Content standards, the social media giant Ceo Mark Zuckerberg is grilled by lawmakers over his policy allowing politicians to lighten political ads. We will play highlights from more than five hours hearings were he e was blasted by members of the House Financial Service committee. Among those, Rashida Tlaib and alexandria ocasiocortez. Then as rising inequality and staggering housing insecurity leave a Record Number of americans out on the street, we go to ground zero of the homelessness crisis oakland, california. This is a disaster. Anit was a fire or it was earthquake, the response would be so quick. But this is an economic disaster. This is a cultural disaster. This is a housing disaster, but they are not treating it like all of the other natural disasters. Amy we will bring you a special democracy now report from a sprawling encampment of 100 people in east oakland that the city just cracked down on this week. Unhoused people there say the city has failed them. Like theyy, it seems dont care. All they want to do is requirement to build property for the rich to make more money off of, and the poor is being decimated at every turn. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the origins of the russia investigation in the latest move by the white house to discredit the work of special counsel robert mueller. The move by attorney general bill barr will give the Justice Department the power to subpoena witnesses and to convene grand jurys and to file criminal charges. Congressmember Jerrold Nadler tweeted in response these reports raise found new concerns of the department of lostce under ag barr has its independence and become a vehicle for President Trump political revenge. President trump is planning toto sendnd hundreds of u. S. S. Troopd tanks to Eastern Syria to protect oil fields, reversin his earlier abrupt decision to withdraw Ground Forces from the country. Thats according to reports by cnn and fox news, which repepord the deployoyment now appears likely. The e move appears aimed at protecting a gas plant near the city of deir ezzor operated by the u. S. Fossil fuel giant conoco. The United Nations is sending a team to chile to investigate allegations of human rights abuses against antigovernment protesters following weeks of massive demonstrations nationwide over inequality, crippling wages, and the rising cost of health care and education. Education. At least 18 people have been killed since protests erupted on october 19 amid mounting reports of brutality and torture by chilean authorities. In ecuador, indigenous rights activists say they have halted negotiations with president lenin moreno over the governments persecution of indigenous leader jaime vargas. Vargas is the head of indigenous nationalities of ecuador, or conaie, the organization that led recent antiausterity protests in ecuador. The massive antigovernment protests werere ongoing for two weeks and ceased after president moreno and Indigenous Leaders struck a deal to cancel an austererity package pushed by Te International monetary fund. Bolivian president evo morales declared victory thursday in his campaign for a fourth president ial term, p prompting a new round of protests from opponents who claim sundays president ialal electioion was rigged. Election officials said a new round of voting will be held in five regions next month due to irregularities in the ballot, but said the outcome wont be enoughgh to prevent a a Runoff Election in december. Ofofficial figiges show morarals took 47 of the te in a ninecandidate fieield, just ovr 10 points more than his nearest opponent, carlos mesa, who condemned the vote count as a gigantic fraud and accused morales of holding on to power illegally. In guiuinea, tenens of thousandf protesters f flooded the streets of the capital conakry and other cities around the west african nation thursday, opposing a proposed constitutional change that would let the sitting president run for a third term in office. The protests were heavily policed but peaceful, unlike smaller demonstrations last week that saw Police Open Fire with live rounds, killing at least nine people and sending scores toto the hospital. After those protests, authorities sentenced a dozen opposition politicians and Civil Society leaders to jail terms of up to one year. In washington, d. C. , thousands of mourners honored the late Congressmember Elijah Cummings thursday as his body lay in state in the u. S. Capitol. Cummings, who passed away last week at the age of 68, was the first africanamerican lawmaker to receive the honor. He spent decades championing the rights of African Americans and the poor first as a civil rights activist, later as a maryland state legislator, before being elected to represent his Baltimore District in the u. S. House 13 times. Cummings will be laid to rest today after a a funeral in baltltimore. Former president s bill clinton and barack obama will be among those speaking. Former Vice President and 2020 democratic president ial hopeful joe biden on thursday reversed a pledge not to accept the help of superpacs. A Biden Campaign spokesperson said the move was necessary to counter a barrage of attack ads from President Trump. A spokesperson for Bernie Sanders campaign, which opposes superpacs, slammed bidens move, saying joe biden has spent his campaign promising elite donors that nothing will fundamentally change for them, and he has made clear to fossil fuel and pharmaceutical donors that he will be their ally. In newark, new jersey, Police Arrested over a dozen activists thursday as they blocked downtown traffic in a sitin protest demanding that all residents be eligible to receive drivers licenses, including undocumented immigrants. This is one of the protesters speaking as she joined a peaceful blockade of a newark intersection. We are here because wedding 15 years for access to a drivers license. Enough is enough. It is a major reason why people are getting picked up by ice and been separated from their families. Amy 13 u. S. States plus puerto rico and washington, d. C. , issue drivers licenses regardless of a persons immigration status. In new york city, a woman comedian was booed and two attendees were kicked out of an event for young performers in manhattans Lower East Side wednesday night after they protested the presence of accused sexual predator and former hollywood mogul harvey weinstein, who was in the crowd. One of the evenings performers, comedian kelly bachman, who is a rape survivor, called out weinstein during her act on stage. To name the elephant in the room, do we know what that is . Yeah, it is Freddy Krueger in the room, if you will. Did not know we had to bring our own mace and rape whistles. [boos] shut up. Oh, shut up . Amamy and another attendee, acr zozoe stuckless, was kicked out the e event after confronting harvey weinstein. Nobody y is goingo o say ananything . Nobody is really going to say anything . Here, thatst of fine. I am happy to leave, but nobody is going to say anything . [bleep] rapist and nobodody is going to say anything . Amy amber rollo, who is also a comedian, confronted weinstein and was kicked out as well after a member of his entourage called her the cword. Rollo is also a rape survivor. Harvey weinstein has pleaded not guilty to o several chcharges including predatory sexual assault. In sports news, the Houston Astros fired assistant general manager Brandon Taubman on thursday after he yelled at Sports Illustrated reporter and two other reporters thank god we got asuna. He was wearing a purple domestic wearing aorter was purple domesticviolence awareness bracelet at the time of the incident. Meanwhile, Major League Baseball is reviewing the status of one of its senior umpires after he threatened violence in support of President Trump. Drake tweeted will be buying an ar15 tomomorrow, because if y you imh my president this way, you will have another civil war maga2020 drake since deleted his twitter account and apologize. In california, high winds and bonedry conditions fueled an explosion of new wildfires overnight with at least nine active major fires now raging across the state. 18 Million People are under red flag warnings across Southern California as the tick fire north of los angeles exploded to consume over 3000 acres in a matter of hours, forcing thousands of residents to flee their homes. In northern california, the pacific gas and Electric Company said a broken jumper cable on a transmission tower was spotted near the source of the 10,000acre kincade fire in sonoma county. Y. In sououth dakota, environmentalists are declaring victory after the states republican governor and attorney general agreed not to enforce laws allowing draconian fines and prison terms for protesters opposing oil and gas pipelines. Under the socalled riot boosting act, protest organizers faced up to 25 years behind bars. The American Civil Liberties union welcomed thursdays settlement agreement, calling the lalaw an unconstitutional attempt to silence protesters of the keystone xl pipeline. The aclu tweeted let this be a lesson to other states if you criminalize protest, we will sue. The e trump administratitions p studentloan official said thursday he will resign his position at the Education Department and will work for the cancellation of nearly 1 trillion in federallyadministered student loan debt. A. Wayne johnson says hell promote a plan that would forgive up to 50,000 for anyone with federal student loans, worth about 925 billion. He told the wall street journal we run through the process of putting this debt burden on somebody but it rides on their credit files it rides on their back for decades. The time has come for us to end and stop the insanity. His highprofile resignation came as a federal judge on thursday held education secretary betsy devos in contempt of coururt for viviolag an order to stop collecting student debt for people who were defrauded by the forprofit chain Corinthian Colleges. The court ruled devos ignored the rights of more than 60,000 former students who were relief were granted relief from the federal government after Corinthian Colleges collapsed in 2014 amid government scrutiny of its fraud and predatory lending. Under thursdays contempt of court ruling, d devos will faceo jail time and her Education Department will be fined 100,000. In georgia, a federal grand jury on thursday found seven catholic peace activists guilty on three felony counts and a misdemeanor charge for breaking into the Kings Bay NavalSubmarine Base on april 4, 2018 the 50th anniversary of dr. Martin luther king jr. s asassassination. The activists known as the kings bay plowshares 7 entered the base armed with hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles containing their own blood, and an indictment charging the u. S. Government with crimes against peace. The base is home to at least six Nuclear Ballistic missile submarines, each of which carries 20 trident thermoNuclear Weapons. The activists said they were following the prophet isaiahs cocommand to beat swords into plowshares. At this weeks trial, the defendants were barred from cititing their religus motivations or from mouing a necessity defense saying that their lawbreaking was necessary to prevent the far greater crime of a nuclear war. This is bill quigley, attorney for the kings s bay plowshares , speaking just after thursdays guilty verdict. As the jury was not allowed to hear, the summaries, Nuclear Weapon submarines that are at kings bay, have 3800 times as much destructive power as the weapons that were used in hiroshima, enough power to destroy life on earth as we know it. Come after two years of prayer and action and practice, they came together and they took action to go on the kings bay and preach the word of love, preach the word of life, preach the word of these, and they are paying a huge prprice r that as you all know. Amy y the activists will be sentenced within the next 90 days and face more than 20 years in prison. This is martha hennessy. The weapons are still there. The treaties are being knocked down one after another, but we are called to keep trying. And we will do this together. We have no other choice. Thank you so much. She is the granddaughter of the founder of the catholic worker movement. To see our recent interview with legendary peace activists liz mcalister, you can go to our website democracynow. Org. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. As facebook said this week, it will not fact checked political ads or hold politicians to do usual content standards, the social media giant Ceo Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by lawmakers over his policy of allowing politicians to lie in political ads. Zuckerberg was called a capitol hill wednesday to testify about facebooks plans to launch a cryptocurrency called libra that would reshape the worlds financial system. Members of the House Financial Services committee, many of them women, blasted him with questions for over five hours. Today we bring you highlights. In a minute, youll hear from joyce beatty who asked about facebooks record with issues of civil rights. We begin with alexandria ocasiocortez questioning Mark Zuckerberg. It is good to see you, Mark Zuckerberg. I think you can appreciate using a persons past behavior in order to determine, predict, or make decisions aboutut future behavior. In order for us to make decisions about libra, i thihink we need to dig into your past behaviors past behavior with respect to our democracy. What year and month that you personally first become aware of Cambridge Analytica . Sure of the exact time, but it was probably around the time when it became public. I think it was around march of 2018. When did sheryl sanandberg becocome awaware of Cambridge Analytica . A . I dont know off the top of my head. And did anyone on your Leadership Team know about Cambridge Analytica prior to the initial report by the guardian on december 11, 2015 . So. Ongresswoman, i believe some folks were tracking it internally. As you are asking this, i do think i was aware of Cambridge Analytica as an entity earlier, i dont know if i was tracking how they were u using facebook specifically. When was the issue discussed with your board member peter thiel . Congresswoman, i dont know. This is the largest data scandal with respect to your company that had catastrophic impact on the 2016 election. You dont know . Well, im sure we discussed it after we were aware of what happened. You announced recently the official policy of facebook now allows politicians to pay to spread disinformation. In 2020 elections and in the future. I just want to know how far i can push this in the next year. Under your policy, using census data as well, could i pay to target predominantly black zip codes and advertise them the incorrect election date . Know, you couldnt. Even for these policies around the newsworthiness of content that politicians say in the general principle that i believe close but you said youre not going to fact check my ads. If anyone, including a politician is saying things that can cause it that is calling for violence work at risk eminent physical harm or voter or census oppression when we rollout this incidents policy the census policy, we will take that content down. So there is some threshold where you will fact check political advertisements step is that what youre telling me . Yes, for specific things like that where there is imminent risk of f harm. Ads targeting republican saying they voted for the Green New Deal . Can you repeaeat that . Would i be able to run advevertisements on facebook targeting republicans saying they voted for the Green New Deal . I mean, if youre not Fact Checking political ads, im trying to understand the bounds. What is fair game. I dont know the answer to that off the top of my head. You dont know if i will be able to do that. Do you see a potential problem here with the complete lack of Fact Checking on political advertisements . Well, i think lying is bad and i think if you were to run an ad that had a lie, that would be bad. , and ourifferent from position, the right thing to do to prevent your constituents or people in an election from seeing you had lied. So you wont take down lies or you will take down lies . It is a Pretty Simple yes or no. Congress wo