02/27/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! you, our to assure country is in safe hands. i will not l let the country bo. cntry will l not be erased. amy: while u.s. medidia is sprit screen today on nonorth korea ad michchael cohen, tension is rapidly escalating between the nuclear armed rivals india and pakistan.

pakistan claims it shut down to military jets and captured a pair of indian jet pilots. this comes a day after india carried out airstrikes inside pakistan for the first time in's 1971. the physisicistto and nuclear expert zia mian. then we go to speak with media benjamin -- medea benjamin. then to r. kelly. after years of allegations, the famed singer has been arrested for sexually abusing four women and girls. >> each of these witnesses described a decades long system of abuse by mr. kelly of underaged girls in conduct that criminal, and is

indicative of someone that should never walk f free another day in his life. amy: we will speak to dream hampton, executive director of the explosive "surviving r. kelly" documentary. itit helped renew cacalls for r. kelly to be investigated. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. "racist, conman, cheat." these are the words trump's former lawyer and fixer michael cohen is expected to use to today to describe the president during his public testimony before congress. according to his prepared remarks released late tuesday night, cohen will say that trump knew in advance about wikileak'' plans to release leaked emails from the democratic national committee. cohen says he personally witnessed a phone conversation between trump and his longtime adviser roger stone. he is also expected to provide

a check proving trump paid him back for hush money payments made to stormy daniels over their alleged affair. cohen's written testimony also covers financial information related to trump's businesses and taxes and recounts multiple instances of racist comments by trump. cohen's remarks also reveal donald trump, jr. likely was involved in her no arrangement in the 2016 trump tower meeting to possibly obtained or gone 2016 presidential rival hillary clinton and that he informed his father that the meeting was all set also democrats have accused florida congressmember and trump ally matt gaetz of witness intimidation after he appeared to threaten cohen monday, saying in the now-deleted tweet -- "hey @michaelcohen212 - do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. i wonder if she'll remain faithful when you're in prison. she's about to learn a lot."

michael cohen's remarks also reveal trump faked a medical condition to get out the vietnam war draft and that trump told him -- "you think i'm stupid, i wasn't going to vietnam." cohen's leaked testimony dropped as trump arrived in vietnam late tuesday ahead of his seconond summit with north korean leader kimm jong. trump and kim met briefly in front of reporters before heading to an official dinner. pres. trump: i got the first summit was a great success and this one holds the will be equal or greater than the first. we have a lot of progress. i think the biggest progress was our relationship. it is really a good one. i think your country has tremendous economic potential. unlimited. i think you will have a german his future with your country -- have a tremendous future with your country. cnn is reporting the white

house initially tried to ban reporters from attending the afteruent official dinner journalist shouted a question to trump about cohen's testimony. after reporters collectively protested the move, the white house conceded one print reporter could be present alongside cameras documenting the event. the two-day summit to further negotiations on a denuclearization agreement kicks off tomorrow. tension is continuing to escalate between the nuclear-armed rivals india and pakistan after india carried out airstrikes inside pakistan tuesday for the first time since 1971. india said it was targeting a camp of the militant separatist group jaishay-mohammed, which claimed responsibility for a recent attack in the indian-administerered region of kashmir that killed more than 40 indian soldiers, although pakistan has denied d the claim. india said tuesday's air id killed a v very large e number f militants, but pakistan has said

there were no casusualties fro the attack. pakistan is now aimingngt hass shot down two indian military jets and capapred a pairir of indian jet pilots. meanwhile, india claims it has foiled an attempt by pakistan to bomb milititary installations inside india. the united states, russia, china and european union have urged both of the nuclear rivals to show restraint. indian and pakistan are believed to have around 100 nuclear warheads and have fought three wars since 1947. we'll havave more on this story after headlines. on tuesday, the house voted 245-182 to block president trump's national emergency declaration which would divert billions of dollars of federal funds to build a wall on the u.s.s.-mexico border.. this is texaxas congressmbmber jouin caststro speakaking on the house floor tuesday. sb precedentent that may be said today, this week or next week when the

senate votes, if congress allows this president's emergency declaration to stand, will not have ramifications only on this matter or the building of a border wall, but if the president is successful, he will likely come back for more. amy: the measure now goes to the senate. so far three republicans -- , senators susan collins, lisa murkowski, and thom tillis -- have said they will join with their democratic colleagues to vote in favor of the bill. at least one more republican senator would also need to support the bill for it to pass. trump, however, has vowed to veto t the bill and congress is far from the two-thirds majority to needed to override a presidential veto. at a heated congressional hearing tuesday, lawmakers grilled administration officials about their role in implementing trtrump's s draconian family separation p policy last year. scott lloyd, who led the health and human services' refugee office last year and oversaw the zero-tolerance policy, admitted

he did not heed or report warnings of the devastating effects of separating children from their parents. this is washington congressmemember pramila j jayal questioning lloyd. >> mr. l lloyd, you are the hehd of the a agency at thehe time a family sepeparation and you u dd not eveven allllow your ststf to continue to do a spreadsheet that tracks s were people werer. you did not put t into place a y policicies that would -- i don't even have words for it. horrendous policy back. didid you ever say to the adadministration, this is a bad idea?? h here's whatat my expers have told us. we need to stop this policy? did you want s say that to anybody? >> i did not say those words. amy: tuesday's hearing g came as the house oversight committee voted to subpoena the departments of homeland security, health and human services, as well as the attorney general's office for records on the children affected by trump's family separation policy.

acts yes is reporting u.s. government agencies have received thousands of allegations of sexual abuse against unaccompanied minors in u.s. custody, including nearly 200 allegations involving abuse by its old stuff. the nearly 6000 allegations cover a time span from 2014 to 2018 and include reports of staff forcibly touching and engaging in relation syrups with minors in their care. is, ae immigration honduran woman gave birth to a stillborn baby boy w while in immigration and customs enforcement custody last week. the news has renewed concerns over the treatment of pregnant women by immigration officials. immigration rights advocate have condemned the current ice policy of jailing pregnant women despite previous directives that said its places undue mental and medical health stress on the women. alabama congressmember terri sewell introduced the voting rights advancecement a act tues, in a bid to restore and expand on the landmark 1965 voting

rights act. vermont senator patrick leahy introduced the senate version of the bill. the legislation aims to revive a key tenant of the voting rights act that was gutted by the supreme court in 2013, and removed the requirement that state and local election officials get federal approval before making changes to the voting process. the house has overwhwhelminglyly voted to pass the natural resources management act. the sweeping public lands bill adds over a million acres of protected wilderness, add four new national monuments, and expands eight existing national parks. a provision in the bill prevents mining in over 370,000 acres of land around two national parks, including montana's yellowstone. the legislation would also permanently reauthorize the federal land and water conservation fund, which lapsed last year. the bill, which was approved by the senate earlier this month, now heads to the desk of president trump. in more environmental news, lake erie has earnened some of the se

legal rights as humans, thanks to voters in toledo, ohio. on tuesday, toledo residents enacted the lake erie bill of rights, which guarantees "the right to a healthy environment" and will allow citizens to sue on behalf of the lake when it is being harmed. agricultural and industrial interests lobbied against the bill, but it still passed handily with over 60% of votes. the law is the first of its kind in the united states and comes after years of organizing by local environmental activists. chicago residents voted for their new mayor tuesday, where a record 14 candidates were listed on the ballot. no single candidate received enough votes to win outright, which means federal prosecutor lori lightfoot and cook county board president toni preckwinkle will head to a run-off in april. it also means chicago is guaranteed to have its first black woman mayor. if lightfoot wins, she will also become the city's first openly gay mayor. the new mayor will succeed rahm

emanuel, who announced last year he would not seek a third term. emanuel came under intense fire for, among other things, his handling of the police killing of african american teenager laquan mcdonald. both candidates have vowed to reform chicago's criminal justice system. in new york city, jumaane williams won a special election tuesday to become the city's new public advocate, defeating 16 other candidates. williams has served on the city council since 2009 and is known for work on housing rights and reforming police practices. over 1700 workers of a wabtec locomotive plant in erie, pennsylvania, launched a strike tuesday -- the first strike at the factory in 50 years. this is scott slawson, president of united electrical 506. >> we ask for a 30 day agreement to basically give us a chance to negotiate a fair contract. they were not interested in that. we're taking the course of action we feel is necessary to protect families and sustaining

jobs and our community, standing up for workers rights around the world. amy: the strike came one day after an $11 billion merger between wabtec and ge, which used to run the plant. workers say wabtec officials refused to extend their contract as it stood under ge management, and proposed cutting pay for new hires, mandatory overtime, and arbitrary schedules. senator and 2020 hopeful bernie sanders expressed support for the workers, writing in a letter to wabtec ceo raymond betler -- "through the first three quarters of last year, wabtec made a $256 million profit and had enough money to give you $3.5 million compensation package. the wabtec/ge merger should not be used to take away the hard-fought gains ue has achieved over the past several decades." in more labor news, teachers in oakland, calalifornia, entered e fifth day of their strikike tod. the oakland d education association says that 96% of teachers are taking part in the strike as negotiations with the school district continue.

teachers are demanding fair wages, smaller class sizes, and more resources for their students. the united methodist church voted tuesday to reinforce its ban on same sex marriage and gay clergy members. the 53% to 47% vote reflects the stark divide in the church over lgbt rights and could trigger a split over the issue. a number of clergy members have said they are considering starting a new, lgbt-friendly alliance of churches. united methodist has 12 million members worldwide. and prominent disability rights activist and attorney died this past sunday after being refused an essential medication by her insurance company. carrie ann lucas, who had a rare form of muscular dystrophy, helped pass legislation in colorado to protect parents with disabilities from child welfare discrimination. in 2017, lucas was arrested with several others after protesting medicaid budget cuts with a

58-hour sit-in at senator cory gardner's office. according to a message on luca'' facebook page, united healthcare denied her c coverage for an antibiotic last year, triggering a host of medical complications which led to her death.. cacarrie ann lucucas was 47 7 ys old and is survivived by her for adopted children, who are also all living with disabilities. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. tension is continuing to escalalate between thehe nuclear-armed rivals india and pakistan. pakistan is claiming it has shot down two indian military jets and captured a pair of indian jejet pilots. meanwhile, india claims it has foiled an attempt by pakistan to bomb military ininstallations inside india. this comes a a day after india

carried out airstrikes inside pakistan for the first time since 1971. india alleges it was targeting a camp of the militant separatist group jaishay-mohammed, which claimed responsibility for a recent attack in the indian-administered region of kashmir that killed more than 40 indian soldiers. india accused pakikistan of bebg directctly involveved in plottig the february 14 bobombing. pakikistan denied ththe claim. amy: meanwhile, there are reports that pakistani and indian ground forces havave exchanged gunfire in more than a dozen locationons. india has also reportedly conducted four ground raids on kashmiri separatist leaders. earlier today, pakistan announced it was shutting down its airspace and grounding all civilian planes. pakistani army spokesman asif ghafoor annonounced the news. >> the airspace is shut due to

the current situation. i would say that pakistan's response is not a retaliation, but it is a demonstration of our capability, capacity, and will, staying within the domain of responsibility as a state which has the potential. we d do not want to escalate the situation. juan: on tuesday, indian prime minister narendra modi addressed a crowd of soldiers following india's airstrikes inside pakistan. >> i want to assure you our country is in safe hands. i will not let the country bow. i will not let this country be erased. juan: the united states, russia, china, and european union have urged both of the nuclear rivals to show w restraint. india and pakistan are believed to have around 100 nuclear warheads and have fought three wars since 1947. the bulletin of atomic scientists has warned that "computer models have predicted that the physical impacts of a nuclear exchange between india and pakistan, or even a single strike on a large city, would be

devastating." amy: we're joined right now by zia mian, a pakistani-born andicist, nuclear expert, disarmament activist. he is co-director of the program on science and global security at the woodrow wilson school of public and international affairs at princeton university. he is the co-author of "unmaking the bomb: a fissile material approach to nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation." professor zia miann welcome to democracy now! can you respond to this latest escalation? there's a split screen between the summit in vietnanam and you have this very serious escalation between two nuclear powers, india and pakistan. in fightingation between india and pakistan is a great source of concern for people all over the world, but it is part of a larger ongoing

crisis that surges into the news every so often. for many people, including those in the united states, this is something they have seen before so they do not expect it necessarily to escalate into an all-out war with the kind of catastrophic implications that we expect war between nuclear armed states to have. professor, could you talk about the february 14 attack kashmir andd inside the supposed reason by the group known as jm that claimed responsibility? >> jaishay-mohammed, which is translated the army of mohammed, those back to 2000. it is a radical sunni militant group that has been fighting with support from the pakistani army and its intelligence against india in kashmir. ever since then, it has launched

many attacks into indian kashmir and even into india proper. this is just the most recent of a long line of attacks by jaishay-mohammed. but the larger issue i think is not this one particular attack 's governrnment has tried to respond to it to show it is strong because having an election in india so the prime minister and his party wants to prove how strong and tough they are. the real issue that we need to talk about is that this level of violence between india and pakistan has continued for a very, very long time, and it is not so much the military or military violence, but the fact that large number of civilians of control divide into having kashmir and pakistani having kashmir are caught in this barrage of artillery which claims civilian casualties on a regular basis. and also the fact that no one

seems interested in thinking about the future of this conflict and the people trapped in kashmir between these two states determined to resolve the issues by force, what is the future going to be like for these people. juan: what is been the position of international community? the future of kashmir? is the position of the international community that they should eventually be a referendum a possible independence for all of kashmir or annexation of the ministered parts by india and pakistan into the countries that are administering them? the united nations basically stopped talking about kashmir and try to find actively any kind of solution in a very long time ago because it became clear that neither the indians nor the pakistanis were willing to respect with the kashmiris might want. both have resisted any solution that does that give them what they want.

the international community has basically thrown its hands up and walked away from the issue. what we need to focus on now is aid to return to cease-fire situation. in 2003, india and pakistan agree to a cease-fire along the line of control in kashmir because of the level of violence and the threat of war. the first thing to do is restore the cease-fire, and both sides need to step back, stop the shelling, and put -- parked their airplanes on the ground and stop the movement of tanks and troops that are now being reported along the international border. we have to make sure this does not escalate any further and no civilians continue to be harmed by the level of violence that we withn an increasing basis each passing hour. it is only the situation with the fighting stops that we can begin to think about how do we take this forward. amy: i want to go back to the issue of these two nuclear armed countries, both refusing to renounce first strike. what doeoes that mean? india and pakistan are just

like the other nuclear weapon states. they believe what they do with their nuclear weapons and how they threaten each other a and potentially the e rest of the world, is a matter only for them to decide. there are no different in that way from the united states, rurussia, britain, , ance, chin, israel, or north kororea. they thanked -- they think t thy arare above international lalaw. that thehey can threaten use nuclear weapons with impunity. we've seen in the last few days that quote the leaders of india veiledistan have made nuclear weapons threats. this is no different f from dond trump o or putin. themselves on the international stage. it i is only when the rest of fe world d decides the real iss is nuclear weapons and thrhreatenig catastrophic mass violence e tht this has to stop. juan: professor, in terms of this whole issue of pakistan being a sponsor of jaishay-mohammed, you have

raised the issue in the past of all of these proxy groups that pakistan is supporting. iran has claimed involvement by pakistani terrorism over there, as well as afghanistan. could you talk about this proxy movement that pakistan has continued to support with so much instability in the region? >> pakistan has a history going back to its founding of using proxy fighters as a way to increase its capacity to wage war against its neighbors when it felt it has to do that. kashmirproxies against and india. there ran. there was an attack last week on a bus of a rent in revolutionary guard troops that killed about 20 iranians. their opinions said the

pakistanis were involved in the attack. as we know, ever since 9/11, there been militant groups based in pakistan who come across the border into afghanistan and terrorism there. so this is a long established practice and pakistan that it means they can use force and not be held directly accountable because it is not the soldiers fighting in most cases. but this is par for the course. when you have armies in charge of countries, which is the case in pakistan for most of its history, then they look for ways in which thehey can use military thinking, military strategy, to carry out form policies rather than diplomacy. what we have in pakistan is a militarized state that uses violenence as a nonormal tool. amy: zia mian,, we're going to o to break and then ask about iran and the north korean summit. zia mian, physicist, nuclear expert and disarmament activist.

stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: mark hollis passed away monday at the age of 64. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. to iran were now president rouhani has reportedly refused to accept the resignation of his foreign minister mohammad javad zarif who quit suddenly in a surprise move announced via instagram monday. monday, -- zarif played a central role in the negotiations leading to the 2015 iran nuclear deal. last year, president trump withdrew from the landmark deal despite international condemnation of the move and united nations inspectors saying iran was adhering to the deal. zarif did not offer any reason for his resignation, writing simply -- "i sincerely apologize for the inability to continue serving and for all the shortcomings during my service."

amy: the foreign minister met with codepink in tehran, iran, just hours before he announced his resignation. we turn right now to medea benjamin, who was in tehran, met with the foreign minister. and if you can talk about what he said, medea, and why you're in iran right now, with the foreign minister said to your delegation. >> it was quite amazing to have a chance to s speak for an hour and half to the foreign minister and have him tell us a series of histories of negotiations werere deals s that havave been madadeh the united states s over many years and how they had beeeen violated and how this kind of violations has created sentiment

among many iranians that y you just can't trust the united states. reputation n on the line in negotiatining t the agreement. he tolold us when it was signedn 2015, there was jubilation i in iran and about 80% of thee iranian people were in favor of the agreement. since then, with trump pulling out and economic conditions worsening because of the reimposition of sanctions, the iranian people are asking, what do we get out of this deal? and the popularity has dropppped to 51%. he told us he was under tremendous pressure from the conservatives in iran to pull out of the deal. he wants to keep it going. and he also faulted the europeans for not coming to the aid of iran in trying to save

the businesses in europe from being able to trade with iran. your could you talk about people, the people delegation and what yoyou been embassy in t the situation othte country given the u.u.s. sanctions? >> first let me say how difficult it was to get herere. we have 28emembers on the delegationon. we had to wait m months anand ms , first during we got the visas, we did n not that the visas, we gogot the visas. it is very diffificult. but whatat the iranians say to s is that it is impossible for them t to get t to the united stateses. we met a woman l last night whos a twinin. her twin s sister isis in the u. and she cannot go visit her twin sister. we a are very y grateful that we .inally y did get the visasas and we have e had a series of incredible meetings. we met yesterday with a special advisor on foreign affairs to

the head of the parliament here. we w went to the parliamentnt. we m met witdedelegates, both women parliamentarians as well as parliamentarians who likesent minority groups syrians and armenians. we also had a free ranging wonderful meeting w with the iranian students professors at the university of tehran. amy: i want to bring in princeton university professor of mian and the significance zarif in the negotiations, what happened with president trump pulling the u.s. out of the nuclear deal, and how that undercut the foreign minister, and what, if in fact, he does fall through on the resignation -- even of the iranian president has not accepted it -- what that could mean. -iranianistory of u.s. nuclear diplomacy for the last 20 years has been one where most of the time the two leaderships and the key possible negotiators

have been out of step. so when zarif and rouhani and others try to negotiate in the early 2000's, the george bush of administration said we do not want to talk to the iranians. when a rain -- when president obama wanted to negotiate, iranians would not talk. you this brief window with obama and john kerry and rouhani and foreign minister zarif, and i think it is here to say had it not been for that, nation, we would not have got a nuclear deal between the united states and the international community in iran. the fact is with president trump, the agenda has gone back to hostility toward iran, and the american goal is not regime change. what they do not want to see is iran without fully integrated into the international community, which is what prime minister zarif and president rouhani have been trtrying to do for a long time now. and by breaking out of the nuclear deal, by trying to make

sure the deal collapses completely by putting more sanctions on iran, by trying to violate the deal, the u.s. hopes to create the conditions for regime change. what this is doing is undermining a potentially destroying the possibility of democratic reform in iran. that only allows than the united states to say, we told you so, these people are incapable of reform and change, therefore we have to use whatever means are necessary to create regime change. this is part of a long-standing right-wing agenda in the u.s. led by people like bolton and pompeo and others to try to force regime change in iran. unfortunate, the moderates like zarif have had to pay the price for this. amy: we want to thank you both , professor ziaus mian. we want you to stay with us because we're going toend the show and what is happening in north korea, the latest of elements on the summit host of the first now, we're going to

turn to r. kelly, the famed r&b singer who was released from jail in chicago on monday three , days after he was arrested and charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault. the charges involve four women and girls, three of whom were under the age of 17 at the time of the alleged crimes. a judge set bail at $1 million and forced the singer to surrender his passport. kelly eventually posted bond after spending the weekend in jail, pleading not guilty monday. almost immediately after his release from jail, r was spotted at a mcdonald's in downtown chicago. tooot is accusers say he's frequent to prey on young girls. juan: his bond was posted by valencia love, an african-american chicago-area businesswoman who identified herself as a friend of kelly's. in an interview with a reporter

-- lawyer michael avenatti, who says he is representing an r. kelly whistleblower, says he gave prosecutors a tape showing the singer engaging in sexual acts with a 14 year-old girl. amy: r. kelly has been accused of abuse, predatory behavior, and pedophilia throughout his career but has avoided criminal conviction, despite damning evidence and multiple witnesses. last month, the explosive documentary "surviving r. kelly" thrust the case back into the spotlight. actists haveeen calling for justicfofor thblacack rls anan women eyeyed oby r r. lly anan for thmusic instry to disaocociatetselelf om the musianan witthe e #merkellll campaign. well, r more, 'reoined by dream haton, thexecutive producerf the sipart lifeti documenry serie "surviving r. kelly." also an executive producer of the hbo documentary "it's a hard truth, ain't it" and the upcoming bet six-part docu-series "finding justice." dream hampton, it is wonderful to have you with us. first respond to this latest

news of the indictment of r. and his 10 charges answer to that indictment saying he is not guilty. >> amy, we had to run his not guilty claim about 30 times during our six hour docuseries. his attorney -- i don't know what yellow pages, what billboard he got this low rent attorney from, steve greenberg, who continues to use the most misogynist -- he is from the 1980's. it is surprising to me. well, not surprising. r. kelly squandered $200 million fortune settling lawsuits over creating anyears, ecosystem where he is moving up to five and six girls across state lines constantly come

hahaving to feed them when he ds allow them to you. i'm not surprised he was not able to post bail. i'm not surprised he has the kind of attorney that he does right now. i am just worried about the two girls that remain with him that he had sitting behind him in court the other day when he did -- when he was unable to post bond. the twoking about girls, both of whom's family week featured in the documentary. he brought them to court to say to us in the world that not only is he remorseful, but that he is going to show off -- like he is going to flaunt, in this moment, when he is facing 10 counts, 10 new counts, he is going to bring to girls that are 30 years younger than him, one of them he raping,sleeping with,

statutoryy rape, when she was 1, which is a legal in the state of florida, which may result still in a said case. you brought those two girls them sitm and do have behind him in court. the hubris is amazing. i don't who to blame. on the one hand, i blame us. and by us i mean black people. we have stood by this man. we have told him again and again that what he is doing is not wrong, that we believe him despite all evidence to the contrary. and it has embolden him. has andthis love he the black community as a currency. i hope this ends soon. when i interviewed the girls, each and every one of them talked about not wanting to see him in jail, actually, but wanting him to get help. they actually come even though they did not use the words "restorative justice," they have a restorative justice framework

for this man. when they said they wanted him to get help, i took that to me they wanted him to get a combination of professional therapy and spiritual kind of help, probably. juan: what about the issue, dream hampton, of what should happen to him if he is convicted of these crimes? you're the clip from michael avenatti. -- a long stretch in jail what you think should happen with him? car's rolea femiminist, so my instinct isi't to say, let's and people to the prison industrial complex. ,t the end of each interview were these girls had talked about their pain and trauma, each of them said they wanted him to get help. none of them said they wanted him to go to jail. a restorative justice process requires someone admit the harm they've done, that they only harm, that they come to this process. i just did a film inside of an indiana prison.

and all of these men are owning their harm. restorativering the justice process. their single "i take reresponsibility for what t i d. they y are saying "i take responsibility for what i did." r. kelly is not d doing that. so maybe jaill is the only place for him. amy: what do make of him immediately going to mcdonald's after he was freed? some may say, what are you talking about? what difference does that make? but talk about this is a site of ---- this as a place where he preyed on girls, where he looked or chose, told people to get them? >> yeah, we had a couple of or alumniho had gone of kenwood academy in the film and the people who corroborated these kinds of stories off-camera who talked about mcdonald's as you say, being one of the sites.

he would cruise mcdonald'd's ner high schools and have the same kind of men that were around him when we saw the footage of him in mcdonald's going up to younger roles and giving them his number. that is one of the ways he would meet underage girls. it is amazing that, again, in this moment, he is flaunting again and again his predation. he has no were more's for what fors done -- no remorse what he has done. maybe he has no understanding of what he has done. juan: what about the music industry echo their roles in this all of these years, these allegations, and none of the commercial music industry folks seem to be bothered. >> well, i am less interested in the individual players in the music industry than i am say jive records and sony who finally dropped him.

this should have happened in 2002 when a tape of clear abuse circulated, went viral on the streets, so to say. it should have ended then. and black women and lots of well-meaning men have asked for that for almost two decades. so i think of people like barry weiss, the president of jive records, who would not come on camera. i think about individual handlers he had at his record label who also would not come on camera. i think about spotify, who for a moment said they would do this -- take a small step of removing him off their promoted play list, and then walked that back a couple of months later when some men in the company got upset. i also think about award shows. i have a television -- of a docuseries coming out on bet. bet is a network that again and again gave him space on their award shows to do these epic

performances after we all knew that he was guilty -- even though he was found not guilty in court, we knew he was not innocent. we saw the tape. it has been an open secret, his prpredation, from his two decad. a maker we know you have to go in a minute, but this is one of ,he examples, your dramatic explosive six part lifetime documentary series, was a credible examples of journalism, having an enormous effect as soon as it went down most of you people coming forward. you had -- in chicago, prosecutors asking for information from people saying, don't be afraid to come forward, and you have your elelevation of the voices, especially a black #muterrganizations like kelly. can you talk about the activism

to bring him to justice? >> i am sure back when the elections were happening in chicago, the campaign to get rid of the need of ra's by anita, who would not prosecute police who were guilty of terror in the community. you groups like byp100 who would not explicitly endorse can fox because they are not in that business, but they got rid of anita alvarez. that is grassroots activism that as yous a can fox, who said, made this open call in chicago, a city where i talked to more women off-camera who would not come on camera because they knew they would be disbelieved and dragged on social media, but they would corroborate the details that i needed during my vetting process. so i talked to way more women in chicago o who would not t come n when canan did -- so fox may that open call asking for other people, i really

thought about the work that it hahappened before i even began filming. again, grassroots activists like and a sawed his daughters. you are right. i partnered with a long walk home. an organization thatat works wih young teenage girls, youth, really, people along the gender spectrum, teenagers who are survivors of sexual violence in chicago. many of whom have their own personal stories with r. kelly. i partnered with them early on to be, you know, present for the survivors who were unpacking all of this trauma for our cameras. of course i wanted to feature kelly.ork of#muter i would to my hometown of detroit and one of the first things i shot was a protest in front of little caesars arena.

i hope you hear the disdain in my tone when i talk about that. when i say that name. but in front of this arena, i shot these protesters who were a part of a chapter of #muter kelly. and finally, i'm grateful for every survivor who came forward because they knew they were not getting paid. we don't pay them. as a documentary project. we knew we might get sued. so they could not be paid to come on camera. and they did it anyway. they knew they would be disbelieved. i am really grateful to the survivors. amy: dream hampton, thank you so much for being with us am executive producer of the six-part lifetime documentary series "surviving r. kelly." also an executive producer of the hbo documentary "it's a hard truth, ain't it" and the upcoming bet six-part docu-series, "finding justice." you can go to democracynow.org

surviving segments on r. kelly when the series first came out as we talked to survivors and activists. talkwe e come back,k, we go to about the north korea summit that is taking place in vietnam right now. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: president trump is meeting today in vietnam with north korean leader kim jong-il and. this is their second summit to discuss denuclearization of the korean peninsula. trump and kim had briefly, in front of r reporters, before heading to an official dinner. pres. trump: it was a great success and i think this one hopefully will be equal or greater than the first. we made a lot of progress.

i think the biggest progress was our relationship. it is really a good one. i think your country is tremendous economic potential, and limited. i think you will have a tremendous future with your country. i look forward to watching it happen and helping it to happen. amy: cnnnn is reporting that the white house initially tried to ban reporters from attending the initial -- the official dinner that took plplace right afaftert meeting were you just watched trump speaking. this was after a journalist shouted a question to trump about michael cohen's upcoming testimony. after reporters collectively protested the band, the white house coconceded one print reporter could be present alongside cameras documenting the event. we go back now to zia mian, the physicist nuclear

and nuclear expert and disarmament activist. he is co-director of the program on science and global security at the woodrow wilson school of public a and international affairs, princeton university. talk about the significance of this summit. >> the second summit between president trump and north korean leader kim jong-il and is enormously important in the sense that it keeps the path moving toward funding some kind of settlement of the nuclear crisis that has plagued the korean peninsula for such a long time. but i think the larger issue that we need to focus on is the fact that nuclear weapons are too important to be left to the whims is of leaders like donald trump or kim jong-un are the leaders of india and pakistan. with the lives of millions of people have been put at risk by countries making nuclear weapons, then it should not be left to random decisions by

whimsical leaders as to who they want to talk to and when and where and about what. we need to have a much more organized international process to deal with the threat that nuclear weapons poposed to humaninity, and not wait for whenever donald trump feels like talking to vladimir putin are kim jong-un feels like he can now talk to the united states or when a crime and is of india feels he can threaten pakistan or pakistan king -- thinks they need diplomacy with india. when such great steaks are involved, we need the international community and international's to two shins to andtogether in an organized systematic way and not leave it to the whims of individuals who thinks of how they can save the thewhen it suits them and way that it suits them. that is a much more important issue to focus on and what may or may not happen in one particular summit in some hotel and hanoi. juan: in what way could progress be made? there is the issue that still

remains that there is never been an actual peace treaty between the united states and north korea, addressing also the issue of the thousands of u.s. troops that still remain in south korea. would that -- being able to achieve at least a peace treaty -- begin the process of than addressing the nuclear weapons issue? might and it might not. you have to remember the north koreans want a peace treaty, so a peace treaty would be a good thing. the korean war has been over for very long time. but the lack of a treaty or the presence of a peace e treaty did not stop the united stateses and the soviet union threatening each other with thousands of nuclear weapons, even though they never went to war and there was no question of peace treaties or anything like that. similarly in the case of pakistan and india, it is that the absence of a peace treaty that stops the from talking

about nuclear weapons or enabling them to talk about nuclear weapons. i think you have to ask the question, are we going to focus on the issue at hand -- which is how do we deal with the nine states with nuclear weapons in the world -- or do we get into this endless process of trading diplomacy or sanctions and this and that depending on whoever happens to be in charge at any particular time? because what we have seen the last 70 0 years is we still have thousands of nuclear weapons in the world, despite some a efforts of this k kind of diplomacy.y. so we need a much more determined and different approach to deal with the threat of nuclear weapons, rather than continue to rely on this idea that leaders of summits are going to find d a way out of the situation. amy: do you think this should be a model, this north korean summit, zia, for a meeting with iran? can you explain president trump's approach to iran, pulling out of the iran nuclear

deal, approach to russia p pullg , and having this nuclear summit? , not right now, as i'm trying to say, pulling out of the iran deal or having a summit with the north koreans -- having the nuclear deal with iran back in place would be a good thing. having north korea continue to commit to a diplomatic process going forward would be a good thing. we only have to think back to when north korea and the united states were threatening each other on a daily basis. neither of these are going to solve the underlying problem, which is that where is the rest of the world in dealing with this question of nuclear weapons? there are nine countries with nuclear weapons. none of them have actually made any serious effort to give up those weapons. they talk about talking rather than giving up their nuclear weapons. i think what we need to do is have many more countries tell

them, we have a stake in is because the future of humanity is at stake when a talk -- when talking about nuclear weapons, and we're going to lay down some rules and conditions about how nuclear weapons states should behave. until we get to that point and begin to discipline the nine states with nuclear weapons and bring them back under international law, we'e're not really going to address the real problem, the elephant in the roomom, which is the existence f nuclear weapons. you can't manage something like this with this kind of diplomatic summitry that is gone on for such a long time. juan: how would it be possible to discipline these nine nations given the enormous -- disproportionate influence that they have in international there is united nations or others, in terms of addressing the issue, continued proliferation? >> exactly the question we all need to be asking ourselves. what does it take to actually

control and discipline and restraint the united states, russia, britain, france, china, israel, india, pakistan, and north korea? they are nine countries. -- 14500.em, 14.5 how do we get all of the rest of them and the people in these dodone countries that hahave nur weapons to take interest, to getting gauged, and to demand that we e do somethihing about nuclear weapons as an urgent priority? i think the question you have asked is the right one, what does it take to control the great powers that are basicalaly dominated world affairs for such a long time through the threat of catasastrophic violelence? and this is something until we ask the question in exactly the way you asasked, we're notot gog to be able to find an answer. amy: you're talking about the nine nuclear powers. what about what is happening with saudi arabia?

last recast democrats accusing the trump administration of moving toward transferring highly sensitive nuclear technology to saudi arabia and potential violation of u.s. law. >> this is part of the geopolitically it's -- geopolitics of the middle easast and how the us is trying to build allies in its campaign against iran. this is not the first time the uss sold nuclear weapons and denied it. it is done with india but denied the technology to pakistan. people have traded technology as ways of making allies, strengthening their friends, and tried to prevent the spread of nuclear technology to those it hostile.otentially this has been going on for more than 50 years despite the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. the idea that was the way in which we were going to manage the threat of nuclear technology in the geopolitics of seeking

influence and exercising power in the world, you know, we can see that has not workeked way people thought it was supposed to. we have to deal with a much more fundamental question, and that question is one of world order and the role of international law and of international community. , somen pointed out countries have a huge amount of power in the world and it is only through collective action when the rest of the world and the people in the nine nuclear armed states say, enough of this. we're not when to be held hostage. we want you to sign the new nuclear weapons ban treaty from 201717. more than 70 countries have already signed it. 122 countries have supported it. says the use of nuclear weapons is illegal under international law. that is the kind of initiative we need to see more and more countries take ncb part of the domestic debate in the united states and other countries with -- domestic part of the united states and the other countries

with nuclear weapons. the nine countries that have nuclear weapons have threatened to use them as part of their military and political policy. amy: professor zia mian, thank you for being with us. [captionin