Democracy Now! 2025-04-16 Wednesday
Democracy Now! Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Democracy Now! Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Headlines for April 15, 2025; Liberation Seder: Hundreds of Jewish Protesters Demand Release of Foreign Students Abducted by ICE ; Trump Weighs Expelling U.S. Citizens as Salvadoran Pres. Says He Won’t Return Wrongfully Removed Man; Cover-Up in Ecuador? Disputed Presidential Election Rocked by New Allegation from 2023 Assassination; “The Dark Money Game”: Director Alex Gibney on How Citizens United Ushered in “Legalized Corruption”
In Part 2 of our conversation with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, he discusses in detail his new set of documentaries.
Headlines for April 14, 2025; Mahmoud Khalil’s Lawyer: Trump Admin Is Delaying in Federal Court While Racing to Deport Activist; Maria Hinojosa: El Salvador’s “Dictator” Key to Disappearing Migrants Like Kilmar Abrego Garcia; “I’m Not Really Free”: Pulitzer Winners “Suave” & Maria Hinojosa Examine Life After Prison in Season 2
As the Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast Suave returns for its second season, we continue our conversation with journalist Maria Hinojosa and David Luis “Suave” Gonzalez, the subject of the series. Gonzalez was sentenced to life in prison at age 17, but got an unexpected second chance when he was paroled in 2017 following a Supreme Court ruling that found sentences like his unconstitutional. The first season of the podcast followed Gonzalez’s case, his decadeslong friendship with Hinojosa and his e...
Watch our extended interview with British Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi and Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri, who discuss the new feature film The Teacher. Inspired by true events, the drama looks at how Israel’s decadeslong military occupation impacts Palestinian children. Nabulsi details the challenges of filming The Teacher in the occupied West Bank, and Bakri discusses how he drew on his own experience as a father to play the titular role.
Headlines for April 11, 2025; Supreme Court Orders U.S. to “Facilitate” Return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador; Michigan Lawyer Detained at Detroit Airport, Phone Seized; He Represents Pro-Palestine Protester; Microsoft Worker Fired for Israel Protest: “Cloud & AI Are the Bombs & Bullets of the 21st Century”; “The Teacher”: Director Farah Nabulsi and Actor Saleh Bakri on New Film Based in Occupied West Bank
Headlines for April 10, 2025; From “Liberation Day” to Chaos: Trump Pauses Most Tariffs While Escalating Trade War with China; Trump Threatens Joint U.S.-Israeli Attack on Iran If Talks on Iran’s Nuclear Program Fail; Columbia Prof. Marianne Hirsch: Mahmoud Khalil Arrest Reminds Me of Growing Up Under Authoritarianism
Headlines for April 09, 2025; A War on the First Amendment: David Cole on Trump Targeting Students, Law Firms, Schools & Journalists; Elon Musk Stands to Get Even Richer as Trump Backs $1 Trillion Budget for Pentagon
Headlines for April 08, 2025; “What About the Capitalists?”: Autoworkers in U.S., Mexico Call for Solidarity, Not Divisive Tariffs; “Detained Without Evidence”: Maryland Father Remains in El Salvador Prison After SCOTUS Ruling; “Black Americans Are Not Surprised”: Christina Greer on Trump’s Attacks on Students, DEI & History
Headlines for April 07, 2025; “Point-Blank”: Israeli Soldiers Execute 15 Gaza Medics & Rescue Workers, Bury in Unmarked Mass Grave; “Hands Off!”: 1 Million Protest Trump’s Cuts, Attacks on Education, Immigration, War on Gaza & More; “Terrifying”: Poorest Countries & Global Working Class Face Worst Impacts of Trump’s Tariffs
In Mali, thousands of mourners gathered in Bamako Sunday for the funeral of Amadou Bagayoko, half of the world-renowned duo Amadou & Mariam. Bagayoko died on Friday at the age of 70. The blind husband-and-wife music duo came to the Democracy Now! studio in 2018 to perform and talk about their music.
Headlines for April 04, 2025; Reproductive Rights Crackdown: Planned Parenthood CEO on Supreme Court Case, Title X & More; “An Attack on Labor”: Washington Farmworker Organizer “Lelo” Detained in Trump Immigration Crackdown; “Can’t Look Away”: New Documentary Examines How Social Media Addiction Can Harm — Even Kill — Kids
Can’t Look Away is a new documentary that examines the tragic consequences that the algorithms of Big Tech companies can have on children and teens.
The legendary folk singer Michael Hurley has died at the age of 83. Born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1941, he had a remarkable career that stretched from the 1960s until his sudden death this week at his home in Oregon. In 2020, Hurley stopped by the Democracy Now! studio.
Headlines for April 03, 2025; “American Empire Is in Decline”: Economist Richard Wolff on Trump’s Trade War & Tariffs; Jewish Students Chain Themselves to Columbia Gates to Protest ICE Jailing of Mahmoud Khalil; ICE Detains Mother & Her Three Children in Farm Raid Near NY Home of Border Czar Tom Homan
Headlines for April 02, 2025; Elon Musk Fails in Attempt to Buy Wisconsin Supreme Court as Judge Susan Crawford Beats Brad Schimel; A “Coup” at Columbia? Former Law Prof. Katherine Franke on School’s Capitulation to Trump; Trump Sends Hundreds of Immigrants to Brutal Salvadoran Prison as Mass Deportations Expand
Headlines for April 01, 2025; Workers vs. Musk: Federal Unions Resist Attacks on Bargaining Rights & Cuts to Essential Services; A Blueprint for Resisting Trump Education Cuts? Chicago Teachers Reach “Powerful” Tentative Contract; “The Darkest Hour of Need”: Burmese Junta Continues Bombing in Aftermath of Devastating Earthquake; “We Are Killing the Essence of What the University Is”: Dr. Joanne Liu on NYU Canceling Her Talk
Headlines for March 31, 2025; “Obsessed”: Elon Musk Pours $20 Million into Wisconsin Supreme Court Race as Voter Anger Builds; “Taking Down Everything Black”: Fired Kennedy Center VP Marc Bamuthi Joseph on Trump’s Takeover; Remembering Robert McChesney, Prescient Critic of Media Consolidation & Big Tech
Headlines for March 28, 2025; Hip-Hop Star Macklemore on New Film “The Encampments” & Why He Speaks Out Against Israel’s War on Gaza; “The Encampments”: New Film on Mahmoud Khalil & Columbia Students Who Sparked Gaza Campus Protests
Headlines for March 27, 2025; Fired Kennedy Center VP Marc Bamuthi Joseph Speaks Out After Trump Guts Social Impact Team; “Kidnapped”: 1,000+ Protest After Masked ICE Agents Abduct Tufts Ph.D. Student Rumeysa Ozturk; Can Elon Musk Buy Wisconsin? Ari Berman on Billionaire-Funded Attempt to Flip State Supreme Court; Elon Musk’s Family History in South Africa Reveals Ties to Apartheid & Neo-Nazi Movements
Headlines for March 26, 2025; Hands Off Social Security: Drastic DOGE -Backed Changes Put Benefits for Millions at Risk; 10 Years of War on Yemen: Leaked War Plan Chats Overshadow U.S. Deadly History Targeting Yemen; 1,400+ Arrested in Turkey as Erdoğan Jails Istanbul Mayor & Intensifies Authoritarian Crackdown
Full interview with Turkish political scientist Ezgi Başaran on rising authoritarianism in Turkey, the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor and the similarities between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Donald Trump.
Headlines for March 25, 2025; Oscar-Winning Palestinian Filmmaker Hamdan Ballal Brutally Beaten in Mob Attack by Israeli Settlers; Remembering Hossam Shabat: Gaza Journalist Killed by Israel Was Placed on “Hit List” Before His Death; “Much Worse Than Ever Before”: Abubaker Abed Reports from Gaza as Israel Weighs Broader Invasion
Headlines for March 24, 2025; Pro-Palestinian Cornell Student Momodou Taal Ordered to Surrender to ICE , Faces Possible Deportation; Georgetown Scholar Badar Khan Suri Remains in Immigration Jail After Masked Agents Snatched Him in D.C.; Law Prof. Katherine Franke Accuses Columbia of Empowering Trump by Agreeing to $400M “Ransom Note”
Headlines for March 21, 2025; Trump vs. Public Schools: Executive Order Aims to Dismantle Department of Education; Mahmoud Khalil Update: From ICE Jail, Khalil Warns of Trump’s War on Dissent & Targeting Palestinians; “Catch and Revoke”: AI-Driven State Dept. Program Targets Pro-Palestinian Students & Visa Holders; Declassified JFK Assassination Files Expose Covert CIA Operations from the Vatican to Latin America...
Wolfgang Kaleck, founder of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, talks about the need for a universal, international criminal justice system instead of one where only some nations are held to account.
Extended conversation with Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst with the National Security Archive, who has been analyzing the newly declassified files related to the assassination of JFK.
Headlines for March 20, 2025; Criminalizing Dissent: Greenpeace Ordered to Pay $667M to Dakota Access Pipeline Firm over Protests; “Murder the Truth”: David Enrich on Right-Wing Campaign to Silence Journalists & Protect the Powerful; Disappeared: U.S. Sends Venezuelan LGBTQ Asylum Seeker to El Salvador’s Version of Guantánamo
Extended conversation with David Enrich, author of Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful.