the price of oil nosedives along with global stocks as saudi arabia ramps up production and it's a dispute with russia. also this hour turkey's president is in brussels discussing the unfolding migrant crisis at the greek turkish border where tens of thousands of refugees remain in limbo. and violence erupts in italian prisons with inmates furious over their conditions and the strict new measures brought in to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

a very warm welcome to the program from all of us here at r t h q in moscow thanks for joining us this hour. world oil stocks are taking a major hit following the failure of crude producing countries to agree to production cuts as a man for oil falls amid fears about the coronavirus saudi arabia says it will increase output after a dispute with russia with more here is are to scale up. quite a somber atmosphere here on wall street they are already calling it black monday we saw a 15 minute free on futures trading when the stock market opened big dramatic plunge on the stock market the biggest drop we've seen since the 2008 financial crisis and on top of all of that we've got an oil price drop 30 percent decline in the price of oil a plunge in the price of oil the biggest drop we've ever seen in oil cents in 1901 and at this point it's being traced back essentially to the negotiations with opec

saudi arabia has come forward and called for a decrease in oil production due to limited demand around the coronavirus well russia has come forward and said that this call for a reduction in oil production and a cap on oil production doesn't really make sense because it would give the united states an unfair advantage but this is what has been said by russian officials the russian oil industry has a high quality resource base and a sufficient financial strength to remain competitive any predicted price level as well as maintain its market share for russia's interests this deal is simply logical we giving up our own markets remove cheap arab and russian oil to make way for expensive american she'll and make it worthwhile for them saudi arabia did not appreciate russia refusing to go along with their proposal for a production cap and so they flooded the market and the price has dramatically gone down 30 percent drop $31.00

a barrel here in the united states and in response to that we've got economists talking about how dangerous this situation really is we believe. price war on equivocally still to this weekend when saudi arabia aggressively cut the relative price which is still that's crude but the most at least 20 years this is turned into a scorched earth approach by saudi arabia in particular to deal with the problem of crony. production the saudis are the lowest cost producer by far at this point the whole world is waiting to see who will blink 1st russia or saudi arabia now the shale companies in the united states those are companies that extract oil and natural gas from the shale of the united states through the practice of hydraulic fracking they have been suffering quite a bit furthermore we've got algeria and france among other countries stepping up and calling on saudi arabia to negotiate and saying that they've got to get this resolved the world economy is in a jam people are very very nervous will wait to see what happens next. to dig

deeper we're now joined live by jeffrey tucker editorial director for the american institute for economic research now what's your reaction to the eventful trading that we saw today with the 15 minute freeze and whatnot. it's an amazing calamity when it's what's happening right now it's proof you know how governments can take a threat medical threat and turn it into an international economic calamity through . these quarantines in the shutdowns and this this frenzy in the system it's become enormously disruptive to international commerce and actually even even domestic commerce you know right here in the u.s. you have conferences being canceled and slides being grounded a whole industry is are being threatened right now in the because of hysteria and panic over something we haven't yet seen it's you know there's a forecast of pandemic disease that medical professionals know how to deal with but the political response is now leaking into. disaster that i don't i'm not sure

anybody fully anticipated but it's it's bad out there it's really bad if we focus on oil some analysts have claimed the saudis were playing a high stakes gamble which is now push the oil opec group to a breaking point do you agree with that. you know it's hard to know what the what's going on with the dynamic between these 2 countries i will say this that and in a funny way it's actually a tremendous benefit to american consumers and to consumers around the world to have the price of oil down yes it's going to be disruptive to the industry you happen to your report mentioned the shale industry and fracking and yet they've been they've been levered up and pressured now for a while and this is this is a devastating change is just one industry of many that are dealing with. issues disruptions in the world economy right now this shale and their oil situations and unrelated i think to the to the government response to this disease but it is coming at a very awkward time right now that's for sure. some have accused russia of starting

in oil price war and moscow says that the opec deal just wasn't a profitable one so who's to blame here yeah i would i don't look i'm just not going to say blame me to me this is just market competition and people finding the best way to to make a buck and a difficult market and i have no problems or price cuts and and i'm not an advocate for price fixing really and so yes it's going to be tough on industry but you know industry a dab so oil industry will adapt i'm not going to blame saudi arabia and i can blame russia i believe in free market competition that that's what this looks like to me and whatever the price of oil is there's a right price as long as it's being established by the markets and that's what's going on right now market forces will not be suppressed and matter what governments do or even cartels do so i think russia is exactly right just move on keep producing and let's see where the price lands chris it does add

a certain amount of deflationary pressure. and that could have certain macroeconomic consequences for the world economy which is trending in that direction anyway as a result of mass production and distribution disruptions because of the response to the disease that you talk about industry bouncing back that this is just the name of the game but will this end up affecting ordinary citizens this economic drop. look at already has i mean. where you're seeing right now in the united states as even mayors of cities are avoiding hundreds and thousands of contractual relationships with. providers and conferences involving a quarter 1000000 people in an austin texas south by southwest was just canceled out right one week before as scheduled take place over the objections of everybody involved in cost cutting the city some of the half $1000000000.00 in economic activity and this is this is these are draconian responses and yet it's

absolutely devastating it's going to affect the labor markets international productivity and think about this what about the investment sector that was already seriously under pressure because of all the global protectionism that had weakened already people's confidence in regime certainty in the future what can we depend on what what can we this is introducing a massive amount of chaos as i say it's it's not just the disease in fact that's the least of the problem the but the problem is these draconian responses mask or in teens and when you've got there the government officials are telling people as they did this morning you need to find enter a room in your house to prepare to enter a quarantine room and all this stuff is is not helping it's causing mass risk aversion not just people stocking up on toilet paper which god knows why they're doing that but and terms of investment. when we read his panic right now

and and it's going to definitely have macroeconomic consequences we'll know with and 4 to 6 weeks once the data starts coming out just how bad the damage and what's taking place right now is going to be but world data going to see some some some chopping down of forecasts in terms of 1st quarter g.d.p. but it could if this keeps up into internet a territory and then that could provoke a recessionary environment that could take a lot longer to recover from then then there coronavirus are sure well if we try and look to the future which is of course extremely difficult at this point how long do you think that this chaos as you call that could possibly last. well some some medical professionals or expect. some some relief you know over the summer and then and then will start again by the fall but i hope rob obliquely start abating by the end of the year i'm really sorry to say that but in my own mind that's my

target is by the end of the year but the the end here we get to the good news this will stop at some point so if you're thinking as a long term investor or. you know a long term business you've got you've got a ways you have to sit tight and adapt as can be very difficult there's going to be layoffs there's going to be all sorts of problems but by the end of the year i'm expecting things to. normalize and i hope we can minimize the amount of damage that takes place but i would look to the beginning of to 2021 to start seeing some recovery from the mess that that's taking place right now and you know average i predicted this time last week that things are going to get a lot worse before they got better but i can tell you right now in the united states seems to be getting there's there's there's more and more friends even by the hour the amount of frenzy has taken place is intensify and it's it's nothing short of it's it's like a public panic that's growing by the hour and the news media's feed. and god i hope

we learn something from this for the next time we have to do with this kind of pandemic problem because i think you long run the health effects are not going to be nearly as extreme as people are expecting but the economic effects could be in the short term quite devastating for a lot of people in a lot of industries of course only time will tell jeffrey tucker editorial director for the american institute for economic research thank you for joining us on the program. in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus the italian government's locked down vast swaths of the north of the country the drastic measures come as the number of infections in the world's 2nd worst hit country reach over 9000 growing by more than one and a half 1000 overnight all the number of deaths has risen by almost 100 since yesterday amid the latest restrictions uprisings broke out in a number of jails in the country science advancer improves conditions prisoners have been reportedly angered by new rules which have seen

a suspension of family visits this footage shows a group of inmates on the roof of the sandwich or prison in milan burning items and shouting freedom but the most severe revolt was seen in the northern city of medina which left 6 inmates dead in sicily the relatives of some detainees gathered near a jail concerned over a potential prisoner infection. so while this coronavirus has been raging for almost 3 months he spoke about everything except the prisoners this is unfair because in this building they don't even have that right now an ambulance has just gone in and we have no idea why one of the ministers to be prompted all this people have sentences of less than 5 years have to be treated as different measures at home. we discuss those prison protests as well as italy and europe's response to the crisis with political analyst paulo refund he believes that is efforts have so far fallen short. definitely there are in the prison those

interests but of course this is used to to uprise with the grizz ins and try to get the permissions to return home at least don't really so be says quite disturbing events measures to be increased in the prisons because of course the inmates are very close to childbirth the possibility oh well the virus really needs there but i mean all this uprising is. not actually not just definitely. this is a bit of far mismatch in the provisions that the doctors but on the other hand they say that means into lee is a democratic country and there are a number of interests to be taken into account the u. s. confidence is and can intervene above the member states but even in this case

we could pass a c.e.o. if the e.u. to intervene in this emergency as being very vague because you calling just the sort of solidarity among states which has not been seen. scores of south african women were sterilized in public hospitals without their consent throw away sions have come to light any new report and we spoke to one of the victims it found that her uterus had been removed only when she tried to get pregnant 11 years on. burstall of the baby was to be and they had to perform a c. section i remember when i walked up i asked them why they have reached by mitch or my family then they explained their baby was too big and they include nice 16 a good engaged after trying for about 4 to 5 months. without me being able to conceive with any thought i should go see

a doctor just thought it was just my. infertility issues dr will prescribe medication opera fine and when it goes there that's when i learned that i didn't have to risk it all i don't think there was anything wrong with me i didn't have any complications before birth and i didn't have any complications after birth for some reason for i'm known reason they just decided to move my uterus i'm seeing it and non-greasy in because as i'm sitting here at this moment i don't know why i was leading this to i lived when i met with dr ed ridge who confirmed that he was in the procedure happened he also could not give me the answer all you could say to me was that they did the operation to save my life i don't know to some of my life from what the commission for gender equality investigated complaints from 48 victims south africa saw sterilization as a way to fight hiv and hospital staff for some of the women to sign consent forms

according to the world health organization the country suffers from the world's largest hiv epidemic more than 4000000 women are hiv positive according to the report illegal sterilization was carried out in 15 public hospitals between 20022005 the study was complicated by the fact hospital staff then tried to hide documentation of the victim we spoke to says she's not even hiv positive. i'm not and should be positive all our high. offices they are quite aware of this and i'll say this in camera they are quite aware of the practice and they know doing anything in the army is being held accountable it seems like our drug those above the law i didn't say in any paper and i couldn't have signed it because at that time i was a minor and my mom who was there with me all the time also didn't claim any consent form no woman deserves to go through what i am going through what and why 2 are all going through it is literally lyster lives i do not want my daughter to be singing

the same song that i'm singing today because it's time bearable with the pain that comes with this it's a bear it's unbearable and most of all rights violated my rights as a human being we're very late and my wrath is a woman and with ted my reproduction right were taken away from me and no woman ever in south africa should go through what we are going through we have contacted south africa's health authorities for comment and will bring you any response the health minister now wants to urgently investigate the issue. still had a murder trial opens in the netherlands and to the downing of the i meet 17 passengers that story and more after the break.

good point adoption is driven by banks failing and countries trailing and now in lebanon they've got a huge crisis and of course big plans come to the rescue. anyone else seems wrong. just don't call. me. yet to seep out just to come after. and in the game trade equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. join me every thursday on the alex i'm unsure and i'll be speaking to us of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then.

welcome back the trial has gotten underway in the netherlands of 3 russians and a ukrainian accused over the downing of the flight m h 17 the malaysian airlines boeing was blown out of the sky over eastern ukraine almost 6 years ago killing all 298 people on board russia rejects the accusations and claims the investigation is biased r.t. charlotta minsky has been following the case. we've been getting lots of information about how the court will proceed not just over the next few weeks but over the next few months and beyond this is all taking place at the court behind me which is the scriptural judicial complex in the shadow here of the airport where

m.h. 17 made that final flight that fatal flight which ended in the deaths of 298 individuals what we know is that all 4 men the 3 russians and one ukrainian have denied the charges against them those charges of being suspected of being involved in transporting a book a missile from russia into eastern ukraine 3 of the men will be tried in absentia they are not here the 4th man or leg. is also not here but he has a defense team that he has appointed and he has denied outright all of the charges against him the names of the victims of the mh 17 crash will all read out to the court this morning the judge the head judge describing the heavy soilent in the court as people listened to those names he also talked about this being a court case that had already been played out in the media and he said it was

something that had fired debates we've also heard from the opening remarks of the prosecution team who talked also about the family victims and their statements. another relative explained in detail how the family responded how difficult it was he describes her like this everything feels meaningless i have no energy connection with life. while this criminal trial will come as a relief for some for others it will be a heavy burden to bear every time the best occasion appears in one relative may feel home from their wounds reopened well the head judge described what happened to m.h. 17. it is being an atrocious disaster he also said that while the 4 men are suspected of being involved in transporting that book missile from russia to ukraine and the trials will be held simultaneously they cases will not be joined we've been taking

a look back at how this court case arrived it's a trial it's set to last more than a year 3 russians and the ukrainian are accused of helping to bring a book missile launch from russia into eastern ukraine where it fired the fatal shot that brought down the boeing 777 some of those that we expect to be here are 13 secret witnesses whose identities are being protected and that's because dutch prosecutors say they face significant risks to their safety but even before the court has heard a single argument some are treating the trial as a story that already has no stone left unturned brushes probably involved and if involved they're probably going to cover it up 51 percent say russia's and directly involved right now it looks like it's russia's fault because. it's russia's fault. it's clear some don't need to wait for any court verdict to draw up their own

conclusions russia claims this kind of coverage has a clear intention and in the media campaign has taken an unprecedented scale it shows how fresh and its citizens are presumed guilty that is an acceptable it has been launched in the last few days prior to the hearings in order to compensate for existing gaps in the evidence and to conceal the attempts to manipulate the facts so that it fits with a chosen theory for the prosecutors say they have evidence that the book a missile system was transported from russia into the donetsk region of ukraine in the days before it was fired now russia says that's not true it's presented evidence that the fatal missile serial number. can be traced all the way back to the 1980 s. when it says it was transported to ukraine then a member of the soviet union and it's there it stayed after the collapse of the u.s.s.r. but the joint investigation team into the mh 17 tragedy has russia says ignored

what it believes is a crucial piece of the jigsaw russia was also refused full participation in the probe and as such says it will not recognize the verdict reached here by the court despite the fact russia was denied being a full participant of the joint investigation team since the very 1st day of the tragedy the russian federation has actively assisted the investigation and during the past year is conveyed to our dutch colleagues a large amount of data connected with the mh 17 crash unfortunately most of these materials were ignored by the joint investigation team this includes a test by the book manufacturer to try and pinpoint the location it was shot from. russia claims that test shows the mis are likely came from an area controlled by ukrainian forces but the findings were jacketed by the g i

t with its report stating that russia and ukrainian rebels were responsible. we have established that the russian federation was complicit in the downing of m h 17 because they made available the weapon that was used to shoot down the plane we have all the material to substantiate. the official investigation also receive criticism from malaysia 43 malaysians died in the catastrophe which involved the country's national carrier but his start is they were not given full access to essential information that was contained in the black box of the flight recorders while the countries are now. former prime minister has raised doubts from the very beginning we see too much politics in the idea was to find. how would this happen when all that. seemed to be considered. to be

on russia many relatives of those who were killed in the mh 17 disaster are expected to be present at the trial so this is a court case about finding the truth and perhaps finding closure for a devastating chapter of their lives some have already crane for not closing it skies over a conflict zone in the east of the country but whatever the outcome here regardless of whether the 4 men are found guilty or innocent nothing will ever bring back their loved ones. r.t. them. a survey by the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america group has revealed a high levels of suicidal thoughts among service members a study shows i must have have considered taking their lives since joining the military and around 2 thirds know about her and who have killed themselves this all

comes as no surprise to iraq war veteran and anti-war activist vincent emanuel most of the veterans that i know i think have indeed had those thoughts and i think. your mindset changes quite dramatically. throughout your service and i think after being deployed and especially if you. had seen or experienced combat and i think. after those deployments and then deploying multiple occasions i think all of this plays a factor in whether or not. the turns are more prone. to commit suicide to become violent to become addicted to drugs or alcohol people come home and lives in relationships and families are put under incredible stress because people are coming home and after having experienced all of those horrific things often turn to very destructive behavior to cope with those things. almost 40 percent of veterans

also report a lack of job opportunities after they leave service post military veterans say they face a loss of purpose they struggle with reintegration into community and normal social interactions and health problems and getting treatment are other issues and some time manual again says getting out of wars globally would help. the u.s. government unfortunately is not doing enough and the u.s. government has done more over the years the veterans administration is in much better shape today than it was 15 years ago when i 1st started using it but that's not because the government took it upon themselves to do it it's because thousands of veterans and family members of veterans stood up and fought for those things and of course the wars continue to go on so we need to deescalate all of the current wars we need to withdraw from afghanistan completely we need to withdraw from iraq

we need to withdrawal from syria we need to withdraw from libya we need to withdraw forces from somalia and all over africa. and that would be the best 1st step if we don't the the best thing you can do for veterans is to not create more veterans that's a round up of these top news for now thanks for telling it. as a nation establishment thing to do yes and investors. should i say there's room for a full view of the troika 1st for. the new chairman that begins. next to try to accomplish for. the. purpose.

it was because the global was going to have to close you. always you. have the flavor of us to move in this photo that. you're fighting with the sofa cushion. on the left. us focus of so much because in the south. our time is up for. hours to come join us now our nightly top something to do. i get to 6 you see a smart guy. it's. a man you come from. this to us some ideas come.