Waving rainbow flags and carrying banners with slogans such as Bialystok for everyone both they and the police a school shooting them or pelted with stones bottles and fine crackers by a group of ultra nationalists one of the 4 Democratic congresswoman subjected to racists tweets by President Trump last week as insisted that she and her non white called leagues are not going anywhere Alexandra Ocasio Cortez was speaking at a town hall event in her New York district once you start telling American citizens to quote go back to your own countries this tells you that this president's policies are not about immigration it's about ethnicity and race as. Donald Trump tweeted that the 4 democratic congress women should go back to where they originally came from he denied in his suggestion the tweet was racist polls have opened in Japan for elections to Parliament's upper house the center right coalition a prime minister is expected to keep its majority in the House of councilors where just haul the seats are being contested if the coalition can win a so-called super majority of around 85 seats Mr Abi is expected to press ahead with controversial plans to amend Japan's pacifist constitution b.b.c. News. This is from our own correspondent on the b.b.c. World Service I'm Pascoe Harter Hello and welcome to the program that goes behind the scenes of world news and into the lives affected coming up the Algerian soap opera that made a city a star also the midwives turned surgeons who are saving lives in Ethiopia and some pretty surprising political ideas that a Donald Trump rally including Monica ism the u.s. President recently described Iran as under siege as a result of tighten sanctions he introduced those sanctions come close to preventing Tehran from exporting any oil a tool Iran of course depends on its oil revenues so what is life like at the moment for ordinary Iranians how can we even find out when the Iranian government routinely blocks press freedom and jails journalists during Martin patiences recent trip there the B.B.C.'s access was controlled and as with all foreign media his crew was accompanied by government representative at all times there is a danger of course that we only end up showing what the regime wants us to but there's always a chance that we get a glimpse of something meaningful This was my 1st trip to Iran or nor mt of reading or speaking to people before hand can ever prepare you for the moment when you 1st arrive in our time train I am expecting the breakfast buffet the hotel to resemble a few old horse put on women's faces were bruised and swayed then bam they G.'s it's andar there was a hospital nearby there was offering very decent plastic surgery at bargain prices north jobs were in and then there was the weekend pool party just across the road it was for men only the perhaps a better known face of Iran is shown at Friday prayers but if America can tame the few surprises. As we were checking through security one of the workers said Don't let the Brits and they've taken our ship he was referring to there Reynie an oil tanker seized by the u.k. Off the coast of Gibraltar a small done easily and then he laughed at the joke despite all the tensions with the West the rains I met were incredibly welcoming and hospitable and the mosque there were thousands of Washoe Pers a senior cleric delivered a salmon denouncing a litany of American crying's as he saw us including a reference to the Iranian passenger plane that was shot down 31 years ago by the Us killing almost $300.00 people we happened to be there and then ever. And then we moved on to more recent events including Iran shooting down a u.s. Drone and that was followed by choreographed chants of Death to America Death to Israel and death to England and from all honest a fella exposed but one man came up to me with a warm smile and say we used to chant Death to Russia things can change you know. For many Iranians at the moment know things are looking grim the sanctions are heart sank and it's the most vulnerable people who are being hardest hit one newspaper editor told me Iran can extend hardship but not humiliation Maybe I should have been surprised that so many Iranians we spoke to wanted to leave their country they don't see a future in Iran Bassett been told things can change I went up Pope concerned ran words I never thought would come out of my mouth and one of Iran's biggest stars a singer with teeth white enough to light up at our room was belting out a ballot now in most other countries the fans would be on their feet dancing and perhaps declaring the underlying love for the heartthrob in front of them but in Iran it was all a bit more restrained a bit more sedate nobody was allowed to dance so instead fans were laugh swaying in their seats the audience responding police spy eagle eye the ushers whose job it was to make sure everyone followed the rules occasionally Olga about hand a female fans head scarf would slip and she would reveal a bit too much hair one of the ushers with then start flashing a red or blue laser pointer at that Fender until she covered up again before the performance ever been agreed that we wouldn't film people's faces but we were allowed a wide shot which would only show the backs of people's hands with pointed out that it would have been rather odd to film a concert and no actually see the audience our cameraman trundled off to get the short always going well but then everyone started getting jumper we were asked to wait backstage the security officials were coming they wanted to see our footage. Scrutinising are short rare asked Why do you Westerners always get around wrong and then the latter's go with all the fruitage later I looked over and for the life of me I couldn't see where we'd gone wrong you couldn't see any here in the dark cavern arsehole and then I realized that's not what it's all been about the security officials probably couldn't care less about the hair they were worried about falling foul of their bosses and so they needed to be seen to be doing their job it was in front one small example of the undercurrent of fear that runs through a rainy and life Martin patience on the 1st b.b.c. News trip to Iran in 5 years Ethiopia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women giving birth a few years ago at the Hamelin Fistula Hospital in addas Saba I met a woman who was lucky to be alive but was still suffering from the complications of childbirth it had taken her 2 years to save up enough money to get to the capital for treatment 2 years of extraordinary pain but Ethiopia is making huge progress maternal mortality rates have come down by 2 thirds over the last 30 years and one key to success has been a kind of task sharing training mid-level health workers like nurses to perform emergency surgery in places where there are no surgeons Ruth Evans spent 4 days with one of them in dangler a small town in the m. Her region of northern Ethiopia my hands were shaking with a gentle and as I pulled on the green surgical scrubs covered my hair and hooked a face mask over my ear as I was rushing to get into theatre and exhausted woman was being wheeled along the corridor she being in labor for 3 days and her baby was stuck. She'd come for treatment at a small rural hospital one of hundreds opened in Ethiopia over the last 20 years the government has also opened new medical schools but outside the cities there are still not enough qualified doctors the nearest surgeon with 85 kilometers away but someone else was about to a parade say Dougherty a former nurse in her early thirty's with brown eyes and a warm freckled face framed by a pink headscarf as she changed into scrubs She explained that the baby was in fetal distress not getting enough oxygen so she needed to do Mrs Varian immediately she said she did everything she could to save the woman and her child but it was a high risk case earlier say they had told me how she ended up doing this and she was working as a nurse in another clinic a pregnant woman came in bleeding and in danger they referred her to the nearest hospital and they settle but she died on the way I always remember that incident she said that was the moment she decided to compete for a place on a new masters course which would turn her from a nurse into an emergency surgical officer in 3 years less than a 3rd of the time it would normally take to train a traditional surgeon operating for the 1st time was scary she said I knew what to expect but when you hold the knife and run it through someone's skin that was something else but the 2nd one was easier a surgeon who trained the offices something to say told me he and his colleagues were skeptical at this that would I let my wife be operated on by such a person this is a crazy idea but over time he changed his mind he saw the surgical offices saving lives and thought what would have happened to these patients if this person was not he backing down I spent 2 days following saida on wood rounds and joined in one home visit with a new mother. The house was cool and with thick or thin walls and a high ceiling others say they checked on the 10 day old twins that did a boon a ceremony roasting coffee beans over charcoal Well the smell of frankincense filled the room the thick sweet coffee was delicious but left me totally wired Well I tossed into into my hotel bed later on say he was working a night shift and saw through 3 natural deliveries the next day state I had an emergency case so I rushed back to the hospital inside the bright white tiled operating room the surgical instruments were laid out on a tray where the woman's bump was wiped with are using the cut was quick and decisive the scalpel a burning a red stripe across her belly and then within seconds the baby was pulled out he was blue and floppy not breathing so say to handed in to a nurse while she concentrated on the mother the nurse whisked him away wrapped in a white cloth and laid him on a bad still not moving at this point I thought this is a dead baby I can't recruit this and I turned back to save her and her patient a colleague motioned for me to come back the nurse was sucking fluid from the baby's mouth and giving him oxygen with a hand pump he started rubbing his chest really quite telling the baby cry cry cry cry cry cry and I learned the baby gave a squeak I heard his 1st breath a pink touch appeared around his mouth and started spreading outwards and within a few minutes his week mewling turned into a proper cry I looked at Sade and I could see she was smiling behind her face mask big wet t. Is was slipping down behind mine the following day I returned to the road and spoke to 1000000 ash the mother I'm at her tiny baby Emmanuelle a sick child as she fed him she Thanks Sage in the nurses for saving their lives if they had not been here she said I would not have my child. Ruth Evans you were listening to from our own correspondent on the b.b.c. World Service I'm Pascal Harter on next stop is Algeria where the March of political progress since the ousting of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has stalled elections scheduled for the 4th of July have been postponed and there's no new date suggested the pro-democracy protesters blame the military overseeing the transition but the army complains that the opposition gives them no one to talk to life of course doesn't stop in the midst of political chaos as we know in Britain so what's it like to be in Algeria these days not in the capital but in Iran a city to the west of Algiers looking across the Mediterranean Sea to Spain here's Neal Cassady in Iran Algeria 2nd City the legacy of centuries of migration from under Lisita is still evident today jumping in a taxi only had to say door for the driver to understand my destination the Spanish word for blue is the name of the neighborhood where an enormous 19th century boring stands when it closed in 1980 the Iran was the last remaining boring in Africa it's just been renovated and reopened as a conservation you bullfighting isn't a traditional Arab pastime but then Iran isn't a traditional city you won't see many headscarf surveils there and people are just as likely to socialize in the nighttime cabarets as in the cities cafes. Maybe this is why Algeria's edges t.v. Show today was recently set here a short drive across the city and you're in the old Jewish quarter of a better but this summer during the month of Ramadan are ignored the usual glossy Turkish and Egyptian soap operas instead everyone was talking about a homegrown show viewers got to know the neighborhood of a lot of intimately through the lives of the characters of a drama called or led little which loosely means the children from respectable families on screen within these neighborhoods dusty streets and ramshackle apartment blocks a working class community deals with issues like drugs violence and poverty the sopa trade the lives of ordinary people the hopes and dreams and the bonds that hold a community together and it's the neighborhood itself which emerged as the hero Some critics said it painted the city of Iran in a bad light but to most it was an honest portrayal of life in modern Argyria holding up a mirror to a society undergoing dramatic change this great immediate Hollands is just one small example of the explosion of free speech driving out here is dramatic political revolution every week since the middle of February Algerians have filled the streets in the millions demanding an end to the corrupt and oppressive regime this road them for 20 years only a few months before it would have been unthinkable to openly criticize the country's leaders but these days at every protest you can see banners and hear chants calling politicians traitors thieves and sometimes much worse. Through peaceful mass mobilization our Durance have succeeded in toppling President would flicker the 82 year old leader they'd barely seen in 6 years following his debilitating stroke his brother and close adviser has been imprisoned as have 2 former prime ministers a number of government ministers and a string of business leaders all on corruption charges the man leading this purge is Army Chief Gates but in Algiers newly reclaim space for free speech he has not been spared either during protest marches in the press and on social media he is regularly accused of being as corrupt as those he purged or of being in the pocket of militias foreign powers join in the weekly protests on a Friday in any given city in the chance openly calling for reform are deafening it's not just in the safety of a crowd the Algerians now feel free to discuss political change talk of politics is everywhere on the steps of the National Theatre each Monday smaller crowds gather for public debates nothing is off limits with people regularly discussing how they can limit the power of the military or what's to be done about the country's rotten judiciary watching the citizens on the marble steps debating in public brought to mind descriptions I've read of Athenian democracy in the 4th century b.c. This newly reclaimed freedom has not gone on challenge though recently they have been arrests of opposition politicians and journalists those displaying the m a z flag representing the country's Berber ethnic minority have also been arrested accused of threatening the integrity of the country one football fan supporting the national team at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt was given a one year prison term for displaying a banner in the stadium demanding all politicians clear off those in power and not taking this revolution line down. But even as they celebrate the imprisonment of those in the old guard whom they blame for the decay of their country many are juries are wary of the military they believe this institution ever present in post-independence Algeria is trying to appease them by throwing them a few bones rather than committing to meaningful reform as we approach the bull ring in Iran that they I asked the man whether people would make much use of the giant arena he shrugged Maybe he said he then grinned and suggested the politicians in prison on corruption charges could be thrown into the ring and made to fight out for survival you know like Russell Crowe in Gladiator he said it would probably be just as arbitrary as the kangaroo cause they're being sent to but at least this way it be more entertaining for us I wasn't so sure about this idea but the fact he felt free enough to express it is a measure of how far things have changed Neil Kessel in Algeria this week the u.s. House of Representatives declared president Trump's tweets about for Congress women of color to be racist the unusual censure was just part of a wider are prole but the tweets calling on the Congress women all u.s. Citizens 3 of whom were born in the u.s. To go back to the broken and crime infested places from which they came played well with much of Mr Trump's base So what are the real core beliefs all of a loyal Trump supporter just before this particular presidential Twitter storm broke Mike Wendling was at a gathering in Scranton Pennsylvania getting to know people there I met Michael outside a dull conference room on the fringes of a pro Trump event. We were inside Scranton's grand old railway station which is now a hotel one bright spot in a decaying city that has an outsized importance for Democrats a working class place that's also the home of presidential candidate Joe Biden if the challenger to the president can't win big here next year they're in deep trouble Michael in 2 friends had driven 3 hours from Maryland but he didn't want to talk much about conventional politics Republicans or Democrats or the 2020 election I would describe myself as a traditional reactionary Michael told me smiling a monarchist I tried to look unfazed Michael didn't mean that he was a fan of the Queen he explained to me in sweeping historical terms that he was against the Enlightenment against liberal democracy the people in the conference room were mostly retirees small business men and the local chapter of a group called Women for Trump I put it to Michel that this cross-section of middle America wouldn't have much time for a king you might be surprised he said what if you told them President Trump for life they might get excited. Something weird is happening in the fringes of American culture 20 years ago if you were a freethinking slightly rebellious young American you might be drawn into the anti-globalization movement or get deep into environmentalism maybe you get attacked to stop eating meat devil in drugs or underground music but those rebellions of the late 1990 s. Are now coming passe or in that killer slur of the Internet age normie marijuana is legal in many us States online streaming has made a mockery of underground anything and then there's the politics to an outsider the radical left today could seem like a dreary performance art spectacle of safe spaces and language policing and so Michael and his friends and many others like them have been drawn to a constellation of fringe ideas all coming from a very different slice of the political spectrum they include a few monarchists and of the reactionaries Trump fanboys libertarians and at the extreme ends the right race warriors ironic neo nazis actual fascists they get irritated when you lump them together but they do have at least one thing in common they hate what they call the dominant culture of political correctness I ask if Michael is a white nationalist he says No His concern is more about the form of government like he says he's a monarchist but then he tells me it's completely acceptable to advocate for the benefit of any race except for white people Michael tells me about his intellectual heroes and name drops a French Nazi sympathizer and a blogger who inspired the right later I take a look at Michael's Twitter account an