then let's go to the court, the case for the climate on a jesse around 10 women are being murdered in mexico every day. almost always by men, an epidemic of gender based violence that threatens to spiral out of control. now specialists police squads run by women are trying to reverse the trend and bring the perpetrators to justice. but can they overcome years of material culture and in different behind the scenes with the fem aside detected on a just either one day i might be covering politics. i mean, i just on my payroll by protesting from serbia hungry to what's most important to me is talking to people understanding what they're going through so that i can convey the headlines in the most human way possible. herodotus era, we believe everyone has a story worth hearing. ah,

her, i'm carry johnston here in doha with the top store is now on al jazeera, at least 21. people have been killed after severe storms and tornadoes hit 8 states in the us. little rock, the capital of arkansas state has been particularly badly affected with more than 2000 homes and businesses damaged arkansas. governor sarah huckabee saunders says federal support is on the way. i've had the opportunity for the last couple of hours to speak with the homeland security secretary as well as president biden, who have offered a tremendous amount of support. anything that arkansas need. they have assured i said those resources will be here on the ground. and be c journalist. emily carter has more from little rock, the capital of arkansas, of the sheer force of these storms. just about every where you look here in little

rock, arkansas, behind me, you look at the store fronts. they are completely blown. now i actually just spoke with the gentleman who was inside one of those stores. he saw the tornado closing in with such a force. he says it below him, back by about 10 or 15 feet more evidence of those powerful, monstrous winds. take a look right here. where does this describing? cars being tossed as if they were toys. this one flipping on to another, and that's the scene really across this entire parking lot. tens of thousands of people have turned out for 13th week of protests against the israeli prime ministers, planned judicial overhaul. the center of the fire water counts dispersed crowds blocking the main highways. benjamin netanyahu says he won't bow to international pressure to abandon his plans of to putting them on pools. i would move with agreement between israel and the palestinians,

which means we front of a leaders of both sides to sit down with we. we believe that without that as long as we a territory with fear democracy. and that's why we have joined the genuine demonstrations for demo with israeli forces have shot their, the palestinian north of hebron and occupied west bank. they say soldiers open fire off to the man rammed his car into israeli troops at the entrance to the town. my 3 soldiers were injured. ukraine has criticized russia's takeover of the rotating presidency of the un security council for a month. russia president vladimir putin is wanted for war crimes by the

international criminal court. keith says it's a slap in the face for the international community. sure. bully shingle grange. yesterday, the russian army killed another ukrainian child, the 5 month old boy, as the parents are wounded, one of the hundreds of artillery attacks that the terrace states carries out every day. and at the same time, russia presides over the un security council, so it is difficult to imagine anything that crimes the complete bankruptcy of such institutional nimble at russia's defense minister, has promised to boost a weapon. supplies to troops on the front line survey. chicago has been criticised in recent months. the head of the russian wagner mercenary group has accused him of failing to supply sufficient munitions anywhere to impress the issue of supplying troops to be lethal weapons is currently under constant control by the government. and by the ministry of defense, for example,

the volume of supplies of the most needed ammunition has been determined, necessary measures are being taken to increase them. a senior clergyman, with the ukrainian orthodox church, has been placed under house arrest for 2 months. after being accused of condoning russia's invasion, metropolitan, pavel has called the charges politically driven. he's the head of the most important monastery in the country. those are the headlines and he has continues hernandez here after the bottom line? i 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 is 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, 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 rwanda's 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 residence 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,

a 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 recess to begin 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 integration 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 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 involve 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's, this really could be a priority from the get out taking the story a bit forward from there. as i indicated on paul's case was among goes read heritage 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 who took the form of the secretary of state's visit to kigali 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 require conversations with key officials in the role in government. some ways we were able to make the pivot 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 city 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 the 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 that 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 to present it 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 crude course of action before thinking it might be time to pivot something else and then 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, jake sullivan. it applies to the secretary of state, of course, 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 built the 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, jake, solomon, 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 involve frankly listening and listening to the rwandan government as they explain what it was they were looking for from all what they were looking for from pulse 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, is willing to provide that. what comes next? what does that look like in the alarm 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 paul into their residence in kigali and then flying him after a couple days to go 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 of the 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 were united. someone with his family that mr. so has copper become our pride of detain person partner in the world. the countries are, is a critical partner and we're 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 reliance directly. we also do talk to shared partners, mutual partners about how important this sort of resolution is to us as a government, as white house, as the 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 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, the countries proved a really important partner and they've been a partner on other things you've seen us, steve,

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, we're 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 he no detention like that in the 1st place. that when the russians, for example, detained someone like brittany greiner, that is designated by the state department, consistent with the levenson act and 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, the threat 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 shaking 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 indicators. 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 affix 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 it, 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 about 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, is it's great to hear about international norms into warn people. but as you see, americans in every nation of the world, are there other steps that can be taken to create disincentives ah, 4 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, on diane 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 wants really it inspires a lot of us who work in this, in this area and, and to your pointed 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 hostage dating. of course, there are already some 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 when, when those in federal, law enforcement are able to utilize those tools available to them. but the executive order i mentioned, as well as 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, political tools as pawns. all of this we think can try to contribute to rolling back those trends. you're describing students. 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 blink and 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 tice, perhaps in syria. are there any dimensions of these cases that you could talk about whether there's potential progress or other cases and does visibility of these cases help or hurt l. all 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 the hell has a hostage and in west africa. and we really are grateful, as we've said, as a government publicly, already to the government and 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 the united states government worked tremendously hard over the 6 plus years to try to use every tool at our disposal intelligence related tools, military to 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 and take a moment to, to celebrate the release of jeff with key up all recessive beginner. 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 against release and the type of constructive, careful, deliberate conversations. that, for example, the national security advisor lead in the context of securing all recessive, begin as a 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 posturing. 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 would 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 on just to some americans are just as an arrest or conviction of a foreign national in us. courts can look unjust to those other countries. how much do we need to wave into 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 hope to, to give them counselor access and we're very hard to deliver on that. we work hard to get them representation in court. if we wrapped, we work 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 the 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 in 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,

we choose 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 what the levinson act that was signed into law by president trump in december 2020, 20 added 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 of 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 wrong hold attention case. let me just ask you finally now that you and your colleagues and the u. s. government, and your interlocutors in the rwandan government and also some and caught our have on wound the not that was surrounding paul recess a begin as imprisonment. ah, is their enthusiasm between ro wanted 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 and 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 you joshua seltzer deputy homeland security advisor at the national security council for sharing this background with us. thanks so much. thank you, 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 geo political chess pieces, like basketball star, brittany greiner, or international businessman, paul whelan, in russia. she got out on a prisoner swamp, but he's still in jail. paul recess to begin, i had a different story. he was an outspoken critic of the president of rwanda, and he was convicted in his country's court 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. and that's the bottom line. the in celebration of earth day al jazeera shed case is the collection of climate

focused programming. rise meets the people calling for systems change. is the production process that has to go or hail the planet, covers the forces at play undermining meaningful action. when i was east dive deep and uncovered minerals beneath the surface that could make the different people in power places the beef a dairy industry at the heart of the climate emergency, the amazon, the most important place in the world. a special documentary exposes a shocking $1000000.00 climate change denial campaign, and witness documents the fight through the eyes of a world renowned artist and environmental activist. the climate crisis. a season of special coverage on al jazeera blue.