a u.s. general confirms washington is in the process of bringing air defense systems into iraq to protect american troops from a potential attack after 2 marines are killed in iraq during and i saw operation. with this our bottom could potentially run again for president if the public votes for a new changes in the russian constitution next month. plus fires riots and death violence sweeps at least prisons after the state's strict response to the spread of the coronavirus.

a very warm welcome to the program from all of us here at r t h q and must go into joining us this hour. the u.s. is boosting its defensive 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. we are 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 a ram 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 a 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's 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 iraq a country that has been key in the battle against isis is somehow the greatest source of terrorism in the region anti-war activist ken stone thinks the u.s. military presence in the middle east only increases the chances for conflict. we have to keep in mind that this so-called defensive capacity in a few hours could be changed to an office of capacity and be used to target sites in iran 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. now to syria where a fragile peace in the it lead province is still holding with russia and turkey discussing ways to strengthen it it's been reported that turkey might even start withdrawing its heavy weaponry a cease fire was arranged last week by vladimir putin and his turkish counterpart after fighting intensified in at the end of february turkey became involved in an escalation with the syrian army after 33 of its soldiers were killed in an air

strike our sister channel are to arabic has been traveling with patrols along the border. hope i have the car you did now we fly over the u.s. i did one of the russian internet. problems the reserve. near the american soldiers position with. a. lot of men put in hasn't ruled out staying in 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 however 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 of. so my reported mr putin say exactly well 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 a putin was asked whether he supported it to which he replied no. i will be long and society should have guarantees that the regular change of power

will be ensured we need to think about future generations but i consider it inappropriate to remove from the constitution a restriction on the number of presidential terms 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 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 that 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 the future participation in the elections if citizens to 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

you know that 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 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 that we put in here says that they're absolutely necessary that was the gist of his speech to parliament because times are changing. he's a troubled 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 coronavirus the number of infections nationwide has now surpassed 10000 or the death toll has grown to more than $630.00 the country is the 2nd worst affected after china. i am about to send a decree 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 or a zone on our peninsula there will be at lea that it is a protected zone amid the tight new restrictions uprisings broke out in a number of jails across the country prisoners and bologna i have been writing since yesterday after they took over a jail and set it on fire in milan and mates were filmed on the rooftop burning items and shouting for freedom and 60 chinese died in clashes in the northern city of my data on to slate relatives of prisoners gathered near a jail concerned that prisoners could be infected by the kobe 1000 virus prisoners are reportedly angered by the new rules which have seen a family visit suspended. meanwhile citizens after the country's pm extended the lockdown measures to the entire country some italians were seen fleeing from the peak of the operate in the north to sicily in the south. of this isn't usually choir's a strong sense of responsibility especially for young because for example i'm

coming from the nato and probably put myself through voluntary quarantine and i do not think it is the right time to go to ground exporting germs average gas 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. 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 part of this. obstetrician gynecologist markers are spoke with us earlier about the risk of infection from cope at 19 particularly for pregnant women. 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 the 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 or of them successfully gave birth and the crucial thing is that they did not transmit the corona virus to their children either by blood nor any other way if you did not belong to the risk group it does not mean that you do not pose a threat to those who surround you or the elder population to your parents you should not relax. after wall street suffered its 1st automatic halt in trading and more than 2 decades with stocks falling nearly 8 percent well markets seem to be slowly recovering so is the price of oil which also went into freefall on monday after a price war was 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 in a 2000 point swing on the dow set the scene 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. prices plunged 30 percent on what's been dubbed black monday in the biggest single day fall from the 1st iraq war it was sparked by a spat between top crude suppliers 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 that falls russia's refusal last week to back an opec plan to cut oil production to bolster its price moscow believe that would only benefit high cost producers and the u.s. has energy minister had this to say about the situation. unfortunately

opec plus partners decided that their meeting to reduce oil production by the end of the year by $1500000.00 barrels and they did not consider any other options of course this led to the fact that no consensus was reached on the extension of the agreement and starting from april the 1st all countries have the opportunity to independently determine their production policy yesterday very strong decline in world markets and accordingly prices this was primarily caused by mean use that appeared on the weekend that saudi am co had offered its consumers an additional price reduction however today we can see that markets have partially recovered showing about 7 percent growth we'll see how the situation develops but it seems to me that the panic that took hold yesterday has already partially subsided the market now more stable. analysts we spoke to told us that saudi arabia is playing a losing game. but he was an observer markets didn't see this coming

the credit bubble blowing up again this is part 2 of the 2008 financial crisis you know it turns out russia's best at that you know whether coal or oil game you know russia's cost of energy is about $7.00 a barrel ok saudi arabia is close to $3.00 a barrel russia has got no debt and they've been buying goal meanwhile in usa and america their cost is closer to $50.00 and this will be the complete this arrangement of the american shale industry saudi arabia and america are really that position that this international oil kolker game and i think russia's all the 3 aces the current situation clearly the saudis are to blame they have taken a move to use only benefit to the only potential advantage in the general strategic michael valiant terms is the surprise toddy arabia vastly increased production to

create a huge price drop and with the potential for further price drops we're talking something some analysts fear prices could go as low as $23.00 a barrel which would be levels than the early ninety's and this move was solely precipitated by the saudi arabia simply because the russians did not go along with the previous proposal when in fact there was room for further negotiation what princella mind wants to achieve with this remains unclear because his oil production increase is also compromises the saudi states' ability to fulfill its welfare function and therefore to keep domestic stability. u.k. army veteran thrum the commonwealth and international association of states formally part of the british empire have criticised what they call the grave injustice that

they could be deported m.p.'s from the ruling conservative party are now calling on the government to help former service members at the complex and costly procedures to stay in the country. it's hard to imagine people more entitle to live in our islands than those who have fought to defend them we need to look hard at these cases and ensure we support those who should have been able to stay all along. this don't seem wrong i hope the home office will rectify this quickly and save these former british soldiers from the trauma of court proceedings and further delay under home office rules commonwealth veterans who have served at least 4 years in the u.k. armed forces can apply for indefinite leave to remain also known as settlement however many cannot afford the procedures which can cost thousands of pounds and those who don't apply could be forced to leave britain a better and we spoke to told us that the treatment by the government is appalling . we should not be. made an application to the many occasions.

you see me and refusing me or. the armed forces from the. army that refuse me from working in. which and i know i have. only one seat i mean that's room. for them and. i mean there's room. to do is. remain as. the wife of a british soldier from south africa has started an online petition to make a life long stay in the u.k. free for all commonwealth better and she shared her thoughts with us. they have so sour cream in country they have for clinton country i mean what has been the lebanese he's done 2 tours he's. streets and under nafta a terrorist attack and taxis that are not entitled to any benefits or anything like that why have we charges such

a ridiculous amount of money for them to remain in the u.k. pop to death done everything that's done we lived life to children and it was come to redundancies and i was a bit worried that so i said oh we need to start making sure we got money aside and the face just kept going up and up every year every day when they go up the risk of my husband and son but it's a subclass occurred to me having to explain to my 2 young children if anything happened to him genuinely career i think that they need to re-evaluate the course. there have been significant irregularities in democratic primary voting and put in close or relocated polling stations and extremely long lines that's according to the league of united latin american citizens without the use of independent news site the gray zone who said the organization of american states should take a 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 highly disagreements struction 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 people and this is particularly 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 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 accused bolivia socialist government of irregularities and vote counting which led to evo morales 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 a former bolivian leader who is now in a political asylum in argentina so the oas stole the elections. last year we won in the 1st round no 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 onion who 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. wants boldly waving from the balcony of the presidential palace the self appointed interim president janine anya is now ha it's from angry crowds who are chanting assassin traitor because the woman who promised peace. i assume the presidency with a midget a fact in line with the constitution and pledge to take all measures necessary to bring peace to the country has waged war on john as politicians and on have very own people. it.

was. the director of the state radio station was tired to a tree and humiliated for hours. an incident that was reportedly documented by argentine journalist on a moro who was found unconscious in his home a day later with injuries to different parts of his body and who died 6 days later . various foreign ministers described whole east containing their home interests 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 wire flares bodies of several people were. kielty in this occurred disappear allegedly after being collected by law enforcement officers and no further information has been provided on them says 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 manda 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 of to rule now washington must be pleased it was off to rule 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 deserve at

least a slap on the wrist no. silence for as good as silence to the killings to the beatings to the tear gas 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 were killed in colombia when there was peace killings in brazilian neighborhoods all when the president was allegedly linked to drug traffickers there wasn't any or it was hard hearted best and what do they have in common all the countries are run by right wing governments who only 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 standing in south america a demonstration called by venezuelan opposition leader one guardo has ended with clashes between protesters and police thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched through caracas on tuesday with tensions boiling over. demonstrators were hoping to reach the national assembly and renew a campaign to oust pro-government lawmakers before being blocked by a security barricade place then fired tear gas to try and disperse the crowds this is the 1st rally call by dos since returning to about as well from a high profile tour to drum up international support in a bid to unseat president nicolas maduro the opposition leader declared himself interim president after launching a movement to oust mentor all last year. that's a news break down for this hour and that's all for me as well today but we're not foskett taylor will be taking over at about 30 minutes thanks for tuning in

wherever you may be. what is the difference between embarrassing gaffes and elder abuse joe biden certainly excels at the former and maybe is the victim of the latter we're told dimension of mental health is off limits to what degree does the public the right to know. good food descriptions it's owned up to tell using even for the owners so how to choose just pet food industry is telling us what to feed our pets really more based on what they want to sell us than what's necessarily good for the pet. food may not

be so see this people believe we have animals that have you know diabetes in our stride they have auto immune disorders they've had allergies we are actually creating these problems it's a huge epidemic of tom's all of them i believe can be linked to very simple problem of. and some dog owners so heartbreaking stories about their pets streets the larger corporations are not very interested in proving or disproving the value of their food because they're already making $1000000000.00 on it and there's no reason to do that research.

or this is the kaiser report you know involvement. in adoption is driven by banks failing and countries trailing and now in lebanon they've got a huge crisis and of course big come to the rescue stacey max we're going to get into lebanon but 1st i want to have some show notes here we are still in los angeles it is the busy suburbs where they did film brady bunch so you have a lot of leaf blowers you do have garbage man you have all sorts of stuff and we have flights going overhead as people are trying to flee the coronavirus apocalypse we're also going to try to flee there coronavirus apocalypse and so you may see us recording soon from home because if we can't get out if everybody is quarantined it could be a situation where we're just like live streaming on periscope for the show for the future cool here's an headline from lebanon that happened in the past week and a half while the markets were tumbling while everything was going chaotic and that .