Democracy Now!

A new documentary, Where Olive Trees Weep, explores Palestinian loss, trauma and the fight for justice over decades of life under Israeli occupation. We speak with two people featured in the film: Ashira Darwish, a Palestinian journalist and therapist, and Dr. Gabor Mate, an acclaimed Hungarian Canadian physician whose work focuses on addiction and trauma.I was only 16 when I was taken," says Darwish, describing the first time she was beaten and arrested by Israeli soldiers, which motivated her to become a journalist in order to both document and fight against the occupation. What's happening in Palestine is devastating, and what's happening in the West Bank and Gaza has been going on for 75 years."Mate, a Holocaust survivor born in Hungary, recounts his own trauma as a child and says that same horror" is being inflicted on Palestinian children today.

An Israeli airstrike on a U.N. school in central Gaza has killed at least 40 people, including 14 children, according to local authorities. Nearly 80 Palestinians were also wounded in Thursday's predawn strike that hit the al-Sardi School run by UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. The Israeli military says it was targeting militants operating in the school, but provided no evidence to back up its claims. UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai tells Democracy Now! the school had been sheltering about 6,000 displaced Palestinians, like many other UNRWA facilities since the start of the war in October. International law is clear. International humanitarian law calls for the protection of civilians," Alrifai says, who adds that the war has also resulted in the highest toll ever" for U.N. agencies and workers. More than 170 UNRWA buildings, most of them serving as shelters, have been hit since the beginning of the war, killing more than 450 people. ... A ceasefire is what everyone in Gaza needs right now."

Israeli Attack on UNRWA Shelter Kills at Least 40 Gazans, Many of Them Children, U.N. Warns 1 Million Gazans Could Face Deadly Starvation by Mid-July, The Situation Is Apocalyptic": MSF Nurse Describes Horrific Scenes in Deir-al-Balah, Far-Right Israeli Nationalists Attack Palestinian Journalists in East Jerusalem on Naksa Day, Israel to Shut Down Sde Teiman Prison, Where Detained Gazans Have Been Tortured, Spain Is Latest Country to Join South Africa's Genocide Case Against Israel at World Court, 13 Stanford Students Arrested, Suspended After Occupying President's Office, U.N. Chief Antonio Guterres Calls for End to Advertising for Fossil Fuels, Indigenous Activists in Ecuador Call for End to Gas Flares in Amazon, 50 Organizations Call on Biden to Pardon Human Rights Lawyer Steven Donziger, EU Voters Cast Ballots That Will Determine Bloc's Handling of Migration, Climate, New Washington Post CEO Accused of Censorship, Rupert Murdoch-ization" of WaPo, Arizona GOP Puts Draconian Anti-Immigrant Measure on Nov. Ballot, Senate GOP Shuts Down Measure to Protect Access to Contraception

President Biden has issued one of the most restrictive immigration policies ever declared under a recent Democratic administration. It will temporarily shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, deny asylum to most migrants who do not cross into the U.S. via ports of entry, and limit total asylum requests at the southern border to no more than 2,500 per day. The ACLU has threatened to sue the Biden administration over what reporter John Washington, who covers immigration in Arizona, calls an excruciating and likely deadly" decision. An illegal asylum seeker is a contradiction in terms," Washington continues. People have the right, according to U.S. law, to ask for asylum irrespective of how they crossed the border or where they are or what their status is. And this rule really flies in the face of that."

The website of the Columbia Law Review was taken down by its board of directors on Monday after student editors refused a request from the board to halt the publication of an academic article written by Palestinian human rights lawyer Rabea Eghbariah titled Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept." The article argues for the Nakba to be developed as a unique legal framework, related to but distinct from other processes defined under modern international law, including apartheid and genocide. This is not the first time that Eghbariah's legal scholarship has been censored by an Ivy League institution. The Harvard Law Review last year refused to publish a similar, shorter article it had solicited from Eghbariah even after it was initially accepted, fully edited and fact-checked. Eghbariah calls the abrupt rejection of his work offensive," unprofessional" and discriminatory," and says it is really unfortunate to see how this is playing out and the extent to which the board of directors is willing to go to shut down and silence Palestinian scholarship. ... What are they afraid of? Of Palestinians narrating their own reality, speaking their own truth?"

Israeli forces began an escalated offensive in central Gaza today, with at least 75 people killed by airstrikes in the past 24 hours, as Israeli bombardment and shelling continue in the north and south, as well. There is no safe place in Gaza," says 19-year-old Helmi Hirez, who has been repeatedly displaced since October. Hirez was forced to flee from the north, where 14 members of his family were killed in an airstrike on his home in Gaza City. When he and his parents and siblings moved to Rafah, they were bombed and buried beneath the rubble, and his mother was killed. Now we are just squeezed in the middle," Hirez tells Democracy Now! as he recounts his story from where he is currently sheltering. This is just my continuous journey of displacement from one place to another, my continuous journey of loss."

ACLU to Sue Biden over Asylum Ban at U.S.-Mexico Border, India: In Shocking Election Outcome, Modi's BJP Loses Parliamentary Majority, Israel Kills 75 Palestinians as Attacks Intensify on Central Gaza, Biden: Netanyahu Is Prolonging War on Gaza for Political Self-Preservation, U.S. Army Officer Who Resigned over Gaza Speaks Out, GOP-Led House Votes to Sanction ICC for Seeking Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu, Exposed: Secret Israeli Campaign to Influence U.S. Lawmakers & Public over Gaza, Rights Group Criticizes Israel for Shelling Lebanese Areas with Incendiary White Phosphorus, Andy Kim Wins NJ Democratic Senate Primary; 9% of NJ Voters Select Uncommitted" Over Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland Criticizes GOP Attacks on DOJ, Ukraine Attacks Russian Soil Using U.S.-Made Weapons, Mexican Woman Mayor Assassinated Days After Election of Mexico's First Woman President, Red Cross Suspends Food Distribution in Areas of DRC as Conflict Spreads, Wisconsin AG Files Felony Charges Against Trump Campaign Attorney Kenneth Chesebro, Hunter Biden's Drug Use at Center of Opening Arguments in Gun Trial

More than 15,000 Palestinian children have been killed over the past eight months of Israel's assault on Gaza, and Palestinian officials are warning over 3,500 children are at risk of death due to starvation. The trauma is unimaginable," says Janti Soeripto, the president and CEO of Save the Children US, who is calling for a ceasefire, the protection of humanitarian workers and the allowance of aid into the besieged territory. Over these past couple of weeks, it has even gotten worse." Soeripto also calls for more international attention on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where over 7 million have been swept up in one of the world's largest displacement crises as armed groups fight across the country. The DRC should play a much more important, critical role for the international community, and it should get attention and the support its population deserves," says Soeripto, who asks the U.S. to support a peace process and fund humanitarian relief.

In a historic election, Claudia Sheinbaum has become the first woman elected president of Mexico. Sheinbaum is a climate scientist, former mayor of Mexico City and close ally of sitting president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. She owes a lot to women's movements in Mexico," says Laura Carlsen, director of MIRA: Feminisms and Democracies. This is more than a symbolic victory. What it means is that there's an example for younger women that women can be leaders." Carlsen says feminist movements are hopeful Sheinbaum's administration will take on Mexico's high rates of gender-based violence and femicide. Meanwhile, to the north, President Biden is signing an executive order today that would temporarily shut down the U.S.-Mexico border after asylum requests made by migrants surpass 2,500 a day, and Mexico's cooperation will be key in enforcing the measure.

Self-described as the world's coolest dictator," Nayib Bukele was sworn in Saturday for a second term as president of El Salvador in a move widely denounced as illegitimate. El Salvador's constitution limits presidents to one term and prohibits consecutive reelections. However, a 2021 Constitutional Court ruling approved Bukele's reelection bid after his allies in the Salvadoran National Assembly illegally removed all five magistrates from the court and replaced them with Bukele supporters. Democracy Now! speaks with Roman Gressier, a reporter in San Salvador covering Central American politics for El Faro English, about Bukele's popularity during his dramatic crackdown on gangs, the surveillance of journalists and human rights organizations, and the parallel U.S. delegations" to Bukele's inauguration from both the Biden administration and a cast of right-wing, Trump-aligned characters despite growing condemnation of Bukele's authoritarian rule.

Preliminary results from the world's largest election suggest Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP party will have a reduced majority in Parliament, with the opposition alliance known by the acronym INDIA doing better than expected. During India's six-week election, voters and poll workers endured deadly heat waves, and vocal critic Arvind Kejriwal was sent to prison on corruption charges. This comes as Modi's opponents have accused the prime minister of using hate speech after he described Muslims in India as infiltrators." Meanwhile, journalists who are critical of Modi have been expelled, investigated and raided by his government. The massive reduction" in power, despite holding one of the most undemocratic elections," demonstrates the anti-Muslim rhetoric has not quite worked for Modi," says Indian journalist Rana Ayyub in New Dehli. This election result, it might still give Modi a third term, but it has punctured the hubris around Modi."

Fate of U.S.-Backed Ceasefire Remains Uncertain as Israel Continues to Kill Palestinians, Israeli Strike in Aleppo Kills Iranian General; Houthis Target Site Inside Israel, U. of Toronto Students Hold Graduation and Vigil for Gazans Who Have Been Deprived of Their Education, We Are the Red Line": Activists Occupy Israeli Consulate in San Francisco, Queer Activists Call on Larger LGBTQ Community to Condemn Israel's Genocide in Gaza, Modi Holds onto Power, But His BJP Loses Support as India Tallies Election Ballots, Time Is Running Out": U.N. Warns Millions of People at Risk of Famine, Nigerian Unions Go on Strike for a Living Wage, Biden to Sign Order That Could Shut Down U.S.-Mexico Border, ProPublica: Trump Team Rewarding Witnesses in Ex-President's Criminal Cases, Texas Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuits Challenging Abortion Ban, Community Groups Blast Eric Adams's Plans for NYC's Version of Cop City, Hong Kong Activists Risk Arrest to Mark 35th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre

We go to South Africa for an update on how the African National Congress, the party once led by Nelson Mandela, has lost its governing majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in South Africa. The ANC, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, remains the largest party in the National Assembly. It got just 40% of the vote in last week's election and won 159 seats in the 400-seat parliament. The liberal Democratic Alliance is the largest opposition party with 87 seats, but the biggest gains were made by the new uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party led by former President Jacob Zuma, who left the ANC under investigation for corruption. South African activist Trevor Ngwane, chair of the United Front, a coalition of community and labor groups, says a crisis of everyday life" all but guaranteed the ANC's setback as the country grapples with high unemployment, corruption, crumbling infrastructure and social services, and deepening inequality. The ANC failed to fulfill the promises of national liberation. It fell too short of the expectations of the masses, of the working class and the poor," says Ngwane. We also speak with journalist Louis Freedberg, who says the majority of the population of South Africa is under 30 and sees little hope for the future. They've lost faith in government, and they actually don't believe that anything will get better," he says. The ANC must now decide how to build a coalition government for the first time.

As voters in the United Kingdom prepare to head to the polls on July 4 for what is widely expected to be a Labour Party landslide, we speak with a prominent candidate who was dropped by the party as part of a purge of left-wing members. Faiza Shaheen was told by Labour leadership that she is no longer the party's candidate in her London constituency after liking pro-Palestine posts on social media, including a tweet about the difficulties of speaking about Israel-Palestine, which also included a well-known video of comedian Jon Stewart making the same point. Shaheen, a Black economist identified with the left wing of the party, is the latest woman of color to face sanction by the Labour Party now led by centrist Keir Starmer. Whereas before the Labour Party did have a broad church of voices, they have been systematically blocking and taking out anyone that they consider to be on the left," says Shaheen, who adds that the party has also ignored the racist and Islamophobic abuse she has received, while protecting many white candidates accused of misconduct. It's not just about me or my community or how angry we are here. It's about the kind of government we're going to have for the next four or five years."

At least a thousand pro-Palestinian protesters took over the Brooklyn Museum in New York on Friday, with a small group occupying the lobby while others unfurled banners on the facade of the building reading Free Palestine: Divest from Genocide." Police arrested at least 34 people, including Within Our Lifetime founder Nerdeen Kiswani, whose hijab was ripped off as officers tackled and arrested her. Democracy Now! was on the scene and spoke with protesters, who said that almost eight months into Israel's brutal assault on the Gaza Strip, prominent institutions in the U.S. have an obligation to disclose their ties to the occupation and divest. We are making it clear that we will continue to occupy institutions just like this one and call out individuals like the board of the Brooklyn Museum to make clear that their money and our money is being used for this genocide," said Abdullah Akl, a member of Within Our Lifetime, a Palestinian-led community organization.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday outlined what he described as an Israeli ceasefire proposal to end the war in Gaza, nearly eight months after Israel began its invasion in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas. Biden described three phases to release captives held by both sides, allow residents to return to the north of the Gaza Strip and begin reconstruction of the devastated territory after the full withdrawal of Israeli troops. Hamas said it looked positively on the proposal and previously accepted similar terms, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to agree to it publicly amid pressure from far-right members of his governing coalition to continue the war indefinitely. Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy says Biden may have employed constructive ambiguity" about Israel's position in order to bring the two sides closer to a deal, but that the most important goal is to end the horrors" in Gaza with a permanent ceasefire. What are the maximal guarantees that can be given that this is not just a 42-day hiatus followed by yet further death, killing, destruction that we still now see every day?" asks Levy, who is now president of the U.S./Middle East Project.

Mexico Elects Claudia Sheinbaum, Its First Woman and First Jewish President, Biden Pushes Ceasefire Deal, 8 Months and 36,000 Palestinian Deaths into Israel's Gaza Slaughter, Netanyahu Accepts Invite to Address Joint Session of Congress Despite Opposition Within Democratic Party, Jabaliya Residents Return to Razed Homes as Israeli Attacks Continue Across Gaza Strip, Reports: Israeli Strike in Syria Kills 16 People, Police Arrest 80 Protesters at University of California, Santa Cruz Encampment as UC Strike Expands, Graduation Protests for Gaza at Univ. of Chicago, Vassar; Columbia Students Set Up 3rd Encampment, South Africa's ANC Loses Outright Majority for First Time in 3 Decades, 6-Week Indian Election Wraps Up Amid Deadly Heat Wave, Crackdown on Opposition, Nayib Bukele Sworn In to 2nd Presidential Term in El Salvador as Protesters Decry U.S. Support, Trump Warns Supporters Might Reach Breaking Point" If He Is Sentenced to Prison, Hunter Biden Gun Possession Trial Starts in Delaware, Atlanta Under Emergency Boil-Water Order After Water Main Breaks

After working at the U.S. State Department for over 20 years, Stacy Gilbert quit the Biden administration this week after a report she contributed to concluded Israel was not obstructing humanitarian assistance to Gaza. Gilbert served as a senior civil military adviser in the State Department's chief humanitarian office, which features heavily in internal policy discussions over Gaza. Despite abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid," the report concluded the opposite and was used by the Biden administration to justify continuing to send billions of dollars of weapons to Israel. Gilbert says she was shocked" to find that the report concluded Israel was not not blocking humanitarian assistance: That is not the view of subject matter experts at the State Department, at USAID, nor among the humanitarian community. And that was known. That was absolutely known to the administration for a very long time." Gilbert says there is a clear pattern by Israel of arbitrarily limiting, restricting or just outright blocking assistance going in that has caused the very grave situation in Gaza."

In a broadcast exclusive, Democracy Now! speaks with Alex Smith, a former contractor with the U.S. Agency for International Development who resigned in protest over the Biden's administration's support for the war on Gaza. Smith worked as a senior adviser on gender, maternal health, child health and nutrition at USAID until last week, when he was set to deliver a presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians. One day before he was scheduled to present, the USAID leadership canceled his presentation. Smith says he was then given a choice between resignation and dismissal. I would like them to stop gaslighting and speak truthfully about what is happening," says Smith, who says USAID must do more than acknowledge famine is happening in Gaza. We need to take the next step of saying it is illegal and who is doing the starvation intentionally." Smith condemns the Biden administration for silencing U.S. experts while supporting Israel, which claims there is no famine in Gaza. It's shameful that that misinformation can go around the world to millions, while we at USAID can't even whisper about it in a conference on gender and human rights and health outcomes."

In a historic verdict, a New York jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts in his criminal hush money and election interference trial. Trump is now the first former president to be convicted of a felony and faces up to four years in prison. All this is unprecedented in the history of American republicanism," says U.S. historian Manisha Sinha. A man like Trump could very much upend this over-200-year historical experiment in representative government." Trump can still be president as a convicted felon and is poised to become the Republican nominee for the nation's highest office in July. One of the most dangerous things about Trump is that he's not a one-man show," says Sinha. He's the presumptive nominee of a political party in a two-party system. That in itself poses an immense danger to American democracy."

Guilty on all 34 felony counts - that's the historic verdict delivered Thursday by a New York jury in former President Donald Trump's hush money and election fraud criminal trial. Trump was charged with falsifying business records to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in order to protect his 2016 presidential campaign and is now the first former president to be convicted of a felony, facing the possibility of up to four years in prison. Judge Juan Merchan set his sentencing date on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention, where Trump will become the party's official presidential nominee. Trump, who can still be president as a convicted felon, slammed the verdict as a disgrace," and his defense team plans to appeal. We speak with criminal defense attorney Ron Kuby, who followed the case closely and says there was a tsunami of circumstantial evidence" that supported the prosecution's case. The defense never posed any sort of realistic counternarrative," says Kuby.

Donald Trump Has Been Found Guilty on 34 Felony Charges in New York Criminal Trial, Israeli Strikes in Bureij and Nuseirat Camps in Central Gaza Kill Entire Families, Israeli Forces Withdraw from Jabaliya After Decimating the City, Destroying 1,000 Homes, Israel Burns Down Ramallah Veggie Market as Smotrich Says Israel Will Turn West Bank into Ruined Cities", MSF: Israeli Bid to Label UNRWA as Terror Group An Outrageous Attack on Humanitarian Assistance", Houthi Movement Says U.S.-U.K. Strikes Killed 16 in Yemen's Hodeidah, Slovenian Government Recognizes Palestinian Statehood, Silence Is Complicity": Nurse Starts Hunger Strike Outside White House, U.S. Quietly Reverses Position, Allows Ukraine to Use U.S. Weapons in Russia, According to Reports, 24 Deaths Reported in One Day in India Amid Protracted Heat Wave, CBS: Biden Admin Planning to Send Some Migrants to Greece and Italy for Resettlement, SCOTUS Sides with NRA in First Amendment Challenge Against New York Official

As public concern grows about the health and environmental impacts of so-called forever chemicals, a new investigation by ProPublica and The New Yorker reveals that 3M, the American manufacturing giant, discovered and concealed the risks of these toxic substances for decades. PFAS are used in everyday products, from nonstick cookware to food packaging, but take decades or longer to break down in the body and environment. They have been found in the blood of almost every person in the United States and are linked to serious health effects. Investigative reporter Sharon Lerner says 3M knew as early as the 1970s that forever chemicals were dangerous even in small amounts, but kept those findings secret and gaslit" one of its own scientists, Kris Hansen, who later raised concerns about forever chemicals in human blood samples. Her direct bosses had been aware of the presence of this chemical in blood, even though they ... appeared to act surprised when she brought her findings," says Lerner. They knew all along that what she was finding was true."

A judge in Canada this week ruled that a student protest encampment could remain standing at the University of Toronto until at least mid-June, when a top court will decide on an injunction filed by the school requesting the police to clear the pro-Palestinian protesters off campus. Students and faculty launched the encampment on May 2 to protest Israel's war on Gaza. It quickly became one of the largest encampments in North America with 175 tents, hundreds of campers, and a sacred fire led by Indigenous elders. Administrators at the University of Toronto, Canada's largest university, had wanted to clear the encampment before graduation ceremonies begin in early June. We know what we're doing is just. And all of us are willing to stand our ground no matter what happens," says Mohammad Yassin, a graduating senior, spokesperson for Occupy University of Toronto and a member of the student negotiating team. Yassin is Palestinian with family members currently in Gaza. We also speak with geography professor Deb Cowen, part of the Jewish Faculty Network, who says the encampment is a precious learning space" bringing students together. We have maybe never seen our campus be so alive with the spirit of debate, of creative thought, of rigorous conversation and dialogue," Cowen says.

We speak with Kenneth Roth, international affairs scholar and former head of Human Rights Watch, about revelations that Israel waged a nearly decadelong campaign to intimidate the International Criminal Court in order to stop possible war crimes prosecutions of Israeli officials. A joint investigation by The Guardian and the Israeli +972 Magazine revealed that Israel surveilled, hacked, smeared and threatened top ICC officials, including chief prosecutor Karim Khan and his predecessor, Fatou Bensouda. The former head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, is said to have personally threatened Bensouda. The revelations come just a week after Khan announced he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three top leaders of Hamas. This is a crime," Roth says of the Israeli campaign against the ICC. He says the revelations also undermine U.S. claims that Israel can hold itself accountable. There is no good-faith Israeli investigation. There is a concerted, high-level effort to undermine justice to protect Netanyahu, Gallant and others from war crime charges."

Israel Seizes Entire Gaza-Egypt Border, Continues Deadly Invasion of Rafah, Palestinian Journalist Motasem Dalloul Loses Two Young Sons in Israeli Strikes, Send the Whole World to Gaza": Families Beg the World to Help End Israeli Border Blockade, Spain Hosts Palestinian PM as European Countries Extend Diplomatic Relationship with Palestine, Brazil Withdraws Tel Aviv Ambassador; China Calls for Int'l Peace Conference, Stop Fueling Genocide": Activists Block Entrance to Chevron Headquarters, Celebrated NYC Nurse Fired After Highlighting Gaza Genocide in Speech, Meta Removes Hundreds of Fake Accounts Set Up by Israeli Firm, NATO Members Meet Amid Debate over Allowing Ukraine to Use Western Weapons in Russia, Another Candidate for Mayor Killed in Mexico Days Ahead of Nationwide Election, Hong Kong Convicts 14 Pro-Democracy Activists in National Security Trial as Authorities Expand Arrests, Thousands of Rohingya Displaced Along Burma's Border as Fighting Intensifies, Jurors Deliberate for Second Day in Trump's NYC Criminal Trial, Samuel Alito Rejects Calls to Recuse Himself from Supreme Court Cases Related to Jan. 6 and Trump

A major New York Times investigation explores the history of one of America's most important allies in the war against the Taliban: Abdul Raziq. While fighting in Afghanistan, Raziq was frequently praised by American generals and oversaw soldiers trained, armed and paid by the United States and its allies." But to civilians in the area, Raziq became known as America's monster" after coming to power through years of torture, extrajudicial killing and abduction. Raziq, who was assassinated in 2018, was responsible for the largest known campaign of forced disappearances during America's 20-year war in Afghanistan. Raziq was basically the poster child for brutality by the U.S.-backed government," says New York Times journalist Matthieu Aikins. Despite knowing about the abuses, the U.S. continued to work with Raziq side by side because he was just so effective in the war." Aikins argues U.S. wishful thinking and self-delusion" about the atrocities committed by U.S. troops and allies is part of the reason why the U.S. failed in Afghanistan despite spending 20 years there and so many hundreds of billions of dollars."

In Mexico, millions of voters are poised to elect the first woman president in the country's history when they cast their ballots on Sunday. Voters will be choosing between front-runners Claudia Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City, and Xochitl Galvez, a former senator; and a third candidate, Jorge Alvarez Maynez, who is trailing further behind in the polls. The landmark moment has filled many with hope as Mexico has one of the highest rates of gender violence and femicides in Latin America. This is the primary contradiction for Mexico. You're going to elect a woman, but you still haven't resolved the fact that women are being murdered at the rate of about 10 to 11 every single day," says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, who interviewed both Sheinbaum and Galvez. Hinojosa says the two front-runners are the result of decadeslong work by feminists in Mexico, along with feminists all over Latin America, pushing for equality."

Jury deliberations begin today in Donald Trump's hush money and election interference trial. Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to a $130,000 hush money payment that his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. In a marathon day of closing arguments, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass argued that the payment scheme amounted to an effort by Trump to manipulate and defraud the voters" before the 2016 presidential election by preventing Daniels from going public with her claim that she had a sexual encounter with Trump. It was an amazing summation in which every piece of evidence was explained as a part of the entire narrative of Trump criminality," says Ron Kuby, a criminal defense lawyer. On the other hand, Trump's defense lawyer Todd Blanche branded Cohen, the prosecution's star witness, as the greatest liar of all time" and dismissed the trial as a politicized attack. If Trump is found guilty, it will likely be weeks or months until he is eventually sentenced. The charges carry a maximum of four years in prison, and Trump is expected to appeal any conviction.

White House: Israeli Attack on Rafah Tent Camp Does Not Violate Biden's Red Line", Algeria Proposes New U.N. Resolution on Gaza as Mexico Seeks to Join ICJ Genocide Case, New U.S.-Made Pier Breaks Apart Off Coast of Gaza, Halting Aid Shipments, From Hacking to Surveillance, Israel Waged War" on ICC Prosecutors, State Dept. Official Resigns After U.S. Claims Israel Is Not Obstructing Aid to Gaza, Pro-Palestinian Protests Continue Across Globe, Jury Deliberations to Begin in Donald Trump Criminal Trial, India Issues Red Alert Amid Record Heat as Int'l Court Holds Climate Hearing in Flood-Ravaged Brazil, Papua New Guinea Links Deadly Landslide to Climate Crisis, Transitional Council in Haiti Picks New Prime Minister, Replacing Official Picked Weeks Ago, Georgia Lawmakers Override Veto to Pass New Foreign Agents Law, South Africa Holds Election as ANC Risks Losing Majority, Texas House Speaker Wins GOP Primary Runoff Against Trump-Backed Challenger, 2024 Race: Jill Stein Secures Enough Support for Green Nomination; Libertarians Pick Chase Oliver

As we mark Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States, we're joined by Mae Ngai to discuss the life and work of legendary Chinese American photographer Corky Lee, who documented the Asian American community in a career that spanned five decades before his death from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Ngai is the co-editor of the new book Corky Lee's Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice. We also play excerpts of the new documentary Dear Corky by filmmaker Curtis Chin, which features Lee himself discussing his activism and career. Lee often said his aim in life was to break stereotypes of Asian Americans one photograph at a time. He wanted to make Asian Americans visible when we had been invisible, erased from American history," says Ngai.

Two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to immediately stop its assault on Rafah, Israeli warplanes began to drop bombs on refugee tent camps in what had previously been declared a safe zone." At least 45 people, including children and infants, were killed in the bombing. We discuss the ruling and the massacre in Rafah with Ahmed Abofoul, a legal researcher and advocacy officer at the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq who was born and raised in Gaza. Abofoul is now based in The Hague, where the International Court of Justice recently ordered Israel to halt its assault on Rafah in a genocide case brought by South Africa. Abofoul notes the significance of the World Court ruling but decries Israel's complete disregard for international orders, including previous ICJ rulings this year. Israel is lying," while its allies are parroting whatever Israel is saying." Without a direct enforcement mechanism, attempts to rein in Israeli attacks are likely to continue to fail. Will complicit" Western states continue business as usual, or will we see sanctions on Israel?" Abofoul asks. Everything I know in Gaza has been destroyed," he adds. This is a genocide. This is about the erasure of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and as a whole, and this is the essence of Zionism as a settler-colonial ideology."

We go to Rafah for an update after an Israeli attack on refugee tent camps in what had previously been declared a safe zone" killed at least 45 people, including women and children. Basically, the situation is totally catastrophic," reports Palestinian journalist Shrouq Aila, from Rafah. She explains the bombs set tents made largely of nylon on fire, igniting a deadly blaze, and that Israel's relentless assault has made three hospitals in the city inoperable. People are in a total mess and desperate because of this," she says. Aila has been displaced since the start of the war from Jabaliya, where she had been studying English at the now-destroyed Islamic University of Gaza.

Israeli Bombing of Rafah Camp Kills 45 People, Burns Children Alive, ICJ Orders Israel to Immediately Halt Its Military Offensive in Rafah", Spain, Norway and Ireland Formalize Recognition of Palestinian State, Gaza Solidarity Protests Continue Following Attack on Rafah Camp, UCLA Police Make First Arrest Weeks After Violent Mob Attacked Gaza Solidarity Encampment, University of Toronto Asks Court to Allow Campus Arrests After Protesters Defy Deadline to Disband, Reporters Without Borders Asks ICC to Investigate Israeli War Crimes Against Gaza Journalists, At Least 18 Killed in Russian Strike Amid Intensifying Kharkiv Offensive, Death Toll Estimate from Papua New Guinea Landslide Rises to 2,000, Temperatures Top 125 Degrees in South Asia; Brazilian Flood Survivors Face Threat of Disease, Mexico Faces Water Shortages as Another Heat Wave Sends Temperatures Soaring, 22 People Killed in Memorial Day Weekend Storms, South Korea, Japan and China Hold First Joint Summit in Years; Comfort Women Protest Japan in Seoul, WHO Members Fail to Reach Consensus on a Pandemic Treaty, Trump's NYC Criminal Trial to Head to Deliberations After Closing Arguments, Liberian Man Detained at Stewart Immigrant Prison Has Died, Uvalde Families Sue Meta, Microsoft and Gunmaker Daniel Defense, UAW Challenges Alabama Mercedes-Benz Loss at NLRB

We spend the rest of our Memorial Day special with Nathan Thrall and Abed Salama, the author and subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book detailing the many bureaucratic barriers and indignities that make the lives of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation even more difficult. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy focuses on the 2012 death of Salama's son, 5-year-old Milad, who was killed in a fiery bus crash during a school field trip to a theme park. What followed was a desperate daylong search by Salama and his family to locate Milad's body across different cities and hospitals, encountering numerous barriers due to the Israeli occupation system, like different ID cards giving varying levels of access through military checkpoints, and lack of help from any Israeli authorities. I think and I hope the book will make some changes and help us as Palestinians to live our lives as other people around the world," says Salama. This interview first broadcast on October 5, 2023.

In Part 1 of our Memorial Day special broadcast, we speak with Jerusalem-based journalist and author Nathan Thrall, who was recently awarded the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for his book, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy. Thrall discusses Israel's ceasefire talks with Hamas and Israel's intensified crackdown in the West Bank. The restrictions on movement in the West Bank are the worst that they have ever been since the occupation began," Thrall says. He also responds to the cancellation of some of his book talks in Germany.

Israel's seizure of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt has sparked anger from the Egyptian government, which has warned that Israel is endangering the landmark 1978 Camp David Accords that normalized relations between the two countries. Despite the increasingly critical tone about Israel's war on Gaza, however, Egyptian authorities have closely coordinated with Israel in decisions around allowing humanitarian aid in through the Rafah crossing and allowing Palestinians out of Gaza. Egyptian security forces have also locked up over 120 people in Egypt, placing them in pretrial detention on terrorism charges for expressing solidarity with Palestine. There is a fear within the system that allowing people to voice support and solidarity with Palestinians' opposition to Israel will extend not just to criticism of the Egyptians' official position vis-a-vis the war ... but also extend to the domestic situation, the human rights situation, the unprecedented economic crisis the country is going through," says Egyptian journalist and human rights advocate Hossam Bahgat. He is executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and was banned from traveling outside of Egypt for the past eight years, with his assets frozen, as part of an Egyptian government crackdown on human rights NGOs. In March, Egyptian authorities finally closed the case against EIPR and other human rights groups and lifted the travel ban, allowing Bahgat to join us now in our New York studio.

More than a thousand Harvard students walked out of their commencement ceremony yesterday to support 13 undergraduates who were barred from graduating after they participated in the Gaza solidarity encampment in Harvard Yard. Asmer Safi, one of the 13 pro-Palestinian student protesters barred from graduating, says that while his future has been thrown into uncertainty while he is on probation, he has no regrets about standing up for Palestinian rights. This is an ethical stance that we're taking," Safi says. We also hear from history professor Alison Frank Johnson, one of over 100 faculty members who voted to confer degrees on the 13 seniors, who describes Harvard's punishment of them as an egregious departure from past precedent," as was the board's subsequent overruling of faculty. We hoped then that the Corporation, as it has always done in the past, would accept our recommendations for degree recipients and allow the 13 to graduate, which they chose not to do."

The presidents of UCLA, Northwestern and Rutgers universities were questioned Thursday on Capitol Hill about pro-Palestine protests on campus Thursday, the fourth time in six months that the Republican-led House Education Committee has summoned school leaders to Washington over accusations of antisemitism. Lawmakers reserved their heaviest questioning for the presidents of Northwestern and Rutgers, where Gaza solidarity encampments were voluntarily dismantled after students negotiated deals with university administrators. Northwestern journalism professor Steven Thrasher, who has been an outspoken supporter of the Gaza solidarity encampments at his school and elsewhere, was singled out during the hearing and described as a goon," but he tells Democracy Now! he is undeterred in both his pro-Palestine advocacy and defense of his students. It's supposed to scare everybody who supports Gaza. It's supposed to scare everybody who's against the genocide. It's supposed to scare students who are righteously standing up against the killing that's happening," says Thrasher.

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The new Netflix documentary Power examines the role of police in the United States. We speak to its Oscar-nominated director, Yance Ford, about how policing is used to suppress dissent and protect property in the U.S., its relationship to imperialism and occupation, and the significance of the film's release ahead of the fourth anniversary of the death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who was killed when police officers placed him in a deadly chokehold and who became a rallying point for protests against anti-Black racism and police brutality. The thing that police want to do more than anything else is contain and control threats to order," says Ford. What we still see in the U.S. and around the world today, from the Black Lives Matter movement to the campus Gaza solidarity movement, is the use of police as small militaries whose job is to suppress dissent."

When a group of volunteer doctors with the Palestinian American Medical Association traveled to Gaza last month, they were prepared to treat some of the most horrific injuries caused by Israel's relentless assault on civilians in Gaza. But they were not prepared to be stranded under the bombardment for over a week after the Israeli military seized and closed the border crossing into the southern end of the besieged region, preventing people and supplies from getting in or out. Dr. Adam Hamawy, a plastic surgeon and Army veteran from New Jersey, has now evacuated Gaza after he was trapped at European Hospital in Khan Younis with dwindling supplies. Hamawy, who previously treated Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth for a life-threatening injury while both were in the Army, was offered evacuation along with another group of American doctors days earlier, but refused to leave without first securing the release of his entire volunteer medical team. He now emphasizes that he and his colleagues must be immediately replaced with additional humanitarian relief workers. It was never a condition for our exit to have other people come in - it was an expectation," he says. A hospital cannot run on just a few doctors alone. It also needs nurses, it needs staff."

Three European nations have announced plans to recognize the State of Palestine, joining 143 other countries around the world in formal recognition. Leaders in Ireland, Norway and Spain cited a desire to support a political solution to the ongoing conflict in Gaza as the driving force behind the announcements, while Israel responded by recalling its ambassadors from all three countries. Israel's Ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich called the move a prize for terrorism." Catherine Connolly, an independent member of the Irish parliament, rejects Erlich's characterization, instead calling recognition a step for peace" and a direct result of people's outrage and upset" over Israeli brutality in Palestine. She connects the Palestinian national struggle with Ireland's own fight for recognition at the League of Nations just over a century ago and its history with famine and colonialism. Our solidarity is with people who suffer in any way, but particularly from famine," Connolly says. Next Tuesday will be historical, when we raise the Palestinian flag on the grounds of our parliament."

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We speak with The New Republic's Kate Aronoff about how President Biden has unveiled steep tariff increases on various Chinese imports, including electric vehicles, which will quadruple from the current tariff rate of 25% to 100%. What you see ... is Biden really looking to lean into a really quite hawkish position on China," says Aronoff. She explains why Biden is caught between insulating the American auto industry from competition and allowing affordable EVs to enter U.S. markets for climate goals. Aronoff says experts say Biden should work with China on this industry and to not see this as zero-sum competition. We need to build a lot of clean technology. This is a very large pie, and there's no reason why the United States cannot also have a piece of it."

The Intercept columnist Natasha Lennard details how the combination of anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic repression and very few worker protections across the U.S. has created a very dangerous constellation" for academic laborers that is overwhelmingly only facing pro-Palestinian speakers, not speakers who are supporting Israel's genocide." She calls it the New McCarthyism" on college campuses. A lot of media attention has focused on the spectacle of encampments and the very, very brutal police response," says Lennard. What you also have going on behind the scenes is the targeting of individuals who work at universities."

Students and faculty at The New School, home to the first faculty Gaza solidarity encampment, have announced they reached a deal with the university to hold a vote on divesting from Israel by June 14. The agreement comes after months of campus protests, encampments and the occupation of a university building to demand The New School divest its endowment from companies arming and supporting Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank. The school's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter has said the university currently has ties to several companies that are actively involved in, and benefiting from, the genocide in Palestine," including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Google and Caterpillar. What this is not is an end to war or famine or occupation, and so we're keeping our eyes on the bigger picture, which is Palestine," says Alexandra Chasin, a professor at The New School and member of the faculty encampment negotiating team. We hope to be a model, or at least to help organizers at other universities, as well."

We speak with Palestinian American University of Michigan student Salma Hamamy, who was pepper-sprayed and beaten at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor when the Gaza solidarity encampment there became the latest to be violently dismantled Tuesday morning in the nationwide crackdown on student-led protests in solidarity with Palestine. Student protesters set up the encampment about a month ago to demand the University of Michigan's endowment divest from companies with ties to Israel, but school President Santa Ono claimed the peaceful action had become a threat to public safety. Dozens of officers raided the encampment before dawn, arresting and hospitalizing students after pepper-spraying and pushing them to the ground. I repeatedly said that my family has been killed, and that is why I am here. And as I was saying that through the megaphone, police officers snatched the megaphone out from my hand," says Hamamy. She explains the university has refused to discuss divestment with protesters. Instead of meeting with us at the table and meeting with us at the encampment, they decided to meet us with violent force and chemical attacks." University of Michigan President Santa Ono is slated to appear before Congress Thursday alongside the presidents of UCLA and Yale.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces raided the northern city of Jenin early Tuesday morning, killing at least eight Palestinians, including a doctor shot dead on his way to work and a teenager riding his bicycle. About a dozen others were injured, including a journalist. Motasem Abu Hasan, an actor at The Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp who escaped the invasion, describes the ongoing attack on the camp. They are shooting everything," says Abu Hasan. The Freedom Theatre was about to premiere their first play since October 7 as part of their wider effort to share the Palestinian narrative and reveal the truth about the Israeli occupation." The raid began just as Spain, Ireland and Norway became the latest European states to recognize the Palestinian state. It's a result of the cultural intifada," says Abu Hasan. That's why we really believe in the power of narrative, especially in The Freedom Theatre, in Palestine, in Jenin camp."

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