dumbbells with, with china's lambs, the us for shutting down its weather balloon, which floated over us territory. despite its numerous warnings that the airship does not pose any threat to american security. marking 20 years and see us pushy invasion of iraq in the un security council. we continue our special coverage of the legacy left behind by the devastating war with 1st hand accounts about what led to the tragedy. the united states government had no intention of allowing the inspectors to do their job. the united states was going to go to war with iraq regard. regardless, it doesn't matter what the truth which and the more successful we inspectors became

disarming. iraq, the more threat we posed to the american policy, at least one person is killed and for more trapped under rubble, after the latest round of ukrainian shelling hits residential areas of don yet. ah, good morning for mark international studios in moscow, and welcome to the weekly with the hour and weeks most pressing news stories worldwide. i'm paralyzed about. beijing has condemned the u. s. attack on a chinese balloon, which had been floating over the u. s. territory for several days, despite its previous warning that the balloon is not capable of surveillance and does not pose any threat

some politicians and media in the u. s. have hiked it up to attack and smith, china. the chinese side is firmly opposed to that one of the tasks,

of the diplomatic teams on both sides just to properly manage bilateral relations, particularly to manage semantics, spect, and situations in a cool headed and prudent manner. so i can imagine we got many reactions. so what was the reaction inside the political sphere in the us? ok, well just following on from clinton's, the cancellation of playing with it, china. and also another statement reminding the united states that china has never violate to the territory and spice of any sovereign country. but of course, the u. s. and western media have wasted no time in ratcheting up the ante china rhetoric and the supposed threats posed by, by asia ignorant opposition. republican party members have also gone only offense if they're accusing joe biden of not acting decisively in us and saying that he has failed to protect american national security. that i would listen. i was allowed to go clear across the country for so many days. if you look at this, national security is one of the biggest things that any country can do. it is

a core function of government. we see that the by the administration knew about this balloon days ago. and it seems that there was an opportunity when it was coming over islands in alaska that we could have taken it down. well, of course the china denies that the balloon was carrying out as surveillance. and we know that at this stage the u. s. navy is currently i'm searching for the wreckage, so we might have some more details about the nature of this a balloon in the, in the coming hours. but the, the, the, it, it going back to the threat, sir, you are the claim with the threat posed by china. now this is something of double standards which others are picking up on at the moment and it comes just last summer. of course, m u. s. how speak and nancy pelosi m inflamed tensions with a provocative visit to m. taiwan, which is in breach of the one china policy, which of course a u. s. m. support, but it is also flooded the island with billions of dollars in, in weapons and, and arms. i think her record levels while i'm, you know,

the u. s. talks about the threat posed by china. yet it continues to sell battleships in the south china sea. and it's a cute itself undermining our regional stability with the signing of the orca security pat, which it signed last year with them with britain or, and australia which was aimed countering chinese military power. that was the aim of this a pat they said, but of course this latest simpson is a new blow to already tense us china relations. and i'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about this. and coming days, correspondence, steve sweeney with the details. thank you. earlier we spoke with nelson wong by chairman of the shanghai center for rem pack and international studies. he says, china has no need to use such balloons as surveillance devices. they say is apparently not a pleasant incident, but i don't believe it is wise for anybody to make a big fuss up there because the chinese government has confirmed in the 1st place

that this balloon or the ship or exactly what you call it is from china. and china feels regret for its intended entry into u. s. s. space. china has enough satellites already in china. wants to do any surveillance. why should they use the pollutants? which are so big and so obvious. now, i don't think this connection makes any sense. so let's see, i mean, we're all have to watch and see, but whatever the case, i think the wisdom of both countries, leaders and i've all depressed and now put his test. ah, it's been 20 years since the us invasion of iraq. and here at r t, we continue special coverage of the anniversary,

examining the devastation and destabilization the war cause throughout the middle east. at this hour, american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from great pain. with food medicine and sleep. with today marks 20 years since the u. s. secretary of state at the time push military

action in iraq at the un security council. an episode well known by his display of a vial in an attempt to display allegations of weapons of mass destruction existence in iraq. that claim later proved to be false. one of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on our racks. biological weapons is the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological agents. we have 1st hand descriptions of biological weapons, factories on wheels and on rails. less than a teaspoon of dry anthrax, a little bit about this amount. this is just about the amount of a teaspoon. less than a teaspoonful of dry anthrax in an envelope shut down the united states senate in the fall of 2001. this forced several 100 people to undergo emergency medical treatment and killed 2 postal workers. colin powell later pin the blame on

the intelligence services for providing and accurate information. the years of invasion and the subsequent rise of the conflict with iso have taken a grim toll on a rock and its people. a number of household surveys estimate the actual figure of lives taken is over. 1000000 most iraqis died from aerial bombings, shelling and suicide attacks. over 9000000 people either fled the country or were left internally displaced. and then you and secretary general stress that the u. s . invasion was illegal. i have indicated it is not in conformity with the un charter from our point of view and from the charter point of view, it was illegal. we spoke to a former chief un weapons inspector to arrive, scott ritter, who was there to evaluate what weapons of mass destruction the country actually had . he says washington never had any intention to let the experts do their job as their rocks disarmament was. the last thing the u. s. wanted,

in reality i was brought in to help create an intelligence organization that would assist the special commission and evaluating the accuracy of the iraqi declarations about what weapons of mass destruction they had. you see, i thought that the mission of the special commission was to disarm iraq and am, and we worked in a very assiduous manner to carry out that mission. but it turned out that the disarmament of iraq was the last thing the united states wanted. the united states was going to go to war with iraq regardless. regardless, it doesn't matter what the truth was. so i addressed the iraqi parliament. i gave a speech that wasn't pre screened and as a speech said, if you don't let weapons inspectors back in your country will be destroyed, you have to let them back in without any pre conditions, said saddam hussein's. going to let weapons inspectors back in. i want, i succeeded and so when i came out is the exact opposite. feels like inspectors are

going to be lab back. and i said yes, you can't talk about going to war with iraq unless you allow the inspectors to complete their job. if i rec, kicks inspectors out again. if a wreck doesn't cooperate, then you have justification to accuse iraq of bad stuff. but you must let the inspectors do their job. maybe i was a little naive. maybe the iraqis were because the united states government had no intention allowing the inspectors to do their job. the bottom line is, america's policy wasn't disarmament. but regime change and the more successful we inspectors became in disarming iraq. the more threat we posed to the american policy of regime change and so when weapons inspection teams left iraq in 1998, the world was blind. which means that when colon pal gave his presentation to the united nations security council in february of 2003, it wasn't just misleading. it was deliberately misleading. he knew what he was saying was false. and as a result, we went to war 5 years after the beginning of the arrive occupation by us forces.

then president george w bush proudly visited baghdad, but grateful residence of the war torn country did not give him the welcome. he apparently counted on, as george bush had deduct from the infamous shoes thrown into his face. ah ah, ah, ah ah

ah ah ah, if you looked at his face yellow and twitching, you could see the embarrassment. he was so scared. so i don't think his smile was normal as for the shoes, i demanded them when i was with the investigating judge. i told him you can do whatever you want with me, but i want my shoes. the next day he told me that the shoes had been destroyed in case they contained explosives. but when i was transferred to court for my trial, ordered by an iraqi army division, the divisions commander sat beside me. he asked me, do you know why they destroy the shoes? i told him i heard they did so because they feared he contained explosives. he said,

no, i was there as a security guard for the president. and they said that they were destroyed so that they would not turn into a symbol every one who participated in the occupation of iraq and supported the occupation of iraq shared the fate of george bush in this makes me happy. a group of beneficiaries of the american occupation said that the shoot throwing incident shows us as undeveloped people. but on the 2nd day there was a rally outside the white house with people carrying shoes and hitting pictures of the former president bush. later it was the prime minister of australia, john howard, than the prime minister of spain, who participated in the war, berlusconi, et cetera. and then it became a symbol of protest in the face of every tyrant. and anyone who wants to colonize earth, ah ah, my to live is up and they separated the body from the soul,

removing the skin from the flesh and the flesh from the bone. they have other methods, like electrocution, beating, flogging and breaking bones, thought. what i went through may be less than what others have been through in the rocky detention facilities after the invasion. the hardest memory was when i was with other detainees, because i saw the inequality, the innocent people, and victims of the secret informants and the american occupation. the imprisonment of those who resisted. this is a painful and disturbing memory for anyone with land come with a key. we woke up at dawn when the bombs began falling on baghdad. it was a shock and awe strategy. there was actually shock. what could we do initially?

i thought about my family, my studies, and everything else. it remains a bad memory with more memories coming after the american soldier does not defend his land and fights in a land that has thousands of miles away from his country. therefore, they know for sure that they are wrong. we used to see it in their eyes when they interrogated and detained us. they were either very aggressive to justify their existence on your land, or very shy, trying not to look at you while saying they are wrong, many occupants, when we told them you are occupying our country, couldn't response. they just shook their heads as if to say, what can we do whoa. once an american journalist asked me a question, was in saddam hussein's dictatorship, tough, but based on logic and common sense, one can say that vicious dictatorships worldwide do justify occupation. even if there is a dictator,

the earth is full of dictatorships and oppressors. did america invade iraq for the benefit of iraq or to topple saddam hussein and to whom will america hand over power to the marines? are a group of corrupt people brought in by america itself. many iraqis did not welcome the americans, even though at the time to be honest, there was injustice fear and dictatorial authoritarian system that was trying to control everything. yet the situation doesn't give us the right to rejoice about the occupation, at least some had said that the occupation, as well as regime at the time, was unjust. ah. when it was doing view and security council, the united nations are 2 weeks to play, their real role. even the european union, which america views as a poor, old man on the verge of falling. who dares to hold america accountable? since 2009, i had the idea of a brushing an organization in geneva to provide relief to the victims of the

occupation and hold iraq's killers accountable. imagine even the tv channel where i worked, terminated, my contract in the owner said he was afraid they will freeze his money in europe for being supported by me or supporting i returned to iraq trying my best. it was my dream to collect the signatures of all iraqis who are affected by the invasion in order to file a lawsuit against the vice president in his team. i hope that the stream will one day be fulfilled. ah. my fellow americans, major combat operations and iraq have ended in the battle of iraq. the united states and our allies have prevailed with for the for the can me, the hurtful fact is that bush ended up

a victory like caesar. he walked past his soldiers to hide the signs of the invasion. he committed that the mission was accomplished. but at that moment the mission of destroying iraq began the mission, bringing iraq back to the middle ages began. we know very well that he is a liar and continues to life because his mission iraq has not yet been completed. i wish to say to former u. s. president bush, that i wish to see you in prison before you die. and if that does not happen, i wish before i die to see you face real condemnation and needs are just some of the stories from the decades long conflict. we will be bringing you more throughout the next 2 months in our special coverage of the 20th anniversary of one of america's longest wars. ah, now to the latest from don bass for one person has been killed and another injured

after residential areas in the russian city of daniel square shall buy ukraine. according to local authorities, rubble in a building hit by shelling, collapse, trapping for people. artes roman closer have reports from the scene. ukrainian nationalists to use them multiple launch a rocket systems against civilians in the sensor often ask at least 11 apartment buildings that were damaged as a result, one of them is right behind me. right now, emergency workers are trying to dig through the rubble of audio visual when i read them with theaters i live in this building. on the 3rd floor, there are 2 apartments in the block which still have residence. one is mine, the other one on the 5th floor was directly hit. the strike hit just an hour after i spoke to my neighbor on the phone. his car is still in the yard. i can't get through to him now. the rescue team has just found his wife's phone. last night there was an eerie silence. and now in the morning,

here we are to top floors of this building or destroyed by the u. korean artillery, shutting down the shilling itself took place during the day when most of the people were at home. and the area where the shows i hid here in the nist covers their radio sofa one kilometer. and this area is a strictly civilian. absolutely no military in this area. this deadly shelling continues ukraine's pattern of targeting residential areas with their or trailer. he strikes in the don boss to get more details on this, and other stories had to r t dot com for the latest updates with you as a business interests are quickly emerging and conflict written ukraine. in particular, there is talk about using ukraine's vast natural resources as an alternative for replacing previous imports from russia. ukraine has really significant to posey to

fret of minerals. and if we play all cars, right, could actually be a really attractive alternative to russian and chinese. so says, which is where a lot of dependency comedies are teasing or stano explains how you crazy. natural resources have figured into western business plans for the country for an average soldier in the ukraine. the war smells like many things, gun powder, dirt, fresh blood. but for ceos in the us, it has only one sent over a chris b dollar bill. hundreds of millions of them as the fighting on the ground shows no sign of losing momentum. america's big business is conceiving big plans of reconstructing the post war ukraine. incentivized by president zelinski himself. it is old years that american business can become dep locomotive. that will once again

post 4 of our global economic growth. we have already managed to attract attention and have cooperation with such giants of the international financial and in western war as black roll. she'd be more gone and golden socks, one company eager to accept the burden of rebuilding war 2 and ukraine is black rock. it's one of the world's leading hedge funds. it's assets valued at more than 10 trillion dollars. it show looks like give, can put its mind to tease whatever the fall out from the fighting. american friends will fix it. all. i do believe emotionally. those, the true, the belief in the capital a system will be flawed in ukraine with capital. it can be a beacon to the rest of the world. it's about the power of capitalism, the power of capitalism. well, too bad for ukraine, that capitalism is never driven by altruism and always profit. it just so happens

that black growth has tens of billions invested in lockheed martin re ethan northrop grumman and other major us arms manufacturers. ukraine is the major market for that produce as russia has to respond to washington's deliveries more aggressively. you see where this is going, right? black rock puts fortunes into companies that are literally used to add fuel to the war in ukraine, which only leads to more devastation and more for black rock to rebuild an ingenious plan, devised in the highest echelons of power. see, black rocks managing director has been hired by the us treasury department, specifically to shape us economic policy on russia and ukraine. but rebuilding is just the very tip of this capitalist ice bag. the real profit lies in ukraine's soil. the country is a gold mine, or rather, a titanium mine,

and ukraine happens to be quite rich in titanium, just like russia or china, washington's key rivals and potential enemies. altogether. ukraine sits proudly in 4th place globally in terms of total assets, the value of natural resources, including natural gas, with black rocks, expertise on deregulation and privatization. it's only a matter of time when these treasures will get new foreign owners and from the standpoint of american executives, every ukrainian life last and the war is totally worth it. the weapons manufacturers are making tons of money. i'm sure there's several le, non profit non governmental organizations that are, that are making a lot of money as well. ukraine, which has what half a percent of the land mass in the world has about 5 percent of of minerals

deposits that are significant. they're wondering the top 10 as far as titanium, which is critical for our weapon systems center aircraft and everything else. the interest is not about democracy, or freedom or independence. it's about resources. it's about containment of russia, but access to resources to and the flow of money. i mean, right now we've got just the war alone is, is making a lot of people, a lot of money. and it just flows out of the, out of the government coffers. and into mostly the, the military industrial complex. currently. that was the weekly with the hour and weeks, most vital news stories. and coming up former chief un weapons inspector to iraq. scott ritter was present to evaluate the reality of the weapons of mass destruction . he gave r t an exclusive interview on what he witnessed. watch it next. thanks brittany,

and we'll see you back at the top of the hour. ah ah ah . to what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have. it's crazy confrontation, let it be an arms. race is often very dramatic,

development only personally and getting to resist. i don't see how that strategy will be successful, very difficult. time. time to sit down and talk at this hour. american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grant with we will bring to the food and medicine in supplies and fleet with

ah, when i 1st joined the united nation special commission in september of 1991. i wasn't brought in as an inspector. i was brought in to help create an intelligence organization that would assist the special commission and evaluating the accuracy of the iraqi declarations about what weapons of mass destruction they had . and if the iraqis were found to be wanting, if there were inaccuracies or just gaps up to help collect information that would allow inspectors to go into iraq to either find material or documents that helped answer the questions or, you know, determine what the truth was. i or to confront the iraqis about their law.