Democracy Now!

Around Los Angeles, firefighting crews continue to battle the Palisades and Eaton fires and other smaller blazes. Nearly a thousand of the firefighters deployed to help contain the devastating fires are incarcerated. They have been working around the clock while earning as little as between $5.80 to $10.24 a day. For more on how California's incarcerated firefighting program works, we speak to investigative journalist Keri Blakinger, who is herself formerly incarcerated, and who recently had to evacuate her home in Los Angeles.

Human rights advocates and healthcare professionals around the world are demanding the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the largest major hospital in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan Hospital. Abu Safiya disappeared in December after Israeli forces raided and shut down Kamal Adwan. Released Palestinians say they saw him at Sde Teiman Israeli prison, which has been plagued by reports of gruesome abuses including torture and sexual violence against Palestinians in custody. It is now believed he is held at the Ofer Prison. Abu Safiya's friend and former colleague, Dr. John Kahler, a co-founder of the medical humanitarian aid group MedGlobal, speaks to Democracy Now! about Abu Safiya's tireless commitment to his medical work while suffering the pain, trauma and tragedy of Israel's war on Gaza. His bravery is a supreme act of resistance," says Kahler. What no oppressor will tolerate is that level of resistance."

After Biden's major foreign policy address Monday at the State Department, we go to Jerusalem and get an analysis of Biden's foreign policy decisions in Israel and Palestine from Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders. There's simply no question at this point that the laws of war have been egregiously violated," he says of the Israeli military's genocidal conduct against Palestinians in Gaza. When it comes to America's friends and allies, he has a different standard."

The confirmation hearing for President-elect Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary, former Fox News host and military veteran Pete Hegseth, begins today amid backlash over his history of sexual assault, misusing funds in his previous positions, and various violations committed while under the influence of alcohol. Hegseth was also one of 12 National Guard members removed as guards for President Biden's 2021 inauguration over possible extremist ties. He has tattoos associated with the white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements, including what's known as a Jerusalem cross, a symbol used by Christian nationalists. If Hegseth is confirmed, the Trump administration would stand to gain a loyalist," says reporter Alice Herman, who is covering Hegseth in The Guardian.

Ceasefire Mediators Say Deal Is Closer Than Ever as Israel Continues Its Genocidal Campaign in Gaza, Reporter Ahlam Al Nafed, Who Reported from Gaza's Besieged Indonesian Hospital, Is Killed by Israel, ICJ President Nawaf Salam Named New Lebanese Prime Minister, L.A. Could See Explosive Fire Growth" as High Winds Return, Jack Smith: Enough Evidence to Convict Trump for Election Subversion If He Weren't Reelected, Senate Committee Holds Hearing for Trump Defense Nom, Accused Rapist Pete Hegseth, Steve Bannon Brands Elon Musk an Evil Guy" as NYT Reports Trump Will Give Musk a White House Office, Judge Orders Patriot Front to Pay Black Musician $2.8 Million After Racist Attack in Boston, Climate Activists Spray-Paint Darwin's Grave in London to Draw Attention to Climate Disaster, Biden Cancels More Student Debt as Activists Urge Outgoing President to Do More in Final Days, Charles Person, Youngest of the Original Freedom Riders, Has Died at 82

Belgian Lebanese activist Dyab Abou Jahjah, the founder of the Hind Rajab Foundation, discusses how the organization seeks to hold Israeli soldiers accountable for war crimes committed in Gaza. Named after a 6-year-old girl who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza almost a year ago, the Hind Rajab Foundation uses evidence gathered from soldiers' own social media to build cases against them. The group recently filed a complaint against a soldier in Brazil, leading a local judge to issue an arrest warrant for him that he only avoided by fleeing to Argentina. Unfortunately, the Israeli government smuggled the soldier out of Brazil, which is, of course, obstructing justice," Abou Jahjah tells Democracy Now! We are relentless in seeking justice, and we are very convinced that one day justice also will be served in a court of law."

As negotiators from Israel and Hamas continue discussions in Qatar about a possible Gaza ceasefire, we speak with Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed, who spoke at a press conference of Gaza media workers last week urging the international press to speak up for their Palestinian colleagues. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says nearly 200 journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023. The world just keeps turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to what is happening," says Abed from outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. It's completely enraging and unacceptable." His recent article for Drop Site News is headlined What It's Truly Like to Sleep in a Damp, Frigid Tent: A Report From Gaza."

We speak with Leah Stokes, a researcher on climate and energy policy, who says the scale of the Los Angeles wildfires is a result of burning fossil fuels and destabilizing the planet's equilibrium. The ultimate driver here is climate change," says Stokes. She says that as people begin to consider rebuilding their communities, they should think about how to build more resilient homes or whether the risk is simply too great in some areas. Are these places where people really want to be building back at that same density, with that same risk?" she asks. We do have to be asking tough questions because of the climate crisis, because we have not stopped burning fossil fuels, about where it is safer and less safe to be building back."

We continue our coverage of the devastating wildfires in Southern California, which have killed at least 24 people as of Monday. Some 150,000 more have been forced to evacuate their homes and over 40,000 acres have burned up as firefighters struggle to contain the multiple fires still raging in the Los Angeles area.Journalist and activist Sonali Kolhatkar, who recently returned to her home in Pasadena, describes community mutual aid efforts underway and how they stand in stark contrast to the militarized response from police and National Guard forces who are seemingly more interested in protecting property than helping residents. She warns that predatory real estate actors are also looking to profit from the devastation, particularly in the historically Black neighborhood of Altadena. The embers haven't even gone cold. The smoke is still rising, and the developers are circling," she says.

L.A. Wildfires Death Toll Rises to 24 as Health Officials Declare Emergency over Air Quality, Mexico Sends Firefighters to Help L.A. Wildfire Effort; 1,000 Incarcerated Firefighters Battling Blazes, Israel Killed Over 5,000 Palestinians in North Gaza Since Start of Siege, Another Palestinian Journalist, Saed Abu Nabhan, Killed by Israeli Forces in Gaza, Poland Paves Way for Netanyahu to Attend Auschwitz Commemoration Without Risking Arrest, Trump Sentenced to Unconditional Discharge, Avoiding Prison in 2016 NY Hush Money Case, Senate Begins Confirmation Hearing for Trump Noms Incl. Defense Pick Pete Hegseth, Accused of Rape, SCOTUS Likely to Allow TikTok Ban as Justices Hear Arguments Ahead of Jan. 19 Deadline, Sudan Says It's Retaken Key City of Wad Madani from RSF as Brutal War Nears 2-Year Mark, Greenland Will Decide Its Future": Greenland PM Shuts Down Trump's Threats to Take Arctic Territory, Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro Sworn In for Third Presidential Term After Contested Election, Biden Admin Extends TPS for Recipients from Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine and Sudan, Check-in for Ravi Ragbir, Immigration Activist Fighting Deportation, Postponed Until March, DOJ Finds 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Was a Systematic, Military-Style Attack, Longtime Columbia Law Professor Terminated After Defending Student Gaza Protests, Free Speech, Jose Cha Cha" Jimenez, Founder of the Young Lords, Dies at 76

Immigrant rights activists are urging the Biden administration to pardon longtime activist Ravi Ragbir, who has been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for potential detention and deportation since 2001. Ragbir has been subject to regular ICE check-ins for over two decades, each time facing the possibility of being taken into custody by the agency. Once you go into that building, your family, your friends, your community don't know if you'll walk back out," says Ragbir. We speak to Ragbir, his wife Amy Gottlieb and his lawyer Alina Das about his case and why they are calling on Biden to take action before the new Trump administration, with its promises to carry out mass deportations, has the opportunity to pose an even bigger threat to immigrants like Ragbir. A presidential pardon will ensure that as a green card holder, Ravi will be able to remain here in the U.S.," says Das.

We continue to reflect on Jimmy Carter's foreign policy with history professor Brad Simpson. Despite presiding over an administration that stood out for its successful championing of human rights elsewhere in the world, in Southeast Asia, Carter really continued the policies of the Nixon and Ford administration," particularly in Indonesia, which was at the time occupying and carrying out a genocide in East Timor. Simpson founded the Indonesia/East Timor Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, which provided thousands of U.S. documents to East Timor's Truth Commission in the aftermath of the Indonesian military's mass killings of tens of thousands of Timorese civilians with U.S. arms under the dictatorial regime of President Suharto.

The late President Jimmy Carter presided over a key landmark in the Arab-Israeli peace process, the 1979 Camp David Accords signed by Egypt and Israel. Carter's lifelong interest in resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict is an analog for his complicated legacy in foreign policy and human rights. As Seth Anziska, a professor of Jewish-Muslim relations at University College London, explains, while on one hand Carter believed that Israel's treatment of Palestinians constituted apartheid far worse" than what he had seen in South Africa, on the other, his deep Christian faith made him fundamentally sympathetic to religious beliefs framing Israel as a Jewish homeland. He was the first U.S. president to talk about the idea of a Palestinian homeland alongside his commitment to Israeli security," says Anziska, who argues that the failure of the Camp David Accords in promoting lasting peace lies in their perpetuation of Palestinian statelessness."

Former President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100, has been laid to rest in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, following a state funeral held in Washington, D.C. He was the last president to actively encourage participation and involvement in governmental processes by the progressive civil community," remembers the celebrated civil society and consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Nader compares Carter's progressive credentials to President-elect Donald Trump's flouting of the law and embrace of dangerous beliefs like climate denialism. Carter brought the best out of people," Nader says, while Trump brings the worst out of people."

At least 10 people have died in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires as firefighters continue to battle multiple infernos in the area. Thousands of homes and other structures have been destroyed, and some 180,000 people are under evacuation orders. Multiple neighborhoods have been completely burned down, including in the town of Altadena, where our guest, climate scientist and activist Peter Kalmus, lived until two years ago, when increasing heat and dryness pushed Kalmus to leave the Los Angeles area in fear of his safety. I couldn't stay there," he says. It's not a new normal. ... It's a staircase to a hotter, more hellish Earth." Kalmus discusses an op-ed he recently published in The New York Times about the decision, which he says was toned down by the paper's editors when he attempted to explain that fossil fuel companies' investment in climate change denial and normalization has only accelerated the pace of unprecedented large-scale climate disasters. This is going to get worse," he warns, Everything has changed."

Death Toll in Los Angeles Wildfires Reaches 10 as Largest Blazes Remain Uncontained, As Historic Fires Tear Through L.A., Scientists Confirm 2024 Was Hottest Year Ever Recorded, The Lancet Says Gaza Genocide Death Toll Likely 40% Higher Than Official Estimates, House Votes to Sanction International Criminal Court over Arrest Warrants for Israeli Leaders, NYU Suspends 11 Students over Peaceful Antiwar Protest, We Are Documenting Our Genocide": Gaza Journalists Demand Int'l Media Defend Palestinian Colleagues, NYT Chooses Silence Over Accountability" as It Refuses to Run Quaker Ad Condemning Gaza Genocide, Jimmy Carter Buried in Georgia After State Funeral at Washington National Cathedral, M23 Rebels Seize Town in Eastern DRC, Advance on Goma, Elon Musk Accused of Election Meddling over Interview with German Far-Right Leader, Supreme Court Denies Trump's Request to Halt Sentencing in Hush Money Case, Federal Judge Rejects Biden's Expansion of Title IX to Include LGBTQ+ Students

Raging wildfires continue to scorch communities across the Los Angeles area, killing at least five people, displacing about 100,000 more and destroying thousands of structures. With firefighters unable to contain much of the blaze, the toll is expected to rise. The wildfires that started Tuesday caught much of the city by surprise, quickly growing into one of the worst fire disasters in Los Angeles history. Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council have come under criticism for cutting the fire department's budget by around 2% last year while the police department saw a funding increase. Nearly 400 incarcerated firefighters are among those who have been deployed to battle the fires. Journalist Sonali Kolhatkar, who evacuated her home to flee the destruction, says it has been frustrating" to watch the corporate media's coverage of the fires. No one is talking about climate change in the media," she says. We also speak with journalist John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World, who says the L.A. wildfires should be a wake-up call. This blind - frankly, suicidal - loyalty to the status quo of keeping fossil fuels preeminent in our energy system is creating an increasingly difficult situation and unlivable situation," says Vaillant.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced major changes to what content is allowed on his company's social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads, scrapping the system of independent fact-checkers in favor of community notes" from volunteer users. Zuckerberg also loosened moderation rules around offensive speech, which will allow hateful content targeting women, LGBTQ people and other groups. Meta's changes have been widely interpreted as a gift to Donald Trump and other Republicans, who have long argued against the policing of hate speech and disinformation online. The company has also donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration and recently added Trump ally Dana White, the CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, to its corporate board - part of a larger shift in Silicon Valley toward Trump and his MAGA movement. For more on these changes, we speak with media scholars Siva Vaidhyanathan and Marc Owen Jones, as well as Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, whose media company Rappler has been at the forefront of battling disinformation and hate speech on social media. As of last year, 71% of the world is under authoritarian rule. We are electing illiberal leaders democratically, partly because our public information ecosystem ... is corrupting our individual communications with each other," says Ressa.

L.A. Wildfires Kill 5; Officials Order 130,000 Residents to Evacuate as Angelenos Brace for More Blazes, Israel Kills 70 Palestinians in Gaza; 15 Incubated Newborns Could Die Unless Hospital Receives Fuel, Let's Call It Mexican America": Pres. Sheinbaum Fires Back After Trump's Gulf of America" Remark, DOJ Plans to Release Findings on Trump's 2020 Election Subversion Efforts, But Not on Classified Docs, Russian Attack Kills 13 in Zaporizhzhia; Biden Admin Sends Final $500M to Ukraine, Chad Says It Fended Off Armed Attack on Presidential Residence, Lebanon Elects Joseph Aoun as President After 2-Year Vacuum, Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iranian Imprisonment, Longshoremen Reach Tentative Deal, Averting Major Ports Strike, SEIU Rejoins AFL-CIO, Expanding Umbrella Labor Group to 15 Million Workers, North Carolina's GOP Justices Block Certification of Democratic Justice Who Won Nov. Election, Advocates Demand New York Lawmakers Protect Immigrants Ahead of Trump's Inauguration, Washington National Cathedral to Host State Funeral for President Jimmy Carter

Eleven Yemeni men imprisoned without charge or trial at the Guantanamo Bay detention center for more than two decades have just been released to Oman to restart their lives. This latest transfer brings the total number of men detained at Guantanamo down to 15. Civil rights lawyers Ramzi Kassem and Pardiss Kebriaei, who have each represented many Guantanamo detainees, including some of the men just released, say closing the notorious detention center has always been a question of political will," and that the Biden administration must take action to free the remaining prisoners and end of the system of indefinite detention" as soon as possible.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday he is stepping down as leader of Canada's Liberal Party, following rising discontent over his leadership and growing dissent within his government. Trudeau had served as Canada's prime minister since 2015. His resignation comes as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to annex Canada. For more, we speak with Canadian activist and electoral candidate Avi Lewis for the New Democratic Party, who says that, like Joe Biden," Trudeau waited way too long" to step down from candidacy in upcoming national elections. Lewis calls Trump's aggressive rhetoric on Canada a cartoon threat" that comes out of the real estate mogul's long-running use of force" in his personal and business dealings.

Massachusetts Congressmember Jim McGovern calls on President Biden to pardon environmental activist Steven Donziger, who has been targeted for years by oil and gas giant Chevron. Donziger sued Chevron on behalf of farmers and Indigenous peoples who suffered the adverse health effects of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon. I visited Ecuador. I saw what Chevron did. It is disgusting" and grotesque," says McGovern. Donziger stood up for these people who had no voice." In return, Chevron has spent millions prosecuting him instead of holding itself to account, he adds, while a pardon from the president would show that the system can still stand up to corporate greed and excesses."

Calls are growing for President Biden to posthumously exonerate Ethel Rosenberg following newly publicized documents proving that the FBI knew of her innocence long before she was prosecuted by the federal government more than 60 years ago. Rosenberg and her husband Julius were charged with sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union and executed on June 19, 1953. A federal pardon or exoneration would be the right thing to do," says Massachusetts Congressmember Jim McGovern, who is part of an effort led by the Rosenbergs' son Robert Meeropol to get history right." Ethel Rosenberg was framed," says Meeropol. She was not a spy."

At a news conference Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump renewed his threats against Gaza, Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal as he continues to push an agenda of extreme U.S. imperialism. Democratic Congressmember Jim McGovern calls Trump's comments outrageous," ridiculous" and, ultimately, a distraction from his planned abandonment of social services. We also discuss social networking behemoth Meta's announcement that it is ending its fact-checking program, in what's being seen as a capitulation to Trump and conservative media disinformation campaigns, and how President Biden's unqualified support for Israel's assault on Gaza violates multiple U.S. human rights laws.

Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 51, Including Five Children, in Israeli-Designated Safe Zone", Far-Right Israeli Minister Calls for Destruction of West Bank Cities, Ireland Joins South Africa's Genocide Case Against Israel at International Court of Justice, U.S. Concludes Sudanese Paramilitary Group Has Committed Genocide, Trump Threatens Military Action to Seize Greenland, Panama Canal; Says Canada Should Join U.S., Pope Names Trump Critic and Immigrant Rights Defender as Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Congress Approves Bill to Deport Immigrants Charged with Minor Crimes, L.A. Orders Mass Evacuations as Fast-Moving Wildfires Threaten Homes and Lives, Meta to End Fact-Checking on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, Washington Post Lays Off 4% of Workforce Following Reader Exodus over Harris Non-Endorsement, New Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Rule Wipes Medical Debt from Credit Reports, Jimmy Carter Lies in State at U.S. Capitol Ahead of State Funeral

As the remains of Jimmy Carter arrive in Washington, D.C., as part of a weeklong state funeral, we speak with historian Greg Grandin about the former U.S. president's legacy. Carter, who served a single term from 1977 to 1981, promised to restore faith in government after the twin traumas of Watergate and the Vietnam War and to reorient U.S. foreign policy toward upholding human rights. He came to power promising ... a new kind of doctrine, that the United States was moving away from both the ideological excess and the support for dictatorships that led to wars like Vietnam or coups in Chile," says Grandin. Pretty quickly, events got ahead of him." Carter's mixed and confused" legacy was nowhere more apparent than in Latin America, where he moved to limit aid to some right-wing dictatorships while supporting others, especially in Central America. He also began funding the mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan, which ultimately led to the Taliban and the 9/11 terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda. For all of his decency and humanity, especially compared to the ... clown circus that we're living under now, we have to look at the more unfortunate legacies of Carter's administration," says Grandin.

Israeli forces are continuing their unrelenting attacks across the Gaza Strip, killing scores of Palestinians in the first week of 2025 even as Israeli and Hamas officials resume talks in Qatar aimed at reaching a ceasefire. The official death toll in Gaza is nearing 46,000, although experts say the true figure is likely much higher. The United Nations has warned its efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip are at a breaking point" after Israeli forces opened fire on a World Food Programme convoy over the weekend, and healthcare facilities across much of the territory are destroyed, shuttered or barely functioning. For more on the deteriorating situation in Gaza, we're joined by acclaimed Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha. His latest piece for The New Yorker is headlined Requiem for a Refugee Camp," examining Israel's destruction of Jabaliya. He describes the double devastation of Palestinians who have not only been displaced during the 1948 Nakba but also during Israel's current genocide of Gaza, placing refugees farther and farther from [the] dream of return."

We speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joshua Kaplan about his latest blockbuster article for ProPublica chronicling the rise of a freelance vigilante" through the ranks of the right-wing militia movement in an effort to surveil and disrupt their operations. Kaplan's source, a wilderness survival trainer named John Williams, says he went undercover after being shocked by the January 6 insurrection, when members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and other armed right-wing groups led the riot at the U.S. Capitol. He's an extraordinarily talented liar," Kaplan says of Williams. These militia guys loved him." Williams would eventually gain the trust of senior leaders in Utah and beyond, collecting information that revealed a sprawling extremist movement with connections to law enforcement, lawmakers and more. Kaplan says Williams's infiltration revealed the militia movement is surging across the country, despite the failed 2021 insurrection. Now with Donald Trump promising to pardon many of the Capitol riot participants, this same movement appears set to expand even further over the next few years. The ramifications could be massive," says Kaplan. They have the potential to trigger a renaissance for militant extremists."

U.N.'s Humanitarian Efforts in Gaza Hit Breaking Point" Amid Israeli Attacks on Aid Workers, Canada's Justin Trudeau Resigns as Liberal Party Leader and Prime Minister, Vice President Kamala Harris Certifies Donald Trump's 2024 Election Victory, Trump Seeks to Block Release of Special Counsel Jack Smith's Findings, Rudy Giuliani Found in Contempt of Court in Georgia Election Workers' Defamation Case, Biden Bans New Offshore Oil Drilling Along Most of U.S. Coastline, U.S. Transfers 11 Yemeni Prisoners from Guantanamo to Oman; 15 Prisoners Remain, Pentagon Reaches Historic Settlement with LGBTQ+ Vets Dismissed Under Don't Ask, Don't Tell", Minneapolis City Council Approves Consent Decree Mandating Federal Oversight of Police, At Least 95 Die as Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake Strikes Tibet, Austrian Far-Right Party Tasked with Forming Ruling Coalition, French Neo-Nazi Leader Jean-Marie Le Pen Dies at 96

Billionaire Trump associate Elon Musk's latest disinformation campaign is targeting the U.K. government, which Musk appears to believe is not sufficiently anti-immigrant. Musk, who has already shaped the incoming Trump administration's economic policy by proposing cuts to government spending and tech-oriented privatization of services, signifies a new era" in American politics, says our guest Quinn Slobodian, who is chronicling right-wing tech billionaires' accelerating attempts to mold the world according to their destructive" and nihilist" beliefs. In a far-reaching conversation, Slobodian touches on Musk's clear admiration of authoritarian strongmen, market deregulation and white supremacist rhetoric.

The American Historical Association, the oldest learned society in the United States, has adopted the Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza," condemning Israel's intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system." We speak to Sherene Seikaly and Barbara Weinstein, two scholars who supported the resolution and helped push for the groundbreaking vote. Seikaly, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says, This moment was one I never thought I would experience," hailing the resolution as an opportunity for historians to narrate our past and imagine our future." Weinstein, who teaches at New York University and previously served as the president of the American Historical Association, adds, Over the years it has become increasingly clear that we can't have a narrow definition of what our roles are as historians."

Israel Bombs Gaza Over 100 Times in 3 Days, Killing Scores of Palestinians, Netanyahu's Office Downplays Reports of Progress in Gaza Ceasefire Talks, Attack on Israeli Bus and Cars in Occupied West Bank Kills 3 and Wounds 8, Biden Approves Sale of $8 Billion in Additional Bombs, Missiles and Arms to Israel, Israeli Embassy Helps Army Reservist Flee Brazil to Avoid War Crimes Inquiry, Ukraine Launches Surprise Cross-Border Offensive in Russia's Kursk Region, House Speaker Mike Johnson Narrowly Retains Gavel After Trump Intervenes, We Have a Territories & Colonies Problem": Del. Plaskett Blasts Silencing of 4 Million U.S. Citizens, Congress to Certify Trump's Electoral College Win Four Years After MAGA Rioters Stormed Capitol, NY Judge Upholds Trump's Election Subversion Felony Conviction But Will Not Sentence Him to Prison, Trump Welcomes Far-Right Italian PM Giorgia Meloni to Mar-a-Lago, Prominent Cartoonist Quits Washington Post After Editors Kill Caricature of Trump and Bezos, Pyongyang Tests Ballistic Missile as Blinken Visits a South Korea in Political Turmoil, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Reportedly on Cusp of Resigning

The Pentagon announced this week it launched a wave of airstrikes on Sana'a and other parts of Yemen on Tuesday. U.S. Central Command said it targeted command and weapons production facilities of Ansarallah, the militant group also known as the Houthis that rules most of Yemen. The attacks came just after Israel bombed the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah and the main airport in Sana'a, killing at least six people. A Houthi spokesperson said Wednesday the movement would continue attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and against Israel aimed at ending that country's war on Gaza. These are strikes on Yemeni infrastructure. These are strikes on Yemeni civilians," Yemeni American scholar Shireen Al-Adeimi says of the Israeli and U.S. strikes. The only thing that will stop Ansarallah from rerouting ships in the Red Sea and stopping their attacks ... is an end to the genocide in Gaza and an end to the starvation of the Palestinian people."

As the genocide in Gaza enters its 15th month, we look at From Ground Zero, a collection of 22 short films made in Gaza by Palestinian filmmakers surviving Israel's bombings and brutal blockade. The film has been shortlisted for this year's Academy Awards in the category for best international feature. In spite of all what happened, we were trying to search for hope," says filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, director of From Ground Zero, now playing in U.S. theaters. Masharawi was born in Gaza and has lost many relatives during the war. He says the film is an opportunity to focus on the normal stories" of survival and perseverance, calling it cinema for humanity."

We look at what we know about two deadly incidents that unfolded in the United States on New Year's Day: a truck attack in New Orleans in which a driver killed at least 14 people before being shot dead by police, and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, part of an apparent suicide. The FBI has identified the New Orleans suspect as 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who had posted videos to social media before the attack pledging allegiance to the Islamic State militant group. In the Las Vegas case, the driver was 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado, an active-duty Army Green Beret, who is believed to have shot himself before the blast. Investigators say they have not found a link between the two incidents despite both men being connected to the military, but Army veteran and antiwar organizer Mike Prysner says military service is now the number one predictor of becoming what is called a mass casualty offender, surpassing even mental health issues." Prysner says the U.S. military depends on social problems like alienation and inequality in order to gain new recruits, then spits them back out" in often worse shape, with people exposed to violence sometimes turning to extremism. We have these deep-rooted problems in our society that give rise to these incidents of mass violence. Service members and veterans ... can actually be a part of changing society and getting to the root of those issues and moving society forward," he says, citing uniformed resistance to the Vietnam and Iraq wars as examples.

How to Hide a Genocide": Al-Haq Report Shows How Israel Hides Behind Safe Zones", Doha Ceasefire Talks Set to Resume as UNSC Takes Up Israeli Attacks on Gaza Hospitals, 3,500 Children in Gaza Could Die of Malnutrition as Hunger Grips Besieged Territory, Texas Veteran Who Killed 15 People on Bourbon Street Previously Planned to Harm Family, Driver of Cybertruck That Exploded Outside Trump Hotel ID'd as U.S. Army Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, Fate of House Speaker Mike Johnson Uncertain as 119th Congress Is Sworn In, Biden Awards Presidential Citizens Medal to Republican Ex-Rep. Liz Cheney, Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down FCC Net Neutrality Rules, Biden to Block Nippon Steel's Takeover Bid of U.S. Steel, China Sanctions U.S. Arms Makers as Xi Jinping Acknowledges Uncertainties" of Trump Trade War, Security Forces Block South Korean Police from Arresting Disgraced President Yoon Suk Yeol, Dozens of Asylum Seekers Drown in Shipwrecks Near Tunisia and Libya Attempting to Reach Europe, Biden to Designate Two New National Monuments in California

As we move into 2025, we look at how the world is cracking down on migrants and asylum seekers, and the dangers they face when trying to flee their countries due to persecution, economic conditions, the climate crisis and more. As Greek prosecutors open a murder investigation of unknown perpetrators" following a damning expose of the deadly crackdown on asylum seekers by the Greek coast guard, we revisit the BBC film, Dead Calm: Killing in the Med? The investigation revealed evidence the coast guard routinely abducted and abandoned asylum seekers in the Mediterranean Sea. The film found the Greek coast guard caused the deaths of dozens of migrants over a period of three years, including of nine asylum seekers who had reached Greek soil but were taken back out to sea and thrown overboard. We really have no real clue about the true numbers of the people that are crossing [the Mediterranean Sea]. Many people don't make it," producer Lucile Smith told Democracy Now! in an interview last year, when the film was released. And when people do arrive, they tend to disappear, because ... if you are caught by the authorities in Greece, you will be most likely subjected to some very serious violence."

For our first live interview of 2025, we go to Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip to get an update from Palestinian journalist Shrouq Aila, the head of Ain Media, a media company founded by her late husband, Roshdi Sarraj, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023. Aila describes worsening conditions in the winter rain and cold, and the complete hollowing out of infrastructure as Palestinians are struggling to survive. Being here in Gaza means I'm doing a change," she says about her duty" to report. Her dedication to reporting on Israel's now 15-month-long assault on Gaza was recently honored by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Israeli Assault on Gaza Continues as Data Show 6% of Palestinians Have Fled or Been Killed, Palestinian Authority Bans Al Jazeera in West Bank After Critical Coverage, Biden Says Texan Who Killed 15 in New Orleans Pledged Allegiance to ISIS Before New Year's Assault, One Dead, 7 Injured After Tesla Cybertruck Explodes Outside Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, FBI Finds 150+ Pipe Bombs in Home of Far-Right Extremist Who Used Biden's Photo for Target Practice, Pentagon Says It Targeted Houthis in U.S. Airstrikes That Followed Israeli Attacks on Yemen, Russian Attack Kills 2 In Kyiv on New Year's Day as Ukraine Halts Flow of Russian Gas to Europe, Russia Battles Massive Oil Spill Near Crimea, Honduras May Cancel Military Cooperation with U.S. Unless Trump Cancels Mass Expulsion Plans, Ivory Coast to Expel French Soldiers, Following Other Former French Colonies in Africa, South Korea's Yoon Resists Arrest Warrant over Failed Martial Law Declaration, Flight Data Recorder Recovered from South Korean Airline Crash That Killed 179, North Carolina Governor Commutes Death Sentences of 15 Death Row Prisoners

We speak with The Nation's Chris Lehmann about President-elect Donald Trump's escalating attacks on the press and how major media figures and institutions are capitulating preemptively" to the pressure. ABC News recently settled a defamation suit brought by Trump by making a $15 million donation to his future presidential library, despite experts saying the case was easily winnable. Trump is also suing The Des Moines Register for publishing a poll before the election that showed him losing to Vice President Kamala Harris. What's happening is a very clear pattern in Trump's public life," says Lehmann. This is a show of power."

We continue to discuss the new HBO Original film Surveilled and explore the film's investigation of high-tech spyware firms with journalist Ronan Farrow and director Matthew O'Neill. We focus on the influence of the Israeli military in the development of some of the most widely used versions of these surveillance technologies, which in many cases are first tested on Palestinians and used to enforce Israel's occupation of Palestine, and on the potential expansion of domestic U.S. surveillance under a second Trump administration. Ever-increasing surveillance is dangerous for democracy," says Farrow. We're making and selling a weapon that is largely unregulated." As O'Neill emphasizes, We could all be caught up."

Is that a spy in your pocket? In a holiday special we speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow and filmmaker Matthew O'Neill about Surveilled, their new HBO documentary looking at how high-tech surveillance spyware is threatening democracy across the globe. As part of the reporting for the documentary, Farrow traveled to Israel for a rare interview with a former employee of NSO Group, the Israeli software company that makes Pegasus. He warns that it's not just repressive governments" that abuse Pegasus and other surveillance technology, but also a growing number of democratic states like Greece, Poland and Spain. U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies under both the Biden and Trump administrations have also considered such spyware, although the extent to which these tools have been used is not fully known. Surveillance technology has historically always been abused. Now the technology is more advanced and more frightening than ever, and more available than ever, so abuse is more possible," says Farrow.

International outrage is growing over Israel's abduction of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabaliya refugee camp, who was detained after Israeli forces raided and shut down the last major hospital in northern Gaza last week. A new United Nations report finds that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in the Gaza Strip have pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse." Displaced Palestinians throughout the territory are dying from the ongoing Israeli bombardment, as well as injuries, infections and diseases due to Israel's restrictions on medical care and medical supplies. At least six babies have also died of hypothermia in recent days amid plunging winter temperatures. Living conditions are just deplorable. They are not compatible with human life," says Dr. Mimi Syed, an emergency medicine physician who just left Gaza after volunteering there for a month. We also speak with trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who previously volunteered at the European Hospital in Khan Younis. It's very likely that tens or even hundreds of thousands of people are going to die of the combination of malnutrition, displacement, exposure to the elements and hypothermia this winter," says Sidhwa.

Gaza is entering its second winter under attack from Israel, and talks to reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas appear to have stalled yet again. For more on efforts to end the war and secure the release of captives on both sides, we speak with veteran Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin, who has acted as a backchannel to Hamas leaders in the current and previous conflicts. We need to put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the agenda again and make sure this is the last war we fight," says Baskin.

Russian missile and drone attacks are continuing across Ukraine as the country already faces a cold, dark winter after Russia's strikes destroyed about half of the country's energy infrastructure. This comes as Russia and Ukraine completed a prisoner swap, repatriating more than 300 prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates ahead of the new year. The Biden administration, meanwhile, has approved billions more in military and economic assistance to Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump returns to office with a pledge to curtail aid and end the war. Since Russia's invasion nearly three years ago, Congress has approved $175 billion in total assistance to Ukraine. Putin doesn't want peace," says Oleksandra Matviichuk, a leading Ukrainian human rights lawyer, who says Russia's goal is to restore its empire by force. Russian occupation means torture, rapes, enforced disappearances, denial of your own identity, forcible adoption of your children, filtration camps and mass graves," she says.

U.N. Warns 136 Israeli Attacks on Medical Centers Have Left Gaza Healthcare Near Total Collapse", Israel's U.N. Ambassador Warns Houthis to Halt Attacks or Face Miserable Fate", Syria's New Foreign Minister Calls for Strategic" Ties to Ukraine, More Than 300 Russian and Ukrainian Soldiers Repatriated in Prisoner Swap, Biden Releases Another $2.5 Billion in Military Aid to Ukraine Ahead of Trump's Inauguration, Kenyan Police Tear-Gas Protesters Demanding Justice for Abducted Government Critics, U.S. Releases Tunisian Imprisoned at Guantanamo for 22 Years Without Charge, Trump Loses Appeal on 2023 Verdict Finding Him Liable for Sexually Abusing E. Jean Carroll, Taliban Bans NGOs That Employ Afghan Women, Says Women Should Not Be Seen in Windows, Iran Confirms Arrest of Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala in Tehran

Former President Jimmy Carter died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, at 100 years old. The 39th president served a single, tumultuous term in the White House from 1977 to 1981. As we begin our look at his life and legacy, we hear Carter's own words in a Democracy Now! interview discussing his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Carter criticized Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza, and argued Israel's settlements in the Occupied Territories were the main barrier to peace. Americans don't want to know and many Israelis don't want to know what is going on inside Palestine. It's a terrible human rights persecution that far transcends what any outsider would imagine," said Carter in 2007. And there are powerful political forces in America that prevent any objective analysis of the problem in the Holy Land."

Since October 7, 2023, Israel's onslaught in Gaza has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians and injured more than 108,000. At the same time, Gaza officials continue to accuse Israel of deliberately blocking aid deliveries. Human rights organizations are condemning Israel for attacking Palestinian lifesaving infrastructure, including Gaza's water supply and medical system. All of this has led to the world's leading specialist on the subject of genocide to declare Israel is carrying out a combination of genocidal actions, ethnic cleansing and annexation of the Gaza Strip." Omer Bartov, an Israeli American professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, describes why he believes Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza right now. There was actually a systematic attempt to make Gaza uninhabitable, as well as to destroy all institutions that make it possible for a group to sustain itself, not only physically but also culturally," says Bartov, who warns impunity for Israel would endanger the entire edifice of international law. This is a total moral, ethical failure by the very countries that claim to be the main protectors of civil rights, democracy, human rights around the world."

Gaza's Health Ministry has confirmed that close to 46,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's ongoing assault, but Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah estimates the true number is closer to 300,000. This is literally and mathematically a genocidal project," says Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon who worked in Gaza for over a month treating patients at both Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist hospitals. Israel continues to attack what remains of the besieged territory's medical infrastructure. On Sunday, an Israeli attack on the upper floor of al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City killed at least seven people and wounded several others. On Friday, Israeli troops stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, northern Gaza's last major functioning hospital, and set the facility on fire. Many staff and patients were reportedly forced to go outside and strip in winter weather. The director of Kamal Adwan, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, was arrested, and his whereabouts remain unknown. It's been obvious from the beginning that Israel has been wiping out a whole generation of health professionals in Gaza as a way of increasing the genocidal death toll but also of permanently making Gaza uninhabitable," says Abu-Sittah. On the 7th of October, the Israelis crossed that genocidal Rubicon that settler-colonial projects cross."

Sixth Palestinian Child Dies of Hypothermia in Gaza as Israel Continues Unrelenting Attacks, Family Blames Palestinian Security Forces for Killing of West Bank Journalist Shatha al-Sabbagh, Syria's De Facto Leader Says It Could Take Four Years to Organize Elections, Israelis Hold Nationwide Rallies to Demand Gaza Ceasefire Deal and Netanyahu Resignation, South Korean Airliner Crash Kills All But Two of 181 People Aboard, Azerbaijan's Leader Calls on Putin to Admit Russia Shot Down Airliner, Georgia's Outgoing President Refuses to Quit as Mikheil Kavelashvili Is Inaugurated, Former President Jimmy Carter Dies at 100, Rare December Tornadoes Claim 4 Lives in Southern U.S. States, Video Reveals NY Prison Guards Beat Prisoner Robert Brooks to Death While Handcuffed