how did this confrontation begin? how great is the danger that it will spread the long war? he's really, iran usa starts june 15th on d. w. ah, this is d. w is lying from a sham trial that violates the rules of war. the west criticizes a pro russian court for sentencing 3 foreign fighters to death. russia backed or authority say they are mercenary, and so not prisoners of war. we'll hear from a friend of one of those fighters also on the program,

a prime time warning about the fragility of us democracy. january 6th was the culmination of an attempted coup. special congressional committee investigating the attack on the us capital present its findings including previously unseen video on the via lawmakers want us democracy remains at risk and thailand. here's the green light to marijuana. consumers and groves in a country known for its strict anti drugs laws. many say it's high time for change . ah, i'm fil gale. welcome to the program you and says the trial of 3 foreign fighters by a pro russia caught caught amount to a war crime. a comment come after a caught in the self proclaimed the net people's republic sentence,

the 3 men to britain santa moroccan to death. its alleges were mercenaries, and therefore not prisoners of war. less than countries have denounced the trial and calling the court a shot and a breach of the news of war. behemoth. the dune is one of the 3 men sentenced to death. he's the friend, movies at home. so there has started a social media campaign to press for his release. enjoys us from keith. welcome to d. w. thank you so much for joining us. i think you'd been in contact with bry him while he was actually fighting in, in mary o phone. yes, that is correct. and while he was there in marianna, you were you texting by? you were you were texting what, what was going through his mind? well, the problem was, the brian broke. so he was using his friends phone to get in touch with me. and he

was not saying march, you know, he was just writing a couple of messages to support me to say that his fine. and that is how communication was based. right. and then the communication went dead for a time. yes, the last time i talked to him that was march 27th. and then i haven't heard anything from him. right. so and then the next thing, you know, you're hearing this terrible news. how did you hear it? how did you learn of his fate? well, 1st of all, on april 17th i figure it out that he's captured by seeing the video paying being interviewed. well, it's surrender and every to go every news about like, you know, those british nationals being like they are at risk of being sentenced to death. so

then i started doing research and i found out that my friend bry him is toler, also with them. and also he's that, that risk. so 1st of all, i started to, you know, like have, i was saying i was so sad, then i decided that i got, i got to act, i get, i, you know, make actions and help my friends get out of there. so i started save him from pain and yeah, pretty much what i'm doing right now. i can't, i cannot think of what went through your mind when you have a friend out there in harm's way. then nothing. and then you see him on on t v. as a, as a prisoner of war. what, what went through your mind? what were you thinking? first of all, you know, they were, i was mad at him. i was very mad attempt. i was very mad at him. i was,

you know, like i told him not to go to the military and you know what? i just had. i was devastated. i didn't know what to do. i was feeling very lost. i was very, very, very helpless. i was like, you know, he's a victim dpr playing games, a victim of prussia, victim of this war. why did he go? well, the problem is, but he didn't find a job. he was a university, but so he was feeling useless. so he wanted to do something useful, and also he told me he wanted to get some military experience. and now this court says he's a mercenary. what do you think is a his not a mercenary. i have all the copies of his documents, all those contract signing, but they are meant for ukraine. so he's not

a mercenary. he is, you know, like the, the folder of the ukraine and army. and i have all the documents verifying. 1 but and confirming that he signed that contract in november of 2021. right. and now you've launched this, this social media campaign to save brain. i'm just talk us through the reaction to that what you're hoping to get out of the campaign. well, 1st of all, we need, you know, we want to spread his story. we want to get this. we want to get as much attention from media as we can because the media allows us to find contact to get in touch with some powerful people who can help and re been in touch with some other you know, like organizations that are, you know, providing some legal assistance on this case, and, you know,

like this is the 3rd day of the campaign. we're a big loss, but real learning. we have a team of 9 people. and you know, at risk time in the american numbers here in washington. and in moscow, we want them to react, we want presidents lansky to react and we want to do would reach out to help. okay, so that's it. bry, him but those 2 as well. it's so it's the, the same brought him campaign on social media. thank you so much for joining us and telling us that story movies at home said a friend of the ukrainian soldier by him said, who has been sentenced to the thank you so much. kim, spencer, an aide to you training? present volume is a landscape. has said as many as 200 ukrainian soldiers dying every day as the battle in the eastern part of the country continues. russian forces are popular. you created military positions and civilian areas that hillary rocket 5 attacks.

still, their advances are slow and costly, which some independent and western intelligence analysts say, a difficult for russia, just a state institute for the study of war. that's a think tank in washington says a russian officials, a taking of a government positions in areas that have come under russian control. russia's focus remains the eastern dumbass region already partly occupied by separatists since 2014 d. w reporter jo delroy has been looking at russia's changing military goals during the 1st 3 and a half months of russia's invasion of ukraine. the frontline has shifted dramatically. russia's initial attack focused on the capital cave and the 2nd biggest city hockey eve. but the ukrainian military surprised the world with their defiant resistance pushing the underprepared russians back. they moved most of the units to the south and east and focus their efforts on taking full control of the

don bass region. mario poll became a major flash point. ukrainian troops held out there longer than anyone expected and a terrible conditions, but they finally surrendered in may. well after months of his strong ukrainian resistance, western military analysts say that russia is now regaining some traction, russia defense minutes. this week claimed a success in being able to open a rail connection between the crimea peninsula and russia. much of the recent fighting has now focused on the city of sierra sierra vo don't donates, which is a major chemical producing area. and it's the gateway to the rest of the don't. bus western military analysts say that russia is encircling ukrainian troops and what's being called a cold room. ukraine's our military commanders say that they are out number, they're 5 to one, and the fighting is going on. block by block. some analysts say that ukraine appears to have given up attempts to hold the city, and instead trying to inflict what damage they can on the troops that surround them

. now the situation in severe donates is looking increasingly dire. the mass says the city has been reduced to a bombed out wasteland. with some 10000 civilians still trapped and unable to evacuate. residents reportedly sheltering in a chemical plant in an eerie echo of what happened in matter you poll. the past week of rush resurgence is shown that neither side can comfortably claim to have the upper hand and its seeming victories can quickly turn to disappointing setbacks . i do thank you. well, moscow's chief rabbi is reportedly stay out of russia because a fear that he support ukrainian refugees and the kremlin. the conference of european rabbis says a pinch as that goal. schmidt was advised not to return from a trip to hungary and israel, where he'd been raising money to assist refugees. now his whereabouts are unknown. at a conference meeting in munich this month, a rabbi go, smith told d w that many russian jews have left the country or are considering doing so. let's

take a closer look at this with the w religious offense correspondent martin gas. welcome martin. is the war having a particular impact on russia's jewish community? it seems to be actually quite a strong impact. i mean, it's a story that has been more or less under grown. we have been mostly focusing in the religious desk. in any case, i mean on the orthodoxy. sure. in the relation with the vatican. but the fact is that the jewish community has also been transferred by these among other things because there is a very important jewish communion. russia, part of it is very close to the kremlin part of it. and there is also a very strong and very important jewish community in the ukraine in ukraine. sorry . so the fact is that there is a lot of discomfort and there seems to be a lot of uncertainty. i talked personally with the organization with the european conference for ice yesterday. and the claim is that the community, it's actually very concerned. they do not report any uptake on anti semitism or

anything of the kind, but there is, there seems to be a lot of concern. and so tell us more then about the complicated situation. juice of faced in russia, especially in the years after putting i mean, the issue at this stage is that the russian community has very strong relation with the ukrainian community. as a matter of fact, for instance, one of the main most important writes of here is actually russian born. and you know, we have less out of who is a, one of a very important orthodox orthodox group with very, very close to put in. but there is also in the same group, sort of a lot of rob ice operating ball and operating in ukraine. what that meant is essentially that, you know, as every other religious group, essentially people that our clergy, that he's very close to the kremlin, finds itself at odds with clergy that he's on the receiving end of this war in this operation. ok, so it was, it was not the only group confronted by big questions because of this will. what

about a group such as the the orthodox a church and he did muslim community. well, those detox church has been the one that we've been following the closest and in fact, i mean we have seen nothing short of ski, some so i mean the, that ukrainian church has essentially broken away. the russian orthodox church grain has broken away from the moscow by patrick kate. the muslim community has its own sort of, you know, break. i mean, we have seen muslim fighters, chechen fighters running into places like matthew paul, only a couple of weeks after the valuable mosque and valuable muslim community was essentially sitting under russian bombs. what we're seeing now with this story is that, that break, it's really just transverse thing, all religious groupings. and i think it's essentially, as i just said, it's doing it for the very same recent, which is that we have strong religious commitments. but we have strong sort of element of religious identity around the question of the conflict and that has actually divided the waters quite radically in this case. thank you for that. much

in the gap at the top is religious 1st correspond. thank you. a couple of other headlines away from the war. german chancellor, olaf schultz is in kosovo on the 1st leg of a 2 day tour of the western balkans. discussions are expected to focus on reenergizing stalled applications to join the you. the trip comes after russia's war in ukraine re ignited security concerns in the region. 14 parliament is approved a series of bills permitting euthanasia and dr. assisted suicide. it's the 3rd attempt to pass such law after previous bills were blocked by the president. if past portugal would become the 5th a country to decriminalize euthanasia, us president joe biden and his brazilian counterpart, a giant boston, are agreed to work together to prevent further destruction of the amazon rain forest. the health talks at the summit of the americas taking place in los angeles, present by told the conference that leaders of democracies need to work together.

government institutions, civil at washington, where the congressional committee investigating last year, january 6 attack on the ref, capital is accused a former president donald trump, of trying to de rail democracy. it was presenting its findings after a year of connecting collecting evidence. the chairman of the panel explained that the attack on the capital was not just a protest that got out of hand, but an orchestrated attempt to prevent the transition of power to incoming president, joe biden. the u. s. capital descending into chaos and violence. these images are part of a mass of evidence presented by a house select committee investigating former president donald trump's role in the january 6th riots policy. georgia officials urging them to quote, january 6 was the culmination of an attempted cou. a brazen attempt as one right to put it shortly after january 6 to overthrow the government. the

violence was no accident. it represent senate tramps, less than most desperate chance to how the transfer of power to try to prove that trump incited to violent insurrection. this is a committee compiled testimony from those who stormed the seat of government in a video presentation. why? what really made me want to come was the fact that, you know, i had 40 trump all that time. i did believe you know that the election was being stolen and trump asked us to come. he personally asked for us to come to the see that. and i thought for everything he's known for us. if that's the only thing he asked me, i'll do it. we're going to walk down to the capital to share the committee also

heard from a police officer task to with defending the capital that day. i couldn't believe my eyes. there were officers on the ground. ah. you know, they were bleeding, they were throwing up, they were, you know, they had, i mean, i saw friends with blood all over their faces. i was slipping in people's blood. 6 more hearings are scheduled. but with so many republicans behind trump, it might not be enough to alta perceptions of what happened on that january 6th that the w reporter, newest political, unless william blew croft can talk us through this. welcome, william. so key takeaways then from yesterday's, this was televised across on quite a number of networks. yeah, it was, it was prime time

a pm. that was the committee's goal. they wanted to try to reach as much and broad of american audience as possible to try to reveal what one congress versus that would blow the roof off the house. i think that was said expectations rather high. i think we should importantly point out that the we are no longer the error of watergate or iran, contra, or we're in a much more part is in the environment now that the comparisons to watergate, for example, are not so well founded. because in that case, the republicans turned against their president richard nixon. and in this case, we have republican still in lock step, or many republicans in lockstep with donald trump. but for me, what was a big takeaway here was just how much the committee is trying to pin this. what happened on january 6th, as an orchestrated plot orchestrated by donald trump, that all the evidence as they're trying to point to leads back to donald trump. whether that is to politically damage him that he can no longer realistically run and be a threat politically in 2024 or be supporting

a like minded candidates in 2022 or beyond, or even legally, to try to get any of this evidence to stick against not just advisors, not just supporters, not just people are on the ground on january 6 at the capital ah, meeting out this kind of violence, but donald trump, himself, those things remain to be seen of course. but that seems to be the big effort to of this committee, right. and when you say that the makes it sound like this is not a committee that are necessarily fact finding. this is a committee on a mission to point blame us a form of presidents. so this sounds like a part is an effort. well, we should point out that the democrats who control the house and set up this committee did try to have a non partisan westgate is a committee, much like what we saw after 911, a republicans. i pulled all of their potential up candidates, so to speak, to sit on this committee. i. so there was an opportunity to have a bipartisan or a non partisan committee that broke down until the democrats went ahead with what

we're currently seeing, where it's 7 democrats and 2 republicans. the few republicans who have turned against their party and turned against donald trump to side with democrats on this . they are obviously trying to show the evidence leading back to donald trump. and it is important to note that regardless of where the legal culpability is, that's a decision for the department of justice, that of decision for prosecutors, for courts. if donald trump is really legally culpable in any of what happened in the events after the election, what's important though is to note that this was there was coordination here on the ground. it wasn't just random people as we see here who got caught up in the spirit in the chaos of, of the moment. there were far right groups on the ground. there was communication in advance. this is all well documented evidence. there was some level of coordination and, and, and intent here. the question is, is donald trump responsible for it? and that's something that, that courts and, and prosecutors are gonna have to look at very closely in the weeks at, okay. and they'll be more of these to come yet they'll be more public hearings. and

of course more investigation. evidence being collected in the weeks leading up to november mid term elections that database within blue cross. thanks so much. oh, slow of today's oh, well news headlines. germany, the united kingdom and france urged iran to stop what they call a nuclear ex escalation and quickly move towards reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. at the joint statement came after the un atomic energy watchdog accused iran of removing 27 security cameras, monitored its nuclear program. you cannot have you storms and land slides in central china have left at least 17 people dead flooding across the central province of none has affected around 1800000 people. as the regent grapples with historic levels of rainfall rescue teams are still searching for survivors. police in pakistan are investigating the sudden death of prominent tele evangelist and

politicians are merely a quiet hussein, controversial tv host was found unconscious at his home in karachi on thursday. he was taken to hospital but pronounced dead on arrival. now to thailand, which has become the 1st country in asia to legalize the growing and possession of marijuana, smoking it in public is still banned. growers will have to register with the government and when marijuana is offered in food or drink it, strength will have to be limited. there's plenty of public interest and a triumphant 1st customer. 7 with options resembling a fast food menu, closely scrutinizing the product. wow. oh, and buying some apparel as well. to mark the occasion. country me, milan sang,

i got here last night after work a showered and took the bus. i knew the shop was still closed, so i waited with some beers and watched the staff getting ready. i wanted to witness the beginning of change will be the all that kind of an lawyer in galvan, but too much change is not what authorities want. the cannabis on sale is low potency and people are being warned against smoking in public and creating a stink violations can bring fines and even jail and beyond. the head shops getting lit is not something every one approves of law young was at law. i think am me my mom and i, i feel like tie people are not fully ready for the legalization. hi, because people do not properly understand the use of cannabis. when they can be, that's why they need to be educated on how to use kind of it and also the limitations because as we all know, it could cause more harm than benefit. there are also concerns about unwonted drug

tourism that bangkok could become an asian amsterdam. others are less worried. i just spoke with her, she's got a lot more to offer than just played out to smoke cannabis mother is a beautiful, beautiful part of the world. i think hannah's kind of it's very legalized would make me come any more. so for better or worse, thailand's cannabis experiment is open for business. now art and debunk see is one of the world's most celebrated contemporary artists on his unknown identity only as to the mystery. many of his installations are only temporary. a ser fans often have to move fast if they want to see the works for themselves. will now, thanks to an exhibition in new york visitors can marvel at dozens of banks is under one roof girl with balloon probably the best known image of the phantom artist who

shows himself on walls and streets around the world. $120.00 original works from private collectors and now being brought together for the 1st time. what was once considered vandalism is now art worth millions. there is no public collection about banks, it's artwork all built education process. i've been down with pest control, which is the company that bank see olds for this process authentication. thank see some 1st of protests as established art. and yet keeping with the times against war and weapons, consumerism and police violence. it wants to be disrupted. ah, because he wants to take a precise stance against what amy's mind is unfair and unjust. the visitors can also try their hand as st artist and leave behind

a message of the room. salem makes us think about like, what we do, and the consumer isn't a lot of global issues. he wants to, you know, may change through his artwork. and i respect that, and, you know, when he gets around, says the pandemic an ukraine war. thanks. he has been quiet. many fans are hoping the graffiti gorilla will soon be visible again and not just on the museum. a quick line of sports football they cast at maze champions, league final in paris caused severe damage to france's image. as it goes into a report by the french government kick off was delayed after thousands of supporters were locked out and then tear gassed by police of arches at the time blamed ticket. las at liverpool fans. the government report said the scenes were caused by failures of those in charge which cast out on the country's ability to host upcoming major sporting events, or the rugby world cup in 2023. me just remind you of our top

story, this our you crane and it's western allies, if denies to pro russia core to don bass. sentencing 3 foreign fighters to death. they say the trial of the tooth britons, and one more often was a sham invites the root of that it's up to date. well, world news of the top of the out, even in good shape our well the show is up next year of the w. a good ah ah, with

who are in good shape because the pineapple petty is a human brain. here you can learn how it works, what it means, how it can be trained. and we answer one of human kinds. biggest questions do

male and female brains forth differently in good shape. next on d w ah, we'll get to the dark side. where intelligence agencies are pulling the strings. there was a before 911 and an after 911. he says, after 911, the clubs came off where organized crime rules, in genuine use, a global network of companies, banks, and operators. we will provide those services to anyone operation, the criminal economy. where conglomerates make their own laws.

they invade our private lives, through surveillance. hidden, opaque, secretive, or through what's vague, it doesn't matter. the only criteria is what we'll hook people up. we shed light on the opaque worlds who's behind the benefits. and why are they a threat to us all opaque worlds this week on d. w? ah, whether we're awake or asleep, our buddies come on. santa lex, incessantly controlling our organs and bodily functions. the human brain doesn't need any instructions. it knows exactly what to do. even the brains of unborn babies. kindly.