04/22/21 04/22/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> people are scared. they are terrified. people have isolated themselves. ey are not stepping up unnecessarily and the roads are empty. amy: india is in a state of crisis as covid cases surge and hospitals run out of oxygen. india just set a new global

record wh 315,000 new cases a single day. we will go to mumbai for the latest. plus, we speak with a texas doctor at baylor university who is working with an indian compy to develop a low-cost covid vaccine. and it is earth day. as president biden hosts a virtual international climate summit of about 40 leaders, we will look at the red dea-- an indinous plan to save the plan. >> unapogeticay indenous, the redeal is toivest fr foss fuelsnd corpote pouters end milary ocpations,obolishhe poce and prisons and give indigenous peoples land back. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. india is in a state of crisis as

covid-19 cases surge and hospitals run out of oxygen. india recorded 315,000 new infections on thursday -- the highest daily caseload reported by any country since the start of the pandemic. india also reported its highest daily death toll with 2100 fatalities. hospitals in new delhi and other cities have run out of oxygen. workers at crematoria report they are overwhelmed. >> every day i panel around 30 to 40 bodies of covid victims. i fainted three times while handling the dead bodies. amy: in latin america, uruguay and colombia are reporting record deaths this week. brazil is averaging over 3000 deaths a day and argentina just passed 60,000 deaths in a year. argentina's health minister called this week the worst

moment of the pandemic. in turkey, health ministry data suggests about 1% of the working-age population -- or more than a half-million people -- currently has an active covid-19 infection. turkish officials have so far delivered about 20 million vaccine doses nationwide for a population of over 80 million people. the united states reported another 63,000 coronavirus cases and over 800 covid deaths on wednesday as the white house says i has reached a goal of administering 200 million vaccine doses within president biden's first 100 days. the pace of u.s. vaccinations has begun to slow, with an 11% drop in a weekly rolling avere. polls show about 1-in-4 u.s. residents might not get vaccinated. on wednesday, president biden urged u.s. employers to provide paid time off for workers to receive vaccines and time to

recover from any side effects. the u.s. justice department has opened a civil investigation into whether the minneapolis police department has engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing. attorney general merrick garland announced the probe wednesday, one day after former minneapolis police officer derrick chauvin was found guilty of murdering george floyd. >> yesterday's verdict in the state criminal trial does not address into sleep systemic policing issues in minneapolis. srthe investigation i am announcing today will assess whether the minneapolis police department engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force, including during protests . amy: the probe is separate from a federal criminal investigation into whether derek chauvin violated george floyd's civil rights. the minnesota department of

corrections reports derek chauvin is being held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day at the oak park heights prison where he's being held ahead of a sentencing hearing in june. a prison spokesperson said chauvin will be kept away from other prisoners out of concern for his safety. family and friends gathered wednesday for a public viewing of the body of daunte wright, the 20-year-old black father fatally shot by a white police officer during a traffic stop in the minneapolis suburb of brooklyn center. rev. al sharpton is delivering the eulogy at wright's funeral in a minneapolis church today. this comes as minnesota state lawmakers are considering legislation that would end qualified immunity for officers, place limits on when police can stop drivers, require the speedy rease of bodycam footage in officer-involved shootings, and strengthen civilian oversight of police. in north carolina, protesters

took to the streetof elizabeth city overnight, demanding the release of body camera footage showing the police killing of andrew brown, a 42-year-old black father. police have not revealed details of the shooting, though an eyewitness said that brown was fired on multiple times while trying to drive away from officers. this is keith rivers, president of the local naacp chapter. >> people are feeling tired. people are frustrated. people want this to stop. the only way it is going to stop is if we first have transparency because transparency brings about trust. when you have trust, then we can move forward in the march and the fit for stice. amy: in columbus, ohio, hundreds of protesters staged sit-ins and marched on police headquarters wednesday to protest the police killing of 16-year-old ma'khia bryant.

authorities have released body camera video of tuesday's killing. the disturbing footage appears to show bryant swinging a knife edge to people as an officer arrived on the scene. the officer fires four shots at the girl, killing her. authorities identified the officer as nicholas reardon, who joined the columns police force in 2019 after serving in u.s. air national guard where he received an expert marksman badge. republican lawmakers around the country continue to push bills cracking down on protests. legislators in oklahoma and iowa passed bills giving immunity to drivers who hit demonstrators with their cars. meanwhile, a florida non-profit on wednesday sued governor ron desantis after he signed anti-riot legislation, which

imposes harsh penalties on protesters and further protects police departments. over 80 anti-protest bills in at least 34 states have been introduced this year -- over twice as many than in any other year. the european union has announced plans to cut carbon emissions by 55% compared to 1990 levels by the end of the decade. environmental groups say the plan fails to meet the challenge of the climate crisis and is not in line with the paris agreement's ambition of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius. the white house is hosting a virtual summit on the climate crisis today with 40 world leaders representing the world's major economies. ahead of the summit, president

biden announced a pledge to cut dish unwind trump euros that prevented california from adopting its own or stringent auto efficiency standards. he also pledged u.s. will cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade. environmental groups criticized bidens pledge as inadequate. food and water watch said "as the world historical largest emitter of climate pollution, we have a duty to do much more and to act with greater urgency." meanwhile, mexican president andrés manuel lópez obrador will propose a migration agreement at this week's climate summit. the proposal would see central american asylum seekers and mexican nationals granted a six-month u.s. work visa and a possible path to citizenship if they spend three years planting trees and crops across mexico. an internal investigion by the

u.s. capitol police into the deadly january 6 insurrection has found that, just ahead of the riot, an officer directed all units to be on the lookout for ti-trump ptesters, not the pro-trump insurrectionists who went on to attk congress. the revelation came in a congressional hearing wednesday as california congressmember zoe lofgren quoted a transcript of capitol police radio transmissions. >> radio broadcast was sent to all outside units attention come all units on the field were not looking for any pro-trump in the crowd, but only looking for any anti-pro-trump who wants to start a fight. amy: six capitol police officers have been suspended over their roles in the january 6 uprising, including an officer who posed for selfies with insurrectionists. in russia, hundreds were arrested wednesday as they took

part in protests across the country in support of jailed nationalist opposition leader alexei navalny. navalny was hospitalized earlier this week as his health seriously deteriorated after starting a hunger strike in late march. he is believed to in critical condition. in more news from russia, president vladimir putinssued a warning to western nations against intervening in national and regional issues, citing the situation in belarus and ukraine. >> we really do not want to burn bridges, but if someone perceives our intentions as weakness, burn or blow up these bridges, should know that russia's response will be asymmetrical, quick, and tough. but i hope that no one will think of crossing the so-called redline regarding russia. amy: human rights watch is calling on thai authorities to release activists charged with insulting the monarchy and taking part in protests demanding democratic reforms. two student activists have gone on hunger strike to protest their pre-trial detention. human rights watch said --

"the thai government should stop this witch hunt against peaceful dissenters and demonstrate respect for human rights by permitting all viewpoints." back in the united states, the senate confirmed vanita gupta to be associate attorney general wednesday in a narrow 51-49 vote after alaska republican lisa murkowski joined with democrats. gupta, a civil rights attorney, will be the first indian -american and first woman of color to assume the role. a u.s. judge has ordered the city of los angeles to shelter all unhoused residents of skid row. judge david carter said -- "all of the rhetoric, promises, plans, and budgeting cannot obscure the shameful reality of this crisis -- that year after year, there are more homeless angelenos, and year after year, more homeless angelenos die on the streets." the judge paused order says all women and children on skid row need to be sheltered within 90

days and every unhoused person in the area must have shelter by mid-october. here in new york, the manhattan district attorney's office announced it will stop prosecuting sex work and unlicensed massage. the da is also dismissing over 5000 cases of loitering connected to sex work -- or what's commonly known as the "walking while trans" law, which was repealed earlier this year. advocates welcomed the news but said full decriminalization of sex work is still needed. and senator bernie sanders and congressmember pramila jayapal have introduced legislation that would tax wall street to pay for higher education. the bill would make community college free to all and would eliminate tuition and fees at public four-year colleges for families earning up to $125,000 annually. the costs would be offset by a one-half of 1% tax on stock trades and smaller taxes on

bonds and derivatives trades. in a statement, senator sanders said -- "in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, a higher education should be a right for all, not a privilege for the few. if we are going to have the kind of standard of living that the american people deserve, we need to have the best educated workforce in the world." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined remotely by my co-host nermeen shaikh. hi, neeen. nermeen: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: india is in a state of crisis as covid cases surge and hospitals run out of oxygen. india recorded 315,000 new cases thursday, the ghest daily toll of any country since the start of the pandemic.

india also recorded 2100 deaths -- india's highest daily death toll so far. overall, it's official death toll is about 185,000, but the true toll is believed to be far higher. hospitals in new delhi and other cities report they have run out of oxygen. crematorium's have been overwhelmed with bodies. despite this, india's prime minister narendra modi has continued to hold large campaign rallies. the phrase modi-made-disaster has been trending on twitter. public health experts have blamed the surge on a number of factors, including the government's reluctance to impose new lockdowns, the spread of a double mutant variant of the virus, a recent hindu festival attended by millions, and a slow vaccination drive. india has led efforts to force big pharma to waive patent rights on covid vaccines, but

the united states and other wealthy nations have blocked such a move at the world trade organization. in a moment, we will speak with a texas doctor who is attempting to get cheap vaccines distributed to india and around the world. but right now we go to mumbai, where we are joined by the indian journalist rana ayyub. she is a global opinions writer for "the washington post." first, we would like to express our condolences for your losses. you had loved ones who have died from covid-19 recently. you described the situation as apocalyptic. we're so sorry for your loss. if you can talk about what is happening in india, what has evenappened to your family and what accounts for this and president surge in your country? >> thank you. thank you for having me on your show and thank you for your wishes. it is an apocalyptic situation.

it is heartbreaking not just to be a citizen of this coury but heartbreaking to be a journalist who is bearing witness to india, especially with the number of covered deaths we are witnessing. many of them in their early 30's. the two threads i lost were in their mid-80's. yesterday, 22 patients lost their lives in hospital after a take that was providing oxygen to the ventilators leaked and all 22 paties lost their lives in a span of an hour. it is like this country is breathless. wherever i'm reporting, everybody is begging for oxygen. and i am talking hospitals after hospitals i'm not far from the prime minister's residence. they're petitioning the high court of the country to tell

them we have no oxygen left in our hospitals. state governments are accusing each other of oxygen theft. it is that kind of situation. an investigation done that the government of india and invested billions of fun presenting 162 oxygen plants and so far only 30 such have been in india. clearly, we have not learned our lesson from the pandemic last year when a lockdown was announced and there was a migration -- i just wrote about a story of a young woman who was in her mid-30's pointing to have a child for 17 years. she gave birth to twin daughters. within hours, she died because she was covid-positive and there was no oxygen in the hospital. that is the level of devastation

we are saying. families are carrying their patients on handcarts and stretchers and begging for them on social media. talking about privileged section, not rural india was the we don't know how many deaths are being reported in rural india. nermeen: you've set a little bit about why this latest wave is so devastating, but could it have been anticipated giv the fact the last -- when the pandemic began in india, it was not as widespread? can you talk in particular about the variance in the newest variant of covid-19 that we know of which originated in the state in which you are right now? >> the b 161 strain which has been detected in india in four

different states is responsible for the higher rate of infection. this was first detected in october. not really sure if it is linked to the severity of the cases. experts any epidemics have told me it is reason infection is spreading at such a high rate, impacting a lot of young and middle-aged populations, which is why they're losing their lives. october -- genome sequencing. if the government of india had spent some resources and we had adequate genome sequencing, we could have possibly avoided the situation. but that is the problem with this government. despite the fact we had a crucial year in 2020 when we lost so many lives, they slipped into this complacency. various cabinet members, the prime minister -- eradicating the virus from india, while it was still very much present.

people not wearing masks. people were walking on the streets without masks. we were waiting for this to happen, plus the fact that government did nothing. our health care infrastructure had collapsed. despite that -- this is something that we discovered last year, 2 -- despite the fact our hospitals do not have enough intensive care beds, vigil letters, the government has not had a great vaccination program rolled out. everything coming together, this is criminal abdication of responsibility by the government , not learning from 2020, which is why we had such a crisis up oxygen supply, a crisis of hospital beds, and patients dying. responsibility is with this

prime minister who completely advocated his responsibility. -- abdicated his responsibility. nermeen: peter say what the response has been to the fact that in addition to what you point out is the feelings of the modi government, he has also himsf held massive public rallies even as cases have been going up. how have people in india, how are the media and others were speaking to, how have th responded to what the prime minister has been doing? >> nermeen, last year the media was pretty proactive in calli the covid virus weaponized because some muslims are part of the religious congregation, barely 500 cases in india. this year in march when there were millions of cases in india, the prime minister gave a hindu religious festival where millions of and you devote to

use -- devotees. that has been a single source of spreading the virus. despite that, the india media is prepending it does not exist. the prime minister welcoming -- src is concerned, it looks like two different realities. one is playing out on social media where people are begging each other and asking each other for oxygen and hospital beds. another india where the prime minister and others are pointing massive -- posting massive election rallies in which thousands of people are seen following him without wearing masks. the level of insensitivity which is been displayed by the prime minister and the fact only string media -- they're talking

about reports of hospitals. talking about the distress in crematoriums that the number of deaths have gone up significantly higher. but none of them is naming the prime minister or questioning the prime minister. the prime minister is yet to take a single question from the media. also the india media, except for a few independent publications which have been reporting the truth. the prime minister is critical of those who are reporting the truth. there are two realities. one in india where the patients are dying and devastation on the streets and another india with their conducting -- the ball. amy: the former king and queen of nepal tested positive for

covid after attending a festival, which drew millions of pilgrims. if you could talk about the vaccines and the whole controversy around them, india stopping vexing export because of the catastrophe, what is being called the covid storm in india? in a moment, we will talk with dr. peter hotez, who is at baylor in texas, working with an indian company to get cheap vaccines distributed in india and around the world. >> amy, the prime minister likes to create a spectacle of everything and that -- he is not let vaccine -- initially the prime minister -- now being used widely. being used to vaccinate about

10% of the indian population. that is still not enough. they've only been given one set of the two shots that needs to be given. the prime minister announced so far only those above 45 are qualified to receive the vaccine. now those above 18 are qualified. the question being asked is, where are the vaccines? why have we not upped our production? the opposition leaders have been pointing to the prime minister that they should allow -- we should allow the usage of international vaccines like sputnik. it was only given as recently as 10 days ago. that should have been done months ago. there is a work going on within the prime minister's cabinet and his cabinet minister and opposition leaders some we don't have vaccine and the prime

minister singh we are giving the vaccine. where i am in mumbai, six vaccination centers have stopped because there are no vaccines. producing the largest number of covid vaccines has given different set of rates for different states. there is an inherent discrimination which is happening. but again comfort is happening from the prime minister of the country who is not even tried -- reference of about -- who are apprehensive about the vaccine. nature people are not scared of the vaccine. that is what is happening. weaver have no vaccine or some places that we do have vaccine, people are scared of taking it. right now we have the covid shield, covax which is -- now

we have sputnik. rana ayyub, indian journalist who is a global opinions writer for "the washington post." when we come back, we will speak with dr. peter hotez. we will talk about his push, working with an indian company come to develop a low-cost covid vaccine for the world. what would the was government have to do with this? what does the u.s. government have to change about his policies around vaccines and exports? stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "say your prayers" by anoushka sankar. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. sign up for our daily news digest email by texting the word democracynow -- one word, no space -- to 66866

today. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. while india is facing a public health catastrophe from surging covid-19 cases, the united states reached a milestone wednesday with the white house reporting it has reached its goal of administering 200 million vaccine doses within presidenbiden'first 100 days . he had originally aimed for 100 million. this comes as the u.s. and other wealthy members of the wto continue to fight efforts led by india to force big pharma to wait patent rights to help address the crisis. to talk more about the state of the pandemic in the united states and abroad, we are joined by dr. peter hotez, co-director center for vaccine development at texas children's hospital and dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine. he also has a new book out called "preventing the next pandemic: vaccine diplomacy in a time of anti-science." and he is part of a team at

baylor which is working with a private indian company to develop a low-cost covid vaccine. dr. hotez, welcome back to democracy now! >> peggy for having me. amy: we just finished talking with rana ayyub in india describing the covid storm that they are experiencing there. you are coming up with a plan for a low-cost vaccine, working with an indian company. can explain what this means and what are the obstacles to it? >> it is not only just for india, but what we nd is a simple and easy to use low-cost was a people call it people's vaccine, for t world. the task is daunting. we have 1.1 billion people in sub-saharan africa. 669 people in latin america. half a billion or more in low

income areas of asia. the question is, where do you get 5 billion doses of vaccine? the mrna technology is extremely exciting, but it is new. whether or not you could scale into that time for this pandemic is questionable. what else can we come up with? there is that from j&j and astrazeneca. there will be issues around vaccine acceptance. hopefully, that will result. in the meantime, we are trying to come through with something using same old school technology as that otitis be vaccine that is been around -- hepatitis b vaccine that has been around. it looks really good. it is finishing phase two clinical trials in india. great protection and nonhuman primates and now working with biological e, one of the big

private institutes in india. they are scaling it up to one billion doses. that is exciting. oakley, it can be released for emergency use authorization by the summer in india. what about the rest of the world? the company is committed to i think providing about 70% of its vaccines to the covax sharing facility. but could we get another group to help us with another 4 billion doses? it would be great if the u.s. government could have a role in that and help reassert some leadership in global health. nermeen: dr. hotez, the biological e vaccine reportedly will only cost $1.50 per does. could you talk about why it is some people have raised the question of why it is a more accessible, cheaper vaccine that could easily be transported and

stored, why such a vaccine would not -- was not invested in earlier? was not developed earlier? and whether that could have happened with investment from rich countries? >> it is an important -- probably the most important question. we ask it ourselves because we had been developing coronavirus vaccines for the last 10 years. we work on vaccines for diseases of the poor, vaccines that no one else will make. we adopted a coronavirus vaccine program 10 years ago because at that time no one cared about coronavirus vaccines. it was also orphan. we delivered -- we figured out how to deliver the spike protein. when we got the covid-19 sequence in january, our team -- we have worked together for 20 years -- we turned around really

quickly. then we could not raise money for it because everybody was so focused on innovation. it was all about innovation. they wanted mrn vaccines. i saidhat is great, but what if you can't scale it or safety signal? don't youant a simpllow-cost vacce as a backup? we could not get anyone to move. i wound up raising mon privately here in texas. they came through and raised about $4 million we were able to make that scale of that vaccine and transfer it to biological e. i often think if i had not had just been the first few months of the pandemic going up trying to raise money, we could have maybe had something ready to go right now. i can't complain about the vaccines that we do have. i myself have gotten the pfizer biotech vaccine. i am grateful for it.

there wasn't enough attention paid to an durableeasy brey vaccine for poor countries. hopefully, we can move this along pretty quickly. now the coalition forever dimmick repaired his innovations helping biological e. there helping support the effexor -- manufactur in' grateful for that. we're trying to move as quickly as we can. nermeen: could you talk about some of the other constraints on developing disseminating vaccines widely? the u.s. has also come under criticism in addition to patent rights, maintaining patent rights on these vaccines, also come under criticism for the ban it has placed on exporting the raw materials for vaccines. could you talk about what exactly that ban entails and how it is impacting vaccine efforts

around the world? >> i don't have a lot of details on the ban. one thini do know is the biden administration through the quad meetings was able to relax some of those constraints to support biological e and allow some of those raw materials through. i am happy they did that. the patent issue is one i'm often asked about. patents are important. on thing i like to say, though, the model of loosening patent restrictions is very much around small molecule drugs during the height of the hiv/aids pandemic and companies needed the freedom to be able to make the drugs. patents are important for vaccines, but the most important aspect of vaccines is knowing how to make vaccines and knowing how to do it under a quality i'm rela with quality control --

umbrella and quality control and having adequate regulatory authorities in tact. that is a bigger hurdle than the patents. everybody focuses on the patents, but -- based on those earlier models for small molecu drugs, but the forces and the barriersround vaccines is a bit different. what we really need is to train human capital people who know how to do vaccines under a quality i'm rela in the national regulatory authority and help with the capacity building. even if you relax all of the patent restrictions for all of the vaccines tomorrow, i'm not certain how quickly that would translate into vaccines for the world for this pandemic. long-term issue, the devil important, but right now i think we have to focus on making low-cost, easy to use, durable vaccines available to people in resourced countries come as i say, 5 billion doses number one. number two, let's start working

out that long process of building capacity. right now there are no vaccines made on the african continent -- essentially, no vaccines. not ch better in latin america. a little bit better, not much. the same with the middle east. i served as u.s. sites envoy in the obama administration. it was exciting. we need to figure it out for the rest of the world. we are still too dependent on the multinational companies for something to filter down. a lot of the innovation right now and the vaccine not even coming from the big vaccine companies, nontraditional organizations like moderna and biontech and astrazeneca who are not vaccine companies but are accelerating these new technologies. the innovation is really

important. i just wish we could balance the portfolio a bit more with low-cost vaccines like ours. amy: the principle of public health tweeted earlier today -- i wanted to get your response to that, dr. hotez. also, how much would it cost for the u.s. to invest? for god sakes, the u.s. is pulling out of afghanistan. there are many congress members were assigned cut the pentagon budget. you could take that money saved and poured into vaccine development, ensuring vaccine equity of the world. it is a two-part question, the

astrazeneca and how much money would it take for the u.s. to get the way it pours money into weapons sales? >> the doctor is a good friend and colleague. he is a great man. we talked quite a bit stop i did not know he made that statement about the astrazeneca vaccine, but he is right. there is no reason to hold onto it. maybe there are other vacce supplies the u.s. can prove for india. and i think i should do that, but we should also remember the scale and scope of this problem right now. and yet with a population of 1.2 billion people, they will need 900 million to one billiodoses to get -- to vaccinate their way out of this. in some ways, it is a drop in the bucket. yes, they should do it but the real answer for the coming months is to help accelerate some vaccines like ours. as far as redirecting budget,

who knows how the office of management and budget works in any administration? the amount of funding that we would need to scale up production for another 4 billion doses -- remember, it is a high producing yeast strain. it is low-cost. i think we could do it with a very modest budget. i talk a lot with my friend jeffrey sachs, international development economist, and whenever i tell them about the money we need, he sorta rolls his eyes and says, "oh, my god, this is a rounding error, the amount of dollars you are talking about. it is so modest." if we can mobilize some of that, i think it would be great. nermeen: before we conclude, i want to ask you about recent article you wrote saying the high death toll from covid-19 is not arisen from sars cov 2 bank transmission alone, but als

antiscience forces promoting defiance against vaccines. you talk about the globalization of this anti-vaccine movement. could you explain what that is and how that has happened and how to countert? >> unfortunately, the other hat i wear is a leader in going up against antiscience groups -- not by choice, but by default. my youngest daughter has autism and intellectual disabilities. a few years ago i wrote a book called "vaccines did not cause rachael's chisholm." th call me the og villain. you are seeing this play out nightly now unconservative news outlets. among the conservative parties,

republican party, and that is really scary. yet the russian government lodging in entire program of what is being called weaponized health communications trying to diredit western vaccines in favor of sputnik v. now this is globalized. you are seeing the same kind of far-right u.s. qanon focus around anti-vaccine. i call this an anti-science empire. i tend to be a bit out there on this in theense there's not by any means consensus under the global community. i am of the opinion when so many lives were lost in the united states not only because of covid-19, but of deliberate defiance things like masks and social distancing and now we have four independent news polls all pointing to the most vaccine has group in the united states what are being called

republicans, some polls call it white republicans, and that is the reality. there is a politicization of the anti-vaccine movement. we have to figure out a way to bring it back. i am trying to reach out to conservative groups whenever i can just because we have let this get out of hand. either the u.s. government nor the united nations agencies as really wanted to confront this or call it out, express concern to the putin government, expressed concern in the u.s. about how we allowed this to globalize. we have to figure out a way to dial the fact. amy: dr. peter hotez, thank you for being with us, codirector center for vaccine development at texas children's hospital and congratulations on your book "preventing the next pandemic: vaccine diplomacy in a time of anti-science." when we come back, it is earth day. we will hear about the red deal. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "journey back home" by charles littleleaf. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. today is earth day. as president joe biden begins a two-day virtual leaders summit on climate, a group of 101 nobel laureates has published a letter urging them to "keep fossil fuels in the ground" and support a just transition to clean energy. this week congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez and senator ed markey reintroduced the green new deal resolution in the house with over 100 co-sponsors. this comes as indigenous leaders and land and water defenders have denounced the army corps of engineers decision not to shut down the dakota access pipeline as it continues a second environmental review of the pipeline on standing rock sioux land. this is a clip from a video message to president biden produced by the standing rock sioux tribe and the group rthjusti in the kota language >> in his fure.

mind remembers. it was the gatring of all directio. standi rock, 26. thats where all beg. ousas aner theall and came tether to proct our river. u cabe on th right se of story. shut down the dakota access pipeline. amy: more than two centuries of indigenous resistance created -- let up to the movement at standing rock proclaiming "water is life." we spend the rest of the hour history and a vision for the on the future is detailed a new book published today titled "the red deal: indigenous action to save our earth." for more, we are joined by two of the book's two-dozen indigenous authors. in albuquerque, melanie yazzie

is a co-founder of the red nation, a grassroots indigenous liberation organization, and chair of the board of directors for red mea, an imprint of common notions. "the red deal" is red media's first publication. yazzie is a citizen of the navajo nation and an assistant professor of native american studies and american studies at the university of new mexico. we're also joined from toronto by uahikea mai, a kanaka maoli scholar and activist from maunawili, o'ahu. he's also a member of the red nation and an assistant professor of indigenous politics at the university of toronto. we welcome you both to democracy now! melanie yazzie, let's begin with you. if you can talk about the red deal. >> the red deal is essentially a people's program to prevent extinction. we talk a lot in the red deal about -- the plan is really clear. the stakes are clear. it is to colonization or

extinction. we use that language because we draw essentially from indigenous movements over the last couple of decades for decolonization. indigenous people have been on the front lines for climate justice since 1492 but more recently, as a call for climate justice reverberated across the globe to address this 29 near clock toward climate disaster. indigenous people, whether at standing rock, apache people fighting resolution copper, or people fighting the 30 meter telescope in hawaii, indigenous people have been on the frontlines linesf the struggle to advance the climate justice movement. we draw essentially from that. that is why we say decolonization or extinction. indigenous people make a 5% of the world's population but protect 80% of the world's biodiversity -- which is incredibly important when thinking about climate change.

we do claim you can trust indigenous movements because we have been on the front lines and fighting this battle for so long. we draw essentially from indigenous knowledge. when we talk about it is not the same way we are often cast or stereotyped in the mainstream environmental movement, which is often sort of a spiritual or cultural wdowdressg. the larger mainstream claims on environment of justice. what for us constitutes knowledge are indigenous traditions of governance, science, technology premised on careking our relations. it was what set the crisis we are facing is a species is a globe is not actually climate change, we simply fallen out of bright relation with the earth. we belong to a nation and people who instead of caretaking the earth and sing the earth as a relative, we prey on the earth. wh we argue for in the red deal from an indigenous perspective is the reason why

climate change is happening is because we have fallen out of regulations the earth and what we need to do to rectify the situation is draw from indigenous peoples experience on the front lines and enter back into right relation with the earth. we have a couple of ways. the first, calls for abolition coming from the black lives matter movement, for the abolition of course rural institutions. prisons, police, u.s. military. you just said in the previous segment there are calls to reduce funding for the pentagon to pull out of afghanistan. why don't we take the money going into harming people and put it instead into read invested into people that gives life and dignity. health care, education, covid-19 vaccines come infrastructure, transportation. housing. the red deal talks about this from an abolitionist perspective.

i will say one more thi, something that we -- i will talk tomorrow about this perhaps in the next w minutes -- something we talk a lot about in the red deal is when we were looking at the green new deal, we found it was not comprehensive or extensive enough. it is quite a short document. in early 2019, we decided to sit down and think thrgh what it would mean to indigenous the green new deal and that is when the red deal was born. for us, part of that means we have to take a stronger stance on global imperialism -- u.s. imperialism and global capitalism is a primary philosophy of falling out of right relation with the earth. we draw essentially from an agreement the people's gathering of 2011 in bolivia which had an

explicitly anti-imperialist and anticapitalist perspective on what indigenous people are saying about climate justice. these are some of the things at the heart of the red deal. it is an action-based grant. ntit really embraces the diversy of tactics. nermeen: professor, if you can talk about your bk releasing today which is when the biden's climate summit begins, what are your expectations of the summit? biden is being lauded for apparently expected to make unprecedented cuts, pledging t make unprecedented cuts to carbon emissions by over 50% by 2030. your response to that and what are your demands from the biden administration? what needs to be done? >> thank you for that question.

the biden climate leader summit is not actually about climate leadership. we see it as summit about climate imperialism. after the trumpet administration pulled out of the paris treaty, the international community lost confidence in the u.s. as a leader in climate justice. after obama signed onto the paris treaty and trump exited, the biden administration has a political obligation, let's say, not just toejoin but to attempt to assert ship in the international community and secure its confidence. even those within the alleged borders of the so-called united states are not confident. the climate leader summit is less about justice and the international community and more so about biden's plan for reducing global warming, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and committing funds to renewables. but as we know and as the

climate action tracker suggests, the united states cannot assert itself and identify, be recognized even, as a leader in clate justice by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by0% by 2030. they must be committed according to the climate action tracker to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60%. so what we see in a gathering of biden's climate leaders summit is a performance of u.s. imperialism that is dressed as american exceptionalism masquerading as environmental justice. even biden's pointing fingers at china in his own version of xenophobia. the truth is, since 1750, the preindustrial era, the u.s. has emitted 400 billion tons of

carbon dioxide into the atmosphere compared to china's 200 billion tons. that is double the amount of china's emissions. although biden canceled the keystone xl pipeline, is yet to shut down the dakota access pipeline, enbridge line 3. we see within the so-called borders of the u.s. nation state that biden's attempt to convene a climate leader summit is merely symbolic performance that attempts tshore up american exceptionalism and the u.s. is leadership internationally. we also see other nationstates coming to the sent -- summit that are allegedly climate leaders when in fact they are on the ground not recognized by people in this way. for example, prime minister justin trudeau, an alleged

climbed leader in the world that has been invited by president biden, hopes to actually keep oil and gas pipelines flowing -- differently than biden not canceling the dakot and enbridge line 3, justin trudeau actually purchased the pipeline from the transcanada mountain pipeline. and since the pandemic come has bailed out the oil and gas industry upwar of $20 billion during the covid-19 pandemic. so what we see in this climate leader summit is that like biden , trudeau is not a climate leader. these are climate clouds that perform the letter dish rhetoric of environment of justice when in fact -- committed to extracting fossil fuels. amy: professor uahikea maile and

melanie yazzie, we're going to ask you to stay with us and we will post it online. we want to thank you both for being with us. congratulations on your book published today "the red deal indigenous action to save oursw2

welcome back to nhk "newsline." here's the latest we have for you at this hour. le we start with myanmar where the military is stepping up pressure on the protests. it has issued arrest warrants for 26 people, including all those appointed as ministers by their