announcer: opportunity. prpeperity. timimism. nation suffering increasiningy from the effects of extreme weather. what arere local people doing o cope? bolivia is estimated to own hope to the desperately poor nation? but first we go to italy, , whe human traffickers are forcing more and more women ininto prostitution.

human trafficking is a highly lucrative business, and it's often link to forced labor. it affects women, men, and children. the international labor organization estimates that human trafficking is worth at least $150 billion per year. the majority -- two thirds -- is made from forced sexual exploitation. the remainder, through illegal work -- for example, in households or on farms. in 2016, more than 40 million people were believed to be living in slavery -- and women and girls make up 70% of them. nigerian women have a decades-long history of being smuggled over to europe, many via italy. the u.n. says there's been an almost 600% increase over the past three years of potential sex trafficking victims arriving

in italy by sea. the majority of them, from nigeria. reporter: the italian city of turin is thehe people trafficke. from here, criminals distribute their sex x slaves to the contint's s brhels and curbdedes --omen l lur here with lies about the good j jobs. more t than 9000 were smuguggd into i italy in 201616 alo. prprcess okokon has made it her liliof t them as she c can. ma prince: : the rst cocontacis not easy for the gls t to eak contntacts and thehe phone ofe sofficece and addressss, so than caca if they have a mind to spk k withe. because most of the ti t theye afraidid of one or m maybe two t leththeir seet o out.

reporter: her first approachff because most of the ti t theye e evening. princess h has to be cararefule pimps don't notice her. this womanan says she's s been workrking here evevery day foro yeyears. whenen her childreren are oldee saysys, she'll finally be ableo get awaway. princess warns her to always use condoms, and she says she does. princess: : you use a cocondom alwaways, though?? > yes. princessss: ok, bye-. reporter: princess and her husband alberto run the ngo piam, which tries to help thos forced intnto the sex trtrade. lilike this desperate nigerirn woman who tells prprincess a at her pimp -- a woman. princess: what happened, where did she take you to? >> she said i should follow a friend. and d she gave me e some cond. so i'm'm so shocked d because i

hadn't known it was thatat kind. so frorom there, i d didn't havy choice, apart fromom to do it. reporteritit's n immediately ear if ts wowomawill risk fleeinher r mp's clutches. the e who do take e the unge c n rfind protetection in onene ofe secret refuguges the piam m r. prinssss viss the e men coconstant. prprcess: the best part is when wowoman kes the final cicision -- not to go back to the wor as a pstititute. pwhen i see a woman having the. wowoman kes the final cicision reporter: eze d d naomlive in one of the ruges. the twfriends arsafe there, the. t isisoled, and they miscision thr freeeem. still, it'worlrlds ay fromom thprostution, or theorrorsrsthe. they suffered making the wayon rere through libibya.

naomom i was arrested and somehow, rapaped once. sosohe people e i was with, evy timeme they beat m me with a . sometimes they take theiguguns d puput itn my a anu inin the night, , they wake everybody y up at the titime of :00, 12:00, 1:00. they wakyoyou, thetakeke the gun n and put itn n yo anus. when i camame at first it wased, ananstill not beerer. still trying to get over the papains. i fofound out thatat it was en worse bebecause i haveve to usy body to make the money. poporter: incecess h first-hand experieience of that- havingng been traffificked to n hersf. fofounately she met her husband albeberto, and nowow they leaa happy, f family life.. e left nigeria wheshe was 23. she had hoped to work as a coo in ita.

stead, she was sold to an unknknown won. princess: the first day they okok me to the s streets i stard crying. i closed my eyes, open agagain. i thoughght it was a d drea. then i sawaw that it wasn't a dream. it s s realit heel of the e shoe. anand when iamame back from me hospital, that wasas when i knw that it isis very seriouous. yeah, , it was about six to eit mohshs. i was luckcky to meet alalbertoo came to lilisten to me a and o

find aololution toto my libert. reporter: itit's no coincicide that turinin became a huhumn traffificking hub. in the 1980'0's, nigeria opene. the pelele tffickers were huhumn icick toake adadvaage of it to ganize visas forheir victs. it w the beginning of a brut busiss. sometimes, princess and alberto ta youngng wen who haven't yet fallen prey to traffickersn n a eciaial to of ththcity -- showing them the reaealities o streetrorostitutn. princess: i toldou people that werere goingo tuturin see where e our girls arare worki. you remembmber i said onone dae wiwillo? >> yes. princessa-haha. thi.

repoporter: this e evening's o passengegers can barelely grp e idid that womemen -- just t le themselvlves -- are bebeing opy markrketed here onon the stres li meaeat. this i is a fate pririncess wano save a as many womenen from as possible. and although hanan traffkingng is still o on the rise, , she s she'll neverer give up. host: smart phones, laptops, tablets, electric-powered vehicles like hybrid and electric cars and electric scooters -- all of them depend on rechargeaeable batteries.s. dand that's where lithium comes vevehicles iin.ising rapididly.

in 2015, the pricece of lithim was almost $7000 per ton. since then it's almost tripled. it's found in abundance in chile, argentina, and bolivia. but bolivia has been slow to metersrsbove seaevel in lar s uyuni, e world's rgest sa flat. reporter: the uyuni salt flat is the world's largest. beneath the crust is a pool of brine containing the world's largest knknown deposit t of lim -- an estimated nine milillion tons of f it. the e metal is a r resource of immense value, and could have a huge impact on the economy of bolivia, currently the poorest country in south america. bibig trucks and other heavy equipment are nocrcrisscroingg

new extraction facilities are under construction in this fragile ecosystem. at the moment, evaporation pools cover just 0.5% of the salt flat. this is still a pilot project, but the bolivian government has approved plans to open a larger area of the salt flat for lithium extraction. marco: the brine is pumped into the pools.s. in the first one, heavier metals are left behind as the water evaporates. the remaining water is then pumped into the second pool, and so on. the eighth pool contains the lithium, which is very light, but not yet pure. reporter: ten years ago, the bolivian government declared lithium extraction a national priority. at this small plant at the edge of the salt flat, the state lithium company produces marketable lithium -- freed from magnesium and other impurities

in a complex process. the purer the lithium, the better -- for use in lithium batteries and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. lithium has become a hot commodity. the entire world lusts after it. marco: our industrial plant will go into operation soon. we have the technology. we're just going to scale up a lot, so we can sell lithium around the world. reporter: the current facility produced 12 tons of pure lithium carbonate over two months -- six for china, and six for russia. it sells for the equivalent of 10,000 euros a ton -- made in bolivia. for bolivia, this valuable natural resource could prove a stroke of luck. electric-powered cars and smart

phones currently rely on lithium-ion batteries. the socialist government of president evo morales has pledged to develop the country's lithium inindustry, with boliva calling the shots. foreign investors and companies should play as small a role as possible. everybody here at the plant, from the boss to the drivers, is proud to be involved. >> it's an honor to be part of something that might one day bring enduring prosperity to our country. world will talk about us not because of our silver mines, but because of lithium. he said we would make batteries here one day. to be honest, we all thought he was a bit crazy. but now that i'm working here, i understand the process of

industrialization depends on our commitment and on our hard work. reporter: maria belen andreada is responsible for safety at the plant. lithium has created 1000 jobs here. staff at the plant work for two weeks and then have a week off. she's taking the bus home to potosi. it's a four-hour ride. we visit her there. there's a lot to see. at an elevation of over 4000 meters, the city is one of the highest in the world. since colonial times, its silver and tin mines have made its foreign owners rich and its workers sick. it's been reported that hundreds of children still work in the mines. many bolivians fear that foreign companies will again try to take control of their country's natural resources. maria: my city is poor despite its natural resources.

now we have a second chance -- this time with lithium, which we call whihite gold. we hope not just to extract it, but to develop an entire production chain and process it ourselves. as a nation, we want to do it on our own terms. reporter: outside of town, there is a factory for rechargeable lithium batteries. it's is a major step forward for the country. now it's looking for international partners to help develop the industry -- without them tryrying to take control. bolivivia has passed a law tha says foreign firms may retain no more than a 49% stake in any joint venture. juanan: we are lookiking for a partner with experience who is also ablble to keep upup withe rapid innovavation in energy storage technology. that's our strategic goal.

we wanant to be involved not oy in supplying batteteries for electric cars, but also renewable energies. reporter: of course, there's a lot of foreign interest in the huhuge deposit o of lithium ine saltlt flat of uyuyuni. chchina is particularly keen. a state-owned chinesee engineering company is already here. it's building a plant to make potassium chloride fertilizer. and the plant happens to be close to t the lithium p pools. ji: i just heard from newspapers and also information from my friends and also from ients. yeah, it's tru because lhium resource here is more than 60% of total in the world. reporter: but it has nothing to do with your job here?

ji: i didn't get information until now from our head office. sorry. reporter: what oil was to the 20th century, lithium might be to the 21st. if electric cars continue to take offff, the metal l could a source of great wealth. fofor now,olivivia is tryingng o ride the lithium wave, and hoping to tap its stores. >> i am -- > -- a global teen. st: today, we meet a global teteen froburkrkina so. the 1717-year-old lilives in e capital ofof the west afafrican nation.

beberice: my name's atririce borerend i livin agadougou. i have a bigrothererthree big sisters,ndnd a ltle sist. p parents were farmer butut major roroad cstruction work meant ththey lost their land. ny more. i like going to schoolol becaue all my friends are there. wewe never get b bored.

i want t to be a lawyeyer bece there's soso much injustice, ad ththere aren't e enough peoplele defeining the le o of la i'm happy when everyone around me is happy. bebecause when t they're happypy alalso do eryhappy.go makeke y a lot of politicia in n me countries ly c carabout ththr

wewe, i don't t travel very mu, but t from what i i re about o r children, , i think thatat in r parts of t the world they y aly suffer, esespecially s street . some of them get realllly bady exploited. host: this week in our global ideas series, we're off to vietnam -- a nation suffering from ever more frequent bouts of extreme weather -- flooding, storms, heat-waves, and cold haha hit, leavaving local farms struggling to protect theirrrly crops. the coastal l province of f qg

nh is regurly hit bytorms. at can it to adapt exextreme weather? the allelees are manany, especiallyly given the c counts hihighopululation deitity. our reporter, kerstin schwzezer, adeded the to fifind out more.. anh: vietnam is one of the countries that has the most impact frorom climate chchange. wewe are especiaially affectey the storms. for example, for 2017 in vietnam, we had 17 storms come through the country. i come from the local area. that's why i understand the hard-working, hard life that people are facing, especially

the poor p people, that disadvantaged group. i think that that group, they need the support. the people in the village, their income mainly depends a lot on patty ce cultition andome fiing. and they have a small garden but e wowomen,hey alalsoack thuyen: thananks to the prprojei have learneded a lot aboutut tg care of fish -- like what ki of food theyey need, what t tod the babies, and what to feed the have learnedadults.t aboutut tg i've also learned hohow to kep them healtlthy and how to tret illnesesses. thisis project helelps create .

i'llelell my fisish at the mark, and ththat means incomome fory fafaly. quang: i was born and grew up in the village. for me, the most important thing here is the people. i i am really cocommitted to t. we'r're farmers. we'r'rfriendly a and open. wewe stick togetether, and we p each other. our village is hit by natural disasters every year. we receckon with onene or to typhoons evevery season, a as l

as one or twtwo major floodsds. all ththe storms andnd heavy ws is swalling upupur land.- the cat t same time, sand iadessea ouour hos and thfields where we arere planting lolots more t. we're e restoring ththe foreso y to mitigate e impactctf imate chan. the forest creates shade a a a ki of f climic bufuffer zone. ititerves as a wind-break and opops the il f from ying o out the treeees help cleanan the af pollutioion and reducece greene gagas. what's more, during the phphoon

season, , the forest h helps prt the sandnd from driftiting in m the coasast to the village. it shidsds us a ttlele frothe furyry of the stororms. h: this villagcan n be model for othevillagesn vietnam. because in this, you see the role of the communities in the protectingng of the forerests an the climatate change resespon. and they understood about ee ececystem services tt ththey ll get from this model a perfect vietnam in my dream, that will be a beautiful

untry, ecomically deloped, course, with lots of well-d-developed infnfrastruct. and alsoso there couldld be me nature, morere forests wilille protecected, rehabililitate. and people c can also liveve y frfriendly with h the environm. and for the e local people, tha goodod income, andnd enjoy thr life. host: that's all for today. but we love hearing from you, so do drop us a line with your comments. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

announcer: opportunity. prosperity. optimism.

02/23/18 02/23/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> as you can see with the fbi indictments, the evidence is now incontrovertible. amy: will national secure divisor general h.r. mcmaster says there is incontrovertible evidence that russia meddled in the 2016 election, we will speak to the prize-winning russian-american journalist masha gessen about her new article "the fundamental