Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-09-10 Wednesday

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

Democracy Now! Wednesday, September 10, 2025

From New York, this is democracy now. The Israeli attack that took place today on Qatari soil. We cannot call it anything other than state terrorism practiced by someone like Netanyahu. Global condemnation is mounting after Israel bombed Cutter's capital, Doha, attempting to take out senior Hamas leaders who had gathered to consider a U.S. proposal for a Gaza ceasefire. Hamas leadership survived the strike, but six other people were killed. We'll speak with Dropsite News co-founder Jeremy Scahill, whose latest piece is headlined the 100-word ceasefire. proposal Trump sent Hamas. Then here comes the sun, a last chance for the climate and a fresh chance for civilization. Climate activist and author Bill McKibben has a new book out as the Trump

administration grows increasingly hostile to renewable energy. We don't allow windmills and we don't want the solar panels. The planet's overheating and this is the darkest political moment of my life. But there is one big, good thing happening. That's all of a sudden the remarkable and explosive rise of clean energy around the world, such a big and good thing that it might take a bite out of both the climate and the authoritarianism crisis. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. Israel targeted senior Hamas leadership in Qatar yesterday launching a military strike on Doha.

Hamas says its top leaders there were considering a U.S. proposal for a Gaza ceasefire. Though they survived the strike, five lower-ranking members died in the attack. A Qatari security staffer was also killed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke after the strike. At noon today, I convened the heads of Israel's security organizations and authorized a surgical precision strike on the terrorist chiefs of Hamas. These are the same terrorists who planned, terrorist chiefs who planned, launched, and celebrated the horrific massacres of October 7th. Aynav Zangauer, the mother of the Israeli hostage, Matan Zangauer, condemned Netanyahu for the attack. on Qatar.

I am trembling with fear. I am trembling with fear. It could be that at this very moment, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has essentially sentenced my matant to death. Anyone who deliberately chooses to endanger my child's life is murdering him. Why does the Prime Minister insist on blowing up every small chance for a deal? Why? World leaders condemned Israel's strike on Qatar. including France, Germany, Britain, and the European Union. Germany's chancellor called Israel's attack on Doha unacceptable, adding, quote, the war must not spread to the entire region, unquote.

The president of the United Arab Emirates arrived in Qatar today. Jordan's crown prince Hussein is also set to visit. Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to visit on Thursday. The White House said it warned Qatar prior to. to the attack, but Qatar said it only received notice from the U.S. as its capital was being hit by Israeli strikes. Speaking to reporters yesterday, President Trump said he was, quote, very unhappy about Israel's attack on social media, Trump wrote, quote, I view Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the

U.S. and feel very badly about the location of the attack, Trump wrote. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al-Tani said yesterday, Qatar's mediation efforts were central to its identity and that the Israeli attack would not deter its diplomatic role. The Israeli attack that took place today on Qatari soil, we cannot call it anything other than state terrorism practiced by someone like Netanyahu in the context of these systematic policies and his ongoing attempts that have destabilized, regional security and stability.

It's simply a clear message to the region as a whole. Israel continues to bomb Gaza City, ordering the full evacuation of the city's residents to the so-called safe zone of Almwasi, which it has bombed repeatedly. Around 800,000 Palestinians are already sheltering there. Israel has targeted it at least 109 times, killing over 2,000 people, according to Gaza's government media office. Residents in Gaza cities say they have no safe place to go.

We are attempting to delay death a little longer. We have been displaced approximately 30 times moving from one death to another, but we are trying to postpone death a little. What is the fault of these children? Why is this happening to this child and that one? Oh, Arabs, Muslims, negotiators, please find a solution

for us in any possible manner. Al Jazeera is reporting. Israeli attacks have killed 20 Palestinians in Gaza today, including 15 displaced people, sheltering intense west of Gaza City. In the past 24 hours, five more Palestinians have starved to death, including a child. Meanwhile, a BBC investigation has found members of an anti-Islam biker gang, the Infidels Motorcycle Club, is working in Gaza for UG Solutions, which is providing armed security for the shadowy U.S. and Israeli-Bakasa Humanitarian Foundation. According to the United Nations, 1,135 Palestinians have been killed seeking food near GHF aid sites.

In the occupied West Bank, Israel ordered the demolition of the homes of two Palestinian gunmen who opened fire at a bus stop in Jerusalem, killing six people. Israel also announced it's revoking the work permits of hundreds who live in the villages, where the men lived. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gavir said in the wake of the attack more Israelis would be eligible to receive licenses to carry guns. Organizers of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla say another one of their ships was attacked by a suspected drone while docked in Tunisian waters. The British ship sustained some fire damage on its top deck. It was the second such attack on the flotilla in recent days. The global smooth. Flotilla is preparing to leave soon to Gaza and attempt to break the Israeli blockade.

Passengers include the Swedish activist Greta Thunbury and Nelson Mandela's grandson, the South African MP Mandela Mandela. Activists with the group Code Pink disrupted President Trump's visit to a D.C. restaurant Tuesday night. The activists managed to get within feet of the president while holding banners and chanting free D.C., free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time. Trump is the Hitler of our time. Free D.C., free Palestine. Trump is the Hitler of our time.

Free D.C., free Palestine. Trump is the Hitler of our time. Free D.C., free Palestine. Trump was attending the dinner with Vice President J.D. Vance. Secretary of State, Marco Rubi. Pete Hegseth, who is now referred to officially as Secretary of War and other officials. The Nepali Army has deployed troops to the streets of Kathmandu to quill massive youth-led anti-corruption protests that have left at least 22 people dead. On Tuesday, protesters set fire to the parliament and other government buildings.

The protests continued even after the government lifted its ban on social media platforms, as well as the resignation. of the Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Ali. Protesters who gathered outside the parliament said Nepal needs new leadership. Everything that has happened is not because of the social ban. We need a young leader now. We are looking for change. Time is up for these old leaders. We don't need them.

We need the youth. A nationwide curfew in Nepal is in place until Thursday. In France, more than 250 people have been arrested in nationwide demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron. and his economic policies. On Tuesday, Macron tapped his close ally, Sebastian LeCarnou, to be the new prime minister. He is France's fifth prime minister in two years. His predecessor, Francois Bayru, resigned as prime minister after losing a no-confidence vote.

Poland says it shot down several Russian drones that flew into its territory overnight. Poland condemned Moscow for what a called an act of aggression. European Union foreign policy chief, Kayakales, described the drone incident as the most serious European airspace violation since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Meanwhile, in eastern Ukraine, at least 24 people were killed Tuesday when a Russian glide bomb struck a group of Ukrainians waiting in line to collect their pensions. Most of the victims were elderly. 19 others were injured in the attack. In Turkey, opposition lawmakers of the Republican People's Party, the main rival of President, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan barricaded themselves inside their party's headquarters on Monday as police barged in using shields and pepper spray.

Earlier a court had ordered the opposition party's provincial head in Istanbul to be removed and replaced by another official picked by the court. The party rejected that ruling as several of its members have been arrested and jailed in the government's crackdown on the opposition. Here's Osgar Ozel, the chair of the Republican People's Party. against people attacking our republic with our will as strong as steel and with no fear with the same determination and perseverance of 105 years ago. We are not afraid and we will not surrender. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, members of a militia and a civil society group in the eastern city of Uvira are accusing Congo's military of opening fire on protesters

and killing three people of protesters who are calling for the removal of a new commander posted to the region who is accusing, accused of back. backing the Rwanda-backed M-23 rebels. I am Congolese and I want peace. Gazita should leave. He should show us the boat he came on so we can send him back because we Congolese want peace. The M-23 rebel group is among more than 100 militant groups

fighting in eastern Congo and has emerged as the strongest adversary of the Congolese government. Earlier this year, President Trump brokered a deal between the DRC and Rwanda, allowing the U.S. to tap the DRC's rich mineral resources. In legal news, the U.S. Supreme Court's allowing the Trump administration to withhold over $4 billion in foreign aid, at least for now. Chief Justice John Roberts issued what's known as an administrative stay putting on hold a lower court's ruling. The AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council had brought the legal challenge against Trump for freezing aid money that had been. approved by Congress. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court also agreed to decide on the legality of President Trump's move to impose sweeping tariffs on many nations without congressional

approval arguments expected to be heard in November. A federal judge Tuesday blocked President Trump's firing of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. The ruling means Cook will continue to stay on the board of the central bank as her case is heard in court. In her ruling, ruling. U.S. District Judge Giacob wrote, quote, the public interest in federal reserve independence weighs in favor of Cook's reinstatement that independence is critical in helping the nation's banking system to promote stability, she said. Trump has tried to fire Cook, citing allegations of mortgage fraud. Trump has also repeatedly threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell as he pushes the central bank to cut interest rates more rapidly.

A Georgia judge said he'll toss out the racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of conspiring to block the construction of a $90 million Atlanta Police Training Center known as Cop City. Fulton County Judge, Kevin Farmer, said, quote, at this time, I do not find the Attorney General have the authority to bring this RICO case, unquote. The defendants are members of the Defend the Atlanta Forest Movement, which had warned that the training center would increase militarization of the police. Despite the protests, the center opened in April. And in Rochester, New York, ICE agents were forced to abruptly halt a raid after local residents came out to protest. The standoff occurred as ICE agents attempted to detain three men

who were fixing a roof. Ice arrested one of the men, but left. the two others on the roof is the size of the protest group. Mitch Wenderlick of the group Metro Justice said, quote, within an hour, several hundred people, including lawmakers and clergy, showed up to witness and protect our neighbors. Rochester shows up to protect each other, and I'm proud of our community, unquote. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. when we come back, global condemnation is mounting after Israel bombed Cutter's capital

Doha attempting to take out senior Hamas leaders who gathered to consider a U.S. proposal for a Gaza ceasefire. Though the Hamas leadership survived, six people were killed. We'll speak with DropSite news co-founder Jeremy Scahill. Stay with us. It's a lesson too late for the learning. made of sand made of sand

in the wing of an eye my soul is turning in your hand in your hand are you going away with no word or farewell will there be not a trace left behind

I could have loved you better Didn't mean to be unkind You know that was the last thing on my mind You've got reasons Plenty for going This I know This I know For the weeds have been

Steadily growing Please don't go. Please don't go. Are you going? The last thing on my mind, Tom Paxton, performing with the late Mary Travers. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now is Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan.

Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. Israel targeted senior Hamas leadership in Qatar yesterday, launching a military strike on Doha. Hamas says its top leaders there were considering a U.S. proposal for a Gaza ceasefire. Though they survived the strike, five lower ranking members died in the attack. A Qatari security staffer was also killed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke yesterday after the attack. At noon today, I convened the heads of Israel's security organizations and authorized a surgical precision strike on the terrorist chiefs of Hamas. These are the same terrorists who planned,

terrorist chiefs who planned, launched, and celebrated the horrific massacres of October 7th. The leaders of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates are reportedly set to arrive in Qatar today, Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to visit tomorrow. Meanwhile, the families of the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza say they fear for the fate of their loved ones. Aenev Zangar, the mother of Israeli

hostage, Matan, condemned Netanyahu for the attack on Qatar. I am trembling with fear. I am trembling with fear. It could be that at this very moment, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has essentially sentenced my matant to death. Anyone who deliberately chooses to endanger my child's life is murdering him. Why does the Prime Minister insist on blowing up every small chance for a deal? Why?

World leaders condemn the strike, including France, Germany, Britain, the European Union, Germany's Chancellor called Israel's attack on Qatar unacceptable, adding, quote, the war must not spread to the entire region, unquote. China and Russia have also denounced the attack. The White House said it warned Cutter just prior to the attack, but Cutter said it only received notice from the U.S. as the capital was being hit by Israeli strikes. On social media, Trump wrote, quote, I view Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the U.S. and feel very badly about the location of the attack. Trump spoke yesterday. I'm just, I'm not thrilled about the whole situation.

It's not a good situation. But I will say this. We want the hostages back. But we are not thrilled about the way that went down today. Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdu Rahman Al-Tani, said yesterday Qatar's mediation efforts were central to its identity and that the Israeli attack will not deter its diplomatic role. The Israeli attack that took place today on Qatari soil, we cannot call it anything other than state terrorism practiced by someone like Netanyahu in the context of these systematic policies

and his ongoing attempts that have destabilized regional security and stability. It's simply a clear message to the region as a whole. For more, we're joined by Jeremy Skiho, co-founder of DropSite News. His latest piece is an exclusive, headlined the 100-word ceasefire proposal Trump sent Hamas. Jeremy's a former senior reporter and correspondent at the intersection. Jeremy, welcome back to democracy now. If you can just first respond to Israel a bombing Qatar, trying to take out, assassinate

the Hamas leadership, which apparently it did not succeed in doing. Well, you know, first of all, Amy, let's remember that Qatar houses U.S. Central Command and is part of this security umbrella that Donald Trump spoke about, including recently when he made his trip around these Gulf countries. So the idea that the United States was just informed of this at the last minute. You know, Trump said, oh, the U.S. military informed him. And then he scrambled to try to let Qatar know. And he said, oh, you know, my special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, I told him to call Qatar, but

oops, he did it too late and the bombing had already happened. That's not a believable narrative at all. And in fact, what we've seen over the past couple of weeks is Donald Trump making very thinly veiled threats against the Hamas leadership directly mentioning them and saying that nasty things are going to happen to them if they don't accept his ultimatum, which essentially boiled down to a surrender agreement where Hamas was being asked to hand over all of the Israeli captives. There are roughly 20 of them believed to be still alive, and then another 30 or so who are deceased. And Trump has been saying that some nasty things are going to happen to

the Haas leadership if they don't do this. But I think it's important to back up because the context of the lead-up to this over the past year is almost never mentioned in Western media. It's as though history begins each time the U.S. or Israel make an ultimatum, and those ultimatums are aimed at trying to blame Hamas for a continuation of this war of extermination against the Palestinians. Last summer in July of 2024, the United States was engaged in negotiations with Hamas. Hamas on July 2nd accepted a ceasefire deal. This is in 2024. the summer of 2024, that they were told that the United States had signed off on and that if Hamas agreed to certain amendments that Israel was going to be on board. And in the midst of those discussions, Israel assassinated Ismail Hania, who was actually the last democratically elected prime minister of Palestine, not just of Gaza, and he was Hamas's political leader and its chief negotiator, and they assassinated him.

And then nothing happened with the ceasefire until Donald Trump was running for election. and he and Joe Biden then endorsed a ceasefire that by all accounts, Trump sort of pushed through with Netanyahu that went into effect in January. Israel blew up that deal on March 2nd, unilaterally exited it, imposed a full-spectrum siege on Gaza, barring any food, medicine, or other life essentials from entering the Gaza Strip. On March 18th, it then resumed its genocidal campaign of terror bombings against Gaza that have endured to this moment. Then, a couple of months ago, Steve Whitkoff, the special envoy and Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Hamas must accept what they called the Whitkoff framework, which was a 13-point plan for a two-month ceasefire during which

half of the living Israeli captives would have been released and there would have been negotiations on ending the war. It was a very difficult framework for Hamas because it came very close to crossing some of the red lines that Hamas had defined, that it felt that if it agreed to these terms, it would effectively amount to a surrender of the Palestinian cause of liberation. But on August 18th, just over three weeks ago, Hamas formally agreed to what mediators said was 98% of the terms that had been demanded by Netanyahu and Trump. Israel did not respond to that in any formal way. Trump and Israel then escalated their threats against Hamas after they accepted it.

And, Amy, by the way, Hamas made unprecedented concessions, concessions that include not demanding a clear timeline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Philadelphia corridor in southern Gaza. That was a huge deal for Hamas. They reduced the number of Palestinian captives held by Israel that would be released in a deal. They dropped their demand that the Gaza humanitarian foundation, this scheme run by the United States and Israel, some 2,000 Palestinians have died seeking aid since the GHF went into effect. Hamas dropped its demand that the GHF be expelled from Gaza as part of a peace deal, and it was willing to accept a full circle buffer zone totally around the Gaza Strip that would be controlled by Israel and at points would pierce

1,500 meters deeper into Gaza. So Hamas made these concessions, and then they waited. And the response from Netanyahu was to announce a final solution plan for Gaza City. And they began ratcheting up the terror bombings. They continued to burn children alive in tents. And then they started bombing massive residential apartment towers in Gaza, some of which housed hundreds of Palestinian families. All of this happened, Amy, after Hamas had accepted a proposal filled with concessions that the mediators said was 98% of the demands from Netanyahu and Trump. And then last week, the United States began some back channel discussions with Hamas. And they said, listen, Donald Trump wants to end this war. He has some ideas. And Trump's idea, I was told by

senior Hamas officials, was that as a initial gesture, Hamas would release all of the Israeli captives living and dead. And then Trump would see if he could do something about restarting negotiations to try to end the war. Well, Hamas responded to this in a remarkably diplomatic way. They said they're open to any proposals, either a comprehensive deal, where all captives would be released at once at the beginning of a deal, if there were proper international guarantee. and a guarantee that Israel would stop the genocide and withdraw, or they were open to returning to the original framework that they agreed to, which was pact full of concessions. So Trump then submits, and we obtained it, a 100-word summary. And it says within 48 hours, all the Israelis

have to be released in exchange for some Palestinians. It says that Israeli withdrawal will be contingent upon a new government acceptable to Israel being imposed on Gaza and that Israel will maintain full security control of the Gaza Strip. It says that aid will be allowed in, but it doesn't say who will allow the aid in or how much aid would be allowed in. And it says that Trump will guarantee for 60 days that a ceasefire will hold as long as negotiations are continuing. Now, this violates so many of Hamas's red lines, but their response to Trump was, we're open to any deal. And I'm told by sources from within Hamas that part of what they were meeting to discuss at the time of this bombing was the idea of posing to Trump

a series of questions and clarifications because a hundred-word document does not form a ceasefire agreement when you're facing down to genocide. And so the basic fact is this. Three weeks ago, they agreed to concessions. Everyone ignored it. Trump then issues a new ultimatum in the form of a 100-word document. They're meeting to discuss it. And then Israel bombs the Hamas offices in a sovereign nation Qatar that houses U.S. Central Command, no air defense systems were activated. The United States security umbrella was nowhere to be found. And then Trump concox this story about how Steve Witkoff was just a little bit too late in informing Qatar that this happened. So what we see here is part of a long pattern of Israel assassinating the very people or attempting

to assassinate the very people that the president of the United States claims he wants to negotiate with. They tried to kill the very people that would have been sitting across. across the table in these negotiations. Jeremy, I wanted to ask you, the Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul-Raman, said he was quoted as saying, quote, we have reached a decisive moment where there must be a response from the entire region to such barbaric actions. Is it your sense that the other Arab nations in the region, what can they do or what do you think they would be willing to do in response to this attack?

Remember, Juan, that in Trump's first term, he made a big deal about the so-called Abraham Accords. And, you know, the first country and the primary country to accept it was the United Arab Emirates, which many people in the Arab world and certainly Palestinians view as essentially a self-declared suburb of Israel for all practical purposes on this issue. And we've watched as Netanyahuas expanded these wars, Gaza, the West Bank, and. Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, now Qatar, and they've done nothing. There's been no response other than strongly worded statements from any Arab country. And so while they're all saying now, oh, now the threshold has been crossed, what are they going to do? Are they going to militarily

strike Israel? We've watched Palestinians burned alive for two years and not a single Arab country except Yemen has stood up to do anything about it or taken any risks. And almost the entire Yemeni cabinet was assassinated recently by Israel because of the fact that they were the only ones in the world, in addition to Iran, in terms of nation states, that stood up to them. So, you know, anything short of these Arab countries saying this is a genocidal regime that is operating with impunity backed by the United States, anything short of a military confrontation is worthless. Israel doesn't care anymore about these normalization agreements. You know why? Because they have shown the entire world that they can do whatever they want and no country is going to stand up

to them. They have the huge world bully behind them in the form of the United States. They are a nuclear armed power. They're running a scorched earth bombing campaign and they're trying to wipe the Palestinians off the map. So, you know, I hope I'm wrong. I hope that we see some kind of confrontation of this genocidal serial killer masquerading as a nation state that is modern Israel. But I doubt it because history shows that they are just sitting on their hands and saying, oh, here's a strongly worded statement. And you've mentioned the history of the past couple of years in terms of Israel attempting to kill Palestinian leaders. But this is a decades-long policy of constantly trying to decapitate the leadership of a Palestinian resistance.

and you would think by this time the Israelis would recognize that this policy doesn't work because it only helps to foment more resistance among the people. I mean, it is absolutely clear from 76 years of history and looking at what I think can objectively be called the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, that you can kill the leaders. You can't kill the ideas. You can't kill the struggle. So if there isn't a Hamas, if somehow Hamas ceases to exist as a political entity and a resistance movement, other Palestinians are going to pick up the mantle and run with it. And one of the reasons why Hamas negotiators, and by the way, it's not just Hamas, many Palestinian factions are now involved with these negotiations, including some that are critical of Hamas or some that don't even have armed wings.

They all are unified in saying we will not give up our right to bear arms. They cite international conventions and basic ethics and morality that an occupied people have a right to resist. But if you actually embrace the idea that Israel functions as an industrial-scale serial killer, hunting Palestinians, then you understand that they want to kill any Palestinian that is capable of standing up and describing the Palestinian liberation cause to the world. In 1972, they used a car bomb to kill Gassan Kanafani, one of the most famous Palestinian literary figures and poets, who was a leader and spokesperson of a political liberation movement at the time. They killed the quadriplegic spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassine, in a drone strike in 2004. They killed Al Runtisi, another one of the Hamas founders in a bombing in Gaza. They killed Ismail Haniyah last summer in Iran.

They try to systematically kill Palestinians. And there's a subsection of this one, which is that the very Palestinians who are trying to negotiate some form of a truce with Israel, Israel then targets them and kills them. The second in command of the Qasam brigades, Hamas's armed wing, Ahmed Jabari, was killed in 2012 as he was in the middle of trying to broker some form of a ceasefire. or long-term truce with Israel. And so what we're seeing now in the bombing of the Hamas office in Qatar, where they killed, you know, people are saying, oh, they're low-ranking members, secretaries were killed, young people who were drivers or bag carriers for certain Hamas figures. That's who was killed in this strike that happened in a country that houses sent com that

Donald Trump recently said falls under the security umbrella of the United States. At the end of the day, Americans should be asking themselves, is all of this, worth the cost that America is bankrolling this, arming this, supporting this, encouraging this, serious questions about U.S. involvement in this strike itself, because that entire region is going to be set on fire very quickly. And I guarantee you there's a lot of nervousness in the capitals of those Gulf countries and in Arab countries in general, because the population of those countries see in plain sight that their leaders are doing nothing and at times even collaborating with the U.S. and Israel. So this is an incendiary moment that is rooted in a 76-year

history of a U.S. enforced war of annihilation being waged by Israel against the Palestinian people. Jeremy, I wanted to get your reaction to Matt Dess of the Center for International Policy, former foreign policy advisor to Bernie Sanders, who told the Guardian, This is an attack on the capital of a major non-NATO U.S. ally in the midst of U.S. supported negotiations against officials who were originally hosted there at the United States' request. It's an attack on diplomacy itself. Of course, Qatar says they're going to continue to be a mediator. The significance of, as you write, the 100-word ceasefire that Trump put forward

And the idea, and this happened before also, that as they gather to consider what the U.S. sent, Israel tries to blow them up what this means for the future of diplomacy as world leaders from the Gulf to Europe condemn what has just taken place. And also, by the way, how much of this do you think is motivated by Netanyahu, the prime minister, being on trial for corruption? And as these things happen, it takes them out of the trial. Well, you know, to take on the first part of it, let's remember that the recent track record that is out in the open of Donald Trump, the United States claimed to be in good faith negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program and trying to reset the U.S.-Iranian relationship. And Trump then openly declared that this was effectively a covert operation, a cover operation, to catch the Iranians off guard. And the United States and the Israelis then did sustain bombing for 12 days. against Iran. Trump came out and basically said we lied about being engaged in negotiations. So that fact alone out in the open means that we have to question what potential role the U.S.

played in this strike. When you take that and combine it with the threats that Trump was increasingly aiming at Hamas's leaders, when you take that in conjunction with the fact that the chief of staff of the Israeli army said just over a week ago that they're going to start assassinating political leaders and that Israeli media reported that Donald Trump himself had made clear to Hamas' political leadership that assassination of them was on the table by Israel if they didn't capitulate to his ultimatum. So, you know, it is the idea of diplomacy, there is no diplomacy in these cases with Donald Trump. He uses something that should be a very sacred process because it requires trust on both sides, and he's used it in a covert operation

to bomb Iran, and now he has allowed, and I say allowed, because the United States could have easily shot down those munitions from Israel from the capacity that it is placed in Qatar. To allow this kind of attack to happen in the borders of a country that the U.S. itself asked to host Hamas negotiators so that they could have this process means that the U.S. can't be trusted at all. Now, most people wouldn't trust the U.S. in general who know history, but even on the issue of we're engaging in negotiations, it's now used as a covert operation. Now, as to the second part of it with Netanyahu's domestic political situation, yes, Netanyahu is facing trouble, but if you actually look at the political reality, more than 80% of Israelis right now in recent

public polls, Jewish Israelis, that is, support the program in Gaza. And, you know, for all of the talk of Netanyahu's coalition being in trouble if Ben Gavir goes or if Smotrich goes, I think that there's quite a bit of exaggeration and distraction at play, thinking that Netanyahu is primarily motivated by getting rid of these political scandals. He's at the zenith of his bloody career. He believes that he has to get done as much as he can while Donald Trump is in power. And that's why I think we're seeing also increasing moves toward trying to fully annex the West Bank. Smotrich, who for all practical purposes, is in charge of the West Bank right now,

implying that they may seek to deport a half a million or more Palestinians claiming that they're actually really Jordanians and that they need to go back to Jordan. They've severed the West Bank in half. They're in the midst of the largest force displacement campaign since 1967. Netanyahu's trying to run the deck right now, and I think he's not as concerned about his domestic political situation as he is as impacting or implementing his genocidal agenda

while he has the most favorable, possible administration in power in the U.S. Jeremy, before I go, before you go, I wanted to ask about this latest drop-site news reporting that the Egyptian president of Delfat al-Sisi has ordered authorities to an examine an appeal from the National Council for Human Rights urging the release of Allah Abdel Fata and six other people on humanitarian grounds. Drop site said on X, a dual British Egyptian, Abdel Fata, has been imprisoned over much of the past decade and is currently serving five years for, quote, spreading false news. His sister, Sana Suf, called the move really promising but pressed for urgency.

He was a leader of the 2011 uprising, a symbol of Egypt's democratic collapse, his detention alongside his mother's, hunger, strike, and protest in Britain has fueled mounting domestic and international pressure for his freedom. Can you talk more about the significance of this, the possibility of Allah being freed? Al-A Abdufata is one of the most noble humans among us, and he has been rotting in a prison cell and refusing to die. He has been resisting from that prison cell, enduring unspeakable treatment at the hands of the Egyptian authorities. And let's remember that that Egyptian revolution that Allah Abdul Fata was one of the young leaders of resulted in a democratic election. And the democratically elected president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, was put in prison

and then died in a prison cell in a coup that was enacted by General Sisi. And so his case is a symbol of so much of what we've seen happen in that region, that you had this one window in time when the people of Egypt rose up. And it wasn't that all of the people that were rising up were members of the Muslim Brotherhood or supported the agenda of Muhammad Morsi. It was that they were saying, we are done with this U.S.-backed dictatorship governing our lives and imposing its authoritarianism on us. And so the attempt to crush the spirit of Allah Abduffata has failed. And it's because of the steadfastness of his mother and his family that we can even imagine a day where he walks out of that prison cell. I think all people who believe in the struggle for liberation, not just in Egypt,

but that whole region, hold Allah Abdufata close to their hearts and hope for the moment that they see him walk out of that prison cell. Jeremy Skiho, thanks so much for being with us. Co-founder of Dropsite News, his latest piece will link to. It's an exclusive, the 100-word ceasefire proposal Trump sent Hamas. Thanks so much for being with us from Croix. When we come back, here comes the sun, a last chance for the climate and a fresh chance for civilization. Climate activist and author Bill McKibben. Stay with us. for Jack and Jacqueline But on the Hugo

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And he's trying To sympathise with her But he thinks that He should warn her That the climate emergency It's just around In the corner, yeah. In the former Soviet Union, the scientist is blinded by the resumption of nuclear testing

and he is reminded. Billy Bragg singing, waiting for the great leap forward in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. We turn now to the climate crisis. A new report by the Clean Energy Tech Research Group, Ember, finds China's, quote, creating the conditions for a decline in fossil fuel use, unquote, as it leads the production of solar panels and wind turbines. Meanwhile, another new report confirms that Trump administration's openly hostile to renewable energy and has overseen, quote,

the most abrupt shift in energy and climate policy in recent memory, unquote, which has led to a jump in greenhouse gas emissions in the first seven months of the Trump presidency. Trump's so-called one big, beautiful bill, not only ended subsidies for renewable power sources, but applies a new tax on solar and wind projects. On Friday, the Department of Energy wrote on social media, quote, wind and solar energy infrastructure is essentially worthless when it's dark out. and the wind is not blowing, they said. Trump criticized renewable energy efforts during a recent cabinet meeting. We don't allow windmills. We're not allowing any windmills to go up. I mean, unless there's a legal situation where somebody committed to it a long time ago, we don't allow windmills, and we don't want the solar panels that I'm speaking with the secretary about because they take up, you know, thousands of acres of our farmland. You see these big, ugly patches of black

plastic that comes from China. Despite all this, the Los Angeles Times reports today, renewable energy reached nearly 25 percent of U.S. power generation in June up from 18 percent last year. We spend the rest of the hour with Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, founder of the Group Third Act. His new book is titled, Here Comes the Sun, a last chance for the climate and a fresh chance for civilization. You, actually, actually, Bill McKibben, despite Trump going back on renewable energy of people fear going back decades, hold out great hope. You see this as an opportunity we've never had before. Amy, Juan, you guys have been at this for a long time. This is as dark a moment as there's ever been in our democracy and our planet is overheating fast. In the midst of that, there is this one big good thing simultaneously happening. And it's so big and so good that it might help with both the climate and the authoritarianism crisis.

And that's this rise in the last 36 months, a pretty untold story of just extraordinary amounts of clean energy surging into the world's energy system. It is centered in China, and the numbers are staggering. The May is the last month we have data for. in May, the Chinese were putting up three gigawatts of solar panels a day, a gigawatt being the rough equivalent of a coal-fired power plant. They were putting up one of those made out of solar panels every eight hours. California, which has done more than any place in this country, reached some kind of tipping point in the last 18 months. Most days now, California supplies more than 100% of its electricity from renewable energy for long stretches. At night, the biggest source of

supply on its grid is batteries that have been soaking up excess sunshine all afternoon. Bottom line, California, fourth largest economy in the world, is using 40% less natural gas to produce electricity than they were two years ago. That's the kind of number. That may be the most optimistic thing that I've, number that I've heard in the 40 years I've been working on the climate crisis, it's the kind of number that begins to shave tenths of a degree off how hot the world eventually gets. And remember, every tenth of a degree means a hundred million people moving from a safe climate zone to a dangerous one. So it's not that we're going to stop global warming. It's too for that, it's that we have really a chance to reboot the way the world and its economy and

its geopolitics works right now. And Bill, I wanted to ask you about this staggering investment that China has been putting into renewable energies. It accounts now for almost a third of all the clean energy investment in the world. It's producing 80% of all the solar. panels, 60% of the wind turbines. And so all of this investment has actually driven the price of green energy down so that now it's, according to the Ember report, 90% of wind and solar projects commissioned worldwide produce power more cheaply than fossil fuel alternatives. So doesn't this mean that the global south now will gobble up? The poorer nations of the world will gobble up clean energy alternatives to fossil fuel?

Absolutely, one. It's really important to understand that as of about four years ago, we live on a planet where the cheapest way to produce energy is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. And China has been leading that effort. We know about petro states. China's the world's first electro state. And now, as you say, that's leaking out from across its borders.

Pakistan, right next door, last year, Pakistanis just basically using TikTok videos as their guide, installed enough solar panels to equal half the country's national electric grid. Pakistani farmers, who are early adopters of this because diesel to run their tube wells for irrigation is their biggest cost input, they bought millions of these solar panels. They lack the money to build the metal stanchions to point. point them at the sun. So instead, they're just laying them on the ground. Nonetheless, Pakistan was using 35% less diesel last year than the year before. Now this is leaking into Africa, not just the solar panels, but the things that make use of the clean energy that

they provide. We're used to thinking of Detroit as the center of the world's auto industry. That is not true. It's now two or three cities in China whose names I find difficult to pronounce. They're producing the best and cheapest cars on the planet and they are flooding the markets of the developing world. Forget about Ford. It's B-Y-D that's going to be the car company of the future. But yet here we are in the United States going in the complete opposite direction from what China and the rest of the world are striving for. How do we deal with that situation here in this country? So it's what's so fascinating. And it's pretty easy, I think, to explain the success of renewable energy, which is good news for almost everyone on the planet, except the people who own oil wells and coal mines.

And for them, it's an existential threat. So what did they do? You'll recall candidate Trump last year telling the oil industry that for a billion dollars, it was kind of an Austin Powers moment, for a billion dollars, they could have anything they wanted. They ended up raising about half a billion between donations, advertising, lobbying in the last election cycle. And clearly that was enough because they've, the Trump administration has done everything that Big Oil could have hoped and more, really. I mean, I don't think anyone anticipated that they would actually shut down work on 80% complete wind farms off the coast of New England like they did last week. That's just insane. I mean, if they keep with it, a thousand years from now,

archaeologists will be trying to explain how this aquaous stonehenge emerged off the coast of Rhode Island. We're, if we keep at this, our role in the world, a decade from now, will be as the kind of colonial Williamsburg of internal combustion, a place where the rest of the planet, if they can get tourist visas, come to gock at how people did things in the old. in days. And that's especially aggravating or should be for Americans because this technology was invented here. I mean, the solar cell was invented 20 miles away in Edison, New Jersey. The first

industrial wind turbine was 30 miles south of my house in Vermont in the 1940s. And yet we're just handing it all to China in order to appease the oil industry. You talk about California. You're headed, what, to D.C., to speak of politics and pros, then the Petro Metro. That's Houston. You're headed to Texas. Texas might surprise people when it comes to solar and wind energy. Texas is now putting up clean energy faster than California, faster than any place in this country. Big oil doesn't like that, and they tried in the state legislative session this year to pass a number of laws, the most prominent of which people called DEI for natural gas. It was going to force. anybody who wanted to put up five megawatts of solar to also put up five megawatts of natural gas.

People emerged from the hinterlands across rural Texas to say, don't do this. This is how we pay property taxes in our county. This is what keeps the schools open. And so the legislature backed off, returned to their project of redistricting Texas to help Mr. Trump instead. It's not clear that even in this country, they can beat down the economics, of renewable energy, though obviously they're going to do much damage, which is precisely why we're rallying across the country on September 21st for this thing we're calling Sunday.

You're wearing a T-shirt that says Sunday. Indeed, I am, because there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of events planned for that day. We obviously can't change policy in Washington in the short term, but we can change policy in states and localities across the country. to make it much, much easier to do solar power. Amy, it costs three times as much to put up solar panels in the U.S. as it does on your house in Australia or the EU. Tiny bit of that's from tariffs on solar panels.

Mostly it's because we have 15,000 municipalities, each with their own building code and team of inspectors. It can take months to get done what takes days every place else. This can be changed with ease by local, officials, California, Maryland, and New Jersey have already adopted this thing called the solar app that allows a contractor to get instant permitting just by putting a few details into a computer program. We need that across the country, especially in light of federal intransigence. Sunday is September 21st, the fall equinox? The fall equinox. Exactly right. And Bill, I wanted to ask you

Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency formally proposed revoking the Obama-era scientific determination that greenhouse gases are a danger to public health and welfare because they cause global warming. Your response to that and what people can do? I mean, it's nonsense, of course. The EPA and the Trump administration can't repeal the laws of physics, which are the problem here. That's what's driving climate change. But I think there's something deeper going on as we move into this possibility of a world that runs on clean energy. And I was really thinking about it as we were listening to Jeremy report from Middle East. I mean, think about, you guys have run the War and Peace report for a long time, think about what this show and this world would have been like for the last few decades if oil was of trivial value on this planet.

how many wars and coups and assassination attempts would have been averted. Humans are, you know, altogether too good at starting wars, but figuring out how to start one over sunshine will be a trick. I think that this is not just a possibility for dealing with climate change. I think the fact that we have access now to energy that's available to everyone everywhere, instead of being something concentrated in a few spots controlled by a few autocrats, and plutocrats, that's a huge, huge potential gift. It's a real challenge to capitalism, because, I mean, this is decentralized as you can get,

unless the big oil companies, when they see their days or number, just switch over to try to control the access to the sun. Even if they switch over, which I don't think they will, I'm afraid, all they can do, and it's very important, and you can make a lot of money doing it, is build the solar panels. But once you've built the solar panels, the sun delivers the energy for, free every morning when it rises above the horizon. There's no way to hoard it or hold it in reserve. The same charismatic object in our galaxy that brings us light and warmth and via photosynthesis our food is now willing to provide us with all the power we could ever want. That's the

kind of moment that changes civilization. As thoroughly as learning to harness the combustion of fossil fuel changed civilization. That's what we call the Industrial Revolution. You're here in New York. Zoran Mamdani has just shocked the Democratic establishment. Still, the Democratic leader in Congress from New York, Hakeem Jeffries, astonishingly, has not endorsed the Democratic primary candidate. But how do you see Zoran Mamdani's race for mayor of New York as a model for the rest of the country? I mean, the fact that he's creative and full of good humor is a shocking thing in our political life. But it's a real reminder of how much there is that we could do. Across Europe, in cities full of apartment dwellers like

New York, millions of people have put up what we call balcony solar over the last three years. They just go to the best buy, come home with a solar panel designed to hang over the railing of their apartment balcony, plug it into the wall with a standard. plug and producing 20% of the power they use. That's illegal everywhere in the country, except in the state of Utah, where the state legislature, that progressive bastion, enabled it by a unanimous vote earlier this year. I'm betting that within weeks of Mr. Mamdami becoming Mayor Mamdani, we're going to see balcony solar installations sprouting across the five boroughs, and what a nice sign that'll be.

And you gave this, you started Sunday with another renegade mayor, and that is Michelle Wu of Boston, who Trump is trying to take on. Michelle Wu, Zoran, Mandami, people like this offer a real potential future, and they have an enormous ally in this new technology that really gives us a fresh kind of hope. Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, founder of the organization Third Act, his new book is Just Act. Out, here comes the sun, a last chance for the climate and a fresh chance for civilization. He is on book tour. Tonight will be in D.C. at Politics and Prose tomorrow in Houston. And he's organizing a national mobilization for September 21st, the fall equinox cold Sunday 2025, celebrating solar and wind power. I'm Mimi Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.