Democracy Now!

We go to Memphis for an update after jurors acquitted three former Memphis police officers of the murder of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black father who died after the officers brutally beat him during a traffic stop in January 2023. The group beating was caught on video, provoking widespread outrage and calls for police reform. The three officers still face sentencing after they were convicted of separate federal charges, along with two other officers who pleaded guilty to the state charges and will not stand trial. A lot of us were shocked," says Amber Sherman, of the Memphis community's response. Sherman, a community organizer and member of Black Lives Matter Memphis, joined the family Thursday at a community vigil and protest. She warns this latest acquittal will embolden" Memphis police as they continue to do whatever they want."

Ahead of the Mother's Day holiday in the Untied States, we speak to Duha Latif, a mother of two children in Gaza, about life for mothers living under Israeli occupation and assault. Democracy Now! last spoke to Latif over a year ago, when she was attempting to evacuate Rafah with her family. She now resides in a tent in Khan Younis and struggles to feed her family as Israel's blockade has created widespread famine throughout the Gaza Strip. We are not living. We are enduring," says Latif. Her children, 8-year-old Amir and 3-year-old Karim, are suffering the effects of hunger and malnutrition. The loss they are living is more than just the absence of food - it's the absence of life as they knew it."

Survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests are calling for Pope Leo XIV to institute a zero-tolerance policy and for the church to investigate his handling of prior sexual abuse allegations. He needs to be transparent. He needs to be honest," says Peter Isely, a survivor of sexual assault by a Catholic priest and a co-founder of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Wait and see," says James V. Grimaldi, executive editor of National Catholic Reporter. Don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do." We are also joined by Father Bryan Massingale, professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University.

The first U.S.-born pope has taken the name Pope Leo XIV. Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost is also a naturalized citizen of Peru, where he served the church for two decades. He greeted 1.4 billion Roman Catholics and the world Thursday with a message of peace and has posted statements online in support of migrant rights and criticized the Trump administration. In the first part of our discussion, we go to Rome for an update from James V. Grimaldi, executive editor of National Catholic Reporter, and speak with Father Bryan Massingale, a Catholic priest and professor of theological and social ethics. We need him to step into that void of moral and ethical leadership that we have in our world right now. And we also need the pope to be a prophet of hope in these uncertain times," says Massingale.

Pope Leo XIV, First U.S. Pontiff, Has Criticized Trump Admin for Mistreatment of Immigrants, Kashmiris Hope for Peace as Tensions Escalate Between Pakistan and India, Community Kitchens in Gaza Shutter as Israel's Genocide Continues with Bombings and Starvation, An Assault on Children": UNRWA Blasts Israeli Raids on East Jerusalem Schools, U.S. and U.K. Announce Historic Trade Deal, Though Details Remain Thin, Senators Demand Probe of Elon Musk's Conflicts of Interest as State Department Pushes Starlink, Jeanine Pirro Named Top D.C. Prosecutor; Ed Martin Gets New Jobs Despite Support for Insurrectionists, Trump Taps Wellness Influencer and RFK Jr. Ally Casey Means as Surgeon General, Librarian of Congress Fired by Trump Was First Woman & African American to Fill Role, FEMA Director Is Fired One Day After Testifying Agency Should Not Be Eliminated, FBI Agents Visit Homes of Boston Climate Activists, Court Orders Trump Administration to Explain If It Can Bring Back Deportees from El Salvador, Autopsy Finds SC Firing Squad Botched Execution of Mikal Mahdi, Leading to Agonizing Death, Federal Court Rules GOP-Drawn Congressional Map Discriminated Against Black Alabamians, Maker of Pegasus Spyware Ordered to Pay $167 Million in Damages over WhatsApp Hacks

We speak with journalist Mehdi Hasan of Zeteo News about the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, the suppression of pro-Palestine activism and more. Hasan is a former host for Al Jazeera and MSNBC who started his own news outlet last year. On Zeteo's first anniversary, he describes his frustrations while working for mainstream outlets and says the U.S. media continues to ignore Palestinian voices in coverage about the Middle East.You are getting a very one-sided view of the conflict," Hasan says. The real tragedy is that the media has been complicit in the Gaza genocide."

As the Israeli military kills two more Palestinian journalists in Gaza, a new documentary by Zeteo has uncovered critical details about Israel's killing three years ago of the acclaimed Palestinian American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The film, Who Killed Shireen?, identifies for the first time the Israeli soldier who allegedly shot Abu Akleh. We get response from two members of Abu Akleh's family - her brother Anton and her niece Lina - as well as the documentary's executive producer, Dion Nissenbaum, and Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan.We've always known that it was an Israeli soldier who killed Shireen," says Lina Abu Akleh, who says the entire chain of command" must be held accountable, including elected officials.The Biden administration and the Israeli government essentially were doing everything they could to cover up what happened that day to Shireen Abu Akleh," says Nissenbaum, who is also the correspondent in the documentary.

Pools of Blood": Israel Kills 100 Palestinians in Gaza, Incl. Attack on Restaurant and Marketplace, World Central Kitchen Ends Food Distro Due to Israel's Genocidal Blockade, Reuters: Trump and Israel in Talks over U.S.-Led Administration of Gaza, Israel Expelling Hundreds from Homes in West Bank Camps of Nur Shams, Tulkarm, India and Pakistan Exchange More Fire After Indian Attack Kills 31 in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir, Germany Cracks Down on Asylum Seekers One Day After Friedrich Merz Becomes Chancellor, U.S. Judge Warns Plan to Expel Undocumented People to Libya Would Violate Court Order, ICE Poised to Start Massive Raid on Washington, D.C., Businesses, GOP Challenger for North Carolina Supreme Court Backs Down After Attempt to Overturn His Loss Fails, Judge Strikes Down Trump's Executive Order Punishing Law Firm He Doesn't Like, Voice of America Ordered to Carry Programming from Far-Right One America News Network, Russia Declares Unilateral 3-Day Ceasefire in Ukraine, Then Violates It, Memphis Jury Acquits Three Ex-Cops of Murder over 2023 Killing of Tyre Nichols, At Least 79 Gaza Protesters Arrested After Occupying Columbia University Library, Jewish Students Lobby Congress Against Weaponizing Antisemitism to Silence Critics of Israel, Court Orders ICE to Transfer Abducted Tufts Scholar Rumeysa Ozturk to Vermont, Cal State Students Begin Hunger Strike to Protest Israel's Starvation Campaign on Gaza, Black Smoke from Vatican Chimney Signals Cardinals Have Not Yet Selected New Pope

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has found U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who fatally beat Mexican father Anastasio Hernandez Rojas responsible for acts of torture. It's the first time the independent commission, which investigates extrajudicial killings and human rights violations, has issued such findings against a U.S. law enforcement agency. In 2010, Rojas was crossing the southern border in an attempt to return to San Diego, where he'd lived for 25 years, to reunite with his wife and five children after being deported. He was stopped by border agents, who brutally beat and tasered him while he was handcuffed, until Rojas died from heart failure. His death was later ruled a homicide.This comes as President Trump's nominee to head Customs and Border Protection, Rodney Scott, is accused of obstructing the criminal probe into Rojas's killing.The decision exposes the unchecked powers of policing in the United States and holds the United States accountable for what is one of the worst violations in human rights, which is the taking of a life," says Andrea Guerrero, executive director of Alliance San Diego.

A historic settlement is being hailed as a landmark victory for hundreds of women who survived abuse by Dr. Robert Hadden, a former Columbia University gynecologist. For over two decades, Columbia ignored his patients who spoke out, undermined prosecutors and shielded the sexual predator. The university knew all the way back into the '90s about what he was doing and how he was mistreating patients, but did nothing but lie, cover it up and expose more unsuspecting patients to a known serial predator," says Anthony T. DiPietro, an attorney representing survivors in the case against Hadden.One survivor, Eva Santos Veloz, visited Dr. Hadden at age 18. This was my first birth," says Veloz. During my labor, he sexually assaulted me multiple times, not just once."On Tuesday, lawyers representing the women announced Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian agreed to pay $750 million after the former doctor abused the women under the guise of medical examinations. Legal payouts now top more than $1 billion, following earlier settlements. The settlement is huge," says Laurie Maldonado, another survivor and plaintiff in lawsuits against Hadden. It was just a huge win for all of survivors, including Hadden survivors, but all of survivors."

Dozens of people have been killed in the worst fighting between India and Pakistan in more than two decades. India attacked nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir early Wednesday, killing at least 26 people, including a child. Pakistan described the attacks as an act of war and responded by shelling areas controlled by India. Tensions have been soaring between the two nuclear-armed states since gunmen massacred 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir in a rampage that India blamed on Pakistan.Mirza Waheed, a Kashmiri journalist and award-winning novelist, says that as the countries fight, the people of Kashmir get left behind. When elephants fight, it's the grass that gets trampled upon," said Waheed.

India and Pakistan Trade Fire After India Launches Airstrikes on Kashmir and Pakistan, Israel Bombs School, Tents Housing Displaced Palestinians in Gaza; U.N. Condemns Weaponization of Aid, Israel Bombs Airport in Yemen's Capital as Trump Announces Deal to Stop U.S. Attacks on Houthis, Amid Russian Attacks, Ukraine Targets Moscow with Drones on Eve of Victory Day Parade, WaPo: Trump Administration Urged Ukraine to Accept U.S. Deportees from Other Nations, I Am a DOGE Person": Senate Republicans Confirm Frank Bisignano as Social Security Commissioner, Supreme Court Upholds Trump's Ban on Trans Troops While Lawsuits Proceed, Court Rejects Trump's Repeal of Protected Status for Haitian, Cuban and Venezuelan Immigrants, Federal Courts Reject Trump's Use of 1798 Alien Enemies Act to Transfer Venezuelans, Venezuelan Man Unlawfully Sent by U.S. to El Salvador Prison ID'd as Daniel Lozano-Camargo, El Salvador's Bukele Prepares to Arrest Journalists Who Revealed His Agreement with Gangs, It's Not for Sale": Canada's Mark Carney Rejects Trump's Annexation Threat, Family Sues Florida Deputy over Killing of U.S. Airman Roger Fortson in His Own Home, Jury Begins Deliberations in Trial of 3 Former Officers Charged with Murdering Tyre Nichols

Pediatric nurse Sandra Adler Killen has just returned from a third medical mission to Gaza, where she says, We have this horrific trifecta of starvation, of lack of medicine and supplies, and bombings." She calls Israel's ongoing assault and siege of civilians in Gaza an annihilation," with skyrocketing rates of anemia, birth defects and premature births.

Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha has just been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his essays about the Palestinian experience in the face of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on Gaza. He joins Democracy Now! to discuss his work, the necessity of advocating for Palestinian rights, and the violence of Israeli occupation. Abu Toha, who evacuated Gaza in late 2023 after being arrested, beaten and detained by the Israeli military, now resides in Syracuse, New York. He says that, while grateful for the platform granted by the Pulitzer, he cannot celebrate the achievement while my sisters, my brothers and my parents in Gaza are starving." Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip has trapped millions of Palestinians in famine conditions, unable to evacuate and under threat of daily bombings and Israeli troop movements. The only celebration for me is when there is an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza [and] the West Bank, and when justice and peace are served in Palestine," says Abu Toha.

Donald Trump has raised nearly a billion dollars from his various cryptocurrency schemes, says researcher Molly White. He is really allowing for bribery and the types of corruption that we've never seen in the American presidency," White says. She lays out how the Trump family profits from cryptocurrency while directly influencing policy and regulations, encouraging the transfer of wealth to the industry despite its enormous risk of fraud and collapse."

Israeli Military Strikes Western Yemen, Southern Lebanon, U.N. Warns 66,000 Palestinian Children Suffer Acute Malnutrition Due to Israel's Gaza Blockade, We Are Finally Going to Conquer the Gaza Strip": Israeli Leaders Outline New Gaza Offensive, Advocates ID Israeli Officer Responsible for Killing of 5-Year-Old Hind Rajab and Her Family, Police Arrest Palestinian Solidarity Protesters at University of Washington, Swarthmore College, Michigan Attorney General Dismisses Charges Against 7 Gaza Protesters at UMich, UCLA Students Sue Police for Firing Rubber Bullets at Gaza Protesters, Vigils at Columbia, Georgetown and Tufts Demand Release of Scholars Abducted by ICE, Flight Cancellations Plague Newark Airport After Controllers Lose Communication with Planes, Inter-American Commission Condemns Killing and Torture of Mexican Father by CBP Agents in 2010, Trump Offers Undocumented People $1,000 to Self-Deport", UFW Members Detained by ICE; U.S. in Talks with African Nations over Accepting Deportees, ICJ Dismisses Sudan's Genocide Case Against United Arab Emirates, Canadian Prime Minister in D.C. for Trade Talks After Hostile Comments from White House, New York Police Officer Pleads Guilty in Beating Death of Prisoner Robert Brooks, Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha Wins Pulitzer for Essays on Physical and Emotional Carnage in Gaza"

An alliance between the far right and Silicon Valley oligarchs has given rise to a form of end times fascism," says journalist Naomi Klein, who details in a recent essay co-authored with Astra Taylor how many wealthy elites are preparing for the end of the world even as they contribute to growing inequality, political instability and the climate crisis. Klein says that while billionaires dream of escaping to bunkered enclaves or even to space, President Donald Trump and other right-wing leaders are turning their countries into militarized fortress states to keep out immigrants from abroad and ramp up authoritarian control domestically.There's always an apocalyptic quality to fascism, but fascism of the 1930s and '40s had a horizon" for a utopian future, says Klein. Today, by contrast, we're up against people who are actively betting against the future - not just actively betting against it, but fueling the fires that are burning this world."

We go to Wisconsin as the state's Democratic Governor Tony Evers pushes back after Trump border czar Tom Homan says Wisconsin officials could be arrested over local policies that defy Trump's mass deportation agenda. This comes after FBI agents arrested Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan. I think what we're seeing, in a broader sense, is just an absolute degradation of the rule of law," says Lisa Graves, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice, now the director of the policy research group True North Research and co-host of the podcast Legal AF. Her forthcoming book is Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights.

57 Palestinians Starve to Death as Israeli Siege on Gaza Continues; Israel Seeks to Expand War, Houthis Vow More Attacks on Israel to Protest Crime of Genocide" in Gaza, Trump Says I Don't Know" When Asked If He Needs to Uphold Constitution, Gov. Tony Evers Blasts Chilling Threats" from White House over Wisconsin Immigration Policies, Trump Admin Slaps Terror Designation on 2 Haitian Gangs, Trump Planning to Reopen Alcatraz; WH Posts Image of Trump as Pope, Trump Asks SCOTUS to Allow DOGE Access to Sensitive Social Security Data, Sovereignty Is Not for Sale": Pres. Sheinbaum Dismisses Trump Plan to Send U.S. Troops to Mexico, Death Toll in RSF Attacks on Al-Nahud Mount to 300, Bombings in South Sudan Kill 7 People, Incl. a Baby, and Destroy MSF Health Facilities, Australia's Albanese Wins Reelection as Voters Reject Trump-Like Conservative Challenger, Hard-Right, Pro-Trump Candidate George Simion Wins First Round of Romanian Elections, Judge Sentences Landlord to 53 Years for Murdering 6-Year-Old Palestinian American Wadea al-Fayoume, John Fetterman's Staff Has Been Raising Concerns over His Mental Fitness, Starbase: New Texas Town Created at Launch Site of Elon Musk's Starlink, Texas Becomes 16th GOP-Led State to Implement School Vouchers, Trump Admin Ends Louisiana Desegregation Order, Opens Probe into Chicago Program for Black Students

As the cases of international students and activists facing deportation begin to play out in the courts, Georgetown professor Nader Hashemi visited an ICE jail in Texas to speak with his colleague Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown professor who was snatched by the Trump administration back in March. Suri is married to a U.S. citizen of Palestinian background. Once Hashemi arrived at the prison, he was shocked to learn that Suri had been designated a high-security prisoner and only granted two hours of fresh air a week.Badar Khan Suri was very adamant that the suffering and the pain that he has faced and that his family has been subjected to will be worth it, if it helps expose, number one, the naked authoritarianism the Trump administration, and, number two, if his incarceration keeps the spotlight on the genocide on Gaza," says Hashemi.A federal immigration judge will rule on Suri's case in the coming days. Dr. Suri was picked up because he had spoken out for peace," says Mary Bauer, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. He was arrested very clearly because of his political view and family association."

More than 100 days into President Donald Trump's return to the White House, we speak with the renowned abolitionist, author and activist Angela Davis, who discusses Gaza, Trump and more.Davis, who spoke at a Jewish Voice for Peace conference in Baltimore on Thursday, says, We find ourselves in a very difficult moment, a moment of grief, a moment of witnessing the apartheid and the genocide unfolding in a way that we had never imagined before. But at the same time, we recognize that Palestine has never given up. Palestine will never give up."She also addresses the need for resistance against the Trump administration. Those of us who are standing for justice and for freedom ... it's essential to recognize that we are actually in the majority, that we are on the right side of history, that we should follow the example of the Palestinian people and not give up, not succumb to the assumption that this person was elected, and therefore he and his people get to dictate the direction of history," says Davis.

People around the world celebrated May Day, International Workers' Day, on Thursday, including hundreds of thousands in the United States. Unions and immigrant rights groups led rallies from coast to coast, in every state, with much of their anger directed at the Trump administration.Workers and activists in New York demanded workers' rights, freedom for Palestine and protections for immigrants. Democracy Now!'s Maria Ines Taracena spoke to some of the marchers as they took to the streets.It's just giving me a huge boost of hope that we're going to get over this authoritarian scheme and we'll come out on top," said Barry Knittle, a protester in New York.

A ship carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip sent out a distress signal overnight after it was bombed by drones in international waters near Malta. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the organizer of the voyage, is blaming Israel for the attack, which set the ship on fire, punched a substantial breach in its hull and cut off communication with those aboard. We are dealing with a brutal attack on an innocent ship," retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, who was in Malta waiting to board the flotilla, tells Democracy Now! While we cannot yet identify the source of the drones, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a history of violence that has been directed toward the flotillas from the state of Israel."The climate activist Greta Thunberg was also set to join the flotilla and said in an online video that activists would continue to do everything in our power to do our part to demand a free Palestine and demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor."

We Are Starving the Children of Gaza": WHO Issues Damning Warning as Israeli Genocide Continues, Gaza-Bound Freedom Flotilla Attacked in International Waters, Israel Launches Airstrikes on Syria for Second Time This Week, Mike Waltz Removed as National Security Adviser After Signalgate," Nominated for U.N. Ambassador, May Day Protests Decry Trump, Billionaire Takeover," Attacks on Immigrants, Turkish Police Arrest Hundreds in Istanbul May Day Protests, U.S. Judge Blocks Trump's Use of Alien Enemies Act to Expel Immigrants with No Due Process, Bhutanese Community in U.S. Targeted in Trump's Brutal Immigrant Crackdown, Family Says Vietnamese Refugee with Dementia Died of Medical Neglect After Arrest by ICE, Lawmaker Calls for Probe into Whether Haitian Woman Died of Medical Neglect in Florida ICE Jail, Trump Drafts U.S. Postal Inspection Service Officers as Immigration Enforcers, Foreign Policy for Sale": Trump Cryptocurrency Venture Secures Major Investment from UAE Firm, Trump Orders Cuts to Federal Funds for NPR and PBS Propaganda", Trump Administration Cuts $1 Billion in Mental Health Grants to Schools, The Horror Unfolding Knows No Bounds": U.N. Warns of Surging Hunger and Violence in Sudan, 35 House Democrats Join GOP Bid to Block California's Phase-Out of Gas-Powered Cars, Study Details Alarming Decline in North American Bird Populations

A U.S. military strike on a migrant detention center in the north of Yemen has killed at least 68 people, largely migrants from African nations, bringing the death toll from U.S. attacks on the country to over 250 since mid-March. Middle East researcher Helen Lackner says the number of deaths is likely twice the officially recorded number, as the United States has now conducted more than 1,000 strikes on Yemen on an absolutely nightly basis." Lackner says the humanitarian crisis in Yemen has also been exacerbated by the end of U.S. aid and the U.S.'s designation of the country's Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization." People who are living in the country are suffering on a daily basis from basically terror and fright or from being attacked and possibly being bombed and killed [at] any time."

The Trump administration has signed a deal with Ukraine to give the United States a long-term stake in the country's oil, gas, coal and mineral resources as part of a joint investment fund with Kyiv. President Trump has sought to frame the agreement as repayment of U.S. military aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia's invasion in February 2022. We speak with investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz, who characterizes the deal as an unprecedented" resource grab" that allows Trump to reopen U.S. access to Russian oil and gas, which can be channeled through Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

As May Day protests call for worker and immigrant rights, we talk to a New York father whose 19-year-old son Merwil Gutierrez, with an open asylum case, was detained in the Bronx and then flown with over 230 other Venezuelans to a mega-prison in El Salvador, where he is being held incommunicado. Witnesses to Gutierrez's arrest say authorities were searching for a different person but, upon encountering the teenager, decided to arrest him simply because he is Venezuelan. He has no criminal history and no tattoos, the features Trump officials have used to accuse Latin American immigrants of being gang members and expel them from the country without due process. Wilmer Gutierrez says he fears for his son's safety. We came here with a dream. We did not think that this injustice was ever going to happen ... They shattered our dreams," said Gutierrez. We also speak with Ethar El-Katatney, editor-in-chief of Documented, the nonprofit newsroom that broke the story of Gutierrez's arrest. Wilmer Gutierrez is calling on the governments of the United States and El Salvador to facilitate his son's release. My son is still a child. His mentality has not matured yet. And right now they are damaging his mind ... They are violating all the laws and doing whatever they want."

Columbia University student and Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi has been released on bail by a Vermont judge after more than two weeks in U.S. immigration custody. I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you," he told supporters as he left a Vermont courthouse. Despite being a legal permanent resident, Mahdawi was arrested by immigration enforcement last month at what he was told would be a citizenship interview, and accused by the State Department of posing a threat to national security over his pro-Palestine campus activism. We get an update from Shezza Abboushi Dallal, part of Mahdawi's legal team, who says his release was facilitated by the prior blocking of his transfer to a jurisdiction more favorable to the Trump administration. Mahdawi will now be able to attend his graduation from Columbia University this month.

I Am Not Afraid of You": Mohsen Mahdawi Sends Message to Trump After Release from ICE Detention, UNRWA Warns Lives of Gaza's Children in the Balance as Israeli Blockade Stretches into Third Month, Israeli News Investigation Confirms Biden Administration Did Not Try to End Genocide in Gaza, Fighting Near Damascus Kills 30 People; Israel Launches Airstrike on Syria, U.S. and Ukraine Sign Deal for Joint Natural Resources Investment Fund, CNN: Trump Administration in Talks to Send Immigrants and Asylum Seekers to Libya, Rwanda, Trump Repeats Lies About Abrego Garcia, Says He Could Bring Him Back from El Salvador But Will Not, Venezuelans Fearing Deportation to El Salvador Send SOS Message from Texas Immigration Jail, Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Florida Police from Acting as Immigration Agents, Federal Judge Restricts Border Patrol in California After Agents Targeted Day Laborers and Farmworkers, Burkina Faso Protesters Rally in Defense of Interim President After Alleged Coup Attempt, Panamanian Protesters Condemn Deal to Station U.S. Troops Around Panama Canal, Rights Groups Demand Justice for Murdered Environmentalist Marco Antonio Suastegui, Swarthmore Students Set Up Encampment to Demand Divestment from Israel, May Day Protests Across U.S. Take Aim at Trump's Anti-Worker, Anti-Immigrant Policies

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen reflects on the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, the president's chaotic trade war, detentions and deportations of pro-Palestinian advocates and more. Nguyen has just released a new book of essays, originally delivered as lectures, that explore otherness and belonging in U.S. history. I think otherness is a universal condition," says Nguyen. I'm sure we all have, at one time or another, thought ourselves to be odd or alienated or not fitting in in some way. But the difference for certain people is that otherness is constantly imposed on us."

We mark 50 years since the end of the U.S. war on Vietnam with the acclaimed Vietnamese American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen. On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese troops took control of the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon as video of U.S. personnel being airlifted out of the city were broadcast around the world. Some 3 million Vietnamese people were killed in the U.S. war, along with about 58,000 U.S. soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of Lao, Hmong and Cambodians also died, and the impact of the war is still being felt in Vietnam and the region.Nguyen says while the Vietnam War was deeply divisive in the United States during the 1960s and '70s, American interference in Southeast Asia goes back to President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, when he rejected Vietnamese demands for independence from France. And from that mistake, we've had a series of mistakes over the past century, mostly revolving around the fact that the United States did not recognize Vietnamese self-determination," says Nguyen.

Tech writer and critic Paris Marx discusses the first 100 days of the second Trump administration and the influence of billionaire Elon Musk at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has slashed government programs and the civil service. Marx says even after Musk gave hundreds of millions to Trump's reelection campaign, it was hard to imagine that he would really play this outsized role in the actual governance of the country." Marx also warns that the DOGE playbook is likely to be exported to the political right in other countries to try to do something similar with a DOGE organization, kind of wrapping it in this cloak of efficiency and ... allowing this further gutting of the state." Marx also talks about how several Canadian tech executives recently launched the initiative called Build Canada, with the goal of firing 100,000 federal government employees, increasing immigration restrictions and building new oil pipelines, and concern about Musk's DOGE approach going global.

The Liberal Party in Canada had been massively trailing in the polls. Then it pulled off a victory that seemed impossible just two months ago, largely thanks to one man: President Donald Trump, who repeatedly threatened to make Canada the 51st state. After former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned, former central banker Mark Carney took over as Liberal leader and campaigned as someone willing to stand up to the United States, while painting the opposition Conservatives as too close to a hostile Trump administration. If you'd asked people around Christmas if the Liberal Party had any chance of forming government in the next election, they would have said, 'Absolutely not,'" says Canadian tech writer and critic Paris Marx, who notes that Carney has quickly moved to weaken some of his party's more progressive policies and cozy up to tech executives. So, even though we have a Liberal Party coming to power over a Conservative Party, that doesn't mean there aren't things to still be worried about, as we see the way that they might potentially govern."

Israel Once Again Bombs Gaza Safe Zones" as Latest Attacks Kill 39 Palestinians, Palestinian Medic Who Survived Israeli Massacre of Medical Workers Released from Israeli Jail, White House Assails Amazon Plan to Show Cost of Tariffs as Trump Rolls Back Auto Import Duties, House GOP Blocks Democrats' Measures on Elon Musk, DOGE and Trump Administration Scandals, Michigan Congressmember Files Articles of Impeachment Against Trump, Progressive Democrats Join Sen. Bernie Sanders's Reintroduction of Medicare for All Act, NIOSH Temporarily Reverses Cuts to Programs Benefiting Firefighters Including 9/11 Survivors, Mexico Reports Surge in Measles Cases as Texas Outbreak Spills Across Border, Federal Agents Traumatize Oklahoma City Family After Raiding the Wrong Home, Federal Judge Gives Columbia Grad Mahmoud Khalil Chance to Challenge Detention in Court, Columbia Student and Palestinian Activist Mohsen Mahdawi Speaks from Prison Ahead of Court Hearing, Trump Fires Biden-Appointed Board Members of U.S. Holocaust Memorial, Including Doug Emhoff, Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth Boasts of Canceling DEI Program Signed into Law by Trump in 2017, Colombian Journalist Jineth Bedoya Ends Campaign for Justice over Kidnapping and Sexual Assault, Amid Tensions over Kashmir, Pakistani Official Says India Is Preparing a Military Strike

The award-winning Palestinian American journalist and author Sarah Aziza has released a new book, The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders, in which she examines her recovery from an eating disorder from which she nearly died in 2019, linking it to the generational trauma experienced as part of her Palestinian family's history of exile. Aziza was born in the U.S. as a daughter and granddaughter of Gazan refugees. I began to recover memories of my Palestinian grandmother that led to a curiosity ... about my family's history in Gaza, in Palestine, the greater Nakba," says Aziza. And as a daughter of the diaspora, I hadn't tied my own story so viscerally to the story of my people."

Organizers across the United States are planning a massive day of May Day protests against the Trump administration. Organizers say that they have broad support from groups targeted by the administration, including immigrants, federal workers and more. Instead of attacking only one community ... they are attacking everybody at the same time, and that enabled us to gather a really broad coalition," says Jorge Mujica, strategic organizer for Arise Chicago.In New York, organizers are calling on people to march alongside them in Foley Square. We need to fight this corporate takeover," says Nisha Tabassum, lead organizer for worker issues at Make the Road New York. We are the many; they are the few."Los Angeles organizers are expecting hundreds of thousands of protesters to join them in opposition to Trump's policies. We are taking our power back," says Georgia Flowers Lee, National Education Association vice president for United Teachers Los Angeles.

Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill Dozens as 65,000 Palestinian Children Suffer Acute Malnutrition, Persecution, Apartheid and Genocide": South Africa Condemns Israeli Assault on Gaza, Amnesty Condemns U.S. Support for Live-Streamed Genocide" in Gaza, Survivors Recount U.S. Attack on Civilians in Yemen Detention Center That Killed 68, Anti-Trump Sentiment Boosts Mark Carney and Liberals to Victory in Canadian Elections, Trump Signs Executive Orders to Militarize Police, Punish Sanctuary Cities and Refugees, El Salvador Denies Lawyer Access to Venezuelans Deported by U.S. to Notorious Prison, Trump Administration Dismisses Scientists Writing National Climate Assessment, Trump Appointee Harmeet K. Dhillon Leads Gutting of DOJ's Civil Rights Division, Senate Report: DOGE Machinations Allowed Elon Musk to Avert Over $2B in Possible Legal Liability, Trump Pardons Florida Health Executive Who Evaded Taxes to Fund Luxury Lifestyle, Trump Pardons Las Vegas Councilwoman Who Used Embezzled Funds to Pay for Cosmetic Surgery, Democrats Hold Sit-in on Capitol over Budget That Seeks to Cut Billions for Poor and Working People, Power Back in Spain and Portugal After Massive Iberian Blackout, Vatican to Start Deliberations on Next Pope on May 7

Social Security recipients could soon see their benefits interrupted or delayed as a flood of cuts hits the agency, thanks to the efforts of Elon Musk and DOGE. Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor who served as Social Security commissioner under President Biden, says the system is on the brink of collapse as the Trump administration pushes out thousands of staffers and peddles lies about who actually benefits from its services. The former commissioner adds that he believes they're trying to wreck Social Security's reputation, wreck its ability to serve its customers, wreck its unbeaten string of regular monthly payments, so that, having wrecked it, then they have an emergency under which they can rob it."

On Friday, FBI agents arrested a county judge in Milwaukee and charged her with obstructing justice and concealing an individual from arrest. After an undocumented immigrant, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, appeared before her in court on an unrelated misdemeanor charge, Judge Hannah Dugan learned that ICE agents were waiting in the hallway outside her courtroom to arrest him. Dugan told the agents they could not perform the arrest without a judicial warrant and adjourned the hearing, directing Flores-Ruiz to leave her courtroom into a public hallway. Milwaukee-based attorney Ann Jacobs says it appears that two DEA agents who remained in the hallway as Flores-Ruiz left did not take any action toward an arrest while he was still inside the courthouse. He was later pursued and arrested outside. One week later, FBI agents arrested Dugan, accusing her of helping Flores-Ruiz avoid arrest. The message is crystal clear: If you cross the Trump administration, we will arrest you,'" says Jacobs. The goal is to chill judges from ruling against the Trump administration," with the hopes that they can cudgel the judiciary into simply becoming meekly obedient to the executive branch." Dugan's longtime friend Emilio De Torre, who spoke at protests held this week at the FBI's offices in Wisconsin, says FBI Director Kash Patel's public celebration of her arrest is absolutely disgusting and damaging," and slams the effects of Trump's attacks on civil society. People here in Milwaukee are not taking kindly to the fact that our community, our economy, our family, now our courthouses and our schools are being disrupted by the heavy-handed overreach that we see."

The Trump administration has deported three U.S. citizen children to Honduras: a 4-year-old who was actively receiving treatment for a rare form of stage 4 cancer, his 7-year-old sister, and a 2-year-old girl who was separated from her father and expelled with her undocumented pregnant mother. The mothers were coerced into taking their U.S. citizen children and prohibited from communicating with other family members or their lawyers until they arrived in Honduras. Attorney Gracie Willis, who is representing the 2-year-old girl, says the deportation of a U.S. citizen not given any way to contest that or express the option to stay in the United States" is unprecedented.

U.S. Airstrike Kills 68 African Migrants Jailed in Yemen; 800 U.S. Strikes Since March 15, At Opening of ICJ Hearing, Israel Accused of Using Aid as Weapon of War", Lebanon Warns Israel Is Undermining Regional Stability After Attack on Beirut Suburb, Suspect Charged in Vancouver Car Ramming That Killed 11 People at Filipino Culture Festival, Canada Votes in Pivotal Snap Elections, with Liberal Mark Carney Expected to Remain in Power, Pope Francis Remembered for His Antiwar Messages During Vatican Funeral, Putin Announces Unilateral 3-Day Ceasefire; Trump and Zelensky Meet Ahead of Pope Francis Funeral, FBI Arrests Milwaukee Judge Accused of Helping an Immigrant Evade Authorities, U.S. Deports Three U.S. Citizen Children to Honduras, ICE Raids in Florida and Colorado End with 900 Arrests, White House Restores Status of Thousands of International Students, Major Blast at Iranian Port Kills at Least 46, Injures 1,000+, India Detains 1,500 People in Kashmir in Wake of Pahalgam Massacre, RSF Kill 31 People in Suspected War Crime" in Omdurman Amid Mounting Tragedies in Sudan, Far-Right Backers of Itamar Ben-Gvir Attack Palestinian Rights Protesters in New York, Occidental Students End Hunger Strike, Decry Brutal Crackdown on Protest, DOJ Rescinds Journalist Protections in Leak Investigations, Paramount Began to Supervise Our Content": 60 Minutes" Reporter Scott Pelley Speaks Out on Air, George Santos Sentenced to 7+ Years in Prison, Virginia Giuffre, Prominent Epstein Accuser and Survivor Advocate, Has Died

We speak with two brothers who are fighting Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI over its massive data center in Memphis, Tennessee, used to run its chatbot Grok. The facility is next to historically Black neighborhoods and is powered by 35 pollution-spewing methane gas turbines the company is using without legal permits. Musk says he wants to continue expanding the project.What's happening in Memphis is a human rights violation," says KeShaun Pearson, executive director of the environmental justice organization Memphis Community Against Pollution. Elon Musk and xAI are violating our human right to clean air and a clean, healthy environment." His brother Justin J. Pearson, a Tennessee state representative for Memphis, says Musk is perpetuating environmental racism" by ignoring the wishes of local residents: They are abusing our community, and they're exploiting us."

We speak with acclaimed director Ryan Coogler about his latest film Sinners, which is set to be one of the biggest box office hits of the year. Starring Michael B. Jordan, the genre-bending horror film is set in the Mississippi Delta during Jim Crow and is a cinematic gumbo" of various influences and themes, Coogler tells Democracy Now!I wanted to make a film that was kind of raging against the concept of genre and making the audience constantly question it, even while they were watching it," he says. In particular, the film celebrates Delta blues, music made by Black artists living under a back-breaking form of American apartheid," and what Coogler describes as our country's most important contribution to global popular culture."Coogler also discusses his family connection to Mississippi, producing the film with his wife Zinzi Coogler, his highly publicized contract with Warner Bros. and more. Coogler's previous films include Black Panther, Creed and Fruitvale Station.

Gaza Death Toll Since Israel Shattered Ceasefire in March Reaches 2,000, Entire Families Wiped Out, Trump Tells Putin to "STOP!" After Deadly Kyiv Attack and Amid Shaky Peace Talks, Reuters: Trump Will Offer $100+ Billion Arms Deal to Saudi Arabia, Indian and Pakistani Forces Exchange Fire Amid Mounting Kashmir Tensions, U.S. Judge Blocks Trump Order Requiring Proof of Citizenship to Register to Vote, The Next Version of 'The Big Lie'": Trump Orders Probe into Dem Fundraising Platform ActBlue, Federal Court Blocks Trump from Withholding Funds to Sanctuary Cities, Trump-Appointed Judge Orders Return of 20-Year-Old Venezuelan from Salvadoran Prison, Federal Judges Block Trump's Cuts to Public Schools That Promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Trump Executive Order Targets College Accreditors' DEI Policies, Police Pepper-Spray Student Protesters Demanding CCNY Divest from Israel, DRC Agrees to Ceasefire with Rwanda-Backed M23 Rebels, Tunisian Authorities Raze Refugee Camps That Housed 7,000, Guatemalan Police Arrest Indigenous Leader Who Led Nationwide Protests, Trump Executive Order Seeks to Expedite Deep Sea Mining, Highland Park Parade Gunman Gets 7 Consecutive Life Sentences

Cuts by the Trump administration are putting children at risk, according to a new report by ProPublica. The administration has cut funds and manpower for child abuse investigations, enforcement of child support payments, child care and more. On top of that, Head Start preschools, which offer free child care to low-income parents, are being severely gutted. Democracy Now! speaks with ProPublica reporter Eli Hager on his investigation into Trump's War on Children."It wasn't just cuts to these more liberal-coded programs like support for child care and direct assistance to lower-income families with children, but also these programs that have much more support across the political spectrum, like funds and staffing for investigating child abuse and Child Protective Services," says Hager.

Thousands of mourners are lining up at the Vatican, where Pope Francis's body is lying in state in St. Peter's Basilica. His funeral will be on Saturday. In May of 2024, Pope Francis gathered 30 Nobel Peace laureates to the Vatican in a roundtable including our guest, Maria Ressa, who was awarded the prize for defending the free press in the Philippines. He changed the church by changing the people," says Ressa. He moved it away from a Eurocentric kind of Global North view, and he brought in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia."

As the Trump administration goes after universities, law firms and more, some argue that the free press will eventually become a target. Trump's attacks on the press have already begun, with the president filing a number of baseless lawsuits against organizations like ABC and CBS, including a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS over how the network edited an interview with Kamala Harris last year on 60 Minutes. The White House has also banned the Associated Press from covering some presidential events over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. I didn't want to be an activist, but when it's a battle for facts, journalism is activism," warns Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, whose new site Rappler faced attacks from former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. We also speak with The American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner, who has a new piece headlined Is the Press Next?"

President Trump is facing increasing criticism from big businesses over his decision to launch a global trade war. On Monday, CEOs of Walmart, Target and Home Depot met with Trump at the White House to warn about Trump's trade policies. A day later, Trump signaled he is open to substantially lowering tariffs on China. Trump has also toned down his attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom he had previously threatened to fire. This all comes as global stock markets remain in turmoil over Trump's trade policies. The Wall Street Journal reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average is headed for its worst April performance since the Great Depression. This is classic Trump," says Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. You create a crisis. Then you say, 'Well, actually, I'm going to back off,' and the crisis is over. And you end up with yourself and the country worse than before you started."

Israeli Attacks Kill 50 Palestinians in Gaza, Including People Waiting for Food Assistance, Itamar Ben-Gvir Protested by Yale Students, Feted by Trump and GOP, Suspects in Kashmir Massacre Identified; India Closes Border, Cancels Visas for Pakistanis, Russian Air Attack on Kyiv Kills 8 as Trump Ratchets Up Pressure on Ukraine, U.S. Judge Pauses Order Against Trump in Abrego Garcia Case as His Wife Goes into Hiding, Florida Police Collaborate with ICE in Crackdown on Immigrant Communities, ICE Arrests 8 Dairy Workers in Largest Immigration Raid in Vermont's Recent History, Southeast Asian Immigrants in California Face Arrest, Deportation After Routine ICE Check-ins, DoorDash Workers Protest Food App's Wage Theft and Other Labor Violations, 12 States Sue Trump over Arbitrarily Imposed Tariffs", $TRUMP Cryptocurrency Soars After Offering Top Investors "VIP Reception with the President", EU Fines Apple and Meta $800 Million for Violating Antitrust Law, Harvey Weinstein Retrial on Rape Charges Begins in New York, 60 Minutes" Chief Quits as Trump Calls for CBS to Lose Broadcast License, FBI and Police Raid Homes of Pro-Palestinian UMich Students Who Joined Campus Protests, Occidental Students Hold Hunger Strike to Demand Divestment from Israeli War Machine, Universities Form Mutual Defense Compact" Against Trump's Political Interference, Interior Department Plans to Shrink National Monuments Amid Push for Mining, Fossil Fuel Projects, Study Finds Nearly Half of U.S. Residents Are Exposed to Unsafe Levels of Air Pollution, 84% of World's Coral Reefs Suffer Largest-Ever Bleaching Event

We spend the hour with acclaimed historian Greg Grandin discussing his new book, America, America: A New History of the New World, which spans five centuries of North and South American history since the Spanish conquest, including the fight against fascism in the 1930s. He examines the U.S.-Latin American relationship under Trump, with a focus on El Salvador, Panama, Ecuador and Cuba. Grandin also has a new piece for The Intercept that draws on the book, headlined The Long History of Lawlessness in U.S. Policy Toward Latin America." If the United States really has given up its role as superintending a global liberal order and the world is reverting back to these kind of spheres of power competitions, then Latin America becomes, essentially, much more important," says Grandin. We also continue to examine the legacy of the late Pope Francis, the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina and the first pope from Latin America. Grandin shares how the Catholic Church's involvement in the conquest and colonization of the continent impacted the pope's beliefs.