they destroyed edwards and it was only because was exculpatory and they didn't want that out so now this is all deliberate even when they lie in front of congress well or to the people the united states or even to the president or any of the cabinet it doesn't seem to matter there's no accountability you're to be intelligence community is so much power i mean even senators humor told the president that he shouldn't be attacking the intelligence community because they've got six ways to sunday to get back at you and these are the ways they do it now money doesn't talk when it comes to the u.s. congress which remained shut for a third day as congressman failed to come to a mutual decision on the u.s. budget and while republicans and democrats struggle to compromise and american public feel the pinch. america knows this is the trump shutdown i think it is still sure a shutdown so let's get that nice little ring to it doesn't it senate democrats

shut down this government a big fat failure. unfortunately we cannot. be kept congressional democrats are the government funding hockey team and i'm going to need immigration. trucks and the government shutdown.

germany's drawn out coalition talks could be on the brink of a breakthrough the social democrats leader martin short has persuaded his party members to vote in favor of reforming the grand coalition with chancellor angela merkel's party however the agreement could leave the ante migrant party alternative for germany as the main opposition force in the country as peter oliver explains. all this was the result that martin schultz wanted it was the result he campaigned for both it was a visibly very worried martin childes waiting for those results that come in he gave a speech just before the ballots were cast he said that there were only two options it was either go into coalition with angela merkel's conservative bloc or they'd have to be another election and he was very clear on which one he'd prefer that you know you know you everyone should realise the question is coalition talks for new elections my take on this is very clear i don't think new elections are the right

way for us but what would a coalition do for the body to stay how would the vote the stagg look if a new grand coalition can be formed well what it would do is it would mean that the social democrats who are no longer the largest opposition party would go to the new kids on the block alternative for germany they would be the largest opposition party they would also get all of the or perks and traditions that come along with that including being the chair of the bundestag budget committee all new ground for the right leaning and t. establishment party a party in fact in which martin schultz and many other senior members of the social democrats have decried as racist before the election in september and said that they shouldn't be taking up seats within the bundestag well in an attempt to try and hang on to power for himself may well catapult them up into the position of being germany's largest opposition. political analyst rainout rath explain why the

f.t. has gained so much support i would say about the union card he is above all the c.d.u. look as left of the conservative positions of the past they have turned somewhat roughly speaking into an ass. and the ass b.d. has lost so much of it sir. only because many of the topics were also covered by the c.d.u. so the just. the blank space that. has left. one of the stumbling blocks during the coalition talks has been migration policy with a number of new approaches being try to ease the crisis the eastern city of caught both has taken matters into its own hands and banned it newcomers altogether the move is in response to several recent incidents last week a teenager was stabbed by two syrians several days before that an elderly german

couple was attacked by a group of refugees however local neo nazis have also been blamed for violence at illegal rallies with reports they attacked migrants we spoke to people in caucus and here's what they told us. the states they make it look like asylum seekers or whoever attacked the germans but there were also cases where it happened the other way round for example three afghans were beaten up by a group of germans on new year's eve over the next few days though nobody reported on it only later thanks to the efforts of an activist group it was made public. because it's not a solution to the problem not accepting any more migrants doesn't solve the problem we have here and cutpurse in any case people don't feel as safe as they used to there is some insecurity here. i think there is a need for action in the city however the way the thought is a dealing with this situation might belittle bit questionable probably they could have looked at this case more deeply to see whether there are other options. three

other communities in the region of lower saxony have also banned migrants my colleague discussed this with bronson from the alternative for germany party the only been a handful of attacks by migrants in bus as well as some on migrants themselves isn't a ban excessive well not to the victims those violent attacks occurs and there were about three thousand migrants who entered the caucus and mostly their young males from north africa and syria bringing with them a completely different culture of. conflict resolution. there's a breaking point for even the most tolerant of communities and apparently this breaking point has been reached there sure opinion locals certainly aren't all in support of this ban nobody's saying that any violence is acceptable but some people suggesting you know maybe more to this than meets the eye maybe six of one half a dozen of the other and that perhaps more options should be explored is that not

a good idea. well i'm afraid there's a little to no time left to explore other options there's a big tension building up in many communities and cities are simply fed up the german treasury has admitted that in the last year alone more than twenty two billion euros were needed to accommodate these one point five million migrants and this is of caught a large sum of money to try to explain this to millions of germans who are living on the breadline having two jobs and trying very desperately to make ends meet thousands of people in the netherlands protest against the environmental impact of big corporations in the country that story and plenty more coming up after this break.

manufacture consent to public wealth. when the ruling class is protect themselves. with the fine. be that one percent. we can all middle of the room. he. joined me every thursday on the alex simon show and obviously to get asked of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you there.

welcome back to the program deposed president carlos proved a man has arrived in the danish capital despite the risk of him being extradited back to spain to face charges just one hour after landing in copenhagen a request came from the floor and the rest was pretty much led to trash back in october after being sacked by the spanish government does not is his first steps out and about in almost three months he faces charges of rebellion and sedition after catalonia pushed ahead with an illegal independence referendum last year it led to violence and certainty across spain as the breakaway region declared its independence. the dutch city of groningen is home to one of europe's richest gas fields but locals are concerned about the

environmental impact they blame corporations for numerous earthquakes in the area the latest coming within the last two weeks on friday around ten thousand people marched against drilling in the area the protests the same problems not being taken seriously enough with quakes continuing to damage local infrastructure earlier this month one measured three point four in magnitude the biggest earthquake in their loans for five years it was often up with we have earthquake damage my home is damaged but in comparison with others it isn't that bad my house isn't being held up with braces what i am worried i think it has to do with money and the lack of having good people who know how to deal with processing claims. this problem goes back many years the boring people have been waiting too long to receive compensation for the damages that have been caused and they have been waiting too long for the drilling to stop it needs to happen now. a lot and you know makes me

think that ever been keeps breaking no one has taken direct action. the university of groningen has published its own study into the issue of drilling it claims there's a direct connection between drilling in the northern gas fields and the earthquakes specialists are also concerned about the layers of sandstone in the region which they say could eventually lead to yet more tremors happening a solution hasn't been found for decades already this map shows the number of earthquakes that have hit the region we can see that they've been occurring in the northern gas fields where the fault lines are concentrated around an area where sixty thousand people currently live the dutch economy minister says if the government had taken the problem more seriously production could have been cut in half since twenty thirty nine activists however still say these measures wouldn't be sufficient they're pumping gas out of our sorry will for decades now and in the beginning there were also earthquakes but they just denied it it's not an

earthquake it's an airplane going going to more it's something else but the last years it's obvious that there are real earthquakes and that what worries us very much putting gas out of our soul is easy money. the government owns a lot of it and also exxon mobil and chill a lot and we are like a modern colony these days and we don't like that at all so it has to stop. families in the west african country of mali still searching for answers over french airstrikes that allegedly killed eleven million soldiers that were being held hostage it's been more than two months since the strike and officials from both sides still have conflicting versions of what happened r.t. is spoken to some of the relatives demanding the truth. my nephew prisoner during

the attack on the no power security post there were people dead people wounded and people missing. i ask for anyone who can help us get out of here don't leave us in this place. the french intervened to destroy a jihadi camp during this intervention eleven million soldiers lost their lives. the operations are good so that sarah's training camp and at no time was the presence of mali soldiers established. there were eleven hostages found on this site and all of them died during this operation one day they tell us that the horse just were there during the bombing and the next day they tell us otherwise. via wanted to say that their levon mali and hostages that were at this site had joined the jihadi movement

we consider that to be an insult to the memory of these men who lost their lives in the service of the nation. they were indeed hostages of terrorists and there should not be any ambiguity between our friends friends and pass. how superior phoned me saying that after checking they found no evidence as to whether a car is dead or alive and well waiting to receive news regarding our son. just to give you a bit more context now france got involved in the mali and conflict back in twenty fourteen after islamist militants took parts of the country and around four thousand french troops are involved in an anti terror operation that's still ongoing also just a week ago the u.k. agreed to bolster the campaign with its helicopters. doing the household chores isn't exactly everybody's idea of fun although one russian cosmonaut might

beg to differ these are pictures sent from the international space station showing him hovering around on a vacuum cleaner. around of of the top stories this hour don't forget to check us out on social media twitter you tube on our website that's dot com i'll be back at the top of the hour with more of the latest news so don't go away.

there will be. dropping bombs in. the battle. if you stop spreading so you can be that the public. doesn't tell you. and let you buy. the album that we. want. prescribe medication is widespread on the us market and a frequent cause of death at that point in my life i just felt like everything with my family was literally coming unglued i had actually planned. to commit some site watch all who has made antidepressants so commonly used we were doing what the doctors told us to do we were being responsible and what the real side effects why

it. was chemically altered what i did was done on a cocktail of legal drugs. just because something's legal doesn't mean it's saying in order to overthrow a regime it does take popular discontent and popular mobilization but it also requires actors with in the leadership of the regime who feel that the regime is no longer serving the national interest you need people in the military or the bureaucracy or both who are willing to see the regime change otherwise they would be able to put down a popular revolt that did not have support at higher levels. yes that was pretty hard with a large couple it may look like something. every normal

the last election i believe will move forward slowly we don't and we will all soon wolf i do know one of the awful stuff a militia that saw. me apparently a full time kind of changed me to the you know the plan that i would describe as more new the new cops believed. to be completely new city showed reading you the feds. knew it was no billion dollars budgeted. the proceeds go to the armory should be. and you can have a cool and useful. i'm after going underground just twenty four hours before the global political elite to

mix with actors and musicians in this risking result to davos for the annual world economic forum coming up in the show with sales to the world's most repressive regimes increasing by nearly half third after the break we speak to british conservative m.p. and member of the u.k. committee for arms export control pauline lay firm about billions of pounds of taxpayer money subsidizing the selling of killing machines and. the. like we speak to the father of a sixteen year old palestinian schoolgirl. jailed for our actions after u.k. backed israeli soldiers gunned down her relatives protesting illegal occupation in palestine while the grandson of a signatory to israel's independence israeli special forces. tells us what al-timimi means to the struggle and why don't we told un aid money could ignite the entire middle east political going over today's going underground but first while the great and the good of neoliberalism like catheters justin trudeau and france's

emmanuel macro as well as arch critics like u.k. shadow chancellor john mcdonnell prepared to at ten the world economic forum in switzerland britain's entire nuclear program today has shed year old to be in trouble because of strike action while firefighters strike at sellafield site of the worst ever nuclear incident in british history is important is clear just how many people could be killed by an uncontrolled fire there and what's at stake at sellafield on the irish sea in the northwest of england so i was thinking on the holds. six double decker buses filled to the brim with some of the most dangerous radioactive waste in the world and there's a lot of it there are twenty two silos like this in these things while building housing and to. move radioactivity released by the chernobyl disaster it took fifty years before the state mandated b.b.c. could reveal the truth about how successive british governments covered up the circumstances surrounding a fire at windscale as sellafield was called before its p.r.

name change the fire in one hundred fifty seven could according to the b.b.c. have irrevocably altered the u.k. u.s. special relationship let alone killed a lot of people prime minister harold macmillan president eisenhower to sign an agreement that would change britain's relationship with america forever. just days before a fire has broken out at windscale the country's fast you can react. britain was on the brink of an unprecedented disaster but can drive as it continues today about sellafield as well as an ongoing terrorism threat this was in just the past few months army bomb disposal experts are being called to sellafield to detonate potentially flammable chemicals discovered in britain's largest nuclear sites well it's outside the mark the birth of britain's weapons of mass destruction program now located on the river clyde in scotland britain is of course x.

boarding weapons all around the world some believe the brics it may lead to a spiraling of u.k. weapons dealing so we caught up with a member of britain's arms export control panel outside parliament jorian people in letham is also on the u.k. international development select committee bawling thanks so much regularly on going underground after a long year in the green outside parliament so what do you say to people who are warning the british public that post bricks it is dealing is going to twenty eight percent two point nine billion. pounds with the licenses agreed to june twenty sixth seen any connections you are having to do deals with with every press of war autocracies because we need the deals because relieving your know there's nothing to say we have to do a deal we give life has to allow companies to export and they have very stringent they regulate it so there's no reason at all why this got anything to do with bricks it will post bricks it referendum or any votes in parliament has nothing to

do with that it is about people wanting to sell arms and then it's about the licenses that we agree but of course i mean you're being what dres amazes repeatedly in parliament which is a question about arms licensing to saudi arabia currently involved in one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the planet. well yes what we did after i was a district arms regime we were training pilots to be all this because here's what we do is we see what they are wanting and then we issue the licenses and we look very carefully about what they're going to be useful so although you say it's a very repressive regime it is changing you know they rabia you know i think saudi arabia reserve reza regime it has been i think it's changing because they are now allowing women to drive they are changing the role of women in society they wanted women to get elected into parliament it is moving forward to

a democratic society which it never has been so it has been repressive are great but i think there are moves forward people in public squares amputates people's limbs but you cannot change a definite change of access or to go all night to saudi arabia will help change saudi arabia no i don't think that will make any difference to saudi arabians have to change saudi arabia we can't change it we can't interfere in the democratic changes which are coming and i have us are only objects will commit. you don't think that we are enabling the saudi violence in the middle east no i don't forget i've only been to one meeting safe and that was to elect a chairman so i haven't exactly cop very involved all your so far no it's certainly not all my fault because i need joint just before christmas when we had a vote to elect the chairman so we have yet to have there was a meeting this week or last week which i was unable to attend but the next few meetings will be quite critical and we will be looking at our policies in the

country as to what we're going to do so then we can look quite seriously about who is guessing what and why are you seeing the pictures from the i want to read andrew mitchell former vice chair is already visited the shock we've had unicef on talking about tens of millions of people yes now threatened elisa british bombs being dropped is a british claim to being warplanes dropping the bombs and these are british trained pilots ordering the bombs that are blowing up and killing over ending thousands of civilians there are many i mean many thousands of people who've been killed and that's completely wrong but you have to look at the morning to picture of what is going on out there and i didn't we didn't go in the bombs. they would be able to draw breath well in which case what you're saying the logical conclusion of that is let's stop all arms trading and let's not have no weapons of any sort anywhere in

the world will know i'm strong but that about me about saudi arabia but but actually the logical conclusion of that is we shouldn't be selling any arms to anybody and we shouldn't even be having arms ourselves that's a logical conclusion of what you're saying but it seems that a huge proportion and the biggest deals are with saudi arabia. well they may be the biggest deal they're not with their ally the united states in a special relationship they are with autocracy well undemocratic countries of course the united states has its own arms manufacturers. we don't need to sell to them but where we have had a traditional relationship we have been selling arms to all sorts of different countries and saudi arabia is one of them he's only worth around point two seven percent of our g.d.p. anyway selling killing machines flowed on democratic only the slaughter their population but that's it's a large chunk really if we take that out completely there will be many many people unemployed there been also a lot of people with no jobs they'll be claiming benefits can't justify the killing

or want to know anything about gold silver about most children and i'm not trying just a bit no i'm not justifying that what i'm saying is that what we need to do is look very carefully before we allow any licenses now i've not been involved with that at all yet but we will be so you're going to be and i will be there and then i will scrutinize the decision making and i will make my views know if i feel that it's wrong i will say said but what if you are threatened by these countries because tony blair in from asli said security cooperation was threatened saudi arabia was basically saying if you don't sell us these killing machines we won't warn you if you had that terror attack that's a very long time ago tony blair's not been there for many many years and regimes of change are changing and evil saudi arabia is changing to become more democratic but it is bombing him it is bombing him in

a moment but we have to look at everything in the round and i haven't and nobody on the committee. because we've only just been reformed after the election last year it's taken a long time to do it so we will be looking very seriously at the decisions to be made what about the fact that if a country can't afford the weapons were selling the taxpayers to subsidize so there's a fifty percent loans to that country so that they can buy our what we do we give loans to sorts of things and on the international. element we give players and we give ground so i don't think the problem is when we subsidising much needed infrastructure or whatever in britain it is subsidizing foreign countries we are aware but we've got the biggest infrastructure in terms of roads and rail program going on that ever being so it's not that we're not doing that we'll we're spending millions and millions multi-millions on the road infrastructure and it's continuing more than we've ever had before and rail infrastructure is going through the roof

another crisis apart from yemen is of course me and mark you know there's been lots of even mainstream media coverage of the ratings crisis how do you see the importance of it i think it's very important i think it's absolutely devastating to see so many people having to flee their country and particularly where the men are being slaughtered and the women are being raped on route and i think that is well i just don't understand why people can be so awful to people other people that are living in their country for say when the generations and they're having to flee that country to go to bangladesh and live in pretty squalid conditions i mean that's inhuman and of course britain supported me in my military regime against entrenched c.g. before she was. given this new time with a teacher in the position that amount but she could have margot canal in my view

she should have spoken out against it if it means that she loses her job i think she should have done that but i went to memoir about five years five six years ago i met her and she was already. determined that the wranglers were not part of the memoir area they were nothing to do with it they were not memoir people they couldn't have the status of being they would be stateless and she had a problem with that and i said. all alone is going to be a major problem she has got a mind set that will not change and we're going again as a committee to marry him and then we're going to bangladesh as well to go and see the real situation and how britain is helping and helping a huge amount bangladesh could not cope with the number of refugees they have without britain's assistance and they're very grateful for it given you have these twin roles on the international developed.