which kicks off on. a difficult one if there are many title contenders there are latin american teams like argentina and brazil but we also know that the german team showed great game at previous tournaments and the high quality of football was also demonstrated by the spanish team i am sure there are going to be other title contenders but the strongest will win. the most. i have a couple of footballers whom i consider extraordinary and who can obviously lay claim to the title of the among russian and soviet players it is live among foreign footballers it's pale a well i also like mario dawna the. so a lot of making his world cup predictions as excitement builds up which country will lift the world cup in the final in moscow next month he has been picking up picking the brains of perhaps the most famous manager out there. on how the

tournament will play out. says mr let's go through the groups step by step whenever you're ready. i'm not ready because it's unfair the field i don't want to be emotional what i have to be i will go to contradictions because i want my players to win but i also want my place to go on holiday so this is going to be tough but i would say to why his way into the wind to go. there experienced players they have the right thing to do and i think russia has to finish second and. can the crucial match be russia against egypt and there's going to be to me our testing pressure to

finish second in the group well. to win the group b. . and i will show you later that i am totally portuguese we are going to finish second in the group maybe down the home team russia is going to play against their domestic spain see us in front will draw a little finish first. the fight to finish second. and go for a surprise come along australia let's finish cycles. and in group the last thing the little fellow will finish first. this one is going to be hard title for an african team. so little piece brazil in the name of teach to go on holiday so switzerland who finished second i'm so in the money and what you need to hold on to. and in the group in germany has to win. i think

mexico to finish seconds. go. well gee. if perhaps you feel up to testing your knowledge against the my to go head to facebook or twitter and follow the hash tag match marino there will be three rounds of predictions from the group's stage on words. meanwhile teams are beginning to arrive in russia ahead of the world cup opening game the iran squad the first touchdown of moscow they were in group b. for the tournament will face one of the favorites spain as well as portugal and more rock. along to stay russia played its last friendly fixture before the world

cup gets underway drew zero one one with turkey in the russian capital it is the seventh game in a row that russia has failed to win and we asked people outside the web arena in moscow about their impressions of the match and what team russia should do. well to buck the trend. oh. i'm in a festive mood the world cup will be a major celebration and these home stadiums in my never happen again. desire from the spectators fantastic great atmosphere great people just your team could provide them with what they deserve really is the work of cross. first second. well another member of r.t. is a world cup team

a legendary danish goalkeeper peter schmeichel has been checking out russia's host cities for us and his penultimate stop in some petersburg where he indulged in the city's culture for the meantime though we are back just. i mean people. laugh to say looking up. everyone watching football will have a great view. but then i look down and. no page but don't worry that's because this is a smart stadium they rolled the pitch out and when they need it there with that in mind here is the pitch just laying there. being through and the way they roll it back in is. just normal wheels it looks absolutely. tick tock and.

it takes about ninety minutes each way at the moment the pitchers in the sunshine getting ready to be passed six of the seven games of the be played and i think the pick of the punch there must be that costa rica gets another shot at brazil and that will come up and told that saint petersburg is a fantastic stadium and peter schmeichel and i'm so weak it's find out if that's true. but i started to travel around to the eleven zero cities and everyone said to me once he gets think it is you will see something truly amazing my first stop the peterhof policy where the sauce used to come every summer it's summer residence and it's beautiful.

and i got the privilege in the sun to know. i think in those pretty pretty good with the water coming out of it and also i think i did a pretty good job. cause they lived a charmed life i can tell you the. fountains statues. it's still extravagant all the cool all the glitz. that lives the size me like the hotel in sochi where brazil is when they come to st peter's puts in place costa rica if they see this they must feel right at home. i'm enjoying my time as a tourist the grounds they are in first if i have to say it's well worth a visit. my

favorite musical pieces is not enough second piano concerto to challenge a man in the foundation is a big football fan happens to be one of the feeds asked us for the walk up on top of being one of the best in the world would you believe it he's here in st petersburg so i've decided to go and see. how i. just say i used to see give way pianta i no i don't think yeah i think it's like this. you know broke authority in football so when i was younger i playing football too crazy about that and i broke my hands a few times and how does that work with my foster. you play something play so i thought i'd go.

second piano concerto solo is that it's me. that's what you play that for me this is my favorite these you play in the way we play in the. ok. i want to say i want to say you know it's really interesting also takes how many

years to play this twenty totally i play so to be honest i don't mind that more than three hundred times none of the pinnace would take that on because i see difficult somebody counted more than fifty five souls and that's the way you play the very very aggressive and this is what i really like i mean i listen to japanese pianists i'm very soft and it doesn't come out the same way that this is not i aggressive this is special but i don't mind if number three is doesn't work without personal football shit question as well absolutely i play football for my show called a lot of the same things for example conductor orchestra the chief coach players orchestra players something about their most important loyalist should play for the audience this is the most important thing and i just put you in context so who are you you would be someone like messi over and out. mehmet might have done or yeah. you also play chess is my son is my second pluff i'd like to hear you play

chess. it's.

a play for many clubs over the years so i know the game and so i got. the ball isn't only about what happens on the pitch or the final school it's about the passion from the fans it's the age of the super money. and spending to get to the twenty million. it's an experience like nothing else not to because i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful guy great so one more chance with. the thanks.

it is good to have you with us today. cole is under pressure amid calls to expel the u.s. ambassador to germany it comes off to richard grinnell who's been in the post for roughly a month said that he's working to strengthen the right wing movements across europe and the german foreign ministry has asked him to clarify his remarks as peter all of us now investigates. at the beginning of the last century then american president theodore roosevelt said the u.s. diplomat should speak softly and carry a big stick while the current us ambassador to germany he's opted more for shouting loudly and using that stick to smash diplomatic norms have a look at what he had to say to the right wing news site breitbart the right lot of conservatives throughout europe who have contacted me to say they're feeling there is a resurgence going on i absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout europe

other leaders while i'm but for the good now is announced himself as the all right cheerleader in chief in europe some people in berlin on top be that such a senior diplomatic figure is involving himself in the day to day running of european politics hiring king officials from me from me united states and maybe needs to be a little bit more careful i cannot imagine that i never never ever and i'm fifty years now and never ever had heard something similar over the last decade is this casting this person should be so none of our country we don't do this in the us and they did do we shouldn't do that. this is horrible and the u.s. government this is a shame sorry for that but that's my opinion. he should have been more diplomatic and i believe that the right wing is not the right way to be pushing but you know

that's i wouldn't call this incident meddling in german affairs but as a diplomat who should be more neutral politicians on the left say the ambassador who's only been in the job for a month should bucky's bags and go home and thus it is a representative of their stays and not her political movements u.s. ambassador now however does not behave like a diplomat but more like a far right colonial officer we won't tolerate such behavior it's nice to have a hand here it is not only a. reach of etiquette it is also a violation of the vienna convention on diplomatic relations there is an article forty one in which it is very clearly stated that ambassadors shall not interfere in internal affairs he has to go because he has broken too much porcelain in germany he has become a real hate figure and that is not a good platform for a us ambassador but this isn't the first scandal that mr goodell's been involved in just a few days into his tenure the opes german business is with these comments after

washington pulled out of the iran nuclear deal. as little trump said u.s. sanctions will target critical saxes of iran's economy german companies doing business in iran should wind. to their grinnell's brush shoot from the hip style certainly seems to be from the same playbook as president donald trump but he may well find out the hard way that envoys are expected to act on behave in a certain way whether they're at home in d.c. or here in the german capital these are all over. germany is not the only country where u.s. ambassadors have been sparking some controversy as of late america's envoy to israel told journalists critical of how to live eva's handling of the gaza protests to shut up the u.s. state department says ambassadors around the world have the right to voice their opinions pastors have a right to express their opinion their representatives of the white house whether

it's this administration or other administrations and we hear them voicing their opinions and their sometimes opinions that people may or may not like and that there is the right to free speech as well. the fifty six mission to the international space station is set to launch just in a few hours from now actually be launching from the baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan with a crew of three on board which is at the launch site learning more about those getting ready for blast off. this is the vehicle by which the latest crew members will be making their way to the international space station a trio includes dr serrano on chancellor from nasa so the approach from moscow's

most and alexander gerstner from east to now for the american and the russian this will be their first trip into space but for gareth this is already his second time around and he'll be taking over a station commander on the i asked us the three have been training intensely for months together now and according to garrett twitter some of the exercises are less than pleasant. for the astronauts social media is a way to connect with the earth even from so far away. and. shared. with everybody was down there. right there on the on the trains. the most and were. the good decisions. apparently actual antigravity is easier to handle than the training required in order to prepare for it during their six month stay on the station the trip will be

carrying out over three hundred experiments ranging from topics on the effects of space on human bones to robotics to quantum physics and the hope is that the results of those tests will one day be able to benefit those of us way down here on earth but it's not all work and no play the world cup may be taking place on earth but the results will be followed in space as well or better riding on the outcome of the movie from the. new. year. two students in the sun some students suit the needs of citizens and the need to. use the you see the need to do this. since he seems to feel it's the to lose sleep. this is the one. and about just about wraps up the program for this hour here on out so you answer

national that many more stories to come from all around the world the top of the next. this is boom bust broadcasting around the world from washington d.c. thanks for hanging out with us i'm bart chilton coming up today it's been a year since united states with proof from the earth wind that if word has us leaving will hurt or hampered efforts to save the planet from global warming well as tyson slocum the director of public citizens energy program and artist caleb often joins us from moscow where he's attending an international forum we'll ask

him about tariffs and sanctions and more plus in the wake of the u.s. supreme court decision supporting a colorado bakers decision not to bake a cake for a same sex couple marriage we ask americans lawyer might happen tony what this may mean for other businesses all that straight ahead but first let's get some headlines the hunt is on for sky broadcasting the british culture secretary has allowed twenty first century fox and comcast to pursue bids for the british broad. caster officially kicking off a bidding war fox's bit affectively offers roughly eighteen and a half billion pounds while comcast bid is closer to twenty two billion secretary met hancock officially found that the two bids create no concerns with regard to public interest or broadcasting standards sky and its suitors will have to meet with officials from the department of culture to finalize details on how the process will proceed mr hancock told parliament that he will insist that any deal

preserve sky is a u.k. based news source fox's bid for sky has become a minor political lightning rod in the u.k. the shadow culture secretary tom watson of the labor party responded to secretary hancock in parliament saying quote where the fox does the deal to fail it could leave sky news isolated from sky and owned by a foreign company with few news interests in the u.k. it's hard to see how that would be in the public interest. and mexico has imposed a twenty five percent tariff on imported u.s. steel a direct and equal response to u.s. president donald trump's action mexico went further hitting a list of products including bourbon cheese pork cranberries an apples with tariffs or twenty to twenty five percent of twenty to twenty five percent the mexican interior minister acknowledged that the responses were calculated to create quote unquote political pain saying that is sending

a clear message that this sort of thing benefits no one these trade wars and affects us all meanwhile top trump economic advisor larry kudlow said today that on the north american free trade agreement president trump has a preference to actually negotiate with canada and mexico separately mr cupples comments appear to firm up president trump suggested on friday in response to a question about nafta renegotiation that he would pursue separate bilateral agreements with canada and mexico but mr kudlow also say. the president's not going to leave now sort of hard to figure these guys out right negotiators have reportedly reached agreement only nine of thirty chapters of a revamped nafta in mexico fierce nafta critic left andres manuel lopez obrador led in a recent poll for the july presidential election by a two to one margin. and turning to the financial crime blotter there are two big stories out of australia one involving commonwealth that's the country's largest

bank on monday the nation's finance intelligence agency recommended a fight against commonwealth equal to seven hundred million dollars the penalty is meant to punish and in theory deter lax enforcement of money laundering laws the fine if approved in europe in a bureaucratic review would be the largest corporate civil penalty in australian history and on tuesday australia's competition and consumer commission accused the former heads of the australian branches of deutsche bank and citigroup and a number of their colleagues of a of cartel conduct with regard to a twenty fifteen capital raise for a.n.z. bank australia's financial sector has been in the spotlight for a year related to a public misconduct inquiry which is uncovered many instances of unlawful behavior . a year ago june first president trump said he would accept the paris climate

agreement at that time many of the largest u.s. companies said that they would stick with it and do their part to reduce global warming and help save the planet there is that and here a year later what's the status gladys we turn to the energy expert tyson slocum the director of public citizens energy program tyson thank you as always for being with us we really do appreciate it yeah great to be here ok so have they kept their deal some of the we talk about a lot of times on this program at gold wal-mart. g.m. and others that are doing things with regard to renewables but in large part are the corporations us corporations doing their part to continue with the agreement the paris climate agreement yes some of them are i mean half of the fortune five hundred companies have some sort of either sustainability or renewable energy pledge that they are hearing too and so what we're seeing across the country is

a big driver of renewable deployment in the united states is corporate procurement and so whether it's i.t. related companies like apple and amazon and microsoft that have big power intensive server farms whether it's big box retailers like wal-mart and others that are doing some of these installations on their own properties or if it's consumer facing companies that are. concerned about consumer preferences for clean energy and sustainability so they're making pledges so we're definitely seeing more and more corporations go into the marketplace and and produce or procure electricity to not only meet some of their social obligations but also because it's the least cost option when you talk about you know when you say the word procurement that really means that they are looking at it from a business perspective and you talked about the drivers what are the other drivers that businesses are looking at when they're making these procurement decisions in

favor of renewables right so it's the availability of some of the products like power purchase agreements or being able to do on site generation but also a big driver here is the fact that twenty nine us states and the district of columbia have mandates that utilities and other entities produce or procure a certain amount of their electricity and so what that does is it drives a whole secondary market of what's known as renewable electricity credits and that is a big financial tool. a lot of companies are getting to make renewable deployment even more economical we've talked about this before and i don't want to get into it now but about the whole carbon credits and trading and i've loved that stuff i think it's the way that way to go in europe has done it but not doing it enough they're doing it but not enough in the u.s. now we talk about energy on the program a lot in particular crude oil we talked last week because crude had risen so much although it's taken a slide in recent days. it looks like coming up at the opec meeting that both

saudi arabia both opec including saudi arabia the largest producer and russia who has joined in the production cut will go ahead and get rid of that production cut will remains to be seen but that could add pressure on for a lowering or oil prices with more production u.s. is producing it's a little bit of apples and oranges but will that have been a business impact on some of these companies that are making a decision now based upon finances to go with renewables or is it really sort of separate i think it's separate when we're talking about wind and solar about's for electricity production and electricity is one big component of energy the other is transportation and right now in the united states the vast majority of our transportation sector is fueled by petroleum so when oil prices are higher you see a bigger market incentive for larger electric vehicle penetration for companies like tesla but as prices start to ease you're going to see less folks clamoring for

electric vehicles or when you're looking at solar and wind except in what we're talking with these big companies that are making these procurement the decisions. they look there come in is really against what coal and nuclear for electricity right and natural gas yes ok now you're going to fill me and the all the boom busters in washington because i read a story not long ago about the u.s. government i'm not sure if it was a deal we are for her all of the above that are talking about mandating that the purchase of fossil fuels and nuclear buy companies or what's the deal with that unfortunately you heard right so last week donald trump issued a directive to his energy secretary former texas governor rick perry to explore all options to force consumers and taxpayers to bail out an economic nucular

and coal fired power. wants this is an asinine proposal that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars and it's going completely against what we're seeing in the marketplace what we're seeing in the marketplace right now is huge deployment of renewables because increasingly they are the least cost option in power markets and so what you're seeing now is some politically connected companies like first energy like murray energy and some nucular companies like exxon are using their connections in the trumpet ministration to turn back what we're seeing in the marketplace and force massive government intervention you know i don't know it's crazy but i can imagine a critic saying well wait a minute barr you like when some subsidies might support renewable sorts of fuels like like ethanol or which are essentially subsidies to corn producers corn farmers so what's the deal the president decides he likes coal what's the difference.