08/08/19 08/08/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new yoyork, this is democracy now! >> today the women of kashmir have come out into the streets in support of our sisters and mothers across the border who have sacrificed the lives of their sons, brothers, and their children. his heinous not in activities, these mothers, daughters, these women will remain on the roads and support the people of occupied kashmir

until we get our rights and freedom. amy:y: tensions are escalating between the nuclear rivals india and pakistan after india strips kashmir of its special status and essentially annexing the disputed region. kashmir is now on lockdown. internet and other communications have been blocked and kashmiri leaders have been placed under house arrest. we will go to delhi, london, and new york for response. then we look at the dangers of linking gun violence and mentatl illness. pres. trump: mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun. amy: despite trump's claim, people who suffer from mental illness are far more likely to be the victims of gun violence than perpetrators of it. we will speak with an emergency room doctor who is working with others to end the epidemic of gun violence. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the united nations' top panel of climate scientists is warning that humans are consuming land and water resources at an unprecedented rate, with the climate crisis and biodiversity loss already threatening the food supply of hundreds of millions of people. in a report out today, the intergovernmental panel on climate change warns that without dramatic action, extreme weather and rising temperatures will turn even more fertile land into desert, shrinking the global food supply even as the world's population rises to more than 7.5 billion people. this is climate scientist and ipcc co-chair valerie masssson-delmotte. >> we humans affect more than this landne quarter of is degraded. the way we produduce food and wt we eat contributes to the loss of natural ecosystems.

when land is degraded, it reduces the store's ability to take up carbon in this exacerbates climate change. today, 500 million people live in areas thatt experiencnce this. amy: the ipcpcc recommendsds dramatic reductionons in greeeenhouse gas e emissions, me greenhouse gas emissions, more fission n farming methods, and a shift in dieiets away from dairy and meat, which produce vast amounts of methane and carbon dioxide while using large amounts of land. trump visitedrom th dayton, ohio, and el paso, texas, wednesday in a politically polarizing trip that followed last weekend's mass shootings that killed a combined 32 people, including the dayton gunman. video nded outo o repoers s by icee shows agents entering

loading people under buses. they were taken to a hanger for processing.. outside the base, , dozens of family members and supporters gathered chanting "let them go." the mass arrests came on the first day of the school year left scores of children traumatized, crying for their parents. some children walked home from school only to f find their doos locked and their family members missing. this is an 11 year old girl speaking with wjtv. my parents -- [indndiscernible] dad did not do nothing.

he is not a criminal. targetedarrests chicken operating plant. last year, coke foods paid out three and three quarters of a million dollars to settle out an eagle opportunities commission class action suit charging the company with sexual harassment, national o ogin, and r racist discrimination and retaliation against latino workers at one of its mississippi plants. labor activists say it is the latest raid to target factories where immigrant workers have organized unions, fought back against discrimination, or challenged unsafe and unsanitary conditions. president trump visited dayton, ohio, and el paso, texas, wednesday in a politically polaririzing t trip that f folld last weekend's mass shootings that killed a combined 32 people, including the dayton gunman. during his first stop in ohio, he met with medical workers at

miami valley hospital, posing for a group photo, grinning with two thumbs up. outside, hundreds of protesters accused trump of stoking white supremacist violence, chanting "do something!" and "hate not welcome here!" later in the day, president trump and first lady melania trump toured el paso's university medical center, where none of the eight survivors still receiving treatment agreed to meet with the president. trump did meet with law enforcement personnel at an el paso emergency operations center. pres. trump: we had an amazing day. as you know, we left ohio. the love, the respect for the office of the presidency, i wish you could've been there to see it. amy: a as trump arrived in texa, thousands of people rallied to protest his presence, linking the president's racist rhetoric manifesto of the alleged el paso gunman -- who posted a white

nationalist manifesto echoing trump's language about a "invasion" of immigrants. joining the protest was former texas congressmember and democratic presidential hopeful beto o'rourke, who represented el paso until early this year, and his successor, democratic congressmember veronica escobar. >> we will not stop. we will not stop resisting the bigotry,isting the resisting the racism. amy: congressmember escobar tweeted that she had declined trump's invitation to join him on a tour of el paso because "i refuse to be an accessory to his visit. i refuse to join without a dialogue about the pain his racist and hateful words and actions have caused our community and country." meanwhile, el paso p police arrested a trump supporter wednesday as he sat outside an organizing space for immigrant aactivists, wearing blue latex gloves and brandishing a knife. organizers with casa carmelita

say police also recovered a loaded gun, ammunition, and a bag of white powder from the man's s truck, which s sported a large banner portraying donald trump as rambo and bumper stickers for far-right conspiracy website infowars. the man appears to be 21-year-old thomas bartram, who was profiled earlier on wednesday by "the washington examiner." bartram told the paper he was a "open-carry kind of guy" at political rallies. a photo accompanying the article shows bartram making what appears to be a white nationalist hand gesture. ahead of his tririps to dayton d el paso, president trump sought wednesday to lay equal blame for deadly violence on white supremacists and the anti-fascist movement known as antifa. pres. trump: i am concerned group of rise of any hate. i don't like it. in a group of hate -- any group of hate, whether it is why supremacy or any other kind of

supremacy, whether it is anm tifa, i'm concerned about it and i am going to do something about it. amy: democratic presidential candidates are linking trump's racist rhetoric to recent massacres by white nationalists in texas, california, and elsewhere. senator elizabeth warren said wednesday trump gave white supremacists aid and comfort. beto o'rourke said trump made it very clear that he's a white supremacist. former vice president joe biden said trump had aligned himself with the darkest forces in this nation and new jersey senator cory booker spspoke out during a visit to the emanuel ame church in charleston, south carolina, where in 2015 a white nationalist gunmnman killed nine african-american worshippers. >> white supremacy allows political leaders to promise to not buildingwhile hospitals, schools, or infrastructure critical for this is sus o of all americans -- success of all americans.

amy: the southern poverty law center has linked a state department employee to violent and hateful white nationalist messages posted online under a pseudonym. the splc's hatewatch project found evidence that u.s. bureau of energy resources foreign affairs officer matthew q. gebert and his wife made regular posts glorifying nazi soldiers, denying the holocaust, advocating for ethnic cleansing, spreading anti-semitic and anti-blalack conspiracy theorie, and glorifying mass-murderer dylann roof. gebert also allegedly hosted well-known members of the white nationalist movement at his home in virginia. fox news tv personality tucker carlson n is under fire fofor insisting that white supremacy is a h hoax and "n"not a reaeal problem inin americaca." remararks tuesdayhe evening. >> the whohole thing is a a lie. if you work to o have a list, wherere would d was fromom cb oe list? right up t there with russiaia,

probably. amy: last month, media campaigners launched a campaign to pressure advertisers to boycott tucker carlson's show after he launched a racist attack on minnesota congresswoman ilhan omar. carlson has previously said immigration makes america poorer, and dirtier, and more divided. and in 202006, he called iraqis semiliterate primitive monkeys. amnesty international has issued a travel warning for visitors to the united states, citing the threat of gun violence. in a statement wednesday, amnesty warned travelers to "be extra vigilant at all times and be wary of the ubiquity of firearms among the population. avoid places where large numbers of people gather, especially cultural events, places of worship, schools, and shopping malls. exercise increased caution when visiting local bars, nightclubs, and casinos." the website splinter is reporting new details about the sibling of dayton, ohio, shooter connor betts, who is the first victim in sunday morning's massacre that left nine people dead and 27 wounded.

the sibling was initially identified as connor betts' sister, megan betts, but a friend told splinter that betts was a transgender man who went by the name jordan cofer, used male pronouns, and appeared to be out to only a handful of people -- and possibly not even his family. it's not clear whether the gunman knew about cofer's gender identity or whether it played a role in the shooting. in a statement, the national center for transgender equality said -- "mass gun violence is an epidemic in this country and deserving of swift and immediate action by lawmakers at all levels of government. we join the nation in mourning for every community impacted by gun violence." in 2019 alone, at least 10 trans people have been murdered in the u.s. also wednesday, cnn reported the mother of the alleged el paso shooter called weeks before because she was concerned he had an ak-type firearm. according to family attorneys, the mother of the el paso

shooter did not identify herself or her son and was transferred to a public safety officer who told her that based on her description, her son was legally allowed to purchase an assault rifle. puerto rico's former justice secretary wanda vazquez was sworn in as governor on wednesday, becoming the third person to hold the office in less than a week. this came just hours after the puerto rican supreme court overturned the swearing in of vazquez's predecessor pedro pierluisi. he had been appointed as puerto rico's secretary of state by disgraced governor ricardo rossello. rossello stepped down last friday amid weeks of massive protests calling for his ouster. the puerto rican senate sued to block pierluisi's appointment because he was sworn in without the senate's confirmamation. wanda vazquez is also a member of the ruling political party and an ally of rossello. on wednesday, vazquez said she would accept t the position -- alththough, it's unclear for how long. she has been accused of ignoring allegations of corruption within the rossello administration. in the weeks leading up to her

rise to governorship, there were mounting protests demanding for her resignation. in afghanistan, the taliban has claimed responsibility for a massive bomb attack in the capital kabul wednesday that killed 14 people and injured 145 others. wednesday morning's truck bomb explosion tore through a police station, leveling the building and a nearby recruitment center, and blowowing out windows more than a kilometer away from the blast site. the latest attack came as the united nations said 1500 afghan civilians werere killed or wound by fighting in july, making it the deadliest month in at least two years. this comes as u.s. officials are continuing talks in qatar with the taliban, aimed at bringing a halt to fighting in afghanistan -- which is now in its 19th year, the longest war in u.s. history. and boston's police department under fire for destroying the wheelchairs of homeless residents as part of operation clean sweep, a campaign targeting boston's poorest

citizens. images posted on social media show officers ordering homeless people away from boston medical center before loading three wheelchairs into the back of a garbage truck and crushing them. a local activist, cassie hurd, tweeted -- "it was heartbreaking to speak with jarrod, who lost not only his wheelchair, but everything he owns that he keeps in his backpack. he was hit by a car last tuesday. city of boston, mayor marty walsh -- this is inhumane and cruel." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. tensions are escalating over the disputed region of kashmir following india's revocation earlier this week of its special status which granted the area some autonomy. kashmir remains on lockdown, with internet and other

communications blocked and leaders placed under house arrest. prime mininister modi's governmt has also deployed tens of thousands of additional troops in kashmir, which is already one of the most militarized areas in world, patrolled by more than 500,000 soldiers. nuclear rivals india and pakistan both claim kashmir in full, but each governs only a portion of the region. the two countries have fought several wars over the territory since the partition of the subcontinent and independence from british colonial rule in 1947. pakistan announced wednesday it would expel india's ambassador and stop its newly appointed envoy from assuming his position in new delhi. it also announced it was cutting off all bilateral trade with india. pakistan's prime minister imran khan addressed a joint session of parliament in the capital islamabad earlier this week. >> if we get ready to fight till

our last drop of blood, what war will that be echo the war that no one will win. everyone will lose. the applications will be felt across the world. so the next question is, and my using nuclear blackmail? i am not using nuclear blackmail. i'm appealing to common sense. amy: the pakistani prime minister also said he fears india will carry out "ethnic cleansing in kashmir." the revocation of articles 370 and 35a would allow indians from outside the territory to buy land and settle in the region, among other actions that will shift the demographic makeup of the indian-administered, muslim-majority region, further entrenching indian rule over the disputed area. hundreds of protesters gathered in the capital of pakistan-administered azaad kashmir wednesday. this is kashmiri politician shagufta kazmi. >> today the women of kashmir have come under the streets in

support of those women, are sisters and mothers across the kashmir border who have sacrificed the lives of their sons, their brothers, and their children. if india does not stop atrocities, if modi does not in his heinous activities, these women here will remain on the roads in support of the people of occupied kashmir until we get our rights and freedom. nermeen: meanwhile, press reports in india said the modi government informed the u.s. before revoking jammu and kashmir's special status. the state department has denied the claims. well, to talk about the implications for kashmiris as well as the region, we're joined now by three guests. sanjay kak is a new delhi-based kashmiri documentary filmmaker. he is the author of "until my freedom has come: the new intifada in kashmir." he returned from kashmir sunday night. he is talking to us today from delhi. in london, mirza waheed is a journalist and award-winning kashmiri novelist. his books include "the collaborator," "the book of gold leaves," and most recently,

"tell her everything." he joins us now from london. amy: and here in new york, we are joined by siddhartha deb, an award-winning indian author and journalist. his recent piece for the new republic is titled "india's looming ethno-nationalist catastrophe." his non-fiction book, "the beautiful and the damned: a portrait of the new india," was a finalist for the orwell prize and the winner of the pen open award. we welcome you all to democracy now! let's begin in new delhi with sanjay kak. you have just come out of kashmir. if you can explain to a global audience, many who may not become clear at all with what is happening in kashmhmir, itits statatus, the significance of wt hataken plplace this week? >> thank you, amy. evevening.dd on sunday today is the fourth day that authenticacation's have been blocked.

so it is a list of possible to people arewhat fefeeling, what they're doing, w they are mananaging, how emergey seservices areununctioningng. we do know everyone in politics is currently incarcerated. sick even n the sort of in betwn that degree of political figures is invisible. articlele some senses,s, 370 and articicle 35a, there are two waways ololooking at i it. largely it had a symymbolic connotation. in many ways, h historicacally e 1956 when it was -- first cameme into p place, it wasas a kinindf legal -- i would say a linkk tht insured that kashmimiris had a

certaiain amount of autonomy. legalllly and constitutitionall. however, over a a period of tim, not by accident, it has been whittled away. so in effect, it had been emptied of meaning and it only had largely a kind of symbolic value. the only thing of any real substance of the substantive alue was enshrined in article 35a that prevented nonstate subjects from buying property in kashmir. and i think that was significant. 370 a and bytion of implication 35a, images -- it raises the specter of the flooding of kashmir with not just capital, but also people

from outside of the valley. think ford that, i those who heard of the political turmoil in kashmir, this conversation about 355 or 370 and the constitution of the impropriety of it is of concern essentially to a smalall segment of the population who in kashmir are dedescribedd as s pro-india. ththe more radical elements of e who arel struguggle there described as separaratists,, thy haveve no -- as far as s they're coconcerned, it does not m mattf thehere is a a35a, struruggle for sovereignty. so ironically, the people most afaffected b by thehe abrogatiof - -- we370 are the people

speak of popolitical parties lie or theational confeference pdp. so in some strange sort of way, ththe government o of india andn in its wisdom has damaged most preveviously -- grievously ththe only allies in kashmir and this is the irony of the situation. amy: could you respond to with the indian government has done earlier this week in kashmir? your parents live in kashmir and you've not been able to reach them because of the communications lockdown. >> yes. it is probably the worst we've seen in the lastst 30 years. i have not been able to make any contact with my parents or anyone else in kashmir. there is absolutely no contact

with our loved ones in kashmir. of conflict a time when it all started. i was a teenager. in the last 30 years, we've seen this, you know, crackdowns here or there, sieges, long curfews. when i was a teenager, i lived through a 70 day long curfews. none of this is new, but this is the harshest clampdown on basic liberties in kashmir i remember the last 30 years. that is one. number two, i agree with sanjay, about the political classes in kashmir. ordinary kashmiris are terrified, must be terrified of this because it is the last sort of protection, however their protection of basic identity of kashmiris, which meant they can hold onto their property and land and not have any demographic set, so to

speak, that has been removed on monday. santa is right, the way it was done, it was completely -- it travesty. there was no consultation, no discussion. you have to imagine how terrible it is. turn kashmir into an open prison. you blocked their phones. you do not let them speak. you have a long, hard curfew in place. and then you decide to assemble in delhi and make a decision status in thes larger framework. today, even now, there is absolutely no contact with our families in kashmir. you know how insulated the american population is an

understanding what happens outside. we're talking about two nuclear andls, india and pakistan, the disputed region of kashmir. if you can explain to this global audience how high the stakes are now, why the indian prime minister modi has done this, and do you see this as a possible flashpoint with thousands more soldiers brought in to one of the most militarized areas of the world? >> well, yes. i think it is a kind of exercise incompletely authoritarian power -- in completely authoritarian power. what does it mean for kashmiris? i think both sanjay andmirza have given a senses of that, but also what it means for india in the sense that democracy is really a sham. that is what modi and the bjp are revealing again and again.

ony can sort of decide something, on the fate of a large group of people. of course, which groups of people is really important and it is not accidental. it is the fact the target is really kashmiris and kashmiri muslims in particular. 's way of basically modi distracting from the large-scale problems that continue to sort of, you know, continue to plague india under his rule, which theudes the economic -- economy is doing bad and environmentally, it is a disaster. it is the heart of climate change. with the kind of populations, with the kind of poverty. and there's nothing that is being done about it. and instead, modi is -- modi and the bjp are gigiving the susupporters something to field triumphant about by seeing the

kashmiris basically being turned into prisoners in their owown he . amy: in this is a majajority muslim population, the only one -- >> it is. theit is obviously for hindu right bjp. this is the primary target of hatrtred, which is not to say ty don't hate others. they hate all minoritieies come all dissenters. i think one of the big questions is not only what does it mean but tomorrow modi could decide to split another indian state into two. this is completely -- it is a kind of escalation of the kind of violence. the indian state is not benign and democratic. even without modi and the bjp. but this is a kind of escalation of violence, and escalation of exercise of power from delhi. and it is being done with the

kind of short-term gain in mind. there's no long-term view. amy: we're talking to siddhartha deb here in new york, mirza waheed is a kashmir journalist speaking to us from london, and sanjay kak also kashmir, speaking to us from new delhi, india. yes just returned from kashmir on sunday night. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "we are real" by silver jews. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. are talkingng about the crisis in kashmir. nations and united the general kashmir coalition of civil society and independent civil society organization released two separate reports this year on human rights violations in the e occupied territory. the reports found indian security forces used excessive force, torture, enforced disappearances, and pellet guns,

as well as live ammunition against protesters. pellet guns have led to thousands of peoplple, including children, sustaining eye injuries, with many going completely blind. the u.n. report also documented reports of the been going on for decades. these are only two of the most recent reports on human rights violations in kashmir. countless previous inquiries have found similar violations. kashmiri turn to a student named asim abbas speaking to the bbc wednesday. he compared kashmir's situation now after the revocation of articles 370 and 35a to palestine. >> we are going back to the stone age. we do not know what is going on in the outside world. we do not know what is going on in other neighborhoods.

this will have a a very dangeros consequencesome just l like how is creating settlements in palestine, the same policy will be applied here, too. you grewmirza waheed, up in kashmir and you are speaking to us now from london. could you talk about the systematic human rights violations that have been going andn kashmir for decades explain exactly what the revocation of these two articles mean for the way in which kashmir will be governed? i have been thinking about it the last four days. i begin to see it as the latest betrayal and a stab in the back in a long series of betrayals going back to 1947. kashmir was -- vision or wa

kashmiris did not decide up by themselves. it was a promise to the people. subsequently, there been after 1949, delhi withtially managed kashmir people in power, mostly by managing the elections locally and not allowing the people a true voice in their destiny. the armed insurgency began in 1989, you have to understand -- i don't see this in isolation. this goes back to everything that has been done in kashmir. to kashmiris, india has always treated kashmir as a colony. why do i say that? when you have 70,000 people dead, killed in the last 30 years, youou have about 8000, or 9000 unmarked in mass graves

that have not seen much investigation or conversation around the world. as soon as 2016, india considered itself the world's and it is,ocracy -- but kashmir see it as the world's cruelest. why do i say that? the indian state respondeded to protests by blinding kashmiri youth in the streets. what do i mean? they used a book shotgun which uses a stray of bread pellets released into the a air. it caught these protesters in their eyes. hundreds and hundreds of people were injured in their eyes, of which more than 100 lost vision for life. you have to see this latest siege in the larger context of what happened in kashmir all of these years, which is a tragic story of brutalization of the

kashmiri people. that is why i say this is going to have unimaginable consequences because the kashmiris will not see this as just a small step but a political party that is pandering to its right-wing .ajority, the hindu-base they see it as yet another stab in the b back. this l latest revocation is a lw blow. the humiliation of kashmiris. not only are we not going to let you decide your future, but we're also going to statue with a little autonomy that previous regimes have promised you. i really worry and i'm worried about what will happen in the next few days or weeks when kashmiris make sense of what has

been done to them by essentially an occupying power. kashmiris have often always seen their lives being governed by an occupying state from delhi. nermeen: in your recent piece, you wrote in the new republic, which is headlined "india's looming national catastrophe," and you write that the modi and his party are now attempting to inineer a version of kashmir. explain what you mean by that and respond to the kashmiri student who we just played earlier said that kashmir will now effectively be like israeli-occupied palestine. >> i think the kashmiri student is quite right in the parallel he is choosing. it is something that came to my mind as well.

ofhink there is a great deal distress within india in terms of agriculture, in terms of livelihood. there are no jobs. there is a route. india sort of seesaws between drought and these unpredictable monsoons and floods. povertya great deal of and migration. i think in part in kashmir what modi has tried to do is to things. for the poor in india, there have always been the story, this fake news produced behind the bjp campaigning that kashmiris get special privileges. and the raw example of this would be a political street address that heard in passing many years ago where the bjp speaker was saying kashmiris get subsidized wheat from the indian government for a price you won't even be up to buy dogmeat in calcutta. ththis is clearly directed at te

large masses of the indian poor, the kashmiris. and there are other groups as well, including indian muslims as well. but they get special privileges. it is similar to the welfare queen comment that americans well,bout black minority,y, they get special privileges. in place under the same, majority, the same kind of sectarian nationalism. that is one part of it. the other part is for the other part of india's djp support, which is the more elite, the business class, and that is now you can go into kashmir and buy land. on social media, it is filled with andrew wright supporters of single now mary kashmir women. you can see the colonial racist, sexist at the heart of it. now they cacan purchahase land d

kashmir basically turn it into an investment destination. that is what modi is doing. in that sense, there is the sense we're going to let more hindus move into kashmir. i will just say one thing. kashmir is not alone in this kind of protection of land rights will stop this is common in many border parts of india where there are minorities were indigenous people. this is true in many p parts of the northeast including where i grew up whehere similar protectn is in plplace but you cannot buy land if you are not from the indigenous groups there in order to protect them from being -- people much more with much more access to capital, essentitially. thethe bjp, particurlrly in hindu right, makes an issue out of it with regard to kashmiri muslims. amy: before we get to imran khan having met with trump, i want to , just back from

kashmir. if you can talk about the timing of this. in a few days, it is a muslim holiday. yet the prime minister of india, modi, who was banned from thehe united states because of what happened -- he was essentially the chief minister in 2002, a massive slaughter of muslims there. and what this now means for the majority muslim area in kashmir, this happenining right before e. >> well, this i is, in some sen, it is bafaffling b because the expectctation was the a annual u allowed toe would be would finish, andnd perhaps that is w when people we expectcting something would happen. strtrangely, the pilgrimage

was truncncated to ththe pilgris were sent back,k, touourists wee literally pulllled off thee streets,s, hotels very, very far away -- policeman went inside hotels and told people they have to leave. was -- e enormous skill wawas generated when it my not have been. there was nothing so urgent. so the question we have to ask is, why now? t think siddhartha de pointeded in the r right dirirection thate bad ws on ththe economomic front was beginning to o make its wayo the front pages with a series of very senior r indian business fifigures coming out quite openy and unequivocally about the fact that a downturn in the economy was just aroround thee cororner.

and not just a downturn, but a spiraling downtnturn. thatat is one. secondly, i think a serieies of statemenents that were e emanatg or not emanating from donald trump aboutut wanting to mediat on kashmhmir, which is reflectin of the amerirican u urgency t tt ouofof afghanistan, probablyy played a papart, too. so in a sense, thehe decisioiono impose this s despite e the proximity to the festival of -- intopite the fact the citizenry for no rhyme or reason, i think it has to do with a comombinationon of many factors. it has all i think the characteristics. amy: let's go t to that meetitin shington between the pakistani prime ministetemran khan at the white house thth presint t tru who said india had asked him to mediate the confctct in shmimir.

pres. trumpi was with prime mistster modi o weeks ago a we tald about is subje. hectually said, would you keke to be a mediator orrbitrator? i said, where? he said, kashmir becaee this is been goin on for manymamany yrs.. i was s rprised at how long. i think they would like to see sosolvednd i thi you wou like to see resold. if i c help, iouould le e to be a a miator. iisis impossible -- two incredible countrieshat e very smart witvevery srt leadshipip cnot t soe a oblem li tt. but if you would wt me to mediate or arbitrate, i would be willing to do that will stop , can youmirza waheed rerespond to what president trup said? it is been a long-standing policy that the issue of kashmir can only be solved bilaterally between india and pakistan.

>> that is been at the heart of the dispute. they've always insisted it is a bilateral issue, an internal matter, but it is not. it cannot be an internal matter if you ended up incarcerating an entire population as we speak. it cannot be an internal matter if -- the instance of torture in kashmir has not been talked about enough. if you have a population which is subjected to torture for 30 years, one in six kashmiris, one out of six kashmiris has faced some kind of torture in our lives will stop a recent report established that 49% of the population in kashmir suffered some form of ptsd. that is unheard of. india might insist it is our internal issue is stability and such, but that is just positioning, posturing.

i do not think these will come to the region, to india and pakistan or kashmir, until this -- yes, it is a big setback for the kashmiri people in now they have to wait another battle to preserve their basic sense of identity and place in the world, but this is not going to go away. with regard to mediation, yes, if trump was to mediate, fine. you don't want a conflict in the region because it is not going to be limited to the kashmir valley.. it will esescalate. pakikistan is next-door. india and p pakistan a are nuclr neighbors, as we all know. a part of kashmir is under pakistan. and the border between the two parties s is not realllly a bor, it is a de facto border. this is where the troops stopped. jay is right, pakistan i is a

key player in negotiations with the taliban in trying to establish a long-lasting peace in afghanistan. but pakistan has always said to americans, as far as i've read rerecently, we can't do much ife are busy on the other front with india. i see this playing out in the next few weeks. but what i d do hope is it does that and up in renewed violence in the region, because that inevitably results in killings of kashmiri protesters in the streets. amy: we want to thank you all for being with us and we will continue to follow this. mirza waheed is a journalist and award-winning kashmiri novelist. his books include "the collaborator," "the book of gold leaves," and most recently, "tell her everything." he joined us from london. sanjay kak is a new delhi-based kashmiri d documentary filmmmma. author of "until my freedom has come: the new intifada in kashmir." he returned on sunday night from kashmir. siddhartha deb is an award-winning indian author and journalist. his recent piece for the new republic, which we will link to

"india's looming , ethno-nationalist catastrophe." his book, "the beautiful and the damned: a portrait of the new india," was a finalist for the orwell prize and the winner of the pen open award. he is also the author of two books of fiction. when we come back, president trump continually making the connection between mental , sayingand gun violence it is not guns, it is mental illness that pulls the trigger. in fact, people who are mentally ill are most often the victims of violence. also, suicide accounts for two theds of gun deaths in united states. we will speak with an emergency room doctor. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "nights that won't happen"

by purple mountains. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: president trump visited dayton, ohio, and el paso, axas, wednesday, and politically polarizing trip following the mass shootings over the weekend, which killed at least 32 people, including the dayton gunman. as he was prepared to leave for dayton and el paso, trump hinted at support for strengthening background checks for gun purchases. earlier this week, h he also mae a link between mental illness and gun violence. pres. trump: we must reform army to help laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people not only get treatment, but when necessary, and voluntary confinement. mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun. amy: people who suffer from mental illness are far more

likely to be the victims of gun violence than perpetrators of it. trump, however, is that the only political figure to push the narrative that mental illness is responsible for last weekend's tragic event. according to a new article in time magazine, -- "legislators across the political s spectrum, ranging from democratic presidential candidates like bernie sanders and andrew yang, to republicans like the governor of texas and president donald trump, were quick to assign blame to mental illness -- despite ample evidence that gun violence is not a mental health problem." amy: for more, we're going to dr. megan ranney, one of the authors of the time article, "the dangers of linking gun violence and mental illness." she is an emergency room doctor, associate professor of emergency medicine at alpert medical school, brown university, and chief research officer of affirm research, a nonprofit focused on firearm injury reduction. welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us

dr. ranney. if you can respond to president trump immediately linking saying it is not guns, it is mentally ill is that pulls the trigger. false. is just the mass that we are experiencing across the united states, the vast minority of them are committed by people with serious mental illness. about 20% of americans across the country suffer from mental illness. as you mentioned, they are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators themselves. where there are most at risk is risk of suicide. two thirds of gun deaths across this country are suicides. by labeling mass shootings has meant to illness, we risk further stigmatizing the mentally ill, driving them away help. amy: can you explain how did this link, about that basasicaly

all l of these mass shootings in the u.s. are result of mental illness? it is not an obvious conclusion to draw. want tonk that we assign blame somewhere. and in common conversation, you'll who people say, that guy must've been crazy. it seems "crazy" to shoot a lot of people. it is something that has been repeated by the news media. about 40% of articles about mass shootings mention mental illness as a cause. it is something we have come to believe as a nation. at the evidence does not support that link. it supports a link between substance use and mass shootings, a link between h hatd and mass shootings, a link between prior violencnce and mas shootings, but not with mental illness. perpetratorhe major perpetrator

of this theory the nra, the national rifle association, because they want to take attention away -- blame away from guns and so they immediately talk about mental illness? yesterday after ohio senator sherrod brown and the mayor of dayton met with trump, sherrod brown talked extensively about it president trump thought there was an issue with mental illness, he should stop cutting medicaid and threatening to revoke the aca. if you can talk about what needs to happen right now and this movement all over the country, across the political spectrum, calling for gun regulation, calling for assault weapons to be off the streets of this country. first i will say i would love nothing more than to see our mental health system shored up. as an emergency physician, i take care folks every single day

in the emergency department who are there because they have inadequate access to mid to help treatment. we board people for weeks or days because there are not enough inpatient beds. fix our mental health system, please. at what needs to be done, you mentioned the movement. absolutely. affirm research is a collection of more than 20 medical organizations, nursing groups, public health groups, researchers. ed a movement raising the awareness about the human toll of gun violence. there is so much that needs to be done ranging from simple policy changes to research -- which is desperately needed. never in the history of this country have we fixed a public health epidemic without a deep investment and a public health research. that has been missing from the approach to gun violence for the past 22 years. with had virtually no federal funding for gun violence prevention research.

it is no wonder we have not made progress on this issue. amy: can you talk about suicide? the fact that most gun deaths in the united states, two thirds of them, are suicide. and what it would mean if guns were not so relevant -- readily available. >> most suicides are impulsive acts. studies have shown their minutes in between when someone thinks of it and when someone takes the act. suicide attempts with a gun are 90% likely to be fatal versus suicide attempt of other means are only about 10% likely to be fatal. if someone makes it to my emergency department after a suicicide attempt, i can almost alwlways save them. i very rarely see people who have tried to shoot themselves because they died before they make it to my doors. if we could decrease access to guns for people who are in that moment of intense fear and intense desire to take their own life, we can save lives.

there is a lot of effort going on across the country to do that. there is great cooperations with to shops and with gun groups try to raise awareness about the signs of mental illness. of course there are also the extreme risk protection orders or red flag warning's which have been shown to reduce gun suicide rates. there is so much that can them be done. we are failing our country by not doing that. amy: you also talk about the trauma, especially the latino community feels across the country. you have congressmember escobar representing el paso saint president trump has put a target on our whole community. i believe this is one of the largest slaughters of latinos in american history in el paso. and at the same time you had that going on yesterday, the meetining of trump in el paso, o victims agreed to meet with them, by the way, who are in the

hospital, and in dayton, you have this mass eyes raid in mississippi where it was believed to be the largest raid in u.s. history of almost 700 workers at various facilities. how does this country deal with this trauma and particularly the targeted communities? >> that is a great question. there is a complex answer. again, i'm going to go back to the fact there's been so little research for the past 22 years. recently completed a review of the effects of mass shootings on kids and parents. we basically don't know. theree have been some studies from norway that show mass , butings increase ptsd what we're seeing as a nation, tremendous anxiety and posttraumatic stress in communities across the country, particularly in those communities that do feel

targeted. we're also seeing it in health care providers. there is a growing set group of health care providers who have had to be the first responders to these mass casualties. it is taking a toll there as well. we are creating an environment of fear in this country by not addressing mass shootings. but i will tell you there is hope. one of the things that has buoyed me in the face of absolutely tragic and hatred-driven events is this coalition that we have created with affirm research and other groups to help address this epidemic. i have been working on this issueue for years. i see hope. we are close to a tipping point within the station of recognizing this is something that when we address gun violence as a health epidemic, we have the potential to fix it, just as we fixed hiv/aids, car crashes, etc.

dr. megan ranney, thank you for joining us, we willing to your piece "the dangers of linking gun violence and mental illness." 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 democrac

narrator: on this episode of "earth focus," climate change is forcing traditional dairy producers to look for more sustainable methods. in central california, farmers have found wayays to reduce and evenen reue methane gas, while in eastern africa, drought is creating a market for an unexpected source of milk.