john oliver of party of america is this. your parents better than. see people you've never heard of. jack tonight president of the world bank he. sent us an e-mail. breaking news this hour the united states orders russia to shut down its consulate general in san francisco other diplomatic sites in new york and washington d.c. are also closed by september second. because foreign minister sergey lavrov has already expressed his disappointment to his american counterpart over the escalation in bilateral relations saying that it was not instigated by russia or russia some francisco consulate stated that this decision will take a toll on both russian and u.s. citizens. while the former fighter from the u.s. vented syrian rebel group has claimed that his commanders sold american supplied

arms to islamic state of a number of striking allegations made during an interview with a russian t.v. channel. good evening and welcome my name is neil harvey you're watching international where this hour we will start we are breaking news story that america has ordered russia to shut down its consulate general in san francisco in addition to other diplomatic entities in new york and washington d.c. and also to be closed by september the second let's get an update from washington d.c. from our correspondent jackie jaclyn teller's what it's going to mean then for u.s. russia relations. well this decision on the part of the u.s. today really is signaling signaling a new low for u.s. russia relations and it comes just after the beginning of this month fresh

sanctions were signed by president trump against russia and in contrast to that sort of retaliatory measure just two days ago president trump was saying that he had hope and confidence that the two countries could come together find common ground and work together finally. but i hope that we do have good relations with russia i say loud and clear i've been saying it for years i think it's a good thing if we have great relationships or at least good relationships with russia that's very important and i believe someday that will happen it's a big country it's a nuclear country it's a country that we should get along with and i think we will eventually get along with russia. so realistically this all started last year when russia was being accused of having meddled in the us presidential election allegations of course that are unfounded and have not been backed up by any concrete proof and in december we saw the first hit come from the side of the u.s.

at that point they expelled thirty five russians from the country and started an acting round after round of sanctions against russia now today we see the answer from the u.s. after earlier this month russia did decide to reduce the u.s. embassy numbers in russia by seven hundred fifty five people today as answer does come as of the u.s. to deciding to close the consulate in san francisco and the and the next in new york city and one here in washington d.c. now what we're seeing is all this is being fake based on the claims that russia interfered in the u.s. elections and at the end of this it's being used continue to be used as a springboard to attack and take action against russia and in fact at the end of the statement that came from the state department today they did promise that the u.s. is prepared to take further action if they consider it to be warranted which clearly it does not take much for them to decide to do so ok that's

a correspondent in washington d.c. jacqueline virgo with the latest many things. stacked in motion this latest move by the u.s. account be traced all the way bank to the u.s. presidential elections and alleged russian meddling is ations of russian interference continue to be slung even during special senate hearings. russia's blatant interference in the united states twenty sixteen presidential elections was unprecedented in both scale and scope and many have said this is actually the crime of the century. if you think about it it is russia has interfered or an attempt to interfere in elections from france to the netherlands from the balkans to the baltics russian interference in european political space is strategic you have any doubt that russian interference is driven by himself no doubt about it and master. the same answer no doubt. no doubt one

or the conclusion the russian meddled in the u.s. election was based on a report that many criticized for lacking sufficient supporting evidence no sources or methods were disclosed in that report former u.s. diplomat jim jeffords spill ease the closure of the consulate will actually affect ordinary people more than it will diplomats. consulates play an important role for the citizens of that country the other country russian citizens in the western part of the united states that are serviced by the san francisco consulates so those are the people that will lose out as i remember just after the decision by russia that america had to remove seven hundred fifty five members of staff from from them to seize he. said something along the lines of he was grateful and thankful to russia for reducing the wage bill so once again it seems we have to take a large pinch of salt with what donald trump says. well look donald trump said just

recently again as the news story pointed out he wants to improve ties with russia but now he's added the phrases some day and eventually what that reflects is the fact that if there's anybody in his administration who wants to improve ties with russia it's him but as far as i can tell he's about the only one compare that to ambassador nikki haley at the u.n. saying we don't trust russia we will never trust russia unfortunately the people who want to sabotage any possibility of good ties between washington and moscow have one that's the way it is now i think the russians understand that ties are not going to improve anytime soon and that has been imposed on president trump and that's just the way it is or the demand to close the diplomatic sites comes just as russia's new ambassador to the united states arrives in washington on a totally on total face sixty two years old. deputy minister of foreign affairs and deputy minister of defense in russia he seemed his office on august twenty first

but only arrived in america today earlier i spoke to former u.k. ambassador to syria and bahrain painted for what he told me that it's becoming hawg for russia to read america's intentions. american action is paranoid and bipolar at the famed time. the russians must find it very puzzling to read american behavior there is absolutely no consistency the president as he made clear in his remarks seen sincerely to want better relations with russia but there are for through good work within the administration and in the security state of america which want the opposite and so american policy toward russia is all over the place like a supermarket trolley with a wonky wheel. as a former ambassador. will be best best position to tell us just how damaging is

a decision like this when you know we saw russia demanding the us remove seven hundred fifty five employees many of them won't have been you know actual diplomats many of them will get russians the u.s. retaliating how much harm does this. a great view of harm and i'm sure the americans are smarting still after the expulsion of the seven hundred fifty five. b. among whom there will have been many. security and f.b.i. in irish agents this is really hurting the americans and this is their reaction that we're seeing today is a demonstration of how much being hurt on the personal level and it's a dreadful thing to happen to you if you're a diplomat one day you're enjoying yourself trying to explain one country to the

other and the next you are kicked out almost literally. another news a former fighter for the u.s. vetted syrian rebel group has claimed that his commanders sold american supplied arms to islamic state and it's just one of many striking claims he made in an interview given to russia's rusty a twenty four channel interviewed him after he fled from a u.s. military base there are trees that are flown in myers told us more. yeah there is no local support as the u.s. is not interested in anything except its own interest such as the root can refugee camp also has those fighters relatives and civilians conditions that are really bad children have no place to study and there is no medical care americans are in support people who are in their interest i can tell you what they behave like. first of all it should be pointed out that we cannot independently verify the circumstances under which the interview was recorded but this former us that is

quite who apparently fled the military base along with a few dozen rebels describes in detail how it operated the american and the vigilant operators and instructors working with the rubbles and they have been training them how to see deal how to operate with all different kinds of weapons for quite some time the base itself has been perceived as strategic to the u.s. led coalition given its location in serious areas along with the border with iraq the coalition claimed the base was used to fight against islamic states but on several occasions coalition opened fire on the pro-government forces who were approaching the area the military base itself no longer has any direct contact with the still controlled areas a few months ago it was effectively cut off by the syrian army making advances against islamic states leading to questions about the objective of the coalition maintaining the base of the rebel let the base he also puts the state is going question claiming that the fact its forces have never launched any actual operation

against the terrorists. when we learned that our unit's leader was selling arms to isolate terrorists we reported it to the u.s. head of the base but after a report no measures were taken americans only ramped up the support for him we asked the u.s. central command the u.s. coalition forces for comments and we will certainly provide an update as soon as we have any sort of response so far u.s. officials have brushed away any sorts of claims that washington might be intentionally sending weapons to terrorists but throughout the conflicts we've seen several occasions when the obvious the u.s. had ships into the regions ended up in the wrong hands the pentagon vetted rebels were seen defecting and joining the ranks of al nusra that's the this offshoot in the region and of course they were willingly handing over their weapons and the equipment and the arms to their allies i says also captured loads of munitions from the iraqi forces not to say that the coalition itself has how's the russian foreign ministry spokesperson reacts it's on the interview at her daily press briefing

material the findings reveal the u.s. coalition's actions are far from what's been claimed it's not fighting terrorists in the south of syria it's actually pursuing its own interests one of which is the creation of its own zone of influence in the country devastated by war in the fight against terrorists and for that according to witnesses it uses different means even allowing the direct supply of foreign made arms to militants as happened at their base in the south of the country so again while we cannot independently verify the authenticity of the claims made by the rebel defector his testimony paints a rather grim picture of what the coalition forces in the area in the region may have been up to legal commentator john white says that if the allegations turn out to be true but it will be just one more example of the u.s. covertly supplying arms. if true this kind of activity is absolutely nothing new here the u.s. is concerned. u.s.

history through is up the fact that the us was providing covert support for the commuter rouge in the late one nine hundred seventy s. after they were kicked out of vietnam across the border into thailand by the vietnamese military forces they also provided support for contra growers who were fighting to survive leftist governments in nicaragua and el salvador in central america and of course he provided over and covert support for the mujahideen in afghanistan in one thousand nine hundred so this is nothing new so it certainly is possible and what it does do is it adds an extra and mark mention to the us here strakes that were conducted against pro sitting government forces as they are pushed back in june of this year suggesting that rather than more to be teed by a desire to protect moderate rebels that the us was supporting at that time they were carried out with the desire to conceal the activities that are being described by the syrian rebel defector regarding providing arms to isis another selfie jihadi

groups. let's go back to our breaking news story this hour it comes from the united states where america has altered russia to shut down its consulate general in san francisco in addition to other diplomatic entities in new york and washington d.c. are also to be closed by september the second correspondent jacqueline vega has the details from washington. this decision on the part of the u.s. today really is signaling signaling a new low for u.s. russia relations and it comes just after the beginning of this month fresh sanctions were signed by president trump against russia and in contrast to that sort of retaliatory measure just two days ago president trump was saying that he had hope and confidence that the two countries could come together find common ground but i hope that we do have good relations with russia i say loud and clear i've been saying it for years i think it's a good thing if we have great relationships or at least good relationships with

russia that's very important and i believe someday that will happen. it's a big country it's a nuclear country a country that we should get along with and i think we will eventually get along with russia so realistically this all started last year when russia was being accused of having meddled in the us presidential election and allegations of course that are unfounded and have not been backed up by any concrete proof and in december we saw the first hit come from the side of the u.s. at that point they expelled thirty five russians from the country and started an acting round after round of sanctions against russia now today we see the answer from the u.s. after earlier this month russia did decide to reduce the u.s. embassy numbers in russia by seven hundred fifty five people today as answer does come as of the u.s. to deciding to close the consulate in san francisco and the annex in new york city and one here in washington d.c.

now what we're seeing is all this is being faked based on the claims that russia interfered in the u.s. elections and at the end of this it's being used continue to be used as a springboard to attack and take action against russia and in fact at the end of the statement that came from the state department today they did promise that the u.s. is prepared to take further action if they consider it to be warranted which clearly it does not take much for them to decide to do so. now the demand to close the diplomatic sites comes just hours russia's new ambassador to the u.s. arrives in washington and attorney anton office sixty two years old he used to serve as deputy minister of foreign affairs and deputy minister of defense in russia it seemed his office back on august twenty first but only arrived in america today let's get some analysis on this from martin macaulay's an author and a russia analyst welcome martin well let's start with the new ambassador to the u.s. that day one what

a day is this coincidence or not. there's no clinched the proviso obviously it's time and by the americans to embarrass them doesn't. and that he he in fact. is going to have find it very difficult to perform his duties and to establish trust because by his main job as a diplomat this was not mistrust between the two governments and say let's talk and let's get together and find what what we can do together and so on you could have had very very difficult because the americans are those who are in the anti russia lobby and not including trump someone of previous said this goes against the grain for trump because he prefers this not to happen but he's been outmaneuvered and he's been told that right the government has to do this because the russians did expel or reduce the u.s.

presence in russia by seven hundred thirty five and the u.s. spokesman today talked about parity so perhaps they're getting down to the same number how many diplomats how many personnel however in either country as diplomats and people so they embassador. really lungs on the worst possible day and the only thing you can say for him is it can't really get any worse and up to him really to make it better if he can do you think he could have seen this coming could you see this coming because i just think back today stunnel trump reiterating how much it was determined that the u.s. would have good relations with russia he must have known this was coming up forty eight hours later so why go through this before. well if you are donald trump you will keep on saying i want better relations with russia which he wants which he genuinely wants better relations with russia but the people around him the generals

and so on don't really favor that because they don't trust russia and of course ambassador the u.s. ambassador to united nations comes out with very and a russian tirades and says she doesn't trust russians and so on that makes it difficult for the president because they're supposed to sing for the same hymn book i talked same language quite extraordinary hear them bash the. u.s. ambassador to united nations saying one thing attacking russia and then you have the u.s. president praising russians they want better relations and so on so the average person would say. the white house is dysfunctional it is very very difficult now for trump because he's now finding that as a politician he's got a very very steep learning curve and he can't really do what he wants he would prefer better relations with russia but the authorities and the powers around him

say no you don't you can't do that because they meddled in the presidential election. and of course that hasn't been proven yet but they say that that's what the democrats to a man and to a woman. come out without a russian tirades and anti russian rhetoric all the time and making it very very difficult for trump to say that it's positive because everything's in the poll is a positive they were there attack him and say he got america is protecting russian american interests so on so if there is a situation which reminds me of. the we go back to the drop of era you go back to the parts of the bridge that we are and some part of the who struck here in the soviet union i don't see it remember that. undergo betroth diplomats from both sides were expelled even though relations were improving so this is nothing nothing special but because it is very embarrassing for trump and all i could say and hope

is that there's backdoor negotiations because if you go back to the soviet era there are always back door negotiations going on even when relations were fact very very frustrating and they had a very good ambassador literally dobrynin. in washington who in fact. had the ear of the u.s. obliteration and was able to advise and to comment on various things so one would hope that until the literally until the can grow into something like to breed it will be very hard for him to do but it has been done in the past because the brennan was a person who was trusted by the u.s. administration and. he he was a very very good investor because of that then he went back to moscow became a deputy foreign minister but of course. and one of his also a deputy foreign minister but he doesn't he's also linked to defense and so of

americans will then look at him and say right you're a hardliner because what you're going to say is that we are in fact breaking the law and we're not justified what we're doing and so on and the whole idea of an investor and main task of an investor is to establish trust to establish some type of trust with the opposition to talk and say right let's get down to a conversation let's forget the rhetoric let's forget the megaphone diplomacy let's forget the headlines and let's discuss the expense on so hopefully and tone of will be able to do that but of course he then has to find somebody on the american side who's willing to sit down discuss with him and present it would be very hard for him to find one but one hopes. that given the past fifty sixty years of soviet american russian american relations there's a lot of experience there

a lot of experience people and they will be saying right we have to. solve this situation there's no use carrying order as we are because it's just megaphone diplomacy you accuse every side each side accuse its of the other breaking trust doing things which they shouldn't be doing and breaking promises star and poor a president from of course can make use of breaking promises another probably broken was not to send troops to afghanistan he said we're going to leave afghanistan and if you like don't trump is now weak president and the russians have to accept that that is not somebody who can make a decision and say right this is the administration decision and we're going to carry this policy through. he has to negotiate and he's been contradicted at every turn and he's finding it very difficult down so we're in a period really a hiatus in russian american relations with hopes that out of this will come some

type of understanding somebody will back door it has to be backdoor diplomacy and the back to old problems that will in fact have some effect martin good to get your thoughts i guess martin mccauley author and russian analyst thank you very much this place is a party only states can be traced all the way back to the u.s. presidential elections and that alleged russian meddling accusations of russian interference continue to be slung even during special senate hearings. russia's blatant interference in the united states twenty sixteen presidential elections was unprecedented in both scale and scope and many have said this is actually the crime of the century. if you think about it it is russia has interfered or an attempt to interfere in elections from france to the netherlands from the balkans to the baltics russian interference in european political space is strategic you have any

doubt that russian interference is driven by himself no doubt about it master. the same answer no doubt no doubt. the conclusion the russian meddle in the us elections was based on a report many have criticised for lacking sufficient supporting evidence no sources or methods were disclosed in that report a spring you know resumes the now he's the executive vice president of the eurasia center very good evening t. . we are you surprised by this decision by the united states first off. i was surprised it was. i was hoping to see. we saw we saw that. as a result of the reduction in in. ex i would say excess of staff in u.s. diplomatic missions in russia we had a reduction in services. russia did not take

a similar action reducing services here so i was hoping that that we would not see . a reaction but but sure enough we did see another reaction and a continued tug of war here yeah i know that and the u.s. embassy in moscow very well it's a huge building and they're expanding it now wolf the wounded would unearth they do . you imagine there's a factory of something in their body so substantial and getting bigger they say that this power in terms of the number of diplomats we see in russia in the u.s. and a chance they might just leave things as it is now does that would you think we'll see retaliation from russia. i'm not sure you know what's interesting here is we've got and i saw the state department memo talking in searching for parity and and talking about wanting to establish relationships let's move on with this. but i find interesting is i personally think there are ups with the u.s.

reducing visa services and their services to to russian citizens and russia i think they were hoping to see more of an antagonistic reaction. in russia with the population and i think they were hoping to see some type of reaction or counterreaction similar here in the u.s. but that did not take place so it really and way it looks like the u.s. state department decided to take it on themselves to decide what services were going to be provided where. for russian citizens and for international people seeking russian services in the u.s. to include businesses. what do you think the message is that the u.s. is sending with this just a couple of days ago doesn't trump was talking about the need for the phillies that that would they improved relations between the countries he must surely have known that this was going to be happening forty eight hours later so what's going on. he may have been made perhaps he was trying to buffer whatever was going to be

happening. you know what it's i think we've got. we have i was going to say just the white house but no we've got we have a washington capitol and a washington bureaucracy as well as the supporting media that are that are in fighting completely and there's a fight going on even even amongst i think. political. i would say leaders but but i would say pull i think a better term would be elected officials because there's only maybe a handful of true leaders there but we've got infighting there we've got infighting within the white house i think president trump really wants to promote improved relations i think his hands are tied and we saw that congressional. bill that was passed. almost nearly unanimously. that really was more of a target on on on both not just i mean obviously it's got

a little bit of north korea and iran but which counters kind of offsets the nuclear deal that was negotiated but but really focuses on russia and an. and because of some of the language in it to actually focus on economic. you know. taking mathematics sanctions against europe as well so it's. i think mr trump president trump would like to move forward i think its hands are tied and i think he's trying to buffer it and manage it he's got a very difficult an uphill battle to go well really appreciate you coming in on to getting your thoughts the pleasure to have you all. is my gas the is the executive vice president of the u. regime. and indeed always a pleasure to have you guys cheating in lots of places you could be on the scene and we appreciate you joining us on the latest headlines hopefully often are.

player remember the beverly hillbillies the t.v. show. man named the family should know some truth came from bubbling crude oil that is black gold texas tea well in the opening credits that t.v. show they show this year's beverly hills mansion and that matter that's just traded in the market and took a huge discount many many many millions of dollars and just it's poetic justice jed clampett the original oil baron and his mansion is getting hammered in the market so boyle obviously is not working anymore.

on the welcome to the part of the outgoing american ambassador to russia has just given this series so farewell interviews on the state of the u.s. russian relationship which all calmed down to two major points we have a problem and russia needs to fix it blaming the aga is one of the most common behavioral strategies in kindergarden but doesn't stand a chance in today's global politics to discuss that i'm now joined by harvard london president of the london santer for policy research mr longdon is great to talk to you thank you for making time for us pleasure to be with you thank you now it's very interesting for us here in moscow to see how both president trump on his predecessor president obama are strongly reviled by certain parts of the american political class but regardless of whether they dislike president trump or president obama more some americans tend to blame. has been put in for all dire failures and

i feel you are among them aren't you because you were very unhappy with president obama but he doesn't get even half of their wrath that you reserved for mr putin well let me say the following i think there are areas of potential convergence between russia and the united states and many areas of divergence in the areas of convergence is perfectly clear that where you have is a russia that could work with the united states to deal with this long with terrorism that is an area that is in the interest of both nations and then if you're interested in areas of divergence all you have to do is look at the russian alliance with iran and the possibility that iran wants to create a swath of land from iran to the mediterranean which is very ambitious and will undoubtedly lead to some direct confrontation with the united states the russians do not want that confrontation neither do we now while russians continue to pursue die a partnership with iran because they believe that it is in their national interest i can understand your argument the united states doesn't like it but i wonder if

your major concern in your major problem here is with putin personally russia's national interest or didn't notion that this country would defend its national interest or pursues its national interest in this case with iran i don't think that it is in the national interest of russia to be aligned with iran and let me explain why the iranians will dictate policy to you their ambitions are far greater than russian ambitions if you look at what is happening in the map of the middle east the iranians want to create their own shia empire that empire is a very ambitious goal and it's ambitious so ambitious they're all evil and circle saudi arabia obviously that is neither in russia's interest nor in america's interest so i think the russians have overplayed their hand here well i think one of the reasons why russia may be more to be to to do that is to counted the influence of and not the empire in this case the american empire and if you actually look at the polls i think there is a very strong support among. the russian public you try to contour what many

russians see as counterproductive rak less destructive and sometimes incompetent american engagement abroad particularly in the middle east i'm sure you wouldn't argue. iraq or libya or syria for that matter turned out well so i wonder if russia is a convenient if we call in some sort of way to deflect from responsibility for your own foreign policy there's no question about errors that have been made in american foreign policy but the establishment of an american empire in the middle east is it's a rather foolhardy comment there's no american empire in the middle east and if you're looking for a role that has been played by russia or you have to do is look at the nefarious role that the russians have played in syria look at aleppo today has been devastated by russian bombs russian airplanes so keep that in mind as well while a missile and i actually have visited all up on the number of occasions and i invite you to visit that city as well because the united nations has just released

figures saying that around six hundred thousand syrians to return to russia managed to force the jihadi of militant supported by your country out of that city but i don't think we need to become the the modes of operation in military terms because i'm sure you know that they operation american operation in mosul was perhaps even more detrimental as far as the human death toll is concerned but what i want to ask you about is the comment you just made that peroration in mosul was conducted by american special forces it keep in mind that it would be included the iranians as well as. a lot of regional hardy's there been fighting in that area so it wasn't just the americans that went into mosul iraq i'll keep that in mind well my my point was that there were lots and lots of civilians who died and died operation and perhaps it could have been handled better but i want to come back to your comment about the. absolutely to be of the lack of the american empire because in

all of the american commentary especially republican commentary i see a certain sounds of entitlement that the united states still has to well if not dictate down at least leave in. offering solutions for the middle east and i think from the russian point of view and from the point of view of many countries the united states is simply even competent and capable of doing that well keep in mind there are pathologies in the middle east that neither the russians nor the americans can solve and that has been going on for decades in one thousand nine hundred seventy three the russians were forced out of the middle east by saddam who did not want them there and keep in mind that it was the united states and the incompetence of obama that invited the russians back in to deal with the poison gas question in two thousand and fourteen so what we are talking about here is a russia that is hardly wanted in that part of the world yet the russians have been able to establish an aircraft carrier base in part to use and of course on their base and latakia so they are become a very powerful influence in the east mediterranean and as far as i'm concerned

that influence is highly welcomed by many unwelcome in parts of the region as well well somebody but they even know it well it always goes for all of the countries i'm sure you know that the american influence over the american presence is not welcome there or the iranian presence for that matter so the question is why why do you still seek to that old way of doing things you know putting countries in the camps of anime's and friends why not to talk to everybody including iran or russia for that matter first of all i don't put everyone in those camps i don't believe in dealing with matters in that way as palmerston pointed out in the nineteenth century its national interests are really count so i'm concerned about national interest as i indicated to you right at the outset where our interests converge with the russians i think there should be a level of cooperation so i'm not putting the russians and any sort of enemy silo well mr la on the you wrote recently about. agenda is to grow russian influence ad

the expanse of washington and if we applied that to the conflict where russia is most engaged militarily in syria the american influence there was never particularly strong in the us support of various armed groups in that region didn't earn you much leverage of anything it was moscow who had long established ties with that country so how are the russian operations there chipping and anything your way at the united states while keep in mind one very important fact that you have overlooked in your analysis in two thousand and eleven when the civil war in syria began president obama had an opportunity to intervene perhaps even bring the matter to a close very rapidly he chose not to do so as a consequence we had a lot of forces arrayed against one another and the civil war led to the destruction of a signal significant part of syria and a war that is still ongoing in that country the russians have intervened in my judgment enough areas joining with the iranians in creating and the shia influence

in a part of the world that was one sunni now you have the syrian government still controlled by assad the same assad who is responsible for poisoning a significant portion of his own population that it seems to me is hardly a recommendation for russian policy well mr longdon as i'm sure you're aware russia highly contested rendition of the events many in moscow don't believe that president assad ever used chemical weapons or at least in this particular conflict but i think the evidence is incontrovertible even the un has made that point and they used the un didn't make that point and nobody has seen the evidence let's be clear here it was russian a number of regional i'm sorry we have seen the evidence we've seen the evidence of young people with foam coming out of their mouths please i think there's a lot of evidence no minister on the back of that is hardly any evidence i think every have also seen a lot of pictures of the. jihadi groups are trying to stage all sorts of attacks

let me just mention that many of those groups are supported by a by your own government but. again i don't want to discuss that because i don't think we can come to any conclusion here my point here is that you mentioned that president obama didn't intervene but he himself made it clear that he doesn't believe that he's intervention would have made things any better he intervened in libya that didn't help so do you do you try to argue that the united states has some sort of a ride to that kind of policy and that it should be precluded from any kind of pushback against it especially from the countries that are directly and adversely affected by the policy of the term. well whether i believe so or not there is always pushback just as there is push back against the russian intervention in the middle east sure they'll be pushed back as i've indicated to you at the outset there are pathologies in the middle east of which the united states does not that did not create and obviously has no control those pathologies will continue into

the future until the middle east finally comes to the realization that the warlords and many of the groups in the middle east have finally got to come to peace or some sort of understanding about peace maybe stability is a better word this is at least one point that i would hope fully in full heartedly agree with you on but i don't think that's in the offing especially after a number of disaster a prolonged interventions i want to ask you something about what i see as a major difference between russian and american approach to the middle east i think you still see the world in terms of friends and enemies you still talk about alliances and foes whereas russia sees everybody as a friend the me as somebody to be engaged and somebody to mistrust. don't you think that washington also needs to be a little bit more flexible in its approach to foreign policy and. i think i mean i you just seem to ignore the word. that i've used i've said to you that there are

moments where there are a possible convergence between american interests and russian interests our foreign policy is based on promoting american interests and it's not a question of seeing only enemies and only friends it's a question of recognizing the fact that we have interests that may bridge the gap of enemies and friends and i think it's important to note that i think that it's kind of silly to put people into silos i said that as well but i think you and a lot of american experts do tend to have this approach to iran and i actually heard you suggest that the united states needs to try to peel russia away from what you call dell lives with his ball and iran given everything you sad about russia given the current state of the u.s. russia relationship what is there of the incentives that could potentially monti of aid to russia to break off with iran a country that it has a burgeoning trade with with which it also has some overlapping political and

military interests and joint washington do you really think that russia craves american company that much i don't know whether a craves american company that much but i can only tell you that the alliance with iran will have a distinctly dilatoriness effect on russian policy and the reason why i say that is because the ambitions of the iranians go well beyond any ambitions that the russians have in the middle east if they don't rein ians are dictating policy to the russians it will not prove to be a satisfactory outcome for the russian government while with all due respect mr london washington has tried to dictate its policy to the russians that didn't succeed i doubt that has that ability even with all due respect well as i can as i indicated to you before there are things that the iranians are doing but which they expect russian cooperation it's science strikes me that if you look at the map of the middle east and the role that the iranians are playing. and the creation of the shia crescent this is a very dangerous gambit and it's

a gambit that will ultimately lead to some confrontation with the united states while mr london may have to take a short break now but to be able to back in just a few moments. but it was supposed to some of us there was a. but it's not the. last time we chased. each one of them carrying twenty kilos of drugs to just push the fence down. below that they just step. into the frame we have

made all my little mundane boy they have this is the this is for me. if me. i don't know maybe it'll make or. break. ground war. welcome back to worlds apart the carpet blood. president of the london center for policy research so london i know that you're in favor of the idea of the so-called

arab nato with saudi arabia and egypt at the top what makes you believe that a military organization with membership that is based on the this city and six tearing affiliation could be a force for good in that part of the world well i believe that because i think that the sunni's by a large a very upset and deeply concerned about the role the rather imperial role that iran is playing at the moment the creation of this defense condominium would serve as a counterweight to the ambitions of the iranians and it also strikes me that the united states will be a partner in this arrangement but certainly not put boots on the ground but mr longdon even if we take their regional made and i think it's clear i think it's clear that ensuring any kind of you need to is already becoming increasingly challenging take turkey the united states keeps its tactical nuclear weapons in turkey but the turks are working against you across the board do you think ensuring any kind of solidarity among arabs won't be any more challenging especially with

the recent deception on the part of qatar well look it will be fractious because there are always fractious interventions in the middle east but when you said turkey is operating across the board it is still a member of nato it is still very active in providing the southern flank of the nato and even though arrow one is undoubtedly an unreliable partner and has very often one foot in the radical camp he hasn't yet extricated himself from nato well a turkish president a pair the one whom you just mentioned. on monday that turkey and iran have discussed possible joint military action against kurdish groups in syria groups that are considered to be american allies i just wonder what tools of persuasion the united states can use against its so called l.a. here well again i don't know the tools of persuasion but i can tell you if in fact the turks and the iranians. are organized to go to war against the kurds in syria

it will be a major major issue that washington will have to confront and how exactly can it come from that because i mean we have heard these bluster coming out from some people in washington but what can you do if mr allen decides to receive his way you are not in that region you don't know what you do not want to stand your troops on the ground doesn't he control pretty much the the situation on the ground there well he has more leverage than we do but that doesn't mean that we don't have any leverage particularly air power that the united states still possesses in the region so you would recommend air power to be used against air though i'm not recommending anything because we do not know how events will unfold and that part of the world we do not know whether in fact there will be an attack against the kurds and we do not know how the peshmerga will respond absolutely we are all just speculating here but i guess my question is more concerning this idea of creating another military alliance in the region because the country. stores your tactical

nuclear weapons couldn't be bothered to take your policy recommendations seriously and you just mentioned the presence of american air force as a possible measure all of. you know preventing them from attacking your allies so again it seems that the american foreign policy despite being very assertive. very intitled i would even say doesn't have much teeth to it well first of all you use terms that i find rather offensive we're not entitled to anything and american foreign policy doesn't deal with entitlement nor do we assert ourselves in fact one of the problems that i've had with the obama administration is unwilling done willingness to assert ourselves and any corner of the globe so i do not accept the terminology they use using during the course of this conversation and again american air power is nothing to do to a simply dismiss it certainly can play a role here. how much of a role well we're engaging in nothing more than going to then

a conjectural analysis and in this conjecture it's very difficult to say whether in fact they'll be a full scale attack against the kurds or not well you know mr landon maybe you're right it's never good to speculate it's even worse to speculate about the potential major war so let me switch gears a little bit and ask you about the station in the united states domestic station which at least from our vantage point is becoming pretty volatile the trumpet ministration is hugely under stuff that there are major disagreements between large sections of the american society on both history and the president politically motivated violence is back on the streets not to mention that president trump is highly divisive figure do you think he's administration has they banned well to address all the challenges that we've argued about on this program well as no way of knowing i mean i think that the national security team that has been assembled with john kelly and john and jim mattis is

a first rate team so i have very high hopes for the development of american foreign policy and military deployments but again as far as a diff is a president spurned you don't have a division president because you don't have a democracy so obviously democracies are very messy and when they're messy you will have the visions in the country well it's interesting you say that because we are having presidential elections next year and a lot of people who actually arguing about that mr putin should stand the action the whole whether he has been in power but this is not a program about russia if you want to have one of the descendants of tell me about mr numbers of and what do you want to hear about mr non-self i want to know why he was killed i want to know who is responsible i want to know why it happened within one hundred yards of the. of the. the your palm and well mr longdon as far as i know a court in moscow household read a sentence to five people for taking part in the. despicable murder and i'm sure you would agree with me political violence is not unique to russia. there are

people being killed on the streets of the united states for the political views it's well reasoned example with well well look kind of vile. the complete control over every aspect of power is very different from the kind of democracy where people are quite free to express their opinions even the very often violent opinions on the streets of berkeley and charlottesville this is a very different kind of country something that is very difficult the russians to appreciate well i missed it a lot and i actually have a much better appreciation of the you know if they've made you have a good dinner russia and. russia but it's a contest about you like you and i don't see why we should be done but i agree with russia. i mean. my observations about russia

suck contest and. brought. on this fun speaking about freedom of speech and as it is a democracy but if i can come to bring you back to my original question about the time because i thought your argument on selective. american logic it's very very interesting i think it's actually what you need because what you claim is that by each of the elections russia has orse president trump administrator in into a political crisis do you think that was. actually aimed at that. i have no idea what must go for i do know this kind is a stickley inappropriate but it has happened in the past we've seen illustrations of it in the past this is not the first time that it's occurred and again i do not know whether in fact it had any influence on the outcome of the election at all i have no way of knowing and i'm somewhat dubious about that conclusion now mr longdon there are people in moscow who would actually claim that the by. mr trump

his opponents are delivering essentially what moscow wants because it allows the administration to be destructed it allows it to be absent in any parts of the world at this critical would you agree with that point of view look there are many in the united states who are mostly opposed to donald trump and will do everything in their power to undermine this presidency in this administration there are many people who do not believe that donald trump was elected appropriately or legitimately and as a consequence you have in the united states today a force against donald trump that is not going to go away and will be there for a least the next three years i think you described there is people never chompers people who contend that even if the terms policies are ideas are consistent with their own philosophical suppose issues they will remain firm in that position no matter what i'm sure you do not consider yourself as never

a chump or but i wonder if you would describe yourself as a never put in there. well i wouldn't describe myself that way either but i would say that there are many areas in which i'm very much opposed to mr trump but at the same time recognize that the. and i did state i care about my country and i care about our national interest but i'm particularly interested in the development are also. speaking about. the book that was transformational decade to reach i believe you examine how do you internally and ideologically from two thousand and wanted two thousand and eight and i would argue this is my personal opinion that the following day could starting approximately in two thousand and eleven to present day has been even more transformational for the world the world has fundamentally changed from how it used to be back in two thousand and eight and america just as russia china iran and anybody else with

ambitions to work really really hard to earn the respect of the world. would you what would you say what do you think about that i don't know i don't disagree with that comment i mean look i think that the united states is policies have to earn the respect of our allies and people across the globe including the people who are suspicious about american ambitions but there is no doubt we have to win the respect of many people across the globe one of the real problems i have with the administration is that i do not believe that the predecessor worked hard enough to win the confidence of our allies and in fact many people who are a political about the role of the united states and how does mr chung fare in that regard well i think it's it's premature to talk about what he will do i think the riyadh speech was an attempt to win the confidence of people who had lost confidence in the united states i think was exceedingly important and i think the speech that he gave boland about the defense of western civilization was also

exceedingly important well it's interesting to hear you talk about the speeches because my impression from interviewing a number of foreign policy officials some of them in very high positions of power around the world they they wait from the united they are looking forward for more than the speeches they actually look for paul. do you think mr trump has delivered that already well the speech is set out a policy speech is in a way the pathway to a policy there is no doubt that there are a lot of a gaps that exist and there's a lot to be said about the direction of. the little. president been there seven months well mr longdon. and i. appreciate you being here and to our viewers please share your comments twitter facebook page and i hope the same place same time here in the worlds apart

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here's what people have been saying. all along. i go out of my way. really. all over

a heart to say. i'm from. new york. by september second. comes as russia's new ambassador to the. fighting for me. one of a number. given to. start

this hour with breaking news from the united states because america. is. the. second. part of. signaling a new. relations and it comes just after the beginning. signed by president. and. just go days ago. he had a whole. country could come together. at work together finally i hope that we do

have good relations. i think it's a good thing if we have great relationships or at least good relationships with. that we should get along. so let's. asked. the presidential. allegations of course i. have not been backed up by any concrete proof and in december we saw the first come from the start of the us at that point they expelled thirty five russians from the country and started an acting round after round of sanctions against russia today we see answer from the us after the leader of this month russia did decide to reduce the us embassy numbers in russia by seven hundred fifty five people today as answer does come as the u.s. deciding to close the consulate in san francisco and the and next in new york city

and one here in washington d.c. now what we're seeing is all this is being from based on the claims that russia interfered in the u.s. elections and at the end of this it's being used continue to be used as a springboard to attack and take action against russia and in fact at the end of the statement that came from the state department they did promise that the u.s. is prepared to take further action if they consider it to be warranted what's clear it does not take much for them to decide to do so. on the demand to close the diplomatic sites comes just as russia's new ambassador to the united states that arrives in washington and i totally totally sixty two years old used to serve as deputy minister for the deputy minister in russia has done all this twenty first but arrived in america only today is the new russian ambassador's reaction to the u.s. closing those diplomatic sides russia's response to the u.s.

decision regarding the diplomatic sites will not be given by historical impulses. and russia analyst martin mccauley says that russia's ambassador to the u.s. will have a tough time. it's timed by the americans to embarrass him. and that he he in fact. is going to have find it very difficult to perform his duties and to establish trust because by his main job as a diplomat is not to trust between the two governments. and say let's talk. let's get together and find what what we can do together and so on you can find it very very difficult because they when it comes. to russia. so the buses are. really learns on the worst possible day and the only thing you can say for is it.

is up to him to get better. and as we've already mentioned the display by the u.s. can be traced all the way back to the american presidential elections and alleged russian meddling occasions of russian interference continue to be thrown even during special senate hearings russia's blatant interference in the united states twenty sixteen presidential elections was unprecedented in both scale and scope many have said this is actually the crime of the century. if you think about it it is you have any doubt that russian interference is driven by himself no doubt about. the same answer no doubt. no doubt. and the conclusion the russian meddled in the u.s. election was based on a report that many criticize for lacking sufficient supporting evidence those sources or methods were disclosed in that report. kelly stick with this

story now and bring in a guest and speak to dan kovalchuk he's a labor and human rights attorney and he's also the author of the book the plot to scapegoat russia ok i'll stick with that particular point because this all began down if we go back to the sanctions imposed by the u.s. and russia this is where it all began the tit for tat over the alleged they now. so convinced that russia interfered in the u.s. elections why would you settle for what they're doing now property into diplomats if you are convinced or in the right another nation is as dumb as your electoral process surely you'd go for something more. extensive than. yes well i agree and i think it maybe shows the half heartedness of people belief in this alleged meddling in the elections i mean there's just not much there

they are in fact just as an example recently the most recent big news story and it involved this. russian national who was a real state guy who said he could claim he could help trump through putin to get elected and also to get his hotel in in russia but if you actually read this story nothing happened the hotel was never built and the intermediary did that they gave up reaching out. to a mosque al november or december of two thousand and fifteen but yet the headline seems to jess that oh this is a smoking gun the putin help with the election there's just nothing there. to point. from right after. it agreed to work on issues such as. in syria and then the sanctions are passed

clearly to avoid a detente between those two countries that's quite disturbed it's only a couple of days ago. was reiterating. a good relations between countries the message appeared to be very mixed presumably that this was going to be happening. what do you think is actually happening. well i do believe that trump probably has some desire to have good relations with russia but this manufactured scandal and it is manufactured of russia gate for lack of a better word has painted him into a corner and it does seem that every time he says oh well you know will make friends with russia get. someone intervenes in the us to make sure that doesn't happen in the shutting down of the consulate in san francisco seems part of that i mean there are obviously parts of the us establishment that do not lot with

russia. that are continually seeking out enemies to justify a bloated military spending and military operations abroad and i think people of goodwill need to push back against that didn't need to say hey we want peace with russia we think they are a potential ally and partner is putin said in his interviews with all of our stone and we need to try to move forward in friendship. where do you think this ends do you think that russia is willing to leave it like this think the earliest comments coming from the new ambassador to the u.s. and suggest there's not going to be an extreme kneejerk reaction but will this be the end of it. i fear it won't be the end of it i do think the russians from my vantage point are more apt to let these things go for example as you know the us also just suspended nonimmigrant visa for russia.

russia made it clear they would not retaliate and i think the russians want to continue to have that door open for a possible date with the united states and so i do think the russians will hold back but whether the us will continue to double down on inflaming tensions i have to believe that they they very well my dear. do you read much into the timing of this tomorrow was the deadline set for the u.s. to remove those hundreds of employees from these and consulates here in russia today's the first day so to speak on the job in washington for the new russian ambassador that. they. all don't put up with or just a huge coincidence how

low down can you hear me still i don't think you can ok look so it lost the connection with down. labor human rights attorney author of the plot to scapegoat russia many thanks though. now let's move on to the news for you for the fight of. rebel groups and that is commanders told american supplied arms to islamic state is just one of many striking. in an interview with just twenty four channel they interviewed him after he fled from a u.s. military base. in my. a little support is the u.s. is not interested in anything except it's only interest such as the ripken refugee camp also has those fighters relatives and civilians conditions there are really bad children no place to study and there is no medical care americans or people and they can tell you what they behave like first of all it should be pointed out that

we cannot independently verify the circumstances under which the interview was recorded but the. u.s. . military base along with a few dozen rebels describes in detail how it operated the american and operators and instructors working with the rebels and they have been training them how to see deal how to operate with all different kinds of weapons for quite some time the place itself has been perceived as strategic to the u.s. led coalition given its location in serious areas along with the border with iraq the coalition claimed the base was used to fight against islamic states but on several occasions coalition opened fire on the pro-government forces who were approaching the area the military base itself no longer has any direct contact with the i still controlled areas a few months ago it was effectively cut off by the making and to get islamic states leading to questions about the objective of the coalition maintaining the base.

will let the but he also puts the states is going question claiming that the fact its forces have never launched any actual operation against terrorists. when we learned. to terrorists we reported it to the u.s. head of the base but after a report measures were taken americans only ramped up the support for him to get. the u.s. coalition forces for a calm and provide an update as we have any sort of response so far u.s. officials have brushed away any sort of. terrorist but with. the obvious the u.s. had ships into the regions ended up in the wrong hands. and joining the ranks. of troops in the region by the courts they were handing over weapons and equipment and the arms to their new lives isis also captured loads of ammunition from the iraqi forces not to say that the coalition itself has how's the russian foreign

ministry spokesperson. on the interview as had said in the press briefing. to look finding. off the plane not fighting terrorists in the south of syria it's time. to create its own sort. of a stated point again. and that according to witnesses from even allowing the direct supply of foreign made arms to militants as happened at the base in the south of the country so again while we cannot independently verify the authenticity of the claims made by the rebels the facts of history many paints a rather grim picture of what the coalition forces in the area in the region may have been up to. the political commentator john white says that if the allegations turn out to be true well it will be just one more example of the u.s. covertly supplying arms. if true this kind of activity is absolutely nothing new

here the u.s. is concerned. u.s. history through is up the fact that the u.s. was providing covert support for the commuter route and the weight one thousand nine hundred eighty s. after they were kicked out of vietnam across the border into thailand by the vietnamese. and also provide support for contributors who are fighting to soviet left this government. and they also. provide. support for the move in afghanistan so this is nothing new certainly is possible and what it does is it adds an extra unmarked here dimension to us here strikes that work. in government forces as the push back in june of this year suggesting that. supporting the. people with the desire to conceal the activities that are being

described by the syrian rebel perfect regarding providing arms to isis another salafist groups. within days iraq's prime minister is expected to announce the full liberation of the city of tal afar off islamic state thought to be the last stronghold of the terror group in the north of that country. just. on the ground. of.

it. he is. iraq's population it. is roughly. of those. three a third of all men as soldiers. age . it's. over.

and. that's. mosul university once the second big in iraq but it's better to date just like everything else in the d. . he does the class. session. with. a.

private. shakedown. and protection. because currency. i mean i. think i. mean. should. is a go. system

. it's. me. from iraq. in the. last few. hundreds of refugees. near to one of the city's train stations. visited the site. the remnants of a makeshift migrant camp a in down town brussels is being described as potentially the next jungle a reference that the tourists come in cali in neighboring france that was dismantled a year ago and. said just

a few weeks ago. and now as you can see from the evidence many people have been. people from countries like sit down and eritrea but. you know. we used. to speak to if we didn't. face. maybe. but. things didn't get. people as the rain is coming down. some people have moved under the trees to try and gain shelter they can now this new makeshift camp is in minutes away from the

european commission and just away from. k h and that's beating to fifty's from some people some of them. so desperate to get to the u.k. that they will actually try and fool the trains. since i have to make me one that makes. it all the countries with i mean some draw that makes make me worry about the fact they try to. force a situation if i'm a bit scared. i don't know. i'll just be pull the. thing. along or

be on if they don't have to stay out of parts like that. rather than why are they here and things like about is that they're not being taken care of so what's. the situation is that there are actually. stories. because they consider that. migrants want to be held and they should apply for asylum in belgium as the source he seemed to be sooner locked in to do anything some concerned pockmarks a million could become a new symbol of europe's refugee crisis just like the full. ski altie brussels. governor of afghanistan.

an afghan civilians have been confirmed killed after a nato. oust the taliban fight. the taliban took position in a civilian house and for the. helicopter the house only big the taliban to leave but they didn't barrack up the took it came in this house the course means that the locals however say that they weren't node taliban fighters and the house. planes bombed here in the house all the houses were destroyed only two or three look at the house you can ask. no confirmation of the strikes from. this person for the nato led mission. it. would be the second deadly afghan civilians in just the last four days. a monday thirteen killed and more than

a dozen wounded in an extract on the western farah province government says taliban fighters. ten to five raids on the. deployed. with. the u.s. military buildup in the wake of the trucks on the korean. what many people are worried about and is donald trump able to deal with north korea you know what they are not lead to the destruction or leads to conflict in the just because when they released when north korea did the tests they did say that they were doing it in hopes of certainty and people are but it is perfectly fitting message because

hundred and sixty thousand people that are not in the u.s. military that are not on the bases he. can. be we don't necessarily seek any ill will to it is more because of the u.s. military facilities here where the u.s. uses us as the tip of the spear and we are targeted by the. spying to in the region after north korea launched a missile that flew over japanese territory in london of about a thousand east country and u.n. security council emergency meeting was called after member states urged the toughest stance on some call for more sanctions to be imposed in while donald trump and the u.s. defense secretary have been sending out mixed messages on how to deal with north korea we were never out of. the war and the minister and i share our mission by going to provide for the protection of our nation the way.

the best has been talking to north korea and being in them extortion money for twenty five years talking is not the answer for the top of any. any business. the role of the leader is to get all their people one voice and one message consistently base is misalignment which is reckless and dangerous and let's be very very clear that this is not the first time it's a continued stance and what we swear seeing from the foremost brand in the world america is that brands need to speak with a consistent. the latest reaction to the crisis the chinese defense ministry spokesman said that beijing would never tolerate war or chaos on its doorstep and they carry all again says that keeping calm is key to solving the crisis charm is playing a very difficult hand but playing it very well indeed they are playing

a very very tricky very careful and it's a tremendous policy we're sitting in the middle and so far you one has to say they're doing a restraint and very good and i think out of all of this the only player who's coming out here with any commendations of the chinese it's a very mature approach this there and there's no heated language there's no stoking up of all you you're actually seeing what i would have hoped to see from america from china. thanks to him with an art international.

but people in. america do the same. apparently better than. the feeling.

you know i'm doing. this is my impression. a lot of people out there. oh it's because. of the sixty's. don't you remember paul. and what's going on those were back in the days of course when we were still in the gold standard so everything had to make sense things no longer need to make sense max in fact they could be our for a very long time here's how you can understand the bizarre decade that markets have experience since the financial crisis this is

a headline from the financial times they consult are coming around to what kaiser report has been telling you for years since the financial crisis starts in two thousand and nine no coincidence because that's when the kaiser report was also born the pink line is the federal reserve balance sheet the blue line is it s. and p. five hundred as you see it's starting to take a lot more money printing to get the s. and p. five hundred to stay. the printers are the pac-man they're eating up all the bad debt in all the world that's thrown off by the corrupt bankers who longer criminal money there are. big banks in the big banks america big banks friends and those. those debts go bad and then the central bank comes in and they buy the dead so they put them on their balance sheet and so that the central bank

doesn't go bankrupt they lower rates to zero because those that suffer the rollover . all the time and if the road read any interest rate that reflects the genuine economic reality let's say three or four percent then the central banks the world immediately declare insolvency every major bank in the world immediately declares and. so one of the by products of all the shenanigans is the s. and p. five hundred plus other. parking places for cash like real estate in various cities for fine art or yachts or to. go up wildly in price which of course can be used as collateral you give those to your bank who end up giving notice to the central bank to make another loan at zero percent interest to buy another yacht then. the cost of that goes up again in price which gives you more collateral value so this is the ponzi scheme of bodies. and we've been talking about is this

the final. because now owned by the nikkei people in japan they're willing to tell the truth now the japanese can accept the also goods that were being published under the previous amount to have to start. oh. this reminds me of another that the red queen syndrome we see in fracking this is the same thing there fracking the well and it cost more . in order to keep the bubble of float. of course it also reminds me of the cia sort of reports on. how you should look at the economy and the world around you that trust their propaganda not anybody else's propaganda or take on the story so remember in that cia report. of the twenty six to twenty six thousand election that they said the fact. that it was propaganda they were

trying to create anti-american feel. occupy wall street responding to fracking is another issue and that is also the financial times copying just covering the story. here the next exodus from wall street journal information and this is the latest red flag for you shall we read this information here comes from the wall street journal the u.s. . has had a rough. with a growing number of reports suggesting that. much more financial trouble and many analysts had expected expect for and. so now a new report as further evidence to the notion that shale is losing its luster and a fifty dollars per barrel market with producers for going shell in favor of all

their wells so they turn to the wall street journal report this is the report they're talking about the wall street journal says that although although wall street has showered the shale industry with billions of dollars in capital and although that surge and although that has led to a surge in oil production shale producers by and large are still. at today's prices the wall street journal says quote most producers are losing money on every barrel they pump they are losing money on every barrel they pump you can say is propaganda but who best are starting to notice that they are losing money on every barrel they own they can they can talk themselves into the blue in the face that someday they'll become profitable but right now they're still losing money on every barrel they pump they

make it up in volume. as we've been saying now for a few years let's just dig into. a little bit the fracking industry or shale industry is economically on buyable or inviolable which i'm not sure what is the proper usage in that country really landed zero percent interest rates well just what happens in an energy company will be able to borrow from a central bank again the central bank will lend them a billion dollars or a billion pounds if you're in the u.k. they will then start to spread and they'll cause ecological devastation and they'll pay themselves a lot of money then after. that that. is no longer generating. energy whatsoever because they're practical wells are very short lived the bondholders who put up the money there and all the bonds been sold in a very special accounts they go to zero the stocks if they're public they get to the executors the company declare bankruptcy and the ecological devastation which

is now. professor in the u.k. for example will be picked up by the taxpayer yet every choir's capital a lot of water it costs for a conventional oil well rig cost one million dollars to drill for four for one million so what they point out there was a general point out that all these oil companies are actually turning instead took . fifty sixty outside. and they're only producing maybe one hundred barrels a day and that however it costs them nothing to turn on the old wells right now they just do that because that's being extracted and just like basically the equivalent of saudi or iraqi oil fifteen bucks a barrel it costs them to take that out where. they're not making any money as i said at the wall street journal points they're losing money barrel and the u.k. where it's even more expensive to extract. fracking there are going to be fact

mostly natural gas there rather than oil but here here's the total the french energy giant they're the number one player in the north sea oil sector so here are they speaking about their latest investment. total snubs expensive u.s. shale with north sea focused deal so again. wall street journal says fracking loses money on every single barrel they produce despite all there would have been a lot of you know improvements in efficiency and extraction and all that stuff has been great improvements but still total one of the biggest energy giants in the world says that on monday energy giant agreed to buy the oil and gas unit of. its biggest purchased in one thousand nine hundred seven point four five billion dollars deal including debt reinforce total footprint in conventional oil assets in

europe africa u.s. shell his development over the past decade has appended the balance in the oil market won't be part of the portfolio. if i asked for officer patrick point and said shale assets were quote quite expensive and that total wasn't the best company to develop the deal puts a value of about fifty dollars to fifty five dollars a barrel while us shell he says is close to eighty dollars a barrel so you need eighty dollars a barrel this guy who's the c.e.o. of one of the biggest oil companies in the world but he says you know i can't afford to be political be ideological be take sides in some cold war my bottom line matters and i have to report to shareholders and what i'm telling you is that i lose money i would lose thirty dollars a barrel he's putting the price at on us shell so why do it i'm not going to do it and he says his shareholders wouldn't be happy with him. that's why it's all so

crazy that the u.s. wants to ship their energy to germany. prices that are completely on economic. terms. for the arms of russia because that's where they get the cheapest and well let's go back to the actual data the money you know beyond any and like who's better or that countries great who live in this country who wave this flag beyond that it's just the simple facts and somebody out there might be very ideology ideology full and you know patriotic for one country or the other might say well what is total know about us shale well they're actually a big player already in u.s. shell and what they say it's. exposed u.s. . assets exist and that you to ask this in ohio for two point three billion in two thousand and twelve it has the smallest presence in the shale patch among european nature majors price has so far been a deterrent to expansion because he says you have to put eighty dollars

a barrel assumption in the model and i'm not ready at all to acquire eighty dollars a barrel when you remember the beverly hills. so t.v. show. man named joe barely kept his family fed should not some crude and some bubbling crude oil that is black gold texas tea well in the opening credits the t.v. show they show the beverly hills mansion and that mansion has just traded in the open the market and took a huge discount many many many millions of dollars in discount it's poetic justice that jed clampett the original oil baron in los angeles his mansion is getting hammered in the market so oil obviously is not working anymore people are firing up the old rigs that you know you get the airport l.a.x. you drive into santa monica. to work and by this side of the highway you know they're trying to get the last drop down with. the oil it is. and this guy from total the c.e.o.

of the largest oil companies in the world says it's eighty dollars a barrel at least that so you can get will but it's going to cost you more and at that price does solar does renewable energy does battery power make more sense that's what's the point is that you have you need eighty dollars a barrel to get that oil right well good point good point. king is a dead end but of course some countries are starting us in europe in. the periphery over there in the sea was rained out all day they won't hear about this for like two years nosedive they were going to go take a break come back after the break much more which forced on you know the smart stay around.

welcome back to the kaiser report time. in new york city plan a ponzi mets welcome back. great to be here and max great to have you match what's happening with the market is it going up to more i mean what's happening here trump came in the opposite of skyrocketed what's happening well you know i've had that i've had a consistent view with the markets the markets are have been manipulated by the central banks up in the hundreds of trillions of dollars in liquidity into the global system so i mean this is one of the biggest mirages of history that we've

seen i mean look at the swiss national bank and their holdings in the u.s. equity market so there's got to be a reason behind that i mean the swiss national bank is one of the biggest holders of apple they have half a half a million shares of tesla the european central bank now has the german i corps has asked the e.u. court to review their. quantitative easing program because it's monetary financing which is against the law which is what's happening in central banks are picking winners and losers and influencing the trading in stocks stocks and because detached from economic reality i mean in the past two days we've seen a three hundred point move down or volatility is still relatively low we traded below nine nine and in the vix index which we've spoken about many times you know so those three hundred point move is not a lot because we're still at historically near record highs because central banks are coming in and purchasing equities i think you know the whole quantitative

easing the federal reserve policy the european central bank the bank of japan and the bank of england this is policy failure and mess of turning it around and trying to adopt a different policy they're doubling down on a bad city that is doomed to fail and this will end in a catastrophic leave bad manner well mess if a country like venezuela takes a company an energy company and the government buys it. that's col nationalization and everyone likes that says oh my god those people are anti-capitalist they're evil but of a central bank prints money. back controlling interest or huge swathes of stock as in the case discussed national bank or the bank of japan isn't that nationalization . yeah of course it's nationalization that they don't want to call it nationalization and you've got the european central bank it's bought you know we

have a chart actually that we can go to that will show you what their balance sheet looks like their balance sheet is exploded i mean it's five trillion euros in debt i mean italy has already said they're not going to repay that debt they're getting back to your point of nationalization what's happening is they're buying all the corporate bonds they can buy some of these bonds are probably joke these bonds are not called junk or high yield reason is because they have a higher probability of defaulting the only thing that low interest rates and we will see zero interest rate policy in many more countries to come is that it keeps alive a zombie zombie institutions for a longer period of time rather than dealing with the market mechanism call bankruptcy which is what should happen to businesses that don't make money they shouldn't get bailed out and get out of their loans for given what they should do is get wiped out i mean that's the system of capitalism works well what they want to do now because the central banks have amassed in the governments have amassed so

much debt they've got to raise the euro lower the interest rates are so that they don't pay back any interest on all the debt i mean it's it's it's mathematically impossible for the united states to repay its debt. because the total amount of debt it's owed something like two hundred fifty trillion dollars and the number that they they tossed around of twenty six are two hundred forty trillion so the number that they tossed around is twenty trillion but that number of course doesn't include the liabilities such as social security medicare medicaid all the other social welfare telling the programs so when you talk about the total debt which is what we need to talk about all liabilities it's a zero it's going to be impossible of pay them back and especially when we have an event that makes interest rates go higher and exoticness of that and the markets have been so complacent for the past nine years central banks have been blowing

people into a very very false sense of security that this is the new normal there's no volatility companies don't need to make profits and you've got a record number of companies out there look at snap chat there's a ration when it's highest fifty two billion dollars and that company will never own a money i mean the people have gotten used to seeing bailouts infinity and financialization and that's what's happened doesn't mean that they can keep going for ever i mean obviously it's going to hit a wall at some point that's why i talk about planet ponzi when it's going to hit a wall it's very difficult to predict whether it will hit the wall as disturbed. you know well there's another risk here in the way that the. banks and corporations and government are behaving and colluding with each other to prop up stock prices artificially in the name of attempting to engine air some growth

of course been proven to be a complete dead end and not only that but it of courage is a lot of reckless behavior and fraud take for example wells fargo they just finished paying under any five million in fines for fraudulently opening millions of fake bank accounts for their customers they've been caught fraudulently selling customers insurance products they've just been caught fraudulently closing customer accounts they've been caught open going into customers accounts and stealing money and then they pay a small five for this they call moral hazard but when you have rot at the top as frederick bost you had said in his classic text of eighteen something or other you have wrought at the bottom and that they're encouraging crime so i don't see why america has a jail why do they have jails why do they lock people up for protests why are they're upset about nazis running around why are they upset about of riots and

stores being set on fire. and why are they upset if there's no rule of law in america why selectively apply only to black people match why the white people and wells fargo people example no rule of law myth can you explain that to me. we've got a couple of things going on here is that we've discussed many times for wells fargo for example is you know one of the major shareholders is is no doubt warren buffett and you know he's got a fair amount of connections in the financial markets and in the government so you because you reach a point where i think the last attorney general that we had holder said you may. actually an interview said that to too many financial institutions or certain financial institutions are too connected or too big to prosecute so too big to prosecute too connected too big to bail too big to fail and too big to jail those are the new attitudes so unless you're really big there's

a. two tiered system of justice one for the elites and one for the plain american folk they're the ones who are going to be left holding the bag so when the next round of bailouts comes what's going to happen as you said growth and to give you this theory was in keynesian economic theory like larry summers the harvard professor x. treasury secretary who caused the credit crisis by getting rid of glass steagall which allowed for securitizations which allowed for the credit crisis to happen with those mortgages and the mortgage fraud that was all larry summers doing with citibank and with bill clinton that's what you have to go back and look at but so what's going to happen this time is the taxpayer is going to be on the up because what they want to do is they want to ban all cash that's the new program you have to keep your money in a bank account so that the government can control what you do and where you spend it and they have one hundred percent control over what you're doing because the

next bailout is going to be a ballot where they're going to have sanctioned deposit confiscations cyprus was the first model. banking system that did that i think you're going to see a lot of that throughout europe and then you're going to see it here in the united states will be a war on cash and will be a war to make the average american and every american pick up the tab for the next bailout because there will be a next bailout and the taxpayers going to be on the hook for not the banks not the point zero one percent that's why what we're seeing now in politics this is an incredible sideshow because if you think last week there were thirty. people were killed in chicago they were mowed down on the streets but you didn't even see a minor headline to talk about the people in chicago who were killed and you didn't see any headlines about what's going on that chinese incursions into india and you don't see any of the other global events that have been happening although they talk about where the riots down in charlottesville and the way the president and

all that because what they want to do is they don't want to ever drain the swamp so both. the republican party and democratic party want to go back to business as usual or they can claim their facts taxed in washington and have the pool of filled with lots of cash coming from the likes of people like george sure well you know the people in germany not taking their standing down so they're taking the easy bit of core of her the acid buys the accumulation of junk and the continuation of ponzi konami as you describe in your book. pond is also a nation if it wasn't because again it's not a plan a ponzi plan a policy by much fires time ok the german people are not taking it down there are suggestions that this could be another french revolutionary moment another reign of terror a moment another let's take three thousand lift out of class concorde to capitated

the moment there the german people are not idiots like the american people they know what money is they value our savings they value gold right so well germany other driver people are going to rise up and say enough is enough and start doing what they do in china they take these bankers down to jalan. and they take carol you know i think what's going to happen i think what's going to happen and people don't realize this but germany is not going to go join and several liable for the across the get debt the problem in southern european countries debt so in other words italy has what three trillion euros worth of debt on the books italy already has said we're not going to repay i mean so italy's debt is massive france's debt is massive spain's debt is massive and the b. is making believe that nothing's going on what they're doing is illegal if it's not in accordance with their mandate so this is going to be up to the euro game court of justice to decide whether they want to to uphold the law to have

a banking crisis or whether they want to just keep to wall paper the ponzi scheme so. so you know there's going to reach a point in time where either france leaves the euro italy leaves the euro spain leaves the euro but the euro won't last because unless you have a central treasury that determines these things which they don't have and they leave it up to each country to have you can't have a monetary union that they want with the twenty eight countries it just won't work so you know the best thing to do is short the euro against the dollar where it is right now because the european union won't be around in five years as we know it today and he made so many salmon countries twenty seven of them countries got one on the side of blow their own heads off exactly what i call right well we've got to leave it on that note thanks so much for being on the kaiser report. well that's

right. oh that's i can't wait i'm going to count the days and that's going to do it for this edition of the kaiser report with me max kaiser and stacey i would like to thank our extra special guest misfires five of plan a policy dot com the author of the best selling book plan a policy if you are a just on twitter it's kaiser report you can also find out ponzi until next time.

in case you're new to the game this is how it works the economy is built around corporate perforation from washington to washington. the. voters elect a business to run this country business it. must it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before. i. suppose. it's both of.

us and we. each one of. them. is. this is. this is for me. it's me. i don't know maybe. i will bring. more. around more.

coming up on our team in the u.s. orders russia to close down its consulate in san francisco and scaled back staff at others but have the latest on what it all means for u.s. russia relations plus multiple explosions at a chemical plant in property taxes will explain how unprecedented blooding in the area caused multiple pyar. and the pentagon confirms the u.s. has thousands more troops in afghanistan than previously thought and more are likely to follow will break down u.s. involvement in afghanistan by the number.