step up and do it yourself. 2 americans and one british soldier are said to be killed in a rocket attack on a military base in iraq with many others left wounded the u.s. has reportedly retaliated with a strike on iraqi militia. also this hour as the corona virus takes hold around the globe the world health organization labels the outbreak a pandemic. and in the latest of what appear to be a politically motivated attacks in germany the car of a prominent right wing politician is torched and berlin. never a car set on fire or. attacked

you can be sure this is an attack against. a warm welcome to the program this is r t international bring you your live news update this hour. we start with breaking news as reports citing u.s. officials say 3 people including 2 american soldiers have been killed and at least 10 injured in a rocket attack on an iraqi air base near baghdad it's also reported that american forces have retaliated with a strike on iraqi militia near the syrian border for all the details we're not going to cross live to clear what do we know about the developments in iraq at this point. well as you mentioned we are hearing from the u.s. coalition forces in iraq that at least 15 katyusha rockets were fired on a military base. to the north of baghdad that houses american military personnel

the report suggests that at least 2 american soldiers and one british servicemen have been killed and this is despite earlier reports from the iraqi military that there were no casualties we are hearing that between 10 and 12 people have been wounded and are being treated for their injuries now the following video purports to show the moment of the attack but it is unverified to take a look. imagine our summer resort our mock work work. with our garden and. now the attack happened at 7 50 in the evening local time when stay as of yet no ones came for sponsibility for the attack on the military base which is north of baghdad and which howells's the u.s. led coalition forces the vehicle that launched the rockets has been found an investigation has been launched now we are hearing of strikes that are happening in

the iraqi province and in the syrian area of carmel near the border it is not certain whether these are tell you a true text for the strikes on the air base but it certainly does seem that way at the moment at the same time this is the latest attack after a series of attacks in recent months to hit you and coalition sites in iraq just this past tuesday the americans announced that they were deploying missile defense systems for the eventuality of such occurrences happening at the same time we can tell you that tensions in the region and particularly in iraq have been increasing ever since the assassination of a top iranian general because some saudi money so a short time ago and since then we've seen these tensions escalate it is important to point out that this is preliminary information we'll bring you more facts as we have them and certainly as the picture becomes clearer we could find that information changes. are to his pulse there that you're seeing across that breaking news for us. now for live and also as we're now joined on the program by

independent political analysts are sandra bruno now the american military outposts have been a frequent target of attacks in the past few months as we've seen who do you think could be behind this latest one no one has claimed as of yet. well i don't want to speculate but i think it's the one of the shiite militias that targeted the united states repeatedly in the past few weeks after the strike against sulaimani last i believe it was the end of 200-1000 so. one of the shiite militias will my question is of course. will the u.s. strike back that's what i've been thinking as soon as i heard the news and i don't think that those strikes in. near syria and.

at the syrian border with iraq that you mentioned just a few minutes ago. are part of the u.s. retaliation we have 2 u.s. soldiers that have died one british soldier. so i think there's pressure now on trump particularly given the domestic american situation with an election coming up and the primaries of the democratic party also coming to an important. facts i think will be pressured to hit back at the usual target which is iran so i imagine that iran which is plagued by problems including now coronavirus. and super low oil prices. that. this will be an opportunity to deal substantial blow if.

against iraq and against iran and these shiite militias in iraq. over the couple in the next couple of days as you mentioned there is of course a lot of pressure on trump and these kind of situations and there's the upcoming election and whatnot given that 2 soldiers did 2 american soldiers are said to have been killed in this attack do you think we'll be seeing a much more harsh response. i think the response might not necessarily be harsh or harsher than not what we saw before but there probably be an attempt to exploit some weaknesses in iran the same weaknesses that caused the. g.c. the revolutionary guard to accidentally shoot down korean airliner i think that the pressure now that the united states and some of its allies are putting on iran is concentric rather than directly military they're trying to bring

the government down by. causing. distrust in the population against their own government they're trying to get people on the streets and trigger a revolt i think that is. what. i'm seeing and the coronavirus has already certainly not done anything favorable for the reigning government whether or not it is at fault that's another consideration but there is a iran is under extreme pressure right now as is iraq i mean iraq is dealing with its own series of protests the low oil prices announced force by saudi arabia just earlier this week. will certainly not benefit the iraqi government at all struggling already to keep the country

a fractured country united. so at the same time we also see the united states looking for a way to leave to leave iraq and replace some of its troops with some of nato allies and not surprisingly a british soldier was also killed we heard in the attacks earlier today so. there's so much pressure now it's very difficult to. to predict anything other than . negative. at the moment i don't see anything coming out of it's all it's the areas in such. a state of vulnerability that u.s. strategists will probably decide this is a moment to strike we've been speaking with independent political analysts also

under bruno the queue for a time when your comments. and other news the world health organization has declared that the corona virus can now be labeled as a pandemic in the past 2 weeks the number of cases. increases certain for. and the number of our 52 countries has tripled we have therefore the may be our system and that 19 can be. used as a pandemic. the number of infections has now topped more than 118000 across the globe with more than 4000 deaths the corona virus has spread to 114 countries with numbers growing by the day. now in the race to find a vaccine for the virus scientists in london are on the lookout for human guinea pigs to infect for money in the 1st test of its kind. we can announce that we have

commenced the development of the world's 1st commercial human coronavirus challenge study model also known as control human infection model we are pleased to be able to try insisting the battle against cope with 19. the study one fact $24.00 people with 2 strains of corona virus similar to covert $1000.00 but causing milder symptoms as scientists try to develop a vaccine against the outbreak tears will be paid as much as 3 and a half 1000 pounds but only visits from doctors will break up their 2 weeks in isolation we asked londoners if they'd be tempted to take part. no alcohol and if i was younger. but i'm one of those so don't you one second to kick the bucket. you know say i haven't worked for months and i really need some money. i don't know then 1000.

too much. corn to my so i mean i won't die from it but i hope i'm not even tightly complaints to the statistics behind it it's true anyway. why not get infected twice to get twice as much at the age of 71. now because i have hundreds of health conditions why would i if you have no. real thing seriously to go to cuba now you seriously now. you know if you know. people are going to be changed do you think if you. would be a danger to people here i would. think. they're safe cost for my son who's much younger.

i think at the beginning i thought people were over i think something on the stand like how serious it was but when i heard like schools were being closed on that last how many people cost effective that's when i realized ok this is actually serious i decided surbiton a scare mongering people for most people to sentence are more like flu until yesterday i was thinking people were over reacting today i'm starting to realize that i've got to take it like seriously course you have to like. be taking care of it in like wash your hands and stuff but otherwise i feel it's. yeah it's just too much i don't know. earlier we had the chance to speak to a specialist about the chances of finding a vaccine. vaccine or drugs that it is recommended by the fresh more than the older to eat locally in volunteers the i was really close to the 19 so this means that this vaccine if it is successful it would have no protection against the anything that is tested in volunteer homes that somebody

raised however based on the animal studies the overall risk would be meaningless and the hope is that that if that state policy is reasonable that destruction would be deployed in the next which is a broad scale testing me just say to. a high profile right wing german politician appears to be the latest victim of violent attacks on lawmakers in the country nicholas fast from the alternative for germany party had his car destroyed in berlin we are all reports on the worrying trend. this street is the scene of what is potentially the latest in a growing number of politically motivated crimes in germany this time it's all the car the politician nicholas faced go up in flames last night a car caught fire in charlotte and borke the firefighters extinguished the blaze but could not save the car because of the suspicion of

a possible political motivation we are handing the investigation over to a specialist unit yesterday morning the police called told me that my car had been . set on fire 2 in the morning and there was really damage faced as a member of the european parliament for the anti immigration alternative that germany party he's pretty adamant of who he thinks is behind this not the 1st victim of this kind of arson attacks this is really the signature. of the anti far and therefore it's pretty clear although they haven't really up to no they haven't claimed this arson attack yet but it's clear that there's a stance and a.f.d. as a party have a polarizing effect on german public opinion their anti immigrant stance and deliberately provocative statements from so members has seen them rising in the

polls and slammed by their rivals party which tolerates far right extremists and let's call a spade a spade nazis and monitoring. the a.f.d. is a racist and nationalist a military state party. party which is openly nationalist they are against foreigners and they have members who are close to being fascists the cochairman of the even appealed to all journalists and politicians to tone down their rhetoric against the party after a rise in the number of violent incidents. whenever

a car set on fire or the apartment or house of. attacked you can be sure this is an attack against. they tried to they tried to bully not only us but also people of whom. you know who are letting their apartments to members of the in a democracy you have to. come to terms even with members of parties which you do not support it's not just politicians from controversial parties that are facing up to the prospect of attack in germany 2019 so well over a 1000 politically motivated attacks on politicians with a recent poll of as in the country saying

a large number of them had be insulted assaulted or simply threatened with quite a few saying they being beaten or spots in 2015 independent mayor of cologne henrietta reckons narrowly survived an assassination attempt by isn't a full of extremists who stabbed her in the neck the day before the election the attack was motivated by wreckers pro refugee stance last june seen it see the politician fall to live was shot dead at his home in central germany a far right nationalist with possible links to a.f. . he is facing trial for his murder the government says cold for an increase in security for politicians serving the public who will increasingly finding themselves in the line of fire. for all to billie. joe biden now heads the pack to clinch the democratic party nomination after the former us vice president chalked up big wins in the latest round of primaries to all those

who have been knocked down all those have been counted out left behind this is your campaign. just over a week ago many of the pundits declared candidates used to. now are very much alive. biden won in mississippi michigan missouri and idaho 3 of these are delegate rich states which rival bernie sanders pick up in 2016 that's led to biden being presented by much of the media as the candidate best place to beat donald trump in november despite some notable gaffes along the way and explains. the race for the democratic nomination is down to 2 horses and it's pretty clear where the bets are going there on joe biden the good guy it's a time for us to beat donald trump and it became very clear to me that joe biden is the right person to do that he's the nicest person that we cover but he is just

a good guy and why not have a good guy in the white house after all for the past 3 years the media has been working very hard to convince everyone that pure evil has overtaken the u.s. presidency but it doesn't take very deep digging to discover that you can rub off joe biden's good guy shine take a look at how he insulted detroit assembly plant worker who questioned his views on gun rights. he also has hinted that he believes that race and intellectual ability are somehow connected to your kids you just as brady just as towns white kids on top of that he is known to just make things up and say things on the fly that have absolutely no connection to reality we choose unity over division we choose science over fiction we choose truth over facts and a lot of ways joe biden sounds an awful lot like donald trump let's see if americans can tell them apart i bet your is right as you are good looking. that's actually joe biden surprise we choose truth over facts.

i was actually joe biden also poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids by them without actually biden and you're a lying dog faced pony soldier. so it's got to be true and actually biden also. so the narrative is supposed to be that donald trump is a big mean bully and joe biden is a lovable adorable grandpa with good intentions and he's supposed to be way better than that wild eyed radical bernie sanders except don't you remember how recently everyone was bashing joe biden i just think biden is declining i don't think he has the energy and he has been a skilled debater we saw him with sarah palin we've seen him in the past the question is does he still have his job and destroy native and is he how sure are busy can you imagine that man in the presidential did buy we don't trump there's

not enough popcorn in the world to do is how subtly biden inserts obama into every possible answer having significant mental faculties issues is everyone ok with biden being president of the united states when he's having difficulty remembering the name of you know politicians that he'd be dealing with on a regular basis but now we are told that opposition to joe biden is a russian plot the kremlin's english language media aim to influence americans on the tough activity promotes conspiracy theories targeting biden one lording trump's efforts to investigate a political opponent predicted detroit will win a 2nd term claimed that biden is called to be unraveling on some eyes that allegations of corruption are doing real damage to his presidential bid now the race is getting heated as the field has narrowed so the question is now will joe biden be able to keep that good guy image when it's time to start taking shots at

bernie sanders. r.t. new york former new york city council candidate mourning her loss to believes biden success may not be as spontaneous as it seems. in the beginning of this whole race i mean biden was coming for then you know you know the democratic party says to everybody you're going to do this everybody always the corporate media also starts to say all this negative noise about barry i think what's happening now is very interesting this is usually what the democratic party does is they pick their annoying too while and they do everything to rig the entire environment they're annoyed to get it it gets all the support and looks like there is sort of a white horse that coming to save the american people to see this kind of work is straight is they were close. lugar everybody kinds of everybody falls in line to support biden who's kind of the chosen one i think when you when you have

so much of that noise it's very hard for the american public to kind of see that. the turkish president has courted controversy after comparing the approach to the migrant crisis by the greek authorities to the nazis. there is no difference between more the muncie's did and these images from the greek. greece has taken steps to reinforce its border with turkey installing barbed wire as migrants have continued to try and cross the frontier despite tear gas being fired from both sides over the weekend or once not the comparison comes as turkey and the e.u. have been talking about reviewing a 4 year old deal and stemming the refugee flow to europe meanwhile the austrian chancellor had some tough words for turkey. because. dollars to i would like to thank greece for doing everything to defend europe's external borders this is an attack by turkey the turkish prison the murder one is abusing refugees is abusing

money grants exploiting this suffering and using them as a weapon against the european union. middle east expert career sham low believes the turkish leader is using the migrants as leverage turkey is left alone in this region why because turkey wants to have its say in the middle east on the mediterranean part of. africa but turkey has no no ally with him turkey is part of nato and it wants the nato countries to support him but benito countries said we're never going to support you because you're giving your attention every word so he knows that the nato countries and the european countries will not support him saw he has a one and a big leverage over the european union it's that crisis and he wants to push push through this this advantage in order to lead opened the door and go to europe in

order to get the european backs confronting russia and confronting other countries and officially greece. a u.s. submarine has been captured on film breaking through ice in the arctic critics saying it's a clear sign of an increasing military presence in the far north that has always taken part in a u.s. led drill aimed at improving operational capabilities in the frozen region.

earlier this week u.s. and canadian fighter jets intercepted 2 russian reconnaissance aircraft off the alaskan coast the u.s. has been raising concerns over claim threats in the arctic region last year congress approved funding for 2 new ice breakers while backing plan for no less than 6 more back in 2018 thousands of american soldiers took part in a large scale nato drill in norway as well meanwhile moscow has approved its new arctic state policy through 2035 it's not south the country's main objectives tasks and national interest there according to the document russia is primarily focused on economic issues from improving the living standards of local russians to fostering development and protecting the environment but u.s. officials remain unconvinced by fielding a long range missiles and expanding its military presence in the region russia has left us with no choice but to improve on homeland defense capability and capacity director of the oxford crisis research institute mark almond believes the potential

for conflict in the arctic has reached a dangerous level. i think there is a danger of militarization of the arctic region and. that in turn raises questions of security for everybody concerned because we've got used in a sense to this grassed area being a relatively low tension area but now if you're going to have nuclear submarines perhaps approach each other's territory and also craft as well as new systems being introduced i think this produces an instability that really is our necessary perhaps sensible minds in moscow and washington could talk through this and come to some arrangement to regulate the presence of military forces and the use of them but sadly in recent years we've seen the united states withdrawing from arms control agreements so having a new one for the arctic region is it may be too optimistic. hope that is too optimistic. the mayor of amsterdam is considering

a ban on tourists buying marijuana despite the fact it's said to be one of the main attractions for visitors child differently reports from setting. the dutch are often hailed as being progressive particular when it comes to soft drugs now amsterdam is a hot spot for kind of base 2 or ists with significant numbers coming here to try the drug vending coffee shops as a tourist coming to the city what do you think this city is famous for the coffee shops. i think for most tourists it's like well known things like. we term stuff like that wait wait it's hash. more than 17000000 visit every year putting a huge strain on the city of around a 1000000 people this iteration is so bad that the mayor of amsterdam is actually considering banning tourists from buying kernis this briefing from the

highlights the issues it says 65 percent of foreign tourists come to amsterdam to use cannabis and visit the coffee shops and almost hof would be less likely to visit again if bart if the mayor bans it what sort of impact do you think that will have will they come up with a not come from the people still. as many people now it's one of the main reasons people do come people will enjoy their time a little less so maybe they won't come back everybody is coming here for the coffee shops if the murder is going to stop the coffee shops stories would stop coming to answer but the survey also showed a more worrying impact the to bear and could have some 40 percent of respondents said that if they were put britain they would find another way to buy the drug this should be perhaps a major concern for a city that is already struggling to deal with the darkest side of the drug

industry and point a recent report called attention to the city's problems with hard drugs violent crime and human. trafficking based on sewage research cocaine consumption must represent a turnover value of at least $75000000.00 euros but there are limitations to that research subversive crime can take many forms such as human trafficking and labor exploitation environmental crime arms trafficking illegal gambling and health care fraud it's believed that i'm sedans coffee shops are aiding and abetting the ugliest side of the city's drug business now there are allegations that the coffee shops and sells deal back door with organized crime gangs and some being used to launder criminal money that has cooled for a crackdown it please surprise.