i'm actually returns here we're going underground twenty four hours away from the expire e of n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden's residency permit in russia coming up on the show treading the boards of power we speak to scotland's longest serving first minister alex salmond about his barrel performance at the largest arts festival in the world the annual edinburgh fringe festival in scotland which begins this week and this thousands fleeing the fallout of nato wars in the middle east face death trying to cross the mediterranean we speak to award winning author lucy hughes hallett about how new inability to build walls to keep out economic and political transformation plus a good day to bury bad news what stories of fallen through the cracks in this week's buried news all this of all coming up in today's going underground but first today marks one hundred years since what is arguably one of the most useless battles in all of human history the battle of passion they all went off a million died or wounded in muddy ditches sixty four miles from where the european parliament in belgium now sits today remembering the dead is wrapped up in

a cornucopia of commemoration and social media join us in commemorating those who fought in world war one in flanders fields down to this remembered maybe the fact that czarist russia really catalyze the slaughter with the defeat of the so-called korean ski offensive that czarist russia that was supported by britain and its allies against the bolshevik revolution that would take place in russia in a few months after passion dail the soviet union's policies would have the effect of reducing the number of dead and wounded of world war one but the battle itself was part of what u.k. liberal prime minister lloyd george at the time would call a senseless campaign and the shadow of the future energy of war was fought from london continues to today here is our veteran labor m.p. tony benn mentor of current u.k. labor leader jeremy corbyn put it in parliament ahead of the iraq war war is an easy thing to talk about not many people of the generation that grew. member. six a

lot of i never killed anyone but i wore uniforms but i was in london in the blitz and i'd be forty living in the millbank tower where i was born some different ideas of commonsense i don't know if they're laughing because the millbank tower in westminster was then the offices of tony blair's labor party i went out into the show toward thames house every morning i saw doc land burning five hundred people killed in westminster one not by a land mine it was terrify own jr groups terrified countries rockers terrified to go into iraq pretty rocky where me weep when their children die well we caught up with a tireless opponent of that war in iraq and subsequent was the former first minister of scotland alex salmond dizzee took a break from rehearsing in a theatre here in london for his edinburgh fringe show in scotland running at the assembly rooms from the thirteenth to the twenty seventh of august before we get on to your reading before in show a link between today's one hundred year anniversary of passion dale and don't trump

yes the link as it happens obvious of the great war was hugely costly in terms of human life and scotland was one of the center points a lot because so many schools were in the forces and volunteered for the forces and the connection with donald trump is that the one of the probably the last great tragedy of the first world war was a ship called dial which was coming back to the west of miles to the hebrides in the first of january one thousand nine hundred and was lost in a storm within a couple hundred jobs of the shore and another several hundred young men were lost in addition to the thousands who'd been lost from the west of the islands and the trenches and that created such an imbalance of population between men and women to believe in the western isles a series of embarkation chemically ships what i mean just in the one nine hundred twenty s. which were women only many. cases and on one of these ships was

a young medium occlude the mother of donald trump somebody who incidentally went to america as a refugee effectively as an economic migrant who wouldn't fleeing a situation of great great deprivation and the western islands you think with a person i said would think about other people who would get aboard you know i made a fantastic successful self in america good luck to him and she was a mother of the president stated we were going to get him would jump in a second so we're telling about a show in edinburgh by a defeated politician who. you haven't even announced the guests in your show yet and it's already one of the fastest selling shoes in all the debris fringes tree yeah lost because i didn't and i was to guess. beaten but on borrowed. the optical setting here as a perfect place to talk about it it was going to sure politics. come affairs

whatever sport the show because it's going to be fast moving a lot in it but it's on the light side. so it's a fun show so we're going to look at the light said to be a few serious points here male so we can a monologue from either be a dialogue of a guest will be open to question from the audience will go away as a band of comedienne and then we'll go to a charity auction and we'll go a wrap it was going to be really fantastic and you're quite right it is one of the hottest selling shows on the fringe does sell tickets quicker than german corbin's you by some margin if you don't do one and stay. with us now i'm sure general of the. sports and the festival in the book festival in the past i'm i'm sure you'll find a very amenable place because there's a bit different from a normal political meeting in the festival audience who are generally speaking you know good natured well informed. they're for. do you have to he had to listen i'm

to participate and i'm sure jeremy will love it that serious question for promised us questions because you'll be you know hundreds of french girls will believe. you have a say here at the m.p.'s to the public i don't know but i mean they're obviously very serious issues facing the nations of the u.k. at the moment is it a good ripe for humor in this some would call it a crisis well all times right but i believe that as a politician and i certainly believe a known politician but now you must see the light side if you don't if you know of the ability to see a bit of humor sometimes black humor of course and everything life's not worth living and and my estimation i always try to see the the lighter side of politics as a participant and so i think i'm entitled to see even more for the time being at least a non-participant ok you mentioned don't believe the s. and p. its policy on syria was pretty clear which we were war and war and peace do you

feel vindicated by what's happening in syria and of course don't trump the cities ending cia backing the defect to al qaeda or isis linked rebels in syria. yeah i mean i the we couldn't see it when the vote came to parliament the the legitimacy of an intervention in what is a multifaceted and incredibly complex civil war in syria a as opposed to iraq for example where there's a clear legitimacy in terms of the invitation and from a government which is recognized iraq to receive this is not a bit you know i'm not talking to over twenty three not talking about the fee i'm talking about no so you know whether you agree with individual tactics and individual engagements the will challenge to the democrats to the legitimacy and hemis international law of the intervention. what you're saying is well you know i

mean look i as people probably understand certainly the festival goers who could to my show because one of them one of my monologues was largely devoted to the donald devotion is probably not the right word but but some are centers on the donald in these characters and i have to say i've got very little time for that but that doesn't mean he is always wrong. i don't think the president of states has been wrong in his general approach to russia for example i think you know you don't think he's as russian spy i don't think so russian spy i mean i think donaldson is going to be in commercial interest rather than political ones but the point i was going to make in terms of his general attitude to be the take the proposition that you know giorgio is better than the cold war cold war seems to be a more sensible arrangement between america and russia. other people other politicians in the united states who allowed themselves to be gold and. so just

because i disagree with his the best policies i disagree with the offense he causes so many american. solution is no but try and gender people in the armed forces. if you run a dual think presents the united states becoming from the meat political speeches to the boy scouts i think all this behavior it's ridiculous and basically i think he's unfit to be president that doesn't mean that he's always wrong you know with bricks that we know that all the nations of the united kingdom are going to have to make a trade deal with the united states is it wise to be willing the antagonism of don't trump. the thought of any british well as was a guest i don't think donald is going to be of i would be as long as it is too big a trade deal in my estimation but more to the not i mean you know the problems with the trade deal united states military because i'm critical of the donald and

because i'm going to make a few revelations of code that was would be a great surprise to everybody given what the c.e.o. you know going to tell us from going on but nonetheless there will be revelations it doesn't mean i don't think he's a tough negotiator and if the united kingdom enters into a trade deal with united states for medical from a position of supreme weakness which is what the position is at the present moment then the terms of that deal will favor the united states of america and donald trump would be against his entire nature to do anything else no doubt he'll call him he looks and deal with us while they were saying spending more time dealing with michel barnier not be enough for david but we'll foresee a lethal force against the donald trump as in the negotiation who are you going to back tell you claude in eating chicken will be the least of these and just find him very briefly we've heard in the past forty eight hours in the us john good you are saying that the sanctions by the united states own russia. they could be

counter sanctions the austrians are saying at the unions in europe. how central are sanctions against russia you know between in the e.u. united states relations obviously economic sanctions are better than some of the alternatives some things economic sanctions are rather liberal use the not used as a means of getting action but almost as a substitute for nuclear wallasey well that's why i said the birth of the middle term those but equally they can be overused and you know the united states of america has a tendency to take you take for example the. the argument of russia you can interplay with fame ego was the interference of the american election so you can you can see there was a substantial argument to be to say to the poor ok do you believe there was i don't know is the answer although i do also accept that america probably is the last

country the world to talk about interfering in other people's elections since they've done it more than once but this ice is against iran at the present moment know by every examination by admission of the cia by acknowledgement of the american senate a has kept to the nuclear ban treaty the most significant achievement of the foreign policy of president obama set to state and all the others who joy is a huge international step forward that back from the brink of a nuclear confrontation and everybody everybody's interests. that is continues to be a success. now that was predicated on i'm listening of sanctions of welcoming iran back into the fool fold of the international committee of recognizing and the start of a civilized and educated society that iran undoubtedly years be

a fantastic addition to the commonwealth of nations tehran is a full participant a bubble. jeff. for the appeals is all of putting tough on not liking the you know every aspect to or having some probably mistaken view of the sunni she. deficient in and out of society but to recognize that big picture of saying that it's been a success let's try and build it from good to say the fight was a previous administration success shouldn't matter of these contexts as i think significant tried to stay nothing but show called yukos doing to come to what science is against iran and trying to fight a different source would be very welcome examined thank you pleasure. and you can catch all examines new show at the edinburgh as a symbol rooms in scotland from the thirteenth to the twenty seventh of august you can get tickets at his website after the break from trump's transparent wall in

mexico we speak to award winning or loosing about how barry is used to keep the wealthy and keep. counting cia coups to pranking trump's cabinet in the international national sports and whether this week's news. going on the ground. down on one side. the definition. you cannot. take in the city. and then yes really.

really think i'm. just feeling if one. of them tokyo found it. this is what it was because did a piece of dancing coral cultural reasons. welcome

back i'm afshin rattansi bringing you the national international sports and weather from this week's buried news first as u.s. navy ships fired warning shots at an iranian revolutionary guard vessel in the persian gulf newly declassified documents of showing the key role that oil played in the cia backed coup of nine hundred fifty three to overthrow the democratically elected prime minister of iran mohamed morsy back to another i think the reason they have been so reluctant to publish these documents is that it shows how involved the u.s. embassy was basad in internal iranian affairs it's like looking at an imperial power in assam a colonial situation. strax pricing all. cia boss mike pompei it was confirmed his agency's ongoing involvement in south america remarking that he has so called deep interests in working with colombia and mexico to ensure

a transition in the leadership of venezuela. israel's foreign minister several months father also took to twitter to accuse u.s. intelligence of organizing the right wing demonstrations that have killed nearly one hundred people since april. nearly three years to the day that it s a whistleblower edward snowden was granted a residency permit in russia new documents uncovered as a result of a lawsuit from the american civil liberties union revealed new levels of illegal it's a surveillance under the obama administration data was being searched and stored by the n.s.a. under the section seven zero two surveillance program due to be renewed this year and then passed on to the f.b.i. and cia now let's get the latest weather with deputy editor sebastian packer thanks as well to morrow is forecasting a cold winter for the u.k. national health service and all birth or ease the nursing and midwifery and allied

health unions to be cancelled the n.h.s. already on to be damaged by huge austerity cuts i've seen a number of student nurse applications drop over twelve thousand five hundred places from last year this already on top of the forty thousand vacant nurse posts in england. protest is a quarter of this new fracking site in lancashire have been receiving a frosty reception from local police and what demonstrators say is all forward to putting the interests of big business over their right to protest our approach right from the word go has been that we want to have the very low key policing operation we want to engage with negotiate we want to facilitate. wherever possible we want to allow people out right to protest the scenes they say maybe the battle of all grief where police allegedly assaulted miners striking against margaret thatcher's government attempts to shut down britain's coal industries the possibility of a nuclear winter may have been averted this week as today strikes of

a pensions atomic weapons establishment site nor the mass that imperfect old have been suspended due to the government policy on offer arguably good news as these sites are responsible for manufacturing nuclear warheads including teresa mayes two hundred five billion pound renewal of tried it but at least we don't have for dancing with stars contestant and now united states for energy rick perry in charge of arnica are also because he was recently tricked by russian pranksters into thinking that he was talking to ukrainian prime minister about fuel made from pigment you'll now over to see to produce a peach bennett to go through some of the week's counterpunches in social media be . a backyard brawl was predator at large pool joseph watson come straight out the gate swinging for the state mandated b.b.c. attempting to debug the idea of a racially diverse roman britain the conspiracy theories took a jab at the you tube video tweeting a screenshots and stating who cares about historical accuracy but wait what's this

flying into the argument with a flurry of facts is this story. on with a killer combo the contender posted evidence of north africans the descendants of modern day iraqis and syrians who lived in but sanya even p.j. w. against the ropes next. actually the tech titans tour the heavyweight division is most successful powerful power entrepreneurs mock facebook fury zucker bug versus evil on the space that a mosque in a war of words a social media breeze didn't name and shame as far as such but pops off shots of what he called negative irresponsible ai naysayers who are drumming up doomsday scenarios been jaw dropping comeback fashion that tesla c.e.o. delivered a one line live a punch to his fellow billionaire samos understanding of ai was limited and finally commemorate sixty nine years to the day us president truman desegregated his military the current commander in chief has thrown a low blow the transgender community there not be allowed to serve in america's

armed forces using medical costs as his defense yet in the office comes the well when whistleblower chelsea manning countering with an op of criticism over the billions of taxpayer dollars the trump administration is funnel towards faulty f. thirty five fighter jets and with judy in the assassin of songs asking if anyone should be allowed to commit war crimes in the first place could it be a knockout we'll have to wait and see now back to the cedar. the survivors of the grim fell tower inferno have until this friday to submit their statements to teresa mayes appoint a judge on the tragedy that is arguably underscore the barriers of inequality right across the u.k. and because of barriers in the gaza strip trumps wall across mexico arguably deserve an award winning author lucy hughes helots new book peculiar ground the moon as a biographer of cleopatra and fascist precursor didn't see oh it's her first novel lucy welcome to do going underground so it's

a question about any historical novel arguably so what what is alternatively novel about the return of a nobleman after exile in english revolution what's a relevant to today well. the novel is set in one place but over a long period of time three centuries and the two things that link the disparate parts of the of the story are two walls and one is the wall around a great estate with a great high city center in rural england and another is the ballin world and the house around which the wall is being built belongs to an artist pratt who has been in exile almost all his life since he was a small child he's a political exile but there has been a real regime change in england six hundred sixty the monarchy was restored after a whole generation of civil war. and he's come back and he hasn't had a home he's been a refugee all his life

a privileged one but nonetheless homeless and with no certain future and what he wants to do now is create for himself a safe and enclosed space and that's an understandable human desire but of course if you create an enclosed space for yourself you are almost by definition going to be excluding others or you don't do a building building the walls in the way between rich and poor a very what about the flipping and between the seventeenth century and the sixty's and macy's were the possible comparisons why you chose that well as i said the berlin wall which. goes up in part two of this of this novel and comes down in part four is another kind of enclosure and i'm interested in the ballin wall well i mean everyone a city is interested in the battle and war it was the most extraordinary phenomena

in world history in that it was a moment when people tried by putting up a physical barrier to split. society a country and one of the very interesting things about it i think is that the east german authorities told their own people we're putting up this wall for your protection they wanted the east germans to feel that the other side of the wall in western europe they were ravening hoards of fascists and. that's what they say it was it was called the protection will but of course a lot of east german citizens didn't believe that they saw it as a war which was imprisoning them and not allowing them the freedom to explore other possibilities and actually possibly leave her a country and was a little burg in the news very much back in the news because the american people really electoral college voted for having a wall of the united states of them yes i mean i'm not happy about the fact that

donald trump is now president of the united states that he has helped to make this but feel very timely but it's not just mr trump's will that have always been walls and the great will to china as one of the earliest most famous the roman emperor has tried to exclude the scots from the southern part of the british isles by building walls there are walls in israel walls in northern ireland and while i was writing the last section of the book there were barriers going up all over europe the last section of the book is set in sixty nine sixty five the year of the play when people in london were dying in enormous terrifying numbers of the body play and they didn't really understand how the plague was transmitted they certainly didn't know how to treat it so what they did was run away from it and as i was writing that section of the book i was describing the roads out of london into the

countryside crammed with refugees with migrants escaping from danger trying to find a safe. a place in which they could perhaps make a better life for themselves and as i was writing that section set you know more than three hundred years ago the newspapers and television screens were through images of migrants walking away from the troubles in syria coming up through taki through southern europe trying to get to a safe place and a better life and i hadn't set out to write a book about the migration crisis which hadn't already begun when i started writing the book but certainly that's that echoing of what was going on in my imaginary world and what was going on in the real world around me was at once chilling but also i suppose it told me you know i am on to something important here but really comparable the failure of medical science arguably in being able to make

the british public. refugees room major was back and rebels in syria and the bombing of libya well the parallel comes when the people who are in a safe place. as it were put on trial that their humanity. that generosity that tolerance but that their ordinary kindness is put to the test are they can take these people in are they going to give them at least a temporary refuge and. the lord willing and the man who owns that private estate that is the setting for my novel he fails that test and it's props understandable you know he's been an exile himself his own sense of security is is very unstable and he's you know it's been a hard one for him but he closes his gates he doesn't allow the refugees in

and. he's said yeah he's he's judged. where do you see his alex thank you and that's it for the show we're back on wins if you'll then keep in touch via social media with you on wednesday fifty three years of the day of a false flag gulf of tonkin incident engineered by the white house to get the american people to support a war in communist vietnam with according to the british medical journal would result in up to four million violent. flurry used to be a professional hockey player won a stanley cup and a moment the girl who was living the dream but his success had a dark side. in the time i was fourteen to sixteen i was raped one hundred fifty times by a coach of mine i was mawson in dark room and so you know every time i close my eyes or from sleep after many years of silence he speaks up and unites with other

victims so you are going from toronto to ottawa to walk in an hour walk and victor walk is to create awareness and promote healing around the subject child sexual abuse this type of behavior is absolutely unacceptable because of the sentences that are handed down through the justice system. you can see the border from here was a little. steel fence to do is on this side goes all the way down. like they said this is this is. and this is something. you have every right to be here have the right to call collect my food be a part of my family on both sides of the border. they started an organization called the arizona border recall we or the state

a little bit into teeth. that is doing. with these to be done in the five years it's getting worse. worse the violence is escalating because this. bridge is really good with some because. they believe that their range is there is and they don't believe. that it is taking. responsibility for their security which we would for anywhere else.

but some of. the opposition in venice way like calls for yet more protests following sunday's controversial election which has already sparked violence. london's high court blocks a bid to prosecute former british prime minister tony blair for a crime of aggression over the iraq war. also at this hour news from militants are driven i doubt their six year stronghold in the eastern lebanese monckton's r.t. travels to what used to be a terrorist in the highlands. inside the cave.