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  • 50 years on, a Cambodian bride remembers her forced marriage under the Khmer Rouge

    Nuon Mayourom had just turned 18. She wasn’t ready to get married, but the Khmer Rouge had other ideas.

    The Maoist regime controlled all aspects of life in Cambodia, including who you married. She was paired up with Lep Plong, 19. Villager leaders marked the occasion with a rare extravagance – they slaughtered a pig.

    Nuon Mayourom, right, and husband Lep Plong, left, in an undated family photo.
    Nuon Mayourom, right, and husband Lep Plong, left, in an undated family photo.
    (Nuon Mayouro via RFA Khmer)

    Fifty years ago this week, the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia, turning the country into a vast agrarian labor camp, with tragic results. A quarter of the population died in just three-and-a-half years.

    Anyone deemed an enemy of the government was executed.

    And when it came to relationships, the state was also in charge. The government separated families and segregated the population according to age and gender.

    Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to wed in joyless ceremonies where the only vows were allegiance to the organization or Angkar, as the Khmer Rouge was known.

    Weddings were mass production numbers, with multiple couples, all who had to pledge to produce children for Angkar.

    At least in Nuon Mayourom’s case, she knew the groom, Lep Plong, who had been chosen for her. But the timing was definitely not of her choosing.

    “Yes, I liked him, and he liked me. I thought he looked like a good person. But I argued with the organization because I wasn’t ready to get married. The organization said, ‘Comrade, you have to marry!’”

    Nuon Mayoroum recounted to RFA the details of her wedding. In a time of mass starvation and communal living, there were benefits.

    “They slaughtered a pig for us. After the marriage, we moved into a separated hut from others,” she said.

    But after three days they were separated once more. Months later they successfully argued to be reunited.

    Strangers picking strangers

    Dr. Theresa de Langis. director for the Southeast Asian studies at the American University in Phnom Penh, has conducted extensive interviews with Khmer Rouge survivors about forced marriages.

    She says while there had been arranged marriages in Cambodia previously, there were a number of very distinct differences under the Maoist regime.

    “First, it was strangers picking strangers, generally unknown to each other. Second, the parents were ostracized by the Khmer Rouge. The women I interviewed told me that one of the things they worried about the most at the time was that my parents must have been angry because I had accepted the marriage proposal without their knowledge or consultation. And third, there is evidence that you cannot refuse these marriage proposals,” she said.

    An illustration depicts the wedding of bride Nuon Mayourom and Lep Plong in a group of five couples during the Khmer Rouge regime.
    An illustration depicts the wedding of bride Nuon Mayourom and Lep Plong in a group of five couples during the Khmer Rouge regime.
    (RFA Khmer)

    When Khieu Samphan, who was head of state under the Khmer Rouge, was sentenced by a special U.N. backed tribunal in Cambodia in December 2022, among the crimes he was convicted for was imposing forced marriages on people. Also charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, he received two life sentences, and remains in prison, aged 93.

    De Langis said those who were forced into marriages had often registered their dissatisfaction at the time but were compelled to obey.

    “About 70% of the people we interviewed told us that they had refused at least once, but in the end, 97% were forced into marriage because if you continued to refuse to marry, you would be taken to the organization for re-education,” de Langis said.

    In Cambodia, ‘re-education’ was associated with punishment, detainment and death.

    ‘Until today, we were one’

    It’s not known how many people were forced to marry, but researchers estimate it could be between 250,000 and 500,000.

    “This happened all over the country, so it was a national policy at the time, and many, many people were victims of this crime,” de Langis said.

    Nuon Mayourom, right, and husband Lep Plong, left, in an undated family photo.
    Nuon Mayourom, right, and husband Lep Plong, left, in an undated family photo.
    (Nuon Mayouro via RFA Khmer)

    While Nuon Mayourom married against her will at the time, she and her husband Lep Plong survived life under the Khmer Rouge and made a life together.

    They eventually moved to the United States as refugees, bringing their two children – a son, Lola Plong, born in Cambodia, and a daughter, Chenda Plong, born in Thailand.

    Lep Plong died in 2010.

    “To be honest, he loved me from the beginning. He saw me and loved me. When anyone wanted to propose, he would say, ‘Don’t ask, she already has a fiancé’”.

    Did she love him?

    “Yes, until today, we were one, one,” Nuon Mayoroum said.

    Edited by Mat Pennington


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Sok Ry Sum and Ginny Stein for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Nayib Bukele: El Salvador’s mega-prison president detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia for Trump


    This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – April 16, 2025

    Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

    The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – April 16, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.


    This content originally appeared on KPFA – The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Harvard rejected Trump takeover. Will other institutions join the fight?


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Meet the DJs spinning Earth Day into nightlife

    Illustration of DJ turntable spinning earth-patterned record

    The vision

    “In the nightlife industry, the majority of the crowd is very young. Our crowd is the future. So it’s great to have them all together and be able to raise some more awareness.”

    — Ruben Pariente Gromark of DJs for Climate Action

    The spotlight

    Next Tuesday, April 22, will mark the 55th anniversary of Earth Day, a celebration launched in 1970 to bring attention and grassroots energy to environmental issues. But the days that immediately follow it, April 23 through 27, will mark the eighth annual offering of a relatively under-the-radar series of climate events: Earth Night.

    Organized by a small volunteer group called DJs for Climate Action, Earth Night is a global initiative that brings climate and environmental messages into dance halls, bars, clubs, and other nightlife venues.

    The idea started with a campaign by producer and DJ Sam Posner (also known as Sammy Bananas). Around 2009, he launched a holiday fundraising campaign for DJs to buy carbon credits to offset the emissions of the frequent flights they take to work at parties and events all over the world.

    “He sent it to me and I was like, ‘Oh, this is really interesting,’” said Eli Goldstein (Soul Clap), a fellow music artist who’s now the president of DJs for Climate Action. “At that time I was flying a lot, and it was the first time a light bulb went off, that there was a negative side of all the flying around the world DJing.” Taking a flight is one of the most carbon-intensive activities any individual can do — and as long-distance, often international travel is a routine part of many DJs’ jobs, they can rack up some high carbon footprints.

    Goldstein had long been interested in environmental issues. He even sang at Earth Day celebrations as a schoolkid. When he encountered Posner’s carbon-credits campaign, he had what he described as “an epiphany” that living his dream as a DJ wasn’t fully in line with his environmental values.

    The end-of-year fundraisers continued for several years, under the banner of DJs Against Climate Change, before the group decided it wanted to do something bigger. Focusing only on the carbon footprint of traveling felt like a missed opportunity to take advantage of the unique skills the artists had to bring to the movement.

    “We realized we could be a lot more constructive, positive, by encouraging DJs to use our platforms to educate and encourage action around climate and the environment,” Goldstein said. They wanted to invite DJs to do what they do best — spin tunes at parties — while fostering a space for learning, community building, and fundraising for climate solutions, and also emphasizing a vision of low-waste, regenerative local events.

    A photo shows a darkly lit concert venue with dancers, a performer on a raised stage, and planets projected on the wall

    A photo from the first Earth Night event at House of Yes in Brooklyn, New York. Sam Posner

    The fledgling group organized the first Earth Night event in 2018 at House of Yes, a funky performance venue in Brooklyn. In addition to spinning DJ sets, the crew handed out literature at the door, projected climate information on the walls, and raised money for the local nonprofit NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. Around 500 people attended. “The idea was just to create an opportunity for nightlife, to have a joyful moment to support and educate about climate,” Goldstein said.

    The event expanded from there. In 2019, the team coordinated Earth Night events in seven cities around the world, raising over $10,000 for various climate charities.

    In 2020, the group had planned to hold 50 events, honoring the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. All those plans were scuttled by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic — but like so many other organizations, DJs for Climate Action quickly pivoted to a virtual approach, which had the effect of bringing Earth Night to many more people. “We did a livestream with 100 DJs from around the world — every continent except Antarctica was represented,” Goldstein said. “Everybody just played one song, and it was like 20 hours long. It was really epic and amazing.”

    As in-person partying gradually returned, the team decided to take a more decentralized approach. While a number of artists have been involved over the years, the core team behind DJs for Climate Action is just five people, and they quickly realized they couldn’t sustain all the coordination and support that would be required to scale up the global event. Instead, they created a toolkit for local organizers — DJs, venues, promoters, or really anyone interested in hosting an Earth Night event. It includes specific tips for sustainability, such as going plastic-free, booking local talent, featuring plant-based menus, and using renewable energy where possible.

    A photo shows a crowded stage with a man on a microphone, another person wearing a round Earth costume, and dancers in colorful outfits climbing on a structure behind them

    A photo from the second year of Earth Night at House of Yes, in 2019. Courtesy of DJs for Climate Action

    For 2025, there are close to 40 events planned around the world, which will be added to the DJs for Climate Action website and Instagram in the coming days.

    “It’s definitely taking on a life of its own,” Goldstein said. DJs for Climate Action also recently acquired formal nonprofit status and will be fundraising for itself through Earth Night as well, with a goal of expanding the organization’s capacity. “We’re now trying to raise money to have a more permanent team,” Goldstein said. “So we do encourage events to donate at least partially to DJs for Climate Action — but also to local climate and environmental justice orgs. Part of the beauty of Earth Night is it’s this local organizing, but still global energy, global community, global impact.”

    Mónica Medina, a biology professor at Penn State, is organizing an event this year in State College, Pennsylvania. Although she’s not a frequenter of the club scene herself, State College is a party town, she said. She saw an opportunity to reach people with a climate message through a medium that she herself has found very healing: music.

    “I feel that we have split our lives into so many bubbles that don’t overlap. But I feel that knowledge, spirituality, and fun can be together — and that music especially has the power of getting people entranced in a way where they are connected with these powerful lyrics,” she said.

    That sentiment was echoed by Gui Becker, a fellow professor and musician who will be performing live at the State College event. Becker was in a metal band with his cousins when he was young, and his music evolved to explore environmental and climate justice themes as he studied biology in grad school. Over the past several years, he’s written a handful of hard rock songs with climate messages, and he’s collaborated with other scientists and musicians through an initiative called Science Strings.

    “Music is so powerful,” said Becker, who’s looking forward to performing live at Manny’s, a popular all-ages venue in State College. “I think maybe we’re going to be able to reach an audience that normally doesn’t listen to environmental music, environmentally charged songs.”

    In addition to Becker’s performance, the State College event on April 24 will include a DJ set by the venue’s owner and the premiere of a new music video that Medina and her students produced for “La Extinción,” a song by the Colombian musician Pernett.

    At this year’s Earth Night event in Paris, on April 26, the music itself will have less of an explicit climate message — but the party will include a guided meditation by sound artist Lola Villa, featuring nature sounds that she recorded in the Amazon, as well as a panel featuring the event’s DJs on how artists can get involved in activism. The attendees will also get compostable wristbands — and in the 10 seconds it takes to put a wristband on, the venue staff will briefly explain to people why they’re there.

    “I do believe that makes a big difference,” said Ruben Pariente Gromark (also known as Michel D.), a core member of DJs for Climate Action and the organizer of the Paris party. “As it’s a classic club venue where there’s parties every weekend, quite a few people might just come randomly, to go to a party where they’re used to going for a party. And then they will know that it’s a different [mission-driven] party.”

    The wristbands will also feature a QR code that leads to a survey asking attendees how they traveled to the Earth Night event (walking, biking, driving, or even flying from afar). It’s part of a broader impact assessment the team intends to compile this year to measure the sustainability of the events.

    At the end of the day, though, Earth Night is less about reducing the plastic cups at bars or the miles traveled to concert venues, and more about creating a joyful space for people to learn and get inspired to take action for the climate.

    “When we talk about the climate crisis, environmental action, all these subjects — it’s full of anxiety, it’s very dark,” said Pariente Gromark. Although its festivities may take place under cover of darkness, Earth Night offers a counter to that doom-and-gloom narrative. Organizers hope the good vibes spread at the events will empower both artists and community members to lean further into climate work where they live — and even where they party.

    “Climate change is such a global, overwhelming problem that can make us feel super powerless when we look at the macro scale,” Goldstein said. “When we look at our local community and how we can participate, help build resiliency, and just come together in a joyful way, it can feel like you’re actually making a difference.”

    — Claire Elise Thompson

    More exposure

    A parting shot

    Check out this solar-powered DJ booth — a focal point of the 2019 Earth Night event in Paris.

    A photo of a DJ with headphones and a laptop standing inside a small booth with a bike wheel on its front and solar panels on top of it

    This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Meet the DJs spinning Earth Day into nightlife on Apr 16, 2025.


    This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Claire Elise Thompson.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • “Encouraging & Important”: Harvard Rejected Trump Takeover. Will Other Institutions Join the Fight?


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

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  • Trumpism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism?

    Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain

    Trump’s tariffs and war on free trade signal the end of an experiment in globalism that began in the 1990s with NAFTA and the breakup of the Soviet Union. Yet the question is whether this is a new stage for capitalism, or a futile or reactionary effort to turn back the clock on the global economy?

    Over time, Marxists have preoccupied themselves with the problem of historical stages. When Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848, he envisioned capitalism teetering on the brink of collapse. The revolution, he believed, was imminent. Yet, capitalism persisted—evolving, adapting, and resisting its demise.

    By the late 19th century, figures like Edward Bernstein and Rosa Luxemburg reignited the debate. Was capitalism nearing its end, or did it possess an infinite capacity to manage and survive the crisis? Their arguments revolved around the same fundamental question: What stage of capitalism were we in?

    Then, in 1917, Vladimir Lenin authored Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. He contended that capitalism had entered a new phase—one no longer centered on industrial production but dominated by finance capital. This stage saw banks take center stage, colonial empires expand, and great powers battle for global influence and economic gain at the expense of others.

    Lenin’s work is over a century old. Have we since moved beyond imperialism? The answer is, arguably, yes. By the 1990s, the global economy had shifted once again—from imperialism to globalism.

    This new globalism retained the centrality of finance capital but reshaped its landscape. As New York Times  writer Thomas Friedman described it, the world had become “flat.” National boundaries were eroded, and economies increasingly integrated across borders. It was a post-national, hyper-connected global system.

    However, globalism faced shocks. The 2008 financial crisis, the Syrian refugee crisis that began in 2011, and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 exposed its vulnerabilities. These events prompted calls to slow financial mobility and reassert national boundaries. Globalism did not die, but it restructured.

    Now, with the emergence of artificial intelligence, globalism—or post-globalism—stands on the cusp of another transformation. Technological change threatens to redefine borders, labor, and capital in unprecedented ways. Yet into this moment steps Donald Trump.

    Trump, in many ways, seeks to turn back the clock. He rejects the globalism of the last thirty years and promotes a nationalist economic vision. His agenda revives great power politics, the assertion of economic spheres of influence, and the use of American financial power to advance domestic interests.

    This vision mirrors, in part, the imperialism Lenin described. Trumpism aims to dismantle elements of globalism and restore earlier capitalist logics with the US at the center of international capitalism. But can one truly undo the structures of global integration?  Moreover, can the US remain a dominant economic force if it retreats away from the global economy?

    Does Trumpism represent yet another stage of capitalism?  Is this a new effort being undertaken to restructure the global economy from a nationalist perspective in a world where physical borders are being erased and replaced by digital ones?  Or is this simply a simplistic revanchism  to return the US to a global economic position that simply does not exist anymore?

    The post Trumpism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism? appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by David Schultz.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Deafening Silence: Arab Complicity and the Normalization of Evil in Gaza

    Image by Levi Meir Clancy.

    The world is witnessing an unconscionable silence as Israel, an occupying power, imposes a total food blockade on Gaza—an act of collective punishment against a captive civilian population. As famine tightens its grip and American-made bombs rain from the sky, global leaders stand by—paralyzed, indifferent, or willfully complicit—while Israel renders Gaza uninhabitable.

    Earlier this week, Israel targeted the only functioning medical facility serving over a million people in northern Gaza. Al Ahli Baptist Hospital was given just 20 minutes—in the dead of night—to evacuate hundreds of patients and wounded civilians. This second attack on the medical facility was enabled by then-U.S. President Joe Biden’s exoneration of Israel for its earlier massacre targeting the same hospital in October 2023—an assault that killed over 500 civilians sheltering outside its grounds.

    But this was not an isolated attack. Hospitals, medical facilities, ambulances, and first responders have been systematically and relentlessly targeted in Gaza as in no other war in modern memory. Doctors have been kidnapped or killed while performing surgeries. Ambulances bombed mid-rescue. Entire medical complexes reduced to rubble while filled with patients, newborns, and the wounded. This is not collateral damage—it is a campaign of annihilation against the very institutions meant to save lives. In Gaza, saving lives has become a death sentence.

    The United Nations, constrained by the U.S. veto power, has failed to pass a resolution demanding an end to what many increasingly recognize as genocide. Meanwhile, the United States—self-styled as a beacon of human rights—actively abets these atrocities. It supplies Israel with massive bombs, including 2,000-pound munitions, enabling their use in densely populated areas. This is not merely a moral failing; it is a flagrant violation of both U.S. and international laws governing military aid.

    Much of this impunity stems from the legacy of Donald Trump emboldened Israel through a series of reckless, one-sided decisions: recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, slashing humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and endorsing illegal Jewish-only colonies on stolen Palestinian land. Trump gave Israel carte blanche to act without fear of accountability. His abject support signaled that no matter how flagrant the violations, there would be no consequences—only more weapons, more diplomatic protection, and deeper impunity.

    Today, Israel carries out its campaign of destruction while invoking Trump’s so-called “vision” for Gaza—an evil blueprint of ethnic cleansing. This vision has become a license of an Israeli roadmap for dispossession, displacement, and death.

    This has indulged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relentless appetite for Palestinian land—prolong the suffering of Israeli captives, Palestinian prisoners, and the people of Gaza. His refusal to pursue a meaningful ceasefire or prisoner exchange is a calculated political maneuver. The ongoing war serves his far-right racist coalition, distracts from his legal troubles, and consolidates his grip on power while advancing an expansionist agenda. In the process, Gaza has become what can only be described as a starvation death camp—where civilians are punished collectively, denied food, water, medicine, and even hope.

    Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli military raids and settler mobs have escalated dramatically. Entire communities are being uprooted and terrorized with impunity. Yet, the Palestinian Authority (PA)—the supposed protector of Palestinians—has shown paralyzing impotence. Rather than confronting Israeli aggression or protecting its people, the PA functions as a subcontractor for the occupation, policing its own population while Israeli forces and armed settlers freely brutalize civilians. Its failure to act has not only eroded its legitimacy but made it complicit in the very oppression it claims to oppose.

    And still, the international community looks away.

    But perhaps the most disgraceful silence comes not from Washington or Brussels—but from Arab capitals. This is not mere neglect or indifference. It is betrayal—a betrayal rooted in cowardice, authoritarianism, and self-preservation at the expense of justice.

    The regimes in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and others have become accessories to genocide and complicit in the siege on Gaza. Their silence, their closed borders, their collaboration and normalization with Israel—all point to a level of complicity that history will neither forget nor forgive. As Gaza’s children starve and entire families are buried beneath rubble, Arab leaders ingurgitate in palaces, and issue timid statements devoid of conviction, or consequence.

    It is a painful irony that while protests erupt in cities like London, Paris, and New York, there is near-total silence in Cairo, Riyadh, Amman, and Abu Dhabi. The moral clarity of Western citizens who take to the streets in solidarity with the Palestinians underscores the betrayal of those who claim religious, linguistic, and cultural kinship with them. But the failure is not only at the top. Public apathy, and resignation in many Arab and Muslim societies have enabled this silence—allowing Israel to persist in its crimes. A people conditioned to accept humiliation cannot demand justice.

    The evil of occupation and military aggression is sustained not only through bombs and blockades but through the slow erosion of courage and moral standards. Atrocities once shocking now pass as routine. The world becomes numb. The killing of children, the destruction of homes, and the denial of basic necessities no longer elicit outrage. The question becomes not how such acts are tolerated, but when genocide becomes mere statistics—counting whether more or fewer people were killed today compared to yesterday.

    This normalization turns ordinary people into complicit actors—bureaucrats who process arms shipments, journalists who frame one-sided narratives, citizens who choose silence over dissent. All become part of a system that sustains injustice.

    A genocide is unfolding in real time, and the silence is not just deafening—it is damning. It is time for the people in Arab and Muslim capitals to at least join the protestors in Western cities and break this silence. To speak with moral clarity. To meet the demands of the moment. And to reject the normalization of evil in Gaza.

    The post The Deafening Silence: Arab Complicity and the Normalization of Evil in Gaza appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jamal Kanj.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Will the Tech Bros. Turn on Trump?

    The Tech Bros., like Elon Musk and JD Vance puppetmaster Peter Thiel, see Trump as a means to an end: to build their own tech-state fiefdoms as they usher in the A.I. age, at the expense of us peasants. But can this unholy alliance survive Trump’s disastrous trade war? And why do they fetishize hating Ukraine? 

    This week’s special guest, Adrian Karatnycky, has been on the frontlines fighting for democracy both at home and abroad. In his critically acclaimed book Battleground Ukraine, Adrian traces Ukraine’s struggle for independence from the fall of the Soviet Union to Russia’s genocidal invasion today, drawing important lessons for protecting democracies worldwide. He has worked alongside civil rights legend Bayard Rustin and the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in America. He also supported Poland’s Solidarity movement, which helped bring down the Iron Curtain, and played a key role, along with iconic Soviet dissident, writer, and Czech statesman Václav Havel, in preserving Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in the 1990s, when many thought the Cold War had ended. 

    In part two, we discuss the PayPal Mafia’s war on Ukraine as part of a broader global assault on “wokeism” (a.k.a. Empathy and democracy), Adrian’s impressions of meeting Curtis Yarvin, and how the war in Ukraine can ultimately end. For part one of their discussion, available in the show notes, Andrea and Adrian explore how Europe and the free world can survive the chaos of Trump’s America First isolationism and Russia’s weaponized corruption and election interference. 

    Thank you to everyone who joined the Gaslit Nation Salon live-taping with Patrick Guarasci and Sam Roecker, senior campaign advisors for Judge Susan Crawford, discussing their victory against Elon Musk in the pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court race. The recording will be available as this week’s bonus show. 

    Thank you to everyone who supports Gaslit Nation–we could not make the show without you! 

    Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!

     

    Show Notes:

    Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia by Adrian Karatnycky https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300269468/battleground-ukraine/

    Part I of Our Discussion: Can the Free World Survive Putin and Trump? https://sites.libsyn.com/124622/can-the-free-world-survive-trump-and-putin

     

    EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION:

    • April 28 4pm ET – Book club discussion of Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower  

    • Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon.

    • Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon.

    • Have you taken Gaslit Nation’s HyperNormalization Survey Yet?

    • Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community 

     


    This content originally appeared on Gaslit Nation and was authored by Andrea Chalupa.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Michelle Alexander: Baltimore Must Organize to Stop Police Brutality


    This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.

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  • Is Trump’s trade war with China the opening stage of a wider war?


    This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The US war on Yemen is failing… again


    This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.

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  • The new Sykes-Picot in post-Assad Syria


    This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.

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  • Trump takes the global economy to war


    This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.

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  • CPJ to release report on press freedom 100 days into the Trump administration

    New York, April 15, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) will release a special report examining the state of press freedom and journalist safety in the United States following the first 100 days of the Trump administration. 

    In this special report, CPJ will cover the incidence of targeted attacks against journalists and news organizations, regulatory abuse, and access issues for journalists reporting in the U.S. 

    The report will also examine whether the White House’s actions have created a chilling effect among local journalists around the nation. 

    WHAT: CPJ’s 2025 U.S. special report on the Trump administration’s first 100 days in office

    WHEN: April 30, 2025, 9:30 a.m. EDT/3:30 p.m. CET

    WHERE: www.cpj.org

    ###

    About the Committee to Protect Journalists

    The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

    Note to editors:

    CPJ experts are available to be interviewed in multiple languages about the report’s findings. To request an embargoed copy or interview, please reach out to press@cpj.org.

    Media contact:

    press@cpj.org


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

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  • “The Dark Money Game”: Director Alex Gibney on How Citizens United Ushered in “Legalized Corruption”


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

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  • Smiles for the boat ride home to Laos — Workers return for Buddhist New Year | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

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  • The Long Road to Dismantling the Department of Education: From the Southern Manifesto to Project 2025

    Conservatives have tried to shut down the Department of Education as a way to resist racial and social progress for decades.


    This content originally appeared on The Progressive — A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good and was authored by Terrance Sullivan.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Are the brands you buy profiting from prisons?


    This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.

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  • Born in a darkened hospital as the Khmer Rouge took control

    Part of a multimedia series on four RFA staff members who look back on life under the Khmer Rouge fifty years later

    In 1975, as the Khmer Rouge fanned out across the country, decimating their rivals and forcing people in their millions out of cities into the countryside, Sarann Nuon was busy being born.

    The maternity ward at Battambang’s Friendship Hospital was suddenly plunged into darkness. The Khmer Rouge had entered the northwestern city, announcing their arrival by taking out the power. Sarann came into this world by torchlight.

    “I was born the very day. April 17th, 1975, the day the Khmer Rouge invaded,” she said. “My family would say I’m a true Pol Pot baby.”

    Sarann Nuon’s was born on the day the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia.

    “Outside, the Khmer Rouge were shooting the lights out. Somehow, I was born as the electricity was going in and out and chaos was happening all around the country.”

    Not long after they arrived in the city, the Khmer Rouge entered the hospital and ordered everyone out into the countryside “to be with Angkar,” as the nameless, faceless regime would quickly come to be known.

    Overnight, loyalty to Angkar replaced all other forms – to parents, to family, to village or community, and even to religion.

    People deemed disloyal to Angkar were to be “smashed,” a Khmer Rouge term for weeding out and murdering those deemed disloyal. Over the next four years, millions would die.

    ‘Always hungry’

    For Sarann, her mother and her family, the two days’ grace they had before being forced out of the hospital and into the countryside gave her mother a moment to recover and a fighting chance at survival for both of them.

    “We were lucky, we had a family, who knew someone with a tractor, and they put me and my mother on that, and then all the other villagers just walked and walked,” Sarann said. “And being conceived before the war, I was born a very fat baby.”

    Her nickname is “Map,” which translates to “fat.”

    “My grandmother, aunts and uncles still call me ‘Map’ to this day,” she said. “My brother who was born at the end of the war wasn’t so fortunate. He was so malnourished, so skinny.”

    Sarann Nuon, the young girl at center, stands next to her mother, left, who is holding her younger brother and a sign indicating the family’s refugee number.
    Sarann Nuon, the young girl at center, stands next to her mother, left, who is holding her younger brother and a sign indicating the family’s refugee number.
    (Courtesy of Sarann Nuon)

    Sarann has few memories of that time. The strongest memories are second-hand from what she gleaned from others.

    “I just heard that I played in the dirt, and nobody was watching me, and I was just a dirty, fat baby. That’s my history. Always hungry,’ she said.

    Her first real memory of Cambodia, which she claims as her own, is when her family decided to flee.

    “My great-grandmother was dressing me, and I asked her where we were going. And the sarong she dressed me in had a gold necklace in the seam of the sarong. And I remember that so clearly,” she said.

    “And I remember asking her if she was coming with us, and she said no.”

    ‘If he was alive, we had no idea’

    Sarann’s grandfather, who was heavily involved in local politics, had escaped Cambodia shortly after the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975.

    It took him two months to walk his way out of the country, staying out of sight and avoiding the Khmer Rouge, but he made it first to Thailand and then to the United States and avoided what was to come.

    Hundreds of thousands of intellectuals, city residents, leaders of the old government and thousands of low-level soldiers, police officers and civil servants were murdered by the Khmer Rouge.

    Bodies were dumped in mass graves in rural areas across the country, earning them the name of the “Killing Fields.”

    The skulls of Khmer Rouge victims are displayed in Choeung Ek, Cambodia, Feb. 26, 2008.
    The skulls of Khmer Rouge victims are displayed in Choeung Ek, Cambodia, Feb. 26, 2008.
    (Chor Sokunthea/Reuters)

    Within days, the country became a closed-off nation for people inside and outside.

    “If he was alive, we had no idea, and he had no idea whether we were alive. Not until the war ended when Vietnam invaded Cambodia and the refugee camps started to open,” Sarann said.

    From America, where he had been granted asylum, Sarann’s grandfather never gave up hope through the dark years that his family would survive and be reunited.

    After the regime was felled in 1979, her grandfather sent photos and a letter with a friend from Virginia who returned to Asia to work in one of the camps. Her grandfather hoped that his family would eventually get the message that he was still alive, and that he could sponsor them to join him in the United States.

    Fled by bicycle and by foot

    And so in 1980, 5-year-old Sarann, suddenly found herself being dressed in a sarong by her great-grandmother. A sarong in which a gold chain, the sum of the family’s wealth, was sewn into its hem.

    “And then, just running, running, running and running. My uncle would carry me on his back, and my mother had my baby brother, who was a year and a half old,” she said.

    They had travelled by bicycle and by foot from village to village until they got close to the border.

    “With the gold, we exchanged it to hire a guide who knows how to get to the Thai border safely, to cross without the Khmer Rouge finding you and the Thai soldiers trying to shoot you, to kill you, and then the landmines.”

    Pol Pot, right, walks with Chinese Ambassador Sun Hao, center, and Foreign Minister leng Sary, far left, in Phnom Penh, in 1975.
    Pol Pot, right, walks with Chinese Ambassador Sun Hao, center, and Foreign Minister leng Sary, far left, in Phnom Penh, in 1975.
    (DC-CAM)

    Their final push to freedom was made at night, a short journey that took more than five hours. She remembers being separated from her mother and brother at one point, as he started to cry and the group split up in case the noise of a baby crying gave them all away.

    Together with her mother, brother, aunt, uncle and their two children, they eventually made it to safety inside the Khao-I-Dang border refugee camp. And from there, with her grandfather as a direct sponsor, they were among the first granted political asylum in the United States.

    “We all know that our history kind of defines us,” Sarann said.

    “I consider myself a child of war. The generation that is around me, my peers,” she said. “We had so much potential to make the country better, too, and it was all shattered.”

    Edited by Matt Reed


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Ginny Stein for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Rep. Pressley: Project 2025 Was the Playbook, But It Wasn’t Taken Seriously #politics #trump


    This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by The Intercept.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Rituals Help Her Remember the Daughter She Lost to Stillbirth #pregnancy #documentary


    This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by ProPublica.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Rep. Pressley: What Happened To Rümeysa Öztürk Could Happen To Anyone #politics #trump #gaza


    This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by The Intercept.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Why does El Salvador have the highest incarceration rate in the world?


    This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • EXPLAINED: Four key questions about the US-China tariff war | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • How the Oligarchy Wins—Unless We Fight Back

    In a powerful callout, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed Congress and the White House over insider trading. Elected officials shouldn’t hold stocks—period. While Martha Stewart went to prison for it, members of Congress routinely outperform the market, raising red flags of insider trading. Donald Trump, for example, told people to buy stocks just before pausing tariffs, triggering a historic $304 billion windfall for billionaires, according to Bloomberg. How many people did Trump tell in private before hitting send on that social media post? Because that would be insider trading. 

    Corruption flows freely in America—like cheap wine at Mar-a-Lago. Now, MAGA Republicans are pushing the SAVE Act, requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. It’s voter suppression dressed up as security. Noncitizen voting is extremely rare, but this bill could disenfranchise millions—including women who changed their names for marriage and trans Americans. It’s essentially a poll tax, nationalizing Jim Crow.

    Democrats could stop it in the Senate—unless a handful cave. Four House Democrats already backed it. If passed, this could become the next Citizens United, further empowering oligarchs like Elon Musk and paving Trump’s path to authoritarian rule.

    What can you do? Show up. Protest. Call your senators, especially those who caved on the budget battle. Demand accountability. And yes, let’s talk about AOC primarying Chuck Schumer or Kirsten Gillibrand—New York, an the nation, deserves better.

    For more on how to fight back, check the Gaslit Nation Action Guide at GaslitNationPod.com. Join us Monday, April 14, for a salon on defeating oligarchy, with special guests–Patrick Guarasci and Sam Roecker, senior advisors to Judge Susan Crawford’s victorious Wisconsin Supreme Court campaign. Together, we’re sand in their gears.

    In this week’s bonus show, Gaslit Nation’s special guest Adrian Karatnycky takes the Gaslit Nation Self-Care Q&A. Adrian has been on the frontlines fighting for democracy both at home and abroad. In his critically acclaimed book Battleground Ukraine, he traces Ukraine’s struggle for independence from the fall of the Soviet Union to Russia’s genocidal invasion today, drawing important lessons for protecting democracies worldwide. He has worked alongside civil rights legend Bayard Rustin and the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in America. He also supported Poland’s Solidarity movement, which helped bring down the Iron Curtain, and played a key role, along with iconic Soviet dissident, writer, and Czech statesman Václav Havel, in preserving Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in the 1990s, when many thought the Cold War had ended. 

    Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!

    EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION:

    • April 14 4pm ET – Live-taping with Patrick Guarasci, chief political strategist for Judge Susan Crawford, discussing their campaign’s victory against Elon Musk in the pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court race!

    • April 28 4pm ET – Book club discussion of Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower  

    • Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon.

    • Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon.

    • Have you taken Gaslit Nation’s HyperNormalization Survey Yet?

    • Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community 

    Show Notes: 

    Here Are the Senate Democrats Who Helped Republicans Avert a Shutdown https://time.com/7268499/senate-democrats-budget-vote/ Will They Help MAGA Pass the SAVE Act? Here’s How to Contact Them: https://www.congressionalinstitute.org/contact-congress/

    Four Democrats Pass Bill Making It Harder for Married Women to Vote The House of Representatives—with the help of four Democrats—just passed a bill that could disenfranchise millions. https://newrepublic.com/post/193868/democrats-save-act-bill-harder-married-women-vote

    The SAVE Act threatens to block millions of Americans from voting while also imposing significant burdens on state and local election officials. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/dangers-congresss-latest-election-bill

    3.5 Million Votes Canceled in 2024 Election: https://gaslitnation.libsyn.com/will-we-have-free-and-fair-elections-in-the-midterms

    U.N. expert decries near ‘tyranny’ in U.S. against minority voting rights https://www.reuters.com/world/us/un-expert-decries-gerrymandering-parts-us-that-denies-minority-voting-rights-2021-11-22/

    Report of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes, on his visit to the United States of America https://www.splcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/files/report-un-special-rapporteur-minority-issues-march-2022.pdf

    Attack on Civil Rights: SPLC contributes to UN special report on state of minorities in the US https://www.splcenter.org/resources/stories/attack-civil-rights-splc-contributes-un-special-report-state-minorities-us/

    Members of Congress again outperformed the stock market, report shows https://finance.yahoo.com/news/members-congress-again-outperformed-stock-162050482.html

    Andrew Ross Sorkin Suggests Government Officials May Have Sold Stocks Ahead of Trump Tariffs: ‘Would Not Shock Me’ https://www.mediaite.com/tv/andrew-ross-sorkin-suggests-government-officials-may-have-sold-stocks-ahead-of-trump-tariffs-would-not-shock-me/

    Ocasio-Cortez: Colleagues ‘should probably disclose’ recent stock purchases now https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5242235-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-congress-stock-donald-trump-tariffs/

    The Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel October, 1978 https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/wp-content/uploads/1979/01/the-power-of-the-powerless.pdf


    This content originally appeared on Gaslit Nation and was authored by Andrea Chalupa.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • EXPLAINED: Four key questions about the US-China tariff war

    BANGKOK — President Donald Trump has seized on tariffs as the weapon to bend other countries, and particularly China, to his will as he tries to fulfil campaign pledges to make America great again. A topic that usually only occupies the minds of economists and CEOs has been elevated to water cooler conversation as stock market gyrations wiped trillions of dollars from investment funds and workers’ pension accounts. Despite China’s rapid growth since the 1990s, the U.S. economy remains preeminent and its tariff policy is consequential in every corner of the globe.

    What is a tariff?

    A tariff is simply a tax on trade and all countries impose tariffs to varying degrees. The importer of goods pays whatever tariff rate applies and this customs revenue goes to the government of the nation where the importer is located.

    Why are tariffs imposed?

    Historically, tariffs were an important source of revenue for governments. This role was diminished by income and consumption taxes and as countries gradually lowered tariffs in an era of global free-trade following World War II. Tariffs can be used to protect emerging or important industries—and jobs—from competition from cheaper imports, but this can also mean higher costs for consumers and businesses, and in time, reduced prosperity in the country that extensively erects such barriers. Tariffs can also be a tool of foreign policy, used by one country to punish another for policies or behavior that run counter to its national interest.

    Why is China the main target of US tariffs?

    In a stunning about-face, Trump this week paused sharply higher tariffs against dozens of countries for 90 days but escalated a trade war with China, imposing a total tariff of 145% on its exports, after Beijing retaliated with increased tariffs on U.S. goods. The U.S. has a litany of complaints about China’s trade and industrial policies such as subsidies that create an unfair playing field, barriers to U.S. companies operating in China, intellectual property theft and its massive trade surplus. The U.S. also has a mixed track record in some of these areas such as subsidizing farmers.

    The Trump administration is hoping it can wound export powerhouse China and force it into concessions. It is not without risks because China through its purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds plays a key role in financing the U.S. government, which has spent more than it earned every year since 2001. This situation shows a fundamental interdependence between the U.S. and China despite a tense relationship. China’s central bank receives a torrent of U.S. dollars from the country’s exports to the U.S. and then parks those dollars in U.S. government bonds.

    What are the deep trends at work?

    For decades, the world economy has been organized around the principle that free trade boosts economic growth and prosperity overall. The rapid increase in living standards for hundreds of millions of Chinese from abject poverty in the 1970s is often cited as proof of that theory. In aggregate terms, the free-trade proponents appear to be right but the broad picture obscures the mix of costs and benefits. In the U.S., manufacturing has declined as a proportion of the economy and employment since the 1990s.

    Many Americans benefited from cheaper goods such as TVs, clothing and iPhones manufactured in China and elsewhere in Asia but at the cost of other Americans losing stable factory jobs. It was the U.S. that paved the way for China’s entry into the world economy when President Richard Nixon established diplomatic relations in 1972, ending Beijing’s quarter century of isolation. The Make America Great Again moment in U.S. politics is one of the long-range reverberations of those seismic changes.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Stephen Wright for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • EXPLAINED: Four key questions about the US-China tariff war

    BANGKOK — President Donald Trump has seized on tariffs as the weapon to bend other countries, and particularly China, to his will as he tries to fulfil campaign pledges to make America great again. A topic that usually only occupies the minds of economists and CEOs has been elevated to water cooler conversation as stock market gyrations wiped trillions of dollars from investment funds and workers’ pension accounts. Despite China’s rapid growth since the 1990s, the U.S. economy remains preeminent and its tariff policy is consequential in every corner of the globe.

    What is a tariff?

    A tariff is simply a tax on trade and all countries impose tariffs to varying degrees. The importer of goods pays whatever tariff rate applies and this customs revenue goes to the government of the nation where the importer is located.

    Why are tariffs imposed?

    Historically, tariffs were an important source of revenue for governments. This role was diminished by income and consumption taxes and as countries gradually lowered tariffs in an era of global free-trade following World War II. Tariffs can be used to protect emerging or important industries—and jobs—from competition from cheaper imports, but this can also mean higher costs for consumers and businesses, and in time, reduced prosperity in the country that extensively erects such barriers. Tariffs can also be a tool of foreign policy, used by one country to punish another for policies or behavior that run counter to its national interest.

    Why is China the main target of US tariffs?

    In a stunning about-face, Trump this week paused sharply higher tariffs against dozens of countries for 90 days but escalated a trade war with China, imposing a total tariff of 145% on its exports, after Beijing retaliated with increased tariffs on U.S. goods. The U.S. has a litany of complaints about China’s trade and industrial policies such as subsidies that create an unfair playing field, barriers to U.S. companies operating in China, intellectual property theft and its massive trade surplus. The U.S. also has a mixed track record in some of these areas such as subsidizing farmers.

    The Trump administration is hoping it can wound export powerhouse China and force it into concessions. It is not without risks because China through its purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds plays a key role in financing the U.S. government, which has spent more than it earned every year since 2001. This situation shows a fundamental interdependence between the U.S. and China despite a tense relationship. China’s central bank receives a torrent of U.S. dollars from the country’s exports to the U.S. and then parks those dollars in U.S. government bonds.

    What are the deep trends at work?

    For decades, the world economy has been organized around the principle that free trade boosts economic growth and prosperity overall. The rapid increase in living standards for hundreds of millions of Chinese from abject poverty in the 1970s is often cited as proof of that theory. In aggregate terms, the free-trade proponents appear to be right but the broad picture obscures the mix of costs and benefits. In the U.S., manufacturing has declined as a proportion of the economy and employment since the 1990s.

    Many Americans benefited from cheaper goods such as TVs, clothing and iPhones manufactured in China and elsewhere in Asia but at the cost of other Americans losing stable factory jobs. It was the U.S. that paved the way for China’s entry into the world economy when President Richard Nixon established diplomatic relations in 1972, ending Beijing’s quarter century of isolation. The Make America Great Again moment in U.S. politics is one of the long-range reverberations of those seismic changes.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Stephen Wright for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Can Border Agents Confiscate Your Phone at the Airport?


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – April 11, 2025

    Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

    The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – April 11, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.


    This content originally appeared on KPFA – The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.