08/21/23 08/21/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> today we accept the victory the people of guatemala gave us. the vallow boxes have spoken and is fully -- supreme electoral court with danny 3.6 of the tally officially recognize the result. but the people shout about his enough of so much corruption.

amy: in a stunning rejection of guatemala's ruling business and political elite, the progressive anti-corruption campaigner bernardo arevalo has won guatemala's presidential election in landslide. but will he be allowed to take office? we will go to guatemala city for the latest. then to south africa, where leaders from the leaders of brics -- brazil, russia, india, china and south africa -- are holding a major summit where the group looks to expand. >> i think this summit is going to demonstrate the coming together of the global south in a show of unity, in a show of strength, and as a show of friendship and cooperation. amy: we will go to british columbia, where canadian prime minister justin trudeau has deployed the military as more than 400 fires have forced more than 35,000 people to evacuate . >> as canadians are saying

horrific images, they see of devastation and fear of residents, it is an extraordinarily serious situation. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in guatemala, progressive politician bernardo arevalo has declared a decisive victory in a runoff election against former first lady sandra torres. arevalo, leader of the semilla party, took nearly 60% of the votes sunday. he has vowed to fight corruption and push for social reforms. his supporters poured onto the streets of guatemala city to celebrate. >> democracy won. we will be able to dream of a different what a mama.

there is new hope for guatemalans. we are telling corrupt politicians they must respect our boat. guatemala has already changed. amy: bernardo arevalo is the son of former president juan josé arevalo, guatemala's first democratically elected leader, who pushed for revolutionary policies when he was in office from 1945 to 1951. we will go to guatemala city for more after headlines. ecuadorians also took to the polls sunday for a snap presidential election. leftist luisa gonzález took the lead in the first round and will face daniel noboa in a run-off election in october as neither candidate won over 50% of the vote on the first round. gonzález is a member of former president rafael correa's citizen revolution movement party. noboa is a businessman whose father is one of ecuador's wealthiest people. he previously ran for president of ecuador. luisa gonzález spoke to supporters sunday.

>> we don't want lasso 2.0. we don't want anyone disconnected from the people's needs because then we would again faces situation in which we would have a president that rules for the companies and not for the needs of ecuadorians. amy: at least three political leaders were killed ahead of sunday's election, including presidential candidate fernando villavicencio. on sunday, ecuadorian voters also overwhelmingly supported a historic referendum blocking oil extraction in the amazon's yasuni national park, the largest protected area in ecuador with massive petroleum reserves crossing through indigenous yasuni land. the effort was spearheaded by indigenous leaders and environmental defenders. the group yasunidos said on social media -- "this is the first time a nation chooses to defend life and leave petroleum underground." tropical storm hilary made landfall sunday in baja

california, mexico, and shortly after in southern california, where authorities have warned of life-threatening floods. one person died in mexico when their vehicle was swept away in water. school districts in southern california and nevada have canceled classes. in palm springs, the 911 emergency phone system was knocked out sunday evening as residents of california's desert towns say they've never witnessed such extreme storms. >> it is unprecedented. we have had storms before, but never anything quite this windy and rainy at the same time. i have a friend who just saw a 60 foot carport get blown off his neighbor's house and carried four houses up. amy: meanwhile, further north in washington state, one person died as a wind-fueled wildfire near the city of spokane. governor jay inslee declared a state of emergency. >> there is a beast at our door and that is the beast of climate

change. it seems like the whole world is on fire today. yellowknife, canada, burning and counted up. maui with lahaina burned to the ground. and now spokane county, 3500 acres today in washington state. amy: canada is sending its military to help tackle its fast-moving wildfires in british columbia. so far, more than 35,000 people have been evacuated. in hawaii, the death toll from the maui wildfires has reached 114, with over 1000 people still missing. president biden is meeting today with federal, state, and local officials, as well as survivors. niger's military junta said it was open to talks following the july 26 coup. coup leader abdourahmane tchiani announced the plan after meeting with delegates from the west

african regional bloc ecowas, which has threatened military intervention and imposed sanctions on niger. on sunday, thousands of coup supporters rallied in niger's capital niamey. >> we did not ask for this coup d'état, but it is done. we will take responsibility for it. instead of punishing for us, they need to ask the right questions. what led to this repeated coup d'état? not just in niger, but west africa in general? instead of sitting down to negotiate, put a gun on the table. you threaten us and you think you will get something out of it. amy: in the democratic republic of the congo, at least six children were killed in a fire at a camp for displaced flood victims. the blaze started as a child was cooking unsupervised, burning down hundreds of makeshift tarp dwellings. the u.n. said some 3000 families lost their homes after recent intense flooding and mudslides in eastern drc. egypt's authoritarian president abdel fattah el-sisi has

pardoned nearly three dozen political prisoners, including a leader of the arab spring uprising that ousted then-president hosni mubarak in 2011. ahmed douma was freed saturday from the notorious badr prison after nearly a decade behind bars. in 2013, he and two other protest leaders were arrested for violating a law effectively banning public protest. his lawyer, khaled ali, welcomed douma's release but called on egyptian authorities to set other political prisoners free. >> thank god for his release. honestly, there are still many inside. there are a lot of imprisoned women. we hope that next time some of them will also be released because this is their right. so far there has only been a focus on the male activists but not the women. amy: saudi border guards have killed hundreds of ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who've tried to cross the yemen-saudi border since march

2022. that's according to a new investigation by human rights watch that relies on first-hand accounts from 42 people -- over 100 verified videos and photos and an analysis of satellite imagery. this is an excerpt of a video from hrw accompanying its report. >> we found evidence to saudi border guards have used explosive weapons and shot people at close range in what appears to be a policy targeting migrants and asylum, including women and children at the border. human rights watch believes this may amount to crimes against humanity. saudi arabia's border forces should stop intentionally using lethal force to kill ethiopian migrants and asylum-seekers with explosive weapons. amy: president biden hailed a new era for cooperation between the u.s., south korea, and japan as he hosted leaders of the two nations at camp david friday. it was the first such meeting

between the three countries as south korea and japan pursue a rapprochement in the face of what they called dangerous and aggressive behavior by china in the south china sea. the three heads of state also discussed north korea. this is president biden. pres. biden: we are doubling down on information sharing, including on the dprk's missile launches and cyber activities. strengthening our ballistic muscle -- missile-defense, and critically we have all committed just with the consult with each other in response to threats to anyone of our countries from whatever source that it occurs. amy: the biden administration will recommend covid-19 booster shots for all this fall to ward against a new wave of infections. vaccine makers will submit updated versions of their shots for regulatory approval that protect against the sub-variants driving current infections, eris and fornax. while cases are on the rise, they still remain comparatively low. u.s. officials will also recommend everyone get their flu

shots and rsv shots. and here in new york, governor kathy hochul signed a bill banning the release of nuclear waste water into the hudson river. the legislation came after campaigning by activists and local communities to stop holtec international, the owner of the decommissioned indian point nuclear facility, from dumping 1 million gallons of radioactive water into the hudson. the group food & water watch celebrated the law for "prioritizing public health and the environment over corporate expediency," adding, "today, we celebrate the power of our communities over corporations." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in guatemala, progressive presidential candidate bernardo arevalo has won a landslide victory in a runoff election against former first lady sandra torres. arevalo took nearly 60% of the

vote sunday in a historic election. arevalo, a member of the semilla party, has vowed to fight corruption and push for social reforms. he addressed supporters last night. >> today we accept with humility the victory the people of guatemala gave us. the ballot boxes have spoken and supreme electoral court with 93.6 of the tally has officially recognized the result and what the people shout about is enough of so much corruption. we would like to think the convincing result of the selection will make any attempt to derail the electoral process will not take place. the people of guatemala have forcibly spoken. otherwise, get out to ask the people that are outside in an unprecedented act in our political history. we are calm because we know.

this has been a convincing decision of the people of guatemala. amy: bernardo arevalo is the son of former president juan josé arevalo, guatemala's first democratically elected leader, who pushed for revolutionary policies when he was in office from 1945 to 1951. three years later in 1954, the cia backdate coup putting an end to democracy in guatemala. bernardo arevalo's victory comes after a tumultuous year in guatemala as the country's ruling business and political elite took extraordinary measures to maintain its grip on power. prior to the first round of voting, election authorities barred three prominent presidential candidates, including the indigenous leader thelma cabrera. then in june, bernardo arevalo stunned many in guatemala when he placed second in the first round of voting after running on an anti-corruption platform. soon after, the attorney general's office suspended

arevalo's semilla party and police raided their offices. while arevalo was allowed to keep running for president, he may still be blocked from becoming president. we go now to guatemala city, where we are joined by two guests. allan nairn is an award-winning investigative journalist who has reported on guatemala since the 1980's. and frank leroux also joins us, a --frank larue also joins us guatemalan human rights activist , a and lawyer who brought the first case of genocide against former guatemalan military dictatorships and general rios montt. from 2008 to 2014, he served as u.n. special rapporteur on . we welcome you both to democracy now! frank larue, your response to arevalo's overwhelming victory last night? >> thank you, amy. we are really delighted.

guatemala has had a sequencing of very corrupt governments. it also tied to the military, this miss dealings with organized crime has been an absolute mess. this has deteriorated the justice system progressively. so all of the sudden having a small party like semilla with the wonderful history of honesty and tradition brings about a new era of hope for guatemala. what guatemalans really feel the course of history is changing. this is really important. and this is what they expressed in the vote. the time was right because the crisis had deepened so much, especially in the current government under president giammattei. people were desperate for an opportunity of change. as the electoral authorities eliminated other possibilities, semilla became the only

alternative for change. and today, people are welcoming the new government. amy: tell us more about the presidential candidate who won, bernardo arevalo, the son of the first democratically elected president of guatemala. can you talk about his rise to power right now and whether you think you political and governmental leap of guatemala will actually let him take office? >> this is going to be the big challenge. bernardo is a very interesting man. he is an academic. he is very well trained statesman. it also he is been a diplomat, working for the foreign service of guatemala. he knows the world and he is a great analyst. but the figure of his father is also important. his father was the first democratic president that brought change to this country, the first labor code, the first

social security system was established, the new education system was established. so his father was a profound reformer after the beginning of this century. i think the image of his father keeps on shining around him. he keeps saying, "i am not my father, but i'm trying to be honest to his memory and follow his path." i think this played a key role in the elections as well. but more importantly, bernardo has been a member of congress with his party, with a very small group of congressmen, for the last four years. they have shown they were above corruption, they were critics of everything else that was happening around, and they never sold out to any of the other corrupt political parties. so i think this gave them the image of honesty that they deserved. amy: and the issue of whether he will be able to take office?

can you talk about the election commission and the kind of threads they have faced? -- threats they have faced? close the justice system in guatemala has deteriorated progressively, especially as past government expelled -- the commission of the u.n. supporting criminal investigations. it was very successful to challenge high-level corruption and a challenge organized crime. but it was so successful that the ruling elite and those committed to corruption wanted to get rid of him. effectively, they moved the government to do so. and since they left, what they did was, with the support of a corrupt prosecutor general, they turned the justice system -- the criminal justice system around. and now the attorney general is prosecuting honest judges and honest prosecutors. we have many of them in exile at

this moment. 20 something of them in washington, d.c., because they had to flee this form of persecution. the state department has been clear in its criticism of the attorney general and the public ministry, but now that they are trying to use the public ministry to indict arevalo and the party. but this cannot be done because you could not use criminal law to try to intervene in what is the area of electoral law. it was decided in the end only the electoral tribunal can make any decision on a party. so they pushed back on the prosecutor general. but now that the prosecutions have ended -- the elections have ended and arevalo has been elected president, we're sure they will go after the party again. we believe they will do two stages. number one, they are to dissolve the party saying they were false signatures. there may be some problems

finding the right person, but it is irrelevant in the amount of signatures the party presents. they're trying to do that because play number one is to allow him to become president, but you have a government without a party. so they would not be able to really organize things in congress or find followers of the party. and play number two is then to attack the members of the party on false charges of crime. including -- obviously, they have immunity for the position they have but that immunity can eventually be lifted by congress or supreme court and they would try to initiate some investigation to keep the new government at bay all the time or at least harassed by criminal

law. this is truly the perfect example of warfare in guatemala. we believe the way to defend arevalo is to build as much massive support of population like it did turn out for the vote in the elections. amy: i want to bring allan nairn into this investigation, investigative journalist who has won many awards for his coverage of guatemala, particularly of the u.s. involvement in the terror campaign in guatemala that saw so many hundreds of thousands of guatemalans killed since the 1980's. start by talking about the significance of this election and then go back in time, back to 1953 -- even before because arevalo's father was the first allegedly -- democratically elected president, and then see a coup, and what this means for history. >> i think the election was a referendum on the old regime.

the old regime that was opposed when the u.s. invaded in 1954 and overthrew the democracy that was just getting started with the presidency first by arevalo 's father and then his successor. what they were doing were things like basic land reform, social security, free speech, the idea of equal rights for farmworkers, laborers, and the oligarchs of guatemala and of the united states specifically president eisenhower and the cia and specifically united fruit, found this intolerable. they sent the cia to invade. they overthrew the nascent democratic regime. they began an era of military

dictators who worked on the principle, the first basic human equality was unacceptable as a political program and secondly, anyone who they imagined opposed them had to be killed. the military terror backed by the united states reached its peak in the early 1980's. there was a guerrilla movement in the mountains against the army. the army, by its own account, swept through the mountains, using a strategy developed in coordination with u.s. military attaché at the time. he himself described this to me. as they swept to the mountains, they wiped out 662 rural indigenous villages.

they did this at the borders of the military dictators, particularly general lucas and rios montt, and they did it with the full support of the united states. at the end, the wealth of the oligarchs was preserved. after the 1990's, there was a series of nominally elected governments but which gave no opportunity for social change. but now, for the first time, that whole regime that started with the overthrow of democracy and went on to include genocide has now been repudiated by the guatemalan public in the first chance they really got to vote on it. this could be the beginning of a

turn in guatemalan history. amy: and the significance of it being nardo arévalo in this historic role? you were there for the first primary with bernardo ruffalo coming in second, and now this one, where he really swept -- whether you believe he will be able to take office? >> it is not clear yet. it is really up to people here to decide whether that happens. in a way the vote and the votes which they cast yesterday where the first stage of the referendum and they supported the idea repudiating the old regime by roughly 60-40 margin, but now the second stage begins. as frank just detailed, what

they called the covenant of the corrupt, the descendants of the old massacre regime, the current rulers, they will use every level, every trick available to try to block arevalo from the presidency. so the second phase of the voting, innocence, for the guatemalan public, begins now because they may have to take to the streets to defend the result of this vote. i think the fact the vote was so overwhelming will make the regime think twice, but they're probably going to go ahead anyway. this may in the end be settled in the streets in what will hopefully be a peaceful confrontation between the public and the descendants of the old regime. amy: what makes you think this

is different than what took place in 2015 in terms of the mass protests -- at that time, against corruption? >> in a way, that was the beginning of the process that culminated in arevalo's election, because those protests in 2015 which filled the plaza with many thousands of people persistently week after week ended up bringing down general molina, who was the president at the time. but he was brought down not for his role in the 1980's massacres -- in fact, during those massacres, when i was in the mountains and talking to the troops as they described how they would torture, strangle people to death, make them did their own mass graves, execute

them, pitch their bodies into the graves, and, back in the u.s. helicopters and bomb villages -- many of the soldiers who were describing that process were directly under the command of molina. i met molina at the time. he was using an alias, known as major tito. but he was the one, one of geo's rock -- general rios montt's people. as later when he rose to journal -- general and became an asset of the u.s. cia, after that he was elected president. in office, he was brought down by these mass demonstrations and by the prosecution of the u.n. backed special prosecutors. he was brought down not for his role in the massacres, but for his being a thief, being

corrupt. but after molina was ousted, he was just replaced by more of the same and the popular movement did not have the leverage to go any further. now, though, with arevalo, if you can take office, there is the potential as a representative -- true presentation of arevalo, the popular movement can begin to wield state power or at least the state power the president will be able to exercise because he will be hemmed in by a hostile congress and the powerful forces of the oligarchy which is still intact. but having the presidency can make a tremendous difference. and this really could be the beginning of the end of what could best be described as the u.s. invasion genocide era that started in 1954 and possibly started to conclude yesterday.

amy: frank larue, i want to turn to guatemalan president alejandro giammattei speaking to reporters while casting his vote sunday in guatemala city. >> we have only one incident, a truck carrying elect oil boxes had an accident -- electoral boxes had an accident. police are protecting the material until members arrive to collect it. apart from that, pulls her opening and the remaining municipalities without incident. i hope the day will be peaceful and whoever the will of the people chooses wins. whoever wins is going to be respected. i am a man who respects the constitution. i think i am one of the few in the region who respect it. here power will be handed over january 14 no matter who it is. the important thing is that people choose and it is

confirmed. amy: that is the guatemalan president giammattei. frank larue, what happens with him next? and what he is saying, i'm a man who respects the constitution and power will be handed over on january 14 no matter who it is, that the people choose and it is legally confirmed? >> this is an important statement not because we believe giammattei. giammattei has light all through his teeth during his four years of government. probably has been one of the most corrupt presidents that we have had. the reason he is making this statement i think, number one, because he knows the people of guatemala want change and this has been proven by the vote. the fact almost 60% of the population voted for arevalo means the people of guatemala decided to take the country in a

different course. i think he recognizes that. secondly, and i must give credit to this, because of the international pressure. guatemala, because being such a tragic case, especially in the misuse of criminal justice, drew a lot of attention. we have an enormous amount of delegations. and domestic initiatives of election observation as well. it is that pressure, even the oas had a meeting just for guatemala before the election second round, sent the secretary-general to investigate and report back to the permanent council of the oas. i think these elements build in a pressure to make giammattei understand they could not get away with stopping the elections last sunday, yesterday, which was, i believe, their original intention. so now they will allow transfer the power in january, yes, about in what conditions?

i think still in a challenging mode because in the meantime, the attorney general, who although independent, response to what giammattei says, still investigating on one hand the members of semilla, including arevalo. on the other hand, it has begun investigations against the five members of the electoral tribunal and even members of their staffs, the head of digital information has left the country for fear of being prosecuted and detained. so now the attorney general is taking it out even on the electoral authorities because they did their job well. so the situation remains tense. i think obviously, they have to acknowledge the decision and the overwhelming strength of that decision in the elections, but they will keep on doing whatever they can to put off the new government, whether they

dissolve the party or whether they can stop the inauguration, they will try to do it. if not, they will try to make it impossible for him to govern. i think the message here for the people of guatemala, support the new government and demand transparency in getting -- and demanding the resignation of corrupt people in government positions like the attorney general. and eventually for the international community is to have as much support as possible for transition to real democracy in guatemala. amy: frank larue, thank you for being with us, guatemalan human rights activist, lawyer who brought the first case of genocide against the former guatemalan military dictatorships from 2008 to 2014, served as u.n. special rapporteur. and allan nairn, activist and award-winning investigative journalist.

next up, a major summit as the brics looks to expand. back in 30 seconds. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to south africa where leaders from -- leaders from brics are holding a major three-day summit this week where the group looks to expand its leadership. the chinese president xi jinping is headed to the summit today for just a second trip abroad this year. the indian prime minister modi, the brazilian president will also attend but russian president vladimir putin decided not to travel to south africa avoid facing possible arrest on war crimes charges because south africa is a member of the international criminal court, signatory. the five brics nations presidents represent about 40% of the world's population, about a quarter of the global economy.

over 40 other countries have expressed interest in joining brics the major questions i had for the group. we are now joined by trevor ngwane, soweto-based activist who was part of the struggle against apartheid. chairperson and united front, an umbrella body of community and labor groups. patrick bond is distinguished professor and director of the centre for social change at the university of johannesburg. his recent counterpunch article is headlined "the brics johannesburg summit's hype, hope and helplessness." we welcome you both back to democracy now! professor bond, why don't we begin with you? talk about what you expect of the summit, the significance of it, and the fact it is taking place in south africa. the leaders there but not the russian president who's afraid of being arrested in south africa. >> thank you for having us with you. inquiry into creative way to what is currently major contradiction which is this a

great hill of anti-imperialist rhetoric, particularly vladimir putin, sir j lavrov, against u.s., the same time can you visiting much more -- south africa being pulled with brazil is a solid progressive democracy the president lula is not. it is very unstable situation. 23 candidates, mostly -- leaders looking for a way out after the u.s. financial sanctions were so tough on the one hand. a lot of talk about dollarization. amy: trevor ngwane, your concerns about what is happening right now?

>> thank you very much for having us here on democracy now! one of the concerns is division the world and element of [indiscernible] projecting false hope to the masses coming from what i think is the state centric top-down new world order project. the leaders, the way they are running their country. [indiscernible] the working class that are facing --

that is our concern. amy: can you talk about the significance of russian president vladimir putin not coming? it is not that south africa wanted to arrest him, but as signatory to the icc, international criminal court -- which the united states and russia are not -- they would have been obliged to arrest him. so he is the one leader who will not be there. i guess you will be zoomed in. your thoughts on this, trevor? and if you can talk about the power of both russia and china in africa and the u.s. seeing africa as a place of competition for u.s.'s expanding power versus china and russia? >> yes. [indiscernible]

in other words, putin does she testing at home -- [indiscernible] putin not coming here -- [indiscernible]

cap make up its mind on which side -- i think from the point of you from many people, what is at issue is how to stop the rich from getting richer. how we address the energy crisis . in south africa, most of the time we are rolling power failure. we have interest rates rising up almost every corner. there is a lot to be done.

it does not really address the problem of the ordinary people. from this point of view, [indiscernible] amy: patrick bond, if you can talk about the countries that want to join brics, to expand it, like argentina,iran, saudi arabia, united arab emirates, what brics represents and also india, for example, rejecting the idea to give up its ruby in exchange for uniform currency? >> the latter point is a reflection of if there is against -- managing the u.s. dollar very badly, quantitative

easing, financial directly treat ideology and the u.s. dollar -- the world would be much better without centric -- dollar-centric system. however, the chinese and indians have very strong exchange control and they won't want to give that up. the ruble, also under extreme crisis, swift system no longer accepting deals with russia and south african currency very unstable. these currencies cannot be the basis for a new challenge to the u.s. dollar. those who hope for that, for example, you will find them in cyber currency salespeople or genuine anti-imperialist who have hoped this meeting will rock the dollar and that is the end of it. that is not going to happen.

you look at these two countries coming in, you mention some of the key ones, amy, especially saudi arabia and iran, doing a deal with china earlier, the fear probably that mohammed bin salman has come if $650 billion of russian central bank and oligarch assets can be frozen, taken away, made his money if he is going to be the pariah that joe biden promised he's going to be, then you have iran in this amazing protest from women -- let's say the tyrannies of carbon addicted states could be joining, those would be the two prizes. if that is the case, i would worry about a new bloc of strongly pro-emissions countries, including five of the brics, they would go to the uae and be quite formidable.

i think you remember from 2011, the last time you saw this kind of bloc is when barack obama walked into the brics group and there came the copenhagen accord. in imperial climate power in southern imperial powers that i think the brics do represent here. amy: if you could talk further about this taking place in the context of the ukraine war, putin not being there, and the attitude of south africa when it comes to the ukraine war, when it comes to nato and the china-russia bloc, if you will. >> it has been fascinating and distracting. as you say, the since i vladimir putin is being kept out by fear of constitutional crisis is the courts's role he would have to have putin arrested has

distracted us until early july. also there was an allegation by the u.s. ambassador here that last december south africa was supplying arms in a secretive way. that is been the subject since may of enormous conflict between the u.s. and south africa at the diplomatic level. what it suggests, if putin is thinking of the expansion of the brics will solidify a bloc that would prove his evasiveness, the united nations summit either voting in favor of russia or abstaining, and now the bloc is going to be all 28 of those members would be much were even with many more people -- countries that had voted actually against russia. so it becomes a quite fluid

situation. since we are looking at russia, one of our original intellectuals who worked very hard with us is in jail and he's been working with brics for over 10 years. it is a great tragedy our freedom of expression in our analysis is now very much curtailed by the loss of boris that we hope is for a short time. amy: i want to turn to former brazilian president temer rousseff, now serving as the president of the new development bank, which was established by brics. >> our goal is to increase the proportion within five years. we what 30% of ndb transactions to be settled in local currencies. to do this, as i said earlier, there are two initiatives. issuing local currency bonds and at the same time raising funds of local currencies. what are the consequences?

for example in the future, cases of serious consequences such as debt crisis can be avoided amid exchange rate fluctuations and developing countries will no longer experience debt surges caused by u.s. rate changes. amy: patrick bond, if you could respond to president rousseff? then talk beyond economics. >> i think what dilma rousseff is hinting, but in a careful way, illustrating these power relations, if you are doing develop meant projects, you should not be borrowing in u.s. dollars. her objective is to move that 22% of local to 30% by 2030. we think that is too little, too late. at the critical point is one of the controversies is whether the brics development that has to

speak to the new york credit rating agencies. if they do, then you expect the new development bank to act like any other bank. they joined the sanctions against russia in march last year. she acknowledged that herself after her meeting with putin. those are contradictions that when you see the way the brics countries operate, they did not put up any opposition, for example, to president appointed by donald trump were joe biden or the imf. they have taken a bigger share of the imf. they have not gotten an alternative as promised. we hoped for much more in way of something substantive. it shows the imperial elation shift in the financial sphere. i don't think anyone looking at it closely has much hope we will see new currencies or anything that would even be cyber currency or gold or other innovations. it will only be a little more trade that we see and yes the

way india is been doing with russia. within the big problem economically is trade imbalances within the brics. the chinese are so very predatory and africa in terms of the raw materials. those go into production systems, come back as finished goods. it does not look all that much different than the standard colonial and neocolonial global division will labor. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us. patrick bond is distinguished professor and director of the centre for social change at the university of johannesburg. we will link to your new article "the brics johannesburg summit's hype, hope and helplessness." and trevor ngwane, soweto-based scholar and activist, chair of the united front. coming up, we go to british columbia where the canadian prime minister esther played the military is more than 400 wildfires have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. back in 30 seconds.

♪♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we end today's show in canada, where troops are now being mobilized to fight huge wildfires across canada as it faces its worst wildfire season on record. british columbia has declared actuation orders for more than 35,000 people. for more, we are joined in chilliwack, british columbia, by bob gray, a wildland fire ecologist and a 45-year veteran of fire suppression, prescribed

burning and research management in canada, the u.s., and overseas. welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us but under very bad circumstances. can you expend what is happening right now in british columbia and then the northwest territories and across canada? >> good morning. i will start with british columbia. we are in the midst of our record fire season as far as area burned. it is been a very catastrophic fire season across canada. we have had five fighter fires -- firefighters killed. we are at one million hectors burned, 1.2 million acres. last record we had going only five years ago and that was 1.3 million hectors. we are on a bit of upward trajectory. leading up to this, we had a drought last summer that extended into the fall and winter.

the fires started in june and have not abated. we are looking at a little but a change in weather today but thew inds are coming in once again. then we're back in the hot and dragon, which will be preceded by winds once again. we don't have a large firefighting workforce in canada. luckily we have been able to pull in resources from the u.s. and overseas. the u.s. firefighters are especially helpful because they have worked in these ecosystems before. it is a long, drawn out battle. it is not over. you probably another two months of fire season to go. a lot of folks are on evacuation. about 150,000 across canada.

probably 30,000, 40,000 nbc and more on alert. these winds coming up today and tomorrow will test that once again. amy: bob gray, if you can talk about the links between this record-breaking rage of wildfires, if you will, and its connection to climate change, to the increasingly hot and dry weather that is being experienced. i mean, i think the missing element, certainly the media in the united states, corporate media does cover the weather extensively now about 24/7, but it is those two words "climate change" that you're less likely to hear. >> yeah. there is a symbiosis here between how the climate is changing relative to the link the length of potential fire season and the fuels that provide energy to fires. arsene longer fire seasons. they start earlier and go later.

hotter, drier conditions. higher daytime temperatures, lower daytime humidity. overnight, we are not seeing the recovery we use to. burning conditions kind of in the past would sort of slow down and stop in the evening because of high community. now it is extending right through the night and into the morning. some places we are seeing 24 hour burning going on. longer, hotter, drier conditions dries out the fuel. the more fuel available for longer, just a matter probability we get ignition. once things are going, it is hard to put them out. it is a combination -- climate change is also leading to soil moisture deficit. we have a landscape that is caring far too much density and

the way of forced it did historically. the more trees are stressed, the more we call those insect disease, more trees die, more fuel. it is a coupling of things, not just climate change. if we did not have the fuel, we could have hot, dry conditions and not have fires. they are a combined problem we are facing. amy: you have nearly all the 20,000 residents who have left the city of yellowknife, the capital of canada's northwest territories, not to mention what is happening in british columbia. you have long pushed for more prescribed burns to reduce the chance these massive fires. has that been put into effect? we just have a minute for your final response. >> no, it hasn't. here in bc, they used to burn about 100,000 hectors a year until the early 1990's. they never really developed social license to do it.

right now in bc we are burning less than 10,000 hectors a year and we should be burning a couple hundred thousand. we have to build capacity, knowledge, experience. reduce barriers. it is effective, highly effective. that is what these landscapes were stewarded through. security through burning. we do have to get back to those practices and they do work. amy: we want to thank you very much for being with us. we will continue to cover this. bob gray is a wildland fire ecologist. fire suppression expert, currently speaking to us from chilliwack, british columbia. that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

linton besser: on the coast of west africa, the ships arrive day after day with an unrelenting cargo. in ghana, they call them "obroni wawu," or "the clothes of dead white men." emmanuel ajaab: take this bale from australia. linton: they're the charity shop castoffs from the western world. emmanuel: dirty. linton: it's sweat. emmanuel: see. yeah, rubbish. it's like a insult. linton: too many of them arrive in unwearable condition. while the trade in used clothes has created thousands of jobs,