Democracy Now!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Social Security benefits of millions of people in the United States are at risk as the Trump administration institutes drastic changes billed as anti-fraud" measures, but which critics say are aimed at weakening the popular program and potentially laying the groundwork to privatize it. The Social Security Administration has already shuttered dozens of offices across the country and is laying off thousands of workers. At the same time, the agency is demanding people make more in-office visits for routine business. The changes are part of government-wide efforts led by billionaire Elon Musk and DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.They are destabilizing the program," says Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works and chair of the Strengthen Social Security Coalition. It's really hard to imagine what they have in mind, what their endgame is, other than destroying our Social Security system."We also speak with Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic, who says Trump's nominee to head the Social Security Administration, financial services executive Frank Bisignano, has a reputation for slashing costs and pushing out staff. All of that is a pretty grim portent" of his plans for the Social Security Administration, if Bisignano is confirmed, says Marcetic. The people that are going to be hurt by it are the actual Social Security beneficiaries."

Israel Kills 38 Palestinians in Gaza; Israeli Court Orders Dr. Abu Safiya Held for 6 Months More, Palestinian Filmmaker Hamdan Ballal Freed After Being Assaulted by Israeli Settlers & Soldiers, Israel Kills 6 in Syria as U.S. Lanches New Attacks on Yemen, Waltz & Hegseth Face Calls to Resign Over Yemen Attack Plans Disclosure on Signal Chat, U.S. Intelligence Agencies Omit Climate Change as National Threat, Russia and Ukraine Agree to Naval Ceasefire in Black Sea, JD Vance to Join Delegation Headed to Greenland Amid Trump Threats to Seize Territory, ACLU Warns Trump Targeting of Another Law Firm Is Despotic, Unpresidential", AAUP & Middle East Studies Assoc. Sue Trump for Creating Climate of Repression on Campuses, Salvadorans Protest U.S. Sending Venezuelans to Imperial Prison", 54 Die in Sudanese Airstrike on Market in North Darfur; South Sudan on Brink of Civil War, 24 Die in South Korea's Largest Wildfires Ever, UNAIDS Warns Millions Could Die from U.S. Aid Cuts, Report: DOGE Employee Known as Big Balls" Once Helped Cybercrime Gang, Senate Committee Advances Nomination of Dr. Mehmet Oz, Backer of Privatizing Medicare, Trump Signs New Voting Executive Order; Critics Warn Millions Could Be Disenfranchised

We go to Gaza for a report on the brutal conditions of Israel's genocide of Palestinians from Abubaker Abed, a 22-year-old journalist who has recently been diagnosed with malnutrition as a result of Israel's total siege of the Gaza Strip. It's unending misery," says Abed. We're here stranded. We're seeing the systematic killing of everyone, as Israel is targeting every single one here in Gaza." In the week since Israel's abrupt desertion of its ceasefire agreement, says Abed, the total suffering in Gaza is much worse than ever before." He pleads for international intervention and accountability. As long as the world allows Israel to do so, this will not stop."

On Monday, Israeli strikes killed two Palestinian journalists: Al Jazeera's Hossam Shabat, who was 23 years old, and Palestine Today's Mohammed Mansour, who was killed in his apartment alongside his wife. This brings the total number of journalists that Israel has killed in Gaza over the past year and a half to 206. Just before his death, Shabat had shared news of Mansour's killing on social media and filed an article with Drop Site News describing Israel's scorched-earth campaign in his hometown of Beit Hanoun. His editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous remembers Shabat as a warm and funny person," dedicated to his job and his community. In recent months, he had been under increasing surveillance by the Israeli military, which labeled him a terrorist and placed him on a hit list." Despite being targeted and openly hunted," Shabat continued nevertheless to cover the genocide of his people."

Hamdan Ballal, the Oscar-winning Palestinian director of No Other Land, was attacked by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta, arrested by Israeli soldiers and held overnight. The group entered their village and started the assault shortly after residents broke their daily Ramadan fast. Ballal's No Other Land co-director Basel Adra witnessed the attack. He tells Democracy Now! that settlers and soldiers together attacked [Ballal] physically, brutally, and abducted him," while soldiers pointed guns and fired warning shots at a group of villagers including women and children. Ballal screamed I'm dying" as he was being beaten. Although the Israeli military has accused Ballal and two other Palestinians of throwing stones at soldiers, another eyewitness, Jewish American peace activist Anna Lippman, says the accusations are groundless. The double standard is so strong here in the West Bank that Palestinians know that if they were to touch a stone, that could mean their life." Adra calls on international intervention to end the violent occupation of Masafer Yatta, where almost every day there is [an] attack." Since this interview was conducted, Ballal has reportedly been released from Israeli custody and returned to his family.

Do Not Let the World Look Away": Israel Kills 2 More Journalists, Incl. Al Jazeera's Hossam Shabat, Israeli Settlers Brutally Attack Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-Winning Filmmaker, in Occupied West Bank, Trump's National Security Team Accidentally Shares Yemen War Plans with Journalist in Signal Chat, U.S. Attacks on Yemen Kills at Least 2 More People in Sana'a, Russian Missiles Injure Dozens in Ukraine's Sumy; Ukraine Kills 6, Incl. 3 Russian Journalists, SCOTUS Rejects Landmark Youth Climate Case, Ending 10-Year Battle That Inspired New Legal Strategy, SCOTUS Rejects Case Challenging NYT v. Sullivan, SCOTUS Hears Arguments in Key Louisiana Redistricting Case, Trump Threatens 25% Tariffs on Countries That Buy Venezuelan Oil, USPS Chief Louis DeJoy Resigns as DOGE Prepares to Gut Agency, U.S. Judge Reaffirms Order Blocking Trump from Expelling Immigrants Using Wartime Order, Columbia Student and Green Card Holder Sues Trump Administration After ICE Attempts to Arrest Her

Education Secretary Linda McMahon says Columbia University is on track to regain its federal funding after the Ivy League institution yielded to the Trump administration's demands on Friday. The demands include banning face masks on campus, hiring 36 new security officers with greater power to arrest and crack down on students and appointing a senior vice provost" to oversee the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies and the Center for Palestine Studies. Students say they will continue to fight for Palestinian rights and for Columbia to divest from Israel, but free speech experts are sounding the alarm. We have no idea what comes next, but groveling before a bully, we all know, just encourages the bully," says Katherine Franke, former professor at Columbia Law School.

Badar Khan Suri is one of the many pro-Palestine scholars being targeted by the Trump administration. Suri, originally from India, is a Georgetown University professor and postdoctoral scholar on religion and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia. Last Monday evening, Suri was ambushed by masked federal agents with the Homeland Security Department as he and his family returned to their home in Rosslyn, Virginia, after attending an iftar gathering for Ramadan. Suri was taken into custody without being charged with or accused of any crime. He was told the federal government had revoked his visa. Over the next 72 hours, Suri was transferred to multiple immigration detention centers, and he is currently jailed at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana, separated from his wife, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent, and his three children. Unlike Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate facing deportation, Suri is not a political activist," says Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown University. He was just a very serious young academic focusing on his teaching and his research."

The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to target free speech on college campuses and one doctoral student at Cornell University who was involved in pro-Palastinian protests on campus now finds himself targeted for deportation once again. Momodou Taal is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Africana Studies at Cornell University who is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the Gambia. He was suspended twice last year for joining a demonstration calling on Cornell to divest from Israel and faced deportation until massive protests pressured Cornell to allow him to reenroll, thereby extending his visa. Earlier this month, Taal, along with two U.S. citizens, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration's executive orders that target foreign nationals who it claims are national security threats. I believed I was going to be a target eventually," says Taal.

Israel Renews Attacks on Gaza's Hospitals as Its Full-Scale War Continues, Erdoan Intensifies Crackdown on Rival mamolu as Court Jails the Detained Istanbul Mayor, Columbia Caves to Trump Demands, Outlines Plans to Militarize Campus, Reinforce Censorship, Trump Orders DOJ and DHS to Punish Law Firms That Challenge His Agenda, Trump to Revoke Temporary Status of 530,000 People from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, WaPo: IRS Could Soon Release Personal Data of Immigrant Taxpayers to DHS, U.S. Judge Blocks ICE from Deporting Activist Jeanette Vizguerra, Social Security Head Briefly Threatens to Shut Down Agency, Pentagon Hosts Elon Musk But Skips Briefing on China After Media Reports, Musk's PAC Offers Wisconsin Voters $100 as He Pours Millions into Key Supreme Court Race, U.S. and Russia Hold Talks in Saudi Arabia as Negotiations Continue to End Ukraine War, Sudanese Army Sweeps Major Sites in Khartoum After Seizing Presidential Palace, South African Ambassador Returns Home to Warm Welcome After Expulsion from D.C., South Korean Court Reinstates Prime Minister Han Duck-soo as President Ahead of Yoon Suk Yeol Ruling, Canadian PM Calls for Snap Election to Take On Trump, Most Significant Crisis of Our Lifetimes", Greenland Pushes Back on Highly Aggressive" Planned Visit by Members of Trump White House, 34,000 Rallygoers Attend Bernie and AOC's Denver Stop on Fighting Oligarchy" Tour

The U.S. government this week released thousands more records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, long a source of fascination and intrigue. This is the final batch of JFK files after the federal government began declassifying documents in the early 1990s. While these latest files contain no major revelations about the assassination, they do include many previously redacted details about the CIA global effort to influence elections, sabotage economies, overthrow governments," says Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst with the National Security Archive, a government transparency organization and research institution. Now at least we know what was being done in our name but without our knowledge."

We speak with the Brennan Center's Faiza Patel, who warns the Trump administration is ramping up efforts to target international students and other visitors and immigrants to the United States over pro-Palestinian speech. The State Department has reportedly launched a new effort using artificial intelligence to help identify and revoke visas for people the government deems to be supporting U.S.-designated terrorist groups, based primarily on the individuals' social media accounts. Foreign students are running scared," says Patel. She also notes that while AI-driven sounds really fancy," the process is more likely to be a basic keyword search prone to rudimentary mistakes."

We get an update on legal efforts to stop the Trump administration from deporting Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who has been detained for two weeks despite being a legal resident with a green card. The Trump administration has explicitly said it is targeting Khalil because of his pro-Palestinian advocacy during protests at Columbia University last year, invoking a rarely used provision of immigration law to claim he could undermine U.S. foreign policy. Federal Judge Jesse Furman recently ordered the case to be moved to New Jersey, even though Khalil himself remains locked up in an ICE jail in Louisiana. In doing so, Judge Furman acknowledged that the right court to hear this is here, in the area where all of these events played out, where Mahmoud's family is, his eight-month-pregnant wife is, his community is and his lawyers are," says Shezza Abboushi Dallal, a member of Khalil's legal team.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday instructing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to start dismantling her agency, although it cannot be formally shut down without congressional approval. Since returning to office in January, Trump has already slashed the Education Department's workforce in half and cut $600 million in grants. Education journalist Jennifer Berkshire says despite Trump's claims that he is merely returning power and resources to the states, his moves were previewed in Project 2025. The goal is not to continue to spend the same amount of money but just in a different way; it's ultimately to phase out spending ... and make it more difficult and more expensive for kids to go to college," Berkshire says. She is co-author of the book The Education Wars: A Citizen's Guide and Defense Manual and host of the education podcast Have You Heard.

Israel Pushes Further into Gaza; Genocide's Death Toll Rises, with 200 Children Killed Since Tuesday, Trump Signs Executive Order to Dismantle the Education Department, U.S. Judge Blocks DOGE from Accessing Personal Info at Social Security Administration, U.S. Judge Slams DOJ for Again Defying Orders as Immigrants Targeted for Deportation over Tattoos, ICE Issues New Contract for GEO Group as NLRB Drops Detainee Abuse Case Against the Prison Co., Trump Rescinds Order Targeting Law Firm After It Agrees to Provide $40M in Legal Services, Reports: Elon Musk Attending Pentagon Briefing on Possible China War Plans, M23 Fighters Capture Another Town in Eastern Congo After Rwanda and DRC Leaders Call for Ceasefire, Sudanese Army Recaptures Presidential Palace in Khartoum, A Coup to the National Will": Arrests and Mass Protests in Turkey After Arrest of Ekrem mamolu, Mediterranean Shipwreck Claims at Least 6 Refugee Lives, with 40 Missing, Off Italian Island, UCLA Students Sue over Suppression of Gaza Protests, Violent Attack by Angry Mob Last Spring, International Student Activist Momodou Taal Sues to Block Trump Orders Targeting Protesters, 1,000+ Jewish Activists and Allies Rally for Mahmoud Khalil, House Democrats Start to Openly Call for New Leadership After Schumer Budget Debacle, AOC Joins Bernie Sanders on His Hugely Popular Fighting Oligarchy" Tour in Red and Swing Districts

A legal battle is continuing between the Trump administration and a federal judge over the president's invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to expel over 130 immigrants from the United States to a mega-prison" in El Salvador over claims that they are members of a Venezuelan gang. Margaret Cargioli, an attorney who is representing one of the men, an LGBTQ asylum seeker who did not have a deportation order when he was effectively disappeared by ICE, says the unilateral expulsion of asylum seekers is extremely unusual and concerning." Cargioli's client was not deported. He was sent there unlawfully," and his disappearance not only puts his asylum case at risk, but also his life. CECOT, the prison in El Salvador that the Venezuelan nationals were sent to, is infamous for torture and other human rights abuses, while Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's authoritarian rule has been marked by a long-running suspension of due process rights. Juan Pappier, who has investigated the prison system in El Salvador for Human Rights Watch, says people who are sent to CECOT will never be allowed out."

The new book Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful by The New York Times business investigations editor David Enrich chronicles an ongoing campaign by the wealthy and powerful to overturn the landmark Supreme Court decision New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which in 1964 established bedrock protections against spurious defamation and libel cases in the U.S. legal system. By subject[ing] people to this torturous, long-running and extremely expensive legal process," those who can afford to pay for expensive and threatening defamation lawsuits can silence any public criticism and suppress others' rights to free speech, says Enrich. It has huge implications for our democracy and the ability of everyone to speak their mind."

A jury in North Dakota has ordered Greenpeace to pay more than $660 million in damages for defaming Energy Transfer Partners, the corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Texas-based pipeline company accused Greenpeace of orchestrating criminal behavior by training and providing funds to the Indigenous-led protests at Standing Rock. Greenpeace and its supporters, including other nonprofits and advocacy groups, argued that the lawsuit is part of a conspicuous attempt by corporations to destroy the right to free speech. Longtime human rights and environmental lawyer Steven Donziger, who was part of the independent trial monitoring team observing the trial, says it was purposely held in a region of the country with deep ties to the fossil fuel industry. Donziger said most of the jurors in the case were connected to the industry and were predisposed" to rule in favor of Energy Transfer despite the false narratives" presented at the trial. Greenpeace plans to appeal the ruling.

Israel Kills Another 100 Palestinians; Death Toll Tops 700 in 3 Days Since Gaza Ceasefire Withdrawal, Israel Forces Gazans to Flee Once Again in Renewed Genocidal Campaign, This Was Not an Accident": U.N. Condemns Deadly Israeli Attack on U.N. Facility, International Legal Coalition Will Pursue Israelis Involved in Gaza War Crimes, U.S. Continues Attacks on Yemen and Houthi Movement, Global Protests for Gaza Continue After Israel Resumes All-Out War, Zelensky Agrees to Pause Energy Attacks; Trump Says He Wants Ownership of Ukraine's Nuclear Plants, An Attack on the 1st Amendment": Greenpeace Ordered to Pay $667M over Standing Rock Protests, Trump to Issue Executive Order to Dismantle Education Department, Education Department Sued for Freezing Student Loan Repayment Plans, Justice Department Removes Guidance to Businesses on Disability Rights, ICE Detains Georgetown Researcher Who Spoke Out for Palestinian Rights, Trump Administration Freezes $175 Million in Funds to UPenn over Trans Athletes, Judge Transfers Case of Jailed Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil to New Jersey, CAIR Calls on Harvard and UNH to Cancel Professorships of Former Biden Advisers, Immigrant Rights Groups Sue ICE over Enforced Disappearance" of 48 People, Pentagon Appeals Judge's Order Freezing Purge of Transgender Military Members, Pentagon Purges Thousands of Articles About Minority and LGBTQ+ Personnel

The Social Security Administration is considering drastic new anti-fraud measures that could disrupt benefit payments to millions of Americans, according to an internal memo first obtained by the political newsletter Popular Information. The changes would force millions of customers to file claims in person at a field office rather than over the phone. An estimated 75,000 to 85,000 elderly and disabled adults per week would be diverted to field offices. This comes even as the Trump administration slashes jobs and closes offices at the agency. Officials in the Social Security Administration who spoke with reporter Judd Legum, founder of Popular Information, have told him that there is an effort to break the organization."

Immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra, who has lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years, was arrested by ICE agents in Colorado on Monday. She was ambushed during her work break by ICE officials and is now being held in a private prison in Aurora. Vizguerra rose to fame during Trump's first term when she evaded immigration officials by staying in a church basement with her four children and was named one of the 100 most influential people of the year by Time magazine in 2017. The courts may not save us, but we save each other," says Jennifer Piper, program director at the American Friends Service Committee, Colorado. Only the people can save each other and make justice and democracy real." We also speak with Vizguerra's 21-year-old daughter Luna Baez, who says her mother had felt under surveillance before her arrest, including by people in unmarked vehicles. It's something that is very, very scary," she says.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement Tuesday criticizing attacks by President Trump and his allies on federal judges. For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision," he said. Roberts's statement came after Trump called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the Trump administration to stop using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants. On Saturday, the administration ignored Boasberg's order to turn around three deportation flights bound for El Salvador. We speak with The Nation's justice correspondent Elie Mystal on the Trump-led breakdown of constitutional order. There's not a coming constitutional crisis," says Mystal. We are in a constitutional crisis right now."

The nearly two-month ceasefire in Gaza has been shattered as Israel carries out a second day of intense airstrikes. At least 27 Palestinians were killed in overnight strikes Tuesday night. This comes a day after Israel killed over 400 Palestinians, including at least 174 children. The bombing is the most savage attack that Gaza has witnessed in over a year," says Muhammad Shehada, a writer and analyst from Gaza. He says the renewed assault in Gaza is linked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's legal and political challenges at home. When you're in crisis, nothing would unite your government, nothing would suppress any sort of protest or opposition, more than killing Palestinians."