Capitol hill to speak with from democratic congressman Keith Ellison, where 11 interfaith leaders were arrested thursday for prototesting the plan outsie the office of Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell. I have been a no the people of kentucky low suffer if this Health Care Bill passes. You may be ok, your friends may be ok, but the people who put you in office will suffer. Amy then we speak with oscarnominated actor James Cromwell, who heads to jail today. He was sentenced to a week behind bars for a nonviolent protest against a natural gasfired power plant in upstate new york that used fracked oil. Not only with barak and and afghanistan and yemen, we are at war with pennsylvania where the gas comes from, where it was to be stored, and Standing Rock. It is time to name the disease. Most people can put their name on the cause of it, but everyone perceives the threat. Capitalism is a cancer. Amy James Cromwell will begin a hunger fast in jail. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell unveiled a revised plan thursday to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act, and is once again facing opposition from within his own party. On thursday, senators Susan Collins of main and rand paul of kentucky said they would oppose even putting the new bill to a vote. The measure would gut medicaid by over 700 billion through 2026, while providing massive tax cuts to the wealthiest americans. Republicans are facing sustained grassroots resistance to their plans. On thursday, 11 interfaith leaders, including North Carolina naacp president reverend William Barber, were arrested outside Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnells office protesting the latest version of the republican Healthcare Plan. This is traci blackmon, executive minister of justice and witness ministries for the United Church of christ. I happen to know that the people of kentucky will suffer if this Health Care Bill passes. You may be ok, your friends may be ok, but the people who put you in office will suffer because of this bill. It is time to stop calling god by other names when you really want to call god capitalism. Amy the healthcare fight came as a new investigation by the guardian reveals Tobacco Companies have attained unprecedented influence in washington since the Trump Administration came to power. The guardian reports politicians with deep ties to the Tobacco Industry now head much of trumps cabinet and the senate, even as tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death. French p president e emmanuel mr welcomed President Donald Trump to paris thursday, saying he was prepared to set aside differences over the Paris Climate Accord in order to Work Together on other issues. I disagree with the way the Paris Agreement is being interpreted by the u. S. We talked about this disagreement. Before and after the decision taken by President Trump. Should this get in the way off the discscussions on all other subjects . Definitely not. Under no circumstances. Amy president macron said france was on target to increase the size of its military budget to 2 of the nations economic output key demand of trump to , a nato allies. Meanwhile, President Trump floated the possibility of reversing his plan to withdraw the u. S. From the paris c climae accord. Mean,trump yeah, i something could happen with respect to the paris accord. We will see what happens. But we will talk about that over the coming period of time. If it happens, that will be wonderful. If it doesnt, that will be ok, too. Amy as trump and macron met, hundreds of protesters packed a designated protest area of paris dubbed the notrump zone. This is french citizen lucy carpenter. Protesting the things that trump was limiting that we dont agree with, such as the Climate Change pulling out of the Climate Change conference. Against the rights of immigigras , being hohomophobic, all of the things. Amy meanwhile, President Trump was blasted on social media over what many are calling creepy and sexist comments about french first Lady Brigitte macron. Video posted to president macrons Facebook Page shshows trump looking the first lady up and down before commenting, youre in such good shape, and repeating, shes in such good physical shape, adding, beautiful. Trump has a long history of sexist comments. He previously called comedian Rosie Odonnell a fat pig and boasted in a 2005 access Hollywood Video about sexually assaulting women. In washington, d. C. , the Education Departments top civil rirights offfficial apologized thursday after making false claims about Sexual Assault on college campuses. Assistant secretary for civil rights candice jacksons apology came after she told the New York Times the accusations 90 of them fall into the category of, we were both drunk, we broke up, and six months later i found myself under a title ix investigation because she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right. Jackson made the remarks as education secretary betsy devos met with socalled mens rights activists who oppose obamaera rules cracking down on campus rape. Survivors of Sexual Assault and their supporters said thursday the Education Department was failing to take Sexual Assault seriously. Fatima goss graves of the National Womens law center told the ap whats extremely important now is that they do the hard work to counter those sorts of rape myths. They need to explicitly reject them. In iraq, Human Rights Watch has condemned video posted to social media purporting to show u. S. Backed iraqi soldiers in mosul executing men suspected of being isis fighters. S. Onone video shows soldiers i in mililitary fatigues kicking and beating bloodied men, beforere dragging one of them to the e ee of a higigh cliff, throwing him off, and then opening fire on him. A second lifeless body can be seen at ththe foot of the cliff. Another r video shows soldiers gunning downwn an unarmemed man kneeling in front of a car. This week, Amnesty International said the u. S. Led coalition violated International Law and may y have committed war crimes duringng the battle to seize control ofof mosul from isis. The fighght killed thousands of civilians, leveveled much ofof e city, and forced nearly 1 million sidents to f flee their homes. In syria, the United Nations warned thursday y of a mass exos of civilians from the city of raqqa, as a u. S. Supported offensive against isis intensifies. A senior u. N. Official said fightiting has displaced nearlya 250,000 people in the region, most of them fleeing in the last few weekeks. Those arriving in camps for the displaced described desperate conditions. I am from west of raqaqqa. The schilling did not stop and isis would not let us leave. Theres no food, bread, no drinking w water. Absolulutely notothing. Amy the j journalistic c monitg group airwarss reports u. U. S. Ld Coalition Airstrikes in recentnt days at least six civilians in raqqa, 11 civilians in al zaynat village, whilele at least four civilians died in airstrikes in deir ezzor, with another 30 injured. In brazil, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da silva vowed thursday to challenge his conviction on corruption charges, saying he would run for president in 2018. Lula da silva was speaking in sao paolo to his supporters in brazils Workers Party. That anyway and things this sentence has taken me out of the game, they should know that i am in the game. They can know that now i i wanto tell you, i want to tell my Party Something that has not been claimed up until now, but i am going to call on the Workers Party for the right to make myself a candidate for president in 2018. Amy prosecutors allege a constrtruction firm spent about 1. 1 million refurbishing a beachside apartment for lula and his wife in exchange for public contracts. Lula has called the case against him a witch hunt aimed at preventing him from returning to the presidency. Meanwhile, brazils current president , michel temer is facing his own corruption probe. On thursday, a Congressional Committee voted against recommending charges against temer, even though president was caught on tape approving hushmoney payoffs for a powerful politician jailed on corruption charges. President temers Approval Rating remains in the singledigits, with one recent poll finding just 2 of brazilians thought he was doing a good job. To see our interview with the pulitzer prizewinning journalist gri glenn greenwald, go to democracynow. Org. In china, nobel peace laureate, human rights activist and dissidenent liu xiaobo died thursday at ththe age of 61 as a prisoner at a hospital in chinas northeast. Liu was battling l liver cancerr that went largely untreated while he served an 11year prison term for subversion. Liu waararrested in n 2009 after he coauthored a petition calling for r freem m of assemb, expression, and religion in china. He previously spent 21 months in prison f for taking part in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. In 2010, liu won thehe nobel pee prize, becoming the first nobel peace laurureate since the 193, who o was unable to receive the prize in oslo. His lengthy prison terms drew condemnation from World Leaders and human rights groups, who say chinese president t xi jinping continues to imprison hundreds of activists for peaceful dissent. This is chinese artist and this is an speaking in 2008. W we will not yieldld to the pressure. Regardless of whether this is your on freedom of writing comes from which direction, from the government or from otother sources. Secondlyly, i want t to make an appeal again to writerers throughout the world, espepeciay writers from free countries, as well as to governments a and ngs to continue to Pay Attention to chinese writers and to the conditions of writing and thus help them to obtain their freedom of writing. Amy the Nobel Peace Prize prisonliu xiaobo deadad in custodody at the age of 61 in china. Back in the United States, a federal judge in hawaii on thursday greatly expanded the number of people exempt from President Trumps ban on refugees and travelers from six muslimmajority nations. Judgeling by the district judge derrick watsons expanded the definition of close family to include aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, grandchildren, cousins and sisters and brothersinlaw. Judge watstons order will also allow entry to refugees who have a formal assurance of placement from u. S. Resettlementnt agenci. President trump told reporters aboard air force one wednesday night that he hopes to build a transparent wall along the usmexico border, in a bizarre statement in which the president warned of the hazard of falling sacks of narcotics. A transcript of trumps remarks released by the white house reads as horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the welcome you dont see them they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff . Its over. As crazy as that sounds, you need transparency through that wall. Trump also said he wasnt joking when he suggested the u. S. Mexico border wall should be covered in solar panels. In bakersfield, california, a 19yearold africanamerican woman says she was beaten by officers and mauled by a police dog last month in a case of mistaken identity. In a video produced by the bakersfield naacp posted online this week, Tatyana Hargrove says she stopped for a drink of water near a Grocery Store when officers approached her and demanded she hand over her backpack. She says an officer named vasquez arrived on the scene with a k9 police dog and attacked her. A warning to our viewers. Some of the images of Tatyana Hargroves injuries in this video are graphic. He grabbed me by my wrist like this and then he grabbed me by my neck and a punched me, then threw me onto the ground. That is when the k9 came and starteded eating at my leg. They wrote me e around. Knee e and myt his back. I told him i could not breathe. Then he put his other knee in my head and i told him, i i can re, i i can breathe. Th i i started y yelling, someby help me. Theyre going to kill me. Amy bakersfieield Police Called the incident a case of mistaken identity and launched an internal affairs investigation, but only after the naacp video went viral online. At the time of the assault, officers were looking for a suspect who reportedly threatened patrons at a Grocery Store with a machete. The suspect was described as a 30yearold back man with a shaved head and goatee, 510 and d 160 pounds. Tatyana hargrove is nineteen years old, fiveefoottwo, 115 pounds a and a woman and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy y now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell unveiled a revised Health Care Bill thursday after a previous republican effort to repealal and replace the Affordable Care act failed to win enough support from mcconnells own party. The draft we just discussed, like the one before, addresses all of objectives. It would give americans more tools for managing their own care and this time, go even further. Significantote resources to the fight against the Opioid Crisis and this time go even further. The revised draft proves on the previous version in a number of ways. All while retaining the fundamental goals of providing stability and improving affordability. Amy the revised bill is largely similar to the Previous Senate bill, including the plans to cut more than 700 billion from medicaid by 2026. The cocongressional budget offie says the previous bill would have caused 22 million americans to lose their healalth insurance over the next 10 years. The cbo is expected to finish its assessment of this latest bill by early next week, and Republican Senate leaders are pushing for a vote by the end of next week. Like the previous version, the new Senate Republican bill would defund planned parenthood for a year, making Breast Cancer screenings and basic Reproductive Services more difficult for women to secure. To talk more about the n new Health Care Bill and the state of reproductive rights, we are joined in denver, colorado, by Jessica Mason pieklo, a legal analyst and Vice President of law the courts at rewire. Jessica, welcome back to democracy now can you summarize this new bill, how new is it . How differerent is itit from the previous bill l that did not evn get revote voted on by republicans because at least 10 disagreed on it . Then talk about how it specifically affects women. Surure. Well, it is a disastrous revision that frankly does not change a whole lot will stop so in terms of it specific impact on women, there are a couple of provisions we should talk about. Mention in your intrtroduction, the bill explicitly defund planned parenthood for an entire year. The question of whether or not republicans can actually do that, according to the byrd rule, which says you cant in a budget specifically target a particular organization for defunding like this, i think is an open question and i think that specific provision is extremely problematic for republicans. But what is really sneaky that they did, and impart this is thanks to the cruz amendment, is any of the objections at the town halls and constituents early on raised to the original coverageh as ending for folks who are over 26, ending protections for preexisting condititions, the federaral bill all purports to include those e pes of thihings. But it also has a pro