ah, m a a. we begin with breaking news. there have been reports of multiple explosions across iran. the country's defense ministry has confirmed it managed to fall a drone attack upon ammunition depot. we've got all the latest details coming up with a few cranes strikes a hospital and the gods republic using us supplied high mars rockets, killing over a dozen civilians bats according to the russian ministry of defense. and as the billing infrastructure is, again hit and don bass by cab forces, hundreds of berliners take to the streets to protest the german decision to deliver

tanks to ukraine with coming to you why from the russian capital? this is our t international. i'm rachel blevins here with the top stories of this our welcome to the program. we began with breaking news. there have been multiple reports of explosions and iran for more on this. let's go straight live to, to run, to get the latest details from local journalists. use of jo wally who joins us now . now you said, what do we know so far about this situation? of course it was around 11 30 pm local time, the wrong time in the central city office for han, when sound of a huge glass was heard in a facility military facility belonging to the iranian defense ministry of course be

it was an attack carried out by 3 small drones that split by the run in defense ministry. all of those 3 drawings were shod down by the defense system. the air defense system built inside that military complex belonging to the iranian defense ministry. of course. shortly after the run in defense ministry released a statement saying that the attack was florida. it was unsuccessful and just a minor damage was inflicted on the rooftop of that military complex with no casualties. so the defense industries now investigating because of these and who is suspected of carrying out that, that attack their joint attack gaskets, military facility, and the details of that investigation will soon be house. now in addition to that statement that we heard from moran defense ministry, there of also been

a number of reports and post on social media alleging blast and shootings into iran as well. do you know anything about that and whether or not that's true? well, of course, there are an confirmed reports of similar attacks of the same time at the same time time, of course being carried out in multiple cities including the capital wrong. and of course, there is a confirmed report of a fire breaking out at an oil refinery in an industrial zone. near the northwestern city of caprice was of course, the cause of that incident to be known. but there are footage it's showing firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze. we have to wait and see what the running defense ministry will tell us, because all of those reports are unofficial. we wait and we need to wait and see

what causes the incident. of course, at least at the iranian, or refinery, the city of caprice, but the other reports are still unofficial and unconfirmed, including that record that seeing that attacks are carried out inside the warning capital. deborah. yeah, a lot of moving parts here on this one and will continue to follow as we get the latest information around based journalists use of jolie. thank you so much for your time and inside. now all of this comes as there are also reports of fire breaking out an oil refinery factory in the northwest of iran. the cause is still unknown, but the firefighters are trying to extinguish the goals area. now, as you can see here from the video on your screen, there is a massive blaze around large cylinders at the plant. and although there is no word on whether or not there is a link, we should know that the fire broke out at the oil facility near the area hit by an earthquake late on saturday night. now at least 2 people are reported dead and over

500 injured after that earthquake stuck struck northwest or run late on saturday. tremors were heard and many nearby areas. and there is footage of the aftermath of the iranian city of co way in the west author by john province. now you can see houses destroyed and do breathe on the streets. emergency services also are reporting power cuts in some areas a hospital and civilian housing have been hit in a rocket attack and move on to republic, killing 14 people and injuring 2 dozen more according to the russian ministry of defense, our senior correspondent, gods viet is in the republic with the latest details we've had the statement from the russian ministry of defense which has come out and said that. 2 you couldn't, inside launched a surprise me, sol, attack a multiple walking to using you estimate and supplied by mas resolve

all the local hospitals. noble. i got to the hospital, was stopped by book civilians and military doctors and treated both the local population. this is the local clinic off the world, as well as troops an injured in the fighting on the frontlines. and taken there for further treatment. the attack left 14 people dead. from what you understand 24, that you get those numbers may well rise with keeping up to date with information from the russian ministry of defense. but there's also be another strike currently . 2 targeting a medical facility law at the hope to which is the way have sought region. the city will that hope his be the endless. taking chilling for the past month and jesus again sharing that facility had been struck before. but again,

we don't get know about casualties, injuries of debt, unlike even mobile, i don't reach the russian side already. the incident, a war club saying who's responsible, it's wooded, the strike carried out. the strike will be identified and will be punished. russia, as deputy ambassador to the u. s, has firmly condemned the attack, stating that the u. s. chairs, responsibility for the desk has it supplied the weapons used and coordinates attacks with key as another ukrainian heinous war crime. 14 civilians killed in a hospital by us supplied missiles and as we know from ukrainian officials, the targets of high mars are greed by washington. so it makes the u. s. directly complicit us taxpayer should be aware of how their money is used. challenger analysts, thomas rober, believes that public opinion on ukraine would be different if the western media wasn't ignoring such incidence. that's the way it works there. so many walk runs

from ukraine, which, which are what there's no doubt about them, or they have one big civil targets in the next. well, not only the since the beginning of the population, but even before. so this is nothing you we have seen in mario plan. well i've, i've been there, i've talked to the people who just came out of the out of the houses. and we have seen that they are the credit army, use them as human shields that they didn't let them out. that lizzy lensky announced officially that he was prohibiting any kind of recreation in these kinds of cities in the west for the decisions. decisions are made about whatever they will delivery of weapons and all this stuff. they are the people who will not get to know. and that's the point. if the people would know what's happening really there, there are public opinion would be absolutely different in the west, but it's the job of the western media not to cover it, not to talk about it. and this is what we see. and yeah, we can discuss about the role of who was the media at this point. um,

but uh there will be nothing you because of this we see profile. yeah. since the beginning of operation. so, ah, as moscow slammed key as for quote, deliberately targeting civilians, protesters have taken to the streets of the german capital, angered as the government's decision to supply ukraine with its leopard to main battle tanks. ortiz, dominic riker reports from berlin. a few 100 people here today of on my expect more to be on the streets actually because coles indicate that around half of the german population is strictly against weapon deliveries. the people here are demanding an immediate cease fire, as well as peace talk, so that they are against the aggressive foreign policy that the germany is taking. currently. the important reason why they're not that many people is that there's a lot of pressure actually on peace activists. and germany right now, just a couple of days, we found out that a peace activist was prosecuted for saying basically that in the war like this all

sides need to be heard in this water sina supporting russian aggression by german authorities. and he was therefore prosecuted. so there's a lot of fear as well, amongst german people to, to protest against these issues. but nevertheless, we're looking at the munich, a security council next week and where a lot of a key and nato officials come together. and we are expecting to see a large protest there was at least a several 1000 people joining it. president biden's decision to send 31 abrams main ballot tanks to ukraine. isn't winning universal backing and congress republican congressman paul, grosser released this statement urging against such supplies, going to kiev, joe biden's decision to send american tanks to ukraine, brings us one step closer to dragging america directly into a massive global war. america should not send any tanks to ukraine or any war

material at all, or helped to prolong a needless war and adding to the body count. despite the promise of the tanks, it's believed it could still be months before they're delivered. pentagon officials say they 3rd generation vehicles require a lengthy training program to keep them maintained. the u. s. also states logistical supplies for the tanks will be complex and take time to store. however, ukraine's president has said, washington lacks time to supply the heavy weaponry mach out house, condemned the decision of the biden administration, saying it would make the u. s. directly involved in the war. tennessee base international attorney kline preston believes the u. s. intend to provide key with tanks, demonstrates washington's direct rule and the conflict. now that the republicans are in the majority in the house, and hopefully we can have some saying decisions made with respect to this conflict

. so that doesn't turn into world war 3, which it appears to be doing as we sit here, i think the delivery, the tanks, change the dynamics of the united states as involvement in this conflict. and pushes us closer to the red line that the kremlin has spoken of and very well may change the relationship of the united states to russia with respect this conflict. because, you know, at some point our country becomes less than 8 or, or a better. so ukraine and more of a, an active participant, and that is really the dangerous step with the supply of these abrams tanks, sabre rattling and u. s. military circles over china appears to be reaching new levels. a senior

american air force general has warned that he thinks his country will go to war with beijing within 2 years. i hope i'm wrong. my gut tells me we will fight in 2025. she secured his 3rd term and set his war counsel in october 2022 ty, ones. presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer she a reason. united states presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer she a distracted america. she's team reason an opportunity are all aligned for 2025. in a week memo, the general laid out his goals to build a quote, fortified ready, integrated and add our joint force maneuver. keen, and air force spokesperson has verified that the email is authentic. although said, it hasn't been intended for public reading and doesn't reflect us policy on china. beijing earlier said that despite their difficulties, the people's republic always tries to find a way to cooperate with washington. and despite claiming china is

a threat in the region, us actions their help lead to a spike intention. washington significantly strengthen its military ties with japan in a move that china. these is provocative while last years visit to taiwan. then how speaker nancy pelosi saw beijing respond with huge military rolls around the island territory. earlier, the u. s. had agreed to sell taiwan more than $1000000000.00 worth a weapons. a deal wholly criticized by beijing. there have been tensions in trade to as american and dutch officials recently struck a deal to impose new restrictions on the export of advanced micro chip technology to china. asian affairs specialist victor dow says that any talk a war by us officials is a gross misrepresentation aware relations between beijing and washington actually stand. this general is a war banga and what he is saying and telling his troops is very dangerous thing

for world peace and stability. china does not threaten the united states at all. and if washington believes china threatens the united states, because china is growing larger and larger, then they will lose all their sanity because china will continue to grow larger. i hope washington will realize that war is not and should not be an option between china and the united states. because a wall between china, the united states will soon get out of control and lead directly to armageddon. china and the united states need to get along with the, with each other. china wants to treat with every country, including the united states as an equal rather then and handling any of these countries. therefore, such fantasies are false to start with eel unmasked efforts to lift the lid on the previous inner workings of twitter,

have deliver get another revelation, namely that an online dashboard concocted by the f. b i listing so called russian bots was a hoax. moreover, the accounts highlighted were legitimate, right? leaning accounts of ordinary americans. my colleagues, marina co survey and laurie sushi talk through this story earlier. these later slinks, basically show that the western mainstream media were all duped by one source, one dashboard. in particular, we mentioned this before, during the previous twitter leaks, they mentioned this hamilton, 68 dashboard, and this is the source that or the mainstream media use the when the came to talk about russian bots, russian misinformation online. now this is a real time monitoring the site and what they do is they found that there are 6 hundreds, what are accounts which they found to be russian bots are, or people who are associated with the russian so called propaganda. and the problem

here is, is that, as it turns out, these bots, these russian bots have nothing to do with russia. the hamilton dashboard falsely accuses a bunch of legitimate right, leaning accounts of being russian butts. virtually any conclusion drawn from it will take conversations in conservative circles on twitter, and accuse them of being russian. so essentially what we're seeing is if you happen to share rushes points of view than you will be labeled a bots, you could be in canada, for example, you could be writing or it's sweetened from the united kingdom. but if your points of view coincides with the point of view of the russian government and you will be labeled as a bought will exactly all these so called russian volts. well, let's take a look at one of the photographs. because according to this dashboard, hamilton, 68 of these are your russian bots. now, let's have a look at some of these people. for example, you have chicago based a lawyer, dave,

she's stockers and he says, i've written a book about the u. s. constitution. how i made the lists like this is incredible to me, that's what one of them is saying, oh, an american. another one is an organ later than he says when i was growing up, my father told me about them were carthage blacklists as a child that would never have occurred to me that this would come back in force and broadly in the way designed to undermine the rights we hold dear. another person who was surprised to find himself on the list of so called russian bonds. there are some more. there is no evidence to support the statement that the dashboard is a finger on the pulse of russian information ups. it's hardly illuminating a massive influence operation as twitter try to up interfere or get involved in this problem somehow that it trying with did see it in the past leaks, and we've seen that they're addressing the issue. they're not stopping the activity . there are still spewing washington's propaganda bear misinformation, as it turns out now. but they're not stop in it, i guess. because if you take

a look at who's behind this, this hamilton, 68 dashboard now, who founded it? it's headed by former f. b. i counter intelligence official and current. emerson, we see contributor, clean, so watts. and it's funded by a neo liberal thing tank. a cold alliance for secure in democracy. so this is who the dashboard belongs to the found a $600.00 account. and what's interesting, and in a way tragic, i would say is the fact that who are they listing as russian balls anyone, rory, anyone that happens to agree with the russian, what they call propaganda, sort of knew that and it was trying to address it. but i guess there's only so much they can do. breelle, people need to know they've been unilaterally labeled russian stooges without evidence or recourse. it's a major problem, i guess, is better late than never bought. it got the job done that it had lots of people millions around the world. are we thinking that russia was responsible,

for example, on a number of issues. this wasn't just isolated towards what's happening in ukraine. there were other issues as well. for example, russia was accused of a pumping up support for bret cavanaugh on the debit. nunez memo as well. we had the parkland shooting. there were a manipulation of black voters. these stories raised fears in the population, and most it is to fall. we're used to smear people like tulsa gilbert as foreign assets and drum up sympathy for political causes like jo biden's campaign by describing critics as russian aligned anything so that they can push their agenda and trying to use russia to push their points of view. further on and this is something that we've seen before and once again. and this is not going to make mainstream media or am sure it will not. and let's take a look at some news updates from around the world. police officers and haiti have taken to the streets, angered by government in action after violent gangs attack their colleagues, the rebel officers barricaded roads,

burn tires and damage vehicles. more than 10 officers happen killed since the new year. also in world stories, in brief, the czech republic has elected a new president who has been a vocal backer of ukraine, the former nato generator heater, pavel has pledged his full blown support to kiya than the military alliance. his defeated rival had sought to broker peace talks between russia and ukraine. and dutch ego activists have changed themselves together or blocked the main road into the hague. as part of the protest against the government climate policies. police made a number of arrest at the scene, detentions earlier this week, spark claims. the free speech was being infringed upon in the european country in neighbouring belgium, firefighters have been seeing a rally in the capital of russell's calling for improved working conditions. among

their main demands or better pay and social security along with bigger budgets for the force the african development bank group has pledged $10000000000.00 over the next 5 years for ending food insecurity on the continent. it even envisioned africa becoming a net exporter of food supplies for world markets. the banks president says african needs to raise its ambitions for economic development. we must raise the bar, we must raise our ambition. we must arise and see our cells. it is time to feed africa. the timing is right and the moment is now, feed africa. we must be un, has estimated that more than 35000000 people, including over 6000000 children, are unable to meet their basic nutritional needs in western and central africa. 48000000 people, including 9000000 children, are expected to be at risk of hunger in that region in the near future. elsewhere

in eastern africa, across the kenya and somalia, 24000000 people are now facing dyer water shortages. we heard from economist charles, bogey and uganda. he said that while the international reaction to africa, hunger crisis could be more proactive. it's up to the continent to solve its issues on its own. i think they did. i tional reaction i in my queue is g o o, why it's, you know, lukewarm in certain areas and i'm saying that because most of the time it's more reactionary. and montague, proactive, if i may say, and that's why i again, i would like to meet jane, but he has to be so by africa, the others con, communist friends to support. i know where they come. but that if what you know, needs to be really pushed, phyla had had the baby african countries themselves. i've got, he does. all he does for that matter. the use foreign policy chief, joseph burrell,

has arrived in south africa on a working visit. and his feet, she emphasized europe's interest in the regions and natural resources. as strategic partners, there are areas were work together and could do more together. oh, could work in a more strategic quote at multilateral in continental levels. in some areas, there is a clear interest to move forward. for example, the partnership on sustainable raw materials, spell your chains and go, parishioner, renewable hydrogen. european powers have been buying oil and gas from africa as a distance themselves from russians applies them in the ukraine complex. but while europe and ports fossil fuels, the e u is still pushing for africa to switch to a greener agenda with a focus on sustainable resources and renewable energy. in the meantime, many african countries are struggling with an energy crisis as they try to cope with shortages of electricity, economists, charles, bogey and uganda again says that while the e u. bies fossil fuels,

it shouldn't be trying to push africa to make the jump to renewable energy. specifically, if you thought about the clinic relationship between the you at africa. ok from where you see it. i believe it's more. um. i thought i listened ship well, but you have as the peer to peer relationship, it's more up and if you should have been affect our relationship, which in my view is not really the best way to build an economic relationship at this same level. this will be families in that regard so that if the ears still buys fossil fuels, then it should end up slowly push african countries, you know, to jump on the fog into a space of renewables at this moment because i didn't, did it at will crush us we haven't yet build the muscle, you know, to make that report. so what i can say is that he has to be fantasy. you know, both sides. that's all for now. we'll continue to follow the latest breaking news for you as are ron's defense. ministry says that it has stored at a drone attack. there. of course, if you want more details,

always go to our website, r t dot com. and we'll see right back here with the latest at the top of the hour. ah ah, with ah.

ah ah, we're all aware of whistleblowers whose lives are permanently changed when they make their revelations. many had to prison, many never work in their fields of expertise, ever again, many lose friends, family and the respect of their peers. so why is it that some whistleblowers get the red carpet treatment? why are some lauded by congress and the media will look at the double standard between whistleblowers, who risk everything and people whom the media like to paul whistleblowers, who are little more than corporate spokespeople or individuals hoping to make a political point. i'm john, carry out who you're watching the whistleblowers. 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 francis hogan was

a facebook data engineer and scientist. she appeared 1st on the american news program, 60 minutes, and then before a congressional committee on capital hill to say that facebook misled investors on how they handled hate speech misinformation, teenage mental health and violent content. why did she go public with her revelations? huggins said that she quote, wanted to make facebook the best company. it can be unquote. senator richard blumenthal, a democrat from connecticut, said that hoggett quote wants to fix facebook not burnett to the ground, unquote. huggins got a handsome book deal after her testimony, and billionaire pierre omit you are the founder of ebay, offered her the free services of his public relations firm. that's a pretty nice outcome if you're francis hogan. twitter whistleblower peter zacko had a similar experience known as much that go was a highly respected hacker who eventually found his way to employment at darpa. that's the defense department, super secret defense advanced research projects agency. from there he went to

twitter as the director of information security, but he was forced out of the company in early 2022 after only 2 years on the job. it was 8 months later that much went to congress to complain that twitter was deficient in its handling of user information and spam bots. he added the twitter made false representations to billionaire ilan musk, who at the time was in the process of trying to buy the company. much received a buyout from twitter that paid him $7000000.00. a gag order was attached to the settlement except where it concerned congressional testimony. so everybody's happy, much gets to make his revelations, he gets to keep his $7000000.00. and twitter says they've already implemented his recommendations. they get to call him a disgruntled ex employee. how do we tell a real whistleblower from a fake one? how do we tell the difference between somebody who's jeopardizing everything from one who's trying to cash in?

we're joined by louis clark, he's the ceo and executive director of the government accountability project. louis, thank you. so much for joining us. let's start with that basic of questions. how can you tell the difference between a real whistleblower and somebody who is trying to cash in or maybe make a name for themselves? for one thing is that sir, assumes that motive is. ready important, and i think that what we focus on when it comes in our doors is whether they have what they have to say in terms of the, the truth of the matter, what they're presenting, the law, or the least most laws protecting whistler's was a key, is do these people have a reason to believe that what they're saying is right, and so we focus on are they write about what they're saying.