Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.
Donald Trump’s trade war has unleashed global uncertainty.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
A feature film about life in the occupied West Bank, The Teacher, opens in New York tonight and in theaters across the U.S. next week. The film, which is inspired by true events, centers a Palestinian schoolteacher who struggles to reconcile his commitment to political resistance with supporting his student.
Microsoft fired two workers who protested the company’s ties to Israel’s assault on Gaza at its 50th anniversary celebration last Friday. The workers protested after leaked documents revealed that Microsoft supplies the Israeli military with AI and cloud technology, as well as an Air Force unit known as the Ofek, to build “kill lists.
A lawyer who represents a pro-Palestinian student protester in Michigan was detained Sunday at the Detroit Metro Airport on his way back from a family vacation. Dearborn attorney Amir Makled was separated from his wife and children and asked to surrender his cellphone by Border Patrol agents. “This wasn’t something that was random,” says Makled. “They had a whole profile about me.
In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States, after the Maryland resident was denied due process rights and deported to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. But the court remains vague on how exactly this would happen, and the Trump administration has claimed it has no way of ensuring his safe return.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
As federal agencies face crippling cuts and are forced to cut essential services, President Trump has announced he will seek a $1 trillion budget for the Pentagon, a record-setting number that would mark the highest level of U.S. defense spending since World War II.
Columbia University professor Marianne Hirsch’s new article in The Forward is titled “I grew up under a terrifying authoritarian regime. Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest is right out of their playbook.” She tells Democracy Now! that seeing footage of the ICE arrests of Khalil and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk “brought back these feelings of terror that I had as a child.
As the U.S. and Iran prepare for talks this weekend in Oman to discuss Iran’s nuclear weapons program, we speak to journalist Negar Mortazavi about the Trump administration’s negotiation strategy of “threats and pressure” and his diplomatic doctrine of “peace through strength.
President Trump has announced a 90-day pause on new tariffs for most countries and a steep increase to tariffs on China. The 125% tariff rate on China comes after China retaliated in an escalating trade war between the two largest economies in the world. For most other countries, a 10% tariff remains in place, but higher tariffs were paused just hours after they went into effect, causing global stock markets to shoot back up after a historic plunge.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
“There has been a systemic erasure of Black history.” Professor Christina Greer discusses the Trump administration’s crackdown on free speech and efforts to whitewash American history. The erasure of the history of racism and resistance is not only intellectually dishonest, says Greer, but will also cause the U.S. economic and social harm. “We can’t move forward as a nation collectively … if we don’t understand our collective past,” she says.
The Supreme Court has paused a lower court order that instructed the Trump administration to immediately bring back a U.S. legal resident who was “mistakenly” sent to El Salvador, giving the court more time to deliberate on the case. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was expelled from the U.S. on March 15 despite holding protected status, will continue to languish under dangerous conditions in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison.
As federal agencies face crippling cuts and are forced to cut essential services, President Trump has announced he will seek a $1 trillion budget for the Pentagon, a record-setting number that would mark the highest level of U.S. defense spending since World War II.
An immigration judge has announced she could rule as early as Friday on whether the Trump administration can continue to detain Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student protest leader incarcerated at an immigrant detention center in Louisiana. Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States, was seized by federal agents on March 8 and told his green card had been revoked.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Global stocks continue to fall, and fears of a recession are growing, after Donald Trump rejected calls to scale back his order to institute sweeping tariffs on most of the world. The move will be especially perilous for small, heavily indebted countries in the Global South who face punitive tariffs, including rates of 49% for Cambodia, 37% for Bangladesh and 48% for Laos.
“There has been a systemic erasure of Black history.” Professor Christina Greer discusses the Trump administration’s crackdown on free speech and efforts to whitewash American history. The erasure of the history of racism and resistance is not only intellectually dishonest, says Greer, but will also cause the U.S. economic and social harm. “We can’t move forward as a nation collectively … if we don’t understand our collective past,” she says.
The Supreme Court has paused a lower court order that instructed the Trump administration to immediately bring back a U.S. legal resident who was “mistakenly” sent to El Salvador, giving the court more time to deliberate on the case. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was expelled from the U.S. on March 15 despite holding protected status, will continue to languish under dangerous conditions in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison.
As workers brace for uncertainty and fallout from Trump’s tariffs, we hear from two autoworkers, one in Mexico and one in the United States. Israel Cervantes, founder of the National Independent Union for Workers in the Automotive Industry in Mexico, calls for unions across North America to unite against the tariffs, which have already led to layoffs from auto manufacturers. In the U.S.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Can’t Look Away: The Case Against Social Media is a new documentary that exposes the real-life consequences of the algorithms of Big Tech companies and their impact on children and teens. In 2022, social media companies made an estimated $11 billion advertising to minors in the U.S., where 95% of teenagers use social media. One in three teens uses social media almost constantly.
Global stocks continue to fall, and fears of a recession are growing, after Donald Trump rejected calls to scale back his order to institute sweeping tariffs on most of the world. The move will be especially perilous for small, heavily indebted countries in the Global South who face punitive tariffs, including rates of 49% for Cambodia, 37% for Bangladesh and 48% for Laos.
An estimated 1 million protested across the United States and around the world Saturday to tell President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk “Hands Off!” They rallied in opposition to the Trump administration’s dismantling of federal agencies and programs, the war in Gaza and attacks on LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, education, healthcare and reproductive rights.
Outrage is growing over Israel’s killing of 15 Palestinian medics and rescue workers north of the Gazan city of Rafah in the predawn hours of March 23. Israel initially claimed the convoy had suspiciously approached troops without headlights or flashing lights, but video footage shows the ambulances had their lights on when Israeli troops opened fire, unleashing a barrage of bullets.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Can’t Look Away: The Case Against Social Media is a new documentary that exposes the real-life consequences of the algorithms of Big Tech companies and their impact on children and teens. In 2022, social media companies made an estimated $11 billion advertising to minors in the U.S., where 95% of teenagers use social media. One in three teens uses social media almost constantly.
Longtime immigrant farmworker and organizer Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino was pulled over last week by a plainclothes agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an unmarked car who broke his car window and forcibly detained him. “Within not even a minute of interaction, of getting pulled over, he was already in handcuffs,” says Edgar Franks, the political director of independent farmworkers union, Familias Unidas por la Justicia, which he co-founded with Lelo.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case that may cut off Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding. Planned Parenthood says the move violates the Medicaid Act’s “free choice of provider” provision, which says patients are entitled to choose their own doctors. The case, brought by the state of South Carolina, could impact the care of low-income patients who rely on Planned Parenthood for a range of non-abortion services, including cancer screenings and full physical exams.