Democracy Now!

Six Republican-led states have now pledged National Guard troops to the Trump administration's takeover of Washington, D.C., where it has assumed control of policing under the claim of tackling crime. Along with the D.C. National Guard that Trump already controlled, this brings the total number of troops in the streets of the capital to more than 2,000. The federal takeover comes even as violent crime in the capital is at a 30-year low - numbers the Trump administration now disputes, with the Justice Department launching an investigation into whether those crime statistics were manipulated by city officials.What we're seeing is lawlessness, but it's all coming from the White House," says community activist Keya Chatterjee, the executive director of the group Free DC.

Three More Palestinians Starve to Death in Gaza as Israeli Attacks Kill 56 in a Day, Israeli Hostages' Families Lead Protests in Tel Aviv to Demand Gaza Ceasefire Deal, A Record 383 Humanitarian Workers Were Killed Last Year, Led by Israeli Attacks in Gaza, Venezuela Mobilizes 4.5 Million Soldiers as Trump Deploys U.S. Marines to Caribbean, Mexican President Denies Trump Administration's Claims She's Collaborating with DEA, Advocates Rally in Support of 18-Year-Old L.A. High School Student Abducted by ICE, Video Shows CBP Officers in California Firing Bullets at Family After Stopping Their Vehicle, Boston Mayor Rejects DOJ Ultimatum to End Sanctuary City Policies, U.S. Attorney in D.C. Seeks to Maximize Charges Against Arrestees, with Exemptions for Firearms, Trump Says Smithsonian Museums Should Not Focus on How Bad Slavery Was", Judge Orders Mississippi to Redraw Supreme Court Districts That Diluted Black Voters' Power, DOJ Set to Begin Releasing Epstein-Related Files to Congress, Minnesota Court Overturns Conviction of Water Protector Who Opposed Enbridge Pipeline

Amanda Trebach, a member of the immigrant rights' group Union del Barrio and an ICU nurse, was monitoring ICE operations in the Los Angeles area when she was targeted and arrested herself. Video of the scene shows masked agents in plainclothes forcing her to the ground and briefly kneeling on her head. They took me into an unmarked vehicle. They did not read me my rights. They didn't tell me where I was going," says Trebach, who was detained overnight before being released without charges the following evening after an outpouring of community support. She recounts her experience and explains why she will continue to fight for her immigrant neighbors in the face of the ongoing danger to her community.

President Trump says he is working on a deal" to end the Russia-Ukraine war by hosting a series of meetings between the U.S., European Union, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. Putin is insisting Russia keep areas of Ukraine that it has seized, including the long-contested Donbas region, while Zelensky is asking the U.S. for security guarantees to prevent future invasion by its powerful neighbor. We host a conversation with two political scientists, University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Ukrainian democratic socialist Denys Pilash, about the likely outcome of the talks and the roots of the conflict. Mearsheimer says the sides remain so far apart" when it comes to the possibility of a ceasefire during peace negotiations that the best outcome would be to settle this war now." Pilash, on the other hand, says there are still measures that can be taken to pressure Russia to agree to a ceasefire and to secure more favorable postwar terms for Ukraine.

As European Leaders Gather at White House, Trump Says He'll Arrange Zelensky-Putin Meeting, Tens of Thousands Flee Gaza City as Israel Steps Up Bombings Ahead of Planned Invasion, Hamas Agrees to 60-Day Ceasefire Plan That's Almost Identical" to U.S. Proposal, ISIL-Backed Rebels Kill 52 in Eastern Congo; M23 Suspends Peace Talks with DRC, Texas Democrat Locked in House Chamber for Refusing Round-the-Clock Surveillance by State Troopers, Trump Says He'll Ban Mail-In Ballots and Voting Machines, Citing Advice from Vladimir Putin, Newsmax Will Pay Dominion Voting Systems $67 Million to Settle Lawsuit over 2020 Election Lies, More National Guard Troops Deploy to D.C. as White House Social Media Teams Join FBI Raids, Mourners in Monrovia, California, Honor Guatemalan Immigrant Killed While Fleeing ICE Raid, 10,000 Unionized Flight Attendants End Strike After Reaching Tentative Deal with Air Canada

The White House has called for a far-reaching review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions in order to ensure they align with President Trump's interpretation of U.S. history. The idea that the Smithsonian - which was created as an independent entity - should reflect any administration's vision of history, and not the vision of the historians and the researchers and the other people who devote their lives to studying these things, is more than problematic," says Annette Gordon-Reed, professor of history at Harvard University, president of the Organization of American Historians and an award-winning author.The Trump administration and the Department of Education are also currently partnering with PragerU, a controversial conservative media company, to make educational materials. This is a whitewashing of history under the guise of making white children feel better about themselves," says Gordon-Reed. PragerU content has already been approved for use in public schools in 10 states across the country.

Massive protests have erupted in Israel, with about 500,000 people marching in Tel Aviv Sunday to demand an end to the war in Gaza. Organizers say 1 million took part in demonstrations across the entire country. Most of the Israelis who were out on the streets blame Netanyahu" for prioritizing his political survival over an end to the war, says Oren Ziv, reporter and photographer for +972 Magazine. Ziv notes that most Israelis are not speaking directly on the suffering in Gaza, on the killings, on the children, on the starvation," but instead focus on the survival of the hostages held in Gaza.

President Trump is meeting today at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several other European leaders. This comes three days after Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska failed to secure a peace agreement. Ahead of the Alaska talks, Trump had vowed Russia would face very severe consequences" if Putin did not agree to stop the war, but Trump then dropped his call for a ceasefire. Democracy Now! speaks with Katrina vanden Heuvel, Russia expert and publisher of The Nation magazine, on what's next as peace talks continue.

Trump to Host Zelensky at White House After Alaska Summit with Putin Fails to Secure Peace Deal, State Dept. Halts Visas for Children in Gaza Seeking Urgent Medical Care, Amnesty Accuses Israel of Waging Deliberate Campaign of Starvation" in Gaza, Ex-Israel Military Intel Chief: Palestinians Need a Nakba Every Now and Then to Feel the Price", Over a Million Protest in Israel Calling for End to War and Hostage Deal, Three States to Send National Guard to D.C. as Trump Expands Takeover of City, ICE Detains 7-Year-Old Student in NYC, Report: U.S. Deploys 4,000 Marines & Sailors to Southern Caribbean as Trump Eyes Attacking Drug Cartels, CBO Confirms GOP Budget Law Will Trigger $500 Billion in Medicare Cuts, Pakistan: Over 300 Killed in Climate Changed-Induced Flooding, Bolivia: Right-Wing Candidates to Face Off in Presidential Runoff in October, El Salvador Extends Mass Detention Without Trial Until 2027, Florida Radio and TV Host Rob Lorei Dies, Helped Start WMNF

As U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Alaska for a high-stakes summit to discuss a possible ceasefire in Ukraine, we host a debate between two foreign policy thinkers about the war, its causes and how it could be brought to a conclusion.John Mearsheimer is an international relations theorist at the University of Chicago, known for his realist perspective. He has long argued that Western policies are the main cause of the Ukraine crisis. There's overwhelming evidence that it was NATO expansion into Ukraine that drove this train," says Mearsheimer.Matt Duss is executive vice president at the Center for International Policy and the former foreign policy adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders. He says that despite Western missteps, Russia is ultimately the main cause of the current war, which Putin started in 2022 with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin has made clear that he has a pretty grandiose historical conception of what he sees as a kind of renewed Russian empire," he says.Both Mearsheimer and Duss say Ukraine's war effort is flagging and that the best way out is to make the best peace they can," even if it means conceding territory to Russia.

President Trump says his takeover of policing in Washington, D.C., will serve as an example of policies he hopes to enact in other major U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. All the cities on his target list are led by Black mayors, and most have sanctuary" policies limiting local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.Responding to Trump's threats, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson tells Democracy Now! that his city will not cower or bend or be intimidated by these attempts to divide and conquer our communities." He says that unlike Trump's militarized approach, Chicago has been investing in mental health services, raising wages and building affordable housing as part of a larger campaign to improve quality of life. Contrary to Trump's claims, violent crime is down in Chicago.We're building the safest, most affordable big city in America, the most pro-worker city in America, and we're doing it in a very collective way," says Johnson.

Sewage Floods Gaza Hospital After Israeli Strike, as Childhood Malnutrition Soars, Israeli Plan to Expand Settlements and Bury" Palestinian State Draws International Condemnation, Trump Predicts Ukraine's Zelensky Will Join Follow-Up Summit to Meeting with Russia's Putin, Erik Prince Reaches Agreement with Haiti's Interim Gov't to Deploy Nearly 200 Mercenaries, Texas Democrats Prepare to End Two-Week Walkout over GOP's Gerrymandered Maps, California Democrats Rally in Support of Ballot Measure to Redraw Congressional Maps, D.C. Leaders Reject Pam Bondi's Order Installing DEA Administrator as Chief of Police, D.C. Police Submit to White House Demands They Assist Federal Immigration Agents, D.C.'s Unhoused Residents Ordered to Leave Encampments or Face Fines and Jail Time, Lawsuit Accuses ICE of Unlawfully Deporting U.S. Citizen Children, Including Boy with Cancer, Florida Plans Deportation Depot" to Operate Alongside Alligator Alcatraz" ICE Jail, ACLU Sues Michigan City and Officer for Brutalizing Black Man in Mental Health Crisis, Global Plastic Pollution Treaty Talks Fail as U.S. and Other Oil Producers Reject Production Limits, NYC Council Speaker Promises to Override Mayor's Veto of Bills Raising Delivery Workers' Wages

Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was recently sentenced to 12 years of house arrest after he was found guilty of bribing imprisoned members of paramilitary groups to coax them into retracting damaging testimony exposing Uribe's ties to U.S.-backed, right-wing paramilitary groups. Uribe was a staunch U.S. ally who ruled Colombia from 2002 to 2010, during which time there were thousands of extrajudicial killings of civilians, who were then purposely mislabeled as rebel fighters in what became known as the false positives" scandal. Alvaro Uribe is a very powerful figure. He is the leading figure of the far right in Colombia and, I would say, a leading figure of the far right in the Americas," says leftist Colombian Senator Ivan Cepeda. His own father, leading leftist politician Manuel Cepeda, was assassinated in 1994 by right-wing paramilitaries working with the government.

As President Trump threatens to use U.S. special forces against drug cartels abroad, a new book, The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces, reveals some of the most secretive and elite special forces in the Army are heavily involved in narcotrafficking themselves. There's at least 14 cases that I'm tracking of Fort Bragg-trained soldiers who have been either arrested, apprehended or killed in the course of trafficking drugs in the last five years or so," says author Seth Harp. The book also looks at how U.S. military intervention often stimulates drug production," including in Afghanistan, which he says became the biggest narco-state in the world during the 20-year U.S. occupation. Most of the drug trafficking and drug production was being carried out and done by warlords, police chiefs, militia commanders, who were on the U.S. payroll in a corrupt structure," says Harp.

Israel Kills Over 100 Palestinians in a Day and Presses South Sudan to Resettle Gaza's Population, Protests Worldwide Decry Israel's Assassination of Journalists, New Zealand Parliament Ejects MP Who Called Out Colleagues' Spineless" Inaction on Gaza, Bury the Idea of a Palestinian State": Israeli Minister Announces Plan for New Settlements, U.N. Secretary-General Warns Israel over Sexual Violence Committed by Its Armed Forces, Trump Warns Russia of Severe Consequences" Unless Putin Agrees to Ukraine Ceasefire, Trump Plans Long-Term" Takeover of Washington, D.C., Police Department, The New Yorker: Trump Family Has Made $3.4 Billion from Presidency, U.N. Security Council Rejects RSF's Declaration of Rival Government in Sudan, Peru's President Grants Blanket Amnesty to Police and Soldiers Accused of Human Rights Abuses, Trump Administration Revokes Visas of Doctors Tied to Cuban Charity, 27 Dead, Dozens Missing as Ships Carrying Asylum Seekers Sink Off Italian Coast, Spain Asks for Help Battling Raging Wildfires, 400 Die Amid Arizona Heat Wave; Melting Glacier Brings Floodwaters to Alaska's Capital, 5 Chicago Officers Involved in Fatal Shooting of Dexter Reed Won't Face Charges, Nations Struggle to Forge Plastic Pollution Treaty Amid Opposition by Chemical Industry and U.S.

We speak with Rachel Griffin Accurso, the educator known to millions around the world as Ms. Rachel, who has become a leading advocate for children in Gaza. Her YouTube channel for young children became wildly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic and today has more than 16 million subscribers. Since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, Accurso has used her social media reach to speak out for Palestinian children facing hunger, disease, injury and death. She has been hailed as the heir to Mister Rogers, the legendary PBS children's entertainer who also used his position in families' living rooms to speak out on social issues.I see all children as precious and equal. My deep care for children doesn't stop at any border," Accurso tells Democracy Now! in a wide-ranging interview.We also speak with Tareq Hailat, director of the Treatment Abroad Program for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, who helped connect Accurso with a 3-year-old girl from Gaza named Rahaf who lost both her legs in an Israeli airstrike. Accurso and Rahaf filmed a video, in which they sing a dance together.Hailat describes Accurso as one of the most significant, if not the most significant, voices for Palestinian human rights" in the world. Her advocacy has touched the hearts of people that never would have ever heard about Gaza or the Palestinian children, and that's why her voice is so vital," he says.

Israeli Forces Kill 123 Palestinians in a Day Amid Campaign to Seize Gaza City, Protesters Demand Justice for Anas al-Sharif and Other Journalists Assassinated by Israel, Israeli Peace Activists Demand Closure of Notorious Gaza Aid Group, Foreign Ministers of 26 Nations Demand Israel Restore Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Sudan's Rapid Support Forces Kill 40 in Camp for Displaced People in Darfur, Zelensky and European Leaders to Hold Call with Trump Ahead of Putin Summit, Pentagon Readies Rapid Deployment Force for U.S. Cities, State Department Scrubs Reporting on Human Rights Abuses Committed by Trump's Allies, Federal Appeals Court Grants DOGE Access to Sensitive Personal Data of Millions, White House Orders Smithsonian to Align Exhibitions with Trump's Views, Federal Judge Orders ICE to Improve Conditions at Notorious Manhattan Detention Site, L.A. Immigrant Advocates Hold Boycotts to Protest Corporate Collusion with ICE

Global condemnation is mounting over the assassination of one of the most prominent journalists in Gaza, Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, along with four of his colleagues at the network and a sixth journalist - the freelance reporter Mohammed al-Khalidi.The killing of al-Sharif and his colleagues is really murder," says Irene Khan, U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression. It is not killing in the context of war. It is a deliberate strategy to stop independent voices reporting."U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling for an independent investigation of the journalists who were killed in the targeted Israeli strike.

President Trump secretly signed a directive approving the Pentagon's use of military force on foreign soil to target Latin American drug cartels, according to a New York Times report. The order gives the Pentagon authority to direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels designated by the Trump administration to be terrorist organizations. I think it's directed mostly in Venezuela," says Alexander Avina, associate professor of Latin American history at Arizona State University. The U.S. has used the war on drugs as another way to advance the U.S. imperial geopolitical designs in the Western Hemisphere."

After announcing the federal takeover of law enforcement in D.C. in the White House briefing room, President Trump painted a grim picture of the capital - including roving mobs of wild youth" - that contrasts with crime figures showing D.C. reached a 30-year low in violent crime last January. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, professor of African American studies and public affairs at Princeton University, says the move is an extension of Trump's use of racist rhetoric, racist ideas, and the use of policing to enact a domestic policy agenda."This is a man who has consistently scapegoated Black and Brown people to either gain celebrity or political capital. And now as president the second time, he is enacting an authoritarian agenda," says Muhammad.

President Trump announced Monday that he is taking historic action" to take the capital back" by deploying the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and federalizing the city's police department to re-establish law and order," and threatened the homeless population with jail time if they do not leave the city. Monica Hopkins, executive director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia, says there are legal limitations for the federal takeover of police forces. He has to do it for an emergency, for a limited period of time and for federal purposes," says Hopkins. The president has made up these blatant pretextual emergencies to justify calling out the National Guard ... to essentially take over cities in blatant disregard for our democracy."

Five More Palestinians Starve to Death in Gaza as Israeli Attacks Kill 89 in a Day, World Leaders Condemn Israel's Assassination of Journalists in Gaza, Norway Sovereign Wealth Fund Divests from Israeli Companies, Citing Gaza Humanitarian Crisis, Trump Takes Control of Washington, D.C., Police Force and Deploys National Guard, Federal Court Hears Arguments Trump Violated Posse Comitatus Act by Deploying Troops to L.A., Advocates Call for Closure of Pennsylvania ICE Jail After Death of Immigrant, Advocates in El Paso Demand ICE Release DACA Recipient Catalina Xochitl" Santiago, CDC Workers Demand RFK Jr.'s Ouster Following Rampage by Gunman with Anti-Vaccine Views, Journal Rejects RFK Jr.'s Call to Retract Study Showing No Health Risk of Aluminum in Vaccines, Federal Judge Denies Government's Request to Unseal Ghislaine Maxwell Grand Jury Transcripts, Middle East and Europe Swelter Under Record Heat, Trump Delays Plans to Raise Tariffs on China, Congressional Budget Office: Big Beautiful Bill" Will Further Widen Wealth Gap, Trump Names New BLS Commissioner Who Questioned Agency's Data and Methods, Two Dead, 10 Injured in Pennsylvania Steel Plant Explosion

As immigration raids and arrests continue to terrorize communities across the United States, we look at grassroots efforts to fight back. ICE has faced widespread backlash over the arrest of community advocates swept up while documenting raids across the country, many of them U.S. citizens. In Los Angeles, nurse and community activist Amanda Trebach was released from federal custody this weekend without criminal charges, after she was violently arrested early Friday morning while recording the operations of federal immigration agents in the area. Trebach, who is part of the community group Union del Barrio, was released Saturday after intense community pressure.This is just another example of the Trump administration and their fascist ICE agents - or whoever they are, because they're unidentified - violating the rights and breaking the law that they're supposed to protect," says Ron Gochez, an organizer with Union del Barrio.

We speak with California Attorney General Rob Bonta ahead of the start of California's court case challenging the Trump administration's move to federalize the state's National Guard to support immigration raids. Bonta argues the use of the military for civilian law enforcement in Los Angeles clearly violated the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. This is something that is deeply rooted in our history and our law as something that is prohibited, and Mr. Trump is blatantly engaged in this unlawful conduct," says Bonta. The case is one of dozens of lawsuits Bonta's office has filed against Trump, with some wins already.

Doctors Without Borders is demanding the closure of Israeli- and U.S.-backed food distribution centers in Gaza run by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. About 1,400 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food at GHF sites since May. A new report from Doctors Without Borders - also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF - gathers testimony from its medics and others about the apparently deliberate targeting of Palestinians seeking food.The GHF is singularly disorganized, reckless, dangerous, and we cannot help but come to the conclusion that these are deliberately set-up death traps," says Doctors Without Borders CEO Avril Benoit. She stresses that the starvation crisis in Gaza is entirely a result of Israel's ongoing siege of the territory. People are starving because Israel wants them to," says Benoit.

We speak with Al Jazeera managing editor Mohamed Moawad after Israel assassinated five of the network's journalists in Gaza, including veteran correspondent Anas al-Sharif, in an airstrike Sunday on a media tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital. Al Jazeera has condemned the attack as an attempt to silence reporting on Israel's planned seizure and occupation of Gaza. The strike also killed Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed Noufal, and came just weeks after the United Nations and press freedom advocates warned al-Sharif's life was at risk following Israeli accusations linking him to Hamas.The pattern is clear: degrading, delegitimizing, smearing, and then killing," says Moawad. He says the network, which is one of the few international outlets with local journalists, is now scrambling" to cover the conflict as Israel prepares a renewed assault and occupation of the territory. They went after Al Jazeera because we are the only international organization covering the conflict from the frontline."

Israeli Military Assassinates Five Al Jazeera Journalists in Gaza, U.N. Security Council Holds Emergency Meeting over Israel's Plan to Expand Military Operations in Gaza, As Many As 100,000 People Rally in Tel Aviv to Oppose Netanyahu's Plan to Escalate War in Gaza, Major Protests Held All Over the World Against Israel's Plans to Expand War in Gaza, Footage Shows Palestinian Activist Odeh Hadalin Filmed Moment He Was Fatally Shot by Israeli Settler, Sudan: 63 People Die of Malnutrition in City of El Fasher in Northern Darfur, President Trump and Russian President Putin to Hold Summit in Alaska on Friday, NYT: Trump Secretly Signs Directive Approving Pentagon to Target Drug Cartels, DOJ Launches Probes into New York Attorney General Letitia James and U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, Peruvian Immigrant Held at NYC ICE Facility Sues Trump Administration, WaPo: Trump Removes IRS Commissioner After a Conflict over Tax Data of Immigrants, Defense Secretary Hegseth Reposts Video of Pastor Saying Women Shouldn't Be Allowed to Vote, President Trump Threatens Homeless People to Immediately Move Out of Washington, Trump Administration Wants to Settle with UCLA for $1 Billion, Armenia and Azerbaijan Sign Agreement Aimed at Ending Decades of Conflict, Colombia Presidential Candidate Miguel Uribe Dies After Being Shot in June, Nagasaki Commemorates 80th Anniversary of U.S. Atomic Bombing

Jess Michaels lives with the PTSD from her 1991 assault by the serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. She is part of a national chorus of voices calling on the Trump administration to release files related to the federal case against Epstein, who reportedly died by suicide while awaiting trial in 2019. Trump's personal relationship with Epstein has been under heavy scrutiny since he broke a campaign promise to publicize details about the Epstein case and instead moved to cut a new deal with convicted Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. The decision has fractured his right-wing base, but as demands for transparency grow within the MAGA movement, Michaels says survivors are still struggling to be heard. You never hear the words 'Epstein victim' or 'Epstein survivor' out of this White House," she says, slamming the politicization of survivors' pain and trauma. The victims of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell have been speaking up for almost two decades," Michaels says. It is appalling that there is so little justice for this issue."

In a major victory for environmental advocates, chemical giant DuPont and its related companies have agreed to pay $2 billion to clean up four industrial sites in New Jersey that are contaminated with forever chemicals," or PFAS, which have been found to persist in everything from rainwater to human breast milk. It is the third such settlement New Jersey has reached in less than three years, and marks a growing movement against the widespread use of PFAS, a class of chemicals still used to produce countless industrial and consumer goods, even though they have been linked to cancer and birth defects for over half a century. For more, we're joined by investigative journalist Mariah Blake, the author of a new book on PFAS and the fight against them, to discuss the history of the pervasive toxins and the dangers they pose to human health.

Israel's security cabinet has announced the approval of a plan to occupy Gaza City, moving its ongoing military offensive north and displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians to camps in central Gaza. Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani emphasizes that the new strategy is simply the first phase of a larger plan" for the permanent displacement, occupation and annexation of the entire Gaza Strip, as confirmed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a recent interview with Fox News. We are dealing here with a genocide," says Rabbani, where Israel is acting in the full confidence that whatever it does, it will enjoy, if not the support, at least the consent of its key sponsors and allies in the West."

Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Plans to Take Over Gaza City, Two Palestinians Killed While Seeking Humanitarian Aid, Palestinian American Medical Student Sues Emory University for Suspending Her over Gaza Remarks, Medford City Council Approves Ordinance Divesting from Human Rights Abusers, Including Israel, GOP Senator Cornyn Says FBI Approved Request to Arrest Texas Democratic Lawmakers, Trump Calls for a New Census Excluding Undocumented Immigrants, DOJ Hires Jan. 6 Rioter Who Encouraged Killing Police Officers, Trump Administration Purges FBI Officials Who Probed Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Trump Administration Taps Fort Bliss Army Base to Receive 1,000 Immigrant Detainees, Former Superman" Actor Says He'll Join ICE in Support of Mass Deportation Campaign, L.A. Activists Call for 24-Hour Boycott of Companies Complicit in ICE Raids, Federal Judge Orders Florida to Halt Construction at Alligator Alcatraz" ICE Jail, Trump Orders Deployment of Federal Cops in D.C. Amid False Claims of Surging Crime, CNN: Vice President Vance Led Huddle of Top Trump Administration Officials over Jeffrey Epstein, Trump Opens Path for Private Equity and Cryptocurrency Investments in 401(k) Plans, Air Force Will Deny Early Retirement Benefits to Transgender Service Members

Negotiations are underway in Geneva on a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty that has been in the works for several years, as the crisis of pollution from plastics worldwide has grown more acute. An estimated 8 billion metric tons of plastic waste now pollute the planet. Without changes, the production of plastic is expected to triple by 2060 - much of it driven by single-use plastics.This comes as a new report by The Lancet has found that plastics are a grave threat" to human health. Waste plastic contains thousands of toxic chemicals that cause human exposure and result in disease and disability and premature death," says Dr. Philip Landrigan, an author of the report and the director of the Global Observatory on Planetary Health at Boston College. He also notes that plastic is especially harmful to children, who are at risk for decreased IQ, injury to the reproductive organs" and liver damage when exposed to plastics during early development.

Israel's security cabinet is considering plans to expand Israel's assault on Gaza toward a full military takeover, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly pushing for a monthslong offensive on Gaza City and central Gaza refugee camps. The cabinet meeting comes as Israel's forced starvation of Gaza claimed at least four new victims over the past 24 hours, according to health officials. Israeli politicians have really made it no secret that they envision and want to see the mass displacement of Palestinians as southward as possible, if not completely ejected from the Gaza Strip," says Amjad Iraqi, senior Israel-Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group. Given that Israel's allies have allowed the state to act with impunity, Iraqi adds, you also cannot separate Gaza and the West Bank." The Israeli government is deciding that it could actually pursue and replicate many of the same policies in the West Bank."

Huge tariffs on more than 90 countries took effect shortly after midnight on Thursday. President Trump slapped one of the highest tariff rates of 50% on India - set to go into effect on August 27 - unless India stops buying Russian oil. Democracy Now! speaks with Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, on the hypocrisy of the tariffs. There's so many double standards in this particular recent announcement of Trump, because it's not just that other countries, like China, are buying Russian oil," says Ghosh. The European Union is buying Russian oil. The U.S. is buying various Russian exports."

White House officials have confirmed that President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet as early as next week to discuss the war in Ukraine. It would be the first U.S.-Russia summit in more than four years. Trump reportedly plans to follow up that meeting with another three-way meeting between himself, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. We speak with The New York Times opinion columnist M. Gessen, who says Putin is fully invested in continuing this war forever." The war on Ukraine is not the kind of thing that you can roll back in a totalitarian state," says Gessen. It destabilizes the politics, it destabilizes the psychology of the country, and at this point it destabilizes the economy of the country to try to retrofit it back to a civilian economy."

4 More Palestinians Starve to Death in Gaza as Israeli Settlers Attack Aid Convoys from Jordan, This Is Orchestrated Killing": MSF Calls for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Aid Sites to Be Shut Down, Netanyahu Convenes Security Cabinet to Consider Plans for Israeli Military Takeover of Gaza, Israeli Authorities Release Body of Odeh Hadalin as the Israeli Army Blocks People from Attending His Funeral, Report: Microsoft Is Storing Vast Trove of Israeli Intelligence Used to Attack Palestinians, U.S. Tariffs on Dozens of Countries Take Effect Today, Trump and Putin Could Meet in the Coming Days to Discuss Ukraine War, Report: U.S. Plans to Weaken Criticism of Human Rights Abuses in El Salvador, Israel and Russia, Guardian: RSF Attack on Sudan's Zamzam Camp in Darfur May Have Killed More Than 1,500 Civilians, United Nations Says Rwanda-Backed M23 Rebels Killed Over 300 Civilians in Congo Last Month, France, Spain and Portugal Battle Wildfires Amid Heat Wave, New JAMA Study Suggests Los Angeles Fires Led to More Than 400 Additional Deaths, Department of Homeland Security Removes Age Limits for ICE Recruits, Trump Threatens to Federalize D.C. After Former DOGE Staffer Was Assaulted in Attempted Carjacking, 5 Soldiers Shot by Army Sergeant at Fort Stewart Base in Georgia, GOP Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska Angrily Confronted by Crowd During Town Hall, Tucson City Council Votes Unanimously to Reject Project Blue, a Proposed Data Center Linked to Amazon, Stanford Student Newspaper Sues Trump Administration For Revoking Visas Over Protected Speech

This week marks 80 years since the first use of nuclear weapons in war, when the United States dropped a pair of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in the bombings. Many died instantly, and many others died more slowly from severe burns and radiation sickness. Some estimates put the combined death toll over 250,000 killed. We speak with veteran journalist Greg Mitchell, whose new documentary, streaming at PBS.org and airing on PBS, reexamines a remarkable episode in the U.S. occupation of Japan after the end of World War II, when the U.S. military held an all-star football game in the ruins of Nagasaki, reflecting what Mitchell calls a careless" and heartless" U.S. attitude. The Atomic Bowl is horrifying history" that is worth reexamining, says Mitchell, because there is not a real taboo on using nuclear weapons, because so many historians, so many in the media continue to support the use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima and even Nagasaki."

We speak with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich about his new memoir, Coming Up Short, which tells his life story alongside the growth of inequality in America. Reich was born in 1946 as part of the baby-boom generation that enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity and social mobility in the decades after World War II. But he says those conditions were squandered as wealth concentration grew worse, labor unions were gutted and wages stagnated - helping to give rise to Donald Trump's brand of authoritarianism. We allowed big money to take over," says Reich. We, the baby boomers, although we did a lot of good things, we took for granted what we were given. ... And Donald Trump is kind of the essence of what you do when you take your eyes off the prize."

We speak to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich about how President Trump's firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, hours after the agency released a weaker-than-expected jobs report, undermines a key agency. Trump claimed, without offering any evidence, that the numbers were rigged" in order to make him look bad. The BLS report showed just 73,000 jobs were added in July and that far fewer jobs had been created in May and June than previously estimated. Trump's dismissal of Erika McEntarfer is another sign of growing authoritarianism in the United States, says Reich, who served as labor secretary in the Clinton administration. This is another example of Trump basically riding roughshod over our democratic institutions and truth," says Reich.

5 More Palestinians Die of Starvation in Gaza as Israel Continues Deadly Attacks on Aid Seekers, Texas Governor Seeks to Remove Democratic Caucus Chair Amid Lawmakers' Exodus to Block GOP Maps, Rwanda Agrees to Receive Third Country" Immigrants Deported from the U.S., Cuban Immigrant on Hunger Strike for Over 14 Days to Protest His Detention at ICE Jails, Senate Investigation Finds Hundreds of Human Rights Violations at Immigration Jails, Advocates Launch Protest Camp Outside New York City Immigration Offices, Trump Administration Pilot Program Will Require Some Visa Applicants to Pay $15,000 Bonds, RFK Jr. Cancels $500M in Contracts and Funding for mRNA Vaccines, Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration's Plan to Raid FEMA Disaster Relief Funds, EPA to Terminate $7B in Federal Grants for Rooftop Solar Energy, Top Trump Officials to Huddle at VP Vance's Home to Discuss White House's Epstein Strategy, Tennessee Executes Prisoner with Implanted Heart Device Despite Concerns of Painful Shocks, Trump Administration to Restore Confederate Monuments, Including Statue Toppled by Protesters, U.S. Envoy Meets Putin at Kremlin Ahead of Trump's Deadline for a Ukraine Ceasefire, NASA Plans to Place Nuclear Reactor on the Moon, Japan Marks 80th Anniversary of U.S. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

More than 50 Democrats in the Texas Legislature have left the state to block the passage of a new congressional map, which was gerrymandered to give Republicans five extra seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The new map would especially harm Latino and Black representation in Congress, but President Trump is pushing for it in order to retain a Republican majority in the 2026 midterm election. Texas is essentially just going to be the guinea pig. Once Trump is able to get what he needs out of Texas, he's essentially just going to do it in other states, and we cannot allow that," says Texas state Representative Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, who joins us from Illinois. Because Republicans hold the majority in both chambers of the Texas Legislature, state Democrats have fled Texas to other U.S. states to prevent the Legislature from making quorum, or the minimum number of legislators required to conduct a legislative session. The process, known as quorum-breaking, has rarely been used before, but, says Hernandez, We are in unprecedented times."

Former Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls joins us for one of his first interviews since he returned to the United States after he was beaten, arrested and detained by the Israeli military for attempting to bring aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza. Smalls calls Israel's assault and starvation of Gaza a working-class issue," and was the only Black member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition's latest attempt to break Israel's near-total blockade of Gaza. He describes his assault by Israeli soldiers, who attacked me out of the 21 volunteers because of the color of my skin." Smalls was later one of the last to be released from Israel's Givon Prison, where he contracted scabies. I can tell you right now, from my own experience, that Palestinians and people of color are not safe amongst the Israeli government," he says.

Police arrested over 40 people outside the Trump International Hotel in New York City as hundreds gathered for a peaceful action led by Jewish leaders calling for the end to Israel's starvation and ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Democracy Now! was at the demonstration and spoke to some of the protesters, including Motaz Azaiza, renowned photojournalist from Gaza, and Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari, who was arrested. We're here to say, 'Let Gaza live,' to risk everything to say, 'Never again,'" says Fornari.

We get an update from the occupied West Bank, where U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson led a delegation to an illegal settlement amid escalating settler violence against Palestinians. Israel is refusing to release the body of Palestinian activist Odeh Hadalin, who was shot to death by an Israeli settler a week ago. Eyewitness Ty Kavanaugh, a former U.S. Navy medic who is volunteering with Palestinian health organizations in the occupied West Bank, says Israeli soldiers worked with settlers, including the shooter, to identify both Palestinian villagers and international allies to arrest in the aftermath of the shooting. It seemed like they were trying to pen everybody in just to antagonize people. They want them to throw rocks. ... And they were trying to find excuses to arrest international observers or volunteers or the people who happened to be there," says Kavanaugh. Multiple members of Hadalin's family continue to languish in jail, even as the shooter, Yinon Levi, has been released from house arrest and now walks free. Levi owns both an illegal farming outpost in the West Bank and a demolition company that contracts with the Israeli military. This is not [a] random attack ... This is a state policy," says Basel Adra, a close friend of Hadalin's who worked with him on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. He remembers Hadalin as a voice of the community" who dedicated his life to advocating for Palestinian rights and existence.

Eight More Palestinians Starve to Death as Netanyahu Plans to Fully Occupy Gaza Strip, Mike Johnson Visits Illegal West Bank Settlement After Israeli Forces Kill Another U.S. Citizen, Netanyahu's Government Votes Unanimously to Remove Attorney General Prosecuting Corruption, Over 40 Arrested Outside Trump International Hotel in NYC Protesting Israel's Starvation of Gaza, Activists from 44 Countries Plan Largest-Ever Gaza Aid Flotilla in September, Sudan's Army Repels Attack on North Darfur's Capital as Civil War Leads to Protracted Famine", Over 1 Million Afghans Expelled from Iran Face Torture and Famine Exacerbated by U.S. Aid Cuts, Texas Republicans Approve Arrest Warrants for Democrats Who Fled State to Halt Gerrymandering, We Are At War": New York Gov. Hochul to Abandon Nonpartisan Redistricting, Purdue Student Yeonsoo Go Released from ICE Custody; L.A. Plaintiff Details Abuse in ICE Jail, Former Prison Guard Sentenced to 15 Years for Fatal Beating of Robert Brooks, Political Warfare": Jeffrey Epstein Survivors Blast Trump over DOJ Files, Millions Face Air Quality Alerts as Wildfire Smoke Covers Swaths of North America, Global Plastic Pollution Found Responsible for $1.5 Trillion in Damages Annually

A new investigation reveals the months of physical and mental abuse Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration endured inside a Salvadoran prison. The men describe beatings, medical neglect and unhygienic conditions in CECOT, where a prison director reportedly told them, Welcome to Hell, where you enter alive and leave dead." Of the 238 Venezuelan men who were held in El Salvador, at least 197 had not been convicted of any crime. The administration itself knew, even when they were portraying them as the violent criminals that deserved to be sent to a prison in a country that was not their own, potentially indefinitely - they actually knew that the vast majority did not have convictions in the U.S.," says Perla Trevizo, a reporter with the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative unit that worked on the investigation with a team of Venezuelan journalists.

As Palestinians face dire starvation caused by the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, at least 181 Palestinians, including 94 children, have now died from hunger-related causes in Gaza. At the same time, in the West Bank, dozens of women are on hunger strike after an Israeli settler killed a Palestinian activist, Odeh Muhammad Hadalin. Israel is now refusing to return Hadalin's body to the family as his alleged killer walks free. Democracy Now! speaks with Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, who has family in the West Bank. I think it's time for this idealized vision of Israel to shatter and for people to come to terms with the fact that we are funding and financing this ethnic cleansing, this genocide, this theft, day by day by day, of people's land in the West Bank," says Khalidi.

Rashid Khalidi, the renowned Edward Said professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, says he is withdrawing from teaching his fall course after the school has agreed to pay a $200 million settlement in a major new deal with President Trump, who accused the university of failing to protect Jewish students during campus protests against Israel's assault on Gaza. Columbia will also pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and agreed to end the consideration of race in admissions and hiring. Columbia has accepted values that are dear to people who want to protect Israel from criticism at all costs while it slaughters people by the hundreds daily," says Khalidi. In his piece in The Guardian, he wrote, The university's draconian policies and new definition of antisemitism make much teaching impossible."

Six More Palestinians Die of Starvation in Gaza; Hamas and Islamic Jihad Release Videos Showing Two Emaciated Hostages, 600 Retired Israeli Security Officials Urge Trump to Pressure Israel to End War in Gaza, 60 Palestinian Women on Hunger Strike, Demanding the Body of Slain Activist Odeh Hadalin, Far-Right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir Leads Prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sparking Outrage, As Many As 300K People March Across Sydney Harbour Bridge to Protest Israel's Genocide, Texas Gov. Abbott Threatens to Remove Democratic State Legislators Who Fled the State to Block GOP Congressional Map, Trump Fires Head of Bureau of Labor Statistics Over Weaker-Than-Expected Jobs Report, Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Shut Down After Trump Clawed Back $1.1B in Funding, At Least 68 Migrants Die, 74 Others Missing After Boat Capsizes Off the Coast of Yemen, Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Sentenced to 12 Years of House Arrest, Office of Special Counsel Launches Investigation into Former Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith, Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration's Deportations of Immigrants with Parole Status, More Than a Dozen States File Lawsuit to Block Trump Admin from Probing Gender-Affirming Care to Minors, Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison After Meeting with Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Thousands of Boeing Workers Who Build Fighter Jets Begin Strike

President Trump is pushing for a major redrawing of Texas's congressional districts to favor Republicans and shape the outcome of future elections, including next year's midterms. Voting rights expert Ari Berman says this unprecedented" Republican gerrymandering scheme manipulates an already-gerrymandered map that limits democratic representation. It already limits representation for communities of color, and now that would be much worse." The map was released this week, and a hearing is underway today as Republicans try to ram it through.