A federal judge in Vermont has granted bail and released from ICE jail Palestinian Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi while he challenges the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him for joining protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza. U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ruled the Trump administration failed to show why Mahdawi should remain in confinement, condemning “chilling action by the government intended to shut down debate.” Mohsen Mahdawi emerged from the courthouse to a jubilant crowd of supporters, both arms in the air, holding up the V for victory sign with his hands — also the gesture for peace.

Mohsen Mahdawi: “And I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you.”

Mahdawi also asked the crowd to join him in singing “We Shall Overcome.” Mahdawi was jailed by ICE in April after appearing for what he was told would be a naturalization test. He was a lead organizer in Columbia’s Gaza solidarity protests. We’ll get the latest on his case after headlines with a member of Mohsen Mahdawi’s legal defense team.

Israel’s military is continuing its unrelenting attacks on Gaza, killing at least 18 Palestinians today. Israel has killed at least 2,300 Palestinians since it unilaterally shattered the ceasefire in mid-March, and more than 64,000 Palestinians since October 2023.

The assault continued as the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, warned the lives of 1 million Palestinian children in Gaza are on the line as Israel’s total blockade on the territory enters its 61st day. Some 3,000 aid trucks are lined up at Gaza’s border but unable to enter. The blockade has compounded a healthcare crisis, with no medicines or equipment entering Gaza, and patients unable to leave for treatment elsewhere. This is the mother of a sick 3-year-old child being treated at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Dalia Abu Mohsen: “Doctors prescribe treatments that aren’t even available to get from the pharmacies here. My daughter needs this medicine, but it’s not available. It’s not available anywhere in Gaza’s pharmacies. It has to come from outside, and the occupation has closed the crossing and refuses to let medicines through.”

This comes as arguments continue at the International Court of Justice over Israel’s obligations to provide aid to Gaza. A U.S. State Department lawyer on Wednesday defended Israel’s ban on UNRWA.

Joshua Simmons: ”UNRWA is not the only option for providing humanitarian assistance in Gaza. In sum, there is no legal requirement that an occupying power permit a specific third state or international organization to conduct activities in occupied territory that would compromise its security interest.”

Israel’s Channel 13 has aired a report detailing how the administration of former President Joe Biden allowed Israel to carry out its slaughter in Gaza with total impunity, with one senior official admitting it amounted to “killing and destroying for the sake of killing and destroying.”

In Syria, at least 30 people have been killed in recent days amid violent clashes between government forces and armed groups on the outskirts of Damascus. Israel intervened by launching air attacks on Syria, claiming it was defending the local Druze community. Syria immediately condemned “all forms of foreign intervention.” The transitional Syrian government, which came to power after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in December, has said it has restored order in the region and is committed to protecting all communities in Syria.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials signed a deal late Wednesday that will give the U.S. a stake in Ukraine’s mineral reserves, as part of a joint investment fund with Kyiv. Details of the deal have yet to be released, including any guarantees of U.S. security assistance for Ukraine. Trump has sought to frame the agreement as repayment for U.S. military aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. The Ukrainian parliament will still need to ratify the deal. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke after signing the agreement.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: “Today’s agreement signals clearly to Russian leadership that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine over the long term. It’s time for this cruel and senseless war to end.”

We’ll have more on this story later in the show with investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz.

The Trump administration has spoken to leaders of Libya and Rwanda about the possibility of sending immigrants with criminal records to those two countries. That’s according to CNN, which reports the U.S. is also seeking a so-called safe third country agreement that would allow the U.S. to send asylum seekers to Libya, including people with no criminal records.

President Trump said in an ABC News interview he has the power to bring back a Maryland father the U.S. government admitted to expelling to an El Salvador prison “in error,” but that he will not do so, despite court orders mandating the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Trump was interviewed by Terry Moran.

President Donald Trump: “This is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland.”

Terry Moran: “I’m not saying he’s a good guy. It’s about the rule of law. The order from the Supreme Court stands, sir.”

President Donald Trump: “He came into our country illegally.”

Terry Moran: “You could get him back. There’s a phone on this desk.”

President Donald Trump: “I could.”

Terry Moran: “You could pick it up, and with all” —

President Donald Trump: “I could.”

Terry Moran: — “the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, 'Send him back,' right now.”

President Donald Trump: “And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that.”

The comments contradict previous White House statements that the U.S. has no power to return Abrego Garcia. During the interview, Trump grew increasingly agitated and repeatedly interrupted Terry Moran to falsely claim that Abrego Garcia had tattoos on his knuckles reading “M–S–1–3,” a reference to the MS-13 gang. In fact, those characters were photoshopped into a picture of tattooed symbols on Abrego Garcia’s left hand shared by the White House on social media.

In Texas, a group of 31 Venezuelan men facing possible deportation to El Salvador’s CECOT prison — notorious for its torture and human rights abuses — used their bodies to spell out a cry for help Monday after they spotted a news drone flying above the immigration jail where they’re being held. The men formed the letters S-O-S in the courtyard of the Bluebonnet Detention Facility, which is operated by the for-profit Management and Training Corporation.

A federal judge in Miami has ordered Florida police departments to stop deputizing officers to act as immigration enforcement agents. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’s order came as she prepared to issue a preliminary injunction against a new state law that makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented immigrants to enter Florida by eluding immigration agents.

In California, a federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction barring Border Patrol officers from stopping people without “reasonable suspicion” that they’re undocumented, and preventing them from making warrantless arrests unless they have credible evidence a person is likely to flee. The injunction follows reports that Border Patrol agents carrying out raids in California’s Central Valley rounded up day laborers and farmworkers, regardless of their actual immigration status, rather than fulfilling their mission of arresting immigrants with serious criminal backgrounds.

In Burkina Faso, thousands of people rallied in support of interim President Ibrahim Traoré Wednesday, after military rulers said they foiled a plot to overthrow his transitional government. Traoré seized power after a 2022 coup and moved to end military ties with former colonizer France. Protesters also condemned recent comments by General Michael Langley, head of the U.S. military’s Africa Command, who accused Traoré of using Burkina Faso’s gold reserves to benefit himself rather than the people. This is a protester in Ouagadougou.

Salifou Ouédraogo: “Words like 'democracy,' 'human rights,' no one can teach that in Africa. The African continent was the first continent that produced democracy, but not that of the West, which consists of burning countries, burning continents that do not think like them. Here we are today so that our country remains standing, so that our continent remains standing.”

Protesters took to the streets of Panama City Wednesday to condemn the signing of a memorandum between the U.S. and Panama that would allow U.S. troops to deploy around the Panama Canal for military training.

Camila Aybar: “We protest because they have stomped over the sovereignty of entire generations who have fought. They dumped our sovereignty to the trash by signing a memorandum of understanding that allows foreign military presence in Panama. Down with the memorandum! Down with the memorandum! Sovereign Panama!”

President Trump has repeatedly threatened to “take back” the Panama Canal.

In Mexico, rights groups are demanding justice for Marco Antonio Suástegui, an environmental activist from Guerrero state who was shot two weeks ago and died on Friday. Suástegui helped lead the successful grassroots resistance against the La Parota hydroelectric dam project, which would have devastated the local environment and community.

In Pennsylvania, students at Swarthmore College set up a new protest encampment, naming the site the “Hossam Shabat Liberated Zone,” in honor of the 23-year-old Palestinian journalist killed by Israel in Gaza in March. Students are demanding Swarthmore “divest from Israeli occupation, aggression, and apartheid, and declare itself a sanctuary campus.”

Tens of thousands of people are taking to the streets across the country for May Day, International Workers’ Day. Over 1,000 actions in more than 1,000 cities will protest the Trump administration’s policies. Worker-led demonstrations are also taking place in countries across the globe.