06/08/18 06/08/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! pres. trump: administrator scott pruitt, thank you, scott. epa is doing really, really well. somebody has to say that about you a little bit. you know that, scott. amy: calls are growing for epa administrator scott pruitt to resign as he faces more than a dozen ethics investigations. but behind the scenes, he is radically reshaping the epa. the chemical industry has just

been handed a major victory as the epa scaled back the way it determines the risks of the most dangerous chemicals on the market. then as protests resume in gaza we look at how the israeli military is attempting to frame the palestinian medic razan al najjar who was shot dead last week by an israeli sniper. and we go to afghanistan where afghan president ashraf ghani has announced a temporary ceasefire with the taliban. a move haiailed by nato. >> it is a positive step forward on the path to peace. nato fully supports an afghan led an afghan owned peace and reconciliation process. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. donald trump and other leaders of the world's largest economies

have gathered in quebec city, canada, for this year's g-7 summit, with the u.s. president increasingly isolated over trade and climate change. the g-7 meeting comes after president trump ordered tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from canada, mexico, china, japan, and the european union, prompting world powers to talk of uniting against the u.s. in a trade war. reuters quoted french president emmanuel macron as saying thursday "we don't mind being six, if needs be." macron echoed that comment in a joint press conference with canadian prime minister justin trudeau. >> the six other countries of the g-7 represent a larger market than the american market will stop let's face it. there's no wororld h hegemony oe find a way to organize ourselves and we don't want there to bebe. amy:y: president trumpss scheduled to leave the g-7 summit early at of next week's meeting with kim jong-un. with his early departure tomorrow morning, trump will

miss a discussion on climate change which will center around trump's decision to pull u.s. out of the paris climate accord. this comes as trump said thursday he's prepared to invite kim jong-un to the white house if the meeting between the two leaders goes well. federal agents arrested a former senior aide to the senate intelligence committee thursday, charging him with repeatedly lying to the fbi in a probe of who leaked classified information to reporters. the arrest of james wolfe came just hours after "the new york times" reported it had discovered that federal agents had secretly captured years' worth of phone and email data from reporter ali watkins -- who broke several high-profile stories related to the intelligencece committee's work for "the new york times" and "the newlets full cap york times" reports watkins and wolfe previously had a three-year romantic relationship.

a "new york times" spokesperson blasted the trump administration's efforts to spy on its reporter, saying -- "freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy, and communications between journalists and their sources demand protection." this all comes exactly one year after the trump administration arrested former u.s. intelligence contractor reality leigh winner, who's accused of leaking a top-secret document claiming russian military intelligigence launched a cyberattack on at least one u.s. voting software company just days before the 2016 election. reality winner has pleaded not guguilty and remains j jailed awawaiting trial. the trump administration said thursday it will not defend key parts of the affordable cacare t as a number of states led by texas challenged the constitutionality of president obama's signature health care law. in court filings, justice department lawyers cited with a republican-led effort to overturn the aca in a move that would allow insurance companies to charge more or refuse coverage t to people with

pre-existing medical conditions. this came as the white house lobbied republican congressional leaderers to vote down a bipartisan bill that would fully fund an expansion of veterans health care that trump signed into law on wednesday. on capitol hill, senate democrats are urging house republican leaders to hold a vote on a bill that would reverse the fcc's repeal of net neutrality rules. without congressional intervention, the fcc's new policy will go into effect next monday. it would allow internet service providers to throttle internet traffic speeds according to how much customers pay or based on which wewebsites they wish to favor. last month, the senate voted 52-47 to reverse the fcc's rollback of net neutrality rules. on thursday, the entire senate democratic caucus sent a letter to republican house speaker paul ryan demanding he bring a companion bill to the house floor.

the trump administration said ththursday it is transferring about 160000 immigrants held in ice custody to federal prisons, in the first large-scale transfer of this kind. ice told the reuters news service it's momoving the prisoners to five federal penitentiaries, with the majority headed to a prison complex in victorville, california. most of those being transferred have no criminal records and are awaiting civil immigratition cot proceedings. the northwest immigrant rights project reports up to 120 people being held at seatac prison in seattle are asylum seekers who are separated from theirir families. meanwhile, a high school student from iowa was found murdered in mexico's zacatecas state in m m, just three weeks a after he left the united states under threat of deportation. manuel antonio cano pacheco was found with his throat slit, in what his family believes was a gang-related murder. he was just 19 years old.

cano-pacheco was brought to the u.s. when he was just three. he had previously been granted protected status under president obama's deferred action for childhood arrivals program, or daca, which president trump has been working to phase out. after he was convicted of two minor drug charges, he lost his daca status and chose to enter mexico as deportation appeared likely. in brooklylyn, new york, immigrt rights groups and elected leaders are calling for the release of a delivery worker who was arrested by ice last week after dropping off a pizza at the fort hamilton army base. pablo villavicencio, an ecuadorian immigrant, presented his new york city-issued i.d. card to soldiers at the entrance to the base, as he's done on many previous delivery runs. but this time he was denied access and told he needed a driver's license to enter the base. after a military police officer

ran a background check, he discovered an ice warrant from 2010 and called in immigration agents. villavicencio is now being held at an ice detention center in new jersey and is scheduled to be deported. on wednesday, new york city councilmember justin brannan spoke to reporters outside the gates of the army base, accompanied by vallavicencio's wife, sandra chica, and the couple's two young daughters. >> does the army now have some new policy that demands all nonmilitary personnel show proof of citizenship to gain access on to the army base? otherwise, what happened here? is this part of some new donald trump deportation strategy? you are tearing families apart, for what? how are we any y safer today thn we were yesterday? >> it is cruel that theyey're going to separate my daughters from him. family.pporting the now i'm going to be alone with the kids. amy: on thursday, scores of protesters gathered outside

immigration court in lower manhattan chanting, "free pablo now!" meanwhile, new york governor andrew cuomo has said his office will pay villavicencio's legal fees. in nicaragua, hundreds of mothers marched to the streets thursday calling for justice for the more than 100 sons and daughters killed by police in vigilantes in recent protest calling on president daniel ortega to resign. this is protester annamaria. >> children are showing up having been tied up, tortured, and beaten up. and many times after many days of complaining, authorities: mothers to collect the bodies. official organizations should be giving i informationon onn victs from day one. britaiain's highest court ruled thursday that northern ireland's near-total ban on abortions is incompatible with the european convention on human rights. the ruling by britain's supreme court won't require a change in northern ireland's laws, but pro-choice activists say it's a step towards forcing the government of conservative prime

minister theresa may to intervene. this is grainne teggart, northern ireland campaigner for amnesty international. >> theresa may must demonstrate, like us, she trusts all of the women in the u.k. in jewel in the inequity that women in northern ireland face. they should not have to travel to the rest of the u.k. for health care. we will continue to pressure toernment to change the laws provide safe and legal abortions in ireland. amy: in canada, voters have elected a new conservative government, led by doug ford, brother of the infamous foformer mayor of toronto, rob b ford, wo died of f cancer i in 2016 after battling dg and d alcohol addiction while in office. doug f ford, who many have compared to donald trump, saw his progressive conservative party win the most votes in provincial elections. speaking on democracy now! journalist naomi klein called ontario's election the most imimportant of her lifetime. >> what is really worrying about

this is he is running onon this platform to cut taxes in very sways, cut corporate taxes, to cut individual income taxes, to do away with ontario's cap and trade policies, so it is a plan to b blow a massive multibillion-dollar hole in n te budget that he is refused to say how he will pay for it. amy: to see our full interview with naomi klein about ontario's election, visit our website democracynow.org. new weather data show the month ofof may was the hottest ever recorded in the contiguouous unit s states, witith temperatus soaring more than five degrees fahrenheit above 20th century averages. climate scientists say may's heat toppled the previous record set in 1934 at the height of the dust bowl, and is consistent with models for global warming. the record u.s. temperatures came as 2018 is on track to be earth's fourth-hottest year on record, while the five warmest years on record all have taken place since 2010.

celebrity chef and television presenter anthony bordain has died by suicide. the 61-year-old man was found dead in his hotel room in germany where he wasas f filminn episisode of f a cnn program "ps unknown." his death came just days after fashion designer kate spade was found hanged to death in her manhattan apartment in an apparent suicide as well. the high-profile suicides come as the federal centers for disease control and prevention report the u.s. suicide rate has risen by over 25% over the past two decades. topping the list is north dakota , were suicides have reason by 57% from 1999 levels. and those are some of the headlines this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. environmental protection agency administrator scott pruitt is agagain facing a slew of e ethis

and spending scandals, amid mounting calls for his resignation. on thursday, "the washington post" reports pruitt enlisted members of his $3.5 million security detail to pick up his dry cleaning and search for his favorite skin moisturizing lotion, even though federal rules prohibit public officials from receieiving gifts from subordinates, including unpaid services. this comes after congressional transcripts surfaced showing pruitt had one of his top aides, millan hupp, go apartment hunting for him, in violation of federal ethics standards. millan hupp was also instructed to try to get pruitt a used mattress from the trump international hotel. after "thehe washington post" broke the story, hupp announced her resignation. her last day is today. also resigning amid the mounting scandals is pruitt's senior counsel sarah greenwalt, who traveled internationally and acacross the u.s. wiwith pruitts he met with industry officials and foreign diplomats.

meanwhile, pruitt has also faced criticism after it surfaced that his former scheduler contacted the chief execututive of chick-fil-a, seeking to set up a personal meeting about the possibility of pruitt's wife, marlyn, opening a franchise of the fast-food chchain. the revelation is based on emails obtained by a freedom of information act request filed by the sierra club. on wednesday, journalist jessica smith published a video of her questioning pruitt about the chick-fil-a scandal. >> with great change comes, i know, opposition. significant change is happening not only across the epa, but the administration and it is needed. my wife is an entrepreneur herself. lovove she loves -- we chick-fil-a as a franchise of faith in one of the best in the country. that is something we were very excited about. them across the

country. anyway, it is an exciting time. amy: the new york times" has also reported in recent days that pruitt attended a university of kentucky basketetball game last decemr rn seats belonging to joseph w. craft iii, a billionaire coal executive who is aggressively fighting to reverse obama-era rules limiting coal pollution. all these new scandals come as pruitt was already facing at least a dozen investigations over spending and ethics violations ranging from his close ties to industry lobbyists to his illegal spending of public money. continuingpruitt is to radicalally reshape the environmental prototection agen. "the new york times" reports the epephas given n the chemical inddustry a big victory by scaling back the way the federal government determines health and safety risks associated with the most dangerous chemicals on the market. pruitt has also been accused of radically reshaping the epa rulemaking process and weakening obama administration efforts to

tighten fuel economy standards, among others. for more, we are joined by robert weissman. president of public citizen. last year, public citizen launched corporatecabinet.org -- a website trtracking the cororpe connections and conflicts of interest of trump's cabinet appointees. rob, today we're going to focus on scott pruitt. divide this into two parts. slew of scandals, and then we will t talk about tt some consider ththe greatest scandal, and that is the rolling back of environmental protection. robert weissman? >> it is good to be with you and your viewers and listeners. if you listen to the introduction you just gave, i don't -- washington is very familiar with people who, tried to enrich themselves from taxpayer pot, but i don't think we've ever seen anything like scott pruitt. that list of examples, most of which have just emerged in the last week or 2 am a i don't

think there's ever been anything like that. and there are more. last week it came out he was by $130 pens. because he thinks he needs to write with $130 pens. who,we're seeing is a guy first of all, has no respect for the taxpayer and his duty to be frugal and guard taxpayer assets. more importantly, a guy who thinks you should live like the billionaires that he is serving. he is hanging out with the superrich people, and he does not see him so many different from them. they get to fly around all over the world whenever they want to do -- on luxury planes, and so should he. they get to sit at the front row of college ask ballgames, and so should he. they get to eat in fine restaurants whenever they want without regard to paying, and so should he. one of the other stories that has come out in the last couple of days, he is going over to the white house dining hall so frequently because there is

great food there at a very low price, sort of luxury level food at mcdonald's prices, and they told him, stopped coming. you're coming here too often. there's this unbelievable degree of entitlement and desire for luxury which is not appropriate for a government official. i think it does connect to the second strain of what you're talking about, part of the reason he thinks he's entitled to this besides his own megalomania is he is hanging out with people who live like this and he does that see why he should not be able to do the same thing. amy: can you talk about the women who have just resigned, his top aides, lawyer and assistant? >> these are people he brought over with him from oklahoma. who is formally the oklahoma attorney general. he used them in considerable part to take part -- take care of his whimsical desires.

had a high-paying job and high-level title, was scheduling his personal trips. he wanted to go to the rose bowl, so she worked that out. then it emerged that she actually was looking for apartments for him. she visited at least 10 apartments for the house oversight committee discovered, after he got run of yet, the super discounted yet from a lobbyist or a lobbyist wife. amy: explained that. that deal he had was staying in the building of an energy lobbyist wife, getting a deal from an energy lobbyist, in essence, paying $50 a night when he was there but the room was held open for him always. the apartment. >> that is exactly as you said. he is paying $50 a night, which is less a below-market rates here in washington, d.c. he was not even paying every night, just the nights you stay.

that wasn't as many as you might think because he was jetting all around the world to tend to his desires and whims. the discount deal was being .rovided by a lobbyist couple the husband had business before the environmental protection agency, which is a fact denied but now revealed -- just revealed in the last few days as the husband had to change and fully disclose on his lobby forms what he had been doing. likenever been anything this. there are some hard ethics questions in washington, d.c., but none of the things involving scott pruitt are hard ethics questions. startling kinds of misbehavior, but startling kinds of misbehavior that matter not just because, like, what does he need $130 pens for, but because he's doing favors for people who are conferring benefits on him. amy: or three point $5 million in security. i want to turn to a postcard addressed to scott pruitt sent to the epa's seattle office last year.

the postcard featured an imagine -- image of a man standing on an iceberg. it read -- "dear mr. pruitt, climate change is real!!!! we are watching you. for the sake of our planet, our children & our grandchildren, will you be a reasonable man? i repeat, we are watching you!" it was signed by seven first names. well, this postcard is on the potential list of potential threats to pruitt's safety that the epa used to justify a 24/7 security detail that has cost taxpayers at least $3.5 million. >> right. part of the grandiose story around scott pruitt. yes this 20 47 security detail that former epa administers or administrators have not had an for which he is no reason. he uses these people to create a bubble around himself when he travels to put on screaming sirens and take them to his

favorite restaurants in washington dc, to protect him from citizens who might come up to complain about what he is doing. as you say, to do where things like find his favorite moisturizer. -- to do where things like find his favorite moisturizer. amy: are going to take a break and come back to the latest news, and that is one of the top headlines today, top story of "the new york times," the trump administration after heavy lobbying by the chemical industry scaling back the way the federal government determines health and safety risks associated with some of the most dangerous chemicals in the market. we will be back witith robert weissman, president of public citizen. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continue to look at the record of scott pruitt. is he about to resign or be fired?

that is the questionon. "t"the new york times" reporting ththe epa is given the chemical industry a big victory by scaling back the way the federal government determines health and safety risks associated with the most dangerous chemicals on the market. scott pruitt has also been accusesed of radically reshaping the epa rulemaking process, weakening obama administration efforts to tighten fuel economy standards. still with us, rob weissman, president of public citizen. rob, talk about this latest news about the chemicals in the air we breathe, and the soil, in the water we drink. >> this is the real outrage. the stuff we were talking about, that is funny for the soap operas and it is crazy come outrageous in its way, but it is not really hurting people in the same way this is. this breaking news is that the epa is going to change the way it assesses chemical safety. it is now looking at beginning a new process after recently passed law of evaluating the

safety of chemicals that of long been on the market. the short version is it is changing the way it will do it so chemicals will be deemed safer than they otherwise would have been. it will be -- higher levels of exposure will be possible, more use of dangerous chemicals will be possible. how did they get there? this is the real scandal. the person in charge of the review is an industry chemist who came from the chemical industry trade association. she is in charge of setting up the process. she is delivering for the agency from which she once came. the impact is going to be on people whose names we don't yet know, but people will die as a result of this. we look at what they're doing in the chemical industry or how pruitt and his top aides are benefiting the coal industry or enabling more air pollution or taking care of the agribusiness industry or making sure we have more oil and gas burning going on, he is enabling a kind of corporate violence that will

kill, literally, tens of thousands of people every single year. we don't know their names, but they will die. he is looking at rolling back on behalf of the oil and dirty energy industries and air pollution standard which one that is expected to save 11,000 lives every year to prevent 130,000 asthma attacks every year. when those things happen going forward if he succeeds in rolling back this rule, on the stone will go back and say, look, it was scott pruitt to enable this. it was the guy, the industry that polluted in my neighborhood that forced my child have an asthma attack. people don't think that way, but it is what happens. it is a crime and a violence that is equivalent to street crime, except it is a much more gigantic scale than anything of the biggest mass murder could ever hope to accomplish. amy: i want to go back to a story we covered last week. officials with the epa barring multiple journalists from

covering a summit on water d.c.mination at the epa's headquarters with one journalist reporting she was shoved out of the building by security guards. the reporters were from cnn, the associated press, any news, the journalist who was shoved, ellen of ap, was ultimately allowed into the meeting in the afternoon. the meeting was about nationwide water contamination from the chemicals if away and give os, which are used in teflon and firefighting foam. the attempt to exclude some journalists from the meeting comes as scott pruitt who spoke at the meeting was facing the slew of scandals around him. we had an extended conversation about this. people trying to get a report released of areas, communities around industrial

sites, around military bases that feared this contamination. that is right. the big story at epa in this regard is because scott pruit's agenda is taking care of the polluters and the donors -- of course, himself -- it has debited with signs or evidence and won't let evidence get in the way of what he's tried to do. they don't want any media coverage of what they're are doing. they don't want internal staff to tell the truth so they're pushing out as many people as they can and even in one case, trying to hire a pr agency to effectively do external scrutiny of their internal employees to see who might be trying to do their job. they don't want anyone to mention climate change, the biggest threat facing humanity, and they are stripping from their data sets information on climate change. they are refusing to consider

rulemakinge in the processes, and now try to the overall rulemaking process to exclude important parts of environmental science and public health science. they are working in every possible way they can to reach predeterminened results o on bef of polluluters. for long time, the deregulatory forcrce in the couountry said ae want is more evidence, do more studies. studies was sort o of their exce for why y they shouldd delay the next regulatory protection. but now that they have got control of power, they want nothing to do with evidence. they want nothing to do with science. they just want to get to the predetermined outcome, which is enabling polluters to pollute more. as i said, it is an outrage. not just because the air will be dirtier in the abstract. an outrage because real

people are going to suffer. as is normally the case, it will be concentrated in low income communities and people of color communities were the most hazardous sites exist, were the most pollutition goes on, and where the communities have the least local power to fight back. amy: on wednesday, a journalist with the atlantic reported she was castigated by epa spokesperson when she asked for comment on the resignation of one of pruitt's top aides. wilcox reportedly said, "you are a piece of trash." meanwhile, former top attorney for the chemical industry has been named to lead the environmental protection agency superfund task force. stephen cook, who worked for two decades at the chemical giant. he will now be responsible for anup of superfund sites polluted by his foformer employer. rob? the storiesoth of

are reflective of what is going on at the epa. first, this hostility to journalists for reporting on what is going on. again, following a lead from the white house, of course. and part of this grand story throughout the trump administration of bringing an industry to be in charge of former lawyers or industry leaders to be in charge of regulating the company they once worked for. it is not just this government the chemical industry, it is also the chemical industry scientist i i mentioned. it is also a coal lobbyist who is now the number two at epa. amy: this is andrew wheeler. if youou could talk about this. for him to be number two, that means if scott pruitt is forced is, that andrew wheeler, who worked for nearly a decade on behalf of fossil fuel companies including the coal company murray energy, approved by the senate in april, becomes second-in-command and would becocome thehe epa administratot

least for a time. is that right? >> that is exactly right. we think scott pruitt should be impeached. it is a bit of a power game in d.c. to see if he can hold on. the white house wasn't ago, but not -- once and ago, but not the president. republican members of congress are saying, this is an embarrassment and we have to get rid of this guy. within congress should force them out through impeachment. but we have to be honest and recognize what that means. we're going to probably have pruitt exit the e scene and a al industry lobbyist be in charge of the epa. amy: pruitt rolling back obama era fuel standards. briefly, if you could explain what that is. >> the most important thing that president obama did to deal with climate change was not the clean power plant, but increasing the phyllis and -- fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks. it was being done in two phases. win.s a win/

it reduces the carbon pollution in the air by reducing the amount of gas our cars need that will can save consumers huge amount of money. the cost and dollar terms to consumers will be more than $100 billion, let alone the impact on climate change. i want toeissman, thanank you for being with us, president of public citizen. last year, public citizen launched corporatecabinet.org -- a website tracking the corporate connections and conflicts of interest of trump's cabinet appointees. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as return to gaza, where thousands of palestinians have resumed protests against the israeli blockade. israeli soldiers have killed at least 119 palestinians and wounded more than 13 others since the palestinians nonviolent great march of return protests began on march 30.

a week ago today, is really medic shot dead israeli razan al-najjar as you is helping evacuate wounded palestinians at a protest near the separation fence between israel and gaza. at the time of her killing, she was wearing a white medical coat and a medical i.d. card. the following day, thousands of people poured into the streets of gaza to attend her funeral. the palestinian medics killing has also sparked international outrage. earlier this week, the israeli military said israeli snipers had not intentionally shot at razan. but now the israeli military is facing widespread criticism after released a short video thursday that was heavily edited in efforts to claim that the slain palestinian medic was acting as a human shield for

hamas to a shot dead by an israeleli sniper. the video posted by the israeli defense forces appears to show razan throwing a smoke grenade into an empty field. the words on the video read -- "this medic c was incited by has to give upup her life for r ther goals." itit is then followed by a a sht clip of th paltinian medic razan al-najjarr speaking. >> i am a paramedic. i near the front lines as a human shield. after she speaks, the words on the video read -- "hamas uses paramedics as humamn shields." after the video was released, the israeli military spokesman avichay edraee tweeted -- "razan a al-najjar is not t the angel of mercy that hamas propaganda attempts to portray." but the video has sparked immediate criticism for taking

razan's words from a previous interview out of context in order to distort their meaning. this is a clip from the original interview, in which razan is being interviewed by a journalist with al-mayadeen news. of becomiming ae idedea paramedic, how to o that idea start r yoyou? was it your n n ideanly? tell u us if you mayay, please. and a paredic raz al-njajar. i am here a a resing huhun shteter prect anansave the woundeat the fnt linin. idea s nonot suggesd d to mby anynydy. didid it for my own lf b becse i opted too ththroh this adventure anand y rescuinthe unded athe frontines. i have sength, crage and daringo go thrgh this urage co to joinhe field and berepared go to gund ro to ve the slsf our martyrs d some of our unded. they areur broths, of course.

praise tgod, i maged with l of my deternatition perstetence,nd s strenh to continue on n this course e thai stararted and i wiwill end. i been persistent for 45 days. amy: so that was razan al-najjar, speaking in her own words about her efforts to rescue wounded palestinian protesters, wounded by the israeli military. earlier this razan week, we spoke with razan's cousin. was for a young, shows had dreams. she loved life. she was a source of positivity all of the time. and being a nurse was one of her dreams. she worked hard to be one. she could not get a degree in nursing, unfortunately, because of the financial situation with her family. trainingwent and got

for nursing for two years. she worked for two years without being paid. she felt it was her duty to be a first responder. it is everyone's duty -- everyone has a role in what is going on. she felt she could do what she is best at by being first responder. she is one of the first female first responders. she inspired many people. i heard stories from her colleagues saying that other would mentionrs her and talk about her. they would say, come on, razan broke her wrist and she completed her duties. she is a source of inspiration for everyone. amy: that was razan al-najjar's cousin. we reached her in his symbol, turkey, where she is cofounder of it organization dedicated for

making clean water excessive around the world. for more, we go to sweden, via democracy now! vidideo stream to speak with muhammad shehada, writer and a activist t from the gazaza strip and a student of development studies at lund university, sweden. he writes for haaretz, the forward, and other publications. the about this video that israeli i military has releaseda week after razan was gunned down by an israeli sniper. justsues of the idea -- able to lie so blatantly and away i can be checked so easily because it knows the western media and the western reporters would catch the bait and convey its lines as unquestioned facts -- or at least come as credible narratives. for instance, "the new york times" reported ababout this specific controversy as opposing narratives.

any reporter could simply just go on youtube and check the full interview for herself or himself. again, theylem is, want -- they won't do that. -- it is a trial of betrayal of these of journalistic values. as you've seen in the footage, according to the shamelessly doctored video, razan was saying ironically that she is standing as a human shield. her specific use of that word human shield was obviously intended to take a dehehumanizig teterm that is widely deployed y the idf to justify the killing ofof innnnocent civilians. and she e used it to me it into mething so powerful and

toucuching that cocould not be ignored.d. it is decisive and conclusive that there is no chance the idea dr. the video in good faith or by accident. it was purposeful to cut his interview after two seconds of what she says in order to falsify her own words. if the idf or had they just lengthened the clip by one more word, the whole story would have been unraveled. the problem is instead the first murder of an unarmed clearly marked paramedic with precision guided they claim it was an accident, and finally they claim even accidents are directed by god only to bad people, so the victim's death is justified. it appears under no circumstance whatsoever would israel acknowledge the palestinian

suffering. we are never allowed to be seen as victims. it is as if israel cannot tolerate another story of disposition and misery to exist alongside it, so intolerant is toward thereinforced gazan civilian population and now the deliberate -- other sacred memories. the least idea of good have done in that incident is to show remorse, to say we were wrong for the exclusion of an innocent female paramedic. sometimes there is enough on in losing a battle and snatching a defeating and post-victory. instead, from the first moment contextualizedea -- this horrendous war crime. not to hold perpetrators

accountable. the problem is as always, the calamities visited upon the palestinians are either denied, ridiculed, or sometimes even cheered and applauded. there's always an internal investigation to be opened. from blame. this investigation is either never concluded as in the case of the young moderate 14 year , or theester who died findings of the reports are rather more appalling than the incident itself. one of the findings is that it never happened. just plain and simple. some reports say, as in the case cousin, his medical record, x-ray, eyewitnesses, everybody confirms his head was shattered by a israeli live bullets directed towards them. but according to the idf, he fell o off his bike. never happened. amy: i want to turn to the story for a moment. on wednesday, the palestinian

information ministry saying they shot dead the 21-year-old palestinian ezz el-deen al-tamimi in the west bank village of nabi saleh. he was a member of the prominent tamimi family, which is well known for its resistance to the israeli occupation. this is mahmoud al-tamami,i, a relative of ezz el-deen. i occupation forces raided the site. them directly with m initial nancy ran away. three bullets in his neck and chest. and they beat him and he was bleeding before they moved his body to a military vehicle or he was left for a long time before being pronounced dead. amy: another member of the tamimi family, 17-year-old ahed tamimi, remains imprisoned on charges of slapping an israeli soldier in a video that went viral. earlier this week, a parole board rejected herppeal for r an early release. she has really b become a global face of the resistance to

occupation. muhammad shehada, if you continue -- i'm in, we're not just talking a about -- i mean,, what we're talking about here, over 120 palestinians killed since march 30, since the nonviolent march of return. paramedic --le paramedics and medical people have been hit so hard. i want to go back to an excerpt of an interview we did a few weeks ago. after the u.s.y moved the u.s. embassy to jerusalem. and i think the isrsraeli mility killed more than 60 palestinians in gaza that day. l loubaniturn to tarek helped wounded

palestinians. this is an excererpt of what he had to say. you werere shot b by an israeli sniper in both legs. >> i don't know the answer to that. i don't know what orders they received or r what was in their heads. so i can't tell you if we were dedeliberately tarargeted. what i can tell you is the things i do know. in the six weeks of the march, there were no paramedic casualties. in one day, 19 paramedics, 18 wounded was one killed, and myself are allll injured. we were all shot with live ammunition. xina rescue the time but everybody else was like me. we were away during a lull without smoke coming without any chaos at all and we were targeted -- rather, hit by live ammunition. most of us in the lower limbs. to believery hard

that the israelis who shot me in the israelis who shot my other colleagues just from power medical crew, four of us were shot including musa who passed away. it is hard to believe they did not know who we were. they did not know what we were doing. and that they were aiming att anything else. amy: so that is dr. tarek loubani. justin trudeau spoke out about this. he was shot in both legs. and the many just mentitioned, e paramedic musa, who went to save him, was shot dead an hour later. muhammad shehada, if you can continue to talk about the has taken place in gaza and also what is happening today as we speak, thousands protesting in gaza? ofas i said, the coverage

the particular instance like roseanne concludes through different dehumanizing and equally appalling indications.. one is that it never happened.d. there isis the and arguably ract dehumanizing and hideous term that is going viral to imply that the entire palestinian population are consistently defame israelel and exert an undnderstandable angerr hatred was thehey call it, o o illegal occupation and criminal blockade. the absurdity of this her in thisis -- iran is. the other conclulusi is that it wasn'tt us. as you have seenen in the e casf the double amputee, the idea concluded that the bullet that landed in his four head was not coming from their own ammunition

. another racist term is coined here to describe abraham step as self-inflicted suffering. the entire population of palestine are perceived as mamasochists who find joy in getting killed, maimed, or crippled by the idf. and whose mangel is to make their wish come true -- main goal is to make their wish come true. the israeli intelligence apparently managed to dig into abraham's heart and conclude his intentions, that his death was entirely self-inflicted. it was his own fault. -- an agitator who wanted to die e as a martyt. they purposely overlooked the fact that even if abraham for once in his life contemplated death as a relief from the insufferable misery that he endured, it was mainly because the idf first shot his legs, both of them, still his legs and stole his life.

it turned his life into unbearable hell. he spent his golden years crawling on the floor's begging for bare-bones subsistence. in razan'sseeing now case and a palestinian journalist, it was an accident. it comes from a deep and evident wishful thinking that if you presume the idf to be the most moral army in the world, it can never conclude that they did this on purpose. but in most means, no moral and the army would do so. the idea stated at the beginning of the process, and those were every bullet shot at the protesters landed. mary except for the once convenient for them to claim otherwise. like in a particular case of razan. first that she was shot by accident. the bullet apparently was shot in the air and bounced back and accurately shattered her heart. and even incidents that happened

by accident, according to the people,y happen to bad as they call them. so the idea -- the idf, instead of investigating the accident, seem to spend great time and effort trying to prove an alleged affiliation between the victims and dehumanizing categories that would justify their killing. amy: we want to end today's segment with the words of thee celebrity chef a and television presenter anthony bordain. we just learned today he died by suicide in france as s he was filming one of his episodes of his very popular show "parts unknown." he traveled to gaza. in 2014, he won north from thee muslim public affairs council. th w was h speech. " was enormously grafuful fo thresponon of paltinians particularor d doi whahat emed

toe anan oinaryy thing someththing we do all the time, show regarar peoe doing evyday this.s. e world s vivisid manyny terrible things on the palestinian pelele. ne more shameful than robbing th o of thr babasihumanini. people are not stistics. that iall we aempted t ow. y: thosere the wds of thony bordain. again,ied by scide thi morng in stsburg, fnce, as he was filmi one of s epises f "parts known" for cnn. i want t ank muhaad sheha, writeand actist from theaza strip d a udent ofevelopme studies at ld univerty, swed. herites for haaret the forwar a and oer publitions. wh we come back, t afghan esident hraf gha has jt anunced aease-firwith the televaelist ofe will sak with peace activist kathy kelly. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we end today's show in afghanistan, where afghan president ashraf ghani has announced an unconditional ceasefire with the taliban to

last until june 20. this was president ghani's first unconditional offer of a ceasefire since his election in 2014. the u.s. has said it will honor the cease-fire against the taliban. we go to chicago where we are joined by kathy kelly, co-coordinator of voices for creative nonviolence, a campaign to end u.s. military and economic warfare. she has made many trips to afghanistan and just returned from afghanistan this week. kathy, if you can explain what has just taken place. how significant is this cease-fire? >> it is very difficult to imagine a cease-fire with the multiple groups of insurgents in afghanistan today. thetaliban are certainly strongest, but there one group amongst many insurgent groups who have made steady attacks all through the year. it is a very tense time. that a lasting peace in afghanistan would require a way to deal with the destitution,

with the unemployment, with the inability of people to feed their families because -- in part because of that kind of desperation of people turned to joining military groups, police groups. because that is the only way sometimes they can get in income. plus, very, very tragically now, 21 out of 34 provinces in afghanistan are drought-stricken. conditions are so harsh, so hard. it has become the least safe place in afghanistan. i just returned from that city in a visit in a refugee camp. you get the sense of exhaustion, desperation, and an inability of ththe afghan government to respond. so isis claimed responsibility for recent suicide attack that killed 14 clerics at a peace summit in kabul. what happened? was this the spark for president ashraf ghani ? people were gathering to

declare a fatwa against suicide bombings and then a suicide attacker managed to get inside and that was when the clerics were killed. i think ashraf ghani perhaps right now is very aware the taliban has been able to surround various cities in afghanistan. and in some cases, take over the city's temporarily. and so he is offering this cease-fire perhaps knowing that talks might at this point be indispensable for his government to continue. but included in his government are various warlords and sons of warlords. so it is a very tense time. also, i think many people in afghanistan are aware that president trump has publicly opposed negotiations and talks with the taliban.

he has expressed his interest in what is going on in afghanistan ununder the ground, not in terms of the water level lowering in the desperation in the time of drought to gain access to water. but he is interested in the rare earth minerals. amy: before we go, i want to ask you, bbc is reporting since trump announced the new afghan strategy committed more troops to the conflict, the number of bombs dropped by the u.s. air force has surged dramatically. new rules of engagement and made it easier for u.s. forces to carry out strikes against the taliban. you wrote all trump's interest in what is happening on the ground in afghanistan is focused exclusively on the u.s. capacity to extract afghanistan's mineral wealth. in this last minute, can you talk about these two issues? >> one person from the water province, when i was in afghanistan, said how is your family -- this is very with the strikes are so heavy. he said, we can't find these two

dead there been so many bodies. president trump, maintaining troops in afghanistan, has to do it the inevitable the possible extraction of wealth under the hindu mountains and also being able to send signals to china and to russia that the united states still has a foothold in that country. amy: we will leave it there by continue our conversation with you and post it as a web exclusive at democracynow.org. kathy kelly, , just back from afghanistatan, co-coordidinatorf voices for creative nonviolence campaign to end u.s. military , a and economic warfare. she has made many trips to afghanistan. that doeoes it for our show. to see our video and audio podcast and or transcripts, go to democracynow.org. democracy now! is accepting applications for our paid video production fellowships. find out more at democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to

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