Democracy Now!

There is nothing antisemitic about fighting for people's right to live," says Jewish Voice for Peace organizer Elena Stein, who on Monday joined hundreds of protesters arrested to block entrances to the New York Stock Exchange. We discuss the historic mass protest, which called for an Israeli arms embargo and an end to war profiteering by companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. We are filled with horror beyond words and are attempting to embody just an ounce of that refusal," Stein says of the moral urgency of protesting Israel's actions in the Middle East, which she describes as a war of extermination ... done with U.S. cover." She says JVP chose the stock exchange in order to draw attention to the role of U.S. financial and corporate interests in arming the Israeli military.

The Biden administration is sending an advanced anti-missile defense system and 100 U.S. troops to Israel in advance of expected retaliatory strikes against Iran. This marks the first significant deployment of American troops to Israel since the beginning of its assault on Gaza, though the U.S. has spent an estimated tens of billions of dollars on the Israeli military and related operations. The irony here is the Iranian missile attack is only going to happen if we help Israel strike Iran first," says Win Without War's Harrison Mann. With the deployment of troops to Israeli military installations, says Mann, Israel now has its own sort of American human shields" and a new mechanism to drag America into a war with Hezbollah and Iran." Mann, who is Jewish, is a former U.S. Army major who resigned from his position at the Defense Intelligence Agency in protest of U.S. support for Israel's war in Gaza, a decision he says was inspired by student antiwar protests on U.S. campuses.

Israeli Attacks Kill 55 in Gaza as WHO Begins Second Round of Polio Vaccinations, Gaza Teen Burned to Death in Israeli Strike on Hospital Identified as Sha'ban al-Dalou, Israeli Forces in Occupied West Bank Kill 2, Including Child, in Assault on Jenin, 21 Killed, Including Children, in Israeli Strike on Northern Lebanon Village, Netanyahu Again Threatens UNIFIL as European Leaders Condemn Israeli Attacks on Peacekeepers, USAID Routinely Meets with Israeli Officials at Sde Teiman, Site of Israeli War Crimes and Torture, Jewish Activists Take on NYSE as Antiwar Protesters Disrupt Army Conference over Gaza Genocide, Trudeau Expels 6 Indian Diplomats as Row Deepens Following Killing of Sikh Leader on Canadian Soil, North Carolina Arrests Man Who Threatened FEMA Workers with a Rifle Post-Hurricane

Israel is facing international condemnation after repeatedly attacking U.N. peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon. At least five members of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, have been injured in recent days. The U.N. also accused Israel of forcibly entering and destroying part of a UNIFIL base near the Israeli border after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called to remove the peacekeeping forces from the region. The message of Israel is we don't care about anything except Israel, and we will destroy the whole region if we need to," says Rami Khouri, a Palestinian American journalist and senior public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut. This comes as the U.S. sends troops to Israel in anticipation of a conflict with Iran. This is a terrible trajectory, and people will fight back against it."

We speak with the reporter who revealed the Israeli plan to displace or kill the entire Palestinian population of north Gaza. Israeli Major General Giora Eiland has proposed ordering everyone in northern Gaza to evacuate within one week, after which Israel will conduct a total siege on the area and deem anyone who remains an eligible target for military attack. Are we talking about Israel committing an extermination of hundreds of tens of thousands of people if they will choose to stay?" asks Meron Rapoport, editor and writer at Local Call and columnist at +972 Magazine, who says many areas in Gaza have already been ordered to evacuate and are not receiving new aid deliveries. We have the sense here that this plan is being actually implemented without being officially adopted."

We get another update on Israel's brutal siege and bombing in the north of the Gaza Strip, where hospitals are desperate for supplies. Every day is a breaking point. Every day is a desperate rush for food, water, fuel and medicine and shelter," says Dr. Samer Attar, who has volunteered four times as a surgeon in north Gaza, most recently in June. It never ends. Every day you wake up to more and more of it. That's just what makes it so horrifying."

We speak with Dr. Mohammed Salha, the acting director of Al-Awda Hospital at the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, as Israel continues to escalate attacks against northern Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering implementing a surrender or starve" policy there. Palestinians in north Gaza report Israeli forces are conducting a strict and deadly siege while bombing more tent encampments, hospitals and schools this weekend. They are putting the people and the hospitals under siege," says Salha, who notes Israel has ordered the hospital to evacuate. We will not leave our patients behind us. We have to save them. We have to provide them the healthcare that they need."

U.S. to Send Anti-Missile Defense System & 100 Troops to Israel, Israel Bombs Tent Encampment at Gaza Hospital & School Shelter in Latest Massacres, Israeli Siege in Northern Gaza Continues as Netanyahu Considers Surrender or Starve" Policy, Hezbollah Drone Strike on Israeli Army Base Kills 4 Soldiers, 60+ Injured, Israel Accused of Committing War Crimes by Attacking U.N. Peacekeepers in Lebanon, Spanish PM Urges EU Nations to Suspend Trade and Arms Deals with Israel, Trump Threatens to Deploy Troops on U.S. Soil to Target Radical Left", Ex-General Mark Milley Calls Trump Total Fascist" as Trump Escalates Xenophobic Attacks, Harris Vows to Create Bipartisan Advisory Council as DNC Runs Ad Attacking Jill Stein, China Launches Major Military Exercises Near Taiwan in Warning" Against Separatist Acts, Up to 150,000 Protest in Spain Calling for Affordable Housing While Blaming Airbnb for Rising Rents, Boeing to Cut 17,000 Jobs as West Coast Strike Enters Second Month, Fair Pay Advocate Lilly Ledbetter, 86, Dies

We speak with the director of The Apprentice, the movie Trump doesn't want you to see," which opens today in theaters despite legal threats from the former president. The film looks at how Trump was mentored by Roy Cohn, former chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare. He went on to represent Trump as he built his New York real estate empire, and was the person who sort of built Trump, as a person, as a brand, as an identity," says Abbasi.

A Japanese group of atomic bomb survivors, Nihon Hidankyo, has won the Nobel Peace Prize as fears grow of a new nuclear arms race. The head of the group has compared Gaza today to Japan 80 years ago when the U.S. bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We feature a Democracy Now! interview with Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and an anti-nuclear activist, and get response from Joseph Gerson, president of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, a U.S. nuclear disarmament activist who has spent decades working closely with the group.

As the Israeli military continues its assaults on Gaza and Lebanon, which have included the targeting of hospitals and ambulances and the killing of medical personnel, among other violations of international law, we speak to a doctor currently volunteering in Beirut. Dr. Bing Li is an emergency medicine physician and U.S. Army veteran who also volunteered at Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza earlier this year. Li recounts her experiences in Gaza, where it feels like death is everywhere," and warns that Israel's latest forced evacuation, of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, is essentially a death sentence" for patients, including children in the hospital's intensive care unit. Now in Lebanon, Li describes how providers are scrambling to increase healthcare capacity in anticipation of additional attacks.

Lebanese PM Calls for Ceasefire After Israeli Strike Kills 22 in Beirut; IDF Targets U.N. Peacekeepers, Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital Warns Children Will Die If Forced to Evacuate, Charges of War Crimes in Gaza Pile Up as Israel Continues Its Genocidal War with Impunity, Al Jazeera Cameran in Critical Condition; Gaza Mourns Beloved Teacher and Journalist Omar Al-Balaawi, Israel Detains U.S. Journalist Jeremy Loffredo over Reporting on Iranian Attacks on Israel, Ukrainian Journalist Victoria Roshchyna Dies in Russian Custody, Millions in Florida Remain Without Power as Hurricane Milton Death Toll Climbs to 16, Accused of Campaign Violations, Colombian President Warns of Coup Plot, Kenya Prepares to Dispatch More Police to Haiti as Gang Violence Roils Communities, UNICEF Warns 1 in 8 Girls Worldwide Face Rape or Sexual Assault, TD Bank Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering, Will Pay Over $3 Billion in Fines, Two Killed, 35 Injured from Hydrogen Sulfide Leak at Houston-Area Oil Refinery, Cornell Grad Student Wins Reprieve from Deportation over Gaza Protests, Japanese Anti-Nuclear Group Founded by Survivors of U.S. Atomic Bombings Wins Nobel Peace Prize

We look at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in southwest Florida, which runs a radio station called Radio Conciencia that helped immigrant farmworkers prepare for Hurricane Milton and other storms. Established in 2003, the community radio station broadcasts in Spanish, Creole and other languages to share crucial information during natural disasters. This is always scary for us whenever a hurricane hits in our area," says organizer Gerardo Reyes Chavez. Living conditions especially are horrible in most agricultural communities."

As many as 28,000 people incarcerated in central and southern Florida jails and prisons were in mandatory evacuation zones for Hurricane Milton, but many officials reportedly refused to evacuate them. Some who were moved to more secure facilities ahead of the storm report having been left in lockdown with no power, updates or access to prison staff. The fact that they are unable to evacuate people in mandatory evacuation zones goes to show the complete lack of prioritization of the lives of incarcerated people during hurricanes. And I think we can all agree, if we are prioritizing the safety of our communities, those communities must include the incarcerated people inside," says Jordan Martinez, an organizer with the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons and the group's Hurricane and Disaster Response Team. They helped organize pressure campaigns for officials to evacuate incarcerated people during this storm as they have for many others.

As we continue to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, we speak with Manuel Ivan Guerrero, a freshman at the University of Central Florida and an organizer with the Sunrise Movement, who says young people are extremely worried about the impact of the climate crisis on their communities. This just has me more scared for what the future's going to look like in Florida," he says. We're having these thousand-year storms every three, four years now."We also speak with David Wallace-Wells, a writer for The New York Times opinion section and a columnist for The New York Times Magazine, where he frequently writes about climate. He says the popularity of conspiracy theories during extreme weather events shows that many people are retreating into little cocoons of disinformation and paranoia, and that scares me in some ways even more than the weather itself."

More than 3 million people in Florida are without power after Hurricane Milton made landfall in Sarasota County on Wednesday as a Category 3 storm, pummeling the area with torrential rains and winds of up to 120 miles an hour. Multiple deaths were confirmed after tornadoes tore through a senior center in Fort Pierce, but officials have just begun assessing the full damage from Milton, which arrived just two weeks after Hurricane Helene killed at least 230 people across the southeastern United States. Scientists say hurricanes are becoming more intense as a result of the climate crisis. I have never experienced a storm quite like this," says Florida state Representative Michele Rayner, who evacuated her home in St. Petersburg.

Israeli Attack on Deir al-Balah School Shelter Kills Dozens; Northern Gaza Siege Targets Hospitals, More Journalists Killed in Gaza; Al Jazeera Reporter Describes Being Chased by Israeli Quadcopter, Israel Kills Five More Health Workers in Lebanon as Ongoing Bombardment Displaces Over 1 Million, Biden Reaffirms Ironclad" Support on Call with Netanyahu as Israel Prepares to Attack Iran, Hurricane Milton Slams into Florida, Spawning Deadly Tornadoes and Cutting Power to Millions, Wildlife Populations Have Declined by 73% Since 1970, Report Details Extent of Trump-Imposed Limits on 2018 FBI Probe into Brett Kavanaugh, Boeing Workers Continue Strike as Pay Talks Collapse; FAA Issues New Safety Warnings Against 737, Literature Nobel Goes to Han Kang for Works That Expose the Fragility of Human Life", Brown University Votes Against Divesting from Israeli War Machine, Rejecting Student Demands

We get a live report from downtown Gulfport, Florida, as the state braces for the impact of historic storm Milton, which is expected to make landfall at catastrophic" strength. News director Sean Kinane of WMNF community radio describes heavy rain and significant debris remaining from Hurricane Helene, which battered the region less than two weeks ago to become the deadliest hurricane to strike the continental United States since Hurricane Katrina. Milton could surpass its damage, with a projected storm surge height of 15 feet when it comes ashore Wednesday night.

I never expected the world will know my name [because of] a genocide of my people," says Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, who gained international acclaim for his work during the first 108 days of Israel's brutal assault on Gaza. Since evacuating in January, Azaiza has brought his advocacy for Palestinian rights around the world. Democracy Now! speaks to him from Washington, D.C., where he has just wrapped up a nationwide speaking tour titled Gaza Through My Lens" in support of UNRWA USA. Israel is targeting our children. Israel is targeting our babies, targeting our mothers, targeting our families. I just want to show the whole world so maybe I can bring help to my people through my photography," Azaiza says.

A new documentary from Al Jazeera takes a look at evidence of war crimes in Gaza in the form of social media posted by Israeli soldiers recording and celebrating their own attacks on Palestinians. We play excerpts from the film Investigating War Crimes in Gaza, now available online, and speak to two of the journalists involved in its production, director Richard Sanders and Gaza-based correspondent Youmna ElSayed. Israelis themselves were telling us precisely what they were doing and why they were doing it," says Sanders about the evidence the team reviewed. They don't think it's complicated. They don't think it's nuanced. Their rhetoric is often overtly genocidal." ElSayed adds, They've had all the courage to do that because they know that they are not even going to be condemned."

Israeli Soldiers Push into Gaza's Jabaliya Refugee Camp, Firing at Anyone Who Moves", Israeli Bombs Rain Down on Lebanon as Hezbollah Says It Repelled Israeli Border Incursions, Israeli PM Netanyahu Warns Lebanon Could Face Destruction and Suffering Like Gaza", Syria Says Israeli Strike on Damascus Killed 7 Civilians, U.N. Chief Warns Israel Against Blocking UNRWA's Work Aiding Palestinian Refugees, Israeli Defense Minister Cancels Plans to Meet in Washington, D.C., with Pentagon Chief, 5.5 Million Urged to Evacuate Florida's Gulf Coast as Catastrophic" Hurricane Milton Approaches, Smoke Blankets Bolivian Skies After Wildfires Char Record 25 Million Acres, Russian Attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine, Kills 2 and Injures Dozens, NYC First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright Becomes 7th Top Official to Quit Eric Adams's Administration, EPA Mandates Replacement of Lead Pipes in U.S. Cities Within Next Decade, Palestinian Activist Issa Amro and British Israeli Architect Eyal Weizman Win Right Livelihood Awards

As the war on Gaza enters its second year and Israel expands its attacks on Lebanon, we continue our conversation with the acclaimed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. His new book, The Message, is based in part on his visit last year to Israel and the occupied West Bank, where he says he saw a system of segregation and oppression reminiscent of Jim Crow in the United States. It was revelatory," says Coates. I don't think the average American has a real sense of what we're doing over there - and I emphasize 'what we're doing' because it's not possible without American support."

We spend the hour with the acclaimed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose new book The Message features three essays tackling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, book bans and academic freedom, and the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade. The Message is written as a letter to Coates's students at Howard University, where he is the Sterling Brown Endowed Chair in the English department. As part of the research for the book, Coates traveled to Senegal and visited the island of Goree, often the last stop for captured Africans before they were shipped to the Americas as enslaved people. Coates also visited a schoolteacher in South Carolina who faced censorship for teaching Coates's previous book, Between the World and Me, an experience he says showed him the power of organizing. That, too, is about the power of stories. That, too, is about the power of narratives, the questions we ask and the questions we don't," Coates says of the community's response.

Five Children Among the Dead as Israel Bombs Homes in Deir al-Balah, Israeli Forces Kill 12-Year-Old Child and 66-Year-Old Man in Raids on Occupied West Bank, Israel Orders Expulsion of Lebanon's Southern Coast, Expands Attacks on Beirut Suburbs, Mourners in Michigan Hold Funeral for Hajj Kamel Ahmad Jawad, Killed by Israeli Strike in Lebanon, Florida's Gulf Coast Braces for Catastrophic Storm Surge as Hurricane Milton Rapidly Intensifies, Georgia Supreme Court Reinstates 6-Week Abortion Ban, U.S. Supreme Court Rules Texas Hospitals Cannot Be Compelled to Provide Emergency Abortions, Colorado Election Official Sentenced to 9 Years for Vote Rigging Lies After Trump's 2020 Defeat, 600 Hilton Workers in Boston Join Nationwide Hotel Strike, Tunisia's Kais Saied Retains Presidency After Near-Total Crackdown on Opposition, Every Life a Universe": On Oct. 7, Jewish Activists Mourn, Pray and Demand End to Gaza Genocide

Today marks both the first anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip and one week since Israel began its ground invasion of the neighboring country of Lebanon. Israel's brutal military response to the Hamas-led October 7 incursion has shown no sign of slowing down as the United States, its primary supplier of military aid, continues to commit weapons, funding and rhetorical support to its deadly assault on Arab populations in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon. Over 1,000 Lebanese civilians have been killed and over a million displaced as they flee the encroaching violence. From Beirut, we speak to Rima Majed, a professor at the American University of Beirut, who highlights the disruption to daily life that Israeli warfare has created. This is really a huge catastrophe, and it's not a humanitarian one. It is a political catastrophe, and it's a social catastrophe. And this would not have happened ... if it wasn't for the [international] backing and the arming of Israel."

The Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha, who fled Gaza in December after being detained by the Israeli military, is releasing his second book of poetry, Forest of Noise, next week. We speak to him one year into Israel's relentless slaughter in his home of the Gaza Strip as he notes, It is really devastating to think that after a year, the world is still thinking about October 7 only, rather than about the years and decades before October 7 and the many and long, long days and weeks that followed October 7." Abu Toha also pays tribute to his former student, Hatem al-Zaaneen, who was recently killed while collecting firewood for his family, and shares the status of his own surviving family members in Gaza, who have been displaced once again as they seek safety from unrelenting Israeli bombardment.

The Path Forward is a new documentary that weaves together the voices of Palestinians and Israelis in their efforts for peace and reconciliation. The short film features the stories of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists who have worked together before and after October 7 and Israel's relentless war on Gaza. We play excerpts from The Path Forward and speak to one of the activists featured, Aziz Abu Sarah, as well as to co-director Julie Cohen. People who believe that war is the only way, what scares them the most is people who are modeling a different future," says Abu Sarah. Our route to freedom is a joint route."

Today is the first anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel, when Hamas's military wing broke out of Israeli-constructed barrier fencing in the Gaza Strip. In the ensuing firefight, an estimated 1,200 people died. About 250 people were taken hostage and brought back to Gaza in a bid to pressure Israel to release some of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners it holds in Israeli custody. While more than half of the hostages were exchanged this way through subsequent deals, Israel's primary response to the incursion was the launch of a full-scale assault on the already-besieged Gaza Strip. Conservative estimates place the number of Palestinians killed at over 41,000. More recent projections suggest that this number may have reached the hundreds of thousands.Meanwhile, in Israel, many families of remaining hostages continue to deride Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to accept a ceasefire deal that would return their family members, contending that Netanyahu is exploiting their loved ones and putting them in danger in order to manufacture a regional war. Those who believe in war, they are naive, because they have been failing again and again and again," says Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon, who has been advocating for a ceasefire and an end to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories for the past year. His parents, Bilha and Yakovi, were among those killed on October 7.

Dozens Killed in Gaza as Israel Bombs Mosque, School and Homes on Anniversary of Oct. 7 Attacks, Gaza Journalist Hassan Hamad Killed by Artillery Fire After Threats from Israeli Officer, Massive Explosions Rock Beirut and Southern Lebanon as Israel Steps Up Bombing Campaign, Netanyahu Dragged Israel into Never-ending War": Hostage Families Protest on Oct. 7 Anniversary, President Macron Halts French Weapons Exports to Israel, New Reports Reveal U.S. Ignored Warnings of Israeli Plans to Decimate Gaza, Attack Aid Convoys, Protesters Take to the Streets Across the Globe to Mark One Year of Israel's Genocidal War on Gaza, Photojournalist Sets Self on Fire to Protest Media Complicity in Gaza Genocide, Dominican Republic to Start Expelling Up to 10,000 Haitians Per Week, Mexican President Vows to Reduce Gang Violence After Mayor Is Killed Days After Taking Office, Florida Orders Evacuations Ahead of Hurricane Milton as Helene Death Toll Reaches 232

We speak with Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris about his new documentary, Separated, based on NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff's book of the same name. The film details the horrors of the Trump zero tolerance" immigration policy, under which thousands of immigrant children were forcibly separated from their parents after they crossed the southern U.S. border, part of the administration's broader crackdown on immigration. The cruel policy was enforced as early as July 2017, initially without public acknowledgment by Trump officials. It was ultimately rescinded amid widespread outrage, but it continues to impact the families who were targeted, and about 1,000 children remain effectively orphaned years later, with authorities and rights groups still unable to locate their parents. It wouldn't have happened were it not for decades of bipartisan deterrence-based immigration policy that continues to this day," says Soboroff. Morris says the most appalling part of the policy" was the lack of record-keeping. OK, let's separate the children, but let's not actually keep a record of how to ever reunite them. Let's separate them for good. Let's just create orphans, abandon children," he says. Separated plays for a week at the IFC Center in New York, starting tonight, before it gets wider theatrical distribution and airs on MSNBC this December.

As Israel's military escalates its attacks on Lebanon, it has continued its relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip, where almost a year of war has now wiped 902 entire Palestinian families off the civil registry. There are another 1,300 families where only one family member has survived. The official death toll in Gaza has reached nearly 41,800, but that is believed to be a vast undercount. Gaza-based journalist Akram al-Satarri says one year into Israel's war, the medical and humanitarian crisis remains unchanged. He describes some of the horrific injuries suffered by Palestinians, including many children, that have resulted in mass amputation of limbs, and says people are in a constant struggle for shelter and safety. The suffering is continuous, and now the war in Lebanon is adding further burdens on the Palestinians and is giving more space for the Israeli forces to continue the bombardment in different areas," says al-Satarri.

Israel is further escalating its war on Lebanon, carrying out its heaviest airstrikes so far on Beirut overnight in the densely populated southern suburbs. Lebanon's health minister said Thursday at least 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, including at least 127 children, most of them in the past two weeks. More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced. Meanwhile, Beirut hospitals are overwhelmed by a surge in casualties as attacks intensify, and the World Health Organization says Israel's attacks killed 28 health workers in just one 24-hour span and made it impossible for the WHO to deliver a large shipment of trauma and medical supplies to Beirut. This comes as the Israeli army appears to be preparing for a deeper ground incursion into southern Lebanon. As tensions continue to escalate in the region, we speak with Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, reporting for the Associated Press, who says Lebanon is getting used to the new normal" of daily Israeli airstrikes on the capital, mass displacement and ongoing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah forces in the south. Things are moving at a very, very fast pace ... and it is really unclear what the endgame for Israel is."

Israeli Strikes on Lebanon Kill Dozens of Medical Workers, Shuttering Hospitals, Biden Says He Discussed Possible Attack on Iranian Oil Sites with Israeli Leaders, Iran's Supreme Leader Calls on Muslim Leaders to Unite Against Israeli Aggression, Yemen's Houthis Claim Attack on British Oil Vessel in Red Sea, We Wish You Could See the Nightmares": U.S. Health Workers Back from Gaza Write to Biden and Harris, Israel's Deadliest Airstrike on West Bank in Decades Kills 18 Palestinians, U.S. Port Strike Ends as Dockworkers Win Agreement on Wage Increases, Why We Need Medicare for All": Boeing Cuts Off Health Coverage to 33,000 Striking Workers, Relief Workers Describe Absolute Devastation" in Western NC as Hurricane Helene Toll Rises to 213, Kamala Harris Rallies with Republican Ex-Lawmaker Liz Cheney After Winning Her Endorsement, Melania Trump Defends Abortion Rights, Putting Her at Odds with Donald Trump and GOP, Ex-Memphis Police Officers Acquitted of Most Serious Charges over Killing of Tyre Nichols, Dozens Die as Ferry Capsizes in DR Congo's Lake Kivu, Mexican Soldiers Arrested over Massacre of Asylum Seekers

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has reached 190 as fallout from the storm becomes clearer. Hundreds remain missing and presumed dead. President Biden has ordered the Pentagon to deploy 1,000 active-duty troops to help with flood relief efforts. Power outages and water shortages remain rampant across six southeastern states hit by one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history. Democracy Now! speaks with immigrant rights activist Cesar Bautista Sanchez about how the storm has affected his area of Tennessee and the increasing danger of extreme weather events under the climate crisis. This is starting to become a pattern," says Bautista Sanchez.

A deliberate, man-made famine is underway in Gaza, according to many human rights experts. Starving Gaza is a new documentary by Al Jazeera English's Fault Lines investigating how Israel has killed civilians seeking aid and attacked humanitarian networks. The harrowing film is based on the work of Palestinian reporters in Gaza who are suffering the same conditions as their subjects. They've been displaced, they've been injured, they've watched their own children die in front of them, and yet they somehow conjure the professionalism to pick up a camera and record and tell other people's trauma," says journalist Hind Hassan. They really will be remembered in history as the titans of journalists."

Israeli strikes continue to rain down on Lebanon, including a strike that killed rescue and health workers in Beirut. Lebanese authorities say 1.2 million people have been displaced by the Israeli attacks. Israel announced eight of its soldiers were killed while invading southern Lebanon this week. Israel launched the ground invasion after assassinating Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, despite Nasrallah reportedly agreeing to a 21-day ceasefire. This overwhelming use of force cannot change people's agency," says Nadim Houry, Lebanese researcher and executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative. The region does not want to be a satellite of Israel or a satellite of the U.S. And by the way, the region does not want to be a satellite of Iran either. The problem is the region is not really being given much of a choice."

Israeli Airstrike Kills 9 Near Lebanon's Parliament as Hezbollah Battles Israeli Invasion, Lebanese FM Claims Israel Killed Nasrallah Shortly After He Agreed to Ceasefire, U.S. Remains Fully, Fully, Fully Supportive of Israel" as Netanyahu Mulls Attacks on Iran, Israel's Attacks on Gaza Have Wiped Out 902 Entire Palestinian Families, Court Filing Reveals New Evidence About Trump's Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election, Kamala Harris Tours Storm-Ravaged Parts of Georgia as Hurricane Helene's Toll Rises to 190, October Heat Wave Grips Western U.S., Breaking Hundreds of Records, U.K. to Hand Chagos Islands Over to Mauritius But Won't Give Up Diego Garcia Air Base, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Issues Formal Apology for 1968 Student Massacre, Prosecutors Indict 68 Members of Neo-Nazi Gang in Southern California

Abortion was a main focus of Tuesday's vice-presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance. The Ohio senator tried to soften the Republican ticket's position and repeated Donald Trump's claim that states are best equipped to decide on reproductive health access, while Walz highlighted that state differences on abortion have already contributed to the deaths of pregnant people following the end of Roe v. Wade. Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent at The Nation, says Vance's hard-line position" on abortion has flunked with the American people," and urges people to not get distracted by the slick talking points."

Tuesday's vice-presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance focused heavily on immigration policy. Walz promoted the asylum restrictions of the Biden administration and touted his running mate Kamala Harris's bill to further militarize the southern U.S. border. Vance, meanwhile, continued Donald Trump's demonization of immigrants, including the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, that they falsely accused of eating people's pets. We get reaction from Guerline Jozef, the executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which filed criminal charges against the Republican ticket over those lies. We cannot allow this to continue," Jozef says of the anti-immigrant rhetoric.

CBS moderators asked about the climate crisis in Tuesday's debate between vice-presidential contenders JD Vance and Tim Walz, responding to pressure from activists who urged the network to tie the devastation of Hurricane Helene to the planet's rising temperatures. The fact that this question was asked ... was a major win for our movement," says Shiva Rajbhandari, a student climate justice organizer at UNC-Chapel Hill and a spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement. While Walz defended climate science, Vance continued to downplay the climate emergency and cast doubt over the established link to fossil fuels. JD Vance has no backbone. He is unwilling to stand up to Donald Trump. He is unwilling to disagree with his running mate, and that is dangerous," says Rajbhandari.

Vice-presidential nominees Tim Walz and JD Vance faced off Tuesday night in their first and only debate ahead of November's election. The debate started with a focus on the Iranian missile attack on Israel before moving on to the climate crisis, immigration policy, abortion rights and more. One of the most memorable moments was Vance's refusal to admit that his running mate Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. The exchange was a reminder that election denial has become central to Republican politics and that Republicans have laid the groundwork to challenge elections again and again, whether it's Donald Trump on the ballot or not," says Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost.

Israel has announced it is sending more troops into southern Lebanon as the Middle East moves closer to a full-scale regional war. On Tuesday, Iran fired at least 180 ballistic missiles at Israel that Iran says targeted Israeli military and security sites, a response that comes after a series of escalating Israeli attacks in recent months against Hezbollah, Hamas and Iranian leaders. The United States aided Israel in intercepting many of the Iranian missiles on Tuesday, and President Joe Biden has vowed to support Israel in further retaliation. From what I can gather, the Iranian assertion about targeting military and security facilities is correct," says Israeli analyst Ori Goldberg in Tel Aviv. While things were supposedly in control while Israel was going from glory to glory killing its enemies and getting the bad guys, there was also a deep sense of insecurity and a lack of control right at home." We also speak with Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost, who says there is an ongoing debate inside the Biden White House between those who want to pull back from a regional war and the hawks who see this as an opportunity to reshape the Middle East. The U.S. doesn't know where it's going," says Ahmed.

Netanyahu Vows to Retaliate After Iran Fires Hundreds of Missiles at Israel, 7 Killed, 16 Wounded in Shooting and Stabbing Attack in Tel Aviv, Hezbollah Says Its Fighters Repelled Israeli Troops Invading Southern Lebanon, Israel Bombs Gaza School and Orphanage, Killing Displaced Palestinians, In Vice-Presidential Debate with Tim Walz, JD Vance Refuses to Say Trump Lost 2020 Election, Russian Attack on Kherson Market Kills 6 as Ukraine Loses More Territory in Donbas, NATO's New Secretary General Warns China over Aiding Russia in Ukraine, Biden Approves Record $567 Million Military Aid Package to Taiwan, Claudia Sheinbaum Inaugurated as Mexico's First Female President, 6 Tennessee Plastics Workers Presumed Dead After Being Swept Away by Hurricane Helene Floodwaters, Texas Prisoner Garcia Glen White Put to Death in 6th U.S. Execution in Less Than 2 Weeks, Department of Justice Says Violence and Sexual Assault Are Rampant in Georgia Prisons, U.S. to Open Cold Case Civil Rights Investigation into 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Mexico is making history today as the country prepares to inaugurate the first woman to be elected president. Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and the former mayor of Mexico City, won a landslide victory in Mexico's June elections. Sheinbaum is a member of the ruling Morena party and a close ally of outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose six-year term ends today. AMLO, as he's widely known, leaves behind a complicated legacy as Mexico's most popular president in decades whose approval rating never dropped below 60%. AMLO championed a progressive reframing of anti-corruption politics that thinks of neoliberalism itself as a form of corruption," says Edwin Ackerman, sociology professor at Syracuse University, who lays out how the president's economic policies dramatically increased the economic power of the working classes in Mexico. However, Ackerman says AMLO also faced criticism for empowering the military, increasing the use of fossil fuels and pushing through highly contested judicial reform.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke publicly today for the first time since he was released in June from a London prison. Assange addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in France about his 14-year legal saga after publishing evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange was freed after pleading guilty to a U.S. charge of obtaining and disclosing national security material. Democracy Now! broadcasts the first time the world has heard Julian Assange's voice since he was arrested in 2019. I eventually chose freedom over unrealizable justice after being detained for years and facing a 175-year sentence with no effective remedy," says Assange. I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today, after years of incarceration, because I pled guilty to journalism."

Dockworkers from Maine to Texas have walked out on the job at all East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, launching the first strike of its kind in almost 50 years. The International Longshoremen's Association represents some 45,000 workers at 36 ports who are demanding higher wages and guarantees that jobs won't be automated. This is a time of labor mobilization in this country," says Peter Goodman, New York Times global economics correspondent, who explains President Biden is caught between union pressure to back the strike and the threat of consumer prices rising while shipping is disrupted. We're only weeks away from a presidential election that could very well hinge on economic sentiments and unhappiness over inflation."

Lebanese Prime Minsiter Najib Mikati says Lebanon is now facing one of the most dangerous phases of its history," as the Israeli military claims to have begun launching limited and targeted raids" in southern Lebanon. However, Hezbollah has denied that Israeli soldiers have actually entered Lebanon. The possible Israeli ground operation comes after two weeks of Israeli attacks on Lebanon that have killed over 1,000 people and forced over a million Lebanese to evacuate. While Biden called for a ceasefire, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday and affirmed U.S. support for Israeli actions along Lebanon's border. Israel is ultimately undermining U.S. interests in the Middle East," says Beirut-based political and security analyst Ali Rizk. Benjamin Netanyahu ... wants to go down in history as the person who was able to successfully defeat the major enemy of Israel."

Hezbollah Denies Reports Israeli Troops Have Invaded Southern Lebanon, Syria Says Israeli Strikes on Damascus Kill 3 Civilians Including TV News Anchor, Overnight Israeli Airstrike Kills More Displaced Palestinians, Including Children, Israel Releases Palestinian Dr. Khaled Alser, Half a Year After Abducting Him from Gaza Hospital, Half of Haiti Is Suffering Acute Hunger; U.N. Renews Int'l Security Force Amid Spiraling Violence, Devastation Beyond Belief": Hurricane Helene Claims 133 Lives, Wipes Out Homes and Neighborhoods, Georgia Judge Strikes Down 6-Week Abortion Ban, Biden Administration Escalates Crackdown on Asylum Seekers at Southern Border, 45,000 Dockworkers on East and Gulf Coasts Launch Major Strike, Kansas City Renters Launch Strike Against Predatory Landlords, Demand Federal Rent Cap, I Chose Freedom Over Justice": Julian Assange Addresses Public for First Time Since Prison Release

Hurricane Helene tears through the southeastern United States as scientists say climate change rapidly intensifies hurricanes. The storm devastated large swaths of the southeastern United States after making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm. Officials say the death toll is likely to rise, as many are still missing. Helene is expected to be one of the costliest hurricanes in U.S. history and was fueled by abnormally warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, but most of the media coverage has failed to connect the devastation to the climate crisis. The planet's overheating. It's irreversible. It's caused by the fossil fuel industry," says climate activist and climate scientist Peter Kalmus in Raleigh, North Carolina. This will get worse as the planet continues to get hotter."

As the Middle East gets ever closer to an all-out war, we speak with Iranian American analyst and author Trita Parsi about Iran's response in the aftermath of Israel's assassination of longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The powerful Lebanese militia is closely aligned with Iran and is part of the Axis of Resistance" of forces in the Middle East opposed to Israel that also includes Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. Israel has quite successfully cornered Iran," says Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. At this point, if Iran does almost anything, it will risk triggering the larger regional war that Netanyahu wants and that the Iranians have tried to avoid."