As we broadcast today, Egyptian authorities announced a presidential pardon for Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a free speech and democracy activist imprisoned for six years on dubious charges of “spreading false news.” The blogger was a leading voice in the 2011 Arab Spring protests that toppled the Mubarak dictatorship, and was repeatedly targeted by the current authoritarian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

The United Kingdom, Australia, Portugal and Canada have formally recognized Palestinian statehood, joining about 150 countries, ahead of the United Nations General Assembly this week, as France and five other states are also expected to formally recognize a Palestinian state on Monday. “This is an opportunity to renew our political solidarity,” says Jeremy Corbyn, member of the British Parliament and former leader of the U.K. Labour Party.

We look at how the assassination of Charlie Kirk has emerged as a tool for the Trump administration to crack down on dissent and free speech, as tens of thousands gathered Sunday in Arizona for a memorial for the conservative activist, including his wife Erika Kirk. While she called for forgiveness, President Trump and other top speakers, including Vice President JD Vance and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, reiterated calls for revenge on political opponents.

Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman sat down with longtime political prisoner and Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier for his first extended television and radio broadcast interview since his release to home confinement in February. Before his commutation by former President Joe Biden, the 81-year-old Peltier spent nearly 50 years behind bars. Peltier has always maintained his innocence for the 1975 killing of two FBI officers.

A powerful new documentary produced by Fault Lines on Al Jazeera English tells the story of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the Palestinian pediatrician and director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza whom Israel has detained with virtually no contact to the outside world for almost nine months.

We speak with the secretary general of Amnesty International about the human rights group’s new report on the “global political economy enabling Israel’s genocide, occupation and apartheid” against Palestinians. Agnès Callamard says Israel’s “24 months of genocide” since October 2023 would not be possible without international support and the continued supplying of Israel’s war machine by major arms makers, technology firms and other companies. The report names the U.S.