and are not allowed to leave so you know there are victims for example one not left that house in over a year and i only said we get will slot in the door and the movements are controlled and they are just forced to work without payment. to grow marijuana. or of those are for me i'll be back in thirty minutes with more news stay with us and. was.

i'm after a time when you're watching going underground while we're away we're screening some of your favorite episodes of this season coming up on this show will climate change mean the complete destruction of this country within eighty years we talked with former leader ahmed 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 fashion i go on vivienne westwood goes to downing street as you get minority government he did tourism 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 machined in and president abdoulaye i mean out at elections this autumn well joining me now is the maldives former president mohamed 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 well go 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 there's a 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 the maldives on their side so this is where a 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 night of february seventh was of 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 clashes machine that's not it who's currently trying to get back. 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 sits so that is wanting him today because he is now under a sentence for having abducted serving judge. 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 over the whole history of islam militia group called all that over over centuries the the critical conflict between judiciary and

the executive yes we've got a new constitution in two thousand. yes for the first time in maldives 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 you know without a basis in the practice of politics in the motives of the 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 palm tree system so there was you know inconsistent and so you know you have a country where the president was all powerful and so on 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 in the head of 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 there already there are 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

a very very rich country 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 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 motives 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 the 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 term and the situation motives was quite difficult at the time and also to local leaders and i just said at the point good a londoner to washington and say i'll do whatever you tell me and maybe they can 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 tried to manage as best as i can and then we had elections

the difficult elections but never this. it was. free and fair election day they 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 is 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 had the gun it is 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 a 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 going on to the opposition they were coming out on the on the streets and the religious element for the inflated it and

in december of i think it was one 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 p.r. firms tourism so important in the mall 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 a government of national unity i invited all the people all the political parties to come of all the people from is why pick on as a whole 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 him in google. because

guys 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 tiny bank was done by. himself i mean the infrastructure project actually rather than the law yeah the lawn 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 more and more money from this government actually took money for them because i'm not criticizing you for doing really i'm just saying i can't imagine what we're doing in whitehall here in washington but it is the little brussels i don't say that is what 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 ations of people in a democratic society newly 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 it is misleading and i think you know motives economy strong motives 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 developing world nation leader today especially in the indian ocean let alone in it could be of course in the red sea or web so 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 and thailand the other side you know i mean we wish you both india and china were able to you know resolve their differences and not have small countries

like motives get caught in between you know i it's very difficult for small countries not just the maldives but also for other developing and small countries in east asia and africa but you know we need the 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 you know expectations have suddenly gone up you know the constitution that you have you are in ties to the 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. more from former president mohammad wahid son after the break. 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. underground. labor participation rate. this goes against all the doom mongers for the election. and of course nobody wants. their conspiracy. welcome back we're still with the former president of the leaves. mother with the why mr rashid 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 is just 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 ordered severely you know as a politician 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 is. below sea level but it has a room around it. that protects the ocean from coming into the country that is eroding now and just last month they had major flooding and they have two of three freshwater bodies on the island they're all going contaminated now because of this so motives is threatened absolutely and it's not a long term trends because some have suspected that there this is with

a desire for aid in that actually some islands 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 creasing solar and so on whereas in washington resident 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 accord 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 block you think to an extent it suits the european union and 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 so nobody 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 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 the 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 but because it fosters climate change i hope not because you know the private sector in the u.s. is not going along with a strong president trumps 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 key role to play especially. you know technologically the united states is able to contribute much enormously to. new. technologies and 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 hundred islands 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 it is very much self regulated now we have a labor council for labor affairs which which listens to complaints that come from . really. yes yes you can i mean they have the power to visit any resort and see to. yeah unfortunately because of the geography many of our workers have to

stay away from their families their families and their inhabited islands but 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. but still the pay is so good in the resorts most of them prefer to walk in results of a normal going to fishing or 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. factor coalition governments

hypocritical policies on fracking and plastics. then westra joe corey thanks for agreeing to this interview outside the house of the prime minister theresa may you got into downing street this time around last time there were problems what have you to do today while we're here on world environment. to deliver some important reports to the reason my. reports about any office any of us has the most fracking license is all paid licenses issued by the government. seeks to become the biggest trucking company in the u.k. they're 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 power their plants that makes plastics and turn the east into excellent to make poly isolation which is plastic. and we're here on world environment because the united nations to does in fact. again. you know put up the warning flank about the amount of toxic plastic waste that is infesting and oceans in our environment last week all the media was something right on the spot light of that why only yesterday recognised by the government what we're asking to raise it today is ham over the last five six years we've been sold this idea that we need fracking for energy security is making millions of tonnes of more polluting plastics helping our energy security this is

about making millions of tough. polluting disposable plastic and we were asking the government why you can't do that and finally say saints see the writing on the wall and stop this madness it's crazy living you hear the writing on the wall is this government is an agent for this mom's home is. giving them the right to frack for plastic i mean they're an agent of pollution given 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 amfi fracking has risen to about eighty percent is the gas spec difficult to calculate our government is empty paint poll that's what i'm saying it's not it's pro rob a

sure monsters and it's empty paypal any of us didn't get back to us in time for the specific allegations made here what is now happening about injunctions and law against protests against this industry the fracking industry alone plastics i mean any of us. have been gaming the british legal system in order to tying this injunction and their injunction that they. brought in a secret court hearing where no one was able to go and represent. no one was able to put a different point of view they were managed to time through the chance to recall the business call that a not specialist in human rights issue is one of the reasons why in your sim i believe took a case to the to the chancery division. they convince the

judge to effectively give them the most draconian interim injunction in british legal history. one of the reasons why it's so true canyon is because it's against persons are not now what that means effectively is it's against everything it's against the whole world these injunctions normally are used for as blood 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 this injunction. they have areas that cover millions of square of country so that if they give you steps on their courage to die even though there's no fence around it there's no signs in 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 the same 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 the tradition of facing imprisonment or no now has anybody supposed to be aware of it so these these these injunctions a fundamentally problematic with human rights that for example in chapters ten and eleven of the human rights allow you to sit down in the road and make a profit from this you as long as you want to if you feel that some place that you need to make yourself that is the price that we all pay for having human rights and having a democratic society and vivian to julian of course on drug treated tension in west london of the ecuadorian embassy as determined by the united nations you could or in foreign minister now 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 internet connectivity and indeed some would argue he's calling. to reach the outside world over for this 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 flouts saying public justice throughout the world and it's called rule of law and it's the british government to practice mis rule of law they have no legal reason what so ever to keep in there there's nothing the three stone that they complete in there with they keep inventing things 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 of america want him extradited and they don't want to deal with that you know they don't want to say all america you're our best friend but we don't want to extradite him do you mind no they don't want to do that they don't want to be in that position you know so i think that's what's going on and i'm going to get him out of there with this move through all of law i for the law means i for miss rule of law and not for the law and not help get you in the sound there i'm going to give free so why i'm going to get a pop group to start singing are for the law they already did you know public opinions got to be a against miss rule of law even restaurants joke or

a thank you you thank. what are your favorite shows from this season will continue to show your favorite episodes and. season but we'll see the fifth of september. but social media. camera. roughly once the show and some leave for them. to. cool videos and so on with the broken eastern. t.v. . presidency

appears to be on shaky ground after two former associates are found guilty of numerous federal crimes but the u.s. leader is pains to point out that the special counsel probe which led to the conviction is yet to throw up any evidence that his campaign team colluded with russia. where is the coalition you know they're still looking for closure where is the closure find the. french interior ministry admits that a terror suspect involved in planning an attack in two thousand and fourteen was freed by. a bureaucratic failure. of a british policeman striking a teenage girl in the face.