02/01/24 02/01/24 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i am going after bad people. when i get a chance to stamp out evil in this world, i love it. i love hunting down bad guys. amy: american mercenaries hired

by the united arab emirates to kill in yemen. an investigative report by the bbc reveals new details of an assassination program. but first, as the u.s. launches new airstrikes in yemen, we take a look at the houthis and their support for palestine. then, on the first day of black history month, how racism shapes health care in america. >> there's nothing inherently or biologically wrong with black people, but something very wrong with the system in this country that causes us harm and leads us to live shortened lives. amy: we'll speak with dr. uché blackstock about her new book "legacy: a black physician reckons with racism in medicine." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. palestinian officials are accusing israeli forces of carrying out execution-style

killings in gaza after the discovery of a mass grave containing at least 30 decomposing bodies. some of the victims were blindfolded with their hands tied behind their back with zip ties. the bodies were found on the grounds of a school in beit lahiya. al jazeera spoke to one man who helped discover the bodies. >> inside the schoolyard, we were shocked to find the dead bodies. blindfolded and handcuffed to the back. they were kept inside black plastic bags. amy: the discovery of the mass grave comes as the death toll in gaza has topped 27,000. at least another 66,000 have been injured. the group euro-med human rights monitor is now estimating that more than 25,000 palestinian children have lost one or both parents in gaza over the past four months. in central gaza, the two largest hospitals in khan younis have run out of food amid israel's assault on the city.

dr. nassim hassan, the head of the emergency unit at nasser hospital, denounced israel's attacks on medical institutions. >> we are talking about war and genocide against everyone. what is happening now in gaza and the beginning of the war until now, is a war against hospitals, against the health care system. medical storehouses and hospitals have been destroyed. many ambulances were destroyed. there been direct and indirect targeting. amy: on the diplomatic front, hamas' political leader ismail haniyeh has announced plans to travel to cairo today as negotiations continue over a possible pause to the fighting and a new hostage deal. secretary of state antony blinken is also headed back to israel in the coming days. in more news on gaza, south africa's foreign minister naledi pandor has called on all nations to halt military support to israel after the international

court of justice ordered israel last week to prevent genocide in gaza. pandor spoke in pretoria, south africa. >> this poses an obligation on all states to seize funding and facilitating israel's military actions, which as the court has indicated, are plausibly genocidal. amy: in related news, a u.s. federal court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of palestinian americans against president biden and other officials for failing to prevent genocide in gaza. the court dismissed the suit on jurisdictional grounds but ruled it is plausible that israel is engaging in genocide. in its ruling, the court wrote the evidence and testimony presented "indicate that the ongoing military siege in gaza is intended to eradicate a whole people and therefore plausibly falls within the international prohibition against genocide."

the lawsuit had been brought by the center for constitutional rights. visit democracynow.org to see our coverage of the case. u.s. forces have bombed yemen again. u.s. central command said the attack targeted 10 houthi drones and a ground control center. the houthis have vowed to continue targeting ships linked to israel and the united states until israel halts its assault on gaza. meanwhile, nbc news is reporting president biden is considering launching a weeks-long retaliatory campaign against iran-backed militant groups following sunday's deadly drone strike on a secret u.s. airbase in jordan. three u.s. soldiers were killed. on wednesday, the head of iran's revolutionary guards said tehran was "not looking for war." one powerful militia group, kata'ib hezbollah, has announced it will halt operations targeting the united states in the region, saying it wanted to prevent embarrassment to the

iraqi government. the biden administration accused the group being involved in the jordan drone attack. the chicago city council narrowly voted wednesday to pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire in gaza. democratic mayor brandon johnson cast the tie-breaking vote, which was met with an eruption of cheers from activists who had gathered in the hundreds at city hall in chicago to support the measure. reverend jesse jackson was also present to show his support. at least 47 u.s. cities have passed resolutions calling for a ceasefire in gaza. meanwhile, in minneapolis, another democratic mayor, jacob frey, vetoed a city council resolution calling for a ceasefire that was passed last week. frey said the measure was too one-sided in favor of palestinians and that he is open to signing a ceasefire resolution that is more "unifying." the resolution was passed last week with a veto-proof majority so councilmembers could still decide to override the mayor's veto. protests against the u.s.-funded war in gaza continue across the

united states. activists have been camped outside the virginia home of secretary of state antony blinken for a week, loudly chanting slogans through megaphones like "secretary of genocide" and encouraging passing cars to honk. on capitol hill, five activists with code pink were arrested earlier this week as the group disrupted a house hearing on the u.s.'s decision to suspend funding for unrwa, the u.n. agency for palestinian refugees. yesterday, members of the arab-american community in dearborn, michigan, gathered to protest against president biden ahead of his visit today to the key swing state and just ahead of the presidential primary. >> i voted for bernie sanders. to have someone like me to go from that extreme to say that i am now willing to vote in order to out genocide joe, it is a testament to how biden has lost

big time within my community. amy: kenyan president william ruto is vowing to proceed with a plan to send 1000 kenyan police officers to haiti despite a court ruling that the deployment would be unconstitutional. the u.n. security council approved the mission last year as part of an effort to help combat gang violence which has grown under haiti's unelected leader, the u.s.-backed ariel henry who has ruled since the 2021 assassination of jovenel moïse. meanwhile, the u.n. and aid groups are warning about a surge in sexual assaults and collective rapes in haiti as gangs fight to expand their power. on wednesday, protesters in port-au-prince burned barricades to protest prime minister ariel henry's rule. >> the people can't take it anymore because aerial injury -- ariel henry. the final for justice is possible. we must disrupt to get this

country another direction. amy: in belgium, farmers from across europe have converged in the capital brussels, calling on european union leaders to end free trade agreements that allow cheaper goods to dominate the market, and ease environmental regulations. hundreds of tractors have taken over luxembourg square, near the european parliament. farmers clashed with police, who hosed some of the protesters with water. this is an italian farmer. >> we decided to come here with other european young farmers to create a voice with the cooperation of the european parliament and police because we would like -- [indiscernible] amy: the farmer protests, which started in france but soon spread across the eu, have disrupted traffic and led to confrontations with police in recent weeks amid rising

tensions ahead of today's eu summit. some far-right nationalist leaders have seized on the movement to gain traction and foment anti-eu sentiment, including france's marine le pen and hungarian prime minister viktor orban, who met with farmers in brussels earlier today. a sweeping new government study finds contaminated water at the camp lejeune military base in north carolina led to elevated cancer rates among people who lived and worked at lejeune decades ago. previous studies linked the drinking water at the base to blood and organ cancers and parkinson's disease. victims of the contamination, which plagued camp lejeune from at least 1953 to 1987, have for years been fighting for compensation and recognition from the u.s. government. the new findings are likely to boost their legal claims, which they have until august to file, under a new federal law. over 160,000 claims have been filed so far.

on capitol hill, senators and the judiciary committee grilled the ceos of meta, tiktok, x, snapchat, and discord wednesday, arguing social media companies must be held accountable for the sexual exploitation of children that their apps facilitate and the harmful effects of their products on the mental health of young people. this is republican senator lindsey graham addressing meta ceo mark zuckerberg. >> you have blood on your hands. you have a product that is killing people. when we had cigarettes killing people, we did something about it. you're going to talk about guns, we have the atf. nothing here. there is not a damn thing anyone can do about it. you can't be sued. amy: in one of the session's most sensational moments, mark

zuckerberg stood up and awkwardly apologized to the families who were present at the hearing after being pressured by republican senator josh hawley. >> i am sorry. the things your families have suffered. this is why we invest so much and are going to continue doing an effort to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things were families have suffered. amy: many families held up photos of their children who died or were harmed by social media. snapchat ceo evan spiegel also directly apologized to families after prompting from california democrat laphonza butler. meanwhile, republican senator tom cotton hounded tiktok ceo shou zi chew, who is singaporean, over his citizenship and ties to the chinese government. >> have you ever been a member of the chinese communist party? >> no. >> have you ever been associated

or affiliated with the chinese commonest party? >> i'm singaporean. amy: senator cotton and republican colleagues have called for tiktok to be banned, claiming it is a "spy app for the chinese communist party." elsewhere on capitol hill, the house wednesday passed a $78 billion bill that would expand the child tax credit while reviving some corporate tax breaks. while hailed as a bipartisan victory by centrist lawmakers, around two dozen democrats voted against it. progressive texas congressmember from texas greg casar was one of them, arguing -- "in exchange for a partial return of the child tax credit, republicans got hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate tax cuts. for every dollar going to kids in this bill, five dollars goes to corporations. we have the money to pull every child in america out of poverty. we just need to say no to accepting crumbs while corporations get a full steak dinner." a delaware judge has voided the $56 billion compensation package of tesla ceo elon musk.

the judge noted the astronomical 2018 pay package was the largest ever in public corporate history and that tesla's board failed to prove the compensation plan was fair. and in more related news, senator bernie sanders and democratic lawmakers are pushing a union-backed bill that would raise taxes on companies where ceo's make more than 50 times about the salary of an average worker. the measure could raise $150 billion in revenue over a decade. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. the u.s. military carried out new airstrikes in yemen today, targeting 10 drones and a ground control station that it said "presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and u.s. navy ships in the region." the airstrikes are the latest

targeting the houthis. the group has waged a campaign attacks on commercial ships in the red sea and gulf of aden since november 19 in response to israel's assault on gaza. on tuesday, u.s. central command said its forces shot down an anti-ship cruise missile. according to cnn, the missile came within a mile of a u.s. destroyer before it was shot down, marking the closest a houthi attack has come to a u.s. warship. meanwhile, the houthis said they would stage more attacks on u.s. and british warships in the red sea in what they called acts of self-defense. this is houthi military spokesperson yahya sarea on wednesday. >> the yemeni armed forces will confront the american british escalation with escalation and will not hesitate to carry out comprehensive and effective military operations and retaliation to any british american foolishness against the love yemen.

amy: the houthi campaign targeting shipping has affected a key route for global trade between asia, the middle east, and europe with several shipping companies suspending transit through the red sea. on thursday, italy's defense minister warned the shipping disruptions threaten to destabilize italy's economy. this comes as the european union's foreign minister josep borrell said on wednesday that the eu plans to launch a naval mission of its own within three weeks to help defend cargo ships in the red sea. for more, we are joined by helen lackner. the author of several books on yemen, including "yemen in crisis: the road to war" and "yemen: poverty and conflict." she has been involved with yemen for over half a century, lived there for a total of more than 15 years between the 1970's and the 2010's. she is joining us from oxford, england. welcome to democracy now! can you tell us who the houthis are and explain what their demands are? the significance of what is

happening in the red sea? >> make you very much for inviting me. -- thank you very much for inviting me. i think i will start with the second half of your russian, which relates directly to what has been happening and then announce we just made. the houthis have been explicit and repeat on an almost daily basis that there attacks on ships in the red sea will stop as soon as the gaza war ends and humanitarian and other supplies are allowed into gaza and therefore the palestinians will no longer be under the threat and the horrors you earlier described and most of us have seen on our screens for many weeks. so the important thing is that although the u.s. and the u.k. claim they are only defending free movement in the red sea and refuse to accept any connection

between this and the war in gaza, for the houthis it is straightforward and explicit that, number one, there only targeting ships that have any connection with israel -- whether they're going to israel, coming from israel, any connection whatsoever -- and other ships are not targeted, except now, since the u.s. and u.k. strikes have started stop they are also targeting u.s. and u.k. ships. they are explicit that all other ships are welcome to travel through the red sea and complete freedom of movement for any ship other than an israeli or u.s., or u.k. connected one. the reason the houthis have taken this action in support of palestine is that one of the very fundamental policy issues,

ideological positions that the houthis have is the support for palestine and more directly being anti-israeli. the houthis foreign policy is quite clearly summarized the basic slogan of "death to america" and "death to israel." their positions are absolutely straightforward on these points. so although they are willing to allow other ships through, they are actually up to a certain point not displeased at the fact the americans and the u.s. are now targeting their various launch positions. nermeen: could you give us some background? what are the origins of this movement and how is that they came to play such a prominent role in yemen? >> the houthi movement started

in the 1980's, 1990's. i think what you need to understand is that in terms of religious sects, yemen is divided into two. the sulli -- sunni sect that basically live in the majority and a group that live basically in the mountainous highlands of yemen. the houthis are of that group. in that sense -- again, within the movement, there is a certain variety in the since the houthis are extremist zaidis and developed their ideology and policies to strengthen their own branch. they basically emerged in response to the rise of suni fundamentalism within their own

area in the far north of yemen. so there has been conflicts and problems arising since the 1990's. between 2004-2010, there was a series of six wars between the houthis basic and fighting that then regime of the president. this ended basically -- each one ended with a cease-fire which was probably broken. the reason the last one in 2010 was not broken as a result of the uprising in 2011 known as the arab spring in various places, and that was a moment when the houthis joined with the revolutionaries and basically took the position against -- they continued their position against the regime. during what was a transition --

supposed a transition period which should have become a more democratic regime in 2014, the houthis changed their alliances and the president changed their alliance, so they operated together against the transitional government. eventually, allow them to take over the capital sonata in 2014 and then to oust their existing transitional government in early 2015. that is when the war started, which was then internationalized march 2015 the intervention of what was known as the saudi-led coalition which was basically a coalition led by the saudis and emirates with other minor roles, but supported actively by the u.s., europeans, and british. nermeen: just to clarify, what

was the point at which the iranians started backing the houthis? was it in the moment when the saudi-led bombing began in 2015 or was it prior to that? if you could also clarify the distinction between the yemenis are zaidi shias and to what extent zadis are aligned with the dominant form of shiaism in iran what that has to do with iran's houthis? >> thank you for bringing up these points. the iranian role at the time in 2015 in the internationalized civil war started was minimal. the iranian involvement with the houthis prior to that and since

then has always been connected with partly theological connections. so in that sense, the houthis are differentiating themselves from other zaidisd by having adopted a number of the rituals and activities and approaches of the iranians. it is a matter of how many imams they trust or believe in after the prophet mohammed. but in practice, the houthis are getting closer to the iranians -- iranian shiaism in the last decade but still quite distinct. so the alliance is much more political alliance. the iranian involvement, which was really very, very insignificant at the beginning of this war, has increased over time. and primarily for a while,

mainly financial and providing fuel and things like that to the houthis, but more recently, has been focused on military activities and primarily on the technology. if you look at the houthis weaponry -- and i'm no military expert -- but originally it was basically a lot of scuds another russian supplied materials and also some american supplied materials to the regime. these have been upgraded and improved and changed, to some extent, thanks to iranian support. in that sense, you have more the iranian involvement has become greater. but it is very important to note that the houthis are an independent movement. they are not iranian proxies. they are not iranian servants. they do not do with the iranians

tell them to do. they make their own decisions. if there decisions and policies coincide with those of iran, there is no issue. but if they don't, they don't do it. so it is very important i think to destroy this myth of iran-backed houthis as if it is a conglomerate. that is not the case. i hope that answers your point. amy: i did want to ask you about the houthi support in yemen, whether it has increased. and the houthi human rights record. >> as you said, we haven't got much time. basically, the support for the houthis in yemen has increased -- has multiplied. i can't even imagine to find a suitable terminology to say. the houthis run extreme

authoritarian autocratic regime -- you have to remember, the houthis rule and run them lives of two thirds of the population of yemen, so about 20 many people live under houthi rule. it is not a pleasant place to be. there is no freedom of expression. women are oppressed. all kinds of negative features connected with houthi rule. at the yemeni population are extremely supportive of palestine. therefore, this action of the houthis has really, really increased support. if you take a look and maybe show on your screen some of the demonstrations that happen every friday and sonata and other cities, they become massive because all of the people may not like living under houthi rule, they agree with the houthi actions in support of palestine.

that has increased and improved popularity and enormous enough. not only in the area they rule, but the west of yemen, which is not ruled by them. amy: helen lackner, thank you for being with us, author of a number of books on yemen, including "yemen in crisis: the road to war" and "yemen: poverty and conflict." she has been involved with yemen for over 50 years and lived there for about 15. coming up, investigative report by the bbc reveals new details of how an american mercenaries were hired by the united arab emirates to run an assassination campaign in yemen. back in 60 seconds. ♪ [music break]

amy: "i like america & america likes me" by the 1975. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we turn now to another story out of yemen. an investigative report by the bbc has revealed new details about how the united arab emirates hired american

mercenaries to carry out more than 100 assassinations over a three-year period beginning in 2015. targets included politicians, imams, and members of civil society. the assassinations took place in southern yemen, in areas under the control of the internationally-recognized government and were traced to members of a private u.s. security company called spear operations group. before we speak with the bbc reporter who worked on this investigation, let's go to a clip from her report that includes the first on-camera interviews with u.s. mercenaries hired by the uae for targeted killings in yemen. >> i'm going to fight the global war on terror. i'm going after bad people. when i get a chance to stand out people, i love that. sorry. i love hunting down bad guys. >> driving from base down into a city that actually incredibly

beautiful. there is this weird mix of excitement, fear, also serenity. we wanted to make a statement and a choice to use -- >> i was surprised how dark it was. there are no lights. the roads are very tight and congested. he had people sitting on the street. he had al qaeda on every street corner. >> as soon as a vehicle stops, the doors open and it is showtime. >> people are running. you can see the bullets counseling. -- bouncing. i ran around the back and that is it. >> would you say it was a successful operation? >> yes. >> u.s. military launched another airstrike in yemen. >> the u.s. and u.k. hit deadly

sites. >> this film is about the conflicts role powers have claim in yemen's war. and the story begins with an assassination mission. >> welcome. are you ok with putting on a mic? i first met isaac gilmore in 2020. a former navy seal who later became second-in-command of a private military group called spear operations group. i was surprised he agreed to speak to me because at the time, human rights lawyers were trying to prosecute spear for war crimes. >> you're not going to please everybody. there plenty of people who would be happy to say i was on the wrong side of something stop one

of the reasons i agreed to participate in this documentary is to be clear about what we're doing and why. this is it until proven guilty, it's war. you have intelligence and you make the decision to act on it. amy: an excerpt of the bbc investigative report on american mercenaries hired by the uae to conduct assassinations in yemen. we are joined now by the yemeni british journalist who conducted the investigation. nawal al-maghafi is a bbc newsnight international correspondent and filmmaker who has been reporting on the middle east since 2012. she joins us today from amman, jordan. thank you so much for being with us. this is such an important investigation. why don't you lay out what you found. >> basically, my investigation

started -- i was in yemen reporting on the war going on, on the humanitarian situation. and at the same time, i was hearing about these assassinations going on in southern yemen but no one knew who was responsible. as the years went on, i kept hearing about these assassinations going on. there were rumors to be connected to groups affiliated to the uae but no one could prove it. it wasn't until a buzzfeed article came out around 2018 that speaks about spear operations group that we knew where to start, basically. i reached out to spear operations group, to their leader, to all the members, all those who works for him come and surprisingly, some of them got back to me. that was our starting point. from then on, it was a full year

investigation. it started by speaking to these mercenaries talking about operations they were a part of. and then speaking to victims on the ground, speaking to people who were trained by emirates in yemen. we ended up finding not only spear had conducted some assassinations come they trained emirate soldiers who then trained yemenis. what we have seen is a systematic targeting campaign, like he said, political activists, members of civil society. it just created a climate of fear in southern yemen. nermeen: let's go to another clip from your documentary. this is from your interview with ansaf mayo, a yemeni mp who is the leader of islah who the mercenaries you spoke to tried to assassinate. >> i left the office half an

hour earlier than usual, run 9:40 p.m. i arrived home and i heard explosions. moments later, some in p's called me. they asked if i was ok. i did not understand. i told him i was fine. it turned out a statement had come out online said i had been killed by a car bomb. that is how i found out i was the target. i had not realized until then. >> how did you feel when you found out? >> i felt afraid for my family.

>> three years later when the uae was lead to the international media, found out spear had been hired to kill him. >> what shocked me the most is they sent for mercenaries to kilis in our own country. >> he fled and now lives in exile in saudi arabia. amy: could you talk about why he was targeted? at the end of the film where you try to get one of the mercenaries to meet with him, he initially agreed to meet

with them, but then did not show up. explain what happened. >> you have two sides of the story. you have the version that isaac gilmore -- the two mercenaries i interviewed in the film and their story is isaac tells us about going to the uae, pitching this idea they were going to help with the uae's terror campaign in southern yemen. they were given a pack of cards that had targets. they believed they were terrorists. they were told they were terrorists. so they pursue what they call the head of the snake, the head of the terrorist organization. this organization it is islah, one of yemen's biggest political organizations founded in 1990, not a terrorist organization.

ansaf was the leader. he was their first target. isaac tells us they were told if you pursue this target and you are successful in assassinating him, we will give you the contract to pursue other targets. so they say they do their own intelligence. they pursue ansaf mayo. it is her firs -- it is their first operation. they go to the headquarters. they plant a bomb, shooting happens and they fell this -- film this using a drone. they believe in that moment that they were successful, that they killed ansaf mayo. but then you hear ansaf mayo's side of the story. we also spoke with people that were with him on that day. they had a gathering, talking about music. he left a few minutes earlier before the building was

attacked. and eyewitnesses told us they heard americans outside the building but they could not believe what they heard. they could not believe this operation involved americans so they just kind of let it go. later when the news story would come out and that drone film would be linked, that, can mercenaries were involved in trying to assassinate ansaf mayo . when i interviewed isaac gilmore for the first time in 2020, he still did not know it was not a successful operation, that they had not killed ansaf mayo. i knew that because i had had telephone conversations with him and were planning to do the interview. i really wanted him to not only find out that he wasn't successful, that ansaf was still alive, but i wanted him to meet him because he had built up this idea he was targeting this awful terrorist. that was not the person i got to know over the years in ansaf

mayo. he is a really kind man. he is balanced in his views. a politician, member of parliament, some of who is played a role in the peace process in yemen with the united nations. i did not want isaac to just hear it from me, i wanted him to meet him for himself. ansaf was totally up for it and isaac agreed to meet but, unfortunately, even though he told me he had got on his flight, he did not come to london. amy: these u.s. mercenaries, explain where they came from in the military, whether they are green berets, etc. >> so it was a combination. for example, isaac is an ex-navy seal and so is dale comstock. he is also a green beret. we spoke with some legionnaires

off-camera. we spoke with some with different backgrounds i did not want to go on the record. it was only isaac and dale that agreed to go on the record. amy: they were paid like $1.5 million a month for their assassination campaign? >> exactly. that is what we were told by isaac. he said -- the offer they were given is if you are successful in assassinating ansaf mayo, the contract was $1.5 million a month. what we end up finding isaac and dale left spear quite early on. they left yemen around 20. initially when we first started this investigation, we thought that is where it ended. that it wasn't very successful and that was it. but then we found this financial document that we were told was from the uae. it had announced that were

transferred -- amounts that were transferred to spear group up until 2020. we felt like there was a part of the puzzle missing. that is when we found out about the training that spear operations group had trained emirate soldiers in these tactics. that went further on with emirate soldiers training yemeni members of counterterrorism section of stc that within carry out assassinations. what we saw is, as emirate trained yemenis, there was an uptick in assassinations because it was even harder to pinpoint who was responsible for them when it was yemenis carrying them out because they just blended in when they were on the streets. it was a lot more difficult for eyewitnesses to pinpoint who was responsible, especially in a place like aden, which is so

chaotic. it is a war zone right now. it is really difficult to point of finger at you is carrying out these assassinations. amy: let's go to another clip of your report, this one about a human rights lawyer who investigated abuses committed by the uae-backed forces who then targeted her son.

, because that was a yemeni human rights lawyer. -- nermeen: that was a yemeni human rights lawyer. her 18-year-old son was killed. we would like you to clarified were able to establish a was the spear operations group

that was responsible for his killing and then talk about what kind of cases are being brought against the special operations come the spear operations group since the group is registered in the u.s., is here where they should be prosecuted? >> i believe so. i know there are two human rights organizations who are working on a case against not only spear operations group, but those who find it this type of warfare, basically. one of the things we struggled with is figuring out the legality of their operations. it is a very gray area. it is not black-and-white when it comes to whether it is legal or not. but isaac seemed quite confident in saying that what they did was legal. i did ask him whether washington knew what they were doing.

he said, no. but he seemed to believe the fact they were working for u.s. ally and these were counterterrorism operations, in his view, meant what they were doing was legal. that is why was quite open with us and happy to talk with us. but i don't have a clear answer for that one. it will be interesting to see what happens next. amy: we encourage everyone to watch the documentary. nawal al-maghafi, thank you for being with us, bbc newsnight international correspondent and filmmaker who has been reporting on the middle east for over a decade. we will link to your new investigation called "american mercenaries hired by uae to kill in yemen." coming up on this first day of black history month, we speak to dr. uché blackstock about "legacy: a black physician reckons with racism in medicine." back in 20 seconds. ♪ [music break]

amy: "everyland" by 47 soul. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: today, on the first day of black history month, we take a look at how racism shapes healthcare in america. a new book by dr. uché blackstock explores systemic inequity in health care throughout the history of the united states up to today as well as her own family history.

amy: the book is titled "legacy: a black physician reckons with racism in medicine." dr. uché blackstock is an emergency medicine physician and ceo and founder of advancing health equity, a company that works with healthcare organizations to fight racism and bias in services. she joins us today in new york. dr. blackstock, we spoke to you during the pandemic. we are speaking to you again today. the issue of health equity or i should say inequity is pervasive throughout the health care system in this country. if you can lay it out but start off by talking about your family, your groundbreaking mother as a black woman physician, you and your twin sister, the remarkable work you have done, and why you are so motivated to take this issue on. looks thank you so much for having me.

i really wanted to write this book as a way to help readers connect the dots about why in 2024 we have the worst racial health inequities despite advances in innovation, research, and technology. i use my own personal story being a second-generation black woman physician, which is something that is still quite rare. my mother was original dr. blackstock, graduated from harvard medical school in 1976 and was the first person in her family to go to college. and in medical school. came back and returned to brooklyn where she grew up to care for her neighbors and family. practicing what is now known as health equity, organizing community health fairs, connecting residents to the social services that they need, and working with other black physicians and black women physicians. i use my mother's story and my story to emphasize that come how

deeply embedded systemic racism is in our country, in the past and present, and to explain why even myself as a black woman with a college a medical degree from harvard, i still and five times more likely to die a pregnancy related complications that my white peers. i wanted you the history to explain why there are so few black physicians today and that is due to a report that we can talk more about. i also want to explain how they are deeply rooted myths about black in this country, essentially saying we are different from other people -- even though we know race is a social construct, it really is racism through practices and policies that have harmed black in this country over the last century and have caused us to live shortened lives. nermeen: you mentioned the abraham flexner report.

can you explain what it is and what impact it had on african-americans in medical schools in the early 20th century? >> i thought it was very important for people to understand one of the reasons why there are so few black physicians in the united states -- we are over 13% of the u.s. population but represent less than s 6% of physicians. this harmful report in 1910 commissioned by the american medical association, the oldest and largest organization of physicians and has its own troubling history with bias and racism. american medical association and the carnegie foundation commissioned abraham flexner, an avid racist -- he believed black people did not deserve to go to medical school and if they were

in medical school, they were there to help their white peers from getting sick. he essentially assessed all 155 medical schools in the united states and canada and held them up to the criteria of the gold standard, johns hopkins at the time. schools that did not meet that standard were recommended to be closed. and because of the legacy of racism and slavery, historically black medical schools did not have the resources or the wealth or endowments to live up to the standards so this report in 1910 led to the closure of five out of seven of the historically black medical schools which at that point had trained about 1500 students. they report a few years ago estimated those -- if those five medical schools had remained open, they would have traded between 25000 and 35,000 black physicians.

howard -- the two that remained open, to this day they still trained the most black physicians out of any medical school in the country. what we think about that number, 25000 and 35,000 black decisions, it is a tremendous loss for our communities. you think of the hundreds of thousands, millions of black patients who could have been cared for, the number of those who could have been men toward and research in black health that could've been done. this report has had a ripple effect on the worsening of health outcomes in our community. amy: i want to ask you about the horror of the remarkable four black women sprinters in the rio de janeiro olympics in 2016. years later, three of the women faced life-threatening pregnancy complications. one of them died as a result of those complications most of two

others come after she died, spoke out about their life-threatening situation. you have the cover story of vanity fair, serena williams talking about what happened in terms of her life-threatening preeclampsia with pregnancy. beyoncé. they have made this famous but it means some of the other black women -- why this disproportionate -- i think of eric garner in our studio, soim, died after her second child was born at 27? yes. what is very important for people to understand and what i wanted to do with this book is to really emphasize there is nothing biologically wrong with black people. there's nothing inherently wrong with us but there's something very wrong with the social institutions -- not just health

care within our country -- that are deeply embedded with bias and racism. to the point where often when black patients interface with the held care system and professionals, our concerns are a good nord and minimized, even if we are like serena williams, the -- one of the greatest athletes of all times. she talks about being ignored by her medical team even after she had a history of a blood clot, telling them she was having similar symptoms. she was correct. she almost died. i want to also point out for black people in this country, socioeconomic status is not fully protected for us like it is for white people because racism still causes what the public health researcher terms weathering. it causes a chronic wear and tear on our bodies that causes us to prematurely age and makes us more susceptible to illness and disease.

i want people to understand when we see disease and illness in our communities, see racial health inequities, theyualike la capitalist society, -- universa, we live in a society with systemic racism. illness and disease we see in black woman, and academic

medicine, i felt very silent. i felt muzzled. i was often questioned by my white patients about where did i go to medical school. i was in an physicians.

most of us want to work in service to our communities, but i had gotten to the point where i realized it was too tough and i left academia. i don't want that to be the case for everyone. amy: dr. uché blackstock, we will put the rest of the interview on d