fresh protests in europe over told restrictions as mixed messages from governments leave people confused and angry. we go where we want to come together we can see our loved ones anymore and we think this is absolutely against our fundamental human rights. the u.s. state of vermont to defend prioritising that nonwhite residence for the covert shot and move that some have condemned as racist. amid a surge in anti asian hate crimes in the us a martial arts center in california the state by far the worst affected opened self-defense classes for the most vulnerable. and another scandal hits

u.k. sports as questions are raised over a probe into 2 british olympians and how they were tested for steroids. and broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow this is r.t. international i'm john thomas certainly glad to have you with us. growing in europe and apparently contradictory curfews in the lockdowns 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 abide 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 if i can 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 really give this nathan 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 the pandemic is the 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 in 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 calm 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 and 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 with 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. astra zeneca has a nature stiction from 18 to 64. the standing committee for vaccination recommends the use of the esters any $1000.00 vaccine and there is so very 60 and surely covert 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 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 to 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. and european criticism over government mishandling of the pandemic some are taking matters into their own hands in the talian business men returned to moscow just to get a 2nd dose of this when it could be vaccine over inoculation delays back home we have been covering his a vaccination journey in russia since day one and we'll bring you more on how it all went later in the program. in the u.s. state of vermont all non white residents over the age of 16 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 remarks that 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 a 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 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 shouldn't 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 their 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 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 in 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. john kiriakou former cia analyst and whistleblower who was forced to plead guilty in his own case spoke personally with daniel hale he thinks the us federal

government should be held to the same legal standard as it holds others. 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 under 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 this is unlike anything i've ever seen so he really doesn't know what he's in for at sentencing on july 13th 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 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 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 civ

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 launched drone strikes against them it's a violation of international law. 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 kiev 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 the claims but a team from our roughly video agency attended the boy's funeral and spoke to his grandmother. to understand this grief you have to go through it's it's really hard his parents have beside themselves it's 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 poor years old and then tional in god's eyes. right 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. this is 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 the 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 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 have seems to be entertaining the idea of a military solution to this 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 but 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 u.s. promised it won't leave ukraine alone and it won't let russia's aggressive plans materialize the state department has confirmed this ukraine zoon 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 in a 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 facilitates to belittle a lot all hope is yet lost there is still a chance that cooler heads will speak out that they'll stop this escalation and 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 has been 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 euro or at least advertise the kinds of to a military solution in hopes that nato and europe will intervene politically and diplomatically on their side to get a resolution this year or just stop nerd stream too unless is in support of the

ukrainian objectives of ukraine is being led to believe that there will be 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. protesters have rallied in central new york over a spike in violence against the asian community as the city has seen an increased and anti 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 2022 february of this year almost 4000 racially motivated attacks on asian americans have been reported nationwide and those of to. annie's ethnicity were by far the worst affected and report found 2 out of every 3 incidents took place in california and martial arts center in the 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 that goes into this variable right now. they don't want to learn to do it i don't know you can call it that our family you know maybe a bit tell me comfortable with a video of it and show it to my friends so they'd know how to do this that would be

the perfect etc. 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 a weak point where you can't counter attack you only need one effective counter attack why would you go. wait a minute this person can maybe i don't want to push you then you run over the next 2 weekends we are going to be. giving them more technique so they can and then inspiring them to also once they are home to practice. it has been revealed to the u.k. anti-doping agency let elite olympians investigate themselves after testing positive for steroids and subsequently cleared the athletes and you hawkins got more details earlier from our correspondent jacqueline volga. 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 allowed that had been recommended to them but had no you cats 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 geishas 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. it 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 hurdler and the runner was being looked at already over a very very similar case the 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 water everyone's looking at this very closely to see what happens and now we know that the chain of custody is possibly even 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 to alan moore says the whole process seems unwieldy and there are many other issues in u.k. sports that warrant examination. the findings in war were very very weak because

everything was in order all if you're around or you're going to face. it you need to upgrade your own advantage so it's relatively standard however you know it into sort of the viewer or as a sort of like pick something which. is very very inconvenient putting again it's not going to or towards where you would go to cast for example the court of arbitration or this will just be an all or seizure so in one way it looks a bit dodgy we're going to wait it is kind of process not a great process or process as it is we don't ask what's been attended to system what else is there to be found i think you know there are some serious questions to be asked not just bit by bit it is our athletes are bought it they should be out of bodies at least most or all just their teams and of course you can sport. and the taliban man has made a 2nd trip to russia in 2 months to get his 2nd dose of the sputnik vico vaccine he

told r.t. society tailor why. the 8 years of vaccine rollout has been a debacle hard to miss for months now it's been a regular in the headlines and with more production and delivery plays on the cards it still looks like a fun piece word ahead now waltz most e.u. citizens are waiting and hoping that the brussels somehow gets its act together always have taken things into their own hands on a sunday rather nearly a boon and bread talian has decided that monopsony off and he wants his job now but where in the world can you get a cold fact seen at the drop of a hat while right here in russia so back in march he got on a plane from rome to moscow to get his fosters and now he's back in the capital for a round if i have to. shift should be a verse you need to be noted. to

a long time honestly europe is very developed at the county i mean community. is good. but. because some. of those adored is not good and the screen is that we don't own production of very soon. and we have sort of big delete so this thursday we could be absolutely. wrangling a visa and frying a few hours all waiting until the autumn even longer until he's eligible for a vaccine in italy. it was a tough choice especially what he thinks about his large family many of whom are in at risk category getting the job was just as much about protecting them as himself talking to me he was so waved away any misgivings about sputnik the vaccine that has despite being registered in round 60 countries in the world and having positive

words. in top medical journals been met with suspicion and skepticism by many for alexandria though it's easily explained because even in a pandemic the space for a little bit of politics. is that these media reaction. i don't see any other problem i don't want to see any kind of course. that is produced. immediately find here in europe. there is no reason. to not approve a. community already speak very clearly that no one no one will see you that is not a war is not if you should i just hope that you know. priority.

for a politician will be to save life of people and not to i don't know to support. coming out of the clinic after his appointment alessandro looked like the poster boy for putting health over politics everybody was. so funny vaccinated and with a certificate to prove it us andro can now fly home and safely hug his out of the parents of course getting a visa in cuba times isn't that easy alexandra combined his russian wife for being allowed into the country but a small story like his could become something much bigger given the country's vaccine. production delays no wait lists and the fact that there are hundreds of vaccination points business owners have pitched the idea of easing travel restrictions and inviting foreigners for some kind of visa free vaccination.