the u.s. senate votes overwhelmingly against an amendment which could have ended the wars in iraq and afghanistan. european commission president claims that the e.u. has too many presidents i think only one quote captain should be at the helm of the blog. wrote a rag or a new r.t. documentary tells the story of those fighting to drive islamic state from one of its last syrian strongholds. and in a new development the world anti-doping agency confirms the accuracy of a leaked document that showed ninety five ninety six russian athletes have actually

been cleared of any wrongdoing. leading to you my name is the harvey you're watching r.t. international first this hour we have an update on the report of a school shooting in the u.s. state of washington it's now believed that at least six people have been injured and one of the may have been killed some of the victims have already been taken to the hospital rode in air ambulances were dispatched to freeman high school south of the small city of spokane valley all schools in that area are now being put on preventative lockdown the local media reporting for the suspect is in custody we will bring you more details on that story as they commit. elsewhere the u.s. senate has voted. an amendment which could have ended the wars in iraq and

afghanistan and the movement has the story and sheer the us congress passes the national defense authorization act which supplies funding and authorization to the us military for the following year now in the aftermath of the september eleventh attacks at the national defense authorization act began to start having a section of it added to it was called the authorization for the use of military force this essentially allowed the united states to carry out military force in the fight against terrorism now or twenty u.s. senator rand paul from kentucky who is a noted opponent and critic of intervention by the u.s. military around the world he's been described as an isolationist libertarian and a paleo conservative he put forward an amendment to the national defense authorization act that would remove this section it would remove the authorization of military force which has been present for the last sixteen years as part of the n.d.a. he would have removed it and essentially his removal would have required the u.s.

to start bogging down and restricting its foreign involvement around the world it would have restricted the war on terror and essentially not allowed the united states of the commander in chief the president to continue authorizing and carrying out these military interventions now not surprisingly it was voted down even though there was quite a bit of anticipation in the lead up to the vote as the votes in the u.s. senate went down it was sixty one against thirty six in favor now rand paul has said that he intends to make a bigger deal out of this there's talk of potentially a filibuster he's tweeted out a great deal of frustration saying where is the antiwar left demanding that the war's end where are the constitutional conservatives demanding the right of congress to reclaim the war powers sixteen years this national defense authorization act has included the authorization for the use of military force each year it has been passed. now we're seeing rand paul demanding that it be removed

but he has been voted down and it looks like the national defense authorization act will proceed to go to the house of representatives with out this amendment proposed by rand paul. said to syria now where islamic state grip over the country is rapidly collapsing with no major city any longer under the full control of the terrorist group one of the main battle fronts is their resort that's where the syrian army is now close to pushing eisel completely out of the city locals have already started to return there after a three year siege was broken with the help of russian airpower but some pockets of arsal resistance do remain in certain districts. gas. they told us first don't forget you're in syria you forget all about it second if

you have to go to bed early t.v.'s banned radios banned cell phones are banned a woman can go outside dressed so that the only thing which can be seen is her eyes . and in the south. we saw them breaking into houses then they approached our house they were banging on our doors banging and banging first i didn't open it for them but they smashed it down it got inside and smashed up all the things in the house. i spent seven days in the jail and then i was taken to the chief of the court sentenced me to sixty lashes they may be stand against the wall as a teacher. for the old enough to my next year and i was driving along the main road when

a bomb or not that he's a fragment of the bomb hit my nephew and he died eight years of life we didn't have enough time to save him some people called an ambulance but he couldn't be saying that he died even before he got to the field hospital. laments in the most saddam when we were living under the blockade we had no cucumbers tomatoes apples or potatoes i have all that now thank god we get groceries and food boxes from the red cross we're very grateful to them i'm very happy that the blockade has been lifted. along with civilians a syrian army brigade who was trapped inside there is zero during the siege shit held and defended several blocks of the city including a military airport we managed to speak to the bases chief commander. so. a siege was also imposed on the airport this siege was quite severe since i still

terrorists attacked the airport another military points daily we had an operations room and everyone knew his duty to tanks had their role the soldier had his role the leaders were side by side with the soldiers we fought to the death none of our soldiers ran away and we defeated eisel and their bodies were in the ground even before the siege was broken we received munitions by air drop because all the roadways were under eisel control and using those munitions we fought eisel and won they weren't able to break any of our lines hundreds of them were killed all their attacks against the airport failed even when using car bombs and suicide attacks we faced them down bravely la documentary team has been to the very heart of the battle to rid syria of islamic state to create travel to the scene of fierce clashes to film those who are fighting to banish the terror group from the country .

that are now grounded by u.s. backed syrian democratic forces they consist mainly of kurdish militias and clashes are ongoing as the terrorist the still in control of several blocks of the city we spoke to the documentaries director about what the team of experience when we went to make this film we had no idea what we're going to come across we had literally no idea we started to build our story. three points are on the road to rock and the first point was the medical point the second point was the women's point and the foreign volunteers point. was. the one quality of the unites all of them is the very altruistic they're very idealistic anybody wanted to criticize them and say well they're coming like foreign militias to fight a war that's not theirs and says they know they think it's their war i says acting

every country and it's like people are paying attention for one day two days and acting as if everything will be normal. now that's not what we were attacked several times there was snipers usually so the main problems around iraq are snipers and mines and the drones the little drones that isis sons with little grenades so they drop the grenade and groups boards and there's actually one that attacked us well we were not have been on a permission yet we were about to go to operation. the grenade exploded in midair so it dropped from it didn't calculate the height so if it fell lower it would be done.

the most shocking story was one that happened when it got to be morning and when everything got to be peaceful and all of a sudden someone showed up with a huge sword. and started beating random things i said just executed through a few minutes or maybe an hour ago his three kids all of a sudden maybe two minutes later we heard screaming and he just started running into a space just started running there without a rifle just as if with a sword i think they'd strike from the americans because they probably saw them on satellite so they were isis. was one of the medics that we were filming. we were the only generation that will never see we want to go back to the days when we were young. and it's. more firsthand accounts from one of the key battlegrounds in syria you can watch the full documentary to be

airing here on out international on monday. when a new development the president of the world anti-doping agencies confirm the authenticity of a document that was leaked to the u.s. media the document revealed that was actually cleared ninety five russian athletes for nine different sports who were subject to its drugs probe partridges across the story. this letter was from an internal water report want to be in the world anti doping agency and that is that should be said that going by insufficient evidence that's the key phrase here that ninety five of ninety six russian athletes that have been implicated across nine different sports will have now been cleared so as we know this is something that's been hanging around for wasn't the mclaren report they gave evidence of apparently there are occasions of state sponsored doping and everything then has been carried on from there but we have had some early questioning as all of them occur in report the i.o.c. actually the international olympic committee they'd also raise questions about the

mccarren report the key point that they had used is how to demonstrate that came up time and time again based on those allegations so that there have been rumblings that some of these allegations that some of the athletes implicated we're talking about a lot of athletes i mean if you look at how they affected the paralympics all the russian team couldn't go to the paralympics they were effectively banned and also one hundred eighteen russian plates from the rio games also didn't go so if we look at all those parties the blanket bans how it affected those who are guilty and of course those who are innocent as well have been affected over the past couple of years it's not down to how the process continues going to find these athletes effectively been given the all clear by wada so now it's a case of all the international sporting federations coming together saying that's rubbish start this let's put our cases forward and get the rest of the athletes cleared. this all comes in the wake of three russian cyclist who launched a court case against wider over their bans sociology professor ellis cashmore at the u.k.'s aston university says that the agency is going to hard time defending

itself wider that is that what i do doping agency will want to stifle this it's the very last thing they want is to have to go to court to defend its. defend its decisions i mean they were you mongol slee big decisions there what i needed to gauge is he really wants to get rid of this he wants to try to bury this and make it go away now it really depends on just how prepared they are to dig in their heels they presumably have to most of lawyers behind them and if they ride to the bitter end then it will be a case where mclaren is forced to disclose his evidence and that will be very interesting. the president of the european commission has delivered his state of the union address in strasburg and he started by thanking just twenty seven of the twenty eight members of the e.u. despite the fact the u.k. will continue to be part of the block for another one and a half years for britain instead of thanks he had

a warning. on march twenty ninth twenty nineteen the united kingdom will leave you will be a sad and tragic moment we will always regret this and you will regret it quite suit. at the end of that address everybody got up and applauded all except for a group of british army base among them the hard core regs it is nigel farage wasn't just the ukip members though that gave him a frosty welcome. at all but the european union is not europe and europe is not the european union. wants to force the european union to become a single state yet we know that the euro is not a success story we have extraordinary levels of unemployment and social instability . the commission chief apparently didn't take this attack on his vision of europe too well as the euro skeptic i rang him got up and left the room also during the

address income made the surprising statement that he'd like to see the positions of the president of the european commission which he currently holds and the president to do. it one. see. the future it would make the european landscape clearer and more understandable if the european ship was steered by one and the same captain at the helm. what do you think of that idea was a man having so much power in the e.u. is that a good idea or not we are three separate the institutions of an institutional balance which is very important and i don't agree with the idea of mr young go to have only one president this means that we are going to have a unit that is state i believe that the european union should continue as a union of states and not state. the euro is destined to be the currency if the entire european union. so there's no

alternative to the euro do you think those countries who haven't signed up for it will appreciate this being forced upon them or not in terms of for the economy. working of the euro which actually has helped. more or less only the german economy which has absorbed a lot of money but the countries of the south are suffering they have a trade deficit this means that the euro zone area and the arrangements have been working more for the strong countries that used to say mainly one year the netherlands and france and less for the countries of the south. has not addressed the main issues that are on the table for the moment. and thing in the e.u. the german chancellor angela merkel has criticised hungary over its position on migrant quotas calling it unacceptable when the european court of justice rejected

a complaint filed by budapest over the e.u. refugee quota system something the hundred long been opposed to the country's government called the decision political and vowed to continue the fight. now with political commentator adrian gallant joins me on the line very good evening to you adrian we heard it there you go americal criticizing hungry saying their stance is unacceptable and she's not the first politician to do so is it right for people to be applying this pressure on hunger and. i think the difficulty that there is cross your is that you have the visit route states in the eastern part of the european union that house up with pressure coming from kosovo from the balkans as well as pressure coming from the thirty six thousand refugees that are still camped in greece and italy and then you have the little states in the center and the the west of europe you see denmark going to be the scandinavian states

germany france and they want to see this issue second of course they are pretty precious. and it's not just hungry it's the czech republic it's mania and after truth and justice reelection potent it's also poland and they're putting pressure on these eastern frontier states to as they see it step up to the plate and do that bash our of accommodate seeing these migrants that are coming in from greece and italy but i think that what they're seeking to do is to impose a central european union policy. and they feel that the european court of justice has a right to decide with this issue is proportional and the judgment is very clear that the e.c. jay has decided that this is a proportional policy under there should be imposed on the clyde uniformly across the the european union whereas the states in the east are saying but hang on you're not. taking into account the fact that we've got so much pressure coming up from the balkans as well so we're getting a double whammy and i think that this goes to the very opposite of the struggle

that there is within europe which is not just about eastern europe and western europe it's about conservatives. on the eastern front it's nationalist conservative less liberal in the states remaining hungry in czech republic with the more liberal central european states you want to see a more liberal more european policy and it was very interesting to hear dimitri is not listening as the greek minister for migration where he said imposing this policy will bring about unity and solidarity and i think that tells you everything you need to know about the way the commission approached this issue which is a belief that unity and solidarity can be imposed by the. whereas in the eastern states they say and in the second we're not so sure about this we generally speaking will skeptical about unity and solidarity and not taking into account the very unique pressures we have an that is a microcosm of the problem that the european union faces will obviously hunger in

officials weren't happy about the court really we can hear now what that foreign minister had to say. it was not a legal expert but a political decision politics has raped european law and european values. so strong words that raping can hear a pin lauren value do you understand the hunger in position that can it be justified well what's interesting actually is more is to listen to the view of. the uncaring foreign minister who is himself a constitutional lawyer a professor academic diplomats and a specialist in not just hunger and but also in european culture and he said that it's appalling an irresponsible decision simply because he does not take into account the very unique pressures that the basic rock countries and for a mania are facing and i think that ultimately i think what's happening here is reading what's going on below the surface i think very clearly hungry use is

holding its hand out and some money i think the hungriest has already put a claim in for several million euro to fund the border guards and the new border fence that going along its eastern border and i suspect that what this is actually is is this is this is a powerful policy is out the door has gone the saints he's caught by the you know we're going to stand up for and gary in values we're going to oppose in with migration from the balkans and three hundred percent from refugees we don't want to see our culture diluted we don't want to see our economic prosperity weakens and so what we're going to is going to stand up for hungry and that's very much the. that the rhetoric that the organs sort of conservative and nationalist governments it has been elected upon and at the same time what they're saying the european union its course and that you need to give us some money and i think that if the european

union opens its checkbook and write some money writes a big fat check for hungry i think this becomes less of a problem ok will the president of the european commission has weighed in on this let's hear what he had to say. just ducky. in the european union the rule of law is not optional it's a juicy fish. so it. doesn't mean he won't open his checkbook but they saying that hungary really has to toe the line here do you think that they will go down the route of applying pressure or will they just pay off the hungarian oh well i think it will be a bit of both i think that you know that europe is a fudge europe does piece by deals behind closed doors and by bringing together compromises that last not necessarily a bad thing might not be the most transparent way of doing politics dicks but it seems to work largely because europe is so diverse and there are twenty eight to twenty seven member states each have their own constituencies that they need to

appeal to because you chris correct there is room for all of course the european union that the. highest appellate court of the european union this is the point that merkel is making that you know we have a effectively a constitutional court of constitution is in effect a constitution and the rule of law must be applied uniformly across all member states but of course that doesn't mean to say that there can't be deals done behind the back door where a country says right you know if you want us to toe the line on this and you wish to impose solidarity and you're already in our country you don't have to pay for it i guess this is political commentator adrian yellin a doing good to speak to many thanks thank you. now the german general election less than two weeks away the west the media's been busy trying to track down russian hackers who as they assume should have already started meddling in the european powerhouses vote. and washington post article one security expert

is quoted as saying that it just doesn't feel right the russians have been struck get report and the reason could be that germany has nailed the art of cyber security but it also states no evidence of any attempted meddling has actually been detected. takes a closer look. if you haven't been in a coma for the past year you've likely heard a thing or two about alleged russian interference and america's recent presidential election the cia has concluded russian hackers intervened in the u.s. election with the purpose of helping donald trump when packing and leaking that the administration says the russians carried out connect the dots russia did it and while those claims were never backed up by any solid evidence just a lot of speculation and hearty assurances that hasn't stopped the world from pointing the finger at moscow and also predicting that the big bad kremlin would do the same again in europe the russian hacker scene is huge german security agencies and cyber experts are alarmed own evidence points to russia that's why we cannot

rule it out why we are preparing for a similar efforts to influence germany's election many warned that the upcoming german elections would be a prime target for those pesky russian hackers so security was bumped up and investigations were launched but even a year long search by german intelligence for potential russian interference failed to uncover any evidence of kremlin backed meddling or not though that hasn't stopped anyone from seeing russia as democracies enemy number one a recent article by the washington post examines what sinister implications there could be behind the fact that we have yet to see moscow's hand trying to steer berlin's vote it's just not an election anymore without russian hackers with one think tank director saying the silence worries him quote it doesn't feel right the article edges that the lack of evidence doesn't necessarily mean moscow is innocent perhaps they just haven't been successful or moscow is simply biding its time and it goes on to say that russia's attack me only be seen after the election speculating that russian linked networks may try to manipulate the vote count so remain alert the washington post even quotes

a german security association that works closely with german teligent agencies who came up empty when looking for sophisticated attacks coming from russia we did not find any evidence that there are more sophisticated attacks coming from russia in the pre-election period. but that lack is credited to germany's resilience in stringent new legislation against the spreading of fake news legislation that doesn't come into effect until october but you know whatever the article also concedes that perhaps moscow decided to leave berlin alone because they're close trade partners something that putin himself has said in the past. is that we did not interfere in the u.s. elections so why would we create any problems here we have good relations with germany it's our largest trade and economic partner in europe but he is russian after all think when it's really only become fact when western powers make them so the clear message for russia is you're damned if you do hack and you're damned if you don't meanwhile according to a poll three of the smaller parties vying for third place in the upcoming election

shot up in support over the last week the free democratic party who now has a nine percent share the linker known as the left party has ten percent with alternative in germany just a fraction ahead of them we spoke to an m.b.a. from dealing. to get his thoughts on german foreign policy. since. the tension with russia began to escalate at the end of two thousand and thirteen early two thousand and fourteen with my dad the coup of february two thousand and fourteen that it was crimea joining russia and at the same time the war in syria with the presence of both western and russian troops germany also has a military presence in syria with recon aircraft a tanker and a frigate and that contradicts international law because the syrian government didn't give permission we are also present in ukraine the west is playing referee

at the cost of the ukrainian people warning that russia must be penalized with the west e.u. and nato member states like germany the u.k. and the usa are deeply involved in this conflict just as much as the warring factions. and you know this since two thousand and eight we've been seeing the end of the unit polar world order where the west can enforce its own agenda that we're switching now to a multi-polar world order and it is difficult to accept to coordinate foreign and security policy with other powers like china russia or the brics countries and respect their interests in the last twenty five years we got used to doing what we want and not caring about international law and now we're in the situation where this does not work anymore it didn't work in ukraine or georgia in two thousand and eight in syria the west did not succeed with violently changing assad's regime on the contrary we are most likely the losers there. it's

just so and twenty sixteen no washington university study revealed that most refugees coming to europe originated from countries that were bombed the second group is economic refugees when the west destroys other economies which are not competitive so we didn't demand free trade and say we want to sell our goods there and if the economy turns to ruins we don't care about it because these are the states in africa in asia in latin america and we shouldn't be surprised when people pack their bags and want to come to germany because they want to normal life it's understandable. russian government has confirmed a much circulated report by buzz feed saying that moscow proposed the full normalization of ties with washington when chum's team first took office let's get the two thousand hours from miguel francis santiago.