Military he does not want and we will continue to fight for the right to fight we are not a detriment to this nations military. Also coming up tonight breaking gender barriers one jab one hook and one uppercut at a time well meet a woman whos become irans first female boxer. Now vilified at the end of the day there are limitations that apply to each and every country and you cant just say that about iran there are some good things about iran and there are some not so good things too but at the end of the day you can achieve what you want. We begin the day with what could amount to a ban on transgender troops in the u. S. Military presence takes effect today and while it will allow troops to call themselves transgender will also force them to use bathrooms. Forms and even the pronouns of their biological sex President Trump first announced the policy in twenty seventeen on twitter in a series of tweets he wrote this after consultation with my generals and military experts please be advised that the United States government will not accept or lao transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the us military our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail and anyone undergoing gender reassignment surgery will not be allowed to enlist thats putting pressure on transgender recruits or serving their country for under brokerage the transgender kicked off a dramatic race against time the Army Intelligence analyst had to decide whether to start gender reassignment surgery or risk losing his job in future. Where i initially was planning to you know spend several months probably you know really just taking my time in figuring out what i wanted to do and figuring out my identity suddenly turned into this crazy race where i was you know missing days on days in a row of work and then stressing and really just doing everything i could to get the diagnosis done in time to meet that deadline around fourteen thousand transgender people currently serve in the military trump announced the ban in twenty seventeen reversing obamas efforts to end longtime restrictions on transgender soldiers. As you know its been a very complicated issue for the military its been a very confusing issue for the military. And i think im doing the military a great favor. The president says allowing transgender people into the military increases costs and lowest operational effectiveness the claim is being rejected by some of the pentagons top offices im not aware of any issues i am not aware of any issues activists have condemned the ban for the first time. One of our National Institutions will be turning back the clock on equality. Shutting its doors to people who have already proven their ability to do the job trumps decision is being challenged in four separate appeals courts. But whatever their verdict the banners are ready for an Army Specialist because with life into turmoil well joining me now is Charlotte Clymer shes a u. S. Army veteran shes a transgender woman and shes also the press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign its an elegy Civil Rights Organization thank you so much for joining us charlottes first of all the department of defense in the u. S. Its been insisting that this is not a ban they says that most transgender troops currently serving they wont be affected by this and that those troops are welcome to serve openly whats your reaction to what the department of defense is saying is this a ban. Oh theyre lying it is that suited and you know even folks who were serving openly yesterday when the ban was not on the facts they will be denied access to medically Necessary Health care and they will also face severe stigma for their service this is basically dont ask dont tell for transgender troops and as we as you might recall under dont ask dont tell gay lesbian bisexual Service Members could serve but they face extraordinary stick and certainly harmed their careers many of them were forced out over not so much conduct but just even the suspicion of being homosexual bisexual this is going to be the same issue were going to see transgender troops who leave Service Early who are right there with a cold for nothing more than existing in uniform tell me about your time as a transgender soldier how much stigma did you face in the military. When i was not openly transgender in the military i was in the closet at the time but i havent let a number of friends who are openly transgender right now including one of my best friends from west point the United States military academy he is commanded troops as a transgender man in iraq and afghanistan and he is still in the army and i can only imagine the obstacles that would be put in his way whereas his peers many of whom have not performed as capably as he has will not have to deal with an obstacle you know its interesting because on the commander in chief says Something Like this that sets the tone for the entire organization its higher armed forces right down to the youngest private and so the cultural challenges the transfer individuals will face are extraordinary and will certainly do great harm. And you mentioned speaking with some of your colleagues and your friends how specifically how this affects those thousands of transgender troops that are currently serving do you think that some of them might drop out early as youre mentioning or perhaps now start to face even worse Something Like discrimination mother serving thats right thats exactly what will happen many of them will leave the service earlier than they had anticipated just because you know dealing with discrimination and harassment from certain quarters in the military because of the cultural tone that said by our commander in chief will become overwhelming but also they will be denied medically necessary care medical care that has been validated by the American Medical Association the American Psychological association and retired surgeons general of the military all of whom have said that there is no medically valid reason why transgender Service Members cant serve but they do need access to Quality Health care on a full level what trump is trying to do is force folks out by denying them certain medical care procedures such as hormone surgeries anything thats even related to being transgender or just a human being in the military so this is a tactic to push people out its absolutely banned regardless of the pentagon would like to tell people when the president when he first announced this policy he said in part a military must be focused and cannot be burdened with the disruption that transgender in the military wouldnt tale so essentially saying theyre transgender troops or distraction is that true in your experience. No and you know even in my experience you can just as the experts the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff the highest ranking military officer in the United States mark milley has already said there have been zero issues with transgender troops openly serving in the military the chief of every Service Branch have said exactly the same thing before the Senate Armed Services committee and numerous retired military generals and admirals have said as much in fact the Rand Institute which is in our big defense think tank here in the United States released reports in twenty sixteen that there would be minimal or negligible effect on the military unit ready unit cohesion or military readiness if transgender troops were allowed to serve openly and if i thought its come to pass in three years and three years of transitor been able to serve openly there have been zero problems and we have this from our top military leaders so its not a matter of debate at this point weve already settled this issue there is no burden on the military that comes from transgender Service Members serving openly. Now you mentioned the dont ask dont tell policy that was the policy as you mentioned preventing gays lesbians and bisexuals from serving openly in the military that policy lasted nearly two decades it was finally overturned in twenty eleven how long do you think now this particular policy will last. I think at most were going to elect a democratic president in two thousand and twenty or at least someone who has far more sense than this coward in office and we will have someone in the oval office who overturns the band Supreme Court is expected to rule not on the merit of the band itself but whether or not a commander in chief can put the ban in place we dont know when that really does come it could be years from now but regardless of the next commander in chief i am confident will will see how absurd this ban is on every level and overturn it but until then we have to focus on the transitor Service Members and their families who are affected right now on this very day the military is a cohesive and integrated environments and so even families are going to feel stress and anxiety from the stigma. Donald trump is attempting to put on transgender Service Members when he didnt even serve in the military and in fact he avoided service during the vietnam war all right a new era these for now in the u. S. Military surely clymer of the Human Rights Campaign and the transgender u. S. Army veteran thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. Now to the southern philippines and what could become the new front in the battle against the socalled Islamic State the island of mindanao is the place that i asked chose to create its socalled caliphate in Southeast Asia even before i ask amy on the scene mindanao it seemed a long running power struggle between its christian majority and Muslim Minority in may of twenty seventeen i as fighters made their move a few hundred fighters seized the city of mirali and the resulting battle to flush them out devastated the region reporters sundra painters men and Hans Christian ost among travel to mindanao to see what life is like there today. We are on patrol with the largest muslim rabbit group in mindanao the Moro Islamic Liberation front or m. I. L. F. For decades they fought for independence tens of thousands were killed. But since the selfproclaimed Islamic State burst onto the scene in two thousand and seventeen the muslim rebels have joined forces with the Philippine Army both sides feel threatened by as fight has now laying low. The Muslim Minority strongly supports the m. I. L. F. Only five percent of filipinos are muslims and almost all are live in mindanao the areas are among the poorest in the philippines. Many here blame the christian majority government for their plight. We visit the military headquarters of the m. I. L. F. The government needs the rabbit support to secure a peace and to fight terror president roderigo to terror to has promised them a far reaching autonomy is. The chief of staff isnt in uniform a sign perhaps of the shift from insurgency to politics the m. I. L. F. Has seen defectors joining i as we ask him what might happen if the autonomy project goes badly our credibility daughter people really become diminished. The ice history of. His station. All the followers of the. Doorway in their group and. They will become bigger. He tells us that they will disarm up to thirty thousand fighters but only with full muslim autonomy. If not then. We will not do commission our forces and we will not give up our firearms which we promised to the government. This is what both sides are trying to avoid another more robby the largest muslim city of the philippines lies in ruins bombed out after a few hundred s. Fighters had occupied mahratti for five months two years ago. More than one thousand people were killed. Tens of thousands remain displaced. It was president to tear to who ordered the bombing but hes also a strong supporter of muslim autonomy his film a peace adviser tells us. It is a struggle signal to the bad guys. Around read this country i have been in the Peace Process under several president s and we have moved us far as we have this time the president feels that we can improve. If we give more authority and power for the locals but it must be under one flag the philippine flag. But if the autonomy dr fay its more disaffected muslims could join radical outfits in addition after the loss of their caliphate in syria and iraq more foreign i guess five tests might also decide that men dont now is the new front. Reports by w. s underpaid men and she joins me now in studio sandra just first of all i want to know how big of a threat is the socalled Islamic States in the south philippines its hard to put down in any numbers that we have seen isolated bombings we see isolated skirmishes authorities tell us there are fighters laying low in the jungle in the marsh lands but to give few concrete numbers that we can do what we do know is that there is a lot of attraction you still find syntheses among the population we spoke to a young guy lets call him up those he was part of the group that laid siege to be hes now also laying low and he says look if our life doesnt change i would pick up a weapon again so there is definitely some sort of threat there now the government has promised mindanao as muslims more autonomy right so what does that mean for the struggle against islamist extremism there i think what the government is trying to do here is you know by creating more political and economic inclusion to basically. Dr tara our to know by winning the hearts and minds of people they try to win over sympathy that might otherwise go to potential terrorists and there is a lot of jihadi potential in the region we have seen decades of conflict. We have seen. War in this region and of course that is something a local conflict which is there that i. Can tap into and kuno if now fight us with the side we have lost our territory in the middle east were looking for a new front lets travel over there they could actually find ground there so you think potentially there could be fighters heading from say the middle east to iraq or syria and theyre heading to this region oh it could happen to conk without what we did see in the middle east is that some of the foreign fighters there were actually from neighboring countries indonesia. Malaysia and from there its very easy you know to just take a boat and hop over to mindanao and also in this teach of mahratti we saw that there were also foreign fighters there like this young guy up there and he told us when he went to a Training Camp in the jungle in mindanao he trained alongside obviously local friends but also alongside foreign fighters and he said yes most of them were from indonesia from malaysia but he also said there were chechens and arabs lets talk about the president. Hes of course known for this brutal crackdown on drugs and drug users in the country could he maybe turn out to be the one bed brings peace to this region hes the first president of the philippines to actually hey its from mindanao its so he does have probably a better understanding of the conflicts like other guys before him and he really supports this autonomy drive. He basically used all his bullying power to whiplash the philippine political elite to accept this drive for autonomy and also the rebels c. E. O. Of the mainstream Brother Group the biggest rebel group in the knowledge. They told us we trust his sincerity and im sure if you us many other people thats something they would not sign referring to president to tara ten now you were there you were filming of course in mindanao and and also murali like how difficult of a task was that well when we were filming in morocco obviously allowed to move freely its still a military exclusion zone so there were always soldiers by outside and they determined where we could go and what we could phone and how long we could stay equally if we joined the rebels like you saw that they took us on for told a patrol obviously it was a program they designed for us and also then in their territory they basically decided what we could film and how long we could stay but other than that we thought people were really friendly very easy to talk to but of course there is that threat and we were never quite sure. Now the philippines it doesnt seem to be getting as much attention as the battle against the socalled Islamic State in syria and iraq itself or other countries joining in this effort at all is there an attention being paid now to the philippines i think the United States very much face attention in terms of providing intelligence and surveillance also you know during the mara beseeched that were very crucial to help the Philippine Army in telling things around also australia is another military partner of the Philippine Government but yes i mean if maybe more attention would have been paid from all sides involved maybe we would not have seen this maradi seach there interesting stuff w. s sunday papers member turning there with that fascinating documentary thanks very much and you can actually watch that documentary in full i highly recommend it its called philippines in the sights of i ass its available right now on our you tube channel thats documentary be sure to check that out. To china next on a german man who is a viral hit each and every time he posts video online so how does he do it well you might call s