you know i want to write things up that isn't fact well well i mean obviously i don't think we're getting into a religious conversation here but the idea that you know religion says so great romping all over the world and great saviors and everything you know i mean it's just just the opposite ridiculous the truth is i maintain what i say and that is that money should be better placed given to people who truly need it the catholic church or the french government should be picking up not today and as for those billionaires they need to be taking care of their tax affairs and not acting as if they're here is great saying if yes when in fact we wouldn't be in this position in the first place if they acted responsibly opinions from both sides of the debate ever so pleased that you took the time to come and join us my guests john lott and former u.s. state senator sanju polson journalist social commentator thank you guys. thanks to you guys for joining us here this evening on r.t. international updates on our top stories for you in half an hour.

that's geysers. they say. this is a central plank so for dying at the moment they say stop the.

greetings and salutation. spring is here in the united states hawk watchers and with every spring comes growth and reflection see reflection is important my friends both personally and for a nation which is why we here in the united states of america need more reflection like the kind put forth by former us president jimmy carter we need more of this reflection if we can ever hope to see more growth again you see jimmy carter recently dropped a bombshell while discussing the differences between the united states and china when he tragically and rightfully observe that the united states is quote the most warlike nation in the history of the world wow and tragically the numbers don't lie especially when you compare the greedy trillions we've spent on our weapons of war to the paltry sums we've spent on our own infrastructure and it's this failure and priority along with the greed and avarice that chokes our political systems from

the city halls the capitol hill that has led to infrastructure crisis after infrastructure crisis like the dangerous lead. the water crisis of flint michigan back in two thousand and fourteen but where our politicians fail maybe our courts and an army of lawyers can succeed you see in response to a lawsuit that approximately three thousand flint residents filed two years ago against the e.p.a. the environmental protection agency for its failure to use the save drinking water act to protect them the hill and others are now reporting that a bedroom judge this week said residents of michigan can sue and sued the federal government over its response to the city's drinking water crisis so today my friends let us begin our spring forward towards growth and reflection by seeking justice for our sins of the past and we do that by watching the hawks. it looks like. it's.

like you got. the one watching the hawks i am tyrrell for joining me to discuss the latest on that sort of sense fight for clean water is right has writer and watching the hawks social media producer. thank you so much so i'm going to start evan is how big of a victory is this for the citizens of flint i mean you know five six years later they still don't clean drinking water so this ruling by the judge how much what's been the reaction of the i mean i think the reaction has been very positive and it is a huge victory if they can land lawsuits that actually are sought all the way the room

right with settlements and sort of action plans behind them so it's only a victory as far as the case is themselves can go. reaction online has been a lot of joy and excitement for the potential that people can now sue the government because again this was an intentional sort of harm done to people in order to save money right little miss flint who is sort of been the face of flint michigan over the past five years she was online reminding people that the u.s. government had donated money to france to repair the notre dame cathedral before they had allocated funds to repair the flint michigan water system and so she's been really out here as the face of it there's also been politicians and celebrities and tons of local residents who have been online saying how excited they are about this however they're still sort of a shade. the feeling can this set precedent for other communities where there's lead poisoning and water plays an ng we know that in the navajo communities on their reservations they've been dealing with lead poisoning in their water for

several decades now in baltimore and detroit south los angeles really in these working class poor and black community as we've seen the same problem so it's a huge victory but especially if they can set precedent for for other places going to the same problem it really can because you don't a lot of our government especially politicians in the bridge really are there they're exempt from being sued for decisions they make in office because of the was you know completely bottle of every lawsuit under the sun becoming at them especially for like opposition and things like that so this was a major victory for that what does that say about the state of things here in the united states when citizens in poor communities like the ones that you just mentioned have to sue the government just to get the right to have clean drinking water i mean i think it makes us have to question our entire concept of democracy in the whole capitalist system altogether the fact that in flint we know that they chose to change their water service to the flint river because it was cheaper they

knew it was a cheaper alternative and they knew that the water was contaminated so that means that in this instance they put capital over human lives right so this is the same thing we see when it comes to clean air for people to breathe and pollutants from waste management to water sources right so it really makes us have to question the overall argument of why should people have to sue and fight for clean water rights something that the earth provides for free and even connects to struggles like standing rock where we had private corporations who are now installing pipelines that would burst and contaminate water right so if people are having to sue the government for not having clean water and putting sort of profit over people's lives and then we also have private corporations being allowed to have oil pipelines that contaminate water what's left for us and you know you've got. remember too that we passed laws about this the clean water these laws are very specific that the government has to provide basic bare assent water the most

necessary element of light like you cannot live without it there's got to be that level of just basic thing and when you see the government drop the ball in this case when you see the governments of not only the state government of michigan but also the city governments they were all culpable in the water crisis and then when the e.p.a. kind of sits on their hands for six seven months. i mean the way it goes all the way up to the highest seat when barack obama comes in drinks a bottle of water and land claims it's clean when it's not right and we know that nestle in private corporations provided water bottles water but then they sort of stopped providing water for flint and they've been showering and cooking with bottled water for five years someone has to be held accountable most definitely missed a travesty for five years this is still not fixed spring thank you so much for coming on always a pleasure having you on. with such a bizarre and wonderful cavalcade of characters lining up on the democrat side of things to take us president donald trump a former reality t.v.

host it must be tempting for many us citizens to believe that while the united states may rate twenty seventh in health care and education we have to rank number one in bizarre and unique political candidates over the years so is it any surprise that now in some of the countries we've helped the men so called u.s. style democracy and they are now lect ing entertainers over the weekend the good people of ukraine elected their first comedian to the office of the president forty one year old comedian volta mayor selenski who actually played a president on t.v. is now the head man in ukraine after absolutely to destroying ukraine's current leader petro poroshenko winning with more than seventy percent of the boat. but with ukraine occupying a very large part of the current political tensions between the united states and russia how does this political unknown the. it into washington and moscow as future plans for the new country for the for ukraine it was border sits just four hundred ninety kilometers from moscow joining me now to discuss this former u.s.

diplomat and foreign policy advisor to the senate jim jim thank you for coming to you appreciate it as i was nice to have you on i'm curious you know this is a pretty a this. is alinsky won by a conservative old margin there and it really blew my mind so that i think the first question on everyone's mind is who is this little comedian you know zelinsky and where does he sit on the you know u.s. russia and the tensions over the future of ukraine like it was the sky i think that's what we're going to find out i mean i think the main thing we can say about him is he is that was the none of the above choice and where you look at all the other tired old faces including clearly a repudiation of president poroshenko people say we want something different well he doesn't have any experience even better let's have somebody in there was going to be. a new broom now whether he can actually do that we don't know he has sort of straddle the fence in some ways he's talked about for example creating a russian language network in ukraine and campaign partly in russian so reaching

out to people in the east and south of the country on the other hand he's talked a good fight about nato and the e.u. and all that other sort of thing i think the big task as far as what happens in ukraine is the sense from the can he drain the swamp and it is a hell of a swap and ukraine in some ways has even swap here that is here and that's saying a lot as the other thing is then coming from washington because remember portugal is a very well known anti russian quantity which is the only reason we care about ukraine at all. and the question is is what arizonans cues it to intentions and even if he wants to jump off that hamster treadmill will he be allowed to do it and we don't know the answer to that it is very hard it is very hard to tell and now my second question is what were the factors that kind of in ukraine that led to his election i mean you mentioned kind of that rejecting of a status. but you know what do you think played a bigger role there the international politics involved or the internal politics within ukraine no i think clearly the internal politics in terms of you know the

prices of things like natural gas and people's ability to heat their homes to cook the wages going down people forced to leave the country in order to try to make a living and send remittances back and it's it's been bad for ukrainians and of course that's on top of the destabilization of a country that even before two thousand and fourteen was very very corrupt very very divided and i don't know whether it's more divided but it certainly isn't any less corrupt and i think that was one of the top things people are hoping he can do something about and it's going to be very tough with him because those always all of arcs are not going away and he doesn't i don't even think you know his political party even holds any seats and let you know they're out there have parliamentary elections scheduled for october there's some possibility they could be moved up and obviously the other interests will do their best to try to to box him and so you know we've been you know the u.s. has been. quietly and maybe not so quietly trying to manipulate the flow of ukraine and its government for quite some time now since then over toward

a new one that knows how to days do we know where the trumpet ministration is kind of sitting with the wind and water the plans the current u.s. plans for ukraine right now i think it's pretty much stay the course when we said there was a new president ukraine ukraine my first thought was you mean the american basket is not there anymore because that's really who the president of ukraine is that the memory of each is that most people don't know that name is actually the president of ukraine you know i think the the direction of policy of trump hasn't changed anything in terms of direction of policy toward russia i don't think he can even if he wanted to and it's not going to get any better even after the mother reports that means ukraine is to a club to beat the russians with we're going to fight the russians still last ukrainian. why they're still in ski wants to go along with that or not he's going to be under a lot of pressure and the. intelligence services the army there's a huge nato presence in that country from american advisors and other western powers i don't know how much independence he'll really have and look maybe doesn't

want to change course on that maybe that's where he's coming from as well we just don't know yet we do we really don't know it's interesting i mean that would jim i got to say always a pleasure having you want and you know actually one thing the spider man i mean is it still is ukraine still on that fast track i mean they stole that track to eventually get brought in the nato and nato if there is a declaration for two thousand and eighteen a book rest saying they will be georgia as well they will be members of nato not really has much been done along the in that direction i don't think that the europeans unless they've completely lost their senses will go along with that but that still is the official policy jim i got thank you as always for coming on always a pleasure having you on search think you. all right as we go to break watchers don't forget to let us know what you think of the topics we've covered on facebook you tube and twitter shows at our t v dot com coming up through the videos ben swann brings us the latest on chelsea manning's current incarceration and then r.t. america's bad call him as the latest on the u.s. sanctions. state to watch and see.

what politicians do so. they put themselves on the line they did accept the reject . so when you want to express. some want to that's. what you going to do this is what the three of them deeply. i'm interested in the.

international memorial awards twenty nine now open for entries the media professionals eligible whether you're a freelance journalist media or part of the global news. published works and video. go to award dot com and now. with wiki leaks founder julian assange is now in british british custody and an extradition to the united states a very real possibility we cannot and must not forget the u.s. whistleblower who was on the other end of the controversy and charges of the united states is currently holding over saunders had one chelsea manning manning has been jailed since march by the u.s. government for refusing to answer federal grand jury questions about

a songe wiki leaks and their role in her whistle blowing disclosures of state department cables in afghanistan and iraq war logs back in two thousand and ten in a statement released by her support committee manning exclaimed i object strenuously to this subpoena and to the grand jury process in general we've seen this power abused countless times to target political speech i have nothing to contribute to this case and i resent being forced to endanger myself by participating in this predatory practice so the son is now charged in custody why why oh why is the u.s. government still holding manning in jail for contempt of court here to help us answer that question and more as investigative journalist and founder of truth in media one ben swan ben thank you so much for coming on always a pleasure. yet ira thanks for having me on so ben you know what manning recently appealed her latest incarceration and i. monday a three judge panel for the u.s. court of appeals for the fourth circuit turned down her appeal what was the reasoning for turning down the subpoena and what was she fighting for. it was

intially chelsea manning and her attorneys were saying look you have a son that's what this whole grand jury process has been about in the first place this secret grand jury process and so you've got him you're probably going to get him extradited to the u.s. you don't need to hold chelsea manning in jail right now or is especially in solitary confinement where she has been for most of this time by the way you don't need to do that anymore you can go and let her out and the fourth circuit three panel of judges essentially said no just a man who can stay behind bars until the grand jury process comes to an end which could take as long as eighteen months or she can go ahead and testify and answer the questions that prosecutors want to answer in this grand jury process and so essentially nothing happened other than just the three judge panel upholding the same stance that the court's already saying that you know it's interesting why there are various so adamant about keeping manning behind bars i'm going to apart

from what the appellate court judges there are there any other reasons and what purposes like the united states i mean they've got their manderson's what purpose does the what why does the united states meed to continue to in cars incarcerate chelsea manning what purpose does it serve read that's that's the question and i think what it really comes down to is one very simple fact that chelsea manning is the single most important person in the prosecution of julian assange without manning cooperating the government story that is songe was the one who actually hacked into the d.o.d. who actually that essentially that manning what was was a clown who had no idea what she was doing but was unable to access the files and that it was really a song she was the one who broke into the deal was. able to access files stole the files and then disseminated the files that is their entire case because they don't have that tyrol they don't have

a case essentially they'll have manning who has already been prosecuted already been jailed and already served time and already had a sentence commuted for having packed in stolen those files and released them to wiki leaks but they need to be able to say that a silence was just as as involved in the actual taking of the files if they don't have that they don't have a case the other thing that's happening here and the reason it's important to know why this really is an illegal proceeding to try to force chelsea manning to testify in this grand jury is because it's not about getting new information they're not looking for new information in fact manning's lawyers are saying but what the government is really trying to do here and this is critical is they're trying to figure out what positions and stances that manning is going to take in answering certain questions so that they can build their case based on those responses what they don't want to do is be in the trial and be questioning chelsea manning in julian the songes trial and get answers to questions that they don't know how to

deal with so they're trying to essentially hold a pretrial by questioning manning first so that they know what questions to ask and what can be argued with and that is not a part of the grand jury process it is absolutely an abuse of the grand jury process to try to essentially pre interview witnesses you can figure out your strategy completely use and abuse about every month or something that you hold for discovery and let go of every man's absolutely ridiculous when you see something like what is manning's next step what are what are her lawyers planning next we know. so i don't know what they're planning but they have only really two options well they have a couple of options one option is to testify but she's not going to do that she's already said that she won't the other option is just to sit and continue to remain in jail which you know we've talked about this in terms of other cases before but solitary confinement in this kind of a setting is absolutely and it views of chelsea manning's rights i mean it's one thing to keep her locked up it's an entirely different thing to put her in solitary

confinement for twenty three hours a day which is no access to the outside world and to no one else and saying guess what you may stay there for the next eighteen months it's ridiculous so the other option is to just sit there for eighteen months at least another option would be to go ahead an appeal to the entire fourth circuit that was a three panel of judges who essentially made this ruling you can now appeal to the entire four circuit or they could just bypass all that and go straight to the u.s. supreme court the problem is as you know the u.s. supreme court especially the way it's stacked right now is hardly a bastion of constitutional issue stand up for civil liberties and civil rights and when you get someone like a brett kavanaugh you know who helped to author the patriot act in the first place who doesn't really believe in the fourth amendment or why would would you know judges and justices like that stand up for chelsea manning i don't see that happening while you know it's interesting too because we're right in the heart of the u.s. political sphere tragically even though we're still two years out we're in the heart of the u.s.

political season in the race for president has there been any response to the latest incarceration of. the latest issues going on with manning and the incarceration of the songs from any of the current crop of democrats running for president is there anyone coming out on her side. well on the landing side not that i've seen so far now told he jabbered would be the only one i would think who would actually stand up for chelsea manning because he has you know did release a statement at the time that a song was taken into custody and spoke out against that saying it was attack on press freedom i haven't seen anything yet but i will tell you this just. five days ago. good a change that's a right good judge whatever his name is out of iowa he actually spoke out specifically condemning chelsea manning and condemning edward snowden and talking about how they are a threat to national security and their danger you know it's so incredible to iraq that we are in this state in america where democrats republicans you and i have talked about this for years but democrats and republicans are the exact same party

when it comes to civil liberties civil rights whistleblowing and truth and it's utter madness at this point it truly has been always thank you to have and it's always want to thank you so much for that great information take care of yourself out there. covering things. tired of fighting past presidents wars the trump administration appears to be going to start one of its very own right in time for summer with monday's announcement that u.s. president donald trump will end sanction exemptions for the country for countries doing business with iran's oil industry in may this decision could bring iran's oil exports down to zero essentially turning off the country's main source of revenue or to america's band comb as more. it's the latest step in the trump administration's maximum pressure campaign against iran and it could have a dramatic impact not only for oil prices but also for regional and even global stability secretary of state might pompei you made the announcement this morning

saying the u.s. coordinated the move with saudi arabia and the united arab emirates in order to minimize the impact on oil prices around the world are goal has been to get countries to cease importing iranian oil entirely last november we granted exemptions from our sanctions to seven countries and to taiwan with this is to give our allies and partners to wean themselves off of radio oil and to assure a well supplied oil market. today announcing that we will no longer grant any exemptions we're going to zero of the seven countries the us had granted waivers to last year greece italy and taiwan have since cut their iranian oil imports to zero but china india turkey south korea and japan won't be so easy and iran says the u.s. is overestimating its ability to enforce such sanctions a senior official called the us weak and shaky and said quote if the world is not

supplied with iran's oil for two months the global economy will be in trouble and dunn doubted lead the u.s. wouldn't be able to make up for the losses what's more a commander of the islamic revolutionary guard corps warned that the eye or g.c. would block the strait of hormuz if you ron is prevented from using it to trade oil with other countries just twenty one miles wide at its narrowest point a third of the world's oil that moves by sea passes through it every day most of the crude oil not only from iran but also from saudi arabia the united arab emirates kuwait and iraq passes through the strait of hormuz the u.s. navy's fifth fleet is based in nearby by train and is tasked with protecting allied commercial ships in the region needless to say its closure could spark a military confrontation well the u.s. and its close allies are on board other regional and global powers are pushing back turkish foreign minister. who said the u.s. decision will not serve regional peace and stability it will harm iranian people

turkey rejects unilateral sanctions and impositions on how to conduct relations with neighbors turkey is a major purchaser of iranian oil and is already under threat of u.s. sanctions for purchasing the russian s. four hundred missile defense system china also denounced the move saying its cooperation with iran is open transparent lawful and legitimate that should be respected it's not the first time iran has threatened to close. waterway in response to u.s. demands but this time it could backfire spectacularly and washington dan cohen r.t. . sometimes talk watchers bigger is indeed better and at a desolate dusty mojave air and space port in california the biggest of the biggest just took to the skies for the very first time it has orville and wilbur wright could only dream of the u.s. football field sized straddle launch blame that took to the skies and its first

test flight the double bodied airplane is not only eight meters long but has a meaning span of one hundred eighteen meters or three hundred eighty six beat back just to get this behemoth off the ground it takes twenty eight wheels and six yes six seven hundred forty seven engines so why my burns build this great metal elephant of the skies well the plane is designed and conceived by strata launch systems corporation and is hoped to be an easier faster alternative than rockets for the delivery of satellites into orbit in the air up there that's a very monstrous plane all right that is our show for today remember everyone in this world we are not holding them up so i told you i am their roles and keep on watching all those marks out there a great day in the. school

system to keep it as i live the. good times then. find. leader. we have many things in this world and this isn't enough for everyone and why some peoples wants to take our thing all the power just for themselves and that is the mother.

also confirms talks between furtive uprooted and kim jong un will take place in russia's far east on thursday the details of their first ever meeting have been kept top secret. mixtape claims responsibility for sunday's bomb attacks in sri lanka which took more than three hundred lives. so r.t. investigates links between the us government and facebook as the social media giant introduces its new general counsel legal advisor to the u.s. state department. for the use of if they have a knife they are ready to close and if they have a they're ready to shoot to kill and

a high profile german bodyguard reveals why it's so.