nato marks seventy years but the alliance is birthday bash is marred by members feuding over budget contributions and purchases of russian weapons. and that community is being massacred despite a french and u.s. troop presence. and a rights activist claims western visitors to iran donahue job think they undermine efforts to abolish the law requiring women to wear the head covering our guest debate the issue. i think it's i think it's ridiculous i think asking women to comment when they come into a country to justice and way inside iran there's a rule and there's a lot and could. change the whole system. you're

watching r t international bring in your live news update from our studio here in moscow welcome to the program. nato has celebrated its seventieth birthday with a bash in washington but a few between today alliances members dampen the party mood a little as the u.s. threatened to uninvite turkey is sortation with russian made weaponry has now turned rather more serious stood its ground insisting it would go ahead with its purchase of the s four hundred missile defense system. as four hundred deal is a done deal and we will not step back from this in any case we have been always. trying to improve and strengthen and deepen our relations with allies particularly united states and be valued by let's relations if turkey completes its purchase of

the russian s 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 does it want to risk the security of their partnership i cling like pence's words turkey's vice president hit back on twitter saying it was the us that had to choose between friendship with turkey and continued support of the kurds in north and syria and preferred guards as terrorists but turkey wasn't the only alliance member run it on at the nato birthday party the us vice president also lashed out at germany thing berlin didn't cough up enough for nato especially given the size of its economy shortly after in germany and months it would contribute one point two per five percent of g.d.p. by two thousand and twenty three still short of the two percent minimum set by nato

international relations expert hussein bag 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 two hundred twenty. members seem particularly to pm countries have to give two percent of their g.d.p. for defense for a princess on the other hand also that president trump said that nato is obsolete it is not any more functional before nato remains definitely. under nato america. raising a lot of conversation but the other twenty eight contrie if 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 turkey is turkish borders do not have any defense systems. however the key focus of need is the latest gathering in washington has not been relations with turkey but with russia with moscow again being portrayed as a major global threat the nato secretary general got an enthusiastic response in the us congress as he outlined countermeasures against moscow. has more. he might not even have had it in mind when he was doing it but the great businessmen of all presidents make sure everyone in the club open their wallets for nato's seventieth anniversary the clear message from president trump house. help is having a real impact we see that many more than a dollar meet the two percent god on the spending two percent of g.d.p.

on defense can there be a better gift then. oh yeah let's keep in mind. and 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 cash devouring 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's in charge if you know what i mean though since to 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 notice to act as a deterrent to soviet imperialism and to counter communism and the perceived threat then 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 by barack obama after all you don't call russia our number one enemy. not all qaeda russia. unless you're still start going to cold war mind war well 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 india 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 guns from his military industrial complex i said it was obsolete it's no longer up soley happy birthday nato and we see a power behavior 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 democracy itself. oh you'll be all right for a very long time reexamination is called for for the existence of nato so is the downfall of the union in one thing only one made turtle has been wandering around without a purpose it's been looking for

a purpose in the us it's gone out of europe it's gone the other places find that it has a purpose 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 job of nato nato 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 nato but actually to increase spending of their towards defense. russian's foreign ministry says it's open to dialogue with nato the alliance hasn't shown willingness also says it's ready to deescalate tensions between russia and bloc members. the security situation in the west african nation of mali is worsening despite the

fact that french and us 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 and sixty civilians and what some fear is the beginning of an ethnic war. the reports. last month hundred and six. children and pregnant women the elderly and young people. why well they were for lonnie and ethnic group who have been accused of having ties to. a course. about three million ninety percent muslim and a number of did join al qaida type groups as a result of the ethnic groups have told all of the same brush calling for the whole community to be labeled as a terrorist group. they are. and they have to be

dealt with 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 from 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 face 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 corn has demanded more victories on the ground against the hardest but it is western powers focus their efforts in rooting out terror many are concerned that what's really happening rise of ethnic tensions that some a liking to a genocide is taking place right and then uses for large amounts of salamis they don't understand this war they don't they're not part of it they're not even part of his vision on this mission but many of their women and children in large numbers have been killed by government forces in front of u.n. officials in front of peacekeepers they have no one. way of getting out of this cycle of violence which seems to be between the governments.

that's usually supported by some elements of the for money as i do is the wider flow any people who are being attacked in huge numbers as well have been associated with be associated with them losing their loved ones by the government usually under the the umbrella of trying to attack. western women who wear the hit job when they visit iran are insulting the nation that's according to a prominent iranian rights activist she says regarding the hitcher part of iranian law goes against the hard work of activists like herself or trying to abolish the compulsory head covering. they say that this is a cultural issue with a very it out of respect to the culture of iran calling it discriminatory law as part of our culture this is an insult to a nation iran's mandatory his job requires all women to wear it in public the activists condemnation of western women has stirred mixed reactions online. while

women in the middle is to fight for their freedom from this religious tyranny westernesse think she job is a cultural it's 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 japanese brand it's more than painful to me when i hear people say it 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 with journalists and saudia i mean from the council of x. muslims of britain. well 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 just. 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 vul 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 woman 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 yell outside of iran. if you are on a secure that you are removing the law and they have the freedom what i do know is that iran after the one nine hundred seventy nine revolution everybody knows that it was a people's revolution the it's all yours it islamic jihad that it was an artless read about was that a lot of it wasn't as. pollution but it was a people's revolution i think it's i think it's ridiculous i think asking women to come. when they come into a country to justice and way you can't do that not only for women from you know my countries they then start using that as

a stick to beat the whigs they say to them look at these non muslim women that are coming into your country and wearing your job when you're in your country you have to be moved and them taking away their choices those are the women we never ever talk about one people choose and majority of the people choose to be governed by islam across one of them is to where the his job and the job does not demean women it actually makes them become a human beings and i'm not missing million unavailable women i say imagine how it 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 still to come in the program the u.k. claims that has evidence of only one civilian death from seventeen hundred of its middle eastern bombing raids or on that after the short break.

people in america have no money. and yet and house prices are skyrocketing relative to their wages but the government says that's not inflation health care costs are galloping at ten or fifteen percent a year and. government says that's not enough. in other words there's been

a concerted and decided to excise a chunk of the workers in the united states. welcome back to the program britain's minister for the armed forces is facing a backlash after some took him to be saying that only a single civilian death was caused by seventeen hundred u.k. air strikes in syria and iraq or claim castor 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 two thousand and fourteen have killed more than four

thousand islamic state fighters human rights organization amnesty international released a damning report earlier and march accusing the u.k. of being in denial of civilian casualties and mosul and rocca. the ukase 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 fast actually is over his role in the mass bombing of mosul and roc-a peace campaigner russell wedding says it's impossible to distinguish and i saw fighter from a civilian after an airstrike let's not forget the ministry of defense actually only trained one civilian had 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 there's 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 afghanistan iraq libya have been accurate because we just don't know we keep rushing into these interventions with no idea about who retired getting 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 number of people killed in flash floods in the southwest of iran has risen to sixty two dollars which started two weeks ago has destroyed key infrastructure local aid organizations say sanctions are preventing vital help from getting through. through the helicopters we try to move people from the. area to the safe areas actually be set up the camps and we distribute the tents for

the four temporarily sheltering of the people and as well as a distribution of the relief items actually it is a living basically attempts were affected people they ran their cars on society they have their partner and one hundred ninety one national society that our partner and we somehow we receive some condolences from them and in some cases like jemera wells we are going to receive relief bullets from general red cross and talk us christian talk you should send and send relief items and that we have some some others if it's just for you that there's that they announced their readiness to dispatch their relief items we have not received any one any any in in our accounts you to the sanctions i can say and so there are a lot of people in our brought that wants to help us and want to donate their money especially iranian people who are living abroad but they cannot use our foreign

currency at. the iranian foreign ministry confirmed that sanctions were hampering relief efforts since all the accounts of iran red crescent have been frozen by u.s. sanctions no one can send the financial aid from overseas. the statement by the iranian foreign ministry was made on monday the us government meanwhile alleges that poor infrastructure is to blame for iran's difficulties in dealing with the flooding rather than assisting its drafting fresh sanctions targeting the iranian community. these fronts once again showed the level of the iranian regime mismanagement in the

planning and the emergency preparedness regime blames outside entities when in fact it is their mismanagement this led to this disaster the environmentalist's for attempting to help iran prepare for these very issues.

the u.s. is developing a rescue plan for event as well as economy designed to pump cash into the country through banks smartphones 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 my girl. i have no idea when that's going to be that would begin immediately it's a question of. getting hold of the what i call the machinery of government. the venezuelan opposition plans to stage a rally in caracas on saturday as it tries to maintain momentum in its efforts to oust president nicolas maduro calls to install one gordo the leader of the opposition are also being heard in the us some there are being a bit reserved with the truth as to why they support him and explains. with venezuela in conflict the media definitely needs voices to explain you know

analysts to assess the situation in the country and it also helps if they can speak perfectly fluent english so joanna hossam i'm speaking in an editorial for the new york times about venezuela 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 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's 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 and the economics professor from harvard university and ricardo haas

a man her father is currently the envoy of juan wedo to the interim 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 that 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 videos about venezuela. and it wasn't just the new york times she made her rounds to buzz feed c.n.n. and the four freedoms forum 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 i 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. there's a lot of misinformation regarding your plans for universal health care. perhaps

the most blatant example of media concealment was now year and 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 convenient facts but remember behind every face is a story cable up and r.t. new york that's a wrap up of the day's top news for now but don't forget you can always find us on many of your favorite social media platforms like twitter and facebook for up to the minute reports.

breaks it killed. my heart there was a crack seems to do crack when i was a little kid my dad he was like oh must be so you know a guy like what i needed when i was a baby boy i had a bad childhood. there's always been single mothers in african-american community service and slavery. i think it's more of an issue these teenagers having kids in you can expect a fourteen or fifteen year old first daughter now order for him if you're farther and he's a check out. we actually lost our place in october my

car end up breaking down and i was unable to get to work on time so they let me go in with my paycheck that i bring home i have barely enough to pay my car insurance what gas i. want. to.