Democracy Now! Monday, May 11, 2026

In a landmark episode of Democracy Now!, host Amy Goodman examines a seismic political shift in Britain, where the far-right Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage, surged in local elections amid historic losses for the Labour Party under Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Journalist Daniel Trilling, author of *If We Tolerate This*, argues that the British establishment’s tolerance of anti-immigrant rhetoric and authoritarian policies has normalized the far right, creating a fragmented political landscape where traditional left-right divides are collapsing. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., former Marine reservist Guido Reichstatter spent five days atop the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in a nonviolent protest against the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the existential threat of unregulated artificial intelligence, framing both as interconnected crises of state violence and technological overreach. In New Jersey, biotech entrepreneur Rami Elgandor was stripped of a speaking invitation at Rutgers University over his pro-Palestinian social media posts, sparking a broader debate over free speech, academic freedom, and the weaponization of 'cancel culture'—a controversy underscored by the university’s selective enforcement, as a pro-Israel event proceeded despite massive student opposition.