Headlines June 2, 2026 from Democracy Now!

On Capitol Hill, Michigan Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib is calling on Congress to pass a Lebanon war powers resolution this week. She wrote, “Our country should not be assisting or supporting indiscriminate bombings and forced displacement anywhere, including Lebanon.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Monday to discuss Lebanon. U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee said Israel is violating a U.N. Security Council resolution that was aimed at stopping Israel’s invasion of Lebanon two decades ago.

Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee: “Israel’s presence north of the Blue Line is a clear violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as of Security Council Resolution 1701. Israeli forces must withdraw to south of the Blue Line.”

Iranian diplomats have suspended talks with the United States after warning that Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip could doom ongoing ceasefire negotiations with the Trump administration. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday that the U.S. had already violated its ceasefire with Iran when it imposed a naval siege on Iranian ports. He also said Israel’s attacks on Lebanon constituted a ceasefire violation on a separate front. After headlines, we’ll go to Beirut to speak with Associated Press reporter Kareem Chehayeb, whose latest piece is headlined “Trump says Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to dial back fighting.”

In Gaza, at least three Palestinians died in separate Israeli attacks earlier today, as Palestinian monitoring groups documented 11 new ceasefire violations over the past 24 hours. Among the attacks was an Israeli drone strike on a civilian vehicle east of Deir al‑Balah that injured displaced families living nearby in makeshift shelters. Israel has carried out strikes on most of the 237 days since it agreed to a U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire last October.

Here in New York, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich marched in the annual Israel Day Parade on Sunday alongside other Israeli far-right ministers and Cabinet officials. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Governor Kathy Hochul and New York State Attorney General Letitia James were among several prominent Democrats who marched in the same parade as Smotrich, who has been sanctioned by multiple countries for inciting settler violence against Palestinians. The lead organizer of the parade told The New York Times that he did not know that Smotrich and other Israeli far-right officials were planning to march. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who boycotted the event, said he was “offended” by the presence of Israeli officials at the parade.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “You can see in the participation of the far-right Israeli minister Smotrich, as well as a number of other ministers, a vision of annihilation, a complicity in genocide and, frankly, a belief that does not have much value for even the sanctity of children in Gaza. And I am offended, as I know many New Yorkers are, by their participation.”

Israel Kills 8 in Lebanon After Trump Says He Told Netanyahu to Call Off Beirut Attack

Jun 02, 2026

 

Israel’s military continued its attacks on Lebanon overnight, killing at least eight people, even after President Trump said both sides had “agreed that all shooting will stop.” Among the dead is James Karam, a dentist, who was killed along with his daughter and son when an Israeli drone bombed their car in southern Lebanon. Another Israeli attack killed two people and damaged the Jabal Amel University Hospital in Tyre. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reports Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,400 people since March 2; over 10,000 have been wounded.

Axios is reporting that during an expletive-laden call, Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “You’re f’ing crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.” After the call, President Trump said in a social media post that he’d had a “productive” phone call with Netanyahu and that “there will be no Troops going to Beirut.” Trump’s comment came after Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said they had ordered massive airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

In Ukraine, a wave of Russian strikes has killed at least 18 people and injured dozens in Kyiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava and Kharkiv. Overnight, Russia launched 73 missiles and 656 drones at Ukraine. This is Alina. Her building was damaged by a Russian strike.

Alina: “I woke up from my bed and decided to move to the corridor. I heard explosions coming closer and closer. I turned my back to the window to go to the apartment door. At that moment, there was an explosion, which threw me against the door. But I’m fine now.”

Russia’s latest assault once again prompted Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to ask President Trump to send Patriot interceptors, which are capable of blocking ballistic missiles. President Trump has so far ignored Zelensky’s pleas, despite the fact that Ukraine is running out of interceptors.

President Trump is reportedly reconsidering his $1.8 billion slush fund to compensate his supporters who took part in the January 6 insurrection. This comes as the Justice Department also said it would temporarily pause the program to comply with a court order. The slush fund was set up as a settlement following Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Federal Judge Kathleen Williams reopened the case last week after a bipartisan group of 35 former federal judges urged her to look more closely at the settlement.

Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, filed confidentially for an initial public offering on Monday, less than a week after raising $65 billion in funding that pushed its valuation to $965 billion.

Anthropic’s IPO plans come as several major stock market index providers have recently changed rules excluding unprofitable companies. The changes could allow Elon Musk’s private AI and rocket company SpaceX, which is about to go public, to be added to the indexes much sooner than it typically would, which means millions of Americans invested in retirement funds could end up owning a piece of SpaceX, whether they choose to or not.

This comes as Vermont’s independent Senator Bernie Sanders announced a new bill that would create a sovereign wealth fund by imposing a one-time, 50% tax on the stock of OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Senator Sanders wrote that the fund would “give the public a direct role in determining the future of this technology. [And] guarantee that the trillions of dollars potentially generated by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us — not simply to make the richest people in the world even richer.”

Meanwhile, Florida became the first state to sue OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging they know ChatGPT is not safe, especially for children. This is Florida’s attorney general.

Attorney General James Uthmeier: “We’re here to announce that we recently filed a monumental civil lawsuit against Sam Altman and ChatGPT for endangering our kids and deceiving parents into believing that this application is safe for use. It’s clearly not. People are getting hurt. Parents are getting deceived. And they need to pay for it.”

The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, is set to announce his city’s legal strategy aimed at shutting down the Delaney Hall ICE jail. The for-profit immigration detention center has been the focus of massive protests demanding justice for immigrants, who’ve launched a hunger strike to protest inhumane conditions and medical neglect inside the jail, while demanding their freedom. On Monday, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said his city’s police department will exercise a greater “span of control” over the perimeter of Delaney Hall, after federal agents and New Jersey State Police repeatedly attacked demonstrators outside with horses, clubs, pepper spray and other so-called less lethal weapons. In a statement, Mayor Baraka said, “The police tactics over this last weekend were overly aggressive, unnecessary, and in some instances unconstitutional.” But the mayor said a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew would remain in effect until further notice.

In Ghana, human rights groups warn a new law criminalizing LGBTQ+ activity could devastate queer communities. The sweeping legislation approved on Friday makes it a crime to identify as nonbinary, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, trans or intersex. It also imposes prison terms of up to 10 years on anyone who “promotes” LGBTQ+ activities. It’s expected to be signed into law by Ghana’s President John Mahama. This follows similar legislation recently passed in other African nations, including Senegal and Burkina Faso. In 2023, Uganda passed a law making it a crime to identify as queer; declaring all same-sex conduct to be nonconsensual, and even allowing for the death penalty in certain cases. Critics have called it a “kill the gays bill.” This is Ugandan LGBTQ activist Hans Senfuma.

Hans Senfuma: “At first, it was Uganda with the harshest 'kill gay bill' in the whole world, that contains a death penalty and a life imprisonment. Apparently, we are seeing Ghana jumping onto this same running track. And all African leaders are quiet in whatever is happening.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has designated the Pentagon press office a classified space, physically barring journalists from an area that has been freely accessible to reporters across multiple administrations. In a statement, Reporters Without Borders said, “No matter how petulant Pete gets, journalists will continue their tenacious reporting and hold the Pentagon accountable for the money, operations, and lives they impact every day.”

Separately, a federal court temporarily blocked the Pentagon from discharging transgender service members, while still allowing the administration to continue banning transgender people from entering the military. It comes as Hegseth also struck several female and Black Navy officers from a promotions list. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island said in a recent testimony, “Nearly 60% of the senior officers Hegseth has fired are female or Black.”

Veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley openly revolted against CBS News leadership Monday at a staff meeting meant to introduce the show’s newly appointed executive producer, Nick Bilton. Bilton is a tech journalist installed by CBS’s editor-in-chief Bari Weiss after she fired the show’s two top correspondents, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, alongside executive producer Tanya Simon. When Bilton reportedly told the staff that Weiss loved CBS News and “60 Minutes,” Pelley shot back, “She is murdering '60 Minutes.' She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.” Pelley also declared that Bilton would “never be welcome here.”

The winners of the 2026 News & Documentary Emmy Awards have been announced. This year’s Outstanding Investigative Documentary prize goes to “Critical Incident: A Death at the Border,” produced by HBO Documentary Films. The film examines the alleged cover-up of the murder of Anastasio Hernández Rojas, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who died while in U.S. custody at the border. His 2010 death occurred under the watch of Rodney Scott, the man who now heads Customs and Border Protection under President Trump. The film’s director, Rick Rowley, accepted the award.

Rick Rowley: “Cruelty and violence have festered at the heart of U.S. immigration enforcement for so long, and part of it is because of the impunity and the secrecy that have surrounded these organizations. And so, I need to thank this incredible team for pulling back the veil and exposing that organization.”

Click here to see our interview with Rick Rowley, director of “Critical Incident: Death at the Border.”

Voters head to the polls in several states today for primary elections. California faces a crowded field in the race to replace outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom. Under the state’s “jungle primary” system, the two candidates who receive the most votes today will advance to the general election, regardless of party. In Los Angeles, 13 candidates are looking to unseat incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. Polls show Bass in a close race with City Councilmember Nithya Raman and reality TV personality Spencer Pratt. In Iowa, Republicans and Democrats are selecting candidates to replace Republican Senator Joni Ernst, who’s retiring. There are also primary elections in Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.