health. this is starting to show. the u.s. state department of. defense ministry says.

with. a move. if you're reading literature you should expect some surprises. for. joining us on this friday here when. we come to. any attacks against russian media. warns that if washington continues with. china and other outlets.

shows you what we are seeing right now and what is happening around our media isn't comparable and much less powerful than argue s. and u.k. counterparts i don't even know what to call it they're flipping everything upside down. we're going to mirror any action we take and we will take action fast as soon as we see any steps being taken to restrict our media outlets the witchhunt as the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman describes it spiraled last month when the justice department demanded that america register under the cold war era foreign agents act russia says the move hinders our work in america and will have quote serious legal consequences and as the pressure grows has also been pulled from youtube premium advertising list in the u.s. with no notice given in response to moscow has now said it's not ruling out counter measures against the us media outlets operating in russia and with

a foreign agent deadline now passed and america is still not registering washington's next to move remains to be seen. hawkins reports from the valdai discussion for. putin was very clear that any move to restrict such press freedoms would result in very much negative media environment this is all part of what he also described as a wave of anti russian news theory and the russian campaigning and rhetoric in the united states which really began in earnest towards the end of last year the start of this year when hillary clinton lost the presidential election to donald trump and has continued to this day with attempts by government officials by media to find any links to russia wherever possible in any controversial american issue evidence of russian hacking russian meddling interference operations by intelligence services etc he also added that the us actions against russian diplomats russian diplomatic facilities across the united states was the result of a build up of problems issues between the two states. it's the us who put up with

this some president and then to a russian campaign which was not provoked by anything someone lost the elections to mr trump and russia was blamed for this the now unfolded the anti russian hysteria and now any failure will be connected to us it wasn't all negative however a lot of putin did believe that such problems are resolved in the long run and it's forums such as the valdai were here today that provided an opportunity to discuss debate and share ideas about how exactly to go forward an instructive. result these issues as opposed to engage in hostile ramping up of rhetoric and threats on both sides we discussed the issue with vice chair of the libertarian national committee of involved he believes that the campaign against russian media actually contradicts the very idea of democracy that the us takes itself to be promoting suggesting that the american people are completely unable to think for themselves

or that are to their company other media companies or some have somehow become the dominant media in america and that's just first of all not true and it's also just not very likely our most fundamental principle is the freedom of press which says that as a press you have the right to share information without explaining yourself to anybody and that is a fundamental constitutional freedom on which this country was founded the idea of going against that in this kind of really petty bureaucratic way is absolutely something that we oppose and the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley appears to be following the trend our guest just mentioned at the end of slammed russia for alleged meddling in the twenty sixteen election an accusation being made in america for almost a year now that's never been supported by any serious evidence but haley went even further now alleging the kremlin was engaged in warfare against a vast number of countries. one country can come interfere in another country's

elections that is warfare it really is because you're making sure that the democracy shifts from what the people want to giving out that less information and we didn't just say here you can look at france and you can look at other countries they are doing this everywhere this is their new weapon of choice why are americans anti russian and why have we done the sanctions well don't interfere in our elections and we won't be anti russian nikki haley is not alone in foreign accusations at russia with one of the loudest critics being the very post new claims she lost the election due to russian meddling. in germany members of parliament have been hacked by russia.

and france its campaign was hit by a massive cyber attack just before their presidential election. you know the evidence that russia has a hunk you emails since the civil war that is not possible to so you've obviously as stated silverstein a criminal group it really can be anyone. still the simplicity of the technical part can make us think it's just a simple person who created it and so this person can be in any country with any kind of motivation. maybe you've even seen the ads and on london underground on one russian state funded propagandists or bragging watch r.g. and find out who we are planning to attack. the. act is they're also opening a new scottish bureau. all she wants to do

is continue to blame other people and continue to cast doubt and she choose russia causing discord in the united states but really in the speech that she gave recently she actually cast the most discord by saying that it's everybody else's fault and the government failed in its russia's fault that she lost and nobody is even claiming that russia cast votes for people and americans made the decisions that they made so i think with hillary clinton bringing up europe that was her attempt to say i'm not just blaming russia it's isn't just baseless they've done it elsewhere there are some voices of the american public that actually are saying they're sick of it they don't want to read it anymore they don't want to see anymore headlines of russia when they know there has to be other things going on in the world. the u.s. state department in its latest syria travel alert says the al nusra a terrorist group. that uses chemical weapons in syria russia's defense

ministry has reacted to the statement saying it is the first admission of that sort of the use of allegations that only the outside government carries out chemical weapons or toxins. tactics of isis hyatt's to him and other violent extremist groups include the use of suicide bombers kidnapping small and heavy arms improvised explosive devices and chemical weapons they have targeted major city senses in damascus aleppo how mama daraa homes it lip and dare is old provinces according to the russian army spokesperson what is in that document is the first ever official indication by washington that high up to rear i shall be rebranded version of deposit on new straw is not only in possession of chemical weapons but it actually uses chemical weapons it is part of their regular tactics in that travel warning the u.s. state department is referring to the to middies doosra in the province and

according to the russian spokesperson one of the deadliest chemical attacks that grabbed most international attention recently happened in that very province that was of course back in april this year and back then the american government was absolutely sure that it was damascus to blame for that attack. yesterday morning. we awoke to pictures to children of beautiful little babies being carried in the arms of desperate parents these heinous actions by the assad regime. cannot be tolerated we were member what these words resulted in the american military launching strikes on a syrian army base in a different province and that led to a massive escalation of the syrian crisis washington fell out with moscow over this and i remember back then the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov multiple times

called on the international community for an in-depth independent investigation of it while investigations of reports of other chemical attacks including those on government controlled territories in syria were never even begun on her. son. i don't know who. the.

hell am. i. doing. in the meantime the investigation into april skeptical attack in the it looked province continues by a team of experts from the un and a un backed chemical watchdog but no experts have actually been sent to the sea and that's why the. it has been criticised by moscow the results will be presented to the un security council in a week and if. the efforts of the mission as moscow has threatened to suspend their backing of the mission's mandate as a permanent member of the u.n.

security council. lawmakers are once again at odds over the country's role in syria in a debate in the house of lords the questions were raised over funding of the syrian opposition and what exactly taxpayers' money is really being used for if the government gives two hundred million groups and only fourteen here didn't quite catch which it was was for political support what on earth was the rush for the forty million this specifically in terms of political support other examples for example thirty nine million has been spent on roads i will of course look right to the noble lord in terms of specific breakdown but it's very much about the system the coalition the syrian opposition to actually stand on its feet and why does her majesty's government not recognize that it is not going anywhere does my noble friend really think that british taxpayers want fourteen million pounds spent on supporting so-called opposition. to willamette his government changed their

priorities from providing that massive financial support to opposition groups which are not moderate and make every effort to achieve the lifting of sanctions. caroline cox raised the issue of the u.k.'s spending in syria in the british parliament calling for greater transparency in fact she traveled to syria herself to get a better understanding of the conflict but says the british government isn't too keen on getting a vet side of the story. we got some amazing figures something like two hundred million a year and the government said is going to moderate opposition but our concern is that there really is not believed to be any moderate opposition and to or so be very concerned it's actually going to islamist related groups and that it may be prolonging the war be putting down more questions to ask the government to give more explicit and detailed information precisely how much is going where it's going and i would rather british government was doing more to keep would positive

proposals to help the syrian people and particularly the lifting of sanctions i. i got a lot of aggression after a visit to syria we did meet president has said i do not in any way condone some of the very serious things he has done but i want to listen to the syrian people the british government was not pleased with me because they tried to prevent me from going they tried to tell me how dangerous it was well i spent a lot of my life working with people who were suffering from war and depression and persecution and i used my vote in the house of lords to try to be a voice for these his voices are not heard and one top human rights official also found himself in the line of fire after visiting syria and was forced to resign in the wake of the trip earlier this year. joined russian lawmakers during a visit to damascus where he met with president bashar al assad e.u. officials however took serious issue with the rendezvous he sent since quit

europe's main human rights watchdog position though he says he does not regret taking the trip to syria. i think this process of him was to up when i saw in the what i saw a lot over a short period of time i only spent twenty four hours there but i noticed a strong russian influence on our country and yes i saw that russia was very serious about fighting international terrorism and i saw other countries including turkey and those in the u.s. led international coalition are also making considerable efforts to put an end to what's causing the majority of europe's problems terrorism the influx of refugees and migration most of which are rooted in syria seeing that i realize that much closer cooperation between the countries of combating terrorism is needed but as i've said before some parliaments would prefer to return to the cold but times have changed and i've always considered russia to be a european country and that europe is inconceivable without russia and vice versa although some didn't like it i did what i wanted and if i had a chance to go back in time i would have done everything just the same as i

including it would have even travel to syria and of course. i could have you with us for the program today on this friday still many stories to come here political correctness and a world gone bad shakespeare's plays now come with a warning label a cambridge university more than four hundred years after they were written the ultimate fear being people might be offended by william shakespeare or try to explain their reasons.

i mean so we have received this information and we agree with some of the issues raised in the report and with some others who don't agree with me but i can tell you clearly that we have never had a state sponsored doping system in russia which is the primary in the report we have never had any institutional conspiracy. thanks for joining us today for your news iraqi forces have taken control of the last district in the oil rich province of cook following

a three hour battle with kurdish peshmerga fighters that's according to iraq's security forces now the kurds and their fighters retreated to positions to the north of the region just hears them out gets larger and now they've been pushing back what's the road that goes northwest baghdad's forces started repairing the kurds from the cook on monday pushing them north of this whole strategic very oil rich area had been under the control of kurdish forces since the fall of saddam hussein that was back in two thousand and three the government operation in the city began after the kurds independence referendum in september which was declared illegal by iraq's prime minister the iraqi government explained that the move was to quote impose security despite previous u.s. claims and support of the kurds washington is now we're talking about a unified iraq with federal elections looming in baghdad. investigations

ever since the invasion of iraq in the early two thousand the internal politics of the country has been of great importance to the us especially when it comes to the region and the u.s. has now found itself in a tight spot over its alliance with the kurds but the kurds were once a top u.s. ally i think we need to arm and train and equip their pressure. the kurdish government in a deal and they are strong allies we should be using we should be turning to kurdish state driven to be that this matters really proving to be the. standings were supporting the kurds or the peshmerga who were on the front fighting us and now us trying to government troops are clashing with kurdish forces in kirkuk and the pentagon is. trying to downplay the conflict this all comes at a pivotal time for iraqi kurds right after september independence referendum which the us has shown no sign of supporting we hope for a unified iraq to annihilate isis and certainly

a unified iraq to push back on iran so if the us has named ron as the second greatest threat after. so countering iran could very well be the driving force behind the us abandoning its support curt's i don't want to use the word betray but we definitely feel the united states has been negligent iraq's upcoming election set for april two thousand eighty may become a make or break moment for the us and could possibly affect its objectives in the region april's election is a choice between the vice president believes he often described the subtly and the u.s. and iran and the current president a body is that all it's with what you have here the moment you have a prime minister in iraq who is supported by the americans the previous prime minister who is waiting in the wings which is the extreme part which is very close to radians and the united states made it clear to the kurdish leadership before their friend last. september that they wished to delay the refer

them at least off the iraqi election the next spring so if the us seeks to resolve these problems of kurdish resistance washington will be forced to choose between two allies it's apparently not the kurds samir khan washington d.c. . students at cambridge university are being warned over the place shakespeare in case of potential distress some of the words contain scenes of sex and violence. now takes a closer look at why the bar is now causing so much concern so many centuries later . ok me from their worse than killing last and tumble me into some loathsome pit whenever mans i may behold my body do this and be a charitable murderer so should i rolled my sweet sons of their fee no let them satisfy their lust on the man's a snippet from shakespeare is

a first tragedy titus andronicus the play features graphic violence gang rape and fourteen murders and now certain english lecturers at cambridge university operating special warnings on their time tables when they're going to be covering potentially distressing topics like these they're going to have to have a lot of disclaimers with the works of shakespeare though some of his plays can be very gory they feature things like incest rape murder and suicide they also happen to have kept people talking about thorny issues like claws relations race relations and anti semitism for centuries i want to know what the people visiting the famous shakespeare globe theatre in london have to say about the warnings i think. demis down the students. in the churn for smart enough to be able to handle this

without a warning. for four hundred juice. being good enough for them. if you're reading literature you should expect to have some surprises you expect to be shocked to see or simulate that particular student i think the problem with the world these days is that there's just so much focus on being offended by everything that people are just so scared of what they can actually say or do cambridge university has told me that any warnings that they put out are the initiative of individual professes and that it's not a policy adopted by the english department as a whole. by the way when the globe says to stage titus andronicus three years ago several people fainted from the graphic violence including one of the theater critics reviewing the show that very same critics still gave the production an exceptional review art isn't always comfortable the most challenging art can be

anything bought and now there are growing concerns not just in academic circles that modern students are being too morally called old if they can handle the content in classic literature how are they going to cope with life in general the professors who issued the warning have been criticized over it the artistic director at the cambridge shakespeare festival says students shouldn't study literature if they're not aware of some of his works portray violence the same warning it seems could be applied not just to shakespeare's works here's a look at some other violent classics. sikes batters nancy to death and have bet the corpse is so deformed that the person

who identifies a body is so scared by the experience that they're led away in a straight jacket. on. your new court sullen people's half devil and half child. his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and restored dawson scarred with the numerable puncture marks finally thrust the sharp point home press down the tiny pistol. well thanks for sharing your friday with us here on r t international more of your pretty weekend worldwide headlines coming in about thirty two minutes.

when your makers manufacture consent to instant of public wealth. when the ruling classes project themselves. in the final merry go round lifts only the one percent. nor middle of the room six. real news is. we're in sochi in the south of russia attending the ball by discussion on this edition of the program we discussed. and it's impacting our new us pressure religion.

donald trump wants to read all the u.s. tax code but first congress has got to agree on a budget resolution will either happen this year we're taking a look on this edition of. welcome to politicking on larry king president trump eager for a legislative victory ten months into his administration is touting his framework for reforming the u.s. tax code and not many details in the president's plan but it does call for a substantial reduction in the corporate tax rate and changes to individual tax brackets as well but no reform is going to happen until congress agrees on a budget resolution which could be held up by fiscal hawks within his own party like senator rand paul not to mention opposition by the democrats will take a look at where the budget plan stands and how likely tax reform is to happen as

outlined by the president but first a look at the proposed tax plan through the eyes of financial expert he's neil grossman managing partner and chief investment officer of t.k. n.j. capital frequent commentator on business and the markets and joins me here in studio in new york for discuss the tax plan the dollars five percent since trump took office he takes credit as he deserves credit well he's really get the blame if it wasn't i think you deserve some of the credit i think the general economic background was improving as he came into office unemployment rate was falling earnings have been going up and non-u.s. economies were also starting to grow so there's an element of a positive framework which you can't ignore but was the curve happening well i think some of it was starting and i think you do have to give him the benefit of the doubt on things like reducing some of the regulatory issues.