Teenager. Shooting happened when she was just 16 years old but she was tried as an adult. The after years of protest, she was granted clemency by former tennessee governor bill haslam. She was released just two months ago at the age of 31 and has now published her memoir free cyntoia my search for redemption in the american prison system. To any young women and girls who find themselves in the situation i was in, i would say that there are people that hear you. There are people who understand what youre going through. I understand. I have been through it myself. And there were times i did not think i was going to make it, but the lord brought me through it and he can bring you through it as well. Just keep faith and keep fighting. Amy we will speak with cyntoia brownlong in one of her first interviews after prison. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Shelling is continuing in Northern Syria one day after turkey agreed to a u. S. Plan to halt its assault on kurdishcontrolled areas for five days. Turkey invaded the region after President Trump withdrew u. S. Support for the kurds. Vice president mike pence announced the deal after meeting with turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in ankara. Pause turkish side will operation p spring in order to allow for the withdrawal of ypg forces from the safe zone for 120 hours. All military operations under e spring will be paused and it will be halted entirely on completion of the withdrawal. Amamy turkey has s refused to l the deal a ceasefifire. On thursday, a kurdish commander sasaid they would accept the del but only along part of the border. The New York Times reports the deal amounts to a neartotal victory for r turkeys presiden it would allow turkey to keep occupypying parts of Northern Syria. In addition, the u. S. Would lift its sanctions on turkey. It remains unclear what will happen to kurds who live near the turkish border. Former obama official colin kahl told the guardian if they really think theyre going to push the kurds all the way back to behind the m4 highway, thats a Huge Population transfer. It would involve massive ethnic cleansing essentially. Meanwhile, Amnesty International is accusing turkey of committing war crimes by carrying out summary killings and unlawful attacks that have killed and injured civilians in Northern Syria. Kurdish authorities report at least 218 civilians have been killed in the turkish h offensie , including 18 children. Acting white house chief of staff Mick Mulvaney publicly confirmed President Trump thursday blocked nearly 400 million in military aid to ukraine in an attempt to pressure kiev to investigate the democrats. House democrats say mulvaneys admission could mark a turning point in the impeachment probe. Mulvaney made the comments while being questioned during a televised presess briefing at te white e house. He also mentioned to me the corruption related to the dnc server . Absolutely. No question. But that is it. That is why we held up the money. So demand for the investigation into the democrats was part of the reason to withhold funding to ukraine . The l look back to what happened in 2016, certainly was part of what he was worried about incorruption with that nation. That is appropriate. What yoyou described as a q d pro quo. It is funding will not flow unless the investigation into the democratic server happen as well. We do that all the time with foreigign policy. Amy Mick Mulvaney went on to continue to defend the admiministrations actions. I have news for everybody. Get over it. There is going to be political influence in Foreign Policy. Amy Mick Mulvaneys comments shocked many in washington for directly undercutting President Trumps claim that there was no quid pro quo with ukraine. Hours after the News Conference ended, mulvaney accused the media of misconstruing his comments, issuing a statement contradicting his previous remarks. The Statement Read in part let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian Military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election. The u. S. Ambassador to the european union, Gordon Sondland , confirmed to house impeachment investigators that President Trump had delegated rudolph rudy giuliani, his personal attorney, to be in charge of Foreign Policy around ukraine, sidestepping the state department. Sondland said i did not understand, until much later, that mr. Giulianis agenda might have also included an effort to prompt the ukrainians to investigate Vice President biden or his son or to involve ukrainians, directly or indirectly, in the president s 2020 reelection campaign. In related news, Energy Secretary rick perry has announced he is resigning by the end of the year. He was recently subpoenaed as part of the house impeachment inquiry ovover his role in ukraine. The white house has announced the next g7 summit will be held at the Trump National doral miami golf resort in miami. In florida. The announcement was widely criticized. Robert weissman, the president of public citizen, said its hard to imagine a more blatant violation of the constitutions anticorruption provision than the president steering foreign governments to stay at his Luxury Resort property. On thuhuday, actining white houe chief of staff mick k mulvaney dismissed the criticism, claiming the white house had determined the trumpowned resort to be the best possible sitete in the entire country to host the summit. We know the environment we live in. You all know the environment. He knows exactly he is going to get these questions and get that reaction from a lot of people, and he was simply saying, ok, im willing t ttake that. T. The same he takes it when he goes to m maralago. He got over that a long time ago. We absolutely believe this is the best place to have it. Theyre going to be folks who will never get over thee fact it is a trump property. We get that, b but werere still going to go there. Amy acting chief of staff mulvaney also revealed one of the worlds most pressing issues the Climate Crisis will not be on the agenda at the g7. As we are looking at the content of what you want to do next year, it is probably going to be hot in the florida in june. Will be Climate Change be one of the issues discussed . Climate change will not be on the agenda. Amy in news from afghanistan, civilian casualties have reached a nenew high. The United Nations reports a record 4300 civilians were injured or killed in afghanistan between july and september. These are the highest figures since the u. N. Began counting in 2009. This comes as the u. S. Is intensifying its air. Last month, u. S. Air f force aircraft d dropped 948 misissils and bombs, more than i in any month in five years. British lawmakers are scheduled to vote saturday on a new brexit deal reached between british Prime MinisterBoris Johnson and the european union. Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said the labour party cannot support the brexit deal. This is a day when the primie minister seems to have made a deal with eueuropean union, whih does not give us the complete freedom of movement between britain and Northern Ireland because it creates a Customs Union border down the irish sea. Does nothing to deal with all of the concerns we have raised during theresa mays Prime Minister ship. The deal we proposed is s having britaiain and the direction of a deregulalated society. Amy in chicago, citywide strike by teachers and Schools Support staff has entered its second day was to it forces the closing of the nations Third Largest school system. 25,000 teachers represented by the Chicago Teachers Union as well as 7500 support staff represented by seiu launched their strike on thursday. The new York City Council has approved an 8 billion plan to close Rikers Island by 2026 and build four new jails across new york city, in what many are calling a National Model for prison reform. New York City Council speaker Corey Johnson backed the closing of rikers. Conditions matter. These jails are disgusting. These jails should have been closed years ago. We are doing it today. I will probably vote yes. Thank you all very much. Amy for decades, human rights activists have protested the violence, abuse, and mismanagement inside Rikers Island and have called for its closure. Yet many activists now oppose the plan to replace rikers with four new jails. The group no new jails nyc staged a protest outside city hall on thursday. This is a member of the group. The same mayor and a lot of the same City Council Members voted to increase the nypd budget by over 100 million to hire more cop now they want to who knows how many billions of dollars building what would be the tallest skyscraper jails in the world. The socalled progressives need to spend the money on what would keep new yorkers safe and out of jail, things like housing, education, Health Care IncludingMental Health care. These are the things the city should be spending resources on instead of locking up our children come our childrens children. Theyre talking about multigenerational jails. We are here to stop them. Amy in louisiana cuban , a asylumseeker died of an apparent suicide while being held at an ice detention center. The aclu condemn the debt saying we will not stand by while ice and torches people who are exercising their right to seek asylum in the united states. Meanwhile, the Group Freedom for immigrants is reporting to cuba Asylum Seekers detained in new mexico recently slit their wrists and at least 19 others are planning on doing so in an act of mass resistance. The general strike has shut down much of barcelona and the catalonia region of spain today. This comes after days of streets protests by catalan separatists. On monday, the spanish supreme courts decision to sesentence nine catalan separatist leaders to up 13 years in prison over their role in cataloniaas 2017 bid for independence. Lebanon is witnessing its largest protests in years. Earlier today, demonstrators blocked roads with burning tires and marched in beirut. On thursday, the lebanese government dropped a plan to Institute New taxes on calls made through whatsapp. Protesters condemned the lebanese government for failing to tackle the countrys economic crisis. We are all poor and we are asking for jobs, for our rights, electricity, water. We are demanding education. We want to live in dignity. Amy Mexican Security forces briefly captured one of the sons of el chapo on thursday, but then released him after authorities came under attack by heavily armed drug cartels. Ovidio guzman lopez, a leader of the powerful sinaloa cartel, was detained in the city of culiacan during a routine police check. But then members of his cartel responded by laying siege to the city, overwhelming the police and Mexican National guard. Fighting raged for hours. At least two people died. The Mexican Police eventually withdrew and released guzman. At l least 20 0 prisoners also escaped during the chaotic day. And the legendary cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso has died at the age of 98. She was the founder of the internationally Renowned National ballet of cuba. Despite being partially blind, she became one of the most celebrated dancers in thee worl. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. At the age of 16, she was arrested for killing a man who picked her up for sex after she had been forced into sexual slavery as a child. She was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of firstdegree murder for shooting her rapist. Today cyntoia brownlong joins us to share her experience, what has happened in the 15 years since she was incarcerated, and how she won her release. In an incredible development, cyntoia was granted clemency in january after former tennessee governor bill haslam commuted her sentence for murdering 43yearold johnny allen, a estate agent who took her to his home for sex. Cyntoia says allen was behaving erratically and owned a number of guns, and that she feared for her life when she shot him in the head and made her escape. At the time, she was being sexually trafficked and repeatedly abused and drugged, and forced into prostitution by a pimp nicknamed kutthroat. She was just 16 years old at the time of the shooting, but she was tried as an adult and convicted of firstdegree murder and aggravated robbery in 2006 without the possibility for parole until 2055. Juveniles in tennessee who are sentenced to life in prison must spend at least 51 years behind bars. Cyntoias case drew widespread attention on social media under the hashtag freecyntoiabrown. Pop superstar rihanna wrote something is horribly wrong when the system enables these rapists and the victim is thrown away for life after her repeated appeals in the case were denied, cyntoia spoke at her clemency hearing in january. I cant make up for what i did, but they have given me a chance to do so much more. I have been able to help people, which is amazing. Young people. Young kids. And they listen. And i am still going to try to help people. I still am because it is something people need to understand, something people need to know. There are so many things that i understand now that i did not know. And there are so many young people who still dont know. And i feel called to share that. You decide, i respect it. I do pray you show me mercy and you give me a second chance. That is my prayer. And i can assure each and everyone of you that if you do, i wont disappoint you. Im not going to let you down. Amy that was cyntoia brownlong speaking in january. She was ultimately granted clemency and released from prison in august. She is now 31 years old. This week she published a book about her experience and is doing her first interviews. Her memoir titled free cyntoia my search for redemption in the american prison system. Welcome to democracy now it is great to have you with us. So you were sentenced to life in prison at the age of 16 years old. If you would go back in time and tell a as what happen on the nit what led to,004, well, everything that is happened now, although there was so much before it. On the night of august 7, i was involved with a man by the name of kutthroat, as you mention, and i was going out meeting with men, having sex for money. And one of the men who had picked me up was a 43yearold man, real estate agent. He took me back to his home. Acting really strange. I started to feel like i was in a situation that i just could not get out of although, i just wanted to leave. Very uncomfortable. He was showing off his guns, things like that. Things really escalated. They came to a point where i shot him. I felt something was about to happen to me. I left, went back to the room amy got in his pickup truck. Right. That was the only way i could go back. I went back to the hotel room that i shared with kutthroat. Within 24 hours, the police had come and arrested me. I spoke with them freely. Myself, sod defended i did not have anything to h hi. The next thing i know, im being charged with criminal homicide. Amy how much can you understand as at the time you were 16 . Right. I really did not understand the gravity of the situation that i was in, the situation that led to me being arrested. And of course, the entire arrest process, the charging process, i did not get it. Thed directive detective spoke to me before i went into the confession room. He just said, talking to me is going to be the difference between nine years and 99 years. So the choice to me was obvious. Amy no lawyer with you. No lawyer, no parents. I did tell them i was 19 because that is what kut had told me to say if the police ever got me. I could not tell them i was 16. However, they did find out after the fact that i was 16 years old. Still did not attempt to try to call my parents, try to call a lawyer, or anything like that. Amy take us back. Youre referring to kutthroat, and then youve come to see in a very different way than you did as a child. Even though what happened that sentence ofto your life in prison, i want you to go back in your own life now and tell us about where you were born and what led you to the point you are on that fateful night. At fortwas born campbell, military base, raised in a military community, very supportive community. My family was very supportive. My mother is a teacher. My father is retired military. Had pretty much everything that i needed as a child. I would go to school and other kids started pointing out i was different from my parents. I was different from other people. Did not really feel like i fit in anywhere. I was kind of treated as an outcast. Behavioro develop problems, attitude problems. The school labeled me as the bad kid. St