 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. It's the 5th of August, which those of you who know, would know that today is the death anniversary of Frederick Engels, quite a guy, Freddie Engels, close associate friend of Karl Marx, also a devoted scholar and writer about trying to understand the wretchedness of the capitalist system. So there you go, Freddie Engels. He decided not to be buried, but was cremated in Indian fashion. And his ashes were thrown into the, into the, into the British channel, or the French channel, or however the Europeans decide to name the water between France and Britain. Meanwhile, of course, another place of great conflict where doesn't seem to get the kind of attention it should. The Israelis have decided to bomb Palestine again. They're bombing Gaza. We'll come back to that perhaps next week with more to say about why this punctual bombing of Gaza, what it means. But let's start with the question of Nancy Pelosi, the, you know, head of the US House of Representatives, you know, leading Democrat in that August body decided against perhaps, although it's not clear against the advice of her own president, the advice of the US military, decided to go to Taiwan. Now it's important to understand briefly why this is a scandal. In 1978, the United States on the 15th of December, actually United States cut its ties with the Republic of China, in other words, Taiwan, and decided to recognize the People's Republic of China. This is significant. The United States basically acknowledging the fact that the Taiwanese people, 22 million at last count, are part of greater China or part of China. Nonetheless, despite that, the United States maintained a kind of four diplomatic relationship with Taiwan, which here and there is increased, ebbed and flowed and so on. There's been an interest section where they maintained a kind of a policy of engaging Taiwan as if it's an independent country, despite the fact the United States recognizes the People's Republic of China as the legitimate legal body that has territorial and political rights over its own territory. Nancy Pelosi going to Taipei without speaking to Beijing as it was seen as a violation of the territorial integrity of China. It's tantamount, let's say, to Xi Jinping, the Chinese head of government deciding to fly to Hawaii and say that, you know, let's talk about Hawaiian independence, which is an issue on the ground among the people of Hawaii, the so-called sovereignty movement, a significant movement in that part of what the United States claims. Now imagine that. Habab, that would have been created. Fortunately, the Chinese did not escalate by trying to prevent Nancy Pelosi from landing in Taipei or taking off and leaving. But the immediate aftermath of what's happened is of great concern, I think, for people who want to think about how the world is going to be organized. Look, let's be fair. If the Chinese government decided to cut off energy supplies to Taiwan, which is quite easy to do, 50% of the world's semiconductors come out of Taiwan, this is going to have a catastrophic impact on the world economy. What the Chinese have done in retaliation for Nancy Pelosi's provocation, and it was certainly a provocation, what the Chinese have done is to cut military-level contacts with the United States. That includes no more conversation between theater commanders. This is actually a very serious development. The Chinese have withdrawn from theater commander to commander interaction, liaison interaction, wider defense policy coordination also cut. The Chinese have cut cooperation on maritime security, on repatriation of people who are trying to move migrants, legal assistance on criminal matters, fighting against transnational crime and drug trafficking, talks on climate change. All of this the Chinese have withdrawn from. This is a serious escalation between the United States and China, and we will of course keep an eye on it. But let's be clear that the United States essentially violated its own diplomatic understanding that Taiwan is in some sense is not a legal entity in the world. And in doing this, Nancy Pelosi has brought, I think, a great deal of problems, not only for East Asia but for the world. That's why we're starting our show today. Let's give the people what they want. Prashant and Zoe from People's Dispatch. I'm Vijay from Globetrotter. Let's go straight into Yemen. Prashant, big things happening there. Tell us, there's a new report and so on. Right. Actually, two very contrasting almost developments, so to speak, which are actually not that different. But on the one hand, let's look at the good news first, maybe relatively less good news that comes out of that country. The ceasefire has been extended for two months. We know that in April the ceasefire was first brought in and there was a great deal of hope because Yemen had been going for many, many, given through many, many years of war. We've seen the toll, the hundreds of thousands of people close to 400,000 people reported they killed the worst humanitarian disaster of the century. It has been called a huge percentage of the population dependent on aid for their food or even to lead for many other essentials. So we've seen this war stricken country, war on country, which war has taken place because it's a fact that Saudi Arabia of course, a foreign country intervened in what should have essentially been an internal matter of the Yemeni people. So after the Houthis took over the capital Sana'a we see the Saudi-led coalition coming in 2015 and since then it has been year after year of bombings which have actually caused a huge percentage of the casualties. So in this context, any seizing of hostilities was a good thing. We saw last year the conflicts escalated. The Houthis had begun firing drones for instance inside the territory of Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Saudi Arabia and UAE. These countries responding very harshly. So at that point of time that a truce was brought in was a very welcome thing and the fact that this continued, it is going to continue for two more months is definitely a very positive development. A group of AIDS organizations in fact have basically said that at least 8000 Yemenis have been able to access medical care, education and business opportunities meet with their families for instance just because of this truce. So the fact that even the slightest amount of normalcy can return to the lives of the people is really a welcome development. The important question of course is that will this continue because will this ceasefire turn into a relatively more lasting peace and the answer to that unfortunately like the answer to many questions in the world, a percentage of the answer lies to the United States as well because it's the U.S. enabling of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and other countries that has allowed them to continue this war for so long and maybe there's no greater sign of that than the weapon sales which the United States and the UK for instance weapons they have been selling to countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia. So I believe there's a number which says that from 2017 to 2021 a huge percentage of the U.S. arms sales went to Saudi Arabia itself and in this week the very day the ceasefire was announced the U.S. also announced that they would sell nearly five billion dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Now this weapon sale is based on one of the most hypocritical classifications in modern politics and today's politics which I think is saying quite something that there is somehow a difference between offensive and defensive weapons. So Joe Biden had initially promised that he would not sell weapons to Saudi Arabia as part of his appearing to be progressive during the campaigns. The moment he came to power they decided they would stop sales except for defensive weapons and now defensive weapons in this case are going to be Patriot missiles which will replenish the Saudi arsenal for instance in the case of the UAE there's going to be air defense systems and there is also talk that the United States is considering even relaxing this issue of offensive weapons which means some of those precision guided munitions will now might now land once again on Yemen we saw in January where deadly Saudi raids the missiles were found to have lock in symbols for instance that really shows how much the role the U.S. plays in this conflict in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. So also in that very mixed news coming from Yemen one can hope that there are processes in the region which are enabling negotiations we know that the UAE and Iran are talking Saudi Arabia and Iran are talking but as long as the U.S. continues there with its aim of promoting Israeli interest for instance we are not going to see lasting peace in the region so very crucial week went by for Yemen we will see what plays out in the coming weeks as well. Very important story will be on it you know as the world focuses attention on Ukraine and so on Yemen has been shunted to a side we keep our focus on Yemen meanwhile some good news I suppose August 5 today there's something happening in Colombia apparently Zoe well August 7th is the day where Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez will be inaugurated as the new president and vice president of Colombia we've been covering this a lot on give people what they want even before they're elected it's definitely a favorite topic of ours and it's a really historic moment as we've said constantly I mean the name of their coalition historic pact speaks for itself this is going to be a day that really changes the history of Colombia changes the course changes the root of how it's been going for over six decades where conservative government after conservative government has continued has intensified the war in the country has intensified the war against the people denying them their basic rights land housing medical care so many different things and you know of course there's a lot of reservations or reality checks about the fact that Colombia is still going to be operating in a global capitalist system Gustavo Petro himself has says that he's not going to challenge capitalism but it is clear that there will be clear changes for the working people of the country in human rights and only what's been happening over the past couple of weeks is really a testament to that Colombia the senate ratified the escaso agreement which is an environmental treaty in Latin America which provides with the protection of the environment protection of environmental defenders and activists the senate and the legislation is going to be a key area of dispute in the next couple of years the historic pack does have the largest share however the centrist parties do have they're divided up but when they join together they have a majority so it's going to be a space of a lot of contestation but additionally the special jurisdiction for peace which is created out of the peace agreements they recently had an important ruling convicting military officers of crimes against humanity and for committing the false positive scandal so we're seeing a lot of advances in that sense of the ability to for example take forward the cause of justice take forward environmental issues take forward other other things Gustavo Petro did a indigenous inauguration in the Sierra Nevada with the indigenous community there this shows that he is not going to ignore the vast diversity that Columbia has the marginalized communities the afro-columbian communities the indigenous communities so these are all steps in the right direction it is a promising moment for Columbia people are filled with hope possibility so it's going to be very interesting and with regards to inauguration there's been a crux here we've seen because for example as we spoke about in the past couple of weeks with the political crisis in Peru Pedro Castillo one of the heads of state in Latin America who would normally be attending this historic event as all of the heads of states regardless of their political affiliation usually attend these events he was blocked by his own congress which is currently trying to impeach him from attending this inauguration I think that's an interesting detail to show the current picture that we're seeing in Latin America which is one of a lot of influx a lot of change it's a situation that's constantly changing with October in Brazil we're also going to see huge changes will Lula win in the first round will he win in the second round is Jair Bolsonaro going to allow this what is it going to mean for the continent when there's a Lula presidency a Pedro presidency it's a moment of of great change of possibility and transformation and it's incredibly exciting to watch and to see the possibilities of a continent that has been really ruled and dominated by neoliberal US power for the past couple decades of course with the exception of the one decade in in some of the countries in South America but really I think this this Pedro inauguration marks a before and after moment and so will continue to change will continue to cover the struggles for change so important to mention that there was one of the most bloody weeks of violence in Columbia last week so as these great change taking place there's these regressive forces these forces for violence are still active are still trying to take forward their campaigns to control the territory to control drug trafficking that's going to be a major point of contention as well but again important times so you're listening to give the people what they want brought to you by people's dispatch and globetrotter we've not really seen many selfies from you in a long time we'd like you to send us your selfies of you watching our show tell other people about this show we're keen to have we're keen to really be the best show on international affairs available for you we're here for you now to western Sahara again doesn't get much reporting we've had a report earlier about a terrible set of violence on the Spanish-Moroccan border this is on the other side not really a border it's a place under occupation by the United Nations new report out on western Sahara Prashant it's interesting you mentioned the refugees because it's actually a very connected issue it stems and again it's also connected to the earlier story Yemen because what we see is that Morocco which signed the Abraham Accords which is what the US is trying to push across the region benefited considerably from that and one of the main benefits it got out of it was this legitimization by the US and in various ways its allies of the Moroccan occupation of western Sahara now we know that there's a referendum is supposed to be conducted this was decided at various international fora it's been I think close to 30 years since that decision was made nothing has happened on that meanwhile Morocco has continued atrocities on a very very regular scale increasing in several magnitudes but throughout what has happened is that the United Nations countries around the world have not really stepped in on this issue and what we now see is that with the kind of blank check Morocco has got from the US and its allies by signing the Abraham Accords what Morocco has got is now an opportunity to continue many of these access and it's at this point that we need to look at the report produced by the collective of Sahrawi human rights defenders in western Sahara called Kodesa it's a very important organization to follow because their first congress was held only in 2020 recently of course but the amount of information that has come out from them they have become a very important source of chronicling the kind of atrocities that take place in this occupied territory and the numbers are quite staggering the numbers are quite astonishing we are talking about a very short time period between September 2020 and December 2021 say at least 20 extra judicial executions have taken place a number of Sahrawi prisoners, political prisoners the number of cases they have faced have actually increased by a considerable margin and for instance the fact that Morocco violates so many conventions of the Geneva protocol of the fourth Geneva protocol for instance in how many of these prisoners are placed the fact that many of them are arrested without any proper procedure how many of them are actually kept far away from their in jails very far away from their home to further their isolation there are stories of torture there are stories for instance of the fact that I believe I think to go back to an earlier point at least 80% of Sahrawi prisoners are kept in jails which are these 320 kilometers or more from their homes so that really itself sort of is one fact which demonstrates the extent of these crimes and we are talking about mass political repression that is taking place and all of this with as all these countries which talk about human rights basically look the other way so that when Morocco has a free hand to do all this and it's very important to also note like many other repressive regimes the COVID-19 pandemic was also used to further say suppress and further try to target Sahrawi political prisoners and it looks and you know the demand for this report for instance is the fact that the promises that were made to the Sahrawi people that they would have the right to self-determination that their rights would be granted that these promises without really sort of without these promises being achieved there's very little chance of any kind of peace and of life itself or a stable secure life itself for the people of western Sahara so it's a country it's a region which needs to be people need to go back to time and again because with the Abraham the kind of impunity the Moroccan state has got has really exceeded all limits now it's extraordinary what happens and extraordinary how little attention it gets but there we have it Zoe I was looking at the Washington Post which has an archive of police shootings and last year the Washington Post counted at a conservative estimate 1067 people shot by the police in the United States that's almost three people a day complete impunity for the police to shoot people and yet those who dissent against the United States seem to find themselves going to jail sometimes wrongly accused sometimes political prisoners very long time there's a story now about the death of one of these people tell us a little bit about this gentleman well yesterday it was confirmed that Albert Woodfox died of COVID related complications he was 75 years old he was in prison for over 43 years and suspected to be held most of that time in solitary confinement he's alleged to be one of the prisoners who spent the longest time in solitary confinement in definitely the United States and I'm sure he breaks some world records as well his story I think is so important to tell and it's so important to share because it really is a testament to the bankruptcy of the human rights situation in the United States he's someone who was arrested as a young black man for a petty crime and he was put in the Louisiana State Penitentiary institution which is commonly referred to as Angola prison built on a former slave plantation called Angola because of the country where most of the slaves came from was Angola and he was in this prison and he started organizing with some fellow inmates with two other inmates as part of the Black Panther Party and in some scuttle in the prison a white prison guard was killed these three men were cues of his death like so many other Black Panther Party members other Black liberation fighters accused of killing a police officer accused of killing a corrections officer and they were essentially given life sentences and put in the harshest conditions that one can really imagine a tiny cell very few hours of sunlight of ability to leave their cells and their populations classified by Amnesty International and many other human rights organizations as torture and it is torture deprived of intellectual simulation, deprived of the ability to speak to others, deprived of sunlight and it's he was released in 2016 after a very very long legal battle his case was exonerated several times it was clear that he was innocent the state did not want him to leave but finally he was released in 2016 he lived he said that his mind had been liberated for many years and he remained very very resolute and very strong in this in this state of extreme conditions of incarceration and he said that his mind was liberated in 2016 his body was liberated as well and he in the time that he was released from prison he was extremely active in speaking out about his case, speaking out about solitary confinement that exists, the political persecution of black liberation activists in the United States and so much more and it's really tragic that he did lose his life now from COVID of course the physical impact that 43 years of solitary confinement has on your body is incalculable he and the other members of the Angola 3 had extreme health conditions one of them, Herman Wallace he died a couple years back as well from cancer he was released from prison because he had such severe cancer he died and hours before he died the court had actually ordered for him to be re-arrested and re-incarcerated so I think this case is so important to talk about the Angola 3, the case of Albert Woodfox because it really is a testament to this ongoing struggle that exists in the United States for full human rights and full liberation of all people and it begs the question that how can you as continue talking about human rights in other countries when it has such horrific treatment of its own people Albert Woodfox is guilty of organizing his people of being a black person in the United States and this is what he gets and so it's so important to remember him, his story his struggle, his his struggle to defend his dignity and his his personhood and it's honestly just such an inspiration and it's so important to remember these people there are so many of him across the world that we must always remember and always bring to the fore because they gave their lives to the struggle and it's just a tragic story to hear it's a very tragic story I'm glad that we're lifting this life up there's a report out in Germany about world hunger shows that 20% of people on the African continent are struggling with hunger 17 million people in the Horn of Africa simply don't have anything to eat it's a tragic story but tragedy is not enough actually to define it there's a modest piece of good news coming from the world food price index that is maintained by the United Nations food price index released just a day ago showed that prices of food are all dropping sugar prices dropping globally grain prices are dropping globally looks like shipments of wheat from Ukraine and Russia are going to now start again despite the fact that that conflict is ongoing so prices of food seem to be dropping this is of course greatly uneven different countries different situation India for instance not clear if onion and tomato prices important sources of nutrition hundreds of millions of people not clear what the impact is going to have on them but globally aggregate prices seem to be dropping that's again as I said good news but here's the bad news in the report bad news in the report is that world fertilizer prices are still high very high how does this have any impact on food you see if world food prices are declining now this is for many reasons and in fact the report doesn't go into this one reason is that if consumption is dampened if 17 million people in the all of Africa don't have access to food 20% of the people on the continent of Africa don't have access to food then they are no longer buying food and if they're not buying food they're not bidding up prices of food so there's a way in which hunger itself can stabilize price of food in 2008 the UN chronicle ran a very ugly article in fact arguing that hunger is a good thing because hunger makes people work hard hunger stabilizes food prices and just this week the United Nations has removed that article from its website it's almost like a Jonathan Swift a modest proposal type article except the author was dead serious well we know that the reason food prices are declining is because supplies increase but again some of that might just be that people are not eating up to the levels where they should be eating that's in the immediate period let's get back to fertilizers what's the issue with fertilizer fertilizer prices high that means a lot of petty producers small producers not able to fertilize the fields as much as they would like to I mean that future food prices are going to go up again we're seeing great instability in the food price market this is directly related to world hunger we'll keep an eye on it I know friends when we start reporting on economic issues you sort of roll your eyes and say I'm not interested but this is a life and death issue for millions of people you get this kind of reporting that give the people what they want this patch that's Zoe and Prashant and Vijay from Globetrotter looking forward to seeing those selfies don't forget to smile when you take them see you next week