the u.s. state department says al nusra a terrorist to use chemical weapons in syria russia's defense ministry says is the first such admission after years claiming a media assad government carries out chemical attacks there. and after months of unproven allegations of russian election meddling a labor m.p. is now calling for a probe into the u.k.'s breck's it vote. and students at cambridge university are

being issued with warnings i will potentially distressing material in classic literature i believe some are calling excessive. if you're reading literature you should expect to have some surprises 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. this is r.t. international coming to you live from moscow and cape partridge thank you for joining us. the u.s. state department says terrorists are using chemical weapons in syria it comes in the latest travel alert for the country and refers to the group now known as tati a sham russia's defense ministry says it's the first admission of its source after years of allegations that only the assad government carries out chemical attacks in syria. tactics of isis hyatt's to here 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 three are 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 effectivity doosra can be good but province needed according to the russian spokesperson one of the deadliest chemical attacks that grabbed most international attention recently have been 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 if we remember 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 i am what. i'm. doing.

in the meantime the investigation into april skeptical attack in the it looked province continues by a team of experts from the u.n. and he went back to the chemical watchdog but no experts have actually been sent to the sea and that's why the mission has. when criticised by moscow the results will be presented to the un security council in a week and if russia continues to see the efforts of the mission as insufficient moscow has threatened to suspend their backing of the mission's mandate as a permanent member of the un security council. now iraqi forces have taken control of the last district in the lucrative province of cocotte it follows a three hour battle with kurdish peshmerga fighters according to iraq's security forces while the kurds retreated to positions to the north of the region along the

erbil road baghdad's forces started repelling the codes from on monday while the strategic oil rich city had been under the control of kurdish forces since the fall of saddam hussein in two thousand and three while 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 impose security what despite previous u.s. claims in support of that washington is now talking about a unified iraq with federal elections looming in baghdad are to use america on explains the controversy ever since the invasion of iraq in the early to tao's it is the internal politics of the country has been of great importance to us especially when it comes to the region and the us 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 to help the kurdish government in obio and in their strong start we should be using

we should be entering the kurdish region to be that this matters really proving to be the mission to start the long standing. order of the kurds or to the pressure on the front lines fighting us and now us train the 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 i saw so countering iran could very well be the driving force behind the us abandoning its support of kurds i don't want to use the word betrayal but we definitely feel the united states has been negligent iraq's upcoming

election set for april two thousand and eighteen may become a make or break moment for the us and could possibly affect its objectives in the region april selection is a choice between the vice president of the leaking well to describe the suddenly into the us and iran and the current president a body is that all it's with what you have here at 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 the iranians 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 u.s. seeks to resolve a body's problem of kurdish resistance washington will be forced to choose between two allies it's apparently not the kurds samir khan washington d.c. . now following months of allegations of russian meddling in elections in america

and across europe a member of the u.k.'s labor party has now called for a probe into alleged interference in last year's bracks that referendum well for more on this let's cross live now to our to use an associate. higher than last year so what was said exactly during the parliamentary session. well kate another day another attempt to implicate russia in something here in westminster we did hear this call to investigate russia's alleged potential involvement in the outcome of the bracks that referendum by those who are unhappy with the way it turned out specifically this was seen from a labor m.p. and former culture secretary ben bradshaw who had this to say given the widespread public concern over foreign and particularly russian interference in western democracies with this house but the government and the electoral commission will examine these reports very carefully and reassure our country that all of the resources spent in the referendum were from permissible sources. and this came up

amidst a sort of a discussion an issue raised about the funding of the leave campaign in the time leading up to the bronx that referendum specifically the reports focusing on british businessmen and political donor aaron banks who was a good friend of nigel farage who was a major bracks had found a leave campaign sponsor and returned to what was said at the house of commons aaron banks has this to say thank you bradshaw still fails to understand why his side lost and thus continues to peddle this rather tedious myth of a russian conspiracy sat well lo all of this comes at a curious time yet again it's ironic really given how much actual pressure and actual interference was coming from all over the world in the time leading up to the bronx that referendum where we saw international figures and politicians from really everywhere trying to convince the british people not to vote for bracks it let's take a look the united kingdom is at its best when it's helping to lead

a strong europe. it leverages u.k. power to be part of the european union our focus is in the go sharing with a big block of the european union to get a trade agreement done. and you can go. in the back of the queue if you would. know that we have a plan b. . this would indicate a kind of willingness of the commission to in visit seriously that we could leave. we don't have a plan b. we have a plan and we. in the european union as. given all of these sort of threats and doom and gloom scenarios when it comes to bragg's before the referendum obviously the british people have voted the way they have and it seems that at this point it would be wise to consider looking forward given how quickly time is running out leading up to the deadline of britain have to really figure out

what's going to happen next instead of chasing ghosts. it's going to be interesting an assessor check it out in london thank you very much. meanwhile anti russia hysteria has now been making headlines for months and russian president vladimir putin says it's a deliberate campaign launched after the us election. 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 than they unfolded the anti russian hysteria and now any failure will be connected to what she's just. what we are seeing right now and what is happening around our media isn't comparable and much less powerful than argue worse 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 they take and we will take action fast as soon as we see any steps being taken to restrict our media outlets well one of the

loudest voices is the politician who claims she lost the election jus to russian meddling. in germany members of parliament have been hacked by russia. and france crowns campaign was hit by a massive cyber attack just before their president. you know the evidence that russia has a hard q e mails since the civil war that is not possible to so you've obviously a state to deal with your criminal group it really can be anyone. still the simplicity of the technical part can make us think you just assume. you created it

and so this person can be in any country with any kind of motivation. maybe you've even seen the ads in a london underground one russian state funded propaganda distort bragging watch our t.v. and find out who we are planning to. the fact 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 in american 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 are 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. shakespeare's plays now come with a warning label like cambridge university more than four hundred years after they were written and the reasons why and more news how to this quick way. in case you're new to the game this is how it works the economy is built around corporations corporations run washington washington media. the. voters elected businessman to run this country business equals. boom bust

it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before. we're in sochi in the south of russia discussion on this edition of the program we discussed. and its impact on us russia would like. it so we have received this information and we agree with some of the issues raised in the report it was just there was some others who don't agree with me but i can so clearly we have never had a state sponsored doping system in russia which is the primary accusation in the report we have never had any institutional conspiracy. welcome back syria's u.s. banks opposition forces are celebrating the liberation of iraq out from i sell the pentagon has hailed the operation as

a great success in the fight against islamic state were having great success against what was once known as the core caliphate iraq in syria and now we're actually ending the beginning i think the interest in a lot of the caliphate is rocket however the latest pictures from iraq i hardly give a sense of success as it's a ghost city the destruction you can see here was caused by i so militia shelling and coalition air strikes aid agencies say a huge effort all we need to end the humanitarian crisis that i so claim drakkar is its de facto capital in twenty fourteen the first major offensive against the terrorists began two years later it was once serious sixth largest city but now it's little more than rubble.

recently coalition air forces were ready to demolish the whole building to target one member of i so they have no problem killing civilians. we ran from death and any human being would be afraid the sound of the planes makes us afraid they were shelling the civilians destroying buildings and houses rakhal was destroyed by a coalition aircraft only ten percent hit the targets the rest hit civilians. the u.n. estimates that's an average of twenty seven people are being killed in iraq. every day. and there's seems to be no real escape for these civilians their level of suffering friends relatives family of the children exceptionally. status targeting.

to discuss the operation to liberate iraq let's bring in syria expert abdel bari atwan have to thank you very much indeed for joining us i mean this liberation it was never going to be easy but do you think it could have come with less civilian cost oh yeah definitely i believe you know we were we used to act use it's a mixed state or ice's as a barbaric organization killing people frightening there but what happened actually with when we look at that you're under report it is clear that the coalition forces all those use the maximum of powers which resulted on by this traction of that city so you know it's thousands of people civilian people were killed because of this bombardment and nobody raised to think about that so it is it is at the zionists are definitely this kind of achievement can be done without the suffering without

the amounts of death among the people over break up less destruction also i don't know why this warplane used to bomb into civilian areas and killing people and destroying the best city and we can see that our bill is everywhere nor we can see that damages and selected on the sixth largest city of syria well given all the civilian destruction and the physical the infrastructure destruction mean that really how much of a success was it. yeah but the dealer success we know those people they don't have any ground defenses and the air defenses we know that they don't have war powers so this achievement can be done as a said by siege for example by you know taking care of. the lives of those city and ok there are barbaric no question about that there are

terrorist question about that they are using fear to to actually. damages or the casualties among their enemies but you know we have to remember that there are civilians there and those civilian should be. protected their protection should be a priority for any outside. forces i mean look at the other places for example when a little was liberated the amount of. casualties much much much less but when it comes to record this is the way it is completely different it seems there was a careless campaign against the civilian over ika which is actually a little do you think i mean it's a success in the fact that it's been liberated but where do you think the iso fighting will go next i mean you think the that the foreign requests will be on their way home. well i believe you know there are three choices four of them are

that they were killed second they could go to other places inside syria and iraq and their mungle among their civilian their go to unbar. particular or they already left to their branches of the states. have to leave and yemen and other places we don't know with where is baghdad if for example he's supposed to be in his chemical and or is he killed. does he manage to i know when for example and somewhere else what is the future of their stomach state i know it is not a state anymore i know they lost their territory i know they lost their you know their capital they lost their caliphate but i believe this is an ideology what will happen after that that is a fact now that human error and vacuum in syria who is going to fill this vacuum

there are about you know i thousand american soldiers in syria what will happen to them now and it is not actually controlled by the syrian illegitimate government it is syrian democratic forces merely kurdish forces so what will happen to this city in the future and the near future for example are we going to see a conflict between the syrian government the syrian army and the syrian democratic army dominated by the kurds for example so there are a lot of question marks ok it is time for celebration no question about that you know that there is some extent to be rooted out it is a huge victory but the problem is what will happen next what's the morning after that's that's the biggest question and where their stomach state will go is it going underground for example which is lisc or slow for them are they going to rebuild their forces again and their ranks again and continue terrorist acts and where so this is this is these questions we have to. look at the drive to find

a big. order to face all this one of the images they just want to look for the future and about and that. could be should all that if you create out of this kind of. how are we going to deal with it politically and we'll have to leave it there abdel bari atwan syria expert thank you very much thank you. students of cambridge university are being warned about the plays of shakespeare in case of potential distress some works contain scenes of sexual assault and firelands artie's played by co takes a closer look at why the bard is now causing concern for centuries later. ok to me from their worse than killing last and tumble me into some loathsome pit whenever my hands i may behold my body do this and be a charitable murderer so should i rode my sweet sons of their fee no let them satisfy their lost on the that'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 are putting 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. old by the way when the globe series just staged titus andronicus three years ago several people fainted from the graphic violence including one of the theater critic reviewing the show that very same critics still gave the production an exceptional review ot isn't always comfortable the most challenging all it

can be anything bugs and now there are growing concerns not just in academic circles that modern students are being too morally called old if they can't handle the content in classic literature how are they going to cope with life in general. are we back at the start of the hour with the latest headlines the then. here's what people have been saying about redacted in the us and it's. the only

show i go out of my way to find you know what it is that really packs a punch. is the john oliver of r t america is doing the same. apparently better than. i see anybody you've never heard of love redacted the night president of the world bank hate it because he really meant it seriously send us an e-mail. how does it feel to be a share of the greatest job in the world it's as close to being a king as any job there is what business model helps to run a prison now we just do it on my guess is nobody you know visitation i don't know any more we don't have to search them anymore it's cost effective that's what they want to do that they don't give a damn if you didn't charge on that they were actually paying us to put it back into. the louisiana incarceration rate is twice as high as the us sam bridge

what she could is behind such success. greetings and salutation as the late great whitney houston sang i believe the children are our future so today hawk watchers let's turn our collective gazes upon two stories that highlight the reality that many children across the united states based today especially those born and the wrong income bracket and start with the recent f.b.i. announcement that over eighty four children have been rescued from a human trafficking ring and a multi-state staying that saw the arrest of one hundred twenty child sex traffickers for once i think i think we can all truly say bravo and good job to the f.b.i. the sting was part of the innocence lost.