his drug dealer. fresh protests in europe over covert restrictions as mixed messages from governments leave people confused and angry. we. come together we can see our loved ones and in more. fundamental human rights. the u.s. state of vermont defends prioritising nonwhite residents and for the a move that some have condemned as racist. made a surge in asian hate crimes in the us a martial arts center in california the state by far the worst affected open self-defense classes for the most vulnerable. and another scandal hits sports

questions are raised over a probe into 2 british olympians and how they were tested for steroids. are broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow this is our team international thomas certainly glad to have you with us now fury is growing in europe out apparently contradictory curfews and lock downs during a 3rd wave of the pandemic. reports on rising resistance to measures that some think violate basic rights. businesses shuttered parties banned national holidays canceled social life is in a log down chokehold all across europe as governments struggle to smother the pandemic and while some grit their teeth and the bod others rebel.

it's prohibition all over again but with a twist saloons hidden behind false walls are now in vogue as well as guerrilla picnics as police combed through the undergrowth for party partisans europe is just one big speakeasy youths are fed up in my opinion a moon in favor of holding us accountable individual or rather than banning us from doing anything. the lockdown does not correspond to what it should be because people can leave italy freely while we cannot leave our region we can leave the house to visit friends during the day but if i call launch of the host 10 times to

visit 10 friends i can do it through the 1st day because majority of disregarding the obligations for example they're not wearing masks they're not keeping the minimum distance the 1st wave of covert then a 2nd and now a 3rd wave a traditional way of life has been washed away by what very much looks like a tsunami now the pandemic and there's no sign of the tell you turning anytime soon in germany for instance authorities openly admitted to creating a void of faith between them and the people now to give his name there is no silver bullets when the pandemic but we need clarity. and resolve we need transparent and pragmatic rules so that people know where they stand mistakes have been made when it comes to testing to vaccinations to digital solutions depending as they hold up a mirror to our country reflecting our compulsion to lay down rules for everything our fear of taking risks the shunting back and forth of responsibility so during

pretty much everything for us to put on politicians to stop the spread of the virus is dissipating with every make signal they send like this one says day the 1st of april as well as the said of april should be defined as can days with extensive contact restrictions and a ban on gatherings from the 1st to the 5th of april. the idea was a mistake this mistake is my mistake alone a mistake must be called a mistake and above all it must be corrected at the same time of course i know that this whole matter trygaeus more uncertainty i regret that deeply and apologize to all citizens vaccines turned out to be no silver bullet against the coronavirus prompting even more contradictions within reason we won't give this esther zeneca vaccine to people over 65. it has been greenlighted for people

over 55 with a medical condition. ok but astra zeneca has a nature stiction from 18 to 64. the standing committee for vaccination recommends the use of the eschews any $1000.00 vaccine and those over 60 and surely over dissidents are only adding fuel to the fire of the pandemic but the more helter-skelter the official response to the crisis is the more a narcotic the public mood will get as more people will be pushed and are pushed into the ruinous and very very deadly arena of covert denial. we don't want to be the rules that have been imposed on us they impose on us how to think how to behave they impose measures that are devastating for our people we don't want to tell the readers any longer we can't go where we want we can't go on together we can see our loved ones anymore and we think this is absolutely against our fundamental human rights it's not just some measure of their private lives of

our rights and we're reclaiming our rights. the biggest goal we have is to end this corona dictatorship because i suspect what is still to come. in the us state of vermont to all non white residents over the age of 16 i have been offered covert shots something only available there to white people over 50 some have branded the move blatantly racist though the governor defended the decision this coordinated vaccination therefore it is an important step in to working with and compensate interested community partner networks to reach some of the most historically marginalized people in vermont this is not even close to legal the 14th amendment for sure is violated here not to mention just the downright immorality behind such a ridiculous mindset the only way to stem the tide of discriminatory racism is more discriminatory racism or vermont's move came after a letter from racial justice activists demanding that officials prioritize

nonwhites we put the issue up for debate. you know what we have here is a combination of definitely racial justice but also being strategic as we are trying to fight this pandemic and let's be honest we're developing nations the united states is simply not cutting it for how far along we should be when we compare the rates of the infection going down in places like australia taiwan and even china the bottom line is that the best way to really get through this pandemic is to treat the people who have been disproportionately impacted and affected by it and that happens to be black brown and indigenous people each group has equal access to the vaccine there's no real disparity as far as access if you want it you can get it if it's available it doesn't matter what color you are just go ahead and get it so this whole thing is not necessary at all this is not at the expense of white people in vermont it is simply saying that the people who have been impacted

the most are the people that we should prioritize this is most certainly discrimination based on race and you cannot do that at all especially from the state level this is a violation of many different fronts it's completely illegal and i would be surprised if he was get away with this without at least a lawsuit and at worse possibly some more severe penalties you have the constitution that's involved the 14th amendment prevents this type of thing from happening so i don't think this can actually happen in america or at least it should be able to according to what the law says this is not a violation of the equal protection clause or the civil rights act of what it is the institution of good logical sense and good logical strategy to get over a pin damage that has been inflict in this country for far too long and as well as the people who have been inflicted by myriad other forms of social injustice is about science and try to stick to a science as our glorious science is over here say i think the best thing to do

would be to approach a problem from my scientific point. view from a health point of view rather than a racist point of view. human rights activists are crying foul over the case of a former u.s. intelligence analyst who had been set to go on trial this week daniel hale who blew the whistle on washington's targeted drone assassination program instead pled guilty to transmitting and retaining national defense information in violation of the espionage act using the espionage act in this way to prosecute journalists sources and spies chills newsgathering and discourages sources from coming forward with information in the public interest particularly when it relates to national security where government secrecy is at its height these documents detail the secret unaccountable probe says for targeting and killing people around the world including u.s. citizens through drone strikes there are a vital public importance and that related to the disclosure is protected by the

1st amendment hale was part of the joint special operations task force in 2012 and identified targets for kill and capture from december 2013 to august 2014 he was a contractor at the national geospatial intelligence agency the us government targeted hale for prosecution after he disclosed the documents in 2014 to the intercept for its dirty wars project he was charged in march 200-1000 with violating the espionage act and other related offenses and in may he was arrested on his 1st day in office joe biden temporarily limited counterterrorism drone strikes outside the battle zones of afghanistan syria and iraq however reports say that the president wants to boost armed drone exports to several countries with controversial human rights records here are just a few examples of how drone warfare can impact civilian populations.

and we're now joined by john kiriakou who is a former cia analyst and whistleblower who exposed the secret u.s. torture program and was himself convicted under the espionage act john thanks for being with us here on our to international as all of us are you're having me you're in a unique position it's always interesting to talk to you in situations like this come up you yourself are prosecuted under the espionage act but wound up pleading guilty for a lighter sentence do you understand the predicament that daniel hails in right now in his decision that he's facing oh boy do i actually spoke with daniel about 3 hours ago about this very subject the scary thing here is that

he has pleaded guilty to one count on to the espionage act but the prosecutors have not yet dismissed the remaining charges what they're doing is they're waiting to see just how severe daniel's penalty will be and they'll then decide whether or not they should they should dismiss those charges if this is unlike anything i've ever seen so he really doesn't know what he's in for at sentencing on july 13th now hell's conviction is going to be the 1st under the espionage act under joe biden's administration are you surprised at all that his administration is continuing the obama policy and actually trump's course as well. i'm not and i'm not because of the decision that was made early on even before joe biden was inaugurated to pursue the appeal against julian his son it was that decision that made it clear that joe biden was going to pursue national security

leaks just like barack obama did and just like donald trump did after him now biden has to be fair limited the use of drones outside of active battlefields what about the civilians who could still be put in danger we've already seen plenty of examples of noncombatants coming under drones crosshairs what are the dangers here on the bigger picture. the dangers will always be that innocent civilians will be killed don't forget using yemen as an example where not it war with yemen there's never been any congressional authorization to use drones in yemen there's never been any yemeni attack on u.s. interests that would require the use of drones and so the u.s. is flying these drones or at least it was until recently that were used ostensibly to kill terrorists or would be terrorists but in reality to kill anybody who might resemble

a terrorist and that included women children the elderly and anybody else who happened to be on the ground this is exactly what daniel hale was warning us about that american citizens were being killed without benefit of trial that people were being killed without being charged with a crime in a court of law without facing their accusers in a court of law it's it's anarchy is really what it comes down to he warned us about that these are war crimes there are crimes against humanity so it's really great that joe biden has ended the drone program outside of combat zones but what about daniel ham. you're in an interesting position to help us kind of navigate these waters because when it comes to the law there's civilian law there's military law they don't necessarily bleed into each other very well the reason the hail cited for pleading guilty is because the espionage act charges prevent a public interest defense in other words hells lawyers were barred from arguing the need of the public to be made aware of criminal activities of the government. it

was more important than his obligation if you say if you will then not to disclose classified information why can you help us understand for the layman why is the law written this way. oh yeah this is really this is the really the worst part of the of the espionage act this is the reason why ed snowden can't come home this is the reason why i couldn't go to trial this is the reason why jeffrey sterling the other cia whistleblower was convicted because there is no affirmative defense we are prohibited by law from going into court and saying i did it but i did it for this reason and in in the case of daniel hale this was a war crime he did it because he was exposing a war crime he's not allowed to say that and so he really doesn't have any chance of acquittal the best thing to do for daniel as it was for me as it was for so many others here charged under the espionage act is to take

a deal and to hope for the lightest possible sentence you mention that he was reporting a war crime what are your thoughts on the u.s. drone warfare program in general are there any problems with how it's being utilized. you know i i'm a stickler for the rules i believe that we're we're a nation of laws and we have to abide by those laws whether we like them or not if we don't like them we should change them go through the process and change them if congress has not declared war on a country we don't have a right to attack it there are 3 ways in which you can launch these often strikes legally that is one if that country has attacked us that too if the country has invited us to launch these drone strikes in order to assist them or 3 is with affirmative vote of the united nations security council we just can't decide that we don't like the politics of whoever happens to be in charge in a place like yemen or pakistan or afghanistan and then launch drone strikes against

them it's a violation of international law and briefly do you think that hell's prosecution has raised enough awareness that we could see a change in how the u.s. handles these cases or is there going to be status quo going forward that that's a great question and i think the answer is yes i have to tell you when he called me a few hours ago he was surprisingly upbeat and optimistic and he he remarked about how much press this issue has been getting since he decided to plead guilty so in the end i think that he thinks that this is been worth it that americans know more about the drone program now than 8 they did 6 months ago or a year ago and even though he's likely going to go to prison it was worth it and i'm sure that he is glad to have your experience as someone who he can talk to on the outside looking in so help in any way i can john kiriakou former cia analyst

and whistleblower thanks for being with us here on arch international and help us we'll wrap our minds ourselves into asian my pleasure. all right switching gears now hostilities have flared in eastern ukraine with reports coming in almost daily of firefights and shelling on the frontline while rebels in the restive done yet region claim a ukrainian drone strike killed a 4 year old boy he of though insists the rebels version of events does not add up and that the accusations are crude propaganda designed to stir hatred so far it has not been possible to corroborate those claims but a team from our roughly video agency attended the boy's funeral and spoke to his grandmother. i do understand this grief you have to go through it's it's really hard to just parents and beside themselves with grief especially his mother i don't care that the house was damaged but why did this child have to suffer does he should someone dad of something or does he say

a bad thing to someone he was just a child only 4 years old and then tional in god's eyes. as tensions ratchet up in eastern ukraine top officials and military staff in kiev have been laying the blame for the escalation at russia's door here's our correspondent what i've got to. the seas far or what there was of it is crashing and burning under a sustained barras from both sides the only see has the numbers more than a 1000 violations most of them artillery exchanges were detected on april 3rd ukraine's propaganda machine is also churning it is now officially calling thousands of its own citizens russian militias who are to blame the party line says for everything corrina ukraine and its partners are taking note of russia's systemic escalation of the security situation and the nats going lugansk regions and in the republic of crimea this is happening against the background of the

russian federation and willingness to reaffirm its commitment to the ceasefire or the current escalation by the russian federation is systemic and the largest in recent years a common goal is victory in the war against the aggressors and to ensure a stable peace to restore the territorial integrity of ukraine we will need to consolidate efforts of all the ukrainian people all ukrainian people apart from the ones they now call russian militias in a bid to discredit them their beliefs and their grievances probably not the best idea if you want stable peace but there are 2 major takeaways from their recent statements 1st after years of stalling delaying and torpedoing negotiations here of seems to be entertaining the idea of a military solution to the civil war victory by brute force the other takeaway is that ukraine has virtually declared war on russia officially naming it the russian

ukrainian conflict russia isn't even a party in this civil war if its military was involved it would be over very very quickly that much is obvious if scouting imputed to the russian army is moving within lot. territory in the directions it deems necessary in the shape and form it sees fit to ensure the security of our country this shouldn't concern anyone in the slightest russia poses no threat to any country in the world and that of course includes ukraine russia always pays very close attention to its own security cordons ukrainian president probably not helped by dismal ratings his seemingly bet on calm for a day ship is military has issued a statement warning moscow that the us promised it won't leave ukraine alone and it won't let russia's aggressive plans materialize the state department has confirmed this ukraine's own aggressive plans it seems get

a pass the americans should not be concerned by what russia is doing but rather look at kiev's unacceptable behavior which not only fails to implement them and set of measures but even denies degree mous in a manner that has become an ever more provocative if i were us colleagues were to focus and it would really facilitate stability lot all hope is yet lost there is still a chance that cooler heads will speak out that they'll stop this escalation will cause countless lives and achieve nothing but that's going to take an international effort rather than egging ukraine on with promises of support and righteousness as has been washington's policy so far former u.n. weapons inspector and u.s. marines intelligence officer scott ritter thinks the flare up in fighting is being driven by. economic concerns. betrayed ians also understand that they could very well be being put in a very difficult economic situation in the months and years ahead if north stream

too is completed and russia decides to stop transmitting gas through ukraine depriving ukraine of billions of dollars in revenue there will be an economic crisis so i think ukraine is anticipating this and seeking to promote a deal or at least advertise the kinds of to a military solution in hopes that nato in europe will intervene politically and diplomatically on their side to get a resolution to this issue or to stop north stream to unless is in support of the ukrainian objectives of ukraine is being led to believe that there will be a support and it will be but the support will be military the support will be diplomatic or political but the united states is not going to deploy military forces to fight on the soil of ukraine against the russian army it just isn't going to happen the. protesters have rallied in central new york over a spike in violence against the asian community as the city has seen an increase in

asian attacks over the last few weeks and please be warned that we're about to show you video of some of those attacks which you might find upsetting. from march 2020 to february of this year almost 4000 racially motivated attacks on asian americans have been reported nationwide to those of chinese ethnicity were by far the worst affected now a report found 2 out of every 3 incidents took place in california and martial arts

center in this state has now opened special defense classes for the most vulnerable in the community. and we thought it would be so good for our seniors and the women who are vulnerable to be equipped with something that they could use to go into this variable right. now you. know i'm going to be doing i don't know that our family you know maybe a bit tell me something about the way i do you know a little bit and show it to my friends so they know how to do this that would be good for them so. i class organizers say while it is unlikely an elderly person could take on a serious attacker there are a few secrets that could prevent more brutal incidents we've taught them techniques like you know find the weak points where you can't counter attack you only need one effective counter attack about what you call it wait a minute this person maybe i don't want to push you then you run over the next 2 we

can we are going to be. giving them more techniques that they can use and then inspiring them to all so once they are home to practice. it has been revealed the u.k. anti-doping agency let elite olympians investigate themselves after testing positive for steroids and subsequently cleared the athletes daniel hawkins got more details earlier from our correspondent jacqueline vogel. well right now we have front and center to british 2012 a limp ians that would be hurdler rhys williams and the runner gareth warburton now back in 2014 they both tested positive for steroids but they blamed supplements that they had taken saying that they had been contaminated so of course at the time tests were carried out and it was found that those supplements had been contaminated and the 2 were let off with a 4 and 6 month suspension respectively and you can decision at the time said that

the athletes were victims but they had brought the matter on themselves thus the suspension so case closed right well it was until right now the mail on sunday has come out with a report that has turned all of that upside down and 1st of all they say that the pair themselves arrange the testing of those supplements and a lab that had been recommended to them but had no you cads over vision of it whatsoever there was no oversight of those testing facilities at all and as i said that analysis at the time came back saying that the supplements had been contaminated but here's the kicker the manufacturer of the supplements at this point has come out saying at the time we did testing as well and found no contamination of ourselves at least while the supplements were still on our premises so then why is there that discrepancy now you can't spokesperson has told the mail on sunday that they weren't aware of that part of the story that the manufacturer had done their own testing but of course underwater code you can't should be the one carrying out these investigations themselves not allowing

possibly guilty parties to be doing that we contacted wada who said that they have been made aware of these latest developments largest independent intelligence and investigations department has indicated to us that it will include these to you elements in the investigation it launched 2 weeks ago into historically geisha in the u.k. because it was built the 1st other gratian sort of come out over the last couple of weeks regarding the doping allegations what investigation is water talking about and making the statement well. you cat is having a really rough time of it as of late it would seem what they're referring to there is the fact that even before this latest appeal of all with this hardware and the runner you cab was being looked at already over a very very similar case only difference is the sport itself it turns out that british cycling was also apparently allowing to conduct their own investigations a few years back as well again after positive test had occurred so of course there are now investigations by wada everyone's looking at this very closely to see what

happens and now we know that the chain of custody is possibly been completely called into question in these cases and it's a question of in how many other cases as well and we can just sit back and wait and see how big the fallout is moscow based sports columnist alan moore says the whole process seems on wieldy and there are many other issues in u.k. sports that warrant examination divine beings in war were very very weak because if we see original order although if you are are you going to face. it you need to upgrade your home to the dentist so it's relative to the standards however it is of the true or the sort of going pixel. is very very good again it's not going to all towards where you would go to cast for example the court of arbitration for sport this would just be you know we're seniors so in one way it looks a bit dodgy we're going to wait it is going to us not

a great draw says or close as it is we don't spend it then in the system what else is there to be found by saying you don't do or soused course it's not just the point that we don't these are these are bought it they should be. just. or you could support. it does it for me i'll be back in 30 minutes with another full and fresh look for news this is international.