09/23/21 09/23/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i want to make a point about how this is an international crisis and one where hunger in the united states is that an outside the u.s. is worse and outside the united states is because of u.s. trade policy, policy rub intellectual property rights for example at the wto. amy: with hunger growing across

the globe during the pandemic, the united nations is holding a major food systems summit today but the u.n. is coming under intense criticism for giving corporations an outsized role in the summit. we will speak with raj patel, author of "stuffed and starved: the hidden battle for the world's food system." and we will go to india and ethiopia. in the united states of war. we look at the new military partnership between the united states, australia, and britain. the u.s. is selling nuclear submarines to australia and expanding the military footprint. his president biden constructing a cold war with china? we will speak with david vine about "the united states of war: a global history of america's endless conflicts, from columbus to the islamic state." >> 800 military bases, more than

any nation in world history. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president joe biden said wednesday the united states will donate an additional 500 million pfizer vaccine doses to other nations around the world. he made the pledge during a virtual global vaccine summit of world leaders. pres. biden: it brings our total commitment of donated vaccines to over 1.1 billion vaccines to be donated. put it another way, for every one shot we have administered to date in america, we have committed to three shots to the rest of the world. amy: president biden called on wealthy nations to vaccinate 70% of the worlds 8 million people

within the next year. critics say his commitments fall short of what is needed. the vaccine summit's goals make no mention of a push led by india and south africa to wave intellectual prorty rights on vaccines and to force pharmaceutical companies to transfer technogy to vcine makers uer the glol south. in atatementthe director of public citizens access to medicines program said -- "ending the pandemic is a choice. leaders at today summit have yet to make that choice. the white house still has not mobilized all its resources to expand vaccine manufacturing and protect millions more lives that may be lost." the united states reported nearly 2800 daily covid-19 deaths wednesday, more than a quarter of the world-wide death toll for the day. in washington, d.c., the food and drug administration has approved third-dose booster

shots of the pfizer biontech vaccine for people age 65 and older. meanwhile, alaska has become the second sta after montana to activate crisis of care standards at hospils, which have become overwhelmed with unvaccinated covid patients. under the policy, hospitals may now deny treatment to people deemed less likely to survive. this is alaska's chief medical officer, dr. anne zink. >> the strain is impacting not only people with covid-19 but people who are there because of a stroke, heart attack, or kid who falls off thereby. amy: in florida, republican governor ron desantis has appointed an anti-mask vaccine skeptic as his new surgeon general. as one of his first official acts, dr. joseph ladapo issued an emergency order allowing parents to opt children out of quarantine if they've had close contact at school with someone infected with coronavirus. ladapo is a proponent of the

widely discredited theory of achieving herd immunity through natural infection, which dr. anthony fauci has called "nonsense and very dangerous." he's previously appeared at public events with dr. stella immanuel, an evangelical christian and conspiracy theorist who has suggested alien dna was used in pharmaceuticals and that gynecological problems are caused by sexual visitations by demons. immigrant rights advocates are blasting the biden administration over reports it's lookg for a contractor to run an immigrant detention facility at guantanamo bay's u.s. naval base. homeland security is reportedly seeking security guards who speak spanish and haitian creole. the dhs told reporters the biden administration will not send haitian asylum seekers from the southern border to the facility. migrants apprehended at sea have been temporarily held at guantánamo in the past. this comes as deportation flights continue to expel haitian asylum seekers from the u.s. without due process under title 42.

the biden administration is challenging a court order which is set to halt the trump-era policy at the end of the month. hundreds of haitians who crossed the border have also chosen to leave unsafe conditions and return to mexico. >> i feel disappointed because we crossed over to the u.s. and it wasn't what we expected. they were very mean to us. you can't imagine. they treated us like we were trash. they did not give us food or water. there are no doctors. nothing. a lot of children, pregnant women. things are really hard for us. amy: on capitol hill, democratic lawmakers held a news conference wednesday to denounce the biden administration's treatment of haitian refugees at the u.s.-mexico border. california congresswoman maxine waters cited photos and video from last weekend showing border patrol agents on horseback

chasing, grabbing, and whipping haitian asylum seekers. >> what the hell are we doing here? what we witnessed takes us back hundreds of years. what we witnessed was worse than what we witnessed in slavery. cowboys with their reins whipping black people, haitians come into the water where they scrambling and falling down when all they are trying to do is escape from violence in their country. amy: in other immigration news, lawyers have still not been able to reach the parents of over 300 children who were ripped apart from their families at the u.s. southern border under trump's family separation policy. only 50 children have been reunited by a biden administration task force charged with bringing the families back together. at the u.n. general assembly, the venezuelan president maduro venezuela

demanded an end to sanctions by the us and others, which have devastated the venezuelan economy, and contributed to political and social unrest. >> this is financial monetary come economic persecution. which is systematic, cruel, criminal and venezuela is raising its voice here to denounce it before the people of the world. amy: president maduro said venezuela has been on a path to recovery in 2021 and called for world leaders to build a new world, which respects multilateralism and international law. maduro survived a u.s.-backed coup attempt in 2019. a top adviser to ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky survived an apparent assassination atmpt in kiev wednesday. serhiy shefir was unharmed but his driver sustained injuries from the shooting attack. it's not yet known who was behind the attack. this is ukraine's minister of internal affairs. >> i want to stress we will

carry on with reforms we've already started, including directed to fight and iced crime. amy: president zelensky, who was in new york for the general assembly at the time of the shooting, said he would return immediately after his u.n. address, in which he denounced the attack. zelensky also spoke out against russia's military intervention in eastern ukraine and urged the u.n. to take more decisive action to combat global crisis, likening the global body to a retired superhero. the world health organization warned air pollution is even wednesday more dangerous than previously thought, as it slashed its recommended limits for emissions from vehicles and industrial sources. the who director-general dr. tedros adhanom ghebreyesus urged nations to cut take action against dirty air ahead of the cop26 u.n. climate summit in glasgow, scotland. >> there is nothing more essential for life than air, and yet because of air pollution,

the simple act of breathing contributes to 7 million deaths a year. almost everyone around the world is exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution. amy: the who estimates air pollution accounts for one in eight deaths worldwide each year. on capitol hill, bipartisan talks on police reform have fallen apart. the house passed the george floyd justice in policing act in march, but democrats have since not been able to secure republican support to pass accompanying legislation in the senate. a major sticking point was over the use of qualified immunity, which shields police officers from lawsuits. in other policing news, a group of former and active black women officers in washington, d.c., filed a class action lawsuit against the metropolitan police department alleging racial and sexual discrimination. another new york city prisoner has died. 24-year-old stephan khadu was the 12th prisoner to die this

year from a new york city jail. he was locked up at e vernon c. bain jail, which is located on a floating barge docked just north of rikers, where the 11 other prisoners who died in 2021 were also imprisoned. new york's city council is poised to pass a first-in-the nation slate of municipal laws protecting app-based food delivery workers. the legislation was first proposed by the labor organization los deliveristas unidos, whose members primily use electric-powered bicycles to rush restaurant orders around the city. the workers are fighting to secure the tips they earn, the right to access restaurant bathrooms, disability benefits in case of an accident, and better security to prevent bicycle theft. they also say they're misclassified as independent contractors, making them exempt from labor protections like new york's $15-an-hour minimum wage. namibia resumed debate this week on a possible agreement with germany over the former colonizer's genocide of tens of

thousands of ovaherero and nama people in the early 1900's. hundreds protested in front of namibia's parliament tuesday agait the proposed deal, which includes a payment of more than $1.34 billion, paid out over 30 years. this is mchenry venaani, president of the popular democratic movement, addressing the deal. >> the last 31 years, the namibian government has received more than $1.1 billion from the german government. the germans, listen carefly, the germans say they're guilty of murdering as but for this guilt they're paying the same amount they have been paying the government for the last 31 years. amy: and in california, governor gavin newsom has signed a bill giving workers at amazon and other large warehouses the right to challenge employee productivity quotas and other practices that threaten workplace health and safety. workers say amazon's quotas are so strict, they often can't stop to use the bathroom. at least two recent studies show

amazon workers suffered serious injuries at nearly twice the rate of the other warehouse industry workers in 2020. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by my co-host nermeen shaikh. hi, nermeen. nermeen: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: with hunger growing across the globe during the pandemic, the united nations is holding its first food systems summit today. but the summit is facing fierce criticism for giving corporations an out-sized role framing its agenda, with big food names like pepsico invited to fireside chats during a pre-summit in rome. the u.n.'s own experts on food, human rights, and the environment released a statement that "there is a risk the summit will serve the corporate sector more than the people who are

essential to ensuring our food systems flourish such as workers, small producers, women and indigenous peoples." this comes as u.n. figures show the pandemic has increased the number of hungry people by as many as 161 million, to 811 million, and nearly one in three people worldwide, alst 2.4 billion, lack access to adequate nutrition. soon we'll be joined by leading food advocates in india and ethiopia. but we begin with raj patel, author of "stuffed and starved: the hidden battle for the world's food system." his piece is just out in the scientific american is headlined "agroecology is the solution to world hunger." welcome back to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. if you can start off by talking about just what this world food systems summit is all about cast united nations and then the fierce attack by hundreds of

groups and leading people who are experts in the area here for the corporatization of the summit will only increase hunger in the world. >> thank you for having me. let's first set the scene recognizing there is already far too much hunger in the world. you have observed as many as 811 million people are under nourished and well over 2 billion are food insecure right here in the united states we have 38 million people who are unable to be certain they will be able to put food on the table for their families. it was bad enough before covid. there were forces that were pushing up the number of people and the percentage of people around the world going hungry even before covid and driving that work climate -- though climate change has made farming much more precarious, particularly for frontline and

low income communities around the world. we have conflict. you'll be talking later on about the was complicity in the engines of conflict, the arms trade around the world. conflict is driving hunger because it creates displacement. it means you plant the fields and then move on. harvests are lost. and capitalism. capitalism operates through making sure you buy low and sell expensive. that is why in the united states, seven out of 10 worst paying jobs are in the free system. around the world, the irony is the poorest people are usually the ones whose hands touch our food. when you have conflict, climates, capitalism compounded with covid, you see apocalyptic situation. clearly there is a need for policymakers to up their game. one white that can happen is

through summits being pulled together were member states say, look, we need to focus on this, bump this up the policy agenda. unfortunately, what the u.n. food subsystem is doing, it is very strange summit because rather than having countries come together and say, look, we all agree we must do this, it is being driven u.n. secretary general. he may have entirely benign intentions because we do need to address this problem. in 2016, the world committed to having itself zero undernourishment 2030. at the rate we're going, we will have about one billion people who are under nourished if current trends continue. we do need to do something about this, but the way the summit operates was the secretary general appointed in december 2019 the president of the alliance for the green

revolution in africa and the president of agora was before that -- agra has been president since 2014 and before that she was the secretary of agriculture in rwanda from 2008-2014. i mention this because part of the credentials heading up the summit is under her tenure, you saw a huge increase in the amount of corn produced. the output from 2016 to 2019 was fourfold and the rice harvest doubled. that kind of success story coming from africa was part of the reason why the secretary-general appointed her. unfortunately, agra is driven -- it has had mixed results. even in rwanda, while the amount of food has gone up, chronic hunger has increased by 40% over

the same period. the number of people under nourished. what this means is we need to look closely at what agra is and how it operates. agra was said by the bill and melinda gates foundation in 2006. the goal was to bring better agricultural practices to 30 million people across 13 countries in sub-saharan africa. $1 billion later, a lot of dollars coming from the below melinda gates but also from the united states agencies and other countries, t results have been fairly grim again, cliff notes version, but this ces froexcellen research by academics like m wise. wh we ha seen is in the countries where agra operates, a

30 percent increase in the number of people suffering hunger. the agricultural productivity is the same as it was before agra began. agra is locking in a certain way of doing agriculture where you increase and hope it trickles down to end hunger. and what we see from their own data, it fails on their own terms. nermeen: you said this summit is taking place on the initiative u.n. u.n. of the secretary-general. could you talk about the role of the world economic forum and how that has informed the content of the summit and who participates? >> the idea is you will see floating around and the kinds of language that you see floating around the summit there struggling resemblance to the ideas that come from the world economic forum sustainability roundtable and corporate-driven

mission to try to do something about hunger. i think we hear little more about multi-stakeholder is a from shalmali guttal in india, we will be able to get under the hood of this. the idea is corp. rations fully understand if we are to have zero hunger, the bottom lines will be targeted. many of the world's largest food corporations recognize already they are producing foods that is not making the world healthy. a leaked report earlier this year showed i believe 60% of nestlé's food failed to be the basic definition of healthy output. i think 98% of nestlé numb coffee beverages and on water beverages considered unhealthy. corporations know their number is up. when they understand they're

going to be regulators and profits will be hit how else are we going to end hunger but by paying them or which means corporations will be earning less profit, they want to be on the inside of the regulation game. they want to control the terms on which policy is set. so you have organizations within the u.n. food systems summit and those who represent industry. there was a report yesterday the international meet secretary at, poultry counsel were part of the stakeholders who work i'm on the table talking about livestock and sustainability. the meat council was there saying, the only way for us to have a sustainable future is to have more meat production in the global north because of it goes to the global south, it will be more deregulated. which is a disingenuous argument to be making. of course, they can make this

argument uninformed on the science of sustainability that says industrial meat production is one of the drivers of climate change and we have seen in the united states industrial meat production was one of the industries that put people particularly low income communities and people of color, and the front lines of covid because of the opening of slaughterhouses during the pandemic. this powerful industry is largely immune to the best practices we see emerging from the scientific community around climate change and poverty. but they are there at this summit because they're considered stakeholders. the idea of having all the stakeholders around the table together is something that characterizes the summit. that is why you will hear from the summit, "we invited everyone to come and they chose not to be here." the philosophy that was transported on the world

economic forum to this summit is that you have everyone around the table -- murderers and victims -- and they try to reach a consensus. that is not how we are going to end hunger. that is one of the reasons why so many organizations are on the outside of the summit protesting the procs andrying to moderate the more dangerous effects of its outcome. amy: we are talking to raj patel , research professor at the university of texas at austin. his piece in the scientific american headlined "agroecology is the solution to world hunger." next we will go to ethiopia and india as well as we talk about hunger growing across the globe. stay with us. ♪♪ [muc brea

this is democracy w!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh.

with world hunger on the rise and midst devastating social and economic impact of the covenantee pandemic andhe climate crisis, we continue to look at concerns the united nations first food systems summit underway today giving is corporations an out-sized role framing its agenda. the summit is led by former rwandan agricultural minister agnes kalibata, now president of the alliance for a green revolution in africa, or agra, which critics say promotes industrial agriculture over more sustainable farming. for more, we bring into this conversation million belay in addis ababa, ethiopia, the general coordinator of the alliance for food sovereignty in africa. also with us is shalmali guttal, executive director of focus on the global south. still with us in austin, texas, rush patel, author of "stuffed and starved: the hidden battle for the world's food system."

nermeen: million belay, could you give us more background on the record of the alliance for green revolution infrica, which agnes is the head, and why you think she was appointed the u in special envoy for the feed summit? >> you very much for giving me this opportunity. thank you for the lovely music. i like to focus on the institution rather than the individual. maybe they selected her because she is a woman, a black woman, an african woman as a form of representing a global agenda. maybe --

the alliance for a green revolution in africa has 13 board members. eight of them are from outside africa. it is registered in the u.s. the foundation -- at the border. this is an si control institution. and it shows -- it is that because discussion is good achal because it is a health crisis, leadership crisis, hunger crisis member mental crisis, cultural crisis and human rights crisis. kate is becse of the food

systems. thefore, institution -- destroyed peoples lives environment concrete -- created a huge opportunity for diseases. it has tried for years and has failed. now weee recmendations from africa for the -- it is all about green revolution. so, yeah, this is very sad. it is a wasted chance i would like to say. amy: shalmali guttal, you are in india. as you look at the food systems

summit from their, this segment is larger than the food systems summit. it is about the growing hunger in the world. can you talk about that approach? you have been a fierce critic and tweeting lot. >> thank you, amy. can you hear me? amy: we hear you perfect. >> ok. it is growing hunger in the world and growing inequality and poverty and unemployment. all of this is not because there's not enough food being produced in the world. i majority of the world food is produced by small-scale foo producers who are producing this food ojust about a quarter of the wod's territory. 80% of the world's territories and resources are actually captured by larger businesses and corporations.

there is a lot of food procurement, production, provision that goes undocumented. but when we talk about the crises in the food systems, it is interesting that mainstream discourse isn't looking at the crisis of the global food system -- which is the industrialized corporate controlled food system, which has been responsible for many of the multiple crises that we are facing now. hunger, unemployment, malnutrition, climate change crises, industrial contamination, and so on. in the last 10 to 15 years with crisis after crisis coming out and the food price crisis more than 10 years ago and financial crisis which was also there in 2009-2010, since than it has become increasingly clear to the world's people that this

industrialized globalized corporate led food system is failing us. it has nailed. it is not going to do anything better. people are pouring resources into it, dangerous. but how unfortunately our brother maybe -- is not a question of luck or fortune, mark privatization has been happening across the south. it is already happening in the north countries. happing more in this outcome including key aspects of provision. food has tremendous public purpose. the right food is dependent on the right realization of numerous other rights. similarly, the violation of otherights al affects t rit to food. and food as aolistic co how say -it is a whole dimension and of itself conols

over the differentspects of food. extremely important for tse who wanto continueo mak profits. and this is one of the big tragedies of privatizati and liberalization and derulation and reregulation for corporations we have seen over the last 15 or 20 years. the covid- pandemic showed who feeds the world, who looked after the world. of coue it ishe industrialized syste for local producers, food sovereignty movement, unions, mutual hlth crews,ommunity kitchens, community shared riculture d fisherie this i what that the world during covid. the way we e it, my n organization and a group and closely aligned with civil sociy people mechanism, a large group of social movemts.

for us it is clear ts food systems summit has been deliberately designed and pushed forward the way it is to allow corporations to secure control. not only over food systems, but equally important over the governance of food systems. that is a very poor issue which i hope we will be able to speak further on in this program. i will nermeen: stop here for the moment. nermeen:one of the examples that is touted most in favor of industrial agriculture is the experience of the green revolution in india. this was first introduced in 1965 and its advocates say let substantially to a reduction in hunger as well as malnutrition. could you explain why your critical of this approach and what has happened in recent

decades following its initial purported success? >> and usually, the green revolution dates food production. yes, they were overflowing granaries and indeed addressed hunger or lack of food problem at that time. but what it also did was introduce and convert an agriculture into chemically intensive monocultures. in these chemically intensive monocultures initial may have come through public subsidies andupport, the input for those production, but over the decades, as those supports and subsidies started to dry out, small-scale farmers, family farmers, middle scale -- a middle scale farmer in india would be at the in hector, not

acres, so three hunters to for hectors would be a small-scale and middle would be 10 to 15 hectors. they started to find themselves in increased traps. one thing that happened with the intensive use of chemicals is your soil gets contaminated and it will not keep producing. in order to make your soil produce maker farms produce, you will put more chemicals. it is a vicious cycle of destruction of the very territory from which you will grow your food. so what we saw that destruction triggered the environmental crisis of production but tremendous social crisis. farmers who were not able to meet the debt payments for the input they had purchased -- when their seeds failed, they had to buy more so they got into debt.

they put their land in a mortgage. a migration of people away from the food areas into the urban areas. so more and more hands that were producing the food left the land and left a kind of production and started moving into other types of production. now, many of them stayed in the food world. the hands that touch our food, most of the hands at touch our food to come from food prucing families but they are doing different jobs now. they're working in construction labor or delivery or food vending, local vending. and this is not a case only in india. this is throughout asia. we are going through very severe crisis across asia where and just realized monoculture-oriented chemically intensive agriculture has

created such economic and social crisis. in india, for example, i think the road is very familiar with the farmer suicides in india, these suicides are the highest were from her debt is the highest, and former debt is the highest where farmers have been forced to borrow proceeds, chemicals equipment. we must also see this side-by-side with the other crisis that india was going through and the inability and the failure of the state to ensure strong social protection systems. because a family may be in debt and using whatever income it had to pay off its debt, but if you don't have good public health systems come if you don't have good social security and social protection systems, don't have a

decent education system, don't have transportation between water -- all of these are either being just invested by the public were being privatized. most rural communities in india and in many parts of asia are one major illness away from complete ruin because they will have to pay huge health care bills if they want to get any decent health care. these are processes that are going together. green revolution on one hand and the social and economic crisis which are closely related to the environmental contamination and crisis, accompanyd bite an absent of sufficient public investment, going to social and even financial sectors. amy: we only have a few more minutes to go at this moment

that we are going to continue this discussion democracy now! democracy now! on but i want to go back to million belay. if you could talk about why you see is critical to frame the hunger issue in a human rights framework and what that would mean, what has to happen now. use the example of your own country ethiopia. >> i think there's a possibility of -- gernmeal responsibility to feed the people. for that, they have to have the right policy. if you follow the agenda and put farmers in debt and contaminate the soil and also in terms of

productivity and also the diversity of the sds, through time your putting the former population, which is over 80% in ethiopia, into -- you are trapping them into the future. which is not sustainable at all. they have to have the right to choose what kind of seeds they want to plant and -- broken the social fabric somehow. even damaging the relationship between the government and the people because the government has put forth the people to accept --

all that puts people into a situation where they will be much more poorer than before. it is the responsibility of the government that the country and the people and independence. when people have a problem because of the environment and social and political, it is the government's responsibility to provide food, to make accessible to make sure food is healthy and nutritious, and to ensure that food is culturally appropriate, and to protect them from the threat. that is what we mean by the right to food is a human right of the center for food production.

we fl agra does that without impacting the environment. even improving the environment and culturally appropriate food in the right to food is at the center. that is what we want to promote. j patelraj patel nermeen:, one of the striking things that you point out in your scientific american article is that over the past decade, food production has outstripped demands. there is more food per person than there ever was and the problem with food distribution is not so much its quantity, but the fact that it is distributed in an unequal way. could you explain how the practice of agroecology, which

you have witnessed yourself, how this practice could also ensure more equitable access and distribution? >> thank you. agroecology is a science. it is a set of practices and it is a social movement to be able to transform the way we not just grow food, but regulate it and share it and make sure everyone has it, that it exists within the broader economy that they were talking about just now. agroecology is a way not only of identifying there, jean -- amazing synergies between different crops that don't rely on the industrial chemical and intensive agriculture but also we need social synergy, ways of recognizing and supporting our food production around the world in ways that redirect subsidies

from chemically intensive agriculture, health subsidies, environmental industrial agriculture and instead aims big. that means at the heart of agroecology is the leveling of inequalities in power. hunger today is gendered. 10% more women around the world are hunger -- are hungry than men. if we are to be serious about taking agroecology to scale, we have to tackle inequality and power. one of the worries about the food systs summit iis ncentratgroups that are entirely unaccountable. th offers aolidarity that is absolutely about leveling new qualities in power so we not only are ae to coax more from this web return more to it and make sure everyone gets to eat healthy. amy: we want to thank you for

being with us. this is a conversation we will continue to have. raj patel, among his books, "stuffed and starved: the hidden battle for the world's food system." his latest is called "inflamed." we also want to thank million belay and shalmali guttal, executive director of focus on the global south. when we come back, the united states of war. we look at the new military partnership between the united states, australia, and britain. is the u.s. provoking cold war with china?

stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. the australian prime minister scott morrison held meetings with u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin and house speaker nancy pelosi wednesday to discuss plans for aukus, a new trilateral military partnership between the united states, australia, and britain. the nations announced the new alliance last week saying it was needed to counter china's growing power in the indo-pacific region. as part of the agreement, the united states has agreed to help australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. this led australia to cancel a submarine deal with france. they were building on nuclear powered submarines for australia. this has sparked a major diplomatic rift. far less attention though has been paid to another aspect of the aukus partnership, how it will help the united states

increase its military presence in australia where the u.s. already has at least seven military installations. this is australia defense 's minister peter dutton speaking last week. >> significantly enhancing our corporation, increasing interoperability, deepening alliance activities in the indo pacific. this will include greater air corporation rotational deployments of all types of u.s. military aircraft to australia. amy: during the same news conference, u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin focused part of his remarks on china. >> we spoke in detail about china's destabilizing activities and beijing's efforts to coerce and intimidate other countries. contrary to established rules and norms. and while we seek a constructive

result-oriented relationship with the prc, we will remain clear eyed in our view of beijing's efforts to undermine the established international order. amy: china has denounced the new u.s.-australia-britain alliance saying the countries are "severely damaging regional peace and stability, intensifying an arms race, and damaging international nuclear non-proliferation efforts." for more, we go to open, california, to speak to david vine, a professor of anthropology at american university who tracks u.s. military bases overseas. he has just written a new article for responsible statecraft titled "not just about subs, aukus expands u.s. military footprint in australia, too." his most recent book is "the united states of war: a global history of america's endless conflicts, from columbus to the islamic state." as biden pulls u.s. troops out of afghanistan, is see ramping

up a cold war with china? one of the first examples we see of this multibillion-dollar deal with australia to sell them nuclear powered desk to sell the nuclear powered submarines. if you can talk about what this all means. >> first of all, it is a pleasure to be with you. thank you for having me. it is tremendously disturbing, dangerus, reckless, and racist announcement and alliance the three governments have announced. in answer to your question if this is a new cold war, i think this announcement of this triple alliance does ultimately is an announcement of your formal declaration of a new cold war that leads us -- can lead us down a path toward a war that

could be not only cold but it really should be unthinkably hot possibly nuclear war between the two most powerful nations, china and the united states. most of the focus has been on the sub field which has very disturbing elements, but i'm glad you're calling attention to the military buildup the deal represents. it is hpful for people in the united states to think particularly how would we feel if china last week at announced it was entering and alliance with russia and cuba to build up military bases and military forces, air, naval, and land or says in cuba to also be engaged in weapons to filament, including hypersonic weapons development, electromagnetic weapons development, to engage in increased cyber intelligence gathering, spying, and space activities with cuba?

to also have a mining deal in place and to be building nuclear powered submarines that involved the transfer of weapons grade highly enriched uranium to cuba? how would we feel if the shoe was on the other foot, if we were faced with this kind of an alliance in our backyard? that is what the united states announced last week with australia and the u.k., that they're building up an already massive u.s. military presence in china's backyard with additional bases, forces, weapons development, supply capabilities, and the transfer of nuclear weapons technology to a nonnuclear power that really undermines nuclear nonproliferation meaning it sets us back in our effort to abolish nuclear weapons on earth. amy: let's go to president biden speaking tuesday at the united

nations where he explicitly said the u.s. is not seeking a new cold war. mr. biden: stand up for our allies and friends and oppose attempts by stronger countries that dominate weaker ones the weather through changes to territory by force from economic coercion, technical exploitation, or disinformation. but we are not seeking -- i will say it again, we are not seeking a new cold war or a world divided. nermeen: david, could you respond to what president biden said and also the ft he seems now to be fulfilling the promise or initiative that obama has adjusted 12 years ago, which is this idea of u.s. foreign policy pivoting to asia? >> and away, i am a bit tired of

vine's words. he said nice words about diplomacy, humanitarian aid, not wanting a new cold war with china, but his actions are very different. for those of us like myself who supported his withdrawal from afghanistan, it is absolutely the right thing to do and withdrawal is long overdue, but turning his back on diplomacy with this announcement. this is far more significant than any words he uttered at the u.n. about not wanting a cold war. he is aligning these three powers against china. we have to ask him how do we expect chinese leaders to respond? this is a risk setting off in increased arms race and, you know, we should not be surprised if china looks to line up an alliance of its own. again, resembling the cold war.

in some anyways, this is cold war era and in many ways, 19th-century thinking. i really hope and think the admin can be much better than this. we are in no position to be building, spending any time or energy building military alliances at this moment when we have such grave security threats facing us from global warming to global pandemics to hunger to inequality, global poverty. those are the kinds of alliances we should be building and the kind the united states can be building. i think we have a choice whether we want to firmly and finally turn our backs on war or -- and engaged in diplomacy in a different kind of allianceuildinfocused on the real security threats facing us or whether we want to firmly and finally commit to a new cold war with china that's good the catastrophically damaging to the

world. it could make the catastrophe of the last 20 years of war by my estimate 4.5 million people died in the u.s.-led wars where we spent eight dollars on war, this new cold war will strip even more funds from the needs they're actually facing us and found more money into the military industrial congressional complex. this is the joys we are facing. amy: david vine, of this amazing map in your new piece for the quincy institute highlighting every country where the u.s. has an overseas military base. around 800 u.s. bases, including 80 in south korea, one hundred 19 in japan. take us on a tour. tell us about africa. >> by our estimates, there are about 750 u.s. military bases abroad in 80 countries and

colonies. this is more than any other country in the world. in fact, probably three times the number of other cotries in the world combined. probably the largest collection foreign military bases in the world history. there are seven bases in australia, in total, u.s. easily has almost 300 and asia pacific foreign military bases surrounding china already and now they are calling for an increased budup. there's been a growing collection and africa since around the early days after the attacks of 9/11 and a collection of bases that touches every africa -- continent except antarctica. there is no reason to be building new military bases in australia or any part of the world. the biden administration needs to move and the other direction and it was moving in that direction by closing bases and withdrawing troops from

afghanistan and should be building on that by closing more bases that are undermining u.s. and global security, but it is not. we face a choice between a path toward permit cold

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