ah, with piles of concrete burns houses, burns apartment blocks all over the place. it won't be soon when the life will spring again. here the r t crew visits a strategic frontline city and the guns republic held for a month by ukrainian artillery. the west continues to blame russia for the global food prices with un warning that the world may face an international catastrophe in 2023 if agricultural products from russia and ukraine are not allowed to return with washington wants to restrict imports from a chinese province over forced labor allegations that despite a long history of u. s. corporations using sweatshops abroad with

broadcasting, lot of direct, more studios in moscow, this is art international. i'm john thomas. certainly glad to have you with us right now. 97 percent of the lucas republic is now free of ukrainians forces this is according to the russian defense minister. meanwhile, the ukrainian president says that the future of the don boss is now being decided in 7 done yet square the most intensive fighting is ongoing. here on the map, you can see an area where thousands of ukrainian troops are about to be encircled as russian and a dumbass forces are slowly advancing from the north and south jersey was donna visits, the strategically important city of papa sinai almost raised to the ground by the ukrainian artillery citizens of this little town and the la guns people's republic they had to walk through hell via their town is no more. those piles of concrete

burnt houses, burnt apartment blocks all over the place. it won't be soon when the life will last spring again. here. this is murray. you bull in miniature, but unlike its big city brother, the town of papa now has had it worse. and this is what happens to city, his towns and villages that the ukrainian forces refused to leave. for example, this little village of papa. now they've, as they fought for every apartment block for every building as they well set up their firing positions on top of well buildings like this. there was no other choice but to well raised the place to the ground has been a month since the ukrainians fled. from this place yet as nary a trace of peace. here only desolation and endless columns of tanks, artillery and other military vehicles of all sorts. key if through all it had to defend the strategically crucial town. every house was a fortress, every street,

a front line. now it's a key launchpad for the russians, and the la ganske people's republics militia who are trying to push the battles away from this impaired place. even in the city of marie opa, which is battered by the war, we did see some signs of civilian life. i 1st saw people very cautiously, cruel out of the basement. then we saw the public transport. nothing like that here in the little village of papa. now not a single civilians all in the street. just bangs of artillery fire and a heavy smell of gunpowder in the air. i'm english done a reporting from the la guns people's republic r t. meanwhile, the done, the current public has started hearings for 3 foreign mercenaries captured during the siege of mario bull. to british citizens and a moroccan are charged with preparing for a violent qu all have partially pleaded guilty. and according to the republics legislation may face up to 20 years in prison,

or even capital punishment free to discuss the issue further. let's cross life to john to reaku, a journalist and former cia analyst, who is with us. first of all, thanks for being with us and hearings. for the 1st 3 mercenaries have started and all 3 have partially pleaded guilty. what do you think that the death penalty could really be in the cards for these 3? i think probably not. i think if they had been involved in some way in human rights abuses in terrorism, then then probably we would be having a different discussion. but at the very least, i think the authorities there are going to have to make an example of them. i wouldn't be at all surprised if they received long prison sentences the and then perhaps saw some sort of a commutation later. now we've spoken to journalists who have visited ukraine,

who say that most foreigners, there are 4 right radicals, a neo nazis. why is the ukraine army so popular among such right, wing fighters? do you think that is a very good question and it's one that mystifies me here in the united states, you know, on social media platforms here like facebook and twitter. you're not allowed to say that there are neo nazis in the ukrainian government. you're not allowed to say that the as of battalion is neo nazi, you'll be you'll be blocked band thrown off of these social media platforms. but the truth is that many right wing extremist, neo nazis and white supremacists, for some reason, are drawn to the ukranian side of this fight. it's, it's something that mystifies many of us here in the united states, but it's a serious problem. we do know that the department of homeland security in the states is concerned about this when the war is over. what will these people do if

they somehow avoid punishment, or i mean, are other governments and we know the u. s. is, are they afraid that when they get back home, they're going to be radicalized and have some experience to bring their cars to the forefront? that's exactly what they're afraid of. we went through the same thing about 15 years ago, where there were american citizens and americans who had converted to islam. they weren't born into a slum who had gone to places like yemen, pakistan, afghanistan, they had self radicalized. they went through all kinds of training protocols and then because they were american citizens had the right to return to the united states. well it's, it's easy to follow somebody once they get back. if their name is mohammed or a dollar. but if you have blonde hair and blue eyes and have converted, it's a lot more difficult. well, what about all these people who are radicalized in going to ukraine? they're fighting alongside the ukrainians. they're being trained by god knows who it may even be by american special forces. and then they come back highly trained

fighters looking for a fight, coupled with radical ideology, this is something that the department of homeland security and the f. b, i should be very worried about not more than semantics. the ukraine government calls these people, volunteers yet many say that they came for the money. where is this line between freedom fighters and mercenaries? i don't see a difference if this is not your conflict. you have no business volunteering to be in it. you know, we had people here in the united states, or we brought them to the united states who were captured on the battlefield in afghanistan and pakistan. and so we, we treated them as, as mercenaries, which is what they were, they were non state combatants hostile combatants and they faced the full power of the law. and so if you're an american, or in the case that you cited a british or,

or a moroccan and you volunteer to fight somebody else's war, then you're going to have to pay the price when you're captured. now moving into kind of the deal political side of things, the bulgarian prime minister has said that he will no longer send heavy weapons from his country to ukraine as quote, enough has already been done. should we wait for the flow of weapons to dry out, or is there going to be another country that picks up the slack there? i think the united states is going to pick up the slack. if you look at what's happening on capital hill, we're making appropriations of billions and billions of dollars. 40000000000 in the last iteration. 13000000000 before that. and there's barely any opposition at all. there's a core of about 50 republicans in the house of representatives and a handful of republicans in the u. s. senate, nowhere near the power to stop appropriations like this. but what's more important,

i think, are these cracks that we're seeing in, in nato, the bulgarians, this lavine ins, the hungarians, certainly the turks have no interest in helping the ukrainians fight this conflict . so i think it's more likely that nato's, the political unity begins to fall apart than it is for the weapons to dry up. the u. s. has plenty of money, plenty of weapons to make up for everybody else. certainly the war draws on longer . it's going to be interesting to see how different sides start to fall into place are far out of place as it were. john kerry alco journalists and former c. i a analyst joining us from washington. d. c. thanks for being with us on our international. my pleasure. thank you. i know as the goes all out to blame russia for the world's troubles with a global grain shortage and a legit war crimes topping its agenda. and the fact that the you has no evidence of either does not appear to be of concern with commentary. here's our ts, rachel marsden with the details must be made. it rushes in master to the united

nations security council. this yeah. walking out of the session. this week, during which european council president shot mission delivered at langley diatribe, speaking at the meeting of the lead work times in ukraine designation process. hi, michelle has already attributed any responsibility to russia in his address. he said, we need evidence. these crimes must be and will be punished, to hold accountable those responsible. we needed evidence. and this why we are no helping to collect evidence of these crimes. impunity is not an option working backwards from a desire conclusion isn't exactly how the process is supposed to work. michelle said, we welcome the international court of justice provisional measures, ordering russia to suspend military operations immediately. but if you really

wanted to help and beyond calling ukraine, then why are you members states flooding the country weapons rather than on peace? according to michelle, as we speak, we hear reports, russian horses willing sexual violence as well. but in fact, as he spoke, ukrainian lawmakers were in the process of moving to fire the official human rights commissioner, nila denisa, who had been spreading rose flavor plains of sexual violence against russian troops . but that's what happens when you officially let there wishful thinking in ideological one, the substitute for care, consideration, and sources. speaking of our husband, you are bothered to investigate the extensively documented sexual violence of migrants in libya, which amnesty international and other human rights groups attributed to the use policy setting in the way of nato's member countries invasion,

any stabilization of that country. this horrifying report jets, new light on the suffering of people intercepted it, see and returned to libya, where they are immediately funneled into arbitrary tension and systematically subjected to torture, sexual violence, forced labor and other exploitation with total impunity. so shanisha now saying that you is working to eradicate traffic to protect people fully war this time. ukraine has to be the height of irony when the you played a role creating the opportunity for human tracking of like lydia. michelle also would use the kremlin of using food supplies as a self missile against developing countries. but the u. s. and you have just a huge rush of trying to deliver stolen grain to developing countries. mister ambassador of the russian federation. let's be honest. the kremlin

is using truth supplies, a so still from sale are doing developing turn threes. hello. picking a lane shot mission is the grain. a stealth missile, or a potential liver? read is easy. a good thing now, or a bad thing. at least mazda was a legit be trying to feed people. ukraine seems less interested in doing so according to ukrainian media, national security and defense council secretary, i did that in law, clearly defined that the 1st priority security, 2nd priority security and a 3rd party is security. recently, our foreign minister made a statement in which he clearly defined that the 1st priority is security. the 2nd is security, and the 3rd is security. if this issue is not resolved, if our country is not safe, no grain will go anywhere because the issue of security is number one for us. well, to bad, shun, michelle, she you,

superstar didn't get the memo before throwing now washable and hypocritical assertions in front of the security council. the united nations ones that the world faces a global food catastrophe in 2023 if agricultural products and fertilizers from russia and ukraine do not return. the current food crisis may rapidly turn into a food catastrophe of global proportions in 2023 higher energy costs and trade restrictions on the fertilizer supply from the black sea region have resulted in fertilizer prices rising even faster than food prices. the weather continues to blame russia for rising prices, inflation and hunger. america is fighting on 2 fronts at home. it's inflation and rising. prices abroad and shopping, ukrainian, defender, democracy, and feeding those were left hungry around the world because russian of tri cities exist. russia iteration claims falsely that the international community sanctions are to blame for worsening the global food crisis. the decision to weaponized food

is moscow's, and moscow's alone. russia issues in food as a weapon full. this is disrupting the food security, driving prices and chosing druthers timing. meanwhile, in mario poll port, more than 15000 tons of ex, portable grain is said to have been rendered unusable despite international warnings of a looming food crisis. moscow says ukrainian forces torch to the grain silos ahead of the russian lead military advance there. some of the storage and loading hardware at the site has also been heavily damaged. russia has accused ukrainian military of committing, quote food terrorism against its own people. but among causative reports from the scene, we received exclusive access to this grain seminal in the c port in the city of maria apple, under my feet, are thousands of tons of corn which was burned down. according to russian defense

ministry and local authorities as well. the storage facilities were set on fire as ukrainian nationalist battalions were retreating. the ground here and this corn is still warm as the result of the flyer which was set to it by the ukrainian and nationalist stood there is still there still smoke in other places as a local workers are trying to put the fire out. now, according to the administration of the c port, that we're at least $50000.00 tons of corn and wheat which was destroyed. it's now unusable, not only for human consumption, but for life stock as well. ramon costs are of r t. maria pulled in as people's republic from honors of cross lab to dr. jack rasmus, professor vica, economics and politics at st. mary's college of california and radical decide the

director of geopolitical economy research group. first of all, let's go to jack the west keeps blaming russia for the current crisis. would you agree with this and is it right to blame any one country for a global food crisis? well, it's pretty clear that the sanctions, as well as the war they're related, but there are no 22 different developments here are a major problem here. if the usaa was really concerned, it could exempt the export of grain for a while as it has for certain bankers and financial transactions and certain u. s. companies that need certain industrial metals and so forth is all can exemptions to the sanctions, but it didn't seem be exemption interest here on the party knighted states. in fact, as i understand at the u. s. as even warned, some of the countries like, you know, india, turkey, gym, i should they get the grain as somehow a get through. and then you know,

there subject the sanctions from the u. s. which is kind of indication that the u. s. isn't really serious about this if they really wanted to, there would be a way that they could exempt that in with this food. get out to those countries that desperately needed. not only the current amount of you know, corn and wheat, and sunflower seeds and so forth. but this is planning season, this is going to go on and continue here, not just the rising food prices this the summer, but it will, it will continue. and also, i think people got to realize is not just the supply of these actual products that are causing the price to go up to the constraint of the supply. but you got the international commodity futures, speculators who are driving up the price. you've got the shipping companies who are driving up the price and ship insurance companies even before you have a problem with the shortage of the actual physical product. so are, you know,

what is the us doing about that cause of the inflation? and finally, i would add, if i, if i may, that is another dimension to this, than you know, isn't discuss very much. and that is the affordability of these countries to buy a what may get through with their currencies collapsing in the currency or collapsing because the u. s. is raising interest rates, and that drives up the value of the dollar and that drives down the value of emerging market currencies as well. so even if you're lifted, you know, be exempt, you had an exemption and lifted the supplies, you would still have the serious problem. affordability of these countries because of other policies, economic policies of the us. now radical going to turn to you again, still a little bit with the blame game. russia has been blamed for this crisis, mainly for blocking black seaports. we know that the russia military says that they

are in the process of d, mining areas that have been mined by the ukrainian army. also this corn that we just heard from room and classrooms about and is quintin green in marble, being burned by the ukrainian forces. why so much emphasis being put on russia for this crisis. right, i mean, i think that the whole name, russia, again, game began a long time ago. remember, it was russia that was responsible for hillary clinton losing the election to donald trump. it's russia that's responsible for the inflation of fuel prices. now rate structure that is responsible for the inflation of food prices. so i think that it's really an extremely says serving blaine game. and as jack, i think right people did that. i mean, jack pointed to all the most important immediate causes of the rising prices. so if you have just one of them, i mean if, as jack says, if, if they wanted, they could have made exemptions for food. they love to use russia in order to blame

the suffering that's caused by people in a certain sense, as the united states, a sanctioning the whole world and asking the whole world to turn against russia. but i don't think it's going to work because people can see from the united states behavior long ago, i mean, you remember the whole vaccine situation on the one hand, the united states love to proclaim all these wonderful globalization 5, these about how, you know, we're all in this together, cetera. but the storm actions have always been extremely serving. and in this instance, it's the last, of course, it helps to brain russia because they, you know, essentially they want to try to have done the, one of the instructional. but so far it has worked, the number of countries that are prepared to sanction russia that are prepared to send a little late to your grade are actually quite small. they represented by small minority of the was population. but as most countries are fighting shuttle that. so i don't think it's going to be very convincing. jack russia and on yes say that the ports,

including what am i able, are now open and ready for green shipping? will this actually is the situation well as they do a ship, if there is an agreement with turkey, russia and turkey and russia just goes ahead and start shipping. and that's going to put some pressure on, on ukraine into usaa to do something about the all the storage green in odessa. and it's going to look pretty pretty selfish to allow russian grain to go through. but the ukranian grain won't go through but see the ukrainians and the u. s. and some europeans, really what they're, we've been pushing for, i think is to use this crisis in particularly the does support to bring in british ships. they want british ships to export the transports. that's. that's kind of like a seaborne. no, no fly zone. yeah, that's just asking for some real problems i think. but i think that's partly what's behind the push it to not agree to d,

mind the on the support than allow grain to get out of there and they, they would like to see a confrontation. i think so radhika the un. it's has millions of people in africa on the brink of starvation due to the can't do specifically to the conflict between ukraine and russia. but if we take a look back, if we go further, there's been a hungry crisis in africa that's been going on for years and years and years exacerbated by bad weather problems exacerbated by poor crops for harvest. what really needs to be done on a global situation, the taking away the blame game side of it, but what can be done to actually focus on? how can we help the world get past this particular problem? absolutely, so 1st of all, let me say back, you know, blaming the current crisis on russia isn't enough and no one is that blaming it on the war more generally or anything. the fact of the matter is that the world has been a, you know, this, this bull crisis has been brewing for many years. and there are many important

components. one, of course, is climate change. and it's very important to remember that what the united states is doing is essentially raging a proxy war on russia. ukraine. this is not helping a lot countries have to sit down, get together, sit down and try to think about climate change. because you know, on the one hand he, waves of india are preventing the harvest in the coming season. read it here in canada. we've had extensive flooding in some of the rest a prairie land, and that's preventing farmers from even so we so definitely climate change has to recycle and what the americans are doing is not going to have on top of that. the americans basically if you look back at the records of climate change, they will not do anything on climate change unless it's profitable for their corporations, for some of the other corporations. so that is not a very effective way of climate change. the 2nd reason and very critical, equally important reason is the promotion over the last several decades of what critical scholars called a corporate for dri g, essentially,

increasingly putting small farmers out of business by increasing the price in lowering the price of outputs. that is to say what the products that they have to sell. so more and more farmers are being squeezed out of cultivation. more mobile land is putting into the hands of big corporations. and i think this is not. and also more and more countries have been persuaded over the last many that is to abandon any concern with their food security and become dependent on the market will look at what the world market is like was whenever there is a shortage, every country is going to look after its own, and therefore every country must be made, the kind of resilience and security that it needs to have in case of emergencies. but this is not the case. you have made large parts of africa. the 1000000 is dependent on food from ukraine in russia. cetera, and any crisis, you know, they are extremely vulnerable. so these are, these are some of the reasons why we. # have a shortage because essentially

a corporate food regime is one in which things only get produces the appropriate but not because people are hungry. not because people are only because corporations benefit and they're typically your best and corporations. and of course, american big capital is like big gates have been really thankful in promoting this kind of agriculture. jack, you touch on this a 2nd ago, want to kind of go back to it a bit. the broader look at the global food trade. how significant our food exports through the black sea ports to africa. you mentioned that turkey is a big player there. is that a vital choke point? well yeah, a certain country is a very dependent on, on black sea or grains, a turkey i turkey as of course i but so as egypt sos libby associate the opium and i even pakistan and india. and by the way, those are the countries that the u. s as quietly of forewarned about accepting any

grain. should it even get, get through? ah, you know, the problem existed here, even before this crisis in the sanctions, i, because of the coven dead depression here, a wrecked supply chains. and a lot of emerging market market countries could not earn the foreign exchange. they needed to buy a food even if you know, presuming that it was available. and that's part of it is crisis now they just don't have the foreign exchange, the purchase it because of what happened even before the, the current, the war that we have gone on. i know she like is a good example of that. and so the i m f is going to have to come, come in and try to bill them out except the i, m f is not allocated sufficient, special drawing rights for these emerging market countries. and most of it is been allocated for europe in, you know, the advanced economies. so they got a real problem on their hands here that's exacerbated by the war exacerbated by,

by the sanctions as well. and we're going to have continuing food crises and not just in these commodities, these rom, raw food products. but you're going to see problems of hoarding. those countries that do produce wheat, brazil, u. s. and so forth. and australia, they're going to start hoarding their supplies because they know it's short. that's going to drive prices even more. and then you've got problems with the sanctions on oil and gas, which are going to affect process food production and cause that to increase. and then you have a substitute products and complimentary actually going to go up like chemical fertilize is going to go up because, you know, natural fertilizers, potash isn't, isn't going to go up in price. palmer's, going to go up animal phase again to go up. so this is like a dr. chang, books with tentacles. doctor, jack, classmates, professor of economics and politics at st. mary's tech college in california. and

of course, radhika decided director of the geopolitical economy research group. i want to talk to the both of you for hours on this because i'm sure that we could unfortunately, we are out of time at this point. the thanks for being with us. you on our international and continuing in the u. s. washington is to impose import restrictions on the chinese province of tion. yang, over the following force. labor allegations, while the u. s. itself has a long history of using labor from developing nations or cheese ritual. blevins comments. the united states is now weeks away from implementing a new law that will mean both increase tensions with china and higher prices for americans. the weaker force labor prevention will require companies in china, northwestern province to prove that their products, which include everything from a 5th of the world's cotton supply to parts for popular electronics were not made using force labor. the members of congress who supported the new law claimed it was

their way to speak out for human rights. congress on a bipartisan and bicameral basis will continue to condemn and confront to ccpo human rights abuses in shin jong and in the region and hold it accountable. if america does not speak out for human rights in china because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out for human rights any place in the world. but it's not quite that simple, and there is already been a lot of confusion over what is defined as force labor for chinese companies, as well as what rules american companies are supposed to follow. while you as lawmakers claim they are concerned for human rights. now that concern appears to be non existent for the american companies that allegedly still use labor from what shots? so just nike and just me, or the companies that have been caught profiting off of course labor and child labor overseas in order to obtain home oil for their products such as nestle, and procter and gamble. and that's.