 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Hello, it's the 10th of February and you are watching the 114th episode of Give the People What They Want brought to you by People's Dispatch that's Zoe and I and Vijay from Globe Trotter who's not here today he's on one of his reporting trips we're looking forward to some very interesting stories coming out of those trips which we'll be talking about in the coming weeks but speaking of this week it has been quite a newsy week a lot of developments starting for instance with the hot air balloon which costs so much drama but there have been a lot of developments some of them positive, some of them very depressing and heartbreaking we'll be covering all of this in this episode we're going to start with some quite a curious development and report expose a journalist, a work of journalist investigative journalism which was not published in any mainstream newspaper or web portal but on a sub-stack operated by Seymour Harsh the very famous US investigative journalist renowned for writing about the My Life Massacre you know the Iraq war a lot of very breaking news stories but whose contrarian views in various ways whose views opposed to the establishment have increasingly meant that he's been you know sidelined from all these major news organizations so he published this explosive report which basically confirmed what everyone already perhaps speculated that the not stream pipelines the pipelines which deliver or which were to deliver Russia, natural gas to Germany and which would have really cemented relations between which were and would have cemented relations between Germany with Europe and Russia were sabotaged with the orders of President Joe Biden now we know that in September 2022 there were these explosions in the Baltic Sea on these pipelines of both not stream 1 and 2 basically both of them rendering both of them un-operational not stream 2 was not a commission but not stream 1 was in operational so both of them were rendered inoperational and for the longest time the question then was who did this nobody claimed responsibility and the United States said the way the Russians did it because nobody knew why the Russians would destroy their own pipeline why the Russians would destroy their means of leverage with the Europeans is something they've never bothered to explain but the United States in public at least many sources there blame the Russians whereas government officials also extremely happy including the infamous Victor and Nurent were extremely happy that these pipelines had pretty much been rendered inoperational because it cut ties between Russia and Germany specifically it meant that Germany would be far more closer to the west especially on the matter of Ukraine but now Seymour Hershies come out with this report which says that the planning for blowing up this not the not stream pipelines began way before the war that's very important because the war broke out in February 2022 but planning for blowing up these pipelines began in January 2021 when there had been no invasion at that point of time Russia was just saying give us concrete assurances that Ukraine won't be part of NATO at that time they had started this planning the other interesting bit of news from here of course is the fact that Norway was also apparently closely involved in this operation apparently undersea divers from the US navy were the key protagonists of this operation they went and placed explosive charges and then Norwegian plane dropped to Sonar Roy as it called which was the last piece of the puzzle now there has been some additional commentary from sources which have said that maybe according to Seymour Hershies this operation took place in June the laying of the explosives and the explosion was triggered in September on the request of the White House some others have pointed out that maybe it was placed a bit later but I think everyone agrees all these sources together agree that there is no doubt about the fact that the highest levels of the US government were probably involved in blowing up the North Stream 2 pipeline North Stream 1 & 2 pipeline so I think now this is a very key question this is as provocative as it gets how this might pan out it remains to be seen a very big question one group of people who are definitely suffering are the people of Europe especially the Germans whose access to cheap energy has been considerably restricted it could have actually been a great boon to the Europeans to the Germans it's a very big question as to why the Germans are not protesting about this but I think this definitely goes to sort of show that what the US claims to be in its pronouncements and its statements and what its operations are we've seen the history of long history of coups long history of sabotage operations across the world all of that leading to this is just yet another example of that yeah it's definitely been that has definitely been the biggest news item this week I think we've seen a lot of different people commenting on it and it will definitely continue updating as the week goes on it will be interesting to see what the continued responses be but I think it points to an interesting fact and that's that the narrative of the United States only lasts for so long and that often times when they're trying to cover something up it inevitably comes out and I think a perfect case of this is what's happened this week with regards to the Venezuelan embassies in the United States these were some of the key battlegrounds for the US narrative regarding what was happening in Venezuela after Juan Guadal declared himself interim president of the country on January 23rd, 2019 swiftly the embassies in countries that were supporting the US narrative that he was interim president became these sites of intense struggle because the US and in other countries essentially permitted the far-right opposition to seize these embassies because they said okay well if we recognize Juan Guadal who's the leader of the National Assembly as president then these embassies which were being run of course by the constitutional government of Nicolas Maduro actually don't belong to this government it belongs to the other government and so very quickly we saw that in countries like the US in New York and in Washington DC and then this happens in several other countries as well even in Brasilia in Brazil were essentially targets for the far-right Venezuelan opposition that was overseas to attempt to seize these localities and start having their kind of foreign offices to be able to run their operation and so in DC and we actually covered this quite extensively at People's Dispatch activists from the Answer Coalition from Code Pink and other organizations Popular Resistance knew that this was coming and they started organizing solidarity events at the Washington DC Embassy and finally they actually launched an occupation when it became clear that Venezuelan opposition activists were going to try to take it over this occupation this defense of the embassy lasted for over a month activists were sleeping out they eventually were arrested and forcibly removed from this embassy and was taken over by Carlos Vecchio and Juan Guaidó's kind of foreign operations team in the United States and this past week after following the announcement by Venezuelan opposition that Juan Guaidó was no longer even recognized by them as the interim president the U.S. has announced that they are now seizing this property and this is quite interesting because the fact that the U.S. has recognized this illegitimate claim of Juan Guaidó for all this time and found itself backed into a corner last year of course when it then turned to Venezuela to ask for essentially crude oil because they were seeing that their energy reserves were going to be in jeopardy with the war in Ukraine they're kind of between this site where first of all the Venezuelan opposition no longer recognizes Juan Guaidó we've covered this as well he's been involved in many corruption schemes embezzlement running a lot of these companies that he sees right into the ground but then also the U.S. realizes that it actually has to do business with the government Nicolas Maduro which essentially undermines its own claim that it's not the legitimate government so we see a very interesting situation developing where the U.S. is unable to sustain its own claim that the Juan Guaidó is legitimate and that his national assembly is the legitimate representation of the Venezuelan people this same opposition of course does not recognize Juan Guaidó because they want to contest in the electoral process they want to participate in Venezuelan democracy they want to run their own candidates and they cannot do that actually if they continue to say that there's a false there's a false president and that they don't recognize any of the country's institutions so once again we see this kind of crumbling of this narrative the U.S. is unable to sustain it of course now the entire the majority of countries that had recognized Juan Guaidó have now gone back and retaken ties with Nicolas Maduro's government of course Honduras Brazil, Colombia so this whole narrative disappearing and Venezuela is currently on an economic rebounds they're one of the only countries in the region that has seen economic growth in the past period so definitely interesting developments there sorry the mute, Zoe you mentioned Venezuela and you know Pino like you said that Venezuelan government has been, Venezuelan government people have been under intense attack from the United States over the past many many years right now but an interesting news development I saw was that the past few days a relief team from Venezuela has landed in Turkey a relief team in Venezuela has landed in Syria and in Syria to help the victims of the earthquake it's quite interesting that the Simón Bolivar task force it's I believe it's called it's quite interesting that even a country which is facing so much pressure is even then reaching out to its duty of international solidarity for fulfilling their duty but you know we want to talk a bit about the earthquake because it's a horrific, horrific earthquake we've all seen the visuals I think over close to 22,000 people have died in Turkey and Syria horrifying visuals also in between all this a few stories of hope people you know working with almost nothing to rescue families the kind of joy when a small child is rescued or when people buried under the rubble are rescued it's been truly you know it's it's very bittersweet in some senses but what I want to talk about is something slightly different which is that very connected to the previous story the impact US sanctions are having people across the world trying to donate to those who are affected by the earthquake finding that it has been extremely difficult to donate to Syria for instance because of US sanctions today morning the news came that the US has temporarily eased some of these sanctions it hasn't been drawn them it has just temporarily eased some of these sanctions to enable humanitarian aid as they say but the larger question really remains and by now I think across the board we have seen rights organizations we have seen medical organizations we have seen academic experts we have seen the Syrian government all of them saying that these sanctions which the US and its allies have imposed on Syria are affecting humanitarian work they are affecting relief work I believe one Syrian diplomat said that you know planes cargo even when countries are ready to offer aid cargo planes don't want to carry that aid because they are afraid they will be hit by sanctions and I think it points out to the insidious nature of US sanctions across the world that the US and United States is not satisfied with just sanctioning a country or saying that you cannot trade with us or we won't trade with you it insists that anybody who trades with that country anybody who has interactions in that country will also be penalized or will also suffer which basically means that everyone is scared to even interact very very at a very basic level on this issue we recently interviewed Dr. Ali Aguwara the daughter of Che Guevara who is also a doctor who was talking exactly about how these sanctions cost so much harm because companies across the world were being affected by these sanctions and even this latest US measure of relieving temporary waiver as it is called I think it's questionable how much it will work because all these agencies will still be concerned whether in future there might be an impact even if they provide aid now so very very difficult situation but like I said it's impressive to see how some other countries have responded like I said the Venezuelans had rushed aid the Cubans the Henry Lee Brigade of doctors who provided such valuable aid during the pandemic across the world they are in the they are right now where they are providing relief Iran is offering aid, China is offering aid to both countries which is important both Turkey and Syria are receiving aid from these countries the Palestinians who are facing one of the most brutal wars of the century maybe of facing brutal occupation they have sent relief teams as well so I think it's kind of a disgrace that these sanctions are preventing any meaningful relief to the people of Syria and this kind of a political politics is being played at this point of time by the US government as allies and I think it's a very important thing for all of us to think about there has been a campaign against sanctions blockade across the world on the issue of Cuba, on the issue of Iran on the issue of Venezuela, on the issue of Syria for instance and I think these campaigns are probably likely to gain more strength in the coming weeks and months as the heartlessness of these sanctions becomes clearly visible to people across the world that's exactly right and it's really criminalizing people's own desire to give solidarity, I mean you say how can I help, how can we help these people and then there's just so many roadblocks and I think people across the world have been feeling this as they're struggling to really respond to such a devastating situation we've been following it for the past couple of weeks and we're going to go back to it because as we've said it's necessary to following this very pressing development which is Peru as the struggle against the coup continues people continue to be on the streets it's quite remarkable now it's been exact over two months since Pedro Castillo was undemocratically taken out in a coup by the far-right Congress and in those two months the streets have just been alive in a way that I think the far right in the country, the US government and of course the ruling class the concentrated economic power the media did not expect people have been not only mobilizing in their territories and areas where there's mass exclusion and economic marginalization and where Pedro Castillo really received the bulk of his support and his votes but also these people have traveled from this region to Lima and it has since become the epicenter of these protests every single day people are out on the streets to demand the resignation of Dina Baluarte the dissolution of Congress justice for the over fatal victims of police violence and repression and really for this constituent assembly which continues to be the driving demand of the Peruvian people it's interesting just to give some updates so this week there was a very important interview carried out by El Salto Diario a Spanish state a media project from Spain and following this interview which was with Pedro Castillo in prison the Peruvian legal system slapped on new charges against Pedro Castillo saying that him giving this interview talking about the persecution he was facing above all denouncing the violence of Dina Baluarte's government against the people of Peru was in violation of his imprisonment I think this really just goes to show what is the aim of this they don't actually want a full trial with due process and his rights respected they really want to shut him up as an example to the rest of Peruvians and this is exactly what they've been doing it's also yesterday was one month anniversary of the massacre in Julliaca where over 17 people were gunned down as they protested this violence of Dina Baluarte and the coup again in Lima where the protests have really intensified in the past month there's also been numerous acts of political persecution there was a woman who had been widely photographed waving the proving flag in front of a line of riot cops in a mobilization last week she was arrested and put in jail she was released after a lot of public pressure from feminist organizations from human rights organizations but people who are just participating in these protests in a very peaceful way in a democratic way are facing persecution organizations offices we've been reporting over the past several weeks where protesters are being hosted are also being targeted by police forces there were some pretty incredible images from the national strike yesterday the mobilizations that took place in Lima of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of police officers just lines up on this main avenue looking like kind of an invading army and this really speaks to the fact that they just really have no legitimacy they are unable to control the media narrative they're unable to stop this outpouring of solidarity with the people who have been killed who have been injured who have been arrested they know that the only way they're actually able to stop these protests is through brute force and unfortunately for them this force and this violence they've been inflicting on the people has only angered the people more has only made more people join the protests have made more people understand that this is an illegitimate regime and an illegitimate regime that can only maintain control through brute force and violence so it's very important to continue following this story there's currently several international human rights delegations on the ground to denounce what's happening meeting with different social movements and organizations hearing from their perspective this international pressure is key because we've seen that the government has been cowering in the face of statements from elected officials from fellow heads of state they've of course removed the Peruvian ambassador and Honduras they banned the entry of Evo Morales and so this international pressure continuing to talk about an international scene is very important of course there's many interests in Peru many interests that for a right wing government to stay for a democratic government that wants to revolutionize the structure of the country of course economically and socially is a threat to these interests so we're continuing to cover this this story and we'll definitely be hearing more reports on the ground soon right you are of course watching give the people what they want brought to you by People's Dispatch at Zoe and I and Vijay of course who's from Globetrotter he'll be back with us next week Zoe's story I think it is a story we've been covering so much the protests in Peru very little reporting of that in I think what you would call the mainstream or corporate media in fact there's been not too much reports about that we've tried to consistently bring out the voices on the ground to also show that this is not these are not just spontaneous or random protests these are actually people with the vision with clear demands who have been pressing on these demands for many weeks now unfortunately something quite similar taking place in another part of the world we're talking about Somalia where again unfortunately people facing repression for presenting a demand which has been kind of growing for some time and we're talking about what is called Somali land which is a self-proclaimed independent country part of Somalia it's not been recognized by most countries in the world and Somali land of course has its own territory but there are sections in what in the area Somali land has taken over in recent times who are now demanding that they be reunited with Somalia so there's especially this region called the SSC Sulsanaag and King where actually protests have been going on for many many weeks now they are intensified specifically in December at that time the Somali land forces killing around 20 people but that did not stop the protests and intensified in one of the key cities there was a massive gathering that took place a meeting that took place which decided that the SSC region would no longer be part of Somali land and they wanted to be reunited with Somalia and at this point the Somali land forces reportedly once again intensified their assault leading to a huge number of deaths we're talking about I believe hundreds being killed and many many more injured after this attack took place on the city of Lossanath we have a story from our reporter Paun Kulkarni who's spoken to a nurse who is in that city who's talking about the brutality of these attacks you know hospitals are under attack ambulances are under attack people in fact she was talking for instance about a pregnant woman who in the process of delivery apparently died due to these attacks as well and Somali land forces have been making these attacks but in the face of I think popular opposition they've also been retreating in fact the latest reports say that the town of Yubei which is around 390 kilometers to the north of Lossanath there's a military base that was supposedly there which which is uprising has reached Yubei and it has been vacated by Somali land forces so a very interesting set of developments taking place there I mean we've talked about in the past episodes we talked about how the whole of is seeing quite a bit of reorganization we've seen the Ethiopian civil war the TPL have been defeated Ethiopian government trying to establish some kind of stability there and now in Somali land in Somalia we see that the forces which sort of advocated fissures which advocated you know splitting a country are also now a bit on the back foot so what does this mean the kind of this sort of emergence of unionist tendencies as you would call them what does it mean for the Horn of Africa very very interesting moment because in the Horn of Africa there are now a lot of forces which are recognizing that it is essential that there be greater unity there be greater cohesion between the countries of the region that space not be given for western interests especially to have a free say there is a lot of oil of course is a key factor in Somali land as well we talked about that in the previous episode the involvement I believe of a French company if I am not mistaken so and the US military is of course also interested in Somali land of course how would it not be but this is a very important moment I think for the whole of the Horn of Africa so we will be following the story very closely unfortunately a great deal of brutality we visited upon the people of the SSC area but it seems that the protests are going strong likely to push back against the Somali land forces and whether this will lead to greater cohesion, greater integration the rise of such forces in Somalia are very very open questions so we will be following that story closely well the integration in the global south is definitely one of the most pressing issues that we need to be covering today and we continue to do this both in the Horn of Africa and of course in Latin America right now Lula da Silva the president of Brazil is currently visiting the United States in a very highly anticipated visit Lula Lula himself is a leader who is committed to an internationalist perspective committed to a multilateral vision of the world a vision which sees the importance of Latin American integration but also he is above all a very very sharp and astute statesman and he has maintained during his presidency in the 2000s he maintained very good relationship with the U.S. not in a way that was always caving to the U.S. interest but remaining keeping this diplomatic relationship and so today he is meeting with Joe Biden he also has a series of meetings with Democratic representatives he has a bilateral meeting with Democratic representative Senator Bernie Sanders and he's also meeting with the AFL CIO a labor organization in the country and meeting because as we know the U.S. played a very very important role in the law fair campaign against Lula himself against Dilma Rousseff and against the Workers' Party in Brazil they there's very clear evidence of meetings that were held between the prosecution team with the judges meeting with members of U.S. elected officials clear intent to stop the rise of the Workers' Party in the country and the policies that they were attempting to put forward so there has been the sense of how will Lula relate to them we know that he is again a man who maintains relationships with the majority of the countries in the world this is very important to him to not alienate any country to remain this kind of large tense perspective and we know that because of course this is Biden in the White House and not Donald Trump there is going to be sort of a different perspective with regard to the U.S. role in this and so it is going to be an interesting day of meetings we know that he's accompanied by Fernando Adado who's the finance minister he's accompanied by Marina Silva who's the environment minister so it's likely that they're going to be talking about of course the environmental question there's questions about whether or not the U.S. will contribute to the Amazon Fund which is an international fund run by Brazil in order to protect the Amazon to implement policies that are able to properly conserve this very very important biome so interesting day Lula is I think above all this also points to the real commitment Lula has to creating a world that's to creating a Brazil and that's not isolated from the world Jair Bolsonaro greatly decreased for example the numbers of international visits I think there's a stat that in just one month of Lula being president he's already met with more foreign dignitaries and diplomats than Bolsonaro did in his four years in government he's really really committed to this it's important he understands the need of having a country that's integrated in the world system in world politics to be able to for example send humanitarian aid so I think yesterday itself a Brazilian team also went to Turkey another team went to Chile to help fight the wildfires so this is not a country that's going to kind of recede and just worry about the internal affairs but at the same time as we know Brazil is also dealing with these very huge issues of hunger and employment and really social decline during these Bolsonaro years so once again Lula is making history after these four years of Bolsonaro he's putting Brazil back on the map we'll see how Biden responds to this what are his points as counter proposals I think in this moment US foreign policy was able the position of Bolsonaro was of course to recognize Juan Guadal earlier Bolsonaro gave full support to the US policy in Venezuela against Cuba they were really falling in step Lula has also said that he wants to have strong relations with China he has condemned the special military operation of Russia in Ukraine but that being said he also said that he wouldn't send weapons so this is really a new Brazil that the US is going to contend with we're going to be following that and more as we always do whirlwind show is always lots of US stories but I think it really just goes to show the role that US imperialism is playing across the globe it continues to scramble to maintain to hold on to its interests but we're seeing more and more that this multipolar world a world which is challenging US interests on many fronts is emerging we continue to follow the story in Syria and Turkey a horrifying story that is going to definitely be continuing over these next couple of days a very worrying situation there but as always thanks for tuning in to give the people what they want follow check us out our website peoplesdispatch.org and all across social media platforms to get the latest updates of people's movements across the world so thanks for joining us