italy unsettles its allies by indicating it will endorse beijing's ambitious belton road initiative which is widely seen in the west as a vehicle for chinese power projection. a new poll finds that men in the u.s. now less concerned about sexual harassment in the workplace than they were the height of the need to come we ask what's changed. the rules have changed and we're not playing that game anymore and that's what's happening then are getting caught and they want to go back to how things used to be real accept our categorizing our castigating as one whole massive violent group. ethnic tensions flare in russia's far east and city of the court square the central asian migrants fearing for their safety after the rape of a local woman is blamed on

a man from. thanks for tuning in to watch the international few news this hour on call in brian moscow thursday nights at eight am in the russian capital it's six pm in italy that's where we're starting this evening concerns growing in western capitals over italy's apparent intention to sign up to china's belt and road initiative a bold one trillion dollar infrastructure projects and twenty first century re-imagining the silk road president xi jinping is currently in italy to discuss the details of a possible deal his r.t.s. made in a culture of the bad boy or the godfather of euro skepticism it's really it's once again tough thing relations with the e.u. with ro now pushing to join china's road and balance in this is if it's reportedly setting off alarm bells in brussels and getting backs up in washington to. italy's

a major global economy and great investment destination no need for italian government to lend legitimacy to china's infrastructure vanity project. and dosing boat initiative lends legitimacy to china's predatory approach to investments a moving no benefits the italian people it's really could become the first member of the so-called group of seven the most powerful nations to join trying this ambitious plan to boost connectivity between asia europe and africa. local businesses will likely view the project as the positive but the major ports being referred to an investment into the millions of dollars it's got the italian press already speculating over a once forgotten port becoming trying as the gateway to europe the pool to treat us

to is returning to the logistical world for europe that had for the old austria-hungary an empire business opportunity as the site of the italian prime minister will be forced to explain his decision. of the belton road memorandum between italy and china is primarily economic and commercial it does not put into question our european atlantic position it does not put our national interests at risk and it is on the same page as european strategy his cabinet alcoves those words saying that the deal would be non-binding and would just represents the initial framework everything to calm their european partners who have labeled species in a systemic rival especially allies on the other side of the atlantic it's called one bill one road it's global and if you look at the spots where there are who are there there are a gauging in you see some geo political and military aspects we will not allow china to develop its so-called road strategy even trying as cutesy promos have been

helped change americans' minds of the good. breaking barriers when making history. after it see the chinese leader is planning his next stop in paris but here the expectations of talks are not as promising italian historian paolo bernadine he told us he believes rome should be free to pursue its interests and bolster ties with china while i think peter is going to achieve a lot i mean when you go. back to a large part of the problem i mean that we. export that relation which i not a lot all the major states and you. think. you. are

in the relations. we are starting or now are well now or the nation we are trying is unique and i think it's a positive thing. you know the united states. that. made you can't win the war and must. think. on the walk to. the center. and say. american men are apparently less convinced now that sexual harassment in the workplace is such a big issue as compared to twenty seventeen when the me too movement started a survey by gallup found that fifty three percent of men see workplace harassment as a problem but that's down from sixty six percent when the me too movement exploded after a series of sexual assault allegations against powerful men however it does appear

people today are more aware of the issue and gallup suggested that the way the story's been covered in the media may have altered men's attitude. during that time a torrent of sexual misconduct allegations have been leveled against well known men and widely covered in the media this preponderance of news coverage may have put men on the defensive. we discussed it here on our team phone division over whether me too is proving helpful has been politically hijacked. what they said in their in their study was simply that there is a discrepancy between men who are democratic as well as men who are republican and it seems as though that drop is more heavy leaning towards the republican man maybe it has something to do with the hearing on brett kavanaugh i think that a lot of men right now are a little concerned that this situation could happen to them and it's got them woman deep in the cavanagh hearings brought to light how false accusations

going back years and years that have zero evidence can actually be used against someone later in their career and i think we've seen so many false accusations that many americans especially constitution loving americans fear rightly so perhaps that due process could be undermined if it's a if it's a she said it and we have to believe it scenario dating back to when women first entered the workplace the forty two fifty s. and sixty's the seventy's there have been women who have not said a word why because the culture and the temperature in the climate was never an acceptable place and time for them to present their issues and so the old boys club or old boys network was allowed to function in this in this way were four million were able to do what they wanted to do and women weren't respected in the workplace

and they were able to take advantage of women the rules have changed and we're not playing that game anymore and that's what's happening men are getting caught and they want to go back to hell things used to be and so they don't want to acknowledge the fact that. sexual harassment is still a very pervasive issue and since twenty seventeen. the gross platitudes that your guest is using i take i take real exception with categorizing our castigating men as a one whole massive violent group while casting women as some sort of one whole massive group of victims that is just not true there is a gradient that are not at all where idea really having a rational or things placement if we're going to have if we're going to have a rational conversation you hunter i read me we're having a congress that are bad and yes some women have made false and yes some because you were going on but yes some women have made false accusations it is an absolute provable fact and so until you're ready to have

a conversation like that we're going to be caught up in all the same hypocrisy that many on the side of the me too movement that has become so radicalized that they think all men are evil and all women are victims my life experience has taught me that when you speak in black and white like that you make a big mistake and it's been its bigotry frankly to talk that way about men or about women. racial tensions flared in the far eastern russian city of your could go after a man from coca stands accused of kidnapping and raping a local woman it's led to a wave of violent reprisals against migrants from central asia leaving the community feeling d.p.m. easy. work. but. this is the reality for central asian immigrants in the far eastern russian city of you could see they've coexisted with locals for years peacefully but they say they no longer feel welcome so did i might

not get that we sure could use you but you must. it's more than you could you could do worse worse route and while they don't want to leave their lives and little businesses they have behind they're scared to stay because they came here and threatened us with a gun they said shut everything down and go home and that's it you won't live here anymore xenophobic sentiment surged in this a beary and city after a local woman was abducted and raped the media outed a migrant from kyrgyzstan as the key suspect and the city snaps sporadic protests violent attacks and an attempt at storming a mosque many now want the whole day asper to make amends for the crime of a few individuals the local authorities while saying the crime has no nationality also said exactly what the morgue wanted to hear the guest insulting the host in

his house is no longer a guest but an enemy. we are in our homeland in our city we're the masters of our land and we need to make sure everyone understands that. officials have also promised to hunt down and deport everyone who's moved into the city illegally they've called on people not to take matters into their own hands the police have been detaining those delivering mob justice and charging them with administrative offenses also to quell the hatred law enforcement have published official statistics showing that out of almost three hundred cases of rape in the region last year only four were committed by foreigners the key demand now is that are we quick and transparent investigation and members of the migrant community support this call for justice to the rapist must be brought into the street and punished publicly so that others never do the same but the damage has been done already and

there's no obvious way of defusing tensions at this point most immigrants still choose to keep their shops cafes and market stalls shut in fact dozens of city buses stayed in their depos following the riots immigrant drivers were too afraid to show up for work for them it's better to lose some money rather than their lives . a school bus driver has been arrested near milan in italy after he hijacked and set fire to his own vehicle with fifty one children on board the drivers being quoted as shouting no one will survive police managed to smash the windows at the back of the vehicle and pull the students to safety before the bus was engulfed in flames no one was badly hurt but around a dozen youngsters were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation or bruising and some appeared to be tied up at the time of the rescue it's thought the suspect was acting in revenge for the deaths of migrants and see on route to italy. but in this school the suspect made no reference to i still want to propagandize in favor of

islam he said it was his personal choice because he couldn't bear to see children torn by sharks and drowned pregnant women. the dr has been identified as a forty seven year old man of senegalese origin in two thousand and four he received italian citizenship he was already known to police over previous convictions for drink driving and sexual misconduct and one of the people on the bus told reporters that the suspect had lost his three children after they drowned in the mediterranean sea or trying to reach italy but that's not been verified nearly twenty three hundred migrants trying to reach european shores died or went missing in the mediterranean last year alone according to un estimates for many italy's been and still is the first destination of choice even despite the current government pushing hard to prevent an influx of refugees arriving by closing ports to rescue ships former u.k. counter-terror chris phillips told us the screening process for the suspects employment and clearly failed. really important an incumbent upon all businesses to make sure that they're there they're dealing and they know who they're dealing with

i mean this guy already appears has a background in crime and also convictions so should he have been driving children in the first place but but this is a big problem because of course these people that want to do harm can come out of the blue and something like this could have been so much worse of course terrorism usually means of. politicians and of politicians and the people to change the laws now of course you could say that what he's trying to do is bring bring the focus of this attack through what's happening on the seas of the mediterranean but of course it does appear that he alone actor someone that already got a bit of a checkered past and as most done this horrendous act to these children. just over a week left until it was supposed to happen the british pm is in brussels requesting more time and he might not get as long as she wants a lot more on that for you after the break.

loven the wealthy in america decided we're up playing anymore we're going to just grab as much as we can of the cash out there in the system and put it off shore and that's why there's not twenty two trillion offshore and so there you battle of credit in the system shrunk the central bank instead of punishing the banks just flooded the system with more of the fia money and then those who are the paranoid

have yachts versus the have nots decided you know we're going to put that more offshore so they just keep trying to and shipping it off shore and it's completely bypassing the economy and so the economy is getting more starved for credit and the people are getting more restless. welcome back ukraine's general prosecutor has claimed that the u.s. embassy in kiev provided him with a list of untouchable people in the country after his appointment in the spring of twenty sixteen allegations the u.s. a firm he denies. unfortunately from the first meeting with the u.s. ambassador in key of your vantage give me a list of people whom we should not brush the cute my response of that is that is inadmissible nobody in this country neither our president nor our parliament nor our ambassador will stop me from prosecuting whether there is a crime the statements of the prosecutor general of ukraine are not true and are

intended to weaken the reputation of embassador you have an overreach such attacks deep in our determination to help ukraine achieve victory in the fight against corruption the u.s. state department back there ambassador in cabs saying no support is currently being given to you kanes ukraine's prosecutor office however it did admit supporting reforms in the wake of the twenty fourteen revolution in ukraine and with me now is journalist and a political commentator martin somers hi there martin i think it might be a bit of a delay on the line between bristol and moscow but we'll try all the say it's an allegation for now but as far as you're aware in covering these kind of things over the years are untouchable lists common when establishing ties between two nations. well there's obviously a difference between what's being said on both sides here the americans are denying it and the prosecutor is standing by his story i think independent people can make up their own mind who they think may or may not be lying here and also there's

going to be questions about what motivations the might be on both sides don't forget the. presidential election coming up in ukraine and. poland entry election in october and therefore the mark be some pressure on the ukrainian side to start with independence from you know outside forces are now on the other hand the americans may very well have made such threats as it were to the prosecutor because they've got their their own process js that they're looking after and i think the whole murky affair suggests how murky and opaque ukrainian politics actually is and how difficult it is to assess what's happening and as far as you're aware there is any proof been put forward here of u.s. involvement in ukraine's legal sector other than words. well we know that the the u.s. has played a big role in the creation of the new regime in kiev going back to twenty fourteen and the sniper attacks in the my done square and all the rest of it i mean that's

why the presidential election is coming up now because it's five years since those events and you know that the u.s. has hardly made a secret of its goals in ukraine so in a sense it's not unlikely that such things once have been said and done to get the u.s. ambassadors of political appointees they're not professional ambassadors like british ambassador's or russian ambassadors their political appointees who get their jobs for political reasons and therefore they may often say things that they shouldn't really say if they were professionals and they're not always professionals the prosecutor of course is a professional but may also be under pressure. to assert his independence for political reasons but on the face of it if the prosecutor what the prosecutor is saying is correct and don't care to use a professional lawyer what he's saying is of being put under pressures that to put certain people under protection or not going to go along with it on the point to believe in the americans frankly there again in this kind of behavior though

sometimes it's overt sometimes it's opaque in terms of the u.s. we know that when it comes to venezuela it's pretty overt in what they're trying to do in order to get their way in that country but the relationship with crane is pretty different isn't it if the ukrainian prosecutor's allegations are true could this be an example of the kind of pressure we usually don't get to hear about the darker side of diplomacy going on. well as you pointed out in venezuela the u.s. is hardly bothered to hide its gangster ish visage in ukraine through the pretense that they believe in a democratic ukraine and that the you know they want to see you know freedom and the rule of law prevail but you know ukraine is a rather lawless place. and in many ways it's very difficult to see who who is right and who is wrong here but i must say giving more knowledge of the u.s. and of ukraine more prepared to believe the ukrainian side a list case than the u.s.

side and for obvious reasons it is so very different just a few years ago the us in ukraine established close times close ties in international politics for what reasons could have have trying to taint the u.s. image in the country. well you've got to would understand that the kid doesn't have the crane is not our more genius society and that the presidential election coming up this big divisions it looks like zelinsky who's a sort of outsider candidate may be the biggest winner of the first round and he may end up being presidents and therefore it's possible that mean in the past one of the good things about ukrainian politics was the the kind of intelligent way in which they played the middle ground keeping both sides both to their east into their west happy and of course what went wrong in the end was that they chose to throw away the skillful way that they used to play and that's what they've ended up

in the mess there in ok i got to your thoughts on this journalist a political commentator martin summers in bristol thanks for that. the british prime minister is back in brussels this time to try and convince the leaders to approve an extension to the brics a deadline of wednesday to resume a formally requested a three month delay to the u.k. to exit from the union if you want to push back to the thirtieth of june and to see a check in as the details. all eyes are on brussels today for this crunch breck's a delay summit where considering the way things stand now britain is on course to essentially leave the european union without a deal come of next friday unless an alternative is found so we have to reset may and her e.u. leader counterparts getting together in brussels throughout the day today to discuss what happens next indeed on wednesday we saw the british prime minister present her case for what she thinks is now best to move forward she suggested and

asked for a three month extension to the bracks a deadline that would last until june thirtieth she has pled not just with the european union but also with m.p.'s back home to still reconsider and support her on her deal which is important is the parliament to dishes on the results of the referendum on the digital bricks it for the british people i sincerely hope we can do that with a deal i'm still working on the ring the parliament can agree a deal so that we can leave in the usually way what matters is that region is on the stage the british people well despite the fact that this is a deal that has been voted down twice by m.p.'s at the house of commons still it seems to recent may and her colleagues at the european union are calling for support of this deal we have heard today in brussels for now the dutch prime

minister has spoken saying that first m.p.'s need to support the deal for any extension to take place to implementing it we have heard the french. as didn't also follow this line of thought. for renegotiation so if the deal is voted down there will be no deal of course the european union council president donald has also said let's see approval from m.p.'s first so that now is the big question whether or not first of all if e.u. leaders can find common ground because they all need to agree to an extension how exactly teresa mayes going to be able to get that deal through parliament is a huge huge question now another problem is that there are european parliament elections taking place on may twenty third and a popular opinion there is the that britain either needs to leave by than in order to avoid more confusion and chaos or partake or principled position is to allow

some flexibility due to the idealism of the situation you create but also the debate which would be also here now is. ensure that there is a legal clarity before the utopian elections and of course is the twenty third of may well there should be some more clarity in the hours to come on whether or not there is common ground reached in brussels and we'll certainly be watching all of that very closely from here. regular thora to say that at least seventy people are known to have died after a ferry sank in the tigris river and the city of mosul on thursday a significant number of those who drowned awful to have been children rescue operations are currently underway fifty five people have reportedly been pulled from the water it's fair that the number of deaths will rise further most immediately clear what caused the accident but reports suggest that there were phone too many passengers on board the ferry iraq's prime minister has called for an investigation into the disaster. news for this hour your next update from in the team follows watching the holes.

breaks it count. an officer. told him to get up off the ground the officer began to head them down to. democrats on the sounds of kind of fighting into the grown man like wrestling essentially officer who. threw his or her own. twisted away from the officer holding the toys out of his crib. the obvious or did they kind of lunge for the weapon once missed and then when it happened on tree swung at bob's your hands didn't hit him i never saw any contact between the two and any kind of went back to where they were so the officers back here there try again fifteen feet apart at

this point and that's when the officer pulled out his gun and he did it on three. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy on sunday shouldn't let it be an arms race in a sense very dramatic development only and. i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and. greetings and salutations we begin today with the latest intriguing headlines

coming out of the caribbean island country of haiti yes hawk watchers there's been a new development in the story we've been following of the seven mercenaries who were arrested by haitian authorities on gun charges and then just as quickly released and handed back over to the united states and disappeared into the intern's according to matthew cole and kim i was at the intercept the latest twist in this ongoing tale of mysterious mercenaries an international intrigue is that the group was actually down there working security for an eighty million dollars cash grab by the embattled haitian president obama moyse in a poorly executed but serious effort by moyes to consolidate his political power with american muscle the mercenaries were apparently told that by simply escorting presidential aide to prince zone louis during the transfer of the eighty million from a government oil fund into an account controlled by the embattled haitian president they'd be preserving democracy in haiti. and you know personally pocketing about

thirty thousand each to preserve a democracy and thirty grand now actually the already beleaguered and very motivated for political change haitian people are not going to take this news well but fear not my us empire loving friends haiti will not be throwing off the yoke of u.s. control any time soon because thankfully one of the best and brightest u.s. politicians and political orders of our time working day one marco rubio the republican senator on a quarter traveled to haiti on wednesday in order spend the day urging dialogue between the country's embattled president and opposition parties calling for his resignation because if there is anybody who knows how to put dialogue over rhetoric it's our little buddy marco i mean look at the bang up job he's doing right now representing peace and dialogue in venezuela now let's start watching the hawks. it's.

like you know that i got. the. world number one watching the hawks. turn joining me today to talk a little mercenaries haiti rubio and forced us had them only in the caribbean and latin america is the host of by any means necessary and spotlight radio eugene for your eugene thank you so much for coming on and joining us today interesting interesting stuff thank you so much for having me i want to start when you look at this latest twist i've been we've been following you know these mercenaries are kind of showed up armed to the teeth and then disappeared were arrested disappeared don't know what happened what what is most untrue.