there it is going to be a transition it is going to be a succession you still have the combined ages of the three elders nearing two hundred so. there are optically there's a lot that's changing and that's good vice president canal it will be the first non castro and that's going to play an important role unfortunately the relationship with the united states more now we've missed hasta sized and it's not moving expansively it's not moving constructively it is in place what president trump wanted in place and pretty well u.s. companies are hostage to it i want to get to that in just a minute but i want to ask you just i mean is the election just you know off formality that they go through here or is it does it ever mean anything while in in countries that have government structures as cuba does the election is pretty much a foregone conclusion we've known that vice president was going to be president for

a year and a half or so no surprise and are people required to vote is there or do they take attendance how does that work i'm not sure that i'm probably the best person to talk about the inner workings of the electoral system cuba but. they're very proud people and you know we always in the u.s. have that problem where we're always looking at from our standpoint toward them as opposed to within them looking outward so there's people that are excited about the fact that this will be the first non castro you know different generations thirty years younger than raul castro he is a. he's a bureaucrat he's a technocrat you know when you look at the leadership of the house in the senate for both parties in the united states very few of them are in their fifty's well let me ask you go on back to where you were leading actually about what's going on how do they look at the u.s. and how are relations going on we see. rex tillerson secretary of state just left

all sorts of moving parts in the u.s. does that matter to the cubans with regard to u.s. cuba relations with the good news for the cuban government is that during the last two years of the obama administration they did take advantage globally of the perception that the united states is relationship with cuba had changed and would not change for the worse everyone expected hillary clinton to be donald trump so for the cuban government where they were able to be successful as renegotiating long term debt billions and billions of dollars written off able to reestablish some trade relationships so they were able to do some good things the problem is that they didn't take advantage of enough of what the obama administration was permitting thus allowing an election result that no one planned for and everything stopped should have struck while the iron was absolutely for things one away and so just we're running out of time but what do you what's your prognosis

for what is going to happen and what you think should happen what is probably going to happen is nothing good during the next year and a half to two years likely there will be some more what the u.s. business community would and u.s. travelers to cuba wouldn't like to see and from the cuban side they're going to hunker down they're basically going to say we're going to have to sacrifice again the revolution is paramount and we now have donald trump we're not going to be able to do all the things we wanted to do sacrifice is going to be the keyword so for the cuban people it's not going to be a pretty couple of years for u.s. businesses we're going to just be looking and watching the russian federation people who are going to china india canada brazil and other countries. do much of what we would like to do now you can still they do allow certain agricultural products. health related products from the u.s.

to cuba and you could still go down there if you're a u.s. citizen but you have to go down as a as a group on a cruise or something and have it approved in everything that's the case right well individuals can still go if they are under the support for the cuban people category basically they stay in the near b. and b. they go to a holiday ours they do other activities but. travel is down it's not it's not down as much as everybody thought it would be the cruise lines have been able to pick up a lot of that slack. the rich so many opportunities on both sides that were missed and it's truly tragic because now with a new president this would be the time john kavanagh the president of the u.s. cuba trade and economic council thank you for being with us in studio appreciate it my pleasure. stephen hawking their renowned physicist has died at the age of seventy six the famed scientist was diagnosed with a ls when he was twenty two years old and was given only

a few years to live but he beat the odds and would go on to become one of the world's leading physicists over the years hawking would go on to research and theorize on subjects ranging ranging from relativity to black holes and his quest for a complete understanding of the universe why it is as it is and why it exists at all it wasn't until the one nine hundred eighty eight that hawking received international attention his first book termed a brief history of time put him into the minds of millions of readers he took complex scientific theories and made them easy for regular people to understand hawking covered the universe space and time and even god from there the rest is history hawking became an international star giving numerous interviews and appearing on t.v. shows even like the simpsons all while continuing his own research plus there was that great award winning movie in two thousand and fourteen the theory of

everything artie had the privilege of interviewing professor hawking so please take a moment to listen to some of what the great not only scientists but great person had to say about the rise of artificial intelligence you've been warning people about the dangers of artificial intelligence i don't think it's an artificial intelligence little necessarily is the. once the seeds reached a critical stage of being able to evolve themselves we cannot predict what are their goals will be the same. and now we leave you with this quote from stephen hawking remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist think you're eous and however difficult life may seem there is always something you can do and succeed at it matters that you don't just give up.

they're not ones that. you know somehow flynn's off down one line of snakes on the definitions into a man and. once you king of. the south. take in the equal city. docks to get the band and then you're going to bring. everything kind of the. movie right. the way i'm going to do now let me yeah sounds our. next guest still in this one means i'll just say that the deep. he's just numb tokyo find it he's going to keep going. to let. his look was because did it because it didn't seem quite

a cultural thing i pulled the premise. give most go here because nuclear which will become all you'll watch before so i was getting it toward your career as well. but. it was. nine hundred fifty. official line is that. libya right. probably develop nukes and if that happens. to get all this have a lot of development. this baby and. this is on march eighteenth vote with your remote.

for special coverage of the russian presidential election exit polls opinions real time results monitoring much more. than accuses russia of breaching of the convention on chemical weapons at an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council while russia protests it is being considered guilty until proven innocent we've known for years that for you in order to determine the guilty party no investigation is needed today the best kind of proof is suspicion. that comes as the u.k.'s prime minister expels twenty three russian diplomats from britain in retaliation for the kremlin's alleged involvement in the poisoning of

a former russian intelligence agent and his daughter that is despite police having declared no suspects. and human rights advocates call on the u.s. congress to reject donald trump that new pick for cia director over her involvement in the intelligence agency's torture program. we're broadcasting live reports that is moscow this is art international i'm sean thomas really glad to have you with us all right the british government has accused russia of breaching of the international chemical weapons convention that came at an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council called by london over russian double agent to sergey scruples poisoning in britain was the president from all of this we can conclude that russia is in serious breach of the chemical weapons convention through its failure to

declare the novi short program this fact alone means you should discount any arguments you hear about the possibility of other countries having inherited this technology after we heard the words from the u.k. ambassador who had called this emergency meeting of the fifteen member body that leads the united nations we then heard from the u.s. ambassador nikki haley now in her remarks she emphasized the special relationship between the united states and the united kingdom and from there she went on to fit the allegations against russia in with the broader narrative she talked about syria she talked about north korea she talked about the previous security council meetings and it was rather heated words we heard not just from the u.k. ambassador but then from nikki haley representing the united states a growing concern and all of this dangerous and destabilizing activity is russia. russia failed to ensure syria destroyed its chemical weapons program russia killed

the joint investigative mechanism when it found the side liable for chemical attacks russia used its veto to shield assad five times last year. it has also provided cover for syria in the hague at the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons in response to the heated words from the united states and the united kingdom we heard from the russian ambassador and he responded on a number of levels one of his points that he made was he pointed out that russia has actually given up its chemical weapons and that the o.p.c. w. has confirmed that russia no longer possesses chemical weapons from there he invoked the memory of when calling powell representing united states in dressed that very body the u.n. security council holding the vials of powder that he said were chemical weapons from iraq he reminded the council and pointed out that it at this point now we have

the united kingdom coming was simply a letter and that that there seems to be a history of rather unsubstantiated allegations against different countries regarding chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction from the united states in the u.k. this is the russian representative responding to the words from the u.s. and the u.k. was even with whom we are living in a very special time in front of our eyes incredible things are happening the process of replacing the presumption of innocence with the presumption of guilt is taking place this criminal law principle is being transferred into international relations envoy halley as an experienced chemist has talked about crimes committed by russia we've known for years that for you in order to determine the guilty party no investigation is needed today the best kind of proof is suspicion it is no longer necessary to show to the council why tubes with an unknown white substance in it it's enough to send a letter displaying an egregious attitude towards

a sovereign state. from there the russian ambassador went on to call for a thorough investigation of the incident and determine exactly who is to blame of what happened and he called for this to be done through the existing international mechanisms to find out who is absolutely responsible and he reassured the security council that russia was more than happy to cooperate with this proper investigation to determine who is responsible for the attack however he was very clear that he did not approve of the heated words and allegations from the u.k. and the united states before the council and that russia just like other countries wants to get to the bottom of what exactly happened in salisbury. the scuffs this of further let's cross live now to earl rasmussen who is the executive vice president of the eurasia center. thanks for being with us here on r t international . so let's get right to this so at the u.n.

security council only two states among fifteen supported the accusations against russia why such a lack of support there i think. it's obvious there's no really no proof right now and if you look at the situation there saw the o.p.c. w.'s got set procedures in place that need to be followed through with some of those are not being followed. those procedures investigation and formal steps are not being followed and and i think most of the world realizes. it. this is a very political. situation and it really really so far that we're not going through there needs to be rigorous an investigation to find out what's going on.