04/21/23 04/21/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i think we ought to see our gun problem is a problem of gun capitalism, as one related to the fundamental legitimacy we have granted to gun capitalism as a democracy. and that is what sets us apart from all most every other country in the world. amy: it has been another deadly week in the united states as gun violence shatters families and communities across the country.

we will speak with andrew mckevitt, author of the forthcoming book "gun country: gun capitalism, culture & control in cold war america." then to south texas where elon musk's spacex starship blew up four minutes after lunch thursday. we will speak to community organizer on the ground come along opposed to the work spacex in texas. >> we have seen photos of particulates falling on people, people's windows shattering, what elon musk cap dresses as a successful launch -- characterizes as a successful launch is just danger to our community. amy: we will speak to human rights activists in yemen where people have died at a charity giveaway in a stampede of the latest disaster to hit yemen. >> throughout the course of the war, there have been multiple

horrific human rights relations in yemen. all of these violations -- amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. two warring factions of sudan's military have announced a 72-hour ceasefire coinciding with the start of the muslim holiday of eid al-fitr. despite the announcement, residents of sudan's capital khartoum and neighboring cities report gunfire and showing have continued. the world health organization reports at least 413 people have been killed and more than 3500 others injured in the week since fighting erupted between sudan's army and the rapid support forces paramilitary group. earlier today, sudan's top general and de facto ruler abdel fattah al-burhan made his first public remarks since the fighting broke out.

>> there remains hope we are with our great people and will overcome this tribulation and emerge from strongly and coherent. one army, one people. amy: in his speech, general al-burhan claimed sudan's military is committed to a transition to civilian rule even though he led the coup 18 months ago that toppled sudan's civilian prime minister abdalla hamdok. wonder group has been providing missiles that could not be independently confirmed. meanwhile, the pentagon has been rotating more troops into its base in djibouti to prepare for the possible evacuation of u.s. diplomatic personnel from sudan. a new study finds the vast ice sheets covering greenland and antarctica are melting three times faster than they were just 30 years ago. study co-author ruth mottram described the findings as disastrous, warning coastal

communities will face increasing amounts of flooding as sea level rise accelerates due to the melting ice. on thursday, the european commission's climate agency reported last year was the continent's second warmest year on record and warned this year is on track to set more record temperatures across europe and around the world. this is samantha burgess of the copernicus climate change service. >> we saw prolonged and extensive heatwaves and also prolonged and extensive droughts over much of the continent. we had the highest emissions of carbon from wildfires in a number of countries and wildfires were bigger than average as they started earlier than average and even existed longer than average. we also saw a record ice out from glaciers in the european alps. climate change is not a future problem, it is a current problem. amy: nato secretary-general jens

stoltenberg made a surprise visit to kyiv thursday, where he met with volodymyr zelenskyy. during a joint press conference, volodymyr zelenskyy said it is time for nato to invite ukraine to join the military alliance. stoltenberg replied that the issue would be discussed at a nato summit in vilnius, lithuania, in july. >> this will be high on the agenda of the meeting and a lead up on the preparations for the summit. ukraine's future is in nato. the all agree on that. amy: this week, ukraine received u.s.-made surface-to-air patriot missile systems for the first time. meanwhile, russian officials have admitted that a russian war plane bombed the city of belgorod near ukraine late thursday after it accidentally fired a weapon. russia's defense ministry said some buildings had been damaged but no one was injured in the blast which left a huge crater in a street near several apartment buildings.

president biden's pick to lead the labor department testified before a senate panel thursday as her nomination hearings got underway. julie su appears to face roadblocks by both republicans and conservative democrats who oppose her pro-worker, pro-union track record. su, who is serving as the deputy labor secretary, and is also a civil rights attorney, would be the first asian american to serve as secretary in biden's cabinet. >> after law school i spent nearly two decades representing workers. i learned too many people still work full-time year-round and live in poverty. too many are denied a fair days pay from a fair days work. at the same time i learned working people, when given a chance to organize to be heard, not only making better for themselves but help to bring the american dream within reach to those around them. amy: in uganda, president yoweri museveni has refused to sign into law a draconian anti-lgbtq bill, which allows for the death penalty in some cases. urging

-- that penalty in some cases. the ugandan parliament to make the legislation even harsher. he made the announcement thursday where he praised lawmakers for their efforts against the lgbtq community and for rejecting international pressure to kill the controversial measure. the intensifying violence has forced many to flee. this is a ugandan photographer and lgbtq activist speaking from johannesburg, south africa. >> can't get medication or education. [indiscernible] many people really can't handle that. people are killing themselves. amy: to see our interview with

frank mugisha, go to democracynow.org. back in the united states, the republican-controlled house has passed a bill that would ban transgender women and girls from competing in sports at schools and colleges that receive federal funding. the measure has no chance of passing the democratic-led senate, while the white house said president biden would veto the bill if it made it to his desk. bands on transgender athletes are being challenged by the aclu in idaho, tennessee, and west virginia. this week, north dakota became the latest state to enact a law criminalizing gender affirming care for minors. over 450 bills attacking the rights of transgender people have been introduced in state legislatures nationwide. in atlanta, georgia, protesters rallied outside the fulton county jail on thursday demanding the closure of the 11 story, 1300 bed facility, demanding justice for sean thompson, the 35-year-old black man who was being held in the jail's psychiatric wing was

eaten alive by insects and bedbugs in his cell last week. civil rights lawyer benjamin crump reports former nfl quarterback and activist colin kaepernick has agreed to pay for an independent autopsy of thompson's body. meanwhile, the fulton county commissioners have approved $5 million in funding for emergency improvements to the jail. thompson's family and local activists are calling on the department of justice to launch an investigation was to tiffany roberts of the seven center for human rights said "how long will we hide from the reality that fulton county is chronically dysfunctional and there is no humidity in a system like this?" to see our broadcast exclusive interview with the family attorney as well as lashawn thompson's brother and sister, go to democracynow.org. oklahoma's court of criminal

appeals has denied the latest request by death row prisoner richard glossip for a new trial, paving the way for his execution on may 18. thursday's ruling came after oklahoma's attorney general asked for glossip's 1998 murder conviction to be vacated, in a decades-long case in which glossip narrowly escaped execution three times. glossip has always maintained his innocence. mike lindell, the ceo of mypillow and staunch trump ally, was ordered to pay $5 million for losing his 2021 "prove mike wrong" challenge after a computer forensics expert showed that there was no chinese interference in the 2020 election, as lindell had claimed. an arbitration panel found robert zeidman, a republican who twice voted for trump, disproved mike lindell's data, which he called manufactured and bogus. spacex is claiming success after the first launch of its massive

new rocket, dubbed "starship." the two-stage prototype lifted off thursday morning from spacex's sprawling base on texas' gulf coast near the u.s. border with mexico, becoming the largest and heaviest machine ever to fly under its own power. at least six of the rocket's 33 engines failed during flight, and the vehicle self-destructed over the gulf of mexico about four minutes after liftoff. residents of port isabel, near the launch site, reported particulates rained down on their neighborhoods. the fiery end to the launch was the latest in a series of explosions around spacex's launch site near the lower rio grande valley national wildlife refuge. after headlines, we'll go to brownsville, texas, for the latest. buzzfeed news is shutting down. the announcement was made by buzzfeed ceo and co-founder jonah peretti in an email to staff where he said the company is also laying off 15% of its employees across multiple divisions.

huffpost, which buzzfeed acquired in 2020, will now be the company's sole news brand. this came on the same day the digital news media company insider come a formally known as business insider, said it would cut 10% of its workforce. and in chile, president gabriel boric announced he is moving to nationalize his country's lithium industry. >> chile has one of the largest lithium reserves in the world. it is a mineral and batteries, key in the fight against the climate crisis and the fight against climate change. this is an opportunity for economic growth that we will be able to be in the short term. amy: any private companies extracting lithium will have to partner with the state, which will hold majority stakes in new production contracts. this comes as environmental activists this week protested chile's approval to extend anglo

american's copper mining activities in the andes, which advocates say threatens a nearby glacier and the area's water supply. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. it has been another deadly week in the united states as gun violence shattered families and communities across the country. in one of the most shocking cases, a white homeowner in kansas city shot a black teenager in the head who rang his doorbell by mistake. prosecutors say 84-year-old andrew lester exchanged no words with 16-year-old ralph yarl before opening fire on him through a glass door, striking him in the chest and head. yarl had simply gone to the wrong house to pick up his younger twin brothers. yarl survived and is now recovering from a traumatic brain injury. the shooter's grandson appeared on cnn thursday and described his grandfather as a racist avid

-- who avidly watched fox news and embraced conspiracy theories. meanwhile, in new york, a 65-year-old man has been charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting a 20-year-old woman named kaylin gillis who had mistakenly pulled into the wrong driveway. in elgin, texas, two cheerleaders were shot by a man in the parking lot of a grocery store on tuesday after one of them mistakenly tried to get into his car. thinking it was her own. meanwhile, a north carolina man has turned himself after shooting a six-year-old and her parents after the girl tried to retrieve a basketball that had rolled on to the man's yard. the number of mass shootings in the united states this year has now reached 166. on average, there has been more than one mass shooting every day this year. in alabama, six people have been arrested on murder charges in

connection with the recent mass shooting at a sweet 16 birthday party in dadeville, alabama, that left four people dead and 32 injured. over the weekend, the national rifle association held its annual convention in indianapolis, indiana -- less than two hours from louisville, kentucky, where a gunman armed with an ar-15-style semiautomatic assault rifle killed five people at a bank where he used to work april 10. to talk more about the gun epidemic in the united states, we are joined by andrew mckevitt. associate professor of history at louisiana tech university and author of the forthcoming book "gun country: gun capitalism, culture & control in cold war america." drew, welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us, though under horrible circumstances. why don't we start off where i just left off and that is as you have one mass shooting after another, louisville followed

nashville where six people were killed, three of them nine-year-olds and three adults. the nra holds its meeting, republican presidential wannabes flocked to that meeting. it is less than two hours from louisville where a mass shooting had just taken place. can you put this all in context for us? >> sure. thank you for having me. i do wish this were not the conversation we were having, but it does seem never double at this point -- inevitable at this point. to put this in some context, we talked about our gun problem all wrong. i think the way we talk about it in the precisely which we use is the kind of language the nra and the gun lobby wants us to use. we think about our gun problem in the language of rights and the law and the second amendment. we adopt the language of good guys with guns and bad guys with

guns and so-called law-abiding citizen. when we do that, we're using the same language they have crafted to understand these crises that we are saying more and more. instead, as i said at the beginning, i think we have to conceive of our gun problem is a problem of gun capitalism. that is, immaterial problem. we are rapidly approaching the point at which we will be a country of a half billion guns that will happen at the desk before the end of this decade. i don't think it is possible to receive our gun problem issues without that larger -- without recognizing that larger materiality of guns in which we live, in which we are effectively swimming. amy: you're talking about more guns than people in the united states. i want to go to the issue of the nra, just a day after i people were killed in a mass shooting in kentucky.

senate republicans honored nra chief wayne lapierre ahead of the nra's annual convention in indianapolis. moms demand action responded in a report by wthr-13. >> they have the audacity to stand on the floor of our senate in our state house and honor the organization that is far and away the most responsible for the proliferation of guns in our country. it is really a painful reminder that the republican party the state of indiana doesn't care. >> 13 news asked directly about the criticism. >> we think all of the federal gun laws to be in force and we could dramatically reduce crime in america. amy: that last voice, wayne lapierre. at the convention, donald trump gave the keynote address and called for firearms training for teachers. >> i will also create a new tax

credit to reimburse any teacher for the full cost of a concealed carry firearms and training from highly qualified experts. who's better? better? if even 5% of teachers, people that are skilled with arms, we want that. 5% who are voluntarily armed and trained to stop active shooters, we would achieve effective deterrence and the problem would cease to exist. amy: your response to president trump? >> i don't know where the evidence for that claim comes from. weon't -- we don't have anything arming teachers in school prevents mass shootings, will be a deterrent in any way, particularly for nasa shooters are often motivated, to see what they are doing as an endgame kind of action, that they intend for their lives to end in this

particular instances. arming teachers is no way going to be a deterrent. i think more broadly, these comments speak to the extent to which guns are simply the material rally in which we live, particularly when it comes to things like handguns. this is a conversation we don't often have so much because we are so often focused on these fearsome assault weapons that have now become the target of even president biden. instead, thinking of this problem more in terms of the mundane and commonplace relationship we have with firearms, such that it makes perfectly sense to many people in this country and certain parts of this country to suggest teachers go to school armed because those teachers already live in a community's flooded with guns and they don't think it would violate any sort of moral or ethical norms for those teachers to go to school armed.

amy: could you have a more gun-fairly state and taxes? look what happened in uvalde, child after child was gunned down as swat teams, troopers, police -- more than 100 of them waited for an hour. talk about fully armed. we are talking about nila terry level arming -- military level arming and they would not move forward, yet you expect to have teachers? >> right. teachers with the equivalent of the kind of training you might get in a concealed carry class for self-defense class or something like that, not something like the training you might expect police officers to go through. many of these police officers had that military training. so the idea that we would arm teachers is absurd. when i think about my campus, i don't like anyone on my campus armed, including teachers or myself. be on the obvious mechanics of

potential violence that creates, there is also that notion of intimidation and the already -- the power relationship that already exists between students and faculty and administrators. introducing guns into that equation is insane in my view. amy: and what it does for those promoting it, it just buying more guns. can you talk about the arming of -- the honoring of wayne lapierre? this is the nra, well-known for its corruption, near bankruptcy. how does it possibly maintain the power over state and federal public officials that do not represent even the nra membership is for levels of been control. for example, in colorado, the legislature just failed to pass

in assault weapons van despite having the democratically controlled house, senate, and governor. several house sided with republicans to kill the bill in committee at 1:00 a.m. two nights ago. >> i think the nra's power comes from three places. one is the one to which we usually point which is money. the nra can dump hundreds of nights of dollars into elections and obviously has been doing that for a long time now. though i think we tend to overestimate that. the other two ways in which the nra can wield this power are a little more subtle. one is the way in which they're able to rally their base very quickly. they have been able to do this since the 1960's. one of the pioneers of direct nail campaigning and so forth that was able to rally upwards of one million people already by 1968 to write for congresspeople, to lobby for

local state politicians to vote against potential federal and state legislation. and the third way, which is the one we don't talk about and we don't really want to talk about, is the nra really wields a lot of intimidation and power in that sense. there are, i am confident, politicians who will not cross the nra -- not because of the money issue and not because of the vote issue, but because they are afraid of violence. because they are afraid of the kind of violence, social violence and political violence, that the nra could encourage if it wanted to. amy: you talk about the connection between guns and gun capitalism. what does capitalism have to do with it? >> again, my argument is we focus a little too much on questions of rights and abstract

concepts like the interpretation of the second amendment and not quite enough unjust how much gun capitalism exploded, expanded in the postwar era especially. this goes back to the end the second world war. in the 1950's and 1960's, we see this incredible expansion of gun consumerism in the united states. [indiscernible] amy: we are having a little trouble with the internet. a tree fell on his house so there are some problems there. i wanted to go to tennessee as tennessee is relaying, wrote -- legislators push this week to pass laws that shield gun manufacturers instead of children. there is this 2005 all, the

protection of lawful commerce and arms act, that protected gun manufacturers. we will go to break and then come back to andrew mckevitt. his forthcoming book is called "gun country: gun capitalism, culture & control in cold war america." stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "all is grace" by palace brothers. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continued our conversation with drew mckevitt, author of "gun country: gun capitalism, culture & control in cold war america." we are talking to him in shreveport. we only have a few more minutes, drew, but you got cut off right in the needle of you making the connection between this massive proliferation of guns in america -- i mean, we don't see anything like this in any industrialized

country in the world. the connection between that and capitalism? >> bringing the world in is a really important component because it is partly the world that helps arm americans after world war ii. we often think of how the united states is responsible for the proliferation of weapons and violence after the second world war, which is of course all true throughout the cold war, but more so arms come into the united states after the second world war. the american population is armed with the weapons that had been used in the second world war and left over on battlefields in europe and asia. there's a hold cohort of wily entrepreneurs, gun entrepreneurs who maximize the profits that can get by grabbing these guns from europe -- sometimes for as cheap as less than one dollar each -- bringing them over to the united states and then selling them to eager

population now increasingly after the second world war with more leisure time, with money, more income available for those kinds of activities. of course, the most famous of these war surplus imports in the 1950's and 1960's, is the cork on a rifle used by lee harvey always will to kill john f. kennedy in 1963. it is just one of nights that come into the country and truly remake the consumer market for guns in the united states. they do that in two ways. one, they make it one centered around war and firearms that have been involved in war and firearms that can be used for war. that is where we see the trajectory leading to something like the popularity of the ar-15. the other aspect is it simply is cheapness. american consumerism drives down

the prices of these guns and a $10 gun becomes just as accessible as a $150 gun and that will dramatically expand the gun market. the number of guns in the united states doubles every 25 years or so after the end of the second world war, precisely because of that phenomenon. amy: then you have a going the other way. yet the gun violence in the united states and u.s. involvement in international small arms trade and trafficking and refusing to sign off on being an obstacle at the u.n. to sign off on treaties that will limit small guns in the world. >> yeah, that's right. if we look back at the process in t united nations getting in the mid-1990's and up to the signing of the completely watered-down treaty in 2013, we saw the real powerful influence of the nra there. in particular, the nra's bulldog john bolton who would to the u.n. in 2000 one and try to shut

down every international effort that would have created any kind of substantive controls on international small arms sales. amy: very quickly, tennessee. perhaps the trying to get rid of the two youngest black lawmakers, republican house speaker and his allies in the tennessee legislature, was about trying to prevent the push for gun control in tennessee -- summary support, though you would not know it within the legislature. i now, while they are not protecting the children, they want to protect the arms industry come a bill now going to bill lee's desk, the tennessee governor who signed off on a bendy regulation bill and a beretta gun factory? >> i heard you mention the 2005 law, the protection of lawful commerce and arms act, which already shields -- which already shields gun makers from

liability in a number of ways. that law was written in the wake of a wave of lawsuits against gun makers by gun control organizations, by large municipalities that sought to force the gun makers to pay for the consequences of the seemingly uncontrolled liberation of firearms that was dramatically -- that had picked up dramatically in the early 1990's in addition to the very obvious human trauma, there are economic costs to gun violence as well. the pcl aa -- the intention of that was to shield gun makers nationally. it is signed into law by the george w. bush administration so that gun makers could not be sued for their guns working as they are designed, to maine and kill human beings. with the -- what the tennessee legislation is doing is a kind of lipservice or essentially a

moot point in their are already those protections in place but i think the tennessee legislature watched what happened last year within the remington case when remington, the rifle maker remington, was doubled with the sandy hook family's first $73 million. that is what they're trying to prevent. gun control organizations and activists from looking for loopholes in the 2005 law like, for instance, in the case of sandy hook, targeting their advertising rather than the guns themselves. tennessee wants to cut thaoff because ultimately, the sanctity of gun capitalism must remain secure. amy: drew mckevitt, thank you for being with us, author of the forthcoming book "gun country: gun capitalism, culture & control in cold war america" and speaking to us from shreveport where he is an associate professor of history at louisiana tech university. as we turn now to south texas,

where elon musk spacex is claiming success after the first launch of his massive new rocket dubbed starship. the two-stage prototype lifted off thursday morning from spacex's sprawling base on texas' gulf coast near the u.s. border with mexico, becoming the largest and heaviest machine ever to fly under its own power. at least six of the rocket's 33 engines failed during the flight. the vehicle self-destructed over the gulf of mexico about four minutes after liftoff. residents of port isabel, near the launch site, reported particulates or ash rained down on their neighborhoods. the fiery end to the launch was the latest in a series of explosions around spacex's launch site near the lower rio grande valley national wildlife refuge. this comes as three liquefied natural gas projects in the rio grande valley were just approved by the federal energy regulatory

commission. indigenous, environmental, and community organizers held a rally and announce the new projects. >> the pipeline and spacex, none of these companies consulted with the original people of this land. none of them consulted with the tribe. none of them had our consent. yes, they still want to destroy native homelands, ancestral homelands. we never gave our consent and they are moving forward. the federal energy regulatory commission, they never consulted with the tribe. they don't have our consent and they are moving forward anyway. that is not justice. they are enabling musk to destroy our lands and destroy this beautiful area. it needs to stop. these are all the history of

colonial genocide against native people and native lands. they may cover more we're joined in brownsville, texas, by bekah hinojosa, environmental and community advocate with the grassroots collaborative another gulf is possible. she is one of the many people who spoke out against scex and face repurchased -- repression and prosecution for so she was accused of spray painting the words "gentrified" and "stop spacex" and downtown. she is still fighting these charges. it is great to have you with us. yesterday musk declared success when his space rocket exploded. actually, though he was mocked by many, what is the failure mean if you're rocket explodes out of control, scientifically, it is a chance to test different

ways of trying to shoot off this rocket. but you are on the ground. if you can talk about what spacex means for your communities? >> we are tired of living under the constant threat of flammable rocket explosions because of spacex. elon musk is on his quest to colonize mars and it is beginning by colonizing our community that is on the frontlines of the u.s.-mexico border, frontlines of the gulf coast where we are dealing with layers and layers of injustices. our community is opposed to spacex's operations. yesterday, 27 organizations from the rio grande valley sign on to a letter officially opposing the rocket launch. amy: so talk about how -- who

controls where he does this work? does he choose this area of texas in the mexico border because of the deregulation of texas and the fact -- what kind of regulation does he face? what kind of consent is required, if any, of the local community? >> it is very clear elon musk moved into our border community to take over, to colonize the region. we are clearly being exploited by a billionaire and his pet project. we are a low income community of color, and texas has a long history of deregulation, of just rubberstamping permits and approvals for any big industry. and also give out numerous tax subsidies. that is what we have seen with spacex. he has moved into our community

and turned us into -- it is at the point now where i hear a noise, my family and i, we wonder, is that spacex? it comes to find out the rumble is because of a rocket launch or i hear a huge explosion from 10 miles away and it turns out spacex has done some kind of unannounced rocket testing. we are constantly dealing with the growth of spacex and their operations. america bekah, last year you were violently arrested after police broke in your home without showing you a warrant. you were detained for more than a day, for 26 hours. police took your glasses, placed you in a cold cell after you were interrogated, charged with a misdemeanor, of used of disch accused of spray painting under a mural in downtown brownsville. the outgoing mayor posted a

photo of you on his social media thanking the police for your arrest. he also wrote -- when can you talk about the former mayor, his ties to spacex and how local officials have come after environmental and community advocates like you over opposition to spacex? you're still fighting these charges? >> i am still fighting to have this charge dropped against me. spacex is growing into our community. spacex and elon musk are actively handing out money here and there stop it is becoming political hush money. it is buying out politicians. we have seen when spacex testing goes wrong, they goes down and burns down a wildlife refuge. political officials turning the

other way. i have personally been impacted now by spacex buying out to me to out politicians when last year four police broke into my apartment, when i asked for a warrant and try to put on my shoes, they threatened me with resisting arrest. they jailed the for 26 hours. then i come to find out once i am released, mayor trey mendez, who is still in office for the next months, has -- he posted my mugshot on his official -- amy: he is the current mayor? >> he is. his term ends in may and is chosen not to run for reelection. he has doxxed me. he posted my job, trying to get

me fired. he singled me out and targeted me because i have been speaking about the dangers of spacex for years. what this means is the city is signaling to us that in a community organizer speaking up could be next. there targeting community activists. we are actively rallying and pressuring the city to investigate mayor mendez for abuse of power. we won't tolerate elected officials singling out and targeting and doxxing community members. the city is signaling to us they are selling out to private space industry. amy: talk about how the environment has been impacted. for people who are watching on tv, see boca chica in the upper left. talk about where the fresh waters of rio grande trickle into the gulf of mexico come the

beaches and protected lands such as lower rio grande valley national while of refuge near spacex. >> i want to make it clear that boca chica beach was never for sale. elon musk has come and colonized our region. boca chica beach is part -- a state park, part of the lower rio grande valley wildlife refuge, part of a wildlife corridor that is very important for species to migrate. boca chica beach is sacred land. families have been going there for generations to fish posted it is considered the poor people speech because it is for local people that don't have to pay fees to enter and can go fish to feed their families. it is also where the tribe hold their sacred

ceremonies. musk has been using a private police and local police to turn people away so he can host his press conferences and parties and test dangerous rocket equipment. that is what we have been seeing. some of the routine testing has caused over 60 acres of the wildlife refuge to burn down, has sparked grass fires. we have seen threats and deaths of migratory birds and endangered species like the ocelot. amy: i also went ask about this point we raised in the lede as well, netta/or the federal aviation administration determined that spacex's plans for orbital lunches would have no significant impact on the gulf coast region. the fda's ruling came after spacex founder elon musk accused the agency of having a

fundamentally broken regulatory structure after he didn't rapidly approve an early starship test flight. the faa has also reportedly based pressure from major spacex contractors, including nasa, pentagon, and the national reconnaissance office -- all of whom rely heavily on spacex to launch satellites and astronauts to orbit and beyond. nasa selected version of spacex's starship as a lender for upcoming mission which aims to return astronauts to them and for the first time in half a century. they're using this private company for the pentagon, for the faa, for all of this nasa work. >> it is clear elon musk and spacex has become disch is becoming too big to hold accountable and is getting away with harming our community and what we need are real solutions.

we need and vestments -- investments. we have problems of climate change. instead, we see our tax money going toward a billionaire's pet project, for a billionaire to go to space, part of his sci-fi adventure. amy: i want to finally ask about the federal energy regulatory commission approving the rio grande lng, texas lng, liquid natural gas, and the rio bravo pipeline thursday just hours after the spacex explosion. these projects are within a few miles from spacex and have faced fierce opposition from groups like yours. talk about what is at stake and with these projects, especially in the rio grande and the gulf of mexico's area of the country in the front lines of the climate crisis. >> we're dealing with layers and

layers of environment disasters here in the rio grande valley. i have been fighting to stop these lng terminals for nearly a decade. rio grande lng, texas lng, and the pipeline plan to build next door to spacex within six miles. we are terrified of the very real threat that exploding rockets next to giant tanks of gas, tankers of gas where we have already seen rocket shrapnel raining even further past six miles. we are being left in the dark. we have not heard from wrigley to agencies about the flammable -- regulatory agencies about the flammable risks. community's here have made it clear we oppose these lng export terminals. all of our communities past anti-lng resolutions. port isabel, long island

village, padre island. the threat of flammable explosions, because this would completely destroy our way of life, we are one of the last little pieces of the south texas coastline that doesn't have refineries. lng would completely change our way of life for the worst. amy: bekah hinojosa, thank you for being with us, environmental and community advocate with the grassroots collaborative another gulf is possible. coming up, we go to yemen, a leading human rights activists there, where at least 70 of people died this week and a stampede. he will talk about his country being devastated by the u.s.-back saudi war. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "morning," ("manha") by amy: "morning," ("manha") by azymuth. it was announced this week that ivan "mamão" conti, the founding drummer of brazilian jazz-funk greats azymuth, has passed away. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we ended today show in yemen, where at least at least 79 people were killed and over 300 injured in a stampede on wednesday as residents of sanaa gathered at a school where local merchants were giving away charitable donations to mark the end of ramadan. hundreds of people had gathered to receive what amounted to about $10. witnesses told the associated press the crowd crush began after armed houthis fired into the air to control the crowd,

striking electrical equipment and causing it to explode. the tragic deaths come as yemen continues to face one of the world largest humanitarian crises following years of fighting between u.s.-backed saudi forces and the houthi rebels. while a ceasefire began a year ago, no agreement has been reached yet on making the ceasefire permanent. earlier this month, envoys from saudi arabia and oman visited sanaa for talks with the houthis. this came weeks after china helped broker a deal to reestablish diplomatic ties between saudi arabia and iran. saudi arabia also recently exchanged more than 800 prisoners of war with the houthis in the largest prisoner exchange since 2020. we are joined now by ali jameel, the accountability and redress director of mwatana for human rights, a group based in yemen. he is visiting new york, where he joins us now. thank you so much for joining us. can you talk about what happened this week, but then put this

into the larger context of the devastation of yemen? >> thank you very much. what we're doing now currently is investigating into this incident i which -- in which at least 70 people died at a charity event. this event shows us a snapshot that illustrates the situation of starvation in yemen. hundreds of people were going to death to get donations of nearly $10. they have used starvation as a method of war. they're looking into the conduct and -- the different parties that led to starvation. looking into attacks that has been done by the saudi-led

coalition and also the conduct of the nongovernmental armed forces that really impacted the food and water security of civilians in yemen. amy: can you talk, ali jameel, about this between saudi arabia and iran? what kind of effect this will have? >> there isn't enough information available about the deal. we're not even sure if this will impact the war in yemen and to what extent it will have. it is clear there are also talks between the saudis and houthis and the saudi ambassador to yemen was in sanaa a couple of weeks ago and also a swap for

over 800 detainees. we see this as good steps in terms of building trust among warring parties and have a good potential of reaching a peace deal, but this is not what civilians want. it is very important for this war to end, but also very important to have accountability. yemen has a long history of armed conflicts that happened in the 1960's, 1980's, 1990's, 2003. all of these ended in a political agreement did not have any accountability aspect stop because there is no accountability from each conflict was basically a seed for another conflict. looking into the conflict today,

it is clear how much it has an impact from clear conflict. this violent cycle should be broken. it will never be broken without transitional accountability. amy: there is being made now, as it should become of war crimes when it comes to what is happening in ukraine. but mwatana for human rights, your group, has said war crimes are and have been committed at the highest level in yemen. can you talk about the parties responsible and what these grave crimes are that you have been investigating? >> mwatana for human rights has a very big team, over 100 team members all over yemen. we have almost --

we investigate cases of violations of international humanitarian law, international -- over 8000 cases of human rights abuses have been documented, committed by all warring parties in yemen. i can say there is no warring party in given better than -- in yemen better than another one. human rights that may amount to war crimes. we have documented over 1000 cases of airstrikes, landmines, child recruitment, forced disappearance, torture, attacks on schools and hospitals, and a very wide range of other violations that has been committed by all warring parties in yemen. we used to have -- by the u.n.,

specifically by the group that was the only independent to investigate in these violations. unfortunately in 2021, the saudis put -- terminate the mandate of this investigative body. currently, yemen doesn't have any u.n. or international investigative body to investigate those crimes. this did not only stop the investigations and reporting on the violations of saudis, but his stepfather reporting on violations of -- stopped reporting of violations of others. amy: finally, how will a peace process move forward that you think could stick, that you

think would hold all sides accountable? >> any piece that does not have accountability, reparations, is just a political agreement that can fall at any time. if we are looking at a long-lasting, durable peace, we should take the issues of accountability, transitional justice, also reparations to victims into consideration. amy: ali jameel, inc. you for being with us accountability and , redress director of mwatana for human rights. visiting new york city from sanaa, yemen. that does it for our show. i am speaking at two events this weekend. on saturday, april 22, troy, new york. 7:00 p.m. sunday, in boston giving the 10th annual dorothy day lecture at 1:00 p.m.

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