Democracy Now!

Netanyahu and Trump Promote Plan to Expel Palestinians from Gaza, As Trump Hosts Netanyahu, Protesters Rally at White House Gates to Oppose Gaza Slaughter, Israel Continues Slaughter of Palestinians at Gaza Aid Sites, Homes and Schools, Death Toll from Texas Floods Tops 100 as Hope Fades for Missing Victims, Trump Administration Cancels Protected Status for Honduran and Nicaraguan Immigrants, Armed and Masked Federal Agents Descend on L.A.'s MacArthur Park, Your Silence Won't Save You": L.A. Activists Urge Communities Nationwide to Rise Up Against Fascism, 11 Killed in Kenya Protests Marking Anniversary of 1990 Pro-Democracy Uprising, Russian Attacks in Ukraine Target Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa, Trump Sending More Weapons to Ukraine Because He's Not Happy with Putin", Trump Revives Tariffs Threat on 14 Countries Unless They Make a Deal with U.S. by Aug. 1, BRICS Meeting Kicks Off in Rio as Trump Escalates Tariff Threat on Global South Bloc, Judge Temporarily Blocks Ban on Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the White House on Monday to discuss a possible new ceasefire in Gaza, we speak with Dr. Feroze Sidhwa about the humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territory, where Israel has damaged or destroyed much of the health infrastructure since the start of the war in October 2023. Sidhwa is a trauma surgeon in California who volunteered at Nasser Hospital in Gaza. He says Israel's impunity in attacking hospitals across Gaza is outrageous behavior" that blatantly violates the rules of war. Literally every attack on a healthcare facility in Gaza has been justified by ... a willful misunderstanding of international law or just outright lies."

We speak with investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz about how President Trump's major tax and spending bill hurts environmental justice efforts in Louisiana communities affected by the climate crisis and pollution from oil and gas facilities. The Trump administration had already canceled much of the funding for local environmental monitoring and advocacy, and the so-called Big, Beautiful Bill further entrenches the power of the fossil fuel industry. It's a frontal assault on environmental and climate justice, and it will set us back significantly unless we take action to confront the climate crisis," says Juhasz, who wrote about the bill's impact for Rolling Stone.

President Donald Trump and his allies are celebrating the passage of his sweeping tax and spending bill, which he signed into law on July 4 after a monthslong effort to shepherd it through Congress. Ultimately, just three Republicans in the Senate and two in the House voted against the legislation. The so-called Big, Beautiful Bill includes about $1 trillion in federal cuts to Medicaid and could kick 17 million people off their healthcare. It makes the largest-ever cuts to food assistance benefits, could cause the closure of nursing homes and rural hospitals across the country, raises housing and energy costs, and supercharges the Trump crackdown on immigrants - all while delivering massive tax benefits for the wealthiest people in the country. This is the most massive transfer of wealth upward in American history," says John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation.

At least 82 people have died and dozens are still unaccounted for after flash flooding in central Texas over the weekend, when the Guadalupe River rose about 26 feet in less than an hour on Friday amid torrential downpours. At least 10 girls who attended Camp Mystic, a girls' summer camp located on the banks of the river, are among the missing. In Kerr County, the most devastated area, at least 40 adults and 28 children have died. The speed and scale of the natural disaster has raised questions about why officials weren't better prepared, and whether the Trump administration's cuts to scientific positions exacerbated the situation.The National Weather Service, like a lot of federal agencies, went through significant loss of staff back in the spring," says retired NOAA meteorologist Alan Gerard, now the CEO of Balanced Weather, which provides critical weather and climate alerts. Gerard says that while it appears there was appropriate staffing ahead of the Texas flood, the impact of current budget cuts and even deeper reductions being considered by the administration are a cause for concern. We still have all of hurricane season to deal with," he says.

Trump Signs Bill to Cut Taxes on the Rich, Gut Social Programs and Speed Mass Deportations, Texas Floods Kill at Least 82 People, with Dozens Still Missing and More Rains Forecast, Amid Grief and Anger, TX Officials Blame Federal Gov't While Trump Deflects Questions on FEMA's Fate, It's Criminal": Trump Admin Discontinues Publication of Federal Reports on Climate Crisis, MSF's Abdullah Hammad Killed by Israel, the 609th Medical Worker Killed in Gaza Genocide, Shoot and Ask Questions Later": U.S. Whistleblower Says Aid" Workers Told to Attack Palestinians, Israel Attacks Yemen Ports, Power Plant as Houthis Continue Attacks on Israel over Gaza Genocide, Netanyahu Visits U.S. Despite ICC Arrest Warrant as Trump Touts Possible Ceasefire, U.K. Police Arrest Activists, Including 83-Year-Old Priest, for Protesting Ban on Palestine Action, Eight Immigrants Expelled from U.S. Transferred to South Sudan After SCOTUS Ruling, 200 U.S. Marines Descend on Florida to Assist in ICE Crackdown on Immigrants, Donald Trump vs. Elon Musk Feud Escalates with Announcement of America Party", Philadelphia City Workers Have Been on Strike for One Week to Demand Dignified Wages

As part of our July Fourth special broadcast, we continue our extended interview with Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI. The book documents the rise of OpenAI and how the AI industry is leading to a new form of colonialism. One of the things that you really have to understand about AI development today is that there are what I call quasi-religious movements that have developed within Silicon Valley," says Hao. The concept of artificial general intelligence is not one that's scientifically grounded."

In our July Fourth special broadcast, we revisit our interview with longtime technology reporter Karen Hao, author of the new book Empire of AI, which unveils the accruing political and economic power of AI companies - especially Sam Altman's OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the exploitation of workers in Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology's detrimental impact on the environment. This is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms," says Hao, in an extended interview.

We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" He was addressing the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. The late actor James Earl Jones read the historic address during a performance of Voices of a People's History of the United States, which was co-edited by Howard Zinn.

As we broadcast, the House was soon set to vote on the so-called big, beautiful bill before the July 4 deadline imposed by President Trump. Should the House pass the legislation, the bill would be sent to Trump's desk to be signed into law. The bill massively increases funding for ICE, cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid over a decade and adds $3.3 trillion to the nation's debt.It makes people in the country who are in the bottom 30%, working hard to pay their bills, poorer, because it's stripping away healthcare from them, stripping away food assistance from them. And it is all in the name of giving tax breaks to the wealthiest. ... The top 20% in this country get 60% of the benefits," says Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna.

In his first live broadcast interview since being released from ICE detention, Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil tells Democracy Now! about his experience behind bars, the ongoing threat of deportation that hangs over him and why he continues to speak out against the U.S.-backed Israeli war on Gaza. The Columbia University graduate was the first pro-Palestinian campus protester to be jailed by the Trump administration. Khalil is now reunited with his wife Noor and newborn son Deen, after he was released on bail last month by a federal judge. Khalil says the Trump administration's attempts to silence him are a distraction from the genocide in Palestine."

GOP Leaders Advance to Final House Vote on Bill to Slash Social Programs and Cut Taxes on the Rich, Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill 300 Palestinians in 2 Days, Including Hospital Director, 33 More Palestinians Slaughtered While Seeking Food at Militarized Gaza Aid Sites, U.S. Approves $510 Million Sale of Bomb Guidance Kits to Israel, U.K. Lawmakers Approve Ban on Palestine Action, Adding It to List of Terrorist" Groups, U.N. Rapporteur Identifies 60+ Firms Profiting from Gaza Slaughter and West Bank Occupation, No God Bombs Children": Peace Activists Protest Gathering of Christian Zionist Lobby Group, A Hugely Important Decision": Judge Strikes Down Trump's Ban on Asylum Claims at Southern Border, Attorneys Say Kilmar Abrego Garcia Was Brutally Tortured at Salvadoran Prison, Stateless Palestinian Woman Released After 5 Months in Texas ICE Jail, Court Rejects Trump Admin Bid to Rearrest Georgetown Peace Scholar Badar Khan Suri, Elderly Cuban Immigrant Dies in ICE Jail, the 13th Such Death This Year, Sean Diddy" Combs Acquitted of Sex Trafficking But Found Guilty on Lesser Charges, Wisconsin Supreme Court Strikes Down 176-Year-Old Abortion Ban, Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter Who Threatened Cops Takes Job at DOJ Weaponization" Office, Trump Reduces Tariffs on Vietnam as Trump Organization Looks to Expand Investments

In an effort to fulfill the Trump administration's daily immigration arrest quotas," federal agents and deputized local law enforcement are racially profiling and snatching people off the streets without due process. These arrests, carried out by armed and masked agents, are sowing terror and confusion in communities across the United States. Stephano Medina, a lawyer with the California Center for Movement Legal Services, shares how ICE regularly denies that it has taken people into custody, leading to family members scrambling for information about their loved ones. It's arrest now, ask questions later," adds Dominique Boubion, an attorney representing Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen who was taken by ICE last month in what Velez has since described as a kidnapping."

Deep in the Florida Everglades, at an abandoned airfield surrounded by barren swampland, local law enforcement authorities are opening the doors to a huge tent facility that hopes to lock up immigrants swept up in the Trump administration's mass deportation machine. Republicans have branded the still-unapproved facility Alligator Alcatraz," with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier boasting that the state can afford to keep staff and safety costs low because the wild animals of the swamp will provide security and prevent escapes. Immigrant rights advocates warn that the cramped facility will further isolate immigrants who are being rounded up indiscriminately and detained without charge, and could lead to life-threatening overheating and overcrowding. We speak to Nery Lopez of Detention Watch Network and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council for more about the inhumane" proposed detention camp.

The budget bill just passed by the Senate provides more than $170 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement and detention. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, who worked on an analysis published by the American Immigration Council, says the new budget would make ICE the single largest federal law enforcement agency in the history of the nation."

After a contentious round of last-minute negotiations, President Trump's budget bill has passed in the Senate, squeaking by thanks to Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. Three Republicans joined Senate Democrats in voting no" on the bill, which gives tax cuts to the rich and makes historic cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a slim majority, for a final vote before Trump's July 4 deadline. Citizen groups, including the grassroots political organization Indivisible, are calling on Americans, particularly those living in Republican and swing districts, to contact their House representatives and urge them to vote against the bill. It's not a done deal," says Indivisible's co-founder and co-executive director Ezra Levin. They do not have the votes."

Senate Narrowly Approves Massive Bill to Gut Social Programs and Cut Taxes on the Rich, We Will Not Accept This Intimidation": NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Rejects Trump's Threats, Israel Continues Attacks on Aid Seekers as Gaza's Largest Hospital Is Forced to Halt Dialysis, Study Finds U.S. Foreign Aid Cuts Could Kill 14 Million People by 2030, Trump Administration Withholds $6.8 Billion in Public School Funding, Judge Blocks RFK Jr.'s Plan to Radically Downsize Department of Health and Human Services, Trump Jokes About Alligators Eating Immigrants During Tour of New Florida ICE Jail, Trump Administration Transfers More Immigrants to Guantanamo, Trump Administration Sues Los Angeles over Sanctuary City Policies, Judge Pauses DHS's Termination of Protected Status for Haitian Immigrants, SCOTUS Rejects ExxonMobil's Appeal of $14 Million Fine for Air Pollution at Texas Plant, UPenn Bans Trans Athletes; DOJ Claims Harvard Violated Civil Rights Law During Gaza Protests, Paramount Will Pay Trump $16 Million to Settle Lawsuit Alleging 60 Minutes" Bias, Jury Continues Deliberations After Reaching Partial Verdict in Sean Combs Sex Trafficking Trial

A heat wave is raising temperatures to dangerous levels across much of Europe, just days after a heat wave in North America saw over 3,000 temperature records set. For more, we speak with climate scientist Michael Mann, who warns that heat domes and flooding have nearly tripled since the 1950s. At some level, this isn't that complicated. You make the planet hotter, you're going to have more frequent and intense heat extremes," says Mann, a professor of environmental science at the University of Pennsylvania. Mann's upcoming book, co-authored with vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez, is Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World.

There are many things that happened in this war that are clearly war crimes," Volker Turk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, says about Israel's war on Gaza. Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman spoke with the top U.N. rights watchdog in Geneva this week at the headquarters of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Turk, who has characterized Israel's actions in Gaza as ethnic cleansing, discusses the ongoing suffering of the civilian population, how Israel has attacked the U.N. and its workers, and why he continues to hope for both Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting the United States next week to meet with President Donald Trump and other top officials in the U.S. administration, supposedly to capitalize on the success" of the 12-day war against Iran. This comes after nearly 21 months of Israel's war on Gaza that has killed at least 56,000 Palestinians, with daily violence only increasing. There's basically an airstrike every other minute," says Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada. There's nonstop artillery fire, gunfire, machine gunfire, as well as Israeli quadcopter drones that are swarming Gaza and shooting people at random." While there have been news reports of a possible ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Shehada says there are no negotiations," and therefore no end in sight to the daily bloodshed.

We speak with American neurosurgeon Dr. Abdul Basit Khan in Gaza, where he is volunteering at the Nasser Hospital. He describes treating patients with blast injuries and gunshot wounds from Israeli attacks, all while coping with a lack of basic medical supplies and widespread hunger. Food insecurity is rampant, from all levels of society. Even the physicians are not eating," he says. Multiple blasts were heard during the interview, with Dr. Khan describing his patients as people living in tents being indiscriminately bombed" by Israeli forces. This is the worst thing I've ever seen in my entire life, by far."

Israel Bombs Crowded Gaza Cafe, Killing Dozens, Including Children, Israel Continues Attacks on Gaza Aid Sites; Babies Starve as Infant Formula Is Exhausted, Veterans End 40-Day Fast with Protest Demanding U.S. Stop Arming Israel, Senators Near Final Vote on Bill to Slash Social Programs While Showering Tax Breaks on the Wealthy, Justice Department Seeks to Strip Some Naturalized Immigrants of Citizenship, Trump to Attend Opening of $450 Million Alligator Alcatraz" ICE Jail in Florida, ICE Raids Terrorize Farmworkers, Causing Crops to Rot in Fields Amid Severe Labor Shortage, Advocates Call on FIFA to Ban Immigration Agents from World Cup Games, ProPublica Investigation Finds Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations, SCOTUS Will Hear Republicans' Challenge to Campaign Finance Limits, Iran Says Israeli Attack on Evin Prison Killed 71, Rejects U.N. Inspection of Bombed Nuclear Sites, Europe Swelters Under Record-Breaking Heat Wave as Wildfires Erupt in France, Turkey, Nearly Half of Tuvalu's Population Applies to Relocate to Australia Amid Rising Seas, Hong Kong's League of Social Democrats Disbands Amid Beijing's Crackdown on Dissent

We go to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, where activists are shining a light on Morocco's brutal occupation of Western Sahara and its Indigenous people, the Sahrawi. The Sahrawi journalist and activist Asria Mohamed speaks with Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman about Jaimitna," an art installation that evokes the tents of Sahrawi people living in refugee camps. The installation features various melhfas, traditional clothing worn by Sahrawi women, and includes their stories. These women, they spent years and years in prison. They have been tortured. They have been beaten up. They have been raped," Mohamed says. We also speak with Maria Carrion, executive director of FiSahara, the Sahara International Film Festival, who says the story of the Sahrawi must be better known. Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975 in defiance of the United Nations and the international community. The first Trump administration recognized Moroccan sovereignty in 2020 as part of a larger effort to normalize relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

The Supreme Court's term ended Friday with a decision that promises to further expand the power of the president. Conservative justices argued lower federal courts cannot issue nationwide injunctions - a decision that limits judicial checks on presidential power. We have an imperial court that has created an imperial presidency," says Dahlia Lithwick, writer and host of the legal podcast Amicus. The 6-3 decision, split along ideological lines, could dramatically reshape legal citizenship in the United States and clears the path for many other Trump orders to potentially go into effect. The court also ruled on a case that will allow parents to pull their children from classes including LGBTQ+ books. The conservative justices cast these books as coercive simply because they have LGBT characters," says Chase Strangio, lawyer and co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBTQ & HIV Project.

Senate lawmakers are debating President Trump's 940-page so-called big, beautiful bill as Republicans race to meet a Trump-imposed July 4 deadline and are set to vote on key amendments. Senate Republicans have deepened the cuts to Medicaid while cutting taxes for the wealthy and increasing the national deficit. Basically, you have Republicans taking food and medicine and other things away from vulnerable people in order to finance tax cuts for the rich," says David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect.Dr. Adam Gaffney, a critical care physician and professor at Harvard Medical School, co-authored a report that found the bill could lead to 1.3 million Americans going without medications, 1.2 million Americans being saddled with medical debt, 380,000 women going without mammograms, and over 16,500 deaths annually. I work in the ICU. I see patients with life-threatening complications of untreated illness because they didn't get care because they couldn't afford it. What happens when we add to that number massively?" says Gaffney.

Tens of Thousands Flee Gaza City as Israel Issues New Forced Evacuation Orders, Haaretz: Israeli Forces Ordered to Fire on Unarmed Crowds Seeking Food, Netanyahu Corruption Trial Further Delayed as Trump Calls for Charges to Be Thrown Out, Russia Launches Largest Aerial Assault" on Ukraine Since Full-Scale Invasion, Ukraine Withdraws from Landmine Ban Treaty, Following Poland, Finland and Baltic States, Supreme Court Strips Lower Courts of Power to Issue Nationwide Injunctions, Senators Debate GOP Budget Bill in All-Night Session Ahead of Trump-Imposed Deadline, Under Fire for Opposing Medicaid Cuts, Sen. Thom Tillis Says He Won't Seek Reelection, Trump Administration Ends Protected Status for Over 500,000 Haitian Immigrants, Judge Rules Trump Administration Breached 2023 Settlement over Family Separations, University of Virginia President Resigns Amid Trump Administration Attacks over DEI, Trump Administration to End Conservation Rule Protecting Nearly 60 Million Acres of Forests, Canada Scraps Tax on Big Tech Companies After Trump Threatens Tariff Increase, Istanbul Police Arrest Dozens Ahead of Pride Parade; 100,000 March in Hungary Despite LGBTQ+ Ban

The legendary journalist Bill Moyers has died at the age of 91. Moyers, whose long career included helping found the Peace Corps and serving as press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson, was an award-winning champion of public television and independent media. We feature one of his numerous interviews on Democracy Now! where we discussed the history of public broadcasting in the United States and the powerful role of money in corporate media. The power of money trumps the power of democracy today, and I'm very worried about it," he said in a 2011 interview. His comments hold particular resonance as the Trump administration moves to strip federal funding from PBS and NPR today.

Democrat Pramila Jayapal is holding a series of shadow hearings" in Congress on Trump's immigration actions. Jayapal, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Integrity, Security and Enforcement, explains how Trump's immigration crackdown has created a Catch-22" for asylum seekers, who are being targeted for expedited removal" at their own immigration hearings. If you show up, you could get detained and deported. ... If you don't show up, then you are now in violation of the immigration regulations, and you're deemed as an absconder." Jayapal also comments on Trump's big, beautiful budget bill," which she calls the big, bad, betrayal bill" for its cuts to Medicaid and other social services.

Over 100 days have passed since the Trump administration's unprecedented removal of more than 230 immigrants to El Salvador's notorious mega-prison CECOT. They were removed without any due process in the United States. Democracy Now! spoke with the loved ones of Andry Hernandez Romero, a 33-year-old gay makeup artist and asylum seeker who was told he would be sent home to Venezuela, according to his mother. But instead, he was sent to CECOT, where reports of torture and abuse are rampant. His mother Alexis Romero and his best friend Reina Cardenas have not seen or heard from him in three months. He has been identified in photos taken at CECOT by a photojournalist. Hernandez Romero was detained from the moment he showed up for his asylum appointment," says Cardenas. He never had due process." Adds Margaret Cargioli, a lawyer for the family, He sought asylum because he was persecuted due to his political opinion and because he's LGBTQ. ... It is quite astonishing that in the United States, people are being disappeared in this manner."

The Supreme Court has sided with South Carolina's efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. Lower court rulings allowed Medicaid patients to sue over the state's restrictions on Medicaid funding for their healthcare clinics, which the Supreme Court overturned in a 6-3 decision on Thursday. Rebecca Grant, who writes about reproductive rights, says South Carolina's restrictions will likely be taken up by other states and could result in the closure of potentially hundreds of reproductive healthcare clinics. Grant outlines the alternative healthcare methods that many are forced to turn to in the face of dangerous and, since the fall of Roe v. Wade, increasingly draconian abortion restrictions. We know throughout history that making abortion illegal or trying to ban it does not make it go away," she says. This underground network of abortion access in the United States is the subject of Grant's new book, Access: Inside the Abortion Underground and the Sixty-Year Battle for Reproductive Freedom.

Israel Continues Deadly Attacks on Gaza Aid Sites as 17,000 Palestinian Children Suffer Malnutrition, Senate Democrats Question Trump's Claim of Obliterated" Iran Nuclear Sites, U.S. and China Agree to Framework" for Trade Deal, Senate Parliamentarian Deals Major Blow to Trump's Big Beautiful Bill", Supreme Court Sides with South Carolina in Campaign to Defund Planned Parenthood, Supreme Court Grants Reprieve to Condemned Texas Prisoner Minutes Before Lethal Injection, Masked ICE Agents Arrest L.A. Resident and U.S. Citizen Andrea Velez on Her Way to Work, Walmart Worker and U.S. Citizen Is Released from Detention After Violent Arrest by Federal Agents, Attorney General Pam Bondi Denies Knowledge of Masked and Hooded ICE Agents, Federal Judge Will Allow ICE to Force-Feed Hunger Striking Asylum Seeker, Canadian Citizen and Mexican Immigrant Become the Latest to Die in ICE Custody, Advisory Panel Stacked With RFK Jr. Appointees Recommends Against Flu Vaccinations, NYC Mayor Adams Announces Reelection Bid as Independent; Cuomo to Remain on the Ballot, Legendary Television Journalist Bill Moyers Dies at 91

President Donald Trump has returned to Washington after a NATO summit where leaders agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, more than doubling the current target of 2%. The increase comes after years of pressure from Trump, who accuses other countries in the military alliance of not spending enough. What he is interested in is catering to the military-industrial complex of the United States," says Gilbert Achcar, emeritus professor of development studies and international relations at SOAS, University of London. When he asks these NATO countries to increase their military expenditure, he means 'buy more U.S. weapons.' That's what he is doing. He's a salesperson for the military-industrial complex."

The Trump administration is intensifying its campaign against vaccinations, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrawing U.S. funding for the world's preeminent international vaccine organization. The group - known as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance - is the world's largest funder of life-saving vaccinations and says it has helped vaccinate more than 1.1 billion children in 78 lower-income countries, preventing nearly 19 million future deaths. Kennedy also recently stacked an important vaccine advisory panel with unqualified appointees, many of them holding anti-vaccine views.Anti-vaccine activists have been shouting from the sidelines for decades. Now they're making policy," says Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

We speak with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich about the victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York Democratic primary for New York mayor, the rise of Donald Trump, and the role of big money in politics. This is the one thing that I agree with Donald Trump about: The economy is rigged - but it's rigged against working-class people. And I think Mamdani understood that. He understood that people have got to want a change, but also they want affordability. They want an economy that is working for them."We also speak with him about his decades-long career as a teacher and The Last Class, a new documentary that follows Reich over his last semester at the University of California, Berkeley. The class, and much of Reich's career, has focused on rising inequality and its impact on society. Most Americans feel powerless," says Reich. This is a crisis right now."

Trump Pushes Back Over Leaked Report Finding US Bombs Failed to Destroy Iran's Nuclear Program, Iran's Supreme Leader Claims Victory over Israel in First Public Remarks Since Ceasefire, Israeli Continues Deadly Attacks on Palestinians Seeking Food at Aid Sites, Israeli Soldiers Kill 3 Palestinians as Dozens of Israeli Settlers Attack West Bank Village, Some Republican Senators Balk at Medicaid Cuts in Trump's Budget Reconciliation Bill, Forced to Choose Between Rent and Food": Protesters Decry Cuts to Social Programs in GOP Bill, Trump Moves Housing Department Offices to Virginia, Displacing National Science Foundation, CDC Workers Hold Protest in Atlanta as RFK Jr. Pulls Funding from Global Vaccine Group, CNN: Trump Plans to Reject Hundreds of Thousands of Asylum Claims to Speed Deportations, All About Political Intimidation": Rep. LaMonica McIver Pleads Not Guilty to Assault at ICE Jail, Whistleblower Alleges Trump Judicial Nominee Emil Bove Sought to Ignore Court Orders, Protests Erupt as Billionaire Jeff Bezos Takes Over Venice for Lavish Wedding Celebration

As ICE increases its raids on immigrant communities, footage of the arrest of one man, Narciso Barranco, shows seven federal agents - all masked - pinning the 48-year-old gardener to the ground and repeatedly punching him in the head before pushing him into an unmarked vehicle. His son, Marine veteran Alejandro Barranco, recently visited him in an ICE detention center. He looked beat up, he looked rough, he looked defeated. He was sad. It's just not right," he says.Barranco, whose three children have all served in the U.S. military, was arrested while working as a landscaper at an IHOP restaurant in Santa Ana. We are seeing an extreme abuse of power on the screens of our phones," says Santa Ana councilmember John Hernandez, who adds that Barranco is a hardworking Santa Ana resident of over three decades, who has raised three children who have all decided to sacrifice their freedom for this country that we love."

At the NATO summit in the Hague, almost all European nations reached an agreement to raise military spending to 5% of each county's GDP. This comes as President Trump said the U.S. would not come to the defense of other NATO nations unless they hit 5% in military spending. Trump wants to move towards a much, much more instrumental and crudely material, transactional politics," says Richard Seymour, writer, broadcaster and activist. I think this is a version of imperial decline that Trump is trying to manage."

In Gaza, at least 41 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since midnight, including more Palestinians targeted by Israeli forces while seeking food and humanitarian aid. This comes as UNICEF is warning Gaza is facing what amounts to a man-made drought" with children at risk of dying from thirst due to Israel's blockade. We go to Dr. Mark Brauner, an emergency medicine physician who is currently volunteering at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. He describes execution-style" killings of Palestinians at food distribution sites and the desperate lack of baby formula leading to the deaths of children suffering from malnutrition and starvation.

History was made Tuesday night as democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani carried out a stunning upset and defeated Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. As the results became clear Tuesday night, Cuomo conceded and called Mamdani to congratulate him. The New York state assemblymember will now be the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City in November's general election. Tonight we made history," Mamdani told supporters. In the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it is done. My friends, we have done it."Moe Mitchell, national director for the Working Families Party, says Mamdani's campaign helped create a multiracial working class alignment against authoritarianism [and] for a type of politics that is hopeful, that is visionary, that says we want something, we don't simply want to fight against something."

Trump Rejects Pentagon Assessment That U.S. Strikes Failed to Obliterate" Iran's Nuclear Program, Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill Dozens, Including Palestinians Seeking Humanitarian Aid, Russian Missile Attack on Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Region Kills 19, Wounds Hundreds, Leaders of NATO Member Nations Agree to Boost Military Spending to 5% of GDP, Protesters Reject NATO's Call to Vastly Boost Military Spending, Zohran Mamdani Claims Historic Victory Over Andrew Cuomo in NYC Democratic Mayoral Primary, Court Orders Return of Salvadoran Immigrant Deported Due to Administrative Errors", Trump Adviser Stephen Miller Holds Six-Figure Investment in Tech Firm Profiting from Deportations, Senate Health Committee Chair Criticizes Unqualified" Vaccine Advisory Panel Named by RFK Jr., Kenyans Mark One-Year Anniversary of Youth-Led Uprising That Was Violently Suppressed, Nigeria Posthumously Pardons the Ogoni Nine," Including Slain Environmental Activist Ken Saro-Wiwa

You can't, as the president, engage in strikes on a foreign country when there's no imminent threat, without coming to Congress for authorization," says Ro Khanna, Democratic congressmember and member of the House Armed Services Committee, criticizing President Trump's decision to bomb Iran's nuclear sites as blatantly unconstitutional" and a clear instance of executive overreach. Khanna and Republican congressmember Thomas Massie recently introduced a bipartisan Iran War Powers resolution in a bid to prevent further U.S. involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict. Khanna shares how anti-war voices in U.S. politics are too often silenced by powerful and wealthy interest groups and urges the Democratic Party to harness widespread anti-war sentiment in opposition to Trump's increasingly authoritarian foreign policy.

Tuesday's New York City mayoral primary could determine the future of the most populous city in the United States. We speak to John Tarleton, editor-in-chief of the The Indypendent, about the race, which pits the young, progressive socialist Zohran Mamdani against Andrew Cuomo, an establishment Democrat and the former state governor who resigned in 2020 amid an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment. Tarleton discusses Mamdani's unique grassroots campaign, the influence of the powerful real-estate industry and why everything may come down to New York City's ranked-choice voting system.

Today's mayoral primary in New York City features two very different frontrunners, the scandal-ridden former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, and the young Democratic Socialist state assemblymember, Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani's ascendant grassroots campaign has taken the Democratic establishment by surprise. He last appeared on Democracy Now! in October, as he launched his campaign centered on bringing down the high cost-of-living for working-class New Yorkers. On the campaign trail today, he joins us again as polls place him neck-and-neck with Cuomo, to share why his campaign and candidacy has resonated with so many. This race is one way in which we can show that we can actually deliver a city that New Yorkers can afford, and we can do so by building a movement the city has never seen before."

U.S. President Donald Trump is touting a ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran, despite what he said were violations of the deal by both sides shortly after he announced it. Trump said he was especially angry with Israel and urged the country to stand down as he faces mounting criticism over the prospect of another U.S. war in the Middle East. Part of the reason why Trump also was quite eager to get to a ceasefire, why he's so frustrated with what the Israelis are doing right now, is precisely because he's very much aware of the strain that all of this has caused within his own support base," says political analyst Trita Parsi. Parsi says the breakdown of the global Non-Proliferation Treaty on nuclear weapons could lead to dangerous consequences, as countries like Iran see incentive to build their own nuclear deterrence.

Trump Lashes Out After Israel Violates Fragile Truce with Iran, Nuclear Watchdog Warns of Significant Damage" to Iran's Fordow Site After U.S. Bombing, Israel Kills More Palestinians at Aid" Sites as Blockade Starves Another Child to Death , Danish Shipping Giant Maersk to Divest from Firms Linked to Israeli Settlements, UK Government Uses Anti-Terrorism Law to Ban the Protest Group Palestine Action, Supreme Court Will Allow Trump to Transfer Immigrants to Third Countries, At Least for Now, Lawyers and Advocates Warn of ICE Disappearances" Amid Ongoing Raids, ICE Separates Mother from Breastfeeding Baby After Arrest at Routine Green Card Appointment, Alligator Alcatraz": Florida Plans to Build $450 Million Immigration Prison in Everglades, Senate Confirms Rodney Scott as CBP Chief, Despite Role in Cover-Up of 2010 Killing, Indigenous Groups Warn Against More Border Wall Construction in Arizona, Attack on Hospital in Sudan Kills More Than 40 People, Six Die in Clashes Between Bolivian Police, Supporters of Former President Evo Morales, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Plans New Nuclear Plant to Replace Indian Point, Family of Queens Teen Shot Dead by Police Sues NYPD and New York City, Final Poll Shows Mamdani With an Edge Over Cuomo as New Yorkers Hold Mayoral Primary

Democracy Now! was there when Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil reunited with his family over the weekend after being released on bail by a federal judge Friday, ending his detention in a Louisiana ICE jail after more than 100 days. Khalil was seized by federal agents at his home in New York on March 8, with the Trump administration seeking to deport him even though he is a legal permanent resident with a green card and married to a U.S. citizen. Khalil's wife Noor Abdalla was eight months pregnant at the time of the arrest and gave birth to their son while he was jailed. I just want to go back and continue the work I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights," says Khalil, who played a prominent role in the Palestine solidarity protests at Columbia University last spring. He addressed over 1,000 supporters at a rally Sunday before leading a march to the gates of the school. We feature part of Khalil's comments and also hear from Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and members of Khalil's legal team.

Netanyahu's purpose was to drag Trump in," Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, says of the U.S. attack on Iran. Over the weekend, the U.S. directly joined the war between Israel and Iran when it bombed three nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, though it's unclear how far the strikes have set back the Iranian nuclear program. Israel and the United States accuse Iran of developing nuclear weapons, while Iran says its program is for civilian use. United Nations inspectors and U.S. intelligence assessments have said Iran is not building weapons. The danger now is that, having brought the U.S. into this, Israel will seek to go further up the escalatory ladder," says Levy. It wants the chaos."

After President Trump's attack on Iran over the weekend, civil society leaders are organizing to demand an end to the violence. We speak with Iranian American scholar Kaveh Ehsani, associate professor of international studies at DePaul University in Chicago, who helped organize a petition against the war signed by more than 1,000 academics in the United States, Europe and Iran. What this is doing is immiserating further the lives of ordinary people," says Ehsani.

Israel and Iran continue to exchange fire, just days after the United States entered the war by bombing three key nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday. President Trump ordered the attack on the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan facilities without seeking congressional approval, in a move that could spread further violence across the Middle East. We speak with two Iranian scholars who have taken part in the country's previous nuclear negotiations. Iranians see the United States as the aggressor, as helping the Israeli regime slaughter Iranians," says University of Tehran professor Mohammad Marandi. There's anger across the board." The U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran are an obvious" and clear violation of international law and regulations," says Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a visiting researcher at Princeton University who served as spokesperson for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the European Union from 2003 to 2005.

U.N. Warns of Spiral of Chaos" After U.S. Strikes Iran, Israel Continues Its Attacks, Protesters Decry U.S. Attack on Iran Amid Fears of All-Out War, Mahmoud Khalil Released From ICE Jail, Returns to New York, Amnesty Finds Israel Completely Razed Southern Gaza Town in More Evidence of Israel's Genocide", U.K. Gov't to Ban Activist Group Palestine Action After Air Force Base Breach, Suicide Bomb Kills 22 At Orthodox Church in Damascus, Border Patrol Agents Brutally Beat and Detain SoCal Immigrant Worker Amid Ongoing Raids, U.S. Judge Orders Release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia But He Faces Likely Detainment by ICE, Russian Air Attacks Kills at Least 10 in Kyiv, Belarus Opposition Leader Sergei Tikhanovsky Vows to Continue Fight After Release from Prison, Panama Declares State of Emergency Over Worker Rebellion, Texas to Display Ten Commandments in Public School Classrooms