The Night Light: Liz Ayala -- When deadly floods struck Kerrville, Texas last month, Liz Ayala seized the moment to look out for her neighbors and speak up for more needed aid.

“The swamp is DEEPER than it ever was.” Roy Cooper – the frontrunner in North Carolina's senate race – slams Donald Trump for his corruption and says that his Republican opponent will just “do and say” whatever Trump tells him. “We need to bring back the checks and balances.”

Many Democrats insist Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed is not electable in a general election. El-Sayed's response: "We're so worried about what they're going to say about us. Let's start talking about them. Let's start talking about the corruption that we've seen out of this administration."

DOJ drops felony charges against former Olympian saying the damage to the Reflecting Pool was "the result of a botched installation and not vandalism."

The Night Light: Women, Life, Freedom While the U.S. war with Iran rages on, Iranian women continue to demand rights from their repressive government, amid great hardship.

Classicist Emily Wilson is the first woman to translate Homer's epic "The Odyssey" into English. She says there is value in revisiting ancient texts to let "antiquity to challenge modernity." She gave Christopher Nolan's new film adaptation a scathing review and is "baffled" by the reaction to it.

American citizen faces federal charges that could put him behind bars for up to five years, because he deleted his phone data during an airport search by U.S. customs agents. His lawyer insists he was targeted for his political speech.

Tune in Friday for @velshi.com's interview with Emily Wilson, the first woman to publish a translated version of Homer’s The Odyssey into English.

@velshi.com on what may be motivating Trump to postpone Todd Blanche's confirmation vote for Attorney General

The Night Light: Epstein Survivors The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed its vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination to be the next Attorney General, while Epstein Survivors continue to demand accountabliity.

“We have deep progressive roots.” Francesca Hong has surged to the lead in the Democratic primary for governor in Wisconsin. She’s seeking to be the first woman and first democratic socialist to lead the state. “It’s about time that we dig into these roots and build something even better.”

Trump says he may withdraw Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General to past the midterms, betting Republicans keep the Senate while Cornyn and Tillis depart. Mimi Rocah says Trump is going to bat for Blanche because "he found his Roy Cohn," referring to Trump's former lawyer and fixer.

“The only thing that can give a Republican a backbone is to be on the precipice of political irrelevancy.” Former congressmen Max Rose and Jamaal Bowman join guest host Vaughn Hillyard to talk about the hold-up in Todd Blanche’s confirmation process.

The Night Light: Frances Oldham Kelsey A medical reviewer at the Food and Drug Administration saved Americans from a dangerous medication and helped increase standards for future drug approval

Measles cases are at a 35-year high, and because of RFK Jr.'s management of HHS, Fmr. CDC Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry says the U.S. is "not prepared for global health threats... There's just been a really kind of a misconception that [measles] is a harmless childhood disease."

“Very much the kind of thing an authoritarian would want of his cronies:” Molly Jong-Fast and Mark McKinnon join Ali Velshi to discuss Donald Trump's newly-confirmed director of national intelligence Jay Clayton, the latest addition to the president's cabinet of enablers.

Trump administration officials acknowledge cancelling federal grants to states that didn't vote for Trump in 2024. Jay Inslee, former Governor of Washington, says that Trump is essentially proclaiming, "I'm only going to work for half the American people, those who are subservient to me."

Trump is "a president who seems to believe that if the election is legitimate, he will lose or his party will lose." Vox's Zack Beauchamp joins Ali Velshi to help make sense of Trump's "totally bizarre strategy" focused on influencing the outcome of the midterms.

"The biggest welfare cheats are by far big corporations," says Matt Stoller, after a new government report that employees at Amazon and Walmart are receiving healthcare and food assistance at higher rates than 5 years ago.

As Trump's ICE crackdown escalates in violence, University of Toronto professor and fascism expert Jason Stanley calls Trump "a would-be fascist dictator" with "no intention of broadening his popular support."

Saudi Arabia will "have domestic problems from people who say, 'How can you make a deal (with Israel)?'" says @mehdirhasan.bsky.social. "'You've said that your red line is Palestinian statehood, but you actually want nuclear power and trade with Israel more than you want that.'"

“Donald Trump tries to create an atmosphere of fear around anybody who actually wants to act as a democratic check or balance.” Adam Mockler joins Ali Velshi to discuss the criminal referral that Trump allies on the House Judiciary Committee just filed against former special prosecutor Jack Smith.

The Night Light: Trusting the vote Arizona primary voters trust their early votes will be counted despite claims by election deniers.

The election-denying GOP candidate for Arizona Secretary of State wants to restrict voting by mail. Adrian Fontes, the Democratic incumbent says, "The notion that Arizona wants to elect a Secretary of State who wants to force people to stand in long lines is just bonkers."

This is a much more sinister plan:" Donald Trump's relaunch of the Big Lie about elections is being met with plenty of groans, but it could also be setting up a nightmare scenario on election night that is "extremely detrimental to our democracy." Aaron Parnas joins Ali Velshi to discuss.

The Night Light: Advocates for detained children. A group of Connecticut lawyers fight to reunite children detained in immigration centers with their families.

“He's a predictable villain.” Tim O' Brien and @underthedesknews.bsky.social BLAST President Trump for his changing stories around the security concerns of his new Qatari-gifted Air Force One. “He really only has like three moves, and all of those moves come from Roy Cohn.”

In one deadly ICE shooting after another, DHS claims the victims were attacking the agents who shot them. Time after time, those narratives have fallen apart. Investigative journalist Radley Balko calls out ICE for "blatantly lying."

JD Vance's new book, "Communion," happens to share a title with a 2002 book by the trailblazing Black feminist author bell hooks. Rather than focus energy on Vance's book, content creator Whitney Alese organized readers to celebrate and uplift Hooks' writing.

Trump is searching for "vandal-proof" material for the damage in the reflecting pool, but analysts believe it was simply an error in installation. "I'm surprised that he hasn't blamed Obama at this point," says @basilsmiklephd.bsky.social.