♪ anchor: you are watching al jazeera. russia is justifying a strike that killed at least eight people by saying it was being used to store rockets. a curfew comes into effect shortly in kyiv. russian troops have fired warning shots, at least one person was killed. it was the first major city to come under russian control.

>> today we have slaves shooting at free people. they have lost consciousness. there is to packing police buses. anchor: officials are considering imposing tougher sanctions on russia. the foreign policy chief president biden is warning american companies that russia is considering cyber attacks against critical infrastructure targets. this top aide says some u.s. companies have ignored repeated warnings to fix holes in software. save the children says 6 million children trapped inside the country are in imminent danger as hospitals and schools come under attack. search-and-rescue efforts are underway in china after a

passenger plane crashed into a mountainside. 132 people were on board. the president has ordered an investigation. judge ketanji brown jackson has to. for her first of hearings. president biden nominated the judge to the first or. judge jackson is shut to -- set to 60 judge stephen breyer. heavy rain and flooding has killed at least five people in a resilient town. the same town where more than 200 people died during mudslides on month ago. four people are still missing. those are the headlines, i will be back. next, it's inside story. stay with us. ♪

anchor: russian artists and sports figures are being asked condemned the invasion of ukraine or risk not performing

in the west. should they be forced to take a political position? this is inside story. welcome to the program. across the western world, artists, musicians and athletes are being excluded from events and competitions, under going pressure to denounce the actions of vladimir putin, despite laws to protect the freedom of expression. the munich philharmonic has sacked a prudent supporter. a soprano had to withdraw from several events putting the metropolitan opera. she wrote on instagram opposing the war only to delete the post.

in tennis, the british sports minister has warned russian tennis players, especially the world number two that they may be barred from wimbledon. >> the british government like acid, i think we should show a great example the tennis should be outside of politics, because we want to compete, we are sacrificing so many inks, it should be outside of politics. it's not happening. that is why hope we can show there are no politics and we will be a good example to have a

huge step forward. anchor: some cultural figures say artists should take a clear stance. a german pianist wrote on instagram, being a musician does not you from being a citizen and take responsibility and bringing up music as an excuse is an insult to our. let's talk more about this now with our panel. i british russian playwright, and blogger, and a russian sports order based in moscow, also in delhi, a visiting associate professor at georgetown university. welcome to all of you. if you can talk about the

circumstances for how you came to doha, and your position on people going after russian artists and sports people. >> i have been in opposition to prudent for a very long time. i'm against his regime. since then, we have been brutally fighting with not much result. i have had criminal cases against me. i was prosecuted by those in power for my opposition stance. i have kept myself in russia

fighting for all of those years, i have not left until this point until i realized that not only am i in danger, but my child is in danger. that is when i packed my bags and we went to delhi. for a brief period of time. i hope to go back to russia with regards to the public people, people in sports and the arts, and their stance on the war, i believe anyone who lives a public life needs to take a firm stance and distance needs to be in line with what the civilized world has expressed. the civilized world has condemned this horrific war. those people who want to work and can eat, they need to take a

firm stance. whether it is tennis players or opera singers, they need to do that. this is important, otherwise the civilized world should not accept them, because this is the moral thing to do. i believe this is black and white. i'm against black and white generally speaking, but we are an unprecedented horrific point in our civilized life. we have not faced anything of this magnitude since world war ii. this is time to be on the right side, on the side of good. and if those people, famous people, if they are not prepared

to sacrifice to be on the right side, then they should not be part of the civilized world. they should not be allowed to compete globally. they should not be with normal people. and honestly, i think we should blacklist anyone who does not want to comply with what is the right thing to do. i think they will be blacklisted for a long time and i think they should be. this is a breaking point for all of us. anchor: you were shaking your head. is it right to punish athletes for this? >> of course not. i agree with the general notion that stances should be heard and people should express their opinions, it's a free world and we have to express our approval of this -- or disapproval.

let's be real. i think it's naive let athletes or celebrities say no to war, get out, this will not stop anyway. we have seen it time and time again. a famous russian footballer who was among the few big-name athletes in russia saying he disapproves, did that stop the bombs falling? of course not. the one thing that people have to understand is we have elite athletes but did not take the avatar on instagram where he is with the russian president, getting a lot of abuse without. he continues playing, scoring goals, and the capital spends

liberty is doing on the field. we have sports men and athletes from different types of sports here in russia who were being castigated from the sporting community for no reason whatsoever. they never supported the conflict, they never voted for it, they never supported it, and yet they are being cast aside by the president of the ioc who started this. in the case of the tennis player , they are wealthy people, their multimillionaires. let's talk about paralympic athletes port kicked out from beijing. let's talk about skiers, by athletes, gymnasts and people who only have one means to survive, doing sports.

they were already cast out, and if they speak at in russia, and trust me, you know what i'm talking about, they have nowhere else to go. we have to think about these people as well. of course saying no or yes is a vital thing, but in the case of athletes, this is too risky for them. anchor: for those who say sports and politics shouldn't go together, history of the shows this is not uncharted territory. >> of course. in general when it comes to sporting by cots, the era has ended. we had that in the 1970's and 1980's, protesting apartheid in

south africa. in 1984 los angeles, eastern european states. since the end of the cold war at every single olympic games, the number of participating countries has increased. we did not see boycotts anymore. there have been a couple of individual boycotts, but in general, the era has ended. this is a special situation. it's maybe a bit like 1948 when germany and japan were not allowed to participate in the games as a punishment for the second world war, and this time russia is excluded to prevent the third world war. anchor: there is the point that

this is punishing athletes in russia who don't make a huge salary and they are being caught up in this through no choice of their own. foreign athletes who have the notoriety and are able to, and a position to speak out if they want, but others are being punished unnecessarily. >> everyone is being punished necessarily. those people still vote, right? they have the right to go and vote. all of those years they voted for putin, this is their punishment. if they just kept silent and did nothing, this is their punishment. i am sorry, but that's just how it is. anyone who did not stand up to

this dictator who led us to this point when are in the middle of an unnecessary war is punishable. along with putin. this is not just putin. you have to realize. if the russian people who allowed him to get to this point, should be punished as well. not just the athletes. they should be punished with sanctions. going back to the famous athletes, i firmly believe that the global sports community should not accept in its ranks athletes who don't have the guts and decency to stand up against the bloody war. they should not be accepted,. . anchor: i also want to ask, i sure you're aware of what happened a couple of days ago with the russian gymnast who

displayed the z sign on his vest which is seen as a symbol of the war of the actions in ukraine. he was on the metal podium. what offended a lot of people was noxious that but the fact that he was standing next to the ukrainian athlete who won the gold medal. they are opening up an investigation into that area are they right to do that? >> to be honest i am not a big fan of political statements in the field of life. i have been taught that sport and politics are two different beast.

whether they have voted for putin or not, we don't know. i think it's just preposterous we have come to the stage where things that are so distant from politics are being completely politicized. in the case of the gymnast, i don't approve. i believe he should be just -- punished. at the same time a, whatsoever multiple cases where athletes have expressed their opinions in the field of play and were punished. that is applied equally to every single athlete. that was also the case during the beijing olympics where a ukrainian athlete brandished a no war slogan, he wasn't punished but there were talks between him and the representatives of the ioc that he should not be doing that, even though he was not supporting anything, he was saying that there should not be were happening. this is dark territory.

i would give you another example. we're talking about russian athletes who may or may not be allowed to participate in competitions. i would give you a different example. there is an athlete in russia and the latest information that is being speculated is that his family is receiving death threats that if he continues playing in russia, the family will suffer consequences. someone, on an office english or ukrainian speaking, they are hounding a player in sending death threats to his family so he leaves russia and go somewhere else. he left russia, he may not be coming back. how is that all right? is this part of -- it's crossing

all of the boundaries. i don't think athletes should be paying the price for what governments do. we don't remember any u.s. or u.k. athletes being banned by internationals in organizations when these countries were engaged in military complex, and now it's the case with russians, i think it's unjust and unfair. anchor: let's put some of that to natalia. is there a line that's being crossed when you go after not just certain athletes but their families? >> i feel bad for anyone who gets death threats. i've been getting death threats from people around the kremlin. i know what that is about. i feel bad about that, but that's always an extreme reaction to something.

people were taking to that level is very stupid and it should not be happening. however, if you are a russian athlete, and unless you vocally, if you are famous then it doesn't make a difference. some of those athletes are very famous, they have lots of followers. if they don't take a firm stance because they are afraid of consequences within their life and workplace, that's assigned to me that they should be banned from the global out the community. if you don't have the guts or moral stance to react to

something as terrific as what we see going on in your rain, we don't want to deal with you. anchor: do boycotts make a difference? and by make it difference i mean do they force the person or regime being targeted to change their position? >> that depends. the boycott in terms of south africa was successful. this is been successful.

overall, the architecture of international sports where athletes in countries compete with each other regardless of ideologies, politics and so on, this should not be an exception. because otherwise, the sports system would not function. i can just share something from discussions with my students. they have been critical because many western countries would treat palestinian treatment, why it's different in terms of russia and ukraine. this is true, i share this criticism, but i think wrong in one case does not testify wrong in another case, and we really have a critical situation since

russia has nuclear weapons. there is a risk. i think while i am in general against sporting boycotts, i think in circumstances like this one it is justified. anchor: what is your view on that, sometimes thing like this are justified, and culture and sport in general, as unfortunate as it is, will become collateral damage. >> i will be very blunt. i don't support >> going on and you and. i lived in ukraine. i have been in shock since day one. there is no justification to meet as to what is happening there. it can't be justified in any way. at the same time, there is another side of the story that i feel like i am russian and

people by default. that is not true. if you look at how much this country has given to the world, i just came back from the beijing olympics. i spoke to athletes from all over the world. everyone started talking about russia, not for a good reason, but for a doping scandal against the figure skater. i spoke to athletes who said if they kick you out from sports, this will be a big loss because russians are among the strongest athletes compete against. russians are proving to be hard competition. it will no longer be fun for us. we never stand to think about that and talk about that. especially for you look at was happening in the past with military conflicts all over the

world, and very few countries were punished. newest lobby was kicked out from the world cup. other than that, there are very few examples of the same thing happening. indeed, the world is coming together and criticizing russia's actions, but the long-lasting effect it has on culture and sports will be felt and the shocks will be reverberating across the planet, simply because russia has a big waste in sport and culture. what saddens me the most missed things like sports and culture should be uniting people. in this case, they are pushing people further apart especially with sanctions. the reaction in russia has been negative. it adds to the notion to those supporting the actions, they are sanctioning our athletes. it makes people even more angry.

what good does it do? i have no idea. anchor: sport and heart have often acted as a bridge between cultures. by punishing practitioners, don't you risk burning bridges? >> bridges have been burned by putin. putin is the one who divides everyone. he is the one who is making this. as unfortunate as it is as has been mentioned that some of those athletes who don't make too much money are put in the position where they can compete, it's unfortunate, that's the price you play for competing with a country that is led by a bloody dictator. that is just how it is. that is the term we used for a

long time when it wasn't completely justified, now unfortunately it is. he is a dictator. anchor: on that we are going to have to leave it area thank you very much. thank you so much for being on inside story. and thank you for watching. you can see the program anytime, just go to our website. for further discussion, go to facebook. you can also join the conversation on twitter, our handle, for me and the whole team, goodbye for now.

ñ■ñ%çwçwçwçwçwçwçwçwçwçwçwçwzw■

man: the response by the u.s. to hurricane maria was really slow and really poor. one of theajor impacts of hurricane maria is that their electrical service was disrupted in some cases for almost a year. woman: we got to work really quickly, and we started...[continues in spanish] and just, you know, reaching out to your neighbors, see what you need. "how can i help?" man: when it comes to the great resiliency, somehow to deal with catastphe, you know? it's something that we naturally engage in maybe as part of