04/15/22 04/15/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> raytheon, bae systems, lockheed martin, general dynamics, northrop grumman were represented. amy: is the pentagon meets with the largest weapons contractors, russia warns the binder administration to stop arming ukraine, claiming it is adding

fuel to the conflict. this comes as the russian warship sinks in the black sea hours after ukraine claimed to have attacked it with cruise missiles. we will speak to william hartung and look at how the work is reverberating across the globe. >> this war will not end merely in ukraine. the entire war must be ended. no more seeking to defeat nuclear rivals. this is the worst kind of macho idealism, the idea the united states can be dominant forever. amy: we will speak to vijay prashad. and we will speak to mother jones editor mark follman, author of the new book "trigger points: inside the mission to stop mass shootings in america." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. russia's military says the flagship of its black sea fleet, the guided missile cruiser moskva, sank as it was being towed to port thursday, forcing some 500 sailors to abandon ship. the loss of the moskva was reported hours after ukraine's military claimed it had successfully attacked the warship with cruise missiles. russia contends the ship was damaged after a fire caused ammunition onboard to explode. this comes as "the washington post" is reporting the russian government has formally warned the biden administration to stop arming ukraine, claiming it is adding fuel to the conflict. russia has warned the governments of finland and sweden against joining nato, saying it's prepared to station more nuclear weapons in the baltic sea region in response to further nato expansion. the threat came as cia director william burns told lawmakers they should not discount the

threat of russia potentially using tactical nuclear weapons in ukraine. we will have more on the war in ukraine after headlines. in occupied east jerusalem, more than 150 people were injured after israeli soldiers attacked palestinian worshippers inside the al-aqsa mosque shortly after morning prayers on friday. witnesses said troops fired tear gas, rubber-coated bullets, and concussion grenades into the holy site's prayer halls and courtyards. >> they brutally emptied the compound. they were attacking the employees, normal people, elders, and young people. there were many people injured. they fired rubber bullets inside the mosque compound. they were beating everyone, even the paramedics. amy: one local hospital received 40 injured palestinians, including two in critical condition. israeli troops rounded up and arrested at least 300 people.

the raid follows a series of attacks by palestinians and arab citizens of israel that have killed people inside since march 22. meanwhile, israeli raids on west bank towns and villages have killed 29 palestinians. among the dead are a 34-year-old palestinian lawyer who was shot in the chest wednesday and a 14-year-old boy killed by israeli troops who accused him of throwing a molotov cocktail. six united states senators have arrived in taiwan for a surprise visit, prompting an angry response from china. the delegation says it's planning two days of talks on u.s.-taiwan relations and regional security. new jersey democrat bob menendez, who chairs the senate reign relations committee, spoke after he was welcomed by taiwan's president. >> with taiwan producing 90% of the world's high-end semi conductor products come it is a country of global

significance, of global consequenc of glob impact, and therefore, it should be understood that the security of taiwan has a global impact for those who would wish i ill. amy: in response, china's military sent naval ships, bombers, and fighter planes to the east china sea for war games. in a statement, the people's liberation army warned -- "u.s. bad actions and tricks are completely futile and very dangerous. those who play with fire will burn themselves." the british government has announced it could soon resettle some asylum seekers to rwanda as an attempt to deter more people from attempting to reach britain for refuge. prime minister boris johnson spoke thursday. >> this innovative approach, driven by our shared humanitarian impulse, made possible by brexit freedoms, will provide safe and legal

routes for asylum while disrupting the business model of the gangs. amy: human rights groups condemned the plan as shockingly ill-conceived. amnesty international u.k. said in a statement -- "sending people to another country, let alone one with such a dismal human rights record, for asylum 'processing' is the very height of irresponsibility and shows how far removed from humanity and reality the government now is on asylum issues." in michigan, the family of patrick lyoya is demanding that the white grand rapids police officer who killed the 26-year-old congolese refugee be fired and charged with a crime. city officials have yet to name the officer, who is seen in the video pulling his service pistol from a holster and firing a fatal shot into lyoya's head after a struggle. patrick's father peter lyoya said through an interpreter that

he and his family had escaped war and persecution in the democratic republic of congo only to see patrick killed "like an animal" by a michigan police officer. -- by michigan police. >> our heart this deeply broken. i did not believe in this country -- i did not know that being in america, there can be an execution. amy: hetrick's family was standing next to their lawyer benjamin crump. florida's republican governor ron desantis has signed a bill banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. it's modeled after a mississippi abortion law that the supreme court is currently weighing and which could essentially undo roe v. wade.

in a statement, naral pro-choice america called florida's abortion ban a "shameless step towards what could be a terrifying new future for reproductive freedom in the country." a jury in washington, d.c., has found an ohio man guilty of felony obstruction of congress after he joined the january 6 insurrection at the u.s. capitol. 38-year-old dustin thompson did not contest charges that he stole a bottle of whiskey and a coat rack from the senate parliamentarian's office and ran from a police officer seeking to question him. thompson's defense hinged on his claim that he was "following presidential orders" when he was swept up in the capitol riot. he's the third january 6 insurrectionist to be found guilty by a jury. his conviction came as former senior trump adviser stephen miller was questioned for eight hours thursday by the house committee investigating the january 6 attack. miller reportedly refused to answer questions about his conversations with trump,

claiming executive privilege. the republican national committee has voted to withdraw from the commission on presidential debates. thursday's unanimous vote by the rnc came after numerous complaints by ex-president trump over debate formats and the commission's choice of moderators. the commission was formed by the democratic and republican parties in 1987 and quickly took control of the debates from the nonpartisan league of women voters. the commission has allowed just one third-party candidate, ross perot, to participate in debates. a bipartisan group of over 100 texas lawmakers have joined calls to stop the execution of melissa lucio, who is scheduled to die in less than two weeks. lucio says she was wrongfully convicted of killing her two-year-old daughter mariah after a tragic accident in 2007. attorneys say lucio faced a lifetime of abuse, was pressured to make a false confession, and didn't get a fair trial. this week, lawmakers asked the texas board of pardons and paroles to grant lucio clemency

after a hearing in which they called on the district attorney to cancel her april 27 execution date. cameron county district attorney luis saenz testified if lucio does not get a stay, "then i will do what i have to do and stop it." former trial juror johnny galvan also testified via his daughter that he opposed lucio's execution. >> the idea that my decision to take another person's life was not based on complete and accurate information and a fair trial is horrifying. amy: lucio would be the first latina woman executed by texas. next week, the state plans to execute 77-year-old carl wayne buntion, the oldest person on texas' death row. in labor news, workers at two el milagro tortilla plants in chicago have won wage increases and other victories after months of fighting for better working conditions. the tortilla manufacturer said it would end a seven-day work

week, but workers are reporting el milagro has yet to fulfill the demand to be closed on sundays. el milagro will now also provide anti-sexual harassment training for managers, air conditioning in the lunch rooms, and has promised to improve its sick day policy. but workers have vowed to keep organizing until el milagro prioritizes workers' safety and respect and agrees to their other demands. and here in new york city, a coalition of union leaders and workers led a protest thursday outside the $40 million penthouse of starbucks ceo howard schultz denouncing the corporation's ongoing retaliation and firing of workers fighting to unionize. among the speakers at the rally were charles jenkins, president of the coalition of black trade unionists, and larry holmes of the workers assembly against racism. >> we demand the right -- [indiscernible]

we demand all workers have a right to unionize. >> [indiscernible] organizing more stores. if you keep your union busting up, all you're going to do is wake up a sleeping giant. amy: despite an aggressive union-busting campaign from starbucks, thousands of workers at some 220 shops across the -- shops have filed for union elections including a starbucks at mall of america. a total of 22 starbucks stores have successfully unionized across the country. 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! co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world.

amy: russia's invasion in ukraine is now its 50th day. on thursday, the most powerful russian warship in its black sea fleet sank as it was being towed to port hours after ukraine claimed to have attacked the warship with cruise missiles. russia denies this and says the ship was damaged after a fire caused ammunition onboard to explode. this comes as "the washington postis reporting the russian government has formally warned the biden administration to stop arming ukraine, claiming it was adding fuel to the conflict. in a diplomatic note dated on tuesday, russia also accused nato of pushing ukraine to "abandon" talks with russia "in order to continue the bloodshed." the note was sent on the same day news broke of the biden administration's plans to send a new $800 million arms transfer to ukraine that includes armored humvees, coastal defense drones, howitzers, and weapons training. this is pentagon press secretary john kirby. >> united states has now

committed more than 3.2 billion dollars in security assistance to ukraine since the beginning of the biden administration. including approximately $2.6 billion since the beginning of their unprovoked invasion on february 24. amy: on wednesday, pentagon officials held an extraordinary meeting with top weapons makers eight but the pentagon attempted to downplay the significance of the meeting. >> it was part of a normal scheduled routine conversation that we have with defense industry leaders. but honestly, focused much more specifically on what is going on in ukraine. boeing was represented, raytheon, bae systems, lockheed martin, general dynamics, northrop grumman and were all represented today. amy: ukrainian officials have also been meeting directly with u.s. defense contractors. this according to "the washington post" which reports the ukrainian ambassador to the u.s. met last week with drone

maker general atomics. we are joined now by william hartung, national security and foreign policy expert at the quincy institute for responsible statecraft. his latest book, "prophets of war: lockheed martin and the making of the military-industrial complex." bill, if you can start off by responding to this meeting that kirby calls just run-of-the-mill, but the level of involvement of the weapons manufacturers right now in the war in ukraine? >> it is routine in the sense it is the military industrial complex in action, but it is extraordinary in the sense it was very specifically korg how to arm ukraine and help they profit from it. the pentagon has been giving missiles, antitank, to air missiles and other equipment there is existing stocks it

already had and that it will pay these companies to replenish those stocks. the discussion was, how quickly can you crank out these weapons? do you need the production line? do you need more money to make it happemore quickly? how best they could profit from the war. posturing as if they are bastions of democracy but they're also sending weapons to yemen that are being used to bomb school buses and civilians. they will sell to anyone with money. but they're using the ukraine crisis to try to remold their image. juan: bill, could you talk about the relative size we're talking about here -- this is now about more than $3 billion from the biden administration to ukraine. in terms of the context of what

this means to these companies, this increased amount of money not only now but, clearly, there will be security needs for years and maybe decades into the future. >> this is the bonanza from the company. they're going to profit fr this in so many ways it makes my head spin. yet the $3 billion in direct arms, which is a substantial amount. then you have companies -- countries like germany increasing the military budget to buy things like lockheed martin f-35's. 's tanks. there's the pentagon program, state department a program to help arm ukraine, and then the pentagon budget. these companies the pentagon arguing ukraine is the reason to push it to record levels, $100

billion more than at the peak of the cold war. so between the arms of ukraine, the pentagon being jacked up far beyond what is needed even to address the ukraine crisis, these companies -- the top five get $150 bilon a year. that is going to go up and up. this is unfortunate for the world but -- [indiscernible] juan: you talked about 2020, lucky received a $75 billion -- lucky received $75 billion, more than the entire state department budget. so much for the emphasis of the biden administration on diplomacy, isn't it? >> exactly. it is so stunning one company gets more contracts from the pentagon and the state department, especially for new

administration [inaudible] the assessor policies [inaudible] a sense of how our budget is still skewed toward the militarized foreign policy at a time when i think diplomacy is more rigid than ever. amy: raytheon ceo defended how the ukraine war has boosted their profits. during an interview last month with the harvard business review. this is what he said. >>, no apology for that. i think recognizing we are there to defend democracy and the fact is eventually we will see some benefit in the business over time. everything that is being shipped into ukraine today is coming out of stockpiles either at dod or from our nato allies. that is all great news. eventually, we will have to replenish it and we will see a benefit to the business over the next coming years. amy: that is the raytheon ceo. if you can talk about the significance of that comment and also nato expansion once again

with finland and sweden now talking about joining, what that means and what weapons manufacturers have to do with nato and the deals that are made , what is required of countries when they join nato? >> the raytheon ceo, that is a stunning statemt. sort of the height of hypocrisy to say their role is to defend democracy. if arms sales are defending democracy, u.s. arms should stop supplying uae, saudi arabia, nigeria, ept, firearms to the philippines. all of these countries that are major human rights abuses using u.s. weapons to either suppress their own citizens or reckless devastating wars like yemen, if that is what the industry is about, they should refrain from

themselves. but it has nothing to do with defending democracy. everything to do with patting their bottom line. as for nato extension, nato is a go of 2% of gdp spent on the militaries. about a third of nato countries -- germany is going to push up to that level, spend another probably at least $50illion a year. they have already said they want to buy lockheed martin f-35's. finland made a $9 billion deal to buy them from lockheed martin. the whole push for more spending by mato -- nato would be a huge food u.s. weapons contractors. can't forget back when nato was expanded, lockheed martin lobbied heavy to see that. they knew the new 20 countries would have to get rid of soviet era weapons.

there is spent and long history of u.s. companies cashing in on the whole nato range. juan: there were two major powers in the world effectively disarmed after world war ii germany and japan. th pretty much remained disarmed for all of these decades. what is this conflict doing -- you written about the situation and japan, between japan and russia has not got much attention. could you talk about that as well? >> i think between the focus on china, which the pentagon still calls their "pacing threat" and the attempts to exploit the ukraine crisis to push of the pentagon budget and also allies like germany and japan to spend more, you have a situation where countries that were disarmed in world war ii that were the

aggressor nations have now transformed into u.s. allies and our remote i's and. -- and our remit i's and. military first approach to russia that other countries might take up that course for that approach. there is a danger in this generalized militarization of the u.s. and also its allies. amy: finally, very quickly, the revolving door with the biden administration which we have seen with republican and democratic administration's as high up as lloyd austin, formally on the board of raytheon, these weapons manufacturers have total access to these government officials. >> yes,ell, this is sort of business as usual but it has not changed under biden. 1700 people have gone from the pentagon to the contractors to lobby for them and then you have

people like secretary austin coming from the companies to the pentagon. we have this very tight relationship were often the contractors and a officials that are supposed to be regulating spending and more contracts for those countries. amy: william hartung, thank you for being with us, national security and foreign policy expert at the quincy institute for responsible statecraft. his latest book is "prophets of war: lockheed martin and the making of the military-industrial complex." when we come back, vijay prashad joins us about how the world is reverberating across -- e... ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "start running" by the comet is coming.

this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. the head of the imf, the international monetary fund, warned on thursday that russia's invasion of ukraine will lead to more hunger and social unrest across the globe. the imf managing director kristalina georgieva spoke in washington. >> in the past seven weeks, the world has experienced a second major crisis, a war on top of epidemic. -- pandemic. this has eroded much of the progress we have made over the past two years coming back from covid. add to this the growing threat of fragmentation in geopolitical and economic blocks. in a world where war in europe creates hunger in africa, where a pandemic can circle the globe in days, and for vertebrate --

reverberate for years. means rising sea levels everywhere. the threat to our collective prosperity from a breakdown in global cooperation cannot be overstated. the root cause of what we face today is the war. it is the war that must end. amy: imf managing director kristalina georgieva speaking on thursday. to talk more about how the war in ukraine is reverberating around the world, we are joined by vijay prashad. director of the tricontinental institute for social research and the chief correspondent of globetrotters. he is the author of many books, including "the poorer nations: a possible history of the global south" and "washington bullets: a history of the cia, coups, and assassinations." vijay prashad joins us from santiago, chile. welcome to democracy now! vijay, if you can talk about how

russia's war on ukraine is reverberating across the globe. >> first, happy new year. it is happy new year today. it is an interesti period to commemorate the end and of the ye that one part would bring this out of the pandemic and instead it has brought us into war and sanctions. i what to remind people a decade ago when there was a drought in ukraine and in russia were about 25% of the world's wheat is exported into, when there was that drought in 2010, there was a major uprising not only in the arab world which we called the arab spring, but across the african continent, now long forgotten i think. it is important to remember when there is a crisis in food and when food prices go up, the

political crisis is honest immediate. there has already been an economic crisis in sri lanka that has metastasized into a political crisis. we have seen the government fall in pakistan. around the world we see food price inflation creates serious problems for governments. before this war in the sections against russia, 2.7 billion people struggled with hunger. it is likely that will go about 3 billion before the month is over. we are also going to see i think the catastrophic problem with disruptions in fuel distribution. i want to say one thing abou this, amy, it looks -- when you watch the news perhaps in the west, it looks like a world of certainty. everybody seems clear about what is happening. to the rest of the world, i think people are really trying to rein in the contradiction. they understand this is a

ghastly war but they have seen them before. i think there's some perplexity about why this war a street is so different than other wars. i think in the contradictions, countries are not willing to break ties with russia or to cut the import of grain and fuel from places like russia. they have their own populations to take care of and they have to consider their needs and their desires. juan: it is not oy the governments of many of these countries that are not buying into the call for sanctions on russia, but the public opinion polling has shown in many countries, indonesia, brazil, south africa, and many countries in the global south, the public has a different opinion about this war as well. >> well, there's no question

this is a terrible war. like all wars, this is brutal, nasty, and so on. but let's take an example. there was an appalling bombing of a material -- maternal hospital in mariupol. the u.s. government talked about war crimes with international criminal court said this is good to have a file open for war crimes against mr. putin and so on. have we forgotten 1500 civilians killed 1991 when the united states bombed shelter knowing full well there were civilians there? no question of any interrogation of war crimes. the land which of war crimes was not used in libya after nato quite ruthlessly hsylook, nato'r

crimes. war crimes are committed by other people, not by nato. just this recent month, their were israeli airstrikes which struck a medical center. two doctors were killed. do we know their names? they were killed in the middle of all of this but there was no question of calling the israeli strikes war imes. this kind of open hypocrisy i think is what is striking lots of people around the world. i have to say, juan,, a speech in glasgow, regarding climate policy. that speech has been viewed by hundreds of millions of people, including by right-wing groups in india. people are frustrated with the way in which the western powers in the western media reports things. the very fact you know the flag

loring of ukraine but have no idea what the flag of yemen looks like, with the flag of palestine looks like, what the flag of the congo looks like. needless to say, the flag of iraq loo like. that has frustrated a lot of people and is driving public opinion. juan: what is your reaction to president biden's recent meeting with president modi on monday? >> it is interesting. it is not just biden. the u.s. state department said a high official, the british foreign ministry send their leading cabinet minister in the foreign secretary. they all went to libya to say, how is it possible that india, governed by right-wing country, led by narendra modi, supportive ally of the united states, a member of the court, how is it that india is not willing to come out and attack the russian war in ukraine? how is it that india is not

willing to condemn vladimir putin and so on? this is a full court press. inside india, there's been a great deal of frustration. questions raised about the so-called finger wagging with india for india's policy. i think what people need to understand -- this is not just india. i suppose india has been the most forthright and refusing to come out and condemn this war. it is not just india. look at germany. germany continues to buy energy from russia. the german chancellor directly told mr. biden, look, if germany breaks ties with russia, bans gas imports, germany will plunge into terrible recession. the japanese prime minister has also told united states until the russia emphatically, we are quite happy to sign onto the g7 statement condemning russia and its war, but we're not going to cut ties, stop importing

liquefied natural gas, not going to stop importing crude oil. furthermore, japan is one of the major investors in very large and important energy projects of the russian people, the russian government but also the private sector. it is the japanese state that has invested. it is not willing to cut all that. so the united states i think is coming to realize -- or i hope it comes to realize that many countries, not only so-called adverse countries, but countries that are allies like germany, japan, india, and so on, are just not willing to break ties. let me say one thing about that. for 20 plus years, use government pushed a globalization agenda which integrated countries with each other. russia was at the four of that integration, not only for the export of fuel, but also for the

export of the wealth stolen from the state of -- all that money taken by billionaires was invested in the international financial markets. and having integrated the world coming up suddenly, as the higher -- head of the anime pointed out, two major shocks take place, the pandemic and the war and the sanctions. and these two shocks have not end types merely to households, but shocks to the level of integration of the world economy. it is very hard for countries to disentangle on a dimjust because the u.s. what house has break ties. it is not easy. it is not a question a political connection, this is a question of deep suctural economic relations that cannot be broken. if they break, it will slash these countries into even

greater catastrophe. amy: during a press conference on monday, india's external affairs minister s. jaishankar pointed out europe buys far more russian oil and gas than india. this is what he said. >> if you are looking at energy purchases from russia, i would suggest that your attention should be focused on europe, which probably -- we do buy some energy wch is necessary for our energy security, but i suspect looking at t figures, probably, our total purchases for the month would be less than what you're up ties an afternoon. so you might want to think about that. amy: vijay prashad, as you talk about the rank hypocrisy, you have not only united states but europe, talking about putin's war crimes, where would he be tried, logical for a mood be that your natural criminal court. neither the united states nor russia or ukraine for that

matter has fully signed onto the international court. as it has pointed out over and over again, antipersonnel landmines just brutal focused on killing people that russia is using in ukraine, the u.s. has not signed onto the anti-landmine treaty that, for example, princess di had campaign for. we see the international treaties that the u.s. has not respected and yet at this point, is really invoking the foundation of them to hold putin accountable. so talking about -- as you talk about the rank hypocrisy, do you also criticize putin for invading ukraine? >> of course course. of course i criticize putin for invading ukraine, amy. he has violated the u.n.

charter. as i said, it is a brutal war. that is hardly the question whether i condemn mr. putin or not. the issue is we are living in a world where there are a lot of people -- looks like it is an upside down world. it is not just the russian of the treaties you mentioned. the united states government has not signed the international -- yet you prosecute so-called freedom of navigation mission against not only china in the south china sea, using this u.n. charr which it is not a signatory of, but it has been provoking clhes with russia and the black sea, the baltic sea, and the arctic sea, using the so-called freedom of navigation mission. let's take the question of the international criminal court when special prosecutor opened a file to investigate war crimes and afghanistan. by the way, she was clear. she said war crimes conducted by everybody, by the taliban, the

afghan national army, by the united states, by other nato countries, and so on. when she did that, the united states government told her neither she nor her family would ever get a visa to come to the united states and someone. the u.s. put enormous pressure on the international criminal court to shut down that investigation. that is incredible. this is an investigation of war crimes which are detailed in the u.s. government's own documents which have been released by the wikileaks foundation, whose founder julian assange sitting in belmarsh prison, being treated as a criminalhereas the war criminals and afghanistan are going free with mafia-like tactics. meanwhile, in an afternoon, to put the -- united states is able to get these bodies established

by international law, which the united states is not a signatory to, the u.s. in an afternoon is able to get them to open a file and start talking about war crimes. ov one milon people killed in iraq and no investigation of war crimes. none. over one million people. half a million children killed in iraq during the 1990 sanctions regime. not even the word vocal genocide." the west is walking all over the word genocide. the 1951 convention against genocide. this extraordinary weaponization of human rights and the word genocide by the west is going to be something that we are going to face the times ahead when other countries are going to say, well, we can do anything if we are backed by washington, d.c. this is extraordinarily careless. i want people to open their eyes to the very cynical way in which

washington, d.c., is approaching this terrible war taking place in ukraine, a war that has to end the cease-fire and negotiation and we're not going to easily get a cease fire gogogogogo did in poland, loosely call for regime change in russia. that is not going to he you bring people to the table, whether it is in belarus or italy, turkey. it is not going to bring ukraine and russia to the table. it is not going to stop russia's war if the russians think the united states has a total agenda to an alley the russian government. i am afraid in your not going to get a cease fire. you're going to get word atrocities in ukraine and that is something the people of the world should not stand for. juan: while this is continuing to play out this war in europe, the role of china and, as you

mentioned earlier, the u.s. has identified china as its long-term strategic foe, you talk about what this means of the relationship of these empires and china's role? >> let's be frank, juan. in 20, the trump administration announced the war on terror was over and that the full force of the united states government was now going to prevent russia and china -- actually mentioned both countries -- russia and china within defense secretary jim mattis called near fair competitors. they had to be prevented from rising. that was the was doctrine -- not pulled back by the biden administration. that -- united states government unilaterally walked out of the

intermediate nuclear forces treaty, the imf treaty. mr. putin the chinese government have said they for the placement of mid-level intermediate nuclear missiles you the russian and chinese borders. he feared it would be these missiles placed in ukraine or taiwan and so on. yet to see a little bit from that point of view. they see this as extremely threatening to their existence. e e e ple ement of these kinds f weapons near their territories. i think this is how the chinese -- as far as i've been able to e, chinese have neither condemned the war nor applauded it. they would like the war to end. china's economy is fundamentally integrated into the world's economy. the last thing we would like to

see is a divided world. iron curtain fall around eurasia. no one should be pleased about that prospect. we want to see more integrated world, a world of let's say where there is a future before as, wheree can tackle questions of climate change, tackle questions of social toxicity, tackle questions of militarism. these things cannot be dealt with if we have any iron curtain fall from the south china sea to the baltic sea. that would be a nightmare for the planet. particularly now when the intergovernmental panel of climate change sounded the red alert regarding the climate catastrophe. amy: very quickly, on thursday, the cia director william burns spoke at georgia tech, publicly discussed fears russia could turn using nuclear weapons out of desperation. >> given the potential desperation of president putin the russian leadership given the setbacks they have faced so far

militarily, none of this could take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low yield nuclear weapons. while we have seen some rhetorical posturing on the part of the kremlin about moving to higher nuclear alert levels, so far we have not seen a lot of practical evidence of the kind of deployments where military dispositions that would reinforce that concern. amy: lamberts is an interesting figu come the cia director, because he is the one who has worn for years, among many others, including progressive peace activists come against nato moving eastward, saying it will provoke russia. if you can endnd -- configuration and what you see

the outline of a cease fire could be? >> the first thing i was a is the question of nato with eastward is not the primary issue because after all, in 2004, sergey lavrov at and mr. putin welcomed the baltic states and other countries joining nato. they joined nato in 2004. the russian is not nato by itself, the question is a sense of security. what mr. burns could have said is the united states pledges to return to talks. having got to the antiballistic missile treaty in 2002 do laterally, that was the bush administration, and then in 2018, the trumpet administration unilaterally walking out of the intermediate nuclear forces treaty, why doesn't the united states come to the table as the russians have been asking since 2018 and open a new arms control

conversation? that seems to be a mature issue. frankly, this cease fire that takes place in ukraine could take place in an afternoon. the issue isn't ukraine alone. it is the question of the u.s., the question of china, russia -- all of them need to come to the table. they need to discuss a new arms control regime. we don't have one. the world right now has nuclear weapons on hairtrigger alert without a proper arms control regime. that to me is terrifying. that needs to be on the table, to talk about a cease fire in ukraine -- of course that has got to be there just as we talk about justice for the palestinians and someone. but you also have to recognize we are living right now without any arms control regime, without deterrence. that really is terrifying. amy: vijay prashad, thank you for being with articles. director of the tricontinental institute for social research.

coming up author of the new book "trigger points: inside the mission to stop mass shootings in america." back in 30 seconds. ♪♪ [music break] amy: ukrainian singer jamala. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. a federal judge in york has ordered the suspected subway gunmen held without bail as a city and much of the united states reels from an epidemic of shootings on trains from schools, another public laces

stuff we spend the rest of the hour with mark follman, national affairs editor at mother jones, where he covers gun violence and runs a mass shootings database. he has a new piece headlined "horror on the nyc subway -- and how to prevent the next attack" that draws on insights from his new book just out "trigger , points: inside the mission to stop mass shootings in america." welcome back to democracy now! let's talk about that article that you just wrote looking at the shooting and the alleged shooter in new york, how to prevent these mass shootings. >> one of the things that was immediately clear and at the case subway attack was this was an attack that was planned over a period of time. we can see that with them evidence found by investigators that the perpetrator had gone in a certain kind of gear and at --

outfit, opened fire with smoke grenades. this is important because we have several myths about mass shooters that we constantly repeat when these attacks happen and they're not helpful to understanding the problem. i write about this and length of my new book "trigger points." mass shooters do not suddenly snap. these are not impulsive crimes. they are planned over a period of time, developed. and on most every case, there is a robust trail of behavioral warning signs. with that, there is also opportunity to potentially step in and intervene and prevent these attacks from happening. juan: how in this particular case, for example, from what you know, what might have been done to be able to apprehend the shooter before he actually took action? >> this case i think will be a particularly challenging one. we are still learning the details of it. i want to belittle careful about

analyzing from that perspective. over time, i suspect we will find out more and more about the warning signs that were present with his individual who apparently was living in pretty significant isolation, but certainly his ability to access a firearm is the major question because we already know he had a long criminal history and was still able to purchase a gun legally. this is a chronic problem in our country with the regulation of firearms or lack thereof. beyond that, there was quite a bit of content this perpetrator had posted on social media, videos he recorded writing about various grievances, political ideologies, hatred and anger in which there were quite a few signals he was interested in perhaps planning violence. this is present in a lot of mass shooting cases. the question is do you detect that? there are often people around

perpetrators who see things like this, who get a sense of threatening communications and feel unsettled by it. we have seen comments in the press since the attack of people who are neighbors who found him to be kind of disturbing and upsetting guy. again, this is a tough case because this person was apparently living in a pretty isolated set of circumstances before the attack. but many of these cases occur with perpetrators who are in workplaces or schools. in those cases, it is more stark the evidence when you go back and look at the case is that there were people around the perpetrator who had a sense something was wrong. when people speak up in that situation and reach out for help, if there is a protocol in place with a method called threat assessment, 18 can do a lot to step in and evaluate if a person is becoming dangerous, if a person is planning violence, then try to intervene in constructive ways ideally to

help that person onto a different path. juan: the deeper question -- we have confronted so many of these incidents of mass shootings over the decades now. what is it in american society that -- where the officials in government do not act in a more forceful way to prevent these mass shootings? is it just the gun lobby or is there something deeper in our society that basically accepts a culture of violence or feels powerless to be able to do anything about it? >> that is a great question. it is a big question. it is challenging to answer. certainly, the political deadlock that we have in the country is an enmous problem. we have wives should go on for years and years -- we have watched it go on for years and years. there's a disconnect in my view from what the majority of the american public once in terms of

gun regulation and gun violence thate know from consistent polling over three decades now showing the majority of the country, including conservatives and gun owners, wants more effective gun regulation, better background checks and policies. the political disconnect is one part of the answer. i think the power of the gun lobby as you note. beyond that, there interesting, broader, cultural questions we face. why isn't this kind of violence is in some was so accepted in our country? there's a broad sense of resignation i think that there is not a whole lot we can do about it. i think there is the sense that we are a violent society inherently. there are ways of thinking about the problem and talking about it i think validates it in certain ways that in some ways is not helpful and perpetuates the problem. this is part of what led me to write this book.

when i learned about this prevention method, i saw quite a lot of promise in terms of its focus on getting in front of the problem, not just thinking about , arguing about gun policy -- which is important and a battle that will connue. but in my view, it cannot be the only way we approach this problem. this is a big, sprawling problem that is complex and requires a broader set of solutions. by focusing more on community-based violence prevention work that is ideally constructed is potentially very helpful to our prospects of doing better on this most of america we are going to do part o of thiconversation and post it at democracynow.org. quickly, if we can use what the oxford high school massacre as an example, it is hard to bleed been less than two months ago, february 22, would you probably opened fire -- ethan crumbley open fire.

now his parents also been held accountable. could we end with that and how you think that is a perfect example of a mass shooting that could have been prevented? the oxford high school mass shooting is a particularlylathen for me as someone who has studied cases for a decade, quite astonishing in some ways in terms of the trailing warning signs and the number of people around the perpetrator who had a sense that he might commit this act of violence, including appearance. the alleged role of the parents is really quite shocking in some way and their apparent negligence of the deteriorating situation with their son and his trajectory toward violence appeared to even enable him by rchasing a firearm and ignoring warningfrom the school. questions about what the school did as well in terms of the

warning signs being seen there. there were teachers who had come very alarmed about the student and referred him to counselors. the counselors were so concerned, they demand of parents remove the student from the school the morning before the attack. this is a case where if there were a threat assessment program in place and trained experts who had the ability to see better what was goingon in terms of warning signs, there wouldn't have been different actions taken, in my view. -- there would have been different actions taken, in my view. there's the question of why was the situation so ignored in some was? amy: we will talk about that in the second part of our conversation. mark follman, author of "trigger points: inside the mission to stop mass shootings in america." national affairs editor at mother jones where he covers and

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