exclusive video from syria. into the heart of the decisive battle for the country's future. or exploiting the games. in catalonia protests as pressure mounts on the government for trying to quash sunday's independence referendum while the region's president. u.s. officials are backtracking on claims that russian hackers targeted voting systems in the state of wisconsin admitting that there's no evidence. capitalizing on the

korea crisis the japanese prime minister. as his handling of the situation sees his ratings saw we look at the stakes. in the russian capital. headquarters in the russian capital with your news this hour a lot to get through as well first to syria their ambassador to the u.n. is accusing the united states of trying to take credit for the operation to retake the city of david saw. the u.s. coalition and rebel militias they support halted their operation in iraq which was a stronghold of eisel and through their forces behind trying to push the syrian army out of the areas or as if the americans were competing with the syrian government over control of the areas or instead of fighting ice and rock. the

remaining terrorists india and saw are now surrounded by both the syrian army and u.s. backed kurdish forces our correspondent more i have reports from the heart of the decisive battle. this may have been lifted but it's not over yet isis holdouts in parts of dead as or not for a long. day and night falls raged around the city that you harvests are throwing everything they have into the fight now every day there is combat they'll use heavy weapons from range although trying to infiltrate in the middle of the night fear attack with suicide vests and car bombs the battle goes on every day but the tables have turned it is isis now that is surrounded and slowly being squeezed out. we're it's a syrian artillery position overlooking the industrial city the industrial corridor

of their resort for supporting troops that are staging the offensive down there an offensive that began earlier this morning with a barrel of airstrikes but the battle is said to be fierce with isis giving no quarter from here syrian spotters watch for isis fighters from above this is why height is so important in war better vantage and better. and this range you can't really miss not with hillary. he gets a verified and confirmed in real time it was at this exact spot as nest that a russian lieutenant general advised syrian offices fifteen minutes before his death he was killed several days ago by an isis shell just a few hundred meters from here.

isis fired back as we filmed shells speak and for a link all around. we ran but the syrian batteries kept firing. it will be liberated in a week at the most and will free some of the suburbs to. the cost will undoubtedly be high it's a challenging battleground from dense urban areas to lush river banks and even trenches. the euphrates is both a blessing and because isis still uses the waterways to move men. and even launch surprise attacks. this bunker is manned during the nights because the tower across the river belongs to us all for three long years captain he bring in

the squad has bled and died in the trenches along the euphrates their sacrifice is not enough to break the long stalemate but now everything changed now there will be more i. see from their resort of syria. with just days to go before catalonia has planned independence referendum hundreds of students gathered in the regional capital barcelona or against attempts by the spanish government to block the vote. they were there to again vent their frustration of leaders in madrid who have ruled sunday's vote illegal but it's not stop the activists putting up posters and banners in support of the referendum. this is a fight for both the right of two to vote on the referendum of self-determination but also it's a fight over. being able to say they would like that spanish authorities have

already arrested fourteen regional officials and seized up to ten million ballot papers as well as banners advertising the referendum the official campaign websites also been blocked and madrid is increasing its presence in catalonia by sending extra police and the planning to take over polling stations. but not all catalans are in favor of breaking away from spain. and you just think it will be people you will see previously given to somebody in seat eighty if i believe you that that didn't get me killed your peace isn't theology that you use my thinking we see induced by the net not likely that the. national level of the elderly were burnt out just as in the middle of a war it will be responsible much like we look for. the cattle and presidents taking it further accusing the european commission of turning its back on his

region's right to vote good looking as i was going i think we will have earned the right to be heard this is something that has not happened up to now this is something the european commission has been deaf to they will not be able to continue ignoring this issue. this week european commission news briefing journalists push to get a comment on the e.u. stance. war i. i. i now or you have a double standard in freedom of expression whilst found that four thousand key gaddy and in other sound out for their own yes there are judges issuing orders to shut down media. you condemn it when they shut down cambodia daily but you stay silent when a member states starts playing with freedom of expression stay shut private websites if they start arresting jewelries how can you say this is cause you do shit all that we don't have anything to say i mean this is freedom of expression

anything else that we're going to help you with today. or one of the journalists at that briefing told us he believes the question of catalonia is freedom is not just a problem for the spanish authorities but for the holy you. it's an internal constitutional problem according to the e.u. and the house to be sold in the frame or called internal orders of legal order of spain. the problem is that this is true until until when certain issues arise like this in the last few days the issue of freedom of expression which is not only an internal constitutional issue of spring it's clearly. which is if you want to pass through the constitutional order not only spanish call situation or that it's. a surprise move the japanese prime minister's dissolved parliament paving the way for

a snap election next month it's thought since they want to capitalize on high approval ratings which have risen over his handling of the crisis with north korea that hawkins looks at the power play and whether gamble will pay off. a rise in popularity and opposition in disarray and a sinister forward threat looming on the horizon a perfect recipe for calling an early election which is exactly what prime minister shinzo has announced. you're going up on your debt by calling an election i am seeking a public mandate for the government's handling of north korean issues could be not the korean crisis could be a blessing in disguise for accusations of corruption and cronyism as well as unpopular policies knocked his ratings over the summer fall into lows of around thirty percent according to some polls but with rising regional tensions his popularity is already back at fifty percent now if he's reelected are we would become japan's longest serving prime minister and this could allow him to make

a historic change the country's pacifist constitution discarding article nine which completely without says all military action supporters say this would simply legitimize japan's army and right to self-defense but critics war it would open the floodgates to participating in full blown foreign conflicts and i'm a diplomatic strains with china and military tensions with pyongyang japan has already stepped up shows of military force holding joint drills with the united states and south korea as well as the new was shipped the most significant deployments in seventy years. or so is even more cooperation with the united states . and america because it's very willing to take risks in confronting korea and japan. doing that would be a move just to. the interest to reach but public resistance to the increased militarization has been strong.

you see. the protesters are the only opposition faces so you could. gov. has already formed a new party of hope to challenge the government in of personal standoff with. just enjoy while we're facing a crisis with north korea is it ok to create a vacuum in politics of course not however prime minister abbott has already decided to use the premier's exclusive right to dissolve the lower house and call elections. she says right wing of the right wing so the two of the group. there is they have to propose to each other no we can think of these majority for no obvious seem certain he will win the election and strengthen his mind that so confident in fact he's promised to resign if he doesn't the last time

a leader took such a gamble just to strengthen their majority well we all know how that ended the big gamble. as election results show a hung parliament parliamentary majority is gone. that is no majority at all bold move could be a historic moment for japan or a spectacular fail for the prime minister. officials in the us a backtracking on accusations that russian hackers infiltrated the election system in the state of wisconsin in the run up to last year's presidential election and they now say there's no evidence to support those claims is my girlfriend says santiago on the contradictory messages blaming russia. the state of wisconsin has been hit and it's the russian hackers they're back. to. that breaking news russian hackers tried to hack wisconsin's election system now that looks serious always already been retracted back tracked and reinstated at

least three times it all started last friday with homeland security informing the electoral commission that twenty one states have been targeted by the russian computer wizards one of those states was wisconsin where donald trump won by a very tight margin but just three days later on tuesday comes a stunning reversal homeland security tells wisconsin officials that the russian government did not score on the state's voter registration system based on our external analysis the west constant ip address affected belongs to the wisconsin department of workforce development not the elections commission wait a minute so not the election system is constant but work force department why who knows the press of course went back to home and security for clarification and they were told that homeland stands firm by its assessment that the twenty one states including wisconsin did get scanned the department stands by its assessment that

internet connected networks in twenty one states were the target of russian government cyber actors seeking vulnerabilities and access to u.s. election infrastructure now wisconsin state's chief information officer has stated the complete opposite i quote our systems were protected and we had no incidents we have to bring up every now and wisconsin football coach for clarification now. you might be confused but so is the total commission of wisconsin it spokesperson read magni said that there is still trying to understand what happened. go r.t. . but is it pre-election promises all the candidates themselves that when voters mind you got an interesting case study for.

the kurdish language for one of them has been cited frequently better account for ones own. jointly own. the iraqi kurds to being their own shepherd. here's what people have been saying about rejected in the us and. the only show i go out of my way to. the really packed a punch. is the john oliver of party americans do the same we are apparently better than. the c.

people you've never heard of love back to the night president of the world bank very. seriously send us an e-mail. now it might all be donald trump himself but just his election promises that one favor among voters in elections in the southern state of alabama trumps kind of at last while the one who adopted the trump slogan make america great again one takes a look at how the regional vote reflects on trump and his ideology. the republican primary in alabama might seem like a local issue but here's why it should have been bigger than the candidates so first you've got luther strange she is the establishment republican a former lobbyist for big business on capitol hill he's got the support of his party including funding but he lost to fringe candidate more more echo donald trump

stance on immigration as well as his mantra america first and he believes that u.s. president barack obama was not a legal u.s. citizen sounds an awful lot like trump did during the two thousand and sixteen presidential campaign well twenty seventeen trump sitting in the oval office put his backing behind the establishment candidate instead of luther strange knows the true source of america's strength its god its family and its country. and trump's decision didn't sit well with some of his more outspoken supporters support judge roy moore judge moore is going to defend our interests with the same still spine that he defended those ten commandments so now that ray moore has won donald trump is backtracking and getting rid of his tweets in support of luther strange and he's doing something that's even more rare for the commander in chief it missing that he might have been wrong and i'll be honest i might have made

a mistake the people who supported trump are still looking for these things to be carried out and i think when they a large did roar and more they just rode away dramatically rejected the establishment candidate even though he was endorsed by by donald trump it's quite clear that roy moore he's a kind of guy who will stay and will stand up to this corrupt or stab bush moment in the u.s. senate and. hopefully bring about some good training but i think for ordinary americans this the results of this election were uplifting and they they just suggested that. the american people are beginning to exert genuine influence over their government which they did not do before office ready to put america first again it any cost and now he's softening his stance in order

to appease the establishment but the real question is are his supporters ready to do the same thing mop and r c new york. nato has admitted that an asteroid in afghanistan has resulted in civilian casualties the u.s. strike was called to suppress a terrorist attack in kabul airport on wednesday a u.s. airstrike in afghanistan has left civilians dead the airstrike was launched in response to a taliban attack that happened just hours after u.s. defense secretary james madison arrived in the capital of the insurgent said that they were targeting the defense secretary's aircraft but his plane however was not hit in a statement the nato led resolute support mission said that the us conducted the air strike to suppress the attack but one of the missiles had a tragically malfunction causing several casualties and not explaining any further the afghan crisis response unit responded quickly to confront the attackers and the

assault u.s. forces acting in support conducted an airstrike tragically one of the missiles malfunctioned causing several casualties officials expressed regret for the civilian casualties and said that investigation into the malfunction was underway but this isn't the first time that nato has had to admit civilian casualties in afghanistan their actions seemed justified when nato led forces were just trying to foil an attack on the pentagon and u.s. defense chiefs but the irony is that the same military officials are now accusing militants of putting civilians at risk blaming the islamist group for operating in supplying populated areas to attack. a civilian airport is a criminal law. it's designed to go after generally innocent people to make some sort of statement and it's just a classic definition of what the taliban are up to right now it is what it is but

it's also the reason why we've been together and we don't we don't question what we're doing here so it seems that the u.s. defense secretary is not questioning washington's actions in afghanistan despite the fact that this is a sixteen year long war and it has been assaulted in the deaths of thousands. robin i mean from the american campaign group just foreign policy told us washington should not shift the blame when it strikes kills civilians i think the first key thing here is that under international law the responsibility to protect civilians from the use of u.s. military force belongs to the u.s. military and the u.s. government and no one else it's not the responsibility of the taliban to protect civilians from us use of military force it's the responsibility united states so i think it shameful that the u.s. military is trying to deflect responsibility to some other party for the u.s. military action and sadly this is a pattern for the u.s.

and its allies at the same thing we're seeing with saudi arabia and yemen saudi arabia blames everybody else for civilian casualties caused by saudi arabia. the european commission's proposing to take in another fifty thousand asylum seekers from north africa and the middle east is going to be part of a new relocation scheme after the previous plan failed to meet its goals. has the story. you know 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 to your 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 a legal fight against those obligations now this new plan will see that eight thousand refugees or silent seekers from the previous plan also be included in that but it has been an abysmal failure and that's the description by many charities and organizations all of the european union 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 italy and greece where 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. italian journalist marcelo says it's his country that's suffering the most from fellow european countries failing to take in refugees. now if you go to the border. between interview in france you find hundreds of policemen or french policeman that stop every illegal immigrants to the cries of france if you go all from the border between equally and austria is the same the us are also

police made makes it controls despite the sharing in agreement and they don't they don't want to hear any reason germany is now really look eating the refugees from the utopian country. first accepted that which means they send it back to italy to greece and this is not. easy is it european selfishness and this is creating. a situation where the european commission makes all the plans that the image in and the big majority of the european countries don't want to implement. environmental groups in the us on behalf of the colorado river are suing the state of oregon is in a request to recognize the river has rights of it own and they're demanding that it's granted quote personhood of course of the river flows from the rocky mountains in colorado to the gulf of california however it's been labeled as one of america's

most endangered rivers by a conservation group called american rivers the colorado provides drinking water to one in ten americans and demand outstrips supply the riff is that it could even run dry a group called deep green resistance are the environmentalists fighting for the rivers rights they say it's not able to defend itself to ensure its own existence in the future the lawsuit they've filed hopes to hold the state of colorado accountable for violating those rights however the notions been ridiculed were people questioning whether a river should be recognized as a person or corporation. the river itself was given right so you could actually go into court on behalf of the river like we as a guardian of the river or fiduciary of the river currently you can't go into court in argue that until it's too late giving rights to nature and to the colorado river would elevate that status and make it possible to go into court and actually do things that would help preserve and restore and allow the river to exist in florida

let me think absurd can i go now we've done. i mean it's ridiculous i believe in protecting the environment i'm a huge protector of the environment but but in order to put you know put people and rivers and mountains on the same moral level to me is so lacking of decency it's unbelievable so i think the whole idea the whole notion is totally absurd corporations have rights in this country and they have more rights than human communities do nature has just as many rights as corporations colorado river you know should have a right to exist florists naturally evolve regenerate and be restored and currently as that is it does not and colorado river is in serious trouble what is a corporation a corporation is basically a bunch of people who come together to form a corporation that protects their interests so the government had to find a way to give them certain protections that those people who hold

a corporation would otherwise not have the same cannot be said for a river for a mountain for a tree and it's a misunderstanding of why a corporation is given personhood is because protecting the rights of the people who own that company totally different thing if any even right now you doing a show with us and ask getting press on this issue is helping people to really think about how we could restructure a law to actually preserve and may extend our time on this planet and if we continue to whittle away at that and lose that i mean we're looking at ninety eight percent. all old four old growth forests are gone ninety nine percent of our prayers every waterway in the world is contaminated with dioxins our environmental record has only gotten better year after year the water is cleaner the air is cleaner there are more forests for the regulation we have today which are far away enough to protect the environment and there are environmental assets that we have today i'm happy with the way the us is structured and the progress we've made on

the environment like i said before i consider myself an environmentalist so rivers have feelings too that's the way the world looks from here this to me again in thirty minutes your next global news update from the international. this is the kaiser report coming to you from the aspen nexus concert with a mother. i can feel it is so warm up there still fantastic so glorious so sunny so mountain like and you know what i got to thinking of the people i really miss and none more so than jamie diamond who gave twenty years but it's about he came walking into walls he came tumbling in public and proven himself to be an idiot savant.