it's officers from. this includes fifteen e.u. member states as well as the united states canada and the ukraine and even though moscow denies the allegation that it was behind the attack in seoul's worry the list of expulsions of diplomatic expulsions is extensive among the countries that russian diplomats are going to be departing from france germany poland lithuania denmark the czech republic the list continues however not all e.u. states have signed up to kicking out russian diplomats austria notably has announced that the russian diplomats can remain and also well garia has said that it won't be expelling any russian diplomats that are currently stationed there also at the e.u. summit last week that you summit where to resume a so successfully argued for this collective european response well sean claude

younger the president of the european commission he advocated a rather different approach to moscow take a listen to what he had to say. everyone will show. you can do reduce. the structural. needs an open channel to discuss for sure all of them complete not. so not all e.u. states on the same page and not all figureheads agreed to the extent to which to punish moscow or to cooperate with it perhaps instead nevertheless what's happened today is being billed as the biggest collective expulsion of russian diplomats in history all this while the investigations that police investigation and also the independent o.p.c. w one they are still ongoing polly thanks for the view there from. the u.k.

and europe will get the view but as far as we can glean so far medina coach lives across the side of it from a studio at the kremlin what's russia's response been well we've heard from the russian foreign ministry spokesperson marty is a kind of a who said that reciprocal measures will be taking against each country that decided to expel russian diplomats and overall we're talking about over a dozen countries and that supported this move now she also added that average in measure that was taking will be mad by a marrow measure in response including the shutdown of the russian consulate and the u.s. now shortly after at this news that a number of countries are expelling russian diplomats broke the russian foreign ministry released a statement and in this statement. expressed protest at these expulsions calling them an unfriendly stab that will not find any answers and these scripts case the statement also goes on to say that the exposure and are being seen as

a provocation adding that such a hostile move on part of this group of countries will not be allowed. and indeed we've heard from a number of high level officials in the russian diplomatic society now an authority on tone of course the russian ambassador to the u.s. has protested against what he called a wrongful decision by the u.s. to expel russian diplomats. told you fit in for months on learning about the expulsions are expressed a strong opposition to the move i pointed out today there's not been a single shred of evidence of russia's involvement in this tragedy the most productive way to address this case would be a calm and professional investigation by the. world and not only the russian ambassador to the u.s. has expressed his outrage to the move but a number of has of other russian. mattick missions in different countries lashed

out at these recent expulsions. we believe the you shouldn't fall for this dirty group just broke ation all the talk about to use solidarity is laughable as there can only be solidarity in the fight against real threats but not in support of the insinuations and overall we've heard from different high level officials here and russia expressing disappointment and even at times this believe to this recent move by the us a number of other european countries to expel russian diplomats there's a lot more to come on this year other think ladies thank you for the updates there were to napoleon samir appreciate it. thank you for your company as well with this news bulletin there it's twenty eight hundred minutes past nine at night moscow time i'm kevin i was reminding you. with more the two big stories of the day and check it out as well twenty four seven for all our latest.

time after time as it were going on the ground three years to the day that british backed saudi bombers began to drop on yemen leaving thousands of civilians killed and tens of millions of people in need of humanitarian aid in the poorest country in the middle east coming up on the show three years on why is the british on the war in yemen still barely making the headlines we speak to the regional director of unicef middle east north africa here about the burying of the world's worst humanitarian crisis and does the largest ever higher education strike in british

history mean no u.k. graduates in twenty eighteen professor julian style of russia london's renowned court talks to us about the liberal blog of education and teaching will ask is outside the club plus. we speak to the pirate radio d.j. played by philip seymour hoffman in the book the wrong about breaking the law to circumvent multi-billion dollar record company control and state by beijing b.b.c. censorship although some more coming up in today's going underground but first one thousand and ninety five days five billion pounds in arms sales and millions of yemenis at risk for three years going underground has been covering what the u.n. has called the will. old's worst humanitarian crisis but even before the first british made bombs dropped on the poorest country in the middle east the global terror campaign had already begun here is professor noam chomsky talking one month after the saudi war on yemen began. yemen has been the main target

of the global also a nation campaign the most extraordinary global terrorism campaign in history of course it's also turgeon orating campaign as it is understood at the highest level when you say attack a village and murder somebody who your image maybe a couple of the people are standing around you know that and to elicit a call for revenge and it has undoubtedly not not even questionable increased what we call terrorism a few months later the former vice chair of the conservative party andrew mitchell at the time the only british m.p. to go to yemen spoke about the u.k. government's conflicting role in the crisis the blockade of course is an example of the internal contradictions of our approach to yemen and i think that it needs to be addressed the situation in yemen was described as having achieved in five months

the chaos that syria has achieved in five years and we are very conscious in britain of the importance of tackling the humanitarian crisis and yemen and we do want to ensure that the actions taken by others particularly those who are our partners that make that situation even worse well we spoke to a journalist on the ground in yemen hussain alba cocky about some of the alleged saudi actions that the british government to factor supports. that double top strike that they you know is used to use this tactic and as they say i got al qaeda on as well and afghanistan thought of going to canada but they knew they would be let go is it is used in this against civilians target against a home they target civilians then they thought it is cooler than they thought a good journalist if you have a home has been destroyed by as that i the first people who are going to go that their neighbors don't know this and they do that and i think this is the kind of training that the u.k. is given to the saudi the coalition is using this technique but there are reasons

according to britain's former ambassador william patey that we support saudi arabia and britain has extensive interests and saudi arabia. military tree economic security interests so you often accused of having a system that has bred extremism but equally there in the forefront of the battle against people like al qaida. they keep us safe and according to tory m.p. a member of the committee for arms export control the saudi government isn't even all that repressive anymore. do you not think saudi arabia is a repressive 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 wanting women to get elected into parliament it is moving forward to a democratic society but another member of the british committee labor m.p. lloyd russell moyle has a very different view the argument is not that the sound is

a bombing women in saudi arabia the argument is they're bombing the heck out of people in yemen you know kind so what they're doing for people in saudi is neither here nor there when we're talking about the arms now actually the fact that they're allowing them in after many many years of not to drive in saudi arabia is hardly the gold standard of we've been a quality in feminism as the saudi arabian government the bomb civilians at times using illegal cluster bombs sold to them by the u.k. government to resume still insists that britain has one of the most rigorous arms export controls in the world we spoke to the author of shadow world. arms exports in the united kingdom is not amongst the most rigorous in the world and we've seen that over years and years and years it's my view that simply by exporting to a country like saudi arabia whose human rights abuses at home have been documented over decades and decades his involvement in conflicts in the middle east both

historically and currently is almost the stuff of legend it's so pronounced and so important in that region that by exporting to the country the united kingdom government is violating its own laws let alone the international arms trade treaty of which it was a claimed proud signatory let alone the e use common position on arms exports let alone the rules of war and a whole lot of international humanitarian law but while going underground has been covering the ever worsening crisis in yemen as hundreds of cases of cholera turn from thousands to now a million here is journalist and filmmaker john pilger to explain relative media silence is apparent u.k. government ignorance over yemen. the middle east itself is is seen by us us when i mean in the west in terms of its usefulness syria israel elsewhere saudi arabia

and this and the yemen as expendable it's either one of the other useful or expendable and that appears to dominate. the news coverage perception or the perception we're allowed of this part of the world joining me now from jordan is the regional director of unicef middle east and north africa get companies to tell us what british made bombs have done in the poorest country in the middle east and thanks so much for joining us is the third anniversary of the saudi backed bombing with with british arms how is the world's worst humanitarian crisis well i'm just coming out of yemen after another visit another visit making it crystal clear that children are suffering are suffering dramatically of the impact of three years of war britain is of course a donor but tourism a says the saudi investigations of discovered no war crimes as

such what has been the effect of bombs dropping on villages in yemen well the impact upon children easts and. we have seen last year long over eleven hundred children being killed. or very seriously injured to day at close to two million children in yemen are not able to go to school we have seen last year an unprecedented outbreak of what the. color out we have seen an outbreak of. in yemen that over four hundred thousand children are suffering from the life threatening. severe acute malnutrition as a result of war and it's not one or another part of the it is everybody who has

been fighting in their yemen and that has to be held accountable for that the suffering of children. suffering of children in a war that is not of children's making let's be very clear that a war that has become a war on children it's difficult to imagine those numbers obviously as as a human being but while britain continues to sell arms to saudi arabia the u.s. senate just voted to continue the war bernie sanders the senator said america the usa should stop funding it the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said u.s. intelligence will result in fewer casualties presumably child casualties as well hopeful that a u.s. intelligence is going to bring fewer casualties to the bombing campaign well only if i may talk from my children's perspective if i may talk on behalf of every single mother and father who have seen their children killed and severely injured i

have on the one message heath's not about fewer children to be killed and that should be no single boy and no single girl or killed that britain is proud of its intelligence services and if britain is providing intelligence for the bombs that are being dropped on yemen surely surely that's a reason for hope for unicef to day because of the war because of decades of in the development and that every single ten minutes a child is dying from a preventable disease for the simple fact that we are not able any longer to vaccinate children timely children suffering from a lack of access to.