12/15/21 [captioning made possible amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we are under siege here at the capitol. they have breached the capitol. protesters are literally storming the capitol, breaking windows, rushing in. is trump going to say something? amy: house lawmakers site text messages sent by republican lawmakers and others to president trump's chief of staff mark meadows on january 6 as they vote to hold him in contempt of congress.

meadows is now the first former congress member ever held in criminal contempt by congress and the first held in contempt since 1832 when from a representative sample houston was held in contempt for beating a colleague with a cane in 1832. and the u.s. says it is preparing so-called alternatives in case it is unable to revive the 2015 iran nuclear deal that president trump withdrew the u.s. from as israeli officials urged to take action against iran. >> we believe a diplomatic resolution offers the best path to avoiding a nuclear crisis. however, given the ongoing offenses in in iran's program, needs to be prepared in the event diplomacy fails

and that requires preparation. y: then we go to chile where voters are heading to the poll to choose a new president and type runoff election between a far right candidate and a leftist former student leader. >> if chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, [indiscernible] do not be afraid of the change in this country because we also have the experience of those who fought before us. amy: we will speak what activist ariel dorfman who says, "i lived through the darkness of the pinochet era. is chile heading back there?" all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the u.s. has recorded over 800 deaths from covid-19

since the start of the pandemic. on tuesday, a group of lawmakers marked the sobering milestone with a moment of silence on the steps of the u.s. capitol. this comes as the world health organization warned the omicron coronavirus variant is spreading at an unprecedented rate and is likely already present in most countries. while early data shows omicron appears to cause less severe illness, it may be more resistant to vaccines. u.s. officials say it could soon become the dominant variant. in upstate new york, cornell shut down its ithaca campus after over 900 covid cases were detected. many of the infections were of the omicron variant in fully vaccinated students. meanwhile, the head of the european union also warned omicron cases are gambling every two or three days and isxpected toecome minant by mid-januar

greece recorded its second-highest daily dth toll since the start of the pandemic. in medical news, pfizer said tuesday its antiviral pill could reduce severe illness and death by nearly 90% if given within three days of the start of symptoms, and that it is expected to work against the omicron variant. the fda could approve its use within days. a correction, i said 800 earlier. the u.s. has recorded over 800,000 deaths from the covid-19 pandemic since the beginning of the pandemic. the house voted tuesday to hold former trump chief of staff mark meadows in criminal contempt of congress for defying a subpoena from the select committee investigating the january 6 capitol insurrection. in related news, d.c. attorney general karl racine announced a lawsuit tuesday against white nationalist groups involved in the insurrection. >> the independent office of attorney general

r the district of columbia's filing the first civil lawsuit by a state or municipal government to hold accountable the proud boys, the oath keepers, and more than 30 other leaders and members for conspiring to terrorize the district of columbia for unlawfully interfering with our country's peaceful transition of power, and for assaulting our men and women in blue. amy: attorney general racine says he plans to use a law derived from the 1871 ku klux klan act to hold the hate groups accountable. in other trump-related news, a federal judge blocked a bid by the former president to shield his tax returns to lawmakers on the house ways and means committee. the treasury refused to hand over the documents during trump's presidency. meanwhile, trump's longtime accountant, as well as a loan officer at deutsche bank, reportedly testified in recent weeks before a new york grand jury

as part of the manhattan district attorney's ongoing probe into financial crimes by the trump organization. the da's office is looking into whether trump intentionally misled investors about the value of his assets. the house passed a bill to combat islamophobia tuesday, which would establish a state department office to monitor reports of islamophobia worldwide. the bill was spearheaded by ilhan omar, one of the first two muslim women elected to congress. >> the united nations commissioned a report and concluded that islamophobia has reached "epidemic proportion." and urged nations around the world to take all necessary measures to combat it. as a country that was founded on ledges liberty, our leadership on international religious freedom depends on recognizing that islamophobia is global in scope and we must lead the global effort to address it.

amy: congressmember omar has faced anti-muslim attacks since taking office, including from her republican congressional peers lauren boebert and marjorie taylor greene. during the house debate over the bill tuesday, another republican, congressmember scott perry, falsely claimed congressmember omar was affiliated with terrorists. democrats objected to the statements, leading to his racist remarks being removed from the congressional record. in more news from capitol hill, both chambers of congress voted to increase the debt limit by $2.5 trillion just hours before a deadline that would have sent the u.s. into its first ever default. the increase was passed largely along partisan lines with only one republican in the house joining democrats to pass the measure, which headed to president biden's desks in the early hours of this morning. the united arab emirates said tuesday they suspended talks on a $23 billion deal to purchase u.s.-made f-35 planes,

drones, and other equipment. the u.s. temporarily halted planned arms sales to the uae and saudi arabia earlier this year after coming under pressure over the u.s.-backed, saudi-led war in yemen. but the biden administration has since said they were committed to the sales to the uae. russian president vladimir putin and chinese president xi jinping met via video call today as part of a virtual summit. putin hailed the cooperation between china and russia, citing mutual principals of "not interfering in internal affairs and respect for each other's interests." the talks come as both china and russia are facing heightened tensions with the u.s. and other western powers. putin also said he plans to meet with his chinese counterpart during the upcoming beijing winter olympics. the u.s. and other governments have announced a diplomatic boycott of the games. a belarusian court sentenced opposition leader sergei tikhanovsky to 18 years in prison. he helped rally major protests

against president alexander lukashenko but was arrested and unable to run against him in the 2020 election. his wife svetlana tikhanovsky took on the authoritarian leader instead, becoming the face of the opposition but was forced into exile in lithuania following the widely contested election, in which both she and lukashenko claimed victory. she spoke following the verdict against her husband. >> i will continue to defend thperson i love, who has become a leader of millions. i will try to do something very difficult, perhaps possible, to bring closure to moments when we will see him in the new belarus. amy: in haiti, at least 62 peoe were killed and scores injured after a fuel truck exploded late monday in the city of cap-haitien. dozens of homes were also damaged and city officials said my would need to be demolished. the fuel tanker reportedly flipped over in the street and bystders gathed to collect leaking gas when the blast occurred. haitians have been facing a severe fuel shortage,

leading to power outages and protests. in mexico, relatives of people who've been disappeared scattered soil across mexico city's national palace monday as part of a protest demanding justice for their missing loved ones. this is one of the relatives. >> if president lopez obrador does not go to graves, then the graves go to lopez obrador so he will realize that we're suffering in the state. it is not a lie. it is an issue at the national, state, municipal level. we are suffering. amy: mexico's government estimates there are over 60,000 missing people in mexico, the vast majority of them victims of the u.s.-backed so-called war on drugs. the world meteorological organization has confirmed last summer's arctic heatwave smashed the region's temperature record, which soared to 100.4 degrees in june 2020. the unprecedented high was recorded

in the siberian town of verkhoyansk. this is world meteorological organization spokesperson clare nullis. >> saw devastating, very widespread severe and fires and we saw massive arctic sea ice loss and this heatwave did play a major role in 2020 being one of the warmest three years on record. the heat we saw in siberian in 2020 would have been almost impossible witht climate change. amy: muhammad iz, one of two men exonerated last month in the 1965 assassination of malcolm x, is suing the state of new york for least $20 million in damages. he spent two decades in prison before being released on parole. he had been fighting to clear his name ever since. an investigation by the manhattan d.a.'s office and the innocence project found that prosecutors, the fbi, and the new york police department omitted key evidence around the murder.

a similar lawsuit is expected on behalf of the family of khalil islam, who died in 2009, and who was also exonerated last month. a warning to our audience, the next story contains descriptions and footage of police violence. in california, the police killing of mario arenales gonzalez, a 26-year-old latino father, has been ruled a homicide. in a report released friday, the alameda county coroner's office listed the cause of his death as methamphetamine toxicity with other significant conditions, including the physiological stress of altercation and restraint. gonzalez's family's attorney is disputing methamphetamine as a cause of death. he was alone at a park when police arrived after receiving complaints of a man who was allegedly intoxicated. while arresting gonzalez, one officer had his knee on gonzalez's back, while another kneeled on gonzalez's shoulder for at least five minutes until he become unresponsive.

disgraced former new york governor andrew cuomo has been ordered to pay back $5.1 million he made from the book deal for his 2020 memoir about his handling of the pandemic. a new york state ethics board made the decision after it emerged cuomo ed his offial staff and resoces to proce the manuscript. cuomo's lawyer said he will not abide by the order, which requires him to surrender the funds to the attorney general's office within 30 days. an autopsy of former nfl player phillip adams has revealed adams had unusually severe brain disease in his frontal lobe at the time he fatally shot six people and took his own life in april. adams had stage 2 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or cte, which has been linked to head trauma and concussions -- often inflicted while playing football. the range of symptoms include violent mood swings and memory loss. researchers also found that adams' pathology was similar to that of aaron hernandez,

a former nfl player who died by suicide in 2017 while in prison on murder charges. phillips had repeatedly sought help from the nfl. and a group of young activists from across the country are on hunger strike to demand lawmakers pass the freedom to vote act. the hunger strike started in arizona last week and has since expanded, with striking activists protesting in front of the white house every day. noted harvard professor lawrence lessig has joined the hunger strike after being inspired by a meeting with some of the activists. this is madison speaking tuesday, day nine of her hunger strike. >> i am feeling pretty tired and weak, but i'm in part because i know in order to pass legislation we need, we have to get this bill passed first and this year. i'm willing to do whatever it takes. amy: 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 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. the house voted tuesday to hold former president trump's chief of staff mark meadows in criminal contempt of congress for defying a subpoena from the select committee investigating the january 6 capitol insurrection. meadows is not the first former congressmember ever held in criminal contempt by congress in the first held in contempt since 1832 when former congressman sam houston was held in contempt for beating a colleague with a cane. the vote came after the committee released a second batch of messages from people begging meadows to convince trump to stop the deadly attack. this is democratic congressmeer jamie raskin reading text messages sent to meadows by republicans on january 6.

>> a whole set of messages that were discovered and asking questions to mr. meadows, including republican lawmakers and others sending frantic messages saying, we are under siege up your the capitol. they have reached the capitol. mark, protesters are literally storming the capitol, breaking windows on our doors, rushing in. is trump going to say something? there is an armed standoff at the house chamber door. we are all helpless. amy: the text messages to meadows are part of evidence he turned over to the committee investigating the january 6 insurrection. tuesday's vote came after the seven democrats and two republican committee members voted unanimously to seek contempt charges against meadows. this is vice chair of the committee, republican lizheney, reading private text messages

sent to meadows by fox news hosts on january 6. >> mark, the president needs to tell people in the capitol to go home. this is hurting all of us. he is destroying his legacy, laura ingraham wrote. please, get him on tv destroying everything you have accomplished, brian kilmeade texted. can you make a statement, ask people to leave the capitol, sean hannity urged. as the violence continued, one of the president's sons texted mr. meadows, he has got to condemn this [beep] asap. amy: those were text messages sent to trump's former chief of staff mark meadows by fox news hosts on january 6.

this was the response monday on fox news from sean hannity. >> the hyper-partisan predetermined outcome anti-trump january 6 committee just voted 9-0 to hold mark meadows in contempt for refusing to comply with their orders. amy: sean hannity had also mark meadows back as a guest on his show to discuss the vote to hold him in contempt, but hannity did not bring up the message he sent him during the capitol riots. this comes as the january 6 committee has also voted to cite former white house adviser stephen bannon and ex-justice department official jeffrey clark for contempt of congress after they refused to testify after receiving a subpoena. for more, we're joined by jose pagliery, political investigations reporter at "the daily beast." one of his latest pieces is headlined "mark meadows' personal cell is becoming a personal hell."

a congressmemberas been held in criminal contempt and only the second time in almost 200 years, held in contempt. talk about that thousands of pages that he himself gave to the committee or his lawyers did based on -- we don't even know his official phone, his white house phone, but this was his personal cell phone, thousands of pages, even though he is refusing to cooperate. >> i have to say, this is also the first time in history a former member of congress s become a chief of staff who tried to have a president stage a coup. what we're seeing is new ground but it is par for the course. mark meadows is quickly worsening and to understand it, we have to understand

this is a problem that a man create by himself but only going halfway. he received a subpoena to turn over documents and ow up for a deposition. just recently did we discover this entire time the committee has been saying they have been engaging with him what was going on behind the scenes, they have been delaying. they have fought off -- joined up with, fought off any document -- turning over any documents. it wasn't until the end of november where they started turning over reams of data. and when they did, what is curious, it did not come from the kind of stuff you would expect to be the national archives like the things that would be on his official phone or computer. he was turning our stuff from two gmail accounts and his personal cell phone. this is where it gets curious. first off, you're not supposed that official work on your personal electronics.

he would know that. this is one of the top republicans that when after hillary clinton. but in turning over this stuff to the committee, he was also trapping himself, essentially. one, he was trying to claim executive privilege thereby admitting essentially it should not be in his possession now. and two, the stuff he was turning over hinted at what could be in the other material that he is not turning over. like you said, these text messages between him and fox news hosts and those he got from donald trump, jr., clearly show he was in the know on january 6 in the run-up to and after on this plot to stop the certification of election results for 2020. the trap that is going to get him as the following. three parts. one, if these official texts, they should not be on his personal phone. if they are official communications

for the executive branch, that phone should not be reimbursed by donors for his congressional campaign, just something we discovered. the third point is if phone is being reimbursed by his congressional campaign given he is no longer a congressman, they should not be used in a personal capacity. he is trapped. one of the things i spoke about with a former archivist for the united states is the stuff he has on his personal devices needed to have been turned over to the national archives on his way out the door. the fact he did not do that could also potentially land him in problems fighting in violation of the presidential records act. what we have is mark meadows for reasons yet to be determined essentially making himself a martyr for the former president. just attracting all of this trouble on him software inevitably what is going to happen is if the justice department comes after him, he is facing jail time or huge fines.

this is not escapable. all of this hinges on the idea of whether or not the former president can claim executive privilege. that is sothing we could talk about, too. the trump case that clearly is headed to the separate court is going to essentially determine the outcome for mark meadows, steve bannon, and also jeffrey clark. the official at the department of justice. while he was there, try to play central role in essentially turning over the election of 2020. juan: i want to follow up on that latter portion of your remarks there in terms of this issue of the executive privilege eventually -- issue going to the supreme court. isn't the effort of meadows and the trump followers to drag this out, to run out the clock as the november elections when, hopefully, they can regain control, from their perspective,

of congress and short-circuit this entire investigation? >> that is certainly the position of the department of justice under the biden administration. they have said in court papers this is a delay tactic. the committee is accusing this of being such. while that does agreto be the case, there seems to be something else at play. reporting i did last week reflects steve bannon's legal strategy appears not just to be a manner of delaying this, hoping maybe if they stretch this out until late next year that we have an election and things get fuzzy, but also that if there is a case against bannon, bannon's legal team seems to think they can use that as a way to reach into the department of justice, reach into the white house and try to seek documents that would reportedly show this is a political prosecution. we know bannon as this right-wing provocatuer who is,

frankly, early intelligent and smart at playing games with journalists but also with messaging, public messaging. he seems to be trying to turn the tables on te, well, forget the committee's work. what does the biden administration and administration do to me? in doing so, we can see how three different characters here -- four if you consider steve bannon, jeff clark as the doj, mark meadows, and trump himself are trying to essentially not just block the committee's work but turn it upside down. all of these cases, it has to be said, all of these cases in an effort to block the committees were claiming executive privilege, it all hinges on trump's legal challenge, which deserves a close look. every legal scholar, everyone who is knowledgeable about the constitution and is currently teaching at a law school come has told me there is no way former president can claim executive privilege that overrides the current president

decided to release those records to congress. that said, we are also dealing with the supreme court that has been packed by that very former president. it has yet to be determined what will come out of this, but at the very least, there is going to be delays. the problem with delays are at least twofold. one, we cannot run into the problem if this stretches into late next year that maybe if it goes beyond the election, there will be a democrat-led committee, maybe will be republican-led. we know it will fizzle and disappear. it also buys time for people to delete information, to coordinate responses, to essentially drag this out so the evidence is not as fresh. that could be problematic because time is of the essence. juan: i want to ask in terms of how this is playing in the general public.

we had examples from the past that major scandals in republican administration's, of course, most famously watergate during the nixon era. we have the iran contra during the reagan era. while this could potentially be more like iran contra that drags on so long with the people -- the public basically turning off, that even after the conclusions are reached in congressional committee, that nothing major happens in terms of holding those responsible for what happened. i'm wondering your thoughts? >> it's a good question. i've spoken to some who have direct relations with members of the committee and they know this could have been -- so i wouldn't say there is a concern, but they see this as the potential outcomes, so what i am hearing is the commtee absolutely plans sometime early next year to start having some kind of public hearings to garner attention, to lay out all ofhe evidence all at once.

the chairman of the committee, bennie thompson, sort of hinted at this the other day when he said at some point we're going to lay all of the evidence up but not until we have a put togeth. the reason why they would do that is exactly what you're saying, which is there would be a concern the public would just get lost with hundreds of headlights. and if they have a few days or weeks where they have daily public hearings laying out all the evidence they have gathered, that could sort of shore that up. the committee has done a ton of work so far. they have heard from almost 300 witnesses, received tens of thousands of documents -- at least 9000 pages from meadows himself. with that amount of information, we have got something that, frankly, could be compared to the fbi's effort on the other end, prosecuting the actual people who tried to storm the capitol. there is a multi-front effort we have to keep track of.

what is the committee going after the people who staged this. the other, the fbi going after the people who showed up. then we have efforts like you mentioned just now with the district of columbia attorney general going after the proud boys and the oath keepers in a civil lawsuit, making them literally pay for what they did. unless you have got this multipronged approach, we have a situation potentially where this could happen again in 2022 or 2024. there are a lot of people who are ticked off, have guns, and are connected. this multipronged approach could be an attempt to prevent this from happening again. the question is, whether or not people are paying attention when the january 6 committee shows the evidence they have got. amy: during monday's hearing at the house committee investigating the insurrection, republican cochair liz cheney seemed to suggest the committee could refer former president trump for charges.

>> it will bear on another key question before this committee. did donald trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede congress's official proceedings to count electoral votes? amy: the significance of what this republican congressmember is saying? >> it seems like that she sounds like a prosecutor speaking to a jury, reading out the u.s. deral no code. because this would be obstruction of congress' work which is a crime punishable i jail time. it is very clear when she read that that she is hinting at where this is going. ultimately, going after the former president for his central role in trying to stage an surrection. trying to stage a coup and staying in power. we know where the committee is going here.

they're going after the people who put the rallies together, the people in the white house who knew what was going on and did not stop it or egged them on, and the presidenwere literally telling his followers "go to the capitol." it cannot be stressed enough how obvious this was going on in plain sight. some members of congress yesterday when debating whether or not the whole meadows in contempt were noting the fact it seems like the weird thing about the last four or five years is it happens in plain sight, people sort of shrug. but it can't be that way. amy: i want to go to adam schiff reading the text message sent january 3 two mark meadows from an unidentified sender, but a congress member, about the possibility that justice department official jeff clark who appeared open to pursuing trump's attempts to overturn the election results would replace jeffrey rosen, then the acting attorney general.

this was the text, "i heard jeff clark is getting put in on monday. that is amazing. it will make a lot of patriots happy and i am personally so proud that you are at the tip of the spear and i can call you a friend." he is talking to mark meadows. what about these anonymous texts which are believed to be commerce members and will congress members get implicated and it is, helping with the insurrection as their fellow congressmembers were being targeted and police were being physically attacked? >> this is a really tricky question because this doesn't just border on constitutional issues in the u.s. who is going to go after sitting congressmember, right? are they going to be able to police themselves? we have shown this throughout the past few months -- gambling believe in two republicans, adam kinzinger and liz cheney, who have decided to go along with investigating what happened on january 6. what is going to happen when the closest people to mark meadows

are revealed with the role they potentially played in those days? i don't know that fellow members will hold them accountable. that is an open question. what we do see now that is very interesting from the committee is in reading these texts without sainthood's that said them, because we don't know, we just do it to them their members of the house, senators, they are flexing a muscle. they are saying we have these communications. this will keep going. it should come as no surprise that nearly every republican voted against holding mark meadows in contempt. they want to hit the brakes. it is worth noting that mark meadows in the run-up to all of this was going back and forth with the committee about whether or not he would testify and under what conditions. one of the things that seems to have absolutely become a wall to the discussion

is when the committee ught his private text message and call logs from verizon. it was then mark meadows just stopped talking to the committee and sued nancy pelosi and the committee members to stop getting information from verizon because that is clear where the goods are. what is clear, he is trapped because if the relevant material is in a personal account, then he cannot claim there was executive privilege over this without essentially saying he should have turned it over and that is the big problem for him. juan: is there any indication that mark meadows was not alone in using private accounts, private phone or email accounts to conduct government business? as you note, this is one of the major criticisms

of hillary clinton in the famous email -- the battle over the emails. is there any indication there were any other members of the trump administration doing the same thing? >> there has been reporting from others that clearly showed members of the trump administration did not want to let go of their personal devices. if your member at the start of the tru administration, there was a big issu when family members and his close advisors were reluctant to use phones that had been secured by the intelligence community here in the country. some of that was deep state concerns, but, yeah, when they did not want to use government phones and they used persal funds, yes, weeard about the use of signal and other encrypted apps to do this. there has been reporting there may have been a burner cut involved with meadows and his communication with the rally organizers. there is absolutely that question.

let's remember if you go back six or seven years, yes, there was a national debate about whether or not a politician should use a personal device for official work and keep official documents on a personal server. i think there was a resounding response that said, no, you cannot do that, should be held accountable. the question is, are republicans going to hold their own former colleagues accountable here and are they going to hold themselves accountable? we clearly see from what the committee has shown so far that these private texts were going back and forth between him and other members, so there is no russian about whether or not you have these personal devices going around on official business that is official business plotting a coup. let's not forget what this is about. this is official business about an insurrection. that will blow up. amy: maybe this is connected, but i want to end on your pinned tweet.

the tweet is from 2009. you wrote, "sitting in a nearly empty immigration court on tuesday, the judge called the next case. in walks a four-year-old honduran girl, her hair in a dozen braids each with a black bow. she refused to sit in the chair. she preferred to sit next to me in the back. the translator leaned over, telling her about upcoming court dates and the importance of attending -- or being subject to a deportation order in absentia. of course this little darling had no idea what was going on. she blew raspberries my way and giggled the whole time. the first time she responded to the judge was when she asked her age. the girl raised her right hand and four little fingers, then looked at me and smiled. "wow," i whispered to her. "tienes cuatro años?" she nodded and all the bows swung in the air. "si!" when it was all over, she didn't want to get up and leave. she seemed so content just sitting by my side and swinging her legs from the pew.

i complimented the rainbow unicorn on her jacket. "it's cold outside and you should really put it on, it's such a beautiful jacket," i said. the child care center worker held her hand and they walked out. i have no idea where her mom is. she has no idea where her mom is. i couldn't stop thinking about little merolin for the rest of the day." we just have 30 seconds. it is such a heartbreaking story. if you can connect what happened than under presint trump in 2019 to his insurrection of january 6 and what he's doing today? >> look, the trump era was one that took everything that americans consider traditional american values. whether or not they had the right to claim or assert ownership of those values and support them, he took everything that people consider american values and flipped them upside down. the question i've had as reporter covering this has always been, why have so many people not caught that and said no,

this is wrong, we're not going to go along with this? when i wrote that, i was at univision locally here in new york and i was covering the child separation. if you take that to the insurrection, what we've got is everything americans have considered sacred was chucked out the window. the question still is, are we going to hold people accountable for that? amy: jose pagliery, thank you for being with us, political investigations reporter at "the daily beast." next up, the u.s. as it is preparing alternatives in case it is unable to revive the 2015 iran nuclear deal that president trump withdrew the u.s. from. we will also look at the election in chile. stay with us. ■■ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. secretary of state antony blinken said tuesday that biden administration is preparing alternatives in case the u.s. fails in its efforts to revive the 2015 iran nuclear deal that trump withdrew the u.s. from. in direct negotiations between the united states and iran are underway after a five-month break and efforts to revive the joint comprehensive plan action.

on tuesday, the chief of civilian program insisted iran will refuse to allow u.s. inspectors to access the sensitive centrifuge simply plant. last week the cia director said he is concerned about iran's clear program during an interview with "the wall street journal." >> based on the results of the new round of nuclear negotiations with the so-called p5+1, the international partners in the iranians, you know, the iranians are not taking the negotiations seriously at this point. it was a pretty discouraging result then. the reality is, the iranians essentially dragging their feet on the nuclear negotiations and at the same time, as you pointed out, making steady advances in their nuclear program, particularly enrichment to 60% now as well. amy: is really officials ve been urging the u.s. to take ke perry aion again iran suggesting the u.s. should

either strike iran are attacking a running base in yemen. israel insists regardless of the outcome, they have the right to attack iran. for more we're joined by negar mortazavi, an iranian-american journalist and political analyst. host of the iran podcast. if you could talk about the significance of the unit and the so-called alternatives to the iran nuclear deal that trump pulled the u.s. out of. >> as your audience may know, there are negotiations ongoing in vienna at the side of this gathering of not just iran and the u.s., but really the world powers, the other parties to the nuclear deal. sometimes we forget the nuclear deal was not just between iran and u.s., but other european powers involved, russia, and china.

the rounds of negotiations -- can you hear me? amy: we hear you fine. >> the seven rounds of negotiations, which happened, essentially the first round of negotiations with iran's new -- coming with more demands than previous administration's. this goes back to what myself another iran watchers have been warning that president biden when he first started the administration, had a window of opportunity with iran's previous administration, moderate administration was involved in the negotiations initially and the agreements to go back to the jcpoa and do these negotiations while the moderatewere still in power in tehran.

that window closed in june. iran had a new election and a new team started in august. have always been very skeptical of the west, of the u.s., of the nuclear negotiations, of the jc away. there were vocal critics of the jcpoa. this team is going to do things differently and i think that is what the biden administration is realizing, things are going to be more complicated and difficult with the hard-liners in iran. i do not think we are at a point of no return. i still say even with the hard-line team, iran wants a deal with the united states. they want sanctions relief from the u.s. and exchange for them scaling back part of their nuclear program, but i think the negotiations ahead are going to be difficult. if they fail, if diplomacy fails, the absence of diplomacy

means more escalation potentially under the form of sabotage aacks and military escalations, which won't just be gone to iran, it will be spread across the region and can easily get out of hand. juan: you talk about the role of one nation that is not a party to the negotiations but has major influence, israel? israel's defense minister and mossad chief are in washington this week getting what the members of the biden administration. israel has been involved in repeated attempts at assassinations or actual assassinations that scientists in the nuclear program in iran, as well as sabotage of the nuclear energy grant. what is israel trying to do with the biden administration right now from what you can tell? >> that is a great question. iran's nuclear program is not a nuclear weapons program to this point, but if iran -- the reason

iran is because it can be a potential threat u.s. allies. iran is not a threat to u.s. soil. as you were saying, israel and other u.s. partners are very key elements in all of these sort of perceptions of threat and negotiations and u.s. part stri toward -- posturing toward iran. we know the israel was fighting against the negotiations and a deal would president obama was doing diplomacy with iran, but he did not succeed. later he succeeded in pushing president trump to pull out of the jcpoa and now, interestingly, we are hearing from former israeli officials, not yahoo! -- netanyahu's

previous government thisas a mistake, that pulling out of the deal was a mistake. that was a good deal because ran essentially agreed to put limits on the nuclear limits and now they are escalating the situation. there's no better deal to replace it. as you mentioned and amy, there are tas of these really officials trying to push the united states to take military action against iran and potentially target iranian nuclear sites or iranian interest. i am not sure how much of an appetite there is in the white house for that form of direct military impact on iran by the united states and i'm not so confident that israel on its own would carry out an attack like that without u.s. green light. now, the situation can always change. complicated escalate and get out of hand in this volatile region that is the middle east, but so

far i am not sure if the israelis have succeeded in convincing the united states. this is something they have always wanted as well as the with partners -- air partners in the golf to not themselves take military action, but push the united states to do it for them. they have not succeeded under president obama, president trump, and so far i have not seen that really succeeding what the biden admintration. i think they are still trying to get diplomacy a chance, although i think the u.s. has to bring more serious compromises to meet iran halfway. amy: we want to thank you for joining us. negar mortazavi is an iranian-american journalist and political analyst. she is host of the iran podcast. after break, we go to chile where voters are headed to the pulser choose a new president

and a tight runoff which we do far right candidate and a leftist former student leader. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we end today's show in chile, where voters are headed to the

polls sunday to choose a new president in a tight runoff election between far-right candidate josé antonio kast and leftist gabriel boric, a former student leader. recent polls have shown boric with a narrow lead. the socialist chilean congressmember has vowed to fight for progressive social reforms and overhaul neoliberal economic policies that were implemented decades ago by the u.s.-backed dictatorship of general augusto pinochet. and there is josé antonio kast, a far-right populist and an apologist for pinochet's dictatorship. kast opposes abortion and marriage equality, which was just approved by the chilean congress, and ran a campaign on hateful anti-immigration rhetoric. meanwhile, a recently revealed german identification card show's kast's father, michael kast, joined the nazi party in 1942. the two presidential candidates faced off in a debate. >> i believe people know at home

about the caricatures and campaigns of terror that josé antonio kast has installed, perhaps the dirtiest campaigns is the dictatorship he supported. josé antonio kast is a danger for the country and in particular, the people are going through a bad time. >> do not use violence as a form of dialogue. i have not told any allies. i have only set any time catch you in something, you have to ask for forgiveness. i hope it won't happen again. amy: chile's presidential runoff election comes as the south american country continues to reel from an economic crisis worsened by the pandemic. for more, we're joined by ariel dorfman, chilean-american best-selling author, human rights defender, playwright, and poet. his latest op-ed in "the guardian" is headlined "i lived through the darkness of the pinochet era. is chile heading back there?" he was cultural and press adviser to president allende's chief of staff during the last months of his presidency in 1973. welcome back to democracy now!

answer that question. "i lived through the darkness of the pinochet era. is chile heading back there?" >>. as a chance and the point is it is a very distressing situation because chile months ago competed percent of the people had voted for a new constitution and i thought those dark days were sort of over and it is since we were having cash this constitution, in 1980, the dictator pinochet pushed through which was a straitjacket on all reforms necessary, especially to get rid of the numeral reliabilism -- neoliberalism thatas oppressing our economy and our people. now there is a chance -- i mean, seems to be a slim chance, but there is a chance the fact were even speaking of the fact pinochetista to be president of chile after wt our country s

suffered would be a disaster not only from the view of chile itself and its advanced progressive politics which have been so important in the world in general, but also worldwide. it would be one more example of an autocrat -- authoritarian taking power with into immigrant , antiabortion, nationalistic, very people rhetoric in relation to everything that is regressive. -- progressive. i don't mind this man is a son of anazi, though he himself denies it. the fact is for that his brother was pinochet one of pinochet's ministeror another was part of interrogating peasants were then massacred back in the 1970's. i don't mind all of that. if you are different. but he continues these policies,

traditionalist come along order, once to use the military and has now said he would revive the possibility of hoping people and houses that are not officially recognize, meaning we go back to the year of the disappearances of the pinochet era. juan: i wand to ask you, latin america and the late 1980's and early 2000 with through what was dubbed as a pink tight movement. that was followed by a series of right-wing governments that came into power. now we are seeing the pendulum seemed to swing back. we had alberto fernandez elected , pedro castille earlier this year in peru, castro in honduras. all of them left-wing oriented presidents. two major elections coming up next year. lula is in all the pull seems to be in the lead and even former

guerrilla in colombia is seeming to be possibly favor to read the justly the colombian elections was to ensure since the region is shifting once again to more progressive social democratic and left-wing center in the world? >> there is a shift and it is welcome. we must remember, however, if this pinkied was followed by these right-wing retrograde governments, it is because that pink tide made some mistakes. the majomistake s there wa some corruption on the card of the left-wing government and that -- i think they were not sufficiently dedicated entirely to democracy and to respecting their opponents's views. what is important what he is doing now, this is a meant open

to dialogue at the same time very firm in his convictions. in that sense, think whawe're looking is not a pink tide for new red tide but i democracy tide, a democracy now! tide if you want. he is 35 years old and makes mistakes like younger people do, but his heart is in the right place, is very smart in the way he does it, and he is articulated a front of the left, centerleft that leaves possibly for the aggression to the very bad days of pinochet. i'm very hopeful in that sense. i hope chile can in this case lead the way to not only a more progressive candidates in all of latin america, but we should also learn from the mistakes we've made in the past. juan: for those viewers and listeners who don't know much about boric could you give us

a capsule of his trajectory? >> he was born near antarctica way down in patagonia, so he comes from the margins, let's say, in that sense. the other thing is he became a student leader under the protests basically against the remnants of neoliberalism under democratic governance. he rose to power. he was very nickel -- critical of the group of people that lead the transition to democracy. he has since moved somewhat in the sense that he recognizes all the good things that were done and like to remedy the less bad things. he also is not married. he has a girlfriend and we don't know -- this may be the first

girlfriend in the presidential palace. he is very open, very progressive. there's something so refreshing about him, so joyful about him. he represents the movement that in the last two years has asked for a new chile to be reborn. i myself feel as if this is part of my own experience, i've just written a novel in which i deal with cicely how -- cicely how we can move forward with all the pain we have lived with in the pastnd with the perpetrators. how do we do with them? i am trying to find ways in which we can convince those people who are our enemies to at least join the democratic conversation rather than be opposed to it. amy: we want to thank you for being with us. we're going to check back next week after the runoff election

on sunday. ariel dorfman, chilean-american author, we will into your op-ed in "the guardian," "i lived through the darkness of the pinochet era. is chile heading back there?" democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who xññññññññ■í÷í÷í÷í÷■p

(sophie fouron) it's such a small plane. it's not your first flight, is it? (pilot) first flight of the day. (sophie fouron) first flight of the day! o.k. good enough. we're off to great barrier island this morning. it's a 30-minute flight from auckland, new zealand. they have incredible fauna and flora over there, as well as secluded and quiet bays and beaches. i think i could get used to this.

great barrier is quite isolated.