War on terror. The oscars changes its rules warning only diverse films will win best picture from 2024 but our debate found piri that ethnic minorities women l g b t q plus or people with disabilities have to feature in. Films what. Will mean. Im not at the same rate you shit for is firmly there. But you wont you unless you want to just seen a look see one kill a rule in the. Morning just turn 10 am here in russia in moscow particularly r. T. H. Q. Its kevin owen here for the next half hour hope you can stay with me as it take you through all those stories weve talked about a lot more as well over this next bullet in 1st then a fresh crackdown on the belarus opposition to more high profile figures detained leaving the groups governing body with just one recognized leader meantime hundreds of women of rallied in support of another opposition figure held earlier Maria Kolesnik over dozens were reportedly arrested at the protest. Demonstrators held banners and chanted slogans that request a cover is the hero they said police tried to disperse the protesters when that failed they started to make arrests acts this morning our Senior Correspondent laurent cows to have in minsk breaks down the developments to compromise here there is very little give in either side president if you can who seemingly determined to hold on to power to preserve the state and the system that he has built over the many long years of his rule the protesters undaunted seemingly by the increasingly heavy hand of the lord as an example this is a spontaneous protest not 10 minutes away from us we set out immediately by the time we got that there wasnt a side that there had been just minutes before a violent confrontation so id mock that and scary big burly intimidating men in a mox uniforms without any visible identification fullface mosques shoot up they seized and tied up everyone that looks suspicious and it was over in media minutes it seems that the better russian government recognizing the futility of trying to end these protests is now trying to contain them trying to restrict them to the weekends and that is when we will undoubtedly see tens of thousands of people marching down the streets of means against president. The the fact that a prominent opposition member maria classical has been arrested will undoubtedly breathe fresh life into these protests because shes a member of the opposition the Coordination Council which is at varying times stated different goals from securing a transition of power to merely organizing new elections fresh elections and shes facing very serious charges of trying. Fully seize power which has a penalty of 3 to 5 years in jail Maria Kolesnikov his father spoke to r. T. And described the circumstances of her rest to us in the grip of the reported to police my daughters disappearance because there was already a video on the internet and the words there were witness that unknown people pushed marie into a van and took her away now its almost all the words on the internet i had been saying to him maybe youd better leave bella ruth she always replies to me that she would stay until the bitter end and i didnt mind because i know her character and her responsibility according to the official version of events the belorussian governments version. Of opposition figures and members of the Coordination Council if there are violations suddenly decided to leave the country if you ask the opposition and their allies they give a completely different account they describe pressure psychological and even physical pressure so opposition figures being grabbed by the arm put into caused by Security Services driven to the border with ukraine to poland and told to scrap and told to leave the country and many of them have done so one has been arrested at this point there is only one problem an opposition figure member of the Coordination Council that is still free that hasnt fled the country or being arrested and not this Straight Line a alex save its famous spell a russian author winner of a new bell prize and she has fab her apartment in new dated with foreign diplomats and Embassy Workers who have out of solidarity gathered there to sort of form a human shield around head to try to d discourage president lukashenko from making any moves or trying to arrest her or force out and president. She mainly encouraged is feeling more confident that these protests havent become captive cataclysmic havent grown. Out of control theyre still something he can manage and they just dragging on at this point which is perhaps why he has to show and now to strike at the Coordination Council the investigation has brought proof that some people from the socalled Coordination Council have committed actions aimed at destabilizing the situation in better roost and harming National SecurityMaria Kolesnik over has been arrested currently all circumstances in the criminal case of being established the situation here is precarious it is very very tense balance on the knife said and unfortunately with neither side willing to compromise you wanted to see the problem of protesters god the protesters wanting to see you shame to god and all it will take really is is a spot a little shove a little push to set this tinderbox alight and if that happens these files will bird heart and the ugly our Senior Correspondent in minsk made protests and violence in his country president lukashenko spoke to Russian Media including r. T. He claimed that now is not the time to quit as he needs to protect the country we have the most newsworthy bits of his interview in about a couple of hours time and his words in full are on our website. Given the earth watching all of this is very painful and even tragic for me but it doesnt mean that im giving up because i look at this philosophically some day god will call me up there but now i must protect what has been built with our homes protect the people who have built it and they are an overwhelming majority. Of the news a small of the pop thickens in the election of ellies mystery illness with the russian experts noting the symptoms are inconsistent with novacek german media citing unnamed sources claim the russian politician fell victim to a new version of a solvent era poison berlins ignoring moscows calls to share the medical data passing of on these test results instead to the Global Chemical weapons watchdog the o. P. C. W. The test results have been handed over to the organization for the perhaps mission of chemical weapons russia is a member of this organization or that diplomatic spot between perlin and moscow is heating up over what happened to alexei and avani the german ambassador to russia was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in moscow and what cheese heard how russia is far from happy and what it sees as accusations coming towards it about the alleged poisoning of Alexei Navalny a strong protest was made to the ambassador over the unfounded accusations presented by the government of the federal republic of germany against russia in the context of the illness and hospitalisation of russian citizen alexina of only and the obvious use of his situation by berlin as an excuse to discredit our country on the International Arena the g 7 leaders have also issued a joint statement in which they talk about the confident poisoning of alexina folly the statement also calls up for action from moscow the russian Foreign Ministry not particularly happy with that they say that the main obstacle towards action being taken by moscow remains germany not sharing the information it says shows the next election in a valley was poisoned with a nerve agent with russia this mortal or requests berlin has not deemed it possible to respond swiftly and constructively a lack of information prevents the laura foresman from using all the necessary procedural mechanisms to find out whats happened a mysterious surrounding this case is growing ever stronger moscow made those requests for information sharing back on the 27th of august and russia is unlikely to be very happy that this info is going to be passed to the o. P. C. W. Previously moscow it said that should the hague based group be involved in this it would amount to little more than an Information Campaign from the german government. A major scene change coming to the oscars then after years of criticism over a lack of diversity any film hoping to bag the best picture going from 2025 will have to meet inclusion standards one of the main characters or a significant supporting character must be a person of color for a start at least 30 percent of the whole cost should be from an under represented group at least 2. 00 off screen leadership positions and 30 percent of crew jobs must also go to underrepresented people there has to be similar representation of the films publicity marketing and distribution teams to but the rules arent popular with all actors it seems. Well the change comes on claims that the ceremonies are overwhelmingly White Movement against other cause been growing for years the oscars voting groups also invited more than 800. 00 new actors directors in the push for diversity 45 percent of the new member tees were women 35 percent represented the racial minorities who put the whole thing up for debate. You take a look around the world and you realize that for the most part. African American People terms what women lead minority leads are not given awards at the same rate and that only 15 people of color have received Academy Awards only 9 people hispanic people have received can in their words realize that there is just a cultural bias that exists and so in order to correct that we have to come in and address the issue of what the represent function is and so even if we have to mandate those numbers its just whats necessary if you go through history a lot of things that have been under represented. Certainly people of ages shirt people of different looks in weeks for you to mandate whether selfimposed or my legislation but a mandate a sure require me a certain number of people based upon demographics is sheer mitigated lunacy in an industry that is right now. We know for a fact that the grammys im sorry the oscars and other you know cultural organizations have consistently shown year in year out that they do not have the knack for being inclusive in 2020 were deciding that we want to get a little crazy and were going to follow the path looking into how we can include more people who have typically been on the outside thats not a negative in government affirm that as nonprofits that is not harming the iranian equality how can work. That is not the role of hollywood let me explain something here if there is a good or or with good especially today irrespective of Sexual Identity kishen whether its color if its good its going to work this is not title 9 this is an education this isnt you kid forrest affirmative action i guess unless you want to unless you want to just say no lets see what can i ruin now does adding one in a color just adding a minor persons but from a marginalized community does that take away something from the creation of the film because films unlike what lots of creations are not just the concept of one persons mark films are where we go to see the world around us when were imagining a future where they were looking at the past and can you imagine if i would say you know what i think we need to have more of a representation so im going to force a bunch of people by virtue of their color into the n. B. A. Or or or here or hip hop because i want to see more of a balance oh theres no guarantee of equality in music thats the way it is show if its good its good and if its good itll sell and or. French president obama crosby bust removing his moscow on his face meeting with students just as the country outlaws not wearing one in public and then them forcefully to make matters worse instead of a cough causing more than a few panic looks. The president coughs outside of his moms can stretch his out his hand to take and return a glass of water straight after no jail no hand washing what can we hope for back wrong cant stand the fabric masks which is sparingly distributed to teaches however he only spoke for 5 minutes with his what it teaches have to say who forced to speak with one sometimes for 8 hours per day that the president is lawful at the world what are we expecting that the video to be broadcasted schools will be saying that should not be done. But just as france and the world brace for a 2nd wave of the pandemic mar skeptics are rallying to show dubinsky reports on the political headache of the rising anti mosque movement. Mosque so just look around on the streets of paris everywhere people are following the rules but what if youre one of those people who has questioned the whole idea of wearing a mask all they effective do they prevent the transmission of 19 and what if youre one of those people who doesnt just question this in private but has actually gone to a protest about that attack on germanys democracy protesters from a demo against the countrys coronavirus restrictions try to storm the german parliament. This is how the Mainstream Media the z. And she looked down protesters has spent the afternoon terrorizing police it will be made of people. People who think the coronavirus does not exist hundreds of vaccine activists and conspiracy theorists put their faith in science instead of conspiracy theories if they want to avoid getting covert one team thats being backed up it seems by a study conducted via facebook carried out by those who enjoy his foundation it found that the typical anti mascot here in france is a woman in her fifties shes educated and supports the yellow vests shed refused to have a corona virus vaccine if it was available and she believes in conspiracy theories probably has been the most politicized. In the may control and i think for many years because it has a different meaning and between the politicians decided to. d a lot of confusion among the general public but when it comes to mosques dig a bit deeper and you find that 3 of the 4 main reasons that respondents gave to objecting to wearing them were not perhaps entirely unreasonable. They were mosques was reading difficulties well while of course you can breathe while wearing a mask some people have complained that when its hot out all theyve stepped up the pace wearing a mask isnt the most comfortable of experiences to they are a hive of bacteria well yes there is bacteria all around us and thats why its recommended to wash masks regularly or change them 3 they are useless in preventing 19 contamination the jury is perhaps still on this one i say that as there is still no consensus that a governmental level here in europe as to whether or not face masks are an essential to in combat in the spread of 19 so while in france and germany for example why did usage of face masks has been recommended or made obligatory in the netherlands there was a short trial of mask wearing in busy cities was carried out that seems ended while the dutch study their effect if this sweeping of course went totally against the grain of the countrys top epidemiologist threw his weight behind the new mask policy saying this is very dangerous to believe face masks would change the game when it comes to. Even the w h which made a u. Turn and is now recommending face masks says this we still dont know how much protective value fabric must have for the wear thats why when you wear a mask youre pretty. Think others and when others where the mosque theyre protecting you were still in the midst of the pandemic and the pa several months the medical and the scientific advice has been a constant merry go round so why is it so unreasonable that some People Choose to question more i think because of the conflict conflicting statements from politician and from what Health Organization as well as from the Scientific Community to quite a bit of confusion and uncertainty in the general public and that led to some not only distrust but also a bit of flaring up in the journal. And that has i think probably primarily contributed into a more aggressive to be a view toward of the Face Covering 1021 of the morning moscow time this thursday hi thank you for taking the time to watch shotty international with me kevin i know in this hour ahead britains Prime Minister announces new restrictions off of worrying spikes in covert infections this will concern there right now i will tell you more whats being done about it from Boris Johnson after this break. And when else should seem wrong. Why dont we just dont call. It all yet to seep out just days after. And in detroit equals betrayed. When so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. So what weve got to do is identify the threats that we have its crazy confrontation let it be an arms race is spearing Dramatic Development only and going to exist i dont see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. Again so as mentioned before the break the rise in covert cases among young people in britain is causing special concern right now it sparked strict new measures from mr Boris Johnson said he had no choice im sorry about that and i wish that we did norte have to take this step but as your Prime Minister i must do what is necessary to stop the spread of the virus and to save lives. So a key measure is banning gatherings of more than 6 people including indoors Rule Breakers will be fined covert secure events and large households are exceptions as well as work in education settings but the country is already reeling of course from failures in the governments response says Kate Partridge picks up now. Its all about a sharp rise in coronavirus cases the governments chief medical advisor chris witty he was also on there with the Prime Minister as well he said that the cases that come up rapidly over the last few days even and the rates are going up in a certain age group as well its among the young people and that has been stately rising since the middle of august position leaders like here star but he also had a few sharp words to say about the governments the you case test intray system and he said that it was on the verge of collapse what were seeing now is stories over the past few days that is showing that just the regime is on the verge of collapse heartbreaking stories from people who needed to been told no tests are available or the website is crashing or people are being told to go miles and miles for a test nobody can argue that this is Good Governance well this comes in due to the fact that the government would claim that theyre ramping up testing that its more widely available now than ever in fact more tests are being conducted in the u. K. Than across the whole of europe but at the same time as well theres also been a survey conducted amongst medics about how they feel about having to deal on the front line with coronavirus and all of those 69 percent say theyre more likely to quit from the pandemic and government treatment leaving 1143. 00 planning to leave the n. H. S. At the end of it basically were looking at medics who think theyre on the edge of burnout well the scientific basis for all of these measures that was highlighted by the chief medical advisor so chris witty early on if you use the example of spain amongst other European Countries he said that there had been a sharp rise there but if you implement measures to combat that then you can prevent what the long theyve been anticipating a 2nd wave. Picking up of the story brought us to developments shocking pictures these orange clouds for most some of the worst ever wildfires on the west coast of the us 6 people including 2 children killed in whats going on there wednesday more than 2000000 acres have been destroyed in the blaze in the still a couple of months of the fire season to come talk of the fires elsewhere after. Fires destroyed europes largest refugee camp on the greek of the lesbos footage showing whats been left after the blaze not much its left nearly 13000. 00 people without shelter considering course everything those refugees of the face of late. 37000000 people have been forced to flee their home in washingtons war on terror in the middle east and that quote is a very conservative estimate its the finding of the cost of war project by Brown University in the us it comes as donald trump unveils pentagon personnel cuts in iraq the very same country where civilians have suffered the most killam open reports. The election is just 2 months away donald trump is now trying to create an image of himself as being a peace loving leader it has been announced that u. S. Troops will be withdrawn from iraq in september in recognition of the great progress there recchi forces have made and in consultation and coordination with the government of iraq and our Coalition Partners the United States has decided to reduce our troop presence in iraq from about 52023000 troops now the u. S. Military presence in afghanistan is possibly going to be reduced as well down to roughly 4500 troops donald trump seems to be fulfilling one of the Campaign Promises of 2016 amid the lead up to the 2020 boat trump a spelling to take into account the real total cost of these military adventures from the United States according to one study 37000000 people have been displaced sense 2001 as a result of the u. S. War on terror and that is a minimum asked a mess because it cost and most wars there are so many politicians in america almost all of them have been complicit until we have simply put a weapons based economy and we forget about the moral and injustice thats being caused to fit a 1000000 and a half people were killed or the people who are displaced at 37000000 people or that weve completely balkanized and destroyed africa the middle east but in the upcoming us president ial election its not really clear if these numbers will matter and will have an impact on the vote that determines whether or not donald trump stays in the white house a lot mop them r. T. New york. For pentagon official Michael Maloof warns the troops may simply be replaced by private mercenaries. I think its part of the larger strategy on the part of the Trump Administration to have less less presence in individual countries and more in peripheral countries in the region in order to avoid certain attacks that seem to be occurring as well as what basically drove u. S. Troops out of a base in iraq i dont think youre going to see us troops in a training or advisory role completely out and if they do come out there will be a substitute im sure private military contractors if you that see update so far this out. Join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and ill be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business im showbusiness ill see of that. Problem drugs dont always come from unscrupulous dealers but from pharmacies too in every state in the United States we see a very sharp increase in the number of people seeking treatment for addiction to prescription opioids opioids invaded america under the banner of medicine persisted with the pain but instead of trying to wean him off though she just goes after dose after dose after dose and really became his drug dealer so whos to blame patients doctors manufacturers or the governments. New gold rush is underway and gonna thousands of ill equipped workers are flocking to the gold fields hoping to strike it rich give as good. As they owe by those that work children are torn between gold and digitization from me was very poor i thought i was doing my best to get back to school which side will have the strongest appeal. Thanks for agreeing to give us an interview were all group here or as they write a landing of the