01/11/23 01/11/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we are commanded our rights. they do not represent us. they kill our brothers and sisters. amy: at least 17 people were killed in peru when security forces opened fire on protesters opposed to the recent ouster and arrest of pedro castillo.

over 40 protesters had been killed in the past months. we go to southern peru for the latest. then over 7000 nurses at two hospitals in new york have entered the third day of a strike. >> nurses don't want to strike. we would rather be inside taking care of our patients. not in the conditions -- amy: we will speak to a striking nurse and a journalist who documented how hospital ceos are boosting their own pay by millions of dollars while slashing charity care. and crypto grows what your 401(k)? what is that all about? all of that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

iran has sentenced three more people to death in connection with nationwide protests that have been going -- ongoing. there have been four known executions linked to protests so far. on tuesday, the united nations slammed the executions as state sanctioned killings. >> criminal preedings and the death penalty are being weaponizedy the irania government to punish individuals participating in protests and to strike fear into the population to stamp out dissent in violation of human rights law. four individuals have recently been executed in the past moh following expedited trial that have n met minimum guarantees a fair trial and due process required by international human rights law. amy: this week, protesters gathered in front of a prison in the iranian city of karaj, where

some death row prisoners are being held. the mother of 22-year-old mohammad ghobadlou, who has been sentenced to death, is pleading for help to prevent the killing of her son, whom she says has a history of mental illness. >> the court has fired his lawyers. they don't allow his lawyers into the court. they are treating my child unfairly. they have interrogated him without an attorney present. in the very first session of court, they sentenc him to death. is this islamic justice? please, please come help and support as. amy: meanwhile, iranian courts have sentenced professional soccer player amir nasr azadani to 26 years in prison, and activist faezeh hashemi, daughter of former iranian president akbar hashemi rafsanjani, to five years though her lawyer says the verdict is

not final. in ukraine, heavy battles continue around the eastern salt mining town of soledar, close to bakhmut, where intense fighting is also raging. ukraine's military denied the claim by russia's mercenary wagner group that it took control of the town, calling it a complicated situation. this comes as russian strikes hit the eastern of kharkiv city shortly after a surprise visit by the german and ukrainian foreign ministers. germany's annalena baerbock pledged further arms support to ukraine, though did not say whether this would include the leopard 2 tanks sought by kyiv. baerbock also committed to helping with ukraine's bid to join the european union. meanwhile, the u.s. is increasing its military assistance with a plan to train ukrainian forces to use the patriot air defense system at fort sill starting as early as next week. the united nations says almost

14 million people in ukraine have been displaced since russia invaded 11 months ago. nearly 8 million of those fled the country and 6 million have been internally displaced. in germany, police have started violently evicting climate activists in the western village of lützerath. hundreds of activists have been occupying the deserted town for months to prevent the area from being mined for lignite, a highly polluting type of coal. germany has increasingly turned to coal, blaming the loss of russian gas and oil following its invasion of ukraine. protesters say they are prepared to risk their lives and are calling for activists from around germany and the world to join their resistance. >> yes, we believe we can hold out for several weeks. six weeks. we belve if there are a lot of us in the council and around the council and all the cities where there are a lot of actions announced,hat we can still change this. so if you know people say, hey,

this can't be happening, we are going to destroy another village for lignite, we can still prevent it. amy: in honduras, leaders are demanding justice for two water defenders who were shot dead by unknown gunmen over the weekend in the village of guapinol. aly domínguez and jairo bonilla were members of a community committee that opposed a mining project threatening sacred rivers and other natural resources in the region. brazilian authorities have ordered the arrest of two government security officials in connection to sunday's assault on brazil's congress, supreme court, and presidential palace by supporters of former far right president j are bolsonaro. one of the top officials is anderson torres, who was chief of security in brasília. authorities have also asked a federal court to freeze bolsonaro's assets while they continue to investigate the attack. bolsonaro fled to orlando, florida, ahead of the

inauguration of president luiz inácio lula da silva. over 1500 of his supporters have been arrested for their involvement in the riots. colombian vice president francia marquez mina said tuesday her security personnel found and destroyed a 15-pound explosive device hidden in the rd leading to her family's home in the town of yolombó. márquez mina wrote on twitter -- "this was another attempt on my life. however, we will not stop working day after day until we achieve the peace colombia dreams of and deserves. we won't give up until every territory lives in true harmony." márquez mina is the first afro-colombian woman elected as vice president of colombia and an environmentalist who survived another assassination attempt in 2019. she's also been the target of racist attacks and death threats. back in the united states, the reblican-majority house on tuesday approved the creation of the weaponization of the federal government select subcommittee

to investigate what they say is the targeting of conservatives, and includes probing government investigations into former president trump and the january 6 capitol attack. democrats and ethics groups condemned the committee, which will be led by far-rit congressmember jim jordan, with some dubbing it the insurrection protection committee. in california, progressive congressmember katie porter has announced her bid for the u.s. senate in 2024 as many expect 89-year old dianne feinstein to retire at the end of her current term after serving for over three decades. a former student of elizabeth warren at harvard law, porter has represented orange county in the house since 2018 and is well known for her pointed, no-nonsense questionings in the house oversight committee. other high-profile california democrats who could run for the senate seat include congressmembers adam schiff, barbara lee, and ro khanna.

in other 2024 news, billboards urging president biden not to seek re-election appeared in front of the white house and capitol this week. the group behind the "don't run joe" campaign, rootsaction, also recently aired a tv ad with the same message. rootsaction said polls show a majority of americans do not want biden to keep representing the democratic party and that "an open democratic primary could chart a bolder, more popular future for the party." a new york judge sentenced former trump organization cfo allen weisselberg to five months at the rikers island jail complex over the company's tax fraud scheme. weisselberg pleaded guilty to 15 felonies in august. he has left the trump organization but still received his $500,000 annual bonus and an undisclosed severance. he could actually serve far less than the five months in jail. in medical news, the fda has fast-tracked the approval of a new drug that appears to slow down alzheimer's disease in its

early stages. scientists say lecanemab, marketed as leqembi, is an exciting development in treating the neurodegenerative disorder, which affects around 6 million people in the united states. >> thus far we've had no treatment that slow down or prevented the progression of alzheimer's disease. what we have is symptomatic drugs that help with some of the clinical symptoms of alzheimer's disease, but they do nothing to slow down the basic disease progression, the underlying -- amy: but it is not clear how many people the intravenous treatment will help as it comes in at a yearly cost of $26,500, and medicare will only cover the cost if patients are enrolled in a clinical trial. it's possible lecanemab, which is made by biogen, will be fully covered once it receives full

fda approval. albert brian is denying claims he recently fired the territories attorney general denise george because of her investigations into jeffrey epstein, who owned two private islands in the virgin islands. denise george's firing came days after she filed a lawsuit against j.p. morgan chase for the bank's role in financing the late epstein's human trafficking empire under the u.s. virgin islands and elsewhere. george recently secured $105 million settlement from the estate of jeffrey epstein who died in 2019 of an apparent suicide in a federal jail in new york. three environmental groups are suing french company danone for failing to reduce its plastic footprint. the yogurt and bottled water maker was recently found to be one of the worst plastic polluters, along with coca-cola, pepsico, and nestlé. the lawsuit is being filed under france's 2017 duty of vigilance

law, which requires companies to track and reduce human rights and environmental violations. the company markets its products in the u.s. as dannon. hundreds of flights across the united states were grounded this morning after the federal aviation administration said it was dealing with a system failure. over 2500 flights in and out of the u.s. have been delayed and more than 90 flights were canceled. all airlines were required to pause domestic flights. and in entertainment news, the golden globes were awarded tuesday night. the night's mc, comedian jerrod carmichael, kicked off the ceremony by going after racism in hollywood. >> the hollywood foreign press association, which i want to say they are a racist organization, but they did not have a single black member until george floyd died. so do with that information what you will.

amy: he started off the evening by saying "i am here because i am black." golden globe winners included the documentary "argentina, 1985," which won for best motion picture in a non-english language. the film is about argentina's trial of the juntas, the civilian court that prosecuted argentina's former military leaders for brutal crimes committed during the u.s.-backed right-wing military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. the film is based in part on the story of luis moreno ocampo who prosecuted the argentine generals and later become the first prosecutor of the international criminal court. luis moreno ocampo spoke to democracy now! earlier this week. >>asically, the impact of the junta trial, not just crimes committed by dictators, will -- transforming democracy.

that is why the film is so importt because 40 years later , the new generation, the young kids, are learning about this through the movie. i have to prevent future crimes. and committed doing that. america argentina 1985 is a feature film -- make "argentina, 1985" is a feature film on amazon prime. and those are some of the headlines this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, we go to peru where at least 17 people were killed when security or says open fire on those opposed to the recent arrest of the leftist president pedro castillo. over 40 protesters have been killed over the past month. more in a minute.

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amy: "home is where i can dance." 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 chicago. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our lieners and viewers from around the country and around the world. peruvian authorities have declared an overnight curfew in parts of southern peru as mass protests continue following the ouster and jailing of leftist former president pedro castillo. at least 17 people were killed monday after peruvian security forces opened fire at anti-government protesters in the city of juliaca. at least two teenagers were among the dead. three days of mourning are being held in the region. some 40 people have died nationwide since mass protests

erupted in peru last month. protesters are calling for castillo to be released from prison and for his successor dina boluarte to resign as president. >> we are demanding our rights. they let them get away with genocide. they do not represent us. they kill our brothers and sisters. amy: protesters have set up massive roadblocks in southern peru, calling for the resignation of the interim president who had been vice president dina boluarte. this is a protesters speaking near the border. >> to peruvian congress ousted him. the peruvian people don't support congress. we don't support the newly appointed president. we want her immediate resignation. we want a new constitution. amy: on tuesday, peru's prime minister alberto otarola defended the use of force against protesters accusing them

of trying to take over an airport in juliaca. otola also announced a curfew in the southern puno region. >> compulsory, social, immobilization in puno for three days from 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. to safeguard the life, integrity, and freedom of all the citizens of puno. amy: peru has been in state of crisis since december 7 when the right-wing peruvian congress voted to remove president castillo after he moved to temporarily dissolve the peruvian congress ahead of an impeachment vote. castillo is a left-leaning former teacher and union leader from rural peru who wa president for less than a year and a half before his ouster. in 2021, he defeated keiko fujimori, the daughter of peru's former dictator alberto fujimori. protesters accused the peruvian congress of unfairly targeting castillo ever since he defeated

fujimori. there are two guest with us right now. eduardo gonzález cueva is a peruvian sociologist and human rights expert, joining us here from new york city. and in peru we are joined by the bolivian-based journalist ollie vargas. he is co-founder of kawsachun news. he is joining us from desaguadero, peru, near the bolivian border. we welcome you both back to democracy now! ollie vargas, let's begin with you. can you tell us what is happening there right now? give us the broader context of why this is all taking place. >> thank you, amy. i am in the puno region, very close to the bolivian border. i arrived here yesterday. my intention was to go to juliaca where the massacre took place on monday. however, that is pretty much impossible because there are so

many roadblocks, barricades erected by protesters all along the roads in this region. it is not possible to really move about at all in any way. at every point, there are huge number of protesters who erected barricades with giant rocks and essentially paralyzed the southern part othe country. simir barricades erected in some amazonian cities and also near the coast. the since i got to speaking for people yesterday is that people are ready for the long haul. they're ready to take part in what is a general strike in these areas. i don't know how much you can see behind me, but everything is boarded up. nothing is open. every what is taking place in

this -- taking part in this general strike. the demands are the resignation of the president, the immediate election -- because the regime said they would have elections in 2024. they want them now. they want an assembly to drop a new constitution. and these demands are essentially completely unacceptable to the government. the government i think have backed themselves into a corner, especially with the massacre we saw on monday but also before that with the total 46 deaths and since the government has been a power about 40 days. the level of human rights abuses they have committed means they cannot necessarily have a negotiated way out of power because they will face prosecution, false -- possible jail time. the only option is to if they were to reside, leave the

country or i think which is more likely, dig their heels in and increase the repression. in some regions they imposed a curfew last night. there is no state presence at the moment. government workers have been withdrawn from this region by the central state, so there is no way of enforcing that. there are no police at all. they have withdrawn as well. it is an incredibly tense situation. no sign hacking down from their demands -- backing down from their demands. juan: i wanted to ask if you could talk about what is being portrayed as a divide between the countryside and the city of peru, to what degree are the protesters, largely from the indigenous populations of peru

and how does race and how castillo had been perceived previously by the elite in peru inlved in at is happing here? absolutely, that divide is the political divide. also a class and racial divide at the moment. the protest in the general strike is concentrated in southern peru. southern peru is overwhelmingly indigenous. this particular area near the bolivian border is --. the strike is polar in places where people are indigenous. this is the epicenter of the movement, which is the predominantly indigenous region.

people are not represented by the central state in lima primary because of the racism that comes out of the capital city. we have seen in the past few weeks with the protests, the government ministers and the media have talked in an incredibly discriminatory way about people here. indians and savages and terrorist, ignorant. there even some people, certainly not the majority, but some people say we don't feel very peruvian because we are not equal citizens. we're not peruvian like the people in the capital city. a lot of people don't feel any identification or attachment with those in the capital city. on an anecdotal level, i used to live in lima a few years ago. a lot of people, especially the

middle-class people, the way they would talk about indigenous was in a way that did not recognize them as fellow citizens. they talk about the invaders or the immigrants, talking about -- calling people immigrants within their own country. so this is the context behind this. people here felt pedro castillo was the first president in peruvian history that is like them, that represents them, supports their issues and struggles. and they did not even let him finish one term. within a year and a half he was ousted by the congress, which the majority are right-wing party, majority of people are not reflective of the country, not indigenous, as well as the police and military. i think those threenstitutions really work to oust pedro castillo. there is a new government in

power not voted for and people feel, what was the point of us having a say? not respected by the people in lima if the government is decided by backroom deals in the capital city. i huge amount of resentment -- a huge amount of recent men about that and racism from the capital city. amy: let's hear from some of the protesters injured monday when peruvian security forces opened fire on the antigovernment protesters in the city of juliaca, killing at least 17 people. >> i was holding my camera when a police officer asked me to union while pointing a gun at me and then i heard a shot and i felt my foot block. then i felt a cramp. i fell on the ground because i could not walk. >> she was walking around because his friend lives nearby. they went for a walk and as far as we know, a bullet hit him.

>> where did it hit? >> in the abdomen. all of the intestines are injured. juan: eduardo gonzález cueva, peruvian sociologist and human rights expert, i would like to bring into the conversation. would you talk about your perspective of what is going on here? also talk about the reality that the current interim president dina boluarte was an ally of pedro castillo before he was ousted from office. >> thank you for having me. the first thing we need to understand is the political system in peru is extremely fragile. the political party simply has very little representation and their mostly electoral vehicles -- actors. the formula that led castillo to

government did not even appear in the beginning and the polls and catapulted to the top because of the image of castillo . dina boluarte was a person nobody really knew. she was just in the presidential formula decided by the party. so to say dina boluarte was and now i meant simply that -- was an ally meant simply she was in the formula but there was no connection between some kind of party discipline or identity. was invited to be the candidate in the inial candidatehat with his image they would get a few parliamentarians. that is the context. the system in peru, this politicasystem ds not represent electors at all and therefore that we are reduced to a very degraded form of representation.

this is symbolic representation. the persn power feels likely rather than a representation of interest, representation in the political arena. so this is the source of the problem. amy: on monday, peru's prime minister announced dina boluarte 's government had banned the former president evo morales from entering peruvian territory. this is what he said. >> the superintendency has decided to banned former bolivian president evo morales from entering the country and those of his supporters for directly violating law which establishes those people who threaten or disrupt internal order do not enter peru. we are closely watching not only the attitude of mr.morales, but also those who work with him in

southern peru, who you have been able to see come have been very active in fueling the crisis. amy: that is peru's current prime minister. ollie vargas, you are on the border. can you talk about the significance not only of been evo morales but also what this means for what is happening in bolivia as well and for all of latin america -- and where is castillo right now? he is jailed where, near you? >> pedro castillo is in police custody lim the capal city, being held without charge. he was given8 months preventative detention. in terms of evo morales, this is about the government looking for a scapegoat in a way to explain away social protest.

something a lot of governments will do around the world say, this is foreign actors, there are se secretive puppet masters pulling the strings, not genuine social protest. so they have chosen evo morales. and the reason is because in southern peru, there is a great deal of admiration for him. just yesterday i was speaking to one of their protesters and he said, we want a president like evo morales. the first reason he gave was amount the nationalization of natural -- he said in peru, a canister of natural gas which people use for heating their homes and cooking, we pay 10 times more than in bolivia the same thing. why? in bolivia, natural gas is naturalized and distribution is done by the state, fair prices where is peru it is privatized, foreign company sells a back to the peruvian people at skyhigh

inflated prices. we look at what is going on in bolivia with great admiration. a lot of people -- we are close to the border. and people go to bolivia to sell goods, for work, the markets. they can see the kind of economic growth bolivia has had during the period of evo morales as president, so there certainly is that level, that image of bolivia and the peruvian government ivery aware of that so they are trying to use that to blame evo morales for social protest. but people were offended by that because it means -- it delegitimize is the reason people are coming onto the streets. it has nothing tdo with evo morales, it has to do with peruvian domestic politics and the national government. to say they're being used by some behind-the-scenes puppetmaster is to say they

don't have legitimate reasons to come out into the streets and that angered people more, protesters even more entrenched in their positions, more determined to stay for the long haul. i think while this will play to the government's middle class in the capital city and the ideas they have about bolivian, indigenous peoples, in terms of resolving a situation, it made it a lot worse. juan: i would like to ask eduardo gonzález cueva, peru -- the modern history of peru has been marked by profound class and racial struggles. decades ago, the guerrilla war and the fujimori dictatorship. could you talk about the demands of the protesters now for

constituent assembly a new constitution? what is the problem with the existing constitution in peru? >> we have a problem that is very similar to other countries that have experienced the transition to democracy. think of chile. chile and peru were similar in the sense will we both achieved a transition to democracy, we kept constitution that have been written by dictators. that created a number of political issues that had to be corrected at some point. in chile ben, there was a demand for assembly where they were unable to pass a constitution. in peru, when fujimori escaped into thousand, there was a war for transition. that is why we had truth and reconciliation commission, a trial. but at the same time, the constitution fujimori was kept untouched. not only that, the economic

model that was installed by fujimori was untouched which and nema benefited lima benefited greatly because of the commodities boom while the theory was that it would trickle down to the provinces or to the middle and lower class. so that is the original sin of peruvian democracy, that there was a transition in 2000-2001 toward the idea of democracy after the rule of fujimori but kept the rules of the game that were designed by fujimori and for fujimori. juan: and what do you see as a possible solution to the credit crisis -- current crisis?

do you fear direct return to dictatorship with the military backing that approach? >> right now i am extremely optimistic and i don't see many ways forward. i agree very much with what has been said on this program that the willingness of those protesting is to hold on for the long haul. they are prepared i think to demonstrate as much as they can post it of course, the government is also pretty much in a trench, demonstrating it has decided to exercise maximum force against the demonstrators. basically what we are going to see in the next few months, i believe, is a simmering crisis with these kinds of violence

depending on operations the police launch against demonstrators. and we will have to see whether the protests actually move from the current area where they are, which is basically the south, areas that voted for castillo, areas that have high rural and indigenous populations. i think the government and peru has a very cynical calculation that the killings have been outside of lima, happened in indigenous areas, they are not going to worry lima and they're going to allow the government to function. that is not just immoral, it is historic. it is also economically suicidal because peru leads from mining that happens to be located mostly in the southern territory. so that is what is going on. i think we are going to see this simmering crisis spark violence

and we will see whether the protests can actually have a foothold on lima. amy: eduardo gonzález cueva, thank you for being with us peruvian sociologist and human , rights expert. and ollie vargas, journalist with kawsachun news. joining us from the bolivian-peruvian border in southern peru. next up, we speak to a striking nurses and journalist who has documented how hospital ceos here in new york are boosting their own pay by millions while slashing charity care, and we will look at crypto bros wanting your 401(k). how regulators are being asked to allow crypto into retirement market. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. here in new york city, over 7000 nurses are entering their third day of a strike at two hospital systems that account for more than a quarter of all hospital beds in the city. they began striking monday after failing to reach a new contract agreement with mount sinai hospital and montefiore medical center over demands higher wages and better staffing. the two systems have more than 1200 nurse vacancies between them. this is new york state nurses association president nancy hagans speaking from the picket line monday. >> nurses don't want to strike.

we want to be inside taking care of our patients safely and in a safe manner, not the condition they have us working for the past five to 10 years. enough is enough. enough is enough! amy: some nurses have shared job postings that offer visiting, non-union nurses $300 an hour to cross the picket line, more than five times the pay for a staff nurse. the nurses are also denouncing the inhumane treatment of patients as some have been forced to receive medical care in hospital hallways due to overcrowding. meanwhile, the new york state nurses association urged people to continue seeking the care they need, writing -- "we appreciate solidarity from our patients -- but going into the hospital to get the care you need is not crossing our strike line. we are out here so we can provide you better patient care." for more, we're joined by one of the nurses on strike. sasha winslow is a high-risk labor delivery nurse at montefiore medical center.

also with us, matthew cunningham-cook, researcher and writer for the lever, whose new piece is headlined "as nurses strike, hospital ceos pocket millions." we welcome you both to democracy now! sasha, let's begin with you. describe the scene outside much of your in the bronx and not sinai is on the upper -- mount sinai is on the upper west side. can you describe the scene and what you're demanding? >> where i am, it is full of nurses that are prideful and also excited that we have come to the strike because of the demands that are very important to us, which is staffing ratios and enforcement of those ratios with concrete language that makes sense in those languages will hopefully come with

penalties to the hospitals. as far as having -- this is historic for nurses at monty. some have been there for 40 years and have not experienced this before. this is a first for me. it is crowded outside. it is cold. but we are dedicated to our patients and patient care is our priority. juan: sasha, during the height of the pandemic, nurses and other hospital workers were constantly being celebrateas esntial workers and hospitals got huge amounts of aid from the federal government but anybody who has been in a hospital, especially the emergency room these days, knows almost all of them are willfully understaffed. -- willfully understaffed. can you talk about how this affects you getting good care? >> i was a nurse that cared for

patients during covid. staffing issues have existed before covid. covid only exposes the public what we have experienced for years. and it just worsened. when you are caring for patients , you want to provide them with yet most dignity and respect and be able to spend time with them. patients have questions. patients are scared. this is a very vulnerable time for them. when you are understaffed, you are unable to provide that one-to-one care with the patient and addressing their needs or with their families if they are present, addressing their concerns. i have known nurses who work in the emergency room who care for 15 to 20 patients. that does not take into account

the acuity of the patients, some who are icu patients waiting to be transferred, medsurg waiting for beds and sometimes are in the er for 24 to 48 hours. this is a public health emergency. across the nation. there such a shortage and need for nurses at the bedside, particularly in new york. we are a community that is filled with many people from around the world. we need to be better at communicating with our staff and communicating with our community that this is what is going on inside. and if we do not address this, we will continue to see nurses leaving the workforce because of unsafe staffing. juan: i wanted to ask about executive compensation. montefiore, like many hospitals,

are supposedly nonprofit. they are supposed to serve a public good, therefore they don't get taxed but yet there executives make enormous salaries. could you talk about your ceo dr. philip ozuah? >> yes, montefiore and not sinai are tax-exempt. unfortunately, rcn oh, our vp of operations, and our presidents of hospital makes a lot of money come in the millions. particularly dr. philip ozuah. he made a profit in 2020 of $13 million, $8 million to $13 million. when i did my last report in 2018, profited $13 million and was also offered a bonus of

millions and an early retirement package but never retired. you see the disparity when it comes to wages and corporate greed where we have our high level leadership's making tons of money. the workers, the nurses, the cna's, x-ray technicians, lab technicians are not making that type of money. so you do see the and balance of power and money in our hospital. amy: let's bring in matthew cunningham-cook, who really investigated this. his piece, "as nurses strike, hospital ceos pocket millions." can you talk about what you found in your investigation, matthew? >> yeah. i think one of the things that was really jarring for me is it's very uncommon for hospitals to give their executives

first-class airfare and a chauffeur, and that is what montefiore does for at least one of its executives. they have not told us which one. we assume it is dr. philip ozuah . over the past decades, 8.5% annualized wage increases for the ceo of montefiore. meanwhile, the highest kind of amount that nurses are getting is in contract negotiations in new york city these days is 7%. and that is for just one year. it will go down for the following years. mount sinai, similar disparities at work where they have had the same for the past decade. and with this enormous growth is

executive compensation, see a decrease in the amount of discounted care provided to patients. montefiore's charity care has gone down by 23% in a decade and mount sinai's has gone down by 50% in the decade in terms of charity care spending as a percentage of total hospital expenses. i think what it underscores is how these hospital ceos are so disconnected from the reality of what is happening on the ground and despite the mass tax exemptions they're granted, there are far more interested in lining their own pockets and in actually supporting the people who actually provide care. executives, people in the c suite, don't actually do anything related to patient care. they are effectively parasites

off of the nurses and the dedicated health care workers in new york city and across the country. but there compensation does not reflect that at all. it is a huge problem and i think it is why you see this nurses strike where -- i used to work for nursing union for many years. nurses don't ever want to go on strike. it goes against the core of their being posted the slogan is, "nurses are on the outside there's something wrong on the inside." in this case, i think there's something very seriously wrong about both mount sinai and montefiore. juan: matthew, i would ask you again about this nonprofit issue with these hospital chains, which is what they are. they often have huge reserves of money and often have them invested offshore or have

significant investment in offshore and cayman islands were other places, so obviously, tax havens. what have you found in your research? >> yeah, so mount sinai reports they have $68 million in investments in central america, the caribbean region -- that almost always means the cayman islands or bermuda or the british royal virgin islands or wherever, tend to be tax shelters. montefiore has almost $200 million invested in hedge funds and private equity. again, this is coming as nurses are dealing with 20 patients e in the.d. --in the e.d. when nurse to patient ratio was implemented in 2004, the

hospitals had spent a five-year legal battle trying to stop the legislation -- initially passed in 1999 and spent years attending to stop the ratios from being implemented. they said it would have been impossible for them to meet the ratios stop well, the ratios came in and they were there because they raised nursing pay and benefits to be able to retain qualified nurses to the bedside. it is a very straightforward issue of dollars and cents. when you have hundreds of millions of dollars in montefiore's case and tens of millions in mount sinai's invested in risky offshore entities, that is money coming directly from the patient care. amy: can you talk about this controversy over the new york governor who just gave her state of the state address yesterday after her election, kathy hochul

wanting to fill the opening for chief judge of new york, the new york state court of appeals with hector lasalle, whose ruling support these corporations and suing ion leaders? >> i mean,hat the back story is is about seven or eight years ago, the communication workers and cablevision were locked in a huge dispute over a first contract for a group of about 200 workers. cablevision was so mad at the union for organizing their workers that they actually decided to sue labor leaders. judge lasalle was part that voted for that a case to go forward, which is dangerous for a host of reasons but in particular, is this idea that you can take labor relations

away from the national labor relations board, which is a sacrosanct tenet of u.s. labor relation policy for the last 85 years. and something that i think you would see more from a rand paul-style judge than from a democratic judge in new york state or a democratic-aligned judge in new york state. so it is interesting that governor hochul is making this nomination at this time. it is also interesting she pushed the union and the hospitals to go to binding arbitration. typically, if she had really wanted to prevent a strike, she could have stepped in herself and attempted to arbitrate the dispute or directed her health commissioner to step in and arbitrate the dispute. but she did not do that. instead, she was advocating that the union agreed to an arbitrator that could implement

a contract for 5, 6 years that does not meet the demands of nurses, making the problem substantially worse. so i think what is underscores is, impartially, democratic leadership in new york state seems to be disconnected, especially governor hochul seems to be disconnected from the reality of what workers are facing on the ground. juan: i wanted to ask sasha winslow, what is the status of talks right now? you are in the second day of your struck. what are you asking the public to do? i'm sorry, third day of your strike. what are you asking the public to do? and is the administration responding to any of your demands? >> in the third day of strike, our exec of committee are continuing to have talks with

management. the issue lies in the enforcement of staffing nurse ratio. that is a huge issue that surprisingly management and our leaders are given such backlash to and this is something that is very important and impacts how we provide care and impacts our community. the support that would be helpful for our community is writing letters. if you were a patient of montefiore, how was your care? was there any delay in care? any missed care that you experienced because of staffing issues? we saw that worked in california when the laws passed in 2004, that the community rallied with the nurses. either testimony and letters of their experiences in the hospitals will stop this is

important for us and this is why we are striking. we are fighting for staff to nurse ratios and enforcement language that would hold hospitals accotable for not adhering to staffing ratios. that would protect the patients. amy: matthew cunningham-cook, you wrote a story on a somewhat different subject called "crypto bros what your 401(k)" which you note a lawsuit is trying to force regulators to allow crypto into retirement market. lay out what you found in this last minute. >> what we found is one of sam bankman-fried's backers is also backing this company, a four winds k services company -- 401(k) services that is suing the biden liver department that recommended against investment

in 401(k)s. how the crypto market cannot provide that a massive influx of new cash from ordinary unsophisticated investors like 401k holders and, yes, the case is currently worming its way through federal courts but i think comes a long with this push for bro crypto regulation coming from folks like cynthia lemmon who are trying to grease the wheels for a large amount of ordinary americans to put their money into a highly risky, highly speculative asset with no underlying value. amy: we are going to link to your pieces at democracynow.org. matthew cunningham-cook, writes for the lever and we will link to his pieces.

we also want to thank sasha winslow, striking high-risk labor delivery nurse at montefiore medical center. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] o;o;ó7ó7

hello, and welcome back to "nhk newsline". i am in new york. the leaders of that uk and japan have signed a defense pact, boosting cooperation between the japanese defense more and british military. calling it the most significant in over a century.