07/09/21 07/09/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i call on the united nations, all international agencies, and worldwide public opinion to help save the people from dying. we are few days away from a social explosion. amy: lebanon's caretaker prime

minister warns the country could face a "social explosion" as lebanon confronts what the world bank has described as one of the worst economic depressions in modern history. we will go to beirut for the latest. plus, we will speak to a women's right activist in the southern african nation of eswatini, where the king is cracking down on largest protests since the country, once known as swaziland, became independent from britain 53 years ago. >> we have seen recordings where police and the military were literally beating, shooting, killing unarmed civilians. on the street. as i speak now, there are currently more than 50 people who have died and within those victims, the youngest is 14 years old. amy: plus we get the latest on the fight over voting rights as republicans in texas unveil a

host of new voter suppression measures during a special session. and president biden and vice president harris take on voter suppression issues in washington. stay with us. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president joe biden says the u.s. military will complete its withdrawal from afghanistan by august 31, nearly two weeks ahead of the previous september 11 deadline. speaking from the white house thursday, biden said it would be up to afghans to determine their own future nearly two decades after the u.s.-led invasion and occupation. pres. biden: we did not go to afghanistan to nation build. it is the right and responsibility of afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country. i will not send another generation of americans to work

on afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a dierent outcome. amy: and taliban delegation in moscow said friday the group now controls over 85% of afghan territories. the taliban has surrounded population cente, captured a key afghan border crossing with iran, and holds more than two-thirds of afghanistan's border with tajikistan. in haiti, two haitian-americans are among 17 suspects arrested over wednesday's assassination of president jovenel moïse. haitian authorities said a team of 28 heavily-armed assailants, 26 of whom were colombian, carried out the operation. they said at least three suspects were killed and eight remain at large. colombia's defense minister confirmed some of the men are former members of colombia's military. one of the two u.s. citizens arrested is haitian-american james solages, the head of a maintenance and repair company

in florida. little is known about the second haitian-american suspect, joseph vincent, from the miami area. the world health organization says africa suffered its worst week since the start of the covenantal pandemic with cases of the delta coronavirus variant surging in countries where almost no one has haaccess to vaccines. in namibia, nine senior government officials have died of covid-19 over the last two weeks as hospitals have been overrun by new cases. namibia has one of the world's highest infection rates. tunisia's health-care care system is collapsing as they launch nearly 10,000 positive tests a day. coronavirus cases are rising again in the united states, led by clusters in areas with low vaccination rates. white house coronavirus response coordinator jeff zients on thursday urged people to get

vaccinated to stop the spread of the delta coronavirus variant. >> virtually all covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the united states are now occurring among unvaccinated individuals. and to be clear, there were likely cleared -- continue to be increased numbers among unvaccinated americans and within communities with low vaccination rates, particularly given the spread of the more transmissible delta variant. amy: pfizer said thursday it is tweaking its covid-19 vaccine rmula to create a shot that targets the delta variant. pfizer is also planning to request emergency authorization in the united states next month for a booster shot of its vaccine, saying an ely study showed a third dose raised neutralizing antibody levels in patients. on thursday, the centers for

disease control and the food and drug administration issued a rare joint statement saying they won't relay exclusively on drug company data to make a decision on booster shots. texas republicans are doubling down in their efforts to suppress voting rights as they unveiled a host of new, restrictive measures during a special session thursday. the bills include a ban on drive-through voting and 24-hour or late-night voting options. they would penalize election officials who make voting easier by sending out unsolicited absentee applications. the measures would also impose stringent signature-matching requirements and increase the power of partisan poll observers, which can result in intimidation. the new restrictions, which disproportionately target voters of color, come after texas democratic lawmakers staged a walkout in late may to block the republican-controlled legislature from passing a sweeping voter suppression bill. we will have more on this story

after the headlines. 15 states have agreed to abandon their fight to block the bankruptcy plan of purdue pharma, the maker the highly addictive oxycontin. in exchange, purdue will release tens of millions of documents, pay a settlement expected to reach $4.5 billion, and the sackler family will agree to cede ownership of purdue. the deal, which includes the states of new york and massachusetts, would shield the sacklers from future opioid lawsuits. the sackler family will not have to apologize or admit responsibility for their role in fueling the ioid epidemic, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. nine other states and washington, d.c., still oppose this week's agreement and are expected to keep fighting the sackler bankruptcy plan. president biden met with top cybersecurity advisers this week as the white house vowed to address mounting cyberattacks with russian officials.

bloomberg reports russian government hackers are behind a breach of a republican national committee contractor last week although the source of the breach has not been confirmed. the attack happened around the same time a massive global ransomware attack compromised hundreds of businesses and localities in the u.s. and around the world. russia has denied responsibility for the hack. in bangladesh, at least 52 people have been killed after a massive fire broke out at a food processing factory outside the capital dhaka thursday evening. many workers jumped from the factory's upper floors as the inferno blazed throughout the night and into the next day. it's unclear how many people remained trapped inside. the cause of the fire is not yet known, but such disasters are not uncommon due to poor or unheeded safety regulations in factories and residential buildings. spanish police have arrested three suspects connected to the beating death of a young gay man whose killing set off massive

protests in madrid, barcelona, and other cities across spain. 24-year-old nursing assistant samuel luiz died after he was beaten near a nightclub early saturday in a town in northern spain. one of his attackers was heard shouting a homophobic slur. the killing brought tens of thousands of demonstrators into the streets less than a week after spain's annual pride celebrations. >> the country still does not really except they're many different ways to love. it should not be possible that just because a person decides to love a person of the same gender or whomever, he ends up losing his life. amy: the european parliament voted thursday to suspend funding to hungary over its new law banning the depiction of homosexuality to children, saying it violates eu values, principles, and law. the vote came one day after the law equating homosexuality with pedophilia went into effect.

in the occupied west bank, israeli forces have destroyed homes in a palestinian bedouin communitfor the seventh time since november, claiming they were builtithout permits. a palestinian authority official said wednesday's demolition left dozens of people homeless, including 35 children. >> this is evidence the occupation state is carrying out state-sponsored terrorism against the palestinian existence. now 63 palestinians have become homeless, 11 families had homes demolished and confiscated, even water tanks that citizens used to provide water for the family and our livestock. they were confiscated and destroyed by the occupation. amy: elsewhere in the occupied west bank, israel's military blew up the family home of a palestinian-american man accused of killing an israeli teenager.

amy: thursday's explosions leveled the home of sanaa shalaby, who says her estranged husband rarely visited the property. israel's home demolition drew a rare rebuke from the state department, which said secretary of state antony blinken raised the issue with senior israeli officials. human rights groups have condemned israel's punitive home demolitions as collective punishment and a violation of the fourth geneva convention. el salvador's government has expelled prominent mexican journalist daniel lizárraga after he led investigations into government corruption at the salvadoran online news source el faro. in a video message recorded at the airport just before his expulsion to mexico, lizárraga promised el faro would remain committed to independe journali. >> they ll not silence us. it won't happen.

we won't stop blishing we will continue to offer the best information possible to the best of our abilities come as rigorously as possible. amy: the inter american press association and other press freedom groups have condemned the government of president nayib bukele for clamping down on dissent. a new analysis finds the summer's record shattering heat wave in the pacific northwest would have been "virtually impossible without human-caused climate change." the study also warned that as the human-induced climate crisis continues to heat the planet, such events will become a lot less rare. the high temperature in lytten, british columbia, hit 121 degrees on june 29, one day before a massive wildfire destroyed most of the town. the heat wave is blamed for up to 500 deaths in british colombia, 78 in washington state, and 116 in oregon.

california's governor has asked state residents to reduce their water use as he expanded a drought emergency declaration to areas home to nearly half of california's population. governor gavin newsom made the announcement thursday at lopez lake, a reservoir in san luis obispo county that's at just 34% capacity. >> to hide his getting hotter and the drives getting drier. climate change is real. if you don't believe it because you don't believe in science, have to believe your own eyes. amy: california just experienced its driest rainy season on record, with average statewide precipitation plummeting to a 126-year low. and 14-year-old zaila avant-garde has become the first african american winner of the scripps national spelling bee. >> m-u-r-r-a-y-a. >> that is correct!

[applause] amy: the new orleans teen is also a basketball prodigy and holds three guinness world records in dribbling. zaila avant-garde entered the world of competitive spelling just two years ago. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president biden met with civil rights groups thursday to discuss ways to combat voter suppression efforts as the white house announced a new effort to counter the republican push to pass voting restrictions in key battleground states. vice president kamala harris also announced that the democratic national committee would be spending an additional $25 million on organizing and registration efforts. she spoke at howard university. vice pres. harris: we are going to assemble the largest voter

protection team we have ever had to ensure that all americans can vote and have your vote counted in a fair and transparent process. amy: meanwhile, in texas, lawmakers followed other battleground states controlled by republicans with a new push thursday to overhaul the state's election laws. in a special session called by the governor, they introduced bills based on their earlier attempt to pass a sweeping voting bill that failed in the last session after democrats walked out. for more, we're joined by cliff albright, co-founder and executive director of black voters matter, which recently finished a nine-state, 10-day freedom ride to mark the 60th anniversary of the first freedom rides for voting rights. cliff, we welcome you back to democracy now! start with texas and then go

national. what is happening in texas right now with this special session? >> so there is a special seion, we are calling it the suppression session, becae in addition of the pulling out of the voter suppression bill which in state already has one of the lowest turnout rates in the country, where it is already the hardest to vote, they would make it even more difficult by passing a bunch of draconian provisions that would include criminalizing not just voters or people that try to provide assistance to voters, even criminalizing election officials that send out absentee ballot applications. one of the worst provisions in the bill is the one we talked a lot about a couple of months ago , they ill have the provision that would allow election observers, partisan election observers -- physically, unfettered access to polling places, including video recording voters. we know republans have been using this as a recruitment

tactic. they said they wt to recru an army of thousands, the kind of observers trump talked about inis campan. this is again, one of the worst bills, it would make it one of the worst suppression bills in the country. it is a suppression session not just because of this bill, but also it includes 11 other bills that are basically our smorgasbord of white supremacy, patriarchy, transphobia -- just everything you can imagine that is the worst on the republican agenda they have included in this suppression session. which is a reminder when they suppressed our votes, when they distort what is left of this democracy, it has implications that affect a range of policies that involve our health, economics, even critical race theory in the suppression

session. amy: talk about how this is being repeated around the country and in what other states. and will the texas democrats walk out? >> so first, i will deal the second half in terms of the texas democrats walking out. they said yesterday at the press conference, at theally we helped organize, that everything is on the table. but i think they gave us a blueprint that democrats in other states need to look at. we talked a lot about civil disobedience. what we need along with civil disobedience on the streets is legislative disobedience. if republicans are going to change rules in the states were there trying to push this suppression through and are still bills pending in at lea a dozen other states including michigan, pennsylvania -- they're going to play around the rules and suspend the rules and change the rules of the game in order to push the suppression through, democrats across the

country need to be following the pattern that texas democrats demonstrated after weeks and months of grassroots organizing by different coalitions, the legislators worked able to finally walk out stuff that needs to be a blueprint all across this country. it was disappointing with this massive press conference that took place yesterday that included grassroots organizations as well as texas democrats from the state house, that there was no federal presence like kamala harris good have been there since she is theczar on this, somebody from the justice department, somebody from the democratic national committee could have been there. they could have shown to demonstrate that texas is not alone and no state is alone in this battle. that would have been a good thing to show. the texas legislators and aggressors organizers were there taking a stand on their own. we will continue to do that but

this is a federal battle that will require federal legislation. amy: you cannot quite strongly series of tweets yesterday, cliff. among them, "don't come relying on activists to out organize voter suppression to compensate for your legislative failures. the beggar beds and we are not your magical negroes." then you name potus, senator schumer, and vp. talk about what you feel they're not only not doing in texas, but why you feel this must be done at a national level. when the for the people act was being considered in congress that we, president biden did not speak on it. he ge a major address on crime instead. >> exactly. to speak to the tweet, there is that feeling, and it is come out

from the white house and unnamed staffers, that basically they feel like organizers will be able to out organize the voter suppression. that we will be able to out vote -- out litigate this jim crow, which cannot happen without federal legislation. sherrilyn ifill tweeted out as much yesterday. that we cannot out litigate this if we don' have the federal protection necessary in the form of the forhe people act and john lewis voting rights act if we don't have those protections. you cannot out litigate it, cannot out organize it. it is unfair. it is something for the white house to assume for the party to put that burden on the backs of voters, primarily black and brown voters and marginalized voters, to put that burden on them because they failed to get past this necessary piece of legislation. what couldhe administration do more of? a couple of month ago joe biden

said in an interview he was open to modifying the filibuster, but we have t heard anything else about that. just like you present a plan, he did not just leave it up to congress to say what he wanted on infrastructure, right? they had a white house plan for infrastructure. they had a white house played on american families and american jobs. where is your plan on voting rights? if you're ope don' just be open to modifying the filibuster, show joe manchin what your plan is and tell him, joe, we have known each other for decades. i need you to get this rules changed on the filibuste chuck schumer come have a specific plan to get the filibuster at least modified. i would like to see it ended, but at least get it modified. he is not shown the same level of aggression and urgency he has shown on other issues on this voting rights issue. we need him to use the bully pulpit. we need him to use every carrot and stick and twist those arms

as samway lyndon johnson did becae he was forced to buy organizers. he needs to have that kind of a moment instead of a rutherford b hayes moment, was a president who ended reconstruction, basically allowed white southerners toave their ways all across the country. we don't need joe biden to have that moment. we need him to follow a more aggressive example that supports and aggressively fights regarding rights. amy: let's hear what they did say at the white house yesterday. president biden and vice president harris meeting with civil rights leaders. this is sherrilyn ifill from the naacp legal defense fund. speaking to the black news channel after the meeting. >> i use the opportunity to talk about the history of civil rights legislation in this country, of the supreme court's role in often eroding civil rights statutes dating back to the 19th century, the 1875 civil rights act and the civil rights

cases, dating back to plessy versus ferguson, mobile 1982. of course, shelby county versus holder and last week's decision. we are at such a moment. we're litigating at the legal defense fund in georgia, challenging their voter suppression law, challenging florida's voter suppression law. i told the president, we will not be able to litigate our way out of this threat to black citizenship, voting, and political participation. amy: that is srrilyn ifill of the naacp legal defense fund and vice president harris announced a $25 million dnc investment to aid voting access head of the 2022 midterm elections. cliff albright, you are talking to us from atlanta and the 2022 is very important both senate

seats were taken by democrats, which is clearly -- has clearly been a great motivation not only in georgia for the republicans, but around the country, to get rid of voters on voting rolls, certainly in georgia. if you can talk about what is happened there, reverend while phil warnock is up again in 2022. -- rev. raphael warnock is up again in 2022. is it what you're calling the fuse urgency your calling for now lacking from the federal gornment? >> i'm fortunate, no. $25 million sound like a lot in my personal life that would be a lot, but in terms of democracy that is a drop in the bucket. let's talk about sherrilyn ifill and what the what else could do. it is a good time to talk about expanding the court and i would love to see someone li sherrilyn ifill and someone nominated to expanded supreme court.

even if they pass the legislation, it is still going to have to pass the constitutiality test from a supreme urt that h already shown what it's taste is. so we need to expand the court. again, you asked about georgia. yes, senator warnock be up again ne year ands we said, we're not going to be able to just out organize this lel of voter suppression. the scary thing about the georgia bill, which is part of a trade we are seeing inther states, it has that piece in there that would make it easier for the state t overturn elections. they have already gone about the process of removing people, removing officials from some of the election boards in some of the counties. that was made possible by this new law. with that provision, even if we have organized and when the vote, they can always come back and do exactly what donald trump was trying to get the secretary of state to do on that phone

call, which is to go out and find 11,000 votes o decide fulton county, predominately black county in georgia, that that counties vote should not be counted. this bill gives them the ability to do that. we cannot out organize the level jim crow oppression we're seeing. we came close to spinning $25 million in their limited run across the country to mobilize voters. $25 million is not nearly enough to combat the kind of voter suppression we are seeing. and beyond the amount, the timing for the sequencing. now is not the time to be talking about how we're going to try to mitigate the impact of voter suppression. if the dnc is going to spend $25 million, i would rather they spend it supporting groups that are organizing to fight the suppression. let's finish this fight before we start talking about how we're

are going to mitigate the suppression we are basically conceding we're going to fail on defeating. amy: finally, cliff albright, talk about the 60th anniversary of the freedom rides that you engaged in. you are speaking to us from atlanta. john lewis, the late great john lewis, participated in the first freedom rides 60 years ago. >> it was an incredible experience for us. the freedom rides marking the 60th anniversary, we wanted to do a reverse freedom ride where instead of going from d.c. to the south, we took it from the south all the way up to d.c. we passed through 10 states if you include the state of d.c. because part of our objective was to talk about three pieces of legislation, andhr51, d.c.

statehood. i really that took place was largely about d.c. statehood as well as the other two pieces of voting rights legislation. we stopped in nine states along the way and even more cities because we did some pit stops throughout. at each location, we were doing rallies, educating voters about legislation, motivating voters to get involved in how to fight for this legislation. and to talk about the history of the 1961 freedom rides, because that is history a lot of people don't know a lot about. we think there was slavery than all of a sudden dr. king gave a speech in 1963 and barack obama was resident. in spite of what you hear about critical race theory, there's a lot of history not taught. those freedom rides were in important part of the civil rights movement and what we wanted to focus on because we believe by amplifying that history and featuring actual

freedom writers at some of the stops on the rallies, we had actual freedom riders who told her stories by amplifying that history. he can't help but hear that history and not get involved in today's movement. to heahow those freedom riders got bombed a decided not to run away from the movement, but run to the bombing and finish the freedom rides -- you can't hear that history and not ask yourself, will answer the call today? we had dozens of national organizations that joined us, including many of those organizations that met with president biden yesterday. amy: we want to thank you, cliff albright, for joining us, cofounder and executive director of black voters matter. speaking to us from atlanta, georgia. coming up, we will speak to a women's right activist and the southern african nation of eswatini where the king is cracking on dissent, country formally known as swaziland. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we turn to the african nation of eswatini, which was known as swaziland up until 2018. eswatini is a landlocked nation in southern africa. it is bordered by mozambique to its northeast and by south africa in all other directions. it is also africa's last absolute monarchy. human rights advocates are denouncing king mswati iii for brutally cracking down on the largest protest in the country since it became independent from britain 53 years ago. eswatini is currently facing an economic crisis with a shortage of gas, food, and other resources. more than half of eswatini's more than a million citizens live in poverty while king mswati is known for his lavish lifestyle, including owning expensive cars and palaces. amnesty international reported at least 20 protesters have been killed by state security forces

and dozens of others tortured, detained, or abducted. there have also been reports of the military and police firing live rounds at protesters. the committee to protect journalists has also criticized the government for its mistreatment of journalists and cutting off internet access. according to cpj, two journalists from south africa were recently detained and beaten while in custody. well, on tuesday, juan gonzalez and i spoke to a women's right activist in manzini, eswatini. she asked us not to show her face and to disguise her voice because she is concerned she would be aacked fodoing this interview. she began by talking about what sparked the recent protests. >> in march 2021, a university law student who was a final year student was alleged to have been killed by the police. because of the ongoing police brutality before the death, i

would like to highlight some of the instances which made s theawzi people feel this is enough, we can't take it anymore. first of all, eswatini is facing a serious economic crisis where we have a high level of poverty and unemployment crisis. we are also basing issues of students not getting quality education and also those who would want to go to universities, there are no scholarships because the government is saying they cannot afford them. we also facing challenges, health crisis, where you go to clinics and you don't find medication. where is a woman, you want to go to the clinic, have to walk kilometers and kilometers to get to the nearest clinic where you can get help. we are facing all those challenges, which include extrajudicial killings, where

fellow civilians or citizens, when they passed by game reserves, the rangers shoot to kill. and nothing -- it is like they have killed something that doesn't matter. it is not a human being. we are seeing an increase in police brutality, which not only happened to the journalist, we have seen cases where people are demonstrating. there was a live recording which was circulating on social media of a group of police officers beating an unarmed man was part of a protest transport operators, and consulting and. nothing was done to those police officers. in more than that, we have seen in eswatini we are experiencing an increase of cases of violence against women and some of these women have died, killed by enforcement officers who are

maybe their husbands or lovers and it is made us lose trust in the justice system because we have seen some of these women abused and nothing happened. instead, the law enforcement officers are promoted if they have abused a woman. juan: i would like to ask our guest, you mentioned the economic crisis that the country is going through. the country is a landlocked nation, surrounded on three sides by south africa and on one side by mozambique. and many of the people of your country work in south africa. could you talk about what the south african government's response has been to this repression, if any? >> some have been moving out now to try to look for work in south africa. and we have now experienced some of our people being killed attacked south africans because the south africans felt the

swazi people are going out to take their jobs. it has become a very difficult situation. and this is why even now we are pleading with our fellow africans and also the international community to say, "what is it we can do to try and address the situation without having lives lost?" let me also highlight another issue which has really infuriated us. while i have mentioned that swaziland is facing economic crisis, there was a debate in parliament where parliament was supposed to endorse alone by our government to borrow money from india to build a new parliament. as i have said, political parties b wereanned in eswatini so are members of parliament when they go to parliament, for them to be respected or to be

heard by the head of the country, they have to listen. if they ask you to jump, you ask how high. you jump on the tune of what the head of the country is saying. so people were saying, "how can a whole country borrow money to build a new parliament when we have been hit hard by covid-19? we have not been vaccinated. we do not have funds to get the vaccine. how can we build a new parliament instead of maybe using those funds to procure ventilators or to procure medicines that we don't have or to beef up the health and education system so that we have a quality health system and a quality education system?" so when was martyred, everyone felt this is enough. and that is when there was a first march, where the youth -- it was the first march in

history to have us gathered in that form. when these youth were demonstrating, going to the police station around where the student who was alleged to be murdered by the police, instead of government or parliament taking action or doing investigation, they condemned those young people for doing that and they were told if they've got issues, they have to go to the constituencies where they can raise their grievances. hence the protests there were all over the country. so all of the young people and civil society organizations, they went to the different constituencies. and now people were putting clear demands. they wanted multiparty democracy. they wanted an elected prime minister. they were asking and commanding improve youth employment

strategies. they wanted an improved health system. they're also calling for gender-based violence to be declared as a national emergency . those are some of the many demands that were raised in the different constituencies to the different members of parliament. amy: let me ask you about the internet blackouts being condemned by human rights groups. the shutting down, working with international companies to shut down the ability to communicate. >> yeah, let me first talk about before the shutting down because the people were sending protests in the constituencies, exercising their constitutional rights. the prime minister, the acting prime minister issued an order to stop the delivery of petitions to the different constituencies. and by doing that, he said he is trying to stop the unrest.

he also ordered all businesses to close by 3:30 p.m. and a strict curfew to have all residents off the street from 6:00 until 5:00 a.m. he also immediately closed all schools. he said it was for the safety of the learners. he ordered the protesters to send their petitions online. and while he said they must send their petitions online, they then ordered the internet service provider to switch off the internet. and then we were so furious saying, then what do you mean? and while they have done that, they then unleashed the army, the police come in the military to attack people who were looting on the streets. can some were burning structures, were burning shops, were burning vehicles on the streets. as i have mentioned, swaziland is facing a serious poverty

crisis and when people are angry, there is a lot that can happen. we have seen recordings where police and the military were literally beating, shooting, killing unarmed civilians. unarmed people on the streets. there are currently more than 50 people who have died and within those victims, the youngest is 14 years old. amy: we are not identifying you, but you are women's rights activists in eswatini. what is the current situation for women under crackdown right now? >> the current situation is very bad. it has hit women hard. and in eswatini, 70% of the population is living in the rural areas. in the rural areas, there are few shops. in this view shops have been

burned. they have been looted. and now it is difficult for women to get food to eat. it is difficult to get sanitary pads for the kids, to buy milk for their babies come it is a very painful situation. and some of the people that have been arrested for looting, they are women. and as we speak, they have been denied bail just for looting. there is also a heavily pregnant woman who was denied bail yesterday. and we are worried about the safety of these women. and now the army, what do they do? they go to each and every home and say, where did you buy this sugar? where did you buy this cooking oil? if you don't have receipts and these are rural areas, they don't have them. they are beaten. some of these women are beaten. and when they explain "i don't have a receipt, i bought in the nearby shop" and no one listens

to that. so women are hit hard. and some of the dead people have left behind kids, which means women now have a heavy load to take care of those kids. and the shops that were burned? people have lost jobs. and the majority of people who work in the shops or restaurants are women, which means now they are without jobs. this situation is very bad. we are worried now that, yes, we have been facing the scourge of gender-based violence but this situation will exacerbate. this is the situation where we will see more women abused, more women staying in abusive relationships or abusive marriages. amy: that was a woman's rights activist speaking to us from eswatini. the country formally known as swaziland. she asked us not to show her face and to disguise her voice

because she was concerned she would be attacked for doing this interview. when we come back, lebanon's caretaker prime minister once the country could face a "social explosion" as lebanon confronts what the world bank has described as one of the worst economic depressions in modern history. we will go to beirut. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. lebanon's caretaker prime minister is warning the country is days away from a "social explosion" as the country confronts what the world bank has described as one of the worst economic depressions in modern history. prime minister hassan diab made the comment in a meeting with ambassadors earlier this week in beirut. >> i call on the united nations, all international agencies, international community and wod public opinion to help save the lebanese people from dying. lebanon is a few days away from a social looks lotion. the lebanese are facing this dark fate alone. amy: the impact of lebanon's economic crisis has been staggering. the country's currency has lost more than 90% of its value. unemployment has skyrocketed.

fuel prices have soared. most homes and businesses, and even hospitals, only have power for a few hours each day. pharmacies are running low on medicine. the u.n. has warned over three-quarters of households in lebanon do not have enough food or money to buy food. lebanon is also facing a massive political crisis following the devastating explosion at the port of beirut last august. the explosion killed over 200 people, injured 7000, and left more than a quarter-million beirut residents homeless. prime minister hassan diab and his cabinet resigned after the blast, but lebanese politicians have failed to form a new government, leaving diab and his cabinet in power but in a limited, caretaker capacity. joining us now from beirut is nisreen salti, an economics professor at the american university of beirut. we are also joined by ziad abu-rish, director of the ma program in human rights and the arts at bard college. also a board member of the lebanese studies association and

the co-editor of jadaliyya e-zine. he is joining us from seattle, washington. professor nisreen salti, let's begin with you. explain the scope of what is happening inebanon right now. >> to understand the nature of the crisis, it is perhaps useful to go back a little bit in time to see what led to the conditions. what we have is an economic system that was set up in the mid-1990's after the civil war and that instituted microeconomic policies that put in place economic ailments most structurally in the system. we ended up with an economy that is heavily reliant on imports for the bulk of its need for consumption and very low or discouraged local production.

with this combination of two structural factors led to an unhealthy dependent on foreign currency inflows, parcular, dollar inflows. this privileged a small group of business interests, mainly cartels and bank owners and real estate agents -- i'm sorry, real estate developers. they were closely to to the political class. together, these two groups amassed enormous profit to the detriment of job creation, diversification. and gradually resulted -- growing inequality, inequality over almost 2.5 decades. one of the symptoms already heralding an impending class. also the conditions that today led to the crisis, which is we became extremely dependent on these dollar inflows in the

minute they stopp -- which is what happened in the fall of 2019 when the crisis started -- the entire system crumbled. so what is the scope of this type of collapse? she described, the poverty rate has more than doubled in 18 months. we've seen rates of insecurity that are unprecedented for the country. unemployment has soared. the rate of migration of students from private to public schools because they could no longer afford private schools this ever-growing. there's been a shortage of basic life essentials, fuel for transport, but also medicines, baby formula. this is a crisis the world bank is describing now as one of the three worst in the last century and a half. the economy has shrunk very rapidly. the little that was left of the middle last before the crisis began is now being pushed into

poverty because there are very few jobs, very few economic opportunities. also because of those that still have jobs have seen their income lose purchasing power daily because of the hyperinflation of the country and finally because the banking crisis has meant savings for most of society has been decimated. again because of the currency and banking crises. we have a middle-class and poor class that are choked from all the standard sources of livelihood and income. meanwhile, the business and political class that benefited from the sysm was able to plunder the economy for 20 odd years, 20 plus years and now safely abroad outside of the country. so say from the collapse. in many actions continue to profit to from the downfall from

tactics like hoarding or smuggling or extortion. the crisis has made a highly unequal society even more economically polarized today. amy: ziad abu-rish, if you can also put this in the context of the explosion that took place almost a year ago last august. it seemed to have also exploded the government, for the government actually remains. ziad abu-rish hassan diab is still the acting prime minister. can you talk about the explosion at the port of beirut and now the range of powerful politicians and businesses that could be criminally charged and how this fits into this enormous economic crisis? >> absolutely, amy. for the listeners that might not be aware, the investigating judge recently submitted a formal request to lift community

from those politicians -- immunity from those politicians that have immunity and bring them in for formal questioning and potentially file charges against them. this includes former ministers of finance and interior and public works, former head of the army, former head the military intelligence, as well as the current has of general security and state security. these positions also reflect a diverse array of political parties across the kind of major divide in the lebanese political system. but we are yet to see whether this immunity is going to be lifted and what possibilities might actually result from this initial attempt. we should remember also [no audio] amy: we have -- >> replaced a previous judge she was removedrom his position

when he initiated such proceedings. while there are developers within this investigation, we need to see if they will hit the same dead-end as the previous judge did or if they move forward. amy: also seeking to question the acting prime minister? >> yes. cludes the current acting prime minister hassan diab who is in the caretaker government, as you suggested. i want to point out to link the beirut port explosion with the economic crisis that dr. nisreen salti so eloquently explained, pa of the problem the total lack of accountability. we are aost one year from the first year anniversary -- sorry, almost one month from the first year anniversary of the beirut explosion and there have been no major prosecutions yet, no major accountability. we are months and years now into this financial crisis.

as you quoted, hassan diab at the beginning of the segment, pleading with the international community to come and save lebanon, ignoring the fact he and his allies in the entire political class in lebanon are responsible for the economic collapse of lebanon as much as they are responsible for the beirut port explosion. and every international community he is begging literally to help sa lebanon aided and a bed this entire political class for the last 30 years in bringing love and not point with the beirut port explosion and the financial crisis. amy: given what has happened, professor nisreen salti, it is surprising there is no more protest in the street. the crazy devalued at -- the currency devalued at 90%, the enormous pressure on people. what do you think needs to happen right now? >> very difficult question.

people i think have been bogged down by the impossibility of keeping your life together at a very daily, basic level -- which may explain why there has not been mass protests. although, you will see there are flareups of protests here and there. pele are quite destitute and literally trying to find their livelihood in any way they can. there has also been a history may be before the pandemic was at the height, very violent repression of protests when they have taken place. so there is the wound of that experience that people still carry today. what needs to happen in my opinn is it is clear setting it up is a question of forming a new government and returning to the tables negotiation with the imf, which is the way out as

cast often in mainstream media come is really not a way out but a return to the status quo. in my opinion what needs to happen is a deep overhaul of the current system. what needs to happen is a change in the very nature of relationship between the state and its citizens to transform it into a civil state that doesn't mediate its groups through religious communities, a new vision for an economy that is productive rather than capture by a small group of interests. and a state with some at least minimal notion of social justice, which today our current reality -- i think that is what needs to happen in order to come out of this. is there any chance of this? there are small signs in the face of the impossibility of daily life that our current

reality has become an it economic freefall, there are a few committed groups, vocal activists, and people on the ground for organizing, who were coalescing around these very transformative goals. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us and of course we will continue to follow this closely. nisreen salti, economics professor at the american university of beirut. we will link to your piece that you wrote back in 2019 "no country for poor men: how lebanon has exacerbated inequality." ziad abu-rish, director of the ma program in human rights and the arts at bard college. also a board member of the lebanese studies association and the co-editor of jadaliyya e-zine. that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013.

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