Then we look back at Marcus Garvey, one of the pioneers of the black freedom struggle. Negro is aelieve a man [indiscernible] acknowledge what other men have done [indiscernible] amy more than 70 years after Marcus Garveys death, his family is asking president obama for of president ial posthumous pardon. In the 1920s, he was started by at the eye director J Edgar Hoover and sentenced to five years in jail, effectively ending as an african Political Movement. We will speak with this son dr. Julius garvey. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In syria, the evacuation of rebels and civilians from eastern aleppo resumed today, after thousands were left stranded on wednesday amid heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures. Syrian Government Forces said they expected the last of the evacuees to board buses within the coming hours, leaving syrias army to take total control of aleppo which has been , devastated by months of heavy bombing and siege warfare. The evacuation resumed after the United NationsGeneral Assembly voted overwhelmingly to establish a team to investigate war crimes and human rights abuses committed during the syrian civil war. Syria and russia led the opposition to the proposal. Well have more on syria after headlines. Donald trump has named an ardent critic of china to head the White House National trade council, in the latest sign the Trump Administration could launch a trade war with china. Peter navarro is an economist at the university of california, irvine, and author of the books, the coming china wars and death by china. Meanwhile, trump has named billionaire corporate raider carl icahn as a special adviser on regulatory reform. The 80yearold icahn is the 50th richest man in the world. In 1985, he took over the airline twa and systematically stripped it of its assets. Donald trumps son eric said wednesday he would no longer solicit donations to his Charitable Foundation after critics accused him of peddling influence in exchange for donations. One Online Auction offered a chance to have coffee with ivanka trump. It came after the center for Public Integrity revealed that eric and donald trump, junior, recently founded a separate charity called the openingday foundation which drafted invitations offering 1 million donors a chance to meet the new president at a private reception as well as a hunting trip with one of trumps sons. The Trump Transition Team later said it was a bungled initial concepts that have not been approved or pursued by the trump family. In germany, migrants and refugees face an antiimmigrant backlash after mondays truck attack on a Christmas Market in berlin, which left 12 people dead and 48 wounded. Authorities across europe are hunting for suspect anis amri, a tunisian exconvict who had been denied asylum in germany and was considered a security risk. This is yaser, a 32yearold refugee from syria. We dont feel good as refugees after what happened. Whenever someone commits a crime of whatny, regardless nationality, we as refugees become suspects. Amy mondays attack is threatening to undermine chancellor Angela Merkels opendoor policy, which last year saw over one million migrants and refugees resettled in germany. On wednesday, members of the farright afd party protested outside the chancellors offices, Holding Placards reading merkel, you have the blood of your people on your hands and there will be war. Back in the United States, donald trump responded to the attack in germany by reiterating his pledge to create a National Registry for muslims and to ban muslims from entering the u. S. Trump responded to a question from a reporter outside his maralago resort in florida, saying youve known my plans all along and theyve proven to be right. 100 correct. Trumps comments came as the Electronic Information Privacy Center reported that a company cofounded by billionaire trump adviser peter thiel provided secret assistance to the u. S. Customs and Border Protection as it tracked travelers and immigrants. The tools built by thiels data mining firm, palantir, could help trump limit migration to the u. S. And to create a muslim registry. Thiels Company Already has contracts with immigrations and customs enforcement, the departments of justice and defense, and the cia. Peter thiel drew fire earlier this month when her refused to confirm whether hed signed an ethics agreement to recuse himself from any matter affecting his selfinterest. In minnesota, a judge has sentenced a woman to six months in prison after she ordered a somaliamerican woman to speak english before smashing a beer mug into her face for speaking swahili. Jodie burchardrisch pleaded guilty to last years assault at an applebees restaurant, which left asma jama with a bloodied face and 17 stitches in her lip. Jama addressed her attacker in court at a sentencing hearing on tuesday. I need to forgive to go on with my life. Holding featured against you will not serve me well. In front of everyone here, i do forgive you and i hope you choose love over hate. Amy minnesota is home to a large somaliamerican community, which has faced a rash of hate crimes. In a Campaign Stop last month shortly before election day, donald trump railed against somali immigrants, saying some had joined isis and describing somali immigration as a disaster taking place in minnesota. Fox news personality bill oreilly is under fire for embracing White Nationalism after he accused leftists of seeking to take power away from the white establishment. Oreilly made the remarks on tuesdays broadcast of the oreilly factor. What privilege in america as an oppressive force that must be done away. They want the power taken with no white establishment, a profound way in change in the way america is run. Taking power away from the white precincts is the quickest way to do that. Amy in july, oreilly sparked outrage when he said the enslaved africans who built the white house were well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government. In North Carolina, lawmakers failed on wednesday to overturn the states antilgbt law, which denies transgender people the use of the bathroom, changing room or locker room that matches , their gender identity. House bill 2, or hb 2, also bill as the bathroom prevents local governments from , boosting the minimum wage. Hb 2 has prompted boycotts of North Carolina by companies, sports leagues and performers. , as lawmakers adjourned from a oneday special session without a repeal of hb 2 in place, protesters chanted, shame shame Democratic State representative and equality North Carolina director chris grow condemned the failure. 275 days after this body past the worst antilg bill in the entire nation, every single day transgenders have been at risk for discrimination and threat of violence and every single day our economy has lost millions upon millions of dollars. Paypal is not coming here. Bruce springsteen is not coming here. Beare going to continue to set out as a state because of the image we are portraying to the rest of the nation and the rest of the world. Amy democratic governorelect roy cooper said republicans reneged on a promise to repeal the law. Last week, the Republicancontrolled Legislature passed a pair of bills stripping the governor of many powers. Expecting it would take place, the repeal of hb two, charlotte, the city council, which had passed the initial antidiscrimination bill, repealed their bill because the legislature they thought in exchange would repeal hb2 bang. In news of Capital Punishment, a new report from the Death PenaltyInformation Center finds the number of u. S. Executions in 2016 fell to its lowest level in 25 years. Texas and georgia accounted for steam of the years 20 executions. Nationwide, juries sentenced fewer people to death than in any year since 1972 when the Supreme Court reinstated Capital Punishment. Public support for the Death Penalty is declining with one poll showing support for Capital Punishment at less than half the population. In climate news, forecasters are predicting parts of the arctic will see temperatures rise above freezing in the coming days, with temperatures near the north pole today set to reach as much as 50 degrees here in height above normal. Fahrenheit above normal. The freakishly warm temperatures come as Arctic Sea Ice levels are at a record low. Scientists say the changes would not have been possible without Greenhouse Gas emissions from human activity. In china, tens of thousands of residents have fled an air quality red alert, as a thick blanket of toxic smog settled in over nearly a half billion people. Since friday, authorities have warned of offthecharts air pollution levels in at least 23 cities, mostly in northern china. Visibility from the smog was so bad in places that officials closed highways and grounded airplanes. China is the Worlds Largest producer and consumer of coal, which is largely responsible for the smog. In the philippines, the committee to protect journalists is calling for the arrest of those responsible for murdering newspaper publisher larry que. He was shot in the head monday morning, shortly after he wrote a column alleging official negligence over an illegal Methamphetamine Laboratory recently raided by police. Another journalist who covered the same raid later reported receiving death threats. Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte launched a brutal socalled war on drugs that has seen thousands of People Killed by police and vigilantes, and many journalists say they fear they are now targets. In mexico, at least 34 people were killed and dozens more left injured after a massive series of explosions ripped through a fireworks market near mexico city. Tuesdays explosions shook nearby towns and sent a plume of smoke thousands of feet into the air. The openair market was the site of two previous explosions, and a government fireworks regulator recently called it the safest fireworks market in all of latin america. California has ordered uber to remove selfdriving vehicles from the streets of San Francisco after the Car Service Company defied regulators and began a Pilot Program that saw the automated cars break traffic laws and endanger lives. 16 of the companys hightech vehicles had their registrations revoked on after they were wednesday spotted running red lights, blocking intersections, and turning illegally across bike lanes. Uber had already been ordered not to deploy the selfdriving cars, but defied the order in a move that the Company Called an important issue of principle. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Nermeen welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. The United NationsGeneral Assembly has passed a resolution to investigate responsibility for war crimes in syria. The resolution calls for a special team to collect, consolidate, preserve, and analyze evidence, as well as to prepare cases on war crimes and human rights abuses committed. Syria and russia led the opposition to the proposal. This comes as the Syrian Government prepares to fully retake eastern aleppo after years of intense fighting. According to the red cross, the last remaining civilians will be evacuated from the once rebelheld area by tonight or tomorrow. The fall of eastern aleppo marks a major victory for syrian president Bashar Al Assad and his russian allies. Earlier this week, the Foreign Ministers of russia, iran, and turkey met in moscow to discuss the ongoing war. The United States was not invited to participate. Amy the talks came just a day after an offduty Turkish Police officer shot dead the Russian Ambassador to ankara at an art gallery. The gunman yelled out, dont forget aleppo, dont forget syria despite the killing, turkey and russia relations appear to remain close. To talk about the crisis in syria, what happened in berlin, the wars larger impact on the region, we are joined by two guests. Joining us from istanbul is yassin alhaj saleh, a syrian writer, dissident, and former political prisoner. His forthcoming book is titled, the impossible revolution making sense of the syrian tragedy. And joining us via democracy now video stream from the hague is mouin rabbani, the former head of Political Affairs for the u. N. Special envoy for syria. He is a coeditor of jadaliyya. We welcome you both to democracy now mouin rabbani, lets begin with you. Can you talk about both the assassination of the Russian Ambassador in turkey and white has taken place in berlin . I dont think the two are particularly related. I think the important thing to note about the killing of the Russian Ambassador in turkey, it does not appear to have affected increasingly close russian turkish. For that matter, turkish iranian relations in terms of addressing the Syrian Crisis group an independent set of negotiations that will be served revised supervised by the three countries to the exclusion of , probably toates large extent from also the United Nations. I think people who were describing this as a syria will moment and all of the rest of it, welcome or that might have been true had this happen the year ago, but that is certainly no longer the case. Turkey was not disinvited from the recent meeting in moscow, nor did turkey declined to go. In terms of berlin, current indications are that German Police are looking for a germany who arrived in or in italy, rather, some years ago. I believe in 2012. Had spent some time in prison. Application for asylum rejected. There is now talky may be part of a larger cell planning similar attacks. I think we will have to wait to learn more about that. But unlike the killing in turkey, this does not appear to be related in any way. Or the berlin attack, for now, does not appear to be related in any way to the syrian conflict. Amy mouin rabbani, to go back to the talks between the Foreign Ministers of iran, turkey, and russia, could you say why you think the United States and the u. N. Were excluded from the talks . I think it has to do with the russians trying to translate the military achievements into political ones. And in so doing, to seek to basically jettison the formula of a political transition, which many have understood to be a process that would ultimately result in removal of office from Bashar Alassad to an alternative approach, which calls for expanding the government by coopting some elements of the opposition due to an expanded Syrian Government. If you can get turkey on board with that formula enter forng the most important the opposition and there is no need, or it would be preferable from moscows perspective, and also from tehrans and the government in damascus, do have other sponsors of the Syrian Opposition excluded from the process United States, saudi arabia, al etc. , for more control over the political process. Response,get your to russia saying communications with the United States, dialogue with united date, relations with the United States, is almost completely frozen expecting a better relationship with donald trump . That statement appears to be a general one concerning communications between moscow and washington over a whole host of issues, rather than specifically on the syrian front. I think it is a signal from moscow that theyre waiting out the end of this administration, hoping for Better Things come january 20 when donald trump is inaugurated. Nermeen mouin rabbani, do you think, as some people claim, that iran and russia are the only two state parties that can help to facilitate a political resolution of the conflict in syria, given that they have in terms of external countries, the greatest influence . No, by no means would i say they are the only partner. It is my view or that a solution to the Syrian Crisis needs to be found primari