A congressional hearing for former Special Counsel Jack Smith descended into chaos on Wednesday when a far-right extremist taunted a retired police officer who nearly died defending the U.S. Capitol on January 6—and got exactly the response he deserved.

WHAT’S GOING ON: Expletives flew during a recess in Smith’s first-ever public testimony about his investigations into Donald Trump. The confrontation came when Ivan Raiklin, a well-known far-right election denier, approached retired Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone at the hearing.

Fanone, if you don’t remember, has testified about being beaten and tasered while defending the Capitol during the insurrection. He suffered a heart attack and traumatic brain injury that day. He’s the cop who was dragged into the mob and screamed “I have kids!” while rioters attacked him.

Also at the hearing, Fanone, whom some are calling an American hero, literally called bullshit when a Republican congressman tried to blame the failed January 6 coup on Capitol Police rather than Donald Trump.

Watch the videos and read the rest of the story here.

More than 50 labor unions and community organizations are shutting down Minneapolis today in what could be the state's first general strike since 1934—a direct response to 3,000 ICE agents occupying the Twin Cities, killing residents like Renee Nicole Good, and raiding schools while corporate giants like Target and Home Depot literally provide parking lots for the deportation force. While Democratic officials offer hollow words, workers and immigrants are wielding the only power that actually matters under capitalism: their labor, with organizers demanding corporations use their influence to end the occupation or watch the economy grind to a halt. Read the full story.

The Trump White House posted a digitally altered image of activist Nekima Levy Armstrong—arrested at an anti-ICE church protest—to make her look like she was crying, then defended the fake photo as just “memes” when caught. This is textbook authoritarian propaganda: arrest dissenters, humiliate them with doctored images, blast it to millions, and when exposed, laugh it off—the federal government is now a disinformation machine that publicly degrades Americans it arrests. Read the full story and see the photos.

Trump’s big Davos moment turned into a masterclass in global humiliation when not a single major Western ally showed up for his “Board of Peace” signing ceremony. The UK, France, Germany, Canada—America’s supposed partners—collectively told him they had better things to do than validate whatever this vanity project was supposed to be. Read the full story and see the photo.

The Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organization Thursday, abandoning the 78-year-old global health partnership—because of course, dismantling pandemic preparedness systems is a brilliant plan. The U.S. still owes WHO over $130 million and hasn’t figured out how to replace critical disease surveillance data that helps prevent outbreaks. Public health experts warn this “shortsighted and misguided” move will hobble America’s ability to respond to the next pandemic. Read the full story.

The Trump administration is ordering federal agencies to track all money flowing to 14 Democratic-controlled states and DC—ostensibly targeting them for "fraud" but really punishing them for sanctuary city policies that don't cooperate with ICE deportations. Despite the memo claiming this is "data-gathering only," Trump already announced plans to cut funding starting Feb. 1, telegraphing this as the first step in weaponizing federal dollars to coerce states into compliance with his mass deportation agenda. Read the full story.

Yesterday we asked, should Greenland be part of the United States? 98% of you said NO.

Bergiemac put it simply: “Ridiculous. We can’t even deal with the problems here.”

Rseagren said: “Trumps attempt to acquire Greenland is simply a reenactment of Adolf's focus on Poland!!!!! It will be the first of many!!!!!!!!”

VJmini said: “Mainly because they are an independent sovereign country and the only reason trump wants it is to exploit their minerals and resources. We have had a presence there for years and gave up most of our military presence. Trump is just an over aggressive person who makes off the cuff aggressive moves and then tries to fix them after he realizes how bad that move was. He's a pathetic leader, why would anyone want to be under his rule?”

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The world’s 12 richest billionaires now control more wealth than the poorest half of humanity—that’s more than four billion people. And according to a damning new report from Oxfam International, they’re using that obscene fortune to systematically dismantle democracy worldwide.

This isn’t theory. This is happening right now. And the receipts are brutal.

THE PATTERN: Oxfam’s report “Resisting the Rule of the Rich” lays out exactly how extreme wealth concentration becomes an authoritarian weapon. The most unequal countries are up to seven times more likely to experience democratic erosion than more equal ones. Billionaires are over 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people. That’s not a democracy—that’s an oligarchy with better branding.

In 2025 alone, billionaire wealth increased three times faster than the previous five-year average. The number of billionaires surpassed 3,000 for the first time. Elon Musk became the first person to amass over half a trillion dollars. Meanwhile, one in four people globally face hunger.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: The report documents three main ways the super-rich have captured political power: buying politicians, dominating media and AI, and directly accessing government institutions.

In 2024, one in every six dollars spent by all US candidates, parties and committees came from just 100 billionaire families. Nearly half of people surveyed globally by the World Values Survey believe the rich routinely buy elections in their country. Over 11% of the world’s billionaires have held or sought political office.

The media capture is even more complete. Over half of the world’s largest media companies have billionaire owners. Nine of the top 10 social media companies are run by just six billionaires. Eight of the top 10 AI companies are billionaire-run, with three commanding nearly 90% of the generative AI chatbot market.

WHO PAYS: While billionaire fortunes skyrocketed, global poverty reduction has stalled. It’s actually rising in Africa. In 2022, nearly half the world’s population—3.83 billion people—lived in poverty. Food insecurity increased 42.6% between 2015 and 2024.

Ninety-two million people face food insecurity in Europe and North America—some of the richest regions on Earth. The system isn’t broken. It’s working exactly as designed: extracting wealth upward while grinding everyone else down.

ZOOM OUT: Even the rich see the problem. A 2024 survey of over 2,300 millionaires from G20 countries found that more than half believe extreme wealth is “a threat to democracy.” Polling across 36 countries found 86% of respondents agreed the top cause of economic inequality is that “rich people have too much political influence.”

A century ago, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said it plainly: “We may have either democracy or wealth extreme in the hands of the few. We cannot have both.”

BOTTOM LINE: We’re making that choice right now. And so far, democracy is losing. The world’s billionaires aren’t just getting richer—they’re using that wealth to build authoritarian systems that protect their fortunes and crush dissent. This isn’t a bug in global capitalism. It’s the feature.