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tv   Democracy Now  LINKTV  July 9, 2020 4:00pm-5:01pm PDT

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07/09/20 07/09/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the immediate consequences of this decision is absence to further action in the didistrict court, and that may happen, that hundndreds of thousands of peope will lose their coverage for contraception. amy: viagra, yes. birth control, no. the supreme court has dealt a blow to reproductive rights by upholding trump administration rules that let employers deny people access to free birth
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control based on their religious or moral beliefs. and we look at how black lives matter protests in belgium are focusing on the country's violent colonial legacy. we will speak with the kining's aunt belelgium princess marie-esesmeralda. >> wasas my great grand unclele. have verery b brutal, manyny crimes. wewe have to h have a discucussn abouout cololonialism in n the t anand what is really the root cause of racism inside our society. amy: and it was world zoonoses day. how to decrease the transmission of viruses from animals to humans. all ththat and more, comoming u. welcome to democraracy now, demomocracynow.org, the quarante report. i'm amy y goodman.n.
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the united states s reported 62,000 new coronavirus infections on wednesday, a new daily record. this brings the total number of confirmed cases to over 3 million, by far the largest in the world. ateast five ststates --- missoui texas, tennessee, utah, and west , virginia -- set new single day records on wednesday. california and texas also reported their highest single day death toll today. the u.s. death toll has topped 132,000 but that is widely believed to be an undercount. in houston, texas, propublica reports there has been a spike in people dying at home before they even make it to the hospital. as the u.s. case count has soareded, so has the demand for tests. in texas, drive-through covid testing sites report long lines and hours-long wait times. sometimes up to 10 or 12 hours. and with many laboratories backlogged, test results can take more than a week to arrive, making contact tracing
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ineffective. meanwhile, the white house coronavirus task force held just its second public briefing in more than two months. notably absent was top u.s. infectious disease scientist dr. anthony fauci, w who this week called thehe u.s. response to te coronavirus "really not good." president trump on tuesday slapped back at dr. fauci in an inteterview with fox n news. pres. trump: i think we're in good place. dr. fauci said don't wear masks, and i says wear them. he's had numerous things. amy:y: dr. f fauci responded, he said not to wear masks because e there was a shortage r hospitals and nurses and hospital staff. the trump administration is continuing to push for public schools to reopen in the fall despite concerns from educators and publblic health officicials. on wednesday, president trump lashed out at the centers for disease control and prevention saying the cdc's guidelines on safely reopening schools was
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"very tough and expensive." hours later, the cdc announced it would revise its guidelines, whicich call for staggered scheduling, new w seatingg arrangngements to encourage socl distancing, the use of face coverings, and the closing of communal spaces. trump also threatened to cut off funding for schools that do not reopen. on wednesday, new york mayor bill de blasio announced new york students will receive a mix of in-person and remote learning in the fall. students will attend classes in-person between one and three days a week. meanwhile, harvard and mit have sued the trump administration over its plan to strip international students of their visas if their schools switch to online-only courses. there are more thanan a million internationanal s student in the united states. in california,a, a seventh prisoner has died at san quentin state prison from complications related to the coronavirus. more than 1300 prisoners have tested positive for the virus so
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far, making it one of the largest hot spots in the country. meanwhile, in arizona, at least 240 immigrants have tested positive at the privately owned eloy detention center. nearly half of the center'r's staff have also tested positive. nbc rereports the staff shortage has resulted in immigrants being detained in their cells for up to 24 hours at a time without access to showers, laundry, and other necessities. the jail is owned by corecivic. coronavirus cases are soaring gn tulsa, oklahoma, following president trump's indoor rally in the city on june 20. on monday, tulsa county reported a record 261 new cases.. dr. bruce dart, the tulsa health department director, linked the rise in cases to recent large events in tulsa. >> the past two days we have had almost 500 cases and we knew we had several large events a little over to ask ago, which is about right.
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i guess we can just connect the dots. who attendedain, the tulsa rally, has tested positive for covid-19. president trump is planning to hold another large campaign this week and in poportsmouth, new hampshire, but many top republicans in the ststate do n not plan to attene. in texas, , houston mayor sylvester rnrner has forced the texaxas republican partyty to cl its upcoming in-person state conventition next week citing healalth concernrns. 6000 people were expected to attend. meanwhile, in florida, a lawsuit has been filed in an attempt to block jacksonville from hosting the republican national convention next month due to the pandemic. health and h human services secrcretary alex azar r is facig criticism after clclaiming that healthcare workers "don't get infected" with c covid-19. >> we have health-care workers, they don't geget infected becaue they take appropriate prececautions. they engage in social distancing, where a facial
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covering, use good personal hygiene. amy: in fact, as many as 768 health care workers have died from covid-19 according to a count by the guardian and kaiser health news. some 95,000 healthcare workers have also tested positive for the virus. in international news, the african cdc is reporting confirmed covid-19 cases have jumped 24% this week. south africa has been hardest hit. the dedeath toll there has toppd 3500. in australia, the country's second largest city, melbourne, has re-entered lockdown due to a spike in coronavirus cases. residents have been toldld to sy home for the next six weeks. in brazil, far right president jair bolsonaro, who has tested positive for covid-19, has vetoed parts of a new law designed to help indigenous communitities amid the p pandem. in b bolivia, wo crews have e bn digging mass graves for covid-19 victims in cochabamba after a local l cetetery stopped acccceg victims of the disease.
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a surge in coronavirus cases has also overwhelmed hospitals in el alto and la paz. this is mary ticona, a nurse who joined a protest of healthcare workers demanding personal protective equipment and coronavirus tests. >> we collllapsed about two mons ago. we are attending to our people as we can in stretchchers, wheelclchairs, however w we can attend them. wewe have collapapsed. amy: oxfxfam is warning g that 2 millllion pepeople could be pusd to the b brink of starvation ths year due to fallout from the covid-19 pandemic. the global charity says this could result in 12,000 people dying per day by the end of the year due to covid-19 linked hunger. oxfam america president abby maxman said -- "covid-19 is the last straw for millions of people already struggling with the impacts of conflict, climate change, inequality and a broken food system that has impoverished millions of food producers and
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workers." back i in the united states, the supreme court voted 7-2 wednesday to uphold trump administration rules allowing employers with religious or momoral objections to deny works access to free birth control coverage. the ruling hollows out a birth control mandate under the affordable care act that requires most private health insurance plans to cover birth control without a copay. according to government estimates, up to 126,000 people could immediately lose access to no-cost contraception. we will have more after headlines. also on wednesday, the supreme court ruled that civil rights laws barring workplace discrimination do not apply to most teachers at religious elementary schools. the ruling carves out a major exception to u.s. fair employment laws. meanwhile, a spokesperson for the supreme court revealed this week that chief justice john roberts suffered a fall at a country club in maryland on june
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21 and was hospitalized after hitting his head. roberts received stitches and was released the next day. he has previviously suffered seizures on at least two occasions. in texas, condemned prisoner billy joe wardlow was pronounced dead at 6:52 p.m. local time wednesday, 24 minutes after prison officials strapped him to a gurney and injected him with a massive dose of the sedative pentobarbital. it was texas' first execution since the start of the pandemic. wardlow's killing came hours after the u.s. supreme court refused his petition for a stay of execution. he was convicted of capital murder after a botched robbery in 1993 when he was 18 yearss old. his lawyers argueded he was too young to receive the d death penalty. the owner of t the dakota access pipeline threatened wednesday to keep the pipeline open despite a -- defined a court order for the pipeline to be shut down and emptied of all oil in the next 30 days, pending an environmental review.
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the company energy transfer told bloomberg news, "we are not shutting in the line." the company went on to accuse federal judge james boasberg of exceeding his authority claiming he "does not have the jurisdiction to shut down the pipeline or stop the flow of crude oil." the company later said it had no intention of defying the order. energy transfer is owned by dallas billionaire kelcy warren who hosted a fundraiser for president trump last month. president trump welcomed mexican prpresident andres manuel lopezz obrador to the white house on wedndnesday for a ceremony markg the signing of the u.s.-mexico-canada agreement. canadian prime minister justin trudeau skipped the event, citing scheduling conflicts and hehealth cononcerns. president lopez obrador's whwhie house visisit came days after mexican labor lawyer susana prieto terrazas was released from jail following her arrest for allegedly inciting riots in support of striking maquiladora workers. she's be o ordered to reremain t
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her home address in the state of chihuauahua for the next two-and-a-half years, and will be barred from traveling to the border state of tamaulipas where she led labor campaigns that won historic wage gains for workers. prieto terrazas called the travel ban unconstitutional in a video posted after her release. >> there appppears to bebe a criminal association come notot only to discredit me as they have tried foror years witith l, but to dis-articulate me, disarmrming, to annihilalate m o takeke my life because if the hd ofof the workers movement is de, the e rage is over. amy: a united nanations investigator on wednesday called the u.s. drone strtrike on irann general qassem soleimani in january unlawful and arbraryry under international law and a violation of iraq's sovereignty. presidenent trump authorizeded soleimani's assassination at the baghdad international airport on january 3, sparking mass
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protests across iraq and bringing the u.s. to the brink of war with iran. in minnesota, transcripts of police body cam footage made public wednesday show george floyd pleaded for his life repeatedly as officers pinned him to the ground on a south minneapolis street corner in may. the transcripts reveal floyd saying "i can't breathe" more than 20 times as officer derrick chauvin pressed his knee to his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. at one point, floyd said, "you're going to kill me, man," to which officer chauvin replied, "then stop talking, stop yelling. it takes heck of a lot of oxygen to talk." officer chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, and three other officers face chargeges of aiding and abetting murder. in l los angeles, results from n independent autopsy y show 18-year-old security guard andres guardado was shot five times in the back by an l.a. county sheriff's deputy last month in a police killing that's
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sparked mass protests. guardado's family commissioned the autopsy after the sheriff's office placed a so-called security hold on the l.a. county coroner's official report on the june 18 police killing. elsewhere in california, two bay area residents will be charged with hate crimes after they painted over a black lives matter mural commissioned by the city of martinez. video of the 4th of july incident shows a white woman using a bucket of black paint and a roller to cover two of the mural's large yellow letters reading, "black lives matter." a white man wearing a red trump campaign t-shirt and hat looks on, shouting abuse at onlookers. >> this is racism, is what it is. there is no oppression. there is no racism. >> this is not happening in my town. amy: if convicted on hate crimes charges, the pair could face up to a year in jail.
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meanwhile, authorities are investigating who painted the words "white lives matter" on a martinez street three days after the first incident. in jackson, mississippi, officials have approved plans to remove a monument to the city's namesake president andrew jackson from outside city hall. jackson mayor chokwe antar lumumba said in a statement -- "when i took office i found out the name jackson means 'god has shown favor.' so, we want to reclaim the name of our city for that meaning and divorce it from the legacy of a brutal owner of enslaved people who was instrumental in initiating the trail of tears against indigenous people." jackson officials are considering replacing the andrew jackson's that you with a monument to medgar evers, the civil rights leader who was assassinated by a white supremacist in jackson 57 years ago. in media news, fox news host tucker carlsen is under fire of a racist attacks on senator tammy duckworth and congressmember ilhan omar, using
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language that echoes a popular white nationalists logan. during a segment tuesday attacking the two women lawmakers of color over their alleged lack of patriotism, carlsen's producers broadcast a graphic reading "we have to fight to preserve our nation and heritage." aitics have compared that to slogan frequently used by white nationalists and neo-nazis. senator tammy duckworth is an army national guard veteran who lost both her legs in 2004 after the helicopter she was piloting was shot downn by iraqi fighter. she tweeteted -- tuckerer carlsenen joint promint republicans this week in attacking congressmember omamar after she calalled fofor the dismantling of systems of oppression in the united states. >> our economymy and political systems prioritize profit without considering who is
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profiting, who is been shut out. we will perpetuate this ineqequality. so we cannot stop at criminal justice systems. we must begin the work of dismantling the whole system of opprpression w wherever r we fi. amy: republican house minority leleader accccused congressmembr ililhan omar and democrats of seeking toto tear down america. omar responded -- and in a victory for aninimal rights campaigners and environmentalists, a federal appeals court has upheld endangered species act protections for grizzly bears in yellowstone national park. the ruling comes three years after the trump administration rolled back protections which would have allowed trophy hunters to resume killing the bears. and d those are some of the headlines. this is demomocracy now!, dedemocracynowow.org, the quarae report. i am amy goodman in york with my cohost nermeen shaikikh joinings
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from her home also here in the cityty. nermeen: good morning. welcome to allll of our ststener and viewers from around ththe country and around the world. amy: we are beginning today with the supreme court, which deaeala blow to reproductive rights wednesesday whenen it upheld trp administration rules that let employers deny people access to free birth control based on their religious or moral beliefs. the employer's religious or moral beliefs. in a 7-2 ruling written by justice clarence thomas, the court hollowed out a birth control mandate under the affordable care act that requires most private health insurance plans to cover birth control without a copay. planned parenthood estimates the mandate expanded contraceptive coverage with no out-of-pocket costs to more than 62 million women, including 17 million latinas and 15 million black women. as many as 126,000 people now face the immediate loss of access to contraceptive services with no out-of-pocket costs if the businesses, non-profits and universities that employ them
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opt out of providing this coverage. for more, we are joined in beaufort, south carolina, by fatima goss graves, president and ceceo of the national wome's law center. welcome back to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. can you resespond to the supreme court ruling? >> deeply didisappointing rulil. birthfordablele care a act control benenefit has been transformatitive, especially for won who cacan access to contraraception that they need,, that theheir provider r is recommending, and not have to worry about paying what cacan be really, really high costs. what thehe supreme court decisin means is virtually any employer or univeversity can nonow assert religious or a moral reason and make it so these
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individuals are effectively on their own to find and pay for the contraception. aboutn: could you talk the cases that t were consolidad in this r ruling, t trump versus pennsylvania a and little sisiss of the poor versrsus pennsylvan? >> so the trump versus know,w,ania case, you seseveral states and also indivividual organizatations ard the countryy c challenged th role, i including the national women's law center. ththe reon that this rule was being challenged was for two reasons. one, we believe that the rulee itself win againstst the purpose of thehe affordable care act, bt the care act -- what the for book care act try to do was ensure women in particular did not experience discrimination. it was designed to further gender equality.
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and the trump administration, by allowing for virtually any employer or any university, really, , to name a religious or this vague moral objection to providing birth control when againstt rule the thrust of the affordable care act. what the supreme court said, basically, the administration was authorized to write such a rule. there is a question that remains and that the state of pennsylvania and new jersey have said thehey will continue to litigate and that wewe will continue to litigate, and that is whether the rule itself was arbitrary and capricious. whether or not they took the apprpropriate steps and whetherr not, for e example, the vagugue moral justitification foror not providing the birth control bebenefit will be enough when
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weighed againstst the r really important juststification of furthering gender equality. that was the thingng that was mt missing, i w would say, from m e majority opinion in the supremee court. they barely y talked about the individual wororkers and s studs who are now going to havave to e -- in the heart of an e economic decline and working harder to get the hehealth care e they ned duduring the pandemic. amy: i want to read fromom the o didissenting justices in this case. justices ruth bader ginsburg and sonia sotomayor warned -- "this court leaves women workers to fend for themselves, to seek contraceptive coverage from sources other than their employer's insurer, and, absent another available source of funding, to pay for contraceptive services out of their own pockets." they added -- "faced with high out-of-pocket costs, many women will forgo contraception or resort to less effective contraceptive methods." if you could commentnt, fatima
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goss graves, so the affordable care act as pay for v viagra but will not cover if an e employer objectcts birth control? >> it is outrageous. what we have right nowow is a situation n where some of the health care thatat women in particular need one for covered in thehe same way. so contraception, which the vast majority of women in this country have used as some point in theirir lives, is extraordinarily expensive. and because the e affordable cae act was tryiying to set up a system where poor preventatitive servrves were allolowed without extra cost, without having to pay co-pays, they knew if they did not detail the specific services that women mostly needed thahat women might get st
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ouout. so there a are verery specific services that women need, inincluding contraception. and now we are in a situation where not the employees' religious objections, but --ause amy: i wanant to thank you so mh for being with us. we will continue to follow this as it is the last day of the supreme cocourt expectcted todar the decisions on prpresident'ss taxes. fatima goss graves, president and ceo of the national women's law center.. speakingng to us from south carolina.. when we come back, the transmissision of virusess from ananals to humans. and then we w will look at whats happening in belgium and speak kingthe descendent of leopold ii as black lives matter activist want to take down his statue.. a reassessment on what hee did n the congo. stay with us. ♪ [music break]
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amy: "four piece for xylopophon" performed by t the karl peinkofr percussionon ensemblble. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. as t the global health ememergey caused by the coronavirus continues toto unfold, we look w at a new u united nations repopt on how t to prevent ththe next pandndemic. the e covid-19 virus has a zoonotic origin, meaning it jumped from animals to humans. it spilled over. other zoonotic diseases include ebola, mers, hiv/aids, and the west nile virus. researchers with the united nations found zoonotic diseases are spreading with greater frequency because of stresses humans have placed on animal habitats, including industrial farming and climate change. -- and the climate crisis. their new report outlines steps for how to break this chain of transmission. it was published on monday - -- which was world zoonoses day -- commemorating the work of the french biologist louis pasteur.
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it was july 6, 1885, when pasteur administered the first vaccinine against rabies, aa zoonotic disease.. for morere, we go to nairobi,, kenya, where we're joined by delia grace, lead author of this report by the united nations environment program and the international livestock research institute. she is also a professor of food safety systems at the natural resources institute. we welcome you to democracy now! if youou can start off b blaying ouout what y you have found. > t thank you. it is a pleasure to be here and to share some of the findings fofor my report. novelties or the unique aspects of this repororts while there have been many attempts to understand the impacts of c covid-19 and hohowo manage it and how to deal with the economic and other social kind of aspepects of it, there s
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been much less attention paid to the actual causes of covid. why it came and will something similar come a again. this is what our report focuses on. it is not so much on how to do with pandemics, but why they come in the first place and how c can prevent them or catch them early so they do le harm. focusin findings wererto personallyly on the driverers of emerging zoonoseses. rather thahan focusing on t the symptoms, wewe're looking a at e caususes. then our next major part of the report w looooki at recommendaons and at shoul be done.e. at is ju a quick orview. if you hav some specific questions, i canoo back k to those in m more detail. nermeen:n: professor, , lia gra, before wee get into more details from your report, i also wantnto
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say t that it is stringng that already beforere theoronavirus, to -- julian people every y year diseases.s.ononotic can you say little bit about what this diseases are and why they have not bebeen talked a a? yoyou also in the report anticipate fururer pandemics frfromhese --- potential pandemics from some of thesee diseases. could you talk aut what t those are and what areas are most at risk? in cupid, ella g, which is the study of diseases,s, we oftn make a decision between what we call endemic disease and epidemic disease. t those thateases are are e more or leless contitinuon a population.. the epidemic diseases are ones in whihich suddenly increased
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geographical spread or the number o of people e they infec. so most of pull dyingng for of - of just -- of to gnosis, or dying of those diseases mainly controrolled in the country ando the sickness and death h happens in poor countnt. these deases were equally prevalalent in c common in rich countries, they would get a lot more nototiced, a lot more news coverage, may be bette controed. is theher han it erging diseases ich h ar new and which h can spread rapidly from country to country, like we have seen with covid-19 and like we saw with west nile virus andd avian influenza and swine for. so these are t the diseases whih far f fewer people.
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covid-d-19 has killed a l lot of people, but some of the other theases, mad cow disease, sars -- whwhich was a problem in the early 200000s -- actually hd less effect on human health but more effect on human economies. and that is because they got into rich countries. so, yes. a lot ofof the problem of these zoonotic diseases is poverty and lack of development of people living in this is where there in very close contact with animals, sometimes in the same house -- chickens kept under the bed because they will be stolen. and also health services which are not very good. so this combination of poverty, people highly dependent on animals, degraded envirironment, and poor health services is a lethal cocktail for the zoonotic
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diseases, diseases that jumped from animals to people and the other r way around, people to animals. amy: can you talk about how the climate crisis plays intoo this and this whole issue of it is not animals encroachihing on lad where humans are, it is humans increasingly encroaching -- for example, the issue of deforestation, forcing up animals fromom their natural habitat who would not wanant toe interacting with humumans? is land fragmentation, also exact of industries, especialally in eastst asia. we have seen a big u uptick in thgs like logging, mining. manyny disease require roads to get resourceces out. many of these are not b being [inaudible] not bebeing u used by the local community. with thehese roads that offer a way to g get the livestock -- te
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wildlife out from their pristine, previously safe emergingareas into the urban markets where they are in demand by wealthy elites and exotic foods, which provide poor people.ry having that fragmentation, land-use change has a big role in this. in terms of climate change, it is not so much it drives the emergence of the disease, but it helps the disease jump from one animal to another or from animals to people, but rather that it changes the distribution of pathogens for things which cause disease that also what we oftenectors, which are insects or other animals that move pathogens around. such as mosquitoes or flies.
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many disease are dependent on climate factors such as humidity, rainfall, growing season, air temperature. so when you say climate change, you get vectors and disease-causing organisms moving, comiming to new places. and what they encounter is people who have not been exposed . that is when you can get outbreaks of epidemic disease. so climate change is less a direct driver and more of facilitator of the pandemics we are increasiningly seeing. nermeeeen: professor grace, many of the disiseases, zoonotic diseases, have theirir origins w ininhe global south -- you thihk of ebola, , west nile virus, and earlier, coronavirus is -- but you popointed out ththat previoy come as recently as the year 2000, so o just 20 years ago, mt
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new human n diseaseses, zoonotic diseases, originated in the western seaboard's of europe and nonorth america. what is it that changed? one comomplication is it is really only in the last century with had good records of emerging diseases. presenently, we have b better ability to to t tap the disiseas in rich countries --igitech the diseases in rich countries. now inin stheast asisia anchina and other countries. so there is an element of our ability to detect, but also we believeve -- - we have publisisn this, it is also appearing to be driven by the switch in low and middle income countries to highly intensive industrial
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agriculture, which w was not a phenomenon even 100 years ago. and also increasingly rapapid degradation of natural resources driven by population growth but also people'e's increasing d des for animal protein. our study we did in the last decade suggested that emerging diseases were now shifting increasingly -- - a, they're getting more common.n. coming from thely glglobal south. amy:y: can you talk about uganda mention under the report as a leading example e of how to mane zoonotic disiseases? -- one of theral most encouraraging and sadaddeng issusues with ththese emerging diseas is there actually y not
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terribly d difficult to controlf you'll invest in them m in the right places and at the right time. so we gave an n example in ugana were basically it was communiniy level woworkers. basically, trainining communitis -- working with them and learning from them because they are e peoplele who often have thee greatest knowledge e of the didiseases t they face. but they don't have the ability manageto report them or them. so it is basically working with communities in order to manage diseases at a local level before theyey become a problem. this was an example of training them -- the environment officers who could work with the communities, in the community's, relatively low cost and able to demonstrate good benefits. inin kenya, we have w what is cd the zoonotic disease unit which
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brings together the government ministries from healalth, -- likeent, as well as myself. this unit has been extremely successful in dealing with the zoonotic diseases because stenosis will occur at the intersection. they occur at the intersection livestock,, wildlife, and the environment. in things that happened at the inintersection can best bebe mad atat the intersection. and that is how bringing together thehese groupups has bn very successful. i was a more successful than in europe or america. amy: delia grace, thank you for being with u us. a quick q question, something people don't think about as a zoonotic diseasese i guess is le
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disease in the united states, a chronic condition where tics are transferring the virus into mans. yes. diseasese whichcic has environmental and wildlife elements. seen complete ecological transforormation, especially in parts of eururope and northern america. and this has allowed diseases to behave in ways partly because the predators were removed from the system, thererefe you haveve far more deer, and then you get far more ticks and you also get people w wanting to inteteract h thee environment, then you get outbreaks of zoononotic disease. and that can be m managed -- the other k key premises of this one
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hehealth approach h is that ratr than t treating ththe sick huma, waiting for the human to get sick and thetrying to treat them, we treat the environment. we try to get a healthy environment so people don't get sick in the first place. amy: delia grace, thank you for beining with us. after, this week in the united ststates, the worst search for coronavirus jenny pandemic is the timeme that the president of the e united states is pulllline united states out of the world health organization. delia grace, lead author of a new report by the united nations environment program and the international livestock research instititute titled "prevenentine next pandemic: zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission."." we will link to that at democracynynow.org. she is also professor of food safety systems at the nanatural resources institute. speaking to us from nairobi, kenya. when we come back, w we will tak about the democratic republic of congo and belgium's legacy
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there. we will speak with the great grandndniece of king leopold ii who considered the c congo''s on personal fiefdom. stay with us. ♪ [music break]
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amy: "independence cha cha"a" y lele grand kalle and the african jazz. this i is democracy now!, democracynynow.org, the quarante report. i am amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. the e black lives matterer uprig in the united states has catalyzed a reckoning about racism and colonialism acrosss the globe, including in belgium, where a growing movement is demanding belgium address systemic racism and make amends for its brutal colonial legacy. protests have rocked the country as demonstrators demand the removal of statues of king leopold ii, who became king in 1865 and ruled what is now the democratic republic of congo as
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his own personal colony until 1908 in a reign of terror that killed up to 10 million people. in the 1880's, leopold ii seized land in central africa 76 times the size of belgium. he ran the region for his own personal profit, commanding a private army that included congolese children and draining the land of its resources, including rubber and ivory. under his command, millions of congolese people were enslaved and separated from their families. his troops were ordered to collect the hands of victims and to shoot those who resisted slave labor. he also imported congolese for a human zoo in belgium. leopold ii was forced to give up congo as his private fiefdom in 1908, though it remained under belgian rule until 1960, when congo won its independence. now 60 years later, belgium has hardly reckoned with its bloody past. statues of leopold ii can be seen in cities across the country.
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in brussels last month, activists climbed a statat of leopold ii and chantnted "murderer" while waving the flag of the democratic republic of congo. meanwhile, belgian authorities in the city of ghent removed a separate statue of leopold on congo's independence day, june 30. the move came after protesters doused it with red paint to symbolize the blood of murdedd congoles a leopopold statatue was alsoo removed in antwerp. ththis reckoningng led king phpe of belgium to issue an unprecedented statement exexpressing regegret for belg's cocolonial rule e in a letter rc president fefelix tshisekekedi. ththe belgian paparliament has o agreed to form a new truth and reconciliation commission to address the legacy of its genocidal rule in congo. this all comes amid a growing demamand for reparations. for more, we are joined by a descendant of king leopold ii who is j joining the protestersn demanding a reckoning about his brutal legacy. princess marie-esmeralda is the
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great-grandniece of belgium's leopold ii, the aunt of the currrrent king philippppe of bem and the e daughter of the foforr king leopold iiiii. she joins us from london. and in brussels, we're also joined by gia abrassart, a congolese-belgian activist and founder of cafe congo in brussels. we welcome youou both to democry now! gia abrassart, let's bebegin wih you. you are congolese living in belgium. you run the congo cafe. can you talk about the legacy of leopold ii and what it m means? and now hearing the story of the king, who considered congo's personal fiefdom, we think of the cutting off of hands, 10 billion people died under his rule. explain this history -- or at least, describe it. >> yes. i am not a historian, but,
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journalist. i'm a congolese journalist and i like to read, to study the belgiumational l narrative. systematically -- congo contribution in the belgian identity. that is what comoming from king leopold to, the second king of ofgium, but also the head the free state congo, he [indiscernible] we write today with systematic discrimination. under the shared history between belgium and congo, but it i is a denial of history.
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experience i think it is -- to anchorant these observations. we have evidence of these crimes under king leopold ii and is important to link it to the demands ofof the new genereratin today. that is the coloninial continun. from kikingit starts leopold ii, and the demands, the negotiations to remove these statues of king leopold ii as the head of the free congo state, butut iyou keep on reflection, it further. we would likike to work on the material and reparation because onstill has an impact today
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this generation. -- thee, for example discririmination, the systematic new grip phobia. that is why we are aware and we are in thahat momentum w with te inteteationally -- nermeen: princess yourie-esmeralda, i i would ask about the belgian n government's response s so far to this histoy between belgium andnd colonial bebelgiu and conongo. inin recent yearars, the belgian government has issued apologiess for some a aspects of its relatitionship to congo, includg the separation of mixed race children frorom their congolese mothers as well as forelgium''ss role in the assassination off congress f first colonial primee miminister patrice lumumba.
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even though many, including the u.n. come have called for belgium to apologize for its brutal rule, k king philippe in the e letter we mentioned earlir and he said to the drc presidenent, he only expressed e deepest regret for what belgium had done, ask of violence, anand cruelty as he said. now many h have said that lette, apart from not contending an apology, is on most entirely irrelevant because the king does not represent the viewpwpoint of the belgian government since he is not formally a memember. and then the question of why it is that belgium has apopologized for certrtain aspects of its rue but not for its overall brutality in the region. could you talk about that and whether you think these protests
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might produce an apology now? > you're absolutely right. always a mixed message. there was some apologies for some things, b but there were other peoplele, other mininistes saying, , no, we should nonot apologize, cannot erase history. so i think t the first step bybe king saying that he expresseded deep regreret obviously does not go far enough, b but it is a fit step. it is ququite histstorical in or cocountry that the chief of stae acknowledges the problem of f te past. obviouously, we have to gogo muh further in the parliament has truthfor comommission of and reconciliaiation. i really hope this will expose the past honestltly, get rid of the narrative thahat was built overer the y years with a certan of belgium xsome
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colonizers saying there were good things in the colony. no, they were not. it was a brutal system, which provoked crime. it was exploitatation of the people. i not only the crimes and the rapes and the most atrocious humaman rights violations happeneded, but also o it had ay impapact on the country culturay and deep in society that is still today. and of course we have to realize that racism in our country, like in many countries of europe, essentially from colonialists and slave owners. benjamin i is not alalone. i i am aware of ththe petetitiot are s starting toto be organizir other europepean countries to recognize, acknowledge their past.
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new mico gia abrassssart, one of ththe demands protesters are making is to traransform thehe curriculum of belgian schools to this colonial hisistory is taugt more accurately. forr decades, belgian children were taught that leopold ii in fact brought civilizatioion to e africa, cenentral abolishing slavery, building roads and schools, introducing democracy to congo. now the education minister for french language e schools has sd educators would r require the teteaching of cocongolese histoy and belgian colonialism. could you talk about that, what needs to be taught in belgian schools?s? stepthink it is a first for reparations. we're not talking about amnesty.
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even if we are forgiving and doing great stepsps to include n schools the colonial part of belgium, we can't forget, for -- and, the congolese the name of a currently legal sex. -- [indiscernible] let persrsons were not allowed o go to cicinemas or restaurants r shops. denial,at historical historical c crimes that we have to share in the public space. i think thisis commission that parliament will allow that implements from september the
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truth reconcililiation, and i , willadddd reparation really create therapy for all the belgium's, including congolese and others. i think k it is a kind o of shad collective memory. irreversible history. the fact that even at university --'re studying journalism, at schools you're not i includig in the manuals the real colonial past of belgium coming from king leopold ii in 1885, still 1960 when independence of congo. it is important for affirmation to include all the belgium cities in the more serene
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atmosphehere. the e past is s really importan. amy: princess marie-esmeralda, i am wondedering if you can talk about the historic silelence of your family, the royal family, and the journey that you took -- how you came to understand opold's history? you are the aunt of the current king. your father was king. you're the great grandniece of leopold ii, who we are talking about today. give u us a history lesson on wt you understand he did. obviously, because i am part of the f family, i feel a responsibility to talk. my family has not talked before. always toadvoting talk a about it..
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and recentntly, to really apapologize for the past. i i strongly believe only with apologies we can build something different. we confront our past and then we can build new relationsnships. then annal past, activist for thehe environment d human rirights for a long timim. i i can see e so much the link betweeeen racism, even in the climate crisis in even in t the way indigenous people arare displaced by t the multinational the same with the colonizizer moved and killed the indidigenos people before. thahat makes so much sense. i think we have e to talk about that. it is a difficult conversation for many, especialllly when we talk a about reparation, but its absolutely nececessary if we wat to have a jusust, fair ciciety.
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so i if we talk about repeparat, why notot start i fair trade? that seems t to be obvioious. there are e so many ththings wen do and try to have a better ciety where communities can talk and flourish h and where we don't have discrimination that we see every d day. nenermeen:n: princess marie-esmeralda, you and gia mentioned rereparations. one of the striking things iss congo is an extremely resource-rich country, but is also one of the poorest countries inin the wldld. youu mentioned the issue of fair trade. could you talk a about t the enduring legacy, the ways in which congo continues t to suffr from this legacy and in addition to fair trade andnd reparations, whwhat you think needs to happe? really theheses, that is
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doomom of the countrtry. inne countrtry is so richh resources, oil and minerals, and unfortunately, the population is still not benefiting from that. because you still have a lot of multinationals which are plundering the country. and that is obviously a legacy from the past and from the colonial state before. amy: we want to thank you both for being with us. princess marie-esmeralda, great-grandniece of belgium's leopold ii. she is the aunt at the current king of belgium and the daughter of the former king leopold iii. she speaking to us from london where she has been a arrested wh extincnction rebellion, protestg around the climate crisis. i also want to thank gia abrassart, congolese-belgian activist and founder of cafe congo in brussels. and that does it for our show.
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it means love. you'll master it dozens of must-know phrases by completing the easy japanese series. japanese weather officials are warning of a wet and potentially weekend ahead for many parts of the country. torrential downpours have caused widespread flooding and landslides. more than 60 people are dead and over a dozen are missing. the southwestern i island of kyushu has bne

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