in june 2800 nato held a training exercise in the baltic states and poland 19 nato states and partners including friends took part. from a military standpoint it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to defend the baltic states against a russian attack involving armored divisions and tens of thousands of troops so that is the one. german soldiers also took part. the need to exercise. here read units defend themselves against an attack by blue units. the. it strategically better to wait than to fire blindly and give away your position. but that's financial name finds we engage the enemy infantry and took out quite a few of us can from as i read deployed my men in a stream bed which is a good defensive position and right now we're waiting for the next enemy attack for the. which they are probably preparing right now to find as good of an all star says the dr no according yet. germany is leading a nato force in lithuania that involves 1200 troops from 10 member states. the units were sent to strengthen the alliances defenses along europe's border with russia. we trained together

b. 52 bombers are preparing to take part in a training exercise in the baltic states. many see this deployment as a message to russia. and it isn't the only message. we've seen at types of exercises that we haven't seen since the cold war were american be 52 bombers to fly up over the north pole to the launch point for nuclear cruise missiles and then return to their bases in the united states those kind of strike exercises were not done since the i mean 980 s. . it seems as though we've returned to the old game of cat and mouse that was common during the cold war. this situation reminds us trillion antinuclear activist and author helen caldicott of a time when the u.s. and the soviet union stood on the brink of nuclear confrontation. with well robert mcnamara well who is 60 of friends and was in the oval office with jack kennedy during the cuban missile crisis he said to me hello. you don't close with. 2 within 3 minutes quote unquote. i think this situation could well be compatible with that. decisions to launch a nuclear strike need to be made quickly and then there

of america does not recognize the forcible incorporation of the baltic states into the soviet union." and you know what? 45 years later, when the baltic states were free, they were among our best allies -- estonia, latvia, and lithuania -- because they remembered that we stood for the right things. and so, yes, you have to do it carefully, you can't give the impression to the people of hong kong that we are gonna come to the rescue. we can't but we need to stand for the right things. >> and that words matter. >> words matter. words matter. and sometimes, words can matter even to the chinese government. to know that the world is watcng and that they need to find a way forward that doesn't include trying to crush that protest, that's important message for everybody who wants to say to china, "if you want to be a member of the international community, don't do that." >> you were not always a republican. which was fun for me to be reminded of. now there are three challengers to president trump in his primary. >> the most recent person to announce that he would challenge president trump i

the biggest increases have come from ce states, essentially baltic states. >> i'll give you two reasons georgia and ukraine. all of these states have within memory of most of their leadership these guys got their start in anti-communist politics have heard russian tanks and troops in their streets and do know what it is like to live under an occupation when they see russia taking a more military posture in ukraine and georgia, that will worry them ee equally, not only if some sort of a shooting war should start, they want to have the ability to defend themselves on the ground. they are extremely important and we are at a point there is again some historical distrust of germany. there is weariness of european defense policy will french troops really come to the defense of astonia >> for them, staying close to the united states is very important. staying close to the alliances that gives them as much of a deterrent as possible is important. we should be clear here that it is vastly unlikely that russia will invade the baltics. the kremlin isn't stupid they are fully aware that they clash.

d obviously, the baltic states are tiny andhe russian bear is right next to them. they have suffered massive cyber meltdowns, including -- especially the case of estonia. turkey had threatened to one -- erdogan, had threatened to veto it unless people in the other member states labeled the kurds as terrorists. that did not happen for good reason and erdogan back down. laura: nato secretary-general says they need to take china into account more. >> none of us is missing the road initiative, investing and massive amounts of chinese wealth and infrastructure projects, has hit europe big time. a lot of the ports,he newport construction, is financed by the chinese. then there are other related challenges. chinese technology, 5g, which is going to be our communications future ito some substantial extent now being manufacturednd, hardwareoftware, by china. there is a huge risk that china building in backdoors and will be ableo exploit the data. laura: president trump is just the latest american leader to ask nato leaders to spend more on defense, but the fact he's doing i

to the option of an updated defense plant baltic states and for pope. they tl told van. gather against threats from russia. and terrorism and recognize t te challenge of a rising china. what differences- we stand together all for o one and one for all. on the second and final day of the nato summit outside london leaders from the twenty nine member countries reaffirm the strip of the his work alliance. the fact that we live in peace today. demonstrates the power. of the simple proposition. it's a lot. but there is disagreement on the alliance of remember country turkey turkish president erdogan wanted other nato members to agree the kurdish forces in northern syria for terrorists but after push back from french president emmanuel macro and oththers. erdogan backed off the demand.. us president donald trump met with their to on on wednesday saying that the kurds were part of their discussioion. discuss hearing we discussed the courage ceasefire is holding vevery much so and i think peope are susurprised and maybe some day they'll give me credit but probably not ripippled

states against russia unless nato falls into line and supports turkey's presence in northern syria mr micron here clearly putting turkey front and center as the bone of contention at this meeting and in terms of any future discussions about turkey moving forward he wants to see things change he said we need to. decide what nato should be we have to be clear it's not enough just to talk about money the common enemy is international security but we don't have common definitions about what that means turkey is now fighting fighters who were shoulder to shoulder with the western alliance against i still just 2 months ago these are the real issues he said so he is standing against erdogan very firmly donald trump is not backing away from mr erdogan still defending him they are at loggerheads and this i think is the substance of a very bad tempered encounter today and one which will continue take a listen for some substance of the real bristling tensions between the 2 men to this. nomination in the state the number one problem in armor for a fight this is the kind of criticism. and you have

are the baltic states not to feel secure because of turkish presence in the end this is a nato command mission not a turkish mission and they will be following what their command mandate by the turkish military would also bring its institutional experience to that and you know that russia and turkey have had some pretty accurate security crisis the latest one the just a few years ago back in 2015 when we came very close to the press precipice what the turkish military to go down the russian. military jets and nato had to consider whether to invoke article 5 not just in theory but in practice we walk back from that precipice we have that experience that our 2 countries do you think turkey has anything to impart to its other nato allies about how to deal with russia in the program matic manner the 1st thing with the russian downing of the russian jet there was many many many factors at play there that had nothing to do with the turkish leadership i think the kremlin and i think the kremlin understood that very well while they had the crown in the distant past very well and then rolled ou

there seems to be an agreement over turkey such that turkey agreed to the increased deployment in the baltic states and while they do not know the details that were, some diplomatic handling will take to get that through but to be a part of the alliance and the geography and the neighbours that it has your up to one side and georgia and armenia and russia to the north and borders of syria iraq and iran, it is very important strategy to keep turkey in there and i think with borisjohnson will be very satisfied that it has gone well. and russia and terrorism as the key threats to nato news, do you agree with that focus? yes, i do. and for people to see that russia is not a threat any more, i tell people when there annexed by russia that it wasn't a threat or when the baltic states are seeing increasing tensions with russia or georgia where russian troops are still occupying part of that sovereign territory. it is a risk andi sovereign territory. it is a risk and i think when emmanuel macron makes the comments that he did, i think there was something behind that, what is the political role for n

sure it needs to be $360.00 degrees all encompassing not just protecting baltic states not just protecting germany not just protecting x. y. z. country but also protecting turkey as well so why have them yelling at micron while yelling at mccrum because mccrone is making a populous move and that was discrediting nato this is something that needs to be talked behind closed doors across a rookie president he made this move to bring the spotlight on to himself if you make a rookie move like the way mccrone did you open yourself up to comments like an elder statesman like president said called him brain dead you have a media savvy president like the us president us president dollar trump say hey how about some isis fighters you want them i can send them back to your country and then you have left sitting at a press conference looking very funny at the camera because he has no answer to that well mr every international politics has always been a bar with hard core bargaining sometimes even blackmail but most of it i would agree is usually done behind closed doors but i would argue that present

states unless others agree with him on syria james outside buckingham palace where queen elizabeth is hosting the nato leaders at a reception at london residence how bad are these divisions james i think nato is pretty badly divided and the divisions of there for all of us to see that out there in the open you have president trump against the rest when it comes to the budgets of the nato countries these linking all of that with international trade you see moments ago the tension between president trump and president macro then you've got president against the rest i think with regard to syria and also the fact that he's much more cozy with russia than the other countries here but there are other divisions too one senior european political figure told me recently that you the media are not really watching what's going on with regard to the divisions between germany and france both within nato and in the you without the u.k. who normally plays a counterweight to those 2 in the you with them tied up with brics it that division is getting very bad as well and of course the u.k. involved i

well the anti russian hysteria is real in the baltic states especially probably not feel maybe a bit less but you know it's due to the past to the fact that. there are a soviet union these republics the soviet republics suffered a lot under stalin and they still have this hatred of russia which is present in part of the population it's the same in ukraine actually so in these countries where there are a large minority of russian speakers of course because after half a century of you were ceasar there were people that were designated teachers doctors people who married and moved in the soviet union so you have minorities in these countries in ukraine half the population speaks russian despite that in the administration in the managing of the state. that is a huge problem is that the language is not recognize the toll so the people don't feel they are part of this country it's the same in ukraine. is 100 percent russian speaking but all administrate the facts declaration of birth marriage is done in ukrainian despite the fact that people don't speak the language there so it's very funn

states they fear that the you will become too dependent on russian natural gas. loop mean in the german state of mecklenburg for parma this is where the 1200 kilometer long nord stream to pipeline reaches the german baltic sea coast soon natural gas from russia will be flowing towards western europe north stream 2 will circumvent ukraine gas market expert hike with no man says there's a very clear reason for building the pipeline. it was like naturally the russian side always insists that nord stream too wasn't built to bypass ukraine like north stream one but i believe that's exactly why dr sue and special ships they pipeline sections just a few kilometers off the german baltic sea coast resistance is coming from the us they are planning sanctions possibly to include those operating the vessels instead of natural gas from russia the usa wants to sell its liquid gas. there's also opposition to the pipeline in poland it's anti trust the authority has levied a $20000000.00 fine stream to financing company reportedly because the proper documents were and submit it i

states that is crucial to the baltic states that feel very much threatened by russia if nato did not agree that the kurdish groups in syria are not terrace. in the end, that is one of the issues that nato was able to resolve. turkey took it off the agenda and they will find a form of words a way of dealing with it that does notjeopardise what nato regards as one of its most important missions. stay with us on outside source — still to come. the christmas advert from exercise bike company peloton that's got the company — and its share — price in a spin. the former england cricket captain bob willis has died, aged 70. he will be best remembered for his astonishing performance during the 1981 ashes series, taking 8 australian wickets in one innings. willis represented his country 90 times. david gower was also in that same side, which pulled off one of the most remarkable comebacks in sport. that is probably what made his reputation for all to see, for history to record. but to be with him, bobbles more than that, much than just him, bobbles more than that, much thanjust a him, bo

state. everton have their man — carlo ancelotti returns to english football after signing a four and a half year deal. and coming up — it's the click christmas special — that's in half an hour here on bbc news. good morning and welcome to bbc news. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. emergency services in austrialia have described conditions as "catastrophic" as hundreds of fires burn across the country threatening every major city. firefighters in new south wales issued the highest possible warning, telling some people it's now too late to leave their homes. jon donnison reports. new south wales continues to burn. firefighters are battling more than 100 blazes across the state. for some, it is already too late. scores more homes have been destroyed, many have lost everything. it is horrific, devastating driving around. we feel pretty isolated where we are with the roadblocks. 0ur loved ones can't come and see us. everyone is offering to help, but there is nothing they can do. not

states, it's crucial to the baltic states, it's crucial to the baltic states and very much feel threatened by russia. if nato did not agree that the kurdish groups in syria are not terrorists. in the end that is one of the issues that nato was able to resolve. turkey took it off the agenda and it will find a form of words, a way of dealing with that does notjeopardise what it regards as its most important missions. thank you so much forjoining us. joining us now from washington is danielle pletka, senior vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the american enterprise institute. thank you forjoining us today. picking up where she left off there, talking about the turkish president, one of the other concerns of courses here you have a nato member that's buying defence equipment from russia. was that an issue that people were keen to kind of not get to into in order to try and paper over the cracks that were clearly on evidence at this meeting?” over the cracks that were clearly on evidence at this meeting? i think you're absolutely right. the problem for all of nato is that

the baltic states have been targeted by just information campaigns arguably orchestrated by the kremlin. falcon shows us an example of this on a news site in lithuanian which claims that german nato members desecrated a jewish cemetery in lithuania is made right for for a procedure month on the ground this is the jewish cemetery and coldness it's thought the liquor is a procreation. rather how they were upset means. 30 years ago lithuania gained independence and people there know that the fact that the former soviet republic has since joined the e.u. and nato is not welcomed by moscow lithuanians now live in constant fear of their powerful neighbor. order to get a grip but the one you just need to open a history book to understand russia's true nature then and now. about the quote from you know very little most of the world and i would say that russia poses a threat to us though i can't say what kind. of good use for these crimes that country's national cybersecurity center meanwhile warns that russian internet propaganda poses a danger it believes that if left unchallenged it could inc

states unless others agree with him on syria. the u.s. house democrats have released their report laying out the case for the impeachment of donald trump the report says the u.s. president to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 alexion the white house said the investigation was a one sided sham process iranian state t.v. is that knowledge for the 1st time that people were shot and killed during recent protests over petrol prices and as the international says at least 208 people were killed in the protests tehran rejects that number. france's foreign minister says that will be a strong response if the u.s. hits luxury french goods like champagne cheese and beauty products with tariffs of up to 100 percent the tariffs are in retaliation for a french digital tax amnesty international says more than $4000000.00 people living with disabilities in yemen lack access to basic care the rights group says the sables people are most at risk because of the ongoing war. in what could be a sign

russia denies it is a threat to estonia or to any of the baltic states. but nato is on alert and taking no chances. the baltic has become one of the front—lines of what feels like a new cold war between russia and the west. to moscow, the presence of nato troops near its border is a direct threat to russia's national security. but nato insists that all of this is purely defensive, and the reaction to an increasingly assertive and aggressive russia. 0ne complaint i often hear from russian officials is that, 30 years ago, a promise was made by the west to moscow that nato would not enlarge and move closer to russia's borders. and russia says the west deceived moscow. first of all, no such promise was made. but second, just the idea that washington or a big western ally should promise that to moscow is an idea based on a totally wrong assumption that big countries can promise something on behalf of small countries. russia's new assertiveness extends beyond its military. vladimir putin's kremlin has a range of tools for exerting influence. in latvia, there

turkey says it will not fight i need a plan to boost the defense of poland and baltic states neighboring russia. turkey expects its allies to support his country in its fight against terrorism. turkey threatened not to endorse the plan for poland and the baltic nations, but after other members criticized its military operations in syria. the state department is accusing iranian security forces of killing more than 1000

well the turkish president said he would oppose a major nato defense plan for baltic states if member states refused to recognize kurdish fighters in syria as terrorists nature says it's trying to resolve the dispute the us. needs to act in a proactive manner against 3 its proposed by the tear is doogan as a sions it's inevitable that nato is in need of readjusting itself against today's terrorist threats we expect our allies to display strong cooperation with us against the 3 pts we're facing. while president trump has also warned the european union to shape up on trade trying to saying the u.s. is being treated unfairly and things will get very tough for the e.u. if it doesn't change donald trump has threatened tariffs on french products and response to a new french digital services tax trump believes u.s. firms like google are being targeted iranian state television has acknowledged for the 1st time that security forces shot and killed people it describes as rioters during anti-government protests the demonstrations began after the government increased fuel prices police in democra

he's threatening to block nato's plan to protect poland and the baltic states, less others agree with him on syria. despite all the differences which exist, and which we have to address, we also have to discuss the future of nato and things we have in common strategically, but i am optimistic about this meeting. reporter: on top of all the other problems, i'm told there is currently considerable tension between chancellor merkel and president macron over european defense, europe's role in nato. the state of the alliance right now is full of division. it is a multidimensional mass. james bays, al jazeera, london. >> nato leaders gathered at her reception and buckingham palace. they were welcomed by queen elizabeth the second and prince charles, but disapproval of the alliance hasn't come just from world leaders. there are protests in london against the nato meeting. the protest brought together people campaigning on a variety of issues, denouncing donald trump. some of it belong to antiwar groups like the stop the war coalition and the campaign for nuclear disarmament, announcing kurdi

of the nato alliance the baltic states poland and that still remains the case but what was it what i mentioned earlier brant is that the world has gotten complicated it's no longer just russia it's also the threat from the south what's happening in syria it's also china as will be officially mentioned tomorrow because we're not only talking about the real world but also cyber space and that's why the americans for example will urge the europeans again not to do business with chinese companies as who away when it comes to installing a 5 g. network in the european union. our correspondent max hofmann joining us tonight from london where those 70th anniversary commemorations are taking place for nato max thank. well turkey's a military incursion into northern syria last october is 1 of the latest issues putting strains on nato turkey considers the kurdish y p g militia in northern syria to be a terrorist group but the y.p. jean there are allies of the united states and they were keen to breaking the isis caliphate or here's french president emmanuel macron with strong criticism of turke

role of the so the baltic states so that makes a difference. well living there joining me from amsterdam olivier thank you preliminary results show respect to stan's ruling party has won the most part of entry so far after sunday's election however the liberal democratic party has yet to secure and right majority the election's been criticised for not having any genuine opposition choices will hold up to me joins us live now hi there hoda so they are recent airlie results are in and what's the trend surely. well there are no surprises in the sense that the ruling party did get the most votes yet again but if you compare to how much it fared back in the last parliamentary election in 2015 well then it lost about sort of $7.00 to $8.00 seats so but at the end of the day you know there are these other parties that are all supportive of government policies so whatever happens in whatever do those numbers are there isn't really a big threat to the rule of the current president but you could have a situation where either party say we're going to form

the baltic states have been targeted by just information campaigns that arguably orchestrated by the kremlin. falcon shows us an example of this on a news site in lithuanian which claims that german nato members desecrated a jewish cemetery in lithuania is made up of german time this is the jewish cemetery in the coldness it's totally career is a procreation. rather how they were upset means. 30 years ago lithuania gained independence and people there know that the fact that the former soviet republic has since joined the e.u. and nato is not welcomed by moscow lithuanians now live in constant fear of their powerful neighbor. ordering it a bit but the one you just need to open a history book to understand russia's true nature then and now. about the quote from the critical national i would say that russia poses a threat to us though i can't say what kind. of on the outskirts of the lithuanian capitol hill news there is a memorial in honor of all those who wants to ported to siberia. maxime's are off who belongs to the country's russian minority thinks it's right to keep the memory of

a terrorist was certain he said they were moving forward with the protection of the baltic states and poland were already there are for battle groups from nato but not really clear in his answer whether there's been a total resolution of that dispute with president as you say peter president has been meeting president trump just before he met the german chancellor and what we're going to get now in the next couple of hours. ours is all the different leaders speaking to the national press so i think more details are going to emerge in the coffin of news conferences in the next couple of us ok james will come back i'm sure in the next half hour or so we were talking just before we went to that news conference to our senior political analyst marwan bashar mo and that was interesting wasn't it mr stoltenberg asked very clearly very specifically about the relationship with turkey and he restated article 5. yes i think much of what the secretary general of nato has been saying has been sort of convoluted because he's in a position that should not be envied there's a lot of the agreements wi

russian aggression, and the baltic states certainly see the nato... and the latvian leader here as well. they see nato and the umbrella of protection it provides is absolutely essential to their security. they are very enthusiastic members, as you might expect, of the nato alliance. and they are saying that it nato alliance. and they are saying thatitis nato alliance. and they are saying that it is london there, but this is watford. and it is outside london, of course. but london is the home, the original home of nato, where nato began, if you like, with the united kingdom is one of its founder members, and the original headquarters of nato. so i think nato leaders see it as fitting, in a way, that on the 70th anniversary... and there is president macron, the man who has caused so much controversy with his comments that this alliance is brain—dead. donald trump taking particular exception to those remarks. mr macron again this morning saying that... he doesn't go back on those comments, he doesn't regret them, he says that it stimulated a positive d

meanwhile turkey's president is threatening to oppose nato his plans for the defense of baltic countries and poland russia type rowan is demanding the alliance recognize groups a turkey is fighting in northern syria as terrorists in other news iran's state television has a knowledge for the 1st time that security forces shot and killed what it describes as rioters during recent anti-government protests human rights groups say as many as 200 people were killed typhoon has struck the philippines main island of luzon forcing almost a quarter of a 1000000 people from their homes this is the 20th typhoon to hit the philippines this year. those are the headlines on al-jazeera much more on our web site as always on jazeera dot com coming up next year it's planet s.o.s. thanks for watching. hello i am a man is a viral and this is a planet s.o.s. the land is one of our best weapons against climate change but why are we destroying it scientists say humanity is stripping the earth of its ability to sustain life and that extends to the way we produce food but we're wasting a lot of it on not feeding

hand in syria which is something that the baltics they don't care about the baltic states want motos again says you. which is inexistent and so on and so forth and mccaw was better relations with russia you realize is that. the united states never going to be. and whether it's time for some of the errors because obama was already asking for an increase will be very spending and it seems to me that the alliance can continue because bureaucracies have a tendency to continually do you have union democracy that is not working and sends in fact i would like to contrast the success of the center of the 57. with another 7 of the name to the founding of the people's republic of china and those of 1990 now in 1989. china was unbelievably unbelievably backward basically living in the middle ages and now we have these days i'm not sure how you pronounce it. evaluation of students which show that the journey students are the best in the world with math reading. so that's great is that i would call it success but when i see nato fighting in afghanistan for 18 years and not including the. success.

so what makes a tiny baltic state with a population of fewer than 2 million so successful? our education editor branwenjeffreys has been finding out. it's drop—off time at kindergarten. for parents the cost is capped, up to about £80 a month for each child, so almost every child starts coming as a toddler, even though compulsory school only begins at age seven. it's very important because learning will be so fast, may be asking teachers questions or raising his hand, being brave, ithink the main thing to him is to be socially ready. how important do you think education is to your children's future? very important, very important. and it's also important to do it in a way that they enjoy it but not forcing them to do something, but do it in a wise way. teachers lead the learning in every kindergarten. there are no national tests, no scores children. what's expected is to get everyone to a basic standard. a child has to know how to read a word with two syllables in it. well, we actually have children who know how to read sentences. so they are really easy guidelines. the g

sure that this project is being very much an economic projects despite some of the concerns in the baltic states about which how that could be instrumental ised by russia so of course that could still potentially be used as a geopolitical instrument depending on how this investigation develops but of course germany is still also a mediator in the talks which are set to take place next week in paris between russia ukraine and france and germany and those will be focusing on the u.k. ukraine piste and angela merkel's already said that she will be addressing putin president putin about this killing and to see it be interesting to then see like how this develops in the coming weeks right as you just mentioned medically and putin will set to meet on monday to discuss ukraine but could this new diplomatic tensions we own those talks. well russia certainly seems to not want these diplomatic tensions to weigh on those talks they are very important this is the 1st meeting between the ukrainian president and the russian president these are the 1st talks in the normandy format so about peace in ukra