Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM Eastern time.

Today we discuss:

• The Trump administration’s policy of criminalizing criticism of Israel escalates dramatically as 8 people affiliated with the University of Michigan are charged with conspiring to threaten campus leaders and others into severing ties with Israel. An indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, accused pro-Palestinian activists of crossing the line from campus protest to crimes that included threats and vandalism. The defendants face varying charges, but the indictment included federal counts of conspiracy to transmit threats, witness intimidation and destruction of property to prevent seizure.

• Rioters set houses, vehicles and a city bus ablaze in Belfast, torching neighborhoods after a video of a knife attack by a Sudanese asylum seeker went viral, igniting the latest anti-immigration violence to convulse the UK. Men in balaclavas and hoods shouted “foreigners out.” The riots spread from Belfast to towns across Northern Ireland and reached into Scotland and England by nightfall.

• The Canadian government introduces a new digital safety proposal that would require users to verify that they are at least 16 to access websites like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. A new regulator called the Digital Safety Commission of Canada would administer the proposed measures.

• U.S. airstrikes destroyed a drinking-water facility on Iran’s southern coast, near the Strait of Hormuz. Water was cut off to more than 20,000 people living in a town and villages nearby, where temperatures are above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure can constitute a war crime under international law.

• “Hopes were fading”: Unless lawmakers act by midnight Friday, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, will sunset. Democrats are angry, not at domestic spying, but that Trump named Bill Pulte, housing official without any national security experience, as acting director of national intelligence.

JOIN US LIVE ON RUMBLE

https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow

FOLLOW TED:

https://rall.com/

https://x.com/tedrall

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY:

https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall