04/81/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> u.s. is serious, they should be prepared to leave all sanctions they have imposed or reimposed against iran . >> we're prepared to return to compliance with the jcpoa, including lifting sanctions inconsistent with the jcpoa. amy: the u.s. and iran

have begun holding talks throughout the nuclear deal after donald trump withdrew from the agreement three years ago. we will speak to former iranian ambassador and you clear negotiator hossein mousavian. then we speak to nobel peace prize laureate jody williams about the biden administration leaving in place a trump era policy allowing military commanders use landmines across the globe. >> maybe a landmine helps the military for two weeks or something or two hours of a battle, but then they go away and they lve them the. d then for generatns, literall people die when there is no war. amy: then vaccine passports? >> not now nor will be be

supporting a system that requires americans to carry a credential. there will be no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential. amy: we will speak to the aclu, which warrants a lot can go wrong with vaccine passports. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. global coronavirus cases are soaring to levels not seen since january's record peak of infections, led by massive outbreaks across europe, the americas, and parts of asia. india recorded over 126,000 new cases thursday -- a record daily total surpassed only by the u.s. -- with cases continuing to rise exponentially across india. iran recorded its highest-ever daily rate of infections for the

third consecutive day, with over confirmed cases. 22,000 iran has struggled to obtain vaccines and has administered only about 200,000 doses to its population of 84 million. turkey broke its own record for daily infections, reporting over 50,000 cases on wednesday. this comes despite a mass vaccination program which has reached almost 18 million people, more than a fifth of turkey's population. in canada, ontario premier doug ford has declared a state of emergency, ordering a month-long, province-wide remain-at-home order as covid-19 cases threaten to overwhelm hospitals. brazil logged 3800 covid deaths wednesday, nearly topping a record high of over 4000 deaths set a day earlier. hospitals are running out of basic supplies, including sedatives and oxygen, and brazil's largest city sao paulo said it would open 600 new graves per day. this is paula galvao, a doctor at a field hospital in sao

paulo. >> the difficulty of saying this recently is not only elderly patients arriving, but also many younger patients. these were the worst patients i had yesterday. amy: on wednesday, brazil's far-right president jair bolsonaro once again refused to order nationwide public health measures and scoffed at opposition politicians who accused him of genocide over his administration's disastrous handling of the pandemic. >> let as not to accept the policy of staying at home, of closing everything, lockdown. the virus will not go away. the virus, like others, is here to stay and will remain for a lifetime. it is practically impossible to eradicate it. until then, what are we going to do? amy: on tuesday, brazil's lower house of congress passed a bill, backed by president bolsonaro, that would allow corporations to

directly purchase vaccines on the international market and give them to employees ahead of priority groups, including medical workers and the elderly. the british government on wednesday recommended that people under the age of 30 should not receive shots of astrazeneca's covid-19 vaccine after a european drug regulator described a possible link between the vaccine and rare cases of blood clots. other european countries have scaled back use of the vaccine in people under 60. about one in 100,000 recipients of astrazeneca's vaccine have reported clotting, 18 cases of which have been fatal. european regulators noted that blood clots are a far more common symptom of covid-19 and that the benefits of astrazeneca's vaccine continue to far outweigh the risks. this comes as a new study found more than one out of three survivors of severe covid-19 developed psychiatric or neurological conditions within six months of their infection.

the united states logged another 75,000 coronavirus infections wednesday, with hospitalizations at their highest levels in over a month even as the number of people vaccinated with at least one dose hit 110 million, or a third of the u.s. population. the centers for disease control said the majoritof u.s. infections are now caused by the b.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the u.k., which has been found to be more deadly than earlier variants and more transmissible. cdc director dr. rochelle walensky said the latest surge is being driven by younger people. >> across the country, we're hearing reports of clusters of cases associated with daycare centers and youth sports. hospitals are seeing more and more younger adults, those in their 30's and 40's admitted with severe disease. amy: hamas has ordered the gaza strip into lockdown after the besieged palestinian territory confirmed a record number of coronavirus infections.

over a third of the 5000 coronavirus tests administered in gaza wednesday came back positive. palestinian authorities have received 40,000 vaccine doses from the united arab emirates and 100,000 from china, enough for just a fraction of the 5 million palestinians in the gaza strip and the occupied west bank. meanwhile, israel's top coronavirus official says an outdoor mask mandate will likely be dropped next week after the number of severe covid-19 cases dropped to a four-month low. israel implemented the wmold's fastest mass-vaccination program, with over 10 million doses administered to date. over half of israelis are now fully vaccinated. the biden administration is restoring u.s. aid to unrwa -- the u.n. relief agency for palestinians -- after trump cut its funding in 2018. the u.s. will also provide additional aistance fus to the occupied palestinian territories, including through usaid programs.

president biden is announcing a series of executive actions on gun control today. they include regulations on so-called ghost guns -- home-assembled firearms that don't have serial numbers. he will also name david chipman, a gun-control advocate, to head the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives. gun control groups say the measures don't go far enough but the white house say it's up to congress to pass certain laws including universal background checks and banning assault weapons. the executive actions come after deadly mass shootings in boulder, colorado, atlanta, georgia, and elsewhere. west virginia democratic senator joe manchiwrote in an op-ed on wednesday -- "there is no circumstance in which i will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster." manchin also suggested he would oppose using budget reconciliation again to pass more of president biden's agenda with just a simple majority. many democrats are calling for an end to the filibuster, which they see as the only way to pass

major bills in an evenly divided senate. in minneapolis, a police use-of-force expert testified wednesday that former officer derek chauvin employed unreasonable and excessive force against george floyd last may when he used the full weight of his body to press one knee against floyd's neck and the other against his back, for nine minutes and 29 seconds. los angeles police sergeant jody stiger was called as an expert witness for the prosecution. >> mr. floyd was not resisting. he was in the prone position and he was handcuffed. he was not attempting to evade. he was not attempting to resist. and the pressure that was being caused the body weight to cause a 60 of which could cause death. amy: president trump's campaign

and the republican national committee issued more than half a million refunds to online donors worth over $64 million in the final months of the 2020 campaign after charging recurring payments to people who had made one-time donations. "the new york times" reports one 63-year-old trump supporter battling cancer had $500 deducted from his bank account every week until his bank account had been depleted and frozen after he failed to opt-out of a fine-print disclaimer. donors who tried to cancel recurring payments encountered a message reading -- "we need to know we haven't lost you to the radical left. if you uncheck this box, we'll have to tell trump you're a defector and sided with the dems." in georgia, the fulton county district attorney will not prosecute state representative park cannon, who was arrested last month for knocking on republican governor brian kemp's door as he signed a sweeping voter suppression bill.

she said the public deserved to witness what was happening. representative cannon spoke to cnn last week about her arrest. >> it makes me wonder why? why were they arresting me? why were they doing this? why did the world have to experience another traumatizing arrest? amy: in related news, atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms issued an executive order tuesday designed to mitigate the impact of georgia's new voting restrictions. the actions will center on educating voters, helping them obtain identification, and training city staff on how to assist voters. virginia has become the 16th state to legalize recreational marijuana and the first in the south. adults 21 and over will be allowed to possess an ounce or less starting july 1. the bill also includes pro-labor measures and efforts to benefit

communities of color that have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. this is virginia democratic delegate charniele herring of alexandria. >> other states such as colorado, vermont, new jersey in the past few days new york, it the same choice. this is because there is a straightforward been justice punishing people for something we have already agreed should be legal, especially when we know the punishments e given out and equitably. amy: in chicago, amazon over-night workers walked off the job wednesday to protest what'known as the megacycle. the 10.5-hour work shift, which rolled out across the u.s. in the past year, has been devastating for amazon workers with health issues and those with daytime commitments such as child care. in related news, the national labor relations board found amazon illegally fired two workers after they publicly call for the company to address

concerns about working conditions and its warehouses and to enact better policies related to climate change. and th2021 izzy award for outstanding achievement in independent media has been awarded to three recipients -- the online news outlet truthout and journalists liliana segura and tim schwab. over the past year, truthout reported on the political, economic, environmental and racial inequities around the impact of the covid-19 pandemic. reporting for "the intercept," liliana segura exposed in detail the cruel injustice of capital punishment and the horrific conditions in prisons and the criminal justice system, which all disproportionately affect communities of color and other marginalized people. in a three-part investigation for "the nation," tim schwab looked at the secretive operations of the gates foundation, revealing how the -- how it uses its influence wide-ranging policy, in particular in the field of public health. the izzy award is presented by

the park center for independent media at ithaca college and is named for legendary dissident journalist i.f. stone. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman in new york, join by my co-host nermeen shaikh. hi, nermeen. nermeen: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: the united states and iran have begun indirect talks as part of a push to revive the 2015 iran nuclear al. former president donald trump pulled out of the accord nearly three years ago. on tuesday, iran and the united states began indirect talks in vienna and agreed to set up two expert-level working groups along with other signatories of the 2015 deal, which is formally known as the joint comprehensive plan of action, or jcpoa. state department spokesperson ned price described the talks as the "start of a process" and said the biden administration is

prepared to lift sanctions on iran. >> when it comes to sanctions, the point, before remains. we are prepared to take the steps necessary to return to compliance with the jcpoa, including by lifting sanctions that are inconsistent with the jcpoa. amy: the united states has imposed some 1,600 different sanctions on iran in a move that has made it harder iranians to import food and medicine. iran's deputy foreign minister abbas araghchi told press tv the lifting of the sanctions must happen before the nuclear deal is revived. >> if the u.s. is serious, they should be prepared to lift all sanctions they have imposed against iran, and after verification, go back to full compliance. if we want to avoid for compliance with the jcpoa, we

would have totally withdrawn from the jcpoa once the u.s. does the previous administration. so we are quite serious. nobody can question iran's goodwill. the jcpoa is alive because of iran. amy: while iran formally remains in the jcpoa, it has faced international criticism for increasing production of nuclear materials -- though it maintains the production is for peaceful purposes. meanwhile, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu criticized the nuclear deal on wednesday. his comments came a day after israel attacked an iranian ship in the red sea. we are joined by seyed hossein mousavian, a middle east security and nuclear policy specialist at princeton university. from 2003 to 2005, he served as spokesperson for iran in its nuclear negotiations with the european union. he's the author of several books, including "iran and the united states: an insider's view on the failed past and the road to peace."

his most recent book is "a new structure for security, peace, and cooperation in the persian gulf." welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you back, ambassador. can you start by explaining the scene in vienna right now? you have the u.s. in one hotel, iran at another hotel, and countries of the european union shuttling back and forth. what are they negotiating this week? >> good morning. actually, the problem with the current negotiation is that since the u.s. broke the promise , practically the u.s. killed the trust on the iranian side. after days of negotiation, iran and the world powers agreed in 2015n a deal, which is the most comprehensive agreement during the history of nonproliferation. it was going very well and iran

delivered completely every promise within the deal. iran was in full compliance. zero failure. the u.s. withdrew, imposed not only the nuclear sanctions, but the u.s. imposed the most comprehensive sanction ever. therefore, iranians think they have been deceived by the u.s.. they have accepted the most comprehensive commitment during the history of nonproliferation. they have implied, complied perfectly. in reward, they've received the most comprehensive sanctions of the revolution. therefore, their coming back to nuclear negotiations with complete mistrust and the feeling of misled and deceit. that is why it is really

important if the u.s. wants to revive the nuclear deal, since the u.s. killed the deal, they have to lift the sanctions first stuff iran would be ready to come to full compliance. here there is a big difference. iran is a member of the jcpoa and the u.s. is not. iran is at least limiting 50% of the jcpoa. the u.s. is at zero implementation. the u.s. is really the country who killed the deal. that is why the u.s. needs to do some serious steps to revive the trust and to fill the gap that has been created by president trump. nermeen: ambassador, could you explain why it is that u.s. and iranian officials are not meeting directly but using

intermediaries? also explain what compliance for compliance means. this is the key phrase that has been used in the negotiations. what does that entail? >> first of all, iranians and americans, they negotiated directly for the first time after the revolution in 2013. foreign ministers met and negotiated and they played a key role for creating such a deal. the deal practically could never come to a final stage in the absence of iran-u.s. direct negotiations. the iranians accepted the measures quite transparency measures and theimits which n

other member has ever accepted during the history of nonproliferation. it was the inian goodwill. they wanted to show they are not after a nuclear bomb and they are ready to accept measures which other country has ever accepted on transparency measures. but because the u.s. killed the deal coming now the iranians say, look, what is the benefit of negotiating with the u.s.? if you negotiate, if you accept the highest level of commitments no other country has ever accepted, if the united nations security council adopts a resolution about the dl, if the international atomic energy agency adopts many resolutions to support the deal, and even if you deliver your commitment, then u.s. will reward you with the most comprehensive sanctions.

therefore, negotiating with the u.s. is baseless. that is why they have really lost the trust. second, compliance for compliance means that, first of all, u.s. during president obama was really serious to implement thdeal. but even durinpresident obama, the united states was not in position for full complianc because of primary and secondary sanctions for the nuclear deal. however, iran remained committed and implemented 100% while during president obama, the u.s. was implementing 30%. it was not the primary secondary sanctions. now, president trump withdrew and imposed hundreds of other sanctions far, far beyond

nuclear. erefore, now iranians say, look, we have showed our full commitment for full compliance for three years nonstop with 0 -- it was you that even not willing to comply with your commitments during president obama because of that, sanctions. now we have an ocean of new sanctions by president trump, therefore, we need to see you would really lift the sanctions. compliance from the u.s. side is lifting the sanctions. compliance from the iranian side to continue to accept the measures within the jcpoa, which is the most intrusive inspections among all members and most limit iranian nuclear program like a cap on 28% or 90%

enrichment cap to below 5%, cap to a stockpile come and a lot of other commitments. therefore, iranians need to go back to full compliance commitments currently there complying at 50% and they need to go back from 50% to 100% and the u.s. needs to start from 0% to 100%. this is compliance for compliance. nermeen: ambassador hossein mousavian, you mentioned primary sanctions in place before the trump and you wrote earlier in a piece that primary sanctions must be abolished. could you explain what those sanctions are and to whom and what they apply and how they differ from the hundreds and hundreds of sanctions that the trump administration then imposed? >> before the nuclear deal the

previous u.s. administration's imposed sanctions like sanctioning iranian oil, investments on the oil industry, many other sanctions under the umbrella of terrorism or human rights and someone. that is why those sanctions practically blocked any economic relation between the u.s. and iran. iran was ready to continued economic relations, trade relations but the u.s. -- was the u.s. because of the sanctions, practically blocked trade with iran. however, there are some sanctions even before the nuclear deal that the u.s. has decided imposing sanctions. it meant of the other countries are going to make business with iran, the u.s. would not make business with them. that is why these are the

problems before the nuclear deal. when they came to the nuclear deal, based on jcpoa, there is a clear statement in jcpoa saying the signatories, the members of the united nations security council and germany, they would not do anything to impede normal trade business between other countries and iran. amy: ambassador -- >> therefore, the primary sanctions practically blocked the normal trade business between the other countries and iran. that is why we are saying the primary sanctions are a problem. the nuclear sanctions are a problem. strong sanctions are a problem. that is why i believe the current u.s. nuclear team now in vienna petabyte robert mueller, have really, really difficult -- they are in a difficult situation because they have a lot of sanctions which based on

jcpoa, they have to lift it in order to make normal trade business between iran and the other countries possible. amy: can you tk about the real effects of the sanctions on the iranian people? in headlines today, we read that an recorded its highest ever daily rate of infections, 21,000 confirmed cases, 84 million iranians, only 200,000 vaccine doses have been administered. how do these sanctions affect the health of the people of iran ? >> this has been a disaster. thousands of people have lost their lives because of the shortage of medicine and medical assistance -- medical equipment in hospitals. a huge shortage of medicine from

all ofhe world. they cannot export medicine to iran because of the u.s. financial sanctions. and now iran is the most about situation with corunna because iran cannot import any vaccine, cannot import anything to save the lives of tens of thousands of iranians struggling with corona. this is a humanitarian disaster created by president trump. unfortunately, up to now, president biden has not been able to remove any committed train sanction even for iran to import vaccine. therefore the iranians, they say president biden practically is following president trump strategy. nermeen: before we conclude,

bassador, could you also comment on the attack on an iranian military vessel in the red sea on tuesday, which is the day that these talks began? both iranian and u.s. official suggested this attack would give credence to those who are opposed to renewing the nuclear deal going to the u.s. returning. what couries are opposed to the deal? americans and iranians in a recent poll, the majority of people in both these countries have expressed support for the deal. >> yes, a majority iranians support. the majority american support. there are only two or three countries who are opposed. first of all any of the u.s., we have hops. you know them. i do not need to introduce you. and we never one of the nuclear deal.

the reason is simple. the reason is that israel has tens of nuclear bombs and they want to prevent any other country, even for peaceful nuclear tecology, because if they have enrichment and if later they decide they can have a clear bomb. israel is not a member of the nonproliferation treaty. israel does not let any inspection of its nuclear facilities. while iran is a member, does not have nuclear bombs and iran is the most inspected country among all number states of the nonproliferation treaty. still, israel -- this is really a joke for international relations for nonproliferation. nuclear bombs is blaming a country which does not have nuclear bombs. is committed --

has accepted the most comprehensive transparency measures and is the most inspected country in the world. that is why israelis have been everything from day one to kill the nuclear deal. they are attacking running in syria, in the oceans, in order to force iran to retaliate. because they believe if the iranians retaliate, would attack the israelis, there would be able to drag the u.s. into military war with iran. this is the main objective. amy: ambassador, thank you for spending this time with us. ambassador seyed hossein mousavian is middle east security and nuclear policy specialist at princeton university. most recent book "a new structure for security, peace, and cooperation in the persian gulf." next up, we speak to jody

williams about the biden administration's decision to leave in place a trump era policy allowing military commanders to use landmines across the globe. stay wh us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "hymn for her" by anne harris. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. the biden administration is facing criticism from human rights groups for leaving in place a trump era policy to allow military commanders use landmines across the globe. on monday, a pentagon spokesperson issued a statement describing landmines as a "vital tool in conventional warfare" and said restricting their use would put american lives at risk. amnesty international criticized the biden administration's stance, saying it is deadly and

dangerous. in 2014, president obama banned the military from using landmines anywhere except the korean peninsula. but last year, president trump's defense secretary mark esper lifted the restrictions on the use of landmines. on monday, state department official stan brown confirmed trump's policy remained in effect. >> right now that policy is in effect as you all know and we have not had any discussions on changing the policy. basically, the geographic restriction of korea and now geographic commanders can decide the use of landmines, which is a pretty high bar. no decision has been made and no study has been done yet. amy: the next day on tuesday, as criticism grew over the issue, pentagon press secretary john kirby claimed the military is now reviewing the trump policy. as a candidate, joe biden had vowed to promptly roll back what he described as trump'deeply misguided decision.

we are joined now by jody williams. she won the nobel peace prize in 1997 for her work with the international campaign to ban landmines. she led the organizing efforts for the landmark mine ban treaty which prohibits the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of antipersonnel mines. more than 160 nations have signed the treaty, but the united states has refused to. jody williams is also co-founder of the nobel women's initiative. she is joining us from fredericksburg, virginia. welcome back to democracy now! there's a new administration but as of monday, they said they were not changing the policy that because of great outcry around landmines, unto say they said they would review it. talk about the u.s. and landmines. >> as you know -- thank you for having me back. it is been a long process trying to get the united states doing

what 164 nations and join the treaty. it is perplexing, to say the least. the u.s. has not -- it is not used, exported, produced for decades. there have been multiple reviews under various presidents. so to have president biden decide to have another review is quite mind-boggling and it is, as amnesty and others said, deadly and i would say retrograde policy to not immediately move back to the obama position. nermeen: can you explain what the effects of these landmines are and what groups are most vulnerable? children in some places are one in five people who are injured by landmines and up to 85% of children who are injured by landmines die before they reach

the hospital. could you talk about that, why th is the case, why children are the most vulnerable, and in what countries landmines are the most widespread? >> landmines were invented, if you will, in order to maim people. the thought behind it was if you have a unit of soldiers and the soldier stepped in mine and got blown up, it upset -- freak out the rest of the soldiers under the unit, take more blood or operations to help that person. so you think about children, how small they are in stepping on a land mine for picking it up, has a devastating effect on kids, older people, women. it is an indiscriminate weapon that has no place on this planet and no place in the ground,

under riverbanks where women go and wash clothes, areas where kids play. the fact that president biden said he would immediately turn back mr. trump's confused policy and is now having another review is. disturbing -- is very disturbing. 5s are still being used in afghanistan also in myanmar. i think about five countries these days. but many countries are still clearing the mines that relate decades ago. nermeen: in addition to the u.s., jody williams, there are other countries that have refused to sign so-called convention that limits the use of landmines. could you explain -- talk about

what those countries are and where it is know that those countries have deployed landmines, among them russia, china, india, pakistan, etc.? >> it is true they have not signed. on the other hand, the pressure of the stigmatization of landmines has had an impact on their policy, except pakistan and india. stop producing for export in the 1990's. russia has not use them or supported them either. this is e of the reasons when we talk about trees that they are so important is that when the whole world in essence is saying a weapon is indiscriminate, should be banned, the pressure on countries that don't sign is significant. when india and pakistan, when the relations get more tense,

sometimes along the border they place mostly anti-vehicle mines. but when tensions go down, they remove them. at least they do that. but they should join the treaty, too. amy: as a presidential candidate, joe biden vowed last year to reverse trump's policy. in february 2020, biden issued this statement to vox -- "the trump administration's reversal of years of considered decisions by democratic and republican presidents to curtail the use of landmines is another reckless act by a president ill-suited to serve as commander-in-chief. it will put more civilians at risk of being injured by unexploded mines, and is unnecessary from a military perspective. as president, i will promptly roll back this deeply misguided decision." that was joe biden a year ago. so how do you have been on monday the pentagon spokesperson

defending the continued use of landmines and then because of outcry on tuesday, the pentagon says, ok, we will review this? >> it certainly is a contradiction and something that those of us who have fought against landmines for decades do not understand. we fully expect to president biden would roll back the policy fairly immediately. i have been reading some of the statements of others about kemp and senator lahey from the great state of vermont still contends that biden will reverse the policy. i would suggest to senator lee and others support banning ndmis that they pressure him to do it now and not do another military review. when i heard about the review i -- leftist at the right word, but i was totally confused

because it is been reviewed time and time again, how many more reviews does one need to do to know those weapons have no place on this planet? amy: let me ask you something. right now there is this issue of landmines. u.s. says it will continue the policy that trump promoted, so landmines can be placed beyond korea -- and that is another question why even in korea? at the same time, you have the u.s. been criticized so many countries around the world for blocking agreements that would allow countries to get vaccines cheaply. so the u.s. will not be a part of ensuring the world can get vaccines, but stands there with those who are pushing landmines around the world. >> it is mind boggling. again, i can't quite imagine what president biden is thinking.

it is seriously confusing. let me say, though, the u.s. campaign to ban landmines is putting pressure tremendously on the president and everybody in the administration to change that policy. the u.s. under mr. trump, as we all know, tried to withdraw from every international treaty, especially those dealing with weapons and mr. biden talked about multilateralism and working with the world community and bringing us back into, you know, the international community in the leadership role. you cannot lead from the rear. if you want to really be a leader, need to deal with the global community, not just your own. so hopefully, our pressure will get him to change his mind and ban them now. amy: finally, you deal with the

issue of killer robots. we do not have much time, but we do not want to skip over this critical area that not a lot of people know about. what are killer robots and what is happening with them now? >> killer robots are a marriage of artificial intelligence and lethal weapons. you take the drones that can fly on its own, at least there is still a human being who sees the target and makes the decision to hit the target. a killer rot but no human being a killer robot has no human being. . some have called that by machine. it is terrifying. the u.s. has already tested some intelligent new missions that can communicate with each other once they have been fired from an aircraft.

i honestly cann understand the moral and ethical position of this country that it is ok to allow machines to kill people. it is mind boggling. amy: we just have 30 seconds but you wrote, why do we glorify violence and war and makepeace seem the folly of fools?" >> i think about that all the time. you make a lot of money in war. it seems like something for tree huggers like myself but work is -- it is made heroic. it is not heroic. it is devastating. it is death. it is destroyed civilization. it is insane. on this planet where we see coronavirus. it is time to stop war.

it is time to work together around the planet for the greater good of us all. amy: jody williams received the nobel peace prize in 1997 for her work to ban landmines with the international campaign to ban landmines. she is co-founder of the nobel women's initiative. next up, the american civil liberties union is warning a lot can go wrong with vaccine passports. we will find out how. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "twelve minutes to go" by the skatalites. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. to sign up for our daily jive digest, go to democracynow.org. as people try to find a safe way to gather and travel during the pandemic, there is growing

interest in documenting who has been vaccinated or tested negative for covid-19. on monday, british prime minister boris johnson announced his government will test the use of covid-19 status certificates. israel is already using a green pass system to allow vaccinated people into restaurants and large events, raising concerns about a two-tier system. on tuesday, the world health organization warned so-called vaccine passports may not be an effective way to reopen. >> again, this is why we at who are saying at this stage, we would not like to see vaccation as or e vaccination passport as a requirement for entror exit because we are not certain at this stage that the vaccine prevents transmission and there are all those otheruestions apart from the question of discrimination against people

who are not able to have the vaccine for one reason or another. amy: here in the united states, new york is already testing a digital vaccine passport app made by ibm called the excelsior pass. meanwhile, republican governors of florida and texas have signed executive orders banning vaccine passports. the biden administration's chief medical adviser dr. anthony fauci said monday covid-19 vaccine passportare "not going to be mandated from the federal government." this comes as the let's medical journal published an editorial arguing vaccine certifates threaten to exacerbate vaccine inequality and risk "generating hierarchical societies in which vaccinated individuals have exclusive privileges that are denied to those who have not received the vaccine." as all of this plays out, the americ civil liberes union has alsoaised concerns abo vacce passports. fomore, we go to jay anley,

senior picy analt for th aclu'speech, pvacy and technolo projectwho wrote a recent piece headlined "there's a lot that can go wrong with 'vaccine passports'." lay it out. >> first of all, the main push our country really needs to be trying to get to rd immunity so that vid becomes anothe disease like measles or others or we just don't have to worry about it on a daily and hourly basis. no one is running around asking us for our measles vaccination certificate left and right. we want to get to th same poin with covid. that should be the number e goal and this should be a sideshow. of course there are situaons legitite to ask people to prove they have been vaccinated for various things -- schools have long done that, for example, perhaps if you are a doctor working with cancer patients who are immunocompromised or a nurse that could be legitimate. and we have systems in place already for proving you have been vaccinated.

no sign paper documents from doctors. so one question is, is that system so broken that we need to construct an entirely new electronic system? if we do, some people have an intuition that, well, in the age of smartphones, it would make sense to have an electronic version that you could have on your phone. but that raises a lot of questions. the first one is equity. a lot of people, 15% of the country, do not have smartphones. disproportionately some of our most disadvantaged people. 40% of people over 65 do not have smartphones. people with disabilities, low income people are disproportionately lacking smartphones. if you create a system that relies on a smartphone, you're going to create the kind of two-tiered society you are quoting people is talking about. there also questions about privacy. the idea having electronic

verification and credentialing systems has been around for decades, and there are a lot of different parties working on those kinds of a system whether it is electronic driver's license, boarding passes, electronic gym memberships. there are a lot of work being done on creating sort of a unified standardized system for providing electronic credentials. this conversation about vaccine credentials is playing into that. there are different ways you could build that credential system. some are decentralized, privacy protecting, empowered individuals so you go and get your shot and the entity that gives you your shot also gives you a certificate, printed or on a phone, that can prove you have been vaccinated using cryptography. then you hold a certificate and choose whom to show it to. there are other systems for doing digital credentials that are centralized, not

privacy-protecting, and that would, forxample, hold off a lot of your information and it would report back to the entity that it is being shown come along for the creation of a lot of data about you. we think there has to be a paper option if there is to be any new more secure system. one of the complaints is the cdc card you get is easily forged. it is possible to make electronic systems that cannot be forged easily on paper. so there needs to be a paper option f pple whdo not have the ineities. and, final, we wt to make re that ople whoannoget ccinatedre not lt out of the syst. ere are ny peoplwere mecally coraindicad. theidoctors have to him becae of mical contions they hav disabilies they

have ce they should noget a ccine becausit could be dangeroutohem. wh happenso them iocie where evebody i runni aroundemandingour passrts althe time they geadmissioto places where nvaccinat people e excluded becau they caot get a vaccinor arehey tated li someoneho is just decidingot to g a vaccine? those ar difficult iues. it ipossible to have a stem at is done well,hat perhaps creases e securi and deeases th ability toake vaine certicates that is equitablandoes protect picy. that is asstant ife are ing toavsomethinhere, it would haveo be tt. unfortunely,e do not have lot of confidee that iwhat is goi to emge. e reas is at there are a

nuer of enties outhere puing this- big entities thar-reachg compans like m, mastercard, t airline there also me nprofit entities pushing the sort of more decentralized privacy protected schemes. i think one of the outcomes is we end up with a lot of different systems and we a have to put five difrent apps on our phones. so i think when the white house originally got involved in this, i think that is what they were trying to avoid, that there be one standard here. and so i think that is where we stand. nermeen: could you talk about some people have drawn a comparison between what is being proposed now by way of vaccination certification and the world health organization possible get a card that provides proof of yellow fever

vaccinations. of course,hat is a car, not digital. would something like that be safer and more easy to access for more people? >> i think what ever solution is settled upon, there is a unifying solution which may not be the case, has to be simple anpaper. there can be securpaper systems that have, for example, qr codes that use cryptography to prent forgery or maybe just the regular cdc cards that we already have is go enough. is there actually a bitroblem with forgeries? is it such a large problem we need to construct an entire infrastructure requiring individuals to engage in mass

adoption, requiring those who give vaccines to adopt software that is standaized, requiring verifying parties of anyone who was to check a vaccine to get the proper software that interfaces into it? by the time anybody's able to create such a system, we may hopefully be at a point of herd immunity. and a lot of this will st go ay. you're not going to be asked for your vaccination left and right. hopefully, that will never happen. t there can be -- we can just rely on the per we ve now, which is the cdc card when you are vaccinated. we could rely on a more secure paper version. that falls on the public key cryptography. so when you get your vaccine, the vaccinationlace would digitally sign using a private y, an electronic token that would be put in your phone and could be put in the form of

a qr code and they digitally sign that with their signature and publish their public key -- a public to private key and that qr code or phone token can only be read with a public key that was created with that private key. so if i check your vaccine and you give me the qr code, i look at the public key of the person who gave you the vaccine and if it decrypts your code, then i knowou got your vaccine from an authorized vaccinprovider and did not get this printed out by your uncle in his garag and i know it has not beealtered. that is a more secure version that would not have the adntage of a purelelectronic system. amy: we have five seconds. >> sorry. amy: just say clearly, we need to discuss this further and there's a large debate brewing

under this country and around the world. jay stanley is a senior policy analyst for the aclu. we will into your piece "there's a lot that can go wrong with 'vaccine passports'." democracy now! is currently accepting applications for a senior news producer to join our team here in new york city. oóoó■

sweet dreams of her favorite actor await. . welcome back. thank you for joining us again on nhk "newsline," we begin with the fight against coronavirus here in japan. stricter measures are returning to tokyo as a surge in new cases follows the lifting of a state of emergency last month. >> translator: from the viewpoint of crisis management we have asked the central government to designate tokyo as an area where strict measures should b