ah ah, with i'm very happy about the referendum it is you to you have to show is that i believe, i believe that only with russia we will be able to revive our region, raise the economy medicine education for the 1st day of loading, wrapping up our t continues its special coverage of the ongoing referendums and don bask zapatero

she and pers, on on whether she joined russia with having survived torture and pain, $55.00 military personnel from russia and the daughter bass. republics have come back home after their nightmare and ukrainian captivity. what if, what if they beat me with the chair kicked me and hit me with the mom. they beat me because of a broken chair. they said her cattle, you broke her chair and they started hitting me on the head again. did you have me with all sorts of needles in my ear and my nose just to mock me? and then or rock a legislator insist on holding the u. s. accountable for american soldiers there allegedly kill a 15 year old girl working in the field with from moscow to the world. this is our to international. i'm mary jo blevins and

here are the top stories. this our the 1st day of voting on whether to join russia has wrapped up that as we bring you, our special coverage of the historic referendums in don, math and to other regions. ah, [000:00:00;00] who's the referendums are being held in 4 areas. as you can see here,

we have the don asked lugens people's republics as well as the hearse on and 0, she regions now back in 2014 done ask and lugens voted to declare themselves independent after they refused to recognize the true in kiev. the new ukrainian government, backed by the west launch a military offensive on the don bass, which has continued to this a day. now the pictures that you see here are from polling stations and darn bass on the 1st day of owning people say that they had been waiting for this moment for 8 years. years at the head of the low cost republic told us yahoo, adam stewart, i'm sure the citizens of august people's republic will make their choice in favor of join in the russian federation. by making ser choice, we will obtain peace and quiet. and we're going back home to our historical borders . this is what is just what we write them. pulling stations here, come to people,

not the other way around. that's all due to safety concerns. now here's how it's organized. there's a queue of people, they enter the bus through the front door, and then over here, there's a makeshift polling booth where people 1st they sign up over here. then over here because the vote. and here's the earn with it with every ballot that has been cost so far. again, this is due to fears that large gatherings of people in well places been traditional alongside or around traditional polling stations that they might become targets of attacks of over missile attacks by cave or terrorist acts. even still some huddled back in 2014. to be honest, most people have like guns like had been inspired. we had a desire to get away from all this ban dera stuff. people went to vote for independence with great enthusiasm. they've accused pouting. stations. people wanted to come back to their roots,

get back to russia. these i years we've been waiting for this moment, easy was and is a difficult part. and i would have liked it to have happened back in 2014, but fight decided otherwise. maybe we had to go through everything in order to reach our dream of re unification with the great russia. but i'm very happy about the referendum it is beautiful. the stork, i'm sorry, the law from smith dania, but in 2014, there was confusion. fear. we didn't understand to what was going on, but we hope that there would be taking him to russia back that i left her then returned to my family and they were here for all this 8 years. then who experienced confusion and fear. so now we have hogue with hope that they will take us. no, i said i dissimilar. i felt very positive in 2014, but now i am completely happy. everything is okay. we have been through it all right near snellville. i must be around the atmosphere was festive back in 2014 and

why we wanted to re unite with russia today. we finally got it. whipple, today we are returning home, but we have come a long way. but everything has come to a logical conclusion. yet we, the war will finally end them. where would i see it? the witching. meanwhile, 20 percent of voters have cast their ballots as oper, oci, according to local officials in neighboring her san around 15 percent of people have had their say and the matter. now this footages from her san and melody hope all were military and police are insuring security, sweeping for explosives before resonance arrive. but despite the potential threats, people continue to cast their ballots. you have the, shall, is the revolution. i believe that only with russia will be able to revive our region, raise the economy, medicine education, revive the industries that her son region was famous for in soviet times and give a new impetus to our economy. i cast my vote for joining russia. montagnier from omit finally,

we are together finally well as hold with the motors excellence. hi walter, for russia, my home for my motherland. actually, young refresher. i want to come back home about i just want to come back home to the little bit more on his, on his always been a russian city. they say that for a person, the native language is the one in which his mother read fairy tale for him in childhood. they read to me in russia, where now had one of the voting stations here, instead of song. these have been set up all over the city long with these members. the electoral commission are going flat, flat house, the house collecting people's votes. because despite the fact that already thousands of people who have some city in the province itself have voted, there's been a lot of intimidation. they've been threats acts of terror. and there is ceases, of course bombardment of your song with, with missiles, with rockets by the ukrainian military,

the ukrainian side nationalists of also threatened people. they have told them to stay away from voting stations for. busy their own safety taken at face value. it is believed that they want to target these voting stations to keep people away away from the referendum way from expressing themselves nevertheless. so far things have been. com. security has of course been beefed up. there is a lot of tension, but as i mentioned, thousands have already voted and more and more voting. with every hour. several events were held across russia to support the referendums and then down mask. he can see this video, camera, and central in moscow, thousands of people gathered near red square waving flags and banners. there was also a rally in bros me, the capital of the chechen republic and southern russia. the events are being attended by representatives of public associations. political parties and civil

activist. meanwhile, western countries have condemned the referendums, calling them and democratic. this comes after years of selective policies toward the self determination of people as are she contributor rachel marson, explains. western officials clearly don't support these people in ukraine, having the opportunity to exercise their right to self determination is guaranteed under international law. he was a bastard of ukraine, bridget brink and nato secretary general against fulton berg called them quote sham referendums. and the european union's chief diplomat user burrell dismissed them as quote, illegal referendums, which are quote, in violation of ukraine's independence sovereignty and territorial integrity and a blatant breach of international law. when territorial integrity comes in conflict with self determination, it's apparently the people's will. that matters most. at least that's what the position was. the western officials had towards coast those independence. that is, after nato had bombed yugoslavia and carved out kosovo from russian allied serbia,

under the pretext of protecting its ethnic minority sounds. a lot like the justification for the referendums now in these ukrainian regions whose people have suffered under kim's attack since 2014. but unlike with the current situation in ukraine, the international community at that time agreed that coast those minority shouldn't have to live under systemic oppression. today our armed forces joined our nato allies and airstrikes against serbian forces, responsible for the brutality and kosovo. oh, what i'm really proud of is what we did in class. so i really found it very difficult to watch when people were being killed at pleasure to united states would continue to work with those nations that have not recognized and independent kosovo, to convince them to do so as quickly as possible. so apparently, the western position only favors self determination if it harms their enemy and benefits the west. another example, what about of taiwan decided to hold

a referendum to succeed from china tomorrow. it's hard to imagine that the westwood, denounce it, and argue instead that the taiwanese have to respect the one china policy that the west supports. all, all egging on taipei provoking cheng and using taiwanese chinese relations and tensions as a pretext to rack up sales for the u. s. military. industrial complex. referendums are all equal in the eyes of the west. the democracy exercise by catalonia, in its bid for independence in 2017 from spain, was denounced by most of the you, under the spanish constitution. yes, there these vote got the lonia was not really go. countries like france, italy, germany and the u. k. were more interested at the time in what a vote in favor of independence for catalonia could mean for their own countries as they struggled to contain independence movements on their own territories. in other words, these people over here are fighting for their own democratic self determination.

but how does that affect me? that's what they were doing. as for madrid, it came down to a question of revenue loss as colonia, with just 16 percent of spain's population. also counts for 19 percent of its g d p . another referendum may be lurking on the horizon in scotland as separate a sentiment as festered since edinburgh voted to reject independence in 2014. but the u. k. newest prime minister list trust isn't keen on permitting a 2nd round. perhaps she's concerned that the result won't be the same. if i am elected as prime minister, i will not allow another. independent trust brings up the notion of family, but apparently isn't interested in acknowledging similar family style bonds that link the rus of phone ukrainian regions to russia. the western hypocrisy and double standards of defending democratic principles to self determination only if and when it suits them,

hasn't escaped the attention of the scottish leadership. if she governs as she has campaigned over the summer, she will be a disaster, not just for scotland, but for all of the you key. there's a tendency to denigrate or block referendums that suit the western agenda. but when the irish vote to ratify the lisbon treaty, that is the use constitution establishing a centralized leadership and foreign policy failed the 1st time. well that didn't prevent them from being allowed to vote a 2nd time to secure the desired result. similarly, the dutch vote to dinner referendum in 2016 against the you having closer linked to ukraine. but that didn't prevent the country's parliament for voting against the people's will. a year later, apparently it was enough to say that, well, hey, they were asked. so given the tendency of western officials to cherry pick the referendums, they support or don't, in accordance with their political agendas,

while they're hardly in a position of high moral authority to be telling anyone, seizing the opportunity for self determination, what is or isn't a legitimate professor at the institute of european studies and belgrade stephen guy edge told us that the western reaction to the referendum should not matter to russia. and especially the people who are determining their future. i don't see what kind of other sanctions are going to be imposed. i mean, west is fully involved in a proxy war. it is arming one of the sides heavily and i think that there will be increased protests similar to what we've seen in 2014 with the premium case. but i don't really see any kind of escalation that we haven't seen so far. of course,

the west will be very disappointed and there will be a lot of a lot of, i would say, a vein barking by the politicians that are already created within their own societies. but i don't believe that russia and especially people who live in these areas shouldn't be particularly worried about the western reaction. i think that they should be concentrated on the future. i had them and rebuilding our lives and of course of the infrastructure that was shattered. and of course li, rebuilding our functioning side of the awesome new trauma that started with the euro. my done, if not even with the breakup of the soviet union in 1991. well, keep you updated with the latest news as saturday marks the 2nd day of voting for millions of residence.

ah. finally, after a long separation from relatives military personnel, from russia and the don mass republic, who, when in ukrainian captivity returned home r g 's, maria the notion, i talked to some of the service men who shared their stories and being tortured a happy day for what had been some very anxious families as 55 military personnel from russia and the dunbar. republics, sons and husbands, father's and brothers, who had long been held in ukraine in captivity. have come back home 1st. zebra storm st. you that he is in life, that they returned my son to me. thanks everyone. god bless everyone. we are proud of him. we were afraid to lose him. not that we believed we knew that he would return. we prayed every morning and every evening the whole city was waiting for

him. every one was waiting for him. all the relatives, his wife, was very bori. we are very worried. it's the latest and so far, the largest prisoners of war exchanged between moscow and kiev since the beginning of the russian offensive in february and both sides a hail and a success summer. the most important thing is that they didn't leave us there. when we were there, there was a sense that no one wanted us in our country, but you see how it turned out. our guys quickly took us away quickly, pulled a sound among the 215 key of prisoners. the allied forces traded for the men were 5 notorious as old battalion commanders. but it was a freedom at any price still to them. they said that no one was worried about using your country will not exchange your accept trust, but we believe that would be an exchange. we'd just believe you. of course, i'm happy that i am in russia, but i'd like to thank those who were involved in the exchange that it happened when

i hope that the rest of all people we taken out of that. and they will also be at home for the most important thing for me now is to see my family, friends, wife. no, i haven't seen her since january 1st, but we signed our marriage certificate and i just left right away. sometimes i talked to her via video link, but basically i haven't seen her in almost a year. 10 of the many foreigners who've been fighting on kia side were also released 5 bridge citizens to americans and fighters from the rocco, sweden and croatia. some of the released prisoners who spent months in captivity talk about torture and humiliation, and also confirmed that more and more foreigners are fighting on ukraine's side. no birds for yellows. dubuque, yes, they stood armed with clubs from the very beginning. they began to beat me with a bass on unused electric shocks. then with every incorrect answer or action i said, or did they shocked me beat me with a bass on all my legs until i had bruises or 2 at the distance is there was somebody up cuz they beat me with the chair,

kicked me and hit me with the mark they beat me because of a broken chair. they said here to cattle, you broke our chair. they started hitting me on the head against the jagged me with all sorts of needles. my ear, my nose just to mark me crash, but the more on the home with a veronica, they threatened me with a knife, then they threw me into a pickup truck and we drove off similar. another 15 people ran up there and they started taking pictures with me to pay my look there. they caught an orc and occupier took pictures and jumped videos. they lifted me by the head and took pictures of the what it was clear from their voices that there were not only ukrainians. there was a foreign speech was heard arabic speech was heard someone after that, they took pictures with me there while they continued to beat me to put a knife to my eyes to see if they put an i to my groin. he said, we will cut everything off of you. now if you do not confess, phonemic with the holes. they also explain why capturing members of the russian military. he's such a desired trophy for those fighting for keith expense thought. and that says what on line is that they are,

nancy's not the i'm for you. just the nicest received money for the military present for surgeon. it's about $300.00 for officers after thousands liang, although his former prisoners released during this recent exchange, are currently being treated in various russian hospitals. if military dr. commissions decide be our feet. the service men may soon return to the front lines, raving ocean on naughty moscow. oh, or wrong as dealing with mass riots organized, both by supporters of the government and those who are protesting police brutality . the demonstrations are in response to the news that a young woman died in custody after being arrested by the country's morality police allegedly breaching strict rules of wearing a he job police and says she had a heart attack saying their treatment had nothing to do with her death, however, the family claims she didn't have any health issues and demonstrators believe the

22 year old masa minnie was beaten there now demanding justice for her and burning police stations and vehicles and several cities as well as torching. he jobs and public, the pro government supporters took to the streets and response calling for the execution of the protesters, calling them quote, israel soldiers. meanwhile, in a rock, a legislator has called on the countries authorities to hold the u. s. accountable for the killing of a 15 year old girl, allegedly hit by a stray bullet fired by an american soldier. he says this islands on the issue was disrespectful and that the nearby weapons range should be shut down. after the teenage girl was killed by a bullet fired during u. s. military exercises near they base outside of baghdad. the u. s. embassy has not bother to issue any official apology for the just incident. the death which occurred as a result of the use of life rounds. your military drill, snow residential neighborhoods,

exhibits an outrageous disregard for the iraqi blood and a blatant disrespect for the country sovereignty. the incident occurred earlier this week on a farm situated near the baghdad international airport, where american military forces regularly conduct drills, family and friends are convinced that us soldiers are to blame for the tragedy than other houses in the vicinity of the shooting region. additional enmity between her family and that any one in the area is on the, on the soldiers station, outside baghdad, airports them dollar media. and she got charged with harvest investable in order to tell them on the market to procure, she'll livelihood, and that he'll parents judge him about all they wanted to do was to leave in the rock peacefully. but that was in vain. there's a shooting range in the middle of our village, but we appealed dozens of times about it as displaces of populated area with the residents, farmers, and their livestock. however,

we got no responses from the authorities except for cause to leave the area. we don't like out via we endured a lot because of the intensity of the shooting, which kept us locked in our homes. recently, i lost my brother who's left 7 children orphaned and now i've lost my grand daughter here. that case brings up the double standards in the western media, which in contrast to the coverage of the recent killing and neighboring iran, have ignored the death of the teenager and a rock co director of the international action center. sarah flanders says physical location of the incident makes it even more significant. this is an ending, it's outrageous. and this latest killing of a young, 15 year old student working in her father's field is just so late is absolute outrage. most outrageous as to that took place in abu graham. now that is his sight of the notorious torture prison. nothing less than a huge you, as grace and

a giant prison camp for iraqi prisoners that people around the world. so those who lenders pictures of what happened in not prison, the fact that they didn't close it down, that that base continues and they continue with a live fire range. it's really pastime for us to get out of the u. s. military has been stationed in iraq since 2003 when america invaded under the pretext of combating terrorism. washington claim the country had a secret biological and chemical weapons program and allegation later knowledge as a baseless even by the cia recently. if the countries prime minister address the un urging states to stop using a rock as a site to combat terror. the either a reiterate that iraq schools or for it's terry trees not to be used under the pretext of combating terrorism,

o protecting the national security of other countries in a manner that endangers our security and stability. iraq stresses the need to respect the principles enshrined in the united nations charter and the rules of international law and international relations. the respect for the sovereignty of states us have been forced out of countries that they were occupied by a very powerful peoples movements. but will they leave on their own? will they leave because of a resolution? i don't think. and their determination to stay in iraq in syria to threaten the whole region. years after every demand that they li, they're not claiming they're not fighting terrorism. they are a terrorist force and they are completely on accountable for the clients that they submit and the crimes that they've submitted for years. there's still 2500 us tens

of thousands of us military contractors who operate in a completely lawless way. and. and yet this is after every demand by the iraqi, that the us lead. so i think the demand should be raise for accountability for us, for sun. they don't respond with accountability anywhere in the world for their crime. china is accusing the u. s. of that claiming it's been a legally export in oil from syria, from the u. s. in other countries to stop unlawful, military stationing and actions in syria, stop imposing unilateral sanctions on syria stuff, stealing oil and grain from the country and give the syrian people that true human rights. freedom and dignity. china ministry of foreign affairs says the us take theory and oil illegally damaging and so economy. the country produces around

$80000.00 barrels per day. but reports say that us forces still over 80 percent of that amount. now mean wow, more than 14000000 syrian people find themselves in dire need of humanitarian aid. struggling to meet their daily needs. gender shoe, as senior fellow at the pan goal institution, says that syria is now facing an acute crisis. a fact that the west dismisses this by this dire situation. the us doesn't care much about the, you know, the people in that country build the active to deal with oil and also grain from that country. so that's really something i was a lot of people beyond the comprehension, but i think mostly because of the dominance of the u. s. media that dominates. so for us, let us langley media by the u. s. u. k. you know, from canada,

from australia and european countries to so when it is something above the u. s. many european countries, the u. s. allies will sometimes simply shift their attention to something else. ignoring what's going on in theory. i like, oh, it does happen. it doesn't, this is not happening. i'm not looking at that. so somehow there's a lack of attention from the international media. remember, even the u. n. is austin for the patient from the global power to look at the u. s . the continued have a strong military pregnancy, this country without being invited by the rent government under the ceiling, all you're from this country, stephen green from this country and the imposing unilateral function on this poor nation. so this is, this does require much, much more attention from the international randa on this issue. bankers in britain are set to be rolling again. this,

after the government has decided to scrap the cap on bonuses, it's part of a plan to overhaul and regulate one is financial industry. the u. k. u finance minister quasi quire tang claims that the move will enhance the cities competitiveness and world market. we did global bond to create jobs here in breast here and pay taxes and long no. powers. not in front. good. i'm no, no. oh, the bonus did was to push off the basic salaries of bankers or troy are to t outside europe. we're going to get rid of it. yes. the cap was introduced in 2014 across the european union, while the u. k. was still a member of the block. it limited banker bonuses to 100 percent of basic salary and up to 200 percent if approved by shareholders. the measure it was part of an effort

to curb risk taking, which has in the past ended up with taxpayers being forced to bell out base. it's designed to attract the bankers and stimulate financial activity in london, but some have accused the government of rewarding those who they say are already too rich. so that's it. who are the winners from this budget? bankers, city fat, cats, fossil fuel giants, the extremely wealthy here with a loses every one else at a time when ordinary families are having to choose between heating and eating. this government's focus on giveaways to bankers and corporations is totally the wrong priority. funny, i really thought we'd reached the bottom of the barrel with boris johnson. i was wrong. i'm not sure i have any blood left to boil. journalist action, we're tansy says that given the current crisis facing the u. k. economy, this is not the time for such a decision. ok,