05/06/21 05/06/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> are you going to back the waiver? pres. biden: yes. amy: "a monumental moment." that's how the world health organization is describing president biden's decision to support temporarily waiving the intellectual property rights for covid vaccines.

we will go to india to look at what this means for the global south. then to colombia, where over two dozen protesters have been killed by security forces in an ongoing national strike against the right wing government of ivan duque. >> the strike will continue because we are up against the government that doesn't want to listen, that doesn't want to have talks. there is been repression. amy: then former president trump's facebook account will remain suspended, at least for now. we will speak to shoshana zuboff, author of "the age of surveillance capitalism." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. in what the world health organization is describing as a

monumental moment, the biden administration has announced it now supports temporarily waiving the intellectual property rights for coronavirus vaccines. in a statement, u.s. trade representative katherine tai said -- "this is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures." india and south africa first proposed the waiver in october, but the united states and other wealthy nations blocked the wto from even opening negotiations on the proposal. supporters of the waiver say the move will help increase the availability of vaccines, but they are pressing biden to also back waivers on intellectual property rights on covid treatments and diagnostics as well. we'll have more on this story after headlines. india has set yet another world record for coronavirus cases, recording 412,000 infections in just 24 hours. india reported nrly 4000

deaths thursday, the highest daily death toll for any nation during the pandemic except the united states. on wednesday, india's supreme court ordered the government to submit a plan to supply adequate oxygen to more than 40 delhi hospitals amid dire shortages that have left covid patients gasping for breath. india administered fewer than 2 million vaccine doses thursday -- about half the pace of inoculations reached in march -- amid a severe shortage of doses for india's 1.3 billion people. just over 2% of indians are -- a people in india are fully vaccinated. while covid cases are surging around the world, the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention is projecting a sharp decline in u.s. cases by july if enough people get vaccinated. cases are already at their lowest level since october. on wednesday, the u.s. reported about 44,000 daily infections

and more than 750 deaths. cdc director rochelle walensky is urging adults to be vaccinated. >> we are not out of the woods yet we could be very close. all of us are getting fully vaccinated and continuing our prevention efforts can help us turn the corner on the pandemic as early as july and set us forward on a path toward a more normal lifestyle. amy: a federal judge has thrown out a nationwide moratorium on evictions during the pandemic. u.s. district judge dabney friedrich, a trump appointee, ruled wednesday the centers for disease control and prevention exceeded its authority when it ordered a halt on evictions to prevent community spread of coronavirus. the cdc had extended the moratorium through june. millions of u.s. homeowners cannot make their monthly mortgage payments and about one-in-five u.s. renters are behind on their rent, with black and latinx households disproportionately affected. a new study finds the world faces faces rapid and unstoppable sea level rise in the coming decades unless

nations meet their pledges to cut emissis under the paris climate agreemen the study in the journal "nature" warns that failure to meet the paris goals could mean a global temperature rise of 3 degrees celsius by the end of the century,nough to css a tiing point at wouldead to e irreveible melng of antatica's vast ice sets. the relting selevel ri wod flood astal counities arnd the gbe, with a catastphic 33 et of se leverise by 00. the ited natns warne wednesdaof soaring rates of nger, chd mortaly, and mateal deathduring the vid-19 pdemic. the world food program reported at least 155 million people required urgent food aid in 2020 -- a five-year high with at least 28 million people one step away from famine. meanwhile, the united nations population fund said a global shortage of midwives is leading to as many as 4.3 million preventable deaths of mothers and babies each year.

former president trump's facebook account will remain suspended, at least for now. on wednesday, an oversight board set up by facebook upheld the january 7 ban saying trump's rhetoric created a "serious risk of violence" but the board said facebook should review whether the ban should be indefinite. we will have more on facebook later in the show. federal prosecutors have charged an army national guard infantryman with violent entry over his role in the january 6 riot at the u.s. capitol. abram markofski of wisconsin is one of 40 veterans or active duty soldiers charged over the insurrection. the number-two republican in the house of representatives is calling for the ouster of congressmember liz cheney from her leadership role after she joined a handful of republicans in voting to impeach president trump earlier this year. minority whip steve scalise on wednesday backed new york's

elise stefanik to replace cheney as house republican conference chair. cheney fired back, writing in today's "washington post" -- "while embracing or ignoring trump's statements might seem attractive to some for fundraising and political purposes, that approach will do profound long-term damage to our party and our country." israel's president has given opposition leader yair lapid a chance to form a new government, threatening to end the rule of long-time israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. netanyahu failed to cobble together a majority coalition after a march 23 election showed no clear winner. it was israel's fourth consecutive inconclusive election and came as netanyahu went on trial to face corruption charges. yair lapid has called on palestinians to resume peace talks if they agree to recognize large israeli settlements in the occupied west bank and east jerusalem. meanwhile, in the occupied west

bank, a 16-year-old palestinian boy named said odeh has died after being shot twice in the back by israeli forces in a village south of nablus. the israeli troops then reportedly blocked an ambulance from reaching the boy for 15 minutes. he died before he reached a hospital. the biden administration has rescinded a trump-era labor department rule making it easier for gig economy companies to classify their workers as independent contractors rather than employees. share prices of uber, lyft, and doordash fell on the news. the rule helped the companies to evade basic wage and workplace protections under the fair labor standards act. south carolina lawmakers have approved a bill requiring death row prisoners to choose whether they will be electrocuted or shot to death if lethal injection drugs are not available. republican governor henry mcmaster has promised to sign the bill, making south carolina the fourth state to allow

executions by firing squad. in arkansas, further evidence has emerged that a condemned prisoner who was put to death watch her years ago did not commit the 1993 murder for which he was convicted. ledell lee professed his innocence until his execution by lethal injection in april 2017. the hl you and the innocence project said this week genetic testing found dna from an unknown person on a club used in the murder and a bloody shirt found wrapped around the weapon. the international olympic committee has banned the slogan "black lives matter" from apparel worn by athletes at the upcoming summer games in tokyo. the ioc also said it will punish athletes who raise a fist or kneel during the playing of the national anthem. the ioc cited a rule stating -- "no kind of demonstration or political, religious, or racial propaganda is permitted in any

olympic sites, venues or other areas." the order comes more than 50 years after u.s. athletes john carlos and tommie smith raised their fists in the bck power salute during the national anthem at a 1968 olympic prize ceremony in mexico as a protest against racism in the united states. and former u.s. intelligence analyst daniel hale has been unexpectedly arrested and jailed ahead of his sentencing, which is scheduled for july 13. in march, hale pleaded guilty to one count of the world war i-era espionage act for leaking classified documents about the secretive u.s. drone and targeted assassination programs. on saturday, i interviewed national security agency whistleblower edward snowden and asked him about daniel hale. >> he is one of the most consequential whistleblowers, telling us the drone war that is

so -- [indiscernible] it is here, it is happening and 90% of the casualties in 15 month period were not the target of the drone strike. we could not prove that without daniel hale's voice. amy: edward snowden was speaking on a vtual panel with pentagon papers whistleblower daniel ellsberg that i moderated. to watch the full interview, go to democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: in what the world health organization is describing as a monumental moment, the biden administration has announced it now supports temporarily waiving the intellectual property rights for covid vaccines.

india and south africa first proposed the waiver in october, but the united states and other wealthy nations blocked the world trade organization from even opening negotiations on the proposal. supporters of the waiver say it critically needed to gear up the production level of vaccines for the global south as the pandemic rapidly spreads in india, latin america, and other areas where few vaccines are available. in a statement, u.s. trade representative katherine tai said -- "this is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures." she went on to say -- "the administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for covid-19 vaccines." while the biden administration has publicly backed a waiver, an agreement still needs to be

negotiated at the world trade organization, which is run by consensus. the european union and several other countries including japan and brazil, have also opposed opening the negotiations. the world health organization praised the decision. the biden administration is facing some criticism for not supporting a waiver on intellectual property rights for coronavirus therapeutics or diagnostics. james love said -- "vaccines and foreign markets protect us. therapeutics, diagnostics, foreign markets don't." your congressman jamaal bowman tweeted -- "why do we compete to see who can save the most lives by waiving our vaccine patents?" to talk more about biden's decision, we go to bangalore in india where we are joined by

achal prabhala, coordinator of the accessibsa project, which campaigns for access to medicines in india, brazil and south africa. his new article in the atlantic is headlined "biden has the power to vaccinate the world" and is co-authored with chelsea clinton. welcome back to democracy now! many in the united states and around the world were surprised by president biden's decision yesterday announced by u.s. trade representative's. can you explain for people who are not following this story, the significance of calling for and supporting a temporary waiver and what you think next has to happen? >> thank you. it is nice to be back. president bid's decision yesterday announced through the u.s. trade representative that the u.s. would support working toward a trips waiver that was

floated by south africa, india, did cap as an incredibly pleasant surprise. it did come, however, i should say, six months after the proposal was floated in octob in a pandemic in which lives were lost every day and continue to be. we must acknowledge it is late but still welcome. proposal is monumental because what it does is it allows for more vaccines to be manufactured in the world. the whole world faces a cryptic shortage of coronavirus vaccines. in sub-saharan africa countries have as little as enough to vaccinate 1% of the people. in india, the largest vaccine manufacturer, we have vaccinated 2% of this population with all the doses required. we have vaccinated about 10% of our people with one does. we are facing shortages in this

country. the vaccine recipe can be shared and people who can share it are the u.s. government and the u.k. and the eu as well. the u.s. in particular because it created many of these vaccines. to share the recipe, we need two ingredients. the first ingredient is the legal right to make this vaccine. what president biden did today at the wto is take the first steps of frame one ingredient in that recipe. there are several things yesterday do now. yes to make the other ingredient available. he has to get moderna and johnson & johnson which received grants from the american taxpayers through barter and other parts of the u.s. government up to $1 billion which completely or significantly underwrote all the risk these companies to and developing the vaccine. also given huge orders that were lucrative and insured that

companies can make a profit on them. the u.s. government is not only a moral right but a significant legal leverage that existing u.s. law to take control of these sexy technologies and ship them out into the world. -- take control of these technologies and ship them out into the world. a simple way by which he was can do what it needs to do to vaccinate people within the country, nothing compromised about the u.s. response domestically while yet making the recipe available in the rest of the road so that hundreds of companies can make the billions of doses of this vaccine we need in order to stem the crisis in india but also to prevent a crisis like that happening in india right now from happening anywhere else in the world. nermeen: can you explain the labor will not take effect immediately, negotiations as

u.s. trade representative katherine tai said, negotiations will be ongoing and the decision needs toe consensus-based and the u.s. is not the only country that is opposing the waiver. the eu u.k., switzerland -- they are all opposed to it. so how long will this waiver take to take effect and is there any guarantee that it will? >> this is an excellent question and i thk it is something we must be vigilant. as much of the news today is fantastic, it made me smile and a really dark days here in india, but i must say there could be many slips. in katherine tai's statement, she says clearly this will take time. this is a problem because we don't have time. the mortality rate in india on a daily basis is over 3500 people. there over 400 thousand cases,

new cases being created every single day. we have to do this quickly and yet the wto is a deliver to process. the u.s. probably does have to bring other objecting countries into light. the european union has had they are ready to talk. but there's a question of how long they will take. there's a question of what they will allow to go into the text. we need a waiver in that manner that we proposed it in october 2020. we do not need a watered-down waiver with a whole range of conditions and prerequisites that will make using the waiver difficult. that is not what we want. we wana clear and simple solution to remove the legal obstacles toward producing a vaccine. then oncehis task is accomplished, we need vaccine technologies to be shared as well by the u.s. that would create the

circumstances for us to produce more vaccines. unfortunately, not immediately, but in three or four months. each step of this procs that can be made faster must be made faster because every take any o these steps are delayed, there are thousands of people dying around the world. nermeen: if you could explain people who opposed this waiver set other countries in the world do not have the manufacturing capacity to make these vaccines but in your atlantic these, talk about what is happening, what plans are for the production of russia's sputnik vaccine as well as cuba's vaccine. if you could tell us clearly what those plans are? >> this idea that vaccines can only be made in the west and at best a couple of companies outside the west is archaic, outdated. it is simply dangerous to propagate at a time like this.

it has been propagated and i think quite believed by members of -- senior members of the white house staff, of the biden administration. it is been relayed to the world most recently by bill gates o the bill and melinda gates foundation who also said lifting patent barriers would make no difference in the world because no one who can make these vaccines is not already doing so. what we wanted to show clearly in the piece with my colleague chelsey is to show this is simply not true. not only has it not been true for many years, but it is definitely not true within the state of the pandemic. in the last year what has happened is quite dramatic. assertive manufacturing movement to make more vaccines. two things have fueled it. one, governments across the world have recognized the necessity of having vaccine manufacturing in their borders.

private industrhas also recognized the immense commercial opportunity in producing these vaccines. what that has created is an unbelievable proliferation of new vaccine manufacturing sites. we profiled one of those companies in bangalore with the class of drugs very close to vacces. even though they had never made vaccines before, with the open, easy transfer of technology for the sputnik v vaccine from russia, they were able to go fromtart to finish, literally i'm signing this document to reducing those vaccines, in six months. with an investment of $11 million, repurposed facility, and about 30 people on the job. we are trying to show there is immense manufacturing capacity not only with regulated manufacturing vaccines in india, but biologic manufacturers in

the country number in the hundreds. withn injectable drug manufacturers who could produce the mrna vaccine, which is the revolutionary technology that moderna and pfizer are based on that does not involve biology which means it is a simple and easy process that many, many more manufacturers can potentially re-create. this is not true just in india but in places like i know where manufacturers in the pharmaceutical industry are asking for license to create manufacturing capacity to make this vaccine. the private industry and governments together creating an entire nexus of manufacturing capability but we have to recognize it exists and people can actually make these vaccines in several parts of the world. iran is making vaccines.

cuba has several vaccine candidates. the capacity exists. what the u.s. could usefully do, get that capacity something to make, to put these two very, very well respected, really useful johnson & johnson and moderna vaccines out into the world for anyone to make. that would really be the vaccine diplomacy that we all need. amy: we want to thank you very much for being with us and we will link to your article in "the atlantic." we have been speaking with achal prabhala, coordinator of the accessibsa project, which campaigns for access to medicines in india, brazil and south africa. his new article "biden has the power to vaccinate the world" which he co-authored with chelsea clinton. next up, go to colombia with an ongoing national strike against the right-wing governmen stay wh us. ♪♪ [sic brea

amy: colombian band bomba estéreo. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. you can sign up for our daily news digest email by texting the word democracynow -- one word, no space -- to 66866. texting democracynow -- one word, no space -- to 66866. a nationwide popular strike in colombia has entered its ninth day despite a deadly crackdown by police and military officers.

over two dozen protesters have been killed since the nationwide uprising erupted last week against the u.s.-backed government of right-wing president iván duque and his neoliberal economic policies. 800 people have been injured and 87 people are missing. protesters are vowing to stay in the streets. >> the strike will continue because we are up against a government that does not listen, that does not want to listen, that does not want to have talks with the national strike committee. there's been terrible repression , tax on colombians that are mobilized across the country. amy: the protests began against a now-withdrawn tax reform proposal, but they have since expanded in scope. on wednesday, hundreds staged a die-in in bogota to protest the rampant police brutality over the past week. on tuesday night, over a dozen police stations were set on fire in the capital bogota. meanwhile, the united nations has said it is "deeply alarmed" by the situation in cali where

at least 15 protesters have been killed after police repeatedly opened fire on protesters. the afro-colombian human rights defender charo mina rojas spoke to docracy now! on wedneay from h home inali. coax the people have been mobilized since may 28, the national strike was called out, demaing not only reform but also [indiscernible] impoverished and disenfranchised people wherehe oppression has been concentrated. and of those charged, aested, injured are from -- neighborhoods in calle. amy: the protests come as colombia is facing a deadly third wave of covid cases. on average 500 people are now

dying every day on average. according to "the wall street journal," colombia's per capita death rate is higher than india's. more than 76,000 people have died from covid in colombia, the third highest total in latin america. the pandemic has also devastated colombia's economy, leaving millions out of work and hungry. we are joined by two guests. dr. manuel rozental is a colombian activist with more than 40 years of involvement in grassroots political organizing with youth, indigenous communities, and urban and rural social movements. he has been exiled several times for his political activities. he is part of the organization "pueblos en camino" or people on the path. he is joining us from risaralda. that is the central part of the country, coffee growing region. and in bogota is emilia márquez pizano, sex and gender director with the colombian nonprofit temblores, or tremors, which collects data on police violence across colombia. emilia, let's begin with you.

talk about the beginning of this protest, the violent response by the duque government even as he said he will pull back the tax reforms he proposed, the protests have only gotten larger. >> yes. right now the protests have gotten larger ani think one of the reasons for that is the government's depression on this process has been huge. people of coloia right now are not only tired of or are not only protesting because of the political reforms but because the country has been placed with repression for the last years of this government. this has led to the murder of social leaders and now we have this crisis or yesterday we had

1700 victims and more of police violence. nermeen: why do you think the government has responded, the security forces have responded so brutally tohese protests? >> well, we cannot be sure of why this is happening. there is obviously some kind of norm that is going on inside the police force. but we can assure the government has -- the protest is legitimate. we can say the government has been calling protesters terrorists and this has led to more violence. violence coming from our government. we don't know if it has direct

consequence on the police violence, but obously it is not helping to stop at. amy: on tuesday, the colombian president ivan duque eight addressed the nation. >> if an action is presented outside the framework of the constitution that affects people's rights, as i've always done, i will not accepted in any way. it corresponds to the rule of law, legal promote all investigations internal and with control bodies but we have to be clear to those who work with the security of colombians, all our support and at the same time all of our expectation. i what to announce will create a space to listen to citizens and construct solutions toward those goals where are most profound patriotism and not differences should concede. amy: manuel rozental is joining us. he had been out in the streets. can you talk about what it looks

like, what happened on wednesday, and how these protests have grown to include protests of police brutality, inequality, poverty? >> yes. good morning, amy. it is wonderful to be also with emilia. doing a fantastic job. the most reliable job during this episode. what people need to understand, colombians are fed up. 73% of the people in this country approved the strike before it started. and it has only grown since then. how it feels like? it feels like a massive uprising in this country that nobody runs an over to controls. there's no vanguard leading this. although, many organizations and

unions and organizations have put strength into this, this is a spontaneous, massive, national uprising against -- and i'm not exaggerating -- against a fascist mafia regime. there are assassinations and massacres in colombia throughout the country after the peace agreement. counted by the thousands. there are also impoverishment of the people. the health care system does not work. we did not have health care system prior to the pandemic. the pandemic is only made this a lot worse. there's a direct attack against the poor indigenous people throughout the country.

ongoing impoverishment. here is what is happening that explains everything. on the one hand, the colombian elite and government are linked with drug trafficking, drug trades stop that is why we say mafia. the returns of money from drug trade does colombia produces 92% of the cocaine that goes around the global market. 40% of which is not going to the u.s. anymore but to europe, asia, africa, etc. the returns to that he quite more or less amount more or less to 5% of the national product, pdi. there are millions and millions of dollars coming into this country they go to the elite that permeate all institutions and that support not this

government, which is far right, but a state that has been privatizing, excluding the poor and using a policy of violence and war against people. that has led to the army and the colombian police to become private institutions at the service of corporate interest. both transnational and extractive industries and drug trade. so this is what is happening in the country. the colombians debt is 60% of colombia's national product and growing. in that amount of debt has been created by the elites. but when these elites can't pay, they channel attack reform on the poorest that are already dying of starvation, unemployment, and policies of privatization and generalized

violence. they have pushed colombians into the streets because most colombians have nothing to lose. they meet two days after the strike began, the national colombian institution, well-known for manipulating information and services the government, could not cover up the fact unemployment, poverty, inequality have grown in such a way like cali, that it is hell for most colombians. while the colombian government speaks of removing the tax reforms, the ministers the proposedep it, actually opening for dialogue, this is just a cover-up. in fact, we have a fascist regime that has ordered the police to shoot and kill. erthe former president, who is e president of colombia and the stroman of this country, s

stated based on the theory of -- neo-nazi from chile that is teaching at a military university in colombia, there is a molecular revolution going on without leaders. and so the population being manipulated by a global leftist conspiracy is leading to the instability of the regime, and they must be crushed by force. so they have ordered the armed forces, the police, to shoot to kill. but not only that, worse than that, they have ordered to shoot and kill anybody, everybody, everywhere. so during the day you have a party he. a festivity of people marching peacefully, singing and chanting and wanting a change because we are fed up with the regime. and then at night, the police, the armed forces, and the hitmen

come out and target people and kill them. what we are facing right now is the promise by uribe, the duque administration, police forces and armed forces come assassinations throughout. and finally, just to give you an overview, colombia's president has used the constitution of colombia allows for exception where the army can be called to sist theities if needed. but that is for a major earthquake, a national catastrophe. but he has used for that to call on the army to enter the major cities of these countries. in fact, c bogotá,ali and others are under the control of the armed forces. the collective mayors have no power at theoment. the cities are overrun by the armed forces and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces involved in the past

atrocities has promised the wealthy it will crush the rebellion. you have on the one side people that want to change, what freedom, that can't stand anymore poverty, war, terror and on the other hand you have a fascist resume that is promised to crush them and kill everybody. nermeen: you just said major cities in colombia have been -- are now controlled on the military. do you expect that more pas of the country will come under direct military control? >> yes, absolutely. there has been inattention and past mobilizations f this exact same script. in november 2019, president duque called for a dialogue and for him, that is meeting with

the far-right political parties and the liberal parties then colombia national government situations and eventually after six, age, 10 months he will meet with popular movement. there was a national strike of students in this country that lasted months. protest for ucation as a rapist president duque met with a singer and did not meet with the students. he continued to murder them in the meantime. we are absolutely convinced we are advancing toward a military control ofhe eire country. while his rhetoric is one of dialogue and he will remove one or two ministers, etc., and a piece of legislation that he

will implement in another way, we do not believe him. we know -- we know fascism is advancing in colombia. amy, it was your question, if this is not stopped in colombia uribe admired by bolsonaro, pinochet, you will a fascist way. a president biden and his government are not just rhetoric, they have to show they are not going to support this. and the only force in power this country response to is the united states. at this government in particular has always knelt down to u.s. policy. i can six openly and clearly to those listening to us, if the

u.s. stops this, it will stop the fascism. if it doesn't, they are complicit with what is happening here. nermeen: dr. dr. rozental units and earlier the fact that health care system in colombia was also on the verge of collapse prior to the pandemic. could you talk a little bit more about what has happened since the pandemic began and now especially as the country is facing the third wave, protest on goingnd the eects on poverty levels of these repeated lockdowns as a result of which many people have not been able to work? >> we've introduced this segment, mention the fact the covid pandemic is affecting people -- the rate of attack is greater than that in india where there is a global catastrophe.

i must mention briefly the fact the climate health system was created -- and i know this because i was there when it happened -- was created through legislation that was presented to congress by -- e purposof this is to transfer funds and savings of the colombian population to the financial private sector. it transfers the responsibility of care people in colombia to the financial sector. so what it actually did was use health as a pretext to capitalize the private sector stop so the health care system in colombia is very effective because it was created to further enrich the rich. it was not created to look after the health needs of the poor. and that is how it works. if you go normally to be looked

after because you are il they probably give you acetaminophen and said you home and will not look after you. so the access to health care, health care system, you have to go to suing the government regularly and these private corporations in order to access your right to health care. they will not give you anything further than baby care because they are there to make a lot of money. so this will give you an idea to what the situation was before we went into the covid pandemic. i am a statistic. i am frightened if i have to go to a hospital. they will not look after me. it is a systematic structural mechanism to not look after you so that they can make money. under these circumstances,

access to intensive care units, access to diagnostics were almost impossible. so the colombian minister of health, ministry of health, and the government lie about the pandemic. the registration and the number of cases we have is way below the truth. i went to the hospital in april of last year with my daughter with symptoms that could have been proven. they were dengue fever. i was not tested. the physician in charge told me i was not allowed to be tested by the government. so the registration of the number of cases on the one hand. 90% of the deaths from covid in colombia has occurred ineá the first third lower strata. it is killing the poor. for people who cannot stay home

beuse the informal economy forces them to be on the streets to survive. of course, staying at home to prevent an infection has led to the impoverishment of the people -- horrendous impoverishment. further still, we are under state of siege throughout the country because of covid, they've ordered us to state and placed military army, police throughout the country. and it is in places where the army and the police are and we cannot get out were massacres and assassinations of social leaders have occurred. at the moment when the strike began, we were facing despair and the third wave of covid. where i am now, there are no icu beds left. people are simply dying without access to icu. more than 95% of occupation of icu beds elsewhere.

amy: dr. manuel rozental, thank you for being with us, colombian physician and activist and and with emilia márquez pizano in bogotá. emilia, where do you see these massive protests going and increasingly violent police crackdown? >> what we are seeing is that if the government does not speak directly to the police in the country, it will just keep going. we had a discussion with the u.n. verification [indiscernible] we had two more murders of young men who were just trying to have a protest were dr. dr. rozental is. we are seeing the violence does not stopping. it is not going to stop.

we don't see clear direction from the government who tried to stop the violence. it is all over the country. there promoting more militarization of cities and getting discourse that is clearly trying to make protesting illegitimate, which is very dangerous for democracy to be in because people do not have the right to protest -- which is one of the fundental ghts in government -- people are not being respected as the rights to live or have physical integrity under the streets. and we're just not saying this stopping anytime soon if the government does not take clear action. control of the police force. right now other military force.

if this does not stop, we don't see this violence going down anytime soon. amy: we want to thank you for being with us emilia márquez , pizano, sex and gender director with the colombian nonprofit temblores, or tremors, and of course we will continue to follow the situation. there were protests in new york yesterday and today. former president uribe addressed uric university and he was protested. next up, we will look at facebook board deciding not to allow president trump to be on facebook -- at least for the next six months. we will look at the significance of this with shoshana zuboff. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. you can watch, listen, and read transcripts using our ios and android apps. download them for free from the apple app store or google play store today. former president trump's facebook account will remain suspended, at least for now. on wednesday, an oversight board set up by facebook upheld the january 7 ban saying trump's rhetoric created a "a serious risk of violence," but the board said facebook should review whether the ban should be indefinite.

for more we go to shoshana zuboff, professor emerita at harvard business school and author of the book "the age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power." professor, welcome back to democracy now! your reaction to the facebook appointed board's decision? >> well, it looks like this so-called oversight board, which of course everyone should understand was set up by mr. zuckerberg with $130 million endowment and really is a device to help keep and free of public law, help keep him free of regulation. mr. zuckerberg did not do a very good job at political speech. he alled politic speech to go free of fact checking.

the worst example was esther trump, who became a clear and present danger to our democracy. rather than groveling with that, this decision was given to this so-called oversigh board and w it looks like they have kicked it back to facebook. the real issue here, though, y, is in kicking it back to facebook, they actually kicked back to the biden administration. he is why i am going to say that. first of all, why did mark zuckerberg indulge and appease donald trump for so many years, especially in the last year election season as things became more bizarre and infmmatory and dangerous? well, two reasons most of theirs political appeasement. just as the oversight board so-called is set up to give free of regulation, he showed he was willing to do just about

anything to appease trump, appease the conservative ally to keep regulation at bay. in appeasing tru, all that zuckerberg rlly had to do was not intervene in his economic machine, surveillance capitalism, which is programmed, engineered to maximize engagement and data extraction by circulating and amplifying what turns out to be the most inflammatory, the most bizarre, the most dangerous, the most threatening, the craziest content. so by keeping trump going, he satisfied his political call and also satisfied his economic goal. now as we saw yesterday very, very quickly, trump is back on his microphone -- not on facebook or twitter, but he has

plenty of other outlets. what was the first thing he started to do? threaten zuckerberg with regulation. threaten zuckerberg with republican delegation. so now we are back in the political arena. this means the biden administration, that team is going to have to take a stand. the thing that is going to keep mr. trump off facebook and save american democracy is going to be a situation where mr. zuckerberg fears the democrats as much as he fears the republicans. so far that has not been the case. so we are now back into a political power match. and that is going to really change the dynamics of these next few months. nermeen: professor, could you respond to those who have

criticized the decision by facebook to indefinitely suspend trump's account? it is not just conservatives and this country, but also several european leaders who have said that tech companies have no place in making decisions like this. this decision and decisions like it shod be in the hands of governme. >> well, that is absolutely true. you know, mr. zuckerberg and his so-called oversight board are running around the rim of a donut chasing each other's les, loong for solutions when the solution is in the hole. and the problem is surveillance capitalism, copies like facebook that depend upon the secret extraction of behavioral data which can turn into targeting

d targetg ads, this is a very pernicious, extractive, dangerous, antidemocratic, economic that has taken hold in the last two decades. it is done so because democracy has failed to act. it is not only true in america but the beral democracies around the world he failed to develop aistinc decision of how to design and deploy and apply the digital world, dital technology i a way that advances democra a allows democracy to flourish. so we are not china but instead we have allowedhese prite companies to create a different kind of surveillance state in our surveillance society in america and in the west that operates under private capital. so we are long overdue for the same kind of period of tremendous creativity and invention that we saw in the 20th century.

the first part of the 20th century, the employers, the owne of the great industrial enterprises had all the power. they had all the decision rights. everything that happened, happened based on their private property rights. that is the same situation we are in today. in the 20th century, we created these monopolies, cartels, trusts. it look like ordinary citizens and even democracy itself had no chance. and we were looking forward to a centuryf extreme inequality and serfd. but ultimately, beginning the thd and espially the fourth decades of the 20th century -- amy: 10 seconds. >> democracy five back. we created theights, laws, and institutions we nded to claim industrial capitalism. we can do the same thing today.

this third decade is now. our opportunity for citizens and lawmakers to come together, we need to bring the digital into democracy's house. amy: we will do part two and posted online at democracynow.org. hertñññvvvvvrrzozozozoñ?ñ a hip

ukiyoe print? well done, kuniyoshi. well done. welcome back. thank you four join being us on nhk "newsline." the ministers of the g-7 have wrapped up talks. it drew a sharp reaction from beijing. >> translator: without any factual basis for their