president putin says russia is ready to respond to threats with its new hypersonic missile system while stressing it's a purely defensive weapon his statement prompted a swift reaction. threatening to retaliate by targeting western capitals with his own new weapons but a confrontational step quite a confrontational speech to russia is not. actions in the. nature of. a democrat controlled committee questions u.s. ties with saudi arabia. washington's ready to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to riyadh. chancellor publicly defies donald trump on the.

project with russia the talks in the white house. great to have you with us one of them here in the russian capital this is. the limit putin has warned that moscow is ready to target perceived threats with its latest hypersonic missile although the russian president stressed the new weapon would only be used in self-defense. threatened to retaliate by targeting western capitals with his own new weapons lattimer putin threatening to target the united states with its new generation of hypersonic missiles if the us bases intermediate range missiles in europe for quite a confrontational step quite a confrontational speech by the russian president during his annual state of the nation address president putin announced the new hypersonic cruise missile that can

be deployed from both land and sea land to go testing later this year is done of explains. another day another excuse to panic for the mainstream media for them for the second year in a row of the flavor of lattimer putin's state of the nation address is faster. deadly are you sure. you another room vonzell product does work on which you don't go in and you'll certainly be completed on schedule namely i would like to talk about the hypersonic missile good i'm going to do and that's a big enough trigger to get everything from the tabloids to serious outlets hitting repeat the concerns are not entirely unreasonable though the zircon mess is set to become a force to reckon with it's a silent assassin covering three kilometers in one second means zircon travels

nine times faster than the speed of sound the target literally won't hear it coming there's no hiding from it either it can hit both the ground and see targets within a range of a thousand kilometers it can be launched from either submarines or from military ships it is out of the books ready to use with the launch pads already in service yet the intimidating tech specs and to a bigger extent even the click bait headlines are obscuring the fundamental thing about the new weapon russia hopes it will rust away and. all apart and not a single shot will be fired huge and the word when you lonely it was a decision called russia the biggest threat to the u.s. around with but i can tell you that russia wants to have an equal and friendly relationship with the united states russia is not threatening anyone at all our actions in the senate you would usually have done soley as a response and so they are of a defense nature but i need to look at it moscow says it won't throw the first

punch it only ever wants the missiles to be used as blanks during military drills but it's better safe than sorry. the construction of the north stream to gas pipeline from russia to europe is again in the spotlight russian foreign minister sergey lavrov has called on the european energy firms to resist u.s. pressure to block the project last month washington's envoy to berlin urged the you companies to stop building the pipeline. new was more than a torturous it is impossible to specify restrictive measures it will always hit ordinary people like in syria iran and north korea and therefore it's necessary to stop imposing sanctions altogether the european union has been infected by the virus of us impunity. the subject of north stream to source a race through an ostrich chancellor the president trumpet the white house it was the first such state visit by an austrian leader for thirteen years the pair there

didn't exactly see eye to eye peter oliver has more. the austrian chancellor has given his continued backing for the nord stream to gas pipeline project despite clear objections from the united states sebastian kurtz was speaking after meeting with donald trump at the white house president trump has clearly said that the united states is against this project buying gas from the united states would not be a problem for us but as long as russia's price is better of matter the united states russia is more attractive for us as upon on this issue i believe that as a former businessman trump can understand that we have different interests here the united states pretty much hates the north stream to gas line project and doesn't care who knows it in fact they've got as far as to put pressure on e.u. nations and on companies belonging to european countries saying that there could be potential sanctions put on them if they continue to associate with the pipeline the u.s. argument is that north stream to leave the e.u.

energy infrastructure overly reliant on russian gas and that that could potentially be used as a political tool by moscow well that prompted the u.s. ambassador here in germany richard grinnell to send out letters at the beginning of the year to german companies involved in the project saying that there was a significant risk of sanctions should they continue their involvement a month later the ambassador was again talking about nord stream to this time he said that germany should use the project to leverage against moscow a sentiment that was well picked upon and repeated by the u.s. vice president mike pence in munich just last weekend and the united states commands all our european partners who have taken a strong stand against north stream to. and we commend others to do the same for the austrian chancellor went on to say that from his meeting with trump it was clear to him that the united states is particularly unhappy with germany over this issue however but has shown absolutely no sign of being willing to tear. up and

damage its relationship with russia over the pipeline the flag of the i think no one wants to be unilaterally dependent on russia but will receive russian gas not only the d.d.r. where i live but i assume west germany during the cold and they don't see why the times today should be so much verse that we can no longer see russia remains a partner whatever the feelings of the united states the gas is stet to start flowing later this year when north stream too is fully operational it will be sending an extra fifty five billion cubic meters of russian gas every single year under the baltic sea directly into germany. i garmo who runs a german language newsletter on economics police that the us wants to reduce europe's options when it comes to gas trade. the project is already so it is only beneficial for europe and not only for germany and for

everybody. and it don't need then we unite. america oh yes it's just me we have more of that this is exactly where once you want to get rid of there is no other possibility then i guess from us. the u.s. house of representatives has released a report indicating the white house may be planning to transfer sensitive nuclear power technology to saudi arabia that's in contrast to washington's long running efforts to block iran's nuclear program a democratic committee has now launched an investigation. within the united states strong private commercial interests have been pressing aggressively for the transfer of highly sensitive nuclear technology to saudi arabia a potential risk to u.s. national security absent adequate safeguards these commercial entities stand to

reap billions of dollars through contracts associated with constructing and operating nuclear facilities in saudi arabia the report raises concerns over potential or violations of the u.s. nuclear nonproliferation act and accuses the trumpet ministration of bypassing congress on the issue and lawmakers warn the moves could destabilize the middle east and amber of trump administration officials are said to be directly involved in planning the deal the i p three nuclear energy corporation that took part in negotiations defended the transfer of nuclear information to riyadh claiming it would help counter russia and china saudi arabia's refusal to rule out uranium enrichment which could lead to nuclear weapons a spot fears of transferring technology and foreign minister javad zarif immediately condemned the leak new school in the u.s. move hypocrisy that accommodate a lou rockwell suspects the white house as iran in its sights if it really is

funneling nuclear tech to the saudis. they wait day it becomes clearer to the world what was always clear to us neither human rights nor a nuclear program have been the real concern of the us first a dismembered journalist now illicit sale of nuclear technology to saudi arabia fully exposed us he procrustes the idea that they would arm mohamed meant zalman with nuclear weapons just strikes me as something out of a science fiction movie it's like dr strangelove it's very alarming it's a terrible thing to spread this kind of technology and this is all part of the the . plan to destroy iran and they they hate iran iran is not promoting terrorism iran is not all the things they say it is it's a peaceful country it's got a very small military and out of date military and they're not a threat to anybody it's this is really

a horrendous thing and i'm so glad that whistleblowers in the white house gave this information to congress. us and to just see some of that has been arrested after claims that the station attack on himself authorities in chicago challenged him for filing a false police report claiming he did it to boost his career and i'm open expanse. well just the small lat is an african-american actor he is openly gay he appears on the popular television program called empire and he claims he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack however he has now been arrested on full loading us disorderly conduct charges they say that he staged the incident and filed a false police report there was quite an emotional response from the police officers who say that essentially he staged the incident in order to try and increase his salary as an actor let's see some of what the police are saying why

would anyone is specially an african-american man use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations. how could someone look at the hatred and suffering associated with as i'm going and see an opportunity to manipulate this symbol to further his own public profile. how can an individual who has been embraced by the city of chicago turn around the slap everyone in this city in the face by making these phones charge claims the report was filed on january twenty ninth smell that claimed that there were two men who grabbed him they poured bleach on him they put a noose around his neck and shouted racial and homophobic slurs at him and also told him quote this is maggie country being short for make america great again the donald trump slogan the police afterwards arrested two individuals who are

identified with the closed circuit t.v. surveillance video and that those individuals were released now in the initial aftermath of the incident there was a huge outpouring of support for jessie small at all across the social media was on many people speaking up including many celebrities this is some of what was said in the aftermath of the incident we have a media that's. saying it's a debate whether or not what just happened in just the small it is a hate crime it's absurd. isn't it higher how you think this is how you have to be fired else impossible to not feel this way right now president and the vice president mike pence who like wishes i couldn't be married let's just be clear heartbroken and furious reading about the attack on juicy small ads i want trump and all my good lunatics to burn in how homophobia existed before trump but there's no question that since he's injected his hatred into the american bloodstream we are less decent less human and less loving no intolerance no d.t.

at this point we're seeing many statements on social media of individuals essentially arguing that even though the incident appears to have been staged it is still important and it was still an important part of the conversation and they don't seem to have outrage and they're still supporting small lead now in the aftermath of the incident we saw many people directly blaming the trumpet administration for the incident linking it to donald trump however now that the facts seem to have come out now that small that has been arrested we're seeing many people are retracting their statements and so quite a bit of confusion will be following up on what happens next in this case but it at this point you know the indication and the charge of the police seems to be that this hate crime was not really one that took place this this did not happen according to what the police are saying so we'll be following up with more

information and president tom's also weighed in tweeting that some left insulted millions in the my good movement with these dangerous commons meanwhile mike has been in the news for another story over the student involved in a standoff with a native veteran that went viral last month the students now filed a lawsuit against the washington post for two hundred fifty million dollars claiming it failed to put the video in context. the posting gays in the modern day form of mccarthyism by competing with c.n.n. and n.b.c. among others to claim leadership of the mainstream and social media mob of bullies which attacked vilified and threatened nicholas soundman an innocent secondary school child the post ignored basic journalistic standards because it wanted to advance is well known and easily documented biased agenda against president donald j. trump by impugning individuals perceived to be supporters of the president or spokesperson for the washington post the company's looking into the lawsuit and is ready to

mount a vigorous defense lawyers for the family of sent dozens of letters to celebrities a media companies urging recipients to preserve records related to the incident right after the original video went viral many public figures weighed in. name these kids i want to shame them if you think these wooden dogs you in a heartbeat think again. i blame would poison me. i parents you know me i blame. what a little. students from kentucky boy covington catholic high school were instructed to meet on the stairs of the lincoln memorial a few yards away where five black men who identified as hebrew israel lights after nearly an hour of enduring the verbal attack the boys asked the chaperone if they could perform one of their pep rally chance to drown out the hate group which attracted the attention of a group of native americans mr phillips began moving to his right down

a line of boys eventually stopping face to face with nick sandman. legal media analyst lionel thinks that stories like these reveal a worrying trend in the way the u.s. media works. this is the most amazing case as you can tell by my excitement and effervescence aside from being one of the most hilarious cases of idiocy and sadness it's a wonderful of kind of a sense of story line on the mainstream media how they don't let the facts get in the way of a story our mainstream media will create something where they have done something or not if you do something in your lie we overlook it if you don't do anything they all lie and create a situation even though you've done nothing they are in such desperate straits states right now to be relevant we have newsrooms that are being shuttered we have budgets that are cut we've got right now this multiplicity of entertainment

platforms so for them to remain viable they've got to get in your face even if it means destroying lives getting the facts wrong because the world wars it doesn't matter as long as you pay attention to them however you do it they're happy it's about a narrative the facts and the truth have nothing to do with it. president trumper said he welcomes foreign competition in developing five g. wireless networks that spawned intense efforts by washington to force out the market leader china as well way. i want five g. and even six g. technology in the united states the soon as possible is for more powerful more stone and smarter than the current standard. i want the united states to win through competition not by block you know it's currently more advanced technologies the united states has also been very clear with our security partners on the threat

posed by. another chinese telecom companies as chinese law requires them to provide beijing's vast security apparatus with access to any data that touches their network quitman. we must protect our critical telecom infrastructure the chinese tech giant rejects u.s. claims that its products are used by beijing for spying in december was always chief financial officer was arrested in canada on the request of washington the white house also urging international allies to ban while away from their five g. networks australia new zealand have already brought in restrictions against the firm but a growing chorus of countries including france and the u.k. are challenging the u.s. on its warning there must be sustainable diversity in the supplier market. should the supplier market consolidate to such an extent that there are only a tiny number of viable options that will not make for good cyber security whether

those options are western chinese or from anywhere else. let's bring in jeffrey albert talking now he's the editorial director of the american institute for economic research good to have you on jeffrey. going to be fair competition is don't trump claims he wants if the u.s. is blocking its thought rival. no and that's exactly what's going on and i'm really glad to hear that trials for five hundred sixty seven g. i mean this is that maybe that ten g. man you know that's next that it but this is actually good news this treat this one it was actually a decent thing to hear because i don't know it suggests maybe the u.s. is going to lighten up a little bit on its appalling outrageous discussed and attack and why way and this is been going on now for what about six months now completely and just totally outrageous and has no way to win the tech wars through through violence and so on

this is utterly absurd so and i think maybe the tweet this morning suggests that at least the latest person down from talk to made some sense to him so just to clarify i mean the claim from the u.s. is that you know the chinese companies a security threat and they are using funds to spy you don't agree with that and if not why is washington doing this well you know sometimes these are gray areas what is what is surveillance and what is just a legitimate market driven data sham but i take one thing i know for sure the u.s. spies that much we know absolutely for sure we have all the record of snowden we have in less amounts of evidence that the u.s. is certainly one of the greatest spy states in the world so you talk about not having credibility to complain about about spying i mean then what's really happening here is that up to now the u.s. is just panicked about the technological advancements of china i mean what's really

been happening over the last ten years is the u.s. has in fact fallen behind many parts of the rest of the world technologically and the attack on while away is just an evidence of a kind of a panic but regardless it's not going to work so it would be nice to see trump lighten up a little bit there think it's interesting that this tree comes at the same time as . you know a little bit of reduced pressure on the u.s. trying to trade talks it's very possible we're going to see we're going to see an agreement you know be a yogo trump star going after china guns a blazing guns a blazing as we say but it's not worked and. the financial markets have suffered supply chance of them been disrupted american companies are not roaring back but rather facing higher costs for their products and i think it's possible that trump

is finally just eating a little bit of humble pie for once and i think it's a good thing if what we can be able to security threat should we be saying the same about the likes of google and facebook and they just as dangerous. where you know everybody i know was smart is talking about this issue and there are many great a gray area is where the where the data sharing is been a socially beneficial and where it gets a little bit creepy. and i think the markets are still sorting this out m.m. glad to see the markets over the last year really began to punish companies like apple when they have bugs that you know are really surveilling others without their permission and that sort of thing i think ultimately it's going to work out my much greater concern is that really apple and google it's actually the n.s.a. and the cia and the state department these are these are the surveillance agencies that concern me far more than the private companies jeffrey appreciate it and

thanks for coming up jeffrey albert tucker and i guess the editorial director of the american institute for economic basis. more than a year since the catalan independence referendum plunged spain into crisis and led to madrid imposing direct rule on the region protesters have once again taken to the streets. i was i i. was thousands rallied in barcelona and across catalonia to protest the ongoing trial of catalan leaders in madrid the region's former vice president and former interior minister among a dozen key figures facing charges over their involvement in the twenty seventeen independence referendum twenty eight people were injured as demonstrators with banners and independence movement flags were confronted by riot police in the biggest rally so far this. spring political analyst georgia

ground para very good evening see jordan is back in the news the catalan independence movement twelve leaders are now on trial in madrid for charges that include rebellion sedition misuse of public funds they do deny the charges they say that this is all politically motivated what's your opinion. well it's clearly politically motivated of course these two crimes are accused of sedition and rebellion have nothing to do with what happened in october two thousand and seventeen recall that these two crimes involve the use of violence to attain political goals is never happening at their own everyone saw it on t.v. the only violence came from the failed attempt of these spanish state to stop people from voting the neils of that they were not the depletes were beating the people or nor that the people were beating the plate but that the police voted

nevertheless so this is just an act of revenge from despond he stayed because the lost control of a situation because of course in contemporary europe even people want to want to exercise their right to start their mission nothing can stop it and that's what happened if some or all of the twelve are convicted and sentenced let's say they're in prison what kind of reaction do you think this could provoke. well it's difficult to know. everything seems to suggest that they will be sentenced because the sentences been written before the trial began the trial is just an act of just if occasion and a travesty of justice. if today's demonstrations are an indication of anything is that people will demonstrate but we all know that demonstrations are useless in themselves demonstrations must become something political political leaders in

catalonia must go beyond what they did in october seventeenth because they expected the spiny state to see down in a table of negotiation and dialogue this never happened and was never going to happen so if the catalan people ones to mature into a more effective way of attaining their goals they should move on from demonstrations and build upon them a political strategy and can lead them to emancipation now thursday's rally included a general strike there were unions of pro independence workers and students who are calling for thirty five hour week minimum wage involved is this now what we're saying the people on the streets is it less about independence or a people kind of maybe moving away from that thinking is unrealistic do they just want to a better standard of life. well every time that there is a demonstration or a strike everyone tries to align the central claim of the demonstration or the

strike two different issues that's normal but today's demonstrations where a against a trial that is clearly fake it's a fake trial and in favor of something and that's something these independent independent is not only a way to regain dignity and political control over one's lives independence is always also a way to find a better life and i think that the syndicates that we all know that they the fan workers' rights are trying to tell us that independence is a way to attain some of their rights that this money state denies them but for sure other people were just demonstrating were doing strike just because they won the right to start their mission they won independence and that was pretty clear on the streets today and here and it's also political analyst jordan graham perrett many

thanks judy. thank you very much for having me. britain's biggest weapons contract to be a systems as war germany's ban on arms sales to saudi arabia could impact a key contract the company looks after the gulf kingdom's fleet of fighter jets which deployed in riyadh's bombing campaign in yemen. in this context the position an expert licensing currently ducted by the german government may affect the group's ability to provide the required capability to the kingdom be a east systems is working closely with the government to minimize the risk of freeney such occurrence and the impact it would have in financial performance the supply chain and relationships being a systems are several contracts with saudi arabia covering is here a fight a typhoon and tornado fighter jets the planes feature parts made in germany and therefore fall under the ban imposed by berlin on wednesday the german government said its freeze on arms sales to the saudis would stay in place the ban was introduced in november following the murder of the saudi journalist or marcus in

the visit to berlin the british foreign secretary jeremy hunt trying to persuade his german counterpart to lift the ban but failed when i talked to a hiker moss what i say is that the strategic relationship that the u.k. has with saudi arabia is what allows us to have a huge influence in bringing about peace in yemen in fact i would go as far as to say that without that strategic relationship. it wouldn't be impossible to proceed with the stockholm agreement which is the first ray of hope although others were extremely important in making that happen as well we hope to remember this week you'll miss the the position of the german government is that we're not currently delivering weapons to saudi arabia and future decisions on this will depend on developments in the yemen conflict. however the british government is still trying to persuade germany to change its mind westminster has extremely close ties to the british arms maker holding more than a thousand.