09/03/20 09/03/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new yorkrk, this is democracy now! >> we have to bring people together. so my purpose in going will be to do just that, to be a positive influence on what is going on. amy: democratic presidential nominee joe biden heads to kenosha, wisconsin, to meet the family of jacob blake, the black man left paralyzed after police shot him seven times at point link range in the back.

trump visited tuesday. never said blake's name. we'll get response from congressmember mark pocan, who was born and raised in kenosha and whose family knew the famimy of anthony huber, one of two black lives matter protesters killed by a white 17-year-old trump-supporting vigilante. then to belarus, where mass protests continue to demand the resignation of president alexander lukashenko amid a brutal government crackdown after what many say was a rigged election. lukashenko shows no signs of backing down. >> it will pass. streetsotesests on the and stigmas that we are half a million, million? if there were a million of them, i would not be talking to you now. amy: but first come after 23 deaths this year alone, a top commander at fort hood army base in texas is removed. the army has launched a new investigation into the murder of soldier vanessa guillen by a

fellow soldier after she complained of sexual harassment. we'll speak with air force veteran pam campos-palma, who leads the vets for the people project. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the centers fofor disease coconl and prevention has directeted al 50 states s and fiveve large cis to make e preparations t to distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine asas soon as late october. in a letter to the nation's governors, cdc director robert redfieldld urged s states to w e any requirements that would prevent vaccine distribution centers from becoming fully operational by november 1. that is two days for election day. the govevernment has hired t the private company y mckesson corporation to distribute a vaccine once it is approved. there is growing cononcern that the trump administration might give emergency approval to a vaccine before clinical tests are completed in an attempt to

boost the president's reelection chances. public health officials have warned rushing an unproven vaccine could pose health dangers and inflame anti-vaccination sentiment. this all comes as the u.s. death toll from covid-19 approaches 186,000. meanwhile, covid-19 cases are surging in the midwest. more thahan 260 cases s across e states have been linked to a recent motorcycle rally in sturgis, south dakota. one biker has died. this comes as iowa now has the highest covid-19 rate per capita in the country. the number of new cases in iowa has soared by y 90% over the pat two weeks. meanwhile, iowa senator jodi ernst has become the latest republican to embrace a conspiracy theory that far fewer people are dying from covid-19. she also suggested doctors mayy b be misclassifying covid cases in order to make more money.

president trump is escalating his war on the world health organization. the state department has announced it is redirecting $62 million owed to the who this year. in addition, the u.s. is withdrawing government employees who advise the organization. trump has already announced the u.s. will leave the who but that will not officially happen until next year. this all comes as the who is working with over 170 countries to develop a coronavirus vaccine, but the u.s. has help findnd thenn or global effort. the u.u.s. has imposed sanctions on the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court and another top icc official. secretary of state mike pompeo announced the move wednesday. >> in june, the trumpet administration authorize the economic sanctions against foreign persons directly engaged in icc efforts to investigate u.s. or personnel. those who materially assisted in those -- in that. today we take the n next step.

because the icc continues to target americans, sadly. amy: the trump administration has repeatedly attacked the icc for investigating war crimes committed by u.s. troops in afghanistan as well as israeli crimes in the occupied territories. human rights and legal groups iticized the trump administstration's move. katherine gallagher is a lawyer at the cenenter for constitutiol rights.. she represents victims of both u.s. and israel war crimes. -- israeli war crimes. >> the sanctionsns announced byy secretary y of state mikike pomo against the prosecutor of the icc constitutes an frfrontal attack on n the rule of law. ththis action showows the trumpp administstration is s happy to d with dictatotors and war crimins rather t than the victims of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against community. amy: democratic presidential nominee joe biden is heading to kenosha, wiscoin, today to meet with the family of jacob blake, a black man who was left paralyzed after being shot seven

times in the back at point blank range by a kenosha police officer. trump visited kenosha on wednesday but never said jacob blake's name. meanwhile, president trump campaign's press secretary appeared to justify the recent fatal shooting of two protesters in kenosha by a white 17-year-old trump-supporting vigilante. hogan gidley appeared on cnn. >> the problem is so many democratic governors, democratic mayors have now said don't do your job, standdown, let these rights, that these looters continue to criminalize our communities. the president wants them to be of the stand up but it does make sense, logically, if you don't allow police to do their job, then the amemerican people haveo defend themselves some w way. amy: p president trump has orded federal officicials to find ways to cut billions of dollars in federal funding to democratic-run cities that have moved to reduce funding for the police. in a memo released on wednesday,

trump said -- "it is imperative that the federal government review the use of federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in america's cities." the memo lists several cities including portland, oregon, washington, d.c., seattle, and new york. it also directs the justice department to compile a list of what it calls "anarchist jurisdictions." the mayor's office in new york decried trump's move, saying -- "this is a racist campaign stunt out of the oval office to attack millions of people of color." a wawarning to our audience, the following three stories contain disturbing i images andd descririptions of policece viol. shocking new details have emerged about the police killing of a black man named daniel prude in rochester, new york, in march. video released by his family shows prude died from asphyxiation after officers handcuffed him, put a hood over his head, and then pushed his face into the freezing cold ground for two minutes while kneeling on his back.

daniel prude was naked and unarmed. he died seven days later. the police encounter began when prude's brother called 911 asking for help because his brother was acting strangely. on wednesday, three black lives matters activists were arrested during a protest. prude's family is calling for the e firing of the officersrs involved and the defunding of the rochester police department. in news from california, a police officer in san leandro has been charged with felony manslaughter after shooting dead a 33-year-old black man named steven taylor inside a walmart on april 18. within a span of 40 seconds, officer jason fletcher entered walmart, shot taylor with a taser, and then shot him in the chest with his gun. in a statement, the alameda county district attorney stated -- "mr. taylor posed no threat of imminent deadly force or serious bodily injury to defendant fletcher or anyone else in the store." polilice were rsrst calleded toe walmart because taylor was

trying to leave the store with a tent and a bat. his family said he was homeless at the time. the family of a salvadoran-american teenager shot dead in june has sued the los angeles county sheriff's department over his killing. 18-year-old andres guardado died after being shot in the back five times. he was working as a security guard at an auto body shop in gardena when two officers approached him. one of his co-workers says guardado became scared and started running away after an officer drew a gun. a whistleblower within the sheriff's department says the deputy who shot guardado was a prospective member of a violent police gang within the department known as the executioners. the whistleblower, art gonzalez, said earlier this summer -- "members become inked as 'executioners' after executing members of the public, or otherwise committing acts of violence in furtherance of the gang." president trump has suggested people in north carolina break

the law by voting twice in the upcoming presidential election -- once by mail and then again in person to test the election system. pres. trump: let them send it in and let them go vote. and if their system is as good as they say it is, obviously, they won't be able to vote. that is what they should do. amy: under federal law, voting twice is illegal. is also carolina, it illegal to induce somemeone to vote twice. meanwhile, the republican national committee and the trump campaign have sued the state of montana to block an expansion of mail-in voting. in other election news, lara trump, the president's senior campaign advisoror and daughter-in-law, campaigned in florida wednesday with laura loomer, a far-right congressional candidate and conspiracy theorist. loomer is a self-described proud islamophobe who has called muslims savages and islam a cancer. she once cheered on the death of

migrants crossing the mediterranean. loomer has been banned from facebook and twitter for promoting hate on the platforms. loomer is the republican nominee in florida's 21st congressional district, which includes mar-a-lago, the president's private club. a federal appeals court has ruled that the national security agency's bulk collection of amamericans's' phone recordsds s illegal. the program was exposed by nsa whistleblower edward snowden in 2013. snowden tweeted on wednesday -- "the ruling of the court demolishes the longest-held defenses of mass surveillance. after taking into account the best of the government's evidence, the court found the program unlawful and ineffective, establishing the government's public claims of 'necessity' were deceitful." germrman authoritieses say theye confirmed russian opposition leader alexei navalny was poisoned last momonth by a military-grade nerve agent originally developed by the soviet union. alexei navalny was airlifted to a hospital in germany two days

after he became violently ill aboard a flight from siberia to moscow. he remains in a coma. german chancellor angela merkel said "there are very serious questions now that only the russian government can answer and must answer." or on this story later in the broadcast. in france, the trial has begun of over a dozen people accused of being accomplices in a series of attacks the killed 17 people in and around paris overer three days in january 2015. the attackcks began when two french-a-algerian n brothers std the offices of the satiricalal newspaper "charlie hebdo," killing 11 people at the paper. on the following day, another gunman killed four jewish men at a kosher supermarket. all three of the main suspects were killed. "charlie hebdo" was targeted because of its history printing caricatures of the prophet muhammad. ahead of the trial, the newspaper reprinted a number of the cartoons. 44 members of congress, as well as amnesty international and other groups, are urging the

trump administration to block the imminent deportation of a ugandan pastor, saying he will likely be killed if sent back home. paor steven tendo fled uganda and sought asylum in the united states in 2018 after being tortured and arrested dozens of times in uganda for supporting political prisoners and voting rights. during one torture session, two of his fingers were cut off. tendo has been jailed for over 18 months while seeking asylum in the united states. in oklahoma, a 105-year-old woman is leading a lawsuit demanding reparations for one of worst massacres of african americans in u.s. history. in june 1921, a white mob burned to the ground tulsa's affluent, african american neighborhood of greenwood, known as black wall street, killing at least 300 residents.s. lessie benningfield randle is one of two known living survivors of the massacre. the lawsuit says the aftftermath of the massacre is still felt by the community as racial

inequality in tulsa can be traced back to the massacre, nearly a century later. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracacynow.org, the quarante report. i am amy goodman, joined by my cohost nermeen shahaikh. nermeen: good morning, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world.. amy: we begin today's show in texas, where fort hood's totop commander has been removed from his post as public outcry grows over a series of killings and accusations of sexual abuse at the army base. there have been 23 deaths at fort hood this year. 13 soldiers have disappeared or killed or died by suicide. last week, the remains of another fort hood soldier, elder fernandes, were found near the base hanging from a tree. on tuesday, the army announced a new investigation into fort hood's chain of command related

to the april murder of soldier vanessa guillen, whose remains were found near the base in the end of june. in july, her family announced remains had been found in a news conference in washington, d.c., where they demanded a congressional investigation into her case. this is vanessa guillen's younger sister speakaking that day. >> my sister was actually harassed. they did not keep my sister say. they always try to cover up for each other. why? my sister is a a human, too.o. she deserves respect. she deserves to be heard. myacause if this can happen to sister, it can happen to anyone else. how can this happen on a military base? how can this happen while she was on duty? they don't care about us. my sister did not deserve to suffer.

my sister did not deserve this. vanessa main suspect in guillen's death, another fort hood soldier, specialist aaron david robinson, died by suicide as police approached in july, shortly after he was accused. a federal complaint alleges robinson killed guillen with a hammer on fort hood before removing her body in a box. he and his girlfriend then allegedly dismembered the remains. robinson shot himself as police approached him. according turn family, vanessa guillen had been planning on reporting robinson for sexual harassment. her case has sparked national outrage about sexual assault in the military. in july, her f family met with president trump and also announced legislation to create a third party agency where active military personnel could report sexual assault and harassment. outside their chain of command. the bill is named #iamvanessaguillen. guillen was just t 20 years old

when she was killed. for more on the latest developments at fort hood, we go to charleston, south carolina, where we are joined by pam campos-palma, political strategist with the working families party where she leads ththe vets for the people e pro. she is an air force veteteran. wewelcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. you are deeply involved with this case. can you talk about the latest of elements this week, the commander fort hood being forced to step down and how it ties into the vanessa guillen casase, all that you know w out her case so far? >> sure. it has been a devastating titim. veterans, survivors, supporters of the guillen family hahave been organizing for monts sincnce her disappearance to her murder. ththe recent development from te army in teterms of leadership change at ft. hood is a hopeful sign of ththe hard work of

activists who demanded true accountability and no more piecemeal reforms. however, it is not enough. we have been very clear that the army can no longer continue to investigate itself. even with this acting commander scott efflandt, he is ststill ststaying on the b base. it is not clearar if you will actually -- for the gross criminal negligence under his watch. he is not the only commamander number right? this s not unique toto vanessa guillenen or ftft.. rampmpant sexual -- military sexual violence, corruption has been a decade-lolong issue that cannot longer be ignored. sayay what hasouu happened at ftft. hood is not exceptional.

rate ofless, the shear violent crimime on the base is stored nary -- as we mentioned, the nunumber of people w who diy suicide, who have been killed,d, were simimply disappeared.d. can you say something about the way in whichch this militaryry e in particular is r run, it's chn of command, it's leadership, and why youu think there havave beeo many incidents this year a alon? >> rightht. it is s exceptional what is happening atat ft. hood. however, violent crime at ft. hood has been happening for years. for the last 11 years, in fact. ft. hood hasas had among the highest rarates of sexual asass, suicide,e, a mass shooting, and now multiple human trafficking rings which involve active duty ft. hood soldiers. whwhat is real interestiting abt ft. hohood as well, it is one of the largest military installations in the world and

the produces someme of highest ranking, most notable names in the military. our current chairman of the joint chiefs of staff when general mark milley himself,, before being the h highest rankg officer in the armed forces was a commander at ft. hood and others who are now hundreds and known household military cash punditsts and known household military n names. racism,ture, sysystemic corrrruption a and impunity hasn really part in parcel in the department of defense for decades. part of this problem has b been not just -- there are couple of pieces to the problem. rape and racism not really deememed the problem but papart of the culturere, that is impossible report.

the current mechanisms are wasted. by the army's own account in these cases in these e past few months, it has been even more exposed how retaliation within the ranks for reporting is a problem. secondarily, where is the accountability? consistently, congress has not necessarily stepepd up to ththe responsibility of true oversight of the military. congress is really the only ones that can hold the department of defense accountntable. and time and time again, they have relied on the military to investigate themselves. amy: i remember the news conference oh will in washington come of the family driving from texas to wasashington, d.c., and the news conference was delayed in the hot sun because the family was just getting word that the military said they had found the remains of vanessa

guillen. now, they have been calling for this investigation for months. clearly, the pressure being brought as the family actually made it to d.c. and were demanding a bill b be passed in vanessa guillen's name, calling for ann independent way for people to come forward. ca you explain the significance of this bill, pam? >> sure. it is imperative. decades of commanders -- the choice has been clear in the military -- protect the careers of long time generals and high-ranking officers or protect everyday soldiers. time and time again, they've chosen to protect commanders. and commanders have not actually expunged sexual violence from the ranks. in fact, it has risen. so it is extremely important for there to be an indndependent way

for folks in the military to report instanceses of harassmen, assault, of hate crimemes. howewever, it is not the only thing. one of the most important thihis ththat is not to be lost is for theo long, rape violence in letter has been trtreated as an occupational hazard. while the bill, whwhich is not t drafted, t # #iamvanessasaguilln bill is not yet drafted. there are more coverings of bills going throrough ththe hil. it does take one part of the problem, which is an independent third-partyy is s a positive st. however, there neeeeds to be a complete overhaul of military culturee were sexual assault is not a training tool, where it is where thereble, and is actual accountability. the fact that little to no officers are ever really held to account and do n not pay with their careers a are allowed to

continue to retetire shows me tt this is permissible within the ranks. vanessa'sa guillen, mother, met with president trump at the white house in july. she spoke to trump via a spanish-english interpreter. however, 10 minunutes into the conversation, the translator stopped interpreting after vanessa's mother gloria made a request of trump. let's go ahead with the translation that we did. >> my daughter's story is now history. my daughter's story is the story of the whole nation, the whole world. i dreamed of my daughter many times, and she tells me to save the children, to save the children. i don't know which children she speaks of, but i want you to help me. i don't know if it is the children on the border, but if she tells me to save the children, i want you to help me

with the children. she is history now and you can be part of that history. if you help doing something good for this nation. ,my: that is gloria guillen vanessa's motother, saying to president trump, dreaming of her daughter, telling her to be concerned about the children. she was not sure i if there were children o on the border. the e significance of this? and as we end, what the latestst fernandes' remains and the charges that he, too, was being sexually harassed? they say he took his own life. >> yeah. i can't repeat it enougugh. gloria guillen has been one of thee most clear -- one of the biggest failings is that she does not speaking with, right? but she is been very clear in her pursuit. one of the things that has made these cases different and has shed a light as been working-class immigrant woman,

immigrant family, who are not playing into the b blind adulatn of militaryy generals and just blindly trusting them and saying, "we do, accountability." gloria guillen was great to not only tell the president and tell brass,s until military shut down fort hooood. it is not t a good for anyone. i think in this moment we are at a point in this nation where everyday americans are questioning the institutions that continue to fail us. shshe has also said if there iso justice for these dead soldiers, then we will not in good conscience continue to promotete enlistment of our young people, particular the wooden black and brown n people are among t the particularlyes -- when black and brown peoeople ae among the highest rates of enlistmement. the systemic failures by police who also like to investigate themselves, the military has continued failing, trtreating everyday soldiers like

government property, throwing them into o a less w wars with o real questions or strategy. this is now the timeme to divevt from violence and invest in real solutions that treat us in our full humanity.y. so i was not surprised to see an makingnt gloria guillen these demands in a timime when r cocountry is reaeally quite g gg -- grappling witith safety for who, who is s protected? we will continue to organizize r vanessssa guillen, elder fernandes, and trick on ability from the department of defense. and congngress. amy: we e want to thank you for being with u us, pam c campos-p, political strategist with the workrking fafamilies partyty. headad of the vevets for t the e projoject. next, we go to belarus with a demand the resignation of president t lukashenko missesed -- amidst atal

brutal government crackdown. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. i am with nermeen shaikh. we turn to belarus, where people marched and sang in minsk wednesday during ongoing protests of thousands against belarus president alexander lukashenko. protests and strikes against authoritarian president alexander lukashenko have continued for weeks since he claimed victory in the presidential election on august 9.9. critics say his victory was rigged, but he shows no sign of backing down. lukashenko has ruled for 26-years. the state e has responded to ongoing protesests with violence and repression. masked police dragged student protesters into police vans tuesday after thousands flooded the streets of minsk. authorities have also arrested at least three factory strike

leaders in recent weeks. this comes amid a crackdown on the media in belarus. two former tv hosts were arrested in minsk on wednesday. at least 19 journalists who work for foreign media outlets have had their accreditation revoked, and two associated press reporters have been deported. we're joined by sadakat kadri, a human rights lawyer and writer with a focus on eastern europe. his recent piece on belarus for "the london review of books" is headlined "the revolution will not be colourised." welcome to democracy now!, sadakat kadri. if you can start off by laying out the scene and the situation in belarus since the election august 9? tatalk about who ran in the election and what has happened since stop hundreds and hundreds of peoeople have been imprisone. >> sure. it is affixed election that lukashenko hasas won. it is the sixth landslide.

vote --ver 177% of the he has never won more than 77% of the vote. it has been suspected he has been rigging elections f for log time.. what happened is there were no protest. esther have been protests and the other landslides that he has won. he came out -- his right police rounded up more than 7000 people over the next few days. there were allegations of torture allegations of attempted rape. i think the difference this time around is simply people have been using social media, not just facebook, but also social media channel telegram. the allegations of torture, the images of torture went viral. the demonstrations kept going on. they did not peter out as people expected they would after a couple of days. they lasasted for days and then weeks. then the bedrock of lukashenko's

support, factory wororkers, they cameme out on strike, leadingng , thees in belarus society national orchestra, theater, university came out again in support of the demonstrators. the extent after a week, lukashenko's interior minister effectively apologized on national tv, saying many of the wrong people had been arrested -- which is unheard of in belarus. there was a stalemate. there still is a kind of stalemate. what that means is demonstrators are coming up every weekend, as you said, since the university started again this week, students havave been comining o, and lukashenko does not seem to know what to do. of course he could try and crush the demonstrators, but i think he is -- he realizes that all bets will be off if hehe usess serious force against the

demomonstrators, more serious force than he has already used. he has been photographed the last couple of weeks with an assault rifle in his hand and once with machine gun in his hand. he clearly wants the prorotestes and the world to think they need to take them seriously. of whether or not he is going to actually get the security to use live fire and use more force than they have, is up in the air. mentioned in the introduction, there has been a massive crackdown on any kind of independent reporting on what is going o on. you wrote in your piece -- ""media pumping up alarmist propaganda similar to that seen in russia before the invasion of crimea. tales of fascism on the march and fantastically untrue claims

that the russian language is about to be sidelined." could you say more about how these prototests arere being cod in the media there and how people are comommunicating throh social media or other meaeans to keepep these protests going despite this massively brutal response by lukashenko's government? >> sure. the reason my article was called "thehe revolutution will not be colourised," there is a narrative and a russia ababout e color revolulution. itit is namemed after r the rose revolution in georgia and the orange revolution in ukraine. in the west, we tend to think of these has been p popular revolutions werere people are angry. in russia, they are seen as a deliberate strategy by the west to basically promote discontent, to overthrow governments --

which according to the moscow narrative, legitimate governments. governments after these contested elections. people fromeyes of vladimir putin downward, the one thing they need to avoid is another revolution like the thing that happened in ukraine in 2014. a color revolution. i should say in that context, i mean, i've been talking to quite a few from belarus and they are nervous about being linked to closely to the ukraine example, specifically. they don't want to be thought of being a color revolution as was seen in ukraine in 2014. they're even nervous about being associated with the european union. in the ukraine, saw a lot of european union flags being flown. that is not happening all o -- at all in belarus.

they say we are fighting for our rights, fighting for the fairly and be rerun we are confident if it is rerun fairly, lukashenko will lose power. on the queuestion ofof social ma that you raised, it is a very much a social media revolution. the arab spring was famously called the twitter revololution. i suppopose facebook has been ne channel that has been used more often in central and eastern europe over the last for years. but it is a specific social media channel called telegram just making the running in belarus at t momoment. there are thousands and thousandnds of people getting daily updates. there are hundreds of updates every day with videos, images telling people where to march. because it is a cat and mouse game at the moment in belarus.

the riot police are on the streets after being pulled in the first week. directlyare not confronting the demonstrators. the demonstrators are not directly confronting them, either. if you look in telegram channels, you will see instructions, real-time instructions, to demonstrators to turn left on this street and turn right on that street in order to avoid confrontations with the police. of course, censorship does not work anymore. best toko has done his make up for the fact a lot of the presenters on state tv have resigned are bringing in help from russia. basically, broadcasters from rt have flown in -- two teams came in last week not think one is still in belarus. they are basically keeping the state media running. but no one believes it.

people are relying further information on foreign media channels, but also on social media and on telegram m in particular. nermeen: c could you talk a lite bit more abobout putin''s relationship with h lukashkoko d h has as statatus belarus former soviet republic with russia? putin has said he could sit in forces -- sendnd in forces to belarus. what is at stake for russia in these protests? what kind of support have these protests received amomongst civl society in russia?a? >> everything is at stake for everyone in rurussia. for putin, he cannot afford to see belarus fall. ukraraine has been l lost in his eyes t to the west already c coo eurorope already. he can't afford to see another formerer member of the soviet union fall.

again, i'm using -- but the position is complicated by the fact even though he and lukashenko cii on that, neither wants to see -- least of all lukashenko wants to see lukashenko's fall, but lukashenko and putin are not friends. lukashenko has been in power for 20 years, and putin has only --lukashenko has been in power for 26 years. putin has only been in power for 20 years. the pact was signed in the 1990's at a time when lukashenko got it would be the senior rtner in t the union because his real partner was yeltsin. i don't know if you remember, questiontsin was not we say, in command of his faculties. he was an elderly drunkard atat

that point. lukashenkoko thought he was goig to be running the show in years to c come and he comes putin. we all know how vladimir putin has improved his fortunes over the last 20 years. lukashenko's reaction has been to make overtures to both the european u union and also to the united states, asas your listens or viewers may or may not know, mikeke pompeo dede a visit t to minsk in february of this year. the first visit by an american secretary of state for 25 years. honestly, complicated the relations between the white --ouse and d the kremlin complicated, should we say, at the moment, but lukashshenko imagineded he was playing everye agaiainst each other. he c cannot afford to do that anymore. the game may be up for him. he is basically turning towaward putin. putin can't afford to let lukashenko fall, either, so o he is l leaning toward lukashenko s well.

in terms of civil society, people -- opponents of vladimir putin, critics of vlvladimir pun are looking veryry carefully at what is going on in belarus at the moment. one of the people looking most thefully is alexey navalny, vivideo blblogger who has s jusn allegedly poisoneded by vladimir putin.n. about a a week after the electi, he devoted one of his youtube broadcasts, which regularly attracts more than several million viewers, devoted that broadcast to o the strike movemt in belarus and told russians how effective itit wasas holding les to accountnt. that is not t the kind o of mese ththe kremlin wants to hear,r, t it is an inspiring message for the people who are tackling corruption within russia. amy: very quickly, if you could tell us about alexey navalny, who is in a, in germany.

talk about the german doctors findings, he was apparently poisoned. he perhaps at the port in siberia or on the flight. tell us the drug that the germans believe was used in the significance of his position in russia. and then the fact that the opposition leader in belarus who believe is new lithuanania, she will be adaddressing the u.n. tomomorrow. >> i should start by saying the russians examined navalny, said there were no toxins present a t all, it was just a case of low blooood sugar levels and that ws that. then he was flown to germany, as you say, angela merkel yesterday held a press conference where she said beyond any doubt, he had been poisoned. it was a very serious matter and russia needed to answer questions. her s spokesman purposesely setf poison found wasas a nerve agen.

the reason it is significant is because the particular nerve agent came into the news -- we all know about it because two years ago, a russian former operative of the secret services living here in the u.k. in salisbury was s allegedly poisod thewo members of the giu, security services in russia. and they used traces of that poison -- tracaces of that poisn work out. it is been put on the list of prohibited substances on the chemical warfare convention. the reason it is significant i s because navalny hadad a lot of enememies. theree were lots of people who had reasons to poison navalny, but this tocsin is not the kind of thing you get by popping down to the local drugstore. it is reduced only desk produced in-state laboratories as far as anyone knows in any event. in any case, it is not the kind

of thing that should be running loose in russia. the pressure was serious, if putin's russia was serious about getting to the bottom of this, because they say they have nothing to do about it, then i would be conducting an absolute thorough investigation now. weapon banned by ththe chemical w warfare cononvn is avavaable to orordinary peope in rusussia is flabbergast in. if that is the case, vlaladimir putin should be getting on top of this now. amy: finally, the belarus opposition leader, where she will be telling the u.n. and her significance having leleft della rereese? -- significance of her having left belarus? clubs she is the wife of another popular blogger in belarus. kind of an equivalent to alexey

navalny. she is due to this game. she is not a politician.n. she stood in because her husband's candidacy was ruled out back in may or june. trumped uped on charges and prohibited frorom running fofor president himimse. so she stepped up to the plate. effectively,very huge rallies. supposedly won just 10% of the vote, which is highly contested and almost certainly ridiculous. what she will be sent toto the united n nations i'm m sure is t the pressure needs to be kept up on lukashenko and the election should be rerun. amy: sadakat kadri,, thank you for being with us, human rights lawyer, writer. we will link to your piece for "the london review of books," called "the revolution will not be colourised."

t toiden will be headed kekesha, wiscoconsin. we will speaeak with the congressman who grew up in kenosha. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quaranante report. i'm m amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. democratic presidential nominee joe biden heads to kenosha, wisconsin, today to meet with the family of jacob blake, a african-american man who was left paralyzed after being shot seven times in the back by a kenosha police officer last month, setting off ongoing protests. this comes two days after trump visited kenosha where he met primarily with law enforcement and never said jacob blake's name. meanwhile, the trump camampaig's press secretary appeared to justify ththe recent fatalal shooting of two protesters in kenosha by a white 17-year-old namedsupporting vigilante kyle rittenhouse. for more, we're joined by congressmember mark pocan of wisconsin, who was born and raised in kenosha. his family was friends with the

family of one of the two black lives matter activisists shot to death during the protests. mark pocanan is co-chair of the congressional progressive caucus and also the lgbtq+ equality caucus, joining us from madison, wisconsin, where he lives with his husband. welcome to democracy now! can you start off by talking about the significance of trump's visit -- even the local businessman whose burned-out business, he stood in front of, would not meet with him, refused a photo op, said he turns everything into a circus -- but can you talk about the kililling of the two protesters, one of you you know anthony huber, know hisis famamily, and the poe shootingng of jacob blake, what you want to see done? >> thanknk you so much for havig me. that is the part that was completely ignoreded by the president's visit, which is why think the governor and the mayor

did not want the president to come, just to fan the flames. clearly, what happened, somomeoe shot in the back seven times in close range in front of their children by ththe police was another example of the policing problem we have in this country, and then the protests and s some of the v vlence that came out afterr that -- when the vigilanteses came from out of state and out of kekenosha -- think k the vast t majorityty of people who werere arrested were from oututside o of kenosha -- o outside e agitators came in, includuding kyle r rittenhouse walking on the road with a riflfle, given water by ththe pe as he's s walking on the road wh a rifle and d then he shot two people, inincluding g anthony y, the grandson of my mother's best friend -- - when t tse things happened, that is what you respond to. of course, donald trump came to say attaboy to local law enforcement when that is not even close to the masters that came out of what happened in kenosha.

concerned when the president came because clearly all he cares about is himself, not kenosha. we wish he would have cared about kenosha when he came but he had no messages of unityty reconciliation. that i is what we arere hoping r today from joe biden. it t isn: repreresentative, not just trump's is a that has been opposed but even joe biden's,s, which i i said in boh cases itit is too early for them to come, could you talk about the significance of wisconsin as a critical state in the upcoming elections in -- in 2016, trump in i just and narrow margin wisconsin. >> we are a purple statate. we can vote democratic or republicican statewide.. we he e deeplue e and red pockets. but in 2016, litter 200, 250,000 voter dropout. that won't happen again in 2018

we took every constitutional office in wisconsin by one point but they became democratic. we figured out the voting issue that we had in 2016 by kennedy at the time who never camame to wiscononsin and did nonot pututn resourcece here, that is not the case with joe biden. i was in kenosha tuesday visiting my 91-year-old mother when donald trump came. i can tell you, this is one where i think the mayor is trying to keep consistent with the message but there is healing going on. jacob blake's family wants to meet with joe biden. that is part of the healing that needs to happen. i understand politicians want to be consistent rather than correct when they say people should not come, but the healing does need to continue. i was rather shocked by seen almost three quarters of the businesses boarded up even in areas where violence did not happen because people are nervous. people of kenosha are good people i don't expect this to happen, especially with outside vigilantes roaming the streets. i think this is what needs to

happen today. joe biden says today what he said on monday, , that is exacty the message of unity k kenosha needs. amy: president has defended kyle rittenhouse. he is a 17-year-old hearing an ar-15 automatic weapon, a long gun. this is illegal in wisconsin. he wasn't even arrested as he put his hands up and walked over to the police. as he slung his gun in front of him. he turned himself in. >> that is the policing problem that i am talking about. for the president to ignore that and instead think the law enforcement -- you know, we have to adjust policing in this country. we passed a major bill in the house to try to do that. of the fact that a law-enforcement officer, even after what happened in minneapolis, even after what has happened by all the debate across the country, close range, seven shots and a someone's back

in front of their children, that just shows we need to seseriousy reform how we do policing. i have been an advocate for having consistent training across the country. we don't have that right now. there are a lot of things that we put in thatat bill that are necessssary. buffer for donald trump to it nor ththat and a actually encoue outsiders to come into communitities, this is all becee donald trump is tryiying to hava last grasp of his campaign of law and order when only as tennis create discourse whether be around coronavirus. we still don't t have testing supppplies and ppe equipmentnt n wisconsin, for example. we have had 10100,000 small businesses closed down bececause of howow covid has been dealt with. and we have racial tensions because of donald trump fanning the flflames of haed for many of his supporters. if donald trump's america -- it is donald trump's america that is the problem. i remember joe biden's a americ.

we did not have these problems. this is donald trump's -- on his hands what is happening and he is trying to have a neww narrative that isis not workiki. amy: during an interview yesterday, william barr stood by his assertion. though he was with president trump in kenosha, but started talking about mail-in voting and said it can be frfraudulentnt. hehe was much h more strong g at it.. >> this is playing w with fire. we are very clclosely y divided country here. and if peopople have to have confidencece in the results of e elecection and legegitimacofof e government, andd peoeople tryino change thehe rules to this methodology, which as a matter ofof logic is veryry open to frd and coeoercion, is reckless and dangerous. and people are playing with fire. amy: "playing with fire" congress membero. presidenent trump encouraging

people to vote twice. outlined -- these are outrtright lies. donald trump with the post officece has tried to create chaos. he wants people to think their ballots somehow won't countt if they put it in t the mail. he is trying to do everything he can to pick voters rather than butters pipicking the next president and then set up this case that there somehow this fraudulent way of voting that he and his family and many cabinet members have themselves voted. members of congress often vote from home via mail because we are not available. this is an outright lie he is putting out there and trying to make a case of getting chaos and confusion that he is putting out there. the reality is, he has created an environment where people don't want to vote on election day because they don't want to get sick and get their family sick, either. this is donald trump's problem. we have to address the problem we have 187,000 deaths in this

country because of the way he has mishandled covid19 and now he has decided to somehow put this on to voting when the only reason we even have a large amount of people wanting to vote from home is because of covid19. amy: on another issueue regardig the electctions, he recently tweeeeted a letter that you wroe and had 18 other democratic members s of congress sign into, expressing concerns that the office of the director o national i intelliligence has refusesed in-person n briefingso congress abobout foreign interfrfence in cocoming electionons. so if you could talk about that letter andnd also the proposal u recently put forth to cut the pentagon budget by 10% so that money could be freed to fight covid19 in the states in the country?y? >> thank y you. the first one, this is the letter that we sent because e e one power we do have of congress

is thehe power of the pursrse. if some agency is going to listen to the p president and nt do the resesponsibility y by keg congress informemed, we can stop their budget. and we shohould stop t their bu. and not finind them if they're going to allow the presidentnt o maninipulate an agency. it is something we shoululd do d in this month we have to actuallyly -- how fiscal year es september 30. we have to deal with this. i hope this is something we can make real. on the pentagon bubudget, this s something i have watched and at the last four years were we've increased defenense spending g % at a time a relative peace.e. ththere is s no excuse for that. when youou look at the cost overrunsns and the a abuse and e fraud, almost t every major contractor has been charged with nowd and we continue to put $7$740 billion a y year into th. we need to start cutting back. 10% is a pretty modest cut for them to d do. we said not for the troops or their health care, but for the

other things -- private contractors, etc., thahat we cod do. fofortunately, we got over 90 votes for 10% c cut and only the yeyears ago barbara lee andnd id thisis and barbara lee at the te introduced a 1% cut and only got 70 some members. soso increased the members by 2. also the sequestster that is nondefense spending and defense faile spinning in line. if you wanted -- that ends up this yeaear. so we have a real opportunity to go and make some serious cuts on defense that we can trim it and right size it and that will be a major goal of many of us in congress. of the houseneal ways and means committee over alex morse in western mass. it was described as a fiercely homophobic campaign. your thoughts? >> it was. whoever in their party, the

massachusetts party convince them to do a smear campaign should be kicked out of office. there is no accounting for that in politics. there should not be for either party. amy: congressmember m

♪ hello. glad to have you with us on nhk "newsline." i'm yamamoto miki in tokyo. we start here in j japan where people on the southern w wester island of kyushu are e pr pairing for awe powerful typhoon. weather officials say it could make land fall close to full strength sometime between sunday and monday. typh