Democracy Now!

President Trump is hosting right-wing leaders from across Latin America in Miami for a summit discussing his so-called Shield of the Americas initiative. This comes as the U.S. deploys special forces to Ecuador and as Trump hints about regime change in Cuba. This summit is ... an opportunity for Trump to play out a moment of imperial fantasy in front of fans in South Florida," says Jake Johnston, director of international research at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago will attend, says the White House.

Kristi Noem has been ousted from her position as homeland security secretary after intensifying calls for her resignation. Noem's tenure has been marked by allegations of corruption, deadly immigration raids and legal challenges. ProPublica reporter Justin Elliott has reported extensively on Noem's tenure, including a $200 million ad campaign that may have been the inciting incident for her firing. This did not go through the normal competitive process," says Elliott. Instead, the ad went to a Delaware LLC that was formed only a few days before."President Trump has announced Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma as the new homeland security secretary. Mullin has been known as a hard-liner," says Chris Stein, senior politics reporter for The Guardian US. Stein adds that the Trump administration will continue its aggressive immigration policies despite the change in leadership.

It is the seventh day of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, and Israel is escalating attacks on Lebanon after ordering the entire population of southern Lebanon to flee. This comes as Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to turn areas of Lebanon into another Gaza in a video shared on social media Thursday. The word on everyone's mouths here is ethnic cleansing," says Lylla Younes, an investigative journalist speaking with Democracy Now! from Beirut. People are basically fleeing north with nowhere to go. Shelters are filling up rapidly. People are sleeping on the pavement in the winter nights."Human rights lawyer Omar Shakir, the new executive director of DAWN, has urged Iran to give the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over apparent crimes committed by the U.S. and Israel in strikes on schools and hospitals. There is more and more evidence emerging every single day of grave war crimes being carried out by the United States and Israel," he says. The Israeli government, because of impunity, is emboldened across the region. And unless we see a strong response from states that are willing to use the tools of accountability, ... the risk to civilians across the region will continue to grow."

House Narrowly Rejects Resolution to Limit Trump's Power to Wage War on Iran, Iran Says U.S. and Israel Have Attacked 3,600 Civilian Sites, Hegseth Says We Have Only Just Begun to Fight" as CENTCOM Prepares for 100 Days of War, Iranian Strikes on Mideast Oil Sites Trigger Global Energy Chaos, Israel's Renewed Assault on Lebanon Kills 123, with Hundreds of Thousands Displaced, Stocks of Medical Supplies in Gaza Critically Low" as Israel Closes Gaza Border Crossings, Trump Fires Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary, Names Sen. Markwayne Mullin as Replacement, ICE Arrests Nashville Journalist Whose Stories Criticized Federal Agents, 169 Are Killed, Including Civilians, as Insurgents Raid Town in South Sudan, More Than 200 Die as Heavy Rains Trigger Landslide at Coltan Mine in Eastern DRC, Bernard Lafayette, Who Joined Freedom Rides to Fight for Voting Rights, Dies at 85, Family and Friends to Honor Rev. Jesse Jackson at Chicago Memorial Service

We speak with filmmaker Craig Renaud, the director of Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud, an HBO documentary about his brother, photojournalist Brent Renaud, who was killed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine in 2022. March 13 marks the fourth anniversary of Brent's death, and the film is both a tribute to him and a bigger story about all the journalists who were being killed," says Craig. As we enter another war ... I hope Brent's work and the work of all the fallen journalists helps people pause for a minute and think about the impact that these wars will have."Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud is nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Academy Awards on March 15.

Geeta Gandbhir has made history as the first woman to receive Oscar nominations for both Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short in the same year. Her feature-length film, The Perfect Neighbor, looks at the case of Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old Black mother of four who was fatally shot in 2023 by her white neighbor. Her documentary short, The Devil Is Busy, chronicles a day on the frontlines in the battle for reproductive rights at a women's healthcare clinic in Atlanta. Gandbhir spoke with Democracy Now! ahead of this year's Academy Awards to discuss her two films and how art and politics intersect.

As the U.S. and Israel continue their bombardment of Iran and the conflict spreads throughout the region, we speak with two former U.S. government officials with experience in Middle East policy. Hala Rharrit is a career diplomat who resigned from the State Department in 2024 to protest the Biden administration's Gaza policy, and Jasmine El-Gamal served as a Middle East adviser at the Pentagon during the Obama administration.This is exactly what American diplomats have been trying to avoid for two decades. And before my resignation, it is exactly what I was warning against," says Rharrit, now in Oman after leaving Dubai with her family for safety.El-Gamal casts doubt on the Trump administration's shifting reasons for the war, including President Trump's feeling" that Iran was about to strike first. It is ludicrous to expect the American people to believe that Iran would have attacked the U.S. preemptively in the middle of negotiations," she says, adding that the contradictory messages show how little they were really thinking this through before they went to war."

Senate Votes 53-47 to Reject Resolution Reining In Trump's War Powers, Pentagon Chief Says U.S. and Israel Will Continue to Attack Iran Without Mercy", Iran Denies Striking Azerbaijan and Turkey as Its Missiles Target U.S. Bases and Oil Tankers, Israel Continues Bombing Beirut and Expands Forced Evacuation Orders in Southern Lebanon, CodePink Disrupts Heritage Foundation Gathering to Protest Support for Iran War, Report Finds Global Heating Is Driving Sea Level Rise Far Faster Than Previously Believed, More Than a Dozen Measles Cases Detected at Texas ICE Tent Camp, ICE Slashed Basic Training to Speed Trump's Mass Deportation Campaign, Minnesota Gov. Walz Condemns ICE Crackdown and Medicaid Funding Freeze as Political Retribution", Cuba Suffers Another Massive Blackout as U.S. Oil Blockade Worsens Humanitarian Crisis, Venezuela Announces Mining Law Reforms Granting Access to U.S. Companies, House Committee Subpoenas Attorney General Pam Bondi to Testify About Epstein Files, Report Finds Catholic Priests in Rhode Island Sexually Abused Hundreds of Children for Decades

Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho joins us to discuss his Oscar-nominated film, The Secret Agent, and the history that inspired it. The film is set in the northern Brazilian city of Recife in the 1970s, during the country's U.S.-backed military dictatorship. "The Secret Agent is very much about the past, but it's very much about the past repeating itself through amnesia," says Mendonca, who draws a comparison between the Cold War-era dictatorship and Brazil's later years under right-wing Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro.This is an excerpt of a longer interview with Mendonca you can watch here.

As Iranian missiles strike military, residential and economic targets in neighboring Gulf states, we speak to Al Jazeera's senior political analyst Marwan Bishara in Doha, Qatar. Bishara says Iran's targeting of U.S. allies in the region may be an Iranian calculation that there is a cost to be paid for American interests" as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other regional powers are forced to respond to an Israeli war of choice." Meanwhile, says Bishara, the U.S. has learned nothing" from its own history. Not only has the Trump administration repeated every single false pretext the Bush administration carried or diffused to justify the war against Iraq," but this threatens to be a far worse war in its implication for American long-term security and for the stability in the region ... It's like the American government [is] addicted to international violence, to wars, to assassinations, to launching those hegemonic wars that they [cannot] end."

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is now in its fifth day. Following the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Israel has made it clear that it intends to target any official successors. Observers also warn that Israel could soon deploy its Dahiya doctrine," a military strategy it first developed in Lebanon that involves carpet-bombing densely populated residential areas. Despite U.S. hopes for a short engagement, however, Iran appears to be settling in for a war of attrition" against the biggest military superpower in world history, and the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East," says scholar Narges Bajoghli. This could turn into a regional war of a scale that will make the past 25 years of forever wars in the Middle East seem like a walk in the park."

After a strike on a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, killed at least 175 people, nearly all young schoolchildren, online reports spread disinformation about the attack, including claims that the Iranian government itself had bombed the school. Journalist Nilo Tabrizy describes how outside reporters have been able to verify the attack despite Iran's internet blackout and says attempts are still being made to confirm whether the strike is attributable to the U.S. or to Israel.

U.S. Sinks Iranian Naval Ship in Indian Ocean as War on Iran Enters 5th Day, Iran to Pick New Supreme Leader Following Assassination of Khamenei, CIA Reportedly Working to Arm Kurdish Militias to Spark Uprising in Iran, After Classified Briefing, Senators Warn U.S. Could Send Troops into Iran, Spanish PM Calls for Immediate End to U.S.-Israeli War on Iran, Anti-U.S. Protests Continue in Pakistan Days After Marines Opened Fired During Protest in Karachi, Report: U.S. Commander Told Troops Trump Has Been Anointed by Jesus" to Wage War on Iran, U.S. Deploys Special Forces to Ecuador in New Expansion of U.S. Operations in Latin America, Texas Primaries: Talarico Defeats Crockett; Cornyn, Paxton Headed to Runoff, Noem Refuses to Apologize for Linking Renee Good and Alex Pretti to Domestic Terrorism, Haitian Asylum Seeker with Infected Tooth Dies in ICE Custody in Arizona, Father of Accused School Shooter Convicted of Murder for Giving Gun to His Son

We speak with economist Michael Hudson, who details how President Trump opted to attack Iran despite progress at indirect U.S.-Iran negotiations. The whole reason that America has attacked Iran has nothing to do with its getting an atom bomb," but instead the aim was U.S. control of oil, says Hudson. The Trump administration may have been after the ability to turn off the power" to countries that don't follow U.S. foreign policy, he says.

Ofer Cassif, a member of leftist Hadash-Ta'al coalition in the Israeli Knesset, speaks with Democracy Now! from Israel about the war on Iran. As U.S. and Israeli officials claim that their military actions are against the regime, Cassif says their real goal is pursuing imperialist interest" at the expense of the peoples, including the people of Iran and the people of Israel." Though the war has led to deadly strikes in Israel, the majority of the public supports the government and aggression against Iran, he notes.

Rami Khouri, Palestinian American journalist and distinguished public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut, speaks with Democracy Now! about the historical context of Western colonialism in the Middle East amid the war against Iran. Khouri says the U.S.-Israeli attack is the latest act causing people across the world to look at the idea of ... Western liberal democratic tradition as a hoax."

The U.S. is sending more troops and fighter jets to the Middle East as the regional war expands four days after the U.S. and Israel assassinated Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and struck sites across Iran. At least 787 people have died so far in Iran, according to local authorities. Iranian American journalist Negar Mortazavi says the feeling on the ground is of horror and anxiety" and that U.S. officials don't seem to understand that starting a war with Iran is going to potentially be even more difficult and challenging than the war in Iraq, which already was a big failure on the U.S. side."

Death Toll Climbs to 787 as U.S. and Israel Step Up Bombings Across Iran, Iran Says There's Been No Release of Radiation After Strike on Natanz Nuclear Facility, Gulf Nations' Stockpiles of Interceptors Dwindle Amid Iran's Relentless Drone and Missile Attacks, Israel Bombs Beirut for Second Consecutive Day as Soldiers Reinvade Southern Lebanon, Israel Accused of Resuming Starvation Policy" After Closing Gaza Border Crossings, In First Remarks Since Initiating War on Iran, Trump Quickly Pivots to Ballroom Plans, Secretary of State Marco Rubio Says Israel's War Plans Compelled U.S. to Join Assault on Iran, Pentagon Used Claude AI to Attack Iran Just Hours After Trump's Ban on Anthropic, Gamblers Use Polymarket Prediction Market" to Wager $529 Million on Iran Strikes, Texas Senate Primary Pits Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett Against State Rep. James Talarico, DOJ Indicts Another 30 People over Minnesota Church Protest of Pastor Who Works for ICE, U.S. Attorney in Minnesota Faces Criminal Contempt Charges for Defying Court Orders, Iraqi Human Rights Activist and Feminist Yanar Mohammed Is Murdered Outside Her Baghdad Home

The United States and Israel launched a devastating war against Iran on Saturday without approval by the U.S. Congress or support from the United Nations Security Council, making President Donald Trump's attack illegal under both domestic and international law, says veteran war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody.The U.N. Charter is not ambiguous," says Brody. President Trump has presumptively committed ... the international crime of aggression, as he did in Venezuela and just as Vladimir Putin did in Ukraine."

As we continue our coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, we speak with Israeli analyst Ori Goldberg in Tel Aviv. He says there is a broad embrace of this attack" among Israelis, bringing together the country's liberal, right-wing, religious and settler groups.They all seem to agree, broadly and deeply, that this war is inevitable," says Goldberg, who adds that nobody has articulated a clear strategic vision for the war. Israel, over the past two-and-a-half years, has become exceedingly greedy. It doesn't want to commit itself to anything. What Israel is fighting for is the right to be able to go off on such attacks whenever it wants, wherever it wants, for as long as it wants."

As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran enters its third day, dragging much of the Middle East into armed conflict, we speak with two Iranian American scholars about the situation.It's quite a devastating attack on the infrastructure of the country, both in terms of the state infrastructure and civilian infrastructure," says Golnar Nikpour, associate professor of modern Iranian history at Dartmouth College. She notes that far from leading to a popular uprising against the government, as President Trump has encouraged, the U.S.-Israeli attacks have forced Iranians to worry about their immediate safety from the bombs.These attacks are causing much suffering for Iranian people, and it's destroying the space in which Iranians were struggling for social justice and civil liberties," says Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, a fierce critic of the government who was once imprisoned on death row in Iran but who nevertheless opposes the war. I'm very pessimistic about the possibility of a regime change in Iran without having a clear idea of what is going to replace it."According to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, more than 550 people have been killed in Iran since Saturday, when the U.S. and Israel began an intense bombing campaign and assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A number of other top Iranian officials have also been killed. Iran has retaliated by launching missiles targeting Israel, as well as U.S. allies across the region, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Cyprus, where an Iranian drone hit a British air base. Fighting has also resumed between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

U.S. and Israel Launch Joint Attack on Iran, Killing Supreme Leader and Hundreds of Civilians, Trump Calls for Regime Change in Iran, Says U.S. Attacks Could Continue for Weeks, Iran Retaliates with Drone and Missile Strikes on Israel, Gulf Nations, Israel Bombs Beirut and Southern Lebanon, Killing at Least 31, U.K.'s Starmer Approves U.S. Strikes from British Bases as Spain's Sanchez Condemns Attack on Iran, Russia, China Condemn Iran Strikes in Emergency Meeting of U.N. Security Council, Congress Moves to Take Up War Powers Resolution After Trump Begins Bombing Iran, 24 Killed in Pakistan as Protesters Torch U.N. Offices and Attempt to Storm U.S. Consulate, FBI Opens Terrorism Investigation After Gunman Kills 2 and Wounds 14 at Austin, TX Bar, Trump Says U.S. Might Have a Friendly Takeover of Cuba" Amid U.S. Fuel Blockade, Bill Clinton Tells House Committee He Had No Knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein's Crimes, North Dakota Judge Approves $345 Million Verdict Against Greenpeace over Pipeline Protests

Cori Bush is running for Congress again. Bush previously served two terms as a Democratic congressmember for Missouri, until she was unseated in 2024 following a multimillion-dollar attack campaign run by pro-Israel groups. Bush, a community activist who participated in the 2014 Ferguson uprising over the police killing of Michael Brown, was an outspoken critic of Israel in Congress and introduced a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2023. I'm running again because the person in the seat is not meeting the moment, and he's someone that was basically placed there ... because they didn't want someone speaking out for the people of Palestine, speaking out for human rights and civil rights," says Bush.

The funeral for 56-year-old Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a disabled Rohingya refugee from Burma who was found dead after he was abandoned by Border Patrol agents miles away from his home, was held yesterday in Buffalo, New York. Local reporter J. Dale Shoemaker, who first reported on Shah Alam's disappearance for the Buffalo news organization Investigative Post, explains what we know about the case.

Federal agents detained a Columbia University student early Thursday after Department of Homeland Security officers allegedly gained access to a university-owned residence by presenting a fake missing person poster of a 5-year-old. As news broke of the student, Ellie Aghayeva, and her detention, students and community members rallied en masse demanding her release and an end to immigration enforcement on campus. Due to restrictions implemented by the university in response to pro-Palestine protests, the students were unable to protest on campus proper, but instead took to nearby streets.Aghayeva was released Thursday afternoon, shortly after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani brought up her case during a meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss housing. For that decision to be quickly flipped is remarkable because it shows the power of opposition, but also how loose and flippant these arrests are, and how maybe unnecessary they are," says Zeteo's Prem Thakker, who has been reporting on the case.Columbia's active response, including its legal support of Aghayeva, marked a departure from previous high-profile immigration arrests of its students. Mohsen Mahdawi, a former Columbia University student who last year was also detained by DHS, says Aghayeva's arrest in campus housing is a direct result of the university administration's abdication of its responsibility to protect its students. Columbia University administration did not have the backbone, in fact, to file any lawsuits against the Trump administration for violating basic rights," says Mahdawi. This is actually what the Trump administration intended to do, which is to fracture liberal institutions and turn the administrations against their students."

As fallout from the Epstein files continues, we speak with investigative journalist Barry Levine, author of The Spider: Inside the Tangled Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Recordings of the House Oversight depositions of Bill and Hillary Clinton are set to be released today and tomorrow. The Clintons were called by House Republicans to testify on their relationships with Jeffrey Epstein, but Levine emphasizes that credible allegations tying either the Clintons or Donald Trump to Epstein's criminal activities are currently limited. Meanwhile, files known to contain allegations of sexual abuse of a minor by President Trump have been withheld or removed by the Department of Justice. Levine says that the focus on the Clintons is a political distraction targeted at Trump's perceived enemies" while millions of documents on the Epstein case that could directly implicate his other associates have still not been released or unredacted for the public. There are men who are out there who took part in the sex trafficking that have not been brought to justice," says Levine.

U.S. and Iran Conclude Indirect Talks With No Deal on Iran's Nuclear Program, Pakistan Launches Cross-Border Strikes on Afghanistan, Declaring Open War" on Taliban, Russia Strikes Cities Across Ukraine Ahead of Talks Between U.S. and Ukrainian Envoys, Hillary Clinton Tells Congressional Committee She Never Met Jeffrey Epstein", Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill 6 Palestinians in Latest Breach of U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire, ICE Agents' Car Chase Through Newark Ends in Multi-Car Crash That Injured Children, ICE Agents Use False Pretense to Detain Columbia University Student Without a Warrant, NYC Mayor Mamdani Asks Trump to Dismiss Immigration Cases Against Pro-Palestinian Activists, Mamdani Pitches Trump on Federal Funds for Affordable Housing in New York, Netflix Drops Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, Clearing Path for Merger With Paramount Skydance, FBI Fires More Agents Who Investigated Trump's Mishandling of Classified Documents

A record 129 press workers were killed worldwide in 2025, more in one year than in any of the previous three decades for which the Committee to Protect Journalists has collected data. The previous record was set in 2024. For both 2024 and 2025, the Israeli military was responsible for two-thirds of all press killings. This shows the systematic pattern that Israel is using to silence the journalists, whether by killing them, targeting them, imprisoning them, intimidating them, and also smearing them," says Sara Qudah, Middle East and North Africa regional director at the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ also documented the killings of journalists in Ukraine, Mexico, Yemen, and more.

Testimony and evidence from 59 Palestinian journalists reveals strikingly consistent" reports of beatings, sensory deprivation, sexual violence, starvation and medical neglect while detained, according to a review by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Most of them were held under Israel's so-called administrative detention" policy and were never charged with any crime. The journalists lost an average of 52 pounds in Israeli prisons. This report was one of the most difficult reports to work on, because you are listening to human beings who are describing inhuman conditions they had to face for months, and some of them for years," says Sara Qudah, Middle East and North Africa regional director at the Committee to Protect Journalists.

It's been almost one year since Israeli forces killed 15 Palestinian medics and aid workers in a brutal two-hour massacre on a vehicle convoy in southern Gaza. Israeli soldiers had attempted to cover it up by burying the bodies in a shallow mass grave, and crushing the rescue vehicles with heavy machinery, but a new investigation by Forensic Architecture and Earshot has recreated a minute-by-minute accounting of what took place. Director of Earshot Lawrence Abu Hamdan, who analyzed audio from video evidence alongside witness accounts, calls the Israeli response to the attack an obstruction of justice." He says there is no reason why the Israeli army, with all of its GPS coordinates, its drones in the sky, couldn't have done this internal investigation at a way higher resolution than we can have done."We've been able to show that the attack continues for over two hours - until 7 a.m. in the morning, where we have the last recording of the night," says Samaneh Moafi, assistant director of research at Forensic Architecture.

Cuban exiles on a U.S.-registered speedboat attempted to enter Cuba undetected, but were confronted by border patrol in Cuban waters on Wednesday. According to the Cuban Interior Ministry, the Cuban nationals on the speedboat fired on the border agents who then returned fire - killing four and injuring six of the men. This comes as the Trump administration's blockade of fuel has triggered a severe humanitarian and economic crisis in Cuba, compounding the impact of the U.S. economic embargo in place since 1962. In response to the growing humanitarian crisis, activists are organizing a flotilla to deliver aid to the island. We cannot allow us to go back to the days of gunboat diplomacy, where the U.S. thinks that it is allowed to violate sovereign nations, and it can have hegemony over the hemisphere," says CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, who is taking part in the flotilla. These are sovereign countries. We must leave them alone."

U.S. and Iran Hold Indirect Talks Over Iran's Nuclear Program Amid Trump's Threats to Attack, Cuba Says Border Guards Fired on Heavily Armed Exiles in US-Registered Speedboat, Killing 4, Aid Groups Appeal to Israeli Supreme Court to Overturn Ban on Humanitarian Operations, State Department Offers Consular Services in Illegal Israeli West Bank Settlements, NYT: Documents Related to Trump Accuser are Missing from DOJ's Release of Epstein Files, Larry Summers to Resign as Harvard Professor Over Epstein Ties, Federal Judge Rules Trump Admin's Policy of Deporting Immigrants to Third Countries" Unlawful, Blind Rohingya Refugee Found Dead After Being Abandoned by Border Patrol, Congressmember Omar Demands Probe Into the Arrest of Her Guest Aliya Rahman at the State of the Union, Trump Administration Freezes Medicaid Reimbursements to Minnesota, Senate Democrats Grill Trump's Nominee for Surgeon General Over Her Position on Vaccines, Anthropic Drops Safety Pledge as Hegseth Demands Pentagon Access to AI Models, Brazil's Supreme Court Sentences Five Men to Prison for Marielle Franco Murder

I couldn't in good conscience sit there and listen to Trump go on and on with what we knew was going to be hours of lies, gaslighting and maligning the very people that I represent," says Congressmember Adelita Grijalva on her decision to skip Tuesday's State of the Union address. There was no attempt to bring the country together."

We speak with Minneapolis resident Aliya Rahman, who attended Tuesday's State of the Union address as a guest of Congressmember Ilhan Omar. Rahman was removed from the chamber Tuesday and spent several hours in jail following what she describes as an aggressive arrest by Capitol Police - all for silently challenging Trump during the speech.There are only two things you can do at the State of the Union, and they are sit down and stand up," says Rahman. I was arrested for standing up."Rahman, a U.S. citizen, was violently dragged out of her car and detained by federal immigration officers last month and later released without charge.

Many Democratic lawmakers boycotted Tuesday's State of the Union address to attend alternative events, including our guest Congressmember Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, who gave the Working Families Party response to President Trump. The president is disgraceful, and I don't think it's worth our time to give him an audience," says Lee, who encourages opponents to keep challenging his falsehoods. When you take away the lie, there is no foundation for President Trump."Lee also challenges Trump's claims about non-citizen voting, which experts say is exceedingly rare, and the decision by Republican House leadership to deny honors to the late Reverend Jesse Jackson at the Capitol following the civil rights icon's death.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz responds to Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday, when the president repeatedly touted his tariffs as saving the country money and boosting the economy. Stiglitz says Trump's lies" about tariffs can't erase the truth about how they have raised costs for most U.S. residents. It is estimated the average family is paying somewhere between $1,000 and $1,700 in extra money because of the tariffs," says Stiglitz. His policies have failed."

President Donald Trump on Tuesday delivered the longest State of the Union address in modern history, speaking for nearly two hours as he claimed the United States is entering a golden age" under his leadership. Trump spent much of his speech touting his economic policies and his administration's immigration crackdown. We play excerpts from Trump's address as well as responses to it from different Democratic lawmakers, many of whom skipped the speech to attend alternative events.

Trump Defends His Immigration Crackdown in State of the Union Address, Several GOP Lawmakers Call on Rep. Gonzales to Resign Over Allegations of Affair With Staffer, Pentagon Pressures Anthropic to Allow Full Access to Its AI Models, Mexico's Gov't Warns of Legal Action Against Musk After He Falsely Links Sheinbaum to Drug Cartels, Reuters: Iran Close to Deal to Purchase Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles From China, Whistleblower Claims FBI Agents Delayed to Crime Scenes Due to Kash Patel's Use of Agency's Private Jets, Trump Administration Sues University of California Over Allegations of Antisemitism at UCLA, WSJ: Trump Considers Issuing Executive Order to Force U.S. Banks to Collect Citizenship Information, More Than Two Dozen People Killed in RSF Raid in North Darfur, BBC Edits Out References to Trump's Crackdown in Minneapolis From Broadcast of BAFTA Awards, South Carolina Enlists Help of Public Health Experts Outside the CDC to Contain Measles Outbreak, 15 Democratic-Led States Sue the Trump Administration to Reverse CDC's Vaccine Policy, At Least 30 People Reported Dead in Brazil From Floods and Landslides

War crimes prosecutor Reed Brody joins Democracy Now! to discuss a number of ongoing human rights issues, including the international fallout of the so-called Epstein files," the International Criminal Court case against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, the Russian invasion of Ukraine - now marking its fourth anniversary - and more.

Aided by U.S. intelligence, Mexican security forces killed the nation's most wanted man, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho," on Sunday. At least 70 people were killed in the raid and aftermath as armed groups retaliated in more than a dozen states.There's a real sense in Mexico and beyond that governments need to show the U.S. that they are willing and able to take military action on their own, lest Washington send special forces into the country," says Reuters correspondent Laura Gottesdiener about the raid and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's wider crackdown on organized crime. While Sunday's operation will help Sheinbaum stave off some of the pressure from Trump," Latin American historian Alexander Avina warns that this is not going to do much in terms of stopping the flow of illicit drugs from Mexico into United States." Instead, he says, instability within cartel leadership will likely lead to internal power struggles that spill out into local communities. The burden of this war always falls upon the very bottom of the hierarchy within this political economy," says Avina.

As the Northeast United States contends with the aftermath of a historic bomb cyclone blizzard that blanketed the region, we speak to climate scientist Michael Mann about the causes and effects of increasingly intense weather events. We expect to see that increase as long as we continue to warm up the planet by burning fossil fuels and putting carbon pollution into the atmosphere," says Mann. Meanwhile, he adds, policy decisions are making it harder to prepare for extreme weather. With its defunding of scientific infrastructure across the country, the Trump administration is truly putting Americans in harm's way."

Peter Mandelson, former British ambassador to the U.S., Arrested Amid Epstein Probe, Bard College Hires Law Firm to Probe Links Between its President Leon Botstein and Epstein, CBS News Contributor Peter Attia Resigns From Network Over Epstein Ties, NPR: DOJ Fails to Release Epstein Files Related to Allegations That Trump Sexually Abused a Minor, U.S. Military Strikes Boat in the Caribbean, Killing At Least Three People, Mexico on Alert After Killing of Drug Lord El Mencho", Former ICE Attorney Accuses Agency of Lying to Congress of Slashing its Training Standards, Palestinians in Gaza Observe Holy Month of Ramadan Despite Skyrocketing Food Costs, Trump Blasts Media Reports That Top General Warned About Risks of Attacking Iran, Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Reaches Four-Year Anniversary, Federal Judge Blocks DOJ From Releasing Special Counsel's Report on Trump's Mishandling of Classified Documents, Some Democratic Lawmakers Plan to Skip Trump's 2026 State of the Union Address, Filmmaker Jonte Richardson Quits as Judge for the BAFTA Awards After Racist Incident

As the winter Olympics come to a close, a number of athletes have drawn controversy for their political statements. U.S. athletes, in particular, have expressed conflicting feelings about representing the United States during the current political moment.We speak with former athlete Jules Boykoff, who has written extensively on the Olympic games, about how politics intersect with the Games. The Trump administration has politicized these Olympics from the very beginning," he says.

We speak with Mosab Abu Toha, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian poet and author from Gaza, who responds to recent developments in the region including the Trump administration's policy on Palestine, a recent report finding that the genocide's death toll is much higher than originally reported and more.Responding to Mike Huckabee's recent comments suggesting Israel has the biblical right to expand throughout the Middle East, Abu Toha says, As a Palestinian, I don't belong to anywhere else than Palestine. My grandparents were living in Yaffa in 1948 before they were expelled. They didn't know about the Bible." He notes that the situation in Gaza remains dire despite the so-called ceasefire. It's still a genocide, ongoing."

The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on Friday in a 6-3 vote. The justices ruled that the tariffs - which were imposed by a series of executive orders - exceeded presidential powers under a 1977 law that gives the president authority to regulate commerce only in the case of international emergencies. The ruling takes away a leverage power tool by Trump," says Lori Wallach, director of the Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Liberties Project. He's furious about it, because a court that's been otherwise willing to expand his authority endlessly drew a line."Trump called the ruling a disgrace" and responded Friday by announcing a new 10% global tariff - which he increased to 15% Saturday.

SCOTUS Strikes Down President Trump's Global Tariffs, U.S. and Iranian Negotiators Set to Meet in Geneva Thursday, U.S. Military Strikes Boat in the Eastern Pacific, Killing 3 People, Mexican Security Forces Kill Drug Lord El Mencho", Israeli Strikes Kill At Least 12 People in Lebanon, Family of Palestinian-American Teen Fatally Shot by an Israeli Settler Demand Accountability, Arab and Muslim Nations Condemn U.S. Ambassador to Israel's Remarks on Israel and the Middle East, Axios: DNC 2024 Election Autopsy Report Concludes Harris Lost in Part to Biden's Gaza Policy, 17 Palestine Action Activists Granted Conditional Bail, Newsweek: ICE Fatally Shot a U.S. Citizen Nearly a Year Before Killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Bomb Cyclone" Pummels and Paralyzes Northeastern U.S., U.S. Secret Service Agents Fatally Shot an Armed Man After He Breached the Secure Perimeter at Mar-a-Lago

An immigration judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University graduate and green card holder who was detained last April at what he thought was a citizenship interview. Mahdawi grew up in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank and was an outspoken critic of Israel's genocide in Gaza while attending Columbia. He spent two weeks in ICE custody before a federal judge ordered his release. Mahdawi's case is part of a broader pattern of the Trump administration targeting international students for expressing solidarity with Palestinians and demanding divestment from the Israeli government.Mahdawi says even though immigration judges are part of the executive branch, the Trump administration clearly violated the rules of law" in targeting him. The harder they come on me, the more energy and power I will have, and I will continue to work for the freedom of the Palestinian people and the right of return and equal rights and human rights for Palestinians."

Journalist Jeremy Scahill says the Trump administration's vision for the Gaza Strip is of a continued colonial apartheid regime" with Israel and U.S. interests controlling the lives of millions of Palestinians in perpetuity. Palestinians are being told that they must completely surrender," says Scahill. President Trump chaired the first meeting of his so-called Board of Peace this week, a body established for Gaza but whose remit has already expanded.

Despite chairing the first meeting of his newly formed Board of Peace on Thursday, President Donald Trump continues to threaten war against Iran as the Pentagon positions a massive fighting force in the Middle East. Trump said he would give Tehran about two weeks to reach a deal on its nuclear program, but media reports indicate that he could launch an attack within days. Iran maintains its nuclear enrichment program is for peaceful civilian purposes.Journalist Jeremy Scahill says Trump already used the veneer" of negotiations to attack Iran last year, and that despite ongoing talks between the two countries, he has essentially already decided to launch a new war that could quickly spiral out of control.I've been told by military experts who spent decades working in the Pentagon that there's a spirit of delusion that has just taken hold in the administration," says Scahill. You have elements here who are absolutely obsessed with Iran and destroying the Islamic Revolution."

British police released former Prince Andrew on Thursday after 11 hours in custody, with his shocking arrest earlier in the day making him the first senior British royal to be arrested in nearly 400 years. Police are probing his connections to the deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein and whether he shared classified government information with him while serving as a U.K. trade representative from 2001 to 2011. King Charles' brother, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after being stripped of his royal title, is the most high-profile figure in the U.K. to be implicated in a widening scandal over ties to Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 awaiting trial on sex trafficking. Authorities did not reference sexual abuse allegations against Mountbatten-Windsor or Epstein's sex trafficking case; Mountbatten-Windsor settled a lawsuit with Epstein survivor Virginia Roberts Giuffre in 2022 and has denied all wrongdoing.Investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr says this week's arrest feels like a rupture" in British society because the royals are seen as sacrosanct" and rarely subjected to such treatment. And in America, what are we seeing? We're seeing this sort of culture of complete impunity, where it appears the law is not equal, where there are people who are above it."