built to the people need little. be any of us by a regime change and nations being bombed into democracy. ministration we examine whether the new slogans are likely to translate into a real policy shift. on the international criminal courts launches a formal probe into alleged war crimes in the palestinian territories including during the 2014 war we've got more coming up. breaking ranks with the block the czech republic becomes the latest e.u. country to go its own way for vaccines requesting job deliveries from russia.

also a program. testing center in the netherlands police say it was unintentional attack and comes amid increasing hostility in recent weeks for many. from moscow to the world this is r.t. you know neal taking you through the big stories of the day. we begin with a big foreign policy announcement coming out of washington the u.s. will no longer engage in regime change or wage wars in the name of democracy in faraway places. if a statement made just hours ago by secretary of state and 3 blinken is anything to go by the story. well we have a speech given by the new secretary of state appointed by joe biden anthony blinken and which he talks about how it is the duty of the united states to preserve

democracy to restore democracy around the world and how he feels democracy is under threat he talks about the need to prove authoritarian regimes to be wrong what's interesting though is during his remarks he said that no more force would be used by washington to break governments they disapprove of here's what he said we will incentivize democratic behavior but we will not promote democracy through costly military interventions or by attempting to overthrow author terry regimes by force we've tried these tactics in the past however well intentioned they haven't worked. quite an interesting use of words but the pattern from the united states of intervening in the affairs of other countries destabilizing and overthrowing governments around the world is quite well known one looks at the history of iraq of libya afghanistan one looks throughout south and central america one can see

many examples of the united states intervening in other countries affairs destabilizing and overthrowing governments and in fact in recent years we've heard many calls from u.s. leaders for governments around the world to be overthrown and for leaders to step down assad needs to go and yes we came we saw he died the time has come for nicholas murderer to go what's interesting is that just a day ago we actually had a tweet from anthony blinken in which he gave full support to one guede 01 grade 0 is an individual in venezuela who has proclaimed himself to be president and has been engaging in violent attempts to destabilize venezuela to overthrow the elected government and there of even been u.s. military contractors that have been involved in those military coup attempts so having anthony blinken you know you know voicing support for one great oh the unelected individual who claims to be venezuela's leader kind of flies in the face

of his claim that the united states won't be using force now if there was one loophole you could say in anthony blinken remarks he did create a pretext in which the united states would be continuing to use force against governments of course we will never hesitate to use force when american lives and vital interests are at stake. now what exactly would constitute such a threat he did not lay out any specific criteria so it seems that though the united states through its new secretary of state is announcing that no more force will be used many wonder if this will simply be a changing of rhetoric looks like the united states will most likely be continuing its foreign policy activities but only time will tell. him moving the program the international criminal court said it's opening a war crimes probe into potential offenses in the palestinian territories including during the 2014 gaza war israel has for some years opposed to any such

investigation taking place there middle east correspondent paula picks up the story . well the international criminal court has announced that it's opening a full war crimes probe into the activities of both the israeli government and home us since 2014 this includes the 2014 gaza war the 2018 border crisis the israeli settlement expansion in the west bank and hamas is firing of rockets against israel it has taken the better part of half a decade for the international criminal court to reach this point the decision to open an investigation followed a painstaking preliminary examination undertaken by my office that lasted close to 5 years our central concern must be for the victims of crimes both palestinian and israeli arising from the long cycle of violence and insecurity that has caus deep suffering and despair on all sides in february the trial chamber of the

international criminal court determined that the hague court has jurisdiction for opening a criminal investigation into the activities of israel and the hamas leadership for alleged war crimes in east jerusalem gaza and the west bank the palestinians have said that this is a victory for the victims they say it's a landmark historic decision but as expected the israelis for some time have been campaigning against precisely what was announced today back in february the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu had this to say when the i.c.c. investigate israel for fake workrooms this is pure anti-semitism. is promised to a visual i assure you we will fight this barrage of justice with and our might. what this means is that hundreds of israelis could find themselves out on the wrong side of the law and we're talking here about the israeli prime minister benjamin

netanyahu white auntie's ministers and even ordinary soldiers the country's defense minister benny gantz has said that he's never been afraid of crossing over in the lines and this announcement doesn't make him feel full either you have for years had human rights organizations who has been warning of these really violations against palestinians. the united states has been a longtime ally of israel and when the former president donald trump was in power way he sanctioned the international criminal court after a tried to open an investigation in the palestinian territories now however under

his successor joe biden it is possible that there is pressure to lift the sanctions and of course israel is lobbying against this what remains to be seen is just what comes out of this investigation. discuss the issue further and welcome onto the program enough to always bennett former israeli defense minister and current prime ministerial candidates you are welcome to the program sir what does israel being so reticent about the court's other potential probe. well because this is a perversion of justice of any basic morals you know when one side or another the 2nd side has a right of self-defense let me tell you something amazing i'm in june 12th 2014. kidnapped 3 youngest really boys and murdered on june 13th israel israel because it

began to retaliate so the i.c.c. decided to start the investigation the day of the retaliation but forgot to investigate the day of the kidnap not sort of like being mugged on the street and then the police only investigating the person who was mugged and is fighting back this is a profound distortion of any form of justice it's a sham and we're not going to you know give up her tired hands of what. if israel has done nothing wrong or at least in comparison to what's palestinian militants have done then surely you should welcome. a probe into something that's going to make un putte to like what you believe israel has not done wrong and that could go to a global audience. oh because the court is not a court it's you know they call it the i.c.c. i view it the international circus of clowns these folks have no

basic premise of right and wrong there's no basis for even thinking about doing this let me tell you something you know i thought in quite a few wars defending my family come us shoots rockets at israel ease from within hospitals within homes within schools and then when we want to fight back then this i.c.c. thing tells us that we're are all we're going to play this game but you know how do you know how are you going to be in the most selves helpless in the face of a murderer who are saying that the militants were based in hospitals and schools but by firing bach were actually schools and nurses and doctors where working civilians were killed there's very much a sense of proportionality to be to be held here isn't there and israel did not. is there you know if if someone is shooting your kids your kids from within the school

how proportional are you going to react well there's a sense of self defense of course i agree with but in terms of doing that do you not prolong the war on the victims in israel as well as palestine making it even worse for future generations surely there's a stage where you have to say listen we're going to go after these people but we're not going to try to kill as many civilians as we did before oh no you're distorting things we never are out to kill civilians. being killed. oh they've been killed by their own government hamas which places rockets next to their children so yes let me but you know if you're a weapons ever places rockets from within civilians he is murdering his own people not israel you're big you know well i'm not trying to distort it i'm just trying to give the facts the what the u.n. said but operate. protective agent 201-4495 children 253 women surely israel has to take some responsibility for the oh really really let me ask

you how much responsibility does the the u.s.s.r. have not see germany conquer in the 2nd world war there's an evil side that is an attack in there's a good side that's defending and the only side that holds any responsibility is the offender let me be very clear you know if there's a list of people who are going to the hog i'm going to be at the top of the list we will never the hands of an israeli soldier while defending itself you know she called it a cycle of violence that's like calling 911 a cycle of violence there is no violence here that's a terror attack and just like been a lot in ok one talks about him being a victim or his family no one should talk about hamas being a van i mean i just pick up on a point you said there you served as defense minister for a period of time that the court intends to probe. do you personally have have

something to fear or do you fear that you may be named. no i don't fear anything i am defending my own country you know we've got the small country called israel that's a tower of democracy a tower of liberty among the worst terror regimes in the world this i.c.c. didn't even think of accusing isis for criminal crimes they said no no that's you know we can't do that but israel a democracy with almost 2000000 arabs that enjoy fully all right so we're the villains i don't buy this you know jews have been under anti-semitism for thousands of years we're not going to put up with this the difference is now we can defend ourselves but there are many groups aren't there including amnesty international saying that palestinian militant organizations had committed war crimes that gaza war you will know better than than most the the the horrors all of them don't you

want those people exposed and prosecuted by the international criminal court that that's going to happen. their crimes will be exposed. you know i almost couldn't care i'm not depending on the world justice system which is so perverted so skewed so screwed up to take care of it we're fighting our battles to defend the lives of the 4 children that live in israel they're being attacked by a terror organization i'm not waiting for the world to protect us because the last time we tried that it didn't work really well we're going to the further cells by ourselves and yes we do call on the entire world to say to call a spade a spade and say these folks are terrorists these posts are good people there is sometimes right and wrong and when someone tries to mix that up i'm not buying that ok but do we not see in in terms of world history from northern ireland to side africa the world over thought it just reaches on it goes year to year more violence

breeds more violence isn't having everything i had in the open drawing a line under the problems of this particular period the only way to move forward in the hope of a lasting peace which i'm sure you desire for you and your children. you know we actually tried that out let me tell your viewers the fact that they might not know . israel held gaza and then we tried peace in 2005 we took expelled all the jews out of gaza handed gaza back. the palestinian authority took out all our soldiers to the $967.00 lines and said here it's yours and you know what they did the day after they started shooting rockets since then they've shot thousands of rockets on our homes we should accept the i started certainly we should we should explain though that what you're talking about the gaza strip 17 square miles 2000000 people this is the area you're talking

about one of the most densely populated areas on the planet on one of the most. depleted as well on a lot of people would say that you haven't made that situation any easier and i know you're absolutely wrong we were told by the way these channels. these very channels told the gossip will become the single poor of the middle east it will be beautiful and you know what we tried it and there was no limitation whatsoever but these people decided the state of building schools instead of importing food they imported rockets and built terror bases ok we got it. over that goal is to annihilate the jewish state we're not going to let that happen well thank you very much for coming on the program and sharing your views we've been speaking to nuff tele bennett former israeli defense minister and current prime minister candidate thank you. very much.

right now a spluttering vaccination program in europe has now seen the czech republic fall out of line with the e.u. pride is instead looking to russia and its sputnik v. job to give its own inoculation campaign a shot in the arm our senior correspondent has been looking at the blocks difficulties. so there's 3 european nations that have a green light to dispute it despite the european medicines agency taking its time really taking its time to approve sputnik so these 3 nations have already sidelined the european union and of the said look the situation is incredibly desperate the czech republic hungry and now slovakia's which is just received its 1st batch. vaccines there's going to be millions more that are going to be delivered by summer so the prime minister's obviously very happy that he's managed to secure more vaccines for the people nevertheless there's now a scandal there's

a scandal because the president of slovakia's has come out she paid lip service to people's lives but all directly she is she said that vaccination shouldn't be carried out at the expense of political stability of course saving lives goes beyond any political controversy but even exceptional actions can be taken in such a way so as not to destroy the ruling coalition humiliate opponents or question people's confidence in vaccinations and cause further conflict in society it is remarkable coming out in front of your people in the middle of a pandemic and telling them. you know your health is important but what is even more important is the stability of the ruling coalition. you know it just goes to highlight that the deep divisions in europe and there are incredibly deep divisions in europe over the way the pandemic vaccination in the rule out of the vaccines has been handled it isn't the russian vaccine that is undermining people's faith in the

european union it is their handling of this crisis in germany for example 51 percent of people asked in a recent poll whether you know the the vaccination has been handled well or badly by the european union 51 percent more than half of germans have said it's been shambles the. the european union has handled it so initially the european union came out and said look let's let's all do it together so give up your power new nation needs to buy themselves we'll handle so we'll get you the vaccines modernity actions and what ultimately happened is they bungled it 1st they were too expensive then they were too late because the united states britain snatched up all the vaccines look at the statistics only 5 percent of europeans have been able to get a single job that is compared to 14 percent in the united states already 30 percent in the united kingdom so europe is lagging far far behind that european nations

understand that this is a catastrophe this is a catastrophe of a huge number of levels of a political level or the health care level and ultimately what has happened is that all these nations have said look we're going to do this ourselves obviously the europeans the european agencies the euro kratz they have fumbled this so we'll have that ourselves you have poland running to the chinese with hands outstretched begging for that she included you have austria. going out and saying that you know we're going to now cooperate with israel to develop 2nd generation 2nd generation vaccines denmark as well saying that will work with israel and 2nd generations vaccine to target all the strains and all that and ultimately the austrian chancellor so this is a leader of a european nation coming out and saying they've lost hoop in europe the way that

europe handles vaccine rollout. we must prepare for further mutations and should no longer be dependent soley on the e.u. in the production of 2nd generation vaccines look brussels understands that what has happened has been a catastrophe you have. officials the european union coming out and say we're sort of apologizing to citizens all over europe for the way they've handled things but saying that you know it isn't is a do over yet we can still recover we'll get your vaccines there's no need to run around and make shady deals and you know buy up vaccines that were supposed to be received by other european nations you have a situation where it's a free for all now nevertheless the europeans assure that they can fix things and then now saying that perhaps perhaps we'll try to speed up the whole bureaucratic process that has caused all of this and get you a merge and see approval for vaccines now it could be an emergency authorization of

vaccines that you level we should liability among member states you remember in the early days of the pandemic when countries all over the world nato allies the neighbors board put up supplies from each other so we're talking about mosques ventilators we all we all remember the diplomatic crises that that caused this situation now is remarkably similar so so there is no united front you know what you can get your hands on you get your hands on and this is a situation that obviously isn't optimal for europe in these difficult times especially economically politically all over the world nevertheless european bureaucrats aren't giving up hope they believe that they can still fix things the problem is of course that member states don't believe that they can. a bomb exploded outside

a covert testing center in the netherlands earlier on wednesday the blast caused only minor damage to surrounding buildings no one was injured it comes amid an increasingly tense atmosphere in the country over continuing lockdown with more on the incident here r.t. charlatans. well this explosion took place in the early morning just outside that could send in an area called bhupen costco which is about 50 to 55 kilometers north of amsterdam windows were shattered and the investigation so far has been able to uncover metal pieces of around 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters the suggestion is this could have seen a metal pipe bomb that exploded outside the front of the center a security guard was inside that it was just before the center was due to open but they are said to have been injured in this incident a perimeter has been set up in those investigations are now are continuing but the police have said that they clearly believe that this was an intentional attack we

don't know yet what exactly exploded the explosives experts must 1st investigate what we can see is this something like that doesn't happen by accident it's has to be planted well this is not the 1st time we've seen an attack on a qubit center in the netherlands back in january just when we're seeing those massive tensions in the country over the fact the government imposed a controversial coup that there was a coup that sent that was set on fire in the village. that sparked several nights of riots rights which is being described as some of the worst violence the country has seen in decades let's just have a reminder of what happens. now

this latest incident comes of course as the country is heading towards a general election that's due to take place in the middle of march and the current through at the moment is being run. ok take ministration that's because my previous administration decided to stand down that was over a scandal unrelated to 19 but this election is seen very much as being a referendum on administration so many people are unhappy about how his government handles the 19 pandemic this is what opposition parties have had to say but we still looking everybody are having to see measured on the floor you're going to like this. social life would be you know a student by the social life for you. i don't. know the

people well the point of view of the current caretaker government is that these measures have been necessary as restrictive is they may have been but just to give you a sense of how angry people are in the netherlands the head of the health service in the netherlands now has to have a security guard because this is also being directed towards the health authorities it's really an issue that's been spiraling out of control but. you know the big story of the day 8 people have been stabbed in sweden in what police have not labeled a suspected terror attack our europe correspondent peter all of her can tell us more but what is known at this stage. well this all happened at around 3 pm local time on wednesday a man who is described as being in his early twenty's stabbed 8 people who have been taken to hospital several of those are described as being in

a serious condition the man himself was shot by police and is currently in custody being guarded by offices at a hospital his status has not been updated to the press just yet the town itself vet londo in the small is a very small town in the south of sweden only just over 13000 people live there this is sure to have come as a big shock to the town to the people in the local area and we are hoping to hear from police and investigators very soon what we do know though is that initially they charged this man with attempted murder that was later open graded if you will to a charge of. of suspected terrorism that's what this is being investigated as a suspected terrorist attack areas of the town of atlanta have been cordoned off by investigators as they carry out their work 8 people have been taken to hospital

several of them in a serious condition following a stabbing a small swedish town on wednesday police investigating it as a terrorist attack right now. our europe correspondent peter all right well if you'd like to have your say in any of this our stories our website facebook pages always have you covered always good to hear what you are thinking there. during the vietnam war u.s. forces also bombs in neighboring laos there was a secret war. and for years the american people did not know. how much anticipation can rebound

a country per capita. human history millions of unexploded bombs still in danger lives in this small agricultural country. even today kids in laos full victims of bombs dropped decades ago is the u.s. making amends for the tragedy and. help to the people need in that little land of mines. hello and welcome to crossfire where all things are considered on peter lavelle there is a growing consensus the biden ministration is off to a slow start to date the new president has relied on executive orders this is not

unusual but what does set this president apart is the emphasis on what could be called weaponized empathy this administration has embraced awoke as the gender. and all of the divisions that come with this agenda. they discuss these issues and more i'm joined by my guests michael johns in philadelphia he has a co-founder of the u.s. tea party movement and a former white house speechwriter to president george h.w. bush in los angeles we have jamie reich she is founder of the right employment lawyers and a political pundit and in oakland we have justin robert young he is host of the politics politics politics pod cast are across up rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate it ok let's go to philadelphia 1st michael i think it's widely held that you know that the biden ministration has

gotten off to a slow start hasn't got a lot of the.