Democracy Now!

People with disabilities are among those most heavily impacted by Trump's cuts to Medicaid. I know so many people like me, disabled adults living and thriving now, who were able to get to adulthood because Medicaid existed," says Maria Town, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities. We feature additional testimonies from disabled members of the advocacy group Caring Across Generations, and speak to Town, who says she fears so many kids [will] not get a chance to make it to adulthood," while countless adults will not be able to live into old age because of these cuts."

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the creation of Medicare and Medicaid - and nearly one month since President Trump's federal budget slashed nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid to extend tax cuts for the rich. The cuts could lead to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths every year. Medicaid has been a lifeline. And without it, people will die," says Ai-jen Poo, co-founder of Caring Across Generations and the Domestic Workers Alliance, which helped organize a 60-hour vigil last week ahead of the anniversary as part of a broader campaign to fight back against Trump's cuts. She highlights the role of immigrants, who make up a third of the caregiving sector, and says Trump's crackdown on immigration hastens the dwindling of care available to the aging and elderly. We should be adding a trillion dollars in investments in healthcare in this country and in caregiving services in this country," says Poo. We need to strengthen these systems and programs for the 22nd century, not gut them."

Gaza's Hunger-Related Death Toll Reaches 154; 89 Children Among the Dead, Keir Starmer Says U.K. Will Recognize Palestine Unless Israel Stops Starving Gaza, New Report Finds Canada Continued to Arm Israel Despite Pledging to Halt Arms Shipments, 44 Senate Democrats Urge Trump to Stop Funding Shadowy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Over Two Dozen Rabbis Arrested on Capitol Hill Protesting Israeli Blockade of Gaza, 8.8 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Russia's Far East, Sending Tsunami Waves Across Pacific, Senate Confirms Trump's Former Lawyer Emil Bove as a Federal Appellate Judge, Justice Department Removes Two Top Officials from Antitrust Division, EPA Proposes to End Finding That Greenhouse Gas Emissions Endanger Public Health, Millions Across U.S. Face Heat Advisories; Turkey Records Highest-Ever Temperature, House Oversight Committee Rejects Ghislaine Maxwell's Request for Immunity, Donald Trump Says Jeffrey Epstein Stole" Mar-a-Lago Workers, Including Virginia Giuffre, Please Study Brain for CTE": Manhattan Mass Shooter's Suicide Note Blames NFL for Brain Trauma, Palestinian American Student Sereen Haddad Wins Diploma Withheld by VCU over Peaceful Protests

For the first time, two leading Israeli human rights groups - B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel - have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. B'Tselem's report, Our Genocide," says, Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip." We speak with B'Tselem's outreach director, Sarit Michaeli, in Tel Aviv, who says Israel's actions in Gaza are the textbook definition of genocide."

The Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the largest independent aid organizations in Gaza, says it has been unable to bring new supplies into the territory as starvation grows more dire for Palestinians. Democracy Now! speaks with Jan Egeland, NRC's secretary general, who says Western powers who have been complicit in Israel's blockade of Gaza have their fingerprints ... all over a crime scene, and history will judge."

As more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid at militarized aid distribution sites run by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a former GHF security contractor tells Democracy Now! he saw U.S. mercenaries and Israeli forces commit war crimes by indiscriminately shooting at starving Palestinians waiting for aid. What I witnessed in Gaza, I can only describe as a dystopian, post-apocalyptic wasteland," says Anthony Aguilar, a retired U.S. soldier who worked as a subcontractor with UG Solutions in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid delivery operation. We, the United States, are complicit. We are involved, hand in hand, in the atrocities and the genocide that is currently undergoing in Gaza."

Global Hunger Monitor Warns Israel's Siege on Gaza Has Led to Worst-Case Scenario of Famine", Trump Breaks from Netanyahu to Acknowledge Real Starvation" of Palestinians, Netanyahu Proposes Annexing Parts of Gaza Strip, Trump Administration Blasts France's Moves to Recognize Palestinian State, Protesters in Greece Scuffle with Riot Police as Israeli Cruise Ship Docks, Palestinian Activist and Teacher Odeh Muhammed Hadalin Killed by Israeli Settler in Masafer Yatta, Russian Airstrikes Hit Prison in Ukraine, Killing 17 People, Gunman Kills 5 People in Midtown Manhattan Skyscraper, Including Himself, Federal Judge Rules Trump Admin Cannot Block Medicaid Payments to Planned Parenthood, Epstein Co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell Urges SCOTUS to Overturn Conviction, Oklahoma Schools Chief Faces Scrutiny for Screening Explicit Images of Nude Women in His Office, Third Whistleblower Claims Emil Bove Lied During Senate Confirmation Last Month, Federal Judges in Albany Reject Trump's Appointment of John Sarcone III as U.S. Attorney, New Jersey Federal Courts Face Chaos as Trump Seeks to Install Alina Habba as U.S. Attorney, Rights Groups Blast Christopher Nolan for Filming in Moroccan-Occupied Western Sahara

As controversy over President Donald Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein continues to dog his administration, we speak with investigative journalist Vicky Ward, who has spent decades reporting on the deceased sexual predator, his rich and powerful associates, and the impact of his crimes. Much of Trump's political base is in an uproar after federal officials declined to release government files about Epstein and his serial sexual abuse of women and girls, with Trump himself reportedly named in the documents.They were friends. They hung out with each other," Ward says of Trump and Epstein.Ward was among the first journalists to investigate Epstein when she profiled him for Vanity Fair in 2003. The magazine's editor at the time, Graydon Carter, cut out the testimonies of two young women who had spoken on the record about Epstein's abuse. Ward's podcast and TV series of the same name is Chasing Ghislaine: The Untold Story of the Woman in Epstein's Shadow, focusing on Ghislaine Maxwell's role as a facilitator for Epstein's crimes.

For the second time in as many months, Israel has raided a civilian ship in international waters to stop it from reaching Gaza to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid. The Handala was sailing toward the besieged Palestinian territory with baby formula, diapers, food and medicine on board when Israeli forces boarded it on Saturday and detained 21 crew and passengers. Their blockade is, by all international standards, unlawful," says Palestinian American human rights attorney Huwaida Arraf, who was among the activists on board and was just released from Israeli detention. She calls on the international community to hold Israel accountable and says the Freedom Flotilla Coalition will continue organizing aid ships to break the blockade of Gaza.Why is it that we had to be at sea in international waters, in a small boat, going to confront one of the most brutal militaries in the world? It is because ... our countries are allowing Israel to deliberately starve Palestinians as part of this genocidal campaign that it has been carrying out," says Arraf.

We speak with Eyad Amawi, an aid coordinator in Gaza, who tells Democracy Now! about the rapid deterioration" inside the besieged territory as Israel's blockade causes mass starvation. Health officials in Gaza say at least 14 Palestinians have starved to death over the past day, bringing the total to at least 147, including 88 children. Israel has allowed some additional aid into the territory, including by airdrops, but the United Nations says it's still just a drop in the ocean" of what is needed. Israel also said it would pause attacks for periods of the day in parts of Gaza, but the death toll has kept rising, with Israeli forces continuing to fire on unarmed civilians seeking aid. Two leading Israeli human rights groups, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, issued reports on Monday accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, joining a growing international consensus.We have no time to wait," says Amawi, who calls Israel's restrictions on food, water, medicine and other essentials collective punishment."

147 Palestinians Starve to Death; Netanyahu Denies Starvation in Gaza, Israeli Forces Raid Handala Aid Ship to Gaza, Pentagon Kills Senior Islamic State Leader in Syria, U.S. and EU Announce Trade Deal; U.S. to Impose 15% Tariff on EU Imports, Anti-Trump Protests Held in Scotland During Trump's Visit, Federal Judge Dismisses Trump Administration Lawsuit Against Chicago over Sanctuary Policies, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche Holds Second Day of Meetings with Ghislaine Maxwell, Thailand and Cambodia Agree to Ceasefire, Doctors Without Borders: 652 Children Have Died of Malnutrition in Nigeria, Islamic State Rebels Kill 38 People at a Church in Eastern Congo, Ukraine and Russia Trade Drone Attacks, Killing 5 People, Trump Admin Tries to Keep Secret Renovation Costs for Qatari Luxury Jet Gifted to Trump, Darren Beattie, Who Spoke at White Nationalist Gathering, Now Head of U.S. Institute of Peace, Trump Administration Releases $5B in Frozen Education Funding for Public Schools, 11 Disability Activists Arrested at Trump Tower Protest; Thousands Protest Medicaid Cuts Across U.S.

Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, responds to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla's latest attempt to break the Israeli siege on Gaza, the lethal beating of a U.S. citizen by Israeli civilians in the occupied West Bank and the Trump administration's attempt to conceal information related to the federal criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein.On the killings of Palestinian American Sayfollah Saif" Musallet and Palestinian Mohammad Razek Hussein Al-Shalabi by settlers, Tlaib excoriates both the U.S. government, for doing absolutely nothing, as per usual," and the Israeli government, for sanctioning daily settler violence. The goal here is, and the Knesset told us," says Tlaib, referencing a recent motion passed by the Israeli legislature to annex the West Bank, to ethnically cleanse anyone who is Palestinian."

A second group of international activists with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition are en route to Gaza to challenge Israel's blockade. Their ship, named the Handala, launched from Italy five days ago carrying humanitarian aid desperately needed by Gaza's starving population. The Freedom Flotilla's most recent attempt to deliver aid was prevented by the Israeli military when their ship was raided and seized in international waters. Seven out of the 21 volunteers aboard the Handala are U.S. citizens, including our guest, the Palestinian American human rights attorney Huwaida Arraf. Arraf has participated in Freedom Flotilla missions for over a decade, and was a member of the 2010 sailing in which 10 activists were killed during a raid on their boat by Israeli forces. Ahead of the current mission, crew members reported two instances of suspected sabotage. But that did not stop us," she says. The blockade was illegal at 2008; it is illegal and deadly and part of a genocide now. ... The entire world is allowing Israel - has allowed Israel to turn Gaza into an extermination camp."

Dr. Nick Maynard, a surgeon who has just returned from volunteering in Gaza for the past month, describes a pattern reminiscent of target practice" visible in the injuries medical staff are treating in Gaza. As evidence grows of deliberate massacres of Palestinians seeking aid at the U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid sites, Maynard says the pattern of injuries suggests that Israeli military forces and other security contractors staffing the sites are playing some sort of game" in their targeting of civilians, shooting at the head one day, the abdomen tomorrow, the testicles the day after that." Because of Israel's blockade on food and medicine outside of the sparse supplies available at these dangerous aid sites, Maynard continues, normally survivable injuries have become fatal. Because they're so malnourished, their tissues don't heal. Their immune systems are suppressed. ... They often end up breaking down, causing terrible infections inside the body, and frequently these patients die."

We speak to civil rights lawyer Ben Crump about the ongoing epidemic of anti-Black police violence and impunity for law enforcement in the United States. Crump first comments on the sentencing of Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police officer who fired 10 bullets into Breonna Taylor's home in 2020 during a botched raid, to 33 months in prison for use of excessive force. Although Hankison's actions were a violation of [Taylor's] Fourth Amendment rights," the Trump Justice Department had recommended only one day in prison for his sentencing. In court, there was nobody advocating for Breonna," says Crump.We then discuss the announcement of no charges against the officers who assaulted William Anthony McNeil Jr., a Black man who was violently arrested and beaten during a traffic stop in Florida, as well as the death of 18-year-old Saniyah Cheatham in NYPD custody. Crump says, For many minorities in America, it is a constant threat for us, especially Black people, this constant racial profiling."Finally, Crump continues to call for the public release of FBI files concerning the assassination of Malcolm X. If the government wants to be transparent," he says, referring to the release this year of files on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., then they need to be consistent across the board."

Israeli Attacks Kill 62 Palestinians Across Gaza as Malnutrition Cases Soar, U.N.: Over 1,000 Palestinians Killed Trying to Access Food, France to Formally Recognize Palestine as a State, Cambodia Claims Thailand Is Committing War Crimes in Border Clashes, Venezuelan Immigrant Sent to CECOT Sues U.S. for $1.3M, WaPo: ICE Directs Agents to Increase Use of GPS Ankle Monitors, CBP Says Immigrants Should Carry Green Cards and Proof of Immigration Status, Senate Advances Nomination of Emil Bove to Lifetime Appointment on Federal Court, Trump Signs Rescission Bill Clawing Back $9B for Foreign Aid and Public Broadcasting, Trump Administration Approves $8B Merger Between Paramount and Skydance

In a landmark decision, the International Court of Justice found that polluting countries are now legally obligated to address global warming. In a unanimous ruling by a panel of 15 judges, the court said high-emitting countries do have legal obligations under international law to address the urgent and existential threat" of climate change. The case was brought forward by the island nation Vanuatu, which has faced the brunt of the climate crisis with extreme weather events and rising sea levels. Countries in the Pacific, communities in the Pacific, are suffering from something which they did not cause," says Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu's minister for climate change. It's been caused by private actors that are being regulated by states in the West." Sebastien Duyck, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, which supported Vanuatu in its case, agrees. He says, What we really need is to end an era of impunity and just actually rely on existing legal principles to hold polluters accountable, whether they are corporate or governmental."

The BBC, Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse have all called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza as starvation there becomes imminent. In a statement, the news outlets said, We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families." We speak with Afeef Nessouli, a journalist who just returned from Gaza, where he volunteered as an aid worker. It has been an incredibly awful experience to see people sort of become sicker and sicker from hunger," says Nessouli, who describes visiting community kitchens in Gaza that have run out of food. Many of us would just have one meal a day," he says of his seven weeks in Gaza. Now his colleagues who remain in Gaza are having one meal every three days."

As Gazans face mass starvation due to Israel's blockade, more than 100 humanitarian organizations are demanding action to end Israel's siege of Gaza. Their warning comes as the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the number of starvation-related deaths in Gaza has climbed to at least 113 people. We go to Gaza City for an update from Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam's emergency food security and livelihoods lead. We are really exhausted, and we've become unable to bear the situation any longer," says Alsaqqa, who adds he has lost nearly 15 pounds since the Israeli blockade began.

WHO Warns Gaza Is Suffering Man-Made Mass Starvation, Israel's Knesset Approves Motion to Annex Occupied West Bank, World Court Rules States Have Obligation to Cut Emissions, Trump Administration to Strip EPA of Power to Combat Climate Crisis, WSJ: DOJ Informed Trump His Name Appears in Epstein Files, Columbia Agrees to Pay $221M in Settlements to Trump Administration, Education Department to Probe Universities That Gave Scholarships to DACA Recipients, Federal Appeals Court Rules Trump's Attempt to End Birthright Citizenship Is Unconstitutional, Venezuela to Probe Salvadoran Officials over Mistreatment of Venezuelans in CECOT Prison, Federal Judge Rules Kilmar Abrego Garcia Should Be Freed from Criminal Detention, Trump Administration to Spend $1.2B Building Largest U.S. Immigration Jail in Texas, 12 Killed in Border Clashes Between Thailand and Cambodia, State Department Plans to Shut Down HIV/AIDS Relief Program That Has Saved Millions, Trump Signs Executive Orders Deregulating AI Industry, SCOTUS Allows Trump to Fire Democrats from Consumer Product Safety Commission

The top-ranked show on late-night television, CBS's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has been canceled, just days after Colbert skewered Paramount, the parent company of CBS, for settling a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump. The lawsuit accused another CBS show, 60 Minutes, of biased editing in an interview with Kamala Harris during the 2024 election. Its settlement comes as Paramount works to finalize a lucrative merger with Skydance Media that must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. On his show, Colbert called the settlement a big fat bribe."So many media conglomerates had already given thinly disguised bribes to Trump to settle lawsuits they could not possibly lose in court," explains Jeff Cohen, co-founder of the online action group RootsAction and the media watch group FAIR, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. Cohen says he suspects Paramount agreed to cancel Colbert's show - and will likely remove other programming critical of Trump - as part of a deal with the administration to win favorable conditions for its merger. But Cohen emphasizes that the erosion of a free press did not start under Trump. Over a period of several decades, both Democratic and Republican administrations have placed our media and information system in the hands of giant media conglomerates who have only one value. It's not freedom of press. It's not free flow of information. It's profit maximization."

The world needs to impose wide-scale sanctions against the state of Israel to force it to end the starvation and genocide of civilians." More than 100 humanitarian organizations are demanding action to end Israel's siege of Gaza, warning mass starvation is spreading across the Palestinian territory. Michael Fakhri, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, says Israel's 78-day-long extreme blockade of Gaza constitutes the fastest starvation campaign we've seen in modern history." Fakhri says the mass suffering has been both preventable" and predictable," thanks to the impunity Israel has received from the international community, and calls on the United Nations to impose sanctions on Israel and ensure humanitarian aid delivery into Gaza.

Virginia Commonwealth University is withholding the diploma of a Palestinian American student because of her campus activism. In a hearing Tuesday, officials examined the case of VCU student Sereen Haddad, who was told she would not receive her diploma at her graduation this year because of her participation in a peaceful memorial commemorating violent police arrests at a student encampment for Palestine in 2024. Sereen Haddad is the daughter of Tariq Haddad, a cardiologist who grew up in Gaza. Dr. Haddad made headlines last year for rejecting an invitation to meet with then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken because of the Biden administration's support for Israel's actions in Gaza. The Haddads have lost more than 200 members of their extended family in the nearly two-year-long assault.We speak to the duo about the repression and retaliation that Sereen has faced for her student activism as she awaits a final decision by the university on the conferral of her degree. Whatever VCU decides, I have made peace with the fact that I don't need a university who is materially invested in a genocide's approval," she tells Democracy Now! I am on the right side of history, and I don't need a university to tell me that."

Over 100 NGOs Demand End to Gaza Siege, Warning of Mass Starvation, WHO Calls for Release of Staff Member Abducted by Israel, Thousands of Antiwar Protesters March in Tel Aviv, Columbia University Punishes Student Activists over Gaza Protests, Trump Warns U.S. Could Attack Iran Again, Bedouins Evacuated from Syria's Suwayda Describe Massacres, Ukraine and Russia to Begin Third Round of Peace Talks, U.S. and Japan Announce Trade Deal; Far-Right Party Makes Gains, U.S. and Philippines Strike Trade Deal, Announce Expanded Military Ties, House Speaker Mike Johnson Announces Early Recess to Avoid Vote on Epstein Files, Trump Claims Obama Committed Treason", Family Demands Justice for Saniyah Cheatham, Found Hanged to Death in NYPD Holding Cell, Videos Show Inhumane Conditions at Manhattan ICE Detention Center, Chicago Tenant Union Continues Rent Strike to Fight Evictions

As the federal government begins to implement some $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts called for in President Trump's budget bill passed by the Republican-led Congress, a new investigative documentary, Life After, examines the moral dilemmas and profit motives surrounding assisted dying that could increasingly confront members of the disabled community. Reid Davenport, who directed the film, notes the film is not about suicide. It is about the phenomenon that leaves disabled people desperate to find their place in a world that perpetually rejects them." People with disabilities already experience huge health disparities," adds Colleen Cassingham, who produced the film. When you introduce a policy like assisted suicide, it takes a group of people who are already incredibly marginalized by our system and gives the institutions and the people with power a profit motive for denying those people care." Life After is now screening in person at select theaters and virtually online.

A new report titled You Feel Like Your Life Is Over" details the dangerous and abusive conditions faced by immigrants held at three ICE jails in Miami, Florida, since Trump returned to office. One testimony describes how detention officers made men eat while shackled with their hands behind their backs. One man said, We had to bend over and eat off the chairs with our mouths, like dogs." The report describes how detained immigrants are also routinely denied access to legal counsel and critical medical attention, while some have been held incommunicado in solitary confinement as an apparent punishment for seeking mental healthcare. Democracy Now! spoke with Belkis Wille, associate director in Human Rights Watch's Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division. The immigration system is abusive and is treating immigrants in detention in a dehumanizing manner," she says.

ICE is reportedly racing to build more detention tent camps nationwide after Congress allocated an unprecedented $45 billion in new funding over the next four years to lock up immigrants, as part of Trump's massive tax and spending package. The Department of Homeland Security is also preparing to start detaining immigrants at more military bases, including in New Jersey and Indiana, as well as to transfer more immigrants to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to NPR. This comes as the Trump administration is moving to revoke access to bond hearings for people who entered the U.S. through non-approved channels." The new policy could potentially impact millions of undocumented people and orders officers to detain immigrants for the length of their removal proceedings - a process which can take months or even years. This administration is using every tool that it has to target the immigrant community, to scare the immigrant community," says Adriel Orozco, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council. Orozco notes that most immigrants will likely never get the chance to fight their case before a judge under Trump's aggressive deportation policies.

As Congress approved some $45 billion to expand ICE's immigration detention capacity, including the jailing of families and children, we look at the case of one family. In May, plainclothes ICE agents detained a 6-year-old boy from Honduras who has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, along with his 9-year old sister and their mother, as they left their immigration court hearing in Los Angeles. In detention, the boy missed a key doctor's appointment, and the family said his sister cried every night. As pressure grew over their conditions, the family was released on July 2. The little boy doesn't want to leave his home. He's terrified. He sobs, cries and screams when his mother takes him out of the house," says attorney Elora Mukherjee, who represents the boy and his family and is director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School. She says the young children are traumatized after their month in ICE detention.

15 More Palestinians Die of Malnutrition as Gaza's Starvation Crisis Deepens, 28 Countries Call for Immediate End to Israel's Assault on Gaza, Ex-Officer in Breonna Taylor Killing Sentenced to 33 Months in Prison, Officers Caught on Camera Beating Black Motorist Will Not Face Charges, Pentagon to Withdraw 700 Marines from Los Angeles, ICE Detains Former Haitian Presidential Candidate in Florida, 21 Attorneys General Sue Trump Admin over Federal Benefits to Undocumented Immigrants, CBO: Trump's Tax and Spending Bill to Add $3.4T to National Debt, Judge Orders OMB to Restore Public Funding Tracker Website, Speaker Mike Johnson Backtracks on Call for DOJ to Release Epstein Files, Trump Admin Releases Over 240K Pages of FBI Records on Martin Luther King Jr., Judge Hears Harvard's Challenge to Trump Admin's $2.6 Billion Cuts to Research Funds

A new audio series published by the group Federal Workers Against DOGE looks at the plight of fired federal workers whose jobs and careers were cut short by the Trump administration's systematic defunding of government services in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy and the reallotment of resources to anti-immigration enforcement. I Do Solemnly Swear, co-created and directed by filmmaker Laura Nix, features interviews with current and former employees of federal agencies including the FAA, CDC, EPA, IRS and more. I felt it was very important to focus on not just the illegality of the firings, but the impact on Americans," says Nix. We've depended for a very long time [on] these benefits, the safety of our highways, our water, our airspace, [but] we're learning that these are all being taken away."

The Trump administration has shuttered the Environmental Protection Agency's scientific arm, the EPA Office of Research and Development. Hundreds of chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists will lose their jobs under the administration's plan to aggressively tear down environmental regulations and defund the EPA. Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, a former top administrator in the Office of Research and Development, says the loss of the division means the loss of essential services like air and water quality monitoring that protects public health. We are losing a treasure trove of historical knowledge, of scientific expertise, and really it's going to limit what information, what science would be available for the agency to consider in protecting our health and our environment," she says.

The independent news outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call are reporting that Israel is increasingly using grenade-firing drones to enforce evacuation orders. Israeli soldiers have admitted that they deliberately target civilians and likened their use of the weapons to a video game." Israeli journalist Meron Rapoport explains how soldiers are instructed to initiate strikes on all residents, not just belligerent targets. Once a commander defines an imaginary red line that no one is allowed to cross, anyone who does is marked for death," says Rapoport.

The starvation crisis in Gaza is deepening under Israel's brutal blockade and amid regular massacres of civilians attempting to secure aid at the only officially sanctioned aid sites, run by Israeli troops and American mercenaries. The so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and the onset of famine are the subjects of a new report by analysts Davide Piscitelli and Alex de Waal for the research organization Forensic Architecture on the architecture of genocidal starvation" in Gaza. I've been working on this field of famine, food crisis and humanitarian action for more than 40 years, and there is no case, over those four decades, of such minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed mass starvation of a population as is happening in Gaza today," says de Waal, who is also the author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine.

Israeli Tanks & Snipers Kill 79 Palestinians at Aid Site in Northern Gaza, At Least 19 Palestinians Starve to Death as U.N. Warns Gaza Has Reached New Levels of Desperation", Pope Leo Calls for End to Barbarity of War" After Israeli Fatal Attack on Gaza Church, U.K. Police Arrest Another 100 for Supporting Banned Group Palestine Action, Gaza-Bound Freedom Flotilla Ship Sets Sail for Gaza, Syrian Gov't Announces New Ceasefire in Suwayda After 1,000+ Killed, U.S.-Venezuelan Prisoner Swap Frees 250 Men Held in El Salvador, Human Rights Watch Exposes Abuse at Krome Immigration Jail in Florida, 82-Year-Old Torture Survivor Secretly Sent from Pennsylvania to Guatemala After Losing Green Card, Queens High School Student Reunites with Family After Month in ICE Detention, Journalist Mario Guevara Still Faces Deportation Even After Charges Were Dropped Against Him, Don't You Dare Ever Say That Again": DHS Secretary Kristin Noem Denies ICE Is Racially Profiling Latinos, DRC and M23 Fighters Sign Deal to End Fighting in Eastern Congo, Brazilian Police Raid Home of Bolsonaro; Court Orders Ankle Bracelet for Ex-President Charged with Coup Plot, EPA to Shut Down Scientific Research Arm, Trump Calls on Washington Commanders & Cleveland Guardians to Resume Using Old Team Names, Trump Signs Cryptocurrency Bill to Regulate Stablecoins, Trump Sues Murdoch over WSJ Report About Trump Letter to Jeffrey Epstein, Writers Guild Calls for Probe of Paramount's Cancellation of Stephen Colbert Show, Democrats Endorse Omar Fateh to Be Next Mayor of Minneapolis

We speak to Loris Taylor, president of Native Public Media, about the Trump administration's drastic defunding of public media and its impact on tribal nations. Fifty-nine tribal radio stations and one tribal television station that depend on federal funding will be among the first to face possible closure, putting some of the essential services that public broadcasting provides, including warning systems for missing Indigenous women and girls, at risk. Taylor shares how Native-led public media helps preserve Indigenous languages and helped keep communities informed during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She fears that without these same resources and with the climate crisis increasing, [we] are going to be operating on the margins of information and are not going to have real lifesaving information available to our citizens when they need it most."

We speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna about his bipartisan bill calling for the full release of federal documents pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein's criminal charges for sexual trafficking and abuse, which is also currently backed by nine Republicans and every House Democrat. Khanna explains why he's calling for transparency and accountability regarding the Epstein case, and how Trump is working to prevent the same.Ro Khanna also discusses the massive loss to public media and local news as the Trump administration has successfully stripped $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds over 1,500 NPR and PBS stations across the country. The major cut to funding is possible thanks to the rare process of rescission, which allows the president to request Congress to rescind already-allocated federal funding. Trump's OMB Director Russell Vought has indicated that the administration intends to expand its use of rescission in future legislative sessions. It's a devastating blow to the education of our children in America and to our democracy," says Khanna, who notes that the cut to public media comes just one week after Republicans voted to pass Trump's deficit-enlarging budget bill. It's just not true that this has anything to do with fiscal responsibility," Khanna adds.

We speak to a survivor of sexual abuse perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein and enabled by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell. Teresa Helm was sexually assaulted by Epstein at what she was told was a job interview in the early 2000s. She now works as the survivor services coordinator for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and joins many voices calling for the release of federal documents pertaining to Epstein's criminal case, though Helm emphasizes that the goal of their release must be to promote accountability and justice for victims, not as a form of political score-settling. I really urge everyone to focus their commitment, their intention, all this time, effort and energy onto ... these survivors and their healing," says Helm. We're talking about people's lives, and it should not be weaponized either way, in any administration."

A major rift has formed within Donald Trump's MAGA base over his reversal of a campaign promise to release the Epstein files" to the public. Many supporters see his denials of the existence of a client list" belonging to Jeffrey Epstein, the powerful and well-connected investor who was charged with the sexual trafficking and assault of numerous teenage girls and young women before his death, as a betrayal of Trump's promises to drain the swamp" and expose what many supporters believe is proof of criminal corruption among primarily Democratic elites." Trump's insistence that his supporters drop their fixation on Epstein-related conspiracy theories that his people have long nurtured" is making it exceedingly difficult for some of his biggest supporters and boosters to not start at least suspecting that he has something to hide," says Rolling Stone's Asawin Suebsaeng, who has been reporting on the fallout from Trump and his Attorney General Pam Bondi's handling of the Epstein case.

White House Poised to Claw Back $9B in Foreign Aid, Public Media Funding After House Vote, 14 Members of Gazan Family Die as Israel Bombs Their Home and Attacks Rescue Efforts, UNICEF: Israel Has Killed Over 17,000 Children in Gaza and Injured 33,000 Others, Christian Leaders in West Bank Call for Accountability and End to Israeli Settler Violence, Sectarian Fighting Resumes in Syria's Suwayda After Latest Ceasefire Effort, Trump Moves to Release Some Epstein Documents But Fails to Allay MAGA Revolt, Senate Republicans Cut Off Debate to Advance Judicial Nomination of Trump Loyalist Emil Bove, ICE Will Have Access to Personal Medicaid Data, Immigrant Rights Groups Sue over ICE Courthouse Arrests, ICE Targets Sex Workers in Mounting Raids, Anti-Corruption Watchdog Flees El Salvador Amid Crackdown, French Troops Withdraw from Senegal, Ending Permanent Presence, DOJ Requests One-Day Sentence for Louisville Cop Convicted over Breonna Taylor's Killing, Judge Lifts Domestic Travel Restrictions on Columbia Student Activist Mohsen Mahdawi, CBS Cancels The Late Show" After Stephen Colbert Skewers $16 Million Settlement with Trump

Israel launched airstrikes that destroyed part of the Syrian Defense Ministry and a facility near the presidential palace in Damascus on Wednesday, killing three people. This comes weeks after Israel launched unprovoked strikes on Iran, which led to a brief war that killed over 900 Iranians and 29 people in Israel. Adam Shatz, U.S. editor at the London Review of Books, says Israel's motivation in the Middle East is to settle accounts with any force in the region that might challenge its domination." He also notes violent language around foreign policy has become banal" in many Western countries. It's not simply Trump and the far right who speak blithely about overthrowing foreign governments, about bombing other foreign populations. It's people who have a reputation ... for being liberals and moderates," says Shatz.

We speak with leading Israeli American historian Omer Bartov about his latest essay for The New York Times, headlined I'm a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It." Bartov cites the United Nations definition of genocide," which includes an intent to destroy a group of people that makes it impossible for the group to reconstitute itself. This is precisely what Israel is trying to do," he says. Israel is trying to concentrate the population of Gaza in the southernmost parts of the strip, to enclose them and to enforce, eventually, either that they would just die out there or that they would be removed from the Gaza Strip altogether."

Israeli Forces Kill More Palestinians Sheltering in Gaza Schools, Fire on Church, Killing 2 Women, This Aid Is a Trap": Crowd Crush Kills 21 Palestinians Waiting for Supplies from GHF, Israel Is Seeking Endless Chaos": Al-Sharaa Condemns Israel's Attacks on Syria, Two Ultra-Orthodox Parties Leave Netanyahu's Government Coalition, Coalition of Nations Announces Steps to End Israel's Era of Impunity" After Global Summit, Senate Approves Bill Clawing Back $9 Billion in Foreign Aid and Public Broadcasting, U.S. to Impose 19% Tariff on Indonesian Goods in Lopsided Trade Deal, Trump Pushes Texas GOP to Gerrymander Congressional Maps Ahead of 2026 Midterms, U.S. Expels Five Immigrants to Eswatini, Where They Have No Ties, California Landscaper Beaten by Federal Agents Released on Bond After Three Weeks in ICE Jail, Disabled Army Vet and U.S. Citizen Demands Full Investigation" into His 3-Day Detention by ICE, Trump Administration Fires Maurene Comey, Who Prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein, I Don't Want Their Support Any More!": Trump Blasts MAGA Base over Calls to Release Epstein Files, Federal Court Blocks Rule to Scrub Medical Debt from Credit Reports, Writers Against the War on Gaza Lays Out New York Times's Ties to Israeli Occupation, Gaza Genocide, At Least 69 Die as Fire Consumes Newly Opened Shopping Mall in Iraqi City of al-Kut, Good Trouble Lives On": Protests Across U.S. to Target Trump's Rollback of Civil Rights

The Trump administration's mass deportation machine continues to shatter families and communities with violent, indiscriminate raids on schools, homes and workplaces. Farms are a particular target of its brutal, racist crackdown; around two-thirds of U.S. farmworkers are immigrants, largely from Mexico. Earlier this month, a raid on a farm in California turned fatal when 57-year-old Jaime Alanis died after falling from the roof of a greenhouse. Dozens of his fellow workers were rounded up and loaded onto buses destined for a detention center. Many of the targeted farmworkers are members of the United Farm Workers, the nation's oldest farmworkers' union. Its president, Teresa Romero, a longtime labor leader who is the first Latina and first immigrant to head the organization, says farmworkers are terrified." She says that replacing people who are experienced, who are professional, who have been in agriculture, working sometimes for decades, [is] not how we should repay them for the sacrifice and hard work," and adds that sooner or later, the agriculture industry is going to suffer."

On July 16, 1945, the United States carried out the Trinity test, the world's first nuclear detonation. Today, 80 years later, the University of Chicago - the site of the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction - is host to the Nobel Laureate Assembly for the Prevention of Nuclear War, an event that brings Nobel laureates and nuclear experts together to confront the growing global risk of nuclear war. The event features a performance by the award-winning string ensemble Kronos Quartet, who have spearheaded two new renditions of Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" featuring nearly 50 more artists from around the world. Titled Hard Rain" and Hard Rain (Drone)," the new pieces aim to raise awareness of the ongoing threat of nuclear war.As the global political situation becomes increasingly unstable, says professor Daniel Holz, chair of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and one of the organizers of the assembly, the likelihood that we'll sort of stumble into a nuclear war and the end of civilization ... has gone way up." Holz joins Democracy Now! alongside violinist, artistic director and founder of the Kronos Quartet, David Harrington, to share what inspired them to commission and create Hard Rain," which debuts today. We need everyone in the world to know how dangerous and how awful this is for all of us. And if music and musicians can step up and project those kinds of concerns about all of our futures, then music is doing its job," says Harrington.

In a major new New York Times expose on health insurance behemoth UnitedHealth, deputy investigations editor David Enrich reveals how the largest insurer in the country works to intimidate and silence critics of its often predatory and exploitative treatment of patients. While companies do this kind of stuff all the time," Enrich says, UnitedHealth's lawyers were really going after some fairly obscure stuff, and that suggested to me that this was a campaign of desperation." Enrich's investigation found instances of this very aggressive campaign to shut down criticism and scrutiny" from even before the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December. UnitedHealthcare is one of two main subsidiaries, alongside Optum, of UnitedHealth. Enrich discusses the experiences of some of these critics, from doctors on TikTok to newspaper reporters like himself.

21 Killed as Guards at Gaza Humanitarian" Site Fire Tear Gas, Triggering Stampede, Huckabee Calls on Israel to Probe Killing of U.S. Citizen as Settlers Continue Attacks on Palestinians, Israel Bombs Syrian Army HQ in Damascus, Steps Up Attacks on Suwayda, U.N. Rapporteur Urges Nations to Cut Ties to Israel to Stop Genocide" in Gaza, Senate Advances Bill to Claw Back $9 Billion in Funds for Foreign Aid and Public Broadcasting, Pentagon to Withdraw Half of 4,000 National Guard Troops Deployed to Los Angeles, 22-Year-Old Palestinian Released After 9-Day Immigration Detention at Houston Airport, Farm Labor Organizer Alfredo Juarez Zeferino Ends Deportation Fight After 4 Months in ICE Jail, Federal Agents Arrest 9 over Spokane ICE Protests, Including Former City Council President, Trump's Nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Grilled over Signalgate" Scandal, AG Bondi Deflects Questions About Convicted Sex Trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Wired: Nearly 3 Minutes Were Cut from FBI's Raw" Surveillance Video of Epstein's Cell, Adelita Grijalva Wins Democratic Primary in Arizona to Replace Her Late Father in Congress

Protesters across the United States targeted Palantir Monday in a day of action focused on the technology company's work with ICE, facilitating President Trump's expanding immigration crackdown, and work with the Israeli military. New York police arrested at least four people Monday after demonstrators blocked the entrance to the company's Manhattan offices. Democracy Now! spoke to protesters, including some who work in the technology sector, about the Purge Palantir" campaign and how Palantir's data mining, surveillance and automation tools are being weaponized against vulnerable communities. We speak with Wired senior writer Makena Kelly, who has been covering Palantir and says many Silicon Valley firms are trying to find opportunity in this chaos" as the Trump administration slashes government services and pursues mass deportations.

Florida Democratic Congressmember Maxwell Frost joins us to discuss how he observed horrific conditions in Florida's new immigration detention jail in the Everglades, known as Alligator Alcatraz," when he joined other lawmakers in a visit. I saw myself in those cages. It was a lot of people my age that looked like me," says Frost. The administration is essentially trying to ethnically cleanse the country." We also speak with a reporter at the Miami Herald, which reports hundreds of detainees at the Everglades immigration prison have no criminal records or charges, contradicting claims by the Trump administration. The newspaper recently published a list of people detained or believed to be detained at the facility, helping families locate their loved ones.

We go to the occupied West Bank for an update on how the family of a 20-year-old Palestinian American from Florida, Sayfollah Saif" Musallet, is demanding justice after he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Musallet and another Palestinian, 23-year-old Mohammad al-Shalabi, were attacked by a group of Israeli settlers on Friday in the town of Sinjil, northeast of Ramallah, where their families own farmland. Eyewitnesses say the settlers brutally beat Musallet and fatally shot al-Shalabi, then prevented ambulances from reaching their victims for hours. Musallet was pronounced dead before he could reach a hospital.The settlers and the military don't only work hand in hand," says anti-Zionist activist Jonathan Pollak, who was injured in the same protest. They are part and parcel of implementing the same policy ... of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank."Palestinians here have zero rights," adds Nizar Milbes, a distant relative and close friend of the Musallet family, who says settlers have been encroaching on Palestinian lands even more aggressively since October 7, 2023.

SCOTUS Greenlights Dismantling of Education Department, Unleashing Untold Harm", 24 States and D.C. Sue Trump Admin over $7 Billion in Frozen Education Funds, WaPo: Trump Admin Denies Bond Hearings to Immigrants Who Entered Without Approval, Trump Admin to Ramp Up Transfer of Immigrants to Third Countries Without Due Process, Court Delays Termination of TPS for 12,000 Afghans as Both Sides Asked to Submit Arguments, U.N. Warns Lifelines Will Vanish" for Entire Gaza Population Without Immediate Access to Fuel, Like a Video Game": Israeli Forces Targeting Forcibly Evacuated Palestinians with Drones, Israel Strikes Syria as Ceasefire Is Announced in Suwayda Province, Israel Bombs Lebanon's Beqaa Valley in Ongoing Ceasefire Violation, Trump Announces Plan to Send Arms to Ukraine via NATO Amid Growing Ire with Putin, Sudan's RSF Accused of Killing 300 People, Burning Villages Amid Ongoing Civil War, Pam Bondi Fires DOJ's Top Ethics Lawyer and 20 Staffers in Political Purge, Elon Musk's xAI Gets $200M Contract with Pentagon, Activists in NY, CA, CO and WA Protest Palantir's Role in Fueling ICE, Gaza Genocide, Largest Transfer of Wealth Since Slavery": Faith Leaders, Community Members Protest Trump Budget, NYT: UnitedHealth Systematically Silencing Critics After CEO Killing, Cuomo Announces Third-Party Run for NYC Mayor After Crushing Primary Defeat by Zohran Mamdani