u.s. general confirms washington is in the process of bringing defense systems into iraq to protect american troops from a potential irradiate attack after all to 2 marines are killed in iraq during an anti eyesore pray should. not recruit and could potentially run again for president if the public votes for new changes in the russian constitution next month also ahead. far as riots and violence sweep cities presents off to the state's strict response to the spread of the coronavirus.

bringing you the latest news every hour of the day this is out international thanks for joining us. well let's start with how 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 about 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 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 trying to declare 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 antiwar activists can stay and thinks the u.s. military presence in the mideast actually 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 offensive 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

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 etna province is still halting with russia to discuss ways to strengthen it it's been reported the taxi might even start withdrawing its heavy weaponry a cease fire was arranged last week 5 thought to move it's not his toughest counterpart off to fighting intensified and at clip at the end of february he became involved in an escalation with the syrian army off to $33.00 of its soldiers were killed in

an strike on a system that has been traveling with patrols along the border. the able to carry that now we fly over the us and he's been one of the russian into the eagles promised the oil reserve. near the american soldiers positions in. the public story from today to my poor 10 hasn't ruled out staying in power if that's what the people want the suggestion was fos 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 of course to decide in a public vote next month and it would also have to be approved by the constitutional court my colleague andrew fama was given more details by. 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 blag 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 should i consider it is appropriate 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 every one of us we want you blood and he says the point of a limit to the number of times a person can serve is to make sure that there's no 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 blood near putin was also

asked of another potential constitutional amendment of the reset and 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. life for russians and here's what i will 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 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 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 in 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 a jewel 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 where the russians agree with him and the vote is next month in april and that is when people will decide ultimately whether they believe his words whether they believe these amendments will make for a better tomorrow. a story everyone's talking about it's only has been dealing with its 1st full day in lockdown in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus the number of infections nationwide has now surpassed 10000 while the death toll has grown to more than $630.00 the country

is the 2nd worst affected after china. i am a bird 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 orpen ensure 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 belong to have been writing since yesterday after they took over and set on fire in milan inmates were filmed on the rooftop bombing items and shouting. 6 detainees died in clashes in the northern city of the dam or anyone sicily relatives of present as a cow that narrowed jail concerned the prisoners could be infected by the covert 19 virus prisoners are reportedly angered by new rules which have seen family visits suspended. and all the scenes in the italian capital royal line dop in long queues

at supermarkets on monday night after the country's prime minister extended the knocked out of the entire country meanwhile some italians were seen fleeing from the epicenter of the outbreak that's in the north to sicily and the south. requires a strong sense of responsibility especially. because for example i'm coming from and probably put myself in voluntary quarantine and i do not think it is the right time to exporting germs to get them in any case it is a question of respect for us and for others in particular because i'm 25 years old but our 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 both for oneself as for others obstetrician gynecologist spoke with us about the risk of infection from covert 19 especially for pregnant women. 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 solely 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 report describing the 19 pregnant women infected by mild corona virus 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 nor any other way if you do 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. now for an economic story after wall street suffered its 1st automatic call in trading in more than 2 decades with stocks falling nearly 8 percent while markets seem to be slowly recovering so is the price of oil which also went into freefall on monday 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 that oil shock the crash restart market the no 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 100921 all prices plunged 30 percent on what's been dubbed black monday and the biggest single day for iraq or it was sparked by

a spot between top crude surprise riyadh and moscow couldn't agree on a deal on production. saudi arabia says it is slashing oil prices to grab markets from russia it follows russia's refusal last week to back an opec plan to cut oil production to bolster its price with moscow believing that would only benefit high cost producers in the u.s. russia's 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 saw a very strong decline in world markets and accordingly oil prices this was

primarily caused by the news 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 sharing 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 well we got insight from analysts who told us that saudi arabia is really playing a losing game. anyone who's an observer markets could see this coming the credit bubble blowing up again this is part 2 of the 2008 financial crisis you know it turns out russia has the best hand at that you know a lot of coal oil going you know russia's cost of energy is about $7.00 a barrel ok saudi arabia has 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 is holding 3 aces the current situation clearly the saudis are to blame they have taken a move to use only benefits the only potential advantage in the general strategic mikey of allien terms is the surprise tadi arabia vastly increased production to create a huge price drop and with 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 still to come some fat trans from outside the u.k. who sobbed in the armed forces legal action against the government. as a visa fees will tell you all about bought off the shelf break. anyone else chose seemed wrong why don't we just don't all. get to shape out just days after. and in again because the trail.

went cold many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. the world is driven by dreamers shaped by one person or those with. thinks. we fear to ask.

welcome back u.k. army thought trends from the commonwealth an international space station of states for many part of the british empire have criticised what they call the quote grave injustice that they could be deported m.p.'s from the ruling conservative party are now calling on the government to help for most of its members with 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. 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 on the home office rolls commonwealth act friends who have served at least 4 years in the u.k. armed forces can apply for and death that 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 that told us that that treatment by the government is appalling we should not be in lives of these 1000000 application to the or more many occasions. you see me and refusing me all over. the armed forces from the from the. refuse me from working in. which and i know i have. only money. i mean there'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 life long stay in the u.k. free for all commonwealth veterans she shut her thoughts with us on the story. they have so that our country they have fought for our country i mean what has been the

lonely he's done 2 tours he's. done do not get a terrorist attack. they're not entitled to any benefits or anything. why would we charge is such a ridiculous amount of money for them to remain in the u.k. popped it up 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 ok we need to start making sure that money aside and going up and up every day will go on the risk of my husband and. me having to explain to my 2 young children if anything happened in journalism career i think that they need to re-evaluate the course. a new u.k. streaming service has slapped a warning label on old episodes of the b.b.c. classic dr boxes move follows complaints that references to asian people and an

episode from 1977 are racist the episode in question titled the talents of when china has a white actor made up to play an east asian character the words used in the programme to describe his appearance have been branded as unexceptable. it's really hard to watch because you aren't acceptable now when you are somebody who was called in your childhood as i have been it's so hard to hear that word and not feel immediately a trigger reaction of how ron it is. we put the issue up for debate with commentator mo and saw a new york observer columnist andrea walker. i think actually we should have access to films and videos and t.v. programs that were made in the past even if they include content that might be deemed offensive today now the bigger problem of course is that brit box which has

been launched by the b.b.c. and i.t.v. has not been very successful and that's partly because it's removed a whole swathe of programmes that's pretty people might want to watch because of wall to remarks that might seem off color today when on trade talks about using himself as a cultural counterpoint upon which we are to measure things i'm for 1 am getting sick and tired of having rightwing pro tory profile right male journalists of commentators telling black people of muslims whether they should be offended or chinese people with it should be offended a white thespian being made up in yellow face and then using offensive language which would be as a defense of his for any other cast or creed i mean we haven't we just made a piece of television that actually does include a little bit of racism where mossad's white males should not be allowed to comment on that it's not a show or this issue that actually is a place of say it i said i'm sick and tired of where i mentally and i feel like i

want to leave i believe it's a family got to be fair and balanced about this this is old school comedy it's a little bit out of date when you watch something like alf garnett to me the joke was that being a great sixties a bit ridiculous and they're pretty silly but at the same time you see something with sasha baron cohen today and if you look at it his character bharat part of what was funny about bharat was that he had ridiculous outdated views of jewish people he was a massive sabots so you know caricature and racism are ridiculing it is an important part of comedy that i would stand by in terms of yeah this is the day this isn't the end of it where this isn't this isn't about and i will as i go out. as far as brooks is concerned like the colb only this kind of publicity not really you can get this kind of coverage however you know these are outdated and we do need better systems in place it's all very easy to talk about the past in negative terms but progress is the nature of progress is that people in the past will seem

to be backward well they are a little bit backward compatible but i think there's no harm in being able to watch those programs anyway. well that's finesse and south america now where a demonstration called by venezuelan opposition leader. 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 riot police that in 5 take us to try and discuss the crowds this is a father told by retarding to find his way to from a high profile or to drum up international support in a bid to unseat president nicholas mature the opposition need to declare 'd himself

interim president after the movement to oust president during last year. that's all for me for now if you still want more though r.t. dot com is the place for you. big point adoption is driven by banks failing and countries failing and now in lebanon on they've got a huge crisis and of course big points come to the rescue. of social and i as a nation from which to us and investors. as a whole she's a mom for the for the for the river trip to improve for nature monopolies you know

to try to reduce the. problems. it was because of global was 'd going to have to close to the incident you know why would you do the odds of us have looked like a bunch of us moving in the spokes of the new fighting with the sofa cushion up. from the left coast for china about 4 to 6 months because in the south. join me every thursday on the alex simon short and i'll be speaking to us of the world of politics or business i'm sure. i'll see you the.

markets are rebounding outreach 2000 point decline this is a boom bust so one business show you can't afford to miss their mom to say ok you know i'm british born washington probably the biggest measures have been floated to tackle the effects of the coronavirus but how are markets responding we'll break it down and do it. plus as markets are moving day by day what is the long term plan for manufacturing as china begins its road to recovery we're going to take a look at the nation's industrial base and what lies in store for supply chains around the globe we have a packed show for you today so let's go and dive right in. the krona virus

continues to spread across the world as europe and the united states prepare to see a sharp increase in the number of cases italy continues to enforce its walk down of some 60000000 people with 1000 new confirmed cases the european union per president met with prime minister is via video conference on tuesday afternoon to court and they offered to combat the virus this comes as chinese president xi jinping made a visit to hunt china this was his 1st time since the start of the outbreak china recorded its lowest numbers of infections there were just 19 and they were all in speaking to doctors behind a screen she thanked some of the medical workers. on the phone you are wearing protective clothing so i can see your real faces. but in my heart you are the loveliest people in the world.