good golf one who's doing the. petrol bombs and brakes rioters attacked police in northern ireland over post bragg's it border checks. wind sites of its ring the alarm as a former u.s. intelligence analyst faces jail for exposing america's drone assassination program . he did it because he was exposing a war crime he's not allowed to see that and so he really doesn't have any chance of acquittal. putting the prime minister back the covert passport system for people to prove their virus status but even his own lawmakers call the move divisive.

and multinationals including coca-cola condemned the u.s. state of georgia over a new voting law but now face the boycott themselves with supporters of the changes switching to rival pepsi. a warm welcome to you and a very good morning it's 9 am here in the russian capital and you're watching r.t. international with me in the care. we start in northern ireland which is seen several months of unrest over post brags that disputes. protesters held petrol bombs and bricks as police vehicles lighting fires and setting up roadblocks on the outskirts of the capital belfast officials say that

most of the people involved in the clashes were young with even 12 year olds joining in the violence the disturbances began on friday or the post breaks it trade rules imposing border checks on goods moving between northern ireland and the rest of the u.k. it was meant to prevent bear checks between northern ireland and the republic of ireland which remains part of the e.u. . human rights activists are crying foul over the case of a former u.s. intelligence analyst who says that to 10 years in prison for blowing the whistle on washington's targeted drone assassination program last week daniel hale pleaded guilty to transmit ink and retaining national defense information using the espionage act in this way to prosecute journalists sources and spies childes 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 process for targeting and killing people around the world including u.s. citizens through drone strikes there are vital public importance and the related to their disclosure is protected by the 1st amendment. hale was an intelligence analyst during the administration and identified targets for kill and capture the us government went after him when he disclosed documents to the intercept for its dirty wars project in 2042 years ago heyl was arrested and charged with violating the espionage act and other related offenses he pleaded guilty to one count of leaking classified information 4 others are pending. john kiriakou a former cia analyst and whistleblower told us hale has little hope of justice. this is 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 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 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 on his 1st day in office joe biden temporarily limited drone strikes outside the battle zones of afghanistan syria and iraq however he reportedly wants to boost exports to countries including those with controversial human rights record with it comes as there is growing public concern over the if of varying death toll from drone attacks.

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 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 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 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 you can watch the full version of our interview with john kerry on watching the whole case throughout the day here in austin. disagreements between the u.s. state of georgia and major corporations over disputed new voting laws escalated into a tit for tat series of threats and even boycotts are more pain has the story. coca-cola has long marketed itself around the world as uniquely american something that unites the entire united states but not anymore now coke is boycotting the state of georgia over their proposal lection laws given google's shoes to cave to the. of

control can still go we respect the lyric was issued in the company brother hooks to be removed from our office huge immediately just because you run a soft drink company doesn't mean you get to control our democracy georgia has put forward a new voting laws requiring photo id to vote to get syllabi bills and matching signatures no longer accepted the proposed voting legislation also would outlaw the giving out of drinking water to people waiting in line to vote and other regulations which democrats say are intended to stifle the voter turnout among african-americans and low income people coca-cola is not the only corporation boycotting ga over new proposed voter reforms you've also got delta airlines viacom c.b.s. citi group j.p. morgan chase cisco and other corporations that are placing economic pressure on the state former president donald trump says that republicans are now going to boycott the boycotters in support of georgia's election laws for years the radical left

democrats have played dirty by boycotting products when anything from that company has done or stated in any way that offends them now they are going big time with woke cancel culture and our sacred elections it is finally time for republicans and conservatives to fight back don't go back to their products and till they relent so now we've got republicans targeting the corporations that are targeting georgia but it gets more interesting before these corporations started boycotting georgia you had liberal activists threatening to boycott them if they didn't liberal activists said that they would boycott coke and other corporations if they refused to stick it to joe. speak with the woman it's this post some a coke you know the corporations that they needed to speak out against racism but if you might sequence about this opposition is they've not lived up to their room woods but you'll silence you're actually being complicit so we're going to say to them if you want some money then you ought to have a back i think we all have to use our voices of seeing these corporations falling

over themselves every year around the time of the king holiday celebrating the king and yes i think that the way to celebrate the king is to stand up for what he represented voting rights it's not just corporations that are being affected by this rapid polarization of america now you've got major league baseball being boycotted by republicans because it has pulled out of atlanta and that comes after obama biden and many democratic party voices and liberals called on the league to pull out of the biggest city in georgia whether you're a bank a soda supplier or america's favorite sport you can't get out of it don't boycott georgia and you get boycotted by the democrats do it and you get boycotted by republicans america is rapidly polarizing and some of the biggest economic players are now stuck in the middle and r.t. new york political analyst and radio host

a full can say is companies only have themselves to blame for bowing to partisan pressure nothing more divisive down the company that sells me my favorite soft drink telling me i'm a racist and that's essentially what's happening with all these corporations taking these woke positions in advance of even being accused of anything and that is to me the divisiveness not republican responses to it not what trump has to say as a result of it but the actual corporate positions themselves in advance of any argument against the corporation being taken by them to head off the potential trouble of leftwing activism they don't know what trouble is till they drive all their customer. as a way this is not new the level of it is new the concern over the number of companies and the pressure they're feeling is new but the tactic is not new it's something the left wing has done for many years they have no idea how much damage it's going to do to their sales and their company's future i think it's going to be

a lot and i think so whether trump calls for it or not. there's a growing backlash against u.k. plans for a covert passport system after prime minister barak's johnson came out in support of the move there are. complicated ethical and practical issues as i think i said last time raised by the idea of caveat a status significant you've got to be very careful in how you handle this and don't start a system that's that discriminatory what is certainly true is that the idea of. vaccination status being useful for international travel is something that all countries are looking at i do think that's going to be part of our of the way people deal with it we need to think about that. a national health service out paper certificate would help ease the lock down restrictions and open up the

country to international travel but there is widespread opposition to the measure this. state is certification would be divisive and discriminatory with high levels of vaccination protecting the vulnerable and making transmission less likely we should aim to return to normal life not to put permanent restrictions in place as we start to get this virus properly under control we should start getting off freedoms back vaccine passports essentially covert id cards takers in the other direction it would be divisive effectively creating an underclass of people who are not vaccinated many of whom will be vaccinated for medical reasons it's a major infringement on civil liberties. the e.u. parliament approved a similar system last week with the so-called digital green certificates expected to simplify travel within the european union last despite a poll finding this 7 in 10 french people say the pass as a threat to privacy and there's also skepticism as to whether it will even work on

my colleague told him pray discuss the issue with death. the reality is that's not where you can do these things what are they discriminatory in one way or a lot of a lot of. the covert done to vaccine. but also the realities the vast majority of people don't even need this scene because it's only a response to. basically on the one percent of the population that is better saved and stories of those big thing that people perhaps because of psychological reasons is for get into cedar dog years which is the difference between. sick and we generally get even people listening to it. may have the possibility to do to carry to be continuous and the spirit dividers i think you should all be very long on asking more questions about what's actually

happening and why we're allowing code of it to take what's going on politically and so the government what they do in a moment is really a grab on our civil liberties it's unnecessary is unjust and you know international law is unlawful until you're not doing well the problem is all this issue it's such a case of cheating passports and so on the so-called. so who have been it's a complete overreaction there is an extra layer unnecessary layer of bureaucracy something else to police given that half the country has a dose of vaccine. for interns that ever. time that it looked down ministers. were. in italy and other countries. have been emerging all these some traction so these writers could if. measures are going to be taken

into place. to disregard measures for instance where you mask that doesn't mean that there should not get the infection you know we've been getting vaccinated for things like malaria and yellow fever needed certificates to travel for years now in normal circumstances most people would say they don't want the government to track and trace them and have more data on them these are normal times do not think that most people in britain would happily surrender some of that in order to get some sort of normality back into their lives where you get a lot of change taking people's medical records in particular who will control work and it's a slippery slope and most of the real comfortable we're seeing progress in the way that we do not see force and need or just. a scandal as up today in france after it emerged ministers allegedly attended secret elite cafes and restaurants in violation of covert restrictions and on the cover of

port founds luxury restaurants privately opening up their doors to v.o.i.p. guests or interview even claimed he himself had illegally dined in restaurants quote with a certain number of ministers guests apparently did not wear masks there knocked back bottles of champagne but some members of the french government have denied any knowledge of the gatherings if ministers have broken the rules they must be punished like anyone else you've dismissed it so well informed let him name names there are not 2 types of citizens those who have the right to party and those who don't. restaurants are supposed to have been closed in france since october in order to slow the spread of coronavirus we gauge reaction to the claims on the streets of paris. it was because of course we all need to relax but such a different attitude to people is simply shocking most french people like streamlet attentive we are asked to be on our guard and so we just surprising that people are

treated differently it seems that everything is allowed for them and they have the right to do what others do not have the right to do i think these ministers need to go to everyone to the restaurants because people have not been to restaurants for a long time they invited us it would be nice. on the one hand they tell us stay at home do not go to restaurants close the restaurants and so on and they spend money that do not worry about the crown of ours and we the people have no right to go there it's not fair this is an injustice and for going to a restaurant these people men and women are not waiting for the same consequences that would await for those who were caught doing this for most or not only if it's true then i think that they are the embodiment of the embodiment of decisions taken at the state level therefore they should be a role model and if they do not adhere to the rules that they demand from this it isn't then their power loses it so i think it's very bad if it turns out to be true

since their ministers watch their behavior and not to some news from around the world kobe skeptics have defied the snow on easter monday to rally against the lockdown in the german city of nuremberg police looked on as hundreds of demonstrators sang to protest songs and. broken out in jerusalem as orthodox jews protested a controversial police case demonstrators blocked roads and clashed with officers. iceland has evacuated hikers from a volcano sites near the capital the volcano started erupting last month and tourists have flooded to the area ever said. more world news including on the latest hostilities in ukraine after this short break.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy to confront let it be an arms race off and spearing dramatic development only loosely i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very. time to sit down and talk. seemed wrong. just don't call. me. yet to shape out these days comes to council. and engagement equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart. she says to look for common ground.

you know a lot of people speculate whether god exists or not i'll tell you one thing that i can guarantee does not exist financial regulators. welcome back hostilities have flared in eastern ukraine and with reports of daily exchanges of fire and shelling on the front lines rebels in the danielle screeching claim to ukrainian drone strike killed a 4 year old boy here have denies the claims and is demanding evidence that the strike did take place photo fought it has not been possible to corroborate the claims but a team from our team is rapidly video agency attended the boy's funeral and spoke to his grandmother about the incident. never did you understand this grief you have

to go through it it's really hard his parents are beside themselves with grief especially his mother i don't care that the house was damaged which is why did this child have to suffer does he should someone have something or did he say a bad thing to someone he was just a child only poor years old ringback and then tional in god's eyes do you as tensions saw in eastern ukraine officials on military staff in kiev have blamed russia our senior correspondent mark gauthier for ports. 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 all of 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 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 because war and russia officially naming it the russian ukrainian conflict russia isn't even a party in this civil war and 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 law. 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 clearance to 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'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 most in a manner that is becoming ever more provocative if our 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 for me u.n. weapons inspector and u.s.

marines intelligence officer scott ritter explained how kiev got american and nato support for its start. the dysport comes and 3 things one is the ongoing material support the united states continues to provide big holes arms munitions and other military equipment to the ukrainian military much of this is lethal in nature of meaning used in combat then there's the the the training that's taking place the cross training between nato forces including americans and ukraine and ukraine believes that this training shows that they're somehow you know brothers in arms and then there's the political rhetoric the phone call for instance from the secretary of defense to his ukrainian counterpart yes ukraine is being led to believe that there will be a support and there will be but the support will be military the support will be diplomatic political you know they they support the right of the ukrainian

objectives and they also view the ukrainian russian. tension as supporting an overall western strategy of containing and destabilizing russia so everything bad that savage in ukraine today. props up a in american and nato policy of containing and destabilizing russia. opposes awful me us president donald trump have accused you chip off political bias i point to allegations that the video sharing site deleted millions of dislikes from videos on the white house official channel oh absolutely was set up to track the dislikes earlier this year they claimed that of the 300 videos posted 5 the white house there were nearly 3700000 dislikes of which more than 60 percent with deleted by you tube the video sharing site says its policy is to remove play actions that it considers to be spam. we have poses and systems employees to ensure

the gauge went on you tube is authentic and remove any fraudulent metrics it's claimed that you cheer deleted around a 1000 dislikes per white house video but did not do the same for other popular channels data suggest dislikes are regularly removed around once an hour but analysts is suggests other popular you tube channels do not get the same attention from the site but we got reaction to the scandal from journalist and commentator chad but more. even with the 2 and a half 2700000 dislikes removed the white house is loved by white houses video still of a ratio about 6 to 16 dislike to everyone like 17 to one but what it remains unclear is firstly they're not moving any light ok they're only removing the dislikes so it's very difficult to tell whether or not they're being honest here but we also don't know how do they determine what is

a legitimate dislike and what is not a legitimate dislike and how do they determine if a video is being brigaded or mobbed by dislikes and our actual users are he's boxed you both say they won't tell us so that raises questions and it does many americans maybe the majority of americans do believe these companies are biased in favor of the democrats they're biased in favor of joe biden so it certainly raises eyebrows and looks suspicious if the allegedly the most popular president in american history joe biden who got 80000000 votes to write the most votes of any president in american history. is having such a problem with dislikes on you tube it doesn't really match up most such a popular guy would be having such a problem keeping that ratio down but big tech has a big problem because nobody trusts that they aren't politically biased and in fact studies have shown that google which of course owns you tube is very publicly biased in their search google in their search results that they have been accused

of unlike election interference in the last election by all trading search results in favor of the democrats in favor of joe biden people to be putting their faith in new platforms new ways of communicating a lot of people are moving to smaller messaging platforms like telegram is one of them. and sort of maybe the cultures are shifting away from these vast open plain platforms such as you tube and twitter. many thanks for joining us here on r.t. international we hope you're having a great start to your day we'll be back in 30 minutes with the latest headlines.