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.
Within hours of the reports of Charlie Kirk’s assassination in Utah this week, people took to social media to respond.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Following massive, youth-led anti-corruption demonstrations in Nepal, the country’s former Chief Justice Sushila Karki looks set to become interim prime minister. This week, protesters set fire to the Parliament and other government buildings, and at least 21 people were killed in a police crackdown. The protests continued even after the government lifted its ban on social media platforms and Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to more than 27 years in prison for plotting a military coup and seeking to “annihilate” democracy in Brazil following his election defeat in 2022. The sentencing marks the first time a former Brazilian head of state is brought to trial and convicted for attempting to overthrow the government.
Democracy Now! speaks with Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo, about Israel’s recent move to expand settlements in the West Bank in an effort to erase the possibility of a Palestinian state. “They are doing everything in their power to make sure that a two-state solution can never happen,” says Hasan.
Hasan also comments on the deadly U.S. attack on a boat off the coast of Venezuela. “There’s no scenario in which you can say it was an imminent threat to the U.S.,” he says.
President Trump announced on Friday that a suspect was in custody for the killing of far-right activist Charlie Kirk. Although the motive has not yet been established, Trump has escalated his attacks on the political left, saying, “We just have to beat the hell out of them.” Democracy Now! speaks with Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo, who says that the right is using Kirk’s killing to smear the left.
“There’s a real rewriting of history going on.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
As the Trump administration grows increasingly hostile to renewable energy, we speak with acclaimed environmentalist Bill McKibben about his new book, Here Comes the Sun, in which he lays out a hopeful vision for the future that includes avoiding climate catastrophe, reshaping the economy and saving democracy. He says the key to unlock that future is fully embracing renewable energy over the fierce opposition of the fossil fuel industry and its political enablers.
We speak to two activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla as it prepares to set sail for Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade. In recent days, two drone attacks on the flotilla ships, which are docked in Tunisia, have been reported. “We know who has interest in stopping these flotillas,” says Mariana Mortágua, a Portuguese parliamentarian who has joined the Global Sumud Flotilla and suspects the strikes were the work of the Israeli military.
Is President Trump working to build his own personal army? Investigative reporter Radley Balko responds to Trump’s new executive order for a “standing National Guard quick reaction force” that the president can deploy at will.
The conservative activist Charlie Kirk, founder of right-wing student organization Turning Point USA, was assassinated Wednesday as he spoke before a crowd at Utah Valley University as part of a fall campus tour. Kirk was 31 years old and founded Turning Point when he was just 18. A major cheerleader for Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, he was killed by a single shot fired from a roof as he was responding to a question from an audience member about mass shootings.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Just days after President Trump threatened to wage war on the city of Chicago, ICE launched what it called “Operation Midway Blitz,” and President Trump claimed the city was “about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR” — a reference to his order to rename the Department of Defense. On Monday, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to resume indiscriminate immigration raids in Los Angeles.
As the Trump administration grows increasingly hostile to renewable energy, we speak with acclaimed environmentalist Bill McKibben about his new book, Here Comes the Sun, in which he lays out a hopeful vision for the future that includes avoiding climate catastrophe, reshaping the economy and saving democracy. He says the key to unlock that future is fully embracing renewable energy over the fierce opposition of the fossil fuel industry and its political enablers.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has reportedly ordered authorities to reexamine the case of Alaa Abd El-Fattah and six others on humanitarian grounds. Abd El-Fattah, who came to national prominence during the so-called Arab Spring protests of 2011, has been imprisoned for years on charges of “spreading false news,” but his family and supporters say he has been targeted for his pro-democracy activism.
Global condemnation is mounting after Israel bombed Qatar’s capital Doha, attempting to take out senior Hamas leaders who had gathered to consider a U.S. proposal for a Gaza ceasefire. Hamas leadership survived the strike, which killed six. We speak with Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site News, who has reported extensively on Gaza ceasefire negotiations and is one of the few Western journalists to be in regular contact with senior members of Hamas.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
The celebrated psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton has died at the age of 99. His studies on the effects of nuclear war, terrorism and genocide, including the books Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima and The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, shaped psychological understandings of the effects of mass violence. He appeared on Democracy Now! several times, including in 2017 to discuss Trump during his first term.
This weekend marked the first anniversary of the killing of Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi by Israeli forces as she took part in a weekly nonviolent protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Her death is being investigated by the Turkish government, but despite requests from Eygi’s family, the U.S. has refused to conduct its own independent investigation. Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 10 U.S.
Just days after President Trump threatened to wage war on the city of Chicago, ICE launched what it called “Operation Midway Blitz,” and President Trump claimed the city was “about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR” — a reference to his order to rename the Department of Defense. On Monday, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to resume indiscriminate immigration raids in Los Angeles.
Amid growing pressure for the Trump administration to release the full Jeffrey Epstein files, a New York Times investigation reveals how the country’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, enabled Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation and profited from its ties to him. The exposé is based on more than 13,000 pages of legal and financial records. The Times reports JPMorgan processed more than 4,700 transactions for Epstein totaling more than $1.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
The celebrated psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton has died at the age of 99. His studies on the effects of nuclear war, terrorism and genocide, including the books Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima and The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, shaped psychological understandings of the effects of mass violence. He appeared on Democracy Now! several times, including in 2017 to discuss Trump during his first term.
This weekend marked the first anniversary of the killing of Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi by Israeli forces as she took part in a weekly nonviolent protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Her death is being investigated by the Turkish government, but despite requests from Eygi’s family, the U.S. has refused to conduct its own independent investigation. Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 10 U.S.
“There’s no real safe zone in Gaza [City] and all of the Gaza Strip,” says Eyad Amawi, who joins us for an update from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces move deeper into Gaza City to forcibly evict 1 million residents. The local aid coordinator describes relentless bombardment, water shortages, infectious diseases and worsening famine. “All of these things must end now. As a human being, the most priority is the life of the civilians here.
We get an update on the largest-ever single-site immigration raid in U.S. history that unfolded Thursday when federal agents arrested nearly 500 workers at a Hyundai facility in Georgia. Most workers were Korean nationals who were building an electric vehicle battery plant. Hyundai is investing over $12 billion in a record-setting economic development deal with the state, and the South Korean government recently agreed to invest hundreds of billions more in the U.S.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Authorities in Indonesia have launched a brutal crackdown on nationwide protests, sparked by outrage over generous housing allowances and other perks for politicians amid a deepening cost-of-living crisis. The protests were further inflamed after video showed a police vehicle running over a motorcycle taxi gig worker, who later died from his injuries. Security forces have detained more than 3,000 people since late August.
Acclaimed historian Greg Grandin joins Democracy Now! to discuss the Trump administration’s attack on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in international waters, which killed 11 people earlier this week. President Trump and other senior officials have claimed without evidence that the boat was carrying narcotics from Venezuela to the United States and was operated by the gang Tren de Aragua, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization. “It was pure murder,” says Grandin.
Both Democratic and Republican senators grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday in a contentious hearing on his policies and anti-vaccine misinformation. RFK fired the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, causing turmoil at the agency, and this week 1,000 current and former HHS employees sent a letter to Congress demanding his resignation. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.