11/03/21 11/03/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> my fellow virginians, this is our moment. amy: in a shocker for democrats, republican glenn youngkin has won the virginia gubernatorial race, while the new jersey governor's race is too close to call. we will get the latest.

then we go to the u.n. climate summit in glasgow to look at the fight against big coal from south africa to puerto rico with kumi naidoo and ruth santiago. >> we are not only denouncing, we are resisting the fossil fuel system. we are saying, look, let's go to the alternatives. amy: plus, we will speak to the leading filipina youth climate activist mitzi tan. >> the philippines is one of the most vulnerable. there the biggest -- finding the most fossil fuel companies in a country ravaged by typhoons. we are here at their doorstep to demand justice. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in your election news, republican glenn youngkin has defeated democrat and former governor terry mcauliffe in virginia's closely watched gubernatorial election, which was considered a bellwether for next year's midterms. the win comes one year after virginians voted for president biden over trump by a margin of 10%. youngkin, former ceo of the carlyle group private equity firm, said he would support reinstating some abortion restrictions in virginia, opposes teaching critical race theory in schools, and has opposed school mask and covid vaccine mandates. republicans have also flipped several seats in virginia's house of delegates and could retake control of the chamber, though final results have not yet been called. new jersey's gubernatorial race remains too close to call with republican jack ciattarelli leading incumbent democrat phil

murphy by around 1000 votes with 88% of ballots counted. at this point, heavily democratic areas of trenton and jersey city and newark in princeton have not been counted. in another hotly anticipated race, community leader and socialist candidate india walton is trailing four-term incumbent byron brown for mayor of buffalo, new york, with brown walton beating byron in the democratic primary but he responded by launching a write-in campaign in the general election. in new york city, brooklyn borough president and former police captain democrat eric adams has become the city's second black mayor. during his campaign, he vowed to tackle crime while focusing on racial justice. meanwhile, pittsburgh has elected its first black mayor, democrat ed gainey. in massachusetts, 36-year-old democrat michelle wu has become the first woman, first asian-american, and first person of color to be elected mayor of boston.

wu, whose family immigrated to the u.s. from taiwan, served as a boston city councilor and is close to senator elizabeth warren, her professor at harvard law. she pledged to fight against racial inequality, gentrification, and to make transportation and housing more accessible to lower-income residents. two u.s. house seats were up for grabs in special elections in ohio. in the 15th congressional district, trump-endorsed republican mike carey beat democrat allison russo, who was endorsed by president biden. meanwhile, democrat shontel brown beat republican laverne gore to take the 11th district seat left vacant by marcia fudge when she became the secretary of housing and urban development. in minneapolis, mayor jacob frey is in the lead after the first round of the city's ranked choice vote. minneapolis voters rejected a measure to replace the police with a department of public safety. meanwhile, in austin, texas,

voters have overwhelmingly rejected a referendum to require the hiring of more police officers. oregon is poised to become the first state to legalize the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms" for medical use. an oregon ballot measure to decriminalize the possession of small quantities of some hard drugs, including heroin and lsd, is also on track to be approved. voters in the district of columbia have voted in favor of decriminalizing the use of magic mushrooms and other psychedelic substances. we'll have more on the elections after headlines. president biden and other world leaders have departed glasgow and the u.n. climate summit as day 3 ushers in closed-doors negotiations on how to combat the climate catastrophe. on tuesday, 90 countries agreed to slash methane emissions by 30% by 2030. this is president biden announcing the u.s. commitments. pres. biden: proposing two new

roles. once you are environmental protection agency, new and existing oil gas pipelines. one through the department of transportation to reduce wasteful and potential dangerous leaks from natural gas pipelines. amy: but climate activists slammed biden for making climate pledges while his administration continues to advance plans to sell oil and gas leases on u.s. public lands. meanwhile, indigenous leaders questioned commitments from over 100 countries to end deforestation by 2030. this is telma taurepang, who leads the union of indigenous women of the brazilian amazon. >> we don't have yet a public policy toward the indigent people of brazil that make sure it happens for real. in they will only for certain stop the deforestation if there is the demarcation of our indigenous land.

without demarcation, there is no way to stop deforestation. amy: in other news from cop26, the u.s., the european union, and other wealthy nations have announced a new deal to provide $8.5 billion to south africa to help it decommission its coal plants and invest in renewable energy. south africa is one of the largest coal producers in the world. we'll go to glasgow for the latest from the climate summit, they are in the broadcast, and speak with kumi naidoo from south africa. the centers for disease control have backed the pfizer-biontech covid-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11, opening up the two-dose shot to an additional 28 million kids who will receive one-third of the dosage of people 12 and older. the ethiopian government has declared a six-month, nationwide state of emergency as it says it is preparing to defend the capital addis ababa from tigrayan rebel forces that threatened the city would be overrun within "months if not weeks." the state of emergency allows

the government to enforce curfews, roadblocks, and for the ethiopian military to take over certain areas of the country. the government has also called on citizens to take up arms against rebel fighters. this comes as the u.n. is condemning human rights atrocities uncovered by a joint and unprecedented investigation into the war in the tigray region. the u.n. said all parties involved in the conflict, including forces from eritrea, have committed violations of international human rights, some of which could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. this includes extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual and gender-based violence. the u.n. also accused ethiopia's government of attempting to limit the investigation. in occupied east jerusalem, four families from the sheikh jarrah neighborhood officially rejected a deal from the israeli supreme court that would delay their eviction but force them to cede ownership of their houses and pay rent to israeli settlers who claimed the homes as theirs. this is activist and affected sheikh jarrah resident muna el-kurd.

>> we reject because we believe in our cause and our right to our home and country come despite that we are not getting any guarantees to support our steadfastness as palestinians in the occupy jerusalem from any site or organization. amy: following the rejection of the deal, the israeli supreme court could order the families be evicted within weeks. in may, the planned expulsions helped spark the latest war in gaza, and galvanized international support for palestinians facing dispossession from settler groups and the state. facebook announced it's shutting down its facial recognition systems and deleting face scan templates of over 1 billion people by december. facebook will not, however, get rid of the algorithm which program the facial recognition technology, called deepface. it also did not rule out using such technology in the future. the move comes amid mounting scandals for facebook,hich recently changed itsorporate

name to meta. the aclu welcomed the move, calling it a "good start," adding -- "now it's time for enforceable rules that prohibit companies from scanning our faces without our consent. looking at you, congress." democrats said they reached a deal to help rein in prescription drug costs as part of the build back better act. the provision would allow the government to negotiate prices for medicare prescriions for the first time. but drug companies would have patent exclusivity for nine to 12 years before the government could begin those negotiations. the legislation would also ban pharmaceutical companies from raising prices quicker than inflation and cap out-of-pocket expenses for seniors on medicare at $2000 per year. this is senate majority leader chuck schumer announcing the deal tuesday. >> fixing prescription drug pricing has consistently been a tough issue for americans year after year, including the vast majority about democrats and

republicans who want to see a change because they simply cannot afford their medications. amy: in a long-fought victory for lgbtq plus rights, same-sex partners will have access to survivors' benefits if their partners died before they were able to legally marry or did not meet a threshold of being married at least nine months. on monday, the justice department and the social security administration dropped two trump administration challenges to lawsuits that granted same-sex couples in both those categories the right to social security survivors benefits. a counsel at lambda legal, which brought the lawsuits, celebrated the news, saying -- "no one should continue to pay the price for past discrimination." and over 10,000 john deere workers will remain on strike after a majority last night voted to reject the latest contract proposal negotiated by their union. workers are fighting for better wages and pension plans. they've been on strike for nearly a month.

and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i am amy goodman in new york joined by my co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: in a blow to democrats, the republicans have won the governor's race in virginia with the wealthy private equity executive glenn youngkin defeating former governor terry mcauliffe. youngkin campaigned, in part, by vowing to support so-called parents' rights, which has become a catch-all phrase to describe right-wing opposition to vaccine and mask mandates, trans rights for students, and the teaching of critical race theory. youngkin spoke at a victory party in chantilly, virginia. >> my fellow virginians, this is our moment.

it is our moment for parents, for grandparents, for anson and uncles, for neighbors to change the future of virginia's children's lives, to change their virginia journey. it is our time to turn that vision into a reality. amy: meanwhile, in new jersey, the governor's race is too close to call as republican jack ciattarelli has a slight lead over incumbent democrat philip murphy. to talk about the governor's race is, we are joined by john nichols, the nation's national affairs correspondent and author of a number of books, including "the fight for the soul of the democratic party." john, talk about the significance of the republican victory in virginia for governor about youngkin's campaign, then we will move to new jersey where it is clearly too close to call most of the main democratic strongholds have not been counted yet.

>> thank you for having me. let's start in virginia. i think the first thing to point out is this is an off year election in which there is clearly an overlay from what is going on in washington, northern virginia in particular, suburban washington. there's a lot of consciousness about where the biden administration is that in things of that nature. but once we put that in its place, i think it is important to understand what happened in virginia. and that is virginia democrats chose to nominate what they thought was the very safe candidate, terry mcauliffe, the former governor. he beat a number of other candidates in the democratic primary with most of the democratic leadership saying, well, this is t easiest way to retain the governorship. but mcauliffe ran what can best be understood as an unfocused and bumbling campaign in many instances. on the other hand, republicans nominated a candidate who was

untested, glenn youngkin, but who was very sophisticated, very disciplined in his approach. what he did was embrace donald trump's constituency. clearly accepted trump support and communicated that he was on board a lot of where trump was at, but at the same time and his overall messaging, seek to identify himself with just enough distance that could appeal to those who don't necessarily like donald trump. what is noticeable in the exit polls, he got almost one in five of his vote from people who said they don't approve of trump. he was getting people who had and definitely voted for joe biden in 2020 to come over. how did he do that? with the combination of soft messaging of his very right-wing proposals and right-wing stance on the issues and a dog whistling use of the issue of

critical race theory that the republicans -- this is obviously an effort to suggest that parents should be far more in control of curriculums in school and, frankly, they should be able to dictate a curriculum that does not acknowledge much of the history of the united states -- or at least subtitled it. youngkinid that in a sophisticated way. no question what he did in virginia will become a template for republicans in other states. there is also one counsel. while there's a lot of focus on critical race theory and how it was played in virginia, in school board races around the country, including my own state of wisconsin, were school boards were threatened with recall on critical race issues and in many cases the school board members won their fight. they were not recalled. one of the reasons is another

wisconsin case, they directly confronted the issue. they said, look, this is a republican political strategy. it is an attempt to dog whistle and to exploit step in virginia, i think the message from the democrats on that was quite muddled in many cases. they did try to confronted in some ways but i don't think they did very well. at the end of the day, if i had to divide up with the impacts were on virginia, i would say the quality, the character of the youngkin campaigned to benefit but also the biggest influence, in my opinion, is the fact the democrats in washington have seemed extremely chaotic, even dysfunctional, and they control the white house and the congress. you cannot fail to deliver on your promises and then expect to win elections. and that is a big message for

democrats. juan: john, including virginia -- putting virginian contacts with new jersey as well, i think it i likely phil murphy is going to win the new jersey race, even though he is slightly behind right now only because as amy mentioned, a lot of the democratic strongholds, including camden, which had the lowest returns so far, are likely to push him over. nonetheless, he was expected to win by much more -- if he does become the victor. it seems to me, at least in these races where you had corporate docrats in both phil murphy and terry mcauliffe running, that the ability -- their ability to make the race against trump rather than for themselves suffered greatly. i am wondering your sense of given the fact the right-wing populism of trump is still surging and a lot of the

country, what this means for ections next year? >> i think it means a lot and i think your analysis is very strong. my sense is murphy will win in new jersey and i think it is important to note that murphy ran a much more focused campaign -- rightly, more progressive campaign on message and some of his records then you had from mcauliffe. ultimately, think murphy is probably going to win by reasonably comfortable margin, not a big landslide or anything like that, when all the votes are counted. but it is much closer than it should be by any reasonable measure. in the pits of any supreme court race, statewide race in a battleground state where the republican appears to have prevailed. what you see from a number of states where you have got statewide races where they really are tests of where people are going to vote and where the pattern is, in each case, the

republicans prevailed. i think there are two things in play here. number one, what you point out, the democratic party continues, especially in virginia, continue to reject candidates of the future. these are women, people of color, progressives. in favor of candidates of the past, candidates who often have held office before or are holding office. they're very, very predictable. at this moment, that does not work very well. secondly, however, you do have this national overlay. i think it is a big deal. the democrats have an's midsummer sent a signal of, yeah, we have big plans, big goals, we control the presidency and the house and senate, but we are not delivering. we can't even get our own people together. it is very easy to blame joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. and they do deserve a lot of blame, but there has to be a

recognition that the biden administration, democratic leaders in congress, did not follow the advice of senator bernie sanders and pramila jayapal who said, look, you need to go out and sell this program. you need to talk about it in bold ways across the country so people reallynow everything that is in this build back better agenda and they know it is at stake. they did not do that. they relied on insider, predictable, behind-the-scenes negotiations. and it did not work. president biden flew off to europe with a framework that joe manchin did not support, so at the end of the day, democrats are in a situation with they promised a lot. they have not delivered. you could not fail to deliver and expect to win elections. amy: we will turn to some of the mayoral races. several closely watched one. in buffalo, mayor byron brown has claimed victory in his

write-in campaign against india walton, who shocked brown in june by winning the democratic primary. she was attempting to become the socialist to lead a big city in first decades. in new york city, eric adams easily won the mayoral race becoming just the second african-american to head the nation's largest city. in minneapolis, mayor jacob frey is leading after the first round of the city's ranked choice vote. and in boston, michelle wu has made history by becoming the first woman and first person of color elected as mayor. she spoke tuesday night. >> we are ready to become a boston for everyone. we are ready to be a boston that does not push people out, but weomes all who call our city home. we are ready to be a boston where all can afford to stay and to thrive.

and, yes, boston is ready to become a green new deal city. amy: a green new deal city, says the new mayor elect a bus to michelle wu, a protégé of massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. john nichols, the mayoral race is around the country? >> i am glad you focused on michelle wu. i think her victory is incredibly instructive. it has not been covered enough by much of the national media. michelle wu ran as a prressive. she started early and build a grassroots multiracial, ethnic coalition. she focused on big issues won big. she did very well in the primary. i think there is a lot of lessons as regards to our politics. remember, boston is not a city that has had a lot of diversity in its mayors.

they tend to be irish or italian , from irish or italian back transfer generations. it is a city that is competitive politics. you see elizabeth warren progressive prevail, talking about the green new deal, economic and social and racial justice, affordable housing, but doable. that is an important message. in the mayoral races in general, democrats prevailedut you saw ve different types of democrats prevailed, different messages. sunlight michelle wu, very progressive. some like eric new york who have been very critical of democratic-socialist's. in buflo, at the situation -- it is a notable situatn in buffalo where india walton won her primary fair and square, built a grassroots campaign, engaged with housing issues and a lot of issues that are vital in buffalo. she got the nomination and then

two things happen. number one, the leadership of the state democratic party in new york, including the chair of the state democratic committee, the governor, and others failed to endorse her and give her strong backing. secondly, a lot of very, very wealthy and powerful interest in buffalo and outside of buffalo poured money into byron brown's campaign. he raised more than 1.5 landowners. -- more than $1.5 million. flooded airways with a lot of messaging that was very negative about you walton. you see a situation here where somebody won the democratic nomination but did not yet get the level of support from the democratic party that might have allowed her to prevail. amy: juan, i would ask you about eric adams, so when you have covered for years, police captain, brooklyn borough

president, state legislator, and now he has become the second african-american who will become mayor of new york. left when he went to the polls yesterday holding his mother's picture who just died, was beaten by police and arrested as a young person took on the new york police department the significance of his win? juan: well, as i said before, i've known eric adams since he was just a police sergeant more than 30 years ago and worked with him closely over the years as a reporter. this victory -- i would also like to constitute john nichols with india walton in minneapolis, what happened with the minneapolis police referendum as well -- seems to indicate that a lot of african-american and lino voters are not as in sync with

the progressive left on issues of police reform. i think because the african-american and the tino vote is such a big portion of the democratic party, i think folks are going to have to come to some realization of what is possible within a capitalist system and within a situation where corporate democrats also wield enormous influence and finances in terms of elections. i am wondering, john, whether you see, with the exception of michelle wu, a lot of the results this time around were not only a rebuke of the more corporate democrats, but also to some degree a rebuke of the more left-wing proposals of progressives as well? >> you saw a direct -- minneapolis, where proposal to really change the policing

structure in that city from a more traditional one, frankly, a policeorce influenced by right-wing union, to a public safety model and that lost. it did not lose by a massive landslide, but it did lose. at the end of the day, i think there is evidence there is resistance here stop i would emphasize -- and this is important to recognize -- if you look at these races, seat and acknowledgment of the need to change policing. it is a debate about how to do so and how to message that. but i would be careful about saying there a full on rejection of some of the left's messages for the need and change in policing. i still think there is a base for that, but do think there will be some wrestling with it. democrats, frankly, are going have to think about how to talk

about the need to change policing and would that can build out coveted and constituencies. i will note, it is important to note that while eric adams one big and for a variety of reasons that joe money williams and brad lander, both very progressive candidates, won the two citywide races by equally large margins. i think we can take many signals from the selection and i do think we should pay attention not just to the top level wins, but some of thosew ins down ballot as well. amy: thank you for being with us, john nichols the nation's , national affairs correspondent and author of several books, most recently, "the fight for the soul of the democratic party." next up, we go to the u.n., summit to speak with kumi naidoo and mitzi tan in leading climate activist mitzi tan. back in 30 seconds.

♪♪ [music break] amy: this is the climate countdown. we go to the u.n. climate summit in glasgow, where 90 countries have agreed to slash methane emissions by 30% by 2030. methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases. the effort is led by the united states and europe. climate groups praised the initiative, but said far more needs to be done to rapidly slash overall carbon emissions in order to avoid a climate catastroph in other news from glasgowthe united states, the european

union, and other wealthy nations have announced new deal to provide $8.5 billion to south africa to help it decommission its coal plants and invest in renewable energy. south africa is one of the largest coal producers in the world. we will begin there with one of leading south african climate activists, kumi naidoo. former secretary general of amnesty international and was previously the head of greenpeace, now a global ambassador for africans rising for justice, peace, and dignity. kumi, welcome back to democracy now! it is great to have you with us as you stand there in glasgow. talk about this deal that was just made between the u.s., eu, south africa and the significance of coal and whether you see this as the beginning of a radical change in the world. >> this is a positive movove in the right direction. the details need to be looked at more clearly. put pressure on the south african government who has been

dragging its feet to actually have a more aggressive timeline to actually get off coal. the challenge is about 100,000 people rely on coal mining jobs for their survival. but it is clear with the resources now, the south african government does not have an excuse to ensure that a just transition for workers in various coal mining industries to be able to transition to clean energy jobs. of course, part of it is to make sure south africa can increase its renewable energy out what -- output as soon as possible. just note there is an additional challenge because south africa relies 80% on coal and with that 80% right now for the last decade, there has been -- there's a real possibility for south african government to move with urgency to transition in an

aggressive way from coal to clean energy company options for south africa to get series are significantly positive. but the truth is, the government has dragged its foot for far too long and we are playing catch up in south africa as we are playing catch up everywhere in the world. i think it is worth noting the decade we find ourselves in is the most consequential decade in human history. what we achieved in the next 10 years will determine what kind of future we will have or whether we will have a future at all. the stakes are high. the only cautionary point i would say in conclusion is be careful about the grant announcements that are being spliced in every other day. we need to make sure we do the math at the end of it because we could have these grand announcements and they will add up. let's be clear, rich countries governments make announcements of financial support as it did for the 100 million pounds a

year -- dollars here for the green climate fund by 2020 which they have not delivered. this he of that money flows and need to be diligent to make sure the nations follow through. one code you mentioned the south african government has been slow to address any transition away from coal. why is that? is it because the coal miners are such a critical constituency of the anc or is a just the leaders have been in denial about the continuing advance of the climate crisis? >> well, i would say the first reason is the production chain, right, in terms of big fossil fuel projects is more juicy, more bulky, more lucrative.

it is not to say renewable energy projects are immune from corruption, but they tend to be on a much lower scale and it is easier to monitor. unfortunately, as is known by the south african people, we have a very corrupt leadership that is -- has been there and current leadership is trying to make things better, but the question of how decisions are made, about what economic choices to make, and about what spoils would be is a reality. secondly, in the implementation of the deal, there's consultation with faith leaders, civil society, and so want to make sure the resources go to where they need to go. it is true the trade union movement who are very open to a just transition -- we in the environmental movement love the workers that work in our country. we do not think they should be punished. it was not their fault they were

told you need to deliver energy through a deadly means. therefore, we are saying with younger workers -- younger workers can easily be retrained and find jobs in the emerging renewable energy sector. for older workers who are closer to retirement, there needs to be proper compensation for them that they retire with dignity. i also think the other factor is there is the denial. just as there is the denial in virtually every country around the world were political leaders say one thing, recognize the problem, but revert to business as usual. this announcement does put pressure on the south african government to activate with urgency and for civil society and environmental acts within south africa to say you don't have an excuse anymore to drag your feet. of course, the unions want to see what this is about but i

think given the scale of the money, we should be able to ensure trust -- just transition and make the right investment in wind, solar, and other clean energy technology. juan: despite the climate crisis, there is more coal mines being opened up around the world these days than ever. ven that coal is the most polluting fossil fuel in many countries are heavily relying on it for electricity, how do you think that you like this might have an impact in other countries, like india or indonesia or other nations around the world? >> we hope that this announcement will have -- particularly with the to you mentioned, indonesia, india, australia, and several others does she have to recognize with investment of even one dollar in

any new coal project based on what we know and how close we are to the climate cliff, must be understood as an investment in our children and their children. any investment, especially coal but all fossil fuels right now, given what the science is saying how little time we have, one minute before midnight, and so on, must be understood as a responsibl reckless, and really a confirmation the fossil fuel industry, those oil, coal, and gas companies, still exercise far too much of power and control over many so-called elected government in many parts of the world. amy: kumi naidoo, thank you for being with us. we want you back on before you leave. global ambassador for africans rising for justice, peace, and dignity, former secretary general of amnesty international and previously the head of greenpeace. in glasgow right now inside the cop of the u.n. climate summit.

we're going to stick with the issue of coal and renewable energy and turn out to one of the places most affected by extreme weather over the past two decades, in the world, and that is puerto rico. hurricane maria destroyed the island's electrical grid four years ago and left residents in the dark for months. today the fragile power system is still unreliable, prompting mass protests. some of its dirtiest power comes from the largest fossil fuel burning power complex, that includes the u.s.-owned aes coal plant known as la carbonera, in the rural municipality of guayama, home to many of the island's afro-puerto rican residents. they have long demanded the company stop dumping toxic coal ash and raised concerns about carbon emissions and water and air pollution.

a new film translated as "the power of the people," looks at how they are now organizing to expand rooftop solar energy projects. in a minute, we'll be joined by one of the residents featured in the film who is now in glasgow. this ithe trair. >>hen wead hurrine mia peop had diel or gas generato and theost of ruing themas exoitant. anthe noisand emisons from the genators ma peoe sick. they we unbrable. you coulnot slee the sor panels don't take ise ande can sa money. weanse l bulbs a other suchhings. we're n only deuncing a syst, we areaying,ook, let'go to the alternative. what a the altnatives? more than ything ee, our

alrnate cmunity ganizing amy: one of the people featured in "the power of the people" is ruth santiago, who joins us now

from inside cop26 in glasgow. long time lawyer and environmental justice advocate in puerto rico and a member of the white house environmental justice advocacy council who is attending cop26. it is great to have you with us. as we just listen to kumi naidoo and the amazing way we can link globally to people dealing with the same critical issues, the climate catastrophe, and coal in particular, how it is affecting puerto rico and the privatization of the electrical grid? >> thank you for having me. coal is all over the world. it was brought to puerto rico by aes corporation that established a plant in november 2002 and had egregious violations of environmental standards and the

coal plant has contaminated what is known as the south coast aquifer, the sole source of potable water for tens of thousands of people in southeastern puerto rico. then on top of that, we now have a crisis -- people are calling it hurricane luma because the new joint venture company that took over the operation and management of the electric system in puerto rico luma energy. they don't have the workforce. they don't have the knowledge. we are experiencing twice the number of outages that we did, say for example, last year when we had the earthquakes and two of the big plants were out. juan: ruth, could you talk a little bit more about luma and his privatization effort that occurred -- it is not the first

time puerto rico has tried to privatize basic services. they did it decades ago with the water and had to go back to publicly owned water. this company was created specifically just to handle this privatization effort or to bid on the privatization of puerto rico. how's it working so far in terms of radical -- electrical rates in the service they provide? >> the luma contract is the most difficult problem we have right now with the electric system in terms of the fact they don't know how to operate the system and we are having many outages, more than last year, for example. they were newly created by these two big utility companies just for the purpose of operating the puerto rico grid and for the

control -- in the contract you can see how luma energy controls federal funding for disaster recovery already allocated for the electric system. historic amount that fema has allocated for the puerto rico elecic system, and luma and the two companies are after those funds. it is over $9 billion that luma would be controlling and profiting from an its parent companies in doing a rebuild of the 20th century centralized grid that we have that is so vulnerable to hurricanes. civil society groups that i work with are totally opposed to handing over those funds to luma , and we have a proposal which

is decentralized, decarbonized, and more democratized and she colonized -- de-colonized. the luma contract stands in the way of that kind of electric system that civil society is asking for in puerto rico. juan: puerto rico already had established an energy policy that mandated 40% of its electricity must come from renewables by 2025 and 100% by 2050. so how does all of this, putting luma in charge of the grid, how does that dovetail with this policy or does it not? >> it does not. luma is the main impediment. we have been at hearings where luma representatives say that

fema funds cannot be used for renewable or rooftop solar as we are proposing, which is totally wrong and they were called out on that. and now are trying to say they do favor renewables but it is not true. we know their true intention is to rebuild centralized transmission system that connects the fossil fired southern plains in puerto rico, other rural communities, that they want to connect those plants -- luma's is to harden the transmission system that connects those plans to the san juan metro area and continue the centralized fossil fired system. amy: ruth, you're on the white house advisory council. you are saying if fema directs rebuilding money to fossil fuel instead of renewable, you are weighing quitting and you're there like a journalist in the u.s. pavilion trying to talk to u.s. officials? >> yes.

i think fema has -- and the biden administration has -- one of its biggest tests at the beginning here of the administration to put the money where its promises are. puerto rico is a great case. in the case of puerto rico, fema has allocated over $9 billion and it could be a lot more for the electric system. allocated to the puerto rico power authority. what fema needs to do is put into effect, apply its executive order to tackle the climate crisis. the president's executive order, tackle the climate crisis, environmental justice. no impediment in terms of republican opposition here. nothing to prevent fema from doing that. so we think this is a great test

for the biden administration to show that it is very serious about tackling the climate crisis. ruth santiago, longtime lawyer and environmental justice advocate in puerto rico and member of the white house environmental justice advisory council who is attending cop26. coming up, we speak of the leading filipina youth climate activist mitzi tan in 30 seconds. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. climate justice activists are preparing for a major march and rally in glasgow on saturday, calling on world leaders to do more to address the climate emergency. speakers will include some of the most prominent youth climate activists, including greta thunberg of sweden, vanessa nakate of uganda, and our next guest, mitzi tan of the philippines. last friday, she rallied outside the offices of standard chartered bank in london to protest financial institutions funding fossil fuel extraction.

>> the philippines is one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world. standard chartered bank is the biggest international bank that is finding the fossil fuel companies in my country, the philippines, which is ravaged by typhoons yet a year. amy: mitzi tan joins us now in glasgow. international spokesperson of youth advocates for climate action philippines and an organizer of fridays for future and fridays for future most affected peoples and areas. the philippines, one of the most vulnerable countries in the world for the climate crisis. what domains are you making here of the world leaders? >> ethic my demand is the same as everyone's demands, really, it is clear and simple. we have to stop funding our destruction, stop picking the

fossil fuel industry over people's lives. we need to have cuts with plans and steps have how to get there and reparations of the global north to the global south because the global south can adapt and manage the loss and damages we have already experienced. juan: could you provide a little more detail about how standard chartered bank is played such a key role in the philippines and fossil fuel developments? >> the bank's international bank that has the largest investments of fossil fuel companies in the philippines. these companies are not only putting out these plans, but displacing people's lives, threatening people's livelihoods. some campaigners who have campaigned against him coal-fired power plants by this company have had higher goons go to their homes and have received death threats. although their slogan is "here for good, it is not here for

good because these are the people that are supporting literally killing people and we're seeing how standard chartered bank is trying to pose itself as a leader in climate finance and wants to push the idea of carbon offsetting. it really, that is just an excuse so that multinational companies in the north can keep emitting and destroying our planet. juan: several years ago, were studying mathematics at the university of the philippines when you met members of the indigenous group in the philippines. good you talk about their battle in terms of extractive industries and how that shape your view for the fight for climate justice? coax the reason why became a climate activist is because of that interaction with the indigenous people. how they were being harassed, displaced, militarized.

it changed my life and worldview because i realized i had this privileged -- privileged to choose to be an activist. but none of us have a choice. we have [indiscernible] we realize this that we're not doing this alone, it is also something that has shaped how you approach the climate justice movement because then you remember it has to be a collective effort. it has to be a community effort. that is what we're doing. we're building a world together. amy: mitzi tan, many have called the cop26 the whitest and the most privileged cop to date because of issues that access for activists in the global south when it comes to vaccines, visas, travel finances.

can you talk about how that has shaped the discussion? also, are forming of the most affected peoples and areas group within fridays for future, the priorities of your group? >> it is not just this climate summit that is white. it is been every single u.n. climate summit. if he had the people most marginalized at the table, if you had the people are most impacted at these tables deciding, you would not be in the climate crisis we are today. and at this u.n. climate summit we're seeing eve there are young people here, we are still not be listen to because if we were being listened to, we would be seeing action. but we're just hearing empty words. that is why mapa is here to make

sure the voices of the most affected people and areas are amplified and centered because that is how we impress upon people the climate crisis is already here. it is not a problem of the future, it is happening today. we have to remember the system we have that is so obsessed with profit and the using colonialism and imperialism and capitalism to exploit people's lives, especially people of color, that is the system we have that has brought us to the climate crisis. that is what mapa is trying to change. to make sure we have a world where no one is left behind. juan: the u.s. is the world's largest historical emitter of climate pollution. how do you -- what is your message to president biden? obviously, he's talking about climate change is the existential crisis but in terms

of actual delivery, of reform by the united states of lacking? >> joe biden, you said you were a climate president but you have done nothing but disappoint us. if you really cared, if you really thought the climate crisis was an existential problem, we would be seeing drastic emission cuts, not at the rate you're doing now. all the pledges are not enough at this point. considering what the u.s. has already done. then you remember everything else the u.s. is doing with its military, which is one of the world's biggest polluters of emissions also, with the destruction of our environment with the multinational companies destroying forests and displacing indigenous peoples and our countries. there a lot of things the u.s. needs to start doing, and one of them is that carbon dioxide emission cuts and the second is to really ramp up the climate

reparations in the form of grants to countries and the global south. then even more. the u.s. has so much to do and hasn't even started. amy: your twitter handle, what has uprooting the system mean to you? >> that is fridays for future climate strikes, the once in september and october and the one coming up in november for the youth climate strike, uproot the system means we're looking at the roots of the climate crisis. how do we get here? it is not just an environment a problem or a problem of carbon dioxide emissions. it is a systemic problem that impacts people. it is a system that has caused not just the climate crisis, but the other social economic crises like racism and able as of and sexism in class inequality.

and to amplify the climate crisis. amy: we want to thank you. mitzi tan, thank you for being with us, spokesperson of youth advocates for climate action

hello and welcome back to nhk "newsline." i'm takao minori in new york. analysts with the u.s. defense department are sounding the alarm over china's nuclear ambitions. they estimated last year the chinese stockpile included about 200 war heads and would double over the decade. now they project by 2030 that arsenal may grow to 1,000. the pentagon relead