Democracy Now!

As sky-high rents and a housing shortage become major issues in the 2024 presidential election, the U.S. Justice Department has sued software company RealPage, alleging its algorithm enabled landlords nationwide to collude in raising rents on tenants. The DOJ says the price-fixing scheme has impacted millions of renters across the United States. ProPublica reporter Heather Vogell, whose investigation first exposed RealPage, says as much as 70% of big apartment buildings in some neighborhoods are owned by property managers using RealPage, with landlords seeing the software as a way to have a rising tide that lifts all boats." We also speak with tenant rights organizer Tara Raghuveer, who says RealPage is guilty of some of the grossest, most extractive business practices" documented in recent years, but the firm is hardly alone. For so much of the market which is a catastrophic failure, landlords' business model is predicated on tenants' instability," says Raghuveer.

We speak with Human Rights Watch researcher Milena Ansari about the organization's new report detailing the torture of Palestinian medical workers in Israeli prisons. HRW spoke with eight doctors, paramedics and nurses who were picked up in Gaza before being transferred to the notorious Sde Teiman camp and other facilities, where they say they suffered beatings, starvation, humiliation, electric shocks and other forms of abuse. The men also describe threats of sexual violence during brutal interrogations and seeing another prisoner bleeding after being gang-raped with an M16 rifle by three soldiers. The findings track with other reports from researchers and survivors, and HRW has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for its attacks on healthcare workers. We're really ringing the alarm about the situation inside the Israeli custody and detention facilities," says Ansari, who says evidence is mounting of a systematic pattern of ill-treatment and abuse."

U.N. Forced to Halt Aid in Gaza Amid Dire Humanitarian Needs Due to Nonstop Evacuation Orders, U.S. Has Sent Over 50,000 Tons of Arms and Military Equipment to Israel Since Genocide Started, Israeli Forces and Illegal Settlers Continue Deadly Attacks in Occupied West Bank, Greek Tanker in Red Sea with 150,000 Tons of Crude Has Been on Fire for Days After Houthi Strike, Russia Ramps Up Attacks on Ukraine in Wake of Kyiv's Surprise Incursion, Baloch Separatists Claim Attacks That Kill 40+ in Southwestern Pakistan, There's No Lifeboat to Take Us Back:" U.N. Head Demands Urgent Action Before Pacific Islands Wiped Out, Uganda Cracks Down on Climate Protesters Speaking Out Against EACOP, Arrests 20+ Activists, 130+ Killed in Heavy Flooding in War-Torn Sudan; Arbaat Dam Collapses in Red Sea State, French President Macron Shuns Progressive Coalition as Talks on Future Gov't Hit a Wall, Jake Sullivan Is First U.S. Nat'l Security Adviser to Visit China in 8 Years Amid Simmering Tensions, Trump and Vance Downplay Anti-Abortion Record and Plans, Special Counsel Jack Smith Seeks to Reinstate Classified Docs Case Against Trump, Texas Officials Raid Homes of Latino Elected Leaders, DNC and Georgia Dems Sue to Block New GOP Rules That Could Delay Election Results and Sow Chaos, Georgia Unveils Statue of John Lewis Outside Decatur Courthouse, U.S. Judge Blocks Biden Immigration Policy for Spouses of U.S. Citizens, Nashville Mayor Urges City Lawmakers to Pass New Safety Rules After Nazi Gatherings in TN City, Climate Reporter Peter Dykstra, Who Called Out Corporate Media Cover-Up of Climate Crisis, Dies at 67

We end today's show in conversation with New York City Councilmember Yusef Salaam. He was one of five teenagers from Harlem - four Black and one Latino - wrongfully accused and convicted of raping and nearly killing 28-year-old white investment banker Trisha Meili in 1989. Meili had been jogging in Central Park when she was assaulted, and the accused teens became known as the Central Park Five. They faced a barrage of racism from the public and news media during their trial, including from real estate mogul and future U.S. president Donald Trump. All of the boys were convicted and served at least six years, with one, Korey Wise, having been tried as an adult, spending over a decade in prison. All were later exonerated after DNA evidence corroborated a separate man's confession to the attack. Redubbed the Exonerated Five, four of the five members addressed the Democratic National Convention last week, slamming Trump, who called for their execution and says he still believes the men are guilty, as hateful and dangerous. The reality was that we were guilty of the color of our skin," says Salaam, who successfully ran for city council last year.

A federal judge in Kentucky has thrown out felony charges against two former Louisville police officers for their roles in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020. Instead, the judge ruled that Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, is legally responsible for her death because he fired his gun to fend off intruders, after plainclothes police officers broke down the couple's front door and barged in just after midnight. Taylor was a Black 26-year-old emergency medical technician and aspiring nurse. Since then, only one officer has been found guilty of playing a role in Taylor's death, admitting to falsifying a no-knock warrant that claimed police had evidence of drug dealings taking place in Taylor's home. No drugs were ever found and the two cops who fatally shot Taylor have never been charged. This lack of accountability is part of a systematic pattern of disrespect" of Black women, says civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Breonna Taylor's family. Crump also discusses the latest developments in the cases against police officers accused of excessive force in the widely publicized deaths of Tyre Nichols in Tennessee and Roger Fortson in Florida.

Palestinian American journalist Rami Khouri responds to the latest exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah and the drawn-out ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, which Khouri calls a fictitious political dynamic" that is primarily used as diplomatic cover for Israel's warfare. The ceasefire talks should not be taken very seriously as an effort to bring about a ceasefire," he says. It's pretty clear now that the ceasefire negotiations today are the equivalent of the so-called peace process in the bigger Arab-Israeli conflict over the last 40 years."

U.N. Seeks Immediate Deescalation" After Israel and Hezbollah Exchange Heavy Fire, Human Rights Watch: Israel Has Tortured Detained Palestinian Medical Workers, No Deal Yet as Ceasefire Talks Continue in Egypt, Russia Launches Wave of Attacks on Ukraine, Member of Reuters Team Killed in Russian Attack on Ukrainian Hotel, Two Journalists Killed in Turkish Drone Strike in Iraqi Kurdistan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Suspends Campaign & Endorses Donald Trump, Kamala Harris Raises Record $540 Million in a Month, Trump's Bedminster Resort to Host Gala Honoring Jan. 6 Defendants, DOJ Sues RealPage for Helping Corporate Landlords Collude to Raise Rents, Felony Charges Tossed Against Two Former Cops Charged in Breonna Taylor Killing, Second Memphis Officer Pleads Guilty in Police Killing of Tyre Nichols, Sheriff's Deputy in Florida Charged in Connection to Killing of Airman Roger Fortson, French Authorities Detain CEO of Telegram Messaging App, Militant Group Kills Up to 200 in Burkina Faso, At Least 13 Migrants Die After Boat Sinks Near Yemen, Extinction Rebellion Protesters Block Norwegian Oil Terminal, Summer of Heat: Dozens of Climate Activists Arrested Outside Home of Citi CEO Jane Fraser, Federal Court Bars Biden Administration from Using Civil Rights Law to Block New Fossil Fuel Projects

Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday, vowing in her speech to the Democratic National Convention to continue the Biden administration's tough line on immigration. While describing the United States as a nation of immigrants" and promising to reform our broken immigration system," Harris also said that, as president, she would revive a harsh border bill that Republicans blocked from passing this year that limits asylum rights, speeds up deportations and hires more border agents. The Biden administration implemented many parts of the border bill through executive action after Donald Trump pushed Republican lawmakers to vote it down. Our politics have been pushed so far to the right on immigration by Donald Trump that we have to fight back ... to realign our politics on immigration back to where they were just a few years ago," says Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas.

The city of Chicago, which hosted the 2024 Democratic convention, is home to the highest concentration of Palestinian Americans in the United States. In the suburbs of the city, residents of Bridgeview - known as Little Palestine" - have been hard hit by Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed over 40,200 Palestinians. We take a tour of Little Palestine, where Palestinian flags and signs reading Free Palestine" adorn many of the streets and businesses, and traditional pastry and coffee shops have colorful murals of Palestinian landscapes on their walls. And we speak with residents about how they are organizing against anti-Palestinian racism and pushing for an end to uncritical U.S. support for Israel.

Vice President Kamala Harris made history Thursday as the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to be nominated to lead a major party's presidential ticket. There are now just two-and-a-half months left before the November 5 election, when she will face Republican nominee Donald Trump at the polls. For more, we speak with two political organizers - Maurice Mitchell, national director for the Working Families Party, and Mohammed Khader, manager of policy and advocacy campaigns at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights - and with historian and activist Barbara Ransby.

The Democratic National Convention wrapped up in Chicago on Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepting the presidential nomination, capping a week of political showmanship and celebration for many party members. One of the things that struck me most was the level of choreographed mass spectacle of this convention that would be really worthy of Leni Riefenstahl," says Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez. He says Democrats and Republicans presented the two faces of American capitalism" at their respective conventions this summer, with the GOP home to white supremacist capitalism" while Democrats promote a multiracial neoliberal capitalism." He adds that despite the constant chants of U.S.A." throughout the week, the reality is that the United States has never been lower in its prestige and never more discredited around the world than it is today."

Vice President Kamala Harris made history Thursday as the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent in the United States to be nominated to lead a major party's presidential ticket. We speak with historian Barbara Ransby about two Black women pioneers who helped pave the way for her historic nomination: former Congressmember Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress who sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1972, and civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who led the fight to desegregate the party's Southern delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Thousands of protesters marched on the DNC on Thursday night calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel. Protesters rallied into the night as Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on the DNC stage. Demonstrators had planned to march toward the convention site but were blocked by hundreds of police in riot gear who forced the march to disperse. We hear from some of the protesters who took to the streets.

Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday after a four-day convention in Chicago where her campaign refused to allow a Palestinian American to take the stage to address Israel's war on Gaza. We hear Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, who was among the list of speakers offered by the Uncommitted National Movement that the Harris campaign rejected, reading the speech she would have given on the convention floor had the DNC and the Harris campaign allowed her onstage.

Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, making history as the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to be nominated for president by a major party. Her ascent to the top of the Democratic Party comes just over a month after President Biden dropped out of the race. We play excerpts from her speech and speak with historian Barbara Ransby, who says that while the nomination breaks a barrier," it's important to note the contradictions," as well. "Yes, it breaks barriers. Yes, it is a historic moment in a certain sense. But we have to also talk about the gravity of this moment and the politics that Kamala Harris brings with her," says Ransby, who criticizes Harris for her pro-Israel policy and for refusing to let Palestinian Americans address the convention. I was glad to hear her mention the suffering of the Palestinian people, but, of course, it didn't ring true. It rang a little bit hollow, because the Biden administration could stop much of that suffering by not sending 2,000-pound bombs and $3 billion a year to the Israeli government."

Climate activists disrupted a DNC-adjacent event sponsored by ExxonMobil on Wednesday, the same day that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz formally accepted his nomination as vice-presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. Walz has faced harsh criticism from Indigenous and environmental rights groups in Minnesota for his authorization of the Line 3 oil pipeline through Native treaty lands in the state. We host a roundtable discussion on the climate crisis and the Democratic Party's response with Ojibwe lawyer and founder of the Giniw Collective Tara Houska; climate organizer Collin Rees, who was part of the ExxonMobil action at the DNC; and climate scientist Michael Mann.

Tanya Haj-Hassan is a pediatric intensive care physician who has volunteered in Gaza multiple times over the past 10 months. She joins us to recount what she witnessed there and to explain why she is calling for an end to U.S. support for the Israeli military and the resumption of comprehensive humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Over the course of Israel's assault, Haj-Hassan has treated victims of massacre after massacre," with injuries and casualties enabled by American bombs." She joins demands for Palestinian voices to be allowed to address the convention onstage and argues that Democratic Party leadership's refusal is part of a systematic process of dehumanization" targeting Palestinians.

As uncommitted" delegates continue their sit-in just outside the Democratic National Convention in protest of the party's refusal to meet demands to platform a Palestinian American speaker on the main stage, we hear from two uncommitted delegates who have made a concerted effort to bring Israel's war on Gaza to the forefront and to push the Harris campaign on its policy in the Middle East. Asma Mohammed, a campaign manager for Vote Uncommitted Minnesota and a delegate from Minnesota, says there is widespread disappointment and betrayal among delegates who feel their voices in support of Palestinian rights are being ignored. This level of silencing, this level of exclusion [does] not belong in our Democratic Party," adds Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement and an uncommitted delegate from Michigan.

Democracy Now! spoke with Minnesota Congressmember Ilhan Omar late Wednesday outside the Democratic National Convention, where members of the uncommitted" movement launched a sit-in to demand a Palestinian American be allowed to address the convention from the main stage. Omar said she joined protesters outside the DNC because there is no compassion in turning our heads away from the piles of dead bodies" in Gaza. A ceasefire is only possible if we use every leverage that we have, and the biggest leverage that we have is to stop sending bombs," says Omar, explaining why she is calling for an arms embargo against Israel and an end to this genocidal war."

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz formally accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president at the DNC on Wednesday. A former public school teacher, high school football coach and National Guard member, Walz spent six terms in Congress before his successful run for governor in 2018. We take a look at his record, including his moderate" record on police brutality following the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, with two guests: Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic and Minneapolis City Councilmember Jeremiah Ellison, who is the son of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Walz's progressive wins in Minnesota appear to have swayed Kamala Harris's selection, says Marcetic, as Harris hopes to mirror parts of his agenda on the federal level. I think that he's sincere in his efforts to see change," says Jeremiah Ellison, who is also an uncommitted" delegate and goes on to discuss the uncommitted movement's strategy at the DNC.

Delegates from the Uncommitted National Movement and their allies launched a sit-in protest Wednesday night outside the convention hall in Chicago after the DNC refused to honor their request to let a Palestinian American speak onstage, despite allowing family members of an Israeli American hostage to address the convention. We hear voices from the sit-in with uncommitted delegates and their allies. Today I watched my party say, 'Our tent can fit anti-choice Republicans,' but it can't fit an elected official like me?" said Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, referring to convention addresses given by anti-Trump Republicans. Romman was among the list of speakers offered by the uncommitted movement that the DNC refused to allow on onstage. We can't take no for an answer here," Minneapolis City Councilmember Jeremiah Ellison, an uncommitted delegate from Minnesota, tells Democracy Now!.

Tim Walz Touts Record as MN Gov. as He Accepts VP Nomination, Uncommitted Mvt. and Allies Launch Sit-In After DNC and Harris Refuse to Let Palestinian Take Main Stage, Exxon Lies, People Die!": Climate Activists Condemn Corporate Sponsorship at DNC, Israel's Genocide Continues Amid Dimming Hopes for Ceasefire, New Report Details Israel's Pattern of Kidnapping, Torturing and Humiliating Gazan Children, Israel and Hezbollah Continue Cross-Border Fighting Amid Fears of a Broader Conflict, Emmy Awards Stands Firm on Nomination of Gazan Reporter Bisan Owda After Pushback from Israel Lobby, Israel Kills at Least 2 More Journalists in Gaza: Ibrahim Muharab and Hamza Murtaja, Canada's Two Main Rail Freight Companies Shut Down, Locking Out 10,000 Workers, Judge Tosses FTC Ban on Noncompete Agreements Which Affect 30 Million U.S. Workers, RFK Expected to Drop Out, Endorse Trump, U.K. Gov't Official Resigns over British Arms Sales to Israel to Use in War Crimes, NYT: Biden Admin Shifts U.S. Nuclear Strategy to Focus on China, Taliban Bans U.N. Special Rapporteur from Entering Afghanistan, France's Attempt to Give Their Citizens Voting Rights in New Caledonia Undermines Kanak Rights, ACLU Sues Oregon Police Dept. for Illegally Spying on Progressive Activists, Harris Campaign Raises $500M Amid Transparency Concerns over Large Donations, TX Appeals Court to Review Acquittal of Black Mother Who Was Sentenced to Prison for Trying to Vote

We speak with former Michigan Congressmember Andy Levin, a former synagogue president, who lost his 2022 Democratic primary in a race that saw millions spent by pro-Israel groups to unseat the progressive Jewish lawmaker. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and other lobby groups have used the same playbook over the years to defeat members of Congress who do not toe the line, and Levin says the Democratic Party has to act to stop such dark money" from deciding elections and push for a new policy on Israel-Palestine that brings peace. We need to all get along there, and we need to work together here to make that happen," he says.

A group of American doctors who treated patients in Gaza held a press conference in Chicago on Tuesday to describe the suffering they saw among Palestinians injured and killed in Israel's war on the territory. The press conference, taking place during the Democratic National Convention, was organized by the Uncommitted National Movement, which is pressuring Democrats for an end to blanket U.S. support for Israel. Among those who spoke was Dr. Ahmed Yousaf, who returned from Gaza just weeks earlier. When we got to the hospital, everything I saw on TikTok and Instagram and all the television, all the stuff that we had in alternative media ... it was 100 times worse than I could have ever imagined," he said.

Democrats have centered reproductive rights throughout the week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, with speakers discussing their abortions, how new restrictions have put women's lives at risk and why bodily autonomy is nonnegotiable. Vice President Kamala Harris has promised to restore reproductive rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Law professor Michele Goodwin describes the fight for reproductive rights as a tipping point for our democracy" and says Republicans cannot simply walk away from their record on the issue.

We play highlights from the second night of the Democratic National Convention, which ended with keynote speeches by Michelle and Barack Obama. The former first lady and president promoted Vice President Kamala Harris as a transformative leader while criticizing Donald Trump. Who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those 'Black jobs'?" Michelle Obama said.

Immigration has become one of the central issues of the 2024 race, with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump vowing to expand the draconian policies of his first term and deport 10 million immigrants from the country amid what he calls an invasion." Democrats, meanwhile, are touting their own border crackdown at the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago. President Joe Biden celebrated his executive action to block many asylum seekers at the southern U.S. border, and Vice President Kamala Harris promises to hire thousands more border agents if she is elected. We host a roundtable discussion in Chicago with Oscar Chacon, executive director of Alianza Americas, an immigrant rights group; Maria Hinojosa, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, founder of Futuro Media and host of the Latino USA podcast; and Marisa Franco, director and co-founder of Mijente, a national digital organizing hub for Latinx and Chicanx communities.

The Israeli military has ordered new forced evacuations in parts of central Gaza, signaling the expansion of ground operations and the latest displacement of Palestinians, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times over the course of Israel's war on the territory. At least 50 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, pushing the official death toll past 40,200. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his ninth visit to the Middle East since October without securing any breakthrough for a ceasefire deal. In Chicago, where Democrats are gathered for the DNC, Gaza has been mentioned only in passing from the main stage of the convention. The party's official platform adopted this week does not call for an arms embargo on Israel and reasserts unwavering U.S. support for Israel. There's been an almost competition between Democrats and Republicans on 'how much can we show Israel that we support them and that we have their back?'" says human rights lawyer Zaha Hassan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and previously the senior legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team during Palestine's bid for U.N. membership. Why should Israel ever compromise its positions if they know that by holding out, they'll get more goodies from the U.S.?"

Kamala Harris Accepts Democratic Nom; Obamas, Bernie Sanders Take to the DNC Stage on Night Two, Chicago PD Arrests Protesters at Israeli Consulate; 16 Activists from U.K.'s Palestine Action in Prison, U.S. Doctors Share Horrors They Witnessed in Gaza at DNC Press Conference, Israel Continues Its Genocidal War, Attacking Another Gaza School and Pushing Gazans Out of Deir al-Balah, Released Palestinian Describes Detention at Ofer Prison, Site of Systematic Torture and Humiliation", Israeli Strikes in Lebanon Kill at Least 6 as Cross-Border Fighting Adds to Growing Tensions, Report Says Countries and Oil Co's Supplying Israel May Be Complicit in Genocide Under Int'l Law, Russia Says It Intercepted Major Drone Attack on Moscow as Ukraine Pushes Ahead in Kursk, Arizona and Montana Join at Least 6 Other States in Putting Abortion Rights on the Nov. Ballot, RFK Jr.'s Running Mate Says They Could End Their Campaign and Join Team Trump, Nurses at Univ. of Illinois Hospital Strike over Unfair Labor Practices, Work Safety Issues, Bob Menendez Is Resigning, Will Be Replaced with NJ Gov. Aide Until New Senator Elected in Nov., Panama Deports 29 Colombian Migrants on U.S.-Funded Flight, Migrant Deaths Surge on U.S. Southern Border Amid Extreme Heat, Biden's Hard-Line Immigration Policy, NYC Evicts Makeshift Migrant Camp; NY State Greenlights Shelter Eviction of 30,000 Migrant Families, Six Unhoused People Dying Each Day in Los Angeles Amid Brutal Crackdown, Failed Policies, Mass Shooting in Bosnia Kills at Least 3 School Workers, U.S. Sanctions Ex-Haitian President Michel Martelly for Drug Trafficking, Money Laundering, East Palestine Residents Consider $600 Million Settlement with Norfolk Southern, Maryland Officials Warn PFAS Levels at Harford County Schools Too High for Drinking, Air Force Refuses to Clean Up Contamination of Tucson Waters, Cites SCOTUS Chevron Doctrine" Ruling

During President Biden's speech on the first night of the DNC, protesters briefly unfurled a banner that read Stop Arming Israel," before it was wrested away by convention staff. We speak to three members of the group Delegates Against Genocide who organized and carried out the action: Esam Boraey, a human rights activist and delegate from Connecticut; Florida DNC member Nadia Ahmad; and progressive Jewish activist Liano Sharon, an elected delegate from Michigan. We were there specifically to confront President Joe Biden," says Ahmad, explaining why the protesters chose to disrupt Biden's speech. He's the one who can stop this genocide by picking up the phone and making a phone call, and he has chosen not to do that."

We discuss Chicago's storied history of organized labor and the state of the labor movement today with Alex Han, a longtime union organizer and now the executive director of the Chicago-based progressive magazine In These Times, and with Stacy Davis Gates, the current president of the Chicago Teachers Union, of which Chicago's Mayor Brandon Johnson - who opened the 2024 DNC last night - was previously a member. As the Democratic Party increasingly embraces union rights as a major part of its policy platform, It's pretty remarkable to think of how far we've come. It's also important, sitting here in Chicago, [to] understand how far we still have to go," says Han.

Labor rights were in the spotlight during the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, as union leaders, including UAW President Shawn Fain, took to the stage. We play part of Fain's address, in which he called Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump a scab" and praised Democratic nominee Kamala Harris's labor record.

The acclaimed television host Phil Donahue died Sunday at the age of 88. Donahue's commitment to bringing major social and political issues to the American public spanned decades, a mission that was perhaps best encapsulated by his platforming of antiwar perspectives during the leadup to the Iraq War. He was fired in 2003 from his eponymous MSNBC talk show for doing so. In 2013, Democracy Now! spoke to Donahue about his firing. We play an excerpt from that interview and speak to journalist Jeff Cohen, who served as a senior producer on MSNBC's Donahue before its cancellation. Phil was a progressive. He was for peace and justice. He exuded it. It's what made him tick," recalls Cohen.

This year, the Democratic National Convention held its first-ever panel on Palestinian human rights. The panel came after persistent grassroots organizing against U.S. support for Israel's assault on Gaza. We play excerpts, including from the Arab American Institute's James Zogby, a former executive member of the Democratic National Committee; Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care surgeon who recently worked in Gaza; and Layla Elabed, co-chair of the Uncommitted National Movement.Later that day, during President Biden's convention speech, protesters standing near the Florida delegation unfolded a banner proclaiming Stop Arming Israel." Democracy Now was at the scene. We speak with one of the protesting delegates, Liano Sharon, an elected DNC delegate from Michigan, as he was escorted off the convention floor. Sharon, who is Jewish, told Democracy Now! that he participated in the action because 'never again' means never again for anyone, anywhere, ever, period."

On the opening day of the Democratic National Convention, Democracy Now! was on the streets of Chicago during the March on the DNC as thousands of protesters held a rally and march to call on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party to end U.S. support for Israel amid its ongoing assault on Gaza. We bring you the voices of some of the protesters.

Biden, AOC Address Night 1 of DNC as Palestinian Rights Activists Shine Light on Gaza Genocide, Women Affected by Abortion Bans in GOP-Led States Share Harrowing Experiences from DNC Stage, Protesters March on the DNC" Amid Heavy Police Presence, Arrests, Blinken Says Netanyahu Agreed to Ceasefire Proposal, But Israel Continues Its Genocidal War in Gaza, Court Sentences Chrystul Kizer to 11 Years for Killing Her Sex Trafficker in Self-Defense as a Teen, Georgia Approves New Rule That Could Delay Election Certification, Sow Chaos Post-Election, Disgraced NY Congressmember George Santos Pleads Guilty to Fraud and Identity Theft, Modest Tax on World's Wealthiest Would Generate $2 Trillion to Help Poor Nations Face Climate Crisis, 68 Million in Southern Africa Facing Severe Drought; Caspian Sea Shrinking Due to Climate Crisis, Wind and Solar Have Overtaken Coal in U.S. Energy Production in Major Climate Milestone, UAW's Shawn Fain Talks Labor Rights on DNC Stage as U. of Illinois Nurses Strike Nearby, 1,000+ Cornell Employees on Strike for Living Wage as School Year Kicks Off, Ukraine Continues Incursion into Russia, Calls Out Red Lines" in War as a Bluff", Judicial Unions in Mexico on Strike over Proposed Court Overhaul, Doctors in India Continue Strike, Demand Gov't Action in Response to Rape and Murder of Colleague, DRC Hopes to Receive Mpox Vaccines Soon After Pledges from U.S., Japan

The pioneering TV host Phil Donahue, who revolutionized daytime television by tackling major social and political issues in front of a studio audience, has died at the age of 88. The Phil Donahue Show, later renamed Donahue, ran from the 1960s through to 1996, and the affable host won 20 Emmy Awards and received a Peabody Award throughout his career. In 2003, Donahue was fired from his primetime MSNBC talk show for airing antiwar voices during the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when most of the corporate media was cheerleading the Bush administration's drive for war. Donahue spoke with Democracy Now! about his firing in 2013, describing it as a decision from far above" in the network. They were terrified of the antiwar voice," he said. Donahue is survived by his wife Marlo Thomas, his four children and his grandchildren.

As Chicago hosts the 2024 Democratic National Convention, we look at the city's long history of police misconduct, including the use of torture under police commander Jon Burge, accused of leading a torture ring that interrogated more than 100 African American men in Chicago in the 1970s and 1980s using electric shocks and suffocation, among other methods, to extract false confessions from men who were later exonerated. Illinois has one of the highest rates of wrongful convictions in the United States, and a disproportionate number of the wrongfully convicted are Black or Brown people. For more, we speak with two men from Chicago who were exonerated after serving decades in prison: Stanley Howard spent 16 years of his life on death row for a 1984 murder that he confessed to after being tortured; Jimmy Soto was released from an Illinois prison in December after a 42-year fight to prove his innocence.

Arab American voters could significantly impact the 2024 presidential election, particularly in Michigan, home to the largest Arab community in the United States. Many of these voters, incensed at U.S. support for the Israeli war on Gaza, have mobilized over the past year to pressure the Biden administration to change policy, including by casting hundreds of thousands of ballots for uncommitted" in Democratic primary elections to signal their demand for policy changes. We speak with Osama Siblani, founder and publisher of The Arab American News, who has had several meetings with senior figures from the White House and the Democratic presidential campaign. Despite all those meetings, nothing has happened" except more killing," Siblani says. Something has to be done to stop Benjamin Netanyahu's appetite for killing."

Democracy Now! is in Chicago for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where protesters have actions planned throughout the week. The demonstrations kicked off on Sunday, on the eve of the convention, with the March for Bodies Outside Unjust Laws, which was organized by a coalition of several different activist groups to demand action on reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights and an end to the war on Gaza. We hear from protesters on the ground who say they will withhold their votes in the presidential election until the Democratic Party commits to reversing the Biden administration's policy of warmongering."

Reverend Jesse Jackson, the civil rights icon who worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr., ran for president twice, in 1984 and 1988, and founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, is expected to appear on stage on the opening night of this year's Democratic National Convention. We play footage of an event held Sunday in Chicago to honor Jesse Jackson, which featured fellow civil rights activist Al Sharpton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, among many other speakers. We learned at his feet," Sharpton said of Jackson's impact on civil rights activism. Every time a Black [person] opens their mouth and talks about democracy, Jesse Jackson is talking. Every time we march, Jesse Jackson is walking. And when you see Kamala Harris get on that stage this week, Jesse Jackson is on that stage."

The 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, taking place against the backdrop of an unpopular war opposed by a growing number of voters, carries echoes of the 1968 DNC in the same city, when police violently attacked protesters calling for an end to the war in Vietnam. Much of the police riot unfolded on live national television, showing police, members of the National Guard and U.S. Army soldiers brutally assaulting and arresting protesters, many of them students. After four days and nights, more than 650 people were arrested and more than 1,100 injured. We look back on the infamous 1968 DNC with Bill Ayers, longtime Chicago activist, author and founding member of the Weather Underground, and Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez. Both of them were in Chicago to take part in the protests. It was really an eye-opening period for all of us who attended, who were out in the streets," says Gonzalez. Chicago showed us what the crisis in the country was, the crisis of racism and white supremacy, the crisis of empire and war," adds Ayers.

As the 2024 Democratic National Convention opens Monday in Chicago, we look at the protests planned throughout the week to pressure Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party on key policies, including the ongoing U.S.-backed Israeli war on Gaza. Meanwhile, at least 36 delegates are also inside the convention as official delegates representing the uncommitted" movement and are advocating an antiwar agenda to push for an end to U.S. arms sales to Israel. Although protesters this week come from a range of communities advocating on various issues, from economic injustice to reproductive rights, Palestine is at the center," says Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the Democratic National Convention and national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. All of those communities are standing up very publicly and very proudly, saying, 'Free Palestine. End U.S. aid to Israel.'"

DNC Kicks Off as Progressives and Uncommitted Delegates Demand Harris Take Action on Gaza Genocide, Gazans Hold Out Little Hope as Blinken Pushes for Ceasefire in Tel Aviv, Israeli Soldiers Attack Deir al-Balah, Wiping Out Families, Children, Another U.N. Worker, First Case of Polio Identified in Gaza in 10-Month-Old Baby, Israeli Relatives of Hamas Hostages Rally in Tel Aviv Ahead of Blinken Visit, Israel Attacks Southern Lebanon, Killing 10 Civilians from Syria, Cholera Outbreak Adds to Misery of Displacement and Starvation in Sudan War as Peace Talks Falter, Kamala Harris Lays Out Economic Policy Agenda, Vows to Lower Medical, Housing and Child Care Costs, Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Taps Historian Butch Ware as Running Mate, Philippines Reports Mpox Case in Patient Who Had Not Traveled Abroad, Protesters Demand Not Another Bomb" on Gaza in Marches Across the Globe, Colombia Bans Coal Exports to Israel over Genocide, Belarus Threatens Kyiv over Border Troops as Ukraine Pushes Further into Russia's Kursk, Dominican Pres. Abinader Starts 2nd Term After Enacting Hard-Line Immigration Policy Against Haitians, X to Shutter Operations in Brazil Amid Legal Challenges over Hate Speech, Misinformation, Bangladesh's Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus Vows to Help Rohingya Refugees Who Fled Burma, SCOTUS Allows GOP-Led States to Continue Blocking Expansion of Title IX

Ukraine's government has denied a Wall Street Journal report this week that Kyiv approved the plan to blow up the Russian-owned Nord Stream pipelines in 2022. According to the newspaper, a crew of Ukrainian civilians and active-duty soldiers used a rented yacht to reach the pipelines, which deliver Russian natural gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, and used explosives to sever three of the four pipelines. This comes as Poland says it was unable to carry out a German arrest warrant for a new suspect in its investigation into the Nord Stream attack, a 44-year-old Ukrainian diving professional who is alleged to have attached explosive charges to the pipelines. Polish authorities say the suspect fled to Ukraine in July. For more on the investigation, we speak with German journalist Holger Stark, deputy editor-in-chief and head of the investigative team at Die Zeit, who has been reporting on the Nord Stream attack for years.

The World Health Organization has declared mpox to be a global public health emergency. The viral disease, formerly known as monkeypox, spreads through close physical contact and can cause fevers, rashes and extremely painful lesions. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also declared a public health emergency over mpox earlier this week after logging over 15,000 cases. Scientists say this strain of mpox has a fatality rate of around 5% in adults and double that in children. For more, we speak with Nigerian journalist Zubaida Baba Ibrahim, who says there is still a shortage of mpox vaccines in Africa two years after the last major outbreak. We need to decolonize global health, where we're not just waiting for vaccines from somewhere else to come to Africa," she says. African leaders need to wake up and realize that this is dire and it needs proactive measures."

As Donald Trump tries to distance his campaign from Project 2025, those behind the right-wing policy blueprint to remake the U.S. government continue to brag in private about their close ties to the Republican presidential nominee and how they intend to push a radical right-wing agenda in a second Trump administration. In July, Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought met with two people he believed to be relatives of a wealthy conservative donor interested in funding the effort. In fact, he was meeting with two reporters with the U.K.-based Centre for Climate Reporting as part of an undercover sting captured on video. Over the course of two hours, Vought described Trump's disavowal of Project 2025 as mere theater and laid out plans for mass deportations, restricting abortion, gutting independent government bureaucracies, using the military against racial justice protesters and more. The secret plans are designed to ensure that this kind of radical agenda that the conservative movement has in the U.S. can be implemented from day one," says Lawrence Carter, founder and director of the Centre for Climate Reporting and one of the reporters who spoke with Vought. They want to make sure that the mistakes from the first Trump administration, as they see them, where not much got done, are avoided this time around."

Israel Continues Deadly Attacks in Gaza as Ceasefire Talks Resume for Day 2, Israeli Settlers Kill Palestinian as They Go on Armed Rampage in Occupied West Bank, Prices on 10 Common Medications Will Go Down in 2026 After First Round of Medicare Negotiations, Make the Road Action Endorses Kamala Harris for President, AZ's Top Court Allows GOP to Describe Fetuses as Unborn Human Beings" on Ballot Measure Pamphlet, Doctors in India to Strike Amid Protests over Rape and Murder of Kolkata Medical Trainee, Paetongtarn Shinawatra Named Thai Prime Minister, Indonesian President Holds First Cabinet Meeting in Future Capital Nusantara, Ukraine Says Its Troops Have Taken Full Control of Russian Town of Sudzha, Greenland Extends Detention of Anti-Whaling Activist Paul Watson as Japan Seeks Extradition, New York City Street Vendors Rally to Demand Easier Access to Permits

Up to 200 Rohingya Muslims were killed in drone strikes last week in Burma as they attempted to flee to Bangladesh. This comes amid intensifying conflict between the military junta and the Arakan Army, a rebel armed group. Human Rights Watch says the military and the Arakan Army have both committed extrajudicial killings, unlawful recruitment for combat, and widespread arson against Rohingya civilians. They are the enemy of each other, but when it comes to the Rohingya issue, they have the same intention," says Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition. Only about 600,000 Rohingya remain in Burma, down from about 1.4 million before a campaign of ethnic cleansing began in 2016, though Nay San Lwin says the Rohingya genocide goes back even further to 1978.

Eight years after the 2016 peace agreement in Colombia between government forces and guerrillas that was meant to end a half-century of conflict, around 5 million Colombians remain internally displaced and a growing number of people live in areas controlled by armed groups. The ongoing violence in the country has pushed many to flee, often by going through the treacherous Darien Gap between Colombia and neighboring Panama. For more on the security situation in Colombia and the state of the peace process, we speak with Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Dr. Manuel Rozental, a Colombian physician and activist who is part of the group Pueblos en Camino, or People on the Path.