Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-07-21 Tuesday

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

Democracy Now! Tuesday, July 21, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. The ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles, but with statutes, compacts, and the force of so-called international law. The Trump administrations announce new plans for the United States to systematically disable the international criminal court, brick-by-brick. We'll speak with longtime war crimes prosecutor to read Brody about. about the new attack, as well as the possibility of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being arrested in New York for alleged war crimes in Gaza if he comes to the United Nations. New York Mayor Mamdani says he's weighing his options.

Then we look at the World Cup with former soccer player Jules Boycott, author of Red Card, the 2026 World Cup, sports washing, and the FIFA greed machine. Finally, a movement's growing targeting flock. The automatic license plate reader company critics accuse flock of building a nationwide mass surveillance system. They can create a record of every place you've traveled for as long as they keep the data. And this can include really sensitive places like political meetings you've gone to, doctors offices, religious institutions, even where you sleep at night. All that and more coming up.

Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. In Yemen, Houthi leaders have declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, opening a new front in the conflict embroiling the Middle East. The announcement sent shockwaves through global energy markets that were already rattled from renewed U.S. attacks on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Experts warn a closure of the Baba Mandib, straight, near Houthi-controlled territory at the mouth of the Red Sea. could halt Saudi oil exports to Asia while slashing global oil supply by some 7%. On Monday, thousands of Houthi supporters rallied in Sana in Yemen in support of the blockade. The decision is wise in response to the Saudi aggression and its blockade. They have blockaded us for 12 years.

So we say to them, a blockade for blockade, airports for airports and ports for ports. Saudi Arabia promised to meet the Houthis blockade with force and said it would move. to protect its ships moving through the Babel Mandeb Strait. Meanwhile, the cost of ensuring cargo ships traversing the Red Sea sword Monday more than doubling after the Houthi announcement. The United States has carried out a 10th consecutive night of strikes on Iran with reports of explosions in Syrac, Bandar Abbas, Keshem Island, Shiraz, and Isfahan. In response, Iran's military launch retaliatory strikes on U.S. assets in Jordan, Bahrain,

in Kuwait, claiming hits on U.S. radar communications and air defense systems. Meanwhile, at least three oil tankers erupted in flames. After coming under Iranian fire while attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, on Monday, the Pentagon identified two U.S. soldiers killed an Iranian strike on their base in Jordan. Private Isabella Gonzalez of Carrollton, Texas, was just 19 years old. She was killed alongside First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan of Hawaii. There are among at least 17 U.S. service members killed in action. supporting President Trump's attacks on Iran. This comes after the New York Times reported the Pentagon failed to disclose nearly 100 injuries to U.S. troops since July 7th. In Gaza, health officials say an

entire Palestinian family was wiped off the civil registry overnight in an Israeli strike on their home. The attack on Gaza City's sovereign neighborhood came without warning around 2 a.m. sending shrapnel flying into the tents of displaced Palestinians living nearby. It killed Firas Amasri, along with his wife, Sal Sabeo, their three daughters and son. This is the children's grandfather, Abu Yusuf Amasri. We were unable to save our grandchildren and children from the flames and the devastation. Six people were martyred, most of them children and women, without mercy and without any prior warning. All these are crimes by the Israelis.

When the world thinks there's a ceasefire or relative calm, there is no relative calm, and there is no safe place at all. In more news from Gaza, Hamas has selected Khalil Ahaya as its new leader, filling a role left vacant for nearly two years after Israel assassinated its former head, Yaya Senwar, in October 2024. Ahaya was part of negotiations with President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy, Steve Whitkoff last October. Before that, he survived in Israeli air strike on a residential complex in Cutter's capital

Doha last September. That attack killed one of Al-Haya's sons. In the United States, a federal judge has paused the $110 billion merger of Paramount Skydance with Warner Brothers Discovery granting a request from a coalition of 12 state attorneys general. The judge scheduled an August 3rd hearing. on the state's motion for a preliminary injunction to halt the merger. The Writers Guild of America filed its own lawsuit against the merger, claiming it would negatively impact union

members' wages and lead to job losses. The Trump administration seeking to uncover the confidential sources who spoke to journalists at the New York Times about security concerns relating to President Trump's new plane donated to him by Qatar. The Justice Department issued subpoenas to phone service providers to obtain several journalists' phone and text messaging records and their relatives' phone records, like parents and spouse, including from one reporter's mother. The Times has asked the judge to quash the requests. In a report, the State Department has accused the Cuban government of waging a, quote, sustained campaign of subversion against the United States, unquote.

The report claims Cuba's back to a number of groups in the United States, including the National Lawyers Guild, Code Pink, pastors for peace in the national network on Cuba. In a statement, Code Pink said, quote, this latest attempt by the State Department is just one of many politically motivated witch hunts designed to silence anti-war voices who dare to challenge U.S. militarism. It's about justifying even more aggression against Cuba while turning advocates for peace into suspects, Code Pink said. The 100-page report also includes quotes from earlier New York Times reporting, including a reference to me as well as Democracy Now. The Trump administrations activated the alien terrorist removal court for the first time since it was established by law in 1996. Congress approved the five-judge court for extraordinary cases when normal proceedings could expose classified material. It allows for the rapid deportation of foreign nationals deemed by the court to be, quote, alien terrorists along with their

immediate family members. Last week, the Justice Department submitted the first ever application to the court, which has remained dormant for three decades. Details of the July 15th application are sealed with a cover sheet marking its contents as classified. U.S. District Judge Joan Erickson, a George W. Bush appointee, subsequently issued an order asking the Trump administration to make a more thoughtful application. In Arizona, an open letter signed by 120 prisoners at the Eloy Detention Center alleges a range of human rights abuses, including severe medical neglect, verbal and physical abuse by guards and poor mental health care. Prisoners say anyone complaining about poor conditions is sent to solitary confinement called the whole.

Here in New York, police say a former Army veteran has been taken into custody. custody after using fireworks to start a fire outside 26 federal plaza in lower Manhattan, where many immigrants have been held in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions. According to the FBI, 43-year-old Andrew Arabeaka doused a stairwell with gasoline and ignited it. He also fired five to seven pellets from an airsoft gun. The Department of Homeland Security described him as an anti-ice rioter. This is James Barnacle, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York field office. Mr. Arabeka came armed with bad attentions. I will say that 26 Federal Plaza has long been a target of extremists of terrorists.

And today, the extremism was brought here. 26 Federal Plaza became infamous last year as mass federal agents repeatedly arrested immigrants who'd come from mandatory. check-ins and court appointments. Last summer, a judge ordered the Trump administration to address prolonged confinement at jails inside 26 federal plaza, citing severe overcrowding, medical neglect, and limited access to food, water, sanitary products, and a place to sleep. President Trump said Monday he would impose tariffs of 50 percent on a wide range of goods imported from Canada. The duties are set to take effect in 30 days with exemptions for Canadian fuel, fish, fertilizer, and critical minerals. Trump announced that. Trump announced that,

the tariffs after threatening to sanction Canada for wildfire smoke drifting over much of the United States and after declaring Canada unfairly discriminated against U.S. auto's alcohol and dairy products. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the death toll from the Ebola outbreak has surged to 930 with over 2,300 confirmed cases. It comes as the World Health Organization warned last week, Ebola is spreading in the DRC faster than in any previous outbreak. Meanwhile, in Kenya, activists are accusing authorities of violating a court order that halted the setup of a U.S. back to Ebola quarantine center following reports Americans were being quarantined in Kenya. Local residents have protested against the facility recently leading to the deaths of two people when the protests turned violent. The UN's refugee agency warns more than 500 Rohingya refugees are missing and feared dead after a pair of boats capsized off the coast of Burma, the 533. asylum seekers departed June 29th from Burma's Rakhine state, while where Rohingya Muslims have

suffered pogroms and other major human rights abuses amidst fighting between Burma's military junta and separatist fighters, even before the latest tragedy. It's believed nearly 300 people have gone missing or lost their lives so far this year while fleeing violence off the coast of Burma. In India, tens of thousands of youth-led protesters have rallied against the right-wing government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling for the resignation of India. India's education minister. That's Darmendra Pratton. Protesters are blaming him for the leak of national exam questions that were circulated on social media,

forcing millions of students to retake the exam. Some students ended up dying by suicide after studying for the exam four years. Abhiji Dipke, founder of the so-called Cockrochanta Party, blamed India's Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, and Prime Minister Nurendamodi for ordering a bloody cracker. down on protesters. Today, what the Delhi police have done, the way they beat students, the way they hit them in their heads, it was very shameful.

Due to this, the country's reputation is being damaged worldwide. And we all know why Delhi police did all of this, because they received orders from Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. And in Nicaragua, President Danielle Ortega's declared his nation will no longer hold elections. Ortega made the announcement during a Sunday evening speech in Monarchie. commemorating the 1979-Sanino-Easter Revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Anastosia Samosa. There won't be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power. The days when parties backed by the Yankees and the Somosistas would return to power are over, never again.

It was Ortega's first public appearance in two months. In 2021, he secured a fourth term as president following a months-long crackdown on dissent during which dozens of opposition figures, including seven presidential hopefuls, were arrested. A United Nations report earlier this year found President Ortega and his wife Rosario Maria, whom he named co-president, eliminated all checks and balances on their power to build an authoritarian state in Nicaragua. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez in Chicago.

Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. We begin today's show with a major escalation in the Trump administration's campaign against the international criminal court, the ICC. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new plans to systematically dismantled the ICC, quote, brick by brick. Last week, Rubio published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, released a video attacking the Hague-based tribunal, accusing it of overreach. But as we speak, the ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country, not with

bullets or missiles, but with statutes, compacts, and the force of so-called international law. When the ICC was born 24 years ago, they told us that. that it was merely a narrow backstop, a global court that would step in to prosecute only the gravest defenses, things like genocide and war crimes, and only when a nation's courts were unable to prosecute them on their own. But the truth is, it was something far more radical and extreme. It was a global tribunal staffed by unelected globalist bureaucrats who claim their power is almost unlimited. The danger of this global court has only continued to grow. Today it threatens every aspect of our political and legal system.

Border Patrol agents removing violent criminals from our country. American Marines risking their lives to defend our homeland. Prosecutors working to dismantle terrorist plots to attack and kill Americans. If we stand idle, all of them would be at the mercy of foreign judges thousands of miles away, facing the constant risk of prosecution and even imprisonment for the so-called crime of defending their own country. In his Wall Street Journal piece, Rubio singled out human rights organizations, including Democracy for the Arab World Now or Dawn, for supporting international accountability efforts. Rubio's attacks came as Dawn as filed a major lawsuit in U.S. federal court challenging the Trump

administration's sanctions targeting the international criminal court. The lawsuit argues the sanctions, quote, violate Americans' constitutional right to engage in Palestine-related human rights advocacy, unquote. Rubio's attack on the ICC comes two years after the court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced in 2024 he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then Israeli defense minister Yoav Galant, as well as three Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since then, Khan has been accused of sexual misconduct by a female aide. On Friday, the ICC's 125 member states are scheduled to hold a special session at the United Nations to vote on Khan's future.

Meanwhile, New York City mayors are on Mamdani, reiterated Monday. He's still looking into arresting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York for the UN General Assembly in September. When it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu, we're speaking about someone who's the subject of an international criminal court arrest warrant. and he's the subject of this arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity, for war crimes, and he's the architect of the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza as Israel's prime minister. These are not facts of my personal assessment, they are facts of public record. And I believe that when someone is charged with an international criminal court warrant,

it's something that should be taken seriously, whether it's Benjamin Netanyahu or it's Vladimir Putin or whomever else. What I've also made clear is that my administration will follow. all applicable local loss. For more, we go to Toulouse, France, where we're joined by Reid Brody, war crimes prosecutor, a member of the International Commission of Juris, and author of To Catch a Dictator, the pursuit and trial of Hussain Habre. He's also on the board of Dawn. Reid, Brody, welcome back to Democracy Now.

Can you respond to the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, writing in the Wall Street Journal, he wants to dismantle the international criminal court brick by brick. Sure. Thank you, Amy, again. Look, this is not a defense of American sovereignty against a runaway court. This is an insurance policy against accountability for crimes that the Trump administration is committing in plain sight. Look, Marco Rubio knows that bombing Iran without Security Council authorization constitutes aggression under the UN Charter. That blowing up boats in the Caribbean and killing their occupants without trial constitutes murder.

That rendering migrants to a notorious Salvadoran prison where they were tortured can create criminal liability. And in fact, sanctioning judges and prosecutors for doing their job is itself a crime under the crime against the administration of justice under the court statute. So this isn't about American sovereignty. It's about

impunity. And Reed, how in your estimation has the Trump administration approached international law, especially in his Trump's second term? You know, I mean, obviously American adherence to international law

has always been selective and and often hypocritical. I mean, think about the invasion of Iraq, the Bush torture program. And, you know, Washington has traditionally championed war crimes tribunals as long as they prosecuted other people, right? The defeated, the outcast, the enemy of the West. But, you know, even at its most hypocritical, the United States paid tribute to the rules. It claimed its wars were legal. It wrote memos to argue that torture wasn't torture. Hypocry, as they say, is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. But Trump has even stopped, you know, the pretense.

You know, he bombs Iran and, you know, hardly bothers with the legal justification. He blows up boats and posts the videos. The Secretary of State speaks about so-called international law and, you know, and bows to dismantle the world's criminal court, brick by brick. So, I mean, earlier presidents violated the rules while pretending to honor them. And Trump, I think, is just, you know, trying to destroy the rules. And what about Marco Rubio's contention that the international criminal court has far exceeded its original mandate? What's your response to that?

You know, when you listen to Marco Rubio, you hear a court waging war with statutes. That tells you everything. I mean, to this administration, law itself is the enemy. And I think if we think about it, they are trying to do abroad what they're doing at home, right? Trample on international law like they're trampling on domestic law. While they undermine all of the institutions that could get in their way, the courts of the ICC, the journalists, the civil society organization. So it's very much, I think, in keeping with what the administration is doing in the United States.

Reid, can you talk about the bombing of desalination plants, their significance? And talk overall about people around the world looking at what's happening to and whether to take human rights, crimes, allegations seriously. You know, I mean, the cornerstone. principle of the laws of war is that you can only attack military targets, right? Never civilians, never civilian objects. And the Geneva Conventions, in particular, protect objects that are indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. And they specifically name in the Geneva Conventions drinking water installations. So, you know, deliberately or even

recklessly, attacking a population's water supply would be a war crime, full stop. And, you know, in this case, you know, we have Trump publicly threatening. He said earlier, you know, that they would hit possibly all desalination plans. So when a president announces his intention to destroy the infrastructure that civilians depend on for to survive and then does it, you know, that looks like the deliberate target. of a civilian population's lifeline. Now, President Trump and the military commanders who carry out these orders, you know, could one day face prosecution for these things.

I mean, let's remember that the ICC has already charged Russian generals for exactly this, attacking the infrastructure in Ukraine, the power grids. And at dawn, we've called on Iran and the Gulf states to give the ICC jurisdiction over crimes committed on their territories. And in fact, that is specifically what Rubio signaled us out for. And, Reed, I wanted to ask you about New York mayor, Zohraamandani's raising the possibility of seeking to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu during when he comes to New York for the General Assembly. Is that even possible for a local mayor or local police force to enforce an international warrant like this? Well, I think there are a lot of complex legal issues involved, including his potential immunity as a sitting prime minister. the United Nations agreement with the United States,

which requires the United States to let people, you know, speak to come to the United Nations. So, but, you know, I think it's really important that he's saying this. I mean, Netanyahu is under an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity. the United States may be obliged to let Netanyahu speak at the UN, but it's not obliged to roll out the red carpet. It's not obliged to invite him to address Congress. I mean, the mayor is saying what the president should be saying, which is that a man wanted for crimes against humanity is not an honored guest. And, you know, let's not overlook the bigger issue, which is American complicity in these very crimes. as Dawn alleged last year in a filing with the court before the U.S. sanctions blocked Dawn from further cooperating with the court.

The bombs that Israel used to destroy schools and hospitals and homes in Gaza were American bombs. Israel's campaign of murder and persecution has been carried out with American political, financial diplomatic support. So, you know, to me, the real scandal isn't that the mayor of New York is asking whether he can arrest Netanyahu. It's that the president of the United States is protecting Netanyahu and sanctioning the judges who are trying, you know, who have indicted him. And explain how they've been sanctions, Reed, how the ICC judges have been sanctioned and the lawsuit brought by the organization you're on the board of Dawn, democracy for the Arab world now. So that's right. I mean, you know, I mean, I have, I mean, Trump's executive order, first of all, authorizes a list to sanction a list of people. And that list of people has now grown. It started with the ICC prosecutor. It then was expanded to the two deputy prosecutors and now eight judges of the ICC. Every judge who has ruled on the Israel issue, or previously many years back on potential war crimes in Afghanistan. And, you know, these sanctions are crippling the court.

And in the case of the individual judges and prosecutors, it means not only they can't come to the United States, they can't have bank accounts, they can't use credit cards, they can't do a lot of the things that we do. And now, I think, would this announcement by about dispensable, you know, this announcement about dismantling the court brick by brick, suggests that those sanctions will be expanded. But in terms of dawn, and here is the risk in concrete terms. I mean, Trump's executive order makes it a federal offense to provide a service to anyone who has been sanctioned. And that includes, as I said, the judges, the prosecution. It also includes the three leading Palestinian human rights

organizations like our friend Raji Sarani's group, you know, who are documenting the destruction of Gaza and sharing that evidence with the court. It includes the UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese. So if an American lawyer or a group like Dawn shares evidence of war crimes with the ICC or collaborates with the Palestinian human rights groups, we risk federal prosecution. And Dawn asked the Treasury Department three times in writing to confirm that our human rights work is lawful and Treasury never answered. So Dawn has had to censor itself not to provide submissions to the court, to suspend work with the Palestinian groups. And that's the point of the sanctions, not just to punish the Hague, but to drive Americans into silence. So we brought this lawsuit, which makes two.

basic arguments. One is that the First Amendment, under the First Amendment, the government cannot punish Americans for what they say, including what they say to a court or for whom we associate with in human rights work. And second, that the president has exceeded his own authority. And when Congress gave president sanctioning an authority, it expressly barred them from restricting personal communications and the exchange of information. And we're not the only people who brought lawsuits. I mean, three of the court's own judges had sued in New York. Two law professors brought their own challenge, and a federal judge in Manhattan permanently barred the government from enforcing the sanctions against their work on First Amendment grounds. Another federal judge

in Maine blocked enforcement against two human rights activists on the same grounds. So, so far, every federal judge that has looked at the issue has ruled that the sanctions, um, uh, uh, uh, are go too far. Finally, in Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega has declared his nation will no longer hold elections. He made the announcement Sunday in Managua commemorating the 1979 Sandinista Revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Anastasio Samosa. This is what he said. There won't be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power.

The days when parties backed by the Yankees and the Somosistas would return to power are over. Never again. It was Ortega's first public appearance in two months. In 2021, he secured a fourth term as president following a months-long crackdown on dissent, during which dozens of opposition figures, including seven presidential hopefuls, were arrested. A UN report earlier this year found Ortegaon as wife Rosario Maria Maria, whom he named co-president, eliminated all checks and balances on their power to build an authoritarian state in Nicaragua. You read, Brody, are War crimes prosecutor and are one of the expert members of the United Nations.

group of human rights experts on Nicaragua that released that report. Your final comment in this last minute. Well, we've been watching, unfortunately, Nicaragua's dissent into dictatorship since 2018 when the government fired on massive peaceful protests and killed some 350 people. In the last elections in 2021, virtually all of the candidates were arrested and have since been exiled and stripped of their citizenship. All independent media and NGOs have been shut down and exiled. There are no independent political parties. Last year, the Constitution was amended to formally do away with the separation of powers and put all power in the hands of the two co-presidents, Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Morillo. So this really, it's just, you know,

it's just dropping the other shoe. It's just making. It's just making. making, you know, just ending all the pretense that there are any rights in Nicaragua, that there is any possibility of a fair election. And this is really, as you know, Amy, I go back in Nicaragua for 40 years and to the time of the revolution. And, you know, Daniel Ortega, who was, you know, who was part of a group that rose up to to fight off a family dictatorship has now created a family dictatorship. And it's a real tragedy for the people of Nicaragua. Reid Brody, war crimes prosecutor, member of the International Commission of Juris, author of To Catch a Dictator, the Pursuit and Trial of Hysen Habre.

Reid, happy birthday. Coming up, we look at the World Cup with former soccer player Jules Boykoff. Stay with us. Crumb Clean by the Corner Lafers. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. The Spanish football team has returned to Spain for a victory parade in the streets of Madrid where they were greeted by an estimated two million people. These are the soccer players that won, carrying the World Cup trophy.

They wore shirts with the words Somos Campiano's war. We are the champions. The two, 2006 FIFA Men's World Cup ended Sunday with Spain beating Argentina 1-0 during extra time, with Spain winning a goal at the 106th minute of a long and tense final. In Gaza, too, Spain's win was widely celebrated. Spain's support for Palestinian rights and Israel's backing of the Argentine team turned the final into more than just a football showdown. Meanwhile, FIFA has opened an investigation into the ugly brawl that followed Spain's victory with several players from Argentina facing bands. As Spanish soccer players ran onto the field to celebrate their victory, some of Argentina's players appeared to attack members of the Spanish team, including the Spanish midfielder Rodriguez-Oradi, or Audrey, who later won the FIFA Golden Ball as the tournament's best player. On TikTok, Fox Sports posted a video that went viral after the game ended.

Spain's teenage star, Lamin Amal, is seen preying on the field while nearby Argentine players started clashing with some players from Spain. Fox Sports captioned the video two very different scenes. Laminumal is a 19-year-old star who was born to a father from Morocco and a mother from Equatorial Guinea. The game also marked the first time he faced. off against the Argentine soccer star, Messi, who is widely considered one of the greatest soccer players ever. But it was not the first time they met. Images have gone viral of their first meeting in

2007 when a 20-year-old Messi was photographed holding a six-month-old Leminia Mal in a plastic baby tub. Last week, UNICEF reposted the photo on X, writing, yes, those photos you've seen are real. More than 18 years ago, a baby named Laminia Mal and his mom, Sheila, met Lionel Massey at a UNICEF fundraising photo shoot, unquote. UNICEF also posted a video describing the photo shoot. 50% of calendar sales went to UNICEF.

to contribute to UNICEF projects which support children's rights. And we have it here. In the photo showing the month of January 2008, Leo Messi appears helping to bathe Laminia Mal next to his mother. The photographer Joan Munford has said that Laminia Mal stole Messi's heart because he was always smiling and he was very nice. In other World Cup news, President Trump was booed by fans as he walked onto the field alongside the FIFA president, Janie Infantino, to take part in the postgame trophy ceremony.

Later, Infantino tried to usher Trump away as he tried to stand in front of and then beside the Spanish team as Roderley lifted Spain's trophy. Well, as the most expensive and financially lucrative FIFA Men's World Cup comes to an end, we're joined now from Toronto by Jules Boycough, author of Red Card, the 2026 World Cup sports washing and the FIFA greed machine. Also, the book, Kicking, a memoir about his former life as a professional soccer player. Jules, thanks so much for joining us again. Can you talk about the significance of what took place? Also, Spain now enjoys having both the World Cup trophy for the men and the woman, the only country in history.

Well, a lot of people out here were cheering for Spain for a lot of reasons. First of all, they play beautiful football. Second, their football is all about collectivity. Their star player, Laminia Mall, he has to adjust to the structure of the team. On the flip side with Argentina, their superstar Lionel Messi, the team has to adjust their structure to him. It's much more individual-based, unlike any team really I've seen in recent World Cup history. This reflects wider currents in both of the country.

countries. Pedro Sanchez and the socialist that he works with have advanced a more humane immigration agenda in Spain. They're pushing forward green policies. They're talking about bringing an investigation against Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes for what Israel did to the flotillas that recently tried to reach Gaza. On the flip side, you've got Argentina led by Javier Millet. As you noted, Netanyahu supported Argentina. Not so much because he's a Leo. Messi fan, but because he's a big Javier Millet fan. Millet is an extreme libertarian who embraces the zombie neoliberal capitalism of the 1990s with great fervor. So you couldn't have much more of a sharp divergence in terms of the two teams that made the finals and what they mean for the bigger politics of

the world right now. And, Jules, what about the FIFA itself? Clearly, the World Cup was extremely popular not only in the United States, but throughout, all over the planet. But FIFA reports that it will bring in, has brought in $15 billion in revenue. The greed that is at the center of the FIFA organization. I wonder if you could talk about that. Absolutely, Juan. So originally, FIFA said that they would take in $11 billion in revenue from this tournament alone.

That itself would have been more revenues than any sporting event in the history of sporting events. Instead, their projections are more like $15 billion. Part of that is because they really catered to the luxury classes. I mean, let's not forget that the World Cup is an opportunity for a privileged sliver of the global 1% to come together, to sit in the luxury boxes, to appear on school, on TV to cut deals behind the scenes. And that's exactly what this World Cup was about. They made a lot more money than they expected from the luxury packages that they set up. Essentially, FIFA is keen to turn the people's game into a game for the 1%. A game for the plutocrats. Going into this final,

the average ticket price, according to Seatgeek, was $12,000. $12,000. Who can afford that? there were tickets along the sidelines that we're selling for $1 million a piece. And so what you saw here in a way is that the FIFA Men's World Cup is in a sense too big to fail. And as we've seen with other situations where there's a too big to fail mentality, that is a dangerous recipe, whether we're talking about the 2008 financial collapse where banks survived and in fact thrive, where we saw an upward transfer of wealth, trickle up economics, if you will. Similar dynamics are in play here with FIFA. Moving forward, they're in a stronger position perhaps than ever.

And I wanted to ask you also, there were three countries that were hosting this World Cup, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. But at least one of those leaders, Claudia Shanebaum of Mexico, had a different approach to when, especially when the, Mexican team played. She would not go into the luxury boxes, but instead stayed in events, in communities in Mexico itself, wondering the difference in her approach versus, let's say, a Trump or the Canadian prime minister. Claudia Scheinbaum did the right thing. She gave away some of her free tickets to people

who would otherwise never be able to attend a match. And you saw from the two, leaders in Shinebaum and Trump, a sharp contrast. Shinebaum using the opportunity to stay in tune with her own politics and Trump using the opportunity to essentially weaponize the event for his political advantage. More specifically, everybody knows about the rescinded red card heard round the world where U.S. forward Fuller and Balagoon received a red card in the match against Bosnia. And President Trump called his BFF over at FIFA, the president Gianni, in Fontino and pressured him to overturn the penalty for that red card, thereby politically intervening. It should be noted that when other countries have it politically intervened in the

machinations of FIFA, they've been suspended, whether it's Pakistan, whether it's Kenya, whether it's Zimbabwe, they paid a price. Donald Trump, he benefited from his political intervention. But his weaponization of this tournament for political gain goes far before that particular incident. After all, he banned the award-winning referee from Somalia, Omar Abdul-Qadir Artaan, from participating in the tournament, interrogating him for 11 hours and then sending him on a plane to Turkey and eventually home to Somalia. The Trump administration treated the Iran team like they were second-class citizens at the tournament, essentially forcing them to commute from Tijuana to their matches in Seattle in Los Angeles. And this definitely had an effect on

their play. As if that weren't enough, Department of Homeland Security head, Mark Wayne Mullen, said he may have danced a happy dance when Iran was ultimately eliminated from the tournament. And so you can see that the Trump administration was active weaponizing. As if to go further, the Department of Homeland Security's X-Feed issued a number of racist and anti-immigration tweets using the U.S. men's national soccer team players as their political backdrop. They issued tweet that read one nation, one homeland, one team. And if that sounds like Nazi propaganda, that's because it essentially is. It mirrors Nazi propaganda from the 1940s. One of their slogans was one people, one realm, one leader. One point that I absolutely think is crucial to

note here is that while many of us were engrossed in this World Cup, immigration and customs enforcement ramped up its violent deportation machine. During the actual World Cup, we saw a surge from ICE detentions. At one point, they were averaging 2,000 detentions a day right in the thick of the World Cup. Now, this isn't quite the 3,000 a day fever dream of Trump's assistant white nationalist Stephen Miller, but it's still almost double what was happening before the month that the tournament started. And so the World Cup helped Trump advance his agenda. it deflected attention from a lot of people away from his brutal immigration program.

And it sets him up well to do the same in Los Angeles in 2028 when the United States hosts the Summer Olympics. And as we finally wrap up, Jules, you have all of that. And then you, though, have running counter to throwing immigrants out of the country. I was just in Kansas City this weekend. The flags of so many nations were fluttering in the wind. in Lawrence, Kansas, where they hosted the Algerian soccer team. I think they came late at night, and the whole town was out wearing the flag, colors of Algeria, marching bands playing their national anthem.

The significance of at this time, at this time of an immigrant crackdown, having this global celebration. This is extremely significant. Because people across the country, whether in Lawrence, Kansas, whether in Portland, Oregon, where Jordan was based, they stepped up and showed the world that the United States population cannot be distilled down to the MAGA version of the United States that is often projected to the world. They welcomed people from around the world with open arms and said, we want you here. We appreciate immigration. And this couldn't have come at a better time. Jules Boykopf, we're going to thank you for being with us, author of Redcar, the 2026 World Cup sports washing and the FIFA greed machine, and kicking a memoir about his former life as a professional soccer player.

Coming up, a movement is growing targeting flock, the automatic license plate reader company. Critics accuse flock of building a nationwide mass surveillance system. Stay with us. Someday Give a moment With my soledade Give me a moment With my soledade

Give me a moment With my soledade Give me a moment With my soledade Give me a moment In my soledade Give me a moment In my soledad

Soilad by a black and Reina Tropical, from their newest collaboration, Elado of Tropical, to see their performance and interview, go to Democracy Now.org. This is Democracy Now. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. We turn to a growing movement against flock, an automatic license plate reader company used by over 5,000 law enforcement agencies in 49 states across the country. Critics have mapped over 100,000 flock cameras and use on streets in rural and urban communities and accused flock of building a nationwide mass surveillance system. Flock's cameras aren't like regular traffic cameras. Their surveillance technology records and tracks every car or human that comes into view.

And then an AI algorithm catalogs the make model color, license plate number, bumper stickers, and even scratches. This personal information is then uploaded to a nationwide database that any law enforcement agency with a flock contract can search with little oversight on how they use what they find. Flock is marketed as a tool to fight crimes, but the cameras collect data on millions of vehicles, regardless of whether the driver is suspected of a crime.

And as President Trump's immigration enforcement crackdown is escalated, concerns are growing over whether the local data from these cameras could be aiding the deportation dragnet. Flock claims it doesn't work with ICE and that ICE does not have direct access to Flock's cameras or systems or data. But an investigation from 404 media last year

found more than 4,000 searches that may have been conducted on behalf of or in partnership with ICE. This past May, an audit by the Dayton, Ohio Police Department, found its cameras were searched more than 7,000 times. for immigration enforcement purposes. This is what Flock CEO, Garrett Langley said in a podcast just last month. And so when the topic of immigration enforcement comes up, I'm like, guys, the company has no

opinion on this. If the state of Texas wants to enforce immigration, they might use Flock, but they're going to go enforce immigration no matter what Flock does. And that's the state of Texas's choice. That's the city's choice. And it's tough, right? It's really tough for my employees to work at a company where they're like, oh, I don't like that law, but our technology is used to enforce it. But we can't make that our problem as a

company. So Flock is being used by universities, by big box stores. For more on it and the movement against it, we're joined here in New York by Chad Marlowe, senior policy council at the ACOU, where he focused on privacy, surveillance, and technology issues. He leads the ACLU's efforts against Flock. Explain what we're talking about here and how Flock has been used. So basically automatic license plate readers or ALPRs are cameras that take a picture of every single car that goes by it, not just the cars that are suspected of criminality or have done something wrong, but every single car. They record the information about the car, including where it is and when it was there. And then they put it into a database. And this is where it gets really scary.

Because now you have pictures of every innocent person who drives by in a database that is kept for a month or more and shared throughout the nation with all of Flock's law enforcement customers, and in fact, even internationally with people associated with Flock. And so essentially, you know, even though in America, you know, one of our core constitutional principles is privacy, we have a company working with governments to record the comings and goings of every single person in the country as if you and I and everyone else were potential criminals. And that is a, in my opinion, a very un-American take on privacy and the way that we engage in criminal justice enforcement. And, Chad, this company is less than 10 years old, and it's spread so rapidly.

Could you talk a little bit about how it was created and also what's its business model? Does it set up its camera, does it rent spaces in private property to set up its cameras or is it using public rights of way or public streets and if so, how is that permitted? Yeah, so the company was formed by an engineer, billionaire engineer named Garrett Langley. And what is really interesting and very important about the company is that it is backed by almost a billion dollars in venture capital investment. And that is very critical because what those venture capitalists invested in was a company that basically trades privacy for profits. And so they will record the information about people. Flock always says it doesn't sell data, but Flax saying it doesn't sell data is like Ford Motor Company saying it doesn't sell steering wheels.

Yes, I understand the larger product is cars and it's monitoring vehicles, but it's that data that is part of Flock's product, just like a steering wheel, is part of Ford Motor Company's car product. So then it collects all this information, and the more information it can collect, and the more it can share, the more value that their product is. And most recently, Flock was valued in almost an $8 billion company. And so in order to increase the value of their company, they need to take more people's data, invade their privacy more, and share it more broadly. And although they may say things like we have certain methods in place and systems in place to prevent broader data sharing to make sure it's not misused, that is all simple public relations response. their venture capitalist investors who want to receive massive returns on their investment have forced flocks hand and say we need to put the pedal to the metal, violate privacy as much as possible if doing that will increase our profits.

And there's a direct correlation between more monitoring, more surveillance, more data collection, more data sharing, and more profits. But again, I wanted to ask you this issue of how do they do this, set up so many cameras. They, for instance, like cell phone companies that rent their towers in buildings to be able to create their network? How do they do it? How does Flock do it? Right.

So what they do is they go to your local police department and they say, we want to rent you the cameras that you need. We will also take care of storage. We will create a back system that will take care of data sharing. We'll do everything for you. All you need to do is sign on the dotted line. Now, what's interesting about Flock is, is this process of using your local police department, your local government to increase their network to spy on everyone,

they have to keep pushing that in order to get as broad of the network as they possibly can. And so they sneak in these contracts. They do it with their salespeople, but they try to do it out of public view. And what we've actually seen in the country is once eventually it comes into public view, because their cameras are fairly easy to recognize when you see them in public. Communities have risen up throughout the country and demanded those contracts, be canceled. In fact, in just the last 13 months, nearly 60 municipalities have either canceled their flock contracts or have said, do not renew them. And in fact, flock is going out in the country

not only promoting its products, but trying to quash any efforts to promote transparency in public engagement before their contracts are signed because they know the more the public knows, the greater resistance of the product will be, and they want to stop that anywhere they can. Talking about that resistance, I want to turn to Tobias Halpern, a 19-year-old student at California Polytechnic State University or Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Tobias Halpern started the website, D-Flock SLO in January to inform people about flock 17 cameras on campus. Last month, the college president confirmed Cal Poly would not renew its contract with the company after the current one ends next May. Here's Cal Poly student Tobias Halper and Unconnect with Jacob Soberoff on MS Now. When you opt into flock, when you buy a flock camera like Cal Poly did, you don't just buy a surveillance camera.

You're buying access and participation into this network. And so I think that's what really bothers people and that's what really bothers students. And that's what bothered us at Cal Poly is that as a Hispanic serving institution, they are going out and entering this network that has. has time and time again aided ICE in illegal deportations and just created this surveillance drag net that is really uncomfortable to anyone when you think about it. One of Flock's loudest critics is Ben Jordan, a recording artist, popular YouTuber in Atlanta, Georgia who work with technology experts and journalists to expose Flax security vulnerabilities. They were able to access cameras across the country viewing not only live streams,

but also 30 days of recorded content with the option to delete the footage. Here's a clip from his YouTube channel. A few weeks ago, using a commercial search engine, I very easily found the administration interfaces for dozens of flock safety cameras. I shared this information with 404 Media and with John Gaines' help, that number quickly grew to nearly 70. None of the data or video footage was encrypted. There was no username or password required.

These were all completely public-facing for the world to see, and some of them still are. You don't have to be an expert to find and gain accurate. to this. You don't even have to type anything in to see every single person, vehicle, and activity that took place in these locations in the last 31 days. Whether you wanted to watch this footage live in real time or look at footage from a month ago, you could just point and click your way to it like you were watching Netflix. I mean, this is really amazing. And you have the CEO of Flock, Garrett Langley, talking about the activist group called

D.Flock, calling it a, quote, terroristic organization. But because of tremendous backlash he was forced to apologize. 20 seconds. Yeah. So I would say in addition to being irresponsible, the great news is his attempt to combine deflock and Antifa failed because whether you're libertarian, conservative, MAGA, progressive, everybody has an objection to flock. And so in our disunited country, we have united around our opposition to flock, ALPRs,

and government and ass surveillance as a whole. And so we've got a wave and we're going to ride it until we get our goals accomplished and end this mass government surveillance of people in the United States. Chad Marlowe's Senior Policy Council at the ACLU, where he focuses on privacy surveillance and technology issues. He leads the ACLU's efforts against flock. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Thanks for joining us.