Contributing Writers

As Iranian missiles strike military, residential and economic targets in neighboring Gulf states, we speak to Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara in Doha, Qatar. Bishara says Iran’s targeting of U.S. allies in the region may be an Iranian calculation that there is “a cost to be paid for American interests” as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other regional powers are forced to respond to an “Israeli war of choice.” Meanwhile, says Bishara, the U.S.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is now in its fifth day. Following the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Israel has made it clear that it intends to target any official successors. Observers also warn that Israel could soon deploy its “Dahiya doctrine,” a military strategy it first developed in Lebanon that involves carpet-bombing densely populated residential areas. Despite U.S.

After a strike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, killed at least 175 people, nearly all young schoolchildren, online reports spread disinformation about the attack, including claims that the Iranian government itself had bombed the school. Journalist Nilo Tabrizy describes how outside reporters have been able to verify the attack despite Iran’s internet blackout and says attempts are still being made to confirm whether the strike is attributable to the U.S. or to Israel.

We speak with economist Michael Hudson, who details how President Trump opted to attack Iran despite progress at indirect U.S.-Iran negotiations. “The whole reason that America has attacked Iran has nothing to do with its getting an atom bomb,” but instead the aim was U.S. control of oil, says Hudson. The Trump administration may have been after the ability to “turn off the power” to countries that don’t follow U.S. foreign policy, he says.

Ofer Cassif, a member of leftist Hadash-Ta’al coalition in the Israeli Knesset, speaks with Democracy Now! from Israel about the war on Iran. As U.S. and Israeli officials claim that their military actions are against the regime, Cassif says their real goal is pursuing “imperialist interest” at the “expense of the peoples, including the people of Iran and the people of Israel​​.

Rami Khouri, Palestinian American journalist and distinguished public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut, speaks with Democracy Now! about the historical context of Western colonialism in the Middle East amid the war against Iran. Khouri says the U.S.-Israeli attack is the latest act “causing people across the world to look at the idea of … Western liberal democratic tradition as a hoax.

The U.S. is sending more troops and fighter jets to the Middle East as the regional war expands four days after the U.S. and Israel assassinated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and struck sites across Iran. At least 787 people have died so far in Iran, according to local authorities. Iranian American journalist Negar Mortazavi says the feeling on the ground is of “horror and anxiety” and that U.S.

Cori Bush is running for Congress again. Bush previously served two terms as a Democratic congressmember for Missouri, until she was unseated in 2024 following a multimillion-dollar attack campaign run by pro-Israel groups. Bush, a community activist who participated in the 2014 Ferguson uprising over the police killing of Michael Brown, was an outspoken critic of Israel in Congress and introduced a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2023.

The United States and Israel launched a devastating war against Iran on Saturday without approval by the U.S. Congress or support from the United Nations Security Council, making President Donald Trump’s attack illegal under both domestic and international law, says veteran war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody.
“The U.N. Charter is not ambiguous,” says Brody.

As we continue our coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, we speak with Israeli analyst Ori Goldberg in Tel Aviv. He says “there is a broad embrace of this attack” among Israelis, bringing together the country’s liberal, right-wing, religious and settler groups.
“They all seem to agree, broadly and deeply, that this war is inevitable,” says Goldberg, who adds that nobody has articulated a clear strategic vision for the war.

As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran enters its third day, dragging much of the Middle East into armed conflict, we speak with two Iranian American scholars about the situation.
“It’s quite a devastating attack on the infrastructure of the country, both in terms of the state infrastructure and civilian infrastructure,” says Golnar Nikpour, associate professor of modern Iranian history at Dartmouth College.

Cori Bush is running for Congress again. Bush previously served two terms as a Democratic congressmember for Missouri, until she was unseated in 2024 following a multimillion-dollar attack campaign run by pro-Israel groups. Bush, a community activist who participated in the 2014 Ferguson uprising over the police killing of Michael Brown, was an outspoken critic of Israel in Congress and introduced a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2023.

The funeral for 56-year-old Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a disabled Rohingya refugee from Burma who was found dead after he was abandoned by Border Patrol agents miles away from his home, was held yesterday in Buffalo, New York. Local reporter J. Dale Shoemaker, who first reported on Shah Alam’s disappearance for the Buffalo news organization Investigative Post, explains what we know about the case.

Federal agents detained a Columbia University student early Thursday after Department of Homeland Security officers allegedly gained access to a university-owned residence by presenting a fake missing person poster of a 5-year-old. As news broke of the student, Ellie Aghayeva, and her detention, students and community members rallied en masse demanding her release and an end to immigration enforcement on campus.

As fallout from the Epstein files continues, we speak with investigative journalist Barry Levine, author of The Spider: Inside the Tangled Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Recordings of the House Oversight depositions of Bill and Hillary Clinton are set to be released today and tomorrow.

Cori Bush is running for Congress again. Bush previously served two terms as a Democratic congressmember for Missouri, until she was unseated in 2024 following a multimillion-dollar attack campaign run by pro-Israel groups. Bush, a community activist who participated in the 2014 Ferguson uprising over the police killing of Michael Brown, was an outspoken critic of Israel in Congress and introduced a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2023.

The funeral for 56-year-old Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a disabled Rohingya refugee from Burma who was found dead after he was abandoned by Border Patrol agents miles away from his home, was held yesterday in Buffalo, New York. Local reporter J. Dale Shoemaker, who first reported on Shah Alam’s disappearance for the Buffalo news organization Investigative Post, explains what we know about the case.

Federal agents detained a Columbia University student early Thursday after Department of Homeland Security officers allegedly gained access to a university-owned residence by presenting a fake missing person poster of a 5-year-old. As news broke of the student, Ellie Aghayeva, and her detention, students and community members rallied en masse demanding her release and an end to immigration enforcement on campus.

As fallout from the Epstein files continues, we speak with investigative journalist Barry Levine, author of The Spider: Inside the Tangled Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Recordings of the House Oversight depositions of Bill and Hillary Clinton are set to be released today and tomorrow.

Cori Bush is running for Congress again. Bush previously served two terms as a Democratic congressmember for Missouri, until she was unseated in 2024 following a multimillion-dollar attack campaign run by pro-Israel groups. Bush, a community activist who participated in the 2014 Ferguson uprising over the police killing of Michael Brown, was an outspoken critic of Israel in Congress and introduced a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2023.

The funeral for 56-year-old Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a disabled Rohingya refugee from Burma who was found dead after he was abandoned by Border Patrol agents miles away from his home, was held yesterday in Buffalo, New York. Local reporter J. Dale Shoemaker, who first reported on Shah Alam’s disappearance for the Buffalo news organization Investigative Post, explains what we know about the case.

Federal agents detained a Columbia University student early Thursday after Department of Homeland Security officers allegedly gained access to a university-owned residence by presenting a fake missing person poster of a 5-year-old. As news broke of the student, Ellie Aghayeva, and her detention, students and community members rallied en masse demanding her release and an end to immigration enforcement on campus.

As fallout from the Epstein files continues, we speak with investigative journalist Barry Levine, author of The Spider: Inside the Tangled Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Recordings of the House Oversight depositions of Bill and Hillary Clinton are set to be released today and tomorrow.

A record 129 press workers were killed worldwide in 2025, more in one year than in any of the previous three decades for which the Committee to Protect Journalists has collected data. The previous record was set in 2024. For both 2024 and 2025, the Israeli military was responsible for two-thirds of all press killings.

Testimony and evidence from 59 Palestinian journalists reveals “strikingly consistent” reports of beatings, sensory deprivation, sexual violence, starvation and medical neglect while detained, according to a review by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Most of them were held under Israel’s so-called “administrative detention” policy and were never charged with any crime. The journalists lost an average of 52 pounds in Israeli prisons.

It’s been almost one year since Israeli forces killed 15 Palestinian medics and aid workers in a brutal two-hour massacre on a vehicle convoy in southern Gaza. Israeli soldiers had attempted to cover it up by burying the bodies in a shallow mass grave, and crushing the rescue vehicles with heavy machinery, but a new investigation by Forensic Architecture and Earshot has recreated a minute-by-minute accounting of what took place.

Cuban exiles on a U.S.-registered speedboat attempted to enter Cuba undetected, but were confronted by border patrol in Cuban waters on Wednesday. According to the Cuban Interior Ministry, the Cuban nationals on the speedboat fired on the border agents who then returned fire — killing four and injuring six of the men. This comes as the Trump administration’s blockade of fuel has triggered a severe humanitarian and economic crisis in Cuba, compounding the impact of the U.S.

“I couldn’t in good conscience sit there and listen to Trump go on and on with what we knew was going to be hours of lies, gaslighting and maligning the very people that I represent,” says Congressmember Adelita Grijalva on her decision to skip Tuesday’s State of the Union address. “There was no attempt to bring the country together.

We speak with Minneapolis resident Aliya Rahman, who attended Tuesday’s State of the Union address as a guest of Congressmember Ilhan Omar. Rahman was removed from the chamber Tuesday and spent several hours in jail following what she describes as an aggressive arrest by Capitol Police — all for silently challenging Trump during the speech.
“There are only two things you can do at the State of the Union, and they are sit down and stand up,” says Rahman. “I was arrested for standing up.

Many Democratic lawmakers boycotted Tuesday’s State of the Union address to attend alternative events, including our guest Congressmember Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, who gave the Working Families Party response to President Trump. “The president is disgraceful, and I don’t think it’s worth our time to give him an audience,” says Lee, who encourages opponents to keep challenging his falsehoods. “When you take away the lie, there is no foundation for President Trump.