09/19/23 09/19/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> just a few minutes ago, i had a great pleasure of speaking to seven americans who are now free. free from their imprisonment or detention in iran, out of iran, out of prison, and now back to be reunited with their loved

ones. amy: five u.s. citizens jailed in iran have arrived back in the united states after washington and tehran agreed to a prisoner swap that involved the unfreezing of $6 billion in iranian assets. we will get the latest and talk about the protest movement in iran a year after the death of mahsa amini. then we look at how the u.s. helped pakistan get an imf bailout with a secret arms deal for ukraine. >> based on secret documents from both the american and pakistani side, we can report u.s. pressure the pakistanis to begin producing weapons for the ukraine war effort and the pakistanis asked united states help them to get an imf loan. that emergency loan was created in part by the fund from the weapon sales. amy: we will speak to the intercept's ryan grim about pakistan as well as the shutdown showdown on capitol hill. will house speaker kevin

mccarthy's standoff with far right republican congressmembers lead to a shutdown of the federal government? and here in new york, 149 climate protesters were arrested monday after they shut down the federal reserve in a major act of civil disobedience. >> the reason is the fed is the one institution that has the power to regulate the banks that are financing oil, gas, and coal projects. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. canadian prime minister justin trudeau has publicly accused the indian government of assassinating hardeep singh nijjar, a prominent supporter of -- sikh leader and a canadian

citizen. in june, nijjar was shot dead outside a sikh temple in the city of surrey by two masked gunmen who escaped in a waiting car. his murder sparked widespread fear across canada's large sikh community. three years before his killing, india's government designated nijjar a terrorist. on monday, trudeau blamed india's government for orchestrating his assassination. >> any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a canadian citizen on canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty. it is contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open, and democratic societies conduct themselves. amy: trudeau reportedly raised the assassination with the indian prime minister narendra modi as well as president biden. on monday, canadian foreign minister melanie joly said she

had expelled in just top intelligence official in canada. in response, india expelled a senior canadian diplomat. india has rejected trudeau's charges calling them absurd and politically motivated. climate scientists are sounding the alarm over record-low levels of sea ice off the coast of antarctica ahead of the start of spring in the southern hemisphere. sea ice helps to prevent the rapid flow of ice from antarctica's glaciers into the ocean, which can drive global sea level rise. satellite data show 930,000 fewer square miles of sea-ice extent surrounding antarctica compared to the september average, far below any previous winter level. walter meier, a researcher at the national snow and ice data center, told the bbc, "it's so far outside anything we've seen, it's almost mind-blowing." here in new york, police arrested at least 149 climate

protesters. activists are demanding banks stop funding coal, oil, and gas projects was not more protests are planned for today. in massachusetts, peacefully occupying the office of governor maura healey, they demand an phaseout of fossil fuels. >> it is going to be hard. we know that. but how much harder is going to be the longer we wait? we have already waited too long. the people in power now are the ones who need to take action now. stop passing the box. stop pushing it down the line. we only have a few years left until it is too late. amy: we will have more on the climate protest later in the broadcast. a minnesota judge has dismissed criminal charges against three indigenous water protectors who were arrested while protesting at the construction site of enbridge's line 3 pipeline in 2021.

the three women -- winona laduke, tania aubid, dawn goodwin -- were arrested on the banks of the mississippi river on ceded anishinaabe land as they sang, danced, and prayed near construction crews. in a landmark opinion delivered monday, aitkin county judge leslie metzen wrote the women were exercising their rights to free speech and to freely express their spiritual beliefs. the judge dismissed the charges against them in the interests of justice she said, including "to criminalize their behavior would be the crime." five u.s. citizens released from prison in iran monday following a rare prisoner swap agreement between the united states and tehran have landed in the u.s.. they were freed after the u.s. unfroze $6 billion of iran's oil revenue and released five iranians imprisoned in the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken spoke to the five americans after their release. >> i can tell you it was for

them, for me an emotional conversation. it is easy in the work we do every day sometimes to get lost in the obstructions of foreign-policy and relations of other countries. and forgetting the human element that is at the heart of everything that we do. amy: we'll have more on iran after headlines. here in new york, the 78th session of the united nations general assembly got underway monday with an urgent call to action on the environment. u.n. secretary-general antonio guterres said nations need to urgently to end the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. he also called for a global rescue plan to meet the u.n.'s 17 sustainable development goals, including the elimination of extreme poverty and malnutrition. >> epic human rights violation.

millions of people are starving. amy: heads of state from at least 145 countries are attending the u.n. general assembly this week. conspicuously absent are the leaders of four of the five permanent members of the u.n. security council -- china, russia, france, and the united kingdom. president biden is devoting a substantial portion of his speech today to advocate for increased support for ukraine. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is attending the general assembly for the first time since russia's invasion in early 2022. he will then head to washington, d.c., where he will meet with resident buying that will not give a joint session of congress address. -- president biden but will not

give a joint session of congress address. "the new york times" reports a deadly september 6 strike on a crowded marketplace in eastern ukraine was the result of an errant ukrainian air defense missile and not a russian attack as was widely first reported. "the times" cited evidence, including missile fragments, satellite imagery, witness accounts and social media posts, that strongly suggests the catastrophic strike was the result of a ukrainian radar-guided surface-to-air missile that went astray. at least 15 civilians died. 30 more were injured. meanwhile, china's foreign minister has begun a four-day trip to russia. the visit by top diplomat wang yi to moscow comes after he met with white house officials in malta over the weekend. on monday, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken met with china's vice president on the sidelines of the u.n. general assembly ahead of a possible high-level u.s.-china summit later this fall.

mexican journalist emilio gutiérrez soto has been granted asylum in the united states after 15 years of fighting for protection. gutiérrez and his son fled mexico in 2008 after receiving death threats over gutiérrez's reporting on corruption within the mexican military in the northern state of chihuahua. they were detained for seven months, eventually released to live in the united states while an asylum appeal was pending. democracy now! spoke with gutiérrez by phone in 2017 as he was jailed at a u.s. detention center in el paso, texas, awaiting possible deportation. >> well, if we are deported, that obviously implies death. why? because ice, under the department of homeland security of the united states, by law, must give a report to the

immigration authorities of mexico and the consulate. and the immigration officials in mexico have no credibility. it's impossible to trust in them. to the contrary, many of those officials, many personnel at the consulate or immigration service, are caught up with organized crime. amy: in labor news, striking auto workers have expressed skepticism over president biden's comments siding with the uaw. united auto workers president shawn fain has said he will not endorse biden's 2024 re-election run as the union "expects actions, not words." several democratic members of congress have joined the picket line in recent days, including house minority leader hakeem jeffries who made a trip to detroit sunday to express solidarity. meanwhile, donald trump said he plans to skip the second republican presidential debate next week in california to speak

in detroit. trump has accused the current uaw leadership of failing its members and appealed to the support of auto workers. uaw president fain has also been critical of trump. this all comes as the auto workers strike has entered a fifth day. this is uaw member stu jackson speaking from a picket line in wayne, michigan. >> we don't want to wait four years to get it, we need it now. that is the way they have been doing this. we don't need bonus checks, we need cost-of-living allowance. we need to keep up with what is going on in the economy. amy: and more than 60 members of australia's parliament from across the political spectrum have written an open letter urging president biden to halt his efforts to prosecute julian assange. the wikileaks founder, who's an australian citizen, faces

espionage and hacking charges that could see him sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for publishing classified u.s. military and diplomatic cables, including evidence of war crimes. assange has been held in london's infamous belmarsh prison since 2019 awaiting possible extradition to the u.s. in their open letter, the australian lawmakers call on the u.s. to abandon its prosecution of assange, writing -- "it serves no purpose, it is unjust, and we say clearly -- as friends should always be honest with friends -- that the prolonged pursuit of mr. assange wears away at the substantial foundation of regard and respect that australians have for the justice system of the united states of america." the letter appears as an ad in "the washington post." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now!'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: five americans released by iran as part of a prisoner swap have arrived back in the united states. they were released on monday and then flown qatar, which helped broker the deal in which the united states agreed to drop charges against five iranians in the united states. in addition, the biden administration cleared the way for iran to access $6 billion of its own money that had been frozen in a bank in south korea. as part of the deal, the money will only be available to iran to purchase food, medicine, and other non-sanctionable items. three of the prisoners released by iran have been identified publicly -- siamak namazi, who had been detained since 2015, morad tahbaz, an

environmentalist jailed since 2018, and emad shargi, who was also arrested in 2018. the names of the other two have not been publicly released. the five prisoners flew on monday from tehran to qatar. they were joined by two other americans who had been barred from leaving iran. secretary of state tony blinken praised the deal. >> just a few minutes ago, i had the great pleasure of speaking to seven americans who are now free. free from their imprisonment or detention in iran, out of iran, out of prison, and now in do ha on the way back to the united states to be reunited with their loved ones. five of the seven had been imprisoned in iran, some for years, two others prevented from leaving iran. i spoke to them after they

landed in doha. i can tell you it was for them, for me and emotional conversation. it is easy and the work we do every day sometimes to get lost in the distractions of foreign policy and relations with other countries and forgetting the human element that is at the heart of everything we do. but today, their freedom, the freedom of these americans, for so long unjustly imprisoned and detained in iran, means some pretty basic things. it means husband and wives, fathers and children, grandparents can't hug each other again, -- can hug each other again, can be with each other again. it is a day i am grateful for.

amy: of the five iranians who had their charges dropped, two have asked to stay in the united states. another two have returned to iran and the fifth is going to an undisclosed country to be with family. some republican politicians have criticized the deal. texas congressmember tom cotton described the deal as "shameful" and accused the biden administration of "paying ransom to the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism." that is arkansas senator tom cotton. but family members of the detained iran-americans praised the biden administration's efforts. in a statement, emad shargi's sister neda said -- "this is my brother, not an abstract policy. we are talking about human lives. there is nothing partisan about saving the lives of innocent americans, and today should be a moment of american unity as we welcome them home."

the prisoner swap also came as the biden administration announced new sanctions on iran's former president mahmoud ahmadinejad and iran's ministry of intelligence for their involvement in what the biden administration described as "wrongful detentions." the prisoner swap took place two days after the death of 22-year-old mahsa amini, who died in police custody on september 16, 2022, just over a year ago, after she was arrested by iran's so-called morality police, accused of not wearing her hijab properly. her death sparked months of protests in iran and a severe crackdown by iranian authorities. rights groups estimate 500 people were killed and more than 18,000 arrested over the past year. ahead of the anniversary, iranian police detained mahsa amini's father and warned him against commemorating his daughter's death. to talk more about the u.s.-iran prisoner swap and u.s.-iran relations, we are joined by negar mortazav. she is an award-winning american journalist, host of the iran podcast and senior fellow at the center for international policy. welcome back to democracy now!

why don't you start off by talking about the significance of this trade, of the deal that was made, and then we will talk about the protests. >> good morning. let me make a very quick personal note, this is also very emotional for iranian-americans. i cannot travel back to my homeland specifically because of this issue. this could be me or family members. actually no one of the former prisoners personally. this coming back is very emotional scene for most iranian americans to watch. as far as the policy, i think this is just an example of successful diplomacy between two rivals. it was a long process, a very complex process. iranian and american diplomats did not even meet in person for negotiations.

but there was very heavy mediation involved i trusted partners on both sides were diplomats with literally shuttle between hotels and essentially were able to choreograph that whole process of the unfreezing of iranian assets and also the freeing of the five each prisoners on both sides. juan: what do you make of the timing of this release? coming on the eve of the united nations general assembly meeting just as the president of iran comes to new york, what do you make of that? >> i'm not sure how much of this was time to, although it is a pattern that went to mystic issues and problems or i would say repression and dissent increases, iran has been trying to do more outreach and more

sort of external diplomatic achievements. and this could be one of those. but remember, this was about a year of intense negotiations, about eight rounds of negotiations that i talked about. it was very much reliant on a financial transaction. this big sum of money, 6 billion dollars, that was sitting in south korea for years, had to be transferred to europe, be converted, and then go -- be transferred to a bank in qatar the government will have oversight. both sides wanted this to be done as soon as possible, and that money was transferred finally last week so these were the steps that came right after. i would not be surprised the iranians were trying to time it with the arrival of the president, the iranian president into the u.s. in new york for the general assembly. juan: this $6 billion which some

republicans in the u.s. are calling a ransom is actually iranian money that was frozen by the united states sanctions. can you talk about the sanctions and its impact on the iranian economy and on the people of iran? >> yes. it is essentially ransom paid out of their own pockets. someone was comparing this to the bank and trying to take hostage and asking to withdraw money out of their own account, essentially. this was money that was frozen i south korea oil revenue at the request of the u.s. or essentially in fear of u.s. sanctions or punishment, and the u.s. basically green lit south korea or allow them to unfreeze this money. but the law for sanctions hasn't changed. this is an existing humanitarian exemption that has existed on republican and democratic administrations.

certain purchases are allowed even for countries that is heavily sanctioned. what are those? food, medicine, and limited medical supply. basically, what is happened is that financial transaction with this money was moved from south korea, converted into euros, and now it will be sitting in banks in qatar with direct oversight by the qatari government who will be responsible for paying for the transaction. they will basically pay the suppliers for the humanitarian transactions and with some oversight from u.s., although qatar is a trusted partner by both sides. this argument is essentially against any humanitarian exemptions of sanctions which existed as far as -- as long as tensions existed. and it gets to the core of essentially that section which is allowing good, medicine, and

medical supplies. amy: can you tell us who these five iranian americans are or why don't we know two of those people -- where we don't see their pictures? and who the iranians are? two are asking to stay here, two went to iran, another to a third country. what were they charged with? they were not all jailed here, where they? >> on the iranian side, two have asked and their families asked to remain anonymous. it is just a personal decision of the families. the media attention and increase the chance of dashboard you keep quiet and try to resolve this with quite diplomacy? these two families decided to keep it quiet and they assumed

it would increase the chances of them being released. i think they still try to remain private and not have the names out. it was a personal decision of the detainees and their families. the other three -- one was british and american, triple nationality. in a running business men held the longest -- an iranian businessman had been held the longest. he has been left behind by multiple administration's. emad shargi was from the d.c. area and another is from the connecticut area. on the u.s. side, they're running nationals on the u.s. side, related to sanctions violations.

very specific category. not a violent crime, not anything domestic, but essentially in for and export violations. essentially the government dropped the charges. but some of them were already residents of the united states. one was a resident of canada. it is a personal decision, there going back to where lives or family were. that decision is a personal decision. one or two have decided to go back to iran. it has been very specific categories. this was similar to what happened under the president -- the swap. amy: i wanted -- give out the anniversary of the killing of mahsa amini and her father being arrested, the state of the protest movement in iran right now as the president of iran addresses the u.n. general

assembly? >> the anniversary was essentially prepared with a very heavy security presence, pressure on family, pressure on activists, university -- anyone who could potentially show leadership in bringing about a mass movement. the state government tried to prevent that with preemptive pressure. the dissent continues. the grievances are still there. they have not been addressed. economic, political, and cultural. i think what we saw over the past year after the death in custody of mahsa amini was nothing short of a mass movement and essentially a cultural revolution. women and girls set enough is enough. you cannot kill a woman for how she is dressed. they started defying the mandatory hijab in ways we have not seen before. the courage, bravery, putting their lives on the line saying, i want body autonomy and i'm

going to start dressing the way i want. young girls, schoolgirls. the bravery has been amazing to watch. it has been constant, ongoing. as far as mass protests like what we saw last year, the government and security forces have tried very hard to prevent that. juan: have there been any concessions by the government in the past year in terms of the rights of women in iran? >> i don't think we can call them concessions, but women have been able to push the government back by saying, i refuse. i am risking my life, risking arrest, risking my job. women have been fired. is have been close. they get fined and ticketed if they drop without the headscarf, yet they continue. it accelerated -- that death of

mahsa amini accelerated it. women in iran, there is an unspoken solidarity that when they see each other to find the law and not wearing the hijab, they get even more courage, more bravery, if you like they are not alone. now there so many. the iranian public, the way it looks has been very, very different. it has dramatically changed since last year. i don't think they government can push it back to where it was before they killed mahsa amini. amy: negar mortazav, thank you for being with this, american journalist, host of the iran podcast and senior fellow at the center for international policy. next up, we go to ryan grim come on how the u.s. helped pakistan get any imf bailout with secret arms deal for ukraine and we will talk about here in

washington, d.c., the shut down showdown as house speaker kevin mccarthy faces off against his own right wing republican lawmakers. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "baraye" by the iranian singer shervin hajipour, which became the unofficial anthem of the iran protests last year. the song's lyrics were compiled from messages iranians posted online about why they were protesting. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. as president biden and other world leaders gather in new york for the united nations general assembly, we turn now to a major new investigation by the intercept about how the biden administration helped pakistan get a controversial new imf bailout after pakistan agreed to secretly sell arms to the united states for the war in ukraine. according to the intercept, the secret arms deal was worth about

$900 million, money which pakistan then used to help shore up its financial position in the eyes of the imf. the intercept reports the deal was discussed at a meeting in washington in may between assistant secretary of state donald lu and pakistani ambassador to the u.s. masood khan. pakistan's stance on the war in ukraine has shifted notably since russia's invasion and the ouster of prime minister imran khan who was removed from office in april 2022. khan is now imprisoned in pakistan. in august, the intercept revealed the existence of a classified pakistani cable that outlined how the u.s. state department had encouraged the pakistani government to remove khan from office in march 2022, just weeks after russia had invaded ukraine. the document stated the u.s. objected to khan's neutral stance on the war. according to the memo, one state department official warned

pakistan's ambassador to the united states that "all will be forgiven in washington" if khan is removed. since imran khan was removed from office, pakistan has shift to support the u.s. and ukraine on the war. at the same time, pakistan has cracked down on supporters of imran khan and elections have been postponed indefinite. -- indefinitely. meanwhile, the strict conditions of the imf bailout have sparked mass protests in pakistan. we are joined now by ryan grim, the intercept's washington bureau chief. his latest piece, co-written with murtaza hussain, is headlined "u.s. helped pakistan get imf bailout with secret arms deal for ukraine, leaked documents show." elaborate on this, ryan grim. talk about the significance of the arms deal and pakistan's changing position on the ukraine war. it happened to be imran khan visiting with russian president putin the day russia invaded ukraine. >> on top of khan's neutrality.

imran khan try to play balancing role. on top of that, he happened to coincidentally to be in russia on the day of the invasion for a long planned bilateral agreement , and that absolutely infuriated washington. several weeks later is when you had that critical meeting or assistant secretary donald lu conveyed washington's impression, which was that if khan stayed in power, pakistan would be isolated from the e.u. and the united states but if he is pushed out of power, and all will be forgiven because as donald lu put it, washington understood imran khan's policy was his own policy and not the policy of pakistan. in other words, that if somebody new were put in place, the hope was that pakistan within become a key ally. again, of united states. in its geopolitical struggle

generally but specifically with ukraine and russia. what is key to understand is the united states does not actually have much of an industrial base when it comes to producing the ammunition, artillery shells, kind of low-grade weapons you need for the kind of grinding war that is going on between ukraine and russia. if you want $100 million f-35 that is going to lose when it crashes, within the united states is able to produce those. entire lobbying infrastructure, entire cities outside washington , gleaming cities and skyscrapers, can be built up around those. i just producing artillery shells? that is something u.s. has outsourced to countries like pakistan in the past. ukraine was quickly running low. by august 2020 two, just a few months after khan was ousted according to the documents we

reviewed, pakistan was producing significant amounts of artillery that were being paid for by the united states, shipped ukraine, and then taking part in the war over there as the economy continue to collapse, pakistan needed an emergency imf loan and united states agreed to confidentially tell the imf about the weapons program and about the money that pakistan was getting from the weapons program to bridge the financing gap that was necessary. otherwise, within a completely can ash there would have been a complete economic meltdown in pakistan. juan: in terms of the use of the imf like this as a political instrument essentially, what was the impact of the package and the reforms -- so-called reforms the imf always requires of country in pakistan? on top of the political convulsion that has resulted from the removal of the prime minister. >> as you know, these reforms

always come at a price to rig the people in the country, these kinds of structural adjustments that are insisted on by the imf. and because of that, the imf always insists it negotiate with an elected government that has a mandate from the people. mandate can be broadly defined. often it is directly going in the face of the will of the people of that particular country, but at least they want an elected government in place they can kind of pin these reforms on. they it'd of having to raise energy prices by dearly 50% to get this imf loan. the government that followed imran khan was able to strike that deal for it turned over to a caretaker government. the goal and the only mandate of the caretaker government is to hold elections. but because this massive imf deal was in place, pakistan can

now run on cruise control for a while. that is the financing that has been allowed them to postpone the elections. just postpone the elections, but deep in this very brutal cracked down with thousands of supporters of imran khan getting rounded up, imran khan himself in prison, and his deputies in prison. dystopian censorship were media outlets are told they are not allowed to mention imran khan, which creates these bizarre situations where if he's in a photograph, they will put like an image over him to not run afoul of this bizarre blanket censorship that is underway. that has all been enabled by this imf loan, which enabled the postponing of the elections. juan: since khan was removed from power, what has been pakistan's position on the war in ukraine?

>> interestingly, the foreign office yesterday in response to our story flat out denied their providing any weapons for the war in ukraine. nobody believes that. we're not the first to report on this, we're the first to confirm with documents. but there has been plenty of you and photographic evidence of munitions made in pakistan that are being used in the ukraine war. publicly, they are so proclaiming some sort of neutrality. but you have had comments from the military leadership that happened hostile towards russian invasion and have satisfied the united states requirement. and the fact there operating this multi-hundred million dollar -- over $1 billion by now because our data stopped last summer. the production of the munitions for the war effort makes it clear that after khan was

removed, pakistan became a reliable ally of the united states in this war. amy: before we move on to the show down on capitol hill around the government shutdown, how to ask you but the person you interviewed, arif rafiq. "pakistani democracy may ultimately be a casualty of ukraine's counteroffensive. so why would u.s. and its allies go to such lengths per pakistan's allegiance on ukraine? >> as you have covered on this show for so long, when the united states has a primary foreign-policy object of, in particular when it is a war, everything else falls away. that is what you're seeing in pakistan now. for pakistanis, the irony is clearly not lost. that united states is bringing together the world to stand up for the defense of democracy and sovereignty in ukraine,

meanwhile, quite deliberately and openly sacrificing democracy in a country of 230 million people in pakistan that that democracy is being asked to sacrifice itself or the one in ukraine. it is also caught up in the geopolitics of pakistan's shifting relationships with russia, with china, with the gulf countries, which obviously don't even pretend to be champions of democracy. so now pretty much everyone involved in pakistan now is no longer pushing for any defense of civil society or human rights within the borders, though perhaps the protests and the pressure that is coming internally from pakistan might force substantive reckoning in the state department as the rhetoric gets too far removed from the reality. amy: i want to turn now to

capitol hill, to the show down over the potential shutdown of the federal government as house speaker kevin mccarthy battles far right lawmakers, not that he wasn't considered far right before, but from within his own party. this is mccarthy on monday. >> i have never seen anybody when a shut down. you only put the powers of the hands of administration -- if you want to make america strong [indiscernible] any code is house speaker mccarthy sounding not as heated as we heard over the weekend, the f-bombs flying between people like florida congressmember gaetz who went to the floor and threatened to

remove the house speaker. explain everything that is taking place. do you see the show. happening? it could happen within, what, 11 days. >> i do see it happening at this point. it is hard to describe how idiotic this whole situation is. mccarthy did a fairly good job right there. he was saying at the end, i don't know what they want. they're only a couple of different ways to keep the government open. you can either pass a clean cr, which means with the government is funded today is the weather government will be funded into the future until a certain date stop you can pass an amended cr, which is we will continue funding the government that we want these particular changes in the house freedom caucus has put together a cr like that that includes a bunch of draconian of immigration and wokeness rules that won't go anywhere in the senate or white house. but even that has opposition from within the freedom caucus,

so they can pass that, either. then you can pass individual appropriations bills, kind of the way congress was designed to operate 200 plus years ago when it was built. every committee passes a funding bill. they can't even agree to do a defense bill. that is supposed to come to the floor today. that might not even past. they can agree to do a homeland security funding bill. there are 10 other departments that we need to be funded as well. they can't do that in the next 11 days. they probably couldn't do it over the next year if you gave them that much time. those are the three options. their freedom caucus is standing in the way of all three of those options. notice i have not even mention democrats at this point. this is fully, completely in the hands -- which is unable to get its own members to agree on something, which is then going

to walk them off the cliff of a government shutdown in a way that doesn't even give them a fig leaf of -- to cover the fact they did not do anything. at least with the debt ceiling crisis, they passed some completely untenable legislation to the house so at least they said, look, we did our part, lifted the debt ceiling. it came with all of these things that biden would not sign but at least they put it through the house of representatives. it looks like this time they met not even be able to do that. mccarthy relies on democrats to keep the government open, they're saying, then we're going to throw mccarthy out of the speakership. then who will they replace him with? they have no idea because they don't have a majority. they don't have 218 votes. they don't like the way things are going. they have no idea what to do instead, so we're just going to get -- it looks like we're going to get a shut down until there's enough pressure on them that

they capitulate. juan: ryan, what is this continuing battle the last several years over government shutdowns? what does this say about the increasing contradictions in the ruling circle in u.s. society that they can't agree among themselves as to spending bills? >> i feel like i'm still thinking through this. i'm curious for your guys take. back when washington was really the subject of interest group competition, labor, environmentalist, major corporations, grassroots organizations like save the nra, you fought over legislation and you fought over outcomes because people were? for actual power. what has developed now as you have a lot of the "interest groups" who are interested in washington are like, for instance, youtubers, like steve bannon with his podcast that has

millions of people who were worked up about what is going on and the house of representatives and what they want to see is a fight. they want to see a show. matt gaetz has said as much, that they don't necessarily expect matt gaetz to win every fight, but they expect him to fight. they want the theater of it. they want to see they sent somebody to washington who was fighting for them. what they're fighting for, whether they win, whether the situation actually gets worse as a result, is secondary to the kind of emotional release that people want from seeing a clash unfold in washington. you've seen some of this on the left as well. they just want to see a fight. they want to know their kind of represented in washington even if it is hopeless, even if they don't -- they won't even put forward an idea of how they're going to win this show down. but i feel like that sort of is what is reflected in what we're

seeing here. otherwise, you can't make any sense of it from a strategic or tactical since if you're thinking about outcomes or results from this. amy: we last had you on discussing prosecutors indicting president biden son hunter on felony charges of illegally possessing a handgun and making false statements in order to obtain a revolver in 2018. well, on monday, hunter biden filed a federal lawsuit against the irs, the internal revenue service, for allegedly violating his privacy, saying two of its investigators divulged confidential tax information. and last week, house speaker kevin mccarthy opened an impeachment inquiry into president biden. can you talk about these developments? >> it is an interesting case that hunter has filed. the whistleblowers, when they initially came forward to congress, they said as good irs agents, what we are revealing does not violate any particular

privacy rights of any particular taxpayers because the irs does not only have a legal mandate around that, but a cultural one, to come that people within the irs are very cautious about revealing private information. but certainly, this tax fight has spilled out into the press. it was certainly be ironic if the irs ended up having to pay hunter biden -- and it depends on what jury he gets. maybe this is also some leverage that his lawyers are trying to get against the attorneys because there is still the unfolding of a case that was hunter biden illegally acting as a ford agent without disclosing or registering? that fight is the reason the entire plea deal broke down in the first place. amy: interesting to see his very powerful lawyer abby lowell who also represented steve bannon.

ryan grim, thank you for being with us d.c. bureau chief for , the intercept. we will into your piece cowritten with murtaza hussain, "u.s. helped pakistan get imf bailout with secret arms deal for ukraine, leaked documents reveal." ryan's substack newsletter is "bad news." next up, we speak with one of the hundred 49, protesters arrested after they shut down the federal reserve and your calling for an end to fossil fuel investments. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. as the u.n. generalist of the brings leaders to new york, some will attend the first ever climate ambition summit to accelerate efforts to address the climate crisis. president biden speaks today at the summit -- assembly but will not attend the summit. this comes after an estimated 75,000 marched to the united nation sunday to demand president biden to end fossil fuels. on monday, activists escalated the demand for climate action with one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in a decade. they gathered in zuccotti park, near wall street and the former

site of the occupy wall street encampment, and then surrounded the federal reserve bank, blockading the entrances as they called for an end to financing of fossil fuel projects. organizers say 149 were arrested. that includes climate defiance organizer rylee haught. >> [indiscernible] president biden allowed them to do it with nothing in return. [indiscernible] he is selling us out. amy: this comes as climate protests targeted citibank and aig last week for funding fossil fuel projects. and today they will focus on bank of america, which the rainforest action network says has poured $279 billion into the fossil fuel industry since the 2015 paris agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. for more, we are joined by renata pumarol, organizer with climate defenders, which was one

of the groups that is been planning the direct actions in new york city. and alicé nascimento, the campaign director at new york communities for change. she was arrested during the protest monday at the federal reserve. alicé, talk about why you got arrested. talk about the federal reserve here in new york. >> thank you for having me. unlike many of my colleagues who blocked the doors yesterday to the federal reserve and put their bodies on the line, i was actually not planning to be arrested. i simply grabbed a bullhorn and i can sexualized where we were as a number of our colleagues -- conceptual is where we were. i called out the fed. and the responsibility of our elected officials, especially democrats and financial regulators and their utter failure in this climate crisis

and the police told me i could not use a bullhorn in spite of the fact we were all using bullhorns. and that if i continued on speaking out, they would arrest me. i continued on speaking out because it is important. they proceeded to arrest me. it came as a surprise. but at the same time, we are trying to bring the urgency of the crisis to the folks who are responsible for it. the fed is failing and its role -- not just its role, but it's duty and responsibility to make sure that banks are no longer financing new fossil fuel infrastructure. juan: i would like to bring renata pumarol into the conversation. you participated in the protest. recent protest have targeted financial institutions like citibank and blackrock. why them? >> well, blackrock and citibank are one of the biggest funders of fossil fuels.

citibank is the second largest fossil fuel financier in the world and has poured over $333 billion into fossil fuels. therefore are complicit in the climate chaos that we are experiencing. your audience knows climate chaos is not in some distant future. we are facing unprecedented heat waves and floods and fires that have killed tens of thousands of people. it will only get worse if we do not stop the fossil fuel industry. the only way to stop the fossil fuel industry is to stop the financing of fossil fuels. that is why this week hundreds of activists targeted the financiers of fossil fuels like blackrock, like kkr, and citibank. and today, bank of america. these are the people who are funding the pipelines that are

destroying indigenous community's and threatening our water. they are the ones who are funding petrochemical facilities in black and brown communities and causing high rates of cancer and asthma and they are ultimately responsible for climate change and climate chaos that is threatening our existence and threatening a livable future. juan: could you talk about how your own relatives in northeast brazil are being affected by the climate catastrophe? >> i think this question is hurricanes.licé who is

in the case of puerto rico, which was devastated by hurricane maria. and we are facing unprecedented heat waves, too. i will kick it back to alicé to talk about brazil and how her country has been affected. amy: alicé? >> absolutely. as many of you know, brazil is at the forefront in the battle to save our planet with having the amazon rain forest there and the indigenous community is not only fighting for their lives but fighting for the future of our planet and protecting the amazon since there technically can take -- considered protected lands in brazils constitution. that is the only thing maintaining that underdeveloped in decreasing the levels of deforestation now that lula has become president. for me personally, i am from the northeast of brazil. it is right by the equator. it is a city right by the beach.

increasingly, in the winters, there is rainy season. it always rains but now it has -- there are so many floods. my father's house, his roof completely collapsed. this is the impacts of climate change. this is something we're used to seeing ray in brazil but not to this degree. it impacts everyone, particularly folks on the front line, are poor, don't necessarily have the means to rebuild her house or shelter. amy: this comes after 75,000 people marched. the focus was president biden. biden end fossil fuels was the banner across the stage. why president biden? >> biden is the president of the united states, the most powerful country. also the biggest producer of oil and gas stop biden can stop

fossil fuel projects right now and has chosen not to do so and has chosen actually even not to attend the climate summit and commit himself. amy: we are going to leave it there but we will continue to cover the climate actions across the week.

welcome back to nhk "newsline." i'm yamaguchi hiroaki in new york. a japanese baseball player who rose to stardom as a two-way player is set to play just one way for a while. ohtani is a threat as a pitcher and hitter, but he has undergone surgery depriving him of some of his talents.