 You're welcome back to the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. Our first today in history story takes us back to the year 1995. It occurred today on the 22nd of July. It was a very shocking story that happened. So what happened was a woman called Susan Smith was found guilty of drowning her two children in South Carolina. So a jury found her guilty of two counts of murder, one for each of the little boys she left under the water of John D. Long Lake. So initially Susan Smith had put out a public appeal saying you know on national television saying that a black man had carjacked and kidnapped her children. She said she stopped at an intersection of you know a traffic light and there a black man came over pulled her out of the car you know and drove away with two of her children. So she came on national TV to say she was appealing for the rescue of her kids you know one is 14 months old the other is three years old and it was so shocking when we saw that nine days later she was found guilty of killing her kids that's because she had strapped them to the car and simply you know let the car drive down into the lake basically drowning her two boys. It was a very sad situation very shocking because prosecutors say she killed her children because a man had broken her heart about eight days or so ago but she's denied that saying that's not true that it's unfair of the prosecutors to say because of a heartbreak that's why she killed her boys but it was just such a sad thing and I think what's even shocking is that a year later in 1996 some people went to the lake where those boys drowned to look at memorials of those boys and then seven people then drowned while trying to look at memorials for the boys including four children it just really is very scary traumatizing experience that's crazy. Two things the first one is the you know the fact that you know I don't think we well you know a lot of people would first of all point to postpartum depression here but I don't from the you know details of the cases and look like you know postpartum depression this looks a little bit more like a person who committed murder you know because of all the issues that she may have been dealing with the second one is white women tears so white woman commits a crime and the very first idea that pops in the head you know has to be a black man yeah still blame black man you know and the imagine that there's some black criminal around their you know community that has been kidnapping children and then that's that was that's because a black man has been so criminalized and victimized that it seems like a convenient excuse for whatever you know alibi you're looking for whatever crack you know totally wild totally wild anyway let's move to the 2003 and this is right after the you know iraq and afghanistan invasion by the united states in the in the middle you know of that period some you know u.s. soldiers were kidnapped all female soldiers one of them jessica lynch her name was a private jessica lynch who was a prisoner of war it was on this day she was rescued from an iraqi hospital and received a hero's welcome when she returned to a hometown in west virginia she was a 19 year old supply clerk who was captured by iraqi forces in march 2003 and eventually spent some time with them before she was eventually rescued she was taken to a military hospital in germany for treatment and then returned to the united states but there was of course some controversy concerning her release and you know her rescue from the iraqi forces and the major the biggest one was eventually she put out a book titled i am a soldier two the jessica lynch story the major controversy was that the media tried to sell the story that when she was captured she fought you know and you know and you know tried to defend herself and her fellow soldiers did all she possibly could you know fired all her bullets you know but you know you know as a hero that she was eventually she was captured but when she eventually was released she simply said no none of that happened actually i was knocked unconscious when the you know of equal turned upside down and you know that's how i was captured and so all the you know washington post and some other you know media organizations that are trying to make her look like a hero she basically denounced all of that and said now i really was unconscious when i was captured and none of that happened there also was controversy because it was three of them that were captured one of them died in the attack and then there was another female soldier also who was also captured that was released but didn't make the news and the controversy of the conspiracy theory is really that she was black and that's the reason she didn't make the news so jessica lynch was celebrated as you know given you know all the publicity of the heroes welcome you know and all of that so you know after she was released from iraqi forces but the other soldier who also was chugged with her didn't even get mentioned um as as as the u.s. soldier who was you know captured and released um she was a black officer i hope i can find her name someplace uh maybe i can't anyway she was a black um you know soldier um and didn't get the same publicity so these were the two controversial issues concerning jessica lynch and her capture and of course release um in that period this this is all in 2003 and by the way of course the united states you know remained in iraq for many many many many more years so trying to wrap my head around the story why would two people who went for the same experience you know come out and then one is celebrated and the other isn't you know you can't really deny the race thing you know all this comes up in those circles yeah but good thing that we're both rescued on this day in history absolutely all right stay with us we're moving to our first major conversation for today and that is uh nigeria and the international community we've here we're hearing conversations on the uk trying to step in uh with regards in amdi canis case there's also a republic of bennett where reports say have refused to answer the nigerian government's request for a tradition of sunday bohal and so we're going to be looking at these issues and trying to see where nigeria truly stands in the international community is nigeria still africa's big brother or have we lost that spot and you know how relevant you know it really is nigeria to the rest of the continent we'll talk about it when we come back stay with us