Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-11-12 Wednesday

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

Democracy Now! Wednesday, November 12, 2025

From New York, this is Democracy Now. Now we look forward to the government reopening this week so Congress can get back, can get back to a regular legislative session. The Republican-led House of Representatives is expected to vote today on a funding bill to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. We'll go to Washington to speak with California Congressmember Rokana, and look at how the shutdown has left millions going hungry. Trump, why are you starving the kids? I'm hungry, and we have to get boxes from the food bank. We'll speak to public health and nutrition expert, Marianna Chilton, author of The Painful

truth of hunger in America. Then as the House moves closer to forcing the Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, we'll look at Epstein's secret role in brokering intelligence deals for Israel. We'll speak with Martazo Hussein of Dropsite News. Finally, put your soul on your hand and walk, a new documentary featuring Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hasuna in Gaza. Where are you now?

This is my neighborhood. No one live here or here or there. Or there. There's no one. A day after the film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, Fatma was killed with her family in an Israeli air strike. We'll speak to the film's director, the acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Sepida Farsi. The film is based on video. Call Seped Ahad with Fatma.

All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Israeli forces killed three people in Gaza over the past 24 hours despite the U.S. brokered ceasefire. The United Nations accused Israel of denying essential aid from entering Gaza, including 1.6 million syringes to vaccinate children and nearly a million bottles of baby formula. UNICEF said Israel's actions are preventing efforts to immunize more than 40,000 children

under the age of three who missed routine vaccines against polio, measles, and pneumonia. Meanwhile, Palestinians across the Gaza Strip are forced to use flashlights and private generators due the lack of electricity. Israeli attacks have destroyed 80 percent, of Gaza's electricity distribution networks. This is Hanan Al-Juju, a displaced Palestinian mother of three in Nisirat. It's been two years without electricity. We have not seen it. In Rafah, during the first displacement, we tried to light a candle,

but we stopped for the sake of the children, fearing it could burn the tent. We tried a simple LED light, but it broke. We do not have the money to fix it. We tried to get a battery, but it's expensive and unavailable. In the occupied West Bank, dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian villages of Baitlid and Der Chafan on Tuesday, setting fire to vehicles and other property leaving four Palestinians wounded. This comes as a 13-year-old Palestinian boy died yesterday a month after Israeli forces attacked him. Isam Jihad Labid Nasser was harvesting olives with his family in Baita, when Israeli soldiers fired several tear gas.

canisters towards him, causing him to choke severely and collapse. That's according to evidence collected by defense for children international Palestine. Nasra was transferred to the hospital and remained in critical condition until he died. This year, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 47 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank. France is committing to help the Palestinian Authority draft a constitution for a future Palestinian state. French President Emmanuel Macron announced a joint constitutional committee after meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris yesterday. France also pledged $100 million for humanitarian aid to Gaza this year.

This committee will be responsible for work on all legal aspects, constitutional, institutional and organizational and organizational. It will contribute to the work of developing a new Constitution, a draft which President Abbas has presented to me and will aim to finalize all the conditions for such a state of Palestine. The United Kingdom has suspended the sharing of some intelligence with the United States on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean over concerns the data is being used by the Trump administration to carry out deadly military strikes that have been widely condemned as illegal.

That's according to CNN, which reported the U.K.'s and intelligence sharing with the U.S. was paused after Trump's Pentagon began its escalating attacks in September in which at least 76 people have been killed. The U.K. controls several territories in the Caribbean where it bases intelligence centers that have helped the U.S. locate vessels traveling from Latin America. This comes as the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier has entered waters near Latin America. The Venezuelan government in response has deployed its entire military arsenal with the Venezuelan defense minister, Vladimir Patrino-Lopez, saying Venezuela's land, air, naval, and reserve forces will be carrying out exercises. He spoke from

Kadakis Tuesday. There is a unanimous global rejection against imperialist aggression and against the United States' intention to remain as the world's hegemon, as the world's police, and we here in Venezuela remain firm with the Bolivarian ideals of independence, freedom, and full sovereignty for our people. Meanwhile, protests have continued in Puerto Rico against the Trump administration's military trainings on the beaches of Arroyo, a town in the southeast of the island. In recent weeks, residents have described witnessing military drills and amphibious landings carried out by the Navy and Marines as part of the U.S.'s ongoing strikes on boats in the Caribbean. and claiming without evidence the vessels are carrying drugs. This is a resident of Arroyo, Enrique Rivera Sambrano. We are against imperialism.

We are against any type of military intervention in the country of Venezuela, and above all, we are against the vile and terrible assassinations of our fishermen brothers that have happened with the pretext that they are boats for drug traffickers. We condemn those killings and terrible actions. We are in favor of peace. Tuesday's action was also to honor the life of the Puerto Rican revolutionary leader, Anja Rodriguez Christoba, who was found dead in a Florida prison in 1979 after he was detained

for protesting the U.S. Navy's occupation of the island of Jekis. The longest U.S. federal government shutdown in history has entered its 43rd day. House members are returning to Washington, D.C., after Speaker Mike Johnson recessed the House for almost two months. Johnson is set to swear in Democratic Representative-elect Adelaide Grachava of Arizona later today, 50 days after she won her seat in Congress. She has said she intends to be the final signature to the discharge petition to force a vote on the Justice Department's full release of the Epstein files. We'll have more on this story after headlines with Congress member Rokana. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court extended its temporary pause on $4 billion.

and payments for food benefits under SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The decision means the Trump administration doesn't have to abide by a lower court order to fully fund the SNAP program. Nearly 42 million people rely on SNAP for food assistance. Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, announced he's running for the congressional seat held by the retiring Congress member Gerald Nadler of New York City. Back in September, Congressmember Nadler announced he will not seek re-election in New York's 12 congressional district debt for more than three decades in office. A coalition of progressive Jewish groups are condemning the Anti-Defamation League over what the groups say are Islamophobic and racist attacks against New York City Mayor Alexorhan Mamdani. The ADL has created a so-called Mamdani monitor to track policies proposed by Mamdani that the ADL deems anti-Semitic. Mamdani is New York's first Muslim mayor and has been an outspoken critic of Israel over its occupation of Palestine and war on Gaza.

The Jewish groups include, if not now, and bend the ark, which said in a statement, quote, We reject false accusations of anti-Semitism against Black Brown and Muslim progressive champions who are fighting for a country where all of us can thrive, they said. Marion County in Kansas has agreed to pay $3 million and apologize after local police raided the county's weekly newspaper, the Marion County record, and the home of the paper's publisher back in 2023. The raids followed a dispute between the newspaper and a local resident owner, a restaurant owner, who accused the paper of illegally obtaining information about a drunk driving incident and after the paper had been actively invested. investigating Marion County's police chief over sexual misconduct charges. County officials have pledged to pay $1.2 million to Eric Meyer, the editor of the Marion County record and the estate of his mother, Joan Meyer, who died of a heart attack one day after the raids. Marion County also agreed to pay the company that publishes the Marion County record two reporters at the paper and Ruth Herbal, the city's former vice mayor, whose home was also raided by Marion County police.

The Washington Post reports the Trump administration's planning to allow oil and gas drilling off the California coast for the first time in decades. This would include six offshore lease sales between 2027 and 2030 along the California coast and expansion of drilling on the eastern Gulf of Mexico. California Governor Gavin Newsom denounced Trump's plan and called to, quote, dead on arrival. Governor Newsom spoke from Belén, Brazil, where he's attending the UN Climate Summit. What's fascinating to me, you may have seen this, he wants to open offshore haul drilling, and he intentionally aligned that to opening a cop. He's weakness, by the way, masquerading his strength. That's all that was.

But the answer to your question, forget the long winters, it's dead on arrival. Dead on arrival. And in more news from the UN Climate Summit in Belen, Brazil, dozens of indigenous leaders, many carrying signs that read, Our Land is Not for Sale, broke through security to enter the venue where thousands of delegates from over 190 countries are attending climate talks. Indigenous leaders are demanding stronger climate action and protections for the Amazon, other sacred rainforests and indigenous territories from fossil fuels.

This is a leader of the Tupinamba people. They are the government. This protest is a way of defending the space where it's being held at this moment. But for us, it's a moment of revolt, of indignation. It's a moment when we indigenous people feel the defeat of our territory firsthand. We don't eat money. We want our territory free. But the business of oil exploration, mineral exploration, and logging continues.

Democracy Now will be broadcasting from COP 30 in Belen, Brazil, all of next week. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The federal government shutdown has entered its 43rd day, the longest in U.S. history. The House of Representatives returning to session today after a 54-day recess to vote on a short-term funding bill to end the shutdown. The Senate approved the funding measure Monday after seven Democrats and an independent senator back the Republican bill,

even though the bill did not include an extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which had been a key demand for Democratic lawmakers. Some Democrats in the House, including our next guest, Congressmember Rokane of California, are now calling for Senator Chuck Schumer to resign his position as minority leader. Ahead of today's funding bill vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson scheduled to finally swear in

Democratic Representative-elect Adelaide Grijalva, who won a special election, but Johnson refused to swear her in for seven weeks. Grahava has said she intends to be the final signature needed on a discharge petition to force a vote on the full release of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice. Democratic Congressmember Rokane of California joins us now from Capitol Hill. Let's start with the shutdown ending and your call for Senator Schumer to step down as Senate minority leader. Can you explain what exactly happened and what you want to see happen

today, Congressmember Kana? Well, he failed to meet the moral test of this. moment, there are 20 million people in this country who are about to see huge premium hikes in their health care. Premium hikes going from $44 a month to $2,600 a month. And we got no concession, no extension of the health care tax credits. That's what we fought on. We should have continued to fight for health care. What they still show is the entire health care system is broken. We need Medicare for all. We need to actually get national health insurance in America. But at the very least, we need to protect the Affordable Care Act subsidies so people aren't losing their health insurance. I want to go to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking on the Senate

floor Sunday. We asked President Trump to step in and meet with us to deliver lower health care for Americans. And instead, Donald Trump is taken the American people hostage. From cutting off food, aid to hungry families and vets and seniors and kids to manufacturing flight cancellations to cutting off home heating aid while he builds a billion dollar ballroom with gold-plated toilets. Therefore, therefore, I must vote no. This health care crisis is so severe, so urgent, so devastating for families back home that I cannot in good faith support this CR that fails to, address the health care crisis. But the key here is Congress member Rokana, although he voted against, he's also the leader of the Democrats.

And we now know that since the beginning of this shutdown, they have been meeting, led by New Hampshire, Senator Jean Shaheen, with the Republicans to work out this deal. The question is, what did Schumer do? While he may not have voted with the defecting group, did he tell the Senate? them they can't. Well, that's the exact problem. He was consulted every day those

eight senators were negotiating. That's not for me. That's from the senators themselves. His number two, Dick Durbin voted for the deal. Coincidentally, all the eight senators are not up for re-election in 2026. So he clearly did not stop them from

making this deal, and he very well could have. And look, there are people who were being hurt. He's absolutely right that this president was showing enormous cruelty, taking away SNAP benefits. But the answer to that is not to capitulate, because then he will continue to use that kind of cruelty. The answer to that would have been moral clarity, that we continue to fight in the courts and everywhere for the SNAP benefits, and we continue to make the case that we need health care for the American people. The president was panicking. I mean, he realized that he had lost

the election over this. He was talking about ending the filibuster. We caved too soon. So, John Thune, the Senate Majority Leader, has agreed that there will be a separate vote on extending the ACA subsidies. Of course, the Senate could vote that down. The House Speaker has not even agreed to that. So what do you know about what Johnson is going to do? We're talking about in just a few weeks, subsidies for millions of people will end, and people will be paying what two, three, perhaps four times what they paid in the past and ultimately might not be able to have health insurance. Amy, you're right. And Mike Johnson is not going to bring any extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credit. Anyone following Congress knows that the senators know

that. But just to put a human face on this, someone came to me at the airport. He said his father has cancer in Arizona. His father's premium is going up from $44 a month to $2,600 a month. The deductibles are going up from $800 to $6,000. This is going to be, unfortunately, a death sentence for many Americans. It's going to rip away health care from millions of Americans. It's going to expose how bankrupt and morally hollow our private health insurance system is. We need to, of course, get the relief to people like the taxi driver in Arizona by extending the Affordable Care Act tax rates. But this needs to start a conversation in this country for national health insurance.

Bernie Sanders was right. This party needs to fight again for Medicare for all. That has to be the solution in this mess. Have Hakeem, Jeffries, and Chuck Schumer lost the confidence of the Democratic? caucus? Well, Chuck Schumer certainly has. Hakeem Jeffries is unifying us and saying we are going to fight the Affordable Care Act for Affordable Care Act tax credits. We are not going to compromise. So he wants to take the fight to Trump and to Johnson. Will Republicans be joining you today, people like Marjorie Taylor Green, who talked about her son losing or.

or having his benefits increase to a level that is unacceptable? I am in conversation with her and others. Obviously, I've been working closely with her on the full release of the Epstein files. But my hope is that there will be Republicans who see how broken this private health insurance system is and how, on a human level, devastating it's going to be if we don't extend the tax credits. Are they right that we're subsidizing private insurance companies who are making, record profits? Yes, but what is the alternative right now? The alternative is for 20 million Americans to lose their health care. So what we need to do is provide these tax credits, but then

reform the system. We need to make sure we have national health insurance like every other Western industrial country in the world. And Democrats need to be screaming that from the rooftops right now, while people see how utterly morally bankrupt this system is. Let's go to that issue of the Epstein files, ahead of today's funding bill vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson is scheduled to finally swear in Democratic Representative-elect Adelaide Liza Grahava, who won a special election, but Johnson refused to swear her in for almost two months. Grahava has said she intends to be the final signature needed on a discharge petition to force a vote on the full release by the DOJ of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Congressmember Kana,

and Republican Thomas Massey of Kentucky have led the bipartisan effort in the House to force the release of these files. Can you talk about what the swearing in of Adelaide Grahalva means? And do you think that Johnson shut down the house over the Epstein files so that he didn't have to seat Adelita Grahalva? I do. Otherwise, why else would he be delaying the Adelita Grahalva swearing in. If the shutdown wasn't about the Epstein files, he should have sworn in Adelaidea Grijalva. So it's obvious that it had something to do

with it. But look, this has been the last five months of Thomas Massey in my life. We have been fighting for justice for these survivors. We've been fighting for a politics that is about forgotten Americans as opposed to this corrupt Epstein class. And we're a few hours

away from Adelita Grijalva being sworn in. Now I'm on pins and needles because the White House is putting tremendous pressure on those four Republicans who've signed the petition trying to get them off. But as soon as Adelaide Grijalva gets sworn in today, she will be the 218 signatory. Once she signs, it's locked. Then you cannot remove your name. And at that point, we will get a vote by early December on the full release of the Epstein files. That will be a historic vote. And I'm hopeful that we may get 40, 50 Republicans voting with the Democrats the first time something like that

has happened since Donald Trump walked down the escalator. Some people say this could be the first day of him being a lame duck the day that bill passes. So let's go to this question of the whistleblower telling the House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin that Maxwell is getting concierge-style treatment at the minimum security prison camp she was transferred to after speaking with Trump's former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, and that she has appealed for a commutation. The whistleblower saying inside the prison camp, they're saying she won't be there for long,

this possibility of commutation or pardoning, and how she's being dealt with, even at this minimum security prison, differently from the others who were there? First of all, we need a constitutional amendment in this country to abolish the pardon power. It has been abused dramatically by Donald Trump, by pardoning a crypto billionaire, a foreign crypto billionaire, by partnering January 6th rioters and now considering a commutation or pardon of Maxwell.

And it was abused by President Biden in what he did with his family and a judge who took kickbacks while incarcerating kids. So this needs to be a consensus, but it is offensive what Trump is considering doing with Maxwell. The survivors, who I've talked to, go in detail about how Maxwell was part of the abuse and rape of underage girls. They are so horrified that someone who did this to them may be pardoned or commuted. Congress member Rokano, we want to thank you for being with us from Capitol Hill. Democratic Congress member from California. Coming up, we speak to the public health and nutrition expert, author of the painful

truth of hunger in America. Stay with us. And life will flow as long as the grass grows and the water runs. And while I'm here on earth, I rejoice in its word. Because freedom is street. Freedom is free You can take that away from me You got your guns are up on display

But you can't control I feel no way Because freedom is sweet Freedom is free by Chicano Batman performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We turned to how the shutdowns brought attention to food insecurity and hunger in the United States. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court extended a short-term stay that allows the Trump administration to withhold full food assistance benefits under SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, until Thursday at midnight,

an anticipation of the end of the shutdown. Snap helps nearly 42 million people to eat and also to feed their children each month. Delayed and partial payments have occurred despite the availability of contingency funds to keep the program funded during shutdown because the Trump administration chose not to use those funds and resisted a court order to do so. The USDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency that, runs a program, told states to deliver just 65 percent of benefits and claw back any payments beyond that. Some states have chosen to fully fund benefits in their states. The Supreme Court

said withholding some funding is permissible while legal battles continue in lower courts. Snap benefits break down to a maximum about $10 a day per person. At St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix, patrons waited in line for 45 minutes to receive assistance. Many expressed frustration with President Trump. This is 11-year-old sincere Miller, who was waiting with his grandmother. Trump, why are you starving the kids?

I'm hungry, and we have to get boxes from the food bank. For more on SNAP and hunger, we're joined by Mariana Chilton, professor of practice in the Department of Nutrition School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Nationally recognized leader on child hunger in America. Author the painful truth about hunger in America. She joins us from Sunderland, Massachusetts. We only have a few minutes, Professor Chilton. If you can explain what is happening now and what the Supreme Court decided and what exactly the Trump administration is doing

in saying, if states make up for what the federal government is not giving to Hungary people, they now have to claw that money and support back from poor people. That's an outrageous claim. What's been happening over the past weeks has been unconscionable, and in the past week,

there have been four different judge assessments about what should be done with SNAP. All of this chaos and confusion was completely avoidable and is against the law. SNAP benefits are an entitlement, and the funds are there, especially in the case of a government shutdown.

So all of this was avoidable. The Trump administration continues to break the law. The fact that there's a stay until Thursday night, while Congress decides whether they want to come back to work or not, is, it's a, you know, the fact that they're waiting, I can understand. They're trying to reduce the amount of confusion. 19 states, including Washington, D.C., have released full SNAP benefits to their constituents. Others have released some partial funds. It's hard to know quite what's happening. What is very clear that it's happening is that 42 million Americans, 16 million of them children are really struggling to be able to afford nutritious food for their health and well-being and for good school performance. So it's deeply concerning, and what it shows is how precarious the American people truly are.

Only 50% of people in the United States have savings enough to get to get them through hard times. That's why we're seeing government workers who are not getting paid, waiting in lines. the food bank. It's unconscionable and just so wrong on so many different levels. Professor Shilton, are food stamps, is Snap the new name for food stamps? Yes, Snap is the new name for food stamps. It means supplemental nutrition assistance program. Lots of people continue to refer to it as food stance because it is a beloved program. It used to be a bipartisan darling. That's why it's so surprising that the Republicans have been so absent in this entire dialogue and have been actively causing harm. It's very surprising.

Snap benefits or food stamps, as many people still call them, was a way to bring together rural communities, farming communities with urban groups, people who really need access to that food. So it's quite surprising that the Republicans have been causing so much harm along with the Trump administration. Again, this was something that used to have a lot of bipartisan support. Unfortunately, this withdrawal of SNAP benefits and this cruel way of threatening states and even threatening grocery stores if they help SNAP recipients is a part of a long history in the United States of denying people food in order to cause chaos and also force people into submission. This is what the United States government did to Native Americans, you know, less than 100 years ago and on beyond that. they used to starve Native Americans into submission in order to steal their land and to force them into compliance with the American government. Finally, I just wanted to say that the right to food is extremely important in this sense.

And at the climate summit in Belim, they have insisted that ending poverty and ending hunger is central to ensuring that we address the climate crisis. Food is a fundamental human right. Many states can actually put the right to food in their constitutions. Why should we rate on the federal government who is not abiding by the rule of law? They're completely absent, morally corrupt, and we need to really, what's amazing is the solidarity that's expressed with people who are poor. I am just so energized and filled with awe at the community groups that have come together to feed their families, that farmers, black, white, Latino, and native have been helping their communities. and many of those farmers and farm workers are also participating in SNAP.

So I have lots of hope for the American people coming up with new and creative ideas, including Mayor Mamdani, who wants to have publicly funded grocery stores in the city of New York. There are wonderful new ideas emerging, and I'm just in awe of the American people coming together. I want to turn to President Trump being interviewed on Monday night by Laura Ingraham on Fox. Well, Snap has gone from like seven billion. to many times $7 billion. And, you know, people keep talking about SNAP. But SNAP is supposed to be, if you're down and out, you really, really have.

That's what the purpose of it. People are getting, they walk in and they get it automatically now. So the number is many times what it should be. It's disgraceful. Can we change that? I'll tell you what. This country would have been busted, 100% busted within five months into a new administration if I didn't win. Can we reform SNAP for these benefits so they're used?

for the people who really need them? It's meant for people. And you know what it does is it really puts the country at jeopardy. People that need it have to get it. I'm all for it. But people that are able-bodied can do a job. They leave their job because they figure they can pick this up. It's easier.

That's not the purpose of it. So if you can explain, are they now trying to, using this opportunity to go after people who receive food stamps? Oh, they already have been doing that. I think in the big, beautiful bill that was passed in the summertime, it's already an indication of what they're trying to do. One thing I would like to remind Trump and his administration is that the vast majority of people who are participating in SNAP are actually, as Trump would say, down and out. That's when I talked about the precarity of the American people that 50% of the people in the United States don't have enough savings to get them through hard times. again, while his own workers are waiting in food pantry lines, he doesn't think that people

are down and out that need actual food. So we need to correct him as well. People who are able-bodied who are receiving SNAP benefits are actually already working, which I want to insist that the reason that they're on SNAP is because their wages are far too low, that to support them being able to pay their rent, pay for health care, and pay for food. That's why so many people tell me about trading off, not, they're not eating, but in order to take their medicines or they don't take their medicine because they need to eat. This is why we have a major public health crisis. We are at the verge of a major public health crisis with the health care premiums increasing, and it's deeply concerning. This is why we need to have universal health care and also maybe

consider if we're going to get rid of SNAP, let's turn it into universal basic income. So people are not tied solely to being able to buy groceries that they can spend their money as they please. There are two major voices that are absent in this entire dialogue, and that would be the food industry. Walmart is the primary redeemer of SNAP benefits. They redeem one quarter of SNAP benefits, and the vast majority of their workers participate in SNAP. Walmart has been completely silent in this. As well, we need to think about Amazon and also the health care companies that are increasing the premiums. We need to bring corporations and the government back into line and find ways we can solve, we can promote health and well-being and solve

this public health crisis. And finally, we just passed Veterans Day. Can you talk about veterans receiving food stamps, people who are disabled receiving food stamps? Yes, very much so. One point four million veterans participate in the SNAP program. The vast majority of those veterans are people with disabilities, and those disabilities were created in the combat that they were doing for the United States, mental health challenges.

40% of people who have disabilities in this country report food insecurity, and SNAP is a lifeline for them because their disability benefits are not enough to help support their health and well-being. Not only veterans, but also active-duty military, many active-duty military families also participate in SNAP. So we need to be able to support veterans, people who are active-duty military, families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities. Mariana Chilton, we thank you so much for being with us,

Professor of Practice in the Department of Nutrition School, Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, author of the book, The Painful Truth About Hunger in America. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. As a House of Representatives moves closer to forcing the release of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice. We turn now to look at a new series by DropSight News looking at Epstein's ties to Israeli

intelligence and how he secretly brokered numerous deals for Israeli intelligence. On Tuesday, Dropsite revealed an Israeli spy stayed for weeks at a time with Epstein in Manhattan. Dropsite has also looked at Epstein's role, brokering a security agreement between Israel and Mongolia, and Epstein's role in setting up a back channel between Israel and Russia on Syria. This all comes, as CNN's revealed today, Epstein mentioned Donald Trump by name multiple times and private correspondence over the last 15 years, according to newly released emails from Democrats in the House Oversight Committee. CNN's reporting the emails show Epstein asserts Trump spent significant time with a woman whom oversight Democrats describe as a victim of Epstein's sex trafficking.

We're joined now by Drop Sites Mertaza Hussein, who's been reporting on Epstein with his colleague Ryan Grimm. Rentaza, welcome back to Democracy Now. Explain what you feel the media is not covering. What is the role of Jeffrey Epstein when it comes to U.S. foreign policy? There's been a lot of justifiable focus on Epstein's very grave crimes and facilitation of the crimes of others related to sex trafficking and sex abuse. But one critical aspect of the story has not been covered is Epstein's own relations to foreign governments, the U.S. governments, and particularly foreign intelligence agencies. Now, this information is not entirely private. A lot of it is out there, actually, in house disclosures as parts of certain lawsuits which have been leveled against Epstein or over Epstein's activities over the past few years.

And in a few databases of leaked emails from certain figures around the world, which have come out, showing extensive contacts with Epstein. So I think that a lot of these coverage of him so far, to date at least, it's focused, again, on salacious details of his life and the crimes he was involved in related to minors and women. But the other aspect, the political aspect, and who he was and the role he played at this very high level, facilitating deals, interacting and liaisoning with intelligence agencies in different parts of the world,

has not been covered. We don't know exactly who Epstein was specifically to be in the position to commit the crimes that he was doing, And our story is aiming to focus and shedding light upon one particular aspect, which is Epstein's extensive relationship with Israeli intelligence, U.S. intelligence, and the intelligence agency of other countries as well, too. He was a dealmaker and a fixer at a very, very elite level, and he was making deals that were ultimately wound up, in some cases, being signed as formal security agreements between the government of Israel and other countries. That's what our series is focusing on right now. And it's just coming across naturally looking at the information contained in the publicly available data about his communications over the past during the period of about 2013 and 2016. So tell us who Yoni Corrin is.

You reveal that this senior in Israeli intelligence officer lives in one of Epstein's apartments at close personal ties to former CIA director Leon Panetta. Can you talk about what specific intelligence gathering operations? you believe that Corrin was conducting from Epstein's apartment. And also the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ahud Barak, which has been documented over and over again. So a lot of the information we have now coming out about these intelligence ties do come from private correspondence between Barack and Epstein,

which were leaked by hackers some years ago, posted online, but have never really been analyzed in great detail, but shed profound light on Epstein's ties, not just to Barack, but officials all over the world in foreign governments in Africa and Central Asia and Europe and Russia, whom he was helping connect Barack with. Interestingly, Barack was relying on Epstein support rather than vice versa, despite the fact that Barack was a very powerful figure in Israeli security establishment. So these emails, in addition to House disclosures, which also appointed the same information, showed that this intelligence agent, who was a longtime military intelligence agent in Israel,

who was Barack's chief aide for many years, lived at Epstein's house for significant stretches of time, weeks at a time between this period of 2013, 2015. He was staying in Epstein's house. We don't know specifically from the communications what they may have been working on and what his role may have been there, the reason he was staying in his house. Barack would also stay at his house sometimes to hold meetings and to do business in New York. that was facilitated by that. But we do see that they were corresponding.

And at one point, Epstein does transfer money to Kornan. And there is also communication between Barack and Korn in the inbox, which we believe is coded communication, perhaps referring to dead drops of information or something else in New York City that they're engaged in. It's hard to tell because part of the reason that this correspondence is interesting is that we knew from the Snowden disclosures many years ago that Barack and Korn were being surveilled by the NSA,

in New York around this time or in the United States around this time. So whatever they were doing with Epstein or in his house, in New York, amongst each other, with money, with, you know, sharing information or data or packages or something else, it was taking place in this period. And again, the interesting thing is that even if one would not look at the emails and keep those separate, this information is in the house disclosures. In Jetsri, Epstein's calendars, it's mentioned that Korans coming and going from his home in the day's departure that he was saying,

how long you're staying for. So this is stuff that the media could be covered, the broader media could be covering. It's just escaped attention for reasons which, you know, one can speculate or it's hard to say exactly. But, you know, we're going to continue drilling down this, not shying away from the political implications of the activities, obscene's activities and the ties he had with powerful figures like Barack

and intelligence agents like Korn. The leaked email showed that the former prime minister, Ahud Barak, bookmarked a private initiative with oracles Larry Ellison. Can you talk about the significance of this initiative? So what we saw from the email is effectively that around the time that Epstein and Barack were corresponding, that Koran's activities in New York and Epstein's home were going on. Barack himself had gone on to have a separate meeting with Larry Ellison.

Now, Larry Ellison is a very well-known pro. Israel donor. He's a billionaire and the founder of Oracle. Currently, he's involved with his son buying up much of the American media. We've done other reporting on Ellison drawn not from this database, but from a separate database of communications, which are also leaked and are posted on a website called the Distributed Denial Service, upset denial of Serious Secrets. And they show that Ellison had been very involved with the Israeli government and other facets helping, you know, I don't always shape the American political system for Israel. He was helping.

helping vet political candidates at the behest of Israeli officials for their favorability towards Israel to determine who we give money to. So we don't know from the correspondence with Barack what he was discussing with Ellison at that time or what the private initiative may have been. There's no further, you know, not everything was discussed by email. A lot of things just got by phone, so not everything is documented in that manner. But we do know that Ellison was very closely involved in promoting the perceived interests of the Israel in the United States at that time, and Barack was doing the same thing.

And interestingly, Epstein was doing the same thing. Epstein was helping Barack facilitate Israeli interests around the world, different countries, helping him refine his pitches, connecting with people to help pursue, you know, the geopolitical interests of the Israeli government. And this is all coming as for one partial of that. And so Barak's meeting with Ellison, one can imagine it would have something to do with the ongoing efforts he'd be engaged in. And the leaked emails showing Jeffrey Epstein and Barack. securing a private meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2013 to orchestrate the removal of Bashar al-Assad.

I mean, it didn't succeed. But in an email exchange, Epstein wrote to the former Prime Minister of Israel, with civil unrest exploding in Ukraine, Syria, Somalia, Libya, and the desperation of those in power, isn't this perfect for you? Barack replied, you're right in a way, but not simple to transform it into a cash flow, a subject for Saturday, Ehud Barack. wrote. Can you talk about as we wrap up that relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Ahud Barak attempting to profit from the war in Syria? Well, that email that you just read out

is a very important email because it kind of explains the broader thesis that Epstein and Barack have been operating under and what they've been doing exactly. They've been going around the world pitching Epstein and pitching Barack as someone who could solve the security problems of different countries and introducing them to powerful people in these countries. We're going to cover more of those in the weeks and months to come. And telling them that Barack, through his connections with the Israeli intelligence and Israeli intelligence-linked surveillance technology firms especially, could help introduce them to these countries, embed them, and then later signed formal deals with Israel.

We did a story about this, how it manifested in Cote d'Ivoire, also in Mongolia. In this tie with Russia, it's very fascinating because Epstein was the one who was arranging a back channel between Barack and Putin to discuss this deal to remove Bashar al-Assad and replace him with putatively a pro-Russian dictator who Israel was also okay with. That didn't come to pass. But I think that the interaction show tremendous access that Epstein enjoyed not just Israeli officials or U.S. officials, but also the Russian officials. He had the ability to get meetings with Putin.

He met with Putin himself on numerous occasions, according to his own correspondence. and you know that is something that you know how did that come about what was the background behind that we don't know but we do know that at the very least epstein was somebody who considered himself to have the ability to access a high-level Russian officials he claimed in the emails as I mentioned that he met Putin or Putin asked to meet him that's Epstein's own depiction of the interaction but he did absolutely have the juice to get Barack in the room with Putin and the funny thing is that Barack had to rely on Epstein for that to create that back channel. It shows the tremendous influence and power that Epstein had, which does not really,

you know, we have not had a full accounting of that. That has not been accounted for, in our public understanding in this case. We hope to shed more light of that in our own reporting, but we need the government, we need other news outlets to pay attention to this, and put together the pieces of who Epstein was and the role he played as an international dealmaker. Mertaza is saying I want to thank you for being with us, National Security Reporter at Dropsite News. We'll link to your new articles about Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Israeli intelligence. Coming up, put your soul on your hand and walk.

A new documentary on Gaza by the acclaimed Iranian director, Sepida Farsi. Blackwater's a pretty bird, she's a pretty bird, she sings a sweet time. Black Waters, performed by Nora Brown, Stephanie Coleman, in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We end today's show with a renowned Iranian filmmaker, Sepida Farsi. The director of the new documentary, Put Your Soul. on your hand and walk.

The film based on regular video calls, SEPEDA made with the Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassuna in Gaza over the course of a year from April 2024 to April 2025. This is the trailer for the film. Where are you now, your position? This is my neighborhood. No one lived here or here or there.

There's no one. When the war started on October 7th, I started filming Palestinian refugees who were just arriving from Gaza. Through one of them, I came to know Fottom. I am a photographer. Yes, I saw. I saw your photos. This is my world. I find my life in this. I am trying to find some life in this world, in this dead.

Every second you walk in the street, you put your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, fall on your hands and walk. I'm shaking. It's very close. Each of our conversations could be the last one. So every time we connect and I can see her face. It feels like a miracle. Just like this.

Go without any goodbyes. Meeting her was like a mirror held in front of me. How much both our lives are conditioned by walls and wars. You look good, you look good. How are you? We lived as a very simple life, and they want to take. This simple life from us. Why?

I don't know if this will end or not. I must keep going and I must document everything to be me. Look at that smile. The trailer for the new documentary, put your soul on your hand and walk by the acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Sipidafarci. Based on calls with the Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Sona in Gaza, last April 15th, the documentary was accepted to the Cannes Film Festival. On the following day, Fatma was killed, along with almost her whole immediate family except for her mother in an Israeli air strike on her home in northern Gaza. Sepida Farsi joins us now in our New York studio here for Doc NYC, where the film is playing on Thursday.

Day at 12.45 in the afternoon at Village East. Incredible documentary. Talk more about Fatma, who you call Fatten. And you had to change the end of the documentary. We spoke to you the day after she was killed. I first, hi Amy. I first didn't want to change the film at all because I wanted it to remain as it was when she was alive. And it took me a few weeks and a few days only before the Cannes premiere, I decided to end the film with the last moments we spent together when she learned about the selection. And it's something that I will never get over. I mean, it was documented by forensic architecture.

It was a targeted attack. I do not understand how, I mean, Israeli government and army are eliminating journalists and photographers just for doing their jobs, and she was just a photographer. Well over 200, and you point out 28 women journalists. More even. I think we're beyond 300 now. And you know what? Just a few hours before the ceasefire, the so-called ceasefire, which is not one, in my opinion, went into effect officially.

They rebombed their house. Again, they destroyed it fully, meaning that there is no proof of what happened now. But Forensick had luckily investigated its online. I don't know what to say. but she was, her light is still there. Now, you weren't with her because journalists couldn't go into Gaza. So you had this series of phone calls, video phone calls. I wanted to go back to another excerpt from Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk

as you continue to speak with the Palestinian photojournalist now dead, Fatima Hassan. Have you lost weight because of the food? Yes, of course. Of course. Now I, you see my mind is very massive and I have no focus because I have no healthy food or good food even. So I feel that I can't even stand up, you know, and I can't talk even. every day I told my mom I want a chicken I hope

or I wish if we had just chicken because we didn't eat it for nine months we met the first time I think two months ago and it was already seven months of the war and you told me you had chicken once I think I've

watching that no My biggest dream. So have one chicken and one chocolate. I told my friend in the South, just didn't be one chocolate, one chocolate. I miss everything.

I miss my life. I miss the food that was my mom cooked. It's chocolate and his cafe and coffee, everything. Again, Fatim, on April 15th, you told her your film about her, got into the Cannes Film Festival. Talk about her response, and the next day, she's killed in an Israeliirstrike. She was so delighted. She was shining. She was shining all the time. You said, yes, yes. Do you know Ken? Do you know Ken? You said, yes, yes. Yeah, and then she's like, what? Fabulous. I'm coming.

And you invited her. Yes, I was on the visa. I would have gotten the visa almost. It was almost ready. She sent me her passport, all of that very quickly. And my concern was to get her out the Israeli checkpoints, but never, ever, I thought she would be targeted like the day after. And I still don't know who made that decision. Obviously, nobody knows, apart from the IDF. But her light and her joy were amazing, yes. And you know what, Amy, we all die one day. This is the question I ask myself, why do people do this? We'll all die, all of us. So those people who make these decisions

and who kill such a person, why do they do that? You talk about, with Fatim, often about religion, and she talks about why it's so important to her. You're an Iranian filmmaker. She was a Ghazin photojournalist, and she introduces you so often.

often to the different members of her family and her friends, little girls and boys. Talk more about this. We had become family. My family knew her. Her family knew me. We were really, I know about those little kids who have grown up who are thinner because they don't have food to eat, but they're one year older. The two of them are alive, luckily. The mother has survived. The rest of those whom you see in the film are all gone, were killed. And I think that the resilience, the way they resist this permanent occupation and the genocide is so amazing. That keeping hope, as she used to say, hope is a dangerous thing that she was quoting Shashang Redemption, which is a strange thing for a girl who never left Gaza in her whole life.

You know, she was so knowledgeable and great. She was so talented. And so you dedicate the film at the enter family. Who exactly died in the strike? Fatem, two of her sisters, Wala and Allah, Allah was five nuns pregnant, three of the brothers, Mohannad, Muhammad, and Yazan,

2015 and 10. Her father, Raid, and Fatim herself. And her work as a photojournalist. Talk about that in this last 30 seconds. Yes. There are many exhibitions around the world. Hopefully soon in the U.S.,

There was a book published in France called Lysiodo Gaza, Eyes of Gaza. I'm trying to get it out in the U.S. as well. Many books, many exhibitions. She's going to get an honorary PhD from the Canary University, Las Palmas. Many things are done to her. A man just took her photo to Vatican because he wrote to me, I'm going there, I'm going to take her photo with me. People are walking for Fatah.

Sepi de Farsi, award-winning Iranian filmmaker, director of the new documentary, put your soul. on your hand and walk. It's going to be premiering here in New York at Dock, NYC, at Village East, Thursday at 1245. But it's also in theaters around the country. Right now at IFC. Right now, also at IFC. Democracy Now, the film about it, steal the story, please, will be shown at two theaters here in New York, at the SVA Theater and at IFC, Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, I'll be speaking twice in Amsterdam. in the Netherlands, at the Royal Theater Carre.

The film will show there at 5, 15, and 8.30 on Saturday night. Hope to see people in Amsterdam. That does it for our show. I'm Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now. Check our website at DemocracyNow.org for details about the film's showing.