cooper i. feel. syrian army breaks islamic states blockade of a key air base in their azores the operation to force the terrorists out of the city reaches its final phase. russia's new ambassador to the united states makes the american president in washington we look at the challenges the diplomats will face. on germany's foreign minister tells r t the sanctions against russia could be lifted if a truce in eastern ukraine is that thanks. for

joining us my name's neil harvey you're watching r.t. and. the syrian army says that it has broken islamic states blockade of an air base in the city of terrorists all the latest pictures we've been getting from the ground. the syrian army minister break the siege over the military airports here in de desert but let me fantasize something that civilians and syrians all over syria are so had be and they consider it as a moment of triumph on the way to defeat as a leader over this the this soil of the country if you are talking about the military operations state run media reported today that the military operation started by the forces into cemetery in the south was the don't result link with

forces holding the airplane he's both the airports. it's or to mention that this is of course the fairest meeting between these forces within nine months important information i have to mention that this comes only a few days off toward russia back forces managed to break the siege over the it was the initial areas here in there's still. some analysts and observers believe that this is would be and maintaining bones in the war against bolton's goal is to liberate all that is the initial areas that are just futile as it was then szell areas and districts in the hands of the extremists so his goal is to achieve as a ration and to retake this it is then chill areas again. one last thing to please let me say that civilians lot of is going to be much easier from now on and their suffering will and. the syrian army has been advancing and rapidly so in recent

months back in june islamic state controlled around a quarter of the country's you can see three months on around half that territory has now been retaken government forces are now on the verge of fully liberating the city of their resort which is one of the last isis strongholds in syria we heard from a syrian army commander. has your the syrian air force played the main role in locating the terrorist forces known as ice or their identify their ammunition warehouses and listened in to meetings in which the terrorists planned attacks inside and around their resort with the help of russian airpower the syrian air force struck these places ahead of the arrival of syrian government troops this weekend isis ability to attack and to call in reinforcements from raca and palmira syrian forces fought fierce battles the terrorists had planted improvised explosive devices and car bombs all around trying to prevent the army from entering the city in the end the syrian army gained a great deal of momentum and was able to connect there is or with other territories

it has gained. meanwhile a humanitarian convoy has reached the city for the first time since are still three a siege was broken residents there queued up for food water and other vital supplies we spoke to some of the. people in there it's all on the brink of starvation we were desperate for food and water to reach the city that was all we wanted and thank god help is now arrived. almost died from hunger thing god the humanitarian aid arrive we thought we were going to die. we cannot describe how relieved we are people were dying we would like to think the army and be tribute to them for lifting the siege. russia also joined the humanitarian effort sending aid convoys to newly liberated parts of the city in the past three years locals of been depending on air drops middle east analyst and our car told this latest advances could spell the end for islamic state in syria. entire episode

of the syrian army reaching the city of breaking the. isis forces dias forces you know from this base and you know no real resistance is a huge turning point in a sense because suddenly this sort of fearsome enemy you know the battlefield is not able to. you know. in a sense incredible. how do you say. operation the forces that had been separated from the main city about months ago are now liberated they've been through terrible ordeal themselves as well. forces are pretty much those are the three major inside the city are pretty much trapped between the advancing syrian forces river and so liberating the city itself shouldn't really

take much that. is new on bus the to the u.s. has taken office at a time of strained relations between the countries and italy on top of presented his credentials to president trump in the oval office samir khan reports now on the challenges that the new us there will face well a much anticipated meeting between russia's recently appointed ambassador to the u.s. and u.s. president donald trump has taken place and to nobs predecessor was constantly targeted by the western media portrayed in a negative light over a number of allegations given the controversy surrounding the previous diplomat there are now many speculations around the new figure and as with all u.s. russia meetings this one also attracted media attention especially amid rising diplomatic tensions antonov in particular expressed russia's eagerness to normalize relations with washington story russian federation. to improve relations between our two countries to the good relations between the united states and.

international peace and rigorous as well as strategic stability according to the diplomat the meeting took place in a warm and constructive atmosphere commenting on the meeting the ambassador said that moscow is ready to take concrete steps to improve relations with washington and despite the ongoing diplomatic spat between the countries that saw us russia relations sink to one of the lowest points in history and said he believes the situation is mendable provided there is enough will to cast aside political differences and work together now this is all quite a positive shift from the rhetoric we've been hearing from both sides lately and it seems that improve relations between the two countries seems even more promising considering the new russian ambassador was actually a key member of the team that worked on the two thousand and ten new start bilateral nuclear arms reduction agreement. told us that the current tensions are

homing both russia and america. it's really difficult for me to understand why are either side is going down this path i mean you know we could quibble and say you know in terms of our population we have a larger population then you could come back and say well we have larger territory and whatever but i mean this is really you know i have two children and a case that occasionally when they would fight over small problems and or great opportunities you know i would try to teach them a lesson or two i'm not saying and try to regard the united states and russia as children but you know with all the problems we face around the world in particular our joint problem with radical islamic terrorism. an economy that seems to be still that finding its full potential like you go on and on and on with all those problems with with so many shared interests i fail to see the wisdom of going down this path. germany's foreign minister gabrial has moved to the top of the latest approval ratings in the country edging ahead of machall despite

the fact he's expressed his reluctance to become the chancellor and germany goes to the polls in two weeks' time is a look at the country's current favorite. i was close to being arrested in the wrong china turkey and saudi arabia as i visited those countries i like to think i'd be able to refrain from triggering any foreign policy crises of my words.

after becoming the country's foreign minister gabrielle stepped down as leader of the social democrat party although he's still a member of the party is the closest rival to the ruling christian democrats headed by chance that machall in an exclusive interview told us his views on the upcoming elections. targeting russia. the voice of i was very happy when two days ago the russian president vladimir putin oil and publicly announced plans to request a u.n. mission of course is the conditions proposed by russia and not the same as the ones we use ukrainians proposed that i consider it a good first step and what we need to do now is negotiate with the goal of the stablish in a cease fire and pulling back heavy weaponry and now we have an opportunity to do that and if we manage to implement its the troops at least the political process of reconstructing done bass may start then we can start lifting sanctions against

russia and i was criticized yesterday for my position on ukraine but i still believe it's correct. yeah i want people to vote in germany's interests and in their own interests we want this country to prosper and that's possible only within the united europe that those who are turning against europe will weaken our country in the long run but it. wasn't always had i think russia is just as concerned about islamist terrorism as we are and russia like us is concerned about the proliferation of nuclear weapons if north korea continues down this path and other small countries follow we will want the same thing as russia arms control nucular disarmament and measures to ensure peace establish trust and defeat islamist terrorism our countries have plenty of shared interests. rabia has suspended all dialogue with cantle. media were accused of misreporting phone conversations

between the emir of qatar and saudi arabia's defense minister donald trump outage the gulf states the night against iran and expressed his willingness to act as a mediator between r. and riyadh earlier though the us president alleged count out was a sponsor of terrorism. if i can help mediate between creator and in particular the u.a.e. and saudi arabia i would be willing to do so the nation of qatar unfortunately has a storage leap in a funder of terrorism at a very high level. made those remarks back in june when four countries in the region first cut diplomatic and transport links with the gulf nation saudi arabia egypt bahrain and the u.a.e. all accuse cattle of supporting terrorism the us has its largest air base in the middle east didn't count on around eleven thousand american troops stationed there just weeks after the blockade president trump approved

a vast fund to deal with twelve billion dollars tehran university's politics professor side mohammad marandi believes that the u.s. just wants to boost its arms sales in the region trump really is completely discredited outside of the united states behaving in a provocative manner across the globe trump is very unpredictable and therefore it's very difficult to say what he's up to and therefore what the position of the united states will be in the future but obviously one of his objectives is to milk the countries in the persian gulf region their their poor seeing that the kuwaitis to buy more weapons the perrys to buy more weapons the about a nice in the emirates and the saudis are buying more weapons from the united states millions of people being forced to flee their homes in florida as hurricane approaches that story and much more after the break.

it's. as long as you run support still the intel international community say to run this is not acceptable you should stop financing. perspective baseless ballots hamas. doing the place but this is something that i believe israel should see too good we draw. the states and it's not just you know a small israeli problem. was you on the idea that dropping bombs brings to the chicken hawks forcing you to fight the battle. to stop spreading tell you the gossip the public let.

me tell you on the cool enough to buy their products. all the hawks that we all. want. welcome back russia has condemned poland decision to remove a world war two memorial the foreign ministry described it as an outrageous incident and part of an anti russian policy the red army monument stood at the site of a mass grave of soviet soldiers. for it. interest . was all recently barred moscow from an international project to build

a memorial at the former suburb or nazi concentration camp in poland the site operated for a year during the war around a quarter of a million jews from poland france and the soviet union were murdered the camp itself was closed after a large uprising led by a soviet officer and around six hundred prisoners that attempted to escape only a few dozen of them though it lived to tell the tale and poland also has an ongoing dispute with germany's demanding a trillion dollars in war damages and war stories and only knocking on berlin store politicians believe that russia should also be paying reparations the polish deputy minister of justice said russia should be held responsible for what it did to poland that's a reference to the war between the two states the dates back to nine hundred twenty one but that ignores the fact the existence of poland in its current borders was formed as a result of conferences back in one nine hundred forty five where the soviet union

actually banked polish interests we spoke to bruno divest he's professor at the national institute of languages in eastern civilizations he believes that the current generation of politicians have been taught the wrong history. ninety nine eighty nine date destroyed quite a lot of monuments especially the monuments of general conyers in crowd which surely beret some monuments were left and now would be i can say they finished the joke a few hours ago in the building on the street in poland when the think about doubt dating if your event alice but you know dad don't wave media polish media and government is working they don't talk about dural of this soviet army in deliberation of poland the problem is with new generation because the new generation where growed up in schools where they teach history do away i told you about poland would be very little very tightly without. border soviet union

helped fall into house after the second war. now these pictures behind me from florida showing the first signs of the arrival of hurricane officials are warning of a large scale catastrophe that the storm has weakened somewhat it's now category three but it is expected to strengthen once again and it's already been one of the most powerful atlantic ocean hurricanes in recorded history as well as that it's been battering cuba which lies about four hundred kilometers south of miami and it has left there a trail of devastation in its wake. as

the eye of the storm heads for the southern u.s. coast panic stricken citizens have started to flee the state on mass to maine interstate highways were clogged with thousands of vehicles gas stations have been running out of fuel traffic nightmare began on wednesday and it's only gotten worse . the florida governor is those people in his path to leave now the residents who've chosen to stay have been taking precautions to damage including boarding up their windows. donovan. through the morning we see anybody on the street. the buildings here boarded up in sandbags. it's going to be. we. will.

come up with. at the top of the building. a. great. big. construction site. although. not. all of the glory. eight hundred seventy years since the city was founded widespread celebrations have been held with special workshops exhibits and sports events what's known as city day ended with a grand fireworks display right in the very heart of the russian capital.

riot of noise and color litter the night sky over the city with more than thirteen thousand fireworks used to mark moscow's big day entertaining the thousands of revelers he stood out in the city streets to enjoy the spectacle. part of the city day celebrations a new park has also been opened that he adds is the first major new park in moscow for fifty years as part of the mir putin's initiative and it was built on the site of a vast soviet era hotel that was put down in the early two thousand the president visited the new facility. has been long as well to see what's in store. would you believe that i'm in the middle of a typical russian forest well the trees around me will tell you that it is quite possible but actually i'm just two hundred meters away from the domes on red square. and moscow's brand new that i had to park.

in. the history of the place is really complicated for centuries this area was a bustling city water with narrow but busy streets until what is basically the core of moscow's old town was completely demolished in the soviet times building here was a real lot on the city landscape hotel. which was basically a massive box of concrete and steel then finally in two thousand and four they realized the heart of moscow was no place for that kind of architecture and it took the moscow government ten years to come up with the brilliant idea let's just have a park here. so one of the

highlights of that ad which is the size of about thirteen football fields as you walk through the park you'll find yourself in four different washing climate zones you've already seen the siberian forest there also the northern plains cold tundra . it's much warmer southern plains the steps in finally what's known as the wetlands and right now also you'll play starts definitely the favorite spot for most people here it's called the soaring bridge which ironically won't take you to the other side of the river but you'll find yourself at moscow's new selfie central . ok what you see international don't forget you can follow news with the go we're on facebook we're on twitter you can even download the ati.

i'm going to do just that if you're watching our. i'm a trial lawyer i've spent countless hours poring through documents to tell the story about the ugly side of. corporate media everything uses to talk about these car companies i'm going to paint a clear picture about how disturbing council block corporate conduct has been in ma . these are stories that you know in no uncertain terms my pepto new host of american. question. what would you treat it looks like. it would. analyze the bottom. line. like i got.

with. the. limits. welcomed on contact today we discussed the decline of newsprint and its a fax on american journalism with former village voice writers tom robbins and michael musto they're writing now on line good stuff but it's for you know it's for developers it's for politicians it's for people who actually. i have a personal stake in the outcome as opposed to the citizenry but that's a there's a lot of noise nominate the village voice is still going to exist as a website so why can't they carry on the tradition of what the voice of hell did in a month i wish i knew the answer. was chris hedges the village voice which six

decades ago pioneered the concept of an alternative weekly paper announced it would end its print edition although the voice will continue to exist in digital form rather than disappearing as most alternative weekly is around the country have done from the boston phoenix to the philadelphia city paper it is already a shadow of its former self and long ago lost its iconic reporters and columnists norman mailer of the great investigative reporters wayne barrett and tom robbins hentoff the columnist michael musto sydney schanberg and the cartoonist and playwright jules feiffer the paper was fearless and gloriously irreverent its demise long in the making turns off the lights on a whole parts of new york city as is now true in most cities and impoverishes great journalism at a time when we needed most r t correspondent on your power bill looks at the decline of the newspaper industry. one of the last time a you read a physical newspaper if you're like many americans you could count on your

consumption over the past several years according to journalism dot org the height of weekday paper circulation in the united states was in one thousand nine hundred four with the round sixty three point three million it newspapers purchased daily circulation for sunday newspapers peaked around the same time since the mid ninety's newspaper circulation has been on steady decline advertising revenue follows a comparable trend. what happened in the mid ninety's which transformed media the period of the dot com bubble in the united states revolutionized the way americans use the internet by the time it popped in two thousand and one nearly half the population was using the internet by twenty sixteen that number with eighty eight point five percent in two thousand and fifteen americans spent four percent of their time consuming media reading newspapers yet newspapers accounted for its sixteen percent of ad spending in media comparatively americans spent

a quarter of their time consuming media browsing mobile sites while the mobile ad industry only accounts for twelve percent of ad spending and that media is concentrated as the atlantic explains quote the mobile ad market is do up a list with facebook and google earning about half of all revenue as you can see the rise of google's ad revenue directly corresponds with the decline of revenue gained by newspapers the collapse of print advertising has led to the collapse of newsrooms between two thousand and four and two thousand and fifteen the number of employees in american newspapers around the country fell from around sixty five thousand to forty one thousand and the society's dependence on technology and social media only deepens we can expect the trend of disappearing newspapers to continue. thank you anya i'm joined today by former village voice writers michael

musto and tom robins for many years michael wrote la dolce musto one of the most popular columns in the village voice he wrote a weekly column and out magazine among other publications and recently joined new now next tom robbins along with wayne barrett with whom he worked at the voice is one of the finest investigative reporters in the city is now an investigative journalist in residence at cooney journalism school gives a let's talk about the importance of what we call the alternative press and i was mentioning before we went on air tom and i think you agreed that in many ways the alternative weekly public to magazines like ramparts shamed of the traditional press. into doing their job can you talk about that yeah that's exactly right and that's what it felt like doing it often because you would work on these stories that. nobody else was following or thought were news and you had.