lection prospects in florida there is a little bit of a game that's being played with the very very very reactionary cubans who are disrespected more and more every day by the cuban community i've seen some western commentators compare this new president make l.d.s. canal can now gorbachev and i know that you visited the soviet union during its reformist years of glasnost and perestroika which as inspiring as they may be now in hindsight it ultimately led to the collapse of not only the system to the soviet system but also the collapse of the country do you think that's likely a likely scenario for cuba if the new president indeed pursues the reform or gender or if he doesn't so that was a question that i was asking myself and i was very very curious because of the half a century that i spend cuba because of my love for the cuban people i wanted to observe this firsthand but i didn't want to observe it from the back of the pack and so i had. asked the cuban government to allow me to come inside as they were

making their deliberations as they were passing the power in to observe this basically like a fly. on the shoulder and. they didn't answer me i had the choice to be in cuba or be here in moscow for some very important thing this past week and i chose to come here to moscow instead of going to cuba well we are very happy to welcome you in this country but for the time being we have to take a very short break we'll be back in just a few moments stay tuned. first . of all there's.

no moving to auditions don't google some dodgy mentalist first thanks. to my. boss. to tell you. the. eight hundred eighty. two most digital. groups are some of the sheen you know. very. good the weirdos brilliance of you. if they were. fortunate enough. to sing us to whom you've heard. this morning will.

welcome back to worlds apart as john albert the american journalist and documentary filmmaker mr. just before the break you were saying that you had a choice of either going to cuba or of coming to moscow and each chose mosca and i know that you have something under the table to show as i do have something i have my my my props here if you see this yeah and i can see the name of legendary russian hockey player just last fifty seven days why do you have it if you look at

this and obviously we have your name here as well but so so so when i was growing up. i didn't want to be a journalist i can tell you how i became a journalist it was completely accidental my dream was to be a hockey player. but my reality was that i still don't get i wasn't good enough. i was always very enthusiastic but in on town that hockey player but my friend i'm working with on a number of projects one is the first and last hockey game ever on the north pole can you skate really do you got here because next year around this time it basically to call attention to the environmental crisis of the north pole and also the sort of political tensions the arctic countries the vatican. there's one more can remember what it is they're all getting together. i usually do political journalism and i think. right off the bat i can say that this is if

you're an unusual experience to have russians and americans doing anything constructive because from my experience the only bickering but it's good that you guys can do something in the in the current environment and i think so and you've been to war and. i think. because of our shared experience and because i'm looking in your eyes i can tell that. when when you go to war as a reporter there is something that happens inside you and it changes you as a person and it compels you more or less for the rest of your life to look for other ways to resolve issues you visited a number of floor zones but the one that you remembered the most would be a your coverage of the first gulf war for which you were actually fired from b. c. . it was clearly and correct me if i'm wrong you were specifically fired because

you sell and it's a billion deaths all inflicted by the americans that was clearly an act of censorship but i think from my experience at least censorship in different come countries. realize in different patterns have you figured out how it works in the united states. you know it's affected me in different ways i've had the misfortune of being blacklisted twice i was blacklisted for public television not for war coverage but for a documentary about health care because the documentary pointed the finger at the sort of greedy financial interests that were keeping americans from getting the best health care. that was it for public television. but the sort of interesting thing about the united states is that sometimes the door opens and door closes and the door open to n.b.c. and i was the only independent reporter to work for any of the course on networks i

had total editorial control of my reports which is i have more editorial control than anybody here at r.t. has i think there were a number of circumstances general electric which is. a big powerful country company a company that has a lot of military industrial interests bought and b.c. and from that moment. the gangplank was out for me but i think that i may i may be mistaken but judging from your previous interviews i think it was more specific you went to iraq you filmed the sitter's that's where you were not supposed to sell me you managed to smuggle it into a back into the united states in your socks you brought it to the n.b.c. executives and what did they tell you. that every time i go to the third world i make trouble for them and they're tired of it but if you actually look at the footage what was the problem with your behavior over the actual material that they hear and in fact. the regular news staff was devastated by this

and they had all supported me they had seen the footage and were proud that somebody from their team had gotten this despite saddam's attempts to censor me you know we had three babysitters there were three pages of rules and regulations we broke every single rule they tried to kill me on the way out of the country put a gun to my head and spent five minutes trying to pull the trigger to kill me and i got the stuff back and everybody was proud of me and what was there what was on the there was on the film i mean basically the smart bombs were not smart this was what we were being told in the united states during the war that this was the first bloodless war in history the first scientific war in history. and let me tell you when any country believes that they can make war and not hurt people they become even more dangerous and so it was crucial to show these reports to the american did he actually show it to the american people when they should have seen it during the war one of the tragedies of the war and it's it's studied in journalism classes

there were a number of hand wringing retrospectives about the way in which the press had not fulfilled its duty to the country during the war and they didn't well you know what's interesting to me is that americans like to use the. examples of the first and second iraqi contains as something that they regret but i think. any of those things have been repeated recently for example the united states military has just taken over the city of. isis used to claim as its capital it was taken by a very very have the aerial bombardment. practically no building is left standing in that city there independent reports of thousands of corpses rotting under the rubble and there is still very very little if any coverage on the american networks doesn't that suggest that the system that you encountered baghdad is still in operation these days i can't talk about that because i haven't been to

syria i can't talk about those reports because. i don't watch the news. when i spend my whole day doing what i'm doing i'm i don't know about you i want to watch a hockey game on t.v. i don't think i've watched. cast in twenty years. but i didn't even watch my own reports because as soon as i finish with my own reports i was on an airplane going to the next war so i can't comment about that i thought that the way in which the press was treated during the second gulf war because i was embedded for two months in baghdad was respectful was honest and was transparent and it was the three hundred sixty degree difference from the first gulf war first gulf war. the press was treated like a bunch of dogs in the alley you've been to numerous war zones but you decided against going to syria or for that matter to libya why is that why didn't you want to go there. make

a calculus. before i decide to go someplace i would like. i'm happy to take a risk and happy to risk can say i'm happy but i will risk my life if i think that the report that i make is going to change something. and that's the sort of sophisticated combinations of things want to have to be able to get to where i want to go i have to be able to operate with some degree of freedom people's minds have to be flexible enough so that if i come back and i say listen this is what i think the truth really is that the listen to me and i need an outlet and i don't have any of those conditions. when i stop working for n.b.c. i began to do documentaries and sort of let's get on the plane the bells ringing over in syria i'm going to be the first person in the front the first person back in those days i could beat anyone in the world sure you're good but i could beat you but documentaries is different and documentaries is a long slow or thoughtful process and and there are only so many places that you

can show them and we basically make one documentary every two years every three years in the case of cuba to be forty five years the conditions and i felt bad you know because in order to take this risk you have to believe that there's something about the way in which you see the world that is important for other people to know otherwise it's insanity to go to these places and you have to have that burning. burn burn inside you so the first couple of times wars happened without me. like you had to tie me to the mast because but i didn't have any place to show it you know you weren't there but they were. a lot of coverage of both the syrian and libyan conflict and it was. very much split along the ideological lines because i could see the reports of my western calling for example from libya i voiced with their own this aims are in the same building working at

you know from the same desk but they would show something totally totally different i mean the reality that i wouldn't even recognize and i'm sure they would say the same things about my reports we are now in the age of propaganda war a supposed truth post-fact do you think you could even adapt to this kind of working environment i did pretty pretty good in egypt so i was in the square in egypt for the revolution. it's pretty good film it played on h.b.o. we didn't win the oscar but we got on the shortlist for the oscar awards and so made a film from i don't know if you appreciate. like my type of way of doing things it was a quintessential film the way in which we do it very well received so. there's the opportunity to still do exist and you know it's also our responsibilities as

reporters to. try and be as honest as possible to not have an agenda. when there's lots of forces pulling us this way and points out what the it's not about having an agenda i think from what i see at least i think many western reporters they come to cuba or they come to syria with the preconceived notion of what that country is and they do their reports from the balconies of the hotel we call them balcony buzzards a little whatever i mean. things to do more things in there they stay the same so you know this and. the first report i ever did for n.b.c. . was the first time i'd ever been in a war zone and i was up in lang's on vietnam the chinese were on the hills shooting at anything that moved and i like a moron i'm walking down the street there with my vietnamese buddies that each church so you know what i did. everybody else runs for cover i

grab the microphone and i do with stand up because that's all it ever. existed and so i said i'm telling them what was obvious i'm here i'm lying son that people are shooting at me and my name is john alpert and i'm working for n.b.c. news i looked at that and i said you know what that's the last stand up on their feet i never i never did another one i was so ashamed of myself because all i was doing was copycatting you know they all wear the same clothes they wear the trench coats in the winter they wear the safari suits and they walk around with briefcases and question what the heck is in their briefcases you know what it is speak up and they spend the whole day waiting for the sun to get into the right position they've got somebody standing there with the tray to reflect them they are there on the balcony well i think so shame on them and here awards to people who go do something different and it's and it's not just american reporters seen the russian reporters i've seen people like this all over the world and there are good reporters from every single country who will get dirty and will

try to understand what the people are doing well. definitely and that i just. a minute left and i want to ask you perhaps a philosophical question but still i think much of the global tensions still centered around those concepts of freedom democracy tyranny development human flourishing and what always strikes me as how differently they are interpreted in different countries what freedom means to an american is very different from what freedom means to a cuban or to a syrian or even to russians for that matter do you think difference is a genuine do you think we will average be able to drive. you know some common understanding of what freedom really. i think it's always good to have differences. but we can't let those differences separate us and what we need to do is. even even though we might look at the world. differently we need to. walk

through the world holding hands and talk to each other about our differences like we're doing here today will be a big you know mindful of being branded as a crime and sympathizer because i think in this day and age even appearing on this network may get you in trouble anybody who knows me knows that i've always been my own person and people have respected me for that that's why they invite me to come back time and time again and that's why this project about the first and last hockey game at the north pole which has been forced by the united nations that's the other well i certainly would together and i'll teach you how to skate you want how to skate well but i'll teach you a well i will definitely try my best but in any case i hold that we can discuss your next project let's say in a year's time in this very studious thank you for being here today i invite our viewers to keep this conversation going on our social media pages as for me hope to see you again same place same time here on worlds apart.

join me every thursday on the alex i'm unsure when i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you.

church secret indeed catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children can get away with it quite literally i like to call this the do graphic solution so what the bishop needs to do then he finds out that the priest is is a perpetrator is simply moves him to a different spot where the previous standard is not the highest ranks of the catholic church help conceal the accused priests from the police and justice so send it out and if that's not going to ask the. lawyer. this. is felt. more.

washington announced his new sanctions against russia over the screwball poisoning case using moscow of using a bottle. denies the claims. to the south of the us senate office to interview the head of wiki leaks some alleged russian meddling in the twenty six thousand election given to songs has recently denied that moscow had anything to do with the election related documents exposed by wiki leaks. on social media giants are accused of silencing debates. but several prominent libertarian conservative think it is. the latest and most of the route through that i would stay with us

now though. oh and welcome to cross talk we're all things considered i'm peter lavelle after three years of conflict it has been estimated that out of a population of twenty seven point four million twenty two point two million people in yemen are in need of humanitarian assistance four point five million children and women are suffering malnutrition while two point nine million people are internally displaced this is a humanitarian catastrophe by any measure so why are the u.s. and u.k. so committed to the saudi war.

crosstalk in the tragedy known as yemen i'm joined by my guest well how many marandi in town he's a professor at the university of tehran in london we have charles shoebridge he is a security analyst. in a former u.k. army and counter terrorism intelligence officer and in brighton we crossed to katherine shocked and she is a senior analyst with the center all right crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want i always appreciated let me go to charles first. this war has been going on for three years i gave some of the stats encourage our viewers to go to doctors without frontiers and look at their side on yemen the much more detailed much more gruesome i would even say what is the u.k. u.s. interest in this war against the country this is the poorest country in the middle east what is the thinking behind british foreign policy supporting saudi

arabia and the emirates against yemen. i suspect on the one hand you've got u.k. and the u.s. saying that some degree and we can come on to that later on their national interests are aligned with saudi arabia particularly against iran of course in yemen elsewhere and again you have to question i'm hoping hopefully later in a post we will do that in more detail as to why the u.k. and u.s. always seem to see their interests as being in conflict with iran in most instances but also there's got to be a aspect of this which is based on commercial interests of course britain and america supply vast amounts of weaponry and other equipment to saudi arabia the relationship with saudi arabia particularly it's not just saudi arabia involved here is one of course other gulf states as well all of which have very lucrative.

commercial contacts with britain and the united states and indeed france and there has been certainly of the last few years a tendency for particularly united kingdom that anything that is saudi arabia supports pretty much britain and america are going to support also we have to remember just really how important this relationship particularly saudi arabia is if we think about trump we think about. other government ministers united states and united kingdom their first port of ports of call when they've been put into office isn't their allies in europe or the states often it's usually going off to see two players both of whom are vitally important to british and particular interest one of those is israel and the other one always saudi arabia and so really i think this war is becoming increasingly and embarrassment not just war but a blockade in everything else that goes with it is becoming embarrassment to western leaders as invariably parts of it creep into media coverage because there's been a little account as yet of the last three creep creep but also if they will they

will continue to support it catherine let me go to you in brighton ok so we've got a little bit of the background the the reason. if we can use that term for the british and the americans so what does fig tree me. for the saudis in the us the genocide i mean what what do they hope to what is the end goal here go ahead. the end goal was basically this iteration of the hat would we have tried to two thousand and eleven when the people decided to to rise up against the then you know regime where the us i would europe that was in control of yemen and yemen's political future as well as economical future and i think that this is what they're trying to do trying to revert back to you know the situation that we had you know preaches other than f. and that is not going to happen because people have learned that they have a right to but it tickles that determination and they understand you know the majority of yemeni on just on that so i would your idea is not that to promote greater yemen or even to promote

a greater future for yemen but rather you know you have yet another country a client state that would remain forever tied up to yemen if i may just very quickly when we talk about you know british and the u.s. siding with saudi arabia because of the fear and the enemy cities that have to would see iran we need to be very careful here to understand that yemen is a proxy only in the eyes of britain and the u.s. because they reason the iranian influence yemen represents your graphically an advantage and it's sitting on very important waterways needed to really and of course because of all routes which is why britain and the us all are interested in yemen in the first place first place it has nothing to do with the fact that you want to have the na in yemen but rather because of the geography and where yemenis is situated in relation to iran and the rest of the gulf countries and i think it's an important point because we need to stop this narrative that iran you know has an interest in trying to promote unrest in yemen that's not the case if anything iran needs stability in the region to be able to itself you know you know stabilize its

own borders and everything else like goes with it i think that's really glad you brought that up because there is a. and determination issue in yemen that is never brought up in the mainstream media and charles already brought up the issue that is always mentioned i'm going to go to mohammed now into rant it's all iran's fault as usual i mean you pick the day of the week it's russia's fault or rand's fault here now i'm willing to agree that iran may have some kind of involvement on some level now but not in two thousand and eleven that was what how this was sold so do you intervention in the first place here but it's always a rand's fold it's a proxy war it's far more than a proxy war as catherine has pointed out go ahead mohammed into around this is one of the excuses that western countries in the western media use in order to justify the crimes being committed by their governments the canadian government american and british and french governments are involved in crimes against humanity and they

are just as guilty as mohamed been solomon and the saudi regime and all this without them he couldn't be carrying out these crimes the americans are providing all sort of source of the just simple support so they need to justify it somehow obviously for anyone to know for who knows anything about what's going on the yemenis do not have the ability to have any meaningful contact with iran there's no way that the iranians can help them in a meaningful way because they're completely surrounded the americans and the saudis and others have laid siege on the country they're preventing food from getting in there and forcing starbase starvation they've been doing this for years now and the western media they call it a proxy war or they try to somehow blame the victims in gaza in order to justify their policies but it's obvious that this country is surrounded the

overwhelming majority of the population is living in the areas controlled by. the law and their allies the popular committees and so on after all these years after over three and a half years with all the internal foreign support american support european support mercenaries from from different countries blackwater and an american and french official military presence on the ground sudanese mercenaries after all you know with all the money that the saudis and their marti's are spending if they cannot capture the capital of the country that shows that it is the will of the people of yemen that prevents them from doing so that shows that the resistance against the saudis and the americans is in the gentleman and popular resistance but that's something that they don't want to see because that makes c.n.n. that makes the new york times the guardian the b.b.c.

all of them run against their own government if they point these out that humiliates their own government position charles i have noticed that what scant coverage there is on the cable stations the iran card is always almost always played for so ok and there is not the not there isn't a willingness to admit that are serious war crimes are being committed and i'd like to point out the the who these also have been accused of that in all fairness but this is a very tragic conflict. again you know what is the endgame here because i mean what just reading the stats i mean this is a country a humanitarian situation that is winding down very whiny out of control in a very serious way i mean cholera i mean something that is virtually wiped out in the world this come back when there benjamin's there and there seems to be no out

cry whatsoever.