germany in. mexico is finished second is. to go. g. . and i think the belgian who finished second. for the league group. runs for the balances on the goal to win the group. and fall into the second. of so much expertise from james i believe you don't miss it. if you feel like putting your wits against the might of joe's a marina you can head to facebook or twitter and use the hash tag much merino to make your own predictions. so for now we'll be back at the top of the hour with the latest state that.

time after time we're going underground in the week of this year's world environment day coming up on the show we'll climate change mean the complete destruction of this country within eighty years we talked with former leader mahmoud what he has on about what the will be is emblematic of all the serious issues facing the planet ahead of elections attracting the attention of india china nato and the new and fanshen i go on vivienne westwood goes to downing street as u.k. minority government needed to resume a browse on with her plans to frack the british countryside unsustainable energy all of the more coming up in today's going underground first straight to our top story in a nation that arguably encapsulates the fragility of the world from trade wars to carbon emissions the maldives it's twelve hundred islands famous for dream holidays but today it's in the eye of a storm on monday deposed leader mohamed nasheed criticize chinese influence in the

region this after britain's foreign secretary johnson voiced concerns to some it appears that nato nations want machine in and president of the league i mean out at elections this autumn well joining me now is the maldives former president mohammad why he doesn't he's just been recognized by the center for international competitiveness and research as a member of its twenty eight hundred power brands hall of fame former president welcome to going other got right now what is the strategic importance of your nation because we're hearing all manner of things from press releases from different foreign offices whether it be in the e.u. nato nations where the reef from china and whether it be from india see more devices strategically located in the middle of the indian ocean and so. anyone who wants to have influence in the indian ocean region would want. more dives on their side so this is way more diverse is important but survived for thousands of years without being involved in any global strategic conflict so i believe

that maldives is going to continue to twelve years old what is it twelve hundred islands i want to get to those specifics a bit later but let's take us back to arguably the beginning of the most current concerns take us back to the marriage of february seventh was the day of every seven twenty twelve and the coup you became president what would happen if i was vice president at the time and there was mounting opposition against the president for various reasons economy and political president came in in a coalition together with me and other political parties but this coalition fell apart and so many of the coalition partners turned against him and so the mountain of all that has been achieved that's not shit who's currently trying to get back and yours is there is trying to come back but you know he made a mistake fundamental mistake in arresting serving judge chief justice of the

criminal court without any you know the proper legal process. so that is wanting him today because he is now under a sentence for having abducted a serving judge. so the constitution doesn't allow this kind of acts anymore now living in sri lanka and now living in sri lanka and also he was seen as a hero of the environment but of course what you're alluding to there is that these twelve hundred islands we have got to have the whole history of our islam militia to go to a group called roll that over over centuries the the critical conflict between judiciary and the executive yes. we got a new constitution in two thousand and eight here which for the first time in more diverse guaranteed fundamental rights of the people and also for the first time separated the three powers of government my sense of it is that we came out with

a constitution that is mostly theoretical iran without a basis in the practice of politics in the motives of a country that has gone through years and years of authoritarian rule with patronage playing a very important role and now suddenly you have a constitution that looks like you know you were in the u.k. or u.s. in fact it was a hybrid constitution or with elements of an executive presidency and the parliament system westminster by them to system so there was you know inconsistent and so you know you have a country where the president was all powerful and so on and suddenly his powers have been taken away as anyone from the global elite lucky enough to visit the movies would say you arrive on one of these twelve hundred islands it's a five story to tell the manager is basically the dictator and we had a personnel is the sheriff there is it doesn't seem to be any lower there at all no motives you know the results in more divs operate very independently and they have you know all the. room to function effectively as five stars on

stuff else so there's really very little law no interference from the government. which is the maldives is an old order society you know people have lived there for almost two thousand years in american history goes back hundreds of years so. there are cultures that are already there that takes a little bit of time to evolve and adapt to new new systems so i mean i become president but i don't have the powers of caring so if people want things from me i can't just you know hand out money there are systems now in place but that's one of the issues because it could become very a very. rich countries it's interesting because when when the coup happened indian media were condemning you as far as i understood it or some elements of it the u.s. assistance actress take the robert blake said it was ok for you to become president

i don't know i don't have what beijing said at the time if you listen to all these different i was actually quite busy you know listening because even i wasn't at all prepared for it and therefore it was the united states didn't want you to be president but i think the united states knew exactly what was going on in maldives you know they were following the situation so it wasn't really a coup in the you know traditional sense in the u.s. but the u.s. has a military base south of motives in get of us here in the child was occupied is technically leased from the british. that's what i do know what the defense would say about that. so when it comes to foreign interference then as you became president very soon afterwards there were voices i think you yourself were saying there's a degree of interference coming from the commonwealth and there was a threat to leave the commonwealth. well you see at that time there were. countries that are calling for immediate elections but you know the president in

models and the new constitution don't have the power still called for an election it's like the american system the president or any reason leaves the office the vice president completes the top and the situation moderates was quite difficult at the time and also to look at leaders related just point good to london or to washington sale do whatever you tell me and maybe they could be learned from the i.m.f. you didn't know i didn't do that i didn't do that you know we tried to manage the situation and i didn't arrest people you know it was not there never arrested he was free to continue to do his political work and. so it was a difficult situation i try to manage as best as i can and then we had elections the difficult elections but never this. it was a free and fair election if there were difficult for you there was some controversy because you hired baron a scotsman gordon brown's attorney general we had our advice on how to deal with particularly some of our international partners because there was

a misunderstanding there you know they thought that you know how come this very popular guy who was you know the first democratically elected president you know suddenly resigns and then the next day he comes out and says it's a coup and that i held the gun it is a head i mean it was too much for people to you know deal with and so it's very very indigenous this isn't some cia back you know this is structural changes with this there were people who were unhappy with the way things were going and the opposition because you know a lot of the coalition partners had now become gone onto the opposition they were coming out in the on the streets and the religious element for the inflated it and in december of i think it was with thousand and eleven there was a huge demonstration against the government you know there was a really a turning point for people were you conscious then of outside forces are going to hire some pretty controversial piece of tourism so important in the more lives as

a. foreign exchange we are very conscious as president i was very conscious that we have to really be maintained you know we have to maintain stability because tourism is the lifeline of the country but if it stops then people will stop overnight so this is why i thought it was really important to try to calm down the situation and be as tolerant as possible and form the government of national unity i invited all the people all the political parties to come of all the p.r. firms why pick on a single route router for him somebody came up with the suggestion of. you know this company. and we hired we didn't know who actually to hire you know using google. because they did israel's el al which caused. element of. discord would say against population and then of all the things to do you choose china for a contract you know what over and you know what. the first lawmaker meant with

chinese bank was done by. himself i mean the infrastructure project actually rather than the law yeah the loan was for infrastructure projects it was for the airport upgrade it was for housing projects the first billion dollars or is taken from chinese exam backed by nasheed for housing projects and then later we took some more money from this government actually took money for that because i'm not criticizing you for doing with i just saying i can't imagine what we're doing in whitehall here in washington but it is the little russell i don't say that is why he was wrong in taking that money we needed the money because we want we didn't have the money to be able to meet the rise you expect asians of people in a democratic society. newly democratic country people want housing they want to. say that somehow it's become the people's republic of. this is this is

misleading this leading and i think you know more diverse economy strong more diverse will pay its debts and i i don't think we will fall into a situation where you know china will be able to twist arms because of. how does the developing world nation leader today especially in the indian ocean let alone in it could be of course in the red sea your website the caribbean managed to pivot between these huge trading blocks which are in effect actually at the moment in the in the global trade war we are caught in between the big powers in the region. india on one side. on the other side you know i mean we wish you both india and china you know able to you know resolve their differences and not have small countries like most of us get caught in between you know it's very difficult for a small country not just the maldives but also for other developing small countries in east asia and africa but you know we need development funds from somewhere

and unfortunately in our u.k. or u.s. not providing that kind of development financing and so many countries not just maldives are being forced to go to china because those funds are available from china and you know when you have a democratic country where people's aspirations are high you know expectations have suddenly gone up you know the constitution of that you have you are entitled to tell you have a right to holocene you have a right to safe drinking water then the government is forced to do something about it for president i'll stop you there more from former president all these mohammad wahid son after the break russian designer vivienne westwood in downing street to protest u.k. government energy plans that critics say will cause quakes in britain let alone lead to global destruction although some more coming up in part two of going underground.

join me every first day on the alec simon show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then. welcome back we're still with the former president of the more leaves why would why he mother would do why mr nasheed was so popular was his famous demonstration of climate change and the power of climate change. i mean what is your opinion about the latest scientific evidence that suggests your country will disappear within eighty years. unfortunately that's the reality we have to face but in the meantime you know in the immediate near future we are going to be experiencing rough weather third of the maldives islands i believe ordered severely you know the potential you

go around the island number one demand today is help us protect the beaches just recently one of the southern islands which is the only island at all in the world it's called formula it's is. below sea level but it has a rim around it. that protects the ocean from coming into the country but that is eroding now and just last month they had major flooding and they have two of three freshwater bodies on the island they all can contaminated now because of this so motives is threatened absolutely and it's not a long term trends because some have suspected that this is with a desire for aid in that actually so my limbs there is they're getting bigger we also have the technology to be able to expand islands and reclaim thence there are deposits of sand in the ocean that can be taken out and for building and grazing i dance and that we are doing quite successfully because that technology is in for

was in china which is doing all sorts of climate change activities the greasing solar and so on whereas in washington president trump obviously has dissolved the paris climate change agreement do you think developing nations also will turn away from washington because of this key issue of climate change when it comes to the economics of developing world nations i think people are not stupid they know what's going on in climate change and people believe in it now paris accord was difficult it was it took a long time to get to paris and so you know us it's unfortunate that they're you know pulled pulled out of it but most of the nations are going to go ahead with the accord and you know india china all of them are. investing heavily in renewables they have set high targets for adopting renewable energy so i'm optimistic i think we together we will be able to deal with this issue of climate change how invented is this competition between india and china over the maldives especially given that

they are obviously in the brics movement the new trade to block do you think to an extent it suits the european union and the other major nations that there is this fight between these two massive piles it is definitely not healthy for motives i mean india and china may have had their differences over other issues for a long time. and saw no evidence in prime minister speaks fluent mandarin. but you know but they're also cooperating on technology on economy affairs and so on and trade so i mean it's unfortunate that a small country like motives is seen to be taking sides when it asked for assistance from from either of those countries you know they said this is a problem facing many small countries and i got to singapore quite often i think they have the same kind of difficulty you know caught between big powers but that's something you know i think that heads of state from small countries need to also

talk to each other and you know compare notes and see you know how do you how do you deal with this was your first question how do you deal with this kind of competition and i don't think there are any in answers to that but ironically for those critics of washington foreign policy in latin america in africa in southeast asia it could indeed be the united states that destroys your country not through any kind of foreign intervention because it fosters climate change. i hope not because you know the private sector in the u.s. is not going along with president trump's policies you know many of them have said you know they would buy it so our i'm not so desperate and hopeless i think the united states also has a keyboard to play especially you know technologically the united states is able to contribute my enormously to. new. knowledge is the renewable energy in particular and just finally i must ask this because i know this goes out

in the in all some of the maldives and some of those twelve underlings what about trade union rights and rights of workers in all these different hotel complexes because how on earth does the central government in mali keep tabs on worker rights when it seems like big multinational hotel chains are running those islands india it is very much self regulated now we have a labor council for labor affairs which which listens to complaints that come from . really what is it all these yes yes you can i mean they have the power to visit any resort and see to try to go yeah unfortunately because of the geography many of our workers have to stay away from their families their families and their inhabited islands where they have to come and live on the. resort island so that's a huge disadvantage but many resorts allow them to go back to their resorts periodically but still the pay is so good in the resorts most of them prefer

to work in resorts even or we're going to fishing for president thank you thank you . well while climate change threatens the destruction of the maldives protesters are out in force here outside the house of minority government needed to raise them a on world environment day this week fashion icon vivienne westwood and their son fashion designer jo cora. came to the heart of government to deliver planet in the yours which they say is a representation of armageddon caused by plastic pollution and climate change we spoke to them about what they consider to be the tory do you predict facto coalition governments hypocritical policies on fracking and plastics then westra joke or thanks for agreeing to this interview outside the house of the prime minister to raise a may you got into downing street this time around last time there were problems what have you come here to do today while we're here on world environment. to

deliver some important reports to the reason my. reports about any of us any of us has the most fracking license is all paid licenses issued by the government. seeks to become the biggest fracking company in the u.k. there are already impulses. of. propane gas from the united states and eighty seven percent of any aussies business is in manufacturing plastics eighty seven percent if they want to frack the gas to use the gas both to our player power their plants that makes plastics and turn the into excellent poly isolation which is plastic.

we're here on world environment because the united nations today in fact. again. you know put up the warning flank about the amount of toxic plastic waste that is infesting our oceans an air environment last week all the media was something. of that why oh yes they recognized by the government what we're asking to raise it today is hand over the last five six years we've been sold this idea that we need fracking for energy security is making millions of tons of more polluting plastics helping our energy security this is about making millions of more polluting disposable plastic and we were asking the government to why you can't do that and finally say saints see the writing on the wall and stop this madness it's crazy vivian you hear the writing on the wall is this government is an

agent for this moms who is. giving them the right to frack for plastic i mean they're an agent of pollution even the right to a monster to frack for plastic that is the writing on the wall since joe started complaining against fracking the number of people in this country who are fracking has risen to about eighty percent is the gas difficult to calculate our government is empty paypal that's what i'm saying it's not it's pro rob a sure monster and it's empty paypal any of us didn't get back to us in time for these specific allegations made here what is now happening about injunctions and law against protests against this this in. the fracking of st i learned plastics i mean any of

us to have been gaming the british legal system in order to obtain this injunction and then injunction that they. brought in a secret court hearing where no one was able to go and represent themselves no one was able to go and put a different point of view they were managed to obtain through the chant so we call the business call the do not specialist in human rights issues just one of the reasons why in your sim i believe took the case to the to the chancery division. they convince a judge to effectively give them the most draconian interim injunction in british legal history one of the reasons why it's so draconian is because it's against persons unknown now what that means effectively is it's against everything it's against the whole world these injunctions normally are used for as ball type

situations stalking type situations where you have a clearly identifiable culprit and you say to that person if you come on this land again if you do any of these actions again then you're going to be subject to the terms of this injunction male they have areas that cover millions of square i have countries that have their debuts on their courage to die even though there is no fence around it there's no signs and wouldn't know where you are you are potentially putting yourself in a position where you could face two years in prison and have all your assets. low here in this country that say you should be aware so that you have the choice to decide whether you want to step on that piece of land and put yourself in that predicament facing imprisonment or no now how is anybody supposed to be aware of it so these days. injunctions fundamentally problematic with human

rights for example in church when an eleven of the human rights allow you to sit down in the road and make approach to them if you long as you want to if you think all that supplies that you need to make yourself. that is the price we all pay for having human rights and having a democratic society and vivienne to julian of course is all grubby treated tension in west london or the ecuadorian embassy as determined by the united nations ignoring foreign minister saying he's not complied with agreements to not intervene in the internal politics with third party countries it's not a matter of censorship that he has lost all his into that connectivity and indeed some would argue it's going to receive the outside world of our from his legal team what do you make of the people to blame are the british government for keeping julian trapped in the embassy because they have been completely he's committed

completely framed and set up and what they do is they keep changing the goal posts i've come up with a term that is really flouting public justice throughout the world and it's called mais rule of law and the british government to practice mis rule of law they have no legal reason what so ever to keep in there there's nothing. that they can keep in there with they keep inventing. just for the sake of keeping in there why this is all to do with america because i think britain would actually like to say to julian ok you can step outside the door we have nothing to arrest you for police you can go but if they do that then they've got the trouble america want him extradited and they don't want to deal with that you know they don't want to. old america we're all best friend but we don't want to extradite him don't you

mind know they don't want to do that they don't want to be in the position you know so i think that's what's going on and i'm going to get him out of there with this mcluhan of know all. the lol i for rule of law and the law and the help get to me in the song that i'm going to give free t. shirt so why i'm going to get a group to start singing the law they already did you know public opinions got to be a against mr rule of law review in restaurants joe couric thank you thank you going . to be in westwood and joe cora speaking to me outside prime minister teresa mayes house starts after the show we're back on saturday with a special going on the ground to celebrate fifty years of revolutionary record label trojan records with filmmaker d.j.

and musician dog lets the director of that most political of bands that clash chill that keep in touch with us via social media a field day fifty one years to the day israel sees the golan heights from syria today the illegally occupied land is being drilled from fossil fuels by a company linked to former us vice president dick cheney former u.s. treasury secretary larry summers news corps rupert murdoch and james woolsey the former boss of the cia.

the pentagon says it's impossible to know how many civilians died in last year's liberation of the syrian city of russia as after amnesty international slams the u.s. led coalition in a new report alleging possible war crimes during the battle for the city. and there's fury in germany after the new u.s. ambassador was accused of lending support to far right groups in europe. maybe he needs to be a little bit more careful this just in. the e.u. is crossing swords with the u.s. over newly imposed trade tyrants promising counter measures for next month and calling the move by washington illegal. and you.