Well go to tegucigalpa to speak with the spokesperson of the alliance against the dictatorship. Then to President Trumps tax plan. Pres. Trump this is going to be one of the great gifts to the middle income people of this country that theyve ever gotten for christmas. Amy a Christmas Gift for the middle class or for President Trumps family and the lawmakers whose votes he was courting . Well look at how tennessee senator bob corkers abruptly changed his mind and announced his support for trumps tax plan after the addition of a lastminute provision that would personally enrich him. Then after the fcc votes to repeal the landmark Net Neutrality rules, what is next in the fight for a free and open internet . All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The Republicancontrolled Congress is poised to pass a massive rewrite of the u. S. Tax code after Tennessee Republican senator bob corker abruptly reversed his position and announced his support for the tax plan. His switch came as Republican Leaders added a lastminute provision that slashes taxes on income from real estatellcs. Corker is a real estate mogul. To votebio also pledged yes after winning an expansion of the child tax credit, which republicans reluctantly granted. The New York Times reports those who will most benefit arm of the millionaires, private equity managers, private schools, liquid liquor stores, and President Trump and his family. We will have more on the republican tax bill later in the broadcast. The tax bills intending passage came as a top u. N. Monitor issued a scathing report on poverty in the United States saying the Trump Administration and republicans were turning the u. S. Into the World Champion of extreme inequality. Philip alston, the u. N. Special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, warned the republican tax bill will transfer vast amounts of wealth to the richest earners while making life harder for the 41 million americans living in poverty. I think the American Dream is moving fairly rapidly toward the american illusion because social mobility in this country is now extremely low by any western standards. If you are born in poverty, guess for your going to end up . In poverty. Amy in honduras, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal has declared president Juan Orlando Hernandez as the official winner of the november 26 president ial election, despite widespread allegations of voterigging by opposition parties and international observers. The government controlled tribunal concluded hernandez beat opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla by just over 1. 5 Percentage Points after early counts put nasralla in the lead by five points. The organization of american states has called for a new election, saying the first election was so filled with irregularities, that it is impossible to declare a winner. Sundays announcement sparked calls for renewed protests following weeks of uncertainty about the election result. On friday, police fired tear gas at protesters who barricaded roads in tegucigalpa, demanding a recount. This is margarita sauceda. We want them to recognize Salvador Nasralla now is president. He is our president. We elected him as our president because he is the best we have. He will be a change for this country. Amy after headlines, well go to honduras to speak with and talkt allan nairn with history professor and human rights specialist dana frank. Of attackersa pair stormed a Christmas Service at a church in the city of quetta on sunday, killing nine people and wounding more than 50 others. Witnesses say one of the attackers detonated a suicide bomb while the other sprayed gunfire on worshipers before he was shot dead by police. Isis later claimed responsibility for the attack. In afghanistan, at least 11 Police Officers were killed sunday after taliban fighters stormed a checkpoint in the city of lashkar gah. Elsewhere, a suicide bomber targeted a nato convoy in kandahar, killing a woman who died when her home collapsed due to the blast. In the gaza strip, thousands of palestinians attended a funeral saturday for a 29yearold doubleamputee who was killed. Witnesses say an israeli sniper shot 29yearold Ibrahim Abu Thuraya in the head. At the time of his death, abu thuraya was using a wheelchair. He lost both legs and a kidney in 2008 in an assault by a u. S. Made israeli helicopter gunship. He was one of four palestinians killed by Israeli Security forces during protests on friday. The United Nations top human rights official is investigating whether burmas military and the countrys de facto leader, aung san suu kyi, committed genocide against Burmas Rohingya muslim minority. Speaking with the bbc, Zeid Raad Al Hussein said an internatiol criminal campaign. Given the scale of the military operation, clearly, these would have to be decisions taken at a high enough level, and then there is the crime of omission that if you came to your knowledge that this was in committed and you do nothing to stop it, then you could be culpable as well for that. Amy insula, in chile, billionaire former president Sebastian Pinera easily won a new president ial term sunday in a runoff vote that pitted him against senator alejandro guillier. During his previous term, pinera sparked massive protests by unions and student groups over his moves to privatize public services, including education. Back in the United States, Nevada Democratic lawmaker ruben kihuen said saturday he will not seek reelection next year, as a fourth woman stepped forward to accuse the Freshman Congress member of unwanted sexual touching and sexual harassment. Kihuen, who denies the charges, made his announcement a day after the House Ethics Committee said it had launched an investigation. Carolina panthers owner Jerry Richardson said hes put his team up for sale after the nfl said it has launched an investigation into allegations of racist comments and sexual harassment. Among the accusations reported by sports illustrated, richardson ordered female employees to wear jeans to work and to line up for his inspection, telling them to show me how you wiggle to get those jeans up. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained tens of thousands of emails from members of Donald Trumps president ial transition team, adding to speculation about whether more indictments could follow in the wake of the arrest of general michael flynn, paul manafort, and two other former trump officials. Axios reports the emails include documents from seven different accounts, including one operated by trumps Senior Adviser and soninlaw jared kushner. At the white house, President Trump blasted muellers move on sunday, saying the situation was not looking good. But trump said he has no plans to fire mueller. Pres. Trump my people were very upset about it. I cant imagine theres anything on him, frankly. As we said, there is no collusion. There is no collusion whatsoever. But a lot of lawyers. That was pretty thought that was pretty sad. Amy one of trumps lawyers said in a letter to congressional leaders that mueller had improperly received the emails, prompting a rare statement from mueller, who defended his actions as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. The spat came as Congress Member adam schiff, the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee, accused republicans of maneuvering to end the committees investigation into trumprussia ties. The Trump Administration is barred Top Federal Health officials from using seven words or phrases relating to abortion, sexuality, and science in official documents. The Washington Post broke the news on friday, citing an anonymous whistleblower who says policy analysts at the centers for Disease Control were told of the banned words at a meeting last week. The words are fetus, entitlement, vulnerable diversity, transgender, evidencebased and sciencebased. In a statement, Kaylie Hanson long of naral prochoice america said forbidding scientists and researchers from using medically accurate terminology in order to push an extreme, ideological agenda is more dystopia than United States of america. in california, fire Officials Say the thomas fire, the biggest of several blazes currently raging in the southern part of the state, is on track to become the largest wildfire in californias modern history. Cal fire Officials Say the fire is less than half contained with 18,000 structures still under threat. The thomas fire has consumed an area larger than new york city, and at least two deaths are blamed on the fire. Climate scientists have linked californias unprecedented wildfires in warmer, drier december 2 conditions brought on by global warming. In georgia, a fire at an underground electrical facility knocked out power at Atlanta International airport for 11 hours on sunday, stranding tens of thousands of passengers, plunging terminals into darkness and canceling more than 1500 flights at the worlds busiest airport. The blackout left some passengers trapped aboard grounded planes for more than six hours. And on capitol hill, Police Arrested seven Daca Recipients and one of their allies friday, as they held a nonviolent sitin protest inside the offices of democratic senator Chuck Schumer of new york and republican Congress MemberCarlos Curbelo of florida. The activists were demanding the lawmakers commit to voting no on a spending bill later this month unless it includes a version of the dream act without concessions on funding for the border wall or enhanced border security. This is activist erika andiola, speaking at the start of fridays protest in senator schumers office. 22 as part of the spending bill, schumer can do this. Yes the power. Were tired of him playing political games with our lives. That is why we are here and we are going to stay in jail until he does it. Amy the activists remain in jail, and could face possible deportation. They say theyll remain on Hunger Strike until their demands are met. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We begin todays show with the escalating political crisis in honduras. On sunday night, the Electoral Commission declared incumbent president Juan Orlando Hernandez as the official winner of the contested november 26 president ial election. The commission made the announcement while opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla was on a plane traveling to the United States to present evidence of election fraud. The Opposition Party is now for nationwide protests in the organization of american states has called for a new election. This is jorge tuto quiroga, head of the Electoral Observer Mission of the oas. Electoral Observer Mission considered it has observed the process of low electoral quality and therefore cannot settle the doubts over what has been announced today. The incidence of violence that have occurred in the elections is regrettable. It once again for all actors to stay calm and responsibility. Amy the government controlled Electoral Commission stopped tallying votes once the count showed opposition candidate nasralla ahead. After few days, they liked or commission claim hernandez was ahead. Human Rights Groups say as many as 22 people have been killed and more than 1200 detained a nationwide protest since. For more, were joined in to visit divisible but by awardwinning investigative journalist allan nairn and rudo campos. In washington, d. C. , dana frank is with us, professor of history at the university of california, santa cruz. Thats begin with rudolfo pastore in tegucigalpa. Your spokesperson for the Opposition Party that is led by Salvador Nasralla, who is in an airplane headed to washington when the government controlled Electoral Commission announced that the incumbent president hernandez has one. What is your response and what is happening in the streets right now . Well, what has happened since last night, it is Early Morning here in honduras, is obviously, the announcement i the tribunal, a unilateral announcement. Only the president of the tribunal was on camera, which is threetypical since it is magistrates for the tribunal and yet it was the president of the tribunal is more directly linked toJuan Orlando Hernandez, make an announcement, which was also atypical since it was not an official announcement. It was basically him communicating the final results of the count and yet it was not the tribunal coming out and saying Juan Orlando Hernandez had been elected president of honduras. What happened since then is, of course, the alliance has rejected this declaration. We do not consider the tribunal by now to be a legitimate institution here in honduras. It has been that way for a while. We have questioned the credibility of the tribunal, the capacity of the tribunal to provide credible results since before the elections. And of course, by now, more than three weeks since the elections, we are very concerned that the tribunal has played a very, very Important Role in manipulating the results. And this is something the oas has come out and spoken about in its report. The alliance has rejected the results and has called for the population to stay on the streets to keep mobilizing since this is our way of putting pressure on the regime so that they can actually rectify. Since the announcement by the tribunal and then the statements made by the oas calling for a new election, what were for here in honduras is, basically, Juan Orlando Hernandez moving forward saying i am now the winner. All of the front pages on the major newspapers call him the new president of honduras for the next four years. They barely mention the fact the oas came out with a very, very strong statement questioning the tribunal and questioning the process, and calling for new elections. Amy allan nairn, you have been covering the events in tegucigalpa. Can you talk about nasralla , where he was when this announcement was made . You saw him getting on the plane in tegucigalpa . Yeah, i spoke to him as he was boarding. He clearly did not expect this. He was on the way to the one thing that shocked many people here was that president hernandez made this announcement, meanwhile, nasralla was on the plane. But one day after hernandezs sister was killed in Helicopter Crash that he seized the moment to string his proclamation a victory. The declaration by the secretarygeneral of the oas was remarkable because the oas is historically a policy tool of the United States. He is clearly bucking the will of the United States, which has been backing hernandez throughout this process. Hernandez is close to general kelly in the white house. I think this took some courage on the secretarys part because these weekss ive been talking to former latin american heads of state who have made it clear the oas has been hesitant about going against the u. S. On this. But now the secretarygeneral has issued a very strong statement, making it clear that the Computers Computer system of the Electoral Commission was penetrated. It was an invitation to fraud. The oas address was seems to be the dominant emerging evidence was much of the fraud was done by simple ballot box stuff. It was on the local level by the ruling party. As i previously mentioned on an 30,ier show, on november one of the technicians inside the electoral system sent out a private message in which he stated the fraud has now been done. This earliest stance by the secretarygeneral co