We speak with Eyad Amawi, an aid coordinator in Gaza, who tells Democracy Now! about the “rapid deterioration” inside the besieged territory as Israel’s blockade causes mass starvation. Health officials in Gaza say at least 14 Palestinians have starved to death over the past day, bringing the total to at least 147, including 88 children. Israel has allowed some additional aid into the territory, including by airdrops, but the United Nations says it’s still just a “drop in the ocean” of what is needed. Israel also said it would pause attacks for periods of ... continua
Hundreds of people who were once detained at the troubled immigration jail in the Florida Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” have disappeared. Democracy Now! speaks with Shirsho Dasgupta, a Miami Herald reporter who found that, as of late August, about two-thirds of the 1,800 immigrants who were held there in July have gone missing from ICE’s online database, with their families and attorneys unable to locate them. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ruled the jail could continue to operate despite reports of abuse.
“What we’re seeing at ... continua
7 wonders of the modern world
The Taj Mahal, Agra, India
The Area of Capetown Wines, South Africa
Oaxaca, Colonial City, Mexico
Jerash, Greco-Roman city, Jordan
The Château of Chenonceau, Loire Valley, France
Saint Barthélemy, French West Indies, France
The Holy Sepulcher, Jeusalem, Israel
As Gazans face mass starvation due to Israel’s blockade, more than 100 humanitarian organizations are demanding action to end Israel’s siege of Gaza. Their warning comes as the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the number of starvation-related deaths in Gaza has climbed to at least 113 people. We go to Gaza City for an update from Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s emergency food security and livelihoods lead. “We are really exhausted, and we’ve become unable to bear the situation any longer,” says Alsaqqa, who adds he has lost nearly 15 pounds since the ... continua
As Congress approved some $45 billion to expand ICE’s immigration detention capacity, including the jailing of families and children, we look at the case of one family. In May, plainclothes ICE agents detained a 6-year-old boy from Honduras who has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, along with his 9-year old sister and their mother, as they left their immigration court hearing in Los Angeles. In detention, the boy missed a key doctor’s appointment, and the family said his sister cried every night. As pressure grew over their conditions, the family was released on July ... continua
The Trump administration is intensifying its campaign against vaccinations, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrawing U.S. funding for the world’s preeminent international vaccine organization. The group — known as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — is the world’s largest funder of life-saving vaccinations and says it has helped vaccinate more than 1.1 billion children in 78 lower-income countries, preventing nearly 19 million future deaths. Kennedy also recently stacked an important vaccine advisory panel with unqualified ... continua
A small city located in the heart of the Amazon, Humaitá has one inhabitant per square kilometer. However, it has six bus companies. The most famous, the company “Siquiera”, is run by Luis and his son Leandro. They are the only ones who dare to venture onto Nacional 319, the most dangerous road in Brazil. If the other companies threw in the towel, both persist. After considerable effort, they decided to rehabilitate an abandoned road that runs deep into the Amazon rainforest.
Is the Donald Trump-Elon Musk bromance finally over? President Trump is threatening to cut off billions of dollars in federal contracts with Musk after the two billionaires engaged in a dramatic online feud just days after Musk called Trump’s budget bill a “disgusting abomination.” Musk appeared to back the impeachment of Trump and claimed the president is named in the Jeffrey Epstein files. “They are people who always have their eye on the bottom line, but they also are, obviously, titanically sized egos,” says author Quinn Slobodian, professor of ... continua
We speak with American neurosurgeon Dr. Abdul Basit Khan in Gaza, where he is volunteering at the Nasser Hospital. He describes treating patients with blast injuries and gunshot wounds from Israeli attacks, all while coping with a lack of basic medical supplies and widespread hunger. “Food insecurity is rampant, from all levels of society. Even the physicians are not eating,” he says. Multiple blasts were heard during the interview, with Dr. Khan describing his patients as people “living in tents being indiscriminately bombed” by Israeli forces. “This is the ... continua
Just days after the U.S.-backed ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect, President Trump has issued new threats against Hamas, saying Thursday the United States would back a military intervention against the group if it fails to uphold the ceasefire agreement.
“There is the fear all the time that the war will be renewed,” says Amira Hass, Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who joins us from Ramallah. Hass is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and is the only Israeli Jewish journalist to have spent 30 years living in ... continua