Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders said Monday he will force a vote this week on legislation to block the sale of nearly half a billion dollars’ worth of bombs and bulldozers to the Israeli military. Meanwhile, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats will compel a vote on an Iran war powers resolution, now that the House is back in session.
Archiv: Democracy Now (independent media)
Report from Beirut: Israel Expands Bombing Campaign & Mass Displacement in Lebanon
We speak with journalist Lylla Younes in Lebanon, where she says Israel’s “massacres are multiplying” amid the broader U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Israeli strikes have killed nearly 700 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, while attacks have expanded to include areas of central Beirut, which Israel claims are aimed at the powerful Hezbollah militia. This comes as Israel has vowed to expand its incursion into southern Lebanon.
“The vast majority of southern Lebanon is now under displacement orders,” says Younes. “That is approximately 15% of the country.”
“Massive Cover-Up”: Rep. Jayapal Slams AG Pam Bondi over Epstein Files & Spying on Lawmakers
“Essentially, they were spying on us,” says Democratic Congressmember Pramila Jayapal. “It’s certainly not going to stop me from continuing to review the files, but it is absolutely outrageous.”
Jayapal also condemns the Justice Department for refusing to open new investigations into Epstein’s associates listed in the files. “These were rich, powerful, wealthy people, mostly men, who groomed, raped, abused, manipulated young girls,” she says.
A Distraction from Epstein Files? Trump Ramps Up Chaos in Minnesota, Greenland & Beyond
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, Michele, I wanted to ask you about another topic. One month has now passed since Congress’s deadline for the Justice Department to release all files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the DOJ says it’s made available less than 1% of those files. And you see many people are saying, “Is he going after Minneapolis, saying he’s going to take Greenland, you know, taking the president of Venezuela, and possibly threatening to bomb Iran to take attention away?” Could that be it? You see his sensitivity at the Dearborn auto plant, when a worker yelled “Pedophile protector! Pedophile protector!” and he turned around and gave him the finger and mouthed the words “F— you,” but said the curse.
MICHELE GOODWIN: Well, it’s certainly inconsistent with what were the campaign promises. The campaign promises to those who supported Trump, and those who didn’t, was that the files would be released, all of the files. Now, that’s not happened, so — and that’s critically important.
„Federal Invasion“: Minnesota Officials Condemn Violent ICE Raids, Arrests
(January 14, 2025)
Trump‘s immigration enforcement surge continues to rock Minnesota, just a week after the ICE shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three and U.S. citizen in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Star Tribune reports that the number of federal agents now in Minneapolis and Saint Paul outstrips the 10 largest Twin Cities metro police departments combined. „We don‘t want ICE in our neighborhoods. They are violent, they are creating chaos and terrorizing our immigrant neighbors, and they are not keeping anyone safe,“ says vice president of the Saint Paul City Council, Hwa Jeong Kim, who comments on the city‘s new lawsuit against the Trump administration, the loss of temporary protected status for thousands of Somali immigrants in the United States, plans for a general strike in Minneapolis and more.
“Venezuela Is Not Going to Be a U.S. Colony”: Report from Caracas on U.S. Attack & Maduro Abduction
U.S. forces attacked Venezuela and abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a Saturday night raid. About 80 people were reportedly killed, including 32 Cubans. Democracy Now! speaks with Andreína Chávez, a Venezuelan reporter based in Caracas, who calls the strikes an “imperialist attack.” Trump also said the U.S. would take the oil from Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven reserves.
Trump Threatens Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Iran and Mexico After Attack on Venezuela
President Trump has also threatened military action against Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Iran and Mexico, following the U.S. attack on Venezuela. Speaking to reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One, Trump specifically targeted Colombian President Gustavo Petro and claimed without evidence that Petro was trafficking cocaine into the U.S.
Protesters Worldwide Condemn U.S. Assault on Venezuela
Protests against the Trump administration’s unilateral, undeclared war on Venezuela erupted across the U.S. and around the world over the weekend. Antiwar demonstrators took to the streets of Ankara, Brussels, Havana, London, Madrid, Mexico City and cities throughout Venezuela and across Latin America. Here in the U.S., protesters rallied in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and dozens of smaller communities from coast to coast. This is Seth Galinsky, who joined protesters outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores are being held.
Jeffrey Epstein and the Mossad: How The Sex-Trafficker Helped Israel Build a Backchannel to Russia Amid Syrian Civil War
(October 30, 2025)
Barak felt enormous urgency to secure a face-to-face meeting with Putin as soon as possible, before the conflict escalated further. Besides Epstein, he also requested comments from Ron Dermer, close confidante to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was preparing to become Israel’s next ambassador to the U.S. Barak wrote to Dermer, “i don’t care how you’ve corrected it. yours will be always better in clarity and conciseness than mine. try earlier. i don’t want events to overwhelm us.” Dermer swiftly returned a refined copy with more fluent English.
As was typical of Epstein’s style, he sent back a rough cut riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. Unlike Dermer’s narrower cut, Epstein significantly revised Barak’s piece, and added a new title: “Wait Until It’s Too Late.”
Epstein & Israel: Drop Site News Investigates Jeffrey Epstein’s Ties to Israeli Intelligence
(November 12, 2025)
As the House of Representatives moves closer to forcing the release of the Epstein files by the Department feel Justice, we turn now to look at a new series by Drop Site News looking at Epstein’s ties to Israeli intelligence and how he secretly brokered numerous deals for Israeli intelligence.
On Tuesday, Drop Site revealed an Israeli spy stayed for weeks at a time with Epstein in Manhattan. Drop Site has also looked at Epstein’s role brokering a security agreement between Israel and Mongolia and Epstein’s role in setting up a backchannel between Israel and Russia on Syria.
“Uniting for Peace”: How U.N. Could Override U.S. Veto, Send Peacekeepers to Gaza, Block Arms & More
(September 4, 2025)
ou know, far too many delegations have gotten into the habit of hiding behind the U.S. veto by throwing up their arms and saying, “Well, we tried, but the U.S. vetoed it.” But Uniting for Peace allows the member states of the United Nations, 193 of them, in the General Assembly, to circumvent the U.S. veto and to adopt concrete action, as it did, for example, in 1956 by mandating the U.N. emergency force to deploy to the Sinai in the middle of the Suez Crisis against the wishes of two Security Council members, the United Kingdom and France, and against the wishes of Israel. It could do the same thing now, in September, by mandating a U.N. protection force for the people in Gaza and, more broadly, in Palestine, that is specifically mandated to protect civilians, that is mandated to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid, to preserve evidence of Israeli war crimes and to begin the process of reconstruction, most importantly, to change the incentive structure for Israel and its co-conspirators in the genocide that’s happening in Palestine. (…)
…the beauty of the Uniting for Peace mechanism is that the secretary-general cannot block it, the Security Council cannot block it, the United States cannot block it. It only requires a two-third majority of the member states. There is a move underway to build that majority now, and the hope is that that will take place.
Worse Than Tiananmen? 1st Anniversary of Egyptian Army Killings of 800+ Anti-Coup Protesters
(August 14, 2014)
One year ago today, Egyptian forces opened fire on a sit-in at Rabaa al-Adaweeya Square in Cairo. Tens of thousands of people had camped in the square to protest the ouster of democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi. Over the course of a single day, in what became known as the Rabaa massacre, Egyptian forces killed at least 817 people. Now, Human Rights Watch has unveiled a new report that concludes Egypt‘s actions likely constituted a crime against humanity, one of the worst violations of international law.
“Precisely Designed Mass Starvation”: Aid Access as Weapon in Israel’s War on Gaza, Researchers Find
MY GOODMAN: Alex de Waal, I’d like to bring you into this conversation. You’re executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine. You’re working with Forensic Architecture on their report. We have just heard that in the last day 19 people, including at least one infant, have died of starvation in Gaza. Can you talk about why this is happening?
ALEX DE WAAL: So, let me say that I’ve been working on this field of famine, food crisis and humanitarian action for more than 40 years, and there is no case, over those four decades, of such minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed mass starvation of a population as is happening in Gaza today.
Krieg gegen Palästinenser: Nichts mehr zu verteilen
Der Direktor der World Peace Foundation, Alex de Waal, erklärte in der am Montag (Ortszeit) ausgestrahlten US-Sendung »Democracy Now!«: »Ich beschäftige mich seit mehr als 40 Jahren mit Hungersnöten, Ernährungskrisen und humanitären Maßnahmen, und in diesen vier Jahrzehnten hat es keinen Fall einer derart minutiös ausgearbeiteten, genau überwachten und präzise konzipierten Massenaushungerung einer Bevölkerung gegeben, wie es heute in Gaza geschieht.«
“What Authoritarians Do”: NYC Comptroller Brad Lander Speaks Out After ICE Arrests Him in Courthouse
Lander was later released after New York Governor Kathy Hochul condemned the arrest and visited New York City to lobby for his release. Five other mayoral candidates also condemned Lander’s arrest, although current Mayor Eric Adams has stayed silent. Adams “has sold this city out to Donald Trump to try to get his own pardon,” says Lander. “Let’s be clear: It’s only himself he cares about, and he is putting New York’s immigrants in harm’s way.”
Greta Thunberg Speaks from Aid Ship Heading to Gaza Despite Israeli Threats: It’s My Moral Obligation
Greta, it’s really something to see you on that ship right now. Can you tell us why you’re taking this journey, extremely dangerous, and how you’re planning to challenge the Israeli blockade?
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, as you said, we are doing this mission following one month after our last attempt. Boat Conscience was bombed and disabled. So, that’s why we are trying again, because we cannot afford to give up. There is simply too much at stake. And in times of injustice, as we are seeing now the genocide and blockade happening, we have to do everything we can to demand an end to these atrocities and war crimes committed by Israel.
And for me personally, I happen to have a platform for some reason, and then it is my moral obligation to use that platform. And if my presence on this boat can make a difference, if that can show in any way that the world has not forgotten about Palestine, and to try once again to attempt to break the siege and open up a humanitarian corridor and deliver the extremely needed humanitarian aid, then that is a risk I am willing to take.
And it’s something that we just simply have to do. We cannot just sit, sit around and do nothing and watch this like live-streamed genocide unfold in front of our very eyes. So we are doing this because we are human beings who care about justice. And when our complicit governments fail to step up, it falls on us, unfortunately, to do so.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Greta, could you talk about how you see the issue of Palestinian freedom connecting to or intersecting with the issue that you’re best known for, which is climate change activism?
GRETA THUNBERG: Yeah. For me, there is no way of distinguishing the two. We cannot have climate justice without social justice. The reason why I am a climate activist is not because I want to protect trees. I’m a climate activist because I care about human and planetary well-being, and those are extremely interlinked. For example, when we see the genocide in Gaza, of course, there are some very obvious links, that ecocide, environmental destruction is a very common method used in war and to oppress people.
“Save Us from Ourselves”: 3,000+ Israelis Call for Int’l Help to Pressure Israel to Back Ceasefire
Neve Gordon, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you start off actually by talking about what this letter says? And the number of people is — the last time we looked, it was 2,000 Israelis who have signed it. Now it’s over 3,000, Professor Gordon.
NEVE GORDON: There’s a feeling among Israelis that the change cannot come from within. We do not have enough power from within to change the course of actions that Netanyahu and his government have put in place. And the only way to stop the violence, to stop the genocidal violence in Gaza, to stop the violence in Lebanon, and to stop future attacks and geopolitical war in the region is that leaders in Europe and leaders in North America, particularly the United States, put their leg down and say enough is enough and threaten Israel that if there is no ceasefire, they will sanction Israel, they will stop arms trade with Israel, they’ll stop sending Israel money, and ultimately stop trading with Israel. So, our belief is, to save the populations that inhabit this region, we need such an action.
Green Pres. & VP Candidates Jill Stein, Butch Ware on Gaza & Fighting „Two Zombie Political Parties“
(September 25, 2024)
Democracy Now! speaks with the Green Party‘s presidential ticket, Jill Stein and her running mate Butch Ware, after the Green Party suffered a setback Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined a request to put Stein on the ballot in Nevada. The Democratic Party had sued to keep Stein off the ballot for failing to submit the proper forms. In this campaign cycle,
Biden Admin Kept Arming Genocide After State Dept., USAID Found Israel Blocked Gaza Aid Delivery
Blinken’s decision allowed the U.S. to keep sending arms to Israel. Under U.S. law, the government is required to cut off weapons shipments to countries preventing the delivery of U.S.-backed aid.
“People Could Have Died”: Police Raid UCLA Gaza Protest, Waited as Pro-Israel Mob Attacked Encampment
We get an update from the University of California, Los Angeles, where police in riot gear began dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment early Thursday, using flashbang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas, and arresting dozens of students. The raid came just over a day after pro-Israel counterprotesters armed with sticks, metal rods and fireworks attacked students at the encampment. The Real News Network reporter Mel Buer was on the scene during the attack. She describes seeing counterprotesters provoke students, yelling slurs and bludgeoning them with parts of the encampment’s barricade, and says the attack lasted several hours without police or security intervention. ”UCLA is complicit in violence inflicted upon protesters,” wrote the editorial board of UCLA’s campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin, the next day. Four of the paper’s student journalists were targeted and assaulted by counterprotesters while covering the protests.
Campus protests spread around the country
From coast to coast, calls to end the Israel-Hamas war are spreading on college campuses.
Pro-Palestinian Campus Encampments Spread Nationwide Amid Mass Arrests at Columbia, NYU & Yale
Palestinian solidarity protests and encampments are appearing on college campuses from Massachusetts to California to protest Israel‘s attacks on Gaza and to call for divestment from Israeli apartheid. This week, police have raided encampments and arrested students at Yale and New York University. Palestinian American scholar and New York University professor Helga Tawil-Souri describes forming a faculty buffer to protect students, negotiating with police, and the ensuing crackdown that led to over 100 arrests Monday night. Uptown in New York City, the encampment at Columbia University is entering its seventh day despite mass arrests of protesters last week.
DemocracyNow!: Gaza Ceasefire Could Save 75,000 from Death: Report from London School of Hygiene & Johns Hopkins
“I think this is the plan: to break Gaza and to make Gaza uninhabitable and to destroy any possibility for Gazans to … rebuild or to just to retake their lives again,” says Gaza-based journalist Akram Al-Satarri in Rafah.
“I Always Imagine Myself Being Blown Up”: Journalist in Rafah on Dire Situation as Invasion Looms
You will never be able to imagine the things that are happening, when you’re walking down the streets; when you see small children out crying for food; when you see lining up hundreds of people for a very limited one pot of rice or one pot of food, and they are struggling to get some of that to bring back to their families; when you see small children staying unaccompanied because they lost their whole family; when you see one man who buried his whole family and who’s walking down the street, like, losing his mind because he lost all that he dreamt would grow up with him, which is his children — he lost his wife, he lost his father, he lost his mother, he lost his house, he lost any hope in life that he can clutch to. I saw many people talking to themselves down the streets. I saw many people crying because they have no one to cry to. They have no shoulder to cry over. They have no one to look after them. They have no one to console them. They have no one even to offer them some kind word to look after them. And they are going to — and they are driven insane because of that.
Israeli Troops Storm Kamal Adwan Hospital as Gaza’s Humanitarian Crisis Deepens
Israeli troops backed by tanks and heavy artillery have stormed the besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, where 3,000 displaced people are sheltering from Israeli’s unrelenting assault. Al Jazeera reports medical staff inside the hospital were among those shot and killed, as were two mothers killed Monday when Israel’s military bombarded the hospital’s maternity ward. The hospital’s remaining patients include a dozen children in an intensive care unit and six newborns in incubators.
Gaza Death Toll Approaches 16,000 as Israel Intensifies Attacks and Lays Siege to Hospitals
The World Health Organization says the situation in Gaza is “worsening by the hour,” as Israel’s military lays siege to hospitals and intensifies its assault on areas it previously ordered civilians to flee to. The death toll from the Israeli bombardment is approaching 16,000 — with thousands more believed to be trapped under the rubble.