[000:00:00;00] ah ah ah ah, this is dw news live from a russian court jails us basketball star, brittany grind for 9 years on drugs charges the american athlete was arrested for kind of his possession of moscow airport in february. us president joe biden calls

for immediate release. also on the program concern of rushes, treatment if ukrainian prisoners of war keeps as moscow is behaving illegally and that the prisoners are being sentenced to death. on spurious grounds, we meet the parents of one man being held by russia who they fear might face a similar fate. and china puts on it biggest show force around taiwan for decades. scores of jets in the taiwan strait to fire live missiles living a controversial visit by us. how speaker nancy pillows. ah i'm feel gale. welcome to the program. a court in russia has sentenced us basketball star. brittany grind it to 9 years in jail after finding her guilty of drugs, possession and smuggling. she was arrested in february when

a faith pen and cartridges containing marijuana oil were found in her luggage. us claim she has been wrongfully detained, and president biden has called for her immediate release. brittany griner entered the cramped court room and defendant 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 involving, made an honest mistake. 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 the court room. in 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. without disappointment. you know, one way it so brittany. think it was tuesday and was told 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 as get more on this with her date of news at russia. analyst constantine agates, welcome constancy. and we are aware that defendants in russian courts do tend to be found guilty. but 9 years in a labor camp for a bit of cannabis sounds harsh, what's going on? well, what, so what a typical western naive question. ah, all sentences of russia hard, especially if that was concerning narcotics, and especially in the case of an american, any american detain, immediately turns into a very valuable hostage. and i think that because of the current situation, the war, ah, there are look. many americans coming to russia, so brittany greiner it began, become, becomes, and even more of

a legal hostage. but the form is to put in the release as soon as i think he will. in exchange for that we will, russian prison of america. they have to give her a big, big, big, massive sentence because as you know, in russia, courts are just and they have to show that they are completely merciless. ok. i know you mentioned that base talks between the u. s. secretary of state anthony blank, and i need to russian counterparts. ok. laugh rob they they've happened recently about a prisoner swapped. didn't amount didn't come to anything. the americans have offered to victor, but tell us who he is and whether that deal might still be on the table. well, i think the deal is on the table and i think that mister putin wants basically, ah, to get the maximum off of this exchange. boot is a russian pilot who's been accused and sentenced in the us for basically illegal

arms raid a some journalist, some of colleagues call him merchant of death and he's been in u. s. jail for quite a long time. and his become a cause celebrity, a famous case in russia, portrayed in the russian state media as an innocent victim of american imperialism of a kind of the u. s. trying to punish russia. and i think that britain griner is going eventually to be exchanged because frankly speaking, such circumstances keeping a basketball star in russian jail is not something that a put in probably would won't end. i suppose that what he does want is to show that he had a victory. he brought back a russian citizen. he brought back victor boot. oh, right. so we expect that in the next a weeks or months. some sort of deal will be done publicly or will this all happen very quietly behind so close doors? well, i don't know. i don't think that such negotiations are conducted in public. just

remember in the the, the negotiations in, during the cold war about kind of spike swaps they, when they were conducted in public. i think that the result will be fairly public and everyone, both washington and russia will. if this happens, if this happens, we'll claim that the one ah bots, i think negotiations themselves are always behind closed doors. thank you for that . i think russia, i missed a konstantin. i got that ukraine where the foreign minister says rushes tracing ukrainian prisoners of war illegally and using them for political purposes, which is strictly forbidden. under the geneva conventions, a russia and proxy authorities in eastern ukraine of charge dozens of soldiers with crimes. a 3 foreign born ukrainian soldiers have been sentenced to death on allegedly fabricated charges. the w sir burg uta shaka met the parents of one man being held by the russians. they fear he could suffer

a symbol of fate each morning if gania would kevin to take some time for herself in quite to look at her son. she hasn't heard from maxine since russian forces captured him 2 months ago. she scared there might be torturing him, or that he might be dead. you do cylindrical i sit in the kitchen and just cry while my husband is still sleeping. when he gets up, i wash my face in person 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 you branson does willis? yeah, 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 to washington school. so she did the ernie to he told me,

i'm joining the army because i have to defend the values i've been fighting for my whole life. yes, this is a booster. they only realized he had been captured when a video of maxine being interrogated was show and, and russian state media with said it was horrible. it's the 1st thing i felt was just horror. i saw my early childhood listening through that then i thought that can't be true crow kremlin telegram tennis quickly caught maxime, a nazi a nationalist. they even said he was a british spy because he had worked as a local producer for the b, b. c. in 2003, this is in the blue cross blue shield storm. my biggest concern is that they might not recognize him as a prisoner of war, like they have with others. and that they would fabricate a criminal case against him. so using all those lies in a twisted evidence latisha with some of a good,

a storage it was use when you free our domestic intelligence office confirmed that russia is holding more than 7000 ukrainian. so just prison. but they won't talk about any of it on camera, because negotiations for prisoners swaps secret. a lawyer representing the families of more than 50 captured soldiers has agreed to talk with us. let us laugh, we cannot see. f 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 war. i think this is, this is done mostly for their political purposes. when you create search and you know, importance of the person, great nazis, you know, you may use it to in their political, you know, treat but yes, gania and alexander, i don't want things to get that far. they fire the nerd into peer to the european

court of human rights. they say they will fight with everything they have until maxine is friendly. guy small store is making headlines around the world. now, a panel of you, an expert, has concluded that rwandan troops attacked soldiers in the east of the democratic republic of congo, aided by the local rebel group, am 23 according to a report see by the voices, news agency run, the government has repeatedly denied any connection with the m. 23 militia separate classes in the south, african city of crew was kroger's door. pastor people suspected of being illegal. miners were attacked. violence follows the rest of 80 men in connection with the gang rate. the gun rate of a group of 8 women had incident happened last week to the filming of a music video. un secretary general and tony re terrace urge government to introduce special taxes on the profits of oil and gas companies. as commerce come

after some of the world's biggest energy firms posted record, quarterly profit, driven by surging energy prices. terror said it was immoral for companies to profit from the crisis of china has launched live fire military drills around tie one, those tensions rise following the visit of us. how speak at nancy pelosi. the chinese military is fired ballistic missiles into the waters, off taiwan. government and type pace, as it scrambled jets to warn off chinese aircraft that entered its air defense zone . and the number of taiwanese ministry websites have come under cyber attack. this is 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 force 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 called precision missiles strikes in the taiwan strait. this new escalation comes as beijing hits back for us. how speaker nancy pelosi visit to ty pay. pelosi reaffirmed us commitment to defending ty, ones, democracy as the islands government scramble jets to ward off chinese aircraft, encroaching on the air space. or what info 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 the united states, what jap, taiwan has grown accustomed to chinese aggression for residents. these drills are

just the latest in lives, lived under constant threat, go down, drills a just like a show. the us china and taiwan will play their own roles in the show. and everything will be okay when the show ins. young hope you say i want peace and xena doesn't did, but this is also a chance to get to let the world see and the true colors of the chinese communist hardy. what you're the ham and get down that may foster some regional cooperation thing. the whole, all the issue has dominated a meeting of the association of southeast 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 assay on countries. little hula we have guarded the peace facing the turbulence

of the national security. the 2 sides have strengthened to strategic communication jointly tackled the challenges of various spillover effects and jointly maintained the uneasily achieved stability in the region. i see on is positioning itself as a negotiator. it's cold for all sides to de escalate, warning and miscalculation could lead to open conflict. let's get more on this from show the rigor. she's a professor of east asian politics and joins us from davidson, north carolina in the united states. welcome to the w professor. let's start with the drills if i'll practice for an invasion of taiwan, that must be very interesting. not just to tie one but to military analysts around the world. yeah, i'm not really sure that they're exactly rehearsal for an invasion, but definitely showing that capability of the people's liberation army to move into

the taiwan strait with various kinds of weaponry. and to kind of clear a battle space that presumably would have to proceed an actual invasion. and of course, you know, there are many military actions that could really restrict tie ones, freedom of action that are short of invasion as well. and this is a demonstration of those to bother you that this, this idea restrict anti ones freedom reactions. interesting, isn't it? because as all these are rockets and missiles, a flying around taiwan is normal, trade is therefore disrupted planes, boats con, get him yes. right. and you know, one of the things that americans talk about a lot when we are discussing what might happen in the taiwan strait and how the u. s. might respond is, you know, we talk about blockade scenarios. but here we have a kind of blockade in effect, and it's, it's not clear that it's entirely

a blockade. but the effect of all of this activity is to make it difficult for airplanes and ships to move in this area. so in a strange sort of way, you know, we seem to be moving toward the realization of one of the things that we've speculated about for a long time. i don't think it's going to stick around for a long, but it's scary nonetheless. and talking about scary just 2 days ago, we have the un secretary general saying that humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation. and today we have japan saying that 5 of those chinese miss isles landed in it's economic zone. so i wonder if you could explain to us, 1st of all, what's an economic zone, and whether this parent miscalculation is likely to have repercussions for china. right. one of the things about the east asian maritime space is that it's very crowded, right? the south china sea is very crowded and the what we might think of is the east

china sea or the sea of japan. they are also very crowded in the taiwan strait is not very big either. so there is a lot of overlapping territory. real claims, even if we go with land borders as the basis of those claims. so countries have 12 miles from their coastline as a kind of area that they really do. they are supposed to be able to control, and then they have another couple 100 miles of exclusive economic zone. and there is just a lot of overlap on top of that. are the air defense identification zones that countries use to ensure that incoming aircraft, including and sort of typically, normally, commercial aircraft, are notifying the airports on the ground and the towers on the ground of their arrival. and a lot of the chinese military activity in the taiwan strait is actually in the,

in taiwan air defense identification zone. but in the last few days, it has moved even closer to the island of taiwan. and if it's closer to the island of taiwan, especially on the north than than it is not that far from okinawa and other parts of japan's territorial waters. so very scary. thank you for talking us through it. professor shelly rigor from brown university. thank i spend that 2 weeks in serrano and become a singer, was appointed as well. and his new president, the countries worst economic crisis since 948 prompted people power revolution that forced a change in government. but people remain angry and determined to press for change . the w, i'm going to cima reports from colombo, from a protest site. the government cleared in a sudden operation last month. this is what remains of the good to go gun up to

a test camp in colombo. many who took part in the pill testing which led to the us till president got a bio roger back. so are gone. if you remain in the art defiant and that is right now, currently we're closing who's sitting on a pe, mom and the wrong side of it is upon him to make the changes. we can read it out. these are scenes from the de running victim a single was elected by parliament protestors at the presidential secretariat, which they partially occupied. what angry here see him here as being too close to the ranch up excel family. the mood turned ugly. the night victim a singer took the oath of office in the dead of night without warning, a military moved in to remove protest his from in and around the presidential

secretary at the protest as were taken by surprise. he had already said they were vacating the government premises. the next day several people to be talked to at the scamp, said they were beaten and assaulted on the night of the crackdown. they said it was not the military who was behind these attacks, but hired mercenaries. when i was attacked, i was just bound up with his medicaid, me the barricade. there were videos also near the barricade. one of the guys pushed me. then i said, i know you are not on. you are one of the thug gangs then then he said yes. and he scolded in mean field and he kept his foot on my neck. honestly, i don't believe they are current military are person i would because oh, we didn't see the decency or the the discipline enough military among them. we strictly believed there were mercenaries, if this were true with he said, it would be a chilling reminder of the previous regime,

which frequently used shadowy organizations to suppress dissent. for now, the huge throng of crowds, which forced to perform a precedent to flee, had gone from the streets. but those who remain still see a long road ahead. we all have a responsibility now to take this forward and we have shown that we have the power to do so the intent to hold the government accountable till days an end, the month of food in future shortages and an end to the suffering of the people of she lanka, firefighters, hearing berlin, have been battling and out of control. 5 in the cities group about forest broke out after police, munitions, devereaux, in the early hours of 1st a morning. more than a 140 emergency personnel have been deployed. berlin, in the early hours of the morning, a surveillance camera recorded and explosion in the grown of old forest in the

south west of the city. a series of explosions began a few hours later, an unintended firework display filling the sky. the calls $25.00 tons of explosives confiscated fireworks and were were to ammunition. the fire department approached the site but had to withdraw the debris from the blast was deemed a danger to the lifes. parts of the safety cordon off one kilometer was late reduced to 500 meters, but helicopters, drones and satellites are crucial to the operation. damage couldn't go the only way we can get a better picture of the situation is from the air. this gives us visual images, them is also a thermal imaging camera. this is also enabled us to identify the various pockets of embers and better assess the situation. spoke to ian on claudia, $15000.00 square maces a forest of burning about the size of 2 soccer fields. officials say residential areas are not in danger. the emergency effort included firefighters, police and soldiers,

but the fire is still rating on like also where are 2 big challenges. but danger at the bloss site and the rapid spread of the fire broke to which not helped by the weather conditions enough that you stay with you on the goals else a little but a forecast of heavy rain overnight gifts, hope the endangered siberian tiger is one of the largest wild can't species in the world that is mainly to russia. it's also found in some parts of northern china. their estimated to be only around $600.00 left in the wild. those numbers of prompted conservation efforts in china at least the results have been promising. these images are the proof rare pictures of february and tiger caps shot by an hidden infrared camera. this species is critical, endangered, but in north east and sign, our 10 babies were born in 2021. putting the number of the remaining big cats living in the white up to 600 enemas saburo and tigers,

also known as arm. we're all mentoring tigers. are the biggest living cats from head to tail. they're met about 2 meters and can reach a weight of 300 kilos. destruction of their habitat, poaching and trophy hunting are the biggest threats to the survival of the species . but conservation efforts are and the way read the article who bought shown has constructed multiple natural reserves and monitoring stations were to intensified patrol and management of the tigris haberdashery. a number of projects focusing on protecting wild animals and plants as well as the construction of natural reserves have been implemented in the north, east and sign is provinces of dealing in hey long jesus. the country has established a 1400000 hector nature. reserve ranges patrolling regularly. they will move traps set by posters and sec. if the ben uncommercial logging is complied with,

the big cats need the forest to creep up on their prey. 2022 is yields the tiger and the chinese lunar calendar. so the country is proud to announce that the population of the white, severe and tigers has increased from 27 in 2017. to more than 60 to day a world draft long has approved a new policy, allowing transgender athletes to continue to compete in female categories. however, they must demonstrate to continuously lower levels of testosterone for the previous 2 years, and cannot have competed as a male in any sport in competition. in the last 4, the new regulations come into effect in september and don't mention transgender athletes in mail events. no volcanoes erupted near iceland, capital of reykjavik, after days of earthquake activity. dozens of people have gone to the site to take a look. the 300 meter crevasses,

much longer than the fisher opened by near by eruption last year. i became a major tourist attraction, drawing thousands events to iceland house on interruption every 5 years on average . this is the 7 in 21 and set you up to date. more world news at the top of the hour of next on d w dog film and taking a look at how that been on these coping with the worst economic crisis in its history. have good, ah, with,

[000:00:00;00] with who? ah,

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this is west. good is still that head with the w business beyond with red alert. ah, those are the just route is a red if occasion i think we're going to have some epic fighting over the world or is becoming a scarce commodity. things just getting dryer and dryer and we need more and more water. he's on earth die of thirst. there's no water, no global struggle for water thirst starts august 10th on d, w o o. a flock of