president. as the he unveils his new strategy for afghanistan while the expiring of the authority of troops that move the focus away from nation building breakdown is planned for washington the previous policy. president also makes another attempt to heal the u.s. political divide amid claims both sides are now trying to exploit it for political gain. the u.n. warns of a massive civilian exodus in iraq with people deprived of basic immunities that as government forces launch a large scale offensive on the i saw held city of tal afar.

one of. them here in the russian capital you're watching the international live with me that you hold. a president trump says he has lifted restrictions on u.s. forces fighting terrorist groups in afghanistan and in law awaited speech he said there's no deadline for withdrawal and that any change in troop numbers will be kept secret we will also expand authority for american armed forces to target the terrorist and criminal networks we will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities it's been sixteen years that u.s. presidents have been trying to bring the war in afghanistan to a close. has been taking a look at how different trumps new strategy is compared to his previous s's. president trump has announced his long awaited new afghanistan master plan saying

that the u.s. strategy under his leadership will change dramatically however the policy he outlined seems like more of the same with promises to fight against terrorism in the country obliterating ice soul crushing al qaeda preventing the taliban from taking over afghanistan president trump though did say he will not be setting any deadlines in afghanistan and that future action will depend on conditions on the ground adding that a rapid exit would be unacceptable as it would leave a vacuum for terrorists to fail a hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists including al qaeda. while trump refused to specify how many extra troops if any would be deployed he called to u.s. allies to increase their presence we will ask our nato allies and global borders to support our new strategy with additional troop and funding increases in line with

our room we are confident they will after trump's remarks u.s. defense secretary jim mattis indicated some sort of increase was on the card saying in a statement several u.s. allies have also committed to increasing their troop numbers before he became president trump railed against obama's afghanistan policy and questioned why the u.s. is still in the country after more than a decade of war trumps a flip flop on afghanistan isn't so different to that of his predecessor who also promised to end the war initially pledging a total withdrawal only to later announce that five and a half thousand troops will remain then eventually leaving about eight and a half thousand soldiers there one thing is clear after sixteen years of u.s. operations in afghanistan unfortunately there is still no end in sight to the conflict. sixteen years and counting the afghan war continues to rage with no end in sight. over

a trillion dollars said to have been pumped into this war including almost eighty billion on the notoriously unreliable afghan forces there are over eight thousand u.s. soldiers in the country. trumps previous sets of barack obama's troop numbers there from a peak of nearly one hundred thousand obama campaigned on a promise to bring american troops home and repeatedly said he does not support the idea of quote endless war but we've heard pretty much the same from donald trump as world who would warn the policy of intervention and as he puts it must come to an end this destructive cycle of intervention and chaos finally folks come to an end we will destroy radical islamic terrorists took over a mess and we're going to. make it a lot less messy but according to some reports the taliban are in control of

between ten and forty percent of the country out of four hundred districts the taliban dominates forty eight three more than in june. the us president's speech with a risk contributor with our model thanks for joining us. today what's your impression of from the strategy i mean how different will it really be from policies of previous presidents that sounds like another surge just without giving any numbers away doesn't it. yes you know trump tried to reveal himself as the president of secrecy who doesn't to unveil his plans trying to distinguish himself from his particularly his the latest previous as a barack obama by not setting what he called author official timetables etc but in essence b.s. there isn't much of a difference this plan this strategy is very similar to what the you wish vice

president joe the former u.s. president vice president joe biden had advocated to focus on counterterrorism not on nation building that time biden i think lost the argument to people like stanley mcchrystal the military officials and the other military officials in the obama administration but you know as i said it doesn't seem to be a very very big. you know different story a strategy which is completely set separate and different from other strategies which we've heard from former american officials i think one difference maybe is that there was more of a still an or a maybe escalade to return towards pakistan that is something which we didn't hear whether it be with the obama administration or with the bush administration you know there were threats by trump maybe in direct threats i would call them to go to to cut off financial to pakistan so there was an escort returned towards that

country there was also will call on india which is pakistan's archrival to step up its role as well that in afghanistan after all this speech was termed as a south asia speech not just an of the only speech so when it comes to pakistan and in the yes there were some slight differences in that particular approach and that could lead to you know increasingly tense ties i think between accompanist ration and pakistan at the. time what pakistan is already saying that you know we might prefer the alliance with china as opposed to the alliance or a close relationship with the us and there's been three presidents already of their have tried to bring the war to an end why do you think they've not succeeded in is there really any way out now for the us from afghanistan. well. you know there are different reasons i think why they haven't succeeded one

of them are it has to be said is that you do have this double game being played in pakistan you do have pakistan for example which puts a priority on confronting in the as opposed to a priority in confronting it's well not so well known fact that pakistani intelligence does all our extremist groups to have sanctuary in their territories that obviously is one reason i think another reason is basically you know american maybe incompetence american also in particular and trump and mr asian american reluctance to cooperate with iran and i think that's a major issue here iran has a lot of influence a lot of cards in afghanistan and that with the trump confrontational approach towards iran and you know trumps attendance what he calls isolate iran i think that

will do a lot of damage if he indeed wants to achieve any kind of progress in afghanistan because i believe that progress in afghanistan by the americans would require trump to change his escalade tree and hostile or push towards iran and i don't see that happening so in light of that you know hostile american approach towards iran i think that trump strategy towards afghanistan is doomed for failure. and trump also said another very interesting thing he said america will no longer try to rebuild countries in its own image do you see that as some sort of major perhaps in u.s. foreign policy as people have hoped with his coming to power just briefly. not really actually i don't think this is a big u. turn i think that actually begun with that policy the policy of nation building ended with the end of the bush administration. abandoned very much abandon this he focused on drones for example as opposed to nation building so i think know what

trump analysis is nothing new although he tried to portray it as being something new which he was offering ok i'll risk contributor with thanks for joining us here on r.t. giving us your insight today. critics claim trump's used his major policy speech as damage control following his controversial comments about deadly violence in charlottesville that was last weekend issued a call for unity after he came under fire for his alleged reluctance to single out the role of white supremacists in the clashes divisions in us society resulted in confrontations over the weekend between groups on the red on the left and on the right. it was god it was was was.

was was was. and one of the sides has upped the ante by launching a petition on the white house website calling for to be declared a terrorist organization more than two hundred thousand people have signed in the in the last five days and administration now has to issue an official response audi's jacqueline vega looks at how the opposing sides have turned divisions into a tool for political gain. political tensions are reaching new heights in america and both sides of the divide the left and the right are trying to paint the other's most radical violent elements as being the true face of their whole movement. politicians are happy to pour gasoline on the flames as well trump has made it clear with ban and gore can the white house and the klan in the streets it is now

the white supremacists house the hyperball that vitriol from the left has spurred threats amount action without historical power but violent extremism within political groups is far from a new thing for the u.s. except earlier they didn't appear as tools in a political debate take timothy mcveigh a white supremacist who actually blew up a federal building twenty two years ago killing one hundred sixty eight people at the time politicians draw a line between his political leanings and his actions motives to me of course is irrelevant no political motive is worth the life of a child or an innocent human being so this appears to be a domestic terrorist act but that sentiment of motive being irrelevant is suddenly no more nowadays after the recent neo nazi attack in virginia both motive and blame will place at the feet of president trump by the mayor of charlottesville he should look in the mirror and he made a choice in his presidential campaign the folks around with them to you know go right to the gutter to play on our worst prejudices and i think you are seeing

a direct line from what happened here this weekend to those choices the same goes for the other side in one thousand nine hundred nine some forty thousand anti-globalization the city of seattle into a battleground or protesting a world trade organization conference. right by what some may today branded the left were exactly used by the right to make a political statement this was the reaction and that we really never saw an. the excitement that was going on in the streets and i think frankly much of the media focus and attention on what was going on on the streets stemmed from the fact that most of the serious meetings were going on behind closed doors a similar left leaning crowd wreaked havoc in berkeley earlier this year and scale it failed to match samples events and the political outrage had a very clear target but the president timing and as well. if you see the does not allow free speech impressions this violence on innocent people with

a different point of view no federal funds this is been kind of an evolution of things throughout the past i'd say two or three presidency is where it's easier to divide people and make them feel like everyone again is against them on the opposite party so when you start playing with identity politics you start looping in hate groups with that identity politics game it's not going to go away and it's not something that started with trump it's not something sadly that i think will end with trump they stablish it might tell you politically motivated violence is something new but it's not maybe the bigger picture is it's just now being exploited for political gain. r.t. washington d.c. you know the united nations warns of civilian civilian casualties fleeing a loss from the besieged city in iraq more all now the other stories after this short break.

seemed wrong. just. to shape out. active. and engaged. the trail. find themselves worlds apart. to look for common ground.

although much of the program iraqi forces backed by the u.s. led coalition have announced the new operation aimed at retaking the city of tal afar which has been under control since twenty fourteen in recent weeks the city's been extensively bombed both by iraqi aircraft as well as coalition forces on sunday iraqi prime minister had a body issued the following ultimatum and the town of tal afar will be next in the march of liberation heroic security forces preparing to liberate this region i say to islamic state you have a choice surrender or die off. now following the announcement the u.n. humanitarian body issued a statement calling the situation inside the city very very tough thousands of civilians are expected to flee the city as a result of the operation well there are also large numbers reportedly still

trapped there the u.n. says there's an acute shortage of basic supplies and medicine houses are civilians or expected to flee from iraq's tell of for and surrounding communities during the iraqi military operation earlier we spoke to ghana egeland who's an advisor to the u.n. special envoy for syria and the secretary general of the norwegian refugee council he told us conditions are horrific for civilians fleeing the town. in the refugee council we are in the first line really of reception of civilians from our conditions horrific forty five degrees celcius day people have to go through long areas from. mixed state. control these people are really caught in a horrific crossfire urban warfare and especially air raids are always massively risking civilian casualties and other developments the

pentagon is now working to declassify it struck targets in mosul where many u.s. bombs failed to explode the movies however at all this with american law which they put out such details should be kept secret for at least twenty five years the u.s. commander in iraq lieutenant general steven townsend says the information could be vital to help make the city habitable again every army if you find a root piece of ground you leave a dud. bombs don't go off but we'll find a way to help them thousands of people fleeing from there have been allegations by the un the too many civilians are dying because of strikes less use of long range artillery less use of. the what they need to do is to use ground troops to go in carefully street by street district by district and try and regain territories that way using

a. very indiscriminate methodology and tends to kill more civilians than the insurgents so this is not a new problem it's just part of the tragedy of modern warfare and rich civilians assert often the casualties cause and the professional fighters they're just trying to save their own troops lives which is understandable but. it's more important to sort of civilian lives donald trump's in a circle in the white house has been turned inside out in recent weeks is controversial chief strategist steve biden was that they had through the exit polls the scale of more pain reports the president's foreign policy decisions with his new team while surprised the very people who voted him into the oval office so you want to be an american president what gets you aleck to is it pledges of more wars or the opposite we've been moving from one wrecked was intervention to another kid libya syria iraq iran this destructive cycle bad decisions we

cannot be the policeman of the world whole show that promises a peace were key for trump voters more than half of americans said they would prefer that the next president curb u.s. involvement in military conflicts and trump isn't the only president to have gotten the job writing hopes of peace but as we confront a vicious adversary that abides by no rules. i believe the united states of america must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war. that is what makes us different from those whom we fight you got it they even gave obama the nobel peace prize preemptively but by the time he left office he had droned bombed and intervened even more than his predecessor many hoped that the donald would make a difference however it looks like he may be set on a similar track with words of love being replaced by war take afghanistan for example. but

thinking out of policy is pretty far from a one man job here are some of the people who help think out and develop trump strategy you know the one that got him elected well they're all gone except for one meanwhile the white house routinely invites people who have a pretty clear interest for wars to go on people voted for trump because they knew hillary clinton was a warmonger and that she had wanted to destabilize the middle east as she did with libya the people in charge of the white house are now jared kushner trump gary gary cohen h.r. mcmaster paul these are all very pro-war people and those are closest advisors i think that most people who support trump hope they keep to his promises but they do recognize that all of his closest advisors are now opposed to the agenda that got trampled elected yes the new team trump isn't exactly made up of

peace mongers and it's pretty far from the vision that americans voted for caleb oppen r.t. new york. now the main suspect in first a terror attack in boston has been shot dead by police outside the city you know who was believed to have been the driver of that plowed into war the one hundred people leaving fourteen dead paul twitchell looks back at how the story of old. eunice cooper who's twenty two of moroccan origin has been shot dead in the suburb of soviet outs which is about twenty eight miles about forty five kilometers west of barcelona apparently according to reports today he approached a police checkpoint and was waving what police believed to be an explosives belt above his head meanwhile let's recap about those events that have been happening over the past five days while this manhunt has been underway last thursday eunice abuja cooper was one of twelve men it appears in this terrorist cell that police are now saying has been in some ways neutralized in other ways they have been

detained but there still is an ongoing investigation looking for any other accomplices they performed what were several incidents over the course of nine hours first was riding in a van that went along la rambla right in the heart of barcelona hitting at pedestrians knocking them down west thirteen people died and over one hundred twenty were injured he then fled on foot through korea which is the main and famous market just all fly around and police have been hunting him ever since meanwhile later in the thing there was also an attack in count brill's which is a coastal town not far from barcelona about one hundred twenty miles away where several men were in a car that rammed it into pedestrians on the promo not where a woman was later died means on the police then five of those men were shot by police they were also wearing what police believed to be explosive belts which were later proved to be false also a day before that been an explosion in a house in our canal which is also one of the coastal towns where there been an explosion and several men have died there too and they're also believed to be part

of this terrorist cell and also there is a belief by police and in the reports coming out that a gas explosion a bigger explosion was meant to be say can place in the meantime what happened what unfolded in barcelona campbells was when the men subsequently took more actions into their own hands so so far it's a police investigation that's still ongoing as they say of the twelve men that were what they think in the initial terrorist cell have either been killed or they have died in the process or they've been detained and it's still an ongoing investigation after last thursday's attacks. thought the suspect might have fled to france just like christmas markets to italy people are linked to terrorist acts in paris were found in belgium so the call used to run over people in cumbria was just hours off the boss. reportedly been supportive a week ago jennifer brito who's an attorney specializing in international law and religious terrorism believes that you use open borders do play into the hands of terrorists all the. reports have now come out that the barcelona cell has contacts

with another cell in another country or that country is not been released we can probably guess it could really be any of the twenty eight european countries european union specifically can wake up to this reckon wake up to the fact that they've allowed open borders people have not assimilated they've been talking they've been discussing and with each attack they get smarter and how to subvert national authorities who would try to be investigating to try to listen in to what's going on they're going to know better how to do it secretly in these smaller villages in smaller towns so the threat is still very high there are still many people there that likely had here to radical islamist ideologies and this is information i've gotten from my contacts in the middle east when i travel there these are muslim moderates who are saying you have to fight radical islamic jihad is you have to do that they're trying to sneak into europe and the europeans are not listening to them they're mainly not investigating they're waiting until something happens all in the name of more liberal values. for

a smooth schools control developers the sort of moderates into the mix. once again i'm calling for a boycott of true fruits i think that's very very wrong for big profits they're ready to promote the product by all means principle. i think this is politically incorrect here in austria unfortunately seventy five percent of austrians associate the color brown with heads up the extreme right. i cannot find anything bad in this shit missed business to know.

some of you were worried or annoyed probably out of ignorance and or simple stupidity we could have turned to the right other come from the right and celebrate our campaign for wrong reasons and or from stupidity you could have just said ok that was a bad idea where robin of the campaign and fired the p.r. agency but now you go on. to say this billboard does not have any impact on me it does not look nice at all i've seen it in the newspaper but i don't have any feelings about it is new ok nice but that's it. in times like those we have today when they're pulling my station between peoples catching stronger and when we have so many problems with people from different nations i don't think the slogan should be put on a billboard. let's throw up of today's top headlines you can get more amenable

stories on our website or of course all social media will be back with you again the top of mexico. about your sudden passing i've only just learnt you worry yourself and taken your last wrong turn. to caught up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry for me i could so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each breath. but then my feeling started to change you talked about war like it was again still some more fun to feel those that didn't like to question our arc and i secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave a funeral the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with death this one quite

different i speak to you now because there are no other takers. claimed that mainstream media has met its maker. with lawmakers manufactured consent to step into public wealth. when the ruling classes project themselves. in the primary your realm lifts only the one percent told. to ignore middle of the room sick. to lose million real news. the world.