i fly strike. no left left left more or less ok stuff that's really good. hello my name's peter and i've been living in bushnell for about seven years and this is a film about just some of the crazy things i've got soaked through in the time. when you're going to get up yet. i mean because it is then there's the what you would you cry because the pipes under the gun are. still does not hit but if. i cut. through to the ticket a low. class.

one i don't know if. i. i think i'm. going to. the poly diluent up in strasburg headquarters of the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe an organization which is seventy years old but virtually unknown but one but just fundamentally changed the lives of tens of millions of european citizens and

changed them for the better let's organization indeed the whole continent of europe doesn't have its problems to see just not so the council of europe at its best days behind it are the greatest achievements still to come out of the carnage of world war the council of europe was formed to pull the human rights and the rule of international law it has forty seven member states eight hundred twenty million people and the operates on a budget of approximately half a billion euros senator i was merely hichens represents you the peon women's lobby in social economic issues in brussels she also happens to be the daughter of irish on the president michael d. higgins some of the higgins were given the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe i mean many people point to some fairly obvious abuses of the convention by by members of the parliamentary assembly by countries which are membership do you think that these breaches a huge problem or do the breaches illustrate that least there is

a code which people have to operate i do believe that it is under challenge and it is under erosion on a global level outside of simply the european court of human rights for example some of the narrative we see in europe now we see discussion of citizens' rights but of course human rights is a wider thing and human rights is something that is about principle and not simply about a privilege of membership so i do think we need to underscore and protect absolutely the european court of human rights and that idea of. common standards in human rights and how they might be enforced and i know that the european court of human rights has played an often challenging role in. my own country and in pressing the laws in certain areas around reproductive rights around the rights and it's been a very useful pressure for us nationally so i would be a strong defender of the importance of that but i would absolutely be under no illusion that it's not. under attack and under threat of erosion in terms of the

wider sense of the convention and breaches of the convention i know that. we are seeing more and more breaches of the convention and there is a challenge for the entire council of europe structure now to discuss. what sanctions are appropriate or not appropriate how do we deal with breaches of the convention and those are a part of until there's an individual member of the parliamentary assembly of some frustration. the sentiments but you've expressed with many of the individual members are some and people being reflected in the institutions would this be a frustration to share the snow or do you think that could be could be amended and changed the year in which i have been part of the council of europe has of course been been rocked by very serious concerns about corruption about the question of vote rigging about the transparency of institutions about appropriate actions at

high levels so naturally i'm concerned about the institutions but certainly in my year here i have miss very passionate parliamentarians. from a wide range of political backgrounds who are consistently and robustly pushing forward. for better practices last may the heavens thank you so much for your. dutch politician coke's as chairman of the party of the european left in the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe has some very clear cut ideas about what the council should be trying to achieve what bourne's of you before. that's the most far reaching convention with regard to human rights and the rule of law and democracy that has ever been drafted and it has been adopted and adopted means that we also have a course on human rights here in strasbourg that if you feel that you are hurting

your human rights you can finally apply to discourse and the verdict of this court are binding so it's difficult to crystallize sixty five years of the interview phrases but how would you assess the progress been substantial. the support we have drafted. and except that finally if we i mean the member states of the council of europe over two hundred conventions many of them are totally unknown but the most relevant and intervene and the daily life of a tons of thirty five million european citizens in a freeze because you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of this organization and what it can do for the future of europe by i am obliged to be an optimist because otherwise there are very good reasons to be a pessimist but i also think that in the end. both i would governments and all parliaments will realize that their convention based system where you have a flexible position of government stool and off bottom is to join or not to join is

of utmost value for a democratic and a rule of law based europe what happens when a member states illegally. breached these these conventions you know in this huge europe it is very difficult to find. the rules that can be applied immediately from friday to to to to greenland so that every every member state and every parliament and every government has the right to decide whether or when around when to join a convention it's a far more flexible system than the european union that's that's one rule for all and we now have seen that that also creates problems and even gave the majority of the. voters. the conviction that they had to do to get out of the european union the system of the council field is far more flexible but as you as you probably say . implemented is not easy and verdicts of the european court on human rights day

are binding and indiana and most member states do do indeed live up to their obligations it takes a lot of time and we have some some bad customs here turkey is a bad customer at this moment always has been a bad. customer ukraine but also italy and sometimes the united kingdom they do not do what they have promised to do to sanction the diverts of the most useless be the least situation in catalonia where quite clearly they will flee groups abuse of people fear of the convention human rights of the freedom of expression of. this body that was talking about the spanish constitution the unity of spain which is the best most of the said gentlemen of the convention movement that is the business of this organization should be implementation of the convention right now

i know that many members feel that. is the frustration that even the within this body in this confusion of what it should be doing in terms of ensuring that i use an established foundation don't spray in my report i. explain that spain is special with regard to the convention because after that and the fascism frankly is i'm in spain spain the new spain the first adopted the european convention of human rights only a leader a year later it adopted a new democratic constitution so our conventional numerologists and strident in the constitutional system of spain we have democracy and all member states and we have the rule of law we have a constitution and we have the will of the people these things do not always. go along there are confrontations does nothing wrong with that that's the mako see the rule of law has to be applied but we also have to listen to the will of the people what do you believe in this report to point the way to making the organization more

effective for its next six to five years our heads of state and government have to decide whether they think that we should maintain this system that has served so many people. so well in the past sixty five years and if you want to maintain it and to continue it our governments have to put their money where their mouth this year so let's hope so and i'm talking to you because a pleasure thank you very much. the bad customer. could include key members such as russia tuckey the u.k. and spain. russia's voting rights were revoked and twenty fourteen after the illegal annexation of crimea the sector general of the was warned that moscow could crash out of the group of russia keeps being excluded from the election of key personnel tuckey could be expelled from the council europe preston applicant pursued his threat of reintroducing capital punishment following the coup attempt

meanwhile the u.k.'s under pressure to accept strasbourg court rulings on personal voting rights while the acting president of the parliamentary assembly launched that outspoken attack on state police violence against the people of catalonia last october. so now one meal was a member of the council you look for over eighteen years until the end of last year and thus the longest serving member of the u.k. delegation what changes is he witnessed during these years. a member of the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe for eighteen years when that is a quarter of the entire lifetime of this parliamentary assembly what are the changes that you've seen over that substantial period of time but there are been major changes there is. the introduction of countries into the community which had never been there before. should be largely internationally written known as

individual nations and i think that's one of the biggest things that has caused the changes because they came for europe and in particular the parliamentary assembly as always we are prepared of course for joining the european union and i think a great saying there's never been a new country in accession country into the european union it hasn't been a member of the council of europe the people used to take the man's back to europe was like we were behind curtain throughout we had all these different individual countries would be run by the soviets and so on and so forth what you used the whole panoply of different organization. and of course countries get independence and act and it's been the only route into year and of course the contribution not just about those small number of nations which are members of the european union it's about the forty seven member the come to your very in the great european area but what about all these breaches of the rules of the convention and human rights

manifest the many of the member states and a lot of concentration on russia but if you could look at task a we could lose recently spain fairly frequent violations of the of the european convention and then you have a title task it was the council get up doing about this violation of its own findings that people should not consider that they all these violations take place only in new emerging countries i mean violations frequently because there's been one or two investigations in the u.k. in practices in there and of course there is on a continuous basis throughout the european area but you know it's a balance what you do about that how you train our you help do you jim you say you are a member and therefore go on because there are different systems different values case and we hear the voices in the u.k. saying look this convention the human rights the strasbourg caution of jurisdiction of the courts of of england of the courts of scotland even the something which is

causing or above the some meddling in the affairs what you say people who would like in the u.k. to opt out of the convention well i don't think that issued a public order opt out of the convention various powers and then goes if they do do that it will be in the council of europe or the european community at all they'll be ostracized i mean the reality is that much of our modern day law is based on those principles and the best example of that is on capital punishment you know if you were to stay in and adapt all the policies brought to change your mind and couple. said you believed in europe if you and i had been speaking couple of years ago we had a fight in the both of would have found it unlikely almost incredible the united kingdom would be in the process of brics it from the european union as an inconceivable that the same forces will go the whole hog and on the back only the council of europe and the european convention on human rights as well you know in

democracy it's the most difficult thing in the world you have tyranny dictatorship feudalism and you have democracies the last one is a hard one and if you look back to the city of the stark principle of democracy formed you know on the great the greek concept of the olive democrat where you know own not system of democracy they operated there was pluralism they believe that the more educated you were the more vote your gore which to be seems the most undemocratic being of ever however you know what we've got to do is trying to forge democracy on a whole series of principles that we can all live with and actually fight to a tree so and we'll spend great talking to. us to learn. some great insights from alex and his guests in strasburg here's some of my thoughts recently the new u.k. section of defense called for the summary execution without trial in the judicial process of u.k. citizens had been fighting for the dice terrorists as such

a policy would ever to be adopted it would make the u.k. the legal prize of europe and would surely almost certainly end in the expulsion from the kinds of europe all of which of course could be dismissed as despite ings of a novice minister if it had not been for the fact that his much more expense predecessor calls for effectively the same thing before other events overtook michael fallon and ended his ministerial career. the prime minister herself has been thought to favor the ending of the jurisdiction of the strasbourg court or with a traditional systems of the united kingdom indeed it is thought that her own preferred policy would have been to the mean in the european union and exit the kinds of europe rather than exiting the good opinion and remaining in the council of europe ironically it is breadth that which has secured the u.k. within the stroudsburg institutions as even some fervent director tears believe that staying within the council of europe emphasizes the point that the u.k. is leaving the european union and not europe but how do you kill really reached

a level with an institution forced out of the fires and carnage of world war with the united kingdom in the vanguard of its creation is seen at best as a tactical necessity for the time being perhaps the time is come for a new emphasis on the substantial role and purpose of the council of europe the one political institution which can be genuinely said to unite a troubled continent. so from alex no the team hit alex salmond so in our first edition of the new york thank you for what we hope to see we'll see.

a plate for many clubs over the years so i know the game and so i dived. football isn't only about what happens on the pitch for the final school it's about the passion from the fans it's the age of the superman each of billionaire owners and spending two to twenty million alone playa. it's an experience like nothing else not to because i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful game played great so well paul chimes for. the base this minute. because gold is periodic album number seventy nine it has unique attributes that make it great for money these are big going to with not more in a vacuum it has got forty years of history to it and it's evolved through all these technologies it's a unique protocol and it's like gold it is attracting a huge amount of capital force forth for this achievement and you can't say that

you can simply go out there and create another one there are competitors of course just like there are competing species on planet earth for energy and survival but there is only one the apex predator or that is man at the moment before he dies from all the garbage. i had a great education a good job and a family that loved me. i never had to worry about how i would eat and where i would sleep. i'm facing christmas alone out on the streets of london. well you know to be honest. i thought the world of the bully like you going to school you know to simulate it to still give up food for the homeless to. promote. because you don't really feel like you could be you know. and then. go use came over to be useful be a good judge of this book. washington

concert security assistance to its longstanding ally pakistan criticizing its role in the anti terror fight foreign ministry issues a blistering reply to. the afghan capital kabul meanwhile is brought by a suicide attack claimed by islamic state killing at least fifteen people. and israel offers a cash incentive for illegal african immigrants to leave the country as the prime

minister called them infiltrators and friends of force if they don't go. and i direct from our studios in moscow this is. certainly glad to have you with us . all right the u.s. is suspending the security assistance to pakistan its a longtime ally in the fighting terrorism in afghanistan that includes the freezing of military equipment deliveries and transfers of security related funds to the country pakistan is being accused of not making a serious effort to fight terror groups we are suspending security assistance security assistance only to pakistan at this time and still the pakistani government takes decisive action against groups including the afghan taliban and

the network we consider them to be destabilizing the region and also targeting u.s. personnel the united states will suspend that kind of security assistance to pakistan at the same time donald trump's twitter diplomacy has it provoked a furious response from pakistan's foreign minister he has blasted the us president for claiming islam a body has been unreliable partner in the war on terror or to smear khan has details. well the foreign minister of pakistan has issued a fierce response to trump accusing pakistan of providing safe havens for terrorists there fighting in afghanistan and not one tweet but three take a listen for yourself you ask what we've done from our bases you carried out fifty seven thousand eight hundred attacks in afghanistan thousands of our civilians and soldiers became victims of the war you initiated we stood by you treated your enemy as i wrote we feel guantanamo bay now history teaches us not to blindly trust the

us we are sorry they were not be but we were not to mean ourselves any more and the foreign minister hasn't exactly held back when it comes to this particular issue he even said in the past that the terrorists that pakistan is accused of harboring were once quote darlings of the us who are being wind in dined in the white house so trumps tweets rightfully struck a nerve and immediately following those tweets pakistani officials converge for an emergency security meeting to discuss the issue but pakistanis in general haven't taken trump's tweet so kindly and ironically enough it seems to have united the country's warring factions for example imran khan chairman of pakistan's they have akin soft party had a pretty interesting reaction calling truck mentally weak now the u.s. has even placed pakistan on a special watch list for allegedly violating religious freedom but with all that being said the war in afghanistan is far from over and the u.s. has already lost thousands of lives and spent trillions of dollars but without its neighbor support it's unclear how far the u.s. can really go the goal of said davies

a journalist and author believes that washington's move might have a direct effect different effect rather than the one intended. in the past when the u.s. has pressured pakistan to drive militants out of its so-called safe havens. this is not necessarily worked out as the u.s. would hope two years ago in twenty sixteen pakistan did exactly that and drove out you know hundreds or thousands of foreign fighters from the border areas to northern afghanistan and join the taliban there so and in fact helping to strengthen what is being really a resurgence of the taliban in northern afghanistan i think in the larger geopolitics of the situation pakistan has always had a close alliance also with china and i think you know these kind of actions by the

us could simply drive pakistan into much closer relations with china which i'm sure is not really what the u.s. would want. afghanistan is continuing to face an islamist insurgency on thursday i saw it claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed fifteen people and injured many more local journalist bullying lol sorry way reports it was an operation against alcohol and drug dealers in an area that's not very far from the center of the city when the rapid reaction force members of the. law and order police arrived there was. a lot of members of the police force the afghan government is finding it very challenging to prevent these attacks from happening in bigger cities including kabul in cities are now

a front line both for islamic state as well as for the taliban one of the worrying concerns here is the existence of sleeper cells and the fact that the afghan government has very little knowledge or very little power to prevent these attacks from happening. the u.s. and south korea have agreed to suspend joint military drills during the upcoming winter olympics in pyongyang or he's come up and has more. there will be no military drills during the olympic games we've seen a statement from u.s. president trump that says that he and the south korean leader have agreed to continue putting maximum pressure on the north however they will suspend the military exercises during the olympic games now they said the opposite originally but if the position seems to have changed let's take a listen to what was said before by the leader of south korea as well as by rex tillerson. it is possible for south korea and the us to review the possibility of

postponing the exercises and i have made such a suggestion to the us and the us is currently reviewing them but these are career sizes have been old boy for many years i'm not aware of any players to change what is scheduled now it's been an intriguing turn of events we've seen phone calls between the leaders of north korea and the leaders of south korea at this point the world has seen the north korean leader he made the statement about how he has a nuclear bomb we then saw the tweet from u.s. president donald trump saying that his nuclear button was much larger however there's another turn as trump is now tweeting out that it's his rhetoric and it's his words and his intervention that is responsible for the north and the south talking to each other and coming to an agreement so it's quite an interesting turn of events as one watches the korean peninsula so as the olympic games approach people are wondering what's going to happen people are concerned about the safety of the athletes who will be participating all eyes are on the korean peninsula or

earlier we spoke to tom brooks the dean of for drum law school he says the decision appears to show a willingness to deescalate the crisis but what comes next is hard to predict who i think it might go some way to diffusing tensions it's true that there are lots of.