the syrian army and its allies liberate the last time stronghold in syria bringing the terror group's claim to counterfeit in the country to an. all in the. pro independence protesters clashed with police barcelona railway station it is part of a general strike that is seen demonstrators block the roads in protest over the jailing of top politicians. and the cia chief mike pump aoe comes under fire for meeting a former intelligence official who says last year's of the democratic party was an inside job rather than a russian directed cyber attack we speak to the man behind the claim.

of broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow this is our g international and john thomas glad to have you with us now the syrian army and its allies including the lebanese militia hezbollah say that they have liberated the last major eisel stronghold in syria the town of welcome all of the town is on the border with iraq and was the terrorists' last major bastion after they were driven from the city of dario's or the recapture of mali gives damascus its first border crossing with iraq since the region fell under control of myself back in two thousand and twelve russia's defense ministry recently noted islamic state controlled less than five percent of territory in syria and that was before these last two major victories but we will return to this syria story after bit and it will give you some analysis from live guests.

the cia director michael peo has come under fire for meeting a former intelligence officer over the alleged hacking of the democratic party back in two thousand and sixteen of a u.s. intelligence community has laid the blame for the hack on moscow and met with william binney a former national security agency official turned whistleblower believe believes that the alleged hack of the democratic national committee was in fact a leak carried out by a d.n.c. employee who also coauthored a memo to the president on the issue back in july. let's remind you about the d.n.c. hack it was announced by a cyber security firm working for the d.n.c. on june fourteenth two thousand and sixteen and was blamed on two russian linked groups the next day an anonymous hacker for two point zero claimed responsibility for the attack but the d.n.c. didn't confirm that he took credit for another breach on july fifth and later that month wiki leaks released thousands of the democratic party's e-mails earlier my

colleague neil harvey spoke to william binney who believes that the files in the second attack were copied much too fast for a remote breach to be the method used. one of the main issues i was there telling him is that i didn't believe the intelligence agencies were telling him or the president the truth so i went through the technical data that we is the veteran intelligence professionals who have technical experience all of the technical data that we had available and could look at the analyze and from that was very clear that it was a local download because of the speeds and all i mean we've even tried to transfer data across the atlantic through the web. and see what speeds we could achieve the most we got was like twelve megabytes per second and you needed at least thirty eight megabytes just to pass the data not counting housekeeping so that meant that the capacity was about one fourth the one eight what would be necessary to transfer that data to somewhere in europe for example and when you spoke about wi on lies the data is that meaning i was reading about an expert forensic aids or is the

person who was an allies in the data for you well he was looking at the data yes and so were about five or six other people. and i was looking at the output of that trying to assess that. just to verify it and we also tried to test it in the real world not in the speculative world trying to do the transfer to make it something that would be compatible with that download rate and we could not achieve that either so i want to challenge you on this one you because i read that one of the members of your your kind of team that was working on this. they disagreed with you but they weren't so convinced and i mean convinced that this was definitely the case that this had to be a download is it's not possible to transfer that spade the best we got was from a data center in new jersey to a data center in the u.k. and the best was twelve megabytes per second that's what i said was one fourth the one eight the necessary capacity to transfer that data at the rate it was download so it had to be done locally there was no substantive evidence anywhere if they

could produce some factual evidence that we could look at and analyze find but so far they produced absolutely nothing. back in two thousand and thirteen william binney was a welcome to guest on american news channels when he exposed privacy violations of the n.s.a. spying program then c.n.n. described him as a whistleblower with a dramatic story however now the network seems to have changed its tune describing him as a conspiracy theorist william binney himself says the channel uses labels instead of actual evidence they have a problem of course because they've been asserting this kind of. speculation at the gender driven stuff for over a year now and it would be kind of difficult to go back off that so but i mean to me it basically shows the shallow weakness of the argument when you have to throw labels at people instead of dealing with any factual evidence in fact the f.b.i. knows a lot more about this than they're telling anybody so it is n.s.a. but they're not saying it either so and they're not telling that this is

information i'm getting from other sources i don't have it substantiated but they need to come forward and say exactly what they've got so far they've not done that . let's switch gears now pro independence protesters have clashed with police at the railway station in barcelona officers tried to move the activists away after they blocked the entrance into the station. police found themselves massively outnumbered by protesters who were chanting pro independence slogans standoff took place after a general strike brought much of the region to a halt activists blocking crucial transport networks in major cities and a protest over the jailing of a regional leaders madrid accuses them of rebellion and sedition and has today an old the region's declaration of independence. it was.

during the strike the roads and trains were blocked by protesters these are pictures from where protesters are cut off at the regional round connecting spain to france and a is around the train station hundreds of demonstrators broke through a police cordon. a quick recap of what has happened in catalonia over the past month or so on october the first the region held an independence referendum marred by a violent police crackdown an overwhelming majority voted to break away from spain and independence was declared on october the twenty seventh later that day madrid stripped the region of self rule and ordered snap elections and last week eight

former cataloging ministers were jailed on charges of sedition and rebellion and meanwhile the spanish foreign minister says madrid is ready to amend the constitution in catalonia as interest have created the committee in the problem and to explore the possibility of them in the go situations to be able to accommodate better v.s.p. geishas of some of the cuts and people i think we are ready we you know we acknowledge that there is a political situation that he says to be looked at r.k. the catalan spokes person from the european partnership for independence told us madrid will not bring peace to the region. thank you thank god the regressive force right back on institutions and obviously before that was you know. you have you just don't know how you are right because it's just

it's an outrage it's very hypocritical for him for that for the spanish estate to preach to make believe that they are the ones reagan peace when they are the ones bringing the bar and i know who far in the nine eleven just imagine wait the pats are an institution despite the state morally has to do for no more than so national charities that they sorry that they defend them promote the sort of terminations under universal rights in that fund and i legitimately i mean damn dance i believe . nato is increasing the number of its military headquarters in europe for the first time since the cold war it is so the alliance can move troops quicker across the continent all it made it growing tensions with russia. the other petition of the nato command structure will further strengthen our ability to reinforce our lives quickly effectively. but military will be that this is not only

about new. it is also about the ability to move forces on the quitman to quickly with the right transport means the right infrastructure all the idea is to create this europe wide zone where it's easy to move forces and equipment around nato commanders want to get rid of a lot of the red tape in europe in order for them to take things like tanks and military hardware and personnel and move them transport them from one country to another across the continent at speed and even though the chief of the military alliance insists that they're not targeting any specific country nato. turns on the senses the text of against any specific nation in recent years one of its top priorities has been containing russia we have seen the much more assertive russia we have seen the russia which has over many years invested heavily in their

military capabilities modernize their military capabilities now as part of this announced revamp there are also plans to help protect sea lines of communication for the military alliance which in the event of war would be a vital supply route to europe now all this talk of preparedness for a potential war with russia is pretty reminiscent of the sort of rhetoric we heard all those years ago during the cold war the kremlin has accused nato of pursuing an aggressive strategy on its borders that threatens to destabilize eastern europe with nato his latest move to expand its military capabilities on the continent this cycle of military saber rattling. to anybody asking why us or. the u.s. or north korea have traded insults again pyongyang has called trump

a lunatic old man before adding that washington is unfit to act as a judge of human rights that comes after president trump described north korea as a hell that no one deserves during his stop in seoul as part of his asian tour and as usual trump did not miss a chance to stick it to north korea on twitter he released a warning video accompanied by a rather dramatic soundtrack. the response. isolate. our response. our duty to run this danger to get it. right. we. would secure. us for. our secret for. president trump is now in china for the next much anticipated leg of his trip to visit has already proved fruitful. is being reported

that the u.s. and china have signed some twenty trade deals worth nine billion dollars the chinese side has dubbed them a warm up before a bigger affair money on thursday so american looks back at and she's previous meeting. donald trump arrives in china on its five nation asia tour that's now the chinese president's turn to roll out the red carpet just six months ago the chinese leader came to washington and the two hit it off bonding over chocolate cake but trump couldn't help but be a bit theatrical during the dinner topping the magnificent dessert with a show of washington's military might we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen and president she was enjoying it so what happens is i said we've just launched fifty nine missiles heading to iraq and what were you headed to syria yes heading toward syria trump loves his weapons so much he thinks they're the solution to every problem and when the threat is as serious as north korea all the other countries in the region must be armed to the teeth and prepared

to respond well that's the idea he's been trying to sell on his asia trip so far in both japan and south korea prime minister the band is going to be purchasing massive amounts of military equipment as he should south korea will be ordering billions of dollars of that equipment we make the best military equipment by far we make the greatest military equipment in the world the f. thirty five fighter which is the greatest in the world the greatest in the world missiles of many different kinds whether it's planes whether it's missiles we make the best the greatest military equipment about for the world the purchasing it from the united states. now trump is counting on the chinese president to back him up as he puts pressure on pyongyang president where we would leave tomorrow china has been very helpful

we'll find out how helpful so on but he really has been very very helpful well it's often said that diplomacy is merely seduction in another guys so the question is will trumps efforts to seduce the chinese leader carry over and will he be able to strike a sweet deal for the u.s. so marathon party washington d.c. . russia has rejected claims by the world anti-doping agency that russian athletes have used banned substances in competition that story much more after the break. thank. you.

thank. you put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so. i'm sure. that you'd like to be that's what we're hopeful that the more people. interested in the water. should. i welcome back and this is our two international live from moscow so let's go back

to our top story from syria where pro-government forces alongside there has bought allies have recaptured i suppose last stronghold the town of bookham all to get some more information and the live reaction we can talk to dave lindorff founding editor of the new site this can't be happening is good to have you with us here on r.t. international. so let's talk about this or let's talk about this picture for a second. does this actually affectively mean the end of isolate in syria well according to what. the clips i was reading about this is it seems like the russians are saying that. control of land in syria at this point is down to about five percent of syrian territory and that when russia first came in at the invitation of the assad regime it was about seventy percent so that's

a huge knockdown. of territory and yeah i would say. it looks like it that's almost washed up for myself so doesn't mean they can't commit acts of terrorism but it doesn't mean they control territory anymore yet you bring up a good point about acts of terrorism i mean we still have small pockets of terrorists remaining in neighboring villages and i mean syria and iraq the surrounding territory vast expanses of areas where people can hide if you will and regroup is it going to take a long time to completely wipe them out. well judging from the situation in iraq. after what is it fourteen years after the u.s. invasion of iraq i would say yes i mean there are still huge terrorist attacks that go on with. you know horrifying regularity in iraq. so i don't know why

you know i mean there's there's all these tribal factions. in these different ethnicities and everything in syria and a lot of angry people so yeah i would expect that there is going to be that kind of activity for a long time to come especially if the u.s. and saudi arabia and countries like that are supplying weapons and you know helping certain groups to do that kind of thing. asking you a little bit to go down the rabbit hole with me because i mean there's no real way of knowing but what is next for syria once these terrorists are gone i mean it is a quagmire to say the least i mean it won't mean the end of the civil war will it. no it won't be the end of the civil war i think one thing that syria has in its favor is that. the eastern part of syria as a lot of syria's oil such as it is and so getting full control of eastern

syria. a deprives eisel of a lot of the revenues that it was getting for smuggling oil into turkey into the black market and be it gives that oil back to syria the syrian government control so they can sell it. and oil is a tough thing to as the us found with iraq under saddam hussein it's a tough thing to embargo because everybody's hungry for oil and it's fungible good so it's pretty easy to to sell it even if people are trying to stop you from selling it it's certainly an interesting situation of course oil you bring up the point that that's one of the main reasons why the u.s. is involved in the united states and middle east anyway dave lindorff always interesting to hear thoughts founding editor of the new site this can't be happening thanks for being with us here on our to international. all right switching gears now russia's investigative committee has rejected claims that the

country ran an elaborate state sponsored doping program it said the world anti-doping agency had provided no proof to support the findings in a report by a canadian lawyer richard mclaren you have comments. well they carried out an extensive in-depth investigation involving more than seven hundred athletes their coaches various medical personnel and they question them about the allegations in the mclaren report and a number of them they rejected firstly they rejected the claim that some of the samples was switched the claim was made in the mclaren report it said it said that some of them are normal or some of the samples indicating that perhaps they were mixed with salt and distilled water in order to hide banned chemical substances in the samples while the investigators stage their own experiments and they found that depending on how intensely an athlete trained what he had drunk his unique

physiological exchange process as well many samples could be found as anomalous the second claim that they rejected was that the urine sample bottles themselves were tampered with were opened them manufactured by a swiss company and they're made to be incredibly difficult to open if not impossible to open and close without leaving any sort of mark and back in march there was an experiment that investigation which found that these a urine bottles can't be opened without damaging the integrity of the bottles themselves or even destroying them so that claim doesn't fly either the other claim that they rejected was that there was a state sponsored massive national doping program in russia investigators say the evidence that they have is that there is no evidence that mclaren report hasn't offered any of them mass stooping to stem but the investigators did say that they

don't deny that there may have been individual cases of athletes using banned substances but those seven hundred question many of them said that. they did indeed buy performance enhancing drugs which they believed to be legal from grigori he's the former head of the russian anti-doping agency on whose testimony much of the mclaren report was was made and here's what they had to say matthew that's what caught our doping while taking the drugs i'd bought from roche and give it said the tests would always been negative if we used these drugs later he took them off me and never gave them back my athletes was disqualified for two years even though we deny using prohibited drugs later i remembered i bought some drugs from rob chink of during the testing period now i suspect the drugs he sold me were banned. of allegedly claim that the athletes that these were illegal substances but after

doping tests they were marked as positives nevertheless grigori watching of himself investigators claim they have this phone call on record on tape he called the current head of the russian anti-doping agency and offered money a bribe in return for a database of all russian athletes doping results. it was concluded that flushing who is now in the u.s. and works with professor mclaren telephoned a former site i had and asked her to sell him the database of russian athletes test results the former senator had told russian investigators about this and now the committee has records of their conversations earlier this month of course two russian athletes skiers both were banned for life from competing in the olympics due to positive results in doping tests but the question being asked here now is that if the investigation is still ongoing why are athletes already being banned for life. i that does it for me that i'll be back in exactly thirty five minutes

with a full look to news you are watching right international action be with us. prescribe medication is widespread on the u.s. market and a frequent cause of death at that point in my life i just felt like everything was ashes my family was literally coming unglued i had actually planned. to commit suicide watch all who has made antidepressants so commonly used we were doing what the doctors told us to do we were being responsible and what the real side effects . was is chemically altered when i did was done on a cocktail of legal drugs. just because

something's legal doesn't mean it's saying. don't walk sell you on the idea that dropping bombs brings police to the chicken hawks forcing you to fight the battle for going. to new socks for the tell you the celebrity gossip the public eye fell for the most important news today. by the author that doesn't tell you on the cool enough to buy their products. all the hawks that we along with all worth watching. i played for many clubs over the years so i know the game inside i. football isn't only about what happens on the pitch put the final school it's about the passion from the fans it's the age of the super manager killian erroneous and spending two hundred twenty million on one player. it's an experience like nothing else i want

to because i want to share what i think of what i know about the beautiful guy a great so one more transfer. and thinks this minute. no you. know what. i can. approve of plea state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to

k.b.r. represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse i have witnessed during the course of my professional career it's suspicious on how go no bid contract because dick cheney before he became vice president was c.e.o. of halliburton he left oliver with twenty million dollars worth of stock options from nine eleven till two thousand and nine and those stock options quadrupled in price he made about a million dollars off the war there's a great if you change the phone defending the woman he is no longer about being interviewed an american enterprise institute he said it would be a disaster fast peace since the civil war we have no exit strategy goes on and on for days the only benefit of units one for united. to his work for however nation hundreds of millions of dollars the next to.

us military contractor k.b.r. is under legal fire today over real fires in iraq the firm is charged with causing illnesses from massive burn pits used to incinerate garbage there. are veterans who are now suing her. we are because of their they believe service connected. injury is say they k.b. are short sighted didn't install and center raiders when they should have had burned all this hazardous waste when it was a guess the o.t. regulations to do so. and as a result they are sick of all the contracts that k.b.r. unhealed received require them to comply with e.p.a. regulations the allegation is that k.b.r. rather than complying with the contract complying with these environmental regulations disposing only of what should be disposed of using incinerators doing

it the right way for reasons often related to profit margins was disposing of dangerous toxins in a way that directly impacted the health of soviet troops. seeing stuff that was nuclear biological and chemical products this is a do not buy truck tires all types of styrofoam and polystyrene batteries trucks quite a bit of different stuff. that should have been segregated out it was done it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if you're k.b.r. employee and you're throwing. biological medical waste into the. into the burning tires and anything else. that is known to be a toxin. then you're you're careless and you're you're putting people's health in jeopardy and that's exactly would a lot of these k.b.r. contractors were doing.