03/14/ 03/14/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we crossed the first bridge. we are going to film other refugees leaving. somebody offered to take us to the other bridge and we got to the checkpoint and they started shooting at us. so they turned around and they kept shooting. my friend has been shot and left

behind. amy: the russian invasion of ukraine is now in its 19th day. on sunday, the award-winning u.s. journalist and filmmaker brent renaud was shot dead near kyiv while working on a documentary about global refugees. ukrainian officials are accusing russian forces of his death. we will look at brent's remarkable documentary work and re-air part of an interview he did on democracy now! after he was embedded in iraq with the national guard from his home state of arkansas. >> we arrived in baghdad with the national guard unit, arkansas national guard. right away in april, which is one of the bloodiest months of the war when we arrived, right off the bat there were a lot of injuries and deaths. amy: then as nato accuses russia of flying warplanes out of belarus, we will speak to a leading belarussian activist

living in exile about the russian invasion and the escalating repression inside belarus. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a new round of talks between ukrainian and russian officials is taking place today as russian forces intensify their deadly assault. the discussions could help ease the evacuation of more civilians. ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky said sunday 125,000 people had been evacuated via humanitarian corridors so far. some 2.7 million people have fled ukraine in under three weeks. meanwhile, russia has escalated its attacks, targeting areas close to the polish border and the capital kyiv. earlier this morning, a residential building in kyiv was shelled, killing at least one person.

a young resident described escaping the building with his mother. >> there was smoke and dust everywhere. we hid inside the closet. we thought we we being captured, but we were wrong. we got up from the appurtenance all the staircase was not there anymore. everything was on either. we did not know what to do so we ran out to the balcony. we managed to put on whatever close we had at hand and made our way from balcony to balcony. amy: on sunday, a russian strike on a military site near poland killed at least 35 people and injured more than 100. president zelensky said over the weekend some 1300 ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the start of what he called russia's war of annihilation. zelensky said some 13,000 russian soldiers had been killed. the situation in the southern ukrainian port city of mariupol remains dire. the city reported over 2000

residents have been killed and humanitarian aid is desperately needed. on saturday, a mosque sheltering 80 civilians in mariupol was hit. istanbul said turkish nationals were among those seeking refuge in the mosque. meanwhile, ukraine's foreign minister accused russia of committing more war crimes by abducting two ukrainian mayors, including melitopol's mayor ivan fedorov. the international atomic energy agency said staff at the now russian-occupied chernobyl nuclear power plant staff have stopped doing safety repairs and maintenance work due to physical and psychological fatigue from working non-stop for weeks on end. u.s. officials say the kremlin has asked beijing for military aid. china has rejected the claim. national security adviser jake sullivan is meeting with his chinese counterpart in rome -- italy today. the u.s. has warned china it will face repercussions if it

helps moscow evade sanctions. australia has joined the u.s., u.k., canada, the eu, and new zealand in imposing sanctions on russian oligarchs, including roman abramovich, who owns london's chelsea football club. on sunday, u.s. journalist and award-winning filmmaker brent renaud was killed while reporting on the war near a checkpoint in the city of irpin, outside of kyiv. he was with photographer juan arredondo, who described the attack as he was being treated for his own wounds at a hospital. not yet aware brent had died in the attack. >> we crossed the bridge. we were going to film other refugees leaving. we got into a car. somebody offered to take us to the other bridge and we crossed the checkpoint and they started shooting at us. so the driver turned around and

they kept shooting. two of us just my friend has been shot and left behind. >> how is he? >> i don't know. amy: we will talk about our colleague brent renaud's life after headlines. russia shut down instagram today days after temporary -- meta temporarily changed its hate speech to allow facebook and instagram users to postessage and citing violence against russian soldiers. antiwar protests continued in cities around the world this weekend. russian police arrested another 850 people sunday, bringing the total number of detained protesters in russia since the start of the invasion to nearly 15,000. iran has claimed responsibility for a missile barrage on the capital of iraq's kurdistan region. sunday morning's attack on erbil damaged homes, a local

television station, and the compound of a major kurdish businessman. iran said in a statement it targeted israeli spies operating in iraq, calling the strike retaliation for israel's killing of two iranian revolutionary guard members in an airstrike on syria last week. local residents said they feared further violence. >> this place is a residential area, not a place for military training or military area. the people here are poor and some people come here for tourism. there are seven villages here. we fear there will be more bombings. amy: meanwhile, talks aimed at restoring the landmark iran nuclear agreement have stalled over russia's demand that sanctions imposed on moscow over its invasion of ukraine won't apply to russia's business dealings in iran. iran's foreign minister is traveling to moscow on tuesday for talks with his russian counterpart. saudi arabia says it has carried out the largest mass execution

in its modern history, putting 81 men to death within a span of just 24 hours. the official saudi press agency said in a statement saturday the men were guilty of crimes ranging from so-called terrorism to "deviant beliefs." among those executed were people arrested for participating in human rights demonstrations. rights groups say many of the defendants were denied access to a lawyer, held incommunicado and tortured. the united nations children's fund, unicef, reports mo than 10,200 children in yemen have been killed or injured since the start of the saudi-led, supported -- u.s.-supported were beginning in this year alone, 2015. unicef reports 47 children were killed or maimed across yemen. officials said both figures are likely significant under-counts. in colombia, voters selected their presidential candidates during sunday's primary and congressional elections.

gustavo petro, the front-runner for may's presidential election, represents a leftist coalition, and will face off against centrist sergio fajardo and right-wing candidate federico gutierrez. gustavo petro was previously the mayor of bogota and a member of the guerrilla group m-19 in the 1980's. he has vowed to end oil expiration and has accused outgoing right-wing president iván duque of crimes against humanity for the killing of social leaders and protesters. meanwhile, in chile, 36-year-old progressive gabriel boric was sworn in as president friday. >> when there is no distribution of wealth, when wealth is concentrated only among a few, peace is very difficult. we need to redistribute wealth for those who inhabit our country. amy: in pandemic news, china has locked down the southern city of shenzhen, home to 17.5 million

people, as it scrambles to blunt the country's worst ever coronavirus outbreak. all shenzhen residents will have to undergo three rounds of testing and are largely confined to their homes. hong kong continues to face its worst surge of the pandemic, with hospitals forced to treat an overflow of patients in parking lots and lobbies. covid cases are on the rise across europe with france, germany, the uk, italy, and the netherlands reporting upticks in numbers of infections. france lifted most of its public health measures today, including the widespread use of masks indoors. meanwhile, some health experts in britain are calling on officials to expand and speed up a plan to make a fourth vaccine dose available to vulnerable people. in paris, france, thousands of people took to the streets saturday to demand candidates in april's presidential election respond to the climate crisis

and move away from fossil fuel dependence amid russia's attack on ukraine. >> ecology discounts for 2.7% of candidates programs. that figure is too little and we have to act now because of what is happening in europe, we want a climate of peace that is global both in terms of climate and politics. amy: europe currently depends on russia for more than 40% of its natural gas, more than a quarter of its oil imports and nearly half of its coal. the biden administration has rolled back a trump-era border policy allowing it to expel asylum-seekers at the u.s. border without first hearing theiclaims. on saturday, the centers for disease control said it would no longer use the public health order known as title 42 to deny u.s. entry to unaccompanied migrant children. however, the biden administration still plans to use title 42 to deny entry to single adults and families traveling with children.

since it was enacted two years ago, title 42 has been used to justify more than 1.6 million expulsions. in a joint letter, four senate democrats, including majority leader chuck schumer, said they were deeply disappointed the biden administration didn't scrap title 42 entirely. a texas judge has blocked a new anti-trans directive which ordered state officials to investigate gender-affirming care for the children as child abuse. health workers and educators who had knowledge of the life-saving care and did not report it could also face criminal penalties. district judge amy clark meachum called the order unconstitutional. the injunction will stay in place until the case is heard in court in july. in other news from texas, the state's supreme court on friday

effectively ended a federal challenge to the near-total abortion ban that has been in place since september. the ruling leaves texas' abortion ban in place for the foreseeable future, but reproductive rights advocates say they'll continue to fight it. nancy northup, president of the center for reproductive rights said, "the courts have allowed texas to nullify a constitutional right." meanwhile, in missouri, a state representative has proposed a bill to ban abortions after 10 weeks, while criminalizing the termination of ectopic pregnancies with a penalty of up to 30 years or life in prison. ectopic pregnancies are not viable and can threaten the life of the pregnant person. this comes after another missouri lawmaker proposed allowing citizens to sue anyone who helps a resident obtain an abortion out of state. in ohio, a grand jury voted not to bring charges against a white

police officer who shot and killed ma'khia bryant, a 16-year-old black girl, outside her foster home last year. her family condemned the decision by the grand jury, saying the officer, nicholas reardon, did not need to resort to using his firearm and also called out ohio's child-welfare system for its failures in ma'khia's case. police are looking for an unidentified gunman who shot at least five unhoused people in new york and washington, d.c., in recent days, killing two of his victims in lower manhattan. a third killing of an unhoused man in new york over the weekend is being investigated. this comes just weeks after new york mayor eric adams launched a zero-tolerance policy for unhoused people sheltering in new york city's subway system, even as housing advocates warned the move could push more people into the streets. and in more news from new york city, immigrant rights advocates are celebrating the inclusion of

coverage for all in the state assembly and senate budgets. the measure extends health insurance to all new yorkers regardless of immigration status. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, we remember brent renaud, the award-winning journalist and filmic are shot dead in ukraine on sunday. stay with us. ♪♪ [mus break]

amy: the odesa national academic getter orchestra performing the ukrainian national anthem during an outdoor concert this weekend called "free sky" calling for peace and a no-fly zone. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on sunday, the award-wining u.s. journalist brent renaud died after being shot and killed near

a ukrainian checkpoint in the city of irpin, outside of kyiv. there has been heavy fighting as russian troops advance on the capital. ukrainian officials accused russian forces of killing brent, though agence france press reports the exact circumstances are unclear. the peabody award-winning filmmaker was 50 years old. at the time of his death, he was with photographer juan arredondo, who was wounded in the attack. arredondo briefly spoke to an italian reporter from the hospital before he was taken into surgery. >> what is your name? >> juan. >> where are you from? >> the u.s. >> what happened to you? >> we crossed the first bridge in irpin. we got into a car -- somebody offered to take us to the other bridge and we crossed the

checkpoint and they started shooting at us. so the driver turned around and they kept shooting. two of us, my friend renaud has been shot and left behind. >> how is he? >> i don't know. >> you don't know what happened to him? >> i saw he was shot in the neck. i got pulled into -- >> who brought you here? >> an ambulance. amy: that was the photographer juan arredondo who was wounded sunday in a shooting in the ukrainian city of irpin. at the time he was speaking, he did not know brent renaud dead. brent is the first foreign journalist known to have been killed in ukraine since the russian invasion. at the time of his death, brent renaud was working on a documentary for time studios about global refugees. in a statement, time studios said --

"we are devastated by the loss of brent renaud. as an award-winning filmmaker and journalist, brent tackled the toughest stories around the world often alongside his brother craig renaud." over the past two decades, brent had reported across the globe, including in it colombia, mexico, egypt, somalia, iraq, libya, haiti, china, afghanistan, and pakistan. brent and craig renaud both appeared on democracy now! a number of times to talk about their films, including "off to war" about the deployment to iraq of the national guard from their home state of arkansas. >> we arrived in baghdad with the national guard unit and in these vehicles. right away iapril, which was one of the bloodiest months of the war, right off the bat, a lot of injuries and deaths. amy: we were broadcasting from

dctv. brent and his brother craig renaud started their filmmaking career at downtown community television here in manhattan. for over a decade, democracy now! was housed in same building -- in the same old firehouse. in a statement, dctv founder jon alpert said -- "we had the honor of working alongside brent for many years. we were and are inspired by his commitment to bring his camera to capture scenes the world needs to see, no matter the difficulty or the danger. brent is a hero who sacrificed for all of us. he deserves to be celebrated. not murdered." later in the show, we will hear brent in his own words on democracy now! but first, we're joined by ann marie lipinski, a pulitzer prize-winning journalist and curator of the nieman foundation for journalism at harvard university. she got to know both brent

renaud and juan arredondo when they were fellows at the fellows at the nieman foundation in 2019. ann marie lipinski, welcome to democracy now! you talk about how you found out what happened -- and our condolences, our condolences also to brent's family, his brother craig, and his whole family, to you because you knew him, and really to the whole world because this is such a loss. talked about how you learned what happened and also tell us about juan who is injured but is alive. >> brent, as you well know, amy, was a very, very special journalist, yes, but also person . and i still remember the interview with him the year he applied to become a nieman fellow. grew up as a shy and socially

awkward child and he still bore that as an adult. i think situations like an interview for a fellowship were difficult for him, more difficult than covering a war. his central and just very profound humanity came through and that interview. his work, i vesely, was excellent. anyone who watched any of his and craig's documentary can see that. what you can also see in brent as he brought a very rare humanity and patience to the work. he would tell us the goal of his journalism was thoughtful stories about disenfranchised people. and i think he lived that credo every day. i found out he had been killed yesterday morning. i woke up simultaneously to a

social media post and my phone ringing. nate payne, one of the fellows from harvard was phoning me from michigan. he was very close friend of brent. he also had just heard the news. so we were kind of -- a little bit later in the day, the class and i and others got together and talked for a long time about brent and his work and the impact that he had had on journalism, of course, but really on all of us as individuals. amy: can you tell us about juan arredondo? clearly when he gave that interview as he was being

prepped for surgery, he had been whisked away to a hospital, brent died on the road. he did not know that his colleague had died. tell us about juan arredondo. >> juan, like breant, is a brilliant visual journalist. he was mainly a still photographer and really developed his videography, partly during his time here at nieman and really -- they became very close. not just friends, but partners on stories. and they have traveled together a number of times. i think what is remarkable about that video is you here in -- that is juan. he is the picture of calm and kindness and patience and he sounds very much like he often does, although he has the strain

of what he just has been through. our understanding is he went under surgery for what was believed to be shrapnel or a bullet in his leg but a bullet was not found. he has recovered from surgery. he will need to stay hospitalized for a handful of days. amy: is he in poland or ukraine? >> ukraine. there are people working to than evacuate him back to the united states and also to return brent's body to this country. amy: are you having trouble -- is the family having trouble getting brent's body back? >> i don't know that they're having trouble. i know there are people working on this, including another fellow -- there were two fellows in that class who are ukrainian.

so there is a lot of support and a lot of people working on this to return him home. amy: i want to turn to look at some of brent renaud's remarkable work. in 2003 and 2004, brent and his brother craig, both from arkansas, embedded with the arkansas national guard as they were deployed to iraq. after months of filming, the brothers produced the 10-part documentary series "off to war: from rural arkansas to iraq" for discovery. >> as the war in iraq enters its second year, nearly 3000 soldiers from the arkansas national guard are called to active duty. >> most of these guys before we

got activated, held civilian jobs. >> so big, it is out of my hands right now. >> i don't want him to go. >> yeah, they're going to target you because they think you're a bunch of lazy, fat national guardsmen who don't know how to do their jobs. >> these soldiers are part of the largest employment of national guardsmen since the korean war. >> the military has confirmed that four arkansas soldiers were killed in iraq this weekend. >> 57 of the arkansas guardsmen come from the town of clarksville. this is their story. as i leave home, family behind, to serve in iraq. amy: that is and it excerpt of "off to work" erected by brent renaud and his brother craig. this is another clip featuring dr. david short of the arkansas national guard. >> what we're supposed to be

doing is security and civility operations, which basically went out the window. there is no security and there is no civility here. it is a full-fledged very hot combat zone. all right, guys. let's move on out. another wonderful day. wahoo! >> our situation is a vehicle pulled up to a u.n. checkpoint. produced what appeared to be a weapon. that weapon turned out to be a cigarette lighter. open fire with the 50 caliber fire. >> you don't get shot anywhere with 50 cal not the cearley wounded. >> seven iraqis killed and some severely wounded.

>> any childn or women? >> i think a woman in the rear vehicle that went into labor. unfortunate, but have to know that we are serious about this. 70 was to jump out with a toy pistol and start acting like he is a big boy, he's going to get treated like a big boy. lock and load, gentlemen. ok, but the good times roll. i am not into going out and meeting the people. trying to help them out and see what their needs are. they haven't given me time to suit their needs are because they won't quit attacking me long enough for me to find out what their needs are. or really wish we would have trained more for combat operations. train for the worse and expect the best. well, we train for the best and the worst happened.

amy: an exit from the documentary series "off to work" -- "off to war: from rural arkansas to baghdad." in 2004, the brothers appeared on democracy now! several times. this is brent renaud. >> we arrived in baghdad with the national guard unit, the arkansas national guard and the same number -- unarmored vehicles. in april, one of the bloodiest months, right off the bat there were a lot of injuries and deaths. particularly with ago to be just on the clip. within that group, there were a number of guys that refused to go on missions almost immemediately after they had sen their friends and fellow soldiers die right in front of them. fortunately, for them, sergeant short who see another clip, the one talking in the humvee, handleit internay.

gave them time off, allowed them to get it together and get back on the job. i would say right off the bat, i witnessed three to four guys saying it was too dangerous to go out there. dropping like flies, as you us are heard in the clip. this was pretty widespread sentiment. amy: i think it is something new to the national public when these guys are saying, we're not going to go because we don't have the armored vehicles stop what do you mean? >> the units bring their own vehicles from their home state. most of them were never in combat. they were doing things like helping people after floods, cleaning up after tornadoes. they did not have combat-ready vehicles. since every unit brought their vehicles into a wreck initially, that is what they used their combat. amy: that was brent renaud speaking on democracy now! in 2004 when we all worked at the

firehouse and downtown community television. he was killed yesterday in ukraine where he was working on a documentary about local refugees. that interview, yes, took place at the firehouse, which housed for many years both democracy now! and the whole dctv crew, including bread. brent began his career with downtown community television. their joint now by cora weiss, former chair of the dctv board of directors, a position she held for 40 years. she was also president of the hague appeal for peace, and has been nominated five times for the nobel peace prize for her work in the international women's and peace movements. particularly focusing on relations between the united states and russia, at the time, the soviet union. cora, our condolences. the brothers lived at your house

for a year working on that series. can you talk about, first, your response to hearing the news and what brent and his work has meant and how it epitomizes inpendent media that came out of your downtown community television, founded by john alpert, the great filmmaker? >> thank you, amy. first, i would like to express my feelings about this unbearable crime of killing brent to his parents and his brother craig. brent and craig lived in a summer house -- that means it was not built to sustain a winter weather. they lived there for almost a year editing "off to war." we got to know two remarkable human beings.

brent spent his life working in film, trying to teach us all the truth about the evils, dangerous, horrors of war. and it inspired my work for peace. brent's loss is absolutely huge and it was unnecessary because this war is unnecessary. amy:, and, you crossed 70 bridges. one of the works that the renaul brothers did, was the bridge to baghdad. they went with our colleague sharif abdel kouddous in 2003 to iraq to make that. you are the enemy of building bridges. so if you can talk about

wheret's life was ended. all the details are not clear yet, this horrific moment where he stopped at a checkpoint with juan arredondo, his colleague, and then he was shot dead and left in the road. if you can talk about how -- if you see parallels between what is happening now between ukraine, rusa, the united states, nato -- you so long fought for peace -- and what he was doing back then, covering the war in iraq, the horror of the u.s. invasion. >> arrived war was built -- the iraq war was built on a lie that weapons of mass destruction. it was unnecessary, it was

avoidable. all of the war since the end of the second world war should never have happened. and it was possible that they did not have to happen because we have also become very experienced in diplomacy and we have learned in ormous amount about prevention of violent conflict. and there are laws about preventing violent conflict, so this did not have to happen. i don't know anything about where or why he was killed, but he should not have been killed. brent was terribly important as an educator, for all americans to understand the horrors of war and the unnecessary expense in life and lives and in money war for the wars.

when we spend your life try to prevent war and this happens, you feel pretty discouraged. but i guess we can't afford to be and we just have to keep trying because war does not help anyone except the weapons manufacturers -- were probably the only happy people in the world today. we are using so many weapons. the construction workers -- not workers, but the construction owners who will have to repair the damage probably pretty happy, too. amy: cora weiss you began your work in 1961. your work for the abolition of nuclear weapons and fighting for the ending of the cold war. how concerned are you about the prospect of a nuclear war or an

accident that could lead to this? >> as long as there are nuclear weapons and as long as people like president biden and putin say nothing is off the table, there is a possibility that they could be used. either used because of an accident or deliberately. and that is the most frightening, frightening thought. because we know all it takes is one nuclear bomb and it is goodbye. goodbye, everything. we talk about climate change. climate change and nuclear weapons are the apocalyptic twins. and we have to prevent one and get rid of the other. we have to abolish nuclear weapons immediately. there should be no question about it anymore.

they are two dangerous and who wants to destroy the world and the lives of everybody in it? amy: i want to turn now to last chance high. that is the film that brent and craig ernaud won a peabody for in 2013. >> when mark allen met producer brought us into meet with jason and hear about his plans to launch vice news, we pitched a project we did not really expect they would greenlight, multi-episode series that would take almost a year to produce about chicago school for kids with severe emotional and behavior disorders. it is a school the principal described as the last stop between jail, mental institution, or the city morgue. i remember vividly jason sang this was exactly the kind of

storytelling that vice news was going to become known for. over the last decade, more people have been killed in the city of chicago by gun violence than u.s. soldiers fighting in iraq or afghanistan and most involved teenagers. last chance hi is about what we feel is a severe letter reported correlation between mental and behavioral disorders and the tragedy of youth violence. amy: that was brent renaud. >> brilliant. brent was brilliant. amy: cora, can you wrap up i talking about what his work meant -- whether he was in somalia or detain and china, whether he was in colombia or he was in back in his beloved arkansas, whether he was in mexico, egypt, whether he was in iraq, his philosophy of filmmaking? >> brent spent his life helping

us understand the evils of war, the unnecessary wars and the destruction -- not just her property, but to people, how it destroyed our minds, our lives, our children -- and he did it unceasingly. he did war, war, r, no more, no more, no more. and that is a huge loss for all of us. we should all see brent's films over and again. the 10 part series that he and craig did and edit it at our house for a year almost, is unique. nobody has ever made a film with

such detail. and through the perspective of the young men who are being asked to go and kill and fight it, now women, too, of course. so his loss is enormous. it is a tragedy that should not happen again. another mother and father should not have to bury their kid because of a war that did not have to happen. amy: in denouncing the shooting come the committee to protect journalists called for the killers to be brought to justice. we're joined now by carlos martínez de la serna, journalist and program manager for the committee to protect journalists. thank you so much for being with us, carlos. can you talk about what you understand at this point happened to brent and if you could talk about what other

journalists are facing right now, whether in russia or in ukraine? >> sure. thank you for having me. information was made public yesterday to testament including juan arredondo's testimony from the hospital, but we understand as juan described, they were going through a checkpoint in the city of irpin, northern ukraine, very close to kyiv. at some point during that process, brent was hit in the neck, i believe, and was left behind as juan said.

[indiscernible] described a body covered by a blanket. those are the ones affected that we know by the attack. there is a police report from the ukrainian police that said -- the only report we have seen so far. there are still details missing. we could not categorically say who was responsible for the killing. but we need -- what we can do right now is clearly emphasized the rules of war regarding journalists. journalists and humanitarian law

are civilians and civilians are never legitimate targets. so what happened to brent is a work crime. that situation that civilians in ukraine are facing all the time, this is a war -- so many places under attack. those are changing all the time. the situation is extremely threatening to civilians concluding other people as well, journalists and civilians as well. they are exposed to attacks like this all the time. yesterday there were reports about the city of irpin being banned from reporters after this killing. the situation is changing all the time.

journalists are just trying to move from one place to another. it is extremely fluid. extremely dangerous. amy: carlos, can you talk about what happened on february 28, russian soldiers firing on a team from sky news in the kyiv region? >> yeah, that is one of the reports that seem similar to what happened here. there was a tv crew from sky news and they were filming, so you can clearly see how they came under attack. they were shot at by it seems russian troops. than other reports as well, the beginning of the war, years ago, -- three weeks, two journalists were shot at and they recovered and left the country. amy: yes, i watched them interviewed from a hospital outside the country. >> there are -- there are

reports of three joualists that were attacked and robbed by troops. there e many incidents. there is a ukrainian journalist that was killed in the shelling -- dylan amy: so often, it is a local journalist to face the most danger. close most of the journalists killed are usually local journalists. also killed -- other settings, other circumstances are usually local journalist. amy: we have to go but i ve to ask, what are you calling for now? >> there needs to be a credible, transparent investigation.

whoever is responsible needs to be held accountable. this amounts to work crimes. the justice is to bring things to a place where we can see some kind of closure despite the tragic events that last -- the loss for t family, or journalism, and the public. brent did amazing work that he won't be able to continue. his testimony has been so powerful. to protect the other journalists i bringing those who killed brent to justice. amy: carlos martínez de la serna is a journalist and program manager for the committee to protect journalists. coming up, as they too accuses nature of work crimes, we will

speak about the escalating repression inside belarus. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "always" by ellie nelson and his sister. she died thursday at the age of 91. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continue to look at russia's invasion of ukraine, we turn now to look at the role of belarus. on friday, the belarus president met with vladimir putin at the kremlin. the meeting, day after nato official accused russia flying warplanes from airfields belarus. prior to the invasion of ukraine, putin station thousands of russian troops in belarus who then took part in the vein of ukraine from the north. ukrainian officials have expressed concern larus may

soon send troops into ukraine and become directly involved in the war. we're joined now by natallia satsunkevich, who works with the human rights group viansa, which is one of the top human rights work in belarus. viansa members have been seven detained for their work. in 2020, they received the right livelihood award for "irresolute struggle for realization of democracy and human rights in belarus." she joins us from love the way ne-yo. welcome to democracy now! can you describe the situation in belarus? for people to understand it being used as a major staging ground for russia's invasion of ukraine. i'm sorry, i can't hear you.

if you could start again? you might be talking, but i can't hear you, so i need to get -- while we check your sound let me go to the belarusian foreign minister -- can you hear me now? amy: we can hear you. can you describe the role of belarus in the invasion, russia's invasion of ukraine? >> thank you for your interest for belarus and this topic in this pretty hard question for belarus and human rights organizations because we work a lot with ukrainian colleagues and we all understand the territory belarus is used for conducting the war against

ukraine. but we see from the first day of the war, there a lot of protests from people against the war and the participation of belarus. arrested up to 1000 people around the whole country protesting against the war. and also there are even criminal cases when people started criticizing the belarussian authorities about their actions and participation in the war. i think the main problem is negotiations between putin and the belarussian president. the belarussianeople do not know what is the details of the meetings. we can't influence on the president -- there is no

civility to express were opinion in belarus and influence on the situation and even any attempt to exercise your right in belarus now is strongly repressed by authorities. it started in 2020 and today the situation goes on worse and worse. amy: can you tell us about your colleagues in prison right now with viasna? >> today is exactly eight months they were -- three of my colleagues were arrested and faced trial in a detention center. we don't know any details of the criminal case because nobody tells us the details. they said there is an investigation but it is not very active. actually, they are blamed doing

a financial crime through repression about human rights defenders from viasna only because of their human rights job. i would also like to remind my colleagues -- arrested in september 2020. so about a year and a half she is in prison waiting for a court trial. she faced up to 20 years. she could receive up to 12 years of prison. there are more than 1000 political prisoners in belarus and the conditions, hopeful. it is at least one case of a person died in belarussian

prison, a political prisoner. really keep focus -- political prisoners in belarus. to spread this information, support them by sending letters from all countries of the world. amy: can you talk about the latest referendum held just last week? the referendum opening the door for russia to station nuclear weapons in belarus and the significance of this? >> there's also this referendum, it was like we expected, unfortunately. the whole process was done with fear and repression. those people who tried to protect the results of the referendum, they were arrested.

also there were no free media, no access to any information except propaganda -- state propaganda. of course, we can't rely on the results. no free, no fair elections. it is not the result of peoples voting. amy: and repression in belarus after and during the protests that began in 2020 and russia's role in the suppression of those protests? >> of course we see the lukashenko regime is so strong because of support of russia and putin personally. we do not see russian forced

agencies in belarus. in august 2020 and later, but we know it could happen. a strange situation when one state influences so much on other independent state. amy: we're going to do part two of this conversation. it is so rare to speak to someone from belarus. you have left the country, we're speaking to you in let the when you. natallia satsunkevich is with the human rights group viasna. part two will be at democracynow.org. we dedicate today's show to our colleague brent renaud and to all those who have died during this invasion. he went to ukraine to document the refugees from ukraine and

global refugees around the world. that does it for our show. democracy now! is currently accepting job applications for a human resources manager. check out democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by

lydia feng: chinese youth are living in a brave new world. they're richer, better educated, and more connected than ever before. but they're also under constant pressure to compete and to conform. male: [speaking in foreign language] zhao jia: [speaking in foreign language] male: [speaking in foreign language] lydia: we've collaborated with chinese filmmakers to bring you three intimate stories of young people