AMY GOODMAN, Co-Author, Project Peaceful Democracy Now! Democracy Now! Democracy Now.org, The War and Peace Report, I'm Amy Goodman. Bangladesh's former Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, was sentenced to death by a tribunal today for ordering a deadly crackdown on student protesters who successfully toppled her government last year. According to a UN report, 1,400 people
were killed, thousands injured after security forces opened fire on demonstrators last year. The verdict came as Haseena has been living in exile in India. Bangladesh has been rocked by 30 bomb explosions and dozens of arson attacks over the past few days in the lead-up to the verdict. This comes as Bangladesh is expected to hold parliamentary elections in February next year.
In Gaza, Israeli forces have killed at least three Palestinians as Israel continues to violate the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Since the start of the truce October 10, at least 266 Palestinians have been killed, 635 wounded by Israeli attacks. Physicians for Human Rights Israel is reporting at least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October 2023, and that the real death toll is likely much higher, because hundreds
of people detained in Gaza are still missing. Meanwhile, UNICEF estimates more than 600,000 Palestinian children have missed out on school during the Israeli assault on Gaza, and only 100,000 have managed to return to classrooms. Humanitarian NGOs say Israel is still restricting the entry of food aid and other critical supplies into the Gaza Strip. This is Zahia Al-Shambari, who waited in line to buy bread in Khan Younis.
ZAHIA AL-SHAMBARI, Gaza Resident, Israel, said in a statement.
After two hours of struggle at the supermarket to get a bag of bread, thank God I finally got one bag of bread for about eight people. I'm really happy that I'm returning with a bag of bread, and I hope this suffering doesn't happen again. Not today, not tomorrow, not any other day.
This comes as the U.N. Security Council set to vote today on a U.S. proposal to establish an international stabilization force to enforce the Gaza ceasefire. The U.S.-drafted resolution also mentions the possibility of a future Palestinian state. But on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outright rejected any path for Palestinian
statehood.
Our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory west of the Jordan River, this opposition exists, is valid and has not changed one bit. I have been rebuffing these attempts for decades, and I am doing it both against pressure from outside and against pressure from within. So I do not need affirmations, tweets or lectures from anyone.
Meanwhile, new details are emerging about a shadowy organization called Al-Majd Europe that's been taking Palestinians in Gaza to South Africa, the organization reportedly has ties to Israel. Last week, a chartered plane carrying 153 Palestinians landed in Johannesburg. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, quote, it does seem likely they were being flushed out of Gaza. President Trump said Sunday he is open to talks with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro,
as he considers whether to launch a unilateral attack on Venezuela. In brief remarks to reporters, Trump did not offer details about the possible discussions, but said, quote, Venezuela would like to talk. Trump's remarks came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated the organized criminal group Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization. U.S. officials have claimed, without evidence, Maduro and other government officials lead
the cartel. Trump has claimed that allows the Pentagon to target Maduro's assets and infrastructure inside Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Pentagon said it had killed another three people in the Eastern Pacific accused of smuggling drugs by sea, though officials offered no evidence. This brings the reported toll to 83 people killed across 21 strikes
since early September. This comes amidst the largest buildup of U.S. forces in the Caribbean since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, involving nearly a dozen Navy ships and about 15,000 sailors and Marines. In Caracas, President Nicolás Maduro warned the U.S. public against allowing the Trump administration to lead the U.S. into a new forever war in South America.
Do we want another Gaza now in South America? What does the people of the United States say? Do you want a new Afghanistan? Do you want Vietnam again? Do you want Libya once more or worse? Do you want a new Gaza in South America?
Let me tell you, no, no, and no. Here peace will triumph.
International law will triumph. International law will triumph. In Brazil, tens of thousands of protesters marched outside the COP30 climate summit in Belém on Saturday to demand urgent action on the climate, including the rapid phase-out of fossil fuels. The Great People's March was the first major protest of its kind in four years, after authorities in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan banned large-scale demonstrations at prior U.N. climate summits.
This is indigenous protester Christiane Puyanawa.
CHRISTIANE PUYANAWA, Protester, Great People's March We are here today at the Global Climate March. Women, youths, indigenous people, riverine communities and quilombolas are united to demand social justice and the demarcation of indigenous lands. Our land and our forests are not commodities. Respect nature and the people who live in the forest.
Demarcation now. We'll have more from Saturday's protests and the action inside the COP30 climate summit here in Belém, Brazil, after headlines. Masked federal immigration officers fanned out across Charlotte, North Carolina over the weekend, sparking protests as the Trump administration shifted its mass deportation campaign to North Carolina's largest city. Democratic Governor Josh Stein said the agents were carrying out racial profiling and stoking
fear.
We've seen masked, heavily armed agents in paramilitary garb driving unmarked cars, targeting American citizens based on their skin color, racially profiling and picking up random people in parking lots and off of our sidewalks.
Among those targeted were landscapers decorating Christmas trees and congregants of an East Charlotte church volunteering to tend a garden. In another incident shared widely on social media, masked federal agents pulled over Willy Wender Asetuna Medina, a Honduras-born U.S. citizen, and forced him from his vehicle.
No, if you break it, you will pay for it. If you break it, you will pay for it. If you break it, you will pay for it. If you break my window— Why did you do this, sir? Why are you doing this?
Aysatouna told reporters, he warned the agents he was a U.S. citizen but that they didn't believe him. He suffered cuts to his arm and neck. He later filed a police report over the broken glass. President Trump's called on House Republicans to approve a measure compelling the Justice Department to release the Epstein files. Trump's reversal late Sunday came after he unsuccessfully lobbied Republican Congress
women Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace to remove their names from a discharge petition seeking the file's release. This follows months of stonewalling by the Trump administration over the files release, and after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the House early to prevent a vote on the Epstein files. On Friday, Trump demanded the Justice Department investigate a list of powerful Democrats discussed in a trove of newly released emails from Jeffrey Epstein, but omitted his own name.
The list includes former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary and former Harvard President Larry Summers, and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman. Trump wrote on social media, quote, Epstein was a Democrat, and he's the Democrats' problem, not the Republicans Republicans problem, the president said. The Georgia election interference case against President Trump and his allies will now have
a new prosecutor after Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis was removed from the case. The executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia, Speet Skandalakis, is set to take over the case. Georgia State University Law Professor Anthony Michael Kreis told the Associated Press, quote, I doubt anything will ever move forward with the president, unquote.
But the case could proceed against 14 other Trump allies, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Trump's pardon, Giuliani, Meadows and dozens of other Republican officials and activists accused of helping him overturn the results of the 2020 election. But the pardons only apply to federal cases, not the Georgia election interference case,
which is a state-level prosecution. In the Philippines, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets Sunday to demand accountability over a corruption scandal that exposed how top government officials were receiving kickbacks from construction companies responsible for faulty and incomplete flood defense projects. The three-day protest rally comes after typhoons battered the Philippines early this month,
leaving at least 259 people dead. Almost 100 days has passed since the process began, yet no one has been jailed. There already is plenty of proof. A lot of evidence has come out. But our question is, how come no one has been jailed yet? In the Democratic Republic of Congo, at least 32 people were killed after a bridge at a
copper and cobalt mine collapsed due to overcrowding. A government agency reports that gunfire from soldiers at the site sparked panic among the miners who rushed to the bridge, causing it to collapse. The DRC is the world's largest producer of cobalt, which is used to make batteries for electric vehicles. A BBC investigation has uncovered new evidence that implicates two U.S. Marines in the killing
of Iraqi civilians in Haditha two decades ago. The BBC reports statements and testimony given in the aftermath of the Haditha massacre raised doubts about the investigation into what happened November 19, 2005, when U.S. forces slaughtered 24 Iraqis, posing significant questions over how U.S. armed forces are held to account. Just one U.S. soldier was convicted of a crime over the massacre. Marine Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich was found guilty of negligent dereliction of duty in
2012 and served no jail time. And disability rights advocate and writer Alice Wong has died at the age of 51. When Wong was born with muscular dystrophy in 1974, doctors said she wouldn't live to the age of 18. Despite that prognosis, Wong went on to earn an undergraduate degree at Indiana University and a master's degree from the University of California, San Francisco, before founding
the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture. This is Alice Wong speaking with Democracy Now! in 2021.
I think a lot of people in the public do not know what ableism is, and if they hear about it, they actually deny that it exists. You know, ableism is systemic. It is really bound up with hyper-capitalism and white supremacy.
And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.
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