ability over the laser directed energy weapon system for the self protection of land maritime in atlanta it's funded by innovation funding the question of course will be how this new u.k. laser weapon will be used right now that means would britain use it with its saudi allies to target civilians ravaged by cholera in yemen and would it have been used to support british backed isis and al qaeda linked militants trying to overthrow the government of syria or even al shabaab in somalia which has been accused this week of killing hundreds in mogadishu well joining me now from minnesota in the usa is trustee of mogadishu university an elected member of the african academy of sciences for has a smile summit are welcome to the program before he gets to one of the worst atrocities arguably since the colonial period just explain why countries like britain and italy sort of power over somalia well britain saw the power of somalia because it was just going to be located country or territory there due to the opening of this waste canal in eight hundred sixty nine and because of the british

important british possession in india this was the route to india so it was quite a strategic in that sense it came late to the colonial enterprise and it came here partly just to get a lot of land in africa because it had its eyes also on ethiopia which is sort of was a bigger arsenal somebody at one time i want to get on to ethiopia in a second we you can see our studio here but we have a beautiful picture of the old harbor in mogadishu in your book africa's first democrats you tried to be the golden age at the dawn of somalia's independence from its colonial powers just explain to us because all we see in many mainstream media pictures of somalia of bombings in atrocities. the current problem in somalia is a legacy both of the colonial era and the cold war but the during the early sixty's the late fifty's and certainly the early sixty's for the first decade of independence from one thousand nine hundred sixty nine hundred seventy some odd had the name of being the first democrats by having

a number of elections those who are free and fair and changing of government without any violence the next one in africa will take place in almost twenty five years later in zambia one kind of counter was replaced by a. record so somalis know how to practice democracy when they get an opportunity when they get the kind of leadership that can trust the constitution and be accountable to its people so regardless of what has happened over the last twenty five years and i was in with the shop owner about five weeks ago you can see in the eyes of the spirit of the people that these are folks who can go a long way in practicing democracy in practicing peace if they get the kind of support from the canal community and certainly if they can the kind of a sort of respectable honest leadership with a great deal of integrity and to this latest atrocity usually when we see political violence here in britain we say a terrorist only has to get it right once the law enforcement people have to get it

right every time but you believe that it's something to do with the internationally driven financial security architecture that could be ascribed for the blame i think if there is no doubt in my mind that al shabaab is taking advantage of the in my assessment of the stability of the international community and its inability to come to terms on how to defeat. people like al shabab my thinking is that in the international community particularly the european union and the united states were to invest a quarter or a fraction of what they have been spending on the so-called african union force amazon that the somali people will be able to mobilize enough number of troops that are. that or more while that kind of engage in that that can engage us about in ways that i'm some could never be able to do so is to teach it projected that britain and the certain is not britain but the european union and the united states and leading is just wrong headed it's poor it's not particularly intelligent and if they were able to mobilize the somali people and provide them with two hundred

million dollars a year for five years the somalis will be able to drive the militias of al-shabaab and other terrorists into the sea in my opinion so that's really where the up is rather down there somali government or whatnot relatively of course that that's peanuts compared to the armed conflict can you at least forgive some people you've described on its strategic country strategically located if you give some people for believing that the united states doesn't want somalia to exist as an independent sovereign state could be one of africa's richest countries i don't think the united states is deliberately doing that i think the policies that have been put into place for a long period of time certainly since the end of this part of the century has been so wrong headed and they have been influenced by burbled and they're coming from neighboring states who say that somalis are fanatics and whatnot so it's not a deliberate attempt by the leadership of the united states and certainly the intellectual community here but it's just following the wrong kind of steps that

were put in place for a long period of time and that keeps producing more disasters for everybody including the united states even despite the destruction of the islamic courts which brought some stability then obama's intensification of bombing somalia and then donald trump latest orchestrates on barea with some people believe this latest atrocity hails from yeah i think it's one of the troubles of diplomacy to some degree is that the folks who are on the ground for the european union and the united states are in my opinion intellectually lazy they don't want to dig in. exactly the nature of the problem and how to resolve talk to the somali people rather than the political class that dominates that country whose interest is served by the perpetuation of these problems so it's really an alliance between an international community that's lazy and unintelligent in my opinion who may have the good will but don't have the intelligence to be able to know when they have

been pursuing the wrong projects and the wrong strategies and a somalia political class not so much of the present government per se who are so beholden to maintaining the status quo because that's how they make their money and how that's keep their positions so it's really that sort of if you like twenty lions or two devil sniping if we can believe the united states is not deliberately destabilizing somalia and it's actually incompetence can we blame russia and we really china for not exerting more pressure instead of seemingly leaving the united states and nato countries to it i think the russian government and the chinese government have given sort of made statements about their willingness to help but they really have not come to terms with the fact that somalia needs help and that they can make a huge difference if they were able to intervene not in the sense of sending military troops there but providing again hundred two hundred million dollars a year and help them rebuild security forces that are local in nature gather accountable to the local people and that are not taking their cues from the

international community is a particular interest so the u.s. the chinese and the russians have been derelict in their responsibility as sort of the major powers in this world you don't think two hundred million dollars from russia and china would mean that washington would believe there was a war on africa home. well i mean in africa is not invited by the african people to africa and i'm so all the somalis and africans have to decide what themselves the colonial era is over i will tell the western world and anybody else who wants to listen to this and so if those international community from the west is not willing to support the somali people creagh in their dignity and their so sovereignty and the russians and the chinese are willing to help them in doing so so be it in my opinion what are arguably us client states neighboring client states like ethiopia and kenya up to as regards the ongoing violence in somalia than ethiopians have been on record for a very long time and i have all the documents to demonstrators have been interested

in making sure the somalia never comes back in fact they approached the soviet union in one thousand and fifteen one thousand nine hundred sixty two used the soviet veto power of the security council to ensure that somalia as an independent country was not admitted into the to the united nations so there is a long record on the american government particularly the bush regime if you like listen to the ethiopians more so than anybody else and of course. the kenyans have invaded somalia in two thousand and eleven saying that the al-shabaab was sort of disrupting its tourist economy the evidence from the department of state of the united states and the cia it's quite clear that the kenyans had this last long before the two incidents in which ordinary people who were tourist in kenya were hijacked by either russia or some other groups from somalia but doesn't the fact that kenya which relies on tourist foreign currency even despite that it's willing to continue those kinds of policies suggest to you that the kenyan government maybe

like the ethiopian government realizes what happens to countries that oppose us the fact the u.s. policy in that region now i'm not certain that's the case i think the kenyans have something else in mind there is a dispute now that's why. for the judgment in the international court of justice in the where kenya is claiming part of somali territorial waters between the two countries on the indian ocean because the claim is that there's a lot of gas and maybe petroleum in there so there's more than heating though advice on the wish of the united states that's at stake for kenya kenya has territorial interest in that country an issue that was of course raised when there was that relative stability do it during the islamic courts system just finally do you think there's any way that a return to the islamic court system could create stability in somalia no i think there is a never and history's second time's a farce first time it's a tragedy i don't think there is

a way to go back to islamic courts but i think one can possibly do if you were following the news in somalia in the last few days people from sort of the extreme northwest of the country all the way to the south have been demonstrating are calling for national unity and i think if the current leadership has any degree of intelligence they will mobilize that to defeat the prevailing political apparatus in the country and begin to negotiate with international community so there is a way out of this and the people in the country are ready for it what they are lacking among the somalis is the kind of leadership that can articulate this and put programs in place that will get them out of this have even if they're not one to cash. moving around more good issues the politicians which emanate from washington based institutions yeah i mean known as some of the money comes from the middle east or so i'm in another group of people who have led the somali people are the so-called muslim world of the arab world the africans have done the same thing

and so my sense is that the country is capable of raising between hundred between fifteen hundred million dollars to invest in their security forces even if that the international community is not willing to do that the question is where is the summit in leadership that compromise. the kind of articulation that's necessary to mobilize people for to give their pennies and cents if you like to contribute to this force so i think the possibilities we do you will doubtless seventy going back to the union of islamic courts because they're you know this not of course has been defunct for quite some time professor. thank you for closure after the break twenty million yemenis without water and the only one million suffering from cholera and thousands of civilians killed. about the country are devastated by. this week's. calculated cruelty against the british people.

we're here in southern russia in solitary discussion called. u.s. russia relations and the state of the world.

but also. the relationship between. it was suggested. and a fairly strong one there were two thousand. do chemicals that the appetising. really increase the risk of cancer. known to them in the law. they do not believe that this is true by independent scientists so did the need. for this. compensation for my time as well as the others why is that the meat lobby. do like what we've been doing and if you want to learn more you'll get a definite on the outflow the. back.

is big business against health. as it started. in case you're new to the game this is how it works the economy is built around corporations corporations run washington washington. voters elected to businessman to run this country business equals power you must it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before. welcome back it was bound to be a relatively chaotic prime minister's questions this week given that last week's question from british opposition leader jeremy corbin led to

a direct you turn by pm to resume over charging the most vulnerable in society for asking for help but as the speaker the house of commons was forced to intervene again and again the pm thought it wise to explain to corbin how the economy really works no money if. it clicks money in taxes from business is equal to pay just. to spend on the n.h.s. and on the services people knee really or does the way the british economy actually work mean taxpayers funding to resumes defacto multi-million pound bribes to stay in power prime ministers seem to have no problem finding a billion pounds in a couple of areas here that's a reference to the northern irish form a paramilitary wing party keeping tereza may in power for money but there's some m.p.'s drazen made changes to welfare just cruel there was the case of fred baron be persecuted for daring to seek social security will you take this responsibility

. claim an injustice and debts as spread out as the speaker was careful not to be liable for fred to be forgeries it may seem to suggest the role of u.k. welfare is to force people against their will to get jobs i will take new responsibility for these matters myself at all only one of the lady will be advised on the protocol but the prime minister may wish to respond but as i've indicated the changes to be made in relation to the phone lines the peach the honorable lady universe the evidence is that on universal credit more people are getting into the workplace than on job seekers allowance but. is that because they're forced into dire poverty is tourism a engaging in calculated cruelty labour's laura pitt got gas to we're not talking arm sales to saudi arabia to bomb civilians in yemen right now is the rollout of gross incompetence calculated cruel in the u.k. house of commons speaker had to intervene when the prime minister didn't rule out

calculated cruelty but then maybe more minority conservative government u. turns next week will do something to alleviate the arguable punishing of the poor that even to raise amaze own m.p.'s and now rebelling against. well now that jeremy corbyn has the power to change tory policy on universal credit help line charges perhaps u.k. prime minister drazen may well listen to him about backing and arming the saudi war in yemen the u.k. u.s. backed bombing of the poorest country in the middle east is arguably not only led to the killing of thousands of men women and children but has caused the fastest growing cholera epidemic in recent history affecting over six hundred thousand children maybe dr sharon voc e from unicef joins me now from yemen's capital city sun sharon thanks for joining us so britain still supporting the air attacks on yemen but on the ground unicef apparently finding itself having to decide between feeding healthy children or treating this sick yemen look beautiful from the background there what do you

what's happening on the ground thank you option for having me and the situation as you described it is truly dire the latest figures off the outbreak tell us that there are about eight hundred fifty thousand suspected cases of cholera and the death toll has crossed two thousand one fourth of these cases are little children. in addition the whole situation of nutrition is extremely worrying we have two million children who are suffering from acute malnutrition of these close to three hundred eighty five thousand children are suffering from severe and acute malnutrition which puts them at a high risk of debt almost seven million yemenis are facing severe food insecurity which simply means they don't know where their next meal will come from all in all it is truly an alarming situation and children are paying the heaviest price and now your regional director garrett couple are saying that four and

a half million children looks at i have no education either that is correct the situation of education is really worrying since the two and a half years of conflict we've had more than two million children out of school sixteen hundred schools have been partially or completely destroyed now with more than seventy percent of teachers not having received their salaries since the last year this is really treating the education of a third of four point five million children in addition malnutrition and the trauma of displacement and violence is seriously affecting the ability of children to learn education is on the brink in yemen and education is probably the only chance for the children of yemen to secure a better future and to put yemen on the path to peace our tourism is british made bombs falling on yemen helping unicef's work well the conflict has taken its toll.

we know of vivi have verified reports of children being killed children being maimed and all parties to the conflict really must respect international humanitarian law and allow an injured access to the humanitarian organizations like unicef the other u.n. partners the international and national n.g.o.s so that we are able to reach every corner of the country with the necessary aid that time is crucial and really the situation with every passing day is spiraling downwards britons are of his training the war planes that are dropping bombs there are obviously mistakes though being made what does unicef and your people on the ground think of this figure of maybe one thousand six hundred schools partially or totally destroyed as unicef we're really what it about the situation of children and the killing of children is never

justified. we are of course advocating that civilian infrastructure like schools like health facilities should not be targeted during the conflict but what is more important to note is that while there are children dying due to the while and there are a large number of children dying simply because important systems like the health system the water and sanitation system are fos collapsing we know that now in yemen one child dies every ten minutes this is simply unacceptable and it is time all the international powers put pressure on all parties to the conflict to end this indiscriminate violence and do more for the children of yemen britain is the fourth biggest donor to yemen giving one hundred million pounds worth of aid is it that all of the three point three billion pounds of arms and weapons sold to saudi arabia that does more help for your workers in yemen beautiful course grateful to

all donors who are contributing to the delivery of aid to yemenis we know today that there are about twenty min more than twenty million yemenis in need of humanitarian aid the numbers are startling all of these ten million children are in need of acute humanitarian aid and this is really wanting and we encourage more donors to stand up and support yemen. as you know when the u.n. released its annual need for yemen the ask was for two point three billion dollars and so far only about fifty percent of those needs have been met there's really a shortage of resources i recently visited a hospital a children's hospital in the capital city of santa and the doctors were struggling with lack of medicines with the essential supplies to treat children with suspected cholera in addition the closure. off the international airport in santa to

commercial airlines makes it difficult for yemenis to go outside to seek medical care it is really a dire situation and very alarming and heart wrenching at the same time so is there a defacto british backed saudi blockade that is affecting your ability to get medicine for children in yemen access remains a challenge for all partners and while the partners do have access to white parts of the country in delivering aid that odd bureaucratic impediments imposed by all sides on the humanitarian actors this is something which has to stop and humanitarian actors should be allowed to freely access all corners of the country in addition the delivery of aid has to be foster and we are looking at the authorities on all sides to support the humanitarian actors to enable speedy

delivery of aid very does most needed is there a sense of tragic irony amongst you and your fellow aid workers that the countries giving aid to yemen the very same countries that are bombing yemen or aiding the bombing of yemen as i said before there is an acute shortage of resources and all those relink to help with the concern for yemenis are welcome to support the the relief efforts this is really important and there is really no time to waste working as a humanitarian aid worker in yemen that are times when the situation can be really painful when you visit families with children i recently with children who are suffering from starvation and malnutrition i recently visited. data which is one of

. the governorates in the for on the frontlines of the conflict and there i met a family with a mother with five children. three of them were suffering from acute watery diarrhea and this mother really had to make the choice whether she had to take these children who were sick to the hospital or whether to feed the other siblings her husband was out of work since more than eight months and really the family was struggling to survive we know that there are many more families suffering like this almost eighty percent of households in yemen are in debt and they're mostly borrowing money to purchase food this is really a heart wrenching situation and finally what if british warplanes are used to further blockade supplies from reaching your workers in. so far

we have been able to get supplies using the resources available to every corner of the country the challenge is access and bureaucratic impediments by all sides and this is something which must stop humanitarian aid workers must be allowed on in the access to reach every corner of the country with the essential supplies including ordered readmissions holds water purification tablets lifesaving medicines and all the other essential supplies which are required. really time is running out yemen is on the brink and all the international community as well as the authorities in yemen need to make a concerted effort humanity is becoming a victim of politics in yemen and this is really watching and for the sake of yemeni children they did the world must act. b. effects of this conflict will be seen long after the conflict. with the impact on

education with the impact on health services future generations will also bet of the impact off the conflict of today. thank you and that's it for the show we'll see you on monday when british economist steve keen explains why the bank of england's economic modeling is all but useless still then keep in touch via social media we'll see all of the eighty eight years to the days of the new york stock exchange began to crash leading to a great depression arguably less severe than the current western they could only crisis. what politicians do. they put themselves on the line they get accepted or rejected

. so when you want to be president and you. want to be. the two going to be pros it's like them before three of them or ten people. i'm interested always in the water our. first sip. coffee and clothes think you have. you know the. state is. getting close to let me. come.

as a. comedian for. me what's going on in the book about the noise will. be. this is i believe the worst crisis in modern american history is the crisis of unfettered capitalism undermining the entire population of the country and we've seen the arab spring we've seen other hot spots in the world and ice and i feel the heat building.

how does it feel to be a sheriff the greatest job in the world it's as close to being a king as any job there is one business model helps to run a prison now we do or don't like this is nobody to be the case and i don't no one comes anymore we don't have to sarge them anymore is. this will be won't do that loan they don't give a damn if you do the chores the money. to put them back into the louisiana incarceration rate is twice as high as the u.s.n. breach what she is behind such success. here's what people have been saying about rejected in the us in the long austin the only show i go out of my way to launch it would. that really. is the john oliver of r t americans do the same. better than. the

see heard of. president of the world bank. really. seriously send us an e-mail. breaking news this hour international several people. police say the suspect is. a european publishers a list of thousands of guests among. the president calling them quote. in a controversial report. right now. one fifty five in. that country.