twitter suspends the account of an r.t. america correspondent only agreeing to reinstate it once a decade old video of alleged u.s. war crimes is removed. a former u.s. intelligence analyst faces years in jail for exposing america's drone assassination program we speak to a whistleblower who's in close contact with him. he did it because he was exposing a war crime he's not allowed to see them and so he really doesn't have any chance of acquittal. astra zeneca is covert vaccines in the spotlight as the european medicines agencies top official links it to blood clots or the medical body itself goes on pointing to the jabs benefits. bricks the price of post border checks we discussed the background to the weekend's violent attacks

on police in northern ireland. live from moscow this is international welcome to the program 1st a correspondent with r.t. america had a twitter account briefly suspended for the social media platform only agreeing to a block of page after she removed a video of alleged us war crimes which she had every tweeted rachel levin says twitter's attention was drawn by video widely known as collateral murder which was 1st released by wiki leaks just over a decade ago rachel says she was told that the video violated the platform's graphic content policy now we are about to show you parts of that video which you may have seen before but you might find still disturbing to watch. this once classified u.s. military video appears to show the indiscriminate shooting of over a dozen civilians in a baghdad from an american helicopter among those killed that 2 employees of the

reuters news agency wiki leaks said it had managed to obtain the same video from a number of whistleblowers as cross live to watch america's rachel blevins who joins us now hello there monday was the 11th anniversary of this video when it 1st appeared why post it again after all this time. yeah i actually shared a copy of it that was posted all around on twitter and that was one of the reasons i saw this video floating around and the copy i shared was actually 1st posted by another our t.v. show going underground so i wanted to put that video out there once again to my followers but also to provide context with it to serve as a reminder that even though it has been alive and years since this footage was released those pilots those u.s. soldiers you see in that video who are literally murdering citizens civilians and journalists in broad daylight has no consequences for those actions even though we

see this video circulating even though we see how horrific and how disturbing it is they still were allowed to walk free and it was the people who released that video such as chelsea manning and julian a song who brought it to light who brought it to the public's interest they are the people who have been attacked and who have been blamed for this footage and so that's why i wanted to put it out there and it was also interesting because it wasn't the video itself as much that was taken down as it was my post of it because you can still go on twitter and see this footage all around but it was my tweet specifically in which i was pointing out that context that they said was what violated their policy how did twitter approach you over there because as you know there is a difference for individuals posting content that may be news channels which could be the video that they're putting their online which means the view is on twitter can make a decision about whether they want you don't want to twitter explain any of that to you to. yes so i was simply given a notice in which is that i was locked out of my account and the only way to get

back into my account was to take down that tweet with a video and it's interesting because if you get a notice like that on facebook typically they say that they took down the content for you but with twitter they make you take the action to take down that content now they said that they were doing this because i violated their graphic content policy essentially because in that video you were watching civilians and journalists lose their lives and the context that they give behind that is to say that for the families of those victims that would be hard to watch that would be hard for that footage to be out there and to that extent they're correct about that i mean this is disturbing footage this is graphic and yet at the same time it's also even more disturbing for those families to know that even though the footage has been out there the attackers the murderers who are responsible still have not been brought to justice so that was their response to me i did get another message from twitter saying that my account was fully restored but in terms of them going

back and saying that they were wrong we also have to remember that they were able to make sure that i deleted that tweet and so then they come back and they say well you were the one who took that action and there's not much that twitter can do as a platform after that putting it back into the public realm and off the oldest time as you say it is available elsewhere but bringing it back into the conversation do you think it makes any difference to washington's persistent attempts to get hold of julian assault who faces up to 175 years in jail. i mean i think it's definitely something that they don't want out there and it's something that is a reminder of just what us launch has accomplished because here in the united states are major media organizations like c.n.n. or fox news they don't show you footage like that they don't show you how horrific it is when the u.s. military commits these terrible war crimes in other countries they don't tell you what is actually going on with this so-called war on terrorism they don't take the time to ask those questions about why the u.s.

is still stationed why they still have their military across the middle east where it is not wanted where it's a legal and yet it's people like us on to have taken the steps to put that information out there to bring the actual footage to light to show the public public that and now at the same time you see the u.s. government going through from obama to now by even attacking a saw and going after him trying to get his head on a platter more or less as a notice to anyone else who may try to do the same who may try to bring other footage to light and so for the u.s. government they're more likely to cheer on this action to want videos like that to be taken off of those social media platforms even as at the same time they criticize companies like twitter and facebook for having too much power over the content that is posted on their platforms ok rachel blevins america correspondent i'm back on twitter thanks for joining us. ok let's now bring in chris hedges who's the host of america's on call good to see you again chris where does this stand in

terms of being able to hear what is necessary say what you want on twitter is rachel said this not only was it showed widely over a decade ago when we could leaks 1st published it but it's also available elsewhere on twitter it's just a chaotic way of trying to moderate what the content is on twitter rule is it a little bit more specific than that. i think what we're seeing is the increased aggressiveness of digital platforms remember twitter lock the new york post out of its own account when it reported on the contents of 100 biden's laptop abandoned laptop the digital platforms were very aggressive in promoting the biden campaign and of course the 1st journalistic entity that these platforms went after was wiki leaks they blocked all the pay pal and all the

mechanisms by which you could donate to wiki leaks including of course freezing all of julian assange on his credit cards they interfered electronically with people who attempted to get into wiki leaks hosted vence. they removed president trump from so it's not just twitter but from all social media and i think that what we're seeing is. increasing moves on the part of these digital corporations and we know nothing about them they're completely opaque they know everything about us as forms of censorship for the ruling elite in particular the establishment elites in the republican and the democratic party who are blocking their critics on the left or the right whether that comes out of supporters of trump or whether that is an imperialist any

capitalist critic such as myself who has been affected by algorithms that steer people away from the content that i write this is just an algorithm issue because as we've mentioned this video has been widely available and it's not like rachel is just a member of the public per se it's quite clear who she is who she works for she works for a journalistic organization that you would think digital mentally able to share content that's been on news channels for more than a decade why do you think twitch is going off at this particular content graphic as it is. well this would be a supposition but i assume it's an algorithm that's directed against r t we have for a couple years now seen especially after the publication of this anonymous document called proper or not propaganda or not that listed a series of left wing sites black agenda report counterpunch truthdig which doesn't exist anymore that i used to write for except for and algorithms were imposed

charging that these sites were disseminating foreign dissin promotion which is completely false so r.t. is clearly on that list the director of national intelligence in 2017 issued a report 7 pages were dedicated to r t those 7 pages by the way didn't accuse r.t. of disseminating russian propaganda they complained that r.t. was given a voice to critics of imperialism to 3rd party candidates to anti fracking. advocates accept and i think that exposed precisely what it is they want to shut down and so if i have to guess that it is a guess she got hit because r.t.d. is being hit and so we go back into the conversation as julian assange awaits that extradition decision and also in terms of those who actually had their fingers on the trigger over a decade ago ok chris hedges looking for the next edition of on contact on r.t. america thanks for joining us. next tonight a 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 transmitting and retaining national defense information and his case comes amid mass disclosure of similar crimes allegedly perpetrated by the united states. 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 information about these and some of the cases was given to hail to analysts from online news publication the intercept back in 2014 it later became available to the general public and the analyst was accused of disclosing classified intelligence information advocates for the defendant claim such explosions are necessary for a strong society. 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 process for targeting and killing people around the world including u.s. citizens through drone strikes there are

a vital public importance and activity related to their disclosure is protected by the 1st amendment. but the american government stuck to alternative point of view and 2 years ago hell was arrested and charged with violating the espionage act and other related offenses was joe biden came to power the public anticipated changes in the drone assassination program but now media reporting him to boost drone exports to countries including those with poor human rights records john kiriakou who's a former cia analyst and whistleblower told us the terms of the espionage act leave him with a little hope. 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 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. is going to pursue national security leaks just like barack obama did and just like donald trump did after him and you can see the full version of our interview with john kiriakou it's on the latest edition of watching the hawks which airs in the next hour here on. the connection between the astra zeneca covert vaccine and blood clots doesn't exist says a senior official from the european medicines agency but its cause is yet to be

defined may well be agency itself isn't rushing to link the 2 you shall do betty. well they still have the confusion. over the safety over astra zeneca 1st of all we had this indictment from an e m a european medicines agency's top official one of the top officials saying that in his opinion there was a link in association between the astra zeneca job and the rare form of blood clotting this is blood clotting in the brain areas cover larry made accusations in an interview with an italian newspaper and those accusations have now gone a viral around the world this is what he had to say we're trying to give the precise picture of what is happening to define in detail the syndrome due to the vaccine in my opinion we can now say it is the reason association with the vaccine what causes this reaction however we still do not now despite that being his

opinion he said that the risk benefit ratio was still on the side of astra zeneca and he suggested that any change in advice on how that job is used would be in regards to age groups rather than anything else that's already something that's taken place here with france germany and norway where astra zeneca now isn't being given to young age groups however a within hours of this interview came out and said itself in a very brief statement that despite that claim it is not yet itself reached a conclusion as to whether there is an association between astra zeneca and these incredibly rare blood clots and it is continuing of course to monitor the situation in regards to that so it doesn't appear as if the advice is going to change from the major a plea today but these need to top official from the board the are likely to just

heighten the concerns that there are about the job already there are complaints is . manslaughter case looked up here in france after a 38 year old social worker health worker received one dose of astra zeneca and then died less than 2 weeks later a rare type of blood clotting so there are concerns about this job and if you're somebody who's just tired astra zeneca new or in one of these younger age group categories do you to have your vaccine in the next few days in this really now must be a worry because once again the safety of this vaccine in question now if i say if the official b.m.a. advice does change in the next few days or the next few weeks that might also pose questions with people wondering whether they can trust the safety of what's being approved by the way and it will raise in questions about the process it is

undertaken when it came to approving vaccines like astra zeneca. meanwhile the world health organization says there's no link so far between astra zeneca blog highlighting the positive benefit risk assessment of the vaccine what happens is that there are a number of committees right now and regulatory agencies and regulatory authorities looking at data and new data is coming every day and assessing that data so there is no link for the moment between the vaccine and the throne political. we talked to. who believes the e.u. regulator had to act immediately so not put lives at risk. i think it would have been very useful to treat this is very seriously because we're dealing with the lives of people so i think from the moment there was any doubt they should have acted very quickly on that and of people are very worried and they obviously. prefer him to go for a different type of that situation but yet the general feedback that i'm receiving

is that people are unsure what to do because there are so many different completely tin guidance is given out so it's very difficult for people members of the public to make their mind up definitely need some confirmation of the risk and we need to know how serious and how dangerous is the fact seen if it is dangerous or if it's not believe me it's a rather than just allowing people to be any pigs and just allowed to be given these facts in 1000 without that assurance and reassurance i definitely hope that they learn from this and they start listening to people's back and concerns you know what if they can reassure us entirely then i guess it will be a different thing so i think for me wanted to get the assurance from them because recent not long ago they said that there was no connection with blood course and then today surprisingly we've been that we've learned that they could be or maybe

a connection with this riyadh type of break. and that's the issue and that's the concern because all we see we just need to get beyond says and be able to make informed decisions about which friend of vaccination to use. over in germany blade of the c.d.u. which is chance language merkel's party in the linchpin of the ruling coalition has called for a strict a lockdown of the country grapples with a 3rd wave of the covert pandemic a proposal that has taken some flack from lawmakers. we disagree albeit i think we need another transitional look we need to build the bridge again to the dates when everyone is vaccinated i know that many a time of the pandemic but many already to take another step now and then move to another fees from me jews and lash it isn't just the chairman of the christian democratic union party he's also the head of the state of north rhine-westphalia and some of his fellow local leaders aren't particularly happy with what he's had to say the leader of the state of terror in jail the mayor of both question the

well the sense of having a short term lockdown michael miller who's the mayor of berlin saying he doesn't think mr lasher has thought about the long term implications of putting everybody into a north lock down this is ultimately the one of the big problems with coming up with a unified position here in germany it's not like i'm going to medical can say from the chancellor's office this is what we're doing everybody get on with it what ends up happening is the leaders of the 16 states listen to what mrs merkel has to say and then go we're not sure if we really want to do that and that has resulted in a lot of problems lot of lack of clarity when it comes to an overarching plan here in germany. now saying we need a 2 to 3 week lockdown this is a change in tune from the leader of the the state of north rhine-westphalia previously he was one of the loudest voices saying we need to open up everything the c.d.u.

chairman is still the bookies favorite when it comes to being his party's candidate to run for chancellor in september however going into a short term lockdown may well win him some support based on those that i spoke to on the streets of berlin i am happy they're putting more regulations on place i think things are looking a bit grim and it seems like it's going back to you know christmas despite we had back in christmas so i'm happy if things go back to. the way they work christmas is full lockdown i think that something mark stream has to happen i don't know if it's going to be a lockdown then they have to be more aggressive and say you can't leave your house you can't see people i think trusting people to do the right thing isn't working in the moment specifically the restrictions must be made stricter because the numbers are going and the restrictions that we have now are not enough to deal with it i think in 2 or 3 weeks or maybe a month we will have a problem there for us to we need more to experiment restrictions and move explanations. germany was supposed to go into

a locked out over the easter weekend in fact it was announced from the chancellor's office by angela merkel herself only for her to turn around just a short while later and say actually they weren't going to do that this would be ultimately a good turn on that u. turn if they were if germany is to follow through on armin lush's plan not exactly what you want to see doesn't give confidence in leadership when you having this type of planning or lack of planning concerning figure is that 2 thirds of germans don't have any faith in the plan that's been put out in or that says that they should or everybody should be at least offered one vaccination by the end of september that sounded ambitious when it was 1st put forward at the end of last year well if it sounded ambitious then it sounds incredibly ambitious right now we've also heard from again spy on the health minister here in germany he's not painted a pretty picture of the state of affairs at all he said that there's been an increase

in the number of people going into intensive care with code 4000 over the weekend he's also you said the vaccination itself won't be able to stop the 3rd wave of covert 19 that's currently gripping germany he says on side with arm in lush its plan and says lockdown is what's needed an m.e.p. for the alternative for germany party told us that berlin may have irreversibly lost the public's trust. there is no plan from the beginning it is for us it was only running after the events that we failed miserably in a vaccination program so we are now on the level of a developing country and we have a shift in public opinion people they are upset with has locked out sometimes you just lose trust and then it's lost to people see politicians explained that they have a lockdown for the next 3 weeks and they'd explain this since november and now we

have to slog on for months and now even want to have a heart locked on how can you trust such a government. now that island seen several nights of unrest with protesters hurling petrol bombs of police to voice anger of recent trade rules sharia charlie edwards daschle has the details. we've seen numerous police officers injured and as these violent clashes as well as dozens of people being arrested some as young as 13 and 14 years of age and so now police are really appealing to community leaders to try and stop this disorder and stop this on the breast as well but it all follows on friday decision not to prosecute leaders of the irish nationalists the shin fein party for allegedly breaking coronavirus restrictions for attending a funeral of a former. leader last year that funeral was in june and allegedly around 2000 people attended so that is one part of the narrative but also receiving rising

tensions poster bricks issues as well as a specific part of the brics that withdrawal agreement that's a northern ireland protocol is coming under fire today what we're seeing is it all boils down to the fact that these new trade barriers between northern ireland and the rest of the u.k. essentially creates a defacto border on the irish sea quizes that goods and during the night and from britain will have to go through specific checks a century treaty a completely different to the rest of the united kingdom it's always been a huge sticking point in both theories of may's attempted bret's that deal but also boris johnson signed sealed and delivered bricks it deal that is a huge sticking point officials in brussels dublin and london just on technical terms but actually what we're seeing is a real a motive behind it it's an erosion of sovereignity for some it's a betrayal by the british government and all acutely rips up the good friday agreement all together and all the promises of peace within it as well it does seem like night that should fade into that matter nor the d p

r in the mood for to taunt any time soon when it comes to these violent clashes old to do with that milton art and protocol and it seems all of this stoked up tensions is accelerating by breck's it seeing the appetite to unify northern ireland an island really increase in the last few weeks if not more. months to its highest level of around 42 percent not just confined to the wish for nationalists either but that appetite is also growing amongst the devolved nations too we know that over in scotland that appetite has been growing for years but nicholas sturgeons reenergized efforts are seeing that trajectory continue as well even though looking at wells which is the 2nd smallest nation of the 4 nations they're jumping on the independence bandwagon too with around 25 percent in the polls saying that they would vote for independence which is double what it was around 6 years ago so it seems like these recent clashes over the last few days in northern ireland really are just real reflect of real concerns when it comes to the disunited kingdom.

professor alan scott who founded the political group which became the u.k. independence party believes the brics and believes northern ireland unequal to other parts of the u k. clearly tells us that the unionists limited this tradition. to you know on. being treated like 2nd class citizens under beginning to realize it and feeling it. no not a credit to cool. more or less takes away from the you know it's a kingdom and makes it a kind of provence of the european union so then a situation unlike the rest of all the european union rules regulations directives apply to them. and they're under the jurisdiction of the european. court of justice and that means that you know to produce it uses so not citizens of

the european union and the laws of the european union for. being applied to. this. half an hour your next update inside the minutes off the boom bust. what else so this seems wrong. at all just don't call. me. yet to see. just the attitude and in detroit it was betrayed. when somebody find themselves well supplied we just on the common ground.