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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. “It’s a part of a kind of a pushback that we’re seeing now against Musk that’s probably more forceful than anything we’ve seen to date,” says Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history at Boston University and author of the upcoming book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.

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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.”

Marimar Martinez was shot multiple times by Border Patrol agents. “The mental scars will always be there as a reminder of the time my own government attempted to execute me — and when they failed, they chose to vilify me,” Martinez said.

Daniel Rascon described how federal immigration agents pointed rifles at him and shot at his car. “They shattered the windows, and in that moment the whole world felt like it was the size of the inside of our pickup, and we were sitting in harm’s way with nothing to do but record the horrifying experience,” he said.

Aliya Rahman was stopped by federal agents and violently pulled from her vehicle — despite telling the agents that she is disabled and has a traumatic brain injury. “I now cannot lift my arms normally,” said Rahman. “I was never asked for ID, never told I was under arrest, never read my rights and never charged with a crime.”

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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. “We really need a new moral vision in this country. I mean, the decline in ethics and transparency has eroded public trust,” Khanna says.

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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.”

Meanwhile, Epstein survivors have criticized the Department of Justice for failing to redact personal information, including some of their identities, as well as email addresses and even nude photos. “They were cavalier, at best, when it comes to the survivors, and they took great lengths to protect some of the rich and powerful people who actually committed the crimes and morally heinous acts,” Khanna tells Democracy Now!

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Democracy Now! Thursday, February 5, 2026

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Democracy Now! 2026-02-05 Thursday

• Headlines for February 05, 2026
• Rep. Khanna Slams DOJ for Not Launching New Probes of Jeffrey Epstein's "Co-Conspirators"
• "Tear Down ICE" & Probe Trump-UAE $500M Crypto Deal: Rep. Ro Khanna
• Shot, Harassed & Threatened: U.S. Citizens Describe Surviving Violent Attacks by Immigration Agents
• Elon Musk Under Fire for Epstein Links, Grok's Sexualized AI Deepfakes & SpaceX-xAI Merger

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• Minnesota Officials Demand All Federal Agents Leave as Trump Administration Announces Drawdown
• 10-Year-Old Girl Seized by Federal Agents in Minnesota Freed from Texas ICE Jail
• ACLU Calls for U.N. Probe into Trump's Immigration Crackdown over Human Rights Abuses
• "Have ICE Surround the Polls": Steve Bannon Adds to Fears Trump Will Disrupt Midterm Elections
• Supreme Court Clears Congressional Map Gerrymandered to Benefit California Democrats
• Palestinians Returning to Gaza Through Rafah Crossing Report Severe Restrictions by Israel
• Chuck Schumer Defends U.S. Arming Israel as Trump Admin Approves $6.7 Billion Weapons Sale
• Six Palestine Action Protesters Found Not Guilty of Aggravated Burglary
• Nuclear Arms Control Treaty Between U.S. and Russia Expires
• Drop Site News: U.S. Military Officials Informed Middle East Ally That Trump Could Soon Attack Iran
• WSJ: Abu Dhabi Royal Purchased 49% Stake in Trump Family's Cryptocurrency Firm
• Washington Post Lays Off More Than 300 Journalists
• Human Rights Watch: Three-Quarters of the World's Population Living Under "Autocracy"

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

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. Both leaders took a much more conciliatory tone after their meeting, with Petro sharing a photo of them shaking hands alongside a handwritten note from Trump calling it an “honor” and adding, “I love Colombia.”

Colombian Senator Clara López Obregón, speaking to Democracy Now! from Bogotá, says the White House meeting was an important “repositioning” of the relationship, and cautions that the region needs a more coordinated response to “coercion” from the U.S. “Latin America, unfortunately, has been unable to structure meaningful and permanent instruments of collective action, so each country has to negotiate on its own from a position of weakness.”

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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. He is also the immediate past president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize, and a co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

“We are in a very, very dangerous moment,” says Helfand, who urges major powers to reduce their nuclear arsenals rather than potentially starting a new arms race. “Strength and safety are not the same thing. … If you allow these weapons to continue to exist, it is not a question of if we have a nuclear war — it’s just a question of when.”

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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.

Gabbard, as spy chief, “has no statutory authority to be involved in a domestic election investigation,” says David Becker, director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research. He says that since the failed effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, “an ecosystem of grift” has grown around Trump that profits from continuing to spread election denial even as courts have repeatedly thrown out their claims.

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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. “We should not be handing over any of our personal identifying information to the president. Not only should we not be doing it, but it’s against the law for me to fulfill the request from the Department of Justice.”

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Democracy Now! Wednesday, February 4, 2026

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Democracy Now! Wednesday, February 4, 2026

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• Trump Doubles Down on Calls for GOP to "Nationalize" Voting in the U.S.
• Renee Good's Brothers Urge Congress to Restrain Federal Immigration Crackdown
• New York Attorney General James Announces Legal Observers to Document Federal Immigration Raids
• Trump Signs Consolidated Funding Bill, Ending Partial Government Shutdown
• Colombian President Gustavo Petro Meets With Trump at the White House
• U.S. Military Announces It Shot Down Iranian Drone in the Arabian Sea
• Israeli Airstrikes Kill at Least 21 Palestinians in Gaza
• Trump Insults CNN Reporter Kaitlan Collins for Not Smiling as She Asked About Epstein Survivors
• Hearst Magazines Union Stages Walkout Calling for a Fair Contract

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

This post was originally published on Democracy Now!.

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.”

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