 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Hello, you're watching Give the People What They Want. Let me fix my camera first. Today is the 29th of March. A very important day in globally, especially for people who are struggling in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Today is the 9th day. We'll come to that a bit later. The 9th day is especially important this year, considering the suffering the Palestinians are undergoing, but also the resistance they're mounting to the occupation, to the genocide lack of Israeli resistance, which has a long tradition in which you've seen intensified over the course of the past few months. So that's today the 29th of March. And we'll start of course with what has been happening in Palestine over the past few days. This has been a very eventful week and lots of developments. The most important thing, I think to note, not the most important thing, but one definite important thing that took place on Monday was the ceasefire resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council. Now it has to be remembered that on three occasions earlier, the United States vetoed the call for an immediate ceasefire. Although it is very clear that the bulk of global opinion was in support of a ceasefire, although it is very clear that the bulk of domestic opinion in the United States was in support of a ceasefire, nonetheless, the US government, time and again repeatedly vetoing these calls for a ceasefire. But on Monday it was forced to abstain. Even now it did not support this call. It abstains, it's a very important note. And that's very clearly because the fact that the sheer number of protests and the brazenness with which Israel has been carrying out these attacks has, I think, forced the Biden administration to sort of retreat in a way. It has forced the Biden administration to issue at least abstain or give the impression that it is abstaining when it comes to this vote. And the vote, of course, passed all the other 14 countries supported, including very traditional allies of Israel, such as the United Kingdom, all of them supporting this resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. The US abstained. And finally, the UN Security Council acting on the acting, finally, the UN Security Council responding to this war which has been going on for so many months with this brutal attack. The UN Security Council finally has a position. But what was Israel's response? And as you can guess, it continues with these attacks. Every day people are dying. And not only is it attacking inside Gaza. It is continuing with these atrocities in the West Bank. It also attacked Lebanon. It also attacked Syria. In fact, the courts say that the attacks on Syria were carried out in connivance with the United States. The US is, of course, united. But Israel very clearly is in no mood to heed the ceasefire. So what has happened right now is that you finally have the United Nations Security Council after the General Assembly, after so many international bodies, after rights organizations, after local regional bodies, all of them calling for a ceasefire. You have the UNSC also doing so. And Israel, of course, following its very traditional path and refusing to do so. And, you know, this, I think, by now, this demonstrates, retrates the point we've all been saying for all these months that Israel clearly behaves as though it has the kind of impunity to reject all kinds of international pressure. And the reason it has that impurity is the fact that, despite the fact that there is a demand for a ceasefire, there is no penal action yet for disobeying it. And the important thing to note is that if Israel does not obey this resolution, the UN Security Council will have an opportunity, supposedly, at some point to consider this aspect that it does not obey the resolution. What, then, will the United States do? Is really the question. Will the United States, then, once again, muddy the waters as it has been doing all this while? Will it refuse to take a stand? Will it veto any kind of, you know, statement critical of Israel or any kind of action critical of Israel? All that is possible as per UN laws, because if the UN Security Council resolution is violated, the Security Council has a variety of options on what to do. But it has to pass those options. It has to vote on those options. And that is where I fear the U.S. will actually place two cards, so to speak. So very important, you know, say, sit to a very important resolution that we saw at this point of time. And it's definitely not going to be heated by Israel. It's very clear. On the other hand, across the Arab world, across West Asia, across North Africa, we have seen massive protests taking place. Jordan is especially important where these protests are taking place. Three key countries, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt, all of whom have signed deals recognizing and normalizing ties with Israel. Egypt, of course, was the first. Jordan was the second in the 90s. And Morocco recently as part of the Abraham Accords. All of these countries did sign ties normalizing relationships with Israel. All of them have very strong diplomatic relations with Israel. We know that Egypt also enforces the siege on Gaza, which is a huge reason for the kind of suffering the Palestinians are facing. So it's interesting that the protests are taking place in these countries, thousands taking to the streets, apparently in many cities in these countries, demanding not only an immediate ceasefire as per the resolution, also demanding the termination of diplomatic ties with Israel. I believe in Jordan, they have been multiple attempts to storm the Israeli embassy. Morocco country where political repression is ripe. It is very significant to note that despite that, they have been massive protests, pro-Palestinian protests taking place in a country like Morocco. And this really, you know, it's really assigned to the rulers of these countries that what is the position that they're going to take very important for them as well. So a lot happening, like I said, we of course have the International Court of Justice, which earlier also, you know, put out a quite a strong ruling against Israel. Now, once again, what is probably quite a unique instance, once again, passing an order, ordering that Israel takes steps to ensure humanitarian aid be delivered because the threat of famine, I think the latest numbers are that 31 people, including 27 children, have died of starvation in this, in 2024. There's no other word to describe it. It's horrendous at multiple levels the fact that an occupation force is starving children to death and 27 children have died. And this is possibly most likely an instance of undercounting because there are many more children on people's dispatch. We have our colleagues at People's Health Dispatch, who every week have been chronically the impact of this food, the starvation. And it's important to remember it's not only about the deaths. The deaths are the most horrendous aspect. But we are seeing an entire generation, you know, facing, they're going to suffer for their entire lifetimes because of the kind of lack of food, the kind of struggle, the situation they're facing right now. So the ICJ is once again ordering Israel to take action to address this issue. That's also because of the fact that over the months and even especially after the last ICJ verdict in January, aid delivery has actually come down. It has decreased. The number of trucks has decreased substantially. The number of trucks that have, the trucks that are being allowed into Gaza, which means those delivering relief have to make choices between, for instance, food and essential medical equipment. All kinds of very hard choices they've had to make. And this is what is causing this kind of a famine situation of famine. And we also, of course, have Francis Calbeni is a UN Special Rapporteur who released a report which says that there are at least three counts by which Israel is conducting genocide in Gaza. Francis Calbeni is a very important voice because the fact that she's consistently spoken out, challenged some of these media narratives that have been going on for quite a long time. And so it's important to read that report. It's important to see what she's been saying for quite a long time, the fact. And I think across Gaza, the aid agencies have been consistently chronicling in the fact that there is a very deliberate attempt to attack an entire population, to target an entire population. Israel claims that this is not about Hamas and explains the number of massive, thousands of women and children who are being killed, or the children and women being killed on the most daily basis, what explains that. So under three counts, Francis Calbeni has definitely indicted Israel for genocide. I would urge you to read that report. It's called, it's a very straightforward title. It's called Anatomy of a Genocide as clear as it can be. And that is today where we are at a very difficult situation for the people of Gaza, but also a moment to struggle, globally the struggle is taking place and that situation, land day is very significant. Yeah, that's exactly right. March 30th marks just about 47 years since March 30th, 1976, which was a massive protest that took place in Palestine against the Israeli occupation. This protest was met with mass repression. Several people were killed, hundreds injured. And since then, and this was a protest about land, about Israel continuing to illegally seize land, to occupy more land, which hasn't stopped. And I think, and so every single year on March 30th, the people across Palestine and the diaspora and solidarity groups commemorate this day, remembering the continued struggle for land, against oppression, against the repressive forces of the Israeli occupation. And to continue that struggle, of course this year, land day holds specific importance, just given the fact that Israel of course is continuing to carry out a genocide in Gaza. And as many people have pointed out, this is about control of the land. We've seen that throughout these six months of the genocide, Israel has actually taken control over more territory within Gaza. And one of the key demands actually of the resistance with regards to the negotiations, which is something that Israel has actually refused to accept and has classified as a ridiculous demand, is the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. We know that of course when what was, the establishment of the state of Israel, which is this illegal colonial project that happens, in that moment in 1948, the land that is allocated for a Palestinian state is vastly different than what it looks like today. Of course, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, the growth of settlements and of seizure, continued seizure of land by Israel through violent means has continued to today. And so when we talk about this continued struggle for land and the continued struggle for the Palestinian state, land day is really at the heart of this because people have continued to fight against this narrative that, oh, Israel just wants two states and there's land for the Palestinians, there's land for Israel. This is of course a fallacy. And there's of course this famous graphic that always circulates that shows 1948 to the present. And you just see the continued seizure of land by Israel. And throughout this genocidal war on Gaza, actually many Israeli authorities have made this very clear that really it's not about having two states. It's not about having sovereign lands for Palestinians and sovereign land for Israel, which again is even itself as a premise that's questioned by many. Why can you displace people to create this state? But even under their own premise of the two state solution, et cetera, they've said throughout this time that Gaza shouldn't exist, that it should be administered by Israel. We saw the statements by Jared Kushner, of course, saying that they should just seize all this and push Palestinians into the Al-Nakab or Negev desert that this area, this waterfront area should be taken by Israel. This is the true intentions of the Zionist project. And so on land day, it's another moment to commemorate the struggle for land as part and parcel of the struggle for Palestinian liberation. And again, as you mentioned Prashant, it is a day of international solidarity and struggle. So I know we're going to see protests across the Arab world. As you mentioned, those struggles, which are taking place in North Africa and West Asia are going to intensify. People are fed up with the lack of their government's action on this, the complicity of their governments in furthering the genocide. We're going to see protests happening across Europe, where again, there's a large diaspora population of Palestinians and of people from across West Asia. We're also going to see in North America huge mobilizations are expected in the major cities. So it's going to be another moment where people are going to take the streets and criticize their governments in action. And in many cases, complicity and arming in giving political cover for Israel and continuing to kind of give this carte blanche to any, to all of the crimes that are committed. Just to mention that last night, the three genocide heirs in chief, Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden actually gathered in New York City thinking they could actually have some multi-million dollar fundraiser without any problems facing them. Of course, these three presidents, Democratic presidents have actually overseen so many different genocidal wars, including several different attacks on Gaza that they have supported. They were of course met with disruptions at every single turn outside and inside their fundraiser. So the pressure continues. People are seeing that the U.S. is caving to these protests, but it's not enough because as you said before, when it comes to the UNSC actually enforcing the ceasefire resolution, that's probably where the U.S. is going to exercise its muscle and block anything from actually concretely taking place. Right, absolutely, Zoe. And we'll be tracking that very closely as we have been doing all these weeks and months. So do keep visiting people's dispatch to keep watching our shows on a daily basis. We analyze many of these issues. This is, of course, give the people what they want. Your weekly news digest, your weekly news show brought to you by People's Dispatch, that's Zoe and I, and Globe Trotter, which is busy doing a reporting assignment so he's not joining us this week, but he will be there with us next week. And we are moving from Palestine, the global struggle around Palestine to an important election story which has to start to do with Senegal now. We have talked about Senegal in the past on this show. President Mike Esol, former President Mike Esol, very unpopular with his people because among other things, he tried to extend his term in power. His term was supposed to end this year. Early this year, he tried to extend that with a massive protest, and there have been massive protests against any attempt by him to do so, all this while. And finally, so Senegal, he was forced to hold an election. He didn't want to hold an election that took place towards the end of March, but he was forced to hold that election. And the opposition leader, Basiro Di Amai Fai, has become the new president of Senegal, Mike Esol's prime minister who was the main candidate against Fai has considered defeat. So now Fai is going to become the president of Senegal and this is quite a remarkable moment for this country because Mike Esol has seen very strongly as a puppet of the French, seen as a key person who implemented French agenda in that whole region. And we've talked about how an entire region has been convulsed by a series of anti-imperialist protests, anti-French protests specifically. And now Fai himself is part of a movement led by a very charismatic leader called Osman Sonko, who founded this party called PASTF. And Sonko was initially supposed to contest these elections, but he was disqualified. Fai himself was imprisoned for a while, but he was not disqualified and was able to contest this election and won quite decisively. There was no need for a second round of elections because he won over 50% of the vote. So what does Fai say? So a lot of Fai's, the pronouncements that he's made are quite interesting for global viewers. Maybe one of the most interesting ones is a suggestion that Senegal might go for some kind of currency reform, which could even, you know, going away from the CFA franc. You should check out articles on people's dispatch regarding the CFA franc, how it is used as a tool to bind the economies of many African countries to the French economy and giving France a huge amount of leverage on the economic decisions of these countries. So one thing Fai has talked about is the possibility of reconsidering this kind of control. He's talked about renegotiating a lot of agreements including economic partnership agreements with the European Union. There's been a lot of criticism in Senegal inside about some of these agreements. He's talked about renegotiating agreements such as those in the mining sector, in the energy sector, he's talked about employment. All of these very important issues in a country where the young number of young people the youth population is very high unemployment is a major issue and clearly Fai did strike some kind of a chord with the people by pushing these issues which say Macky, Saul and his government have been all these years completely ignoring instead they have been repressing any kind of protests to do and they have been repressing protests, they have been arresting critics who have raised these kind of issues. So a very interesting moment here if you consider what has been happening in all the countries in West Africa, in Mali, in Burkina Faso in Niger and now you have Senegal which is one of the pillars so to speak of the French influence in that region also falling. Now of course it's too early to say if Fai is going to take an explicitly anti-French position like some of the leaders in these countries it might be a far more moderate kind of a position but nonetheless his victory at this point is interesting and if he starts following through on some of these policy prescriptions if he starts following through if he is able to beat the resistance from some of these entrenched forces both within domestically and abroad it could mean a drastic shift in the entire region as a whole so very very interesting times for West Africa of course Fai is in government but also social movements across the region which are making very radical calls for reform in the financial sector like we talked about in the social sector in terms of the military in all these areas making very radical demands so very interesting times for West Africa as a whole and we'll be very closely tracking what happens well we're going to make another jump this time right on over to South America where diplomatic tensions have been brewing across the region Javier Millay once again someone we love talking about because not only is he ridiculous and it feels like it's not possible whatever he's saying and doing but also just because of the marked shift that it has created in the region so this week CNN in Spanish released kind of a preview an exclusive interview that they did with him a sit-down interview they released two clips which I think is interesting that they specifically released these clips and in these the interviewer the journalist asks Javier Millay you know what he thinks about Gustavo Petro and Andrés Manuel Cozabralor and Javier Millay responds saying that you know I'm not worried what Andrés Manuel he thinks of me he's ignorant and if he criticizes me then it's then it's a compliment he later goes on to say that Gustavo Petro you know what can you expect of someone who's a terrorist assassin so you know these are these are words that are not commonly heard by heads of states talking about other heads of states let alone you know anyone who has a broken rule of decorum and of mutual respect amongst leaders that Javier Millay has essentially thrown out the window this is not a surprise given the way that he talks about his own people and the way that he kind of wields this hyper violence, hyper explosive language against his political opponents the way he talks about the left and he talked about the left throughout his campaign but it's one thing to say it about within your own country and it's another thing to say it about leaders of sovereign nations and so in response to these comments the Foreign Ministry of Colombia announced that they were expelling Argentine diplomats from the embassy Andrés Manuel has also released a statement saying that again it's no surprise that these sort of comments would come he has called Javier Millay what he is which is a fascist conservative and both of them have inevitably expressed solidarity with Argentinian people who they understand as of course not responsible for these comments but similarly suffering under Javier Millay's rule and his you know complete other disregard for his own people and again these comments that he makes against Manuel are sort of reflections of the kind of discourse and dialogue that he's been promoting throughout his few months as president and what's interesting to point out is that Millay came in with this extremely anti-integrationist position we know that Argentina has been one of the historic leaders of Latin American integration for the past two decades Néstor Kirchner, Cristina de Kirchner they were fundamental parts of creating bodies like UNASUR like CELAC you know and really promoting these spaces where leaders in the region can actually work together to create common proposals to their common problems when Lula was elected he had a very very close relationship with Alberto Fernandez they had common proposals of this you know deeply intertwined economic zone which is Argentina and Brazil Javier Millay had said defiantly that he does not do business with communists that he was going to break off all trade with Brazil, with China he was going to leave all of the spaces of regional integration which in some senses he has actually fulfilled some of these promises others are economically impossible I think he realized it would be suicide like many of the policies that he's proposed but nonetheless these latest comments, these explosive comments that he made in this sit-down interview have provoked kind of a new mood within the region there was this year perhaps when all of these different progressive and left-leaning governments coincided there seemed to be this kind of positive shift towards again reactivating CELAC as the counter-proposal to the organization of American states exploring new ways to actually work together within the region and these continue because again currently Millay is sort of an outlier he is isolated within the region but again it does speak to the fragility of these spaces given the fact that a lot of the leaders are elected of course all of them most of them in these kind of liberal bourgeois democratic systems where again money and the power of long-time economic interests and political rulers really are the rules but again we're going to see what happens going forward will Columbia rekindle the ties with Argentina is this a temporary thing how will this really impact in the political scene in the region Millay is importantly for viewers to know he has pledged allegiance to the United States in many different occasions saying that you know why would he do business why would he work with people in the region who have leftist criminals really the important thing is to have a good relationship with the United States this is again in complete contradiction to kind of the independent and Latin America forward approach of his predecessors so once again Millay is making these comments but they do have concrete impacts Andrés Manuel has kind of brushed it off and said you know I'm not worried about this kind of crazed man and many leaders in the region have actually expressed solidarity with both of the rulers Alberto Fernandez, former president, released a statement saying that he completely repudiates this he also had a very strong relationship with Gustavo Petro so you know important development in the region we'll see how it actually shakes out in the political and economic realm going forward and how Millay continues to act in these regional spaces Right Zoe and finally our final story is an issue we have been tracking for a very long time for years in fact and it is the story of a journalist it's the story of whistleblower it's the story of someone who is fought for you know fought against imperialism through his work that's Julian Assange and there's been a fresh twist in the case of his extradition which is really by the Royal High Court in the United Kingdom and they have given a verdict based on you know they're given a verdict on the question of whether he can appeal against his extradition this was considered the last attempt to sort of prevent this extradition and the fact is basically what the court has delivered is quite a problematic verdict in many ways because it is said that there is a possibility of Assange appealing against the extradition provided the US and the UK do not give a certain set of assurances now what are these assurances basically the United States has to give the assurance that Assange will be protected will not be discriminated against because the fact that he's not an Australian he's not a US national and that he will be given his first amendment rights and that he will not be given the death penalty now there's a very narrow set of grounds for which Assange can appeal his extradition but it's also the court has refused the possibility of giving Assange that are being allowed to bring in fresh evidence including the fact that US intelligence agencies are at least believed to have plotted to either kidnap him or there was some discussion about even killing him all of those aspects the fact that he could face extreme amounts of torturous conditions in US prisons none of that really can be examined again and in that sense it's an unfortunate verdict because it does not really address the question of Assange being a political prisoner it does not address the question of Assange say being a whistleblower it does not address the question of the fact that the US government which basically targeted Assange's life in various ways is the one giving those assurances whereby it says it's all going to be fine I think Assange's wife Stella pointed out that all the courts are demanding is that the US give an assurance letter saying that it's all okay and so it is not considered all these aspects and of course it is given to him that a few weeks in that sense the US government has until April to sort of give that assurances there will be a fresh hearing on the 20th of May if these assurances are given and so it's up to the US administration once again they have a real challenge a real question before them do they do what is right do they recognize the fact that Assange is a journalist is a publisher what he was doing was not espionage because that has been the US charge that it's an espionage so they accept that and you know let this case be or do they continue persecuting him and continue sending out a clear message across the world that this is how we treat those who stand up to us this is how we treat those who ask questions of us so very important couple of weeks for you in Assange you will be tracking it closely as well as all the other stories we have been talking about on this show it's important to note that many of these many of these stories we talk about on this show regularly are part of our very regular coverage of all these regions of all these countries because that is how we sort of build the kind of journalism we are talking about that is how we try to give the people what they want so do come back to our show next week hopefully we will also be back by then where we bring you stories from across the world and until then stay safe