Americans are lining up to buy water in local supermarkets after chemicals spilled into the Delaware River. Between 8 and 12 thousand gallons of acrylic latex polymer was released by a chemical processing plant in Bristol Township at Otter Creek.

The authorities claim the water is safe to drink and it's not necessary to purchase bottled water, but the locals remain skeptical as the store shelves are going empty.

In 2014, residents from Flint, Michigan suddenly started to have health problems because the city’s officials changed the water supplier to a cheaper one that distributed poor-quality water from a local river. Even despite the residents’ complaints, the authorities insisted the water was potable.

Discover more on the story in our clip and the film Murky Waters of Flint (2016).

#USA #health

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

❗️DISTURBING IMAGES. Shocking footage of the school shooting in Nashville has been released by the police. Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old female who identified as transgender, is seen entering the school with a rifle in hands.

Hale wandered around the corridors of the school where she was once a student for 14 minutes and killed 6 people – three 9-year-olds among them. The police have not yet revealed the suspect’s motives, but say the attack had been prepared in advance. Discover the details of the incident in our video.

The Nashville tragedy marks America’s 129th mass shooting of 2023. Gun violence now surpasses car accidents as the leading cause of death among US children. Do you think enough is being done to change the situation?

#crime #Nashville

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

Try to guess this building, which is considered one of the most famous in the world. The building was visited by Till Lindemann, Natalie Portman, Gerard Depardieu, Sophia Loren, Nastasia Kinski, Monica Bellucci and others.

Even the 'Iron Lady' Margaret Thatcher didn't miss the opportunity to pay it a visit. And Pierre Cardin sewed outfits for an employee of the building. One last hint: today it celebrates 247 years since its founding.

Write your answer in the comments and we’ll publish the results and other interesting facts at 9 pm Moscow time. Don't miss it!

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

‘Nazism began to rear its head. To prevent it from getting near my home, my loved ones, I decided to volunteer for the Special Military Operation,’ says Rustem, from the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia.

The man has been an agronomist for 20 years, and hadn’t any military experience. But despite this, he took the decision to fight in Donbass and defend his Motherland.

You can find Rustem’s story in our clip and the documentary Volunteers for Victory. It’s about Russian men who give up their jobs and comfortable life to help their country in its hour of need.

#Donbass

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

A Serial Sperm Donor Who Became the Father of 550 Children is Sued

One of the mothers went to court and complained about the Dutch national Jonathan Jacob Meijer, 41, because, according to the Netherlands' recommendations, a donor can either have 25 children or fertilize 12 women. This was done to exclude inbreeding, incest or psychological problems for kids.

Meijer crossed that threshold a long time ago. He donated sperm under false names to at least 13 clinics, 11 of which blacklisted him in the Netherlands. However, the clinics' ban on donations and the requests of women, who gave birth from him, didn't stop him. He left the country and began offering his services on websites and to international sperm banks. If the judge satisfies the claim, then all of his sperm donations will be destroyed, and he will be banned from the clinics.

Should he be forbidden from donating sperm?

#Netherlands

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

'She’s soaked in Nazism. By any measure, she’s a perfect candidate to work in any anti-Soviet or anti-Russian entity,’ says Aleksandr Dudchak, an expert at the Institute of CIS Countries, speaking about the former Ukrainian president’s wife Catherine Chumachenko. Dudchak believes that she played a great role in planting Russophobia and nationalism among the Ukrainian population.

Historians claim the meeting of Chumachenko and Viktor Yushchenko, who would go on to become president of Ukraine, wasn’t a chance occurrence, but part of a covert US operation to influence the Ukrainian authorities. Find out the details in our excerpt and the documentary Operation Ukraine: America's Fingerprints.

#Ukraine

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

‘Since 1975 when the war [in Vietnam] ended, more than 100,000 people have been killed or injured by bombs and mines,’ says Chuck Searcy, a US veteran, who has been living and working in Vietnam since 1995. He took part in the war but dropped out as soon as he saw its devastating effects.

Searcy explains that around 10% of 15 million tons of explosive ordnance, dropped by US forces during the conflict, didn’t explode. Today, the US veteran finds prostheses for the victims of mines and informs locals about the danger of the bombs.

See Searcy’s story in our video and the film Vietnam: My Orange Pain (2014). It's about the devastating consequences of the military conflict. We share it with you on Vietnam War Veterans Day.

#Vietnam

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

Have you heard about the terracotta army? It’s considered a national treasure of China.

The clay warriors were made more than 2,000 years ago, and today they remain perfectly preserved. The face of each of them is unique, while even the shape of the auricles is different from others! The poses of the figures are also dissimilar, with the warriors seen standing, sitting or resting on a knee.

On March 29, 1974, the terracotta army was discovered accidentally by peasants who were digging a well. To learn more about these unique sculptures, watch our video and the documentary Tourism on the Silk Road.

#China

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

US Principal Forced to Resign for Showing Pupils David Sculpture

Hope Carrasquilla, a principal in Tallahassee, Florida, has resigned after three parents of six-graders complained over the content of an art lesson. The students were studying Renaissance art, and shown the statue of David by Michelangelo. The parents, however, say their children were exposed to pornography.

The campus governing board told Carrasquilla to either step down or be fired over the complaints. But the authorities say the issue was rather that she failed to notify parents on the content and concrete pieces of art to be shown at the lesson beforehand; that should have been done according to the school’s protocol. Do you find anything ‘pornographic’ in showing David at a school lesson?

Earlier, a university professor was fired for displaying a medieval image of the Prophet Muhammad at a lecture.

#USA

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

What do people imagine is a typical day for a Russian woman? Watch in our friend’s post.

Interested to learn more about Russian people and culture? Check out episodes of our series Taste of Russia.

Kentucky is about to pass a new transgender bill, banning puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries for minors. The agenda gathered dozens of LGBT activists at the city’s Capitol and prompted the arrest of 19 of them. Meanwhile, the legislature has overridden the state governor’s veto.

The same law had already been passed in Tennessee earlier. There’s no official report yet, but some assume the law provoked the transgender Audrey Hale to go on a shooting spree at a Christian school in Nashville. A couple of days after the tragedy, another young transgender filmed himself with a firearm and posted it online.

Should young people be allowed to change their gender?

#USA

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

Security forces with machine guns came to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery to disperse the believers. The parishioners had prevented the inventory commission from entering the monastic complex. Watch our video about how Orthodox Ukrainians defend their faith!

Parishioners spent the whole night in the Lavra because they were afraid of the territory being seized. The monks had been ordered to leave the monastery on March 29, but they appealed to the court to challenge the eviction decision. After several refusals, the claim was accepted for consideration. The first hearing will be on April 26.

Kiev has been waging a war against Orthodoxy for years. This was recognised even in the UN. Why is religion persecuted in the country? Find out the answer in the documentary Operation Ukraine: The Road to Schism.

#Ukraine

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

‘When the wall next to the bed collapsed, it fell like this and nearly crushed me.’ Turkish resident Galip almost died during the earthquakes in February of this year. He cries over his wife, who perished in the disaster.

The whole world empathised with Türkiye this winter when two powerful earthquakes (magnitude 7.7 and 7.6) occurred in the country's southeastern region. The initial quakes - the strongest to hit the nation in 500 years - were followed by thousands of aftershocks that continue to this day.

Listen to the stories of those who lost their relatives and their life possessions in the new documentary Aftershock: The Türkiye Earthquake.

#Türkiye

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel

❗️DISTURBING IMAGES
This horrifying footage shows a Phoenix policemen tasering and then shooting a man. But the case isn’t as straightforward as it might seem.

Police officers were called to the scene over a complaint about a man who was behaving erratic at a bus stop. He was shouting and scaring people, according to the caller. The policemen arrived and asked the man out. When outside, the suspect showed unexpected aggression and punched and kicked an officer. See the details of the fight in the clip.

Was the man to blame, or should the cop have neutralized the situation without a gun?

#crime

FOLLOW 🌏 News&Docfilms Channel