wanted to country at war, plus sher lanka, ha, secure the bailout. the combination trade is way back to economic growth character . the cost on al jazeera talk to al jazeera, we ask, who is really fighting? is russia? is it wagner, or is it the russian or military? we listen, we started talking to me on my own, so that this via your citizen. he shook to get him back. we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on al jazeera, revealing eco friendly solutions to come back threats to our planet on al jazeera. ah, i'm the baldwin, london. the top stories on al jazeera, former u. s. president donald trump will appear in

a new york court on tuesday. the 1st ex president to face criminal charges. the case against him involves a hush money payments. adult film star stormy daniels, the head of the 2016 election. trump, who was formerly indicted on thursday, is expected to plead not guilty to the charges. this is a historic case, a monumental case case that will have wide reaching ramifications and it really to day in i feel very concerned about the rule of law in this country. because it endangers the rule of law. all americans, today's donald trump, to march, democrat of the day after it's a better. oh, your friend, the after that, if you were me and that's what concerns we want, a prosecutor couldn't use the law and the system to go after political opponent. it's something that frightens me. the president valerie says his country is willing to host long range russian strategic nuclear missiles, as well as small a tactical nuclear weapons. alexander lucas shanker, made the comments during his annual address to the nation. he also said he knows of

western plans to invade his country from neighboring poland, ukrainian to be marking the one year anniversary of the recapture, the town of boot share with president a lot of means lensky vowing to defeat what he calls russian evil ukraine excuses, russia the massacre of hundreds of civilians there in the early weeks of the invasion knowledge i would receive over on the streets of butcher, the world has seen russian evil. the evil unmasked of the world has seen what the kremlin tried to bring to other streets of ukraine, other streets of europe, and the world which could have been occupied by russians if it weren't for you. if it weren't for us to be, if it weren't for ukrainians, circle with and it comes as russia has formerly identified china and india is its main international allies and the new foreign policy strategy. president vladimir putin signed off on the document to moscow. he says, updates the kremlin foreign policy a needed because of what he calls radical changes in the world. italy has blocked

the microsoft backed artificial intelligence system chat, g p t, italian data protection authority says the service is being investigated for failing to check the age of its uses. chat g p t was launched in the u. s. in november of last year and is designed to interact and create content in a human like way. former south african olympic and per olympic athlete, oscar pastorius will stay in prison for at least another year after being denied parole. he serving 13 years for the murder of his girlfriend, reaver steen camp, the pro board rule. he hasn't served the minimum term to become eligible, and i'll have to wait until at least august of next year. they deliver it and term dev arrived her term. a puts collette decision which was largely guided by make out of his clarification order from the supreme court, which stated that to mr. distort us has not yet reached the minimum detention period and the when the parole board went through that they then gave in what to

call a fed profile for august 2024. meaning that he will have to a pig again m m n. and next year and down there will then look into the profile a look at decision in terms of his placement. but for now it was a matter of saying he has not served them in the month detention pro. malaysia's highest course is dismissed, an attempt by former prime minister nancy resigned to have his corruption conviction review magic if he is serving a 12 year census. the case relates to embezzlement of these states investment fund . and one of the biggest financial scandals in the country is history. a 2nd greek rail employee has been detained and connection with last month's trained disaster. the supervisor was on duty at the time of the accident and has been charged with the disruption of traffic safety, causing death. 57 people were killed when a passenger train collided, head on with a freight train. the station master was jailed and february, a danish owned oil tanker,

hijacked by pirates. last saturday of the west african coast has been found, but 6 of his crew members on missing the ship's owners, say them and yasser fort reformer has been located by the french navy. but only 10 of the 16 strong crew was still on board. okay, you're up to date on al jazeera. the bottom line is next talking about how the negotiations to release us citizens detained. a broad pan out the i am steve clements and i have a couple of questions after the release of a prominent rwandan activist. what was the us role, and what does the white house doing to bring back the dozens of other americans still detained abroad? let's get to the bottom line. ah, you could almost hear a sigh of relief, both in africa and the united states when paul recess begin. it was recently

released from jail by rwanda's president paul crick. i'm a recess to begin. it is credited with sheltering more than a 1000 ethnic tutsis and hutus at the hotel. he managed, during rwandan genocide, almost 30 years ago, were almost a 1000000 people killed each other in less than 100 days. the hollywood movie hotel rwanda from 2004 was inspired by his story. now he'll be moving back to the u. s. where he has permanent residency and the news of his release was welcomed by president joe biden. but one of the dozens of other american citizens in residents held by governments around the world and is the rising trend of detaining american citizens and residents by governments around the world becoming a national security issue. joining us today from the white house is joshua gal to the deputy homeland security advisor at the national security council. joshua, it's great to be with you. let me just start with the, the big news paul recess. the beginner is soon going to be back in the united states. joe biden's white house made this a priority. tell us how it unfolded. why was paul recessive, again,

a high priority item on president biden's to do list. steve, thanks so much for the chance to join you for this conversation. and i think the story actually begins before president biden's inauguration begins during the transition. when jake sullivan, among others, the incoming national security adviser directed a number of us to hit the ground running on day one. when it comes to bringing home americans, i held abroad, and during that transition he asked a few of us who had worked on these types of issues in the past in government to make sure we were up to speed on current cases. and there were cases like all recessive beginners that began before day one that we in a sense, inherited as an administration, some of that involved researching where those cases stood. some of it involved engaging with families and with those advocating for representing families. but it

meant that when we got here to the white house on day one of the administration, this really could be a priority from the get go. now taking the story a bit forward from there. as i indicated, a paul's case was among goes, we inherited as an administration and really from the outset, both publicly and privately. we indicated what an imperative it was to resolve this matter, to resolve it in a way that re united paul with his family here in the united states. and that removed what was clearly a bi lateral irritant in the u. s. rwanda relationship. that, as i indicated, took some forms that republicans took some forms that were private and took the form of the secretary of state's visit to college. in august of 2021. in which of course this issue was raised. i think we really entered a new phase of resolving the matter when jake sullivan, the national security advisor started having some very constructive re quiet

conversations with key officials in the role in government. and some ways we were able to make the heavy from simply indicating that this had to get resolved to talking through the how of the sequence, the steps that would be necessary to get from a situation that we all found unsustainable to the happy result today. maybe we can talk more about that, steve. in this particular case, this is different than brittany griner. this is different than paul whelan. this is different and i'm interested in someone in your role as you look at these cases, is there a template? are there things that we're not seeing that help you ah, move from one to case or is every once every one of them so extraordinarily different that, that you have to actually build a process that unique unto that case. i think there are some principles that apply across cases, but then the recovery strategy, the tactics very case specific. let me tell you what i think some of those

principles are. first and foremost, we committed as a government when the obama by administration reviewed how we handle these types of matters to doing a better job in a number of respects. and one of those was making sure the families and loved ones feel informed and supported during these really horrific or deals that has to be a guiding principle across cases. how that applies is case specific. different families want more information at different times. they want presented in different ways, but the fundamental of ensuring that those who have the greatest stake in these matters are supported and informed. that's a key principle. i give you a 2nd key principle, which is ensuring that those families are integrated as partners in recovery strategies. this was another outcome of that policy review almost a decade ago in which we committed ourselves as a government to making sure that we were in discussions in dialogue with loved ones . not just sharing information on the cases,

but also talking through what our recovery strategy was, what our back up was, how long we were willing to try a current course of action before thinking it might be time to pivot something else . and then i'll give you a 3rd principle as well, which is keeping this a priority across the u. s. government that begins here at the white house with president obama begins with our security visor, jack sullivan. it applies to the secretary of state, of course, of the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, the hostage recovery fusion, sell at the f b i. but overall it takes leadership to make something a persistent priority. we build structures almost a decade ago to get there. we have the leaders right now with the present, with jake, with the secretary of state. ah, who are ensuring that that is translating into results like the very happy results were reaching here, welcoming paul back to the united states, back with his family. are there elements of this case that are relevant to others that are out there? that may not be in the news right now? i think all of the steve goes back to those conversations involving the national

security advisor, james sullivan, and rwandan government officials in which we were able to make that pivot from simply saying this must be resolved. this is unacceptable to quietly saying how, what steps can take us from here to there. and that involved, frankly, listening and listening to the rwandan government as they explain what it was they were looking for from or what they were looking for from family. what they were looking for from us and look, that's hard and that's, that's the type of why diplomacy that frankly, jake led from the highest levels of, of this government sometimes over the phone, sometimes by literally sitting in his office that allowed us to work out a sequence in which we were able to say ok, if this is what the rwandan government is seeking from paul paul as a individual is willing to provide that. what comes next? what does that look like? and they're wanting system. ok if he's released from prison,

where does he go from there? and of course we had a another government. the government is katara that helped facilitate taking all the into their residence in kigali and then flying him after a couple days to do as a next step. what does it look like for the family? of course the, the family gets to choose what it wants to do with its own private civil litigation . but ultimately, the family. we as a u. s. government throw on the government, were able to synchronize the pieces in a way that got us where we all wanted to go, which was resolving this matter, removing it as the significant, bilateral, the retention was between 2 governments and of course reunited someone with his family that mr. so has copper become our pride of detain person partner in the world? the cutters are, is a critical partner, and we are obviously very pretty, very appreciative of the role they played in facilitating this in a sense of their involvement in this matter. and in our efforts to resolve it, go back away. we did for this case, what we do for matters like this,

which is in addition to engaging, in this case, the ruins directly. we also do talk to shared partners, mutual partners about how important this sort of resolution is to us as a government, as a white house, as a state department, as a country. and the countries have been part of those conversations. thus, as we reached a point in which through that quiet diplomacy i've been talking about, we were synchronizing the steps, the elements of the rwandan process, even the logistics of what it meant to get this matter, resolved to get paul from prison to somewhere else. and golly, from golly, to a 3rd country from a 3rd country to the united states are the countries proved a really important partner and they've been a partner in other things you've seen us see, thank them publicly for their role in getting home other americans we have work very hard as administration to bring home and we are grateful for that sort of collaboration. i'm wondering, josh, if you see

a worrying trend in americans that are detained. org or taken and held up against their will in countries around of the world. and i guess my personal observation is this seems to be like an industry growing and that worries me as it were, you, it does were a, me, we, we do seem to be in a moment where there are governments across the world who are willing to do as you describe it to engage in practices that essentially treat human beings at times as, as political tools as, as bargaining chips. we've seen this obviously in venezuela, we've seen this in, in russia, in iran. we worked very hard as an administration to bring all americans from those 3 countries, among others, despite the fact that we think there should be no detention like that in the 1st place. that when the russians, for example, detained someone like brittany greiner,

that it is designated by the state department, consistent with the levinson act in federal law as a wrongful detention precisely because that is the official stamp of the state department saying this should never happened in the 1st place, and we always want to be very clear about that. even as we do what we need to do, we owe our citizens what we owe their family members of resolving those particular cases. i think it's important to us as an administration, not just to recognize the trend that you're describing, steve in the thread it poses, but also to try to deter and prevent what would be the next generation of cases from arising in the 1st place. we've tried to do this in a few different ways. first of all, very early in his tenure, a secretary of state secretary blinking wouldn't us diplomatic weight behind a canadian lad multilateral initiative, against arbitrary detention to try to strengthen the international norm against this sort of appalling practice. we've also had the,

the president issue last summer and executive order the built on the 11th and act and generated new capacity for things like financial sanctions and visa bars against those deem to have engaged in hostage taking or wrongful detention of americans. a 3rd element also out of the state department, was the introduction last summer of the d for wrongful detention indicator. so this is applied to a limited set of countries in the world where we want americans to be very clear that they face a heightened risk of wrongful detention. should they make the choice to travel there, which of course, we urge them not to do already. the state department had warned about that risk in the, the language of their travel advisories. but making this even clearer with that d, clearly a fix to certain countries we think can help to warn americans and thus prevent some cases from arising in the 1st place. i mean, we do have a graphic here, you know, showing that iran, china, venezuela, syria, russia,

all engage in this practice. but that what is really remarkable is in 2011 when you had an average of america for us nationals being taken a year. that number is going up dramatically and rather being non state actors. here we have for $211.00 a year right now. and i guess the question is it's, it's great to hear about international norms in to warn people. but as you see, americans in every nation of the world, are there other steps that can be taken to create disincentives for states doing this that, that, that may not be on my radar screen. yeah, and then we should just pause a moment. ed to reflect on dian foley, who's just contributed so much to this community of people who care about these issues and who turned obviously personal on family tragedy and to really extraordinary work outside of government, but also work with government to keep the priority on resolving these cases and preventing future ones. and really it inspires a lot of us who work in this,

in this area and to your point it to a point that, that she and others have rightly called attention to. we do think we can and intend to do more, to deter and by punishing deter future cases. so part of that executive order that i mentioned, part of the goal is over time as we build sanctions packages, often in conversation with those outside guard. similar to how sanctions packages are built in the human rights context based on their input. their suggestions. um, as we apply the sort of penalties that, that executive order sets out an angel penalties, travel related penalties, it will show that there are costs to engaging in this sort of behavior, wrongful detention, and oscillating. of course, they're already sunk costs and there are criminal prosecutions lead. not, of course, out of the white house, but by our colleagues at the department of justice against individuals who take americans against their will in the department of justice in recent months,

announced publicly some charges against individuals in haiti who held a number of americans for months down there before we worked with our colleagues in federal law enforcement and others were able to help resolve that matter and, and get those 16 americans in their canadian traveling hardener safely released. so there are criminal penalties in certain circumstances and we're always grateful. and when those are federal, law enforcement are able to utilize those tools available to them. but the executive order i mentioned, as well as the, the name and shame aspect of this, the fact that we are talking about how polling it is as a practice to essentially treat human b things as, as bargaining chips as political tools. as paul's, all of us we think can try to contribute to rolling back those trends. you're describing, steve. now one of the other people just released was jeffrey would key if i'm pronouncing his name correct. and niger it as part of a deal, it seems. and anthony, blinking secretary of state had visited that country as well,

had it. but 2 other big names we've heard are paul whelan and russia. austin, ties perhaps in syria. are there any dimensions of these cases that you could talk about and whether there's potential progress or other cases and is visibility of these cases help or hurt all the questions and steve about cases that are very much on our minds in the minds of leadership at the white house and state department and elsewhere. so maybe going to would key 1st. we were very, very gratified and relieved to see a jeff emerge from over 6 years of being held as a hostage and in west africa. and we really are grateful. as we've said, as a government publicly, already to be government in the share, which was a tremendous partner and working to secure his release. he is home in the united states with his family, i would say more out of respect for his own privacy other than what a relief it is to see him out of captivity. many across united states government worked tremendously hard over the 6 plus years to try to use every tool at our

disposal intelligence related tools, military tool, a law enforcement tools, diplomatic tools to reach the point we finally reached in the past week or so, which is seeing him released and seeing him hall, and that's tremendously gratifying to see it is always the nature of this business that even in one week as we celebrate you take a moment to, to celebrate the release of jeff with key all recess of the you know, we also know that there are others and we get back to work on those other cases and i will as you suspected, leave to private discussions are ongoing efforts to secure the release of all wheelin of austin ties and other americans held elsewhere in the world. but it is worth emphasizing that sometimes the very best work can be done client, and it was years of work in a sense that resulted in would keys release in recessive again as release and the

type of constructive, careful, deliberate conversations. that for example, the national security advisor lead in the context of securing paul recessive again, his release that often happen only effectively when it's away from the spotlight and when it's truly a private discussion, it's not, it's not pastoring, it's instead a genuine back and forth about how we start from a situation that we as a government find unsustainable and get to an outcome that's mutually satisfactory . josh, i will tell our audience that you are the founding executive director of something called the institute for constitutional advocacy and protection. it's always been a reminder to me that not every nation's constitution, not every nation's legal infrastructure is the same. and that an arrest a conviction in a foreign country say egypt or saudi arabia or singapore may look unjust to some americans are just as an arrest or conviction of a foreign national. in

u. s. courts can look unjust to those other countries. how much do we need to wave into this, this at your real expert in this area? and i want to be open. in fact, as we talk to a global audience here, that there are some around the world who look at the united states as a place that is wrongfully detain people from their perspective. how do we need to have, you know, some sort of alignment strategy when it comes to our laws around the world. so this is part of what is built into the 11th and act, the federal law that i mentioned earlier when it comes to how the state department is assigned by law to our colleagues. their assess americans when they are detained abroad. and i should emphasize that any american detained abroad is entitled to and we do our best as a government to provide a basic set of services. we hoped to give them counselor access and were very hard to deliver on that. we worked hard to get them representation in court. if we were,

we worked hard to ensure that they are treated by the standards of the local legal system. whatever those my thief, that's true for every, whether they are deemed or wrongful detainee or not. and they're decades of tradition behind that, but it's worth worth reminding viewers and listeners about that. then what the levenson acts formalized. i think why constructively formalized is another county, a very rare category, but a very important category, where the state department assess, is based on 11 factors that are now set out and federal law. whether there is one more piece, which is that in addition to everything, i described that every american detained abroad is entitled to, the detention is so unlawful or wrongful in our eyes. the eyes of the state department that we take on one more responsibility, which is to use the full tool box as best we can to try to bring that american hall . and we all knew this category existed before i. it had been written into some of

the documents issued by president obama at the culmination of that hosted policy review in 2015 that we were talking about earlier steve. but i think with the levinson act that was signed into law by president trump, in december 2020, 20. and it was to sent out the factors and to formalize the process. and now you have within the state department, the relevant regional bureau, you have the consular affairs bureau, you have the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, right carson's in his office. and you have the office, the legal advisor, all contributing into an analysis of whether the very specific, very particular facts and circumstances of a new detention of an american abroad. ah, qualify it as, as a wrongful detention case that can take time gathering those facts and circumstances can take time. and sometimes we hear from families that they want to where they are in that process, understandably, but at the same time, you want that process to be careful to be deliberate,

into evaluate the sort of complexities you, steve, are raising, which is these sorts of assessments. these sorts of evaluations need to be done against the backdrop of foreign legal systems to understand whether this treatment of a particular american, in a particular circumstances reaches that very rare. but again, very important category of being deemed a wrongful detention case. let me just ask you finally now that you and your colleagues and the us government, and your interlocutors in the rwandan government and also some in caught our have unwound the not that was surrounding paul recess. a begin as imprisonment. ah, is their enthusiasm between ro want in the united states and pushing reset and doing new things? look, i think every time we are able to work through with a foreign government resolution like this, that is a good thing. it's a good thing for the american who comes home. it's a good thing for their family. it's a good thing for both governments because we've just worked through something quite hard and we removed, by definition, an irritant. in our relationship,

he doesn't mean that all the things to talk about have been resolved. we always have other things to talk about with foreign governments. some of them constructive, some of them hard conversations. but the fact that a representative of foreign government can sit in our national security advisors office and begin to lay out pathway towards resolving something like this. that at one point looked essentially unresolved able and get to a day when paul returned to his family. that is a good thing in of itself, and i think it does bode well for working through other heart issues. or it's a fascinating and important story and we're very grateful to you. joshua seltzer, deputy homeland security advisor at the national security council for sharing this background with us. thanks so much. that is steve. so what's the bottom line? each and every case of an american citizen or resident held by another government is really a different story. many become geopolitical chess pieces, like basketball star, brittany greiner, or international businessman, paul whelan in russia. she got out on a prisoner swamp,

but he still in jail. paul recess, begin a, had a different story. he was an outspoken critic of the president of rwanda, and he was convicted in his country's courts on terrorism charges. in the end, the u. s. government and his lawyers used for want his own clemency guidelines to secure a commutation of his sentence and get his release. so in this case, it's an opportunity to push reset on relations between kigali and washington and move forward. those are precisely the kind of diplomatic test moves the world needs to see more of. and that's the bottom line. ah o m o done at time is spirituality reflection and gratitude raised the flags all the flu. every color, i wonder, is there a world what, how leo hau reveals the stories behind some of the arab world songs and chants for

the holy month. you'll need this song, touched the hearts of all arrows, food amadon, songs on al jazeera. the latest news, as is great evidence in a place like this, where people say just a few bodies have been recovered compared to the number of people missing with detailed coverage or government policies are making it difficult for them to export on climate change have also impacted a supply from around the world, their rescue plants showed their confidence in 1st republic bank, so all sides with which are critical to the functioning of the financial system. lou.