12/06/22 12/06/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the time for negotiation is now. this is becominguitepparent european leaders president macron of france and chancellor scholz of germany. it seems it is also becoming part of the administration's

internal debate. amy: as ukrainian drones attack deep inside russia while moscow continues its assault on ukraine's civilian infrastructure, we will look at growing for negotiations to end the war. we will speak to professor jeffrey sachs. then it is election day in georgia. we will talk to cliff albright of black voters matter. how george's new voting has impacted the runoff beeen setor raphaewarnock and herschel walker. >> it s already had an impact in the gener and especially in the runoff election first and foremost because they reduce the runoff period fm eight weeks to four weeks and made it impossible to register any new voters for the runoff period. amy:lus a story about press freedom me hacking, rveillance, and a secretive israeli spywe company. a group of journalists from the central american news outlet el faro have sued the nso group after the company's pegasus

spyware was used to hack their phones. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. ukrainian drones have struck two russian air bases hundreds of miles from the front lines. on monday, kremlin officials acknowledged the attacks damaged two russian warplanes and reported three people were killed and five others wounded in an explosion at a military base about 150 miles from moscow. russia responded with a fresh barrage of missile strikes across ukraine that knocked out power supplies and killed at least four civilians. the attacks triggered air raid sirens across ukraine's capital -- ukraine cities and towns. among those seeking cover in a kyiv bomb shelter monday was the u.n.'s high commissioner for human rights volker türk. >> there was a wave of missile

attacks against ukraine, including some of them ending up in the vicinity of kyiv. it has become almost a numeral but it has a huge impact on civilians and it has to stop. amy: on monday, russian state media broadcast images of president vladimir putin touring the kerch bridge, a key link between russia and the russiaannexed ukrainian territory of crimea, which was heavily damaged by an explosion in october. in other news from russia, president putin on monday signed legislation making it illegal to promote or praise lgbtq relationships or to express non-heterosexual orientations, including in literature, film, television, and websites. here in the united states, the supreme court heard oral arguments monday in a case brought by a website designer from colorado who's seeking to deny services to lgbtq people. during two-and-a-half hours of debate, the court's conservative majority appeared to side with the plaintiff who said her

religious beliefs ought to outweigh colorado's public accommodations law, which bans businesses from discriminating against people based on their gender and sexual orientation. colorado attorney general phil weiser, who led the defense, spoke to reporters outside the supreme court. >> we are very concerned that if our side releases in this case, the court will put up an exemption that would make possible all sorts of professions -- photographers, people who make cakes, others who write books -- to say i'm not going to sell to someone based on who they are. the court has never recognized an exception and to do so would be at the cash civil rights laws. amy: in immigration news, the biden administration has expanded temporary deportation protection to tens of thousands of haitians after mounting pressure from immigrant rights groups. haitian migrants who arrived in the united states as of november 6 will now qualify for temporary protected status, tps, and the

program's expiration date has been extended from next february to august 2024. biden officials warned asylum seekers who arrive after the november cut-off date will likely be deported. this comes as haiti faces a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis with skyrocketing violence taking over the streets. in related news, u.s. senators have reportedly drafted a last-minute bipartisan immigration bill that could grant a path to citizenship to at least 2 million undocumented people brought to the united states as children known as streamers. "the washington post" reports republican senators thom tillis and kyrsten sinema have reached a deal on a bill, which would also increase funding to further militarize the u.s.-mexico border and try to speed up portions of the asylum application process. the centers for disease control is encouraging all u.s. residents to resume wearing high-quality, well-fitting masks

in public as 44 states report very high rates of influenza. this week hospitalizations from the flu hit a 10-year high for this point in the season. rates of rsv, or respiratory syncytial virus, are also high in many regions and as u.s. hospitalizations from covid-19 are once again climbing. in illinois, 12 counties are recommending masks in public after reporting high levels of community spread, while in california, los angeles county officials are poised to restore a mask mandate after covid cases reached their highest levels since august. in northern ethiopia, the commander of tigrayan forces says two-thirds of troops have relocated away from the front nes a month after a ceasefire agreent ended fighting in the war-torn region. this comes as ethiopia's military has been accused of massacring tigrayan prisoners of war captured during the conflict. "the washington post" reports at least 83 tigrayan soldiers in a makeshift ethiopian prison camp

were slaughtered by guards in november 2021, with their bodies dumped in a mass grave by the prison gate. other witnesses reported ethiopian guards have killed imprisoned soldiers in at least seven other locations. in the democratic republic of congo, government officials said monday at least 272 civilians were killed in a massacre blamed on the m23 rebel group in the eastern town of kishishe last week. drc security forces initially estimated some 50 people had been killed. m23 has denied responsibility. dozens of young activists gathered in the city of goma on monday demanding justice for the victims and denouncing the international community for ignoring the intensifying violence faced by people in the drc. >> we find admissle the international community -- [indisrnible] democratic republic of congo. we say no because it has been more than a decade. i populations were massacred.

people are still living in disaster. we say no. amy: al jazeera has filed a formal request at the international criminal court asking it to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the killing of palestinian-american journalist shireen abu akleh. on may 11, an israeli soldier shot shireen in the head as she was reporting just outside the jenin refugee camp. shireen and other reporters were wearing blue helmets and blue flak jackets clearly emblazoned with the word "press." shireen's niece, lina abu akleh, spoke to reporters from the hague in the netherlands earlier today. >> they continue to be support for shireen. we need to continue to talk about her to continue to pressure government, members of parliament, policymakers to take action and pressure those to seek justice and accountability.

amy: to see our interview with lina abu akleh and sharif abdel kouddous, the producer of -- the correspondent on the documentary "the killing of shireen abu akleh," go to democracynow.org. in mongolia, thousands of people took to the streets of the capital ulaanbaatar monday braving the freezing cold to protest allegations of corruption within the state-owned coal mining company. reports recently surfaced accusing a group of mongolian lawmakers, with ties to the coal industry, of stealing billions of dollars. meanwhile, people have been suffering through a worsening economic crisis as inflation and living costs have soared since russia's invasion of ukraine and the closure of borders that have impacted mongolia's trade with china. on monday, protesters tried to storm a government building calling for the country's parliament to be dismissed and for corrupt politicians to be brought to justice. >> that is why a lot of leaders are richer than the citizens.

and how they can be so, and the citizens are fine bright by the slice, not the love. that is the reason why i am protesting today, for the good of the people. amy: back in the united states, georgia voters are casting the final ballots today in a runoff election that pits incumbent democratic senator raphael warnock against republican herschel walker. two of walker's former partners have accused him of pressuring them to have abortions, even though he's an avowed abortion opponent who said during the campaign he would ban abortion even in cases of rape or incest. and last week, a third former partner accused herschel walker of violently attacking her. senator warnock spoke from the campaign trail in atlanta on monday. >> maya angelou says when someone shows you who they are, believe them. we don't believe anything herschel walker says but he has shown as who he is. he is certainly not a united

states senator. amy: later in the broadcast, we'll go to atlanta to speak with cliff albright, head of black voters matter. here in new york, a judge has dismissed the murder charge against domestic violence survivor tracy mccarter, a nurse and grandmother who was arrested in 2020 after her husband died of a stab wound when she defended herself during an altercation. manhattan district attorney alvin bragg declined to move forward on the case after he said ball running for opposite that "prosecuting a domestic violence survivor who acted in self-defense is unjust." the judge left the case unsealed for 60 days to give bragg time to bring new charges. bragg's office says it is "reviewing the decision." mccarter said in a statement friday -- "i am innocent. and i am devastated that on march 2, 2020, a man whom i loved lost his life. we were both the victims of the cruel disease of alcoholism. dismissing the unjust charge against me can't give back what i've lost, but i am relieved that this nightmare is over, and i am determined to once again

thrive." to see our coverage of the case, go to democracynow.org. and in labor news, at least 17 university of california academic workers were arrested monday after staging a peaceful sit-in in the lobby of the uc president's office in sacramento. hundreds of other academic workers led a march at a separate university of california building in california's capital as their strike has entered its fourth week. some 48,000 academic workers across all 10 uc campuses have walked off the job demanding living wages and better working conditions. to see our coverage of the largest strike of academic workers in u.s. history, go to our website democracynow.org. 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 democracy now! 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: russia has accused ukraine of using drones to attack two air bases hundreds of miles inside russia. and an oil depot near the ukrainian border. one of the airbases reportedly houses russian nuclear capable strategic bombers. while ukraine has not publicly taken responsibility, a senior ukrainian official told "the new york times" the drones were launched from inside ukrainian territory with help from ukrainian special forces on the ground near at least one of the russian bases. russia responded by firing a barrage of missiles across ukraine. this comes as millions of ukrainians are bracing for a winter without heat or electricity due to russian strikes on ukraine's civilian infrastructure. meanwhile, russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov recently accused the u.s. and its nato allies of becoming directly involved in the war by arming and training ukrainian soldiers. we turn now to look at calls for negotiations to end the devastating war.

last week during a state visit to the united states, french president macron repeatedly said negotiations are the only way to end the fighting. >> the only way to find a solution is for negotiations. i don't see a military option. amy: that was the french president macron on "60 minutes" who also told abc negotiations with russian vladimir putin are still possible. >> europe, the u.s., and so on. is it impossible to come back and negotiate something? i think it is still possible. amy: last week, president macron held a joint news conference with president biden at the white house during which biden said he would consider sitting down with putin to end the war. pres. biden: i am prepared to

speak with mr. putin if in fact there is an interest in deciding there is a way for him to end the war. he hasn't done that yet. if that is the case, consultation with my french nato friends, i will be happy to sit down see what he has in mind. he hasn't done that yet. amy: a day after president biden spoke, german chancellor olaf scholz spoke to vladimir putin for an hour by phone. to talk more about the war in ukraine and calls for negotiations, we are joined by jeffrey sachs. he is the director of the center for sustainable development at columbia university and president of the u.n. sustainable development solutions network. he has served as adviser to three u.n. secretaries-general. his latest piece is headlined "a mediator's guide to peace in ukraine." he is joining us from vienna, austria. professor sachs, why don't you

layout your thesis, your proposal for how this mediation can happen. we see there is a serious shift here. macron, with biden at the white house, the first state visit to the white house under the biden administration of any world leader, and clearly this was a major subject of their talks, both macron being a back channel to putin but also president biden himself saying he would speak with putin. what do you think needs to happen? >> i think both sides need to see there is no military way out. i'm speaking of nato and ukraine on one side and russia on the others. this war is politics by other means or with other means, meaning that there are political issues at stake here and those

are what need to be negotiated. what the president macron said is absolutely correct, that president putin wants political outcomes that in my view absolutely can be met at the negotiating table. just to quo what macron said in another interview, he said one of the central points we must address -- meaning the west -- as president putin has always said, is the fear that nato comes right up to its doors and deployment of weapons that could threaten russia, much of this war has been about nato enlargement. from the beginning. and since nato enlargement to ukraine and georgia were put on the table by president george w. bush junior and then carried forward by the u.s. neocons meant basically, for the next 14

years, this issue has been central and it has been -- but president biden at the end of 2021 refused to negotiate over the nato issue but now is the time to negotiate over the nato issue. that is the geopolitics at stake. there are other issues as well, but the point is, this war needs to end because it is a disaster for everybody, a threat to the whole world according to european union president last week, 100,000 ukrainian soldiers have died. 20,000 civilians. and the war continues. so this is an utter disaster and we have not searched for the political solution. what is interesting, amy, and i would emphasize it, that inside the u.s. we are finally hearing about president biden statement

was very consequential but the week before that, perhaps as notable, was the stement of the chairman of the u.s. joint chiefs of staff general mark miey said now is the time to negotiate. what we seek is a big debate inside the administration between the neocons on the one side and i would say those who see reality on the others. victoria nuland, probably are neocon in chief in the administration who has been part of ts nato enlargement from the start, said, no, can't negotiate. others are saying it is really time. so this is a debate within the u.s. as much as it is a question of sitting down between united states and russia. juan: jeffrey sachs, you mentioned there are four core issues you believe to be negotiated.

you have written about these not only the issue obviously of nato enlargement, but also the issue of protecting ukraine's sovereignty and security and also the fate of crimea the future of the donbas. could you talk a little bit about those other issues? especially the fate of crimea. most americans and iediate in this country do not cover the historic relationship of crimea to russia and its military importance to russia. >> thank you very much. from the beginning -- from before the beginning -- from 2021 when putin make clear what the political issues at stake were -- happen in of this goes back in many ways ck to 1990, 1991. at that point i was adviser to the economic team of president gorbachev and later resident yeltn and so i have watched this fm the start. there have been a few very

important political issues at stake. one ithe nato enlargement. i thinit is really the dominant issue but three others are eremely important. of course, i should say equally important is ukraine's sovereignty as a sovereign country and in need of security arrangements. but nato, as ukraine's security, doesn't work. it is an explosive ruse. one needs to find as president zelenskyy himself said earlier this year before backing off from it, that there needed to be a non-nato way to secure ukraine. and there can be. so that is another crucial issue is ukraine's sovereignty and security in a non-nato matter. the third issue that is very consequential is crimea. crimea is a peninsula that people can look on the map along

the black sea come has been home to russia's naval fleet in the black sea and therefore completely csequential for russia's economic and foreign-policy and military security since 1783. so this is from russia's point of view, and absolutely core issue. and incidentally, in 2008 when george w. bush jr. was unwisely pushing nato enlargement, president putin said specifically to president bush, at the time of the nato-russia meeting, that if you push nato enlargement, we retake crimea. this was already explicit. in the point is that for russia, this is vital. now, after what happened of

course in 1954 in a symbolic action because there was the soviet union at the time and not separate nations, the chairman of the communist party of the soviet union, the chairman of the soviet union, transferred crimea from russia to ukraine. it did not mean much. it was a celebration, a 300th anniversary of a treaty that khrushchev celebrated by the the administrative transfer. they became consequential after the end of the soviet union and the independence of russia and ukraine. there was a delicate balancing act for many, many years, especially in the early 2010's. then-president yana coverage was negotiating with russia to give essentially a long-term lease to crimea to satisfy russia's

security desires and needs as a balancing, as a delicate balancing. but united states, very unwisely and very provocatively, can treated to the overthrow -- contributed to his overthrow in 2014, setting in motion the tragedy before our eyes. and that ended that delicate balance. russia said, crimea has to be ours because we just so we cannot depend on a long-term arrangement with ukraine. the united stes contribute it to the overthrow of the ukrainian president who was negotiating over this core issue. my view is an almost everybody discusses this in private understands, crimea has been historically and will be in the future effectively, at least def

acto, russia. this cannot be the cause of world war iii. we have to understand the centrality of this. we have been told about th centrality of this and place -- basically, explicitly, since 2008. the last issue on the table is a real issue and that is the ethnic divisions within ukraine itself given the complex history of this region and the piecing together of all of the countries of this region from various times in history. ukraine itself is ethnically divided. on the western part, it is ethnically ukrainian. but on the eased, which is the donbas, the two regions that are the center of this war, these are predominantly russian. ethnic russian. russian-speaking. ssian orthodox. and after the overthrow of the

cranium president -- ukrainian president, paramilitaries demanded independence of these regions. russia supported those paramilitaries and autonomous or independent states were declared. what happened -- and this is crucial to understand -- is in 2015, there were agreements to solve this problem by giving autonomy to these eastern regions that were predominantly ethnic russian. and these are called the minsk agreement's, minsk one and minsk two. they said iwould beuarantors of that but then ukraine, after

poroshenko and solesky, refused to implement the agreements, are dead. so we don't accept autonomy. russia said, if you had a diplomatic agreement and now this is violated -- and this became another cause of this war . we need a resolution of the donb issue as well. ukrainian sovereignty, no nato enlargement, defacto russian control over crimea, some kind of solution like minsk two, some kind of autonomy, some solution for the donbas -- these are the four pieces that can save ukraine, spare russia, save the world from what is a growing disaster. this is why we need a pragmatic approach. juan: jeffrey sachs, if you can briey talk about -- we are

hearing virtually every week of a new announcement of more u.s. military aid a economi aid to ukraine. how is this constant stream of weapons and buttressing of the ukrainian government either helping to end the war or or helping to prolong it? >> it is prolonging it, definitely. i think both sides miscalculated. putin calculated the initial invasion would push ukraine to the negotiating table and these political issues would be resolved. frankly, in march after the february invasion, there were negoations. there were exchanges of document the turkish government said we are coming close to an agreement. both russia and ukraine said we are coming close to an agreement. then ukrainians walked away from negotiating table.

we don't know the full story to that. my own guess is the u.s. and u.k. said you don't have to compromise in that way. there was a u.s. project for more than a decade to expd nato. i think there we forces in the administration that did not want to give up that project, and so ukraine backed away from negotiations and the war went on. on the u.s. i'd, the calculation was that nato weaponry combined with very tough economic sanctions, combined with freezing hdreds of billions of dollars of russia's assets combined with what the united states expected to be a worldwide agreement to isolate russia, believethis would bring e russian economy to a state of colpse so that russia could not continue to prosecute

the war. this was also a serious miscalculation. most of the world did not go along with the western sanctions, even these votes in the united nation if you wait by the country populations involved, it is 20% of the world for 25% of the world that has voted against russia but most of the world -- with many parts of the world have continued. the russian economy is absolutely not collapsed. russia has not run out of armaments. we have reports today that some of these missile attacks have been identified by intelligence experts as newly manufactured. so this is not only the old stockpiles. the western calculation was wrong as well. neither side collapse. we entered a war of attrition to

simply pump more money into this in an open-ended way right now is disastrous. it just means tens or hundreds of thousands of people killed more in addition to the 100,000 or more are ready dead among ukrainian forces. it means continued disruption to the world economy, which is taking its toll all over the world. it is clear we need a political outcome. neither side is going to win militarily the way they expected. the cost of this war is brutal. what the administration is trying to do is put in another $40 billion without any real debate because it wants to put in an omnibus piece of legislation at the inn of the year that has to be voted up or down -- not on the ukraine issues, but on the overall keeping government open issues.

so we're not having that debate in congress that we really need because the opinion surveys are showing that more and more americans say something is not right. 10 saplings have dollars, people dying, massive economic disruption -- where are the negotiations? the administration is trying to stick in another $40 billion without that debate taking place. amy: to be clear, professor sachs, you have denounced russi's invasion as bei violent -- you have denounced russia's invasion of ukraine? >> of course. this was a collision that is disastrous and their cruelty of the russian invasion is enormous. but the foolishness, recklessness of the u.s.

neoconservatives, the push to this point, is also something that needs accounting. amy: finally, professor sachs, who would negotiate? who would be the mediator yo're talking about? or mediators? we have 30 seconds. >> clearly, the turks are extremely -- this is their region. they had been deeply involved. the u.n. surity council, which includes all the major actors. all of these can play a role. but i would say turkey as a leader in the black sea region who knows all the participants can do this. but this is not a negotiation between ukraine and russia. this must be between the united states and russia over the nato issue as well as ukraine and europe over the security issues that are so much at stake and of course ukraine's core interests.

amy: jeffrey sachs, thank you for being with us, economist and director of the center for sustainable development at columbia university, presint of the u.n. sustainable development solutions network and has many books including "the ages of globalization" and "a new foreign policy: beyond american exceptionalism." we will link to his new piece headlined "a mediator's guide to peace in ukraine." as well as to the last interview we did with him, also in austria, at democracynow.org. next up, a story about press freedom. hacking, surveillance, and a secretive israeli spyware company. we will speak with one of the journalists from the central america news outlet el faro who has sued in nso group after the cubbies pegasus spyware was used to hack their phones. then we will talk about today is election day in georgia. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "the quiet temple" by booker little and donald byrd. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and

peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we turn to look at a story about press freedom, hacking, surveillance and a secretive israeli spyware company. a group of journalists working for an award-winning central american independent news outlet have filed a lawsuit in a u.s. court against the nso group -- the israeli company that operates pegasus spyware, which has been used to monitor and track journalists, human rights activists across the globe. the journalists suing the nso group all work for el faro, which is based in el salvador. they allege that malicious pegasus surveillance software was used to infiltrate their iphones and track their communications and movements. the journalists believe the salvadoran government and president nayib bukele were behind the surveillance. the lawsuit, which was filed by the knight first amendment institute, states -- "the attacks have compromised plaintiffs' safety as well as the safety of their colleagues, sources, and family members."

we are joined now by two guests. carrie decell is a senior staff attorney at the knight first amendment institute at columbia university. she is the lead lawyer in the lawsuit. roman gressier is a french-american staff reporter with el faro english. he is one of 15 plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the nso group. he is joining us from guatemala city. roman, let's begin with you. tell us what you found and why you joined with other reporters to sue the nso group? >> i'm so sorry, i was having some audio interference. amy: i'm just asking why you sued the nso group? what you found on your phone and the consequences of that for you and other reporters at el faro? >> there were 15 members of el faro including the who decided

to bring the suit. there were 22 of us in total who found pegasus on our phones. that is in the broader context where as many as 35 people were found to be surveilled using pegasus between roughly june 2020 through november 2021. el faro being 22 of us were infected, it was the most systematic in the words of the citizen lab, shocking case they had. pegasus infection that focused on what organization. in my case, there were four attacks against my phone in may and june of 2021 while i was doing investigative work in el salvador. one of the reasons that -- i would say the main reason we decided to bring this suit is because of lack of legal avenues to obtain accountability in el salvador, which is why we are turning to u.s. courts given

some of the servers that would have been used for these attacks are based in the u.s. we are hoping -- we are asking the court to also order nso group to reveal its client. we are of the belief that it was the government of el salvador who engaged in these attacks, weapons grade software that is sold exclusively to governments. throughout the course of the investigation, we discovered or citizen lab discovered a live infection in one of the devices that allow them to ascertain the infection on that device was carried out from el salvador, which was an a pace for them. we also believe it is nso's obligation to reveal its clients and that they cannot hide behind a shroud of arguing this should be protected knowledge or protected information that is

national security. we believe they should be required to reveal the client. juan: could you talk about the increasing restrictions on press freedoms in el salvador? weren't some of the investigations good el faro was working on linking president bukele to some of the street gang violence in el salvador? >> yeah, that is exactly -- you are exactly right. the infections against el faro essentially formed a map to understand not only our investigative work but major political events in the country. we received a list of infections, basically, just dates, raw data. from therewe were asked to fill in the blends of what we're doing at that time. he published a special, an investigation on the findings of

the report where you can see the graphics, essentially, it lines up with major investigative reporting. one of the most climatic cases, the month where we were most surveilled by pegasus -- there were a total of 149 infections in september 2020. what was happening is the beginning of the month, el faro published an investigation that revealed for the first time to the public internal government documents and other proof that the bukele administration had been negotiating with ms 13. included both factions of 18 street gangs. the first installment was focused on ms13 for reduction in homicides. the level of homicides has always been not only brutal day-to-day experiences, sort of political barometer in terms of

how people measure citizens of security. the investigation was very politically -- it was a hot button for that reason stop the revelation of this happened in september 2020. there was 140 nine confirmed infections that month alone. sorry, cumulative days, let me correct that, 149 cumulative days pegasus infections it is our variety of reporters. toward the end of the month, bukele on live television accused the newsroom -- he asserted the newsroom was under investigation for serious money laundering. juan: i would like to bring in carrie decell. this idea of a lawsuit filed in the united states when the violations or the surveillance occurred in el salvador, could you talk about the legal basis

for that? >> happy to. thank you. we are bringing this lawsuit in u.s. court because the bulk of the value of the spyware that was used against roman and his colleagues at el faro to rise from its ability to infect as many smartphones as possible around the world. that really relies on the u.s. infrasucture of u.s. technology companies. in this case nso group abuses software and services of apple based in california in order t create and exploit that served as a vehicle for the delivery of the spyware to roman cell phone, to his colleagues cell phone company other pegasus victims around the world. this case and the case is that many other victims of pegasus has a important this to the united states. apple itself has sued nso group based on the same underlying facts of those that support the case we are bringing against nso group here. el faro has a significant

readership in the united states, hundreds of thousands of readers in the u.s. and a significant number of those or the plurality of those in california as well. pegasus attacks launched against el faro were clear effort to intimidate this important news outlet into silence. the effect of these attacks would be to diminish the ability of those of us in the united states who looks to el faro for independent. news coverage of central america. amy: the lawsuit asks the court to require nso groups to identify return and then delete all information obtained through these attacks to prohibit nso group from deploying pegasus again against plaintiffs and require nso group to identify the client that ordered the surveillance. talk about especially that last part. who ordered this surveillance? >> that is exactly what we want

u.s. court to order nso group to disclose. the other key value of the services that nso group -- secrecy is one of the most important pieces of that. nso group tells its clients the spyware that it offers them to use against whichever targets they choose cannot be traced back to those clients. in this case, although there's a lot of circumstantial evidence to suggest the government of el salvador was behind these attacks, we don't have proof of that yet. one of the most important pieces of relief we are seeking to the lawsuit is in order requiring the nso group to identify its previously undisclosed client here and that was it a signal to other government clients around the world that they can no longer rely on's nso group's assurances of secrecy when they seek to use nso group spyware to intimidate and persecute journalists, civil rights activists, human rights activists around the world. amy: roman gressier, the

prominent investigative guatemalan newspaper el periódico has shut down its print edition after months of attacks and harassment from the right-wing government of president alejandro giammattei. the paper's president and founder josé rubén zamora remains in pretrial detention after he was arrested in july, accused of money laundering and extortion -- charges denounced by human rights and press freedom groups as political retaliation over exposés of government corruption. the paper was founded in 1996. unclear how it will survive with just online and a reduced staff. in a final editorial column written from his prison cell, zamora, who's been a journalist in guatemala for decades, said -- "it has been 30 years of struggle against corruption and impunity, against governmental abuses and terrorism, in favor of freedom, transparency, and accountability." you're talking to us from guatemala. how has repression against journalists and government critics worsened not only in el salvador under the presidency of

bukele, but across central america? >> so the guatemala case -- guatemala is advancing similarly to el salvador >> it is hard to compare which one is more severe. there has been sysmatic abuse concluding criminalization of journalists. you could point to the nso mining case were reporters have been summonsed to court and otherwise criminalize and of course the case against zamora, just before they published their last daily print edition on november 30 -- the day before i believe he had spent four months officially in pretrial detention . if i am not mistaken, the first hearing that he will face in his case for the trial is set for

december 8, which is this week. it is also another aspect of what is going on in guatemala is just the challenges facing journalists outside the capital. not only dealing with the central government, but they are also dealing with municipal thorities and others were looking to criminalize them in different ways. you could point to the case of a reporter reporting on the local mayor and she faced -- he was jailed briefly for her work. juan: could you explain or how do you analyze the fact that a person like president bukele, by all accounts is extreme right-wing populist, has so much i approval rating in el salvador ? what do you attribute this to and what has been the role of the media in shaping that?

>> all of the public polling that we have the past for years is going to high levels of support for him and i think part of it comes -- part of his political appeal comes from his ability to communicate effectively with the public, that his political projects represent an alternative to the lack of other political parties. that is not to say -- of course there has been an abundance of corruption investigations and other things, but it is more about the public perception of his communication that has been very positive. amy: carrie decell, i want to ask you about julian assange. the new york times and four european papers have urge the biden administration to drop all

charges against the wikileaks founder julian assange. in a joint letter they said this indictment sets a dangerous decedent and threans to dermine amica's rst amendment and the freedom of the press. the letter ends with thword "publishing is not a crime." for those who don't know julian assange faces 175 years in a u.s. prison on espionage and hacking charges for exposing u.s. war crimes in afghanistan and iraq if he is extradited from britain. the five publications partnered with wikeaks in 2010 to report on documents leaked by chelsea manning. the significance of these major newspapers, including "the new york times," demanding the biden administration drop these charges? >> yes, i think this letter reflects a clear understanding by the press that the charges against julian assange threaten freedom of the press. the prosecution of a song for soliciting, obtaining, then publishing classified

information with set a clear and devastating precedent in the united states that could be applied to any of these organizations journalists going forward. it is a significant threat to the work of national security reporters and investigative reporters who rely on leaks of government information to report on issues of utmost public interest. amy: carrie decell, thank you for being with us senior staff , attorney at the knight first amendment institute at columbia university and the lead lawyer in the el faro lawsuit. roman gressier, one of 15 plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the nso group. it is election day in georgia. we will be back in 20 seconds. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "feed them" by kelis. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we end today's show in georgia, the final day for voters to cast ballots in the closely watched runoff between senator raphael warnock and republican challenger herschel walker. a victory for warnock would give democrats a 51st seat in the senate. despite a new voter suppression law, almost 2 million georgians cast early votes. this is a record in georgia state history. two of walker's former romantic partners have accused him of pressuring him to have abortions

even know he is about abortion opponent who said in his campaign he would ban abortion even in cases of rape or incest. last week a third former romantic art accused herschel walker of violently attacking her. for more, we are joined in atlanta by cliff albright, co-founder and executive director of black voters matter. which has as they say been dring the blackest bus in america across georgia. welcome back to democracy now! talk about the significance of this day and the record-breaking early voting who -- though you are still deeply concerned about who has been disenfranchised. >> good morning. thank you for having me. we have record-breaking early voter turnout. there is and badness. part of that really is largely a result of the incredible organizing of all the voting rights and voter mobilization groups and the entire georgia ecosystem. a shout out to all of our coalitions. but also part of the reason had to be record-breaking is because

we were squeezing into one week of early voting what usually happens in three weeks of early voting. that was the result of the famous georgia or infamous georgia voter suppression bill that they passed last year. they designed with surgical precision to reduce the runoff period, to reduce the number of early vote days. to even try to get rid of early voting on saturday. luckily, because of the warnock campaign and other groups, that was squashed by the court. we are happy around the type of turnout and enthusiasm we are seeing, but we know have to be cautious in looking at some of that one week turnout because that was partially a function of the voter suppression. juan: if herschel walker does lose the runoff, what do you feel his senate campaign will represent in terms of 2024 and years to come yeah, you're sing the national republican party seek to recruit more and more conservatives of color to run for office in an effort to

siphon off some of the historic democratic voting in the african-american community and latino community. >> honestly, that is not so much of a concern of ours. if by some chance herschel walker were to win today, he would not be because of and a large number of black voters there were able to siphon off because there was a black republican running. if anything, most of the people we talk to are insulted by the fact the republicans went out and found just any old black name to throw into the race. or donald trump found any all-black face to run. keep in mind this is a candidate quite literally just yesterday or the day before yesterday, two days ago he took pride in being called a coon. this is what he said, that a coon is a smart animal so he was

fine with being associated as such. most black are not voting for that. if herschel walker does well, it is going to be because of the white community -- he talks about being a vampire or werewolf. 49% of georgia would probably vote for him if he actually was a werewolf simply because -- amy: wait, you raised the werewolf. this is one of the most amazing as i think and campaign at history. it is raphael warnock's ad but only the voice, except at the beginning, of raphael warnock saying he takes responsibility for the ad. >> i'm raphael warnock and i approve this message. >> watch a stupid movie late at night. >> i have seen this video. >> w watching this movie called fright night 3 the vampires. >> what the hell is he talking about? >> a werewolf can kill a

vampire. did you know that? i don't want to be a vampire and morei want to be a werewolf. >> you are serious? >> i've been telling a story about this bull in a field was six cows and three of them are pregnant. >> there's no substance. nothing. it makes me want to laugh and then they, we are in trouble. amy: that is the warnock ad but those are the words of herschel walker. and it is last minute we have, cliff albright, this race is so significant but you think a supreme court case is even more significant about elections, elections taking place tomorrow. >> thank you, amy. the harper more cases going to be argued tomorrow, which is a case that deals with whether or not state legislatures that will have sole authority in deciding election laws even passing out only federal law but even their

own constitutions in their own state court. we have seen in the past couple of years, it has been the state courts that have curbed some of the voter suppression. this would give these legislatures control separate from the democratic process. this could literally -- not an exaggeration -- the could be the final nail in the concept of democracy in this country if the state legislators are able to run rogue without having any kind of accountability for america we will continue to cover that. cliff albright, co-founder and executive director of black voters matter. happy birthday to igor moreno! i'm so glad to be back from egypt because i get to go to juan's next two talks. we are posting the full talk online at democracynow.org. but this friday, juan gonzalez will be speaking at cuny school

of labor and urban studies at 3:00 p.m. speaking of 50 years of chronicling america's workers. monday at 6:30, and address on latinos race and empire atatrg l juan juan of the details. ,xxxxxúó>ñz■0 óróxór[r

welcome to nhk newsline. prosecutors in new york have taken aim at what they call a culture of fraud and deception. they say former u.s. president, donald trump's real estate business doled out perks to executives that were kept off the books go they convicted the trump organization of tax fraud and