Democracy Now!

We discuss the first month of President Donald Trump's second term in office - and the response from the Democratic Party - with journalist David Sirota, founder and editor-in-chief of The Lever. He notes that despite Republicans holding all three branches of the federal government, Trump has mainly used executive orders and other decrees to impose his will instead of using legislation. They're trying to create a precedent that presidents cannot be constrained at all," he says of the party's strategy. He also faults Democrats for failing to effectively oppose the administration. What is the Democratic Party for? What does it support? What does it advocate for? There's not really much of an answer right now."

As the Trump administration attempts to dismantle higher education in the United States by redefining discrimination in schools, fighting so-called woke ideology, attacking diversity, equity and inclusion programs, gutting the Department of Education, and threatening funding for research and higher education, we speak with Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley, whose latest book is Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. He says Trump's assault on education is part of the authoritarian playbook since universities are centers for defending democracy." He also urges university presidents to speak out more forcefully. It used to be that our presidents were supposed to speak out in favor of democratic values. Now university presidents are being told, 'Oh, you have to preserve your institutions.' Guess what: Universities are core democratic institutions."

The Trump administration has issued a two-week ultimatum for schools and universities across the United States to end all programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion - DEI - or risk losing federal funding. The Department of Education has already canceled some $600 million in grants for teacher training on race, social justice and other topics as part of its crusade against woke" policies. This comes as President Donald Trump has said he wants to abolish the agency and tapped major Trump donor and former professional wrestling executive Linda McMahon to carry out that goal; she is expected to be confirmed by the Senate with little or no Republican opposition. Education scholar Julian Vasquez Heilig, who teaches at Western Michigan University, says Trump's moves are part of an attempt to privatize education" in the United States, with DEI used as a wedge to accomplish a larger restructuring of social structures. Higher education hasn't faced a crisis like this since potentially McCarthyism."

White House Insists Ukraine Hand Over $500 Billion in Mineral Wealth and Stop Criticizing Trump, Russian Forces Advance on Dnipropetrovsk, Bomb Kherson Apartment Complex, Israel Drops Leaflets on Gaza Threatening to Impose Forced Displacement Upon You", Israeli Leaders Cast Doubt on Ceasefire Deal, Saying Body Returned from Gaza Was Not Shiri Bibas, Netanyahu to Escalate West Bank Attacks After Buses Explode in Tel Aviv, U.S. Sanctions Rwandan Official and Militia Leader Tied to M23 Atrocities in DRC, Mexico Warns U.S. Against Violations of Sovereignty as Trump Designates Cartels as Terrorist Groups, Venezuela Refutes U.S. Claims That Deportees from Guantanamo Prison Camp Were Gang Members, Trump Cancels Deportation Protections for Half-Million Haitian Immigrants, Judge Orders Trump Admin to Comply with Previous Order on Frozen Funds, Balks at Contempt Charges, Judge Declines to Halt Trump Administration's Mass Firings of Federal Workers, CDC Report on Bird Flu Spreading Between Humans and Cats Was Delayed by Health Communications Pause, At CPAC, Elon Musk Wields Prop Chainsaw to Celebrate DOGE Cuts, I Cannot Imagine a Worse Choice": Kash Patel Confirmed as FBI Director Over Democrats' Objections, Senate Approves $340B Budget Blueprint to Expand Military, Fund Mass Deportations, Senators Advance Pro Wrestling Mogul Linda McMahon's Nomination for Education Secretary, Gov. Hochul Declines to Remove Eric Adams as NYC Mayor, Luigi Mangione to Face Murder and Terror Charges as Trial Opens over Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Vatican Officials Say Pope Francis's Health Is Improving, Won't Rule Out Resignation, Friday Marks 60th Anniversary of Assassination of Malcolm X

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the advance of Rwanda-backed M23 insurgents, who have already taken two key cities in the mineral-rich eastern part of the country, is triggering panic. Reports of the surge describe widespread looting, killings, attacks on aid and mass displacement. Thousands of people have fled to neighboring Burundi over the last few days as the U.N. accused M23 of killing children and attacking hospitals. Our guest Kambale Musavuli, a Congolese author and human rights advocate, speaks to us from Ghana about Western countries' ongoing demand for Congo's minerals and their complicity in the deadly violence. Industrial nations as well as celebrated musicians and sports teams from the West have refused to cancel agreements and appearances with Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame, explains Musavuli, clearly telling us that the lives of the millions of Congolese do not matter."

Who are the minds behind DOGE, and what do they really believe? Historian Quinn Slobodian says three strains of conservatism have converged to form the second Trump administration's anti-democratic coalition: finance-backed corporate interests previously friendly to the Democratic Party, Christian conservative think tanks who have long advocated for the end of the administrative state, and the online-driven movement of reactionary extremists who traffic in white supremacist and neo-Nazi rhetoric. Meanwhile, says Slobodian, Trump is a person who doesn't believe in much, but he believes in money," leaving him willing to enact the political visions of these three pro-capitalist projects. Slobodian, an expert in German history, also discusses the connections between the Trump sphere and Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, supported by Musk and Vice President JD Vance.

Amid the indiscriminate dismantling of the federal government by the Trump administration's Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, federal workers, thousands of whom could lose their jobs, are fighting back. All of us do something not only essential, but also mandated by Congress," says union organizer and Army Corps of Engineers employee Chris Dols. Dols is part of a growing movement of federal workers and their allies staging mass protests to Save Our Services and warning of the long-term consequences of these extreme cuts to the bureaucracy. They're trying to immiserate the working class, and they're doing it through the federal workforce," says Dols, who is also a national coordinator with the Federal Unionists Network. It's about gutting the services that create a safety net in this country, because the more miserable we are, the easier it is for them to exploit us." He calls on the larger public to join the worker-led movement resisting these radical cuts. The whole public sphere is at stake."

Trump Calls Ukrainian President Zelensky a Dictator" in Error-Riddled Social Media Tirade, Israeli Forces Storm U.N.-Run Schools and Raze Homes Amid Deadly West Bank Raids, Hamas Returns Bodies of Israeli Hostages Including Israeli Peace Activist Oded Lifschitz, New Israeli Law Expands Visa Restrictions on BDS Supporters and Critics of War Crimes, Five Israeli Soldiers Indicted for Torturing Palestinian Prisoner at Military Base, Israeli Media Broadcasts Video of Palestinian Doctor Hussam Abu Safiya in Shackles, U.S. Deports Asylum Seekers, Including Children, to Detention Camp in Panama Jungle, White House Celebrates Deportation Flights with "ASMR" Video of Asylum Seekers in Shackles, Texas Observer Links ICE Prosecutor to White Supremacist Social Media Account, 11-Year-Old Texas Girl Dies by Suicide After Bullies Threaten to Call ICE on Her Parents, "LONG LIVE THE KING!": Trump's Claims Power of Monarch in Bid to Halt NY Congestion Pricing, Trump Executive Order Claims Power Over Independent Regulatory Agencies, IRS to Fire 6,700 as Elon Musk's DOGE Seeks Access to Sensitive Taxpayer Records, International Rescue Committee Lays Off Thousands of Workers Amid Trump's Spending Freeze, Federal Workers and Supporters Rally in Dozens of Cities to Stop Trump's Mass Firings, Pentagon to Shift $50 Billion in Funds, Targeting So-Called Climate Change" and Woke Programs", Sudan's Rapid Support Forces Declares Breakaway Government, M23 Fighters Expand Offensive, Advance on More Cities in Eastern DRC, New York Calls Up National Guard as Prison Guards Hold Wildcat Strike

Today federal workers nationwide are calling for support for a Save Our Services Day of Action" mobilizing nationwide in opposition to Elon Musk's efforts to dismantle government agencies through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Workers plan to protest outside of federal buildings and Tesla dealerships to show support for the work of federal agencies. It's not just about federal workers," says Eric Blanc, author and assistant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University. If they take out the federal unions, that's our best block right now against Trump's authoritarian power grab." This comes as Musk has gained access to the sensitive information of millions of Americans, all the while laying off government workers en masse. The layoffs have affected the FAA, NIH, IRS and more.

A new study projects as many as 20 million people could lose Medicaid coverage under a Republican congressional bill to cut the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion match rate. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found the bill includes tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses, paired with cuts on the programs that support low-income Americans. There is a direct link between their desire to extend very expensive tax cuts for very wealthy people and the cuts they are putting on the table that will take health coverage and food assistance away from people that struggle to afford the basics," says Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

An undocumented Venezuelan mother and two of her children were deported to Mexico earlier this month - just hours after a minor traffic stop, reports John Washington, who has covered the case for the Tucson-based independent outlet Arizona Luminaria. Arizona Public Safety troopers claimed the mother was driving under the speed limit. The mother, whom Democracy Now! is not identifying at the request of the family, described being handcuffed in front of her children, aged 6 and 9. The troopers called Border Patrol agents, who apprehended the woman and her two children and later turned them over to Mexican immigration officials in the border city of Nogales before they were put on a bus and driven about 2,000 miles away to the southern Mexican state of Tabasco. The woman suffered a night of interrogation," says Washington. The woman's family was unable to reach the mother for days, until she was finally able to call her family letting them know of her whereabouts. Her two other children, who are 8 and 14 years old, are still in Tucson. We also speak with immigrant rights activist Greisa Martinez Rosas, executive director of United We Dream Action, who says Democrats share the blame for harmful immigration policies now reaching new heights under the Trump administration. We need a true opposition power and party," she says.

We speak with NDN Collective founder and CEO Nick Tilsen, who was with Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier as he was released from a federal prison in Florida Monday after nearly half a century behind bars, and returned home with him to North Dakota. Peltier has always maintained his innocence for the 1975 killing of two FBI officers, and many activists have noted inconsistencies in his trial. In the final days of his presidency, former President Joe Biden granted Peltier clemency, commuting his life sentence. Peltier will remain on house arrest in the Turtle Mountain community in North Dakota. Today I am finally free! They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit!" Peltier told supporters once he was released. Thank you to all my supporters throughout the world who fought for my freedom." Tilsen said it was absolute pure joy" seeing him out of prison. The release of Leonard Peltier is something that touches all of us, because all of us see a little bit of ourselves in Leonard Peltier."

Zelensky Claps Back After Trump Blames Ukraine for Russia's 2022 Invasion, Federal Judge Won't Order Temporary Injunction Against DOGE's Mass Firings, Data Access, White House Claims Elon Musk Is Not in Charge of DOGE, Senate Confirms Billionaire Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary, Advances Kash Patel for FBI Chief, Top U.S. Prosecutor Resigns over Politically Driven" Request to Investigate Biden Climate Grants, Head of FDA's Food Division Resigns to Protest Mass Firings, RFK Jr. Says He'll Investigate" Childhood Vaccine Schedule, Contradicting Senate Testimony, WaPo: Trump Administration Reverses Plan to End Free COVID Test Program, USDA Seeks to Rehire Fired Staffers Who Worked on H5N1 Avian Flu, Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier Walks Free After Five Decades Behind Bars, Hamas to Accelerate Release of Israeli Hostages in Bid to Cement Gaza Ceasefire, Israeli Minister Calls for Forcible Mass Expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, Residents Return to Villages in Southern Lebanon Left Devastated by Israeli Bombardment, Brazilian Prosecutors Formally Charge Jair Bolsonaro over Attempted Coup, CIA Expands Drone Flights Over Mexico, Eric Adams to Appear in Federal Court as Judge Weighs DOJ Request to Drop Corruption Charges, Kansas Bans Gender-Affirming Care for Youth as GOP Lawmakers Override Governor's Veto, Missouri Restores Abortion Access After Court Blocks Discriminatory Licensure Requirements

The Israeli-Palestinian film No Other Land is nominated for an Oscar for best documentary at this year's awards, to be held March 2. It follows the struggles of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta to stay on their land amid violent attacks by Jewish settlers aimed at expelling them. Since the film's nomination was announced in January, that violence has continued, with co-director Basel Adra sharing video on social media of settlers rampaging through the village under the protection of Israeli soldiers. Adra, who joins us from London, says the goal of the documentary was not just winning awards but to get to the people's hearts" through film. We want people to see the reality, to see what's going on in my community Masafer Yatta but [also] in all the West Bank."No Other Land still does not have a U.S. distributor, although it is showing in select cities.

Top diplomats from the United States and Russia met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss ending the war in Ukraine and improving relations between Washington and Moscow. The Riyadh summit represents a monumental shift in U.S. policy after the Biden administration led an international effort to isolate Russia over its invasion and gave tens of billions in military aid to Kyiv. Participants included U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited to attend and has said he won't recognize a peace deal negotiated without his country. European leaders have also been sidelined. For more on these developments, we host a discussion between economist Jeffrey Sachs and foreign policy analyst Matt Duss.This is a war that never should have happened," says Sachs, who faults U.S. provocations" like the expansion of NATO for laying the groundwork for Russia's invasion in 2022. In holding these talks directly with Russia, the Trump administration, for the first time, is telling the truth about the fundamental causes of this war," adds Sachs.Duss says that while the U.S. has played a major role in the conflict, Vladimir Putin is the one who chose to invade Ukraine." He also emphasizes that Ukrainians themselves have agency and have been key players in events since the end of the Cold War, including their current defense against Russia. It's not just a story of unending U.S. villainy."

U.S. & Russia Hold Talks in Saudi Arabia on Ukraine & More, European Leaders Hold Emergency Meeting in Paris Amid Growing Rift with U.S., U.N. Accuses Israel of Violating Ceasefire by Not Fully Leaving South Lebanon, Gaza: Israel Has Killed 132 Since Start of Ceasefire a Month Ago, Israeli Troops Killed 80-Year-Old Man in Gaza After Troops Used Him as Human Shield, Israel Seeks to Build Nearly 1,000 Settler Homes; 45,000 Palestinians Displaced in West Bank, Four NYC Deputy Mayors Resign as Eric Adams Scandal Grows, Not My President's Day": Thousands Protest Trump & Musk Across All 50 States, FDA Purge Included Workers Reviewing Elon Musk's Neuralink Brain Implant Company, Plane Crashes on Runway in Toronto as U.S. Fires Hundreds of Workers at FAA, Head of Social Security Resigns After Musk Team Sought Access to Personal Information About Millions, Study: 20 Million People Could Lose Medicaid Coverage Under House Bill, Trump Taps Stop the Steal" Organizer to Be U.S. Attorney in D.C., Three Venezuelans Deported After Suing Trump to Block Transfer to Guantanamo, Venezuelan Mother & 2 Children Deported to Mexico Hours After Traffic Stop in Arizona, Pope Francis Remains Hospitalized, Sudan: 200 Killed in RSF Attack as U.N. Warns of Dire Humanitarian Crisis, Jailed Ugandan Opposition Leader Kizza Besigye to Face Civil Trial, Argentine President Milei Faces Impeachment Calls over Cryptocurrency, Elon Musk Calls for Jailing Staff at 60 Minutes", Washington Post Refuses to Run Ad Critical of Elon Musk, Indigenous Leader Leonard Peltier Released After Nearly 50 Years in Prison

The Oscar-nominated documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat recounts the events leading up to Black American jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach's 1961 protest at the United Nations of the CIA-backed killing of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. The first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lumumba was an icon of the Pan-African and anti-colonial movements. He was tortured and killed shortly after the formation of the first government of independent Congo following a military coup supported by Belgium, the United States and powerful mining interests. Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat's Belgian director Johan Grimonprez explains that Lumumba's assassination was the ground zero of how the West was about to deal with the riches of the African continent."

Rebels from the Rwandan-backed M23 group have taken a second major city in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which borders Rwanda. Congolese analyst Kambale Musavuli reports on the violence, emphasizing its connection to the DRC's mineral resources, which are key to the development of high-tech goods. This battle is coming out of a context: the control of Congo's vast mineral wealth," says Musavuli.

We speak to bioethicist Ruth Faden about the Trump administration's abrupt shutdown of USAID-funded clinical trials, ending access to critical healthcare and putting patients at serious risk. We're in a situation in which we're going to leave people abandoned. And that's utterly ethically unacceptable," says Faden.

Staff layoffs. Slashed budgets. Canceled conferences. We take a look at the effects of the Trump administration's defunding of health and science research with science reporter Angus Chen. Chen, who reports on cancer research, says cuts to the National Institutes of Health are creating a really serious chilling effect on the scientific community," and warns that the loss of research in the U.S. would not just be a loss to American patients, but to people all around the world."

U.S.-Russia to Hold Ukraine Peace Talks in Saudi Arabia; Ukraine & Europe Not Invited, U.S.-Europe Transatlantic Rift Grows over Ukraine & JD Vance Speech in Munich, Musk & DOGE Seek Access to Sensitive Taxpayer Info at IRS , Trump: He Who Saves His Country Does Not Violate Any Law", DOGE Purges Nuclear Workers Without Realizing They Helped Maintain Nuclear Arsenal, Education Department Threatens Sweeping Cuts to Schools That Promote Diversity, Seventh Prosecutor Resigns over DOJ Dropping Corruption Charges Against NYC Mayor Eric Adams, U.S. Sends 2,000-Pound Bombs to Israel as Netanyahu Backs Trump Plan to Remove Palestinians from Gaza, M23 Fighters Seize City of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Muhsin Hendricks, World's First Openly Gay Imam, Shot Dead in South Africa, Five Arrested After Trans Man Found Dead Following Repeated Acts of Violence & Torture", Protesters Gather at Stonewall to Protest Trump Efforts to Erase Trans History, EEOC Dismisses Six Gender Identity Discrimination Cases, Jewish Man in Florida Arrested for Shooting Two Israeli Men He Mistook to Be Palestinian, At Least Nine Die in Kentucky in Devastating Flood, White House Bans AP Reporters over Agency's Decision to Keeping Using Gulf of Mexico Name, Not My President's Day: Protests Against Trump to Be Held Today in 50 States

Match Group, the tech company that owns Match.com, OkCupid, Hinge, Tinder and other popular dating services, has known for years which users have been accused of sexual assault and rape, but kept those reports hidden from others on the app, according to a new investigation. Match Group controls half of the world's online dating market and facilitates meetups for millions of people in scores of countries around the world. Match Group is aware of a lot of the scale of the harm on their apps. They actually track this on their backend," says journalist Emily Elena Dugdale, one of the authors of the investigation produced as part of the Pulitzer Center's AI Accountability Network. Similar to many tech companies, there's really little regulation that requires them to actually tell you what's going on on their apps." We also speak with whistleblower Michael Lawrie, the former head of user safety and advocacy at OkCupid. He says he quit after his concerns about user safety went unheeded. I was seeing a lot of stuff," Lawrie says. It became impossible for me to carry on working there, ethically and morally."

As the annual high-level Munich Security Conference gets underway, the Russia-Ukraine war is dominating the agenda, and we speak to two guests protesting the conference. Economist, progressive leader and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis says the European project started with a noble goal of promoting peace but finds itself today cornered" between Russian and NATO militarism. Europe has been caught in a frenzy of warmongering," says Varoufakis.We also speak with German lawyer Melanie Schweizer, who was suspended from her job at the German Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs after being doxxed in an article published in the German tabloid Bild, owned by media giant Axel Springer SE, for her pro-Palestinian online statements. She is running for German parliament with the progressive party MERA25 in this month's elections and warns the country's political establishment is increasingly adopting the rhetoric and policies of the far right. We see fascism playing out in real time, and it's getting worse by the day," says Schweizer.

The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and five high-ranking Justice Department officials resigned Thursday to protest the Trump administration's order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Danielle Sassoon, who was the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in her resignation letter that dropping the case against Adams would violate her duty to uphold the law fairly and consistently. A top Justice Department official ordered the charges against Adams dropped earlier in the week, citing the case's impact on the mayor's ability to help with the administration's immigration crackdown as it expands raids and deportations. After Sassoon resigned in protest, Justice Department officials moved the case from New York to the Public Integrity Section in the Criminal Division, which led to five more prosecutors resigning. Meanwhile, Adams met with Trump's border czar Tom Homan to discuss the possible reopening of an ICE office inside New York's Rikers Island jail. Clearly he knows that he has to get on board; otherwise, he may be on a train to some federal prison," says Ron Kuby, a longtime criminal defense and civil rights attorney based in New York who has been following the case closely. He says that while the mass resignations have illustrated that it's possible to stand up to the Trump administration's abuses, Adams is likely safe for now. This is effectively going to be the end of the case once the administration finds somebody sufficiently spineless to actually file the papers," says Kuby.

U.S. Judge Orders Trump to Reverse Foreign Aid Freeze, Which Halted Essential Services Around the Globe, 14 States Sue Trump and Musk over Illegal Dismantling of Federal Agencies as Firings Continue, Trump and Musk Continue Attack on Judiciary as ABA Warns Rule of Law" Under Threat, Senate Confirms RFK Jr. as Health Secretary, Sen. Chris Murphy Grills Linda McMahon on DEI in Schools as Protesters Disrupt Hearing, Lee Zeldin Is Trying to Take Back $20 Billion in Already-Awarded EPA Grants for Climate Projects, Acting U.S. Attorney for NY and 5 Others Resign over DOJ Order to Drop Eric Adams's Charges, NYC's Immigrant Communities Rally After Adams Moves to Open Rikers Up to ICE, Highway Robbery": DOGE Withdraws $80M in NYC FEMA Funds; Denver's Schools Sue over ICE Policy, Trump, JD Vance Offer Conciliatory Remarks on Ukraine, Trump Proposes Talks with Russia and China on Slashing Nuclear Stockpile, Defense Budgets, Trump Says U.S. Plans to Send F-35 Fighter Jets to India After Meeting with Prime Minister Modi, RSF Soldiers Reportedly Storm Zamzam Camp in North Darfur, UNICEF Warns Children in Eastern Congo Subjected to Unprecedented Levels of Sexual Violence, Mexico's Sheinbaum Warns of Legal Action If Google Maps Does Not Revert Back to Gulf of Mexico, Bolivians Protest Deals Allowing Foreign Firms to Exploit Lithium, Israel Killed Two-Thirds of All Journalists Slain in 2024, the Deadliest Year for Reporters, U.S. Judge Blocks Trump EO Banning Trans Youth Healthcare; NH Students Sue over Trans Athletes Ban, TX Judge Fines NY Dr. over Remote Abortion Care as Gov. Hochul Rejects Louisiana Order to Extradite Her, Bernie Sanders Launches National Tour to Fight Oligarchy"

Pankaj Mishra's new book, The World After Gaza: A History, was written as a response to the vast panorama of violence, disorder and suffering that we're seeing today," says the author. In Part 1 of our interview with the award-winning Indian writer, Mishra shares why he felt compelled" to respond to what he sees as a return to the 19th-century model of rapacious imperialism" in the Western world, signified by global complicity in Israel's genocide in Gaza.

How is Elon Musk personally benefiting from his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency? The agency, known as DOGE, is tasked with slashing trillions" of dollars in federal spending and has set its sights on regulatory agencies, including ones that have opened investigations into Musk's business practices. At a minimum, it's an appearance of conflict of interest," says journalist Eric Lipton, who is investigating Musk and DOGE for The New York Times. Musk's business empire is a major beneficiary of government contracts, says Lipton, and all of the disruption that is happening across the federal government has benefited his operations." Lipton also discusses Trump and his allies' cryptocurrency schemes and the Trump family's investments in the Middle East.

According to the White House, Russia's Vladimir Putin has agreed to meet with President Trump to negotiate ending the war in Ukraine. Trump opposed the United States' financial involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war during his campaign, distinguishing himself from the Biden administration's funding of Ukraine's military. Trump's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth broke with years of U.S. foreign policy precedent in a recent statement asserting that Ukraine would not join NATO, a key provision for Putin. Trump has also been pushing for U.S. access to Ukraine's mineral resources in any potential deal. We speak to The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel about these latest developments. There is an importance of what [Trump] is beginning to do, which is open up a process to end a war" that is impoverishing Ukraine," she says. Both countries are war-weary" three years after the Russian invasion.

Gaza Ceasefire Holds After Hamas and Israel Reach Agreement over Hostage Release, Aid Access, Israeli Raids in Occupied West Bank Displace 40,000 Palestinians, Israel Tries Again to Delay Withdrawal Deadline from Southern Lebanon, WSJ: Israel Planning Major Attack on Iranian Nuclear Sites, Trump Says Ukraine Peace Talks to Start After Calls with Putin, Zelensky as Hegseth Riles Europe, Tulsi Gabbard Confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, Teachers and Lawmakers Rally in D.C. Ahead of Linda McMahon Confirmation Hearing, Fired Gov't Watchdogs Sue Trump; Judge Lifts Freeze on Federal Worker Buyout, More DOGE Incursions and Musk Conflicts of Interest Reported as House DOGE Panel Convenes, House GOP Reveals Budget Slashing Social Programs and Offering Tax Cuts for the Ultra-Rich", DOJ Sues New York over Immigration Policies, U.S. Foreign Aid Freeze Kills 71-Year-Old Burmese Refugee Who Lost Access to Her Oxygen Supply, Amnesty Int'l Warns Haiti Gang Violence Has Led to Widespread Violation of Children's Rights, Romanian President Resigns Amid Political Turmoil Spurred by Election Delay, Surge of Far Right, Sonya Massey's Family and Illinois County Agree to $10 Million Settlement, West Texas County Sees Spike in Measles Cases; Nevada Confirms Human Case of Bird Flu, Hegseth Uses Loophole to Rename Camp Liberty Fort Bragg as He's Met with Protest at U.S. Base, Kennedy Center's Trump-Appointed Board Makes Trump Its New Chair

Acclaimed scholar and activist Tariq Ali joins us for a wide-ranging conversation. In Part 1, he responds to Trump's support of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, the U.S.'s capitulation to Israeli aggression in the Middle East and the rise in right-wing authoritarianism around the world. Ali says Donald Trump is the most right-wing president in recent years" and exposes in public what his predecessors used to say in private."

Is Trump embracing the authoritarian playbook of far-right Hungarian dictator Viktor Orban? Princeton professor Kim Lane Scheppele walks us through Orban's sudden rise to power and how the Trump administration's recent actions appear to follow his anti-democratic blueprint," with Trump echoing a lot of Orban's rhetoric," consolidating power in the executive branch and bypassing federal checks and balances. Trump is trying to break things quickly," says Scheppele, a professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University. She also notes Orban's involvement in the right-wing Project 2025 initiative and his adoption of the motto Make Europe Great Again" during Hungary's presidency of the Council of the European Union last year as further evidence of the close ties between the two leaders. As Orban works to consolidate this movement of anti-democratic far-right forces" in Europe, warns Scheppele, Trump is tightening his grasp on the other side of the Atlantic.

President Trump has given yet more power to Elon Musk, who is now leading the effort to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Created in response to the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB helps enforce consumer financial laws for mortgages, credit cards and other financial products. We speak to a former CFPB staffer, Julie Margetta Morgan, who says the consumer watchdog has helped recover $21 billion lost to financial fraud and abuse in its decade-plus of existence. She says that Musk, the world's richest man and a promoter of cryptocurrency, is attempting to eliminate sources of regulatory oversight as he plans to turn the social media company X, which he owns, into a payments platform. The thing that stands in his way is having strong regulators who will make him play by the same rules as every other bank. ... The actions over the last few weeks have been incredibly bad for individual, everyday Americans, but incredibly good for Elon Musk's pocketbook."

Netanyahu Threatens to Resume Gaza Assault as Israel Continues to Violate Ceasefire, Trump Hosts Jordan's King Abdullah at White House, Repeats Threat to Own" Gaza, Family Says Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Was Tortured by Israeli Captors, Trump Orders Mass Layoffs of Federal Workers and Installs DOGE Team Leads" at Agencies, Trump and Elon Musk Defend DOGE in Bizarre Oval Office Press Conference, White House Fires USAID's Inspector General After Scathing Report, Court Orders Trump Administration to Halt Plans to Gut National Institutes of Health, Senate Democrat Accuses Trump FBI Nominee Kash Patel of Perjury, No Uniforms, No Badge, No ID": Shocking Surveillance Video Shows Plainclothes ICE Raid, M23 Rebels Resume Attacks in DRC, Breaking Pause in Fighting That's Killed Thousands, Trump Welcomes Marc Fogel to White House After Fair Deal" Wins His Release from Russian Prison, Reporter Barred from White House Event After AP Refuses Trump's Moniker Gulf of America", Trump Orders U.S. Mint to Halt Production of Pennies, Trump Revokes Water- and Power-Saving EPA Standards and Bans Paper Straws

We speak with the acclaimed Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd on the publication day for his new book, Perfect Victims. It comes at a time of heightened censorship and attacks on Palestinian expression in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as in the United States and elsewhere. Perfect Victims explores ongoing Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation and human rights abuses and the impossible demand made of the Palestinians" to be sympathetic in the eyes of international observers. He says that pressure leads to curating yourself in a way that is not offensive to the Western gaze." El-Kurd also discusses U.S. attacks on the Palestine solidarity movement, President Donald Trump's calls for ethnically cleansing Gaza, Israeli attacks in the occupied West Bank and his own family's history of fighting eviction from their home in East Jerusalem.

We look at a victory for immigrant rights, after a federal judge temporarily blocked the U.S. government from deporting three Venezuelan men to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the Trump administration has started to send thousands of immigrants for detention. Our guest, Baher Azmy, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, sought an emergency order to protect the three men, who had been held for about a year at the Otero detention center. The men say they left Venezuela to request asylum in the United States but were rejected. When they saw others from the detention center transferred to Guantanamo, they feared they could be next and asked the judge to preemptively block their transfer. This all comes as the Trump administration recently withdrew temporary protected status for Venezuelans living in the United States. We decided we had to move and prevent their transfer, their rendition, to the lawless space in Guantanamo," says Azmy. We also speak with Vince Warren, the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Warren says that the United States is facing a constitutional crisis on a range of issues, and it's just not clear to any of us whether this administration will actually comply with the rule of law in any context."

Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez describes how immigrant communities are organizing to fight back against the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants. Wherever there is oppression, there is resistance," he says. It's obvious that the neofascist coup we are witnessing will not be defeated simply by legal challenges in the courts. It will have to be confronted in the streets."

We look at the Trump administration's escalating attacks on press freedom, and how the media has responded with bended knee in some cases, with Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The Trump administration has threatened journalists and media outlets for their coverage, and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating PBS and NPR over its funding sources. Meanwhile, a number of major news organizations face accusations of surrendering to Trump's threats. In December, ABC settled a defamation suit brought by Trump by making a $15 million donation to his future presidential library. CBS's parent company Paramount is reportedly in talks to settle a multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Trump, who accused 60 Minutes of deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris. Trump initially sought $10 billion in the lawsuit and is now seeking $20 billion. What I see here is media organizations that have the power to fight back against Trump but aren't doing it. I think that's a failure of courage," says Jaffer. Every time one of those media organizations settles a case, the next organization finds it more difficult to resist Trump."

Gaza Ceasefire on the Brink of Collapse After Hamas Cites Israel's Violations, Trump Says Mass Expulsion Plan for Gaza's Palestinians Doesn't Include the Right of Return, Trump Threatens to Cut Aid to Jordan and Egypt Unless They Accept Palestinians Expelled from Gaza, Israeli Forces Raid East Jerusalem Bookseller and Seize Books Critical of Occupation, Federal Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Defied Order to Unfreeze Federal Funds, Lawmakers Join Protests at Shuttered Office of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Court Extends Deadline for Elon Musk's Offer of Buyouts for Federal Workers, Trump Halts Enforcement of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Fires Head of Government Ethics Office, Trump Administration Will Use IRS Criminal Unit to Pursue Undocumented Immigrants, Eric Adams Sold Us Out": DOJ Orders Prosecutors to Drop Case Against NYC Mayor, Trump Pardons Ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, 5 Years After Commuting Sentence, Senate Advances Nomination of Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, Sam Altman and Elon Musk Troll Each Other over OpenAI; Vance Warns EU Against Tech Regulation, Pentagon Issues Ban on Transgender Troops; Education Dept. to End Programs for Trans Students

Israel has moved the war from Gaza to the West Bank," says the Palestinian National Initiative's Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, who joins us from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military's ongoing assault there has displaced over 35,000 Palestinians through evictions, destruction of infrastructure and indiscriminate attacks resulting in over 80 deaths. Barghouti also condemns Donald Trump's declaration that the U.S. should take over the Gaza Strip. He calls both the theft of Gaza" and the military campaign in the West Bank war crimes.

President Trump's targeting of South Africa is clearly tied to his influential adviser Elon Musk and a coterie of wealthy U.S. oligarchs, all of whom in some way or other grew up in South Africa as children." These men are known as the PayPal mafia" due to their involvement in the founding of the financial tech company PayPal, explains reporter Chris McGreal. McGreal, a former South Africa correspondent for The Guardian, outlines Musk's pro-apartheid and neo-Nazi family history, which appears to form the basis of his adherence to a right-wing ideology that believes white South Africans are the victims of the end of apartheid" and at risk of a white genocide."

President Trump has ordered a freeze on all foreign aid to South Africa in an executive order he signed Friday, claiming that a new land reform law amounts to government-sponsored race-based discrimination." The country's white minority still owns the vast majority of farmland decades after the end of apartheid rule. Trump also criticized South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ and said the United States would accept white South Africans as refugees facing what he characterized as persecution. The cuts to aid are already causing widespread suffering in South Africa, where after 30 years of democracy, not much has changed in terms of wealth ownership" and a white population with colonial roots is using politics, ideology, misinformation and propaganda ... to maintain the status quo," says South African activist Trevor Ngwane.

We look at how Elon Musk's executive branch agency, the Department of Government Efficiency, known as "DOGE," is wreaking havoc, with young male software engineers slashing government services and funding in what legal experts are saying could amount to a constitutional crisis." Most of the DOGE staffers are pulled from Musk-linked tech companies and have limited work and educational experience. Even if these young men are very technically gifted ... some of them seem to have questionable backgrounds," says Wired reporter Vittoria Elliott, who has revealed key details about the staffers in a series of articles. One DOGE staffer, Marko Elez, resigned and was later reinstated after he was traced to racist social media posts. DOGE's lack of oversight, training and transparency poses an incredible risk," adds Elliott, as its unvetted and underqualified staffers take control of the sensitive data of Americans.

Constitutional Crisis: Trump Admin Hints It Will Ignore Judge's Ruling to Block Musk from Treasury Records, Freed Palestinians Say They Were Held by Israel in Torture Center" Without Food, Water, In Occupied West Bank, Israel Kills Two Women, Including One 8 Months Pregnant, U.N. Warns U.S. Cuts Could Lead to 6 Million AIDS-Related Deaths as Trump Moves to Dismantle USAID, National Institutes of Health Moves to Cut $4 Billion in Biomedical Research, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Brink of Being Shuttered After Saving Consumers $21 Billion, Trump Announces 25% Tariff on Steel and Aluminum, U.S. Judge Blocks Transfer of Venezuela Immigrant Detainees to Guantanamo, NBC: Trump Preparing to Relaunch Immigrant Family Detention Policy, Trump Freezes U.S. Aid to South Africa over Unjust Racial Discrimination" Against Whites, African Leaders Call for Ceasefire, Direct Talks with Rebels Amid Escalating Eastern Congo Conflict, Sam Nujoma, Namibia's First President, Who Led His Country to Independence, Dies at 95, Ecuador's Daniel Noboa and Luisa Gonzalez Headed for Rematch in April Presidential Runoff, Mass Anti-AfD Protests Continue in Germany as Far Right Gathers for Make Europe Great Again" Summit, Trump Fires Kennedy Center Board Members, Announces Plan to Install Himself as New Chair, Halftime Performer Stages Super Bowl Protest, Holding Up Flags of Sudan, Palestine, Louisiana Spent $17.5M to Remove Unhoused People to Cold Warehouse Ahead of Super Bowl

The Trump administration is planning to shutter the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights at the Environmental Protection Agency and has placed nearly 170 employees on administrative leave. I'm very concerned about the deregulation and the focus on corporate profits," says Mustafa Santiago Ali, the former head of the environmental justice program at the EPA. He resigned in 2017 to protest a Trump administration proposal to severely scale back the size and work of the agency. Any time that we place profit over people, then we are putting a crosshair on our most vulnerable, our most marginalized," says Ali.

A lawsuit by a coalition of labor unions Thursday prompted the Labor Department to agree not to release any sensitive economic and privacy data to DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Trump donor Elon Musk. Musk's group has already gained access to sensitive files and computer systems across other key agencies as part of a push to restructure much of the federal government. There are huge problems with what Elon Musk and his team are doing to access the most critical personal data that this country owns," says Rob Shriver, senior adviser to the accountability group Democracy Forward, which filed the lawsuit over Labor Department data, and a former acting director of the Office of Personnel Management. Legal challenges have also reversed the Trump administration's executive order to freeze trillions in federal funding, delayed a buyout offer sent to most of the federal workforce to encourage mass resignations, and at least partially blocked Musk from accessing the Treasury Department's payment system. We also speak with Public Citizen's Robert Weissman, who calls Musk's actions an authoritarian rampage through the government ... designed to access information, surveil the country, destroy the institutions of government and advance corporate interests without restraint."

We speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California about the Trump administration's ongoing assault on the federal bureaucracy and the gutting of various agencies, led by the president's unelected billionaire adviser Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.No DOGE employee should have access to any of Americans' sensitive, confidential information, and they should not have access to be able to stop payments," he says. Khanna calls Musk's actions unconstitutional" and says the Trump administration must be held accountable. There is a movement now which is pushing back. We did not have that for a couple months, I acknowledge that. But the Democratic Party in this last week has had a new energy and a new resolve to stand up."Khanna also comments on the use of Guantanamo Bay to detain immigrants, Trump's colonial proposals to seize Gaza and other foreign territories and more.

Trump Sanctions ICC over War Crimes Investigations Against Israel, Trump Says Palestinians Will Be Happy, Safe and Free" After Mass Expulsion from Gaza, Senate Votes to Confirm Project 2025 Architect Russell Vought as White House Budget Chief, DOGE Staffer Marko Elez Resigns over Racist and Hateful Social Media Posts, Lawmakers Denied Access to EPA as Trump Admin Shutters Environmental Justice Office, Scott Turner Confirmed as HUD Secretary as DOGE Prepares to Slash Billions from Housing Department, First Female Coast Guard Commandant, Linda Fagan, Evicted from Home After 3-Hour Notice, Rights Groups Condemn NCAA over Ban on Trans Women in Sports, January 2025 Was Hottest on Record, Hitting 1.75 Degrees Above Preindustrial Levels, Trump Nominates Sharpiegate" Scientist to Reprise Role at NOAA, Mourners at Memorial for Altadena Fire Victims Demand Equity in Rebuilding Process, Trump Administration Shackled Indians for 40 Hours Aboard Deportation Flight

As the Trump administration, led in part by his unelected adviser Elon Musk, sets its sights on cutting the Department of Education, we speak to longtime educator Jesse Hagopian about what he calls an extremist, authoritarian power grab to dismantle public education and enforce ideological conformity." Hagopian, whose new book, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education, traces the history of racist educational censorship, adds, This isn't about protecting children. We know that dismantling the Department of Education is really about imposing ... the violence of organized forgetting."

We speak to Jewish Currents editor-at-large Peter Beinart about his new book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, which is addressed to my fellow Jews" and criticizes what he characterizes as the increasing privileging of Zionism as a part of Jewish identity. The Jewish community is structured to basically make the existence of a Jewish state, a state that privileges Jews over Palestinians, sacred, ... elevat[ing] ethnonationalism - a Jewish state - over Judaism itself," Beinart says. In response, he challenges the erasure of Zionism's explicitly colonial roots and political myths about majoritarian rule, arguing for the acceptance of more critical stances toward the state of Israel within Jewish communities.

World leaders are rebuking Donald Trump's proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip, ethnically cleansing the region of Palestinians. There's no question that even though the entire region would reject it ... the fundamental reality is that we are heading to the complete destruction of Palestinian society in Gaza as a matter of status quo," says our guest Omar Baddar. Baddar, a Palestinian American political analyst and member of the National Policy Council of the Arab American Institute, also discusses Trump's recent statements signaling a potential breakdown of the official ceasefire in Gaza.