Winona LaDuke: DAPL Pipeline Lawsuit Against Greenpeace Aims to Silence Indigenous Protests, Too
As the oil company Energy Transfer sues Greenpeace over the 2016 Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, we speak with Indigenous activist Winona LaDuke, who took part in that historic uprising. LaDuke is an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of Anishinaabe who lives and works on the White Earth Nation Reservation and was among the thousands of people who joined the protests in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to protect water and Indigenous lands in North Dakota. She highlights the close links between North Dakota’s government and Energy Transfer and says that while the lawsuit targets Greenpeace, Indigenous water and land defenders are also on trial. “North Dakota has really been trying to squash any kind of resistance,” says LaDuke. “If they can try to shut down Greenpeace, they’re going to shut down everybody.”
"Sugarcane": Oscar-Nominated Film Explores "Colonial Silence" Around Indian Residential Schools
We speak with Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, the co-directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary *Sugarcane*, which examines the legacy of Indian residential schools in Canada. For over 150 years, these government-funded and church-run boarding schools forcibly separated First Nations, Métis and Inuit children from their families in an effort to destroy Indigenous languages, cultures and communities. The schools were rife with physical, psychological and sexual abuse, and many children did not survive. In 2021, a First Nation in British Columbia found evidence of 215 child-sized graves on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, setting off a nationwide search for more possible gravesites. Kassie and Brave NoiseCat would document the painful search for answers at Saint Joseph’s Mission, the residential school where Brave NoiseCat’s own relatives had been sent and near where his father was born and abandoned in a dumpster. The film explores “the colonial silence
that exists in our broader society about this history” and how it has “seeped into the lives of the people who had survived it,” says Brave NoiseCat.
Remembering Aaron Bushnell: How He Inspired People in the Military to Question U.S. Empire
We remember Aaron Bushnell, the U.S. Air Force member who died last year in an act of protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. On a live-streamed video, Bushnell said he could not be “complicit in genocide” while the United States continued to support Israel’s war on Gaza; he then set himself on fire, screaming “Free Palestine” until he collapsed. Now just a year after Bushnell’s fatal self-immolation, we speak with an active-duty Air Force lieutenant who says she is inspired by Bushnell to seek a discharge from the military as a conscientious objector over the genocide in Gaza. “Any kind of contribution to the U.S. military inherently helps this machine of warfare and imperialism and oppression continue,” says Joy Metzler, who says many people in uniform suffer “moral injury” from their service. We also speak with Levi Pierpont, a friend of Bushnell who says Bushnell’s death was “life-changing” for him. Pierpont has since visited Palestine and become a peace activist.
“I went from being someone who had grown up Christian Zionist and was very sympathetic to Zionism to realizing how it’s interconnected with the American empire and realizing how we need to stand against it as Americans, because we’re implicated in it,” says Pierpont.
Headlines for March 3, 2025
Trump and Vance Attack Ukrainian President Zelensky in Chaotic, Unprecedented Oval Office Clash, Zelensky Receives Warm Welcome from European Leaders After White House Debacle, Pentagon Suspends U.S. Cyber Operations Targeting Russia, Israel Blocks Gaza Aid as It Continues to Derail Ceasefire; U.S. Expedites $4B Israeli Arms Transfer, Trump’s Foreign Aid Cuts Could Lead to Half a Million AIDS Deaths in South Africa, U.S. Judge Says Gov’t Watchdog Illegally Fired; DNC Sues Trump over Attack on Election Commission, WaPo: DHS Seeking Personal IRS Data of 700,000 Suspected Undocumented People, Landlord Who Killed 6-Year-Old Wadea al-Fayoume Found Guilty of Murder and Hate Crime, Disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo Enters New York City Mayoral Race, At Least the 5th New York Prisoner Has Died in Weeks Since Wildcat Strike Started, Iowa Enacts Bill Ending Civil Rights Protections for Transgender People, Vermont Protesters Greet JD Vance with Pro-Trans, Pro-Ukraine, Pro-Palestinian Messages,
Protesters Across U.S. Target Elon Musk’s Businesses, Trump’s Crackdown on National Parks, “End Ceaseless War Provocations”: Activists Denounce U.S.-Led Drills in Korea, Palestinian-Israeli Film “No Other Land” Makes History as It Takes Home Best Documentary Oscar
"Stop the Ethnic Cleansing": Watch Oscar Speech of Palestinian & Israeli Directors of "No Other Land"
The Palestinian-Israeli film *No Other Land* won for best documentary feature at Sunday’s Academy Awards. The film follows the struggles of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta to stay on their land amid home demolitions by the Israeli military and violent attacks by Jewish settlers aimed at expelling them. The film was made by a team of Palestinian-Israeli filmmakers, including the Palestinian journalist Basel Adra, who lives in Masafer Yatta, and the Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, both of whom are prominently featured in the film.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/3/no_other_land_oscar_palestine
"You're Gambling with WWIII": Watch Trump & Vance Clash with Zelensky at White House
A public clash at the White House between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance has left the future of U.S. foreign policy uncertain. Zelensky had traveled to the White House last week to sign a deal giving the United States partial control over Ukraine’s raw earth minerals in exchange for continued military aid for its war against Russia. But the deal imploded over the course of a dramatic televised press conference, with Trump and Vance deriding Zelensky and suggesting that Ukraine should concede to Russia. We play an extended excerpt of the heated exchange.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/3/ukraine_trump_zelenskyy_press_conference_vance
U.S.-Europe Rift Widens as Russia Welcomes Trump's Shifting Ukraine Stance Following Zelensky Clash
Kenneth Roth, visiting professor at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and former executive director of Human Rights Watch, responds to the shocking Oval Office meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, in which Vance and Trump publicly admonished Zelensky over the Russia-Ukraine war and accused him of not being grateful for the U.S.'s military support. “It's embarrassing, frankly,” says Roth, “to see the two leading American officials behaving in such a juvenile fashion when these are life and death matters, not only for Ukrainian people, but also for Ukrainian democracy and European democracy.” Roth, whose new memoir *Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments* is now available, joins us for the hour to discuss human rights issues around the globe.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/3/ukraine_russia_trump_vance_putin
Ken Roth on Israel's "Starvation Strategy" in Gaza & "Righting Wrongs" of Abusive Governments
We continue our conversation with Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch and the author of the new book, *Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments*. Roth discusses the fragile ceasefire in Gaza amid news that Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is refusing to withdraw Israeli troops as per his government’s agreement with Hamas, as well as withholding food and humanitarian aid from Gaza. “This is a continuation of the starvation strategy that Israel has been pursuing against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which is a war crime,” says Roth. He adds that the United States is also implicated in Israel’s war crimes, and shares how the human rights framework can be applied to achieving peace in the region.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/3/gaza_ethnic_cleansing_trump_palestine_israel
Headlines for February 28, 2025
U.S. Judge Says Trump & Musk’s Mass Firings Are Illegal as New Wave of Layoffs Hits NOAA, Trump Cuts USAID’s Contracts by 90%, Gives Staffers 15 Minutes to Clear Desks, FDA Vaccine Panel Meeting to Discuss Flu Shot Is Canceled, Trump Vows to Go Ahead with Tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China Next Week, Trump Softens Rhetoric on Ukrainian President Zelensky Ahead of White House Meeting, Talks Underway for Next Phase of Tenuous Ceasefire as Israel Releases Remaining Palestinian Captives, Israeli Forces Fatally Shoot Another Palestinian Child in Occupied West Bank, Jailed Kurdish Leader Calls on Followers to Lay Down Arms, 11 Killed, Dozens Wounded by Explosions at Rally of M23 Rebels in Eastern DRC, Thailand Deports Uyghurs to China Despite Warnings over Imprisonment and Torture, Centrists in Austria and Germany Exclude Far-Right Parties from Ruling Coalitions, U.N. Negotiators Agree to Plan to Reverse Biodiversity Loss by 2030, Congress Overturns Biden-Era Rule to Tax Methane Pollution,
Elon Musk Seeks to Have His Company Take Over Verizon’s $2.4 Billion FAA Contract, Protests Erupt as Iowa Republicans Eliminate Civil Rights Protections for Transgender People, Accused Human Traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate Return to Florida as U.S. Lifts Travel Ban, Two Prisoners Found Dead at New York’s Sing Sing as Prison Guards Continue Wildcat Strike, Activists Launch 24-Hour “Economic Blackout” to Protest Corporate Greed
Might Makes Right: Matt Duss on Trump's Foreign Policy Doctrine, from Ukraine to Gaza
We speak with foreign policy analyst Matt Duss about increasingly fraught relations between the United States and Ukraine, which have undergone a seismic shift under the second Trump administration. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting with President Trump at the White House on Friday and is expected to sign an agreement giving the U.S. access to his country’s rare earth minerals, which are key components in mobile phones and other advanced technology. It’s unclear what, if anything, Ukraine will get in return, even as Trump pushes Kyiv to reach a deal with Moscow to end the war that began in February 2022 when Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Trump is simultaneously moving to restore relations with Russia and lift its international isolation. Duss says the throughline in Trump’s thinking, from Ukraine to Gaza and elsewhere, is that “great powers” like the United States “make the decisions, and less powerful countries, less powerful communities and peoples simply have to
live with the consequences.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/28/matt_duss_trump_admin_policy_ukraine
Dr. Khaled Alser Speaks from Gaza on Surviving 7 Months in Israeli Prisons After Raid on His Hospital
Dr. Khaled Alser, a renowned Palestinian surgeon at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, describes how Israeli forces abducted him from Gaza last year before transferring him to Israeli prisons rife with abuse. He was held by Israel for seven months last year, during which time he says he was beaten, humiliated, denied medical treatment and tortured. He also describes routine sexual assault and sexual humiliation of prisoners by Israeli soldiers, as well as the use of military attack dogs on the detainees. No charges were filed against Alser before he was released back to Gaza. “Most of the prisoners I met inside the prison are civilians or civil workers here, working inside hospitals, schools, universities,” Alser tells *Democracy Now!* from Gaza. “We as healthcare workers, we don’t have any agenda against anyone. We just provide medical care.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/28/dr_khaled_alser_torture
"Detained, Tortured & Starved": Report Details Abuse of Gaza Doctors & Staff in Israeli Detention
We continue to look at Israeli torture of Palestinian detainees with Naji Abbas from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, which has just released a new report detailing the mistreatment of medical workers from Gaza. Hundreds of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other essential medical staff were arrested by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023 and held under brutal conditions, with many describing physical, psychological and sexual abuse, starvation, medical neglect and more. “It’s a whole journey of torture and abuse,” says Abbas, director of PHRI’s Prisoners and Detainees Department.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/28/phri_report_gaza_medical_workers_israel
Wayback Machine Saves Thousands of Federal Webpages Amid Purge of Government Data Under Trump
Thousands of informational government webpages have been taken down so far in the second Trump administration, including on public health, scientific research and LGBTQ rights. Amid this mass erasure of public information, the Internet Archive is racing to save copies of those deleted resources. The San Francisco-based nonprofit operates the Wayback Machine, a popular tool that saves snapshots of websites that may otherwise be lost forever, and it has archived federal government websites at each presidential transition since 2004. While it’s normal for a new administration to overhaul some of its online resources, the Trump administration’s pace of destruction has shocked many archivists. “There have been thousands and thousands of pages removed,” says Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, who notes that even a page about the U.S. Constitution was scrubbed from the White House website.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/28/internet_archive_trump_admin_data_purge
Headlines for February 27, 2025
White Houses Announces Large-Scale Government Layoffs, Trump and Musk Lead First Cabinet Meeting, Touting Gov’t Cuts, Dismantling of Federal Agencies, Protests in D.C. Take Aim at Health Insurance, Financial Institutions, Oil & Gas Interests, U.S. Aid Slashed by 90%, Condemning Lifesaving Projects Around the Globe, “Screaming from Hunger in the Streets”: U.S. Aid Cuts Compound Sudan’s Hunger Crisis, Unknown Illness Kills 53 in Western Democratic Republic of Congo, Hundreds of Palestinian Prisoners Freed by Israel Show Signs of Torture and Starvation, Trump Posts AI Video Depicting “Riviera of the Middle East” , British PM Keir Starmer Warns Russia Could Reinvade Ukraine Without U.S. Security Guarantees, BP to Boost Oil and Gas Investments by $10 Billion, Reversing Pledge to Invest in Clean Energy, Earth’s Glaciers Are Melting at Accelerated Rate, U.S. Records First Measles Death in a Decade as West Texas Outbreak Spreads, Pentagon Memo Calls for Removal of Trans Military Personnel,
Trump Announces $5 Million “Gold Card” Visa for Wealthy Immigrants, Entertainers, Media Figures Condemn BBC’s Pulling of Gaza Documentary About Palestinian Children, “Sick-Out” Held at Barnard College to Protest Expulsion of Pro-Palestinian Students, NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Orders CUNY to Remove Palestinian Studies Job Posting, Washington Post Opinion Editor Resigns as Jeff Bezos Orders Changes to Opinion Section
Child Dies from Measles in Texas as Disease "Comes Roaring Back" Amid Anti-Vaccine Disinformation
An unvaccinated child has died of measles, Texas officials announced Wednesday, the first death from measles in the United States in a decade. The child’s death in a hospital in Lubbock, in West Texas, comes as the largest measles outbreak in the state in over 30 years is now spreading to New Mexico. Since last month, 124 people have contracted the disease, most of them unvaccinated children. “The minute you stop vaccinating and maintaining that vigilance of 90-95% vaccine coverage, measles comes roaring back, and that’s what’s happened here in West Texas,” world-renowned pediatrician, virologist and vaccine expert, Dr. Peter Hotez, tells *Democracy Now!*
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/27/rfk_jr_measles_dr_peter_hotez
Report from a Devastated Lebanon: Sharif Abdel Kouddous on Nasrallah's Funeral & Fragile Ceasefire
Thousands gathered in Beirut Sunday to mourn the death of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s longtime leader who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September. Under a ceasefire agreement, Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon last week, but it continues to illegally occupy five locations in the country. Correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous traveled to Lebanon last week to report from the ground in southern Lebanon and to cover Nasrallah’s funeral, one of the biggest in the region in decades. The large turnout of thousands of Lebanese mourners was a “show of presence and of support for Hezbollah, which suffered heavy losses in Israel’s war on Lebanon,” Abdel Kouddous says.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/27/sharif_abdel_kouddous_lebanon_nasrallah_funeral
The Billionaires' Government: Branko Marcetic on Trump's "Complete Betrayal" of His Base
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been the public face of the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle many government agencies and slash the size of the federal workforce. On Wednesday, he attended Trump’s first Cabinet meeting, although he is not a Cabinet member. Meanwhile, Russell Vought, the Project 2025 mastermind and director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, has been working behind the scenes to enact far-right policies aimed at privatizing public resources like Medicaid and Social Security. We speak with *Jacobin* staff writer Branko Marcetic to discuss the radical DOGE agenda. “As they make these ruthless, ruthless cuts to the programs that people rely on, … they also want to keep in place massive tax cuts for the rich,” he says.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/27/branko_marcetic_ukraine_trump_doge
Headlines for February 25, 2025
U.S. Sides with Russia, Breaks from Allies in U.N. Resolutions on Ukraine, 5 More Gaza Children Freeze to Death as Israel Continues to Withhold Shelters from Gaza, ICC Asked to Investigate Biden, Blinken and Austin for Complicity in Israeli War Crimes, Syria Opens National Dialogue Conference Without Participation of Kurdish Group, Sen. Bernie Sanders Introduces Resolution to Oppose U.S. Arms Sales to Israel, Activists Block Access to Maersk Headquarters to Protest Arms Shipments to Israel, Hegseth Welcomes Saudi Prince to Pentagon, Pledging Closer Ties with New Administration, Federal Watchdog Calls DOGE’s Firing of Probationary Workers Unlawful, Postal Workers Rally Amid Reports Trump Is Attempting to Privatize USPS, Hegseth Visits Guantánamo; Trump Tells ICE to Track Down and Deport 100,000s of Immigrant Children , Eric Adams to Close Immigrant Shelter Hotel; Judge Delays His Corruption Trial After DOJ Request, Groups Sue USDA for Censoring Climate-Related Content on Website, Laila
Soueif, Hunger-Striking Mother of Jailed Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Has Been Hospitalized
As Musk Slashes Federal Gov't & Fires Thousands, Workers, Trump Appointees, Judges & Media Push Back
Reporters, workers and now judges across the country are disputing the cost-cutting claims of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has targeted federal employees across multiple sectors with firings, forced resignations and threatened layoffs. One of the millions of Americans being impacted by DOGE’s draconian measures is Latisha, an employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She says that Musk’s recent demand ordering federal employees to email a summary of their work from the past week was “insulting” and “disrespectful,” and that “his real goal is to gut public services in the federal workforce and pave the way for privatization of public services, goods and programs that we all need and love.” She outlines how Black Americans and veterans, who are disproportionately represented among the ranks of federal workers, are being particularly affected by these cuts. We also speak to ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg about his recent reporting on
a “clearly wrong, clearly disproved” statistic being cited by the Trump administration about the number of federal employees who are working remotely. The statistic is being used to justify the “king-like powers” claimed by Trump and the nepotistic hires at DOGE, says Engelberg.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/25/doge_musk_federal_workers_layoffs
"No Public Oversight": Private Company Running Guantánamo Immigrant Jail Accused of Rights Abuses
The U.S. military transported 17 new immigrant detainees to the Guantánamo Bay military base on Sunday, just before efforts to jail an anticipated 30,000 immigrants in tent camps at the base were halted over concerns the makeshift facilities don’t meet ICE’s detention standards. Now the private federal contractor behind the Guantánamo detention site is under renewed scrutiny. Investigative journalist José Olivares shares what we know about Akima Infrastructure Protection, an Alaska Native corporation that counts among its myriad federal contracts immigration detention facilities across the United States, including some that are currently under investigation for human rights abuses. The lack of transparency when it comes to the company’s practices and the expansion of migrant detention at a high-security location like Guantánamo means that questions remain over current conditions and even the exact number of people who have been incarcerated there, explains Olivares.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/25/guantanamo_bay_migrants_immigrant