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Mar 29, 2024
Republicans are on a "crusade" against responsible investing, says Andrew Behar, CEO of the nonprofit group As You Sow that promotes corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy. His group was subpoenaed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this week as Republicans probe whether investments that take into account environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns violate antitrust laws. Republicans have introduced bills in dozens of states across the U.S. to limit state bodies from working with banks and other financial firms that take things like climate change into consideration in their investments. ESG is "a framework for assessing risk," Behar says. "Basic good business says you want to assess and address risk, and that's what they're trying to suppress."
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Mar 29, 2024
As the death toll in Gaza tops 32,600, we speak with UNICEF spokesperson James Elder in Rafah near the Egyptian border, now home to some 1.5 million Palestinians seeking shelter from the fighting. He says Israel's continued obstruction of aid into the territory is a "man-made and preventable" crisis of hunger and acute malnutrition that could be ended if Israel just opened access to more aid trucks, especially in northern Gaza, where desperate people could be reached in as little as 10 minutes. "When I'm on the street, every person, the first thing they want to tell me in English or Arabic is 'We need food, we need food,'" Elder tells Democracy Now! "They are saying that because their assumption is the world doesn't know, because how would this be allowed to happen if the world knew?" He also reiterates UNICEF's call for a full ceasefire and warns against Israel's planned ground invasion of Rafah, which he describes as "a city of children."
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Mar 29, 2024
Pro-Palestine protesters disrupted the largest one-night fundraiser in presidential campaign history on Thursday. The event at Radio City Music Hall in New York City included numerous celebrities and featured President Biden alongside former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, raising a record $25 million for Biden's reelection campaign. The main event was an onstage conversation with the three U.S. presidents moderated by late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert, but people began disrupting it just 10 minutes into their conversation, as Biden was talking, with protesters calling on the president to stop arming Israel and to enforce a ceasefire in Gaza. Meanwhile, thousands of protesters were also massed outside the venue to protest the Biden administration's support for Israel's assault on Gaza. We play voices from inside and outside the event.
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Mar 29, 2024
Search and rescue teams have recovered the bodies of two men from the Patapsco River following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, but four others remain missing and are presumed dead. All six victims were immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, part of a road crew that was filling potholes on the bridge when a cargo ship ran into one of the bridge supports, causing the entire structure to drop into the water. "The construction workers are absolutely essential," says Gustavo Torres, executive director of the immigrant rights group CASA, which counted two of the victims as members. "Immigrants face higher injury and death rates … than nonimmigrants, and they are significantly less likely to have insurance." He says the disaster has highlighted the difficult, often dangerous work done by immigrants in communities across the United States, and calls on political leaders to stop dehumanizing rhetoric. "What we need right now is comprehensive immigration reform. We don't need more attacks against the immigrant community."
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Mar 29, 2024
ICJ Orders Israel to Allow "Unhindered" Aid into Gaza in New Order as Starvation Deaths Mount, Reports: Israeli Airstrikes on Hezbollah Targets in Syria Kill 40 People, Including Civilians, Hebrew University Reinstates Palestinian Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian Following Outcry, "Let Gaza Live!": Activists Disrupt Glitzy Biden Fundraiser with Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Activist Vivien Sansour Highlights Destruction of Gaza's Soil, Trees Since War, South Carolina, Florida Will Vote in Racially Gerrymandered Districts in November, Texas Acquits Crystal Mason, Who Faced 5-Year Sentence, Legal Nightmare for Voting Error, Biden Administration Restores Endangered Species Act Protections Stripped by Trump, FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years for Defrauding Customers, Judge Dismisses Elon Musk Lawsuit Against Center for Countering Digital Hate, Colombia Expels Argentine Diplomats After Far-Right President Javier Milei Insults Leftist Leaders, Outrage After Saudi Arabia Named as Chair of U.N. Commission on the Status of Women
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Mar 28, 2024
Despite a U.N.-backed report sounding the alarm on imminent famine in northern Gaza, Israeli authorities announced Sunday they will no longer approve the passage of any UNRWA food convoys into northern Gaza. "Our ability to adequately continue saving lives is really being obstructed," says UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai. "What's going to happen to UNRWA if we can no longer truly operate?" The decision came as President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion appropriations bill that strips funding to UNRWA for the next year. The U.S. first suspended aid to UNRWA in late January, when the Israeli government claimed 12 of the agency's 30,000 employees were involved in Hamas's attacks on October 7. The unsubstantiated allegation prompted top donors to cut funding to UNRWA, though many of them have resumed funding as the agency welcomes new donor countries and an unprecedented number of civil society donations. Seeing the U.S., the agency's largest donor, "withhold funding … is a huge blow to us," says Alrifai. "Stripping UNRWA of funding not only shrinks its ability to respond to the looming famine in Gaza, but also puts at risk the schools, the access of kids to proper education, the vaccines, the mother and child care — everything across the region."
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Mar 28, 2024
A State Department official working on human rights issues in the Middle East resigned Wednesday in protest of U.S. support for Israel's assault on Gaza. Annelle Sheline, who worked as a foreign affairs officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, was not planning on publicly resigning, but her colleagues asked her to "please speak out" against the Biden administration's unconditional support for Israel. "At the end of the day, many people inside [the State Department] know that this is a horrific policy, and can't believe that the United States government is engaged in such actions that contravene American values so directly, but the leadership is not listening," says Sheline. "I'm trying to speak on behalf of those many, many people who feel so betrayed by our government's stance." Sheline describes being moved by the words of Aaron Bushnell, the active-duty U.S. airman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in protest of the war on Gaza, who implored everyone to take a stand against genocide. "I have a young daughter, and I thought about, in the future, if she were to ask me, 'What were you doing when this was happening? You were at the State Department.' I want to be able to tell her that I didn't stay silent."
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Mar 28, 2024
Almost six months into Israel's assault, Gaza's health sector has been completely decimated. Before October 7, Gaza had 36 hospitals. Now only two are minimally functional, and 10 are partially functional, according to the United Nations. The rest have shut down completely after either being shelled, besieged and raided by Israeli troops, or running out of fuel and medicine. Israel's assault has killed over 32,500 Palestinians, including over 14,000 children, and wounded nearly 75,000. We speak with Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician who just spent two weeks volunteering and living at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza, about what she witnessed and the conditions of healthcare in the beleaguered and devastated territory. "This is not a humanitarian crisis. This is the worst of what humanity is capable of, and it's entirely all man-made," says Haj-Hassan. "This is an utter and complete failure of humanity, and, to be frank, I feel ashamed to be an American citizen. I feel ashamed to be part of a society that has allowed this to continue."
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Mar 28, 2024
Video Shows Israeli Forces Shooting and Bulldozing Two Gazan Civilians as One Was Waving White Flag, Israeli Siege on Al-Shifa Hospital Continues: Journalist, at Least 13 Children Among Those Killed, Israel Kills Four Palestinians in Raid on Jenin in Occupied West Bank, Another State Dept. Official Makes Public Exit to Protest U.S. Support for Israeli Genocide, "A Dangerous Precedent in U.S. Foreign Policy": Center for American Progress Blasts State Dept., Ireland to Intervene in South Africa's Genocide Case at ICJ; Protests Continue in Amman, Jordan, 2 Bodies Recovered from Baltimore Bridge Collapse; 4 Others Presumed Dead, Alabama Democrat Flips State Seat After Running on Abortion Rights, IVF Access, Court Upholds Undated Ballots Law in PA; MT Supreme Court Strikes Down GOP Voter Suppression Laws, White Supremacists Who Murdered Ahmaud Arbery Ask Court to Overturn Federal Hate Crime Convictions, Trump Lashes Out at Judge Hours After He Imposed Gag Order on Ex-President, Joe Lieberman Dies, Leaves Behind Legacy of Championing War on Iraq, Blocking Healthcare Access, Phoenix Approves Measure to Protect Workers from Extreme Heat as Florida Blocks Similar Efforts, Argentina Convicts 11 Ex-Officials for Disappearances, Torture, Murders During Military Dictatorship, Indonesia Arrests 13 Soldiers over Torture Death in West Papua, Death Toll in Moscow Terror Attack Reaches 143 as Immigrant Communities Report Spike in Attacks, U.N. Secretary-General Guterres Calls for Slavery Reparations
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Mar 27, 2024
An immigration battle continues on the border between Texas and Mexico, as Texas's state government increases its militarization of the region, deploying hundreds of National Guard troops and constructing new infrastructure on the border. Meanwhile, a new federal spending bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden has increased funding for ICE and CBP, and state and federal courts have been wrangling over the legality of SB4, a new Texas state law that gives local police sweeping powers to arrest and deport anyone they suspect has entered the United States without authorization. We hear more from Fernando García, founder and executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights, in El Paso. García says the influx of special forces with "no training with how to deal with a civilian population," alongside the "show me your papers'' atmosphere created by SB4, is increasing the daily violence faced by Latinx residents on the U.S. side of the border, all while "illegally impeding" the right to seek asylum by those in "desperate" straits on the Mexico side. Instead of capitulating to anti-immigrant politicians, he continues, "We needed for the federal government to stop Texas, stop the governor" from targeting "Latinos, people of color, migrants and people looking for asylum, for protection."
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Mar 27, 2024
Six people are missing and presumed dead after a 984-foot cargo ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing the bridge's collapse early Tuesday morning. All six have been identified as immigrant construction workers originally hailing from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Maryland Governor Wes Moore said the crew on the ship was able to issue an emergency mayday call before colliding with the bridge, which allowed authorities to stop incoming traffic and prevent more casualties. However, reports say the workers already on the bridge were not given similar warnings. "The question we should be asking about is why the folks on that bridge … had no direct line to emergency dispatch when they are clearly working in a potentially hazardous environment," says journalist Maximillian Alvarez, the editor-in-chief of the Baltimore-based organization The Real News Network, who has been closely following the story and how it has affected immigrant and working-class communities. "What does this story actually show us? That immigrants are filling our potholes at night so that we can have a smooth drive to work in the morning," Alvarez says. "I hope people can see this and see the humanity in us."
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Mar 27, 2024
Democratic Arizona state Senator Eva Burch made headlines last week after speaking on the floor of the state Senate about her plans to obtain an abortion after receiving news that her pregnancy was nonviable. Arizona has banned all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. "I felt like it was really important for me to bring people along, so that people could really see what this looks like," says Burch, a former nurse practitioner who worked at a women's health clinic before running for office, about why she decided to publicly tell her story. "I wanted to pull people into the conversation so we can be more honest about what abortion care looks like" and "hopefully move the needle in the right direction," she adds.
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Mar 27, 2024
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday on the abortion pill mifepristone, which is available by mail and can be taken at home, even in states that have severely limited or banned abortions. The case was brought by a group of anti-choice medical associations that have sought to overturn moves by the Food and Drug Administration to increase access to the drug, which is used for roughly two-thirds of all U.S. abortions. This was the first abortion-related Supreme Court hearing since the court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. A decision is expected by July. "Overall the justices showed that they were skeptical of the claims brought by the plaintiffs in this case," says Michele Goodwin, a law professor at Georgetown University and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy. Goodwin summarizes the arguments presented by both sides, the justices' responses and the legal implications of the upcoming ruling.
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Mar 27, 2024
Supreme Court Appears Poised to Preserve Access to Abortion Pill Mifepristone, UNICEF: "Paper Thin" Children Dying in Gaza of Malnutrition and Dehydration, U.N. Special Rapporteur Outlines How Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza, Report: 69% of Israeli Arms Imports Come from United States, U.S. State Dept.: We Have Not Found Israel to Be Violating International Law in Gaza, "They Have a Point": Biden Responds to Pro-Palestinian Protesters, Israeli Airstrike on Lebanese Health Center Kills Seven Paramedics, Six Immigrant Construction Workers Still Missing After Baltimore Bridge Collapse, Russian Court Extends Detention of Evan Gershkovich, Police in India Detain Dozens of Protesters as Pre-election Crackdown Grows, NY Judge Issues Gag Order on Trump Ahead of Hush Money Trial, NBC Cuts Ties with Ex-RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel After Staff Protests, RFK Jr. Taps Nicole Shanahan to Be Running Mate, Homes of Sean "Diddy" Combs Raided in Federal Sex Trafficking Probe
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Mar 26, 2024
We look at Donald Trump's ongoing legal battles with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston, who has been covering Trump since the 1980s. The next major case against Trump is his hush money trial, set to begin April 15, in which he is accused of falsifying business records to cover up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an extramarital affair quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign. This comes as Trump is on the hook to produce $175 million to cover a civil fraud judgment in New York, where his bond was originally set at $454 million. Other cases against Trump, including over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents after he left office, are still ongoing. "Donald Trump has committed serious criminal acts his whole life, and … he's finally being held to account," says Johnston.
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Mar 26, 2024
We speak with former top U.N. human rights official Craig Mokhiber after the Security Council voted Monday on a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all remaining hostages. The United States abstained from the vote, allowing it to pass after nearly six months of obstructing similar efforts at the Security Council. Mokhiber, who resigned in October over the U.N.'s failure to address rights violations in Israel-Palestine, says "Israel has the world record" for violating U.N. resolutions and is certain to violate this ceasefire resolution, as well, even though it expressed "the very broad consensus across the global community against Israel's onslaught on Gaza." Israel continued bombing Gaza after Monday's vote, and top Israeli leaders have vowed to continue the war that has killed over 32,000 Palestinians so far. "What this genocide has done is it has revealed the weaknesses, the political compromises, the moral failings of the United Nations and other international institutions," says Mokhiber, who adds that continued pressure from civil society is needed to end the bloodshed.
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Mar 26, 2024
Former U.K. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn reacts to the United Nations Security Council's resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which passed 14-0 on Monday after the United States declined to use its veto by abstaining from the vote. Corbyn calls the war and suffering in Gaza "a global disgrace" and says the ceasefire must be enforced. "It's time to stand with the Palestinian people."
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Mar 26, 2024
The British High Court in London has put the extradition of Julian Assange on hold until the United States provides assurances that he would get a fair trial in the U.S. without facing the death penalty. If those assurances are not met, Assange will be granted the right to a full appeal hearing. Speaking outside the court Tuesday, Stella Assange called for the Biden administration to "drop this shameful case" against her husband. "Julian should never have been imprisoned for a single day," she said. We speak with MP Jeremy Corbyn, who led the U.K. Labour Party from 2015 to 2020 and who has been calling for all charges against Assange to be dropped. "The pressure needs to now go on to the Biden administration," Corbyn says. "If Julian goes down for this, every serious journalist around the world is going to be slightly more cautious about exposing war crimes, about exposing corporate greed."
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Mar 26, 2024
U.K. High Court Delays Possible Extradition of Julian Assange Until U.S. Provides "Assurances", UNSC Approves Its First Gaza Ceasefire Resolution Ater U.S. Abstains, Israeli Attack on Rafah Home Kills at Least 18 People, Half of Them Children, U.N.-Commissioned Report Lays Out Evidence of Israeli Genocide in Gaza, Baltimore Bridge Collapse Plunges Vehicles into Freezing River; Officials Warn of "Mass Casualties", Bassirou Diomaye Faye Clinches Senegalese Presidency, Vows to Fight Corruption and Inequality, Ecuador's Youngest Mayor Brigitte García Killed in Targeted Shooting, NBC News Faces Backlash After Hiring Former RNC Chair, Election Denier Ronna McDaniel, Trump's Bond in Civil Fraud Case Lowered to $175M as Judge Sets April 15 Date for Hush Money Trial, SCOTUS Hearing Arguments in Case That Could Restrict Nationwide Access to Abortion Pill, NYC Home Health Aides End Hunger Strike, Vow to Continue Fighting for an End to 24-Hour Workdays
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Mar 25, 2024
Sudan is on track to become the world's worst hunger crisis, according to the United Nations. For over a year, fighting between the Sudanese military and the rival Rapid Support Forces has disrupted the country, displacing over 8 million people who experience extreme hunger in the areas with the most intense fighting. The increasing demand comes as the U.N.'s appeal for $2.7 billion for Sudan is less than 5% funded. Funding is also drying up in Chad, where some 1.2 million Sudanese have taken refuge. "This is the largest sort of mass mortality crisis that we are facing in the world and the largest that we have probably faced for many decades," says Alex de Waal, the author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine, who laments the "shocking" cuts to the World Food Programme that is essential to the global emergency response system. "If it doesn't work, we are going to find ourselves facing the kinds of crises of mass mortality that we have simply not seen for half a century or longer."
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Mar 25, 2024
In Gaza, millions of Palestinians are starving after five months of U.S.-backed attacks by Israel, while Israel continues to prevent the delivery of essential provisions. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on social media, "This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity." The head of the World Health Organization says children in Gaza are already dying of malnutrition. "This is fundamentally a political crisis," says Alex de Waal, the author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine, who explains that even with a ceasefire and humanitarian aid, "a crisis like this cannot be stopped overnight," and that "This will be a calamity that will be felt for generations."
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Mar 25, 2024
ISIS-K, an affiliate of the Islamic State, has claimed responsibility for an attack on a popular concert hall in Moscow that killed at least 137. Authorities say gunmen opened fire inside the Crocus City Hall building during a sold-out rock concert and then set part of the venue on fire. More than 100 people were injured in the attack, and many remain in critical condition. Authorities have detained 11 suspects, four of whom, all reportedly citizens of Tajikistan, are charged with terrorism and face life sentences. As more details emerge about the attack, we speak with professor of international affairs at The New School Nina Khrushcheva about the history of Muslim fundamentalist attacks in Russia and Putin's "unfortunate" decision to ignore Western intelligence warnings about terrorist attacks. We're also joined by longtime Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker Joshua Yaffa, who details possible motivations for ISIS-K and how Putin is attempting to fit this attack into his narrative opposing Ukraine and the West. "First and foremost, he cares about preserving his own power and the continued stability of his ruling system," says Yaffa, who explains how Putin tries to control political blowback by equating ISIS-K with any group he opposes, including Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption network and the so-called worldwide LGBT movement. "This is important to understand both in trying to determine how this attack happened in the first place and also what might Putin's response be moving forward."
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Mar 25, 2024
At Least 137 People Killed in ISIS-Claimed Attack on Moscow Concert Hall, Israel Continues to Starve Gaza, Blocking Food Aid as It Escalates Attack on Gaza's Ailing Hospitals, Kamala Harris Warns Against Israeli Invasion of Rafah, Does Not Rule Out "Consequences" from U.S., China, Russia Veto U.S.'s "Ambiguous" Conditional Ceasefire Resolution at U.N. Security Council, Bernie Sanders, AOC Among Lawmakers Who Opposed $1.2 Trillion Spending Bill over Defunding of UNRWA, Gaza Solidarity Protests Fill Streets of Dublin, Santiago and Other Large Cities, Activists Protest Metropolitan Museum's Complicity in Israel's War and Occupation of Palestine, Senegalese Opposition Candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye Leads Early Election Results, Russian and Ukrainian Attacks Hit Energy and Oil Targets, 150 Kidnapped School Children Rescued in Northwestern Nigeria, Brazilian Police Arrest Suspected Masterminds of Marielle Franco's Assassination, Trump's Assets Could Be Imminently Seized by NY Attorney General Letitia James, Congress: Another GOP Rep. Quits; Tammy Murphy Exits NJ Senate Race; MJT Wants to Oust Mike Johnson
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Mar 22, 2024
In Mississippi, six former sheriff's deputies have been sentenced to between 10 and 40 years in prison for raiding a home and torturing, shooting and sexually abusing two Black men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, in January 2023. The six former deputies, all of whom are white, called themselves the "Goon Squad" and have been linked to at least four violent attacks on Black men since 2019. Two of the men attacked and tortured by the group subsequently died. To discuss the case and the verdict, we're joined by Eddie Parker and attorneys Malik Shabazz and Trent Walker. "Never have we seen this many police officers sentenced to this kind of time in one week," says Shabazz, who calls the verdict "historic." Jenkins, Parker and Shabazz are currently suing the Rankin County Sheriff's Department over its track record of civil rights violations and racist targeting of Black residents.
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Mar 22, 2024
As Israel continues its relentless assault on Gaza, causing mass famine, injury and death, we get an update on the malnutrition and mental health crises in Gaza from Dr. Nahreen Ahmed, a pulmonary and critical care doctor and the medical director of the humanitarian aid group MedGlobal. She is recently back from a two-week volunteer trip to Gaza, where she says these crises are growing so rapidly "that even if aid was increased tomorrow, we would still be in a severe situation where the amount of food would not be enough in the immediate term." It is a "horrific experience for all involved," she concludes.
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Mar 22, 2024
At the U.N. Security Council, China and Russia have vetoed a U.S. draft resolution on the war in Gaza. The U.S. resolution appeared to call for a ceasefire, but it was written in a way to make the resolution unenforceable. Our guest Phyllis Bennis says this was mere "wordplay" and a "convoluted" attempt by the Biden administration to play both sides, as it comes under increasing internal and external criticism over its close relationship with Israel. Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and an international adviser to Jewish Voice for Peace. She has written several books on U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East. When it comes to dissent over U.S. support of Israel, "the pressure is mounting in ways that I've certainly never seen," she says, adding that it's imperative for the public to continue pushing for more action, as "it's crucial that the weapons sales be cut" and a real ceasefire be reached immediately.
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Mar 22, 2024
Al-Shifa Evacuees Describe Terror of Israeli Attack on Besieged Hospital, Video Shows Israeli Forces Targeting and Killing Group of Unarmed Gazans, Antony Blinken Meets Netanyahu in Tel Aviv as He Acknowledges Severe Hunger Crisis in Gaza, Dozens of Ex-U.S. Officials Warn Biden Against Enabling Israeli Abuses in Occupied West Bank, Sudan Could Soon Become the World's Worst Hunger Crisis, Biden Admin Urged to Halt Haiti Deportations as Deadly Unrest Continues, 70 Rohingya Refugees Could Be Dead After Boat Capsizes Off Aceh Coast, France Pushes Law to Curb Devastating Impacts of Fast Fashion, Russian Strikes Kill 3 People, Cut Off Power for 1 Million Ukrainians, DOJ Files Major Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple, New Florida Law Bans Unhoused People from Sleeping in Public Spaces, Home Health Aides in NYC Go on Hunger Strike to Demand End to 24-Hour Workdays, Georgia GOP Moves to Punish Employers Who Voluntarily Recognize Unions, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Reintroduce Green New Deal for Public Housing Act
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Mar 21, 2024
A new report by the research group Forensic Architecture counters Israel's argument at the International Court of Justice that it followed humanitarian policies to safeguard civilian life in Gaza. South Africa argued in January before the ICJ that Israel was guilty of genocide during its war on Gaza. The report argues that what Israel says are humanitarian evacuations in Gaza actually amount to the forced displacement of Palestinians, which is a war crime. It found that since October 7, Israel has issued imprecise and sometimes contradictory evacuation orders, attacked people even in so-called safe zones and evacuation routes, and failed to provide the necessities of life for those civilians, all while pushing the population further and further south into areas that are then also attacked or evacuated at a later time. "We cannot see it as anything else but part of the genocidal campaign," says Forensic Architecture director Eyal Weizman, who accuses Israel of using humanitarian principles as yet another weapon against Palestinians in Gaza. He says Israel's objective is to "exercise pain on the civilian population" in order to deter "ongoing resistance to the Israeli occupation."
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Mar 21, 2024
We speak with British surgeon Dr. Nick Maynard, who recently led an emergency medical team at Gaza's Al-Aqsa Hospital, about Israel's ongoing attacks on healthcare infrastructure and the worsening humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory, where Israel's brutal assault has killed about 32,000 Palestinians since October 7. Maynard is part of a group of international doctors with experience in Gaza who met with officials at the United Nations and in Washington, D.C., this week to express alarm over civilian suffering. Medical workers in Gaza are "working under extremely challenging conditions with a huge lack of resources and working in a healthcare system that is being systematically dismantled by the attacks on it," he tells Democracy Now! "It's very, very clear to all of us who have been on the ground in Gaza that the only way to try and stop this humanitarian catastrophe is for an immediate ceasefire."
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Mar 21, 2024
Israeli's Assault on Al-Shifa Hospital Enters 4th Day, Attacks Continue Throughout Gaza Strip, U.S. Submits Ceasefire Resolution to UNSC; Netanyahu Tells GOP Israel Will Continue Attacking Gaza, Lawmakers Pushing to Cut Off U.S. Funding for UNRWA for Another Year Amid Soaring Hunger in Gaza, "Completely Contrary to Human Rights": AMLO Blasts Texas's SB4, Says Mexico Will not Accept Deportees, Georgia Executes Prisoner Willie Pye After 4-Year Pause in Capital Punishment, Two More "Goon Squad" Officers Sentenced to 40 and 17.5 Years for Torture of Two Black Men, Assange's Lawyers Say No Deal on the Table After WSJ Reports DOJ Could Offer Plea Agreement, Irish Leader Leo Varadkar Resigns: "The Time Has Come to Pass on the Baton", Hong Kong Passes New Hard-Line National Security Law, Further Aligning Territory with Beijing, Indonesian Election Authority Confirms Presidential Election Victory for Prabowo Subianto, EPA Announces New Limits on Tailpipe Emissions in Push to Transition to Electric Vehicles, Biden Administration Cancels Another $6 Billion in Federal Student loans, GOP Impeachment Campaign Against Biden Losing Steam as Even Conservative Support Wanes
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Mar 20, 2024
Building on an unprecedented wave of settler violence in 2023, Israeli attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have intensified since October 7, with over 400 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and settlers over the past five months. Last week, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on three Israeli settlers and two Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank for assaulting, harassing and threatening Palestinians, and violently expelling many from their land. Investigative journalist Shane Bauer traveled to the territory to map out the violence against Palestinians that has escalated since October 7, and visited the illegal outposts of "two very dangerous men" targeted by the sanctions: Neria Ben-Pazi and Moshe Sharvit. "The elephant in the room here is that [Moshe Sharvit], along with Neria Ben-Pazi, is supported by the state of Israel directly," says Bauer. "According to the language of the sanctions, that would mean that the State of Israel itself and all the various organizations that are supporting him should themselves be sanctioned, but of course they haven't been." Bauer describes how "the line between settlers and the army virtually disappeared after October 7," as far-right Israeli cabinet members push for "a formalization of apartheid," in the West Bank.
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Mar 20, 2024
We speak with Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland about the U.S. response to Israel's brutal offensive on Gaza, which has killed over 32,000 Palestinians. Van Hollen expresses "strong frustration with the Biden administration," which "needs to do a lot more" to hold Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accountable. Defying Biden's warnings against a full-scale ground operation in Rafah, Netanyahu continues to promise an invasion of the city, where 1.4 million forcibly displaced people from across Gaza are sheltering. "At the end of the day, Prime Minister Netanyahu simply ignores the president of the United States, and so we need to do more to make Netanyahu accountable for our requests," says Van Hollen, who warns Biden against "getting dragged into the planning of a Rafah invasion" and becoming "complicit in Netanyahu's actions." The senator also discusses U.S. funding of UNRWA and Israeli leaders blocking aid for Gaza. "For goodness' sakes, lift the restrictions that are in place that are creating this humanitarian disaster in Gaza."
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Mar 20, 2024
Appeals Court Puts Texas Anti-Immigrant SB4 on Hold for Now, WHO Warns Infants in Gaza on the "Brink of Death" as Israel Keeps Limiting Aid Deliveries, Israel Kills Dozens in Ongoing Raid on Al-Shifa Hospital, Canada to Halt Weapons Shipments to Gaza, Trump-Backed Bernie Moreno Wins GOP Senate Primary in Ohio, Democratic Voters Voice Dismay over Biden's Support for Israeli Assault on Gaza, Trump: Jewish Democrats "Should Be Ashamed of Themselves", Kushner Praises Gaza's "Valuable" Waterfront Property, Says Israel Should Force Palestinians Out, Doctors Without Borders Says EU-Funded Libyan Coast Guard Disrupt Attempts to Aid Migrants at Sea, Cuba Blasts U.S. Embargo as Protesters Decry Power Blackouts & Food Shortages, U.N. Weather Agency Issues "Red Alert" After 2023 Shattered Heat Records, Two Members of Mississippi Police "Goon Squad" Sentenced for Torturing Black Men, Arizona State Lawmaker Goes Public with Plan to Have an Abortion
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Mar 19, 2024
As presidential front-runners Donald Trump and Joe Biden scapegoat and attack immigrants on the campaign trail, stoking racist and xenophobic fears for votes, we speak to the director of a groundbreaking new film, unseen, that aims to reframe the narrative. Using experimental cinematography to promote accessibility for blind and low-vision audiences, unseen follows Pedro, who is blind and undocumented, as he works toward a degree in social work. Director Set Hernandez, themself an undocumented immigrant and a co-founder of the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective, discusses the film's uplifting of the "undocumented and disabled perspective," in opposition to political narratives that exclude and dehumanize immigrant communities.
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Mar 19, 2024
Haiti is being gripped by escalating violence and turmoil as armed groups battle for control in the streets. Last week, unelected Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced he would resign, after a coalition of armed groups opposing the de facto leader declared an uprising. Negotiations to establish a transitional presidential council are being led by the U.S.-backed Caribbean political alliance CARICOM as a refugee crisis brews, with the Biden administration floating the idea of housing Haitian asylum seekers in Guantánamo Bay. We speak to Dan Foote, who resigned from his post as U.S. special envoy for Haiti in September 2021 over the Biden administration's "inhumane" treatment of Haitian asylum seekers and U.S. interference in Haitian politics. "We're holding Haiti hostage through this CARICOM political process," says Foote, who says Haitian sovereignty must be respected in order to break the cycle of intervention, unrest and violence. "Everybody has an answer for Haiti. Unfortunately, historically, none of those answers have worked."
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Mar 19, 2024
A new U.N.-backed report has found that famine is imminent in northern Gaza with nearly a third of Gaza's population experiencing the highest levels of catastrophic hunger. This comes as Israel launches another major raid at Al-Shifa Hospital, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have taken shelter since the start of the conflict. In the south, daily bombing continues while the Israeli government threatens a full-scale ground invasion on the border city of Rafah. "The world should impose sanctions on Israel," says the Palestinian National Initiative's Mustafa Barghouti, who joins us from the occupied West Bank. Barghouti responds to Israel's latest military actions and claims, gives an update on the status of ceasefire negotiations, addresses conditions in Israeli prisons and more. "It's a massacre. It's a huge genocide," he says. "The ultimate goal of Israel is ethnic cleansing."
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Mar 19, 2024
Famine in Northern Gaza Imminent; U.N., EU Blast "Man-Made" Hunger Crisis by Israel and U.S., Gazans Say Israel's Assault on Rafah Has Already Started as Biden Warns Netanyahu Against Invasion, Journalist Ismail al-Ghoul Released After Al-Shifa Raid; Officer Who Secured Food Aid Is Among Dead, Israel Arrests West Bank Reporter Rula Hassanein; 13th Palestinian Dies in Israeli Prison Since Oct. 7, Gang Violence in Haiti Spills Over into Previously Shielded Upscale Areas of Capital, Armed Groups in Nigeria Kidnap 100 People in Kaduna, Gambian Lawmakers Advance Repeal of Female Genital Mutilation Ban, South Sudan Schools Close Due to Extreme Heat, Two Dozen Civilians Reportedly Killed in Burmese Military Strikes in Rakhine, 30,000 Children and Women Held in Abusive Camps in Northern Syria, Protesters Condemn Javier Milei's Austerity Regime Amid Social and Economic Crises, Trump Unable to Secure $454M Bond in NY Civil Case; Peter Navarro to Begin Sentence for Contempt, SCOTUS Considers Free Speech Cases Involving Guns, Government's Authority Over Social Media, EPA Announces Total Ban on Asbestos
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Mar 18, 2024
We mark the 21st anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old U.S. peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli soldier driving a military bulldozer on March 16, 2003. Corrie was in Rafah with the International Solidarity Movement to monitor human rights abuses and protect Palestinian homes from destruction when she was killed. To this day, nobody has been held accountable for her death, with the Israeli military ruling it an "accident" and the Supreme Court of Israel rejecting an appeal from her parents in 2015. Rachel Corrie has since become a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian people, and her legacy must be used "to direct attention back to Rafah" and prevent an escalation in the war, says her friend and fellow activist Tom Dale, who witnessed her final moments. We also speak with Corrie's parents, Cindy and Craig, who say they have met many Palestinians over the years who continue to honor their daughter's memory. "For Palestinians everywhere, Rachel's story has been very important," says Cindy Corrie. "They tell us over and over again how much it meant." After Corrie was killed, they devoted their lives to her cause and founded the nonprofit Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice.
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Mar 18, 2024
We get an update from Rafah as the World Food Programme warns of worsening catastrophic hunger in the Gaza Strip and Israel continues to block most aid from entering the territory. Despite growing international criticism, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he plans for a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah, where over 1.4 million Palestinians are penned in after repeated forced evacuations from elsewhere in Gaza since October 7. "I'm hoping from the U.S. government to put a serious pressure on the Israeli government in order to prevent such a catastrophe," says Mohammed Abu Lebda, a poet and translator from Rafah, who says an Israeli ground invasion could kill up to 100,000 more Palestinians. Abu Lebda describes the daily hardships in Rafah, including the severe mental toll, Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza has unleashed. "I'm not sure that I'm going to be the person that I used to be before the war," he says. "I'm 100% sure that I was changed, and I was changed forever."
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Mar 18, 2024
Israel Attacks Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital Again as Hunger Grips the Besieged Territory, "Totally Inappropriate": Netanyahu Responds to Schumer's Call for New Israeli Elections, "We See Our History in Their Eyes" Irish Leader Calls for Gaza Ceasefire in White House Address, Basque Demonstrators Evoke Picasso's "Guernica" in Tribute to Gaza's Victims, Putin Wins Fifth Term as President as Yulia Navalnaya, Volodymyr Zelensky Condemn Election, Donald Trump Warns of "Bloodbath" If He Loses Election to Biden Again, Special Prosecutor Quits Trump's Election Subversion Case in Georgia; DA Fani Willis Stays On, U.S. Nationals Leave Haiti as Political and Humanitarian Crises Spiral, Niger Orders Departure of U.S. Troops, Senegal Releases Opposition Leaders Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye Ahead of Elections, U.N. Warns 18 Million People in Sudan Face Acute Food Insecurity, U.N. Considers AI Resolution as Rights Groups Condemn EU's "AI Act" for Empowering Law Enforcement, NYC Preserves "Right to Shelter" Policy But Excludes Migrant Adults from Its Protections, U.S. Court Halts New SEC Rule Requiring Climate Risk Disclosures from Fossil Fuel Industry
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Mar 15, 2024
Israeli scholar Maya Wind's new book, Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom, documents how Israeli universities directly constrain Palestinian rights by supporting and even developing the policies of occupation and apartheid used by the Israeli state. "In the West, Israeli universities are considered bastions of pluralism and democracy. But in fact … they are a central pillar of Israel's regime of oppression against Palestinians," says Wind, who also discusses Israel's "scholasticide, [or] the intentional destruction of Palestinian education," and the movement of conscientious objectors to Israel's mandatory conscription, in which she took part when she refused to enlist in the army at age 18 and served 40 days in a military prison.
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Mar 15, 2024
Hebrew University in Jerusalem has suspended an internationally renowned Palestinian professor for saying that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a feminist scholar whose work focuses on the impacts of militarization, surveillance and violence on the lives of Palestinian women and children. She made the remarks in an interview on Israel's Channel 12 on Monday, where she also said it was time to "abolish Zionism." Shalhoub-Kevorkian has been under pressure to resign from her position at Hebrew University's Faculty of Law Institute of Criminology and at the School of Social Work and Public Welfare since October, when she signed a petition of over 1,000 academics calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. This comes as no universities have been left standing in the Gaza Strip, and nearly 5,000 university students and staff have been killed during Israel's assault. "I am calling for abolishing Zionism because I see it as very violent towards the people and as causing criminality," says Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who discusses the atmosphere of silencing and reprisals against those who criticize Israel's policies toward Palestinians. "Anti-Zionism is to refuse to accept continued dispossession, is to refuse to accept this ideology of supremacy, is to refuse to accept the securitized ideas of one group against the other."
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Mar 15, 2024
In what is believed to be the first time a president or vice president has publicly toured an abortion clinic, Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Planned Parenthood location in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Thursday. The visit was the latest in a nationwide tour by Harris to highlight reproductive rights. In her remarks outside the clinic, she lauded Minnesota's efforts to protect abortion rights in the face of what she describes as a "very serious health crisis," with restrictive laws and outright abortion bans in more than a dozen states. Clinics in Minnesota have seen a drastic rise in appointments for reproductive healthcare as one of the last remaining access states in the region, says our guest Megan Peterson, who adds that it is "really important" that the Biden team not take pro-abortion voters "for granted." Peterson is the executive director of Gender Justice Action, a reproductive rights group working in Minnesota and North Dakota. We also speak to professor Michele Goodwin, who calls the consequences of state-level abortion bans since Dobbs v. Jackson a "trail of horrors" that are "antithetical to human rights."
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Mar 15, 2024
Israeli Soldiers Kill at Least 29 More Palestinians Seeking Aid, Hamas Offers New Ceasefire and Hostage Exchange Plan; Abbas Appoints New Palestinian PM, Schumer Calls for Elections in Israel, Warns U.S. Could Have "More Active Role" in Israeli Politics, 100 Activists Arrested After Occupying NYT Building, McGill Students Are on Hunger Strike to Demand University Divest from Israel, Prominent Authors Turn Down Prestigious PEN World Voices Festival over Org's Response to Gaza, Dozens Feared Dead in Mediterranean After Europe-Bound Migrant Vessel Broke Down at Sea, 300 Detained Immigrants and Allies Are on Hunger Strike in Washington State, Kamala Harris Decries "Healthcare Crisis" as She Visits Minnesota Abortion Clinic, Jury Convicts James Crumbley of Involuntary Manslaughter for Son's Mass Shooting, "Why Did You Shoot My Baby?": Bodycam Footage Shows CA Deputy Killing Autistic Teen Ryan Gainer, Bernie Sanders Introduces Legislation to Reduce Workweek to 32 Hours
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Mar 14, 2024
In a rare bipartisan effort, the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday requiring TikTok to be sold by its China-based owner, ByteDance, or face a ban throughout the United States. Backers claim the popular social media app could give the Chinese government access to U.S. residents' personal data and potentially affect the 2024 elections. The fight over TikTok comes at a time of rising anti-China rhetoric in both major parties, as well as alarm among conservatives that content supportive of Palestinian rights and critical of Israel is popular with many young users of the app. The fate of the TikTok legislation now rests in the Senate, and President Joe Biden says he will sign it into law if it reaches his desk. Former President Donald Trump, who tried to crack down on TikTok while in office, now opposes the effort. "It is singling out TikTok and China without any evidence whatsoever that they are engaging in any nefarious or spying activity," Ramesh Srinivasan, professor of information studies at UCLA, says of the legislation. "What we need is expansive, comprehensive digital rights legislation that really applies to every social media company and gives Americans power over their own data."
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Mar 14, 2024
Journalist Mehdi Hasan warns U.S. media coverage of the 2024 election is largely unable to capture the threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump and the modern Republican Party. "We need to speak very clearly about what that fascist threat is," says Hasan, who warns media outlets cannot "normalize his extremism and racism and bigotry," because the right to free press itself could be under threat if he regains power. "One of our two major parties has been fully radicalized and is now in bed with white supremacists. … Let's be plain about that."
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Mar 14, 2024
Acclaimed journalist Mehdi Hasan joins us to discuss U.S. media coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza and how the war is a genocide being abetted by the United States. Hasan says U.S. media is overwhelmingly pro-Israel and fails to convey the truth to audiences. "Palestinian voices not being on American television or in American print is one of the biggest problems when it comes to our coverage of this conflict," he says. Hasan has just launched a new media company, Zeteo, which he started after the end of his weekly news program on MSNBC and Peacock earlier this year. Hasan's interviews routinely led to viral segments, including his tough questioning of Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev, but the cable network announced it was canceling his show in November. The move drew considerable outrage, with critics slamming MSNBC for effectively silencing one of the most prominent Muslim voices in U.S. media. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to threaten a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, which human rights groups warn would be a massacre. President Biden has said such an escalation is a "red line" for him, but Netanyahu has vowed to push ahead anyway. "Where is the outcry here in the West?" asks Hasan of reports of Israeli war crimes, including the killing of over 100 journalists in the past five months in Gaza and the blockade of aid from the region. "It's a stain on [Biden's] record, on America's conscience."
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Mar 14, 2024
At Least 5 People Killed, Including U.N. Staffer, as Israel Bombs UNRWA Gaza Aid Site, 27 Gazans Have Died of Hunger, Including 23 Babies and Children, as Israel Continues to Block Aid, U.N.: Israel Violated International Law When It Killed Reuters Reporter Issam Abdallah in Lebanon, Activists from San Francisco to New York Disrupt Business as Usual to Shine Light on Gaza Genocide, Jewish Voice for Peace Occupies Hakeem Jeffries's Office as 20 Orgs Launch "Reject AIPAC" Coalition, U.S. House Votes in Favor of TikTok Ban Bill Amid First Amendment and Other Questions, Reports: Biden Weighs Detaining Haitians in Guantánamo If Crisis Leads to Increase in Migration, Sudan: 230,000 Children and People Recovering from Birth Are at Risk of Death by Starvation, Torrential Rains in La Paz, Bolivia, Kill at Least One Person, Destroy Homes, Methane Emissions Remain Far Above Levels Needed to Curb Climate Catastrophe, "You Are Not an Ally. You Are a Murderer": Climate Defiance Confronts Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, Boeing Deleted Footage of Work on Alaska Airlines Door That Blew Off 737 MAX, U.S. Court Upholds Texas Law Barring Minors from Getting Birth Control Without Parental Consent, Georgia Judge Throws Out 6 Charges in Trump Election Subversion Case, Autopsy Finds Nex Benedict Died of Suicide the Day After Being Attacked in High School Bathroom, David Mixner, LGBTQ Rights Leader Who Pushed Politicians to Reject Homophobia, Dies at 77
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Mar 13, 2024
It's official: Following Tuesday's primaries, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump appear set for a rematch in November after both candidates secured enough delegates to win their parties' nominations. This past weekend, Republican front-runner Donald Trump hosted Hungary's authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at Mar-a-Lago and openly praised Orbán's autocratic style of rule. To talk more about Orbán and Trump, we spoke Tuesday with Gábor Scheiring, a former Green Party member of parliament in Hungary, who has a new essay titled "I watched Hungary's democracy dissolve into authoritarianism as a member of parliament — and I see troubling parallels in Trumpism and its appeal to workers." He explains that "strongmen" like Orbán and Trump are subverting democracy "from the inside, gradually," using tactics like gerrymandering and control of the courts to seize and consolidate power.
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Mar 13, 2024
Author and civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander's new piece in The Nation reflects on Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s April 4, 1967, speech in New York opposing the war in Vietnam and its lasting lessons for American society today. She describes "revolutionary love" as the transnational "connections between liberation struggles" around the world, and calls for anti-oppression movements in the U.S. to continue working to "end the occupation of Palestine and commit to the thriving of all of the people who have been subjected to endless war and occupation." Revolutionary love, argues Alexander, "is the only thing that can save us now."
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Mar 13, 2024
The European Union's foreign policy chief has accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war by blocking aid from entering Gaza. The World Food Programme managed to deliver aid to Gaza City for the first time Tuesday in three weeks, but the agency said famine is imminent in northern Gaza unless aid deliveries increase exponentially. Meanwhile, as the United States proposes building a seaport off Gaza and airdrops for food aid, Palestinian American journalist Rami Khouri calls the proposals "sheer entertainment" that is "designed primarily to make Americans feel better about themselves."
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Mar 13, 2024
Israel is expanding its attacks in Lebanon for the third day in a row, with Israeli warplanes striking deep in the country amid growing concern about a regional escalation, and Hamas ally Hezbollah launching a barrage of over 100 rockets at Israel in response. Tens of thousands of residents of northern Israel and southern Lebanon have fled their homes as attacks rise. Israel expects "the Americans will come in and help them … knock down Hezbollah's power," says Rami Khouri, a Palestinian American journalist and senior public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut. "This is not something that we should celebrate," adds Khouri, who also discusses the historical context of decades of conflict in the Arab region, and Hezbollah's role in Lebanese politics.
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Mar 13, 2024
Biden & Trump Set for Rematch in November, EU Foreign Policy Chief Accuses Israel of Using Starvation as Weapon of War, Senators Urge Biden to Cut Military Aid to Israel for Blocking U.S. Aid from Entering Gaza, UN: More Children Have Been Killed In Gaza Than In All Other Wars Over Past Four Years, Israel Kills Four in Occupied West Bank, Israel Expands Attacks on Lebanon; Hezbollah Launches 100 Rockets Over Border, Kenya Halts Plan to Deploy Police to Haiti Until New Government Is in Place, Ukraine Drones Attack Russian Oil Refineries as Putin Says Russia Is Ready to Use Nukes, Top Aide to Alexei Navalny Attacked in Lithuania, Democratic and Republican Lawmakers Criticize Special Counsel Robert Hur, House to Vote on Banning TikTok, Rep. Ken Buck to Leave Congress Next Week in Blow to GOP, Florida Settles "Don't Say Gay" Lawsuit, Columbia Sued for Banning Students for Justice in Palestine & Jewish Voice for Peace
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Mar 12, 2024
At one of the largest for-profit immigrant detention centers in the country, human rights advocates report, there were two suicide attempts Monday, just hours apart. The privately run Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, the site of multiple hunger strikes to protest inhumane conditions over the years, also reported 61-year-old Charles Leo Daniel from Trinidad and Tobago died at the facility last week. He had been detained for about four years and was in solitary confinement at NWDC when he was found unresponsive Thursday in what is suspected to be another suicide. This all comes as a federal judge blocked Washington state from fully enforcing a law intended to increase oversight at the for-profit immigrant jail, run by GEO Group. This recent string of events reveals "the importance and the urgency to shut down the detention center now," says La Resistencia's Maru Mora Villalpando, who explains why immigrants are vulnerable and used for votes, for political gain and as scapegoats. "We are in this midst of horrible, horrible situations in detention centers, at the border, in the countries where people need to flee, because it's working for corporations and for governments. … That's why we're not waiting for the government to solve this. We have to save ourselves."
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Mar 12, 2024
We speak with Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, who says the "monstrosity" of Israel's ongoing war on Gaza, including attacks on civilians and restrictions on aid, shows that the International Court of Justice's provisional orders to protect civilians are being ignored. "What should be done is an arms embargo right now and sanctions, because Israel is not in compliance with the critical measures ordered by the ICJ," says Albanese.
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Mar 12, 2024
Palestinians in Gaza marked the first day of Ramadan on Monday amid rising hunger and desperation, with Israel continuing to restrict aid shipments into the besieged territory. United Nations officials have complained that even basic items like medical scissors have resulted in trucks being stopped by Israeli forces at the border. This comes as countries such as the United States conduct dangerous airdrops of essential supplies and have announced plans to build a pier off the coast of Gaza to deliver aid. "It's going to be more simple, more realistic and more efficient if the United States has pushed the Israelis to allow the aid truck to go into the north of Gaza and Gaza City," says Yousef Hammash, advocacy officer with the Norwegian Refugee Council, speaking to us from Rafah. "The only issue that we are facing on delivering the aid on the ground is the restrictions the Israelis put on it." Hammash also describes "living day by day" amid "madness, violence [and] bombardment."
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Mar 12, 2024
Unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry has announced he plans to resign amid rising opposition in Haiti, where a coalition of armed groups opposing the de facto leader have declared an uprising, led mass jailbreaks and taken over the country's airport. At an emergency meeting with international actors in Jamaica, the regional bloc CARICOM has reportedly proposed a plan to set up a seven-member presidential panel that would appoint a new interim prime minister. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the panel would only include Haitians who support the deployment of a U.N.-backed security force, a policy supported by Henry, while large swaths of Haitians voiced opposition to another hand-selected leader. "I'm not sure this solves the problem that's been going on in Haiti," says Haitian American scholar Jemima Pierre, who explains why Henry's resignation and transition announcement attempts to "put a veneer of legality on this situation," while the country continues to operate under occupation by foreign interests. "There's going to be more flare-ups in the next few months … if we don't stop this problem by its root, which is the constant U.S. imposition of its terms on Haitian people and the denial of Haitian sovereignty."
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Mar 12, 2024
Haiti's PM Ariel Henry to Resign After Losing Support of Washington, Gaza Health Officials: Israeli Forces Have Killed 400 Aid Seekers, Israel Blocks Aid Truck Bound for Gaza Because It Contained Medical Scissors, U.S. Intelligence Head: Gaza War Will Have "Generational Impact on Terrorism", Israeli Groups Accuse Netanyahu Gov't of Failing to Abide by ICJ Ruling on Aid, UNRWA Says Israel Tortured & Waterboarded Staffers, Leading to False Confessions, India Enacts Anti-Muslim Citizenship Law Ahead of Election, Boeing Whistleblower Found Dead After Giving Evidence in Lawsuit, Trump Suggests He Supports Social Security and Medicare Cuts, Sen. Katie Britt Blasted for Sharing Misleading Story About Survivor of Sex Trafficking in Mexico, Police in California Fatally Shoot 15-Year-Old Black Teenager with Autism, Swedish Police Remove Greta Thunberg & Other Climate Activists Blocking Parliament
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Mar 11, 2024
Palestinian novelist, poet and activist Susan Abulhawa recently returned from two weeks in the Gaza Strip, where she witnessed firsthand the destruction and misery wrought upon the territory and its people by Israel's relentless assault. Abulhawa spoke with Democracy Now! last Wednesday from Cairo and said "the trauma is immeasurable" for the Palestinians in Gaza. Abulhawa describes hearing stories of abuse, humiliation and torture at the hands of Israeli soldiers as people struggle to find basic necessities to survive. "The degradation is total," says Abulhawa. "And on top of that, they're bombed, day in and out."
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Mar 11, 2024
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was found guilty of cocaine trafficking Friday after a two-week trial in a New York federal court, where prosecutors accused Hernández of ruling the Central American country as a narco-state and accepting millions of dollars in bribes from cocaine traffickers in exchange for protection. He faces a possible life sentence. Hernández served as president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022 and was a close U.S. ally despite mounting reports of human rights violations and accusations of corruption and involvement with drug smuggling during his tenure. Hernández was arrested less than a month after his term ended and was extradited to the United States in April 2022. "The majority feeling is satisfaction, a feeling of progress in achieving justice," says activist Camilo Bermúdez from Tegucigalpa. He is a member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, the organization founded by Berta Cáceres, the Lenca Indigenous environmental defender who was assassinated in 2016 while Juan Orlando Hernández was president. We also speak with Dana Frank, professor of history emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who says the 2009 U.S.-backed coup against President Manuel Zelaya set the stage for the corrupt governments that followed. While U.S. prosecutors may have convicted Hernández, Frank stresses that multiple U.S. administrations "legitimated and celebrated him."
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Mar 11, 2024
Caribbean leaders are holding an emergency meeting in Jamaica today to discuss the crisis in Haiti, where armed groups are calling for the resignation of unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Haiti is under a state of emergency, with tens of thousands displaced amid the fighting, and United Nations officials warn the country's health system is nearing collapse. Ariel Henry was appointed prime minister after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, but he is currently stranded outside the country after a trip to Kenya, where he was seeking a U.N.-backed security force to help him maintain power. For more, we speak with Haitian American scholar Jemima Pierre, who says the unrest in Haiti today can be traced to decisions made two decades ago by the United States and other outside powers. "The root of this crisis is not last week, it's not this week, it's not even Ariel Henry. But we have to go back to 2004 with the coup-d'état," says Pierre. She adds that because successive security plans have been sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, "the whole world is participating in the occupation of Haiti unwittingly."
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Mar 11, 2024
Death Toll in Gaza Tops 31,000; Israel Continues Assault as Ramadan Begins, Biden Vows to Keep Supporting Israel But Says Netanyahu Is "Hurting Israel More Than Helping", Haiti: CARICOM Holds Emergency Meeting as Calls Grow for Ariel Henry to Resign, Pope Francis Urges Ukraine to Negotiate and Have "Courage of the White Flag", Jury Convicts Ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on Drug Trafficking Charges, U.N. Security Council Pushes for Ramadan Ceasefire in Sudan, Biden: I Regret Describing Immigrant as "Illegal" During State of the Union, Trump Meets & Praises Hungary's Authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, U.N.: Iran Responsible for Death of Mahsa Amini, 180,000 Protest in Mexico City Against Femicide on International Women's Day, Protesters Calling for Ceasefire in Gaza Block Traffic & Delay Start of Oscars, Oscars: Director of "The Zone of Interest" Condemns Israeli Occupation, "20 Days in Mariupol" Wins Oscar for Best Documentary
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Mar 08, 2024
In his State of the Union address, President Biden addressed Israel's assault on Gaza, where the humanitarian crisis continues to worsen amid a relentless bombing campaign and siege. We're joined by two guests: Eman Abdelhadi, a Chicago-based Palestinian Egyptian American professor, artist and activist, who on Thursday delivered an alternate State of the Union address called "The State of Genocide," and Neta Heiman Mina, a member of the Israeli chapter of Women Wage Peace, whose 84-year-old mother, Ditza Heiman, was one of the hostages released during the temporary ceasefire and hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas in November. Abdelhadi says that by arming Israel while offering limited aid to the starving population of Gaza, the Biden administration is "effectively holding a gun to Palestinians' heads, shooting at them with one hand and throwing crumbs at them with the other." Meanwhile, Mina calls on the Israeli government "to do everything we can" to return the remaining hostages, including an immediate ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners. "This genocide has been going on for 152 days, and it is 100% an American project," Abdelhadi says, adding that campaigners plan to hold Biden electorally accountable for his continued support for Israel. "We are going to make sure that the DNC knows where we stand on this issue."
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Mar 08, 2024
President Biden delivered his State of the Union address Thursday night. In it, he made his case for a second term ahead of this year's presidential election, criticizing Republican front-runner Donald Trump without mentioning him by name, and highlighting his administration's policies to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, reinstate reproductive rights and provide support to Ukraine. Our guest Katrina vanden Heuvel, the publisher of The Nation, describes current U.S. foreign policy as a "Cold War redux moment" that threatens the success of populist economic policies that have recently taken hold in the Democratic Party after decades of trickle-down, neoliberal economics. She calls for "ending the policing and the global policing which the establishment believes is their right," warning that "if you don't have a transformative foreign policy, you will end up with military Keynesianism."
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Mar 08, 2024
Biden Talks Taxing the Rich, Abortion Rights, Immigration Crackdown and Gaza in Election Year SOTU, Hundreds of Activists Block D.C. Streets, Deliver People's SOTU Calling for End to Genocide, "We Don't Need Aid. We Need Them to Stop the Killing": Gazans Respond to Biden Aid Port Plan, Palestinian Women Prisoners Share Accounts of Inhumane Treatment, Sexual Assault, Israel Hastens Illegal Construction in Occupied West Bank as It Decimates Gaza, At Least 275 Students Abducted in Nigeria, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso Team Up for Security Force Days After 170 People Killed in Burkina Faso, Senegal Sets New Election for March 24 After Protesters and Court Push Back on Macky Sall's Delay, Haiti Extends State of Emergency as PM Ariel Henry Remains Stranded Outside of Country, Narendra Modi Visits Kashmir for First Time Since 2019 Crackdown, Hong Kong Introduces New Draft National Security Law, Expanding Its Control on Dissent, U.S. Court Rejects Case Against Big Tech for Its Complicity in Child Labor in DRC, Google Fires Dozens of Contract Workers After They Unionized, Autopsy Shows Lewiston, Maine, Mass Shooter May Have Suffered from Traumatic Brain Injury, Biden Wins Hawaii Democratic Primary; "Uncommitted" Takes Nearly 30% of Votes, FDA Issues Warning for 6 Brands of Ground Cinnamon, "After Oct. 7, There Are No Longer Any Women": Gazan Women Struggle to Survive on IWD
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Mar 07, 2024
In Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in Monday as prime minister for a second time, days after newly elected members of Parliament were seated amid protests by lawmakers from the party of ousted and jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Sharif will lead a coalition government after none of the major parties won a majority of parliamentary seats in February's election, when Khan supporters accused the military of election tampering. Regardless of actual policy, Khan's enduring popularity as an anti-establishment figure comes from "a young, disaffected population, a set of regimes that historically does not deliver, and underlying structural crises that just get worse," says Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, associate professor of political economy at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. "That's why I think you have this groundswell of opinion which is both anti-domestic elite and also anti-foreign elite."
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Mar 07, 2024
While the Biden administration has been publicly voicing reservations over the mounting death toll in Gaza, a Washington Post investigation revealed the administration has quietly approved and delivered more than 100 separate weapons sales to Israel over the last five months, amounting to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters and other lethal aid. Only two approved foreign military sales to Israel have been made public since the launch of Israel's assault on October 7, which the Biden administration approved using emergency authority to bypass Congress. "It is actually illegal to provide military assistance to a country that is restricting U.S.-funded humanitarian assistance, and we know that this is the case with Israel," says Josh Paul, a veteran State Department official who worked on arms deals and resigned in protest of a push to increase arms sales to Israel amid its assault on Gaza. Paul describes the "production line"-style sale of weapons to Israel and says increasing internal dissent is putting pressure on Biden to change his "dead-end" policy of unconditional support for Israel. "We have a president and a set of policies … that remain set on this course regardless of the harm it is doing to Israeli security, to American global interests and, of course, to so many Palestinians."
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Mar 07, 2024
As Israel continues its relentless bombardment and siege of Gaza, where hunger and dehydration have reached deadly levels, Hamas has accused Israel of "thwarting" efforts to reach a ceasefire deal. A Hamas delegation in Cairo said that Israel has insisted on rejecting elements of a deal for a phased process that would culminate in an end to Israel's assault on Gaza, as well as ensuring the entry of aid and facilitating the return of displaced Palestinians back to their homes in Gaza. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is pushing Hamas to accept the terms on the table, claiming that a "rational" offer had been made for a six-week truce in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. The White House statements seem to be "a very politically calculated move so that they can essentially point the blame at Hamas if this fails," says Tahani Mustafa, senior Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group. Mustafa also provides updates on UNRWA's collapsing operations, repression in the West Bank and the utility of international law for Palestine today.
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Mar 07, 2024
Ceasefire Talks Falter as Famine Plagues Gaza, Aid Remains Blocked by Israel, South Africa Asks ICJ to Help Stop "Imminent Tragedy" in Gaza; Canada to Resume UNRWA Funding, Houthi Attack Kills 3 People in First Known Fatalities in Campaign Against Red Sea Trade Ships, Palestinian Americans Share Stories of Loved Ones in Gaza Killed by Israel, Activists in D.C. Line Israeli Embassy with Palestinian Flags, Banners Condemning Gaza Genocide, Musicians Pull Out of SXSW over Gaza; Brazilian Union Calls for End to Military Cooperation, Deadly Russian Strike Rattles President Zelensky and Greek PM Mitsotakis During Odesa Visit, Yulia Navalnaya Urges Russians to Protest Putin When Voting on March 17, U.S. Reportedly Pressuring Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry to Step Down Amid Mounting Crisis, Nikki Haley Ends Presidential Run; Mitch McConnell Endorses Trump, UAW's Shawn Fain, Palestinian Who Lost 35 Relatives in Gaza Among Guests Invited to SOTU, Alabama Passes Law Protecting IVF Providers from Prosecution, "A Promise Made to the Future": France Enshrines Abortion Rights into Constitution, "A Page Out of the Giuliani Playbook": NY Gov. Hochul Sends National Guard to Patrol Subways, Jury Finds "Rust" Armorer Guilty in 2022 On-Set Killing of Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins
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Mar 06, 2024
We speak with Palestinian novelist, poet and activist Susan Abulhawa, who is in Cairo and just returned from two weeks in Gaza. "What's happening to people isn't just this death and dismemberment and hunger. It is a total denigration of their personhood, of their whole society," says Abulhawa. "What I witnessed personally in Rafah and some of the middle areas is incomprehensible, and I will call it a holocaust — and I don't use that word lightly. But it is absolutely that."
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Mar 06, 2024
We look at Monday's unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states do not have the authority to remove Donald Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment with Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern, who calls the decision a "disaster" that appears tailor-made to let Trump avoid accountability for the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He says despite the superficial unanimity of the 9-0 ruling, it was closer to a 5-4 split, with the five conservative justices who wrote the majority opinion raising additional barriers to keeping insurrectionists from public office.
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Mar 06, 2024
On Super Tuesday, millions of voters cast ballots in primaries across the United States, and we look at key contests in California, North Carolina, Arizona and elsewhere with American Prospect executive editor David Dayen. He says the California race to fill the seat of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein highlighted the ideological fight inside the Democratic Party, with centrist Congressmember Adam Schiff successfully boxing out his more progressive rivals by spending millions to elevate the profile of Republican candidate Steve Garvey. Both men are now headed to the general election, where Schiff is all but certain to win. "It was quite successful," Dayen says of Schiff's strategy.
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Mar 06, 2024
Biden & Trump Nearly Sweep Super Tuesday Primaries; Haley to Drop out, Schiff and Garvey Advance in California in Senate Race to Fill Feinstein's Seat, Mark Robinson, Holocaust-Denying, Gay-Bashing Candidate, Wins NC Gubernatorial Primary, Israel Blocks World Food Programme Aid Delivery to Northern Gaza as Agency Attempts to Avert Famine, Hamas Demands Permanent Ceasefire Before More Hostages Are Released, Lebanon: Israel Kills Hezbollah Fighter Along with His Wife & Son, World Food Programme: Sudan Could Soon Face "World's Largest Hunger Crisis", Gang Leader Jimmy Chérizier: Haiti Is Heading to Civil War Unless Ariel Henry Resigns as PM, ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Two High-Ranking Russian Military Officers, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Announces She Will Not Seek Reelection in Arizona, Sen. Menendez Faces New Charges in Egypt & Qatar Bribery Case, Justice Clarence Thomas Hires Clerk Who Once Wrote "I Hate Black People", Dartmouth Men's Basketball Team Votes to Unionize, Liberty University Fined $14 Million for Failing to Report Sexual Assaults, German Leftist Group Claims Responsibility for Sabotage at Massive Tesla Plant
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Mar 05, 2024
Ahead of the 96th Academy Awards, we're joined by James Wilson, producer of the Oscar-nominated film The Zone of Interest, who raised Israel's assault on Gaza in his BAFTA Award acceptance speech last month. The film follows the fictionalized family of real-life Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss as they live idyllically next to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Wilson says the film serves as a metaphor for the occlusion of "systemic violence, injustice, oppression, from our lives," and challenges audiences' complicity by asking them to identify with Höss and his wife Hedwig. "The idea of this film was to look for the similarities, rather than the differences, between us and the perpetrator," says Wilson.
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Mar 05, 2024
Federal prosecutors in New York have rested their case against former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is accused of turning the Central American country into a narco-state. Hernández is on trial for cocaine trafficking and weapons charges and is the first former head of state to stand trial in the United States since Panamanian dictator and U.S. ally Manuel Noriega was also tried on drug charges after a U.S.-led ouster. Prosecutors accuse Hernández, a longtime U.S. ally accused of human rights violations throughout his presidency, of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from cocaine traffickers in exchange for protection and turning Honduras into a drug trafficking narco-state. If convicted, Hernández could join his brother Juan Antonio in serving a life sentence in the U.S. We speak to two writers who have been attending the trial in New York: historian Dana Frank and author and Honduran screenwriter Oscar Estrada. "There's a narrative here that … the Honduran people can't govern themselves, and then suddenly the U.S. is coming in and heroically imposing the rule of law," says Frank about U.S. public perception of the trial. However, she continues, "It's the opposite. It's the United States that helped destroy the criminal justice system in Honduras."
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Mar 05, 2024
Haiti is under a state of emergency after the country's gangs freed thousands of people from the country's largest prisons and are reportedly uniting to bring down Haiti's de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has yet to return to the country since he traveled to Kenya last week to discuss a deal to bring a U.N. force of 1,000 Kenyan police to the island. "It is a desolation that we are feeling. It is a terror that we are living," says Haitian pro-democracy advocate Monique Clesca about escalating gang violence that has already displaced thousands of Haitians. "We have been terrorized for the last 30 months of Ariel Henry's government," she says, emphasizing "the Biden administration has its hands in the bloodshed." We are also joined by researcher Jake Johnston, who traces the relationship between U.S. intervention and Haiti's unrest, "a process stoked and perpetuated by the international community, and namely the United States," and we speak with Kenyan MP Otiende Amollo, who opposes the plan to send Kenyan "peacekeepers" to Haiti, calling it a move "that flies in the face of the rule of law."
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Mar 05, 2024
Supreme Court Unanimously Rules Trump Can't Be Barred from Ballot over Jan. 6, Super Tuesday: Millions Head to Polls in 15 States, from California to Alabama, Minnesota Activists Urge Voters to Select "Uncommitted" to Protest Biden's Backing of Israel, "Look at Yazan": Palestinian Diplomat Decries Death of Palestinian Boy Who Starved to Death, U.N. Experts Weigh In on Sexual Violence on Oct. 7 & Inside Israeli Jails, Ukraine Sinks Russian Warship in the Black Sea, 20,000 Soldiers Take Part in NATO War Exercise in Finland, Norway and Sweden, Chad: Head of Military Junta Announces Presidential Run Days After Killing of Opposition Leader, South Korea Moves to Suspend Licenses of Striking Doctors, Jack Teixeira Pleads Guilty to Posting Classified Intelligence Documents Online, Five Catholic Worker Activists Arrested Outside General Dynamics Plant
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Mar 04, 2024
Reproductive health and medical groups are asking the Alabama Supreme Court to rehear the case in which the justices ruled frozen embryos should be considered children. The decision sent shockwaves through the world of reproductive medicine regarding potential effects on access to in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments. We speak with Abbey Crain, a journalist and artist who had been undergoing IVF treatments for nearly two years when the court made its ruling. She says her clinic has paused fertility treatments after the decision. "My first reaction was just sheer rage. I was extremely angry and, honestly, fell apart for a little bit," says Crain, who describes the impacts of this decision on patients and the politics of reproductive health in the state today. "These men down the street from me who serve on the Alabama Supreme Court have more say over when I choose to become a mother right now than me."
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Mar 04, 2024
Thousands gathered Friday in Moscow for the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16. The funeral was live-streamed on Navalny's YouTube channel to millions of his supporters, who suspect President Vladimir Putin is behind the dissident's death. "We live in an open dictatorship where any forms of public disobedience are forbidden," says Russian historian and political theorist Ilya Budraitskis, who says Navalny's death has galvanized public opposition for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine. With the war enabling the Kremlin to suppress political freedom, Budraitskis says Russian leaders are "ready to continue" their invasion and are openly advocating for the dismantling of Ukraine. "If Ukraine will be not supported from the West, Russia will continue its offensive and realize its final goal: the elimination of Ukraine as a state."
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Mar 04, 2024
The death toll from Israel's assault on Gaza has surpassed 30,000 as health officials say at least 16 Palestinian children have died in recent days from starvation and dehydration. UNICEF is warning the number of child deaths will likely "rapidly increase" unless the war ends. As Palestinians desperately seek aid being withheld by Israel, officials have accused Israeli forces of attacking crowds gathered to retrieve the little humanitarian supplies entering the besieged territory. Live from Rafah, Gaza-based journalist Akram al-Satarri shares his brother's account of surviving an Israeli attack while attempting to secure food for his kids. "It looks like the objective is to continue the starvation of the people of Gaza and to kill them when they dare to think that they can secure something to feed their children," says al-Satarri, who reports that U.S. airdrops of aid are doing little to relieve the suffering of millions in Gaza while U.S. military aid supports Israeli attacks. "In one hand, they are providing people with food, and in the other hand, they are providing people with death."
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Mar 04, 2024
16 Children Starve to Death in Gaza as UNICEF Warns Child Deaths Will "Rapidly Increase", Kamala Harris Calls for Ceasefire in Gaza as U.S. Begins Airdrops of Food Aid into Gaza, In Global Day of Action on Gaza, Protesters Condemn U.S. Arming of Israel, Israel Boycotts Ceasefire Talks in Cairo; Protesters in Tel Aviv Criticize Netanyahu, Benny Gantz's "Unauthorized" Trip to D.C. Highlights Rift Within Israeli War Cabinet, Israeli Attacks Kill Seven Members of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Environmental Crisis Feared in Red Sea as U.K. Ship Carrying Fertilizer Sinks After Houthi Attack, Haley Beats Trump in D.C. After Ex-President Wins in Michigan, Missouri & Idaho, Ukraine: 12 Killed in Russian Drone Strike on Apartment Building in Odesa, Leaked Audio: Germany Discussed Supplying Ukraine Long-Range Missiles to Attack Crimean Bridge, Thousands of Russians Pay Tribute to Alexei Navalny, U.N. Warns Blocking of Aid Access in Sudan May Be a War Crime, Shehbaz Sharif Elected as Pakistani PM Amid Protests by Imran Khan Supporters, Haiti Declares State of Emergency After Thousands of Prisoners Escape in Jailbreak, Largest Wildfire in Texas History Continues to Expand, CDC Drops 5-Day Isolation Guidance for COVID-19, U.S. Education Department Probes Death of Nonbinary Student Nex Benedict in Oklahoma, Paramedic Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Role in Death of Elijah McClain
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Mar 01, 2024
We speak with Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim of The Intercept about their exposé of a major New York Times piece into alleged mass rapes committed by Hamas militants on October 7 that raises serious questions about the accuracy of the story. The Times article was headlined "'Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7," and its release in late December helped the Israeli government to justify the ongoing war on Gaza and to paint pro-Palestine supporters abroad as not caring about sexual violence. One of the reporters of the Times piece, Israeli freelancer Anat Schwartz, is being investigated by the Times for her social media activity, which included dehumanizing language and endorsements of violence against Palestinians in Gaza. "The New York Times has grave, grave mischaracterizations, sins of omission, reliance on people who have no forensic or criminology credentials to be asserting that there was a systematic rape campaign put in place here," says Scahill, who criticizes the newspaper for not issuing any corrections for their flawed reporting. We also hear from Ryan Grim about how the flawed Times article touched off "extremely intense debate" inside the newsroom. "They're used to external criticism, but the amount of internal criticism they're getting has them on the backfoot," he says.
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Mar 01, 2024
Joe Biden and Donald Trump both visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Thursday, where the two leading presidential candidates each pitched anti-immigration measures to further militarize the border and restrict asylum. Meanwhile, a federal judge blocked a new Texas law set to go into effect that would give police the power to arrest migrants they suspect of entering the U.S. without authorization.?For more, we speak with Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, one of the groups challenging this Texas law. "Clearly, Texas has become a battleground for the soul of this nation," she says, adding that regardless of which party is in power, immigrant communities come under attack.
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Mar 01, 2024
Israeli Attacks Continue Unabated After Gaza Food Aid Massacre, 4 More Children Starve to Death, Defense Dec. Austin Refuses to Draw Line in Sand for Israel After Food Aid Massacre in Gaza, Washington's Largest Union Backs Democratic Vote for "Uncommitted" Ahead of Primary, Lebanese PM Says Gaza Ceasefire Would End Conflict on Its Border with Israel, New Jersey Community Members Warn Against Synagogue's Plan to Host Israeli Real Estate Event, Texas Judge Halts Draconian Immigration Law as Biden and Trump Make Dueling Trips to Border, Human Rights Panel Holds First U.S. Hearing on Climate Crisis-Driven Migration in the Americas, Smokehouse Creek Fire Kills 2 as It Grows to Texas's Largest Wildfire, U.S.'s 2nd Largest, Pakistan Swears In New Parliament as Imran Khan's Allies Protest Alleged Vote Rigging, Iran Holds First Elections Since 2022 Uprising; Low Turnout Expected, Alleged Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira to Plead Guilty, The Intercept, Raw Story and AlterNet Sue OpenAI and Microsoft, Ghana's Parliament Passes Bill Further Persecuting LGBTQ Communities, Thousands Gather at Alexei Navalny Funeral Amid Heavy Police Presence
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Feb 29, 2024
In Gaza City, at least 104 Palestinian refugees were killed Thursday when Israeli troops opened fire on a crowd waiting for food aid. "This isn't the first time people have been shot at by Israeli forces while people have been trying to access food," says the U.N.'s special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, who accuses Israel of the war crime of intentional starvation. This comes as reports grow of Palestinians resorting to animal feed and cactus leaves for sustenance and as experts warn of imminent agricultural collapse. "Every single person in Gaza is hungry," says Fakhri, who emphasizes that famine in the modern context is a human-made catastrophe. "At this point I'm running out of words to be able to describe the horror of what's happening and how vile the actions have been by Israel against the Palestinian civilians."
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Feb 29, 2024
As Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell announces he will step down as the Senate's Republican leader after 17 years — the longest term in Senate history — we speak with Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, who says, "McConnell's legacy has been one of obstruction." He describes McConnell's "aggressive" use of the filibuster, the topic of Merkley's new book, Filibustered!: How to Fix the Broken Senate and Save America, as having "broken the cycle in which government can function." Merkley also discusses Republican manipulation of judicial appointments and the cloture motion in pushing the legislature further right.
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Feb 29, 2024
As over 100 Palestinians are killed by Israeli forces while gathering for food aid in Gaza City, we speak to Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who in November became the second of only five U.S. senators to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. In January, he traveled to the Rafah border crossing in Egypt to witness the system of humanitarian aid deliveries, which he described on the Senate floor as a "complicated, bizarre inspection process." Merkley is now calling for the U.S. to bypass Israel in order to directly send aid to Gaza. Because of the United States' relationship to Israel — "more closely tied than any situation in the world" — Merkley says, "It's the United States that has leverage to address this situation, and the world expects us to take the lead."
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Feb 29, 2024
Israeli Forces Fire at Gazans Waiting for Food Aid, Killing at Least 100, Injuring Over 760 Others, New Yorkers Hold Vigil and Reading of the Names of 30,000 Gazans Killed by Israel Since Oct. 7, Missouri Girl Scout Troop Leaves Organization After Scout Leadership Banned Their Gaza Fundraiser, McConnell to Exit GOP Leadership, Leaving Behind Legacy of Obstruction, Far-Right Judicial Takeover, SCOTUS to Hear Trump Immunity Case as IL Judge Orders Trump Removed from State Ballot, Marianne Williamson "Unsuspends" Her Campaign, SCOTUS Considers Challenge to Bump Stock Ban, Enacted Under Trump, Congress Announces Bipartisan Deal to Extend Gov't Funding Another Few Weeks, "We've Lost Everything": Texas Wildfire Grows to 900,000 Acres, Razing Entire Neighborhoods, Texas Executes Man Despite Doubts over Guilty Conviction; Idaho Calls Off Botched Execution, Guinean Trade Unions Suspend Strike After Labor Leader Released from Detention, Nigerian Workers Launch Strike Amid Soaring Cost of Living, ICC Awards $56 Million to Survivors of LRA Commander Dominic Ongwen, GOP Blocks Senate Measure Protecting IVF Access Nationwide, DOJ Launches Boeing Probe as FAA Gives Co. 3 Months to Submit Safety Plan
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Feb 28, 2024
In an act that has captured the attention of the world, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force, set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington Sunday to protest Israel's assault on Gaza and U.S. support for the military campaign. Bushnell, who live-streamed the action, said, "I will no longer be complicit in genocide," before lighting himself on fire and repeatedly shouted "Free Palestine" as he was engulfed in the flames. He was pronounced dead in the hospital later that day. Democracy Now! speaks with Bushnell's friend and conscientious objector Levi Pierpont, who says his friend's death was not a suicide but was about using his life to send a message for justice. "We have to honor the message that he left," says Pierpont, who says Bushnell died "to get people's attention about the genocide that's happening in Palestine." Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat, lays out the history of self-immolation to protest war and how Bushnell's act could impact U.S. policy for the war on Gaza. "It was an act of courage, an act of bravery, to call attention to U.S. policies," says Wright, who offers support to Pierpont and other veterans advocating for peace live on air.
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Feb 28, 2024
President Joe Biden won the Michigan Democratic primary on Tuesday, but over 100,000 voters cast their ballots for "uncommitted" in an organized campaign protesting U.S. support for Israel's assault on Gaza. The major battleground state is home to one of the largest Arab American populations in the country, but the movement to vote "uncommitted" is now expected to spread to other states, including Minnesota and Washington. "I've rarely seen such an organic and authentic movement come together," says former Democratic congressmember from Michigan Andy Levin. "We really need actual change in policy, and I think we sent that message strongly last night." President of the Arab American Institute James Zogby says that Democratic voters need a reason to come out to the polls. "We gave them a reason with 'uncommitted.' Joe Biden's got to give them a reason in November," says Zogby. "There is genocide unfolding. People want it to end. The president either is going to have to act decisively to end it, or it's going to have an impact in November."
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Feb 28, 2024
Biden Wins in Michigan, But 100,000 Vote "Uncommitted" in Gaza Protest, Haley Warns a Trump Victory in November Would Be "Suicide for Our Country", U.N. Special Rapporteur Accuses Israel of War Crimes By Depriving Food to Gaza, Hamas and Fatah to Hold Talks in Moscow on Forming Palestinian Unified Gov't, 50 Broadcast Journalists Call on Israel & Egypt for Access to Gaza, Netanyahu: Strong U.S. Public Support Helps Perpetuate War on Gaza, Biden Holds Talks with Congressional Leaders over Shutdown & Military Aid Package, Massive Texas Wildfire Forces Closure of Nuclear Weapons Facility, Brazilian Climate Head Warns Climate Change Will Lead to Great Global Instability, Russian Court Jails Campaigner from Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Organization Memorial, Alexei Navalny Funeral to Be Held in Moscow on Friday, Two Protesters Killed in Guinea After Union Called for General Strike, Two Mayoral Candidates Murdered in Mexican City of Maravatío, San Francisco Issues Formal Apology to Black Residents, Mercedes-Benz Workers in Alabama Back Union Drive
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Feb 27, 2024
On his 90th birthday, the legendary consumer advocate, corporate critic and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader joins Democracy Now! for an in-depth conversation about U.S. democracy and why "Congress is a weapon of mass destruction." He says lawmakers have shredded the country's social safety net, refused to rein in the U.S. war machine, allowed white-collar crime to go unpunished, failed to enforce tax fairness and more. "All of these are very unpopular with the American people," Nader says. He also discusses the 2024 presidential race and encourages people to "vote their conscience" and "find some way out of this two-party duopoly gulag." Nader, who publishes the monthly print-only newspaper the Capitol Hill Citizen, was recently profiled in The Washington Post for his ongoing advocacy.
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Feb 27, 2024
It has been two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking a brutal war in which tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have died. With Ukraine running low on both weapons and new recruits, and with more U.S. funding stalled in Congress, we host a discussion on the future of the conflict with peace activist Medea Benjamin of CodePink and Oberlin professor Stephen Crowley, an expert on Russian and Eastern European politics. While both agree on the need to end the war, Crowley says the $60 billion U.S. funding package should be passed in order to give Ukraine a stronger negotiating position. "The only reason to fund Ukraine right now is to get both sides to the negotiating table to end this war," he says. Benjamin, however, says more funding will inevitably be used to continue the fighting. "It will only give the impetus for Zelensky to keep trying to fight a war that is not winnable," she says, adding that progressives are making a mistake to cede the antiwar position to "the extreme right of the Republican Party."
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Feb 27, 2024
Biden Says He Is Hoping for New Ceasefire Deal by Monday as Talks in Qatar Continue, Israel Targets Gazans Seeking Food Aid as Besieged Strip Continues to Face Severe Food Shortages, Palestinian Artist Fathi Ghaben Dies After Israel Denies Permission to Leave Gaza for Treatment, World Court Concludes Hearings on Israel's Occupation of Palestinian Territories, Rights Groups Say Israel Has Failed to Comply with ICJ Order to Prevent Genocide in Gaza, Vigils Held for Aaron Bushnell After Self-Immolation Death to Protest Gaza Genocide, Pentagon Skirts Question About Military Members' Sentiments on U.S. Complicity in Gaza War, JVP Leads Protest Against Biden at 30 Rock Ahead of "Late Night" Appearance, Irish Senate Votes to Impose Sanctions on Israel, Prevent U.S. Arms from Crossing Its Airspace, Israeli Airstrikes Kill 2 in Lebanon; U.S. Launches Preemptive Strikes in Yemen, Michigan Voters Head to Polls as Activists Urge Dems to Vote "Uncommitted" to Protest Gaza Genocide, Navalny Aide Says Putin Foe Was on Verge of Being Released Before His Death, Denmark Finds "Deliberate Sabotage" in Nord Stream Blasts But Drops Probe, Macron Does Not Rule Out Deploying Troops to Ukraine as He Rallies Support for Kyiv, Hungary Ratifies Sweden's NATO Bid, Ending 200 Years of Swedish Neutrality, Attack on Mosque in Burkina Faso Kills Dozens, Within Hours of Deadly Church Attack, Former Professor Donates $1 Billion to Albert Einstein College to Cover All Future Med School Tuition
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Feb 26, 2024
As Israel continues to massacre Palestinians in Gaza with U.S. military and political support, Palestinians in the United States are increasingly being targeted by anti-terrorism laws in an attempt to silence their pro-Palestine activism. "Anti-Palestinian animus is one of the most enduring areas of bipartisan appeal in Washington," says Darryl Li, an anthropologist and lawyer teaching at the University of Chicago. Li shares the history of U.S. anti-terrorism law, which dates back to the 1990s and the Anti-Defamation League-supported passage of a law banning "material support" to U.S.-designated "terror" groups. "The very foundations of terrorism law in the United States, at key moments of their development, were crafted with the agenda of opposing or crushing Palestinian liberation in mind," he says. We also speak with Dima Khalidi, founder and director of Palestine Legal, an organization that provides legal assistance to people who have been targeted by and face prosecution under these laws, which not only have a "huge chilling effect on people, on First Amendment rights," but that also provide "cover for this genocide."
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Feb 26, 2024
A new report on Gaza's escalating health crisis projects that due to the extent of destruction wrought upon the region's infrastructure since October, thousands of Palestinians will continue to die from disease, malnutrition, dehydration and starvation, regardless of whether Israel continues to pursue its military assault. "In case of an escalation, we'd see around 85,000 deaths," warns Zeina Jamaluddine, a nutritionist and epidemiologist who is one of the lead authors of "Crisis in Gaza: Scenario-Based Health Impact Projections" from the London School of Hygiene and Johns Hopkins University. Jamaluddine also says it is not too late to stop the bulk of these forecasted deaths, should a ceasefire be immediately put into place and aid deliveries resumed. "In case of a ceasefire now, we would be saving around 75,000 lives."
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Feb 26, 2024
A famine is unfolding in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have resorted to consuming animal feed amid soaring prices and dwindling supplies of food. The United Nations has already begun reporting deaths from starvation and malnutrition, while aid agencies have been forced to pause deliveries. "Israel is not allowing food into the northern part of Gaza so people would regret not having left," says Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha, who fled Gaza for Cairo in November and has been attempting since then to secure safe passage for his extended family members, including his sister-in-law who has just given birth. He writes about his experiences in a New Yorker piece, "My Family's Daily Struggle to Find Food in Gaza." Abu Toha urges international actors to take action and end Israel's siege of Gaza. "They are killing us every day," he says. "Where is the mind of the people in the world? How could you let this happen?"
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Feb 26, 2024
2-Month-Old Infant Dies of Starvation as Israel Blocks Aid, Gazans Face Famine, Netanyahu Reaffirms Plan to Take Control of Gaza; Palestinian Prime Minister Shtayyeh Resigns, Biden Administration Condemns Israeli Plans for Settlement Expansion in Occupied West Bank, "I Will No Longer Be Complicit in Genocide": U.S. Military Member Dies After Setting Himself on Fire in Protest, NYT Investigating Israeli Freelancer's Anti-Palestinian Social Media History, U.S. and U.K. Air Forces Attack Houthi Targets as Yemenis Take to Street in Solidarity with Gaza, Trump Beats Nikki Haley on Her Home Turf of South Carolina, Winning 60% of GOP Primary Votes, Ukraine Marks 2nd Anniversary of War with Russia, Which Has Killed 31,000 Ukrainian Soldiers, Burkina Faso Church Attack Kills at Least 15 People, South Korea Gives Striking Doctors Until End of February to Return to Work, Protesters in the Philippines Condemn President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s Plans to Change Constitution, New York Jury Finds Ex-NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre Used Group's Money to Fund Lavish Lifestyle, Man Convicted of Murdering Trans Woman Dime Doe in First Such Federal Hate Crime Trial, Vigils Held for Late Gender-Nonconforming Teenager Nex Benedict, "The Apartheid Has to End": Director Yuval Abraham Highlights Palestinian Plight in Berlinale Speech, Johan Galtung, "Father of Peace and Conflict Studies," Dies at 93
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Feb 23, 2024
A federal court in Washington, D.C., heard arguments Thursday in a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of racial discrimination and rights violations of Haitian asylum seekers. The suit was brought on behalf of 11 Haitian asylum seekers who were abused by U.S. border agents as more than 15,000 people, mostly from Haiti, were forced to stay in a makeshift border encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande near the Acuña-Del Rio International Bridge in Texas. One of the plaintiffs is Mirard Joseph, the asylum seeker whose image went viral after being photographed while a Border Patrol agent on horseback lashed him with split reins, grabbed his neck and gripped Joseph by the shirt collar. "This is a critical junction in our country here in the United States as we make sure to uphold human rights and understanding seeking asylum is a human right," says Guerline Jozef, executive director of immigrant advocacy organization Haitian Bridge Alliance, which helped bring the case on behalf of asylum seekers. "We will continue to push forward and make sure that accountability is served but also we have systematic change in the way that we receive people in the United States."
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Feb 23, 2024
As Julian Assange awaits a decision from a British court on his possible extradition to the United States, Democracy Now! speaks with Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of The Guardian, who worked with Assange to publish hundreds of thousands of classified records from the U.S. acquired by WikiLeaks that document war crimes in the Middle East. "What the governments are now trying to do is to frighten journalists off," says Rusbridger. "I think the world should wake up as to what the nature of the threat is going to be to mainstream journalism if this extradition is successful."
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