[000:00:00;00] a near the front lines of the recently incorporated russian territories of the public am has on region. they had met at the updates directly from the commanders of local forces. a defense smith meets with his chinese counterpart in moscow, while russia holds naval drilled in the pacific. our correspondent, impressed with the fleet which has been put on i look

with one of the warring parties and sit down agreed for 24 hour humanitarian seas. after speaking to washington, the sudanese army rejects a very warm welcome to you on the entire international news team coming to you live from us. let's take a look at the top stories of this hour and we start with for the 1st time since the start of russia's military campaign by the input and have traveled to little guys to republic. and this has on region at the start court, easton national guard headquarters, the country's leader, met with commanders and received up the minutes. situation reports from the conflicts. the readers are a portion of several territories that chose to join the russian federation and also

referendum. the trip was previously discussed with my colleague unit o'neill and our team correspondent sweeney. this was a surprise visit the kremlin. have confirmed that this wasn't planned in advance and he met with the commanders of the nipple group on the or some front and a he wished them both a happy easter. he presented them with religious icons. of course he orthodox celebrations. taking place over the weekend. he said he didn't wish to distract them from their duties, but he said the meeting was brief, but he was given concrete details of the situation in her son and also ins up a roger. of course, this is the side of the nuclear power plant, which was the cause of grave concern last year, due to the intensity of the fighting. there it was phase of a nuclear acton russian forces have secured at the nuclear power plant. but this was that the president's 1st visit to the region since a military operation began in february last year. and of course, now these regions are incorporated into the russian federation. vladimir putin

visited matthew paul, which the, the city was the scene of intense fighting devastation and, and destruction. and he met a lot of the locals there. they were that they were updating him on the, on the situation on the ground. i also spoke with many of those residents last year who told me the of the i, the, the intensity of the situation there. they said that their homes had been destroyed . they showed me photographs of these, do you know that their apartments that have been flattened and they said that this was carried out by ukrainian or forces they was astonishing. steve wasn't because we saw those pictures, apartment blocks flattened to the ground and then all of a sudden a few months later, getting, as you say, the keys to new homes. i'm sure other carries will be hoping for similar of course, and that in the state of the reconstruction has been fairly rapid and people are on the ground. have said that in the are that the redevelopment there was something that they never saw when it was under the control of, of care they, they, they, they,

they lacked investment and now they're seeing that these brand new apartments very, very nice looking apart. so be given the case these free, of course, and there's been schools and hospitals re developed, of course, are ukrainian forces were, are using those as military bases. the schools they had soldiers placed in them. they placed military hardware in those residential areas. now this comes, of course, as the, these leak documents from the, from the pentagon, allegedly, we have to say that and yet we haven't had the confirmation of this at this stage. but there was a lot of speculation on the spring offensive, not the newsweek, the u. s, publication music published over the weekend said that the m, the spring offensive, was planned for april, the 30th. and this was backed by a minute the supply of minutes. she hardware from the u. u. s, but whether that's happening now, nor is open to speculation, a number of the international volunteers. these mercenaries that have been fighting on the ukrainian side, i monitor and observe very closely on social media. a large number of those have

returned back to the u. k. and they're saying that the spring offensive is now not taking place, but for now rushes military operation continues. and president putin's visit to the from i'm will be very welcome. as a rumors swirled about kids, impending spring counter offensive artes senior correspondent moran gusio, who has been tracking the russian forces advancement, sent us this report from don bus, the city of back mortar, or what's left of it. the battle rages, unabated. ukrainian forces have been pushed to the western suburbs as key of throws more and more troops into the grinder to delayed defeat. here, it would be a tremendous psychological blow to its war effort. and backers, you claimed that ukraine troops would be in crimea by spring. the, well, she'll have plenty of time. no rush,

everything is going to plan. it is no secret that ukraine has amassed a large strike force. footage of mass troop formations and hordes of armored vehicles have appeared more and more often, but the long awaited ukrainian counter offensive is going to have to wait rain and mud in easton, ukraine. mean any offensive will quickly become bogged down with russia. in turn is preparing air strikes with glad bombs have risen sharply in recent weeks. ukraine has nothing to fight them with. concurrently. massive defensive lines have been dug and fortified across the 1000 kilometer front line. ukraine needs to show that it can when the clock is ticking. we have obviously had an extraordinary amount of money that congress has given us to provide security

assistance to the ukrainians. but it's not unlimited. war fatigue is rising among ukraine's sponsors their arsenals. depleted tens of billions spent in support of kiev with little by way of success to show for it. poland and the others have found this trend, alarming. if we lose the ukraine, we will lose piece for decades. failure in ukraine could be the beginning of the end of the gold. an age of de wes much will be decided in the coming weeks. ukraine's much hyped counter offensive and success on the battlefield, or lack thereof, will make or break western commitments to it. and without an endless stream of west and money, guns and artillery shells, the conflict can only go one way. more ad gasdio archie from logan screeching.

ah russia the 1st master has met with his chinese counts partly shampoo. in moscow, they discuss the stern thing ties between their countries and praise the steps taken by their national leaders to promote increased global stability or german version of your trip to moscow is the result. 2 important agreements between putin and she's in the garden coordination of our efforts in the military sphere help stabilize the situation in the world and reduces the potential for conflict. we are developing these approaches in preparations for joint military exercises. i am convinced that today's meeting will strengthen further military cooperation between russia and china. resume. julie armed forces of china and russia will implement the agreements reached by the heads of state and promote military technical cooperation between china and russia. and we will definitely bring them to a new level. let me think so. the face at russell pacific seat conducted exercises off the country's eastern coast. russian naval vessels have been put on high alert

to test their rudeness amid soaring tensions with western powers over the ukraine. conflicts also correspondent donald quota, was able to see 1st hand the scope and scale of the drill team. today the grantee is carrying out its part of the snap naval drills called by the defense ministry to test the combat readiness of russia's far east fleet and the events of an enemy attack. this involves linking up with 3 other anti submarine vessels and conducting mass firing drills alongside them in formation with this helicopter that's going to seek and identify targets in the water for the ships to launch torpedoes that we're also going to see, by the way, the might of these torpedoes in action today, so without further ado,

let's get right into with where they've been on there for 3. were out at sea with the corvette grom key, meeting loud in english. it's a very young ship, just 4 years of age, as well as a very fast one armed with high powered torpedoes employed and anti submarine combat, as well as universal artillery that can be used against enemy vessels as well as aerial targets for a

a with so i for the amount in response to appeals from the wool community for a 24 hour humanitarian truce to facilitate the safe passage of civilians. and the evacuation of the end of the leader of the permanent t rapid support falls or r s f h r. engaged in combat with the national army agreed. according to the un warfare has been going on through out of the nation since saturday, taking 185 lives and wounding 1800 more. now the r assess lead amounts of commitment on a twitter and said the decision was directly influenced by

a conversation with the u. s. secretary of state and appeals from other countries. so dummy has said it's not aware of a media mediated truth. and the move is intended to cover up the defeat of the sports is the conflict broke out 4 days ago and has left residence, dealing with power cuts, shortages and closed hospitals. the international red crescent, humanitarian group has won that now it's quote, almost impossible to deliver any humanitarian aid to the capital. we managed to speak to a local journalist. nurses have been intensified actually day after day. so as reach now the 1st day this new more me less is at the moment the us, if just this one is the news though we know that there is no electricity and also other surfaces and the old so

a, so the injuries a does come with a lot of locals, along with like, is it going to be and, but it goes to it with the injuries and the danger situation. all know, graham, the american diplomatic convoy has been attacked as well as the european union. a boss of this is the, that officials from the us and the you have strongly condemned the incidence secretary of state. and the lincoln said, the initial intelligence reports points to opposition forces being behind the attack on the americans. i can confirm that yesterday we had an american diplomatic convoy that was fired on all of our people are safe and unharmed. but

this action was reckless. it was a responsible and of course unsafe a few hours ago. the best that are in sudan was assaulted in his own residency. this constitutes a gross violation of the vienna convention security of diplomatic premises and staff is a primary responsibility of sudanese authorities and an obligation under international law. we spoke with a specialist on african affairs gerald horn. he says that the ongoing attempted to incident may have a western backup will obviously, washington's diplomats either or not advising the secretary of state properly. or there are some sort of hidden agenda, which is often prevalent in the us state department whereby you, us back civilians will be catapulted into power in heart tomb. and somehow the military forces will be sideline. i think this is a very,

a ill advised maneuver if that is in fact what's happening recalled that it was united states under u. s. president george w bush. the push for the secession of south sudan, which is a wash in petroleum. it's successfully seceded, seceded from the water through den, and has been marked and unrest ever since. recall as well that some decades ago, in the aftermath of sudanese and dependence of the mid 19 fifties, it was the united states that pushed for the isolation. if not the bludgeoning of the sudanese communist party, which was seen as inimical to washington's cold war ambitious. and was a powerful political force. perhaps washington, as newspaper headlines that suggested as seeking to cut a deal with one or another faction within the military. and thereby help

to further isolate the sudan from its natural allies in the african union. not to mention it's friends and is the national community, including russia and china. and i would urge mister blinkin to bow to the influence of the african union, headquartered a neighboring ethiopia, which is much closer to the ground and much closer to the forces who are now fighting each other in sudan. south america. now where the white house has suggested that the president of brazil is blindly following russian rhetoric the accusation, kane justice rushes for mister haled tools with luda de silver, who stands on the craning conflict is seemingly cold in concern for washington. the pat discussed ways to strengthen what they described as a bilateral strategic partnership. it follows washington, it's using brazil of supporting quote, russian and chinese propaganda lula to silver recently called on the sending of

weapons to ukraine to stop and suggested both sides of negotiate to end. the conflict rushes, 4 minutes on monday, express gratitude to brazil on its attempt to settle the convict. and industrial countries bid for a permanent seat on the un security council. from cook. as part of our common efforts to promote a fair reform of the mechanisms of global governance institutions, we will work closely together at the un within the framework of the security council, where brazil is currently a non permanent member. we have reformed today, our support for brazil's bid to obtain permanent membership at the security council just as we support india's bit. and in this regard, we also support the need to satisfy the interests of the african continent. reveal is the 1st thought form survey levels visit to latin america, which will also take into venezuela, nicaragua,

and cuba. most of us thought diplomat says the key goal of the tourist strength and cooperation between the countries on a whole host of france, particularly in the political trade and education surveys and all these. a spanish correspondence simeon found that it is in presidio. continue. it's, you know, relations of been national view through here in the capital are for a c o r, the russian foreign minister has had a series of meetings. for example, he met with his counterpart. ah moto vida, they talked about saw their relationships between the 2 countries. about the economic situation about this strategic corporations and brazil was so once again, happy to hear that russia is in favor of feats becoming a permanent or un security council member. and of course, they talked about their situation are in ukraine. you know, they,

it was somebody in brazil is ready to participate in the peaceful resolution of the ukraine conflict recall and the message of brazil in president luther, the silver. we support the creation of a friendly group in order to facilitate negotiations between russia and ukraine. i also repeat opposition on the necessity of a ceasefire. the respect for humanitarian law and the establishment of a long term piece. the context here is really important because they're a brazilian president himself has had just a long i international, a trip where in numerous occasions he spoke about the situation in a ukraine, brazil isa against all for you know, right lateral sanctions against russia. according to bremo oakland chief editor of the latin american focus news portal, oprah monday, the further strengthening of relation to drain russia. brazil is paving the way for

a world order where diplomacy prevails. in addition to commercial and cultural relationships, brazilian russia participation the same is true authentic articulation, the brakes, and their development, implementing condition by the control that united states exercise over the global financial system as it do counter is, is trenton. they align alongside china, india, south africa, and all the nations of the so called global south bath towards a democratic won't order without a demo knees, we'll be easier. i believe that president lula is acting correctly when he propose a long flight chinese presidents using being and all the leaders decoration of a group of countries willing to facilitate the negotiation, denied to stay. and the rebellion union together with crane must be pressure when

to stand that all new way resolve the conflict is through i just and lasting peace negotiation the u. s. government had full access to everything on twitter, including users, private chassis, that's the revelation that emerged from the interview with the social media jives new boss in our mosque. he laid it all out with function as host tucker carlson, while also discussing the future of artificial intelligence. an issue, the entrepreneur stresses is an absolute priority. the degree to which are various govern agencies had, effectually, had full access to everything. was going on a twitter, a blue online. and i was not aware of that. would that include people's dm's? yes. oh,

nothing that ellen said in any way shocked me or that i didn't know we've even heard before time after time repeatedly that there were channels between these individuals, these folks from twitter and various government organizations. and i would go so far as to suggest that the government is twitter is social media, the idea that they're independent. none of these shocked me. i think in addition to elan must, we had to sit back and pumped the brakes ourselves and at ourselves, what do we so worried about why we have been trained to hyper react to every body, daring to say something, to present something to promote something, to quote something which may not be correct, determined by whom i still go back. if you want freedom, then have freedom. let's go back to the wild west. put a big warning. are you sure you want to see or read twitter? there's a lot of weird people with

a lot of weird information. sure. okay. sky's the limit. he still is talking about control. the real issue was about artificial intelligence. and let me tell you that is the issue. the proverbial issue that keeps me up at night. nothing else this we already knew about. we have been listen, we were born into captivity. anybody on this planet, in one way or another is born in surveillance. and if you think that any device you're using, whether it's a fall on, is that a part of some method data pull, you must be kidding by artificial intelligence. and here's the best part. nobody understands it that confusing it with robots or something or, or machine learning. so the existential threat to everyone is misunderstood, per usual ah, turning to the recent leagues of classified documents from the pentagon,

a wall street journal investigation has stated that a pro russian telegram child played a could key role in the disclosure and has run away u. s. navy veteran a to ported russian borger and known as don boss, debora oscar, which translates as don bus girl, re posted the files from obscure online chat rooms. the blog is the face of a network of pro kremlin social media, broadcasting merchandise and fundraising accounts. but the person who host it book us as don bos, davis kind overseas. these accounts is a washington state based former use and list of every asian electronics technician whose real name is sarah bills. according to the american daily, the don bus, the bush, joe, or don bus girl, is a telegram account which re posted for the leak classified documents to it's over $70000.00 followers. the files were then picked up and spread by media outlets, while the childs administrator form a u. s. navy officer,

sarah bills allegedly said to the paper that 15 people quote from all over the world, ran the group. she declined to identify the others, and the pentagon is now to pull to the looking into her involvement in spreading the documents. meanwhile, us authorities have arrested and charged 821 year old national guard member over the leak. american officials alleged some of the documents were altered before being published. the unverified files allegedly contain details of u. s. military plans in ukraine. the editor over the covert action analysis site says, the leak and the attempt to blame russia, appeared to point to a us disinformation campaign there trying to link it to russia that russia was somehow connected with this major leak. but now it's coming out that this woman was actually working for us, you know,

was in the u. s. navy. so i think that very clearly a part of this information operation. i was point to the parallel, you're doing a song when he leak these incriminating documents about democratic national committee that you know, 2016 election that seemingly an impact on the election. they tried to link a song with russia and blame him. very likely, the same kind of thing is happening here, and they're trying to blame russia for this leak and sustain this narrative that the russians are interfering in us politics and sustain is demon ization of russia . that's fueling domestic public support for a very, very bellicose and confrontational policies towards russia. some positive news that doing business in africa and needs to and will become easier for the sale, the noises, all of the ongoing african continental free trade area. business forum breaking down that i'm more from the cape town event, his all teens course,

one them kind of the thought. the africa, continental free trade agreement, business forum is in full swing, giving a chance for africa to reflect upon his current position, as well as the pressing challenges that are still holding back the movement and freedom of trade in goods and services on the continent for africa to truly realize the full implementation of the promise of the free trade area, more countries need not only sign up, but also have their parliament rectify the deal. there are $47.00 african countries represented at this forum, but only $37.00 out of the $54.00 have signed up and rectified the deal. a lesson that south africa and madge area. i still coming to terms with we working on a project with both governments in south africa and nigeria and private sector on how we work more closely together and leverage more opportunity. and what we've really found, the big deficit is,

is information and also relationships. we don't have both countries, the heavily regulated that our regulators have not met each other, even though a lot of our businesses are doing or invested in nigeria. so we're looking at actually how it's starting at a lot of it is starting at the base level and it's getting people to meet each other. in the 3 years since the africa, continental free trade agreement was infected. only 13 percent of the commitments made by countries have been implemented, but now the focus shifts to the private sector and businesses to give for momentum to the trade agreement. free car has got potential because the african population is going to quadruple by 2100 because africa is the fastest growing continent because we're sitting with 1300000000 people, 60 percent off, which are young people. you know, so the market is right. it is absolutely the right market for the african businesses to enter the see how they leverage agent actually cultivate,

to leverage the these opportunities business needs to speak as one formidable voice . even though trade amongst african countries is currently at 16 percent. it still leaves much to be desired. one of the main goals is to create more jobs. for the hundreds of millions of africans fill out of work that we would like to see. i forgot to become one of the preferred to investment destination. and therefore, we believe if we really put our energy together as africans, we can be able to, to create more jobs. the continental free trade deal is coming into its own, on the. busy verge of the 2nd brick summit to be held on the african continent. south africa will as chair, bring in more african countries into the breaks family wide. our conversations and africa best be ready to leverage the opportunity carmel. it has

a lot of tea in cape town. ah, specialized program called africa now is up next. so we'll be back with more news from around the world of trouble there. ah. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have. it trees even