from new york, this is democracy now! ♪ [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! in another unprecedented day in u.s. history, president trump has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he tried to overturn the 2020 election. we will speak to emory professor carol anderson. in georgia. >> the talk and indictment of

the conspiracy to deny rights was absolutely essential, foundational to the big lie was the erasure of votes of black peoples' votes in philadelphia, atlanta, detroit, milwaukee, and the erasure of votes from hispanic and indigenous and maricopa county. amy: then, we look at the crisis in niger a week after a military coup ousted the country's president. niger's new military leaders have just cut off military ties with france, its former colonial ruler. >> in view of france's casual attitude and situation, the national council for safeguarding the homeland has decided against the agreements.

amy: one of the leaders had received military training and met with a top u.s. officer in niger just last month. african officers trained by the u.s. military have now taken part in 11 coups in west africa since 2008. all that and more, coming up. ♪ amy: welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. former president donald trump has pleaded not guilty to four felony charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. trump entered the plea thursday in the same federal district court in washington, d.c. where more than 1000 of his supporters have faced criminal charges over the january 6, 2021 attack on the capitol. prosecutors led by special counsel jack smith requested a speedy trial, while trump's

legal team asked the magistrate judge for more time to review documents and evidence in the case. it is part of trump's legal strategy to delay the criminal cases against him until after the 2024 election. which he hopes he will win. trump's first pretrial hearing is set for august 28. in michigan, prosecutors have charged a third ally of president trump over an alleged plot to access and tamper with voting machines in a bid to help overturn joe biden's 2020 election victory. attorney stefanie lambert pleaded not guilty thursday to four criminal charges, including "undue possession of a voting machine" and conspiracy. in sudan, the united nations warns of violence between the army and the rival paramilitary rapid support forces has displaced nearly 4 million people since fighting broke out in april. nearly one million of those displaced have left sudan to seek refuge in other countries. of those who remain, more than 6

million, or around 13% of sudan's population are listed as one step away from famine. doctors report 70% of sudan's hospitals are not functioning. and on thursday, amnesty international warned extensive war crimes are being committed by all of sudan's warring parties, with civilians killed in both deliberate and indiscriminate attacks, and women and girls subjected to sexual violence. this is amnesty international's regional director for east africa, sarah jackson. >> the conflict in sudan is not getting even merely the kind of attention that the conflict in ukraine has. the humanitarian response has not been to the same level as well. nor has been the willingness of countries to receive sudanese who need to flee. amy: ukraine's navy says it has successfully used a pair of "sea drones" to strike a russian warship in the black sea. grainy video shared on social media by ukrainian officials appears to show one of the uncrewed vessels rapidly approaching an amphibious

russian landing ship before the feed cuts out. ukraine says about 100 russian sailors were aboard the warship when it was struck by high explosives, and that the ship was later seen listing to one side as it was towed back to port. russia's defense ministry claims it thwarted the overnight attack. at the united nations, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken on thursday accused russia of assaulting the global food system, saying hunger must not be "weaponized." blinken's remarks came after russia stepped up attacks on ukraine's agriculture and port facilities in the black sea seaa and on an inland port acros the danube river from romania, where a russian attack wednesday destroyed nearly 40,000 tons of grain. >> what has russia's response been to the outrage? mining port entrances. threatening to attack any vessel in the black sea no matter its flag, no matter its cargo.

amy: in the united kingdom, five activists with the environmental group greenpeace were arrested thursday after climbing on the roof of prime minister rishi sunak's mansion in northern england and draping his home in black fabric with the words "no new oil" painted in white. the peaceful action comes in response to sunak's approval of over 100 new licenses for oil and gas drilling in the north sea to maximize domestic extraction of fossil fuels. this is alex wilson with greenpeace speaking from sinak's mansion's roof. >> we are all here because rishi sunak has opened the door for a new drilling frenzy in the north sea while large parts of our world are literally on fire. this will be a disaster for the climate. it won't lower energy bills, it is not going to boost our energy security. the only people that are going to profit are the big oil companies. rishi needs to pick a side. amy: the international rights of nature tribunal has found mexico guilty of ecocide and ethnocide

over the mexican government's construction of a massive railway project running through the rain forest of the yucatan peninsula. the project, known as tren maya, has drawn grand opposition from local indigenous maya communities, environmentalists and archaeologists who say the railway will cause irreparable harm to biodiversity, sacred mayan sites and communities in the region. the rail project is spearheaded by the administration of president andres manuel lopez obrador who claims it will benefit tourism and expand access to transportation to local communities living in remote regions of southern mexico. in immigration news, a federal appeals court is temporarily allowing the biden administration to continue enforcing a measure that blocks migrants from seeking asylum at the southern border without first applying for protection in a country they passed through on their journey to the united states. a 9th circuit court of appeals panel ruled 2-1 in favor of biden's asylum ban saying the policy should remain in place while a lawsuit brought by immigration and human rights

groups is resolved in court. last month, the measure was deemed illegal by a separate federal court in california. a warning to our audience, the next stories contain descriptions of police violence. in minnesota, family members of 33-year-old ricky cobb ii are demanding justice after his killing by a state trooper during a traffic stop in minneapolis monday. three troopers pulled over cobb for allegedly having his taillights off. they refused to tell him why he should exit his vehicle, which he declined to do. as they tried to force him to exit, the car takes off and one officer fires a fatal shot into the vehicle. the troopers have been placed on administrative leave. minnesota governor tim walz said he assured cobb's family a thorough investigation would be undertaken. cobb was a father of 5. in mississippi, 6 white former

police officers called themselves the "gg -- goon squad" have pleaded guilty to federal civil rights violations for raiding a home and torturing 2 black men earlier this year, including handcuffing, beating and tasering them. the officers also shouted racial slurs at the men. malik shabazz, a lawyer for the two survivors, said the guilty pleas were "historic for justice against rogue police torture and police brutality" and that all the defendants should expect to be sentenced to time behind bars. meanwhile in louisiana, an ex-trooper was acquitted of violating the civil rights of black motorist aaron larry bowman. former trooper jacob brown struck bowman at least 18 times, as he was pinned to the ground, and repeatedly said "i am not

resisting." florida governor ron desantis is drawing fire for his increasingly violent rhetoric on the campaign trail as he seeks the republican party's nomination for president. on sunday, desantis told a crowd at a new hampshire campaign event that members of mexican drug cartels at the u.s.-mexico border would be "shot stone cold dead." the governor also said this about members of the federal bureaucracy. >> we are going to have all of these people, we are going to start slitting throats on day 1. amy: on thursday, the union representing men's professional basketball players sounded the alarm over a $50,000 donation made by the orlando magic to a super pac supporting desantis's campaign. the nba players association said in a statement, "the magic's donation does not represent player support for the recipient." the orlando magic is owned by the devos family, prominent

republicans who include betsy devos. texas a&m university has agreed to pay $1 million dollars to settle a lawsuit brought by a black journalism professor whose offer of a tenure-track position was rescinded after a conservative website highlighted her work on diversity, equity and inclusion. kathleen mcilroy -- mcelroy says she was offered a tenured position as director of texas a&m's journalism school, and says throughout the process she felt judged because of her race and gender. in january, a new texas law is set to take effect banning programs and training that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. texas a&m president m. katherine banks resigned in the wake of the scandals, calling the negative press they generated "a distraction." this comes after another texas a&m professor, an opioid expert, was temporarily suspended after

a student accused her of disparaging dan patrick during a lecture. and in tennessee, two black democratic lawmakers who were expelled by a republican supermajority from the tennessee state house of representatives have won reelection. justin pearson of memphis and justin jones of nashville were expelled in april for joining peaceful protests against gun violence inside the tennessee general assembly as thousands rallied to demand gun control in the wake of the covenant elementary school shooting in nashville. both lawmakers were quickly reappointed to their former seats ahead of thursday's special elections when they were permanently reelected. this is state representative justin jones speaking after his victory. >> today, elections is a reminder that their attack on democracy will not happen.

we are going to stand up and fight back. we are going to form a multigenerational movement to transform our state forward to protect kids and not guns. we knew that they would spend so much money trying to buy this election. amy: to see all of our interviews with justin jones, go to democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. coming up in another unprecedented day in u.s. history, former president donald trump pleaded not guilty to charges he tried to overturn the 2020 election. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "is this all there is" by los lobos.

this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. former president donald trump pleaded not guilty thursday to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss. prosecutors led by special counsel jack smith requested a speedy trial while trump's legal team asked the magistrate judge for more time to review documents and evidence in the case. it is part of his legal strategy to delay the criminal cases against him until after the 2024 election, which he hopes to win and then pardon himself. his first pretrial hearing is set for august 28. trump spoke after the arraignment. >> when you look at what is happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent. this was never supposed to happen in america. this is the persecution of the

first amendment leading by very substantial numbers in the republican primary and leading biden by a lot. so if you cannot beat them, you persecute them or prosecute them. we cannot let this happen in america. amy: going forward the legal proceedings in this case will be presided over by u.s. district judge tanya chutkan, an obama appointee who has issued some of the toughest sentences for the january 6 rioters. often going beyond with the prosecutors asked for. the judge is black as i many of those now prosecuting trump. the manhattan d.a. alvin bragg, new york ag letitia james, fulton county da fani willis. they have all received racist threats. meanwhile, fulton county sheriff patrick labat, who is also black, said tuesday the former president would not receive any special treatment if trump is indicted in georgia where he is being investigated for election

interference. "it doesn't matter your status, we have mugshots ready for you." a key part of the election interference charges trump faces relate to a civil war era rights law that protects the right of citizens to have their votes counted. for more, we go to atlanta where we are joined by carol anderson, professor at emory university, author of many books. welcome back to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. it why don't you respond to the overall indictment and president appearance yesterday in the washington, d.c. court pleading not guilty. carol: the indictment was a long time coming. it reaffirmed the belief in the rule of law, which it looks like for so long that he would be able to once again escape the

consequences, being held accountable for his assault on american democracy. and so, seeing him there, watching the sketches as they were coming through, listening to the journalists talking about what was happening in the courtroom, it was like finally, finally, finally. amy: and so, talk about what legal analysts are now describing is a very elegant, streamlined series of charges. only four. they don't include seditious conspiracy or insurrection. talk about the significance of each one. carol: what jack smith has laid out is the conspiracy to defraud the u.s. government, the conspiracy to basically subvert a political, legal process for

the united states. the one that really attracts me is the conspiracy against rights, which is the right to vote. because underlining the big lie was the big lie of voter fraud. that lie of voter fraud was targeted at communities, at cities that have sizable black and minority populations. it was trying to delegitimize the votes of those american citizens. this is so streamlined because there are six unindicted co-conspirators, but they are not on the charge itself. it is the united states of america versus donald j. trump. that is to make sure that everything is clean, smooth, there are none of these pieces like we have with mar-a-lago with multiple defendants with classified documents, that this thing can go through so that the

claims of we are having an en ormous amount of discovery we have to go through, of the documents and witness testimonies that the prosecutor has amassed. so much of that, they already have from a january 6 committee hearings. what is new is mike pence, who will before the grand jury and told about his conversations with trump. amy: i want to talk about georgia, where you are a professor at emory university in atlanta. it was mentioned something like 48 times. i am talking about this federal indictment, not what is happening right now. a grand jury is meeting today once again in atlanta and those charges might come down anytime from the da. at being mentioned 48 times in the federal indictment and then

of course michigan mentioned scores of times as well. talk about the significance of what happened in georgia and how that relates to the federal issue. carol: so georgia was targeted hot and heavy and hard by the trump regime. you have that infamous phone call from trump to brad raffensperger who was the secretary of state where trump is saying, all i need is 11,780 votes. just find me 11,000 votes. raffensperger pushing back saying the data don't support that. we don't have those numbers. and trump is just demanding that raffensperger overturn the will of the voters here in georgia and just conjure up some votes unplug a number in their that says that trump won the 16 electoral votes out of georgia. when that did not work, they

also had the fake elector scheme where you have the legal electors are already meeting in the statehouse as the law requires. then, the fake collectors come in and sneak into the statehouse on december 14 and they actually find -- sign a document that says that they are the electors from the state of georgia and that they then cast their 16 electoral college votes for donald j. trump. and then, they send that document to the federal judge, to the president of the senate, and to the head of the national archives, giving the aura that this is legitimate when it is actually illegitimate. and then, you have mark meadows coming into georgia at an accounting center as a recount is happening over absentee ballots. hard, hot and heavy pressure on georgia to overturn the will of the voters.

let me be really clear about the will of the voters. 90% of black voters in georgia voted for joseph biden. almost 70% of hispanic voters in georgia voted for joseph biden. more than 60% of asian-american voters in georgia voted for joseph biden. this attempt to wipe out those votes is wiping out the votes of sizable blocks of minority voters who did not vote for donald j. trump. amy: i want to talk about the issue of violence because donald trump's defenders are continually saying, thinking of people like kevin mccarthy, the house speaker, saying he is just being accused of thought crimes, things he thought or said and anyone can say or think things. but this is the atlantic journalist who is pointing out

on social media, "the indictment makes clear that donald trump and his accomplices plan to seize power by force and maintain that power by mass murder american citizens by their own military. the indictment says also when co-conspirator 2 acknowledged to the senior advisor that no court would support's advisor, the supreme court told them you are going to cause riots in the streets. co-conspirator 2 responded there had previously been points in the nation's history where violence was necessary to protect the republic." if you could respond to that and also the significance of mark meadows, the chief of staff, who just mentioned, who might well have flipped and the working with jack smith. carol: absolutely. you have not only eastman but jeffrey clark of the department of justice being warned that

this attempt to override the election, overturn the will of the voters would lead to folks being out in the streets, would lead to riots. the response was, that is what the insurrection act is for. there was a willingness to use the u.s. military against american citizens who were protesting for their rights, protesting, fighting for this democracy. protesting because the will of the voters had been overturned by a cobol of co-conspirators. a cobol who was in league with donald j. trump. and so, that willingness to use violence to overturn democracy, it just tells you how deeply embedded this drive was to keep him in power. and, the disregard they had for the lives of american citizens

who withstood a pandemic, a deadly pandemic, to go and vote, who understood that democracy was on the line and were willing to do what they needed to do. in terms of violence, i also have to talk about rudy giuliani coming down here to georgia for three legislative hearings where he spews, he and his team spew a bevy of lies about dead people voting, but particularly about shame off and ruby freeman, two black poll workers, that rudy giuliani equated and made equivalent with passing around usb ports as if they were heroin , as if it was heroin and cocaine. linking black election workers with drug dealers.

and then those two women received death threats that are so horrific that it causes ruby freeman, the fbi warns her she has to leave her home for protection. that is the kind of violence that this kind of cobol was willing to generate in order to keep donald trump in power against the will of the voters. that is why georgia is so prominent in this discussion. amy: i want to talk about what has just happened, the latest news with rudy giuliani. in recent weeks, trump's lawyer, rudy giuliani, said he will not contest, so he is admitting that he lied and will not contest that he made false statement about those two georgia workers in the aftermath of the 2020 election. ruby freeman and shaye moss, a mother and daughter, are suing

rudy giuliani. the georgia election board found giuliani's statements to be false and unsubstantiated. this is california congress member adam schiff introducing video of giuliani's remarks during the hearing. >> i would like to show you some of the statements rudy giuliani made in a second hearing. a week after the video clip from state farm arena was first circulated, mr. giuliani and president trump. i want to advise viewers that these statements are completely false and also deeply disturbing. >> taped earlier in the day, ruby freeman and shaye freeman moss and one other gentleman started passing around usb ports as if they were heroin or

cocaine. it is obvious to anyone who is a criminal investigator or prosecutor, they are engaged in illegal activity again that day. that is a week ago and they are still walking around georgia lying. amy: the black former state election worker also testified before the house selection committee. this is shaye moss being questioned by adam schiff. >> how did you first become aware that rudy giuliani was accusing you and your mother of a crime? >> i was at work like always. the former chief, mr. jones, asked me to come to his office. when i went to his office, the former director was in there.

they showed me a video on their computer. it was just like a very short clip of us working at state farm. it had someone on the video talking over the video just saying that we were doing things that we were not supposed to do, just lying throughout the video. that is when i first found out about it. >> one of the videos we just watched, mr. giuliani accused you and your mother of passing some sort of usb drive to each other. what is your mom actually handing you? >> a ginger mint. amy: there, you have shaye moss. the way their lives were turned upside down, men coming to their

homes demanding they come out, talk about the significance of this. and now, it has showed that giuliani is admitting that he lied. carol: right. this is the kind of terror that is reminiscent of what happened during reconstruction that led to the kkk act that trump is charged with. because that kind of terror was the intimidation of black people who were exercising their right to vote. the intimidation of black people who believe they were american citizens. the intimidation of black people who were engaged in the electoral process. this is what was happening based on a lie where giuliani admits that he lied. even worse, i have to say is that these lies about election fraud, about massive rampant voter fraud becomes the basis

for the voter suppression laws that many states like georgia then put in place. so you have got an incredible array of laws in place. pieces of those laws dealing with absentee ballots, dealing with drop boxes, dealing with mobile voting units, dealing with places like state farm that fulton county was able to use to deal with the fact that it had to close 90 polling places. this was a way to provide a way for people to be able to vote. the state using rudy giuliani's and donald trump's big lied to justify shutting down the ballot boxes to minority communities because the vast majority of ballot boxes shut down were in the atlanta metropolitan area. it went from over 100 drop boxes to fewer than 25 drop boxes.

amy: i wanted to ask you about the people involved in these cases. the judge in the new d.c. case is black. now, many of those prosecuting trump are black. they have all received racist threats. and then, you have patrick labat, the phone county sheriff saying he is going to get a mugshot if he is charged in our court. can you talk about the significance of this and specifically fani willis and labat. carol: this is why you have this massive pushback about trump cannot get a fair trial in d.c. he cannot get a fair trial in manhattan. he cannot get a fair trial in fulton county because of the

blackness of those places and because black people and black elected officials are seen as illegitimate. think about trump with obama. that was an attack on obama's legitimacy. legitimacy is an american citizen, as an elected political official. when blackness becomes illegitimate. i think about mo brooks, the congressman out of alabama, who said that if we only count the legal votes, then trump would be in his second term. those legal votes are white people's votes. the illegal votes are those from african-americans. and so, therefore, folks like fani willis, like judge chutkan, folks like alvin bragg are not legal, not legitimate so they can be discounted.

so when you get a charge that says i want a change of venue from d.c. to west virginia, that is sending the signal about the illegitimacy of black people as american citizens. this, again, is what happened after the civil war where the ku klux klan rose up and said the a's are not -- and said these are not american citizens. we can do to them whatever we want. that is what you are seeing replicated here in the 21st century. amy: i understand there is a lot being made of all trump wants to do at this point. he has made history every time here in now the third indictment and we are expected to see the forth any day now in atlanta. is delay these trials so that if he were to become president, he could be pardoned. a president can only pardon on

federal crimes. you have got fani willis in atlanta, that is state. if you can talk about what we are about to see in atlanta, the jury now meeting today. carol: one of the things that fani willis has been clear on is we are ready to go. that means for me, that an indictment is coming soon. fani willis does not play. she does not play. you can expect to see a really crisp, clean trial with locked in evidence. if he is convicted here in georgia, if an indictment comes down and he is convicted, then it means he won't be able to pardon himself. part of what i also want to push on is the assumption that trump will win the next election.

i saw a recent poll that 60% of americans do not like donald trump. what that means then is that we have the power as american citizens to make sure that this man who attacked american democracy, who attacked the foundations of the rule of law, does not regain power and have the ability to insert himself in a place where we have an autocracy, where even the memory of a democracy will be abolished. that we have the power to stop this thing by registering to vote and by getting out to vote and ensuring that donald trump is not the next president of the united states. amy: carol anderson, i want to thank you for being with us. author of many books. coming up, we look at niger a

week after a military coup ousted the country's president. one of the leaders has received u.s. military training, had met with a top u.s. officer at the u.s. drone base in niger just last month. u.s. trained officers have conducted something like 11 coups in africa over the last decade or so. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now! we turn now to niger a week after a military coup ousted president mohamed bazoum. the leader of niger's new military justa has vowed to defy any attempts to restore the ousted president to power. ecowas, a bloc of west african countries, have threatened to take military action unless the coup is reversed by sunday, august 6.

meanwhile, the leaders of burkina faso, mali and guinea have all warned against foreign intervention in niger. on thursday, president biden issued his first statement on the crisis saying “i call for president bazoum and his family to be immediately released, and for the preservation of niger's hard-earned democracy." bazoum is a close ally of the united states and france. the u.s. has over 1,000 troops in niger where the united states also runs a major drone base. earlier today, niger's new leaders announced it would end military cooperation with france which ruled niger until 1960. on thursday, thousands of supporters of the coup rallied to decry international sanctions being placed on niger which is one of the poorest nations in the world despite being a leading exporter of uranium. >> people are coming. the people are coming. we are going to demonstrate to all of those who are taking

unpopular and inhumane measures in niger, which is in the process of freeing itself from the oco colonization. amy: we are joined by two guests. olayinka ajala is a senior lecturer in politics and international relations, leeds beckett university. his new piece for the conversation is titled, "what caused the coup in niger? an expert outlines three driving factors." in new jersey, we are joined by nick turse is an investigative journalist and contributing writer for the intercept. he recently revealed that one of the leaders of the coup in niger, brigadier general moussa salaou barmou, was trained by the u.s. military and recently met with the head of u.s. army special operations command, lieutenant general jonathan braga, at a u.s. drone base in niger. african officers trained by the u.s. military have now taken part in 11 coups in west africa since 2008. we are going to start there. if you can explain what has

taken place in the last week and particularly, the u.s. connection to the coup leaders. nick: thank you so much for having me on. as you said, the united states has trained a number of coup leaders in west africa over the last years. they have had a tremendous amount of security assistance. they have poured tremendous amount of security assistance dollars into the region, they have built a plethora of small u.s. outposts. you mentioned one of them. they built up military in the region at the expense of building up civilian institutions and civil society. this u.s. security assistance

and counterterrorism paradigm really have not been successful over this time. back in 2002, 2003, when security systems in niger first began, the state department had just had nine terrorist attacks in sub-saharan africa. last year, in just niger, and its neighbors burkina faso and mali, the pentagon counted more than 2700. there has been a tremendous amount of security assistance to the region but the mentors have all gone in the wrong way. amy: if you can talk about the significance of that u.s. connection. on the one hand, you have president biden saying he wants democracy to be assured, although he did not interesting s -- interestingly say the

president must be restored. the interest of the u.s. connection and those involved with the coup are couching this as an anti-colonialist move. olayinka: the u.s. have a significant interest in the country. you mentioned the fact that niger is the largest producer of uranium in the world. most of these natural resources are mined by french companies. the citizens of the country are feeling a lot of military. the drone base, lots of military formations around the country without seeing economy growth. this is one of the reasons we are seeing quite a large protest in support of this. the role of the u.s. and france

is the lack of economy development with an increase in military development is one of the reasons why they are supporting the coup. amy: can you talk about who is out in the street and also the u.s.-russia connection? you had some out in the streets after the coup shouting "putin, putin." but who is going out and who is staying home? olayinka: sticking with people on the ground in niger, a lot of people who are supporters and lovers of democracy are afraid to go out because of the large military presence. what i'm hearing on the ground is that in this almost equal in terms of people who support and those who are against. most of the people are the ones

who are in support. it is quite streaky. we should not be full by the videos. a large number of nigerians are still in support of democracy. amy: talk about the formation. they are threatening to move into niger to restore the president. meanwhile, the leaders of other countries have warned against the use of foreign intervention. burkina faso's interim leader, who took power in a coup in september, made international headlines for marching to moscow. he criticized what he called imperialist neocolonialism. >> the questions my generation

is asking on the following. it is that we do not understand how africa, with so much wealth on our soil, with generous nature, water, sunshine and abundance, how africa is today the poorest continent. africa is a hungry continent and how come there heads of state all over the world -- these are the questions we're asking ourselves and we have no answers. we have the opportunity to forge new relationships and i hope these relationships can be the best ones to give our people a better future. my generation also asks me to say that because of this poverty, they are forced across the ocean to try to reach europe and die in the ocean. but soon, they will come to our palaces. as far as what concerns burkina faso today, for more than eight years, we have been confronted with the most barbaric and the most violent form of imperialist neocolonialism. slavery continues to impose

itself on us. our predecessors taught us one thing. a slave who cannot a few -- accuses on folk does not deserve to be pitied. the people of burkina faso have decided to fight, to fight against terrorism in order to relaunch their development. amy: that is burkina faso's interim leader who is wearing a hat harkening back to previous burkina faso leader who was assassinated. if you can talk about what he is saying in the it is also interesting this is happening at the russia-africa summit in st. petersburg that putin addressed. far fewer leaders from africa came them last time. nick: that's right. i actually spoke with a few sources of mine in burkina faso over the last couple of days. i have heard from some that that speech really resonated a great

deal, the anti-colonialist vent of it. they thought it was a strong speech. there is a great deal of resistance to french neocolonialism that the french colonialists have there. i also have heard from people that they see this situation in breaking a -- burkina faso as degrading significantly in terms of both the terrorist violence and uptake in kidnapping and also in crackdowns of freedom of expression, freedom of the press. you have both of these things going on there. there are some that really support the government and believe there is more behind this rhetoric, and others who say that this is a smokescreen and it is just entrenching the

power of a military that really has no interest in fighting against colonialism, neocolonialism, but more interested in entrenching its own power and using that rhetoric for its on benefit. amy: so if you can talk more about the u.s. training that goes on of african leaders, just talk more about secretary of state blinken just having visited niger and the significance of this drone base, how the u.s. uses it as a launching pad in the world. nick: it is located in the central north of the country. this is really the linchpin of the u.s. military outpost which has proliferated over the last several years in west africa. this is a surveillance hub used

for antiterrorist activities. the drones are launched from here including armed drones. it was built at a price tag of over 110 million dollars and maintained each year at a price tag of about $20 million to $30 million. it is a significant facility. the umbrella organization for u.s. military on the continent, they often claim these are not u.s. bases, that the u.s. does not have bases in africa outside of djibouti. i traveled to its gates and i observed it from the ground and from the air. this is a substantial military base. there is no other word for it.

i think the united states is now doing everything it can to make sure that it can continue operations there. you mentioned secretary blinken. he and the state department as a whole try to stay away from calling this a coup when it is quite obviously one. i think they want to keep their options open. one sake who is declared, the u.s. is supposed to stop most of its security systems. there are ways around that, there are loopholes. i reported recently it may bring mali a u.s. led there. the u.s. finds a way it needs to but niger is so central to the counterterrorism paradigm and security interest in the region. i think they will do everything they can to keep air base201 in

action and as much u.s. military presence there as possible. amy: it is interesting that it is guinea, burkina faso and mali warning about intervention against ecowas. they have not spoken out. do you think that has emboldened the justa in niger to take over? and what would an ecowas intervention look like and how they are seen in africa? olayinka: absolutely. that is what i mention in a piece which i wrote earlier in the week where i stated that one of the reasons for this to was because ecowas did not do anything significant to deter other countries, the militaries

from other countries from taking power. when the coos in -- coups and the other countries happened, nothing else was done. we need to put this in context. one reason why niger is quite different in addition to the country being allied to the u.s., to france, is also the fact that new guinea has bought out seven other african countries. this is why it is more different than the other three countries. i think a sense of what ecowas is trying to do, the interrogations have returned to ecowas without any significant progress.

this tells us that nothing has been made in terms of progress or persuading the justa to step down. the deadline is sunday to have the power over or to have use of force against them. we don't know how this is going to play out but it is going to be very bloody. the spokesman for ecowas said it was a very last option, that any military attack would be very significant because the leaders of the justa in other countries are saying any attack on new guinea would be an attack on them all. ecowas has to tread very carefully because it is a very tricky situation for everyone. amy: and the role of your country, nigeria, africa's most

populous country, oil-rich nation, with is its threatening right now? olayinka: it is really interesting because niger is a very important ally to nigeria. as an ally, it is very keen not to lose in this fight because a substantial gain has been made in the last couple of years. they don't want these to be reversed. in case of the presence of nigeria, there are very strong statements against the two not only in nigeria, but across the country. -- coup. the chairman of ecowas kept

mentioning coup even before this happened. this is related to what happened than the other three countries which nigeria feels was a loss of an opportunity. perhaps this would not have happened in niger. amy: finally, what do you think as an american reporter on africa, what is the american press, and overall, the press missing when it comes to understanding what is happening here and what can happen? nick: i think a lot of times, we are missing the context on this. the one thing that released it out to me in the washington post yesterday, they published an op-ed by the deposed head of state in niger. he talked about it being bashing of democracy.

when i was there earlier this year, i did not find the most democratic state. you will see there are tremendous amounts of uses of the citizenry there. the military that we have been backing for years has committed a tremendous amount of atrocities and this has built a great deal of ill will within the military itself and within the civilian population. i think what is missing is the type of context, the understanding of what pumping all of this money into the security apparatus in there has met for the people. -- meant for the people. amy: we are going to have to leave it there. we will continue to follow things closely in niger. we will link to your recent pieces.

we thank you so much for being with us. senior lecturer in politics and international relations from leads becky university. and we will link to your piece.