11 pm here at r t h q in moscow were glad you decided to join us for your world news update this hour again. The u. S. Is boosting its offensive capabilities in iraq the head of u. S. Central command said this was in response to the threat posed to american troops by neighboring iran. Also in the process of bringing air Defense SystemsBallistic MissileDefense Systems into iraq in particular to protect ourselves against a bit another potential iranian attack well just when many thought that tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic of iran were starting to cool we have the u. S. Central command telling us the opposite take a listen this is no easy task iran is persistent and is growing its arsenal Ballistic Missiles despite International Condemnation around remains the Worlds Largest state sponsor of terrorism now its important to note that the Iraqi Parliament has voted to end the presence of all foreign troops in the country however the usa maintains a military presence in iraq now iran has other priorities than conducting war games with the United States lets remember that iran has been pretty hard hit by coronavirus now its also interesting that the pentagon refers to iran as the greatest source of terrorism in the middle east when just sunday we saw it 2 u. S. Military personnel killed at the hands of the ice ill terrorists these are the 1st u. S. Military personnel killed by i still sense truck declared the group had been totally defeated the coalition to defeat isis has liberated very close to 100 percent of the territory were doing a good job with those as we have just absolutely decimated eyes as we have won a good study says weve beaten them and weve beaten a badly the isis caliphate. Has been decimated in another short period of time like hours youll be hearing hours and days youll be hearing about the caliphate it was 100 percent defeated so despite the fact that 2 u. S. Marines were killed by the ice still terrorists the United States continues to take the position under the leadership of the Trump White House that your rob a country that has been key in the battle against isis is somehow the greatest source of terrorism in the region. Joining us live now is antiwar activist ken stone now do you think does the u. S. Have good grounds to be boosting its defensive keeping capacities and iraq. The short answer is no it doesnt have good grounds to to boost its capacity in iraq it should get out of iraq but for years the u. S. Has been using both isis and iran as a pretext to maintain its military presence in both syria and iraq. Isis as it turns out from abundant evidence is a u. S. Asset the us created it find it armed it and never really fought against it they left the heavy lifting to the Syrian Arab Army and its allies in syria and they left the heavy lifting in iraq to their kurdish proxy fighters and to the Popular Militia units so the they dont need this defensive capacity of missiles against isis that its directed against iran and iran has embarrassed the us in front of the whole world on january the 8th when it retaliated for that he and his assassination of love tenet general solar maney by dropping a number of Ballistic Missiles onto u. S. Military bases in iraq for which the us had absolutely no defense and so these this increase in capacity and i which they say is defensive is as a result of the iranian retaliation but we have to keep in mind that this socalled defensive capacity in a few hours could be changed to an offensive capacity and be used to target sites in iran you were touching on there what happened earlier the theor and after all of that happened the Iraqi Parliament voted against having foreign troops and the country any longer do you think the u. S. Has taken into account baghdad position when announcing this new change. Absolutely not the not only was was that a unanimous vote to go nonbinding in the Iraqi Parliament but there were at least a 1000000 people some say 2 and a half 1000000 people in the streets of baghdad demanding that the u. S. Get out of iraq and on top of that there were demonstrations around the world including in my hometown here of hamilton ontario for no war in iran by the u. S. So the feeling in the in iraq in the middle east and around the world is that the u. S. Should get out of iraq not. What kind of response you think were going to have both from iraq and from iran on this posting up of. I think that this will only antagonize the people of iraq and it will it will also make the people of iran upset because the the the presence of the United States in iraq and syria is a provocation to all the people in the middle east who want to reassert their and National Sovereignty and territorial integrity and here comes the u. S. And and plunks itself down in the middle of the region and tries to recolonize countries such as syria iraq yemen all these things all the all that the us does is increase the tensions in the middle east it increases the likelihood of a wider regional war and even god forbid a world war so the smartest thing the best thing that could happen from the point of view of the people of the region and the whole world is that us removes itself from the middle east and acts like stop acting like a stops acting like a rogue player on the International Stage and starts acting through diplomacy and. Bargaining negotiation rather than the heavy handed fist that the u. S. Uses now can stone antiwar activist thank you for your time and your comments. Now to syria where a fragile peace in the adlib province is Still Holding with russia and turkey discussing ways to strengthen it its been reported that turkey it might even start withdrawing its heavy weaponry our sensor tell our to air bag has been traveling with patrols along the border. You know how the only hope i have the car you get to now we fly over the us and i didnt want to go the russian into the process the oil reserves. Near the american soldiers position the. Plot a mere putin hasnt ruled out staying and power if thats what the people want the suggestion was 1st made by an m. P. As the duma discussed potential changes to the constitution or the president said it would be up to the people to decide in a public vote next month and it would also have to be approved by the Constitutional Court my colleague and a farmer was given all the details by gust of. So im right what did mr putin say exactly will his speech his address to the parliament was basically a summary of why this is needed why these constitutional amendments are necessary he also address the number of points additional amendments that the parliament had come up with among them was an amendment that would potentially lift the constitutional limit of the number of president ial terms anyone president can serve here blog me of putin was asked whether he supported it to which he replied no. Society should have guarantees that the regular changes. We need to think about future generations will do should i consider it is appropriate to remove from the constitution restrictions and the number of president s returned to look he said russia has had its fair share of revolutions upheavals changes in power you know every time people expected Something Better to come of it and every time what they got was the opposite of corruption mass deaths its been hectic not only putin says theres no more appetite for revolutions in russia but people want change and this is you know this is inside everyone of us we want you blood and he says the point of a limit to the number of times a president can serve is to make sure that theres new ideas new faces coming into the government all the time taking russia into a new level evolving and helping keep up with the times but last me a putin was also asked of another potential constitutional amendment of the reset of his president ial limit so potentially allowing him to serve another 2 terms given how wide reaching these constitutional amendments are theyre changing almost every aspect. Of life for russians and heres what were putin had to say on potentially that. The 2nd proposal means removing the restriction from any citizen and the incumbent president inclusively and allowing their future participation in the elections if citizens support this amendment during the vote on april 22nd this option would only be possible under one condition if the Constitutional Court gives an official ruling that this will not contradict the laws of the constitution worth mentioning is that Vladimir Putin didnt say whether he would run for another term if the Constitutional Court deemed these potential amendments regarding resetting his president ial terms as legitimate as legal so you know thats still up in the air and how do you think the public would react to this then if they had the chance to vote on what people people are going to react differently i mean likely of putins support his support levels his poll numbers away up he still has a majority support an overwhelming majority support but he this is his 4th president ial term ease an old face and he said himself that you know new blood is needed new faces are needed in Government People people want new people want evolution. And here again people will be voting only on whether Vladimir Putin is allowed to run for another 2 terms this is a whole host of issues and the moments that people will be voting for a new livable minimum wage establishing marriage as Something Union between a man and a woman forbidding parliamentarians potential candidates with jule citizenship for running from running for high office so these are this is a huge array of changes and likely putin here says that theyre absolutely necessary that was the gist of his speech to parliament because times are changing. These are troubled thoughts nevertheless that is his take on how things will turn out it is entirely another whether russians agree with him and the vote is next month in april and that is when people will decide ultimately whether the believe his words where they believe that these amendments will make for a better tomorrow. Italy has been dealing with its 1st full day on lockdown in a bid to stop the spread of the corona virus a number of infections nationwide has now surpassed 10000 the death toll has grown to more than 630. 00 the country is the 2nd worst affected after china. Im about to send it to create that we can sum up with the expression homes there will no longer be a red zone there will no longer be a zone one. Can enjoy there will be. At least that it is a protected zone. Amid the tight new restrictions uprisings broke out in a number of jails prisoners and have been riding since yesterday after they took over a jail and set it on fire and milan inmates were filmed on the rooftop burning items and shouting freedom and 6 detainees died in clashes in the Northern City of my data on sicily relatives of prisoners gathered near a jail concern at that prisoners could be infected by the coded 1000 virus prisoners are reportedly angered by new rules which have seen the family visit suspended meanwhile citizens in the italian capital lined up in long queues at supermarkets on monday night after the countrys pm extended the lockdown measures to the entire country meanwhile some italians were seen fleeing from the peak of the outbreak in the north to sicily and the south. Situations requires a strong sense of responsibility especially for young who want because for example im coming from the nato and probably put myself in voluntary quarantine and i do not think it is the right time to exporting germs these aggregate in any case it is a question of respect for us and for others in particular because im 25 years old and her family members are older. Than the situation with finding this place is getting complicated as the situation is already out of. School is clearly that everyone takes on their responsibilities and thats appropriate precautions are taken with oneself as for others. We discussed the infectious risk coming from coburg 19 with russian academic an obstetrician gynecologist 5 mark kurz or is that despite pregnant women a stimulant not being at risk everyone should stand alert. Both the police who did the reports about the current developments were getting from our colleagues in china say that pregnant women do not belong to the risk group all information about their peculiarities and complications were getting so many from military sources i would like to highlight that theres not a single pregnant woman among the few coronavirus infected people in russia and not a single child as far as i know all the information were getting is from Foreign Literature im currently reading reports describing the 19 pregnant women infected by mild coronavirus 4 of them successfully gave birth and the crucial thing is that they did not transmit the corona virus to their children either by blood or any other way if you do not belong to the risk group and it does not mean that you do not pose a threat to those who surround you or the elder population that your parents you should not relax. After wall street suffered its 1st automatic hope in trading and more than 2 decades with stocks falling nearly 8 percent World Markets seem to be slowly recovering so is the price of oil which also went into freefall yesterday after a price war triggered by saudi arabia and in the u. S. The dow plunged more than 2000 points the worst one day point drop ever prompted by Oil Price War that stunned markets around the world we had a huge market event yesterday as a lot of investors repriced at all the sharp crash we start in markets and the 2000 point swing on the dow its the same for what happens today Business News now starting with the crude oil markets as they try to bounce back from their worst day since 1009 to one well prices plunged 30 percent on whats been dubbed black monday in the biggest single day fall through the 1st iraq war it was sparked by a spat between top crude suppliers in riyadh and moscow who couldnt agree on a deal on production. Saudi arabia says its slashing oil prices to grab market share from russia and falls russias a refusal last week to back an opec plan to cut Oil Production to bolster its price believe that that would only benefit high cost producers in the u. S. Or so that r. J. Minister had this to say about the situation. Unfortunately opec plus partners decided at their meeting to reduce all of the production by the end of the year 1500000 sharon said they did not consider any other options of course this led to the fact that low consensus was reached the extension of the agreement and starting from april the 1st all countries have the opportunity to independently determine their production policy on the view that yesterday saw a very strong decline in World Markets and accordingly prices this was primarily cause but it was not appeared on the weekend that saudi am close it offered its consumers an additional price reduction however today we can see that markets its partially recovered showing about 7 percent growth to see how the situation develops but it seems to me that the panic that has hold yesterday has already partially subsided the market now. That you. Are alive but also as we now cross live to the man who brought us the term quantitative easing Richard Warner who is a professor of banking and finance now of course theres a lot of finger pointing going on right now moscow has been accused by some of starting a price war while others say we are the one who sent the Oil Prices Tumbling so where does the truth lie in your opinion. Well what we witnessed is that russia has refused to join a price cartel. And instead seems interested in increasing competition in the worlds Commodity Markets as you know opec is a cartel that has been artificially pushing up the oil price thats being why its was created and russia refused to join the cartel effectively now the cartel responded by saying well they were going to hurt you by driving down the price and russia said well you want to drive down the price you know be my guest we can manage with a lower price we like a bit of competition and so its a game of chicken that moment. Saudi arabia doesnt want to have to blink and russia is not going to blink so this could mean that. Essentially one of the. One of those countries most affected will be United States of america the Shale Oil Industry essentially requires the our prize to be a little bit higher and so its ironic because of course the 1st country to play the oil market in order to hurt another country in recent history was the United States trying to hurt russia 201415. In addition to sanctions imposed on russia russia. Effectively reorganized its economy has implement a lot of import substitution policies theres a look industries russia has been creating at the still many can create because it has well educated people know how resources everything you need really and so its become much more resilient now to embargoes and also a lower price so lets see what happens i think russia is sitting fairly comfortably and i suspect others such as in the us or in saudi arabia will 1st get uncomfortable so thats sort of the globe our perspective on all of this but if we were to think about the everyday person oil prices have dropped people are saying that its great even donald trump is tweeting out supporting the idea of cheaper oil but what does that mean are there consequences th