Protests have erupted in North Carolina after federal agents arrested 370 people in immigration raids. On Monday, Bishop William Barber and other religious leaders gathered in Charlotte to demand an end to ICE raids. “What you have is a conglomerate of policy violence, and it’s deadly,” says Barber, who is organizing protests against ICE and Medicaid cuts across the country. Barber notes that 51,000 people may die from preventable deaths because of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, according to research from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale. “This is not just about Democrat and Republican and left versus right. This is literally about life versus death.”
Despite the administration’s claim of streamlining the government to make its operations more efficient, a range of recent federal policies have, in fact, exacerbated food wastage.
Zohran Mamdani will be taking office as mayor of New York in just five weeks. His transition team continues to make announcements about the new administration, recently unveiling a 400-person advisory group, broken up into 17 committees. Democracy Now! speaks with the incoming first deputy mayor, Dean Fuleihan, on how Mamdani plans to implement his progressive vision. “Government, working together across agencies with clear direction, can accomplish the needs of New Yorkers, and that’s what the mayor-elect has put forward,” says Fuleihan.
Fuleihan also comments on Mamdani’s meeting with President Trump, which was surprisingly warm. “We look for help wherever we can get it, while also maintaining our principles and defending New Yorkers,” he said.