Democracy Now!

The Trump administration unveiled its $4.1 trillion budget Tuesday. The plan includes massive cuts to social programs, while calling for historic increases in military spending. The budget proposes slashing $800 billion from Medicaid, nearly $200 billion from nutritional assistance programs, such as food stamps and Meals on Wheels, and more than $72 billion from disability benefits. The plan would also completely eliminate some student loan programs. It would ban undocumented immigrants from receiving support through some programs for families with children, including the child care tax credit. The budget also calls for an historic 10 percent increase in military spending and another $2.6 billion to further militarize the U.S.-Mexico border, including $1.6 billion to build Trump's border wall. For more, we speak with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Britain: 4,000 Soldiers Deployed Nationwide After Manchester Bombing, Trump Hires Lawyer for Investigation into Campaign Ties with Russian Officials, John Brennan Reveals Concern About Collusion Between Trump Campaign & Russia, Senate Committee Subpoenas 2 of Michael Flynn's Businesses, Smiling Trump Meets with Glum-Looking Pope Francis at Vatican, Baltimore Tenants Say Kushner Companies are "Neglectful" Landlords, Philippines: Duterte Declares Martial Law in Mindanao, Trump Praised Duterte for His Bloody War on Drugs in April Phone Call, Iraqi Military Opens Probe into Human Rights Abuses by Its Troops, Pentagon: Army Failed to Keep Track of $1 Billion Worth of Arms in Iraq & Kuwait, Syrian Rights Group: U.S. Airstrikes Killed 225 Civilians over Past Month, Bahrain Troops Kill 1 Protester & Arrest 200+ at Sit-in Supporting Shia Cleric, Tunisia: Thousands Gather for Funeral of Protester Killed by Police, U.S. Sues Fiat Chrysler over Software Allowing Ram Trucks to Skirt Emissions Rules, Thousands Protest McDonald's & Amazon Shareholder Meetings

Upon the release of longtime political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, New York City's Puerto Rican Day Parade organizers have chosen to honor Rivera as the parade's first "National Freedom Hero." This prompted the city's police chief to boycott the event. "You shouldn't be telling people who their heroes should or shouldn't be," responds Jumaane Williams, New York city councilmember. In 1981, López Rivera was convicted on federal charges including seditious conspiracy—conspiring to oppose U.S. authority over Puerto Rico. In 1999, President Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 members of the FALN, but López Rivera refused to accept the deal because it didn't include two fellow activists, who have since been released. In January, President Obama commuted Oscar López Rivera's sentence. He was finally freed earlier this month.

In a partial victory for the Haitian-American community, the Department of Homeland Security announced Monday it has extended Haitians' temporary protected status (TPS). Tens of thousands of Haitians were given TPS after an earthquake devastated their country in 2010, and the new extension will allow them to continue to legally reside and work in the U.S. for the time being. If the Trump administration refuses to extend TPS after the six-month reprieve expires, up to 55,000 Haitians could be forcefully repatriated to their fragile, struggling homeland. Human rights advocates note Haiti is still reeling from Hurricane Matthew, which in October 2016 destroyed the country's southwest peninsula. The hurricane killed more than 1,000 people and decimated villages and farmland. Haiti is also suffering from a devastating cholera epidemic that erupted after the earthquake. We get response from Jumaane Williams, New York city councilmember for District 45. His district represents one of the largest populations of Haitians in the United States.

In Manchester, England, at least 22 people were killed in a bombing at a concert arena at the end of a performance by American pop star Ariana Grande. Dozens more were wounded in the explosion, which appears to be a suicide attack. ISIS has now claimed responsibility. We get response from Nathan Thrall, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, who is in Jerusalem and discusses the impact of the attack on the region. "It makes things harder for the Palestinians, because this news was then used to highlight the issue of Palestinian terrorism and the issue of payments to families of Palestinians who have fought against Israel and been killed or imprisoned."

President Trump arrived in Bethlehem Tuesday during a two-day visit to Israel as part of his first trip abroad as president and vowed to do whatever necessary to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This comes as Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza launched a general strike Monday to protest Trump's visit to Israel and Palestine and to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners currently on hunger strike in Israeli jails. We get an update from Jerusalem, where Nathan Thrall of the International Crisis Group notes leaders on both sides are unsure what to expect from Trump, who made negative comments about Israel on the campaign trail. "That's really the locus of the fear on the Israeli side with respect to Trump," Thrall says. "It's the notion that he could really try and exert pressure on Israel, threaten real consequences in the U.S.-Israeli relationship, if Israel were not to agree to, let's say, the outlines of an American proposal for a settlement of the conflict or the outlines of an American proposal on which the two sides would negotiate and work out the details." Thrall argues that if Trump uses his leverage, "we're looking at a totally different Israeli-Palestinian peace process than we have seen in the past."

New Orleans has removed the last of four Confederate statues in recent weeks. Workers wore bulletproof vests and face coverings to conceal their identities as they used a crane to remove the statue from its pedestal. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said threats and intimidation necessitated the overnight work and extra safety precautions. White nationalists have staged a series of protests and issued threats in the lead-up to the memorials' removals. Though the four most prominent Confederate monuments have been removed, activists are calling for New Orleans officials to remove all monuments, school names and street signs in the city dedicated to white supremacists. We speak with Malcolm Suber, co-founder of Take 'Em Down NOLA.

Manchester, U.K.: 22 Killed in Concert Arena Attack Claimed by ISIS, Palestinians Launch General Strike to Protest Trump's Visit, Flynn to Plead the Fifth; Lawmakers Accuse Flynn of Lying to Pentagon Investigators, Trump Unveils $4 Trillion Budget Calling for Massive Cuts to Health & Food Programs, DHS Extends Haitians' Temporary Protected Status, Indian Military Officer Awarded After Ordering Kashmiri Civilian Be Tied to Army Truck, Colombia: Major Protests Continue in Buenaventura, Despite Crackdown, Mexican Journalists Demand Authorities Investigate Kidnapping of Colleague, Supreme Court Rules North Carolina Lawmakers Gerrymandered 2 Districts, Denver: Undocumented Mother Wins Stay of Deportation After Seeking Refuge in Church

Last week Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's security detail assaulted a group of peaceful protesters outside the Turkish ambassador's residence. Video from the scene shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan looking on during the assault. It's not clear if Erdogan gave the order for the attack. The assault came shortly after Erdogan was welcomed to the White House by President Trump. For more, we speak with Seyid Riza Dersimi, who was violently attacked during the protest and rushed by ambulance to the hospital, where he received stitches on his nose and was treated for a head injury. We also speak with Ruken Isik, a Kurdish activist and Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She attended last week's protest and wrote a piece for The Huffington Post titled "Will Erdogan's Thugs Face No Consequences for Attacking Us on U.S. Soil?"

President Trump vowed to isolate Iran during his major address to Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia. He accused Iran of funding, arming and training militias and other extremist groups in region, while ignoring Saudi Arabia's role in destabilizing the region. Trump's remarks came just two days after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was re-elected in a landslide vote Friday. Rouhani's main challenger, hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi, received only 38 percent of the vote. For more on Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia and Iran's election, we speak with Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council. He's the author of the new book, "Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy," out next week.

In his first foreign trip abroad as president, Donald Trump traveled this weekend to Saudi Arabia, where he signed a series of arms deals totaling $110 billion. This comes in addition to more than $115 billion offered in arms deals to Saudi Arabia by President Obama during his time in office. The deal also includes precision-guided munitions, which the Obama administration had stopped selling Saudi Arabia out of fear they would be used to bomb civilians amid the ongoing Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen. Since 2015, 10,000 people have been killed in the ongoing fighting, which has also decimated the country's health, water, sewage and sanitation systems. The arms deal includes tanks, artillery, ships, helicopters, a missile defense system and cybersecurity technology. We speak to Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink and author of the book "Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection."

Trump Visiting Israel as More Palestinians Prisoners Join Hunger Strike, Trump Visits Saudi Arabia and Signs $110B Arms Deals, Trump Called Comey "Real Nut Job" & Said His Firing Reduced "Pressure" over Russia, Students March Out of VP Mike Pence's Notre Dame Commencement Speech, Iraq: 50 People Killed in Suicide Bomb Attacks; Thousands Flee Mosul, Syrian Gov't Retakes Full Control of Homs, Once the "Capital of the Revolution", Iran: President Hassan Rouhani Re-elected in Landslide Election, NYT: Chinese Gov't Jailed or Killed Up to 20 CIA Sources Since 2010, North Korea Launches Medium-Range Ballistic Missile Test, Brazil: Temer Faces Calls to Resign over Accusations of Accepting Millions in Bribes, U.N.: South Sudanese Pro-Gov't Forces Killed 114 Civilians in Yei in Six Months, Billy Bush: 2005 Access Hollywood Tape Brought His Daughter to Tears, WA State: Officials Probe Possible Leak at Hanford Nuclear Site, Maryland: FBI Probing Murder of African-American Student as Hate Crime, Ohio: No Indictment for White Officer Who Killed 13-Year-Old African-American Boy, New Orleans Removes Confederate Statue of General Robert Lee

Civil rights advocate and best-selling author Michelle Alexander responds to the new push by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to escalate the war on drugs by rescinding two Obama-era memos that encouraged prosecutors to avoid seeking inordinately harsh sentences for low-level drug offenses. He has also instructed Justice Department prosecutors to pursue "the most serious" charges for all drug offenses.

We are joined by two leading voices in the fight against mass incarceration: Michelle Alexander, author of the best-selling book "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," and Susan Burton, founder and executive director of A New Way of Life, a nonprofit that provides housing and other support to formerly incarcerated women. Burton is the author of the new memoir, "Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women," in which she describes her journey from a childhood filled with abuse to drug addiction as an adult, and then to the fight to address the underlying issues that send women to prison. Alexander writes in the book's introduction, "There once lived a woman with deep brown skin and black hair who freed people from bondage and ushered them to safety. She welcomed them to safe homes and offered food, shelter, and help reuniting with family and loved ones. She met them wherever they could be found and organized countless others to provide support and aid in various forms so they would not be recaptured and sent back to captivity. … Some people know this woman by the name Harriet Tubman. I know her as Susan." See Burton and Alexander speak in New York City Friday night at 7pm. More details "here":https://thenewpress.com/events/susan-burton-michelle-alexander-abyssinian-baptist-church

Swedish prosecutors have dropped an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange has denied the allegations, which he calls a pretext for his ultimate extradition to the U.S. to face prosecution under the Espionage Act. Since 2012, Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. It's not clear whether Assange will emerge any time soon. "This is a small victory, but in this long road to free Julian Assange and all the people working for WikiLeaks," says our guest Renata Avila, a Courage Foundation trustee and human rights lawyer. "But it will finally help us lawyers to focus on the main issue, which is the persecution, the political persecution, and imminent prosecution of Julian Assange in the United States."

Swedish Prosecutor Drops Sex Crimes Investigation of Julian Assange, President Trump Denies Ordering James Comey to Call Off Flynn Probe, House Democratic Leader Questions Special Counsel's Independence, Deputy AG Knew Trump Planned to Fire Comey Before Writing Memo, Trump to Announce $110 Billion Saudi Arms Deal in First Trip Overseas, Former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes Dead at 77, FCC Vote Advances Bid to End Net Neutrality, Reporter "Manhandled" by FCC Security Guards for Asking Question, In Video, Turkish President Watches Bodyguards Attack D.C. Protesters, Syria: U.S. Warplanes Attack Convoy of Pro-Assad Forces, Brazil: President Michel Temer Refuses to Resign Amid New Scandal, Venezuela: Antigovernment Protests Rage as Trump Talks Intervention, Greek Parliament Approves Fresh Austerity Measures Amid Protests, California: Police Investigate Murder of Gender Nonconforming Person, Chelsea Manning Tweets First Picture of Herself as a Free Woman

Since 2000, more than 100 journalists have been murdered in Mexico. A recent report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies says that Mexico endured the second most conflict deaths of any country in the world last year, with a staggering 23,000 people killed amid the country's so-called war on drugs. Mexico was second only to Syria, where 50,000 people were killed in 2016 by the ongoing war. The third, fourth and fifth most dangerous countries were Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. We speak with Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández, who has faced attacks and death threats for her reporting on the Mexican drug trade and has said, "A journalist who has to walk with bodyguards is an embarrassment for any nation."

"Let them kill us all, if that is the death sentence for reporting this hell. No to silence." Those are the words of award-winning Mexican reporter Javier Valdez, after one of his colleagues, Miroslava Breach, was assassinated in late March. On Monday, Valdez was also assassinated, dragged out of his car and shot 12 times, less than a block from the office of Ríodoce, the newspaper he co-founded in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The killing of Valdez, who wrote for the prominent newspaper La Jornada, has sparked widespread outrage across Mexico. On Tuesday, as hundreds of people gathered for Valdez's funeral in Culiacán, Sinaloa, hundreds more protested outside the Interior Ministry in Mexico City. Multiple Mexican digital media outlets also went on a 24-hour strike, refusing to publish anything but a black banner with the names of the journalists assassinated in Mexico so far this year: Cecilio Pineda, Maximino Rodríguez, Ricardo Monlui, Filiberto Álvarez, Miroslava Breach and Javier Valdez. We air Valdez's 2011 speech when he came to New York to receive the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

It has been another extraordinary 24 hours in the nation's capital. In the biggest news of the day, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to serve as a special counsel to oversee a probe into Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. The move came one day after reports emerged that President Trump had personally asked former FBI Director James Comey to end the agency's investigation into Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who was fired for lying both publicly and privately about his contacts with Russian officials. In another new development, The New York Times reports Trump picked Michael Flynn as his national security adviser even though Flynn had warned Trump's transition team that he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the campaign. We speak to Marcy Wheeler, an independent journalist who covers national security and civil liberties. She runs the website EmptyWheel.net.

DOJ Names Robert Mueller Special Counsel in Russia Investigation, NYT: Michael Flynn Told Trump Transition Team of Federal Probe, Reuters: Michael Flynn Had 18 Previously Undisclosed Russia Contacts, McClatchy: Flynn Executed Turkish Policy Goal as Unregistered Agent, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) Calls on Congress to Impeach President Trump, Three House Republicans Raise Possibility of Trump Impeachment, President Trump Assails Media over Mounting White House Scandals, Islamophobic Trump Adviser Stephen Miller Pens Trump Speech on Islam, Chelsea Manning Celebrates "First Steps of Freedom", Federal Judge Opens $123 Billion Puerto Rico Bankruptcy Hearings, Greek Workers Strike Nationwide Amid Latest Push for Austerity, Brazilian President Temer Reportedly Approved of Hush-Money Payoffs, Trump Administration Raises Pace of Deportations by 40 Percent, Radical Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke to Take Homeland Security Post, Tulsa, Oklahoma: Officer "Not Guilty" in Terence Crutcher Killing, Texas: Video Shows Officer in Dallas Suburb Tasing Handcuffed Man, New Orleans Removes Another Confederate Memorial, New York: Protesters Target Nuclear Power Bailout Plan, Oscar López Rivera Free After 36 Years in Prison

Environmental activists in California are fighting plans to store 3.6 million pounds of highly radioactive nuclear waste on a popular beach in San Diego County. In 2012, a radioactive leak at the San Onofre nuclear power plant forced an emergency shutdown. The plant was fully closed by June 2013. Now residents are fighting the permit issued by the California Coastal Commission to store the millions of pounds of nuclear waste in thin, stainless steel canisters, within 100 feet of the ocean. We speak to Ray Lutz, founder of Citizens' Oversight, which has filed a lawsuit challenging the expansion of the nuclear waste storage facility.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly recently visited the San Diego-Tijuana border, where they vowed to crack down on sanctuary cities and urged local officials to cooperate fully with federal immigration agents. We speak to Enrique Morones, executive director and founder of Border Angels.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C., has agreed to open a case against the U.S. government for the murder and cover-up of Anastasio Hernández Rojas, who was killed by border agents seven years ago. Hernández Rojas died as he tried to cross the border to return to San Diego, where he had lived for 25 years and had fathered five children. The San Diego Coroner's Office classified Anastasio Hernández Rojas's death as a homicide, concluding he suffered a heart attack as well as "bruising to his chest, stomach, hips, knees, back, lips, head and eyelids; five broken ribs; and a damaged spine." We speak to Christian Ramirez, the director of Southern Border Communities Coalition and human rights director of Alliance San Diego.

The report on President Trump urging FBI Director James Comey to end the agency's investigation into Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, came just a day after The Washington Post revealed President Trump had disclosed highly classified intelligence to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the White House. We talk to CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou about his own case and the significance of Trump divulging classified secrets to Russia.

President Trump is facing yet another major scandal. The New York Times is reporting Trump personally asked FBI Director James Comey to end the agency's investigation into Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. The New York Times reports President Trump made the extraordinary request to James Comey during an Oval Office meeting on February 14—one day after Trump fired Flynn for lying both publicly and privately about his contacts with Russian officials. Trump reportedly asked Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to leave the room before making the request to Comey. After the meeting, Comey wrote a memo quoting the president saying, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." We speak to John Kiriakou, who spent 14 years at the CIA as an analyst and case officer. He was jailed for 23 months after he became the first CIA official to confirm publicly the Bush administration's use of waterboarding.

NYT: Trump Asked Then-FBI Director Comey to End Michael Flynn Probe, NYT: Trump Asked Comey to Jail Journalists Who Report on Leaks, Israel Cited as Source for Intel Disclosed by Trump to Russians, Some Lawmakers Considering Trump Impeachment, Trump Welcomes Turkey's Authoritarian President to the White House, President Erdogan's Bodyguards Attack Peaceful Protesters in D.C., Afghanistan: Gunmen Storm Jalalabad Radio and TV Station, Iraq: Family of 8 Killed in U.S.-Led Coalition Airstrike on Mosul, U.S. Army Whistleblower Chelsea Manning Freed After 7 Years in Prison, Puerto Rican Independence Activist Oscar López Rivera Freed, Mexican Journalists Protest Violence Against Media Workers, Britain: Labour Platform Would Tax the Rich, Expand Social Programs, Mississippi: First-Ever Hate Crime Conviction for Transgender Murder, Georgia: Immigrant Detainee Hangs Self After Solitary Confinement, Georgia Executes Prisoner After SCOTUS Denies Firing Squad Request, Civil Rights Lawyer Larry Krasner Poised to Become Philadelphia DA

On Monday, a federal appeals court in Seattle, Washington, heard arguments over Trump's second travel ban, which sought to prohibit all refugees and citizens of six majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States. This is the second such court review this month. This marks Trump's second attempt to roll out a nationwide Muslim ban. We speak to the man who successfully blocked Trump's first attempt—and ignited a legal firestorm of resistance: Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

Senior White House officials were apparently so alarmed by President Trump's disclosures of classified intelligence to Russia that they called the CIA and National Security Agency afterward to warn them of what had happened. Officials said they were concerned Trump's comments would jeopardize a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. We speak to Columbia Law School lecturer Scott Horton and Stanford professor Larry Diamond of the Hoover Institution. Diamond served as senior adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad.

President Trump has appeared to confirm parts of a bombshell Washington Post story that he had disclosed highly classified intelligence last week to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak last week during a meeting at the White House. Earlier this morning Trump wrote on Twitter, "As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism." According to The Washington Post, Trump disclosed highly classified intelligence—what's known as code-name information—about the possible threat of ISIS launching an attack on an airplane using a computer bomb. We speak to Stanford professor Larry Diamond of the Hoover Institution. He served as senior adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad.

WashPost: Trump Shared Classified Intelligence to Russian Foreign Minister, Airwars: Up to 100 Civilians Reported Killed by U.S.-Led Airstrikes in Iraq, Reports: U.S. Airstrikes Killed 30 People, Including a Dozen Children, in Syria, State Dept.: Syrian Government Burning Bodies of Those Killed at Saydnaya Prison, Yemen: Death Toll from Cholera Outbreak Rises to 187, Afghanistan: 5 Children Killed While Playing Near Mortar Round, Award-Winning Mexican Journalist Javier Valdez Assassinated in Sinaloa, Trump Meeting with Turkish President at White House Today, Seattle Appeals Court Hears Arguments over Trump's Second Muslim Ban, Japan: Thousands Protest U.S. Military Bases on Okinawa, U.N Calls for Investigation into Murders of Transgender Women in El Salvador, Trump to Expand Global Gag Rule, Threatening Funding of Hundreds of Health Clinics, In Victory for Voting Rights, Supreme Court Refuses to Hear NC Voter Law Appeal, California: Farmworkers Sickened by Toxic Chemical Approved by Scott Pruitt's EPA, West Virginia: Former Cop Sues After Being Fired for Not Shooting Suicidal Man

It has been almost a month since over 1,500 Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike inside Israeli jails. The strike, which began on April 17, was called by Marwan Barghouti to protest poor living conditions in prison and the administrative detention law, which allows Palestinians to be held without charge. Barghouti is the most high-profile Palestinian in Israeli detention. Some have described him as the "Palestinian Nelson Mandela." In a New York Times op-ed announcing the strike last month, Barghouti wrote, "Having spent the last 15 years in an Israeli prison, I have been both a witness to and a victim of Israel's illegal system of mass arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners. After exhausting all other options, I decided there was no choice but to resist these abuses by going on a hunger strike." We speak to his son Arab Barghouthi. He recently launched the "salt water challenge," asking supporters to express their solidarity with the hunger strikers by posting videos online drinking salt water.

President Trump recently invited Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to visit the White House, despite criticism from human rights groups over Duterte's so-called war on drugs, during which thousands of people have been extrajudicially killed by police and vigilantes. Our guest, neuroscientist Carl Hart, recently attended a drug conference in Manila. He had to leave the Philippines after his life was threatened.

In an escalation of the war on drugs, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has rescinded two Obama-era memos that encouraged prosecutors to avoid seeking inordinately harsh sentences for low-level drug offenses. He also instructed Justice Department prosecutors to pursue "the most serious" charges for all drug offenses. Former Attorney General Eric Holder condemned the move, saying, "The policy announced today is not tough on crime. It is dumb on crime." Under the Obama administration guidelines, the number of drug offenders given mandatory minimum sentences plummeted, contributing to a 14 percent decline in the total federal prison population. We speak to Carl Hart, chair of the Department of Psychology and a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, and former anti-drug-war activist Anthony Papa, who was sentenced to two 15-years-to-life sentences for a single, nonviolent drug offense.

Fallout continues to grow over President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey last week. The firing came just days after Comey requested more resources to probe Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. Senate Democrats are now threatening to refuse to vote on a new FBI director unless a special prosecutor is named to investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Meanwhile, pressure is growing on the administration to reveal whether Trump has been secretly recording conversations at the White House. On Friday, Trump tweeted, "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" Trump's possible recording of White House conversations has led many comparisons between Trump and former President Richard Nixon, who resigned on August 8, 1974—three days after the release of an audio recording of Nixon discussing the Watergate break-in. Nixon had fought off congressional subpoenas to release the tape, but eventually the Supreme Court forced him to hand it over. It later became known as the smoking gun tape. We speak to Elizabeth Holtzman, former U.S. congressmember from New York who served on the House Judiciary Committee that voted to impeach Richard Nixon.

Computer Hack Using Stolen NSA Cyberweapon Wreaks Havoc in 150 Countries, James Clapper: Trump Represents Assault on U.S. Institutions, Trump Threatens to End Daily News Briefings, White House Close to Finalizing $100 Billion Arms Deal with Saudi Arabia, North Korea Launches Latest Ballistic Missile Test, Denver: Jeanette Vizguerra & Arturo Hernández García Win Deportation Stays, Vermont Activist and Dairy Worker Cesar Alex Carrillo Deported to Mexico, Trump Administration Revokes DACA for DREAMer Jessica Colotl, Yemen: State of Emergency Declared in Sana'a as Cholera Kills 115 People, Pakistan: 25 Killed in Attack on Politician's Convoy in Balochistan, WHO: Ebola Kills 3 in Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexican Activist for Families Whose Children Have Been Disappeared Is Murdered, Mexico: Group of Reporters Attacked by Armed Men in Iguala, Guerrero, Hong Kong: Families Who Sheltered Edward Snowden in 2013 Face Deportation, Virginia: Torch-Bearing White Mob Protests Removal of Confederate Monument

On Thursday, racial justice groups began bailing women out of jail as part of a nationwide "Black Mama's Bail Out Day." The effort, taking place in nearly 20 cities, raises money to free as many black women from jail as possible in time for a Mother's Day celebration with their families. Organizers for Black Mama's Bail Out Day are calling for an end to the cash bail system, which keeps hundreds of thousands of people who have not been convicted of any crime imprisoned in jails every day nationwide while they await trial. For more, we speak with Mary Hooks, co-director of Southerners On New Ground, or SONG, an Atlanta-based regional LGBTQ nonprofit and one of the organizers of Black Mama's Bail Out Day.

We turn now to the investigative reporter Barrett Brown, who recently completed a four-year prison sentence related to the hacking of the private intelligence firm Stratfor, which exposed how the firm spied on activists on behalf of corporations. He was released from prison earlier this year but was unexpectedly rearrested late last month, one day ahead of a scheduled interview for an upcoming PBS documentary. Brown was detained for four days and then released without receiving any formal written explanation for the arrest. For more, we speak with Barrett Brown, along with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald.

A new report has called into question whether President Trump would have actually won Wisconsin during the 2016 presidential election without the state's strict voter ID law. The study published by the progressive advocacy group Priorities USA says the law suppressed the votes of more than 200,000 residents—the majority of whom were African-American and Democratic-leaning. President Trump won only about 23,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin.

Voting rights activists are expressing alarm after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday creating a "Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity." Particularly worrying to voting right activists is the selection of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as the vice chair of the commission. Kobach has pushed for the strictest voter identification laws in the country and advocated for a "proof-of-citizenship" requirement at the state and federal levels. For more, we speak with Ari Berman, senior contributing writer for The Nation, where he covers voting rights. His recent piece is headlined "Trump's Commission on 'Election Integrity' Will Lead to Massive Voter Suppression."

Trump Says "This Russia Thing" was Part of Reason He Fired Comey, Acting FBI Director Says Comey Had Not Lost Trust Within Agency, Critics Say Trump's Election Commission Will Further Suppress Vote, Sessions Tells Prosecutors to Seek Harshest Sentences for Drug Crimes, Senate Approves Robert Lighthizer as U.S. Trade Representative, Iowa Rep. Rod Blum Faces 4 Straight Angry Town Halls This Week, Airwars: 60+ Civilians Killed by U.S.-Led or U.S.-Backed Airstrikes in Iraq Tuesday, Argentina: Massive Crowds Protest Shortening Sentences of Dictatorship-Era Torturers, Greek Pensioners Blockade Finance Minister & Call for General Strike on May 17, Report: Mexico 2nd Deadliest Country in World in 2016, Behind Syria, Residents Celebrate Major Environmental Victory at Seneca Lake, Chancellor of UCSB Backs Student Calls to Divest from Fossil Fuels, Dakota Access Has Already Leaked Oil and It's Not Yet Even Operational, Florida U. Awarding Posthumous Degree to Trayvon Martin, Radical Priest and Catonsville 9 Member Thomas Melville Dies at 86

We are broadcasting from Washington state, where the Department of Energy declared a state of emergency at the Hanford nuclear site after a tunnel storing contaminated radioactive materials collapsed. The collapse, which was discovered Tuesday, forced hundreds of workers to take cover to avoid potential exposure. Hanford is the nation's most polluted nuclear weapons production site. The site has been leaking radioactive waste on and off for years. The Energy Department claims no radioactive contamination has been reported so far from Tuesday's tunnel collapse. But Edwin Lyman from the Union of Concerned Scientists said, "Collapse of the earth covering the tunnels could lead to a considerable radiological release." Now the Washington state Department of Ecology's Nuclear Waste Program has announced on Twitter that it has taken legal action against Hanford. We speak with Tom Carpenter, executive director of Hanford Challenge, which advocates for workers at the Hanford nuclear site.

A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, heard arguments Monday over President Trump's second travel ban, which sought to ban all refugees and citizens of six majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States. The panel of 13 judges appeared to be divided. As we broadcast from Seattle, we are joined by Matt Adams, lead counsel for the class action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's executive order. Adams is legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. He also describes how he is taking on U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions after the Department of Justice ordered his group to "cease and desist" from assisting unrepresented immigrants in deportation proceedings.

As we broadcast from Seattle, we get response from Kshama Sawant, a Socialist city councilmember, to President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey. "I would say that it is really indicative of the deep instability of this administration," Sawant says. "But we, as ordinary people, as social movements, we cannot wait for whether or not there will be a smoking gun that will be found in the investigations, which, of course, should go forward. The question is: What do we do now? And I think that right now the time is ripe to really build social movements." Sawant helped win a $15/hour minimum wage for all workers in Seattle. She is also a member of Socialist Alternative.

As more details come to light about President Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, which reportedly came just days after he asked the Justice Department for more resources to expand the bureau's investigation into Russia's meddling in the presidential election, we speak with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University. Her recent piece for CNN is headlined "Trump at his most dangerous," and she is currently working on a book entitled "Strongmen: From Mussolini to Trump."

Report: Comey Fired Days After Seeking to Expand FBI's Probe into Russian Election Meddling, White House Accuses James Comey of Committing "Atrocities" as FBI Chief, Schumer Warns Trump Firing of Comey, Yates, Bharara Part of "Deeply Troubling Pattern", In Letter, James Comey Urges FBI to Remain Independent, Senate Intel Committee Subpoenas Michael Flynn, Trump's Ex-National Security Adviser, over Russia Ties, At Urging of Putin, Trump Hosts Lavrov & Kislyak at White House; U.S. Press Barred from Meeting, Education Sec. Betsy DeVos Graduation Speech Met by Boos at Historically Black College, HHS Secretary Tom Price Commends Arrest of Journalist for Asking Questions, Head of Census Bureau Resigns Ahead of 2020 Census, Senate Blocks Effort to Overturn Obama-Era Methane Emissions Rule, NC House Votes to Override Governor's Veto of Factory Farm Bill, Study: Glaciers Rapidly Disappearing at Glacier National Park, New South Korean President Vows to Bring Peace to Korean Peninsula, U.N.: 245 Refugees Died Off Coast of Libya, Report: U.S.-Led Airstrike Kills 11 in Syria, Including 4 Children, Hundreds Protest Cuts at Stony Brook University, Mother's Day Protests in Mexico Urge Authorities to Help Find Missing Children, New Orleans Removes Statue of Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis

President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House today, only one day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in what many see as an attempt to squash the FBI's investigation into Trump's ties to Russia. For more, we speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Many people are comparing Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey—who only weeks earlier had confirmed the FBI was investigating whether the Trump campaign worked with Russia to sway the 2016 election—to the Saturday Night Massacre when President Nixon fired independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Is Comey's firing the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency? For more, we speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Last week, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claimed that FBI Director James Comey and alleged Russian hacking cost her the U.S. election, saying, "I was on the way to winning, until a combination of Jim Comey's letter on October 28th and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off. If the election had been on October 27th, I'd be your president." But does that claim reflect what actually happened in the 2016 election? For more, we speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept.

Following Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, many Senate Democrats are now calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the Trump administration. In recent months, Comey had come under widespread criticism from many Democrats for notifying lawmakers just before the election that the FBI was once again investigating whether Clinton had sent classified information from her private email server while she was secretary of state. Just last week, Clinton said Comey's actions factored into her loss. Still, on Tuesday, dozens of Democrats spoke out against Comey's firing, saying they didn't believe it was over his handling of the investigation into Clinton's emails. For more, we speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept.

President Trump has set off a political firestorm after firing FBI Director James Comey, just weeks after Comey confirmed the FBI was investigating whether Trump's campaign collaborated with Russia to sway the 2016 election. Trump said he made the decision based on the recommendation of newly appointed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who both faulted Comey's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server. Rosenstein faulted Comey's remarks last July, when he announced the FBI would not seek charges against Clinton. The New York Times reports Sessions had been charged with coming up with reasons to fire Comey. For more, we speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept.