may couple parts with american. you can report within the taliban, believe it there will be a powerful tele inside story park. i frank, assessment of the div headline subscribe. now however you listen to podcast. ah, i'm sammy's a down in dar with a look at the headlines here. now. jazeera u. s. president joe biden has declared a major disaster in the state of kentucky, off to tornadoes ripped through towns. areas in 5 other states were also devastated . search teams still trying to find survivors from friday nights, disaster. at least 60 people now feared dead high to jo, castro reports from the town of mayfield in kentucky. this is what the mayfield

candle factory looked like before the storm. this is what it looks like now. i saw on site a backpack that was left behind and a pair of shoes. and it represents that the tragedy that this tornado has reaped. on this area of kentucky, we learned of a telephone that was recovered. a cellphone that recorded 27. miss messages. we've lost father's mother's brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and others, teens from department of homeland security and the federal emergency management agency or fema are now on the scene. but the likelihood of finding more survivors diminishes by the hour fridays, tornado destroyed everything. it touched in mayfield. this used to be the historic

town center. now it is leveled that was once a doctors office back there churches now nothing but rubble. this trailer was picked up in the sky and dropped here like a toy and people's personal belongings from their homes. their photographs of their family members, now litter the streets. david hargrove digs through what remains of his law. office volunteers are helping him recover client files. he didn't expect to also find this . i've had this desk for since my daughter's been born and you know, all things they draw for you and i had it under a glass. and that's the i found most of them. there's still no power or running water, but the recovery work is in full suite. 10000 people call this town home. i can't even tell what's what right now cuz saw piled up. it's like a like a war zone that happened here. and though it's unreal. oh,

words came describe what i feel right now of my home town. the loss of life here is the greatest shock, knowing some of the ruin home belong to the factory workers who will never return. parts are heavy. as the clean up continues. heidi jo, castro, al jazeera mayfield, kentucky u. k prime minister bars johnson. his warning of a coming tidal wave of the kron virus. and the government has raised the current of iris, threat level and is urging people to get a 3rd vaccine shop. no one should be in any doubt. there is a tidal wave of all the con, coming, and i'm afraid it is not clear that 2 doses of vaccine are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need. but the good news is that our scientists are confident, but we, they said this a booster days,

we can all bring our level of protection back up south africa, the president sir ram, oppose as tested, positive for covey. 19, being treated for mild symptoms from a poser has been vaccinated against the virus. austria has lifted a partial lockdown for people vaccinated against coven. 19. it allows vienna's christmas markets to reopen. but those who haven't been jobs will continue to be banned from many businesses and venues. foreign ministers from the g 7 group of nations, the warning russia it'll face massive consequences if it invades ukraine. russia's military build up near ukraine's border has dominated the to day, beating south korea and australia have signed the defense steel worth $1000000000.00. president mood j in and they'll straighten prime minister scott morrison also confirmed a quarantine free travel bubble between the 2 countries. it's the bottom line now

the me hi, i'm steve clements and i have a question in the land of freedom. why is the banning of books on the rise? let's get to the bottom line. ah, if i told you that hundreds of books were band last year in a certain country, what country would come to mind? well, how about the united states of america every year across the country, hundreds of books are literally pulled off the shelves of public libraries are banned by school districts. the american library association, which is a nonprofit created by library and more than 100 years ago, track 273 books that were banned or restricted in 2020 alone. even during the pandemic, when most schools and libraries were closed, the efforts to censor books never stopped. in the past,

banned books usually dealt with church accusations of blasphemy or overtly sexual content. but what's telling you about the most recent wave of book banning is the focus on authors who are sharing stories of black or indigenous for other people of color and gender identity. so what does book censorship across the united states tell us about the freedom of thought and freedom of speech in today's america. today we're talking to deborah coldwell stone, director of the american library associations office for intellectual freedom, where she works on issues of censorship at libraries and goldberg bashi, founder of children's media start up in new york called dr bashi, an author of the children's book, p. s. for palestine and brook mixed in a staff writer at changing america, which is part of the hill she's been covering, the rising tide and book banning and other forms of censorship. look, it's great to be with you. let me just start with you, deborah, and i want to understand and have her audience understand what the dimensions of censorship in banning books is in the united states today. and you know,

where's the 1st amendment? well, we are seeing a trend these days to center books primarily for young people. i think we have reached a consensus in the united states that books written for adult audiences and intended for adults seldom come under the sensors phone. but what we see is that effort to control what young people read and see balls and public libraries entered school libraries. and the topics that are usually the bone of contention deal with sexuality, sex identity, gender identity, and more recently, issues dealing with anti racism. the lived experiences of persons of color. we see this as a response to a changing world that not everyone is comfortable with. its found its way into the conversation as a, as a tack on what's called critical race theory for example. but what we understand is

serving as an attack on books that deal with the history of racism in the united states. the history of slavery, the lived experiences of black persons are the result of police violence toward black persons. these are the books that have been challenged on the and asked to be removed from schools and libraries across the country. and deborah, you know, one of the things i got my hands on at least the 2020 band and challenge books. i think this is probably from, from your offices. i see books on here that you kind of chuckle about and you say what's wrong with the adventures of huckleberry finn and mark twain. what's wrong with catcher in the rye which continues to be on this this but more can temporarily kind of he see coats who rode between the world and me. former colleague of mine at the atlantic at that time when the national book award for this and was one of the most celebrated writers and authors of our time here to the james baldwin of our

time, i would say. and his book is on your i was stunned that it was on there. what's going on there? well, as i said, see, there is a campaign, frankly, to challenge the presence of these narratives that reflect the lives of black person. that still honestly with our country's history of racism, we can only understand it as an effort to turn back the hands of time to control what young people learn about. you know, i find it interesting that those who complain about educational indoctrination are themselves invested in what seems to be a campaign of indoctrination. to limit the narrative around history. here in the united states to the, the history promulgated primarily by white men and to exclude the voices of those who have lived through the experiences of slavery and discrimination.

and essentially of racing. those accounts from the shells from school libraries and public libraries. here in the country we, you know, as i said, it's interesting to us that we seldom see challenges to books intended for adult audiences are used by adults. the really, the point of contention is this idea that young people there access to information, needs to be limited and controlled. and this raises real issues because young people have 1st amendment rights, young people should be able to read and discover and decide for themselves what they care about, what issues are important, right? and, and the deeply anti democratic effort to censor works to limit young people to access to information is frankly, something that's been with us for a long time book censorship. we can go back centuries, you know,

but this renewed effort that we've seen in the last year or so really ramping up in the last 6 months to use this issue as a political tool to limit and indoctrinate young people to really stigmatize a whole group of people who have been traditionally marginalized and silenced in society, there's something that we haven't observed in a very long time. well, we have a case study in this that i want to raise now of a wonderful little book called p. s for palestine. and i just want to read some of these comments that were made publicly on a public site and reaction to dr. boss. she's book dr. boss, she is here. i'm going to read this, these books need to be burned along with the author. let's make sure people don't buy the book, who is publisher and who's selling the book? that is who you go against any store that dares that have this,

that book for sale. i found it listed as a handmade item on etc, please report it on and on and on. and so dr. boss, my question is as someone who had a campaign run against you for a children's book, i should tell her audience that there are many new books coming on on that begin to try to bring in characters from real life that reflect real life gay characters. you know, transgender characters, people have different colors in race and all sorts of different kinds of jobs. that's, that, that's what's happening to, to demonstrate the diversity wife. and i think along the lines of deborah, just shared. we are seeing campaigns against these. now tell us, tell us about your, your case in this book. well, i'm delighted to be with you and especially to come across with deborah. i have been actually reaching out to your organization for 3 years now. and haven't you? i have not, you know, given a response, and the thing is that when i try to publish

a book about palestinian children, i noticed that there wasn't any in english. there's a wealth of books about policy, children in arabic. but there weren't any in english at the time. so we crowd fundraise and were successful. and but the before the book came out, the mere mention of it on social media cause an incredibly big swedish newspaper called called it the shaking of america. however, no american freedom of speech organization including a l, a came to our rescue. and so, you know, what i find is that of course, we're seeing books being ban, you know, in the, in the past year or so, or 2 on african american stories. and so forth,

but we've had a black president for 8 years. ah, it's a pretty safe subject. you will have small districts. you will have odd schools here and there who will try to banish these books and that's wrong. and what i find this ingenious by a lake is that they will pick books that are progressive and safe, and they will list them as a band or challenge. my book piece for palestine has been compared with the backlash against that has been compared to the satanic verses by salman rushdie. and this is all over, you know, international media. however, am no american freedom of speech organization. first amendment organization was willing to come near me because the issue was palestine because in the united states of america, you cannot speak about palestine. if you do,

you're automatically labeled antisemitic. so even a progressive angio such as a allay, was too scared to come to our rescue and we pleaded, we sent s o s messages e mails we called we tweeted we facebook and i've shared, you know, screenshots of, of, of everything that has happened. so right in a while i'm, i'm, i'm very happy to see that organizations such as a ally and, and, or, or pen america will, you know, highlight and have list on challenged books. but, excuse me, most of these books are best sellers on amazon dot com. and progressive cities like say new york and you can get hold of them, but piece for palestine is literally band, and we didn't even make it to alien challenge booklets. so, you know, here's, here's the real question. of course books have been banned in america for centuries

. oh, but you know, when i hear deborah speak, she's talking mostly about, you know, sort of lived american experiences as an american to been on the continent for at least 300 years. so we're now talking about a new demography, which are great palestinians, error muslims, and others. and so, you know, i think we need to widen our horizon a little bit. and i'll be happy to share more about the horde that have befallen us dearly for daring to publish a children's alphabet book about palestine. right. well fan, erica, thank. thank you for sharing your story. we'll give deborah chance to respond in just a moment. but i want to go to my colleague brook, who is with a publication called changing american changing america looks at social and cultural issues. and really it's kind of a fresh breath of fresh air in journalism, of, of looking at way to kind of deal with these social things. lots of us and other parts

of media have been ignoring. and so i was so thrilled to see that she wrote an article movement to ban or even burn school library books, gains momentum book. tell us your pathway into this story. what happened in virginia? what, when you reported this story, this is a reported story. what are the trends you observed in that you reported? sure. so we've been seeing this pretty here, alarming acceleration of book banning in the us. and you know, what you were referring to in virginia happened at a recent school board meeting where 2 school board members suggested that a particular book not only be banned but burned, which is the really kind of aggressive form of silencing. you know, they're not just banding, of course, you know, just trying to remember where we saw images, a book burning. i was not he germany. right. so going please. yeah, yeah,

it really parkins back to that very troubling imagery. but yeah, they, it, it seems like they didn't just want to ban these words for their children, but to destroy them in their entirety. which is, you know, something that we haven't seen were the books they targeted overtly controversial. i mean, i hate to ask because i don't know where the line should be, maybe it shouldn't be there at all. but to go back to deborah point about children and you know, trying to control the inputs into them at a young age. what were those lines that you saw people worried about? i mean, like, like our other guests have, have said a lot of views, books that they want band have to do with gender sexuality. you know, you have the 2 school board members calling them pornographic. you were they the

books? well, the particular book that they were talking about when they were talking about burning the books, i believe i called 33 snow fish. it does deal with prostitution and drug use. but you know, if, because passages that deal with provocative things are taken out of context, then of course they're going to be provocative. i wouldn't say pornographic, but provocative, but taken in the context of the entire story. it, it takes on a whole other meaning. jarrett, you know, as you look at it, i guess the question is coming back to children and the inputs to children, how do you responsibly draw the lines that, that takes care of the world that they are in it? you know, it's all just in negotiation might makes right that those can band you know or

challenge when or is there some sort of, you know, template and scaffolding on this that can deal with social responsibility in children and a responsible and constructive way, but not yield to a culture of, of really rapid censorship. we, library and library professionals are very dedicated to serving their communities, whether it's a community of students or community as a whole, until they've set up a whole protocol. we have written policies for acquiring books and written policies for considering concerns raised about those books. but the bottom line is serving the information needs of the individuals in the community. whether that's young children, whether it's adolescents, whether it's a community as a whole, and that will dictate what's on the shelves in the library. i think when you ask

about drawing the line i to are believe that that the parents job particularly public libraries do not act in local prentice. they provide a diversity of materials because we can't predict all the time what will be wanted and desired by a reader or what their information needs are. and i'll say that often books dealing with difficult topics like sexual assault, gender identity, sexual identity are desperately wanted and needed by young adults are prepared for adulthood or questioning their lives. 9 are have friends who are dealing with difficult issues, and where else should they be able to find those, but in the confines of the school or public library, where the information has been better than curated by a library professional who is dedicated to meeting their information needs you know, we always said that a parent has a right to guide their childs reading to discuss their reading with their child.

right. but there are no preferences should not dictate what's available to the entire community, whether that's a school community or the larger community as a whole. and i think what we're seeing is a group of individuals and frankly organized groups who are, who believe bad libraries and school should be safe places for their beliefs for their lives. that they should. the young people shouldn't have to encounter anything that's difficult in life unless americus and that's just not possible, especially for public institutions. we are talking about government agencies that are governed by the 1st amendment. ready and have obligations under the 1st amendment. and we're also talking a, do you know the by, by the miss deborah, they do not abide by them. highland park library in new jersey. invited me for, for a talk. well, and then there was the group who protested and called me

a terrorist and the library, a public library in the united states of america. we're talking new jersey right next to rutgers university, where i taught for years. this invited me. where were you? and the librarians, what did they do? what did they say? the understanding is that you ultimately do your story time value. 12 organizations, ma'am? muslim era look progressive or this is gather all of our guys. we only have a few minutes. you think that we're hearing to you, we are not of the whole being the 1st amendment loss in the country where we are not in america. we do not have freedom of speech. our concern is your doctor bashi . let's. let's give a chance to deborah to respond please. sure. you know, our role is to ensure that library that we, that libraries are able to provide excellent library service and defend the right

of the reader to access the materials they want to access and read. our challenge book lists are compiled from media reports and challenge reports that are given to the library. and educators, please don't interrupt me. i mean, not because for 3 years i have been receiving desperate ma'am, and your organization not done never. i want, i want both of you to be for you to make your case as well as my colleague here in the office and we've got a just a few minutes left. so i understand that there are issues of concern, dr. bashi, and that you have a book that i have seen that you know, honestly, i think if i were a young person from the middle east, i would find incredible value in that. i've been to dearborn michigan saying, wow, in dearborn, where there's so many young people who don't see themselves in culture. it's such a great contribution. so i understand there. so, and i think, you know, deborah, want to give you an opportunity to respond to that. but kind of broadly,

what should someone in dr. boss? she's situation do when they find the engines of censorship, not giving them space to protest or roll back. they can engage in their averages. they can engage in advocacy, but i'll be straightforward. our role is to defend the individual freedom to read and access information in the library. we do have a specific mission to promote excellent library service. you know, there are a number of organizations that work with authors. but in the bottom line, we argue that once the books over acquired and put in the library, they should be available. and that that's the violation of the 1st amendment. that happens when folks are removed because of their content because of the viewpoint express them. and that the individual library user, whether it's a student or the general public, can access those books anymore. and that's what we fight so fiercely and is broke.

i want to come to you. we see this is both an issue of really constitutionality and freedom of expression. it's also something about child welfare and how to get that equilibrium right. but there's the broader side, which really bothers me, which is a embrace by some people in put in positions of power to call for burning books and to destroy that process. and in many ways, i think dr. boss, she feels as if her book has been burned. it literally was destroyed by in amazon, in the amazon stores. that, that, that where it was, i guess my question to you in the political context as you and i sit here in washington d. c. where is the current going? i mean, you have insights into this. where is the current going? what are your concerns? just to help wrap it, wrap this up. yeah. so you do have mostly conservative leaders leading this charge to banned books,

dealing with race and gender and sexual sexuality. just recently you had a south carolina governor mcmaster writing to ban l g b t q books. you had a texas governor abbot kind of arguing the same thing. right. he had argued that some of the books in school libraries are pornographic. so it's not just doctor bashi, it's, it's other place she did made the point which i, i want to take heart that many of these banned books are still best sellers still have other places to get oxygen. and her book is i want to tell everybody i want my own copy of p. s for palestine in this, but i want to thank everyone we have to end it there. we wish we had more time for this today, but we have deborah caldwell stone of the american library association. goldberg bashi, author of children's the children spoke p. s for palestine and hills staff writer with changing america writer, brook mignon. thank you all very much for being with us today and thank you for

bringing your passion and seriousness to this important topic. thank you. all right, so what's the bottom line? obviously, censorship and suppression of ideas is a really touchy subject. after this heated debate, we receive statements from the american library association and dr bashi to clarify their positions, which we have now edited for brevity. the american library association said the ailey works directly with librarian spacing challenges. consultation to authors is outside the office, his scope, the office for intellectual freedom works to ensure students and library users access to books and other materials found in our nations libraries. and dr bashi statement said, my book has been systematically maligned. my person vilified, the violence allegations leveled against me. and my book for the single sin of having dared to write a book for and about palestinian children ala congratulates itself that it is advocating for banned books. and indeed,

it does for important and much needed books, more recently on black lives matter, slavery and homophobia for which it must be fully committed, but our palestinian people and especially palestinian children not human being. and that's their bottom line. ah, the political debate show that's challenging the way you think is a military advancement. going to stop the fan, that ticket i use and the other company. since right now, people are very kinda not very upfront with me. welcome on hill. on al jazeera, i

guess a brand. oh lou. oh wow. i'm sammy's a dime in doll. how? with the look of the headlines here now g 0. now, us president joe biden has declared a major disaster in the state of kentucky off the tornadoes ripped through townsend areas. in 5 of the states. search teams are trying to find survivors off to friday nights. disaster. i'd be jo castro has more from the town of mayfield in kentucky.

i spoke with one gentleman who is an attorney here. he pointed out, down from where i'm standing, the hospital in which he was born. i. that has been.