Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-06-11 Thursday

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

Democracy Now! Thursday, June 11, 2026

From New York and Sheffield, England, this is Democracy Now. If we need to negotiate with bombs, we'll negotiate with bombs, and we're very good at it. The U.S. is threatening to return to all-out war with Iran after two days of trading missile and drone strikes across the region. Have negotiations failed? We'll get the latest. Then it's the opening day of the FIFA World Cup hosted across North America. Today's opener is in Mexico. This has been one of the most expensive World Cups in history with tickets that are practically inaccessible to the working class population here in the country. And on top of that, there are social movements, teachers unions, protests in the street of Mexico making demands in this moment where the world's attention is on the country.

We'll go to Mexico and to Philadelphia to talk about ISIS presence at the game and how immigrant communities in the U.S. are preparing for the game. And to Paris to speak to former professional soccer player Jules Boykhov, author of Red Card, the 26 World Cup Sports Washington and the FIFA Greed Machine. And finally, will Congress reauthorize a controversial part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before it expires on Friday? We'll talk to Cindy Cohen of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. her new book is called Privacy's Defender, My 30-year Fight Against Digital Surveillance. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Narmine Sheikh in New York with Amy Goodman in Sheffield, England.

The U.S. has struck Iran for a second day in a row, and President Trump is threatening more strikes as hopes for an imminent deal to end the war are fading. In retaliation, Iran said it long. launched missiles at the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, as well as airbases in Kuwait and Jordan. Iran has also declared the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's foreign ministry says the U.S. strikes have rendered the ceasefire, quote, practically meaningless. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened more strikes.

President Trump, he's willing to go back and fight as necessary, but has given Iran an open hand to make this deal. It's right there. They have that chance. They're choosing to play games. They're choosing to tap. If they want to tap, then the president will turn to the war department. If we need to negotiate with bombs, we'll negotiate with bombs. And we're very good at it. Hexeth was speaking during a visit to Guantanamo, the U.S. military base in Cuba. During his visit, Hegset also said the Pentagon is, quote, postured for any possible contingency in Cuba, which is facing escalating threats from the Trump administration. A U.S. attack on a tanker off the coast of Oman has killed three Indian sailors. U.S. Central Command said the ship was targeted for attempting to transport oil from Iran in violation of the U.S. blockade. The U.N.'s International Maritime Organization condemned the U.S. strike.

The father of one of the sailors spoke to a reporter in India after learning his son had been killed after being at sea for over eight months. We were informed that a bomb had been dropped on the ship. What information have you received? We were informed that my son. India has summoned a senior U.S. diplomat to lodge a, quote, strong protest over the attack on the tanker. Amnesty International has accused Israel of ethnic cleansing as part of a, quote, brutal campaign to forcibly displace Palestinians and expand its control over land in the West Bank. Amnesty described the campaign as state-led and not just driven by rogue settlers. Amnesty is calling on

nations to halt trade, cooperation, and investment relations that enable what it describes as Israel's, quote, unlawful occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. The amnesty report was released on Wednesday, one day after Israeli settlers attacked the historic, Christian village of Taiba in the West Bank. Settlers set fire to parts of the village and then attempted to block Palestinians from putting out the blazers. This is Father Bashar Fawadley, the parish priest of Taiba. They forbidden us to arrive to the fire, to turn off. Arrived there, I would make something very special for our people to protect them, but we, shooting three times. We arrived to the area.

there is attacks by the settlers and they also attacked our people. They stolen the phones and they attacked also the cars. On Wednesday morning, the FBI conducted a number of raids in Michigan targeting eight pro-Palestinian activists who've been indicted on federal charges for allegedly threatening University of Michigan officials as part of a campaign to push the school to divest from Israel. The Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations condemned the arrests as an attempt to quote, chill speech on campuses. In Northern Ireland, police in Belfast deployed water cannons to quell a second night of anti-immigration

riots. Sixteen people were arrested. Twelve police officers were injured. The unrest began earlier this week after an asylum speaker from Sudan was charged with attempted murder in a stabbing attack. In recent days, masked men have been seen attempting to burn families out of their homes. In one incident, four masked men reportedly chased a nurse of color into the Elster Hospital. Hillary Ben, the U.K. Northern Ireland Secretary, condemned the violence as, quote, racist thuggery. Ben said a, quote, sense of terror and fear has spread among immigrant families in the area.

U.S. inflation hit its highest level in three years. The Consumer Price Index rose at an annual rate of 4.2 percent in May. Energy prices accounted for more than 60% of the monthly increase, driven by the U.S. Israeli war on Iran, which has disrupted oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. Gas prices are now up more than 40% compared to a year ago. President Trump dismissed the latest inflation data. Are you serve, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning? Could that be a great thing?

No, I love it. The numbers were right. You know what, I really love that. I love the inflation. Senator Elizabeth Warren responded to Trump writing online, so there you have it. President Trump loves that you're paying higher prices. A new report from New Jersey health inspectors finds bad employee hygiene, unclean surfaces, and poor food shortage at the ice jail known as Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey.

The report is based on an inspection of Delaney Hall last month when inspectors were only given access to food service areas. Immigrants detained at Delaney Hall, have launched a hunger and labor strike to protest inhumane conditions and demand their release, while protesters gathered outside in support. Clashes have repeatedly broken out between demonstrators and ICE agents. On Monday, educator and YouTube star Ms. Rachel paid a visit to the children of parents detained at Delaney Hall. On Wednesday, Ms. Rachel delivered over 500 packets of letters and pictures from immigrants detained at the ICE jail in Dilley, Texas, to Congress members, as well as a letter from herself urging Congress to end family detention and separation.

This is Ms. Rachel. I wanted to let you know that I'm at the capital in Washington, D.C., and I have your words right here and your letters, and I'm delivering them to members of Congress because they need to hear your voices. Your voices are so valuable. You have human rights and your rights should never be violated and no child should ever be in detention and we need to end family detention. And I'm sending you so much love and I'm always going to stand with you. A new report from the Government Accountability Office has found sweeping failures at Camp East Montana, which is the federal government's largest ice chair located in Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. The facility holds up to 5,000 detainees.

Among the violations detailed in the report, a security guard lost a loaded firearm inside the facility. Immigrants with HIV and diabetes were left untreated. A contractor skipped required TB skin tests and instead used questionnaires. Detained immigrants who even offered cookies to clean their units. According to the GAO, the facility wasted up to $11.5 million of taxpayer funds during its first two weeks of operation. last year. Back in March, Camp East Montana also faced a measles outbreak. U.S. measles cases have now topped 2,000 for the second straight year, but experts think the real number is about three times higher. The CDC confirmed cases across 38 states and Washington, D.C., with the

majority among children and teenagers. About 92% of cases involve people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 20% of adults believe the false claim that the measles vaccine is more dangerous than the disease itself. This comes as the New York Times reports Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has demonstrated little interest in managing his sprawling department as he focuses on food and vaccine policies. The report says Kennedy rarely attends weekly meetings held by the chiefs of HHS's 13 operating divisions. When he does attempt, according to colleagues who spoke with the Times, he often appears

disengaged and spends the time scrolling on his phone. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Narmine Sheikh in New York. And I'm Amy Goodman in Sheffield, England, where the documentary about Democracy Now steal the story please is screening at the Sheffield Dockfest. It'll screen next week at Docks Ireland in Belfast. We welcome all of our viewers and listeners around the world. The U.S. has struck Iran for a second day in a row, and President Trump is threatening

more strikes as hopes for an immediate peace deal are fading. In retaliation, Iran has claimed it launched missiles at the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain, as well as at airbases in Kuwait and Jordan. has also declared the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz, despite claims by the U.S. that it now effectively controls the strait. Iran's foreign ministry says the U.S. strikes have rendered the ceasefire, quote, practically meaningless. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth threatened more strikes. President Trump, he's willing to go back and fight as necessary, but has given Iran an open hand to make this deal. It's right there. They have that chance. They're choosing to play games. choosing to tap. If they want to tap, then the president will turn to the war department.

If we need to negotiate with bombs, we'll negotiate with bombs. Tell me out. And we're very good at it. To talk about this and more, we go to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where we're joined by Rami Houdi. Palestinian-American journalists, distinguished public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut. He's also a non-resident senior fellow at the Arab Center, Washington, D.C. Rami, welcome back to Democracy Now. So you have Hegseth saying we need to negotiate with bombs, we will negotiate with bombs, and we are very good at it. Can you talk about the significance of what

has happened? Can you really say negotiations have broken down? President Trump has said dozens of times that were very near a deal. Thank you for having me, Amy. The negotiations have not broken down. They've been going on almost nonstop for several months now. The Qataris are getting more involved in the Pakistanis and others. The Americans have focused, as Hegtha said, have focused on the military side of things. And the military side of things is a huge stalemate. And the U.S. finds itself a bit in a corner. It can attack ferociously as the Israelis can in Lebanon and throughout the region.

but the military power of Israel and the U.S. has not achieved any of their serious political objectives. And this is a big disappointment to them, an embarrassment to them, but they don't know what to do. They're not negotiating seriously, and they just keep up the bravado of the attacks and the bombs and all that. I think the historic reality that before us is that Iran and Hezbollah have checked the U.S. and Israel in so many dimensions on the military side and force them to come back to the negotiating table at some point and do a serious negotiations to address the underlying issues. And Professor Khudi, I mean, if we could talk a little bit more about the negotiations, Trump, of course, had said that it would have to pay the price. Iran would have to pay the price for taking too long to negotiate a deal, saying Iran was, quote, playing us for suckers. The last time that Iran and the U.S. spoke directly, I believe, was in April. But talks have been continuing through intermediaries. If you could say what it is we know about the status of the talks at the moment and whether there is any expectation that Iran and the U.S. will resume the talks they had in Islamabad in April.

Well, I don't think it makes a huge amount of difference if they're sitting in the same broom or if they're negotiating through Pakistan and Qatar and others. The important point is they're narrowing down the differences between them and they're narrowing down the points. that they can agree on. And they seem to they almost had an agreement a couple of weeks ago to have a ceasefire, a full ceasefire for 60 days, and then negotiate the trickiest part, which is the nuclear issue and maybe some of the money that the U.S. is withholding and sanctions. There are issues that still have to be negotiated, but they both want to stop the war for sure. Netanyahu doesn't want to stop the war. They want to expand it, and they're doing that in Lebanon. So I think we're going to see this situation continue, where the U.S. talks to the various negotiators,

maybe sits with the Iranians again, which would be a good thing. But at the same time, the really big dynamic, the big issue now is the relationship between Israel and the United States. Israel has made it clear that it's not going to do what the U.S. tells it. Trump says he's in charge. The fact is we don't know who's in charge. And if Israel is allowed to get away with continuing to attack Lebanon, as is doing, along with all the other stuff it's doing in Palestine, then this is a very bad sign for the whole Middle East. But these are all big issues, and none of them are clear. This is what's perplexing about this situation. And there's multiple war fronts, political, economic sanctions, trade, aid, all.

all kinds of different levels, different issues with different partners. And each of the actors, the Americans and Netanyahu and the Iranians, they're all playing to different audiences at the same time. It's extremely a multi-layered, multi-dimensional. And this is one of the things that makes it so hard. And nobody's in charge. Trump wants to give the impression that he's in charge, but clearly he's not.

He doesn't know what to do. They don't know how to get out of this. and they don't know how to bring the rein in the Israelis. So I expect we're going to see a continuation of these tit-for-tat military strikes. It's fascinating that they each have hit each other, Israel, Hezbollah, Iran, and the U.S. They attack each other, do an attack, and then say, okay, we did it, and that's it. So these are not serious military assaults. What is serious is the total blockade on the Straits of Hormuz now, which is a place,

and the Iranian announcement that they've created what they call a regional resistance belt with Yemen and Hezbollah and others altogether, working much more closely together. And remember that Iran attacked Israel because Israel attacked Beirut about a week ago. So that makes it even more complicated. And this is again the situation where the U.S. and the Israelis are not clear about how to resolve this. They've never faced an adversary like Iran or a group of adversaries like Iran

and its allies in the resistance belt. You know, in a moment, Rami, we're going to be talking about the World Cup opening today. It's the first time a host country is at war with a participating country, right? The United States versus Iran. But before we go, I did want to ask you about those three.

Indian sailors who were killed when the U.S. struck a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. And as you mentioned, Iranian news agency is saying Iran's going to shut it down tight, the Strait of Hormuz, and what this effect will have. But first, the sailors. Well, the World Cup being hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada, what the U.S. is getting most of the limelight, is a continuation of the country. kind of racist, militaristic, imperial attitude that the United States has adopted in the Middle East with the confrontation with Iran, with the Israeli, Lebanese, Palestinian confrontations.

And they're showing the same thing with the World Cup, banning a very highly respected Somali referee, not allowing some of the coaches to come in or some of the players. This is typical imperial, racist colonial behavior taken to a new stage. And most of the world is pretty much disgusted by this, but they just have to play along with it. They can't stop it. And in terms of what's going on in the Middle East, the ban on the closure of Hormuz, as the Iranians say, they've done,

will probably be reacted to. The U.S. will react to this. And they have their blockade of ships, and they're attacking ships, as you mentioned, the three Indians who died. And this is a continuation again of the American attitude that we have a huge military. We can hit anybody anywhere in the world any time you want. And they can. They have this incredible power, but they can't use that power yet.

They haven't learned how to use their military power for constructive diplomatic purposes. And this is being proven once more in Iran, and the Iranians are reversed. replying not on military terms because they can't match the U.S. or Israel, but they're applying more on economic terms and spreading the pain to other countries in the region and hitting the U.S. wherever it has assets in the region. We're going to have to leave it there, Rami Huri, Palestinian-American journalist and distinguished public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut. He's also a non-resident senior fellow at the Arab Center, Washington, D.C.

Coming up, we look at the start of the World Cup. Stay with us. takes on the Czech Republic in Guadalajara. This will be the biggest World Cup in history, with teams from 48 countries playing over 100 games in 16 host cities across three countries, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. This is also the first time a host nation is at war with a participating country, the United States and Iran. Policies from the Trump administration, as well as the Football Federation, FIFA, are making the people's game more inaccessible than ever. There's already the most expensive World Cup in history

this is, and Trump's harsh immigration policies are having a chilling effect on the games. There are 39 countries that are under either a full or partial travel ban, four of which Iran, Haiti, Cote d'Ivoire, the Ivory Coast, and Senegal, are expected to play in the World Cup. Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Zoran Mandani commented on the mounting barriers faced by the World Cup fans and soccer players from countries facing Trump's travel ban and visa restrictions. The World Cup is supposed to be a celebration of the world as a whole. And some of the decisions that we've seen been taken by the federal administration, be it the denial of visas for journalists from certain countries or the rejection of a visa. for a coach of a team as well as single-day visas for specific foreign national teams, this is anathema to what this tournament is supposed to be about.

If we cannot even allow the players, the teams, and the journalists covering those teams to come into this city and this country, then it begs a larger question about our commitment to the spirit of this tournament. On Wednesday, President Trump described the 26 World Cup as the, quote, most successful World Cup they've had. He was later questioned by a journalist over the visa restrictions. Some people are afraid that it's going to be harder and harder to get visas to come from outside. We're working on very closely to make sure the right people come into our country.

Among those affected are at least 15 officials and support staff for the Iranian team, forcing the team to train in Tijuana, Mexico instead of in the U.S. and the Somali referee Omar Artaon, who is denied entry into the United States. He was going to be the first Somali referee to officiate in a World Cup game. But there's this breaking news. Canada has invited him to referee in Canada for the World Cup. For more on all of this, we'll be joined by three guests. As thousands of protesters are expected to disrupt the opening game of the World Cup in Mexico City, will be joined there by Jose Luis Canado Seja of Dropsite News.

And amidst rising fears immigration raids in cities hosting the World Cup, will be joined from Philadelphia by Nalini's stamp of the Working Families Party and Our Copa. But first to Paris, France, where we're joined by Jules Boycough, author of Red Card, the 2026 World Cup, sports washing, and the FIFA greed machine, as well as kicking a memoir about his former life as a professional soccer player. He represented the U.S. on the men's U-23 national soccer team and international competition. Jules, welcome back to Democracy Now. Why don't you just introduce us to this first day of the game

and the contradictions we see between the people's game and the massive sums people have to pay for tickets? It's the fact that it's the first time that a host country is at war with a participating country and the restrictions the U.S. is put on Iran. ICE, lay it out for us. The 2026 World Cup arrives wrapped in a paradox. On one hand, there will be more teams participating than ever before, 48 countries from around the world. On the other hand, this World Cup is shaping up to be one of,

extreme exclusion. Working class fans basically have no chance of buying a ticket to these games because of the exorbitant prices. You've got people from countries like Iran, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Haiti, who have absolutely zero chance of getting a visa for this tournament. And you have people who have chosen not to come to the United States because they fear getting scooped up by immigration and customs enforcement. So this is a tournament that's supposed to bring the world together, But instead, what we're seeing in the lead-up to this game is that you have a tournament of fear. You have a World Cup of Exclusion and you have a World Cup of Chaos. And the two main chaos agents to be aware of here are one, President Donald Trump of the United States.

He has made it absolutely clear that this World Cup is key to his political legacy. And he's used sports to his political advantage more than any president in recent history. The second culprit that's injecting chaos here is FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino. FIFA has cranked up the prices for this, essentially putting it out of the reach of many ticket buyers, trying to squeegee as much money as possible out of world soccer fans around the world. And essentially, FIFA is treating Canada, Mexico, in the United States like its own private cash machine. And this is placed a real Paul over this event that is supposed to be festive and happy. And it's also made this the most politically combustible World Cup in recent memory.

And that's really saying something. And, Jules, this is the first World Cup to be held in the U.S. in 32 years. If you could explain how World Cup host countries are selected, and in this case, they're three. And also the fact of this ticket pricing, which is really, truly, as you said, exorbitant, Who sets the prices of the tickets? Okay, so for starters, to get the World Cup, you have to put forth a bid. And you can access the bid that the United States, Canada, and Mexico put forth. And when you read it, it's all rainbows and unicorns and free transportation to people at these matches in the United States.

Obviously, much has changed since then. And that's kind of an ingrained problem with these events, is that these bids come arrive with all sorts of promises. that aren't actually delivered. In terms of the prices for tickets, there's two markets to be aware of. The first one is controlled by FIFA entirely, and they're using something called dynamic pricing to assign value to these tickets. Dynamic kind of sounds nice, right? It's not nice if you're buying a ticket to the World Cup.

That means they're trying to extract the maximum that they can out of the ticket buyer. And that's why you're seeing for the World Cup final tickets in the range of like $11,000, whereas only four years earlier, the highest price ticket for the final in Qatar was a $1,600. On the secondary market, so when somebody buys a ticket and resells it, in the United States, there's no limit what they can charge. And FIFA loves this because FIFA snatches 15% from the seller and 15% from the buyer for every ticket sold. So I saw a ticket online recently going for $11 million. Now, I'm not saying they're going to sell that for that price, but if they're going to sell that price, But if they did, FIFA would walk away with some $3.5 million for one ticket alone.

And so if you think about the ticket pricing, it's a really good example of the FIFA greed machine in action. Jules, also if you can talk about the Iran team having to stay in Mexico and then in Tijuana, that's where they're training. President Shane Baum has said that they can sleep there. And what deal was worked out with the United States who said they can't stay in? in the United States. And also this Somali referee, the significance of him coming into Miami and being turned back. He ends up back in Mogadishu. And now the latest news, Canada says, oh, you can ref up here. Yes, absolutely. Let's start with Omar Abdul Qadir Artaan, who was, in fact, excluded by the United States. And this was really a shame because it's too bad that the people didn't step up in this

moment, other referees and say, we're not going to referee matches unless our colleague is included. This is an award-winning referee who won the men's award for the entire continent of Africa. I would love for FIFA to have a stronger spine when it comes to these matters and stand up for this referee because this is a horrific situation that we're dealing with. In terms of Iran, and by the way, if you have soccer fans cheering for a referee when they come back home, that's really saying something, I think. But then you have Iran right now. And this is just an epic fail on the part of the Trump administration, a strategic blunder in a major way. And here's what I mean by that. President Trump should be opening his arms wide to the players from Iran, because if you look at

the recent history of Iran playing in international matches, you'll see that those Iranian players have taken the opportunity to do things that are critiques of their government at home. So, for example, the last World Cup in Qatar, you had Team Mali, as they're known, the Iranian team, not sing the national anthem in their opening match, thereby signaling to activists back home that they were on their side. More recently, the women's national team from Iran traveled to Australia, where two of them claim political asylum, again, sending a message to people back home. And so this is a major own goal for the Trump administration, in addition to just being very much against the spirit of what this event is supposed to be. So I'd like to bring in Jose Luis Granado Seja, you're covering Latin America for Dropsite News, and also the co-host of Soberania. If you could tell us you are in Mexico City, the first match of the World Cup is happening there.

If you could describe what the situation is on the ground and also talk about this. We spoke about it earlier with Jules, how much tickets cost there. and the protests surrounding the cop. So here in Mexico, the conversation has been are these protests that are happening right now as we speak in the streets of Mexico City, which include a sit-down protest by a dissident teachers' union called La Sente,

or if they're going to affect the actual event. Now the messaging from the government has been that, no, everything is going to proceed as normal. There have been negotiations. Just yesterday, they were in closed-door negotiations with the Secretary of the Interior, or the Secretaria de Governazio in Mexico for six hours to try to reach in agreement. It's not clear as of yet.

It's the morning of the opening match and we still don't know. But of course, yes, here, you know, soccer is the most popular sport by far. And the people who love this sport are not going to be able to attend the games. They have been extraordinarily inaccessible to the population. And unfortunately, because also of these protests and maybe the fan fest, which is going to take place the main one in the Socalo, who's been to Mexico City knows this massive public square. There's a huge screen there, but right now it's totally surrounded by high fences

in order to keep the demonstrators out. I think it's important to mention these demonstrations, of course, are legitimate. The protesters are highlighting important issues in the case of the teachers. They're asking for a repeal of a 2007 neoliberal law, which essentially privatized pensions in Mexico. They're also asking for wage increases. We've seen other collectives come together. The mothers of disappeared people have been protesting trying to reach the stadium in the far south of the city. Other groups have been trying to use this occasion that the world's attention is on Mexico as the host, as one of the three hosts,

and the country that will have the opening match here to highlight their issues. And I think it's a perfectly legitimate thing. The challenge, though, is that there are also reactionary forces. There are anti-popular groups who are trying to latch on to these people. protests who are trying to create this scene as if there is chaos happening in Mexico. It's not the case. I did a little walk through downtown Mexico City to see how things are like. You know, things are calm. I happen to talk to many visitors who are here, who already have arrived here in Mexico to enjoy the festivities. And they all said that they're more than happy to take part in everything

that's going to be available to them. They, of course, understand that there are social issues happening here in Mexico that are, you know, leading to these kinds of protests. But the expectation is that at least there will be a sense of calm, that there won't be disruptive events to affect the enjoyment of the opening match here in Mexico. And Jose Luis, if you could also talk about the Mexican president, Claudia Shane Baum's response, both to the protests of the teachers and the others and the indigenous people about the disappeared using this as a moment to highlight that issue. and President Shanebaum's solidarity with the Iranian team and the deal that was worked out that they could train in Tijuana. Yes, of course. So actually, the Iranian ambassador to Mexico made the proposal actually to have the games that involved the Iranian team be played in Mexico. It seemed perfectly reasonable, and it was actually something that President Claudia Shiamam embraced.

Ultimately, it was FIFA who said that that wasn't going to be possible, that they would play in the United States. We know that some of the trainers, some of the staff have not been issued visas and that they're forced to fly in and fly out immediately. But certainly here, also the Mexican population has embraced the Iranian team. There were proud waiting for them to receive them in Tijuana. So it's a very different attitude here in Mexico. There is this, you know, this embrace of the idea, which is a good idea on the surface of it, that this should be an occasion for us to come together and to celebrate, you know, the world's game. But again, you know, the challenge has been that there are,

geopolitical considerations at play here. The response from the government in terms of some of these protests in the case of the teachers has been pretty much that the government and this moment cannot afford to comply with the demands of the teachers union, essentially to renationalize the pensions. There are different programs that essentially top up the pensions, and they've kind of been consistently emphasizing this as an alternative to this just because, you know, here in Mexico, since the election of Lopos Obrador and now with Gladia Scheimbaum, it is a policy that's called Republican austerity, which is basically trying to keep spending down to focus on social programs, to focus on investment in infrastructure. Gladiya Shyamom in particular has made a big investment,

a big bet on investing in health care, for example. And so, you know, to be able to comply to this, it would essentially require a fiscal reform. And the government argues that it's just the conditions aren't in place for anything like that in this moment. In response to some of these other movements, you know there have been long-standing tables places of dialogue with the mothers of the disappeared with the parents of the disappeared four three students from a Yotinapa we still don't actually have all the facts in terms of what happened why were they disappeared what happened to them and of course so that that is ongoing and so this is a moment where you know that makes sense to

me that these kinds of groups would try to take advantage of the opportunity to highlight these issues but like I said of the initially the concern is that we've seen previously here in Mexico, for example, the so-called Gen Z protest, the Gen Z protests that were happening here were actually an AstroTurf campaign funded by right-wing oligarchs. And so we saw actually as well a bit of a parallel in the case of Brazil with the protest against Dilmarusa. You know, many of these start as genuine legitimate protests, which obviously much of the population understands why they would take to the streets to bring these issues up, but they

can be co-opted. And so one of the lines that the president has been insisting on, one of her messaging has been that, you know, they want to create this idea that there is chaos, that this is an unpopular government. Then that's just not the case, right? I mean, if you look at the president's approval ratings, she enjoys 70, 80 percent approval ratings in the country. So there is, I think, something more surreptitious at play here that there are forces that are trying to take advantage of this opportunity. Jose Luis, you mentioned that the mothers of the disappeared and the missing are basically trying to use this massive global event to draw attention to the disappeared. And just to give a sense of how enormous an issue this is, Mexico, first of all, has the highest number of missing and disappeared people in the world, around 130,000 international organizations have referred to this. as a humanitarian emergency.

So if you could talk about the people who are protesting, whether their mothers or others, and what they hope will come out of this. So, you know, there are these stickers, the Panini stickers, which are very, very popular. People actually meet up downtown Mexico City to exchange the ones that they do have, what they don't have. And actually, the mothers that they disappeared

have done a very interesting protest. in taking the image of these stickers and putting the faces of the disappeared, as a means to say that, you know, all of this enthusiasm, all of this energy, all of this investment that is being made to have these gains happen and happen successfully can also be used to find our missing children. And so that's been the one of the ways that they've been trying to communicate this message. And of course, you know, numerous human rights organizations have pointed to this. Some have called it a humanitarian crisis, and it is, you know.

We're talking more than 100,000 people who have been disappeared. And this, of course, is a product of the decision way back in the government of Felipe Calderon to engage in a militarized response to the problem organized crime in this country. And because these organized crime groups learned that, you know, it was easier to disappear somebody than face an investigation if they, you know, came upon the bodies of people. And so that's part of the reason why we're seeing so much is this is a legacy of some of the decisions made by previous governments in the same way that the World Cup is, right? this was a decision that was made in the Enrique Pena Nieto government.

And I think in a lot of ways they're doing the best that they can to attend to a situation that they inherited. But I do think that there have been important improvements in terms of the policy of actually having state backing for this very critical mission of finding the disappeared to give comfort to the mothers of people who have, you know, of disappeared people in order to, you know, to make it a more robust system to improve, for example, the data. was apparently very, very insufficient. There was all kinds of missing information. There's been a determined effort to try to attend to that, to make it more. And I do think

that there needs to be more collaboration with some of these collectives. I think a lot of them, a lot of the mothers, have come together on their own, you know, in a self-organized way, because they've been frustrated with the response from state-level authorities, from the federal government, in terms of not giving enough to be able to actually do the work. It's hard work. It's quite literally going out into fields where they suspect or they got a tip that there could be, you know, the body of somebody who had been disappeared and digging through the dirt to try to find them. There is something called the Commission Nacional de Bouskilla or the National Search Commission, which is meant to accompany them. And there needs to be more of this kind of initiative

to make sure that they feel like they really are a company. This is important for the state. The president has said so as much to say that we, you know, this is a debt that we owe to society to attend to the needs of these mothers who simply want to know what happened to their children. Jose Luis is speaking to us from Mexico City. We're going to go right now to Philadelphia to Nalini Stamp, director of mass audience engagement for working family's power with the Arcopa campaign. Nalini, thanks so much for joining us. So you have this World Cup set to be the largest sporting event in North American history.

At the same time, you have this massive Trump immigrant. Grint Crackdown, if you can explain to us what our COPA, what working families power is calling for, and what you understand the agreement of ICE's presence around the stadium around the United States is right now. Yes. Well, thank you for having me. Our COPA is a joint initiative from Working Families Power and we hand the support committee. And we have one goal is to keep the game beautiful. It is, It's so important this year. We have had so much issues with ICE. And we fundamentally believe that football unites us while ICE is dividing us.

Folks have said it before that this is one of the most expensive World Cups. We need to keep it accessible and keep it within our communities. So what we're doing is making sure that people have safe places to gather because joy is not a luxury. Joy is how a lot of our communities survive. So having safe watch parties, we're having free football clinics and soccer tournaments, for people to actually enjoy in safety. There's been a lot of cases of ice, going to soccer fields, going to baseball field,

going where sporting events are happening, and snatching up children, snatching up communities. They've been inside of schools where we know, and, you know, in Minnesota, they took Liam Ramos. And this is something that a lot of people are fearing. They're fearing not just ice presents at stadiums,

which, look, in an international tournament, there are a lot of, you know, there are a lot of federal officials, especially from the Department of Homeland Security. But people are really, really afraid of them having raids that ICE will go and raid communities where people are watching and gathering together. In most countries in the world, people just put up, and you just see it all over, you know, the city of New York last night. People are putting up, you know, TVs to just watch it collectively. People will just say, here, come and come and see this in our village, in our town, and people are afraid to do that in the United States

because Donald Trump and Andrew Giuliani, who is his World Cup czar, is making it about them. They're making it a strong man's show. And I fundamentally believe they do not want immigrant communities and communities who enjoy the beautiful game like myself,

who has been a fan of I'm wearing the 1994 U.S. men's national team World Cup kit. I was a fan of Tab Ramos then, who is a Latino immigrant, and they don't want us to have a joy in this moment. And so right now what we're seeing is just high level of tensions. Last week, or two weeks ago, two weeks before today started the World Cup, the director of Homeland Security threatened to pull Customs and Border Patrol officers from Newark Airport because of what's happening at Delaney Hall, which is eight miles away from what they're calling the New York, New Jersey Stadium, which is where, which the World Cup final will be played at. So when we're, you know, our initiative with our COPA is to just make sure that people can enjoy and have a sense of joy and community and enjoy this.

And we have two clear demands. We want to stop all ice raids during this entirety of the World Cup during the next 39 days. And we want the travel ban lifted on the countries who are participating in the World Cup on Haiti, on Kuta Ivory, on Senegal, on Senegal, on Haiti, because their fans do. deserve to be here. That is not a political move. It's a human move. And Nalini, could you also talk about the fact that some cities in the U.S., Atlanta, Seattle, and L.A., the police have said they will not cooperate with ICE? What is the position of other cities? Yes. Yes. A lot of, I mean, look, a lot of folks have said that they won't cooperate with ice. We have also seen in New York, folks have said that they won't cooperate with ice. I think a lot of

different cities are saying they will not cooperate with ice. Unfortunately, there are cities who have a long history of ice cooperation in Houston with 287G programs in Kansas City. And so it is something that we are making sure that every person who is here, who lives here, who celebrates and loves the beautiful game, have know-your-rights tools. We have know-your-rights tools on arcopa.com. There has been lots of other programs that are just making sure Zoharamam Dani, the mayor of New York, is doing his own know-your-rights program in the city to make sure that anybody who's in New York or New Jersey has what they need to be, you know, to have know-your-right. So what it's, what I love about this is that, you know, communities are answering to keep

each other safe and we will keep each other safe as much as possible during these. games, but the story should also be. I think a lot of the story is about Donald Trump and he wants it to be about him. We have to also make it about how communities are welcoming these teams. Here in Philadelphia, the Ivory Coast played a free game to the public so that their fans can see. And their fans can't come from their home country. And it was packed at the Philadelphia Union Stadium. Folks in Virginia, Ghana, you know, the diaspora from Ghana welcomed the Ghana team with traditional instruments. People in New Jersey are welcoming Morocco

and supporting them. We have to also show that people are celebrating right now. Nellini Stamp is Director of Mass Audience Engagement for Working Families Power. Thank you so much for joining us. She's also with our Copa campaign. Jose Luis Granado Seja covers Latin America for Dropsite News and Jules Boykoff,

author of Red Card, the 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA greed machine. Thank you all for joining us. Coming up, will Congress reauthorize a controversial part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before it expires on Friday? I'm Montreal musician Paul Carnello. This is Democracy Now. I'm Nermin-Shecheche in New York with Amy Goodman in Sheffield, England. A key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, is said to expire on Friday. unless it's reauthorized by Congress. Section 702 allows for the warrantless surveillance of

foreign nationals believed to be outside of the U.S., but is highly controversial for inherently sweeping up and storing vast amounts of data from Americans, including emails, texts, and cell phone data. A bipartisan group of senators is opposing the reauthorization. President Trump has asked Congress to pass a short-term extension to buy time, which will be voted on today. The push to reauthorize FISA has been complicated by Trump's selection of MAGA loyalist Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence replacing Tulsi Gabbard. Pulte has no known background in intelligence while serving as director of the federal

housing finance agency, he used his position to target Trump's political enemies with criminal referrals over claims of mortgage fraud. Pulte will remain director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and chair of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, while also serving as Chief of Intelligence. President Trump was asked by a reporter last week why he believes Pulte is the best person for the job. Well, he's very smart. He's a person who's got high integrity and it's an acting position. It's not a permanent. He's not going to be permanent because, you know, I don't think he'd want be permanent, but he's a very smart guy, and you may find out some things about the rigged elections, et cetera, et cetera.

To talk about this and more, we're joined by Cindy Cohen, Executive Director of the Electronic Friend Fetier Foundation, just written a new book, Privacy's Defender, my 30-year fight against digital surveillance. She's joining us from San Francisco. Cindy, thanks so much for being with us. Can you explain what this controversial article is of FISA? that has to be dealt with by tomorrow, and also talk about the significance of Pulte and his new role. Sure. FISA, Section 702, is a piece of the foreign surveillance law that has to be reauthorized every couple of years.

And this reauthorization came up because some of you may recall the government was doing all of this illegally and off the books for many, many years. And after they got caught, Congress created some oversight, not enough. And one of the pieces of oversight was that this has to be reauthorized every couple of years so that Congress can take a look and see whether it's working well, whether more privacy protections are needed, or whether it should be continued at all. And so every time this comes up, there is a push by organizations like EFF, but also a bipartisan set of members in Congress to try to get some privacy protection. in it. And right now, the central one is to require a warrant before searching this huge amount

of data that is being collected by the NSA, especially for the FBI to need a warrant in order to search this for purposes. So that's the centerpiece of the fight right now, and that's why we have this periodic reauthorization. You know, the nomination of Bill Pulte is really a, I think it's a bit of a slap in the face of the national. security folks who keep saying that this is a really important and serious program that could never, you know, would never be misused and is only going after stopping foreign terrorists. That's the story they tell us overall. They keep getting caught, you know, really misusing this data and also searching far more broadly

than they're supposed to under the law. But every time they say, don't worry, we fixed it and we're very serious people. And we will only use this for, you know, important, you know, important. you know, fighting terrorism and similar things. And I think, you know, nominating somebody who's got no national security experience and instead has a pretty growing track record of being, you know, somebody who just goes after Trump's enemies. So using this in a very political way is, I think, just a bridge too far,

even for some members of Congress who otherwise might support the program. And, you know, don't get me wrong, EFF thinks this program should be stopped. It was started illegally. and it hasn't gotten any better. But, you know, a simple warrant requirement shouldn't be a very big lift. But it took this nomination of a completely unqualified guy to get enough members of Congress to really stop it. And I think it's time to take a look and listen hard about the privacy protections

that are needed at a minimum for this program to go forward. Well, just to convey Cindy Cohen the scale of this program shortly after it was established, FISA quickly became one of the top intelligence gathering mechanisms in the country. FISA intelligence provides up to 70 percent of the president's daily brief. And even if the law is not extended, the NSA could still continue to operate the program through March 27. What would that mean in the context of Bill Pulte being the acting director of national intelligence? What information would he be privy to? Well, he could be privy to anything that's searchable in this database.

Database is really a huge, huge collection of information. I mean, they say they're only targeting foreigners abroad, but they're really collecting, in the first instance, a much, much wider range of information and then sorting through it with some secret ways that we really don't have any insight into and claiming that in the end, they only keep things that are targeting foreigners abroad.

But even on that scale, it's a huge amount of domestic communication of Americans inside the United States. And, of course, the rest of the world deserves privacy too. So it's a huge corpus of information. And since the actual work of searching through this is so secret, it's almost impossible to know what isn't potentially available. but certainly somebody who was willing to go through, you know, the mortgage records of people in order to identify potential, you know, avenues into the president's enemies. This would be a much bigger trove of information that could be weaponized against people who the president wants targeted. And the fact that, you know, what the president said was that this could be used, you know, for some of the election, you know, claims that he's making should be especially troubling because those are,

largely domestic issues. I mean, you know, so I think that it's already being signaled that this information is going to be used for things that is far afield from national security or foreign intelligence, narrow targets that are, you know, what it was created on the story that that was all it was going to be used for. So it could be a tremendously powerful tool. The collection and you're correct that even if the program, expires. It doesn't end. It's already been reauthorized until March of 2027. So even if Pulte's in there for a very

short period of time, there's a lot of damage he could do. You know, this massive national security surveillance state that was built after 9-11 has always been a threat to freedom. It's a, it's been a problem from the beginning, and we've always had this kind of, you know, assurances that it would never be misused. I think that the warning lights should be flashing red in your book. Cindy Cohen, you articulate this so well in your book, Executive Director of Electronic Frontier Foundation. I recommend everyone read it, Privacy's Defender, my 30-year fight against digital surveillance. That does it for our show. We've been broadcasting from the studios of Sheffield Live, community TV, and radio, and we are going to be at the Sheffield Film Festival today and tomorrow.

I'm Amy Goodman when there meets you.