Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-05-22 Friday

Episode Date: May 22, 2026

Headlines for May 22, 2026; “Politically Driven Epidemic”: Ebola Response Hampered by Impoverishment & U.S. Global Health Cuts; Stephen Colbert Out at CBS as Trump Weaponizes Regulatory Power to Control the Media: David Sirota; “AI Resist List”: Karen Hao on Data Center Resistance, Tech Billionaires, “Empire of AI” & More

From Denver and Chicago, this is Democracy Now. Although we keep receiving cases, we don't have enough space to admit and hospitalize them. We have set up a tent right here already, and perhaps we will need another one to try to isolate patients in the immediate future. There aren't enough medications, protective equipment, or even staff. There are now almost 750 suspected cases of Ebola, and we are now, 177 suspected deaths in the latest outbreak. As health officials race to contain the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, we'll go to the DRC. The epicenter of the outbreak is a gold mining region where health and infrastructure systems are poor despite the mineral wealth.

And we'll ask, how have U.S. cuts to science and health funding impacted the global public health response. Then late-night comedian and Trump critic Stephen Colbert signed off last night for the final time as host of the late show on CBS. On night one of the Colbert report back in the day, I said, anyone can read the news to you. I promised to feel the news at you. And I realized pretty soon in this job that our job over here was different. We were here to feel the news with you. And I don't know about it. you, but I sure have felt it. Stephen Colbert, who had the highest ratings in late night, was canceled.

After making a joke about CBS's parent company Paramount, giving a big fat bribe to President Trump, ahead of a mega-merger, we'll talk to journalist David Sorota here in Denver about free speech in an era of media consolidation and fighting back. And finally, to journalist Karen Howe, author of Empire of AI, Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's Open AI. She's just helped launch the AI resist list, the document acts of resistance to the AI industry across the world. All that and more are coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in Denver.

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives called off a vote. Thursday on a war powers resolution seeking to end President Trump's ability to strike Iran. Its abrupt cancellation came as Republicans were on the verge of losing the vote as several members were absent from the House floor. This follows Tuesday 50 to 47 vote by the Senate to advance a war powers resolution. Any vote in the House will have to wait until at least June 1st when Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess. This comes as the U.S. and Iran continue to exchange proposals for a peace agreement through Pakistani mediators. Earlier today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said

indirect negotiations over a deal with Iran had seen, quote, a little bit of movement, and that's good, he said. Russia and China have condemned the Trump administration's indictment of 94-year-old former Cuban President Raul Castro on murder charges. Russia's foreign ministry accused the White House of, quote, unquote, attempts to tighten the sanctions news and promise to provide active support to Cuba. China's foreign ministry said it always opposes unilateral sanctions that of no basis in international law. It added, quote, the United States should stop brandishing sanctions or judicial proceedings at Cuba and stop resorting to the threat of force at every turn, unquote. On Thursday, President Trump said it was likely he would order military strikes on Cuba. Other presidents have looked at this for 50, 60 years doing something, and it looks like I'll be the one that does it, so I would be happy to do it.

Lebanon's National News Agency reports in Israeli strike in southern Lebanon's Tire District has killed six people, including two paramedics and a Syrian child. The medics were reportedly killed in a double-tap strike after an initial strike on a motorcycle. The latest violence came despite a U.S. broker ceasefire that Israel's violated on a near-daily basis. Lebanon's health ministry reports, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 3,100 people. Meanwhile, Lebanon's finance minister told Reuters the war could shrink the economy by at least 7% this year. Israel's deported more than 400 activists that abducted from a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla in international waters. On Thursday, members of the Global Samud Flotilla were flown from southern Israel to Istanbul, Turkey, aboard three chartered flights. They arrived with stories of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of their Israeli captors.

This is U.S. activist Alex Colston. In one of the prison, those, 35 people suffered fracture to their ribs. People said there was at least 12 sexual assaults that took place. People were tased. Me personally, I was kept in cuffs where I can't feel my hands anymore. I was kicking in the ribs multiple times. The release of the Gaza flotilla members comes amidst global condemnation of Israeli National Security Minister Tamar Ben-Gavir,

who published video of himself taunting dozens of handcuffed activists. In Greenland, hundreds of people. of protesters gathered at the opening of a new U.S. consulate building in the Capitol nuke on Thursday to denounce President Trump's threats to annex the island. The protests came after Trump's special envoy to Greenland, Republican Governor Jeff Landry of Louisiana, made his first trip to the semi-autonomous Danish territory. Landry reportedly spoke on Saturday with President Trump, who told him to, quote, go there and make a bunch of friends, unquote.

This is Newk resident Aram Banga Isaacson. It's just a really unpleasant reminder of people as commodities or as a product as something that can be bought and sold. It's very unpleasant to witness, and I think this ruthless rhetoric where military actions are not taken off the table, is completely wild and ruthless towards the people who live here. Senate Republicans abruptly left one. D.C., Thursday for the Memorial Day recess, without casting a vote for a $72 billion budget reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years. That's on top of the $170 billion provided to those agencies by Congress last year. This comes as President Trump

faces a growing revolt among Republicans over his plans to use public funds to build a one billion dollar ballroom at the White House, and the Justice Department's creation of a nearly $1.8 billion slush fund to compensate MAGA allies prosecuted by the Justice Department. Already, several prominent January 6 rioters have said publicly they'll seek a share of the fund, as have disgraced politicians George Santos and Rod Blagojevich. On Thursday, Senate Republicans met with Attorney General Todd Blanche behind closed doors. The Hill reports the meeting became a screaming fest after Blanche refused to limit who would be eligible to get paid by the fund. North Carolina Republican Senator Tom Tillis called the plan, stupid on stilts.

Because it will invariably put us in a position where your taxpayer dollars and my taxpayer, dollars could potentially compensate someone who assaulted a police officer admitted their guilt, got convicted, got pardoned, and now we're going to pay them for that? That's absurd. The American people are going to reject this out of hand. Meanwhile, congressional Democrats have introduced legislation to block the Trump's Justice Department's new slush fund. A bill authored by Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin would bar the use of any

federal funds to back the settlement and would limit payouts. Other legislation proposes a 100% tax on future beneficiaries. To see our interview with Congressmember Jamie Raskin, go to Democracy Now.org. In Arizona, Tucson advocates are demanding the release of activists, DACA recipient Carla Toledo, who was violently detained at her home earlier this week. Federal immigration agents forced their way into Toledo's house to arrest her without reportedly showing a warrant. Toledo has lived in the U.S. since she was a year old and obtained deferred action for childhood arrivals or DACA, which protects immigrants who came to the U.S.'s children from deportation. But under Trump's second term, DACA recipients had been increasingly targeted.

In Oregon, body camera footage obtained by the Group Innovation Law Lab shows federal immigration agents pulling over a van of farm workers, then smashing the windows and using a facial recognition app to identify and arrest the workers without a warrant. The footage was disclosed as part of a class action lawsuit filed against the agent's final tactics, add racial profiling following the farm workers' detention in October. In related news, activists say at least 20 immigrants jailed at the Desert View annex ICE detention facility in Adelano, California, have started a hunger strike to protest inhumane conditions, including medical neglect and unsafe drinking water. Immigrants also say food portions have been reduced, forcing them to have to purchase items

sold in the commissary at exorbitant prices. The Adelanto Ice Jail is operated by the private prison company Geo Group. At least four immigrants have died there since September. In Chicago, all charges against four activists who were arrested last year during mass protests against immigration raids outside the Broadview ICE facility have been dismissed. During a court hearing Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office admitted federal prosecutors committed misconduct during the grand jury proceedings that resulted in the indictments, including having conversations with grand jurors outside the courtroom.

This was one of the most high-profile prosecutions against activists. following Trump's so-called Operation Midway Blitz crackdown when hundreds of mass federal immigration agents flooded the streets of Chicago. The defendants came to be known as the Broadview Six. Ultimately, four activists face the remaining charges, including former candidate for the U.S. House, Kat Abu Ghazala.

Here in Colorado, Democrats have censured their party's highest elected official, Governor Jared Polis for granting clemency to an election denier who is convicted of tampering with voting systems. Last Friday, Governor Polis announced he was commuting the nine-year prison sentence of former Mesa County clerk, Tina Peters, who was convicted of conspiring with allies of President Trump to breach voting systems in 2021, in an effort to prove Trump's claims of a rigged 2020 election. On Wednesday, the Colorado Democratic Party State Central Committee voted to rebuke Governor Polis, writing, quote, reducing her sentence now, under pressure from Donald Trump is not justice. It sends a message to feature bad actors that election tampering has consequences unless you're friends with the president. That's a dangerous and disappointing precedent to set, unquote.

The Democratic National Committee has released a post-election autopsy. criticizing the failed 2024 presidential campaign. The release of the long-awaited one-handed 192-page document follows a months-long pressure campaign by party activists who protested DNC chair Ken Martin's decision to keep the report secret.

Martin had said he hoped to prevent a distraction ahead of the midterm elections. On Thursday, critics slam the report as woefully incomplete and unsubstantiated, makes no mention of President Biden's decision to seek re-election, nor how Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee without having to compete in primaries. It also makes no reference to the Biden administration's support for Israel. Graham Platner, the frontrunner among Democrats, seeking to challenge Maine Republican

Senator Susan Collins in November, wrote, quote, the words Gaza and genocide appear precisely zero times in the DNC autopsy, turning a blind eye to Christ. Against Humanity was a grave injustice and a terrible election strategy, unquote. In San Diego, more than 2,000 people gathered Thursday to mourn Amina Abdullah, Mansookhazaja and Nader Awad, who were killed in a shooting at the city's largest mosque. The three victims were remembered as heroes as they attempted to stop two attackers when they opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday. The center's Imam, Taha Hussain, address the crowd during Thursday's Janaza Islamic Funeral Prayer Service.

Let's work together to stop this hatred, stop this racism, stop dehumanizing the Muslim community. So we can live together in this very diverse society, very diverse nation. We can live together as brothers and sisters, loving one another, and working together for the better of our community and our society. This comes as more details have emerged about one of the suspects, Caleb Vasquez, came to police attention more than a year before the mosque attack over his disturbing behavior idolizing Nazis and mass shooters. Last year, police obtained a court order to confiscate dozens of his father's weapons from

the family home. Vasquez had also been previously confined in an involuntary psychiatric hold. The new revelations came as part of documents filed in a San Diego court raising questions about the authorities and ability to prevent the mosque shooting. And Tennessee has called off the execution of Tony Carruthers after prison officials were unable to find a vein to administer lethal injection drugs. On Thursday, Republican Governor Bill Lee issued a one-year reprieve to Carruthers over the botched execution, which came despite his claims of innocence and demands for a new trial. Laura Porter, the executive director of the U.S. campaign to end the death penalty, told the New York Times, quote, Tennessee has effectively made the case against the death penalty, unquote.

And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org. the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in Denver with Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. The deadly outbreak of Ebola in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has caused 177 suspected deaths out of 750 suspected cases in the DRC in neighboring Uganda. That's according to the World Health Organization. But officials believe the virus may have been spreading undetected for around two months, making the likely death toll much higher. On Thursday, officials of the Alliance Flavkongo, which includes the Rwanda-based M23 rebels who seized control of parts of the Eastern DRC last

year, confirmed a case of Ebola had been found in South Kivu province, which is hundreds of miles away from the epicenter. Authorities believe the first cases originated in Mangboalu, a region known for artisanal gold mining in the eastern Aturi province. Instability and weak health and infrastructure have made treating patients and containing the spread of the virus more difficult. On Thursday, protesters set fire to Ebola isolation tents at a hospital in the town of Rampara after a dispute erupted over the burial of a man suspected of dying of Ebola.

A witness says the family had wanted to take the body for family burial at home, which can be dangerous. I'm in Rampara. At the Rompara Hospital, we're locked down. Look at the angry protesters. They're setting fire to the tents of the sick because they want to recover their bodies. And there are a few police officers who can't even contain this situation. A significant intervention is really needed. We go now to Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, where we're joined by Jimmy Munguriyak.

He is country director for resource matters in the DRC, an NGO that works on natural resource governance issues to ensure mineral and energy wealth generates benefits locally. He's also from Bunya, the capital city of the Ituri province. Jimmy, welcome to Democracy Now. Thank you so much for being with us. You're right near the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak. You're from that area which you visited frequently in your work. If you can talk about the extent of the crisis and talk about the gold mining region there and why you see that as intimately connected, the conditions with the Ebola outbreak. Thank you very much. Thank you for that question. Yeah, as you say today, Ebola outbreak is really, really a very urgent issue in the Mongolia region. And what makes it be more urgent?

Because as you already said, that it was discovered after like two months since it started. That is one thing which makes now the response to be not very easy in the area. But that area has some characteristics that is likely to make that the Ebola out of bed to be spread very, very quickly. I can mention some of them. Firstly, the access to the region is very, very, very. difficult because of the poor road condition. And also in some areas, there is not even the road. Because it is a mining area, but more artisanal mining.

And that brings to another issue or challenge that can make the outbreakable to spread very quick. Is there their behavior, the behavior of artisan miners in in the area, in their behavior, they trivialize everything almost. And even now when the Ebola case is very real, some of those artisanal mining still think that Ebola does not exist, that it is a kind of curse in the region because of the gold in the area. so that one also makes now the response to be not very, very effective in the area

because that behavior, I think they believe that Ebola, they think that Ebola is not real Ebola, but it is some kind of disease which was thrown on the populations, and that comes also with those African culture the way they consider things, and it makes now difficult Ebola to have a very strong response. And another challenge is that, you know, the area is really, as I mentioned, there is poor road conditions, but there also not enough health care facilities compared now to the number of cases now. For example, now all the hospitals are populated.

with those who are sick. And now those who are still at home, they fear to go to the hospital because saying that when they reach the hospital, it will be told that they have Ebola. And no one need to die to say that I'm dead of Ebola, because if someone dies from Ebola, can easily, when they, you know, in the African culture,

they still have a kind of consideration. to the dead body. And when they manipulate the dead body, it is spreading again the Ebola outbreak. So those are some challenges. And another one is the insecurity in the zone. You know, the east part of the Congo have been in insecurity for many years. And now also where there is, where the Ebola started in a Mongol region, as I mentioned, that regions is divided between, two army groups. They are not rebels, but they are militias groups. And then to move from one side, to one side, from one side,

to another side of the area, maybe they need to go through those insecurity zones. And that made that those who are maybe affected at their home, they have now difficulties to reach the health facilities where it is. that one also complicate a lot, a lot, the response which can be given to Ebola spread. The government has taken some decisions just today to limit the gathering of people to a maximum of 50 people, but that decision has been taken this morning. But for those areas, as I said in one region, and also the area around,

it will not be easy to applicate those decisions from the government from the professional government because they have their way of thinking, as I say, their behavior of trivializing everything. They will even trivialize that the decision from the government. And that is very, very dangerous for the area. And I think what the government should do

is to see that how they deploy a lot of now beyond the suchizations. I think it needs even some police accompaniment to make sure that the communities are obeying to those rules detected by the professional government. Other way, it is very difficult. You are hearing about the statistic.

those are the official statistic. But on the ground, the statistic is very higher than what is official. Because when we talk about the death case today, about more than 180 persons have already died of Ebola since it started. That is the official statistic. But it doesn't include those who are dying at home and buried in their own way. feeling that they are related to be declared dying.

Jimmy, Jimmy, Munguriyak, I wanted to ask you, in terms, because the Mangualo area is so close to Uganda, is it your sense that many of the miners are migrant laborers, are they local folks? In other words, to what degree can the actual people working on the mines who contract the disease spread it to other areas, especially to Uganda and as well as other areas of the Congo.

Yeah, thank you. You know that Kirchasa is very, very far from Uganda. And from all that region of Munguaru and Bunia, Uganda, especially the Yucampala, is considered to be like a capital for those in Mungualu and in Bunia and all those areas, even in North Kivu. So they consider Uganda to be very closer. Even economically, all those areas is depending on Uganda.

So the Ebola outbreak is likely to be spread very quickly because there is a very high level of movement of people and goods between Uganda and Congo. But yesterday at night, the Uganda government also. took some decisions. And about that, the decisions is to, to, and not, I mean, for the, for the public transport, used in the borders between Uganda and Congo, now there might not be a public transport. So it is prohibited to have the public transport. And that decision was taken by Uganda, and it is the way of limiting, to limit the Ebola to be spread to Uganda.

side. And also, among those decisions is that the companies or the flight from Uganda to Congo will be closed after 48 hours. That is mean it since tomorrow. All the flight from Uganda to Congo will not be operated. So that's some decision taken by Uganda to just to leave. Jimmy McGurrick, we have to leave it there. But of course, we're going to continue to To cover this, country director for the DRC, an NGO that works on natural resource governance to ensure DRC mineral and energy wealth generates benefits locally and contributes to a fair and inclusive energy transition. There is currently no vaccine for the Bundi-Bugio strain of the Ebola virus, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which funds the development of

new vaccines, said at a press briefing in Geneva Thursday that it could be hard to meet their goal of developing a safe, effective vaccine within three months. This is SEPI board chair, Jane Halton. We thought we had that clip, but some experts are saying the U.S. has been noticeably absent from the global health response following the withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization earlier this year in massive and abrupt funding cuts to global and domestic public health efforts and research. For more, we're joined by Matthew Kavanaugh, who is director of the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics at Georgetown University. Professor Kavanaugh, we just have a few minutes. But if you can talk about both the travel bans that the Trump

administration is now imposing on foreigners who've traveled in the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan, and the slashing of U.S. aid around the world, how that connects to what we're seeing with this surging Ebola virus. Amy, thanks so much for covering this issue. The Trump administration came into office and slashed USAID, slashed all sorts of programs internationally. And many of us were very worried at the time that exactly this was going to happen. The Congolese epidemiologists and doctors and nurses who are confronting this are the best in the world. These are the global experts in how you stop an Ebola outbreak. But what we're seeing is that they're trying to do it without the tools that they need.

You know, in 2022, there was an outbreak, and they were able to stop it, detected in a few days, and stop it quite quickly. This time, we've seen a really different course because it's been so slow to be detected and so slow to respond. Now we're hearing that there are folks who are trying to respond on the, the front lines without gloves, without masks. This is in large part because hundreds of millions of dollars were cut by Doge. The Democratic Republic of Congo used to be one of the biggest recipients of USAID funding, not just for surveillance activities that were happening, like trying to actually detect when there were spillovers like this that we're seeing right now, but also to fight AIDS, to fight malaria. Thousands of health workers were laid off because

because the Trump administration issued this stop work order. And so what we're seeing now is, folks, without the tools to be able to respond. And instead, what we're seeing the major, major push is a travel ban, which is theater. It's not public health response. And I think it's part and parcel of a racist immigration policy that front and center tries to, you know, say that we can somehow protect Americans by keeping people out and keeping viruses out. And we just, we know that that's a failed strategy, right?

We've seen it in AIDS. We've seen it in COVID. We've seen it again and again and again. Travel bans are not public health. They're simply theater that make it look like they're doing something. When what we know is needed is building those isolation facilities, getting people the PPE they need. That's the actual response. And unfortunately, the U.S. has now cut hundreds of millions of dollars, huge disruptions to the DRC's health system, which means people are really struggling to respond. And, Matt, what about this whole issue of the U.S. withdrawing from the World Health Organization, how that affects a situation, a crisis like this, and the importance of community health care work is on the front lines when an epidemic like this erupts. That's right. The World Health Organization is the global responder to all sorts of things and the global platform for pandemic preparedness and response. When the United States withdrew from the World Health Organization, we have been the biggest funder, the biggest supporter since its founding.

it means that WHO last year had to lay off 2,000 people worldwide, especially in Africa and at headquarters. That's had a major impact on their capacity to be able to respond to things. And the bigger picture here is that it's not just the United States, right? We've seen that not only did the World Health Organization, you know, did the United States withdraw from the WHO, but so too did Argentina at the urging of the Trump administration. But we're seeing this kind of rising attacks on WHO from right-wing forces in the UK, in Italy, around the world, who are trying to dismantle these international institutions because they stand in the way of a bigger project that's a right-wing project. But what we need right now is to invest in these global public goods. And my huge

concern is that at this point, we're not seeing countries of the world that want to actually respond, want to support WHO, actually rallying in the way that they need to. Ministers of Health are meeting right now in Geneva at the World Health Assembly. And what we should be seeing is massive influx of funding to WHO and a strong political support. But we're not seeing that. And so I'm really worried that the kind of right-wing project is actually achieving what it's trying to do, which is dismantling these international institutions. And they are, as you were saying, deeply linked to these local folks on the ground

because it is getting them the resources that they need, getting them the protective equipment. Because these community health workers that were, you know, thousands of which were laid off by the doge cuts, they might be doing it. malaria care, but it's somebody that walks into the clinic with a fever that they then detect is, might be Ebola and then respond. It's these frontline health workers who were trying to mobilize to be able to go do the contact tracing so that you find every single person that somebody with Ebola has been in contact with, and yet organizations have had to lay them off. And so we really are in a geopolitically driven pandemic. This is not just an outbreak of a virus. This really

is a politically driven pandemic or epidemic. It's not a pandemic at this point. I should be very clear. And if you, Professor Kavanaugh, can talk more about the travel bans and how efficient, effective they are. When we are responding to an outbreak, the way that you do it is to fight it at the source. You need to be able to get supplies in, supplies out, have people move around the world. A travel ban simply says that Ugandans and Congolese people and people from South Sudan are no longer allowed to come to the United States. This only encourages people to simply lie, right? The travel ban, we've seen it again and again and again. They simply don't work.

Obviously, we're in a globalization era. How hard is it for someone to take a flight from one place to another to another? And then say on the form, no, I haven't been in that place. That's simple. Public health is based on trust. And all travel bans do is they tell people not only do you, you know, are you not trusted, but also, by the way, somebody's out to get you, trying to cripple economy of these countries. These are countries with millions and millions of people who are far,

as you heard Jimmy saying, you know, hundreds of miles away from the outbreak zone. And yet you're going to try to shut down transport to and from there. That actually undermines the response rather than supporting it at a time when we need to be actually getting people what they need. I want to thank you for being with us, Matthew Kavanaugh, director of the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics at Georgetown University. Speaking to us from Washington, D.C. Stephen Colbert signed off last night for the final time as host of the Late Show on CBS. What does that have to do with the massive mega media mergers that are taking place?

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Here on Democracy Now, this is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in Denver. Juan Gonzalez is in Chicago. Well, the late-night comedian Stephen Colbert signed off last night for the fine time as host of the Late Show on CBS. Special guests on that final broadcast included Paul McCartney, who performed the Beatles classic Hello Goodbye with help from Colbert and Elvis Costello and John Baptiste and others. Over the past 11 years, Stephen Colbert was one of the most vocal critics of President Trump on network TV. His show was canceled last year.

July, after he criticized CBS's parent company Paramount for agreeing to pay $16 million to settle a $20 billion lawsuit brought by President Trump, the settlement came as Paramount was seeking the Trump FCC, that's the federal communications approval, for a merger with Skydance. This is part of what Colbert said at the time. Now, I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles, it's big fat bribe. Because this all comes as Paramount's owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance. The Trump administration approved the Paramount Skydance merger just a week after CBS announced

Colbert's ouster. At the time, CBS Colbert was canceled for, quote, financial reasons, even though Colbert had been consistently the top-rated late-night host. Last year, Trump wrote online, I absolutely love that Colbert got fired, unquote. Early this morning at 152 a.m. Eastern, President Trump posted a message online again celebrating the end of Colbert's show, writing, quote, thank goodness he's finally gone, unquote. In March, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, celebrated the cancellation of Colbert's show as part of a broader Trump-led campaign. campaign against the news media. This is Carr speaking at CPAC, the conservative political action conference. President Trump took on the fake news media, and President Trump is winning. Look at the results so far. PBS defunded, NPR defunded, Joy Reid gone from MSNBC, sleepy eyes, Chuck Todd,

gone, Jim Acosta, gone. John Dickerson, gone. Colbert is leaving. CBS is under new ownership, and soon enough CNN has got new ownership as well. So we're not. Earlier this week, one of Stephen Colbert's final guest, Bruce Springsteen, directly criticized President Trump and the Ellison family, David and Larry Ellison, which now controls Paramount. I'm here in support tonight for Stephen because you're the first guy in America who's lost his show because we've got a president who can't take a joke.

and because Larry and David Ellison feel they need the kiss his to get what they want. So these are... Anyway, Stephen, these are small-minded people. They've got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about. So that was Bruce Springsteen this week, one of the final guests of Stephen Colbert. And right now, the Ellisons with Paramount Skydance, are trying to merge in a more than $100 billion

mega merger with Warner Brothers Discovery. Warner Brothers Discovery owns HBO, owns CNN, and of course Paramount owns CBS. So CNN, CBS, HBO would all be under the same roof. To talk more about the end

of Stephen Colbert's show, Trump's threats to the press and media consolidation, we're joined here in Denver by David Sorota, founder and editor-in-chief of The Lever. His recent book is titled master plan, the hidden plot to legalize corruption in America. David, how does this fit into your

view of corruption in the United States? How does the final show of Colbert, though the most watched show on late night being canceled and him being ousted, connect to these mega mergers that are consolidating the media? Well, I think it's a data point in a number of data points. I mean, Nicole Baer's tale that you just told, also there was a concurrent situation with Jimmy Kimmel and a merger about local TV stations, the Tegna Next Star merger. Jimmy Kimmel had said something that apparently Brendan Carr and the Trump administration and the MAGA movement didn't like after the death of the murder of Charlie Kirk. And the television network faced pressure from Carr and others to essentially throw Jimmy Kimmel off the air. So I think we see this over and over again where the Trump administration is weaponizing its power over mergers to try to get what it wants in the media space.

And I think that's a, I wouldn't call that a new level of corruption. We saw the Nixon administration quite famously back in the day try to weaponize its merger approval process on behalf of its allies and its donors as well. But it is a resurrected tactic from the Nixon era that is a kind of corruption that's outside of, frankly, the traditional kinds of corruption that we've gotten used to. I mean, traditional corruption that we talk about in master plan and we document in master plan is about legalizing campaign contributions. This is actually weaponizing, as you mentioned, lawsuits where Trump is trying to extract money from various large corporations using the merger approval process potentially as a tool to extract those settlements and extract financial remuneration to Donald Trump himself. And I think ultimately, as it affects the media situation, it creates a chilling effect, right? I mean, everybody who is currently working in media, certainly for big corporations that may have business before the Trump administration, everybody knows that they, in what they're doing, whether it's reporting or commentary or anything else, that they may get crosswise with Donald Trump. And the corporate boss may not like that because the corporate boss may have business with the Trump administration.

So I think beyond just a sort of heavy-handed censorship problem, you have a potential self-censorship problem. And I think that's actually arguably the point from the Trump administration and people like Brendan Carr to send a chilling effect message to the entire media and the entire political discourse. And David, meanwhile, the six Democratic senators sent a letter to the chairman of the FCC Brendan Carr demanding that he conduct a rigorous and thorough review of pass. Aramont's reliance on foreign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, to pay for almost $110 billion to acquire Warner Brothers discovery. In the past, the federal government has really been strict about the limits of foreign ownership or investment in American media companies. What's happening here in terms of the foreign control regulations? of the FCC? Yeah, I mean, it's a great question. There's reporting that says that the FCC may approve

up to a 49.5% ownership or even ultimately up to 100% ownership, foreign ownership, of the new merged Paramount Warner Brothers Corporation, if the merger goes through. They're asking essentially the FCC to waive longstanding ownership laws. And to be clear, let's remember, Brendan Carr of the FCC wrote parts of the Project 2025 document, the document setting the agenda for Trump's second term, in which Carr said that he wanted to get rid of ownership caps. Now, obviously, this conflicts with the whole notion of America first that you hear Trump talking all about, where we are potentially going to have the largest or among the largest media conglomerates in the country, in the world, but operating in our country.

affecting the democratic discourse that is in part or up to potentially fully owned by foreign sovereign wealth funds controlled in part by foreign governments. I mean, it kind of boggles the mind about what that means for our democracy, right? Because media corporations, as distinct from, you know, a corporation that just makes a physical product, media corporations have a disproportionate impact on the democratic, small, the democratic and election discourse. Now in the future, you may have a situation where foreign governments via sovereign wealth funds have a disproportionate power to affect the way we conduct our United States American democracy. There's also a new report that James Murdoch has recently

agreed to acquired New York Magazine and Vox Media podcast network in a deal valued about $300 million. Talk about who James Murdoch is and his impact? Yeah, I mean, James Murdoch is, you know, he's part of the Murdoch family, but he has had kind of an ouster or kind of conflict reportedly with Rupert Murdoch and with Lachlan Murdoch and essentially left Rupert Murdoch's empire. And James Murdoch has been depicted as somebody with more moderate democratic-leaning politics. and now he is investing in a sort of independent, somewhat independent media properties and making a play for that. I mean, I think we will see what that means.

My concern on that is somewhat less about James Murdoch's politics and more about the fact that digital media and podcast media have been some of the last remaining places where there really has. has been some vibrant, independent, non-corporate media. And so the concern would be, is that going away? Is that space now going to be even more encroached by corporate, large corporate entities? But I do think the jury remains out on that. It's not clear how James Murdoch is going to run that company. Well, David Serota, this is a conversation that continues, founder and editor-in-chief of the lever, author of the master plan, the hidden plot to legalize corruption in America. David, I look forward to seeing you Saturday at the KG&U benefit at the C Center. The cinema here in Denver, their screening, steal this story, please, about democracy now and

independent media. The fundraisers at 4.30, I think the film at 6.30 on Saturday night. And you can check that at KGNU.org. But I'm also thrilled to be going to the ribbon-cutting ceremony of KGNU, a gem in the community radio network in this country. It's taking place in Boulder today at 1 o'clock. It is moving into its own community and cultural center and resilience hub. And it is amazing to see as we look at corporate media. consolidating the growth of independent media. Also, Steele the Story, Please, is playing in Denver at the Sea Center for the next week

and in Boulder at the Dairy Cinema. We did a fundraiser for KGNU there last night, and it will continue to play through the week. Just check out DemocracyNow.org and also stealthusory.org. Well, speaking about corporate power, coming up, Karen How, the author of Empire of AI. In the heart of the forsaken got no reason to cry. You got to chew the angels falling from on high, waiting for no answer, baking warful pie. Pie of eyesight, pie blue-black. Oh, that pie, the pie of pie, bye, and pie.

In the hog of the forsaken, he will leave you one more chance, which if you won't be taken, he leave it for the ants. Sings out in the wilderness, sings for friend and foe. He sings of these and those times as well. Hog of the Foraken by the late folk musician Michael Hurley, performing in Democracy Now Studios. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in Denver for the theatrical release of Steal This Story, Please, and Juan Gonzalez is in Chicago. We end today's show looking at recent news on the fight over regulating artificial intelligence and the growing community resistance to AI data centers.

On Thursday, President Trump abruptly canceled a scheduled ceremony where he was expected to sign a new executive order on AI regulations. Several top tech executives, including Elon Musk, Meta founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and David Sachs reportedly warned Trump about the regulations. Meanwhile, Meta has sent layoff notices to about 8,000 workers or about 10% of the social media giant's workforce as the company pivots to AI. This comes as Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged in an all-hands meeting to workers that met his training AI data on its own workforce. In other AI news, a federal jury in California Monday rejected Elon Musk's $150 billion lawsuit against Open AI and Sam Altman.

The jury ruled Musk waited too long to sue over the matter. To talk about this and more, we're joined by Karen Howe, author of the award-winning book, Empire of AI, Dreams and Nightmares, and Sam Altman's AI. It's now out in paperback. She's just helped launch the AI resist list to document acts of resistance to the AI industry across the world. Karen, thanks so much for joining us from London, though we only have a few minutes. If you could start off by talking about looking back across the pond to the United States, what happened yesterday?

There was going to be an executive order on AI restrictions. And then apparently in consultation with Musk and Sachs, two of the PayPal Mafia, and Zuckerberg, Trump canceled the executive order signing. Hi, Amy, thanks so much for having me. I mean, I think this is a perfect illustration of what we, the moment that we're in right now, where these really powerful tech billionaires have fused with the state and are trying to override what the people actually want. 80% of Americans in the latest polling are concerned about AI.

They support AI regulation. and because of the pressure that they've been applying to elected officials, there was actually, in fact, potentially going to be some momentum on that at the federal front. And, of course, now there's this setback because the tech billionaires stopped it. And I wanted to ask you, in terms of the massive movement that's developed in the country, especially against data centers, that cuts across all political, all political views, you're seeing Americans turning out by the hundreds and thousands in local city council and county meetings opposing these data centers. Because you talk about that movement

as part of this resistance. This has been one of the most remarkable stories in the last year. In 2025, these data center protests successfully stalled over $100 billion worth of these facilities. I think part of the reason why so many communities are mobilizing and it really does caught across political lines, as you mentioned, is because this is a manifestation of the thing at the heart of what so many Americans are angry about right now, which is that there's this huge chasm in American society where there are these, you know, we're minting the first trillionaire in the world while simultaneously so many Americans are just trying to afford their basic life and trying to put food on the table for their kids. And income these data centers,

their physical manifestation of this because they consume an enormous amount of energy, they consume freshwater resources, they are hiking up people's utility prices and exacerbating that affordability crisis, all in the name of producing a technology that is concentrating yet more wealth in the hands of those very same billionaires. And in terms of companies doing massive layoffs in the tech industry, California, Governor Gavin Newsomission and executive order calling on state agencies to explore ways to protect and prepare workers for the AI-related job losses? Your reaction? One of the things that I think people misunderstand about these layoffs is they think that it indicates somehow AI is successfully

replacing all of these workers. But what's important to understand is these tech companies, they're trying to get cost efficiencies now, in part because they're spending an extraordinary amount of money trying to develop AI technologies. And they're trying to try to They're actually making a future bet that when they lay off the current human employees to gain current cost efficiencies, that they will hopefully then be able to automate them away later with AI. But it's not, in fact, a representation of what AI can currently do. But there are plenty of other sectors outside of the AI industry that are now doing the same thing. They're also trying to make this future bet that they will be able to automate workers. And so that is what's actually having this cascading effect on the job market where AI is being used as a justification to accelerate layoffs.

And can you finally, Karen Howe in this last 30 seconds, talk more about the AI resist list? This is a project that I did with a group of journalists, critical scholars and AI researchers documenting resistance movements around the world. It is meant to center hope. It is meant to center action. And it shows all the different creative ways that anyone can, actually participate in applying pressure to the AI industry, holding it accountable, and in fact shaping the trajectory of this technology. Well, I want to thank you so much for joining us. Karen Howe is the author of Empire of AI, Dreams and Nightmares, and Sam Altman's Open AI, now out in paperback. We will link to the AI resist list. A very happy birthday to Mike DeFullipo and a happy belated birthday to

Buffy Fernandez. We thank you so much all for being with us. I'm in Denver. There'll be a screening of the film, steal the story, please, at the Sea Center Cinema in Denver, and it is also at the Dairy in Boulder all through this weekend. The big fundraiser for KJ&U is Saturday at 430 with a film at 630, check out DemocracyNow.org and go to KGNU.org. Then I'll be an Albuquerque at the Guild Cinema where the film opens this weekend, and you can check that out at steal the story.org. I'm Amy Goodman in Denver with Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Thanks so much for joining us.