Palestinian Director Basel Adra: As "No Other Land" Gets Oscar Nod, Israel Ramps Up West Bank Attacks
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.
Headlines for February 17, 2025
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
Trump vs. Public Health: Funding Cuts Gut CDC's Disease Detectors, Medical Research & More
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.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/17/doge_musk_usaid_nih_funding
Patients "Abandoned": Trump Order to Halt Global Medical Trials "Profoundly Unethical," Says Dr. Faden
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.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/17/usaid_trump_cuts_healthcare
Rebels Take 2nd Major City in Eastern DRC Amid Fight to Control Congo's Vast Mineral Wealth
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.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/17/democratic_republic_congo_drc_m23_goma
Congo, Jazz & the CIA: Oscar-Nominated "Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat" Revisits Lumumba Assassination
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.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/17/coup_d_etat_oscar_documentary_jazz
Headlines for February 14, 2025
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”
"You Don't Have to Comply": U.S. Attorney, 5 DOJ Lawyers Quit, Refuse to Drop Case Against NYC Mayor
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.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/14/ron_kuby_eric_adams_doj
"Frenzy of Warmongering": Critics of Munich Security Summit Warn of Musk, Rising Fascism in Europe
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.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/14/russia_ukraine_trump_nato_germany
Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, Owned by Match Group, Track Reports of Rape. Why Don't They Warn Users?
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.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/14/match_group_hinge_sexual_assault
Headlines for February 13, 2025
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
War in Ukraine: As Trump & Putin Agree to Begin Peace Talks, Will Kyiv Get a Seat at the Table?
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.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/13/katrina_vanden_heuvel_russia_ukraine_trump
NYT's Eric Lipton on How Musk Empire Benefits as He Slashes Fed. Gov't; Trump Cryptocurrency Schemes
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.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/13/eric_lipton_musk_doge_trump
"The World After Gaza": Author Pankaj Mishra on Gaza & the Return of 19th-C. "Rapacious Imperialism"
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.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/13/pankaj_mishra_world_after_gaza
Headlines for February 12, 2025
Netanyahu Threatens to Resume Gaza Assault as Israel Continues to Violate Ceasefire , Trump Hosts Jordan’s King Abdullah at White House, Repeats Threat to “Own” Gaza, Family Says Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Was Tortured by Israeli Captors, Trump Orders Mass Layoffs of Federal Workers and Installs DOGE “Team Leads” at Agencies, Trump and Elon Musk Defend DOGE in Bizarre Oval Office Press Conference, White House Fires USAID’s Inspector General After Scathing Report, Court Orders Trump Administration to Halt Plans to Gut National Institutes of Health, Senate Democrat Accuses Trump FBI Nominee Kash Patel of Perjury, “No Uniforms, No Badge, No ID”: Shocking Surveillance Video Shows Plainclothes ICE Raid, M23 Rebels Resume Attacks in DRC, Breaking Pause in Fighting That’s Killed Thousands, Trump Welcomes Marc Fogel to White House After “Fair Deal” Wins His Release from Russian Prison, Reporter Barred from White House Event After AP Refuses Trump’s Moniker “Gulf of America”, Trump Orders U.S. Mint
to Halt Production of Pennies, Trump Revokes Water- and Power-Saving EPA Standards and Bans Paper Straws
Elon Musk Will Personally Profit from Dismantling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Ex-CFPB Official
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.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/12/julie_morgan_cfpb_trump_musk_doge
"Are We Sleepwalking into Autocracy?" Trump Embraces Authoritarian Playbook of Hungary's Orbán
Is Trump embracing the authoritarian playbook of far-right Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán? Princeton professor Kim Lane Scheppele walks us through Orbán’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 Orbán’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 Orbán’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 Orbán 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.
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/12/kim_scheppele_autocracy_trump_musk
Tariq Ali on Trump's Embrace of Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza & Global Rise of the Far Right
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.”
Headlines for February 11, 2025
Gaza Ceasefire on the Brink of Collapse After Hamas Cites Israel’s Violations, Trump Says Mass Expulsion Plan for Gaza’s Palestinians Doesn’t Include the Right of Return, Trump Threatens to Cut Aid to Jordan and Egypt Unless They Accept Palestinians Expelled from Gaza, Israeli Forces Raid East Jerusalem Bookseller and Seize Books Critical of Occupation, Federal Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Defied Order to Unfreeze Federal Funds, Lawmakers Join Protests at Shuttered Office of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Court Extends Deadline for Elon Musk’s Offer of Buyouts for Federal Workers, Trump Halts Enforcement of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Fires Head of Government Ethics Office, Trump Administration Will Use IRS Criminal Unit to Pursue Undocumented Immigrants, “Eric Adams Sold Us Out”: DOJ Orders Prosecutors to Drop Case Against NYC Mayor, Trump Pardons Ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, 5 Years After Commuting Sentence, Senate Advances Nomination of Tulsi Gabbard for Director of
National Intelligence, Sam Altman and Elon Musk Troll Each Other over OpenAI; Vance Warns EU Against Tech Regulation, Pentagon Issues Ban on Transgender Troops; Education Dept. to End Programs for Trans Students
"This Is Not a Moment to Settle": Media Outlets Cave to Trump's Threats as FCC Launches New Probes
We look at the Trump administration’s escalating attacks on press freedom, and how the media has responded with bended knee in some cases, with Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The Trump administration has threatened journalists and media outlets for their coverage, and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating PBS and NPR over its funding sources. Meanwhile, a number of major news organizations face accusations of surrendering to Trump’s threats. In December, ABC settled a defamation suit brought by Trump by making a $15 million donation to his future presidential library. CBS’s parent company Paramount is reportedly in talks to settle a multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Trump, who accused *60 Minutes* of deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris. Trump initially sought $10 billion in the lawsuit and is now seeking $20 billion. “What I see here is media organizations that have the power to fight back
against Trump but aren’t doing it. I think that’s a failure of courage,” says Jaffer. “Every time one of those media organizations settles a case, the next organization finds it more difficult to resist Trump.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/11/jameel_jaffer_trump_doge_press_media