♪ amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> in 2006, i went to lebanon. it took 30 days to do the same destruction. we had it in one explplosion. we have never seen something like that. amy: a massive explosion at the port in beirut, lebanon has killed more than 100 people and injured over

4,000. hundreds are still missing. at the time of the blast, lebanon was already facing an ecoconomic, political and medical crisis. we will go to beirut to a lebanese pediatrician whose own daughter was injured by the blast. then we speak to journalist rami khouri, and look at growing calls to break up the big tech monopolies. >> your companies harvest and monetize our data, and then your company heart -- uses that data to s spy on competitors and copy,, acacquire and kill rivals. amy: we will play highlighthts of up -- of an unprecedented congressional hearing, and speak to scott galloway, author of "the 4: the hidden dna of amazon, apple, facebook, and google." alall that and more, comining up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, , the quarantine report. i'm amy gogoodman.

in lebanon, a massive explosion at the port of beirutut sent a devastatining shock wave through the lebabanese capapital thursday evening, leveleling buildings, overturning cars and shattering windows miles from the blast site. more than 100 people have been reported dead, though -- dead, with hundreds of people still missing. over 4,000 people were injured. the explioion carrieied the force of a 3.5 magnitude earthquake and was felt t as far away as cyprus, more than 100 miles off lebanon's coast. [shouting] videos of the explosion show a rapidly expanding shock wave engulfing e entire high-rise buildings, leaving behind a pink mushroom cloud rising far above beirut's skyline. one business owner, ahmad ismail, described the moment the blast reached his beirut

shop. >> we were both standing at the entrance. we felt the glass shaking. i said maybe it was an earthquake. we went and asked the neighbors what was going on. that i felt something like lightning strike, and everything turned red, and the explosion threw me off. amy:ebanon's prime minister called the explosion a national catastrophe. he said it was triggered by 2,700 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, inexplicably left unattended in a warehouse for six years. the explosion completely destroyed the port of beirut, a main economic lifeline to lebanon. even before tuesday's disaster, lebanon's economy was in crisis, exacerbated by u.s. sanctions imposed by the trump administration. at the white house, president trump told reporters that u.s. military generals believed the explosion n was caused by a

bomb. >> they would know better than i would, but they seemed to think it was an attack. it was a bomb of some kind. amy: trump offered no evidence for his claim, which was not supported by intelligence agencies. the pentagon declined to comment and referred all press questions to the white house. after the explosion, u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo called former prime minister saad hariri to offer assistance to the lebanese people, not the current prime minister, hassanan diab. afafter headlines, we'll go to beirut for the latest. the united states reported more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases tuesday, with 1,358 deaths, marking the ninth consecutive day the u.s. -- the u.s. covid-19 death toll has topped 1,000. on tuesday, mississippi governor tate reeves ended his long standing opposition

to requiring masks in public and issued a statewide mandate. he also ordered a delay to the start of the school year in some, but not all, of mississippi's counties. mississippi is on track to become the top coronavirus hot spot in the united states. meanwhile a bipartisan coalition of governors in seven states, led by maryland republican larry hogan, is woworking to acqcquire millions of rapidd coronavivirus tests, c citing a failed response by president trump that's led to severe testing shortages and delays. on capitol hill, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell signaled tuesday he might be willing to reverse republican opposition to a new round of $600 per week unemployment benefits. that benefit expired in late july, as talks on a new coronavivirus stimulus bil broke down. in georgia, prisonerers at the ware state prison used smuggled cell phonones to livestream a prison uprising last weekend, demandingg improved health measures amamid an outbreak of covid-19. one video, f filmed on a contraband cellplphone, show two men lying on the for of a prisoson cell, covevered in blood and bandages, as other prisoners plpld for helplp.

in anothther video, a prprisoner describes s being locked i in a cell 24/7 with limitited drdrinking waterer, terrible food, , no electricityty and no sanitationon. >> it does n not work. theyey have cut everythihing off. the reason n we riott is bebecause of health issues. am georgia prison officicials said two p prison staffers and 3 prisoners were injured in the uprirising. dozezens of prisonerers and employees at ware statate prison have tested positivive for covid-19, and two prisoners have died of the disease. meanwhile in california, officials at san quentin state prison say a 22nd prisoner has died from covid-19. in illininois, the chigogo public s school system has canceled in person classes in september and will begin the new school year entirely by remote learning.

the school district had been planning to bring most students back two days a week, but canceled those plans after the chicago teachers union announced its members would vote to authorize a strike over coronavirus safety measures. at the united nations, secretary general antonio guguterres warned tuesday that the worlrld faces a generational catastrophe because of school closures due toto the coronavirus pandemic. >> in mid july, schools were closed i in more than 600 countries, affefecting over one billion students. at least 40 millioion children worldwide have missed out on education in their crcritical preschool years. parents, especially women, haveeen forceded to assume every care burden in the home. amy: u.n. . secretary general guterres called on countries to bring covid-19 under control as quickly a as possiblele so that schools can reopen safely. meanwhile, the pandemic contntinues to worsen across much othe world.d. brazil reported 45,000 new

coronavirus cases tuesday, with the official death toll rapidly approaching 100,000. india reported 50,000 new infections for the fifth consecutive day tuesday. india is behind only the u.s. and brazil in coronavirus cases. the surge came as indian prime minister narendra modi laid a ceremonial foundation stone for a new hindu temple at the former site of a 1616th century mosque in uttar pradesh state, declaring the -- state. the mosque was destroyed in 1992 by far-right hindu nationalists, sparking rioting across indndia that left 2,000 p people dead. back in the united states, in st. louis, missouri, black lives matter activist cori bush has scored a major political upset, defeating 10 term congressmember lacy clay in the democratic primary for missouri's 1st congressional district. clay and his father had held the seat for half of a century.

clay's father was a founding member of the congressional black caucus. cori bush is a formerly homeless african-american woman who helped lead protests in ferguson after the police shooting of 18-year-old michael brown. bernie sanders was the only member of congress to endorse bush ahead of the election, though she also received the backing of justice democrats and the sunrise movement. this is cori bush speaking last nightht. >> this summer, after george taylor, it is going to take more from us. millions of people have taken to the streets around the world, to join us, to join those of us saying that black lives matter. amy: in kansas, the state's anti-immigrant former secretary of state, kris kobach has lost in the state's republican senate primary. congressman roger marshall won the 11 person race with 40% of the vote. in november, marshall will face democratic state senator barbara bollier, who is a former republican, in a

race to fill the seat of retiring republican senator pat roberts. in other election news, congresswoman rashida tlaib is leading in early returns against detroit city council president brenda jones in michigan's democratic primary. two years ago, tlaib beat jones by less than 1%. here in new york, congresswoman carolyn maloney and new york city councilmember ritchie torres have been declared the winners in their congressional races, after six weeks of counting ballots. meanwhile in arizona, the race for maricopa county sheriff is too close to call. former sheriff joe arpaio is trying to win back his old position. in 2017, trump pardoned arpaio, who is now 88 years old, for defying a court order to stop his deputies from racial profiling. four former directorors of the census bureau are criticizing the trtrump administration over its plans to wrap up collection efforts for r the 2020 cenensus a month earlier thanan plplanned.

hohouse majoririty leader steny hoyer slammed the trumump admiministration's decision as a a blatant assault on democracy. he said quote, in seeking intentionally to undercount the poor, minorities and immigrant communities, he is hoping to skew the upcoming redistricting process and transfer funding and resources away from communities that need it most. as of monday, nearly 4 in n 10 households have not compleleted census sururveys. prpresident trump has rerefused to praise the late civil rights icon and longtime congressmember john lewis, who died last month. this is trump being interviewed by jonathan swan of axios. >> how do you think hisistory will remember r john lewis? >> i d don't know.. i don't t know john lewisis. he choho not to come to my inauguration. he chohose -- i never r met john lewiwis, actuaually. >> did you find him impressiveve? >> i c can't say, one way or

another. i find a lot of f people impressive, i i find a lot t of peoplele not impressive. he didn't come to my inauguration. he didn't come t to my state of the union speechehes, and that's ok. that is his right. nobody has done more for black americans than i have. interview with axios is on hbo.o. a warning to our audience, the following headline contains graphic video. police in aurora detained a black family at gunpoint on sunday, after mistaking their vehicle for one that was stolen. video has gone viral, showing police ordering a woman and 4 girls to lie facedown at gunpoint in a parking lot. the girls ranged in age from 6 to 17. two of the girls were handcuffed. in the shocking video, the girls can be heard crying and screaming. [screaming] [crying]

brittany gilliam said she was taking her daughter, sister, and nieces to get their nails done when aurora police drew w guns on their parked vehicle. the aurora police department has apologized and opened an internal investigation. last year in aurora, colorado, elijah mcclain, a 23-year-old african american massage therapist, died after being tackled by police in and placed in a chokehold and then being injected with ketamine by paramedics. at the time, he was walking home from picking up an iced tea for his brother at a convenience store. in colombia, former presidenent alvaro uribe has been placed under house arrerest by the colombian susupreme court, w while an investigation unfolds over allegations of witness tampering and fraud. the accusations are related to crimes committed during colombia's 52 year u.s.-backed war. uribe served as president from 2002 and 2010. his administration was defined by a brutal military campaign against the leftist rebel group, revolutionary armed forces of colombia, or

farc. under uribe's reign, right-wing paramilitary groups terrorized communities with impunity, disappearing and murdering thousands of civilians, and falsely claiming they were rebel fighters to boost support for the war and justify u.s. aid sent to colombia. uribe's house arrest marks the first time a colombian president is formallyy detained. in miamimi, florida, a u.s. appeals court has found former bolivian president gonzalo sanchez de lozada and former bolivian defense minister jose carlos sanchez berzain liable for the massacre of at least 64 unarmed indigenous people in 2003. the massacre happened as massive indigenous-led protests erupted across bolivivia against a proposed pipeline. the mobilizations were met by a violent crackdown ordered by t the government in what became known as the gas war and black october. back in the united states, tropical s storm isaiaias swept rapidly up the east coasast on tuesday, spawning tornadoes,

uprooting trees, killing at least three people and leaving millions without power. isaias is the earliest ninth named storm ever recorded in the atlantic, with 2020's hurricane season on pace to break the previous record set in 2005. in more climate news, europe is sweltering under a heat wave that's shattered records across the continent. london marked its hottest day in recorded history last friday with a high temperature of 100 degrees fahrenheit. paris hit triple digits as well, while spain's northern coast recorded an all-time high of 107 degrees.s. at the white h house on tuesday, president trump twice mispronounced the name of yosemite, one of the most famous national parks in the united s states. trump's gaffes came as he read a speech at a signing ceremony for the great american outdoors act, a bipartisan conservation law allocating billions of dollllars to national parks. >> when they gaze upon yosemite''s towering

sequoias. amy: the fossil fufuel giant bp said tuesday it will slash oil production over the next decade and invest billions of dollars into renewable energy. climate activist bill mckibben tweeted quote, this feels like the most serious announcement from an oil major, after years of pressure from activists, bp to cut oil and gas production 40% by 2030. far from perfect, but far from normal. and d those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, dedemocracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am amy goodman. a warning -- a warning to our listeners and viewers. we will turn to graphic scenes in lebanon where more than 100 people have died in beirut after a massive explosion at the city's port. shockwaves engulfed entire buildings, leaving behind a pink mushroom cloud rising far above the skyline. --r thor thousand people

over 4000 people have been injured. hundreds remain missing. the blast leveled buildings, overturned cars and shattered windows miles from the blast site. an estimated 300,000 people have lost their homes. lebanon's prime minister hassan diab called the explosion a national catastrophe. he s said it w was triggered by 2,700 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, inexplicably left unattended in a warehouse for six years. an investigation has been launched to determine what triggered the blast. the explosion carried the force of a 3.5 magnitude earthquake and was felt as far away as cyprus, more than 100 miles off lebanon's coast.t. lebanese film director, philippe aractingi said beirut looks like a warzone. i went to south lebanon. it took 3030 days to do the same destruction. we had it in one explosion. it is a catastrophe.

i have never seen something like that. explosion completely destroyed the port in beirut, a main economic lifeline to lebanon. the blast occurred at a time when lebanon was already facing an economic, political and public health crisis with covid-19 cases on the rise. we go now to beirut, where we are joined by dr. seema jilani. she is a pediatrician and writer who treated her own daughter in the blast. her husband filmed from inside a crowded ambulance. [singing] [sirens] amy: the scenes and sounds from inside an ambulance in beirut after tuesday's blast.

our guest joins us now on the phone from a hospital where her daughter is being treated. sema, can yoyou tell u us where you were -- seema, can you tell us where you were when the blast occurred? >> i was on a large aoroughfare, bustling, lot of nightlife on a usual day. it was extremely packed, because we were just coming out of a four-day lockdown, from friday through monday. even morewas out, traffic than usual. my husband and daughter were at home. we have floor to ceiling windows. the explosion completely knocked out all of the windows. he went to protect her, and shards of glass flew into deeper uponmuch second inspection. i was in a car.

i heard the blast and crouched down into a fetal position. time lapses and means nothing in these moments, so i have no idea how much time passed. realized i left my keys, went back and the scenes i saw walking from that one block to my home were people in confusion, dusted with debris, doors and glass everywhere. a young woman approached me to use my phone and when i looked at her the second time around, her ear was falling off. i got into my doctor mode, tried to find out if there were any sources of bleeding and tried to make phone calls for her and stabilize her. in the meantime, i had gotten in touch with my husband. my husband said come home now, your daughter needs

you. for the first time in my career, i have never done this. it is so into that occult everything i am. i told the young lady, i am really sorry. i stabilized her, and i had to go. i ran a block, ran up the stairs, to scenes in my apartment complex. completely open, shattered doors. windows in glass everywhere. people bleeding, blood dipping down the stairs. an unconscious woman. all i was screaming was, is my daughter ok? i run into an apartment i don't recognize. ande she is, in a towel my husband is applying pressure to two very deep wounds i can see. we go downstairs, among the chaos to catch an ambulance. we are packed into the

ambulance. one of the last people, luckily to get on that ambulance. we are not moving anywhere for about 10 minutes, because everything is at a standstill. there is despair and destruction, nothing is moving and people are in complete chaos in the ambulance, itself. i turn into half mother, half dr., and that means calming and singing your thehter to sleep, other half means making sure she does not fall asleep and waking her up. amy: how old is s your daughter? >> she is four years old. amy: what did you u find at the hospital when you brouought her there? hospital and a we found utter chaos. they were doing their best

under the circumstances, and their circumstances included coming out of a revolution from september onward which was then haunted -- halted by coronavirus, which was rising ined by looming economic failure, which is leading to what i an almostribe as failed state. overworked, underfunded and now we are coming into the of -- none of which is detectable or could be differentiated from covid. at this hospital, we are seeing extreme trauma, layers of traumama among hospital staff who are calling to see if their own family members are all right. peopople trying to volunteer off the street. the hospital has been hit. lights are hanging,

electrical wires everywhwhere. itit looks like a scene under consnstruction. everybody is trying to shield themselves. when you get to the actual patients, you are stepping over people, i was carrying my daughter, trying to make sure her legs weren't getting in the wayay of a doctor in the hallway. there were patients within the doctor areas. bodies upon bodies. not all of them are dead, but certainly blood, wounds, gaping wounds, shards of glass. children crying. my daughter thinks she recognized a little girl from her school. a lot of perspective, in that moment where you say my daughter has some wounds and we need to get that treated but first go do cpr on the next patient. amy: dr. seema jilani, i

want to thank you so much for being with us. all of our best to your four-year-old daughter, and to everyone right now in beirut. more than 4000 people injured, hundreds are missing. 100 at least confirmed dead. we will continue to cover this situation afterer the break, we are joined by rami khouri. dr. seema jilani is a pedidiatrician based inn beirut. she treated her own daughter, who was injured in the blast. stay with us. [music break] ♪

amy: we defy darkness. democracynow! the quarantine report. -- sent a devastating shockwave through the lebanese capital, tuesday evening, leveling buildings, overturning cars, and chattering windows. more than 100 people have been confirmed dead. hundreds are still missing.

at the time of the blast, lebanon already facing an economic, political and public health crisis, exacerbated by u.s. sanctions imposed by the trump administration. at the white house, president trump told reporters u.s. military generals believed the explosion was caused by a bomb. >> it seemed like it, based on the explosion. i met with some of our great generals, and they seem to feel that was. -- feel it was. it wasn't some kind of manufacturing explosion type of event. this seems to be, according to them, they would know better than i would, but they seemed to think it was an attack, a bomb of some kind. amy: he is referring to military generals. trump offering no evidence for his claim, which was not supported by intelligence agencies. the pentagon declined to comment and deferred all questions to the white house.

explolosion, the secretary of state, mike pompeo called the former primime minister to offer assistance, not the current prime minister. for more,e, we are joined by rami khouri, a senior fellow at the harvard kennedy school's middle east initiative and columnist at the new arab. ,elcome to democracynow! rami khouri. the registered 3.5 on richter scale. cypress felt it. could you talk about what you think happened? how is it possible that more than 2700 tons of ammonium tonste -- i mean two took down the oklahoma city building that closed -- that killed c close to 170 people. this was 2700 tons, being kept at the port.

what do you know, rami khouri? >> the information c coming out from the people who investigated it so far is the storage shed was also storing some fireworks and other materials nearby. it was those materials who caught fire or ignited orr something hahappened because of the heat and humidity, and created a little fire. the fire department was there to put it out. that fire ignited the ammonium nitrate. the real story is not just the 3.5 magnitude richter scale measurementnt, it is the 9.00 magnitude political scale measurement that this is going to unleash, because looking backwards and forwards, this explosion is a consequence of the cumulative incompetence, corruption, lassitude,

amateurism and uncaring attitude by successive lebanese governments, going back 10, 15 years that hass brought the lebabanese people to a point o of pauperization and desperation. they don't have e enough water, electricity, they don't have enough jobs or reasonably priced food. educatn is declining. every dimension of life in lebanon has declined, steadily, uninterruptedly, for the last 15 or 20 years. it is the ruling political elite that are responsible for this, and looking back and forward, because this amount of ammonium nitrate was allowed to be stored there, when people knew about it. governments knew about it and did nothing about it. people were talking to judges to pass a ruling to get the stuff out of there. nobody did anything. the political aftershocks are really going to be, i think, a significant

dimension of this, beyond the amendatory and suffering we are seeking. amy: talk about the politics in lebanon, also the u.s. relationship. president trump i iediately calling -- he was holding a coronavirus press briefing. military generals were not backing him up. you have pompeo, t the sesecretary ofof state, calling up the current prime minister, but the prprevious prime miminister. -- calling up not the current prime minister, but the previous prime minister. >> -- in the white house and state department. these people don't carere ababout lebananon or the arab world. theyey are basically following a rulebook dictctated by internal american p politics, linked heavivily to fundamentalist christian extremisist scream head -- skinheads who are linked to

israeli cocolonial set lists -- colonial settlementists. it will continue to be there. they are campapaning againinst iran and has bella. anything that happens in lebanon that is bad, they will link it to has bella -- lilink it to iran. it is amateurish, and falls into the r realm of criminality and cruelty at the same time. i would d completely discard anything that trump or pompeo says about this. the fact that they called the former prime minister is fascinating because they don't care about humanity and suffering. all they want to do is talk to somebody and link them to the saudi's or somebody who can help them push against iran. the terrible irony is that this policy has only

strengththened iran ovover the years, and t the lebanese people are not focud on that. ththey are focusused on legitimate,a credible, effective and humanistic government system that treats its own citizens as human beings, and not as animals. this i is not just lebanon, by the way. iraq,, palestine, sudan, other arab countries. ordinary people feel that the govevernment tres ththem like animals, without rights, without feelings, without voice. the lebanese and others are out in the streets, demonstratating for veveral years, since 2010. it has been nonstop public demonstrations. there are more happening in jordan, for different reasons. this is part of a regional reality, which is the proper rise asian and -- the proper rise asian -- paupe

rization and dehumanization. they are surrounded by soldiers and troops. the lebanese people are trying to peacefully demonstrate to really demise their own government -- two legitimize their own government. trump and pompeo are adding to the misery and complications of these systems. i woululd not pay any attention to trump or pompeo. amy: it was also raised yesterday that at the end off the week on friday, the special tribunal in lebanon is schcheduled to deliver their verdict on the 2000 five assassination of a former prime minister, the father of the former prime minister, more recent prime ministerer and 21 others. the four defendants, it

alleged has inc. -- having ties to hezbollah. betweenee any links this and what trump was referring to i in this comment ththat didn't haveve much backing f from u.s.s. intelligence? > i don't see any link whatsoever, except in the mind of people like trump, who are e desperatate to finind any reason to push their rightt wing christitian fundamentalist setettler colonial a agenda, and pin anythihing bad on hezbollahh or iran or their supporters in the region. even his own generalals came outt and said we don't see any evidence. like i saiaid, don't t pay any attention n to anything donald trump or pompeo says about the middle east. it is amateurish, based o on endurance, it is ideologically driven. it is nonsense. amy: can you talk about u.s. sanctions, newly imposed,

targeting the syrian government and undermining hezbollahh in lebanon? >> this is part of a legacy that goes back several decades. the u.s. keeps either attacking or threatening to attack or sanctioning arab governments or arab organizations like hezbollah and others they don't like. the terrible irony is that this has been a failed policy. if you go back the last 20 years, if you track the american policy of taking measures to pressure iran, whether it is lebanon or other countries, they try t to pressure iran and youou track the extensive and expanding links of the iranian government with individuals around the middle east, you will find that the american pressure has only led to more complications in the regions s that have opened opportunities, vacuums are the iranians to step in, or

increasingly the chinenese orr the russians or r the turksks to step in. this idea that more sanctions are going to bring about any results is sophomoror, childish. amy: can you talk about what kind of investigation you think k will be done? the lebanese government said they will investigate. people are calling for international investigation, not trusting the government. >> this is central. the lebanese people, broadly speaking to not trust their government anymore becausese ththey have seen the consequencnces of ththeir gogovernment's actions over the e past 20 years, and respectable people, academics, society activists, they say we need an international investigation. we cannot leave this in the hands of the lebanese government. some members of parliament have already said they are going to resign. peoplele are asking for nott only an international

investigation, but immediately to detain the port officials and other officials who knew about this, detetain them preemptively and then give them a fair trial when the investigation is done. this is a critical point now. the transition from the humanitarian catasastrophe of the explosion, which we have to deal with until things stabilize. the transition f from that to a political reconfiguration of the lebanese political system, that is the real aftermath of this explosion. you see it and people saying -- lebanese saying don't give aid money to the government. they will steal it. they havave stolen everything else.. give aid money t to the lebanese red cross, ngos, hospitals. this is an important point bebecause the ability of the lebanese government like all arab governments in the last 20 years or so, to continue a policy of auautocratic

authoritarian militarized policymaking h has led too the pauperizatation of thee majojority of arabs. 70% are poor or vulnerable nono that is quickly increasing with covid-19. the ability of arab governments to maintain these cool policies is very much linked to the support they get, from intnternational parties including the thereicans, thehe french, is nobody that comes out of this modern legacy of arab state failures, nobody comes out looking good. the french president is supppposed to gogo to lebanon today. people are anxious to hear what he says. if you just goes and meets with the lebananese government and makes happy statements about we will always support you, people are going to tell himim to go home. amy: rami khouri, just lastst week, save the children rewarded - -- reported half a a

million children are hungry in beirut. the port has now been completely leveled. in this last 30 seconds, what do you see that needs to happen immediately? >> there needs to be massive coordinated international, arab and internal lebanese support for organizations and the lebanese government should be told to just watch how you do this properly, and let the people of lebanon a and the many cicivil society groups antimilitary in groups get the job done -- and given a terry in groups get the job d done -- and humanitarian groups get the job done. people get electricity to or three hours a day -- two or three hours a day. this i is going to be t terrible ununtil materials come to replace what was destroyed at the p port. we need foooodstuffs, oil,,

things like that. let the lebanese people carry out the job of addressing their needs, and this is an opportunity to show how it can be done by sidelining the lebanese government as well. amy: rami khouri, we wawant to thank you for beining with us. senior public policy fellow and journalilist in residence at the americacan universisity of b beirut. also senior fellow at the harvard kennedy school's middle east initiative. when we come back, this moment of f the big tech ceo's, the big four, testifying before congress. stay with us. [music break] ♪

the devil is wawatching you. this is democracynow!, the quarantine report. i amam amy goodman. it was an unprecedenteted congressional hearing. the big 4 tech ceo's of amazon, apple, google and facebobook faced lawmakers on capitol hill last wednesday for 5 hours, as democratic and republican lawmakers alike hammered the executives with questions about the tatactics they used to dominate the market. in a s spectacle compared to the infamous 1994 congressional hearing of tobacco executives who put up their hands and clclaimed d cigarettes were not addictive, ceo''s mamark zuzuckerberg of fafacebook,, susundar pichai ofof google, tim cook o of apple, and jeff bezos of amazon faced

accusations of stifling competition. republican lawmakers a accuseded them of anti-conservative bias. commmmittee chairman representativeavidid cicilline e a democrat from rhode islandnd said ourr founders would not bow before a king. nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy. this is pramila jayapal questioning facebook ceo mark zuckerberg. >> has facebook ever taken steps to o prevent competitorss from getetting foooothills - -- footholdbyby copyingng competititors? >> i v view it as our job to understand what people are finding valuable in all of the services they use. certainly if -- >> do you copy your competitors? >> we certainly adapt features thahat others have developed, as others have adapted features that we

have. >> since marchch of 2012 since that emo conversatation, how many competitors did fafacebook end ucocopyin > congresswoman, i can't give you a number. >> did you warn the founder of snapchat that facebook was in the process of cloning the features of his company, while also attempting to buy snapchat? >> i don't remember those specific conversations, but that was also an area where it was clear we were going to be building something. >> facebook is a case study, in my opinion, and monopoly power because your company harvests and monetizes our data, and then your company uses that data to spy on competitors and copy, acquire, and kill rivals. amamy: that is congresswoman pramila jayapal questioning facebook ceo mark zuckerberg who was testifying remotely. house judiciary chair jerrrrold nadldler also questioned ceo m mark zuckerbeberg, condememning

fafacebook's aquisition of instagram. >> facebook saw instagram as a threat that could potentially siphon business away. rather than compete with it, they just bought it. this is the type of anticompetitive acquisititi that the antitrust laws were trying to prevent. amy: near the end d of the hearing, subcommittee chairr david cicilllline called for breaking up the big tech companies. >> this hearing has made one fact clear to me. these companies that exist today have monopoly power. some need to be broken up. all need to be properlyy regularr did and held accountable. we need to ensure the antitrust laws written more than a century ago work in the digital age. amy: the hearing came just days after amazon ceo jeffff bezos reportedly made $13 bibillion in a singlgle day as the coronavirus pandemic has left millions of americans jobless and struggling to make ends meet. it was bezos's first ever congressionanal testimony. for more, we're joined by scott galloway, professor of marketing at nyu stern. he's the author of the new

times' best sellers the 4 apple,idden dna of amazon, google and facebook. his recent opinion piece in business insider is headlined this may be the beginning of the end of big tech, we shouldn't see it as a punishment, but a restoration of balance. welcome to democracy now! can you start off by answering your question? will this be the end of big tech? willll the answer be unprecedented? >> that is a correct question. i have been wrong before, this felt -- congrgressional hearings are more spectacle than -- a lot of positioning for the cameras and doesn't appear much has happened. this felt like the culmination, and it was a culmination of a 13 month investigatation, where they

collected over one million pages of evidence, a and the panelists weren't really looking to the witnesses to provide additional information. it seemed as if they were there e to use the witnesses as props to confirm and articulate to the generall publblic and lawmakers their conclusions. their conclusionsns seemed pretty swift and unified across both sides of the aisle, that these companies have aggregated too much power. each of the partieses seems to be upset foror different rereasons, but a at the enend of ththe day, this feels l like a bipartisan actioion and belieief that these companies have grown too powerful. this may be the beginning of the end for big tech as we know it. amy: let me turn again to pramila jayapal questioning facebook ceo mark zuckerberg -- amazon ceo jeff bezos during last wednesday's hearing. >> let me ask you, mr. bezos, does amazon use third-party seller data when making business decisions,

and just a yes or no will suffice. >> thank you for the question. it is s importantnt topic. i also want to thank you for representing us. i can't answer that question yes or no. what i can tell you is we have a policy against using seller specific data to aid our private-label business, but i can't guarantee that that policy has never been violated. >> mr. bezos, you are probably aware that an april 2020 report in the wall street journal revealed your company does access data on third-party sellers, both by reviewing data and by creating tiny product categories that allow your company to categorically access detailed seller information in a supposedly aggregate category. do you deny that report? >> i am familiar with the wall street journal article you are talking about. we continue to look into that very carefully.

i am not satisfied we have gotten to ththe bottom of itit, bubut we will keep p lookining t it.. some of the sources in the article are anonymous. >> i will take that as a you are not denying it. i will tell you a former amazon employee told this committee quote, there is a rule but there is nobody enforcing or spot checking, they just say don't help yourself to the data, it is a candy shop. everyone have -- everyone can have access to whatever they want. galalloway, can you explain what exactly she i is getting at? >> if you own the rails, and you know what is in the cars, and those cars are shipping proroducts to a store, b but you also have storores, your ability to understand whahat is selling components s of those products are inspiring additiononal saleses, if you own the rails, you are not supposed to be competingng with the desestination and

whwhere amazon u understands user behavior, why people are purchasing certain products, the margins on those products, when n they have to go on sale, hohow much they sell, and they might decide that batteries are a great high-margin business and they can produce those batteries in thehe same faorories and brand thehem amazon and start selling ththem, themselves, eveven advertise or put a banner ad in front of the consumer when they are perhaps buying competitive batteries. it seems as if it is an unfair advantatage. th representative is getting to the notion that you can'n't own ththe rails and compete with them. with respect instagram, whether or not at some point, i iyou are soso to show up to somebody and say either sell to us or we will put you out of business, representative nadler accuseded the firm of

stating when they were purchasing i instagram that their justification, one of the justifications for the purchase of instagram was to cauterize a competitor, which is in direct violation of antitrust's. -- of antitrusts. it is a case of different angles of why antitrust law was created, to stop this kind of behavior. amy: will these companies emerge actually stronger and more powerful, after the pandemic? as people are suffering all over this country, just pointing out that in one day in the last week, jeff bezos made $13 billion. >> it is worse than that. the day after the hearings, the firms reported record earnings. 15 minutes after reportiting their earninings up of the closose of markets, their stock increased back in -- by a combined quarter of a trillion dollars.

they added the value of atat&t, pinterest and twitter in 15 minutes. according to these individuals, they have competitors coming from everywhere, but the next day, they managed to announce record earnings and profits in the midst of a globalal pandemic. what was telling about the market the next day is thatat these cocompanies are so big and the indices are weighted, when these four firms go up, the industry -- the indices go down. if you're adding a quarter of a tririllion n dollars of market capitalization across these fofour companies in a low growth economy or an economy that t is in decline, it means every other publicly tradedd company is likely losing r revenue to these companie what i is now good for big tech seems t to be bad for the rest of the economy, because they have aggregated so much power and so much of the spoils. amy: explain whahat you think has to happen. or theenk the doj ftc needs to f file antitrust action against three of the four firms, amazon, facebook

and google. i think facebook should the vest instatagram and whahatsapp -- should divest instagram and whatsapp. amazon should be splitit into three companies. amazon on the core retail platform, aws and amazon fufulfillment. i don't think there was ann elegant way to splplit up apple. i think apple is more about regulation t than antitrust. only restores the marketplace and oxygenates it to inincrease compensation but the core shareholders are better off. awaws would be the most valuable company in the world by i itself. i think elegant antitrust, you have your cake and eat it. with applele, it is difficult to understand how you would split t it up because the quesestion arises as to who has domain o over the core asset, the brand. i t think you w would need to regulate the app store which now controls two thirds of what we call the app economy, and has been accused of using

anticompetitive behaviors. just put those three companies into eight or nine, and regulate apple. amy: scott galloway, you're always on nbc, ththeir business channel. i have not seen you there recently. >> yeah. i was h honest -- i was on cnbc every morning for five years. i don't know what happened. they just stopped calling. i heard from m one of the folks there, that some of my comments were not well received by their advertisers. i don't know if it was big tech. i amam happy to be h here with you now. i still like the folks at cnbc, and i still want it. amy: let me ask you about donald trump, announcing and then reversing his decision to ban the chinese owned video sharing platform tiktok, after microsoft said it is in talks to acquire

u.s. operations for the extremely popular app. he is also saying the u.s. woululd have to benefit. can you explain this -- t the u.s. treasury woululd have to benefit. can you explain this? >> i don't think anyone could. there are legitimate concerns around the company that is if not controlled, inflfluenced by chinese government i in terms to access t to behavior data. those are legitimate concerns. the issue is what is the right remedy. what is unprecedented is what the president is proposing, that he directly gets involved and threatenss to ban the c company u unless it sells to not o only an american company, but he has already decided which company it should d be sold to, and that he should get a commission. we have never seen anything like this. this goes very strange places. indonesian governments might decide to threaten to ban facebook, unless they sell

to an indonesian social media firm. socialismnition of is t the means of production are controlled by the e state, and t the yield is divided up by the state, andnd this feels very socialist when the president starts planning -- playing ceo and calling microsoft and saying you should buy this company and then asking for a commission. people would argue, whether you believe ourr tax p policy is accurate or not, p people woululd argue that is not how ceos behave. we havave never seen anyththing lilike it. it is unlikely that it is legal to do this. it has a lot of people flummoxed as to what is s the role of a president. we have never seen a president way in -- weighgh in and start acting like a real estate broker across organizations. it is hard to envision where this goes from here. amy: a lot has been made of president trump going after china, but maybe it is just going after sarah cooper. he doesn't like to see a woman of color impersonating

him,m, the star of tiktok right now. >> it appepears that he does have s some personal animosity. he has a track record of making personal decisionon -- of making decisions based on his own personal bias. a lolot of people thought that tiktok was a platform the people u used to reserve tickets for his rally that didn't get the attendance they were hoping for. this i is a powerful company, is growiwi fast. to be fair, c china has let mamany of our r big tech companies in, just long enough to steal the ip p and then kick them out. but this is unprecedented. you could see much different remedies, even if they were worried about the data, you can imagine them mamaybe forcing ththe company to go public on the u.s. exchangnge, have all of the serverers locacated dodomestically,, ensue that the fcc felt the company wasn't funneling data back to mainland china. this feels very mob boss like.

it does feel as if there is something around this that is personal. we saw the same thing when -- it feelst like it is governance by id asas opposed to any strategy or consistency. amy: we only have 20 seconds, but you have talked about amazon starting to get into health insurance. >> o or health care, more broadly. i believe that amazon wilill be the largest o or fastesest-growing health care company in the world within two or three years. saidbezosos famously your margin is my opportunity. amazon has a d direct pipeline to every home, they have great data, a and they have ththe capitatato go intoto this field. i think amazon is the fastest-growing health care company in the world in the next few years. amy: scott galloway, thank

you for being with us. author of the new york times bestseller, the four and the algebra of happiness. that does it for our show. i am amy g

how about in your country? do you enjoy viewing the moon? ♪ welcome to o nhk "newslinin" i'm yamamototo miki in tokyo.. people in japapan are taking a moment to pause and remember the victims of a catastrophic event. 75 years ago, an american war plane dropped an atomic bomb on