Contributing Writers

During Thursday’s segment about the risks of artificial intelligence, we shared a quote from author Naomi Klein that we later discovered was AI-generated. Klein has written about the proliferation of the fake quote on her Substack and joins Democracy Now! to discuss the growing difficulty of verifying online information.
“These companies are creating digital doppelgangers of us, trying to monetize our identities,” says Klein.

U.S. boat strikes across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed at least 221 people since September, while the Trump administration has provided no evidence linking the vessels or their passengers to drug trafficking. Ecuadorian prosecutor Alexandra Bravo was fatally shot on June 14 by a hitman in the city of Manta. Bravo had been investigating U.S. strikes on three Ecuadorian boats in which 36 passengers survived, many of them recounting alleged torture by American gunmen in U.S.

Democrats are calling for an ethics investigation into Republican Congressmember Max Miller of Ohio, who is facing allegations of domestic abuse as he runs for reelection. Miller’s ex-wife Emily Moreno, daughter of Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, claims that Miller burned her by throwing hot water at her, held a gun to her head and fractured their 2-year-old daughter’s collarbone.

President Trump said Thursday he may temporarily withdraw his nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general after two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said they would not vote to advance Blanche’s nomination until they received written assurances that he would limit some of the terms in the controversial deal reached between the Department of Justice and President Trump to settle his personal lawsuit against the IRS.

We go to New Delhi for an update on India’s youth-led, anti-government “Cockroach” movement. After weeks of street protests against Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the ruling BJP party, Pradhan tendered his resignation on Saturday. Now, however, protest leaders are accusing right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of reneging on his promise to not take punitive action against demonstrators.

The Haitian community is bracing for mass deportations after the Supreme Court last month sided with the Trump administration to end TPS, or Temporary Protected Status, for over 300,000 Haitians as well as thousands of Syrians who fled violence in their home countries. According to an internal government document, the plans to round up and deport Haitian immigrants could start this week. President Trump has long expressed animus toward Haitians in the United States.

A coalition of social justice organizations is celebrating a recent decision by Citizens Bank to divest from private prison companies that operate immigration jails for the federal government. The financial institution has faced significant pressure from protesters for providing more than $2.5 billion in financing to CoreCivic and the GEO Group, which work directly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Artificial intelligence tools are quickly advancing in sophistication and capabilities, raising alarm among researchers and industry figures who say the technology needs to be more tightly regulated. This comes as OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, recently disclosed that one of its experimental AI agents went rogue and secretly hacked into the infrastructure of several other companies in what was supposed to be a controlled test.

A man drove a minivan into a crowd of people near Berlin’s Pride celebrations on Saturday, killing one person and injuring 29 others. Authorities shot and killed the man during an operation on Sunday. The alleged suspect was identified as Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen. According to authorities, Ballout tried to join the Islamic State in 2025 and was released from prison in May after being jailed for preparing an attack.

We go to New Delhi for an update on India’s youth-led, anti-government “Cockroach” movement. After weeks of street protests against Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the ruling BJP party, Pradhan tendered his resignation on Saturday. Now, however, protest leaders are accusing right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of reneging on his promise to not take punitive action against demonstrators.

The United States is facing a number of major disease outbreaks, from foodborne cyclosporiasis to vaccine-preventable measles. We speak to the former chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Debra Houry. She resigned from her post one year ago in protest over political interference at the agency and the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

We speak to Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, about Israel’s continued impunity from international law. Despite an International Criminal Court warrant out for his arrest, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently visited the White House to meet with President Donald Trump.

A man drove a minivan into a crowd of people near Berlin’s Pride celebrations on Saturday, killing one person and injuring 29 others. Authorities shot and killed the man during an operation on Sunday. The alleged suspect was identified as Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen. According to authorities, Ballout tried to join the Islamic State in 2025 and was released from prison in May after being jailed for preparing an attack.

A prominent Colombian activist left the United States after he was arrested by immigration agents and detained for over a month in an ICE jail. Franklin Humberto Coral Garrido, known as Beto Coral, was a frequent online critic of far-right President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, a Trump ally, in the run-up to Colombia’s election.
In a memo obtained by The New York Times in June, U.S.

The Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed BreakThrough News last week, demanding the independent online news outlet hand over internal communications and financial records. BreakThrough News says it’s being targeted over its coverage of U.S. mass deportations, ICE abuses, Cuba and Palestine solidarity and U.S. foreign policy.

As the Trump administration threatens to intensify its “global campaign to crush radical left terrorism,” we look at a new 100-page report issued by the State Department last week accusing the Cuban government of waging a “sustained campaign of subversion against the United States.” The report claims Cuba has backed a number of groups in the United States, including the National Lawyers Guild, Pastors for Peace, the National Network on Cuba and the feminist antiwar organization CodePink.

Filmmaker Juan Carlos Dávila’s new film for PBS, Farmers of the Sea, documents climate change’s threats to the fishing industry and food security in Vieques, Puerto Rico. For islands in the Caribbean, explains Dávila, “we are situated geographically in one of the frontlines of climate change. [We’re] not only facing stronger hurricanes now, [but] we could face food shortages, especially the islands that depend so much on the food that comes from the sea.

Israeli settlers torched two mosques over the weekend in a new wave of violence targeting Palestinian towns and villages across the occupied West Bank. Meanwhile, Israeli military forces on Saturday detained over 70 Palestinians in raids across the occupied territory. This follows the killing of at least four Palestinians in the village of Tal on Friday, when Israeli settlers and soldiers opened fire on residents attempting to protect their homes; two Israelis were also killed.

We speak with Democratic Congressmember Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, a longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy, in a wide-ranging conversation about Iran, Cuba, ending military funding for Israel and more. Last week, McGovern joined the entire Democratic caucus and four Republicans to pass a resolution calling on President Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran.
“It’s just like Iraq,” says McGovern. “We’re getting involved in a quagmire here, an endless war.

France and Spain are battling catastrophic wildfires that have forced more than 350,000 people to evacuate their homes. The fires began in the southwest of France on Wednesday before spreading to Spain, where they have consumed more than 120,000 acres in what is now the most destructive fire in Spain’s recent history. Meanwhile, a new heat wave is expected to hit Europe this week, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

Filmmaker Juan Carlos Dávila’s new film for PBS, Farmers of the Sea, documents climate change’s threats to the fishing industry and food security in Vieques, Puerto Rico. For islands in the Caribbean, explains Dávila, “we are situated geographically in one of the frontlines of climate change. [We’re] not only facing stronger hurricanes now, [but] we could face food shortages, especially the islands that depend so much on the food that comes from the sea.

After failing to overturn birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court, Republican legislators are turning to new tactics to disenfranchise people born on U.S. soil. Their latest targets are those born to noncitizen or permanent resident parents in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico, where the Supreme Court has said citizenship is granted by statute and full constitutional protections do not apply.

A youth-led protest movement in India is demanding an end to the country’s status quo. Sparked by the leak of national exam questions, tens of thousands of young people have taken to the streets. They are protesting under the banner of the Cockroach Janta (People’s) Party — a new party named to reflect the words of India’s chief justice, who compared unemployed youth to cockroaches and parasites. The movement has only swelled in response to a violent crackdown on protesters.

The status of a newly signed U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal is in question after President Trump made the surprise announcement that the deal is off unless Saudi Arabia normalizes relations with Israel. The deal paves the way for Saudi civil nuclear development, although critics warn that it could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the politically volatile Middle East.

Filmmaker Juan Carlos Dávila’s new film for PBS, Farmers of the Sea, documents climate change’s threats to the fishing industry and food security in Vieques, Puerto Rico. For islands in the Caribbean, explains Dávila, “we are situated geographically in one of the frontlines of climate change. [We’re] not only facing stronger hurricanes now, [but] we could face food shortages, especially the islands that depend so much on the food that comes from the sea.

After failing to overturn birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court, Republican legislators are turning to new tactics to disenfranchise people born on U.S. soil. Their latest targets are those born to noncitizen or permanent resident parents in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico, where the Supreme Court has said citizenship is granted by statute and full constitutional protections do not apply.

A youth-led protest movement in India is demanding an end to the country’s status quo. Sparked by the leak of national exam questions, tens of thousands of young people have taken to the streets. They are protesting under the banner of the Cockroach Janta (People’s) Party — a new party named to reflect the words of India’s chief justice, who compared unemployed youth to cockroaches and parasites. The movement has only swelled in response to a violent crackdown on protesters.

The status of a newly signed U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal is in question after President Trump made the surprise announcement that the deal is off unless Saudi Arabia normalizes relations with Israel. The deal paves the way for Saudi civil nuclear development, although critics warn that it could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the politically volatile Middle East.

Filmmaker Juan Carlos Dávila’s new film for PBS, Farmers of the Sea, documents climate change’s threats to the fishing industry and food security in Vieques, Puerto Rico. For islands in the Caribbean, explains Dávila, “we are situated geographically in one of the frontlines of climate change. [We’re] not only facing stronger hurricanes now, [but] we could face food shortages, especially the islands that depend so much on the food that comes from the sea.