one was doing business. a former u.s. intelligence analyst faces years in jail for exposing america's drone assassination program we speak to a whistleblower who was in close contact with him. 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. which is prime minister back there coded passports this time for people to prove their virus statists but even his own lawmakers call the move divisive. after coca-cola caves to a left wing boycott of the right sun demands to denounce the new us they voted a law that drinks giant itself find finds itself under boycott the attack this time from the other side of the political divide.

a very warm welcome to you good morning the 11 am here in the russian capital and you're watching r.t. international community. now former u.s. intelligence analyst faces up to 10 years in prison for blowing the whistle on washington's targeted drone assassination program daniel hale pleaded guilty to transmit ink and retaining national defense information his case comes amid mass disclosure of similar crimes allegedly perpetrated by the u.s. .

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 formation about these and similar cases was given by hail to journalists from online news publication. the intercepts back and 2014 later became available to the general public and the analyst was accused of disclosing classified intelligence information. for the defendant claims such exposures are necessary for strong society. using the espionage act in this way

to prosecute journalists sources and spies channels news gathering 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 a vital public importance and they related to their disclosure is protected by the 1st amendment. yet the american government stuck to an alternative point of view that for 2 years ago hale was arrested and charged with violating the espionage act and other related offenses as biden came to power the public anticipated changes in the drone assassination program but now media are reporting he aims to boost the armed drone exports to countries including those with poor human rights records john kerry r k o f

o my cia analyst on the whistleblower told us the terms of the f.b.i.'s act they've hail with little hope 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 latest 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 and you can watch the full version of our interview with john kerry on watching the hawks throughout the day here on r.t. . disagreements between the u.s. state of georgia and major corporations over a disputed new voting loath escalated into a tit for tat series of threats and even boycotts aussie's kind of mall 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 any more this legislation is always. this legislation is wrong and. given the choice to cave to the pressure of an out of control council culture we respectfully request issued an all coca-cola company products to be removed from

office suite 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 signature is 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. 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 georgia to speak with the will it's this post some of the corporations that they needed to speak out against racism with a few months sequence about this opposition is they've 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 all to of opec then we all have to use our voices 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 the 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 artsy new york. political analyst and radio host a for perkins things companies only have themselves to blame for bowing to part to

some 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 customers away 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. a scandal has erupted in

front saw to it a much ministers allegedly attended secret and the cafes and restaurants in violation of covert restrictions and the couple report found in luxury restaurants privately oping opening their doors to v.i.p. guests wanting to view even claimed he himself had illegally dined in restaurants quote with a certain number of ministers guests apparently did not wear masks then knocked back bottles of champagne but 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 is so well informed that he may maims there are not 2 types of citizens those who have the right to party and those who don't. restaurants all supposed to have been close to in france as october in order to slow the spread of coronavirus we gauged reaction to the claims on the streets of paris. especially when 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 ruin 2 of 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 they 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 to present from us here not only if it's true then i think that they're the embodiment of the state 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 need to watch their behavior. 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 new. there are. complicated ethical and practical issues as i think i said last time raised by the idea of status a difficult and 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 and national health service outdoor paper certificate would help ease the lock down restrictions and open up the country to international travel but there's widespread opposition to the measures covert status 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 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 new parliament approved a similar system last week with the so-called digital green certificate expected to simplify travel within the european union despite a poll finding that 7 in 10 french people see the policy as a threat to privacy and there's also skepticism as to whether it will even work my

colleague colleen bray discussed the issue with guests. the reality is that's not where you can say these things with our discriminatory in one way or a lot of the a lot of. the current done see a vaccine can be tragic but also the realities the vast majority of people don't even need this scene because it's only a risk suit. basically on the one percent of the population that is better saved and stories of this big i think that people perhaps because of psychological reasons is for get into persecutor dog years which is the difference between becoming sick and become infected even people as in it did. may have the possibility to do to carry to be contentious. the spreaded dividers i think we should all be very alone and asking more questions about what's actually happening and why we're allowing code of it to work to take what's going on

globally and so the government what they do in a moment is really a grudge on our civil liberties it's unnecessary is unjust and international law is unlawful and. the proper way is all this issue it's such a case of cheating passports and so on it's all. so who were happy 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 we cannot. forget for instance that every time bed it looked down misters and. in all working in europe in eternity and other countries and then if we have been forever in did reemerging or these infections of these fires could effect if we were in decent measures are going to be taken into into place which is

not to disregard measures for intensive wearing masks that. i mean that they're absolutely would not get the infection again 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. normality back into their lives where you get into the law means all taking people's medical records in particular who will control work and it's a slippery slope and most of us. we see progress in a way that we don't see. a need or just. 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 going from duration let it be an arms race is on offer scary dramatic development the only

engage in this i don't see how that strategy would be successful very critical of the army times to sit down and talk. or come back hostilities have fled in eastern ukraine with reports of daily exchanges of fire and shelling on front lines rebels in the dawn yet screeching claimed a ukrainian drone strike killed a 4 year old boy kiev denies the claims and is demanding evidence that the strike did take place well so far it has not been possible to corroborate the claims but the team from larches raptly video agency attended the boy's funeral and told dunn spoke to his grandmother about the incident never do you understand this grief you have to go through it it's really hard to just parents are beside themselves with

grief especially his mother i don't care the house was damaged but why did this child have to suffer does he should someone have some say or did he say a bad thing to someone he was just a child who used to hold ringback you and then in god's eyes. as tension saw in eastern ukraine officials on military staff in kiev have blamed russia all senior correspondent mark downstairs reports. this is far or what there was of it is crashing and burning under a sustained bear arms 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 cease fire 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 the consolidated 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 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 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 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 and set of measures but even denies degree most 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 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. from the u.n. weapons inspector scott ritter saying is nato backing for kiev's actions is cool. the discipline 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 across 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 support and there will be but the support will be military the support will be diplomatic political you know they they support the right that 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 an american and nato policy of containing and destabilizing russia. supporters all foamy u.s. president donald trump have accused you cheap off political bias they point to allegations that the video sharing site deleted millions of dislikes from videos on the white house is official channel i website was set up this year to track removals all that this likes he claims that in the 350 s. posted by the white house and most of the nearly 3700000 dislikes what in the tapes by you tube the platform says its policy is to remove reactions considered to be spam. with posts and systems in place to ensure the gauge went on you tube is authentic and remove any fraudulent metrics its claims that to you cheap to me today around 8000 dislikes post white house video but did not do the same full of

the populist channels they to suggest dislikes regularly for moved around once an hour but of a puppy to you cheap channels do not get anything like the same scrutiny well gentleness towns come in take the chance with most things the issue raises wide of concerns of online neutrality even with the 2 and a half to point 7000000 dislikes removed the white house is loved by white houses video still of a ratio about $6.00 to $16.00 dislike to everyone like $17.00 to $1.00 but what it remains unclear is firstly they're not moving any lights 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 or actual users are news boxed you do what we say they won't tell us so that raises questions and it does many

americans maybe the majority of american so it certainly raises eyebrows and looks suspicious if the allegedly the most popular president in american history joe biden news got 18000000 votes right the most votes of any president to american history is having such a problem with dislikes on you tube that it doesn't really match up most of the popular guys would be having such a problem keeping that ratio down. but i think you can have your say on all of our stories by following us on social media and if you comment that we'll be back at the top of the out with the latest.

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in the depths. or remain in the shallows. and in 1996 something happened different a company called purdue pharmaceutical came out with a drug called oxycontin and they started a myth and falsely promoted that opioids were rarely addict maybe only one percent of the time could you get it addicted to no. that was not true then and it is not true now and never was true that was a false statement and the other companies jumped on the bandwagon of making money and the false lies spread and the false marketing spread that they are guilty of lying about these tricks they cause this step i believe that with every

fiber of my being. back in 1906 the 1st promotional act campaign for an opioid was broadcasted we found it. we doctors were wrong in thinking that opioids can't be used. long term they can be and they should be we used to think they'd stop working all the patients would become addicts or they'd be sedated and. the 6 cases show how wrong those fears were. in this little film the public was assured with certification. of addiction despite its high concentration in opium to make it believable a real doctor and real patients with this.