Democracy Now! 2026-07-22 Wednesday

Summary

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Democracy Now! – July 22, 2026

Main Theme:
This episode provides in-depth coverage of breaking international and domestic stories, notably:

• The arrest of Andrew Tate and his brother on new sex abuse, rape, and trafficking charges, based on an expose by journalist Heidi Blake.
• U.S. escalation of the war in Iran, including a devastating U.S. airstrike on an Iranian primary school uncovered by Forensic Architecture.
• Political and human rights developments connected to the Trump administration, immigration policy, and civil rights in the U.S.

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I. The Tate Brothers and the "Manosphere" Empire

Overview

• Headline: British-American influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan face 59 charges of rape and sex trafficking for offenses across seven victims (2010–2017); arrested in Miami after a UK extradition request.
• Lead Reporter: Heidi Blake (The New Yorker), whose investigation underpins this coverage.

Key Points & Insights

• Andrew Tate's Rise and Methods
  • Built a sprawling online empire by exploiting dozens of women, recruiting webcam workers—often targeting teenage girls—for what he called “sexual slavery.”
  • Used violence, coercion, branding with tattoos, police/mafia connections, and intimidation to control victims.
• International Implications
  • Evaded trial for years, moving operations to Romania; Romanian prosecutors' efforts were reportedly stalled after White House pressure led to the lifting of the Tates’ travel ban (25:09, Blake).
  • British authorities added 38 new charges, and the US, under the Trump administration, is now approving extradition.
• Manosphere Influence
  • Tate became a key figure in online “manosphere” spaces, portraying himself as a defender against a “feminized society” and pushing misogynist, violence-laden messages to alienated young men.
  • Strong ties to Trump-era MAGA circles, including personal connections to Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump (32:13, Blake).

Notable Quotes and Moments

• On Evidence of Abuse:

  “Women were reporting this back in 2014 when they first went to the police to accuse Andrew Tate of strangulation... These are women who have not met each other, who live in different countries across a decade.”
  —Heidi Blake (28:54)

• UK-US Political Pressure:

  “A lot of what I uncovered… was how actually prosecutors in Romania who brought this human trafficking case against the brothers, under pressure from the US administration in 2025, released them from their travel ban.”
  —Heidi Blake (25:09)

• Testimony from Victims:

  “He just got up, grabbed me by the throat, smashed me to the back of the bed, strangling me extremely hard... I went straight home, got in the bath, started to cry.”
  —"Anna", BBC interviewee voicing a victim's account (30:46)

• On Influence in U.S. MAGA Circles:

  “Andrew Tate has become a really important political force for the MAGA movement… He’s garnered a huge amount of support from people like Tucker Carlson... Elon Musk is actually still defending him on X.”
  —Heidi Blake (33:04)

• Right-wing Support:

  • Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, J.D. Vance, Candace Owens, and Trump administration officials have vocally supported the Tates, calling their prosecution a "conspiracy."
  • Carlson hosted a lengthy, sympathetic interview with Tate after the Romanian raids (36:26, Blake).

• Rumble & Social Media Re-platforming:

  “Right wing streaming platform Rumble... gave Andrew Tate a $6 million contract to move his streaming over... They’ve been huge supporters and very instrumental in allowing him to continue spreading his message.”
  —Heidi Blake (39:16)

• Change in U.S. Stance:

  “It seems like there has now been a change, perhaps as figures within the administration have actually got to grips with the nature of the evidence.”
  —Heidi Blake (38:30)

Key Segment Timestamps

• 00:15, 19:41 – Main story intro, video segment, initial reporting
• 25:09 – Blake on political manipulation and extradition
• 28:54 – Blake on victim patterns and medical evidence
• 30:46 – “Anna” recounts abuse
• 32:13 – Trump-family and right-wing ties
• 35:07 – White House intervention & legal connections
• 39:16 – Rumble, J.D. Vance, funding sources

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II. U.S.-Iran War: Civilian Deaths and Congressional Doubt

Overview

• Congressional Hearing: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requests $67 billion more for war in Iran.
• Civilian Toll: Forensic Architecture uncovers details confirming a U.S. strike on an Iranian elementary school killed over 160 people, mostly children.

Key Points & Insights

• Escalating Costs and Retaliation:

  • U.S. ongoing bombardment, Iran retaliates (02:10). Costs have ballooned ($37–$45 billion so far).
  • Strained utilities, regional instability—Kuwait facing power rationing.

• Lack of Accountability:

  • President Trump and administration refuse responsibility for school strike, suggesting evidence may be “AI generated.”
  • Democrats demand the report be released; Trump claims there can be no conclusive findings.

• Forensic Evidence:

  • Samaneh Moafi of Forensic Architecture details exhaustive research: satellite images, a 3D digital model of the school, eyewitness accounts, and analysis of missile fragments all confirm the strike was on a functioning primary school, using U.S. Tomahawk missiles (51:35, Moafi).
  • Iran’s trauma is compared to earlier air disasters; the attack site had been a school for over a decade with no military purpose.

Notable Quotes and Moments

• Trump, on ambiguity and AI imagery:

  “It’s also possible that those images that you have are AI generated. I know we’re waiting for a conclusive report. I don’t think there can be a conclusive report.”
  —Donald Trump (47:49, 48:10)

• Mother's Testimony:

  “They tore my son to pieces. What should I do now? Who am I supposed to hold responsible...?”
  —Khadija Ahmedizadeh, mother whose son died in the strike (49:09)

• Forensic Findings:

  "At the time of the attack, the building was a school and had served that purpose for over a decade... No hidden room for any kind of use. It was a school for, you know, for children."
  —Samaneh Moafi (51:35)

• On U.S. missile evidence:

  “In these [second wave of] strikes, we do see the profile of a Tomahawk... The only party within the war that has this missile is the U.S.”
  —Samaneh Moafi (56:54)

Key Segment Timestamps

• 43:06 – Defense Secretary Hegseth testifies before Senate
• 43:43 – Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand questions Hegseth on contradiction and war costs
• 47:49 – Trump questioned about Manab school bombing
• 49:09 – Mother's emotional plea
• 51:35 – Samaneh Moafi on forensic investigation
• 56:54 – Confirming Tomahawk missile and U.S. responsibility

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III. Other Major Headlines and Developments

U.S. Immigration & Civil Rights

• Surge in Deportations: Record numbers in ICE detention and deportations under the Trump administration; expansion of detention centers, including to Virgin Islands & Guantanamo Bay (06:17).
• Civil Rights Setback: EEOC ends 60-year policy requiring private employers to collect demographic data; concerns about rollback of worker protections (11:45).
• Medicaid Funding Cuts: Trump admin halts over a billion in funding to CA and MN, citing unproven “fraud” claims; state leaders claim political targeting (13:04).

Global Human Rights & Civil Society

• India: Rahul Gandhi arrested protesting student crackdown under Modi government (12:35).
• France: Social media ban passed for under-15s.
• Kenya: Tribute for Joki Jehu, pioneering pan-African feminist.

Middle East Conflict

• Gaza & Lebanon: Israeli military actions and U.S. brokering a framework for withdrawal and Hezbollah disarmament; heavy civilian casualty toll (04:18).

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IV. Memorable Moments (Selected)

• "Tomorrow I'll feel a queen."
  —Heidi Blake (16:48) quoting a survivor; poetic segment integrating voices of survivors and reporters.

• Gillibrand confronts U.S. war priorities:

  "You are asking for unlimited money for bombs when people can’t feed their families."
  —Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (43:43)

• Direct challenge to official narratives:

  "The attack on Shajar Etayyebe Primary School echoed the downing of that passenger flight 38 years earlier. It was a nation’s trauma being relived."
  —Samaneh Moafi (51:35)

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V. Conclusion

This episode weaves together major international justice stories, showing the interconnectedness of political power, violence, and impunity—from the exploitation underlying Andrew Tate’s online rise to the devastating cost of U.S. military action abroad. It highlights the vital role of independent journalism and investigative reporting in exposing abuse, holding leaders to account, and amplifying the voices of the vulnerable and aggrieved.

Transcript

[Amy Goodman]

From New York, this is Democracy Now. 38 new charges in total have now been authorized against Andrew and Tristan Tate, bringing the total number of charges faced to 59. The charges relate to seven victims Spanish a period from 2010 to 2017. The right wing social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother have been arrested in Miami after British authorities issued new rape and sex trafficking charges against them. We'll speak to investigative reporter Heidi Blake of the New Yorker about her recent expose Andrew Tate's Empire of Abuse. How the defining figure of the manosphere built a force and became a political force by systematically exploiting women.

[Heidi Blake]

Drawing on thousands of leaked files and scores of interviews, my investigation reveals how he got rich by building a sprawling empire of online exploitation, recruiting dozens of webcam workers into what he called sexual slavery.

[Amy Goodman]

Then as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth goes to the Senate seeking 67 billion more dollars for the war on IR, Forensic Architecture has uncovered new details about how the US killed over 160 people, overwhelmingly children, in a strike on an Iranian elementary school the first day of the war. For months, President Trump has refused to take responsibility for the strike.

[Donald Trump]

I don't think anybody's going to ever be able to say what happened there. It's also possible that those images that you have are AI generated. I know we're waiting for a conclusive report. I don't think there can be a conclusive report.

[Amy Goodman]

All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The U.S. continues to bomb Iran for an 11th straight day as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified on Capitol Hill that the cost of war has soared to over 37 billion doll. That's an increase of nearly $8 billion since the last public estimate. Hegseth also asked Congress to approve tens of billions of dollars in additional Pentagon funding to finance the war on Iran. In retaliation, Iran struck US Bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan on Tuesday. Kuwaitis are reportedly forced to ration electricity after Iranian strikes on power infrastructure raise fears of outages. This comes as far right. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrek said Israel has no interest in joining US Military operations against Iran. The US Reportedly requested Israel stay out of the most recent conflict while negotiations were ongoing following a so called ceasefire agreement brokered last April. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is set to announce that it's reached a deal with Saudi Arabia that could allow the country to enrich its own fuel for nuclear reactors. This is President Trump speaking from the Oval Office Tuesday.

[Donald Trump]

Iran is bigger It's a more complex situation, but we're probably doing equally as well if you look at the damage that's been done. And again, as I said to the young man that just posed the question over here, if we left today, it would take them decades to rebuild and I don't believe they could ever rebuild. And honestly, they haven't seen anything yet. We've been nice

[Amy Goodman]

Yemen's Houthi rebels are warning shipping companies that their tankers risk being attacked if they use Saudi Arabian ports. This comes after the Houthis announced the closure of the Bab El Mandab Strait to Saudi ships in retaliation for the kingdom's blockade on Yemen. Two oil tankers that were reportedly loaded with Saudi crude oil en route to China and India Tuesday were forced to divert towards the Suez Canal in Gaza. The Israeli military is moving to quickly build a giant barrier separating the portion of the Gaza Strip it controls from the rest of the enclave. In recent months, more than 23 kilometers, about 414 miles have been constructed. Israel currently controls just over half the territory. This comes as an Israeli airstrike killed a family of six, including four children, in Gaza City on Tuesday. Since last October's so called cease fire, more than 1100 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon. Three villages in the south will be the first to implement the framework agreement brokered between Israel, Lebanon and the under the deal, the Israeli military is set to retreat from areas it occupies in southern Lebanon to allow the Lebanese military to take over and oversee the disarmament of Hezbollah. This is Ali Al Aw, who's a resident of the southern Lebanese town of Zahar Al Gharbiyya.

[Pete Hegseth]

We are waiting for the army's decision to allow the residents to enter the town as the army promised that once the engineering regiment finishes its work, the residents may be allowed to but so far as we've been told, the engineering regiment hasn't finished yet because there are explosive devices and unexploded ammunition.

[Amy Goodman]

Meanwhile, President Trump Tuesday said He would allow US carriers to resume direct flights to Lebanon more than 40 years after the US suspended the route following the hijacking of a US passenger plane back in 1985. A three judge federal appeals panel has overturned a lower court's ruling that ordered the release from ICE custody of Palestinian rights activist Mohsin Madawi in a ruling that could allow the Trump administration to rearrest the Columbia University graduate. In May, the U.S. board of Immigration Appeals reinstated deportation proceedings against Madawi, who is a green card holder. In April of last year masked and hooded ICE agents detained him when he appeared what he believed would be a naturalization interview in Vermont. He spent two weeks in ICE custody before a federal judge ordered his release. After his release, he came back to Columbia University, where he graduated and now is a graduate student. To see our interviews with Mohsin Madawi, go to our [e-mail] the Trump administration arrested a record more than 43,000 immigrants in the month of June, the highest number since Trump returned to office. That's according to an analysis by the Guardian, which reports more than 65,000 immigrants are estimated to be in ICE detention. While the Trump administration's deported more than a half, half a million immigrants since January 2025. The majority of immigrants targeted by Trump officials have no criminal record. In related news, Time Magazine reports the Trump administration is planning to expand immigrant detention across over a dozen locations nationwide, including the Virgin Islands and Guantanamo Bay, the US Military base in Cuba. This comes as Citizens bank has announced it will officially begin to cut ties with two of the nation's largest private operators of ICE jails, Geo Group and Corecivic, amidst growing calls to boycott the bank over its financing of the two for profit prison companies. To see our interview on the subject, go to democracynow.org In Texas, a federal judge has prohibited Trump's Homeland Security Department from deporting one of the key witnesses in the fatal shooting of Lorenzo salgado Araujo, the 52 year old Mexican father of three killed by an ICE agent July 7th in Houston. The order comes in the case of Jose Trinidad Rojas, who was in Salgado Araujo's van at the time ICE killed Araujo. Rojas is from Mexico and has lived in the United states for over 25 years, since 1998. The two other passengers in the van the morning of the fatal shooting, Daniel Tirado Pantoja and Salgado Araujo's younger brother Victor, have also filed petitions to be released from ICE custody. To see our coverage of the case, go to democracynow.org A federal judge Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from revoking work permits for tens of thousands of asylum seekers and immigrants with temporary protected status known as TPS. U.S. district Judge Nathaniel Gorton said in his decision, quote, the consequences faced by plaintiffs are potentially severe. Judge Gorton is expected to issue another ruling on August 5th. The lawsuit was filed earlier this month by Democracy Forward on behalf of the plaintiffs. In response to the ruling, Democracy Forward President Sky Perryman said in a statement, quote, without this relief, families who followed the law and relied on longstanding humanitarian protections face the sudden loss of their employment authorization and ability to support themselves through no fault of their own. Unquote. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing civil rights and anti discrimination laws, has ended a decades old requirement for private sector employers to collect demographic data in the workplace, slashing a policy that had been in place for more than 60 years. The EEOC's Republican majority voted 2 to 1 Tuesday to rescind the data collection requirement. EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas is a Trump ally and outspoken critic of deithat's diversity, equity and inclusion policies. The EEOC was created under the 1964 Civil Rights act, establishing protections that prohibited discrimination based on race, gender, sex, national origin and religion. Galpana Kotegal, who is the sole Democrat left on the EEOC since Trump overhauled the agency, he said, quote, Today the commission discusses whether to turn back time to a period before the civil rights movement kneecapping its ability to protect workers. Unquote. In India, police have detained Rahul Gandhi, the leader of India's largest opposition party, the Congress Party, as student led protests against the government continue. Gandhi and other opposition leaders were arrested during a sit in outside the right wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence Tuesday. Demonstrators were condemning the brutal crackdown on student protesters. This is a lawmaker with the opposition Congress Party who spoke through a police van's window after being arrested.

[Heidi Blake]

We are protesting in front of the prime minister office, prime minister residents because our students brutally attacked and that's why our students very cruelly attacked yesterday the

[Amy Goodman]

Delhi police honorable prime minister is not saying anything.

[Heidi Blake]

Honorable home minister is not making any statement. So hundreds of students, they are in the hospital.

[Amy Goodman]

Back in the United States, the Trump administration's paused more than a billion dollars in Medicaid funding to California and Minnesota. That includes more than $867 million for California and about $200 million for Minnesota. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Claims it's part of the administration's strategy to, quote, stop the fraud before it happens, unquote. But in their news conference Tuesday, neither RFK Jr. Nor Dr. Mehmetaz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, offered new evidence of fraud. California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on X. California isn't being targeted because Trump has evidence of fraud. We're being targeted for political reasons and because Dr. Oz doesn't understand that we are saving taxpayers money by keeping seniors and people with disabilities out of far more expensive nursing homes. We hate fraud. That's not what this is, governor Newsom wrote. Several US States are facing an outbreak of diarrhea caused by cyclospora, a parasite that contaminates fresh food or water. Thousands of people, many in the Midwest, have fallen sick with severe diarrhea. On Saturday, the FDA announced that lab tests had confirmed cyclospora contamination in iceberg lettuce from Mexico. The company, Taylor Farms, has recalled several lettuce products after health officials linked it to the out. In a press conference Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Claimed the outbreak was under control. In France, lawmakers passed a bill banning social media for children under the age of 15. The legislation also banned students from using mobile phones in schools. France is the second country to introduce a social media ban for children, following Australia and in Kenya, Pan African feminist educator and advocate Joki Jehu passed away at her home in Nairobi on Saturday. She was a committed Kenyan grassroots organizer and activist who played a pivotal role building the Fight Inequality alliance movement. Joki Jehu notably led the 50 years is enough campaign here in the United states, marking the 50th anniversary of the World bank and the IMF. Denouncing their neoliberal policies and catastrophic impacts on communities in the global South. The Fight Inequality alliance said in a statement, quote, jochi was a visionary leader whose wisdom, conviction and generosity shaped our movement in countless ways across Africa and globally. To see our interviews with Joki Jehu over the years, go to Democracy Now. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. Coming up, Andrew Tate's Empire of How the defining figure of the manosphere built a fortune and became a political force by systematically exploiting women. Stay with us.

[Anna (BBC interviewee)]

Today I feel weak

[Heidi Blake]

but tomorrow I'll feel a queen.

[Amy Goodman]

I was raised by the street.

[Heidi Blake]

Do you know what that really means? All this hurt I've suffered

[Kirsten Gillibrand]

it just

[Heidi Blake]

begins again in a baby girl

[Khadija Ahmedizadeh]

or

[Amy Goodman]

a full grown man

[Heidi Blake]

Tomorrow will come like the turning of the sun

[Donald Trump]

over

[Amy Goodman]

tall building

[Heidi Blake]

and the beating of a drum it lives in my heart.

[Amy Goodman]

The Navigator by Linda Segarra of Hooray for the Riff Raff performing in our Democracy now studio. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The right wing social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been arrested in Miami after British authorities issued new rape and sex trafficking charges against them. The United Kingdom's Crown Prosecution Service announced the charges Saturday. 38 new charges in total have now been authorised against Andrew and Tristan Tate, bringing the total number of charges faced to 59. The charges relate to seven victims spanning a period from 2010 to 2017. I want to make it clear there is no place for male violence against women and girls in our society and we will continue to work tirelessly to support victims and investigate all reports made to us. Andrew and Tristan Tate are dual British US citizens prominent in the hyper masculine online community known as the manosphere. They previously lived in Romania, where prosecutors filed a criminal indictment against them in 2023 on charges including violence, rape and human trafficking. Despite the charges, they were freed from travel restrictions in Romania early last year after White House officials reportedly pressured Romanian officials. In a moment, we'll be joined by Heidi Blake, an investigative reporter at the New Yorker magazine. Her latest piece has headlined Andrew Tate's Empire of Abuse. But first, let's turn to a video from the New Yorker that accompanied her piece. Oh, and a warning. The video includes graphic descriptions of sexual violence.

[Heidi Blake]

I'm Heidi Blake, a staff writer at the New Yorker. For the past nine months, I've been investigating the British American influencer Andrew Tate.

[Pete Hegseth]

This was my life only three years ago. Private jets, Gulf streams, flying around the, doing whatever I wanted, wearing expensive cashmere overcoats. Then they threw me in jail and forgot my tough guy. It's almost like I thought I wasn't a tough guy.

[Heidi Blake]

Drawing on thousands of leaked files and scores of interviews, my investigation reveals how he got rich by building a sprawling empire of online exploitation, recruiting dozens of webcam workers into what he called sexual slavery.

[Amy Goodman]

Sean, psychic from Andrew Tate, is very, very dangerous.

[Heidi Blake]

Tate is a former kickboxer who appeared on the reality TV show Big Bro before rising to become the defining figure of the manosphere.

[Pete Hegseth]

In the world we live in today, being a normal man or below normal is going to be terrible. Even to just find a woman you can reproduce with is becoming more and more difficult.

[Heidi Blake]

My story for the New Yorker charts the rise of Tate's online pornography empire from the recruitment of his very first webcam worker, a Slovakian teenager who moved to the UK to begin staging sex shows online when she was was still a minor in 2014. The following year, Tate hastily left the UK after being accused of rape by three women and relocated to Romania, where he turned the webcam business into an industrial operation. Soon he was bragging to associates that he had police and mafia connections that placed him above the law and systematically trawling social media for new recruits, often deliberately targeting teenage girls. Tate called his workers slaves branded them with tattoos and subjected them to harrowing violence.

[Pete Hegseth]

Look at the camera.

[Donald Trump]

Why are you getting hit?

[Pete Hegseth]

Why are you getting beaten? Listen, you do as I say.

[Heidi Blake]

Tate and his younger brother Tristan have been under investigation on suspicion of human trafficking in Romania since 2022, when their heavily guarded compound outside Bucharest was raided by armed police. At the time of the raid, Andrew Tate was rapidly becoming one of the most famous men on the planet. He told alienated young men that they were the victims of a feminized society. And he urged them to get fit, get rich, and reclaim what he called their natural masculine imperative for power. Often, that imperative seemed to equate to sexual violence.

[Pete Hegseth]

It's bang out the machete, boom, in her face and grip her up by the neck.

[Kirsten Gillibrand]

Neck.

[Pete Hegseth]

Machete's on the floor, her panties are all wet. You got her. That's how it goes. Slap, slap, grab, choke. Shut up. Sex.

[Heidi Blake]

After his arrest, the files reveal how Tate compelled some of his alleged victims to record videos defending him, orchestrated a smear campaign against others, and allegedly bribed some to stay silent as he fought back against the case. But the brothers have strenuously denied any wrongdoing, insisting that they are the victims of a liberal smear campaign. And right wing allies, including Donald Trump Jr. Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson have branded the case a conspiracy. After Donald Trump's election, Romanian prosecutors eventually gave in to US Pressure to release the brothers from a travel ban.

[Pete Hegseth]

Freedom at last.

[Heidi Blake]

And since then, the case appears to have stalled.

[Pete Hegseth]

We have our passports back. And just like you, you, you. Anyone else here decides to take a trip, they're allowed to take a trip. So all of these three years of imprisonment were a complete waste of time against innocent men who have never been tried. It is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in a democracy. We have never been convicted of any crime anywhere on the planet, ever.

[Heidi Blake]

When I met Tate earlier this year at a cigar lounge in Bucharest, he assured me that the prosecution was doomed.

[Pete Hegseth]

It's just garbage out of a corrupt country. No one's that dumb like human trafficking. Okay, show me a victim. Show me a hurt girl. Show me a bruise. Show me a literal chained up. Show me something.

[Heidi Blake]

But I have pieced together an account of Tate's activities over more than a decade from hundreds of thousands of private messages, internal documents, sealed prosecutorial files and court records, as well as interviews with the Tates, their associates, and more than a dozen alleged victims.

[Amy Goodman]

A video from the New Yorker magazine featuring our first guest, investigative journalist Heidi Blake. The video accompanied her recent New Yorker article Headlined Andrew Tate's Empire of How the Defining figure of the manosphere Built a fortune and became a Political force by Systematically Exploiting women, unquote. Since that video was made, Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been arrested in Miami after British authorities issued new rape and sex trafficking charges against them. Heidi Blake is joining us from the United Kingdom. Let's start, Heidi, with this latest news. Can you explain, as you track them from Britain to Romania, where you interviewed them personally, how they got into the United States and what thesethis request for extradition and their arrest in Miami is all about?

[Heidi Blake]

Well, these latest developments over the weekend are a huge step change in the case and in the disposition of the US administration towards the Tate brothers, it would appear, because a lot of what I uncovered in my reporting was how actually the prosecutors in Romania who brought this human trafficking case against the brothers, under pressure from the US administration in 2025, released the brothers from their travel ban. And when I started investigating this case, the prosecution in Romania had really stall. The brothers were floating freely around the world. They were traveling back and forth from the U.S. they were visiting other places Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Turkey. They were in the Bahamas, and they were continuing to amass further influence to make more money. When I met them, as you heard there, they said to me the case was doomed. Andrew Tate said there was a 0% chance they were ever going to face trial. So they were very, very confident of their impunity at that point. And what I wanted to understand was how on earth that was the case and what was the evidence underpinning that investigation. And so that's what I set out to do. And as you heard there, I uncovered a huge amount of evidence, really, which documented their extremely systematic exploitation of women over many, many years. But since that article was published, there's been a big change. The British government have now added 38 new charges to their case against the brothers and have gone to the US and asked them to extradite these two. And that's gone through State Department, it's gone through doj, it's now through the courts. And all the indications seem to be that the Trump administration is cutting them loose. There doesn't seem to be any help coming from the briefing that's coming out at the moment. So it's a huge change.

[Amy Goodman]

Reading from the BBC, last year, US Special envoy Richard Grenell raised the Tate brothers with Romania's foreign minister at the Munich Security Conference, who said he'd not considered Grinnell's approach as a form of pressure. This goes to how did they end up in the United States?

[Heidi Blake]

Well, that's right. So, you know, I confirmed that that conversation did take place between Richard Grinnell and Romania's foreign minister, and that that conversation, I was told by a former very senior insider from the Tate brothers group of advisors that that had been orchestrated by the campaign team. Now, Richard Grenell denied that, but this person told me that they had asked him to raise the issue. The issue certainly was raised. And what I then learned is that prosecutors in Romania reached out to the Tate brothers lawyers only very, very shortly after that conversation and said, what do the Americans want from us? And they were told, we want them. We want the travel ban lifted. And so at that point, the brothers were released from the travel ban. They were given their passports back, and the first thing they did was get on a plane to Florida, and they went straight back to the US now, within days of them landing in the US after that travel ban was lift, Andrew Tate was again accused by yet another woman of sexual assault and strangulation, the exact same pattern of abuse that has been described by countless other women in this case. And so, you know, they're free to travel to the US and you are now a US citizen on US soil saying she's been assaulted by Andrew Tate. But since then, they've continued traveling back and forth freely. They've been to the US a number of times. They were in the US again over the weekend, but the tide seems to have turned, and that's when they were arrested.

[Amy Goodman]

One of the things you talk about or the victims talk about and that they found that they had in common with each other were pinprick blood spots, you know, like broken blood vessels in their eyes, which indicated strangulation. Heidi?

[Heidi Blake]

That's right. There were so many features of these women's stories that were strikingly similar, and that was one of them that so many of these women described waking up the next morning and having. Having this. This form of mottling around the eyes, which is called petiti, and is a sign of acute pressure in the head caused by strangulation. And this. This is. You know, women were reporting this back in sort of 2014 when they first went to the police to accuse Andrew Tate of strangulation. The woman in. The woman in. In LA who accused him of sexual assault after he flew to the US Last year made the same allegation. And that's the common feature in so many of these women's stories. Stories. And, you know, what I was hearing from women I spoke to was an Incredibly similar description of the way Andrew Tate would assault them by choking them till they. Either till they passed out or till they couldn't breathe, raping them. And, you know, they would develop this. These injuries. Often they describe being beaten over the head as well during. During these assaults. So these allegations are strikingly similar. And these are women who have not met each other who live in different countries across a decade. So, you know, that was a very striking feature of the case and something I found it astonishing that authorities didn't seem to have taken account of sooner. And so this is, again, this is a very big step change in the case that these charges have been added, that the British government have made this request and that the US Government so far has greenlit it.

[Amy Goodman]

Before we talk about how they came to the United States and their relationship with the Trump family and other Trump allies, I want to go back to 2024. A woman who asked to be identified as Anna told the BB about briefly dating Andrew Tate in 2013. She described what happened when she went home with Tate one evening. A warning. Again, the video includes graphic descriptions of sexual violence. The clip is voiced by an actor.

[Anna (BBC interviewee)]

He just looked up at the ceiling and I remember thinking, this is weird. I'm just debating whether I should rape you or not. Out of the blue, he just got up, grabbed me by the throat, smashed me to the back of the bed, strangling me extremely hard. And he's telling me to take my trousers off. And I'm like, refusing, and I'm like, no, Andrew, you said you wouldn't. And he's getting more and more angry at me, strangling me, hurling abuse at me, threatening me. I went straight home, got in the bath, started to cry. It's hard for me because I tried to block all that memory out of my brain because it upsets me too much. I get too upset.

[Amy Goodman]

That was a woman identified as Anna who spoke to the BBC in 2024 about dating, quote, unquote, Andrew Tate in 2013. So I want to go, Heidi Blake to their relationship with Trump allies and the Trump family, if you can talk about their relationship with everyone from Elon Musk to Donald Trump Jr. To Tucker Carlson.

[Heidi Blake]

Well, Andrew Tate's relationship with Donald Trump Jr. Dates back to 2017. He became a big fan of Trump soon after his election. He began pumping out a lot of pro maga content on social media and managed to befriend Donald Trump Jr. Who then invited him to Trump Tower, where the two of them met. And they have been in touch ever since. Then they have a personal relationship, which has obviously been beneficial to Andrew Tate in the years since. He's also cultivated a relationship through an intermediary in the US With Baron Trump and pledged support to Baron Trump, who was kind of instrumental in mobilizing young male voters for his father's re election campaign. Andrew Tate had a big part just

[Amy Goodman]

for people to understand, because Barron Trump is hardly in the news. Barron Trump is President Trump's youngest son. He's in college.

[Heidi Blake]

That's right. Absolutely right. Yeah. So there are relationships there with the Trump family itself. But also, Andrew Tate has become a really important political force for the MAGA movement because he's become a defining figure within the manosphere and a proponent of this masculinist ideology, which has become very. A dominant part of what kind of holds the MAGA coalition together. This idea that feminism has gone too far, it needs to be rolled back, that patriarchal power needs to be reasserted, that women need to be put back under the thumb. He has really led on that, and he's garnered a huge amount of support from people like Tucker Carlson, who, after he was accused of all of these crimes, has dedicated hours of airtime to proclaiming Andrew Tate's innocence and decrying the case against him as a political conspiracy. Elon Musk is actually still defending him. I see on X he's still out there, you know, tweeting, tweeting supportive messages about the tape case. But he has consistently defended them and dismissed the allegations against them. And, you know, Richard Grinnell has publicly expressed his support, Trump's special presidential envoy who raised their case with the Romanian foreign minister. So he's really enjoyed the support of a large number of influential figures across the MAGA movement. And, you know, that was a big part of the reason why the Romanian government and prosecutors began to feel that it was not going to be politically expedient to be pursuing this case against the brothers in the way that they were. And what led to that travel ban being lifted.

[Amy Goodman]

In 2025, ProPublica published a piece headlined the White House intervened on behalf of accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate during a federal investigation. In it, according to the report, federal authorities were chided for seizing electronic devices from Tate and his brother and told to return them. Records and interviews show experts said the intervention was highly inappropriate. If you can talk more about that.

[Heidi Blake]

That's right. That was Great reporting from ProPublica. The person at the White House who was said to have interfered, there was a lawyer called Paul Ingrassia who. Who actually worked for the Tates before he was appointed as, as a lawyer at the White House. And he, you know, he had been part of their legal campaign against the women who have accused them of human trafficking. There's a particular woman in Florida who has been the target of a huge smear campaign by the Tate brothers. They are suing her and members of her family in Florida. And Paul and Gracia had been a part of that and has been a huge, you know, public defender of Andrew Tate before he was appointed to, to this role. And so it was pretty astonishing to hear that in that role he was then intervening in this, this, this federal investigation into the Tate brothers in which their phones had been seized when they landed in Florida. Now I have saying Ingrassia denies that he did that, but the ProPublica report seemed to be very well sourced and said that it had seen documentation and spoken to people with knowledge of that intervention. So, you know, yet more evidence of the extent of the Tate brothers ties with the, the Trump administration. But again, that does seem changing now

[Amy Goodman]

and then, if you can talk about Elon Musk and also Tucker Carlson, particularly after he was forced out of Fox.

[Heidi Blake]

So Tucker Carlson first hosted Andrew Tate on his Fox News show back in 2022. That was actually right after the Tate brothers had first been. Their compound had been raided in Romania because of these reports that a US citizen was being held there and she initiate accused them of trafficking her and other women. But the Tate brothers were dismissive of those reports. Soon after that, they were ejected from mainstream social media because of the misogynistic views, the kind of violent misogyny they were preaching. And Tucker Carlson was one of the first people to really embrace them as free speech martyrs. He had Andrew Tate on his Fox News show and was highly critical of the decision to deplatform him. And then after Andrew Tate later that year was arrested and this time detained by organized crime prosecutors in Romania on, on very serious human trafficking and organized crime charges. Tucker Carlson hosted a two and a half hour fawning interview with Andrew Tate in which he pretty much declared Tate innocent and allowed him to lie extensively about the case against him and about the nature of the allegations. So he's been a huge champion of the Tate brothers. I can't imagine he had any real knowledge of the case or the evidence against them because the evidence I've seen is extremely overwhelming. But he certainly, he certainly kind of stuck his neck out for them. Elon Musk similarly has dismissed the charges against them. He's, he's said that the Tate brothers are being targeted by authorities who want to distract the public from real sex trafficking. I'm not sure how he's making the distinction between what these two men have done and real sex trafficking, but that's been his position. He's still making that kind of argument today on ex. So he's been a big defender of them. Candace Owens, another major right wing commentator, has again dedicated hours of air time not only to proclaiming the Tate brothers innocence, but also to attacking their victims. One victim in particular who she dedicated a whole episode to, to, to kind of smears that the brothers had had, you know, allegations that they'd made against her in court. So they've had a lot of support from very influential right wing figures. But, but, but that apart from, you know, Elon Musk is still out there defending them. But that support does certainly seem to be fraying. I mean, the indications now coming out of the State Department and briefings coming out of the White House are that Donald Trump is not going to come to their aid. Marco Rubio is not going to come to their aid. That's, that's what various outlets are reporting. And so it seems like there has now been a change, I think perhaps as figures within the administration have actually got to grips with the nature of the evidence in this case and perhaps realize that it's unsustainable to, to continue supporting these guys publicly and politically.

[Amy Goodman]

And as you mentioned, Elon Musk, he was, Andrew Tate was deep platformed right from Twitter, but when Elon Musk took over and it became X, he was re platformed. Is that right?

[Heidi Blake]

That's right. Elon Musk reinstated his account on X where he now has about 11 million followers. And meanwhile, another thing I uncovered in my reporting is that the right wing streaming platform Rumble, which had just received, received major investments from Peter Thiel and J.D. vance, Trump's future vice president, gave Andrew Tate a 6 million dollar contract to move his streaming over to their platform after he was banned from YouTube. And there that caused a huge spike in active users. Their active user base went up by 45 when Andrew Tate moved over, propelled the Rumble app to the top of the Google and Apple charts. So as a, you know, it was in that sense a success for them. But they've been a huge supporters of Andrew Tate and very instrumental in allowing him to continue spreading his message.

[Amy Goodman]

And one more time if you can explain, you, you mentioned J.D. vance, his role.

[Heidi Blake]

Well, J.D. vance, as I say, is a big investor in Rumble, which, which has profited hugely from the Tate brothers and their presence on the platform. He also notably follows the brothers on X. Soon after the election result, he followed them. And so a lot of people have taken that as a, as an expression of support for them. As far as I know, he still follows them. And there have been briefings that, you know, there's been, you know, reports in the past that J.D. vance would take a dim view of it if the British government were to seek the Tate brothers extradition. Now, it's unclear what his position is now. As far as I know, he has not commented on the fact that this extradition request has now gone through and being greenlit by the State Department. But the, certainly the, the sort of understanding has been that JD Vance has been broadly supportive of these guys and it will be an whether he has anything to say now.

[Amy Goodman]

Heidi Blake, we want to thank you very much for being with us, investigative reporter at the New Yorker magazine. We'll link to your latest piece, Andrew Tate's Empire, of how the defining figure of the manosphere built a fortune and became a political force by systematically exploiting women. Coming up, forensic architecture has uncovered new details about how the US killed over 100 people, overwhelmingly children, by bombing an Iranian elementary school on the first day of the war. But first, we'll hear from the grilling of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Tuesday in the Senate. Stay with us. The great Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso performing here in New York years ago. This is Democracy Now. Democracynow.org I'm Amy Goodman. The U.S. is continuing to bomb Iran for an 11th straight day. On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the cost of war in Iran has soared to over $37 billion, an increase of nearly 8 billion since the last public estimate. Hegseth is now seeking 80 billion more dollars from Congress, including 67 billion for the war in Iran. Anti war activists repeatedly disrupted Hegseth during his appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday.

[Pete Hegseth]

The supplemental funding request is not a substitute for The President's full $1.5 trillion base budget request. 1.5 trillion.

[Amy Goodman]

Stop bombing our children in Iran and Palestine.

[Heidi Blake]

This is illegal.

[Pete Hegseth]

Mr. Secretary, please suspend until order is

[Heidi Blake]

restored in the hearing room.

[Amy Goodman]

That was Maine Senator Susan Collins, who presided over the hearing. During the hearing, senators grilled Defense Secretary Hegseth over the state of the war. This is Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York.

[Kirsten Gillibrand]

Secretary Hegseth, you're requesting billions of dollars in supplemental funding for a war that you said would last for weeks and that the president has no plan or Ability to end at the same time this still unauthorized and extremely unpopular war has caused gas, diesel, fertilizer and other essentials that New Yorkers and our farmers need. You are asking for unlimited money for bombs when people can't feed their families. And I don't know how this administration intends to defend those decisions to the American people.

[Pete Hegseth]

Not unlimited bombs, Senator. I'm asking for the right bombs at the right time to ensure we can deter our adversaries into the future. And that's how. This is a generational investment. And it was the previous administration that didn't fund this department.

[Kirsten Gillibrand]

The reason why they are so upset with you and this administration is because the words you have used in the past don't add up. About Iran specifically. You said that we had obliterated, quote, unquote, Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons. The President made the same claim. Yet eight months later, in February of 2026, the President launched an act of war claiming Iran was within two weeks of having a weapon. So when you say two very different things, the American people don't know who to believe or what to believe. They just know they can't afford their health care, they can't afford their food, they can't afford housing and our farmers are continuing to suffer. So which is true? Was it obliterated or wasn't it? What's the status?

[Pete Hegseth]

The nuclear sites under midnight hammer were obliterated. But Iranians foolishly continued to attempt to pursue nuclear capabilities. Which is what why we destroyed their defense industrial base and so many of the other capabilities to ensure they can't get to a nuclear weapon. We're staying laser focused on the objective. And you're trying to make campaign commercials.

[Kirsten Gillibrand]

No.

[Pete Hegseth]

And that's fine.

[Kirsten Gillibrand]

So listen to this. You also say that you made the missile program quote destroyed and made combat ineffective, quote, Iran's entire ballistic missile production capacity. Every company that builds every component of those missiles has been functionally defeated and destroyed. And that the missile program existing stockpiles were depleted and decimated, almost completely ineffective. So why are there missiles left to hit Jordan and result in the loss of life of our brave men and women?

[Pete Hegseth]

As we stated from the beginning, the Iranian defense industrial base is effectively gone. But they do have underground facilities because they're the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. And they've spent 47 years trying to hide their missiles under mountains. Just like their.

[Kirsten Gillibrand]

Thank you.

[Amy Goodman]

Thank you.

[Pete Hegseth]

Just like their nuclear capabilities. Cuz they would like to get a

[Kirsten Gillibrand]

nuclear weapon to wield it against us of the war to believe because it's either over or it's not over. It's within two weeks or it's not two weeks. We have no missiles or we have missiles. And that consternation is why so many New Yorkers are perplexed, stressed out, and find this war to be incredibly unpopular.

[Amy Goodman]

During the Senate hearing, Senator Chris Van Holland of Maryland mentioned the US School strike on an Iranian elementary school in Manab on the first day of the war.

[Pete Hegseth]

We recently lost three American heroes. That brings the death toll for American soldiers to 18. One is still missing. Hundreds have been injured. That's on top of the civilian death toll throughout the region. That now stands at several thousand, including the over 150 people killed in the bombing of an elementary school in Minab in Iran.

[Amy Goodman]

The Trump administration has repeatedly refused to take responsibility for the school strike. President Trump recently appeared on Fox News and was questioned by Trey Angst about the strike.

[Pete Hegseth]

Democrats released a letter calling on your administration to unveil the findings of the investigation into a strike strike that killed more than 100 children on the first day of the war. Will you commit to releasing the findings of this investigation?

[Donald Trump]

Well, I'd have to speak to the generals that are doing the. Because we mostly have generals, you know, I don't think anybody's going to ever be able to say what happened there.

[Pete Hegseth]

There are images from this site that show fragments that appear to be from U.S. tomahawk missiles. Is it possible that old intelligence or a mistake during a very active time in the war, war led to this event?

[Donald Trump]

It is. But it's also possible that those images that you have are AI generated. Now, I know we're waiting for a conclusive report. I don't think there can be a conclusive report.

[Pete Hegseth]

Will you release the report when it is finished?

[Donald Trump]

I guess so. I mean, I have to ask the military people. There might be a reason why they can't.

[Amy Goodman]

While President Trump claimed evidence of the school strike may be a generated forensic architecture is out with a new report revealing new details about the US Bombing. Joining us from London will be a forensic architecture researcher. But first, Sky News recently released its own major report on the school strike, based in part on the research of forensic architecture. One mother, Khadija Ahmedizadeh, spoke to Sky News about her son Muhammad Taha, who died in the attack.

[Khadija Ahmedizadeh]

I collapsed onto the ground on my hands and knees. I said, muhammad Taha will choke. For God's sake, pull him out quickly. I picked up a stone and said, I'll kill myself with this if you don't bring my son out quickly before he chokes. It was one month after we were told that Muhammad Taha had been found. I thought they would show him to me. But when we went yank, I saw that a child that had raised for 10 years with so much effort was now recovered, reduced to a size of a newborn baby, wrapped in a shroud. They gave him to me and said, here, this is your child. I didn't see my child's face again. After one month, Muhammad Taha was laid to rest next to his classmates. I spent that whole night at the cemetery. I was scared. Muhammad Taha was afraid of the dark too. They tore my son to pieces. What should I do now? Who am I supposed to hold responsibility responsible for this? Who do I have any power over?

[Amy Goodman]

We're joined now in London by Samaneh Moafi, Assistant Director of Research at Forensic Architecture, the new report titled Airstrikes on Manob Primary School. This is very painful, Samani, because we're talking about real life. We're talking about well over 160 children and some adults who were killed on that first day when the US Struck Minab. You also hear President Trump saying, we don't know actually what happened as he's questioned by Fox and it may be AI generated. You have done the research. What exactly did you find?

[Anna (BBC interviewee)]

I want to take one step before and I want to talk about where Minob is. MINOB is in the south of Iran along the Strait of Hormuz. The war in 2026 started from the very site the Iran Iraq War was brought to an end in 1988. The United States had escalated its military operations against the oil infrastructure and naval bases in Iran. And amongst those strikes, it also shot down an Iranian passenger flight by the Strait of Hormuz and attributes it to a misidentification. All 290 passengers on that flight were killed. This is why, for many Iranians, the attack on Shajar Etayyebe Primary School echoed the downing of that passenger flight 38 years earlier. It was a nation's trauma being relived. Some of the preliminary reports had said that the attack on the school, like the passenger flights, was the result of a misidentification, a targeting mistake. In our investigation, we used satellite imagery to show that at the time of the attack, the building was a school and had served that purpose for over a decade. By October 2015, all architectural indicators of military presence, a watchtower or anything, were destroyed. And new entrances were built. New perimeter walls were built around the school. By 2017, we see a football pitch and assembly lines being painted on the playgrounds. By 2018 we see the walls being painted in blue and pink to identify the girls school and the boys school. We see children playing in the playground. Of these in the satellite imagery we were able to verify also that many of the buildings in the immediate surrounding of the school were visibly civil. A clinic, a cultural center, a cafe, a supermarket, a car wash. Many of these facilities maintained active social media accounts. So they were publishing and posting about what is happening in them. Some of these were used by the school. The culture center was offered space for children for their ceremonies, award ceremonies, so on and so on force. It's true that you know, during the Iran Iraq war this site was used as a military base. The 1980s CIA documents also refer to a possible military support facility in Mino. Laying the ground kind of for like a target, you know. But the Sky News documentary that featured this investigation showed that these targets had not been checked properly for years and years. I can also tell you how further we went. We looked into the photographs and videos that were published on the school's website publicly. These were images of ceremonies, say the Mother's Day ceremony, the Nauru celebrations that mark the new year, the book fairs. We use these images and videos to reconstruct the building of the school as a kind of a navigable 3D model. Some of these images belong to January only a few weeks before the strikes had happened. Some of the children we saw in those images, Muhammad Taha was one of them, were killed during the strike. The digital model that we built went into as much detail as interior finishes of every single classroom. The decorations on the walls, the bright paint on the staircase that linked the assembly hall of the boys school on the ground floor to the girls school on the top floor. We checked every room. There was no hidden room for any kind of use. It was a school for, you know, for children.

[Amy Goodman]

And if you can say apparently this. According to cnn, the investigation into the US strike that hit the school in Iran has sat for months with a military command while leaders have held off on ordering a critical standard intelligence review. And we also about the cutting of the agencies that would review the target sites. And this last minute we have Soamaneh Moafe, the most important evidence you felt you had concluding it was a U.S. tomahawk missile.

[Anna (BBC interviewee)]

We looked at images. There were images and videos available from the time of the strikes. The first nine strikes started, started at around 11:20 and across one and a half minute. The first strike landed only 130 meters away from the school. The fourth strike landed 10 seconds after on the school. Muhammad Taha, the nine year old you were mentioning in the beginning, was playing in the schoolyard when the first strike begins and he rushes to the safety of his classroom and that's when the school is hit. Videos of the aftermath of these strikes show that families are on site. Air workers are on site. They're rescuing the children under the rubble. These Images are from 1231, 15pm that like around noon, a number of children were rescued at this time. Paris diary the 11 year old child was amongst them from as early as 1:45 or around that time. Multiple Iranian news channels are reporting on the attacks. They're saying there was an attack on a girls school. They're saying there was death toll of five children. There is more coming, so on and so forth. Families and rescuers are on site. A second wave of strikes are hit and it's in these ones that we do see the profile of a tomahawk. And this is owned. The only party within the war that has this missile is the us. Following the initial media reportings, the US forces would have had ample opportunity to reassess their initial misidentification before conducting the next round of strikes.

[Amy Goodman]

I want to say thank you very much for being with us. Assistant Director of Research at Forensic Architecture. We'll link to your new report, Airstrikes on Minabe Primary School. That does it for our show. I'll be in Martha's Vineyard for the screen. Steal the story please. July 31st. I am Amy Goodman.