Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-01-07 Wednesday

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

Democracy Now! Wednesday, January 7, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. People are saying it goes down with one of the most incredible. It was so complex, 152 airplanes, many, many. Talk about boots in the ground. We had a lot of boots on the ground. But it was amazing. And think of it, nobody was killed. And on the other side, a lot of people were killed.

Unfortunately, I say that, soldiers. Cubans, mostly Cubans, but many, many killed. Days after the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolas Meduro, President Trump's announced the interim leaders of Venezuela have agreed to turn over between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. will go to Colombia, as Trump threatens to target Colombia as well, then to the Trump administration's threats to seize Greenland from Denmark. The United States should have Greenland as part of the United States.

There's no need to even think or talk about this in the context that you're asking of a military operation. Nobody's going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland. Finally, Firestorm, the Great Los Angeles Fires and America's New Age of Disaster. The Firestorm is my personal accounting of covering the Great Los Angeles fires in 2025 and America's New Age of Disaster. I might read like a sci-fi thriller, but it is a minute-by-minute accounting of what is a lived reality for so many people. We'll speak to MS Now reporter Jacob Soberoff about his new book on last year's devastating L.A. fires. All that and more coming out. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

Venezuela's military announced 24 security officers were killed in the U.S. military raid that led to the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday. U.S. officials assess overall 80 people were killed in the attack. Meanwhile, Venezuelan officials are cracking down on any expression of support for Maduro's abduction. Journalists have been detained. Armed paramilitary groups have been deployed to quell dissent. This comes as the CIA reportedly concluded in a briefing to President Trump that senior Maduro loyalists, including the country's interim President Delci Rodriguez, were best positioned to ensure Venezuela's stability.

On Tuesday, Rodriguez vowed to defend her country. This is what President has named, the RETO admirable 2020. This is what President Maduro has named the remarkable challenge, 2026, a Venezuela that refuses to surrender, a Venezuela in active resistance. Venezuelan are a dignified people, a peaceful people forging their own way. It's Venezuela that has demonstrated to the world one true character, that we've become stronger, that we've grown spiritually to confront the challenges, the attack, the threats. President Trump says Venezuela will give between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil worth $2 billion to the United States. In a post on social media, President Trump said, quote, this oil will be sold at its market price and that money will be controlled by me as president

of the United States of America to ensure it will be used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States, exclamation point. Reuters is reporting the oil was slated to be shipped to China, but will be redirected to the U.S. China has been Venezuela's top importer of crude oil for over a decade. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's reportedly told lawmakers in a briefing, President Trump intends to buy Greenland instead of using military force to seize the autonomous territory controlled by Denmark. This comes as White House press secretary, Carolyn Leavitt, said President Trump has not ruled out the use of troops to take over Greenland, saying in a statement, quote, the president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this

important foreign policy goal. And of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief's disposal, she said. Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland have requested a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the near future, according to a statement posted Tuesday to Greenland's government website. Previous requests for a meeting were not successful, the statement said. The U.S. pledged to provide Ukraine with security guarantees for the first time, which include binding commitments to come to Keeves' aid if Russia attacks again. The pledge came at a summit in Paris of Ukraine's European allies. attended by U.S. envoy Steve Whitkoff and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

French and British officials also signed a declaration to deploy troops to Ukraine after a ceasefire. Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities say an overnight Russian attack on Kiev Monday killed at least two people. In Gaza, Palestinian families said they felt optimistic amidst mounting reports, including by Al Jazeera, that the Rafakh crossing with Egypt could soon reopen. After more than two years of Israel's war on blockade, Qatar has accused Israel of political blackmail for hindering efforts to reopen the crossing and ensure the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid

for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The reopening of the Rafah crossing was a condition of the first phase of the U.S. broker-truths between Israel and Hamas, which Israel has repeatedly violated since it went into effect in October. Doctors without borders, announced Tuesday, Israel had ordered the aid group to immediately cease all operations in Gaza,

claiming they'd failed to comply with new restrictions, including sharing detailed information about Palestinian and international staff funding and operations. In news from the occupied West Bank, at least 11 Palestinians were injured after Israeli forces raided Brazite University Tuesday, north of Ramallah, reportedly firing live rounds, sound grenades and tear gas on crowds. This comes as Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar was in Somaliland

on Tuesday. The visit was strongly condemned by Somalia and came just over a week after Israel became the first and only country in the world to recognize the breakaway Somali region of Somaliland as a sovereign state. This is the de facto leader of Somaliland.

It reflects not only political recognition, but also a shared commitment to transform their recognition into a substantive, forward-looking, and strategic partnership. In Iran, over two dozen protesters have been killed during the past 10 days of protests across the country. That's according to human rights activists, news agencies. which reported at least 34 protesters have been killed and over 2,000 arrested. The protests began on December 28th over Iran's worsening economic situation, including a collapsing currency and high inflation. Many attribute the economic crisis partly to harsh U.S. sanctions against Iran.

The Department of Homeland Security says it's arrested 150 people in Minneapolis following a surge of 2,000 ICE agents, to Minnesota to probe alleged fraud at child care facilities. Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem accompanied ICE officers during an arrest. In the video, she tells the handcuffed man, you will be held accountable for your crimes, unquote. Minnesota's Democratic governor, Tim Wall, said the ICE officers were not cooperating with local authorities and were simply a, quote, show for the cameras. the Trump administration slashing $10 billion in funding for social programs for families with children in five Democratic-led states. Trump officials have claimed the move is due to alleged fraud concerns amidst the recent scandal, Minnesota, involving fraud at child care facilities. But Democratic lawmakers have condemned this as an act of political retribution.

The five targeted states are California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. York. Among the impacted programs are the Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes daycare for low-income households and assistance for parents living in poverty to receive cash assistance for diapers and other needs and attend job training. The group fair share America said in a statement, quote, rather than an isolated decision, this is part of a clear and dangerous pattern, they said. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the primary funder of PBSNPR and many local television and radio stations, has voted to dissolve itself. The CPB vote came after the elimination of federal funding and what its board called sustained political attacks, unquote.

The CPB had been in operation since 1967 with the aim of supporting non-commercial and educational, and educational public media throughout the United States. The Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Texas's Education Department for targeting hundreds of educators for their social media posts on the assassination of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Lawsuit says, quote, public school teachers and other employees do not surrender their First Amendment rights simply by virtue of their employment, unquote. The lawsuits challenging a letter sent by the Texas Education Department to school superintendents

instructing them to report educators who made, quote, reprehensible and inappropriate, unquote, remarks about Kirk. California Republican Congress member Doug LaMalfa died at the age of 65, according to Republican officials. His death narrows the GOP's majority in the House to just 218 seats over 213, for Democrats following the departure of Republican Congress member Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia. LaMoffa was a prominent ally of President Trump and challenged the outcome of the 2020 election voting against certifying the results. And speaking to House Republicans at their retreat Tuesday, President Trump warned that the Democrats would impeach him again if the GOP does not win the midterm elections.

You got to win the midterms. because if we don't win the midterms, it's just going to be, I mean, they'll find a reason to impeach me. I'll get impeached. We don't impeach them, you know why? Because they're meaner than we are. We should have impeached Joe Biden for a hundred different things. President Trump then wrapped up his speech with a bizarre dance before the lawmakers. This is Democracy Now.

DemocracyNow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now as Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy. Welcome to all of our listeners and views across the country and around the world. We begin today's show looking at the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. On Tuesday, President Trump announced on Truth Social the interim leaders of Venezuela had a great agreed to turn over between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. In his message, Trump wrote, quote, this oil will be sold at its market price and that money will be controlled by me as president of the United States of America to ensure it's used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States, exclamation point, unquote.

This follows earlier remarks by Trump that he plans to, quote, take back Venezuela's oil. In recent days, Trump's also threatened other Latin American nations, including Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba. Speaking to reporters Sunday, aboard Air Force One, Trump specifically targeted Colombian President Gustavo Petro and claimed without evidence that Petro is trafficking cocaine into the U.S. We have a very sick neighbor. It's not a neighbor, but it's close to a neighbor. And that's Venezuela. It's very sick. Colombia is very sick to run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United

States, and he's not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you. What does that mean? He's not going to be doing it very long. He's not doing it very long. He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He's not going to be doing it very long. So there will be an operation by the U.S. and... It sounds good to me.

You know why? They kill a lot of people, yeah. In a series of posts on X, Colombian president, Gustavo, Petro blasted President Trump saying, stop slandering me, Mr. Trump. Petro called on Latin America to unite against the U.S. saying the region risk being treated as a servant and a slave. We go now to Calca, Colombia, where we're joined by Dr. Manuel Rosenthal, Colombian physician and activist with more than 40 years of involvement in grassroots political organizing with youth, indigenous communities, and urban and rural social movements. He's been exiled

several times for his political activities. Manuel Rosenthal is part of the organization, Pueblos and Camino, or People on the Path. Welcome back to Democracy Now, Manuel. So if you can start off by responding to these developments over the weekend, President Trump and the administration sees the president of Venezuela and his wife, bring them to New York, bomb both Karas, and other cities, 80 people are killed, and then says he's setting his sights on Petro, the president of Colombia. Your response and how people are responding on the ground.

Well, first of all, Amy, thank you for having me. The situation is evolving, but what is clear is that it's not only Colombia or Cuba, the entire world should be very worried, scared about what is already happening, not what might develop, but what is happening. And what is happening is, first of all, Trump with his national security policy that he launched in December, he has announced the takeover of the entire continent. This is his region. He's appropriating this region. And as you stated, and he has stated, what Venezuelan oil belongs to him and that he's made that very clear

Mexico is under threat the entire continent is under threat and as you all know he liberated a drug trafficker from prison in the US and the former president of Honduras Hernandez at the same time

seizing Maduro as a drug trafficker bombing so whatever's in his head, whatever impulse comes to him and the people that surround him and feed his impulses, which include Stephen Miller, Vance, Rubio, Hexet, et cetera, are already and have already committed crimes against humanity and war crimes like bombing boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

So there's a war launched in the world, and the US has announced our territory is not the Western Hemisphere, even, but the entire Americas. At the same time, China launched an exercise, a military exercise against Taiwan, and Trump's response was, I'm not worried about that. And we have the background of what happened before with Syria and what is happening in Ukraine. So right now what we're seeing is three contending forces, huge, Russia, China, the U.S., and others, allies are not, that are actually taking over what they seizing, what they feel is their territory for pillage. And the risk is for everybody.

Within that context, one, President Petro is not a drug trafficker. President Petro has been a victim of drug mafias and their allies not only in Colombia, but all over the world. President Trump and the people around him are closer to the money laundering machine. and the transfer of funds to the north from drug trafficking, that is Petro. Petro, in fact, has denounced and opposed them. And Petro, yes, is at risk based on a lie. And the lie is exactly what you shared with us, that Petro is a drug trafficker. That is the global image.

But then also, and I have to say this, that does not mean I am defending or one should defend the Venezuelan regime. The U.S. had no right to seize Maduro to attack Venezuela, no right whatsoever. That doesn't mean that there was an autocracy in Venezuela and that what is happening within Venezuela at the moment is that neither Maria Corina Machado nor the Chavista Maduro regime represent the majority of the people of Venezuela. And a new government is being established by Trump, from Trump, which is oil companies, ruled the country and the economy on the one hand, and on the other hand, Delsi Rodriguez and the other ones

maintain stability and peace by repressing the people of Venezuela. The victims of all these, for the moment, are the people of Venezuela, and the majority of the people in the continent. And Manuel also talked these threats of Trump against Colombia, actually the third largest Spanish-speaking country in the world,

far bigger than Venezuela in population. Colombia has over 50 million people. And could you talk a little bit about Petro as the president, his history, and how contradictory his trajectory is to what Trump is alleging against him? Absolutely, Juan. That has to be clarified. One may agree or disagree with his. policies. But President Petro, for 30 years, he left an armed insurgency that he was part of

and actually a commanding part of that actually was forced into existence because of the robbery of an election in the 1970 by the elites of Colombia. They took an election that was won by a popular party and then enforced people with the views that Petro shared into an armed struggle, the M-19. But then he promised

he would never take arms again. He would fight for peace and he has been consistent with that. Nobody can say anything else about Petro. But then, as a member of Congress, Gustavo Petro was the single most leader in exposing the connections between Colombian governments,

the Colombian army, paramilitaries, and the drug trade. And his voice will never be forgotten for that. His dignity, the strength of what he stated, and actually the evidence he presented to the Colombian people. He was then attacked. His life has been threatened because of his defense of peace, democracy and his struggle against mafias, paramilitaries, etc. And then he becomes the mayor of Bogota and he's removed from power by an elite machinery of

mafias that he was actually proven to be that this was the case and he was innocent from what he was accused for. He was the mayor of the largest city in Colombia. After that and after proving that he he was innocent, he has the largest electoral base ever in the history of Colombia. And with that base, from that base, he becomes the president of Colombia. And he has seized more cocaine than any other government in the past, but not only that. And this is more important that how much cocaine he has seized. He has exposed the fact that New York City, Paris, Dubai, are the centers of global mafias that are transferring millions and millions of dollars of money

through drug trafficking from all over the world, and that they are the ones that control drug trade, including the Colombian production, transformation, or export of cocaine to the world. So money laundering is the key here, and these mafias are there. So he has stated clearly to stop train, you don't attack boats in the Caribbean, peasants in Colombia and the presidents of Colombia or Venezuela. You find them the center of command up there in the U.S., in Paris, in Dubai, and also in the Cuban-American Florida-aligned representatives and Republicans allied with the Colombian elite. attacking Petro. And also, most Americans are not aware

that Petro is about to leave office. His term limited and the elections in Colombia are just in two months. Why do you think that Trump has taken this point to target a man who is about to leave office? Juan, thank you for reminding me.

That's a very important point. The fact is, at the end of his president, see, the majority of people in Colombia love Petro still, with mistakes, with disagreements, with contradictions, but most people love Petro. That is not the case with Maduro. Maduro pretends to be loved, but there's an autocratic regime there. Here, no, Petro has defended democracy. There are no human rights violations from the government. There is not a repressive regime, and social change in many areas has been at least attempted by the government,

as I say, with mistakes and disagreements and in a state of a growing war. But why is he being attacked now? Because Ivan Cepeda, the son of a murdered member of Congress, and a lawyer, sorry, a philosopher, an activist, a member of parliament, a fighter for human rights, he is a candidate or pre-candidate for the left in Colombia. If there were elections today, Ivan Cepeda would win in the first round. And he has vowed to continue with President Petro's legacy, so we would even have a stronger left-leaning social democratic government in terms.

Colombia, and that is what's behind this attack on Petro. The only way one can stop Cepeda and the left from winning again in Colombia, it seems, would be to do something dirty, which is condemn Petro, attacking of being a narcotrafficker, and destroy the electoral process. It serves right into Alvar Uribe Veles' mafias and all the former Colombian elites. linked to U.S. power. Manuel Rosenthal, can you describe as we begin to wrap up what's happening on the border between Colombia and Venezuela right now, the tens of thousands of Colombian troops that have been deployed

there? Yes, absolutely. That border is uncontrollable, and this has to be said. All kinds of trades happen through there, including cocaine passing through that border, into Venezuela and from there to the global markets. That is a fact, but also armed factions, such as dissidents from FARC and ELN, cross that border, back and forth, involved in drug trade.

And the Colombian government broke a peace negotiation with ELN, the second largest guerrilla in Colombia before, now the largest one. And so tens of thousands of troops are in that border because one, there could be an aggression from the Venezuelan side, two, there could be a massive refugee crisis of people crossing from Venezuela and to Colombia. And third, and mostly, because there is a war now between the federal government and the ELN, that has been involved in drug trade. And the ELN has vowed to launch an anti-imperialist, they call war against

the U.S., and in that context, the Colombian army has to stop ELN and has to protect the border. That's what's going on. And we're going to end with the Columbia's foreign minister speaking Tuesday. We have said that every country in the international order has the right to its defense, its legitimate defense, and our, army has the president of the Republic as its commander and its mission is to defend the country's sovereignty. If that aggression were to come, the army must defend the national territory and the sovereignty of the country. That's Colombia's foreign minister, Rosa via Vicencio. Manuel Rosenthal, I want to thank you so much for being with us. Long-time Colombian physician

activist exiled several times for his political activities, part of the group, people on the path, Pueblos and Camino. We'll also do an interview with Spanish in Spanish with him after the show and posted at Democracy Now.org. Next up, we look at President Trump's threats to seize Greenland from Denmark. Stay with us. harbor for these hard times been going over the paths in my mind was when we were younger

ran through the flowering trees it's hard to remember Sunlight and breeze Oh, too fine What we left behind And blur the band of lines A welcome sign Harbour for Hard Times by David Berkley

This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Following the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the abduction of the president, the Trump administration's publicly saying it wants to take over Greenland, which has been controlled by Denmark for over 300 years. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt said in a statement, quote, the president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal. course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief's disposal, she said. At a congressional briefing Monday, Secretary of State Marker Rubia floated the idea of the U.S. buying Greenland. White House advisor Stephen Miller talked about Greenland during an appearance on CNN. The United States should have Greenland as part of the United States. There's no need to

even think or talk about this in the context that you're asking of a military operation. Nobody's going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland. In that CNN interview, Stephen Miller defended the U.S. attack on Venezuela. We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else. But we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world. Meanwhile, Danish Prime Minister Mehta Fredrickson has warned if the U.S. attacks Greenland, it'll spill the end of NATO. Firstly, I believe that the American president should be taken seriously when he says that he wants Greenland.

But I also want to make it clear that if the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. That is, including our NATO, and thus the security that has been provided. since the end of the Second World War. We're joined now by two guests. Pavel de Viatkin is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute, senior associate at the Arctic Institute. His new piece for responsible state craft is headlined, is Greenland next?

Denmark says, not so fast. He's joining us from Moscow, Russia. And joining us from just south of the Arctic Circle in the Canadian city of Icaluit is Ayupiter. She's a Greenlandic. Inuit activist, an attorney recently featured in the documentary, twice colonized, we welcome you back to Democracy Now. Let's begin with Pavel de Vyatkin. Pavel, can you talk about what is at stake right now? And the response by Denmark and also, of course, most importantly, the people of

Greenland. Thank you for having me, Amy. Trump says we need. Greenland for national security. But his threats actually harm our security and threaten to destroy international law and institutions. In trying to acquire Greenland, the U.S. is acting like a rogue state with a reckless foreign policy. There is absolutely no military threat to the U.S. from Greenland and no threat of Greenland forming military alliances with Russia or China. So this is pure imperialism. Trump's claiming that Russian and Chinese ships are all along the coast of Greenland that Denmark can't protect it. But this is false.

He's mixing up different parts of the Arctic. Russia and China do send ships into the Arctic, but those ships are nowhere near Greenland. They're way out in the barrens and barring seas thousands of miles away. And the U.S. already controls Greenland in terms of military security, thanks to a 1951 agreement with Denmark that gives the U.S. control of a military base in the far north of the island. When Trump talks about Greenland,

he keeps lumping the whole island together with the people. pitufic military base, insisting that the only way to keep the base safe is to own the land beneath it. What we're witnessing is a dangerous might-makes-right world view. You played that clip of Stephen Miller saying nobody's going to fight the U.S. militarily over the future of Greenland. They're really betting on raw military power to seize territory from a sovereign nation. And that statement came after Stephen Miller's wife posted a picture of the American flag covering Greenland on Twitter. She captioned the photo with the word, soon. The White House is currently discussing how to acquire Greenland and not exempting military

force. Trump's push to seize Greenland is also related to the island's vast critical mineral deposits. Billionaires like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are also behind the push to extract these minerals for tech and to set up a so-called libertarian freedom city on the island. I think it's also important to not ignore the timing, the attack on Venezuela and the escalating threats against against Greenland conveniently come at the time that new Epstein files reveal Trump was on Epstein's jet many more times than previously reported. Officials are saying that more than two million Epstein files are still unreleased. Meanwhile, Americans are struggling with inflation, housing affordability, and crumbling infrastructure. Most Americans are opposed to the

new war in Venezuela and seas in Greenland. Most Americans think Trump hasn't focused enough on lowering the cost of goods and services, but instead he's manufacturing these foreign crises. So, Pablo DiViattin, I wanted to ask you about this issue of NATO. Here you have the European leaders trying to deal with the fact that the United States did 180-degree turn on the war in Ukraine and left them holding the bag of what to try to, how to deal with the situation in Ukraine, will Trump's move to try to grab Greenland basically rupture for sure the relationship within NATO between the United States and the European Union? Yeah, there are real risks to the Euro-Atlantic community. European leaders are facing an existential

crisis, and many are actually failing the test. We've seen the Danish Prime Minister warned that if the U.S. attacks another NATO country, everything stops, including NATO, and so that the security that has been provided since the end of World War II is also in question. Some European commentators are showing backbone. I saw the ex-NATO general, Michelle Yaakov-Left, said how if Trump moves on Greenland, Europe must be ready, even to fight the U.S. and to expel America from key bases in Europe. We saw how seven European leaders issued a joint statement. that Greenland belongs to its people. But other leaders are shamefully weak.

UK ministers are basically saying nothing, according to their own former defense secretary. Some are trying to appease Trump rather than defend international law. The Prime Minister Kier Starmor refused to condemn the U.S. military actions in Venezuela, but he stated he stands with Denmark regarding Greenland. Could you also talk,

briefly about how climate change and is changing the geostrategic importance of Greenland in terms of shipping routes around the world? Absolutely. Greenland is the canary in the coal mine. The Arctic as a whole is ground zero for the climate catastrophe. And Trump wants to militarize the Arctic and Greenland instead of leading climate cooperation. The Greenland ice sheet is melting. several times faster than in the 90s. We're seeing dangerous feedback loops. As the ice melts, it's revealing a darker rock and ocean that absorbs more heat and accelerates global warming.

If Greenland's ice sheet fully melts, sea levels could rise 24 feet. That would devastate New York City, wipe out Florida, displace millions, and the fresh melt water is already slowing Atlantic ocean currents that regulate global climate. If these currents collapse, Europe could face extreme cold while the tropics overheat. Indigenous Greenlanders are watching how their traditional way of life vanish as the ice disappears, traditional hunting, food security, forest displacement. These are all in crisis in Greenland and across the Arctic as a whole. Instead of partnering with indigenous peoples and climate science and adaptation, Trump wants to basically colonize their homeland for mineral extraction.

extraction. The melting of the Arctic is also opening up Arctic shipping lanes, as you noted. Rather than working through international cooperation, Trump wants to use military control over these emerging trade corridors to compete with Russia's northern sea route. I want to bring in IU. Peter, Greenlandic, Inuit, activist, and attorney featured in the PBS documentary, twice colonized, the documentaries of production. of various media, I wanted to ask you about the response in Greenland right now to President Trump threatening to militarily seize or by Greenland. Thank you for having me, Amy.

Yes, Greenland is not for sale. That's what Greenland is saying. And Greenland wants its independence. Greenland leaders, elected leaders and the population would like to have a conversation with Donald Trump on what it is that he wants. We have been, Greenland has worked with the United States since the Second World War, and they're open to communication on what it is that Donald Trump wants from Greenland. I wanted to go to a trailer for the documentary about you twice colonized. I want you to hear this. We will always be here.

We are alive. I lived in Canadian office, but I went to school in Denmark when I was a child because I was colonized by them. That's my colonizing right there. You want to see my lawyer outfit? No other people in court has that. Only I have to see your skin because I fight for first people's rights. We should be included in the discussions as nation states are. The memory is not bringing joy to me.

You forgot our language, our culture, our connection. There was so much destruction. I'm just going to cause. Because you're speaking Danish? Yeah. I haven't been able to leave the trauma and learned behavior behind. I find myself in situations that are not good for me. But that's what I know.

Our children are going hungry. Our hunters are so humiliated. What can't let you die up? Yes! What can't rock you die up? You're going to this world to make a difference. Look at this. The empire is here.

What would you like us to do? Do you want us to be sustainable and traditional, or do you want us to be part of the modern economy? Guess what? It is our choice. Oh, hell. You become angry? No, I'm just re-learning my day. Adjupeter is the feature in twice colonized.

And I'm wondering, explain what twice colonized means. As a Greenlandic Inuit, you were sent to Denmark to go to school. It sounds very much like the reservation schools in the United States and in Canada where actually so many native people died. But as Inuit, if you can inject an Inuit voice into this conversation, whether controlled by Denmark or militarily invaded by the United States. Yes, that's true.

I was sent off to 300 years. And then, when I went back to Greenland, I moved to the Canadian Arctic, and the indigenous peoples of Canada were colonized by the, by, I. Canada, of course, and now we would like our own sovereignty. We have, you can talk to us. We have, we are demanding that decisions and everything else that's happening should be made with us, us that you can't just take over a people or indigenous people just because you think you're so superior. You actually have to have a conversation with the indigenous peoples of Greenland

and the indigenous peoples of Canada. And how has the relationship between Greenland and Denmark evolved over the years to what in particular still rouse you about that relationship or feels that it's insufficient? I haven't lived in Greenland. since 1981, I can only speak on what I hear through the television and their radio.

They wanted to become Greenlanders, wanted to become independent and independent country. But then the Trump administration, and Trump is trying to take over Greenland. So that talk of independence has stalled for a bit now. And Greenland wants to work with NATO. countries of NATO so that they can oppose the threats from Donald Trump. You can't turn around and start threatening other NATO nations, and that's not acceptable. Andrew, Peter, I want to thank you for joining us from Aikaluat, Canada, interestingly, which the Trump administration has also threatened to make the 51st state.

I also want to thank Pavel de Vyatkin of the Quincy Institute and the Arctic Institute. Interesting, you're talking to us from Moscow, Russia. A final comment and how Russians are responding to what the U.S. did in Venezuela, as the U.S. is involved in supposedly trying to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the irony of this invading Venezuela. and abducting the president. Thanks, Amy. That's very important. Russia's UN representative has condemned the attack on Venezuela, calling it a violation of international law, an act of state terrorism. Some Russian bloggers and veterans have also condemned the raid as a violation of sovereignty,

calling it naked imperialism that strips away any American pretense of supporting international law. but many are also impressed. They're saying it should be studied closely, some giving credit to U.S. operational planning and execution saying we should be taking notes, not just complaining. The developments are important for Russia. Moscow has invested heavily in keeping Maduro in power, deploying missile defense systems to Venezuela, sending military advisors and using Venezuelan ports for Russian naval vessels. In a matter of hours, that investment has evaporated. These actions against Venezuela are catastrophic for any potential U.S.-Russia negotiations over Ukraine. How can Russian negotiate with an America that just demonstrated it will use military force to seize territory and overthrow governments it doesn't like?

The Americans, according to some Russian commentators, have just shown that agreements, sovereignty, international law, none of it matters when they decide they want something. So why should Russia believe any security guarantees the U.S. offers regarding Ukraine? Are the Russian general saying that they should have just abducted Zelensky and been done with it? That's right. Some are discussing that. And they're pointing to what lessons can be taken from Venezuela for Ukraine. You know, this causes really large risks for other security issues, including arms control. The new START treaty, the last bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Russia limiting nuclear arms is about to expire in less than a month, potentially

unleashing a nuclear arms race that would be catastrophic and costly with this flagrant situation in Venezuela. The negotiations are definitely going to be very difficult between the U.S. and Russia. Pavel de Vyatgen, I want to thank you for being with us with the Quincy Institute and the Arctic Institute. Next up, one year ago today, The fires in California will be joined by MS Now's Jacob Soberoff, his new book, Firestorm. Stay with us. I'm ari-a-rimand-a-nangam. Un-u-a-mi-sern-ling,

a, that you need, da-a-mine-nie. That song by our previous guest, the Greenlandic Inuit, Ayup Peter. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. One year ago today, the historic palisades fire and eaten fires started in Los Angeles, California, burning a massive path of destruction through the region. More than 30 people died over 100,000. displaced, some 16,000 buildings and homes were destroyed. As the fires burned, them, MSNBC

correspondent Jacob Soberoff was on the ground reporting about the neighborhood where he grew up. This is an excerpt from report he filed after discovering the home he was born in had burned down. This is the first time that I've seen the house that I grew up in, and I don't really know what to say. Mom? Look at this. Zafrontaro? Yeah. Your birth house? Yep.

Oh, I'm so sad. Every one of you guys was born in that house. I know. It makes me sad, too. This was a really, really special place for the Sobrow family, and I'm very sorry to see it go. And I'm very sorry for all. the residents of Pacific Palisades and everyone across the greater L.A. area that's going through this right now. That's Jacob Soberoff reporting a year ago. As recovery from the fires continues, Jacob joins us now to discuss his new book, Firestorm, the great Los Angeles fires, and America's

new age of disaster. We also had him in to talk about his other book separated inside an American tragedy. Jacob is a senior political and national reporter for MS Now, formerly MS. NBC. Welcome to Democracy Now. It's so good to see you, Amy. Thank you. It's great to see you a year ago today. You were reporting somewhere and you get a call from your brother. Yeah, my brother says there's a huge fire in the palaces. It was actually a text thread to our whole family. We're evacuating right now. And he had lived not far from where I grew up for most of my life up in the Santa Monica Mountains. Until I was about 18 years old, they left. The home they lived in ultimately burned down. The childhood home that I lived in had burned down and was born into.

You know, and I think as you cover these things in real time, how do you process watching your childhood memories carbonize in front of your eyeballs? And I didn't. I mean, the answer is you don't. You can't, especially while talking to a national television audience. And so I wanted to do this book. I wanted to do a firestorm to understand what it was. How do we get here? Is it going to happen again?

And the answer is yes, definitely. This was the fire of the future. And I experienced it in real time. And Jacob, you talk about the causes of the fire. and the subsequent defunding of agencies like FEMA and NOAA and the key agencies that can alert the public about these disasters? Yeah, the thing about this book is that you're going to read, you know, it's a minute-by-minute accounting of what really went on. It reads like a sci-fi thriller, but it's just the truth. It's what we're going to experience more and more.

And part of that story is not just the personal nature of this and how devastating it was to everybody, but what has happened in the aftermath, and you're going to read from the halls of power in Washington, D.C., stories of government officials telling me both in their official capacity and outside the official channels because they weren't authorized to speak about the devastation that this particular administration, Trump was president-elect at the time, and it didn't stop him from spreading misinformation and disinformation, but how they have decimated FEMA, senior leaders have left. The National Weather Service that predicted this event as a particularly dangerous situation has lost meteorologists all around the country. Nyash National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has lost people that look out for the well-being of firefighters after things like this. NASA's Earth Science program is on the chopping block, and I flew with Fire Sense, their mission to study the future of fire and to map it using imaging spectrometry from the sky to make it easier to fight fires on the ground. I was in the Pacific Northwest, all for this book

with the Forest Service who could not actually bring on firefighters at the beginning of this administration because of the doge cuts and the hiring freezes that were taking place. And so when you look at the fire of the future, it's a confluence of many things. Obviously, the global climate emergency, which you will read about in detail in the book. But also our infrastructure falling apart, the Altadena fire was a steel lattice tower that was not even active and had been sitting dormant for years that became electrified. changes in the way we live. Electric car batteries exploding, a thousand of them all over Los Angeles, one emergency

management official told me. And then finally, again, this issue of misinformation and disinformation during natural disasters, the kind of which Donald Trump was spreading, saying things like we could just turn on a tap and have water flow down from the Pacific Northwest. I laugh, but it's preposterous. It is ridiculous. And those are the kinds of things today in this New Age of Disaster in America that that Americans are contending with in addition to the climate emergency.

Jacob, you have a fascinating story about Katie Miller getting in touch with you to see about her in-laws home. Katie Miller married to Stephen Miller talking about his parents' home and your relationship with her since separated in your reporting on immigrants. I couldn't believe it, Amy. Katie Miller was the person as the junior most press deputy to Kirsten Nielsen and the Department of Homeland Security that invited me into the facilities, to see family separations for myself. She didn't like the book, I think it's fair to say, and my reporting about family separation,

so we had lost touch. But as I stood there getting ready to deliver a special report for Lester Holt on NBC News, my phone rang and it was Katie Miller. And I said I couldn't speak, so I hung up. But before I could even call her back, she texted me and basically asked me to go check on Stephen Miller's parents' house in the Palisades.

You can imagine my surprise, I said, am I really being asked to go to Stephen Miller's parents' house? Well, just like I did for my friends that I drove in high school and my brother and other people I knew in the palisades, I went and checked. They had lost their home. And for a second, maybe foolishly, I thought, you know, this adversarial journalist-source relationship, the politics of the past could be put aside. But within minutes, maybe even before she had texted me, Donald Trump and Elon Musk both, her future boss at Doge, were spreading, pouring rhetorical fuel on the flames of the very real fire. and it was very clear to me very quickly that while I had gone and done this, and I don't deserve any credit as what anybody would have done,

her own bosses were making the recovery and the fire itself worse for people like her own in-laws. If you can talk about what's happening to people. And talk about how Governor Gavin Newsom? Go ahead. We had the same question, one. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry. describe how Governor Newsom handled this fire as President Trump and Musk.

The others attacked him online. You know, a lot of people have been making a lot of his current social media strategy to punch back against Donald Trump in a way equally hard that Donald Trump punches at him. And you will read about the origin story of that strategy, actually, in Firestorm. There's an incredible scene where he is sitting in his makeshift command center in Los Angeles, watching Elon Musk during a live stream. A prod, I think it's fair to say, local firefighters on the ground

about conspiracy theories related to why there was no water in the hydrants. And there are legitimate questions to ask about, you know, infrastructure-related questions about why an 117 million gallon reservoir in the Palisades was empty at the time of the fire. And Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass and the Democratic leaders, you know, are not absolved in any of this either. But Elon Musk is there pushing these firefighters

that are essentially saying to him, look, we were flowing so much water. It's like turning on all the taps in your house at the same time. This is what I heard from lots of firefighters. How can you possibly expect water pressure to remain consistent when you have three times the size of Manhattan burning in Los Angeles right now? Well, Musk's seen flustered during that exchange, and Gavin Newsom was watching it live. And he said to his A, it's in some pretty salty and colorful languages you can read it on the book.

Clip that right now. F these guys. We're going to go back on the attack immediately. And that's exactly what Gavin Newsom did. They put that clip on the internet. He said that was the beginning of the way that he has started to deal with the misinformation and disinformation now. I spent a lot of time with him for this book, and I think you're going to be surprised by what that picture on the right hand side of the screen is me and him in Altadena days after the fire with the National Guard troops, which, by the way, is still dealing with the ramifications of that. He's trying to get the, he just got the control of the guard back and he expects Trump to take it again.

And the migrant workers who tried to clean up the fire being targeted by the Trump administration now? said to me on that very day in that photo, off camera, after I interviewed him for Meet the Press, I'm really concerned about what Trump, the president-elect, is going to do with immigration and its impact on the recovery. We got more undocumented people in L.A. than any other city in the country. I think it's 10% of the population. They are the prime targets standing in Home Depot parking lots, not the worst of the worst, but the people that are engaged in the rebuilding of Los Angeles are the ones being targeted by the ice raids. Right now, we've seen people run and die, getting hit by cars on freeways by these operations. You know what they're doing?

They're trying to find work, rebuilding homes in Altadena and the Palisades. That's who the Trump administration is targeting, as Gavin Newsom points out. We just have 20 seconds. People losing their homes, their property, they already had their houses burned down. Well, and here's the thing. 40% of the homes and the lots that are selling now are going to corporate investors, not locals. LA is the most unaffordable city in the country and the most unaffordable state in the union. this book will show you the fissures that lie beneath our society that are exposed when a firestorm like this happens. Jacob Soberoff, Senior Political National Reporter for MS Now, New Book, Firestorm, the Great Los Angeles Fires in America's New Age of Disaster. On Monday, we'll speak with filmmaker And Di Timiner about her film, all the walls came down, about losing her home.

We'll also speak with the main protagonist, the community activist in Altadina Heavenly Hughes. That does it for our show. The film has been shortlisted for an Oscar. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.