Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-06-10 Wednesday

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

Headlines for June 10, 2026; Report from Tehran: Amid More U.S./Iran Bombing, Trump Warns Iran Is ”DEAD…Will Pay the Price”; The Shocking Secrets of MSG’s Surveillance Machine: Noah Shachtman on Knicks’ Owner James Dolan; Trump Admin Guts Vital Sea Monitoring, “Tears Out the Eyes and Ears of Science”: David Helvarg; “I Was Just Forced to Resign from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory”: Climate Scientist Peter Kalmus

From New York, this is Democracy Now. Unfortunately, the United States is undermining this diplomatic process, both through contradictory messaging, through its constantly shifting positions and demands, and more seriously, through repeated violations of the ceasefire. As Iran and the United States exchange missile and drone strikes overnight, President Trump just posted on social media, Iran has taken. in too long to negotiate a ceasefire deal and will now have to quote unquote pay the price. We'll go to Tehran. Then as basketball fans watch game four of the playoffs tonight at Madison Square Garden, owner James Dolan Stadium, we'll be watching the fans. We'll look at a wired investigation headlined the shocking secrets of Madison Square

Garden's surveillance machine. It has implications for you, even if you've never stepped foot in Madison Square Garden. What happened in the MSG isn't an outlier. It's a model. Then the Trump administration begins dismantling a $370 million ocean floor observatory network that monitors critical global climate data. The Trump administration is treating the ocean like an gas station and a garbage dump. They're initiating Project 2025's plan to basically tear out the eyes and ears of science in the ocean.

We'll speak to environmental journalist David Helvard and to a NASA climate scientist who was forced to resign after 15 years. Hi, Peter Kalmas. I was a climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory until Monday when I was forced to resign. The surface reason is because of a return to office mandate. But I think a deeper reason is because this administration hates science and scientists, especially climate science. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. This morning, President Trump posted on truth social.

Iran's taken too long to negotiate a ceasefire deal and will now have to quote unquote pay the price. This comes as the U.S. military. says it completed strikes against Iran that were reportedly in response to the downing of a U.S. Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state media is reporting around 20,000 Iranians have lost access to drinking water after two reservoirs were reportedly hit by U.S. strikes. Two U.S. officials told CNN the Apache helicopter was brought down by an Iranian drone and said it was unclear whether the helicopter was. intentionally targeted. An Apache helicopter cost between $52 million to over $100 million, while an Iranian Shahad drone costs roughly $35,000 to make. Iran said it launched retaliatory strikes on U.S.

targets in the region. This morning, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said they had carried out missile and drone attacks on U.S. military bases in Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain. In Lebanon, Israel, strikes killed at least eight people in the city of Tyre. Despite Iran warning, it would resume attacks against Israel if the strikes continued. The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for Tyre, including its Christian quarter for the first time. Across southern Lebanon, Israeli air and artillery strikes killed at least 13 people Tuesday. Since March, Israel's killed at least 3,600 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, a fifth of the population has been displaced over one million people.

A new report by the United Nations says armed groups and police units in Gaza have beaten, maimed and publicly executed dozens of Palestinians. The UN documented hundreds of cases of extrajudicial punishment, including, quote, knee-capping, bone-breaking with metal pipes or cement bricks and beatings, unquote. Al Jazeera has reported certain armed groups in Gaza have been known to serve as Israeli agents and that Israel's provided weapons and other assistance for these groups to oppose Hamas. In related news, Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamel Edwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who was detained by Israeli forces in December 2024, has been reportedly transferred to another prison

and placed in solitary confinement, according to the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights. Dr. Abou Safia has reportedly faced torture, starvation, and denial of medical care, as his health worsens after over 500 days of Israeli imprisonment without charge. Meanwhile, a separate UN report has found Israeli forces are directly involved in settler attacks that have killed, wounded, and displaced Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, while Israeli soldiers protect settlers. This comes as France has banned Israeli finance minister Bezalosmotr from entering France for promoting the annexation. of the occupied West Bank in Gaza.

In related news, Italian prosecutors have launched a probe against far-right Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gavir, over reports of torture by members of the Gaza humanitarian aid flotilla who were abducted by Israeli forces last month. In Kenya, police forces fatally shot a man as hundreds of people gathered to protest an Ebola quarantine facility for U.S. citizens in the town of Nanyuk. witnesses told Reuters the man was seen with a bullet wound to the head as his body laid motionless in the back of a police vehicle.

This came after Kenyan police on Tuesday fired tear gas and detained several residents who are protesting the U.S. back facility. As a resident, I can say that we don't have the capability of dealing with this disease. So what we want is to be heard as a residence of Lyquipia, constituency or Lyquipia at large. And the whole country, because if it starts here, we believe that the whole country will get the disease. And we won't have a way to deal with it. We don't have civic education on safety measures.

U.S. plans to open the facility are reportedly moving forward despite a Kenyan court order from May that had suspended further construction. A World Cup referee from Somalia returned home Wednesday after being denied entry into the United States just days before the start of the World Cup. Omar Artaon was due to be the first referee from Somalia to officiated a World Cup and has been named one of Africa's top referees. Arten had flown into Miami International Airport from Turkey, was reportedly told by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents that he was inadmissible to the U.S. Arta and arrived in the Somali capital of Mogadishu earlier today, where he was welcomed by soccer fans. Our referee is an international standard. He has officiated international matches in Africa and Asia, and he was on his way to officiate global football matches.

It would have been his first time participating in the world football stage. We are sad by the way he was discriminated against, and we strongly condemn this act. Trump's immigration crackdown and visa restrictions have disrupted travel into the U.S. for scores of World Cup fans and players from qualifying nations with advocates around the world condemning Trump's policies. In Northern Ireland, anti-immigration riots are roiling Belfast after an asylum seeker from Sudan was charged with attempted murder and the stabbing attack of a man. Firefighters and emergency responders escorted immigrant families from their homes after cars and garbage cans were set on fire and used to create roadblocks around Belfast. Michelle O'Neill, the First Minister of Northern Ireland, said in a statement, quote, groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice.

This has nothing to do with community. This is outright thuggery, unquote. A federal judge permanently blocked Alabama from executing 49-year-old prisoner Jeffrey Lee by nitrogen gas. Ruling the method violates the U.S. Constitution's ban uncrual and unusual punishment. Lee was scheduled to be executed Thursday at an Alabama prison. Alabama's Attorney General said the state is appealing the decision, which means the case could end up. before the U.S. Supreme Court. House Republicans have approved a $70 billion budget reconciliation package to fund President

Trump's immigration crackdown through the end of his term, again bypassing Congress's annual appropriations process. The measure now heads to Trump's desk to be signed into law, ending a month's long funding standoff between Republicans and Democrats following the fatal shootings of Alex Preti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. This funding package comes in addition to the $170 billion already approved for ICE and Border Patrol last year as part of Trump's so-called one big, beautiful bill. Democratic Congress member Maxwell Frost said on social media, quote, instead of investing in you and ensuring you can afford your health care, groceries,

or rent, they chose to hand $70 billion. to agencies operating without any guardrails while terrorizing and brutalizing our communities, Congressman Frost wrote. In more immigration news and investigation by the Associated Press has found that Trump administration separated dozens of immigrant children from their parents for a second time. These families had been previously separated during Trump's first term as he enforced his so-called zero-tolerance policy, leading to hundreds of children. children being ripped from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump officials have re-separated the families in violation of a landmark legal settlement

that was meant to reunite immigrant children with their parents. Under Trump's second term, some of these parents have been detained in ICE jails and others wrongfully deported and forced to leave their children in the U.S. Meanwhile, an estimated 500 babies and toddlers have been reportedly jailed by ICE since Trump's returned to the White House. On Capitol Hill, Leslie Groff, the former assistant to the late convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, testified before the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors Tuesday. Groff worked for Epstein for nearly 20 years. Her name appears more than 150,000 times in the Justice Department's Epstein files. Graff scheduled massages for Epstein from women as well as meetings with influential people.

Microsoft's co-founder, Bill Gates, is set to speak to the same. panel today. The Trump family's promoting commemorative coins for an ultimate fighting championship. UFC fights scheduled for June 14th on the White House South Lawn. The event is set to take place on President Trump's 80th birthday being framed, though, as part of the U.S.'s 250th anniversary celebration. The coins feature Trump's face and range from a silver version priced at nearly $250 to a gold medallion costing just under $12,000. thousand dollars. The White House is also restricting press access to the event, handing the UFC control over which journalists receive credentials. Most reporters will be relegated to viewing

screens at a nearby park or hotel and will be barred from their usual work spaces, including the briefing room. And voters headed to the polls for primary elections in four states Tuesday, South Carolina, Maine, Nevada, and North Dakota. In Maine, 41-year-old oyster men, Marine veteran Graham Platner won the state's Democratic primary for Senate. Despite a series of controversies, Platner defeated the state's governor Janet Mills by winning 72 percent of the vote. He will now face incumbent senator Republican Susan Collins, who ran unopposed in the GOP primary. She's seeking a sixth term in the U.S. Senate. This is Graham Platner, speaking in Blue Hill, Maine, at his victory party Tuesday night.

Now, the truth is, Susan Collins doesn't serve us. She serves Donald Trump. She serves the Epstein class. She serves her corporate donors and the corrupt political system that has rigged the economy against us. She does not serve us, and so we will defeat Susan Collins. We will take back this session. Senate seat, we will take back our power.

And when we do, I want you to imagine what it will feel like when we hold Trump and his criminal enterprise to account. You can see our coverage of the main Senate race at DemocracyNow.org. In South Carolina, Republican Congress member Nancy Mace lost in the GOP primary for governor, She came in fifth place. Trump-backed Pamela Yvette, South Carolina's lieutenant governor, and Alan Wilson, the state's attorney general, advanced to a runoff. It's the latest victory for President Trump after his ousting of Republican Congressmember Thomas Massey of Kentucky, who, along with Mace, was one of four House Republicans to join a vote compelling the Justice Department to release all of the Epstein files. And in California, Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, has advanced to the general election in the gubernatorial race. He will face off against Democrat Javier Beseda, the former Health and Human Services Secretary under President Biden. And those are some of the headlines.

This is Democracy Now.com.comocracy.org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. This morning, President Trump posted on truth social that Iran has taken too long to negotiate a ceasefire deal and will now have to quote unquote pay the price. This comes as the U.S. military said it had completed strikes against Iran that were reportedly in response to the downing of a U.S. Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state media is reporting around 20,000 Iranians have lost access to drinking water after two. reservoirs were reportedly hit by U.S. strikes. Two U.S. officials told CNN, the Apache helicopter was brought down by an Iranian drone and said it was unclear whether the helicopter was intentionally targeted. An Apache helicopter costs between $52 and over $100 million, while an Iranian shahed

drone cost roughly $35,000. Iran said it launched retaliatory strikes on U.S. targets in the region. This morning, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said they had carried out missile and drone attacks on U.S. military bases in Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain. This is Iran's president, Massoud Pasechiyan. We must get out of this no war, no peace state. We're certainly not in the country's interests. But if they think that by violating our dignity, our territory, our homeland, we will surrender or back down. Then let them only dream about it. This is not something that we will back down.

from. The social media post made by President Trump this morning said, quote, Iran is all talk and no action. The bully of the Middle East is dead in all caps. They've taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them. Now they will have to pay the price, unquote. For more, we go to the Iranian capital, Tehran, where we're joined by Mohamed Aslami, research fellow at the University of Tehran. His latest piece, he can. co-authored for responsible statecraft. It's headline, the Persian Gulf is blowing up. These three obstacles explain why. If Muhammad, thanks so much for being with us. If you could explain why, but start off by responding to President Trump saying Iran will now

pay the price after saying that they were days away the U.S. and Iran from reaching an agreement, which he has said dozens and dozens of times before. First of all, thank you so much for having me, Amy. I should say that this war, which is the war of choice, a collaboration between Donald Trump and B.B. Netanyahu is based on a series of miscalculation regarding the Iranian people, Iranian political system, Iranian economy, and resilience. and also the role of the Americans in the regional order around the Persian group.

Right now, Donald Trump, is threatening Iranians while he didn't achieve none of his declared objectives during the war. The Iranian political system is intact. The Iranian nuclear program, which has lots of capabilities according to NPT, non-proliferation, Treaty is continuing. The Iranian stockpile is in the hand of the Iranians. It is about 100 days that the Iranians close this rate of hormones, and the U.S. naval blocet cannot and couldn't open this rate of hormones. And right now, Donald Trump is threatening again to bomb Iran.

It is not the way that he can proceed. Right now, there are three challenges. challenges that they're faced during the negotiations between Iran and Americans. First of all, Donald Trump is thinking about face saving in a war cannot win and he cannot leave. He's not thinking about the details of the negotiations. He's thinking about his social media account through social and other things. The second point is why the Americans are asking Iranians to act and to do irreversible actions. they cannot offer Iranian the same irreversible actions.

Right now, Donald Trump is out of his card. I mean, maximum pressure and the sanctions doesn't work. A campaign of two military powers in the region and internationally didn't work. A coercive diplomacy didn't work, and right now he's again threatening the Iranians. So, Iranians understood by, I mean, Donald Trump 1 and Donald Trump 2, that, I mean, sanctions relief is not something irreversible from the American side, while the Americans are asking Iranians to do irreversible actions. And the second and the third point is about the regional order. Donald Trump sacrificed the interests of the American people. Donald Trump sacrificed the future of the so-called American allies around Persian Gulf.

These are Arab states, I mean, Arab states around Persian Gulf interest sacrificed by Donald Trump. The so-called, I mean, international order or regional order around Persian Gulf, was based on American promises to defend these countries. But after this war, these Arab states understood that Donald Trump and the Americans will not defend them in any kind of circumstance. And right now, the assertive foremost is closed. So Donald Trump is asking Iranians to trust him. and most, one of the most corrupted persons, one of the most unreliable persons in the decades in international relations,

a man who has betrayed diplomacy two times. Last war, Iranian-Americans, very inactive negotiations, Van Donald Trump and Bevin Netanyahu, started these war against Iranians. He asking Iranians to trust him and sign a useless memorandum of understanding and see what happens. after 13 days or 16 weeks. Right now, he's putting pressure on the Iranians not to release the Iranian-frozen asset. This is not working. And if he wants to start a new campaign against Iran, I don't think that he can achieve

none of his declared goals again. The latest news we have, Mohamed, about a reservoir hit by the U.S. military that 20,000 people are out of drinking water. I think it's in southern Iran. have you heard anything about this? And then specifically to respond to this latest tweet of Donald Trump saying Iran will pay the price. I'm wondering the response in the streets, those who support the regime in Iran and even those who don't. You know, Donald Trump, for Iranians, is an iconic person who is famous for his lies and broken promises.

Donald Trump started this war claiming that he's going to do something for the interest of the Iranian people. After he understood that he cannot have this kind of very quick success by attacking Iran and assassinating the Iranian leaders, he threatened all the Iranians.

He said lots of inappropriate words about Iranians, not only about the Islamic Republic. He said that he's going to finish the Iranian civilization. I'm sure that he cannot, he does not know the meaning of the word civilization because a civilization cannot be done and cannot be finished by bombing.

So right now, by bombing the water facilities in Iranian cities, Iranian understood, and they were understood during the war that Donald Trump is not thinking for a minute about the future of the Iranian people. Right now, lots of cities, including Tehran, the capital city,

every night are lots of people's chanting all around the street against Trump. And also I should say that unfortunately, many of them are chanting against negotiation with Donald Trump. And it is interesting that after lots of negotiations in Islamabad, in Qatar, and also lots of factional negotiations between Iranian and Americans, those ordinary people in Tehran streets saying that we were, right from the day one when we ask you not to negotiate with Donald Trump. And right now, they are asking the Iranian military, I mean, forces to retaliate what happened during the war.

Finally, I wanted to ask you, although it may sound strange about the sports game, about World Cup. Mexico says that the Iranian soccer team can sleep there because they haven't been allowed to come to the United States except to play, though the Iranian World Cup players will now be allowed to enter the U.S. the day before matches. But I wanted to ask you about their pin, 165. When they recently, 168, when they recently played a game, they held the backpacks of symbolizing the Iranian girls who were killed in southern Iran. in Minab, that number 168 is referring to the children that were killed at the girls' school there with the U.S.

Tomahawk missile. Is this being paid attention to at the same time, Muhammad? First of all, regarding the soccer and football, soccer and football is a symbol of dignity for the Iranian or the ordinary people. Donald Trump administration, by this respect, who will actually. against the Iranian team is uncovering their intentions regarding the Iranian people. It's not about the Iranian political system. And talking about Minov, and I should also add what happened in Lamar. They have tested new bombs with the Iranian, I mean civilians and victims, Iranian victims in Minov,

the girls in Minov and also the civilians in Lamar. It is a very, very sad story. Lots of years we should talk about what happened in Minov. Those girls and those boys that kids in Minov were not among these political calculations. The American, I mean, I mean, Trump administration killed all of them intentionally. This is how we think about what happened in Minov. We don't think that what happened in Minov is unintentionally an accident. It was not an accident because the American

military is the most powerful military in the human history. And we have intentionally killed them. We have to leave it the air. Of course, we're going to continue to follow what happens in Iran and between the U.S., Iran and Israel. Muhammad Islami, research fellow at the University of Tehran. We'll link to your latest piece. Inresponsible statecraft headline, the Persian Gulf is blowing up.

These three obstacles explain why. When we come back, as fans watch game four of the NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden, they too are being watched. We'll talk to Wired Contributing Editor Noah Shackman, his latest piece, The Shocking secrets of Madison Square Garden surveillance machine. Stay with us. High Fly by the late legendary pianist and composer. Randy Weston to see him playing in our interview, go to DemocracyNow.org. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. Basketball fans will have their eyes on New York's Madison Square Garden tonight, where game four of the NBA finals between the New York Next and the San Antonio

Spurs will take place. President Trump's presence at game three on Monday night brought attention to the billionaire owner of Madison Square Garden and the New York next, James Dolan, who invited President Trump to watch the game from his box. This was Trump speaking to reporters last week about the Knicks and Dolan. Well, I've been a Nick fan for a long time, and I'm also a Jim Dolan fan. He's a nice guy, okay? He's been a long time wanting to win, and he's a competitive guy, and he's got a team that's amazing. The answer is, yes, he's invited me on going.

Well, tonight the world's attention might be on Madison Square Garden, but owner James Dolan will also be likely paying attention to, everyone who's coming to the stadium, specifically watching them. For years, the stadium has been notorious for using facial recognition technology to monitor everyone entering the venue. A few years ago, Dolan defended his use of facial recognition technology at Madison Square Garden, speaking to Fox 5, New York's Good Day, New York. First off, it's funny what people think about facial recognition, right? when you

you get caught on the camera which is basically anytime you go in the public you're on camera right I mean you walk down the street believe me you're on the camera like you're on 10 cameras what facial recognition does

is looks at your recognize your face and says are you right you know someone who's on this list right so if you're a terrorist right it will say that's a terrorist right

and then you know appropriate action can be taken. It's very, very useful for security. In fact, Madison Square Garden, I believe, is the most secure venue in the country. Well, a detailed investigation by Wired Magazine reveals just how extensive the surveillance machine that Dolan is set up at Madison Square Garden. It's called the shocking secrets of Madison Square Garden surveillance machine by Noah Shackman and Robert Silverman. Noah Shackman's latest piece is headlined, A New York cop got injured. at a boxing match, now Madison Square Garden is banning his lawyer. For more, we're joined by

Wired's contributing editor, Noah Shackman. Thanks so much for being with us. So talk about this surveillance machine as James Dolan, the Trump ally who invited Trump to sit with him in his box for game three. Talk about him referring to tracking terrorists. Yeah. So look, every sports venue is is going to have security measures, of course. And many of those may involve facial recognition, but no venue in the country deploys facial recognition so widely and weaponizes it in the way that James Dolan does. He uses facial recognition not just to keep suspected troublemakers out,

but more importantly, he has all sorts of enemies lists. and those enemies include people that he might be in legal disputes with, people that might have tweeted mean stuff at him. And in our story for Wired, maybe the most shocking thing was there's a trans woman who, for the crime of being trans, was surveilled by James Dolan spy machine second by second, minute by minute, even when she went into the bathroom, when she came out, because James Dolan didn't want her close to the team. How did he know about her? This was a person we're calling her for her own privacy, Nina Richards,

and this is a person that was a familiar face at Madison Square Garden that knew many of the staff, that knew many of the players, season ticket holder, and had been around the team. And we got a hold of a surveillance report from Pride Night a couple of years ago where this woman wanted to enjoy the game. and had pretty decent seats and, you know, got a drink like everybody else and got some hot dogs like everybody else. And even got escorted to an even better seat, which does happen from time to time if you hang around the garden. And second by second, every single place she went, she was surveilled.

And that was captured in a detailed report that we obtained. What did she do about this? Well, that part we don't know entirely. We know there was some kind of legal dispute, and we know that she was eventually banned from the garden and is no longer allowed to be there. So it's one of many outcomes that happens with Dolan's spy machine. Some people are banned. Some people are merely put on a watch list and surveilled. Some people are given warnings.

But to me, the more shocking thing is not just what happens inside the garden, but that around the garden, and even in the greater New York area, area, Madison Square Garden security forces have assigned themselves the task of policing that these areas and acting as a kind of second Ersatz police force in Midtown Manhattan. To me, most shockingly, is that when there are protests going through Midtown, for example, pro-Gaza protests, Madison Square Garden security staffers, according to a lawsuit that was recently filed, are basically told to surveil those protests and to embed, and one former security officer said he was ordered to embed inside those protests in order to do intelligence work. Wait. Talk about Dole's head of security, John Eversoll, who had his team cosplay as cops patrolling

the neighborhood to spy on protesters? Yeah. What I mean cosplay, I mean act as if there were cops, not actually put on cop uniforms, but yeah, they would go and they would bust, you know, what they deemed to be bad merch sellers. They would bust what they thought were ticket scalpers or just clean up the neighborhood. And they employ a lot of ex-cops in order to do that, one of whom actually had to be hospitalized after his work for the garden. So, no, it's incredibly serious and it's incredibly strange. They police the neighborhood without any coordination with the garden.

the NYPD. New York cop got injured at a boxing match. Now Madison Square Garden is banning his lawyer. Yeah, that's right. So it's pretty common throughout the city here for cops to earn some extra money by working for private corporations. There's in fact an NYPD program where you can hire cops through the NYPD to do some extra work. There was the guy that unfortunately got killed, officer Islam who got killed at the NFL headquarters maybe a year ago on such work. Anyway, this guy was working a boxing match. The rapper Lil T.J. and his crew were there, got involved in an altercation. This cop says he suffered spinal injuries and wanted some payback for his, you know, hospital bills. His lawyer is a guy named John Scola, who's a famous

lawyer in New York, who covers a lot of cops when they're suing their bosses. Anyway, they filed a lawsuit something that happens all the time. And MSG banned him for the crime of doing his job. Now, the blacklist goes beyond MSG, right? The blacklist made by using the facial recognition extend to other MSG operated entities like Radio City Musical. Like Radio City Music Hall, like the Beacon Theater, and like the Sphere in Las Vegas, that incredibly popular high-tech venue. In fact, we got screenshots from the surveillance, system that showed a little girl, I can't believe she would have been a more than eight or 10 years old, that had been captured by the spheres surveillance machine and had been labeled

a priority eight, the highest priority threat in the area. So this doesn't just capture, you know, enemies of Dolan, it captures everyone. And some people get labeled as threats even when they're clearly not. They're little girls. Well, we're, we're going to encourage people to read this as some watch the game. Who's watching you, especially those who can afford to go to MSG and watch the playoffs of the NBA? Noah Shackman is a contributing editor at Wired. We'll link to your pieces the shocking secrets of Madison Square Garden surveillance machine and a New York cop got injured at a boxing match. Now Madison Square Garden is banning his lawyer. Up next, the Trump administration's begun to

dismantling a $370 million ocean floor observatory network that monitors ocean currents, marine ecosystems, and data for climate change. Stay with us. My friend said she could see no way ahead, and I was probably better off without you. She said to face up to the fact that you weren't coming back, and she could make me happy like you used to But I'm sorry to say I turned her away Knowing everything she said was true

That's the price I pay For loving you the way That I do There's something inside that hurts My foolish pride To visit the places we used to go together. Not a day goes by

that I don't sit and wonder why your feelings for me didn't last forever. Girl, I love you so much that baby, it's such I'd walk a mile with stone in my shoe. That's the price

I pay for loving you the way that I do. Yeah, that's the price. The price I pay for loving you the way that I do. The price I pay by Billy Brad. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The Trump administration has begun dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative,

a network of more than 900 ocean floor sensors that collect critical data on marine ecosystems, ocean currents, and global climate. data, the deep-sea sensors were installed a decade ago at a cost of $370 million funded by the National Science Foundation. The independent NSF board has since been dismantled by the Trump administration. The decommissioning of the sensors has already begun as expected to be completed next year. Meanwhile, the Trump administration's pushed to expand deep-sea mining and loosen fishing regulations. The closure of the Ocean's Observatories initiative was recommended by the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 playbook for Trump's presidency. Scientists warned the move will severely degrade efforts to monitor changing climate patterns and could negatively

affect weather forecasting and extreme weather alerts. For more, we're joined in studio by David Helvar, executive director of Blue Frontier, an ocean policy group, co-hoho of the Rising Tide Ocean podcast and an author. His latest book is Just Out, Forest of the Sea, The Remarkable Life and Imperald Future of Kelp. Well, we won't be talking as much about kelp today, David, though we have to have you back on to talk about that. But right now, the dismantling of this nearly $400 million deep sea sensor network.

Talk specifically about what it means. Well, specifically, the Congress refused to allow the administration to defund this project for the last two years. So now they're disassembling it. And this is the cutting edge eyes and particularly years of science in the ocean. This was scheduled to continue as the most advanced system for understanding the deep ocean, the circulation of the ocean, the warming of the ocean, supposed to continue for the next 15 years at least.

And as you stated, it was the Project 2025, the Heritage, Foundation's overall plan for creating an administrative authoritarian state, which includes a strong focus on essentially developing the ocean for offshore oil drilling and for deep sea mining, basically as a gas station and a garbage dump. And the result is, they said it was, you know, it was the instrument by which NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration was promoting climate hysteria. And what they mean by that is accurate science that reflects the reality that the burning of fossil fuels is overheating our ocean. Last year, Noah reported the oceans been the hottest in recorded history going back to the 1880s. So we have these extreme

marine heat waves that have huge effects on coastal hazard and coastal security. It's also 80% of the world's coral reefs were bleached last year because of the warming of the ocean. The kelp forest are the world's other forest crisis that's happening. We've lost over half the kelp forest that still are more extensive than the Amazon rainforest. And so we're in this crisis and they're blinding us to understanding that crisis because our understanding would direct us to rapidly transition off of fossil fuels, which are overheating and acidifying our ocean. and it's a scary moment. So scientists have warned that dismantling the system will severely degrade the accuracy of weather predictions and El Nino forecasts. Explain.

El Nino is a periodic warming of the Pacific. It may, all the projections right now, or at least the predictions, or that it'll become more extreme than it's ever been this year, on top of which we're having a new wave of marine heat waves. The last marine heat wave that hit the West Coast basically destroyed 95% of the kelp forest in northern California. And it impacts on towns like Fort Bragg, California. Fisheries collapse, tourism based on abalone diving 30 million a year that was lost. The good news is people who were in conflict before, the fishing community, the tribes, the environmentalists are now trying to work together to restore the ocean.

the bad news is they're coming up against an administration that only wants to drill offshore. And I've talked to the AFLCIO in Rhode Island, where they've twice had to drop tools. They had 80% completion on the Revolution wind farms off Rhode Island, which when they're completed will not only provide clean energy to the communities onshore, but reduce utility bills for 400,000 people in Rhode Island and Connecticut. On the West Coast, people are out of work because of the loss of kelp and fisheries. And, you know, so it doesn't make economic sense. I mean, we're literally at the point where it's cheaper to produce clean energy than to produce coal and oil, which were great energy systems for the 16th to the 19th century.

Today, in the 21st century, we're just facing off against greed and ignorance, really. In the context of all this happening, if you can just talk about the main thing, thesis of your book, Forest of the Sea, The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp? It's the world's other forest crisis that people don't know about, and people don't understand that there are over thousands of species that depend on these forests, these algal forests in the sea. I have a chapter called Kelp is the new coral. They're like the Audrey and Ebony. And it's not just the beauty that I experience when I'm daving in it. It's, you know, salmon and herring and cod depend on kelp, as do leafy sea dragons and wolf fields and whales.

And people say, well, I'm not there. Kelp provides algernin, which is a emulsifier that's in our food and our cosmetics and our pharmaceuticals. So every day, the toothpaste, the shampoo we use, the ice cream we eat, have kelp in them. And that kelp, the wild kelp is the mother seed for an aquaculture industry. that's 40 million tons a year for food and production. We're now growing. People don't know. We've switched. There's more seaweed. There's more sea farming than there is wild capture in the ocean.

130 million tons of seafood is grown versus 90 million caught out of the wild. What kills kelp? What kills kelp? Like coral, it used to be mostly overfishing and pollution. and today it's marine heat waves driven by climate change. And they literally, you know, the last marine heat wave, similar to the one that's going to approach this late summer and early fall, wiped out the kelp. It weakened it.

You know, kelp and coral both have temperature effects. When Alaskan waters in Prince William Sound go from 46 degrees to 76 degrees, kills the kelp. When just like when the Florida reefs went to 101, degrees in 2023, it killed the coral. And so it's the warming, the acidification, it drives diseases, harmful algal blooms. It drove a sea star wasting disease that wiped out 90% of all the starfish on the West Coast, 99% of the last predator starfish, this giant seaflower star that grows to the size of bald eagle of 13 pounds and it's cannibalistic and it's aggressive. And it was the last

predator left after we wiped out the sea otters and the big fish and lobsters. And so when the sea stars died off, the little urchins came out of their hidey holes, reproduced 10,000 percent, ate all the kelp and turned these incredibly productive kelp forest into urchin barons. And that's happening not just in California, but in Australia, New Zealand, Norway, around the world. And again, it's larger than the Amazon rainforest and people don't know about it. people at least know coral is in trouble. They don't know that the world's kelp forest that cover over a third of our coastlines up to a third is equally in trouble. And, you know, I've got dual feelings.

One, yes, it creates $500 billion of goods and services for us humans. But also it's just, you know, when I'm down there looking up at the cathedral light with some curious harbor seal, you know, chewing on my fins, it's otherworldly. I mean, we're literally spending $5 billion right now on the Aurora Clipper to send a probe to Saturn's moon to see if it has an ocean that might have life. And the Europa, you know, moon might have an ocean. We have an ocean. It's full of life. It's at risk. And we need to better understand the other 71% of our blue marble planet to protect it and not to let a few greedy individuals and corporations

destroy it. David Helbarg is author and also Executive Director of Blue Frontier, his latest book just out, Forest of the Sea, The Remarkable Life and Imperaled Future of Kelp. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. The planet is quickly warming and severe impacts from climate change will continue to accelerate unless action is taken immediately to prevent irreversible. changes. That's according to the UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez, calling for urgent action in a video release last week. He cited a new update from the World Meteorological Organization that warns El Nino is expected to arrive in the coming months with 90% certainty.

The science is clear. El Nino is arriving on our doorstep in the coming months with 90% certainty. The world must treat it as the urgent climate warning. it is. El Nino conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world. Impacts will it even harder, travel even further and cross borders with devastating speed. The only effective response is climate action equal to the crisis, ending the addiction to fossil fuels, accelerating the shift to renewables, protecting the most vulnerable and delivering early warning systems for all. Well, even as the climate news gets more dire, on Monday, climate scientist Peter Kalmers says he was forced to resign from his job at NASA's jet propulsion lab. His new substack post is titled, I was just forced to resign from NASA's jet propulsion laboratory.

This administration would love for science to just go away. He writes, he started getting concerned about climate change in 2006. And at the time he was sure that by 2020, humanity would be on the same page about climate change and well on its way to solving it for good. How could I have been so incredibly wrong, he writes. I overestimated humanity, he says. For more, we'd go to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We are joined by climate scientists and activist Peter Kalmas. For the first time, Peter, not identifying you as a scientist at,

NASA's jet propulsion lab. Why did you resign? Yeah, thanks for having me back. I can speak freely for the first time on your show. Well, the surface reason for my resignation was a mandate to return to in-person work at the laboratory. So I've been fully remote in North Carolina for four years. A big part of the reason I left Altadena in 2022 to work remotely was because it was getting so hot there and so fiery. There's a fire that made a small cloud that encompassed my entire house and my family for, like, I think it was over a month.

It was about a month in 2020, the Bobcat fire. And that got kicked off by a really strong heat wave, like heat that I've never felt before. Birds were literally falling off of trees while I was walking on the sidewalk. It was just remarkable. It's too much for me. And obviously, as a climate scientist, I can see that we're on this escalator towards warmer and warmer. warmer temperatures and world leaders are not doing anything about it. This idiotic regime now in the United States led by Trump still thinks it's a hoax, is, you know, waging a war against solar

panels. It's just remarkably foolish. So that was part of why I left. And then, you know, two years after I left, the house that I lived in in my entire neighborhood, my town of Altadena burned down in the Eden fire. So, you know, it's still getting worse. We're still getting worse. We're still burning fossil fuels. We're accelerating the burning of fossil fuels. This industry, oil, coal, gas industry has been dishonest for half a century, blocking action, bribing politicians, playing dirty, lying through their teeth, going testifying in front of Congress, saying that they're not going to stop lying. They're still doing it. Their ads are ridiculous right now, and the greenwashing that they do is absolutely insane. Can you explain what NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab does, what you did there,

what you're going to do now, Peter? Yeah, thanks for that. JPL is, in my opinion, well, at least it was, the crown jewel in the NASA system of center. So it's this beautiful campus in Pasadena, California, nestled in the hills there. And it is responsible for a huge fraction of the Earth-observing satellites that monitor climate change and monitor weather around the world.

The public doesn't really realize. what a huge role JPL has played in monitoring the Earth. But more famously, it's responsible for putting rovers on Mars. It does these spectacular landings on Mars. It explores the planets of the solar system and its moons. So David mentioned the Europa Clipper. That's a JPL mission, which is going to study the ocean under Europa. And he's absolutely right, by the way,

that we tend to really take for granted the boisterous, gorgeous life on planet Earth in a way that I think is, you know, we have to stop doing. It's remarkable how we take it for granted. JPL also studies astrophysics as many astrophysics missions. But it's just, I worked there for 15 years. It was my dream job. I was, you know, one of those space kids. I was just, you know, really nerded out on space from first grade onward.

And it was a dream job for me. the colleagues that I worked with were brilliant. Morale, though, over the last couple of years, because mainly of the Trump administration has been lower than I've ever seen it. And 30% of the workforce at JPL has been laid off or has left because of funding cuts and because of that low morale in the last year and a half. How were you forced out? So basically, I was told that I had to return to JPL by October 27th. Obviously, I couldn't do it. that because I'd be leaving my sons and my wife and my life here in North Carolina behind. You know, we moved here four years ago. The kids are in school here. So that wasn't an option.

I would feel very sad, probably get depressed if I lived in a little apartment alone in Pasadena. Moving my entire family back wasn't an option. So I just fought. I tried to put in for remote exceptions. The process was extremely unfair. I had saved up a lot of vacation days and sick days. I injured my knee earlier this year and had to take a medical leave. Eventually, I was out of options and I just had to leave. But again, the indirect reason, the larger reason here is that Trump is not only attempting to dismantle the United States ocean observing system. They're trying to dismantle all of science in the United States.

US has had my entire life. It's been this sort of island in the world for doing science because of the federal funding system. You can make a career in science here. sustain research because of federal grants. The Trump administration has already cut about 8,000 federal grants for scientists ranging from public health to climate science. So now basically, my whole life, there have been scientists from around the world coming here, the best minds, the brightest minds in the entire world. Trump has destroyed that in less than two years. And I think it's going to take

generations to rebuild that if we ever can. Peter Kalmiss, for those who haven't followed you democracy now. Talk about your last arrest. We just have about 30 seconds. The reason you got arrested time and time again. Yes, I've been arrested three times. The first time I attached myself to a door handle at J.P. Morgan Chase

because they're the worst funders of this dishonest fossil fuel industry in the world. And the L.A. police had a huge response with like about 100 riot police. So that action went viral. And it felt like a way to

communicate to the public finally, just how serious this is. I want everyone to know that we are in extreme danger. It gets hotter and hotter and hotter every year. This summer, especially because of the Al-a-Nino, could be the hottest summer we've ever experienced in our lives, but it could also be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives. Peter Kalmas, I want to thank you for being with us, climate activists who just resigned from his post as a climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. His new substack posts will link to you. link to as well. That does it for our show. I'm headed to the Sheffield Dockfest in England. I'll be there on Thursday and Friday. We'll be broadcasting and the film, steal the story, please. About Democracy Now, will be premiering there. And then we'll be next week in Belfast and Northern Ireland for Dox Ireland. It'll be the first film to play at Dox Ireland. Then back to the United States to Vermont next weekend, June. weekend, Burlington, Brattleboro, St. John'sbury, and Montpelier. You can check our website at

DemocracyNow.org. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.