human rights watch claims that fifty two iraqi civilians were executed by fighters as revenge for supporting myself. the fires reported at the largest anti-government protests to grip in iran since two thousand and nine. taken to the streets in several cities as well. setting up safe zones for women for the new year's eve celebrations to prevent a repeat of the mass sexual assaults previously and. for the latest on those stories you can head to our t.v. dot com stay with us for going underground on the main events of two thousand and seventeen but if you're watching us in the u.k. or ireland and award winning comic book writer is the guest on sputnik's stay with

us. i'm afshin rattansi we're going underground ahead of tomorrow's vote in bolivarian revolution revenge as well are held in the shadow of threats from washington of strong and swift economic actions coming up on the show stocks and they've broken economy we speak to actor and director nick moran about his upcoming edinburgh fringe play performers written by of in welsh and whether the real gangsters are in the city of london and while britain's privatized british airways faces yet more strike action could we learn from iran whose national carrier just appointed a female c.e.o. we'll ask one of the islamic republic's senior clerics if western sanctions benefit the nations they target plus who is and he's going to move anyway all the simple

coming up in today's going underground but first in the past twenty four hours donald trump and barack obama don't chevron the oil multinational released results to the new york stock exchange the company infamous for allegations that it is responsible for water pollution soil contamination deforestation and cultural up evil allegations in. these pictures of the ecuadorian amazon told an emotional story and it's easy to blame a big oil company like texaco for images like this. there's just one problem texaco now owned by chevron already cleaned up its share paid by chevron to back up that claim with former u.s. trade representative mickey kantor or inform a bill clinton chief of staff and even in the past few days a dutch appeals court has rejected claims against the company but the chevrons opponents just like the opponents of exxon mobil which also reported results yesterday with its c.e.o. rex tillerson now go on to become us secretary of state big oil will always be part

of a clause. war and class war is arguably at the heart of a new play premiering at the edinburgh fringe festival next week based on the one nine hundred seventy s. film performance during mick jagger the performers is a new play co-written by dean cavanagh and the author of trainspotting irvin welsh the play is a record by mick were on the star of lock stock and two smoking barrels and the harry potter films he joins me now nic welcome to going underground to tell me about the new play the performers. where you start it's as you probably know it's written by emotion and then cabinet and i think it's just sort of a modern day waiting for god oh really the pair of them came up with this absolutely brilliant premise which is the nineteen sixty nine don't know camel film performance people may know that stars james fox and mick jagger don't kind of had this idea of using real villains it was part of this new wave of british cinema and so he he reached out into the underworld to get. as many connections with with real

life gangsters and chaps is he as he could. quite good friends with james fox he plays this devlin the gangsta character in performance directed him in the kid in one of the movies i made and and i heard all sorts of fantastic stories about how james had to hang around with the south london gangsters and learn to box and you know learn the parlance and be one of the chaps so in. the premise for performers is that. two gangstas of being asked to auditions for donald camel for this nine hundred sixty s. art film and basically you have these two chaps in an in their very alien and uncomfortable environment for them sitting in a director in a carson director's waiting room about dition and it's about the parlance between them and how they're you know the discussions and how they put the world to rights where they chat and then and then donal campbell's assistants turns up and starts soaking them so them about bond well and francis bacon and nick rogue and then no

no no and it was the was the co-director of performance but it was a set more done a camel film. but he's assistant comes in and basically talks them about high art and tries to get to strip naked which you know they they do or don't do which is on that's really that's where that is that what we get into the nexus between the gangsters and the and the politics and all the rest of the second but so your reaction to her performance watching the film similar to that of the reaction from irvine welsh and dean oh it's a cold movie i've seen it a bunch of times i saw it last summer so it was. every time it's on as a prince you know they showed the electric in portobello road about two years ago and i went with neil the boat is a friend of mine the playwright we both went to see that the prince of performance said you know they tied up another print because the film was banned and then and

then so and then and then it actually seemed projected is a bit of a treat but and then it was reality didn't some bits were cut out so that sometimes the the version east is the easy broadcast doesn't have a lot of the scenes in the movie so violent spiteful scenes in it i mean it's it's a seminal film for all sorts of reasons but it's a have that to use that as the basis to sort of. the establishment and has that as a premise for so comedy of manners is quite brilliant it takes us back to that time because the film came out towards the end of that. where thanks to his met politics yeah i think he saw the apex of it really because at the time everybody will have heard the rumors about. the craze and their connections with the aristocracy and stories are that i don't feel that soak about them as i think we will anyway but it was a time when the government could tell the sunday mirror to withdraw

a story about the air fare between. a month of the chronic gray and old booth we are going into that yes lord i presume we can talk i don't know what their cries are around anymore and maybe you know you said it was the way it is now you ask i didn't say you made me but you had a little briefly affair as actually that's in the long it's it was touched upon in legends the crate and there's these very strong connections between the cracks of. the underworld in the success of the world really and this this idea that then. villains started to get involved in the arts which is only a matter of time before the art style get involved with villains and i think this this progression of the don't care move made as a conceptual artist and and his film was going to be about the jew ality of man and and the criminal for tony reflected that so basically go on to really support for people to be in his film when you do see a jump indian who then went on to become. quite a few films after that he'd done

a stretch for manslaughter you know he killed a man. your club. you know was was a bit of a face and he's if he's first appearance in a in a feature film there's a whole bunch of them they had substantial rap sheets so the idea that everybody in it that wasn't james fox is a real villain and ironically enough is something that goes. richie did with lock stock but something that's a bit more accessible and he's funny and self-effacing with the casting of of lenny maclean and all the other chaps that he used in in his debut film so i think there's a bit synergy with with the whole thing you mention the manslaughter because there was violence they were new generation seeing it in the french way to say we don't have the gangsters and the phrase back in extra i mean there is it like the bank has the big nexus without i doubt it i think there's a huge shift in dynamics between fringe theatre and whatever bankers do i don't

think bankers understand that fringe there exists and i'd be other be many bank is in there i think there's this idea that you know there's there's money laundering in there maybe you know maybe some of the criminal underworld in the sixty's or. pave the way for what some of the banking on the world do bit later on but i think i think it's all about ego i think really you can't become wealthy without because without affecting your ego something there are i've learned over the years with. you know being in that environment and seeing friends around that but i think it also happens if you're if you're a villain if you become if you become powerful you want to become famous and so the craze had david bailey take a photograph you know those famous or comic you know one in front of the other this is the the sort of outline of that that said david bowie portrait done in his studio because the crazed thought that they were they were celebrities now and the

idea that they are of course more now going to be a movie star you know that that that's of course that's the next step some is going to have been a film and the idea that in. a scene that brought brought down to them what's interesting about the play you know why it's so funny is because obviously they can act they don't react they have one of them does a speech about contact or can i buy a bag of apprentice i have never been with oh. ask anyone i've never been to of and they are really that that will be being said in a theater full of you know. full of actors and but the idea that the celebrity is the thing whether you're a banker or whether you own a. chain of hardware store shops or or whether whether you are the chairman of a football club you know what you want it's about being famous it's about that ego and i think that's what's interesting about even the title performance is that is that the villains are there performing all the time and the great thing about the

plays it that's what sets you up with your comedy of manners because you have to be put in front of at all times i'm a villain i'm one of the chaps are don't want to look at pictures of francis bacon and get naked in front of you chris that's not what we do you know is there is there is never everybody has got a front so who is more powerful than we are to see the world or the gangster world i mean charlie riches in vain which is that he claimed to have bug been bugging her wilson the labor minister that was empowered rather to have a formula how much who's more part of the arts world or the political it's that the thing about gangsters is e.g. never eat never after you never called him a liar you know so charlie which isn't much say that you'd have to go on the air charlie wilson says you wouldn't actually look old so i will go on their way that you were saying and write down what we're not so i never asked and i didn't respect it but you don't whereas if you do it. called to account the thing about the world of the world is that you know it will change the world i don't know if it will but

it does it does have an interest so push things in a certain direction people need media people need people. is storytelling and storytelling informs and and affects people and i think i think the government realised and gangstas realize that if you can beat a friendly face in a in a film if you can be. whether you're one or the other then you're going to you're going to cut more favor with the public you know i mean so i don't know that what i do know is i don't know much about harry potter but you were in there report of yes so as yet to raise me read all of harry potter. your fault about the ascent of to resume then i don't know if she's in the league with a bunch of wizards and. whether to see where the trees but what i do know my things very ironic is that obviously she does a lot for her films but she has the worst in history of made

and in ones trends and i think they are any of it is really rich and i don't want to be speaks up and thank you thank you and the other hashim crews are available you can go and see the performance at the edinburgh fringe festival from august the third in scotland that is after the break as the u.s. navy ship fires warning shots at the new arabian both in the persian gulf the off the ground. if sanctions are actually strengthening the islamic republic coming up about doing going on the ground. us finding in that region not in. the twenty list that's. the. kind you. when you. get russian.

yeah so. if you. think you might use you speak to them. think you discussed the custos timing just over young. the you. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest in the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then .

welcome back here in the u.k. prime minister of tourism a has taken robbie good from the state mandated b.b.c. to be communications director across the pond drums new communications chief has a different background antony scaramucci who speaks of political in a self-styled unconventional political convention in california within the next one eight hours is very much of the swamp of trump said he wanted to drain the new white house communications director now tapped for the fourth time by a team trump is a wall street hedge fund manager and goldman sachs alumnus expertise that is arguably suited to a climate of mainstream media speculation and watergate theory now after graduating from harvard law school scaramucci began his career at goldman sachs in one thousand eight hundred nine but after two years was fired only to be rehired by the same company months later after leaving in one thousand nine hundred seven before the asian financial crisis he started sky bridge capital now with offices in new

york zurich and florida he's written several books including goodbye gordon gekko how to find your fortune without losing your soul to the little book of hedge funds and he's also a loyal republican who responds with democrats in the past including this interaction with the then incumbent president barack obama and i represent the wall street community we have felt like opinion maybe you don't feel like you're whacking us with a stick but we certainly feel like we've been whacked with a stick but like many loyal republicans scaramucci hasn't been so loyal to the current commander in chief attacking trump as well as showing support for wiki leaks disgraced hillary clinton calling her incredibly competent in fact his twitter account shows that beyond just being anti trumpy different from the republican base on a wide range of issues in the past the mooch has tweeted that he is and the death penalty pro gun control pro choice a strong believer in climate change and against. mexico border wall on russia's

kind of movie is with the deep state tweeting that one should follow altera roads they lead not just to damascus but to moscow but is he totally committed to the obama clinton strategy of de facto supporting isis and al qaeda linked groups against damascus is he really committed to obama style leadership president obama did say that he was drawing a red line and then he took it away since the wrong message to our adversaries not just the syrian government but people around the world and so i think he had to adapt the play here scaramucci is republican evangelism arguably shows in his donations he was a proponent of the supreme court's twenty ten citizens united decision that allowed big money to attempt to rig elections he said of the decision that it activated a sleeper cell of hedge fund managers against obama allowing them to use their capital to influence the debate and since then he's donated vast amounts of money to various political campaigns before maxing out his donations to trump at one

hundred thousand dollars he raised money for two other twenty sixteen republican presidential candidates scott walker and jeb bush his head and also donated money to mitt romney in two thousand and twelve and called groovin twenty thirteen older nations that would have been illegal before the citizens united decision but despite his donations scaramucci has little to no experience in political combs aside from numerous appearances on the. fox network but if you're looking for a reason as to why trump scaramucci some point to its success in helping to force the resignations of staff from c.n.n. over an inaccurate story about his ties to russia trump advisors have said that he loved the way the mooch handled the situation and still talks about it the president then even tweeted about the event having what about all the other phony stories they do maybe ability to force news organizations to back down is why he hinted of a job at the b.b.c.

back in twenty sixteen. stating of don't trump become the next president i'm looking forward to the b.b.c. helping me find a flat somewhere in london. this week washington again prepared for more sanctions against countries not in line with us or germany power there was legislation this week that prevents even president donald trump from vetoing sanctions against countries perceived as enemies of u.s. politicians in congress one of the countries in the usa cites is middle east superpower iran continually destabilized by successive u.k. governments until the nine hundred seventy nine islamic revolution blessed or cursed with some of the largest known reserves of oil and gas in the world iran has been the only charm offensive in europe sending its foreign minister mama gerry fifty e.u. capitals but not to london to increase ties with the world's largest trade bloc well we've caught up with one of iran's most senior clerics grand ayatollah sheik most an iraqi he is

a member of iran's assembly of experts which has the power to appoint and dismiss iran's head of state such as current leader of the islamic revolution ali company with me as grand ayatollah shaikh morse in iraq and thanks so much for speaking to me grand ayatollah let's begin with the terrible figures coming from the middle east of numbers of wounded at a mosque maybe a thousand since israel on july fourteenth put the metal detectors up your reaction . smell of the money. in the name of god the most gracious the most compassionate or the issue of the mosque is a major issue in the world or it doesn't only concern the palestinians not just the muslim world of the it's an issue that concerns humanity and muslims have been praying for hundreds of years in a lot some masculine for the israelis to harm and prevent the palestinians to pray goes against the most basic of human rights and we see that the us really yorkey

patient has resulted in the killing in torturing of the palestinian people right from its creation if they impose themselves with violence and no doubt this behavior from them will not stop unless there is a severe response not just from the palestinians but also from the muslim world and anyone who defends human rights and who wants justice and peace why are men on a mission are there little or center on british media it is the palestinians doing the violence and it is called temple mount not a leg some more will not. be back we see that the western media does not give an accurate portrayal of events and this has a negative impact against their own citizens. they are not happy for happy her. half because he will because the inaccurate coverage doesn't just affect those that are being oppressed and more but it's also denies that people of the world demand the

truth of what is happening in the people of america and europe supports human rights and oppose oppression so if the coverage is inaccurate this may lead them to support the oppressors and not the oppressed but we for the happy of the israelis have not defined their borders and and they came and occupied palestine that palestine has been there for hundreds of years journeymen jews have also been living in palestine for the hundreds of years or one time they were considered as part of the palestinian. nation yet it's in the even in iran there are jews who live with freedoms and rights and they are represented in the iranian parliament scene jews have lived in muslim lands for hundreds of years alongside muslims there with the same rights as when their lives let me near to sin who marl muslim in muslim one we know that both saudi arabia and qatar have relations with israel why does the islamic republic support cut which currently has

relations with israel we have proof of the do. through un could limit loom so. that the sort of you slam it republic of iran defense of all those who are oppressed whether it is or saudi arabia if saudi arabia were being oppressed by anyone it is iran's duty to defend them apart but here we see that saudi arabia of forcefully imposing demands that's are unacceptable the saudis want to follow what ever they ordered them to do saudi arabia has done this towards yemen as well and trying to force them under their will and with this is unacceptable at this and it's strange that the western nations are supporting saudi arabia with no logic and rationality model of the. us are odiot enough on this road. now. prime minister to resume wants to overthrow the government who has wanted to overthrow the government of syria for

a number of years just to clear things up for our audience why does a holy person like yourself support a secular system in syria the secular government of president assad. the syrian government has stood up against the biggest issue affecting the world today and that is the palestinian cause as low. as syria did not stand by the palestinian resistance and if they did not create a barrier to the aspirations of israel then israel would have taken control of the entire middle east and would now be on the borders of iran. so this stance of theirs is of utmost importance and it's iran's religious and moral duty to support syria even though it has many differences that one serious support of resistance groups especially in the south of lebanon is in the interests of the people of the region. there's been so many reports of britain and israel backing al-qaeda linked

groups in syria do you welcome donald trump's decision to stop cia funding for al qaeda and isis linked groups fighting assad in syria. it is unfortunate that the us has proven it is untruthful even donald trump had previously attacked obama's administration for supporting and creating isis but right now we see that the u.s. is supporting isis the iraqi soldiers have witnessed on many occasions how u.s. helicopters would come and provide weapons and other provisions to isis sites so that they can continue fighting their r.v. nation and this at the same time the u.s. claims they are fighting isis at the top of this double standard from the u.s. prevents us from trusting them we believe that the terrorism in the region is because of america's policies around the world. you dog of human rights what about

human rights in iran. in equality under your president rouhani has increased under his presidency of course he's been reelected and the president of and in a judge who i interviewed interim measure to inequality fell in his final four years. how dangerous is the inequality problem right now under rouhani his policies of privatization in iran and giving more money too. the rich private all agog sooner. there are always political differences each group accuses the other of not doing a good job and this is natural during election time however the truth is that there aren't a lot of differences between rouhani. and party means leadership had to be there on major political policies that's no administration can overrule except for a few limited number of things so the accusations and month slinging between

political groups are mostly political been well and not necessarily true yes there are economic difficulties overall the economic situation is good. the middle class make up seventy percent of the country the wealthy class make up twenty percent and the poor make up ten percent but there are societal and governmental institutions that take care of those under the poverty line. and talk a little good shabbily i just finally this week the us congress discusses sanctions on russia trump one sanctions it seems on iran iran has always had good relations with the cuban revolution sanctions good for iran apart from says civil aviation of course but dissensions made countries stronger in their current drops in the sea. if a country makes clever political decisions than they would be able to turn the

sanctions imposed on them into a golden opportunity to develop their nation and to rely upon themselves the developments that have taken place in iran whilst under sanctions may not have ever happens and if sanctions were not imposed on it in iran is one of five leading nations in terms of their scientific developments. and we believe that sanctions on russia could benefit them of course russia is a very strong nation and it's a superpower so the sanctions against russia by the u.s. . in some european nations will only make russia more independent and even cuba and other nations like venezuela like an off free and sovereign nations and they don't want to be on the americans control the. kind of. grand ayatollah shaikh was and iraqi thank you very much. and that's it for one of your favorite shows of the season will be back with a whole new episode to going on the ground on wednesday the seventeenth of january till then keep in touch via social media have

a happy. little blogs sell you on the idea that dropping bombs brings police to the chicken hawks forcing you to fight the battle. for new socks try to tell you that the beach gossip the public by file. telling you are not cool enough to buy their products. are the hawks that we along with all the walking.

her. i mean you when you get doc or. a eunuch or scared that would be on the way knew what it would be it's the above so when you said is there british girl at the dish it. would be thrilling your paranoid etc what it takes to have changed. all of. us so that. each and.