Democracy Now!

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the termination of all remaining overseas employees of USAID to complete the dismantling of the six-decade-old agency. USAID was an early target of Elon Musk and DOGE. We look at the dismantling of USAID and what it means for people around the world to lose this lifeline, as detailed in a new Amnesty International report. “We talked to somebody who actually saw IVs being ripped out of arms when the stop-work order came down,” says Amnesty’s Amanda Klasing, who describes the consequences of the U.S.'s retraction of critical aid to countries in the Glob

Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota joins Democracy Now! to discuss the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump administration, including its crackdown on anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, targeting of pro-Palestine students on college campuses and plans for a massive military parade coinciding with Trump’s birthday on June 14. “We are in the midst of the creation of a police state,” says Omar. “It will be a dark day if we do not stand up for ourselves, for our Constitution and for our republic.”

Israel has launched a large-scale military attack on Iran, killing top military officials, nuclear scientists and civilians in the deadliest attack on the country in decades. Iran has launched drones at Israel in response. The unprovoked attack, which Israel described as a “preemptive strike,” comes just days before scheduled nuclear talks between Iran and the United States. Iranian-born analyst Trita Parsi says the Trump administration appears to have been coordinating with Israel for “negotiating leverage” in an attempt to force Iran to “capitulate” on nuc

Israel Launches Major Unprovoked Attack on Iran, Stoking Fears of All-Out War, UNGA Adopts Gaza Ceasefire Resolution; Internet Blackout Adds to Misery in Gaza, “The World Must Rise”: Freedom Flotilla Activist Implores Int’l Community to Help Stop Gaza Genocide, Appeals Court Keeps Nat’l Guard Under Trump’s Control in L.A. Amid Ongoing ICE Raids and Protests, “We Will Kill You”: Florida Sheriff Threatens Protesters Ahead of Nationwide Anti-Trump Demos, Federal Agents Handcuff, Forcibly Remove CA Sen. Alex Padilla from Kristi Noem Presser, DHS Orders 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Ven

We go to Los Angeles, where immigrant workers and families are feeling the impact of ICE raids on worksites like Home Depot. While hundreds have been detained, countless others are left to wonder whether they can safely go to work or school, fearing for their families. “The life of an immigrant in Los Angeles and across this country … is full of uncertainties,” says Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. “Families don’t know whether they’re going to see their parents when they leave in the morning to go to work.”

As immigrant rights protests spread to Chicago, we speak with Democratic Congressmember Delia Ramirez, who is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and married to a DACA recipient and recently called on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign. She responds to President Trump’s threat to deploy troops in more major cities to quell protests. “What you are seeing is the beginning of fascism,” says Ramirez, who represents parts of Chicago. “For fascists, they select a public enemy. And today, it’s an immigrant. … Tomorrow, it’s anyone they find undesirable.”

Nearly two dozen congressmembers are backing legislation, the Block the Bombs Act, that would withhold offensive weapons from Israel that violate international law and humanitarian norms. “What Bibi Netanyahu wants is to continue to escalate this ground invasion and starvation of Palestinians, to absolutely take over Gaza and destroy Palestinian life,” says Congressmember Delia Ramirez, one of the co-sponsors.

Activists from around the world are arriving in Egypt ahead of the Global March to Gaza, set to launch June 15, when thousands plan to march to the Rafah border to call for an end to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians and its blockade of the territory. Dozens who flew to Cairo for the march have reportedly been detained, interrogated and deported by Egyptian security forces, but organizers say the event will proceed as planned. Former U.S. diplomat Hala Rharrit, who is taking part in the march, spoke with Democracy Now! earlier this week and said she could not turn a “blind eye” to the suf

Air India Aircraft Carrying at Least 242 People Crashes, U.S. Pulls Iraq Embassy Personnel Amid Mounting Fears of Israeli Attack on Iran, More Gazans Seeking Aid Amid the 120 Palestinians Killed by Israel Over Past Day, 11-Year-Old Adam al-Najjar Evacuated to Italy for Treatment After Israel Killed Father and 9 Siblings, Israeli Forces Continue Raids on Occupied West Bank, Killing 3 Palestinians Over Past 2 Days, California Seeks to Limit Marine and Nat’l Guard Authority in L.A. Amid Ongoing ICE Protests and Raids, Anguished Families Have Not Heard from Loved Ones Since Abductions by ICE, Pros

Israel continues to detain eight individuals who were captured Monday when Israeli Navy commandos intercepted a Gaza-bound boat carrying humanitarian aid. Four other passengers on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla have been deported, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. We get an update from Sergio Toribio, one of the 12 on board the Madleen, who has just been deported back to his home country of Spain. He describes how Israeli commandos boarded the ship in international waters and held them on the boat for over 24 hours while towing them to Israel. “They kidnapped us,” he says.

Condemnation is growing of President Trump’s travel ban that went into effect Monday, banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and the Republic of Congo. It also imposes heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. President Trump is “destroying what this nation stands for,” says Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition. “Immigration in the U.S. is an American value.” Guerline Jozef,

A nationwide “No Kings” movement plans to hold over 1,800 anti-Trump rallies across the United States on June 14, the same day as President Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C., as he celebrates his 79th birthday. Organizers are protesting President Trump’s mass deportations, militarized crackdown against protesters, defiance of court orders, and attacks on civil rights. “We’re going to show him on June 14 that real power lies in the people,” says Leah Greenberg⁠, co-founder and co-executive director of ⁠Indivisible. Tanks and other armored vehicles a

Newsom Slams Trump for Sending Troops to L.A.: “Democracy Is Under Assault Before Our Eyes”, Trump Claims Anti-ICE Protests in L.A. Are Part of “Foreign Invasion”, Curfew Enacted in Downtown L.A. as Protests Continue, Pentagon: Troop Deployment to L.A. Will Cost $134 Million, Texas Gov. Abbott Deploys National Guard as Anti-ICE Protests Grow, As Tanks Arrive in D.C., Trump Says “Very Heavy Force” Will Be Used on Protesters at Military Parade, 31 More Palestinians Killed Near Aid Distribution Site in Gaza, U.K. & Allies Impose Sanctions on Israeli Officials Smotrich & Ben-Gvir for Inciting Viol

Activists from around the world are planning a Global March to Gaza on June 15 in support of Palestinians enduring the Israeli blockade. The first Biden State Department diplomat to publicly resign over Gaza policy, Hala Rharrit, plans to attend the march along with thousands of others who will walk from Cairo to the Rafah border. “Silence does not ensure that we will be OK,” says Rharrit. “It’s quite the opposite. Silence ensures the injustice spreads.” Rharrit had served as the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department. She joins us from Dubai as she

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who was wrongfully sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in March, is now in federal custody in Tennessee after being returned to the United States over the weekend. He now faces federal criminal charges that he was illegally transporting undocumented immigrants within the U.S. “He’s still far away from what we want, which is for him to be freed and returned to his family,” says Chris Newman, a lawyer for Abrego Garcia’s family and legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. Newman draws connections between the L.A. anti-I

The Trump administration is sending 700 Marines and an additional 2,000 members of the National Guard into Los Angeles following four days of protests against militarized immigration raids. Rob Bonta, attorney general of California, sued to block the use of National Guard troops on Monday. “Unfortunately, I think [Trump] wants conflict,” said Bonta. “He wants something to erupt so that that provides the basis for him to try to grasp and seize additional power.” Bonta’s office is pursuing more than two dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration.

President Trump has inflamed tensions over immigration raids in Los Angeles, which his top adviser Stephen Miller described as an insurrection. “They want protesters to react violently to distract from what is really happening, which is that families are being separated, our communities are being devastated, and the people of Los Angeles are standing up to say, 'We will not stand for this,'” says Jean Guerrero, New York Times contributing opinion writer and author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda. Meanwhile, she notes Trump’s budget bill would fund

Trump Sends U.S. Marines into L.A., Doubles National Guard Presence Amid Anti-ICE Protests, Union Leader David Huerta Charged and Released on Bond After ICE Arrest, Australia Condemns LAPD Shooting of Reporter, One of Many Attacks on Reporters Covering L.A. Protests, Democratic Reps. Barred from Visiting ICE Detention Facilities, Israeli Attacks Kill 60+ People in Gaza, Including More Palestinians Awaiting Aid, Israeli Attack Kills 3 Paramedics, Another Journalist During Gaza Rescue Operation, Israel Launches Strikes on Yemen’s Hodeidah, Israel Deports 4 Freedom Flotilla Activists; Another 8 R

Eleven peace activists and one journalist on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla ship, the Madleen, were detained by Israeli soldiers as their ship carrying vital humanitarian aid for starving Palestinians approached Gaza. The ship was intercepted by Israeli forces in the middle of the night in international waters. Its supplies were seized and communications jammed. The unarmed activists will likely be transported to Israeli detention or “immediately deported,” says Ann Wright, a U.S. military veteran who has participated in four Freedom Flotilla journeys and now serves on the steering committee

As protests against ICE raids spread across the city, President Trump has deployed the California National Guard to Los Angeles, the first time in decades that a president has deployed the National Guard without a governor’s request. Trump’s border “czar” Tom Homan threatened to arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, while Newsom says he plans to sue. “This is absolutely unprecedented. It’s extremely dangerous,” says legal expert Elizabeth Goitein. “It’s going to escalate tensions rather than deescalating them.”

In Los Angeles, mass street protests have broken out in response to immigration raids. Local police and Border Patrol are cracking down on protesters, while the Trump administration has called in the California National Guard. “They shot thousands of rounds of tear gas, flashbang grenades, all kinds of repressive instruments,” says Ron Gochez, community organizer with Unión del Barrio who helped organize some of the protests. He notes many of the protests have also been successful at turning back immigration agents, preventing ICE arrests and detention. “If we organize ourselves, if we resist,

Trump Deploys National Guard to L.A. as Protests Continue over Militarized ICE Raids, Officers in L.A. Fire Rubber Bullets, Flashbang Grenades & Tear Gas at ICE Protesters & Journalists, Federal Agents Detain SEIU Labor Leader David Huerta in Los Angeles, Israel Intercepts Gaza-Bound Flotilla Carrying Greta Thunberg & Other Activists, More Palestinians Fatally Shot Attempting to Get Aid in Gaza, Russia Escalates Attacks on Ukraine After Trump Likened War to Playground Fight, New Trump Travel Ban Goes into Effect, Bars Citizens from 12 Nations, Kilmar Abrego Garcia Back Brought Back to U.S. to

We speak with Dr. Rupa Marya, a physician, activist, author and composer, who this week filed two free speech complaints against her former employer, the University of California, San Francisco. The school fired her last month after a lengthy suspension over her criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza and its impact on healthcare in the Palestinian territory. “I didn’t expect that my career-ending move would be to say 'stop bombing hospitals,' for expressing support for Palestinian liberation and for criticizing the U.S.-backed genocide,” says Marya. She was named one of the top 20 most influential

We get an update from the Madleen, the Freedom Flotilla ship sailing to Gaza with vital humanitarian aid for Palestinians. Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, one of 12 people on the ship, says “spirits are high” despite the constant presence of drones overhead and threats from the Israeli government. “Palestine is now the strategic place for all peoples to unite and fight against oppression, exploitation and the destruction of nature,” says Ávila. “People’s power is the ultimate power, and love and solidarity can beat any hateful, racist and supremacist ideology, like Zionism.” Earlier this week

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has filed a federal lawsuit, after he was arrested by masked federal agents outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement jail in Newark. “They arrested me without any evidence,” says Baraka of his decision to sue. “They humiliated me. They cuffed me. They dragged me in the car, took me to the cell. … It was completely unwarranted.” President Trump’s Justice Department is also suing Newark over its sanctuary policies, along with three other New Jersey cities, including Jersey City, where the mayor, Steve Fulop, is running for governor. Bar

President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” now before the Senate could result in over 51,000 preventable deaths each year in the United States. That’s according to public health experts at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, who sent a letter warning about the bill’s impact to the Senate Finance Committee. An estimated 16 million people stand to lose their health coverage as a result of the changes in the bill, which “imposes onerous paperwork and fails to safeguard healthcare tax credits,” says Alison Galvani, director of the Center for Infec

Is the Donald Trump-Elon Musk bromance finally over? President Trump is threatening to cut off billions of dollars in federal contracts with Musk after the two billionaires engaged in a dramatic online feud just days after Musk called Trump’s budget bill a “disgusting abomination.” Musk appeared to back the impeachment of Trump and claimed the president is named in the Jeffrey Epstein files. “They are people who always have their eye on the bottom line, but they also are, obviously, titanically sized egos,” says author Quinn Slobodian, professor of international h

Trump and Musk Trade Threats and Insults as Deepening Rift Threatens Trump’s Signature Bill, Netanyahu Acknowledges Israel Armed Gangs Accused of Looting Humanitarian Aid , Israel Attacks Beirut’s Suburbs and Southern Lebanon in Latest Ceasefire Violation, French Stevedores Refuse to Move Military Cargo Bound for Israel, House Progressives’ “Block the Bombs Act” Would End Transfer of Offensive Arms to Israel, State Department Sanctions ICC Judges over War Crimes Investigations, Trump Withdraws Nomination of Elon Musk Ally to Lead NASA, Trump Administration Waives Environmental Laws to Speed Bo

We’re joined by award-winning investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr, who in 2018 exposed the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal and is now taking on what she terms the “broligarchy,” the billionaire Silicon Valley businessmen who now wield major influence in U.S. government and society. “This is a new type of power, and the world hasn’t seen this before, in which you have state power now with this enormous surveillance engine machine,” says Cadwalladr. She warns that the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump administration is being facilitated

We speak to political scientist Neve Gordon and medical anthropologist Guy Shalev about their new article, “The Shame of Israeli Medicine,” which looks at the “complicity of the Israeli medical establishment with Israel’s egregious violations of international law.” The article’s third author, Osama Tanous, is a Palestinian citizen of Israel and has not been able to make media appearances for fear of reprisal by the Israeli government. “The Israeli medical establishment in general identifies with Israel’s colonial project and puts the colonial pro

A group of veterans and their allies have entered their third week of a “Fast for Gaza” outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The group is calling for an end to arms sales to Israel and of Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. We hear from multiple hunger strikers on their decisions to join the planned 40-day action and why they are pressuring the U.N. in particular. “We wake up each morning, and we don’t worry about whether or not our children have been buried under rubble overnight. We’re not drinking poisoned water. We’re not surr

We get an update on the case of former Columbia University student protest negotiator Mahmoud Khalil from Baher Azmy, a member of Khalil’s legal team at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Khalil has been detained in Louisiana for nearly three months, in what Azmy calls one of “our immigration gulags.” Khalil’s legal team is now challenging the State Department’s determination that his presence in the United States harms the country’s foreign policy interests.

President Trump has signed a new travel ban barring citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States. The ban applies to Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and the Republic of Congo. The Trump administration is calling some of the countries “terrorist safe havens” and citing high visa overstay rates for others. Compared to the first Trump administration’s sweeping travel bans, which targeted travelers from Muslim-majority countries, this latest iteration is more likely to withstand legal challenges, says Bah

Trump Signs Travel Ban Targeting Citizens of 12 Countries , United States Vetoes Another U.N. Security Council Resolution Calling for Gaza Ceasefire, Israel Attacks Al-Ahli Hospital, Killing at Least 3 Journalists, Protesters Demand U.S. and U.K. Lawmakers Act to Stop Genocide in Gaza, Deadly Russian Attacks on Ukraine Follow Putin’s Threat of Retaliation over Drone Strikes, Iran’s Supreme Leader Rejects Trump Administration Demand to End Uranium Enrichment, Human Rights Watch Says U.S. Committed Apparent War Crime in Yemen Port Attack, Trump Targets Columbia’s Accreditation and Harvard’s Inte

The new book Empire of AI by longtime technology reporter Karen Hao unveils the accruing political and economic power of AI companies — especially Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the exploitation of workers in Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology’s detrimental impact on the environment. “This is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms,” says Hao.

As Gaza faces over three months of Israeli blockade, a group of 12 activists is sailing to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. The Madleen ship was launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and initially planned to sail from Malta last month, but the group’s ship was damaged in a drone attack. The new mission includes the renowned Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who speaks with Democracy Now! live from the Madleen. “We deem the risk of silence and the risk of inaction to be so much more deadly than this mission,” says Thunberg.

Officials in Gaza say over 100 Palestinians have been killed during recent Israeli attacks on people waiting at aid sites. An additional 500 are wounded. Following the series of deadly attacks, the shadowy U.S.-Israeli humanitarian aid operation is shutting down for a day, and Israel’s military warned Palestinians that roads leading to the aid distribution centers will be considered “combat zones.” The United Nations has called for a prompt and impartial investigation into each of the attacks. The U.S.-Israeli aid system is “more about the humiliation and the control of

Israel Kills 95 Palestinians Across Gaza in a Day; 18 Killed in Bombing of School Turned Shelter, Shadowy Gaza “Humanitarian” Group Suspends Operations After Massacres at Aid Sites, Israel Resumes Attacks on Syrian Military Infrastructure with Daraa Airstrikes, South Korea Liberal Candidate Lee Jae-myung Wins Presidential Election, U.N. Food Delivery Convoy Workers Killed in Darfur as Sudan’s Food and Public Health Crises Deepen, Dozens of Civilians Killed in Clashes Between Militias and South Sudan’s Army, Trump Asks Congress to Rescind $8.3 Billion in Foreign Assistance, “A Disgusting Abomin

The Trump administration has tapped Palantir — the notorious data-mining firm co-founded by billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel — to compile information on people in the United States for a “master database,” creating an easy way to cross-reference sensitive data from tax records, immigration records and more. Palantir also has a $30 million contract with ICE to provide almost real-time visibility into immigrants’ movements as the agency seeks to arrest 3,000 people a day. Wired reporter Makena Kelly says the company is “becoming an operation system for the entire government,” and describes

President Donald Trump is pushing Republican senators to back his “big, beautiful bill,” which includes new funding to carry out his mass deportation agenda by hiring additional ICE officers and adding detention space. ICE has already signed new agreements with jails around the country for additional capacity, and confirmed nine deaths in custody since Trump took office. “It really feels like a paradigm-shifting moment,” says Detention Watch Network executive director Silky Shah. “People are being packed into overcrowded cells. People are not getting medical care. They’re in conditions where t

Protests over ICE raids are continuing across the United States as agents arrest immigrants at courthouses, from their workplaces, on the way to school and more. Immigration and human rights advocate Adriana Jasso with Unión del Barrio describes protests that met a massive raid in San Diego at a popular restaurant, the targeting of farmworkers, and how her organization has been conducting ICE patrols to alert the community.

As the Trump administration vows to escalate its targeting of immigrants to 3,000 arrests a day, and the Supreme Court rules it can proceed with stripping some 500,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela of their legal status, we get an update from Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “It is the biggest mass delegalization in modern history of people who followed every single rule that the U.S. government asked of them,” says Jozef. “This has been a nightmare.”

Israeli Forces Again Fire on Crowds Trying to Access Aid in Gaza, Killing Another 27 Palestinians, U.N. Calls for Probe into Israel’s Aid Site Massacre That Killed 31 People, UNICEF: Israel Has Killed or Injured Over 50,000 Children in Gaza Since Start of Genocide, Israeli Forces Kill 14-Year-Old West Bank Palestinian as Settler Attacks Soar, Protests Erupt as ICE Arrests High School Students, Avelo Airlines Faces Protests, Boycotts over ICE Deportation Flights, Senate Takes Up Budget Bill to Make Tax Cuts for the Rich Permanent, Advocates for Poor & Disabled Arrested at Capitol Hill Protest A

It’s graduation season in the United States, and many brave students are taking the opportunity to demonstrate support for Palestinian rights despite an ongoing campus crackdown on pro-Palestine speech. We play excerpts from commencement and graduation addresses at MIT and Harvard and are joined by a student who spoke at Harvard Divinity School’s graduation ceremony. Zehra Imam, a Muslim associate chaplain at MIT, recounts the collaborative, interfaith process of writing her speech with Christian and Jewish classmates and explains why she decided to quote students from Gaza in her address. “Th

A massacre of dozens of starving Palestinians waiting for aid occurred at a site operated by the shadowy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation over the weekend. It is exactly what many observers warned about when they expressed skepticism over the U.S.- and Israel-backed aid scheme. “It’s not a real organization,” says Eyad Amawi, a coordinator for local NGOs based in Gaza who accuses the Israeli military of using the slow trickle of aid it allows into southern Gaza “as a tool to increase suffering.”

Health officials and witnesses in Gaza say at least 31 people were killed Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds headed to an Israeli-controlled aid distribution point near Rafah. Over 170 people were wounded. Israel denied responsibility. Dr. Victoria Rose, a volunteer surgeon in Gaza who treated some of the massacre’s survivors, decries the ongoing violence of the Israeli military upon the besieged territory’s civilian population. “There are hundreds and thousands of children needlessly dying, children being blown up, children being starved and children dying of o

We get an update on ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel from former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy. The latest proposal, mediated by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, “walks back the commitment for a permanent ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal and allowing in of humanitarian aid.” It’s a bad deal for the Palestinians that will allow Israel to continue its ethnic cleansing of Gaza, says Levy. Meanwhile, families of Israeli hostages are protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s delays in securing a deal as he works toward “perm

Russia and Ukraine Hold Talks in Istanbul as Ukraine War Intensifies, Israel Accused of Opening Fire on Palestinians Waiting for Aid in Gaza, Killing at Least 31 People, Israel Demolishes Only Dialysis Facility in Gaza Amid Ongoing Destruction of Health Infrastructure, Hamas Submits Ceasefire Proposal Demanding Complete End to Israel’s Attacks, Suspect in Custody over Incendiary Attack on Boulder, Colorado, Event for Israeli Hostages, SCOTUS Allows Trump Admin to Strip Legal Protections for Half a Million Immigrants as Courts Hear Case, Armed ICE Agents Wreak Havoc as They Descend on San Diego