Democracy Now

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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