"I Was Just Forced to Resign from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory": Climate Scientist Peter Kalmus
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/6/10/peter_kalmus_resignation_climate_science_nasa
“I Was Just Forced to Resign from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory”: Climate Scientist Peter Kalmus
We continue to follow the impact of the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on scientific research in the United States with an update from climate scientist Peter Kalmus, who says he has been forced to resign from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) after 15 years at his “dream job.” In an immense loss to the government’s capacity to monitor and assess atmospheric conditions, the JPL has lost about 30% of its staff since President Trump took office for the second time, says Kalmus, who warns that the dismantling of federally funded scientific infrastructure comes as rising global temperatures put the Earth in “extreme danger.” “We’re on this escalator towards warmer and warmer and warmer temperatures, and world leaders are not doing anything about it.”
Trump Admin Guts Vital Sea Monitoring, "Tears Out the Eyes and Ears of Science": David Helvarg
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/6/10/david_helvarg_science_cuts_ocean_kelp
Trump Admin Guts Vital Sea Monitoring, “Tears Out the Eyes and Ears of Science”: David Helvarg
We’re joined by ocean policy expert David Helvarg to discuss the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Ocean Observatories Initiative, the “cutting-edge eyes [and] ears” of the ocean. The program’s closure, proposed in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 playbook for Trump’s second administration, involves the decommissioning of a vast network of ocean floor sensors that collect data on marine ecosystems, ocean currents and global climate data, protecting the world’s oceans and providing critical information about extreme weather. In their place is the increasingly unregulated expansion of resource extraction driven by the fossil fuel industry, “essentially developing the ocean for offshore oil drilling and mining — basically, as a gas station and a garbage dump.”
Helvarg, the author of Forest of the Sea: The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp, also discusses “the world’s other forest crisis”: the loss of over half of kelp forests to warming ocean temperatures, throwing coastal ecosystems deeply out of balance. “We have an ocean,” adds Helvarg. “It’s full of life. It’s at risk. And we need to better understand the other 71% of our blue marble planet to protect it — and not to let a few individuals and corporations destroy it.”
The Shocking Secrets of MSG's Surveillance Machine: Noah Schachtman on Knicks' Owner James Dolan
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/6/10/ny_knicks_james_dolan_msg_surveillance
The Shocking Secrets of MSG’s Surveillance Machine: Noah Shachtman on Knicks’ Owner James Dolan
James Dolan, the billionaire owner of New York City’s Madison Square Garden and its affiliated sports teams, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, is under fire after a bombshell investigation by Wired magazine revealed the inner workings of the arena’s extensive surveillance network. Dolan employs facial recognition technology to track and profile arena attendees. This reportedly included a trans woman who, according to a former security staffer, was targeted solely due to her gender identity, as well as lawyers who have been banned because their firms are involved in lawsuits against him. Dolan’s “spy machine” feeds information to Madison Square Garden’s sizable security forces, who operate beyond the arena itself, “acting as a kind of second ersatz police force in Midtown Manhattan,” explains Noah Shachtman, one of the authors of the Wired investigation. “It captures everyone, and some people get labeled as threats, even when they’re clearly not.” Dolan’s blacklist also extends to his other venues, including Radio City Music Hall, also in New York City, and Sphere, in Las Vegas. Even for those who never step foot in Madison Square Garden, Shachtman says, the system there “isn’t an outlier. It’s a model.”
Report from Tehran: Amid More U.S./Iran Bombing, Trump Warns Iran Is "DEAD...Will Pay the Price"
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/6/10/mohammad_eslami_iran_us
Report from Tehran: Amid More U.S./Iran Bombing, Trump Warns Iran Is ”DEAD…Will Pay the Price”
After the downing of an Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz, the United States and Iran have begun trading missile and drone strikes in the most serious escalation of hostilities since the April ceasefire agreement. President Trump posted on social media Wednesday morning that Iran has taken “too long to negotiate a deal” and would now have to “pay the price!!!” For more, we speak to Mohammad Eslami at Tehran University, who says Trump’s “lies and broken promises” have shattered Iranians’ trust in a diplomatic solution. “Every night, there are lots of peoples chanting all around the street against Trump. And also, … unfortunately, many of them are chanting against negotiation with Donald Trump,” he says. “Right now they are asking the Iranian [forces] to retaliate.”
Headlines for June 10, 2026
Trump Says Iran Is Taking Too Long to Negotiate a Ceasefire Deal and Will Now Have to “Pay the Price”; Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 13 People in Southern Lebanon; U.N. Report: Armed Groups in Gaza Have Beaten, Maimed and Executed Dozens of Palestinians; Kenyan Police Forces Fatally Shoot a Man During Protest Against U.S. Ebola Facility; World Cup Referee from Somalia Returns Home After U.S. Denies Him Entry; Anti-Immigration Riots Roil Belfast as Firefighters Escort Immigrant Families from Their Homes; Federal Judge Permanently Blocks Alabama from Executing Inmate by Nitrogen Gas; House GOP Approves $70 Billion to Fund Trump’s Immigration Crackdown; AP: Trump Admin Separated Dozens of Immigrant Children from Their Parents for a Second Time; Epstein’s Former Assistant Groff Testifies Before House Oversight Committee; Trump Family Promotes Commemorative Coins for White House UFC Fight; Progressive Candidate Platner Overwhelmingly Wins Maine’s Democratic Primary for Senate; GOP Congressmember Nancy Mace Loses GOP Primary for Governor of South Carolina; Republican Steve Hilton Advances to General Election in California’s Gubernatorial Race
Why New Yorkers "Thunderously Booed" Trump at Knicks-Spurs Game: Sportswriter David Zirin
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/6/9/dave_zirin_trump_sports_fifa_ufc
Why New Yorkers “Thunderously Booed” Trump at Knicks-Spurs Game: Sportswriter David Zirin
President Trump on Monday attended the third game of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The San Antonio Spurs beat the New York Knicks, who hadn’t lost a game since late April. The crowd booed when Trump was shown on the jumbotron.
“This was supposed to be a day about the Knicks. It was supposed to be a celebration of New York,” says Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation and host of the Edge of Sports podcast. “And instead it was about one authoritarian, malignant narcissist.”
Anticipation for the FIFA World Cup is “joyless,” adds Zirin. “This is the first time that travel warnings are being issued to fans coming here. Even warnings are being issued to people who live in the United States by immigration groups because of the threats of ICE being at the stadiums.”
"Tech-Driven Prosperity & Right-Wing Racist Politics": Quinn Slobodian on Elon Musk and SpaceX IPO
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/6/9/quinn_slobodian_spacex_ipo_muskism
“Tech-Driven Prosperity & Right-Wing Racist Politics”: Quinn Slobodian on Elon Musk and SpaceX IPO
Ahead of the initial public offering for SpaceX, we speak with historian Quinn Slobodian, author of Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. He says Elon Musk is “creating a situation where he becomes deeply reliant on state contracts” as the U.S. government then becomes reliant on Musk. “It’s not about demolishing the government,” Slobodian says of his work with DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency that Musk led for the Trump administration. “It’s about making the government more compatible, ready for the kind of products that Musk offers, and to make him then an indispensable part of the infrastructure.” Slobodian goes on to warn that Musk’s wealth is helping to fuel his anti-immigrant, racist political ideology. “We really should be worried about the possibility of those things to live together: tech-driven prosperity and radical right-wing racist politics.”
Headlines for June 09, 2026
Trump Again Claims He’s Nearing a Deal with Iran, as Tehran Says U.S. and Israel Broke Ceasefire; Israel Bombs Lebanese City of Tyre After Ordering All Residents to Flee; Israeli Strike on Gaza Refugee Camp Kills 8-Year-Old Palestinian Leaving School; Nigeria’s Military Says It Has Freed 360 People Abducted by Boko Haram; Progressive L.A. Councilmember Nithya Raman Advances to November Runoff Against Incumbent Mayor Bass; Trump Formally Nominates Former Personal Lawyer Todd Blanche as Attorney General; Immigrant from Republic of Georgia Dies in Louisiana ICE Jail; New Jersey Gov. Sherrill Says ICE Strictly Limited Her Inspection of Delaney Hall; Trump’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan Threatens Surge of Immigration Agents to New York; NYC Mayor Mamdani Pushes Back Against Border Czar Homan’s Threats; Federal Judge Rules Against Trump’s $100,000 Annual Fee on H-1B Visa Applications; Trump Loudly Booed During Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden
"The Word 'Ceasefire' Has Lost Its Meaning": Lylla Younes on Israel's Ethnic Cleansing of South Lebanon
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/6/9/lylla_younes_israel_lebanon_iran_war
“The Word 'Ceasefire' Has Lost Its Meaning”: Lylla Younes on Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of South Lebanon
Israel is continuing to carry out attacks on Lebanon amid ongoing talks between the U.S. and Iran to end the war. Iran is maintaining its demand that Lebanon be included in a ceasefire deal. Lylla Younes, an investigative journalist based in Beirut, says President Trump’s claims that he wants peace with Iran are “absurd” because the United States continues to support “Israel’s aggression in southern Lebanon.” She argues that “an angry phone call between Netanyahu and Donald Trump is ultimately meaningless” as long as Israel is granted “impunity and arms.” Younes also talks about reporting she did for Drop Site News on the ethnic cleansing in Ain Arab, a village in southern Lebanon.
SpaceX IPO Could Make Musk a Trillionaire at Your Expense in "Massive Wealth Transfer": Eric Gardner
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/6/9/elon_musk_spacex_ipo
SpaceX IPO Could Make Musk a Trillionaire at Your Expense in “Massive Wealth Transfer”: Eric Gardner
Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX is set to go public this week targeting a $1.8 trillion valuation, potentially making it the largest initial public offering in history. It is also projected to make Elon Musk, already the world’s richest man, the world’s first trillionaire.
The nonprofit newsroom More Perfect Union has released a new report from business reporter Eric Gardner called “We Uncovered a Hidden Wealth Transfer in the SpaceX IPO. You’re Holding the Bag.” It details how Musk convinced Nasdaq to forgo the usual waiting period to include SpaceX in its index fund, potentially exposing retirement savers to what many professional investors believe will be an overinflated stock price. While Musk and early investors are positioned to see their wealth skyrocket, the SpaceX IPO could hurt these regular investors, says Gardner. “He has essentially financially engineered the IPO as a massive wealth transfer from everyday investors to insiders,” Gardner says of Musk.
