medicos allies before opening and only pull the pick of the door so that's why i believe that is that the reader will. get word for the next month. or time to markings my guess professor of history and international relations at the lebanese university in beirut. on to other news now a former russian spy and his daughter believed to been poisoned with a nerve agent that's according to u.k. police scrip our remaining conscious and in a critical but stable condition according to the case home secretary after being found unconscious in the british city of solsbury sunday the country's top counterterrorism officer says that the pair were deliberately targeted this is being treated as a major incident involving attempted murder by administration of a nerve agents i will not be providing clearly information. about the exact substance that has been identified so here's some background information on

surrogate script powell who used to serve in the russian military intelligence service but in nine hundred ninety five he was taken on as a double agent by the u.k. russia court script in two thousand and four later convicted him of revealing the identities of russian secret agents in europe as a result he was sentenced to thirteen years in prison but he served only four of those before being released as part of a high profile spy swap with the united states he was later flown to britain is what the u.k.'s home secretary said earlier today in parliament. the use of a new case is a brazen. act but if we are to be rigorous in this investigation we must avoid speculation and allow the police to carry on the first occasion well that was her updating the house of commons on this case and she cautioned against speculation and not just speculation in the media it's something that now the politicians are doing as well many of them have pointed the finger of blame

squarely at last and some are even using it as an opportunity to push for more defense spending take a listen to the circumstantial evidence against russia very strong who would harm. the. defense if the first use of the row and spending two percent difference is now not enough there will come a time. and there will be consequences and there will be further information that follows but now i'm concerned about the incident and the consequences around and actually speaking in an interview this morning the defense secretary gavin williamson pulled that thread as well he refused to say whether or not he thought moscow was behind the attack on sergey script but almost in the same breath he also referred to russia as an ever greater threat despite the home secretary's appeal for everybody to keep

a cool head about this news stories about sergei script pollen the therese just keep on coming one media report has even linked him to the intelligence that came up with that so-called dodgy dossier on donald trump so some pretty wild theories swirling around in the meantime the police are getting on with the police investigation somewhere where they might actually on a few facts it's now been divided into three separate sites that investigation the script files. the pub where they were drinking on sunday with their daughter and the pizza restaurant where say gaisford found his daughter thought to have eaten and the police say that they're combing through all the c.c.t.v. footage that they have and they're building a detailed timeline of events they've got hundreds of officers working around the clock trying to find out who it was that used that nerve gas on surrogate script powell and his daughter and why. racially motivated

hostility and crimes against germans in berlin is becoming more commonplace that's according to the capitol security chief of these peta oliver explains. the berlin interior minister has had some pretty unexpected things to say about how native germans attrit in the nation's capital i have heard it's not the norm but it is becoming more common to keep quiet about it would be wrong a recent survey has shown that where is this time last year around two thirds of the said they felt safe in their city that's around just over half these days while those that said they felt very insecure it risen from nine percent a year ago to around sixteen percent right now as for what is fueling those fears or sort of pointed towards the influx of refugees and migrants into areas like this . district the local integration officer here says this well refugees

don't fear arrest is they know that they'll be instantly released by the police should they be caught breaking the law does is the i don't think crime has decreased on the contrary it's actually increased i'd say ninety five percent of the crimes here are committed by foreigners that's way too much i think in general . people start to panic way earlier and this is way news spread quite quickly and. i would say that berlin has gotten more dangerous than any pain i think it's just because of all the new stuff like it's spread all over the balloon and they just make a big deal out of every time the crime that's committed and. this is you and so political our politicians should be made to commute using the underground for one week and then made to hang out in this neighborhood that way they would see what the situation is really like has become very hostile and aggressive not nice at all

. some of the politicians who represent the area say that perception of danger could become the new reality if a majority of the people have the feeling that they don't feel secure anymore and there is some some some basics for that many things that are not even declared to the police as crime or as harassment or whatever you can call it because they know well the police cannot do anything about it because our justice system is like that well they come in for maybe five hours and then they let them off again punishment is something that evidently or appear in plea in berlin context isn't there anymore and perhaps it's the feeling that things could get worse that's driving public opinion to feel that the german capital has become less safe peter all of a. still to come people in california are getting irritated by the growing role of robots after a number of awkward incidents but a story and many others after the break.

join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics or business i'm showbusiness i'll see if. it's been almost fifty years since we've had human beings on the surface of another planetary body and i hope that we could actually put together an international lunar exploration initiative much like we have the international space station consortium and together the countries of the world cooperating with the private sector could afford to get back into real space exploration and i think that would that would create a real a lot of excites. me

. welcome back people in california seem to be getting more annoyed about automation for example in san francisco there's been a number of attacks on self driving cars passers by been banging on windows. and in the same city a robotic god was taken out of service that followed a public outcry to the security but was given the job of showing a way homeless people from outside business offices it was vandalized several times during its patrols and now a new robotic kitchen assistant in a burger joint has been slammed as well.

flippy the robot there as it's known as prompted the twitter hash tag rise of the robots some people are complaining that jobs are being stolen from the mothers the automation is being inevitable one expert that we spoke to said it's no surprise that some folk are very. robotics is developing very fast and it's going to have big impacts and it's already having big so it's not surprising that you're already seeing these kinds of reactions from people when you start to talk about. half of jobs are being threatened by the introduction of it into the economy. fifty percent unemployment ok that is a crisis that is a social political economic crisis and one of the possible outcomes and one of the

likely possible. is is massive violence and you know a lot of this kind of vandalism and salads are just i think you'll be seeing you'll be seeing even larger scale disruptions here if there are appropriate adjustments in europe or mccoll and economic arrangements we need to start redistributing things more fairly we need to start to pay people to take care of people and clean up the communities and to do so many things and we in the end to make sure that people benefit from technology instead of being dispossessed by technology. they story of a russian and pay he's accused of harassing female journalists has been making headlines this week despite denying those accusations the m.p. has decided to apologize today. has a story. the man in the spotlight is leading a member of the russian duma and the scandal actually erupted in mid february when

the first accusations of sexual harassment surface by female journalists and since then it has snowballed with more and more women coming forward one of those has been a reporter from the b.b.c.'s russian service and she joined the group saying that she has a recording of an instant worse lidsky made inappropriate advances and also groped her as well at this point that recording has yet to be released in full and throughout all this has denied the claim saying that it's actually just a smear campaign that was until today today is of course international women's day and he used the opportunity to mix in the polje end with a post celebrating the holiday i'd like to use this occasion to apologize to anyone who intentionally old norse and have caused any emotional stress believe me there were no bad intentions amid the wave of accusations against the speaker of the duma came out casting doubt on the claims and also making a suggestion to women that infuriated many is something to consider what if this

was all just a provocation if you have someone you should apologize but if you provoke you should be held accountable is it dangerous for you to work in the duma if so then change your jobs all this has prompted outcry especially among journalists who are demanding the appropriate steps be taken and today a protest was even held outside of the state duma where many of those participating were members of the media at this point the ethics committee has already opened an investigation into the situation and suits will be required to submit answers to all official accusations and if those are found to be lacking he could eventually lose his immunity now the one good thing coming out of this we have seen from in another member of the duma that's the push she's promised to fast track in old bill enforcing gender equality and targeting sexual harassment in the government. women around the world are marking international women's day today and of course it's also happening in madrid where they've been making a lot of noise. thank

you as a response capital people banging pots and pans in support of women's rights chanting slogans such as if we stop the world stops. people in south korea took to the streets of seoul in support of the me to me they were calling for sex offenders to be brought to justice it was a little more light hearted though in russia players from the hockey club called out what the means to them.

is out there watching today many congratulations on the international women's day join if you can now. knows who you are when you don't. get a court. what are the most true only ten steps. left in the. said. club you know. that. you speak french. lose. that's. what's new this morning just because. the doctor

said this cause. under-performing the stock market oh my god blackstone one arbitrage opportunity you have brought amongst yourselves i suggest you short yourselves a par a money into visser a your own corporate balance sheet and then blow your brains out on live t.v. they gave us all a big kind of fund experience for the financial predatory class. with politicians to. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president and. want to be rich. to go on to be pros that's what before three in the morning can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters of my own. question.

this is good bye. and it is a nuisance is a. church secret indeed catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children can get away with it quite literally i like to call this the geographic solution so what the bishop needs to do then he finds out that the priest is is a perpetrator is simply moves him to a different spot worth the previous stand or is not known highest ranks of the catholic church help conceal the accused priests from the police and justice system to that end as old as the intent that i include other duties out until now was.

welcome to the shore and as you see i've made a few changes this week to mark international women's day across the world this day has been celebrated for more than a century and indeed can be traced right back to one thousand eight hundred ninety eight when fifteen thousand women marched through new york city demanding voting rights and better paying conditions that campaign continues to this day and i'll be interviewing a quality campaigner helen pancoast his grandmother and great grandmother lead the suffragette movement in the united kingdom and the today show includes interviews a theda mark of all individuals each of him in quite different ways are making a contribution to enhancing the position of women but first here's alex with your tweets your messages and e-mails. well lots of reaction to quality of

programs on the island and breck's that baltic boat says brought back very sad memories to me listening to many mack lee's talk of the troubles in northern ireland be a theft in year old son of a scot a british army soldier lived in lisbon for two years and one hundred sixty nine shops swimming pools cars blown up all around us people tarred and phelim terrible rob says just watched alex salmon shows stripped it close to this is a great wardrobe of broadcast focusing on the island of the consequences of bricks that they pull off being informative and entertaining and charles macdonald back set up by saying watch the repeat of the interview with me to mark lisa smiling part of the trilogy of programmes about island excellent and free scott adds another great sure the interviewers are back to have a million new macdonald a million accolades what a delight if only to these army had the vision and then state of these three the u.k. wouldn't be in such a mess and from dave yellin who says much praise for various john major interviews

this week but alex thomas interview of the former president of violin minimax leaves was better it watch to understand island border and why it's so important to support the e.u. project and to feel bret's it when philistine says hi alec could you please see if you can a few of the prickly most i'm going to see them later me here keep up the great work with the tail and it will tell charlie including the proclaimers that's an open invitation to come on the alex salmond chill and finally from loans winston i'm really enjoying the show and in particular the last few episodes and the impact to bret's and ireland great presentation style a pleasure to watch your show or thank you very much laughs now back to tires where you'll notice that normal service in the set has been resumed. among the star turns at last sunday's march for women in london was a speaker with the most famous name of all in the historic struggle for women's rights however she has

a formidable record in her own right of equality campaigning and i'm delighted to be joined by her to welcome helen packer's and happy international women's day it's a place to be broadcasting and such an important day for women i want to start to ask you a bit about your heritage as we all know you're either a great granddaughter or a granddaughter off air. christian spectacle how much of an influence has been related to the leaders of the british suffragette movement had on your life how could you not be influenced by two such amazing people and you know carrying the surname it had to be part of what i did with my life and you know they were so amazing because of what they did in the past but the fact is that that still relevant today the issue of women's rights resonates through the ages so that name is not just part of history it's part of the present absolutely and of course this is a quite important year to say is the need we've seen the anniversary of certain women having the right to vote earlier on this year november will bring i think that

abortion the twenty first of the first from being able to stand f. a parliament so great you know i support you but it's come out which came on the sixth of february on the anniversary of women second woman or an import to having the right to vote i knew just getting some great views tell us a bit about the so the book has got three aspects i speed's not words i should seize name of that these are not words the story of women's rights then and now so it's in three parts the first bit in the prologue looks at how we got to nine hundred eighteen and that's a personal reflection on my family's background in the whole suffrage campaign and it's such an exciting and interesting issue one that increasingly i think we've been a learning all girls are learning at school and that's important so we keep that alive so it's a personal perspective on how we got to nine hundred eighteen and then the body of the book is to mattick on issues such as politics what's been happening since. such as women in the workplace what's been happening what are the key stories that women told me about several of anecdotes the third is about women's domestic life their personal relationships their family their health their sense of identity and what

was interesting as i did all of that and i pulled it then conclude on issues around power is that violence against women kind of infects all the other aspects of women's lives so as we think about how much things have or haven't changed that issue about violence against women in the workplace you know in the political sphere at home in culture you can't go very far in terms of thinking of how much we've progress without identifying violence as a key constraint that number of elections coming up the number of by elections going on in scotland and you know i will knock tours then women will see to me i'm not going to war i don't want to put men women and men but because i was talking specifically about women to be how do you think we tackled our hard fought and hard won success of getting women the right really really important question so a number of thoughts i mean firstly it's approximately the same numbers men and women that vote this about one percentage difference over time and it goes both

ways sometimes it's slightly more men sometimes slightly more women so we shouldn't just say there are fewer women i think we feel that women have fought so recently so hard for it that they really should but then we can also ask given how poorly the system represents their interests you know maybe it's not surprising that they're not voting does not reflect reflected by the policies and by the people there maybe it's really surprising that so many women do vote but what i would say to all the women and the young girls out there is it's a habit and it's a really really important habits it's habit that links to to your society and to your country globally we only have two countries where there are at least the same number of women represented in parliament as men twenty eighteen only to country. is that have both a male and a female lends as to in terms of who you look at and what policies are implemented for me that is really sad in the matter of where we are and that we must change you

like i encourage women continuous in the some great projects that there's a fifty fifty project the pilot project women for independence so many american assistance with the support of men also causing women to come into politics but then we have to be aware that once you do enter politics there's another world with which unfortunately women are having to deal at the moment and support needs to be offered in relation to that or what do you think can be done from a social media perspective from other platforms exist to offer women greater protection then of course that will be act as an encouragement to bring them into politics or first i think there's so much that can be done at different levels i think parties have a sponsibility for support i think the government has a responsibility to support any woman that starts to emerge and to encourage them i think that. those who provide media platform who after all are now saying they can identify. the language around terrorism they can do something about that well why can't they identify a mechanisms to really do something decent and proper about all this vilification

of women on the social media so i think at every level if we challenge it and i think also there's somehow there's a permissiveness of speaking in very unpleasant ways that has been allowed in social media may be allowed in society more generally and i think that has to stop i think that you know there is a decency about how we need to talk to each other and listen to each other across our differences and we need to promote that and we all can promote that we can disagree with people but we have to listen and we have to be able to express that disagreement in a in a in an in a in a decent way not with the abuse people feel that they have an increased opportunity to be negative and to say nasty racist things to people and if there's one thing the last couple of years have done is just as it has given power. our voice to some of that really negative things it is give power and voice to those who say enough just enough is enough and we're going to stand up shoulder to shoulder we're going

to march and we are going to support each other and hold me to campaigns that every day in the media and it would last months every day there's a new item that is speaking truth to this idea of saying enough to all this discrimination wherever it's occurring and let's stand up for something better because we can change things so the positive angle on all of this is that because something start moving backwards enough people and the world is divided up you know in a way by most people who are in that middle and don't do much and if most people wake up to the dangers and say ok we're going to side with a more positive world which is more supportive of each other then we can end in a better place what would you see we need to do now then to continue that cause which is a see it's it changes as time goes on because different challenges come our way and we have to face those what do you think we need to be doing now to make sure the world is a better or safer feared or more equal place for women so firstly there's the the.

the issue of legal change so act and act one hundred years ago started to change things not everything as we were talking earlier we had to wait another ten years for equal rights but the acts of parliament the acts around violence against women the equal pay incredibly important and we need to keep doing those but they only happen if individuals start to push for change and they only happen if society also acknowledge change so individual agency yours mine everybody else's standing up for something that's better and doing something is really important but individuals don't change it society together that changes so for me the title we connect to those to be aspects individual saying enough society say oh yeah maybe we can change and laws that that ground that if we can do all those three out things then . then we achieved change when i was in in parliament elected and was going to a very difficult time because of high levels of social media abused it's my life it's my family etc i received

a card from you saying by you personally it just telling me to keep going and i wanted to let you know how much that meant to me and i'm very grateful for it thank you for mentioning that because that card it was actually the idea that we could a group of women just it's actually the olympics suffragette so women the came together through a volunteering at the olympics and other friends we just thought the people today women today who stand up get so much abuse it's the same type of abuse as a suffragettes used to get a hundred years ago and if we could offer some kind of support maybe just maybe that might help so number of us got together in the house we just signed and sent it to all the women m.p.'s irrespective of political backgrounds and i just think that sometimes individual actions like that of support and appreciation can go a long way in my book there's a quote of the eleven year old girl and she's saying she'd like to see that young girls don't dream of becoming princesses and fairies but also astronauts

and superheroes so if we can support each other's dreams as parents as workers as as members of the general public then i think by the end of the ten years we can be proud of what we've done not just of what women did for us one hundred years ago or more parity elbow and thank you for all that you do this started many many years ago with your with your great grandmother whom should be extremely proud of all of you've done to thing to new henny thank you very much indeed telapak pleasure thank you. fascinating stuff from helen pankhurst join us after the break when alex will be back to interview tricia marwijk the first woman presiding officer of the modern scottish parliament and out be speaking to leon by a woman who's currently making the transition from reality t.v. star to campaign against poverty and the oppression of women.

but politicians do something to. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or rejected. so if you want to be president and you. know something i want to be rich . and she'd like to be this is what the korean people. i'm interested always in the water as it. should. it's been almost fifty years since we've had human beings on the surface of another planetary body and i hope that we could actually put together an international lunar exploration initiative much like we have the international space station consortium and together the countries of the world cooperating with the private sector could afford to get back into real space exploration and i think that would

would that.