Democracy Now!

President Trump Fires FBI Director James Comey, Trump Meeting Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov at White House Today, Energy Dept. Declares Emergency at Contaminated Nuclear Site in Wash. State, South Korea Elects Moon Jae-in to Be Next President, Florida: 3 Arrested in Airport Revolt After Spirit Airlines Canceled Flights, Hundreds Protest Paul Ryan's Visit to NYC Charter School, Report: Islamophobic Attacks Surged 57 Percent in 2016, Report: Wisconsin's Voter ID Law Suppressed 200,000 Votes in Presidential Election, Report: CEOs Earning 347 Times More Than Average U.S. Worker, Ohio EPA Fines Energy Transfer Partners over 18 Pipeline Spills, Bloomberg: Oil to Begin Flowing Through Dakota Access Pipeline on May 14, Seattle: 26 Activists Arrested Demanding JPMorgan Chase Refuse to Fund Keystone XL Pipeline, Imprisoned Army Whistleblower Chelsea Manning Will Be Freed Next Week, Undocumented Activist & Student Carimer Andujar Walks Free from ICE Check-in, Reporter Arrested Asking HHS Head If Domestic Violence is Pre-existing Condition in GOP Health Plan, ACLU Issues Travel Alert About Texas After Gov. Signed Anti-Immigrant Law SB 4, DHS Has Been Compiling List of Alleged Crimes by Haitian Immigrants, Ferguson: Activists Mourn Death of Uprising Protester Edward Crawford

FCC head Ajit Pai has outlined a sweeping plan to dismantle net neutrality rules, which seek to keep the internet open and prevent corporate service providers from blocking access to websites, slowing down content or providing paid fast lanes for internet service. For more, we speak with Craig Aaron, president and CEO of Free Press.

The Sinclair Broadcast Group is reportedly nearing a $4 billion deal to purchase Tribune Media, which would give it control of more than a third of the country's local TV stations. The reported purchase comes after President Trump's pick to head the FCC, Ajit Pai, dramatically rolled back limits capping the number of stations one corporation can control. Sinclair's chair and former CEO, David Smith, is active in Republican politics and supported Donald Trump's campaign. For more, we speak with Craig Aaron, president and CEO of Free Press.

*Update: Carimer Andujar met with ICE officials today and was allowed to remain free.*Twenty-one-year-old Carimer Andujar came to the United States from the Dominican Republic with her family at the age of four. She is now in her third year studying chemical engineering at Rutgers University, where she has been an outspoken advocate for undocumented students. This morning, her future in this country is in limbo, as she's reporting to an ICE check-in, where she could face possible deportation. We spoke to Carimer yesterday as she prepared for today's check-in.

Texas is facing growing criticism after the state's Republican governor, Greg Abbott, signed into law one of the nation's harshest immigration bills, SB 4. The state bans sanctuary cities and allows police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they detain. The law was opposed by many powerful forces in Texas, including the police chiefs of every big city in the state as well as major religious leaders. For more, we speak with Gregorio Casar, a member of the Austin City Council, and Texas state Representative Rafael Anchía, who serves as chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus in the Texas House of Representatives.

Sally Yates Tells Senate Committee She Warned White House About Flynn, Trump Tweets About Sally Yates May Constitute Illegal Witness Intimidation, Appeals Court Hears Arguments over Trump's Second Muslim Travel Ban, Syria Gov't Says U.N. Will Not Be Allowed to Monitor "De-escalation Zones", Pentagon Pushes to Deploy 3,000 More U.S. Troops to Afghanistan, Somalia: Al-Shabab Attack in Mogadishu Kills 8, World Health Organization: 25 Die in Yemen from Cholera Outbreak, Up to 200 Refugees May Have Drowned in Mediterranean over Weekend, South Korea Voters Head to Polls for Presidential Election, Indonesia: Court Sentences Jakarta Governor to 2 Years in Prison, France: Hundreds March to Demand Macron Adopt More Progressive Platform, Interior Dept. Froze 200 Advisory Boards & Committees Last Week, Suit Accuses Mississippi County of Imposing "State of Siege" Against Black Residents, Texas: Family of Jordan Edwards Sues Balch Springs Police Dept. over His Murder

We go now to Arkansas, where the state executed four men in April, marking the first executions in Arkansas since 2005. Arkansas had initially planned to execute eight men over 11 days during the month of April, but several of the executions were blocked by the courts. One of the judges who blocked the state's efforts is now facing calls to be impeached. On April 14, state Judge Wendell Griffen issued a temporary restraining order that effectively halted six of the executions over concerns the state used false pretenses to obtain a key drug slated to be used in the executions. Following his ruling, Judge Griffen took part in an anti-death penalty protest outside the Governor's Mansion organized by his church to mark Good Friday. In addition to being a judge, Griffen is an ordained Baptist minister. Calls for Wendell Griffen's impeachment began soon after photographs from the vigil appeared in the press showing him lying down on a cot with his hands bound together as though he were a condemned man on a gurney. In his first national television interview, Wendell Griffen speaks to Democracy Now!

Puerto Rico has announced plans to close 179 public schools just days after filing for a form of bankruptcy protection, seeking to restructure $123 billion in debt and pension obligations, in the largest local government insolvency in U.S. history. The move is likely to slash money for healthcare, pensions and infrastructure. The territory petitioned for relief under Title III of the PROMESA law, which recognizes that Puerto Rico is not part of any state and must in some ways be treated as sovereign. Puerto Rico is legally barred from using Chapter 9, the bankruptcy route normally taken by insolvent local governments.

Former investment banker and political centrist Emmanuel Macron has been elected president of France in a landslide victory over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Macron won over 66 percent of the vote. Even though Le Pen lost, she received nearly 7 million votes—more than any other candidate in the history of her party, the anti-immigrant National Front. Le Pen had campaigned on an openly xenophobic and racist platform, calling for France to crack down on immigration and leave the European Union. Macron ran on a pro-trade and EU agenda. We speak to the French human rights and civil liberties activist and researcher, Yasser Louati. He recently wrote an article titled "French Elections: Marine Le Pen or Emmanuel Macron? Hitler or UBER?"

Emmanuel Macron Wins French Presidency over Far-Right Marine Le Pen, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs "Show Your Papers" Anti-Immigrant Bill, All-White, All-Male Senate Republican Group Drafting Health Bill, Federal Appeals Court to Hear Arguments on Trump Travel Ban, Army Secretary Nominee Withdraws over Anti-Islam, Anti-LGBTQ Comments, Senate Intelligence Committee Asks Trump Officials for Russia Emails, U.S.-Backed Iraqi Army Kills 81 Civilians in Strike on Mosul, U.S. Navy SEAL Kyle Milliken Killed in Somalia Ambush, Sinclair Broadcast Bid for Tribune Media Would Create Media Giant, EPA Head Scott Pruitt Dismisses Academics from Science Review Board, NC Governor Vetoes Bill Limiting Factory Farm Liability for Toxins, Texas Cop Who Killed 15-Year-Old Jordan Edwards Arrested for Murder, Los Angeles City Council Approves Resolution on Trump Impeachment

We are broadcasting from Atlanta, Georgia, home to Emory University, and we speak with Carol Anderson, chair of Emory's Department of African American Studies. Her recent book, "White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide," won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.

NAACP President and CEO Cornell Brooks responds to the case of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, who was killed Saturday in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs by police officer Roy Oliver, who shot him in the head while he was in a car leaving a party. Oliver was fired on Tuesday. "This is a moment in our democracy where we have got to not only call for reform, but demand reform," Brooks says. "That means not only lawyers in the courts pursuing charges, pursuing prosecution of bad police officers, but also means activists in the streets engaging in serious civil disobedience, serious disruption of business as usual, and literally bringing this system of police misconduct and brutality to a grinding halt."

The NAACP is calling for Louisiana to conduct a thorough investigation and vigorously pursue charges against the police officers who shot Alton Sterling, an African-American father of five who was gunned down by police in 2016. This comes after the Trump Justice Department declined to bring federal charges against officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake. "What's so frightening here is that these investigations, state and federal, are being conducted in an atmosphere of dangerous silence and dangerous presumption," says Cornell William Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP. "This code of blue prevents people from coming forward. It inhibits a free and frank discussion and testimony with respect to what's happened in so many instances."

Voters in France head to the polls Sunday for a presidential election that pits former investment banker Emmanuel Macron against far-right politician Marine Le Pen. On Thursday, Macron won the support of former U.S. President Barack Obama, who urged French voters to reject the politics of fear. Le Pen has campaigned on an openly xenophobic and racist platform, and faced protests Thursday as she campaigned at a trucking company in Brittany. "They have to choose between an openly racist candidate like Marine Le Pen, who promises the supremacy of whites and Christians, regardless of our constitution, of our tradition of separation between church and the state, and, on the other hand, you have Emmanuel Macron, who appears to be this young guy who sends a signal of, yes, it's going to be about empowering people through entrepreneurship," says our guest in Paris, Yasser Louati, a French human rights and civil liberties activist and researcher. "The problem is that his version of society is that you run a country like you run a company. And the problem is that nothing in his program actually goes alongside the working class."

Republicans have moved one step closer to repealing Obamacare after the House narrowly approved legislation Thursday that would result in tens of millions of people losing health insurance while providing a massive tax break to the rich. The future of the bill remains in doubt as Republican senators have vowed to write their own healthcare bill. Most major medical organizations and the AARP warned the bill will cause serious harm to patients and drive up the cost of healthcare. The Congressional Budget Office was not given enough time to "score" the legislation—meaning the House voted on the bill without knowing its projected impact. The bill was also opposed by almost every sector in the healthcare industry, including hospitals, doctors, health insurers and consumer groups. It puts a cap on federal spending per person—including seniors and children—under Medicaid and blocks Medicaid funds going to reimburse Planned Parenthood for providing preventive care to women. We speak with Margarida Jorge, co-executive director of Health Care for America Now and Health Care for America Now Education Fund, and Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, a women of color reproductive health collective.

House GOP Health Bill Could Put Coverage Out of Reach of Millions, Opponents of Republican Healthcare Bill Vow to "Vote Them Out", Banging Pots and Pans, Protesters Target Trump's Return to New York, President Trump Praises Australia's Universal Healthcare System, Executive Order Seeks to Expand Political Role for Religious Leaders, Federal Judge Orders Georgia to Extend Voter Registration, New Georgia Law Allows Concealed-Carry Weapons on College Campuses, French Presidential Vote Pits Banker Against Far-Right Candidate, Committee to Protect Journalists: Mexican Government Failing, Argentina: Court Orders Shorter Sentences for Human Rights Abusers, Flint Homeowners Face Foreclosure over Unpaid Bills for Poison Water, Chicago Nursing Home Workers Win Labor Contract, Averting Strike, Yale Graduate Student Hunger Strike Seeks Union Contract

Ammar Mohrat was a political and media activist in Homs, Syria. He fled Syria in 2011 due to political persecution and death threats. Mohrat was granted political asylum in the United States about two years ago. He just graduated from Saint Leo University in Florida with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer information systems. On Saturday, April 29, Mohrat delivered his class's commencement address.

We turn now to the case of Marissa Alexander, the African-American mother of three who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing what she maintains was a warning shot at her abusive husband in 2010. She attempted to use Florida's "stand your ground" law in her defense—the law that was made famous when white vigilante George Zimmerman successfully used it as his defense after he shot and killed unarmed African-American teenager Trayvon Martin. But in March 2012, the jury rejected Alexander's use of "stand your ground" and convicted her after only 12 minutes of deliberation. She was sentenced to 20 years behind bars under a Florida law known as "10-20-Life" that carries a mandatory minimum for certain gun crimes regardless of the circumstance. Alexander won an appeal for a new trial and later accepted a plea deal that capped her sentence to three years of time served. Earlier this year, she was freed from house arrest after being jailed for three years and serving two years of court-ordered home confinement. We go to Jacksonville to speak to Marissa Alexander.

Florida lawmakers have apologized for what happened to four young African-American men in Groveland, Florida, nearly 70 years ago in 1949. The men, known as the Groveland Four, were falsely accused of raping a 17-year-old white girl. Before going to trial, one of the four men, Ernest Thomas, was hunted down and murdered by a mob of 1,000 men led by the local sheriff, Willis McCall. He was killed in a hail of gunfire. The other three men were tortured in jail until two of them gave false confessions. Charles Greenlee was sentenced to life. Walter Irvin and Samuel Shepherd were condemned to death. Just recently, Florida lawmakers passed a resolution saying, "We're truly sorry." For more, we speak with Gilbert King, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America."

House Republicans Rush Vote on Healthcare Bill "Unscored" by CBO, FBI Director James Comey "Mildly Nauseous" over Clinton Disclosure, Trump Claims Mideast Peace "Not as Difficult as People Have Thought", Trump Executive Order Will Ease Limits on Churches in Politics, New York: Protesters Plan Noisy Protest to "Drown Out" Trump Speech, Iraq: Mosul Residents Trapped by Flooding, Fighting, Nigeria: Risk of Famine Grows Amid Fighting with Boko Haram, Puerto Rico to Seek Bankruptcy Protection, Texas Legislature Sends Anti-Immigrant Bill to Gov. Greg Abbott, Family of Alton Sterling Calls for State Charges Against Officers, Boston Red Sox Ban Fan for Life over Racist Taunts, CodePink Activists Face Up to 1 Year in Prison over Jeff Sessions Protest, CU-Boulder Students Stage Sit-in, Calling for Fossil Fuel Divestment, Protests at UC Santa Cruz, St. Olaf College Target Campus Racism, Jackson, MS: Chokwe Antar Lumumba Poised to Become Mayor

In eastern North Carolina, residents are battling with one of the state’s largest industries: hog farms. Last week, North Carolina lawmakers passed House Bill 467, which limits the damages that residents could collect against hog farms. The billion-dollar industry is primarily clustered in the eastern part of the state, where hog farms collect billions of gallons of untreated pig feces and urine in what are essentially cesspools, then dispose of the waste by spraying it into the air. Residents living in the area of the spray complain of adverse health effects and odor so bad that it limits their ability to be outdoors. For more, we speak with Naeema Muhammad, organizing co-director for the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, and Will Hendrick, staff attorney with the Waterkeeper Alliance and manager of the organization's North Carolina Pure Farms, Pure Waters campaign.

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Tuesday during a phone call to work together to seek a ceasefire in Syria. The phone call came the same day ISIS militants attacked a makeshift camp for displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees, killing nearly 40 civilians and Kurdish fighters near Syria's northeastern border with Iraq. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has concluded that Syrian government forces have used chemical nerve agents, such as sarin gas, in attacks at least four times in recent months, including in the April attack that killed 86 people, including dozens of children. Human Rights Watch said new evidence, including photos and videos of weapon remnants, suggests the April attack came from a Soviet-made, air-dropped chemical bomb specifically designed to deliver sarin. For more, we air Part 2 of our interview with Anand Gopal, journalist and fellow at The Nation Institute, who has reported extensively from the region.

The Haitian-American community is now facing a looming deportation deadline. Up to 55,000 Haitians could be forcefully repatriated to their fragile, struggling homeland if the Trump administration refuses to extend a temporary protected status that has allowed them to legally reside and work in the U.S. after an earthquake devastated Haiti in 2010. Haitians' temporary protected status, or TPS, is set to expire on July 22. Immigrant rights advocates say 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. For more, we speak with Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami.

Trump and Putin Agree to Work Together to Seek Ceasefire in Syria, Afghanistan: ISIS Attack Kills 8 Civilians in Kabul, More Republicans Come Out Against the GOP Healthcare Bill, Justice Dept. Will Not Bring Charges Against Cops Who Killed Alton Sterling, Former Cop Michael Slager Pleads Guilty to Civil Rights Violation for Killing Walter Scott, Fmr. Acting AG Sally Yates to Testify to Senate Panel Next Week, Clinton Blames Election Loss on FBI Director and Alleged Russian Hacking, Creditors Force Greece to Impose More Austerity in Exchange for Bailout, Promotional Video of Trump was on Website of Philippines Trump Tower Until This Week, Kentucky Governor Threatens to Close State's Only Remaining Abortion Clinic, Imprisoned Immigrants' Hunger Strike Spreads to Oregon Jail, Texas State Rep. Admits GEO Group Wrote Immigrant Detention Bill in State Legislature, Journalist Barrett Brown Released from Prison After Being Arrested Thursday, Lawmakers Encourage Airline Industry to Self-Regulate at House Committee Hearing, New York's Riverside Church to Divest from Fossil Fuels

We look at the increasing power of states in the South to shape national politics. Our guest, Chris Kromm, writes in his latest piece that Southern states gave 160 Electoral College votes to Trump, more than half of the 306 total he won. "Southern Republicans have emerged as key figures in the new administration and the GOP-controlled Congress, giving Southern states growing influence in shaping the nation's political agenda," Kromm writes. Many Republicans from the South have been confirmed in senior Cabinet positions, including South Carolina's Mick Mulvaney as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Rick Perry from Texas as energy secretary, Alabama's Jeff Sessions as attorney general and former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson of Texas as secretary of state.

It has been nearly six months since voters in North Carolina elected Democrat Roy Cooper as governor. Republican lawmakers responded by waging what many described as a legislative coup to strip away much of Cooper's power. Meanwhile, Republicans in North Carolina are attempting to solidify their legislative power by passing a series of new laws to restrict voting rights. This comes despite a report by the Electoral Integrity Project that determined that North Carolina's democratic institutions are so flawed the state should no longer be considered a functioning democracy. We speak to Chris Kromm, executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies and publisher of Facing South.

In March, state Republican lawmakers in North Carolina struck a deal to overturn a law denying transgender people the use of the bathroom, changing room or locker room that matches their gender identity. But LGBTQ groups say the so-called repeal of HB 2, the "bathroom bill," hasn’t ended the discrimination. The deal allows the state to continue regulating bathrooms while barring local governments from enacting their own anti-discrimination laws until late 2020. We speak to Sarah Gillooly about the ACLU's ongoing fight.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, more than 100 people braved the rain to take part in a May Day rally outside the state Capitol to protest a series of proposed anti-worker and anti-immigrant bills. Last week, the Senate passed a bill to strip funding for any city that does not enforce federal immigration law. We speak to Raul Jimenez of the Triangle People's Assembly and Sarah Gillooly of the ACLU of North Carolina.

Around the world, millions of workers took to the streets Monday for May Day, also known as International Workers' Day. In the United States, the marches were led by immigrant workers and their allies, drawing comparisons to the massive May Day 2006 marches when millions of immigrants protested nationwide. In California, tens of thousands of people marched in the Bay Area, as immigrant workers refused to go to work and students walked out of class. In Oakland, four activists were arrested after chaining themselves together to blockade the entrance to the Alameda County Administration Building. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, more than 30,000 people marched to demand the governor fire Milwaukee County Sheriff Dave Clarke, block anti-immigrant legislation and return driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. At least 140 businesses were shut down across Milwaukee. We air highlights from May Day protests in New York, including the voices of striking workers at B&H Video.

Millions Take to the Street Worldwide for International Workers' Day, Milwaukee: 30,000+ March on May Day to Demand Firing of Sheriff Clarke, Texas: 2 Dozen Arrested in May Day Sit-in at Gov.'s Office to Protest SB 4, Portland, Oregon: 25 Arrested in May Day Clashes, Puerto Rico: Thousands Block Traffic and March Against Austerity on May Day, HRW: Syrian Gov't Used Nerve Agents in 4 Attacks Since December, Afghanistan: Record Number of Civilians Died & Displaced in 2016, Amid Rising Tensions, Trump Says He'd Meet with North Korea's Kim Jong-un, White House Pushing for Vote on GOP Healthcare Bill, Despite Confusion over Details, President Trump: "Why was There the Civil War?", Fox Ousts Co-President Bill Shine Amid Sexual Harassment Fallout, Texas: Judge Rules Harris County Bail System is Unconstitutional, Milwaukee: Jury Recommends Charges for Jailers Who Denied Terrill Thomas Water, Minneapolis: Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Shooting BLM Protesters in 2015, Texas: Police Shot and Killed 15-Year-Old Black Teen Jordan Edwards, #J20 Inauguration Day Protesters Facing Up to 75 Years in Prison, Author and Editor Jean Stein Dies at 83 in New York City

The People's Climate March in Washington, D.C., also called attention to the perilous climate for environmental justice activists worldwide, where an increasing number of land and water defenders are being murdered for their organizing efforts. During the march, we spoke with Neery Carrillo, the sister of murdered Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres.

The People's Climate March in Washington, D.C., on Saturday came as extreme, climate-fueled weather is already causing havoc across the world. In the U.S. over the weekend, 13 people died as tornadoes flattened homes, uprooted trees and flipped trucks in Texas and in neighboring states. Historic flooding swept away cars, closed interstates and inundated homes across Missouri. Internationally, parts of South Asia are immersed in a sweltering heat wave. In India, heat waves over the last four years have killed more than 4,000 people. At the People's Climate March, we spoke with Kumi Naidoo, former head of Greenpeace, about the new initiative, Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity.

At the People's Climate March in Washington, D.C., many protesters called attention to the close ties between the Trump administration and the fossil fuel industry, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was the longtime CEO of ExxonMobil. Among those at the march was Maura Healey, attorney general of Massachusetts. She's part of a lawsuit filed by a coalition of attorneys general against ExxonMobil.

Just days before the People's Climate March in Washington, D.C., a group of Democratic senators and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to transition the United States to 100 percent clean and renewable energy by no later than 2050. Two of the bill's co-authors, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, took part in the People's Climate March.

The People's Climate March in Washington, D.C., was led by people from front-line and indigenous communities, whose lives are most impacted by the extraction of fossil fuel and the effects of climate change. Among those who were at the march were Tom Goldtooth and Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network.

The People's Climate March in Washington, D.C., was held in the sweltering heat as the temperatures soared over 90 degrees. Activists and organizers came in from across the country. Among those who were there was Bill McKibben and May Boeve of 350.org.

As President Trump marked his 100th day in office on Saturday, up to 200,000 people took to the streets of Washington to take part in the People's Climate March. Sister marches were also held across the country. The protesters decried President Trump's steps to roll back environmental regulations, appoint climate change deniers as the heads of government agencies, and defund and erase climate change programs and research, including the administration's move Friday to scrub climate science pages from the EPA's website. The People's Climate March began at dawn on Saturday with a water ceremony led by indigenous peoples at the Capitol Reflecting Pool.

People Worldwide Pour into Streets for People's Climate March, 13 Killed in Tornadoes and Flooding in South and Midwest, At Rally in Pennsylvania, Trump Attacks Immigrants and News Media, Trump Vows to Be Champion of Gun Owners at National Rifle Association, $1 Trillion Spending Bill Won't Fund Border Wall or Cut Funds to Sanctuary Cities, Trump Falsely Claims GOP Healthcare Bill to Protect People with Pre-Existing Conditions, Pope Francis: U.S.-North Korea War Would "Destroy a Good Part of Humanity", Pope Francis Defends Use of "Concentration Camps" to Refer to Europe's Refugee Centers, Pentagon: U.S. Launched 80 Drone Strikes in March & April in Yemen, Pentagon Names 3 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq & Afghanistan, Trump Invites Philippines' Duterte to Visit White House, Despite Human Rights Concerns, Brazil Launches First General Strike in 2 Decades to Protest Austerity, Turkey Fires 4,000 Public Workers and Blocks Access to Wikipedia, Russia: 120 Protesters Arrested in Nationwide Anti-Government Demonstrations, NSA Says It's Curbing Controversial Mass Surveillance Program, Sebastian Gorka Ousted from White House Amid Reports About Links to Nazi-Allied Group, White House Considers Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke for Top DHS Post, Arkansas: Judge Orders Autopsy for Executed Prisoner Kenneth Williams, Workers March & Strike Worldwide on May Day

To mark the 100th day of Donald Trump's presidency, thousands of climate activists from around the country are converging in Washington, D.C. on Saturday for the People's Climate March. Already, Trump has threatened to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, begun dismantling President Obama's climate legacy and revived the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. He has also put climate change deniers in charge of several key agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, and proposed slashing the budget of the EPA and other climate programs. This comes as scientists have confirmed 2016 was the warmest year on record. Our guest is Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, who helped organize this latest march and notes: "Weekends are for fighting tyranny."

As we broadcast from Burlington, Vermont, which is a sanctuary city, Vermont Rep. Peter Welch says there has been enormous citizen support toward undocumented workers. "You're just seeing people across this country say, 'Wait a minute, that is not the America I know,'" Welch notes. He also discusses the need for local control over whether police departments enforce immigration laws and says, "It is appropriate for law enforcement to have discretion."

Our guest Congressman Peter Welch explains why he joined his Democratic colleagues on the House Oversight Committee in demanding White House documents on President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn. In a letter to chairman Jason Chaffetz, the group wrote, "There is obviously a paper trail that the White House does not want our Committee to follow. If the White House refuses to produce the documents requested by the Oversight Committee—as it has to date—we believe the Committee should consider employing compulsory measures as it did in similar cases during the previous Administration."

As President Trump marks his first 100 days in office, Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) argues many of his plans have increased inequality. "The tax plan is one where the benefits go to the elites in urban areas and corporations," Welch says. "Those are direct policies that will be crushing to the economic prospects of folks, especially in rural America." Meanwhile, a plan that backed by the Koch brothers to classify the Internet as a public utility would leave the industry to largely police itself.

The Trump administration sent mixed signals on North Korea Thursday, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. is open to direct negotiations with Kim Jong Un's regime over his country's nuclear program, while President Trump hinted at a possible nuclear war. Trump made the remark in an interview with the Reuters news service. Trump's comment came as Secretary of State Tillerson told NPR he's open to direct talks with North Korea if the country is serious about permanently abandoning its nuclear program. Meanwhile, President Trump told Reuters that South Korea should pay the $1 billion price tag for a THAAD missile defense system the U.S. recently began installing. Trump suggested the U.S. could cancel a free trade deal between the two countries if South Korea doesn't accept the demand. "I think the president should be talking diplomacy," says our guest Peter Welch, U.S. Congressman from Vermont. He is Chief Deputy Whip of the House Democratic Caucus, "not making a reckless threat of military action where it is going to be very damaging."

Just hours before a deadline, Congress has averted a government shutdown by working on a short-term spending bill and a broader deal to fund agencies through September. If the extension is not approved today, federal agencies will run out of money by midnight tonight. One of the key disputes stemmed from Trump's demands that the government funding bill allocate $1.4 billion for border wall construction. "We don't have a budget. We have a continuing resolution where basically we're operating under last year's numbers," says Vermont Congressman Peter Welch, Chief Deputy Whip of the House Democratic Caucus. "The fundamental responsibility of the legislative body is to pass a budget. We have not done that during the entire time that Paul Ryan has been the speaker of the house. It has not gone well." This comes as House Republicans have called off their efforts to revive a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, preventing President Trump from winning his first major legislative victory ahead of Saturday, which marks his 100th day in office.

Arkansas Puts Kenneth Williams to Death in Fourth Execution in 8 Days, Trump Admin Considers North Korea Talks as Trump Warns of "Major Conflict", House Republicans Abandon Latest Effort on Healthcare, Pentagon Investigating Michael Flynn Over Foreign Payments, President Trump to Sign Executive Order Expanding Offshore Drilling, Atmospheric CO2 Levels Reach Record 410 Parts Per Million, Senate Bill Would Phase Out Fossil Fuels by 2050, Activists Ready a Massive "People's Climate March" on Washington, Texas House Approves Anti-Immigrant "Show Your Papers" Bill, Government "Alien Crime" Hotline Trolled by Calls about Space Aliens, Syria: Two Hospitals Bombed Amid Spate of Attacks on Medics in Idlib, Palestinians Strike in Solidarity With Hunger-Striking Prisoners, Court Upholds Sentence Against Former Chadian Dictator Hissène Habré, Brazil: Unions Call General Strike Against Pension Cuts, Chicago Union Authorizes a Strike of 5,000 Nursing Home Workers, United Airlines Settles With Passenger Beaten and Dragged off Flight, Free Speech Radio News to End After 17 Years of Grassroots Reporting, New York: Hundreds Rally on One-Year Anniversary of Mass Arrest

A Mexican immigrant named Arturo Hernández García was arrested Wednesday morning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Hernández García had sought sanctuary from deportation at the First Unitarian Society church for nine months until July 2015, when he was told he was no longer a priority for deportation. Supporters of Hernández García say he has been targeted in part because of his immigration activism. We re-air our interview from Hernández García in 2015 and speak to Jennifer Piper, interfaith organizer for American Friends Service Committee in Denver and coordinator for the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition.

As Donald Trump approaches his 100th day as president on Saturday, his approval ratings are the lowest any president has had at this stage in generations. A recent poll by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal found just 40 percent of Americans currently approve of his job performance. Trump took to Twitter to call the poll "totally wrong." We speak to the pioneering Vermont politician, former Vermont Governor Madeleine May Kunin. In 1997, she became just the fourth woman in U.S. history to be elected governor whose husband had not previously served. Kunin was born in Switzerland in 1933 and came to the United States as a child. She later served as U.S. ambassador to Switzerland. In recent months, she has been a vocal critic of President Trump. She recently participated in the Tax Day march in Burlington, Vermont, and also wrote a piece thanking Trump for "waking us from our slumber."

The White House has outlined a plan to give the nation's millionaires and billionaires a massive tax break while adding trillions of dollars to the U.S. deficit. The plan would lower the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, end the estate tax and end the alternative minimum tax—a move that would solely benefit the richest Americans, including President Trump. A leaked 2005 tax return shows Trump paid out $36.6 million in federal income taxes that year—most of it due to the alternative minimum tax. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich described Trump's tax plan as a form of class warfare. The tax plan was unveiled on Wednesday by two former executives at Goldman Sachs—Trump's chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin—who hailed the tax cuts. We speak to economist James Henry of the Tax Justice Network.

New Trump Tax Plan Would Aid Billionaires, Add Trillions to Deficit, U.S. Commander: North Korea Possibly Ready for Nuclear First Strike, South Koreans Protest U.S. Deployment of THAAD Anti-Missile System, FCC Chair Ajit Pai Unveils Plan to End Net Neutrality, White House Quickly U-Turns on Threat to Withdraw from NAFTA, Executive Order Could Open Millions of Acres to Resource Extraction, ICE Arrests Undocumented Denver Resident Arturo Hernández García, Turkey Arrests Over 1,000 and Fires 9,000 Police in Massive Purge, Venezuela to Withdraw from the Organization of American States, Saudi Arabia Elected to U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, Nevada: 7 Arrested at Air Force Base Protesting U.S. Drone Attacks, Oscar-Winning Filmmaker Jonathan Demme Dies at 73

Last week, the Trump administration reportedly prepared an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Justice Department was seeking to put Assange in jail. Amy Goodman asked world-renowned linguist and dissident Noam Chomsky about the U.S. targeting of Julian Assange, during a wide-ranging conversation at the First Parish Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Monday night.