but. almost three hundred is led the liberated syrian city of raka the pentagon admits that only a few suspected militants were detained as they left the can you say that no one is fighters leave the cities and go somewhere else can you say that they can't say with the one hundred percent certainty that. the russian parliament passes a law allowing the kremlin to classify media outlets as foreign agents it follows a similar move made against our team in the united states. and the u.k. think tank claims that volunteers attempting to help refugees cross international borders are being treated as criminals by the e.u. we hear from an aid worker who fell foul of the authorities climbing over used to be done in the village for money and she only did it out of

a human it's every in desire to help this little jill. this is our two international coming to you live from moscow with me jacqueline virgo thanks for joining us this hour it's suspected that hundreds of islamic state fighters have been allowed to flee that liberated syrian city of raka they reportedly left in convoys as part of a deal brokered to bring an end to the fighting in the area here's how a pentagon spokesperson responded to the claims. there were four foreign fighters that were identified and were detained by the syrian democratic forces out of the rest of the out of the three thousand five hundred civilians approximately three hundred were identified and screened as potential isis fighters as we see there

were four detained but two hundred ninety six are missing now the colonel didn't go into detail when he was speaking however it is possible that they posed as civilians that's a common tactic used by the ice all fighters they tend to pose as civilians they've done this in the past now there have been reports of a convoy leaving the city and it is being reported that it's possible there could have been a large amount of ammunition and i still fighters among that convoy now a pentagon spokesperson was actually grilled on this point here's how he responded we followed these buses as they departed and opportunities presented themselves to conduct strikes against any potential isis fighters that were had decided to flee then we would have we would have provided strikes that did not present itself and there were many civilians are reported that convoy so that did not happen you did

can you say that new isis fighters leave the cities and go somewhere else can you say that i can't say with the one hundred percent certainty that every single fighter was identified coming out of rocca so the question now is where are these i still fighters going there no longer in iraq us so where would they be heading towards while one potential place the nearest location they could flee to would be turkey and the turkish government has voiced some serious concerns about that some have left i still terrorists leave rocker with their weapons instead of eliminating them from the cd is this your strategic tactical corp. aeration now we see the results this keep going to members will be the reason for the deaths of innocent people in every corner of the world including turkey europe and america now at this point we have the united states declaring victory in the city of raka but it's looking like quite a few isis fighters may have potentially escaped from rocka and begin setting up

shop somewhere else as the fight continues patrick having some from twenty first century wired dot com tell us i saw fighters may have been helped by the u.s. led coalition on a number of occasions. i think there's a great great reason to be concerned about allowing hundreds of battle hardened and in this would be some of the most hardcore fighters of the ones the last ones to basically leave and this isn't the first time by the way but this also isn't the first time that we have reports of. multiple reports on aug twenty fourth of u.s. choppers airlifting isis commanders out of dairies or as that city was falling in isis was being routed out of there is or so there's a number of these reports we've seen over the over the months and in many cases we're seeing reports from the middle eastern press of the sort of this collusion with isis so this should get a lot more attention in the western media and this is

a really important issue actually. the russian parliament has passed a law allowing the kremlin to declare media outlets foreign agents if they receive funding from abroad. has the details first of all we wouldn't be hearing this news from the russian parliament if it wasn't for the american department of justice which forced r.t. america to register as a foreign agent in the u.s. the russian government promised to fight back and we can see that it's happening but to make similar demands for foreign media and this country to register as foreign agents russia's own legislation required amendments and they have just been approved by the russian duma and now the draft bill will be moved onto the upper chamber of the russian parliament for a final vote the amendment has it that a media outlet may find itself on the list of foreign agents in russia if it receives money from foreign countries i.e. their governments international organizations or for an organization's for an

individual says well as russian legal entities which are funded from any of the sources that i mentioned above if a media organization becomes a foreign agent. whatever it publishes has to come with a disclaimer plus it has to provide the russian authorities with regular reports on their finances something that was also discussed at the same duma session was a recent buzz feed piece titled secret finding sixty russian payments to finance the election campaign of twenty sixteen but the first thing that comes up on your mind if you're reading this headline is that it's a groundbreaking investigative report on russian meddling in the us election the article tells you about citibank money transfers intended for russian embassies abroad wow the problem is though that russia also had its parliamentary election

back in september twenty sixth staying and there were polling stations opened at russian embassies around the world for russian citizens who couldn't vote at home and that required some money russian officials did confirm that the cash in these transfers was spent on that but to read about this in the original buzz feed article you really have to scroll down and scroll down a lot so this bit of quality investigative journalism by buzz feed or maybe not was also brought up at the duma session earlier this wednesday one of america's most popular news websites is getting caught up in the campaign against r.t. the drudge report which links to hundreds of new science is under fire from the washington post for sharing stories from this channel the site accuse of publishing links to quote russian propaganda this is how the websites boss reacted. i've linked to washington post it it's one thousand times in twenty five years of doing drudge

report i currently give them thirty seven percent of their referral traffic he said bruce who pays news not even a thank you instead you were russian operative so this is completely out of control i mean that article in the washington post about drudge is delusional the one from buzz feed is a joke. maybe they don't see that the it's written from the point of view that it's a given that russian television r.t. and sputnik are propaganda well i think that russian media like r.t. is simply given the russian perspective on the news the way c.n.n. and the new york times gives an american perspective on the news and b.b.c. a british perspective of course american journalist don't think that when they think they're giving a universal truth they don't see that they are speaking from within their own national perspective so to call r.t. propaganda and sputnik is a joke in my opinion and worse than that is to lump them both of them in sputnik and archie would in four wars i mean this shows you the quality of the mind to

wrote that article it's delusional because in four words is nowhere near journalism r.t. as a news channel and if you want to understand what's happening in the world you've got to look at the different perspectives from russia from iran from the u.s. from britain and take these all into consideration so to call one russian television r t propaganda and to lump it in one in four words is just extraordinary and it really shows the depths of the despair i think that the people who are pushing the russia gate story are getting to because it's collapsing that story. the lebanese president has accused saudi arabia of holding his prime minister hostage he spoke out after saad hariri made a surprise resignation announcement while on the saudi capital and failed to return home. nothing just defies that hariri did not return after twelve days we consider it to be custody and detention violating the vienna and then. and the convention of human rights and one hundred one look how look i'm free in saudi arabia if i wanted

to leave tomorrow i would leave tomorrow all lebanese people need to know that i did resign i know it's not an ordinary way of resigning but any prime minister i know that but i did it because i wanted to send them into shock positive shock so lebanese people would realize that our country is in danger from beirut journalist martin jay has latest. it's reading more and more every day like a really bad hollywood movie scripts where nobody really knows the ending we received a statement in beirut which i could sort of attention that the president here michel own is losing some patience with the situation with the standoff but he suggested that he can only accept the resignation of his diary if kerry comes back to beirut and presents himself in person with that of course in mind back to sunday where the nation here was gripped by a live television interview which mr hariri gave whereby he said to the presenter

that he expected to be back in beirut in a number of days the background of this story if i can just summarize is that for the last year while mr hariri has been prime minister in lebanon there was a great deal of pressure and expectation on him from the saudis in particular new crown prince mohammed bin salman to redress and renegotiates the power balance in the region both in lebanon and outside lebanon and it's just emerged in the last twenty four hours of a crude critical to this deal with the heart the crux of this entire to buckler is . the saudis believe that there's been a shift of hezbollah forces from lebanon to yemen in the last few months and the rocket attacks on the saudi capital riyadh which we've seen in the last couple of weeks have been responsible have been have been linked to hezbollah forces being in yemen so we now have something on the table we can they go see it and wrangle with and there's

a certain amount of pressure on her riri now to get back to lebanon and to negotiate a deal with hezbollah where by possibly those forces could be removed from yemen as a token gesture now he come if he comes back to lebanon and most people suspect he will next few days he would have a lot more leverage on his side to negotiate a deal hezbollah. meanwhile the french president emmanuel mccrone has invited hurry and his family to france according to the president's office they're expected to arrive in the coming days she was trying to i spoke with crown prince mohammed bill sammon the prime minister saad hariri and we agreed that i would invite the prime minister in his family to france for a few days is a sweet gesture of friendship and the willingness of fronts to contribute restoring calm and stability in lebanon. joining us live now is author and historian gerald horne to discuss this further now the president of lebanon has accused the saudis of holding prime minister hariri hostage although he hariri himself says he

is free to leave the country so who should we believe here i think you should believe the president of lebanon hope that you've seen the interviews very curious interviews with mr hariri where he seems panicked and stricken which is quite unusual for a head of government a prime minister i don't think you can understand this present crisis with understanding the crisis in saudi arabia itself where the crown prince mohammed bin fall maan who is only thirty two years old have been fighting a losing war in yemen only days ago he arrested a good deal of the saudi ruling elite including many of his cousins and fellow princes including one of the richest men in the world prince will lead been to law and that has upset many not only in saudi arabia but all around the world and of course he's trying to ratchet up tensions with iran which he sees as the major target that is the purpose of his putting pressure on mr hariri because has been

lost in lebanon is tied to iran and that is part of the larger scenario now why do you think that president mccrone decided to intervene in this situation and invite her eyrie and his family to france. well keep in mind that france has the stork interest in that part of the world and you may recall that france also has important interests in syria too as a former colonizing power just a few days ago with regard to the beirut marathon in lebanon the official announcements at that important race were made in arabic english and french keep in mind as well that saudi arabia is in the process of going through a proposition of around co a huge multi-billion dollar oil enterprise and just as united states wants part of the fees that will come from taking that company is least partially private french

investment bankers want a piece of that action as well and keep in mind that mr mccrone before he was president of france was also an investment banker these are some of the reasons why mr mccrone has taken such a decided and dedicated interest in both saudi arabia and lebanon now iran has denounced her arius resignation as part of a joint saudi u.s. plot to destabilize the region if there is a change of power in lebanon how do you expect iran to react. well i don't really expect a change of power i could for see mr hariri resigning i think that the problem is the law is deeply entrenched in the politics and culture of lebannon that will not be changing anytime soon the saudis would like to induce a joint is really us attack finance by saudi arabia on iran and

possibly on lebanon but i think that that would be a disaster it would open the gates of hell as you probably know lebanon has thousands of missiles it's been storing for years now you may also recall that in two thousand and six lebanon in lebanon and in israel that hezbollah bought the is really used to a virtual standstill they were incredibly strengthened a decade later and i trust and i hope that the israelis will not rise to the bait offered by the saudis. thank you so much for your time and your insight on this story today author and historian gerald horne. an anti-racist group in the u.k. has accused the european union of criminalizing people who help refugees cross borders the institute of race relations claims that governments are taking advantage of people trafficking laws to punish humanitarian efforts one person mentioned in the document is former u.k. soldier rob lowry he hit the headlines back in january two thousand and sixteen

when french authorities charged him for trying to help a four year old girl and her father and legally cross into the u.k. he found them living in a sewer pipe at the notorious jungle camp in cali rob spoke to r.t. . this ago i went over to help him again in front of the notorious jungle and i was building shelters there. and i befriended a young afghan girl and her father and she used to help me for many weeks and you know amongst building shelters until one day i found out she had a family who lived literally two miles from myself and i decided to you know with with you know a little bit of thoughts of what would i decided to try and get still her family is quite obvious that you know i didn't do it for money it was quite obvious i didn't do it for you know any political gain or anything like that it was quite will be

she had a purely did it out of the humanitarian. desire to help this little girl the french government the three judges in the cos so all of this for what it was they viewed it as a stupid act by next soldier that crime of compassion as it was described in the media could have landed him five years in prison but his punishment was reduced to a one thousand euro fine here's where up again on the french authorities i could only presume that agenda would be that if they were to stop aid workers are humanitarians going to hell then that would force refugees and the bark off awesome away unless you've actually lived among refugees and heard some of the stories you can't really understand why they would want to come over you know two european shows the refugees about which i've met these. you know these are escaping

you know to be you know real lost blacks look at what's happening with governments around the world at the moment but just take donald trump's america show donald trump is trying to internalize. america with it is sell coupled with the fact that donald trump is completely out to be that with any kind of knowledge of refugees around the world so if the governments think by restricting humanitarian aid workers other volunteers are charities to help on the ground that kind of kid him selves in that kind of trying to sweep you know the issues under the under the capitol to speak situation is going to grow while we realize that you know something has to be gone. hungry has accused washington of trying to interfere in the country's upcoming election the hunger in foreign ministry summoned the u.s. ambassador over plans to fund local media the ministry of foreign affairs and trade

has summoned the u.s. treasury to firm asking for an explanation and told him we consider this a political intervention by the u.s. department of state ahead of the elections the us state department said on monday it would provide seven hundred thousand dollars for media outlets in hungary the funds will be used to train and support local journalists and what the u.s. considers to be objective reporting dan mcadams executive director at the ron paul institute believes this is a clear case of meddling. well it is absolutely blatant political intervention of the united states is going to go to the here in countryside it's going to prop up certain newspapers that it considers to be pro democracy which is pro washington in this is in advance of national elections coming up next year the state department has been opposed to victory or gone to his feet as party from the very beginning and it is absolutely a politically by a politically motivated attempt to change the media in the home here in countryside

and break up the popularity of the doorbell if you just government that's just i would think it's hypocrisy on one part because without any evidence the u.s. accuses russia of intervening in its a turtle affairs in an election and then the u.s. blatantly overtly intervenes and interferes in a home carrying election you don't go into you know prop up certain newspapers in the countryside and it just in advance of an election and call not meddling and that if the russians were were subsidizing american media that was in favor of the russian favorite candidate the entire america would have a panic attack they've had a panic attack with no evidence so now it's absolutely poc received on the part of washington. there's up people in the southern african country of zimbabwe where the military has seized power and detained a long time president robert mugabe on wednesday there were reports of heavy gunfire and explosions being heard in the capital tanks have been stationed at key

points across harare after the military took over the state broadcaster that move has prompted speculation of a possible coup but the military says it's targeting corrupt individuals around the president this was an intense power struggle within the country's leadership. with the crisis unfolding in zimbabwe let's take a look at who the key players are in the country first the president robert mugabe he's ninety three years old and has been at the helm for almost forty years next his former vice president known as the crocodile he's been mugabe's right hand man since the very start his most trusted and loyal supporter and was tipped to become the successor. that was until mugabe unexpectedly sacked him earlier this month for disloyalty disrespect deceit fullness and unreliability why would mugabe do that many point the finger at his wife grace rumor has it mugabe wanted to pave the way

for the fifty two year old first lady to become the next president over the years greece has been ascending the political ladder thanks to her husband back in twenty four it seems she was appointed the head of the ruling party's women's league and despite enjoying some support for her charity work she's widely known in the country as gucci grace for her extravagant shopping sprees and lavish lifestyle. that doesn't sit well with many zimbabweans especially at a time when the country is suffering a financial crisis given mugabe's age she started openly pressing him to choose a successor stating her interest in no uncertain terms so i have said to the president you can also leave me in charge you can also give me your position given the job and that we did very well because i'm good i can do a great job but the sudden appearance of military in the streets of zimbabwe's capital could very well crush those aspirations. the racial divide in the united

states is being seized upon by a group of right wing activists they've been trolling school campuses with posters declaring it's ok to be white a move that's offending both students and teachers and an identified bunch of people have been plastering signs and stickers. these neighborhoods and campuses across america claiming it's ok to be white wow one of the vice of comparing the nation is in shambles blake really shocked that someone like had the guts to do this because it's like we try to promote diversity so much but see in the melting pot that is america everyone is always proud of their heritage you have the african heritage studies you have the hispanic black jewish heritage months cultural appropriation movements and so on but these people who want to publicly state that there is nothing to be ashamed of being white are hiding their faces so much for diversity harvard law school will not let that happen here we live work teach in

learn to gather in a community that are stronger better and deeper because of our diversity we are taking this seriously and are investigating this incident this may be part of a concerted national campaign to form a racial and political tension in our school and community but who would even come up with this crazy idea the ford chair and chat room the so-called troll kingdom these guys have been responsible for spreading trends and movements whose purpose was one thing only trolling and about two weeks ago they again initiated just that they asked their followers to spread this poster with very carefully crafted guidelines such as a no way coming in contact with the left keeping a polite not aggressive font and no vandalism among the few other pointers amazing that was in it for chan created another obvious trolling complain with the purpose

of exposing many people's sensitivities making them act a little crazy towards a flyer. put it out there publicly to say hey we're going to told these people and see how they react the media knows it but these two react anyway because they think that this act is so reprehensible before five letters on a regular sheet of paper is just going to destroy the whole world meanwhile a writer for the new york times is questioning whether it's right for his children to be friends with white people here's anthony brown logan again he blames the media for exaggerating the racial conflicts in the country well i think the racial problem is overblown and often is really that many racial problems in the united states many of the problems they people think that we face are just appreciated by people in the media like the guy who wrote the article in a new york times and many others most people pretty much get along there is some separation of people but they just is basically alone cultural lines that could be within races as well so it's not so much about this big racial division there is

some racial tension but i think the media who wants to have that be the normal thing they pushy and some people unfortunately fall into it. a right wing politician in denmark has caused a stir by calling for a ban on doctors with islamic beards and mark thora from the danish people's party has been highly critical of growing muslim presence and his country but his latest idea has drawn widespread ridicule.

all of the saw interest from from every corner of the planet would probably have been as a point to another i mean even jesus christ had a beard and he was diligently healing the sick throughout his mission you know the whole idea of being against a particular religion but being forward other religion just sounds very antiquated in the twenty first century and somebody bids is about as ridiculous as it sounds for all the wrong reasons that's a wrap up of the news this hour but don't forget you can find the details of all the stories and more at our website r.t. dot com or you can find us on your favorite social media platforms thanks for tuning in.

corning to the department of justice r t the channel you're watching now is an agent of a four inch even hostile power all the while video refuses to explain why this is the case critics warn our t. is a test case for why the campaign of media suppression. arise from sunday night iran iraq north quake centered near the city of a lab where in the one nine hundred eighty s. and on the same deployed u.s. chemical weapons on thousands of kurdish civilians coming up in the show. movement . i can't breathe we speak to award winning journalist and author matt taibbi about police brutality journalistic racism and the killing that started an international black lives matter movement and to the world's biggest threats to free speech

really come from government or from private u.s. multibillion dollar tech giants we speak to internet browser pioneer gone von tetzchner loss from this week's political penalty shootout the off side foreign minister crying fake of a russian interference while his own prime minister price final goal is a more coming up in today's going underground but first for u.k. pm drazen made the most pressing issue today is the near total global power of a lot of near putin while arguably it's really caught twenty three and bricks it thousands upon thousands meanwhile were killed or injured in the earthquake centered on the iraqi city of the lovejoy on sunday night and while iraq was notoriously invaded by labor party ordered british troops in twenty three and neighboring iran has been the state.