[000:00:00;00] ah ah this is w news alive from berlin, russia pounds, cities in eastern ukraine. a regional governor says many are killed by shelling enlisted child ukrainian forces are battling to hold off the russian onslaught. also coming down the u back to ukraine's u. p. european dream. brussels recommends granting keep candidate status, but the plan needs approval from all member states. also on the program,

the u. k. government says julian assange can be sent to the us to face buying. the wiki leaks founder has been finding extradition for over a decade. but his supporters say his battle is not over yet. plus us lawmakers say donald trump knew his efforts to overturn his election defeat were the legal lawyer tells us there is now enough proof of criminal intent to charge the former president. ah, welcome to our viewers around the world. i'm michael. ok. the bad all for control of ukraine's eastern industrial heartland. the dumbass continues to rage full force and the civilian death toll is rising. the regional governor of lou, hans says heavy shelling by russian forces in the city of lucy,

chance has killed many people. as russia fights are brutal or for full control of neighboring chevy dynette, it is increasingly shifting its focus. alicia checks the last city in this battleground region that still under ukrainian control. yesterday at least 4 people were killed in a rush. an airstrike on a building that were sheltering civilians. w's rebecca readers is in keep an updated us on the situation in this a chance. ah, well, the situation there, michael, as he vis describe, is worsening. i it hasn't been very good there for some time, but it is getting was having confirmation now of severe shelling and multiple debts although we don't have a figure on that yet that content by the governor of the region. now that says to city, lucy chomsky is this is the city of several minutes where the fighting has been centered now for some time that city is more or less on the russian control, although not entirely,

we do know of course that there are some ukrainian fighters and civilians hiding in the as a chemical plant there in that city. we've had some new figures as over 500 civilians hiding there, including 38 children in that plant. but people saying now is absolutely no way for escape. there are no bridges, there are no roots out of that city. and so in nothing short of a sci fi will will mean that those people can get out of the city. we've also seen overnight some shelling and how to keep region. and we've seen an attack on the city of mich elia, which is kill 2 people and injured at least 20 others on the ukrainian side. they claim to have bombed a tugboat for russian tugboat that had weapons and soldiers on board. so the fighting continues, but as we know, this is a slow war of attrition. that is taking a huge dec talk about moving slowly in terms of territory. rebecca, the u. n. is sharing the humanitarian situation in east ukraine. is extremely alarming. their words pain,

a picture for us of what the situation there is one. ah, i think the situation has been alarming for some time. i mean, this is definitely not new. the situation obviously in the 2 cities that i've just described that are on the almost constant bombardment and shelling the situation varies completely. dia for the civilians, their people having to live almost entirely on the ground as the city to bombed. they're running out of food and access to clean drinking water and other utilities . you know, but it's not just in the cities that are at the center of the fighting all this off at the cities in the east and part of the don't back that have been captured by russian soldiers. they were heavily bombarded in the lead up to them being taken over and so the civilians, they're having to also live without access to humanitarian aid. they're running out of no access to clean drinking water and things like that. so definitely the civilians are the losing the most in this we're having to live in the absolutely di condition

w rebecca readers many thanks rebecca the european commission is recommending that ukraine be granted formal e u membership candidate status along with moldova. this would allow both countries to start negotiations with brussels commission president and ursula fund line said that ukraine must carry out a number of political and economic reforms. the commissions recommendation will be discussed by all of the blocks $27.00 nations at a summit in brussels. next week, it follows an endorsement for fast tracking ukraine's candidacy by the leaders of germany, france and italy visited keys on thursday. earlier artist publics, the deputy prime minister and defense minister of latvia gave us his thoughts on the european commission recommending candidate status for you. correct. well we are positive about this because we have been speaking from latin side already for half

a year, at least as together with some other member countries said this is one symbolic step. what european union should do because ukrainians are paying was their blood. and as a future of ukraine should be bound to european union. so actually we really believe was at lisa and acceptance and, and information which we received now from madame funder lion a is actually a small success also for countries like let them the leaders of germany, france in italy backed candidate status for you. grand. when they visited on thursday, in your view, are they doing enough for ukraine, or do they need to offer more support? well, i guess, sir, i am very outspoken politician from small country, so probably not everybody's happy with, i'm saying. but this is of or time. and that is no also time for nicety or

political correctness. i would say that i highly value this announcement from german, french and italian leadership about the u. candidate status, because it has a symbolic value today. it has a symbolic recognition for ukrainian, so they are doing and they've would expect this. but we also understand that as a shall be a long process. and there will be a need for a lot of job also, and outside than ukrainian side for ukraine to become a new member, as thought as a support for ukraine at this moment. what is the most needed and what can change as this war situation is? first, the fall was a necessity for every leader in europe to accept. that is it, our goal is that ukraine must to win, and russia must lose. and that must be clearly stated. secondly, i would believe that every country in europe, including germany, should put

a maximum military support for ukraine today. and now, and if you ask my position, if i would be the german politician, i would say my country has a big economic and industrial might. and because of this gravity of situation and danger for future wars, if ukraine is losing, i am putting all the industry of germany behind your crate. as you know, the battle with a dumbass is reaching a critical point. we got reports of the city, lizzie chance being heavily shelled in just the last few hours. how do you see that unfolding? well, i believe that ukrainians are very slowly of his high casualties on both sides and little bit losing ground. but on the other hand, i am optimist, and i believe that this western assistance was western equipment was western ammunition and weapons are arriving,

and that ukrainians will be capable of actually after a vial to recovers their territory. was military and also diplomatic support. because our goal should be stated again very clearly, ukraine must get its territory back. so we simply must understand that this war will be longer than somebody wants, and the western societies must prepare for resilience. and yes, it is painful. yes, gas prices are rising, inflation is rising. but if you do not want to war yourself, help ukraine now. or it is pub, rick's, the deputy prime minister and defense minister of latvia, speaking to us earlier british are prime minister boys. johnson is in kiva day after those e. u leaders visited ukraine. it's johnson, 2nd trip to the country since the war began. he met with president lot of his landscape to discuss further military and economic gain,

including special training for ukrainian forces. the u. k. has been one of ukraine's most vocal supporters since the start of the war. this week's high profile visits to keep mark a renewed show of solidarity from ukraine's european allies. now to some of the other developments related to the war in ukraine, russia has reduce its natural gas export to europe. 4 3rd consecutive day flows to italy in slovakia have been cut by half and deliveries to france. if she's completely european leaders have called the move political while russia is blaming the cuts on a technical problem. russian president vladimir putin says his country is not to be blame for rising global food prices. but speaking at the international economic form in st. petersburg, he put in static use the united states of driving up prices. the president also

slammed the sanctions imposed by the u. s. and europe as reckless and saying that our britain has approved the extradition of wiki leagues founder julian assange to the united states. he's wanted there on 18 criminal charges including spine. washington says the sons endangered wives 5 releasing troves of classified military records and diplomatic correspondence. sanchez wife stella morris, called fridays decision, a dark day food press, freedom in british democracy and has vowed to appeal this decision at britain's high court would. she says washington is trying to punish her husband, sending for revealing crimes of corruption to assassinate him. for more, let's go to london, where rebecca vinson is standing by for a she's the director of operations and campaigns for reporters without borders. rebecca, welcome to d. w again. you you have campaigned against the sanchez extradition,

your thoughts on today's decision. today's decision was sadly unsurprising. but absolutely shameful. so we are disappointed the u. k. has once again failed to act in the interest of press freedom and journalism and seems to be bowing to pressure from the united states. so this was a political decision today. this is not the 1st time the u. k. government has taken a political decision in this case. this whole ordeal was started in july 2019 by a decision of the previous home secretary before pretty patel who greenlighted the extradition request and the 1st place. so now it's come full circle up, but it's not over because we are very likely to see an appeal. the defense has stated it tends to appeal. so this could be tied up in the u. k. court for some time, yet you say it's a political decision. what specifically prompted the u. k. court to accept this request from the you us? well, it was a political decision of the home office. odds who green might the request, which then became

a matter before the court. and so then we had nearly 3 years of legal proceedings. we at r s f, monitored the entire extradition proceedings in the london courts. it ended up very narrowly focused on mental health grounds late last year. and we had one decision and assumptions favor from the 1st instance court, which was then overturned by the high court on the basis of diplomatic assurances provided by the u. s. government. but we have serious concerns, i even if those diplomatic assurances are respected, which there is no guarantee that they will be. but even if they are a sanctions very likely to face harsh conditions in u. s. prison, a very severe isolation on he'll be cut off from his support network, his family and others that he has here. and so the risk of suicide and the exacerbation of his serious mental health issues is very serious. there says not just a matter of the implications for journalism and press freedom by his own well being if he is indeed sent to us. rebecca, some listening might say

a drooling sondra leaked classified evidence and in doing so, put the lives of americans in iraq and afghanistan at risk. remind us again why your organization of found this case so important. we fully believe that juliana such was targeted for his contributions to journalism because those liter documents exposed information in the public interest. war crimes, human rights violations, and other issues at the public had a right to know these documents informed reporting around the world. in fact, there are still stories that are being published on the basis of those legal documents. the u. s. government failed to prove in court, at least in the accusation, proceedings that there has been any harm cause to any one. it was more a matter, it seems of embarrassments, odd to the u. s. government. but this was 11 years ago. it cannot be argued now that there is any risk to anybody being caused by this information which should be in the public domain. it is in the public domain. and what's concerning is that

julian assange cannot defend himself properly on that basis because the u. s. espionage act lacks a public at just offense. he'll be sent there to face was simply a 175 years in prison. and cannot defend that. the reason he did this was to act in the public interests, which is also very concerning. well, the story continues. that's rebecca vincent, director of operations and campaign for reporters without orders. many facts in the us, lawmakers have presented fresh evidence of donald trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election to feed. a committee is investigating whether trumps false claims about the result led to the storming of the capital on january 6th, 2021. in the 3rd public hearing the panel shared evidence that trump tried to force his vice president mike pence to overturn the electron result. for sure, because she was not present in person at the hearing. but for more us vice president mike pence was at the center of it. none the less he did because the

house select committee which has spent a year investigating the january 6 attack on the u. s. capital presented never before seen evidence woman showing how former president donald trump let a campaign to pressure pens to overturn his 2020 election defeat. don trump wanted mike pins to do something. no other vice president has ever gone. the form of president wanted hands to reject the vote. and eva declared tromp the winner. our sin, the votes bear to the states to be counted again. according to testimony, trump pressured his vice president in private, but also publicly like in this tweet post of the day before the riot which reads the vice president has the power to reject fraudulently. a chosen electors, pence than follow trumps demands. aware that he did not have the power to overthrow

the election result, as explained by his legal counsel, greg jacob, after 4 and a half, no vice president in 230 years of history had ever claimed to have that kind of authority to vote for offences refusal to go along with trumps plan could have cost him dearly. majorities to this footage played at the hearing, shows rioters at the capital calling for his death. ah, it was revealed for the 1st time that the attackers came within 40 feet around 12 meters of pence and his family while they were being escorted to safety by his secret service detail. the hearing also presented further evidence that donald trump and his legal adviser, john eastman, knew that their plan to invalidate the election result was historically unprecedented. and most importantly illegal. but they went ahead with it anyway. according to this email shown by the panel, eastman even asked to receive

a presidential pardon after the riot. 3 more public hearings are planned by the committee to lay out their findings. the focus is expected to remain on the evidence alleging that trump knowingly broke the law while in office and on retracing the series of events that led to the unprecedented attack on us democracy . earlier i spoke to jim ronald us presidential historian, lawyer and watergate, expert in cleveland, ohio. i asked him if he thinks there's enough evidence there to believe trump knew his actions were in fact illegal. yes. hello, michael, thanks for having me. i yesterday was a turning point. i vice president pence is attorney greg jacobs connected the dot in for criminal intent. clearly, trump was told what he wanted to do. the scheme that was put together by this guy named eastman was illegal. he knew it was illegal. he was told repeatedly,

it was illegal, and yet he went forward with it. so i think the dots have been connected here and, and that there is sufficient proof of criminal intent by the former president to try and stop the peaceful transfer of power. and there are multiple felonies that, that gets involved into. how likely is it trump will getting dieted, let alone convicted? well, you know, it's a, it's a good question and i would pose the question the other way around. what would happen in this country if he's not indicted? this evidence is compelling with richard nixon. we got tapes to show he was involved in criminal activity. now we have with trump insiders and a lot of them saying the same thing that what he was doing was illegal. and we really need to have the political will to bring this indictment because this is criminal activity at the highest level. and it really just cannot go on,

accounted for a lot of powerful testimony at thursdays hearing, including from retired federal judge, michael lydig. i want to get your reaction to what some might describe as one of the more chilling statements he made. donald trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present danger to american democracy. not mincing words there. do you agree with that statement? so a 100 percent and this is a very conservative judge who is a very thoughtful guy. you can see how deliberately he speaks, but what he's saying is absolutely true, which is january 6 was bad but, but it's worse now because we, we look back a year and a half later. and people still believe the big life. they still believe this was

not a big deal, and they're telling us that in 2024, if this happens again, they will, they will attempt this again and they could very easily succeed. so i think he is exactly right. this is a very precarious moment for american democracy. jim, in the half minute we have left here, i one ask one more question today marks of 50th anniversary of watergate, a monumental political scandal that forced the resignation of a president richard nixon. of course, based on what you've seen so far used from now, how will this current scandal stack up to watergate by comparison? this scandal is by many factors worse than watergate. watergate was a true problem, and i don't mean to minimize it. it was abuse of power. nixon did a number of things including in foreign affairs that were really agreed to us. but this is a president not only was going after democracy itself to stay in power. he literally

was scheming and happy to see his own vice president assassinated in that process. you cannot imagine a worse scenario in my view, and this is much, much worse than watergate. jim rope an old lawyer, u. s. presidential historian many, many. thanks, sir. thank you, michael, get to see him now to some other stories making headlines around the world. at this hour in nigeria, a mass funeral has been held for the victims of a church massacre. 40 people were killed when gunman targeted a catholic church in southwest under state. nearly 2 weeks ago. children were among the den such attacks in the state or rare. the un has said the 15000000 people in sudan are facing acute food insecurity. the world food program blames political instability after an october coo climate change and rising global

food prices for the crisis. the agency urges immediate action to preventive, willing risk of starvation in the east african nation. it's one of the biggest art events in the world, and one of the most ground breaking the documentary art festival is only held once every 5 years in the german city of castle this year. it's being curated by a collective from indonesia, and they're turning the spotlight on artists from the global south. oh, this is not your usual art show. this documentary is about community and causes, like the hardship facing small day reformers in thailand. skate, bolting artists. tell a story. for the 1st time the key rates is behind documentary collective ruin group or from indonesia. thing invited of the collectives who invited even more collectives from mostly developing countries. they call their communal philosophy,

limbo. originally it means a shed, rice bomb. these longbow, ma'am, but it's a finality term in indonesia law. it's not our invention and we use it though to refer to ah, mechanism, how to cold ga, 3rd, resources. the way in which we worked was everyone would contribute ideas and resources and us kill go like i don't like, i don't that man had from 54 artists and collectives. the invitations kept snowballing, hundreds of artists, if not more. and now exhibiting here in castle germany, including the indonesian collective who brought these cobbled figures, usually used at social justice rallies. that percentage all documents his budget is also being set aside to support grassroots artists initiatives around the world like this kenyon collective, which pays tribute to life in an i robot. slum it's about dignity, amid the hardships. this is this photo on to green. yeah. our fans, our hope,

and our beauty, is one. we want to tell, not dollars that i got it, that you hear the news. documentary is one of the world's leading ought events. but this time, the art market is badly playing a role. although there are a few big names like aboriginal australian painter, richard bell, my message is probably that we should all be involved in more collective behavior. oh, well, be kind to each other as well. no, because to herself we've all got a long way to go to make the world i kind to place the problems a clia document is big experiment is to see how much more we can achieve if we work together.

ah, well the eurovision song contest organizes say, next year's event will not be held in ukraine because of the ongoing war. instead organizes are in talked with britain to possibly stage the competition there. traditionally the event is hosted by the previous year's winner. but due to the fighting and the complexity of staging this live televised event, the organizers say it is regretfully not feasible. ukraine's collusion orchestra one the 2022 contests with their song to fun. ah. before we go, here's a quick look at our top story. at this shower, the civilian death toll is rising in the battle for control of ukraine's eastern dunbar region. the governor of lou,

hans says heavy showing by russian forces in the city of lucy chance has killed many people. russia is fighting for full control of neighboring ever been. s. stay tuned for d w. lose asia with melissa chan coming up next. don't forget, there's always names on our website, d, w dot com. mike, located in berlin. thanks watch, with, with,

[000:00:00;00] with, ah, with to the point. strong opinion positions, international perspective. the human cost is huge as russian forces advanced

in eastern ukraine. turkeys president says he could mediate is a negotiated solution even possible. and current turkey be an honest broker. find out i to the point to the point in 60 minutes on d, w 3. 0, hello guys. this is the 77 percent. the platform for africa. you beat issues and share ideas. ah, you know, or this channel, we are not afraid to happen. delicate because population is growing. and young people clearly have the solution. the future belongs to you. is 77 percent. every weekend on d w. it happened 175 years ago of young start up

entrepreneur at a specific goal to build the optical instruments in a linda braces, been deeply feature with 75 years of stuart june 19th w you're watching t w news asia coming up today. china as angelus, 0 cove and policy test, it's 1000000000 citizens. just how sustainable is it, and how far will the government go to maintain it? and what are the repercussions for the rest of the world? plus on top of a cove it outbreak that has put pyongyang on an emergency footing. north korea deals with a mystery. intestinal disease that has hit