Step down. We will get the latest. Then as the Home Ownership rate for africanamericans falls to its lowest level since 1950, we speak with professor keeangayamahtta taylor, author of the new book race for profit how banks and the Real Estate Industry undermined black Home Ownership. An examination of federal policies e enacted after the federaral government taught pracactices of redliningng to te previous seveveral decades in te way that created new ways s for exploioitation and predatory practices involving real estate in africanamerican communities. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is meeting with russian president Vladimir Putin in sochi, russia, today as the fiveday ceasefire between turkeys military and Syrian Kurdish groups expires at noon eastern time. Restart thet to offensive and crushed the heads of Syrian Kurdish forces if they dont withdraw from the turkeysyria border. The turkish invasion into kurdishcontrolled areas of Northern Syria began after President Trump spoke to erdogan on the telephone october 6 and then announced he was abruptly withdrawing u. S. Troops from the region, clearing the way for the offensive. Convoys of these u. S. Troops have been departing Northern Syria for western iraq, where the pentagon says they will be restationed. But the Iraqi Government says the u. S. Does not have permission to station those troops in iraq. Meanwhile, President Trump now says some u. S. Troops will remain in noNorthern Syriaia in order to prorotect oil fieields. The New York Times a also reports despite President Trumps vow to end endless wars, about 200,000 u. S. Troops are deployed overseas and that there are now more troops deployed to the middle east than when trump first took office. In washington, the top u. S. Diplomat to o ukraine, william taylor, is slated to testify to congressional lawmakers as part of the ongoing impeachment hearings. Text messages released by house committees show taylor repeatedly questioned the decision to hold up millions of dollars in funding to ukraine as part of a potential quid pro quo aimed at pressuring ukraine to investigate trumps political rival joe biden and his son, hunter. On september 1, taylor texted are we now saying that Security Assistance and white house meeting conditioned on investigations . Gordon sondland, the u. S. Ambassador to the European Union and a wealthy oregon Hotel Magnate who received the ambassadorship after donating 1 million to trumps inauguration, texted back, call me. On september 9, taylor also texted i think its crazy to withhold Security Assistance for help with a political campaign. On monday, President Trump lashed out at utah republican senator r mitt romney for signaling that he might be open to President Trumps impeachment. Pres. Trump they are vicious and they s stick together. They dont have mitt romney in their midst. They dont have people like that. They stick together. You never see them break off most of you never see somebody republicans have to get tougher and fight. Amy House Democrats blocked asked republican resolution monday to censure Intelligence Committee chair adam schiff over handling of the impeachment inquiry. The resolution had been introduced last week i Republican Arizona congressmember andy biggs. The New York Times reports the United States has been quietly withdrawing some troops from afghanistan. On monday, the top american commander in afghanistan said abouout 2000 u. S. Troops have lt the country over the last year. There are still between 12,000 and 13,000 u. S. Troops stationed in afghanistan. In canada, Prime MinisterJustin Trudeaus liberal party held on to power in mondays tight national elections. The liberals did not win a majority, with the conservative party gaining seats in parliament. The election was widely seen as a referendum on trudeaus four years in power, including his highly controversial approvals of new pipelines, including the Trans Mountain Oil pipeline expansion project. An occasional scandal, i includg photos of him appearing i in blacace. In israel, Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu has faileledo form a coaoalition governmentt fofollowing last m months s el. Netanyahus rival, former army chief of staff benny gantz, will now have a chance to assemble a majority of lawmakers. Netanyahu and gantzs parties both won a nearly identical number of seats in septembers elections, with neither winning a controlling majority. In chihile, massive prprotests continued across the capital santiago monday, where the government has extended the curfew for the Third Straight day. 11 people have died in the ongoing unrest, which was sparked by a subway fare hike two weeks ago and has grown into a mass uprising against rising high cost of living, and privatization. On monday, the protests spread to argentina, where demonstrators gathered outside the chilean consulate in buenos aires. This is argentine protester juan carlos giordanano. They talked about the chilean economic miracle until it all exploded. They raised the subway fares, there was a rejection and the government reversed itself. The capitalist plans are terrible. The people say they dont have access to water, electricity. Everything costs the same as the first world and the salaries are in the third world. Northern ireland has decriminalized abortion and legalized samesex marriage. The changes came after Northern Irelands Regional Government collapsed in 2017, giving british lawmakers the opportunity to mandate the changes in an amendment to a bill passed in july. On monday, lawmakers in Northern Ireland met for the first time in nearly three years, but were unable to stop the changes from taking effect at m midnight. In indonesia, president joko widodo has asked Opposition Leader and former military Commander Prabowo Subianto to join the cabinet. General prabowo lost to president widodo in aprils elections. Presidency,ned the they p pn the massss arrest of opponents. The general has been implicated in mass killings in east timor, papua, and aceh, as well as the kidnapping and torturere of activists in j jakarta. He alslso worked directly with e u. S. Defense Intelligence Agency and u. S. Special forces in indonesia. To see our full coverage of the indonesian elections and general prabowo, go to democracynow. Org. In new york, exxon mobil is going on trial today over accusations it deceived shareholders over the Financial Risks of Climate Change. In 2015, a damning report by Insideclimate News and the Los Angeles Times revealed that exxon knew that fossil fuels contributed to Climate Change as early as the 1970s, i did not take any action even as it covered up the science. In ohio, four Major Drug Companies have reached a lastminute deal to settle with two ohio counties that sued the drug distributors and manufacturers over the Opioid Epidemic. The 260 million settlement includes companies amerisourcebergen, cardinal health, mckesson, and teva pharmaceuticals. Just hours after this settlement was announced monday, a group of state attorneys general said they had reached a tentative 48 billion agreement with the same four companies and johnson johnson. Its not clear whether the lawyers for the 2000 cities and counties that have sued over the Opioid Epidemic will accept the nationwide deal. The clothing retail store macys says it will stop selling fur products by early 2021 after years of pressure from the humane society. Macys announcement comes after other major companies, including michael kors and gucci, also stopped selling fur products i n recent years. And in new york city, former city council spepeaker Melissa Markviverito and six others were arrested monday at a protest demanding that the museum of modern art, moma, cut ties with trustee steven tananbaum, whose vulture fund owns at least 2. 5 billion of puererto ricos debtbt and has profited off the islands financial crisis. Goldentree Asset Management is one of the top three holders of puerto ricos debt. Former City Council Speaker markviverito said we cannot allow these cultural institutions to be used as a way of whitewashing money. Puerto rico is suffering, people are losing their pensions, there are privatization of resources, schools are closing down. These practices must end. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Mass protests in lebanon have entered their sixth day, as hundreds of thousands around the country are taking to the streets to demonstrate against dire economic conditionsns, austerity and corruption, demanding the countrys leaders step down. The protests sparked last week when the government announced a tax on whatsapp calls, but the massive demonstrations have since grown into a call for revolution. More than one million demonstrators flooded the streets of beirut, tripoli, and other cities over the weekend. On monday, Prime Minister saad hariri revoked the whatsapp tax and announced a package of economic reforms, but protesters are continuing to call for his ouster. This is one of the protesters majed aldarwish in tripoli. People are going to the streets for their future and the future of their children. In reality, the Political Class we have has left them nothing. Before this uprising, if you can call it that, the government tried to pick the pocket of every poor person until they were left with nothing. Amy lebanon has one of the highest debt to gdp ratios in the world and a staggering Unemployment Rate of nearly 40 . The country is home to 1. 5 million Syrian Refugees and nearly half a million palestinian refugees. As antigovernment protests continue to rage i in the stree, massive wildfires are also engulfing lebanon, sparked by an extreme heatwave linked to Climate Change. Our next guest, lebanese journalist kareem chehayeb, wrote e in a recent pipiece fore Washington Post this week, lebanon has seen two unprecedented events sweep across the country rampant wildfires and sudden street protests against the government erupting across lebanese cities. Both tell a common story of how the governments crippling austerity measures, failed policies, and economic corruption have left the country vulnerable. Kareem chehayeb joins us now from beirurut. Welcome to democracy now why dont you describe what is happening in the streets now and how it all began. Thank you for having me, amy. This thursday night, protest have swept beirut following the decision to add further regressive taxes to help balance that lebanese budget, which is going to has a massive deficit. News outlets used a whatsapp t t as the straw t that broke the camels back. What happened that night started with the protest that went around beirut, but following an incident where the bodyguards of the Education Minister fired warning shots in dispersing the crowds. We suddenly heheard and saw protest your rugs like never before across major cities and towns and people blocking major highways across the country. Juan these protests have occurred not only in beirut, but in other areas of the country where hezbollah is the main political and governmental force. Protestering, are the now spreading throughout the country . Absolutely. Following the incident of last thursday night, we have seen protest across the country, including areas considered plea he political areas for groups like hezbollah and others. This is rather unprecedented. It is unprecedented considering many have been critical about parties, especially one. It has never been seen in those areas in particular. We have seen people attacking the signs and offices that mps belonging to both parties. This is something that is very unique for lebanon because despite lebanon having a relatively vibrant city, it is central to the capital. We are seeing protests across the country calling for at least the vast majority calling for the downfall of the government. Juan i am wondering whether the folks in lebanon are being influenced or are aware of the mass protests that have broken out in many countries in the past year. We are seeing examples in hong kong and puerto rico and now we are seeing chile in argentina before that, sudan. These are mass protests either against austerity measures were corruption in government. Do you get a sense that folks are aware of these other outpourings of people power across the world . I am not entirely sure about that. I know over the past year or so, especially in hong kong, we have seen folks on social media share the tactics theyve used to gather momentum and resist any force from the police and other security forces. However, there have been sporadic protests over the years when the lebanese government did announce austerity measures are required in order to slow the economic crisis, but nothing that spread across the country like this and have lasted this long. Amy lebanese Prime MinisterSaad Al Hariri announced a reform package monday night. This is what he said. Forhese decisions are not bartering. They are not to ask you to stop protesting or expressing anger. We are not giving a deadline and i will n not allow anyone to threaten or intimidate you. You have to know your voice is being heard. If early elections are something you want in order to make sure , ivoice is being heard will persosonally support you in this demand. Amy kareem chehayeb, if you could respond to what he is saying . Basically on friday evening, Prime Minister hariri spoke to the protesters and basically appealed to the protesters and said he will give himself and cabinets 72 hours to implement to pass an economic blueprint that would implement sweeping reforms and solutioions to the ecoconomic crisis. S. Followgg t that speech, people began n to riot. Yeyesterday, following a cababit meeting around noooon and his presentation of these reforms, people were quite upset. People wanted him to resign and start with the new slate. Ife protesters told me that he could implement or pass such reforms in 72 hours, when were they doing it for the past three years . Economisttnests have described this as chair theatrics. Amy if yoyou could also respond to the issue of the refugees, so often used as a scapegoat to explain economic crises. You have a massive population of refugees. Absolutely. Lebanon definitely has a massive population of refugees, the lalargest number per capitaa anywhere in the world. The moment has dececased, below 1. 5 million mamargin that has bn used for quite some time now. However, it is true there has been a systematic scapegoating of refugees, especially in that media and the government, as one of the key problems of the economy despite the economic crisis being a produduct of neoliberalism that was imposed following the end of our civil war. The fact of the matter is, there are some small c competition between refufugees and workingclasass lebanese. But the bulk of the problem comes from the economic and political system that comes in lebanon, which does not even guarantee some of the most basic rights for people, whether it is potable water, electricity, access to education. Juan aside from the retraction of the tax, the whatsapp tax and the announcement theyre going to cut salaries of top government officials in half, what are some of the other reforms that the Prime Minister has announced . And why do you feel the public feel this is not enough . Some of the other reforms andude taxing the banks ending regressive taxes in 2020 to ensure the end of 2020 marks a bit of a near zero deficit, as they describe it. They are also cutting the budget of some small Government Councils as well. People are n not necessarily buying it because they feel the government is so inefficient, so ineffective, and unable to come to a compromise e in order to benefit the workingclass and what is left of the middle class. They have lost complete trust. They feel these are more empty promises that they have been making and they feel they have been giving them empty promises for so many years and they feel enough is enough. Internationalthe agreement that was reached with the imf and other outside financiers . Could you talk a little bit about t