people should put themselves through mental torment for the pleasure of going to the brine university of birmingham we value diversity as long as it doesn't get in the way of profit. while the back story here the university of birmingham opened its campus in the united arab emirates last year offering a range of course is set to so-called u.k. standards it's currently expanding with plans to accommodate more than 4000 students however there are concerns more generally of the human rights record and treatment of the l.g.b. community and that's prompted a number of lecture is in fact to refuse taking up any positions in the emirate which forbids same sex relationships is some of the advice more detail that the university says is simply to protect students and staff. do not do anything that may be perceived as a public display of affection by the same sex or opposite sex even if it's intended to be innocent try to avoid dressing in a way which is not traditionally associated with your perceived gender if you are in public do not wear any clothes or accessories which could be considered to be a form of

clothes or excess or ease which could be considered to be a form of the l g q advocacy the university of birmingham opened its campus in the united arab emirates last year offering a range of courses set to q.k. standards it's currently expanding in dubai with plans to accommodate more than $4000.00 students however there are concerns over the human rights record and treatment of the l g b t q community that's prompted a number of lecturers to refuse taking up any positions in the kingdom which forbids same sex relationships the university though says the guidelines of to protect its students and staff here to discuss it now i think of the ramadan foundation and human rights activist peter tatchell both welcome to the program going to put this to both of you 1st is it right for any educational institution to advise staff and students on their sexual orientation or behavior in any context mohammed you 1st. well i think it's important that obviously when there are british students possibly studying in dubai that they understand the culture and then the environment and the law in which they will be li

university of birmingham we value diversity as long as it doesn't get in the way of profit but the back story the university of birmingham opened its campus in the united arab emirates last year offering a range of course is set to u.k. standards is currently expanding with plans to accommodate more than 4000 students a big set up some lecturers though refused to take up positions of the anger over in rights concerns there is some of the specialist advice and university says is there to protect students and protect staff. do not do anything that may be perceived as a public display of affection by the same sex or opposite sex even if it's intended to be innocent try to avoid dressing in a way which is not traditionally associated with your perceived gender if you are in public do not wear any clothes or accessories which could be considered to be a form of the l g q advocacy. or discuss whether or not an educational institution should be offering this kind of advice anyway. there are thousands of. people who work in the united arab emirates and do saw for many many years i have friends

well the university of birmingham opened its campus in the united arab emirates last year offering a range of courses set to 2 u.k. standards it is currently expanding in dubai with plans to accommodate more than $4000.00 students however there are concerns over the u.a.e. human rights record and treatment of the l.g.b. t.q. community that has prompted a number of lecturers to refuse taking up any positions in the kingdom which forbids same sex relationships the university though says if the guidelines are to protect students and staff the u.a.e. denies violating human rights earlier on our team we discussed whether an educational institution should be offering such advice at all. there are thousands of. people who work in the united arab emirates and do saw for many many years i have friends there who work there so i don't think it is that much of an issue from the point of the. university it's about protecting students and it's about having the right guidance and support in place to protect students as they study in the country of the university of birmingham has a very clear and ve

so the university of birmingham opened its campus in the united arab emirates last year offering a range of courses that quote u.k. standards it's currently expanding them with plans to accommodate more than $4000.00 students big set up over there but there are concerns over the u.a.e. as human rights record amongst all this and treatment of the l g b t q community that's prompted a number of lectures already to refuse taking up any positions in the emirate which forbids same sex relationships university though says the guidelines are simply there to protect students and staff the bigger picture the u.a.e. denies violating human rights full stop earlier we discussed whether an education situation institution like this should in fact be offering this kind of advice anyway. there are thousands of. people who work in the united arab emirates and do saw for many many years i have friends there who work there so i don't think is that much of an issue from the point of the of the university it's about protecting students and it's about having the right guidance and support in place to protect

clothes or accessories which could be considered to be a form of the l g q advocacy or the university of birmingham opened its campus in the united arab emirates last year offering a range of course is set to u.k. standards it's currently expanding with plans to accommodate no less than about $4000.00 students there so big set up but there are concerns more generally over the u.a.e. human rights record and the treatment of the old g b t q community that's prompted a number of lectures and refuse taking over any positions in the emirate which forbids same sex relationships university though says the guidelines are there purely to protect students and stuff the bigger picture denies violating human rights or r.t. we discussed whether or not an educational institution in the 1st place should be offering this kind of advice. there are thousands of. people who work in the united arab emirates and do so for many many years i have friends there who work there so i don't think it is that much of an issue from the point of the. university it's about protecting students and it's about having the right guidan

the university of birmingham has put profits before human rights. a little good morning it's a tell one here in moscow this thursday 5th of december a life without international world news center kevin owen with a with this half hour a day great to me company so 1st and germany there's expels 2 russian embassy employees after apparently linking them to the killing of a georgian citizen in berlin in august chancellor angela merkel's accused russia of not sufficiently cooperating with an investigation into the shooting moscow strongly denies the allegations of involvement. we took this measure because we did not see russia supporting us in clarifying this matter and in biological context of course he also talked about this with allies this is absolutely groundless speculation this topic is being somehow whipped up by german media but it does not mean it is how things are. the 40 year old victim was an asylum seeker of chechen descent he was targeted in a virgin park on the way to a mosque with witnesses saying he was shot in their head and chest by a m

of the. university it's about protecting students and it's about having the right guidance and support in place to protect students as they study in the country of the university of birmingham has a very clear and very good equal opportunities policy a very strong policy around human rights diversity and inclusion and by going to dubai it is violating its very own rules and principles may i think quite clearly this is simply a money making exercise the university of birmingham has put profit before human rights i can't is to be with anything peter said about the regime in the u.a.e. or saudi arabia or some of the other despot regimes in the middle east where there is no human rights and there is no freedom but i think it's important for individuals to know the expectation of you know now that the universities there how they should behave in terms of protecting themselves sorry let me rephrase that how they should conduct themselves how they should protect themselves their own safety and the safety of their peoples and i think that's what the university was trying to do for a balance in terms of security and in terms of safety care and have one law for people in britain and

white house not just donald trump thank you for talking to us scott lucas professor at the university of birmingham live there from birmingham thank you very much for your time. plenty more ahead on this al-jazeera news hour including india's nor house of parliament passes a controversial bill that sets religion as the criteria for granting citizenship to fornace class. photo you take my phone put it in your pocket on the stump. britain's prime minister is drawn into a controversy over a lack of beds in the national health service and will tell you how this boss of the c.e.o. of a deal in texas more n.b.a. action coming up with us. are some breaking news from the czech republic where police say the gunman suspected of killing 6 people in a hospital has killed himself the shooting took place in a hospital waiting room in the eastern city of ostrava police say the suspect shot himself shortly afterwards he was inside a car offices where searching for let's speak to journalists mike john of h. who is or janice at the check a t.v. . and said police are still trying to work out what happened. so we know

well the university of birmingham has a very clear and very good equal opportunities policy a very strong policy around human rights diversity and inclusion and by going to dubai it is violating its very own rules and principles it is jesson to them just as them in order to make more money and i think that that is the fundamental red line in this case in this in this particular issue it's about money making not about stand by principles and you know if the birmingham university has a set of values which are the spouses in this country it should ensure that those values are also spiles wherever it's chooses to put up campuses outside of this country it can't have one law for people in britain and then a different law for people in dubai that smacks of our ignorance it's next of western privilege it smacks of disrespecting the human rights of the people of dubai and i want to say that this is not just about the human rights of the lecturers and staff of the university it's also about the human rights of the people in dubai itself live under a very very oppressive regime ok we have to leave

university of birmingham. thank you so much. >> reporter: thank you, michael. >>> all right. a plane crash in the u.s. left nine dead, including the pilot and two children. this happened near chamberlain, south dakota shortly after takeoff. three people survived and have been taken to hospital. officials say the crash was weather related. it happened during heavy snowfall, had reduced approximate visibility. speaking of which, a powerful storm affecting many trampers across the u.s. 50 million people coast to coast brace under rain, wind and snow. hundreds of flights have been canceled. the storm moving east. what's in its path? meteorologist eric van dam joining us. >> we are getting thunderstorms from the same system. it is warm enough here to not cause a big deal. the east coast it will be a big deal. laguardia to jfk, boston international, dulles, they will have major traffic delays or airport delays, i should say. let's take you to south dakota. we talked about the plane crash that took place that now officials are calling as weather related. but you can see why, right?

. >>> joining us is scott lucas where he teaches at the university of birmingham. scott, good morning to you. >> happy holidays to you, natalie. >> and to you as well. >> we heard mr. trump calling the impeachment unconstitutional, not true. again and again, when attacked, he says untruths. it is well documented. what do you make of this? >> well, natalie, you're right. you and i can talk about this every week. >> and we do. >> there have been almost 100 untruths in the last two weeks. you call out the lies when they are lies. that was a lie about the impeachment process. and you get to the core, get to the facts. we've got two things happening here. one is we've got an impeachment and a trial, which has not determined that donald trump is guilty but is based on hard evidence, documents on 17 former current and former u.s. officials. it goes before the senate possibly as early as january. but we have the second side of this, the trump show. now, the trump show doesn't care about the evidence. he can't confront the evidence. what does it do? it creates the circus, t

. >>> scott lucas, a politics professor at the university of birmingham. good morning to you, scott. >> good morning, natalie. >> house democrats refuting president trump's impeachment proceedings and referred to writings of thomas jefferson, george washington and other framers of the constitution. how important could it be that they're infusing these important tools with this process while the president has debunked it outright. >> here's my reading, natalie. that is the democrats, or those who favor the impeachment of trump, i think are really confident they have established the evidence for that. through the 17 witnesses for the house intelligence committee, the current and former u.s. officials. and because republicans really didn't take on the evidence as much as try to undermine the witnesses, if you consider this a court hearing, we know the defendant has a case to answer. but the question moves to the legal basis for this. in other words, is this legitimate? that's what democrats are now focusing on. they know they will shout sham and say it is a co

in 2020 let's speak to scotland because he's a professor of international politics at the university of birmingham he's also the co-founder of the trump project that's a news and analysis website for writing daily coverage on president trump he's joining us via skype from birmingham hi there thanks for joining us on the al-jazeera news hour so analyze this for us than trying to team has long dismissed this impeachment inquiry the investigation as a sham and a hoax and now he's saying he nor his legal team will take part in the house hearing on wednesday are you surprised that he's taken that decision. no i mean if they participate they give the proceedings an appearance of legitimacy they give legitimacy not only to the process but to the weight of evidence that has really accumulated in the past 2 months through the house intelligence committee hearings including the public sessions a few weeks ago the only response they have this weight of evidence because it quite clearly shows from 17th former and current u.s. officials that donald trump was engaged in pressure on ukraine to investigate his po

about all of the goings on with scott lucas, professor of international politics at the university of birmingham. he's joining me now. good morning, scott. >> reporter: good morning, natalie. >> well, where do you begin with this saga? why don't we begin with lindsey graham and mitch mcconnell stating they will not be impartial jurors in the trial of president trump, which when they took the oath they declared they would be impartial. >> reporter: yeah. let me begin with what mitch mcconnell signaled, they are all in with the white house. mitch mcconnell's statement said he saw no chance of conviction came after he met with white house counsel pat cipollone for several hours. they are not serving as jurors. they are serving as part of the defense team. we have two narratives here. one is the narrative that is the evidence, the legal process, the u.s. constitution, all of which we are supposed to adhere to. and the other is the political process. unless 20 of 53 republicans politically detach themselves from president trump he will not be convicted and he will fight the 2020 election, along with

of the most prestigious and forward-looking universities in the world. tell us about your journey and the role of education played in that. >> with the march in birmingham of educators all my life i loved reading and math to appreciate the words to understand the connection so i want to be at a university that allows me to get to know people all over the world i can't imagine growing up in the fifties and sixties i would be at a university that had people from every continent because what i'm able to see on our campus that is so remarkably inspiring is countries that are so different in many ways but students come and appreciate what they have in common they appreciate the cultural differences but even in our country we have brought in people from all over the world who come to learn and talk about ideas and prepare to be leaders i think of my own journey being able to be around doctor king and have that experience who then was inspired to understand true community and values to prepare people to lead and civic engagement and arts and the other areas. >> i had the honor to march with doctor king the same year the university was founded in 1963. so i have

of the most prestigious forward-looking universities in the world. tell us a bit about your journey into the role that education played in the journey. >> guest: i appreciate that. the children's march on birmingham and all of my life i've loved reading and math and that's what i want for every child is to appreciate the meaning of words and understand the connection so i am fortunate to be at a university that allows me to. i could never imagine i would be at a university like this because what i'm able to see on the campus that is so inspiring is people from countries that appreciate what they have in common. we are in all of the place and have come to learn to talk about ideas and prepare to be leaders. i think of money owed journey where we have that experience in the civil rights movement then understand through community and values to get people to lead in civic engagement. i had the honor to march with doctor king and it's the same year my university was founded. we are together and i've been there at the university over the years. i would also say as we tell our stories the question has to be for the donors or alumni but it also means looking at the context. looking at the context of one

of the most prestigious forward-looking universities in the world. can you tell us about your journey into the role that education platonist? >> i'm very fortunate to have been in the march on birmingham and all of my life i loved reading and math and that is what i want is to appreciate the meaning of the words and understand the connections across the disciplines and so i am very fortunate to be at a university that allows me to get to know people from all over the world. i could ever imagine growing up in the 50s and 60s that i would be at a university that has people from every continent because what i am able to see on our campuses that is so remarkably inspiring his people, countries that are so different in many ways and yet my students coming intcome into the apprecit they have in common. they appreciate the cultural differences, but they also appreciate that here in our country we have brought in people from all over the world come to learn kung fu come to talk about ideas and prepare to be leaders. i think of my own journey as one where i have the chance to be about doctor king in children and go to jail and have that experience a child care, child leader in the civil rights

birmingham in the u.k. she's a professor at the university of essex she specializes in american politics national in state so they're raising articles of impeachment at what point over the next couple of weeks or so can we start to say he's being impeached high natasha's preacher in doha can you hear us now yes i can hear you ok i was just asking you there to break it down for us because it occurs to us we're in something of a gray area here behind us now we've got the impeachment inquiry ahead of us we've got a constitutional process at what point do we start labeling this as donald trump is going through the process of impeachment right well he's going through the process of the beach and right now they are laying out the articles of impeachment by next week then the house judiciary committee room vote on that and then the entire house will vote on that before the end of the year and then that will then if it passes by a simple majority that will then move it to the senate where that conduct a trial which will be presided over by the chief justice and it would require 2 thirds of the senators to convict bu

he is a harvard university fellow and author of preserving african-american history. he has led efforts to create the birmingham civil rights museum monument in alabama, which president barack obama designated in 2007. he is the recipient of the 2018 robert g stanton national preservation award. his other projects include preserving iconic spaces like the estate of madame walker in new york, or joe frazier's jim in philadelphia, pennsylvania. and many more places. he is also a assistant clinical professor at the university of maryland university of maryland's graduate program. spencer is a robinson professor of history at george mason university. his research interests and publications focus on african-american migration, slavery and the underground railroad. he has been a leader in public history for several decades. serving formally mr. president of the national underground railroad freedom center in cincinnati, ohio, and later working at the national museum of american history smithsonian institution for 20 years. he brought their the integrative exhibits and the creative exhibits, which have been important

the grad alma mater the university of illinois at urbana-champaign and when i began to understand the world was predominantly white, frankly, i'd been in my world in birmingham and at my college, while we had professors from other races the fact it my world had been primarily african-american and i began to see the differences and the challenges and the strengths of being in that integrated society at urbana-champaign, however all those experienced shaped me and prepared me for and working at other institutions for the umbc experience. umbc is very special never state of maryland because it's the only university founded at such a time that people of awful race -- of all races could go there black and white. so from the beginning we were an institution with people from different races. i've gone robbed the country and what we worked to improve on at umbc, we have -- this is a colorful point but i'll make it. we have desegregated now and we have students of all races and types institutions but with hat no entrily integrated and at this point in i life i have to tell the truth. when you go to most places you seem people with people like themselves there are tim

he is a harvard university lobe fellow and author of, preserving african american historic sites. he's led efforts to create the birmingham rights in alabama which proceeds obama designated. he is the resip yercht of the 2018 robert g. stanton national presration award. his other projects include preserving icon i can spaces like the yes state of madam c.j. walker in irvington new york on joe phrasers gym or nina simone's birthplace in tyrone, north carolina. brent legs is also an assistant clinical professoror at the universe maryland's graduate program in historic preservation. spencer crew is the clarence j. robinson professor of history at george mason university. his research interests and publications focus on african american migration, slavery and the underground railroad. he has been a leader in public history for several decades serving formula as the president of the national underground railroad freedom center in cincinnati ohio and later working at the smithsonian institution for 20 years. he brought there the innovative exhibits and the creative exhibits which have been important and memorable. the one that