three years to understand each syrian city of d.n.a. results celebrates as government forces close in on removing islamic state from one of its last strongholds in the country. and it's really the united states george territory will be met with a massive military response responsible. and overwhelming washington isn't ruling out using its own nuclear capabilities if north korea continues to threaten the u.s. or its allies start to pyongyang confirms it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. and fearing persecution tens of

thousands of muslims in myanmar leave the asian country as the minority community struggles against violent oppression by the state so far exceeds. their estimate day here in the russian capital and you're watching r.t. international with me nicky erin and we start with breaking news this hour the syrian government forces are closing in on i still positions to the city of d.d.r. resort one of the groups that last strongholds in the country a lot easier to train joins me now in the studio to see to discuss this further. this would be quite a significant victory wouldn't it make you afternoon well first of all dare is zoar it is a city that has been. told all islamic state states henri siege

for some three years and it looks like the city is closer to. being liberated than ever before because at least according to the syrian army there are now some ten kilometers away from their resort if you look at the mouth it is clearly visible journalists were able to get in touch with the governor of the resort and he's saying that the syrian government troops are going to enter the city within forty eight hours so that is a massive relief for the locals we have already received some pictures of them celebrating that is of course a massive victory for them you can imagine all the hardships they were going through in these three years and for you to get a picture of that here's a little video. of the navy as isis terrorists raided our house my thirteen year old cousin was staying with us i had here in a water tank so that the terrorists didn't take her as a slave it was obvious that. the situation in

a resort is catastrophic terrorist from iraq executes civilians in the streets and leave bodies lying there for up to five days i secretly drove my sons out of the city otherwise isis militants would recruit them by force inject psychotropic substances and gives them suicide bombs. just for the strategic understanding dairies or or the area around the city is not the last stronghold of i saw in syria but you cannot underestimate the strategic importance of this area if. the cities being liberated and of islamic state is kicked out of the day or is or province and the areas around the city that will mean that the only remaining stronghold the only major one is rock and then islamic state terrorists will have no other ways to retreat and they will be encircled in the heart of syria and we have already heard from the russian the defense ministry that if the battle for

dare resort is one this will essentially main the beginning of an end of islamic. state in syria and again these military advances these victories have been made possible by a series of successful joint operations by the syrian government troops and air force take a look at some of the victories that have been one. moment .

we're waiting for more news from the front line and it looks like there will be plenty of them in the coming days at least according to the local governor and the syrian army. ringing in my head just the words you said at the beginning of the end of islamic state this really could be a significant victory and let's hope for the best thanks for that. and us discuss this with that beirut based journalist and middle east experts martin jay mr jay thank you for joining us on the program this morning now what would the liberation of d.n.a. results mean for the syria conflict as a whole. or think it's an exciting poignant moment a real turning point in what we've we've known until this point in the last six years ago as the syrian war think come once the city is taken and the surrounding region is flushed out of almost as far as we can start to really talk about the end of the war and

a new chapter for possibly restoring peace in the country do you think that we might expect some kind of retaliation from my study if it loses more ground. what is to. be relisted possible in syria but i think goal certainly be. like an emotional ghastly. campaign of revenge possibly happening around the world i mean we're going to sort of the soft spots where they can operate where they have sleeper cells in europe or america and so. i think we've lost the connection oh no go ahead i can still hear you. mr gerry. ok we seem to have lost the connection with my mr martin jay that beirut based journalist on the middle east expert say thank you to him or try to reestablish the connection and bring him back to you moving on washington says it will use any

means necessary to defend itself off to the most powerful north korea nuclear test today's the white house says even using america's own nuclear capabilities is not being ruled out. president trump reaffirmed the commitment of the united states to defending our homeland territories and allies using the full range of diplomatic conventional and nuclear capabilities at our disposal. we have many military options and the president wanted to be briefed on each one of them any threat to the united states george territories including. or allies will be met with a massive military response the response both objective and overwhelming to actually kind of an unexpected and drastic change in tone coming from modest there who is really starting to sound more like trump now he did add that america is not seeking the annihilation of north korea but it's highly unlikely that those comments will be of any comfort to anyone in north korea given how quickly his

stance changed from there's always the possibility of a diplomatic solution to we don't want to kill you but we certainly can if need be now the statements are you made even more ominous given the comments made by president trump before he met with madison the other generals the president we checked with real. earlier on sunday trump did tweet that all options are being considered when it comes to north korea but it is clear that the military option seems to be becoming the favorite for the trumpet ministration meanwhile we have china and russia urging all sides to show restraint but it seems that team trump is going to stick with the aggressive rhetoric that we've seen from the president as of late they will be met with fire and fury. like the world has never see north korea better get their act together where they're going to be trouble like today should stare ever have been in trouble

in this world. and this may not get away with what he's doing and this is really already afflatus past just a war of words we've already seen america bolster their military. presence in the region and continue to conduct drills with south korea much to the displeasure of their northern neighbors and trump has gotten a fair amount of backlash for some of his aggressive comments both here at home and abroad but the u.s. state department for their part has defended his comments saying that it's simply the only way to communicate with the north korean leader exacerbating the president spoke to him to kim jong un in a language that secretary tillerson has said and said this morning in the kind of language that kim jong un will understand but clearly america really has no plans of changing their tactics despite the fact that all of their aggressive rhetoric and saying that talking will not work and attacking north korea has only lead to further threats from north korea and more missile tests but washington seems

unwilling to change their plan of action pushing the whole world closer to the edge of war so shortly after pyongyang's nuclear test south korea conducted a snap military drill it responds according to seoul it simulated a strike on the north's nuclear testing site missiles fired from the ground and from fighter planes reportedly hitting at their intended targets in the sea of japan one another development that the south korean environment ministry has approved the deployment of the american made thaw and anti missile system now it was partly delivered back in march but later it turned out that the necessary environmental checks were not carried out and the deployment was delighted however seems to have been accelerated now with china only expressing concerns that the range of the system could reach its territory as well earlier we spoke to gregory from the advisory board of the korea policy institute and some you know from the

council of korean americans about the tensions in the region. i think the trump immigration is painting itself into a corner so for instance trump recently tweeted that talks are not the answer and so just leaves the option of threatening north korea which only encourages north korea to accelerate its nuclear weapons program which in turn encourages the trumpet ministration to play and you. know it's a very dangerous moment korean central news agency just recently came out with a famous saying that they're not willing to give up their for weapons program unless the united states drops its hostile policy so there's a definite opening for a diplomatic move if the united states wanted to take that this is a full scale diplomatic crisis and i think the president has not really framed this issue as such i think this is in some ways

a war of words we know he's very fond of twitter and saying provocative things president and our government is not devoting the resources the political will that are needed to find a solution to this problem we need to amp up the resources at the state department warm bodies people who understand north korea the culture the language get them working on this issue. well these latest aggressive moves in the peninsula come right on the eve of the brics summit in china a group of strongly condemned north korea's latest nuclear test artie's kate partridge's reports from sherman. the latest nuclear test from north korea comes ahead of the brics summit here in china and its center dominates the talks over the next couple of days and it also poses a challenge to the political influence of the group and whether or not they're able to insist that there is a diplomatic solution to this particular crisis when north korea's neighbors russia

and china have already condemned the move and of course they hear breaks with putin and she the president's there already saying that they agree on the importance that there is no chaos on the korean peninsula they also agree that the nuclearized nation of the region is not acceptable if we really want to denuclearize north korea we should stick to diplomatic measures the exchange of aggressive rhetoric does not lead to reconcilement there's only a diplomatic way for this russia and china together are bringing out realistic proposals for a peaceful solution what they are offering is a road map that the two presidents had already devised earlier something that they discussed when president was in moscow earlier in july and what they're saying is that this particular road map could lead to a deescalation on place sides they see it as mutual deescalation and what they're suggesting from the north koreans is that they desist in their testing of their missiles in particular their nuclear weapons as well as we're looking on the other side when it comes to the u.s.

and south korea they believe that they stop with the military drills that they see that pyongyang is anticipating as a preparation for invasion of course it remains to be seen whether or not these suggestions will be taken up. more than seventy thousand muslims are fleeing the majority but is country of myanmar fearing violence oppression we've got that story after the break. here's what people have been saying about redacted in night with the fact is full on awesome the only show i go out of my way to launch a lot of the really packs a punch at least yampa is the john oliver of party america is doing the same we are apparently better than blues nothing's better and see people you've never heard of love redacted tonight my president of the world bank go take. me

seriously send us an e-mail. when almost seems wrong but old clothes just don't call. me. yet to shape out just because they can't take it and gain from it because the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. i. welcome back the south asian country of myanmar is seeing more than seventy thousand of its muslims fleeing the country fearing violence oppression by the state's all thora t s one muslim community has been clashing with police and the armed forces to protect its ethnicity from

violent methods of persecution myanmar's population is mainly buddhist and both religious sides continue to blame each other for the ongoing conflict now there are two to reports what attributes do you think of when you envisage the ideal leader maybe a symbol of groundbreaking political revolution obviously a person who holds the interests of the people or do you visualize an individual hailed by the media as a hero she was an inspiration during the country's evolution in the eighty's and even won the nobel peace prize as well as a u.s. congress gold medal the leader of the southeast asian states of myanmar on sun tsu cheek as. witness to history. three to six. leaders talk.

doesn't this sound like democratic perfection but sadly reality is far from perfect while the leader revels in glory the country is home to what the u.n. calls the most persecuted minority in the world the ranger a muslim community of more than a million people the me and my government doesn't recognize them as citizens of the country effectively making them illegal immigrants last year a series of brutal attacks were launched against the community after it clashed with police as the minority desperately try to draw the authorities attention to their horrific plight since then more than a thousand civilians have been killed and more than twenty. thousand internally displaced government forces have also been accused of wide scale human rights violations also and rape and murder. and.

the military destroyed everything after killing some ranger the military burned their houses and shops now there's a danger to our survival that's why we fled all i got the handy little model i can still hear their screams in my heart and my ears we are really scared we don't feel safe now don't worry very secure and as we heard the sounds from here and there were security even when we eat my heart is beating so fast. the gun lobby the light off to my husband who was killed i had no option but to run for my children's lives we spent two nights in the house and sneaks past the border my children haven't had any food yet and they keep crying we only got ten because people from the camp gave us the bus back.

refugees coming across the border they're coming across the border bullet wounds was shrapnel wounds quite clearly this is a scorched earth offensive by the burmese military the government hashed to stop this offensive it has to. basically allow humanitarian assistance and also the journalists into this area we have to actually see what's happened because quite clearly human rights violations have taken place western officials have been vocal about the ongoing crisis including the u.s. envoy to the u.n. nikki haley who's urging the need to step in. and in the violence as burmese security forces act to prevent further violence they have a responsibility to adhere to international humanitarian law which includes refraining from attacking innocent civilians and humanitarian workers and ensuring assistance reaches those in need but the leader is not only making no attempt to stop the violence against the persecuted minority she has made the situation even

worse by posting hateful content online one comment declares that makeshift army is a terrorist organization whilst the oppressed muslim minority fights to survive critics warn the west old favorite on sun suchi is doing everything but trying to resolve this deepening crisis but a petition to strip the country's leader of the nobel peace prize she received in two thousand and twelve has been gaining support online we spoke to the chief executive of the ramadan foundation mohammed schiff e.q. says myanmar's problems aren't getting enough media attention. the international community is not doing anything and i just think it's disgusting it's a sad indictment of the international order there has to be an increase diplomatic pressure against on some to clear her government and the idea that you've got somebody like on suki who is a nobel prize winner the bastion of human rights in terms of a struggle for freedom or democracy is turning

a blind eye is ignored in the crimes of her government and her military is doing everything in their power to not resolve this issue if she remained silent as she has to she is complicit in the murder of so many innocent civilians by the girlies authorities. and we have some live pictures for you now from the russian city of grozny where thousands of people have gathered in solidarity with the muslim community. protesting against the oppression they are facing in the asian country now the russian foreign ministry has already voiced its concern over the situation and called on both sides to stop the violence there's also a huge police presence in the area to prevent any possible violence from breaking out earlier we saw a smaller demonstration held in front of the man me and my embassy in moscow. in other news now german chancellor angela merkel's main rival martin schultz has

failed to win over voters in a live debate that's according to a poll by the t.v. channel that aired their campaign battle the election is set for september the twenty fourth to bring in a new parliament will also decide whether merkel remains in office for a fourth consecutive term artie's peter all of the picks up the story. well this debate was set up as a a big stage for martin schulz the social democratic party leader and challenger to angola merkel to be the next chancellor of germany where the debate though was ultimately scored as a fifty five to thirty five victory to angela merkel the big thing is that there's not too much difference between the parties on the major issues but when it came to major issues particularly the chancellor's twenty fifteen refugee policy martin schultz said that there were things done back in twenty fifteen that should there be a chance to do them again or they should have been carried out in a different manner if we always stressed that we need to find

a common european solution according to the dublin convention they should stay with a first arrived and so they are not allowed to come to germany and those states couldn't manage the flow i think he should have asked our neighbors for help in dealing with the refugee crisis so i definitely wouldn't say that everything back in twenty fifteen was done right the kids are nothing. i see this completely differently and i know that mr schultz also knows that this is not right in two thousand and thirteen we all knew that we've got a big problem here it's like a call but still we. couldn't find any consensus on a solution to the refugee issue because i acknowledge that it may think the decision was right there was a chance for chills to get a little more impassioned if you will when it came to talk turkey and what type of solutions could be found to dealing with president while in the well frankly atrocious diplomatic state of affairs that exists between it and korea right now

martin schultz pulling no punches saying that turkey needs to be dropped from all talks when it comes to the european union and joining the european union gunstar kids with their four hundred seats and it's really hard now with the behavior of the turkish president is that imprisons people systematically and if i become chancellor i will not only cancel the agreement with turkey. he would also stop talks on turkey joining the e.u. because turkey has crossed all red lines waves of refugees have been hitting us not for a couple of days but for months. and say you know and turkey is distancing itself from all democratic norms that are grants taking pace there would be nothing worse than if we said we're stopping unilaterally all turks with turkey on joining the e.u. and we don't have any majority for that in the european union out of the twelve years that i'm glad merkel has been chancellor eight of those she has ruled as part of a coalition with the social democratic party so if mark schultz is to try and slam her legacy in slumber policies actually he would find himself slamming his own

party and of their own legacy as well so for the german people though what that means is which ever one of these two when i say said it looks almost certain it will be on the local returned city office the german people almost certainly set for more of the same politically coming up over the coming years. but there was plenty of reaction online after the ninety minute show down as many had hoped for a more fiery battle. but. if you look at the t.v. debate between merkel and sure. there was not really

a deliberate stillbirth vote saying exactly the same and on this board three presidents of a system in germany there was not really any change so basically i think there is no big difference i think now with this debate on t.v. he should find no you losing completely. i know that a lot of leftists in germany burstow hoping that bill will come like go read so it remains a coalition but right now after this t.v. debate i think this is all worth. i have your say on the day's stories by following goes on facebook and twitter and i'll be back at the top of the hour with the latest headlines.

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case you're new to the game this is how it works not the economy is built around corporations corporations run washington washington media the media the voters elected a businessman to run this country business equals power you must it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before. hello welcome to sophia komi sophie shevardnadze as they hear a pin union struggles to hammer out a solution to its unity crisis israeli's one member who needs more attention than others struggling with a refugee influx and with

a potential banking crisis on its hands it can use all the help from the e.u. it can get but will roll finding answers to his problems in brussels well into his minister for european affairs sounder agazzi is with me today to talk about all of this. within hours bickering over refugee quotas failing austerity measures and a rising tide of euro skeptic nationalism that's already resulted in the u.k. session the european union project is bracing for a turbulent and testing future this is a reform starting time before another crisis hits the european powers here the cause of poor states and can be ambition of the continental union and do another sixty years. israel as minister for european affairs sandra garth c. welcome to the show great to have you with us and as you got said the euro experiment has failed at least that's what noble economist joseph stiglitz s so are it's.