10/25/23 10/25/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> suffering -- facilitate the release of hostages i reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire. amy: united nations secretary general antonio guterres calls again for an immediate ceasefire in gaza but israel, with the backing of the united states, has rejected the call and is

continuing its bombardment for a 19th day. the palestinian death toll has now topped 6500, including 2700 children. >> i am telling you we were at home when we felt like what was a barrel bomb. it was no ordinary rocket. as you can see, everything is gone. innocent people died, including children and women. this is israel's goal, to kill innocent women and children. amy: we will go to the occupied west bank to speak with amnesty international's researcher on israel and the occupied territories. we will also talk to the pulitzer prize winning author viet thanh nguyen, author of the new memoir "a man of two faces." last week a major cultural institution in new york, 92ny, formerly the 92nd street y, canceled an event with him after he signed an open letter

calling for a cease-fire in gaza. plus, we will look at how u.s. foreign policy in toward latin america is fueling historic numbers of asylum seekers. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the u.n. agency serving palestinians warned it would have to stop its life-saving operations in gaza by tonight unless it receives more fuel. the humanitarian situation in gaza has reached catastrophic levels with hospitals shutting down and others cutting back critical services amid the lack of fuel and supplies. at the indonesian hospital in northern gaza, staff have resorted to using smartphone lights to see in the darkness as the hospital was forced to switch off power and all but a few parts of the building. the non-stop israeli bombardment of gaza continues. on tuesday, a father in khan younis carried the body of his young daughter in his arms after she was killed in an israeli airstrike on their home.

>> i don't want to let her go. this is my daughter. i want as much time as i have before we bury her. they wanted to cover her face. a martyr space is never covered. amy: the palestinian health ministry in gaza says over 6500 people have been killed since october 7. the 1.4 million internally displaced gazans representing over half the total population of gaza are facing increasing rates of disease due to overcrowding, poor sanitation, and lack of essentials like food and clean water. >> at night it is cold and they are not enough blankets for everyone. there is sand right beneath us. the children are all sick. some are coughing and have fevers at night. where are the rights of our children? where are our human rights? amy: israel appears poised to further escalate its attack on civilians as its army chief says it's ready for ground operation.

the u.s. has set top military commanders to advise israel on its assault, including marine corps lieutenant general james glenn, who led u.s. forces in its failed operations in iraq, in fallujah in particular. a war monitor said strikes have hit aleppo today as fears mount of a wider reach. meanwhile, israel is lashing out at the u.n. after the secretary-general said it was clear violations of international humanitarian law and the october 7 hamas attack "did not happen in a vacuum." the envoy to the u.n. demanded he resigned over the comments as israel has reportedly refused a visa to u.n. humanitarian chairs for chief to "teach them a lesson." here in the u.s., activists and voters continue to pressure

lawmakers to call for an immediate ceasefire in gaza. on tuesday, a group of christian, jewish, and muslim faith leaders and activists held a pray-in at house minority leader hakeem jeffries' d.c. office. this is rabbi alissa wise. >> overstate the crisis. it is truly catastrophic on every level. over 2000 children have been killed. it is being done in the name of the jewish people. the message of judaism is one of life. it trumps every other law. amy: also on tuesday, protesters in the bronx rallied to demand an end to unchecked u.s. military support for israel. the protest started in front of the office of congressmember ritchie torres, a staunch ally with israel, whom activists accused of complicity in its genocide against palestinians. in cleveland, ohio, the council on american-islamic relations, or cair, is calling for a car ramming of a palestinian-american man to be investigated as a hate crime.

the 20-year-old victim has been hospitalized. the driver reportedly shouted "kill all palestinians" and "long live israel" before hitting him with his car. the university of vermont canceled an in-person event this week featuring prominent palestinian poet and journalist mohammed el-kurd, citing safety concerns. the move comes as palestinian-americans and allies on college campuses across the u.s. are sounding the alarm over the increasing suppression of their voices. in news from washington, d.c., house republicans nominated ultraconservative louisiana congressmember and trump ally mike johnson as their fourth pick for house speaker. the news came late tuesday after another chaotic day that saw majority whip tom emmer nominated for the job, only to drop his bid just hours later. emmer, a more moderate republican, failed to gain the support of the far-right flank of his party, as well as trump, who blasted him on social media and on a call with gop lawmakers. trump reportedly declared "i killed him" after emmer's

withdrawal. the minnesota lawmaker voted in favor of same-sex marriage rights and for the certification of biden's 2020 win. the house has been without a speaker for over three weeks following kevin mccarthy's ouster. in georgia, jenna ellis, donald trump's former lawyer and a co-defendant in fulton county's racketeering case, pleaded guilty to conspiring to overturn trump's 2020 election loss. ellis became the third former trump lawyer to plead guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors following kenneth chesebro and sidney powell last week. jenna ellis tearfully addressed an atlanta court tuesday. >> and the frenetic pace, i failed to do my due diligence. i believe in and value election integrity. if i knew then what i know now, i would have declined to represent donald trump. amy: jenna ellis was sentenced

to five years of probation, a fine of $5000, and 100 hours of community service. she will also write a letter of apology to the state of georgia. here in new york, michael cohen testified in trump's civil fraud trial that his former boss instructed him to inflate the value of his assets "based upon a number that arbitrarily -- that trump arbitrarily elected." michael cohen, trump's one-time fixer and lawyer, said he would reverse engineer financial data to reach "whatever number told us." cohen took the stand as trump watched on just feet away. meanwhile, abc news is reporting former white house chief of staff mark meadows testified at least three times to a federal grand jury after he was given immunity in special counsel jack smith's investigation into trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. meadows reportedly testified trump was being dishonest with americans and that meadows did not believe the election fraud claims were true. 41 states and the district of columbia have sued meta, the parent company of facebook and

instagram, accusing the social media giant of knowingly promoting addictive features that harm the mental health of young people. the lawsuit says meta has contributed to a mental health crisis in the united states and has violated a range of state consumer protection statutes, including a child privacy law that prohibits companies from collecting personal data of children under the age of 13 without parental consent. this is plaintiff new jersey attorney general matt platkin. >> no -- being induced by facebook and instagram platforms to spend hours upon hours scrolling and being subjected to images and words that exacerbate a number of health and social issues. including buddy image, eating disorders, anxiety, loneliness, depression, and envy. meta-new with they were doing. amy: hurricane otis made landfall on mexico's southern pacific coast early this morning as a historic category 5 storm,

unleashing dangerously high winds and torrential rains. officials have warned of potential catastrophic and life threatening conditions, including landslides and floods in the town of acapulco and surrounding areas. in related news, thousands of people were displaced in southeastern yemen as cyclone tej triggered rare downpours. severe cyclones are nearly unprecedented in the region, but warming ocean temperatures due to the climate crisis have made them more likely. the guardian reports tej is only the second such storm to make landfall in yemen in recorded history. and women and non-binary people across iceland held a 24-hour strike tuesday to highlight the gender pay gap and gender-based violence. it was the seventh country-wide strike since the movement started in 1975. though iceland has topped the world economic forum's gender gap report for 14 straight years, researchers say 40% of women will still experience gender-based discrimination and sexual violence. yesterday's work stoppage, led by trade unions, affected all industries from schools to the highest echelons of government,

with prime minister katrin yokobdottir also participating in the strike. this is agriculture minister svandís svavarsdóttir. >> it is about gender inequality. we have been fighting for decades. it is special for us, women in iceland because we all get to work 48 years ago and we are doing it again today because the gap is still there and we are fighting against it. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. coming up, we go to ramallah in the israeli occupied west bank stop stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: 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: the death toll in gaza has topped 6500 as israel continues to bombard the besieged territory for a 19th day. according to palestinian health authorities, the dead on he 700 children. israel, with the backing of the united states, has rejected calls for cease-fire. on tuesday, u.n. secretary-general addressed the u.n. security council and called for a cease-fire. >> it is important to also recognize the effects by hamas did not happen in a vacuum. the palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. they have seen their lands plagued by violence and settlements, their people displaced, and their homes demolished. their hopes for a political solution to their plight have

been vanishing. those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the palestinian people. amy: israel condemned his comments and has vowed to stop issuing visas to u.n. representatives. the ambassador to the u.n. is calling for his resignation. this all comes as the humanitarian situation in gaza grows worse by the hour. as dwindling fuel supplies could soon force the closure of all hospitals in the territory. israel is continue to carry out attacks in the occupied west bank and he's really drone strike on the jenin refugee camp has killed at least re-palestinians. israeli security forces and settlers have killed at least 100 palestinians in the occupied west bank since october 7. even before that, this was the deadliest year for palestinians.

at least one killed a day in the west bank. meanwhile, the number of palestinians jailed by israel has doubled over the past two weeks from about 5000 to 10,000. in other developments, the prime minister of qatar says he hopes there will be a breakthrough soon on the israeli hostages being held by gaza. hamas and other groups are believed to be holding about 220 people seized on october 7 in the hamas attack that left around 1400 people dead in israel. we begin today show in problem, the occupied west bank, where we are joined by budour hassan, amnesty international researcher on israel and the occupied palestinian territories. amnesty international published a report last week headlined "damning evidence of war crimes as israeli attacks wipe out entire families in gaza." welcome back to democracy now! can you lay out your findings?

>> hello, amy and juan and all listeners and viewers. with the help of our fieldwork based in gaza and testimonies that we gathered from witnesses, victims, and relatives, in addition to open source evidence , we found out israeli forces carried out indiscriminate attacks, killing and injuring civilians and in some cases -- barely scratched the surface of the horror that is unfolding in gaza. entire families were wiped out during this bombing campaign, which is only escalating. in addition to indiscriminate attacks by israeli forces, we also documented the ongoing use of punishment which is a war crime that even work israel

alleged there was a military target, the attacks failed to abide by the principle of proportionality. to go further, because we keep hearing numbers and sometimes we maybe desensitized to the extent of horrors that we are witnessing, that behind each of these numbers, there are stories. as part of our work, amnesty international researcher's have been listening to testimonies of people in gaza, a victims talking directly to people over the phone. when we talk to people, for example, we talked to a person who last 26 members of his family, all of his family were killed in an israeli airstrike. two children aged eight and six were among those killed. his mother, father, his brothers, nieces -- everyone of his family. when we talked to him, he

civilly said, there's no room for all this" and he started reciting the names and ages of relatives lost. i was reminded by woman who was remembering her loved ones who were killed in the iranian genocide and said, they were all killed and no one has remained. that is what happened to this man. another father we talked to comment when we talked to him over the phone, he was removing rubble with his own hands. bulldozers could not make it to the neighborhood. they cannot make it because there's no fuel to power the bulldozers. he was trying to remove the rubble and excavate and find his daughter. all we were with him on the phone, someone told him, "we found your little daughter," and

he started kissing her. this was the only thing left to him from her, her toe. we talk to people who don't even have photographs to remember their loved ones with. they only have rubble because their phones and laptops were all destroyed. we also talked to relatives of the family in a neighborhood in gaza city. 15 members of his family were killed in an israeli strike on the first day of bombings on october 7 coming putting a 12-year-old. we did not realize at the time he was a talented gamer and youtuber. one of his dreams was to have more than 100,000 subscribers on youtube, which you never see. right now as we speak, people and gaza have not been able to mourn our grief properly. there are no funerals for the

dead. there are more than 1000 bodies buried under the rubble and people cannot -- even when people manage to bury their loved ones, they have remnants. when they share with us testimonies with difficulty of getting to people, what they share with us almost are fragments of testimonies, not really testimonies because of the devastation that they are living through and because simply they say, "we need time to at least think about mourning our loved ones, but reflecting on all we have been going through." with the endless bombings and war, they don't even have time for that. juan: i wanted to ask you, what did your report find about israeli military warning civilians before dropping these bombs and the attacks? also, has claimed the people of

gaza should move out of northern gaza into the south. but what are you finding about attacks in the south? amy: budour? we are talking to budour hassan, who is amnesty at international researcher on israel and the occupied palestinian territories . we are having a bit of a sound issue. amnesty international has published a new report headlined "damning evidence of war crimes as israeli attacks wipe out entire families in gaza." go ahead with what you are saying, budour.

amy: why don't we turn to a clip as we fix the sound with budour hassan. more than half of gaza's population has been displaced by the israeli assault. this is an 18-year-old palestinian who had fled to southern gaza after israel ordered palestinians to leave their homes in the north. much of her family died in an israeli airstrike in khan younis where the family had sought temporary shelter. >> i went to look for my mother and father and my siblings at the morgue. at first they told me, come see your mother. they did not show me her face but i recognized her from what she had on her feet. god bless her soul. i felt heartbroken. it was like a nightmare. they open my father's coffin and had no signs of injuries, but he died, god bless his soul. i had a 16 euros sister among the dead and they wrote my name on her coffin since they thought it was me. her body did not have any signs of injuries, but maybe she died

from internal injuries. they also showed me my little sister. she is in first grade and they asked me, who is she? at first i did not recognize her due to the cuts and burns on her face. they wrote her name on her coffin. i never would've thought my family would end up like this. i felt heartbroken. it is a nightmare. i can't believe it until now that they are all dead, no one left. juan: i think we have the connection straightened out with budour hassan. i was asking you about the israeli warnings to civilians before attacks, what you've learned about that and also about the israeli claim the palestinians of northern gaza should move to the south for safety. >> juan, in the majority of cases that we did document, there were no warnings before the airstrikes. so the families did not receive

at all any warnings. even in cases where there was an advance warning, it was found effective because it was only till one of the family members come not entire family or residents of the building. it felt to meet the standards required to meet a warning. with regard to the warnings, initial warning by the israeli army for all the residents of the north to evacuate to the south, this amounts to a forced displacement simply because this is unfeasible for this community to leave. they cannot leave when there are thousands of people with disabilities, wounded people. this number of people simply do not have the means and cannot leave. even -- and that was later, followed by leaflets dropped by the israeli army warning people to leave and then saying anyone

who chooses to stay in the north would be considered accomplice with armed terrorist organizations, per the words of the army. which amounts to collective punishment. it fails to me that distinction. hundreds of thousands, nearly one billion people are treated like no burden -- open fires on which signals the israeli army tends to not establish between civilians and military targets because and entire area is transformed into one. even if we support any of these people were to leave, the situation in southern gaza, especially in khan younis, is particularly dire. schools are not capable of dealing with the amount of people, the influx of people into south gaza. in addition to the innocent bombardment also targeting areas and southern gaza, especially

over the last five days. so these coercive conditions in which the israeli army is trying to force people out, which again amounts to forced displacement, knowing people in gaza absolutely have nowhere say from bombardment and airstrikes. amy: i wanted to ask about the west bank. that is where you are right now. you are in ramallah. in the occupied west bank, health officials say at least 74 -- 100 palestinians have been killed by israeli forces and armed settlers amid mounting military raids and arrests. the israeli human rights group b'tselem has documented some of the attacks. in one video shared online, an israeli settler, accompanied by an israeli soldier, shoots a man at point blank range. major protests also across the west bank have taken aim at the ruling palestinian authority, which has launched a violent crackdown on demonstrations. last week, a 12-year-old palestinian girl named razan

nasrallah was shot and killed by pa security forces during protests in jenin following the deadly bombing of gaza's al-ahli hospital. it is still not clear what that explosion, who was responsible for that explosion. if you can talk about what is happening come also with gazans who have work permits in the occupied west bank, what has happened to them and what is happening in the prisons where thousands of palestinians are held? >> since october 7, after the hamas attack, thousands of workers from gaza who had valid work permits to work in israel and the occupied west bank had their work permits unilaterally revoked so they could only learned about that through an application. then israeli forces started

rounding them up and detaining them in military bases in cage-like conditions. one prisoner who was released because he was a resident of the west bank spoke about torture and other ill-treatment toward these workers are subjected. families of workers who contacted the israeli human rights organizations told -- said they have no clue where their family members are. so israel is treating arbitrarily detaining thousands of palestinian workers, almost treating them like hostages, denying them due process, denying them meeting with lawyers. there's not even a hint of due process in addition to torture. all of that in the context of increasing numbers of detention -- before all this started, the number of palestinians administratively detained without charges or trial has hit a 20 year high.

the number has doubled just since october 7 step palestinian families obviously have not been able to visit their loved ones in prison. in addition to that, the israeli parliament knesset adopted an amendment that would authorize israeli prison authorities to not limit the number of people who can be detained in one cell, which has made the conditions of imprisonment absolutely dire and amounting to torture and other ill-treatment. all of that, amy, as you said in the context of increasing number of unlawful killings of palestinians, including palestinian children, mostly during protests, and many of these cases were state-sponsored -- state-supported come have also been rampaging across the west bank, leading to unprecedented rivers of forcible transfer in areas around ramallah. unfortunately, this level of

pressure, of coercion come of oppression that palestinians have been facing in the west bank, which is part and parcel of israel's apartheid regime, has received such a scant attention because all eyes now are on gaza which has given the opportunity to israeli settlers and to israeli policymakers to actually escalate their campaign of forcible transfer and settlement expansion. budour hassan amy:, thank you for being with us amnesty , international researcher on israel and the occupied palestinian territories. we will link to amnesty's report headlined "damning evidence of war crimes as israeli attacks wipe out entire families in gaza." when we come back, we speak with the pulitzer prize-winning author viet thanh nguyen about his new memoir "a man of two faces: a memoir, a history, a memorial."

a major top in new york was canceled after he signed along with hundreds and hundreds of writers a letter calling for a cease-fire. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. here in new york, the prestigious community and cultural center 92ny, formerly known as the 92nd street y, said this week it is postponing its literary reading series as it faces backlash for canceling an event with pulitzer prize-winning novelist viet thanh nguyen, who joined some 750 writers who signed an open letter in the in the london review of books calling for a ceasefire in gaza. it reads in part -- "we can only express our grief and heartbreak for the victims of these most recent tragedies, and for their families, both palestinians and israelis. but the unprecedented and indiscriminate violence that is

still escalating against the 2.3 million palestinians in gaza, with the financial and political support of western powers, can and must be brought to an end." over the past two weeks, scores of palestinian-american s and their allies say their scheduled appearances and interviews were canceled and venues have canceled events featuring palestinians or speakers who've criticized israel's human rights record. after friday's 92ny event was canceled, nguyen wrote in an -- wrote online -- "i have no regrets about anything i have said or done in regards to palestine, israel, or the occupation and war." his event was held instead at the mcnally jackson bookstore, and he was able to talk about his new book, which we are also excited to talk about today as he joins us from minneapolis on another leg of his book tour. viet thanh nguyen is the author of seven books and has just published his new memoir "a man

of two faces: a memoir, a history, a memorial." we last spoke to him about his novel "the committed," a sequel to his pulitzer prize winning book "the sympathizer." his other books include "the refugees" and "the displaced: refugee writers on refugee lives" which he edited. he is a professor at the university of southern california. we are so glad to have you back on the show, professor, and know you do not really want to talk about the canceled 92ny event, so let's talk about your memoir. if you can start out by laying out the themes of what is unfolding in israel. themes of war and memory, identity, the refugee and diaspora experience, the traumatic toll of history on individuals who lived through it. >> thank you for having me back. i certainly do think this memoir that i wrote, which is about my life and the lives of my parents who came to the united states have refugees and went through 40 years of war and colonization

living in vietnam. those stories i tell in this book and larger stores about vietnamese refugees in general and the war in vietnam to have a lot of relevance to what is happening today. one thing i stress is civilian stories are war stories, too. i look at the lives of my parents who were not soldiers and how they were deep the affected by war constantly. there were displaced as refugees twice. they had to leave behind an adopted daughter when they left vietnam the first time. my mother had to go to the psychiatric facility in the united states three times. the last time leaving her permanently disabled. i spent a lot of time thinking about how the ramifications of war are oftentimes visible for soldiers because when we think about wars, we generally think about wars, soldiers, battles, tanks, so on. the fact is, wars usually kill more civilians than soldiers.

they bear enormous amount of burdens of violence but also ongoing trauma in the years afterwards. that trauma has been passed onto their families, children. i grew up witnessing how it was a traumatized community that had a hard time dealing with its past. it was oriented toward look into the future, becoming american, and then having the unspoken consequences of the war rippling to the family and community. vietnamese become americans, it is certainly part of the narrative of the so-called american dream, of which i'm very critical of in the book. part of the complication for me, what does it mean to become as a refugee to the united states and the become part of a country that is a military-industrial complex? it is a contradiction i try to work through in the book. juan: you also deal with the

issue of language, how learning and becoming converse in england -- english gui from your family. how does language also represent or at least and in for other markers of different race, class, culture? >> i came to the u.s. when i was four star was fluent in bit in these and i still am. i neatly became immersed in english. i don't really remember learning english. it seemed like i was fully formed in english. it became -- through the use of english to read books. i educated myself at the public library by immersing myself into anglo-american literature. i think i understood i should do that because that was my entry way into american society. the more affluent became in english, the more distanced i

became from my parents. my mother was reading the vietnamese church newsletter. i think at some level, i subconsciously and then consciously decided that i had to make a choice between english and vietnamese. i chose english. it led me to where i am today, talking to you, but the personal, cultural, psychic ramifications in terms of not being able to be intimate with my parents in vietnamese has been painful and probably not unique to me but to many immigrant children. english is the language of the masters, language of the colonizers. ironically, writing in english i've been able to access much of the world because my books are translated into many languages. partly because i have been published in the u.s. through english, a land that people all over the world know they need to grapple with. if i was publishing in vietnamese, i would be read by

much less people. juan: it was striking throughout the book you blacked out or redacted particular name, donald trump. why? >> i was thinking particular about how redaction is so crucial to american society, to a country like ours. we literally reject documents, for example declassified documents. the act of redaction is an active visual censorship. we know something important is being said but we are not allowed to see what that is. to me, that is a metaphor for reduction is a hole in the american consciousness. for at least the past 20 years, we've been engaged in the forever war and engaged in other words continuously throughout american history. that is a matter that has been redacted in the general american

consciousness. we as americans generally think of ourselves as the greatest country on earth. we have a hard time imagining we do terrible things. terrible things that we actually do with our wars is redacted in our own minds and education and popular culture. that is what it really refers to. for me, i took a little pleasure in redacting one person staying in particular because i do think that is the most i could do to this particular person. that he benefits from having our name on -- his name on our lives all the time. if we could stop saying his name, that would be one way erasing him an hour history and politics. amy: if you could talk about your choice of title, "a man of two faces" and the subtitle?

>> i grew up in the u.s. feeling like i had two different faces. on one hand living in my very vietnamese household that i was an american and i felt completely american growing up. when i stepped outside of that household an outside division in these community -- vietnamese community, i felt like a vietnamese. i took that feeling of duality and put it in my characters. for a long time, i worked at my own emotional complications, having grown up as a refugee in the u.s. feeling myself to be an eyewitness to the trauma my parents underwent. i survived that experience by becoming emotionally numb, by shutting down and not d ealing with what i had seen and felt.

eventually, it became time to write a memoir after my mother passed away in 2018. i wanted to write about my mother and her extraordinary life as a refugee, survivor, successful businesswoman, as a hero who in the end was destroyed by herself, by whatever was happening in her mind. there is a memorial for her in this book as well. finally, there is history. it is hard for me to separate the memoirs of myself and my family and the memorial and writing about my mother from the history of vietnam and the united states that led to war and led to us becoming refugees in one of the central kind -- and one of the central questions idea within the book, how do i know what was unique to her from what history did to her, how history hammered her through work, colonization, famine, and other terrible experiences. that mistry i think is -- the

mistry is the same for many refugees. some survive psychically and others do not. how do we know? what is history and what is personal trauma? what is history and what is our own memories? i try to pursue that question for my family but also for refugees and immigrants in general. as extraordinary as my mother was, she was utterly ordinary, too. i talked to so many other people and they told me stories about their refugee parents and they have all experienced extraordinary, horrifying, terrifying things because that is what marked that generation of vietnamese people. i think my mother come as extraordinary as she is to me, is representative of what so many other vietnamese of her generation went through. amy: viet thanh nguyen, as tension grows between the u.s. and china, we also see a rise in

anti-asian violence. i was wondering if you can talk about instances in your life or your family confronted violence, in particular, gun violence? >> absolutely. my parents opened a grocery store in san jose in the late 1970's. at that time, downtown san jose is not like it is now, gentrified. it was a place were only vietnamese refugees went to open stores back then. my parents were shot in their store on christmas eve when i was nine years old. that was one of those incidents at nine years of age i did not know to do with. i reaction was not to react emotionally, not to process those feelings. amy: they were both shot? >> they were both shot. partly what happened as they were lucky, they were only flesh wounds. they were back to work within a day or two because they had to be. if they were not working in the

store, they were not going to make any and if they were not going to make money, they were not one to be able to save themselves and my brothers and me and the relatives in vietnam they were sending money to. you just had to keep on moving forward because there was no one to take her place in the store. some years later when i was 16 and a gunman broke into her house and pointed a gun in our faces and told us to get on the floor and my mother and father did -- i'm sorry, my father and i did. my mother ran past gunman screaming into the street. when he turned around to go after her, my father slammed the door shut and locked it, leaving the gunman outside with my mother. i could see her running down the street outside the living room window passed all of these cars, screaming. she saved our lives that way. that was typical of my mother. those were the most graphic

kinds of violence we were subjected to, the growing up i think i was also bombarded just by the ever present racism of american popular culture. in the 1970's and 80's, there were jokes on the radio airwaves by shop djs anyone going to the movies were watching asian caricatures. i was watching the vietnam war movies in which the vietnamese had nothing to say, even though this was our country and our war . our only place in the american imagination was to be killed, raped, or rescued. it had a terminus impact on me psychologically. when i went to high school, my asian friends and i did not have a language for ourselves so we would gather in the owner of the campus and call ourselves the asian invasion. the only language we had for ourselves was a racist language. the racism was asians had never invaded the united states.

if anything, americans invaded asia. to get an and to forget a very crucial fact that is still relevant today, which is asian violence attacks are not carried out within the united states, there carried out in america's wars in asia. that is the true -- if you consider palestine to be part of asia, continuity between what the u.s. has done in the philippines and korea and japan and laos and cambodia, vietnam, and now it palestine. juan: we only have about a minute left, but i wanted to ask about another of your books come up with the sympathizer" that is being made into miniseries. how did that come about and what would you like it to convey that

perhaps is distinct in the novel? >> that came about because producers were reaching out to me and there was a lot of complicated process with the long and short is we were lucky to land the director who directed "the handmaiden" with a beautiful visual sense but also a grasp of history and colonization. he is perfect for this. it led to robert downey junior being cast as the one white light or to play all of the white male roles in the tv series. there is a satirical element going on and we landed hbo and the show will hopefully air in april of the coming year. i hope with a tv series like this, one of the realities of the world is that even a good book would be lucky to sell 50,000 copies but a tv series

can reach millions. for decades, the whole world has been subjected to america's hollywood's imagination of the war in vietnam, which is a very problematic depiction that puts americans at the center. for just one tv series of seven episodes, we will have all of these very talented vietnamese actors from all over the world whose faces will be on the screen with sandra oh and robert downey jr. hopefully we can budget for just a little but the representation of the war in vietnam and also the representations of it and these people globally as well. amy: you wrote in 2017, "people might like to think the war is done when a cease-fire is signed. but for most people who live through a war, it goes on for decades." as we wrap up this discussion, i

mean, it is fascinated your call that led to the cancellation of a major event in new york for a cease-fire, you may have heard of the show the u.n. secretary-general calling for that very thing. your final thoughts? >> of course i absolutely agree and what happens in times of war , we are seeing it vividly now, is wars the to an us versus them mentality. we are good and they are people. it is us or them. that type of thinking is conducive to mobilizing people to fight wars but also a completely wrong kind of thinking. because when we say we are good and they are evil, we are saying we are human and they are inhuman. i do not believe that to be true. we are all human. each of us individually and certainly our nations as well. when we deny our own community, what we do is we put it on our

enemies which makes it easier to kill them. -- if we deny our own humidity, we do is put inhumanity on our enemies, which makes it easier to kill them. we need a cease-fire to save lives but also to take a step back from this dangerous thinking of us versus them. amy: viet thanh nguyen, thank you so much for being with us, pulitzer prize-winning author. his new memoir is out called "a man of two faces: a memoir, a history, a memorial." this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we end today's show with a new report on how u.s. policy toward latin america has fueled historic numbers of asylum seekers. this past weekend, mexico's

president hosted a summit on how to address the steep rise in migration from latin america to the united states. participants included cuban president miguel díaz-canel, venezuelan president nicolás maduro, honduran president xiomara castro, haitian prime minister ariel henry, and colombian president gustavo petro. after the meeting, amlo said monday he would ask president biden to open dialog with cuba and end the u.s. economic embargo of cuba. juan budour hassan juan, you have this new article out, "the current migrant crisis ." can you lay out what you found? juan: i think the key aspect of the report is we have had a lot of attention in the past couple of years to the historic surge in migration across the border but there have been few media

accounts have examined the direct responsibility of our federal government in fueling this current crisis through its foreign policy. and also those narratives in the media have largely failed to acknowledge the long history of u.s. intervention and wealth extraction in the regent 10 the decades of neglect of latin america but all the administration's -- democratic and republican -- of the last 60 years. one of the most interesting things is the report outlines the evidence is u.s. atomic warfare against three specific countries, venezuela, cuba, nicaragua, that is a significant cause of the latest migration surge. for instance, the migrants of the -- migrant flow to the united states has changed dramatically. during the obama administration, trumpet administration, we were talking largely about migrant

who was from honduras, el salvador, what adalah -- guatemala. that is changed i was completely. venezuelans, for instance, in 2020, there only 4500 venezuelans that were apprehended at the southern border. that is less than three years ago. now we are up to 265,000 in the first 11 months of this past fiscal year, fy2023. same thing for nicaraguans. a couple of years ago, it was 3100 encountered at the border. the last 11 months of this past fiscal year, 131,000. of course, cubans. 14,000 cubans were found -- were apprehended at the border in 2020. 184,000 in 2023. we are seeing this enormous increase from these three countries. which of these three countries have in common? they are all being subjected to

united states sanctions, economic warfare, that has reduced and crippled the economies of these countries. venezuela, for instance, between 2017-2020, lost about between $17 million as a result of u.s. sanctions. we're just hearing this past weekend after a report came out that the united states is beginning to temporarily limit dissensions, allowing venezuela for the first time now and several used to sell oil back into the united states. but these sanctions have inflicted enormous harm on venezuelans. the other interesting to note, all of the media attention has been focused on the venezuelan migrants. almost as many cubans have entered the united states in the last two years as the number of

venezuelans who have entered the united states. in fact, the flow of people from cuba in the past two years has been greater than any time in history. more cubans have come to the u.s. in the past two years then did after the cuban revolution in 1959, then did during the 1980's, then did during a crisis of 1994. this has been the largest flight of cubans into the united states in history. the difference is most of the cubans are settling in florida where there is already a large cuban-american community that is helping them to integrate into u.s. society. so it has not gotten as much national attention. but there is an enormous problem in the cuban migration as well that the united states is confronting. i think that is one of the interesting things. all of the search is a direct result of our government economic warfare against

particular countries. i think one of the things the report urges is the kubo embargo has to end, the venezuelan sanctions have to end and that nicaraguans sanctions have to end. the other thing the report shows is the historic neglect of the united states to latin america and the caribbean. this past year, the united states gave total foreign aid to all of latin america and caribbean $3 billion. $3 billion. compare that to the $113 million that went to ukraine or as much money went to foreign aid to latin america, which has 650 million people, as what to israel. israel had about 3.8 million and eight and is about to get a lot more. the inequities in u.s. foreign aid are not helping to lift latin america creating the sanctions are reducing the

ability of people to survive in the region and then we are surprised by all of these people appearing at the border. i think that is the main lesson that we have to learn. also, president biden now is urging about $14 billion in his new package that he is proposed to congress for border security. one interesting fact most are not aware of, united states spent $333 billion between 2003 when the department of homeland security was created and 2021 for agencies that carried out immigration enforcement. i what to repeat that. 333 billion dollars for immigration enforcement and for ice border patrol and fences and what do we have? the highest level of migrant crossings in history are occurring right now. all of that money did nothing to slow the migrant flow so

obviously -- it is like money for prisons. it is wasted money. amy: we want to thank you for the report and we will link to it, "the current migrant crisis"

♪ noets hello, and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in new york. the united nations secretary-general has rejected what he calls misinterpretations suggesting he justified acts of terror. antonio guterres has said the hamas attack on israel did not happen in a vacuum, and he has pushed back against israeli fi