this is the pulpit to unleash on violet boss and re imagined galleys teachings were relevant to gandhi's legacy. floor to august 6th won't be w ah ah, this is dw saliva from berlin, a russian court jails us basketball star, brittany griner for 9 years on drug charges. the american athlete is convicted of smuggling cannabis oil into russia. u. s. president joe biden is calling on moscow

to release her immediately. could a diplomatic deal. see her walk free? also coming up on the show, china steps up. it's military activity around taiwan. beijing puts on his biggest show of force around the island of decades following a controversial visit by west. how speaker nancy pelosi. ah hello, i'm claire richardson. thank you so much for joining us. a russian court has found us basketball player, brittany griner, guilty of drugs, possession and smuggling. she's been sentenced to 9 years in jail. the sport's dar was arrested for carrying a vapor pen and cartridges in her luggage, which contained marijuana oil. russian authority said the charges against her were fully proven. the u. s. a says she's been wrongfully detained with president biden calling on russia to release her immediately. brittany griner entered the cramped

court room and defended cell, hoping the sentencing judge would be lenient that the judge would consider that greiner admitted her mistake, but had accidentally packed cannabis oil prescribed by her doctor and legal in the us. your honor, i never meant to hurt anybody to put in jeopardy the rest population. i never meant break any evolving made. i hope that in your room and in my life, griner was stopped in mid february after putting her bag through screening and moscow. airport customs officials searched her bags and she was eventually detained . she was on her way to join the russian club. she played for after the w n. b. a season in the united states. griner is considered one of the top basketball talents in the world for $206.00 centimeters stature. 6.9 inches helps her dominate pro

basketball, and she helps when to olympic gold, metals for the us. in court, she held up a picture of her team in russia after several teammates had served as character witnesses for her. but she knows russia and the us are now on opposite sides of a global conflict. i know everybody, he's talking about political pond in politics, but i hope that that is far from this courtroom. and a quick decision the court showed it was unmoved by grinders call for leniency. she was sentenced to 9 years, one less than the 10 year maximum, with the disappointment. you know, one way it so brittany, i think it was tuesday and i saw talk to see on thursday and she said see on tuesday so looks like she was right. love as she was led away words of

love for her family, but her future may well rest with diplomats for 2 countries barely speaking to each other. earlier i asked are russia analyst konstantin agger if he was surprised by the verdict? and not at all. ah, according to statistics, only one percent of of senator in russian courts and in acquittal. so written greiner is pretty much a standard case. secondly, it doesn't really matter, or whether these hash samples were planted on her, which is quite a frequent occurrence in russia, or she really carry them up. ever since she was detained, she became a valuable hostage for the crumbling, also a very high profile one. so this decision was predestined. you don't swap, do you don't exchange people in such circumstances without very, ah hi, but very, very, very sort of high profile sentence. so not ears is what i actually predicted. and

indeed, we know there have been high level diplomatic efforts between laughter off and to blink, and discussing an exchange of russian and american prisoners. are you saying that this is what this case is all about? yes, although she was arrested just a week before i put in the 2nd invasion of ah, you crying on the 24th of every book ever since that day, the stakes are very high. and of course ah, of putin has a very long standing green. he wants to get, ah, victor booked a russian pilot who is serving a very long sentence. i think it's a life sentence in the u. s. full arm smuggling. he wants to get him back, has become a kind of symbol in russia, is a symbol of someone who's wrong, wronged by them by america. and i think that greiner, another american full whelan, who is also a serving a jail sentence in russia, may be the poles in this game. he mentioned victor, but he's convicted as you say on much more serious grounds than carrying cannabis oil on. he's a convicted arms, traffic,

or judge the merchant of death in the united states. he think this would be a fair swap. well, such, watson, never fair to look at the history of the cold war this. that of dramatic exchanges of spies on the bridge of spies in berlin. i think it was never ah, there was never a measure of whether it's fair on not. it's always the fairness, if you wish, is in the eyes of the exchanger. i think if both sides think that their citizens well should be back, then it's satisfying for them it's. there's never an objective measure of fairness or not. the crimes are not a comparable, of course, and russian quotes from the corporate to american courts. but, well that's, that's a reality and one has to accept it. i mean, i'm sure joe biden wants the americans back, and i'm sure that put them on to another propaganda victory. which griner is exchange will probably granting better. so it does indeed bring back memories of

the cold war with relations between russia and united states at such a low point. are we likely to see more of this kind of thing? yes, it does. i mean, i think it will be more difficult now with much fewer americans troubling to go to russia. i mean, how you can count on the grub them. i mean, as a said right i was, i was, was arrested a week before the invasion. but i mean, i think of those find a way of tickling the u. s. in the u. s. rules by the way of responding. this is indeed a bit like a cold war in the age of social media. right. did these russia analyst content? i got thank you so much for joining us with that update. let's go now to the war on ukraine and ukraine's foreign ministry says russia is treating ukrainian prisoners of war illegally and using them for political purposes. and that is strictly forbidden. under the geneva conventions. russia and proxy authorities and eastern ukraine have charged dozens of soldiers with crimes. 3 foreign born ukrainian

soldiers have been sentenced to death on allegedly fabricated charges. t w's burger to show them that the parents of one man being held by the russians. they fear he could suffer a similar fate each morning if gania would kevin take some time for herself and quite to look at his son. she hasn't heard from maxime since russian forces captured him 2 months ago. she scared they might be torturing him or that he might be dead in those who live nichol. i sit in the kitchen and just cry. well my husband is still sleeping. when he gets up, i wash my face. awesome nights and try to be strong for the day and not to cry any more. only in the early mornings i allow myself to cry. what's it to keep around since those windows? yes, the couple invited us to their home because they want the world to know about their son. his parents say, maxine volunteered to join the army, even though he is

a pacifist, he had worked as a journalist and activist campaigning for refugees and human rights. but when russia invaded, he decided to take more direct action or to wish you use go. so she gave to the earth, me to he told me i'm joining the army because i have to defend the values i've been fighting for my whole life. yeah, cicero bruce, they only realized he had been captured when a video of maxime being interrogated was shown on rush and state media with a boucher. it was horrible. the 1st thing i felt was just horror. i saw my early childhood listening victim. i thought that can't be true crow kremlin telegram tenants quickly called maxime and nazi a nationalist. they even said he was a british spy because he had worked as a local producer for the bbc in 2003. this is in the blue cross blue storm. my biggest concern is that they might not recognize him as

a prisoner of war like they have with others e and that they would fabricate a criminal case against him. so using all those lies and twisted evidence, leticia claim in some of a good, a storage, it was his will be free. our domestic intelligence source is confirmed that russia is holding more than 7000 ukrainian so just prisoner, but they won't talk about any of it on camera because negotiation so prisoners swaps on top secret. a lawyer representing the families of more than 50 captured. so just has agreed to talk with us, let us laugh, we could not see if works closely with domestic intelligence, to try to get prisoners back. he expects that russia will fire more and more criminal cases against ukrainian prisoners of will. i think this is so this is dawn mostly for their political purposes. when you create search and you know, importance of the person crash grey blanche sch can all you can use it

to in their political, you know, trait. but yes, gania and alexander don't want things to get that far. they filed a node in to peer to the european court of human rights. they say they will fight with everything they have until maxine is really not to bring you up to speed now with some of the other stories making headlines around the world's un secretary general. antonio gutierrez has urged governments to introduce special taxes on the profit of oil and gas companies to be made. his comments come after some of the world's biggest energy firms posted record quarterly profits driven by surging energy prices. quoterush said it was a moral for companies to profit from the crisis. hundreds of people have been protested in beirut on the 2nd anniversary, 3 of the explosion of grain silos. they killed over 200 people. they're demanding

and international prob, after investigations into the instant stalled. during their protest, 2 more silos collapsed. if fire had burned through the structures for several weeks, emergency services are still fighting. a large fire in berlin's gruen involved forest. the blades broke out at a police munitions depot, in the early hours of thursday morning. more than 140 emergency personnel have been dispatched to tackle the fire authorities said residential areas are not in danger . and authorities are blaming arsonists for a while fire in northwestern spain. the police started in the autonomous region of spain is having its worth year on record for wildfires and has lost more land to them than any other country in europe. house china has launched a live fire military drills around taiwan as tensions rise after the visit of us. how speaker nancy pelosi. the chinese military has fired ballistic missiles into

the waters off tie one. the government in ty pay says it scrambled jets to warn off chinese aircraft that entered its air defense zone, and a number of taiwanese ministry websites have come under cyber attack. pelosi left taiwan pledging washington's iron clad commitment to defending democracy. the people's liberation army released these images of china, launching its biggest show forth against taiwan in decades. navy and air force drills indicated in blue, have encircled the self governing island that china claims as its own. the drills included what beijing cold precision missiles strikes in the taiwan strait. this new escalation comes as beijing hits back for us house baker, nancy pelosi visit to ty pay. pelosi reaffirmed us commitment to defending ty, one's democracy. as the islands government scramble jets to ward of chinese

aircraft encroaching on the air space was in full like our government is even more resolute to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our nation. in light of the current situation, our government will not only actively strengthen its self defense capabilities, but will also maintain close ties with like minded countries like united states. the issue has dominated a meeting of the association of south east asian nations in cambodia, capital non pen with china and the united states joining the summit. in his opening remarks, china's foreign minister emphasized the political and security ties between china and us young countries, where we have guarded the peace facing the turbulence of the national security. the 2 sides have strengthened to strategic communication, jointly tackled the challenges very, a spillover effect and jointly maintained the uneasily achieved stability in the

region. us the on is positioning itself as a negotiator. it's cold for all 5 to de escalate. warning, a miscalculation could lead to open conflict. and a quick reminder of the top story we're following for you at this hour. a russian court has sentenced us basketball star, brittany griner to 9 years in prison, or drug possession and smuggling. she was found guilty of carrying cannabis oil into russia. white house, as greiner was wrongfully detained, and his calling for immediate release. that's all for me for now, phil. gail will be back with more news headlines with our with ah.