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Noura Erakat, a Palestinian human rights attorney and professor at Rutgers University, says that when it comes to divesting from Israel, “democracy doesn’t matter” to Rutgers. She also says professors at the university have been asked not to teach about the conditions in Gaza.

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The Trump administration has indicted Raúl Castro, the former president of Cuba and brother of the late Fidel, on charges stemming from the 1996 shootdown of four pilots with Brothers to the Rescue, an anti-Castro organization formed by Cuban exiles with ties to the CIA.

Peter Kornbluh, a Cuba specialist at the National Security Archive, says that the indictment could provide justification for a possible future attempt to capture or assassinate the 94-year-old Castro, and warns that the U.S. may soon conduct an operation in Cuba similar to its seizure of Nicholás Maduro in Venezuela earlier this year.

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The Trump administration is advancing plans to resettle an additional 10,000 white South Africans in the United States as refugees. The U.S. has resettled just over 6,000 refugees between October and April — all except three were from South Africa. President 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.

"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." 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.

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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.

"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."

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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, 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! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.

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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! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.

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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 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.

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.

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Amnesty International’s 2025 report on the global use of the death penalty finds that executions have surged to their highest recorded number in over 40 years, driven largely by the expanded use of political executions in Iran to “create a climate of fear and intimidation in the society and deter dissent.”

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