i'd say since the beginning of this year it has occurred twenty two different times and that's an average of one per week there has been an average of one school shooting per week in the united states in twenty eight teams there a frequent occurrence school shootings are let's let's take a review of some of the more tragic mass shootings and school shootings that have taken place in the united states in recent months.

german chancellor angela merkel is in the russian black saves a lot of sochi where she's been meeting with vladimir putin a few hours ago that it is held a news conference and answered questions from journalists among the mounties lipitor. it didn't seem at all especially at the very beginning like two political wobbles internationally i mean we're meeting here and saatchi when angola merkel stepped out of her limousine vladimir putin was standing there with roses and that was just when the newly reappointed russian prime minister dmitri medvedev was walking out of the building and the chancellor wished him good luck in russian and . then later during the press conferences both leaders kept saying how you know political differences can stop them and their

countries from being partners if not friends fifty one sort of you we have strategic interests to maintain good relations with russia and maintaining dialogue is crucial i want to underline that if we want to overcome issues we need to conduct dialogue there are many topics where we're united. germany is one of our key trade partners we just started by german goods in high volumes which supports jobs in germany cooperation common enterprises these are essential factors influencing the lives of germans and russians but the russian and german governments do have a whole lot of issues between them from the ukrainian crisis to even the script all cases and in one way or another all these issues were brought up during the talks or the press conference however since donald trump said good bye to the so-called iranian nuclear deal berlin and moscow do genuinely see eye to eye at least on one issue no official you on germany great britain france and all our colleagues in the

e.u. support the iran young nuclear deal and we are sticking to it we from the european side are discussing the situation with iran the agreement isn't perfect but it's better than none we should continue negotiating with iran and on that we are united . lot of our pro. and angola merkel promised to make an extra effort to make sure that the nuclear agreement stays in place now moving on to sanctions usually when you hear merkel talks the first thing that comes up on your mind is anti russian sanctions but so to say the season is different since economic sanctions and all other kinds of punishment you can think of have become the favorite toy or rather the political tool of the donald trump administration we've been hearing about all kinds of sanctions against iran against russia and even against european companies

that deal with russia and those that deal with iran and in this case a joint russia german project called nord stream two for the direct russian natural gas deliveries to germany is now in jeopardy lot of our putin was asked about it his reaction was cause and he did point out that the issue of north stream two is one of the very few things if not the only thing where the obama administration and the donald trump administration share common ground. the u.s. position on the north stream project is well known in this case we see a rare situation of the white house actually agreeing with the legacy of the a bomb or administration there's no doubt that these kind of summits will continue in the future and possibly next time with the leaders of france and ukraine to sort out the political crisis in that eastern european country the so-called normandy format

. and it was also in sochi where a meeting between methyl and putin eleven years ago generated plenty of headlines because the russian president brought along his labrador many western journalists betrayed the move as putin playing psychological games considering that merkel has a much publicized fear of dogs in the later interview putin claimed he never knew that and had apologized he said for the incident as soon as he found out that our correspondent mentioned earlier both leaders have a long history of coming face to face. with. the russian president likes to drink

german beer and sometimes there is a possibility that we can exchange have also gotten very good smoked. angeles and time to time sense because bottles of brotherhood being. on thursday the u.s. president threatened to quote deal with those states who are not contributing fully to the nato alliance and he singled out germany. played a number that is supposed to be paying we have some of the dot. they'll be dealt with in particular germany must demonstrate leadership in the alliance by addressing its longstanding short for in defense contributions germany has not contributed what it should be contributing more and more aggressive but all u.s. government makes a very very politics in the moment and i think. that

call for more years of. well. there is no need to spend more. for military issues although it's need for. meanwhile the e.u. is firing back at the us following washington's unilateral withdrawal from the iran nuclear deal is being commission is triggering legislation to protect e.u. companies doing business with iran from u.s. sanctions and also allow e.u. firms to recover losses arising from u.s. actions as it has instructed the european investment bank to facilitate e.u. investment in iran the european union is committed to mitigating the impact of u.s. sanctions on european businesses and taking steps to maintain the growth of trade and economic relations between the e.u. and iran that began when sanctions were lifted. what is my guess their takes

a closer look at the souring relations between the us and e.u. and the latest move by brussels. no arguing with it america and europe had something special a relationship unlike any other they did everything together condemned rogue regimes slapped naughty countries with sanctions even they wanted to get we have a very strong relationship with our friends and partners our friends in the u.s. administration we have a really great relationship low threatens life and this is this very special relationship this is us almost too good to be true and it seems it was money trumps all now that america has unilaterally pulled out of the nuclear deal with iran it could start sanctioning european states companies that haven't the to do business with iran e.u. leaders merkel mckown others tried to change trump's mind with love.

i. think you. except love has nothing on money europeans of facing american sanctions that's not very nice is it not something friends would do looking at the latest decisions of president. bush that. europe has had enough they stand to lose cash because of america and they won't let that happen. to divert is the european commission we have the duty to protect european companies so we knew me to act and this is why we're launching the process of activating the blocking statute from one

thousand nine hundred six. but you're a busy. doing is using statute initially developed to circumvent washington's trade embargo on cuba the law basically protects european states from laws or sanctions implemented outside of europe if you can see a political resolution prompts bully boy tactics haven't gone down well in europe the block is finally showing its teeth. what do we want to be able to be blinded to what americans tell you all you want us europeans to say people have an economic interests move want to have economic relations with russia what can you say every relationship has its bumps it's just that some bumps and didn't divorce. former russian spy surrogates who was poisoned by a nerve agent in the u.k. has been discharged from hospital in his daughter would admit it on march fourth

after being exposed to a substance known as novacek in the city of solsbury skipper was once a russian intelligence officer but he was stripped of his rank after it was revealed that he'd been spying for the u.k. in two thousand and six he was sentenced to thirteen years behind bars but he was released four years later in a high profile spy swap and he moved to the u.k. russian ambassador to the u.k. says that russia still being denied consular access to him and that is in violation of international law. unfortunately we don't have access to this people to sort of you do through books for the russian citizens if they don't want our assistance for him but we want to see them because for the put to do you know we just saw the pictures nobody heard their voices nobody saw with a lot we don't know. has been discharged from hospital we know that the medical team have said that he's going to be continuing his recovery outside of souls where

a district hospital in terms of his location well that's a closely guarded secret we can assume that he has been whisked off to a safe house much like his daughter yulia square pile was back when she was discharged from the same hospital last month she's been kept well away from the public eye and out of the glare of the media and i think we can expect something very similar with a surrogate square pile to happen that in itself is very interesting given the massive scandal that they're poisoning spock's in the diplomatic fallout that we've had as a result between russia and the u.k. take a look at how the for the poisoning of the former double agent and his daughter has unfolded over the past two months.

the government has concluded that it is highly likely that russia was responsible for the act against and to the script. that can be no suggestion of business as usual in relation to our interaction with russia mr speaker this action has happened against japan. the drop of a well established pattern of russian state aggression and in regards to where the novacek came from well the russian ambassador to the u.k. alexander yack event i was just saying in that press conference that as this story unfolds more doubt is being cast upon the u.k. government's continuous assertion that it could have only been moscow behind the attack take a lesson. from for example from the from the czech republic from the

president to a church group of this certain amount of snow each year was produced to. the recently that fuses all froze to reserve me that russia is the only country that was cubicle of group think. it was wrong scotland yard has released a statement saying that the counter-terrorism investigation into the attack continues and that they're keeping the progress of it under wraps but perhaps most importantly what's interesting here is that despite the huge scandal and the political fallout that since you'd as a result of what happened in salisbury on the fourth of march and the diplomatic expulsions of the war of words with the kremlin it appears that investigators in this case are still none the wiser as to who the assassin was that smeared that nerve agent on the script aus door handle of their house in solsbury.

hundreds of millions of girls worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation a procedure has been denounced by human rights organizations unicef estimates some two hundred million girls have been affected the practice takes place in schools of countries with both cultural and religious motivation predominate in african countries and parts of the middle east recently unicef those the money can chose to highlight the problem. the issues also highlighted in sweden where a member of the social democratic party suggested setting up female genital mutilation checks. to help young girls who have undergone the procedure. ok

it's a sensitive situation let's discuss this now with two guests first of all joined by toni bugel she's the founder of the mothers against radical islam and shari'a and also by activist and comedian kate smith weight ladies welcome to you both if i could just ask you first kate to what extent do you consider this an invasion of the privacy of these young girls if they're stopped at airports and there's an x. some kind of examination whether it's verbal or possibly physical to see if they've been subjected to mutilation. well you know first of all i should say that as you might imagine i'm completely against as g.m. i think that we have to do a great deal more to combat it but for me there is an issue with this idea of stopping people at airports and having these compulsory examinations and the issue is simply that a compulsory medical examination is a violation of your human rights you know a smear test save lives but i don't expect to be forced to have one if i choose not

to it's it's a basic thing and it's very difficult to teach young women that they should have the right to have control over their own bodies if at the same time we're forcing them to undergo a procedure they don't want now you know i absolutely think there is a lot more we can be doing i think we should be very very clear and educating people that this is a crime we should be doing more to act when we see evidence of it we should be doing more to make sure that prosecutions happen and the prosecutions are then widely publicized to make sure that other people thinking about this are aware that they will be tracked down and that they will be stopped and that the punishments will be severe but for me it seems obvious that we can't solve one human rights violation by bringing in another there are a lot of options out there and a lot of stuff we could be doing that we're not doing right now so my feeling is that this is that this is a silly suggestion we need to look at what we can do within the bounds of people's human rights and do that stuff so much more we can do in terms of education and

also in terms of prosecuting right now in the u.k. and right around europe and stuff the levels of prosecution are really low and lots of cases being being. brought forward but not being put right the way through the court process and we can obviously do a lot better with ok let's bring in the how do you feel about what she feels that if it's compulsory physical check that's too much do you do you agree or not. i actually think that we need compulsory checks and i also think that if we're talking about children i mean you have to remember sometimes this is a newborn babies are taken on holidays and now being mutilated whilst in another country what about the human rights of those children do we not owe it to them to take in their human rights if you don't talk about human rights issues let's look at the children human rights surely we have a duty and if it's a doctor or specialist you can sit there and say women choose service meters we still have to girls ready to be ready to be able to go and have that done confortable and feel comfortable with the trust of a nurse and a doctor be

a female or a mouse so i really think that if we're going to look at the terms of human rights in the protection i think protection comes first above and beyond people being offended or people saying it goes against my human rights i do think these children have a right to human rights and therefore we have a duty to make it compulsory and i think that maybe not in the airport i mean maybe you have to compulsory book a doctor's appointment with your doctor is to check that that child is intact before leaving the country and again chait when she comes back that should be compulsory and that's no different to me than taking your children to the doctors. and our if there's been a report of child abuse and they have to go and look at that jones' body all over our file to see the different if we want to protect human rights we have to protect the children who don't have a voice those children don't get their human rights protected so i'm not quite sure how you will go about protecting those vulnerable children so i would like to throw

it over to you and say well if you say no to compose reach a and i get it in the airport maybe not the best place if it's done in a medical profession with a make an appointment to book before you are taking your children so-called holidays that are nothing more than a butch faced to butcher a child surely how else would you go about protecting those children who don't have a voice so i had an really curious as to what would you actually physically put in place and i actually don't think compulsory is a bad thing i don't. well the first thing that we have to do i mean it's a great it's a it's a perfectly decent question tony was i totally agree that we have to do something and that not enough is being done it's a huge issue it's an incredibly serious issue and i do feel like because it's something that affects girls rather than boys it gets kind of put on the back burner when it's a super super serious issue and it needs addressing now the first thing that needs to happen is education the first thing that needs to happen is we need to be talking about it and we need to be talking about it to young people and yes you

know it's a serious subject to talk to young people about but obviously it's much much better to be talking to somebody about it than it is to be forcing them to undergo a medical examination that they don't want talking to them about explaining what it is and i think actually it's important to talk to all young you're talking about what i would use i look like. you're talking about knowing that when i see someone who can't do the work so what about the six month old baby that gets taken abroad and well in that integration iterated. in that situation tony then we need to be talking to the parents don't we need to be making it clear to the parents that their children will not be subjected to their own believe you know more closely you know ability we also know that there are lots of young women in our society you have undergone a g.m. who are angry about it and we're not doing enough to prosecute their parents i think it's quite obvious that if we start taking those process i agree on the word and we start saying convictions and we start saying that happening we're going to see other people who perhaps previously thought it was

a good idea deciding hold on a minute if we go ahead with this in the long run we are going to be tracked down we are going to end up in court and i think it's it's clear to me that that's the best way to go about it and i've had three don't always do it and i don't is in the u.k. that we're exposed for attempting to carry out female genital mutilation there was no prosecutions brought against them now the problem what exactly is not well and good you say in that we and i agree with you kate i agree with you but why i don't agree with is when i when i had my kids it was compulsory to take your child to see the health visitor a compulsory you want to do it you wasn't no buts and that is it will come in what isn't in my child was an issue now what we need is the same thing and when you also get young people educating young people the female genital mutilation is not acceptable i agree education is key but we're talking young is. that so for

those babies do you not think for those babies who do not have a voice that a compulsory cheik is not such a bad idea. but interestingly you talk about how health visitors will go and visit every single child and you know one thing that we could be doing in this country a lot of countries that were not done it was making sure that health visitors are educated about yemen are actually able to ask those questions and to make sure about what's going on because to me when it's part of a broad health check that you know that is being carried out on all children so that they're not being selected on the basis of background or ethnicity or all of those kind of creepy things that make the situation so much worse i think it's super important that health visitors are along with you know asking questions about diet and play and all the important things that health visitors do they should also be asking questions about the parents attitude to these things and they should be looking out for you know the warning signs and they should be looking out for this kind of stuff and they should be making sure that parents are all. these things

there will be consequences going on in the long line of well let me finish an answer tony the first warning sign is quite obviously kind of the parents don't think that this is a terrible idea or the parents aren't aware of what the issues are not anymore and that. it is that thing in what sites are is that way but you can lead want you said warning signs so you want healthy it is to know these warning signs and the warning sign you just gave me is whether these parents think this is exceptional well that's a warning sign that something inside that person's head and the whole things it can see inside a person's head so what are the warning signs that you're talking about there's a reason i'm going to find a lot of questions about what's going on a health visitor can ask parents may not their knowledge so these are things well i mean i mean sure of course that's the case but it's also there's lots and lots of steps that we can do we can make sure that really. this of this is really is about us elisa signal i mean it's obvious that we just the tip of the iceberg here is

a fascinating conversation we could really rattle them from the twenty thirty minutes which we have the time for on this occasion but it was very interesting to hear both of your thoughts appreciate your time tony bugel founder the mother. against radical islam and comedian and activist. thanks. for the thirty minutes with. join me every thursday on the alec simon chill and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sport i'm sure i'll see you then. summit or no summit that's the question what korea's threat of a no show and single for on june twelfth is

a reminder to washington that north korea will not merely cave to american demands if there's going to be an agreement it's going to take time and patience. welcome to sophie and sophie shevardnadze the u.s. military is relying more and more on drone warfare but could this modern what been be doing more harm than good brendan ryan to forward grown operator in the u.s. military is with me today to share his experience. modern warfare can be fought in mountain passes and urban streets but their craft firing missiles over afghanistan can be guided remotely from a base in nevada. by computer screens by a pilot in the skies what plays in the mind of

a group reader before he hits the button is it easier to fly to the enemy thousands of miles away he said of face to face those who engage in war be distanced from its dangers and consequences. brendan brian two served in the u.s. air force as a drone operator welcome to our show it's really great to have you with us brendon hi. thank you for having me brought up both obama and have embraced drone warfare with strikes in somalia and yemen tripling in trunks first year in office but this is ration in this country afghanistan a prime example never seems to improve can drones really change the course of a contain. no drones definitely cannot change the course of anything especially if they're being misused as a tool and that's simply all that they are and if we take away our ability to interact as human beings with one another we're never going to solve this crisis

now during your time in the hear us air force strongs were tested as a new form of warfare now even islamic state have been using them in iraq and syria to devastating effect to drones have the potential to be asked commonplace s. war planes and helicopters and will everyone embrace them at some point. as this technology gets easier to manufacture you're going to see a lot more people utilizing it you can go to best buy in america and buy a quad copter drone for less than a thousand dollars and you can watch you tube videos of people putting stuff on these drones to make them even deadlier so you know it really just takes a more moral and righteous and virtuous person to utilize this technology technology properly but obviously what we've been seeing is that none of these

people who are using these things in warfare understand what virtues or morals actually are are we going to have like a drone on. combat from now on this is how we're going to look like in the future well if you look at what's happening with japan and china there are two utilizing this technology to fight over resources in the ocean so it's not unheard of that we're going to have cowards fighting cowards behind a computer screens now the biggest plus for using drones is that it's a as american lives nowadays put in the firing line so how can the technology be bad i mean your side suffers no losses. that's actually the thing about warfare that people need to understand is that there is a price to pay when going to war and if we take the human component out of it then there's no actual price and then we just continued to the cycle

it's an endless endless cycle and there needs to be men and women who train with honor and integrity who are willing to go on to the battlefield and interact with humans because that's actually how battles are prevented usually we had people posturing one another back in world war two people didn't fire to kill one another only twenty percent people did today in today's conflict we have a ninety five percent fire and kill rate and we wonder why we have people with psychological mental problems that are coming back from home or from war to home and killing themselves so this is just going to make it even worse now here i've described the use of. cowardly action i kept of you just in warfare rest as honorable you can hardly describe homemade to i tax or children being recruited to carry them out on our wall right when she backed drones knowing your.