Democracy Now!

We speak with the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa after she got extraordinary access to an ICE detention center in Colorado, where she interviewed the immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra. The undocumented mother of four was arrested by federal agents in Denver in March after she successfully fought multiple deportation efforts since 2009, including when she took sanctuary in a Denver church with her children in 2017. She received a stay of removal but returned to sanctuary in 2019 when it expired, then received additional stays under the Biden administration that also expired. She now finds herself in the sights of the Trump administration as it seeks to fulfill its goal of mass deportations of immigrants. I am a political prisoner," Vizguerra told Hinojosa. She believes that she is not being held in immigrant detention because of her immigration status, but rather she is being held because of her words and because of her activism," says Hinojosa.

As Gaza's Food Crisis Deepens, Israeli Troops Fire on Hungry Palestinians at Aid Distribution Site, They All Have Names": Protesters Honor Gaza's Dead at 24-Hour Vigil, Cholera Outbreak Leads to 172 Deaths in Sudan Amid Fighting Between Rival Military Factions, U.S. to Stop Issuing Student Visas While It Plans Further Scrutiny of Applicants' Social Media, El Salvador Won't Let Maryland Rep. Meet with Wrongfully Deported Father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Trump Administration Seeks to Deport 4-Year-Old Who Could Die If She Loses Healthcare, ICE Agents Arrest Bronx High Schooler Outside Routine Immigration Check-In, Trump Pardons Former Reality TV Couple Convicted of Bank Fraud and Tax Evasion, RFK Jr. Orders CDC to Stop Recommending COVID Shots for Children and Pregnant People, Public Radio Stations Sue to Block Trump from Defunding Public Broadcasting, PBS Executive Removed Scene Critical of Trump from American Masters" Episode, Supreme Court Won't Hear Case by Indigenous Opponents of Arizona Copper Mine, Former New York Rep. Charles Rangel, Who Led Congressional Black Caucus, Dies at 94

A last-minute addition to President Trump's big, beautiful" budget bill seeks to ban Affordable Care Act healthcare plans from covering abortion, in addition to defunding hundreds of Planned Parenthood clinics that provide reproductive healthcare throughout the United States. Congress is literally walking us into a crisis of forced birth," says Mini Timmaraju, president of the advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All, which is launching a series of campaigns targeting key senators ahead of the Senate vote on the GOP-backed budget bill.

A 30-year-old Black woman in Georgia has been kept on life support for three months against her family's wishes because of the state's fetal heartbeat" anti-abortion law. Adriana Smith was declared legally dead in February after a medical emergency caused her brain function to cease. Smith, a nurse, had been initially turned away when she first sought medical care. She was nine weeks pregnant at the time. But because her medical providers would face legal consequences including jail time if they were to end the pregnancy, Smith's body is still being kept on breathing machines despite the fact that Smith herself can no longer be resuscitated. The case demonstrates once again that it is deadly to be Black and pregnant," says Monica Simpson of the reproductive justice organization SisterSong.

A court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration's attempt to prevent Harvard University from enrolling international students. The move would cause over a quarter of Harvard's student body to lose visas that allow them to study in the United States. One of the students affected is Francesco Anselmetti, a member of the graduate student union, who emphasizes that visa revocations would affect graduate researchers and teaching staff, constituting one of the largest threats of vast deportation on a unionized workforce in American history." It is the latest attack by the Trump administration against universities that receive federal funding.When announcing the revocation order, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem accused Harvard of antisemitism" and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party," but Harvard professor Alison Frank Johnson warns that the prestigious university is only a test case for Trump's wider crackdown on knowledge production and academic freedom. Harvard is not really the target here. It's the independent scholarship that's being produced by universities."

Pediatric physician Dr. Alaa al-Najjar had just begun work in the emergency room at Nasser Medical Complex when she was suddenly called to return to her home in Khan Younis. When she arrived, emergency workers were pulling the charred bodies of her children from piles of rubble. An Israeli airstrike had destroyed her home, killing nine of al-Najjar's 10 children and seriously wounding her husband, Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar, and their only surviving child, Adam. Adam's arm was amputated, and his father is currently in intensive care with severe brain damage. Democracy Now! reached Graeme Groom, a volunteer doctor from the U.K. who treated Adam al-Najjar after the attack. Dr. Groom also speaks about his Palestinian medical colleagues who have been abducted or killed by the Israeli military.

Israel Bombs Gaza School Sheltering Displaced Palestinians, Killing 36, Including Children, Director of Israel- and U.S.-Backed Gaza NGO Quits to Protest Restrictions on Aid, Israeli Nationalists March Through Occupied East Jerusalem Chanting Death to Arabs", Russia Unleashes Largest Wave of Drone Strikes Since Invading Ukraine, Advocates Warn of ICE Ambush Arrests at Immigration Courts, Chief Justice Temporarily Blocks Freedom of Information Request for DOGE Records, Lawyer for Families of Boeing Crash Victims Condemns Deal to Drop Prosecutions, CUNY Schools Join Nationwide Student Hunger Strike for Gaza as U. of Oregon, Stanford Continue Fast, Seattle Residents Protest Event by Anti-LGBTQ+, Far-Right Christian Group, Maduro's Party Wins Elections Boycotted by Opposition, Asserts Claim Over Guyana's Essequibo, Sebastiao Salgado, Renowned Photographer Who Captivated with His Photos, Dies at 81

As part of our Memorial Day special, we continue our interview with Ohio death row inmate Keith LaMar live from the Ohio State Penitentiary, after the release of The Injustice of Justice, a short film about his story that just won the grand prize for best animated short film at the Golden State Film Festival. LaMar talks about his case, conditions in solitary confinement, and his work with musicians and others to raise awareness about his case as he fights to stop his pending execution scheduled in 2027.

As part of our Memorial Day special, we speak with death row inmate Keith LaMar live from the Ohio State Penitentiary, after the release of The Injustice of Justice, a short film about his case that just won the grand prize for best animated short film at the Golden State Film Festival. I had to find out the hard way that in order for my life to be mine, that I had to stand up and claim it," says LaMar, who has always maintained his innocence. LaMar was sentenced to death for participating in the murder of five fellow prisoners during a 1993 prison uprising. His trial was held in a remote Ohio community before an all-white jury. On January 13, 2027, the state intends to execute him, after subjecting him to three decades in solitary confinement. LaMar's lawyer, Keegan Stephan, says his legal team has discovered a lot of new evidence supporting Keith's innocence" that should necessitate new legal avenues for LaMar to overturn the conviction.

We begin our Memorial Day special with acclaimed director Ryan Coogler about his latest film Sinners, which is set to be one of the biggest box office hits of the year. Starring Michael B. Jordan, the genre-bending horror film is set in the Mississippi Delta during Jim Crow and is a cinematic gumbo" of various influences and themes, Coogler tells Democracy Now!I wanted to make a film that was kind of raging against the concept of genre and making the audience constantly question it, even while they were watching it," he says. In particular, the film celebrates Delta blues, music made by Black artists living under a back-breaking form of American apartheid," and what Coogler describes as our country's most important contribution to global popular culture."Coogler also discusses his family connection to Mississippi, producing the film with his wife Zinzi Coogler, his highly publicized contract with Warner Bros. and more. Coogler's previous films include Black Panther, Creed and Fruitvale Station.

Historian Jeanne Theoharis's new book, King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life of Struggle Outside the South, is a major reexamination of the civil rights leader that offers a different picture of both King's own experiences of police brutality and his sustained critique of police brutality and the criminal legal system in the North as well as the South.We've southernized Dr. King. And so, his critique of police brutality outside the South, his long-standing critique of school segregation, of housing segregation, of job discrimination, King sees these as national, not local," says Theoharis, distinguished professor at Brooklyn College.

This Sunday marks five years since George Floyd was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. In a video that shocked the world and spurred a global movement for racial justice, Chauvin pinned Floyd to the ground with a knee to his neck for eight minutes while Floyd gasped for air. Floyd repeatedly said, I can't breathe."Despite the nationwide uprising that followed Floyd's killing, Congress failed to pass legislation that sought to reduce racial profiling and the use of force by law enforcement. The Trump Justice Department dismissed police reform and oversight agreements in Minneapolis and Louisville earlier this week, just days ahead of the fifth anniversary. We speak with Nekima Levy Armstrong, Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney, activist and founder of the Racial Justice Network, on where the movement for racial justice stands today.

Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil testified at his asylum hearing on Thursday, telling an immigration judge in Jena, Louisiana, that his deportation from the United States could lead to his assassination, kidnapping, torture." Hours before the hearing, Khalil was allowed to meet and hold his 1-month-old son Deen for the first time. The emotional moment came after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration's efforts to keep Khalil behind a plexiglass barrier for a visit with his wife and infant son.Khalil's legal team has raised concerns about the impartiality of immigration judges overseeing the case. They serve at the pleasure of the president, and this is a president who has not been shy about firing immigration judges," says Ramzi Kassem, part of the legal team representing Mahmoud Khalil.

Trump's sweeping budget legislation has been described as the biggest Medicaid cut in U.S. history. House Republicans passed the bill early Thursday morning in a 215-214 vote. The legislation would trigger massive cuts to Medicare and Medicaid over the next 10 years, denying coverage to an estimated 7.6 million Americans, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Food assistance under the federal SNAP program would also see $300 billion in cuts, while adding billions in funding for Trump's mass deportation agenda and giving the wealthiest Americans a tax break.The legislation is basically a mugging conducted by the 1% against the rest of us. It represents the single largest upward redistribution of wealth effectuated by any piece of legislation in our history," says Chris Lehmann, D.C. bureau chief for The Nation.Senate Republicans, who have voiced some concerns over the bill, will now have to pass their own version of the budget. With all Democratic senators opposed to the package, Republicans are working to use the reconciliation process to avoid a filibuster.

At Least 29 Die of Starvation in Gaza as Israeli Strike on Jabaliya Home Leaves 50 Dead or Missing, Israel Ramps Up Attacks on Lebanon Despite Ceasefire Agreement, Israeli Opposition Lawmaker Ayman Odeh Removed from Knesset After Protesting Gaza Assault, Trump Administration Bars Harvard from Enrolling International Students, Judge Allows Detained Palestinian Student Mahmoud Khalil to Hold Infant Son for First Time, Columbia Alumni Burn Diplomas to Protest Campus Repression Against Pro-Palestinian Students, U.S. Military Vets and Allies Begin 40-Day Hunger Strike for Gaza, Senate Blocks Landmark California Law Transitioning to Electric Vehicles, SCOTUS Gives Trump Green Light to Fire Heads of Independent Agencies, D.C. Appeals Court OKs Trump Order Gutting Labor Protections for Federal Workers, SCOTUS Says Oklahoma Cannot Use Federal Funds for Religious School, Mount Everest of Corruption": Protesters Gather Outside Dinner Feting $TRUMP Coin Investors, Gunman Charged in Israeli Embassy Staff Shooting in Washington, D.C., German Troops Deploy to Lithuania as Attacks Between Ukraine and Russia Continue

President Donald Trump staged an extraordinary confrontation in the Oval Office on Wednesday, repeating his false claims about a white genocide" taking place in South Africa during a meeting with the country's president, Cyril Ramaphosa. At one point, Trump had the lights dimmed and ordered video clips played showing people calling for violence against white farmers in South Africa. The ambush was the latest in the administration's campaign to paint the South African government as racist against Afrikaners, the white minority that ruled the country during apartheid.South African political economist Lebohang Pheko describes the Oval Office meeting as an act of aggression" intended to shore up Trump's racist base. Trump seems to have a great appetite for these spurious white supremacist ideologies [because] they mirror his own extremely skewed worldview," says Pheko.

International criticism of Israel continues to grow as the country's military expands its assault on Gaza, killing scores of Palestinians on a daily basis while blocking food, fuel, medicine and other supplies from reaching the starving population. The U.K. Labour government announced this week it is suspending free trade talks with Israel and imposing sanctions on some Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. The European Union says it will also review its trade ties with Israel.There's been an enormous shift in public opinion, and it's caused by utter revulsion at seeing emaciated children starve to death," says Jeremy Corbyn, former U.K. Labour leader who now sits as an independent in the British Parliament.We have countries within the EU who are significant weapons providers to the Israeli state. If they wanted this conflict, this war and genocide to end tomorrow, then they need to stop supplying weapons to Israel," says Irish politician Lynn Boylan, a member of Sinn Fein who sits in the European Parliament.

We speak with Dr. Victoria Rose, a British plastic and reconstructive surgeon who has been on three medical missions to Gaza since the start of Israel's war on the territory. She joins us from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where she's been treating patients for over a week, and describes horrific injuries amid Israel's ongoing bombardment, limited medical supplies and widespread malnutrition making it harder for people to heal. Children are particularly taking the brunt of this," she says. It's the worst it's ever been."

We speak with Israeli journalist Gideon Levy after a young Israeli couple was shot dead in Washington, D.C. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim both worked at the Israeli Embassy and were killed by a gunman after leaving the Capital Jewish Museum Wednesday night. The couple were dating and about to get engaged, the embassy said. Police identified Elias Rodriguez of Chicago as the suspect in custody. Video shows Rodriguez shouting Free Palestine" during his arrest, and authorities are investigating the incident as a potential hate crime.This incident can be only condemned. Nothing that Israel is doing can justify such a murder," says Levy. He adds that incidents like the Washington killings are adding to a growing sense inside Israel that because of the war in Gaza, Israel is turning into a pariah state."

Israel Targets Hospitals, Kills 51 More Palestinians as Its Genocide in Gaza Continues, Only 100 Trucks Have Entered Gaza After 11 Weeks of Total Blockade and Imminent Mass Starvation, Israeli Soldiers Fire at International Diplomatic Delegation in Jenin, D.C. Police Arrest Suspect in Shooting Death of Two Israeli Embassy Staff, Trump Confronts South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa with Claims of White Genocide", Judge Rules Trump Administration Violated Court Order by Expelling Immigrants to South Sudan, House GOP Passes Big, Beautiful Bill," Slashing Social Programs and Showering Tax Cuts on the Rich, Pentagon Accepts $400M Flying Palace" from Qatar for Trump to Use, A Gross Usurpation of Power": Federal Judge Reverses Trump's Closure of U.S. Institute for Peace, Pakistan Blames Indian Terror Proxies" for Attack on School Bus in Balochistan, Nothing Has Changed": Mother of Jailed Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah Resumes Hunger Strike, DOJ Drops Oversight of Minneapolis and Louisville Cops Ahead of Anniversary of George Floyd's Murder

Cuts by the Trump administration are beginning to chase" U.S.-based scientists at federal agencies and research institutions out of the country. We're draining our scientific talent," says environmental journalist Robert Hunziker, who explains how China and European countries are offering positions for scientists laid off, fired or pushed out by Trump and DOGE's mass culling of federal workers and funding. The massive U.S. brain drain" is a brain gain" for other countries, adds Hunziker, and comes as the Trump administration also cracks down on university curriculums and targets international students for its mass deportation initiative.

As President Trump pushes House Republicans to support a sweeping budget bill that gives massive tax breaks to the rich while slashing spending for Medicaid, food stamps and subsidies for clean energy, we look at a new series for The Lever's podcast Lever Time, which covers the history of the Republican anti-tax movement and how their anti-government influence is impacting Trump's attempts to build power. The anti-tax activist wing has made it impossible for this party to raise taxes, which then makes it very difficult to actually govern when you're the party in power," explains Lever Time co-host Arjun Singh. Singh breaks down the roots of the movement and its impact in the MAGA era.

Over two dozen disability rights activists were arrested on Capitol Hill last week when they protested the Trump-backed Republican budget bill and its cuts to Medicaid, affordable housing and more. We're putting our bodies on the line [because] our bodies are on the line," says Julie Farrar, an activist with ADAPT, which organized the protest. It is blood on the hands of the GOP and the president and the administration, that they want this big, beautiful bill for billionaires that will kill poor people [and] disabled people."

As a Republican-sponsored budget bill advances through Congress, we hear from Bishop William Barber about how the bill hurts low-income people. It is about death-dealing and destruction to the poor and the elderly and the youth of our country," says Barber, citing the bill's cuts to essential social services like Medicaid and paralleling those cuts to the government's funding of defense and deportation initiatives. We have to start talking about this budget as a form of social and political murder." Barber has been arrested with other faith leaders twice in the past month while protesting cuts, including in the Capitol Rotunda.

Gaza Officials Report 326 Malnutrition Deaths as U.N. Says No Aid Has Reached Palestinians, History Will Judge Them": U.K. Suspends Trade Talks with Israel Amid Starvation Campaign, European Union to Review Israel Ties; Spanish Parliament Urges Arms Embargo on Israel, A Sane Country Does Not Kill Babies": Israeli Opposition Leader Condemns Gaza Assault, Emerging GOP Budget Bill Would Gut Benefits Including Medicare to Fund Tax Breaks for the Rich, Trump Administration Deports Asian Immigrants to South Sudan in Apparent Violation of Court Order, Report: Over 50 Venezuelans Sent by U.S. to El Salvador Prison Had Pending Asylum Appointments, Marco Rubio Defends Unlawful Deportation of Maryland Father to El Salvador, At Senate Hearing, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Can't Define Habeas Corpus, IRS Commissioner Nominee Refuses to Rule Out Canceling Nonprofit Status of Trump's Opponents, Trump Unveils Golden Dome" Missile Defense System with 20-Year, $540 Billion Price Tag, Columbia's Acting President Booed at Commencement as Students Demand Mahmoud Khalil's Release, CBS News President Steps Down as Paramount Moves to Settle Trump's $20 Billion 60 Minutes" Lawsuit, Aides to Mexico City's Mayor Assassinated Amid Continuing Cartel Violence

Columbia University activist and student Mohsen Mahdawi graduated on Monday - after he was released from ICE jail late last month. As he crossed the stage, students erupted in thunderous applause. Democracy Now! spoke with Mahdawi after the ceremony. I am coming here to be in the middle of this fire because I am a peacemaker, because I am a firefighter," says Mahdawi, who plans to attend Columbia University's graduate School of International and Public Affairs in the fall.

A damning new report reveals how Israel is systematically making Gaza unlivable. The independent news outlet +972 Magazine has spoken to Israeli soldiers who describe how they have been using bulldozers and explosives to intentionally flatten Gaza.In the southern city of Rafah, 73% of buildings are completely destroyed, with only about 4% of the infrastructure remaining undamaged. The real aim is to make it impossible for the Palestinians to return to these areas," says Meron Rapoport, co-author of the +972 Magazine report.

The U.N.'s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned Tuesday that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza over the next 48 hours if more aid does not enter the besieged territory. The warning comes as Israel expands its military assault, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to take control of the entire Gaza Strip. The suffering is really beyond description," says Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam's food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza, who speaks with Democracy Now! from Gaza City.

U.N. Warns 14,000 Babies on Cusp of Death in Gaza as Food Supplies Start to Trickle In, Israeli Attacks on Gaza's Beleaguered Hospitals Destroy Already Scarce Supplies, Houthi Fighters Launch Naval Blockade" in Escalating Actions Against Israeli Genocide, SCOTUS Allows Trump to Terminate Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan Immigrants, DOJ Charges NJ Rep. LaMonica McIver over Newark ICE Visit, Lifts Charges Against Mayor Baraka, Trump Reverses Demand for Moscow to Declare Ukraine Ceasefire After Call with Putin, Europe to Lift Sanctions on Syria, United Kingdom and EU Agree to Reset" Five Years Post-Brexit, Indian Authorities Expelled Rohingya Refugees by Pushing Them into the Sea with Life Jackets, WHO Approves Global Pandemic Treaty, Warns People in 70+ Countries Not Getting Medical Care, Billionaire, Trump-Pardoned Real Estate Developer Charles Kushner Confirmed as French Ambassador, Transpo Sec. Sean Duffy, AG Pam Bondi Among Trump Insiders Who Profited from Tariffs Roller Coaster, Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes More Vetoes Bill to Study Reparations, New Orleans Police Used Real-Time Facial Recognition Tracking Despite Ban, Palestinian American Student Denied Diploma After Protesting Israel's Assault on Gaza, Oklahoma Adds False Conspiracy Theories About 2020 Election to High School Curriculum, Trump Administration to Allow Sales of Device That Turns Rifles into Machine Guns, Missouri GOP Moves to Repeal Abortion Rights Enshrined by Voters in November Referendum

On the 100th birthday of Malcolm X, we speak with one of his daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, and civil rights attorney Ben Crump as they continue to press the U.S. government for answers about his assassination. The iconic Black revolutionary was just 39 years old when he was gunned down on February 21, 1965, in Harlem's Audubon Ballroom. In 2023, the family of Malcolm X filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against various government bodies, including the FBI, CIA and NYPD, for concealing evidence of their involvement in the assassination. Now his family is calling for President Trump to release more details about the assassination, just as he released thousands of unredacted files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and vowed in an executive order to release files on the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.When I think of my father most, he was such a young man. He was in his twenties when the world learned of him, 39 when he was assassinated," says Shabazz.We continue to fight for justice for Malcolm X, by any means necessary," says Crump. We implore the federal government to release all of the FBI papers on Malcolm X."

Sunday in New York, Dr. Noor Abdalla accepted a diploma on behalf of her husband, Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, at an alternative graduation ceremony held by the People's University for Palestine. Abdalla gave birth to the couple's first child Deen last month, while Khalil remained imprisoned at a Louisiana ICE detention center over a thousand miles away after he was abducted by ICE from university housing in March. ICE denied Khalil's request to be present at the birth. You showed up," Abdalla said, reading a statement from Khalil addressed to attendees of the crowd. You reminded me that while institutions may abandon us, the people never will."

A new report in The New York Times takes a deep dive into Project Esther, a policy blueprint to crush the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States from the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank best known for spearheading Project 2025. Project Esther was formed during the Biden administration and lays out plans for surveilling, silencing and punishing pro-Palestinian activists, including deporting non-U.S. citizens and withholding funds from universities. Many of the Heritage Foundation's proposals appear to have been taken up by the Trump administration.Project Esther aims to rebrand all critics of Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters as providing material support for terrorism," says investigative reporter Katie Baker. They're very explicit that this is what they're doing. ... This is all laid out online, and it has been for months."

Palestinians in Gaza are fleeing Khan Younis after the Israeli military issued expulsion orders for the besieged territory's second-largest city. This comes as Israel's bombardment of Gaza intensifies, killing hundreds of Palestinians over the weekend, including at least five journalists. Health facilities have been under constant attack. Israel on Sunday announced the start of a renewed ground invasion it calls Operation Gideon's Chariots. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Sunday that Israel would allow limited food supplies into Gaza as the population of more than 2 million faces famine after 11 weeks of a total Israeli blockade, but there are few details about when such aid shipments could arrive. Gaza's Health Ministry confirms Israel has killed at least 53,300 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, a death toll believed to be a vast undercount.The situation, as anyone who's following the news can see, is thoroughly apocalyptic," says Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani. There is not only an unprecedented siege, but also an unprecedented intensification of Israel's genocidal military campaign in the Gaza Strip." Rabbani also stresses that any progress on aid, lifting the siege or reaching a ceasefire is dependent on the Trump administration using its leverage over Israel. It will take no more than a phone call from Washington," he says.

Israel Kills Hundreds More Palestinians Over the Weekend as It Orders Expulsion from Khan Younis, Israel Says It Will Allow Limited Food into Gaza as Over 2 Million Palestinians Face Famine, Italian Lawmakers Protest Gaza Blockade at Rafah Crossing; 100,000 Dutch Protesters Take to Streets, Joe Biden Diagnosed with Aggressive Cancer Amid Mounting Uproar over His Failed 2024 Candidacy, House Republicans Slash Medicaid, Food Stamps to Give Tax Cuts to the Richest, SCOTUS Blocks Use of Alien Enemies Act to Expel Venezuelan Immigrants, AG Pam Bondi Sold Up to $5 Million in Trump Media Shares as Trump Announced Tariffs, FBI Investigating Perished Anti-Natalist" Suspect in Palms Springs Fertility Clinic Bombing, Trump and Putin to Speak After Turkey Peace Talks Last Week Yielded Little Progress, Centrist Nicuor Dan Defeats Far-Right Rival in Romanian Elections, ICC Chief Prosecutor Steps Aside Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe, El Salvador Arrests Prominent Anti-Corruption Lawyer, a Critic of President Bukele, Global Hunger Soared in 2024, Driven by War, Student Hunger Strikes for Gaza Continue; UCLA Activist Hospitalized After 9 Days Without Food, Mahmoud Khalil's Wife and Baby Accept People's Diploma," Honor Students Who Speak Up for Palestine, Tornadoes Sweep Through Missouri and Kentucky, Killing 28 People, New Jersey Transit Strike Ends After Tentative Deal, Two Mexican Sailors Dead After Navy Ship Crashes into Brooklyn Bridge

The Supreme Court has heard oral arguments in a case challenging Trump's now-halted order to end birthright citizenship. Multiple lower courts have already ruled that the order is unconstitutional. Trump's lawyers are seeking to reinterpret the 14th Amendment, which has guaranteed citizenship to any child born in the United States for over a century. Legal expert Andrea Flores, an immigration lawyer at FWD.us, says the government's weak arguments about implementing the unprecedented anti-immigrant order indicate that The administration is not prepared to do this. They just want the authority to reinterpret amendments."

House Republicans have successfully pushed forward President Trump's budget proposals to slash Medicaid and food stamps, putting millions of low-income Americans at risk. Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, a healthcare consumer advocacy organization, says the $715 billion reduction is literally the biggest cut to the Medicaid program in history."

In his first live interview since his release from ICE detention, Columbia University student and Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi recounts the traumatic experience of his arrest and incarceration. Mahdawi, a green card holder who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, was arrested in Vermont on April 14 when he appeared for what he was told would be a citizenship interview, and spent more than two weeks in U.S. immigration custody, where he was held in retaliation for his speech in support of Palestinian rights. Mahdawi's detention has led him to reflect on the interconnectedness between injustices," as multiple members of his family in Palestine have been unjustly" incarcerated in Israeli jails. Now I can feel their pain," says Mahdawi. Despite the U.S. government and pro-Israel groups' attempts to silence his calls for an end to genocide in Gaza, he adds, I share my pain with the world."

Israel Kills 150 Palestinians in Gaza in Bloodiest Day Since It Shattered Ceasefire, Israeli Soldiers Kill Five Palestinians in Occupied West Bank's Tamoun, Rep. Rashida Tlaib Reintroduces Nakba Resolution Amid Israel's Genocide on Gaza, Trump Leaves Gulf Region After Touting Billions in Deals; Democrats Move to Block Some Arms Sales, Trump Says Nuclear Deal Sent to Tehran; Iran Slams U.S. Hypocrisy over Its Arming of Israel's Genocide, Ukrainian and Russian Delegations Meet in Turkey After Putin Refuses to Take Part in Peace Talks, SCOTUS Hears Case Stemming from Trump's Attack on Birthright Citizenship, DHS Requests 20,000 National Guard to Help Execute Mass Deportations, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Cheered by Supporters After Pleading Not Guilty to Trespassing at ICE Jail, NYU Withholds Diploma of Commencement Speaker Who Condemned Israel's Genocide in Gaza, Georgia Abortion Ban Forces Family to Keep Brain-Dead Pregnant Woman on Life Support, Enough Is Enough": New Jersey Transit Workers Strike for Pay Equity

Israel has imposed a complete block on humanitarian aid into Gaza since March 2, with hundreds of trucks with lifesaving aid waiting at the border. Now many of Gaza's kitchens have closed, and Palestinians face mass starvation as rations run low. We speak with Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine. The majority of people in Gaza are facing emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity," says de Waal. Rations are getting low, and the poorest and most vulnerable are beginning to starve and die."

A major new report by U.S. academics analyzes Israel's occupation of Palestine under the legal framework of the crime of apartheid. The report was intentionally released on Nakba Day - the day that marks the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes during Israel's violent founding in 1948. Citing dozens of experts, human rights organizations and judicial decisions, it concludes that Israel's treatment of Palestinians meets the legal threshold of apartheid." Researchers found that Israel imposes policies that are designed to ensure the perpetual racial subordination of the Palestinian people," says Sandra Babcock, a clinical professor at Cornell Law School who helped author the report.

The Trump administration has suspended refugee resettlement for most of the world, but welcomed 59 white South African Afrikaners Monday who were granted refugee status. President Trump claims Afrikaners face racial discrimination - even though South Africa's white minority still own the vast majority of farmland decades after the end of apartheid - and claims they are escaping genocide." This accusation is a conspiracy theory and a myth that has been floating around echo chambers of right-wing populists and white nationalists for many decades now," says Andile Zulu, political essayist and researcher at the Alternative Information and Development Centre in Cape Town. We also speak with Herman Wasserman, a South African professor of journalism at Stellenbosch University, who says the Trump administration is using Afrikaners as pawns, as props in a campaign that purports to promote whiteness."

Israeli Bombing Claims 100 More Lives in Gaza; Israel Expels Sick and Wounded Patients from Al-Shifa, Palestinians Commemorate 77th Anniversary of Nakba Amid Israeli Genocide, HRW on Gaza: Israel Blockade Is a Tool of Extermination", Taxpayers Against Genocide Deliver Complaint to Human Rights Commission, Trump Boasts Qatar's Historic" Deal with Boeing, Heads to UAE, Georgetown's Badar Khan Suri Leaves ICE Jail on Bail, Reunites with Family, SCOTUS Hears Birthright Case; Dems Grill Kristi Noem over Mass Deportations, Trump Admin Charges Russian Harvard Scientist Kseniia Petrova with Smuggling, Zelensky Arrives in Turkey for Peace Talks, But Putin Is a No-Show, Two Children Die of Thirst on Stricken Ship Carrying Refugees in Mediterranean, Rival Armed Groups Trade Fire in Libya's Capital, Hours After Declaring a Ceasefire, Ex-Partner of Sean Diddy" Combs Testifies About Physical and Sexual Abuse, RFK Jr. on Measles Outbreak: I Don't Think People Should Be Taking Medical Advice from Me", Protesters Disrupt RFK Jr. Senate Hearing to Oppose Medicaid Cuts, RFK Jr. Orders FDA Review of Medication Abortion Drug Mifepristone, House GOP Approves Massive Cuts to Medicaid and Food Assistance in Emerging Budget Bill

We speak with a Salvadoran journalist who fled El Salvador along with others from the acclaimed news outlet El Faro after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele threatened to arrest them for exposing how Bukele had made secret deals with Salvadoran gangs. Bukele has run the country under a so-called state of exception since 2022, detaining nearly 80,000 people accused of being in gangs, largely without access to due process. We don't know when we will be able to come back," says Nelson Rauda Zablah, digital editor for El Faro, who notes it is now routine for Bukele's critics to flee for fear of retaliation. He discusses El Faro's reporting, and we feature excerpts from their interview series with two former leaders of the 18th Street Revolucionarios on Bukele's yearslong relationship to gangs. All of this comes as Bukele is working closely with the Trump administration to jail immigrants sent from the United States at CECOT, El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center.

Amid President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East, we continue our interview with DAWN's Sarah Leah Whitson and HuffPost's Akbar Shahid Ahmed about Trump's acceptance of a luxury plane gifted to him by the Qatari government, nuclear negotiations with Iran and Saudi Arabia, a less cooperative relationship with Israel and more.

We look at President Donald Trump's diplomatic visit to the Middle East and discuss his administration's foreign policy in the region with Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost, and Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN. As Trump sells U.S. military power in the Gulf in exchange for investments in U.S. businesses, they warn that Trump's transactional business philosophy is spreading to the administration's dealings around the world. As Whitson puts it, if you can pay, then you can play." This approach extends to the new Syrian government, as Trump pledges to lift sanctions on the country. However, explains Ahmed, while the thawing of relationships between the U.S. and Arab states has the added effect of divergence from tight-knit U.S.-Israel coordination, these changes can be attributed to Trump's America First" agenda, rather than any concern for Palestinians, whom Trump is happy to allow Israel to pummel."

Israel Kills Scores of Palestinians in Attacks on Gaza Homes and Hospitals, U.N. Humanitarian Aid Coordinator Demands States Act to Prevent Genocide" in Gaza, Trump Meets Syrian President in Saudi Arabia After Pledging to Lift U.S. Sanctions, Trump Agrees to Sell $142 Billion in Arms to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ukraine's Zelensky Challenges Russia's Putin to Face-to-Face Meeting at Peace Talks in Turkey, Capitol Police Arrest 26 Protesters Demanding GOP Drop Plans to Gut Medicaid, House GOP Measure Would Grant Trump the Power to Crush Nonprofits, Trump-Appointed Judge OKs Trump's Use of Alien Enemies Act to Deport Venezuelans, 20 States Sue to Block Trump from Withholding Funds over Opposition to Mass Deportations, Federal Grand Jury Indicts Milwaukee Judge Arrested for Allegedly Obstructing ICE, Clear Lines They Dare Not Cross": Hakeem Jeffries Warns GOP Against Arresting Democrats, Federal Judge Appoints Manager to Take Control of Rikers Island and Other NYC Jails, Jose Mujica, the World's Poorest President" Who Fought Uruguay's Dictatorship, Dies at 89

We speak with 22-year-old Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed in Ireland after he evacuated Gaza last month suffering from malnutrition and under threat for his reporting on Israel's genocide. Abed describes himself as an accidental war correspondent" and hoped to become a sports journalist and commentator before the start of the war, but spent much of the last two years reporting on daily death and destruction. He says leaving Gaza was a very agonizing decision" for him and that he feels tremendous guilt for now having access to food, water and medicine while so many Palestinians continue to suffer. I can't really tell you that I'm safe here. I'm probably a physical survivor, but not an emotional survivor. The images that I took with me from Gaza are still haunting me," says Abed. My whole family is still in Gaza, my friends, my colleagues. And all of them, I'm just thinking about them every single second all day."

People are starving to death, and this is a fact that we are witnessing and experiencing nowadays," says Oxfam's food security coordinator in Gaza, Mahmoud Alsaqqa. More than 10 weeks after Israel instituted a total siege on Gaza, blocking all food and other aid from entering, hunger has reached catastrophic levels in the Palestinian territory. This comes as a new United Nations report warns one in every five people in Gaza is facing starvation, while Save the Children says every child is now at risk of famine. The World Food Programme and charities working in Gaza say they have completely run out of supplies and can no longer feed people.

As President Donald Trump meets with leaders in the Middle East this week, we look at how his administration and family have opened wide to foreign powers and wealthy interests willing to spend big to gain influence. Top buyers of Trump's novelty cryptocurrency have spent millions as part of a contest to have dinner with the president. Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric have also signed a number of deals around the world, trading on the family's name and influence, and son-in-law Jared Kushner has taken in billions in investment from Gulf states. There's very little restraint at the moment," says New York Times investigative reporter Eric Lipton, who is tracking the deals. They're just pursuing as many profitable deals as they can find."

We speak with Robert Weissman, co-president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, about President Donald Trump's corrupt deal" to accept a $400 million jumbo luxury jet from the royal family of Qatar - possibly the most valuable such gift a foreign government has ever given. Under the plan, the Boeing 747 known as the flying palace" would be retrofitted for use as Air Force One, then donated to Trump's presidential library at the end of his term in order to allow him continued use of the jet even after he leaves office. The first Trump administration was the most corrupt in American history by far. What's going on now is literally orders of magnitude worse," says Weissman.