in the distressing images from lebanon, where at least 8 people have been killed in more than 2800 injured after page, or is used by how's the law exploded lebanese officials and the militant group are blaming israel. the meta pulls the plug on our t across it's platforms after the us state department issues a rallying cry for a world wide suppression of our networks. a prominent canyon politician says it comes as no surprise, considering washington's control over the media giants med died. so it's not, it's,

it's not news. so in terms of about funds single time it's on the agenda it's, it's, um, it's, it's, it's one of the united states, uh, communications a big months and national continued to and bonds, the interest of the united states empire. a south african media review is not missing its words saying the r t found proves that so called western freedom of speech only applies to those who bay the oval office. plus i also think there are americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda. and whether they should be civilly or even in some cases, criminal a charge is something that would be a better deterrent performer. you as the top diplomat and democrat, hillary clinton suggest prosecuting americans for a spreading information that's washington decides to suppress the

the we're watching r t international. i'm rachel ruble live in moscow were covering the top new stories from around the worlds. we start with breaking news from lebanon. we're at least 9 people have been killed in more than 2800 injured after their pagers, which are wireless communication devices, suddenly exploded. they've been widely used by hezbollah and many of its fighters are now in the hospital. our t correspondent who's saying i yada is in be rude with more ma'am. how much there was no doubt the injuries were not limited to hezbollah. members, there are also hundreds of lebanese citizens who were targeted. there are serious injuries and reports of a del lebanese hospitals called on all workers in the health sector to respond and go to their work. places to help contain this great disaster that hit 11 on today is that there are several areas that were affected by this incident with explosions occurring in the suburb of a route in the south and in areas of east lebanon. and the city of stores inside of

the number of injuries from one hospital to another differ, but most are reporting. they are full. also, there was a request for citizens to donate blood. is that due to the heavy casualties and the severity of the cases? well, many medical facilities have started rapid operations to separate the bodies of the dead from the injured. there was no doubt that lebanon is facing a serious crisis, with a state of panic, taking over the hospitals and throughout the country. all right, we have our correspondence standing by middle east bureau chief, maria phenomena and our correspondence. yes and again and yusef and july, maria, i'll start with you 1st off. what spend the reaction from israel well good evening to rachel. well basically no reaction. i don't how though it is widely believed that israel is behind tuesday, is that the card in a to the tax and lab on, on with hezbollah, as well as lebanese officials pointing

a finger of blame as tel aviv officially, as ro hasn't claimed responsibility, there are no comments coming from the idea of either of these really arm is literally silent. and we also hear that israel's national security council has called on as really ministers to refrain from commenting on the attack. as a result, nothing coming from is really politicians, either a former advisor to an attorney. yahoo though gave a hate to earlier publishing a post on social media, media painting that israel could be involved while answering. and it's really journalist who said, nathan, yeah, who would not dare to attack 11 on before he travels to the us for the un general assembly late to this month, the politician pasted it didn't fit 12, indicating that a might be that is really prime minister did give the order, he later deleted the post while the prime minister's office. we acted also issue in a statement. say the advisor is no longer working directly with these really prime

minister netanyahu and doesn't have access to is really decision making circles. while the attack comes as tensions, oil, not disease, really lebanese border where we are right now. really officials more and more often make it clear that a stronger military response is coming from is really side. and here's what the country's defense minister had to say. the one who just weeks ago claimed. but israel is not ready for another front in the north. let's take a listen. the possibility for an agreement is running out as hezbollah continues to tie itself to him, us, and refuses to end the conflict. therefore, the only way left to ensure the return of israel's northern communities to their homes will be by a military reaction to well as you know, hezbollah, blame days, roll for the attack that claimed the lives of civilians popular from top liberation of palestine also condemned to the attacks and it will not deter the resistance,

so it is clear that we might expect even further and more dramatic escalation. some is where the media now speculates that within the next hours we might expect messic strikes from the lebanese sides. meanwhile, northern communities prepare for a possible retaliation. like here, i'm right now in the city of kitty at one i loved one on is just behind the small and behind me, the safety once a busy and vibrant one with a population of up to 25000 people now stays mainly abandoned tough to mess leave evacuate ation in the previous months, but those who stayed here and now getting ready for any scenario or including the worst one, have i have to say that it hasn't been said here since last october, when his bella joined him mazda and confronting israel. but it still could be much worse and of course local residents, those who are still staying here and very much concerned about these escalation that is still coming. and as a result, we have

a situation when officially the full scale operation has not been approved or declared. it's not, there is no war, but it is guessing that direction in leaps and bounds back to you. all right, maria, thank you. let's go now to yes and i can, yes. and how has the law and lebanese officials reacted to the attack so far? the for starters, they do valve that there will be a response that the retaliation will take place. because this is the largest cyber attack that has been less faced in its history and ever since the start of the conflict between israel and gaza getting back to october of 2023. we understand that the scope of these operations and the patterns have changed over sign. but the one thing that does remain is that as the hezbollah side has been affected quite drastically. also understand that the has the lot officials, as well as lebanese officials and provided a statement suggesting that israel was behind the attack. but i've also considered

the fact that israel is not just to blame here. let's take a listen. after examining all the fact occurring data and available information about the terrible attack that took place, we hold these really enemy, fully responsible for this criminal aggression which also targeted civilians and led to a large number of casualties including debts. the lebanese government condemns these rightly attack the responsibility for israeli attacks lollies with the international community of the in its 1st statement. as well as said that an investigation will be launched, that they will get to the bottom of the nature of the attack. how it happened and why it happened for the most part. but what we're looking at right now is a different strategy that is being used by these really ministry. we understand that live in on the health ministry also issued a statement suggesting that civilians were also targeted as a result of this attack. so that really leads to scenarios that are gaining traction on social media as well as the popular figure among analysts and cyber

security. experts which suggest that it was either a cyber warfare attack that was targeting these devices because the reality is that as well luck does have protocols in place to ensure that the device's self destruct if they are ever apprehended by israeli intelligence officials. so the 1st option would be that is really tapped into the transmitting signals and the towers that are essentially erected throughout the country topped into those targeted those devices. and as a result exploded. but the one thing that does remain constant is looking at the video footage that was provided and suggest that the devices were in one way or another strapped with explosives. not your typical electrical fire or battery exploding. and that really leaves reason for the 2nd alternative, which is uh, there is a probability that is really intelligence at one point i had access to these devices, tempered with these devices and essentially designated deep, i'm so sorry uh, transmitted the destination protocol which resulted in the explosion of these devices and looking at some of the information provided by the ministry of health

for example, they suggest that it's not just as bullfighters that were attacked as a result. but civilians, as well as security and health workers, were also targeted as a result of this attack with suggest that the probability for the 2nd scenario could be just as high as the 1st. it's going to be important to wait, what the hezbollah official suggests, and what, what their investigation concludes before we move forward. but the one thing that does remain clear as bullet has about to retaliate. and we can only assume that is real world in one form or another retaliate to that which allegation further, essential, inspiring, leave out of control and risk inputting the entire region into further conflict. rachel, yes, and thank you for that. let's go now to use of to wally use if there are reports, the a rainy an ambassador was injured in that attack. what more do you know? a result of course. uh, do you want in a box that are uh, 211 on most of amani is one of those who have been infected by that. uh last of course he's this thing injuries. and he was sent out to the hospital audio. we're

not short still, but what's he i carrying the page or that exploded or he wasn't the vicinity of the applause though we are of course are waiting for comments from the running officials to elaborate on this. but his wife took to social media. she wrote on x on her x account that he is feeling well now she wrote that her husband was exposed to injuries, minor injuries, as described by his wife, and now he has survived the incident. of course, it came as part of that large scale of cyber attack that targeted of hundreds of pagers or communication devices carried by hundreds of hezbollah members. but of course now, yvonne has also reacted we see different yvonne and officials are starting to react . uh, the warranty and uh, foreign minister, i bought that off to uh, called his 11 his counterpart, um and uh, he extended his condolences and called the incident a terrorist act by as well,

that will not go on, answered of course, different. do you want him to officials of these days? are talking about the, the retaliation. uh for the assassination of his mind. have you check on those calls have once again been renewed by different uh, officials and your one just yesterday we heard they are wanting president muscle position the on during his 1st pressure. he said directly that to get one well not, but he's not going to forget about the killing and the assassination of this 1000000 honey a into one and to ron will definitely would tell you the right time and the right place. so this is not, not, not a game that will lead to coming down to a situation in the middle east under, as yvonne is talking about revenge as well and live in on have been exchanging fire . indeed, on the liberties is where the border and the situation is not going to end. and as

my colleagues said, this is going to put the region on the brink of a regional complication. right, you so thank you of the things to our correspondence r t 's, maria from ocean now. yes and again. and it uses jolie. and we spoke with former us defense department contractor, kevin mccully and see he says this could be a signal. israel is preparing for a full scale invasion of lebanon. i don't really have initial thoughts other than it's typical to try to eliminate your enemy. so i think this is really, is a really intelligence uh, you know, providing these pages or getting their hands on them. i don't know how that would be. uh, you know, the big question. it couldn't be to drive his bowl of back from the borders, which opens the opportunity for them to go into a lab and not. and if they have to work on,

you know, not having to front or is going on right on the, is really borders. so it would be a good technique to do that. but it will also in rage, the lebanese people, it's hard for anyone, cherry, and one of these pagers to know who's actually carrying that though, just because it does a number assigned to it or an id doesn't mean that the person that was sold to or given to is actually carrying it, a lot of parents will take a pager and give it to their child so they can contact them, or they get 3 or 4 of them and their various family members will have them. so it's a pretty crude way of dealing with such activities. the us government is out to get us and marks back. a bird is

happy to applies his metal platforms have joined a washington's crusade against our network, shutting us down across facebook and instagram. this comes after the state department called for a world wide ban of russian state media over alleged election meddling, and meta is obediently towing the line. after careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against the russians. the media outlets receives the gordon there are see and other related, and these are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity. for earlier today, just hours before our instagram and facebook pages were taken down, meadows policy details were unexpectedly altered. this comes just 2 months after the previous update, however, changes to the terms had previously occurred only once every 2 years. and this no surprise, the latest amendment came after the orders were passed down from the us state department, as ortiz, marina customer, eva explains. it's hardly surprising that of course we saw not doing this just

literally a couple of days after the announcement by the us state department and the sanctions that they announced. but we've known about the links between the 2. it's been very well documents that from former c i a and f b i. agents working there to direct calls for censorship, which we'll get to in the 2nd. but let's 1st see how this all started. the united states, united kingdom and canada, are launching a launching a joints diplomatic campaign to riley allies and partners around the world to join us in addressing the threat posed by r. t, and other machinery of russian just information and corporate influence. each government, of course, is going to decide how it responds to this threat. but we are to every, every partner to start by treating ortiz activities as they do other intelligence activities by russia within their borders and a couple of days right after that. and that i moved and of course, delete all of our content before it was a shadow bad. so if you were, for example,

and countries other than you or others in the united states, you could access it even in those countries using a vpn. but now there's nothing to access the content has been completed, deleted, and one could argue, you don't like us find vanda in your own country, even though it's a social media platform. but what jurisdiction do you have over africa? or for example, countries like a brazil india. it's a social media platform. it should be up to the social media itself. but this is not what we're seeing here. and again, washington is basically telling americans and europeans what they can and cannot watch. so at the same time when the world is watching or reading metal websites or social media platforms, they need to understand that what they're seeing there is basically washington's version of what is happening, which is of course we don't necessarily the truth about oh no, that's not that hasn't taught phones have previously done the bidding for the american government. he even admitted it himself, but he's then said some concept that they asked him to. so if anyone really so fine

you said he is going along with exactly, and this is what we do here on this triangle. every time a whistleblower comes up or news comes out that this is what they're doing. we talk about it, which is exactly why washington doesn't like this channel and wants to shut down our t as well as other news networks. and what they're doing is making sure that the voices are in heard and was mark soccer burger. just now. he's admitted that he actually regrets, so coming to a government pressure and sensor and content in 2021. senior officials from the bite and administration, including the white house, repeatedly press, star teams for months to assess or certain call read 19 content, including humor and so tar, and express a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree. i believe the govern pressure was wrong, and i regret that we were not more outspoken about it. and of course it's not just covered related. it's not exclusive to facebook or instagram meta. we've seen this on other platforms as well. so what the, it shows you that again, this is what's happening and it's not just,

i'm talking about it. we've had all the people, all the whistle blowers that reveal just how and better they are across own networks in the us. which brenda, our message around the world, here's more facebook is totally dependent on the us state department, the, the set, the intelligence services and, and to some extent, that the long range strength of dependent, gone to protect facebook data monopolies to protect its advertising revenue to protect it from laws like the digital markets act and digital services act the which is so, and then this is come out as well. and i was at the state department when i was called bikes, 9 google lobby, as you know, told me that the, that the number one threat to google is business model over the next 5 years is the digital markets act and digital services act. they need the protection of big data, the state department for favors for their profits. and so they play ball with the state department, censorship demands in order to preserve that, but they are under the barrel of it. and people like mark soccer bird right now are

feeling like they're there. they're there which and because they gave the state department and they gave the body to ministration. everything they asked for in terms of censorship demands and they're still being bullied by them because it's their way or their highway there is no in between. and again, one of the main reason is that the usa department doesn't like our t, like the side is because we are apparently she popular and they're losing support for the ukranian effort. and instead of accepting that as reality, that people can have different opinions and maybe more people are deciding with russia right now. know what they're doing is leading us to make sure that our voices are in the heard. but of course it is 2024, and people can get their information in many different ways. artists, editor in chief, margarita say money on has commented on the situation. same the band is no surprise to anyone since matter also serves the us state department. the bed was entirely to be expected. they're prep shutdown of our accounts and bo facebook and instagram,

along with those say back to goodness ations masquerading. his information platforms was no surprise. i wouldn't my teeth and tongue down from saying they should have never been allowed into russia. from the moment they were permitted in, they should have been expelled as they serve merely as the left heel of american intelligence agencies and what is often called the american deep state. naturally, the band comes up to the deep state represented by its front of the state department, labeled us as the well stop spies and america's primary fellows and something. i generally appreciate the key reason the world does not uniformly support ukraine, is the primary reason they believe the internationalization of russia has failed and why numerous countries either remain neutral, openly back russia, the impact of r t. they may have closed yet another door in us, but we'll find another entrance, a window, or even a crack, and the floor will continue our work, no matter what. we produce a vice chair of the canyon communist party. booker, i'm all a says meta is being used as a tool to promote us, gemini, it was,

it's important to us knowledge that incentive of platform dimensions of the phone is not in utah platform and also drives the interest of the united states. m file and united states imperialism from time to time. have used each domain on leverage on the, on the bottom of information to drive its own amount of deals and insights, money tendencies, you know, on the, on the global level. so the money mobile turn into the out feeds. uh that so what's up to lead to like the pollution that remains to democratize information, chatting on and that was one. so, you know, the method platforms including facebook has been cutting itself on. but they only talk about the freedom of the price as long as then the normal defense payables and

the united states, imperialism, and things. the, the one seems to be that the end of the cornwall and the united states, you know, that sort of degrading that. there was a beat of the quote, we'll be able to use the leverage in terms of information. and this information on the wall is now when seamlessly being generated. and that is why you see such an option. it's like trying to, you know, bond set, the media outlets tried to control how information sets do the submit this it, disseminated this is actually dictatorship of, uh, you know, through. i don't spend to actually create the plus side and i'm not into that. one idea is more popular than to add them or to create a ton amongst our on in the mean, out of, um, i know ways bit by some, so this is sort of them what you base of the mentor platform as a washington's pressure. as so far failed to convince many major powers, india is one example which is report delay refusing to back the u. s. according to

new delhi officials quoted by the media, the country doesn't support unilateral measures without un approval. here's what the american envoy and the indian capital said earlier. the government of the united states defers to the government of india and the governments of other countries to make their own determination of and accreditation procedures for these entities. the us would welcome all countries and taking similar actions as the united states. government has the all right, let's cost live now to a journalist. sure. aside representative of the palestinian journalist syndicate. sure, that's good to have you on the program with us. the us government claims it allows quotes propaganda to be broadcast inside the country, but our to use case is somehow different and warrens a band plus sanctions. what are your thoughts actually um this is very strange to hear the word from the country. a story that elects are the world

for years about freedom of speech and freedom in general and an international or no. uh no. the us is putting itself as a police, a on words on press on as a dictatorship. i'm not really a democracy. and this band is a, is a crime, in my opinion. it's as if somebody can we shoot a journalist and get him because this is how i see it. because when you silence people, when you better write stuff, when you band them, when you, when you add the control to word the words that you're gonna have to deliver to the world. that is the right for every budget you need to listen and to know the truth that is going on. and that is not only one side of the story of this is in my opinion, a crime. meta is um is not really a new router,

a platform even in palestine since the last october, more than a 1000. but it's to me in june and it's i would uh their, their uh, accounts were totally closed and i thought that, uh, this was the highest uh price on internet, on closure of accounts. and then and uh, it was on that especially seeing in my, up as a journalist as even a part of the palestinian june that are syndicate. i think again because a crime, this stuff comes from dictatorship smoke from democracies. and in my opinion, it's also a sign that a r d is, is hood emission is really deliberate and it's making us afraid actually, this is why adults dictatorships do the bad and usually because they are afraid of

the other opinions because there are 2 that is not told by the u. s. i concerning solar issues in the world that are to, is really delivering it. right. so this is, that's why i say again it's um we, there should be usually the accountability for those actions because they are done of freedom off of speech and freedom of doing it. sure, i'm not sure if you're a regular are team viewer, but i'm curious on your thoughts of washington's and claims that our network has been spreading. this information and meddling in this year is u. s. presidential election. i mean, how can people be so easily swayed by what they see on, on a news network? i think of this is still to the lie and just trying to give explanation or, or saying just like there's a definition why us is doing this

a i follow the are the from time to time. not always because of the language. mostly i, i listen to, but i have a good news jonathan's, but i follow sometimes i follow are to some doctors because i really want to hear another opinion, a different than what i see on cnn or abc new or other china. and i do, you see, i think i gave a, there are lies, there are there as well the, any, any evidence or the background of this decision? it's well side the decision. and then that's why i say it's very dangerous when uh, the us really control what goes on for people in as advised to receive information . and again, i'd say a u. s. b is hiding so many information from the people of the world and they don't want of those people to be need to follow any other news or facts from your

brain from any other parts of the world. they weren't really dupel truth, even even journalism and all right, we're gonna live with that short like a sod representative of the palestinian journalist syndicate. thank you for your time. following the news of meadows ban on archie, the south african media review organization underlines that western freedom of speech is applicable only if an outlet stands fits the convenient narrative. the media review network condemns the brazen violations of press freedom by meta the parent company of what's up facebook and instagram. the self proclaimed bastions of free speech and freedom of expression have chosen to use social media outlets to play geo politics against russia. freedom of the price is only applicable in the west if one chooses to maintain service to the forces of empire met a banding of r t and others as testament to this fact,

freedom of the press has always been a missed. the media review network is off the view that the decisions depend russian we document sort of in the as the media office is a serious one. and my goal is to be subject to a high degree of which city and in this case, particularly that is no such scrutiny. but we do know that to me, it says, policies and practices have long silence voices that do not reflect the values and the belief of the west africa for us to submit to has been at the center of numerous control business for us from is handling often use a data treats roland, spreading misinformation in this information. so that's okay itself. not so long ago, the cried mix of platforms that i still flooded with fake news and missed information, especially leading up to the election. we saw at that time is the speech advocacy group finding a request, asking me a tough to disclose information about to the selected. i did.