u.s. general confirms washington is in the process of bringing air defense systems into iraq to perth attacked american troops for a potential iranian attack that after 2 marines are killed in iraq during an anti i saw for a show. also this hour a blot america could potentially run again for president if the public votes for a new changes in the russian constitution next month. plus the fires of riots and violence sweeps italy's prisons after the state's strict response to the spread of the coronavirus.

11 pm here at r t h q in moscow we're glad you decided to join us for your world news update this hour again. the u.s. is boosting its offensive capabilities in iraq the head of u.s. central command said this was in response to the threat posed to american troops by neighboring iran. also in the process of bringing air defense systems ballistic missile defense systems into iraq in particular to protect ourselves against a bit another potential iranian attack well just when many thought that tensions between the united states and the islamic republic of iran were starting to cool we have the u.s. central command telling us the opposite take a listen this is no easy task iran is persistent and is growing its arsenal ballistic missiles despite international condemnation around remains the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism now it's important to note that the iraqi

parliament has voted to end the presence of all foreign troops in the country however the usa maintains a military presence in iraq now iran has other priorities than conducting war games with the united states let's remember that iran has been pretty hard hit by coronavirus now it's also interesting that the pentagon refers to iran as the greatest source of terrorism in the middle east when just sunday we saw it 2 u.s. military personnel killed at the hands of the ice ill terrorists these are the 1st u.s. military personnel killed by i still sense truck declared the group had been totally defeated the coalition to defeat isis has liberated very close to 100 percent of the territory we're doing a good job with those as we have just absolutely decimated eyes as we have won a good study says we've beaten them and we've beaten a badly the isis caliphate. has been decimated in another short

period of time like hours you'll be hearing hours and days you'll be hearing about the caliphate it was 100 percent defeated so despite the fact that 2 u.s. marines were killed by the ice still terrorists the united states continues to take the position under the leadership of the trump white house that your rob a country that has been key in the battle against isis is somehow the greatest source of terrorism in the region. joining us live now is anti-war activist ken stone now do you think does the u.s. have good grounds to be boosting its defensive keeping capacities and iraq. the short answer is no it doesn't have good grounds to to boost its capacity in iraq it should get out of iraq but for years the u.s. has been using both isis and iran as a pretext to maintain its military presence in both syria and iraq.

isis as it turns out from abundant evidence is a u.s. asset the us created it find it armed it and never really fought against it they left the heavy lifting to the syrian arab army and its allies in syria and they left the heavy lifting in iraq to their kurdish proxy fighters and to the popular militia units so the they don't need this defensive capacity of missiles against isis that it's directed against iran and iran has embarrassed the us in front of the whole world on january the 8th when it retaliated for that he and his assassination of love tenet general solar maney by dropping a number of ballistic missiles onto u.s. military bases in iraq for which the us had absolutely no defense and so these this increase in capacity and i which they say is defensive is as a result of the iranian retaliation but we have to keep in mind that this so-called

defensive capacity in a few hours could be changed to an offensive capacity and be used to target sites in iran you were touching on there what happened earlier the theor and after all of that happened the iraqi parliament voted against having foreign troops and the country any longer do you think the u.s. has taken into account baghdad position when announcing this new change. absolutely not the not only was was that a unanimous vote to go non-binding in the iraqi parliament but there were at least a 1000000 people some say 2 and a half 1000000 people in the streets of baghdad demanding that the u.s. get out of iraq and on top of that there were demonstrations around the world including in my hometown here of hamilton ontario for no war in iran by the u.s. so the feeling in the in iraq in the middle east and around the world is that the

u.s. should get out of iraq not. what kind of response you think we're going to have both from iraq and from iran on this posting up of. i think that this will only antagonize the people of iraq and it will it will also make the people of iran upset because the the the presence of the united states in iraq and syria is a provocation to all the people in the middle east who want to reassert their and national sovereignty and territorial integrity and here comes the u.s. and and plunks itself down in the middle of the region and tries to recolonize countries such as syria iraq yemen all these things all the all that the us does is increase the tensions in the middle east it

increases the likelihood of a wider regional war and even god forbid a world war so the smartest thing the best thing that could happen from the point of view of the people of the region and the whole world is that us removes itself from the middle east and acts like stop acting like a stops acting like a rogue player on the international stage and starts acting through diplomacy and. bargaining negotiation rather than the heavy handed fist that the u.s. uses now can stone anti-war activist thank you for your time and your comments. now to syria where a fragile peace in the adlib province is still holding with russia and turkey discussing ways to strengthen it it's been reported that turkey it might even start withdrawing its heavy weaponry our sensor tell our to air bag has been traveling

with patrols along the border. you know how the only hope i have the car you get to now we fly over the us and i didn't want to go the russian into the process the oil reserves. near the american soldiers position the. plot a mere putin hasn't ruled out staying and power if that's what the people want the suggestion was 1st made by an m.p. as the duma discussed potential changes to the constitution or the president said it would be up to the people to decide in

a public vote next month and it would also have to be approved by the constitutional court my colleague and a farmer was given all the details by gust of. so i'm right what did mr putin say exactly will his speech his address to the parliament was basically a summary of why this is needed why these constitutional amendments are necessary he also address the number of points additional amendments that the parliament had come up with among them was an amendment that would potentially lift the constitutional limit of the number of presidential terms anyone president can serve here blog me of putin was asked whether he supported it to which he replied no. society should have guarantees that the regular changes. we need to think about future generations will do should i consider it is appropriate to remove from the

constitution restrictions and the number of presidents returned to look he said russia has had its fair share of revolutions upheavals changes in power you know every time people expected something better to come of it and every time what they got was the opposite of corruption mass deaths it's been hectic not only putin says there's no more appetite for revolutions in russia but people want change and this is you know this is inside everyone of us we want you blood and he says the point of a limit to the number of times a president can serve is to make sure that there's new ideas new faces coming into the government all the time taking russia into a new level evolving and helping keep up with the times but last me a putin was also asked of another potential constitutional amendment of the reset of his presidential limit so potentially allowing him to serve another 2 terms

given how wide reaching these constitutional amendments are they're changing almost every aspect. of life for russians and here's what we're putin had to say on potentially that. the 2nd proposal means removing the restriction from any citizen and the incumbent president inclusively and allowing their future participation in the elections if citizens support this amendment during the vote on april 22nd this option would only be possible under one condition if the constitutional court gives an official ruling that this will not contradict the laws of the constitution worth mentioning is that vladimir putin didn't say whether he would run for another term if the constitutional court deemed these potential amendments regarding resetting his presidential terms as legitimate as legal so you know that's still up in the air and how do you think the public would react

to this then if they had the chance to vote on what people people are going to react differently i mean likely of putin's support his support levels his poll numbers away up he still has a majority support an overwhelming majority support but he this is his 4th presidential term ease an old face and he said himself that you know new blood is needed new faces are needed in government people people want new people want evolution. and here again people will be voting only on whether vladimir putin is allowed to run for another 2 terms this is a whole host of issues and the moments that people will be voting for a new livable minimum wage establishing marriage as something union between a man and a woman forbidding parliamentarians potential candidates with jule citizenship for running from running for high office so these are this is a huge array of changes and likely putin here says that they're absolutely

necessary that was the gist of his speech to parliament because times are changing . these are troubled thoughts nevertheless that is his take on how things will turn out it is entirely another whether russians agree with him and the vote is next month in april and that is when people will decide ultimately whether the believe his words where they believe that these amendments will make for a better tomorrow. italy has been dealing with its 1st full day on lockdown in a bid to stop the spread of the corona virus a number of infections nationwide has now surpassed 10000 the death toll has grown to more than $630.00 the country is the 2nd worst affected after china. i'm about to send it to create that we can sum up with the expression homes there will no longer be a red zone there will no longer be

a zone one. can enjoy there will be. at least that it is a protected zone. amid the tight new restrictions uprisings broke out in a number of jails prisoners and have been riding since yesterday after they took over a jail and set it on fire and milan inmates were filmed on the rooftop burning items and shouting freedom and 6 detainee's died in clashes in the northern city of my data on sicily relatives of prisoners gathered near a jail concern at that prisoners could be infected by the coded 1000 virus prisoners are reportedly angered by new rules which have seen the family visit suspended meanwhile citizens in the italian capital lined up in long queues at supermarkets on monday night after the country's pm extended the lockdown measures to the entire country meanwhile some italians were seen fleeing from the peak of the outbreak in the north to sicily and the south. situations requires a strong sense of responsibility especially for young who want because for example

i'm coming from the nato and probably put myself in voluntary quarantine and i do not think it is the right time to exporting germs these aggregate in any case it is a question of respect for us and for others in particular because i'm 25 years old and her family members are older. than the situation with finding this place is getting complicated as the situation is already out of. school is clearly that everyone takes on their responsibilities and that's appropriate precautions are taken with oneself as for others. we discussed the infectious risk coming from coburg 19 with russian academic an obstetrician gynecologist 5 mark kurz or is that despite pregnant women a stimulant not being at risk everyone should stand alert. both the police who did the reports about the current developments we're getting from our colleagues in china say that pregnant women do not belong to the risk group all information about

their peculiarities and complications we're getting so many from military sources i would like to highlight that there's not a single pregnant woman among the few coronavirus infected people in russia and not a single child as far as i know all the information we're getting is from foreign literature i'm currently reading reports describing the 19 pregnant women infected by mild coronavirus 4 of them successfully gave birth and the crucial thing is that they did not transmit the corona virus to their children either by blood or any other way if you do not belong to the risk group and it does not mean that you do not pose a threat to those who surround you or the elder population that your parents you should not relax. after wall street suffered its 1st automatic hope in trading and more than 2 decades with stocks falling nearly 8 percent world markets seem to be slowly recovering so is the price of oil which also went into freefall yesterday after a price war triggered by saudi arabia and in the u.s.

the dow plunged more than 2000 points the worst one day point drop ever prompted by oil price war that stunned markets around the world we had a huge market event yesterday as a lot of investors repriced at all the sharp crash we start in markets and the 2000 point swing on the dow it's the same for what happens today business news now starting with the crude oil markets as they try to bounce back from their worst day since 1009 to one well prices plunged 30 percent on what's been dubbed black monday in the biggest single day fall through the 1st iraq war it was sparked by a spat between top crude suppliers in riyadh and moscow who couldn't agree on a deal on production. saudi arabia says it's slashing oil prices to grab market share from russia and falls russia's a refusal last week to back an opec plan to cut oil production to bolster its price believe that that would only benefit high cost producers in the u.s. or so that r.j.

minister had this to say about the situation. unfortunately opec plus partners decided at their meeting to reduce all of the production by the end of the year 1500000 sharon said they did not consider any other options of course this led to the fact that low consensus was reached the extension of the agreement and starting from april the 1st all countries have the opportunity to independently determine their production policy on the view that yesterday saw a very strong decline in world markets and accordingly prices this was primarily cause but it was not appeared on the weekend that saudi am close it offered its consumers an additional price reduction however today we can see that markets it's partially recovered showing about 7 percent growth to see how the situation develops but it seems to me that the panic that has hold yesterday has already partially subsided the market now. that you. are alive but also as we now

cross live to the man who brought us the term quantitative easing richard warner who is a professor of banking and finance now of course there's a lot of finger pointing going on right now moscow has been accused by some of starting a price war while others say we are the one who sent the oil prices tumbling so where does the truth lie in your opinion. well what we witnessed is that russia has refused to join a price cartel. and instead seems interested in increasing competition in the world's commodity markets as you know opec is a cartel that has been artificially pushing up the oil price that's being why it's was created and russia refused to join the cartel effectively now the cartel responded by saying well they were going to hurt you by driving down the price and russia said well you want to drive down the price you know be my guest we can manage with a lower price we like a bit of competition and so it's

a game of chicken that moment. saudi arabia doesn't want to have to blink and russia is not going to blink so this could mean that. essentially one of the. one of those countries most affected will be united states of america the shale oil industry essentially requires the our prize to be a little bit higher and so it's ironic because of course the 1st country to play the oil market in order to hurt another country in recent history was the united states trying to hurt russia 201415. in addition to sanctions imposed on russia russia. effectively reorganized its economy has implement a lot of import substitution policies there's a look industries russia has been creating at the still many can create because it

has well educated people know how resources everything you need really and so it's become much more resilient now to embargoes and also a lower price so let's see what happens i think russia is sitting fairly comfortably and i suspect others such as in the us or in saudi arabia will 1st get uncomfortable so that's sort of the globe our perspective on all of this but if we were to think about the everyday person oil prices have dropped people are saying that it's great even donald trump is tweeting out supporting the idea of cheaper oil but what does that mean are there consequences that are going to come down the line absolutely if we stop the artificial crushing up of commodities prices particularly oil this could be this could give a big boost supply side positive boost to the world economy. of course when the opposite happened $173.78 it was a major major negative shock when they when the cartel opec pushed up oil prices

massively and so now we see the opposite be or president bush down so this should be a major a positive supply shock. well it's a bit of a perfect storm here isn't it as well with the coronavirus as well people looking at cheap oil isn't really going to help them when you don't want to be moving around too much right now. well that is true and of course that that is going to be one of the factors that will likely keep the oil prices depressed for a little while allan are clearly not going to stock up on kerosene all sorts of derivatives fuel derivatives will experience less than model and as you say traveling goes down. but again it's time for maybe structural change of course those who pushing for increased digitalisation up economy they will get a boost as well. the central banks and also the world health organization of ready

said let's stop using cash can transmit routers and instead let's use digital transactions of course as more people staying at home whether so quarantined or all the was a like you to place more orders online so this is likely to accelerate this digital share as i said earlier the markets do seem to be bouncing back a little bit today do you think that we're going to see that trend continue or is there going to be an economic situation as bad as it was in 2008 for example i don't think it's going to be as bad as that. i don't think we've seen the end of this volatility that's going to be continued volatility for a little while but overall essentially the markets have for the last well decades to be honest being manipulated by central banks printing money pushing it into asset markets and all i suspect they will continue to do this for a while so often volatility and could you know a bit of

a correction we do expect they'll manage to push markets up. richard werner professor of banking and finance thank you for joining us on the program today thank you very much. there's been significant irregularities in democratic primary voting including closed or relocated polling stations and extremely long lines that's according to the league of united latin american citizens we got the views of independent news site the gray zone who said the organization of american states should look at the claims. the u.s. must send an emergency election monitoring team to the united states to ensure independent scrutiny of a presidential primary that has been marred by clear regularities and the systematic and high need to scream into obstruction of citizen's right to vote in the united states what we actually have witnessed are major discrepancies between exit polling data in the democratic 2020 primary and the final computer count which

is being conducted in a very opaque fashion we've seen in minority and poor communities people having to wait in line for 5 hours just to vote in the state of texas 750 polling places have been removed since 2012 that means there is one polling place for every $7700.00 people and this is particularly an acute problem in latino and african-american areas why are there no election monitors in the u.s. why does the oas only send election monitors to places like bolivia 'd to falsely allege fraud and trigger military coups if texas or new hampshire or south carolina were socialist latin american countries the cia through the oas would have already installed a stick right wing government like that of janine on is today in bolivia and october of last year the oas accuse bolivia socialist government of irregularities and vote counting which led to you homer ellis having to step down after being told

to do so by his military however a new top level u.s. study has found no evidence of election fraud and the former bolivian leader who is now in political asylum in argentina that the oas stole the election. last year we won in the 1st round you know researchers and scientists are demonstrating that there was no fraud on october 20. 3 and let's not have any fear of dictatorship brothers and sisters we are going to defeat the dictatorship with democracy with the conscience of the bolivian people. the un human rights organization has expressed concern over the prosecution of dozens of people close to the former president libya is now headed by a right wing conservative government led by janine and yes proclaimed herself interim president taylor picks up the story but libya was promised peace what i got was beatings bullets and a whole lot of. once

boldly waving from the balcony of the presidential palace the self appointed interim president janine anya is now high eaves from angry crowd to a chanting assassin traitor because the woman who promised peace. assumed the presidency with the fact in line with the constitution and pledged to take all measures necessary to bring peace to the country has waged war on john and as politicians i don't have very own people. there's a director of the state radio station was tied to

a tree and humiliated for hours. an incident that was reportedly documented by argentine journalist moro who was found unconscious in his. moment later raise to different parts of his body and who died 6 days later. various foreign ministers described whole east containing their home address as telephone numbers family addresses and other personal information are being circulated viral facebook and other social media. it has also been publicly reported that the lifeless bodies of several people who were killed in the mess occurred disappeared allegedly after being collected by law enforcement officers and no further information has scenes been provided on them

just as she's already cracking down on the violent supporters of the previous government but either way it seems it's easier to make promises of peace when you haven't had a taste of power yet and to parity bang is quite likes the taste because despite promising not to seek election may she's decided to throw her hat into the ring off to rule now washington must be pleased it was off to roll in its support of the democratic regime change in the latin american country but it also considers itself the need of the free walled so surely such reports of brutality would dissolve at least a slap on the wrist no. silence for as good as silence to the killings to the beatings to the take us a diluted let's all be well behaved and it's not a one off pos. why was the indignation what hundreds of human rights activist

community does what killed in colombia when there was a piece killings and brazilian neighborhoods all when the president was allegedly linked to drug traffickers that. wasn't any or it was hard hearted best and what do they have in common all the countries are run by right wing government too many have nice things to say about donald trump latin america has long been washington's playground from panama to guatemala from venezuela to grenada washington has been keen to strong arm in sympathetic leaders and it seems that once that in human rights be damned staying in south america demonstration called by ben as well an opposition leader one guardo has ended with clashes between protesters and police thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched through caracas on tuesday where tensions boiling over.