of sexual abuse and there isn't a place this is more true in the u.s. military the murder of a young soldier vanessa gain but a nationwide spotlight on sexual harassment in the military in the military a recently released u.s. army investigation shows that gang was indeed sexually harassed by her own supervisor the report said leaders of the knesset guinn's unit of fort hood texas did not take appropriate action after she stepped forward to report 2 incidents of harassment as the investigation into the murder of a message he unwrapped it bipartisan coalition pressured the department of defense to move prosecution of sex crimes out of their chain of command sooner kristen gillibrand released a bill last week addressing military sexual assault the bill has 46 co-sponsors 10 of them are republicans don christensen president of protect our defenders and former chief prosecutor of the air force said for years senior military leaders have acknowledged that sexual assault and harassment are cancer ripping at the fabric of the force the passage of this critical legislation will increase our

military's readiness and ability to bring the fight to the enemy and will finally provide a real opportunity for justice for survivors this past weekend also marks the 10th anniversary of operation. what commonly known as the raid that killed osama bin laden a seminal moment for the obama presidency. while america commemorates the end of one terrorists women in the military remain vigilant but the terror of sexual abuse they are victims of will come to a close as well it's time we start watching the hawks. she was. on a cd you street you want to. let her sleep see this is your state . graves see this sleaze systemic deception police show which i will. join. welcome everybody to watching the hawks i will be sure cross tyro still on vacation joining me now is

conservative commentator and the hill contributor rory reilly topping. kind of the show how are you pretty good pretty good congratulations on the new baby ranking although he's 7 months he's not that new anymore. oh a coded has thrown off my calendar but i know that there is a little one in your movie. yes so really been necessary as parents have always held steady that their daughter told them of the sexual harassment prior to her murder a newly released report backs up those claims why was nothing done windy and reported her sexual harassment and how prevalent is this in the military. well with regards to your 1st question as to why something wasn't done the issue is really cultural and we see all the time in the military it's very hierarchical and starman aided by in the cheese male culture and reporting any type of harassment it's viewed as a weakness and i think it's important to know on the flip side of this when we talk

about v.a. benefits there's actually a special regulation that looks at p.t.s.d. and other disorders that may stem from sexual assault has a lower threshold in terms of proving evidence because of the sickly so many people don't report what's going on and i think we see oftentimes when people report things they're retaliated against and that impacts their mental health and then because nothing is done that they may not speak up against future assaults which that's something that's unique in this case with the nest again as she spoke up not once but twice and still nothing was done and again that gets back to just this cultural issue that we have with the military and with regard to your 2nd question as to how prevalent this is you know all of the female service members that i speak with have stories about this i think it's a lot more prevalent and as you noted in your introduction we've seen it's not just prevalent in military it's an issue that society at large is grappling with and one by one we've seen certain industries kind of come to terms with that the military is still trying to come to terms with that and talk about the legislation that kind

of brand is introducing she's introduced legislation almost every congress to address this and deal with this basically her whole tenure in the senate and it doesn't always go anywhere because people in the military who are high ranking and doing need testifying in interaction with congress are saying that and be very detrimental to take this outside of the chain of command but i think we're seeing over and over again that because this is such an issue in the military has not done a good job of addressing it on its own that we do need to start looking at some alternative solutions like the bill that you discussed. and rory $21.00 soldiers were reprimanded in the case at fort hood but fort hood is no stranger to sexual abuse reports sex ring sex trafficking you name it would have babies have a history like that one how can you restore trust or faith. well i think it's very hard because again cultural issues are just they run so deep and the fort hood in

particular just has a very challenging culture with regard to sexual assault sexual harassment all of these things and disciplining those 21 soldiers that's a good start it sends a message that that won't be tolerated however we think about it took over a year for them to be disciplined that action wasn't taken right away she wasn't relieved right away it literally took her death for people to start taking this seriously and so i think hyung to ask ourselves how many more women have to go through what this again went through before people start to take this more seriously so i mean the discipline is a step in the right direction i don't think it is another at this point i think they've had a change in leadership in command now that's something that we see in military regularly people often go to new bases. a few years so that tells me that it's a greater issue with the overall culture in the military and it's not just unique

to fort hood so really we can focus on fort hood but we have to have a conversation about military culture at large and across the country particularly because soldiers and officers are all moving across from them so they so frequently and like that you continue to bring up culture because it seems like this is a pervasive problem and the military for its part at least because of the advocates and everybody on the frontlines right now who is speaking out oppose the venice again situation are now being heard calls to move military sexual assault cases out of the chain of command have been going on for years but as a result of the case they've gained a lot more seen and bipartisan support what would it mean for sexual assault victims to have an independent commission review their cases instead of rank and file military leadership. well really it would hopefully mean that justice was the service that's the goal and i think it is interesting to know we think about the military we think about the uniform code military code of justice do you see m.j. and these m.j.

legislative history it came about in 1950 because after world war 2 service different branches of service had their own justice systems and they were all run internally and there was a little bit of a repeat of what you're talking about here in that oftentimes victims for her and there was allegations of favoritism things of that nature but i think we really look to the you see m.j. legislative history that is something that says in favor of having an independent panel investigate situations like this because again the chain of command in the military has a incentive to protect itself and we see in terms of protecting itself they aren't necessarily protecting the victims which is what they should be doing. and this past weekend marks the 10th anniversary of operation neptune spear the raid that led to osama bin laden's murder what legacy did that operation hold for the u.s. . well i think legacies decided by history not necessarily people in real time so i

think it's a little bit too premature to answer that question however i think that the fact that the biden ministration has been talking about the fact that it's time to withdraw our 2 troops from afghanistan is part of that legacy again it's been 10 years since some of the laden was killed and it's really raised the question for a lot of people is what are we still doing in afghanistan it was an effort to retaliate against his role in the $911.00 attacks and after he was taken out arguably al qaida was listen if you can we can then they didn't have to vision pose the same threat that they did when we went into afghanistan 10 years prior to that so it's really incredible when you think about it's been almost 20 years since the attacks of september 11th 10 years since we pulled the raid on bin laden and. our troops are still there are a lot of people have a lot of questions about why we're still. getting answers to those questions will ultimately impact like this and really it's been talked about across multiple circles particularly as it relates to the point you just made the the positioning

of the biden ministration in removing troops from afghanistan at what point do you think the argument that this could destabilize the region that this could actually cause an expansion of al qaeda or other types of militant actors to come forward where do you think that lies in the east there in terms of the conversation because like you said we have so many americans who have grown weary of this ongoing occupation where do we go from here. well i think that you raise an important point and stability of the region is certainly a part of that conversation however i think stability ultimately has to come from within and so even though the united states can play a role if the afghanistan government wants them to do so i don't think it is necessarily their sole responsibility to factor in that stabilization and i think that's the counterargument is some people would argue that having our troops there in the 1st place has caused further destabilization of that region so i think that

argument cuts both ways ministration is right to leave discussing it and talking about it rather than just you know pulling the plug overnight this is a big drawdown it's taking place over several months and i think it's important to remember too that the it was a decision that originated with the trump administration and trump and inviting don't agree on practically anything but the fact that they both agree that it's time for our troops to get out of afghanistan i think that sends something and if destabilization was a serious concern i don't think we've seen 2 diametrically opposed ministrations who both came to the same conclusion that withdrawal is the right thing to do great points and always excited to have you looking forward to having you again rory reilly topping thanks for joining us thanks so much for having me. plastic continues to pollute the world's oceans while threatening marine life but researchers out of china are pointing to a possible solution using bacteria a combination of organisms can reportedly break down some of the toughest plastic

r.t. correspondent natasha speak as more. plastic is plaguing oceans around the globe right now environmentalists say there are more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean it also in danger is marine life with more than 100000 creatures dying from plastic until each year on top of that the elastic material kills off more than $1000000.00 sea birds annually but chinese scientists are pointing to 3 types of marine bacteria. that can actually break down policy in one of the most widespread plastics researchers from the institute of ocean ology were able to pinpoint a direct link of using this blend of organisms to disintegrate polyphème the study published in the journal of hazardous materials revealed the bacteria combination was able to break down the plastics used to make bottles as well as bags after conducting several tests researchers said the 3 types of bacteria together caused heavy damage to the plastic making happy cracks and deep holes while scientists

have already discovered 430 types of bacteria that can break down various types of plastics researchers say there hasn't been a single enzyme to do this alone and the combination of these 3 is the closest they've come so far according to researchers behind the study about $5000000.00 tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans each year now other researchers not connected to the study are question exactly how those findings will be used as a club to plastic from the oceans is rather costly and putting the bacteria into the water could bring about other risks reporting for watching the hoxton hottest weeks. as we go to break remember that you can also start watching the hawks on demand with a brand new portable t.v. app available on all platforms coming up stay tuned to watching the hawks.

should we interpret the recent f.b.i. raid on the home of former trump lawyer rudy giuliani a legitimate investigation into wrongdoing or a strong and very public political warning is trump his former circle and supporters the real target can the average citizen trust the f.b.i. . so what males have tended to do and still do is is we tend to we certainly have empathy and all of that but we also tend to do nurture through aggression so we create things like lego soccer and football and you know all of the various hundreds of games that involve aggression now women are aggressive and can play those games no doubt very well but when you go back to why they were created those games were created for males to nurture other males to aggression to teach them how

to be empathic through aggression. right now there are 2000000 people who are overweight or obese it's profitable to sell for those he's crazy and sugary insultingly and addict and it's not at the individual level it's not individual willpower and if we go on believing that would never change this obesity epidemic that industry has been influencing very deeply the medical and scientific establishment. so what's driving the obesity epidemic it's called for profit.

defund the police a term that is not only polarizing and controversial but a rallying cry for reform and justice for community sick and tired of being sick and tired. the black community is statistically over policed black americans are over incarcerated and blacks experience excessive force at the hands of police officers at disproportionate rates the murder of george floyd highlighted the said truth but how many hashtags and videos are needed for police reforms to happen the city of st louis is taking matters into their own hands and moving towards dissolving nearly $100.00 police officer positions and cutting millions from the police department budget it's a popular move among progressives advocates and blackflies matter activist even outspoken congresswoman corey bush called the decision the stork but not everyone is on board st louis is one of the most violent cities per capita in the world but

for advocates and supporters of the proposal excessive policing isn't what's needed reallocation of funds is those funds could be used for mental health services addiction supports skills based training for employment housing and other needs. the board of estimate and apportionment voted $2.00 to $1.00 in favor of the cuts with a new mayor to shar jones supporting the measure the $1000000000.00 plan now moves to alderman for hearings and amendments before going into full effect on july 1st. and the george boy protests didn't only shake up police reform efforts they also proved to be a catalyst for historically black college and university donors to pass the bay north carolina a and t. the country's largest h b c u has raised a whopping $88000000.00 since last summer that's in the early 6 times what it raises according to n.p.r. and the story doesn't stop there this is a historic year for public h.b.c.

use the president of the thurgood marshall college fund acknowledges that donations picked up last year in the wake of the george boyd murder saying we've never seen anything like this you see use. editor at large for salon dot com and friend of the show the watson joins us now they good to see you again. they had to go on a pretty good pretty good deep on the police it was decried by some democrats as the reason why they lost the house former president trying to use the phrase to rally were republicans with the mongering commercials about gangs rate best a new episode you name it if there are any officers it's going to happen to you do you think st louis is reframing the defund the police movement by actually putting it in motion or is there another way to do it 9 your hometown baltimore recently stop prosecuting low level nonviolent offenses drug possession and prostitution what do you make of all of this. you know at the end of the day i think.

all thinking people thinking people a lot of politicians don't think all thinking people clearly clearly clearly clearly understand that what we have been doing has not been working we are not rehabilitating should is since we are not creating opportunities we are not solving crimes we are creating situations where we don't and necessarily discussed in the amount of funds into the police department new equipment new cars new bikes new guns new warrant more people and we lock up people we send them to a system where they don't get what they need to be able to come home and function. and they are a product of that system because the people who raised him at that will do the same just right so thank you people can see that what we have been doing has not been working plus st louis i think it's

a beautiful thing i hope they at the counseling those vacancies i hope they use that money to be able to. i hire people to go into the communities and no relationship to be a barrier between the people and law enforcement i think we are a long long over 100 years away from a policy but i do think we can accomplish something by. arming large portions of them not send in police officers with guns out to handle domestics and things like that like i think so much we can do with training and reallocate enough funds to do things that inspire and educate and ignite and it could be better. i'm all for progress and to shar jones she's a newly elected progressive mayor in st louis her election was historic in and of itself what does her vote to support defunding the police need for her future and do you predict blowback considering the current rate of violence in st louis. you

know this does no data there's no available data from from from from a lot of major metropolitan city that. pouring huge extra amount of money into policing stops crime. it just doesn't so you know at the end of the day if people get mad at her for that they're just getting mad at her because she took a stand against the way everybody is programmed to think she's doing something else out of the box in this dangerous is dangerous when you have you know great radical brand new ideas but you know what i guess what else is a radical idea freeing the slaves going to the people said could never happen and you know look at us now on t.v. talking about that. and it looks like in many cases what we do need is some type of radical change so for a shard to on her you know 1st leg out get there and decide this is something that she wants the port that speaks volumes for her or her leadership and what

a progressive actually looks like in this office. ajmi to use they're bringing in a lot of money following last year's black lives matter activism in the streets and the georgia boy protests how will they spend it and why do you think they were a go to for donors. you know some of these things you know they may shock me i think a whole lot of people are just starting to realize the power. the historical power what h.b.c. used to have some of the leaders that the you know. vice president was our right so you know i think people think the protests i think a lot of a lot of the marching and just the whole social climate right now raise the consciousness of a whole lot of people people who normally think too much about each p.c. use. these institutions creating some of the most brilliant thinkers. that we've ever had people who are doing amazing things in the world and constantly striving

and fighting to make a difference people. to a culture that is that is american not mainstream standard american colleges but it is an american experience that it's value and i think anyone who cares about this country cares about the many different cultures that breaks and the how would you like anybody because a point that i agree with how would you like to see the agency use use the money because i recently saw a report from the brookings institute about the state of black men economically across this country and a lot of it was related to the lack of job availability axis skills but also huge education differences education level differences between black women who are the most educated demographic of all in america right now and black men who are still having we've seen you know lower levels of college graduation rates and there are some issues that are associated with that so in terms of giving this money to h b c u's and recognizing the fact that we still have mary low comparison black men

who are graduating from college in general do you think that some of that money is going to be utilized towards making sure that black men get to the finish line but also college preparedness or workforce preparedness in these communities because that's still a major issue. i love the c.h.p. she use have better connections with the community. you know i used to teach in a c.b.c. you and i was an adjunct but now we're no. full professors there were no tenured black professors we had one black woman and they were going in that there were no black professors in the whole english department so you know students come into the school to learn and want to see themselves represented on the staff did not get that you know so i you know one i would love to see a school there that black talent there's a lot of us out there who want to teach who are good at it will have the skills to

you know be able to get the job done match ups in the classroom but in the publishing world that i was so i could see the schools use that money to just build connections why schools you know we need more h.b.c. you graduated h.b.c. you professor h.b.c. you administrator is visiting schools and talking to students and explaining to them that you know a college degree is everything you can change it right you can go on to do beautiful bank and i've done it and i'm here to show you how to do it and we're going to grandfather you we can do that with the money create that pipeline from high school seniors college and you know we'll see more black men and more black women. you know being able to graduate and be educated. and be really quickly we know that things are things are moving forward they're moving forward it kind of a snail pace what are some of the things that you would say argue that it is right now to do for the black community coming off of what we just saw with their

challenge while. you know right now at the end of the day you know the best thing that we can do is to invest in our communities and build our community in trial that they create opportunities. the opportunities that we didn't have you know if you are a black person with some status we accomplished some things and there are some things that thing we can do right now is put it back into where you come from london to a community like neighborhood that is having a good about it it's you know people in barracks owner was on trial people kept saying america was on trial and i was telling people no no no no no america is not on trial only direct children we see with black people. and the young woman in ohio . who was who is was shot the young man who was shot only 10 miles away from when it's open trial was like these things don't change the word about hanging in there and i'm definitely going to bring you back i think that your firing your passion is

shelled completely making so much for your advocacy of the walk and frankly join the shelf space and that is our show for you today and remember everyone miss world we're not told we're left enough so i tell you i love you i'm in the chicago people watching the hawks have a great day and night it was. the same as i did a sketch that you would use to get these in but once you move in with gillet those the costume i lose the. little i love the less the actual praise from the. rest of us i will say oh i love this part. because i

just wish he's putting stuff on and a stooge. makes you. say . he started to question but he saw you for good and he just you know he meant for us one. day but on the but i'm going to do the book on his son so that this is some use. instead of. me emotional learning to months go out you'll still be stuck or you know outsourcing the course for your knee which resists him but a function is just located or forgot to tell the truth. before doing. business compassion. we think he minds

be a soviet soldier because off the boots he's wearing. a huge wedge so the sold out so can move to a pause will stop when you're more than the book in the new i'm going to sure stuck to it in the summer watching the police force sort of us hold up. is you'll be d. a reflection of reality. in a world transformed. what will make you feel safe from. isolation or community. are you going the right way or are you being led so. direct. what is true watch is faith. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us

in the depths. or unmaidenly shallowness. was abundant make no certainly no borders just by. 2 nationalities. has a muddled up which we don't have the back seat. to. judge a. commentary crisis is dissident. you bet it we should. everyone is contributing each of our own way but we also know that this crisis will not go on forever the challenge is great for the response as from us so many good people are helping us. it makes us feel very proud that we are in

it together. the top stories this hour debate rages in france as it marks the death of a man accused of genocide and whose wars cost millions apply we look at whether to centuries on the podium merits today's fanfare and celebrations. for me he's still a hero he did a lot for the evolution of france but it cost a lot of freedom a lot of sacrifice at the human level too that's obviously his big mistake maybe to have reestablished slavery new york's government such as a rule on earth by suggesting on by someone people should avoid their grandparents but amid allegations his own mismanagement is to blame for the nursing home deaths during the pandemic and a kansas governor wins her battle to allow transgender athletes.