[000:00:00;00] ah ah, this is d w. news line from the russian court jails, us basketball star, brittany grimes, if a 9 years on drugs charges american athlete was arrested for cannabis possession of moscow. airport in february, u. s. president joe biden calls for immediate release. also on the program trying to put on its biggest show of force around taiwan for decades. scores of jets and the taiwan strait, fired by me on a controversial visit by us. how speak of nancy pelosi

ah i'm feel go welcome to the program. i caught in russia has sentence 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 vague pedant cartridges containing marijuana oil were found in her luggage. us claimed she's 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. yon. i never miss her even

to put in jeopardy ref population. i never miss right. any law may say, oh that and your ruin. and my wife 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. her $206.00 centimeter stature, 6 foot 9 inches, helps her dominate pro basketball and she's helped when to olympic gold medals 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 who's talking about political pon and

politics, but i hope that that is far from the courtroom. 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's so great name. i think it was tuesday, anamosa elemental to see on thursday and she said see on doomsday. so looks like she was right below them 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. 9 years in a labor camp. why such a long sentence for possession of what seems like such a small amount of cannabis oil? i put that to d. w. 's, russia on this konstantin exit. any americans attain 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 began become, becomes and even more valuable hostage. but the form is to put in the release as soon as i think he will. in exchange for a valuable 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 blinking on these russian counterparts. so gay laughter of they, they've happened recently about a prisoner swapped. didn't amounts, 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 how 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 called 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 him 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, i mean the, the, the negotiations and during the cold war about kind of spy 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. i thank you for that. and i think russia analyst, a konstantin, i got the crime. foreign minister says rosters, treating ukrainian prisoners of war illegally, amusing them for political purposes, which is forbidden. under the geneva conventions. russia and proxy authorities sooner east and ukraine have charge dozens of soldiers with crimes. and 3 foreign born ukrainian soldiers have been sentenced to death on allegedly fabricated charges. the w's burg yet or should come back. the parents of one man being held by the russians. they fear he could suffer

a similar fate each morning yet again. yeah. would kevin 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 in the cylindrical i sit in the kitchen and just cry. well 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 different as windows? yeah, the capital 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 will she be in school. so she

a do the earned 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. yes, this is bruce. they only realized he had been captured when a video of maxine being interrogated was shown on russian state media with to butcher. it was horrible. the 1st thing i felt was just horror. i saw my only child to listen to a big deal. i thought that can't be true crow kremlin telegram tennis quickly called 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, the dishes in the book with crisp will hurt to my biggest concern is that they might not recognize him as a prisoner of war. they have with others and that they would fabricate a criminal case against him. so using all those lies and twisted evidence, latisha with some of a good,

a storage it was use when you free our domestic intelligence sources confirm that russia is holding more than 7000 ukrainian so just prisoner, 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 so this is don mostly for their political purposes. when you create search and, you know, importance of the person, gray parties, you know, you can use it to in, in their political, you know, trait. but yes, dania and alexander, i don't want things to get that far. they filed a no,

didn't appear to the european court of human rights. they say they will fight with everything they have until maxine is really a china has launch live foreign military drills around taiwan as tensions rise following the visits of us. how speaker nancy pelosi, johnny's military or 5 ballistic missiles into the waters, off taiwan, the government in typeface as it scrambled jets to warn off chinese aircraft that enter this air defense zone. and the number of taiwanese ministry websites have come on the cyber attack. recess pelosi left to 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 high one 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 is visit to tie pe, pelosi reaffirmed us commitment to defending ty, ones, democracy as the islands government scramble jets to water of chinese aircraft encroaching on the air space. what was important, 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 the issue has dominated a meeting of the association of south east asian nations in cambodia, capital nor pan 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 on 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, various spillover effects and jointly maintained the uneasily achieved stability in the region. the us, the on is positioning itself as a negotiator. it's cold for all 5 today, escalates warning, a miscalculation could lead to open conflict. i spent 2 years since a massive explosion ripped through barrow, killing hundreds of people leaving the port on bunch of the city in ruins. to date, no one has been held accountable. domestic investigation into the explosion has been stole for more than 6 months. on thursday, thousands of protesters march through that ebony capital to demand answers from the

government. protesters in lebanon chanting for justice, 2 years after to be rude. port explosion killed over 200 people and injured thousands more. those affected are still pushing for answers. the blast also destroyed large swedes of beirut. bella may yates a country steady need. a doubt people are said, their tears in their eyes has with his c and you feel like every person wants to fight. you can to know the truth. and he said, hey, we hope we'll get there. so many blame the blast on years of inaction. at negligence from lebanese officials, they accused the government of stalling the investigation to evade responsibility for one of the biggest non nuclear explosions ever recorded. and this was bustling neighborhood that was heavily damaged by the blast. reminders of the still open

wound are all around. the scars are still there, i internally, externally, especially that we haven't seen justice yet. we haven't moved on protesters headed to the scene of the 2020 explosion where things looked eerily familiar, remains of green. silas heavily damage and blast collapsed before the eyes of protesters for local residence. the sound of sirens smoke hanging over the port and helicopters flying overhead brought back a familiar feeling that much when i saw the smoke, i felt like i was back at the explosion. i was afraid again, that's just this way. if lebanon fails to provide answers, rights group say, don't seek justice through international pro. is remind of our top stories our best are caught in russia has sentence us basketball star, brittany grimes to 9 years in prison for drug possession,

smuggling to was found guilty of carrying calibers automated russia. the white house says she was wrongly detained that his calling for her immediate denise boiled news at the top of the hour of next on the w i rob was has your business update? i'm good with the red alert for the blue climate. ah, this isn't just drought, this is a red if acacia. i think we're going to have some epic fighting here. all over the world are, is becoming a scarce commodity, is just getting dryer and dryer and we need more and more water. zelmer earth,