & Russia Wildfires Cause Misery Around Globe, Biden Yields to Manchin’s “Dirty Deal” on Oil and Gas Projects as Manchin Vows to Stonewall EPA Noms, Climate Defiance Joined by Steven Donziger, Jane Fonda to Protest Biden Fundraising Dinner

As President Biden ends Title 42, the Trump-era policy blocking asylum seekers, and plans stronger enforcement measures on the border, we speak with Salvadoran poet and writer Javier Zamora, whose best-selling memoir, Solito, details his odyssey as a 9-year-old child traveling unaccompanied through Guatemala, Mexico and eventually through the Sonoran Desert, before he makes it to Arizona and reunites with his parents with the aid of other migrants. “We’re all just human beings trying to have a chance at a better life,” says Zamora about his work humanizing the people caught in the migrant crisis.

A jury on Tuesday found Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against E. Jean Carroll, the writer who accused him of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. We speak with one of the people who testified at trial: Jessica Leeds, a retired businesswoman who says Trump sexually assaulted her on an airplane in the 1980s — one of dozens of women who has accused him of sexual misconduct over the years. Leeds tells Democracy Now! she is “really pleased” with the verdict and that she hopes it will encourage other survivors of sexual abuse to come forward, although she is not personally interested in bringing a case against Trump. “This was a good outcome, and I’m very thankful,” says Leeds.

A Manhattan jury on Tuesday sided with the writer E. Jean Carroll in her civil case against former President Donald Trump, finding him liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, and awarding her $5 million in damages. The jury did not find that Trump had raped her, as she has claimed. Trump says he will appeal. The closely watched trial stemmed from an incident in the 1990s, when Carroll says Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in New York. “Today, the world finally knows the truth,” Carroll said in a statement, reacting to the verdict. “This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.” We speak with columnist Moira Donegan, who covers gender and politics for The Guardian and who calls it “a really significant moment for American women, and specifically for the #MeToo movement.”

Donald Trump Found Liable for Sexual Abuse and Defamation of E. Jean Carroll, Rights Groups Call on Biden to Implement Humane Immigration Policies as Title 42 Ends, Immigrant Rights Defenders Condemn Texas Bills That Would Create Vigilante ICE Force, No Progress on Debt Limit Talks After Biden-McCarthy Meeting as White House Weighs Unilateral Action, Israel Continues Air Attacks on Gaza, Killing at Least 16 People in Two Days, AFP Journalist Killed Covering Ukraine War; France and U.K. Move to Label Wagner a Terrorist Group, Protests Mount, Hundreds Arrested in Pakistan as Court Charges Detained Imran Khan with Corruption, President Erdogan Faces Challenge from More Liberal Kilicdaroglu as Turks Reel from Earthquake, NY Rep. George Santos Charged by Federal Prosecutors, California Advances Effort to Offer Reparations to Black Residents, SEIU Workers at D.C. Headquarters Authorize Strike over Stalled Contract Negotiations, MTV News Shutting Down as Part of Mass Layoffs at Paramount, David Miranda, Journalist, Ex-Lawmaker and Fighter for Brazil’s Poor and LGBTQ Community, Dies at 37

Eleven people were arrested at a protest in New York on Monday demanding justice for Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused Black man who was choked to death on a subway car last week by another passenger. Neely was well known as a dancer and Michael Jackson impersonator. He was crying out that he was hungry, when he was fatally attacked on the train by a 24-year-old former marine named Daniel Penny, who was questioned by police but released without charges. The city medical examiner has ruled Neely’s death a homicide. The subway killing comes as New York is facing a growing population of unhoused people who lack the support they need, with many facing a mental health crisis. “What we need to see is not a mobilization of violence, but a mobilization of care,” says Jawanza Williams, director of organizing at the community group VOCAL-New York. We also speak with musician Lorenzo Laroc, who knew Neely for decades as a fellow busker in the New York subway system. “He gave freely to the city of New York and brought nothing but joy to this town for decades,” says Laroc, calling Neely a “gentleman” and a “consummate professional.”

Conflict in Sudan between two rival military factions is entering its fourth week. Despite international calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, both combatant groups have repeatedly breached truce agreements. More than 700 people have died. As thousands of Sudanese civilians flee both the capital Khartoum and the country entirely, the fighting is expected to continue, with no end in sight. As Sudan braces for the renewed possibility of full-scale civil war, we speak to McGill University professor Khalid Mustafa Medani and Sudanese activist Marine Alneel about the country’s brewing humanitarian crisis. “The only path toward stability is the establishment of a civilian democracy,” says Medani.

Israel launched surprise airstrikes in Gaza overnight, targeting three commanders of the Islamic Jihad militant group, who were assassinated in their homes. The attacks killed a total of 13 people, including the wives and children of the men. The Israeli attack broke a ceasefire that had been reached last week after a spike in violence following the death of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan in Israeli custody. “As the occupying power, Israel has the obligation to protect the civilian population,” says Phyllis Bennis, author and fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. “Instead, we’re seeing the expansion of an apartheid regime, and one which is prepared to use violence at extraordinary levels without a moment’s hesitation.”

As Russia marks the Soviet Union’s defeat of the Nazis 78 years ago, Ukraine is preparing to launch a major counteroffensive, which has forced Moscow to issue an evacuation order for thousands of residents in areas occupied by Russian forces. Meanwhile, international actors are calling for negotiations, possibly brokered by China or Brazil, to end the war. For more on the prognosis for peace in Ukraine, we’re joined by Phyllis Bennis, author and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

Israel Bombs Gaza Strip, Killing 13 People, Including Children, Putin Delivers Defiant “Victory Day” Speech as Russia Fires Missiles Across Ukraine, Sudan’s Warring Parties Hold Peace Talks in Saudi Arabia But Won’t Agree to Ceasefire, Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Arrested in Islamabad, Tens of Thousands March Against Gun Violence in Serbia After Two Mass Shootings, Texas Gunman Was Rejected from Army, Had Nazi Tattoos But Purchased AR-15 Legally, Texas Man Who Rammed SUV Into Migrants Charged with Eight Counts of Manslaughter, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Deploys “Tactical Border Force” Ahead of Title 42 Expiration, Jury Begins Deliberations in Rape and Defamation Civil Trial Against Donald Trump, ProPublica Reports Rep. James Clyburn Protected His District at a Cost to Black Democrats, 11 Arrested at Protest Demanding Arrest of Vigilante Who Killed Jordan Neely

Oklahoma death row prisoner Richard Glossip’s execution was stayed by the Supreme Court on Friday, marking the ninth time he had an execution date put on hold. Glossip has maintained his innocence throughout his 25 years of incarceration; his accuser has previously attempted to recant his testimony. In an unprecedented move earlier this month, Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a joint motion with Glossip’s defense team to halt his May 18 execution, saying he did not receive a fair trial. For more, we are joined in Oklahoma City by Sister Helen Prejean, one of the world’s most well-known anti-death penalty activists and Richard Glossip’s spiritual adviser, who says she is hopeful the Supreme Court’s intervention will mark the end of Glossip’s legal battles. “I believe Richard’s going to walk out a free man,” says Prejean. She is the author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty and River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey.

We look at the question of whether Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is on the Judiciary Committee, should resign due to mental deterioration, and how the media has failed to fully address the issue, with longtime Supreme Court reporter Dahlia Lithwick. As a result of Feinstein’s current condition, “we’re not getting judges confirmed at rates that we need to see,” Lithwick says. This should lead to “soul-searching above and beyond competency to say, 'How am I hampering this institution from doing the essential work of government?'”

We speak with longtime Supreme Court reporter Dahlia Lithwick about the mounting evidence of apparent financial impropriety by the court’s conservatives. ProPublica recently reported that Republican billionaire Harlan Crow paid two years of private school tuition for Clarence Thomas’s grandnephew — payments that Thomas did not include on his annual financial disclosures. This comes after previous reporting revealed Crow also paid money to Thomas and his relatives in an undisclosed real estate deal, and that Thomas accepted luxury travel from Crow virtually every year for decades, while failing to follow a federal law that requires him to publicly report most gifts. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, to be paid at least $80,000 for consulting work over a decade ago and asked that the payments not specify Ginni Thomas’s name in any paperwork. Thomas later cast the deciding vote in a 5-4 ruling that gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, in a case supported by Leo and his conservative legal network. “Members of the Senate are beginning to understand that it is going to be incumbent on them to step in and issue some ethics rules or demand that the court issue ethics rules for itself,” says Lithwick, who covers the courts and the law for Slate and hosts the podcast Amicus.

Police in England arrested at least 52 people Saturday around the coronation of King Charles, including numerous anti-monarchy activists who say they were detained before they even started protesting. Charles and his wife Camilla were crowned king and queen in a lavish ceremony at Westminster Abbey that is expected to cost over £100 million, or about $125 million USD, taking place against the backdrop of a severe cost-of-living crisis in the U.K. Despite growing disinterest in the monarchy, criticism of the institution has been very “muted” in the mainstream U.K. media, says Priya Gopal, Cambridge professor and author of Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent. “The media and the police are colluding in essentially suppressing criticism of the monarchy and what has been going on around the coronation,” she says.

We get an update from South Texas, where eight people were killed and at least 10 more injured Sunday in Brownsville after a driver rammed his SUV into a group of people near a shelter for migrants. The incident comes just days before the Trump-era Title 42 policy is set to expire and more migrants are expected to seek asylum at the southern U.S. border. “I can only describe it as a hate crime. It was motivated by hate,” Jennifer Harbury, a longtime human rights lawyer and activist with the Angry Tias and Abuelas, says of the car-ramming attack. She also talks about the history of U.S. interventions in Central America that destabilized the region.

Texas Gunman Kills 8 People, Including Children, at Dallas-Area Shopping Mall, Driver Plows SUV into Migrants in Brownsville, Texas, Killing Eight People, IDF Kills 2 Palestinians, Razes West Bank School as Dems Push Bill to Stop Funding Israeli Violence, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region Evacuated; Wagner Group Withdraws Bakhmut Retreat Threat, Over 400 Killed in DRC Flooding as U.N. Chief Points to Climate Change, Ethnic Conflict Kills Dozens While Tens of Thousands Flee Indian State of Manipur, Arab League Readmits Syria After 12-Year Suspension, Right-Wing Parties Win Majority of Seats on Commission to Rewrite Chile’s Constitution, Police Arrest Anti-Monarchy and Environmental Protesters at Coronation of King Charles, Supreme Court Grants Indefinite Stay of Execution to Oklahoma Prisoner Richard Glossip, Pennsylvania Man Gets 14+ Years in Prison for Assaulting Police at Jan. 6 Insurrection, 9 Workers Hospitalized from Massive Fire at Shell Petrochemical Plant in Deer Park, TX

This week, protests were held across the United States against right-wing efforts to ban books and antiracism education in schools. Fourteen protesters with Florida’s Dream Defenders were arrested Wednesday for staging a peaceful sit-in inside the office of Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis at the end of the state’s legislative session, in which he backed efforts to ban abortion after six weeks, deny gender-affirming care for youth, roll back rent control, censor discussions of LGBTQ issues and Black history in schools, and crack down on immigrants and unions in his political crusade against “wokeness.” We speak with one of the arrested protesters, Nailah Summers-Polite, co-director of Dream Defenders, and Kimberlé Crenshaw, the legal scholar well known for her work in the field of critical race theory, about the Freedom to Learn protests and the push to preserve the integrity of the AP African American studies course attacked by DeSantis and other far-right activists.

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team rested its case Thursday in the rape, battery and defamation trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll without calling a single witness. Carroll has accused Trump of raping her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s. Carroll was able to file the case against Trump decades later because New York opened a one-year window on the statute of limitations for adult survivors of sexual assault. Trump says he may still ask to testify before jury deliberations are set to begin next week. The lawsuit against Trump is a major effort to counter the “long-standing tradition in our culture of protecting powerful men from consequences for sexual assault and sexual harassment,” says Deborah Tuerkheimer, law professor at Northwestern University and the author of Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers.

Four members of the far-right Proud Boys organization, including former leader Enrique Tarrio, were convicted Thursday of seditious conspiracy for trying to keep Donald Trump in office by force after his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden. The men could face decades in prison for their actions. A fifth defendant was found not guilty of seditious conspiracy but convicted on other charges. We look at the Proud Boys, their role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and where the extremist group goes from here, with HuffPost senior editor Andy Campbell, author of We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered In a New Era of American Extremism.

U.S. Sees Long Conflict Ahead in Sudan as Fighting Rages Between Rival Military Factions, Head of Russia’s Wagner Group Says He’ll Pull Mercenaries from Besieged Ukrainian City, Jury Finds Proud Boys Guilty of Sedition and Other Felonies for Jan. 6 Insurrection, Clarence Thomas Failed to Disclose Tuition Payments from Billionaire GOP Donor Harlan Crow, Conservative Judicial Activist Secretly Funneled at Least $80,000 to Ginni Thomas, Eight People, Including 6 Teachers, Killed in Pakistan Shootings, Serbia Pledges Gun Controls After Two Mass Shootings in Two Days Claim 17 Lives, Shootings in Georgia and Oklahoma Add to Staggering U.S. Gun Violence Toll, Shares of PacWest and Western Alliance Fall Amid Fears of More Regional Bank Failures, Iowa Rolls Back Child Labor Protections, Bernie Sanders Calls for $17 Minimum Wage, 32-Hour Workweek, North Carolina GOP Passes 12-Week Abortion Ban, Plans to Override Governor’s Veto, New Yorkers, Lawmakers Demand Accountability in Vigilante Killing of Beloved Subway Performer, Former Colonies Call for Apology, Reparations and Independence Ahead of King Charles’s Coronation

A judge in California has dismissed a seven-year $100 million lawsuit against Greenpeace USA that threatened the group’s existence. Canadian logging giant Resolute Forest Products sued Greenpeace in the United States and Canada for defamation after the group exposed the company’s irresponsible practices, part of a pattern of corporations attempting to use the burdens of the legal process to intimidate, exhaust and censor activists. Known as SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) lawsuits, they are increasingly being used by the rich and powerful to silence critics. We are joined by Deepa Padmanabha, deputy general counsel for Greenpeace USA, to discuss the organization’s legal victory, as well as the continued work of advocates to pass anti-SLAPP legislation and promote free speech. “We took on this fight not just for Greenpeace, but for everyone who dares speak truth to power, and we knew we had to win this both in the courtroom and for the movement,” says Padmanabha.

We speak with Jumana Abo Oxa, project manager at the Greek refugee project, Elpida Home, who is in Washington, D.C., where she is meeting with Biden administration officials and lawmakers in an effort to seek help for 82 families, including many women parliamentarians, who evacuated from Afghanistan but have been stuck in Greece for over a year and a half.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned this week that Afghanistan continues to face the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today, with a two-day summit in Doha ending without formal recognition of the Taliban government that has ruled the country since August 2021. Since their return to power, the Taliban have cracked down on women’s rights, including restricting access to education and banning women from working with international aid groups. Poverty has skyrocketed in Afghanistan as years of conflict, corruption and international sanctions have battered the economy. We speak with Farzana Elham Kochai, a women’s rights activist who was elected to the Afghan Parliament in 2019 before fleeing the country for safety, and Jumana Abo Oxa, who works with the Greek refugee project Elpida Home helping Afghan women lawmakers find refuge in other countries.

A new report by Amnesty International documents how the Israeli government is using an experimental facial recognition system to track Palestinians and control their movements. The findings are part of “Automated Apartheid,” which reveals an ever-growing surveillance network of cameras in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron and in East Jerusalem — two places in the Occupied Territories where Israeli settlements are expanding within Palestinian areas. “Surveillance has been ramping up as illegal settler activity has also been ramping up,” says Amnesty researcher Matt Mahmoudi, who adds that the surveillance technology is part of an overall coercive structure used against Palestinians by Israel. “Effectively, facial recognition is augmenting, reinforcing, entrenching aspects of apartheid.”

Russian Shells Kill 23 in Kherson as Moscow Accuses Ukraine of Drone Attack on Kremlin, Israeli Soldiers Kill 3 Palestinians in Raid on Occupied Nablus, Rwanda Death Toll from Flooding and Landslides Rises to 136, Egypt Frees Al Jazeera Journalist Hisham Abdel Aziz After Four Years Behind Bars, Protesters Confront Blinken over Julian Assange Extradition and Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, Fed Chair Accused of “Aiming to Put People Out of Work” with Latest Interest Rate Hike, Police Arrest Wife of Texas Mass Shooter, Whom She Accused of Domestic Violence, Georgia Police Arrest Mass Shooting Suspect as Sen. Warnock Demands Gun Legislation, Oklahoma AG Appeals to SCOTUS to Stay Execution of Richard Glossip, Montana Imposes New Restrictions on Abortion Access, Activists Arrested at Peaceful Protest Against Florida’s Attacks on Abortion, LGBTQ, Immigrant Rights , “It’s Not How White Men Fight”: Tucker Carlson Text Reportedly Led to His Firing from Fox, Trump Team Will Not Offer Defense in E. Jean Carroll Rape and Defamation Case, New Documents Show Jeffrey Epstein Had Meetings with Noam Chomsky, New Yorkers Demand Justice for Unhoused Subway Performer Who Was Killed by Another Passenger

Texas authorities have arrested the suspect in last week’s mass shooting in the town of Cleveland and are charging him with five counts of murder. Police say Francisco Oropesa killed five neighbors in the home next door, including a 9-year-old child, after the family asked him to stop firing his AR-15-style rifle in his yard because it was keeping a baby awake. Texas Governor Greg Abbott drew backlash after the shooting for referring to the victims as “illegal immigrants,” for which he later apologized. “His goal is to dehumanize people,” Texas state Senator Roland Gutierrez says of Abbott, adding that the governor has done nothing to stem gun violence and easy access to weapons. “Republican policies across this country have led to a very loose gun policy that allows just about anybody, and certainly in Texas, to go find a weapon like an AR-15 with impunity.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned Congress that the United States could run out of money to pay its bills by June 1 unless lawmakers raise the debt ceiling. House Republicans last week narrowly passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling, but only in exchange for sweeping spending cuts to numerous programs, including student debt relief, food assistance, Medicaid and renewable energy. Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing for a vote to raise the debt ceiling without imposing cuts, even as the constitutionality of the debt ceiling has been questioned by some legal scholars. For more on the debt ceiling, recent bank failures and other economic news, we speak with James Galbraith, economist and professor at the University of Texas at Austin.