[captioning made possible by democracy now!] ♪ amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> u.s. foreign policy has been aggressive, and now we have serious dangers onwo fronts. the war in ukraine, which is devastatg, and the dangers a potential nfrontatn with china. we have to rethink our foreign policy.

amy: as the war in ukraine enters its seventh month and tensions rise between the u.s. and china over taiwan, we speak to jeffrey sachs about what he calls a false narrative with russia and china. a year ago today the last plane evacuated afghanistan. we look at the crisis facing afghan refugees. over the last year, the u.s. has only approved 123 humanitarian parole applications. meanwhile, the u.s. has approved applications from 68,000 ukrainians in recent months. and mabel's speak to the 25-year-old gun control activist al hunt drove next while frost appears to be heading to congress after winning last week's democratic primary in florida. >> by confronted governor desantis about gun violence. what did he say? i am making sure that they hear from us for 10 years.

protecting the right to choose. passing laws to end gun violence. reproductive health and affordable housing. we cannot keep electing the same politicians. amy: today, president biden calls for an assault weapons ban. all that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in iraq, at least 30 are dead and hundreds more injured after fighting intensified in the capital baghdad as fighting continues between supporters and opponents of the powerful shiite cleric muqtada al-sadr. the violence came after he claimed he would be quitting pilot six. iraqi security forces iran-backed militias and , supporters of al-sadr clashed in baghdad's heavily fortified green zone -- an area that houses foreign embassies and government buildings -- following al-sadr's announcement he's quitting politics. >> before we were committed to the orders of al-sadr.

he is letting the people take the lead in their own revolution. we are ready to die. we have nothing to lose. am the formation of a new iraqi government has been paralyzed since parliamentary elections in october, where al-sadr's sadrist movement won the most seats but has faced failed to win a majority. al-sadr's supporters had occupied the iraqi parliament since late july in an effort to block lawmakers from choosing a new prime minister. pakistan's government has launed a maj appeal after monsoon rains fuel by the climate crisis swept away homes and bridges, destroy crops, splaced tens of millions of people, killed over 1000. the climate minister declared it climate dystopia at our doorstep. >> one third of pakistan is underwater. 33 million are affected.

tell me how that is not catastrophic? amy: pakistan's planning minister estimates the cost of rebuilding at over $10 billion and said t figure isikely to rise once rescue crews are able to access remote areas cut off floodwaters payment mississippi governor tate reeves has declared a state of emergency in the capital jackson and will mobilize the national guard, after torrential rains caused the pearl river to overtop its banks, swamping a water treatment plant. governor reeves said monday evening that emergency workers were scrambling to deliver potable water to 180,000 people around jackson who lack enough water to flush toilets or fight fires. >> please stay safe. do not drink the water. two many cases it is raw water from the words being pushed through the pipes. amy: it's the latest crisis to impact aging infrastcture in jackson, where officials estimate the cost of fixing the

city's water system could top $2 billion dollars. in early 2021, jackson residents spent more than a month under "boil water" orders after winter storms caused pipes and water mains to burst. 82% of jackson's residents are black. a new study finds greenland's melting ice sheet will likely contribute almost a foot to global sea level rise by the end of the century. writing in the journal nature climate change, researchers found that, even if the world were to halt all greenhouse gas emissions today, rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have already doomed 120 trillion tons of greenland's ice to melt. without urgent action to mitigate the damage, researchers warn the amount of sea level rise could be far higher. here in new york, a fifth round of talks aimed at protecting the world's marine wildlife has ended in failure. on saturday, negotiations on an updated united nations ocean treaty ended without an agreement after wealthy countries including the u.s. and

canada rejected a plan to establish "marine protected areas" spanning 30% of the world's oceans. ukraine has launched a counter-offensive aimed at retaking the city of kherson and other parts of southern ukraine occupied by russia. on monday, ukraine's military said it d broken tough russia's first line of defense, and that russian proxy forces and paratroopers had fled the battlefield. russia acknowledged the counter-offensive but claimed it had failed and that ukraine had suffered heavy losses. meanwhile, a team of inspectors with the u.n.'s international atomic energy agency have arrived in kyiv ahead of their planned visit to the russian-occupied zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, europe's largest power station. fighting continues to rage near the site, with reports of artillery fire and a missile strike overnight. new satellite images show damage from an artillery attack on the roof of a building right next to zaporizhzhia's six nuclear reactors.

president biden will ask congress to approve $1.1 billion in arms sales to taiwan. that's according to politico, which reports the weapons deal will include 60 harpoon anti-ship missiles, and 100 air-to-air missilefor taiwan's u.s.-made f-16 fighter jets. the planned weapons sales come after china staged large-scale military war games around taiwan, in response to house speaker nancy pelosi's visit to the island. a federal judge has recommended against efforts by victims of the september 11th attacks to seize $3.5 billion from afghanistan's central bank. after the taliban regaed power last year, the biden administration froze $7 billion in afghanistan's foreign reserves and then set aside half of the money for 9/11 families who sued the taliban. but some 9/11 families have opposed such efforts. leila murphy of the group september eleventh families for peaceful tomorrows said, “i am relieved that the judge has taken a step toward the only

legally and morally correct approach, making the entire $7 billion available to afghans to deal with the economic crisis we helped to cause.” the biden administration has announced it condone or provide u.s. residents with covid-19 home tests blaming congressional republicans for blocking the package of more relief funds that would aow tests to be stockpiled. public health advocates say this could add to a surge of infections during the fall and winter. since january, the government has mailed some 600 million tests through a program that allowed households to request a total of 16 home tests. people now havuntil frid to make their final order on the federal online portal. moderna has sued pfizer, claiming the company illegally used mrna technology patented by moderna to develop its covid 19 vaccine. the two companies have made record profits off the vaccine.

pfizer has projected $32 billion in covid vaccine sales ts year, while moderna is forecastg at least $19 billion in sales. tim bierley of the group global justice now said in response to moderna's lawsuit, “it's grotesque but unsurprising to see pharma fighting among themselves over who has the right to profiteer the most from the pandemic." many public health campaigners have argued the vaccines should be publicly owned since biions of dollars in public funding helpedevelop tm. a federal judge in washington, d.c. has sentenced 40-year-old joshua pruitt to 55 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, over his role in the capitol insurrection. pruitt is an aspiring member of the far-right proud boys organization who was among the first to push past police lines and into the capitol crypt on january 6, 2021. prosecutors say pruitt came face to face with senate majority leader chuck schumer during the attack on congress.

video of the incident shows schumer and his security team turning and running in the opposite direction after they saw pruitt approaching. in georgia, the judge overseeing the grand jury probe into donald trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election has rejected a bid by republican governor brian kemp to quash a subpoena for his testimony. however, the fulton county superior court judge ruled monday that kemp will not have to testify until after november's midterm elections, where he faces democratic challenger stacey abrams. the special grand jury was requested by fulton county district attorney fani willis earlier this year. last week, willis sought grand jury subpoenas for trump's former chief of staff, mark meadows, and former trump legal adviser sidney powell.

in oregon, a 20-year-old gunman wielding a semiautomatic assault rifle and shotgun opened fire inside of a safeway grocery store in the city of end, sunday, killing two people before taking his own life. one of the victims, 66-year-old safeway worker donald likely saved the lives of many by confronting and attacking the gunman. in texas, a federal judge has struck down a state law that banned adults under the age of 21 from carrying a gun, arguing the statue violated the second amendment. the ruling came just three months after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at robb elementary school in the city of uvalde -- texas' deadliest school shooting. the lawsuit was filed last november by the firearms policy coalition. in related news, in austin, dozens of gun control advocates, including the families and loved ones of victims of the uvalde mass shooting, rallied outside the texas state capitol over the weekend demanding the state raise the minimum age to

purchase an ar-15 to 21 years old. this is maggie mireles, whose sister eva mireles was one of the teachers killed at robb elementary in may. >> these weapons belong in the military, they belong in w, not in the classrooms. my sister did not have to die for this. it was too easy for this punk to buy these weapons and easily do what he did, because of the laws that are in place. these laws should have changed a long time ago. amy: today, president biden is going to pennsylvania where hubler calalling on congress to pass a ban on high-capacity magazines and semiautomatic weapons. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

joined by juan gonzalez in new brunswick, new jersey. juan: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. amy: politico is reporting the biden administration is preparing to ask congress to approve a new $1.1 billion arms sale to taiwan. the package reportedly includes 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air-to-air missiles. this comes after two u.s. warships sailed through the taiwan strait on sunday for the first time since house speaker nancy pelosi visited taiwan earlier this month. china condemned the visit and launched a major military drills near taiwan. meanwhile, president biden announced $3 billion in more military aid for ukraine last week, including money for missiles, artillery rounds, and drones to help ukrainian forces fight russia. we begin today's show looking at u.s. policy on russia and china. we are joined by the economist jeffrey sachs, director of the center for sustainable development at columbia university.

he is president of the u.n. sustainable development solutions network and has served as adviser to three u.n. secretaries-general. his latest article is headlined, "the west's false narrative about russia and china.” he begins the article by writing, "the world is on the edge of nuclear catastrophe in no small part because of the failure of western political leaders to be forthright about the causes of the escalating global conflicts. the relentless western narrative that the west is noble while russia and china are evil is simple-minded and extraordinarily dangerous." jeffrey sachs, welcome back to democracy now! take it from there. jeffrey: good to be with you. amy: what is the story that people in the west and around the world should understand what

is happening right now with these conflicts with russia and ukraine, andith chin jeffrey: the main point, amy, is that we are not using dlomacy. we are using weaponry. this sale now announced to taiwan that you have been discussing this morning is just another case in point. this does not ke taiwan safer, this does not make the world safer, certainly does not make the united states safer. this goes back aong way. i think it is eful totart 30 years ago. the soviet union ended. some american leaders got it in their head that there was no what they called the unipolar world, that the u.s. was the sole superpower, and we uld run th show. the results have been disastrous. we have had a now three decades

of militarization of american foreign policy. a new database that tufts is maintaining shows that there ve been more than 100 military interventions by the united states since 1991. it is really unbelievable. i have seen in mywn experience over the last 30 years, working extensively in russia, central europe, china, other parts of the world, how the u.s. approach is a military first and often military only approac we arm who we want. we call for nato enlargement no matter what other countries may say, may be harmful to their security interests. we brush aside anyone else's security interest. when they complain, we shipped

more armaments to our allies in that region. we go to war where we want, when we want, whether it is afghanistan or iraq or the covert war against assad in syria, which today is still misunderstood bymerican people, in libya, and we say we are peace loving. what is wrong with russia d china? they are out to undermine the world. and we end up in terrible confrontations. the war in ukraine -- to finish the introductory view -- could have been avoided and ould have been avoided through diplomacy. what president putin of russia was saying for years, do not expand nato into the plexi -- black sea, not to ukraine, not to georgia, straight across the

eastern edge of the black sea. russia said this will jeopardize us, let us have diplomacy. the u.s. rejected all diplomacy. i tried to contact the white house -- in fact i did contact the white house -- and said there will be war unless the u.s. enters diplomatic talks with president putin over this question of nato enlargement. i was told the u.s. will never do that. that is off the table, and it was off the table. now we have a more that is extraordinarily dangerous and we are taking exactly the same tactics in east asia that led to the war in ukraine. we are organizing alliances, building up weaponry, trash talking china, having speaker pelosi fly to taiwan when the

chinese government said please lower the temperature, lower the tensions. we say, no, we do what we want, and now send more arms. this is a recipe for jet another more. -- war. to my mind, it is terrifying. we are at the 60th anniversary ofhe cuban missile crisis, which i have studied all my life, written a book about the aftermath. we are driving to the precipice and we are filled with our enthusiasm as we do so. it is just unaccountably dangerous and wrongheaded, the whole approach of u.s. foreign policy, and it is bipartisan. juan: jeffrey sachs, i want to ask you, one of the things that you mentioned in a recent

article was this insistence of the united states, dragging along europe as well, in maintaining hegemony in the world at a time when the economic power of the west is declining. you mentioned for insnce, brics nations, brazil, russia, india, china, south africa, represent 40% of the world population and have a greater gdp than the g-7 nations. yet their interests and concerns are pretty much dismissed. in the case of russia and china, portrayed to the american people as the aggressors, as the thoritarians, the ones creating turmoil in the world. i nder if you could expand on that. juan: absolutely. directing us to that

extremely important. the disproportionate power of the weston world, especially the anglo-saxon world, which started with the british empire, and now the uned states, is about 250 years old. a short period in history. it happen for a lot of interesting reasons. the industrial revolution me to engnd first the steam engine was invented there. that is probably the single most important invention in modern history. britain became militarily dominant in the 19th century, like the u.s. was in the second half of the 20th century. britain ran the show. britain ran the empire on which the sun never set. and the west, meaning the united states, western europe, now meaning the u.s., european

union, the u.k., canada, japan, g-7, together is a small pt of the world population. perhaps now roughly 10%, maybe 12.5% if you add in japan to western europe and the u.s. but the mindset is we run the world. that is the way it was for 0 years in this industrial age. but times have changed. really, since the 1950's, the rest of the world, when it gained independence om european imperlism, started to educatits populations, started to adopt and adapt, innovate technologies. low and behold, a small sliver of the world didn't have a monopoly on wisdom or knowledge or science and technology, and

this is wonderful. the knowledge, possibility of life is spreading around the world. but in the u.s. there is a deep resentment to this, also a tremendous historical ignorance. a lot of u.s. leaders have no clue as to modern history. but they resent china's rise. that is an affront to the united states. how da china rise. this is our world, our century. starting around 2014, i saw step-by-step, i watched with intensity detail. it is my daily activity. how the u.s. recast china, not as a country recovering from a centurand a half of great

difficulty, but rather as an enemy. and we consciously, as a matter of american foreign policy, said we need to contain china. china's risis no longer in our interest, as if the united states should determine if the chinese arprosperous or not. the chinese are not naive, in fact, they are extraordinarily sophisticated. they watched all of is the same way that i did. i know the authors of the u.s. texts, at harvard and other places, and i was shocked when this kind of containment idea started to be applied. but the point is the west has led the world for 250 years but feels that is our right, this is a western world. we are the g-7.

we get to determine who writes the rules of the game. obama, a good guy on the spectrum of what we have in foreign policy, said let's write the rules of trade for asia but not have china right any of those rules. the u.s. will write those rules. this is an incredibly naive and dangerous and outmoded way to understand the world. we in the united states are 4.2% of the world populatn. we do not run the world. we are not world leaders. we are a country of 4.2% of the people in a big, diverse world, and we should learn to get along. play in the sandbox peacefully, not demand that we have all the toys in the sandbox. we are not over that thinking yet.

unfortunately, it is both political parties, it is what motivates speaker pelosi to go to taiwan in the middle of all of this -- as if she had to go to stir up all the tensions. but it is the mindset th the u.s. is in charge. juan: i want to go back to the 1990's. you recall, i'm sure, the enormous financial collapse that occurred in sukkot in the 1990's , where the clinton administration authorized bailout, really to wall street investors. at the time you were advising the post-soviet russian government which also had deep financial problems at the time but was unable to get any significant western assistance,

even from the imf. you were critical of that at the time. i wonder if you could talk about the differences of how the u.s. responded to the mexican crisis, how the u.s. responded to the russian crisis, what the roots of that are in, and the current situation today? jeffrey: had a controlle experiment. i waeconomic advisor both to poland and the sovieunion in the last year of president gorbachev, president yeltsin in th first two years of russian independence, 12, 1993. my job was financed actually to help russia find a way to address, as you describe it, a massive financial crisis. my basic recommendation in poland and then in soviet union, russia, was to avoid a societal

crisis and geopolitical crisis. the rich western world should help tamp down this extraordinary financialrisis that was takg place with the breakdown of the former soviet unn. inrestingly, in the case of poland, i made some specific recommendations, and they were all accepted by the u.s. government. creating a stabilization fund, canceling part of the debt, many financial maneuvers to get poland out of difficulty. i make rommendations and one of them for a billion dollars, stabilization fund, was accepted within eight hours from the white house. i thought pretty good. then came the analogous appeal

first on behalf of gorbachev in the final days, and then president yeltsin. everything i recommended, which was on the same basis of economic dynamics, was rejected flat out by the white house. i didn't understand it. i said at the time, but it worked in poland. they stared at me ankly. the acting secretary of state said, professor sachs, it doesn't matter whether or not i agree with you or not. it is not going to happen. it took me quite a while to actually understand the underlying geopoliti. those were exactly the days of cheney and wolfowitz, rumsfeld, what became the project for the new american century, meaning the continuation of american hegemony. i didn't see it at the moment because i was thinking as an

economist, how to help overcome a financl crisis. but the unipolar politics was taking shape, and it was devastating. of course it left russia in a massive financial crisis that led to a lot of instability that had a lot of implications for years to come. but even more than that, what these people were planning early on, despite explicit promises to gorbachev and yeltsin, was an expansion of nato. clinton's started the expansion of nato with her three central countries of europe, poland, hungary, czech republic, and then george w. bush junior added seven countes, bulgaa, romania, slovakia, slovenia, the three baltic states, right up against russia. and then in 200 the cp de grace, the u.s. assistance over

the privatoppositionf the european leaders. european leaders talked to me privately about it at the time. in 2008, bush said nato will expand to ukraine and georgia. again, if you take out a map and look at the black sea, the explicit goal was to surround russia in the black sea. by the way, it is an old playbook. it is the same playbook as palmer sin in 1856 in the first crimean war. surround russia in the black a, cut off its ability to have a military presence, reject any kind of influence into the eastern mediterranean. persian ski himself said in 1997 that ukraine would be the geographic pivot for eurasia. what these neocons were doing in the early 1990's was building the u.s. unipolarworld, already

contemplating lots of awards in order to take out the former soviet allied countries. wars to overthrow saddam, aside, qaddafi. those were all rolled out in the next 20 years. they have been a disaster, debacle in those countries, horrible for the united states, trillions of dollars wasted. but that was a plan, and that neoconservative plan is in its heyday right now two fronts, ukraine and on the taiwan strait front. it is traordinarily dangerous what these people are doing to american foreign policy which hardly is a policy of democracy. it is a policy of a small group that has the idea that a

unipolar world and u.s. hegemony is the way that we need to go. amy: jeffrey sachs, we don't have so much time, but because this was such a big issue, naomi klein talked about you recommending shock therapy. can you draw a line between what happened as the russian economy unraveled, the conditions leading up to the ukraine invasion, how did the economic catastrophe that followed the collapse of the soviet union lead to the rise of the oligarchic class, the presidency of vladimir putin? jeffrey: i have tried to elain to naomi, whom i admire, that what what i was recommending was financial help, whether it was to poland all the viet uni or russia. i was absolutely aghast at the cheating and corruption and the giveaways.

i said so very exicitly at the time and resigned over it. i was useless in trying to get western help, and also because i did not like at all what was going on. i would say the failure of an orderly approach, which was achieved in poland, but failed in the former soviet union, becausthere was no weste constructive engagemen definitely played a role in the instability in the 1990's. definitely played a role in the rise of the oligarch class. in fact, i was absolutely explaining to the u.s. and the imf and world bank in 1994, 1995 what was going on. they didn't care. they thought that is for yeltsin perhaps in the cheating, shares

for loans process. having said all of that, what is important to say, there is no linear determinism, even from events like that which were destabilizing and unnecessary, to what is happening now. when president putin came in, he was not anti-european, anti-american. but what he saw was the incredible arrogance of the united states, the expansion of nato, the wars in iraq, the covert war in syria, the war in libya against the u.n. resolution. we have created so much ofhat we are facing right now through our own and attitude and arrogance. there was no linear determination. it was step-by-step u.s. arrogance that has helped to bring us where we are today. amy: jeffrey sachs, president of

the u.n. sustainable development solutions network and has served as adviser to three u.n. secretaries-general payment thank you so much for joining us from austria where he is attending a conference. coming up, we will talk to a reporter who has documented how, over the last year, the u.s. has approved just 123 afghan parole applications compared to 68 thousand approved applications from ukrainians in recent months. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "links on the chain" by phil ochs. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. with juan gonzalez. one year ago today, the last u.s. troops left afghanistan.

at 11:59 p.m. local time in kabul, the final u.s. military transport plane took off ending the longest war in u.s. history. in the preceding weeks the u.s. and allied nations helped evacuate some 122,000 people -- mostly afghans -- who were trying to leave the country as the taliban regained power. today, we look at what has happened to afghan refugees over the past year. for those afghans trying to rebuild their lives in the u.s., many have faced significant obstacles. the news organization reveal from the center for investigative reporting recently reported the u.s. government has approved less than 2% of afghan applications it processed for humanitarian parole. according to documents obtained by reveal, 66,000 applications for the i-131 program have been filed for afghans seeking humanitarian parole in the u.s. the documents show u.s. citizenship and immigration services has processed less than 8,000 of the applications and the agency had approved just 123. meanwhile, the agency has already approved more than

68,000 applications from ukrainians since launching a separate program called uniting for ukraine in april after the russian invasion. the u.s. has also requested afghan applicants pay a $575 per person fee while applicants to the uniting for ukraine program face no fee. reveal reports u.s. citizenship and immigration services has collected nearly $20 million in fees from afghan applicants since last july. in a moment, we will be joined by nijab aminy a reporter with reveal, but first i want to tu to an excerpt of an interview he conducted for reveal's weekly radio show. in the clip, he interviews an afghan woman named nilofar. she is a former teacher o is still living in afghanistan. fearing for her safety, nilofar applied for the humanitarian parole program months ago. >> it has been a long time since the application.

we do not hear any response from usaid, either positive or negative. we are still waiting. nijab: what is that waiting like? >> we are in our homes. we don't go out, we don't go sharpening, we don't go anywhere. we just stay-at-home. it is a bad situation. really bad economy and mental situation. we do not know how long we can continue. amy: an excerpt from reveal's weekly radio show and podcast. we are joined now by nijab aminy. he is a producer at reveal from the center for investigative reporting. his recent report is titled "afghanistan's recognition problem." his parents left afghanistan in the 1970's. great to have you with us. talk about your findings. the comparison with ukrainians is stunning.

nijab: amy, humbled to be here. just to paraphrase from your words, we at reveal started to look into this after hearing about this personally from other family members, other legal advocates, people in the community, that this was a pathway that tens of thousands of afghans had looked at a year ago. for months, just silence. then by december some rejections came through but very few applications were granted. usaid has publicly shared some numbers but things didn't seem to add up. in february, the team at reveal foia'd usaid and the numbers are just stark. not just the numbers but the approaches to the two different programs. juan: nijab, it is shocking that

a country like afghanistan, where the u.s. was involved in a war for 20 years, many people cooperated with u.s. forces, those folks are being asked to pay to apply for humanitarian parole, whereas ukrainians can apply for free? what do you make of this policy difference? nijab: i think the root is down to the immigration system. afghans at the time were looking at different immigration pathways. there was a special immigrant visa, priority one, priority two program. the reality is, and was, all of these systems were backlogged. lawmakers, legal advocates were pushing afghans to apply for this program, humanitarian parole. it is something that is used in urgent situations, if you need surgery, if you want to visit a

dying relative in the u.s. this specific program is not a pathway to citizenship, but it is temporary entry into the u.s. one of the criteria is harm. tens of thousands of afghans believed they were in harm, were eligible for the program. they even had a webpage for instructions for afghans for this program, instructions that detailed, please write expedited and black ink in the corner. this program was one of the last possibilities to leave the country. it typically takes uscis 90 days to process these applications. the data shows it has taken twice as long. those kinds of delays, that limbo, there is a psychological

impact, but also the physical safety. how much longer can you stay in these safehouses? how long can you stay put before perhaps the taliban comes knocking on your door, or you just run out of resources to continue living in that situation? going back to your question, why are people paying 575 dollars for an application fee, when ukrainians are offered a different program where there is no fee, that comes down to a decision by the biden administration. for afghans, this is the path for humanitarian parole. four ukrainians, this is the path for humanitarian parole. ukraine is very much an active war zone. legal advocates are all for the uniting for ukraine program. if anything, it is the model of what humanitarian parole code, should, needs to be. but the discrepancy, the idea

that here is a program that rolls months after the departure from kabul, and it is only still being applied for ukrainians, whereas afghans are in this state of limbo, i think a lot of people in this community, diaspora, they have a lot of questions. amy: friday, we interviewed anatol lieven, senior fellow at the quincy institute for responsible statecraft, about the disparity, about how ukrainian refugees are treated here, how many are accepted, and how afghan refugees are accepted or not. this was his response. >> the response to ukraine and ukrainian refugees has been vastly more gerous. not giving a silent two people who worked for the united states and britain is obviously

disgraceful, dishonorae. i have to say, when it comes to much larger numbers of refugees from afghanistan, as we have seen from previous generations of migrants to the west, there has been often real problems with integration, even in first-generation, let alone second-generation, with some of these people that come to the west as refugees and then turned to extremism and terrorism. simply saying we must accept anyone who wants to leave afghanistan and can, is not a solution. ukrainians, like pols and others, are much easier, frankly, to integrate, to be successful in western societies. that sounds harsh, but i'm afraid it is a fact. amy: hey fact, nijab aminy?

nijab: i am perplexed as to why he would even say that out loud. how to answer this question -- let's break it down like this. there is so much focus on afghans who may have a connection to western government. if they were translators or worked with the forces. let's unpack before even addressing the previous speaker. that needs to stop. all that is suggesting is that afghans who were a part of the effort are the only ones that matter. for the past 20 years, and you can go back even further in the 1980's, and that conflict, the u.s. involvement in that country spans generations. this notion that only translators are the ones that have priority, only those that helped the forces, when in fact, there is a very strong connection between most average

afghans and the u.s. effort over the past two decades. it does not just boil down to people who may have been translators. as to the point about integration, what is the rubric, what is the metric? is it just because you come from europe that all of a sudden you get a pass, versus other countries, nope. you might have a different affiliation of food or faith or language or clothing or culture, and because of that it is difficult to integrate, so therefore -- i don't know. to answer your question, is that a fact? hard no. amy: nijab aminy, thank you for being with us. we will link to your piece, "afghanistan's recognition problem." back in 30 seconds.

♪♪ [music break] amy: "decolonize yr mind" by jer. we end today's show in florida, where 25-year-old community organizer maxwell alejandro frost, who made history when he won the democratic primary for an open u.s. house seat a week ago, today. frost will become the first afro-cuban and first member of generation z elected to congress

if he goes on to win november's general election for florida's heavily democratic 10th congressional district. he is the former national organizing director for march for our lives, which was formed by survivors of the parkland shooting in florida and campaigned in support of abortion rights. he's also supported medicare for all, legislation to combat the climate crisis, the legalization of cannabis, and says he will be a "pro-israel, pro-palestinian member of congress.” maxwell alejandro frost, welcome to democracy now! can you talk about why you feel this victory, which could well be a victory in november, is so important for this country? maxwell: thank you for having me on. i think it's important for this country because it sends a message to young people and all folks do not count young people out of the conversation. in a representative democracy, we need a congress and government that looks like the country. yes, that means in terms of our race, but also age and

experience, where people come from. juan: i would like to ask you, in terms of your activism, you are very young but you have already had about a decade of experience in grassroots campaigns. can you talk about some of the campaigns you have been involved in, how that propelled you to want to run for congress at such a young age? maxwell: for me, this journey started 10 years ago because of the sandy hook shooting. i remember seeing what happened on the television screen. it pushed me to go to the vigil happening in washington, d.c. where i met one of the brothers of one of the victims. the experience i had with him change my life forever. i left that experience saying for the rest of my life, i will fight for a world where no one has to feel the pain that i saw him field at night. since then i've been working in politics and in the movements that i feel like will bring justice to folks. when we talk about amendment 4,

working for the seiu, leading the -- aclu, leading the effort here in florida, working to win the hearts and minds of folks to say that people deserve second chances, people deserve to vote once they get out of prison, people with previous felonies. i had the honor of being a part of that struggle. march for our lives, i became the national organizing director, where i worked with young people from all across the country, training, educating, resourcing then, to have what they need to make a difference in their local government. whether that is working to get more community intervention, so communities can stop land before it happens, or fighting for safed are gone most. i have had the privilege of being a part of some imrtant struggles in our country's history over the past decade, want to take what i learned there from a movement organizer and bring it to congress. amy: i want to ask you about

your views on israel and palestine. a few weeks ago you published a position paper where you said u.s. military aid to israel is one of the most important parts of foreign aid that we contribute to david he also said the boycott divestment sanctions movement, bds, is extreme the problematic and undermines the chance of peace. many palestinian americans in your district said they felt betrayed by your views after supporting your run. rasha mubarak, a palestinian american who has organized with you in orlando, told the middle east, he advocated for a pre-palestine. i want to ask you about that issue of money in the campaign. “haaretz” reports that your self-described position as a pro-israel, pro-palestinian member of congress "did not provoke enough opposition for super pac spending.” but you did receive a $1 million

dollar pledge of support from the new super pac, protect our future, funded almost entirely by the crypto-billionaire samuel bankman-fried. can you talk about that? maxwell: for myself as an organizer, progressive, when i close my eyes and think about the role that i want to live in, it's a world where palestinians can live free, have the resources they need, and just be able to live their lives, similar to what american should have come as well. same thing with israelis. israelis should live in a world free of violence, without the fear of being gunned down or missiles or anything like that. i support a two state solution. i believe that is the strongest and quickest path toward peace for the entire region. all subsequent policy for me has point to that two state solution , ensuring that palestinians have their own sovereign state where they can live. there are things that israel needs to do to ensure that mass

demolitions, evictions stop, settlement expansion stop so we can move toward peace. hamas needs to stop loving missiles toward israel, putting families and children at risk. let me get to a place where peace is possible, a two state solution is the best way forward. that is what i champion, what i will push for in congress. juan: maxwell, you live in central florida. how do you speak to the trunk supporters, especially the conspiracy theorists, election deniers? do you have to try to win them over or just mobilize a bigger vote from people who don't hold that view? maxwell: it is becoming increasingly difficult but it is important. we can never give up on anybody. as an organizer myself, i believe this has to be about the battle for hearts and minds. that means never giving up on

people no matter how far gone they may seem. it is becoming increasingly difficult especially with the rhetoric we are hearing from the right, what we are hearing from those leaders, but we can never give up on the flight of just talking to our fellow human beings about what we believe it and why we believe it. the message that we carried in the primary, part of the reason that we won, why we will win in november, the platform is all about love. that is something that anybody can get behind. it's about bringing together shared values height and agenda that i love you, i want you to have health care, safety, the opportunities that you deserve. juan: your family, your adoptive parents, your grandmother was cuban. i am wondering your perspective given the importance of cuban relations with the electorate in

florida, how you feel about the biden administration's current stance and policy toward the nation of cuba. maxwell: the way i approach cuba, a lot of times just me think about my family there, the most vulnerable people there. i believe there are multiple truths to be had. the current regime in cuba is oppressive to the cuban people, has been. that is why my grandmother, aunt came here in the 1960's to escape that and find a better life. at the same time, recognizing the u.s.-cuba policy has not been working. inact, a lot of times, has been affecting the most normal people, not creating the policy changes that we need on the island. there are multiple truth that new to be held there. it's important to normalize

those relations and move to a place where we are centering the working class families in cuba that are crying out for help and support from a violent, oppressive regime. amy: are you for lifting the embargo? maxwell: i am. amy: president biden is going to pennsylvania today calling for an assault weapons ban. you are a major weapons activist. do you think this is enough? maxwell: could you repeat? amy: president biden is going to pennsylvania today calling for an assault weapons ban. maxwell: i think that is extremely important. a bipartisan bill that was passed a few months ago is extremely important in taking the steps necessary to encode violence in this country. th leading cause of deatfor children recently went from auto accidents to gun violence. our children are i on the front lines of this. a lot more needs to be done with these steps are important and significant, especially if you don't allow yourself to get clouded by the numbers and

statistics. behind every number, there is a human, a person, a family. legislation that can save five lives a day is more than worth it. there is more work that needs to be done. amy: thank you for being with us.

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