Democracy Now! 2026-07-08 Wednesday

From New York, this is Democracy Now. Let me be as direct as I can. Did Grand Planet rape you? By definition, yes. His accusations of rape, Graham Platner, Maine's Democratic nominee for the Senate, has lost all major endorsements from Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to the National and Maine Democratic parties. But he's yet to drop out of the race. What happens next could determine who controls the U.S. Senate. We'll go to Maine for more.

Then the NATO summit is underway in Turkey, following years of pressure from President Trump. NATO countries are pledging billions in new military spending. Last year, European Allies in Canada spent nearly 20% more on core defense than they had the year before. And the trend continues. We'll go to Ankara to speak with journalist Ruth Michelson, her latest piece for the Guardian. Turkey intensifies crackdown on public life in run-up to NATO summit in Ankara. And finally, Sudan. We look at the role of the United Arab Emirates and fueling Sudan's devastating civil war.

Over a year of open source and on-the-ground reporting unveils the depth of meddling by other countries in this bloody conflict. Our investigation shows how a Middle East power and an American person, partner is pouring fuel on the fire. We'll go to Nairobi to speak with journalist Julia Steers, her new documentary inside the secret network fueling Sudan's war. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. The United States has renewed its attacks on Iran with multiple explosions reported in southern regions, including the Port City of Syrac, Keshem Island, Bandarabas, and Kharaga Island. U.S. Central Command said the strikes were in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial

vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. In response, Iran's military pledged a crushing response soon after. Air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait as U.S. military sites came under Iranian drone and missile fire. The U.S. strikes came hours after the Treasury Department revoked a temporary sanctions waiver that allowed Iran to sell oil on the open market. That led to a surge in oil prices and a steep decline in Asian stock markets, which shed more than $700 billion in value during a broad sell-off. President Trump has declared the ceasefire deal with Iran over, condemning Iran's leaders as scum and declaring negotiations with them as a waste of time.

Trump was responding to a reporter's question at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Is the ceasefire over? Is the ceasefire done? Is the MOU dead? It's a very interesting question. To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them with them with their scum. You know what scum is? They're scum. They're sick people. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised the most recent U.S. attacks on Iran calling them absolutely necessary while telling Trump, quote, I'm with you. Mark Rutte's attempts at flattery came after Trump castigated NATO allies for refusing to aid the U.S. and Israel in attacks on Iran. Trump also lashed out at NATO leaders for rejecting his efforts to claim great. Greenland, and he refused to rule out additional U.S. troop reductions in Europe.

Meanwhile, Trump announced he would lift U.S. sanctions on Turkey that were imposed in 2020 over its purchase of a Russian air defense system. Trump made the announcement ahead of a lavish state dinner hosted by the Turkish president, Recep Taye Bredwan, whom Trump praised as a great leader and Turkey's biggest asset. This comes as the mayor of Istanbul and other Turkish politicians, civil society figures, and journalists remain jailed on politically motivated charges. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has canceled plans to visit Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Cats. The Pentagon cited the renewed U.S. attacks on Iran as the reason for Pete Hegseth's change of plans. He'd been scheduled to discuss Israel's objections to President Trump's plans to supply Turkey with F-35 fighter jets ahead of the NATO summit.

Benjamin Netanyahu made the rounds on U.S. media outlets to criticize President Trump's friendship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is a great country, but it's governed by a man who calls openly for the annihilation of Israel. He occupies half of Cyprus, a NATO country. He's threatening Greece and other NATO country, and he talks openly about country in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports U.S. Central Command or SentCom is considering abandoning military bases in Gulf nations, including Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, to be replaced with new bases in Israel. This comes after Iranian attacks earlier this year caused damage to at least 20 U.S. bases

across the Gulf. This is former CENTCOM commander, retired General Frank McKenzie, speaking in a recent webinar. No one in their right mind would ever put the CENTCOM forward headquarters, you know, 100 miles away from Iran. Yet that's where it is. In Gaza City, an Israeli strike on the Sabre neighborhood Tuesday evening killed Palestinian aid official Muhammad al-Wahidi, along with a taxi driver and two children, 10-year-old Hamza al-Dedi and his eight-year-old brother Fadi. O'ahidi was director of public relations for the Egyptian Relief Committee in Gaza, and it just organized a public screening of the Egypt-Argentina World Cup match. Israel killed him less than an hour before kickoff.

Since October, when Israel agreed to a so-called ceasefire, it's killed at least 1,027 people in Gaza, including 258 children. Here in New York, pro-Palestine activists rallied outside the United Nations on Tuesday to celebrate the cancellation of a planned visit by Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir. He'd been scheduled to lead an Israeli delegation to the UN Chiefs of Police Summit, but pulled out under pressure from human rights groups who urged an investigation into Itamar Ben-Gvir's crimes against New Yorkers, among other demands. Democracy now spoke with Nassisa, a member of the

New York City branch of the Palestinian youth movement. So when we heard Bangabir was planning to come to the city, a variety of organizations came together to mount a campaign to pressure both UN officials and the New York Attorney General alongside other New York officials to investigate and prosecute him for war crimes should he come to New York City. And we were able to mount a grassroots campaign, that garnered a petition with 7,000 signatures, alongside filings to the Department of Justice and legal complaints to the New York Attorney General's Office. And the culmination of this pressure was that we found out that Ben Guvier decided to cancel his planned visit to the UN Policing Summit.

In Texas, immigration and civil rights advocacy groups are demanding an independent investigation into the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Sagado Araujo, a Mexican father who was killed by ICE, During an attempted arrest in Houston on Tuesday morning, Araujo's son, Ronaldo Sagado, said in a statement, his father was driving to work and was in Magnolia Park, a historically Latino neighborhood in Houston, picking up workers in the area. When ICE agents targeted him, his son added, quote, my father's been in this country for nearly 35 years working in construction to provide for myself, my two brothers, and my mother. My father did not deserve this, he said. ICE claimed it has in previous shootings that Araujo had attempted to drive away ramming an agency vehicle when he was shot in the abdomen. This is Cesar Espinoza.

He's executive director of Fiat, a Houston-based immigration advocacy group. We are calling for an independent, fully independent investigation from the authorities. We are calling from transparency from ICE. and we are calling for justice for this person. ICE does not get to be judge, jury, and executioner whenever they want to. Advocates are also demanding the release of video footage. Lorenzo Sagado Arraujo's fatal shooting came on the six-month anniversary of the ice killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Deaths in ICE custody also continue to rise under President Trump's second term in office. in the latest reported case, Adrian Adrianus Florian, an 85-year-old man from Germany died in late June while hospitalized in Texas. According to immigration researcher and data analyst Austin Cocher, ICE had transferred Florian to the hospital in November over signs of dementia and other health issues. He was then pronounced dead, June 24th, after about 10 months in ICE custody. He's at least the 21st person to die in ICE custody this year alone. In more immigration news, the Geo Group, one of the nation's largest for-profit private prison and immigration detention contractors, has agreed to pay a fine of more than $100,000 in a landmark case over the company's abusive and dangerous treatment of immigrant workers detained in at least five of its California ICE jails.

The case had been ongoing for more than four years. A French court Tuesday, upheld Marine Le Pen's embezzlement conviction, but cleared the way for the far-right-leys. to run in the 27 French presidential election. Le Pen announced her candidacy just hours after the court upheld her conviction for misappropriating EU funds to pay for National Rally Party staff. Le Pen was ordered to wear an electronic ankle monitor. Her racist anti-immigrant National Rally Party is currently leading in the polls with less than a year before centrist French president Emmanuel Macron steps down.

This would be Le Pen's fourth big. for the French presidency. In Colombia, President-elect Ablardo di Espritia has suspended the transition process with outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro, after Petro accused the right-wing candidate of fraud in the June runoff election. Leftist candidate Ivan Cepeda

has also expressed concerns of fraud and accused Espreya, who has dual U.S.-Columbian citizenship of working for the Trump administration.

The U.S. authorities must clarify whether Mr. Abolardo de la Espreya has been or is an agent or collaborator of the EEA, the CIA, or any other U.S. security agency. This status would call into question his suitability to be the Colombian head of state, guarantor of our sovereignty, and, of course, guardian of the political constitution. Ivan Sipeda narrowly lost the election to Espria, who is backed by President Donald Trump. Sipeda has urged supporters to engage in civil disobedience to pressure Espreya to renounce his U.S. citizenship and stop the persecution of his opponents. In China, at least 21 people are dead after heavy wind and rain triggered a landslide in the western province of Gansu. The disaster was caused by the remnants of Typhoon Mysak, which spawned rail. tornadoes in central China, leaving tens of thousands of people displaced from their homes in the Pacific recovery efforts are underway on Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands from

severe damage caused by a Category 5 equivalent typhoon that made landfall Monday. In France, more than 10,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes as a fast-moving wildfire sweeps across the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. Firefighters are also battling blazes in Portugal and Spain and Greece and the Balkans. Here in the U.S., more than 1,200 firefighters are battling the Babylon fire, which has consumed over 100,000 acres becoming the largest wildfire in Utah in nearly a decade. According to climate central, July is the hottest month for most of the United States, and it's getting hotter as the planet warms. U.S. cities have seen average temperatures rise by more than two and a half degrees.

since the 1970s. And a top attorney at ExxonMobil's joining the Trump administration, Robert Levy, Executive Council at the fossil fuel giant recently announced he's retiring after 17 years at ExxonMobil and will join the Justice Department's newly renamed Energy and Natural Resources Division. It was previously the Environment and Natural Resources Division. In November, Levy was one of a few major oil company executives to attend the COP 30 United Nations climate talks in Brazil, where he promoted the continued burning of fossil fuels. Crude, crude oil and hydrocarbons are going to play a critical role in everybody's life for a long time to come.

In response, Robert Weissman, co-president of public citizen, wrote, quote, Big Oil's capture of the U.S. government is now complete. The Justice Department that should be fighting to protect clean air and water and avert catastrophic climate change will now work on behalf of polluters to advance the poisoning of people on the planet, unquote. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. In Maine, Democratic nominee for Senate, Graham Platner, is yet to drop out of the race. despite losing all major endorsements, from Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to California Congressmember Ro Khanna. The chair of the Maine Democratic Party and other party leaders posted a

statement calling on Graham Platner to drop out. Under state law, Maine's Democratic Party can name a replacement for Graham Platner on the November ballot if he withdraws from the race by next Monday. The outcome of the election could determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. Calls for his withdrawal follow serious allegations of sexual assault made by main resident Jenny Rassico, first reported by Politico Monday. Rassico says she met Graham Platner in 2019. They dated casually for about two years until a night in 2021. According to Rassico that night, Graham Platner texted her saying he would come over,

despite asking him not to, he came over anyway and let himself into her unlocked house. She then repeatedly told Graham Platner she wasn't in the mood, but he persisted. They first scuffled on the couch and a sewing table was knocked over. This is Jenny Rosicoe speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper. I remember just at first being like, hey, I'm not into this. Like, don't. I'm not in the mood. Like, don't, whatever.

And it got to the point where I was like, okay, I feel like I've said this of times. Like, he's not listening to me or he's not hearing me. And I looked at him and I remember this very specific look in his eyes. And I could smell alcohol and I was like, this is different. He is heavily intoxicated. Like, and that blank stare was kind of like a photographic memory that that, that I still have of that night. And his, that was me. That was me. recognizing what the situation was. And this wasn't just like, oh, hey, somebody showed up and I'm going to tell him to go home. Like, he was heavily intoxicated, had intentions with me and wasn't listening when I said, no. I evaluated my safety. Like, a drunk person who's blackout drunk is in my home,

has these intentions with me, you know, has already caused this amount of destruction and and not listening to me. And so I basically felt safe as just complying. Is there any way that he thought this was consensual or no, just because... I don't believe that you can think that that scenario was consensual. You have to understand that that wasn't when somebody was repeatedly... I mean, with somebody in the middle of it says, don't touch me. Like, that's obviously not consensual.

me be as direct as I can. Did Graham Platner rape you? By definition, yes. Graham Platner has denied the allegations. This is a video he posted Monday afternoon. I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false. We are taking the time to reflect on the best.

best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins. On Tuesday night, the executive director of the main Democratic Party, Devin Murphy Anderson, said Graham Platner's team had been trying to influence how the party might proceed if and when Graham Platner drops out of the race. Unfortunately, Graham Platner's team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner's team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee

for the U.S. Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like. We have also reiterated that Graham Platner must drop out of this race so that Democrats in Maine can focus on defeating Susan Collins this November. For more, we go to Maine, where we're joined by Amy Fried, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Maine. She writes on Maine and politics on her substack political sightlines. Her latest piece headlined after Graham Platner withdraws, what's next? So, Professor Freed, thanks so much for being with us. You say after he withdraws, are you confident he will?

Talk about that. And then who are the various candidates who are being talked about? Well, we can't be absolutely certain that Graham Platner will withdraw. It is up to him. However, I think there's been enormous pressure since, as you pointed out, he has lost all of his endorsements. And I think he'll find it very difficult to go forward, really to raise any money, which interestingly and ironically was the reason that Janet Mills cited for her dropping out. And I think that there has been, over time, some pulling back from him, from some main Democrats, starting with the sexting allegations and then the initial abuse story that the New York Times had because those were issues that were more recent than some of the previous sorts of things. Plus, they involved behavior rather than merely words.

So as to your question about, yeah, please go ahead. Go ahead. Talk about what happens next. I mean, this is extremely new. I mean, Maine has not dealt with this before. Very few states have. And so talk about the schedule. And then why this is so significant.

I mean, whoever this Democratic candidate is takes on Susan Collins. But like your background there, where you're sitting, Maine is a blue state. It has voted for the presidential candidate from 2000 right through to Kamala Harris. Susan Collins is a Republican senator. It is a key decider, that position of who will control the Senate. So start with the calendar of what next Monday he would have to pull out by and if he doesn't, his name will remain on the ballot? Right. There's no way to force Graham Platner off the ballot. He has to make the decision. Otherwise, the only way that a nominee can replace is if they're seriously ill or passes away, something like that. But he would have to make the decision by Monday. And then there's two weeks for the main Democratic Party to pick someone else. And they have yet to develop a process. But the leadership of the main Democratic Party has said that, they plan to have something as inclusive and transparent as possible.

Now, what exactly that will look like is unclear at this point, and I don't think they're going to release a plan until, you know, Mr. Graham Platner drops out, assuming that he does. But various things that I've heard floated include things like some caucuses or even some kind of convention, which perhaps could be in person or maybe virtual. But, you know, it's a very complicated logistical matter, really. You know, how do you bring people together? Are there spaces available in the main summer when we have, you know, many tourists visiting?

And exactly how can this be accomplished? Of course, there are comparisons made to what happened when Joe Biden announced Kamala Harris would replace him. The concern that people felt that they didn't have a role in choosing who would be the Democratic candidate. If you can talk about who the possibilities are at this point. Well, the names that I've heard floated the most are individuals who ran for a governor recently. You know, the primary for the main governor was the same day as the Senate primary. So it wasn't very long ago. And the top finishers that are closest to Graham Platner and have the most credibility probably more broadly.

with the electorate include Troy Jackson who is from a working class background. He was a logger and he was the Senate president. He was very much supported by Maine labor unions. And then also Shennebello's who's the

sitting secretary in state. Just to be clear, Troy Jackson ran to be the Democratic nominee for governor in Maine and lost in the primary to Hannah Pingree. So far, he's the only possible replacement to Graham Platner, who's filed paperwork to formally explore a bid for the Senate.

I wanted to go to an ad released by his campaign for governor. I'm a logger from Aligh Gash. In 98, we were getting squeezed by greedy billionaires trying to replace us. So we blocked the border. When they arrested us, they thought they'd won. But I was just getting started. For 20 years, I fought against the corporations and Republicans. who've been holding us back in me.

I'm Troy Jackson, and I'm the only Democrat for governor endorsed by Bernie Sanders, and my only special interest is you. So that's Troy Jackson. And one of the issues that has been raised is the issue of the movement, which is definitely pulling away,

to say the least, from Graham Platner. But the positions he took on different issues from, you know, Medicare for all, endless wars, these kinds of issues, if you could address that, and then go on to other candidates. Sure. Those are very important issues, and they're important in Maine. They're important in other states. And I think those are good messages to take to the general election. There's also been, I think, increasing knowledge about the damage that Susan Collins has done. She's run for a very long time in positioning herself with this moderate, centrist, bipartisan brand that just doesn't seem to hold up very well when she has a record of voting 95% of the time with Donald Trump last year. If you can talk about her role in the Supreme Court and Trump's nominees for the Supreme Court, particularly brought Brett Kavanaugh.

honest about it. And she has supported many other federal judges who Trump has nominated as well, and they're part of the situation as well. So I'd say that Susan Collins is vulnerable, and she was vulnerable in 2020. That's a long complicated story as to how that turned out. But going forward, I think that her seat is still at risk with the right candidate. And it's just enormously important for control of the Senate. Also, if Graham Platner stays in, there's money that will flow elsewhere, national money that was going to be spent in Maine on the Senate rate from both sides is not going to probably be spent here. And instead, it will go against Democratic candidates in other swing states. So it has implications not only for control of the Senate, which is itself enormous, but also on

other Senate races that could be winnable by Democrats. Let's go to Sheena Bella. She is the Secretary of State for Maine. this was her ad for governor. Growing up in Maine, like so many families, we didn't have it easy. We didn't have running water or electricity until I was in the fifth grade. But somehow my parents never made us feel poor. My dad was a carpenter who worked hard to support us. My mom worked factory jobs, making light bulbs and Christmas wreaths. My parents taught me that if you want something, you work hard.

No shortcuts, no excuses. And while we're paying our taxes or helping our parents measure out their medications, our country is being demolished by a greedy, unelected billionaire, who thinks his dollars are more powerful than our voices. Right now, we need leaders who will meet the moment. So that was Sheena Bellows. If you can talk about her campaign and what it would mean if she were to run.

Secretary Bellows has a really long history of doing a number of different things in Maine. She was very active in a number of rights organization. She was at one time the head of the Maine ACLU, another point. She was the head of the Maine Holocaust and Human Rights Center. She worked a lot on the marriage equality campaign, so she's very active in LGBTQ plus rights. and she, you know, was elected to the legislature, and then she's been serving as Secretary of State. She made news a couple of years ago nationally because a case came to her challenging the eligibility of the ballot under 14th Amendment insurrection grounds, and she ruled that he was not eligible.

that, of course, was overturned by the Supreme Court, but it was a kind of major decision that she made, I think, based on the evidence before her and the legal briefs before her. So she's been a very, very stalwart advocate for voting rights. And I think she has a lot going for her as a potential candidate as well. And finally, in this last minute, there's Dr. Narav Shah. Of course, there's the governor who suspended her campaign as Graham Platner was crushing her in the Democratic primary for Senate, Governor Janet Mills. If you can talk about, as you all move forward, what would it mean if Graham Platner stayed in the race? If Graham Platner stayed in the race, I think it would be extremely difficult to beat Susan Collins. I think there already were a number of people who were feeling like maybe they couldn't support him after the abuse allegations.

They might not have voted for Susan Collins, but they might have sat it out instead. And I just don't think that he's going to have a path forward. His numbers in polling went down significantly after the sexting and the initial abuse story. And it doesn't look like he will based on the video that he put out. But we'll continue to follow the story. As some say, as goes Maine, so goes the nation. Amy Freed, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Maine. She writes on Maine and politics and her substack political sightlines,

her latest piece after Graham Platner withdraws. What's next? Coming up, we go to Turkey, where the NATO summit is underway. Stay with us. I've been thinking about greed.

I've been thinking about greed. I've been thinking about how to talk about greed. I've been wondering if I could sing about greed. Trying to find a way to talk about greed. Greed is a poison rising in the land. The soul of the people twist. in its command. It moves like a virus, shaking out everyone.

Greed never stops to work and never ever died. A creeping, choking killing. Greed by Sweet Honey in the Rock and a Firehouse Studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. We turn now to Ankara Turkey, where the NATO summit is on its second and final day. President Trump's dominated the headlines by restating Greenland should be controlled by the United States, denouncing European allies and declaring the ceasefire over with Iran while calling Iran's leaders scum and a cancer. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised the most recent U.S. attacks on Iran, calling them absolutely necessary while telling Trump, quote, I'm with you.

Rita's comments came after Trump castigated NATO. NATO allies for refusing to aid the U.S. and Israel and attacks on Iran. Ahead of the talks were to praise NATO members who've committed to spending at least 5% of their gross domestic product on their militaries, a key demand of the Trump administration. Trump, meanwhile, refused to rule out additional U.S. troop reductions in Europe. But earlier today, he did praise Turkey's president, Recep Tayeep Recep Tayyip Erdogan. I like Recep Tayyip Erdogan. I'll tell you, I like President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He rolled out the red carpet. He's terrific. You know, he could have gone into the war. A lot of people saying, like with Benjamin Netanyahu, I like Benjamin Netanyahu. I think Benjamin Netanyahu was a terrific wartime prime minister. But Benjamin Netanyahu said rough things yesterday about Turkey and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And I said, you know, I spoke to him. I said, he could have gone into the war because he doesn't like Israel much.

And he doesn't like Benjamin Netanyahu much. And he didn't go because of me. And this is a military power. Millions of soldiers. Turkey is very strong. On Tuesday, Trump announced he would lift U.S. sanctions on Turkey that were imposed in 2020 over its purchase of a Russian air defense system. Trump made the announcement following a lavish state dinner hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,

whom he called Turkey's biggest asset. This comes as the mayor of Istanbul and other Turkish politicians, civil society figures, and journalists remain jailed. on politically motivated charges. Ahead of Trump's visit to Ankara, Turkish police detain more than 100 protesters as they march to demand Turkey's withdrawal from NATO. NATO's crimes around the world are apparent. They have also committed numerous offenses in Turkey, orchestrated coups, and have bases here.

And now, shamelessly, they are being hosted in Ankara. I am here today to protest because I cannot accept this blow to my honor. NATO is a very big criminal organization. For more, we go now to Ankara Turkey, where we're joined by Ruth Michelson, journalist based in Istanbul, her recent piece for The Guardian headline, Turkey intensifies crackdown on public life and run up to NATO summit in Ankara. Talk about what's happening in the street and also people's view of NATO and what's happening right now. Well, I mean, I think it's clear here in Ankara and in Turkey more broadly.

this NATO summit is not taking place in a climate of freedom. We saw in the two weeks leading up to this summit happening, authorities in Ankara arrested over 200 people in dawn raids. There were members of that group that were arrested, that Human Rights Watch pointed out, the authorities have given no clarity about what warranted the arrests, what warranted the accusations that went along with it, that those arrested had links to terrorism.

Things that we do know about at least one of the people who was detained is that he's a prominent LGBTQ journalist. He's the head of an LGBT rights organization. There are others who are part of that group of detained people who are environmentalists. So that really calls into question the rationale for this huge number of arrests. There has also been a protest ban. enforced in Ankara, and that is a protest ban that extends even to leafleting.

So in a way, it's remarkable that there are people that still went out to protest. There were protests on Sunday here in the Turkish capital, about 100 people arrested at those protests, not the MPs that were with them, but 100 other protesters, and then more arrests from anti-NATO protesters yesterday. And so, I mean, the overall picture is one where this is a Turkish administration that wants us to, or wants the world, really, and Turkish citizens to focus on Turkey's foreign policy successes or achievements and not what's happening at home. Talk, Ruth, about Turkey's and Recep Tayyip Erdogan's diplomatic and militaristic interests here, particularly with its geographic position sharing a border with Iran with Syria's proximity to Russia. and Ukraine. And President Trump now talking about lifting the ban on Turkey getting F-35 jet fighters. Well, I mean, this is something that we've been hearing throughout the summit is that Turkey has this

indispensable place in NATO, second largest army in NATO. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when speaking earlier, spoke about the work that Turkey is doing in Ukraine to support President Volodymyr Zelensky and to support Ukraine, including weapon sales. And, you know, this is something that we've heard emphasized a huge amount from international leadership here that praise for Turkey's role in NATO. And then a version when asked about whether that means that they would say anything about what's happening domestically in the country. I mean, you mentioned it in the introduction to your program. The mayor of Istanbul is in prison. And we heard NATO Secretary, General Mark Rutte mentioned this earlier this week.

Lots and lots of praise for Turkey, for Turkish weapons and defense production, which is enormous. But also at the same time talking about, you know, really saying he thinks that the right to demonstrate is very important when asked about Turkey's human rights record, but really not wishing to be drawn on it any further. A coalition of U.S. senators like Jeanne Shaheen, and Dick Durbin, who were here speaking earlier today, and mentioning that there is what they described as widespread concern in Congress

about Turkish democratic backsliding, but then again emphasizing Turkey's hugely important place in NATO, especially in light of Trump's demand that other NATO allies step up production to 3.5% of GDP. So the focus here has been about Turkey's essential role in all of this, role in NATO, ability to manufacture weapons. But as I say, a real aversion to talking about what is happening outside of the summit itself. And the significance of what's happening right now, President Trump calling the Iranian leaders scum and cancer and resuming attacks,

basically saying the ceasefire is off. And Urta's support for this, what this means and where the other countries stand. Right. And we also heard Recep Tayyip Erdogan's praise for that too. He praised Donald Trump after Trump made those comments and talked about my friend, Donald Trump, who's taken decisive action on Iran. And I mean, Trump's comments, obviously, about what's happening with the memorandum of understanding with Iran.

really throwing a huge amount into question. I mean, he said some contradictory things in that statement. On one hand, he's saying the deal is over. There's no point in having these talks that were supposed to happen after Ayatollah Ali Khamanai's funeral that is due to conclude tomorrow with his burial in Masha. There were meant to be talks about Iran's nuclear program that were meant to take place afterwards.

But then Trump also saying that he would task Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner with, you know, that they would have some discussion about whether these talks would continue, but that really he's the decider. And so I think the, the, there is this possibility, really, that things will return to this kind of strange stalemate where we see both sides firing one another, as we saw during the negotiations around the MOU. But that is also a stalemate that can't go on forever. That also resolves nothing. And of course, it still means that every time that Donald Trump says things like this, that's hauling Iranian leader scum issuing these threats, that there is likely to be some

response. And so it really sort of extends this uncertainty to a pretty dangerous new place when you hear comments like that. In the last 30 seconds, what do you think the international media is missing? I mean, from the perspective of media in the United States, We hear nothing about the protests and the arrests of hundreds of people in this lead-up to the NATO summit and President Trump's presence there. I think the other thing that we probably shouldn't lose sight of overall is that the mayor of Istanbul is in prison. Those are on charges where it's been widely questioned about how politicized those charges may be.

And that, you know, this talk of democratic backsliding, that has a real. tangible thing in the sense that an elected leader is in prison while this is going on. Ruth Michelson, journalist based in Istanbul, Turkey, her recent piece for The Guardian, will link to it at DemocracyNow.org. Turkey intensifies crackdown on public life and run up to NATO summit and Ankara. Coming up, we go to Nairobi to talk to journalist Julia Steers, her new documentary inside the secret network fueling Sudan's war.

Just because you show up every day Doesn't mean that I think you'll stay I know you'll leave

You're leaving me. Now as we speak. Mean love by the Sudanese musician Sincayne. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman, as we turn to Sudan, where the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volckerqueh Turk has warned another humanitarian catastrophe as unfolding in Sudan's besieged city of El Obed.

The UN Human Rights, Council held an emergency session last week as fighting intensified between the Sudanese Army and the UAE-backed paramilitary rapid support forces, or RSF, which are vying for control of the North Kordofan state capital. UN experts have urged the international community to prevent widespread atrocities similar to what was witnessed in El Fasher after it was seized by the RSF. Already UN fact-finding missions have documented summary execution. abductions, torture, and sexual violence in court ofan.

Over 11,000 people, including more than 5,500 children, have been displaced from El-Obeyed in the last two weeks, according to save the children. And in the United Kingdom, a top human rights investigator said the British government was uniquely positioned to stop a genocidal massacre carried out by the RSF in Sudan-Zal Fasher, but failed to do so over economic interests and diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates, which is accused of backing the RSF. Nathaniel Raymond of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health submitted testimony to the U.K., parliament decaling his team's efforts to warn of the threats. This is a portion of his comments. I will speak personally and I will speak bluntly. My outrage, institutional failure in the face of preventable genocidal killing, I see as a duty to stay angry as the obituary and the memorial for these people.

They deserve someone to be angry for them. We turn now to a new investigation from Lighthouse Reports evident Sudan War Monitor and Der Spiegel that has uncovered how the United Arab Emirates supports a secret network. of military training camps for the RSF that enables them to continue their deadly war in Sudan. This is a clip from the documentary called Inside the Secret Network, fueling Sudan's war. In this clip, journalist Julius Steers of Lighthouse Reports is at the border of Libya and Sudan reporting on the UAE backed RSF training camps supported also by the Libyan National Army, or LNA, a militia in eastern Libya. analysts say that weapons smuggling at this border has surged by up to three times pre-war levels.

And it's not just a trafficking route. We're on patrol about 50 miles south of Kufra, and they want us to go back to the checkpoint. But we know that there's an RSF camp about 30 miles in that direction. And even though they say there's nothing going on out here, we actually saw on satellite images, as recently as a couple days ago, that there is activity over at the camp. Equipment and troops from this training camp have been linked to critical. RSF battles back in Sudan. With the help of the LNA, the RSF has set up training camps and staging sites to prep weapons in this part of the desert. We found four previously unidentified

training camps across Libya. Libyan authorities want these operations to stay in the shadows, but RSF soldiers are posting from Libya on social media. For more, we're joined now from Nairobi, Kenya by the award-winning journalists and documentary filmmaker you just heard Julia Steers, producer and correspondent on the documentary inside the secret network fueling Sudan's war. Also, the correspondent and producer of the Al Jazeera fault lines and lighthouse reports documentary released earlier this year, headline, No Exit from El Fasher. So let me ask you, Julia, first, the latest where the UN High Commissioner for Human

Rights Volker Turk warned another humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Sudan's besieged city of Elobide. What do you know and what is fueling this? So what we know is that the RSF, the rapid support forces and the Sudanese army are fighting for control of Alibide, which as you said is the capital of the North Kordofan region. They have been really brutally, both sides have been launching drone attacks against civilians for the last few weeks and that's been intensifying. And there is concern now that the RSF could be about to launch a ground offensive, which of course is very similar to what we saw during the siege of El Fasher in Darfur. The city of El Fasher fell to the rapid support forces in

October. So what we're hearing is the international community warning of an impending humanitarian disaster. These drone attacks have also struck critical infrastructure, which could be potentially limiting people's access to water, to electricity. So it is believed that there is already a humanitarian crisis ongoing inside Lovide. But of course, the real fear is that this will be, you know, another repeat of El Fasher, where civilians were subjected to really extensive and grotesque war crimes at the hands of the RSF who eventually went on to take that city. Talk about the role of the United Arab Emirates, Julia. So this war, which is often categorized in international media as a civil war, is really a...

proxy war on both sides. On the side of the RSF, their main backer is United Arab Emirates. And there's no question that the RSF would not be able to have gotten as far as they have, to have claimed nearly as much territory as they have without the really robust support of the UAE. The UAE backs the RSF for a couple different reasons. Some of it is ideological. They are, they would say that they are fighting the Islamists to back the Sudanese army. Others, you know, other reasons, including just loyalty to the RSF's leader and economic reasons and interest in gold and infrastructure in Sudan. But what they've done during the course of this now over three-year war in terms of their support for the RSF is establish this really robust network across

Africa, including in Chad and in Libya, where we went to funnel weapons, fuel, money into the RSF and into their fight for control of Sudan. And they've also established a training network where they train RSF soldiers in Libya. Reuters did some reporting about an RSF training camp in Ethiopia. So they're providing training as well as Colombian mercenaries to help train RSF troops and in some cases even fight alongside RSF troops in Sudan. So we're talking about a really extensive network of logistics and training and financial backing from the UAE. For your investigation, you spoke to seven RSF defectors in Libya. In this clip from your documentary, we hear from one of the defectors who spent three months

at a training camp outside Benghazi. He said the heavy weaponry he trained on at the camp came from the United Arab Emirates. showed its Emirati, but the ammunition boxes and the weapons as well as the cars, none of which had anything to indicate its Emirati, except for one type of armored car they sent, and it was Emirati. You can see Made in Emirates. Can you show me where the camp that you were at in Benghazi is?

all the way to the camp. The camp is there. So this road led all the way out.

That's the camp. In this clip from the film, Julia Steers, you speak to R.S.F. spokesperson, Dr. Al-A.L.D. Nogood, who repeatedly denies they got any support from the United Arab Emirates, UAE. There's much of allegations that's not true, and we defended and we wrote in our statements against. The UN Security Council said British small arms, both target systems and engines for armored personnel carriers that were sold by the Brits to the UAE were then found in Sudan to be on the RSF side. It's exclusively sold for the Emirates and the Emirates give it to us. Correct. There's also the report that European made mortar shells, also sold to an Emirati company and then transported through a convoy in Libya where there's

a lot of evidence that you guys were moving stuff through Libya, that those also ended up on the RSF side. No, you know, Libya, this area became an open market for weapons. You can get weapon from wherever you want. Sure. And it's a market. So you can get, if you have money, you can get a weapon from there. He rejected the claims of our RSF sources about their training in Libya.

So do you deny that there are any training camps for the RSF outside of Sudan? It's all our stuff training camps in our borders. There are no training camps outside of Sudan. What ultimately do you want to get out of this war? You're saying it's for all of these just causes, but what is the ultimate end game? We are looking for a new Sudan. So that's the RSF spokesperson. And Julia Steers, talk about what he's denying.

What is the UAE's interest here in perpetuating the civil war between the Sudanese army and the RSF? And then what about countries like Britain and the United States who are very close to the UAE? So he, the RSF and the UAE vehemently deny the UAE's role in the war, which at this point, you know, is a sort of ridiculous, denial. It's really the worst kept secret of the war in Sudan. He is denying what we saw with our own eyes. He is denying what we documented, you know, a year's worth of social media analysis of RSF presence in Libya at training camps in the desert at training camps near the capital Benghazi. He's denying a very extensive documentation of the presence of UAE-backed Colombian mercenaries in Libya, in Sudan, traveling through Libya into.

to Sudan's Darfur region. So as I said, he's denying this very extensive network that the UAE has established, including in Libya. And, you know, as you mentioned, the role of the UK or in the U.S. in pressuring, you know, a critical partner of theirs, the UAE has been very minimal. So, you know, there has been very little pressure on the UAE to actually acknowledge their role or to stop the flow of weapons and troops into Sudan. And what is the UAE's interest here?

So the UAE's interest, you know, in part, I think we have to recognize that they are a country with almost limitless resources. So to a certain extent, we could just be seeing they have backed one side and they're going to continue dumping resources into that side until the end. There has been some points of the war

where analysts would wonder, you know, when the RSF was sort of on the back foot, an analyst would wonder, how long will the UAE keep backing a potentially losing horse? But now we've seen the RSF has taken all of Darfur. They are putting up a very fierce fight in L.O. Bade, and there is absolutely no sign of UAE support slowing down. In the long term, they have an economic interest in Sudan,

in Sudan's gold trade, in Sudan's agricultural trade. They also do not want to see an Islamist-backed government installed in the Hornets, of Africa. And so the Sudanese army is backed by Islamists. So they would obviously prefer that the RSF would be the party that eventually takes over Sudan. This is a clip from your documentary that looks at how the UAE has brought Colombian mercenaries into the conflict. Well, they did talk about it. But the general consensus is that the Emirates brought and paid them. The UAE has sent hundreds of Colombian mercenaries to Sudan. making stops in Libya to train and fight alongside the RSA. They're contracted by Global Security

Services Group, a UAE-based company with links to the Emirati government. With the help of conflict insights group, we analyzed telephones located at Camp 17. Using publicly available phone data, we found evidence of one suspected Colombian contractor at the site. The phone was active at Camp 17 in June 2025. Julia Steers, if you can talk about the significance of the Colombian mercenaries being brought in by the UAE as we wrap up right now? So the Colombian mercenaries are brought in to train the RSF specifically on these new types of weaponry that are then being trafficked into Sudan. And they were considered to be really influential in the fight in Alfashir, which fell to

the RSF a few months ago, both in terms of training. And there was some evidence of them being on the ground, actually fighting alongside the RSF in Elfasher. And so, of course, there is a concern that in other battles, the RSF will continue to get this training on specialized weaponry and that they could be backed up by the Colombian mercenaries. In this last 20 seconds, the human toll, if you can address that. In LL. Bay, there's concern about hundreds of thousands of civilians, you know, and we have seen an utter lack of true care by the international community for the amount of civilians that are being tarred. targeted and killed in this war.

Julia Steers, award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker correspondent in the new Evident Media Lighthouse Reports documentary inside the secret network fueling Sudan's war. Thank you so much for being with us. I'm Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now. DemocracyNow.org, the War and Peace Report.