off the bat for telling me you are not cool enough and let's go buy their product please. fix all the hawks that we along with our audience will watch the league. tonight north korea enters the nuclear club as u.s. intelligence believes kim jong il can now equipped a missile with a nuclear warhead and russian and turkish officials report several violations of the cease fire in syria in isis controlled territory and the president addresses the opioid crisis in america which has reached epidemic proportions. reporting tonight from washington d.c. this is the news on r.t. america.

good evening france we start tonight with disturbing news out of north korea north korea's nuclear program has made a rapid strides in the past several years in two thousand and twenty this year alone the north koreans have conducted seven major ballistic missile tests to test on july fourth of july twenty eighth penetrated the atmosphere to a range of almost two thousand miles now u.s. intelligence agencies believe the country has the potential to strike the mainland united states with a small nuclear warhead north korea may have finally joined the club of nuclear armed nations the news comes less than a week after the u.n. security council unanimously imposed severe sanctions on the country u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley called the sanctions a gut punch to north korea it was a strong day for the united states it was a strong day for the united nations and it was it was a gut punch to north korea like an r.v. and international community tired of it and we're going to start fighting back

others are more skeptical of the sanctions effect on monday foreign policy principle that trilogy advisors johnson a ladies told me the sanctions will do little to no good. i think we in the united states had in the west for guess what kind of punishment the north korean regime the grandfather the father and now the son kim jong un have been willing to put their own people through basically and send a slave colony in order to prop up the regime i don't think these sanctions will have the kind of devastating effect that policy planners believe is probably going to have to ratchet up before we start to see and a real reaction coming out of kim jong un in a tangible way that's the lead up to the blockbuster news today the president responded to say after the end to the news about north korea's reported capability these are words i've never heard an american president use in my lifetime it was direct forceful descriptive and quite chilling career best not

make any more interested in ited states. they will be met with fire. like the world has never see. he has been very threatening. beyond a normal state. and as i said they will be met with fire fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never see before for more on this we go to former cia agent jack rice jack nice to have you with us and addendum to this story within the last hour north korea has responded tonight threatening to hit the american island of guam now let's start of the top with the information that the american people in the world are being given here how good is the intelligence that tells us that north korea has this capability let's start there tonight i because obviously we know what faulty intel has done to the world is specially the united states and here we are on the verge possibly of

a strike on north korea your thoughts on the intel how good is it. it's actually a very good point because it's not all of the intelligence community that saying that this is the case again what we're talking about here is two fold what we know is that you need a delivery system the north koreans have already had to test in the last thirty days to establish that point that second issue is about the nuclear capability and they have a miniaturized version that fits into that i.c.b.m. so that's what we're talking about there is one part of the community who is saying yeah it appears that they have it at this point but again it's hard to tell if it's been tested whether or not those two are symbiotic whether they actually work together and solve those issues have to be determined i don't think it's been perfect in the past and we know this we know the intelligence community has failed at this issue and in fact they were wrong specifically on the north korean several times back in two thousand and ten back before that in two thousand and six so i think before we jump the gun we need to be very careful about what it is that we claim here but intel that we do have our direct threats repeatedly from kim jong un

and one tonight saying that they're going to hit guam. how do you have a rational policy when you're dealing with an irrational leader and some may say that what the president said tonight was irrational what about this. it's funny as you were starting to say that i was trying to figure out which leader you were talking about to be honest because the real issue is kim jong un is it irrational he's very rational he's logical in terms of what it is he's trying to do let's think about this for just a second what he's really afraid of is two things he's free to the west and what the west could do to him he's also afraid of an internal uprising inside of his own country he has killed lots of people in an effort to tamp that down as well he needs to push back on the west to keep them out but he also needs to make sure that he excludes them from supporting an internal fight at the same time to treat him like he is a crazy person basically means there is no way possible to negotiate with him what

he's trying to do is one thing right now and that is survive he wants to make sure he doesn't die in a ditch like moammar gadhafi did in libya and so he is going to fight at every level and frankly ed i think honestly he will never ever let go of the nuclear capability he will never do that he just won't and finally jack what do you make of the fact that russia and china have not responded to what the president said or to what kim jong un has threatened tonight is this a game changer. well i think it's smart that the russians and the chinese are trying to pull back on this because what this can't be is an ego fight and right now what it felt like was a fight between trump on one side and kim on the other and to see who could make more outlandish statements and the fear is that if somebody flinches if somebody screws up there could be hundreds of thousands of dead people here this is a very real fight this is shockingly dangerous and the last thing we need to do is

stand down and start bumping chests and talk about who's the bigger man jack rice always a pleasure good to have you with us tonight thanks so much thank you and in syria hopes for a lasting peace are coming under fire russian representatives to the cease fire have registered seven violations of the past twenty four hours turkey's defense ministry has reported six violations most of the recorded cases of the came from small arms fire in areas held by isis and also al nusra front despite the setbacks several small towns and militant groups have joined the cease fire since it was first agreed of on between presidents trump and putin at the g. twenty in the hamburg earlier last month meanwhile six american anti-war organizations are petitioning congress to remove all u.s. military aircraft from syria artie's ashley bank says further details tonight. according to the russian defense ministry most of the violations were cases of unselective firing from small arms some of those are registered in areas controlled

by the terrorist organization al nusra russian defense ministry put out a statement saying quote within the last twenty four hours the russian party of the russia turkey commission on violations of the joint agreement has registered eighteen cases of firing in provinces of aleppo domiciled to keep the turkish side has registered three cases of ceasefire violations in the provinces of damascus russia and turkey are just two countries involved in trying to deescalate the war in syria the us has also had its share of involvement as well most notably its bombing of the islamic state and the bombing of president bashar al assad's military back in april of this year after was allegedly conducted a chemical attack against its own people many people are unhappy with the us is involvement in the war some citing not only does the us not have a real reason to wage a war in the country but it's also unlawful today a conference call to know what u.s.

warplanes over syria was held at the national press club in washington there were a total of five speakers at the conference including cia whistleblower john kiriakou and alter david swanson each gave their reasons why they support a petition that's calling on congress and defense secretary james mattis term move all of us military aircraft in syria kiriakou said the u.s. is involvement is a legal and swanson talked about the horrible impact this war is having on the syrian people take a look there is a solution to all of this but it's not sexy or quick or easy it's something that many of us have heard about but haven't actually see it's called diplomacy. whether trump likes politics or not the only way to save that country from becoming a failed state or an ice a state is to sit at the table with all of the stakeholders including the syrians

the russians and whether we like it or not the iranians we're going to have to accept the fact that assad is not going anywhere nor should he whether we like it or not his is the internationally recognized government of syria no one has given the us legal authority to decide the fate of other nations by any means and since world war two the united states has interfered as we know in at least eighty two foreign elections though not in the bad russian way presumably and bombed over thirty countries you know this is no one appointed to us to this role this is not a legal this is not enforcing law this is violating law and so it has to end the nation magazine or it's action dot org and watchdog dot nat are just some organizations that are sponsoring this petition so far fifty thousand people have signed a document in hopes of ending the u.s.

is involvement in the syrian war and washington national banks are to former blackwater c.e.o. eric prince has proposed a two year contract to send nearly five thousand additional troops and almost one hundred aircraft to afghanistan president from recently recruited prince to develop proposals replacing american troops with contractors in the country are to use jacqueline vogel as further details that i. meet erik prince the founder of blackwater a private military company with a controversial reputation with its legacy you might expect prince's career to be over but this cannot be farther from the truth there's no backlash for him no shame the man's gun for hire business is booming what i care about is the taxpayer is the largest you wasting food say five billion dollars a year in afghanistan i don't think it's appropriate to pull out completely with all the wars the us is waging abroad times are lucrative for private security firms yet you struggle to find one with an untainted slate dyna corp for example for over

a decade the u.s. state department was giving almost seventy percent of its funding for afghanistan to this particular firm this company's record features a sex slavery scandal in bosnia a male prostitution scandal in afghanistan and also there a botched seventy million dollar worth construction project were also means big business first sally port global who were paid nearly seven hundred million dollars to secure an iraqi base they allegedly turned a blind eye to alcohol smuggling theft security violations and allegations of sex trafficking and then fired investigators who uncovered wrongdoing that's all according to an associated press investigation the list of controversy goes on yet private security firms are doing just fine and filling their coffers with the spoils of war. are t. washington d.c. the trouble ministration openly acknowledged the opioid crisis in america today health and human services secretary thomas price briefed the president on the

crisis in the research and treatment necessary to prevent overdoses. the end of all of that the president made certain that we understood that he was absolutely committed to making certain that we turn this scourge in the right direction turn this tide in the right direction make certain that we see the number of overdose deaths and the number of individuals addicted to medication. decreased for more on the hope. crisis we are joined tonight by dr john dombrowski pain management specialist and professor at case western reserve dr nice to have you with us tonight i'll take the liberty to say i think that this came to the forefront with the health care debate that was going on in america because so many representatives went home and said hey wait a minute if we make all of these cuts what's going to happen to the people who need the treatment that being said this is now being addressed at the highest level what is it going to take to turn it around well the good news is it starts us talking

about the problem not only do we need to take care of these drug addicts who are out there who truly have a mental disability but we have to focus on how do we treat pain effectively to start with the majority of patients i have in my office and i were actually went to methadone treatment programs they don't want to be addicts they got started because they have the problem of chronic pain and very easy for for a physician just to write the medication they're done with them that is not medical practice that is not the practice of medicine you need to see an anesthesiologist someone who really specializes to do appropriate medication or injections or all the treatment so how much responsibility does the medical community shoulder with this problem. i hate to say it there we do share our burden and we and we do take response because we are the ones writing the script but unfortunately sometimes in the federal government has great physicians in terms of quality in terms of the patient satisfaction if i don't write the medication i make a day because of all the patients on happy so we need to really do both sides in terms of the physician but also government interaction involvement to work as

a team so how do we turn this around what resources are going to be needed a couple different things first off is from the very start in the operating room just take from that perspective don't use so many pain medications post-operatively we've had studies out of jam we just recently that maybe only need two or three days worth don't give thirty days worth of other thing as look at other ways of helping pain that are non-narcotic not addictive that's the one side second scientists treatment get people who need this care to a physician or a mental health facility to help them but the other thing that is interesting is just not just talk therapy things like that or counseling there are medications that you can use to do an implant or other medications to help with addiction to make that more successful do you see the day come in where there might be legislation that would limit what a doctor can do when it comes to pain i hope not i hope we can kind of police ourselves i think we're going to do that well we never want to legislate behavior that is not the way to go so how many people do you think are really affected by this and if the government puts the needed resources to it how soon could it be

reduced the good news is it can be done right now and actually the american side of anesthesiologists is doing this right now we're going to hospitals every day talking to patients properly in terms of what can we do in terms of pre-operative medication and post-operative care so we're actually doing it for free actually so there's no cost there but there's going to be a big cost because in terms of the mental health things and that is are necessary to take care of these patients dr dombrowski great to have you with us and i thank you so much too bad our network r.t. america has been on the opioid a diction epidemic in this country for months now back in june artie's chris hedges did a special on this very topic the stories of the people he interviewed are disturbing . it's countries of bad shape it's in bad shape you could live. riches neighborhood in the world's poorest neighborhood in the world the drugs do not discriminate you think you're imo i live over here it's not going to happen

believe me it's happening happens to rich kids poor kids middle kid white kids black kids there's no discrimination with this stuff we didn't know that ok well it's everywhere it's not just jersey but in our heads wise that's where she got it from so if she's not in jersey then she can't get anywhere else how easy is it to get a say or will every street corner. twenty four people you do something to twenty four. and we will stay on the story president trump's poll ratings continue to suffer between today's c.b.s. news poll and gallup polls the president has an approval rating between thirty six and thirty seven percent fifty eight to fifty nine percent of americans disapprove of the president's performance the president responded today telling the american people not to pay attention to the fake news polls for more on this we go to our

political panel this evening partner at the pistorius group read bellman joins us and former colorado state senator ted harvey gentlemen great to have you with us tonight well the biggest news out there is what the president of the united states said today i want to play that for you right now to get your response here it is. and as i said they will be met with fire fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never see before. bread bellman or we go into world war three. i don't know if we're going to world war three i thought that what we did see on display today was a man who clearly does not understand what it means to be a tough guy a guy who thinks that being a tough guy is about issuing threats and bluster and talking over other people and i mean doesn't he understand doesn't our president understand what's actually

taking place here doesn't he understand how much danger he's putting us in when he does something like that and more importantly shouldn't he understand that tough guys don't have to shoot through our response to that ted harvey well i think it's obvious that our intelligence community has concluded that there is a serious threat with north korea and what we've seen for the last eight years of doing nothing in trying to have his head in the sand and trying to avoid any confrontation and pushing it off til the next administration ashore has left us in a situation where the president has to do something the last meeting that president obama had with pres incoming president trump was to say that north korea is the number one threat this country faces and this administration is taking it very very serious what he said don't you have wasn't ready to do appeasement what the president said today i've never heard an american president say in my lifetime how

we did and that i think that's a pretty objective position that i think most americans would take did the president go too far today was he reckless. i don't think the president was reckless i think. the saying the of course last president said i'm going to drop we're going to draw a line. and we're going down the trunk have a tough stance against syria if they crossed this line they crossed the line and you said that obama did not go days so well and credible and really so where rose do you do you this is how a vacuum in the middle east ted we have this as a red line do you view this as donald i don't i don't like. well he didn't say what the red line was he said that if if north korea continues with their aggressive rhetoric against the united states saying they will bomb the united states there will be retribution ok and you know george korea tonight says that they're going to

hit guam so brad what are we supposed to do just say this is a word game or is a serious stuff i mean this is not only serious but the president of the united states issued a nuclear threat against a country and so that was a ball that was that well he never you clearly don't have any however anderson he very few not to you comment he let me just say here and defend the president and say that what he said wasn't reckless i'm going to sing something right now and i'm going to make it very clear and ted i want you to understand this it is clear what the president of the united states said today that the clearest biggest and most pertinent threat to the safety of the american people lives in the white house right now. he put a. liberty on to that brad what about ted obama what about that this whole situation this whole situation has been put in place because the failed policies of the last thirty from from clinton to. obama obama had his head in

the sand for the last eight years with nothing but appeasement to the entire world all of our enemies and left left the next prez the united states with this situation it is a theory last a tragedy the entire world is now coming together at the u.n. and saying we're going to put sanctions against north korea because of what this last obama administration left sitting on the table for the world to do very little do you believe what they are so with head harvey and rads the way it should be brant valve and gentlemen thanks for joining us tonight lots to talk about special counsel robert muller is a paneling a grand jury to look into russian connections to the trump campaign last year r t you recently sat down with the russian lawyer not a balance guy and asked her what she thought about mowers investigation and the involvement of a grand jury. when they asked for this i don't know what exactly mr miller's going

to investigate regarding my meeting with his president's son i can only say what i know that my meeting was determined by my duties as a lawyer i was defending a russian citizen in the united states of america if it turns out the defending a russian citizen in the us is a crime in that case there is a subject for mr miller's investigation you see it's interesting how the u.s. media machine works the new york times sent me a request with a list of questions on the eighth of july i was very surprised by these questions they were focused on my meeting with mr trump at first i couldn't even remember when exactly that meeting happened it was so fleeting and in consequential but here's what's interesting after receiving a quite detailed response from me the new york times published only a short part they needed today this article has changed significantly if you open the first story they had on this matter and compare it to the original version they

published on the eighth you will see how dramatic the difference is i understand the whole story surrounding my meeting with trump jr has been manipulated by whom i see only one answer to this question if you find the motive you'll find the explanation we got so close to the truth behind the magnitsky act who was pushing it and why for years we found out so much about what was happening in russia between one thousand nine hundred six and two thousand and six we found out so much about the real cases of them puzzlement of russia's budget and considering that i publicly challenge mr browder the man behind this story i think it's all orchestrated by him and his team. american cell have the highest revolving debt in u.s. history according to the federal reserve america's collectively over one trillion dollars in credit debt since the recession in two thousand and eight banks are once again doling out. it to customers with poor track records middle of the tune joins

us tonight for more on the numbers lots of people burning the plastic that's for sure i don't agree numbers again add these numbers are kind of funny though given all the recent good economic data and the stock market's hitting record highs so while credit card balances are increasing the overall amount of debt that each american household is carrying over month to month is actually lower than it was during the crash of two thousand and eight it's actually down about twenty seven percent back in two thousand and eight credit card debt was hovering around ten thousand five hundred bucks today that household credit card debt is just under eight thousand dollars so that's good news but what's driving the new national debt numbers up is that all those lenders are giving out more credit cards but with lower credit limits than before arty's spoke to lionel vinyl media about this very subject earlier today. you know you would think the banks especially after all of the underwater loans they'd be tighter with extending credit they're still still

doing any more credit lower limits but also people are using credit in more areas it certainly is surprising that america's collective memory is such a short term one let's take a look at who's doing all of that borrowing some people think it's millennial is who seem to have a more carefree spirit than their predecessors but that would be false it's actually the heart of the gen xers those age forty five to fifty four carrying the highest average credit card debt coming in at just over nine thousand dollars whereas millennial is just under six thousand bucks and what about the battle of the sexes now you might be inclined to think that women are doing all the shopping but you'd be wrong if men men are on the average carrying over twenty two hundred bucks more in debt than women but women are doing the smaller scale purchases men they're buying the bigger ticket items but what's really confusing about these numbers is that how the feds calculate the american household debt they count the

dollars charged full stop they count every dollar that you spend on that credit card they don't count the approximate thirty three percent of credit card users who pay off the full balances of their cards each month so at the same way that the true jobs numbers are incredibly hard to tally how the b.l.s. doesn't count those who no longer even seek work anymore the bright side of this story might be that while americans are charging up those credit cards in record numbers the good news is that now more than a third of those people are paying them off in full hopefully we won't see another crash like we did in two thousand and eight thirty at a bank or tell me one term the best fiscal policy. there is better than where we were and i don't want to lose that fact that the exhibit all of that is or news that i would follow the news with this. facebook page we got it dot com reporting from washington see back here tomorrow night.

what do you have for breakfast yesterday why would you put those for the faces your wife or. dongs me. what's your biggest fear when you are in a bit on a hay ride with the less time medical board you say if you ever met the best quarterback. let's point the topic that doesn't belong in the piece now i've had to do due to my question more.

all the world's a stage and all the news companies merely players but what kind of parties are into america play r.t. america offers more artsy american personal. in many ways the news landscape is just like the real movie big news good actors bad actors and in the end you could never know you're on. the park you need all the world's a stage all the world's a stage all the world's a stage and we are definitely a player. i'm see modellers ario filling in for lindsay france you're watching boom bust broadcasting around the world from washington d.c. coming up gold games the precious metal is already pushed up by a weak dollar put in new view for gold.