Humanitarian disasters. This is. And we will start in paris where hundreds of gathered for the latest protest against the governments pension reform plans some parts of the french capital clashes erupted between police and demonstrators. I was struck by public transport workers calle city the french capital most see months that despite the governments promise to compromise agreeing to drop some of the most controversial aspects of its reforms French Parliament is due to debate the pension bill next month. Businessman your microphone is under huge pressure of the controversial reform on friday night he was booed as he left a paris theater with people that chanting resign some demonstrators against batons Pension Reforms got past police into the hole to deliver the angry message. It was. Was was 2 2 was purchases full of my friends my cicadas it tried to speed away the president was reported with his wife vicki to their School Supply police motorbikes. Genocide political activist phil mcgraw and he was just in front of them in the theater and was arrested for doing so his arrest the spelled out rage. 100 protesters in the french capital block the entrance to the iconic Louvre Museum people who join calls to demand the complete withdrawal of microns proposals but there are mixed public feelings about the protests. Caught on camera from i could you im happy that theyre defending culture i left at 7 in the morning from additional on where im from to see them where narrative intrigues a patient but its not a big deal because if they do not strike their want to really be a little for as we know it so i dont mind the strike im actually happy i supported them. If someone would lend my hand im ready to break through the picket line because this situation is unacceptable i dont care about their pension issues. They are uniting and supporting each other reinforcing each other so thats why im here please also call we are against it they should not be here picked in for an hour to strike to express their opinion very good but to piss off everyone all day long who comes to visit he comes from far away thats shameful what. We understand the anger of the business is about this anger should be directed at the government who wants to force its pension reform project through we are not the ones that are standing in the way were not blocking the public Cultural Service on the contrary were fighting for a strong public Cultural Service where you look at the support of the population of the strikers were very surprised to see the government maintaining its position is of extremism that is unacceptable for a democrat like me who voted for manual macro in the 2nd round of the president ial election against. The pentagon insists its been nothing but honest after washingtons own watchdog for afghan reconstruction accuse the military leadership of routine lies over progress in americas longest war in the morgue and as details. Common cynicism aside most people would prefer that those responsible for leading the country tell the truth and this is most especially true when it comes to situations like war where the lives of the men and women in the armed forces are on the line well according to the special inspector for afghan reconstruction the pentagon has been lying for years the problem is theres a disincentive really to tell the truth we have created an incentive to almost require or for people to la theres an odor of mendacity throughout the afghanistan issue and i know congressman connelly has heard me talk about this years ago mendacity and who bruce now the department of defense was quick to chime in and dispute this congressional testimony here is the response the idea that there was some efforts to hide the truth the reality on the ground just doesnt hold water this idea that they were somehow missed statements i dont think that really shows it has been roughly a month since the Washington Post published the afghanistan papers this is a trove of documents from the office of the special Inspector General showing a sensually among many revelations that the efforts of the usa against the taliban have been completely ineffective americas top military brass were clueless about afghanistan and had no real understanding of what was happening on the ground and no real strategy this is how one of the top military generals under the administrations of both bush and obama explained it would trying to do here we didnt have the full goose newsham that would ruin the taking there is a fundamental gap in distancing of the front and stated objectives. In the military and the lack of understanding of the resources necessary internally the pentagon knew that the situation was bleak however that is not what was told. U. S. Public for years americans have gotten a steady stream of information claiming that there was progress being made in afghanistan we helped liberate an oppressed people. And we will continue helping them secure their country rebuild their society and educate all their children boys and girls. That i set to defeat al qaeda and deny it a chance to rebuild is within reach and were doing a tremendous job. And as you know a big part of the job is. Certainly the biggest. And we. Weve got him down very low numbers wise lies and more lives the usa has been in afghanistan for 17 years now making it the longest military engagement in all of us history and despite the new revelations showing how bleak the situation is and that deception was part of the modus operandi for the pentagon it seems like tomboys is in washington still dont have an exit strategy they look up and r. T. New york. On the list so does the watchdogs revelations come as no surprise. Weve been told so many times by brian that we americans burn them or their everything is going to get better and you cant stand that weve actually done in a circle. And explains a lot of people are. Informal and say sure we dont responsible for work. Or progress in their areas there they dont want to jeopardize their career or theory. Its not going well and were not in progress i think it is definitely time for the United States to remove its troops weve been there 80 years we have killed over 150000 afghans some of whom are colophon some of whom are you know various militia groups and the great majority are afghan civilians who only want peace here and there for free something they really here for so long the Inspector General is speaking out after documents he tried to keep secrets were leaked those were the leaked after year after year after year of this same nonsense being repeated so its possible for these things to build and steamrolled but the United States has a has a president who campaigned on ending this war and is that out repeating the tired old lies that hes about to win it in a day which are not unique to this war they say they come with every war every occupation and theres not even been a requirement that a victory be defined nobody has any idea what it would be a victory is to continue losing for another year. 77 years ago today they readily broke the nazi siege of leningrad to the blockade and did 2 years later the majority of victims in the city died not from boeing but from hunger and pipe with a living god may have changed its name to St Petersburg the horrific memories still run the. Was was. Yes was hit by the earthquake me and my friend went to a store with food stamps there was a huge field and suddenly we saw a plane it dropped a bomb we were taught that if we see a bomb flying towards us you have to run in the direction of the bomb because that way it will pass over you but we ran away we got away and kept walking and suddenly i realized id left her behind she walked towards a fence i came up to check on her realized she was hanging on the fence already dead my friend what could i do i was barely alive myself some people helped me carry her home a good thing we werent too far away from home a few cup work i. Got bucket and you know when my father died of hunger and we were going to bury him the weather was extremely cold it was about minus 36 or 38 degrees we owed thanks to our neighbor who constructed the casket for him and helped us to carry my father to the cemetery and the cemetery there was a chapel next to the chapel there was a pile of dead bodies higher than the chapel itself and every time i come to that place i still can see this pile of dead bodies in my head i still have this picture in my head that. Was. Right after i buried my father i signed up as a nurse at the military Field Hospital once in january i came home from the hospital and my mother was lying on the bed hall for life but she said to me zoya i think im about to pass away i bought meat patties at the market and i think theyre made out of human dont leave the girls alone dont marry to. And dont cut your hair short after an hour she died. It will all. Go very well they always said the russians will win our pilot course was shot down i remember they carried him in sheets she was all brown his skin was brown from bruising and we prepared a warm bath for him with medicine they know it him into it and he exclaimed please save me i have to keep flying i have to keep fighting. By the day with putin has also been taking part in commemoration events he laid flowers at the landmark stone a monument to the nevski got to chop the moral side of the scene of fierce fighting during world war 2 in this believe the russian president s father was also injured. During the war many lives in the city were saved by the simple tricks of a metronome. Did you get. A metronome followed by sirens was broadcast on one and a half 1000 speakers across london grab a slow beat retreat and 1st warm german bombers were on their way became a symbol of resistance to the nazi air raids and 2 terms to starve people to death row for National Reports from the northern capital. Leningrad known today as St Petersburg was a main strategic targets for nazi germany and the fates they prepared for this beautiful city was still laid to waste by bohrman 8 and also starred in its almost 3000000 population to death the horror of the siege was hollow just became routine when you walk down the street and then you remember it or rather try to forget you come across dead bodies carried on sledges all the time or dead bodies lying on the streets and at some point those the law they simply stop paying any attention to these horrific sites near the nursery i remember the 1st time i saw a corpse on the street wrapped in some rags at 1st it was scary but then people got used to it and just walked by i can see the bodies were just randomly dumped in the streets eventually they took them away. Their childhood was stolen by a merciless war gongs and hunger there was already too much for them there was something maybe even more terrifying as lack of food became too dramatic children as well as many adults often became a target for nazi germany 413. 00. So the worst thing was the hunger it was unimaginable at the factory they gave us just 200 grams of bread and it was made from strange and gradients some a drop in the cabbage others burnt sugar i dont know how i survived and i think god saved my life. People saw gold but even less so i couldnt bear it anymore the water supply system for all these radical lobbyists people hungry people freezing people they now became this super bowl searching for war to everywhere including sewerage system. We went to get water on food with sledges it was very cold there was a severe frost the river had frozen over but there was a hole and people were queuing to get water to drink people still wonder how we didnt die drinking this water the citizens during tillery shelling this side of the street is the most dangerous says this sign one of many similar across the city these warnings became a symbol of thing dirs faced by residents of letting god during the siege and still today they stay as silent reminders of those terrible days. Questions like where are you really from could now and you in trouble of the u. K. University which is paying students to snitch on Classmates Team to commit racist micro aggressions the story more after the break. Join me every thursday on the all excited im sure ill be speaking to us of the world of politics sports business im sure. Ill see you then. Russian programmer arrested on washingtons request for it is all resorting to torture in an effort to break him alexander vinick is being held in greece on u. S. Cyber crime and Money Laundering charges hes written a plea for help. Theyre trying to use torture and psychological pressure to break me they do not allow me to breathe fresh air the last time they let me out for a walk for a few minutes was on new years eve im a man without rights illegally imprisoned in greece for 30 months without charges they want to destroy me for my knowledge they want my head on a block just because of what i know and my technological abilities the case of alexander vinick is a case of blatant violations of human rights its an International Disgrace this man is been imprisoned for 13 months without a charge in greece hes not being prosecuted in greece without a sanction without a penalty without a trial alexander is not a criminal alexander is someone who has extremely high skills technological skills and blocked Chain Technology he has not targeted for any kind of criminal behavior because its very clear that what he has done is not criminal however what he has done is very very annoying to those who wish to control the economic. Exchanges of the people what is worse is that during the last days the conditions of detention of alexander didnt make amount to cruel and inhuman treatment which is a form of torture as we all know alexander is being denied the right to go outside his. Hospital room hes been hospitalized during the last 12 months more than 12 months actually and today his mother who came to visit him from russia was the night the right to see her son. And when he was arrested in 2017 the u. S. Accuses him of laundering billions of dollars through a digital. Currency exchange is also wanted by france which claims finnick carried out cyber fraud from his prison cell russia wants to question him as well athens has already approved its exodus into all 3 of those countries however russias acting foreign minister is criticised procedures warning greece has completely failed to examine the evidence presented by moscow another lawyer for vinnick to favor sort of told us why he should be extradited to russia. Were supposed to cheer by greece has not only decided to extradite alexander simultaneously to 3 countries but has also specified the order by which alexander should go to these countries the point is that the extradition of alexander to the United States cannot be fair as he has never been there and hasnt committed the crimes that the usa attributes to him work with new technologies cannot be a crime especially if at the time of the activity the legislation regulating these actions simply did not exist. Concerning france they used only american evidence and investigators have never concealed it but today we know that france is not going to conduct any prosecution against him on its territory so the decision about the extradition of alexander vinick to france and then to the United States is purely technical the socalled greek trick is this to send him to france where hes going to be rejected and then sent him to the usa. The best ending for both alexander vinick and for every other party to this case will be of course his extradition to russia because russia is the place of the alleged crimes and because russia has all the information it is capable of creating a joint inquiry commissions for conducting an investigation in any field. So making everything a race issue comments such as that could not get you in hot water a u. K. University which will be paying students to snitch on people who make what it calls racist micro aggressions the university in Northern England will hire 20 students as race equality champions the 9 pounds an hour to investigate offenders other examples of unacceptable questions are why are you searching for things to be offended about and who are you really from we asked people for their reaction. Sometimes they do you dont realize that your. Like maybe being mean with some women and you dont even realize and i think its important to tell you about it people often ask. What if im so if i say for example base your mark on. A lot of people stop you know your talent your know your terrorists by a lot i do you know where youre from because i know that i have a little accent and there was a oh im so sorry and i why are you apologizing because i dont take a as like a bad thing i think is an air of ignorance really. I just not really being aware that someone might be offended by her way however theres been a significant online backlash to the universitys initiative the regime of the settled university have decided to Police Incidents of perceived rudeness with an army of bait student microaggression detractors thought police jobs at the university of sheffield how is this not illegal what the hell have i just read the also problematize is even benign curiosity is a micro aggression and therefore is racist this is a recipe to create a climate of distrust and a breakdown of social relations these people do not speak for me. The university claims its main objectives are to facilitate healthy open discussion and to give students the tools to think critically about race issues he says micro aggressions have a real impact on minority groups talk radio host and columnist on call no feels the program could end up doing more harm than good. We need to obviously condemn racism but recruiting students to do it like as if theyre undercover i think its horrible i think its the sin and of a very very big wage and also to be very concerned about who decides what is not allowed to be said is another attack on freedom of speech and universities should be cathedrals of free speech these kids are eventually going to go out into the real world if they work in a factory if they work in an office theyre going to hear the news they dont like. Its about challenging that of course and i just think they seized nor going to prepare them for the real world and tackle racism tackle sexism track or massaging and tackle homophobia of course and make sure your institution is inclusive but this is not the way to do it this is a or retrograde s