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The Future of Federal Disaster Response

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.
Donald Trump has wrapped up his tour of central Texas, where he met with state officials and those affected by last week’s devastating floods.

“Economy of Genocide”: U.S. Sanctions U.N. Expert Who Reports on Corporate Profits from Israel’s Gaza War

We speak with United Nations expert Francesca Albanese, one day after the Trump administration announced it is imposing sanctions on her over her advocacy for Palestinian rights. Albanese has served as the U.N. special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 2022. She recently released a report highlighting dozens of companies aiding Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and fueling its genocidal war machine in Gaza, including U.S. tech giants.

U.N. Human Rights Chief Slams Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Policies, “Militarized Response” to Protests

Democracy Now! recently interviewed U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in Geneva, Switzerland. The wide-ranging conversation touched on immigration policy in the United States, climate change around the world, the global fight to preserve human rights and more.
See Part 1 of our conversation with Türk, including his response to Israel’s brutal war on Gaza.

Judge Blocks Trump Birthright Citizenship Order; DOJ Caught Lying About Men Sent to El Salvador

A federal judge in New Hampshire has issued a nationwide injunction against President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for children born in the United States since February 20. In a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of immigrant parents, the ACLU argued that the order would leave children born to undocumented parents “effectively stateless.

Ex-NOAA Official on TX Flood: Trump Breaking “Disaster Response Chain” as Climate Crisis Escalates

Rescue teams in central Texas are still searching for about 160 people who went missing in the catastrophic flash floods on July 4. The official death toll has climbed to at least 121 victims. State policymakers are now in the spotlight, as questions swirl around Texas’s lack of emergency precautions and the climate denialism of Republican political leaders.

Philadelphia Strike Ends: Race & Inequality at Center of Municipal Workers’ Fight for a Fair Wage

The largest municipal workers’ strike in decades in the city of Philadelphia has ended after 9,000 members of AFSCME District Council 33, who are primarily sanitation workers, walked off the job a week ago. Growing piles of trash on the streets of Philadelphia brought the strike into clear view for city residents. Labor historian Francis Ryan says the workers won “the hearts of a lot of Philadelphians” with a popular social media campaign.

“Economy of Genocide”: U.S. Sanctions U.N. Expert Who Reports on Corporate Profits from Israel’s Gaza War

We speak with United Nations expert Francesca Albanese, one day after the Trump administration announced it is imposing sanctions on her over her advocacy for Palestinian rights. Albanese has served as the U.N. special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 2022. She recently released a report highlighting dozens of companies aiding Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and fueling its genocidal war machine in Gaza, including U.S. tech giants.

“Apocalypse in the Tropics”: Brazilian Filmmaker on Evangelicals, Bolsonaro & Trump’s Tariff Threat

Brazilian filmmaker Petra Costa’s latest documentary, Apocalypse in the Tropics, explores the impact of evangelical Christianity on Brazil’s political landscape. Once a small minority, evangelicals now constitute about 30% of Brazil’s population and played a key role in the rise of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. “It’s one of the fastest-growing religious shifts in the history of mankind,” Costa tells Democracy Now! She says right-wing evangelicalism in Brazil is largely a U.S.

From Agents on Horseback in L.A. to a Chicago Arts Festival, Latino Communities Mobilize Against ICE

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is sowing fear and chaos in communities across the United States, as heavily armed and masked agents descend on workplaces, schools and public spaces. In Los Angeles, dozens of federal agents, including some on horseback, swept MacArthur Park, located in a predominantly immigrant and working-class part of the city. “It felt like an occupation of L.A.,” says Vladimir Carrasco, who works with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA.

Philadelphia Strike Ends: Race & Inequality at Center of Municipal Workers’ Fight for a Fair Wage

The largest municipal workers’ strike in decades in the city of Philadelphia has ended after 9,000 members of AFSCME District Council 33, who are primarily sanitation workers, walked off the job a week ago. Growing piles of trash on the streets of Philadelphia brought the strike into clear view for city residents. Labor historian Francis Ryan says the workers won “the hearts of a lot of Philadelphians” with a popular social media campaign.

“Ideological Deportation”: AAUP v. Rubio Trial Challenges Trump Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Students

The first trial in a case challenging the Trump administration’s policy of detaining and deporting international students and professors who participate in pro-Palestinian activism is underway in Boston. The American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association brought the lawsuit. Government lawyers tried to get it dismissed, but U.S.

“Vladimir Putin Is Not Interested in a Peace Deal”: Matt Duss on Trump’s Stalled Ukraine Diplomacy

Ukraine’s Air Force says Russia launched its largest aerial attack overnight since its 2022 full-scale invasion, firing a record 741 drones and missiles, most of them targeting the city of Lutsk in western Ukraine. The barrage prompted Poland to activate its air defenses and scramble fighter jets. Russia’s attack came after President Trump on Tuesday sharply criticized Vladimir Putin in his latest in a series of U-turns on Ukraine policy.

What Is the Trump Doctrine? John Bellamy Foster on U.S. Foreign Policy & the “New MAGA Imperialism”

What is MAGA imperialism? Monthly Review editor John Bellamy Foster says that, despite its feints toward anti-imperialist isolationism, President Donald Trump’s foreign policy has coalesced into a “hyper-nationalist” form of populism that rejects the U.S.’s post-WWII adherence to liberal internationalism and promotes dominance over other countries via military power rather than through economic globalization.

Peter Beinart on Zohran Mamdani & Why Democratic Voters Are Increasingly Skeptical of Israel

We speak to Peter Beinart, editor-at-large at Jewish Currents, about changing popular opinion in the U.S. toward Israel and Palestine. “I’m not sure there’s any political issue in the United States, perhaps other than gay marriage, over the last couple of decades where public opinion has shifted as fast,” he says, citing the surprise victory of pro-Palestinian mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic primary as evidence of a shifting political landscape.

Hold GOP Accountable: Youngest Dem. Congresswoman on Medicaid, Climate Cuts & Her Visit to ICE Jail

“The most important thing that we have to do right now is hold the Republicans that voted for this bill accountable for the devastation that they are causing and the lives that will be impacted.” Democratic Congressmember Yassamin Ansari of Arizona explains how Trump’s new federal budget, which introduces major cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, housing and education, will worsen wealth inequality and the health disparities, while actually increasing the U.S.

“Completely Illegal”: Dr. Feroze Sidhwa on Israel’s “Outrageous” Attacks on Gaza Hospitals & Staff

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the White House on Monday to discuss a possible new ceasefire in Gaza, we speak with Dr. Feroze Sidhwa about the humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territory, where Israel has damaged or destroyed much of the health infrastructure since the start of the war in October 2023. Sidhwa is a trauma surgeon in California who volunteered at Nasser Hospital in Gaza.

“Frontal Assault” on Climate Justice: Rolling Stone’s Antonia Juhasz on Trump’s Budget Law

We speak with investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz about how President Trump’s major tax and spending bill hurts environmental justice efforts in Louisiana communities affected by the climate crisis and pollution from oil and gas facilities. The Trump administration had already canceled much of the funding for local environmental monitoring and advocacy, and the so-called Big, Beautiful Bill further entrenches the power of the fossil fuel industry.

“Most Massive Transfer of Wealth Upward in American History”: John Nichols on Trump’s Budget Law

President Donald Trump and his allies are celebrating the passage of his sweeping tax and spending bill, which he signed into law on July 4 after a monthslong effort to shepherd it through Congress. Ultimately, just three Republicans in the Senate and two in the House voted against the legislation. The so-called Big, Beautiful Bill includes about $1 trillion in federal cuts to Medicaid and could kick 17 million people off their healthcare.

Texas Flood Kills 82+, Including 28 Kids, Amid Drought, Trump Cuts to Weather Service, NOAA & FEMA

At least 82 people have died and dozens are still unaccounted for after flash flooding in central Texas over the weekend, when the Guadalupe River rose about 26 feet in less than an hour on Friday amid torrential downpours. At least 10 girls who attended Camp Mystic, a girls’ summer camp located on the banks of the river, are among the missing. In Kerr County, the most devastated area, at least 40 adults and 28 children have died.

Journalist Karen Hao on Sam Altman, OpenAI & the “Quasi-Religious” Push for Artificial Intelligence

As part of our July Fourth special broadcast, we continue our extended interview with Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. The book documents the rise of OpenAI and how the AI industry is leading to a new form of colonialism. “One of the things that you really have to understand about AI development today is that there are what I call quasi-religious movements that have developed within Silicon Valley,” says Hao.

“Empire of AI”: Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World

In our July Fourth special broadcast, we revisit our interview with longtime technology reporter Karen Hao, author of the new book Empire of AI, which unveils the accruing political and economic power of AI companies — especially Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the exploitation of workers in Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology’s detrimental impact on the environment.

“What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?”: James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass’s Historic Speech

We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society.