Cruz who was set to testify alongside fema chief brock long today. We received a statement by the congressman thompson stating that the majority of the republicans for the second time in a row has canceled the with no date for it to be rescheduled. Im just wondering, what are they afraid of . Amy than a federal judge blocked part of president terms transgender military ban. We will speak with the former trans marine who is the challenging the ban. All of that andore, coming up. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In new york city, eight people were killed and 11 more injured when a driver intentionally drove a pickup truck down a bike path along manhattans hudson river tuesday. Officials are calling it an act of terror. Police say the attacker was 29yearold Sayfullo Saipov. He reportedly drove a rented home depot truck down the massacre will lane bicycle and killing at least eight people before crashing into a school bus. He then reportedly jumped out of the car, waiving a pellet gun and a paintball gun. Police say he yelled god is great in arabic before being shot by police in the stomach. He survived the shooting. Authorities say they uncovered handwritten notes in arabic near the truck that suggest saipov had declared allegiance to isis. Authorities say Sayfullo Saipov came to the United States from uzbekistan in 2010 and has lived in florida, ohio, and most recently in patterson, new jersey. This is new york city mayor bill de blasio. It is a very painful day in our city. Horrible tragedy on the west side. Let me be clear based on the information we have at this moment, this was an act of terror. And a particularly coward act of terror aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives who had no idea what was about to hit them. This moment, based on the information we have, we know of eight innocent people who have lost their lives. Amy in response to the attack, President Trump tweeted join n. Y. C. , looks like another attack by another sick and arranged person. Lawenforcement is following this closely will stop not in the usa. When i did tweak ive ordered Homeland Security to step our extreme vetting program being politically correct is fine, but not for this. Among the victims were five argentines who had gathered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation. In afghanistan, isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the capital kabul, which killed up to eight people and wounded many more. Reuters reports seeing at least eight people who appeared to have died from the blast, and that all the victims were afghan civilians. The attack occurred in the heavily fortified green zone. Afghan Authorities Say the attacker appeared to be as young as 12 or 13 years old. In more news on afghanistan the New York Times is reporting that the u. S. Military has begun keeping secret Key Information about the u. S. Backed Afghan Security forces. The figures redacted from the most recent inspector generals Quarterly Report include the size of the afghan army and police force and how many soldiers and police have been wounded or killed. This information used to be made public. Since 2001, the u. S. Has funneled tens of billions of dollars to the Afghan Security forces. In yemen, a u. S. Backed saudiled airstrike has killed at least 26 people at hotel and adjacent market in the northern saada province on wednesday. The ongoing u. S. Backed, saudiled Bombing Campaign has killed more than 10,000 civilians, sparked the cholera epidemic by destroying yemens health, water, and sanitation systems, and exacerbated a famine thats left 7 million on the brink of starvation. On capitol hill, executives from facebook, google, and twitter testified to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee tuesday about how russia spread propaganda ahead of the 2016 president ial election using the major social media websites. On monday, facebook disclosed that as many as 126 million users were exposed to the political advertisements bought by a russianlinked company. This is facebooks general counsel colin stretch being questioned by delaware senator Christopher Coons about one of these ads. The ad claims that Hillary Clinton is only one politician except barack obama who is despised by the overwhelming majority of american veterans. It says if clinton were elected president , the army should be withdrawn from her control according to them amendment of the constitution. The is nothing short of russian government directly interfering in our elections, line two american citizens ,duping folks who believe there joining and supporting a group of veterans and based in texas when in fact it is paid for in rubles by russians. It should should facebook be allowed to be a platform that foreign adversaries can use to run political ads, sir . Advertisementat has no place on facebook. Amy that was facebooks general counsel colin stretch being questioned by delaware senator Christopher Coons during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on tuesday. This is colin stretch being questioned by senator al franken. How does facebookocess billis and instantly transform them into personal connections for its user, somehow not make the connection that electoral ads paid for in rubles were coming from russia . Those are two data points. Andican political ads russian money, rubles. How could you not connect those two dots . Amy special Counsel Robert Mueller is continuing to widen his investigation into whether President Trump colluded with russia to influence the 2016 election, with plans to interview trumps Current Communications director, hope hicks, and multiple other Current White House officials. Hicks has already retained a personal lawyer. The expansion of the investigation comes after mueller announced the first indictments in the investigation, charging trumps former Campaign ChairPaul Manafort and his former business associate rick gates with 12 counts, including Money Laundering and conspiracy against the United States. Both men surrendered themselves to the fbi monday. They are now under house arrest. Relation show manafort had three different u. S. Passports, each with different numbers. Rick gates has 55 Different Bank accounts with 13 different days, including some based in cyprus and britain. President trump is tried to discredit and diminish the significance of a third trump adviser, george papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty in early october to lying to the fbi and is cooperating with investigators in exchange for a more lenient sentence. On tuesday trump tweeted few people knew the young, low level volunteer named george, who has already proven to be a liar. White house chief of staff john kelly is facing widespread criticism for his comments about the civil war during a fox news interview on monday. Robert ely was an honorable man. The lack of ability to compromise led to the civil war. And many women of good faith on both sides made their stand with their contents had them make their stand. Amy historians have denounced comment asrous dangerous. In response, awardwinning author Tanehisi Coates tweeted an extended History Lesson about the civil war and criticism of john kelly, which included coates writing when the adult in the room believes a war for slavery was honorable, believes that the torturer of humans, vendor of people, who led that war was honorable. You really do see the effect of white supremacy. Amnesty is slamming the Israeli Government for refusing to allow raed jarrar, advocacy director for the middle east and north africa, to enter the israelioccupied west bank. He was stopped at a crossing between jordan and the west bank while on a personal trip to visit family after the death of his father. Amnesty said the fact that raed jarrar was barred from entry after being interrogated about his work with Amnesty International appears to suggest that this move was taken in retaliation for the organizations work on Human Rights Violations in the occupied palestinian territories. In iraq, kurdish journalist arkan sharif has been assassinated. Eight men broke into his home in a village outside kirkuk and stabbed him to death in the early hours of monday morning. His killing comes only hours after armed men attacked a Television Crew in erbil. Iraq is one of the worlds deadliest countries for journalists. Meanwhile, danish Inventor Peter Madsen has admitted he dismembered the body of swedish journalist kim wall and dumped her cut up body parts into the sea. Wall was last seen alive on august 10 when she boarded madsens submarine. Denmarks largest daily newspaper has called her death the most spectacular murder case in danish history. In peru, women competing in the miss peru beauty pageant protested violence against women by refusing to disclose their waist, hip, and breast measurements, and instead presented statistics on the murder, rape, and harassment of women. I represent lima. I figures are 82 homicides and hundreds attempted from a site so far this year. By name is samantha. I represent luima. Minutes as every 10 a result of sexual exploitation. I figures are more than 70 of women in our country are victims of street harassment. I represent i measurements are 6573 cases of violence against women have been registered in my region. Amy back in the United States, counts of Sexual Harassment continue to rock the u. S. Journalism industry. Mark halperin has been fired from nbc after a number of women accused him of Sexual Harassment when he was at abc. The head of nprs top News Department has been placed on leave as npr investigates he kissed tohat women without their consent while he was Washington Bureau chief of the New York Times. Both women say they were meeting with him to discuss working at the paper when he kissed them and stuck his tongue in their mouths. In utah, Nurse Alex Wubbels has won a 500,000 settlement after being violently arrested by police at the hospital for refusing an officers demand that she draw a blood sample from an unconscious car crash patient. Police body cam video shows the police attacking wubbels, arrested her, and forced her out of the hospital and into an unmarked car on july 26. After the footage surfaced, the hospital said police would no longer be permitted in patientcare areas, such as the burn unit where wubbels was working that day. The Police Officer has since been fired. And new jerseys attorney general has sued purdue pharma, the maker of oxycontin, accusing the drug company of deceptive marketing that has fueled new jerseys opioid crisis. New jersey is one of 11 states that have now sued the pharmaceutical giant over the opioids. To see our interview about the sacklers, the secretive family that owns purdue and has made billions off the opioid crisis, you can go to democracynow. Org. 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. We begin todays show with shocking new revelations about the assassination of renowned honduran indigenous environmental leader Berta Caceres. On tuesday in tegucigalpa, honduras, a team of International Lawyers released a new report that shows how the plot to murder caceres was months in the making and went up to the highest levels of the company, whose hydroelectric dam project caceres and her indigenous lenca community were protesting. Pushing back against the impunity with which the murder was carried out. Juan justice for bertha, they chanted. In 1993, Berta Caceres cofounded the National Council of popular and indigenous organizations of honduras, or copinh. For years, the group faced Death Threats and repression as they stood up to mining and dam projects they said were destructive to their ancestral land. Then on march 2, 2016, caceres was gunned down just before midnight in her hometown of la esperanza. At the time of her death, she was organizing indigenous communities to resist the Agua Zarca Dam on the gualcarque river, saying it threatened to contaminate her communitys water supply. Amy now a team of five International Lawyers have found evidence that the plot to kill caceres went up to the top of the honduran Energy Company behind the dam desarrollos energeticos, known as desa. The lawyers were selected by caceres daughter bertha zuniga, and are independent of the honduran governments ongoing official investigation. They examined some 40,000 pages of Text Messages and say the conversations are proof that the orders to threaten copinh and disrupt its protests came from desa executives. The investigation also revealed desa exercised control over Security Forces in the area, issuing directives and paying for police units room, board, and equipment. In their new report, the lawyers write the existing proof is conclusive regarding the participation of numerous state agents, highranking executives and employees of desa in the planning, execution and coverup of the assassination. For more, we go to mexico city where were joined by elisabeth malkin, reporter for the New York Times. She has read the new report and details its findings in her article, who ordered killing of honduran activist . Evidence of broad plot is found. Elisabeth malkin, welcome to democracy now talk about who did this report and what this broad plot is. Welcome a first of all, thank you very much for having me. The report was compiled by five International Lawyers from the United States, colombia, evidence, who reviewed that was given to the family of honduraneres by the public ministry. And really combed through these Text Messages. The Text Messages were found on phones confiscated, seized by the honduran government as part of their investigation. , basically, there are three phones. One taken from the desa headquarters and two from suspects. The suspects are in environmental manager for desa bestformer security security chief for desa who had worked for the company until 2015. And what these messages show our are notany executives in been the report because they have not been indicted, were in close contact with these two suspects. Toing the months leading up the murder in march 2016 and in the days afterward. So what this is suggesting is that this was not the actions of rogue employees and ex employees. This was a much more concerted action. And what the family hopes is that the report will push honduran authorities to investigate further. Juan elisabeth malkin, for those who have not followed the Berta Caceres case, who is currently in custody in relation to her murder and what is the status of their arrest . Fourwere arrested people were arrested a couple of months after her murder. Then additional people were arrested a few weeks later. There are eight people in custody. Out,wo that really stand the companys environment and community manager. In effect, the person in charge of relations with the community. Been as, who had in the report which details their movements. Days before the murder. Are you many texts talking about were in the phones of in the phones that were taken by the authorities, but never dealt with for year and a half . Is it Something Like 40,000 . Pages ofwere 40,000 messages. Up are whats conversations. It is widely used in latin america. What the lawyers were able to do is they use the Metadata Company that was able to analyze these. It is an awful lot of material to go through. That theion is honduran authorities have had this data themselves. Whether they have enabled or willing to analyze it is the question. Whether they have been able or willing to analyze it is the question. Why they havent moved more aggressively to investigate other people in the company who are on this messages. Remember, these people are not named so we dont know exactly who they are. It is the job of the honduran prosecutors to investigate. Amy they are amazing. You quote from the new report about the plot to kill Berta Caceres and you write an attempt to kill ms. Caceres was planned for early february but called off, the lawyers said. Mission aborted today, mr. Bustillo wrote to a desa executive. Yesterday, we couldnt. Mr. Bustillo returned to la esperanza for several