Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-07-24 Thursday

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

Headlines for July 24, 2025; “Wasting Away” in Gaza: Oxfam, 100+ Groups Decry Israel’s “Man-Made” Mass Starvation of Palestinians; “One Meal Every Three Days”: Journalist & Aid Worker Back from Gaza on Stark Reality on the Ground; “Duty to Repair”: Vanuatu Climate Minister on World Court Ruling Countries Must Address Climate

From New York, this is Democracy Now! The 2.1 million people trapped in the war zone, that is Gaza, are facing yet another killer on top of bombs and bullets. Starvation. The large proportion of a population of Gaza is starving. I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation. And it's manmade. Man-made mass starvation. The World Health Organization and more than 100 humanitarian groups are sounding the alarm for Gaza. Will the world act? We'll go to Aqsfam in Gaza City for the latest.

Then countries have a legal duty to limit emissions and high emitters may be liable for reparations. That's the ruling from the International Court of Justice. We'll speak with the Minister of Climate Change from the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu that brought the case to the court. For the first time in history, the ICJ has spoken directly about the biggest threat facing humanity,

which is climate change. And I want to note that the decision was unanimous. So let this be the moment when we see a change and the world turns its face towards climate justice. And this legal clarity provides us with the moral courage to take this forward. All that and more coming up. courage to take this forward. All that and more coming up.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The World Health Organization's warning Gaza is suffering from man-made mass starvation caused by Israel's blockade. The WHO's director general, Tedros Adnan Ghebreyesus, spoke Wednesday. As you know, mass starvation means starvation of a large proportion of a population. And a large proportion of a population of Gaza is starving. I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation.

And it's manmade. And that's very clear. And this is because of blockade. And I have said it in my statement, more than 80 days of blockade straight. And then, of course, there is opening now. But it's not enough. It's just a trickle. And people are starving.

Health officials in Gaza say at least 113 Palestinians have starved to death, including 45 over the past four days. Gaza officials say half a million bags of flour are needed each week to, quote, avoid a comprehensive humanitarian collapse, unquote. Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, in Oxfam issued a statement saying their staff and the people they serve in Gaza are, quote, wasting away. The BBC, Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France have called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza.

In a statement, the news outlet said, quote, we are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. For many months, these independent journalists have been the world's eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering," unquote. Doctors and medical staff in Gaza told The Guardian that the lack of food has left them weak and depleted their physical health, making it difficult to provide urgent medical care for their suffering patients.

In Khan Yunus, one mother, Najah Babak, talked about the plight of her malnourished daughter. NADJA BAGH, MOTHER, KHAN UNUS Since I delivered her, she has been small, and she doesn't grow up. Her condition gets worse in the hospital, and every time I go home, I find her becoming more and more weak. Her nerves are weak, and she doesn't sit properly. Babies like her, in her age of 11 months, should sit up straight. She should be 11 or 10 kilograms minimum.

My daughter can't sit straight or play with her siblings. She stays lying on her back. And that's all." Israel's Knesset has overwhelmingly approved a nonbinding motion to annex the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Authority condemned the move. This is Ahad Al-Diq, the political adviser of the Palestinian minister for foreign affairs. The Israeli government is waging a daily war against the possibility of establishing a

Palestinian state. For us, this is another face of what is happening in the Gaza Strip, a war of extermination and displacement. The vote came as Israeli troops raided multiple areas across the West Bank. Israeli forces killed two Palestinian teenagers and arrested at least 25 people. The International Court of Justice ruled Wednesday states have an obligation to cut greenhouse gas emissions to protect Earth's climate and that failing to do so may be a violation of international law.

The court also found that a healthy and sustainable environment is a precondition for the enjoyment of rights enshrined in human rights treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Climate campaigners welcomed Wednesday's ruling as an historic victory. This is Vishal Prashad, an organizer with the group Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change. VISHAL PRASHAD, Organizer, Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change For small island states, communities in the Pacific, and for young people and for future generations, this opinion is a lifeline

and an opportunity to protect all that we hold dear and all that we love. This ruling is also a testament to the resolve of people everywhere, those at the front lines who chose not to allow the decisions of a minority of countries to dictate the future of the global majority. Instead, this adviser opinion today provides us a foundation to build a better, sustainable and more equitable future for all of us. We'll have more on the world court's historic ruling later in the broadcast. The Trump administration drafted a plan to strip the Environmental Protection Agency

of the power to combat the climate crisis. The draft EPA rule change rescinds a 2009 declaration known as the endangerment finding that allows the EPA to regulate dangerous greenhouse gas pollution under the Clean Air Act. The Wall Street Journal revealed the Justice Department informed President Trump back in May that his name appears several times in documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the dead serial sex trafficker who was a longtime friend of Trump's. The news broke as Trump faces mounting pressure from both Republicans and Democrats to disclose

more information on Epstein. On Wednesday, a House Oversight Committee panel voted to subpoena the Justice Department for the Epstein files. Three Republicans voted alongside five Democrats. The committee also voted to subpoena Epstein's former associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who's serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse girls. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is reportedly meeting with Maxwell today in prison. He is the former private attorney for President Trump.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Florida denied a Trump administration request to unseal grand jury transcripts from a probe into Epstein. Columbia University has agreed to pay more than $200 million in settlement to the Trump administration, which accused the university of failing to protect Jewish students during campus protests against Israel's assault on Gaza. Columbia will also pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by agreeing to end the consideration of race in admissions and hiring.

The settlements will restore hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of canceled or frozen grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services. As part of the deal, Colombia commits to appointing a senior provost to oversee the Middle Eastern Studies Department, will further crack down on campus protests, and will appoint three dozen new security officers with arrest powers. The settlement was announced a day after Colombia informed nearly 80 students they'd been suspended for one to three years or expelled for participating in campus antiwar protests. On Tuesday, one of the suspended students spoke to Democracy Now!

They requested anonymity out of fear of doxing and further retaliation. While the sanctions came suddenly, the results were frankly not a surprise. After nearly two years of organizing under a fascist university, wholly supporting and funding the genocide of the Palestinian people, we are really under no illusions about Columbia's intentions or function as a killing machine in Harlem and Palestine. There is no honor in being part of Columbia's genocidal mission, and I am not and will not ever be ashamed for being suspended for protesting for the liberation of Palestine and the liberation of us all.

Meanwhile, The Guardian reports the Harvard Educational Review abruptly canceled a planned special issue on Palestine in June, shocking authors and editors alike, who accused the journal's publisher of making a Palestine exception to academic freedom. Its cancellation came after the Trump administration froze over $2 billion in federal grants to Harvard, banned it from enrolling international students and asked for its accreditation to be revoked after claiming Harvard is a, quote, willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty and staff," unquote. The Trump administration has launched an investigation into five universities for providing scholarships

to undocumented immigrants enrolled in the Obama-era DACA program. The probe by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights accuses the universities of granting, quote, exclusionary scholarships referencing foreign-born students, unquote. It targets the University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska-Omaha, the University of Miami, the University of Michigan and Western Michigan University. The announcement came soon after the State Department said it was also investigating Harvard University's eligibility to sponsor international students and researchers.

A federal appeals court in California has ruled President Trump's attempts to end birthright citizenship are unconstitutional, bringing the case closer to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the majority opinion, two judges on the Ninth Circuit wrote Trump's executive order, quote, contradicts the plain language of the 14th Amendment's grant of citizenship to all persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof," unquote. Venezuela's announced plans to investigate several Salvadoran officials, including Salvadoran President Naib Bukele, over the mistreatment of 252 Venezuelans who were jailed in El Salvador's Secat prison

after being expelled from the United States. The Venezuelan men reported they were beaten, sexually assaulted and tortured. On Wednesday, one of the men, Andre Hernandez, a gay makeup artist, spoke out after being reunited with his family in Venezuela after a prisoner swap. On May 23, 2024, I left my house with a suitcase full of dreams, with dreams of helping my people, of helping my family. Unfortunately, that suitcase of dreams turned into a suitcase of nightmares, a nightmare that I thought would never end. But today I can say that the torture and that the nightmare are over, and I am happy again."

A federal judge in Tennessee ruled Wednesday Kilmar Abrego-Garcia should be freed from criminal detention while awaiting trial on what advocates say are trumped-up federal human smuggling charges. However, Abrego-Garcia will remain behind bars for at least 30 more days at the request of his lawyers, who fear the Trump administration might seek to quickly remove him from the United States once he's released. Separately, a federal judge ordered Abrego Garcia should be returned to his home state of Maryland, where he would be granted at least three days' advance notice of any attempt to deport him again.

The Trump administration has admitted it wrongfully sent him to El Salvador's notorious Secaut Prison in March, where his attorneys say he was brutally beaten and tortured. In other immigration news, the Trump administration is planning to spend over $1.2 billion to build a massive 5,000-bed immigration jail at the Fort Bliss Army Base in Texas. The tent facility would be the largest immigration facility in the United States. At least 12 people, including two children, have been killed in clashes along the border, separating Thailand from Cambodia. In response, Thailand closed border crossings and relocated 40,000 civilians, while Cambodia

downgraded its ties with Thailand. The Thai-Cambodia border has been disputed for more than a century, resulting from France's colonization of the region. The U.S. State Department is working up plans to shut down PEPFAR. That's the federal program to combat HIV in the global South. The New York Times obtained planning documents showing the State Department wants to transition countries away from U.S. assistance, in some cases within two years. PEPFAR is often cited as one of the most effective public health campaigns in history, saving

about 26 million lives over two decades after it was created by Republican President George W. Bush. President Trump has signed a series of executive orders deregulating the artificial intelligence industry while also requiring companies develop models free of, quote, ideological dogmas such as DEI. Before signing the orders, Trump decried the, quote, woke Marxist lunacy in the AI models, unquote. The ACLU blasted the executive orders, writing, quote, President Trump's attempt to restrict state AI regulations are not only harmful,

it raises serious legal questions as the president is acting beyond any statute passed by Congress, unquote. And the Supreme Court has given President Trump the green light to fire three Biden-appointed members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The independent federal agency establishes safety standards for products such as toys and cribs for children. In a 6-3 vote, the justices granted the Trump administration's request to block a lower court order, which would have allowed the three Democrats to remain on the commission. And those are some of the headlines.

This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. And I'm Nermeen Shaikh. Welcome to our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. We begin today's show in Gaza, where health officials have reported two more deaths, quote, due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours. They say at least 113 Palestinians have starved to death. The World Health Organization is warning Gaza

is suffering from man-made mass starvation caused by Israel's blockade. The WHO's director, General Tedros Ghebreyesus, spoke on Wednesday. As you know, mass starvation means starvation of a large proportion of a population. And a large proportion of a population of Gaza is starving. I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation. And it's manmade. And that's very clear. And this is because of blockade. And I have said it in my statement,

more than 80 days of blockade straight. And then, of course, there is opening now. But it's not enough. It's just a trickle. And people are starving. At this point, Gaza officials say 500,000 bags of flour are needed each week to to quote, avoid a comprehensive humanitarian collapse.

Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and Oxfam, along with over 100 other aid agencies issued a statement saying their staff and the people they serve in Gaza were quote, wasting away. Doctors and medical staff in Gaza told The Guardian that the lack of food has left them too weak and depleted their physical health, making it difficult to provide urgent medical care for their suffering patients. In Khan Yunus, one mother, Najah Barbach, talked about the plight of her malnourished daughter.

Since I delivered her, she has been small and she doesn't grow up. Her condition gets worse in the hospital and every time I go home I find her becoming more and more weak. Her nerves are weak and she doesn't sit properly. Babies like her and her age of 11 months should sit up straight. She should be 11 or 10 kilograms minimum. My daughter can't sit straight or play with her siblings. She stays lying on her back.

And that's all." This comes as Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited soldiers in Gaza on Wednesday to show support and said intensive negotiations for a ceasefire are under way. We owe you our thanks. You are holding the line for us here, I would say for an entire country. A small number of people are carrying this immense, tremendous campaign. For more, we go to Gaza City, where we're joined by Mahmoud Ossaka, Oxfam's emergency food security and livelihoods lead in Gaza.

Welcome to Democracy Now! You are right there in Gaza City. Can you describe what's happening on the ground? The U.N.'s World Food Program said earlier this week nearly a third of Gaza's population was not eating for several days at a time. Yeah. Thank you, dear, for having me again in this show. In fact, it's become not easy even for us to describe the situation on the ground

that we are all living. We are seeing this starvation is widespread nowadays and increasingly widespread, and we are seeing this starvation is widespread nowadays and increasingly widespread. And we are seeing that the human death become an absolute. And we are seeing that more than 100 people have lost their lives until now because of that. Unfortunately, this happening in front of all the world, while the world, all the world are watching this heartbreaking and without having a concrete action. And this is really harmful and also confused us as a people who are living here and working there. And how all this happening in front of the world and without having concrete actions. We were in the bus, we are saying that the vulnerable groups

in the Gaza are treated by malnutrition and starvation. But nowadays we are talking about the whole populations are suffering from starvation and also diseases. We have just released a report that showed a lot of people and how the dozen people are facing multiple kinds of disease, mainly waterborne diseases. And this kind of diseases could be preventable and treated easily if we have our supplies and the medical supplies in. This is the situation on the ground, to be honest, is unbearable. And it's not easy even for us to describe what's happening and what is astonishing us

and also confusing us again. How is all this happening without having real and concrete actions? We are in 2025 and we are seeing the scenes on the TV shows that people are starving to death on a daily basis. And we are expecting the worst is coming. And we still lacking this concrete actions and decisive action from the people who have this pressure on Israel in that regard.

It's shameful that Israel has been allowed to besiege Gaza all this period of time, even before the last five months. So that's the reality on the ground. Mahmoud, as you pointed out, now everyone working in Gaza is impacted, including medical personnel, journalists, and, of course course people working at Oxfam and other aid agencies operating in Gaza. There are reports of medical staff fainting in operating rooms during surgeries. There have been statements, your statement, the Oxfam statement that was issued along

with over 100 other aid agencies has said that with supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organizations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes. One agency representative quoted in the letter says in the statement, each morning the same question echoes around Gaza Will I eat today? So Mahmood if you could talk about your own experience the experience of your colleagues at Oxfam and their families To be honest in that situation we are seeing

ourselves and our colleagues in a daily basis becoming more weak and weak. And we, to be honest, we are more, let's say, privileged that we still have our work in that regard. But as you already mentioned, we have a depleted market. Even if you have money, it's not easy for you to find something to eat. So this is the question is and the uncertainty in a daily basis for each of the people hearing us about are they are going to eat today or not. And it's become frustrating and become really harmful for us, even we are supposed to help the people. And we have, you know, it's compounded even, you can imagine for us, we are facing and enduring that right now. You can imagine the vulnerable groups,

who are, what they are facing right now. It's compounded suffering for them. We are talking about the elderly people, the women and the children in that regard. So this is the issue and the issue that we have released this joint statement that we have our supplies outside Gaza. We have thousands of tons of supplies that could resolve this issue but we are not allowed even to get it in and to support the people and to fulfill our mandate in supporting the people who are in the desperate need. And in the same times, we are seeing massacres on a daily basis at the distribution point

for this military militarized mechanisms and the people are losing their lives. More than 1000 people are losing their lives in this distribution points. And other thousands of people have been their lives in this distribution points, and other thousands of people have been injured in that regard. The solution is clear and straightforward. If we are allowed to work as we used to work, even during the war, in supporting the people and supporting ourselves and our colleagues in maintaining our daily lives. I think they are at least needs this opportunity to rebuild and to recover from all this what's

happening. And this is possible in case of releasing all this shameful and illegal beseech and blockade. Have you lost weight, Mahmoud? Sorry? Have you lost weight? Yeah, myself, I think at least I have lost about 12 to 15 kilograms during the last at least five months. You know, I'm even in a better case than many other people in our community, that we are observing and dealing with on a daily

basis. The situation is more worse than the words that I'm describing the situation in. I wanted to continue reading from that letter of the 100 humanitarian groups that Nermeen started. The statement also quotes an aid worker providing psychosocial support who said, quote, "'Children tell their parents they want to go to heaven because at least heaven has food.' And the letter ends, states can and must save lives before there are none left to save."

You can imagine how much pressure such words could drop on their parents in that regard. And unfortunately, we have just seen some of the posts in the social media. You can imagine what the parents are writing on the social media. And they are thanking God for the loss of their children who have been killed in a certain time of the war because of the bombardment or the invasion. They are thanking God that they have lost their children to not reach this stage while their children are asking them to feed them and they didn't have any capacity and any ways to just fulfill the needs of their children.

So this is beyond description and even unimaginable, to be honest. You know, a recent Mahmoud and Oxfam article talked also about the shortage of fuel, that Israeli authorities have denied humanitarian workers the permission to collect fuel stored in a U.N. warehouse inside Gaza. What's been the impact of that? You know, it's directly impacting our two very critical sectors. We are talking about the water and sanitation and the pumping of the water, and also the health facilities and the health centers.

And on a daily basis there are a lot of statements about the dramatic situation of our health care centers. And this is why we are seeing now the spread of the diseases that is's linked to the waterborne diseases and you are talking about increase in percentages increasing 100 percent 200 percent 300 percent such as then in a water area or the blood area and other diseases that could be prevented in the same issue with the health facilities and this is risking the lives of the people inside these facilities because of this lack of fuel. So it's all linked together with the complications that without having concrete action in that regard,

this will continue. And unfortunately, every day without having this ceasefire, more deaths are happening and more people are losing their lives. So it's not about days or months. We are talking on a daily basis. We have people losing their lives because of diseases and starvation. So I think there is no much needed action than now. So, Mahmoud, just before we end, if you could say, what do you think the prospects of a needed action than now. NERMEEN SHAIKH AL-ALI KHAN, HOST, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM

AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL-ALI, MAKSIM AL And then Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, Middle East envoy, is now meeting with Israeli and Qatari officials to work towards a ceasefire. What's your sense? Before my sense, you cannot imagine how the people here in Gaza are approaching such details.

And unfortunately, they have been disappointed many times because of not reaching such a ceasefire. We are aiming that this time it could happen because the people are really exhausted. We are really exhausted and we become unable to bear the situations longer. And there is a life that is counted on a daily basis and lost. So all the people here in Gaza are aiming and willing and also looking for the time of such a ceasefire could be announced so they can at least to finally begin to breathe again, to recover and to rebuild and to have this entry complete. And the people even looking for this

permanent ceasefire nowadays and not just a pause because they are looking for this permanent ceasefire nowadays, and not just a boss, because they are looking for full, complete ceasefire, where they can get all the supplies in and they can, as I said, they can at least recover and breathe again. Mahmoud, we want to thank you for being with us. Mahmoud El-Sakha is Oxfam's emergency food security and livelihoods lead speaking to us from Gaza City. Next up, we go to journalist Afif Nasuli, just back from reporting in Gaza for seven weeks while he volunteered as an aid worker for a medical, and reported in his off hours documenting how many community

kitchens have no more food. Stay with us. And now I see the wind blowing from northwest wind And I hear those honkers again on their rounding quest over Lord's Valley I roll like a ball And in the wind I hear them call While goose, loose goose, I count them all. Yonder stepping that old light-walking wolf. Wild Geese's by the late folk singer Michael Hurley, performing in our Democracy Now! studio. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh. The BBC, Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse have called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. In a statement, the news outlet said, quote, we're desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. Well, our next guest, who joins us in our New York studio, was reporting in Gaza for seven weeks during his off hours, as he also volunteered as an aid worker for the medical nonprofit GLIA, which brings doctors, nurses and others into Gaza to support local healthcare

workers. Afif Nizouli is a journalist and host of With Afif Nizouli. He's reported from the occupied Palestinian territory since 2011. His most recent piece for The Intercept is headlined, Our Reporter Got Into Gaza. He Witnessed a Famine of Israel's Making, which he wrote with journalist and author Stephen Thrasher. We last spoke to Afif in January about their report headline, Surviving War and HIV, Queer HIV Positive and Running Out of Medication at Gaza.

Welcome back to Democracy Now! In June, when you left, you were in Derebla which was packed with many thousands of displaced people. Can you talk about what you saw in Gaza and talk especially about the community kitchens and hunger starvation people starving to death? Yeah first of all thank you so much for having me again. I went to Gaza because of that first report and I was there from March 27th to June 3rd. I even lost about 10 pounds to 12 pounds. Because we were having one meal a day, there was rice, there was lentils, and sometimes we would have an errant can of tuna that we had brought and hadn't passed out yet to people that were

starving. Hunger is something that I don't think any of us here can actually fathom. I think maybe many of us can in the United States, but most of us can't. And that feeling was seeing people begging all of the time, no matter where you're walking, if you have your NGO paraphernalia on people want to know if you have tain, flour. And I speak Arabic, and my colleagues were mostly Hazawi. And we would just really appeal to them and say, we really don't have flour, actually.

We're also really hungry. Many of us would just have one meal a day. Now I'm speaking to my colleagues who are having one meal every three days often. I worked at a group. And you're talking about more than a month ago. Yeah, this is more than a month ago. The blockade started March 2nd, I got in March 27th. By then almost people were already rationing food. We were really, really overly

thinking about what was available and what would suddenly go away if we did too much, if we ate too much. I also volunteered at Chez Bébreze, which is a community kitchen. It was in it's sort of in collaboration with GLIA, so a lot of us kind of do both. And at the start of this genocide there were about 170 community kitchens, 250,000 meals per day were being served. About 45% of the population was being served. By the time I was leaving, Chabay Braza at least went from 250,000 meals a day to 25,000 and now they're not operating really at all.

I think that they're operating when they can, when some farmer or someone has potatoes. The last time I was there on June 1st, they had a bunch of potatoes and they were passing them out and preparing them, but that's what they had, they had potatoes. So it has been an incredibly awful experience to see people sort of become sicker and sicker from hunger. I even

had an experience where I was sick because I just sort of had beats one day and I don't know maybe I had some virus and together I couldn't sort of hack it and I became quite sick for about two or three days. So it's pervasive. If you're a patient, you need protein to heal. I mean, so if you have an explosive injury and any injury that isn't about malnutrition, malnutrition makes it way worse. And people now are going to the hospital because they're malnourished. People are fainting regularly.

I'm getting voice notes all the time from people who are just in hunger pain, which is hard to hear. And explain the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, so many people being killed while they're trying to access aid. What's going on there? Were you in the vicinity of any of those aid sites while you were there? Yeah, so they were announced on May 19th, on May 26th or 27th, I believe it was the 26th, was the first aid distribution. It was a disaster.

I remember Al-Qarara and Khan Yunus were really loud that day. The GHF has been basically the new sort of brainchild of the Israelis and the Americans. They kind of fight over who even created the idea. But ultimately, there were 400 aid sites around Gaza by the UN back system, and it's been replaced by now just four. For a while it was three. And many of them don't always operate. Sometimes it's security reasons, sometimes it's maintenance.

They have a Facebook page people check. From my reporting and my experience, people are shot at, very regularly shot at. Doctors mentioned that the bullet holes seem targeted, like snipers, because they're in certain spots in the back of the head. There's people who are just simply trying to find food for their families, and they go in the middle of the night to start lining up.

And this is for parcels that are about $1. 30 cents in all, like medical supplies, you know, a food parcel. But all of it together is just a dollar 30. And the experience from what I understand and what I experienced there, but it's also been more developed since I've left, is that there's thousands of people just disorganized, just hoping to find something. And when you get something, it's also pitting you against all of your neighbors, all of your family, because you're the one who somehow picked up this bag of flour. And now you have to somehow justify

that everyone around you doesn't get to have that flour, just you. So a lot of people are getting into tension and fights with each other. So it's just an incredibly chaotic, awful, basically, supplantation of what was there before, which was working, albeit it had its own flaws. It was working. And you went in as a medical worker.

You went in with a medical aid group and then wrote about your experience. Yeah. So I went in with GLIA. I think that it's really important to realize that right now Palestinian journalists are suffering because of malnourishment, but for the last year and a half, two years, they've been on the front lines. I don't think that they necessarily needed me to go in as a journalist. What they needed was someone to help on the ground, which is what I did. And as part of GLIA, I also documented, did a lot of interviews with

doctors and nurses and sort of gleaned this information in retrospect and have a lot of sources there still, and will hopefully go back. Afif Nuzuli, I want to thank you for being with us. Just recently, back from Gaza, we'll link to your piece in The Intercept. Coming up next, countries have a legal duty to limit emissions, and high emitters may be liable for reparations, the ruling of the International Court of Justice. We'll go to the minister of climate change from the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu

that brought the case to the court. Stay with us. Take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take and take Can you name me a living creature that kills its competitors for food? And when they're gone he kills the competitors of its foods, food too I'm talking about the birds, the aphids, the insects, and the trees Cause there's innumerable extinct species among these We've been enacting this story for 12,000 years The one that says that man must follow no natural law The one that says that man is distinctly separate from every living thing.

That man is the end result of evolution. The Taker story by Chicano Batman, performing in our Democracy Now! studio. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh. On Wednesday, the highest court of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, released a historic ruling on climate change. In a unanimous decision from a panel of 15 judges, the court says high-emitting countries

do have legal obligations under international law to lower emissions, and that failing to do so could pave the way for reparations from the most impacted countries. This is the president of the court, Yuji Iwasawa. The court notes that the consequences of climate change are severe and far-reaching. They affect both natural ecosystems and human populations. These consequences underscore the urgent and existential threat posed by climate change. The ruling is non-binding but does carry legal and political weight. This comes at the same time as the largest historical emitter, the United States, is unwinding efforts to curb

climate change. As we reported in headlines today, the United States, is unwinding efforts to curb climate change. As we reported in headlines today, the Trump administration is currently moving to strip the EPA of its ability to regulate greenhouse gases. The years-long path to this legal victory in the ICJ began with students. In 2019, a group of law students at the University of the South Pacific sent a letter to the Foreign Minister of the island nation of Vanuatu. The students said they wanted to bring the question of climate justice to the ICJ and would Vanuatu help? The answer was yes.

This is Vishal Prasad with the Pacific Island students fighting for climate justice, speaking on Wednesday after the decision. For small island states, communities in the Pacific and for young people and for future generations this opinion is a lifeline and an opportunity to protect all that we hold dear and all that we love. This ruling is also a testament to the resolve of people everywhere. Those at the front lines who chose not to allow the decisions of a minority of countries to dictate the future of the global majority. Instead, this advisory opinion today provides us a foundation to build a better, sustainable

and more equitable future for all of us. The Vanuatu official who answered the students' call back in 2019 is Ralph Friggin Vanu. He is now the minister of climate change for Vanuatu and has led the effort to bring the case to the high court, the International Court of Justice, joining us today from The Hague. Welcome to Democracy Now!, minister. It is quite amazing what you've accomplished. Talk about the significance of the ICJ ruling. Well, thank you for having me on the program.

The ICJ advisory opinion is significant, because, as of yesterday, countries can no longer argue that their nationally determined contributions under the UNFCCC, which is the way we ratchet up ambition or action on climate change, are purely voluntary. And that's been the argument we've been facing as small island states, at the COPs, going against these high emitting states who have pledged that they will reduce their greenhouse gas emissions which are causing the climate harm we're experiencing. But then we see very little action taken and the argument always is, well, it's voluntary action that we need to take. Well, that excuse has been eliminated as of yesterday because the ICJ said no it's actually a legally binding

obligation under international law and if you don't do it it's an international wrongful act that there are consequences for breaching and so this will help us a lot in our arguments especially at the next COP we're moving towards we will be able to go straight to the table and say well you can't talk about it being voluntary anymore. Now you've got to really show. And the ICJ advisory opinion also said, you have to ratchet up ambition. You have to cease harmful activity. You have to make pledges that you will not repeat harmful activity.

And you also have to restitute those countries and communities that have been most badly affected by climate change, loss and damage they've experienced, or they've experienced or they've experienced having to move away from their homes. These are things which under international law there are legal consequences and legal obligations and there's a duty to repair harm done. And Vanuatu, Minister Regan Vanuatu, Vanuatu is considered the country most vulnerable

to extreme weather globally. You've said that you were actually surprised by the decision, the fact that it was unanimous. If you could elaborate on what you think, first of all, tell us what the impact has been of climate change on Vanuatu and what surprised you about this decision? Well in Vanuatu we're seeing like everywhere in the world increasing frequency and intensity of these extreme weather events particularly Vanuatu's tropical cyclones we're seeing category five now just consistently which is the highest possible category you can have of a cyclone. I think the World Meteorological Organization is now

having to create new categories because they're getting so intense. We're seeing that, we're seeing sea level rise, we're seeing slow onset effects like increasing intrusion of saltwater into the freshwater lens which is critical to life on islands. We're seeing large areas being made uninhabitable. We're seeing real loss and damage like graveyards, cemeteries being washed into the sea all over the Pacific. People having to move away from where they've always lived for generations. And these are, you know, this is suffering that's happening as a result of climate change. And as the science has shown, this climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions

coming from the high emitting states on the other side of the world. So countries in the Pacific, communities in the Pacific are suffering from something which they did not cause and is being caused by other countries, is being caused by private actors that are being regulated by states in the West. And this is something the advisory opinion made very clear, that if countries like the US provide licenses and give subsidies to fossil fuel companies, which are private actors within their jurisdiction,

this is an internationally wrongful act and they need to cease doing it. So what I was surprised about, I didn't expect a unanimous opinion. You know, the ICJ is always dealing with contentious cases, and usually there's not a unanimous opinion. There's some judges taking one side and some taking the other side. In this case, there's 15 judges from all over the world.

There's a judge from the US, there's a judge from Australia, there's a judge from Morocco, you know, Japan, a wide range of countries from all over the world. But for all of them, unanimously, a wide range of countries from all over the world. But for all of them unanimously, and they stressed unanimously, to agree that there are the highest level of legal obligations for states, that there are breaches that give rise to causes for reparations. This was above and beyond what we were expecting.

But the fact that it's unanimous makes it such a strong opinion, which can be used in all courts all over the world, and it can be used in negotiations like COP, which we are about to go into. And so, Minister, you mentioned the potential impact of this opinion in the United States. Of course, Trump has withdrawn from the Paris agreement, an agreement which incidentally does not even mention fossil fuels. When he was asked about the decision, when his administration was, a White House spokesperson told the BBC, quote, as always, President Trump and the entire administration is committed

to putting America first and prioritizing the interests of everyday Americans. So your response to that and whether you think it will be national courts within the U.S. that will take the most action on climate change as a result of this ruling? So this opinion from the ICJ was requested by the United Nations General Assembly. The request was unanimous. All countries agreed to this request being made, including the US, which is a member of the United Nations. And the ruling, the advisory opinion that was handed down said international law creates these obligations for states, not just the Paris Agreement not just the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change member states of these are bound by these

but all states, regardless of whether they're member of the Paris Agreement or not are subject to international law which the ICJ has just defined as creating these legal obligations for states to reduce harm to the environment, to stop greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change. My response to Trump's statement or the Trump administration's statement that we want to put America first, this is how we put America first. You see the climate disasters that are happening all over the world and now I understand extreme heat in the US. We have seen the last 10 years for the first time in history, the last 10 years

are each the hottest year ever and last year, 2024, was the hottest year ever and we are seeing for example in Washington DC a record number of weather warnings, flood warnings. We're seeing what just happened in Texas. I mean, the American people are being affected by climate change and more and more they will be subject to these disasters that we are already experiencing on the front line in the Pacific Islands. So it is in the best interests of the American people to make sure that their government stops this cause of global heating,

which is the fossil fuel industry. Science has shown us that. And starts this transition, which America is well on the way to, towards a renewable energy basis, move away from fossil fuels, and start to invest in a secure future for the people of America, because the more we go down this fossil fuel pathway, the worse global heating we'll get, and the more disaster will be visiting upon the people of the U.S. We've been speaking with Rao Fergenvano, a minister of climate change from the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, that led the diplomatic effort to bring this case to the International Court of Justice. We want to thank you, minister, for being with us, speaking to us from The Hague. As we continue on this issue, this is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace

Report. I'm Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh. NERMEEN SHAIKH, INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE, UNHCR, 2020-2023 When the U.N. General Assembly called on the International Court of Justice in 2023 to provide an advisory legal opinion on climate change, they asked the court to address two questions. What are countries' obligations under international law to protect the climate? And what are the legal consequences for failing

to do so? This is ICJ President Judge Iwasawa speaking Wednesday. The breach by a state of any obligations identified in response to Question A constitutes an internationally obligations identified in response to Question A constitute an internationally wrongful act entailing the responsibility of that State. The responsible State is under a continuing duty to perform the obligation breached. The legal consequences resulting from the commission of an internationally wrongful act may include the obligations of a. cessation of the wrongful actions or omissions if they are continuing, b. providing assurances and guarantees of non-repetition of wrongful actions or omissions if circumstances are required, and c, full reparation to injured states in the form of restitution, compensation and satisfaction, provided that the general conditions of the state—of the law of

state responsibility are met. We're staying at The Hague. For more, we're joined by Sebastian Dyck, a senior attorney with the Center for International Environmental Law, known as Ciel, which means sky, which supported several countries and their arguments before the International Court of Justice. Thank you, Sebastian, for being with us. This is the biggest case that the U.N.'s highest judicial body, the International Court of Justice, has ever heard, with 100 nations giving oral arguments last December.

Can you talk about the significance of the 133-page ruling, a case brought by young people supported by the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, hardest hit by climate change. Absolutely. Thank you so much for paying close attention to this case. I think the significance we can find really, first, in the validation that actually even just a group of young people with a very clear commitment to justice and bold ideas can actually achieve major change that will actually have very significant impact in global climate policies.

So I think the recognition of the fact that the leadership of a few can help inspire such a tremendous achievement, I think is something that we can all draw inspiration from and we should draw hope from. And then you mentioned also the historic level of participation by states in these proceedings. And I think it really demonstrates the fact that actually all of the major states recognized the legitimacy, the credibility, the authority of the International Court of Justice in delivering this ruling. Even states like the United States, Saudi Arabia, other major emitters actually decided

to come and participate in those proceedings to try to shape the understanding of the judges in relation to the questions posed to them. So I think this really shows that every state is aware of the fact that these judgments will have very clear consequences in terms of future climate policy. If you could talk about where this ruling will apply, is it only to countries who recognize the ICJ's jurisdiction? Neither the U.S., which is the highest historical emitter, nor China, which is the highest present emitter, recognize compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice. So what effects will it have

in these two very significant countries? Yeah, that's a very good question. But the question of compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ is really relates to whether any other state can bring a claim against this the two states for instance that you have mentioned so that's a very technical question but it doesn't mean that the two states like United States China for instance haven't recognized the authority of a court when it comes to interpreting international law so yes the legal avenues to bring claims against China, against the United States, might be more limited

as compared to bringing legal claims against other states that have recognized this compulsory jurisdiction, but it does not mean that the law doesn't apply to these countries. And so when we think also of the power that this judgment will have in the context of bilateral relations or diplomatic negotiations, it will definitely also affect the standing of the legal and political arguments of China or the United States. The law that was interpreted yesterday is universal law that applies to all other countries.

And again, this is validated by the fact that even China and the United States actually came, had free opportunities to try to influence the thinking of the judges. And as we have seen yesterday, to a large extent, actually, the judges were quite explicit in rebuking some of the arguments that those major producers led forward in order to evade accountability. Well, Sebastien, finally, you have 30 seconds. The role of national courts, the BBC said lawyers could start bringing cases as early

as next week in national courts. Absolutely. This will unburden the plaintiffs, victims of climate harms, but also hopefully judges in being more responsive to the need to apply existing law in the context of climate harms but also hopefully judges in being more responsive to the need to apply existing law in the context of climate change. What we really need is to end an era of impunity and just to actually rely on existing legal principle to hold polluters accountable whether they are corporates or governmental. So tomorrow we expect, or like from today starting today, we expect a new era of climate

accountability. Sebastian Dyck, I want to thank you so much for being with us, senior attorney with the Center for International Environmental Law, known as Ciel, which supported countries and their arguments before the International Court of Justice. I'm Amy Goodman with Nermeen Shaikh.