04/25/23 04/25/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i think a lot of u.s. leaders have no clue as to modern history, but they resent china's rise. that is an affront to the united states. how dare china rise. this is our century. amy: as tension escalates between the united states and china, we will look at how beijing is increasing its

diplomatic activity across the globe from offering a peace plan to end the war in ukraine to brokering talks between saudi arabia and iran. we will speak to professor and economist jeffrey sachs. then president biden, who has just announced he is running for reelection, has formed a white house office of environmental justice. pres. biden: under this order, the environmental justice will become the responsibility of every single federal agency. i mean come every single federal agency. amy: we will be joined by indigenous activist jade begay who is on the white house enviroental justice adsory counl. plus, we will look at the firing of tucker carlson at fox news. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in sudan, a 72 hour cease-fire

appears to be largely holding, though there are reports of scattered gunfire and shelling in the capital khartoum. the army and paramilitary rapid support forces agreed to begin the three day truce at midnight following two days of negotiations roe bayou secretary of state antony blinken. at least 459 civilians have died in's fighting between the rival factions of sudan's military junta roque out on april 15, though the true toll is certain to be far higher. water, food, electricity, and communications remain in short supply. fears of waterborne diseases like cholera and some residents have been forced to drink water directly from the nile river. this woman left her family behind as she fled to egypt. >> i left behind my brother, my family, the rest of my aunts and

friends. i survived but i'm still worried about those i left behind. the situation is catastrophic. there are no hospitals. 55 hospitals are out of service. i don't know how they are living. amy: the world health organization is warning of a high risk of biological hazards in khartoum after fighters seized control of a national laboratory. ukraine's military has advanced onto the eastern bank of the dnieper river in the kherson region as part of a long-anticipated spring counter-offensive against russian forces. a spokesperson for ukraine's military refused to confirm the reports but said heavy russian shelling in the region had injured civilians and destroyed dozens of buildings, including a school. china's foreign ministry has walked back comments by a senior chinese diplomat questioning the sovereignty of ukraine and other former soviet states. lu shaye, china's ambassador to france, said on friday the

nations "do not have an effective status in international law." that prompted several nations including estonia, latvia, and lithuania to summon chinese envoys to explain beijing's official position. in a statement, china's foreign ministry said lu's comments were not a political declaration but an expression of personal points of view during a televised debate." we'll have more on this story after headlines. a new report finds worldwide military spending rose to an all-time high of over $2.2 trillion last year, largely driven by russia's invasion of ukraine. the united states accounted for nearly 40% of total military spending even though it has just over 4% of the world's population. the u.s. also remained the world's largest arms exporter. president joe biden and vice president kamala harris will run for reelection in 2024.

biden made this announcement official this morning with a three-minute campaign video posted on social media. pres. bid: freedom. personal freedomsundameal tos as aricans. ere isothing more imrtant, nothing more sacd. fight for our demracy. shoulot ba revoluon. to make sure everyone in this country is treated equally. amy: so far, biden and harris face two democratic primary challengers -- self-help author marianne williamson, who also ran in 2020, and robert f. kennedy, jr., an environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist, and son of the former u.s. attorney general and assassinated 1968 presidential candidate robert f kennedy. cbs news reports rfk jr. was convinced to run by trump's former campaign manager steve bannon, who believes he will be a useful chaos agent in the 2024 race.

fox news announced monday the cable network and it's far right primetime host tucker carlson "agreed to part ways." his departure was effective immediately. interim presenters are replacing carlsson who was not commented about the reasons for his firing. the surprise departure of the top-rated host comes after text messages from carlsson were revealed in a dominion voting systems lawsuit against fox news for airing full claims of a stolen election that was just settled last week for over three quarters of a billion dollars. later in the broadcast, we will look at how tucker carlson has been a singular force driving fox news' extremism. don limit has been fired, ending a 17 year tenure at the network most of lemon was accused of sexism after he recently said 51-year-old republican presidential hopeful nikki haley

was past her prime and variety reported earlier this month lemon had history of mocking female staffers at cnn. in atlanta, georgia, fulton county district attorney fani willis has revealed she'll announce this summer whether she's filing criminal charges against donald trump over his effort to overturn joe biden's victory in georgia in 2020. willis wrote in a letter to law enforcement she expects to announce possible criminal indictments between july 11 and september 1 and is asking for heightened security and preparedness. here in new york, jury selection has begun in a civil trial against donald trump brought by author e. jean carroll. the former magazine columnist alleges trump raped her in a dressing room at a department store in the mid-1990's. carroll can bring the case decades later because new york opened a one year window on statute of limitations for adult survivors of sexual assault.

the judge in the civil case has ruled two other women who say they were sexually assaulted by trump can take the stand. the chair of the senate finance committee has asked texas billionaire and conservative activist harlan crow to provide congress with a detailed list of undisclosed gifts and payments benefiting supreme court justice clarence thomas, including private real estate transactions and the use of crow's private jet and superyacht. in a letter sent to crow monday, democratic senator ron wyden wrote -- "the secrecy surrounding your dealings with justice thomas is simply unacceptable. the american public deserves a full accounting of the full extent of your largesse towards justice thomas, including whether these gifts complied with all relevant federal tax and ethics laws." meanwhile, bloomberg news is reporting justice thomas failed to recuse himself from a 2005

supreme court decision to reject a case that benefited the trammell crow residential company, a real estate firm named after harlan crow's father that was partly-owned by the crow family. harlan crow was ceo and chair of the board at the time. in north dakota, republican governor doug burgum has signed into law a near-total ban on abortion that would only allow people to get the procedure in cases of rape or incest during the first six weeks of pregnancy. the legislation is one of the most severe anti-abortion measures in the country. reproductive rights advocates say most people don't even know they are pregnant at six weeks. in montana, protesters stormed the state capitol monday in support of democratic transgender state representative zooey zephyr after republican lawmakers blocked her from speaking on the house floor for a third day. zephyr raised her microphone into the air as her supporters interrupted proceedings for nearly half an hour yesterday, leading to the arrest of at least seven people. >> will come to order.

sergeant of arms, will you please clear the gallery? [chanting] amy: republicans have denied zephyr's repeated requests to debate on proposed anti-trans legislation after last week she told them they would have blood on their hands if they banned gender-affirming health care for trans children and youth. meanwhile, in tennessee, grammy-winning rapper and singer lizzo invited dozens of drag performersn stage during a concert in knoxville friday night, protesting republicans' efforts to ban drag performances in public. tennessee republican governor bill lee signed the measure into last february, but it was blocked by a federal judge the following month arguing it was too vaguely written.

president biden on monday welcomed tennessee democratic representatives justin pearson, justin jones, and gloria johnson to the white house for a discussion on gun reform. the lawmakers became known as the tennessee three after facing republican-led expulsion votes from the state legislature for supporting recent student protests calling for gun control after six people, including three nine-year-old students, were killed in a mass shooting at a nashville elementary school in march. pearson and jones, who were the only two formally expelled, were unanimously reappointed to the tennessee house of representatives by local officials earlier this month. this is justin jones speaking monday from the rose garden. >> lifted this issue -- this is not left or right. this is a moral issue, any issue in the south where we are trying to build multiracial democracy and challenge these extreme forces that rather than passing an assault weapons ban, they assaulted our democracy.

amy: in pennsylvania, the trial for the man accused of killing 11 worshipers at the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh in 2018 began monday. the mass shooting was the deadliest antisemitic attack in u.s. history. in kentucky, the carroll county sheriff's office has hired the former louisville police detective who fired the shot that killed 26-year-old black emergency room technician breonna taylor in her own home during a no-knock raid in march 2020. myles cosgrove was fired from the louisville metro police department in january 2021 for violating use-of-force procedures and failing to use a body camera. in pakistan, at least 17 people were killed and more than 50 others wounded monday as a pair of explosions tore through an ammunition depot run by pakistan's counter-terrorism office in the swat valley. most of the dead were police officers, though at least four were civilians. a police spokesperson said the blast was triggered when ammunition caught fire, likely due to an electrical short circuit. and the 2022 goldman environmental prize recipients

have been announced. brazil, t indigens leader alessara korapon for lding campaigngainst t anglo erican ming compy that protected 400,000 acreof amon rainfest. >>tas a he victor we reazed we a liklittle ants. en lite and jo forces,e ge strger anwe gtrger til we won the battle against anglo-americans. amy: here in the united states, environmental activist and fourth-generation shrimper diane wilson received a goldman prize for leading a campaign that won an historic $50 million settlement in a case against formosa plastics for dumping toxic waste on texas' gulf coast. the 2019 civil settlement was the largest in the history of the clean water act. this is diane wilson. >> the lose a t of the powde

anthe pellets -- wasus charng this astic erywhere they havbeen doi this for 27 years. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. coming up, professor and economist jeffrey sachsh h h h . ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "reptile" by the church. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now!'s juan gonzález in chicago. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: china is facing criticism in europe after china's ambassador to france questioned

the sovereignty of former soviet states under international law during a television interview. the baltic countries -- lithuania, latvia, estonia -- condemned the remarks and summoned chinese representatives to explain the position. the chinese foreign ministry walked back the ambassador's comments saying, "china respects all countries' sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity." the diplomatic spat comes as china is making headlines across the globe, though maybe not so much in the united states, for its diplomatic efforts. in late february, china released a 12-point-peace plan to end the war in ukraine. on march 10, iran and saudi arabia announced they would restore ties as part of an agreement brokered by china. days later in mid-march, chinese president xi jinping hosted the brazilian president luiz inácio lula da silva to talk about ukraine, trade, and moving

away from the u.s. dollar. xi jinping then met with french president emmanuel macron in beijing. during macron's visit, xi spoke about the roles of china and france in world affairs. >> the world today is ongoing profound historic changes. as major countries with the tradition of independence, china and france come as promoters of the multi-polarization of the world and the democratization of international influence, have the ability and responsibility -- restraint. adhere to the cooperative partnerships between china and france, stability, microsoft city -- rep or subsidy, and 10 world peace, stability, and true prosperity. amy: while in beijing, french president emmanuel macron suggested france and european

nations should not become a vassal of the united states when it comes to taiwan. >> france supports the single china policy and the search for a peaceful solution to the situation so it is a position that has always been compatible with the role of an ally but it is precisely compressing the strategic autonomy. does not mean a vassal. it is not because we do things together we can't think alone, that we are going to follow the people -- when we look at the facts, france has lessons to be received from no one. he other ukraine or suhail or taiwan. amy: china has continued its diplomatic outreach by offering last week to hold talks between israel and palestine. to look more at china's recent diplomatic actions, we are joined by jeffrey sachs,

director of the center for sustainable development at columbia university and president of the u.n. sustainable development solutions network. he has also served as adviser to three u.n. secretaries-general and currently serves as a sustainable development solutions advocate underlined "w u.s. foreign policy." professor, thank you so much for being with us. all of the diplomatic gestures of china, you know, the meeting with macron, with lula in beijing, brokering the steel between iran and saudi arabia, not offering -- not only negotiate between ukraine and russia, but israel and palestine . this hardly gets attention in the united states media post of around the world, the headlines

are far more -- there are far more headlines about this. talk about the significance of this and if you see a direct parallel between all th ehhe china. >> thank you, amy. very good to be with you. this is a crucial topic. as president xi jinping said in the meeting with macron, it is a historic watershed that the world is living through right now. what china is after, we view it from china's perspective, is what was also said true multilateralism. what that means, true multi-polarity, another term they used, and that means they don't want a u.s.-led world, they want a multipolar world. the basis that that is that the united states is 4.1% of the

world population, china is 17.5% of the world population. china's economy is comparable to the u.s. economy and china is the lead trade partner for much of the world, so china is saying we are there, to come alongside you. we want a multipolar world. we do not want a u.s.-led world. while the united states sometimes talks about a rule-based order, the fact of the matter is, the u.s. grand strategy, if we can use that term of the grand strategist of the u.s. state, see our grand strategy in the united states as being dominance. i often referred to in article, but i think it is very clear,

synced, and revealing -- assisting to come and revealing by a former colleague of mine robert blackwell, esteemed ambassador of the united states, who wrote in 2015, and i will quote from the article "since its founding, the united states has consistently pursued a grand strategy focused on acquiring and maintaining preeminent power over the various rivals. first on the north american continent, then in the western hemisphere, and finally globally." well, china does not want the united states to be the preeminent power. it wants to live alongside the united states. blackwell, writing in 2015, said, china's rise is a threat to u.s. preeminence. and he laid out a series of steps that the biden administration actually is following almost step-by-step what blackwell ate out already

back in 2015, the united states should create "new preferential training arrangements among u.s. friends and allies to increase their mutual gates through instruments that consciously exclude china." there should be a technology control regime to block china's strategic capabilities, that buildup powerful political capacities of u.s. friends and allies on china's periphery, and strengthen u.s. military forces along the asian gremlin despite any chinese opposition. this has become the biden administration foreign policy. china knows it. china really is pushing back. what is really important and interesting to understand, and we have seen it clearly in the dynamics involving the ukraine war, most of the world also does

not want the u.s. as a global preeminent power. most of the world once a multipolar world. erefore, not lined up behind the united states sanctions on russia and so forth. this was also the message of president lula visiting china, saying to president xi jinping, we as brazil also want multipolarity, true multipolarity, and we went peace, for example, in the russian-ukraine war that is based not on u.s. perception of dominance -- say nato enlargements -- but rather a peace that reflects a multipolar world. this is real. it is happening all over the world. the fact of the matter is, the reason why this is an historic

watershed is the underlying economics of technological change have made it so. the u.s. is no longer the dominant world economy and the g7, which is the u.s., canada, britain, france, italy, germany and japan, is actually smaller than the brics countries in economic size, which is brazil, russia, india, china, south africa. so we really are in a multipolar world but in ideology, we are in a conflict. juan: jeffrey sachs, i want to ask about you mention the brics. the bank that is now in china and the president lula have named dilma rousseff as the head of the brics bank. it is important in terms of this

multipolarity in the world economies, the potential for even the creation of alternative major currencies to the dollar as a result of the brics alliance. the impact of that on world affairs? >> this is a big deal. in fact, the united stat is withdrawing -- it does not know it necessarily come our politicians don't understand this -- but our politicians are withdrawing from the world financial and monetary seen and opening up the space for completely different kind of international finance. i will give you an example. the u.s. was the creator of the world bank. but now the u.s. congress won't put new money into the world bank. and because of that, the world bank is quite a small institution. it has a big name but it is quite a small institution in the financial scheme of things.

the u.s. won't put more money into congress. "why should we waste our money internationally" and so forth, we get a lot of hubbub about that. so china and the rest of the brics say, ok, we will make our own development inc. and they established the new develop baker sometimes called the brics bank based in shanghai. that is just one of the institutions that is really changing the scene. there the asia infrastructure investment bank based in beijing in fact. as president lula said and it is happening also with the context of the ukraine war, a move away from the use of the dollar, which the united states has thought, well, that is our ace in the hole. that is our ultimate hold on things because we can use sanctions, we can use our financial control to keep other

countries in line. at other countries are saying, eh, not so much. we will trade in rubles. we will trade in rupees. we will trade in our own national currencies. they are weakly setting up alternative institutions to do this. the united states doubles down. we will confiscate your reserves, we will -- if you don't follow. and the other countries are saying, you know, if you want to go through the u.n. and get really multilateral rules -- but if you want to just impose the rules, we won't follow along. so we have this very funny expression called a rule-based international order the united states government uses it every day. but what does it mean? who writes the rules? and what most of the world

wants his rules written in a multipolar or multilateral setting, not rules written by the united states and a few friends and allies. juan: i wanted to ask you, you have been an advisor to the united nations quite often. the issue of how much longer the permanent members of the security council can keep the number to five? clearly, brazil and other countries of the global south have been saying the u.n. needs to be reformed. an countries from latin america,'s pacifically -- specifically brazil and africa, should have a presentation on the u.n. security council, permanent members. >> thep5, the permanent five, the united states, china, russia, france, and the united kingdom, was the world war ii victor group in 1945. they wrote into the rules of the

u.n. incidentally that would be the permit secure to council members and have a veto over any change in the u.n. charter. so it is really a group that gave itself power that the other 188 countries of the world look on and say, what is this? we need change. i would say the country that is most amazed and frustrated by this is india. india is now the most populous country in the world. the united states has 335 million roughly in the population. britain, france, roughly 60 million. india, 1.4 billion. not on the security council, nuclear power, a world superpower come the president of the g20 this year.

really not happy about that. brazil, the largest economy of south america, similarly not on the security council. this has been an issue for more than 20 years. the p5 in various ways have blocked particular countries, but added up the p5 have said, know what? this is our club and we want to stay as the permanent five. but i think as we really face the reality of -- not just a post-u.s. dominated world, but actually a post-western donated world because it was the u.s. as the dominant power among the so-called west, which means the u.s., britain, european union, and honorary western membership japan, let's say, were post-western as well as post-u.s. in dominance. and these international institutions need to change or

they won't function in the 21st century. and if they don't function, it is a disaster for us. if they did not exist, we would have to make them because we need them to function, so we also need to renovate them. amy: i wanted to talk about china negotiating these various agreements. let's try two brazils president lula da silva speaking with xi jinping. >> what doesputin want? maybe we don't even discuss crimea but he will have to rethink what he is abated and also zelenskyy can't have everything. nato will not be able to set itself on the border so this is something we have to put on the table. i think this war has dragged on

for too long. brazil has already criticized -- brazil defends each nations territorial integrity so we disagree with russia's invasion of ukraine. amy: because it looks like ukraine is on the verge of a major counteroffensive against russia and in order to do this needs massive support from western countries, meaning military weapons, can you talk about what china's role is here? the peace plan it has put forward? but also, these other deals that china is helping to negotiate like the successful rapprochement between saudi arabia and iran and what they're suggesting about israel and palestine? >> president lula uttered in a few words the corof this issue that most of our media dare not explain to the american people,

and that is the expansion of nato. this is a war fundamentally about the u.s. attempt to expand a u.s. military alliance to ukraine and to georgia. georgia is a country in the caucuses, also on the black sea. the u.s. strategy, going back decades, has been to surround russia in the black sea. if ukraine, romania, bulgaria, turkey, and georgia all nato members surrounding russia and its naval fleet in the black sea with a naval fleet that has been the black sea naval fleet of russia since 1783 -- russia has said this is our redline. it has said that for decades. it said this clearly in 2007 before george w. bush jr. -- i will call it the harebrained idea, to announce in 2008 and

force nato to announce that ukraine will be a member of nato. and this is what president lula was saying and what president xi jinping of china has been saying, we can't have a war that is essentially a proxy war between russia and the united states over the expansion of the u.s. military alliance right up to a 1200 kilometer and more border with russia, which russia views -- and i would say understandably views -- as a fundamental national security threat to russia. keep some space. keep some distance. that is president lula's meaning. that is what china means when it says in its peace plan, we want a peace plan that respects the security interest of all parties.

that is code word for saying, makepeace, end the war, but don't expand nato right up to the border. the american people have not heard an explanation of this all along. it is shocking to me because as a close observer for 30 years -- our newspapers won't even report the background to this. but this is why china, south africa, india, brazil are saying, we want peace but we don't want nato expansion as the meaning of so-called peace. we want the big superpowers to give each other some space and some distant so that the world isn't on a knife edge. that is what president lula was saying and the meaning of the chinese peace initiative is is to say, yes, absolutely makepeace, protect ukraine's sovereignty and security, but no

10 nato expansion. the biden administration won't even discuss this issue. that has been the major failing and the reason why we have not been able to get to the negotiating table in my opinion, even when zelenskyy said in march 22, maybe not nato, maybe something else. russia and ukraine were close to an agreement and the united states intervened with ukraine and said, we don't think that is a good agreement because the u.s. neocons, so-called, have been pushing for nato enlargement as the core of this and overtime one and many other issues from the point of view of china or russia or other countries, including brazil, now saudi arabia, iran and others, is whether the u.s. does what it

wants to do or whether the u.s. respects some limits based on what other countries say, well, this is what we think so that we need true multipolarity not u.s. dominance alone. rules written by all of us, not rules written just by the united states. juan: we only have about a minute left, but i was wondering if you could comment on the parallels between this expansion of nato further and further east in europe. this year marks the 200th anniversary of the monroe doctrine a president monroe declaring to all the european powers that the western hemisphere was off-limits to them attempting to move their forces and their militaries into latin america. for these past 200 years, latin america has essentially been the

major shear of influence of the united states and yet here we are saying russia has no right to declare the countries and immediate borders cannot welcome nato troops. >> a little empathy would go a long way would have spared us a lot of wars. but for americans, it would be useful to think supposed mexico made a military alliance with china. united states say, well, that is mexico's right, what are we going to do about it? or might there be an invasion in short order or something like that? i would strongly advise to china and mexico, don't try it. don't experiment with this. but the united states government refuses that empathy -- in other words, refuses to put itself in the position of the other side. that is the fundamental arrogance of thinking that you

determine the rules of the world. the problem with arrogance is not only the, pens from edge, but you can't stop -- you stumble into terrible crises you don't understand because united states -- the public has not been allowed to even think from the perspective of the other side. so the analogy is actually a very clear analogy, it is what china and russia and others say all the time is, why have those double standards? why don't we actually deal with each other, with mutual respect, not with the rules that you write? amy: i want to thank you for joining us, jeffrey sachs, the director of the center for sustainable development at columbia university and president of the u.n. sustainable development solutions network. we will link to your new article "the need for a new u.s. foreign policy." he was speaking to us from spain. next up, we look at the firing

of tucker carlson at fox news. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "home" by frank waln. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we turned the firing of tucker carlson. on monday, fox news announced it had "agreed to part ways" with its most popular host. it remains unclear why fox fired crossan -- crossan. over the years, crossan embraced the racist great replacement theory and other anti-immigrant views, compare the january 6 insurrectionists to sightseers who were peaceful, orderly, and meek. he also recently called on texas governor greg abbott to pardon, and was just convicted of murdering a black lives matter activist. tucker carlson's firing him a week agreed to pay $787 million

in the largest media defamation suit in this country to settle a suit i dominion voting systems for airing false claims about the 2020 election. i miss and text released as part of the lawsuit show karlsson repeatedly criticized fox management as well as donald trump who he probably described as a demonic force, destroyed. other messages showed carlson privately did not believe trump 's lies about the election but never told his audiences. carlson was named in a loose all -- new lawsuit by abby grossberg who has described the culture of sexual harassment and general misogyny at the network. carlson's top producer was also fired monday. in 2017, like neff, one of carlson's top writers, resigned after it was revealed he had written deeply racist

remarks. for more we're joined by madeleine peltz who is the deputy director of rapid response at media matters for america. her two new pieces are headlined "with tucker carlson out, other fox extremists now have the spotlight" and "tucker carlson is out at fox news. here's a brief look at his hatred and conspiracy theories." welcome to democracy now! all of this, obviously, increased fox viewership. they did not take him off the air before. this comes right after this three quarters of a billion dollar settlement with dominion. talk about what you understand happened. >> it is difficult to oversee the impact this will have on the cable news universe in terms of what led to this stunning decision. there are a number of factors floating around in the air. media reporters have given

reports of the last 24 hours but i imagine that there was -- it has at least something to do with the abby grossberg lawsuit. you can see that on air his treatment of women, of the #metoo movement, speaking out about sexual harassment has been met with derision and mockery, so it would make a light of logical sense for that to be an attitude reflected behind the scenes. again, tucker carlson was a kingmaker at fox news, in the republican party, and the murdochs stood behind every single outrage cycle that happened as result of his on air racism. if we know one thing, it wasn't his on your commentary. and i think we will learn more in the coming days about what exactly happened behind the scenes. juan: could you expound about

his influence on the republican party? >> absolutely. i think you can see in how some of the senate nominees shook out in the 2022 midterms. he was a sealer force and driving the candidacy of j.d. vance. he has been a rallying point for the republican party's opposition -- under the biden administration, but under the trump administration he had this unique ability to speak to what was going on in the white house and influence via his primetime show. there were times when segments not only led to trump tweeting and direct response -- in direct response in real time, but also issuing directives for his administration via twitter. as you mentioned with the segment on greg abbott's pardon

and avid sending national guard troops -- abbott sending national guard troops to the u.s. border, those were driven by tucker carlson. in the past 6, 7 years, no one else has been able to observe that kind of influence over the republican party. it creates a major vacuum in the right-wing media ecosystem. amy: madeline peltz, before this was o'reilly who went down over sexual harassment and then you have tucker carlson. if you could talk about the other people. now there will be rotating hosts. but it seems anyone in that position increases the visibility of fox news that this is not a single issue of one man, however, white nationalists, racist, xenophobic he was. >> in terms of the sexual -- the alleged culture of sexual

harassment, this is an issue that extends back to the founding of fox news that from the very top, roger ailes, was forced out after it was revealed some women who worked under him described him as a rain of terror, the black -- sexual blackmailing, hiring a private investigators to quash their complaints. so it is part of a larger culture at fox news. in terms of the hour, in many ways tucker carlson got lucky. the 8:00 p.m. hour at fox news is an institution of itself largely because of the legacy of bill o'reilly. and tucker just stepped into those shoes, so he sort of had a built-in floor of an audience. that will continue with whoever takes over the 8:00 p.m. hour.

that said, the bench is very shallow. there are not a lot of people from where i'm sitting are in a position to step into this legacy hour. with that said, the digital right-wing media sphere is externally overcrowded and has a number of viral personalities that could come in from the outside. in the meantime, the rotating host model is something that they instituted for the 7:00 p.m. hour when martha mccallum was fired and they maintain rotating host i believe for over a year, at least a year. it could be a long time before someone steps up but within fox news, there is no one who can come close to the influence that tucker carlson has had over the last few years. juan: last night, donald trump had his first tv appearance since carlson's ouster and he

did it on newsmax, a right-wing rival of fox news. as we head into the 2024 election, is this a sign the will be a growing battle between these right-wing outlets? >> i think that newsmax is attempting to take advantage at the moment. it is the same thing that happened when there was backlash to the fox position, specifically the arizona call in the 2020 election. there was a slight bump in ratings for alternative right-wing news channels like newsmax and one american news. that is not something that has held. i think given newsmax's own volatility in the last few months, they're just trying to insert themselves into the headline of this massive story in media. i don't think that is something that is going to stick. i think donald trump's comments

on newsmax last night and his praise of tucker carlson in general shows the continued power that the network has, that this famously unrestrained figure former president did not bring down his most inflammatory commentary on fox news with tucker carlson but sort of staked out a wait and see position. so i think that is also telling. amy: madeline peltz, thank you for being with us, deputy director of rapid response at media matters. we will to your pieces "with tucker carlson out, other fox extremists now have the spotlight" and "tucker carlson is out at fox news. here's a brief look at his hatred and conspiracy theories." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. in addition to announcing his bid for reelection in 2024, president biden has signed an executive order establishing an

office of environmental justice within the white house. biden unveiled his plan at a ceremony in the rose garden friday just ahead of earth day. pres. biden: environmental justice will be the mission of the entire government, woven directly into how we work with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments. this is addressing gaps in science and technology. for example, there's a lot we still don't know about the quality of peoples wastewater or the air they are breathing. amy: environmental groups welcomed the announcement but cautioned biden remains a major supporter of fossil fuels, havingpproved illing projec on fedel land fter than tmp did ding his rst two years in office. for more, we are joined in santa fay, new mexico at the roundhouse, were that mexico -- new mexico legislature is house. we are joined by jade begay, director of policy and advocacy at the ndn collective. she is on the white house environmental justice advisory

council, but she's speaking to us today in personal capacity. she's a citizen of tesuque pueblo. we welcome you to democracy now! can you talk about this office that has been set up? and if you can comment on president biden announcing his campaign for reelection today. >> good morning, amy. great to be here. this entire executive order is really exciting. i am really excited about what it means for our tribes and moving as from an era of consultation to consent. i'm excited about what this means for strengthening our revelatory processes, which have impacts on the projects that you mentioned, the harmful projects that we are saying approved -- hopefully with this order, we will see revelatory process mean

more justice for our communities. as far as the office, we are excited that is happening. that has never been done before. it signals to us that environmental justice is not just a program or not just a proclamation, there is going to be real people working on this day in and day out in the white house, making sure there is accountability, making sure there is transparency, and making sure that there is real peace to this executive order. as far as the announcement around the reelection bid, i feel excited to motivate the people i work with because, really, we know what is at stake. i think as far as my own personal opinions go, there is one option here. juan: does this executive order,

from what you can tell, have any real or strong enforcement mechanisms? how would it, for instance, affect the exposures to toxins in the tribal communities where you are in the rio grande base? >> yeah, so it definitely does -- i kind of what to broaden out. so projects, as amy mentioned, there have been harmful projects approved by this administration. i think a couple of things can be true at one time. yes, those actions have been taken. also, the administration just took the strongest action it can take to embed environmental justice into the dna of the entire federal government. so now with this executive order, and this is the part i am really excited about, is that federal agencies have to think

about, analyze, do research on accumulative impacts for new projects and also their own operations. prior to this executive order, when a new project or a new infrastructure like a power plant or pipeline was proposed, the agency only had to do research or analysis on the pollution and emissions of their project in isolation, not accounting for all the emissions and pollution of the past or present. with this new order, that after take into account all pollution -- past, present, future -- and that is really going to lead to seeing some more justice and seeing less sacrifice zones, especially in my community. juan: in terms of the

response of some key republican leaders saying this is basically or government waste directed at this effort, your response? >> that is an interesting response. i've not really paid attention to what republicans are saying. the fact of the matter is, republicans are steadfast working on their hr one, this energy savings act, which is essentially trying to dismantle some of our bedrock environmental protections. when we really, especially frontline communities like the community i come from and the communities impacted first and worst by environmental injustice, need those regulations and policies strengthened.

and that is what this executive order does. amy: jade begay, thank you for being with us, director of policy and advocacy at the ndn collective. on the white house environmental justice advisory council, but -- speaking to us in her own capacity. she's a citizen of tesuque pueblo. we thank you so much for being with us from the roundhouse, the capitol building in santa fe, new mexico. and that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

♪ hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in new york. soldiers on both sides of the conflict in sudan promised to lay down their weapons to facilitate humanitarian efforts. they started firing at each other again within hours. officials with the world health

organization say more than 450 people have been killed in ten days of fighting.