05/22/20 05/22/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york city, the epicenter of the p pandemic, ths is demraracy now! ! just unbelievable, a maid, that they would want to it shocks the conscious. you just can't believe it, but it is real in 2020. amy: authorities arrest a third white men for the killing of ahmaud arbery. this one charged with felony murder and criminal attempt to

commit false imprisonment. we will speak with civil rights howrney ben crump about william bryan felt arbery jogging down a narrow road in brunswick, georgia, in broad daylight, before he was confronted by two armed white men, retired police officer gregory mcmichael and his son travis, who shot him t three times. thth we go to india, whichch jut saw its biggest spike of coronavirus cases in 24 hours, with 6000 new reported infections, as an estimated 3 million seek shelter from a powerful cyclone and tens of thousands have no work or food. employers threatened us when we went to ask for help. they said, do whatever you like. we don't care. our families have been worried. any food or water here. on the contrary, we are being beaten when we ask for it. amy: we will speak with indian journalist p. sainath.

as all 50 states are partially reopening this memorial day weekend, historian and author mike davis says "reopening the economy will send us to hell." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.orgrg, the quarante repoport. i'm amy goodmaman. anotheher 2.4 million americans applied for unemployment last week as the coronavirus pandemic continueues to push the coununto its worst economic crisis since the great deprsision. mo t than .6 m milon amemecans haveought unplployme befifits ithe e pa nine wes d economts warn erer 40%ff the jobsayay nev comome ck.. fedel reservchair jeme powellas warned that unploymeme could reach a ststgering 2 by the d of ne. spite th, senateajority ader mit mcconne is recting cacas to extend hanced umploymenbenefits which e e set expire july.y.

anwhile,he numbeof homeowrs who d not payheir mogage jumd by 1.6illion in april, a new monthly record. and new data from the census bureau found nearlrly half of al american adults say they or a member of their household had lost employment income since mid-march. but not all americans have suffered. one new report found the wealth of the nation's billionaires has increased by $434 billion or 15% since the pandemic began. thisis is chuck collllins of the ininstitute r popolicy stutudie. 18, 38.5 billion people have filed for unemploymement. overer that same twowo months, u know wealthahas surged. 430 $4 billion in that short time. we are seeeeing the billionaire clasass in the united stateses overl singng their wealth

accelerate in the last couple of months, even jeff bezos and mark zuckerberg's wealth combined has gone up $60 billion since march 18. amy: fears are g growing latin america could become t the new epepicenter of the covid-19 pandemic. in brazil, the death toll has topped 20,000 after nearly 1200 deaths were reported thursday. it was the country's deadliest day to date. mexico also reported 424 new covid deaths and neaearly 3000 w coronavirus cases on thursday, both new single day records. cases are also rapidly rising in peru and chile. 60% of all new covid cases are now in south america, asia, and africa.. india and indonenesia both reported new daiaily highs of coronavirus cases thursday. ina has rereported a new coronanavirus outbreak in the province of jilin near the border of russia and north korea. and singapore reported about 4 0 new cases, nearly all among migrants who live in crowded

dorms built for foreign workers. meanwhile, in the middle east, the number of cases in gaza doubled on thudaday from 20 to 49, raising fears of a new outbreak. as coronavirus sprpreads across the global south, a new world bank r report esestimates some 3 billion people still don't have access to clean water and soap to wash their hands -- one of the most effective ways to prevent transmission of the coronavirus.s. here in the united states, thehe death totoll from the covid-19 outbreak has toppeped 95,000. flags will be flown at half-staff over memorial day weekend to remembeber the lives lost to coronanavirus. president trump issued the order after democrcratic leadersrs on capitol hill asked flags to be lowered on the day when the u.s. death tollll tops 10100,000. in alabama, the city of montgomery has been forced to divert covid patients to birmingham due to a shortage of intensive care beds. this comes just days after

republican governor kay ivey opened much of the state. meanwhile, in north carolina, chicken processing workers have singleted positive at a tyson plant. president trump toured a ford manufacturing plant in michigan that was repurposed to make personal protective equipment. trump refused to wear a mask while speaking to the press in defiance of an executive order from the state's governor and the plant's own rules. trump said he wore one during a tour of the ford plant but took it off before speaking to reporters. pres. trump: i had went on before. i were one in this back area, but i did not want to give the press the pleasure of the saying it. amy: photos later emerged showing trump wearing a mask during a tour of the plant. trump's visit to michigan canada time when the state is facing three major crises -- the covid

outbreak has killed more than 5100 people in michigan. the state's unemployment rate is at an all-time high of 22.7%. and more than 10,000 homes were evacuated in midland, the home of dow chemical, after two dams breached earlier this week after heavy raininfall. "the new york times" reports nursing homes with african-american and latino populations have been twice as likely to get hit by coronavirus outbreaks as p predominantly whe nursing homes. overall residents and d staff at ,, 34,000 long-term care facilitiesavave died from covid, that's about t a third of t the nation's overall death toll. meanwhile, t the antiriracist researchch & policy center has helped launch a covivid racial data tracker to docucument how e pandemic is devastating communities of color. the site highlights how the pandemic has taken the lives of nearly 20,000 african-americans. while black people account for 13% of the nation's population, they have accounted for 25% of deaths during the pandemic.

ibram x kendi said the tracker is needed because the federal government was f failing to collect raracial demogographic . >> we felt it was necessary to build d the most comprprehensive data set available, presentab for peopople to understand the racialal disparieses we ar s sig all over this country. hopefullll people will use the trackeker to r recognize whahat communities are the most vulnerable in their s stes and , polilicyhose comommunities changing in those communities,, receiving g relief. amy: follolowing weeks of ouout, authorities in georgiaia have arrerested the man who filmed te killing g of ahmaud arberyry, a 25-year-old black man who was chased down and shot to death by two white men william bryan, february 23. who is white, was arrested on charges of felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.

he filmed the disturbing video showing arbery jogging down a narrow road in brunswick, georgia, in broad daylight before being ambushed. retired police officer gregory mcmichael and his son travis -- were both arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault earlier this month. we will have more on the story after headadlines. thtrtrump admiministration has announced it will withdraw from another major international arms control deal, the open skies treaty which the george hw bush administration signed in 1992. the deal allows the united states, russia, and 3 33 other cocountrieies to fly unarmrmed obobservatioion aircraft over te other's territory to help reduce the risk of war. last year, trump withdrew from the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty with russia. on thursday, trump's arms controrol negotiatoror marshall billingslea criticized russia anand china and warnrned that te uniteded states is p prepared to outspepend anyone inin a new nlr arms race. >> the president has made clear

that we have a tried-and-true practicece here, we know how to win these races and we know how to spend the adversary intoo oblivion if we have to commit we will. but we would like to avoid it. from capitol hihill, 29 house democrats are calling on congress to reduce this year's military budget. in a letter, they wrote -- "we must remain focused on combating the coronavirus and not on increasing military spending that already outpaces the next 10 closest nations combined." the letter was organized by congresswoman barbara lee of california and mark pocan of wiwisconsin. more than 8080 deaths haveve ben reported in eastern india and bangladesh after cyclone amphan battered the region leaving millions of people without power, damaging crops, and destroying thousands of homes. it was the strongestst cyclone o hit the region in over two decades. the worst damage was reported in the eastern indian state of west bengal.

rain, my yesterday's house was wrecked. a tree fell on it. everything is destroyed. where will we stay? due to the lockdown, everything is closed. there is no work and no income. my husband works and he is stuck and unable to send us money. how will i build my home? i have used d up the money m my husband said to bubuild limited- mumuwall, but what will i eat now? amy: china's most important political event of the year, the national people's congress, has begun after a two month delay due to the coronavirus outbreak. the congress is expected to approve a new security law in hong kong that would reportedly criminalize "foreign interference secessionist activities, and the subversion , of state power." opposition lawmakers in hong kong claim such a move would end the autonomy of the former british colony, which has been rocked by protests over the past year. dennis kwok is member of the hong kong legislative council. >> i just want to say to the

international community that this is the end of one country, two systems. make no mistake about it. the central people's government itscompletely breached promise toto the hong kokong pe. amy: the international humanitaririan aid o organizatin oxfam has announced it's laying ofoff nearly 1500 employeeees -a third of its staff -- and withdrawing operations frorom 18 countries, including afghanistan, rwanda, sierra leone, and haiti. oxfam is facing a funding shortage due to the pandemic. donations to oxfam also fell after news broke two years ago that oxfam had covered up sexual abuse and misconduct allegations against staff working in haiti during a 2011 post-earthquake relief efforort. the senate has confirmed john ratcliffe to be the new director of national intelligence in a party-line vote. he will become the fourth person to hold the job within the past year. meanwhile, the senate foreign relations committee has advanced the nomination of right-wing filmmaker michael pack to head the u.s. agency fofor global mea

which h operates various s statn memedia outletets, includiding e of america. pack worord closely with steve bannon, ththe former head of breitbtbart news. in media news, the atlantic is laying off 68 workers and freezing salaries even though the magazine has reported record online traffic and a spike in subscriptions. most of the layoffs will be in the atlantic's live events division. and food not bombs is marking its 40th anniversary this weekend. the worldwide all-volunteeeer movement recovers food that would otherwise be discarded and provides free vegan and vegetarian meals in over 1000 cities in 65 countries. the movement began in 1980 to protest the u.s. military budget, poverty, and destructitn of t the environment. food notot bombs volunteers have been arrested dozens of times while attempting to feed the hungry. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine

report. i'm amy goodman. following weeks s of outcry, authororities have arrested the man, the third white men for killing ahmaud arbery, a 25-year-old black man who was chaseded down and shot to deathy two white men in february while on a jog in georgia. william bryan was arrested thursday on charges of felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. he filmed the disturbing video showing arbery jogging down a narrow road in brunswick, daylightin broad before being confronted two armed white men and shot three times. the three men walked free for months after arbery's murder. but after the video went viral and sparked mass outrage, arbery's attackers -- retired police officer gregory mcmichael and his son travis -- were both arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault earlier this month. lee merritt, the arbery family attorney, said video shows arbery was chased by the

mcmichaels in their car for over four minutes before they killed him. gregory mcmichael is a former glynn county police officer who also worked as a prosecutorial investigator. advocates say mcmichael's ties to law enforcement shielded him from immediate arrest for arbery's killing, and the georgia bureau of investigation has opened an investigation into arbery's case for possible prosecutorial misconduct. brunswick judicial circuit da jackie johnson recused herself from the case because mcmichael had worked in her office as an investigator. the arbery case has passed through four district attorney'' offices. ahmaud arbery was murdered after briefly entering a construction site. texts uncovered over the weekend show a glynn county policece officecer instructeded the ownef the property to nonotify gregory mcmichchael if he noticed d any trespapassers. but surveillance video shows multltiple people, a number of them white, entered the

coconstrucuction sitite to lookd but only arbery was killed for the alleged trespassing. the homeowner larry english's attorney has issued a statement that said -- "it now appears that this young man may have been coming onto the property for water." the u.s. justice department has said it will review the case to see if federal hate crime charges can be pursued. but such charges cannot be pursued by state authorities because georgia is one of three southern states that has n no he crime law. for more, we go to tallahassee, florida, where we are joined by ben crump, a civil rights attorney representing the family of ahmaud arbery. he is the author of "open season: legalized genocide of colored people." welcome back to democracy now! can you start off by talking about the significance of the arrest of this third person -- usually, people who open their cell phone and start filming are hailed as the people who break a case. the film certainly provided the fodder for the arrest months was killed, but

what about this man? family andd arbery's my cocounsel''s haveve maintaind fromom the beginning, , we belie that williamam roddie bryan was thatof this organized gang was attemptining, based on a premeditated plan, t to confront and capture ahmaud arbery as hee jogged t through that community that day. in the text message that was sent by police officer robert saying the homeowner that if you sesee him again, d't callll the police, call gregory mcmichael's can he is a former police officer. so we believe this s was an orgagazed mob that was planning on confronting a ahmaud. it i iwholly appropriate t thate

was arrested and charged, when you lolook at what t egory mcmichaeael said on day one, he y attempted to cut off the jogger as he was running. and then we visually see objective evidence for four minutes they chased ahmaud arbery in that community as he tries to escape and run for his life. family isis relieved because they have maintained they want everybody who was part of this lynch mob, who executed their child, to be arrested and held accountable. amy: s so this arrest came just afterr the rating of the home of mcmichael, him and his son are in jail right now. mcmichael, again, a former investigator and glynn county police officer. is that right? and what do you u understand thy found in the house?? thehey have not revealed

contntents of what they found in the house. the georgia bureau -- georgia bureau of f investigatioion is d to have e a confeference today t 9:00 a.m. eastern standard time. they may divulge some of that information if they can. lookingo know they are based on what the family has tried to demand for eququal justice for their son, connections between each and every person who was part of this lynch mob, this organized effort that was premeditated. so when you think about the charges of felony murder and criminal intent to commit false roddy br nt, william yan is guilty as much as you have young people who m make ths calculated stupid decisions to go into a convenience store with

intent to rob the store and you have somebody sitting in the c r ---- well, if a person is killed while working at that store come everybody is charged. the person inside who did the shooting is charged with m murdr and a person who was aiding and abetting, driving the car, is charged with felony murder. so it is no different in the situation when you think about how they executed ahmaud arbery and each and everybody played a papart in aiding and abetting in this crime. amy: i want to go to kevin gough, the attorney for william "roddy" bryan, speaking monday. he directed a message to you and s. lee merritt, saying you h hae put his client in danger. >> i want to take a moment a and speakk directly to benjamin crup and s lee merritt, two of the lawyers for the arbery family. i am not here e tonight toto are with youou about the evidence. i discreetly reached out

previously through community leaders, i pleaded with you a .eek ago on national television i do not know whether you have heard my pleas o or whether you chose to ignoree them, so i will try again. brya is notn your enemymy. my plea isis this. please stotop. please stop doining and saying things that place the lives of danger.d his family in whether you realize it or not, you have put a target on his back. he is unarmed and defenseless. the sitting duck. i understand your pasassion and yoyour zeal for justice, but d don'tslully, the e end that was the attornrney. ben crump, your response? >> certaininly. since he made e this plea direcy to me andnd lee merritt, let me

respond directly to him. ahmaud arbery was unarmed and defenseless when he was executed in broad daylight. saysurthermore, , since he our calls for his client toto be arrerested somehow put hisis clt inin danger, we want him to know verythe arbery family is relieved and he can be very relieved because the rule of l w has prevailed and that his client wasrrested babased on evidence and probableause, andd hehe has no fearr to worry about his client being in danger because i am certain that hehe s safe in the glynn county jail. and our clients, the arbery family, would wish for him to reremain safafe and stay in the

glynn county jail for a long time as they continue to push for justice for their son a ahmd arbery. the video keeps showing ahmaud arbery y going io thisis construction site where a house is being built. but other video has been released that showsws white peoe ovover and over again going into this construction site. it is a house being built. it is completely open. a white couple, for example, that very day walking in, sort of touring around. >> yeses, ma'am. annette underscores the point that this was never about any trespassing or burglary, this was always about profiling ahmaud arbery because of ththe color of his skin. and we areequesting a an imploring the federal department of justitice to handle this matr

as a hate crime. there can be a parallel prosecution with the state district attorney who is assigned the case as well as the department of justice under the shepherd hate crime act because we believe a ahmaud arbery was kikilled based on the color r os skin. hehe was lynched in 202020. we have to senend a message,e, t only to his family and community, but to the entire world that america, we are better than this. amy: b ben crump, what about the justice department, the call for them to open a hate crime's investigation into what happened? , gregorythe two men mcmichael and his son -- greg mcmichael, former police officer investigator, they walked free for months before the video got out. the question of the corruption within the glynn county, the distririct attorney -- all of

that. now the question of where the justice department is. >> absolutely. we want the justice department to not only o open a hate crime investigation, but we want them to look at the d due process of law violations under the 14th amendment involvingg everybody who wass involved in this invevestigatioion from the polie officersrs who werere first on e scene to the first v.a. jackie johnson, who it is alleged holds -- told the police not to file charges in the case, to the second district attorney von like jackieo said, johnson, he hahad a conflilict f interest but yetet wrote a memorandum saying he saw no thisbable cause to arrest inderous father and son duo,

essence, put his thumb on the scale of justice in favor r of e mcmichaels. anand the third prosecutor who said when he looked at this video and look at all of this evidence, the statement saying he did not feel he could arrest them, that he had to take it to a grand jury. anand so the glynn county shsheriff's departmenent who led the video of ahmaud arbery from three years prior, we believe in an attempt to asassassinatate hs character as well as robert rash, the police officer w who sent the text to the homeowner that condoned and encouraged this vigilante mob to capture and cononfront ahmaud arbery. yesterday,n king said classmatat of travis mcmichael said he was the single most racist man they ever knew and that when they heard he had been involved in this, they were not shocked. ben crump, you are also

representing the family of breonna taylor, a 26-year-old aspiring nurse who was shot to death by police inside her own apartment. her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the louisville metro police department. the lawsuit details how police shot taylor at least eight times after they burst intnto her apartment, unannounced, with a search warrant. the man police were looking for did not live in taylor's apartment and was reportedly already detained by police when officers arrived at taylor's residence on the night of march 13. at the time of her killing, taylor had been working as an emergency medical tetechnician treating covid-19 patients. your final words? with senatotore dangerousthat these no knockck warrants i believe ae a constitutional - -- unconstitutiononal, but s senatr rand said they should be abolished because it is forereseeable that innocent,

law-abiding citizens would be hurt orr killed and breonna one ands exhibit number we cannott forget aboutut black women, as i have been proclalaiming, if you ran with ahmaud inn the ahmaud arbery cacase, you need to o stand fore because blblack women'ss lives matter, too. and d this was just an e executn of her in the sanctity of her own home. i look forward to coming b backo talk with h you more about development in that case. the policece chief resigned yeststerday in the aftermath of this execution of this innocent black woman. we have to continue to demand that thohose policice offfficere arrested for t the killing of ts younung lady who her coworkers d family and everybody who knew

her that she was just an angel of a person. amy: benjamin crump, we look forward to having you back. ben crump is a civil rights attorney representing the family of ahmaud arbery. he is the author of "open season: legalized genocide of colored people." up next, w we go to india, which is starting to lucian and -- loosen itsts nationwide l lockd. it just sasaw its biggest spikee coronavirus infections sn a day. ♪ [music break]

amy: "the long march of the lockeded-down migrants," a s soy composer, lyric writer, and singer aadesh h ravi for the people's ararchive of rural ind. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goododman.

as we turn to india, which is starting to loosen its nationwide lockdown and just saw its biggest spike of coronavirus cases in 24 hours, with 6000 new reported infections. india, a country up 1.3 billion people, has reported morere than 118,000 confnfirmed cases and me than 3500 deaths. this comes as the most powerful cyclone to strike eastern india and bangladesh in over a decade killed at least 82 people this week and forced an estimated 3 million people to leave their homes to seek shelteter. meanwhile, a nationwide strike is underway today by many of india'trade unioions against the suspensision of labor laws. sisince the lockdown began in march, tens s of thousands of migrananworkers hahave been left jobless, face dangerous journeys to return home to smaller villages across india, most of them by foot. hundreds have already lost their lives en route home. this is a migrant worker. >> our employers threatened us when we went to ask for help. they said, do whatever you like.

our families are really worried. they've been calling us for days. we don't have any food or water. the are being beaten when we ask for it. amy: well, for more, we go to mumbaiai, india, where we are joined by award-winning indian journalist p. sainath, who is the founder of people's archive of rural india, or pari, which focuses on rural india, where more than 833 million people live, speaking 780 living languages. fifirst, i want to play part ofn interview byby pari with 11-year-old paras madikar. after the lockdown, his father lost his j job as a driver and e boy began selllling vegetables o help his family make money. >> it is 5:30 every morning, i go in get whatever vegetables i can find. then we have to sell it. those who want to buy, they buy it. many buy vegetables, many don't. we get very little time to study.

in the afternoon after eating luncnch, i study for some time. i like going to school very much. my neck is hurting. amy: that is an interview by pari, the people's archive of rural india, or pari. for more, we are joined by its founder p. sainath, an author of "everybody loves a good drought: stories from india's poorest districts." welcome to democracy now! it is so important to have you with us, such an honor. if you can start out by talking about this boy and even the founding of your archive, the kind of journalism you are doing now. you are well-known major journalist, , mainstream journalist, but youu felt the people on the ground, the majority of i india, were not being covered.d. their r voices, not heard. >> the average indian national 0.67% of its front

ral oririgin, o of ru where 69% of the population live. so obvious, there isis not a single newspaper, not a single tv channel that has a national ruralal affairs full-time or full-time correspondndent on the farming beacach, nor is there full-time correspondent on thehe labobor beat. so obviously, that cap is very huge and we try filling it, but i would like to enteter your thg about the boyoy. he was at school. he had never been a child labor fore when n they shut dodown the school. his father lost his job. his momother lost her job. i mean, according to the center for monitoring indian economy, jobs inst 122 million the single month of april. ok?

pointoyment rate of 27 1%, now down to 24%, 25%. 122 million jobs. on those were nonfarm sector jobs. like his father, who was a watchmen, security guard in a building, like his mother who was a cook in a canteen. all of these jobs w went. jobs --lion of those three times wt you've lost in the united states. 91.3 million were people who little stores, mom-and-pop stores, whatever. these are the ones -- manany of those jobs are not coming back. that boy, he i is one of those children who was thrown under the streets to earn somethihing because is s school shut down ad you don't get the midday meal anymore.

importantalso very for you to look at the large picture of what t is happening o these migrants. it is nonot just the migrants we in trouble. hasink that covid19 presented us -- and i think much completerld -- with a corpseal autopsy of the -- i think it is done the same elsewhere for other countries. we now know how fragile large sections of f the population ar. after all the boasting about 8% growth and 9% growth and stuff. anand it also gives us a pretty good brain scan of neoliberal thinking. last sunday, the government of india passed an order -- you saw the long march the migrants, right? the govovernment of india p pasd

an order for a nationwide curfew between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. you know what that dusted the migrants on the h highway? they millions of people on the highway? marchns they can only now hundreds, thousands -- they're marching a anywhere between 300 and 1000 miles, amy. these people now can only march p.m. in7 a.m. and 7 from 103 to ranging 110 degrees fahrenheit. that is what the people on the highways are now doing. imagine that kind of thinking stuff imagine -- that is neoliberal thinking. it makes rules to protect the beautiful people and it has no part for the marginalized. look how it is thinking on

hunger. mememoryot in living seen this virgin hunger on the streets as been happening here -- urgent hunger on the street as been happening here. this country sitting on with the millionnt says is 77 tons of surplus -- i think the word surplus is a fraud. but it has 77 million tons of stock. do you know what it is doingg with thahastop? it is giving permission, the government has issued permission last month to convert large portions of rice -- i don't know hohow many million tons -- into ethanol so you can create large quantities of hand sanitizer. ok? you destroying foodgrade to create an sanitizer, which also involves large-scale use of water. need p petrol from

fuel. this is the level of thinking with people are so hungry, w whn people a are actually on the ede of starvation. we now know after 28 years of this part of development, how narrow is the distance, how minimal the distance between insecurity and hunger and hunger and starvation? the other thing they have done -- what is the grading the states have done in response to this hunger and chaos and marches? we have reopened -- you know what is one of the first things to reopen, even before the so-called really liked station of the lockdown? thousands and thousands of liquor shops. we are being advised to go on a liquid diet, i don't know. you open thousands of liquor shops. thinkinghe way we are come the way we are behaving.

jobs. lost 122 million people are terribly hungry. you have 77 million tons of grain p piled up and you're thinkingng of creating ethanol from it. -- the migrants and others also are in a terrible, terrible state. i also want to say that it is not just the migrants. people's archive of rural india, after the lockdown, like the rest of the corporate media did, we covered them 3655 days a year, ok? we know who they are. we know them personally. as you said when you were introducing the subject, you got a guy to say "we are being beaten, we're running out of water, we're running out of food." earlier when migrants -- they did walk long distances to go

home earlier, they would have little bus stands and stuff along the way where they would stop, work for the evening, earn their way to the next 40 kilometers, 50 kilometers, 60 kilometers to the next bus stand where they would work. all those stalls and restaurants on the highway are now closed under the lockdown. so you're going to have a lot of ,ebt from non-covid elements almost like diarrhea, dehydration, hunger, exhaustion, the sort of things are happening. let me give you one example. of axample, the case 12-year-old girl,l, indigenenous person, who had gone with the people of her village to work in the ritualllly fields

of the neighboring state of telalangana. when the lockdown camemend everyonene washrhrown off thther walkand their work, jamlo ed 140 kilometers, 12-year-old .irl, walked 140 kilometers i spent a hell a lot of time walking and i've never walked 140 kilometers in three days and nights. lematis frfromer homeme in exhaustion and fofor muscle fatigue. and we condemnened the migrants to winin wee bringa curfew that says you can -- individuals can only -- movement of individuals iss strictly ohibiteded between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a a.m.? company jamlos are we pushing overhe edge?

the entire process is so uttttey baarous. it shows what we have made a peopople. let me tell you a little bit about the 77 tons s of food. -- 77 million tons of food. you know how much that is? calculateted 15 years ago, because we'veve had that surplus for more than 15 t to 20 years, if the 77 7 million tonsf sac grain is -- if the werek laid in a row,s yoyocould reach the moon a and back twice. that is twice the distance to them i in. you c could go and cocome back d yoyou would still hahave some gn left o over. you could easily come if you chose,e, meet the peoplple's hu. you could do that. but the e food distribution n sm under neoliberalism has s not functioned.

the stocks have not functctioned to k keep prices low. they are functioning to keep prices up. amy: so talk a about what this means right now f for india tody and also if you can talk about the prejudice, the racism being expressed d trying to use the pandemic against muslims in india and a against chinese indians. well, it is not just chinese inindians but all p peoe from the northeast who looked so-calledoo, mainstream indiaia. two things have been happening. i do understand tre has beeeen racism, there has been sectarian

propagandada in many parts of te world, other least in the united states where he had the -- grgreat kung flu. i don't leave anywhere else it is at this level.. whwhen television channels d d't cover the coronavirus but cover ,uspspected islamicc conspspiras because there was s an event bya small fundamentalist group, or let -- rigious gathering i in a ai, which turned d out to be susuper spreader, but there were mamany other events by otherer religions andd o other groups, etc., but this was an identified one. there are millions of ople receiving whatat that message is in multiple -- whatsapp messssas n multiple

languages. h how this whole thining was planned by isislamic groups to issstate india, ok? that one. second, fishermen in the east coast -- but i want toto make ts popoint to your a audience, amy. today we are listening about the migrants. therere are millions of relativs of those migrants bacack in the vivillages. they are no less devastated. yeah, the migrants are having it physically worse. but mimillions of livelihoods across the country were smashed by the way we organized and implemented our lockdown. fishermen of the east coast, my ofe state, there is anyway fishing been between april 15 fishune 14 two conserve

stock because that is the breeding season of the fish. the two weeks preceding that are the heaviest fishing periods. those could not happen because of the lockdown. outthen the fishermen still at 2:00 0 a.m. patrick icam at e risk of ththeir l lives, to bria few fish back to eat. they're notot able to selell it. either they sell a friend d of e pricice were told by customers, hey, wee have seen o on whatsa that these fish are from the east, from china come and they arare carrying the coronaviriru. bloody,nny but it is so widely accepted. amy: we only have a minute and wanted to go to your comment that covid19 presents us with a complete and thorough autopsy of inyears of neoliberalism india. your final comment? well, when, as i said,

it has shown us what these polilies on food -- for instanance, for 35 years, we all accecepted t that health care es someththing to be bought, sold, trtraded, an that health insurancnce equals healtlth. this is neoliberalism. we havave a country where thee ximum amount of the health system is s in private hands. i mean, where the maximum expenditure on health is from four peoplple from their own ckets. that is one on t the health.h. on the education system, now whatat happens on the rich schoo and the colleges and p private universities will switch to online education. wh happens to ththe tens of mimillions of childreren? what happens to the tetens off millions of children in governmentnt schools where you'e looking to have decent blackboaoard? what happens too that? so the education s systems

smasashed. this was alslso the pushing of so-called affofordable private schos. all this came with neoliberalism. so we have been smashshed on the hunger front, the education front, on the health froront, ad we now facace a very serious nnisis in the coming monsoo crop season. after 25 yea, motor r like anything, cash crop. if we repeat casash crops in n h coming seasons, you'u're going o have starvation. worldwide as you u know, income and consumptionrowth hahave crashed.d. nobody is going g to have huge ordersrs of sugarcane and cotto. that is not going to happen. desrate of people's famamiliesrural india,

are in serious trouble. farmers and laborers.. each and every note of neoliberalism -- many of these things happened earlier, ok? amy: we have 20 seconds. >> they were not brorought on by the coronavirus. they were brought on by conscious policy that this is how we should build society. so these thihings existed earli, but now we can't turn away from them. we c can't pretend d we don't s. amy: p. sasainath,, thank you so much for being with us award-winning indian journalist , and founder of people's archive of rural india, or pari. we will link to your online website and we hope to have you baback. soon. the largest lockdown in world history is taking place in indidia. , mike. come back stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "calififornia dreaming" by bobbbby womack. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. all 50 states will at least be partially reopened thihis memorl day weekend, as the u.s. death toll from the covid-19 outbreak will top a and some states prere 100,000 0 for a surge in cases. we are joined now by a guest who says "reopening the economy will send us to hell." mike davis is a writer and historian and author of several books, including "planet of

slums, city of quartz" and the monster at our door: the global threat of avian flu. his new book is "set the night on fire: l.a. in the sixties." he joins us from san diego. thank you so much for being with us and staying all night -- up to do this interview, mike. why don't you start off with a very provocative headline of your piecece "reopening g the economy wiwill send usus to hel" why? >> i did not choosose the headline. but let me put it this way, i think a lot of senators will rememberer the novel calledd "sophie's choice," the movie version one the academy a award. arrivesg mother, sophie, in oshawaa with with her two small children a and bics the sadistic nazazi daughter to -- . to spread ththeir lives. hehe says, i will spell onene le

ththat you have to choose. otherwise, i will kill them both. americans, tens of millions of americans, have had to make that choicece or will soooon make a choice like that. "the washingngton post" s severl weeks ago, what they call peoeoe essesential workers and the duduration of the pandedemic, oe third of them report either they have a dangerous pre-existing condition, someone in your householold has. that obscene and cririminal this choice,e, this impossible choice between income for people who have to meet their mortgages, people who are desperate to put f food on their choosee to o work andnd

on the o other h hand, briring e home to o the people y you love to yourself. this i is a totally artificial sisituation. use the defense protection act to compel the manufacturer's a protective masks and other gear, which other countries did with great success. some turned over to military production per masks and in three weeks, they increased production tenfold. we had a med scribble to try to find private sector -- we had a mad scramble to try and find private sectors. now using that dedefense protection act to force food processing workers back into plants where they work long

hours, literally shoulder to shoulder, and with the infection rates almost as high as nursing homes. and prisons. democrats -- why ,aven't we progressives starting in march, have launched a national campaign n about workplace safety and the rejectioion o of this idea that ordinanary people have to do a and theirlf triage families. amy: and yet at t the same time, you have e a massive corporatios like amazon, billionaires in this country, who are making a massive killing now, a massive profit, increasing their wealth .y some 15% the latest report

> we thought we l lived in of the most unequal countries in history, but of course, inequality will be far greater by the beginnnning of nextt year anand next winter. ordinanary americans went t to d one night and woke up, looked out the door, and it was 1933. the policies that are being pursued right now of forcing people back to worork, of using ththe threat of moving unemployment insurance or even prosecuting people who don't go back to work because it is unsafe, for unemployment fraud, ohio,ct that texas, iowa, states have put on these siteses where employers can anonymously

report workers who haven't worked so there unememployment should be cut offff. local, county, state governments who, like the rest of us can actually live in the moment -- amy: we just have a minute in this part of the i interview and then we are continuing with part two. but you have said that global capipitalism can no lolonger guarantee the survival of the human race. elaborate on that t in this last minute. >> ok. theour ways it has become threat to survivaval. it cannot guarantee food security or incrcrease the outpt of food by the 50%0% united nations says is necessary to feed humanity 20 years from now.

orno longer creates jobs guarantees people income or meaningful social role. it cannot do carbon nasty upon, or the same time -- do carbon ice the economy at the same time, the greenhnhouse gases to make the great adaptatioions tht are necesessary for survival. and finally, we are the midst of a revolution, biological design genomics. it cannonot translalate this , enorormous revolution potential that exists now come into public health. in this country and even less around the world. amy: i want to thank you for being with us. we will posost immediately today part two of our interview with author and historian mike davis. his nenew book "set the night on , fire: l.a. in the sixties." we will continue with part two of our conversation, talking

about socially distanced protest around the world. a very special happy birthday mike difilippo! 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 democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!w!

> this is al-jazeera. ♪ >> coming up in the next 60 minutes, brazil's supreme court releases a video of president bolsonaro saying he will protect families after the coronavirus death toll in that country tops 20,000 and brazil is the epicenter of the pandemic. a crowded bus crashes killing all but two people on board.