this is g.w. news live from berlin tonight libya's capital under siege a military strongman finders advancing on the city of tripoli dozens have been killed or you win back government says it's launching a counter offensive and western countries are calling for a truce also coming up tonight tit for tat the u.s. grant iran's elite revolutionary guard as terrorist iran says it may declare u.s. troops in the middle east terrorists. and

a prominent russian film and theatre director arrested two years ago for embezzlement put under house arrest today in an unexpected move he was free we'll tell you what. i'm brinkerhoff to our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome to we start tonight in libya where the battle for control of the capital tripoli is raging militias opposed to libya's that you win back government are closing in on the capital tripoli now they forced the closure of the city's only functioning airport and thousands are reportedly fleeing the city the militias are under the command of this military strongman khalifa haftar our he backs a rival government in the east of the country and he says he's conducting a war against terrorists but his opponents say he wants to. set up

a military dictatorship the u.n. backed government in tripoli says its forces are melting a counter offensive dozens have died in the fighting already western countries there calling for a truce and for the resumption of peace talks. funerals in the libyan capital tripoli honoring fighters loyal to the u.n. backed government victims of the clashes with the militia forces of the warlord khalifa haftar his troops are closing in on the city. we must take our revenge on this criminal who is killing our children he's coming to invade tripoli. government forces are preparing to defend the capital the number of casualties on both sides is rising steadily the fighting threatens to disrupt oil production and drive more migrants to seek refuge in europe it looks like being a bitter battle. here. we will protect the capital with our lives we will give our lives for tripoli. but have to ask militias are equally determined to

launch a decisive assault on the city it appears the strong man a general in the army of the former dictator muammar gaddafi wants to seize control of the whole country to protect the people he says and that it had a this campaign was specifically launched to defend civilians to defend the libyan people to defend our country's resources and for the dignity of libya now in the war. to mammon the international community is calling for a cease fire. i think the first message we need to pass united's is the full implementation of the my italian troops to allow the civilians and the wounded to be evacuated from. the city and to avoid any further military action and for their military escalation and their turn to the political negotiations and the bullet. in

tripoli civilians turned out to demonstrate to have a drunk's the u.n. says nearly three thousand two have already fled the fighting with little sign of any letup in the hostilities many more are likely to follow. well i'm joined now by monti a political analyst founder and general director of the sadec institute that was the first think tank in libya and this joins us tonight from beirut we appreciate you taking the time to talk with this let's talk about this general. tough talk are with people outside of libya looking at the situation what should they see when they see general have talked. well this is the amanda claims he has an army but really has a badge that almost gives all these different militias particularly a set of militias that are still a few inspired sponsored boy. radical shia. clerics that have been given

a badge of legitimacy to almost do whatever they want in the last two years many of those troops that he commands only because claims are loyal to him have been taking instruction from saudi arabia from egypt from jordan and have conducted war crimes and of being investigated by the i.c.c. for war crimes in the city but it was even that they were deployed to tripoli last night i'm responsible for extradition killings for mass executions and that is about housing and then that and so we should be kind of careful of using this label of the libyan national army it's a badge that effectively uses the sponsor of the worst and the most lethal of these groups in militias that are really kind of engaged in an ethno sectarian kind of battle for control of libya so it's a very dangerous idea to think of them as a conventional army but he definitely wants to return the country to rule under his militia and so i think that he is he selling this as a campaign a campaign to rid the country of cherished he's mentioned al qaida and other extremist groups basically trying to get the west to say here and to listen to what

he wants to do it is that not true yes. it's up to them is absolutely true i mean this in its own magazine the big has come out in order to claim that the forces the half there was fighting were already much to the outside of the religion of islam they claim that they were heretics and they wanted to fight them those groups that were claim to be licensed and but it was a sort of they had nothing to do with this the only people on earth have been called in those groups of isis and in eastern libya and they are after himself that he's been selling a war no one in libya is bothering apart from the international community that wants the kind of see progress in that and this is the danger is that when you believe that propaganda and you start to fight groups like the terrorists you drawing them from the sky you treat them as if they're captives and effectively radicalize those groups of and more so it's a very very dangerous narrative to buy into what is a can almost become the truth what about his supporters is thinking of egypt and saudi arabia do they see in this warlord the possibility of a return to

a libya that was controlled by moammar gadhafi do they want that type of leadership in dictatorship to be restored. well i think what they want to do is restore it by a proxy now it's not only egypt and saudi arabia it's crucially the u.a.e. that established a drone base in two thousand and sixteen according to the un so according to the un's panel of experts and have been droning in the east of the country now it's not only them as well as been french military planners that are really on the ground coordinating these strikes in tripoli and coordinating the strikes and because it and in blood and many of their own officers were killed in two thousand and sixteen in an operation going wrong but also they've been getting diplomatic immunity to have to now this is crucial the u.n. security council has been unable to issue a statement that reprimands penalizes condemns or threatened sanctions against after the french have been trying to distance themselves from this for quite amount of time in the being so much russia blocking the u.n. council but when fact the european union is also facing the same blockage the g.

seven is also facing the same blockage the p three plus three u.s. u.k. france italy u.a.e. and egypt none of these configurations include russia and they use the exact same language so the only thread that ties them together was the french and the french have been giving assistance they have to let me on the defense minister was and was in russia in eastern libya eleven days ago claiming that he was waiting for half those victories now with the duplicity of the highest order to us assume that they back the into or give international support to the u.n. but government in tripoli was giving discrete military and diplomatic support and immunity for hafter in eastern libya because until you get there was was in tripoli last week and was unable to name him they've given the u.n. the hardest job possible on earth because they've been blocking and paralyzing the u.n. for the last eleven days and that is a serious problem that he has to face and because the humanitarian catastrophe that could take place in tripoli is huge and we appreciate your insights tonight

unfortunately we're out of time we thanks for coming on the show and political analyst and general director of the subject institute and it's thank you. the united states has formally declared iran's elite revolutionary guard as a terrorist organization and this is the first time that the u.s. has ever labeled part of a foreign government in such strong terms the white house says the move is simply acknowledging the reality in the region that iran is a state sponsor of terrorism which relies on the revolutionary guard to export washington's decision triggered an instant response from iran tehran says it could now declare u.s. forces in the middle east terrorists to. explaining the new policy u.s. secretary of state might pump said the u.s. wants to exert maximum pressure on iran for forty years the islamic republic's revolutionary guard corps has actively engaged in terrorism and created supported

and directed other terrorist groups the r.g.c. masquerade as a legitimate military organization but none of us should be fooled it regularly violates the laws of armed conflict it plans organize and executes terror campaigns all around the world it was my pompei of their art let's take the story now into our washington bureau chief alexander phenomena she's on the story for us tonight good evening alexandra we know that iran is already heavily sanctioned it's designated a state sponsor of terrorism so what difference is it going to make by labeling the revolutionary guard as a terrorist organization. the trump administration's main goal is to increase economic and political pressure on tehran and we have to see that today's decision today's decision in this contest context and we also have to remind ourselves how influential iran so revolutionary guards are as to country's most

powerful security organization with nearly on checked political influence and interests in business real estate and other areas of the economy so now do you as is being unable to impose why sanctions what consequences they are i ask this question you asked a special envoy for iran a braai have hope i ask him what we have to expect now let's have a listen we have a we have certain authorities that we now can use to prosecute people who provide material support to the ira g.c. in the codes force it also creates immigration issues for people who if they do that you can also come to the united states and it also gives us a range of new tools to essentially stigmatize and isolate the i heard you see in the codes force and this is important because the ira g.c. controls possibly more than half of iran's economy and so when you've got european

companies or any companies around the world who are doing business in iran it very well could be an ira g.c. front company are those definitely a signal meant for europe there what do you say can this move alexander going to increase the risk of retaliation against u.s. military and intelligence officials in the middle east. it's could therefore top pentagon intelligence officials have reportedly opposed that designation which they argue would allow hard liners in iran to justify deadly attacks against americans about who told me that the trump administration is. that the revolutionary guards are posing a great threat to the ass troops on the ground and he also told me that if the you as were to guard its foreign policy by threats from tehran they would be playing by their own little rules and that's of course something that is unacceptable for the

u.s. administration and at the same time washington still wants the uranian regime to return to the negotiating table and so how is the u.s. . basically how are they going to try to square a circle well they are trying to impose more sanctions to increase economic and political pressure on iran in the hopes that that would lead to new negotiations about a new deal that would not only concentrate on the iran's nuclear programs but also on its missile programs its activities in the region however we have to say that in the moment and the moment it doesn't at the moment it doesn't look like iran would be ready to talk with a writer washington d.c. bureau chief i was under phenomenon the story for us tonight because i was under thank you. and here are some of the other stories now that are making headlines

around the world in sudan state media are reporting that seven people died in thai government protests over the weekend thousands of protesters have been demonstrating for a third day side army headquarters in the capital khartoum they want the military to oust president omar al bashir he has ruled the country for thirty years the turkish capital ankara has sworn in its new mayor opposition candidate months sort of us in recent local elections a yob us sprung a surprise to narrowly beat the candidate from the president aired a once a k party at a once party is now appealing against his victory as well as an opposition win in istanbul italy's far right interior minister matteo salvini has announced plans to form a new populist alliance in the european parliament salvini hosted other populace at talks in milan ahead of next month's european elections among the groups attending were germany's far right deep the danish people's party and the finns already from

finland. on the award winning russian film in the theater director zero seven difficult has been freed after being held under house arrest for more than a year and a half he faces allegations of embezzlement but his supporters say that the arrest was politically motivated. when the moscow court ordered kerio sorry brenny cuffs release from house arrest the director's gratitude to the court and his supporters was plain to see now he can devote himself to his work again directing theatre and film. for the rest of the group thanks to all the people who came up to me and encouraged me by saying don't give up and we are with you and so on and mike daly to our walks it was incredibly touching your supporters need it but i'll say again it's not over we still have to go back to court and prove our innocence through the

filter of the ship. in aug twenty seventeen cerebrally cough was taken into custody over allegations he'd embezzled state funding for the arts stealing money meant to be used for theater he and his supporters insist there's no evidence and the arrest was politically motivated. everything they tried to bring up against him was ridiculous and for example they said that he never did use the money for the midsummer night's dream production and they were not aware that this production even went braun they kind of became aware. there's nothing against him. in the cofs work is bold and political his radical style of direction especially in reworking classics and conservatives he also defied the kremlin by publicly supporting russia's g.b.t. community and criticizing the country's annexation of crimea in twenty fourteen.

his release was unexpected but sara brenna cough is not allowed to leave moscow and might still stand trial. well here in germany police have launched a crackdown on criminal clans mainly of arab and kurd issues origin tightly knit families operating criminal networks now for decades the clans are believed to have thousands of members spread out in different parts of the country now they have their strongholds of the show you on the map here in the rural area of western germany in the center of the country near hanover in the north and braman and of course here in the capital berlin many of these families came to germany in the one nine hundred seventy s. and eighty's they were not allowed to work some were tempted to earn money through criminal activities ranging from robbery to drug dealing authorities say they're now going to crack down police are especially worried that the criminal groups are preying on young refugees and recruiting them in an attempt to disrupt activities

police have launched what they call the strategy of a thousand pinpricks. a large scale raid in berlin is not gun district investigators are mainly targeting shisha bars where they suspect organized crime clans are laundering money customs investigators auditors and federal and state crime authorities accompanied by hundreds of police officers are searching the bars it's the biggest operation of its kind in berlin nikon district mayor martin hca has come along he wants to know how the mission is going. this time the improprieties are minor offenses tobacco without tax stamps and violations of trading and child protection laws but the district mayor says he won't turn a blind eye. or. we can publish everything with these checks from you know to major

offenses we are implementing a zero tolerance strategy here large scale raids like this are part of a new campaign against organized crime clans suspected of committing major offenses including the breaking of a luxury department store in broad daylight or the theft of a one hundred kilogram gold coin worth millions but convicting clan members is difficult not least because few are willing to testify about two hundred thousand individuals are reportedly members of arab clan families in germany the government is increasing the pressure by seizing luxury cars and real estate but organized crime researcher ralph gadahn says that's not enough to break the clan solidarity. they're all sworn to secrecy and that's what makes the investigators work so difficult there are unable to break through these structures. that there would need to be a support program for people who want to leave the klan's good program but there

are no such programs yet how do you came from syria ten years ago almost every day she sees the klan's at work along zone in one of nikon's main streets but she's afraid their crimes will strengthen prejudices against innocent migrants and muslims is on the on and on to the mafia's here concentrated here on those on that day my friends on you know. this and i think sooner or later something is going to happen here. she said she's most afraid of the zina phobic attack nikon's district mayor however has a different concern that more migrants will fall into a life of crime if the state does not do anything about it. he sends good stuff and i think it's a big good effort to make this crime that might exist here or that we could make a pasta unlawfulness hard to make it uncomfortable so that it's not worth it to come here to commit crimes. so germans should get used to huge police actions like

this one authorities say they know these are not enough but that they lack better resources in the fight against organized klan crimes. where the u.k. is proposing tough new regulations to tackle harmful content online the proposals would require facebook or you tube for example to stop the spread of content that is deemed harmful such as promoting suicide terrorism or digital reporter federica baggio is here with more on that story it's good to see if we can say what is this u.k. government's proposal all about so and the government wants to create an independent watchdog to monitor the work of social media companies and the efforts that they make in trying to tackle the presence of harmful content on their platforms and what they want to dismiss ranges from terrorist related. content of child sex abuse fake news hate crime. and they would like this watchdog to write

a code of conduct that then companies would have to adhere to but the watchdog would also have the powers to then implement this and to enforce this and to fine companies and potentially also executives and people within these companies and so it's quite a fire reaching. proposal but it's still a proposal and the government has now launched a consultation of public consultations so people have twelve weeks now to go online and submit their reviews and the government is particularly encouraging companies and organisations affected by this to submit their their comments it sounds like a proposal that could be opened up for a lot of interpretation which could be problematic what prompted the proposal well it has been in the drafting for quite some time and also charities in the u.k. have been urging the government to take similar steps particularly after the case of a fourteen year old who committed suicide in two thousand and seventeen and after her

death her parents found that there was a content inciting suicide on her instagram account but more generally there is a sense that not only in the u.k. that a social media companies are not doing enough to self regulate and we can also take a listen to what prime minister theresa may had to say about this social media firms are still not doing enough to protect users from home full content and that's not good enough so today we're pushing a legal duty of care on these companies to keep uses safe and if they fail to do so tough punishments will be imposed. the era of social media firms regulating themselves is over you know it's quite a statement right there in the u.k. government is not the only one talking about internet regulations is it you know and i'm just just last week astray have a very strict new law that was in the wake of the mass shootings in a two mosques in christchurch new zealand after which facebook in particular came

under fire for not being fast enough in preventing a video of that of those shootings from circulating so syria adopted the strict new law day which could see social media companies being fined up to ten percent of their annual profits if they fail to remove this continent quickly enough and new zealand is also considering new legislation on the other hand so we're seeing more and more governments trying to take matters into their own hands critics however are saying that these regulations if they're rushed too much they could you know they could lead also to unforseen consequences and one of the main risks that they see is that they could undermine freedom of expression online yeah definitely the wild west days of the internet appear to be over that's for sure but we could buy view as always thank you things well in factories around the world robots have taken on much of the drudgery of repetitive work researchers say

a similar breakthrough lies ahead for tasks like tracking small changes in human help artificial intelligence is the answer there but the evolving work of machines raises new questions about how intrusive they should be and should collect the data on its official intelligence of his great potential for work mobility and medicine using fountains of x. ray images researches at stanford university have trained their own homegrown ai to conduct diagnoses when you have to do is photograph and upload an x. ray and wait a couple of seconds for the result. it's a mass and it's this thing over here is a possibly cancerous lesion and i can see that right over her. ai control through even apparently on remarkable data like how a body moves while walking algorithms can use such data to recognize potential signs of conditions like parkinson's signs

a doctor could easily miss but caution is advised. much of what we see might be great as it throws up ethical questions which need to be answered alongside the developments we make and we don't want to situation where we have very ethical that fail to progress nor should we just freely develop things and ignore the ethical side take google's intelligent microphone's for example google itself forms in some detail what can be derived from household sounds like the length of time we spend brushing our teeth or whether we argue or if someone in the household is sick who. is to take over the world. to direct our thoughts between person and person or communication about official intelligence grants huge power to silicon valley's tech companies gemini's justice minister once data monopolies to be broken up as

a sling and outsiders can we must adapt antitrust law to the needs of the modern age for example facebook's takeover of whatsapp should have been prevented by antitrust law because it was completely clear what it would lead to namely a massive concentration of data being collected by must consent what's one there's no avoiding it the ai revolution is coming the question is can ethics keep step with progress. after a short break i'll be back to take you through the day stick around for that.

entered the conflict zone confronting the powerful i test the convictions and values of the powerful confronting them with facts on the draw all those people with other people's lives in their hand out of their comfort zone. how good are the

arguments of my guests councils and just excuses. conflict zones confronting the powerful on t.w. . her first day in school in the jungle. first camillus and. then doris green the moment arrives. joined the ring on her journey back to freedom. in our interactive documentary. rain attained returns home on t w dot com tang's. when the water starts rising people fight for survival and he set up i guess it was about you but when there's a flood water comes up toward waist when you close fast to everyone but. the lack of water is equally dangerous. days and keep it legal move south so they can

plant crops and trying to meet. floods and droughts with climate change become the main driver of mass migration you can write any kind of peace not if you want and probably most of them will come to. the climate exodus starts april thirtieth on t w. it is like a scene from a mad max movie a barren desert as far as the eye can see and convoys of militias headed for battle their leader a seasoned warlord with powerful friends and enemies but this is no film this is libya a failed state on the verge of another civil war u.s. forces pulled out yesterday as the renegade general khalifa haftar seizes a chance to take tripoli and then the rest of the country tonight we ask who's going to stop in. berlin this is the day.