Headlines for January 9, 2026
* [Portland Mayor Calls on ICE to Halt Operations in City After Border Agents Shot Married Couple][1]
* [The Killing of Renee Good: Minnesota Officials Fear Cover-Up After FBI Halts Cooperation with State Investigators][2]
* [Rep. Robin Kelly to Introduce Articles to Impeach Kristi Noem][3]
* [Immigration Agents Denounced for Raid Outside Minneapolis High School][4]
* [Bipartisan Bill Advances in Senate to Block Trump from Taking Military Action in Venezuela][5]
* ["Would Be Great Honor": Trump on Offer by Machado to Share Nobel Prize with Him][6]
* [U.S. Considers Sending $100,000 to Each Greenlander as Part of Trump Push to Take Over Island][7]
* [Protests Continue in Iran; Trump Renews Threat to Attack Iran If Protesters Are Crushed][8]
* ["There's Neither Peace Nor Truce": Israel Kills 14 Palestinians in Gaza][9]
* [Russia Deploys Hypersonic Missile in Massive Attack on Ukraine][10]
* [17 House Republicans Join Democrats to Restore Obamacare Subsidies][11]
* [Reps. Khanna & Massie Call for Special Master to Oversee DOJ Release of Epstein Documents][12]
* [Mamdani & Hochul Announce Plan to Provide Free Child Care for 2-Year-Olds in NYC][13]
"What Are You Hiding?" Minnesota AG Keith Ellison Says ICE Killing of Renee Good Must Be Investigated
[[Seg1 minneapolis3]][1]
Minnesota state investigators say the FBI is blocking them from investigating the ICE shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three and award-winning poet who was killed in her car on January 7. The federal government’s claims of immunity for the ICE officer — identified as Iraq War veteran Jonathan Ross — go against precedent, as does its refusal to cooperate with state authorities, says Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is demanding a local and state-led investigation into Good’s homicide and an end to the Trump administration’s “smear tactics” against Good. “This is Third Reich stuff,” adds Ellison, decrying the escalation in aggressive tactics employed by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis and throughout the country. “This is an unprecedented attack on American institutions.”
[1]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/9/minnesota_attorney_general_keith_ellison
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/9/minnesota_attorney_general_keith_ellison
"The Voice of Hind Rajab," Shortlisted for Oscar, Uses Audio of 6-Year-Old Girl Killed in Gaza
[[Seg2 hind]][1]
Two years ago this month, the world was gripped by a series of shocking recordings of a 6-year-old girl in Gaza pleading for help as she sat trapped in a car riddled with bullets alongside the bodies of her cousins, aunt and uncle, who had just been killed by Israeli forces as the family attempted to flee the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza City. Emergency responders with the Palestine Red Crescent Society attempted to secure safe passage to rescue the child, an elementary school student named Hind Rajab, but Israeli forces also targeted and destroyed an ambulance as it arrived on the scene, killing medical workers Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, before firing again at the family’s car, killing Rajab.
“When you hear her voice, you can’t unhear it,” says the award-winning Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, whose new Oscar-shortlisted film, *The Voice of Hind Rajab*, incorporates recordings of Rajab’s emergency calls to depict responders’ race-against-the-clock attempt to save her — and the ultimate failure of the international community to prevent her violent death. Ben Hania says the film, a hybrid of documentary and drama, is an effort to “honor [Rajab’s] voice, but also to tell this incredible story of those heroes trying to save lives in impossible conditions.”
[1]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/9/the_voice_of_hind_rajab
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/9/the_voice_of_hind_rajab
"Holding Liat": Former Israeli Hostage Says "There Aren't Any Conflicts That Are Unsolvable"
[[Seg3 liat2]][1]
On October 7, 2023, Israeli American Liat Atzili was taken captive along with 250 others during Hamas’s attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz. Over the next two months, her family members, including film director Brandon Kramer, tirelessly advocated for her release, an endeavour now documented in Kramer’s new film, *Holding Liat*. We speak to Atzili and Kramer about their family’s ordeal and Atzili’s captivity in Gaza, where she was held in isolation alongside another Israeli woman by members of Hamas until November 2023. “They kept telling us that they had no idea what was going on with other hostages, and that it was their job to keep us safe and to keep us healthy until we were released in a hostage deal. And that’s what they did,” she says. Since her release, Atzili has become a fierce advocate for peace and reconciliation. “There aren’t any conflicts that are unsolvable. It’s just a matter of people wanting to speak to each other and wanting to listen and to understand each other’s stories,”
she says. “If we don’t do that, we’re just allowing violence to take over.”
Headlines for January 8, 2026
* [ICE Agent Fatally Shoots 37-Year-Old Minneapolis Mother During Immigration Enforcement Raid][1]
* [Mayor Tells ICE to "Get the Fuck Out of Minneapolis" as Trump Spreads Disinformation About Shooting][2]
* [Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly to File Articles of Impeachment Against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem][3]
* [White House Plans "Indefinite" Control of Venezuela's Oil Industry as U.S. Seizes More Tankers][4]
* [Trump Invites President Gustavo Petro to White House After Threatening Attacks on Colombia][5]
* [Trump Announces U.S. Withdrawal from Dozens of International Groups and U.N. Agencies][6]
* [Drone Strike by Sudanese Paramilitary Group Kills 13, Including Children][7]
* [Israeli Forces Kill Children and Civilians in Fresh Violations of Gaza Ceasefire][8]
* [U.N. Rights Chief Decries "Apartheid" in Occupied West Bank as Israel Approves New Settlements][9]
* [Trump Calls for Increasing U.S. Military Spending to $1.5 Trillion][10]
* [House Oversight Committee to Subpoena Billionaire Les Wexner over Epstein Ties][11]
"Terror & Chaos": Minneapolis Reeling After ICE Killing of Renee Nicole Good
[[Seg1 renee ice shooting scene]][1]
We speak with two people who responded to the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis Wednesday. Trump administration officials claim the agent acted in self-defense, but local officials, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, reject that claim.
“This could happen to you in your city,” says Robin Wonsley, member of the Minneapolis City Council. “This happening here in Minneapolis sets a tone for this to play out in many other cities.”
The shooting comes after the Trump administration deployed over 2,000 ICE agents to Minnesota.
“This is not normal,” says Edwin Torres DeSantiago with the Immigrant Defense Network, which monitors ICE activity and has received thousands of requests from Minnesotans who want to volunteer as “constitutional observers” of ICE in Minneapolis. “We’ve been seeing people terrorized all over the state and all over the country under the guise of protection.”
[1]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/8/minneapolis_ice_shooting_renee_nicole_good
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/8/minneapolis_ice_shooting_renee_nicole_good
"An Act of War": Trump's Venezuela Attack & Abduction of Maduro Has "No Clear Historical Precedent"
[[Seg2 madurocapture delcy]][1]
U.S. forces have seized two more oil tankers with links to Venezuela, days after the U.S. attacked Venezuela and abducted President Nicolás Maduro along with his wife, making former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez the new leader of the country. “This is a decapitation without regime change,” says Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez. “The political system in Venezuela remains intact.” In Caracas, former Venezuelan diplomat Carlos Ron says Maduro is a “prisoner of war” and that Venezuelans “are angry and are upset about this incursion from the United States.” This comes as the Trump administration has announced plans to control sales of Venezuela’s oil “indefinitely.”
[1]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/8/venezuela_carlos_ron_francisco_rodriguez
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/8/venezuela_carlos_ron_francisco_rodriguez
Headlines for January 7, 2026
* [Venezuela's Military Announces 24 Security Officers Were Killed in U.S. Attack][1]
* [Trump: Venezuela Will Give the U.S. Up to 50 Million Barrels of Oil][2]
* [Secretary of State Rubio Tells Lawmakers Trump Wants to Buy Greenland][3]
* [U.S. Pledges to Provide Ukraine with Security Guarantees for the First Time][4]
* [Qatar Accuses Israel of "Political Blackmail" for Refusing to Reopen Rafah Crossing][5]
* [Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar Visits Somaliland][6]
* [At Least 34 People Killed During Protests in Iran][7]
* [ICE Arrests 150 People After DHS Surges 2,000 Agents to Minnesota][8]
* [Trump Admin Slashes $10 Billion in Funding for Social Programs in Five Democratic-Led States][9]
* [The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Votes to Dissolve Itself][10]
* [American Federation of Teachers Sues Texas Education Department for Probing Teachers' Speech After Charlie Kirk's Death][11]
* [GOP Congressmember Doug LaMalfa of California Dies at 65][12]
* [Trump Warns Democrats Will Impeach Him If Republicans Don't Win Midterm Elections][13]
[7]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/7/headlines/at_least_34_people_killed_during_protests_in_iran
"This Is Our Hemisphere": Report from Colombia on Trump's Escalating Threats to the Region
[[Seg1 trump petro]][1]
Following his attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump has escalated his threats against Colombia and claimed without evidence that President Gustavo Petro is involved in cocaine trafficking. Trump and others in his administration have also threatened military action against Cuba, Greenland, Iran and Mexico in recent days.
Manuel Rozental, a Colombian physician and activist with more than 40 years of involvement in grassroots political organizing, tells *Democracy Now!* that Trump’s attacks on Petro are lies. The former guerrilla “has seized more cocaine than any other government in the past,” says Rozental. “President Petro is not a drug trafficker. President Petro has been a victim of drug mafias and their allies.”
Trump's Plan to Seize Greenland Would "Militarize the Arctic," Trample Indigenous Rights
[[Seg2 greenland 1]][1]
Following the U.S. attack on Venezuela, the Trump administration has renewed its campaign to take over Greenland, which has been controlled by Denmark for more than 300 years. The White House says it’s considering “a range of options,” including the use of military force. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that if the U.S. were to attack Greenland, it would spell the end of NATO.
“Greenland is not up for sale,” says Aaju Peter, a Greenlandic Inuit activist and attorney, who says Indigenous Greenlanders want their independence from both the U.S. and Denmark.
We also speak with analyst Pavel Devyatkin, who says the U.S. is “acting like a rogue state” and enacting a policy of “pure imperialism.”
"Firestorm": MS NOW's Jacob Soboroff on Anniversary of L.A. Fires & "America's New Age of Disaster"
[[Seg3 jacob book]][1]
We speak with journalist Jacob Soboroff about his new book and ongoing reporting about the Los Angeles fires one year ago, when destructive infernos razed entire neighborhoods, killing 30 people and displacing over 100,000 more. The book *Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster* provides a detailed look at how the fires unfolded, the emergency efforts and the political response. Soboroff, who grew up in the area, describes seeing the charred remains of his own childhood home while misinformation from Donald Trump, Elon Musk and other powerful figures was “pouring rhetorical fuel on the flames of the very real fire.”
Headlines for January 6, 2026
* [Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores Plead "Not Guilty" to Drug and Weapons Charges in U.S. Court][1]
* [Venezuelan VP Delcy Rodríguez Sworn In as Interim President][2]
* [U.S. Assault on Venezuela Condemned by Allies and Adversaries Alike at U.N. Security Council][3]
* [Grand Rapids Police Arrest Protest Antiwar Organizer on TV After She Condemns Trump][4]
* [WSJ: Trump Tipped Off Oil Executives a Month Before U.S. Attack on Venezuela][5]
* [Venezuelan Opposition Leader Machado Says She Plans to Return to Venezuela][6]
* [Danish Prime Minister Warns U.S. Attack on Greenland Would Mean the End of NATO][7]
* [Israel Launches Airstrikes in Lebanon, Claiming to Target Hezbollah and Hamas][8]
* [U.S. Drops the Number of Vaccines Recommended for Every Child][9]
* [Democrats Demand Speaker Johnson Unveil a Plaque Honoring Police Officers from Jan. 6 Insurrection][10]
* [Defense Secretary Hegseth Censures Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly][11]
* [Trump Admin Deploys 2,000 ICE Agents to Minneapolis to Probe Alleged Cases of Fraud][12]
"It's All About the Oil, Stupid!": Mehdi Hasan on Trump Attacking Venezuela & Kidnapping Maduro
[[Seg mehdi trump]][1]
_Zeteo_’s Mehdi Hasan outlines Donald Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine,” a throwback foreign policy exemplified by the Trump administration’s shocking intervention in Venezuela. With his claims of U.S. sovereignty over nations in the Western Hemisphere, “Trump’s basically saying, 'Well, this is ours, and China, Russia can have their spheres of influence,' and it is very 19th-century-esque. ’Let’s divide up the world between the powers.’” This orientation is a major shift from U.S. foreign policy of recent decades, such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when interventionist actions were framed around ideological motivations, explains Hasan. “They said it was WMDs. They said it was democracy. They said it was al-Qaeda. They at least pretended that it wasn’t about the oil.” Meanwhile, Trump is brazen about his aims to seize control of Venezuela’s resources and demonstrate that “might is right.”
[1]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/6/maduro_venezuela_mehdi_hasan
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/6/maduro_venezuela_mehdi_hasan
"Imperial Laboratory": Alexander Aviña on the "Donroe" Doctrine & U.S. Intervention in Latin America
[[Booksplitv1]][1]
We take a closer look at the Trump administration’s Monroe Doctrine-based “Donroe Doctrine” — a tightening of U.S. control over the Americas amid weakening global hegemony and internal divisions within the governing MAGA coalition. “As has happened in the past, when the U.S. has faced resistance or defeat elsewhere in the world, they come back 'home' to the Western Hemisphere. They use Latin America as an imperial laboratory, as they have since almost the founding of the United States,” explains Alexander Aviña, an associate professor of Latin American history at Arizona State University. “It’s just part of this long history of constant U.S. intervention in the region to prevent and not tolerate Latin American assertions of sovereignty and self-determination.”
Chevron Stocks Surge After Trump Vows to "Take Back" Venezuela's Oil After U.S. Attack
[[Seg david oils]][1]
The share prices of U.S. oil companies surged following the Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela and abduction of its president, Nicolás Maduro. In public statements, Trump has been clear about his desire to reassert U.S. corporate control over Venezuela’s nationalized oil industry. Now with Trump’s show of force over Venezuela’s political sovereignty, many investors see the potential for a similar overpowering of the socialist country’s economic independence. However, notes financial reporter David Uberti, it won’t be so easy for Wall Street to make a profit. In addition to upgrading Venezuela’s “decrepit” oil-producing infrastructure, “they have to push for more appetite for oil around the world.”
Trump Family Businesses Rake in $4 Billion After His Reelection with Focus on AI, Crypto & Nuclear
[[Guest david on camera]][1]
Ventures launched by the Trump family since Donald Trump’s reelection have generated at least $4 billion in proceeds and paper wealth for the Trump family. With investments across sectors like real estate, hospitality, media, cryptocurrency and more, the Trumps are “increasingly integrating their business empire” into the wider U.S. economy, says David Uberti, who has been reporting on the family’s self-enrichment for *The Wall Street Journal*. The coupling of Trump’s economic and political influence is raising major questions about conflicts of interest. “You have all of these different business interests in different areas in which the government regulates,” and this “proximity to power may help along some of these deals and the valuations at which they’re made.”
We look at the Trumps’ cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial and the Trump Organization’s planned $6 billion merger with a firm hoping to build a nuclear fusion plant to power AI data centers with Uberti, who says such “very speculative, highly risky corners of financial markets” are key to the family’s investment strategy.
[1]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/6/trump_family_businesses
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/6/trump_family_businesses
Headlines for January 5, 2026
* [U.S. Launches Attack on Venezuela, Captures Maduro and His Wife][1]
* [Trump Threatens Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Iran and Mexico After Attack on Venezuela][2]
* [Secretary of State Rubio Warns Cuban Government After U.S. Attack on Venezuela][3]
* [Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Congratulates Trump on "Perfect Operation" in Venezuela][4]
* [Russia Affirms Support for Venezuelan Gov't After Attacking Ukraine's Second-Largest City Kharkiv][5]
* [Greenland's Prime Minister Nielsen Fires Back Against Trump's Threats][6]
* [Top Democrats Say Trump Admin Still Has Not Briefed Congress About Venezuela Attack][7]
* [Protesters Worldwide Condemn U.S. Assault on Venezuela][8]
* [Trump Threatens to Strike Iran on Behalf of Protesters][9]
* [Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan Resigns While Appealing Felony Conviction for Aiding Immigrant][10]
[8]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/5/headlines/protesters_worldwide_condemn_us_assault_on_venezuela
"Venezuela Is Not Going to Be a U.S. Colony": Report from Caracas on U.S. Attack & Maduro Abduction
[[Seg1 chaves maduro nyc court]][1]
U.S. forces attacked Venezuela and abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a Saturday night raid. About 80 people were reportedly killed, including 32 Cubans. *Democracy Now!* speaks with Andreína Chávez, a Venezuelan reporter based in Caracas, who calls the strikes an “imperialist attack.” Trump also said the U.S. would take the oil from Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven reserves.
[1]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/5/us_venezuela_trump_maduro
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/5/us_venezuela_trump_maduro
"Imperialist Intervention": Law Prof. David Cole on the Illegality of U.S. Attack on Venezuela
[[Seg2 cole maduro captured ]][1]
The Trump administration did not seek congressional authorization prior to attacking Venezuela, as is required by the Constitution. It also violated “probably the first principle of international law … that countries have to respect their neighbors, and they can’t simply invade a neighbor or any other sovereign nation because they don’t like the way they are running things there,” says law professor David Cole. The attack was clearly not a law enforcement operation, as the administration has claimed, but an “imperialist intervention,” says Cole, who notes President Trump’s comments on extracting oil from the region.
[1]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/5/maduro_abduction_is_illegal_david_cole
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/5/maduro_abduction_is_illegal_david_cole
Trump "Just Wants Oil," Not Democracy: What's Next in Trump's War on Venezuela?
[[Seg3 trump oil]][1]
*Democracy Now!* discusses the attack on Venezuela with two Venezuelan American scholars: Alejandro Velasco, an associate history professor at New York University, and Miguel Tinker Salas, emeritus professor of history at Pomona College. The professors react to President Trump’s comments on the presence of oil in the region and claims that Venezuela had “stolen” oil from U.S. companies. “There was no taking of 'American property or American oil' — it was Venezuelan oil,” says Tinker Salas. “It belonged to Venezuela.”
Velasco also comments on Marco Rubio, a central figure in the U.S. campaign against Venezuela, who may have another country as his ultimate target. “Rubio’s primary interest in the region is not Venezuela, it’s not Colombia, it’s not Mexico — it’s Cuba,” says Velasco.
[1]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/5/maduro_abduction_impact_on_latin_america
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/5/maduro_abduction_impact_on_latin_america
"The West Bank Is the Prize": Israel Approves New Settlements to "Bury" Palestinian State
Israel gave final approval Wednesday for a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank, sabotaging efforts at creating a future Palestinian state. The project has been on hold for over 20 years, largely due to pressure from previous U.S. administrations. The “E-1” settlement would see the construction of about 3,400 new housing units and would sever one of the last remaining territorial links between major Palestinian cities like Ramallah in the northern West Bank and southern cities including Bethlehem, as well as cut off East Jerusalem. “The West Bank is nearly 6,000 kilometers squared in size, and it has been the prize for Israel,” says Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer and journalist based in Ramallah. Barghouti says Israeli officials have blatantly expressed their intent to bury the prospect of a Palestinian state. “Israel is not engaging in just a war in Gaza,” she says. “It is engaging in a war of annihilation of Palestinians.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/21/mariam_barghouti_west_bank_israel_palestine
YouTube Star Ms. Rachel on Her Gaza Advocacy: "My Deep Care for Children Doesn't Stop at Any Border"`
We speak with Rachel Griffin Accurso, the educator known to millions around the world as Ms. Rachel, who has become a leading advocate for children in Gaza. Her YouTube channel for young children became wildly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic and today has more than 16 million subscribers. Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, Accurso has used her social media reach to speak out for Palestinian children facing hunger, disease, injury and death. She has been hailed as the heir to Mister Rogers, the legendary PBS children’s entertainer who also used his position in families’ living rooms to speak out on social issues.
“I see all children as precious and equal. My deep care for children doesn’t stop at any border,” Accurso tells *Democracy Now!* in a wide-ranging interview.
We also speak with Tareq Hailat, director of the Treatment Abroad Program for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, who helped connect Accurso with a 3-year-old girl from Gaza named Rahaf who lost both her legs in an Israeli airstrike. Accurso and Rahaf filmed a video, in which they sing a dance together.
Hailat describes Accurso as “one of the most significant, if not the most significant, voices for Palestinian human rights” in the world. “Her advocacy has touched the hearts of people that never would have ever heard about Gaza or the Palestinian children, and that’s why her voice is so vital,” he says.
"This Is Orchestrated Killing": MSF Condemns GHF Aid Sites, Saying They Were Set Up to Be Death Traps
Doctors Without Borders is demanding the closure of Israeli- and U.S.-backed food distribution centers in Gaza run by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. About 1,400 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food at GHF sites since May. A new report from Doctors Without Borders — also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF — gathers testimony from its medics and others about the apparently deliberate targeting of Palestinians seeking food.
“The GHF is singularly disorganized, reckless, dangerous, and we cannot help but come to the conclusion that these are deliberately set-up death traps,” says Doctors Without Borders CEO Avril Benoît. She stresses that the starvation crisis in Gaza is entirely a result of Israel’s ongoing siege of the territory. “People are starving because Israel wants them to,” says Benoît.
"Tightening the Chokehold": Amjad Iraqi on Israel's Plans to "Empty Out" Gaza and Annex West Bank
Israel’s security cabinet is considering plans to expand Israel’s assault on Gaza toward a full military takeover, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly pushing for a monthslong offensive on Gaza City and central Gaza refugee camps. The cabinet meeting comes as Israel’s forced starvation of Gaza claimed at least four new victims over the past 24 hours, according to health officials. “Israeli politicians have really made it no secret that they envision and want to see the mass displacement of Palestinians as southward as possible, if not completely ejected from the Gaza Strip,” says Amjad Iraqi, senior Israel-Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group. Given that Israel’s allies have allowed the state to act with impunity, Iraqi adds, “you also cannot separate Gaza and the West Bank.” The Israeli government is “deciding that it could actually pursue and replicate many of the same policies in the West Bank.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/7/amjad_iraqi_gaza_walking_corpses
Headlines for August 5, 2025
Eight More Palestinians Starve to Death as Netanyahu Plans to Fully Occupy Gaza Strip, Mike Johnson Visits Illegal West Bank Settlement After Israeli Forces Kill Another U.S. Citizen, Netanyahu’s Government Votes Unanimously to Remove Attorney General Prosecuting Corruption, Over 40 Arrested Outside Trump International Hotel in NYC Protesting Israel’s Starvation of Gaza, Activists from 44 Countries Plan Largest-Ever Gaza Aid Flotilla in September, Sudan’s Army Repels Attack on North Darfur’s Capital as Civil War Leads to “Protracted Famine”, Over 1 Million Afghans Expelled from Iran Face Torture and Famine Exacerbated by U.S. Aid Cuts, Texas Republicans Approve Arrest Warrants for Democrats Who Fled State to Halt Gerrymandering, “We Are At War”: New York Gov. Hochul to Abandon Nonpartisan Redistricting, Purdue Student Yeonsoo Go Released from ICE Custody; L.A. Plaintiff Details Abuse in ICE Jail, Former Prison Guard Sentenced to 15 Years for Fatal Beating of Robert Brooks, “Political
Warfare”: Jeffrey Epstein Survivors Blast Trump over DOJ Files, Millions Face Air Quality Alerts as Wildfire Smoke Covers Swaths of North America, Global Plastic Pollution Found Responsible for $1.5 Trillion in Damages Annually
Texas Showdown: Dem. Lawmakers Flee State to Stop Gerrymandering, Warn Trump Will Try It Again
More than 50 Democrats in the Texas Legislature have left the state to block the passage of a new congressional map, which was gerrymandered to give Republicans five extra seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The new map would especially harm Latino and Black representation in Congress, but President Trump is pushing for it in order to retain a Republican majority in the 2026 midterm election. “Texas is essentially just going to be the guinea pig. Once Trump is able to get what he needs out of Texas, he’s essentially just going to do it in other states, and we cannot allow that,” says Texas state Representative Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, who joins us from Illinois. Because Republicans hold the majority in both chambers of the Texas Legislature, state Democrats have fled Texas to other U.S. states to prevent the Legislature from making quorum, or the minimum number of legislators required to conduct a legislative session. The process, known as quorum-breaking, has rarely been
used before, but, says Hernandez, “We are in unprecedented times.”
Headlines for July 25, 2025
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
Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Gaza Siege, American Killed by Israeli Settlers & Epstein's Financial Network
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.”
Israel Waging "Fastest Starvation Campaign" in Modern History in Gaza: U.N. Special Rapporteur on Food
“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.
Former EPA Official on Trump Gutting Science Research Office: "People Are Not Going to Be Protected"
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.
"Farmworkers’ Voices Are Not Being Heard": UFW President Teresa Romero on ICE Raids & Workers’ Lives
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 Alanís 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.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/16/farmworkers_trump_immigration_crackdown_ufw_union
Headlines for July 8, 2025
Netanyahu and Trump Promote Plan to Expel Palestinians from Gaza, As Trump Hosts Netanyahu, Protesters Rally at White House Gates to Oppose Gaza Slaughter, Israel Continues Slaughter of Palestinians at Gaza Aid Sites, Homes and Schools, Death Toll from Texas Floods Tops 100 as Hope Fades for Missing Victims, Trump Administration Cancels Protected Status for Honduran and Nicaraguan Immigrants, Armed and Masked Federal Agents Descend on L.A.'s MacArthur Park, “Your Silence Won't Save You”: L.A. Activists Urge Communities Nationwide to Rise Up Against Fascism, 11 Killed in Kenya Protests Marking Anniversary of 1990 Pro-Democracy Uprising, Russian Attacks in Ukraine Target Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa, Trump Sending More Weapons to Ukraine Because He’s “Not Happy with Putin”, Trump Revives Tariffs Threat on 14 Countries Unless They Make a Deal with U.S. by Aug. 1, BRICS Meeting Kicks Off in Rio as Trump Escalates Tariff Threat on Global South Bloc, Judge Temporarily Blocks Ban on
Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood
What Is the Trump Doctrine? John Bellamy Foster on U.S. Foreign Policy & the "New MAGA Imperialism"
What is MAGA imperialism? *Monthly Review* editor John Bellamy Foster says that, despite its feints toward anti-imperialist isolationism, President Donald Trump’s foreign policy has coalesced into a “hyper-nationalist” form of populism that rejects the U.S.'s post-WWII adherence to liberal internationalism and promotes dominance over other countries via military power rather than through economic globalization. Foster explains that this “Trump doctrine is opposed to multi-ethnic empires and multi-ethnic nations,” operating under a “racial definition of foreign policy, with the notion that the United States is a white country and other ethnicities don't belong.” And while some analyses of the Trump coalition locate its base in the “white working class,” in reality this ideology is rooted in the lower middle class, which owns more property and is less opposed to the wealthy capitalist class. “If you go back to the 1930s, to Italy and Germany, it’s the same constituency that drove the
fascist movement, but it’s a result of an alliance between big capital … and the lower middle class.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/8/trump_doctrine_maga_imperialism
Headlines for July 7, 2025
Trump Signs Bill to Cut Taxes on the Rich, Gut Social Programs and Speed Mass Deportations, Texas Floods Kill at Least 82 People, with Dozens Still Missing and More Rains Forecast, Amid Grief and Anger, TX Officials Blame Federal Gov’t While Trump Deflects Questions on FEMA’s Fate, “It’s Criminal”: Trump Admin Discontinues Publication of Federal Reports on Climate Crisis, MSF’s Abdullah Hammad Killed by Israel, the 609th Medical Worker Killed in Gaza Genocide, “Shoot and Ask Questions Later”: U.S. Whistleblower Says “Aid” Workers Told to Attack Palestinians, Israel Attacks Yemen Ports, Power Plant as Houthis Continue Attacks on Israel over Gaza Genocide, Netanyahu Visits U.S. Despite ICC Arrest Warrant as Trump Touts Possible Ceasefire, U.K. Police Arrest Activists, Including 83-Year-Old Priest, for Protesting Ban on Palestine Action, Eight Immigrants Expelled from U.S. Transferred to South Sudan After SCOTUS Ruling, 200 U.S. Marines Descend on Florida to Assist in ICE Crackdown on
Immigrants, Donald Trump vs. Elon Musk Feud Escalates with Announcement of “America Party”, Philadelphia City Workers Have Been on Strike for One Week to Demand Dignified Wages
Journalist Karen Hao on Sam Altman, OpenAI & the "Quasi-Religious" Push for Artificial Intelligence
As part of our July Fourth special broadcast, we continue our extended interview with Karen Hao, author of *Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI*. The book documents the rise of OpenAI and how the AI industry is leading to a new form of colonialism. “One of the things that you really have to understand about AI development today is that there are what I call quasi-religious movements that have developed within Silicon Valley,” says Hao. “The concept of artificial general intelligence is not one that’s scientifically grounded.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/4/journalist_karen_hao_on_sam_altman
Headlines for July 2, 2025
Senate Narrowly Approves Massive Bill to Gut Social Programs and Cut Taxes on the Rich, “We Will Not Accept This Intimidation”: NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Rejects Trump’s Threats, Israel Continues Attacks on Aid Seekers as Gaza’s Largest Hospital Is Forced to Halt Dialysis , Study Finds U.S. Foreign Aid Cuts Could Kill 14 Million People by 2030, Trump Administration Withholds $6.8 Billion in Public School Funding, Judge Blocks RFK Jr.'s Plan to Radically Downsize Department of Health and Human Services, Trump Jokes About Alligators Eating Immigrants During Tour of New Florida ICE Jail, Trump Administration Transfers More Immigrants to Guantánamo , Trump Administration Sues Los Angeles over Sanctuary City Policies, Judge Pauses DHS's Termination of Protected Status for Haitian Immigrants, SCOTUS Rejects ExxonMobil’s Appeal of $14 Million Fine for Air Pollution at Texas Plant, UPenn Bans Trans Athletes; DOJ Claims Harvard Violated Civil Rights Law During Gaza Protests,
Paramount Will Pay Trump $16 Million to Settle Lawsuit Alleging “60 Minutes” Bias, Jury Continues Deliberations After Reaching Partial Verdict in Sean Combs Sex Trafficking Trial
"Arrest Now, Ask Questions Later": Why Did L.A. ICE Agents Arrest and Jail U.S. Citizen Andrea Velez?
In an effort to fulfill the Trump administration’s daily immigration arrest “quotas,” federal agents and deputized local law enforcement are racially profiling and snatching people off the streets without due process. These arrests, carried out by armed and masked agents, are sowing terror and confusion in communities across the United States. Stephano Medina, a lawyer with the California Center for Movement Legal Services, shares how ICE regularly denies that it has taken people into custody, leading to family members scrambling for information about their loved ones. “It’s arrest now, ask questions later,” adds Dominique Boubion, an attorney representing Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen who was taken by ICE last month in what Velez has since described as a “kidnapping.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/2/ice_abductions_masked_men_andrea_velez
"Trying to Find Food Is a Death Sentence": Palestinian Writer Muhammad Shehada on Gaza Aid Massacres
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting the United States next week to meet with President Donald Trump and other top officials in the U.S. administration, supposedly to “capitalize on the success” of the 12-day war against Iran. This comes after nearly 21 months of Israel’s war on Gaza that has killed at least 56,000 Palestinians, with daily violence only increasing. “There’s basically an airstrike every other minute,” says Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada. “There’s nonstop artillery fire, gunfire, machine gunfire, as well as Israeli quadcopter drones that are swarming Gaza and shooting people at random.” While there have been news reports of a possible ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Shehada says “there are no negotiations,” and therefore no end in sight to the daily bloodshed.
"Ethnic Cleansing": U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Israel's War in Gaza
“There are many things that happened in this war that are clearly war crimes,” Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, says about Israel’s war on Gaza. *Democracy Now!*'s Amy Goodman spoke with the top U.N. rights watchdog in Geneva this week at the headquarters of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Türk, who has characterized Israel's actions in Gaza as ethnic cleansing, discusses the ongoing suffering of the civilian population, how Israel has attacked the U.N. and its workers, and why he continues to hope “for both Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/1/united_nations_human_rights_council_gaza
"Damaging and Deadly" Heat Domes Nearly Tripled, from Europe to the U.S.: Climatologist Michael Mann
A heat wave is raising temperatures to dangerous levels across much of Europe, just days after a heat wave in North America saw over 3,000 temperature records set. For more, we speak with climate scientist Michael Mann, who warns that heat domes and flooding have nearly tripled since the 1950s. “At some level, this isn’t that complicated. You make the planet hotter, you’re going to have more frequent and intense heat extremes,” says Mann, a professor of environmental science at the University of Pennsylvania. Mann’s upcoming book, co-authored with vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez, is *Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World*.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/7/1/heat_dome_climate_crisis
"An Outstanding Leader": Minnesota Mourns Assassinated Lawmaker Melissa Hortman as Suspect Is Arrested
After the biggest manhunt in Minnesota history, authorities have detained 57-year-old Vance Boelter, who is accused of fatally shooting democratic lawmaker and former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in their Minnesota home early on Saturday in what authorities say were politically motivated assassinations. He is also accused of wounding state Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette at their home in a separate shooting.
“Melissa Hortman was an outstanding leader that was very loved and respected by many people, and what this means for us is that we lost a leader that was very important to us,” says Patricia Torres Ray, a former Minnesota state senator and a former colleague of both Hortman and Hoffman.
Police say they found three AK-47 assault rifles, a 9mm handgun and a hit list written by the gunman that contained the names of about 70 people, including prominent Democratic lawmakers and abortion providers and advocates. Flyers for Saturday’s No Kings rallies were also found, prompting many organizers in Minnesota to cancel their protests.