DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou: “Death-scalator!”

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou dissect the undercurrents of power and injustice.

• Luigi Mangione's legal team accuses Presient Trump of jeopardizing the accused killer's right to a fair trial through inflammatory Fox News remarks labeling him a "pure assassin" who "shot someone in the back," with links to "left-wing extremists" as false narratives, alongside social media reposts by DOJ officials. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett rebukes the DOJ, citing violations of her April order prohibiting prejudicial statements, and warns of potential sanctions including contempt findings or financial penalties.

• Anonymous artists from The Secret Handshake erect a 12-foot statue on the National Mall depicting Trump and Epstein joyfully holding hands, complete with a plaque hailing their "long-lasting bond" for Friendship Month, only for the National Park Service to remove it within a day citing permit noncompliance. Artist "Patrick" says the piece honors Trump's "one and only true friend.”

• NORAD scrambles U.S. fighter jets, including four F-16s and an E-3 aircraft, to intercept two Russian Tu-95 bombers and two Su-35 fighters entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, marking the ninth such incursion this year amid routine but provocative Russian probing of NATO readiness. The flight, in international airspace abutting U.S. and Canadian borders, follows similar August incidents and coincides with European alerts over unattributed drones disrupting Danish airports and Russian jets breaching Polish and Estonian airspace.

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summons hundreds of generals and admirals from global posts to an unprecedented, short-notice meeting at Quantico, Virginia, next week, leaving attendees puzzled over its undisclosed purpose amid his aggressive overhaul slashing 20% of four-star positions.

• Trump demands a Secret Service probe into "triple sabotage" at the U.N. General Assembly, alleging deliberate failures of an escalator halting mid-ride with Melania Trump, a 15-minute teleprompter blackout forcing ad-libbed remarks, and faulty audio muffling his nearly hour-long address decrying immigration and global warming as a hoax. U.N. officials attribute the escalator stop to a U.S. videographer triggering a safety mechanism and the teleprompter to White House operation. The uproar, dubbed "Escalatorgate," underscores Trump's narrative of institutional dysfunction undermining his global stage.