Contributing Writers

Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota joins Democracy Now! to discuss the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump administration, including its crackdown on anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, targeting of pro-Palestine students on college campuses and plans for a massive military parade coinciding with Trump’s birthday on June 14. “We are in the midst of the creation of a police state,” says Omar.

Israel has launched a large-scale military attack on Iran, killing top military officials, nuclear scientists and civilians in the deadliest attack on the country in decades. Iran has launched drones at Israel in response. The unprovoked attack, which Israel described as a “preemptive strike,” comes just days before scheduled nuclear talks between Iran and the United States.

We go to Los Angeles, where immigrant workers and families are feeling the impact of ICE raids on worksites like Home Depot. While hundreds have been detained, countless others are left to wonder whether they can safely go to work or school, fearing for their families. “The life of an immigrant in Los Angeles and across this country … is full of uncertainties,” says Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the termination of all remaining overseas employees of USAID to complete the dismantling of the six-decade-old agency. USAID was an early target of Elon Musk and DOGE. We look at the dismantling of USAID and what it means for people around the world to lose this lifeline, as detailed in a new Amnesty International report.

Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota joins Democracy Now! to discuss the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump administration, including its crackdown on anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, targeting of pro-Palestine students on college campuses and plans for a massive military parade coinciding with Trump’s birthday on June 14. “We are in the midst of the creation of a police state,” says Omar.

Israel has launched a large-scale military attack on Iran, killing top military officials, nuclear scientists and civilians in the deadliest attack on the country in decades. Iran has launched drones at Israel in response. The unprovoked attack, which Israel described as a “preemptive strike,” comes just days before scheduled nuclear talks between Iran and the United States.

We go to Los Angeles, where immigrant workers and families are feeling the impact of ICE raids on worksites like Home Depot. While hundreds have been detained, countless others are left to wonder whether they can safely go to work or school, fearing for their families. “The life of an immigrant in Los Angeles and across this country … is full of uncertainties,” says Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

We go to Los Angeles, where immigrant workers and families are feeling the impact of ICE raids on worksites like Home Depot. While hundreds have been detained, countless others are left to wonder whether they can safely go to work or school, fearing for their families. “The life of an immigrant in Los Angeles and across this country … is full of uncertainties,” says Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the termination of all remaining overseas employees of USAID to complete the dismantling of the six-decade-old agency. USAID was an early target of Elon Musk and DOGE. We look at the dismantling of USAID and what it means for people around the world to lose this lifeline, as detailed in a new Amnesty International report.

Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota joins Democracy Now! to discuss the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump administration, including its crackdown on anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, targeting of pro-Palestine students on college campuses and plans for a massive military parade coinciding with Trump’s birthday on June 14. “We are in the midst of the creation of a police state,” says Omar.

Israel has launched a large-scale military attack on Iran, killing top military officials, nuclear scientists and civilians in the deadliest attack on the country in decades. Iran has launched drones at Israel in response. The unprovoked attack, which Israel described as a “preemptive strike,” comes just days before scheduled nuclear talks between Iran and the United States.

We go to Los Angeles, where immigrant workers and families are feeling the impact of ICE raids on worksites like Home Depot. While hundreds have been detained, countless others are left to wonder whether they can safely go to work or school, fearing for their families. “The life of an immigrant in Los Angeles and across this country … is full of uncertainties,” says Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

As immigrant rights protests spread to Chicago, we speak with Democratic Congressmember Delia Ramirez, who is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and married to a DACA recipient and recently called on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign. She responds to President Trump’s threat to deploy troops in more major cities to quell protests. “What you are seeing is the beginning of fascism,” says Ramirez, who represents parts of Chicago. “For fascists, they select a public enemy.

Nearly two dozen congressmembers are backing legislation, the Block the Bombs Act, that would withhold offensive weapons from Israel that violate international law and humanitarian norms. “What Bibi Netanyahu wants is to continue to escalate this ground invasion and starvation of Palestinians, to absolutely take over Gaza and destroy Palestinian life,” says Congressmember Delia Ramirez, one of the co-sponsors.

Activists from around the world are arriving in Egypt ahead of the Global March to Gaza, set to launch June 15, when thousands plan to march to the Rafah border to call for an end to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians and its blockade of the territory. Dozens who flew to Cairo for the march have reportedly been detained, interrogated and deported by Egyptian security forces, but organizers say the event will proceed as planned. Former U.S.

Activists from around the world are planning a Global March to Gaza on June 15 in support of Palestinians enduring the Israeli blockade. The first Biden State Department diplomat to publicly resign over Gaza policy, Hala Rharrit, plans to attend the march along with thousands of others who will walk from Cairo to the Rafah border. “Silence does not ensure that we will be OK,” says Rharrit. “It’s quite the opposite. Silence ensures the injustice spreads.

Israel continues to detain eight individuals who were captured Monday when Israeli Navy commandos intercepted a Gaza-bound boat carrying humanitarian aid. Four other passengers on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla have been deported, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. We get an update from Sergio Toribio, one of the 12 on board the Madleen, who has just been deported back to his home country of Spain.

Condemnation is growing of President Trump’s travel ban that went into effect Monday, banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and the Republic of Congo. It also imposes heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

A nationwide “No Kings” movement plans to hold over 1,800 anti-Trump rallies across the United States on June 14, the same day as President Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C., as he celebrates his 79th birthday. Organizers are protesting President Trump’s mass deportations, militarized crackdown against protesters, defiance of court orders, and attacks on civil rights.

Activists from around the world are planning a Global March to Gaza on June 15 in support of Palestinians enduring the Israeli blockade. The first Biden State Department diplomat to publicly resign over Gaza policy, Hala Rharrit, plans to attend the march along with thousands of others who will walk from Cairo to the Rafah border. “Silence does not ensure that we will be OK,” says Rharrit. “It’s quite the opposite. Silence ensures the injustice spreads.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who was wrongfully sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in March, is now in federal custody in Tennessee after being returned to the United States over the weekend. He now faces federal criminal charges that he was illegally transporting undocumented immigrants within the U.S.

The Trump administration is sending 700 marines and an additional 2,000 members of the National Guard into Los Angeles following four days of protests against militarized immigration raids. Rob Bonta, attorney general of California, sued to block the use of National Guard troops on Monday. “Unfortunately, I think [Trump] wants conflict,” said Bonta. “He wants something to erupt so that that provides the basis for him to try to grasp and seize additional power.

President Trump has inflamed tensions over immigration raids in Los Angeles, which his top adviser Stephen Miller described as an insurrection.