International Labor Media Network
Working people throughout the globe face attack on their basic economic and social rights and the need to tell the stories of all working people is crucial
And now for some "light news" in light of the Secretary of "War" calling for a $1.5 Trillion Dollar military budget.
The single greatest thing destroying the US is the political weaponization of the US Military itself, whether that be grotesque, ineffective spending, spreading hatred of the US worldwide with endless interventions and devious proxy wars, community destroying AI Data Centers whose purpose is to serve military needs first, and diverting scarce real money from the dire needs of the American People. The US Military and the Dark Souls who control its purse strings are the real enemy of We The People
Centenary Congress: IFJ adopts motion to hold Israel accountable for war crimes against journalists in Lebanon
www.ifj.org//media-centre/news/detail/category/centenary-congress-2026/article/centenary-congress…
11 May 2026
At its meeting in Paris from 4 to 7 May, the Congress of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) unanimously adopted an urgent motion submitted by the Union of Journalists in Lebanon. The motion called for Israel to be held accountable for war crimes against journalists and media workers in Lebanon.
Credit: Union of Journalists in Lebanon.
Whereas the systematic and deliberate Israeli attacks against journalists and media workers have not ceased in Lebanon since October 13, 2023, in blatant breach of international humanitarian law, of principles of press freedom and protection of media workers in times of armed conflict;
Whereas Israel assassinated Al-Akhbar journalist Amal Khalil on April 22, 2026, in what constitutes a war crime by the book, which was preceded by direct death threats, and during which Amal was surveilled, pursued, and repeatedly targeted. Furthermore, rescue and emergency teams were deliberately blocked and prevented from reaching her in time, which caused her death after denying her any chance of survival:
Around 14:30, an Israeli drone targeted a civilian vehicle escorting colleagues Amal Khalil and Zeinab Faraj on the Tiri–Bint Jbeil road, killing two people inside.
Urgent appeals were subsequently made to the Lebanese and International Red Cross, Civil Defense, the Lebanese Army, and UNIFIL forces to evacuate the two colleagues or secure a safe humanitarian corridor, but Israel refused to grant permission.
Around 15:30, the drone returned to target the colleagues' vehicle as they attempted to take shelter outside it, causing them injuries and burns.
Around 16:27, the house in which they had taken refuge was directly struck by a warplane.
Approximately half an hour after the strike on the house, around 17:00, rescue teams were granted permission to enter. However, as they attempted to extract Zeinab Faraj from under the rubbles and search for Amal Khalil, they were targeted with a sonic bomb and direct gunfire, with some bullets hitting a Lebanese Red Cross vehicle, forcing them to withdraw and making it impossible to continue search and rescue operations.
Rescue teams and the Lebanese Army remained blocked from accessing the area until around 20:00. The teams were only able to reach Amal Khalil's location and recover her body around 23:00, far too late to save her. According to the forensic report, Amal’s death occurred at approximately 19:00 due to cardiac arrest and acute hemorrhage resulting from a blunt-force head injury.
The testimony of the sole survivor, colleague Zeinab Faraj, confirms that an Israeli surveillance drone was flying overhead and descending repeatedly to verify they were still alive. She recounted: "We held our breath and pretended to be dead so they would not kill us." This constitutes clear evidence of deliberate surveillance, direct targeting, in knowledge of the identity of those being targeted.
This crime was preceded by direct threats sent to Amal Khalil on her personal number from a number linked to Israeli intelligence, dated August 25, 2024, reading: "Is your house still standing, Miss Amal? We advise you to flee wherever you can if you wish to keep your head on your shoulders." Furthermore, Al-Akhbar newspaper received a direct threat on September 21, 2024, warning of targeting if Amal Khalil did not cease her media coverage, which establishes premeditation and deliberate intent.
And whereas, on March 28, 2026, an Israeli drone targeted a press team on the Kfar Houneh-Jezzine road in southern Lebanon, causing the death of Al-Manar channel correspondent Ali Shoeib, Al-Mayadeen correspondent Fatima Ftouni, and her brother, cameraman Mohammad Ftouni, in a crime openly claimed by the Israeli army;
And whereas, on March 18, 2026, Mohammad Cherri, director of political programs at Al-Manar, was killed along with his wife in an Israeli strike targeting their apartment in Zoqaq el-Blat neighborhood in central Beirut;
Whereas Morris Tidball-Binz, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, established in his statement – following his official visit to Lebanon on October 12, 2025 – that the deliberate killing of journalists constitutes a war crime;
And whereas, on April 2, 2026, Tidball-Binz, jointly with Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, called for an independent international investigationinto the targeted killing of journalists; they urged Lebanon to document and preserve evidence, affirming that the deliberate killing of journalists constitutes a war crime and a serious violation of international law; they also stressed the need to ensure international accountability, bring an end to impunity, and guarantee the victims' families right to truth, justice and reparation;
Whereas the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions is expected to present his recommendations in his report to the Human Rights Council at its next session in June 2026;
And whereas, during the June 2026 session, the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group on Lebanon will also present recommendationsto the Lebanese State regarding the protection of journalists and press freedom, including:
Ensuring freedom of expression and protecting journalists from violence and intimidation (adopted by Ecuador and Sierra Leone)
Adopting protection protocols in line with international standards and the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists (Bulgaria)
Documenting war crimes and strengthening accountability mechanisms (Oman)
Ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Latvia, Luxembourg, Ukraine) and referring crimes to the competent authorities (Colombia)
Whereas the Union of Journalists in Lebanon has been calling on the Lebanese State, since the beginning of the Israeli attacks against journalists in October 2023, to officially document war crimes, open serious judicial investigations, and request the establishment of an independent international commission of inquiry, either through the Human Rights Council or the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; the Union urges the Lebanese State to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court pursuant to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute, in order to investigate crimes on Lebanese territory since October 2023;
Whereas these demands continue to be neglected and postponed by the Lebanese authorities, amid global silence, which increases the risks faced by journalists, hinders their freedom of action and the people’s right to information, it also enshrines impunity and undermines the right of victims and their families to truth and justice;
The Congress of the International Federation of Journalists resolves to:
I. Request the IFJ Executive Committee to address a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council, at its June 2026 session, to:
Assign an independent and impartial commission of inquiry into the killing of journalists and media workers in Lebanon from October 13, 2023 until the end of hostilities.
Grant this commission the necessary powers to collect evidence, hear witnesses and survivors, and legally document violations, for subsequent judicial proceedings.
Submit periodic and transparent reports presenting the findings of these investigations to UN bodies and international public opinion.
II. Request the IFJ Executive Committee to address, in coordination with UJLeb, a letter to the Lebanese authorities, inviting them to:
Conduct official and transparent investigations into the killing of journalists, as a crucial step enabling journalists and their families to exercise their legal rights.
Access the records of crimes against journalists since October 2023, and monitor the progress of official investigations or judicial proceedings.
III. Call on IFJ-affiliated unions and associations to:
Support the Union of Journalists in Lebanon in its legal endeavors aimed at prosecuting the perpetrators of crimes against journalists before the national courts of states applying the principle of universal jurisdiction, regardless of where the crime was committed or the nationality of the suspects.
Pressure their governments to take a clear stance and adopt concrete measures to fight impunity, including by supporting the establishment of an independent and impartial international commission of inquiry into war crimes committed against journalists before the Human Rights Council.
List of previous cases of Israeli targeting of journalists in Lebanon since October 2023:
October 13, 2023: Photographer Issam Abdallah was killed by a direct Israeli strike while performing his journalistic work in Alma El-Chaab, near Lebanon's southern border. Six other journalists were wounded, including AFP and Al Jazeera reporters, among them photographer Christina Assi, who lost her right leg consequently. This attack was documented by more than nine in-depth investigations conducted by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reuters (first and secondreports), AFP, and UN reports (UNIFIL and communications from special rapporteurs). All confirmed that the journalists were visible to Israeli drones, helicopters, and observation towers, and that there had been no exchange of fire for more than 40 minutes before they were targeted by two tank shells and machine-gun fire.
November 21, 2023: Al-Mayadeen correspondent Farah Omar, photographer Rabih al-Maamary, and their local guide Hussein Aqil were killed by a direct Israeli strike targeting their press team in Tayr Harfa, southern Lebanon.
October 25, 2024: Al-Manar camera operator Wissam Qassem, Al-Mayadeen camera operator Ghassan Najjar, and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda were killed in their sleep by an Israeli raid targeting their location in Hasbaya, where several press teams were staying (Human Rights Watch, The Guardian).
For more information, please contact IFJ on +32 2 235 22 16
The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 146 countries
www.ifj.org
At its meeting in Paris from 4 to 7 May, the Congress of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) unanimously adopted an urgent motion submitted by the Union of Journalists in Lebanon. The mo…
Disappearing before our eyes: One photographer’s passion project of capturing local newsrooms
apnews.com/article/newspapers-newsrooms-photographing-media-f0d0939e04bb66f8d340f6f43df5bf5e
Dave Bauder stands for a portrait at the New York headquarters of The Associated Press on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
BY DAVID BAUDER
Updated 9:01 PM PDT, April 30, 2026
Comments.png 4
NEW YORK (AP) — If you think the life of a journalist is glamorous, take a look at Ann Hermes’ photograph of Tom Haley from a winter day in Rutland, Vermont.
He scribbles in a notebook, leaning back in an office chair while dressed in ill-fitting khakis and a baseball cap. His left foot rests on the one portion of a desk not covered with clutter — piles of notebooks, a newspaper, printed reports and a lanyard hanging from a stray photograph. What could be a calendar hangs askew on the wall behind him. The drab blue carpet has seen better days.
Hermes is fascinated by things that evoke a time gone by or are about to pass into history. She has photographed the last Morse code station operating in North America and department store photo booths. Lately, she’s spent a lot of time in newsrooms like Haley’s Rutland Herald.
The Brooklyn-based photographer has. brought her camera into some 50 newsrooms across the United States, many in smaller towns and cities, to document places and lives endangered by the industry’s collapse over the past few decades. Already one of the newspapers she’s photographed, in Alameda, Calif., has shut down.
And she’s nowhere near done.
Photographer didn’t expect it to turn into a passion project
Even as someone who spent time in newsrooms herself professionally — Hermes worked for several years at the Christian Science Monitor — she didn’t anticipate it turning into such a passion project.
“I love these spaces,” she says. “I love spending time with these people. The more time I spent in newsrooms and hearing about their difficulties of life, it took on a different agenda. I couldn’t have spent so much of my free time on this if I didn’t enjoy it.”
Her photos dispel the notion that journalism is a prestigious job populated by elitists — certainly not at the local level. Here are working people in shabby surroundings, places that would make an office designer shudder. Post-it notes hang from a computer monitor. Pens, notebooks, boxes of paper are thrown into a bookshelf next to a half-empty bottle of whiskey. A carpet stain is left untended. A bottle of antacid pills sits on top of a microwave.
An empty metal organizer sits behind a sign saying, “stories to be written,” the product of a long-forgotten efficiency drive.
The New Yorker’s Zach Helfand captures it: “News people tend to pay their surroundings little mind. There’s too much to do and always a deadline looming. What you see hanging around these rooms isn’t designed but improvised, and more revealing.”
It’s not just newsrooms in danger of becoming obsolete. How often do you see newspapers anymore, particularly with news outlets shutting their printing presses and going digital? Yet they’re everywhere in Hermes’ photographs. Stuffed into cubbies, yellowing with age. A jumble of them in the back of a van. Stacked in piles — some toppled over, others on the verge. Some need to be stepped around.
Still more are in newspaper “morgues,” the term becoming more appropriate by the day. Cut-out articles are stuffed into cardboard files, the destination for research before the day most information could be found with a few computer strokes.
The history of a community is in these morgues, however. And when they’re gone, so are many of the memories contained within.
A belief in a civic duty — with maybe some fun
“This is really a love letter to local journalism,” Hermes says. “It’s not a ‘gotcha’ piece.”
She’s attracted to the “true believers” who stick with the line of work, putting up with the anger and ridicule of civic leaders who don’t like their judgments questioned, and the business realities that have driven many of their friends into different lines of work.
“The rewards are diminishing in doing this job,” she says. “You have to really believe in the fundamental civic service that you are providing. Otherwise, why else would you do it? It’s a really difficult job.”
Her work is available to see on her website, and she hopes one day to collect her newsroom photos in a book. She feels she’s gone beyond capturing images and into an advocacy role; she wants to do exhibitions in some of the communities that she’s visited to remind people about the importance of local journalism.
Disappearing before our eyes: One photographer's passion project of capturing local newsrooms
apnews.com
Photographer Ann Hermes is fascinated by things that evoke a time gone by, or about to pass into history.
ILWU Shuts Down Northern California Ports on May Day; Socialist Kshama Sawant Challenges Rep. Adam Smith; Bayer Seeks Immunity Over Roundup as Protesters Rally at Supreme Court
capitalismraceanddemocracy.org/2026/05/03/ilwu-shuts-down-northern-california-ports-on-may-day-so…
By Capitalism, Race & Democracy – May 3, 20262
Socialist and former Seattle City Councilor Kshama Sawant is now running against Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, who has backed more military funding and wars abroad. She spoke with Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer.
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The ILWU Local 10 had a stop work meeting and shut down all ports in Northern California on May Day. They and other workers spoke out at a labor rally at their hiring hall in Oakland and on the streets of San Francisco during a May Day March.
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Monadel Herzallah of the US Palestinian Communities Network and Labor for Palestine shared a May Day message of solidarity with Palestinian workers on WBAI-New York’s Building Bridges. He spoke with host Mimi Rosenberg.
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Next we hear voices from a rally outside the U.S.Supreme Court on Monday, April 27th, where German chemical giant Bayer sought immunity from liability for harm caused by its widely used pesticide Roundup. Roundup is manufactured by Monsanto, which Bayer acquired in 2018. Its active ingredient glyphosate is suspected of causing numerous cancers among agricultural workers and others exposed to it.
Bayer’s lawsuit seeks to void all lawsuits brought against it by plaintiffs in state courts and send them to federal courts, a legal strategy that could result in billions of dollars of legal judgments being thrown out and plaintiffs being forced to either give up or start the legal process all over again.
Although glyphosate has been replaced by other chemicals in a Roundup formulation for residential home use, it is still widely used in large scale agriculture and industry.
This segment is courtesy of WPFW-Washington DC’s On the Ground, hosted by Esther Iverem, which aired it on Friday, May 1st.
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We thank all of Pacifica’s sister stations and affiliates who contribute to the production of this show. Today’s program was produced by the Capitalism, Race & Democracy collective, with contributions from Thomas O’Rourke, Steve Zeltzer, and Polina Vasiliev. Special thanks to Esther Iverem and Mimi Rosenberg.
You can find this and all previous episodes at our website “capitalism race and democracy dot ORG”. Make sure you click the subscribe button. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @PacificaCRD.
Thanks for listening.
Music:
RICH PEOPLE by CARSIE BLANTON – Official Live Video
Fearless May Day
Internationale Palestinian Arabic
capitalismraceanddemocracy.org
Socialist and former Seattle City Councilor Kshama Sawant is now running against Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, who has backed more military funding and wars abroad. She spoke with Pacifica’s…
Jury Acquits Glass House ICE Raid Protester; Mahmoud Khalil Speaks Out; Revisiting Flynt Leverett’s Going to Tehran
capitalismraceanddemocracy.org/2026/04/28/jury-acquits-glass-house-ice-raid-protester-mahmoud-kha…
By Capitalism, Race & Democracy – April 28, 20269
On May Day 2026, hundreds of thousands of workers are preparing to march and rally against a government that is smashing their labor rights, terrorizing immigrants, and carrying out war crimes from Venezuela to Gaza and Iran.
John Caravello is an adjunct faculty member at the California State University Channel Islands campus and he joined together with students to protect immigrants from a raid of the Glass House farm only miles from the campus. They faced tear gas grenades and Caravello was charged with a felony based on allegations that he’d thrown gas grenades back at the ICE officers. Caravello stood trial and a jury acquitted him of all charges on April 9. He spoke to Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer.
***
Mahmoud Khalil was a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University and a member of Student Workers of Colombia, SCW-UAW 2710, when he was abducted by ICE last year. The Homeland Security Department held him in detention for 104 days at the LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana until a federal jude ruled that his detention was unconstitutional. He spoke last week at San Francisco State University about his detention, Palestine, and Zionism.
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Flynt Leverett, expert on the Middle East and author of the 2013 book, Going to Tehran: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic Republic of Iran, discusses U.S. foreign policy in Iran in this interview with host Patty Satalia, recorded in May 2013 for WPSU’s Conversations from Penn State.
Flynt Leverett: Going to Tehran – Conversations from Penn State
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We thank all of Pacifica’s sister stations and affiliates who contribute to the production of this show. Today’s program was produced by the Capitalism, Race & Democracy collective, with contributions from Steve Zeltzer, Ann Garrison, Thomas O’Rourke and Polina Vasiliev.
You can find this and all previous episodes at our website “capitalism race and democracy dot ORG”. Make sure you click the subscribe button. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @PacificaCRD.
Thanks for listening.
Music:
David Rovics and AI Tsuno, “A whistle and a phone”
David Rovics and AI Tsuno, “The Axis of Evil is Israel and the United States”
capitalismraceanddemocracy.org
On May Day 2026, hundreds of thousands of workers are preparing to march and rally against a government that is smashing their labor rights, terrorizing immigrants, and carrying out war crimes from…
F.C.C. Orders a Review of ABC’s Broadcast Licenses
The agency said the review was related to the network’s diversity and inclusion policies. But it came amid a fight between the president and the network’s late night host, Jimmy Kimmel.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/28/business/media/fcc-abc-television-kimmel.html?unlocked_article_code=1….
Brendan Carr, wearing a suit and gesticulating before a courtroom microphone.
Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has repeatedly threatened to take action against broadcasters.Credit…Eric Lee for The New York Times
Jim Rutenberg.pngJohn Koblin.png
By Jim Rutenberg and John Koblin
April 28, 2026
Updated 5:45 p.m. ET
Federal regulators on Tuesday ordered a review of all station licenses owned by ABC, an extraordinary move to pressure a major television network whose programming has frequently angered President Trump.
The agency overseeing the review, the Federal Communications Commission, said in a filing that the action was related to an investigation into ABC’s diversity and inclusion policies. But it came in the middle of a fight this week between Mr. Trump and the network’s late night host, Jimmy Kimmel, that prompted the president to demand that ABC fire Mr. Kimmel.
The license review represented an escalation by the Trump administration and the president to punish major media outlets for their coverage. Mr. Trump has personally sued several news organizations, including The New York Times, and the Pentagon has tried to sharply restrict news media access.
Mr. Trump’s F.C.C. chairman, Brendan Carr, has repeatedly threatened to take action against broadcasters, including to take away their valuable station licenses. His agency’s action on Tuesday was the first direct step toward potentially doing so.
It is extremely difficult for the government to take away stations’ rights to broadcast; it must be able to make a convincing case that the stations had shown a pattern of violating rules and regulations. Even if the F.C.C. ultimately decides to block the renewal of ABC’s station licenses, the network will have ample recourse in the courts. And it would be able to continue to broadcast as the fight played out.
The federal government has never before ordered such a sweeping review of a major television network’s licenses, which allow the companies to broadcast in local markets. All told, ABC owns eight of the more than 200 local stations that carry its programming across the country, in vital markets including New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
Image
A low angle of the ABC building in Manhattan.
ABC owns eight of the more than 200 local stations that carry its programming across the country, in vital markets including New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.Credit…Vincent Alban/The New York Times
Still, the move all but guarantees months if not years of legal wrangling that would lock the network in an expensive, running war with the federal government.
ABC’s parent company, The Walt Disney Company, said in a statement that it had long complied with F.C.C. rules and that it was “confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels.”
“Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate,” the company said.
Media lawyers and free speech advocates have decried the action.
“This is about as extreme an action as I’ve ever seen the F.C.C. take against a broadcaster for frivolous reasons,” said Gigi Sohn, a senior staff member at the agency during the Obama administration. “It’s a message to every other network, ‘Watch yourself, you might be next.’”
Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in a statement on Tuesday that if Mr. Trump “gets his way, we’ll have only government-aligned media organizations that broadcast only government-approved news and commentary.”
“It would be difficult to imagine an outcome more corrosive to democracy or more offensive to the First Amendment,” Mr. Jaffer added.
Under normal F.C.C. protocol, ABC would not have to apply to renew any of its station licenses — which run on eight-year terms — until 2028, as Mr. Trump would be coming to the end of his presidency. (And some of its licenses do not come up for renewal until 2030 and 2031.)
But a little-used provision of the law allows the F.C.C. to force stations to apply for renewal of their licenses at any time, opening the door to an early refusal to renew.
Mr. Carr walked through a theoretical version of the process in a podcast released on Tuesday, shortly before his agency filed for the review. “You can accelerate when a license comes due and say, ‘Hey, we have significant concerns about how you’re conducting your operations,’” he said on “The Katie Miller Podcast.” “‘We want to review your license now, and decide if you’re in the public interest.’”
The process provides Disney with 30 days to file its application to renew its license. If the F.C.C. decides to deny the application and revoke the licenses, Disney will have a chance to plead its case at a hearing.
Tell us about your movie and TV watching habits. 📺 🍿Which streaming services do you use, what do you watch and why? And how has your relationship with movie theaters changed? Share your thoughts with Times media reporters.
The agency has some leeway to decide the venue for the hearing, according to a person with knowledge of the F.C.C.’s thinking. It could conceivably take place before the F.C.C.’s commissioners: two Republicans, Mr. Carr and Olivia Trusty, and one Democrat, Anna Gomez, who spoke out against the license review on Tuesday. Agency actions require a simple majority vote.
But Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a longtime public interest lawyer involved in media regulation issues, said typically at the F.C.C. — and this instance is far from typical — the issue would go before the agency’s administrative law judge.
Mr. Schwartzman added that he regarded the case as “all bluster,” emphasizing how hard it is for the government to pull station licenses.
License revocation, which has been rare, requires the government to establish that a license holder has exhibited patterns of serious violations. Even in previous cases where stations faced allegations of political favoritism, they were mixed in with suspicions of fraud and lying to regulators. More generally, the law forbids the F.C.C. to use its regulatory power to censor.
“Even if this weren’t frivolous to begin with,” Mr. Schwartzman said, “the legal standard for denying a license renewal is almost insurmountable.”
In its filing on Tuesday, the F.C.C. indicated the decision to call for the early license reviews stemmed from an investigation, started in early 2025, into whether Disney violated F.C.C. rules, “including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination.” It had come after an executive order banning what the administration referred to as “illegal and immoral” D.E.I. programs in the federal government.
The F.C.C. has also started an investigation into the ABC show “The View,’’ over equal-time rules that apply to appearances by political candidates.
But there was no mistaking the timing of Tuesday’s action, plans for which were reported earlier by Semafor.
It came one day after President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, both called for the firing of Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he delivered in his monologue on his ABC late night show last week.
Image
Jimmy Kimmel behind his desk on the set of his show.
Jimmy Kimmel in September. The F.C.C. action comes a day after President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, both called for Mr. Kimmel’s firing over a joke he made on his show last week.Credit…Randy Holmes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
On “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last Thursday, Mr. Kimmel imagined he was the M.C. of the White House correspondents’ dinner, and, pretending to address Mrs. Trump, said that she had the “glow” of an “expectant widow.”
That gala was ultimately canceled on Saturday after a 31-year-old man carrying deadly weapons breached security just outside the hotel ballroom. He has since been charged with trying to assassinate President Trump.
Mrs. Trump criticized Mr. Kimmel’s comments on Monday morning, saying that he “shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.” Hours later, Mr. Trump said on social media that the ABC host “should be immediately fired.”
Mr. Kimmel did not apologize during his monologue on Monday night. “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” Mr. Kimmel said on his show. “It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that.”
Last year, ABC temporarily suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after Mr. Carr suggested he would take action against ABC because of a monologue joke that Mr. Kimmel made about the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk. ABC’s suspension quickly morphed into a flashpoint about free speech, and after a significant backlash, the network reinstated the late night show six days after it was pulled off the air.
The move once again casts Mr. Carr as Mr. Trump’s top “media pit bull,” as the Hollywood Reporter has called him, a role he clearly relishes.
But he has also drawn accusations that he is weaponizing telecom laws in doing the president’s bidding, occasionally even from Trump-allied Republicans.
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In September, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, described Mr. Carr’s threats to revoke Disney licenses for Mr. Kimmel’s Kirk monologue as “dangerous as hell,’’ likening Mr. Carr to a “mafioso.”
In November, a former Republican F.C.C. chairman under President Ronald Reagan, Mark Fowler, and other former agency leaders petitioned Mr. Carr to eliminate a decades-old “news distortion policy” that Mr. Carr has occasionally cited in criticizing broadcasters. The former leaders said it had become a “tool that chills speech, invites abuse and undermines First Amendment protections.”
Mr. Carr denied their petition. But, on Tuesday, they filed a request to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to order Mr. Carr to bring it to a vote.
On Pacifica’s CRD: Re-examining the Luddite Legacy, Exposing How the War on Terror Trained Extremists and How Biowarfare Research Could Create the Next Pandemic
capitalismraceanddemocracy.org/2026/04/20/re-examining-the-luddite-legacy-exposing-how-the-war-on…
By Capitalism, Race & Democracy – April 20, 202610
The Industrial Revolution gave birth to the Luddites – mostly artisan weavers and textile workers – who fought to defend their livelihoods and communities against the upheavals caused by mechanization. Jathan Sadowski, a professor of information technology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia explores these connections in his new book The Mechanic and the Luddite. He spoke to Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer.
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Next, we examine the hidden machinery of empire, the structural decay of the so-called “War on Terror,” and its lasting impact abroad and at home. Matt Kennard, author of Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, and Criminals, explains how all the troops needed to sustain the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations led the U.S. military to lower enlistment standards—allowing white supremacists, gang members, and more to receive state-funded combat training. He begins with the phenomenon of the “Irregular Army,” thousands of extremists who served in the Middle East and have since returned to the United States.
Investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg situates this within a broader shift toward special forces warfare and the normalization of atrocities, tracing it back to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and subsequent interventions across West Asia.
We share an excerpt of Matt Kennard’s and Kit Klarenberg’s conversation with Karim Bettache and Peter Beattie, hosts of BettBeat Media.
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According to Dr. Peter McCullough and other critics of the US health bureaucracy’s actions during the COVID 19 public health crisis, early treatment was deliberately suppressed to spur and then compel mass vaccination. This has created one of the great medical scandals of modern history. One can expect this tactic in the future: pandemic pathogens will be presented to the public as “untreatable,” with the only solution being a government-issued genetic vaccine.
In the United States, such work falls under a web of research categories called gain of function research, Pathogen Enhancement Research of Concern (PERC) and Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC). All of these – gain of function, PERC, and DURC have drawn heavy scrutiny due to their possible overlap with bioweapons capabilities. The U.S. Biodefense Network spans dozens of federal, military, private corporate, and university laboratories INCLUDING the National Institutes of Health NIH, particularly the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases NIAID previously run by Dr. Anthony Fauci. This body funds major dual use pathogen research under the banner of pandemic preparedness.
What follows is a summary report from Dr. McCullough about U.S. biolabs working on pathogens of dual pandemic potential, i.e. biological agents and research programs that involve pathogens capable of causing a pandemic AND preventing one, depending on how the knowledge or technology is used. His report can be found at The McCullough Report on America Out Loud Network, dated 29 December 2025.
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We thank all of Pacifica’s sister stations and affiliates who contribute to the production of this show. Today’s program was produced by the Capitalism, Race & Democracy collective, with contributions from Steve Zeltzer, Polina Vasiliev, and Thomas O’Rourke.
You can find this and all previous episodes at our website “capitalism race and democracy dot ORG”. Make sure you click the subscribe button. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @PacificaCRD.
Thanks for listening.
Music:
David Rovics, performed by AI Tsuno, “From Dawn to Dusk to Dawn”
David Rovics, performed by AI Tsuno, “A Great Day to Leave the Army”
capitalismraceanddemocracy.org
The Industrial Revolution gave birth to the Luddites – mostly artisan weavers and textile workers – who fought to defend their livelihoods and communities against the upheavals caused by mechan…
70,000 LA Education Workers Prepare for Strike; Max Blumenthal Traces Trump’s Zionist Ties; Abby Martin Exposes Israeli Fascism
capitalismraceanddemocracy.org/2026/04/13/70000-la-education-workers-prepare-for-strike-max-blume…
By Capitalism, Race & Democracy – April 13, 20269
A major confrontation is taking place in Los Angeles this week where more than 70,000 education workers are set to strike. This includes SEIU 99, UTLA, Teamsters, and other unions. This strike comes in the midst of a strike wave taking place in schools in San Francisco, Richmond, and Sacramento.
Gilbert Feliciano and Janae Tyler are on the bargaining committee of SEIU 99, which represents 30,000 service workers. They spoke to Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer about school privatization via charters, the conditions that the students and staff face, as well as ICE terror attacks on the community and in the schools.
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Next, we play an excerpt from an interview that Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal gave to Professor Glenn Diesen on his April 11 podcast. Blumenthal traces the deep links that Trump and his family as well as his “A Team” tier of advisors have to various Israeli, American, and even Russian Zionists. The American ruling class formed a bi-partisan, strategic partnership, he says, before and after Israel’s founding in 1948. It is now strained by growing domestic opposition to the ongoing war against Iran’s Islamic Republic.
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In our next segment, we hear from investigative journalist Abby Martin, creator of The Empire Files, who reflects on the visceral reality of Israeli society and the collapse of its state propaganda.
Since her 2016 trip to the region, Martin has warned that the “writing was on the wall” for the current humanitarian catastrophe. She describes a society in the grip of “full-throated fascism,” where genocidal rhetoric has moved from the fringes to the mainstream.
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We thank all of Pacifica’s sister stations and affiliates who contribute to the production of this show. Today’s program was produced by the Capitalism, Race & Democracy collective, with contributions from Steve Zeltzer, Polina Vasiliev, and Thomas O’Rourke.
You can find this and all previous episodes at our website “capitalism race and democracy dot ORG”. Make sure you click the subscribe button. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @PacificaCRD.
Thanks for listening.
Music:
Aretha Franklin and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, “Think”
David Rovics, Performed by AI Tsuno, “Bomb Them Back to the Stone Age”
capitalismraceanddemocracy.org
A major confrontation is taking place in Los Angeles this week where more than 70,000 education workers are set to strike. This includes SEIU 99, UTLA, Teamsters, and other unions. This strike come…