Investigation Demanded as ICE Reports Third Death at Texas Detention Center in 44 Days

“This is the third person who has died in the $1.24 billion privately-run facility that focuses on profits instead of meeting basic standards,” said one lawmaker.


Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons (C) speaks during a press conference on October 30, 2025, in Gary, Indiana.
(Photo by Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Jan 19, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Officials in both Texas and Minnesota are calling for accountability and a full investigation into conditions at Camp East Montana, the sprawling detention complex at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, following the third reported death at the facility in less than two months.

Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Minneapolis, where ICE has been carrying out violent immigration arrests, cracking down on dissent, and where one officer fatally shot a legal observer earlier this month.
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‘ICE Kills’: Guards Reportedly Choked Man to Death at El Paso Detention Center


He was one of roughly 2,903 detainees being held at Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss US Army base, one of the largest ICE detention centers in the country, on January 14 when contract security workers found him “unconscious and unresponsive” in his cell.

He was later pronounced dead and ICE released a statement saying he had died of “presumed suicide,” but officials arre still investigating his cause of death.

Diaz’s death comes days after it was reported that a medical examiner in Texas was planning to classify another death reported at Camp East Montana—that of Geraldo Lunas Campos—as a homicide.

A doctor said Lunas Campos’ preliminary cause of death in early January was “asphyxia due to neck and chest compression.” An eyewitness said he had seen several guards in a struggle with the 55-year-old Cuban immigrant and then saw guards choking Lunas Campos.

A month prior of Lunas Campos’ death, 49-year-old Guatemalan immigrant Francisco Gaspar-Andres died at a nearby hospital; he was a detainee at Camp East Montana. ICE said medical staff attributed his death to “natural liver and kidney failure.”

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan called for a “complete and transparent investigation” into what happened to Diaz after his death was announced Sunday.

“We deserve answers,” said Flanagan.

US Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), who last year expressed concern about the US government’s deal with a small private business, Acquisition Logistics LLC, to run Camp East Montana, said the detention center “must be shut down immediately,” warning that “two deaths in one month means conditions are worsening.”



After the administration awarded a $1.2 billion contract to Acquisition Logistics to build and operate the camp, lawmakers and legal experts raised questions about the decision, considering the small company had no listed experience running detention centers, its headquarters was listed as a Virginia residential address, and the president and CEO of the company did not respond to media inquiries.

“It’s far too easy for standards to slip,” Escobar told PBS Newshour after touring the facility. “Private facilities far too frequently operate with a profit margin in mind as opposed to a governmental facility.”

In September, ICE’s own inspectors found at least 60 violations of federal standards, with employees failing to treat and monitor detainees’ medical conditions and the center lacking safety procedures and methods for detainees to contact their lawyers.

Across all of ICE’s detention facilities, 2025 was the deadliest year for immigrant detainees in more than two decades, with 32 people dying in the agency’s centers.

After Diaz’s death was reported Sunday, former National Nurses United communications adviser Charles Idelson said that “ICE detention centers are functioning like death camps.”

Deaths in Detention Warn of Horrors Behind ICE’s Prison Walls

At least 32 people died in ICE jails in 2025, and four more have already died in ICE custody this year.

By Mike Ludwig , 

Truthout

January 17, 2026

The CoreCivic, Inc. California City Immigration Processing Center stands in the Kern County desert awaiting reopening as a federal immigrant detention facility under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California City, California, on July 10, 2025.PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images

All eyes are on the Trump administration’s brutal “immigration enforcement” operation in Minnesota, where roving squads of federal agents in Minneapolis are demanding proof of citizenship from people of color on the street and lashing out against residents enraged by the deadly shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer last week.

Far less visible is the rapidly expanding, nationwide network of jails and prisons where ICE and Border Patrol lock people up after they are arrested, and that is almost certainly by design. Four people died in federal immigration jails so far in 2026, and at least 32 people died in ICE jails over the course of 2025 as President Donald Trump ramped up his mass deportation campaign. The death count for 2025 constituted the most deaths in ICE jails ever recorded outside the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If we are seeing that sort of outward extreme violence in broad daylight in the streets of Minneapolis and streets across the country, imagine what people must be facing behind closed doors and behind bars in ICE detention centers,” said Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director at the Detention Watch Network, in an interview with Truthout.

“If we are seeing that sort of outward extreme violence in broad daylight in the streets of Minneapolis, imagine what people must be facing behind closed doors and behind bars in ICE detention centers.”

The number of people imprisoned by ICE increased by 75 percent to nearly 66,000 in 2025, and despite repeated claims by administration officials about targeting “the worst of the worst,” nearly 74 percent have no criminal convictions, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse immigration database. ICE’s “roving patrols” and “indiscriminate raids” have contributed to a 2,450 percent increase in the number of people with no criminal record held in ICE detention on any given day, according to the American Immigration Council.

Ghandehari told Truthout that ICE has long faced allegations of allowing abuse, medical neglect, inhumane conditions, and solitary confinement in its network of jails and prisons, which are used to incarcerate people facing deportation orders.

ICE Wants to Reopen Notorious California Prison. Locals Are Fighting Back.
FCI Dublin was shut down in 2024 after revelations of abuse against prisoners. Residents want it to stay closed.  By Victoria Law , Truthout/TheAppeal December 20, 2025

ICE’s carceral facilities are often run by for-profit prison companies or local sheriffs acting as contractors. While many detainees are held at remote facilities in Louisiana and Texas, far from families and legal support, Ghandehari said ICE is now operating nearly 200 jails nationwide after opening or reopening more than 130 facilities in 2025.

“What we have seen and are seeing in Minneapolis is enraging; it’s unacceptable, it’s out of control, but unfortunately it is unsurprising given that ICE is inherently a violent agency, and what we are now seeing in Minneapolis is really the manifestation of years of ICE being allowed to act with impunity,” Ghandehari told Truthout.

On January 15, the county medical examiner in El Paso, Texas, announced that the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old man held at a massive immigration detention center at El Paso’s Fort Bliss military base, was likely a homicide. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Campos was attempting to kill himself and violently resisted when officers intervened but provided no evidence to back up that claim.

“What we are now seeing in Minneapolis is really the manifestation of years of ICE being allowed to act with impunity.”

The most recent deaths among those imprisoned by ICE also include 46-year-old Parady La from Cambodia, who was arrested and jailed by ICE on January 6 and died three days later after receiving “treatment for severe drug withdrawal at the Federal Detention Center” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to DHS. La was found unresponsive in his cell the next day and was later pronounced dead of brain and organ failure at a nearby hospital.

Withdrawal from certain drugs and alcohol can be fatal but is easily treatable with medical supervision and proper medications. In an attempt to revive La, DHS claims federal officers administered CPR and naloxone, a drug used to treat opioid overdoses, not withdrawal symptoms. The Bureau of Prisons maintains a protocol for safely supervising drug withdrawal in federal detention facilities.

Jonathan Feinberg, an attorney for La’s family, said nobody should die in custody from opiate withdrawal.

“We do not at this point know exactly what happened to Parady La, but the circumstances that have been reported are highly suspicious and concerning,” Feinberg wrote in an email to Truthout on Friday. “We intend to conduct a full investigation and pursue every legal remedy available to his family.”

A 2024 report by Physicians for Human Rights examined 52 deaths in ICE custody from 2017 to 2021 and found that 95 percent were preventable or possibly preventable if appropriate medical care had been provided. Civil liberties and international human rights groups have sounded alarm bells about medical neglect and preventable deaths in ICE custody for over a decade.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment by the time this story was published. However, the official statement on La’s death includes a list of mostly minor drug and alcohol violations and accuses the man of being a “career criminal,” reflecting a larger pattern of ICE smearing people who are harmed at the hands of its agents. After Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis while attempting to pull away from the scene in her vehicle on January 7, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem baselessly accused the mother and poet of being a “domestic terrorist.”

Other recent deaths in ICE custody include Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz, 68, who was detained at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in California and died on January 6, and Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, 42, who was detained at the Joe Corley Processing Center in Texas and died on January 5, according to Detention Watch Network.

“You can imagine how bad the conditions have been getting,” Ghandehari said. “It’s not even a full two weeks into this new year, and we already have four deaths in ICE custody.”

ICE cannot place U.S. citizens in detention for extended periods of time, but multiple citizens have reportedly been arrested by ICE under Trump’s crackdown, including George Retes, a U.S. veteran who was wrongly detained by ICE in California for three days after a chaotic raid on a cannabis farm in August.


ICE cannot place U.S. citizens in detention for extended periods of time, but multiple citizens have reportedly been arrested by ICE under Trump’s crackdown.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe, one of the largest tribal nations in the U.S., has accused ICE of illegally holding four members arrested during raids in Minneapolis, according to Axios.

From New Jersey to California to Minnesota, immigration officials have barred Democratic lawmakers from entering ICE jails to conduct unannounced inspections and check on incarcerated constituents. A federal judge recently struck down a policy requiring advance notice from lawmakers, but Noem instituted a new policy that blocked Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and other Democrats from visiting the central ICE holding facility in the Twin Cities shortly after Good was killed.

“When we appropriate funds as members of Congress, we are expected by the public to do oversight because the public requires their money be used with transparency and accountability,” Omar told reporters on January 10. “And what happened today is ICE agents decided that we were no longer allowed to fulfill our constitutional duties.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) says he may be the only member of Congress to conduct an oversight visit to an ICE jail under the Trump administration. Khanna and a staff member visited ICE California City Detention Center on January 6, the largest ICE prison in California. Khanna made the visit after one of his constituents “was beaten, unlawfully detained, and held at this very facility before being deported,” according to a social media post.

Khanna said he was “deeply disturbed” by his visit to the ICE prison, which currently holds nearly 1,500 people. When he spoke to families in the parking lot, they described their loved ones being subjected to “inadequate food, visible mold, and water that tastes like metal.” A lack of medical care was the most alarming failure, Khanna said, with one detainee telling the congressman that he was urinating blood but still had not received medical care.

“For illnesses like the flu, medicine is rarely provided; at best, [an] ibuprofen is given, but more often detainees are told to buy basic medicine from the commissary at exaggerated, unaffordable prices,” Khanna said. “With reportedly only one doctor for hundreds of people, the neglect is structural.”

Congress faces a self-imposed January 30 deadline to pass legislation funding the government, which gives lawmakers a chance to rein in ICE by defunding the infrastructure that makes Trump’s brutal “immigration” crackdown possible, including the expanding network of ICE jails and prisons, according to Ghandehari. ICE’s budget is set to balloon by $170 billion under the megabill championed by Trump and passed by Republicans in July 2025, but some progressive Democrats are now pushing to defund the agency.

“They can’t do what they are doing without infrastructure that has been built up over decades,” Ghandehari told Truthout, explaining that the only way to stop the Trump administration’s violence is by starting to dismantle ICE’s infrastructure. ”That’s why it’s so important that Congress do the right things this week and start the process of cutting ICE off.”

Imbecile Trump Threatens Americans With $75 Billion Tax Hike So He Can Conquer Greenland

If you missed Trump’s plans to hit us with this tax hike it’s because of the consistently awful reporting we get from major media outlets.

The headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) is seen behind shipping containers of the Frankfurt container port on January 19, 2026 in Frankfurt, Germany. European leaders are scheduled to meet later this week to coordinate their response to the latest tariffs threat from U.S. Donald Trump. Trump recently announced he will impose punitive tariffs on European countries he sees as obstructing his desire to acquire Greenland.
(Photo by Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)


Dean Baker
Jan 19, 2026

Beat the Press

Donald Trump is taking his demented dreams to a new level in his quest to take over Greenland. The man who whined over not getting a Nobel Prize and then followed Hitler propagandist Joseph Goebbels lead in accepting a prize awarded to someone else, has now decided he wants Greenland.

Trump is now proposing to whack us with a $75 billion tax increase to put pressure on Denmark and the rest of the EU to give him Greenland. If you missed Trump’s plans to hit us with this tax hike it’s because of the consistently awful reporting we get from major media outlets.


‘Insane’: Trump Threatens 8 Allies With New Tariffs for Opposing Greenland Takeover

They reported on the tariffs Trump is imposing on the European countries most visible in resisting U.S. pressure to take Greenland. The problem with the reporting is that it implies the European countries pay the tariffs. They don’t, we do.

This is not a debatable point; the data are very clear. Well over 90 percent of the cost of a Trump tariff is borne by consumers or importers in the United States, not by the exporting countries. When Trump starts yelling “tariff, tariff, tariff,” he is yelling “tax, tax, tax,” and we’re the ones paying it. And $75 billion is not trivial. It’s one percent of the budget, more than twice the cost of the enhanced premiums for Obamacare policies that Trump says we can’t afford.

Let’s be clear, Trump wants Greenland because it is big. And he almost certainly thinks Greenland is far bigger than it actually is because he doesn’t understand that the Mercator projection maps, which are standard ones we all use, hugely exaggerate the size of areas near the poles.

No one likes the idea that the United States is being run by a moron.

We all know Trump says that he needs Greenland for national security. This argument is not worth a second’s consideration. Greenland and Denmark are both members of NATO. If he felt there was some need for putting additional military assets in or around Denmark, all he has to do is ask.

In fact, there were many more United States military installations in Denmark during the Cold War. We removed them after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Trump’s team themselves made it clear that Greenland is not a national security issue. The country is not even mentioned once in Trump’s National Security Strategy plan that was crafted just two months ago.

Trump effectively admitted this in an interview with the New York Times earlier this month. He acknowledged that he could address any security issues through negotiation with Greenland, Denmark, and the rest of NATO, but said Trump said that he would feel better “psychologically” taking over Greenland.

He compared it to the difference between owning and renting. Insofar as Trump feels a psychological need to own territory that is something that is best addressed through therapy, not military action against allies.

The other argument is that Greenland is rich in rare earth minerals, which Trump’s rich buddies are anxious to exploit. This is popular among people who want to highlight both Trump’s venality and also find rationality in what seems to be an otherwise crazy quest.

While no one should ever underestimate Trump’s corruption, the story doesn’t make any sense. First, it’s not clear that there is big money to be made on Greenland’s rare earth minerals. It is a remote area with little infrastructure. It will be extremely expensive to reach these minerals and would almost certainly take many years. Given developments in technology, it’s not even clear these minerals will still be of much value at the point anyone is able to bring them to the market.

But what’s even more damning for this line of argument is that they could start mining in Greenland tomorrow, if they think it would be profitable. Greenland is very open to foreign investment. If they think there is big money to be made by mining Greenland’s minerals, they would be doing it already.

Trump’s rich friends are undoubtedly pushing for him to take Greenland, he’ll probably give them better deals than Greenland would. Most importantly he will likely get rid of environmental regulations that Greenland’s government would demand.

But the cost of environmental regulations is not likely to be the sort of thing that would warrant a military invasion. Also, it probably is not a good sell to the people of Greenland that Trump wants to take away their ability to protect their environment.

At the end of the day, we really can’t escape the basic story, Trump wants Greenland because it is big. No one likes the idea that the United States is being run by a moron. And it’s painful for those of us left of center to acknowledge that this is who we losing to, not some evil genius. However, that happens to be the reality, and we need to recognize it.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License


Dean Baker  is the co-founder and the senior economist of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of several books, including "Getting Back to Full Employment: A Better bargain for Working People," "The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive," "The United States Since 1980," "Social Security: The Phony Crisis" (with Mark Weisbrot), and "The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer." He also has a blog, "Beat the Press," where he discusses the media's coverage of economic issues.
Full Bio >

Scott Bessent just exposed 'insanity' behind Trump's latest ploy: analyst

Robert Davis
January 19, 2026 

RAW STORY


U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gives a statement during the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting, at the USA House venue, in Davos, Switzerland, January 19, 2026. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse


President Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary just revealed the "insanity" behind Trump's ploy to control Greenland, according to one analyst

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joined NBC News's "Meet the Press" on Sunday to discuss Trump's efforts to wrest control of Greenland from the Kingdom of Denmark. Will Saletan, writer for The Bulwark, discussed Bessent's interview in a new video for "Bulwark Takes," which he said was one of the most "embarrassing" of the entire administration.

"He's twisting himself into a pretzel to justify Trump's totally crazy threats against Greenland," Saletan said.

Trump has said that acquiring the country is in America's national interests, although experts have questioned some of the motives the Trump administration has floated to justify the move. The president has repeatedly threatened to invade Greenland, which Danish officials have said would be an "end of NATO" moment, and he recently imposed a 10% tariff on all goods from certain EU countries, including Denmark.

Bessent justified Trump's actions by arguing that the U.S. doesn't want to get dragged into someone else's war to defend the territory, and said the Trump administration is working off of "asymmetric information" to make its decisions about Greenland.

"See, that is information nobody else has," Saletan said. "Not the Danish government, which actually has sovereignty over Greenland and has way better intelligence than we do, and not the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who would know if we really did have secret information about Russia and China operating in Greenland. No, Trump and Bessant have information that is so secret they haven't shared it with anybody else. Almost as though they're making it up."

Stop ‘appeasing’ bully Trump, Amnesty chief tells Europe

By AFP
January 19, 2026


Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard on the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos - Copyright AFP Fabrice COFFRINI
Elodie LE MAOU

The leader of global rights group Amnesty International urged European countries Monday to stop “appeasing” US President Donald Trump and resist him and other “bullies” who she said were intent on destroying the rules-based order in place since World War II.

“We need much more resistance,” Amnesty secretary general Agnes Callamard told AFP in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“Europe’s credibility is at stake.”

Her comments came as Trump doubled down on his threats to take over Greenland “one way or the other”, insisting such a move is necessary for world security, prompting European countries to close ranks against his designs on the vast Danish territory.

German and French leaders denounced as “blackmail” Trump’s weekend threats to wield new tariffs against countries which oppose his plans for the Arctic island, suggesting Europe was preparing trade countermeasures.

But German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was due to meet Trump in Davos on Wednesday, also stressed that Europe was eager to “avoid any escalation” in the dispute.



– ‘Say no’ –



Callamard urged governments to show more “courage” and to “say no”.

“Stop thinking you can make deals with bullies, stop thinking you can agree to the rules of the predators and not become yourself a victim of them.”

The Amnesty chief highlighted that the US bid to seize Greenland was only the latest indication that the world is facing the “destruction of the rules-based order”.

She lamented that global and regional “superpowers” seemed “intent on destroying what has been established after World War II, dedicated to finding common rules to our common problems”.

Since Trump’s return to the White House a year ago, he has taken “a range of decisions that have led to the demise of many rules around the world”, while Russia was destroying the system “through its aggression in Ukraine”, she said.

European powers have been treading a thin line over Ukraine in recent months, relying on Washington to try to help settle the conflict but resisting terms too favourable to Moscow.

The post-WWII order “is also being destroyed by Israel that has completely ignored international law in its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” she added.

Amnesty and other rights groups have repeatedly accused Israel of carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a term vehemently rejected by the Israeli government.

Callamard stressed that the rules-based order was established in response to “a global war that had killed millions of people, as a response to extermination camps that had killed six million Jews, as a response to authoritarianism that had led to the most daunting global repression the world over”.



– ‘Abyss’ –



“The fact that it is now being destroyed without any plan B, just for the sake of destroying the rules, should send shivers to all of us,” she said, warning that the only alternative to the rules-based system was “falling down into an abyss”.

“That’s what we need to prevent.”

The Davos gathering this year is taking place under the tagline “A Spirit of Dialogue”, but Callamard warned “there is no evidence of dialogue” currently among the world’s decision-makers.

“There is evidence of bullying. There is evidence of destruction. There is evidence of countries using their military power, their economic power, to force others into agreeing to their one-sided deals.”

Such tactics had for the past 12 months been met with European “appeasement”.

“We have sought to appease the bully, the predator living in Washington,” she said.

“Where has this led us? To more and more attacks, to more and more threats.”

Callamard, who is French, recalled that the European project was not just about economics, but also about values, humanity and the rule of law.

“I’m hoping that our leaders will recall that… history and see in the current challenges a way of re-insisting on the European project and demanding human rights protection for the sake of humanity,” she said.

“That demands stopping the appeasement politics, (which) simply is not working”.

“Please stop it. Resist. Resist.”

Leading economist teaches Europe how to cripple Trump

Jake Johnson,

 Common Dreams
January 19, 2026 


Jesper Toennesen, the creator of the Anti-MAGA cap "Nu det NUUK!" which is sold in his clothing store McKorman on Noerrebrogade, looks on, in Copenhagen, Denmark, January 13, 2026. The message "Nu er det NUUK!" and "Make America go away" is embroidered on the cap. After the heated debate between the U.S., Greenland, and Denmark about Trump's renewed desire to take over Greenland, "Nu er det NUUK" has gone viral on the internet. The phrase "Nu er det NUUK!" refers to Greenland's capital Nuuk - and can be translated from Danish as "Enough is enough"

Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/via REUTERS

The leading French economist Gabriel Zucman is urging European governments to inflict financial pain on American billionaires in response to US President Donald Trump’s effort to seize control of Greenland, a mineral-rich island that some of Trump’s rich campaign donors see as a potentially massive profit opportunity.

“Europe should respond to Trump’s blackmail with targeted measures aimed not at American consumers, but at American billionaires,” Zucman wrote in a post on his Substack. “Access to the European market—by billionaires and the companies they own—should be made conditional on paying a wealth tax: in effect, a tariff for oligarchs. If Elon Musk, for example, wants to keep selling Teslas in Europe, he should have to pay it. If he refuses, Tesla would lose access to the European market.”Zucman outlined his proposal after Trump threatened over the weekend to hit France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland with tariffs up to 25% if they don’t drop their opposition to the US president’s demand for “the complete and total purchase of Greenland,” an autonomous territory of Denmark.

The targeted countries are currently weighing retaliatory tariffs and other potential responses to Trump’s threat.

Zucman, a renowned expert on global inequality, argued that while existing mechanisms such as the anti-coercion instrument known as Europe’s trade “bazooka” can be useful, “anti-oligarchic protectionism has a decisive advantage: It opens a two-front struggle against Trump, at home and abroad.”

“By targeting oligarchic wealth rather than national pride,” Zucman wrote, “Europe can blunt Trump’s ability to mobilize nationalist resentment and rally part of the American public behind his imperial agenda.”

Trump’s proposed Greenland takeover is widely opposed by the island’s population and US voters. But as journalist Casey Michel wrote for The New Republic last week, there is one key constituency that stands to benefit massively from a US takeover of the mineral-rich territory: American oligarchs, including some of Trump’s top campaign donors.

“Ranging from tech moguls to fossil fuel company heads, all of these figures and forces have invested in mining and extraction companies across the island—and all stand to profit if only they can cut out any pesky Danish or Greenlandic authorities from regulating or restraining their operations,” wrote Michel. “The figures behind the curtain are by no means obscure. KoBold Metals, a mining outfit helping lead Greenland’s ‘modern gold rush,’ has seen investments from figures like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and hedge funds like Andreessen Horowitz.”

“Another company eyeing Greenland,” Michel added, “is Critical Metals Corp, which is backed by the same hedge fund that Howard Lutnick, now Trump’s commerce secretary, spent years running.”

“The vast fortunes of the sleaze buckets who put Trump into the White House and back his attack on democracy in the United States and around the world will suddenly be thrown into question.”

Tariffs targeting such firms and the billionaires behind them, Zucman argued, would be the most effective way to penalize Trump’s reckless behavior and deter him in the future.

“If imperialism is driven by oligarchic power, then oligarchic power must be confronted,” Zucman wrote. “What are the alternatives? Doing nothing invites endless blackmail.”

US economist Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, made the case for a similarly aggressive European response to Trump’s economic warfare.

“European countries can announce that they will no longer honor US-owned patents and copyrights,” Baker wrote Monday. “Putting US patents and copyrights on the line is a guaranteed attention grabber. The vast fortunes of the sleaze buckets who put Trump into the White House and back his attack on democracy in the United States and around the world will suddenly be thrown into question.”

“The key point is that European countries, by opting to not respect US patents and copyrights, have an incredibly powerful weapon to use against Donald Trump and his rich supporters,” Baker added. “The time has come for them to go nuclear.”

'Who does it benefit?' Expert reveals who Trump is really helping with Greenland fantasy

Matthew Chapman
January 19, 2026 
RAW STORY


FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump is interviewed by Reuters White House correspondent Steve Holland (not pictured) during an exclusive interview in the Oval Office in the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 14, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

President Donald Trump's designs on Greenland seem almost perfectly calculated to be a boon to Russia and Vladimir Putin, New York University professor and authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat told MS NOW's Ari Melber on Monday evening.

"Ruth, what do you see as the validity of this move?" asked Melber. "On a scale of 0 to 10, we're seeing a lot of folks say zero. It has — it's not a risk/reward, it has no particular validity. What do you rate it? And then what do you think is really going on with Trump and this plan?"

"Well, it has zero validity from a point of view of anybody other than an autocrat, a megalomaniac autocrat," said Ben-Ghiat, a frequent critic of Trump. "But what's going on is, you know, Trump talked about trying to buy Greenland in 2019. And the then-Secretary of State [Mike] Pompeo went along with it, saying that, you know, global warming will liberate all these precious minerals and oil and discovered oil. So there's that."

"The other thing is that I believe that Trump is in office, in part, to solve Vladimir Putin's problems and creating a crisis for NATO and dividing NATO and having the U.S. go rogue in ways that are quite authoritarian," she continued. "Who does it benefit? It benefits Putin. And the other thing is that, unfortunately, autocrats can get into a state, I call this 'autocratic backfire,' when they believe their own hype, and they become convinced that nothing can restrain them. And Donald Trump recently gave an interview to The New York Times saying that he was restrained only by his own mind, which is not reassuring, and his own morality."

Melber agreed with this assessment, adding that Trump appears to be "believing the hype."


Ultimately, Ben Ghiat added, Trump "had almost like a narcissistic ego injury when he did not get the Peace Prize. And he talked about it in many, many posts. And Machado of Venezuela gave him hers, but that didn't satisfy him. And so he actually wrote to the Norwegian Prime Minister saying that because he didn't get, as you said in the introduction, because he didn't get the Peace Prize, he feels no obligation to care about peace. And so when autocrats are denied something, they go into a kind of rage and they take it out both on their own people and in this case, on the continent of Europe, by threatening economic warfare with the tariffs."

Trump's Greenland push highlights 'real danger' of president's second term: expert

Ewan Gleadow
January 20, 2026 
RAW STORY


U.S. President Donald Trump points a finger during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

Donald Trump's continued interest in Greenland highlights a bigger hazard than first thought according to a political commentator.

Christopher Bucktin, writing in The Daily Mirror, suggested the president's interest in taking Greenland into US control highlights a larger problem for world nations to stand against. Bucktin wrote, "The real danger is how familiar this all feels. Each outrageous threat lands, causes a stir, then fades."

"The bar drops. What once would have sparked fury is now dismissed as “just Trump being Trump”. That shrug is how norms and society collapse."

"This is no longer theatre. It’s a warning. Trump’s obsession with power, territory and punishment has turned him into a genuine threat to world order. The only unanswered question is how much damage he will be allowed to do before the world finally tells him his shakedown is over."

Trump has made it clear he wants Greenland for national security purposes, and has since lashed out at NATO members opposing his desire for the country to be subsumed into the US.

Tariff actions were applied to eight nations, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and Denmark. The president has also posted to Truth Social earlier today (January 20) denouncing the UK for giving up an island with a US military base.

He wrote, "Shockingly, our 'brilliant' NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER."

"There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness. These are International Powers who only recognize STRENGTH, which is why the United States of America, under my leadership, is now, after only one year, respected like never before."

"The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired. Denmark and its European Allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING. Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP."

Trump says world ‘not secure’ until US has Greenland

By AFP
January 19, 2026


Danish soldiers disembark in Nuuk, Greenland, on January 18, 2026, as US President Donald Trump steps up his threats to take the Arctic territory from NATO ally Denmark - Copyright Ritzau Scanpix/AFP Mads Claus Rasmussen

Pierre-Henry DESHAYES, with Johannes LEDEL in Stockholm

Donald Trump no longer needs to think “purely of peace” after being snubbed for a Nobel, the US president said in comments published Monday, adding the world will not be safe until Washington controls Greenland.

Trump has put the transatlantic alliance to the test with threats to take over Greenland “one way or the other”, with European countries closing ranks against Washington’s designs on the vast Danish territory.

German and French leaders denounced as “blackmail” weekend threats by Trump to wield new tariffs against countries which oppose his plans for the Arctic island, and said Monday that Europe was preparing trade countermeasures.

The European Union said it was holding an emergency summit on Thursday to weigh its response, and that while its priority is to “engage not escalate” it is ready to act if needed.

Greenland, for its part, said the tariffs threat does not change its desire to assert its own sovereignty.

“We will not be pressured,” Greenlandic prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post, adding that the autonomous territory “is a democratic society with the right to make its own decisions”.

But Trump had earlier doubled down, announcing in a message to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store that the world “is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland”.

The message — published Monday and whose authenticity was confirmed to AFP by Store’s office — also saw Trump brush aside peace as a primary goal.

“I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” he said, citing his failure to win the last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, despite openly coveting it.

He said although peace would still be “predominant,” he could “now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”

Store said the statement had been received in response to a message from him and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, where they had “conveyed our opposition” to Trump’s tariff threats.

Store also underlined that the Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded by the Norwegian government.

“I have clearly explained, including to President Trump what is well known — the prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee,” he said in a written statement.



– Russia, China threat? –



Trump has repeatedly said his country needs vast, mineral-rich Greenland for “national security”, despite the United States already having a base on the island and security agreements with fellow NATO ally Denmark.

“Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China,” Trump said in his message to the Norwegian premier, doubling down on that sentiment in a post to Truth Social on Monday.

Denmark’s defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen said Monday steps had already been taken along with NATO allies to “increase military presence and training activity in the Arctic and the North Atlantic”.

Lund Poulsen added that he and Greenlandic foreign minister Vivian Motzfeldt would be meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte later on Monday.



– ‘Blackmail’ –



This weekend, Trump said that from February 1, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland would be subject to a 10-percent tariff on all goods sent to the United States — a duty which could go higher.

Germany’s vice chancellor Lars Klingbeil slammed the move as blackmail, and said Monday that Europe was preparing countermeasures.

French finance minister Roland Lescure, speaking at a press conference alongside Kingbeil, agreed.

“Blackmail between allies of 250 years, blackmail between friends, is obviously unacceptable,” Lecurse said.

Klingbeil said Europe’s response could have three main strands.

First, the current tariff deal with the United States would be put on hold, he said.

Second, European tariffs on imports from the United States, currently suspended until early February, could come into force.

And thirdly the EU should consider using its toolbox of instruments against “economic blackmail”, he added.

Europe’s stock markets fell as the week’s trading began Monday, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warning that a “trade war is in no one’s interest”.

Greenland — whose tiny population of 57,000 has voiced disquiet at Trump’s threats — continued to make its preferences clear Monday.

Greenland’s dogsled federation said that the new US special envoy to the Arctic island had been disinvited to its annual race.

Jeff Landry had been invited to attend the race by a private Greenlandic tour operator, an invite the KNQK federation has previously called “totally inappropriate”.

burs-jll/st

To Each According to His Bank Account

Jan Ralske

January 9, 2026

CLASS WAR PRISONERS

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Chain gang. Photo: Library of Congress, Public Domain.

This is a photo that should not have been. This is an event you should not know. This is a guy who should not have been killed. This is a moment when truth was briefly on the silver screen of 1934. This is a photo of a chain gang, now hung up as a reprint, a decorative icon with authenticity so rare in a world of deep-fakes.

History is a weapon.

A few years ago, a poll showed more than half of USA citizens attributed Karl Marx’s quote “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” to George Washington or President Obama. People like Howard Zinn and Oliver Stone have repeatedly shown how Americans’ knowledge of their own history is astonishingly limited: Zinn’s People’s History of the USA was banned in many school districts to make sure it stayed that way. Now, over 3,700 books were banned during the 2024-2025 school year, more than double the number from 2021-2022.

So when a Serbian friend read Zinn’s People’s History of the United States he was shocked over the brutality with which the USA worker’s movements had been crushed. They were untold crime stories to him, “Why aren’t people more aware of this history?” This turned out to be the start of the concept for a documentary series entitled “CLASS WARS”. The plural in the title, “wars”, was important: the waves of extreme repression encompassed a wide geographical reach over many decades. Tapping into the historical work of Zinn and others like Mike Davis or Kim Kelly (“Fight Like Hell”), we had also lined up an impressive line of commentators and consultants that included such greats like Chris Hedges and Robin Kelley. The teaser for the series can be seen here.

The series aimed to show that the forces that criminalized progressive activists before WW2 are the same methods used today. When the USA had Julian Assange persecuted and imprisoned for 10 years they used the same repressive law they used to imprison socialist Eugene Debs for his opposition to USA involvement in WW1. But the method goes deeper that just the “laws” as Oscar Ameringer, another socialist imprisoned under that “Espionage Act” of 1917 put it: “Politics is the art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.” Or in other words: the USA political system is based on class war.

A German producer with good connections to USA producers took on the CLASS WARS project, and we were overjoyed when the renown production company, PARTICIPANT, signaled their interest to finance the series. In the last 20 years, Participant had made their mark in the film world with their unique emphasis on socially relevant productions: the climate-change documentary, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, or such films as Alfonso Cuarón’s ROMA, which specifically addressed social inequality from the perspective of the underprivileged. Their productions had received over 21 Academy Awards and grossed more than $3.3 billion at the box office.

Then, in April 2024, as the budget for CLASS WARS was being discussed and the contracts on their way to being sealed, a bombshell headline appeared in the New York Times: “Participant Calls it Quits.” The company’s lifeline was millions in investment from eBay-billionaire, Jeff Skoll, who announced that he was pulling out. Though Skoll refused to be interviewed in the Times article, he was quoted as blaming the “revolutionary changes” in the media.  This was a misuse of the term “revolutionary”. The problem was well known and not new. Netflix and Disney had started selling ads, and advertisers preferred apolitical entertainment.

I wonder why (not).

When Trump was elected in 2024, Skoll was seen celebrating at Trump’s inauguration with his buddy, Elon Musk. Some commentators presumed that Skoll’s association with the studio behind the climate-change documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, had just become “inconvenient” for the billionaire. Times change. It also meant the demise of financing for the CLASS WARS series.

Since January last year, Skoll has distanced himself from Trump, publicly condemning Trump’s budget plans. His farewell letter to Participant has also since been made public, in which Skoll proudly praises the achievements of Participant as “one of the most gratifying ventures of my career”. So why pull the plug on this success story of activist filmmaking? Hollywood insiders complained that the studios just did not want to make films for adults any longer. Or as Geeta Gandbhir, one of the documentary directors slated for CLASS WARS stated: “TikTok is now our competition”.

Other sources pointed to the real factors for Skoll’s decision to stop funding  Participant and take his money elsewhere: the California wildfires had aggravated Skoll’s asthma and he decided he had to move to Florida, which can be costly for those requiring beachfront property. He threw down nearly $90 million for an ocean estate in “Manalapan”, the exclusive tiny Florida town where other billionaires like Oracle boss Larry Ellison have erected homes. Manalapan’s strict low-density zoning laws also require hurricane-proof roofs and windows. Is it really easier to protect yourself from hurricanes than California wildfires?

The Florida villa was not the only real estate requiring the funds with which Skoll had formerly financed Participant’s activist films: Skoll also bought a $17 million  estate near Washington D.C., seven months after announcing the closing of Participant. The property includes a 1905 residence, a log cabin, and stables, with additional historical significance since it had served as a Civil War encampment and hospital. Was Skoll expecting the outbreak of another civil war, like 40% of the Americans polled in 2022? Not necessarily, if one believes Skoll’s explanation that he purchased the estate to be closer to the Washington Capitals ice-hockey team, which he owns.

“To each according to his needs”: part of the equation seems to have been fulfilled, for one class of the population.

Jan Ralske was born in Wichita County, Texas. He is a director and writer, known for Not a Love Song (1997), Nicht besiegt (1990) and Der Partisan (1993). He lives in Berlin.