[000:00:00;00] with attention center in the pacific region as the us conduct, it's a largest ever military drills with the philippines, although they aren't getting universal support. they're the exercise. it's come just a day after beijing and it's massive war games in your bio waters and investigation by the russian parliament claims to confirm the presence of u. s. operated biological weapon law in ukraine and aircraft giant, boeing affordably plans to return to full production levels of its controversial $737.00 max jazz. 4 years after dudley crash, it claimed the lives of nearly 350 people

with coming to live from the russian capital. this is the r t international. i'm rachel blevins here with the top stories of the hour. welcome to the program. the pentagon claims that china is refusing to get in contact with senior us officials to explain recent large scale military drills, beijing held on its own territory. washington issued the statement just before the u. s. began its largest ever wargames with its south east asian, allied the philippines lines between our military supp, particularly important and scenarios like this. and we colon beijing to engage us in this channel. i'm in the escalating tensions us in the philippines have launched joint military exercises on an unprecedented scale involving more than 17000 soldiers. the drills are said to focus on deterring external threats. china's foreign ministry claims that the increased

u. s. military presence in the region who further destabilized the security situation. just before the westerville's, the president of the philippines address, china is concerns. we will not allow our military pieces to be used for any offensive action. it is only meant to help the philippines when the philippines is in need of help. not everyone in the philippines is happy about their country, strengthening military ties with us. during the opening ceremony for the war games, people took to the streets of manila to protest against rising u. s. influence and their nation. we heard from a local activist at the scene. i think it's me, evelyn, because the lie right now is that you are just here to help us against china and that is an automatic we will see you where to washing for it all is the 1st board agenda is not after philippine sovereignty or philippine national vendor number

2, that is on that the u. s. will help the be modernized, we've been having, having us exercises for 13 years now. they've been having a good rest of all these really very exercises all be b, a s a p under development. we have not modernized by any means. we have to remain dependent on the u. s. so it's not, it's not true because they're here to help us develop some of your here to keep us to defend them on american. the dates in the american military, international relations expert, joseph gregory mahoney, believes that the u. s. as using china's military drills to justify its own large scale exercises with the philippines, i am inclined to see these exercises between us and the philippines as fortuitously

timed by the u. s. i perhaps even in collusion between the, by the ministration and the speaker of house of the house of kevin mccarthy, whose recent meeting with the taiwanese leader in california was set by him and which predictably invited the response. we've seen the u. s. prove vote. the chinese response over taiwan and then provocatively went ahead with the exercises with the philippines and concurrently as fall to china for not communicating. now, this is a well born tactic from the u. s. play book at this point. i do something nasty than try to act reasonable and blame the other side when they don't play along. the fact that china hasn't responded is also har for the course by now as well. we saw the same thing happen after policies visit last year. ties are still deteriorating, this is the trend, and there's no sign. this will change any time soon. ah, an investigation by the russian parliament claims that

u. s. officials had been operating biological weapons labs in ukraine. the head of biological defense forces outline the findings with the previous pasano in the garage during the course of the special military operation. the defense ministry has analyzed more than 2000 documents, confirming the implementation of military biological projects in ukraine, and identified officials who participated in organizing military biological research in the united states. and ukraine is fascinating story, murat, and of course, a bit of by way of background, you know, moscow started to raise concerns about of very, very complex sprawling where essentially of, of laboratories in ukraine. and you know, very soon after the beginning of the special military operation last year, and they've since them in publishing troves of documents outlining in great detail the complex work that these, the parties were doing, who was funding them and who was involved. and also russia took this issue by the

way to the un last october, seeking a, a, an international pro, but very interestingly that was blocked by the united states of france and the u. k . interestingly, and of course, they haven't directly challenged any of the issues that russia has raised around these laboratories, what they were doing, what they were making. why were they in ukraine? and we can actually listen to the commander of russia's nuclear, biological, and chemical protection, troops f e, gore curie love. now you know, telling us a little bit about more about their failure to do the most you can do about manage . it should be noted that the u. s. has not denied any of these facts presented by the defense ministry. no one including western countries, had any doubts about the authenticity of the published documents. i was, it was very interesting and we've heard a lot about these sort of things, but has the west show is how do we say the west? i'm in the u. s. u. k. france. those have they reacted in any way?

well, they've reacted in the predictable way, predictably saying that they're not funding by a weapons labs or bio labs your crime there, but they don't deny. and they do actually acknowledge that they're spending hundreds of millions of dollars that we know about to fund le le bar to which they say are there to counter the spread of bio weapons. you know, we've seen through the information release by russia, dozens of scientists, big name corporations like fire or for example have been involved in these innumerable laboratories in ukraine. and they've never given assurances about the safety of these, the parties, how the pathogens and the work being done there is, is protect the ukrainian people. and you know, and they are also saying that this is down to the ukrainians now because they only fund the research that's not really there. you know, so there's a familiar face as well involved here and victoria newland, the under secretary of state for the united states who's will be well known to

ukraine and russia. watchers if you like. and she had something to say also that the funding of these, the bar to so we can have a listen to that. now ukraine has her biological research facilities. we are working with the ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of russian forces, should they approach, why did that ukraine was chosen for these bio labs? well, that's the interesting question. i mean, you know, obviously ukraine had a lot of difficulties long before the russian military intervention, a lot of corruption, lack of regulation in certain areas. and it was probably seen as a bit of a mark for off the radar development of these type of activities. if you like, of course depleted uranium shelves now seem it's okay to use them in, in ukraine and things that would be an acceptable in the west that would come

a little far more significant scrutiny or from western authorities as seem to go undetected in ukraine. i mean, significant cash in insolence as well. morality comes with this research, hundreds of millions of dollars in a country. that's what it's issues with corruption. so you have to take all of the issues, isn't it? well, one of the most corrupt countries. so we talked about last stage, remember, yeah, just corruption, corruption, corruption, and hey, we have suddenly that corruption. yeah, yeah. and we're talking huge sums of money. and these are the sums of money that we know about from these very complex and very detailed documents which, which the russian authorities have released and persistently releasing. and of course, as i said, the un doesn't seem to want this investigated. so, you know, sadly ukraine has become a testing ground on the battlefield for, you know, highly complex western weapon systems which have never been tested in a combined arms operations before. so the skeptics would say that the war is being perpetuated and prolonged in order to test these weapon systems. and of course,

it seems now that ukraine has also become a laboratory or a testing run for very dangerous pathogens and research into things that could be very harmful to the ukrainian population. if there was to be an action the un food agency says it desperately needs $800000000.00 for the next 6 months to help afghanistan. but the country facing its highest risk of famine in a quarter of a century, the u. n says it's afghan operations remains severely underfunded with only $249000000.00 confirm for this year. however, the total immediate funding requirements to address critical gaps for the coming 3 months stand at $717000000.00. have gala san is currently suffering as 3rd consecutive year of drought like conditions and is still really from decades of conflict and natural disasters. the country is acting foreign minister,

has branded the freezing of the countries as, as in the us in europe. as a legal battalion authority have been struggling to access the nations reserves which have been frozen for months. the money was ceased after the withdrawal of us and nato troops from afghanistan, which, according to recent claims of i, u. s. officials was an, as chaotic as some made it out to be i remember going through all that, ah, that's pretty remarkable. that airport was basically for all intents and purposes, american property a, i'm sorry,

i just will buy the whole argument with for all this talk a chaos. i just didn't see a there was a lot that went right so yeah, there's a lot to be proud of you. for more on this, let's cross. i'm now to afghan journalist for him. so dad, thanks so much for joining us on the program today. now you start out by telling us about the current humanitarian situation in the country. just how bad are things right now. i think right now i want is done is facing one of the harshest humanitarian catastrophe. and it is one of the biggest, almost according to the you in

a very low funding moment is that the consecutive 3rd year of understand is facing this humanitarian catastrophe. and according to the recently, boards of 2023, almost 28 point some 28.8 or more than millions of people need human each are in assistance from which mediums are children. and so the median are one me i've you say, you said we also need almost $4500000000.00 of dollars. a response to $223.00 to cover it. as we also see, does global attention to abeline is done humanitarian crisis.

in an ignoring condition, and then once you've been ignored, why the biggest my manager in catastrophe is right in that does seem to be the case and truly not many people are actually talking about it. so given that great need that you described there, how do you assess the statements of the un food agency that it will need at least $800000000.00 to provide assistance to afghanistan? and why don't you think that that's getting more international attention? see the movement of the taliban government, or the de facto authorities are not nice by the international communities and there has been sanctions on the on this plan is that made the capacity of the people be deep. i'd be very,

very limited. and from the under the side, you have the international attention and being diverted largely to, to the war and crises in your career. and that's how they will funding florida for be crisis. so it is definitely a crisis. shouldn't be covered by this a, but this is incapable and it is under sanction. and also it is not legal. nice. so i think in between it is the people who are separate from one from the very end, state and government and from the other side. and international community that is huge, need, ignoring the crisis plan is. so what we see is the continuation of the

outline crisis. and it is getting larger year by year now and read about. but it is the aid which has to cover this and solve and reach out to this crisis. but this is jacob nice and it, it, it, it is very, very limited in capacity. yeah. truly is a devastating situation for the people there. now we talked a little bit about sanctions at the same time, the countries acting foreign minister has said that the freezing of afghanistan's assets by the u. s. in europe was illegal. is that how you see it and how much of an impact are those frozen assets and the lack of access they're having on the people of afghan? it's been well if c one is done at the moment is facing

as so army of troubles and challenges whether it is the consecutive or of drought if it is the current virus christ and, and it was the you got the change in the government and also the, the sudden an abrupt stop of the donor money on his son. and you have the new government who is sanctioned, who is not recognized. so at this situation, i want to spend some reserve some assets in the u. s which will help the central bank of the line is done in financial in monitoring policy and also help with the private sector. runny because they are one is economy also managing binding. those assets are frozen. so that added

to the difficulties and challenges of the one p but and the capacity of the 5 to be to do anything. so it definitely you is freezing. the assets of one people is having an impact, increasing the challenge for the people, and for the de facto line is certainly a lot of take care for the people i've afghanistan journalists by him. so dot, thank you so much for your time and insight dog o. authorities and cat have announced a ban on evening church services for orthodox easter were jer scheduled for this sunday, citing or curfew order. catholic easter services were held as normal last week. the ukranian orthodox church has been banned in multiple ukrainian regions. it follows weeks of harassment of monks and worshippers over the churches, historical ties to moscow. the russian foreign ministry claims that people have been turning

a blind eye to the religious persecution in the country. the deputy spike's bus and for the us state department, vedanta patel said in reference to the seizure of holy sites of the ukrainian orthodox church within ukraine. quote, i haven't seen those reports so i couldn't speak to them, but we're happy to check and get back to you. that is that prerogative they decided not to comment. it would take an effort to do so. they don't see anything. don't hear anything, don't comment on anything. they have held on for months, maintaining a sense of being surprised. seizing the churches. where is that happening? persecuting the ukranian orthodox church. what are you saying? violating human rights and religious freedoms in ukraine? honestly haven't heard of that. to go further in depth on this this cross i'm now to academic and independent journalist jason michael mc con. jason is great to have

you on the program today. so was the ban on orthodox easter services? a surprise to you? frankly, it did come as a surprise. i was watching with great interest what has been happening over the last few months and more intensely over the last few weeks. though i am surprised that they've taken this step. certainly with the height of international criticism, possibly not from the united states and threaten or from nato countries. but this is something that francis enrolled has even intervened on asking for the key as regime to show respect for the orthodox community. and it's property shocking that has taken place, and certainly perhaps i shouldn't have been shocked watching the video the shows the how taken place and the treatment of ultimately orthodox worshippers exercising

the lead them of religion in the state that is projecting itself to the world of a state defending western volume and human rights. that is quite frankly, quite shocking. yeah. almost seen then, when you think it can't get more extreme than it does. but what's interesting here is that key says that they are banning the orthodox services under the pretext of an evening curfew being in place. but do you think that there are other motives at play here? well, quite clearly, there are other motives that play. this is the law just christian church in ukraine by far. it is the oldest christian church in ukraine by far. this is, this is a center of cultural religious gravity within the state. and also bearing in mind that this is the orthodox easter, this is the high point,

the most sacred moment of the christian liturgical calendar. banning and eastern event, which are so important to christian would be time to mind at the same time of year as bonding pass over events for the jewish community or ramadan events for the muslim community. this is quite clearly a move is designed to be punitive on one particular religious group and coming off the back of the the, the persecution, the act of persecution and the orchestrated demonstrations. i said churches on the seizures of church property that we have witnessed. it can be interpreted in no other way. yeah, i know. and given what does it say, care the precedent that is set here. we really haven't heard much at all from the us. so why do you think that washington is turning a blind eye when kiev is cancelling churches historically linked to russia? well, 1st of all,

we could comment on this being historically linked to russia. the criticism of the ukrainian orthodox churches, links to russia, is very similar to the criticizing the irish catholic church for its historic links to italy. this is the way off the dock, the catholicism work. the patriarchy and the historic patriarchy, of course, of the ukrainian church in moscow. much in the same way of the catholic church is rome. this is not a political link. this is a cultural, religious link that follows the norms of christianity. this is being ignored by washington. and by the european union, because it is embarrassing it. and it's an assault on the, the religious freedom and the, the freedom of expression of a large part of the ukrainian population. this is not an attack on russia. this is an attack by the ukrainian regime on its own people are what is perhaps most

disturbing in this is that this is evocative of a memory within europe itself from the, the, the 2nd world war. when the nazi regime and germany effectively established its wouldn't checks the right church in order to combat any form of criticism. but the, the capital of the protestant churches within germany. but it, you know, it mandated its own church and this is what we are seeing with the creation of the old cabinet to post the docs church in ukraine. there is no such thing within the christian imagination. and christian ecclesiastes, g m, theology as an old tablet of orthodox church. there is no such thing as an old tablets of catholic church. catholicism and orthodoxy are what they are. in fact, a closer analogy perhaps would be the creation of the patriotic christian or catholic association in communist, diana from the 1950s, the creation of

a state control church. and when we see the the orthodox church of ukraine, this old tablet of orthodoxy being established, unsupported by key. if we are working on a state control church, removing the oldest christian denomination in the country for the supposed links to moscow. it's, it's patently up. some has certainly a lot of stay care and few too many are not talking about it, but we appreciate you joining us to break it all down. journalist jason michael mccann. thank you so much for your time and it's ah, aircraft giant, boeing reportedly plans to restore a full production of its controversial 737 max jazz. now it's been 4 years since 2 deadly crashes left more than $300.00 people, dad, and all the aircraft grounded the world over and the company's reputation severely hit. you may remember the 1st of those fatal crashes occurred in indonesia in

october 2018. the jap plunge from the sky just 13 minutes after take off, killing all 189 people on board. just 5 months later, another of the plants came down in almost identical circumstances in ethiopia, claiming the lives of 157 people following a 2 year global grounding, the model was cleared to fly again after boeing overhaul as flight control systems . we spoke to an expert in the field who believes that big companies use their money to very bad news. i can see on numbers. it is simply not enough. you cannot, again, i laid off. i need and did one wise, well, last in board, the crashes is really challenging for a family to go against this. i got to put it just and they simply by b, b and families in the process as well. ation is

a huge the regulated industry. the tax investigate does have a lot of stakeholders in aids beam. i asked the members so that he, i like the high to come out. but in the process of we have seen boeing news. a lot of it, butte reaches one of the most challenging things to reagan after a couple of crisis taking place and one of the highest dic it off on the scene of ation. so we're looking are challenging times ahead. ah, russia is once again, conspiring against the west, on a goal will stage at least those according to leave pentagon documents in which you as spies claim that even the u. e. is now on moscow side, referring to the main successor agency of the soviet era k g b. the document seen by the a p says, in mid january f, s b officials claimed you

a security service officials and russia had agreed to work together against u. s. and u. k. intelligence agencies, according to newly acquired signals, intelligence, allegedly highly classified documents from us. intelligence have been linked online in recent weeks. they claim to prove the scope and scale of washington spying practices. not just on his enemies, but on his allies to including the ukrainian president. however, the u. e is dismissing the claims that it is conspiring with russia hauling the allegations categorically false, so far. the size of the actual breach of national security is not known, but the white house has stated that such information has no place being public. this is, again without confirming the validity of the documents. this is information that has no business in the public domain. it has no business, if you don't mind me saying on the pages of, of, from pages of newspapers or on television,

it is not intended for public consumption. and it should not be out there. what is certainly going on. i think my interpretation is that by that has a very, very high level enemy within the pentagon. i think that is absolutely clear because the person who leave this information and the timing of it is very him, is very relevant. and if we only go back just a few weeks ago, remember the know stream type attack which seems harsh. read something incredible. so that was also leads by very, very senior person with independent. and so he's got enemies. he's obviously got people who are very, very disgruntled and very angry with this lexical campaign. these running against trump, you know, which is a lot of americans are just disgusted by, you know, to use the political message. you have to put trump in the dark just for the key moments prevents him from actually running as a president. i think that's really what the link is. i think this is

a story about politics and dr. bottom. that's all for now. be sure to check out our t dot com for all the latest breaking news and updates. we'll see you right back here at the top of the hour the the i a a a a