i'm amy goodman. today in this democracy now special, we go back 50 yrsrs to 1968, a pivol l yearn momode amican history. was a yr that s the asssinatioof martiluther king and rert kenny, historic student strikes from columbia university to san francisco state, the soviet invasion of czechoslovakia, the chicago democratic conventions protests, and the escalation of the vietnam war. over the next hour, we will air highlights from our recent coverage of four key events inclcluding the assassinatationf dr. martin luther king jr., the columbia student strike and the catonsville nine. but we begin in vietnam. 50 years ago on march 16, 1968, u.s. soldiers slaughtered more than 500 vietnamese women, children, and old men in what became known as the my lai massacre. women were raped. houses were burned. bodies were mutilated. then the u.s. military attempted to keep the massacre a secret. in march, survivors of the massacre gathered at the site to describe the horror of what happened on that day in 1968. >> 1

i'm amy goodman. the israeli military killed at least 61 palestinians in gaza and wounded 2700 others for protesting monday's opening of the u.s. embassy in jerusalem israelias the occupation. among the victims shot dead by a .taffer was a 30-year-old man another victim was 8-month-old laila al-ghandour, who died early this morning after inhaling tear gas fired by the israeli military. tear gas was being dropped by drones. palestinian leaders are accusing the israeli military of carrying out war crimes. this is palestinian chief negotiator saeb erekat. >> what we witnessed t today iss thee killiling and s slaughterif dozens of f our people in the ga strip at the h hands of the israeli army, and a act tantamot to work crimes commit which we condemn with a strong as possible terms and urged the international community t to moe to prorovide prorotection for or people. at the same time, we witnessed the movement of the american embassy to jerusalem, which is an act tantamount to putting the cornerstone of

i am amy goodman. we will be back in a minute. ♪ [music break] amy: "llama" by the brooklyn band maku soundsystem. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. 50 years ago today on may 17, 1968, in the baltimore suburb of catonsville, maryland, a group of catholic priests and laypeople stood around a small fire, praying and singing. they had gone into the local draft board office and taken 378 draft records for the young men in the 1-a category who were most likely to get drafted to go to war in vietnam. they set fire to the draft records using homemade napalm, made from gasoline and laundry soap, to symbolize the u.s. military's use of napalm on vietnamese civilians. they became known as the catonsville nine. video of the act of civil disobedience was seen around the world. i want to turn to the 2012 documentary, "hit and stay," which chronicles the stories of the activists, including father phil and daniel berrigan. we make our prayer in the name of peace and d

i'm amy goodman. president trump expressed doubt tuesday about whether it's planned june 12 summit with kim jong-un will take place. pres. trump: there is a chance it will work out. there is a very substantial chance it won't work out. i don't want to waste a lot of time, and i'm sure he does not want to waste a lot of time. there is a substantial chance it won't work out, and that is ok. it doesn't mean it won't work out over a period of time, but it may not work out for june 12. there is a good chance we will have the meeting. amy: that is president trump speaking to reporters as he welcomed south korean president office.-in to the oval north korea canceled recent talks with south korea in protest of the joint u.s.-south korea air force drills be good acted over the korean peninsula, which north korea called a deliberate military provocation will stop meanwhile, north korea says it is preparing to blowup its main nuclear weapons test site within the coming days and has invited a handful of journalis

i'm amy goodman. the white house has set june 12 as the date for a meeting between president trump and north korean leader kim jong-un, to be held in singapore. the unprecedented summit comes just months after trump and kim traded insults -- "little rocket man" and "dotard" -- and after trump threatened to totally destroy north korea, a nation of 25 million people. in yemen, at least 11 civilians were killed in a 24-hour period in separate airstrikes by the u.s.-backed, saudi-led coalition. in the first attack, an airstrike hit a home in yemen's northern province of sa'ada late wednesday, killing five people inside. this is eyewitness abdallah al-fasly. >> we heard the sound missiles at 2:00 a.m., but we did not expect it was a strike. we went outside to investigate and found it had hit this building here. we waited for a little bit and then entered the building. what we saw inside was painful. something that will make you hate your self. we saw children underneath the rubble. amy: in a second assault

i'm amy goodman. the israeli military shot dead at least one more palestinian in gaza on tuesday, only one day after the israeli military massacred at least 61 unarmed palestinians, wounding 2700 more in a single day for protesting against the israeli occupation and the opening of the new u.s. embassy in jerusalem. the united states is refusing to criticize israel after the massacre. at the united nations, u.s. ambassador nikki haley has blocked a call for an international investigation into israel's actions. on tuesday, she repeatedly blamed the violence on hamas while praising israel for showing restraint. >> i asked my colleagues here in the security council, who among us would accept this type of activity on your border? no one would. no country in this chamber would act with more restraint than israel has. amy: that was u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley. she later walked out of the security council chamber when the palestinian ambassador to the u.n., riyad mansour, addressed the council. me

i'm amy goodman. israel has bombed dozens inside syria the largest attack by israel since fighting began in syria in 2011. the bombing raid came a day after israel accused iranian forces in syria a firing 20 rockets at israeli forces in the occupied golan heights. israel's military said it hit all of the ran's infrastructure inside of syria overnight, including the munitions storage site at damascus international airport in the district's headquarters of the iranian quds forces. the bombings lit up the night sky and rattled windows across syria's capital city. monitoring groups say the strikes killed 23 fighters, including many iranians and five syrian soldiers. on capitol hill, president trump's nominee to head the cia, gina haspel, repeatedly refused wednesday to call the cia's post-9/11 treatment of prisoners torture and declined to state whether she believes torture is immoral. deputy cia director haspel's comments came in testimony to the senate intelligence committee as she made her case to beco

i'm amy goodman. a stunning new study by researchers at harvard has revealed the death toll from hurricane maria may be 70 times higher than official count. the official death toll still stands at 64. but ththe new study estimates a death toll of at least 4645, with some projections topping 5700. researchers counted not just deaths directly from storm injuries such as falling debris, but also those who died dudue to storm-m-related dedelays in meml treatmenent for injujuries, infectctions, and d chronic ill. the findings contrast with president trump's boasts in the wake of the hurricane that puerto rico suffered a low death cocount. we'll have more on deaths from hurricane maria after headlines. in the gaza strip, israeli warplanes launched scores of airstrikes overnight tuesday, while hamas fired dozens of rocketets and mortars into southern israel in the most intense fifiting in ththe besied palestinian n territory since 2014. to do the cease-fire seems to have taken place. cease-fire seems to have

i'm amy goodman. european nations are scrambling to save the landmark nuclear agreement with iran one day after president trump announced you will pull the u.s. out of the deal and reimposing to an's on iran. iss. trump: the iran deal defective at its core. if we do nothing, we know .xactly what will happen in just a short period of time, the world's leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world's most dangerous weapons. therefore, i am announcing today that the united states will withdraw from the iran nuclear deal. amy: the 2015 agreement was worked out by the united states and five other world powers, as well as iran. agreed to the international atomic energy agency, iran has continued to meet its obligations under the agreement. we will have more on trump's decision to pull out of the 2015 deal after headlines. "the new york times" is reporting that president trump's longtime personal lawyer michael cohen paid adult film star stormy daniels $130,000 in hush money using

i'm amy goodman. in afghanistan, the funerals have begun for t the 10 journalists killed on monday -- the deadliest t day for jojournalists sisince the afghgr begagan in 2001. nine journalists died in a double suicide bombing attack in kabul, including agence france-presse's celebrated photographer shah marai. survivors of the bombing said the suicide bomber was posing as a cameraman. isis has claimed responsibility for that attack. a 10th journalist was shot dead monday in the eastern city of khost. we'll go to kabul after headlines for more on the attacks.. that is after headlines. north and south korea are continuing to take historic steps toward peace. on monday, the south korean military began to dismantle loudspeakers that have been blaring propaganda into the north since 2016. north korea has announced it will shift its clocks forward 30 minutes to align with south korea's time zone. south korean leader moon jae-in has also convinced north korea's kim jong-un to hold an upcoming summit with pre

i'm amy goodman. environmental protection agency administrator scott pruitt is facing a slew of mounting new scandals over ethics violations and his environmental policies. on tuesday, it was revealed a lobbyist arranged pruitt's controversial $100,000 trip to morocco last year. the lobbyist, richard smotkin, also accompanied pruitt on the berlin trip and organized meetings for pruitt, including one with the head of a state on mining company. the new york times also reports the head of the highly conservative federalist society, leonard leo, planned pruitt's separate trip to italy last summer. the new york times is also reporting that lobbyist j. steven hart, whose wife rented pruitt a washington, d.c. condo for only $50 a night, asked pruitt to appoint three people to the epa's prestigious science advisory board. which is tasked by congress to evaluate the science used by the epa to craft policy. two of pruitt's top aides have resigned in recent days amid widening scrutiny of the agency. the resigned

i'm amy goodman. in gaza, the israeli military least 25d at palestinians today a misting nonviolentmassive protest. israeli soldiers are currently firing live ammunition into the crowd of tens of thousands of palestinian protesters, who have gathered in gaza near the heavily fortified border with israel. al jazeera is reporting that israeli soldiers have wounded at least 1000 palestinians, in addition to the 25 killed so far today. the israeli military has also been dropping tear gas from drones over gaza. this comes as senior members of the trump administration have jerusalem for the opening of the u.s. embassy, including president trump's daughter, white house senior adviser ivanka trump, and her husband, senior adviser jared kushner, and treasury secretary 's diminution. jared kushner trump's , son-in-law, is expected to lay out his plan for middle east weeks.n the coming the trumpet administration's decision to move the u.s. embassy to jerusalem has sparked widespread international condemnation wh

i'm amy goodman. the white house is struggling to explain president trump's shifting accounts of his relationship with stephanie clifford, also known as stormy daniels. the adult film star who claimed she had a sexual affair with donald trump in 2006 and then was hushed. trumpet knowledge for the first time thursday he reimbursed his lawyer for a $130,000 hush money payment made to daniels on the eve of the 2016 election. his admission came after another one of his lawyers, rudy giuliani, made the revelation during an interview wednesday evening on fox news. at the white house, press secretary sarah huckabee sanders struggled thursday when asked about trump's earlier claims he had no knowledge of the payments. >> this was information the president did not know at the time, but eventually learned. the president continues to deny the underlying claim and i've given the best information i had at the time and i would refer you back to the comment that you yourself just mentioned a few minutes ago about th

i'm amy goodman. talks between secretary of state mike pompeo and north korea's former spy chief kim yong chol have entered a second day here in new york. kim is the most senior north korean official to visit the united states in two decades. the meeting comes just days after president trump called off a june 12 summit with north korean leader kim jong-un, but there is still hope the summit will take place. meanwhile russian foreign , minister sergei lavrov is in pyongygyang where he met with km jong-un. the federal reserve has s votedo loosen the volcker rule, a key financial regulation enacted after the 2008 financial crisis. the rule b bars banknks from usg customers' d deposits to m makee bank's s own ririsky bets. it was one of the key aspects of the dodd-frank wall street reform and consumer protection act. this comes as banks are taking in record profits. $56 billion during the first three months of this year. in news from afghanistan, u.s. forces reportedly killed dozens of taliban leaders whi

i'm amy goodman. in santa fe, texas, funerals have begun for the victims of friday's school shooting massacre at santa fe high school, where eight students and two teachers were killed in the friday morning rampage. the killings began just after 7:30 texas time in the morning when when 17-year-old dimitrios pagourtzis entered the school armed with a shotgun and a .38 revolver and began to open fire. ahead of the attack, he posted on his facebook page a t-shirt that read "born to kill" as well as images of his trench coat and -- xplanation noting students who survived the massacre say the first classroom the shooter entered was an art classroom where he fatally shot 16 world including shana fisher. her mother said her daughter have repeatedly turned down the shooter's advances in recent months. "the washington post" reports 2018 has been deadlier for schoolchildren than service members. this is in part because of the 17 people killed in february in the mass shooting at marjory stoneman douglas high sch

i'm amy goodman.retary of state mike pompeo used his first major policy address to threaten iran with the strongest t sanctions in history. >> the iranian regime should know this is just the beginning. the sting of sanctions will be painful if the regime e does not change its course from the unacceptable and a productive path it has chosen to one that rejoins the league of nations. these will indeed in dubbing the strongest sanctions in the history -- amy: secretary of state mike pompeo's speech at the heritage foundation comes after the trump administration withdrew the united states from the iran nuclear deal. pompeo also warned european companies not to expect exceptions from the newly reinstated sanctions. totale said it is canceling plan contracts with iran following the pullout of the nuclear agreement. we'll have more on pompeo's speech aftfter headlines. president trump is meeting with south korean leader moon jae-in today the white house as the upcoming u.s.-north korea summit appears increas

i'm amy goodman. new york attorney general eric schneiderman has resigned after four women accused him of repeatedly physicacal assaulting them. the accusations were first reported by the new yorker magazine. two of the women, michelle manning barish and tanya selvaratnam, say schneiderman repeatedly hit them, slapping them across the face and choking them to the point they each sought medical attention. they both also accuse schneiderman of threatening to kill them if they broke up with him. selvaratnam, who was born in sri lanka, said schneiderman called her his "brown slave," and would hit her until she would call him "master" and demanded she say she was his property. both women say schneiderman drank heavily and that the abuse often occurred when he was drunk. they both told the new yorker that they repeatedly fought back against the non-consensual physical abuse. another woman, who spoke to the new yorker without being named, said schneiderman slapped her across the face after she rebuffed his s

i'm amy goodman. north korea has repeated its threat to cancel a planned summit between its leader kim jong-un and president trump, scheduled for june 1 12 in singapore, citing statements from vice president mike pence it called ignorant and stupid. on monday, pence repeated the trump administration's talking point that north korea could end up like libya if it doesn't abandon its nuclear weapons -- a reference to the u.s.-led intervention in 2011 that led to the overthrow of leader moammar gaddafi, who was dragged through the streets and publicly killed by rebels. in response, a top north korean official said wednesday -- "whether the u.s. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at a nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision of the u.s." at the white house, president trump was noncommittal when asked wednesday whether the june 12 summit was still on.. pres. trump: we're going to see on singapore. it could very well happepen, but whatever it is, we will know next week

i'm amy goodman. in a historic referendum, irish voters have repealed one of the world's more restrictive abortion bans. the yes vote one two thirds of the vote in friday's referendum, which deals a blow to ireland's conservative catholic church and repeals the 1983 measure that banned abortion under almost all circumstances. women across ireland celebrated the results of the referendum over the weekend. this is janine fretwell in dublin. ,> for all the women in ireland it is momentous. nobody has to travel anymore. i work in that profession, have for 10 years, but i can't tell -- it is incredible. amy: we will go to dublin after headlines for more on the historic referendum. a top north korean official is heading to new york as the u.s. and north korea are trying to salvage plans for the proposed june 12 summit between president trump and north korean leader kim jong-un. general kim yong chol will be the most senior north korean official to visit the united states since 2000. his visit comes after pr

i'm amy goodman. president trump has canceled plans for a summit with north june 12 korean leader kim jong-un to be held in singapore. in a letter signed by trump and addressed to kim, trump cited kim's tremendous anger and open hostility in recent comments as his reason for canceling the talks. trump went on to write -- "you talk about nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that i pray to god they will never have to be used." trump's withdrawal came after north korea blasted recent comments by vice president mike pence who suggested kim jong-un will end up like slain libyan leader muammar gaddafi if he doesn't denuclearize north korea. on thursday, president trump said the u.s. stood ready to attack. pres. trump: i believe this is a tremendous setback for north korea, and indeed, a setback for the world. i have spoken to general mattis and the joint chiefs of staff, and our military, which is by far the most powerful anywhere in the world, and has been greatly enhanced recently, a

i'm amy goodman. the senate has confirmed gina haspel as director of the central intelligence agency. haspel is a 33-year cia veteran who was responsible for running a secret cia black site in thailand in 2002, where at least one prisoner was waterboarded and tortured in other ways during her tenure. haspel also oversaw the destruction of videotapes showing torture at the black site. haspel's confirmation came after six democrats joined most senate republicans to approve her. ayes are 54. the nomination is confirmed. amy: the democrats voting yes were senators joe donnelly, heidi heitkamp, joe manchin, bill nelson, jeanne shaheen, and mark warner. republican senators jeff flake and rand paul voted no, while john mccain was unable to cast a vote as he battles stage iv brain cancer from his home in arizona. senator mccain is a former prisoner of war who was tortured in vietnam. he said of haspel's role in cia torture is disturbing and disqualifying. oregon senator ron wyden, a member of the senate intel

i'm amy goodman.ormer new york city mayor rudy giuliani said wewednesday that president trump reimbursed trump's lawyer and fixer, michael cohen, for a $130,000 hush money payment cohen made on the eve of the 2016 election to adult film star stephanie clifford, also known as stormy daniels. giuliani, who recently joined josh giuliani made the comments wednesday evening in an interview with fox news host sean hannity. rudy giuliani: that money was not campaign money. i'm sorry if i'm giving you a fact he did not know -- no campaign finance violations. the president repaid it. president repaint it, giuliani said. the former mayor joined andident trump's legal team negotiated -- is negotiate with robert mueller. sarah huckabee sanders reiterated trump's denial i in march.h. secretary sandersrs: the e prest harry addressed these directly -- the presidedent addressed t e directly. the cases have already been won in arbitration, and anything more i would refer you to the outside counsel. >> will the preside

i am amy goodman with nermeen shaikh.ur guest is arundhati roy, the author of the new novovel out in paperback "the ministry of , utmost happiness." arundhati roy won the booker prize in 1997 for her first book, "the god of small things." lessen: the book more or concludes with modi, in allusion to modi. you said his real kaiser with the rss. could you explain what the -- ties are with the rss. could you explain what it stands for and why it is significant he is more aligned with the rss than the pjb? it is basically a natural self help society, but it is the most powerful organization in the country today. it was founded, as i said, in the 1920's, and it has always believed in rewriting the constitution. it has openly believed india should be declared a hindu nation. its ideologues have openly india -- they of are the jews of germany. it is a formidable organization. it works in education. it has slum wings, publishing wings. it really writes the story of what is going on today, and it is not just modi, but almost all of