 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. And this is your 50th weekly movement roundup. This is our 50th show. We are very happy to be with you, give the people what they want brought to you every week for the last 50 weeks by People's Dispatch, People'sDispatch.org, Prashant and Zoe, and brought to you by Globetrotter, that's me Vijay, super to be with you. Can't believe we've been with you for 50 weeks. You know what this means, because I know that you understand how the calendar works in two weeks, we have 52 weeks of shows, that's a monumental show. And I hope we remember, because we celebrate everybody's anniversary but our own, I hope we remember to do something special. So what I'm asking you to do is to remind us on social media that we're almost 52 weeks old. Could you do that for us? Could you let your friends know to be with us, not only every week, but especially when we have our 52nd week of shows. Really happy to be with you, give the people what they want. Big story on Bolivia, it's not a story about Bolivia as such, it's a story that has been imposed on Bolivia. Zoe, what's the story and what's been happening to President Luis Arce? Well, the latest that has been coming out this week is that Bolivian officials who are working as part of the coup regime of Jeanine Anyez, were actually planning to overthrow the Democratic elected government of Luis Arce in 2020. So essentially in June 2021, the Intercept came out with a groundbreaking report really, which they recovered audio messages and emails. Prashant, they received audios and email messages, essentially between members of the government that was part of Jeanine Anyez's government and with private mercenaries based in of all places, Miami. And essentially they were planning what to do after the Luis Arce ticket of the movement toward socialism won the elections in October 2020. They went to such lengths as to even suggest that hundreds of US mercenaries come to Bolivia to assassinate Luis Arce. And so this investigation, as I mentioned, came out in June 2021 through investigative journalism, through the Intercept. And this past week, the minister of government, Eduardo Castillo, announced that they had identified members of the former Bolivian coup government and also the mercenaries that were involved in this. And so what's important to point out here is that the people that they identified were actually in detention in Haiti for having participated in the assassination of Jovenel Mois. So what this tells us is not only under the watch of the US where these mercenaries collaborating with the Bolivian officials, but also carried out the assassination of Jovenel Mois. Today, just now, a couple hours ago, Eduardo del Castillo also announced that they are calling for the extradition of this official of the coup regime, Luis Fernando López, who was essentially the brains behind the entire operation and who was in coordination with these mercenaries. They're calling for his extradition from Brazil. He is one of the many members of the Janine Anya's government that fled the country following the election of Luis Arce. First, he says, let's try to kill him. Let's try to overthrow this government, betray the will of the people. He abandons this plan quite quickly, seeing the overwhelming support of the people for this government, seeing that is futile to try to, through violent means, oppose this will. He fled to Brazil to escape prosecution. As we know, Janine Anya's and other members of her government are currently in prison, serving time for not only carrying out the coup and all of the horrific violence that ensued with repression of movements, but also because of massive corruption schemes that took place under her one year of government, where she and other officials took advantage of the pandemic to profit and off the lives of the Bolivian people. It's a very important story and it's something that I think we're going to return to come back to pay attention to. There have been some really tense protests in Bolivia on all sides, taking place part of the fault line protests in Bolivia, protests in Bangladesh. Prashant followed some of this. I mean, it's quite incredible that the level of popular agitation. People have a million reasons to be agitated in Bangladesh. What are the most recent protests about? Right, Vijay. The issues basically in Bangladesh come from something which is actually very common, unfortunately still in South Asia, which is religious tensions. And the incident in this question was something that happened on October 13th, which is basically that there was this religious, say there's a religious function, a Hindu religious function, which is celebrated across South Asia, Durgapuja. And there was a rumor circulated that apparently someone had placed a copy of the Quran on a Hindu religious installation, so to speak. Now this led to this was widely circulated as Facebook video, somebody went live. There was a lot of talk about this and it caused a huge amount of mob violence, houses were burnt down, a place to worship the attack. I believe at least three people died. Later turns out, of course, that the person who placed the Quran on the installation was actually a Muslim himself. So the whole notion that the Hindus did it to insult Islam was actually a complete, completely unfounded. And, but so there has been on the one hand mob violence, on the other hand, in what is an inspiring site. Basically, we have seen protests taking place across Bangladesh, all sections of society, students, academics, you know, workers, political parties, the left especially in the forefront. Protesting against the communalization, what is called again South Asia communalization, but which is basically religious violence and religious rioting. So what you've seen is massive protests taking place against this. And this is at least a sign of hope right now because this is actually not just a problem in Bangladesh is a problem across South Asia, like I said. And in each of the main South Asian countries, the big ones Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, we have actually seen a rise in religious fundamentalism. We have seen a rise in religious organizations and political parties, which are using religion as a way to polarize society. This, of course, maybe one of the worst examples right now is India where a similar party is in power and is using and there's a lot of, say, demonizing the Muslims that are taking place right now in India. But we also see similar situations, for instance, in Pakistan, where, say, the Christian minorities are suffering off of other matter in Afghanistan where the Shia, Hazaras are under threat. So in that way, it's very inspiring to see the kind of public outpouring of anger that has taken place in Bangladesh against this mob violence, against this attempt to divide people. And so this has been a very constant theme in all these protests that, you know, Bangladesh right now also facing a crisis because there are very clearly two very strong currents in Bangladesh society. One is the current of independence, one is the current of its liberation movement, which was, you know, very clearly secular, which focused on socialism, which focused on socialist ideals, which focused on secularism, which focused on pride of a good kind in language and culture, and pride which was inclusive, which was holistic in every sense of the term. And there is definitely also a threat of, especially Islamist politics, which has sought to clearly create a divided society. And this is the same, you know, of different natures. This is the same kind of thinking that pervades various countries in South Asia right now. So that way Bangladesh is a very important country to watch out for, especially in the coming times because the government has also interestingly responded in a good way. Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister, has been out on the streets. She has said that her ruling party will, you know, take up rallies and protests in defense of secularism against religious violence. At the same time they do face, the government does face a problem in terms of having a particular kind of trust deficit of, you know, there being a massive amount of protests against it. Bangladesh has been in recent times very unsafe for activists of all kind, especially for that matter, atheists as well. So generally it's a very complicated situation. On the one hand, like I said, it's a positive thing that the government is responding that the ruling party and all sections of civil society have come out very strongly. On the other hand, this still remains a very volatile situation. And the fact that, you know, a couple of people, 10, 15 people were maybe able to plot something like this is actually a very dangerous time for society. So I think for Bangladesh is a whole lot of important questions to answer in the wake of this incident. You know, we could change the name of our show, give the people what they want. Today's our 50th episode, we could change it to volatile situation. The phrase you use Prashant, because, you know, if you think Bolivia is a volatile situation, so is Bangladesh. Indeed, there is no more volatile situation on the planet Earth right now, friends, than what's happening in Yemen. A country of 29 million people, it's a small country in comparison to, you know, much larger countries around the world. Also Yemen has the misfortune of being the poorest country in the Arab world. It was the poorest country in the Arab world in 2015, when the war prosecuted largely by Saudi Arabia and by the United Arab Emirates begins. It was the poorest country then, now 50% unemployment and so on, terrible situation. I want to get to the intensification of the war in a minute. But before that, I want to pay attention to what the UNICEF head Henrietta Fiori has said. UNICEF, as you know, is the UN's children's fund. And what Henrietta Fiori said is extraordinary. She recently said that being a child in Yemen is the stuff of nightmares. Being a child in Yemen is the stuff of nightmares. In Yemen, one child dies every 10 minutes from preventable causes including malnutrition and vaccine preventable diseases. You know, there are 29 million Yemenis, I said, 20 million of them require assistance from UN agencies. 20 million out of 29 million of the 20 million, 11.3 million are children. More than half of that number are children. The fighting has just not slowed down in Yemen. Despite moderate pressure coming from various international bodies, the fighting has just not died down. In fact, it is intensified. In February this year, the Houthi militias made a push for the central part of Yemen called Marib, the city of Marib. Now, what's important about Marib, two things. Number one, it is home to one of Yemen's main oil refineries. Yemen is a poor country. There is some modest oil, but there is a oil refinery. It's a considerable asset. The Houthis are making a push for that. Second reason to go into Marib in a large force is that it is basically the last place controlled by the government of Mr. Hadi, the man backed by the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates. Now, Mr. Hadi has a long history inside Yemen's political landscape. He's not a Johnny come lately. This is not like Ahmad Chalabi of Iraq. He is a person with some credibility inside Yemen. Nonetheless, he is entirely backed by Saudi Arabia and by the United Arab Emirates, United States, United Kingdom and so on. Mr. Hadi, his last stronghold for him, the last section is Marib. Right in the middle of Yemen and to some extent, the coastal areas. You see, when we look at southern Yemen, it's not in the hands of the Houthis, but it's not in the hands of Mr. Hadi either. It's controlled by various al-Qaeda factions in the main. His last stronghold is Marib and therefore in February the 21st, the Houthis made a big push to go towards Marib city. In recent period, they have been able to extend the front line quite deeply, going quite close to the city. Refugee crisis is something to behold there. I spoke to people in Sanaa. They say that the refugee situation is quite dire. In the recent period, we've seen that the southern approach to Marib has become one front line. That's where the oil is and the Houthis have made significant gains, significant gains in Sheboah and Abyan provinces. This is important because this is meant that the Houthis have cut off some of the Saudi oil lines. This is significant. There are drones flying around above Yemen's territory. Half the time, it's not clear who these drones belong to. Many have been shot down meanwhile, and this is important. Meanwhile in Baghdad, the Iranians and the Saudis have been meeting. They've been having a series of conversations about de-escalating tension. Iran's new foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdul-Han and the Saudi foreign minister, who is a person of some credibility in Saudi Arabia. He's Prince Fazal bin Farhan. They've been talking, let's hope very much that in Baghdad, some kind of reasonable accommodation is there between the Iranians and the Saudis. Hopefully this will allow for a new peace process to start for Yemen. It is inexcusable what's happening in Yemen. Just want to repeat this. Out of the 29 million people who live in that country, 11.3 million children are in dire state of near famine. That's the situation in Yemen. Mustn't forget it. You're listening to give the people what they want. You want us to bring you credible, credible news. That's what we tried to bring you. Prashant is going to take us from Yemen to Ethiopia. Credible, credible news. The best thing you have on the internet. Tell everybody about it. Share this show. We rely upon you. Prashant, what's happening in Ethiopia? Ethiopia, of course, unfortunately, it's interesting that coming after Yemen because we have another conflict, another war that has been going on for quite a while now, almost a year. And in fact, just over almost just about a year. And right now we saw the last week there was a strike by the Ethiopian government and there was a course of international condemnation, of course. Unfortunate casualties, civilian. But the Ethiopian war is right now as both people, we had people's dispatch and also a breakthrough news have been extensively covering the fact that the Ethiopian war has also been accompanied by an information war for lack of better. There's no other way of putting it, which, you know, posits on the one hand, the Ethiopian government as some kind of massive villain and the rebel group. We'll come to the rebel designation later, but the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which started the war last year as some kind of small group fighting against this, you know, giant government force, whereas reality is much more complex. And I think it's very essential to sort of understand the nature of this conflict nature of this battle, so that we kind of really see what's happening in one of the most important countries in Africa right now. Because until November 2020, there was no war, of course. But there was also a government which was being seen as a big change from the past decades, which is the government of Abu Ahmed at Ethiopia. And the Tigray People's Liberation Front launched a war in November 2020 without really any provocation. And it's important to know that the TPLF had been in power for decades until 2018. And, you know, they had basically run the country, and now they were restricted to one small state at Tigray in the north. So the war starts then somewhere around the middle of this year, the Ethiopian government declares a ceasefire, but the Tigray People's Liberation Front has resumed the offensive over the past few months. And this has led to a massive crisis in terms of aid. The numbers are indefinitely in the millions. The Tigray People's Liberation Front has invaded the neighboring states of Amhara and Afar. I think the number of people who require humanitarian aid is approximately around 1.7 million together in these two states. Another five, nearly close to 6 million people needing aid in Tigray alone. And with these two states, the kind of conflict that has happened basically looks to the TPLF is trying to cut off supplies from the port of Djibouti, which is the only port accessible. Into the rest of the country and actually create a more bigger crisis of that sort. So it's important to note that I think as our colleagues have been writing and pointing out on video that the TPLF has in fact denied aid to its own people, to the people, to the state it represents, to the state it controls. So there's stopped even aid there. And, you know, there have been accusations of aid trucks being confiscated by the TPLF and used for military purposes. There have been a number of such allegations in the past. There have been allegations of mass graves being found of the TPLF personnel, for instance, going door to door to door. And in some cases, they are intimidating in some cases, even executing people. So very difficult situation in Ethiopia right now because on the other hand, the United States has opted for its strategy of going with sanctions because in September, in mid September, Joe Biden authorized sanctions. Although they haven't been implemented yet. And in the first week of October, we saw the European Union also following suit and calling for sanctions. So on the one hand, the Ethiopian government is trying to engage some of these forces, but we do see that, you know, there is a, like I said, there is a bit of an information war going on there, which really posits this as a good versus evil battle. It's a group of hardy rebels fighting off this government where the reality is much, much more complex. And I think it's one of those important stories to watch because of the important strategic, you know, role that Ethiopia has because of its population, because of its, you know, so many factors. So that's where we are right now. It's a battle that'll probably take a couple of more weeks or maybe months to get resolved because the agriculture season is also coming to an end. So it remains to be seen what's going to happen. But right now things are really on the edge. Things are on the edge and I must say, you know, this is our 50th show of give the people what they want. It's one depressing story after the other war conflict and so on. We're going to turn to Guatemala where there was an appalling civil war for decades and decades. And I don't, I don't know Zoe, what was the final count 200,000 250,000 dead. I'm not sure. Meanwhile, looks like veteran military officers. I don't understand what's going on in Guatemala. What are they doing? They want money. I mean, what are they doing, Zoe? It is hard to understand because I mean, it's, it's, it's kind of crazy. And I think the story is important in kind of shining a light on the current challenges, you know, in a country like Guatemala that had such a devastating civil war where, you know, as you mentioned, over 200,000 people murdered and disappeared over, you know, between 500,000 and 1.5 million people forcibly displaced during this war where, you know, successive military dictatorships. I mean, we've written about it at people's dispatch to the horrific kind of US backed leaders in that country that carried out such a tragic and horrible campaign against the people. And this was led by the Guatemalan army. And so, and, you know, a lot of these members, you know, pertaining to the upper class elites, the more white, European, descendant families. And today, you know, this week, they were out on the streets on October 19, demanding that the Congress pass a bill to give them kind of a pension and severance. I mean, not severance pay, but, you know, support for having served. It is, you know, a bonus. It's about 15,000 US dollars to members of the army that served in this war, in the civil war. And essentially, they took to the streets and it turned into a massive, a violent riot. They, you know, torched several cars, were attacking, you know, the security forces around the Congress. They, you know, effectively disrupted the proceedings of the Congress. And this is because they were originally promised by the current president of Guatemala, Alejandro Diametti, that they would receive this bonus for having participated in this war. Alejandro Diametti is, you know, far right current president of Guatemala. He's been under a lot of scrutiny over the past years from social movements who have been protesting against his support of corruption, his, you know, constant resistance to actually support the people of Guatemala denying social rights, very similar to a lot of former leaders in Guatemala and Honduras in the region. And now one of his primary bases of support, which was, you know, former members of the army are now seeing that their rights actually might be impacted. What they see is their rights, their privileges that they were promised by this president. And it's just another element of this legacy of the civil war and also just the configuration of forces within Guatemala. We, you know, two years back we were covering the case of Daniel Pasqual, who is an indigenous leader from Guatemala. And he was actually facing a defamation lawsuit from someone that did serve in the civil war. He was accused of having spoken out against him. And this person, Mendez Ruiz, is part of an organization that seeks to glorify members of the army that served in the civil war in Guatemala. All this to say that it is, you know, while the civil war happened, you know, in the past century, in the 20th century, end of the 20th century, it continues to be a hotly contested issue in terms of memory, in terms of, you know, who is going to be given, you know, any sort of, you know, reparations from the state. We're talking about 500,000 people to 1.5 million people displaced, indigenous communities, peasant communities, over 200,000 people murdered, yet it is the members of the army who are demanding, you know, bonuses for having, you know, carried out this horrific violence. And the indigenous people that continue to fight for memory today that are facing defamation suits from these same people. So that's the update there. It's an incredible story. And I think it's well worth we follow it. After all at one level, you know, we used to say that a soldier is a peasant with a gun. And in that civil war, peasants were being killed on both sides of the barrier and, you know, the wealthy always make off quite well. I would expect there's a reason the word wealthy has well inside it. They seem to do fine. Not the peasantry. And I think that's got to be part of the way we look at the story like that. Meanwhile, in the European Council Hall, beautiful hall, multi-colored rug in Brussels, it's a gorgeous building. 27 states of the European Union are meeting. It's Angela Merkel's last meeting. They're discussing a range of issues as they, you know, normally do. At the heart of this is the conflict over Poland and this, that and the other. The story on the side, the real story that won't be on the front page of the newspaper is that the Czech Republic and Germany, Angela Merkel at the heart of this again, you know, and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis had a private meeting because they are actually very worried about the fact that 95% of the world's magnesium comes from China, 95% of the world's magnesium. Magnesium is a core input for automobile manufacturing. Germany and the Czech Republic are the two main automobile manufacturers in Europe. They are very much in dismay about the cuts in Chinese magnesium exports. Why are Chinese magnesium exports down? There are two issues here. One issue, important issue at stake in the run up lead up to the COP26 meeting in Glasgow is that the government of Xi Jinping in China is cutting back on coal-fired energy plants. This means there's actually an energy crisis inside China. Many firms are not able to get sufficient energy because of this move towards, you know, dismantling coal-fired power plants. Well, for magnesium production, you need a lot of energy. That's one issue. Second issue is the tension between Europe and China, intensified tension. The last EU-Chinese summit was in December of 2020. It was a virtual summit. Since then, March 26, the European Union decided to sanction several high members of the Chinese government. This was met with retaliation as China then sanctioned Europeans. Europe said, well, how dare you sanction our people? War of words. Earlier this week, Charles Michel of the European Council made a statement, said that he spoke with Xi Jinping in Beijing and they have committed to holding a summit, a Europe-China summit. Xi Jinping is eager to have a European Council. That means the 27 heads of government, a European Council-China summit to talk about outstanding issues. Very important move. I'm bringing you the story for several reasons. One is because as we broadcast to you, the European Council is meeting. The other reason is on Saturday, the 23rd of October, there's a no-cold war event which is on Europe and China. With important figures such as Yanis Varoufakis speaking about the current situation between Europe and China. I think it's important to pay attention to what people like Yanis Varoufakis, Meti Mola and so on are saying. If you're interested, go to the no-cold-war.org site to take a look at it. Unlikely that the people at the European Central Bank will be tuning in. Unlikely, the head of the Bundesbank, Jan Wiedmeier, has just said he is going to retire. He was the main contestant against Yanis Varoufakis' attempt for Greece to get a good deal when Varoufakis was a finance minister in the Syriza government in Greece. Well, he is now stepped down, not sure what he has in front of him. Looks like the new government in Germany will have a clean slate, will have the ability to have their own finance minister, their own head of the Bundesbank, and perhaps likely the new European Central Bank head when Christine Lagarde steps down. Lots of things for Germany. Meanwhile, they can't build their cars. They don't have enough magnesium. They're going to have to make a deal with China. Let's see how that proceeds. I'm listening to give the people what they want coming to you from People's Dispatch and Globetrotter. That's Prashant Zoe and I, Vijay. We love coming to you. This is our 50th show. Tell everybody about it. Two more shows and it's 52. I hope you will have something special on that day. Thanks a lot, friends. See you then.