Democracy Now Media Bias

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In Major Win for Indigenous Rights, Ecuador Votes to Ban Oil Drilling in Protected Amazon Lands

Ecuadorian voters have overwhelmingly supported a ban on future oil extraction in a biodiverse section of the Amazon’s Yasuní National Park — a historic referendum result that will protect Indigenous Yasuní land from development. We speak with Helena Gualinga, a youth Kichwa Sarayaku environmental activist from Ecuador who has fought against oil drilling all her life and says the results of the vote not only set a “crucial precedent” as the first time a country has voted by democratic ballot initiative on resource extraction in the Amazon, but also demonstrates that “Ecuador is a country that is committed to protecting the Amazon rainforest and to protecting Indigenous peoples.”

Democracy Now     Aug 22, 2023

Vijay Prashad on BRICS & Why Global South Cooperation Is Key to Dismantling Unjust World Order

As a two-day BRICS summit gets underway in South Africa, we speak with author and analyst Vijay Prashad about whether the bloc — which comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — can meaningfully challenge U.S. and Western domination in world affairs by building an alternative forum for countries of the Global South. BRICS countries represent 40% of the world’s population and a quarter of the world’s economy, and the group is now considering a possible expansion to more than 20 other countries. ”BRICS is an instrument to push forward their political views, which they feel are not taken seriously,” says Prashad, director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

Democracy Now     Aug 22, 2023

Meet George Chidi, the Journalist Subpoenaed for Uncovering Secret Meeting of Fake Trump Electors

Former President Donald Trump has agreed to turn himself in to authorities in Georgia on Thursday to face 13 felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. His bail is set at $200,000. Trump has now been indicted four times this year, even as he continues to dominate the Republican field for the 2024 presidential nomination. In Atlanta, we speak with independent journalist George Chidi, who helped expose the Trump campaign after witnessing a secret meeting of Republican operatives at the state Capitol in 2020. The gathering was part of a scheme to use fake electors to claim the state’s Electoral College votes for Trump despite his loss to Joe Biden.

Democracy Now     Aug 22, 2023

"Notorious": Inside the Fulton County Jail, Where Trump Will Surrender & 15 Prisoners Died Last Year

As former President Donald Trump prepares to surrender in Atlanta on Thursday to face charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, we speak with journalist George Chidi, who has documented the inhumane conditions inside the Fulton County Jail, where Trump will appear before a judge. “A lot of people are getting killed” inside the jail, says Chidi. “The jail is the largest mental health provider in this county, and that’s a tragedy all on its own.” He also discusses the death of Lashawn Thompson, who was found dead inside his cell after being eaten alive by insects, according to family.

Democracy Now     Aug 22, 2023

South Africa Hosts Major BRICS Summit as Bloc Eyes Expanding in Global South to Counter Western Powers

BRICS — the five-country bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — is holding a monumental summit in Johannesburg this week where the group will discuss a number of major issues, including expanding membership and how to improve financial cooperation. Over 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, and 23 countries have formally applied to join the bloc, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Indonesia, Egypt and Ethiopia. The summit is a “very unstable situation,” as member countries vary greatly on priorities and many potential candidates for membership are “mostly tyrannies, carbon-addicted economies,” says Patrick Bond, director of the Centre for Social Change at the University of Johannesburg.

Democracy Now     Aug 21, 2023

Climate Change Fuels Canada's Worst Wildfire Season Ever - Democracy Now!

Democracy Now     Aug 21, 2023

Inside the Smithsonian's "Racial Brain Collection" & the Eugenics Project Behind It

The Smithsonian has formed a task force to address the massive collection of human remains held by its museums, which includes 255 human brains that were removed primarily from dead Black and Indigenous people, as well as other people of color, without the consent or knowledge of their families. The so-called racial brain collection was revealed by a Washington Post investigation. It was mostly collected in the first half of the 20th century at the behest of Ales Hrdlicka, a racist anthropologist who was trying to scientifically prove the superiority of white people. We speak with reporters Nicole Dungca and Claire Healy about the series and what they found.

Democracy Now     Aug 18, 2023

Teach No Lies: Historian Marvin Dunn Takes on Ron DeSantis & Florida's Attack on Black History

We speak with renowned Florida educator Marvin Dunn about the fight to protect the teaching of Black history in the face of racist curriculum changes in the state that justify slavery and downplay violence against African Americans. Ahead of the first day of school, Dunn helped lead a “Teach No Lies” march to the Miami-Dade County School Board Wednesday to protest the new education standards. “We are now in a confused, demoralized state of education in Florida,” says Dunn, author, professor emeritus at Florida International University and co-founder of the Miami Center for Racial Justice. He has been leading tours of teachers and young people to places like Rosewood, site of a 1923 massacre of Black residents ...

Democracy Now     Aug 18, 2023

Plantation Disaster Capitalism: Native Hawaiians Organize to Stop Land & Water Grabs After Maui Fire

real estate

With the death toll from the Maui wildfires at 111 and as many as 1,000 still missing, we speak with Hawaiian law professor Kapuaʻala Sproat about the conditions that made the fires more destructive and what’s yet to come for residents looking to rebuild their lives. Decades of neocolonialism in Hawaii have redirected precious water resources toward golf courses, resorts and other corporate ventures, turning many areas into tinderboxes and leaving little water to fight back against the flames. Now many Hawaiians say there is a power grab underway as real estate interests and other wealthy outsiders look to buy up land and water rights on the cheap as people are still reeling from the loss of ...

Democracy Now     Aug 18, 2023

Did the U.S. Push Imran Khan from Power? Leaked Cable Shows How State Dept. Pressured Pakistan

science

An explosive leaked document obtained by The Intercept appears to show direct U.S. involvement in former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ouster in 2022 because of his stance on the war in Ukraine. Khan is currently jailed and facing trial over a slew of corruption charges that his supporters say are intended to keep him from running for office again. The former cricket star was elected in 2018 but lost power in 2022 after a no-confidence vote in Parliament, which he says was engineered by the country’s powerful military with support from the U.S. The diplomatic cable published by The Intercept shows State Department officials pressured their Pakistani counterparts to push Khan out because of his neutrality ...

Democracy Now     Aug 17, 2023

Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia Demands End to Azerbaijan Blockade Amid Accusations of Genocide

science

Armenia is calling on the United Nations Security Council to address a worsening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan home to ethnic Armenians that has been under a blockade for eight months. Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought multiple wars over the territory since the collapse of the Soviet Union, most recently in 2020. Azerbaijan closed the only road into the region in December, severely restricting the movement of food, medicine and other supplies for the roughly 120,000 people living there. “We cannot accept a new Armenian genocide in 2023,” says Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Argentine lawyer who served as the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Democracy Now     Aug 17, 2023

Rabaa Massacre: A Decade After Egypt Slaughtered 900+ Protesters, No One Has Been Held to Account

As Egyptians mark the 10th anniversary of the Rabaa massacre, we speak with human rights advocate Hossam Bahgat about how the mass killing shaped the country in the ensuing years. On August 14, 2013, Egyptian security forces opened fire on a sit-in where tens of thousands of people had camped out in Cairo to protest the ouster of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. An estimated 900 protesters were killed, but no one has been held responsible over the past 10 years. The minister of defense at the time, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has since risen to the presidency, ruling Egypt for nearly a decade as a close U.S.

Democracy Now     Aug 17, 2023