and we'll speak to author, journalist and expert misha glenny. hello, misha. hello.s the author of mcmafia, which was then turned into a super—glitzy tv show. press any number. what number? any number, mama. the year i was born. nothing's happening. now press zero. siren blares. misha, before we talk about the serious stuff, the showbiz stuff, the tv show is fiction but your book is actual fact, isn't it? that's right, yes. mine was a nonfiction book and then transformed into a fabulous drama by hossein amini, the writer, and james watkins, the director. now, baroness neville—jones, i mean this in the nicest way, but you've been in this world for a few decades now. did the stuff that came out today about what russia's been doing surprise you in any way or did you just think, oh, here they go again! more here they go again. however, i think that anybody who is engaged in that kind of work would have known there was a threat, and the government will have known there was a threat, and they will have been a very considerable effort made to protect the work they are doing

so misha would you like to comment a little bit about that?es the acacia is called the eightfold sense came from one of the oldest japanese poems it talks about how the gods set eight fences around japan to keep it safe from the world. so it would be a divine land. in many ways we have this exotic image of japan but certainly not true but the same time japan is clearly maintained barriers to the world that most of us in the west would find questionable if not problematic. i wrote the book because honestly, i lived in japan in the '90s and parts of the two thousands. you get very used to it. i was back there, and i was there during the terrible paris massacre. i was in tokyo and all the news was coming in. we immediately, your body reacts physically what's next i realize i am in tokyo i am perfectly safe. japan obviously has an instance of terrorism in the mid- 90s. the terrorism we had been dealing with at that point was 15 years the post 911 in japan did have to worry about if you're in a dangerous neighborhood they have to worry about china.

. >> a perfect opening, history historian misha. i want to turn to you the featured guest of the day. i loved your book. i would like to say that each of the essays is elegantly forecasted and they're perfect for both those who are new to this subject and experts as well, and michael howard, the famous historian who wrote about strategy, really would have been proud. i think you're an example of what he was talking about. so, let's start at bit misha on just with the title of the book "geopolitics. "tell us what you mean by geopolitics? it features so -- it's the theme that runs throughout the whole book and it's important for the audience to understand a little bit what you mean and a little bit tell us about nicholas as well because efeet temperatures in self essays and phones a framework to understand the chapters. >> thank you, i'm happy to do that. i realize now that the title of the book probably should have been wolf warrior jayeow politics. don't know -- geopolitics. that's not asking representative gal fer for the title. le

only misha and the rainy live in exxon launched the campaign my still going freedom in protest against iran's law obliging women to wear hijab she posted a photo of his so. on facebook with out one soon many iranian women followed her lead. there is a war in iraq about my likes. they have guns and bullets they have facebook to church instagram and our social media they can not be silent that's something that i never knew. i just seen on social media can also help people facing completely different struggles the campaign any action raises awareness for people with the chronic fatigue syndrome and many who suffer from pains and sudden feelings of exhaustion and me is still quite unknown so patients are often wrongly diagnosed in some cases even as having a psychological condition bedridden patients are turning to social media to raise attention to their plight with the hashtags immediate action and not enough for me they're demanding more funding for research on the disease is. posting a video or photo of yourself holding a piece of paper with a message on it as plain as that may sound i

joining us now from dollars to correspond we should just all who filed a report for us gave you the misha faced with the poverty at home like we just saw in your report or our market workers starting to return to the cities of crime some definitely are in one of the villages began to get to a 100 migrants have to try and at the beginning of the lockdown and almost 50 had already headed back this in the circumstance led me to open sentences like dead and . massive and india have 91000000 cases the migrants in these villages to what i asked them did you only have the option to josh mckelvin the knock on him because they were afraid to be elite from beckham decent outlook but once again in these religious one the last few months they have almost had no income at all so they have no option but to join to the city or the pen democratic it was pointed out that margaret workers in india are the backbone of the urban economy what kind of impact is their absence having on the big cities. well definitely brian that is true because at the beginning of this locked on a never only about a few 100 case

they've been questioning as well there have been questions rather about whether some of those health misha's have been getting across the corporate like some people in the apartments there have said that they have don't even have some essential services but the government has said this is absolutely necessary to make sure that this does not spread payments have been handed out as well and include as well to people living in those apartments so i mean we're seeing border closures once again and these thought iris reappears so we'll just have to see they will be stuck in these towers for 5 days at least until the government reassesses the situation for the update thank you to gage our correspondent in canberra. now intensive care unit softening up in columbia's couple those cases and doctors are worried that many deaths are going on reported on a sunday run p.m.t. reports from buckets on. coffins carrying the bodies of 19 victims arrive for cremation at this cemetery on the outskirts of. the recent increase in the number of deaths in the colombian capital has meant cremation service is tripled

pandemic recovery package are now in their 4th day in brussels but european council president shall misha's says he's confident a deal will be struck michelle has presented leaders a new budget proposal to consider it lowers the amount of money which will be given out as grants to nations hardest hit by the virus egypt's parliament has approved the deployment of troops to libya to defend quote national security provides president abdel fattah sisi with a mandate for possible intervention in the conflict sisi has previously threatened to support honey for have to force his if japanese government and its turkish allies renewed their assault on a city of see it. the british government is suspending its extradition treaty with hong kong and blocking arms sales foreign secretary dominic rob says the measures are a reasonable and proportionate response to the controversial new national security you know china imposed on the territory. the us president says he will resume daily carette a virus briefings from tuesday donald trump held a news conferences at the start of the pandemic but they were su

institute for global dialogue a south african think tank and she joins us now on skype from capetown so misha saturday was the 100th day of lockdown for south africa by my count and you had some of the strictest measures in the wild but those are now being gradually relaxed even as we see these case number skyrocket so what's the thinking here. of those that you know well the thinking is that we do love to cry if this was to actually kind of get biassed by the public health department and the government time in order to get more people know what is happening is. that or rather thinking that you can hear the full picture a lot that will be able to pull out probably needs to start adjusting and recalibrate and people need to get to work the last time when you just love women in the news need to buy the things that happened because of all sorts of phenomena so i think that the big find it but also what you're going to start with everything that the government wants us to stop the the who are responsible in our own behavior and behavior change so it was inevitable because they were dictions and w

think misha is a more likely target than me!lapse of the berlin wall. i had a few recruitment attempts by the checks. i was detained at once in russia and arrested once in serbia —— the czechs. what did they say when they try to recruit you? were they wearing a shabby raincoat? funny enough, he was a scientist, at the time, iwas enough, he was a scientist, at the time, i was the correspondent covering eastern europe. it was very convenient because i knew nothing about science, and he knew nothing about science, and he knew nothing about eastern europe. i was invited by this mysterious czech scientist to come and discuss matters of environmental policy, and he spent the entire time successfully getting me drunk and trying to recruit me on behalf of the intelligence. he failed, i was too drunk. laughter that is a great story! quick question about next week. the intelligence security committee, it was put off too much frustration for many. looking at alleged interference in the referendum and the election of 2017, what do you antic