america is. better than. the c. heard of. jack the next president of the world bank very. seriously send us an e-mail. syrian government forces with russian support free taking fortified area held by islamic state in the city of paving the way for its liberation becomes following the lifting of the terror group's three year long siege. the russian president says mounting pressure on pyongyang will not solve the north korea crisis. let's not be driven by emotion and push north korea into a corner. and two men were arrested on suspicion of terror attack during raids in the paris suburbs it follows the detention of six suspected arson affiliates by spanish. authorities.

there at six o'clock in the russian capital watching international. syrian government forces backed by russia have recaptured a large fortified area held by islamic state in the city and.

well after retaking the position syrian troops found a network of tunnels containing weapons medical supplies and food and it's also emerged that the area was mainly defended by terrorists from the former soviet republics and also russia on tuesday a russian more ship targeted the militants there helping the syrian army storm the fortress. of the latest operation as part of a larger campaign to totally force ice or fighters out of fear is all which has largely been occupied by the terror group for the last three years since then it has become one of the largest pockets of extremist forces in syria. you're. like oh you are. well these are pages in fact government army brigades reuniting after the siege on the city was

finally lifted one had been trapped inside for all that time. has more now on the liberation campaign. the people of duress or won't have to pray for these to appear in the skies anymore for three years air drops with their only lifeline and they prayed for what was really just a handful of syrian soldiers to never let the city fall completely to islamic state while eiseley used any means absolutely anything to take their resort it's all over now but nearly nine months ago a sea of eisel all around the city and beyond how the country and black as you can see on this map since that point it's only been shrinking two thousand and seventeen so far a nightmare for islamic state and syria i'll break down the milestones for you number one palmira.

the city with more than three thousand years of history had really been caught in a tug of war before march when the syrian army with russian air support took full control number two the city of rock the one known as the capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate. no more capital in iraq looks like the terrorist commanders ran from there and thanks to the efforts of the kurdish units and other u.s. led coalition fighters the hottest in the city are fully surrounded number three breaking the siege of the errors or.

this was one last chance all the remaining war might be had to offer off it went to deir ez-zor according to russian army intelligence crossing islamic state in this area is the next step time to check up on the map now that's progress three black traces left the rooms of the self-proclaimed caliphate what is i said this beating back on all fronts the u.n. special envoy for syria has voiced concerns about the future of the political process in the country. issue with is the government after the liberation of their iraq are really being employed to generally negotiate in not. victory which we all know they know to can not be unveiled because they want peace of thing that will without a political profit really the opposition be able to be unified and realistic

enough to realize they did not win that war. while another syria related stories also grabbed the headlines today a new u.n. report accuses the assad government of using chemical weapons against civilians and it claims to was responsible for an attack in italy province back in april we'll have more on that story a bit later in the program. now the russian president says sanctions are mounting pressure will not solve the north korea crisis is pyongyang feels it is being backed into a corner that it may putin made the comments after speaking with south korea's leader at the eastern economic forum in the russian city of london for stop from there his then you hawk it's. it's foremost primarily a place for business and trade interests to find common ground but as you say there's only been one thing really hanging over the four and one key thing on the agenda and that's been the korean crisis the crisis on the korean peninsula and president putin and south korea half an hour concluded the talks they've done

a joint press conference where putin again as russia's position has been over the last weeks and months that diplomacy negotiation was the only way long to solve this crisis take a listen it's obvious that the korean peninsula problem can't just be solved using sanctions and pressure it's impossible let's not be driven by emotion and push north korea into a corner. now it's evident that there are some differences between the south korean and the russian position here the south korean government of course do favor a strengthening of u.n. sanctions against north korea particularly targeting the oil sector something that will very much appreciate as an escalation in this crisis the russians of course have favored diplomacy negotiation long term and that still seems to be the case aside from that it's very much business as usual here for quite literally there's delegations here from over fifty countries several thousand people in attendance

here hoping to sign trade and business deals last year that equaled about thirty two billion dollars so very much significance in the asia pacific region. well russia and china did offer their solution to the standoff over north korea at an emergency u.n. security council meeting on monday more sco in beijing to propose what is being called a double freeze initiative and under the plan north korea would stop its nuclear and ballistic missile tests and then in return the u.s. and south korea would hold their joint military exercises however the u.s. has dismissed the proposal as insulting washington has said it will continue to deploy troops and weapons to the korean peninsula on top u.s. army official says that that to address pyongyang's self destructive actions america's deployment of hardware includes aircraft carrier strike group anti missile ships as well as fighter jets and helicopters in washington and seoul reportedly preparing to hold more military drills south korea may also ask the u.s.

to redeploy its nuclear weapons to the pin insurer's. now reports south korea is currently eyeing a possible redeployment of u.s. nuclear weapons on its territory which if approved would bring the military buildup around north korea to the highest level. we would need to find realistic countermeasures by reviewing all the political military options in a serious security situation with north korea's nuclear missile threats but the question is will this drastic move have the desired effect of making north korea backed out well of the past few months have taught us anything now but being young and washington are nowhere near to dialing their saber rattling back only raising the stakes higher and higher kim jong un shows no such understanding his abusive use of missiles and his nuclear threats show that he is begging for war any threat to the united states george territories including war. or our allies will be met

with a massive military response. president truman reaffirmed the commitment of the united states to defending our homeland territories and allies using the full range of diplomatic conventional and nuclear capabilities so disposal so as a nuclear option the next step would trump make that call looking back trump has always had a rather shall we say unconventional approach to nuclear weapons during his iconic one thousand nine hundred interviews with playboy he confessed nuclear war was on his mind and it seems the idea hasn't exactly gone away for so you don't want to say take everything off the table just you know there you go shoot if you do this nuclear look nuclear should be off the table but with be a time when it could be used possibly the trouble is when you said earlier even america's oldest allies can't count themselves one hundred percent safe can you tell the middle east or not use the nuclear weapon and never say that i would never take any of my cards off the table but europe we won't use and you're not going to take it off the day you might use it in europe you know and surprisingly trump wants the u.s.

to expand its nuclear arsenal because apparently if you're going to have nukes you better have more than everybody else it would be wonderful the green would be that no country would have no. but if countries are going to have nukes we're going to be. at the top of the pack yes for every major world leader at the option is always on the table and to be fair trump has said that it's highly highly highly highly unlikely he would resort to a nuclear option and prefers a world without nukes but even if it's just about scaring the enemy when nukes are dominating the thought processes of kim and trump the rest of the world would appreciate more predictability and transparency in the thought process. r.t. washington d.c. . two men have been arrested in a suburb of paris on suspicion of plotting a terror attack the news comes just hours after it was revealed that spanish and moroccan authorities detained six people with alleged ice a link. has been following events. two men have been arrested and will be

charged with terrorism offenses the men were arrested in an apartment in the south suburb of paris school view now what we understand is that a maintenance worker or plumber had been in the apartment fixing a problem then had to looted the authorities two suspicious materials in that apartment now when the police raided that apartment they found materials that could be used to make explosives and bombs such as gas canisters and wires now. the situation becomes even trickier when we understand that one of the men arrested apparently has admitted during his questioning in custody that he had been selling bullet proof vests to another man who is a suspect in a murder case here in france and he is also under suspicion of planning terror activities against churches here in france that's the latest on the situation here in france meanwhile spanish forces have arrested six people who are alleged to have

links with eisel. state we understand that one of those arrests took place in a city which is in the spanish territory next to morocco and the other arrests took place in morocco of those six suspects five. and one is said to be a spaniard and what we understand those individuals were arrested today suspected of being involved with. islamic states and we understand from police sources that the suspects had been holding nightly meetings including holding terror training sessions in which they were simulating assassinations that's come from police sources but we have also heard from the police that no apparently between this alleged terrorist cell in the city of malea and the terrorist cell that carried out those attacks just a few weeks ago in barcelona and income on the mainland of spain.

reporting now let's just go back to one of our top stories and the crisis on the korean peninsula because we can get the thoughts now of storm law school professor tom brooks he joins us tom good to have you on thanks for your time saving let's just talk first about what the president said he believes the militarization of the korean peninsula is just pushing the north into a corner and won't work what are your thoughts on that well i agree with that assessment i think that. the white house in america has been doing a lot to provoke and certainly been using very aggressive language towards the north koreans has not been making the situation any more calm and i think that what we need to do instead of militarizing further the korean peninsula that there should be a freeze on all sides a freeze on the north koreans from any further missile testing right now but also

in to current military exercises in the region and further arming of the south koreans because it seems to only be escalating the situation to a dangerously high level sure i mean what you've just said there is essentially a summary of the double freeze proposal isn't it by russia and china but america doesn't want to do that it says it feels insulted by that i suppose that in defense of america they would say look we do feel threatened and we have to do what we feel is necessary to defend ourselves. that's what they'll say but i don't think they realize that defending them this is not the best way to defend their interests and defend themselves that they do not want further aggression from north korea and further development of any interval istic missiles you know that the way to achieve that is by opening talks the the us ambassador to the un just said that the time for diplomacy is over well no diplomacy is actually started between the

white house and the north koreans ever had any talks at all and one has the you know how it can easily have the impression that the white house is seemingly trying to create some type of crisis and get our attention on the korean peninsula so that we're not giving further scrutiny and attention to the problems they have at home which is just a really reckless and dangerous situation so what happens next i mean that's the big question isn't it tell me if you know we have one side proposing one thing the other side to see green and vice versa i mean which way do you think this will go. well i think that the the white house seems to think that there's some easy solution just you know the problem with the world is that it hasn't stood firmly enough to the north koreans if only it did then maybe the regime would change course or even fall with very little thought to the fact that many have reflected on how they'd prefer a different regime in north korea to the one that we have now i think that it's

going to take a real effort from world leaders to talk the trump white house down on this to say look you know no one likes what the north koreans have done everyone is alarmed by some of the recent tests and missiles that they examine things they've been doing everyone's on that side but the way to stop them is not by escalating things further and i dare say that if the u.s. had not been so aggressive claiming that they were going to use fire and fury that the world had not seen against north korea then maybe russia and china would have been more agreeable to some type of u.n. security council measure maybe they could have been more unanimous view on the security council about having a one voice clear action with the north koreans but because america's going so hard and so fast alone down a very dangerous path that i think you know that's what's causing

a real problem in the world level and we and i think world leaders need to really. say to trump that he needs to change his course fast because there's so much at stake. do you think it would be to bring north korea to the negotiating table that because just going on what we see in the media they're not an approachable regime inverted commas it just won't happen. well they're certainly a very difficult regime but it is possible to get some progress with any regime no matter how poor or difficult it's leadership we know that they're it's a resilient regime that when there's been real sanctions against north korean government that hasn't stopped funding of the military at the expense of of its population so we know that it's a resilient place that has stood up to real pressure before however if it was

possible to think about some way of showing the north koreans who see themselves as against the world give them some reason to end their program or at least freeze it for the moment with i don't want to call them sweeteners but give them some reason to do something different other than making everyone else happy that's not going to do it they need to be some imagination how the north koreans can be brought on side it was shown in iran iran has changed a lot is a number of countries that were once seen as beyond the pale that have turned around it's possible to do in north korea but it's going to take his imagination it's going to take leadership and it's also going to take cool heads and those are a series of things that are not present in trump's white house summit where you could take your thoughts on this we have to leave it at that was a tom brooks from a terminal school thank you now if still ahead a u.n. report claims the syrian government used chemical weapons against civilians we'll

have an update that story in detail and a company that's. please . please. please. local blogs show you on the idea that dropping bombs brings police to the chicken hawks forcing you to fight the battle. to stop spreading tell you the lobby gossip

the public works for you. i'm telling you you are pulling out by. the. we. will walk. let's get back to syria where government forces there backed by russia have recaptured a large fortified area held by islamic state in the city of deities or discuss those latest developments we're now joined by a professor side mohammad marandi from the university of tehran. good evening to you good to have you on. earlier we heard from the u.n. special envoy to syria and he was voicing his concerns that potentially this victory. could cement assad's position in power and not lead to any constructive

political change in syria is that a valid concern. well president assad is the legitimate president of syria and early on in the syrian crisis iran along with a number of other countries they supported the coup for a non plan and a core in accordance with that plan there would be free and fair elections with international observers the americans that the turks at that time and others in the persian gulf region they were opposed to that they thought that they could steamroll into damascus now they've behaved gambled and they've lost and unfortunately the representative he is tilted towards the united states as are most senior members and bodies in the united nations the syrian government has more or less won the war i'm not saying the war is over but obviously the balance of power

has toted very much away from the extremists isis al-qaeda all these groups that were supported either directly or indirectly by the united states at one point or another and some are still continue to be supported by western powers these groups these different and diverse extremist groups have lost the war and i think the best thing for the u.n. to do is try to deal with the reality and try to help reconciliation in syria and let the syrian society for themselves what the future holds sure just in terms of the opposition groups they do exist i mean can you just outline what groups there are because it's seems to change rapidly hasn't it over the last few months what sort of a large group small group say with their representatives can you just outline what is there at the moment. well we know that isis itself was al qaeda initially was the stomach state of iraq it created the north front in syria

very early on in the fighting and then not front was supported by western powers by the saudis by the attendees we know isis itself according to the weekly deeks documents according to hillary clinton's e-mail this and al qaeda were both isis was being funded by saudi arabia and qatar in two thousand and fourteen in ed lib right now we have al-qaeda and we have had all of sharm which is also another extremist group which was founded by an associate of osama bin laden in afghanistan in the past so the two major groups in it live are both extremist groups and their affiliations are extremists of course at the moment the upper hand in it lead which is in the north near the turkish border the upper hand is with al qaeda within the front which has a new name now but since it keeps changing its name it's best to stick with the no surprise and in the south the syrian government has really defeated almost all the

major opposition there is isis still on the israeli border along with in the sort of front both are being tolerated by the israelis in fact the front again al-qaeda is being supported by israel they treat their wounded and they support them by striking syrian government positions whenever there is major complex and on the jordanian border border there's a host of different groups but there are many many different groups some of them are. very extreme some of them less so but almost all of them are affiliated to one of these major groups al-qaeda. and so on. the just very briefly because we are the groups affiliated to saudi arabia sure are there any groups there side just very briefly are there any group said there are legitimate opposition. no none of the mill none of the militant groups that are being funded by the west are legitimate they've been funded by the west

for seven years they've been cooperating with saudi arabia with turkey to destroy the country none of them all of them have been fighting side by side with either some point isis or al qaeda or al qaeda affiliates like i had already sharm none of them are have are independent of foreign powers none of them have acted independently of any of these extremist extremist groups a lot of these so-called free syrian army groups are basically just shops they are like supermarkets they get their weapons and then they distribute them to extremist groups so that the united states and other countries can can say that we are not directly in contact with extremists so they are the middlemen they make their money and they spread their weapons to the extremists so in reality without the united states. and it's coordination especially the cia the hundreds of thousands of people who have died in syria would not have died it would have been

a small conflict that would have ended in two thousand and eleven or two thousand and twelve and things interior would have been normal and we wouldn't have millions of refugees both inside and outside the country ok so i share your insight on this that was professor side mohammed marandi from the university of toronto. international and. may be the front runner in the general election moment but she's been met by an angry crowd on the latest stop of her campaign trail rather as the details it is fair to say that this is be a fairly tepid election campaign in germany even by the well relatively low bar set by german elections in the past moments of drama how of common courtesy of those right wing political activists who've been turning up at angela merkel's campaign rallies now these people who are on the whole fundamentally opposed to angela merkel's refugee policy or they've been turning up doing blowing whistles. says

she's traveled around the country the latest in heidelberg in the south of the country well this time there was an added age as to tomatoes were throwing her cool took the stage one of them clipping the german chancellor on the head another one of them though splattering one of the moderators angela merkel in fact offered her a handkerchief to clean herself up during the debate though during the rally she was asked a question about what does she think her best qualities are and she pretty much said cardless under pressure noticeably top making reference to the flying fruit that occurred earlier in fact angela merkel was so unfazed by the tomato incident it's even kept the same jacket on when she appeared a later rally in the city guard now it was expected that this campaign could have been a very close. the round thing between angela merkel at a christian democratic union party and martin schultz and the social democrats if

we go back to march they were almost neck and neck now though i go america leads by around fifteen percent in the polls and it seems almost impossible for the social democrats the call that back and it does seem that angle america will be returned as chancellor but there's still a couple of weeks ahead but when it comes to drama in this campaign we're really picking up crumbs and. national thanks being with us tonight we have more needs and . the city has a hollywood back trail the glamour is attracting more tourists they may well bring in more money than cruise passengers who might buy an ice cream before scooting back to the ship and they're all inclusive accommodation this sort of tourism in particular makes it difficult for cities to develop alternative concepts as and as a village well knows she's researched it this year in other european.