Democracy Now!

Donald Trump Found Liable for Sexual Abuse and Defamation of E. Jean Carroll, Rights Groups Call on Biden to Implement Humane Immigration Policies as Title 42 Ends, Immigrant Rights Defenders Condemn Texas Bills That Would Create Vigilante ICE Force, No Progress on Debt Limit Talks After Biden-McCarthy Meeting as White House Weighs Unilateral Action, Israel Continues Air Attacks on Gaza, Killing at Least 16 People in Two Days, AFP Journalist Killed Covering Ukraine War; France and U.K. Move to Label Wagner a Terrorist Group, Protests Mount, Hundreds Arrested in Pakistan as Court Charges Detained Imran Khan with Corruption, President Erdogan Faces Challenge from More Liberal Kilicdaroglu as Turks Reel from Earthquake, NY Rep. George Santos Charged by Federal Prosecutors, California Advances Effort to Offer Reparations to Black Residents, SEIU Workers at D.C. Headquarters Authorize Strike over Stalled Contract Negotiations, MTV News Shutting Down as Part of Mass Layoffs at Paramount, David Miranda, Journalist, Ex-Lawmaker and Fighter for Brazil’s Poor and LGBTQ Community, Dies at 37

Eleven people were arrested at a protest in New York on Monday demanding justice for Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused Black man who was choked to death on a subway car last week by another passenger. Neely was well known as a dancer and Michael Jackson impersonator. He was crying out that he was hungry, when he was fatally attacked on the train by a 24-year-old former marine named Daniel Penny, who was questioned by police but released without charges. The city medical examiner has ruled Neely’s death a homicide. The subway killing comes as New York is facing a growing population of unhoused people who lack the support they need, with many facing a mental health crisis. “What we need to see is not a mobilization of violence, but a mobilization of care,” says Jawanza Williams, director of organizing at the community group VOCAL-New York. We also speak with musician Lorenzo Laroc, who knew Neely for decades as a fellow busker in the New York subway system. “He gave freely to the city of New York and brought nothing but joy to this town for decades,” says Laroc, calling Neely a “gentleman” and a “consummate professional.”

Conflict in Sudan between two rival military factions is entering its fourth week. Despite international calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, both combatant groups have repeatedly breached truce agreements. More than 700 people have died. As thousands of Sudanese civilians flee both the capital Khartoum and the country entirely, the fighting is expected to continue, with no end in sight. As Sudan braces for the renewed possibility of full-scale civil war, we speak to McGill University professor Khalid Mustafa Medani and Sudanese activist Marine Alneel about the country’s brewing humanitarian crisis. “The only path toward stability is the establishment of a civilian democracy,” says Medani.

Israel launched surprise airstrikes in Gaza overnight, targeting three commanders of the Islamic Jihad militant group, who were assassinated in their homes. The attacks killed a total of 13 people, including the wives and children of the men. The Israeli attack broke a ceasefire that had been reached last week after a spike in violence following the death of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan in Israeli custody. “As the occupying power, Israel has the obligation to protect the civilian population,” says Phyllis Bennis, author and fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. “Instead, we’re seeing the expansion of an apartheid regime, and one which is prepared to use violence at extraordinary levels without a moment’s hesitation.”

As Russia marks the Soviet Union’s defeat of the Nazis 78 years ago, Ukraine is preparing to launch a major counteroffensive, which has forced Moscow to issue an evacuation order for thousands of residents in areas occupied by Russian forces. Meanwhile, international actors are calling for negotiations, possibly brokered by China or Brazil, to end the war. For more on the prognosis for peace in Ukraine, we’re joined by Phyllis Bennis, author and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

Israel Bombs Gaza Strip, Killing 13 People, Including Children, Putin Delivers Defiant “Victory Day” Speech as Russia Fires Missiles Across Ukraine, Sudan’s Warring Parties Hold Peace Talks in Saudi Arabia But Won’t Agree to Ceasefire, Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Arrested in Islamabad, Tens of Thousands March Against Gun Violence in Serbia After Two Mass Shootings, Texas Gunman Was Rejected from Army, Had Nazi Tattoos But Purchased AR-15 Legally, Texas Man Who Rammed SUV Into Migrants Charged with Eight Counts of Manslaughter, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Deploys “Tactical Border Force” Ahead of Title 42 Expiration, Jury Begins Deliberations in Rape and Defamation Civil Trial Against Donald Trump, ProPublica Reports Rep. James Clyburn Protected His District at a Cost to Black Democrats, 11 Arrested at Protest Demanding Arrest of Vigilante Who Killed Jordan Neely

Oklahoma death row prisoner Richard Glossip’s execution was stayed by the Supreme Court on Friday, marking the ninth time he had an execution date put on hold. Glossip has maintained his innocence throughout his 25 years of incarceration; his accuser has previously attempted to recant his testimony. In an unprecedented move earlier this month, Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a joint motion with Glossip’s defense team to halt his May 18 execution, saying he did not receive a fair trial. For more, we are joined in Oklahoma City by Sister Helen Prejean, one of the world’s most well-known anti-death penalty activists and Richard Glossip’s spiritual adviser, who says she is hopeful the Supreme Court’s intervention will mark the end of Glossip’s legal battles. “I believe Richard’s going to walk out a free man,” says Prejean. She is the author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty and River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey.

We look at the question of whether Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is on the Judiciary Committee, should resign due to mental deterioration, and how the media has failed to fully address the issue, with longtime Supreme Court reporter Dahlia Lithwick. As a result of Feinstein’s current condition, “we’re not getting judges confirmed at rates that we need to see,” Lithwick says. This should lead to “soul-searching above and beyond competency to say, 'How am I hampering this institution from doing the essential work of government?'”

We speak with longtime Supreme Court reporter Dahlia Lithwick about the mounting evidence of apparent financial impropriety by the court’s conservatives. ProPublica recently reported that Republican billionaire Harlan Crow paid two years of private school tuition for Clarence Thomas’s grandnephew — payments that Thomas did not include on his annual financial disclosures. This comes after previous reporting revealed Crow also paid money to Thomas and his relatives in an undisclosed real estate deal, and that Thomas accepted luxury travel from Crow virtually every year for decades, while failing to follow a federal law that requires him to publicly report most gifts. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, to be paid at least $80,000 for consulting work over a decade ago and asked that the payments not specify Ginni Thomas’s name in any paperwork. Thomas later cast the deciding vote in a 5-4 ruling that gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, in a case supported by Leo and his conservative legal network. “Members of the Senate are beginning to understand that it is going to be incumbent on them to step in and issue some ethics rules or demand that the court issue ethics rules for itself,” says Lithwick, who covers the courts and the law for Slate and hosts the podcast Amicus.

Police in England arrested at least 52 people Saturday around the coronation of King Charles, including numerous anti-monarchy activists who say they were detained before they even started protesting. Charles and his wife Camilla were crowned king and queen in a lavish ceremony at Westminster Abbey that is expected to cost over £100 million, or about $125 million USD, taking place against the backdrop of a severe cost-of-living crisis in the U.K. Despite growing disinterest in the monarchy, criticism of the institution has been very “muted” in the mainstream U.K. media, says Priya Gopal, Cambridge professor and author of Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent. “The media and the police are colluding in essentially suppressing criticism of the monarchy and what has been going on around the coronation,” she says.

We get an update from South Texas, where eight people were killed and at least 10 more injured Sunday in Brownsville after a driver rammed his SUV into a group of people near a shelter for migrants. The incident comes just days before the Trump-era Title 42 policy is set to expire and more migrants are expected to seek asylum at the southern U.S. border. “I can only describe it as a hate crime. It was motivated by hate,” Jennifer Harbury, a longtime human rights lawyer and activist with the Angry Tias and Abuelas, says of the car-ramming attack. She also talks about the history of U.S. interventions in Central America that destabilized the region.

Texas Gunman Kills 8 People, Including Children, at Dallas-Area Shopping Mall, Driver Plows SUV into Migrants in Brownsville, Texas, Killing Eight People, IDF Kills 2 Palestinians, Razes West Bank School as Dems Push Bill to Stop Funding Israeli Violence, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region Evacuated; Wagner Group Withdraws Bakhmut Retreat Threat, Over 400 Killed in DRC Flooding as U.N. Chief Points to Climate Change, Ethnic Conflict Kills Dozens While Tens of Thousands Flee Indian State of Manipur, Arab League Readmits Syria After 12-Year Suspension, Right-Wing Parties Win Majority of Seats on Commission to Rewrite Chile’s Constitution, Police Arrest Anti-Monarchy and Environmental Protesters at Coronation of King Charles, Supreme Court Grants Indefinite Stay of Execution to Oklahoma Prisoner Richard Glossip, Pennsylvania Man Gets 14+ Years in Prison for Assaulting Police at Jan. 6 Insurrection, 9 Workers Hospitalized from Massive Fire at Shell Petrochemical Plant in Deer Park, TX

This week, protests were held across the United States against right-wing efforts to ban books and antiracism education in schools. Fourteen protesters with Florida’s Dream Defenders were arrested Wednesday for staging a peaceful sit-in inside the office of Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis at the end of the state’s legislative session, in which he backed efforts to ban abortion after six weeks, deny gender-affirming care for youth, roll back rent control, censor discussions of LGBTQ issues and Black history in schools, and crack down on immigrants and unions in his political crusade against “wokeness.” We speak with one of the arrested protesters, Nailah Summers-Polite, co-director of Dream Defenders, and Kimberlé Crenshaw, the legal scholar well known for her work in the field of critical race theory, about the Freedom to Learn protests and the push to preserve the integrity of the AP African American studies course attacked by DeSantis and other far-right activists.

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team rested its case Thursday in the rape, battery and defamation trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll without calling a single witness. Carroll has accused Trump of raping her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s. Carroll was able to file the case against Trump decades later because New York opened a one-year window on the statute of limitations for adult survivors of sexual assault. Trump says he may still ask to testify before jury deliberations are set to begin next week. The lawsuit against Trump is a major effort to counter the “long-standing tradition in our culture of protecting powerful men from consequences for sexual assault and sexual harassment,” says Deborah Tuerkheimer, law professor at Northwestern University and the author of Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers.

Four members of the far-right Proud Boys organization, including former leader Enrique Tarrio, were convicted Thursday of seditious conspiracy for trying to keep Donald Trump in office by force after his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden. The men could face decades in prison for their actions. A fifth defendant was found not guilty of seditious conspiracy but convicted on other charges. We look at the Proud Boys, their role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and where the extremist group goes from here, with HuffPost senior editor Andy Campbell, author of We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered In a New Era of American Extremism.

U.S. Sees Long Conflict Ahead in Sudan as Fighting Rages Between Rival Military Factions, Head of Russia’s Wagner Group Says He’ll Pull Mercenaries from Besieged Ukrainian City, Jury Finds Proud Boys Guilty of Sedition and Other Felonies for Jan. 6 Insurrection, Clarence Thomas Failed to Disclose Tuition Payments from Billionaire GOP Donor Harlan Crow, Conservative Judicial Activist Secretly Funneled at Least $80,000 to Ginni Thomas, Eight People, Including 6 Teachers, Killed in Pakistan Shootings, Serbia Pledges Gun Controls After Two Mass Shootings in Two Days Claim 17 Lives, Shootings in Georgia and Oklahoma Add to Staggering U.S. Gun Violence Toll, Shares of PacWest and Western Alliance Fall Amid Fears of More Regional Bank Failures, Iowa Rolls Back Child Labor Protections, Bernie Sanders Calls for $17 Minimum Wage, 32-Hour Workweek, North Carolina GOP Passes 12-Week Abortion Ban, Plans to Override Governor’s Veto, New Yorkers, Lawmakers Demand Accountability in Vigilante Killing of Beloved Subway Performer, Former Colonies Call for Apology, Reparations and Independence Ahead of King Charles’s Coronation

A judge in California has dismissed a seven-year $100 million lawsuit against Greenpeace USA that threatened the group’s existence. Canadian logging giant Resolute Forest Products sued Greenpeace in the United States and Canada for defamation after the group exposed the company’s irresponsible practices, part of a pattern of corporations attempting to use the burdens of the legal process to intimidate, exhaust and censor activists. Known as SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) lawsuits, they are increasingly being used by the rich and powerful to silence critics. We are joined by Deepa Padmanabha, deputy general counsel for Greenpeace USA, to discuss the organization’s legal victory, as well as the continued work of advocates to pass anti-SLAPP legislation and promote free speech. “We took on this fight not just for Greenpeace, but for everyone who dares speak truth to power, and we knew we had to win this both in the courtroom and for the movement,” says Padmanabha.

We speak with Jumana Abo Oxa, project manager at the Greek refugee project, Elpida Home, who is in Washington, D.C., where she is meeting with Biden administration officials and lawmakers in an effort to seek help for 82 families, including many women parliamentarians, who evacuated from Afghanistan but have been stuck in Greece for over a year and a half.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned this week that Afghanistan continues to face the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today, with a two-day summit in Doha ending without formal recognition of the Taliban government that has ruled the country since August 2021. Since their return to power, the Taliban have cracked down on women’s rights, including restricting access to education and banning women from working with international aid groups. Poverty has skyrocketed in Afghanistan as years of conflict, corruption and international sanctions have battered the economy. We speak with Farzana Elham Kochai, a women’s rights activist who was elected to the Afghan Parliament in 2019 before fleeing the country for safety, and Jumana Abo Oxa, who works with the Greek refugee project Elpida Home helping Afghan women lawmakers find refuge in other countries.

A new report by Amnesty International documents how the Israeli government is using an experimental facial recognition system to track Palestinians and control their movements. The findings are part of “Automated Apartheid,” which reveals an ever-growing surveillance network of cameras in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron and in East Jerusalem — two places in the Occupied Territories where Israeli settlements are expanding within Palestinian areas. “Surveillance has been ramping up as illegal settler activity has also been ramping up,” says Amnesty researcher Matt Mahmoudi, who adds that the surveillance technology is part of an overall coercive structure used against Palestinians by Israel. “Effectively, facial recognition is augmenting, reinforcing, entrenching aspects of apartheid.”

Russian Shells Kill 23 in Kherson as Moscow Accuses Ukraine of Drone Attack on Kremlin, Israeli Soldiers Kill 3 Palestinians in Raid on Occupied Nablus, Rwanda Death Toll from Flooding and Landslides Rises to 136, Egypt Frees Al Jazeera Journalist Hisham Abdel Aziz After Four Years Behind Bars, Protesters Confront Blinken over Julian Assange Extradition and Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, Fed Chair Accused of “Aiming to Put People Out of Work” with Latest Interest Rate Hike, Police Arrest Wife of Texas Mass Shooter, Whom She Accused of Domestic Violence, Georgia Police Arrest Mass Shooting Suspect as Sen. Warnock Demands Gun Legislation, Oklahoma AG Appeals to SCOTUS to Stay Execution of Richard Glossip, Montana Imposes New Restrictions on Abortion Access, Activists Arrested at Peaceful Protest Against Florida’s Attacks on Abortion, LGBTQ, Immigrant Rights , “It’s Not How White Men Fight”: Tucker Carlson Text Reportedly Led to His Firing from Fox, Trump Team Will Not Offer Defense in E. Jean Carroll Rape and Defamation Case, New Documents Show Jeffrey Epstein Had Meetings with Noam Chomsky, New Yorkers Demand Justice for Unhoused Subway Performer Who Was Killed by Another Passenger

Texas authorities have arrested the suspect in last week’s mass shooting in the town of Cleveland and are charging him with five counts of murder. Police say Francisco Oropesa killed five neighbors in the home next door, including a 9-year-old child, after the family asked him to stop firing his AR-15-style rifle in his yard because it was keeping a baby awake. Texas Governor Greg Abbott drew backlash after the shooting for referring to the victims as “illegal immigrants,” for which he later apologized. “His goal is to dehumanize people,” Texas state Senator Roland Gutierrez says of Abbott, adding that the governor has done nothing to stem gun violence and easy access to weapons. “Republican policies across this country have led to a very loose gun policy that allows just about anybody, and certainly in Texas, to go find a weapon like an AR-15 with impunity.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned Congress that the United States could run out of money to pay its bills by June 1 unless lawmakers raise the debt ceiling. House Republicans last week narrowly passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling, but only in exchange for sweeping spending cuts to numerous programs, including student debt relief, food assistance, Medicaid and renewable energy. Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing for a vote to raise the debt ceiling without imposing cuts, even as the constitutionality of the debt ceiling has been questioned by some legal scholars. For more on the debt ceiling, recent bank failures and other economic news, we speak with James Galbraith, economist and professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Three conservative Supreme Court justices are now embroiled in a growing ethics scandal about their personal and financial connections. Recent reporting has revealed that Justice Neil Gorsuch sold property he co-owned to the head of a major law firm that has since had many cases before the court, Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose lavish gifts and payments from billionaire and conservative activist Harlan Crow, and the wife of Chief Justice John Roberts was paid over $10 million in commissions as a job recruiter placing lawyers at elite law firms. Legal experts and lawmakers are increasingly pushing for ethics reform on the high court, with the Senate Judiciary Committee holding a hearing on the issue on Tuesday. “Because they don’t have an ethics code, you don’t know whether they’re doing things in an above-board way,” says Vox senior correspondent Ian Millhiser. He also discusses growing frustration that California Senator Dianne Feinstein has not resigned her seat amid a prolonged absence from the Senate due to illness, which is stopping Democrats from confirming federal judges.

Fighting Continues in Sudan Ahead of 7-Day Ceasefire as Aid Groups Fear Regional “Ripple Effect”, Biden Admin to Deploy 1,500 Troops to Border, Cuts Deportation Deal with Mexico as Title 42 Ends, Minnesota Judge Finds Tou Thao Guilty of Aiding and Abetting the Killing of George Floyd, Israel and Gazan Fighters Agree to Ceasefire After Israeli Air Raids on Enclave, Ugandan Lawmakers Pass Modified Anti-LGBTQ Bill Which Still Includes Death Penalty, House Democrats Seek to Force Debt Limit Raise Without Backing of GOP Leaders, Senate Panel Holds SCOTUS Ethics Hearing Amid Mounting Conflict of Interest Scandals, U.N. Rights Body Calls for Immediate Release of Guantánamo Bay Prisoner Abu Zubaydah, Suspect in Cleveland, Texas, Mass Shooting Arrested, North Carolina Supreme Court Sides with GOP, Allowing Gerrymandering and Voter ID Law to Stand, Florida Passes New Voter Suppression Laws, Allows DeSantis to Run for President While Still Governor, Texas Senate Moves to Allow GOP State Sec. to Overturn Elections in Nation’s 3rd Largest County, Vermont Allows Medically Assisted Deaths for Nonresidents, New York Tenant Rights Advocates Take Over Meeting Discussing Rent Hikes, Strikers Demand Fair Pay at First Picket Line of Hollywood Writers’ Strike

Sixty years ago today is known as “D-Day” in Birmingham, Alabama, when thousands of children began a 10-week-long series of protests against segregation that became known as the Children’s Crusade. Hundreds were arrested. The next day, “Double D-Day,” the local head of the police, Bull Connor, ordered his white police force to begin using high-pressure fire hoses and dogs to attack the children. One photograph captured the moment when a white police officer allowed a large German shepherd dog to attack a young Black boy. Four months after the protests began, the Ku Klux Klan bombed a Black Birmingham church, killing four young girls — Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair. We revisit the history of the Children’s Crusade with two guests: civil rights activist Janice Kelsey, who joined the Children’s Crusade as a 16-year-old in 1963, and author Paul Kix.

Thousands of screenwriters behind Hollywood movies and TV shows are on strike as of midnight on Tuesday. The Writers Guild of America says its members are struggling to make a living, as rates have fallen and writers have less job security — even as the streaming era has led to an explosion in TV and film production. The strike is set to bring most TV production to a halt immediately, with some films also likely to be delayed if the impasse continues. The WGA previously went on strike in 2007-’08, which lasted 100 days and had a significant impact on the entertainment industry. “We are demanding that this industry be one that can sustain a career,” says Brittani Nichols, captain for Writers Guild of America West and a writer on Abbott Elementary. “The studios have devalued our contributions. They have shifted the industry to prioritize streaming while not … making sure that our pay reflects those changes.”

U.N. Refugee Agency Warns 800,000 Could Flee Fighting in Sudan, Head of Wagner Group Threatens Mutiny Unless Russia Sends More Ammunition, Biden Pledges “Ironclad” Support for U.S.-Philippines Military Alliance, Yellen Warns U.S. Could Default on Debts on June 1 Unless Congress Raises Borrowing Limit, Senate Judiciary Committee Scrutinizes Supreme Court Ethics Amid Mounting Scandals, Israeli Airstrike on Aleppo Airport Kills One, Injures Seven, Palestinian Khader Adnan, Jailed by Israel Without Charges, Dies on Hunger Strike, Brazil: Illegal Miners Invade Village; 1 Yanomami Man Fatally Shot, 2 Others Injured, Hollywood Writers Strike, Halting TV and Film Production, Millions of Protesters Take to the Streets Demanding Workers’ Rights on May Day, May Day Protesters in Puerto Rico Demand Expulsion of Financial Oversight Board

As we continue our in-depth conversation with Daniel Ellsberg, the famed Pentagon Papers whistleblower talks about his lifelong antiwar activism and responds to the more recent leak of Pentagon documents about the war in Ukraine. Ellsberg also reflects on the many people who inspired him and says others who look up to his example should know that the sacrifices for building a better world are worth it. “It can work,” he says. Ellsberg, who was recently diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer and given just months to live, spoke to Democracy Now! last week from his home in Berkeley, California.

We spend the hour with Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who recently announced that he has been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer with only months left to live. Ellsberg, who turned 92 on April 7, may be the world’s most famous whistleblower. In 1971, The New York Times began publishing excerpts of the Pentagon Papers — 7,000 pages of top-secret documents outlining the secret history of the Vietnam War. The Times exposé was based on documents secretly photocopied by Ellsberg and Anthony Russo while they worked as Pentagon consultants at the RAND Corporation. The leak ultimately helped to take down President Nixon, turn public sentiment against the War in Vietnam and lead to a major victory for press freedom. The Nixon administration went to extraordinary lengths to silence and punish Ellsberg, including breaking into his psychiatrist’s office. But the government’s misconduct led to charges against him and Russo being dismissed. Over the past five decades, Ellsberg has remained a leading critic of U.S. militarism and U.S. nuclear weapons policy, as well as a prominent advocate for other whistleblowers. “Why in the world are we in this position, time after time, of fighting against the self-determination or the nationalism of other countries, and taking on those murderous tasks as opposed to dealing with problems at home?” says Ellsberg in an in-depth interview with Democracy Now!

Fighting in Sudan Persists Despite Extended Ceasefires as U.N. Warns of Humanitarian Breaking Point, Israeli Forces Kill Two More Palestinian Teens in Occupied West Bank, Over 200 Bodies of Drowned Migrants Found by Tunisian Coast Guards in Less Than 2 Weeks, Santiago Peña Elected President of Paraguay, Keeping Dominant Pro-Taiwan Party in Power, “Climate Defiance”: Protesters Disrupt White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Montana Governor Signs Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Minors, First Republic Becomes Second-Largest Bank to Fail in U.S. History, Texas Suspect Used AR-15 Rifle in “Execution-Style” Killings of Five Neighbors, Colorado Governor Signs Bills to Curb Gun Violence, May Day Rallies and Protests Worldwide Mark International Workers’ Day

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden pledged to deploy nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea for the first time in 40 years. Alongside South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol, Biden also pledged to involve officials from Seoul in nuclear planning operations targeting North Korea. The visit between the two leaders comes as the U.S. and South Korea mark 70 years of military alliance under 1953’s Mutual Defense Treaty, signed at the close of active conflict in the Korean War. No peace treaty was ever signed by the North and South Korean governments, meaning the two countries are still technically at war. We discuss continued tensions on the Korean Peninsula with Christine Ahn, founder and executive director of Women Cross DMZ, a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War, and the coordinator of the campaign Korea Peace Now! Ahn says the Korean War marked the dawn of the military-industrial complex and that ever-more militarization of the peninsula is not the answer. “There is momentum now to transform this state of war into a permanent peace,” she says.

Tennessee’s Justin Jones and Montana’s Zooey Zephyr, two Democratic state lawmakers who were both punished by their Republican-led legislatures for peaceful protests, say the only way to fight such anti-democratic moves is through broad solidarity. “Courage is contagious,” says Zephyr, who has been barred from the floor of the Montana House of Representatives for opposing anti-trans legislation. She adds that she took heart from the example of Jones and fellow Tennessee lawmaker Justin Pearson, who were both ousted from their seats for leading gun control protests, only to be returned to office by their local communities. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. When you see people stand up, it drives you to stand up similarly,” says Zephyr.

Earlier this month, the largely white Tennessee House of Representatives, with its heavily gerrymandered Republican supermajority, expelled two members, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, the two youngest Black representatives in the House. They stood accused of breaching House “decorum” for nonviolently protesting the chamber’s inaction on gun violence in the wake of a mass school shooting in Nashville. Days after their expulsion, both Jones and Pearson were temporarily reinstated to their seats by local authorities. Justin Jones joins us again on Democracy Now! and says there is a “rising tide of fascism and authoritarianism that’s taken hold of our nation,” linking the expulsions of state lawmakers to the January 6 attack on Congress.

The Republican-controlled Montana House of Representatives voted Wednesday to censure the state’s first and only openly transgender lawmaker, Zooey Zephyr, banning her from the House floor and forbidding her from speaking, a week after Zephyr delivered a searing condemnation of a bill that would ban gender-affirming healthcare for youth. Zephyr will only be able to cast votes remotely for the remainder of the legislative session. We speak to Zephyr about the spate of anti-trans bills that target trans youth across the country and how “far-right” legislatures like Montana’s are attempting to “silence those who are holding them accountable.”

U.S. Plans Migrant Processing Centers in Latin America and Rapid Deportations from Southern Border, Food Shortages Worsen in Sudan as Battles Continue Despite Ceasefires, Kansas GOP Overrides Democratic Gov. to Pass Sweeping Anti-Trans Bathroom Law, Abortion Ban Bills Fail in South Carolina and Nebraska, Keeping Abortion Legal Until 22 Weeks, Senate GOP Blocks Equal Rights Amendment 100 Years After Its Introduction, Senate GOP and Joe Manchin Vote Against New Emissions Limits for Heavy Trucks, Climate Protesters Descend on Podesta Talk to Demand Biden Admin Halt Fossil Fuel Projects, Mike Pence Testifies Before Jan. 6 Grand Jury, “Vice News Tonight” Canceled as Vice Media Fires Over 100 Staff, White Woman Whose False Accusation Led to Emmett Till’s Lynching Dies Without Ever Facing Justice

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week for the first time since Russia’s invasion last year. The call comes two months after China put forward a 12-point peace plan to end the war, and Xi reportedly said negotiations are “the only viable way out” of the conflict. The Chinese president also offered to send a special envoy to Ukraine to help resolve the crisis. To talk more about the war in Ukraine and growing calls for negotiations, we are joined by Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink and co-author of the new book War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict. “The world is calling for negotiations, and the U.S. keeps saying no,” says Benjamin. “We are the ones who are holding up a peace process.” Her latest piece in The Progressive is headlined “Pentagon Leaks Punch a Hole in the U.S. Propaganda War.”

This weekend, Democracy Now! co-host Juan González gives the opening plenary at American University’s one-day conference, “Burying 200 Years of the U.S. Monroe Doctrine,” marking 200 years since the Monroe Doctrine, the foreign policy directive from President James Monroe that effectively declared all of Latin America a U.S. sphere of influence. For the past two centuries, the Monroe Doctrine has been repeatedly used to justify scores of invasions, interventions and CIA regime changes in the Americas. On today’s show, we speak to two other conference guests, CodePink’s Medea Benjamin and The Red Nation’s Nick Estes, about the Monroe Doctrine’s long and brutal legacy within U.S. imperialism.

We speak with investigative reporter Liliana Segura about the remarkable case of Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, whose execution is set for May 18. Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board on Wednesday denied Glossip clemency even though Oklahoma’s own Republican attorney general has sought to vacate Glossip’s conviction. Glossip has always maintained his innocence. The case dates back to 1997, when Glossip was working as a motel manager in Oklahoma City and his boss, Barry Van Treese, was murdered. A maintenance worker, Justin Sneed, admitted to beating Van Treese to death with a baseball bat, but claimed Glossip offered him money for the killing. The case rested almost entirely on Sneed’s claims, and no physical evidence tied Glossip to the crime. Sneed, in exchange for his testimony, did not get the death penalty. “From the beginning, the evidence in this case was weak,” says Segura, a senior reporter for The Intercept who has been following the case since 2015.

Refugees Flee Sudan as Air Raids Puncture Shaky Ceasefire, Xi Jinping Tells Volodymyr Zelensky China Will Send Peace Envoy to Ukraine, Jailed Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny Says New Charges Could Bring Life Sentence , “Peace Through the Superiority of Overwhelming Forces”: U.S., South Korea to Share Nuclear Plans, Turkish Police Arrest 110 Pro-Kurdish Figures Ahead of May Elections, House Passes GOP Debt Ceiling Bill; Democrats Reject Spending Cuts, Oklahoma Pardon Board Votes Against Clemency for Death Row Prisoner Richard Glossip, Montana GOP Censures Trans Rep. Zooey Zephyr Amid Nationwide Legislative Attacks on Trans People , Disney Lawsuit Accuses Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of Retaliating over “Don’t Say Gay” Opposition, “I’m Here Because Donald Trump Raped Me”: E. Jean Carroll Testifies in Long-Awaited Trial

Harry Belafonte last appeared on Democracy Now! in 2016 at a special event at the historic Riverside Church in New York to celebrate our 20th anniversary. He co-headlined the event with Noam Chomsky in their first public appearance together. Belafonte spoke about Donald Trump, who had just been elected president, and ongoing struggles for freedom and justice in the United States. “We just have to get out our old coats, dust them off, stop screwing around and just chasing the good times, and get down to business,” he said. “There’s some ass-kicking out here to be done. And we should do it.”

As we remember the life and legacy of Harry Belafonte, we look back at his antiwar activism, including his outspoken opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. On February 15 of that year, amid global protests against the war, Belafonte addressed hundreds of thousands who rallied in New York City and called for peace. “We have let the world know that we are in solidarity with those who seek to have other ways than war to settle our grievances,” he told Democracy Now! Belafonte later made worldwide headlines in 2006 when, on a trip to Venezuela, he called President George W. Bush “the greatest terrorist in the world.”

We remember the remarkable life of Harry Belafonte, the pioneering actor, singer and civil rights activist, who died at his home on Tuesday in New York at the age of 96. The son of Jamaican immigrants, Belafonte rose to stardom in the 1950s and became the first artist to sell a million records with his album Calypso. He was also the first African American actor to win an Emmy. Along with his growing fame, Belafonte became deeply involved in the civil rights movement. One of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest confidants, he helped to organize the March on Washington in 1963 and frequently raised money to bail activists out of jail and fund their activities throughout the South. Belafonte was also a longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy, calling for an end to the embargo against Cuba, supporting the anti-apartheid movement and opposing policies of war and global oppression. He spoke out against the U.S. invasion of Iraq and once called George W. Bush the “greatest terrorist in the world.” Harry Belafonte appeared on Democracy Now! numerous times over the years. In 2011, we spoke to him upon the premiere of Sing Your Song, a documentary about his life, and we begin our special by featuring an extended excerpt from our interview. “Going into the South of the United States, listening to the voices of rural Black America, listening to the voices of those who sang out against the Ku Klux Klan and out against segregation, and women, who were the most oppressed of all, rising to the occasion to protest against their conditions, became the arena where my first songs were to emerge,” Belafonte recalled.

Dozens of Drowned Refugees Found Off Coasts of Libya, Tunisia After Attempting to Flee to Europe, Fighting Continues in Sudan Despite Ceasefire as U.N. Pleads for End to Conflict, Harry Belafonte, Pioneering Singer and Civil Rights Activist, Dies at Age 96, Neil Gorsuch Failed to Disclose Conflict of Interest in Property Sale After Confirmation to SCOTUS, Graduate Workers at University of Michigan on Strike, Report Retaliation from University President, Washington Bans Assault Weapons as Part of New Gun Control Legislation, Somali Fighters Kill 21 People, Including 18 Militants, Iran Charges Two Prominent Actresses for Violating Hijab Mandate, Texas State Agency Imposes “Biological Gender”-Based Dress Code as Florida Seeks to Ban Drag Shows

As President Biden officially announces his reelection bid for 2024, we look at his recent executive order establishing a new Office of Environmental Justice within the White House and requiring all federal agencies to weigh the environmental impact of policies on marginalized communities. Environmental groups welcomed the announcement but cautioned that Biden remains a major supporter of fossil fuels, including the controversial Willow project in Alaska, and that he has approved drilling projects on federal land faster than Trump did during his first two years in office. For more, we speak with Jade Begay, director of policy and advocacy at the NDN Collective. She is on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and joins us today in a personal capacity.

In a surprise announcement, Fox News said Monday it was cutting ties with its top-rated host Tucker Carlson, effective immediately. Although a precise reason wasn’t given, the move came just days after the cable network settled a $787.5 million defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over lies propagated by the cable network about the 2020 presidential election. Since taking over the primetime slot in 2016, Carlson has also spread far-right talking points about immigrants, Black people and the LGBTQ community. For more, we speak with Madeline Peltz of Media Matters for America, where she has helped to expose Carlson’s extremism. “It creates a major vacuum in the right-wing media ecosystem,” Peltz says of Carlson’s departure.

China is taking an increasingly assertive role in world affairs, helping to broker a restoration of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, offering a 12-point peace plan for Ukraine, and strengthening its relationships with European and Latin American powers. Last week, China continued its diplomatic outreach by offering to hold talks between Israel and Palestine. “China doesn’t want the United States to be the preeminent power. It wants to live alongside the United States,” says economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and president of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He has also served as adviser to three U.N. secretaries-general and currently serves as a sustainable development solutions advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres. His latest article is headlined “The Need for a New US Foreign Policy.”

72-Hour Ceasefire Appears Shaky as It Takes Effect in Sudan, Ukraine’s Military Advances to East Bank of Dnieper River, China Disavows Senior Diplomat’s Comment Questioning Sovereignty of Ex-Soviet States, U.S. Was World’s Top Military Spender and Arms Exporter Again in 2022, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Announce 2024 Reelection Bid, Fox News Abruptly Fires Far-Right Host Tucker Carlson, CNN Fires Don Lemon Amid Claims of Sexism, Atlanta DA to Announce Indictments This Summer over Trump-Related Election Fraud, Jury Selection Begins in Civil Trial Accusing Trump of Rape and Defamation, Clarence Thomas Didn’t Recuse Himself from SCOTUS Decision Tied to Billionaire Harlan Crow, North Dakota Governor Signs Near-Total Abortion Ban into Law, Republicans Silence Montana Transgender Lawmaker During Debate over Anti-Trans Bill, Lizzo Hosts Drag Queens at Nashville Concert to Protest TN Law Banning Drag Shows, Biden and Harris Welcome “Tennessee Three” to White House to Call for Gun Controls, Trial Begins for Man Accused of Murdering 11 Worshipers at Pittsburgh Synagogue in 2018, Kentucky Sheriff Hires Ex-Louisville Cop Who Fired Shot That Killed Breonna Taylor, Blast at Pakistan Counterterrorism Center Kills 17, Wounds 50 Others, Brazilian Indigenous Leader, Texas Shrimper Among 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners

We continue our conversation with Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who has just returned from Honduras. He calls on the international community to do more to help in Central America, where one in three people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, and gangs, drug trafficking and violence are forcing many to flee north. North Americans, says Egeland, must “honor the legitimate asylum applications for protection of people” from their “own neighborhood.”

As fighting continues in Sudan between the military and the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, we speak with Norwegian Refugee Council head Jan Egeland, who says humanitarian work in the country has been paralyzed as a result of the power struggle. “There is hardly any humanitarian work in large parts of Sudan,” says Egeland, who adds that the conflict has already devolved into a war that “will be impossible to stop if it lasts for much longer.”