for critical thinking it's time to. for. the time is now watching closely watching. nato mogs seventy years but the alliances birthday bashes knowledge by members feuding over the budget contributions and purchases of russian weapons. are you an expert says atrocities are on the rise in the west african country of mali with ethnic communities being massacred despite a friend and u.s. troop presence. and a rights activist slams western visitors to iran who wear the hejab saying they undermine efforts to abolish the law replying to dawn the head to covering all gas debate the issue. i think it's i think it's ridiculous i think asking women to come in when they come into a country to justice. inside iran there's

a role and there's a lot of good. unless you change the whole system. it's one o'clock here in moscow and you're watching international live from our studio with me in a day or two to welcome to the program nato has celebrated its seventieth birthday with a bash in washington but a feud between two of the alliances members of the party mood a little as the u.s. threatened to uninvite turkey is for taishan with a russian made of weaponry has not turned rather more serious though stood his ground insisting it would go ahead with its purchase of the s four hundred missile defense system. those four hundred. rooms. all week. trying to improve and

strengthen and deepen our relations with allies particularly united states and be valued by that sort of nations if turkey completes its purchase of the russian as four hundred missile system turkey risk expulsion from the joint f. thirty five program turkey must choose. does it want to remain a critical partner the most successful military alliance in the history of the world. or doesn't want to risk the security of that partnership. echoing mike pence's words turkey's vice president hit back over twitter saying it was the us that had to choose between friendship with turkey and continued support of the kurds in northern syria regards as terrorists but turkey wasn't the only alliance member around it on the nato birthday party the us v.p. also lashed out in germany saying didn't cough up enough on nato especially given

the size of its own economy shortly after germany announced it would contribute one point two five of g.d.p. by twenty twenty three still short of the two percent minimum set by nato international relations expert the same back she says the alliance isn't as unified as it once was. the moment is not in the harmony concerning the american demand that until two thousand and twenty. members seem particularly the pm countries have to. give two percent of their g.d.p. for defense purposes on the other hand also that president trump said that nato is obsolete it means it's not any more functional before nato remains definitely. under nato america's existing regional organization but the other twenty eight countries they are not always happy with the american policies like germany and

turkey the moment americans consistently. threaten turkey not to provide for. thirty five turkey on the other hand had to choose the russian missile system because out of necessity that turkey has borders do not have any here defense systems. however the key focus of nato has latest gathering in washington has not been relations with turkey but with russia with moscow and. and being portrayed as a major global threat the nato secretary general got an enthusiastic response from the u.s. congress as he outlined counter matches against moscow on the china has. he might not even have had it in mind when he was doing it but the great business men of all presidents made sure everyone in the club open their wallets for nato's seventieth anniversary the clear message from prison term. help is having

a real impact we see that many more meet the two percent god on the spending two percent of g.d.p. on defense can there be a better gift than money oh yeah but let's keep in mind if you will that vladimir putin is the greatest gift to nato since the end of the cold war and it has provided a new reason for living if you will for nato that's right there needs to be an excuse for the existence of the gigantic cashed of warring juggernaut and for keeping on getting new members on board weapon making firms need customers the biggest ones happen to be from where this man is in charge if you know what i mean though since the soviet union collapsed almost three decades ago even within the alliance there were some doubts about why nato still needs to be out there in research sponsored by the bloc you may have found stuff like this if they too was

created in order to act as a deterrent to soviet imperialism and to counter communism and the perceived nuclear threat and what is its relevance today there was a point when a former nato spokesman gave lectures on how the alliance was struggling to find itself when the cold war was over even russia's nukes were no longer taken as a big deal for the first time in almost fifty years the us stands on the verge of attaining nuclear promise e when mitt romney called russia out while he was running for the white house he was trolled. barack obama after all you don't call russia our number one enemy. not al qaeda russia. unless you're still start going to cold war mind war. those were the days if you think of it nato was big failures like afghanistan or libya kind of outweigh whatever the block would try to boast as its success anyway we even got to a point where someone from nato was daddy america the president i mean said they

don't is obsolete it covers a soviet union which is no longer in existence and nato has to either be rejiggered reaching a changed for the better it didn't take long for mr trump to be reminded of russia i mean the scary version and that more folks other than saudi arabia will have to buy garlands from his military industrial complex i said it was obsolete it's no longer up so early happy birthday nato and we see a path behaviors consistent cyber attacks on nato allies and partners targeting everything from paula months to poverty rates. sophisticated this information campaigns and attempts to interfere in the more crissy itself. oh you'll be all right for a very long time reexamination is cold for the existence of nato

since the day of the union in nineteen ninety one made has been one. without a purpose it's been looking for a purpose in the us it's going to have needs to find itself and what its relevancy is and it needs to remain as a military alliance. absent absent politics absent economic considerations because it's not the. they do a strictly military the united states is trying to drum up the notion that moscow remains that threat in order to justify not only the continued existence of later but actually to increase spending of their towards defense russia's foreign ministry says it's open to dialogue with nato though the alliance hasn't shown willingness moscow also says it's ready to deescalate tensions between russia and.

the security situation in the west african nation of mali is worsening despite the fact that french and u.s. troops have been on the ground for over six years that's according to a un expert who spoke out following the massacre of one hundred sixty civilians in what some fear is the beginning of an ethnic war do penske reports. last month hundred and sixty people were massacred in central mali. there are categories children and pregnant women the elderly and young people. why well they will follow any ethnic group you've been accused of having toys to your hardest of course it's a number about three million around ninety percent muslim and a number of did join al qaeda type groups as a result of their ethnic groups have told all of the same brush calling for the

whole community to be labeled as a terror group that all of the. and you have to be the un has also warned that the following are being sought out for attacks these people are deliberately targeted women men and children simply for being part of the community mali is a country which has been ravaged by conflict for seven years six our eyes and the un all have a foothold but as part of a war on terror and to keep the peace but violence is multiplying not subsiding the threat from extremist groups has spread with a u.n. report outlining how attacks are going up often here so important is what's happening in the former french colony the president michel visited in his first week of taking office showing support for french troops are based there since

two thousand and thirteen and while he may have been hoping for an exit strategy france is becoming more entrenched this week the country announced a new base for its anti jihadist force. it is time to continue to invest in live chaco because our presence of the sea has virtuous effects that i think that the population is still happy to see the french army investing in this region. not court has demanded more victories on the ground against the hardest but as western powers that effort still rooting out terror many are concerned what's really happening why is it ethnic tensions that some like killing to a genocide is taking place right and then uses for large amounts of felonies they don't understand this war they don't they're not part of it they're not even part of our vision on this mission but many of their women and children in large

numbers have been killed by government forces too in front of u.n. officials in front of peacekeepers they have no way of getting out of this cycle of violence which seems to be between the government. that's usually supported by some elements of the one yes i guess the wider fulani people who are being attacked in huge numbers as well they have been associated with our kind of they'll be associated with them losing their loved ones by the government usually under the the umbrella of trying to the. western women who wear the hejab but when they visit iran are insulting the nation that's according to a prominent iranian rights activist she says regarding the part of iranian culture goes against the hard work of activists like a self who are trying to abolish the compulsory head covering they say that this is a cultural issue we're very rich out of respect to the culture of iran calling it

discriminated as part of our culture this is an insult to a nation runs mandatory his job nor require all women to wear it in public the act of his condemnation of western women has mixed reactions online. while women in the middle is to fight for their freedom from this religious tyranny westernesse think your job is a cultural good to. know they wear it because the told if they don't they can't get in a state they're just being polite but everyone knows it's mandatory they know they have to otherwise they may never return as a woman fighting against a compulsory he job in iran it's more than painful to me when i hear people say a compulsory he job is our culture it is not just look at the picture of the rand before deny nine hundred seventy nine islamic revolution. we put the issue up for debate and with journalists and sandia honey from the council of x. muslims of britain. why do i have to respect laws when i go to another country and

when for example even as a veiled person i insulted i am stopped at airports just because i am a muslim woman because i choose to wear the his job and this is something that is not mandatory for me this is something that i choose and this is part of women's freedom people who are standing against this only in order to i think promote the mass media. image of women as objects as sex objects is disgusting. not for one moment she even considered the women thrown into prison. tortured raped by prison guards for choosing to remove you don't ever speak up for them you're not you have real value when you go when you are not forced to yes yes there was lots of proof but you're not going to take into account any of those women's voices because it doesn't fit your narrative you

refusing to you're just lying about the about you know being made to take off your veil it's not an issue of lying look i don't know if i have the chance to talk to talk right now but you as a person you are insulting at least half a billion veiled women not inside iran outside iran as well it's not just about the veiled woman point is they have the right to your example and they have no right to your outside of iran you know you are on secure that you are removing that it was no law they have the freedom what i do know is that iran after the nine hundred seventy nine revolution everybody knows that it was a people's revolution the i it's all yours it islamic that it was an artless read about it was that. it wasn't as. it was lot of illusion but it was a people's revolution i think it's i think it's ridiculous i think asking women to

come in when they come into a country to just say you can't do that not only for women from our countries they then start using as a stick to beat them they say to them look at these non muslim women that are coming into your country and wearing his job when you are in your country you have to be moved them taking away their choices those are the women we never ever talk about one people choose the majority of the people choose to be governed by islam across one of them is to wear the her job and his job does not demean women it actually makes them become a human beings and i'm not meaning unveiled we're not saying america is human and women who are veiled i'm not saying that this is another issue but inside iran there is a role and there's a lot of good as a result unless you change the whole system. claims it has evidence of only one civilian deaths from seven hundred of its middle east and bombing raids lorillard

story after this break. i do think the numbers mean something they've matter the u.s. has over one trillion dollars in debt more than ten white collar crime happens each day. eighty five percent of global wealth he longs to be ultra rich each week six percent in the world market rose thirty percent some with four hundred to five hundred three per second per second and this one rose to twenty thousand dollars. china's building two point one billion dollars a i industrial park but don't let the numbers over with. the only number you need to remember one one business show you know ford the mid one and only bloomberg.

join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then. welcome back to the program britain's minister for the forces is facing a backlash after some took him to be saying that only a single civilian death was caused by seven hundred u.k. strikes in syria and iraq mog lancaster has clarified his position as follows. it was not our position that there has only been a single civilian casualty as a result of a military action what we are saying is that we only have evidence of what we

believe to have been a single civilian. casualty according to the british defense ministry royal air force strikes conducted since twenty fourteen have killed more than four thousand islamic state fighters human rights organization amnesty international released a damning report earlier in march accusing the u.k. of being in denial of civilian casualties in mosul and raca the u.k. is claiming to have carried out massive aerial bombing of densely populated cities with virtually zero civilian casualties this beggars belief and shows just how deeply in denial the minister of the first actually is over his role in the mass bombing of mosul and rocca he's campaigner russell whiting says it's impossible to distinguish an eyesore fighter from a civilian after an s.g.i. . let's not forget the ministry of defense actually only twenty one civilian have been killed after months and months of claiming you know the idea that you can know whether someone is an arsenal fighter or a civilian after

a bomb has been dropped on them the idea that you don't have enough boots on the ground for one category of people to be identified but you do for another one i'm afraid is just absolutely stinks of propaganda from our government i do think the figures would change i do think any figure that we've been given about our involvement in syria or afghanistan iraq libya have been accurate because we just don't know we keep rushing into these interventions with no idea about who we targeting the best thing to do would be to leave the people of syria to have their own destiny in their own hands and to british troops and british planes to come back to britain. the u.s. is developing a rescue plan for venezuela's economy designed to pump cash into the country through banks plant phones and apps but even though the trump administration isn't rushing to reveal the details the plan has one key condition. the timeline is to get rid of but there are. i have no idea when that's going to be that would begin

immediately it's a question of. getting a hold of the what i call the machinery of government the venezuelan opposition plans to renew its efforts to oust president nicolas maduro on saturday and as that day draws nearer calls to install one kaleido the leader of the opposition they're getting louder in the u.s. some advocating for quite a there are apparently doing so under false pretenses as caleb maupin explains with that as well in conflict the media definitely needs voices to explain you know analysts to assess the situation in the country it also helps if they can speak perfectly fluent english so joanna hosmer speaking in an editorial for the new york times about that as well. this movement on the american left against any u.s. involvement in this way that is gaining traction dangerously glorifying the brutal dictator and promoting inaction final is a social democrat appointed by the national assembly the only remaining

democratically elected institution left in venezuela is venezuelan american and she's a comedian she loves to call out critics of u.s. foreign policy because how dare they think they might know more than her when she is an actual venezuelan and furthermore she gives full support to juan guede oh the self appointed u.s. backed president of venezuela but here's a detail the new york times failed to mention her father is ricardo hossam an economics professor from harvard university and ricardo haas a man her father is currently the envoy of juan wedo to the enter american development bank the biggest lender in latin america looks a lot like miss hosmer has a pretty big dog in the fight however the new york times presents or is just a liberal minded venezuelan who wants what's best for her people it should be news or the her father has a lot to gain politically and professionally should regime change happen very cool of the new york times not to mention you know the fact that john houseman's dad is

an economic advisor focus now the folks who handle ethics of the new york times have a special section dedicated to possible conflicts of interest from contributors stuff members must be sensitive that perfectly proper political activity by their spouses family or companions may nevertheless create conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflict but in the end the new york times didn't really care they presented her as just another voice we were aware of her father's biography before publication but miss housman is an independent adult woman has built a popular following on her own by producing a portfolio of argued videos about venezuela. channel and it wasn't just the new york times she made her rounds to buzz feed c.n.n. and look for freedom. none of them thought that her blatant family ties to one grade zero were of any concern and not presenting the full picture is not all that uncommon in american media there was a lot of outrage recently when a c.n.n. q.

and a with presidential candidate bernie sanders stuffed the audience with people tied to elite think tanks and the democratic party but presented them as just average citizens with tough questions how could a voter like me. feel confident in your ability to represent the party. good evening. there's a lot of misinformation regarding your plans for universal health care. perhaps the most blatant example of media concealment was now year zero and her tearful testimony before the congressional human rights caucus they took could be because i think it is. to think abuse to do it because she failed to give her last name but her tearful testimony plucked america's heart strings and it paved the way for u.s.

support for kuwait during the gulf war it turned out that no year zero was actually the daughter of the kuwaiti ambassador and her story could not be verified and furthermore she had arranged to testify without taking an oath making it illegal for her to lie yes when it comes time to push for a certain agenda the media seems to ignore rather inconvenient facts but remember behind every face is a story a little up on r.t. new york. the news this hour and jacqueline visit will take over and around thirty minutes with updates but in the meantime stay with us for a documentary called isaac the story of a little child and. breaks

it. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy to confront ation let it be an arms race off and spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk. what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or something i want. you to go right to the press that's like before three in the morning can't be good . i'm interested always in the waters in the house. first sip.

this is a story of one of africa's giants. know his teeth on that show. and his neck isn't that long. list giant is rather modest and keeps a low profile that's not him either. people are often scared of this particular joint but he is nowhere near as dangerous as that one. is a friendly giant every day with the possible exception of weekends he saves human lives yes. his name is isaac the giant pouched rat.

and i like his brothers and sisters he was born with a passion for travel. isaac's birthplace was a special training center in tanzania. equipment that's what isaac is. mine sniffing rat. rats are everywhere there are sociable circumstances. with humanity.

they are actually traditionally. garbage. mined sniffing rats are put to work in former hotspots where learned mines are among the most deadly remnants of armed conflict they're often found years after war has ended and serious injury isn't the only problem. imagine how it must feel to live with the knowledge that there's a landmine lurking somewhere near your home. when i was a close up children to help make the problem of landmines a thing of the past. but it will be a full nine months before he becomes a real pro for now he simply spends his time with his family. it's no coincidence that giant rats were chosen to sniff mines in the wild they're extraordinary sense of smell allows them to search for food buried deep underground

it worked with. the key is to train the abouts to associate the discovery of t.n.t. with food and that's not difficult because everyone knows how intelligent rats are the really hard part is making sure that the rat doesn't make any mistakes. that could be fatal not just for the rat. these regular rats that's clear from the way they eat these giant rats have special pouches in their cheeks. just like hamsters so this particular animal is on the cusp between being a rat but. perhaps that's why they're just a little bit cuter.