Contributing Writers

We discuss the new HBO Original film Surveilled and explore the film’s investigation of high-tech spyware firms with journalist Ronan Farrow and director Matthew O’Neill. We focus on the influence of the Israeli military in the development of some of the most widely used versions of these surveillance technologies, which in many cases are first tested on Palestinians and used to enforce Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and on the potential expansion of domestic U.S.

France has been plunged into political chaos after lawmakers from across the political spectrum voted to oust Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a no-confidence vote Wednesday, a major blow to President Emmanuel Macron, who had hand-picked the conservative lawmaker to lead the National Assembly.

Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory since October of last year has killed tens of thousands of people and wounded over 100,000 more, leaving many with life-altering injuries. The United Nations said this week that Gaza now has the highest per-capita rate of child amputees in the world, with many children forced to endure surgery without anesthesia.

Amnesty International has released a landmark report that concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, making it the first major human rights group to do so. The nearly 300-page report examines the first nine months of the Israeli war on Gaza and finds that Israel’s actions have caused death, injury and mental harm on a vast scale, as well as conditions intended to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza.

We look at the world of high-tech surveillance with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow and filmmaker Matthew O’Neill. Their new HBO documentary Surveilled is now available for streaming. Farrow says he became interested in the topic after he was tracked by the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube during his reporting on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faces impeachment after opposition parties in the country’s National Assembly introduced a motion to force him from office for his shocking declaration of martial law. The conservative Yoon made his announcement in a televised briefing Tuesday evening, accusing the liberal opposition of undermining the state and possibly colluding with North Korea.

We discuss the new HBO Original film Surveilled and explore the film’s investigation of high-tech spyware firms with journalist Ronan Farrow and director Matthew O’Neill. We focus on the influence of the Israeli military in the development of some of the most widely used versions of these surveillance technologies, which in many cases are first tested on Palestinians and used to enforce Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and on the potential expansion of domestic U.S.

The Supreme Court appears poised to uphold Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth after it heard arguments Wednesday in United States v. Skrmetti. The Biden administration and the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the law, which bans hormone therapy for transgender children but not cisgender children, is a form of sex discrimination, but right-wing justices who make up the court’s majority appeared to reject that argument.

“Canada needs to stop arming Israel and implement an immediate arms embargo.” In Ottawa, over 100 Jewish activists began a sit-in inside a Canadian parliamentary building Tuesday to demand Canada stop arming Israel. Rachel Small, a member of the Jews Say No to Genocide Coalition and a member of the sit-in, says that the Canadian government’s claims that it is halting arms shipments to Israel are obfuscating the fact that Canadian weapons are still being transported via the United States.

We’re joined in our New York studio by +972 Magazine journalist Haggai Matar to discuss the latest developments in Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. Matar is a former conscientious objector who previously refused to participate in Israel’s mandatory military service during the Second Intifada.

We look at the world of high-tech surveillance with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow and filmmaker Matthew O’Neill. Their new HBO documentary Surveilled is now available for streaming. Farrow says he became interested in the topic after he was tracked by the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube during his reporting on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faces impeachment after opposition parties in the country’s National Assembly introduced a motion to force him from office for his shocking declaration of martial law. The conservative Yoon made his announcement in a televised briefing Tuesday evening, accusing the liberal opposition of undermining the state and possibly colluding with North Korea.

“Canada needs to stop arming Israel and implement an immediate arms embargo.” In Ottawa, over 100 Jewish activists began a sit-in inside a Canadian parliamentary building Tuesday to demand Canada stop arming Israel. Rachel Small, a member of the Jews Say No to Genocide Coalition and a member of the sit-in, says that the Canadian government’s claims that it is halting arms shipments to Israel are obfuscating the fact that Canadian weapons are still being transported via the United States.

We’re joined in our New York studio by +972 Magazine journalist Haggai Matar to discuss the latest developments in Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. Matar is a former conscientious objector who previously refused to participate in Israel’s mandatory military service during the Second Intifada.

Despite committing to tackling mass incarceration during his presidential campaign, President Joe Biden has rarely used the presidential pardon to commute sentences during his time in office.

President Biden is in Angola today in his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as president and as the first U.S. president to visit the former Portuguese colony. The U.S. is attempting to transform its relationship with Angola, still marked by the legacy of the Cold War, in order to compete with China’s growing influence, particularly over access to African resources. Biden is expected to promote a U.S.-funded multibillion-dollar railway project connecting Angola to Central Africa.

Syrian opposition forces have seized most of Aleppo after launching a surprise offensive in recent days that ousted government forces from the country’s second-largest city. The offensive is being led by an armed group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate that cut ties with them in 2017. Syrian and Russian forces have retaliated with airstrikes on rebel-held areas, with the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting 446 deaths in Syria since Wednesday.

Israel killed more than 200 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including 40 members of a single family. The official death toll in Gaza is now over 44,000, although experts believe that is a vast undercount of the true figure.

We speak with journalist Mehdi Hasan, founder and editor-in-chief of Zeteo, about the incoming U.S. administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for key roles, including lawyer Kash Patel to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Trump reportedly considered Patel for FBI deputy director during his first term but dropped the idea after pushback from within his own administration.

President Joe Biden on Sunday issued a “full and unconditional pardon” to his son Hunter, claiming the gun and tax cases against him — for which he faced possible prison time — were politically motivated. The outgoing president had repeatedly pledged not to use his office to help his son.

In Part 2 of our special broadcast, we look at a recent victory for Indigenous communities in Ecuador, where people overwhelmingly voted to approve a referendum last year banning future oil extraction in a biodiverse section of the Amazon’s Yasuní National Park — a historic referendum result that will protect Indigenous Yasuní land from development.