Democracy Now!

We speak with foreign policy analyst Matt Duss about increasingly fraught relations between the United States and Ukraine, which have undergone a seismic shift under the second Trump administration. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting with President Trump at the White House on Friday and is expected to sign an agreement giving the U.S. access to his country's rare earth minerals, which are key components in mobile phones and other advanced technology. It's unclear what, if anything, Ukraine will get in return, even as Trump pushes Kyiv to reach a deal with Moscow to end the war that began in February 2022 when Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Trump is simultaneously moving to restore relations with Russia and lift its international isolation. Duss says the throughline in Trump's thinking, from Ukraine to Gaza and elsewhere, is that great powers" like the United States make the decisions, and less powerful countries, less powerful communities and peoples simply have to live with the consequences."

U.S. Judge Says Trump & Musk's Mass Firings Are Illegal as New Wave of Layoffs Hits NOAA, Trump Cuts USAID's Contracts by 90%, Gives Staffers 15 Minutes to Clear Desks, FDA Vaccine Panel Meeting to Discuss Flu Shot Is Canceled, Trump Vows to Go Ahead with Tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China Next Week, Trump Softens Rhetoric on Ukrainian President Zelensky Ahead of White House Meeting, Talks Underway for Next Phase of Tenuous Ceasefire as Israel Releases Remaining Palestinian Captives, Israeli Forces Fatally Shoot Another Palestinian Child in Occupied West Bank, Jailed Kurdish Leader Calls on Followers to Lay Down Arms, 11 Killed, Dozens Wounded by Explosions at Rally of M23 Rebels in Eastern DRC, Thailand Deports Uyghurs to China Despite Warnings over Imprisonment and Torture, Centrists in Austria and Germany Exclude Far-Right Parties from Ruling Coalitions, U.N. Negotiators Agree to Plan to Reverse Biodiversity Loss by 2030, Congress Overturns Biden-Era Rule to Tax Methane Pollution, Elon Musk Seeks to Have His Company Take Over Verizon's $2.4 Billion FAA Contract, Protests Erupt as Iowa Republicans Eliminate Civil Rights Protections for Transgender People, Accused Human Traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate Return to Florida as U.S. Lifts Travel Ban, Two Prisoners Found Dead at New York's Sing Sing as Prison Guards Continue Wildcat Strike, Activists Launch 24-Hour Economic Blackout" to Protest Corporate Greed

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has been the public face of the Trump administration's effort to dismantle many government agencies and slash the size of the federal workforce. On Wednesday, he attended Trump's first Cabinet meeting, although he is not a Cabinet member. Meanwhile, Russell Vought, the Project 2025 mastermind and director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, has been working behind the scenes to enact far-right policies aimed at privatizing public resources like Medicaid and Social Security. We speak with Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic to discuss the radical DOGE agenda. As they make these ruthless, ruthless cuts to the programs that people rely on, ... they also want to keep in place massive tax cuts for the rich," he says.

Thousands gathered in Beirut Sunday to mourn the death of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's longtime leader who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September. Under a ceasefire agreement, Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon last week, but it continues to illegally occupy five locations in the country. Correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous traveled to Lebanon last week to report from the ground in southern Lebanon and to cover Nasrallah's funeral, one of the biggest in the region in decades. The large turnout of thousands of Lebanese mourners was a show of presence and of support for Hezbollah, which suffered heavy losses in Israel's war on Lebanon," Abdel Kouddous says.

An unvaccinated child has died of measles, Texas officials announced Wednesday, the first death from measles in the United States in a decade. The child's death in a hospital in Lubbock, in West Texas, comes as the largest measles outbreak in the state in over 30 years is now spreading to New Mexico. Since last month, 124 people have contracted the disease, most of them unvaccinated children. The minute you stop vaccinating and maintaining that vigilance of 90-95% vaccine coverage, measles comes roaring back, and that's what's happened here in West Texas," world-renowned pediatrician, virologist and vaccine expert, Dr. Peter Hotez, tells Democracy Now!

White Houses Announces Large-Scale Government Layoffs, Trump and Musk Lead First Cabinet Meeting, Touting Gov't Cuts, Dismantling of Federal Agencies, Protests in D.C. Take Aim at Health Insurance, Financial Institutions, Oil & Gas Interests, U.S. Aid Slashed by 90%, Condemning Lifesaving Projects Around the Globe, Screaming from Hunger in the Streets": U.S. Aid Cuts Compound Sudan's Hunger Crisis, Unknown Illness Kills 53 in Western Democratic Republic of Congo, Hundreds of Palestinian Prisoners Freed by Israel Show Signs of Torture and Starvation, Trump Posts AI Video Depicting Riviera of the Middle East" , British PM Keir Starmer Warns Russia Could Reinvade Ukraine Without U.S. Security Guarantees, BP to Boost Oil and Gas Investments by $10 Billion, Reversing Pledge to Invest in Clean Energy, Earth's Glaciers Are Melting at Accelerated Rate, U.S. Records First Measles Death in a Decade as West Texas Outbreak Spreads, Pentagon Memo Calls for Removal of Trans Military Personnel, Trump Announces $5 Million Gold Card" Visa for Wealthy Immigrants, Entertainers, Media Figures Condemn BBC's Pulling of Gaza Documentary About Palestinian Children, Sick-Out" Held at Barnard College to Protest Expulsion of Pro-Palestinian Students, NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Orders CUNY to Remove Palestinian Studies Job Posting, Washington Post Opinion Editor Resigns as Jeff Bezos Orders Changes to Opinion Section

We speak with Jose Saldana, director of Release Aging People in Prison, about a wildcat strike by New York prison guards who claim limits on solitary confinement have made their work more dangerous. The people who are living in a dangerous environment are the incarcerated men and women," says Saldana, who notes the strike began the same week murder charges were announced against six of the guards who brutally beat to death handcuffed prisoner Robert Brooks in an attack captured on body-camera video. The whole world saw it, and they're questioning: How long has this been going on in the prison system? This illegal strike is to erase that consciousness that's building," says Saldana. We are also joined by anthropologist Orisanmi Burton, who studies prisons and says the proliferation of solitary confinement and other harsh measures is directly linked to political organizing behind bars starting in the late 1960s. Prisons in the United States are best understood as institutions of low-intensity warfare that masquerade as apolitical instruments of crime control," says Burton, author of Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt.

We look at a rare victory for a death row prisoner before the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, three conservative justices joined with the three liberals to overturn the murder conviction and death sentence of Richard Glossip, who has spent nearly 30 years on Oklahoma death row and had exhausted all other appeals to stay his execution. The justices said Glossip was entitled to a new trial after errors in his original prosecution. Glossip's conviction stems from the 1997 murder of his former boss, who was killed by another man who accused Glossip of masterminding the killing. Glossip has always maintained his innocence, and even Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond has said Glossip did not get a fair trial. We speak with Glossip's spiritual adviser, Sister Helen Prejean, renowned anti-death penalty activist, who says the case has brought together a remarkable coalition to fight for justice and helped to highlight the problems with capital punishment. We don't need this thing," says Prejean. It's time to shut it down."

We speak with the acclaimed science fiction author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow, who has spent decades writing and thinking about the impact of technology on our lives. He coined the term enshittification" to describe how online platforms degrade the user experience over time in search of profits, though it has been widely adopted to describe a larger sense of decline and decay across society. He discusses his new book Picks and Shovels, Silicon Valley's big bet on artificial intelligence to discipline its workers, and billionaire Elon Musk's work in the Trump administration. The point of this chaotic blitz is to demoralize their opponents," Doctorow says of Musk's work through DOGE, which has gutted government agencies and wide swaths of the federal workforce. In the reality-based world, even if you are worried about government waste, even if you want to make government smaller, you have to acknowledge the empirical fact that payroll accounts for 4% of the federal budget."

Federal Courts Order Trump to Reverse Spending Freeze and Restore Foreign Aid, Musk Adds to Federal Workers' Confusion with New Ultimatum, 21 DOGE Staffers Quit, Refusing to Dismantle Critical Public Services", House GOP Narrowly Approves Budget Framework Allowing Massive Cuts to Medicaid, Trump Says Ukraine's Zelensky Will Visit White House to Sign Deal on Minerals, Gaza Schoolchildren Return to Classes for First Time Since October 2023, Israel Bombs Syria After Interim Government Demands Israeli Withdrawal, ICC Prosecutor Arrives in Democratic Republic of Congo Amid M23 Rebel Advance, U.S. Expands Sanctions on Cuban Doctors Program, White House Will Hand-Pick Reporters Granted Close Access to Trump, Trump Administration Creates Registry for Undocumented Immigrants, Tennessee GOP Advances Bill Barring Undocumented Immigrants from Bringing Lawsuits, SCOTUS Orders New Trial for Death Row Prisoner Richard Glossip, Who Maintains Innocence, DoorDash Ordered to Pay $17 Million in Stolen Tips to New York Delivery Drivers

DAWN, a D.C.-based nonprofit organization that supports democracy and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, is asking the International Criminal Court to investigate former President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for possible complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, citing the $17.9 billion worth of U.S. weapons transfers to Israel overseen by the Biden administration. The bombs that Israel has used to destroy schools, hospitals and homes in Gaza were American bombs that they provided. Israel's campaign of murder and persecution was carried out with political support that they ensured," says Reed Brody, a longtime war crimes lawyer and a board member at DAWN. Biden, Blinken and Austin were not only aware of what was being done with their ammunition," but also tried to stifle criticism" of their policies. Furthermore, says Brody, U.S. complicity in Israeli war crimes could extend into the Trump administration. He suggests that the ICC prosecutor would be well within his rights" to open a probe into Trump following the administration's sanctions on the ICC in response to arrest warrants issued against Israeli officials.

The U.S. military transported 17 new immigrant detainees to the Guantanamo Bay military base on Sunday, just before efforts to jail an anticipated 30,000 immigrants in tent camps at the base were halted over concerns the makeshift facilities don't meet ICE's detention standards. Now the private federal contractor behind the Guantanamo detention site is under renewed scrutiny. Investigative journalist Jose Olivares shares what we know about Akima Infrastructure Protection, an Alaska Native corporation that counts among its myriad federal contracts immigration detention facilities across the United States, including some that are currently under investigation for human rights abuses. The lack of transparency when it comes to the company's practices and the expansion of migrant detention at a high-security location like Guantanamo means that questions remain over current conditions and even the exact number of people who have been incarcerated there, explains Olivares.

Reporters, workers and now judges across the country are disputing the cost-cutting claims of Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has targeted federal employees across multiple sectors with firings, forced resignations and threatened layoffs. One of the millions of Americans being impacted by DOGE's draconian measures is Latisha, an employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs who spoke with Democracy Now! in a personal capacity and not on behalf of her employer. She says that Musk's recent demand ordering federal employees to email a summary of their work from the past week was insulting" and disrespectful," and that his real goal is to gut public services in the federal workforce and pave the way for privatization of public services, goods and programs that we all need and love." She outlines how Black Americans and veterans, who are disproportionately represented among the ranks of federal workers, are being particularly affected by these cuts. We also speak to ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg about his recent reporting on a clearly wrong, clearly disproved" statistic being cited by the Trump administration about the number of federal employees who are working remotely. The statistic is being used to justify the king-like powers" claimed by Trump and the nepotistic hires at DOGE, says Engelberg.

U.S. Sides with Russia, Breaks from Allies in U.N. Resolutions on Ukraine, 6 More Gaza Children Freeze to Death as Israel Continues to Withhold Shelters from Gaza, ICC Asked to Investigate Biden, Blinken and Austin for Complicity in Israeli War Crimes, Syria Opens National Dialogue Conference Without Participation of Kurdish Group, Sen. Bernie Sanders Introduces Resolution to Oppose U.S. Arms Sales to Israel, Activists Block Access to Maersk Headquarters to Protest Arms Shipments to Israel, Hegseth Welcomes Saudi Prince to Pentagon, Pledging Closer Ties with New Administration, Federal Watchdog Calls DOGE's Firing of Probationary Workers Unlawful, Postal Workers Rally Amid Reports Trump Is Attempting to Privatize USPS, Hegseth Visits Guantanamo; Trump Tells ICE to Track Down and Deport 100,000s of Immigrant Children, Eric Adams to Close Immigrant Shelter Hotel; Judge Delays His Corruption Trial After DOJ Request, Groups Sue USDA for Censoring Climate-Related Content on Website, Laila Soueif, Hunger-Striking Mother of Jailed Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Has Been Hospitalized

We speak with death row inmate Keith LaMar live from the Ohio State Penitentiary, after the release of The Injustice of Justice, a short film about his case that just won the grand prize for best animated short film at the Golden State Film Festival. I had to find out the hard way that in order for my life to be mine, that I had to stand up and claim it," says LaMar, who has always maintained his innocence. LaMar was sentenced to death for participating in the murder of five fellow prisoners during a 1993 prison uprising. His trial was held in a remote Ohio community before an all-white jury. On January 13, 2027, the state intends to execute him, after subjecting him to three decades in solitary confinement. LaMar's lawyer, Keegan Stephan, says his legal team has discovered a lot of new evidence supporting Keith's innocence" that should necessitate new legal avenues for LaMar to overturn the conviction.

Israel has sent tanks into the occupied West Bank for the first time in 20 years, as the Israeli military escalates its offensive that has already displaced 40,000 Palestinians. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Palestinians living in the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps will not be allowed to return to their homes. On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the occupied West Bank and was photographed holding a meeting inside a Palestinian home that had been seized by the Israeli military. On Saturday, Israeli forces fatally shot two Palestinian children - one 12, the other 13 - in separate incidents. What we are seeing is an intensified campaign aimed at annexation of the West Bank," says Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer and journalist based in Ramallah.

Friedrich Merz is poised to become the next German chancellor after his conservative Christian Democratic Union placed first in Sunday's key election. Social scientist David Bebnowski, speaking from Berlin, tells Democracy Now! that Merz is likely to join with the diminished SPD of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz for another grand coalition" of establishment parties, which has ruled Germany for much of the last couple decades. He also comments on the alarming rise of the Nazi-curious" AfD party, which was endorsed by Elon Musk and made significant gains in the election, winning the second-most votes. The AfD is a party that is definitely part of the extreme right in Germany," Bebnowski says.

Center-Right CDU Wins German Election; Neo-Nazi AfD Comes in Second, Doubling Its Support, Europe Shows Ukraine Support on 3rd Anniversary of Russian Invasion Amid Growing Rift with U.S., Israeli Tanks Enter Occupied West Bank, Soldiers Kill 2 Palestinian Children in Mounting Assault, Gaza Ceasefire Remains Precarious as Israel Reneges on Exchange of Captives, Trump Team Purges Military Leadership, Lawyers, Cruel and Disrespectful": Union Slams Musk Email to Gov't Staff; Workers Told to Ignore Request, See You in Court": Maine Gov. Janet Mills Defiant as She Refuses to Enforce Trump's Anti-Trans EO, Trump Names Right-Wing Podcaster and Loyalist Dan Bongino as Deputy Director of the FBI, Constituents Confront Elected Officials over Tyranny in the White House" at Local Town Halls, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers Members to Sue DOJ After Being Freed by Trump, DOJ Drops Probe into Elon Musk's SpaceX; SEC to Drop Lawsuit Against Coinbase, U.S. Transfers More Immigrants to Guantanamo, UNSC Calls for Rwanda to Halt M23 Support, Withdraw from DRC, Where 7,000 Have Been Killed Since Jan., Sudan's Military Claims Strategic Gains as RSF Signs Deal for Parallel Gov't, Hundreds of Thousands Gather for Beirut Funeral of Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah, Slain by Israel, Free Speech on Trial as Energy Transfer Takes Greenpeace to Court over DAPL Protests, Students Launch Week of Actions After Barnard Expels 2 Students over Protest for Palestine, AP Sues Trump Officials After White House Cuts Off Reporters' Access, Yosemite Park Workers Hang Upside-Down U.S. Flag to Protest Layoffs, Drilling Plans

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 in Court 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."