remember the golden gate in our theory world. war old and very old yes we do but remember. where. we're. coming up on artsy rockets fired in afghanistan as defense secretary james mattis arrives for a visit to the taleban claims it was targeting madison's plain. and blood in the water supply is becoming depleted in puerto rico we'll have the latest on how residents are coping. then is the salmon a healthy part of a diet or unsafe to eat scientists explains later in the show. it's wednesday september twenty seventh five pm in washington d.c.

i'm natasha sweet and you're watching r.t. america we begin this hour in afghanistan where a broad taliban mortars landed near kabul airport today hitting a family's home the fire targeted defense secretary james madison's plane touching down for an official visit according to a taliban spokesperson a doctor at one of couple's hospitals said he received four injured people from the attack including two children a u.s. gunship responded to the incident killing the three attackers along with a specified number of civilians because quote the missiles malfunctioned maddest landed with nato security secretary janet still to tour the country where america's longest war is still ongoing the two pledged continued support to afghan forces combat in what they called terrorism as nato secretary general stoltenberg said last week at the united nations this is about making sure that afghanistan doesn't want to get to become a safe haven. for international terrorists and the best way of doing that is to

enable the afghans to have defense security forces which are strong enough to do just that those who are pledged an annual billion dollars a year from nato until at least twenty twenty two afghan military efforts and earlier i spoke with former pentagon official michael maloof and asked for his reaction to the attack there are a number of issues here that seem to be emerging number one the fact the taliban was able to get in so close there was some issue whether isis was involved but secretary madison self said it was to it was television and they generally will target the military sites as opposed to i says which does more civilian although the airport was also used by civilians but they were certainly targeting his his his aircraft or another aircraft the other issue here is in response they did air attacks on

a predominately civilian area. and according to the latest breaking news some civilians were accidentally killed or or injured it's no accident i mean you don't do air air assaults on a highly populated residential area now they did apparently uncover the house where the mortars support stored and apparently fired from you can pinpoint if you have the right acoustical quit where that shot was coming and you had something like over twenty mortars rocket propelled grenades going off so. if and when you have the afghan forces going in they're going to go in with a big sweep and. they're going to try and make a show of. determination and but the fact that they even could get in is quite remarkable very telling and what's your reaction to the taliban spokesperson saying. they are responsible for this in

a tweet i mean do they just simply not care i mean what's the goal what do they get of it just more terror well they're showing they're showing that they. can get into kabul that they can launch attacks whenever not withstanding what security is being provided right now. taliban today controls approximately forty five percent of all the districts in in afghanistan as opposed to what we at the end of two thousand and one when we basically had a moan the run so their base they're coming back they're coming back with a vengeance and then this address is really the greater policy. that. mr secretary medicines over there to tout that is were we're going to be doing more training and assisting were we're loosening the rules of engagement but it didn't matter it doesn't matter how many troops today the taliban occupies more of afghanistan then when we nish really sent them running in two thousand and one so

this is going to be a far more monumental challenge if you will. and not going to do it with just the eight to ten thousand troops additional troops it's going to be sending in over time very disheartening to hear that that we haven't really made progress in that respect as you know this has been one of the longest running war some sixteen years now so what's your take on that nato supports until two thousand and twenty and then more troops as we said. assisting the afghan forces i will see what kind of support they get i know at one point the germans said they've had enough that they have never been engaged in a. they or nato forces for that matter never been engaged outside of the nato area and afghanistan has been a long tedious war for them their support has been they've had some troops and much more safe areas. in the past but that seems to be a decline. i mean because of the rise of isis and taliban converging in some areas

now so it's i think the nato commander is the nato leader is now thinking this over and he's come probably meet with resistance from some of the nato countries they may provide equipment etc but in terms of troops and certainly not at the level we have have committed so once again it becomes an american war and do you think afghan units really need the assistance of the u.s. and i was going to ask you about making progress but certainly if it feels like we have made months well they they need they need they need they need to continue to have that kind of support and that kind of training because once it once we receive from it they turn in they don't have that leadership they need leadership and the question is not only the training on how to use the equipment and tactics but also leadership i tend to doubt that there's been much training in leadership and even

even when general petraeus was over there it was having difficulties after so many years of not only a combat system in a combat role but also in training assist so it's still a challenge to today as it was then and i think it's going to be more so because because of the encroachments now of taliban into. how they can just in civilian areas along with isis and that's that's the that's their strategy they they they don't care any longer how long we stay they've they've taken over half the country already and with the help of isis and hitting those civilians hitting more civilian targets it's going to create more chaos and anything and the government there is still a question of whether the government can really. stay strong and hang in there alternately as secretary mehta said the solution to ghana stand is going to be negotiated do you get. you get it you got to get the other countries in the region

russia china iran and even pakistan you know although the afghan taliban is a creature of to pakistan so the question is what role will they have a commie a commie network is still coming in from pakistan and hitting the us targets they've always done that or we have to leave it there unfortunately great insight especially with the leadership roles that we possibly need to look at they have so much that's former pentagon official michael mullen. today the senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs next to this chaos ongoing efforts to counter threats to stability in the united states and quoted among the topics discussed was the threat posed by domestic and international terrorist organizations and once perpetrated by white supremacists and neo nazis at the charlottesville rally was tragic vile and evil it stunned many of us who thought the chance of blood and soil belonged in a film footage from

a nuremberg rally senator claire mccaskill referred to in data from a government accountability office report to highlight the threat posed by terrorism i don't think many americans understand the level of threat that we have in this country from white supremacists anti-government and other violent extremists we've had sixty two incidents since nine eleven and one hundred six fatalities by the white supremacist and i government and other violent extremists compare that to twenty three acts of violence by islamic violent extremists. the fatalities are almost equal according to the senator this comes at the same time counterterrorism programs nationwide are facing budget cuts for twenty eighteen. while the war of words continues to escalate between the u.s. and north korea president donald trump has now said the u.s. is fully prepared to explore military options against pyongyang if washington feels

it's needed at the same time a state department spokesperson has described the u.s. president as being in effect a communicator on the korean crisis artie's came up and has the story we are totally prepared for the second option not a preferred option but if we take that option it will be devastating i can tell you that devastating for north korea that's called the military option if we have to take it we will the president certainly. is a very effective communicator and the president speaks very clearly in terms of his position coming out of the white house well apparently donald trump is an effective communicator he doesn't want to attack north korea while at the same time he does he has been threatening north korea with military options for quite a while and we've heard kim jong on in the leaders of north korea responding when there was the recent statement saying little rocket man won't stay much longer

we've seen angry responses from north korea heather nauert was asked at the state department about whether she thought it was helpful for donald trump to speak this way on social media feel that the tweets of name calling and the statements made over twitter on north korea you feel like that is effective communication i think the pick the president is an effective communicator i think people know exactly where he stands we have had a good deal of success in pushing forward with our diplomacy campaign that hasn't changed that certainly hasn't changed in the president has helped rally the world together rally the world together in the peaceful pressure campaign. against john regime so apparently she considers threatening a country that has nuclear capabilities with destruction to be a great diplomatic success and this doesn't sit well with pyongyang they fired back with their own responses we've been having this war mongering rhetoric back and

forth between the leaders of north korea and the leaders of the united states for months now the escalation of terms has increased the question is when will this rhetoric transform into something more serious hospitals in puerto rico are facing a dangerous power outages as widespread shortages of food fuel and water on the island or portably growing worse well it's been one week since hurricane maria slammed into the u.s. territory where the three point four million american citizens on the island remain without electricity and access to communication at least ten deaths have been confirmed as officials warn that number may grow and for more we go live now to our children important in miami so marina the widespread loss of power in dangerous conditions in puerto rico have crippled emergency medical care on the island how many hospitals are functioning at the moment. well according to fema fifty eight out of puerto rico's sixty nine hospitals are without electricity or fuel for

generators now a minimum amount of hospitals currently functioning on the island maybe around eleven officials say they are at full capacity and face frequent power outages and one case desperate tweets have been sent by a physician from the stand george children's hospital in san juan warning that people will die if more assistance is not received at another hospital in san juan two people reportedly lost their lives in an intensive care unit after ran out of diesel for the backup generator officials say distributing the food water fuel and medicine ship to puerto rico is proving to be challenging with debris and downed power lines still blocking streets puerto rico's governor says they're also lacking enough drivers to transport the goods senator marco rubio visited puerto rico says challenges on the island are extraordinary some of the areas outside of san juan where there's still no communication and no powers logic tells you there's probably some very critical medical needs that are met in those areas and assuming we can

even identify them how do you deliver medicines and lifesaving supplies across roads that might still not be navigable and so the challenges are extraordinary and it will take a much more aggressive federal reaction than we would traditionally see in order to kind of turn the corner on some of this. hurricane maria was the most devastating and powerful storm to hit puerto rico in more than eighty years and estimated forty four percent of residents on the island still don't have clean drinking water and many are standing in line for up to twelve hours for fuel and as we reported yesterday the department of homeland security has refused to waive shipping restrictions under the jones act to help it gasoline and other supplies to puerto rico basically so senator john mccain is calling on the d.a. gesture rethink its decision citing texas and florida as examples can you tell us about any updates on this absolutely now let's give our viewers some background the jones act perhaps its foreign flag vessels from picking up and delivering fuel and

goods between u.s. ports so this means all shipping to puerto rico is limited to u.s. flagged vessels as a result the people of puerto rico are often forced to pay at least twice as much for food clean drinking water supplies etc in a letter to d.h. us arizona senator john mccain called the department's decision unacceptable citing the agency's willingness to waive the jones act for relief efforts in texas and florida following hurricanes harvey and irma senator mccain urged us to rethink its decision warning that puerto rico faces a humanitarian crisis as the island's three and a half million people struggle to survive without electricity or clean water officials estimate the island could be without power for up to six months now following the outcry over the rejection to waive the jones act for puerto rico president jumps said that the white house is considering issuing a waiver for the island but the u.s.

leader noted that the shipping industry has voiced its opposition because of course it hurts their business interests interests and and so president says that his it ministration is doing a very good job in eighty in puerto rico insisting that recovery efforts on the u.s. territory are more challenging to organize of course because puerto rico. is on an island so what's the general sense of what people are saying on the streets of puerto rico about the president's response while puerto rico's governor ricardo over say as he is confident that the president and his administration will help the island in puerto rico is should be grateful for the federal response so far however many residents in puerto rico feel president trump who has yet to visit the u.s. territory has failed to evaluate the real level of damage to the u.s. president visited texas and florida just a few days after the states were hit by hurricanes but mr trump won't be until to puerto rico until next tuesday take

a listen to what residents there have to say. if you could show his power in puerto rico things would be different very different many people don't trust him. all he knows to do is make money just money for the united states but it doesn't think about talking to people to see what is better to communicate with the locals to see what we need all the things about is sending money without money you know they haven't evaluated the real level of the damage they're doing what they can however they can but since there is no communication people don't know what to do or how to do it the shelters have collapsed they heard from the federal. obviously you hear their frustration and anger among many puerto ricans as the island faces a very long road of recovery and rebuilding when important i am reporting in miami thank you. thank you for hurricanes harvey in our math six u.s.

nuclear plants with severe damage around the world at least four hundred thirty reactors remain vulnerable to natural disasters including ninety nine reactors right here in the united states joining me for more on this is a journalist harvey wasserman who is hiring and their vocal grassroots movement against atomic reactors and he's the author of a solar topia our green powered earth in the twenty thirty. if you could start me off harvey please explain how nuclear reactors are vulnerable to flooding and hurricanes all these great power plants actually need to off site or additional power in case they are shut down as they were during this period of the hurricanes six reactors two in texas four in florida had to go down and many cases the power that keeps the reactor cores cool and they keep the spent fuel pool cool those those power sources were threatened that's what happened to suki sima when the

earthquake was felt by the tsunami they lost the supplemental power that was needed to keep the reactor cores cool and to keep the spent fuel pools cool as it was what we had three meltdowns and four explosions and so the six reactors that were threatened by these hurricanes were also in similar danger i say and how does losing electricity create additional risk and what have of danger does that pose. well the catastrophic danger because week with the we had four major radiation releases from four separate reactors american made reactors by the way air america designed at fukushima and south texas. turkey point and port st lucie all those pairs of reactors important texas were in deep danger we had similar problems during andrew hurricane andrew in one thousand nine hundred two at turkey point these reactors need to be shut you also have to understand that federal law

requires a workable evacuation plan for a nuclear power plant to continue to operate and i'm going to say there's no way to evacuate in the middle of a hurricane if god forbid a major disaster hits a nuclear power plant so this was once again true that the nuclear power really these reactors need to be shut down as soon as possible and in the worst case scenarios that we have some kind of accident during a strong earthquake and for the nuclear reactor meltdown crisp people evacuated safely absolutely not even without or without a hurricane to get evacuate people these reactors are now in heavily populated areas and there's just no hope of getting people out in case of a major disaster whether this storm or not but the storm really complicates matters and it's an absolute impossibility to get people out in the middle of a storm of these storms really do threaten these reactors as i say if you lose

offsite power if you lose backup power if you if you lose other major components communication during hurricane andrew communication between the outside world and the control room was watched for three hours this is a really serious situation and that we can't tolerate the after number also the hurricanes tend to spawn tornadoes and tornadoes do tremendous damage to all the ancillary buildings. around the nuclear plant during andrew there was a one hundred million dollar several metal buildings are just completely blown away and you can't have that and operate a nuclear reactor safely so these reactors to be shot right and right now i'd probably go with possibly facing monsters out power with people even dying and hospitals locking electricity so what would help them can you suggest a safer alternative to nuclear power we want to see puerto rico go completely to the micro grad's and decentralized our entire of our grid in puerto rico has been

knocked out there's no power there won't be power if you can imagine for four to six months now we have a caters micro-grid based on renewable sources where solar panels and wind power in the wind with machines have done very well by the way it would have to send elsewhere during the hurricanes and so we want to seize of puerto rico to rebuild solar panels everywhere and small scale neighborhood based grids so that they don't lose the grid again i guarantee you if they rebuild the grid in a centralized fashion in puerto rico it's going to get destroyed again you have fifty eight hospitals in puerto rico they have no power you can have that every one of these buildings should have solar panels on them or use a battery and it can be kept safe from the storms those to all those hospitals would be operating now if they had decentralized solar micro-grid in puerto rico that's how we want puerto rico to rebuild interesting. thank you so much karen

turner west an author harvey wasserman we appreciate your time. thank you very much days before a final report is this spec expected to be released from president on the trams opioid commission officials met to discuss the next steps in combat in the largest cause of overdose deaths in the united states well governor of new jersey chris christie chair of the commission among those attending the meeting where government nonprofits and business organizations and testimony was given by representatives from prominent part pharmaceutical companies according to the latest data from the centers for disease control and prevention more than thirty three thousand people die from opioid overdoses and twenty fifteen. while this week intelligence and law enforcement officials across government lobbied congress to allow them to conduct broad surveillance on foreign targets for years to come the code in question is called section seven o two and it can be found in the foreign intelligence surveillance act in moments

is from two thousand and eight and is set to expire at the end of this year and for to continue congress would have to reauthorize the program jump ministration is hoping to make it permanent cmon i was ario has more on the battle between security and privacy on capitol hill monday intelligence officials confirmed to congress they spied on one hundred six thousand foreign targets in two thousand and sixteen and they did so using a warrantless surveillance law known as section seven zero two under the u.s. foreign intelligence surveillance act it allows the u.s. government to spy on internet and telephone communications of foreigners outside the u.s. without a warrant for the sake of national security but some are worried the broad surveillance powers mean u.s. citizens are also swept up in the data collection if they happen to communicate with these foreigners and are calling for more limits to the legislation the law is set to sunset at the end of the year if congress doesn't act attorney general jeff sessions and intelligence director dan coats said reauthorizing this critical of

forty is the top legislative priority. of the department of justice and the intelligence community goes on to say information collected under section seven zero two produces significant foreign intelligence that is vital to protect the nation against international terrorism and other threats well on the hill intelligence officials touted a few success stories related to the surveillance among them helping stop a u.s. manufacturer from unwittingly selling two hundred thousand dollars in goods to a weapons proliferation network tipping off turkish authorities to the whereabouts of a man suspected of conducting its stumbles new year's night club attack that killed thirty nine people and gaining information about foreign cyber tactics that could stop a future cyber attack against the u.s. and while the intelligence community would like to make these powers permanent as i mentioned some legislators and privacy advocates have major concerns chief among them how americans are impacted by foreign sweeps democratic organ senator ron

wyden had been searching for this answer first six years and he's not satisfied with director codes testifying this summer that it's infeasible to come up with an exact number of americans whose communications could be incidentally collected under the statute in a letter to coats last month wide and made clear he things the impact of section seven zero two on persons inside the u.s. constitutes a relevant metric and his conclusion that an estimate isn't feasible needs to be revisited he went on to say that while the intelligence community can and should explain the limitations of its estimate it's the responsibility of congress to determine what information is and is not relevant to its deliberations on the reauthorization of section seven zero two so while the intelligence community would like to see the program reauthorized without any changes why then and republican senator rand paul are already drafting a bill to address their privacy concerns in washington simo dollars r e o r t. and

to discuss section seven and two more let's bring in our panel steve malzberg political commentator and radio t.v. host and tom divine legal director of the government accountability project thanks so much for joining me gentlemen so the two thousand eight hundred two surveillance act allows the n.s.a. to legally monitor e-mails and phone calls of foreign nationals outside the u.s. now the statute as you heard is set to expire in december if it's not reauthorized by congress and it's obviously a very controversial issue expression when we focus on privacy says steve i'll start with you tell me whether or not one you think it should be reauthorized and two if it's an infringement of the fourth amendment. well yes it should be reauthorized i mean just listen to the previous report and what is it about the previous report that people don't understand it's a very important tool that's been used to thwart attacks to gain information and in this culture in this climate in which we live it's getting worse and worse and

worse we need that tool the intelligence agency needs that tool and the fact that american citizens of a very small i know there was a debate in that report over the number they say it's about five thousand total americans which is statistically insignificant maybe not today but in the overall picture of keeping us safe you know if you're if you're communicating with a foreign national from the united states to a foreign national who is under surveillance for some reason because they might be caught up in some no good you know what i want our n.s.a. to know about that american who's talking to those people i really do and what's response to that tom do you see this as an infringement of the fourth amendment. i don't think there's much question that section seven until is going to be through is the question is whether it's going to be accountability when section seven zero two is illegally to threaten the freedoms that it's. neck to protect that's what's

happened in the past with. mass blanket illegal domestic surveillance of american citizens threatening some of our most fundamental criteria for liberty in the whistleblowers who challenge that working entirely through the system not making any classified leaks were prosecuted under the espionage it is traitors for defending our constitution against government actions that threatened it and until two thousand and twelve was submerged who did that had free speech rights against retaliation that december congress at the insistence of the house intelligence committee removed all those free speech rights in that was a factor in for people like mr snowden who is watching it in had the choice between keeping his mouth shut or being a martyr or speaking not through the media until we restore credible whistleblower

protections for intelligence community contractors like mr snowden we're going to be forcing people to go to the media leaking the government's own illegality and you know i don't always hear about all the incidents that said no to prevented but it certainly hasn't stopped terrorism from happening i mean just takes time for and you know for instance but steve do you think the intelligence community is taking full advantage of having access to e-mails when there's things like what's that a not encrypted way were terrorists are communicating nowadays i think it's i don't think it's i think that's a false choice i don't think it's either or i think the intelligence community is making use of everything that they can and this is just another tool and if we want to talk about whistleblower protections which i will get to in a second response i mean edward snowden is a traitor but that aside for now you know i wish people would more concerned with the unmasking of american citizens involved with the trump campaign or surrounding the trump campaign by the obama administration on their way out the door why aren't

we concerned about that instead of american citizens who. are communicating with foreign nationals who for some reason are being surveilled because they're suspicious in the minds of our intelligence community i would think that the you know a.c.l. use of the world in the civil rights people of the world or of the country would be more concerned with american citizens who were at mass by their own white house as that administration was leaving now as far as edward snowden edward snowden chose to he didn't even just blow the whistle on oh look what the n.s.a. is doing to american citizens he revealed information about our whole spy network to the media to what to a foreign government i mean edward snowden's a traitor through and through now tom this whole entire argument about privacy was brought in a way in the spotlight through n.s.a. whistleblower is like edward snowden so what are your thoughts when it comes to protecting whistleblowers or shouldn't we. but it's very difficult to call someone a traitor who is exercise of free speech led to over one passage of the usa freedom

yet that's not exactly a traitor to me in the whistleblowers who worked entirely through the system without any classified disclosures like tom drake can bill benny they were treated like they were traitors because they were challenging abuses of power the question isn't whether or not we're going to be fighting terrorists the question is whether we're going to have accountability to the rule of law into basic basic american freedoms when we fight terrorists in congress has a chance to do that right now to lock in in for a summit of the usa freedom in so to be worth the paper it's written on and lastly steve you're kind of comparing this to the whole matter for investigation that we should be more focused on something like that as citizens are our privacy being violated in that regard. yeah i'm sorry did not necessarily metaphor it but just these you know that any of the people that talk about the investigation into

metaphors per se i'm talking about. the unmasking that susan rice reportedly requested tons of unmasking samantha power u.n. ambassador on her way out requested tons of unmasking i mean this was done in my view to gain information at that point for a future by the outgoing administration on those surrounding donald trump and i think that that should be and also the i.r.s. abuse of conservative groups under barack obama lois lerner's never been prosecuted she's not going to be prosecuted i think that's a huge civil rights issue but you know the left doesn't seem to care about that when it affects conservatives and the last words tom. stand hasn't denied the need for accountability when section seven until it's used to violate the law and glad that he hasn't denied the the number of protection for people who rightfully challenge those violations and i hope the folks in congress. will decide that this is something that our country needs to protect our freedom we will have to leave it there gentlemen thank you so much steve malzberg pinnacle commentator and radio

t.v. host and tom devine legal director of the government accountability project thank you so much thank you and coming up on our kurds in iraq overwhelmingly vote yes to independence but now iraq's parliament is sending troops to the kurdish region the story coming up after a short break. there's a real irony going. away from the point where it's always well that's what it's always been something else to. hold still surveillance you feel you have already well as soon. as you use the social you don't like always on the story because it's garbage in real. thing. you should. put themselves on the line

they did accept the reject. so when you want to use us to ensure. you some want to . achieve the right to be close this is what the three of the more people. interested in the way. they should. i think the average viewer just after watching a couple of segments understands that we're telling stories that our critics can't tell and you know why because their advertisers won't let them. in order to create change you have to be honest you have to tell the truth party's able to do that every story is built on going after the back story to what's really happening out there to the american public what's happening when a corporation makes

a pharmaceutical chills people when a company in the environmental business ends up polluting a river that causes cancer and other illnesses they put all the health risk all the dangers out to the american public those are stories that we tell every week and you know what they're working. fifteen to refugees are guaranteed a home here in the u.s. but whether they receive a warm welcome or not is up in the air president barack obama brokered a deal with the australian prime minister back in november it's taken some thirteen hundred refugees held on australian islands at that country's expense now fifty two of those refugees are in transit to the states where they'll settle into los angeles president trump however is less than thrilled than his predecessor calling

the deal quote dumb. and the european union says it plans to resettle fifty thousand asylum seekers from north africa and the middle east european commission has set aside by a hundred million euros to fund the resettlement here is truly dubinsky who has been following this development we know that the european commission has outlined that it set aside five hundred million euros for this new resettlement plan for asylum seekers and it comes as the current two year plan comes to a close on wednesday now this new plan will be regimented in take place over the next few years and it will look to extend that to asylum seekers from the horn of africa and in the middle east now what we do know is that this two year plan that's just come to a close here on wednesday has not been a success at all and if we look at the figures you can see how poorly that's been implemented from resettling people from countries that have applied for asylum in places like greece and in italy and you look at those figures less than

a fifth of the hundred and sixty thousand people that were supposed to be helped under the previous plan would only a fifth of them helped now some countries completely failed to set out and for phil their quotas including countries like germany world other countries in the european union point blank refused to take in a single asylum seeker including countries like hungry and poland which actually mounted legal fight. legation now this new plan will see that eight thousand refugees or silent seekers from the previous plan and also be included in that but it has been and the visible failure and that's the description by many charities and organizations all the european union's plan including international two years after the scheme was a greet most e.u. member states have fundamentally failed refugees and asylum seekers shirking their

responsibilities and leaving thousands abandoned in the. well questions are being raised about this new plan when the previous two year plan was such an abysmal failure and there is still friction within the european union its member states over this thorny issue of migration and asylum seekers in what is over this issue a disunited european union. the iraqi parliament has authorized sending troops to the kurdish held region of kircher to take control of oil fields there comes hot on the heels of kurdistan's independence referendum which overwhelmingly would jordi yes our policy or more the iraqi parliament has asked the iraqi prime minister betty to stay in troops to the kurdish region of cook and to take control of the oil fields there in response the security forces belonging to the kurdistan regional government have said that they will not allow iraqi soldiers into the area this follows monday's controversial referendum in which an overwhelming majority of

kurds at least ninety one percent voted in favor of independence from iraq of course oil is a hugely important issue both in the referendum and in this part of the world and bad diet is trying hard to get oil fields that are currently in territories back under its control we're also hearing from the iraqi parliament that they will prosecute those who were behind monday's referendum including the leader of the kurds now bizarrely himself has asked iraq to engage in what he calls serious dialogue and not to threaten sanctions but baghdad has responded saying that there is no way it will engage in talks said look at some kind of independent kurdistan being established its course this referendum to quote illegal and unconstitutional it once the results canceled and it is threatening that the kurds need to hand over

control of international airports otherwise it will ban flights syrian government forces have driven out isis from the western side of the euphrates river near deir ez-zor seen as a hugely important game in the conflict after a series of losses the islamic state seems to be on the brink of defeat in the country the syrian army and kurdish forces that banned. seen on the terrorist on two fronts several days ago the syrian army managed to get across some parts of the river for a new advance on isis the russian military has now established a bridge that enables armored cars to cross a of reports from the west bank of the euphrates food out palace once there is orders most exclusive resort now a modern day fortress out of necessity. for three years the garrison here has wanted isis attempts to cross the river at times it was

a close run thing and that has sought an animal from the onset coming up to the roof was very dangerous and because of the snipers it was really bad but when the army broke the siege they fell back a month ago it would have been suicide to film up here not anymore. these five star hotel seem better days but thanks to its grandiose design and height it's acted as something of a fortress here in that as sort and just to show you how close we are if you have a look through this hole at that hospital well everything behind that is isis is part of the city of that is across the river they also hold sway this is all their territory that's the euphrates river and across it is isis it's from there that they shelled the city at will and from there that they launch the occasional

raid across the river taking the other banking is key to liberating the city entirely isis still sends fighters and then back and forth across the river at night it may take weeks but it is inevitable isis in syria is on its last legs its collapse has been a spectator. as its rise since the beginning of the year the so-called calif it has lost thousands of square kilometers using precious oilfields and strategic towns to the advancing syrian army and the us backed rebels that is not to see its own but ruled that the. isis has nothing left to nukes according to the syrian military and the families of isis fighters and diehard supporters have allegedly retreated to the town of my they have nowhere else to go in the shrinking caliphate the past is

quite a good indication for what they might do in the future everywhere they were whatever the areas where. the people who fought for the presence of isis have told us all about how you people. could not feel frightened of if they would and there's no way for anyone to predict what time they would do that but. would they be hampered by any norms of any reason or any more on that they are the past doesn't indicate that this is the final act the dream of an islamic state has been shattered but even in its death throes it will inevitably claim more lives guys do you have. from dead is on syria. california has some of the lowest vacancy rates in the country the high cost to

real estate and sky high rents keep turnover rates low however landlords and downtown los angeles are facing the opposite problem they can see rates in the newly developed area are the highest in seventeen years as the state's housing crisis worsens local advocacy groups are pushing for the construction of more affordable housing in artie's burha santos has. the story from los angeles california is in the middle of a housing crisis half of the state's residents are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and homeownership rates are the lowest since world war two the median cost of a house is half a million dollars twice the national average as a result more people are renting but between two thousand and five and twenty fifteen only twenty one units of housing were constructed per one hundred new residents to the state this has resulted in a lack of availability and sky high rent especially in cities like los angeles san diego and san francisco. areas that have seen

a boom in new development are still on affordable for example here in downtown los angeles most of the new high rises cater to the wealthy rent is so expensive vacancies have reached the highest rate in seventeen years landlords are now offering perks to incentivize move ins but the median price for a one bedroom downtown is twenty five hundred dollars per month and in this building a tiny four hundred eighty seven square foot studio starts at around two thousand dollars per month so six weeks of free rent or free parking for an entire year will not offset the cost income over the past two decades hasn't kept pace with escalating rent what was once considered a low income problem is now everyone's problem cal matters finds that even extremely high incomes aren't enough to blunt the cost of housing in san jose where the current median income is nearly one hundred thousand dollars renters can still expect to pay forty percent of their monthly income on rent it's no wonder

homelessness in the state is on the rise los angeles alone cite twenty three percent increase over the past year but the heart of the problem just blocks away on skid row state lawmakers are now cracking down on communities that delay or derail housing construction but with progress so far down the line many californians are leaving the state in downtown los angeles proceed to santos. while many go out of their way to incorporate salmon into their diets for its health properties the pink flush fish are now facing a dire problem all across the globe sea lice are infested salmon fisheries at an alarming rate and now the past are causing the prices of salmon to significantly rise in fact the wholesale prices of salmon are up as much as fifty percent compared to last year and for more insight into this issue let's bring in john robinson scientists with the canadian department of fisheries and oceans thanks so much for joining us now sean salmon having an outbreak of sea life isn't something

that. i have really heard of about before but t.j. this is nothing new and that you are not in a crisis can you please explain sure thanks for me on you know the issue of sea lice is not a new one it's been going on as long as salmon farming has been going on and if you look at wild salmon they've been going on a lot longer i mean salmon salmon in general i mean could go back possibly fifty to eighty million years the sea life the other basically parasitize them go back even further than that so there's been a long running relationship between the two seasons and just when we started grooming the salmon together like kids in a school and headway sort of issues you know certain conditions thought through their reproduction. and as a result you started you have more and more of it so it is as the production of salmon goes up over the years i mean the salmon culture is restarted probably in

the late seventy's early eighty's nervous and it build up quite quickly in there from you know nor norway your channel some of the u.s. but also down in chile you know the volume of santa has gone up and up and up and of course the number of sea lakes that you know we're joined on to the right are going up as well and now this if you feel life is part of the reason for an increase in prices so do you think this is the best solution here or what is the best solution i should ask you is there something we can do without past decides how hard would it be to bring salmon for a genetic resistance sure so there's there's lots of there's lots of science being put the question right now there is you know for example i mean there isn't anybody that really wants to use pesticides to to to deal with seal and so i mean you know it works and i mean it's basically a page out of the book of agriculture and we'll use pesticides to. control passed

as well again lego culture the agriculture industry is also starting to look a little further afield at some of the newer science that's going on you know for example they would be looking at things like needers ways neuter some strains of salmon that are more resistant to it oscillators better management measures that can go ahead and there's the engineering solutions that the one we're working with a company culture and they're looking at warm water showers for example to. clear so water slide for official is that fish show down there warm water virtually all the sea lice off their off the fish interest and then of course wash waters captured so i mean there's lots and lots of different sorts of technologies and ideas are being brought to bear now she too that traditionally a lot has to cyprus get to know and now so many of us eat salmon for its health properties and great source of omega three fatty acids which of course is known to

help lower the risk of heart disease among many other things so first we're told not to eat farmed salmon then we're told fish in general has a lot of mercury how do you see it as a scientist are we ingesting sea lice when we're eating salmon. no those sea lice are more of an external parasite and for most part there are you know him very low numbers on the fish begin with you know all i mean if you know there's obviously occasion when you can get out of chemical breaks and see lakes you know wild populations and the infirm populations who most part it's all surface show and they would be all anything that was on that fish is gone by the time it ever reaches costco or where the supermarkets or your local fish store it's now and you know there's a slow culture change i mean you see people becoming weekend for various reasons and you see people learning how to use food as preventative medicine so what kind of impact would incorporating things like salmon into our diets do in terms of the

big picture. well i think when you start looking i mean that's a really question and probably something we need to think more voted society now as we start thinking about how are we going to need all of the people that are coming into the world of the next a while i mean whether we go to nine billion or ten billion or eleven believe whatever it is that's a lurch production of food that needs to come if you look at some of the leading lights in the scientific world at a time of this very prosecutors for example it may raise talking about the after profit straight yantra of a scene you know this new us human dominated area human history where basically in order to feed everybody i mean it's calculations and others like him would suggest that we're both to devastate most of our trish real sources of forests and whatnot in order to plant enough cross to do that never mind a fresh water issue to irrigate and then what not and really the solution we see is you know coming from the oceans and what fisheries will produce much more i mean

they've been they've been declining now probably over the last thirty years so act culture needs to commune but we need to better job and we need to be more sophisticated about it we need will fall just like all the rest of our society so i mean they're doing a good job right now i mean there's lots of big companies they're putting lost money in and they're you know they're moving the technology head but you know start feeding people in the value that we're going to get from the fish from the ocean or not and fish you know is really you know a term for not only just been fish only salmon are trone tr cotton or whatever but also for all shellfish so they are well and you know when you're out of time unfortunately it's so fascinating thank you so much tom robinson scientist with the pain department of fisheries and oceans thanks so much you're very welcome thanks for having me and watching the hawks is coming up next right here on our to tap the wallace joins us with a preview of what had happened that. well i don't have. see life but we know we

did discover some startling new research that questions if the united states is indeed spreading democracy around the world then we break down saudi arabia's recent drive forward on women's rights and finally will welcome political commentator steve malzberg into the hawks next to dissect the potential of evil taking place in the republican party following that surprising election results out of alabama you don't want to miss it definitely not thanks so much tabitha thanks josh and that is it for now for more on the stories we've covered go to youtube dot com slash our it's the america also check out our website our to dot com forward slash america and you can follow me on twitter at josh this week's question mark. i'm john harshman and i'll give you what the mainstream media chant the big picture . a little and when you push more on what you're looking for this is.

we'll go deeper investigate and debate all so you can get the big picture. it looks like the golden age of the internet is coming to an end it's been a wild and wacky fun ride for the past few decades where anyone can post anything they want and explore all kinds of unregulated information and media but there is no way that was going to last and now the changes finally upon us a huge indication is that facebook's founder mark zuckerberg just announced to the world that he's working directly with the u.s. government to combat election metally zuckerberg said he's actively working with

our government briefing and supporting congress to make sure no one meddles in our elections going forward by posting information on facebook that goes against what facebook and the u.s. government deems appropriate so in other words facebook is working with the government on ways to censor information they don't like zuckerberg then goes on to say that not only is he working with our government but he's working with election commissions around the world to help people register to vote in other countries and to learn about the issues that that facebook's working with our government to censor information here in the u.s. while also working with foreign officials to push out information in other countries that they want other people to see so he's working with election commissions around the world to meddle in other country's elections that's what he said in his speech about the combat election interference and then he goes on to talk about all the good meddling facebook did in the twenty six thousand elections from giving candidates direct channels to communicate with people to getting people

to register to vote who might not have otherwise voted. also bragged about helping campaigns spend tens of millions of dollars in advertising and somehow he. doesn't see that as meddling that to him is just a good democracy of work and that he concludes with the bad meddling that happened was much much smaller in scale than the good meddling which happened on a much larger scale than ever before in history he said that like it's a good thing like his meddling was good and huge at his store while the bad meddling was just an unfortunate blip but don't worry facebook and the government will make sure that never happens again. so yeah the golden age of the internet is coming to an end i'm not saying that's a bad or good thing i'm just saying it is and it's bound to produce a whole new era one where people start going outside of facebook to get information not been vetted by a big brother and i for one look forward to seeing what's next. you're

watching our america for students for. cold. cold. all of a sudden. the

big. goal of the. bombers for the. long. haul the world's a stage and all the news companies merely players but what kind of parties are anti america playing are to america offers more artsy america offers more. in many ways a news landscape just like the real news big names good actors bad actors and in the end you could never know you're on. the market all the world's a stage all the world's a stage all the world's a stage and we are definitely

a player. greetings and salutations. for anyone even moderately paying attention to the foreign policy agenda of the united states for the last twenty to thirty years i think it's a very safe bet that you've come across the terms humanitarian intervention or the ubiquitous spreading of democracy bandied about by any number of elected officials or state department spokesperson and while for many of the hard working folks either elected to or working for the us government that is indeed probably their loot.