the end of nations being bombed into democracy biden's administration says no more u.s. backed regime change we examine whether the new slogans are likely to translate into a real policy shift. the international criminal court launches a formal probe into a ledge of war crimes committed by israel in the palestinian territories including during the 2014 gaza war. breaking ranks with the block the czech republic becomes the latest e.u. country to go its own way over covert backseats requesting deliveries of the shop from russia. an explosion at a covert testing center in the netherlands police say it was an intentional attack and it comes amid increasing hostility in recent weeks over

a lingering lockdown. casting live from our international headquarters in moscow here watching r t m donald quarter welcome to the program. of foreign policy announcement came out of washington on wednesday the u.s. will no longer engage in regime change or wage wars in the name of democracy overseas at least that's if a statement made by secretary of state antony blinken is anything to go by and as 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 authoritarian 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 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 the president and has been engaging in violent attempts to destabilize venezuela to overthrow the elected government there of even 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 blink ins 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. u.s. libertarian party campaigner wes benedict has low expectations when it comes to the biden ministration turning words into action he did leave that huge loophole where he said vital interests vital interests can mean almost anything mars the moon you name it it could be a vital interest to america if a politician wants to say that's the case it seems like rhetoric you know trump certainly had his own style that was very bombastic and out there and other presidents have been more reserved in their or in their description of activities

but when you look at the actual policies we've seen no change and i think it sounds like rhetoric not something that we can count on yet you know president trying started a trade war with china and now president biden is talking about well we're going to cooperate with other countries but we're also going to have trade agreements that protect our workers and do this and that which in the end probably means the exact same policies as a national trade war biden i see him rebranding a lot of the same old thing. the international criminal court has said it's opening a war crimes probe into potential offenses in the palestinian territories including during the 2014 gaza war israel had repeatedly opposed such investigation happening and our middle east correspondent polis lior 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

hamas 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 but lost it 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 has 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 residual i assure you we will fight this barrage of justice with our might. what this means is that hundreds of the 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 israeli 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 off to try 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 that means to be seen is just what comes out

of this investigation earlier my colleague you know neil discussed the i.c.c. probe with naftali bennett israel's former defense minister and current candidate for prime minister's poachers. this is a perversion of justice of any basic morals you know when one side or another the 2nd side has a right to self-defense the court is not a court you know they call it the i.c.c. i view it the international circus of clowns let me tell you something you know i thought in quite a few wars defending my family come us shoot rockets at israeli spring 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 immoral and if you are saying that the militants were based in hospitals on 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 an 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 when 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 your rep and ever places rockets from within civilians he is murdering his own people not israel there's an evil side that is an attack him

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 ha going to be at the top of the list we will never the hands of an israeli soldier while defending itself. a struggling vaccination program in europe has now seen the czech republic fall out of line with the e.u. prague is insisting on looking to russia and its sputnik v. of jabot 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. czech republic hungry and now slovakia's which is just received its 1st batch of.

vaccines there's going to be millions more that are going to be delivered by summer so the problem is obviously very happy that he's managed to secure more vaccines for the people nevertheless there is now a scandal there's a scandal because the president of slovakia 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 vaccines by themselves we'll handle so we'll get you the vaccines but then of actually and 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. on a huge number of levels of a political level on a 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 all typically the austrian chancellor so this is a leader of a european nation coming out and saying they've lost hoops 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 it 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 the 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 couldn't 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 shared liability among member states you remember in the early days of the pandemic when countries all over the world and nato allies are good neighbors board put up supplies from each other so we're talking about mosques ventilators we're all we all remember the diplomatic crises that that cools the 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 early on wednesday the blast caused only minor damage to surrounding buildings and nobody was injured it comes amid an increasingly tense atmosphere in the country over a little over continuing lockdown measures with more on that incident here's our tease charlotte dubinsky. well this explosion took place in the early morning just outside that could send in an area called bhupen costco which is about 5055 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 send in the netherlands back in january just when we're seeing these massive tensions in the country over the fact the government today 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 nuts because. the previous administration decided to stand down that was over a scandal unrelated to could be 19 but this election is seen very much as being a referendum on mark which is administration so many people are unhappy about how his government handles the 19 pandemic this is what opposition parties have to say everything looking everybody up having to see measures done during our economy like

our social life room and the you know you're a student by the social life or you use your i don't know. our elderly people well the point of view of the current caretaker government is that these measures have been necessary as restrictive as 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 there's also being directed towards the health authorities it's really an issue that's been spiraling out of control. max wielding man has injured 8 people in sweden and what the police are now labeling a suspected terror attack our european correspondent peter all over reports. well this all happened at around 3 pm local time on wednesday

a man who is described as being in 'd 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 officers 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 upgraded if you will to a charge of. of suspected terrorism that's what this is being investigated as as a suspected terrorist attack areas of the 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. washington and brussels have slapped sanctions on a number of senior russian officials as well as organizations over the jailing of kremlin critic alex enough moscow hit back at the move calling it interference in the country's legal system. the beliefs of the managing in which we consider any such restrictions absolutely unacceptable because they significantly harm the already poor relations they can only be described as interference in russia's internal affairs. the sanctions imposed by the e.u. and us include travel bans and asset freezes on a number of high profile russian officials and organizations but despite the move

the u.s. says it doesn't want to escalate tensions with moscow the announcement we're making today was done in harmony with the e.u. announcement it was not meant to be a silver bullet or an ending to what has been a difficult relationship with russia we expect the relationship to continue to be a challenge we're prepared for that and we're neither seeking to reset our relations with russia nor are we seeking to escalate alexander new m.p. for germany's left party told us there is little hope of a thaw in relations while the west maintains its condescending attitude towards russia. he's the sanctions which were imposed on the part of the european union at particular individuals so they would not necessarily have any negative effect on russia's economy but they do serve as a signal to the country which says we're punishing you so long as the european union and the united states the west as a whole continued to stand by the arrogance expecting russia to subjugate itself to

the west there will be no thaw in relations and russia's stance is perfectly understandable after all why should a country subjugate itself to the west and essentially let go of its sovereignty there's no way to in this sanction escalation predictably russia will respond but for moscow it's no so winning situation either because what it means is that this escalation is being taken to a new level and sanctions are kind of war albeit without weapons what way the left party demand is the lifting of the sanctions and talks with russia on an equal footing with respect to russia's sovereignty as well as that of all the other countries in this world. it was his 1st major comeback speech since departing the white house but just hours after donald trump took to the stage the former american president had fallen foul of you tube censors the platform deleted his speech on a number of news organizations sites including reuters a.b.c. and r.t.

citing a lack of content warnings with her take here's polly boyo. so donald trump was back giving his big return speech at impact 2021 the conservative political action conference for the uninitiated and it attracts a break to world but. i would show you some more of the highlights but it's not that easy because our i would like you to be able to watch my video on you tube which is hard to say at censoring the 45th president but nobody likes me ok let's try and get one more quick clip in content warning this video contains an orange man saying things which may not be 100 percent correct worship or do you reassure you that.

you see our t.v.'s streamed live on in convert free to say whatever he wants in the tradition of freedom of speech only through you tube to take it down and threaten our t.v. with a content strike and deletion from the platform for violating its spam deceptive practices and scams policy hey you tube if you're going to delete every videos for scams and deceptive practices you know basically going to be left with one video this one. you tube responded to queries by saying more details aren't explanatory information must be provided essentially you to pate the fact that trump still uses every opportunity to claim that he didn't lose the election but what's interesting about you tube's policy is that the censors 1st port of call was r.t.

r t s german channel and another russian channel called sputnik it took our. before they got to the likes of reuters and the associated press and even then i bet they weren't threatened with removal from the platform so the folly is clear because for example i can still watch the video on the independence you tube channel actually as you know the just north of the world one of which is our environment so watch out there while you still can put social media platforms which always try to get out of trouble by saying that they are publishers they just provide an outlet are openly censoring political content and deleting access to a former president who despite what any of us may say was democratically elected by millions of people. and that targeting russian channels

specifically allowing people to speak freely and that's all getting all the news outlets are simply reporting the news and yet i can still watch things like this. it's political censorship that's all it is legal and media analyst lionel has concerns that you tube is actively trying to silence political opponents. google and you tube and other other platforms like this are of such in the main nature had their own most like utilities today imagine if you're on the phone almost on your phone drops because you dared mention hydroxy couric when or said something in favor of donald trump you wouldn't have it and if the utility said well maybe you should start your own phone company was it that ridiculous so it's time for us to recalibrate and redefine what these platforms are they're not they're not the union platform this is you tube this is international it's more than that and these

distinctions have to change and what it is is these agencies these platforms are if you will agencies or instruments of whatever the shadow government the ruling class the deep state i don't know but you're being used as clenching devices to punish people to get in line and people love these platforms so much that they will not talk about or think about anything in fear of losing their beloved you to were facebook and whatever so they know exactly what they're doing. for more world news stories make sure to check out our website r.t. dot com and follow us on twitter i'll be back with more news in just about 30 minutes hope to see you then.

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 it is especially the must have rebound country per capita in all human history millions of unexploded bombs still in danger lives in this small agricultural country jordyn wieber went on to another topic that even today kids in laos full victims of bombs dropped decades ago is the us making amends for that tragedy and what help do the people need in that little land of mines. seemed wrong. but all just all. world yet to stamp out this they become active. and engaged because.