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Microsoft fired two workers who protested the company's ties to Israel's assault on Gaza at its 50th anniversary celebration last Friday. The workers protested after leaked documents revealed that Microsoft supplies the Israeli military with AI and cloud technology, as well as an Air Force unit known as the Ofek, to build kill lists." We wanted everyone to know that Microsoft's cloud and AI are the bombs and bullets of the 21st century," says Vaniya Agrawal, No Azure for Apartheid organizer and a former Microsoft employee who was fired after disrupting an April 4 discussion between current and former Microsoft CEOs, including Bill Gates.

A lawyer who represents a pro-Palestinian student protester in Michigan was detained Sunday at the Detroit Metro Airport on his way back from a family vacation. Dearborn attorney Amir Makled was separated from his wife and children and asked to surrender his cellphone by Border Patrol agents. This wasn't something that was random," says Makled. They had a whole profile about me." He was eventually released after 90 minutes of questioning and refusing to provide sensitive client information to the agents. Makled believes he was targeted due to his involvement in cases that challenge the current administration of President Donald Trump.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate" the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States, after the Maryland resident was denied due process rights and deported to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. But the court remains vague on how exactly this would happen, and the Trump administration has claimed it has no way of ensuring his safe return. Elsewhere, a federal immigration judge in Louisiana is set to rule today on whether the Trump administration has grounds to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States who was involved in a campus protest at Columbia University. Ahead of today's ruling, Secretary of State Marco Rubio filed a short memo that concedes Khalil has no criminal history, and argues he should be deported as part of U.S. efforts to combat antisemitism. We speak to attorney Ramzi Kassem, who is part of Khalil's legal team, about the cases of Abrego Garcia and Khalil. Kassem says the Supreme Court decision on Abrego Garcia's case is a step in the right direction and will hopefully lead to his return home."

China Hikes Up Tariffs Against U.S. to 125% Amid Escalating Trade War, Democrats to Investigate Trump Allies for Insider Trading over Tariffs, SCOTUS Orders Trump Admin to Return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to U.S. from El Salvador's CECOT Prison, Avelo Airlines Faces Protests, Boycotts After Agreeing to Use Planes for Deportations, U.S. Admits It's Seeking to Deport Mahmoud Khalil for His Beliefs Ahead of Key Ruling, Israel Kills More Palestinians in Gaza, Including Children, as It Presses Ahead with Rafah Seizure, Ahmad Manasra, Jailed by Israel When He Was 13, Freed After Decade Behind Bars, Activists Protest Travis Air Base; Greenpeace UK Activists Dye U.S. Embassy Pond Blood Red, Sudan Tells World Court the UAE Is Abetting Genocide as Civil War Nears 2nd Anniversary, Ukraine's Allies Gather to Rally Military Support for Kyiv Amid Stalled Ceasefire, House GOP Passes Voter ID Bill That Critics Say Would Disenfranchise Millions, Guilty of Treason": Trump Orders DOJ Probe into Two Former Officials Who Criticized Him, Democrats Attempt to Push Elon Musk Out of Trump Administration by May 30, House GOP Passes Budget Bill to Slash Federal Spending and Taxes on the Wealthy, Death Toll in Dominican Republic Nightclub Disaster Rises to 221, New Zealand Lawmakers Reject Bill to Roll Back Mori Rights

Columbia University professor Marianne Hirsch's new article in The Forward is titled I grew up under a terrifying authoritarian regime. Mahmoud Khalil's arrest is right out of their playbook." She tells Democracy Now! that seeing footage of the ICE arrests of Khalil and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk brought back these feelings of terror that I had as a child." Hirsch grew up in Romania under the authoritarian regime of Nicolae Ceauescu and says she sees parallels between the climate of fear she was raised in and the repression of speech and protest on campuses today. Hirsch, who is Jewish, condemns the anticipatory capitulation" of universities, like Columbia, to the Trump administration's threats to pull funding and says the reason for this was never to fight antisemitism, but it was to decimate academia."

As the U.S. and Iran prepare for talks this weekend in Oman to discuss Iran's nuclear weapons program, we speak to journalist Negar Mortazavi about the Trump administration's negotiation strategy of threats and pressure" and his diplomatic doctrine of peace through strength." Mortazavi is skeptical that the talks will result in Iran giving up its nuclear weapons program, as Trump's team is demanding, and comments on the impacts of severe sanctions on Iran, which have devastated the country's fragile economy.

President Trump has announced a 90-day pause on new tariffs for most countries and a steep increase to tariffs on China. The 125% tariff rate on China comes after China retaliated in an escalating trade war between the two largest economies in the world. For most other countries, a 10% tariff remains in place, but higher tariffs were paused just hours after they went into effect, causing global stock markets to shoot back up after a historic plunge. We speak with two economists, Nancy Qian and Joseph Stiglitz, about the chaos" of the week since Trump's initial unveiling of his tariff plan on April 2, which he termed Liberation Day." There is no economic theory behind what he is doing," says Stiglitz. He calls Trump a schoolyard bully" who is upending international markets based on a flawed understanding of the role of trade deficits and the feasibility of reintroducing manufacturing to the U.S. economy. We've just never seen anything like this before," says Qian, who adds that China appears to be digging in for the long, drawn-out trade war that Trump has now ignited.

Trump's Trade U-Turn Lowers Tariffs to 10% for Most Countries, Hikes Them to 125% for China, Israel Kills at Least 35 People in Shuja'iyya Attack as Israeli Forces Prepare to Seize Rafah, Deepening Hunger in Gaza as Israel's Illegal Blockade Stretches Through Sixth Week, U.S. Senate Confirms Christian Zionist Mike Huckabee as Israel Ambassador, U.S. Continues Air Attacks on Yemen, Killing at Least 16 People Since Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Levies New Sanctions Against Iran Ahead of Nuclear Negotiations, DOGE Reverses Death Sentence" Aid Cuts for Several Nations, But Not Yemen or Afghanistan, 8 People Died in South Sudan While Forced to Walk 3 Hours for Care After U.S. Aid Cuts, Federal Judges Temporarily Block Deportations of Some Immigrants Under 1798 Wartime Law, USCIS to Screen Immigrants' Social Media Sites for So-Called Antisemitic Activity, Germany's Christian Democratic Union Forms Governing Coalition with Social Democrats, Children and Babies Suffer Malnutrition in Greek Refugee Camp, Mexican President Rejects Potential U.S. Drone Strikes on Drug Cartels, House Speaker Johnson Delays Vote on Budget Framework Amid Far-Right Revolt, Trump Orders DOJ to Block States from Enforcing Climate Laws, Trump Executive Orders Seek to Boost U.S. Coal Production and Consumption

As federal agencies face crippling cuts and are forced to cut essential services, President Trump has announced he will seek a $1 trillion budget for the Pentagon, a record-setting number that would mark the highest level of U.S. defense spending since World War II. William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, blasts the promised budget as completely unnecessary" and says that almost the only beneficiaries are going to be the weapons manufacturers." Hartung also discusses the growing political influence of Silicon Valley defense technology startups, including Alex Karp's Palantir and Elon Musk's SpaceX.

An immigration judge has announced she could rule as early as Friday on whether the Trump administration can continue to detain Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student protest leader incarcerated at an immigrant detention center in Louisiana. Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States, was seized by federal agents on March 8 and told his green card had been revoked. His case comes as many legal scholars say the country is facing a constitutional crisis on a number of fronts - from the Trump administration's threats to ignore judicial decisions, to its targeting of law firms, to its use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to expel Venezuelan immigrants without due process. Trump is trying to neutralize the opposition," says David Cole, professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and former ACLU national legal director. He wants to violate the law with impunity."

Stock Markets Plummet as President Trump's Sweeping Tariffs Take Effect, Israeli Strikes on Gaza City Residences Kill Dozens, with Scores Trapped Under Rubble, Autopsy Shows 17-Year-Old Palestinian Starved to Death in Israeli Prison, Family Demands U.S. Probe into Israel's Killing of 14-Year-Old Palestinian American, A Death Sentence for Millions": WFP Asks Trump to Reverse Cuts to Emergency Food Aid, Trump Cancels Deportation Relief for 900,000 Immigrants, IRS Acting Administrator Quits over Agreement to Share Immigrants' Tax Data with ICE, New York Mayor Eric Adams Orders Rikers Jail to Reopen ICE Office, Judge Sets Deadline for Evidence in Mahmoud Khalil Deportation Case, Judge To Consider Release of Tufts University Student Rumeysa Ozturk, Video Shows Masked Federal Agents Ambushing Georgetown Professor Badar Khan Suri, Trump Administration Freezes Nearly $2 Billion in Funding to Northwestern, Cornell Universities, Panamanians March in Protest as Hegseth Promises to Take Back" the Panama Canal, Russian Drones Strike Dnipro and Kharkiv as Ukraine Prepares to Negotiate Minerals Deal with U.S., Supreme Court Will Allow Trump Administration to Fire 16,000 Probationary Workers, Elon Musk Mocks Peter Navarro as Fractures Open Within Trump Administration over Tariffs, Federal Judge Orders White House to Restore Access to AP, Citing First Amendment

There has been a systemic erasure of Black history." Professor Christina Greer discusses the Trump administration's crackdown on free speech and efforts to whitewash American history. The erasure of the history of racism and resistance is not only intellectually dishonest, says Greer, but will also cause the U.S. economic and social harm. We can't move forward as a nation collectively ... if we don't understand our collective past," she says.

The Supreme Court has paused a lower court order that instructed the Trump administration to immediately bring back a U.S. legal resident who was mistakenly" sent to El Salvador, giving the court more time to deliberate on the case. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was expelled from the U.S. on March 15 despite holding protected status, will continue to languish under dangerous conditions in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison. The Trump administration claims it's powerless to bring him back to his family in Maryland. They have dug in their heels at every step of the way," says Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, about the government's defense. It's ridiculous that this case is at the Supreme Court at all."Behind Abrego Garcia's ICE arrest and removal is Trump's invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority last deployed during World War II. In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court has approved of the Trump administration's removals of Venezuelan immigrants, but said that those targeted must be given an opportunity to challenge their removal. So far, immigrants expelled to El Salvador have been largely denied their legal rights and detained without clear evidence. They are then incarcerated in the country's mega-prisons," where rights abuses have flourished under El Salvador's state of exception." These conditions constitute, under international law, forced disappearances," says Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal, a human rights organization in Central America.

As workers brace for uncertainty and fallout from Trump's tariffs, we hear from two autoworkers, one in Mexico and one in the United States. Israel Cervantes, founder of the National Independent Union for Workers in the Automotive Industry in Mexico, calls for unions across North America to unite against the tariffs, which have already led to layoffs from auto manufacturers. In the U.S., autoworker and UAW member Sean Crawford joins Democracy Now! on his work break to respond to the rhetoric and impact of the tariffs. They are always harping on foreigners, foreigners, foreigners. But what about the capitalists?" says Crawford, who urges international solidarity against corporations' attempts to sow division among exploited workers. This nationalistic viewpoint has not been working for us and has resulted in a lot of these layoffs," he says. I want to see us grow together as a working class."

Trump Hosts Netanyahu at White House, Reiterates Plan to Expel Palestinians from Gaza, Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 58 Palestinians in a Day, Including Journalist Ahmed Mansour, Palestinian Red Crescent Calls for Independent Probe into Killing of 15 Paramedics, Not in Our Name": Protesters Decry U.S.-Backed Assault on Gaza, Microsoft Fires Two Employees Who Protested Use of AI by Israeli Military, Supreme Court Allows Trump to Continue Using Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to Deport Immigrants, ICE Releases Mother and Three Children Jailed After Raid on New York Dairy Farm, Dominican Republic Hardens Border with Haiti as Asylum Seekers Flee Gang Violence, Trump Threatens to Hike Tariffs on Beijing to 104% as Tit-for-Tat Trade War Escalates, Appeals Court Reinstates Two Labor Officials Fired by Trump, DOJ Is Not a Personal Favor Bank for the President": Fired Employee Speaks Out Despite Intimidation

Global stocks continue to fall, and fears of a recession are growing, after Donald Trump rejected calls to scale back his order to institute sweeping tariffs on most of the world. The move will be especially perilous for small, heavily indebted countries in the Global South who face punitive tariffs, including rates of 49% for Cambodia, 37% for Bangladesh and 48% for Laos. What is really striking is not the sheer stupidity of it ... but the wanton cruelty of it," says Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

An estimated 1 million protested across the United States and around the world Saturday to tell President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk Hands Off!" They rallied in opposition to the Trump administration's dismantling of federal agencies and programs, the war in Gaza and attacks on LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, education, healthcare and reproductive rights. We hear voices from the coordinated Hands Off!" nationwide protests, described as the largest demonstrations to date since Trump returned to office.

Outrage is growing over Israel's killing of 15 Palestinian medics and rescue workers north of the Gazan city of Rafah in the predawn hours of March 23. Israel initially claimed the convoy had suspiciously approached troops without headlights or flashing lights, but video footage shows the ambulances had their lights on when Israeli troops opened fire, unleashing a barrage of bullets. A paramedic who was inside the vehicle when it came under fire recorded the video on a cellphone and was among the 15 aid workers killed and buried in an unmarked mass grave. Diana Buttu, a Palestinian human rights attorney, calls the killing the height of dehumanization."

Massive Anti-Trump Protests Take Over Streets Nationwide, Global Stocks Plunge from U.S. Tariffs Amid Reports of Rifts in Trump's Team, Israel Kills Another 56 Palestinians in Gaza, Including Journalist Helmi al-Faqawi, Who Was Burned Alive, Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian American Teenager in Occupied West Bank, Deeply Concerning": Israel Denies Entry to Two British Lawmakers on Parliamentary Delegation, Heavy Rains Complicate Earthquake Recovery in Burma; Trump Admin Fires 3 USAID Relief Workers, 19 People Killed, Half of Them Children, in Russian Attack on Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih, Heavy Flooding Kills 33 in Kinshasa; U.S. and DRC Reportedly on Cusp of Minerals-for-Security Deal, Latest U.S. Strikes in Yemen Kill at Least 4 After Earlier Strike Said to Have Hit Large Eid Celebration, Shocks the Conscience": Judge Slams Expulsion of Maryland Father to El Salvador, Orders His Return, U.S. Halts and Revokes Visas for South Sudanese Citizens, Chinese Woman Dies by Suicide While in Border Patrol Custody, Trump Admin Continues Crackdown on International Students, Threatens to Withhold Funds from Brown, Major Storms in Central U.S. Kill at Least 18 People, RFK Jr. Attends Texas Funeral of Second Unvaccinated Child to Die of Measles as He Backs Vaccine, Head of National Museum of African American History Steps Down Amid Trump Attack on Smithsonian

Can't Look Away: The Case Against Social Media is a new documentary that exposes the real-life consequences of the algorithms of Big Tech companies and their impact on children and teens. In 2022, social media companies made an estimated $11 billion advertising to minors in the U.S., where 95% of teenagers use social media. One in three teens uses social media almost constantly. These products, they're not designed to hook us, adults," says Laura Marquez-Garrett, an attorney at the Social Media Victims Law Center in Seattle who is featured in Can't Look Away. They are designed to hook children."

Longtime immigrant farmworker and organizer Alfredo Lelo" Juarez Zeferino was pulled over last week by a plainclothes agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an unmarked car who broke his car window and forcibly detained him. Within not even a minute of interaction, of getting pulled over, he was already in handcuffs," says Edgar Franks, the political director of independent farmworkers union, Familias Unidas por la Justicia, which he co-founded with Lelo. The reason of his detainment was because of how politically active he was." Lelo is currently jailed at the privately run Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, where hundreds have rallied in support of his release.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case that may cut off Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding. Planned Parenthood says the move violates the Medicaid Act's free choice of provider" provision, which says patients are entitled to choose their own doctors. The case, brought by the state of South Carolina, could impact the care of low-income patients who rely on Planned Parenthood for a range of non-abortion services, including cancer screenings and full physical exams. Federal law already bans Medicaid from funding abortions for patients in most cases. South Carolina had a hard time trying to prove that it had a right to take away the dignity of patients who choose to go to Planned Parenthood," says Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Many Children Among the 112+ Palestinians Killed over Past Day in Israel's Escalating Gaza Attacks, 15 Senators Vote Against $8.8 Billion Arms Sale to Israel, Global Markets, Future of International Trade in Turmoil After Trump Tariffs, South Korean Court Removes Disgraced President Yoon Suk Yeol over Martial Law Decree, At Least 16 Asylum Seekers Drown in Pair of Shipwrecks Near Turkey and Greece, Trump Fires National Security Council Officials Deemed Disloyal" by Far-Right Activist, Pentagon IG to Probe Pete Hegseth's Use of Signal App to Discuss War Plans, Education Department Warns Public Schools to End DEI Programs or Lose Funding, DOGE Gains Access to Personal Records of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, ICE Arrests 37 Workers at Washington State Roofing Company, Senate Confirms Dr. Mehmet Oz to Lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Judge Blocks Trump Administration's Freeze on $11 Billion in Health Funding, Central U.S. Faces Flooding After Storms Spawn Nearly 100 Tornadoes

We speak with New York Immigration Coalition President Murad Awawdeh about a mother and three children who were swept up in an ICE raid not far from the home of Trump's border czar" Tom Homan in Sackets Harbor, New York, handcuffed and taken to a family detention center in Texas despite having no order of deportation. A protest calling for the family's return is planned for this Saturday, and the mayor has called a state of emergency. Awawdeh also responds to what appears to be a pattern of collaboration with the Trump administration's mass deportation plan among local leaders and institutions in New York, from Eric Adams's mayoral administration to Columbia University. Adams had federal corruption charges against him dropped after agreeing to support increased immigration enforcement, while Columbia had federal funding restored after allowing ICE officers to carry out arrests and searches on campus and in university-owned housing.

Jewish students at Columbia University chained themselves to a campus gate across from the graduate School of International and Public Affairs Wednesday, braving rain and cold to demand the school release information related to the targeting and ICE arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a former SIPA student. Democracy Now! was at the protest and spoke to Jewish and Palestinian students calling on the school to reveal the extent of its involvement in Khalil's arrest.

As President Trump finally unveils his global tariff plan - setting a baseline 10% tariff on all imported goods, with additional hikes apparently based on individual countries' trade balances with the United States - economists like our guest Richard Wolff warn it will have grave economic effects on American consumers and lead to a recession. Wolff says the Trump administration's tariff strategy is borne out of an ahistorical notion of the United States as a victim" despite the fact that we have been one of the greatest beneficiaries in the last 50 years of economic wealth, particularly for people at the top." In response to the growing economic fortunes of the rest of the world and the associated decline in U.S. hegemony, Trump and his allies are striking out at other people" in desperation and denial of an end to U.S. imperial dominance. [It's] not going to work," says Wolff.

Netanyahu Wants to Further Divide Gaza Strip as Daily Genocidal Attacks Continue, Israeli Attack on Syria Kills 9; Suspected U.S. Strike on Yemen Kills 5, Hungary Withdraws from ICC as Orban Hosts Netanyahu, Wanted on War Crimes Warrant, Columbia Students Chain Themselves to Gates to Protest University Collaboration with ICE, Trump Slaps Blanket Tariffs on All Imported Goods, Hikes Up Reciprocal Tariffs" on Trade Partners, Disability Groups Sue Social Security Administration over Service Cuts Amid Web Portal Crashes, NYC Mayor Eric Adams Announces Reelection Bid After Judge Drops Corruption Charges, Court Orders Trump Administration to Restore Legal Aid to Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, Burmese Junta Declares 20-Day Ceasefire as Earthquake Toll Tops 3,000, Pakistan Begins Mass Deportation of 3 Million Afghan Refugees, U.N. Chief Warns South Sudan Against Return to Civil War, Amazon Makes Bid to Buy TikTok with U.S. Ban Set to Take Effect on Saturday, Mourners Demand Justice for Murdered Indigenous Teen Emily Pike, Haitian Human Rights Champion Mario Joseph Dies in Car Crash

Since President Donald Trump took office, the U.S. has expelled hundreds of immigrants and asylum seekers to El Salvador without due process to be detained at the supermax mega-prison complex known as CECOT, with many of them accused of belonging to gangs largely on the basis of having tattoos. The Trump administration recently admitted in a court filing that a Salvadoran father with protected status was among those sent to El Salvador. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland with his family and had been granted protected status in 2019, blocking the federal government from removing him. Despite admitting to an administrative error," the Trump administration says it will not seek to return Abrego Garcia to his family. Every single day now, new stories are coming out showing that they made a lot of mistakes," says Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. Their goal is to ramp up deportations and arrests as quickly as they can, and if that leads to a bunch of innocent people getting swept up alongside, the message that the White House is sending is they don't care."

Princeton has become the latest university to be targeted by the Trump administration, as the federal government pauses dozens of federal grants to the school. The news comes after the Trump administration threatened to cut off more than $8.7 billion to Harvard and earlier suspended $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania and $400 million to Columbia University. In all cases, the Trump administration has claimed to be fighting antisemitism, citing the schools' responses to student-led campus protests in solidarity with Gaza. It's time for us to step back ... and think more critically about how we run our universities," says former Columbia law professor Katherine Franke, who says students from abroad, even those with green cards and U.S. citizenship, are now terrified" of being swept up in the Trump administration's crackdown. It feels like a kind of racial and ethnic cleansing that is happening on our campuses."

We go to Madison, Wisconsin, to speak with The Nation's John Nichols about Tuesday's pivotal state Supreme Court election, in which liberal Judge Susan Crawford convincingly defeated conservative candidate Brad Schimel. Crawford's election is a major victory for Democrats after billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk poured about $25 million into the Wisconsin race, helping to make it the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history. This is a huge signal from a battleground state that Americans are genuinely upset, genuinely angry, I think, with Trump and with Musk," says Nichols. Tuesday also saw a pair of special House elections in Florida where Republicans held both seats, helping to maintain the party's narrow majority in Congress. While Democrats were unlikely to flip the deep-red districts, Nichols notes there was a huge shift in both of the Florida districts toward the Democratic candidates."

Gaza's Residents Go Hungry as U.N. Condemns Ridiculous" Israeli Claims of Enough Food, U.S. Attacks on Yemen Kill 4 as Pentagon Deploys Second Aircraft Carrier to Middle East, White House Won't Punish Mike Waltz over Disclosure of Yemen War Plans, Federal Judge Rules Mahmoud Khalil's Immigration Case Must Continue in New Jersey, Unions Rally in Defense of Immigrants Snatched by Plainclothes ICE Agents, Germany to Deport 4 Foreign Residents over Gaza Solidarity Protests, Republicans Win Two Open Florida House Seats, But Democrats Make Gains, Liberal Judge Susan Crawford Wins Wisconsin Supreme Court Election After Record Spending Led by Elon Musk, Health and Human Services Department Begins Mass Firing of 10,000 Workers, Trump to Announce New Tariffs on Self-Declared Liberation Day", Sen. Cory Booker Sets Record in 25-Hour Speech to Protest Trump's Policies, Trump Admin Freezes Millions of Dollars in Funding to Planned Parenthood Affiliates, Federal Judge Blocks Alabama Law Criminalizing Those Who Aid Abortion Access, Supreme Court to Hear Case on South Carolina's Efforts to Defund Planned Parenthood, Feds Seek Death Penalty for Luigi Mangione over Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO

The former international head of Doctors Without Borders is speaking out after New York University canceled her presentation, saying some of her slides could be viewed as anti-governmental" and antisemitic" because they mentioned the Trump administration's cuts to foreign aid and deaths of humanitarian workers in Israel's war on Gaza. Dr. Joanne Liu, a Canadian pediatric emergency medicine physician, was scheduled to speak at NYU, her alma mater, on March 19 and had been invited almost a year ago to discuss the challenges of humanitarian crises. Censoring speech is killing the essence of what the university is about," says Liu. I truly and strongly believe that universities are the temple of knowledge."

We get an update on the darkest hour of need" for the Burmese people, from Maung Zarni, a Burmese human rights activist, after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Burma Friday, leaving at least 2,700 dead, with the death toll expected to rise as rescue efforts continue. Aid groups in the worst-hit areas of Burma, also known as Myanmar, said there was an urgent need for shelter, food and water. The country's civil war has complicated efforts to reach those injured and made homeless in the disaster, and Amnesty International says the military needs to allow aid to reach areas of the country not under its control.

In a major labor victory, the Chicago Teachers Union reached a tentative agreement with Chicago Public Schools Monday night that reaffirms sanctuary school protections, protects the ability to teach Black history, gives veteran teachers a raise, and more. The deal comes amid attacks on public education by the Trump administration. The collective bargaining agreement is a very powerful tool to use, especially in this moment, to ensure that people are protected," says Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union. She also discusses the new posthumous memoir by former CTU President Karen Lewis, titled I Didn't Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education, and lessons Lewis shared for the struggle ahead.

As federal unions lead the resistance to cuts by billionaire Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, President Trump has pushed to end collective bargaining rights for nearly half the federal workforce in a new executive order that calls them hostile" to his agenda. Unions say the order is the biggest attack on the labor movement in U.S. history. It's designed to silence workers," says Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union. He says they are also planning to join the April 5 mass rallies called by the group Indivisible.

Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 42 Palestinians as Army Orders Rafah Residents to Flee, Israel Bombs Beirut Suburb, Killing at Least 4, Top Netanyahu Aides Arrested on Corruption Charges as Anti-Government Protests Continue, Cornell Doctoral Student Momodou Taal Leaves U.S. Amid Deportation Threats, Columbia Grads Tear Up Diplomas to Protest University's Capitulation to Trump over Gaza Protests, Trump Administration Threatens to Withhold $8.7 Billion in Grants to Harvard over Gaza Protests, Iran's Supreme Leader Promises Reciprocal Blow" to Trump's Threat of Violence, China Holds War Games Off Taiwan After Hegseth Pledges Military Cooperation with Japan, Sen. Cory Booker Holds All-Night Filibuster Against Trump Agenda, Federal Court Temporarily Restores Protected Status for 350,000 Venezuelan Immigrants, U.S. Transfers More Immigrants to Salvadoran Prison, Admits to Error" in Deportation of Maryland Dad, On Transgender Day of Visibility, Activists Condemn MAGA Attacks on Trans and Nonbinary People

We remember media scholar Robert McChesney, the co-founder of the advocacy group Free Press, who died on March 25 at age 72. McChesney was a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a prolific author, with nearly three dozen books on media, democracy and digital rights. He warned decades ago that corporate consolidation of the press was putting too much power in the hands of wealthy interests, and was an early critic of Big Tech's control over online communications. What we've seen is that the internet was promised to be this great engine of economic competition. It was going to spur economic growth, create all these new businesses, huge amounts of jobs. Remember the term 'new economy' from the late '90s? And instead what we've seen is the internet is arguably the biggest generator of monopoly in history," says McChesney in a 2013 excerpt from one of his many appearances on Democracy Now! over the years. We also speak with his longtime friend and collaborator John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation. Bob McChesney was one of the great public intellectuals of our era," says Nichols. He could have easily lived in the ivory tower. Instead, he chose to become an activist."

President Donald Trump's efforts to take over cultural institutions and attack diversity, equity and inclusion programs has centered on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the venerable arts institution in Washington, D.C. The Kennedy Center was established by Congress and has been run by a bipartisan board since it opened in 1971, but Trump upended that in February when he moved to install his loyalists in key positions and make himself chair. Last week, the Kennedy Center's new leadership fired at least seven members of its social impact team that worked to reach more diverse audiences and artists, including the vice president and artistic director of Social Impact, Marc Bamuthi Joseph. The acclaimed artist and playwright joins Democracy Now! to discuss Trump's changes at the Kennedy Center, which he criticizes for destroying a sanctuary for freedom of thought and freedom of creative expression." Joseph notes that while the Kennedy Center has not yet made drastic programming changes, the rhetoric from Trump and others severely restricts and almost criminalizes demographic realities outside of white, straight, male Christianity."

Why is billionaire Elon Musk spending about $20 million to shape the outcome of Wisconsin's Supreme Court election on Tuesday, in what has become the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history, giving away $1 million checks to two voters who signed one of his petitions? We speak with longtime Wisconsinite John Nichols of The Nation about the pivotal race on Tuesday that will shape the majority of the state's top court and have a far-reaching impact on issues like abortion and voting rights. The court is also expected to rule on congressional redistricting in the state, which could whittle down the razor-thin Republican majority in the House of Representatives. The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, has since January been obsessed with this race," says Nichols, who notes that a liberal victory would be widely interpreted as a rebuke of the Republican agenda. This is a politically volatile moment for Donald Trump."

Earthquake Death Toll Passes 2,000 in Burma; Trump's USAID Cuts Slow Rescue Effort, Deadly Israeli Attacks on Gaza Continue as 15 Aid Workers Found in Mass Grave Near Rafah, Israeli Settlers & Soldiers Attack Masafer Yatta Again, But Only Palestinians Are Arrested, Israel Bombs Beirut Suburb for First Time Since November, U.S. Bombing Campaign on Yemen Continues, Trump Refuses to Rule Out Using Military Force to Take Greenland After Vance Visit, Trump Asks Supreme Court to Rule on Alien Enemies Act of 1798, Immigration Protests Held in Dallas & Outside Krome Detention Center in Florida, Report: U.S. Secretly Revoking Immigration Statuses of International Students, Columbia University Board Installs New President After Interim Leader Resigns, Law Firm Skadden Arps Agrees to Provide $100M in Pro Bono Work to Avoid Trump Sanctions, Tesla Takedown: Anti-Elon Musk Protests Held at Over 200 Dealerships, Musk Gives Out $1 Million Checks in Wisconsin Ahead of Critical Supreme Court Election, Trump: There Are Methods" He Could Use to Stay in Power for a Third Term, After Being Forced Out, Top FDA Vaccine Regulator Decries RFK's Misinformation & Lies", Sudanese Military Seizes Major Market in Omdurman, Cementing Control of Capital Region, French Court Bars Far-Right Marine Le Pen from Running for Office for Five Years

The new documentary The Encampments, produced by Watermelon Pictures and BreakThrough News, is an insider's look at the student protest movement to demand divestment from the U.S. and Israeli weapons industry and an end to the genocide in Gaza. The film focuses on last year's student encampment at Columbia University and features student leaders including Mahmoud Khalil, who was chosen by the university as a liaison between the administration and students. Khalil, a U.S. permanent resident, has since been arrested and detained by immigration enforcement as part of the Trump administration's attempt to deport immigrants who exercise their right to free speech and protest. Columbia has gone to every extent to try to censor this movement," says Munir Atalla, a producer for the film and a former film professor at Columbia.We speak with Atalla; Sueda Polat, a Columbia graduate student and fellow campus negotiator with Khalil; and Grant Miner, a former Columbia graduate student and president of the student workers' union who was expelled from the school over his participation in the protests. Functionally, I was expelled for speaking out against genocide," he says. All three of our guests emphasize their continued commitment to pro-Palestine activism even in the face of increasing institutional repression. The Encampments is opening nationwide in April.

We're joined by the four-time Grammy-winning musician Macklemore, a vocal proponent of Palestinian rights and critic of U.S. foreign policy. He serves as executive producer for the new documentary The Encampments, which follows last year's student occupations of college campuses to protest U.S. backing of Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza. He tells Democracy Now! why he got involved with the film and the roots of his own activism, including the making of his song Hind's Hall," named after the Columbia student occupation of the campus building Hamilton Hall, which itself was named in honor of the 5-year-old Palestinian child Hind Rajab. Rajab made headlines last year when audio of her pleading for help from emergency services in Gaza was released shortly before she was discovered killed by Israeli forces. We are in urgent, dire times that require us as human beings coming together and fighting against fascism, fighting against genocide, and the only way to do that is by opening up the heart and realizing that collective liberation is the only solution," Macklemore says.

Major Earthquake Strikes Burma and Thailand, Collapsing Buildings as Rescuers Rush to Find Survivors, Israeli Attacks on Gaza Continue After It Broke Ceasefire, Killing More Students and Aid Workers, Israel Attacks Southern Lebanon, Beirut in Flagrant Breach of Ceasefire, Marco Rubio Says Rumeysa Ozturk Is One of More Than 300" Visa Holders Targeted by Trump, U.S. Court in New Jersey Hearing Arguments in Mahmoud Khalil Case, U.S. and Colombia Agree to Share Biometric Data of Immigrants, Protesters in El Salvador Denounce Nayib Bukele's Human Rights Abuses, Collaboration with Trump, Turkish Authorities Escalate Crackdown on Protesters and the Media Amid Political Crisis, U.S. Escalates Yemen Airstrikes, Bringing Total Deaths Since March 15 to at Least 57, U.S. Judge Orders Waltz, Vance, Rubio to Preserve Messages from Signal War Group Chat, HHS Cutting 10,000 More Jobs as DOGE Carries Out Mission to Gut the Government, We Can Eliminate an Entire District Court": Mike Johnson Escalates Attack on Courts That Defy Trump, Trump Withdraws Elise Stefanik Nom for U.N. Ambassador as GOP Frets Over Slim House Majority, New York County Clerk Refuses to Enforce Texas Penalty Against NY Abortion Provider, Trump EO Orders Gov't Agencies to End Collective Bargaining with Federal Unions, EPA Created Email So Polluters Can More Easily Obtain Exemptions from Environmental Rules, Robert McChesney, Free Press Co-Founder and Staunch Defender of Media and Democracy, Has Died, New Trump EO Aims to Gut Smithsonian Institution

Elon Musk was born in 1971 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in a wealthy family under the country's racist apartheid laws. Musk's family history reveals ties to apartheid and neo-Nazi politics. We speak with Chris McGreal, reporter for The Guardian, to understand how Musk's upbringing shaped his worldview, as well as that of his South African-raised colleague Peter Thiel, a right-wing billionaire who co-founded PayPal alongside Musk. Musk lived what can only be described as a neocolonial life," said McGreal. If you were a white South African in that period and you had any money at all, you lived with servants at your beck and call."

After spending over a quarter of a billion dollars on Donald Trump's presidential election campaign, Elon Musk is pouring money into a Supreme Court election in Wisconsin. Musk has spent more than $18 million to support Trump-backed candidate Brad Schimel over liberal Susan Crawford and has been paying Wisconsin voters $100 to help flip the state's top court. This election could impact abortion rights, unions and Republicans' ability to keep gerrymandered districts in place to control Congress. The level of corruption at play here, the level of money at play here, really is a warning sign for what's happening to our democracy," says Ari Berman, voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones magazine.

Over a thousand protesters gathered near Tufts University on Wednesday after masked plainclothes immigration agents snatched Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts Ph.D. student and Fulbright scholar, from the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts. Surveillance video shows agents approaching her on the streets near her home Tuesday evening and handcuffing her while she screamed for help. Tufts University's president said the school had no prior notice of her arrest. Last March, Ozturk co-wrote a piece in the student newspaper criticizing the Tufts administration's response to Palestinian solidarity protests on campus that were calling for divestment from Israel. Democracy Now!'s Hany Massoud and Ariel Boone were in Somerville at Wednesday's protest. One of our community members was taken by armed agents of the state who kidnapped her from right outside her home," said Lea Kayali, an activist with the Palestinian Youth Movement. People are here to stand up for the movement that she was punished for supporting."

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has fired at least five members of its social impact team, including its artistic director, the renowned artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph. The team aimed to expand the art center's reach to diverse audiences and to commission new works by Black composers.

ICE Agents Abduct Tufts Ph.D. Student in Escalating Crackdown on Anti-Genocide Campus Protests, ICE Detains Iranian Ph.D. Student in Alabama and Farmworker Union Leader in Washington, Israel Kills Another 25 Palestinians in Gaza, Threatens to Seize Territory", 17-Year-Old Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmad Dies in Notorious Israeli Prison, South Sudanese Vice Pres. Machar Is Arrested in Sharp Escalation of Tensions, Sudanese Army Declares Khartoum Is Free" After Seizing Capital Airport, Brazil's Top Court Says Jair Bolsonaro Must Stand Trial over 2022 Coup, Poisoning Plot, DHS Sec. Noem Parades in Front of El Salvador Supermax Jail as U.S. Courts Block Trump Expulsions, Housing Dept. Collaborating with DHS to Identify Undocumented Residents in Subsidized Housing, White House Announces Scaled-Down Trip to Greenland Even as Trump Insists We Need Greenland", SCOTUS Backs Regulations on Ghost Guns; Trump Tries to Cancel $65M Teacher-Training Grants, Capitulation Is the Wrong Way to Go": Dir. Julie Cohen Resigns from duPont-Columbia Award Jury, UC Davis Suspends Law Student Association over Its Vote to Divest from Israel, USAID to Cancel Funding for Global Vaccine Alliance, a Possible Death Sentence for 1.2M Children, Calls Mount for Hegseth and Waltz Resignations as More Signal Chats from Yemen Attack Emerge, Fire Elon, Not Elmo": Democrats Ridicule GOP Hearing Aimed at Defunding Public Media, Trump Announces 25% Tariffs on Imported Cars and Auto Parts, Democrat Wins PA State Election in Major Upset Ahead of Key U.S. House Races in Florida, Kennedy Center Fires Social Impact Employees, Including Artistic Director Marc Bamuthi Joseph

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

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