This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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In an effort to fulfill the Trump administration’s daily immigration arrest “quotas,” federal agents and deputized local law enforcement are racially profiling and snatching people off the streets without due process. These arrests, carried out by armed and masked agents, are sowing terror and confusion in communities across the United States. Stephano Medina, a lawyer with the California Center for Movement Legal Services, shares how ICE regularly denies that it has taken people into custody, leading to family members scrambling for information about their loved ones. “It’s arrest now, ask questions later,” adds Dominique Boubion, an attorney representing Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen who was taken by ICE last month in what Velez has since described as a “kidnapping.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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In an effort to fulfill the Trump administration’s daily immigration arrest “quotas,” federal agents and deputized local law enforcement are racially profiling and snatching people off the streets without due process. These arrests, carried out by armed and masked agents, are sowing terror and confusion in communities across the United States. Stephano Medina, a lawyer with the California Center for Movement Legal Services, shares how ICE regularly denies that it has taken people into custody, leading to family members scrambling for information about their loved ones. “It’s arrest now, ask questions later,” adds Dominique Boubion, an attorney representing Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen who was taken by ICE last month in what Velez has since described as a “kidnapping.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Deep in the Florida Everglades, at an abandoned airfield surrounded by barren swampland, local law enforcement authorities are opening the doors to a huge tent facility that hopes to lock up immigrants swept up in the Trump administration’s mass deportation machine. Republicans have branded the still-unapproved facility “Alligator Alcatraz,” with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier boasting that the state can afford to keep staff and safety costs low because the wild animals of the swamp will provide security and prevent escapes. Immigrant rights advocates warn that the cramped facility will further isolate immigrants who are being rounded up indiscriminately and detained without charge, and could lead to life-threatening overheating and overcrowding. We speak to Nery Lopez of Detention Watch Network and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council for more about the “inhumane” proposed detention camp.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Deep in the Florida Everglades, at an abandoned airfield surrounded by barren swampland, local law enforcement authorities are opening the doors to a huge tent facility that hopes to lock up immigrants swept up in the Trump administration’s mass deportation machine. Republicans have branded the still-unapproved facility “Alligator Alcatraz,” with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier boasting that the state can afford to keep staff and safety costs low because the wild animals of the swamp will provide security and prevent escapes. Immigrant rights advocates warn that the cramped facility will further isolate immigrants who are being rounded up indiscriminately and detained without charge, and could lead to life-threatening overheating and overcrowding. We speak to Nery Lopez of Detention Watch Network and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council for more about the “inhumane” proposed detention camp.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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After President Donald Trump began his second term, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media Kari Lake joined Trump in taking steps to intimidate leakers and news outlets that have covered him and his administration unfavorably. We’re documenting her efforts in this regularly updated report.
Read about how Trump’s appointees and allies in Congress are striving to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more here.
This article was first published on July 1, 2025.
June 25, 2025 | Kari Lake urges Congress to eliminate Voice of America, gut oversight agency
Kari Lake, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on June 25, 2025, and urged Congress to gut Voice of America and the other federally-funded news organizations that she oversees.
During the hearing, which was titled “Spies, Lies, and Mismanagement: Examining the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Downfall,” Lake said in her opening statement that USAGM was unsalvageable, later referring to it as “a rotten piece of fish.”
“Within days in my role as senior adviser, it became increasingly clear that reform was nearly impossible,” Lake said. “The agency was incompetent and mismanaged and deeply corrupt, politically biased and, frankly, a serious threat to our national security.”
Lake went on to defend proposed cuts to the agency and the global news organizations it funds, including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Radio y Televisión Martí. She also called on members of Congress to amend the laws mandating VOA’s existence.
“What is going out on VOA airwaves — it’s outrageous, and it has to stop,” she said, adding that much of the reporting being published by VOA and other USAGM-funded outlets is “biased” and “corrupt.”
Lake’s statements mirrored those made by President Donald Trump since at least 2023. In a late-night executive order on March 14, 2025, Trump eliminated all USAGM functions not required by law. The following day, the White House posted a news release that railed against “the Voice of Radical America” and the director of VOA confirmed that nearly the entire staff of the news organization had been suspended.
A federal judge ordered the administration to halt efforts to fire or furlough employees at the news agency at the end of March, and another judge reversed VOA’s closure April 22, calling it “arbitrary and capricious.”
Lake appealed the ruling two days later, blocking operations at the outlet from restarting and, days before the June Congressional hearing, issued hundreds of termination notices to VOA and USAGM staff.
The layoffs were rescinded June 27 after errors were discovered that could have derailed efforts to dismantle the organization, according to The New York Times.
No news has been published on VOA’s website since March.
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
A heat wave is raising temperatures to dangerous levels across much of Europe, just days after a heat wave in North America saw over 3,000 temperature records set. For more, we speak with climate scientist Michael Mann, who warns that heat domes and flooding have nearly tripled since the 1950s. “At some level, this isn’t that complicated. You make the planet hotter, you’re going to have more frequent and intense heat extremes,” says Mann, a professor of environmental science at the University of Pennsylvania. Mann’s upcoming book, co-authored with vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez, is Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
We speak with American neurosurgeon Dr. Abdul Basit Khan in Gaza, where he is volunteering at the Nasser Hospital. He describes treating patients with blast injuries and gunshot wounds from Israeli attacks, all while coping with a lack of basic medical supplies and widespread hunger. “Food insecurity is rampant, from all levels of society. Even the physicians are not eating,” he says. Multiple blasts were heard during the interview, with Dr. Khan describing his patients as people “living in tents being indiscriminately bombed” by Israeli forces. “This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life, by far.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
President Donald Trump has returned to Washington after a NATO summit where leaders agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, more than doubling the current target of 2%. The increase comes after years of pressure from Trump, who accuses other countries in the military alliance of not spending enough. “What he is interested in is catering to the military-industrial complex of the United States,” says Gilbert Achcar, emeritus professor of development studies and international relations at SOAS, University of London. “When he asks these NATO countries to increase their military expenditure, he means 'buy more U.S. weapons.' That’s what he is doing. He’s a salesperson for the military-industrial complex.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
In Gaza, at least 41 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since midnight, including more Palestinians targeted by Israeli forces while seeking food and humanitarian aid. This comes as UNICEF is warning Gaza is facing what amounts to a “man-made drought” with children at risk of dying from thirst due to Israel’s blockade. We go to Dr. Mark Brauner, an emergency medicine physician who is currently volunteering at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. He describes “execution-style” killings of Palestinians at food distribution sites and the desperate lack of baby formula leading to the deaths of children suffering from malnutrition and starvation.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.