Democracy Now!

Dockworkers from Maine to Texas have walked out on the job at all East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, launching the first strike of its kind in almost 50 years. The International Longshoremen's Association represents some 45,000 workers at 36 ports who are demanding higher wages and guarantees that jobs won't be automated. This is a time of labor mobilization in this country," says Peter Goodman, New York Times global economics correspondent, who explains President Biden is caught between union pressure to back the strike and the threat of consumer prices rising while shipping is disrupted. We're only weeks away from a presidential election that could very well hinge on economic sentiments and unhappiness over inflation."

Lebanese Prime Minsiter Najib Mikati says Lebanon is now facing one of the most dangerous phases of its history," as the Israeli military claims to have begun launching limited and targeted raids" in southern Lebanon. However, Hezbollah has denied that Israeli soldiers have actually entered Lebanon. The possible Israeli ground operation comes after two weeks of Israeli attacks on Lebanon that have killed over 1,000 people and forced over a million Lebanese to evacuate. While Biden called for a ceasefire, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday and affirmed U.S. support for Israeli actions along Lebanon's border. Israel is ultimately undermining U.S. interests in the Middle East," says Beirut-based political and security analyst Ali Rizk. Benjamin Netanyahu ... wants to go down in history as the person who was able to successfully defeat the major enemy of Israel."

Hezbollah Denies Reports Israeli Troops Have Invaded Southern Lebanon, Syria Says Israeli Strikes on Damascus Kill 3 Civilians Including TV News Anchor, Overnight Israeli Airstrike Kills More Displaced Palestinians, Including Children, Israel Releases Palestinian Dr. Khaled Alser, Half a Year After Abducting Him from Gaza Hospital, Half of Haiti Is Suffering Acute Hunger; U.N. Renews Int'l Security Force Amid Spiraling Violence, Devastation Beyond Belief": Hurricane Helene Claims 133 Lives, Wipes Out Homes and Neighborhoods, Georgia Judge Strikes Down 6-Week Abortion Ban, Biden Administration Escalates Crackdown on Asylum Seekers at Southern Border, 45,000 Dockworkers on East and Gulf Coasts Launch Major Strike, Kansas City Renters Launch Strike Against Predatory Landlords, Demand Federal Rent Cap, I Chose Freedom Over Justice": Julian Assange Addresses Public for First Time Since Prison Release

Hurricane Helene tears through the southeastern United States as scientists say climate change rapidly intensifies hurricanes. The storm devastated large swaths of the southeastern United States after making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm. Officials say the death toll is likely to rise, as many are still missing. Helene is expected to be one of the costliest hurricanes in U.S. history and was fueled by abnormally warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, but most of the media coverage has failed to connect the devastation to the climate crisis. The planet's overheating. It's irreversible. It's caused by the fossil fuel industry," says climate activist and climate scientist Peter Kalmus in Raleigh, North Carolina. This will get worse as the planet continues to get hotter."

As the Middle East gets ever closer to an all-out war, we speak with Iranian American analyst and author Trita Parsi about Iran's response in the aftermath of Israel's assassination of longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The powerful Lebanese militia is closely aligned with Iran and is part of the Axis of Resistance" of forces in the Middle East opposed to Israel that also includes Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. Israel has quite successfully cornered Iran," says Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. At this point, if Iran does almost anything, it will risk triggering the larger regional war that Netanyahu wants and that the Iranians have tried to avoid."

We speak with Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy in Tel Aviv, who says the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday was met with barbaric glee" by much of Israeli society. We are getting down and down, lower and lower, believing more and more in only one thing, namely in killing and destructing," says Levy, who warns that Israel is very likely to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon next and continue expanding the war as long as it enjoys unlimited U.S. support. The ongoing escalation in the region comes after a year of only bombing and refusing any kind of diplomacy," Levy says.

Israel is expanding its attacks across the Middle East, bombing more sites in Yemen and Lebanon over the weekend after carrying out a massive attack in the suburbs of Beirut on Friday that killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders of the militant group. Nasrallah led Hezbollah for more than three decades and was considered one of the most powerful figures in the region. Israel likely used U.S.-made 2,000-pound bombs in Friday's attack that leveled several high-rise apartment buildings, with a death toll estimated in the hundreds. U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both called Nasrallah's killing a measure of justice" while saying they were against further escalation of the war. The news really shocked all of Lebanon, both supporters and people who oppose him," says Associated Press reporter Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, who notes about 1 million people inside Lebanon are now displaced by the fighting. The airstrikes aren't stopping; they're continuing. And now people are anticipating a ground invasion."

Israel Kills Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah; Netanyahu Addresses U.N. Despite Growing Pariah Status, Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza Kill More Displaced Palestinians, Journalist Wafa al-Udaini, Israeli Attack on Yemen Kills at Least 4, Injures 29, This Must Be a Wake-up Call for Climate Justice": Hurricane Helene's Death Toll Nears 100, 200 People Killed in Monsoon Flooding in Nepal, Over 50 Refugees Believed to Be Dead in Canary Islands Shipwreck, A Catastrophe": Austria's Nazi-Created Freedom Party Wins Parliamentary Election, Ukraine Says Putin Waging War on Hospitals" as Conflict Grinds On, Egypt Refuses to Release Political Prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Extends 5-Year Sentence by 2 Years, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Ramp Up Anti-Immigration Threats on Campaign Trail, Gov. Newsom Vetoes Bill That Would Have Regulated Dangers of AI, Fire at Georgia's BioLab Plant Leads to Mass Evacuation, Shelter-in-Place Orders, U.K. Climate Activists Recreate Soup Attack on Van Gogh Painting After Sentencing of Original Protesters

We look at the smear campaign faced by the only Palestinian American in Congress and a vocal critic of Israel, Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib, after she defended the rights of student protesters. Tlaib recently criticized Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel over charges Nessel filed against 11 mostly students and alumni who were involved in a pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Michigan. Nessel then accused Tlaib of antisemitism despite the congressmember never mentioning Nessel's religion. Key media figures like CNN's Jake Tapper have parroted the claim that Tlaib said Nessel is biased because she is Jewish, despite the original article's author fact-checking the narrative. This is not at all what happened. She's talking about an anti-Palestinian bias," says Steve Neavling, an investigative reporter who first published Tlaib's comments in the Detroit Metro Times. It was a very unusual, surreal experience for me as a journalist to see so many lies being peddled about an interview that I witnessed." We also speak with Prem Thakker, a political correspondent for Zeteo News who has documented the smear campaign, about his efforts to get an update on the U.S. investigation into the killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza. I have not gotten an answer. It's been over 240 days."

We get an update from Lebanon, where the death toll from Israeli airstrikes has risen to over 700 since Monday, following a series of explosions involving pagers and walkie-talkies in Beirut and southern Lebanon last week. The Israeli military reiterated its troops were preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon if tensions continue to escalate. Multiple Israeli tanks and armored vehicles have appeared across Israel's northern border with Lebanon. As the Biden administration claims it's working toward a ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel is set to receive a new military aid package from the United States totaling some $8.7 billion. People are really scared," says Mona Fawaz, professor of urban planning at the American University of Beirut. Israel does these so-called targeted assassinations, which, sadly, much of the Western press has been celebrating, and they talk about Israelis' ingenuity. In fact, it's targeting everyone." Fawaz discusses the context for Lebanon's crisis, organizing to shelter and survive the bombing, and the Israeli messaging about evacuation orders and Hezbollah.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors announced they are charging New York City Mayor Eric Adams for a bribery and wire fraud scheme spanning nearly a decade. Adams allegedly accepted illegal campaign contributions from corporations and foreign donors, including the Turkish government. Adams is accused of manipulating regulators for the Turkish Consulate and not recognizing the Armenian genocide in exchange for campaign donations and lavish gifts. According to prosecutors, the mayor knew, accepted and actively sought illegal donations from foreign sources," says George Joseph, an investigative reporter for The Guardian. This is a generational-level scandal for New York City." The unsealed indictment is raising pressure on the mayor to resign. It is impossible for the mayor to perform his duties," says Zohran Mamdani, a New York state assemblymember, who may himself run for mayor. The same mayor who is now being alleged to have received over $100,000 in bribes was just last week praising New York police officers for opening fire on four New Yorkers at a subway station over the crime of stealing $2.90 of a subway fare."

Lebanon Calls for Int'l Community to Intervene as Israel's Attacks Kill 700+ in a Matter of Days, Israel Kills at Least 14 Palestinians in Another Attack on Gaza School Shelter, 100+ U.S. Lawmakers Demand Biden Admin Investigate Israel's Killing of U.S. Activist Ayenur Eygi, Cornell University Student Facing Deportation for Participating in Gaza Solidarity Protest, Acclaimed Author Jhumpa Lahiri Declines Noguchi Award over Museum's Keffiyeh Ban, No War Criminals in NYC": Activists Take Aim at Netanyahu Ahead of Contested UNGA Speech, Tuvalu Says Low-Lying Pacific Nations Must Retain Sovereignty in Face of Existential Climate Threat, Hurricane Helene Strikes Florida as Catastrophic" Category 4 Storm, A Significant Step Forward": Sunrise Movement Welcomes Kamala Harris's Climate Proposal, Federal Prosecutors Charge NYC Mayor Eric Adams with Bribery and Campaign Finance Crimes, Special Counsel Files Sealed Brief on Trump's Efforts to Overturn the 2020 Election, Sen. Ron Wyden Proposes Adding 6 Justices as Part of Sweeping Reforms to Supreme Court, Biden Signs Temporary Spending Bill to Avoid a Government Shutdown, Biden Signs Executive Order Seeking to Curb Gun Violence, Harris Pledges Unwavering" Support to Ukraine as White House Approves $8 Billion in Military Aid, Editors of Banned Hong Kong Newspaper Sentenced on Sedition Charges, Haitian Gangs Have Killed Over 3,600 in 2024, Warns U.N., Argentina's Poverty Rate Skyrockets After 6 Months of Javier Milei's Austerity Measures

We speak with Brett Murphy, the ProPublica reporter behind a blockbuster expose that revealed the Biden administration ignored warnings from its own experts about Israel blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza in order to keep supplying the country with weapons. USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the State Department's refugees bureau both concluded earlier this year that Israeli authorities routinely impeded delivery of food and medicine into the devastated Palestinian territory, where hunger, disease and displacement have wreaked havoc on the civilian population. Although U.S. law requires the government to stop arms shipments to countries that prevent the delivery of U.S.-backed aid, Secretary of State Antony Blinken ignored the findings and told Congress Israel was not restricting humanitarian assistance - helping to keep weapons flowing to the Israeli military to continue its assault on Gaza.

Israel is continuing its bombardment of Lebanon and preparing for a possible ground invasion of the country, with the Netanyahu government rejecting a proposed 21-day ceasefire put forward by the United States, France, Canada, Australia, Japan, Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. About 500,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced, and the Health Ministry reports at least 72 people were killed and nearly 400 wounded in Israeli attacks on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to over 620 in recent days. There is a lot of suffering. There is a lot of hardship right now," says Beirut-based journalist Lara Bitar, who details how Israel has repeatedly attacked and invaded Lebanese territory going back decades. The source of this pain can be pinpointed to the presence of the Israeli settler state in our region that continues to wreak havoc in Palestine, in Lebanon and across most of the world."

New York City Mayor Eric Adams faces mounting pressure to resign after becoming the city's first sitting mayor to be indicted on federal charges. The indictment remains sealed as of Thursday morning, but The New York Times reports the federal investigation has focused at least in part on whether Adams took illegal campaign donations from the Turkish government. Many of Adams's top aides are also facing federal investigations. New Yorkers deserve better. We need somebody who can take this job seriously, ... and he can no longer do that," says New City Councilmember Tiffany Caban, a Democratic Socialist and former public defender who first called on Adams to resign last week. We also speak with journalist Ross Barkan, who says the city is in uncharted waters" and predicts Adams will stay in office as long as he possibly can."

Israel Rejects Ceasefire Calls, Prepares for Possible Ground Invasion as Lebanon Death Toll Tops 620, Israel Is Violating Our Sovereignty": Lebanon's Prime Minister Pleads with UNSC to Do Its Job, One Year into Genocide, Palestinians in Gaza Warn Israel Is Poised to Subject Lebanon to Same Fate, Israel Dumps Truck with 88 Unidentified Palestinian Bodies in Gaza, Journalist Mujahed al-Saadi Arrested Amid Unprecedented Israeli Assault on West Bank Reporters, Sudan's Army Launches Offensive to Retake Khartoum from Rapid Support Forces, FBI Searches Gracie Mansion as NYC Mayor Eric Adams Faces Indictment for Corruption, MAGA Rep. Clay Higgins to Face Censure Vote for Racist Tweet About Haitians, Senate Passes Resolution Honoring 6-Year-Old Palestinian American Hate Crime Victim, Former U.N. Chief Endorses Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, Families Demand Justice for Mexican Students on 10th Anniversary of Ayotzinapa Disappearances, Thai King Signs Marriage Equality Bill into Law, It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive" Wins Emmy for Outstanding Hard News Feature

Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez has co-authored a major new report for the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago titled Fuerza Mexicana: The Past, Present, and Power of Mexicans in Chicagoland," which takes a deep look into Chicago's Mexican community. Constituting one-fifth of the city's population, Chicago's Mexican residents are significant contributors to the area's economy, but the workforce is disproportionately concentrated in some of the most dangerous, difficult, low-paying jobs. The character of the Chicago working class has dramatically changed and is heavily Mexican," says Gonzalez. He adds that Mexican migration saved Chicago" from the kind of post-industrial decline plaguing other cities like Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland.

Democracy Now! speaks with the Green Party's presidential ticket, Jill Stein and her running mate Butch Ware, after the Green Party suffered a setback Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined a request to put Stein on the ballot in Nevada. The Democratic Party had sued to keep Stein off the ballot for failing to submit the proper forms. In this campaign cycle, Democrats have fought to keep the Green Party off the ballot, while some Trump supporters, including a former Trump lawyer, have helped the Green Party obtain ballot access. They are terrified of actually meeting us in the court of public opinion and having a real debate about the crises the American people face and the real solutions that we alone have put on the table," says Stein. The American people are in crisis in virtually every dimension of our lives." Stein's third run for the presidency is receiving support in some areas over Vice President Kamala Harris's refusal to call for an arms embargo on Israel. The Council on American-Islamic Relations recently published a survey that showed Stein is leading Harris among Muslim voters in three battleground states: Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin. This effort to try to pin an inevitable defeat of the Democrats upon third parties or upon Muslims is at best disingenuous," says Ware, a Muslim historian and professor. Every effort to protect Team Blue, to protect the Democrats from facing accountability for the evil that their own hands have wrought is equally evil."

The Israeli military is reportedly preparing to invade Lebanon while continuing to launch extensive airstrikes across the country, forcing tens of thousands to flee. Lebanon's Health Ministry reports the death toll has reached at least 569 people, with more than 1,800 wounded. Israeli strikes have killed United Nations employees, medical workers, at least one journalist and 50 children over the past two days. Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets at Israel, including a long-range missile fired toward Tel Aviv that was intercepted by Israeli air defense systems. Lebanese civilians are paying the price," says Aya Majzoub in Beirut, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, who calls Israel's attacks unprecedented" and devastating." In a single day, on Monday, more than 500 people were killed. ... It is one of the highest daily death tolls in recent global wars."

Thousands Flee as Israel Continues Assault on Southern Lebanon, U.N. Staffers and Journalist Among Those Killed by Israeli Strikes on Lebanon, Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 53 Palestinians, Including a Mother and Her Five Children, World Leaders Gathered at U.N. General Assembly Condemn Israel's Assaults on Gaza, Lebanon, Kharkiv Apartment Block Leveled by Russian Strike; U.S. to Send More Cluster Bombs to Ukraine, Haitian Group Brings Criminal Charges Against Trump, Vance over False Pet-Eating Claims in Ohio, Sen. Joe Manchin Won't Endorse Kamala Harris for President, NYC Schools Chancellor Quits as FBI Corruption Probe Targets Mayor Eric Adams's Administration, Missouri Executes Marcellus Williams Despite Evidence of Wrongful Conviction, Texas Lawmakers Want Clemency for Father Condemned to Death over Junk Science" Conviction

The state of Missouri is set to kill Marcellus Williams tonight. Williams has always maintained his innocence in the 1998 killing of St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle during a robbery. The jurors, prosecutors and victim's family are all supporting Williams's bid for clemency, which has been denied by Missouri's Republican governor and state Supreme Court. What we see is a system that's looking at finality over fairness, rushing to get to an execution date instead of taking the time to stop this execution and look at the merits of what is being argued," says Williams's attorney and the executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, who is now seeking a last-minute reprieve and reassessment of the case from the U.S. Supreme Court.

As New York City's Climate Week begins, we speak to environmental justice activist Kumi Naidoo, the former head of Greenpeace International and Amnesty International and now the president of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, about his work to end the use of fossil fuels, the leading driver of climate change. Naidoo calls for urgency and the fastest withdrawal" from the world's dependence on fossil fuel companies, slamming the arrogance," control" and impunity" of their profit-maximizing CEOs. Naidoo is from South Africa, which brought the genocide case against Israel to the International Criminal Court, and he has joined other climate activists in linking the climate justice and antiwar movements. We have to recognize many of the struggles we face are very intersecting and very connected."

As the United Nations General Assembly meets in New York City alongside Climate Week, dozens of activists were arrested Monday at a protest outside of Citibank's global headquarters while demanding the company divest from fossil fuels. Democracy Now! spoke to many activists from the Gulf South about the impact of Citibank-funded projects in their communities. I'm not even a teenager yet, and I have to fight for my life and many others my age," says 12-year-old Kamea Ozane from Southwest Louisiana. I shouldn't have to do this. This is not right."

Israel's massive aerial bombardment of Lebanon killed at least 558 people on Monday in what is the highest single-day death toll in Lebanon in nearly two decades. Thousands more have been injured in strikes that targeted hospitals, medical centers and ambulances, while tens of thousands of civilians have been forced from their homes. It has been havoc," says Michelle Eid, editor-in-chief of Al Rawiya, in Beirut, describing attempts by family members to flee the attacks in the south. The speed with which this has happened has been incredibly shocking," says Lebanese writer and translator Lina Mounzer. Once Lebanon goes up in flames, it's also very likely that the entire region goes up in flames."

Israel Vows to Ramp Up Its Assault on Lebanon After Killing 558+ People in One Day, They're Being Killed in Schools as They Seek Shelter": U.N. Decries Israel's War on Gaza's Children, Biden Admin Kept Arming Genocide After State Dept., USAID Found Israel Blocked Gaza Aid Delivery, Prosecutors to Charge Trump's Would-Be Shooter with Attempted Assassination, Missouri Set to Execute Marcellus Williams Tonight, Activists Disrupt Biden Adviser at Climate Week Event, Greta Thunberg Joins Palestinian Call to Boycott Chevron, Climate Activists Demand Kamala Harris Present a Plan to Combat the Climate Crisis, California Sues ExxonMobil for Lying About Recyclability of Plastics, Biden Designates United Arab Emirates a Major Defense Partner", France Sends Banned Riot Police to Martinique, Refugee Boat with Remains of 30 People Recovered Off Senegalese Coast

With just weeks to go before the November 5 presidential vote, the pro-Trump majority on Georgia's State Election Board voted 3-2 on Friday to require ballots to be hand-counted, potentially delaying results and sowing chaos on election night in the swing state. Voting rights advocates say hand-counting ballots is more time-consuming and could also introduce errors compared to the use of standard voting machines. This adds, at really the 11th hour, another layer of confusion," says election law attorney Sara Tindall Ghazal, the lone Democrat on the Georgia State Election Board. The counties are being set up for failure, but to me one of the most troubling aspects of this whole thing is we were told by our attorneys ... that we don't have the legal authorities to even do this." Donald Trump lost Georgia to Joe Biden in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes, and he continues to falsely claim the election was marred by fraud. We also speak with Mother Jones voting rights correspondent Ari Berman, who says the Georgia rules change is part of a wider Republican campaign to rig the voting rules to benefit their side in a really unprecedented way." Jones also discusses how Trump allies in Nebraska are ramping up efforts to change the state's Electoral College process to grant all votes to the statewide winner.

Israel stepped up its censorship of Al Jazeera on Sunday as soldiers raided the Qatar-based news network's Ramallah offices in the occupied West Bank and ordered a 45-day closure of the bureau. This comes after the Netanyahu government banned the network inside of Israel in May under a new media law giving authorities broad power to censor foreign outlets deemed to be security threats. It was a show of force, a show of intimidation to show journalists around the globe that what's happening in Gaza and the West Bank isn't allowed to be reported," Al Jazeera managing editor Mohamed Moawad tells Democracy Now! Israeli forces have killed as many as 160 journalists in Gaza over the last year, including several who work for Al Jazeera. In 2022, an Israeli sniper killed the network's acclaimed Palestinian American correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank.

Israel attacked more than 300 sites in Lebanon Monday, killing at least 182 people and injuring more than 700 others as fears grow of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. The Israeli military also ordered residents of southern Lebanon to leave their homes if they live near any site used by the militant group. At the heart of this is an attempt to manufacture consent and try to portray most southern Lebanese as Hezbolloh operatives," says Sintia Issa, editor-at-large at the Beirut-based media organization The Public Source. We also speak with Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon volunteering at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, where he has been treating victims of last week's device explosions that injured thousands of people. He describes the disfiguring injuries from Israel's booby-trapping of pagers and walkie-talkies, calling it an act of mass mutilation."

Massive Israeli Airstrikes in Lebanon Kill Over 180 People, Injure 700+, Ex-CIA Director: Israel's Deadly Pager Attacks in Lebanon Was Act of Terrorism", Israeli Attacks Continue on Gaza's Schools, Killing Displaced Palestinian Children Seeking Shelter, Israel Raids and Shuts Down Al Jazeera Ramallah Office Amid Intensifying West Bank Attacks, Leftist Anura Kumara Dissanayake Wins Sri Lanka's Presidential Election, Voting Rights Advocates Sound Alarm After Georgia GOP Imposes Ballot Hand-Counting Rule, Trump Stays Mum on His Pick for North Carolina Gov., Self-Described Black Nazi" Mark Robinson, SCOTUS Rules Against Including Green Party Candidate Jill Stein on Nevada's Ballot, Heavy Fighting in Sudan's El Fasher Leads to Fears of Greater Regional Violence, Conflicts Are Multiplying": U.N. Chief Warns of World at War as General Assembly Kicks Off, Biden Hosts Final Quad Summit of His Presidency, Global Climate Strike Demands Justice, an End to Fossil Fuels as Climate Week Kicks Off, South Carolina Executes Freddie Eugene Owens in State's First Execution in 13 Years, Three Mile Island to Reopen as Power Supplier for Microsoft AI

The Secret Service recently announced the next electoral count after the November election is scheduled for January 6, 2025, and this time the event will be classified under the same security level as the inauguration itself. The move follows a request by Washington, D.C.'s mayor and a recommendation by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. This comes as former President Donald Trump dodged a question during last week's debate with Kamala Harris about his January 6 actions and refused to acknowledge his 2020 loss. For more, we speak with the director of the new documentary Homegrown, in which he embeds with three Trump supporters in the run-up to the 2020 election and, later, the January 6 insurrection, including members of the far-right Proud Boys. Director Michael Premo warns radicalized Trump supporters continue to threaten violence and upheaval during the current election cycle. If this was a foreign country, the State Department would issue travel advisories for this fall. So I'm very concerned with the height of violent rhetoric that only seems to have gotten worse."

The U.S. presidential election is just 45 days away, and for antiwar voters, the policy differences between the two leading candidates are vanishingly thin. As the Biden-Harris administration continues to supply billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, the Uncommitted National Movement, which for months has attempted to steer the Democratic Party toward a more critical stance on Israel, has announced it is not endorsing Kamala Harris. Neither does the organization recommend casting a third-party vote, citing the risk of splitting the two-party vote and ushering in a second term for Donald Trump. We were not met in good faith with our policy demands," says the Uncommitted National Movement's co-founder Lexis Zeidan about its attempts to parley with the Harris campaign. Zeidan says the organization will continue to pressure Democrats from within and outside of the party. What we're asking is not outrageous."

Right after we broadcast, Israel carried out targeted strikes" in Beirut as it appears to be preparing for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon as an expansion of its war on Gaza.Following deadly Israeli attacks that blew up walkie-talkies and pagers across Lebanon this week, killing at least 37 people and wounding around 3,000, Israeli officials have pledged to ramp up their campaign against Hezbollah. Hezbollah characterized the devastating pager explosions as a declaration of war." In Beirut, we hear from journalist Rania Abouzeid about the aftereffects of the attack and the prospects of war on the Lebanese front. There is certainly a sense of heightened anxiety as people wonder what else, what other devices in their vicinity, may explode," she says.

Hezbollah Leader Says Israel Has Crossed All Red Lines" as Israel Escalates War with Lebanon, Video Shows Israeli Soldiers Pushing Bodies of Palestinians They Killed Off West Bank Roof, U.N. Panel Accuses Israel of Unprecedented Violations of Children's Rights in War on Palestine, Students Across U.S. Continue to Protest Universities' Complicity in War on Gaza, Trump Says Jewish Voters Will Be to Blame If He Loses November's Election, CNN: North Carolina GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Praised Slavery, Declared Himself a Black Nazi", Ex-CIA Officer Sentenced to 30 Years for Serial Sexual Assault, Harvey Weinstein Pleads Not Guilty to New York Sex Crime Charge, Billionaire Harrods Owner Mohamed al-Fayed Accused of Sexual Assault, Rape, Horror and Outrage as France Hears Case of Serial Rape Survivor Gisele Pelicot, WMO Issues Dire Warning on Climate as Floods Displace Millions in West and Central Africa, Jury Sees Video of Memphis Cops Failing to Render Aid After Brutally Beating Tyre Nichols, DOJ Launches Civil Rights Probe of White Mississippi Officers Who Tortured Black Men, Kentucky Sheriff Charged with Murdering District Judge After Courthouse Argument, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Tina Smith Unveil Homes Act to Create Social Housing Authority

The United Nations is warning about widespread human rights abuses in Burma as the military regime intensifies the killings and arbitrary arrests of tens of thousands of civilians since seizing power in a coup over three years ago. A new report from the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says many of those detained by the Burmese military are children taken from their parents, with dozens of minors dying in custody. What it paints is an extremely disturbing picture of Burma descending into this human rights abyss. If you're living there, it's a complete living hell," says Burmese scholar, dissident and human rights activist Maung Zarni. He also discusses his recent visit with faith leaders to the West Bank and the border of Gaza, drawing parallels between Burma's and Israel's human rights abuses. Israel has taken the practices and policies of genocide to a whole new level," says Zarni.

We speak with Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, after she faced racist and hostile questioning from Republicans at Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, including Senator John Kennedy, who told Berry, You should hide your head in a bag." The experience illustrated the very problem of dehumanization the hearing was meant to address, Berry says: That kind of bigotry and hatred is difficult to hear from anyone, but to actually experience it at a hate crime hearing from a sitting member of this institution was pretty extraordinary." We also speak with Democratic Congressmember Delia Ramirez of Illinois, who has introduced a resolution to honor 6-year-old Wadea al-Fayoume, a Palestinian American boy stabbed to death in a Chicago suburb last October in an anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian attack. His horrible bigotry and hate have real consequences in the Arab community and the Palestinian community, in other communities, and it makes us all less safe," Ramirez says of Kennedy.

We get an update from Beirut, after at least 20 people were killed and 450 others wounded in Lebanon on Wednesday when walkie-talkie radios across the country exploded without warning, the second day of an apparent Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah members by booby-trapping handheld communication devices. A day earlier, at least 12 people were killed and thousands more left with gruesome injuries when pagers began exploding across the country. Lebanon has banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all flights, while Lebanese citizens say they now live in fear that everyday household electronics could suddenly explode. Among those killed in the attacks are children, medics and other civilians. This has been widely reported in the Western press as a sophisticated campaign that targeted alleged Hezbollah operatives, but the reality is that, for the most part, these explosions were occuring in civilian areas," says journalist Lara Bitar, editor-in-chief of the Beirut-based independent media organization The Public Source. Bitar warns that Israel's terrorist attacks" could be a prelude to a larger assault. The Israeli government has already taken a decision to escalate, to wage full-scale war on all of Lebanon."

At Least 25 Killed in Walkie-Talkie Explosions in Lebanon, One Day After Pager Attack Kills 12, Evidence in Pager Explosion Points to Israel as U.N. Warns Against Weaponizing Civilian Objects, Israel Declares War Is Moving Toward Lebanon Border as It Continues Deadly Attacks in Gaza, Third Doctor from Gaza Dies in Israeli Custody After He Was Abducted in Hospital Raid, U.N. General Assembly Adopts Resolution Calling on Israel to End Illegal Occupation of Palestine, We Must End Our Complicity": Sanders Unveils Resolution to Block $20B in Arms Sales to Israel, Teamsters Not Endorsing a Presidential Candidate as Harris Receives Backing of 100+ Ex-GOP Officials, House Rejects Stopgap Funding Bill That Included Voter Suppression Measure, Kamala Harris Warns of Mass Deportations If Trump Reelected, Fed Cuts Interest Rates; Child Poverty Skyrockets After Congress Fails to Renew Child Tax Credit, Tunisia's Authoritarian Leader Cracks Down on Opposition Ahead of Elections, Malian Army Repels Attacks on Bamako by al-Qaeda-Affiliated Fighters, Protesters Take to NYC Streets After NYPD Officer Shoots 4 People at Subway Station

At least two women in Georgia have died since the state's six-week abortion ban went into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Candi Miller and Amber Thurman, both Black women and mothers to young children, died after they were unable to access care for rare but typically treatable complications caused by medication abortion. We hear more from ProPublica editor Ziva Branstetter, whose publication reported on the preventable deaths of Miller and Thurman, and from reproductive justice advocate Monica Simpson. We are in a maternal healthcare crisis in our state," says Simpson, the executive director of SisterSong, an organization that works throughout the southern United States on behalf of communities of color, which disproportionately suffer the impacts of restrictions on abortion care.

At least 12 people were killed and over 2,800 people were injured Tuesday in Lebanon when electronic pagers used by many members of Hezbollah - who had switched to the older technology over concerns of mobile phones' vulnerability to security breaches - exploded simultaneously across the country in a coordinated attack on the group. Individual explosions occurred in supermarkets, cafes, houses and in other public places. Many of the injuries were sustained by civilians who were not carrying the pagers themselves, including at least two children who died from their wounds. According to a Reuters report, Israel's Mossad spy agency had managed to plant explosive material in a batch of pagers bought in recent months by Hezbollah, which has vowed to retaliate, deepening the risks of a broader regional war. We discuss the attack with three guests: Beirut-based journalist Mohamad Kleit, Human Rights Watch's Ramzi Kaiss and Palestinian American journalist Rami Khouri. Kaiss says the indiscriminate attack" on the Lebanese population - which Kleit additionally describes as terrorist" - is unlawful under the rules of war." What the Israeli attack using the pagers did was completely throw out the rulebook," says Khouri, as eyes are on the region in preparation for another possible Israeli escalation.

12 Killed, 3,000 Wounded as Israel Triggers Explosives Planted in Pagers Used by Hezbollah, State Dept. Denies Advance Knowledge of Pager Plot; Kamala Harris Defends U.S. Arms to Israel, 8 Killed as Israel Bombs School Housing Displaced Palestinians in Gaza, Burma's Military Junta Is Committing Massive Human Rights Abuses, Warns U.N., Georgian Parliament Approves Law Criminalizing LGBTQIA Groups, GOP Senators Block Bill to Protect Access to In Vitro Fertilization, At Least Two Women Die After Delayed Access to Reproductive Care in Georgia, Pipeline Explosion in Houston Suburb Forces Hundreds to Evacuate Homes, Sean Diddy" Combs Denied Bail After Pleading Not Guilty to Racketeering, Sex Trafficking, Atlanta Prosecutors Drop Money Laundering Charges for Cop City Bail Fund Activists, Hide Your Head in a Bag": GOP Senator Insults Arab American Witness at Hate Crimes Hearing

We speak with filmmaker Pamala Yates about her new documentary, Borderland: The Line Within, which explores the human impact of restrictive U.S. immigration policies and border militarization. The film tells the stories of asylum seekers fleeing violence in their home countries, activists fighting to protect the rights of undocumented immigrants, and others caught up in what Yates calls the border-industrial complex, the billions of dollars of our tax money that is being spent to capture, incarcerate and deport immigrants." She says the immigrants shown in the film are not victims but leaders" who are building strength in immigrant communities." We also speak with Gabriela Castaneda, an immigrant rights organizer with the Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania, or MILPA, whose work is featured in the documentary. She faults both Republicans and Democrats for promoting anti-immigrant policies instead of using those same resources to improve the country. What's happening right now is that the immigrants are used as scapegoats. We are blamed for all the problems in the United States," she says. Borderland continues the work of Yates over four decades and her past films, When the Mountains Tremble, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator and 500 Years: Life in Resistance.

We speak with Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley, author of the new book Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, which examines the global rise of authoritarianism in the United States, Russia, Israel and beyond. He says attacks on education are a key part of the fascist toolkit to undermine democracy and pluralism. They're attacking the institutions, the universities, because the universities provide critical inquiry into the kind of myths that's required for these kinds of politics," says Stanley.

Top United Nations human rights experts have condemned Western nations for supporting Israel's devastating war on Gaza, urging the world to stop an unfolding genocide in Palestine. This comes as the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, is accusing Israel in a new report of carrying out a deliberate starvation campaign in Gaza. What we are witnessing in Gaza is the starvation of 2.3 million Palestinians. We've never seen a civilian population made to go hungry so quickly and so completely," says Fakhri, who joins us from Brazil. We also speak with Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, who says Israel's assault on Gaza is part of a larger plan of getting as much control as possible over maximum land with minimum Palestinian people."

Netanyahu Expands War Aims to Include Return of Israelis Displaced by Fighting with Lebanon, Israeli Assaults Have Killed 11,000 Students, Says Palestinian Education Ministry, U.N. Special Rapporteur Blasts Western Nations for Supporting Israel's Assault on Gaza, Trump and JD Vance Blame Democrats' Rhetoric for Inspiring Assassination Attempts, Prosecutors Allege Gunman Spent 12 Hours Lying in Wait to Attempt Trump Assassination, Ohio Orders Daily Bomb Sweeps in Springfield Schools Amid Right-Wing Attack on Haitian Community, Putin Boosts Active-Duty Troops, Warns NATO over Ukraine's Long-Range Attacks, Taliban Suspends U.N.-Led Polio Vaccination Campaign, Man Sets Himself on Fire Near Boston's Israeli Consulate to Protest Gaza Genocide, NYPD Officer Shoots and Hospitalizes Four People over Subway Fare Evasion, Give People a Choice": Atlantans Disrupt City Council Meeting to Demand Referendum on Cop City

As Israeli forces launch repeated attacks on civilian areas in Gaza, expand their deadly incursion into the West Bank and threaten retaliation for strikes by Hezbollah and Houthis, we discuss ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas with Palestinian writer Amjad Iraqi and former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy. Despite apparent divisions among Israeli leadership over the terms of an acceptable deal - if such a deal even exists - all of the Israeli proposals are united by an assumption that Israel is going to be maintaining overarching control of the Gaza Strip," says Iraqi. Meanwhile, in the United States, what Levy calls the Biden administration's slavish devotion to running cover" for Israel's genocidal assault is threatening the Democratic Party's attempt to hold onto executive power after the upcoming presidential election.

As Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance continue to spread debunked, racist lies that Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people's pets, we speak with Guerline Jozef from the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an immigrant advocacy group, about threats of violence that have forced closures and evacuations at hospitals, colleges and City Hall in Springfield, with some threats citing anger over the city's resettlement of Haitian immigrants. This comes as Trump continues to promise mass deportations if he is reelected, starting in Springfield, even though the Haitians there were welcomed under the Temporary Protected Status program.

Suspect in Custody After Another Apparent Assassination Attempt Against Trump, Bided Admin OKs More Weapons for Israel as Death Toll of Gaza Genocide Tops 41,200, Israeli Sniper Kills UNRWA Employee in Occupied West Bank, Houthi-Launched Missile Strikes Central Israel, No Casualties Reported, Biden and Harris Have Not Contacted the Family of Ayenur Ezgi Eygi, the U.S. Citizen Killed by Israel, Ohio's Haitian Community Under Attack as Trump and JD Vance Spew More Racist Lies, Congolese Court Sentences 37 People to Death over Plot to Overthrow President, At Least 8 Refugees Died While Attempting to Cross English Channel, Outspoken Honduran Land and Water Defender Juan Lopez Is Killed, Venezuela Arrests 6 Foreigners, Incl. 3 U.S. Citizens, in Alleged Presidential Assassination Plot, Mexico Court Overhaul Goes into Effect Despite Judicial Uproar, August 2024 Was Hottest Ever as Typhoon Yagi Kills 400 Across Asia, European Flooding Wreaks Havoc, Mayor Eric Adams's Chief Legal Adviser Resigns, Paramedic Who Injected Elijah McClain with Deadly Dose of Ketamine Is Released Early from Prison

We speak with V, the playwright formerly known as Eve Ensler, about How We Do Freedom: Rising Against Fascism," a daylong educational event to be held at New York City's Judson Memorial Church on Saturday. V is the founder of the global activist movements V-Day and One Billion Rising that is organizing the event. The rise of fascism, from India to Italy, from Afghanistan to U.S., [is] the most pressing concern everywhere," says V, who ties the crisis to growing loneliness and isolation. One of the antidotes to fascism we know is community, is solidarity, is coming together, is talking, is being part of something that is bigger than yourself."

A federal jury in Florida has found members of the pan-Africanist group African People's Socialist Party guilty of conspiring with the Russian government to sow discord" and interfere" in U.S. elections. They face up to five years in federal prison. In a major victory for the activists, however, the jury acquitted them of the more serious charge of acting as foreign agents. The trial of the Uhuru Three is proving to be one of the most important First Amendment cases thus far in the 21st century," says attorney Jenipher Jones, who is on the legal support committee for defendants. It remains clear that when covert government repression tactics fail against activists, the government will use the overt means of charges and cages against folks that they simply disagree with."

Supporters of Leonard Peltier are calling on President Biden to grant clemency to the Indigenous leader and activist, who marked his 80th birthday behind bars on Thursday after nearly a half-century in prison for a crime he says he did not commit. The ailing Peltier, who uses a walker and has serious health conditions, including diabetes, has always maintained his innocence over the 1975 killing of two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation. His conviction was riddled with irregularities and prosecutorial misconduct, and he is considered to be the longest-serving political prisoner in the United States. For much of the last four years, Peltier has been held under near-total lockdown. For more on Peltier and the campaign to free him, we speak with Nick Tilsen, president of the NDN Collective, and two attorneys on Peltier's legal defense team, Jenipher Jones and Moira Meltzer-Cohen.