most women want to preserve. it to go to beatrice with what before three in the morning can't be good that i'm interested always in the waters of my. question. on the news tonight the president is expected to make a major announcement in just under one hour on america's path forward in afghanistan and no lol in tensions with north korea as the united states and south korea conduct massive military games on the peninsula and the spanish police say the driver behind the van in last week's terrorist attack has been shot dead. a militant sitting in for adults here in washington d.c. you're watching r t america.

good evening we start tonight with a major presidential announcement within the hour on afghanistan the president is expected to announce a quote path forward at fort myer in arlington virginia on what is now america's longest standing war secretary of defense james mattis has said a major decision on future u.s. policy in the country has been made simone del rosario is joining us now to talk more about what we can expect the president to say simone a lot of washington insiders think that president trump will announce an increase in afghanistan and manila that's not just washington whispers it also comes directly from comments made by defense secretary jim mattis indicating he was comfortable with the strategic process that led to this decision so why that might mean troops increasing is because we already know earlier this summer the pentagon had proposed to sending in nearly four thousand additional troops to the war torn country even though president donald trump gave the pentagon unilateral authority to send troops as it sees fit madison waited to reach

a concrete plan with the president a decision and a delay he had to defend to the senate armed services committee in june. the urgency to understand it's my responsibility we're not winning in afghanistan right now and we. correct as soon as. it seems that planform saturday's tweeting important day spent at camp david with our very talented generals and military leaders many decisions made including on afghanistan will of trump doesn't now it's a troop increase it will fly in the face of his steady stream of comments against the war over the years like in february of twenty twelve he said is it time it is time to get out of afghanistan we are building roads and schools for people they hate us it is not in our national interests or in november of two thousand and thirteen he said do not allow our very stupid leaders to sign a deal that keeps us in afghanistan through two thousand and twenty four with all costs by usa make america great now former president barack obama came into office

pledging to end the u.s. military's role in afghanistan's war but in the end agreed to leave its fate to the next president when he could not downsize any more now look here when obama took office in two thousand and nine we had a little bit more than thirty thousand troops in the country it skyrocketed up to one hundred thousand troops in two thousand and ten in two thousand and eleven and then made its way all the way down to less than ten thousand by two thousand and fifteen now obama left office with eighty four hundred troops in afghanistan most of them there to train afghan forces but the afghan government is losing ground to insurgents according to u.s. forces afghanistan as of may the afghan government controlled or influenced less than sixty percent of the country's districts that's six percent less than the year before now twenty nine percent of the districts are currently contested and insurgents have control or majority influence in eleven percent of districts now as

we've heard in the past from trump before his presidency enduring it he's been skeptical of america's intense drawn out involvement in the country manila tonight's announcement is going to determine how much faith he puts into his own military leaders who want to move forward with a heavier military presence thank you. filing that report. meanwhile afghanistan is suffering from some of the worst violence in the years from the taliban's annual summer offensive late this afternoon a rocket landed in the diplomatic area of the capital city of kabul no immediate casualties have been reported the area is heavily fortified and sirens from the u.s. embassy warned of the incoming rockets for more on all of this let's go now to michael maloof he's a former pentagon official mike good to see you today ok so it's expected that the president will indeed approve this surge into afghanistan just minutes from now the idea of somewhere around four thousand troops has been floated by the pentagon back in june we've talked about this before in your opinion is four thousand people

enough to make a substantial impact. i'm hearing maybe more like five thousand again they're only going to be in. a train an advisory role they're not going to be combat troops like we had. in two thousand and one when we actually went on in big difference the whole idea is to train the afghan forces in order to get them up to speed but you know we've been doing that for sixteen years now and they're still not up to speed and in an advise and train role it's going to be difficult. we actually had the taliban on the run back after two thousand and one i would and that we had maybe eight thousand troops there at that time ten thousand troops at that time but in a combat role so it's going to be i think we're going to see more clandestine operations we're going to probably see more call for cooperation from other countries in the region that have

a historical vested interest in that country the question is going to be what about pakistan where the taliban run for refuge all the time the after all it was it was pakistan they created the afghan taliban now on that no you mentioned people having more of a. interests outside people as someone mentioned there's eighty five hundred troops on the ground there now a handful of special operators are being aided by thousands of private military contractors are we likely to also see a surge of p.m.c. is there as well well we have p.m.c. is constant about ten times the actual force on the ground if cia is allowed to do more clandestine work they're going to be bringing in more of the pm sees the private military contractors and i also think i also invision that there will be a relaxation of the rules of engagement which conceivably could mean that if we could we could then undertake hot pursuit into pakistan if necessary to chase down

taliban that might try to escape or even isis but we're seeing in there like in two thousand and one is an upsurge of not only intelligent but also al-qaeda and now isis now as you said hot pursuit special ops are already there hunting al qaeda they've never left ground troops already there are largely like you said in advise and assist roles leaving much of the heavy lifting to the afghan forces fighting the taliban but at the end of the day the government of kabul is still stifled by infighting and and power struggles and so in a diplomatic sense where is the u.s. falling short in getting kabul in order kabul is a is a major problem particularly with corruption and the infighting going on there that's going to be one of the things that trump administration is going to seek to have cleared out i i doubt that that will occur but i do know one thing that if we were to pull troops out. of kabul would fall within days well how will this trump

surge be any different than the large scale obama surge we saw on on simone's presentation there we had a huge scale one hundred plus thousand all the way back down to you know now under ten thousand houses going to do well this is going to be a problem because. again they're going to be more into train advise as opposed to a combat role number one number two they are. when we've had surges in the past it hasn't worked out i think what people are looking for the american people are looking for is what is the ultimate strategy of suspicion of hostilities and a resumption of peace in in our time in afghanistan and that's where i believe you need to bring in the countries such as russia china india iran contra some countries we don't even talk to as well as pakistan to be involved in this for example the russians have had a standing working group on afghanistan for quite some time the u.s.

has refused to even be involved in that and yet this is just unconscionable to me because what began as a nato conflict right his down to a us war and we've got to get out of that somehow and i might add the nato allies are sick of it they don't want to be involved when they might do something token but under article five because of the attack on one is an attack on all but we're not seeing that they are fed up with it we've heard that from angela merkel of germany and others i guess mike we're going to ask you to stick around after nine o'clock today and see what president trump has to announce and what have you back on to talk more about this thank you so much michael maloof thank you. north korea has sent a stern warning to the trump administration a new state video shows top u.s. officials and gulf inflames the video was released ahead of the u.s. south korea all chief freedom guardian war games the games take place every year and simulate both defensive and ah that's of strategies in

a potential war with the north r t we recently spoke with christine on the co-founder of the korea policy institute about the significance of these war games i mean look at the camino that you're exercises that are raised between the u.s. . these are the largest in the world they involved be one of their aircraft carriers simulating asian a preemptive strike on earth and that would to capital it's regime and so you know i don't think that north korea is paranoia is not justified it is because they feel that their regime and their country sovereignty is a threat and it's the i think that's where the conversation needs to go is what are we going to do to assuage the reality that the u.s. is truly not about regime change. for more on this let's go now to. he's a senior asia pacific international relations policy specialist at the institute

for china america studies there rob good to see you today just as we thought the volatile rhetoric was calming down we thought quiet for the last week or so now north korea has unveiled this incendiary video along with more threatening rhetoric out of pyongyang this of course right on the heels of the start of the u.s. south korean military drills how serious are these threats from the commercial i think we should take these threats very seriously whenever we've had these military exercises they have always responded in some of the last year the military exercises which happened in august was followed up by the kim regime with the submarine launch ballistic missile test as well as a nuclear test on september ninth which is the funding the. reason for for kim to test and and therefore there will certainly be a response from his and. even off the nuclear nature you know china has actually

weighed in on this. they have said that if the u.s. struck north korea first that they'd have no choice but to back their neighbor north korea or if north korea struck the you asked first they would remain neutral but now we're learning that beijing has made comments aimed at south korea saying that if the south truly does not want war on the peninsula that they should stop these military drills immediately is this a valid request from china. china has made this request as part of a deescalation process the south korean the new south korean government to actually has also is open to dom's are using downgrading some of these military exercises but it most it is willing to do so in conjunction with the u.s. or only once the north shoots hand somewhat in terms of just when is it going to stop testing ballistic missiles as well as new. yes and when is it open to come back to the table the north koreans just haven't given that given that signal and

therefore china has kind of got trapped in the middle it has its suspension for suspension policy the allies suspend their nuclear. their war games and south korea freezes of its testing but they are not the allies are not going to freeze that until they see just when south korea when north korea kim jong il is relieved as the two asian is hanging on that then think there everyone's waiting for north korea's action before they decide to back down or not to a certain extent yes because there has actually been a lot that has been suggested in terms of reassurances which have been made but the u.s. and particularly by the new south korean government and the north koreans have listened to this and the north koreans have actually made an important qualification in their statements suggesting that they might put nuclear and ballistic missiles on the table so long as hostility is dropped they have made this qualification course july fourth so just

a month back so they also reading and watching but do we have some clarity from the north korean and it's just hard for the for for south korea and the u.s. government to take the first. being that this threat has been floated around by north korea if p.r. yang even attempts to launch like is that a test a list ballistic or not will the u.s. be in their right to assume that that is an actual life threat and respond in kind to north korea yes the u.s. good but it would depend on the trajectory in which it conducts the threat you know we've been hearing for quite some time from the american man that if they conducted an intercontinental ballistic missile test that would be a red line guess what we know the north koreans would be due to know lofted trajectory so it just went straight up and dropped down in the east shown in the yellow sea. and that's one of the ways they got around to the north koreans have been doing have been doing brazen deeds but they have been doing it within the

bounds of brittle bones which do not ensure that they will be that it will cross lining loop holes although they are finding the loopholes and finding new ways to move forward and now the secretary of state rex tillerson has repeatedly stated that a diplomatic solution is the preferred method but do you see any real possibility of that being achieved a diplomatic answer to this i would not discount that i say this because there is an existing channel it's called the new york channel which is which between the north korean representative in new york and state department's folks. the communions have a similar channel like this they've had meetings like that and what we have seen is the canadians managed to get one of the citizens out of north korea the u.s. has been suggesting that prior to any real in good with north korea we want our citizens were being held back short the north koreans out it's apparently the channel has apparently not been as functional as it has been with the canadians and

that's why we've not seen that that precondition of that precondition arrived at in terms of having the whole thing but i mean there's scope for diplomacy but one has to get there's a jam in the testing and when the testing ends and that north korea has still a chance for some diplomacy thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us mr gupta thank you. spanish regional police say the suspected driver behind last week's barcelona of an attack has been shot at artie's main port i has the story. an intense manhunt for the suspected driver linked to last week's terror attack in barcelona is over spanish authorities confirmed monday afternoon twenty two year old eunice a b a coupe was shot dead by police in a small town roughly thirty miles west of course alone officials say he wore what appeared to be an explosives belt which turned out to be fake when he was shot a b. a who had been the focus of an intense manhunt after authorities say he used

a van to mow down pedestrians in barcelona's famous promenade on thursday killing thirteen people and injuring over one hundred and twenty police also said he stabbed a driver to death and hijacked the driver's car thursday night in his getaway be a coupe is believed to be part of a twelve member cell responsible for the deadliest terror attack in spain in thirteen years according to spanish media this cell had originally planned to drive three explosive packed vans into a number of tourist hot spots including the famous so grad up familiar cathedral those plans were reportedly destroyed after a large stockpile of bombs accidently detonated inside one of the cells hideouts roughly one hundred twenty miles south of force alone a cell that allegedly resorted to thursday's van attack in the popular tourist area known as less wrong plus catalan police say all twelve members of the terrorist

cell which carried out the attack are either dead or in custody however authorities have not yet closed the investigation reporting from miami marina port naya r.t. . thirty three people were arrested in boston this saturday during the boston free speech rally four of those arrested were carrying weapons more than forty thousand attended the rally on the boston common meanwhile a texas man has been charged in houston for trying to blow up a can. statue twenty five year old andrew schneck was caught kneeling beside the general dowling monument in houston's hermann park he was in possession of wires a timer duct tape and two nitroglycerin explosives schneck could face up to forty years and better will prison at a fine up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars this comes as the university of texas at austin pulled down its confederate statues in an overnight operation the operation took place ten days before classes are set to begin the university pull

down statues of robert albert sidney alberts and johnson pardon me both generals john reagan a cabin confederate cabinet member and james haag texas' twentieth governor. so for more on all of this and the latest political news we're being joined now by conservative commentator warrior riley topping and democratic strategist rob tub thank you both for being with us tonight let's start with what's likely to happen just a few minutes from now another surge in afghanistan we saw under the obama administration a surge of twenty thousand troops what makes anybody think that this surge of four or five thousand troops might make any impact rory over to you first. sure i think that the difference is that the situation in afghanistan is different now than when obama made the decision to do his surge a few years ago and the president is reacting to an ever changing situation there he is working with secretary of defense general mattis and they've agreed on

a strategy and i think that that given his experience in the defense of history. that goes to show that they've made a decision and that if they didn't think it would make a difference they wouldn't have made that decision rob your response to that. i think it really comes down more to to image than anything else right now with us staying in the afghanistan it's it's about the whole idea of america not winning as a loser so there's no way that that will back out because of that it's just been an untenable situation forever in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine i was working for people magazine and i interviewed experts about afghanistan then and this circumstances there haven't changed that much in terms of it being a backward place ruled by warlords that we're just not going to see a victory there but rob let me stay with you on this do you think it was wrong then during the obama era to withdraw troops from afghanistan. i think that we should've

of lessened our position at all times and no i don't think it was wrong. rory. well i think that what we're looking for is stability in the region i don't necessarily think it was wrong during the obama administration based on the information that they had at the time and i don't necessarily think that what trump is going to be discussing later this evening is wrong again with changing circumstances i think rob has a point that to a certain extent the situation in the culture of the country of afghanistan is different than perhaps what we're used to here in the united states but with that being said we are involved in a conflict and we want to make sure that there is stability in the region before we do any kind of complete pullout of troops there speaking of the cultural differences and the cultural shift let's switch gears to this after the bloodshed and bloodshed scuse me in charlottesville the boston free speech rally this past

weekend drew tens of thousands largely without incident thirty three arrests again we saw counter protesters does anyone see the irony in this that both sides are exercising free speech rob your thoughts. well there's a look back in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine to believe it was. i was involved with the a.c.l.u. and people were angry because you know you look nazis march in skokie illinois we have to allow free speech but then we should what then we're also talking about hate speech there's a big difference between free speech and hate speech and what. klux klan members are doing come up be acquainted with somebody who is protesting them sorry or and what's the fine line hate speech and freedom of speach. well to your earlier point i certainly agree that i see the irony here i think that there are people who disagree on a number of the topics that are going on in this country today however i think you can respectfully disagree and the fine line that you're referring to is are they

disagreeing respectfully or not i think any time violence is involved that crosses that line and folks last but not least we got to talk about north korea what is the best way to approach this increase again and rhetoric from north korea rob. oh. the polish sea is is important i was thinking about every time i've ever been to an embassy i've woken up the next day with a hangover i don't know what they accomplish but it is part of of politics and it's a necessity because there's only so much you can threaten and so it's crucial that that we handle this it diplomatically and calmly and logically and threatening is you know everybody's using the old teddy roosevelt speak softly and carry a big stick but it's it's become a cliche or part of our lexicon because it's true we're you've got the last word on this. sure i think that diplomacy is important but to

a certain extent diplomacy has not worked with north korea up until this point so i think the trump administration is trying to give benefit of the doubt to diplomatic relations but they've been very clear that if those diplomatic relations are not successful that they are willing to go the extra step all right my political panel tonight rory reilly topping and rob thank you both thank you thank you. british prime minister theresa may has rejected an appeal by survivors of the nine eleven attack victims their group demands the publication of a u.k. report into saudi arabia's role in funding as lawmakers extremism artie's honest going to has the story. following a series of appeals actually from campaigners m.p.'s and other politicians here in the u.k. nine eleven survivors now become the latest group to see a refusal from the british government to release the full contents of this quite controversial report focusing on extremist funding in the u.k. this was a report that was commissioned back in twenty fifteen and is largely believed to be

focused on saudi arabia's activities and now the nine eleven survivors had sent a letter to theresa may demanding answers we respectfully urge you to release the report now finished and finished we'll see you consider victims of state sponsored saudi finance terrorism families in the survivors in the u.k. and all over the world. saudi arabia's complicity is hidden from sunlight the longer terrorism will continue well the british government has long maintained really for months now that diplomatic relations with saudi arabia have nothing to do with this decision to not reveal the contents of the report they've also said that it's actually reasons of national security as well as private information contained in the report that's keeping them from publishing it and they've also said that the media has been misinterpreting this relationship with saudi arabia when it comes to this report let's take a listen to what theresa may had to say. at some point bush explained to her

refusal is simply because the contents of the report would embarrass the government's friends in saudi arabia or is it because ministers chiromo about arms sales to riyadh than they do about public safety. it is absolutely nothing to do with the reason there is certain confidential information in the reports that means that it would not be appropriate to publish it but mine runs on the friend the home secretary has made it available on a pretty council basis to opposition parties well we have to keep in mind that despite the british government and the home office particularly saying that saudi arabia is not in fact the focus of this secret report and it's in fact something that looks at overseas funding in general criticism really has been running rampant that the british government would have released this report if they had nothing to hide specifically these nine eleven survivors who had sensed this letter in the latest week to see the contents of call this decision of the british government quote shameful really believing that it's the special relationship that the u.k. has long had with saudi arabia this marriage of convenience and cozy relationship

that has led the u.k. to decide to not reveal this information again and again we have to say that obviously this is something that the british government denies but does have quite a history of protecting the special relationship they have with saudi arabia. and don't forget starting this upcoming monday august twenty eighth r.t. america will be available now on direct t.v. channel three two one we are excited to announce that you can now watch the news without scholz and all of your favorite r.t. america show starting this monday august twenty eighth direct t.v. channel three two one c of air and that is the news tonight follow me on twitter at manila chan right there at the bottom your screen i am sitting in for ed schultz reporting from washington i will see you at nine pm eastern for our special coverage of president trump announcement on afghanistan so you that.

the future we don't agree on. every the world should you read. it you'll get it all the old will. go according to a gesture. probably for the.

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