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From Belfast, Northern Ireland, this is Democracy Now.
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For now, the text of the memorandum of understanding has been finalized. The formal signing by the principal parties is scheduled to take place on Friday with Switzerland being considered as the venue.
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Iran and the United States have reached a preliminary deal to end the war. The US has agreed to end the blockade of Iranian ports and Iran has pledged to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But many questions remain. The deal establishes a 60 day ceasefire window to continue negotiations. We'll speak with Jeremy Scahoe of Dropsite News. Then here in Belgium, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, an estimated 20,000 people rallied to condemn racism following days of anti immigrant violence.
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So everybody here today is united in support of our migrant and new arrivals. We're here showing solidarity. This is what this city is about. And I say to those racists, you're not welcome. This isn't your city. This belong to everybody.
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I'll be joined by two guests here in Belfast, Amnesty International's Northern Ireland director and a leading immigration lawyer. And finally, the Justice Department has approved the $111 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery.
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This would put way too much media power in the hands of one giant company that has shown it is very willing to manipul and censor the news if it makes Donald Trump happy.
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We'll talk to Craig Aaron of Free Press. All that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Officials in Tehran say they've reached a memorandum of understanding with the United States to end fighting on all fronts in a preliminary peace deal to be sign next Friday. Iran's deputy foreign minister said on Iranian television that the agreement includes a cease fire in Lebanon where Israeli forces occupy about a fifth of Lebanese territory and continue to launch airstrikes. The deal extends the cease fire by 60 days, creating a window for negotiations on other issues, including the future of Iran's nuclear program and the lifting of US Sanctions. On Sunday, President Trump wrote on his truth social platform, quote, I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz and simultaneously here with authorize the immediate removal of the United States naval blockade, unquote. Trump went on to write, quote, ships of the world, start your engines, let the oil flow, unquote. After headlines, we'll get the latest on negotiations to end the U.S. israeli war on Iran. We'll speak with Jeremy S.K. hill of Drop Site News. In Lebanon, Israeli strikes on Beirut southern suburbs killed at least three people and wounded 15 others. Sunday. Witnesses said two missiles slammed into an apartment building, causing severe damage to nearby homes and businesses in what Israel's military claim was a precise strike on a Hezbollah command center. We stayed here and didn't flee throughout the whole year. We are not afraid. We will not leave our home no matter what happens. But today we didn't expect this targeting to happen.
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The children have been terrified.
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Naturally we will never leave and whatever happens happens. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the bombings came in response to Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel that drew a rare public rebuke from President Trump, who wrote on social media the attack, quote, should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we're so close to a peace deal with Iran. Unquote. Meanwhile, Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz has promised his forces will remain deployed in southern Lebanon, parts of Syria and much of the Gaza Strip indefinitely. In Gaza, Israel continues to carry out deadly attacks on Palestinians despite the US brokered so called ceasefire signed by Israel in October. Earlier today, a Palestinian woman was killed in an Israeli strike in the central Gaza Strip that followed the killings of at least six Palestinians Sunday and three on Saturday. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports the confirmed total death toll in Gaza since October 7, 2023 has surpassed 73,000 people. Nearly 175,000 injuries have been reported. In Britain, four Palestine Action Activists have been sentenced as terrorists over their involvement in 2024 protest and raid on a factory operated by one of Israel's largest arms manufacturers.
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Elbit.
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This is the first time in Britain a judge has issued terrorism sentencing enhancements on people who are not actually convicted of terrorism. In May, the four activists were found guilty of smashing up obit military equipment. Their prison sentences range from four to over seven years. They must also legally register to a law enforcement terrorist surveillance system for 15 years following their release from prison, Palestine Action co founder Huda Amary told Navarro Media in response quote, this is the first case and therefore the test case for trying to convict activists as terrorists using a manipulated court process, unquote. In Ukraine, five people were killed in the city of Kharkiv after Russia launched an apparent double tap strike on medical workers who rushed to put out the flames from an earlier attack. Separate Russian strikes in Zaporizhzha and Sumy left two dead and several others wounded. Among those killed was a 73 year old woman whose car was struck by a Russian drone. Russia also launched its largest strikes on kyivan weeks, killing four people, wounding more than 20 others. The attack seriously damaged the historic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a nearly thousand year old symbol of Ukrainian cultural identity and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Meanwhile, Ukraine launched large scale drone attacks targeting Russian industrial sites. The governor of Russia's Tula region says a Ukrainian drone attack killed three civilians while leaving three others injured, including a one year old child. On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he'd spoken to President Trump about efforts to end the conflict ahead of this week's G7 summit in Afghanistan. At least two people were reported killed after Taliban police officers opened fire on crowds that had gathered to protest the detention of over two dozen women accused of violating a strict dress code in the western city of Herat. According to the UN Protests are extremely rare in Afghanistan since the Taliban took back control in 2021 following the US and NATO occupation, imposing draconian measures including including a ban on women and girls accessing education and employment. In related news, dozens of U.S. congress members, including at least three Republicans, are urging the Trump administration to halt its plan to deport hundreds of Afghan refugees who assisted U.S. forces during the invasion of Afghanistan to the Democratic Republic of Congo or a third country they have no ties to. More than 1,000 Afghan refugees, many of whom served as US interpreters, have been stranded in Qatar for over a year since Trump officials halted their resettlement to the US after they were evacuated from Afghanistan. The group includes over 400 children and family of US service members. The Trump administration announced Friday a US strike inside Venezuela had killed the alleged leader of the Trend Aragua gang. The attack was done in coordination with Venezuela's interim government, which came to power after the US Abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. President Trump said on social media US Forces quote, delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute, unquote, the accused leader, known as Nino Guerrero. Trump's Justice Department last year charged Guerrero with multiple federal crimes, including facilitating acts of terrorism. This comes as the Trump administration continues to attack boats off the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, claiming without evidence the vessels are linked to drug trafficking. Over 200 people have been killed as the strikes are widely condemned as illegal. Brian Finnegan of the International Crisis Group said Guerrero's reported execution came as part of, quote, more lawless performative killing by the Trump administration. Finn McCain added, quote, outside of armed conflict, premeditated killing is referred to as murder. He said the Trump administration's blocked the delivery of about 250,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel to Cuba. This follows an agreement between Cuban officials and a Florida based company to supply the fuel to Cuba's private sector and humanitarian and religious organizations. Vanguard Energy had signed a contract to lease facilities owned by the Cuban government to store the fuel, but the Trump administration intervened, saying the company had not received proper approval. The shipment was seen as a temporary lifeline for Cuba as the US enforces a near total blockade on fuel. That's compounded to already catastrophic humanitarian and energy crises after decades of US sanctions on Cuba. In Albania Thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Toronto over the weekend as anti government protests opposing the development of a massive resort linked to President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner entered a third week. The multibillion dollar project would turn an abandoned Soviet weapons base known as Sazan into a luxury island resort. Protesters Sunday chanted revolution.
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We're talking about the corruption and of
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course this is just the first moment.
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The youth in here is just racing against this politics.
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It's not just the current government in general.
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So Albania never left communism. Now this is the chance and that's why we're here. On Saturday, about 200 protesters tore down metal and razor wire fences surrounding the luxury development site on the Adriatic coast. Meanwhile, calls are growing for the resignation of the Albanian Prime Minister Idi Rama. President Trump celebrated his 80th birthday Sunday by hosting an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on the White House lawn. Thousands of fans gathered around a massive 600 ton metal structure known as the Claw to watch a series of seven mixed martial arts fights, all of which ended in a knockout, while Trump and his family looked on. Also attending were Trump's Secretaries of State, Commerce, Defense, treasury and Homeland Security, along with FBI Director Kash Patel and other top officials. UFC champion Sean Strickland was removed from the event by the Secret Service. The 26 year old fighter said on social media he was not invited to fight or even to attend because he, quote, made fun of Israel and Epstein, unquote. President Trump is a close friend of UFC chief Executive Dana White and Trump owns stock in the UFC's parent company. The UFC said some of the fighters at the event would be paid in cryptocurrency stablecoins issued by the Trump family, Business World, Liberty Financial. Sunday's event was screened exclusively on Paramount plus, which is run by Trump ally David Ellison. Meanwhile, the Trump administration's approved Paramount's $111 billion bid to acquire Warner Brothers on Friday. The Justice Department's antitrust division said it had seen no evidence that the media mega merger would harm consumers, writing instead that the deal would, quote, increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem, unquote. If completed. The merger would consolidate two major movie studios, two top streaming services and news outlets, CNN and NBC News, as well as hbo, all under the control of billionaire David Ellison, a vocal supporter of President Trump. And in Washington, D.C. an exterior wall of the John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts remains covered by tarps after a federal judge ordered Donald Trump's name be removed from the building. The judge had given work crews until Saturday at noon to remove metal letters marking Trump's name from the facade of the towering marble building after ruling that the president's rebranding of the center to include his own name constituted an illegal act. And a correction. Paramount owns cbs, not NBC. We'll talk more about the merger later in the broadcast with Free Press's Craig Aaron. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Today reporting from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Iran and the United States have reached a preliminary deal to end the war. On Sunday, President Trump posted a message online that read, quote, the deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all. I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz and simultaneously herewith authorize the immediate removal of the United States naval blockade, unquote. Trump went on to write, ships of the world, start your engines. Let the oil flow, unquote. The deal extends the ceasefire by 60 days, creating a window for negotiations and other issues, including the future of Iran's nuclear program and the lifting of U.S. sanctions. But major questions remain. Israel's not a party to the tentative deal and earlier today said it would continue occupying areas of southern Lebanon. Iran's deputy foreign minister appeared on Iranian television and said the peace deal includes a cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
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Two immediate developments were supposed to take place and will take place starting last night or in the early hours of today. First, the immediate and permanent end of the war and military operations on various fronts, including in Lebanon. As you saw, the statement announced by the prime minister of Pakistan explicitly referred to the immediate and permanent end of the war on all fronts, including Lebanon. The second development was the lifting and ending of the naval blockade that the United States has imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was also announced by the US President in his statement.
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To talk more about the preliminary U. S. Iran deals and the war, we're joined by Jeremy Scahill, co founder of Dropsite News. Hi, Jeremy, can you start off by talking about what actually is an mou, a memo of understanding. What do you understand? This memo that hasn't been made public
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says, well, I think the first thing that we need to recognize is that this hasn't been signed yet. It hasn't been formally agreed to. That presumably could happen on Friday. But there are a number of wild cards, not the least of which is the posture that Netanyahu and the Israelis are taking on Lebanon. But just to give you a bit of background of what went down over the past 24 hours, Israel once again bombed Beirut. They hit the southern suburb of Dahia, and the Iranians had made clear that this was a red line for them, that if the Israelis continued attacking Beirut, that Iran would respond in kind. And in fact, I was speaking to an Iranian official soon after that happened, and they told me that it was going to be within a matter of hours, that Iran was going to launch missile attacks against what they called occupied Palestine, meaning the areas where Israeli troops have been positioned in the northern or along the southern border and in fact, deep inside Lebanon, where the Israeli troops have gone north of the Latani River. And then you had this sequence of events where Donald Trump unilaterally announces that an agreement is going to be happening. The prime minister of Pakistan then posts it on Twitter. And from the Iranian position, they said that this was a unilateral announcement. But nonetheless, they use that, they say as an opportunity then to win some last minute concessions. A few days ago, I had been told by the Iranians that there were two primary sticking points still unresolved, and they wouldn't expand on what those were. But quite clearly one of them involved this scorched earth bombing and occupation of Lebanon. And so what Iranians are saying is that as a result of the Israelis bombing Dahia in Beirut and the Iranians agreeing not to launch retaliations strikes, that Trump agreed to add that the Israeli troops had to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Now, we haven't seen the text of this agreement. If that's the case, then the Iranians could say that this was indeed a diplomatic victory, because earlier drafts of this had just envisioned a quote, unquote, ceasefire or a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon. So we don't exactly know all of the terms, but I think in the broader picture, we have to understand this represents, at least in the short term. And in terms of this war that Trump and Netanyahu initiated on February 28, this is a dramatic set of capitulations by Donald Trump. The main sort of victory of this is he's reopened the Strait of Hormuz, the Strait of Hormuz was opened prior to the February 28th war. That's, that's not a victory. Trump is saying, oh, the Iranians are going to put in writing that they're not going to develop or in any way seek to acquire or purchase a nuclear weapon. Well, if you go back and you read the preamble to the 2015 JCPOA, Iran says precisely that. And in fact, that's been Iran's position for a very long time. The Iranians are saying that they have entirely deferred any negotiations on the nuclear issue, on the issue of their stockpile of highly enriched uranium, that those that answers about those questions are only going to come with comprehensive sanctions relief and a massive. They're asking for a $300 billion reconstruction fund, that the nuclear issue is not going to be under discussion or under any agreement until there is comprehensive sanctions relief on the table. The Iranians are also saying that the Americans agreed to something that Donald Trump has been screaming up and down that he would not agree to, and that is the unfreezing or repatriation of billions of dollars of Iranian funds. Now, we may see some trickery here where Donald Trump perhaps was working in concert with Gulf countries to try to surreptitiously slide some of Iran's frozen assets back to Iran at the front end of this deal so that Trump can say no money is exchanging hands. But my understanding is that the Iranians are saying that in this memorandum of understanding or in the broader agreement with the Americans, that there is going to be a formal process of repatriating frozen Iranian funds that's going to be linked to a 60 day negotiation period. Now, there are risks for Iran, and there has been a ferocious internal bait debate within Iranian society that actually spilled out into the public where you had small groups of people protesting against the Foreign Minister, Abbas Arachi, the Speaker of the Parliament, Mohammed Ali Baf, who's the lead negotiator for Iran, and urging them not to accept this deal. And the position that they're taking is essentially that Iran has never had greater strategic leverage over the United States. That for roughly 100 days it has fought off an attack by not one, but two nuclear powers and forced the most powerful man in the world, Donald Trump, to desperately seek an off ramp in which he was forced to accept terms from Iran that basically returned the situation to the status quo ante before Netanyahu and Trump launched this war.
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Jeremy, can you talk about the role of Qatar and Pakistan?
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You know, the Pakistanis were brought into this because The Trump administration, particularly Steve Whitman, the special envoy, completely contaminated the relationship with the long standing negotiator on nuclear issues between the US And Iran, and that is the Sultanate of Oman. The United States used the Foreign Minister of Oman unwittingly to provide cover for this surprise launch of the February 28th war. He had traveled to Washington, D.C. a couple of days before the launch of the war, met with Vice President J.D. vance, and then came out and said, you know, a deal is basically on the horizon. And then less than 48 hours later, the United States and Israel launched this massive war against Iran. And so once the Omanis were sort of pushed out of the picture, Trump chose Pakistan. He views the Pakistani government as a malleable force that wants to curry favor with him. Yes, Iran has a long standing, friendly relationship with Pakistan, but behind the scenes, the Iranians started to conclude that Pakistan was just not able to close the deal with Trump. And there was a pattern where the Pakistanis would come back to the Iranians, tell them that the Americans had agreed to something, the Iranians would proceed on the basis of that understanding, and then Trump would turn around and announce that the opposite was going to be happening. And so Qatar was brought in, in part because of its deep role in negotiating the Gaza agreement last October and because of a perception on the part of the Iranians that the Qataris held more sway with Trump. And in fact, just to give you one example, a couple of weeks ago, when Pakistan had made some announcements about progress in the US Position during the negotiations, a couple of hours later, the Qataris told the Iranians, it's just not, not true that Donald Trump is actually not going to be taking that position. So we've seen this pattern play out over and over again. And I should say, Amy, that international mediators have begun talking about the erratic nature of Donald Trump. And the Iranians actually took this a step further. A few weeks ago, I was told by an Iranian official involved with the negotiations that Iran began enlisting the services of what they called senior psychologists in Iran to begin diagnosing Donald Trump. And they determined that he is operating from a position of mental illness and mental deficiency. And so senior Iranian psychologists began working with the negotiating team to try to cater the messages that the Iranians were sending via mediators back to Donald Trump to try to take into account what they saw as his specific mental illness and mental deficiencies. And they weren't saying this in an ad hominem way. They were saying it as a matter of fact. And then almost quite clinically, they said, and we began to see this process yielding results as we worked with psychologists to send these communications to Donald Trump. And they credit that in part with getting to this point where Trump finally accepted some version of his manufactured and almost entirely false victory narrative.
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Let me ask you, the G7 is happening in the French Alps in France. Interestingly, National Security Minister Itamar Ben gvir, who said Trump's agreement does not bind us, Israel is not subordinate to the United States. We are an independent and sovereign country. Smotrik called it bad for Israel and for the entire free world, period. Ben GVIR has been banned from entering France, citing his unspeakable behavior of taunting Gaza Flow Tella activists who were detained by Israeli forces. And Smotrek is the second Israeli minister barred from France after Itmar Ben gvir.
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Yeah, and you know, this isn't just these people that I think universally are viewed as extremists. This is the mainstream policy of Israel right now that was expressed as recently as this morning by the Minister of Defense in Israel where they're saying that, that the United States has the file of Iran and has, you know, authority to make its own agreements there. But Israel is going to stake out its own position on Lebanon. And really, I think this is going to become the center of whether any actual agreement takes place. What the Iranians have done here, and I think this is important for people to understand is they've made these terms that the United States is agreeing to at the front end of this deal, the implementation of those terms contingent upon any discussion regarding the nuclear issue or highly enriched uranium. So if the Israelis, while this week is going on, as we move toward a potential signing of a memorandum of understanding, if the Israelis continue to attack Lebanon even after the President of the United States has assured mediators that the US Will be the guarantor of this cessation of hostilities, then the Iranians can say rightfully and according to the agreement, we're not going to proceed on these other issues. Netanyahu very clearly wants to continue his war against Lebanon. And, and you know, a prominent Iranian analyst, Amy, told me recently that the strategy of the United States and Israel in engaging in these negotiations with the President of Lebanon is to try to decouple or split Iran and Hezbollah and to try to enlist the Lebanese government as a kind of domestic anti Hezbollah force working in an Axis alliance with the United States and Israel. The Iranians view the next phase of this as, as seeking to decouple the United States and Israel from this central front of Lebanon and So I think one of the major questions that we're going to see resolved in the coming days is what Iran's position is and if it is indeed a red line, as they've said, that the Israelis must withdraw from Lebanon and entirely cease their attacks and their state of siege. Many analysts in Lebanon over the months have been concern that potentially Iran would have to use its leverage to deal with its own economic situation and some of its priorities. In recent days, the Iranians have stunned much of the world in how ferociously they've responded and retaliated against Israel for its attacks and particularly its bombings on Beirut. So what's different, in a way from the JCPOA framework, and we're far from having something extensive like that, but in the approach of the Iranians, they are trying to embed within this documentable conditions that if the United States doesn't follow through on them, the Iranians have the ability to try to resume. But there's a question on whether or not Iran is, as some of the critics internally are saying, giving up too much strategic leverage. Could they then reimpose a kind of asymmetric state of closure on the Strait of Hormuz after the world economy gets back into motion, et cetera? Yes, they could, but the narrative would be different. And the last thing I would say is whether the bombs stop falling or not, Israel in the coming days, weeks and months is going to intensify its internal covert operation campaign inside of Iran to try to foment and encourage even more unrest and violence to try to further destabilize the Iranian state.
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Jeremy Scahill, I want to thank you for being with us, co founder of Dropsite News. Coming up here in Belfast, Northern Ireland, an estimated 20,000 people rallied to condemn racism following days of anti immigrant violence. Stay with.
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Nami.
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Sa.
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Song by IU Peter this is Democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I am Amy Goodman. We're broadcasting from Northern Visions tv, community television here in Belfast. We're here in Belfast for the Docks Ireland Film Festival. The film about Democracy Now Steal the Story, Please will be premiering first at the film festival on Tuesday night at Queens Cinema. We look forward to seeing folks there. I'll be there with the director Tia Lesson here in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Tens of thousands of people gathered Saturday outside Belfast City hall for a rally organized by United Against Racism. The solidarity protest, which was supported by local trade unions, followed several days of violence in Northern Ireland in which masked rioters set fire to houses and cars, targeting immigrants and Ethnic minorities. In one incident, four masked men reportedly chased a nurse into the Ulster Hospital. In another, two Ugandan health workers were barricaded in their home for four hours as neighboring properties burned and rioters threw stones at their windows. Emergency services told them it was too dangerous to try and leave. Their pastor eventually managed to negotiate their exit. This is Belfast resident Greg Sachno, who attended the Together Against Tate demonstration.
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Wrong.
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It's racism and it's not what this city is. So everybody here today is united in support of our migrant and new arrivals. We're here showing solidarity. This is what this city is about. And I say to those racists, you're not welcome. This isn't your city. This belongs to everybody.
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The disorder began a week ago after an asylum seeker from Sudan was charged with attempted murder and a stabbing attack. As video of the attack circulated online, calls for protest against immigration followed. The family of the victim, Stephen Ogilvie, who lost his eye in the attack, urged against violence. They wrote in a statement, quote, we are aware of the tensions and talk of the protests following this incident. We want to make it absolutely clear that overnight unrest is not welcome. We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility, they wrote. Less than 24 hours after the attack, hundreds of people joined protests, some becoming violent. Police in Belfast deployed water cannons to quell the anti immigrant rioters. At least 23 people were arrested, 12 police officers injured. Hilary Benn, the UK Northern Ireland Secretary, condemned the violence as racist thuggery, speaking on Sky News.
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Well, if you are targeting people on the basis of their color of their skin, how else can you describe them? That is racist thuggery, there's no question about it at all. Because we are a society where, as Martin Luther King famously said, we should judge people by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. And these are people who have come to Northern Ireland, settled, someone was forced out of their home. They've been living here for 20 years and they're working in the health service, they're working in industry. They are colleagues, colleagues and friends of people who were born and brought up in Northern Ireland and there is no place for this whatsoever.
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Hilary Benn is Northern Ireland's Secretary of State. He's an mp, a member of the British Parliament. He's also the son of the late MP for over 50 years, Tony Benn, the famous anti war Labor MP. When the anti immigrant violence broke out, Belfast resident Ruchira Rangaprasad put out a call on social media offering to provide food to people too scared to leave their homes and also requested volunteers help make the deliveries.
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I think I'm personally scared to step out of my house. I don't want to be out. I don't want to because especially like there was like a hit like list being passed around with like addresses and all of that. So I and a lot of those hit list roads are very close to me and there are so many, like literally basically every single area in Belfast is somehow on that hit list. So like people are scared to step out of their home and food is like a basic need and especially like a nutritious home cooked food is so, so important, especially during this time. So that's why I thought, okay, let me like cook and help feed people. People. I've been in Northern Ireland about three years now, actually. If anything, I feel like from this experience from yesterday and today, I have a lot more respect for Northern Ireland and I love Northern Ireland and Belfast a lot more because in one day 30 plus people showed up, all strangers, just being like, I will help. And there's literally war out there, there's petrol bombs being thrown out there and they don't care. And they're like, we will help and we will give this food and you know, we got you. And that spirit I have never seen in any other city. So I actually love Belfast.
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For more, I'm joined in studio here in Belfast, Northern Ireland by two guests. Sinead Marmion is an immigration lawyer based in Belfast. Patrick Corrigan is the Northern Ireland director of Amnesty International uk. We welcome you both to Democracy Now. It's great to be with you in studio here at Northern Vision. Patrick, let's begin with you. You both were at the mass protest this weekend. That protest for immigration and against what Hilary Benn called the racist thuggery. You were speaking, Patrick, to a lot of the community activists on the ground right here in front of Belfast City Hall. It was really interesting because I flew in from Sheffield, the film festival there. As we left there was an anti immigrant protest of what, 60 or 70 people, but a lot of people responding. And as I flew in, tens of thousands of people saying, no, this is a different Belfast.
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That's right. It was such an important ray of light after a very grim week for Belfast and been able to stand with my neighbors, fellow citizens of Belfast in their thousands to send a message to those racist thugs that they do not represent the true spirit of Belfast. And the vast majority of people in Belfast as across Northern Ireland are anti racist and very welcoming to the people who've come here to make their lives from around the world, who work in our health and care sectors and many other walks of life. And we wanted to send, most importantly, I think, a message to them to say, you are welcome. This is your city, this is your home just as much as it is ours. But also to call out the politicians and the state authorities who had left people vulnerable and under attack during the days before.
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A
Talk about who were the people, masked young men, particularly, who were burning houses and cars. Talk about how this started.
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J
You know, this is the third consecutive summer of racist, organized mob violence we have seen in Belfast and beyond in Northern Ireland. So it didn't happen in a vacuum. And increasingly it is coordinated both online and offline. There is an overlap within Loyalists paramilitary circles. A lot of the violence happened in areas in Belfast that they effectively control and that nobody would be able to take over the streets and commit that sort of level of violence without their say. So the people, some of the people who are out on the streets masked and mobbed up, were teenagers. And I think they've been exploited, manipulated. Others were grown men, some of whom have a long history of violence in this city. And I think on top of that, then we have a wider ecosystem of online anti immigration and pro racism being promoted and being used. Those online spaces being used to organize people as well as actively promote misinformation. And I think that terrible incident that happened at the start of the week was immediately seized on and exploited by people in order to engender hate and ultimately to result in violence which we had sadly been predicting was coming. We had been warning the authorities and sadly when it happened, they were found wanting. And too often it was left to community activists, many of whom I was speaking to on Saturday at the anti racism rally, who had gone in to people's homes, people's homes who were under attack, people's homes who were being firebombed and rescuing them out the back door, putting them into their own cars, bringing them to emergency accommodation, which had been organized on positive community WhatsApp groups overnight. And it's those people who think of the real heroes of the moment of these last few days, as well as the tens of thousands who took to the streets of Belfast to say, this is the real Belfast.
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A
Can you talk about Elon Musk? What does he have to do with these protests?
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J
Well, as was he alongside some of these other online space, these social media owners have been allowing their platforms to be used not only to promote misinformation, disinformation, but also to be used as an organizing space for the racists. The call went out on social media for people to come out ready to fight, ready to get arrested, to wear all in black, to put on masks, to turn off their mobile phone cameras, warnings for people to turn off their doorbell cams so that police wouldn't be able to identify people through video afterwards. So not only did Elon Musk, however, allow his social media platform to be used in that way, he joined in and he was resharing far right content as well. We have our own fair share of homegrown racists in this place.
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We.
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The last thing that we needed was people like Elon Musk and others joining the pro, you know, the pro protest parties.
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Sinead Marmion, you certainly saw this happening. You're an immigration lawyer. You're dealing with a lot of immigrants right now who are terrified. Many are recruited to come here to Belfast by, for example, Unison, the massive. What union? 50,000 union members are here to be health care workers, to work in hospitals, home care. And yet you have Elon Musk amplifying. Talk about whose voices he was amplifying.
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Absolutely. You're right to say that our health service relies on foreign labor that is actively sought. And Elon Musk has been portraying that, you know, he's targeted our Lord mayor, for example, who's just been in office a week and saying that she's a betrayer of our people.
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She's 30 years old.
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She is, yeah.
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A
What did he say?
- [43:12]
F
He said she was a betrayer of our people, of her people. So an extremely evocative statement and provocative. And it has undoubtedly led to the mobilization, as Patrick has said, of those racist thugs of the community, groups that have been historically existent here, ready to attack people in their homes. And I've seen clients, I've heard from, clients who were put out of their houses, were burnt out of their houses, clients with young kids who are terrified. And as Patrick says, it's the community that has picked up the pieces. It's women in the community, it's migrant women in the community that have organized and mobilized the response. And our authorities have been left wanting, as Patrick has said as well. So it is an extremely volatile situation, but it's not the Belfast that we know and love. Having worked with communities and worked with lots of people who call Belfast their home.
- [44:13]
A
Can you talk about some calls that you have gotten?
- [44:17]
F
Yes, I received a call over the weekend from a client of mine from Syria who is a young daughter, and her daughter was sending me Messages saying that her mum was too sad to come to the phone. She and her mum had slept in the kitchen of the house at the back of the property because they were too afraid to be seen. They have been left again without any help from the authorities. And we're looking to try and assist somehow with her and her child. I have another client who was burned out of her house, and she is. She is a young child as well, and she's now staying in emergency accommodation. So it has been affected people that have called belfast, their home for numbers of years here, legally and lawfully here, and have now been targeted in essentially what is racial profiling.
- [45:12]
A
The belfast islamic center halted evening prayers last week due to the racist violence. This is kashif alrang, who's a member of the center's executive committee.
- [45:29]
G
It's heartbreaking. It really is. At the same time, you know, belfast is full of a lot of decent people. We've had a lot of support from the local community. And the people who are spreading the hate at the moment, they're a minority. There are very few. But definitely it's sent shocks throughout the whole community. A lot of ethnic minority people at the moment are living in fear. We're getting a lot of calls at the moment. The levels of distress are very, very high. I've lived in northern ireland, born, bred here 44 years. This is the worst I've seen it. Does it change kind of perception, or does it make me fearful of living here? Definitely not. I see hope. I see hope. And hope is not something we just sit and kind of pray or think about. It's created by action, and we're seeing that. We're seeing a lot of local support. We're seeing people come together. Communities are sick and tired of this sort of intimidation which has been happening in belfast over the years.
- [46:35]
A
That's kashif akram of the belfast islamic center. Patrick, you know him well, yes.
- [46:41]
J
Unfortunately, the islamic center has been the target of repeated attacks over recent years, including last year, an attempted firebomb attack into the building itself. The muslim community in belfast and across northern ireland has been under very serious threat. There has been a particular anti muslim, anti islam dimension to these racist attacks. We have seen murals and banners and placards going up across belfast and elsewhere, not just in the last week, but over the last several years that are specifically targeting muslims for this sort of race hate. So they are particularly vulnerable at the moment, and I suppose our heart goes out to them. But they have also been on the receiving end of huge public Community support. And again to reiterate the message of the anti racism progress, that's the real spirit of Belfast and that's the, the views of most people who live here, not the vociferous and sometimes violent minority that we saw on our streets last week as well.
- [47:36]
A
And Sinead Marmion, if you could talk about the Sudanese women who are gathering to do mutual aid.
- [47:44]
F
Yes, it's been fantastic. There's an organization called the Anaka Collective in Bahas. Yes. And it's run by women, it's a women's collective and indeed two Sudanese women as well. So they have organized pretty much immediately, immediately support across other community organisations, across certain political parties as well have assisted. I say certain, not all. And we've seen a complete rehoming, I think of 200 people in the past week. Food deliveries, people getting lifts to appointments. And it's an unbelievable community effort which is the real spread of Belfast. But it does come against the backdrop of, from our government of hostile environment policies that have been created over the past number of years that demonizes immigration. It focuses on negatives, you know, negatives, negative immigration. It hasn't put any positive policies in place for integration. We have no racial equality strategy here in Northern Ireland. We have no anti poverty strategy. None of that has been moved to assist people who are coming to Belfast to call it their home. And it's against the backdrop of where we have political parties that are stoking the flames and encouraging what they call a legitimate concern on immigration in circumstances where that is not well founded and the conversation resultingly is always toxic.
- [49:17]
A
Patrick, as we begin to wrap up, can you put this in a global context? What we're seeing here in Belfast, which is not of course isolated and by the way, the antithe pro immigration protests that took place here this weekend, took place in Derry, took place really in so many places in solidarity with immigrants. But what about this right wing push that really features anti immigrant racism?
- [49:53]
J
So we know we're not alone in Northern Ireland and facing these problems of racists and sometimes violent racists with a backdrop of, of anti immigration, anti migrant political rhetoric, sometimes coming from leaders of countries. We've seen that across Europe, we've seen it obviously in the US Sometimes people are coming to build their lives here because they're fleeing some of the wars that you talked about at the top of the program. Otherwise they're coming for economic reasons to build new lives, just as Irish people have done to the US and elsewhere for many, many generations. But I think what we have seen globally is sort of a far right stoking of people's fears, exploiting people's fears around societies that are changing, shifting a little bit. And I think what we need is real political leadership. The words of condemnation we got from Hillary Benn, from Keir Starmer this week, they're welcome, but they're not really very useful to people who are being burned out of their homes and who are worried about what the rest of this summer holds. And I think that we need political leaders to step up to the moment rather than joining in the inflammatory rhetoric that ultimately leads to inflammable materials being put into people's homes followed by flames. And I think that, you know, the Keir Starmers, the Hillary Benns and our own political leaders have a lot to answer for in terms of the lack of leadership they have given. Condemnation statements are easy after the event, a bit of sympathy for people easy after the event. What did you do before? How did you heed the warnings from the summer of violence we had last year, the summer of violence we had the year before? I'm afraid the answer is nothing. And into that vacuum step community activists trying to do the right thing to rescue their neighbors. But we need political leadership now. We need it in this country, but we need it globally.
- [51:33]
A
Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland, director of Amnesty International UK and Sinead Marmion, immigration lawyer based here in Belfast. Coming up, the Justice Department approves the the $111 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers. Discovery will speak to Craig Aaron of Free Press. Stay with us.
- [52:03]
I
The Queen of the west said her peaches were best she'd give you a taste for a mushroom or two the Queen of the east didn't come to the feast she said, I've seen enough of what peaches can do but that was a long time ago. I don't even know why I told you that. That's how these songs tend to go. Be happy with what I've just told you. I wanted to be an English Fox singer. The new Shirley Collins. The next this Will Sharp. And I would restore the voice songs to my people armed with their history, my voice and a heart. But I was a golden staker.
- [53:16]
A
King's Daughter's Home for Incurables by the Corner Laughers. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Today broadcasting from Northern Visions TV in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Trump administration's approved Paramount's $111 billion bid to acquire to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery. On Friday, the Justice Department's antitrust division said it saw no evidence that the media mega merger would harm consumers, writing instead, the deal would, quote, increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem, unquote. If completed, the merger would consolidate two major movie studios, two top streaming services and news outlets, CNN and CBS News, as well as hbo, all under the control of the Ellison family. Paramount's biggest shareholder is the billionaire Larry Ellison, a close ally of Trump. Paramount CEO is Ellison's son, David Ellison. Last year, his company Skydance took control of Paramount, including cbs. Shortly after the Paramount Skydance merger was approved, Ellison installed the right wing journalist Barry Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News. And we all know what happened next. The gutting of CBS's premier news investigative hour, 60 Minutes, where the latest casualty was Scott Pelley, who was just recently fired. To talk all about all of this and more, we're joined by Craig Aaron, co CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action. Craig, talk about the significance of Trump's Department of Justice approving the merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery.
- [55:16]
D
Thanks for having me, Amy. What we saw happen on Friday was the Justice Department say they could find no reason to block this merger and that's because they didn't look for one. This has been one of the most shallow and corrupt merger review processes we've ever seen, and it has been marked by Paramount, the leadership of Paramount, David Ellison, his father, Larry Ellison, wooing and capitulating to the Trump administration at every turn, having them for fancy dinners, promising to make sweeping changes to newsrooms like CNN if they can get this deal to go through. And the great risk here is so much media control under one umbrella. The idea that two of our major mainstream news outlets could be controlled by one company, which as you said, has shown it is willing to warp and manipulate news coverage to please the president. The idea that HBO and major movie studios again falling under one corporate umbrella, raising serious questions about what projects are going to be made, what documentary films will be made, what information and news will we see if the Ellisons control this much of our news media?
- [56:33]
A
So talk about this in the context of all these corporate mergers, what it means when cnn, cbs, HBO are all under the same rock.
- [56:44]
D
Well, I think we've seen it happening at cbs. So the Ellisons aren't hiding the ball. They're not really making any. The promises they're making are to turn CNN into something like what they've done with cbs, where they're getting rid of independent journalists asking hard questions. They're spiking stories about crimes being committed by the Trump administration. And what they're promising is more of the same. And every big media company, company that's gone before this administration to get a deal done, to push through mega merger after mega merger has promised. And because they know this is what appeals to Trump, they've promised them to change their coverage, get rid of activist journalism, get rid of the kind of independent accountability that we need. And they're going for even the most mainstream types of outlets like 60 Minutes, you know, a program that is well regarded, but certainly not the source of any kind of radical coverage, but serious coverage. When it comes to what's happening in this country and around the world and under the Ellisons, there's no place for it. So we've already seen what they'll do. And what we don't know what will happen is what programs no longer get made. We get fewer and fewer choices and we get more and more of the same kind of, of cookie cutter content produced.
- [58:04]
A
Craig, we just have 20 seconds. What are you calling on state's attorneys general to do from New York to California?
- [58:11]
D
The important thing here, Amy, is this is not over just because the Trump administration abdicated their responsibility. The states have a responsibility to step in. Attorneys general can go to court, challenge this deal. The evidence is overwhelming that this is too much concentration and consolidation. State attorneys general in California, in New York, in other states, need to take action to block this deal because the Trump administration certainly isn't going to do it.
- [58:40]
A
I want to thank you so much for being with us. Craig Aaron co CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action. Thanks to everyone here at Northern Visions TV in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The film Steal the Story plays will premiere at Docks Ireland tomorrow in Belfast at the the Queen's Theater. Check our website democracynow. Org I'm Amy Goodman in Belfast.