american university hosted the events focused on k-12 education. and his nomination of nick well cardona to be education secretary. good morning, and won't come. i'm lisa stark, the assistant vice president for communication and media. at american university, thank you so much for joining us this morning to hear from our experts here at american university on what education policy over the next four years might look like. and about the newest election of the nominees for the secretary of education, and fact president elect joe biden is officially introducing his choice for the job, doctor miguel cardona to the nation this morning. this is very timely, and we will take a what that means for the country and for lots of schoolkids throughout the nation. first i'd like to introduce the four experts from the american university who are joining us this morning to have this discussion. doctor tracy dennis at au school of education she focuses on a high racist pedagogy and she examines how black students experience school and schooling. also looks at how r

to teach a very short senator and american university law school. american university is in d.c.in less than a couple of weeks. and this money had not come from american university. instead it come from a handful of private donors who were friends of four it is. this sounds uncomfortably close to being a bribe. the dean of american university law school says yes 15,000 dollar sounds like a lot of money, but for it is is doing more than just teach a class. yet to prepare syllabus. as we know preparing syllabus is very expensive work. this is not a credible allegation. the committee invites him to come back before it and what exactly did for this 15,000 dollars. he says no. at this point the democrats and republicans say they're going to filibuster the nomination the filibuster could only be breached if two thirds of the members of the senate vote to and debate. it's clear that's not gonna happen. october 1st, the senate votes. fortas at this point is reduced to hoping for kind of symbolic victory. he's hoping a majority of the senate will vote to impose closure and say a majority

brent: cynthia miller from the american university in washington, d.c., we appreciate your presence tonightrom politics to the pandemic. hey south african variant of covid-19 has been found to be more infectious than other strains of the virus according to one of the nation's top epidemiologists. the variant binds more readily and strongly to human cells but there is no evidence it causes a more severe person of the disease. the variant is behind a recent surge in cases across south africa. scientists are trying to determine their current vaccines are effective against this strain. german chancellor angela merkel is due to meet with germany's state premieres tuesday to discuss tightening covid-19 restrictions beyond january. infection rates have improved but they are not declining as quickly as hoped. december saw a spike in coronavirus cases, it peaked before the christmas holidays, and the numbers went down going into the new year. but around january 9, they rose again and now appear, we hope to be on a downward trend, but the country is not breathing a sigh of relief yet. there are conce

law school, american university is in d.c. less than a couple of weeks. and that this money had not come from american university. instead it had come from a handful of private donors who were friends of fortas and this sounds uncomfortably close to being a bribe. the dean of american university law school says that, yes, $15,000 sounds like a lot of money, but fortas was doing more than just teaching a class. he had to prepare a syllabus and as we know, preparing a syllabus is very expensive work. the committee invites fortas to come back before it and to explain what exactly he did for this $15,000. fortas says no. and at that point, the southern democrats and the senate republicans jointly announce that they're going to filibuster the nomination, that they're not going to allow it to come to a vote and the filibuster could only be breached if two-thirds of the members of the senate vote to end debate. and it's clear that's not going to happen. october 1st, the senate votes. fortas by this point is reduced to hoping for a ki

i am lisa, the assistant vice president for communication and media at american university. thank you so much for joining us this morning to hear from our experts here at american university on what education aussie over the next four years might look like, and about the new selection of the nominee for the secretary of education. issident-elect joe biden officially introducing his choice for the job, dr. miguel cardona, to the nation this morning, so this is very timely. and we will take a look at what that means for the country and for lots of schoolkids throughout the nation. first i would like to introduce the four experts from american university for joining us this morning to have this discussion. lecturer dennis is a in the school of education. racism ands on anti- examines how black students experience school and schooling. antiracistat how research can be put into schools both in the classroom and in the curriculum. dr. nathan is an assistant professor in the school of public affairs. his research focuses on management and organization, education policy and social e

that this money had not come from american university. it had instead come from a handful of private donors who were friends of fortas. this sounds uncomfortably close to being a bribe. that these people are paying fortas to do a token amount of work. the dean of american university law school says 15,000 dollars sounds like a lot of money, but fortas was doing more than just teaching a class. he had to prepare a syllabus. as we know, preparing isil abyss is expensive work. this is not a credible allegation. the committee invites fortas to come back before it and explain what exactly he did for this 15,000 dollars. fortas says no. at that point, the southern democrats and senate republicans jointly announced that they are going to filibuster the nomination. they will not allow it to come to a vote. the filibuster can only be breached if two thirds of the members of the senate vote to and debate. it's clear that isn't going to happen. october 1st, the senate votes. by this point, fortas is reduced to hoping for a kind of symbolic victory.

the american university in cairo to study source who are rich. and. suzanne mubarak was a very hard working student. she was not highly intelligent but she was above average. i remember she always wanted to appear to be the one can see. about egypt's problems. the after she finished her undergraduate degree susan went on to complete her must as a topic. each. this took her for the 1st time to places she had never seen in our country before. to contrast. suzanne with her university degrees and her husband the couriers. i don't think he had newspapers to even books before becoming vice president the man was a man of action who enjoyed being in contact with people. however he wasn't keen on creating and writing what i. think that. i focused his job was simply to deliver a message and bring their message attend the funeral travel to china travel. not a month passed without traveling somewhere without a reset. i wonder what i'm about a few 1000000 countries he must have visited in the 6 and a half years as vice president. he may have been constantly travel

you were tall and the american university in cairo. suzanne graduated from here with both the degrees. and demand to. the president attended every one of those sentiments. it wasn't a problem then for him to mingle with the public. after his masters in business he became an executive at the bank of america. first in cairo. then and. he may not have been renowned for his sense of humor but as a banker he must have had some time. knightsbridge london over the years it has become the 2nd home for many wealthy out of. this is game as house. now estimated to be worth many millions are being the ones everyone in the egyptian community knew this was where the president's son lived. but many went to the crime. he lived a life unlike the one in egypt and will only be seen in his dime looka. not someone who really interacted with the community the community. kept his low profile in london was a quite different matter for his elder brother i left and. given his room a future beautician his father was concerned for him. he was consumed with marria

thank at the american university. you for your time. how significant thank you for your time.l, the practical effect on huber‘s going to be relatively small, because the financial sanctions that would normally apply to a country when it is put on a terrorism list are less than the economic sanctions we already have on cuba, because of the general embargo. so in that sense, it is more of a symbolic action than having any real practical effect on the cuban economy. why do you think the trump administration has chosen to make this move right now?|j think make this move right now?” think there are a number of reasons and you really had on them stopping number one is president trump, from the very beginning, has wanted to dismantle basically all the important policy legacy of president 0bama, and opening with cuba was among his most important signature foreign policy issue, so that is number one number two, of course, is that the president has been imposing sanctions on cuba gradually ever since 2019 and the principal reason was to mobilise conservative cuban—americans in south flo

miller idris she's a professor at the school of public affairs and school of education of the american university in washington d.c. she researches extremism it's good to have you on the program we are learning a lot about what went hat what happened inside the capitol on january 6th but what have we learned though about the political beliefs of these people who stormed the capitol. well thank you for having me i mean what we see here is that there is a toxic mix of groups from across the far right spectrum who combine in that day in a sort of spontaneous and planned violence so we have white supremacist in your nazi groups we also have anti-government militia groups there wide variety of curan and supporters and pro trump voters as well as groups like the proud boys so what brought them together was a fervent belief in the dissin from ation around the election the idea that it was illegitimate that there's government tyranny and that they were called upon to rise up against it so they really do think they're being her roic here we know there have been allegations that some republican lawmakers c

miller idriss she's a professor at the school of public affairs and school of education at the american university in washington d.c. she researches extremism it's good to have you on the program we are learning a lot about what went hat what happened inside the capitol on january 6th but what have we learned though about the political beliefs of these people who stormed the capitol. well thank you for having me i mean what we see here is that there is a toxic mix of groups from across the far right spectrum who combined in the day in a sort of spontaneous and planned violence so we have white supremacist in your nazi groups we also have anti-government militia groups there why brave curan and supporters and pro trump voters as well as groups like the proud boys so what brought them together was a fervent belief in the dissin from ation around the election the idea that it was illegitimate that there is government tyranny and that they were called upon to rise up against it so they really do think they're being her roic here we know there have been allegations that some republican lawmakers cooper

to what really should be extreme in french ideas and he thanks a sense in the address at the american university in washington d.c. thank you for having me. and let's turn our attention now to some other stories making news around the world in ghana clashes broke out at the swearing in ceremony of president a call for audio who narrowly won at reelection opposing parties clashed when a lawmaker seized the ballot box it during a vote for the parliament speaker the army was forced to intervene to stop the violence. at least 5 civilians have been killed in afghanistan's helmand province authorities say there is evidence that the deaths resulted from an airstrike but it was not immediately clear whether the attack was carried out by afghan forces or the u.s. military. that's going to take now on efforts to immunize against the corona virus in the united states over 5000000 people have been inoculated the u.k. meanwhile has immunized more than a 1000000 people but the european union hasn't been so fast out of the blocks one reason has a slower and more in-depth vaccine approval process. the netherlan

let's go to ronnie curry is director of global investment at the american university of beirut and joins us by skype from tame birds in massachusetts many thanks for speaking to us and to benton quite message that about the trumpet ministrations middle east policy when he was asked if he recognizes jerusalem as israel's capital he said yes were you surprised by that. not really the democrats the biden clinton blenkin those kind of democrats very very centrists are extremely pros really they have a track record of her sensually saying that there should be a 2 state solution but they never really do anything to stop israel's continued colonial expansion and building settlements and grabbing arab land and the measures that trump took most of them the democrats may not have taken themselves but they don't particularly have any big problem with them the interesting thing is he did say though that the biden is going to push or supports a 2 state solution and so the answer of the jerusalem. issue is to have the palestinians get their state which he said they deserve they're entitled to which is

american university hosted this panel of education experts on president-elect biden's positions on k-12 education. and what he was signaling with his nomination of miguel cardona to be as education secretary. >> good morning, and welcome your i am lisa stark and assistant vice president for communication and media at american university. thank you so much for joining us this going to hear about come to hear from experts here at american university on education policy over the nextt four years might look like and about the new selection of the nominee for the secretary of education. in fact, president-elect joe biden is officially introducing his choice for the job doctor cardona to the nation this morning, so this is very timely and we will take a look at what that means for the country and unless the school kids throughout the nation. first i'd like to introduce the experts in american universityr joining us this morning to have this discussion. doctor dennis is a lecture and school of education shoulddu fos on antiracist pedagogy and she examines how black students a experience in s

democrats to impeach trump further with allan lichtman who's a professor of history at the american university in washington is also the author of the case for impeachment and joins us via skype from washington thank you very much professor for being with us on al-jazeera always good to have you on so house democrats of planning to introduce it would seem these new articles of impeachment against president trump on monday i guess a 1st question that many people are asking especially outside of the us is why impeached and convicted a president who's only got a few days left in office why not ride it out 12 days. the simple reason is trump needs to be held accountable for what is arguably be the most immoral despicable and dangerous act ever committed by a us president and that is inciting people to storm the capitol to disrupt the constitutional functions of the congress to engage in violence that we now know has resulted in at least 5 deaths trump has never been held accountable for anything is entire life needs to be held accountable a statement needs to be made moreover there is precedent ev

. >> we're back with american university of history professor alan lichtman who is here to talk to us about the perks presidents get once they leave office. good morning. it's great to be h you. host: many of us know professor lichtman from the election season where he correctly predicted the outcome of all of the u.s. presidential elections since 1984. but he's not here to talk about how you get into the white house, he's talking to us about what happens to presidents and the perks and benefits they get once they leave. so let's get into it. what type of benefits are presidents entitled to once they leave office? guest: until the former presidents act of 1958, the answer was nothing. there were no perks and benefits afforded once a president left the white house. andrew carter at one point offered to endow a pension fund for former president's but that never got off the ground. in 1958 there were a couple of former president to live like herbert hoover, who was a successful is this man did not need help, but harry truman was struggling, financially. that was one motivation for the pa

our guest works at the american university of london.ok has long been seeking to commercialize whatsapp. it has been successful in terms of the international user base, particularly in the developing world. they have not managed to get much money out of it. compared to other products, it has not had a lot of data to sell because it is encrypted and more private than other services. they are looking to commercialize it with linking to further businesses and finding new ways to let people pay through it and buy services. that is really at the core of today's decision. it is a blurring of the whatsapp business model and facebook business model. whatsapp has many trackers embedded in it and other data sharing tools embedded in the app. not as many as facebook messenger, but still a lot. whatsapp is going down an unfortunate path of privacy, and users would be wise to abandon it now if they don't want to take that ride. anchor: a south korean court has ordered japan to pay compensation to the 12 surviving women forced into sexual slavery duri

host: we are back with american university history professor, alan lichtman, who is here to talk abouthe

. >> we're back with american university of history professor alan lichtman who is here to talk to ussidents get once they leave office. good morning. it's great to be h you. host: many of us know professor lichtman

big message that we are better than this let's speak with cynthia miller dress she legs as an american university in washington d.c. on the far right extremism welcome to d.w. . as you watch these events unfold over the last couple of hours what's been going through your mind. thank you for having me and sorry about the circumstances you know for people like me who have been studying these kinds of far right extremist events for a long time this is infuriatingly predictable but nonetheless shocking and i think anyone this is the city i live in to see those images to see people you know violently breaking in the windows storming the capitol to hear now that a woman has died who was shot inside the capitol. even when we could see the predictability unfolding of the kind of the scaling up of violence that we've seen over the past few months and felt that this was an almost inevitable kind of outcome this type of not just protest but insurrection it's still very shocking to see right much it in the pot but start with. your conviction that this is a bizarre far right extremists rather than just. suppo

cynthia miller idris a professor at the school of public affairs in the school of education at american university in washington d.c. she told me that allegations of links between the mob that rampage through the capital and members of the police and the u.s. military would need to be investigated by the new bike and ministry. i think for a long time we've had anecdote after anecdote revealing that there are problems with them law enforcement within the military the intelligence community security services and veterans where we repeatedly see one when their arrest for violent action often in particular veterans are involved or that they're made that their anecdotes about law enforcement involvement in white supremacist or neo nazi groups what we don't have is evidence or data that tells us how big the scope of the problem is and in germany in fact where there had also been scandal after scandal there now have finally been national investigations and i think that this is something that by an administration cannot push off any longer is. a real mandate to ask department defense and department justic

what really should be extreme and french ideas and he thinks a sense in the address at the american university in washington d.c. thank you for having me. well those images of rioting in the us created shock waves around the world here in germany chancellor angela merkel has criticized president trump's persistent refusal to exception of members of the actual result and the consequences of that refusal our brussels correspondent teri schultz has more on the reactions of other european leaders to wednesday's events well certainly you know we've seen these reactions trickle in starting last night you've seen some of them there i think the 1st one that was remarkable to me was nato secretary general yen stoltenberg who is so hesitant to say anything about internal affairs of an allied country and he called out the scenes as shocking and said the election results must be respected but another thing that we should note is how few of these leaders actually called out president trump by name many of them said this is not america this is not what we expect from our american partners but so few of them

let's now speak to monk down he's a professor of communications that american university of beirut joins us via skype and i ask what you're hearing about the latest developments from tripoli we are hearing reports about the use of live ammunition against protesters a disproportionate use of force do you expect me on rest to get worse. it has been getting worse this is the 4th mind in a row it started and it's escalating and every time those people are protesting specially in the youth all the way in tripoli it what they're trying to basically say is we've got no food we've got no protection and we've got no jobs give us some support and what the answer was sending the army and the police and with rubber bullets and tear gas for 4 days in the row so basically what the government is currently saying is we cannot solve this problem so we are going to fight it and that is exactly what they're doing with 2 dead and hundreds injured and a lot of private and public property already destroyed the government has yet to declare any initiatives to support the city with the highest unemployment rate

you go to american university, there are a lot of students coming over paying full freight tuition fromna. you cut them off, who will pay for the colleges? they will fall apart. there are a lot of things like that when you're dealing with what will soon be the largest economy in the world, but it is not aligned with american values. one thing i have to say, all the people in the biden administration working on foreign policy and national security, when they were in policy 10, 20 years ago, they all thought that as china got wealthier china would become more aligned with the u.s. politically and economically. that's just not happened. that means we'll have to change the way we think about engaging with the chinese. jack: that's a good point. i want to pivot to one more question at your summit. you also had a lot of discussion of trust. there certainly seems to be a truth deficit in this nation, whether it is people who don't believe they have covid when they're dying from it, the election, people don't believe joe biden won. what are the implications of that? is that something markets sh

the world's most expensive artwork the installation is made of $2600.00 real diplomas from american universities based on the cost of student tuition in the u.s. they say that makes it worth $470000000.00 the installation is titled the devinsky of debt. now to an artist who keeps his prices deliberately low german urban artist boreal shows his work in museums and galleries but he also wants it out in the world as well sometimes he just puts artworks out on the street for whoever wants to take them his work is all about re mixing art history with pop culture. when a boy. likes to mix it up techniques here is an adult to stick references. one single book can feature a nonstick caravaggio picture. and even additional. 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 information comes to these a figures from art history from the current media policy muster and even though you might recognize them they're not in my usual context. yeah allows us to see them through fresh eyes when he takes the mona lisa out of the louvre he also takes away some of the reverence with which all his often treated in his work and i don't know it's show

it from trump and audience obviously the where your thomas is an expert on disinformation at american university. she says americans are particularly vulnerable because of social media false information. >>and that's friends and people tend to believe what they want to believe and they tend to believe pieces of information that come from their own biases. >>well as brian at an reporting the man seen carrying a lectern during wednesday's right has also been identified. police say he's 36 year-old adam johnson of florida. it's believed the lectern belongs to house speaker. nancy pelosi. we'll take a break for 42 coming up next on the kron 00:00am morning news governor newsom's plan to reopen schools is drawing some criticism after the break we'll explain why some state leaders are disagreeing with the governor on what he wants to do. and more small business relief may soon be on the way we'll have details on a relief plan just been proposed. >>we're back at 4.45 time to cut quick check of weather and traffic we've got john looking at some of the rain that's been falling this morning, good morning

the world's most expensive artwork the installation is made of $2600.00 real diplomas from american universities based on the cost of student tuition in the u.s. they say that makes it worth $470000000.00 the installation is titled the devinsky of debt. now to an artist who keeps his prices deliberately low german urban artist boreal shows his work in museums and galleries but he also wants it out in the world as well sometimes he just puts artworks out on the street for whoever wants to take them his work is all about re mixing art history with pop culture. i know when a boy. likes to mix it up techniques eras and how to stick references to one single work in feature announced take care of badger picasso and even defeat. 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 him from supposed to change things a figures from art history from the current media policy and even though you might recognize them they're not in my usual context. brianna allows us to see them through fresh eyes when he takes the mona lisa out of the louvre he also takes away some of the reverence with which all his off interested in his work i'm a donor

the world's most expensive artwork the installation is made of $2600.00 real diplomas from american universities based on the cost of student tuition in the u.s. they say that makes it worth $470000000.00 the installation is titled the devinsky of debt. now to an artist who keeps his prices deliberately low german urban artist boreal shows his work in museums and galleries but he also wants it out in the world as well sometimes he just puts artworks out on the street for whoever wants to take them his work is all about re mixing art history with pop culture. when a boy. likes to mix it up techniques here is an adult to stick references. 2 1 single book can feature nonstick caravaggio picasso and even disney. 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 was from supposed to please a figures from art history from the current media policy and even though you might recognize them they're not in my usual context. yeah allows us to see them through fresh eyes when he takes the mona lisa out of the louvre he also takes away some of the reverence with which also is often treated in his work and i don't there it's shown with the

history at kuwait university and in new york rami hooty director of global engagement at the american university of beirut and senior fellow at harvard kennedy school welcome to the program measured let me start with you today do we know what the details are in this solidarity and stability agreement i mean there are still a lot more questions than answers at this stage correct. yes i mean of course we all heard the declaration that was made during the press conference and we got you know the documents but it seems that it outlines a very broad and general statements that echo. a lot of the main ideas that were circulated doing their blockade i mean we we didn't see any real detailed about what was agreed upon and i think partly this is because of course some of it is behind closed doors and will be dealt with between the leaders themselves and also that there are issues that are still within consideration i'm quite sure that specialized teams and committees that would be 4 to operationalize this deal will start working immediately and they will you know consider a lot of the points that till no

saudi led coalition fighting in yemen where rami khouri is director of global engagement at the american university of beirut he says the new administration should do more to protect palestinians. the democrats the biden clinton blenkin those kind of democrats very very centrists are extremely close really they have a track record of her sensually saying that there should be a 2 state solution but they never really do anything to stop israel's continued colonial expansion and building settlements and the grabbing honorably and. the measures that trump took most of them that the democrats may not have taken themselves but they don't particularly have any big problem with them the interesting thing is he did say though that the biden is going to push or supports a 2 state solution and so the answer to the jerusalem to see issue is to have the palestinians get their state which he said they deserve they're entitled to riches interesting new terminology i think. he also said he didn't think it was going to be much movement on that front quickly but of course that's understandable because as many mother

days tense situation in this city so i spoke to mark down a professor of communications at the american university of beirut he said that the protests essentially the result of one of the poorest cities in the mediterranean being abandoned by its government. what they're trying to basically say is we've got no food we've got no protection and we've got no jobs give us some support and what the answer was sending the army and the police with rubber bullets and tear gas for 4 days in the row so basically what the government is currently saying is we cannot solve this problem so we are going to fight it and that is exactly what they're doing with 2 and hundreds injured and a lot of private and public property already destroyed. now portugal has extended its nationwide lockdown and announced limits on international travel as it scrambles to contain what might be the world's worst surgeon coronavirus cases a bit over $300.00 new death and more than $16000.00 cases in the past 24 hours that's a wreck or day rise more than a quarter of portugal's 11600 deaths from car that 1000 have been in the past 2 we

s thank you for having me am a professor at american university where in washington d.c. where i direct the polarization and extremism research and innovation lab our peril and i also recently finished a book called hate in the homeland the new far right. time mays and cynthia thanks for joining us and have a shine and welcome to the string it she's half. i'm shannon foley martinez i am a consultant apparel where dr miller just works i am also a former violent white supremacist i've been out of the movement for over 25 years and i work towards helping off ramp and disengage people who are currently still in far right spaces. and my area of passion is actually working on prevention so that we can better an ocular people from ever finding residence with with any of the stuff in the 1st place i also have 7 kids hence why i'm coming to you from like bunker shadow here it's the only place i could talk to one of those hurts me. shot i'm looking forward to him welcome you in just a moment mine i have to share my laptop this was something that could end the stream just before we

dual roles is anita mcbride, executive reince for congressional and presidential sturdz at american university how busy the role of the first lady is. how is dr. biden going to have two jobs? >> thank you, norah, great to be with all of you today. one of the thing we say about the first lady's role is that, middle east, when the president is sworn in, the first lady or the president's spouse in the future will be a male spouse, automatically has a powerful platform, and the decision for them is how they choose to use it, and already we're seeing, of course, new precedent is set, new ground is being broken with a first lady who says, i already have a full-time job, i'm going to do that and this, too. so it will be interesting to, you know, see how she will manage and balance that, like all of us know it's hard to have a work life balance and this is now a work-work balance, because the first lady's role can be a full-time consuming job as well. it's a great challenge, but it's also a tremendous opportunity. >> realistically, though, anita, do you think scheck really do this? >> it's a great que

he does a phd in american history from doctors university. he is a professor at key union in new jersey. he retired as vice president for academic affairs. he is the co-author of 11 books. his book, fatal sunday, george washington,

more now on our top story: cynthia miller—idriss is a professor at american university and director ofshe told us more about the groups that were involved in the events at the capitol. it really was a toxic mix of a wide variety of groups and individuals, and you can see thatjust from the photographs and the kinds of things that people were wearing, their hats, their insignia. so, you had regular trump supporters, as you saw from the hats and the kinds of flags being waved but there were also groups their with militia kinds of insignia, groups with neo—nazi and white supremacist extremist symbols. qanon, of course, supporters, a lot of qanon supporters there as well, so we saw a wide range of groups that form a kind of far—right spectrum and that is part of what i think is really significant about yesterday that has to be unpacked is, in many ways it was kind of a loose coalition, potentially spontaneous coalition that formed to enact political violence on a key symbolic institution. and we haven't seen that kind of thing happen since the right tried to unite in the unite the right ral

it is a real problem, what's going on in american universities, and tribe is at the centre of that problemlt. i've lost friends. i've had family members turn against me. yes, i'm prepared to speak out. it's not for my own ego. i care about the constitution. i've been making these arguments for more than 60 yea rs. when i was student government president at brooklyn college, i was a pariah because i stood up against mccarthyism. i stood up against firing communist professors. i was anti—communist personally, but i took a tremendous amount of pain standing up for the rights of communists, standing up for the rights of nazis. i will continue to stand up the rights of anybody whose first amendment speech is denied, whether i agree with them or disagree with them. and i'm not taking any moral lessons from laurence tribe or other so—called scholars who are prepared to amend the constitution to fit their own personal political views. all right. i have to stop you there. and if you want to have tribe on... not only do i have to stop you there, i also have to point out that laurence tribe would utt

we're joined by cynthia miller—idriss, who is a professor at american university and director of perilresearches extremism. thank you very much for coming on the programme. thank you for having me. shall we start with exactly who were these groups that were present there at the capitol. that's a great question because it really was a toxic mix of a wide variety of groups and individuals, and you can see thatjust from the photographs and the kinds of things that people are wearing, their hats and insignia, so you had regularfrom their hats and insignia, so you had regular from supporters, their hats and insignia, so you had regularfrom supporters, as usual from the hats and the kinds of flags being waved but are also groups their with militia kinds of insignia, whites are premised symbols. qanon of course supporters, a lot of qanon supporters there so we saw a lot of qanon supporters there so we saw a wide range of groups that form a kind of far—right spectrum and that is kind of what i think is really significant about yesterday that has to be unpacked is, in many ways it was kind of a

diplomat and currently professor of international relations at the american university joins us via skype from washington d.c. we have great to have you back on the program so how significant then is this arms sales freeze by the u.s. and why is that bad ministration doing this now do you think. well there's sort of 2 stories here one is that it is entirely normal as the administration is saying to review such weapons sales when a new administration comes in with i'm usual is all of these public statements and all of this turmoil including tweets by senators you know and all and all the brouhaha around it that that's quite a typical it's very likely that these sales will go through but it's the way in which the children ministration hastily went through a whole bunch of quid pro quos relating to the abraham accords and other he actions at the end of the ministration created a circumstance by which he even if the democrats and b. vitamins trishna agree with the arms sales there's a kind of bitter taste in their mouth about the way in which trump went about it and that's regulations under r

rami khouri who's the director of global engagement and a senior public policy fellow at the american university of beirut who joins us via skype from new york thanks very much indeed for being with us so give us your reaction to that to the in the significance of this news well my reaction is good i'm very pleased this is good news whenever any kind of tensions between countries and their region a result of them one has to be happy the significance is not clear because this was a fait accompli from the beginning the charges against covered by the 4 are countries are really court bridges and most of the world saw them that way and therefore very few people of any supported the boycott the this was this a political dispute that there is a political dispute between the u.s. so. and other countries about how to deal with political trends or. romy korea listen to last august they're just talking about also the influence of where this will take. the middle east and that whole region let's bring in now what is your caster who's following developments from washington d.c. and heidi we've seen recently