attended winstead met by the police belgium recently entered a 3rd lockdown with gavin's limited to just 4 people. and what turned out to be an april fool's prank by one of the world's biggest car makers has backfired a volkswagen said it was renaming its u.s. operations vaults bargain signaling a focus on electric vehicles to prevent anger on social media among those who pointed to the company's diesel emissions scandal attempts to mislead customers. a quick check of the top stories here on al-jazeera george floyd's girlfriend has taken the stand at the trial of the former police officer accused of his murder courtney russia details of their struggle with opioid addiction drug use is expected to be examined heavily throughout the trial the defense will later argue it was the main factor in floyd's death for we both are from chronic pain.

mine was in my neck in his 1st in his back. and we both had prescription. after prescription. filled and. we believe. the world health organization has criticized the european union's vaccination rollout as unacceptably slow this it says risks prolonging the pandemic as variant spread. the man was deposed leader and sang sue g.'s facing the most serious charge since being forced from power by the military it carries up to 14 years in prison activists have been continuing to protest exactly 2 months after the general seized power. a ship carrying 1200 people who fled violence in northern mozambique has arrived at the port town of pemba family members were waiting

outside the port to see which their loved ones were among them armed group storm the northern city of palm a week ago killing hundreds of people the head of egypt's suez canal or thora he says the country expects more than a $1000000000.00 in compensation after a cargo vessel blocked the canal for nearly a week he said the amount should cover the cost to dislodge the ship losses due to stalled traffic and loss transit fees but he didn't specify who would be paid. the leader of the palestinian israeli party has called for better coexistence between arabs and jews and so a bastard not indorse prime minister benjamin netanyahu nor his rivals in a closely watched speech as united arab party has emerged as a kingmaker following israel's latest inconclusive election it won 4 seats. well those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after inside story thank you that's watching.

italy has expelled 2 russian officials. it's the latest in a string of spying allegations against moscow so how will italy and other european nations deal with this twice this this is inside story. hello welcome to the program. the italian government has expelled 2 russian officials it follows police that any tahlia naval officer was caught selling

classified documents to a russian owned voice in a row the accusations are the latest in a number of recent charges of espionage against russia the stolen documents reportedly include top secret information from nato and the italian military moscow says it's unaware of the circumstances of the case but it could take possible steps the italian foreign minister a hostile and russia's ambassador in protest against way cause a grave act. what happened is unacceptable and there will be consequences there is no doubt about it because it's unacceptable that someone comes here to pay our navy officers one of our navy officers to get nato information it is not just our security at presque but that of the entire nato alliance we cannot accept this i must also say though that with the international actors we have to deal with we must always have a channel of communication that allows us not to escalate nobody wants it russia

says the incident should not affect its good relations with italy kremlin spokesman bitterroot pascoe sad we have no information on the reasons and circumstances of this detention 1st of all but in any case we hope that will keep the relations between russia and italy a positive and constructive british foreign secretary dominic robb has expressed support for italy saying in a tweet the case stands in solidarity with actions today exposing and taking actions against washers mulayam and this to be activity that is designed to undermine our nato ally. let's have a look at some of the most recent spying accusations against moscow bulgaria expelled 2 russian diplomats last month after breaking up aspiring that included

bulgarian defense ministry officials a german man is facing charges after police accused him of passing the floor plans of the german parliament to russian military intelligence in february also in the same month a swedish man was arrested for selling sensitive very cold as alliance or russian diplomat in december a dutch intelligence agency said it uncovered 2 russian diplomats who were targeting the nation's science and technology sector. let's bring in gas in rome sabina castillo franco is the churn alist in moscow pavel felgenhauer a defense and military analyst also rome marco deledio senior analyst and head of the russia and balkans desk of a center for international studies while it came to the program sabina this is not

the 1st case of espionage targeting a western country by a basha probably won't be the last but what is particular about this case in italy . is if i heard your question right is how the italians are reacting to this certainly no one was pleased with finding out in this country that an italian navy officer was handing over classified documents to a russian official this certainly doesn't please anybody particularly because those documents obviously hold information that italy does not want to be releasing to other countries particularly outside of the european union and the nato alliance having said this it's really has a very strong relationship with russia it is possibly the country in europe that is could assist and has woomera relations with

russia. in the european union or amongst european union countries pavel the russian spies were i mean from the statement from the from the italian foreign ministry and the police were looking for crucial military information about the italian military and nature are you are we likely to see some profound damage to the italian russian relations here. well i don't think that's going to be any lasting damage that's going to be most likely russian tit for tat expulsion. diplomats from moscow and basically that's going to be most likely the end of the story both rome and moscow don't and they expressed that opinion that they don't want to really spoiler away sions because this unfortunate event so no lasting things everyone understands this is business as usual that's how the

system gathering information were and it's not actually could that really clear that be information passed was really a sense that there was a report that the italian name officer was paid 5000 euro in cash and that's not really a lot of money in terms of kind. of where if it was really a sense that if it would be much more and it would be handled not by the russian diplomat i have my especially designate that case officer mark. i mean the italians should be offended in a way or another because the intelligence agency was. following the case of this officer this is someone who has been bribed something like 5000 euros for military information about the italian military what's the general sentiment in italy about

this particular case. the general sentiment is that it does ease to do sion and w. and bubbly will be known feels traced by well that bend but not for $5000.00 euro some money. you know you need ali there is a very polarized binion on russia you have a strong on durata shop function and an also strong brusha faction so what that meant was a huge argument you follow or of our shop fashion and as stronger argument against for our faction. generally the idea of the public opinion and easy to show is to try to build warm and strong

relation between your role and moscow also because there are very strong economy dice and the 1st are the contracts on energy and gossip block i bought after what happened with the spy case and he doesn't government send a clear politi gulp message to law school and the message he's that these kind of action won't be tolerated anymore right sabina as marco is saying particular about this whole divide in italy. we've seen that same pattern in other places where similar incidents took place like in bulgaria for example and the sentiment was divided those who were saying this is an issue of national sovereignty and the russians should be punished the others were saying no because we have affinities and we have strong historical ties with the russians do you think that russia is trying to tap on that the tickler divide that you see across

the european continent for leveraging for more let's political leverage you know i think that russia needs to keep a decent relationship with the european union in particular at the moment you know if he has been helping russia with the possible sale of its pup make a vaccine vaccine in the european union so i think similar to what magical said yes there is a divide amongst the people who are for and against russia but generally the relations with it's really between initially and russia are good and a russia will not try to change that does not want to push for a more complicated relation because russia needs it's really it's really is one as

i said before one of the strongest e.u. allies that it has. part of this whole thing is really extraordinary in the says that you might think the whole weist east espionage activities were over by the by the end of the cold war which doesn't seem to be the case when you look away as has been happening over the last few years in europe russia using sometimes absolutely sophisticated to be in sometimes very pretty primitive means to try to get more information from europe what is russia's trying to establish here. oh you should really understand which westerners often don't and that russia has 2 main intelligence services its military intelligence former g.r.u. and former 1st director of k.g.b. and now now on the hill to hear it it yes and so that's one is political the other

is military and the political as yeah that look take into consideration political different things and could maybe think about the last important in russian foreign policy the military intelligence and we're talking right now most cases military intelligence and here not the way it wasn't delegates they do not they do not think and don't even have no ideas about the political situation they know the political situation is that nato including italy see an enemy and we should gather all the information we can get so that they don't happily political agenda run they're not running a political agenda they're getting information about their enemy well that does not seem to be the perception that we have in europe or let me go to mark america i mean many european countries nato in particular have been saying repeatedly in the

past that the g.r.u. which is the main intelligence arm of the russian military is using those spying activities to undermine democracy by influencing elections in the western world. yes there is high level of awareness of what the jury you is doing to europe. nato on a lease cold i agree war for our non lead in our war for so it's a new way to conduct in the love relationship between russia and the rest of the warp in particularly europe indies and in makes all of us cyber activities spot you're not d.v.d.'s or use of or media that indonesia's not media that intelligence and they think that for you we're open. the most

important they jerk. along we've disses by act spies activities made by russia east. psychological and information not war for a camp to even through ends not only the. poor legal aspect of life and these you do sure but the i.e. yes of the bubbly gobin you want this is enough to change the better sept of your opinions he sent towards senate they mean those shit like migration like in degrees like relational we but nato u.s. and russia so this is a very strong trend to because eat run in the long they're not in the short or there is a lot groove that these kind of octave eady e's easy able to

even for once elections are right but the rule reask is that they can influence general opinion in the long beard samina you don't think that vase will have far reaching consequences consequences of the. relations between italy and russia however when you look at the brushes of ramping up in europe germany greece but beriah the netherlands isn't this something that could undermine any potential backlash more between the europeans and the russians i think yes the europeans yes i think that italy is not going to be the main problem i mean i certainly think that these are methods that the russians use i think as we mentioned before that 5000 euros for information is a very small amount and it appears that the documents that were provided had to do

with military telecommunications now i'd like to make it very clear that in italy this is a rare occurrence we haven't seen cases of this kind of espionage with russia since the cold war i'd say certainly this is not going to as i said affect relations with italy but. again i'd like to repeat i think that yes this is a methodology that the russians are using not only. in italy obviously but in other european countries that we have seen this happen and it could certainly undermine their relationship between russia and the european union in the future even possibly in the short term pavol in certain cases particularly the one in bulgaria and one in portugal there were. i mean prosecutors were saying that this was a clear evidence by the g are you to try to get more intelligence from nato

. why this fixation with the nato itself is it widely seen still seen as an existential threat for the russians and this explains why the cutting of those activities oh of course it's the main enemy of the russian general staff and the g 8 g.r.u. it's now simply called g u is the integra part of the russian general staff and they are given orders find their superiors to gather information on the enemy for which we maybe are going to have a war in the coming several years maybe not of course the whole ploy and field officers the working in the west under diplomatic cover they are ordered to recruit asked the more assets you recruit the better these assets are the better for you you're given marks like. i can school. here in the headquarters in

moscow by analysts how important are your recruits are your assets if you don't recruit good assets you're not if you do you get medals you get promotion if you don't you don't of course assets are also paid money in cash and you can always skim some money off the payment to the asset so it's very important to all the working on recruiting and that's what the russian military intelligence on doing baby are recruiting of course they do not see it occur information ok because if i say this italian say began providing political information from inside so you be valiant government or something that's back because they'll have to spend shared asset with the former k.g.b. the u.s. yeah ok and that you know intelligence service wants to do even inside one state

maka so the military strike could be specifically military military intelligence gathers military information right now. marco i mean we're seeing some reactions condemning the what happened in it's only showing solidarity with the italian government but our way are we anywhere near 2018 when many european countries along with nato took those punitive actions against russia following the. skip poll oppose an attack in the u.k. . if we if we take out one memory back to the script of kazan we will find a very different and then i'll wish on the european response on the screen ballboy something according to many leaders the arms were of the u.k. government and of the european government was not strong enough because no one tried to sanction their iall. people are of russian economic

power you wrote it is the gas market and the power of the oligarchs in your longdon and not their capital in europe on the other side the other part of european as usual said that the response was fair enough to day we are at the grass wrote because we need as europe to send a strong message to moscow but on the other side we cannot ignore russia and its part where energy market and its role it made the ca in which we need to deal with russia just like libya and syria ok. sabina many western officials have been repeatedly saying over the past few years that the russian a spinner's activities are well funded aggressive and politically protect by the

top officials of the russian. government if you take it from what happened over the last few years in all those european countries that were targeted how do you see the potential for any confrontation between the russians and the europeans well i think it is a confrontation and as we've been saying i think it is going to be an issue as america said you know the european union cannot ignore russia but it also will not tolerate you know this continuing espionage in its member countries this is not going to be acceptable for the european union. we have a situation where russia is not exactly being seen positively by the european union but it is not being seen positively also across the atlantic in the united states i mean it was just recently that biden you know called putin. a killer

and so at the moment russia. must do everything it can to maintain decent relationships with the european union countries that it can enter certainly not escalate and cause more confrontation cover what we're getting for the time being is a russian reaction which is brushing aside all those accusations saying that they were blown out of proportion. however in europe the feeling is that the a buy shows were very smart in tapping into the old networks of spies know alls handlers and people who were sympathetic to the former soviet republic they are trigger in that network they're using that same network and this is what is creating now a huge problem in europe only moment and moscow the russian general stat believes

that the west is already waging a hybrid war against russia trying to get rich new egypt amalia's the present regime and naturally biden cawing puts in a killer and that was part of this the us to try to do just my is ation process so west is already fighting us we are fighting back against the west it's rather kind of like during the cold war happening there and of course there's a belief and most likely is so that the west is also trying to recruit assets inside russia or russians when they travel abroad so it's a kind of war a war against all but this is the rules are still low for a west being held i mean this is kind of seen as business as usual recruiting an enemy asset in an enemy country that has some kind of access that's normal kind of

procedure in some sick and weak you very very important asset being exploited in others not so it's seen as business as you know and yeah a market is going to be my last question to less than 30 seconds with the americans have been closely monitoring this what situation in europe they have been fabric critical of some prosecutors particularly bug area widely seen as pro russians in the case of the spying activity is this something which is going to be conducive to a stronger american pressure to to isolate to further isolate russia in the near future. yes because he's one of the beeler of the word joe biden administration you brahmas that during these electronic campaign and the 1st steps of this president showed that easy koranic so yes easy guy from the cold war and the you will deal we russia as us used to do during

the cold war days so i expect he's going dog for you. this tickled relations between moscow and wash so been a castle franco pavel felgenhauer marco deledio thank you very much for your insight and thank you for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website at www dot com for their discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. as i saw you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is a jane's i saw it from a hashim amla in the entire team here i've been a. a

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april on i will just see you so much code waved to the vaccine roll out we'll bring you the latest developments from around the world a year into the coronavirus pandemic one o one east skeins rare behind the scenes arcs and sins of the secretive world of japanese sumo a good president introduced to be secure a 6th time in power join us on april 11th for the chop election. the award winning our choice returns the stories of those striving to reduce a negative impact on the planet's has president joe biden kept his campaign promises we'll have special coverage and in-depth analysis of his 1st $100.00 days in the oval office april on allergists iraq. the nature is news judge need to see there will be no closure on to the. justices' and the identities of those behind the bombings are revealed with detailed coverage there's something else

significant about this plot it represents and then the visible dividing line between the wealthier and the poor from around the world the man who knelt on his neck in his fans the week in a minneapolis courtroom where the court was selecting jurors to decide if he should be convicted of murder. hello i'm down in jordan in doha but the top stories here on al-jazeera george freud's girlfriend are spoken about the couple's opiate addiction quote eros testified on day 4 of the trial of the former police officer accused of floyd's murder drug use is expected to become a major focus in the trial is on the reports now from minneapolis and a warning some of the pictures may be disturbing this image of george floyd adopted by the black lives matter bruv meant after his death is recognized all over the.