Democracy Now!

President Donald Trump spoke at the Department of Justice Friday in an unprecedented speech in which he threatened to take revenge on his political enemies, from the press to the FBI itself. It was a typical rambling and hate-filled diatribe," says Maryland Congressmember Jamie Raskin. Nobody has ever taken a sledgehammer to the traditional boundary between independent criminal law enforcement, on the one side, and presidential political will and power, on the other." Raskin, who spoke at a press conference in response to Trump's address outside of the Department of Justice, is a former constitutional law professor and served as the Democrats' lead prosecutor for Trump's second impeachment over the January 6 Capitol insurrection. He also responds to Trump's illegal" invocation of the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and his attempt to deport foreign-born university students and faculty. Trump's sweeping efforts to make the United States hostile to immigrants creates danger for everybody," warns Raskin. Finally, Raskin responds to recent divisions within the Democratic Party over a GOP spending bill. He urges congressional Democrats to present a unified plan" and common strategy" for resisting a Republican supermajority loyal to Trump.

U.S. Bombs Yemen, Killing Dozens of Civilians, Trump Administration Defies Court Order Halting Deportation Flights to El Salvador, Trump Mulls Travel Ban Targeting Citizens of Up to 43 Nations, ICE Arrests Second Columbia Student over Palestinian Solidarity Protests, Video Shows Immigration Agents Refused to ID Themselves During Mahmoud Khalil Arrest, We Are Going to Fight Back": Expelled Columbia Labor Leader Vows to Combat Censorship, Retaliation, Far-Right Group Betar Says It Handed Trump Admin Thousands of Names" of Deportation Targets, Storms Kills at Least 40 People as Trump White House Purges Agencies That Study Extreme Weather, Schumer Faces Calls to Step Down Amid Democratic and Public Anger on GOP Spending Bill Vote, New Trump EOs Gut Agencies Serving Unhoused People, Libraries and Media Organizations, Trump Assails Judges, News Outlets and Critics in Rambling Speech at Justice Department, Hundreds of Thousands Rally in Serbia Against Government Corruption, JD Vance Booed by Audience While Attending Concert at Kennedy Center

A pair of federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of fired federal workers at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury. The White House vowed to fight what it called an absurd and unconstitutional order." This comes as the White House and its allies have increasingly targeted judges who rule against the administration. Elon Musk has posted dozens of messages on his social platform X calling for the impeachment of judges who rule against the administration. We speak with retired federal Judge Nancy Gertner, who served as a federal district judge in Massachusetts for 17 years, from 1994 to 2011. The distance between what they are trying to do and what is lawful is so enormous that anyone would rule as these judges are doing," says Gertner.

We speak with the acclaimed Russian American writer M. Gessen, who says Donald Trump has entered his second term prepared to enact his radical Project 2025 agenda, including a crackdown on LGBTQ rights and dissent. Gessen, who has spent decades writing about authoritarianism at home and abroad, argues that while he was something of an accidental president" in his first term, Trump has been transformed by power" and is now increasingly imperialist" and totalitarian."

Over 300 protesters with the group Jewish Voice for Peace flooded the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Thursday wearing red shirts saying Not in Our Name." They demanded the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil and held banners reading opposing fascism is a Jewish tradition." About 100 protesters were arrested and face charges of trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest. Democracy Now! was at the protest. I refuse to allow this administration to speak in my name, to use our names as Jews, to carry out a fascist agenda," protester Josh Dubnau said. The Trump administration is a government that has far-right white supremacists, people that do the Nazi salute, and [Trump's] fine with that."

U.S. Judges Order Agencies to Reinstate Fired Workers, Trump and Musk to Halt Mass Layoffs, A Slap in the Face": Democrats Accuse Schumer of Betrayal" After He Backs GOP Funding Bill, Jewish Protesters Takes Over Trump Tower to Demand Release of Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia Punishes Students in Historic Hind's Hall Protest as Trump Issues Ultimatum to Admin, Harvard Law Students Vote to Divest from Israeli War Machine, Trump and Putin Set to Talk as Zelensky Accuses Moscow of Manipulation" over Truce Conditions, NBC: Pentagon Preparing Plans to Illegally Seize Panama Canal, Syria Signs Transitional Constitution Against Backdrop of Israeli Airstrikes, Military Occupation, U.N. Warns Entire Families" Killed in Syrian Sectarian Violence as Some Alawites Flee to Lebanon, Argentinian Riot Police Crack Down on Pensioner-Led Anti-Government Protests, Cuba Releases 553 Prisoners, Fulfilling Its End of Collapsed Deal with U.S., Trump Resumes Family Detentions, Including Children as Young as 1, DOJ Drops Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against Immigraton Housing Contractor, Raul Grijalva, Longtime AZ Congressman and Defender of Immigrant & Environmental Rights, Dies at 77

We speak with Valerie Costa, an organizer behind the grassroots Tesla Takedown movement peacefully protesting outside Tesla showrooms to oppose billionaire owner Elon Musk's role in government. Since Donald Trump's return to the White House, Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency have led mass firings of federal workers and dismantled entire agencies. As protests against Tesla grow and sales plummet, the company's stock has lost about 40% of its value since the start of the year. This week, President Trump personally intervened on behalf of his adviser and held a promotional event with Musk at the White House, where he said he would buy an electric vehicle and declared attacks on Tesla dealerships to be domestic terrorism." Meanwhile, Musk personally attacked Costa, falsely accusing her of committing crimes" in a post on his X social network. They're peaceful, nonviolent protests," says Costa, an activist and organizer in Seattle. Protesting Tesla ... is ultimately about hitting Elon Musk's bottom line."

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has issued a warning to 60 universities that they're being investigated for antisemitism and could face penalties. Her warning came days after the Trump administration withdrew $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University and as the administration attempts to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil over his involvement in campus antiwar protests at the school. At the same time, President Trump has pledged to abolish the Education Department entirely, with plans announced this week to fire an additional 1,300 employees, effectively cutting the agency's workforce in half. It's pretty clear what this administration is trying to do, and it has nothing to do with antisemitism," says former Education Department official Tariq Habash, who resigned last year to protest the Biden administration's support of Israel's war on Gaza. It has everything to do with Donald Trump's vision for America, which is consolidating his authoritarian power."

We get an update on the Trump administration's attempt to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, whose case has alarmed immigrant advocates and civil rights groups. Khalil, a legal permanent resident who is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New York on Saturday and told his green card was being revoked because of his role in Columbia University student protests last year opposed to Israel's war on Gaza. He has since been moved to an ICE jail in Louisiana with little access to legal counsel or to his family, including his pregnant wife. On Tuesday, a federal judge extended an order blocking Khalil's deportation while he considers whether the arrest was unconstitutional.It's been very clear from the beginning that the government's strategy is to cut Khalil off not just from access to the court here in New York, not just from access to his legal team, but from access to his support base," says Ramzi Kassem, part of Khalil's legal team.

A new report by United Nations experts says Israel has carried out genocidal acts" against Palestinians in Gaza, including the destruction of women's healthcare facilities, intended to prevent births, and the use of sexual violence as a strategy of war. This comes as talks on resuscitating the ceasefire deal continue in Qatar and as Israel continues its total blockade of food, fuel, medicine and other humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory. For more, we speak with two American doctors volunteering at Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza. It's a very difficult situation, and the attacks on the healthcare system that were done in the past 16 months have really undermined its ability to help people," says trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa. We also speak with Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic and hand surgeon, who says about 350 Palestinian medical workers who remain in Israeli prisons without charge must be freed. Many who have been released describe horrific abuse. The physical and mental torture ... presents a tremendous weight on the healthcare system here," says Dr. Perlmutter.

Mahmoud Khalil Speaks to Lawyers After NY Hearing, Judge Extends Block on Deportation, U.N. Experts: Israel Has Committed Genocide Through Attack on Women's Health, EPA Moves to Undo Decades of Regulations on Air, Water, Polluting Industries, NOAA Faces More Layoffs; DOJ Guts Oversight Unit for Corrupt Public Officials, Acting Social Security Commissioner Privately Admits DOGE Cuts Have Imperiled Benefits, USAID Destroys Classified Documents After Judge Orders Trump Admin to Pay Out Foreign Aid, Trump Administration Flies 40 Remaining Immigrants from Guantanamo to Louisiana, Russia Recaptures Ukraine-Occupied Territory as U.S. Envoy Arrives in Moscow for Ceasefire Talks, Canada Hits Back at Trump wIth 25% Reciprocal Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum and Other Goods, Greenland Center-Right Party Wins Surprise Election Victory Amid Trump's Threats to Take Over, Ugandan Forces Deploy to South Sudan as Power-Sharing Deal That Ended Civil War Unravels, Yale Suspends Legal Scholar and Palestinian Rights Supporter Helyeh Doutaghi

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is being flown to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court over his brutal war on drugs," during which police extrajudicially killed thousands of people, including many children. The ICC has been investigating Duterte since 2018. Duterte, now 79, served as president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He once compared himself to Hitler, saying he would be happy to slaughter" 3 million drug addicts, and last year admitted under oath that he oversaw a death squad" of gangsters while he served as mayor of the southern city of Davao. It is really a monumental step in the dispensation of justice," says Filipino scholar and activist Walden Bello, who previously served in the House of Representatives of the Philippines. He notes that despite the Duterte family's protestations, the former president's arrest is the result of a meticulous legal process that offers him a fair trial. Due process is something that he never gave his victims," says Bello.

More than 250,000 have signed a petition to support an impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump, who was twice impeached during his first term. The Impeach Trump Again campaign is being led by the advocacy group Free Speech for People. This president has already committed multiple abuses of power since assuming the presidency, and the framers designed the Constitution to ensure that we would not have a monarch or a tyrant govern this nation," says the group's president, John Bonifaz. When we see these abuses of power, we have to invoke this impeachment clause."

President Donald Trump's growing trade war against other countries is wreaking havoc on financial markets, upending the global trade system and angering long-standing U.S. allies. Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on a range of imports, including aluminum and steel, since his inauguration. Many countries have responded with their own retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, though countries have also delayed or withdrawn some of the levies as the Trump administration makes near-daily changes to its trade policies. We speak with investigative journalist and author Dave Lindorff, who says the Trump administration's drive to bring back manufacturing and other jobs that have been outsourced over the last several decades is ignoring the role of healthcare in raising costs. The fact that we don't have national healthcare here like they have in Canada ... is making American industry not competitive," says Lindorff.

U.S. Resumes Military Aid and Intelligence Sharing as Ukraine Backs 30-Day Ceasefire Plan, MSF Condemns Israel's Gaza Blockade: Aid Should Never Be Used as a Bargaining Chip in War", Israeli Forces Kill 4, Including Palestinian Grandmother, in West Bank Raids, Absolutely Unacceptable and Illegal": Lawmakers Demand Release of Mahmoud Khalil from ICE Jail, House GOP Approves Short-Term Spending Bill with $13 Billion in Nonmilitary Cuts, Department of Education to Fire Additional 1,300 Workers, Cutting Workforce in Half, EU Retaliates as Trump's 25% Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Imports Takes Effect, Have You No Decency?": Republican Congressman Misgenders Rep. Sarah McBride in Transphobic Attack, New York Gov. Hochul Bans 2,000 Prison Guards from Civil Service Jobs After Wildcat Strike, Texas and Louisiana Death Row Prisoners Win Reprieves from Execution

In Syria, over a thousand people have been killed, the vast majority of them civilians, in a spate of massacres largely targeting the country's Alawite religious minority. Syria's longtime ruling family, the Assads, are members of the Alawite sect. The recent clashes began Thursday after coordinated attacks by gunmen linked to the former regime killed over 200 members of the new government's security forces. In response, government forces along with armed groups and individuals poured into Alawite villages throughout the region, carrying out reprisal attacks. Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has denounced the attacks and vowed to hold those responsible to account. Al-Sharaa is trying to present a more acceptable image," after years of Syria's isolation from the global capitalist economy, says Syrian scholar Yasser Munif. His priority is to end the sanctions against Syria and bring the funding for reconstruction. ... He is managing all these tensions and contradictions, and it will be quite the challenge for him to succeed."

Palestinian human rights attorney Noura Erakat responds to the arrest of Columbia University student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil and situates it in the long, bipartisan history of anti-Palestine suppression of free speech. It was the Biden administration, it was the Democratic establishment, that has created the conditions that we are now seeing taken advantage of," she says of Khalil's targeting by the Trump administration for deportation. Erakat calls for continued resistance and study of U.S. imperialism and Zionism in the face of racist repression. This is the precise moment we should be studying Palestine in order to understand ourselves and what's coming and our responsibility in the world as an imperial power."

A federal judge has blocked the deportation of recent Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the U.S. who was arrested by immigration authorities for helping organize campus solidarity protests with Gaza. He had been receiving daily threats stemming from an online smear campaign launched by pro-Israel activists before his arrest and repeatedly appealed to university administrators for protection. Khalil, who is a Palestinian green card holder, is married to a U.S. citizen. Upon his arrest, he was separated from his pregnant wife and transported to a detention facility in Louisiana, where legal experts say he is more likely to appear before Trump-friendly judges if his case moves forward. Her husband was abducted before her very eyes [and] disappeared," says Ramzi Kassem.Kassem is the founder of the legal clinic CLEAR, which is contesting Khalil's baseless" detention and Louisiana transfer in New York court. Khalil's unprecedented arrest makes good on President Trump's promise to punish antiwar student activists, bringing together his administration's attacks on free speech, education and immigrant rights. It is part and parcel" of Trump's racist and fascist agenda," says immigrant rights activist Murad Awawdeh, who adds that the Columbia University administration's lack of response to Khalil's high-profile case has been incredibly shameful."

Ukrainian Drones Kill 3 in Moscow; U.S. and Ukrainian Officials Meet in Jeddah for Ceasefire Talks, Israel Accused of Weaponizing Aid and Imposing Starvation" Amid Gaza Blockade, Judge Blocks Deportation of Green Card Holder and Columbia Campus Protest Leader Mahmoud Khalil, Linda McMahon Warns Universities to Combat Antisemitism" or Lose Funding, Syria's Kurdish Forces Sign Deal to Join Interim Syrian Government, Ex-Philippines Leader Rodrigo Duterte Arrested on ICC Warrant for Drug War Killings, U.S. Stocks Plummet as Trump's Trade War Takes Its Toll, Elon Musk Says DOGE Is Coming for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and More, Shockingly Unlawful": Trump Executive Order Targets Public Service Student Loan Program, Climate Activists Arrested in Protest of Houston Energy Conference, Climate Groups Sue EPA over Freeze on $20B of Federal Funds, Trump Withdraws US from Climate Damage Compensation Fund, Longtime Washington Post Writer Resigns After Publisher Denies Piece Critical of Bezos, Crews Start to Dismantle D.C.'s Black Lives Matter Plaza

Immigration agents with the Department of Homeland Security have detained a leader of the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University in New York. Mahmoud Khalil, who is an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent, is a green card holder and is married to a U.S. citizen; his wife is eight months pregnant. Immigration officials told Khalil's lawyer his green card was being revoked. Khalil recently graduated from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and his whereabouts are unknown. The [Trump] administration doesn't seem to know exactly how to justify this very haphazard, unilateral move," says Prem Thakker, political correspondent and columnist for Zeteo.The arrest comes as Donald Trump's Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced last week that it would cancel $400 million in federal grants and contracts to the university, despite Columbia's suppression of pro-Palestine activism. The Trump administration doesn't really care about antisemitism or keeping Jews safe. All they care about is crushing dissent," says Joseph Howley, associate professor of classics at Columbia University.

Scientists rallied nationwide last Friday in opposition to the Trump administration's sweeping cuts for scientific research and mass layoffs impacting numerous agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service. Thousands gathered at Stand Up for Science protests in over two dozen other cities. We air remarks from speakers in Washington, D.C., including former USAID official Dr. Atul Gawande and Dr. Francis Collins, who led the Human Genome Project and the National Institutes of Health.I study women's health, and right now you're not able to really put into proposals that you are studying women," says Emma Courtney, Ph.D. candidate at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and co-organizer of Stand Up for Science. She tells Democracy Now! it's critical for federal policy to be informed by science and rooted in evidence."

Syrian Security Forces Accused of Massacring Hundreds of Christian and Alawite Civilians, Palestinians Queue in Long Bread Lines as Israel Cuts Electricity to Gaza, Trump Defends Putin's Attacks on Ukraine as Russian Air Raids Kill Dozens, Canada's Mark Carney Wins Liberal Party Election, Will Replace Trudeau as Prime Minister, DHS Strips Union Rights from 47,000 TSA Workers; HHS Offers Buyouts to 80,000 Workers, Trump Reportedly Reins In Musk's Power After Explosive" Cabinet Meeting, Trump Expands Retribution Campaign, Targeting Law Firm Tied to Hillary Clinton's 2016 Campaign, ICE Detains Columbia Campus Protest Leader as Trump Cuts $400 Million to University, Trump-Appointed Federal Prosecutor Says He Won't Hire Georgetown Law Students over DEI Curriculum, Survivors of Bloody Sunday" Lead 60th Anniversary March Across Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge, Trump Administration Transfers Transgender Women to Men's Prisons, Arts Groups Sue National Endowment for the Arts over Trump's Order on Gender Ideology", Reinstate Queer Programming": Drag Performers Lead Protest Outside Kennedy Center, Our Rights Are Consistently Under Attack": Protesters Slam U.S. Gov't on International Women's Day

Nicaragua announced last week it is withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council, following a U.N. report that slammed the government's human rights violations and warned the country was becoming an authoritarian state. The report by a panel of independent human rights experts adds to international pressure on the Nicaraguan government led by President Daniel Ortega and first lady Rosario Murillo, who was recently named co-president. Nicaragua has become a country of enforced silence and surveillance for those who stay in the country, while those who dare to speak out face a life of exile and denationalization," says Reed Brody, a member of the U.N. expert panel, who has spent decades investigating rights abuses in Nicaragua.He speaks to Democracy Now! 40 years to the day since the release of his landmark 1985 fact-finding report Contra Terror in Nicaragua, which laid out how U.S. policy attempted to destabilize Nicaragua's Sandinista government by funding the Contras and their campaign of torture, rape, kidnapping and murder.

Republicans in Congress are pushing forward budget plans that would cut trillions in federal spending and give trillions more in tax cuts that disproportionately benefit corporations and the ultra-rich. This week, hundreds of faith leaders gathered on the Christian holy day of Ash Wednesday on Capitol Hill to voice their opposition. There's no way you can do the kinds of cuts they're talking about - it's mathematically impossible - without touching Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid," says Bishop William Barber, one of the participants. Barber also reflects on the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when civil rights marchers were brutalized in Selma, Alabama, and stresses that economic justice was always at the heart of the movement alongside ending segregation and winning voting rights.

We speak with Democratic Congressmember Al Green of Texas a day after he was censured by the House of Representatives for disrupting President Donald Trump's joint address to Congress on Tuesday night. His dramatic protest came near the start of Trump's record-long speech. In instantly iconic images, Green rose and shook his walking cane at the president on the rostrum, telling him You have no mandate" to cut vital government programs. Green was ejected from the chamber. This comes as Democrats continue to scramble for a unified response to the onslaught of radical actions by the Trump administration, with party leadership reportedly urging restraint and decorum while some members are taking a more confrontational approach. We now live in a government that is of the plutocrats, by the plutocrats, for the plutocrats," Congressmember Green tells Democracy Now! We have to fight to protect those who cannot protect themselves." Green has repeatedly called to impeach Trump and says he is currently preparing another such effort, calling impeachment a remedy for a runaway president who believes that there are no guardrails."

Trump Exempts Goods in U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Pact from 25% Tariff After Talks with Pres. Sheinbaum, State Dept. Implements Trump EO Halting Most U.S. Funding for South Africa, State Dept. to Close Overseas Missions, Dozens of Consulates, U.S. Judge Blocks DOGE from Firing Head of U.S. African Development Foundation, 8 Democratic States Sue Education Dept. over Frozen Training Funds, U.S. Judge Orders Reinstatement of Illegally Fired NLRB Member, Tells Trump He Is Not a King, USDA Told to Reinstate 6,000 Fired Workers Pending Review, Head of Gov't Watchdog Ends Challenge to Trump Admin After Court OKs His Firing, State Department Deploys AI to Deny Visas to Visitors with Pro-Palestinian Views, Pentagon Inspector General Halts Efforts to Root Out Extremism, CAIR Issues Travel Advisory as Trump Readies New Muslim Ban, Trump Considers Revoking Temporary Protected Status for 240,000 Ukrainian Refugees, European Leaders Agree to Boost Military Aid to Ukraine as Trump Suspends U.S. Support, Trump Says He'll Rein In Elon Musk's Role in Mass Firings, Senate Votes to Overturn CFPB Rule on Digital Payments App, Boosting Elon Musk's Plans for X, SpaceX Starship Explodes and Rains Rocket Debris Across Caribbean, Weeks After Similar Disaster, OSHA Fines Tesla Less Than $50,000 over Factory Worker's Electrocution Death, Supreme Court Lifts Restraints on Wastewater Discharges, Further Eroding Clean Water Act, State Department Halts Air Pollution Monitoring at U.S. Embassies and Consulates, Sudan's Military Rulers Accuse UAE of Abetting Genocide by Arming Rebel Forces, 70 Killed in Syrian Clashes, UNRWA Says Israel Is Undertaking Largest Displacement of West Bank Palestinians Since 1967, Gaza Teen Who Narrated Acclaimed Documentary Condemns BBC Censorship, Civil Rights Groups Promote John Lewis Voting Rights Act on 60th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

Amid ongoing chaos and outrage stemming from the Trump administration's gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development, we hear a critique of USAID and the humanitarian-industrial complex" from South African anthropologist Kathryn Mathers. "USAID is very much a part of a system and industry that not only depends on global inequality ... but in many ways produces it," she says. Funding for foreign assistance, much of which actually flows back to the United States, ultimately does its job of supporting U.S. interests" and renders the causes of global inequality invisible, hiding the ways that often U.S. policies, U.S. trade agreements and other forms of extractive capitalism are often the causes." Mathers emphasizes, however, that Trump's abrupt cuts to the agency, rather than resolving the paradox" of humanitarian aid, are doing only harm."

They cut everything at once." ProPublica reporter Brett Murphy is tracking the aftermath of the haphazard" and draconian" dismantling of USAID, which experts warn will lead to a dangerous rise in disease epidemics around the world, including risking the resurgence of Ebola and tuberculosis. Despite the administration's claims in court, says Murphy, this is the opposite of a careful review," and has left in its wake wasted resources, unpaid workers and an end to literally lifesaving work." Much of this demolition has been spearheaded by Trump ally Peter Marocco, whose alignment with Christian nationalist movements, says Murphy, appears to be influencing the current direction of U.S. foreign aid.

The Supreme Court has rejected a request by the Trump administration to continue refusing to pay out nearly $2 billion for work completed by USAID, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the court's three liberal justices in the majority. However, the court's decision did not specify when the money must be released, allowing Trump's team to further dispute the issue in lower courts. We speak to two people involved in the lawsuit brought by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, or AVAC. The Trump administration's decision to unilaterally slash foreign assistance, including funding critical to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, for no good reason and with no clear strategy," was an unlawful abuse of executive power," says attorney Nicolas Sansone, who serves as counsel for the plaintiff. People will die," adds Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC. Warren condemns the willful ignorance" and disregard of science" being promoted by Trump and his allies, many of whom are former supporters of bipartisan global health initiatives.

SCOTUS Rejects Trump Attempt to Keep U.S. Foreign Aid Frozen, Trump EO Targeting Education Dept. Expected Imminently as NEA, ACLU Sue Dept. over DEI Ban, VA to Cut 80,000 Jobs; Judge Blocks Cap on NIH Spending; Small Development Agency Blocks DOGE, Trump Delays Auto Tariffs by One Month Amid Escalating Trade War, U.S. Suspends Intelligence Sharing with Ukraine as European Leaders Scramble to Support Kyiv, Russian Attacks Kill 4 in Kryvyi Rih, One in Odesa, Arab League Agrees to $53 Billion Gaza Reconstruction Plan, U.S. Holds First-Ever Direct Talks with Hamas as Trump Issues Last Warning" Against Group, Police Arrest 9 Protesters as Barnard Students Occupy and Rename Bldg in Honor of Gaza Doctor, South Carolina Prepares to Execute Prisoner Brad Keith Sigmon by Firing Squad, Trump Administration Drops Effort to Force Idaho Hospitals to Provide Emergency Abortions, Called Before Congress, Democratic Mayors Blast GOP Crackdown on Sanctuary Cities, Texas Rep. Sylvester Turner Dies at 70, Hours After Attending Trump's Address to Congress, Virginia Gov. Youngkin Pardons White Cop Who Fatally Shot Black Man Accused of Shoplifting, Elon Musk Calls on Trump to Pardon Ex-Cop Derek Chauvin, Who Murdered George Floyd, Faith Leaders Mark Ash Wednesday with Calls to Reverse Trump and Musk's Attacks on the Poor, RTS Journalism Award Goes to The Night Won't End: Biden's War on Gaza"

Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress discussed the Middle East without any mention of Palestinians. This comes as Trump has called for ethnic cleansing of Gaza and posted an AI-generated video depicting Gaza as a resort town with a golden statue of Trump. Congressmember Bonnie Watson Coleman attended the speech with her guest Dr. Adam Hamawy, an Army veteran and reconstructive surgeon who recently volunteered at a Gaza hospital. The whole issue of Gaza, with the exception of the president wanting to make it a spa for millionaires, was being overlooked at a time when the infrastructure is absolutely devastated, the people are devastated," says Watson Coleman.

President Trump has signed a number of anti-trans executive orders in the first month of his second term. He has attempted to ban trans women from sports, declared that there are only two sexes, and placed restrictions on gender-affirming care for trans youth. Trump continues to target trans people with hateful rhetoric, leaving trans people uncertain of their futures. The Trump administration has declared war on trans people," Imara Jones, founder and CEO of TransLash Media and host of its investigative podcast, The Anti-Trans Hate Machine, tells Democracy Now!

As stiff new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China took effect on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that Trump's moves are aimed at a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that'll make it easier to annex us." Canada relies on the U.S. for 75% of exports and a third of its imports. For more, we speak with a senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood. If there's one feeling in Canada right now, it's probably betrayal. We trusted this relationship with the U.S. for a century. We count on the U.S. as an economic partner. We're obviously very closely culturally tied. And this just kind of throws everything into question," says Mertins-Kirkwood.

President Trump on Tuesday once again focused on the importance of securing the U.S. border and criticized former President Biden's so-called open border policies. He accused Biden of allowing migrants to overwhelm" towns like Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, and pushed for even more funding to implement his campaign promise of mass deportations. The Trump administration is doubling down on creating this image for the American people that immigrants are to blame for every single one of their problems," says longtime immigrant rights activist Erika Andiola.

In his first speech to a joint session of Congress in his second term, Trump once again threatened to annex the Panama Canal. Juan Gonzalez, co-host of Democracy Now!, fact-checks some of the lies that Trump used to justify U.S. control of the Panama Canal. In his address, Trump claimed 38,000 Americans were killed during the creation of the Panama Canal. In reality, the vast majority of the labor force that built the canal was from the West Indies, largely Barbados. Over 5,600 laborers died, but only about 300 U.S.-born workers died. No matter how many times you repeat a lie, it still doesn't make it true," says Gonzalez.

President Donald Trump delivered the longest presidential address to a joint session of Congress in modern history Tuesday night, laying out his vision for the next four years as he defended his many executive actions to dismantle large portions of the federal government. For an hour and 40 minutes, Trump repeatedly lied and exaggerated his accomplishments and his opponents' failures, deploying racist and dehumanizing language to describe immigrants, LGBTQ people and his critics. Trump heaped praise on billionaire Elon Musk and his efforts to slash entire government agencies. The speech was a declaration of war against the American people, including Trump voters, in favor of the super-rich and the giant corporations," says Ralph Nader, longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate.

Trump Delivers Partisan and Divisive 100-Minute Address to Joint Session of Congress, Rep. Al Green Disrupts Trump's Speech to Congress as Other Democrats Protest Silently, After Cutting Aid to Ukraine, Trump Reads Conciliatory Letter from President Zelensky, USAID Memo Warns Trump's Foreign Aid Freeze Could Lead to Millions of Preventable Deaths, As Measles Spreads, Health Secretary RFK Jr. Promotes Vitamins and Cod Oil Liver, Not Vaccines, Judge Extends Hold on Trump's Order Denying Gender-Affirming Care to Transgender Youth, Trump Administration Plans to Cut IRS Workforce in Half, Trump Says He'll Cut Funds to Universities That Allow Campus Protests, Mexican President Says She'll Announce Retaliatory Tariffs Against U.S. on Sunday, Supreme Court Justices Appear Skeptical of Mexican Government Lawsuit Against U.S. Gun Makers, UNICEF Says Over 200 Children and Infants Have Been Raped During Sudan's Civil War, Serbian Lawmakers Disrupt Parliament with Smoke Grenades as Anti-Corruption Protests Rage

We remember Aaron Bushnell, the U.S. Air Force member who died last year in an act of protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. On a live-streamed video, Bushnell said he could not be complicit in genocide" while the United States continued to support Israel's war on Gaza; he then set himself on fire, screaming Free Palestine" until he collapsed. Now just a year after Bushnell's fatal self-immolation, we speak with an active-duty Air Force lieutenant who says she is inspired by Bushnell to seek a discharge from the military as a conscientious objector over the genocide in Gaza. Any kind of contribution to the U.S. military inherently helps this machine of warfare and imperialism and oppression continue," says Joy Metzler, who says many people in uniform suffer moral injury" from their service. We also speak with Levi Pierpont, a friend of Bushnell who says Bushnell's death was life-changing" for him. Pierpont has since visited Palestine and become a peace activist. I went from being someone who had grown up Christian Zionist and was very sympathetic to Zionism to realizing how it's interconnected with the American empire and realizing how we need to stand against it as Americans, because we're implicated in it," says Pierpont.

We speak with Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, the co-directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary Sugarcane, which examines the legacy of Indian residential schools in Canada. For over 150 years, these government-funded and church-run boarding schools forcibly separated First Nations, Metis and Inuit children from their families in an effort to destroy Indigenous languages, cultures and communities. The schools were rife with physical, psychological and sexual abuse, and many children did not survive. In 2021, a First Nation in British Columbia found evidence of 215 child-sized graves on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, setting off a nationwide search for more possible gravesites. Kassie and Brave NoiseCat would document the painful search for answers at Saint Joseph's Mission, the residential school where Brave NoiseCat's own relatives had been sent and near where his father was born and abandoned in a dumpster. The film explores the colonial silence that exists in our broader society about this history" and how it has seeped into the lives of the people who had survived it," says Brave NoiseCat.

As the oil company Energy Transfer sues Greenpeace over the 2016 Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, we speak with Indigenous activist Winona LaDuke, who took part in that historic uprising. LaDuke is an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of Anishinaabe who lives and works on the White Earth Nation Reservation and was among the thousands of people who joined the protests in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to protect water and Indigenous lands in North Dakota. She highlights the close links between North Dakota's government and Energy Transfer and says that while the lawsuit targets Greenpeace, Indigenous water and land defenders are also on trial. North Dakota has really been trying to squash any kind of resistance," says LaDuke. If they can try to shut down Greenpeace, they're going to shut down everybody."

A closely watched civil trial that began in North Dakota last week could bankrupt Greenpeace and chill environmental activism as the climate crisis continues to deepen. The multimillion-dollar lawsuit by Energy Transfer, the oil corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, claims Greenpeace organized the mass protests and encampment at Standing Rock between 2016 and 2017 aimed at stopping construction of the project. Although the uprising at Standing Rock was led by Indigenous water defenders, Energy Transfer is instead going after Greenpeace for $300 million in damages - an amount that could effectively shutter the group's U.S. operations. This case is not just an obvious and blatant erasure of Indigenous leadership, of Indigenous resistance," says Deepa Padmanabha, a senior legal adviser for Greenpeace USA. It is an attack on the broader movement and all of our First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful protest."

Trump Halts Arms Shipments to Ukraine After Manufactured Escalation" Against Zelensky, Trump Imposes Tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, Sending Markets Tumbling, Trump Announces Plans for Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve, Israel Continues Deadly Attacks in Gaza Despite Ceasefire Agreement, Palestinian Prisoner Khaled Abdullah Dies in Israeli Prison Amid Reports of Torture and Neglect, M23 Rebels Abduct Scores of Patients from Hospitals in DRC's Goma, Former Social Security Chief Warns DOGE Cuts Could Collapse" Benefits Within Weeks, We Need to Keep This Agency Strong": Protests Erupt over NOAA Firings, Senate GOP Confirms Linda McMahon as Education Sec. Amid Threats to Public Education, Acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin Demotes Jan. 6 Prosecutors, Claims He Is Trump's Lawyer", ACLU Sues Trump Administration over Transfer of Immigrants to Guantanamo, Pentagon Orders Another 5,000+ Troops to Southern Border, Protesters Decry Trump Plan to Use Dublin Federal Facility, Dubbed Rape Club," as ICE Prison

We continue our conversation with Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch and the author of the new book, Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments. Roth discusses the fragile ceasefire in Gaza amid news that Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is refusing to withdraw Israeli troops as per his government's agreement with Hamas, as well as withholding food and humanitarian aid from Gaza. This is a continuation of the starvation strategy that Israel has been pursuing against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which is a war crime," says Roth. He adds that the United States is also implicated in Israel's war crimes, and shares how the human rights framework can be applied to achieving peace in the region.

Kenneth Roth, visiting professor at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and former executive director of Human Rights Watch, responds to the shocking Oval Office meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, in which Vance and Trump publicly admonished Zelensky over the Russia-Ukraine war and accused him of not being grateful for the U.S.'s military support. It's embarrassing, frankly," says Roth, to see the two leading American officials behaving in such a juvenile fashion when these are life and death matters, not only for Ukrainian people, but also for Ukrainian democracy and European democracy." Roth, whose new memoir Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments is now available, joins us for the hour to discuss human rights issues around the globe.

A public clash at the White House between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance has left the future of U.S. foreign policy uncertain. Zelensky had traveled to the White House last week to sign a deal giving the United States partial control over Ukraine's raw earth minerals in exchange for continued military aid for its war against Russia. But the deal imploded over the course of a dramatic televised press conference, with Trump and Vance deriding Zelensky and suggesting that Ukraine should concede to Russia. We play an extended excerpt of the heated exchange.

The Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land won for best documentary feature at Sunday's Academy Awards. The film follows the struggles of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta to stay on their land amid home demolitions by the Israeli military and violent attacks by Jewish settlers aimed at expelling them. The film was made by a team of Palestinian-Israeli filmmakers, including the Palestinian journalist Basel Adra, who lives in Masafer Yatta, and the Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, both of whom are prominently featured in the film.

Trump and Vance Attack Ukrainian President Zelensky in Chaotic, Unprecedented Oval Office Clash, Zelensky Receives Warm Welcome from European Leaders After White House Debacle, Pentagon Suspends U.S. Cyber Operations Targeting Russia, Israel Blocks Gaza Aid as It Continues to Derail Ceasefire; U.S. Expedites $4B Israeli Arms Transfer, Trump's Foreign Aid Cuts Could Lead to Half a Million AIDS Deaths in South Africa, U.S. Judge Says Gov't Watchdog Illegally Fired; DNC Sues Trump over Attack on Election Commission, WaPo: DHS Seeking Personal IRS Data of 700,000 Suspected Undocumented People, Landlord Who Killed 6-Year-Old Wadea al-Fayoume Found Guilty of Murder and Hate Crime, Disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo Enters New York City Mayoral Race, At Least the 5th New York Prisoner Has Died in Weeks Since Wildcat Strike Started, Iowa Enacts Bill Ending Civil Rights Protections for Transgender People, Vermont Protesters Greet JD Vance with Pro-Trans, Pro-Ukraine, Pro-Palestinian Messages, Protesters Across U.S. Target Elon Musk's Businesses, Trump's Crackdown on National Parks, End Ceaseless War Provocations": Activists Denounce U.S.-Led Drills in Korea, Palestinian-Israeli Film No Other Land" Makes History as It Takes Home Best Documentary Oscar

Thousands of informational government webpages have been taken down so far in the second Trump administration, including on public health, scientific research and LGBTQ rights. Amid this mass erasure of public information, the Internet Archive is racing to save copies of those deleted resources. The San Francisco-based nonprofit operates the Wayback Machine, a popular tool that saves snapshots of websites that may otherwise be lost forever, and it has archived federal government websites at each presidential transition since 2004. While it's normal for a new administration to overhaul some of its online resources, the Trump administration's pace of destruction has shocked many archivists. There have been thousands and thousands of pages removed," says Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, who notes that even a page about the U.S. Constitution was scrubbed from the White House website.

We continue to look at Israeli torture of Palestinian detainees with Naji Abbas from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, which has just released a new report detailing the mistreatment of medical workers from Gaza. Hundreds of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other essential medical staff were arrested by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023 and held under brutal conditions, with many describing physical, psychological and sexual abuse, starvation, medical neglect and more. It's a whole journey of torture and abuse," says Abbas, director of PHRI's Prisoners and Detainees Department.

Dr. Khaled Alser, a renowned Palestinian surgeon at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, describes how Israeli forces abducted him from Gaza last year before transferring him to Israeli prisons rife with abuse. He was held by Israel for seven months last year, during which time he says he was beaten, humiliated, denied medical treatment and tortured. He also describes routine sexual assault and sexual humiliation of prisoners by Israeli soldiers, as well as the use of military attack dogs on the detainees. No charges were filed against Alser before he was released back to Gaza. Most of the prisoners I met inside the prison are civilians or civil workers here, working inside hospitals, schools, universities," Alser tells Democracy Now! from Gaza. We as healthcare workers, we don't have any agenda against anyone. We just provide medical care."