Democracy Now!

At Least 29 Die of Starvation in Gaza as Israeli Strike on Jabaliya Home Leaves 50 Dead or Missing, Israel Ramps Up Attacks on Lebanon Despite Ceasefire Agreement, Israeli Opposition Lawmaker Ayman Odeh Removed from Knesset After Protesting Gaza Assault, Trump Administration Bars Harvard from Enrolling International Students, Judge Allows Detained Palestinian Student Mahmoud Khalil to Hold Infant Son for First Time, Columbia Alumni Burn Diplomas to Protest Campus Repression Against Pro-Palestinian Students, U.S. Military Vets and Allies Begin 40-Day Hunger Strike for Gaza, Senate Blocks Landmark California Law Transitioning to Electric Vehicles, SCOTUS Gives Trump Green Light to Fire Heads of Independent Agencies, D.C. Appeals Court OKs Trump Order Gutting Labor Protections for Federal Workers, SCOTUS Says Oklahoma Cannot Use Federal Funds for Religious School, Mount Everest of Corruption": Protesters Gather Outside Dinner Feting $TRUMP Coin Investors, Gunman Charged in Israeli Embassy Staff Shooting in Washington, D.C., German Troops Deploy to Lithuania as Attacks Between Ukraine and Russia Continue

President Donald Trump staged an extraordinary confrontation in the Oval Office on Wednesday, repeating his false claims about a white genocide" taking place in South Africa during a meeting with the country's president, Cyril Ramaphosa. At one point, Trump had the lights dimmed and ordered video clips played showing people calling for violence against white farmers in South Africa. The ambush was the latest in the administration's campaign to paint the South African government as racist against Afrikaners, the white minority that ruled the country during apartheid.South African political economist Lebohang Pheko describes the Oval Office meeting as an act of aggression" intended to shore up Trump's racist base. Trump seems to have a great appetite for these spurious white supremacist ideologies [because] they mirror his own extremely skewed worldview," says Pheko.

International criticism of Israel continues to grow as the country's military expands its assault on Gaza, killing scores of Palestinians on a daily basis while blocking food, fuel, medicine and other supplies from reaching the starving population. The U.K. Labour government announced this week it is suspending free trade talks with Israel and imposing sanctions on some Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. The European Union says it will also review its trade ties with Israel.There's been an enormous shift in public opinion, and it's caused by utter revulsion at seeing emaciated children starve to death," says Jeremy Corbyn, former U.K. Labour leader who now sits as an independent in the British Parliament.We have countries within the EU who are significant weapons providers to the Israeli state. If they wanted this conflict, this war and genocide to end tomorrow, then they need to stop supplying weapons to Israel," says Irish politician Lynn Boylan, a member of Sinn Fein who sits in the European Parliament.

We speak with Dr. Victoria Rose, a British plastic and reconstructive surgeon who has been on three medical missions to Gaza since the start of Israel's war on the territory. She joins us from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where she's been treating patients for over a week, and describes horrific injuries amid Israel's ongoing bombardment, limited medical supplies and widespread malnutrition making it harder for people to heal. Children are particularly taking the brunt of this," she says. It's the worst it's ever been."

We speak with Israeli journalist Gideon Levy after a young Israeli couple was shot dead in Washington, D.C. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim both worked at the Israeli Embassy and were killed by a gunman after leaving the Capital Jewish Museum Wednesday night. The couple were dating and about to get engaged, the embassy said. Police identified Elias Rodriguez of Chicago as the suspect in custody. Video shows Rodriguez shouting Free Palestine" during his arrest, and authorities are investigating the incident as a potential hate crime.This incident can be only condemned. Nothing that Israel is doing can justify such a murder," says Levy. He adds that incidents like the Washington killings are adding to a growing sense inside Israel that because of the war in Gaza, Israel is turning into a pariah state."

Israel Targets Hospitals, Kills 51 More Palestinians as Its Genocide in Gaza Continues, Only 100 Trucks Have Entered Gaza After 11 Weeks of Total Blockade and Imminent Mass Starvation, Israeli Soldiers Fire at International Diplomatic Delegation in Jenin, D.C. Police Arrest Suspect in Shooting Death of Two Israeli Embassy Staff, Trump Confronts South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa with Claims of White Genocide", Judge Rules Trump Administration Violated Court Order by Expelling Immigrants to South Sudan, House GOP Passes Big, Beautiful Bill," Slashing Social Programs and Showering Tax Cuts on the Rich, Pentagon Accepts $400M Flying Palace" from Qatar for Trump to Use, A Gross Usurpation of Power": Federal Judge Reverses Trump's Closure of U.S. Institute for Peace, Pakistan Blames Indian Terror Proxies" for Attack on School Bus in Balochistan, Nothing Has Changed": Mother of Jailed Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah Resumes Hunger Strike, DOJ Drops Oversight of Minneapolis and Louisville Cops Ahead of Anniversary of George Floyd's Murder

Cuts by the Trump administration are beginning to chase" U.S.-based scientists at federal agencies and research institutions out of the country. We're draining our scientific talent," says environmental journalist Robert Hunziker, who explains how China and European countries are offering positions for scientists laid off, fired or pushed out by Trump and DOGE's mass culling of federal workers and funding. The massive U.S. brain drain" is a brain gain" for other countries, adds Hunziker, and comes as the Trump administration also cracks down on university curriculums and targets international students for its mass deportation initiative.

As President Trump pushes House Republicans to support a sweeping budget bill that gives massive tax breaks to the rich while slashing spending for Medicaid, food stamps and subsidies for clean energy, we look at a new series for The Lever's podcast Lever Time, which covers the history of the Republican anti-tax movement and how their anti-government influence is impacting Trump's attempts to build power. The anti-tax activist wing has made it impossible for this party to raise taxes, which then makes it very difficult to actually govern when you're the party in power," explains Lever Time co-host Arjun Singh. Singh breaks down the roots of the movement and its impact in the MAGA era.

Over two dozen disability rights activists were arrested on Capitol Hill last week when they protested the Trump-backed Republican budget bill and its cuts to Medicaid, affordable housing and more. We're putting our bodies on the line [because] our bodies are on the line," says Julie Farrar, an activist with ADAPT, which organized the protest. It is blood on the hands of the GOP and the president and the administration, that they want this big, beautiful bill for billionaires that will kill poor people [and] disabled people."

As a Republican-sponsored budget bill advances through Congress, we hear from Bishop William Barber about how the bill hurts low-income people. It is about death-dealing and destruction to the poor and the elderly and the youth of our country," says Barber, citing the bill's cuts to essential social services like Medicaid and paralleling those cuts to the government's funding of defense and deportation initiatives. We have to start talking about this budget as a form of social and political murder." Barber has been arrested with other faith leaders twice in the past month while protesting cuts, including in the Capitol Rotunda.

Gaza Officials Report 326 Malnutrition Deaths as U.N. Says No Aid Has Reached Palestinians, History Will Judge Them": U.K. Suspends Trade Talks with Israel Amid Starvation Campaign, European Union to Review Israel Ties; Spanish Parliament Urges Arms Embargo on Israel, A Sane Country Does Not Kill Babies": Israeli Opposition Leader Condemns Gaza Assault, Emerging GOP Budget Bill Would Gut Benefits Including Medicare to Fund Tax Breaks for the Rich, Trump Administration Deports Asian Immigrants to South Sudan in Apparent Violation of Court Order, Report: Over 50 Venezuelans Sent by U.S. to El Salvador Prison Had Pending Asylum Appointments, Marco Rubio Defends Unlawful Deportation of Maryland Father to El Salvador, At Senate Hearing, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Can't Define Habeas Corpus, IRS Commissioner Nominee Refuses to Rule Out Canceling Nonprofit Status of Trump's Opponents, Trump Unveils Golden Dome" Missile Defense System with 20-Year, $540 Billion Price Tag, Columbia's Acting President Booed at Commencement as Students Demand Mahmoud Khalil's Release, CBS News President Steps Down as Paramount Moves to Settle Trump's $20 Billion 60 Minutes" Lawsuit, Aides to Mexico City's Mayor Assassinated Amid Continuing Cartel Violence

Columbia University activist and student Mohsen Mahdawi graduated on Monday - after he was released from ICE jail late last month. As he crossed the stage, students erupted in thunderous applause. Democracy Now! spoke with Mahdawi after the ceremony. I am coming here to be in the middle of this fire because I am a peacemaker, because I am a firefighter," says Mahdawi, who plans to attend Columbia University's graduate School of International and Public Affairs in the fall.

A damning new report reveals how Israel is systematically making Gaza unlivable. The independent news outlet +972 Magazine has spoken to Israeli soldiers who describe how they have been using bulldozers and explosives to intentionally flatten Gaza.In the southern city of Rafah, 73% of buildings are completely destroyed, with only about 4% of the infrastructure remaining undamaged. The real aim is to make it impossible for the Palestinians to return to these areas," says Meron Rapoport, co-author of the +972 Magazine report.

The U.N.'s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned Tuesday that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza over the next 48 hours if more aid does not enter the besieged territory. The warning comes as Israel expands its military assault, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to take control of the entire Gaza Strip. The suffering is really beyond description," says Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam's food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza, who speaks with Democracy Now! from Gaza City.

U.N. Warns 14,000 Babies on Cusp of Death in Gaza as Food Supplies Start to Trickle In, Israeli Attacks on Gaza's Beleaguered Hospitals Destroy Already Scarce Supplies, Houthi Fighters Launch Naval Blockade" in Escalating Actions Against Israeli Genocide, SCOTUS Allows Trump to Terminate Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan Immigrants, DOJ Charges NJ Rep. LaMonica McIver over Newark ICE Visit, Lifts Charges Against Mayor Baraka, Trump Reverses Demand for Moscow to Declare Ukraine Ceasefire After Call with Putin, Europe to Lift Sanctions on Syria, United Kingdom and EU Agree to Reset" Five Years Post-Brexit, Indian Authorities Expelled Rohingya Refugees by Pushing Them into the Sea with Life Jackets, WHO Approves Global Pandemic Treaty, Warns People in 70+ Countries Not Getting Medical Care, Billionaire, Trump-Pardoned Real Estate Developer Charles Kushner Confirmed as French Ambassador, Transpo Sec. Sean Duffy, AG Pam Bondi Among Trump Insiders Who Profited from Tariffs Roller Coaster, Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes More Vetoes Bill to Study Reparations, New Orleans Police Used Real-Time Facial Recognition Tracking Despite Ban, Palestinian American Student Denied Diploma After Protesting Israel's Assault on Gaza, Oklahoma Adds False Conspiracy Theories About 2020 Election to High School Curriculum, Trump Administration to Allow Sales of Device That Turns Rifles into Machine Guns, Missouri GOP Moves to Repeal Abortion Rights Enshrined by Voters in November Referendum

On the 100th birthday of Malcolm X, we speak with one of his daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, and civil rights attorney Ben Crump as they continue to press the U.S. government for answers about his assassination. The iconic Black revolutionary was just 39 years old when he was gunned down on February 21, 1965, in Harlem's Audubon Ballroom. In 2023, the family of Malcolm X filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against various government bodies, including the FBI, CIA and NYPD, for concealing evidence of their involvement in the assassination. Now his family is calling for President Trump to release more details about the assassination, just as he released thousands of unredacted files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and vowed in an executive order to release files on the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.When I think of my father most, he was such a young man. He was in his twenties when the world learned of him, 39 when he was assassinated," says Shabazz.We continue to fight for justice for Malcolm X, by any means necessary," says Crump. We implore the federal government to release all of the FBI papers on Malcolm X."

Sunday in New York, Dr. Noor Abdalla accepted a diploma on behalf of her husband, Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, at an alternative graduation ceremony held by the People's University for Palestine. Abdalla gave birth to the couple's first child Deen last month, while Khalil remained imprisoned at a Louisiana ICE detention center over a thousand miles away after he was abducted by ICE from university housing in March. ICE denied Khalil's request to be present at the birth. You showed up," Abdalla said, reading a statement from Khalil addressed to attendees of the crowd. You reminded me that while institutions may abandon us, the people never will."

A new report in The New York Times takes a deep dive into Project Esther, a policy blueprint to crush the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States from the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank best known for spearheading Project 2025. Project Esther was formed during the Biden administration and lays out plans for surveilling, silencing and punishing pro-Palestinian activists, including deporting non-U.S. citizens and withholding funds from universities. Many of the Heritage Foundation's proposals appear to have been taken up by the Trump administration.Project Esther aims to rebrand all critics of Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters as providing material support for terrorism," says investigative reporter Katie Baker. They're very explicit that this is what they're doing. ... This is all laid out online, and it has been for months."

Palestinians in Gaza are fleeing Khan Younis after the Israeli military issued expulsion orders for the besieged territory's second-largest city. This comes as Israel's bombardment of Gaza intensifies, killing hundreds of Palestinians over the weekend, including at least five journalists. Health facilities have been under constant attack. Israel on Sunday announced the start of a renewed ground invasion it calls Operation Gideon's Chariots. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Sunday that Israel would allow limited food supplies into Gaza as the population of more than 2 million faces famine after 11 weeks of a total Israeli blockade, but there are few details about when such aid shipments could arrive. Gaza's Health Ministry confirms Israel has killed at least 53,300 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, a death toll believed to be a vast undercount.The situation, as anyone who's following the news can see, is thoroughly apocalyptic," says Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani. There is not only an unprecedented siege, but also an unprecedented intensification of Israel's genocidal military campaign in the Gaza Strip." Rabbani also stresses that any progress on aid, lifting the siege or reaching a ceasefire is dependent on the Trump administration using its leverage over Israel. It will take no more than a phone call from Washington," he says.

Israel Kills Hundreds More Palestinians Over the Weekend as It Orders Expulsion from Khan Younis, Israel Says It Will Allow Limited Food into Gaza as Over 2 Million Palestinians Face Famine, Italian Lawmakers Protest Gaza Blockade at Rafah Crossing; 100,000 Dutch Protesters Take to Streets, Joe Biden Diagnosed with Aggressive Cancer Amid Mounting Uproar over His Failed 2024 Candidacy, House Republicans Slash Medicaid, Food Stamps to Give Tax Cuts to the Richest, SCOTUS Blocks Use of Alien Enemies Act to Expel Venezuelan Immigrants, AG Pam Bondi Sold Up to $5 Million in Trump Media Shares as Trump Announced Tariffs, FBI Investigating Perished Anti-Natalist" Suspect in Palms Springs Fertility Clinic Bombing, Trump and Putin to Speak After Turkey Peace Talks Last Week Yielded Little Progress, Centrist Nicuor Dan Defeats Far-Right Rival in Romanian Elections, ICC Chief Prosecutor Steps Aside Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe, El Salvador Arrests Prominent Anti-Corruption Lawyer, a Critic of President Bukele, Global Hunger Soared in 2024, Driven by War, Student Hunger Strikes for Gaza Continue; UCLA Activist Hospitalized After 9 Days Without Food, Mahmoud Khalil's Wife and Baby Accept People's Diploma," Honor Students Who Speak Up for Palestine, Tornadoes Sweep Through Missouri and Kentucky, Killing 28 People, New Jersey Transit Strike Ends After Tentative Deal, Two Mexican Sailors Dead After Navy Ship Crashes into Brooklyn Bridge

The Supreme Court has heard oral arguments in a case challenging Trump's now-halted order to end birthright citizenship. Multiple lower courts have already ruled that the order is unconstitutional. Trump's lawyers are seeking to reinterpret the 14th Amendment, which has guaranteed citizenship to any child born in the United States for over a century. Legal expert Andrea Flores, an immigration lawyer at FWD.us, says the government's weak arguments about implementing the unprecedented anti-immigrant order indicate that The administration is not prepared to do this. They just want the authority to reinterpret amendments."

House Republicans have successfully pushed forward President Trump's budget proposals to slash Medicaid and food stamps, putting millions of low-income Americans at risk. Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, a healthcare consumer advocacy organization, says the $715 billion reduction is literally the biggest cut to the Medicaid program in history."

In his first live interview since his release from ICE detention, Columbia University student and Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi recounts the traumatic experience of his arrest and incarceration. Mahdawi, a green card holder who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, was arrested in Vermont on April 14 when he appeared for what he was told would be a citizenship interview, and spent more than two weeks in U.S. immigration custody, where he was held in retaliation for his speech in support of Palestinian rights. Mahdawi's detention has led him to reflect on the interconnectedness between injustices," as multiple members of his family in Palestine have been unjustly" incarcerated in Israeli jails. Now I can feel their pain," says Mahdawi. Despite the U.S. government and pro-Israel groups' attempts to silence his calls for an end to genocide in Gaza, he adds, I share my pain with the world."

Israel Kills 150 Palestinians in Gaza in Bloodiest Day Since It Shattered Ceasefire, Israeli Soldiers Kill Five Palestinians in Occupied West Bank's Tamoun, Rep. Rashida Tlaib Reintroduces Nakba Resolution Amid Israel's Genocide on Gaza, Trump Leaves Gulf Region After Touting Billions in Deals; Democrats Move to Block Some Arms Sales, Trump Says Nuclear Deal Sent to Tehran; Iran Slams U.S. Hypocrisy over Its Arming of Israel's Genocide, Ukrainian and Russian Delegations Meet in Turkey After Putin Refuses to Take Part in Peace Talks, SCOTUS Hears Case Stemming from Trump's Attack on Birthright Citizenship, DHS Requests 20,000 National Guard to Help Execute Mass Deportations, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Cheered by Supporters After Pleading Not Guilty to Trespassing at ICE Jail, NYU Withholds Diploma of Commencement Speaker Who Condemned Israel's Genocide in Gaza, Georgia Abortion Ban Forces Family to Keep Brain-Dead Pregnant Woman on Life Support, Enough Is Enough": New Jersey Transit Workers Strike for Pay Equity

Israel has imposed a complete block on humanitarian aid into Gaza since March 2, with hundreds of trucks with lifesaving aid waiting at the border. Now many of Gaza's kitchens have closed, and Palestinians face mass starvation as rations run low. We speak with Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine. The majority of people in Gaza are facing emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity," says de Waal. Rations are getting low, and the poorest and most vulnerable are beginning to starve and die."

A major new report by U.S. academics analyzes Israel's occupation of Palestine under the legal framework of the crime of apartheid. The report was intentionally released on Nakba Day - the day that marks the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes during Israel's violent founding in 1948. Citing dozens of experts, human rights organizations and judicial decisions, it concludes that Israel's treatment of Palestinians meets the legal threshold of apartheid." Researchers found that Israel imposes policies that are designed to ensure the perpetual racial subordination of the Palestinian people," says Sandra Babcock, a clinical professor at Cornell Law School who helped author the report.

The Trump administration has suspended refugee resettlement for most of the world, but welcomed 59 white South African Afrikaners Monday who were granted refugee status. President Trump claims Afrikaners face racial discrimination - even though South Africa's white minority still own the vast majority of farmland decades after the end of apartheid - and claims they are escaping genocide." This accusation is a conspiracy theory and a myth that has been floating around echo chambers of right-wing populists and white nationalists for many decades now," says Andile Zulu, political essayist and researcher at the Alternative Information and Development Centre in Cape Town. We also speak with Herman Wasserman, a South African professor of journalism at Stellenbosch University, who says the Trump administration is using Afrikaners as pawns, as props in a campaign that purports to promote whiteness."

Israeli Bombing Claims 100 More Lives in Gaza; Israel Expels Sick and Wounded Patients from Al-Shifa, Palestinians Commemorate 77th Anniversary of Nakba Amid Israeli Genocide, HRW on Gaza: Israel Blockade Is a Tool of Extermination", Taxpayers Against Genocide Deliver Complaint to Human Rights Commission, Trump Boasts Qatar's Historic" Deal with Boeing, Heads to UAE, Georgetown's Badar Khan Suri Leaves ICE Jail on Bail, Reunites with Family, SCOTUS Hears Birthright Case; Dems Grill Kristi Noem over Mass Deportations, Trump Admin Charges Russian Harvard Scientist Kseniia Petrova with Smuggling, Zelensky Arrives in Turkey for Peace Talks, But Putin Is a No-Show, Two Children Die of Thirst on Stricken Ship Carrying Refugees in Mediterranean, Rival Armed Groups Trade Fire in Libya's Capital, Hours After Declaring a Ceasefire, Ex-Partner of Sean Diddy" Combs Testifies About Physical and Sexual Abuse, RFK Jr. on Measles Outbreak: I Don't Think People Should Be Taking Medical Advice from Me", Protesters Disrupt RFK Jr. Senate Hearing to Oppose Medicaid Cuts, RFK Jr. Orders FDA Review of Medication Abortion Drug Mifepristone, House GOP Approves Massive Cuts to Medicaid and Food Assistance in Emerging Budget Bill

We speak with a Salvadoran journalist who fled El Salvador along with others from the acclaimed news outlet El Faro after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele threatened to arrest them for exposing how Bukele had made secret deals with Salvadoran gangs. Bukele has run the country under a so-called state of exception since 2022, detaining nearly 80,000 people accused of being in gangs, largely without access to due process. We don't know when we will be able to come back," says Nelson Rauda Zablah, digital editor for El Faro, who notes it is now routine for Bukele's critics to flee for fear of retaliation. He discusses El Faro's reporting, and we feature excerpts from their interview series with two former leaders of the 18th Street Revolucionarios on Bukele's yearslong relationship to gangs. All of this comes as Bukele is working closely with the Trump administration to jail immigrants sent from the United States at CECOT, El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center.

Amid President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East, we continue our interview with DAWN's Sarah Leah Whitson and HuffPost's Akbar Shahid Ahmed about Trump's acceptance of a luxury plane gifted to him by the Qatari government, nuclear negotiations with Iran and Saudi Arabia, a less cooperative relationship with Israel and more.

We look at President Donald Trump's diplomatic visit to the Middle East and discuss his administration's foreign policy in the region with Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost, and Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN. As Trump sells U.S. military power in the Gulf in exchange for investments in U.S. businesses, they warn that Trump's transactional business philosophy is spreading to the administration's dealings around the world. As Whitson puts it, if you can pay, then you can play." This approach extends to the new Syrian government, as Trump pledges to lift sanctions on the country. However, explains Ahmed, while the thawing of relationships between the U.S. and Arab states has the added effect of divergence from tight-knit U.S.-Israel coordination, these changes can be attributed to Trump's America First" agenda, rather than any concern for Palestinians, whom Trump is happy to allow Israel to pummel."

Israel Kills Scores of Palestinians in Attacks on Gaza Homes and Hospitals, U.N. Humanitarian Aid Coordinator Demands States Act to Prevent Genocide" in Gaza, Trump Meets Syrian President in Saudi Arabia After Pledging to Lift U.S. Sanctions, Trump Agrees to Sell $142 Billion in Arms to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ukraine's Zelensky Challenges Russia's Putin to Face-to-Face Meeting at Peace Talks in Turkey, Capitol Police Arrest 26 Protesters Demanding GOP Drop Plans to Gut Medicaid, House GOP Measure Would Grant Trump the Power to Crush Nonprofits, Trump-Appointed Judge OKs Trump's Use of Alien Enemies Act to Deport Venezuelans, 20 States Sue to Block Trump from Withholding Funds over Opposition to Mass Deportations, Federal Grand Jury Indicts Milwaukee Judge Arrested for Allegedly Obstructing ICE, Clear Lines They Dare Not Cross": Hakeem Jeffries Warns GOP Against Arresting Democrats, Federal Judge Appoints Manager to Take Control of Rikers Island and Other NYC Jails, Jose Mujica, the World's Poorest President" Who Fought Uruguay's Dictatorship, Dies at 89

We speak with 22-year-old Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed in Ireland after he evacuated Gaza last month suffering from malnutrition and under threat for his reporting on Israel's genocide. Abed describes himself as an accidental war correspondent" and hoped to become a sports journalist and commentator before the start of the war, but spent much of the last two years reporting on daily death and destruction. He says leaving Gaza was a very agonizing decision" for him and that he feels tremendous guilt for now having access to food, water and medicine while so many Palestinians continue to suffer. I can't really tell you that I'm safe here. I'm probably a physical survivor, but not an emotional survivor. The images that I took with me from Gaza are still haunting me," says Abed. My whole family is still in Gaza, my friends, my colleagues. And all of them, I'm just thinking about them every single second all day."

People are starving to death, and this is a fact that we are witnessing and experiencing nowadays," says Oxfam's food security coordinator in Gaza, Mahmoud Alsaqqa. More than 10 weeks after Israel instituted a total siege on Gaza, blocking all food and other aid from entering, hunger has reached catastrophic levels in the Palestinian territory. This comes as a new United Nations report warns one in every five people in Gaza is facing starvation, while Save the Children says every child is now at risk of famine. The World Food Programme and charities working in Gaza say they have completely run out of supplies and can no longer feed people.

As President Donald Trump meets with leaders in the Middle East this week, we look at how his administration and family have opened wide to foreign powers and wealthy interests willing to spend big to gain influence. Top buyers of Trump's novelty cryptocurrency have spent millions as part of a contest to have dinner with the president. Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric have also signed a number of deals around the world, trading on the family's name and influence, and son-in-law Jared Kushner has taken in billions in investment from Gulf states. There's very little restraint at the moment," says New York Times investigative reporter Eric Lipton, who is tracking the deals. They're just pursuing as many profitable deals as they can find."

We speak with Robert Weissman, co-president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, about President Donald Trump's corrupt deal" to accept a $400 million jumbo luxury jet from the royal family of Qatar - possibly the most valuable such gift a foreign government has ever given. Under the plan, the Boeing 747 known as the flying palace" would be retrofitted for use as Air Force One, then donated to Trump's presidential library at the end of his term in order to allow him continued use of the jet even after he leaves office. The first Trump administration was the most corrupt in American history by far. What's going on now is literally orders of magnitude worse," says Weissman.

Israel Bombs Gaza's Nasser Hospital Again, Killing Journalist Hassan Islayeh, United Nations Chief Alarmed" by Reports of Catastrophic Hunger in Gaza, Hamas Releases Israeli American Soldier Edan Alexander After Talks with Trump Officials, Saudi Crown Prince Welcomes Trump and Billionaire CEOs to Riyadh as Trump Begins Mideast Tour, DHS to End Protected Status for Afghans Who Face Reprisals for Helping U.S. Occupation Forces, Episcopal Church Quits Partnership with U.S. Government Over Resettlement of White South Africans, Colombia to Join China's Belt and Road Initiative, Trump Executive Order Seeks to Lower Drug Prices, But Offers No Means for Enforcement, Trump Fires Copyright Office Chief After Report on Dangers of AI, Sen. Alsobrooks Calls for RFK Jr. to Resign Amid Gutting of Health Agencies, Measles Outbreak, California Gov. Newsom Calls on Local Officials to Criminalize Unhoused Encampments, Mexican Mayoral Candidate Shot Dead at Campaign Rally Ahead of June 1 Election

Jewish Voice for Peace held its largest-ever national member meeting in Baltimore earlier this month, with more than 2,000 attending. We feature the address of Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, who addressed the conference as it began. Why is it that our government always has enough money for bombs, to bomb people, to kill people, but never seems to have money to provide people with healthcare, with housing, enough food for their families?" Tlaib asked in her address.

We speak with Congressmember Bonnie Watson Coleman, one of three Democratic lawmakers the Department of Homeland Security has threatened to arrest after they went Friday to inspect a newly reopened private ICE jail. They are accused of assaulting ICE officers. This comes after federal agents arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on trespassing charges after he joined their congressional delegation. The response of Trump officials has been to lie and to deflect and to try to create legitimacy for illegitimate things that they are doing," says Watson Coleman.

Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested and detained by masked federal immigration police Friday when he joined three Democratic congressmembers set to tour a newly reopened 1,000-bed Immigration and Customs Enforcement jail run by GEO Group, which advocates say lacks proper permits. Baraka says he was asked to leave the premises and left the secure area to join a group of protesters in a public area outside the gate - when he was seized by officers in a chaotic scene. This is completely insane, and it's a scary moment in the history of this country as we watch democracy slip between our fingers," Baraka tells Democracy Now!

Hunger Monitor Issues Dire Famine Warning for Gaza as Israel's Blockade, Genocide Continues, We Will Not Emigrate": Palestinians Refuse to Be Expelled as U.N. Group Warns of Another Nakba", Pope Leo Calls for Ceasefire in Ukraine and Gaza in First Sunday Address, U.S.-Mediated Truce Between India and Pakistan Leads to Temporary Halt in Kashmir Hostilities, Zelensky Says He Expects" Putin for In-Person Meeting in Turkey This Week, This Is What Oligarchy Is About": GOP Plans to Slash Medicaid to Offer More Tax Cuts to the Rich, Feds Arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka at ICE Jail; Trump Admin Warns Dem. Lawmakers Could Be Next, Judges Warn Due Process at Risk as ICE Raids Roil Communities Across the U.S., Trump Admin Threat to Suspend Habeas Corpus Alarms Lawmakers, Legal Experts, Rumeysa Ozturk Released from ICE Custody, Greeted by Lawmakers and Supporters as She Returns Home, Columbia, U. of Washington Suspend Protesters as Yale, UCLA Students Join Hunger Strike for Gaza, U.S. and China Agree to Temporarily Lower Reciprocal Tariffs by 115%, Qatar Offers $400 Million Luxury Jet to Trump on Cusp of His Middle East Trip, PKK Announces End to Armed Struggle Against Turkey, Extreme Flooding in DRC Kills Over 100 People, Separate RSF Attacks in Sudan Kill Dozens over Another Bloody Weekend, White South Africans Are Arriving in U.S. After Receiving Refugee Status, Loved Ones of Disappeared People in Mexico Rally on Mother's Day, Newark Airport Turmoil Deepens with Two More Traffic Control Outages

We go to Memphis for an update after jurors acquitted three former Memphis police officers of the murder of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black father who died after the officers brutally beat him during a traffic stop in January 2023. The group beating was caught on video, provoking widespread outrage and calls for police reform. The three officers still face sentencing after they were convicted of separate federal charges, along with two other officers who pleaded guilty to the state charges and will not stand trial. A lot of us were shocked," says Amber Sherman, of the Memphis community's response. Sherman, a community organizer and member of Black Lives Matter Memphis, joined the family Thursday at a community vigil and protest. She warns this latest acquittal will embolden" Memphis police as they continue to do whatever they want."

Ahead of the Mother's Day holiday in the Untied States, we speak to Duha Latif, a mother of two children in Gaza, about life for mothers living under Israeli occupation and assault. Democracy Now! last spoke to Latif over a year ago, when she was attempting to evacuate Rafah with her family. She now resides in a tent in Khan Younis and struggles to feed her family as Israel's blockade has created widespread famine throughout the Gaza Strip. We are not living. We are enduring," says Latif. Her children, 8-year-old Amir and 3-year-old Karim, are suffering the effects of hunger and malnutrition. The loss they are living is more than just the absence of food - it's the absence of life as they knew it."

Survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests are calling for Pope Leo XIV to institute a zero-tolerance policy and for the church to investigate his handling of prior sexual abuse allegations. He needs to be transparent. He needs to be honest," says Peter Isely, a survivor of sexual assault by a Catholic priest and a co-founder of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Wait and see," says James V. Grimaldi, executive editor of National Catholic Reporter. Don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do." We are also joined by Father Bryan Massingale, professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University.

The first U.S.-born pope has taken the name Pope Leo XIV. Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost is also a naturalized citizen of Peru, where he served the church for two decades. He greeted 1.4 billion Roman Catholics and the world Thursday with a message of peace and has posted statements online in support of migrant rights and criticized the Trump administration. In the first part of our discussion, we go to Rome for an update from James V. Grimaldi, executive editor of National Catholic Reporter, and speak with Father Bryan Massingale, a Catholic priest and professor of theological and social ethics. We need him to step into that void of moral and ethical leadership that we have in our world right now. And we also need the pope to be a prophet of hope in these uncertain times," says Massingale.

Pope Leo XIV, First U.S. Pontiff, Has Criticized Trump Admin for Mistreatment of Immigrants, Kashmiris Hope for Peace as Tensions Escalate Between Pakistan and India, Community Kitchens in Gaza Shutter as Israel's Genocide Continues with Bombings and Starvation, An Assault on Children": UNRWA Blasts Israeli Raids on East Jerusalem Schools, U.S. and U.K. Announce Historic Trade Deal, Though Details Remain Thin, Senators Demand Probe of Elon Musk's Conflicts of Interest as State Department Pushes Starlink, Jeanine Pirro Named Top D.C. Prosecutor; Ed Martin Gets New Jobs Despite Support for Insurrectionists, Trump Taps Wellness Influencer and RFK Jr. Ally Casey Means as Surgeon General, Librarian of Congress Fired by Trump Was First Woman & African American to Fill Role, FEMA Director Is Fired One Day After Testifying Agency Should Not Be Eliminated, FBI Agents Visit Homes of Boston Climate Activists, Court Orders Trump Administration to Explain If It Can Bring Back Deportees from El Salvador, Autopsy Finds SC Firing Squad Botched Execution of Mikal Mahdi, Leading to Agonizing Death, Federal Court Rules GOP-Drawn Congressional Map Discriminated Against Black Alabamians, Maker of Pegasus Spyware Ordered to Pay $167 Million in Damages over WhatsApp Hacks

We speak with journalist Mehdi Hasan of Zeteo News about the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, the suppression of pro-Palestine activism and more. Hasan is a former host for Al Jazeera and MSNBC who started his own news outlet last year. On Zeteo's first anniversary, he describes his frustrations while working for mainstream outlets and says the U.S. media continues to ignore Palestinian voices in coverage about the Middle East.You are getting a very one-sided view of the conflict," Hasan says. The real tragedy is that the media has been complicit in the Gaza genocide."

As the Israeli military kills two more Palestinian journalists in Gaza, a new documentary by Zeteo has uncovered critical details about Israel's killing three years ago of the acclaimed Palestinian American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The film, Who Killed Shireen?, identifies for the first time the Israeli soldier who allegedly shot Abu Akleh. We get response from two members of Abu Akleh's family - her brother Anton and her niece Lina - as well as the documentary's executive producer, Dion Nissenbaum, and Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan.We've always known that it was an Israeli soldier who killed Shireen," says Lina Abu Akleh, who says the entire chain of command" must be held accountable, including elected officials.The Biden administration and the Israeli government essentially were doing everything they could to cover up what happened that day to Shireen Abu Akleh," says Nissenbaum, who is also the correspondent in the documentary.

Pools of Blood": Israel Kills 100 Palestinians in Gaza, Incl. Attack on Restaurant and Marketplace, World Central Kitchen Ends Food Distro Due to Israel's Genocidal Blockade, Reuters: Trump and Israel in Talks over U.S.-Led Administration of Gaza, Israel Expelling Hundreds from Homes in West Bank Camps of Nur Shams, Tulkarm, India and Pakistan Exchange More Fire After Indian Attack Kills 31 in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir, Germany Cracks Down on Asylum Seekers One Day After Friedrich Merz Becomes Chancellor, U.S. Judge Warns Plan to Expel Undocumented People to Libya Would Violate Court Order, ICE Poised to Start Massive Raid on Washington, D.C., Businesses, GOP Challenger for North Carolina Supreme Court Backs Down After Attempt to Overturn His Loss Fails, Judge Strikes Down Trump's Executive Order Punishing Law Firm He Doesn't Like, Voice of America Ordered to Carry Programming from Far-Right One America News Network, Russia Declares Unilateral 3-Day Ceasefire in Ukraine, Then Violates It, Memphis Jury Acquits Three Ex-Cops of Murder over 2023 Killing of Tyre Nichols, At Least 79 Gaza Protesters Arrested After Occupying Columbia University Library, Jewish Students Lobby Congress Against Weaponizing Antisemitism to Silence Critics of Israel, Court Orders ICE to Transfer Abducted Tufts Scholar Rumeysa Ozturk to Vermont, Cal State Students Begin Hunger Strike to Protest Israel's Starvation Campaign on Gaza, Black Smoke from Vatican Chimney Signals Cardinals Have Not Yet Selected New Pope

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has found U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who fatally beat Mexican father Anastasio Hernandez Rojas responsible for acts of torture. It's the first time the independent commission, which investigates extrajudicial killings and human rights violations, has issued such findings against a U.S. law enforcement agency. In 2010, Rojas was crossing the southern border in an attempt to return to San Diego, where he'd lived for 25 years, to reunite with his wife and five children after being deported. He was stopped by border agents, who brutally beat and tasered him while he was handcuffed, until Rojas died from heart failure. His death was later ruled a homicide.This comes as President Trump's nominee to head Customs and Border Protection, Rodney Scott, is accused of obstructing the criminal probe into Rojas's killing.The decision exposes the unchecked powers of policing in the United States and holds the United States accountable for what is one of the worst violations in human rights, which is the taking of a life," says Andrea Guerrero, executive director of Alliance San Diego.