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Democracy Now! (Wednesday, July 15, 2026) We speak with Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil about his lawsuit against top Trump administration officials, two pro-Israel groups and a conservative think tank for conspiring to suppress his constitutional right to free speech.

Khalil, who helped lead protests at Columbia University against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, was one of several international students targeted for deportation by the Trump administration last year over pro-Palestine advocacy.

“I don’t want everything that happened to me to go in vain,” says Khalil.

The lawsuit names Secretary of State Marco Rubio and several other top administration figures; the Heritage Foundation, which launched Project Esther, a campaign to suppress pro-Palestine protests; the far-right pro-Israel group Betar; and Canary Mission, a long-running operation to identify and harass pro-Palestine activists. The lawsuit was brought under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a Reconstruction-era law to restrict government coordination with vigilante groups like the Klan.

Watch the video or read the transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/7/15/mahmoud_khalil_lawsuit

Listen to Democracy Now! weekdays from 5:00 to 6:00 PM Eastern on WRFG 89.3FM and WRFG.ORG. We're Atlanta's independent community radio station for progressive information and handpicked quality music.

To learn how you can support WRFG's mission, please go to WRFG.ORG.

Democracy Now! (Friday, July 10, 2026) As a rose-tinted wave of progressives and democratic socialists win Democratic primaries across the United States, we take a look at two of the organizations behind this recent slate of successful electoral campaigns: the Democratic Socialists of America and Justice Democrats.

From Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York to Melat Kiros in Colorado to Janeese Lewis George in Washington, D.C., major victories from self-described democratic socialists and DSA-backed candidates show that “socialism is losing its scare factor.” Ashik Siddique, co-chair of the DSA’s National Political Committee, explains that DSA’s “goal is to reframe politics around class lines in the United States, which is what the ruling class has been doing forever. We want to transfer power from the 1% to the working class, and to replace capitalism with socialism, which means expanding democracy in every part of our lives.”

By equipping progressives with alternatives to the traditional money streams relied upon by establishment Democrats, like the pro-Israel lobby or Big Tech, DSA and the progressive political action committee Justice Democrats hope to propel genuine advocates for the working class, unbought by corporate funding, into the halls of Congress.

“We went into this cycle viewing it as an existential one,” says Alexandra Rojas, the executive director of Justice Democrats, which recruited candidates like Avila Chevalier and Adam Hamawy in New Jersey. “We see fascism here at our doorstep, and this is a now-or-never moment for our party.”

Watch the video or read the transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/7/10/ashik_siddique_dsa_2026_midterms_democrats

Listen to Democracy Now! weekdays from 5:00 to 6:00 PM Eastern on WRFG 89.3FM and WRFG.ORG. We're Atlanta's independent community radio station for progressive information and handpicked quality music.

To learn how you can support WRFG's mission, please go to WRFG.ORG.