Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González.

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Meet the Reporter Dragged from Trump-Putin Press Conference for Trying to Ask About Nuclear Treaty

Before Monday’s highly anticipated joint press conference with President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of the reporters was forcibly removed from the room. Sam Husseini was credentialed to cover the summit for The Nation magazine, and earlier in the day he tweeted, “The issue isn’t Trump. The issue isn’t Putin. The issue is the issues: Nuclear threats, Syria, etc.” Before Trump and Putin spoke at the press conference, video shows Husseini holding a piece of paper that reads “Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty.” A security official aggressively tries to take the sign from him. We speak with Husseini about his arrest and the questions he was trying to raise. “It wasn’t a protest,” he says. “It was just an attempt to do serious, aggressive journalism, which I think is what we need.”

Katrina vanden Heuvel: We Need “Robust Debate” in Reporting on Russia, Not “Suffocating Consensus”

President Trump drew bipartisan outrage from lawmakers and media outlets Monday after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and lashing out at his own intelligence agencies over the investigation of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election. Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, calls the Trump and Putin press conference “bizarre and surreal,” but says the media reaction lacked perspective: “I think that people kind of lost their bearings.”

Boots Riley’s Dystopian Satire “Sorry to Bother You” Is an Anti-Capitalist Rallying Cry for Workers

An evil telemarketing company, a corporation making millions off of slave labor, and one Oakland man at the center of it all who discovers a secret that threatens all of humankind. Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You” is the dystopian social satire being hailed as one of the best movies of the summer. The film’s stars include Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Terry Crews and Danny Glover. We speak with Boots Riley, writer and director of the critically acclaimed film. He is a poet, rapper, songwriter, producer, screenwriter, humorist, political organizer, community activist, lecturer and public speaker—best known as the lead vocalist of The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club.

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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Mass Protests Meet Trump-Putin Summit in Helsinki over Human Rights, Free Speech, Climate Action
Mass protests greeted President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as they met for a summit Monday in Helsinki. As the two leaders drove from the airport to their summit, they were met by 300 billboards in English and Russian that were posted by the country’s leading newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, and drew attention to their strained relations with the media. Greenpeace activists unfolded two large banners from the bell tower of Kallio Church in Helsinki that called on the presidents to “Warm Our Hearts, Not Our Planet.” Meanwhile in Helsinki on Sunday, thousands took to the streets to demand human rights, equality and a focus on the climate.

Debate: Is Trump-Putin Summit a “Danger to America” or Crucial Diplomacy Between Nuclear Powers?
As President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, two guests debate on U.S.-Russia relations. Joe Cirincione is president of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation. Glenn Greenwald is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and one of the founding editors of The Intercept. Greenwald calls the Trump-Putin meeting “excellent” and adds that President Obama also sought diplomacy with Russia. Cirincione calls the summit “a danger to America and to the West.”

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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Meet the Activist Who Called Piers Morgan an “Idiot” for Criticizing Anti-Trump Protests in Britain
President Donald Trump said Friday that immigrants fleeing violence and seeking asylum in Europe are changing “the fabric of Europe… And I don’t mean that in a positive way.” Trump’s xenophobic comments came during a shocking interview with the Rupert Murdoch-owned British tabloid The Sun. Massive protests have greeted President Trump during his two-day trip to Britain—including a 20-foot-long giant baby Trump blimp outside Parliament. Ash Sarkar is the anti-Trump coalition organizer who confronted Piers Morgan during a “Good Morning Britain” interview Thursday that went viral.

In U.K., Trump Insults Theresa May, Praises Far-Right Boris Johnson, Attacks London’s Muslim Mayor
President Trump is meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May today, just hours after warning that a “soft Brexit” will kill Britain’s chances of a future trade deal with the United States. In an explosive interview with the Rupert Murdoch-owned British tabloid The Sun in which Trump claimed that Britain is losing its culture due to immigration, Trump said Theresa May had ignored his advice on Brexit negotiations.

Judge Rules Trump Admin May Have Violated Free Speech Rights of Mexican Journalist Detained in U.S.
There’s been a major development in the case of a jailed Mexican journalist that Democracy Now! has followed closely. In El Paso on Wednesday, a federal judge issued a 26-page ruling that questioned the Trump administration’s detention of Emilio Gutiérrez Soto and his son Oscar, and ordered an August 1 hearing to examine whether immigration officials violated his First Amendment rights. Gutiérrez first sought asylum in the United States in 2008 after receiving death threats for reporting on alleged corruption in the Mexican military. He’s lived here in the U.S. for the past decade and has since won the National Press Club’s Freedom of the Press Award.

Will Parents Separated from Their Children at the Border Be Forced to Separate Again to Win Asylum?
Two days after a court-imposed deadline, the Trump administration said Thursday that just 57 of more than 100 children under the age of 5 have been reunited with their parents after they were separated at the border under the “zero tolerance” policy. This comes as the Trump administration has announced a new asylum policy at the U.S.-Mexico border, which instructs immigration officers to immediately reject asylum seekers who say they are fleeing gangs or domestic violence. Renée Feltz, Democracy Now! correspondent and producer, has long reported on the criminalization of immigrants, family detention, and the business of detention. Her new story for The Nation, reported in partnership with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, is headlined “For Some Migrant Families, a Second Separation Awaits.”

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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Katrina vanden Heuvel on NATO Military Spending & Avoiding Cold War Nuclear Catastrophe with Russia
At the NATO summit, President Trump called on member states to double their military spending to 4 percent of gross domestic product, and hailed the meeting as a success. He is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, discusses NATO, the militarization of U.S. foreign policy and avoiding a second Cold War with Russia over allegations of election meddling. “I would argue that the bipartisan establishment consensus is bankrupt… We believe you can have secure elections and avoid nuclear catastrophe,” said vanden Heuvel. The Nation has just published an open letter, “Common Ground: For Secure Elections and True National Security,” co-signed by Daniel Ellsberg, Gloria Steinem, Noam Chomsky, Governor Bill Richardson, Rev. Dr. William Barber and Michael Moore, among others.

Tens of Thousands of Protesters to Welcome Trump with Orange Baby Blimp for His First U.K. Visit
Mass protests are expected to greet Donald Trump as he arrives for his first visit to Britain as president. In London, protesters will float a 20-foot-long giant baby Trump blimp outside Parliament. The balloon depicts the president as an angry orange baby, wearing a diaper and clutching a cellphone, ready to tweet. In a press conference this morning, Trump said he is “fine” with the mass protests planned in the country and that Britons like him “a lot.”

“The Old Order Is Disappearing”: How Progressive Grassroots Movements Are Sweeping the U.K. & U.S.
Pundits and Democratic heavyweights were stunned when 28-year-old Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat 10-term incumbent Representative Joe Crowley in New York in last month’s Democratic primary. George Monbiot, British journalist and author, and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, speak about what her win means for the future of the Democratic Party and the progressive movement.

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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As Trump Admin Misses Deadline to Unite Families, HHS Head Calls Jailing Kids an Act of “Generosity”

The Trump administration failed to meet a court-imposed deadline Tuesday to reunite all of the children under the age of 5 whom immigration officials took from their parents at the border and then sent to jails and detention centers across the country. Only 38 of the 102 children under 5 have been reunited with their parents, some of whom say their young children did not even recognize them at first after the traumatic, protracted separation. 
On Tuesday, Judge Dana Sabraw reiterated that all separated children—3,000 in total—must be reunited with their parents by July 26, saying, “These are firm deadlines; they are not aspirational goals.” On Tuesday night, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told CNN that the United States was acting “generously” toward the migrant children.

Mark Weisbrot: Trump’s Threats to Invade Venezuela Are Part of U.S. Strategy of Regime Change
The Associated Press is reporting President Trump repeatedly asked senior White House advisers last year about the possibility of a U.S. invasion of Venezuela, in a bid to depose President Nicolás Maduro and his government. Trump reportedly brought up the U.S. invasions of Panama and Grenada in the 1980s. The AP reports Trump’s comment stunned then-National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who warned military action could backfire. But then, the next day, on August 11, Trump raised the issue publicly.

A New Era of IMF Riots: Protests Force Haiti to Rescind Fuel Hikes
In Haiti, massive anti-austerity protests recently shut down parts of the capital Port-au-Prince after the government tried to dramatically raise fuel prices at the behest of the International Monetary Fund. Prices for gasoline, diesel and kerosene were to rise as much as 50 percent, but the government rescinded the price hikes due to public outcry. The proposed IMF-mandated fuel hikes come amid expected cuts to food subsidies.

Nevada Plans to Kill Condemned Prisoner with Fentanyl & Drug Linked to Botched Executions
A drug manufacturer has filed suit in an attempt to stop an execution of a condemned prisoner slated for tonight. The drug company Alvogen, which makes the sedative midazolam, filed a complaint in Nevada’s Clark County on Tuesday, citing that the Nevada Department of Corrections illegally obtained the drug for use in the execution of Scott Dozier, a former meth dealer who was sentenced to die in 2007 for first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon. Last year, Dozier dropped his death penalty appeals and asked to be executed. Nevada officials plan to use an untested three-drug protocol of midazolam, fentanyl and cisatracurium to execute Dozier. Today’s execution would be the first time in 12 years that Nevada is carrying out the death penalty.

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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Who Is Brett Kavanaugh? Inside the Right-Wing History of Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee
President Trump has nominated federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill Anthony Kennedy’s seat on the high court. Kavanaugh has deep ties to the Republican Party and will push the Supreme Court further right if he is confirmed. Kavanaugh served as a senior aide under President George W. Bush in the White House Counsel’s Office. He has similar credentials to Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. Both clerked for Anthony Kennedy, and both are backed by the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation, who drew up a list for Trump in 2016 of suitable right-wing judges to consider for the Supreme Court. Ian Millhiser is senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the editor of ThinkProgress Justice. His latest piece is headlined “Who is Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s pick to replace Anthony Kennedy?”

“It’s a Very Scary Time for Women”: Cecile Richards on Brett Kavanaugh and the Future of Roe v. Wade
President Trump has nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill Anthony Kennedy’s seat on the Supreme Court. While running for president, Trump openly vowed to only nominate justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade. Last year, Judge Brett Kavanaugh ruled against an undocumented teenager who sought to have an abortion while in federal detention. He said allowing the abortion would make the government “complicit” in something that is morally objectionable.

ACLU’s David Cole on the Critical Questions Lawmakers Need to Ask Judge Brett Kavanaugh
If President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed, it could lead to major rollbacks of civil rights, environmental regulations, gun control measures, voting rights and reproductive rights, including possibly overturning Roe v. Wade. Brett Kavanaugh has also argued that sitting presidents should be shielded from criminal or civil investigations. David Cole is national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union and professor of law and public policy at Georgetown University Law Center. His most recent book is “Engines of Liberty: The Power of Citizen Activists to Make Constitutional Law.”

LGBT & Healthcare Advocates Warn Kavanaugh Confirmation Could Mean End of Affordable Care Act
Protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court on Monday night to protest Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Advocates say that Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation could lead to the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act. In Washington, D.C., we speak with Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center.

Lives Are At Stake: The Struggle to Stop Trump’s Right-Wing Takeover of the Supreme Court
Activists and organizers around the country are mobilizing against President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who needs a simple majority of 51 votes in the Senate to be confirmed. If Kavanaugh fills Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat, it will likely create the most conservative court the United States has seen since the 1930s.

ACLU vs. Trump: David Cole on the Fight to Reunite Children Separated from Parents at Border
The Trump administration will not meet today’s deadline to reunite all migrant children under the age of 5 whom immigration officials took from their parents at the border and then sent to jails and detention centers across the country. The Justice Department says it will reunite only about half of the more than 100 migrant children under 5 today, after a federal judge in San Diego agreed to extend the deadline mandating the reunification of all of the youngest children. Today’s secretive reunification operation will be overseen by the Department of Homeland Security and will involve transporting the children hundreds of miles across the country to undisclosed locations. In total, about 3,000 children are still separated from their parents.

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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CIA-Linked Military Contractor Used Arizona “Black Site” to Secretly Jail Dozens of Migrant Children
A major U.S. military and CIA contractor has been detaining dozens of migrant children inside a vacant Phoenix office building with dark windows, no kitchen and only a few toilets, according to a new investigation by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. Reveal learned about what some are calling the “black site” for migrant children after one local resident filmed children in sweatsuits being led into the building. The building was leased in March by MVM, a defense contractor that Reveal reports has received nearly $250 million in contracts to transport immigrant children since 2014.

Human Rights Lawyer Jennifer Harbury on How Trump Is Punishing Cartels’ Victims—Not Their Members
A federal judge will hold a hearing today on whether to delay Tuesday’s deadline that mandated the reunification of all children under the age of 5 whom the Trump administration separated from their parents at the border. The Trump administration is claiming it needs more time to match children with their parents, including at least 19 parents who have already been deported. The American Civil Liberties Union says less than half of separated children under the age of 5 will be reunited by the Tuesday deadline. As Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy crackdown continues, human rights lawyer Jennifer Harbury talks about how U.S. foreign policy has led to the violence that Central Americans are fleeing, and what happens when people follow the U.S. government’s instructions and attempt to apply for political asylum at a legal port of entry.

From CIA-Backed Wars to Cartel Violence: Inside the Roots of the Refugee Crisis in Central America
Across the United States, thousands of migrant children remain detained alone after the Trump administration forcibly separated them from their parents at the border. Yet, despite the news about the United States’ human rights abuses of migrants, asylum seekers keep risking the dangerous journey to the United States. Texas-based human rights lawyer Jennifer Harbury has lived in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas for more than 40 years and has long worked with people fleeing violence in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. She also knows intimately the U.S. roots of this conflict. Her husband, Efraín Bámaca Velásquez, was a Mayan comandante and guerrilla who was disappeared after he was captured by the U.S.-backed Guatemalan army in the 1980s. After a long campaign, she found there was U.S. involvement in the cover-up of her husband’s murder and torture.

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.

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As Scott Pruitt Resigns, Former EPA Officials Warn His Radical, Anti-Science Agenda Harmed Nation
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has resigned, amid an onslaught of financial and ethics scandals and widespread opposition to his campaign to roll back key environmental protections. President Trump announced Pruitt’s resignation via Twitter. Trump later told reporters, “Scott Pruitt did an outstanding job inside of the EPA. We’ve gotten rid of record-breaking regulations, and it’s been really good.” At the time of his resignation, Pruitt was facing more than a dozen federal investigations into ethical misconduct, ranging from lavish spending to asking subordinates to help his wife find a job. Just earlier this week, CNN reported Pruitt kept a secret calendar and schedule in an attempt to hide his meetings with many industry executives.

Meet the Mother Who Confronted Scott Pruitt & Urged Him to Resign—Three Days Later, He Did
On Monday, Scott Pruitt fled a restaurant in Washington after he was confronted during lunch by a mother and teacher named Kristin Mink. Mink was holding her 2-year-old son when she went up to his table. Video of the interaction has since gone viral. We speak to Mink about what she did and Pruitt’s resignation just days later.

New EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler, Former Coal Lobbyist, Aims to Continue to Dismantle EPA from Inside
Following Scott Pruitt’s resignation, EPA Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler will become the agency’s acting administrator. Wheeler is a former lobbyist for Murray Energy, the nation’s largest underground coal mining company. He’s also the former chief of staff for Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, who is known as the most notorious climate-denying lawmaker in Washington. In one of his most famous stunts, Inhofe brought a snowball onto the Senate floor in 2015 in order to prove that global warming was a hoax.

Future of Affirmative Action in Jeopardy with New DOJ Order & Retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy
The Trump administration is ending Obama-era policies calling on schools and universities to consider race as a factor in admissions, in the latest blow to affirmative action programs. The move doesn’t change the law, but it rescinds guidelines set by the Obama administration to foster diversity in elementary and secondary schools and on college campuses. The move comes as the Trump administration is reportedly planning a challenge to Harvard University’s admissions practices and as President Trump is nearing a decision on a Supreme Court nominee to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was long considered a swing vote on affirmative action. In 2016, Kennedy wrote the majority opinion when the court upheld the University of Texas at Austin’s race-conscious admissions program.

Eric has now completed all 12 signs of The Sacred Space of Self, the 2018 Spring Reading on Chiron’s transition into Aries, and Mars retrograde in Aquarius over the summer. Order today and get all 12 signs for just $99. Check out our sample videos here, and the full Guide to Chiron Transits here.