Verdant Square Network1d ago

"Politically Driven Epidemic": Ebola Response Hampered by Impoverishment & U.S. Global Health Cuts http://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/22/ebola_outbreak

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“Politically Driven Epidemic”: Ebola Response Hampered by Impoverishment & U.S. Global Health Cuts

The deadly Ebola outbreak spreading across the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed at least 177 people, with more than 750 suspected cases reported in the DRC and neighboring Uganda, according to the World Health Organization. Health officials believe the virus may have been spreading undetected for months before the outbreak was identified, raising concerns that the scale of transmission could be far greater than initially understood. The epidemic has spread hundreds of miles away to South Kivu province, now under the control of the ⁠Alliance Fleuve Congo, which includes the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. Jimmy Munguriek, country director for the Democratic Republic of Congo at Resource Matters, tells Democracy Now! that poor road access, insufficient medical facilities and local stigma about the disease are making it hard to respond to the crisis. “Ebola outbreak is really, really a very urgent issue in the Mongbwalu region,” he says from Kinshasa. We also speak with Matthew Kavanagh, director of the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics at Georgetown University, who says U.S. international aid cuts and the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization have hampered the response to Ebola. “This is not just an outbreak of a virus. This really is a politically driven … epidemic.”

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Verdant Square Network1d ago

Stephen Colbert Out at CBS as Trump Weaponizes Regulatory Power to Control the Media: David Sirota http://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/22/late_show_media_mergers

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Stephen Colbert Out at CBS as Trump Weaponizes Regulatory Power to Control the Media: David Sirota

Late-night comedian Stephen Colbert has ended his 11-year run as host of The Late Show on CBS. His program’s cancellation removes one of President Trump’s most vocal critics from the airwaves and comes after the comedian criticized his own employer for agreeing to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by President Trump. The settlement came as CBS parent company Paramount was seeking the Trump administration’s approval for a merger with Skydance, which the Trump administration approved just one week after CBS announced Colbert’s ouster. Trump’s FCC Chair Brendan Carr has openly gloated about the administration’s attacks on critics in the media and the defunding of outlets like PBS and NPR, which no longer receive federal money. Meanwhile, Paramount Skydance is seeking another megamerger with Warner Bros. Discovery, which would further concentrate media control in the hands of the billionaire Ellison family that has a long history of supporting Trump. “We see this over and over again, where the Trump administration is weaponizing its power over mergers to try to get what it wants in the media space,” says David Sirota, editor-in-chief of The Lever and host of the Master Plan podcast.

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Verdant Square Network1d ago

"AI Resist List": Karen Hao on Data Center Resistance, Tech Billionaires, "Empire of AI" & More http://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/22/data_centers_and_ai

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“AI Resist List”: Karen Hao on Data Center Resistance, Tech Billionaires, “Empire of AI” & More

We speak with journalist Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI, about the Trump administration’s alliance with tech billionaires, efforts to regulate artificial intelligence technology, and rising local opposition to data centers across the United States. “In 2025, these data center protests successfully stalled over $100 billion worth of these facilities,” says Hao. “It really does cut across political lines.” Hao recently launched The AI Resist List with a group of fellow journalists, researchers and technologists. It’s a collaborative project to track and reshape how artificial intelligence is deployed around the world.

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Verdant Square Network1d ago

Headlines for May 22, 2026 http://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/22/headlines

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Headlines for May 22, 2026

GOP Leaders Delay Vote on Iran War Powers Resolution Until June; “I’ll Be the One That Does It”: Trump Says He’s Ready to Attack Cuba; Syrian Child and Paramedics Are Victims of Latest Israeli Strikes on Lebanon; Deported Global Sumud Flotilla Activists Describe Torture and Abuse by Israeli Captors; Greenlanders Protest as U.S. Opens New Consulate in Nuuk; Senate Delays Vote on ICE Funding as GOP Revolts over Trump’s Ballroom and $1.8B “Slush Fund”; Advocates Demand Release of Karla Toledo, Tucson Activist Jailed by ICE; Immigrants at For-Profit ICE Jail in California Launch Hunger Strike Against Inhumane Treatment; Charges Dropped Against Chicago Anti-ICE Protesters Over “Gross Misconduct” by Prosecutors; Colorado Democrats Censure Gov. Jared Polis over Clemency for 2020 Election Denier; DNC Faces Backlash over Post-Election Autopsy That Makes No Mention of Gaza Genocide; Thousands Attend Funeral for Victims of Massacre at Islamic Center of San Diego; Death Row Prisoner Tony Carruthers Wins One-Year Reprieve After Tennessee Botches His Execution

Democracy Now!
Verdant Square Network2d ago

"Clear Racism": Trump Admin Blocks Refugee Resettlement, Except for White South Africans http://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/21/afrikaners

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“Clear Racism”: Trump Admin Blocks Refugee Resettlement, Except for White South Africans

The Trump administration is advancing plans to resettle an additional 10,000 white South Africans in the United States as refugees. Under President Trump’s proposal, which was submitted to Congress on Monday, the U.S. would lift its record-low refugee admissions figure from 7,500 to 17,500, with the additional openings reserved for Afrikaners. This comes as the administration continues to block the entry of refugees from other countries. The U.S. has resettled just over 6,000 refugees between October and April — all except three were from South Africa. Trump has said Afrikaners face racial persecution and genocide in South Africa, claims that have been rejected by the U.N. Human Rights Office, among others. Last year, he cut off aid to the country and boycotted the G20 summit in Johannesburg. “Whiteness is being recast as endangered,” says Lebohang Pheko, a professor of practice at the University of Johannesburg. “There is a move towards the alt-right, the MAGA discourse, which is about replacement theory, and which is absolutely about displacing the idea that anything other than whiteness is normative.” Pheko also suggests that Trump’s actions toward South Africa are retribution for the genocide case it brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice. “We are processing resettlement cases for white Afrikaners at a record pace,” adds Sharif Aly, president of the International Refugee Assistance Project, which is currently litigating a class-action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s dismantling of the United States refugee program. “This program has never been a fast program, and it’s being expedited for just this one population.” While Afrikaners are being quickly resettled, “thousands of other people who have went through years of vetting, who have went through years of persecution and violence,” are being blocked from entering the U.S., says Aly.

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Verdant Square Network2d ago

Headlines for May 21, 2026 http://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/21/headlines

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Headlines for May 21, 2026

Iran Announces “Controlled Maritime Zone” in Strait of Hormuz ; 20 Million in Sudan Face Acute Hunger as Rival Military Factions Continue Deadly Strikes; Cuba Promises “Fierce Resistance” as USS Nimitz Arrives in Southern Caribbean; Israel Continues Attacks on Lebanon Even After Agreeing to Extend “Ceasefire”; Israeli Settlers Erect Illegal Outpost and Burn Palestinian Vehicles in Occupied West Bank; Israeli Drones and Bullets Kill Four Palestinians in Gaza; Video Shows Israeli Security Minister Ben-Gvir Taunting Handcuffed Gaza Flotilla Activists; Elon Musk’s SpaceX and OpenAI Confirm Plans to Go Public; Meta Lays Off 10% of Workforce and Assigns Thousands to New AI Initiatives; Sen. Sanders and Rep. Lee Unveil New Bill to Abolish Super PACs; Colbert Signs Off Tonight on the Final Broadcast of “The Late Show”; Demonstrators in Bolivia Call for President Paz to Step Down

Democracy Now!
Verdant Square Network2d ago

"They're Trying to Silence Us": Students, Faculty on Censoring Pro-Palestine Voices at Graduations http://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/21/peoples_convocation_palestine

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“They’re Trying to Silence Us”: Students, Faculty on Censoring Pro-Palestine Voices at Graduations

As colleges hold graduation ceremonies across the country, many schools are attempting to silence pro-Palestine speech at the commemorations, including canceling speakers and eliminating live speeches by students altogether. There will be no live student speakers at the City University of New York’s School of Law or at New York University’s school-specific ceremonies after former students gave speeches that included expressing support for Palestine and criticism of Israel. Rutgers University canceled biotech CEO Rami Elghandour’s commencement speech at its School of Engineering’s convocation, citing complaints about his social media posts on Israel and Palestine. And the University of Michigan’s president issued a public apology after professor Derek Peterson praised pro-Palestine students during his commencement address. “Our students are being told that your families, your Palestinian families, are expected to suffer and die, and you should be OK with it,” says Noura Erakat, a Palestinian human rights attorney and professor at Rutgers University. Erakat adds that Rutgers professors have been asked not to teach about the conditions in Gaza. “We are asked to betray the empirical record, including the one on genocide and apartheid, and we refuse to do that.” “This will be the third graduation and commencement ceremony in a row where we do not have a student speaker, we do not have a faculty speaker and we do not have a live-stream commencement,” says Shivani Desai, a member of CUNY Law Students for Justice in Palestine. “They took all of that away from us, and they took that away specifically because of Palestine repression.”

Democracy Now!
Verdant Square Network2d ago

Rising Conflict in DRC, Sudan, Other African Countries Linked to Trump's Gutting of USAID: Study http://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/21/usaid_conflict_africa

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Rising Conflict in DRC, Sudan, Other African Countries Linked to Trump’s Gutting of USAID: Study

The decades-old U.S. humanitarian aid agency USAID was largely dismantled in the early days of President Trump’s second term by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The authors of a new study in the journal Science conclude, “The abrupt withdrawal of USAID led to a significant and sustained increase in conflict across Africa’s most USAID-dependent regions.” We are joined by Austin Wright, one of the study’s authors and a professor of public policy at the University of Chicago. “What we found is that that shutdown had these large effects,” says Wright. “These are often double-digit percentage increases in the incidence, severity and lethality of violence across Africa in the affected regions.”

Democracy Now!
Verdant Square Network3d ago

Is an Invasion of Cuba Next? Peter Kornbluh on U.S. Move to Indict Raúl Castro & CIA's Widening Role http://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/20/cuba_raul_castro_peter_kornbluh

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Is an Invasion of Cuba Next? Peter Kornbluh on U.S. Move to Indict Raúl Castro & CIA’s Widening Role

In the latest escalation of the decadeslong U.S. pressure campaign against Cuba’s communist government, the Trump administration is expected to unseal an indictment against Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba, later today. The charges stem from the 1996 shootdown of four pilots with Brothers to the Rescue, the U.S.-based anti-Castro organization formed by Cuban exiles and dissidents. Peter Kornbluh, a Cuba specialist at the National Security Archive, says that the indictment will send “a clear warning” to Cuban leaders and provide justification for a possible future attempt to capture or assassinate Castro. “Military options are on the table and coming soon,” says Kornbluh. “It is absolutely clear that the U.S. military is preparing contingency operations in case Trump’s impatience runs out because Cuba has not met his imperial demands fast enough.”

Democracy Now!
Verdant Square Network3d ago

Headlines for May 20, 2026 http://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/20/headlines

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Headlines for May 20, 2026

Iran Threatens War Will Spread Beyond Middle East If Trump Resumes Attacks; Lebanon’s Health Ministry Says at Least 22 People Killed in Israeli Attacks Despite Ceasefire; Israeli Forces Intercept Last Remaining Boats with Gaza Sumud Flotilla, Abducting Over 400 Activists; Israel’s Far-Right Finance Minister Smotrich Says ICC Seeks Arrest Warrant Against Him; Victims of Islamic Center Shooting in San Diego Identified; DOJ “Forever” Bars IRS From Probing Trump, His Sons and Their Family Business; Democratic Senators Grill Transportation Secretary Duffy About Reality TV Road Trip Project; WHO: 600 Cases of Ebola and 139 Suspected Deaths in Congo and Uganda; Nigeria’s Military Confirms Joint Strikes with U.S. Against Islamic State, Killing 175 People; Trump Admin Plans to Resettle 10,000 Additional White South Africans in the U.S.; Federal Jury Rejects Elon Musk’s $150B Lawsuit Against OpenAI and Sam Altman; GOP Congressmember Massie Loses Primary to Trump-Backed Challenger Gallrein; Biotech CEO Rami Elghandour Speaks at “The People’s Convocation for Palestine” at Rutgers University

Democracy Now!