it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the troops the time is now we're watching closely watching the hawks. leaders of russia and north korea conclude their first ever summit have to more than two hours of face to face talks both live with putin and kim jong un expressed a willingness to work towards the denuclearization of the korean peninsula. the interim chairman king also reached rickly to tell the u.s. about his position and about the questions he says in connection with the situation on the korean peninsula. human rights groups condemned grotesque saudi arabia's beheading of thirty seven people said to be mostly from the shia minority one person's body was even stronger than public following the largest mass execution for years. also a un report notes u.s.

international and government forces in afghanistan are responsible for more civilian deaths than the militants they've been fighting we get reaction from locals. for the child or woman killed in afghanistan the afghan government should ask the foreign forces about them but there is no one to watch we have concerns we want the americans and i says to stop killing our people we do when the u.s. and nato here. thanks for joining us this evening this is r.t. international. the first ever summit between putin and kim jong un has come to an end the leaders of russia and north korea spent more than two hours in a closed meeting discussing everything from denuclearization to expanding bilateral relations russia's foreign ministry adds that the summit quote fix that many

mistakes of the u.s. diplomacy correspondent summarizes events from the city of light of a stock. well it turns out that in a sense john is counting on volodymyr putin as a kind of a middleman in delivering his messages to the rest of the world leadership by the way mr putin's next destination is beijing there you have it but it looks like chairman kim is hoping that his message will get all the way to washington through russia as well to. be directly to tell the us about his position and about the questions he has it today and with the situation on the korean peninsula we also found out that the russian leader as confident that pyongyang's essential desire is international security guarantees guarantees for sovereignty and when it comes to dealing korea's ation

according to mr putin the only way forward is through these kind of guarantees i would like to remind you that four years russia's peace road map was about mutual concessions from both sides of north korea on the one hand and south korea and allies on the other and china is backing of this plan to well the russian president believes that for years every step forward made by washington was followed by two steps backwards. but we need some confidence building measures to be taken which could have been taken back in two thousand and five when the u.s. and north korea came to an agreement however later on for some reason the american partners thought this was know if they needed to add something more to this agreement that's when north korea with drew from the treaty if you're making a step forward in two steps back you will never succeed. after what we heard on

thursday it is definitely fair to say that there is a lot of potential and kim putin some. and by the way the president of south korea a few hours ago said that this summit in flat of all stock should act as a springboard for further top rank diplomacy between washington and pyongyang so chairman kim has been joining contacts with the most powerful people of tensions on this planet his two historic summits with the american president donald trump were followed by one with a lot of our putin and it looks like mr kim knows what he's doing when he splaying his geo political game so let's take a closer look now at the atmosphere during the talks and how president putin welcome to north korean counterpart to russia's far east.

body language expert how it felt breaks down what the leaders movements could say about. one of the interesting things about of that to me putin and and we see this often with him in every he's meeting he's very protective of the of his own space it's very rare for somebody to come into his zone or close to his proximity when they shook hands he was quite dominant kim kim jong il would end by dominant i mean his his hand takes all that downward position we saw that kim jong would want to try and establish a bit of dominance very himself when he got to that point that putin kind of left got just quite a long handshake and i think vet and shake was well was very important by the time

that there was sitting on those chairs having that conversation there was very very little movement from king kim jong un he was quite. uncomfortable i think there was a sense of relief that this was over there actually for kim jong un. and there's no doubt that the summit was really about just having a summit the he it was an easier discussion in that it was really just about more about the historic event he was quite relieved when it was whether it was over but i don't think by any means there there it had gone exactly how he was hoping that it would go. french president has just concluded a news conference but in to appease months of nationwide protests and the most violent riots in paris for half a century many micron double down on some of his most unpopular moves which sparked the rallies including slashing the wealth tax. is in paris with more.

thursday night saw president macaroons very first press conference at the elisei palace he was due to speak for twenty minutes he spoke for almost an hour with his vision of what his mandate for the next three years of his presidency should be he talked about external things other than fronts particularly about borders saying that the shang going area in europe doesn't work he said that europe needs to be stronger and it needs to have stronger borders now in terms of more internal issues which have a risen from the last few months of the grand debates here in france he said that in future there will be lower taxes he also said that pensions with less than two thousand euros a month will be reindexed from the first of january twenty twentieth's that's next year meaning that they will rise at the same rate of inflation now he also talked about more referendums taking place in saying the threshold for things to be

discussed in parliament would be lowered to a million registration votes by citizens if they demand it and he also talked about cracking down on islam is i'm saying that that was against the cohesion of the nation now one of the more controversial issues that michael also touched on was the reforms that he introduced last year in two thousand and eighteen and this was the reform to the wealth tax which for many yellow vests has been a very big bone of contention let's have a listen to what president michel said about that if you don't you can be a member who had the will tax reform was widely perceived as a give to the world and the real financial injustice this reform did not remove the wealth tax it was a transformer to encourage investment in the real economy research factories and production because if there's no national investment there is no economy it's my duty to defend the pragmatic reform we'll review it in twenty twenty and if it's

not if. to v. or to large we will correct it it's a reform to achieve results a gift to the richest of its president michael may have spoken for almost an hour with the wind to aging discussion of the things he'd like to do over the next three years but what he would like to in quite a lot was the details so yes he talked about lower taxes but he didn't specifically say what that meant in terms of a figure well the yellow vest protest is be happy with what's been announced it's unlikely what we do know is that these protests have been some of the most violent in france for more than haul for a century. now the cool says the right one and we're not going to change it just because the wind is poor we. will not concede anything to those see one destruction and disorder.

i take my share of responsibility. for.

was. to bring in paul smith is a professor of french and francophone studies at the u.k.'s university of nottingham good evening paul so almost half a year of protests is this speech going to be enough to sooth the demands of the. what is not going to sow the demands of the what's left of the radical rump of the yellow vests and i suspect that there are some people in the wider movement who won't be terribly satisfied with it either but one of the important things about today's press conference is that we kind of knew what he was going to say anyway we already had the leak of the as you probably know there was he was going to speak to the nation last monday and then of course the fire broke out not at their home but already issued the speech to the press so they got a foretaste and many of the things that he announced today were already there and opinion polls in france suggest that actually one or two of the reforms are not particularly popular but generally the french population is in favor of what he's

suggesting so this was kind of playing catch up with this. so new anticipate will be business as usual at the weekend more people on the streets of paris protesting . oh i think almost certainly though we know there are going to be protests and some of the leaders fly rider maxine equally for example responded as we would expect him to you know he said there was nothing deep about what we're saying and that they're going to show some depth this weekend or i suspect we know what that means we know that the yet the yellow bursts don't really seem to have any you very much to to do offer apart from turning up in france the city centers and and causing disruption but it's the broader movement of the yellow vests those who we don't hear very much from who are kind of being pushed to the edges that may well be a bit more open to what macrorie is suggesting what do you think of his pledge

to cut taxes for the middle classes although i don't think he was particular heavy on details of how he was going to do that well he talked about actually he did give some details he's going to close on certain exemptions what are called knishes in french so some of the loopholes that are there in the french taxes are going to be closed down so that the state is is able to take more tax in certain places and that will allow for a reduction in income tax the problem with income taxes it's not you know if you've got any british use for example it's not screwball with thing in france it doesn't work the same way the french taxes tax system is very very complicated so it's very difficult for anybody to say ok we're going to look at lower income tax to a flat rate all because income tax is not the most important or it's an important tax was not the most important source of tax revenue for the french state and it's worth defending zone policy so i can also criticize the ease visa free schenkkan

system is that it doesn't work in that you need stronger borders we surprised by those comments. yeah they were bolted on at the end though i mean the there was much more to do with i was very interested that he spent a very long very significant part of the early part of his speech talking about. the idea of politics needing to be closer to to ordinary citizens that there has to be something not just local elected officials but also civil servants you talked about reorganizing the civil service so there were more civil thought servants of the out see in the next stage of decentralization diva lucian and moving. the state employees the civil service out into the into local areas and talking about the possibility of a different approach in different regions according to different regional issues and problems that was much more interesting and up front then he talked about the taxis and he talked about pensions and i really got the feeling that he felt that

the yes he talked about shane and but that was very much a bolt on towards the end that was not really the you know the heart of what he was talking about and sea ports been absolutely fascinating get your analysis of this situation pretty sure it's i my guest is paul smith professor of french of francophone studies at the university of nottingham thank you. international human rights groups have been scathing of the saudi arabia's execution this week of thirty seven men reportedly mostly from the sheer minority on terror violence and unrest related charges the body of one person was even stronger than public following the execution human rights watch that today marks an alarming escalation in the use of the death penalty in the country the rights group has described the punishment as grotesque. has more. few things so as much fear into the hearts of your own people as mass executions

the men were executed for adopting terrorists and extremists thinking and performing terrorists else to corrupt and destabilize security allegedly among their crimes was this respect towards authority some of them can you believe that like the king protested against him so serious with their crimes that one of those executed was also crucified yes crucified in two thousand and nineteen his body strung up for all to see for all to fear. today's mass execution is a chilling demonstration of the saudi arabia no authority and callous disregard for human life it is also yet another gruesome indication of how the death penalty is being used as a political tool to crush dissent from within the country's shia minority in fact almost half of those killed were executed after taking part in pro-democracy

protests see the arab spring didn't skirt saudi arabia the shia minority rose up and wanted change better fairer life the king obviously thought they wanted too much. one of those executed by the way was sixteen years old at the time of his arrest attending a protest apparently still a kid now is an example you wouldn't believe how creative the saudis are when it comes to killing prisoners in fact the current king began his reign by staging

a massive execution forty seven people behaved it shot for crimes that included disobey and saudi rulers biggest blood show since the nine hundred eighty s. who said fictions and common peaked in two thousand and twelve one five people were strung up paralysis reportedly is also in a judge's arsenal seriously they can sentence a person to be paralyzed as punishment roots back to a four thousand year old law that someone wrote on a stone pillar to throw a tooth. and literally in this case a knife or an eye saudis took that. very seriously in two thousand and five a court in saudi arabia ordered a migrants i go out as punishment for getting into a fight and putin also a favorite especially for theft chopping off people's arms and feet for stealing

and of course stoning reserved for crimes like being too friendly with the opposite sex what can you say you want to cherry on top saudi arabia is on the you when human rights council. what a world. rian has defended its decision to execute individuals it will not hesitate to punish anyone threatening security and stability of the kingdom a spokesperson for the gulf institute for democracy and human rights that's funny to me yes beck believes that the saudi justice system cracks down on those whose views differ from the official position. of the first time which so very be you that if you know t. took punish prisoners of conscience who who dared to spoke out about the human rights violations in the country we've not just stand there and i think around five of the of the executive people where really charged by terrorists.

we don't trust. really entered issue system we don't trust how did how did the saudi authorities handle the magic in the eighty's that it is theirs who took to the streets to demand rights and freedoms and pull out about what was happening in the country. most of the gulf kingdom so the idea of the loses is to do dishes the system to fabricate charges against their dissidents especially against the activists who spoke out or who lose their source in media outlets or rules. well to speak it indeed one stations. there. in the gulf kingdom especially in saudi arabia no one is a low just about what's happening in the country. in afghanistan local government u.s. and international forces have been responsible for more civilian deaths than the military forces that they've been fighting a new u.n.

report the findings reveal in the first three months of the year almost six hundred civilian deaths were documented most came from airstrikes conducted by international forces led by the u.s. and nato the number of victims up almost forty percent on the same period last year we asked locals for their reaction. among some of them you know we always requested from the american forces and the afghan government if you want to bombard any areas please take care of the civilians there don't target civilians for any child or woman killed in afghanistan the afghan government should ask the foreign forces about them but there is no one to watch we have concerns. of our people have been killed or injured we have become widows children have lost their fathers people have lost our lives we want the americans and i says to stop killing our people we don't want the u.s. and nato here we will work with each other that are the work that we that we request from foreign forces and afghan government forces and from the taliban that if you are fighting with each other do not use residential areas as

a position if the american forces do not take into consideration the civilian casualties in afghanistan and they continue killing civilians by naming them insurgents the future will be very bad for them. u.s. military forces have launched investigations after previously reports washington currently has about fourteen thousand troops in afghanistan most of them involved in non-operational nato led training missions december it was reported president would reduce u.s. forces in the country there's been no sign of that actually being put into action white house has been seeking the peaceful resolution of america's longest ever war there are concerns on. a deal could lead to a new wave of instability. we've spent close to one trillion in of ganesan all of that is a truce if you screw up on the day after a peace agreement a dramatic decrease in not only troops but financial support for the afghan government will mean the collapse of the government you have five hundred thousand some troops and police who are trained and have weapons you have sixty thousand

taliban who are trained killers they want to be reintegrated plan for that. meanwhile just a day after the un report on afghanistan was published amnesty international was released a report on civilian casualties in the syrian city of run current twenty seventeen it finds the us led coalition responsible for the deaths of more than sixteen hundred civilians ten times the number admitted by the us government writer and commentator abdel bari atwan thinks the us must stop such practices. people are killed that there. will be one of these. civilian areas there are bombing schools so i think this kind of bombardment should be stopped because this civilians people who are paying the price for this american i present to him that prompted the words i believe the american troops american administration is fully responsible for this that among the civilians of particular you know more than

a thousand people were killed that american administration is a responsible because the supposed to be in control of they actually should be. responsible will be spending and be no international community should actually take action against. nineteen people have died in a coal mine explosion in the self-proclaimed republic of the gun sc in ukraine correspond castra is in the region for us and joins me live on the line now ramon what information can you bring us all at the moment we don't know exactly how many victims there are as the result of a coal mine blast some sources up with anywhere from seventeen to nineteen miners who could have lost their life the incident happened earlier in the day at the moment the rescue services are working on the scene to try to determine

whether there are any survivors or if there are any more people trapped in the mine according to local authorities they have requested the help of a russian emergency services who are on the way to the sites of the instance right now. the latest on that story just in there among cost of thank you. the u.n. security council is holding the meeting on the situation to apologize even to the news now former u.s. vice president joe biden has announced that he's entering the twenty twenty race for the presidency though it didn't come as much of a surprise indeed as plans have been an open secret for some time early polls show he's currently the most popular candidate among democrats but the road to the white house for biden could be littered with potholes from his past this killer morgan explains. now joe biden is a long time democratic party superstar he has a long career representing delaware in the u.s.

senate however growing numbers are concerned about his record let's not forget that he supported george w. bush's invasion of iraq and pushed the lie about weapons of mass destruction saddam is dangerous the world would be a better place without him but the reason he poses a growing danger to the united states and its allies is that he possesses chemical and biological weapons and he's not the me too candidate by a long shot not only does joe have his own touchy feely proclivities but he jumped over the need to hill way back in one nine hundred ninety one when she was accusing them supreme court nominee clarence thomas of sexual harassment it is appropriate to ask professor who anything any member wishes to ask her. to plumb the depths of her credibility and joe's also a lock him up guy he was one of the most outspoken supporters of bill clinton's one thousand nine hundred ninety four bile and crime control act which led to an

explosion in the u.s. prison population which critics now see as a big problem joe is also a big supporter of the death penalty even calling for its expansion biden probability before us calls for the death penalty for forty fifty one offense is. why the newspaper recently wrote that something to the effect that biden has made it a death penalty offense for everything would jaywalk back when bill clinton's crime bill passed joe biden was such an outspoken supporter he said quote i'd like to be running and have someone use the crime bill against me welcome to twenty nineteen joe at this point your biggest opponent bernie sanders actually wants prisoners to be able to vote socialism is now a favorite word among young people and you're tough on crime. talking points might come back to haunt you about the twenty twenty democratic primary is still a fair way off but if joe biden things it's going to be just

a typical action he may be in for a big surprise caleb r.t. new york. security council is currently holding a meeting on the situation in eastern ukraine called by kiev's representative after wednesday's decree signed by vladimir putin that simplifies procedures for donetsk elegance residents to get russian citizenship let's listen in. when you course i'm grateful to the briefers over there even but to be perfectly honest i didn't quite understand it at the briefing want you to the movie said that the briefing having to do with the issue not upon the request of the ukrainian side brings us into this chamber today and how does this relate to the mets could be a matter of even your hands are going to know that in the assessments that we've heard from mr miller and mr sidekick. they'd do last have

we the discussion of the issue because they describe the dire situation that many ukrainians in certain areas have done is going. to find themselves they will just who are not in the control of key of the new. will was not high the lawyer were surprised by the initiative to lincoln vien the meeting today by the korean colleagues which was immediately supported by the german presidency and this is because we're going to be talking about things which are very unflattering for the ukraine if they miss their actions as a result of which four million citizens of their country ukraine. are basically outlawed today. and whose existence is being ignored by the western part of the world community this is something that one should do best shameful to keep quiet about instead of displaying in front of the. world but since you insist let's talk about this or even though this issue certainly does not present any kind of threat to international peace and security of out of the line isn't was the to my

western colleagues that one could walk away from that under the impression that russia is forcing the citizens of ukraine to change their citizenship and at the same time i am how can you do without it violates in inverted commas in its agreements once again let me ask you the following question which of the thin skin of the mythical green we in violation of heavy regimens could be meant stupid. and we have heard a whole slew of absurd accusations today little media tell you a minute me put to you a version which is a real one and not ideal not not tended by ideology but if the president of russia signed in to create under which these citizens and the self-proclaimed donetsk and lugansk peoples republics have the opportunity of obtaining the citizens citizenship of russia in a simplified manner.