Years since the end of the siege of leningrad one of world war 2 is most of all a humanitarian disaster. A very well welcome youre watching Aussie International with me nicky aaron. But 1st we go to paris where hundreds have gathered for the latest protest against the governments pension reform plans in some parts of the french capital clashes erupted between police and demonstrators. A strike by public transport workers as board chaos to the french capital almost 2 months now despite the governments promise to compromise agreeing to drop some of the most controversial aspects of its reforms the French Parliament is due to debate the pension bill next month. While president of money mccrone is under huge pressure over the controversial reform on friday night he was booed as he left a paris theater with people chanting mark long resigned from demonstrators against mccraw Pension Reforms got past police into the hole to deliver their angry message. Was. Was. Was. Part of this followed mccrackens motorcade as it tried to speed away the president was reportedly with his wife regime it in a regular car escorted by police most of mikes journalist and political activist who havs noticed mccrone in the theater and filmed him saying that the evening may be eventful after that he was arrested for being part of a group formed with the purpose of committing acts of violence his arrest has sparked outrage meanwhile more than 100. 00 protesters in the french capital blocked the entrance to the Iconic Museum people have joined union calls to demand the complete withdrawal of microns proposals but there are mixed public feelings about the protests. And the filmmaker to whom im happy that theyre defending culture i left at 7 in the morning from dish on where im from to see the leonarda. But its not a big deal because if they do not strike there wont really be a liver as we know it so i dont mind the strike im actually happy i supported the. Cops. If someone would learn man to im ready to break through the picket lines because the 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 really is also 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. The anger of the roots is what these things should be done. That the government who wants to force its pension reform project through were 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 maintains 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 all their stuff to washingtons own watchdog for afghan reconstruction accuse the military leadership of routine lies ever progress in americas longest war. Reports. 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 joes 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 through the fundamental get up and distancing of the front and the 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 answer it seems like top voices in washington still dont have an exit strategy. R. T. New york analyst told us the will come as no surprise. Weve been told so many times when i buy american journals that weve now burned them or theyre everything is going to get better and or stand that weve actually done in a circle and so on their merit explains a lot of people who are. Informal and say sure we know responsible who work. For progressives there are errors there they dont want to jeopardize their career our theory is 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 18 years we have killed over 150000 afghans some of whom are colophon some of whom are you know various militia groups the men 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 secret were leaked those words 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 that 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. The Russian Program a rested on washingtons request ones with origins all resorting to torture in an effort to break came and examined a vinick is being held in greece the u. S. Cyber crime and Money Laundering charges hes now 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 in blocked Chain Technology he is 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 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 of the right to see her son. When it was arrested in 2017 the u. S. Accuses him of laundering billions of dollars through a digital current. The egg strange is also wanted by france which claims of it carried out cyber fraud from his prison cell russia also wants to question him. Already approved his extradition to all 3 countries however russias acting foreign minister has criticised procedures when the greece has completely failed to examine the evidence presented by moscow and another lawyer for vinnick to move they told us why he should be extradited to russia. Yes. 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 joint inquiry commissions for conducting an investigation in any field. 77 years ago today the red army broke the nazis the age of leningrad with the blockade and in and the ending a year later the vast majority of victims in the city died not from bombing but from hunger and hypothermia while leningrad may have changed its name to some petersburg the horrific memories still run deep. Was was. Yes thats what it was over 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 told that if we see a bomb flying towards us you have to run in the direction of the bomb because that way itll pass over you but we ran away we got away and kept walking 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 cars were. Tied up 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. Was. Was. Right after i buried my father i signed up as a nurse in 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 you. And dont cut your hair short after an hour she died. They always said the russians will win our pilot course was shot down i remember they carried him in sheets he was all brown his skin was brown from bruising and we prepared a warm bath for him with medicine they lowered him into it and he exclaimed please save me i have to keep flying i have to keep fighting. Group with you during the war many lives in the city was saved by the simple takes off a metronome. Through. The metronome followed by sirens were broadcast on 1500 speeches throughout leningrad as slow beats meant to retreat while a fast one want to german bombers were on their way it became a symbol of resistance to the nazi air raids and 2 attempts to starve people to death row if a 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 were still laid to waste by bohrman 8 and also starred in its almost 3000000 population to death the horror of the siege was hollow dest became routine when you walk down the street many remember it or rather try to forget you come across dead bodies carried on sledders all the time or dead bodies lying on the streets and at some point those a lawyer they simply stop paying any attention to these horrific saw its appearance read to 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. From kids their childhood was stolen by a merciless war bonds and hunger there was already too much for them but there was something maybe even more terrifying as lack of food became too dramatic children as well as many adults often became a target enough to germany for hungry people 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 ingredients some a drop in cabbage others burnt sugar there i dont know how i survived and i think god saved my life of more. People struggled but even thats all couldnt bear it anymore the water supply system froze and collaged people hungry people freezing people they now became the 1st 2 people searching for war to everywhere including sewerage system. And we went to get water on. Food is ledges 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 and 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 on one of many similar across the city these warnings became a symbol of the dangers faced by residents of let it grow during the siege and still today they stay as silent reminders of those terrible days that a person has also been taking part in commemoration events he laid flowers at the landmark stone monument at the nevski pass a chop memorial site it was the scene of fierce fighting during world war 2 as beneath the russian president s father was also injured. Now questions like where are you really from could now land you in trouble as a u. K. University which is paying students to snitch on klaus made steam to commit racist microaggression this story as well coming up after the break. Wisdom is the application of the bold knowledge in a group where you wait in Novel Concept but if you learn a particular scenario could be in a class could be a variance and you encounter that exact same scenario knowing what to do is just memory thats not wisdom thats not learning its just memorizing some wisdom comes when you are facing a brain new context and you can draw on tools you learned in other contexts systematically to know what to do. In the United States president ial candidates debates the future of the u. S. And the world. Max kaiser and Stacy Herbert dig into the burning questions of this election cycle one self every week will sticks student debt trade wars corporate money universal basic income and more catch up with whats front running this sunday exclusively on. Welcome back stop making everything a race issue comments like fact could now line get you in hot water at a u. K. University which will pay students to snitch on people making what it calls racist micro aggressions Sheffield University in Northern England will hire 20 students as race equality champions and pay them more than 9. 00 pounds an hour to investigate offenders other examples of unacceptable questions are why are you searching for things to be offended about and where are you really from well people for their reaction to the move sometimes like you do you dont realise that youre like maybe being mean with some women and you dont even realise and i think its important to tell you about it people often ask. Where theyre from so if i say for example they say im a grocer it was a mark on. A lot of people stopping you know your talent your know your terrorist problem lot i do get i was like oh where youre from because i know that i have a little accent and there was a are so sorry and i why are you apologizing because i didnt take a i was like a bad thing i think is an air of ignorance really. Just not really being aware that someone might be offended by something. However theres been a significant online backlash to the universitys initiative the regime of the shuttled university have decided to Police Incidents of perceived rudeness with an army of made student my Group Gresham to talk to for 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