Democracy Now!

Negotiations are underway in Geneva on a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty that has been in the works for several years, as the crisis of pollution from plastics worldwide has grown more acute. An estimated 8 billion metric tons of plastic waste now pollute the planet. Without changes, the production of plastic is expected to triple by 2060 - much of it driven by single-use plastics.This comes as a new report by The Lancet has found that plastics are a grave threat" to human health. Waste plastic contains thousands of toxic chemicals that cause human exposure and result in disease and disability and premature death," says Dr. Philip Landrigan, an author of the report and the director of the Global Observatory on Planetary Health at Boston College. He also notes that plastic is especially harmful to children, who are at risk for decreased IQ, injury to the reproductive organs" and liver damage when exposed to plastics during early development.

Israel's security cabinet is considering plans to expand Israel's assault on Gaza toward a full military takeover, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly pushing for a monthslong offensive on Gaza City and central Gaza refugee camps. The cabinet meeting comes as Israel's forced starvation of Gaza claimed at least four new victims over the past 24 hours, according to health officials. Israeli politicians have really made it no secret that they envision and want to see the mass displacement of Palestinians as southward as possible, if not completely ejected from the Gaza Strip," says Amjad Iraqi, senior Israel-Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group. Given that Israel's allies have allowed the state to act with impunity, Iraqi adds, you also cannot separate Gaza and the West Bank." The Israeli government is deciding that it could actually pursue and replicate many of the same policies in the West Bank."

Huge tariffs on more than 90 countries took effect shortly after midnight on Thursday. President Trump slapped one of the highest tariff rates of 50% on India - set to go into effect on August 27 - unless India stops buying Russian oil. Democracy Now! speaks with Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, on the hypocrisy of the tariffs. There's so many double standards in this particular recent announcement of Trump, because it's not just that other countries, like China, are buying Russian oil," says Ghosh. The European Union is buying Russian oil. The U.S. is buying various Russian exports."

White House officials have confirmed that President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet as early as next week to discuss the war in Ukraine. It would be the first U.S.-Russia summit in more than four years. Trump reportedly plans to follow up that meeting with another three-way meeting between himself, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. We speak with The New York Times opinion columnist M. Gessen, who says Putin is fully invested in continuing this war forever." The war on Ukraine is not the kind of thing that you can roll back in a totalitarian state," says Gessen. It destabilizes the politics, it destabilizes the psychology of the country, and at this point it destabilizes the economy of the country to try to retrofit it back to a civilian economy."

4 More Palestinians Starve to Death in Gaza as Israeli Settlers Attack Aid Convoys from Jordan, This Is Orchestrated Killing": MSF Calls for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Aid Sites to Be Shut Down, Netanyahu Convenes Security Cabinet to Consider Plans for Israeli Military Takeover of Gaza, Israeli Authorities Release Body of Odeh Hadalin as the Israeli Army Blocks People from Attending His Funeral, Report: Microsoft Is Storing Vast Trove of Israeli Intelligence Used to Attack Palestinians, U.S. Tariffs on Dozens of Countries Take Effect Today, Trump and Putin Could Meet in the Coming Days to Discuss Ukraine War, Report: U.S. Plans to Weaken Criticism of Human Rights Abuses in El Salvador, Israel and Russia, Guardian: RSF Attack on Sudan's Zamzam Camp in Darfur May Have Killed More Than 1,500 Civilians, United Nations Says Rwanda-Backed M23 Rebels Killed Over 300 Civilians in Congo Last Month, France, Spain and Portugal Battle Wildfires Amid Heat Wave, New JAMA Study Suggests Los Angeles Fires Led to More Than 400 Additional Deaths, Department of Homeland Security Removes Age Limits for ICE Recruits, Trump Threatens to Federalize D.C. After Former DOGE Staffer Was Assaulted in Attempted Carjacking, 5 Soldiers Shot by Army Sergeant at Fort Stewart Base in Georgia, GOP Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska Angrily Confronted by Crowd During Town Hall, Tucson City Council Votes Unanimously to Reject Project Blue, a Proposed Data Center Linked to Amazon, Stanford Student Newspaper Sues Trump Administration For Revoking Visas Over Protected Speech

This week marks 80 years since the first use of nuclear weapons in war, when the United States dropped a pair of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in the bombings. Many died instantly, and many others died more slowly from severe burns and radiation sickness. Some estimates put the combined death toll over 250,000 killed. We speak with veteran journalist Greg Mitchell, whose new documentary, streaming at PBS.org and airing on PBS, reexamines a remarkable episode in the U.S. occupation of Japan after the end of World War II, when the U.S. military held an all-star football game in the ruins of Nagasaki, reflecting what Mitchell calls a careless" and heartless" U.S. attitude. The Atomic Bowl is horrifying history" that is worth reexamining, says Mitchell, because there is not a real taboo on using nuclear weapons, because so many historians, so many in the media continue to support the use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima and even Nagasaki."

We speak with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich about his new memoir, Coming Up Short, which tells his life story alongside the growth of inequality in America. Reich was born in 1946 as part of the baby-boom generation that enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity and social mobility in the decades after World War II. But he says those conditions were squandered as wealth concentration grew worse, labor unions were gutted and wages stagnated - helping to give rise to Donald Trump's brand of authoritarianism. We allowed big money to take over," says Reich. We, the baby boomers, although we did a lot of good things, we took for granted what we were given. ... And Donald Trump is kind of the essence of what you do when you take your eyes off the prize."

We speak to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich about how President Trump's firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, hours after the agency released a weaker-than-expected jobs report, undermines a key agency. Trump claimed, without offering any evidence, that the numbers were rigged" in order to make him look bad. The BLS report showed just 73,000 jobs were added in July and that far fewer jobs had been created in May and June than previously estimated. Trump's dismissal of Erika McEntarfer is another sign of growing authoritarianism in the United States, says Reich, who served as labor secretary in the Clinton administration. This is another example of Trump basically riding roughshod over our democratic institutions and truth," says Reich.

5 More Palestinians Die of Starvation in Gaza as Israel Continues Deadly Attacks on Aid Seekers, Texas Governor Seeks to Remove Democratic Caucus Chair Amid Lawmakers' Exodus to Block GOP Maps, Rwanda Agrees to Receive Third Country" Immigrants Deported from the U.S., Cuban Immigrant on Hunger Strike for Over 14 Days to Protest His Detention at ICE Jails, Senate Investigation Finds Hundreds of Human Rights Violations at Immigration Jails, Advocates Launch Protest Camp Outside New York City Immigration Offices, Trump Administration Pilot Program Will Require Some Visa Applicants to Pay $15,000 Bonds, RFK Jr. Cancels $500M in Contracts and Funding for mRNA Vaccines, Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration's Plan to Raid FEMA Disaster Relief Funds, EPA to Terminate $7B in Federal Grants for Rooftop Solar Energy, Top Trump Officials to Huddle at VP Vance's Home to Discuss White House's Epstein Strategy, Tennessee Executes Prisoner with Implanted Heart Device Despite Concerns of Painful Shocks, Trump Administration to Restore Confederate Monuments, Including Statue Toppled by Protesters, U.S. Envoy Meets Putin at Kremlin Ahead of Trump's Deadline for a Ukraine Ceasefire, NASA Plans to Place Nuclear Reactor on the Moon, Japan Marks 80th Anniversary of U.S. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

More than 50 Democrats in the Texas Legislature have left the state to block the passage of a new congressional map, which was gerrymandered to give Republicans five extra seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The new map would especially harm Latino and Black representation in Congress, but President Trump is pushing for it in order to retain a Republican majority in the 2026 midterm election. Texas is essentially just going to be the guinea pig. Once Trump is able to get what he needs out of Texas, he's essentially just going to do it in other states, and we cannot allow that," says Texas state Representative Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, who joins us from Illinois. Because Republicans hold the majority in both chambers of the Texas Legislature, state Democrats have fled Texas to other U.S. states to prevent the Legislature from making quorum, or the minimum number of legislators required to conduct a legislative session. The process, known as quorum-breaking, has rarely been used before, but, says Hernandez, We are in unprecedented times."

Former Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls joins us for one of his first interviews since he returned to the United States after he was beaten, arrested and detained by the Israeli military for attempting to bring aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza. Smalls calls Israel's assault and starvation of Gaza a working-class issue," and was the only Black member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition's latest attempt to break Israel's near-total blockade of Gaza. He describes his assault by Israeli soldiers, who attacked me out of the 21 volunteers because of the color of my skin." Smalls was later one of the last to be released from Israel's Givon Prison, where he contracted scabies. I can tell you right now, from my own experience, that Palestinians and people of color are not safe amongst the Israeli government," he says.

Police arrested over 40 people outside the Trump International Hotel in New York City as hundreds gathered for a peaceful action led by Jewish leaders calling for the end to Israel's starvation and ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Democracy Now! was at the demonstration and spoke to some of the protesters, including Motaz Azaiza, renowned photojournalist from Gaza, and Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari, who was arrested. We're here to say, 'Let Gaza live,' to risk everything to say, 'Never again,'" says Fornari.

We get an update from the occupied West Bank, where U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson led a delegation to an illegal settlement amid escalating settler violence against Palestinians. Israel is refusing to release the body of Palestinian activist Odeh Hadalin, who was shot to death by an Israeli settler a week ago. Eyewitness Ty Kavanaugh, a former U.S. Navy medic who is volunteering with Palestinian health organizations in the occupied West Bank, says Israeli soldiers worked with settlers, including the shooter, to identify both Palestinian villagers and international allies to arrest in the aftermath of the shooting. It seemed like they were trying to pen everybody in just to antagonize people. They want them to throw rocks. ... And they were trying to find excuses to arrest international observers or volunteers or the people who happened to be there," says Kavanaugh. Multiple members of Hadalin's family continue to languish in jail, even as the shooter, Yinon Levi, has been released from house arrest and now walks free. Levi owns both an illegal farming outpost in the West Bank and a demolition company that contracts with the Israeli military. This is not [a] random attack ... This is a state policy," says Basel Adra, a close friend of Hadalin's who worked with him on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. He remembers Hadalin as a voice of the community" who dedicated his life to advocating for Palestinian rights and existence.

Eight More Palestinians Starve to Death as Netanyahu Plans to Fully Occupy Gaza Strip, Mike Johnson Visits Illegal West Bank Settlement After Israeli Forces Kill Another U.S. Citizen, Netanyahu's Government Votes Unanimously to Remove Attorney General Prosecuting Corruption, Over 40 Arrested Outside Trump International Hotel in NYC Protesting Israel's Starvation of Gaza, Activists from 44 Countries Plan Largest-Ever Gaza Aid Flotilla in September, Sudan's Army Repels Attack on North Darfur's Capital as Civil War Leads to Protracted Famine", Over 1 Million Afghans Expelled from Iran Face Torture and Famine Exacerbated by U.S. Aid Cuts, Texas Republicans Approve Arrest Warrants for Democrats Who Fled State to Halt Gerrymandering, We Are At War": New York Gov. Hochul to Abandon Nonpartisan Redistricting, Purdue Student Yeonsoo Go Released from ICE Custody; L.A. Plaintiff Details Abuse in ICE Jail, Former Prison Guard Sentenced to 15 Years for Fatal Beating of Robert Brooks, Political Warfare": Jeffrey Epstein Survivors Blast Trump over DOJ Files, Millions Face Air Quality Alerts as Wildfire Smoke Covers Swaths of North America, Global Plastic Pollution Found Responsible for $1.5 Trillion in Damages Annually

A new investigation reveals the months of physical and mental abuse Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration endured inside a Salvadoran prison. The men describe beatings, medical neglect and unhygienic conditions in CECOT, where a prison director reportedly told them, Welcome to Hell, where you enter alive and leave dead." Of the 238 Venezuelan men who were held in El Salvador, at least 197 had not been convicted of any crime. The administration itself knew, even when they were portraying them as the violent criminals that deserved to be sent to a prison in a country that was not their own, potentially indefinitely - they actually knew that the vast majority did not have convictions in the U.S.," says Perla Trevizo, a reporter with the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative unit that worked on the investigation with a team of Venezuelan journalists.

As Palestinians face dire starvation caused by the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, at least 181 Palestinians, including 94 children, have now died from hunger-related causes in Gaza. At the same time, in the West Bank, dozens of women are on hunger strike after an Israeli settler killed a Palestinian activist, Odeh Muhammad Hadalin. Israel is now refusing to return Hadalin's body to the family as his alleged killer walks free. Democracy Now! speaks with Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, who has family in the West Bank. I think it's time for this idealized vision of Israel to shatter and for people to come to terms with the fact that we are funding and financing this ethnic cleansing, this genocide, this theft, day by day by day, of people's land in the West Bank," says Khalidi.

Rashid Khalidi, the renowned Edward Said professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, says he is withdrawing from teaching his fall course after the school has agreed to pay a $200 million settlement in a major new deal with President Trump, who accused the university of failing to protect Jewish students during campus protests against Israel's assault on Gaza. Columbia will also pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and agreed to end the consideration of race in admissions and hiring. Columbia has accepted values that are dear to people who want to protect Israel from criticism at all costs while it slaughters people by the hundreds daily," says Khalidi. In his piece in The Guardian, he wrote, The university's draconian policies and new definition of antisemitism make much teaching impossible."

Six More Palestinians Die of Starvation in Gaza; Hamas and Islamic Jihad Release Videos Showing Two Emaciated Hostages, 600 Retired Israeli Security Officials Urge Trump to Pressure Israel to End War in Gaza, 60 Palestinian Women on Hunger Strike, Demanding the Body of Slain Activist Odeh Hadalin, Far-Right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir Leads Prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sparking Outrage, As Many As 300K People March Across Sydney Harbour Bridge to Protest Israel's Genocide, Texas Gov. Abbott Threatens to Remove Democratic State Legislators Who Fled the State to Block GOP Congressional Map, Trump Fires Head of Bureau of Labor Statistics Over Weaker-Than-Expected Jobs Report, Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Shut Down After Trump Clawed Back $1.1B in Funding, At Least 68 Migrants Die, 74 Others Missing After Boat Capsizes Off the Coast of Yemen, Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Sentenced to 12 Years of House Arrest, Office of Special Counsel Launches Investigation into Former Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith, Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration's Deportations of Immigrants with Parole Status, More Than a Dozen States File Lawsuit to Block Trump Admin from Probing Gender-Affirming Care to Minors, Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison After Meeting with Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Thousands of Boeing Workers Who Build Fighter Jets Begin Strike

President Trump is pushing for a major redrawing of Texas's congressional districts to favor Republicans and shape the outcome of future elections, including next year's midterms. Voting rights expert Ari Berman says this unprecedented" Republican gerrymandering scheme manipulates an already-gerrymandered map that limits democratic representation. It already limits representation for communities of color, and now that would be much worse." The map was released this week, and a hearing is underway today as Republicans try to ram it through.

We're joined by a mother-daughter duo from Louisiana's Cancer Alley." Roishetta and Kamea Ozane are part of a group of environmental activists on a national tour to confront the financial backers of destructive natural gas projects that have devastated their community. The Toxic Billionaire Tour" is targeting the offices of major banks and the homes of executives, who sit here in New York and in offices in D.C. [and] make decisions for our community, decisions that are killing our children, decisions that are harming our air, our water and our life." Roishetta Ozane is the founder and director of environmental justice organization The Vessel Project. Her 12-year-old daughter Kamea, like many residents of Cancer Alley," lives with asthma that is exacerbated by the polluted air and water around her home. Right as soon as you walk outside of my house, if you look over, you can see the industries from right outside of my front yard, and from the industries you can see the bulging fires, and you can smell this really toxic air."

The Trump administration is attempting to revoke a landmark rule that allows the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars, power plants and other sources under the authority of the Clean Air Act. For over a decade, what is known as the endangerment finding" has been one of the most important legal underpinnings in the federal effort to combat climate change. Since it was instituted, says David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council, we've made a lot of progress" in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But now [EPA Administrator Lee] Zeldin is attempting, against the science, to revoke the determination that this stuff is dangerous." This comes as communities across the United States deal with the effects of increasingly frequent and intense natural disasters, from floods to heat waves to major storms. What we're seeing play out, these extreme weather events, are a demonstration that carbon emissions do pose a danger to our health - in fact, to the health of the planet," says climate scientist Michael Mann.

Two More Palestinians Starve to Death Amid Israel's Siege of Gaza, Trump's Mideast Envoy Tours Militarized Gaza Aid Site as Israel Continues to Attack Aid Seekers, I Am Here to Refuse the Genocide": Two Israeli Teens Get Prison Terms for Draft Resistance, Palestinian Citizens of Israel Bang Pots and Pans to Protest Starvation of Gaza, Israel Escalates Attacks on Lebanon, Citing Hezbollah's Weapons, Russian Attacks on Kyiv Kill 31 as U.S. Lawmakers Propose $55B Aid Package to Ukraine, President Trump Announces New Tariffs on Dozens of Countries, ICE Launches Major Recruitment Drive Offering $50K Signing Bonuses and Student Loan Forgiveness, Kerr County Emergency Management Officials Testify They Were Asleep During Devastating Texas Floods, 10Sudan's RSF Announces Parallel Government as Internally Displaced People Face Famine and Disease, U.N. Says Rwanda-Backed M23 Rebels Killed 169 People in Eastern DRC Last Month, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele Could Seek Third Term After Lawmakers End Presidential Term Limits, Florida Prison Officials Execute a Prisoner for the Ninth Time This Year, Setting a New Record, Smithsonian Removes References to Trump's Two Impeachments from Exhibit, Virginia Giuffre's Family Urges President Trump Not to Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell

President Donald Trump is standing by his August 1 deadline for other countries to reach new trade agreements with the United States or face steep new tariffs on their exports. The administration has announced a slew of deals, including with the U.K., Japan and the European Union, even as Trump has issued new tariff threats against India, Brazil and others.You've got total, random chaos," says policy expert Lori Wallach, director of the Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Liberties Project and host of the podcast Rethinking Trade with Lori Wallach. What the Trump administration is doing, basically, is an abuse of the tariff tool ... to threaten countries based on foreign policy whims."

Canada became the latest Western country this week to announce it will recognize the state of Palestine, joining the United Kingdom and France, as well as over 147 other countries that already recognize Palestinian statehood. Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada says that while the recent moves are largely symbolic" and filled with caveats and loopholes, it shows that global opinion is rapidly shifting. He says that despite Israel's growing diplomatic isolation over its starvation of Gaza, the only thing that will stop the genocide is if the United States uses its leverage.Netanyahu and the Israeli government are terrified of Trump. They don't want to anger him," says Shehada. The only thing it would take is Trump making a phone call to Netanyahu and saying, 'End this now.'"

Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip continue to kill and injure hundreds of Palestinians each day, including many people seeking aid amid deepening starvation across the territory. Despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim that there is no starvation" in Gaza, a U.S. doctor who just returned from Gaza says the reality is undeniable. It was evident to me, in my firsthand experience, that what I was seeing was malnourishment in my patients," says Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, a urogynecologist and the executive director of the International Medical Response Foundation based in New York. We also saw it in our hospital staff. ... Everybody would sit and talk about how hungry they were."

We speak with Juliette Touma, director of communications at UNRWA, about deepening starvation in Gaza. Israel has accused the United Nations agency of failing to distribute aid in Gaza, but Touma says Israel continues to block most supplies from entering the territory. Touma notes that there are 6,000 trucks filled with food, medical supplies and other necessities ready to enter Gaza. We've been waiting for a green light to start the wheels of those trucks for nearly five months now," she says.

51 Palestinians Seeking Aid Massacred at Zikim Crossing in Gaza, Canada Becomes the Latest Country to Announce Plans to Recognize a Palestinian State, U.K. High Court Rules Co-Founder of Palestine Action Can Challenge Group's Ban, More Than Half of Democratic Caucus Votes to Block U.S. Arms Sales to Israel, U.S. Sanctions Brazilian Supreme Court Judge in Charge of Criminal Case of Fmr. President Jair Bolsonaro, Trump Announces 25% Tariff on India and 15% Tariff on South Korea, Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Convicted of Witness Tampering and Bribery, GOP State Lawmakers Introduce Plan to Redraw Texas's Congressional Districts, Treasury Secretary Admits Plan to Create Savings Accounts for Newborns Is Actually a Backdoor to Privatize Social Security, Federal Reserve Votes to Hold Interest Rates Steady, with Two Rare Dissenting Votes, Senate Committee Advances Bill Banning Stock Trading by Congress, the President and the Vice President, Brown University Accedes to Trump Administration's Demands as Harvard Mulls $500M Settlement, CBP Detains Green Card Holder for Over a Week Without Access to Lawyer, Court Rejects Trump Administration's Bid to Rearrest Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil, Zohran Mamdani Meets Family of Slain NYPD Officer, Calls for Assault Weapons Ban, Russian Attacks on Kyiv Kill 8; Lawmakers Restore Independence of Ukraine's Anti-Graft Agencies, Israel Releases U.S. Labor Activist Chris Smalls After Abduction from Gaza-Bound Aid Ship

Family and friends are reeling after an Israeli settler shot and killed Palestinian activist Odeh Muhammad Hadalin, an athlete, teacher and father of three young children. Hadalin helped produce the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, which follows Palestinians in the occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta as they struggle to stay on their land amid violent attacks by Jewish settlers. Hadalin's cousin Alaa calls him an exceptionally humane" and peaceful" person in an interview with +972 Magazine and Local Call reporter Oren Ziv, who joins us from Tel Aviv.In January, the Trump administration lifted Biden-era sanctions on Hadalin's alleged killer, Yinon Levi, who has been released on house arrest. Meanwhile, multiple members of Hadalin's family are still imprisoned and awaiting hearings in Israel's military court after they were arrested by Israeli soldiers following the shooting. Ziv describes how Israeli soldiers also conducted a raid on a mourning party days after Hadalin died of his injuries. They forced us out. And even in the entrance to the village, they started to throw stun grenades," Ziv says. It's important to say it's not only an attack on the family, on his friends. It's an attempt to prevent us, the journalists, [from] investigating the case."

In Gaza, the situation is beyond atrocious." Aid worker Arwa Damon, a former CNN journalist and the founder of INARA, a nonprofit currently providing medical and mental healthcare to children in Gaza, describes the deadly lack of access to food, water and medicine in the besieged territory. The situation on the ground conflicts with the claims of Israeli officials, who are denying the existence of starvation conditions. If anyone goes into Gaza, within 15 minutes, the vast majority of what Israel is claiming just unravels before your very eyes," says Damon. She is currently helping to facilitate aid access from outside of Gaza, which she and many other humanitarian workers have been barred from accessing since February.

People with disabilities are among those most heavily impacted by Trump's cuts to Medicaid. I know so many people like me, disabled adults living and thriving now, who were able to get to adulthood because Medicaid existed," says Maria Town, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities. We feature additional testimonies from disabled members of the advocacy group Caring Across Generations, and speak to Town, who says she fears so many kids [will] not get a chance to make it to adulthood," while countless adults will not be able to live into old age because of these cuts."

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the creation of Medicare and Medicaid - and nearly one month since President Trump's federal budget slashed nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid to extend tax cuts for the rich. The cuts could lead to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths every year. Medicaid has been a lifeline. And without it, people will die," says Ai-jen Poo, co-founder of Caring Across Generations and the Domestic Workers Alliance, which helped organize a 60-hour vigil last week ahead of the anniversary as part of a broader campaign to fight back against Trump's cuts. She highlights the role of immigrants, who make up a third of the caregiving sector, and says Trump's crackdown on immigration hastens the dwindling of care available to the aging and elderly. We should be adding a trillion dollars in investments in healthcare in this country and in caregiving services in this country," says Poo. We need to strengthen these systems and programs for the 22nd century, not gut them."

Gaza's Hunger-Related Death Toll Reaches 154; 89 Children Among the Dead, Keir Starmer Says U.K. Will Recognize Palestine Unless Israel Stops Starving Gaza, New Report Finds Canada Continued to Arm Israel Despite Pledging to Halt Arms Shipments, 44 Senate Democrats Urge Trump to Stop Funding Shadowy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Over Two Dozen Rabbis Arrested on Capitol Hill Protesting Israeli Blockade of Gaza, 8.8 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Russia's Far East, Sending Tsunami Waves Across Pacific, Senate Confirms Trump's Former Lawyer Emil Bove as a Federal Appellate Judge, Justice Department Removes Two Top Officials from Antitrust Division, EPA Proposes to End Finding That Greenhouse Gas Emissions Endanger Public Health, Millions Across U.S. Face Heat Advisories; Turkey Records Highest-Ever Temperature, House Oversight Committee Rejects Ghislaine Maxwell's Request for Immunity, Donald Trump Says Jeffrey Epstein Stole" Mar-a-Lago Workers, Including Virginia Giuffre, Please Study Brain for CTE": Manhattan Mass Shooter's Suicide Note Blames NFL for Brain Trauma, Palestinian American Student Sereen Haddad Wins Diploma Withheld by VCU over Peaceful Protests

For the first time, two leading Israeli human rights groups - B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel - have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. B'Tselem's report, Our Genocide," says, Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip." We speak with B'Tselem's outreach director, Sarit Michaeli, in Tel Aviv, who says Israel's actions in Gaza are the textbook definition of genocide."

The Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the largest independent aid organizations in Gaza, says it has been unable to bring new supplies into the territory as starvation grows more dire for Palestinians. Democracy Now! speaks with Jan Egeland, NRC's secretary general, who says Western powers who have been complicit in Israel's blockade of Gaza have their fingerprints ... all over a crime scene, and history will judge."

As more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid at militarized aid distribution sites run by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a former GHF security contractor tells Democracy Now! he saw U.S. mercenaries and Israeli forces commit war crimes by indiscriminately shooting at starving Palestinians waiting for aid. What I witnessed in Gaza, I can only describe as a dystopian, post-apocalyptic wasteland," says Anthony Aguilar, a retired U.S. soldier who worked as a subcontractor with UG Solutions in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid delivery operation. We, the United States, are complicit. We are involved, hand in hand, in the atrocities and the genocide that is currently undergoing in Gaza."

Global Hunger Monitor Warns Israel's Siege on Gaza Has Led to Worst-Case Scenario of Famine", Trump Breaks from Netanyahu to Acknowledge Real Starvation" of Palestinians, Netanyahu Proposes Annexing Parts of Gaza Strip, Trump Administration Blasts France's Moves to Recognize Palestinian State, Protesters in Greece Scuffle with Riot Police as Israeli Cruise Ship Docks, Palestinian Activist and Teacher Odeh Muhammed Hadalin Killed by Israeli Settler in Masafer Yatta, Russian Airstrikes Hit Prison in Ukraine, Killing 17 People, Gunman Kills 5 People in Midtown Manhattan Skyscraper, Including Himself, Federal Judge Rules Trump Admin Cannot Block Medicaid Payments to Planned Parenthood, Epstein Co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell Urges SCOTUS to Overturn Conviction, Oklahoma Schools Chief Faces Scrutiny for Screening Explicit Images of Nude Women in His Office, Third Whistleblower Claims Emil Bove Lied During Senate Confirmation Last Month, Federal Judges in Albany Reject Trump's Appointment of John Sarcone III as U.S. Attorney, New Jersey Federal Courts Face Chaos as Trump Seeks to Install Alina Habba as U.S. Attorney, Rights Groups Blast Christopher Nolan for Filming in Moroccan-Occupied Western Sahara

As controversy over President Donald Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein continues to dog his administration, we speak with investigative journalist Vicky Ward, who has spent decades reporting on the deceased sexual predator, his rich and powerful associates, and the impact of his crimes. Much of Trump's political base is in an uproar after federal officials declined to release government files about Epstein and his serial sexual abuse of women and girls, with Trump himself reportedly named in the documents.They were friends. They hung out with each other," Ward says of Trump and Epstein.Ward was among the first journalists to investigate Epstein when she profiled him for Vanity Fair in 2003. The magazine's editor at the time, Graydon Carter, cut out the testimonies of two young women who had spoken on the record about Epstein's abuse. Ward's podcast and TV series of the same name is Chasing Ghislaine: The Untold Story of the Woman in Epstein's Shadow, focusing on Ghislaine Maxwell's role as a facilitator for Epstein's crimes.

For the second time in as many months, Israel has raided a civilian ship in international waters to stop it from reaching Gaza to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid. The Handala was sailing toward the besieged Palestinian territory with baby formula, diapers, food and medicine on board when Israeli forces boarded it on Saturday and detained 21 crew and passengers. Their blockade is, by all international standards, unlawful," says Palestinian American human rights attorney Huwaida Arraf, who was among the activists on board and was just released from Israeli detention. She calls on the international community to hold Israel accountable and says the Freedom Flotilla Coalition will continue organizing aid ships to break the blockade of Gaza.Why is it that we had to be at sea in international waters, in a small boat, going to confront one of the most brutal militaries in the world? It is because ... our countries are allowing Israel to deliberately starve Palestinians as part of this genocidal campaign that it has been carrying out," says Arraf.

We speak with Eyad Amawi, an aid coordinator in Gaza, who tells Democracy Now! about the rapid deterioration" inside the besieged territory as Israel's blockade causes mass starvation. Health officials in Gaza say at least 14 Palestinians have starved to death over the past day, bringing the total to at least 147, including 88 children. Israel has allowed some additional aid into the territory, including by airdrops, but the United Nations says it's still just a drop in the ocean" of what is needed. Israel also said it would pause attacks for periods of the day in parts of Gaza, but the death toll has kept rising, with Israeli forces continuing to fire on unarmed civilians seeking aid. Two leading Israeli human rights groups, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, issued reports on Monday accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, joining a growing international consensus.We have no time to wait," says Amawi, who calls Israel's restrictions on food, water, medicine and other essentials collective punishment."

147 Palestinians Starve to Death; Netanyahu Denies Starvation in Gaza, Israeli Forces Raid Handala Aid Ship to Gaza, Pentagon Kills Senior Islamic State Leader in Syria, U.S. and EU Announce Trade Deal; U.S. to Impose 15% Tariff on EU Imports, Anti-Trump Protests Held in Scotland During Trump's Visit, Federal Judge Dismisses Trump Administration Lawsuit Against Chicago over Sanctuary Policies, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche Holds Second Day of Meetings with Ghislaine Maxwell, Thailand and Cambodia Agree to Ceasefire, Doctors Without Borders: 652 Children Have Died of Malnutrition in Nigeria, Islamic State Rebels Kill 38 People at a Church in Eastern Congo, Ukraine and Russia Trade Drone Attacks, Killing 5 People, Trump Admin Tries to Keep Secret Renovation Costs for Qatari Luxury Jet Gifted to Trump, Darren Beattie, Who Spoke at White Nationalist Gathering, Now Head of U.S. Institute of Peace, Trump Administration Releases $5B in Frozen Education Funding for Public Schools, 11 Disability Activists Arrested at Trump Tower Protest; Thousands Protest Medicaid Cuts Across U.S.

Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, responds to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla's latest attempt to break the Israeli siege on Gaza, the lethal beating of a U.S. citizen by Israeli civilians in the occupied West Bank and the Trump administration's attempt to conceal information related to the federal criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein.On the killings of Palestinian American Sayfollah Saif" Musallet and Palestinian Mohammad Razek Hussein Al-Shalabi by settlers, Tlaib excoriates both the U.S. government, for doing absolutely nothing, as per usual," and the Israeli government, for sanctioning daily settler violence. The goal here is, and the Knesset told us," says Tlaib, referencing a recent motion passed by the Israeli legislature to annex the West Bank, to ethnically cleanse anyone who is Palestinian."

A second group of international activists with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition are en route to Gaza to challenge Israel's blockade. Their ship, named the Handala, launched from Italy five days ago carrying humanitarian aid desperately needed by Gaza's starving population. The Freedom Flotilla's most recent attempt to deliver aid was prevented by the Israeli military when their ship was raided and seized in international waters. Seven out of the 21 volunteers aboard the Handala are U.S. citizens, including our guest, the Palestinian American human rights attorney Huwaida Arraf. Arraf has participated in Freedom Flotilla missions for over a decade, and was a member of the 2010 sailing in which 10 activists were killed during a raid on their boat by Israeli forces. Ahead of the current mission, crew members reported two instances of suspected sabotage. But that did not stop us," she says. The blockade was illegal at 2008; it is illegal and deadly and part of a genocide now. ... The entire world is allowing Israel - has allowed Israel to turn Gaza into an extermination camp."

Dr. Nick Maynard, a surgeon who has just returned from volunteering in Gaza for the past month, describes a pattern reminiscent of target practice" visible in the injuries medical staff are treating in Gaza. As evidence grows of deliberate massacres of Palestinians seeking aid at the U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid sites, Maynard says the pattern of injuries suggests that Israeli military forces and other security contractors staffing the sites are playing some sort of game" in their targeting of civilians, shooting at the head one day, the abdomen tomorrow, the testicles the day after that." Because of Israel's blockade on food and medicine outside of the sparse supplies available at these dangerous aid sites, Maynard continues, normally survivable injuries have become fatal. Because they're so malnourished, their tissues don't heal. Their immune systems are suppressed. ... They often end up breaking down, causing terrible infections inside the body, and frequently these patients die."

We speak to civil rights lawyer Ben Crump about the ongoing epidemic of anti-Black police violence and impunity for law enforcement in the United States. Crump first comments on the sentencing of Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police officer who fired 10 bullets into Breonna Taylor's home in 2020 during a botched raid, to 33 months in prison for use of excessive force. Although Hankison's actions were a violation of [Taylor's] Fourth Amendment rights," the Trump Justice Department had recommended only one day in prison for his sentencing. In court, there was nobody advocating for Breonna," says Crump.We then discuss the announcement of no charges against the officers who assaulted William Anthony McNeil Jr., a Black man who was violently arrested and beaten during a traffic stop in Florida, as well as the death of 18-year-old Saniyah Cheatham in NYPD custody. Crump says, For many minorities in America, it is a constant threat for us, especially Black people, this constant racial profiling."Finally, Crump continues to call for the public release of FBI files concerning the assassination of Malcolm X. If the government wants to be transparent," he says, referring to the release this year of files on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., then they need to be consistent across the board."

Israeli Attacks Kill 62 Palestinians Across Gaza as Malnutrition Cases Soar, U.N.: Over 1,000 Palestinians Killed Trying to Access Food, France to Formally Recognize Palestine as a State, Cambodia Claims Thailand Is Committing War Crimes in Border Clashes, Venezuelan Immigrant Sent to CECOT Sues U.S. for $1.3M, WaPo: ICE Directs Agents to Increase Use of GPS Ankle Monitors, CBP Says Immigrants Should Carry Green Cards and Proof of Immigration Status, Senate Advances Nomination of Emil Bove to Lifetime Appointment on Federal Court, Trump Signs Rescission Bill Clawing Back $9B for Foreign Aid and Public Broadcasting, Trump Administration Approves $8B Merger Between Paramount and Skydance

In a landmark decision, the International Court of Justice found that polluting countries are now legally obligated to address global warming. In a unanimous ruling by a panel of 15 judges, the court said high-emitting countries do have legal obligations under international law to address the urgent and existential threat" of climate change. The case was brought forward by the island nation Vanuatu, which has faced the brunt of the climate crisis with extreme weather events and rising sea levels. Countries in the Pacific, communities in the Pacific, are suffering from something which they did not cause," says Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu's minister for climate change. It's been caused by private actors that are being regulated by states in the West." Sebastien Duyck, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, which supported Vanuatu in its case, agrees. He says, What we really need is to end an era of impunity and just actually rely on existing legal principles to hold polluters accountable, whether they are corporate or governmental."

The BBC, Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse have all called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza as starvation there becomes imminent. In a statement, the news outlets said, We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families." We speak with Afeef Nessouli, a journalist who just returned from Gaza, where he volunteered as an aid worker. It has been an incredibly awful experience to see people sort of become sicker and sicker from hunger," says Nessouli, who describes visiting community kitchens in Gaza that have run out of food. Many of us would just have one meal a day," he says of his seven weeks in Gaza. Now his colleagues who remain in Gaza are having one meal every three days."

As Gazans face mass starvation due to Israel's blockade, more than 100 humanitarian organizations are demanding action to end Israel's siege of Gaza. Their warning comes as the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the number of starvation-related deaths in Gaza has climbed to at least 113 people. We go to Gaza City for an update from Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam's emergency food security and livelihoods lead. We are really exhausted, and we've become unable to bear the situation any longer," says Alsaqqa, who adds he has lost nearly 15 pounds since the Israeli blockade began.

WHO Warns Gaza Is Suffering Man-Made Mass Starvation, Israel's Knesset Approves Motion to Annex Occupied West Bank, World Court Rules States Have Obligation to Cut Emissions, Trump Administration to Strip EPA of Power to Combat Climate Crisis, WSJ: DOJ Informed Trump His Name Appears in Epstein Files, Columbia Agrees to Pay $221M in Settlements to Trump Administration, Education Department to Probe Universities That Gave Scholarships to DACA Recipients, Federal Appeals Court Rules Trump's Attempt to End Birthright Citizenship Is Unconstitutional, Venezuela to Probe Salvadoran Officials over Mistreatment of Venezuelans in CECOT Prison, Federal Judge Rules Kilmar Abrego Garcia Should Be Freed from Criminal Detention, Trump Administration to Spend $1.2B Building Largest U.S. Immigration Jail in Texas, 12 Killed in Border Clashes Between Thailand and Cambodia, State Department Plans to Shut Down HIV/AIDS Relief Program That Has Saved Millions, Trump Signs Executive Orders Deregulating AI Industry, SCOTUS Allows Trump to Fire Democrats from Consumer Product Safety Commission

The top-ranked show on late-night television, CBS's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has been canceled, just days after Colbert skewered Paramount, the parent company of CBS, for settling a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump. The lawsuit accused another CBS show, 60 Minutes, of biased editing in an interview with Kamala Harris during the 2024 election. Its settlement comes as Paramount works to finalize a lucrative merger with Skydance Media that must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. On his show, Colbert called the settlement a big fat bribe."So many media conglomerates had already given thinly disguised bribes to Trump to settle lawsuits they could not possibly lose in court," explains Jeff Cohen, co-founder of the online action group RootsAction and the media watch group FAIR, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. Cohen says he suspects Paramount agreed to cancel Colbert's show - and will likely remove other programming critical of Trump - as part of a deal with the administration to win favorable conditions for its merger. But Cohen emphasizes that the erosion of a free press did not start under Trump. Over a period of several decades, both Democratic and Republican administrations have placed our media and information system in the hands of giant media conglomerates who have only one value. It's not freedom of press. It's not free flow of information. It's profit maximization."