proposed changes to pension rights. and media. millions of dollars. in the 1st of its kind. changing.

case. we. in the latest push for diversity in. companies flew. straight. to the world this is your r.t. international pleasure your company my name's you know me. protests are once again gripping controversial pension reform plan. marking the largest shutdown of

infrastructure in decades in the country earlier on friday president among them across the proposed changes to this cabinet expanding more on this story from paris charlotte. hard to cool section of the society of continuing to come out to the streets to take part in these protests let's just take a look at the procession here in paris and you'll get a sense of how full the streets are with those who wanted to come out again today the 51st day of the strike the 7th day of nationwide action to show how unhappy they are about those controversial pension reforms being put through by the french government that pension reform law has been presented to the council of ministers it now because towards the national assembly where it's due to be debated in february and we know that the strikers while they have received some concessions they haven't been able to achieve what they set out to which was the government to

abandon that reform altogether so what have they achieved so far the government has decided to take out all references to raising the pension age to the age of $64.00 they would do to add 2 years on to the pension age before you could receive pool pension and the government is also relinquished and said that certain sectors certain professions will continue to have a special conditions special conditions reality is the. law hasn't changed dramatically from what the government sent out to do so in some respects you could say the protesters who haven't really got their way the other thing to say about this is of course that this started as a rolling strike action carried out by public transport workers in this 1st few weeks particularly here in paris public transport was paralyzed across the city with issues nationwide as well so what we're seeing now is continuing smaller strike action that looks like it's being more directed a more targeted. and the reality is while people know that this pension reform is

likely to sail through the national assembly go to the senate and also be approved they want to make sure the government is aware how unhappy they are now the government for its part edward phillipe the prime minister has been talking about why this pension reform is so poor to the aim of this reform is to overhaul the system so it becomes much fairer. and more adapted to the transformations of the working world of tomorrow because struction of the universal pension system corresponds to the will of the vast majority of french people workers on the street disagree with that they say no it won't it means we'll work for longer i will have to work harder and perhaps we'll end up with less money in our pockets at the end the government says anybody who works a full career which is some 40 odd years will receive a minimum pension of a 1000 euros a month many people say that is not a lot to live on and while people know that that pension reform has been passed and presented to the council of ministers on friday they want to make sure that the

government is aware that they are not happy and they will continue to show their any. defiance against this new law. the u.k.'s national health service is facing a 1st of its kind legal battle over prescribing children as young as 9 puberty blockers and cross sex hormone drugs one claimant is 23 year old cura bell who was previously treated by the gender identity development service she regrets making irreversible changes and said no child should go through the she sees it the experimental torture that she did. the story. 23 year old care about went through gender reassignment as a teenager but years later she decided to reverse the transition while she lives to regret her treatment she wants to stop the clinic putting others through what she is leaving a landmark case against the tavistock and portman and their. trust the u.k.'s only

gender identity service that deals with patients under 18 years old often without parental consent care of herself as a teenager and says youngsters aren't given proper information on the process and the drugs to take them through the transition i do not believe the children and young people can consent to the use of powerful and experimental hormone drugs like i did i believe that the current affirmative system put in place by the tavistock is inadequate as it doesn't allow for exploration of the gender dysphoria feelings nor does it seeks to find the underlying cause of this condition i carry joins a mother of a 15 year old autistic girl who is out on the waiting list for the treatment at the service much of the concern of her mother i have deep concerns that the current clinical approach a gender identity development service means that my daughter will be subjected to an experimental treatment path that is not adequately regulated when no one understands the risks and therefore canada ensure informed consent is up to almost

half of children treated at the clinic i prescribe hormone blockers that help people this gives children the time to consider whether they truly want to make a transition to the opposite sex but the talk interferes with natural hormone production it's this step that this legal battle is all about and claim it's a calling for an urgent reassessment of the procedure what is challenged is the current and continuing practice of the defendant to prescribe puberty suppressing hormone blockers and then subsequently crossed sex hormones to children under the age of 18 and it's not just former patients and relatives have to worry that medical professionals have also voiced concerns even accusing the specialist clinic for charles gentle children of suppressing negative results while undertaking experimental treatment on adolescents what i found using some unpublished data i discovered from the telescope is that after 12 months on t.v. block as there were some quite pronounced negatives. it's believed the girls.

k. had their gender dysphoria increase and some of their psychological problems increased and indeed there is even less slightly increased but statistically significant increase in their thoughts about suicide so these are all quite negative findings but these are not being published by the. clinics here in london say 3000 percent more patients than they did 10 years ago among girls it's up more than 5000 percent with referrals that's a record high it suggests cases of the transition will rise to that there is no data to reflect the number 4 who may opt to return to their biological sex we reached out to the tavistock and portman n.h.s. trust for comment our clinical interventions are laid out internationally set service specifications and h s england monitors our service very closely the series has a high level of reporting satisfaction and was rated good by the care quality commission but while there is no doubt that this service helps young people who feel distressed in their own bodies the full impact of making decisions about their

gender at such young ages may not truly be clear to much later in their lives shadier edwards dusty with the report well former psychiatric nurse susan evans who worked after the apartment service and in deed was the original lead to claim and in the case told r.t. the drugs being administered are not licensed in the u.k. for uses gender identity medicine either. the reason this is a sort of unique case is because it's never been taken in you know so with sort of looking at whether asking young children. to consent to an experimental treatment can be and in full consent if we also don't know the outcome of the full side effects of what's going to happen to them you know it's not in fulton terms the medical outcomes you know even the experts don't know the full picture yet we need more research but drugs as a prescribed here in the u.k.

are an experimental drug because they're what we call off license so they were developed for very young children who had a thing called kosher shiva tea which is when they developed to fast into puberty as children but in your area gender identity medicine. these drugs were not licensed for that just. for a story no stirring up the business where that indeed a few people be on the business world to goldman sachs the investment bank say's it's going to stop helping startup companies who lock diversity in their boardrooms go public in europe and the united states only. we realize that this is a small step but it's a step in the direction of saying you know what we think this is right we think it's the right advice and want to position also because of our network to help our clients if they need help placing women on boards and so this is an example of are

saying how can we do something that we think you know is right now move the market that these political correctness culture may just kill me just have the best people possible on the board no matter what the race or gender i'm tired of people get in positions of power just so things can be diversified. this is dangerous and moronic goldman sachs tokenism is productive for diversity no one should attain a position of power based on an arbitrary characteristic positions of power need to be based on performance having token women minorities on boards to meet quotas isn't diversity the better solution is to get more women minorities into college and graduate m.b.a. schools so they can filter into those positions on their merits while diversity as you may know is the buzz word across a wide range of social spheres after the moment with particular criticism aimed at

the oscars that buff does in the u.k. as well for locking representation of awards ceremonies it's not only that though we also have that the bait heading tech giant google whose hiring practices have been slammed for failing to better accommodate minorities spiked magazines look get us seize the banks diversity drive will actually backfire. well it's a mad announcement you know goldman sachs have made this announcement a time when you know they are part of a major bidding process to be part of the saudi arabian oil conglomerate of pose i.p.o. i don't think that board is going to be particularly diverse and for their business reasons they've actually excluded this policy from all of asia because they know that most chinese japanese most companies across asia will not have diverse boards so i think it's completely hypocritical completely banal completely pointless and i think that actually it's think we patronize ing to the women who do make their way

up through these companies and on to these boards independently inevitably goldman sachs is announcement well now mean the allegations of tokenism will simply go up you know the idea will be that you can't get you can't be taken public if you don't have a woman on your board so anyone nell from these companies any woman who receives a place on that board based on merit well be forced to believe that it's me because the way the company wants to go public i think it's wrong. protested on friday in the iraqi capital calling for the us to end its military presence in the country the demonstration label the 1000000 man march was set up by an iraqi shia cleric over washington this plane died in the rallies highlighting its friendship with the. like what we're doing we like them and we've had a very good relationship the mission is much wanted by the iraqi military we believe most iraqis we have said that we're not interested in talking about

withdrawal because we don't think we should withdraw our economy iraqis want to have with us both the united states and iraq we believe should in most cover. of our relationship. the tense situation in the region has escalated since the u.s. killing over iran's top general and the senior iraqi militia leader in a drone strike near baghdad international airport up the beginning of january following the assassinations iraq passed a resolution to expel foreign troops from the country but that still leaves to be ratified by the prime minister the us president has rejected the move and warned sanctions would be imposed. go ahead with the military expulsion beirut based journalist mohammad plights thinks the u.s. will try to find any loophole to stay in iraq until a resolution is finally ratified. the u.s. is trying to avoid. the. this political official

political. popular decision to expel its forces from iraq by saying such as my. sector of sate has said that. this is not an official decision by the parliament considering that there are some members of department who are refused the explosion of the u.s. forces the u.s. delegate to syria james jeffrey house also today. this decision is not an official one as well. since the u.s. administration only deals with the with the iraqi government thus the u.s. is trying to avoid. to take responsibility. of their actions and have the same time they are trying to avoid this mass anger against what they are done. the diplomatic road is brewing between the u.s.

and britain after washington refused an extradition request for the wife of an american intelligence officer who's been charged in the death of teenager. henri was killed in a road traffic accident near a u.s. base in the u.k. last summer. at the time the accident occurred and foods duration of his stay in the u.k. the u.s. citizen drive in this case had to mean as he from criminal jurisdiction if the united states were to grant the u.k.'s extradition request it would set an extraordinary troubling precedent i called the u.s. ambassador pressed the government's disappointment about this decision we feel this amounts to a denial of justice and we believe i'm so cool as should return to the u.k. we are now urgently considering our options to remind you about the case in august that 19 year old hari dunn died in a head on crash outside a u.s. military base in northampton sure indignant the driver was on cyclists the wife of

an american intelligence officer working there now she was officially charged with his death in december but had already claimed diplomatic immunity and fled the u.k. months earlier well after a cyclist was charged her lawyers pointed i thought she was not going to return to the u.k. saying that hari dunn's death was a terrible but all intentional accident. we're joined live now on the program i'm happy to say by rob sacre rod is the lawyer for hari dunn's family speaking to us from the u.k. good to have you on the program what was the family's reaction to this decision was it expected there. completely unexpected good evening to you we had prepared for this development. many many times my own was one of the 1st people in washington to make it clear that the united states

administration position was that she was never going back to ultimately the united states returning to discretion to graft extradition or no its decision is in the hands of the secretary of state and he clearly exercise that discretion let's not just decide not to send her back it was no surprise to the family to sleep last night peacefully and calmly we just simply did our stride it's one step along the road but i can assure your viewers tonight that we are more competent than have or who this will become in the place just to see you carry the u.s. state department's azan extradition when sent a troubling precedent your thoughts not perhaps also to your knowledge has it ever happened before diplomatic immunity being stripped and because of a serious crime. who we are we are in precedent waters as far as we're aware this is never happened before this is the 1st time the united

states of used an extradition request from the u.k. in the long history of the actually addition treaty and it's it's it's legally and morally indefensible. by republicans in washington as well as democrats this is a decision that was made by a president trying to say that it would set a truckler troubling precedent if she were to retire the family would simply argue to allow somebody who's accused of a very serious crime in a country so he bade justice that is what would be said he just just all my points are for interrupting but the vienna convention on diplomatic relations where does this case stand and without because you you know doesn't protect diplomats from all crimes committed in other countries that this framework. the framework was

brought in in the 1960 s. to protect diplomats who were opposed to hotspot countries and to keep them safe for instance if they were killed by a lawless regime it is not intended and that back to vienna convention makes it absolutely clear that if you commit a crime in any country that you stay in your host country and face the consequences and we all know that the u.k. has one of the most mature well developed legal systems in the world that has purchased at its heart this is a link with insane crazy mistake that president trump my copilot have made and it's as simple as that and you've seen the strength of the reaction in the british government today i've not seen i can remember seeing stronger states statements from them and there and i've met some of them this evening they are clearly not going to accept this and answer this so that we will be coming back there is no choice but how do you get justice when a country like the u.s.

just say snow well look ultimately it's a political decision does. this actually just request we'll hang around for ever whereas 'd we know the president trump and like ballplayer will not be around forever and if necessary this family who i represent will how please. wait patiently until the next administration comes along who perhaps believes and up will be the rule of law a little more than this one would be you know the actually just request will simply be reprinted in the meantime the government made it clear today that the urgently considering all their options and we expect them to come out very strongly and explain to the nation what they're going to do you cannot have a situation like this where this this american person took it you know it's like in this country breaking the law was allegedly. and then get on the next plane home that's not how it works in the 21st century you just think if a sensor. as well of this region we're speaking about the i believe there's been no

there recent instance near the same u.s. space with diplomatic cars driving on the the wrong side of the road for one thing and can you comment on that you know saluted one of the troubling things that has come out of this campaign is we've been approached by dozens and dozens and dozens of people who have suffered serious injuries at the hands of american drivers or in many cases worse we are in the dozens now and we were getting approached by maybe 2 or 3 families today and it's astonishing what's happened and you know for those people who have been driven in before we do drive although. some of the driving conditions are challenging with narrow country roads but look this is where we live and you have to drive hard small malls and some of them there americans clearly are just not geared up to doing that they drive on wide open roads and i don't know that it's it's it's always the challenge to them but look you know we're just not

prepared to sit here and allow this qualities to continue and i shared some of that data with the government today and they are just as horrified that we are they doing enough have they done enough the british government it's a very good question it's something that i've asked of the ministry of defense to occur only operate these bases although they're leased out to the americans you know it is it isn't worrisome 8 has there been a cover up we don't know but the numbers are truly staggering and we have we have without scratching the surface we have 15 pieces of paper tile that either serious injuries involving people driving on the wrong side of the road you know one death was you know when you have a pattern it becomes a real problem and i you know i'm sorry to say that it appears that it's taking her death to bring this out into the life and i do under whether they're in the attempt to hide all. we well that they're not really any more just finally.

the family of harvey done of course they want justice they also won closure don't think are they set for a long battle is is that something if if that's what it takes that's what they will do. show other struthers. publicly today she's made it absolutely clear that she will make it her life's work to ensure that this comes back and that's not out of a sense of vengeance it's just that it was the answer right bruce's wrong i mean it's an important old rule of law we'll answer to this to escape justice what does that say for the rest of us who believe a lot if it's good for her why would it be good for me for instance i ordered a car in washington thank you out somebody we cannot go down this road and just move well thank you for coming on the program and sharing your on the the family's views on this latest development brad seeker they lawyer for hari dunn's family.

russia became the hot topic of the continuing democratic impeachment trial against donald trump on wednesday head of the high stems of i'm sure if mentioned they have partly all important words and his opening speech once or twice russian intelligence services russian expansionism and russian forces and their proxies russia kremlin russia's president vladimir putin the russian military agency. we can fight russia over there are the russians the russian efforts thanks to vladimir putin when the president said he russia if you're listening. they were listening that's the russian story. wildly cameras were focused on the senate floor due to the ban on filming sketch artist since they captured the atmosphere in the chamber some of the pictures showed members having trouble staying involved in the process stretching their legs doodling. out of sleep to senators faced

a 12 hour no phone policy while south author desks as well we spoke to journalist and political commentator chad with more a say is that even the strongest supporters of trump's impeachment are bored with the anti russian or right of. the democrats already has 100 percent of their energy and their time into trying to remove a duly elected president from office their biggest hoax russia gate so completely flat and even their strongest where everything they thought of the president is even their strongest supporters the people who most want to believe that the president will be removed from office which he absolutely will not even they've grown bored with this narrative and when they start reviewing russia again. it's just so sad you can't help but laugh and laugh and laugh and had people oh see 57 times at last count referred to russia or putin is the impeachment proceedings i don't know are they trying to tie up the loose ends of this narrative are they just

trying to connect all these threads that they've everything that sort of thrown at the wall to the eggs to the expense of millions upon millions of taxpayer money every day that didn't stick a waste of everyone's time. allots our headline stories are shaping up as we enter the weekend to stay close next repulsing to some more great programs here on 24 seventh's r.t. international. most people think. the 1st one on top of the story or the person with the loudest voice of the biggest. truth to stand. is just the right questions. the right answer.

in the united states presidential candidates debate the future of the u.s. and the world. to get into the burning questions of this election cycle. every week. student debt trade was money universal basic. and more catch up with running this sunday exclusively on. trade and investment have become magic spells to economic development. most people think about trade they think about goods and services being exchanged between countries and the invest for chapter of a trade agreement as opposed to something very different but what when investment

leads to toxic manufacturing that destroys sacred sites all the environment. that means local communities that are being poisoned the thing object if they do anything that the company feels is interrupting their profits they can be sued. the nationals are taking on the whole nation philip morris is trying to use i guess india to stop tour of the white from implementing new tobacco regulations aimed at cutting domestic smoking rates a 4 inch company sued egypt because egypt resists minimum wage democratic choice over trump corporate law joins us as we try to find don't want to.

well welcome to visionaries well they say. wisdom. but can we grow personally and make sure while staying young and healthy and aging be cured just like any other disease well i asked david side claire professor of genetics at harvard medical school. claire welcome to the show it's great to have you with us with lots to talk about so you suggest that aging may be looked at as a disease that can be treated what makes you think that age is a medical condition rather than the natural course of things. will.