having seventieth birthday candles. expands the alliance his presence in regions on russia's doorstep washington pulls on russia to withdraw its military advisors from venezuela. social media giant twitter lift its ban on a french government advertising campaign after it have blocked it as part of its fight against. rights activists slums western visitors to the country. saying that they undermine efforts to abolish them or requiring women to wear the head covering. i think it's i think it's ridiculous i think asking them in to comic when they come into a country. inside iran there's a rule and there's

a good. unless we change the whole system. is joining us this hour this is our. seventieth birthday with a lavish bash in washington however it didn't take long for the anniversary celebrations to turn into a discussion of the blocks expansion near russia's borders because that's said to be what russia neighbors want mix with calls for moscow to leave because that seemingly what washington wants. so we are stepping up our efforts. just agreed to the huge and we just agreed to package with more surveillance exercises on all the issues which we. strongly believe are relevant for

the black sea region on of course those of the working with all the partners talked about that we talked about that in the context of russian efforts all around the world now the inconsistency of the usa demanding that russia would draw its military advisors from venezuela at the same time the united states is escalating its presence in the black sea didn't seem to be emphasized or really understood furthermore just prior to the meeting we had mike pence saying that turkey had to choose between being a nato member country and engaging what he referred to as a reckless decision that would be buying russia's military hardware however stoltenberg seemed to not be as critical of the arms deal as the united states is secretary-general you see any resolution to the dispute with to keep on its plans to buy a russian missile defense system or ease nato going to have to do with what the turkish foreign minister says is that. it is

a national decision. for you. to decide on determined capabilities however still member did emphasize that the purchase was indeed a challenge within nato but that nato would facilitate dialogue to resolve that disagreement and the hosts of the seventieth anniversary gathering seem to emphasize the unity of nato countries let's take a listen in the good news is we're in a good position a position of strength today or structures designed to empower each own not to subjugate it we maintain an outstanding degree of unity now germany in particular was called out by the united states for its lack of defense spending and we understand that most. recently germany has increased its spending on military defense however it's only risen to one point twenty five percent still shy of the two percent threshold expected from nato countries so it was a seventieth anniversary birthday celebration for the north atlantic treaty organization quite a few issues discussed there

a rather dark and pessimistic tone for a birthday party. so moscow was once again painted as a major global threat the united. states in the u.s. congress and the outlined counter measures against russia ahead of the nato birthday bash. he might not even have had it in mind when he was doing it but the greatest businessmen 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 than a dollar meet the two percent god on the spending two percent of the 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 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 is 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 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 one enemy. not all 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 guidance from his military industrial complex i said it was obsolete it's no longer absolutely happy birthday nato and we see

a path behaviors consistent cyber attacks on nato allies and partners targeting everything from parliaments to poverty routes 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 or for the existence of nato so is the. union in nineteen only one made has been wondering around without a purpose it's been looking for a purpose in the us it's gone out of the year or it's gone the other places trying . to have the berbers 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 and 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 different towards defense. russia's foreign ministry says that it's open to dialogue with nato but claims the alliance hasn't shown willingness moscow also says it's ready to deescalate tensions between russia and bloc members. france is leading the fight against fake news ducting a lot of bottled misinformation however it seems that some social media giants are confused over just how to implement it charlotte duvets explains or g.i.s. launched a campaign aimed at boosting voter registration but twitter found that the we thought campaign is in violation of frances and this storm broke twitter is actions

were called out of date. twitter does not know how to do this at this time and has therefore decided to have a completely extreme pausing causing any supposedly political campaign they were. illegal i thought it was in april fool's joke to do blocks public company for voter registration so as not to respect the anti feet can use transparency rules appalling and illegal. two of his priorities should be defined content glorifying terrorism after a lot of pressure twitter quickly relented it after numerous discussions we have decided to allow ads encouraging electoral put the spatial such burns don't always end on a high note the social media platform is known for banning and suspending accounts often without reason including those it considers russian bought. even

movie accounts have been suspended for no obvious reason take the pro-life film unplanned off to raking in six million dollars at the box office on opening weekend it found its twitter account was banned though it was later reinstated mysteriously around one hundred fifty thousand followers were dropped and it doesn't stop that from the left to the right of politics twitter often acts as the judge and the jury so enraged a users that many are leaving the platform altogether the problems become so embarrassing that twitter that it's now going to stop and now saying how many uses it keeps using twitter may have appeased the french government for now but all the birds circling overhead charlotte dubin ski r.t. paris. political journalist and commentator elizabeth believes that will be a huge task for the government to fight fake news. the danger in many ways both of

them for breaking the rule and for the government also for breaking the rules and they decided not to take the risk to be hard to regulate fake news because it's a difficult subject it's got to be tackled because the debate has become much more trade and vibrant. with the social media taking up so much space and the coarsening of the debate is pushing everybody to all the extremism and just something which basically has got to be a stranger into into sort of more rational discourse so i do. that is perfectly understandable that it's not easy to decide to know the reasons in which you could be mistakes and that when it was certainly a mistake it was the government in its rule as an abyss as an administration more than a special specific political party they didn't say you should vote for so and so. was the women who wear the hijab when they visit iran are insulting the nation that's according to a prominent iranian rights activist who says that regarding the his job as part of the country's culture goes against the hard work of activists like herself who are

trying to abolish rules on the head covering they say that this is a cultural issue we're very it's out of respect to the culture of iran calling it discriminatory law the treaty job law requires all women to wear it in public the activists condemnation of western women mixed reaction online. while women in the middle east to fight for their freedom from this religious tyranny westerners think you job is a cultural good to. know they wear it because they're 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. so we put the issue up

for debate with journalists. and their honeyed 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 are not full 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 top 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 outside of iran. in iran secu that 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 it's all yours it islamic god that it was an artist you have you found was that. it wasn't as. of illusion but it was

a people's revolution i think it's i think it's ridiculous i think asking women to come. and they come into a country to justice and way you can't do that not only for women from you know my you 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 a people choose the majority of the people choose to be governed by islam across one of them as to where the his job and his 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 we get more news coming your way after the short break.

in the politics of this. because. you do not know what the might happen if you have a major development. but. like

a comedian lead in elections and you have. a lot of developments which would not be possible to come in for you would move this this is why you can your politics is so interesting. from past threaten to slap a twenty five percent tariff on car imports from mexico unless the country stops the flow of drugs into the u.s. within one year. we're going to close the border or i'm going to chair of the course of one of the other the past twenty free trade agreement known as nafta and u.s. firms have made the most of the arrangement shift in manufacturing south of the border to cut costs general motors is now the biggest automaker in mexico being an economist and author richard good to have you on richard. just said it that threatened to impose a twenty five percent tariff on cars from mexico does he actually have the power to

do that with enough to still in place. no he doesn't know long there's an interim period now between the old nafta which has been canceled and the new agreement among the three countries canada mexico and the united states but that has not yet been ratified in all three societies particularly not in the united states and with the democrats in control of the lower house in the united states it probably won't be so you're in a kind of a limbo period where it's not clear what rules do in fact over. time so threaten to shut down the border with mexico if a massive flow of drugs he called it continues to take aim literally on this or do you think he's just playing to his supporter base with an eye perhaps on the upcoming elections absolutely the second up the first this is an ongoing theater today he announced he would give mexico a year three days ago he announced there might be imposed of these closings of the

former on the phones today this is an ongoing theater. where he has the ongoing ups and downs of the negotiations with china over the tariffs there he has ongoing negotiations with your up over the tariff there and he has the ongoing negotiation with mexico in each case he wants to play the role of being mr tough guy who's getting better arrangements from the american people the reality is he hasn't been able to deliver on most of his promises to the american people they have not had a change in their basic economics situation indeed in many cases it has deteriorated so that the yoder with mexico on china and europe will be stretched on as far as he can into that election period in twenty twenty and the hopes that will save him from that defeat he would otherwise almost certainly faires comes for

a long time in calling for nafta to be scrapped why is it not yet happened for him . basically because it was also theater because the different interests that were for and against not didn't go away they are similarly aligned in many ways against this latest reincarnation of nafta which isn't all that different you have an awful lot of people who industries i'm talking about would need to stop mr trump without appearing publicly to do so he doesn't mind if you block him quietly he really is into the theater of it all and so you have to be quiet but you can be assured that the billions of dollars invested by american corporation to produce automobiles and many other things that makes it all those people are not quietly sitting there those industries are letting the republican party know that they will be very hostile to anything that interferes with their profits so we have to keep the game

going at least through the next election the last one that's relevant for am so we can stay in power so this is theater and should not be taken literally because no one who knows what's going on is doing that. rigid get out there on appreciate it tonic columnist and author richard wolfe is my guest thank you. the number of people killed in flash floods in the southwest of iran has risen to sixty two deli's restart a team weeks ago swept away for structure local aid organizations say the sanctions are preventing vital help from getting three. through the helicopters we try to move people from the. area the safe areas actually be set up at camps and we distribute the tents for the four temporarily sheltering of the people and as well as distribution of relief items well actually it is a living basically attempts were affected if they run their course and they have

their partner at one hundred ninety one national society that our partner and somehow we receive some candle answers from them and in some cases like jemera wells we are going to receive relief bullets from generous brass and talking about christian talk to us and send relief i danced and that we have such really fight we have not received any one any any in in our accounts you to the sanctions against 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 the 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 and the statement by the

iranian foreign minister came on monday the u.s. government though says that iran only has his self to blame prince failure to cope with the flooding rather than helping is currently drafting new sanctions. these floods once you see preparedness the regime blames outside entities when in fact it is their mismanagement this led to this disaster they even jail environmentalist for attempting to help around prepare for these very issues.

international stick around my colleague daniel hawkins will bring you all the latest updates at the top of their.

china has arrived in europe in a very big way and not everyone in the west welcomes this italy's support of china's belgian road initiative is a game changer the washington consensus that has dominated the world for the past seven decades is being challenged to turn to the east continues.

to. welcome to the alex salmond show from westminster where the bricks at melodrama shows no signs of ending anytime soon meanwhile out to force in belfast continuing our feature on the impact of the bets debate on northern irish politics. the question we asked today in this program is one of the economic realities of. change in the landscape of more mileage politics. however here in london the prime minister has been playing her own mind games by acting totally out of character to

use the me usually the most tribal of politicians has given up on trying to secure her breakfast deal with her own conservative party votes and is now turning to the opposition instead at the same dynasty podium where she wants to clear jeremy carbon a saboteur of bricks that she now asks for his support and piloting the brecht solution in a search for consensus so today i'm taking action to break the logjam of offering to sit down with the leader of the opposition and to try to agree a plan that we would both stick to to ensure that we leave the european union and that we do so with a deal but it is all as it seems the prime minister knew that half a cabinet would have resigned if she had tacked towards a softer version of brecht's it which the house of commons has been considering this week and the other half were threatening to go if she didn't and therefore here is her solution offer one half the prospect of

a softer breck's it and the other half and this is a hard. there are two flaws in this plan first despite waiting to every tour the m.p. to explain her novel tactics it may not be possible to hold her parliamentary party together in under three years as prime minister she already holds a record over in thirty ministerial resignations and things. so will the tory party finally splinter or bricks it. is the conservative prime minister who repeatedly told us that no deal is better than a bad deal now approaching labor m.p.'s to block a way w.t.f. really breaks when most like common servitude of m p's like the audience out of. the european union to do with the clean break we still mean are you with.

the second problem with the prime minister's cutting plan is it jenny corbin may be wise to the tactic and to cling to right to the government's rescue he may say why should i believe you i here today i'd go into mortal prime minister about to be the place by breaks a tear by the fall why don't hold an election no rather than after you've gone in the autumn so let me ask you had she been the leader for your position uninvited and truck truck like this yes would she have been foolish enough to accept. so as it to be her duty to these that are just back to the usual maple however whatever else may be said about me is latest move at least as a change in the script we've broken out at long last.