We host a debate between two former officials at the human rights organization Human Rights Watch. Omar Shakir resigned this week after more than a decade as the organization’s Israel and Palestine director, over a report on the Palestinian right of return that he says was blocked from publication for ideological reasons.
In the wake of deadly mass protests that have shaken the ruling Iranian government, and with U.S. leaders publicly weighing the idea of military intervention and potential regime change in Iran, American and Iranian officials are beginning renewed talks over Iran’s nuclear program today. We speak to two guests, reporter Nilo Tabrizy and scholar Arang Keshavarzian, about the “very strange and contradictory situation” facing the country.
The Washington Post has laid off more than 300 journalists, dismantling its sports, local news and international coverage. “Everybody is grieving, and it’s a loss for our readers,” says Nilo Tabrizy, one of the paper’s recently laid-off staff, who describes a “robotic” meeting announcing the cuts. “They didn’t have the dignity to look us in the eye.
The September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York City was a major polluting event. Debris from the collapse of the buildings spread toxic substances, including asbestos, lead, mercury and more, throughout the disaster zone.
French prosecutors have asked Elon Musk to appear for questioning following a police raid on the offices of the social media network X in Paris. The French probe comes on the heels of a U.K. investigation into Musk’s AI tool Grok over its “potential to produce harmful sexualized image and video content.” Last month, the European Union also launched an investigation into sexual deepfakes created by Grok.
U.S. citizens who have had violent encounters with federal immigration agents deployed in cities across the U.S. testified before Congress on Tuesday. Amid harrowing testimony by three victims and the brothers of Renee Good, congressional Democrats offered apologies and promises of accountability. Not a single Republican lawmaker showed up to the hearing.
Renee Good’s brothers Brent and Luke Ganger both testified at the hearing, with Brent Ganger calling Good “unapologetically hopeful.
We continue our conversation with Congressmember Ro Khanna, who urges Democrats to demand legislation that reins in President Trump’s anti-immigration raids ahead of the congressional vote on the spending bill. Khanna says the U.S. should “tear down ICE,” replacing it with “a new agency that has oversight with human rights to enforce immigration law.”
He also comments on Trump’s multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency deal with the United Arab Emirates.
Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna has called for Congress to investigate associates of Jeffrey Epstein named in the files and for the full release of the remaining documents. This comes as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the review of Epstein files is over and that no further prosecutions are expected. Blanche, who was formerly President Trump’s personal lawyer, told Fox News that “it isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.
After several months of rising tension between them, Colombian President Gustavo Petro sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump in a closed-door meeting that lasted approximately two hours at the White House on Tuesday. The two leaders have exchanged threats and insults since Trump returned to office in 2025, with Petro harshly criticizing the U.S. bombing of boats at sea and for threatening the sovereignty of countries in Latin America.
As the last major nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia expires this week, we speak with arms control expert Dr. Ira Helfand, a steering committee member of Back from the Brink, a national coalition organizing communities across the United States to call for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Helfand is a longtime member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, which received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.
President Donald Trump has called to “nationalize” voting in the United States, alarming state leaders who oversee the process, as well as legal experts who say his takeover demand violates the Constitution. This comes as he continues to falsely claim he won the 2020 election, with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard overseeing an FBI raid last week to seize ballot boxes and other voting records in Fulton County, Georgia.
As President Trump suggests the federal government should “nationalize” and take over the elections process from the states, we speak with Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. He is the former county recorder for Maricopa County, Arizona, and oversaw elections there in 2020. The Justice Department has sued Arizona and over 20 other states for their full voter registration lists. “No means no,” Fontes says in response to the Trump administration’s encroachment on state authority.
ProPublica has identified the two Border Patrol agents who shot Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis man killed January 24 while observing immigration enforcement in the city. The outlet says the agents are Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Raymundo Gutierrez, 35. “This is in the public interest,” says reporter J. David McSwane. “This country has a tradition and norm of being able to identify law enforcement officers, both for their safety and the safety of the public.
Activists in Maine are resisting ICE immigration raids in Portland and Lewiston that the Trump administration dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day.” The immigrant community in Maine has grown in recent years, with an influx of asylum seekers and Somali immigrants in particular.
At least 15 Philadelphia city councilmembers have backed a package of ”ICE Out” legislation aimed at combating ICE and federal immigration enforcement operations in Philadelphia, including codifying sanctuary protections and prohibiting federal immigration agents from concealing their identities or covering their faces. “We heard the cries from the community calling for something to be done,” says Kendra Brooks, a member of the Philadelphia City Council, where she serves as minority leader.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has signed an executive order directing Chicago police to investigate reports of illegal activity conducted by ICE and other federal immigration agents. The move came in the aftermath of Trump’s so-called Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago late last year, when masked agents flooded neighborhoods, snatching residents off the streets as part of Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
Republican megadonor Elon Musk spent the weekend trying to change the narrative about his interactions with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein after emails surfaced showing Musk arranging to attend a party at Epstein’s notorious private island.
The emails, which were sent between 2012 and 2014, were released Friday by the Department of Justice, and they show Musk discussing attending a party hosted by Epstein, who was by then a convicted sex offender.
A cartoon by Clay Jones.
Former White House press secretary and current Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany went into full propaganda mode Monday, hyping first lady Melania Trump’s new documentary and adding to increasingly dubious stories about stellar ticket sales.
“My mom went to it this weekend in Florida,” McEnany said on Fox News. “She said not only was the theater packed, it was, you know, standing room only—if you could, like, try to sneak in the back of the theater. People were cheering through it.
Have you been waiting with bated breath to find out who would perform at Turning Point USA’s halftime show? Lo, these long months where we were promised that this alternative halftime show would be epic, but the lineup was a mystery until Monday, when we learned about this absolutely killer lineup: Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.
Real A-listers here, right?
If you had to Google everyone on this list except Kid Rock, you’re not alone.
A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know.
Shady new ad campaign paints ICE thugs as ‘friends and neighbors’
This will totally change the public’s mind about ICE’s handiwork.
Democrats’ blowout victory in special election spells doom for GOP
The win isn’t just significant for how much Democrats won by, but for how it happened in the first place.
The before and after spin of the president’s comments about the special election can give you whiplash.
House Speaker Mike Johnson under pressure as as debate intensifies over the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement operations.
We speak with Mother Jones voting rights correspondent Ari Berman about the shocking FBI raid on an elections hub in Fulton County, Georgia. Federal agents were seeking records related to the 2020 presidential election, which President Donald Trump continues to falsely claim he won despite his loss to Joe Biden that year. During his efforts to overturn the election results, Trump pressured local officials to “find” him an additional 11,780 votes.
The Justice Department on Friday released an additional 3 million pages of documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Trump administration says it was the final release of Epstein files, even though some 2 million more documents remain unreleased. The latest batch reveals new details about Epstein’s connections to the rich and powerful, including Hollywood figures, tech billionaires, public officials and more.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in hundreds of demonstrations across the United States this weekend as protests continue against the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant crackdown. Democracy Now! was in the streets of Minneapolis on Friday speaking with protesters who marched in subzero temperatures.
As protests continue in Minnesota over the federal government’s immigration crackdown, former CNN anchor Don Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort now face federal charges stemming from their reporting on a January 18 demonstration at a St. Paul church, where a senior ICE official works as a pastor. The two journalists were released Friday without bail following initial court hearings and could face fines or prison time if convicted.
One particular protest really got under their skin.
Follow along for the latest news on the major headlines of the day.
The former Trump insider tore into the president for selling out his MAGA supporters.