the headlines on r.t. international. says that she is ready for a snap election if needed after the collapse of coalition talks leaves germany and what's being dubbed the worst political crisis in the country's modern history . google openly valve's to. making it harder for them to reach wide audiences despite the fact the tech giant itself previously admitted it found no violations when they've investigated popularity on you tube. the international criminal court announces its intentions to probe u.s. involvement in alleged war crimes in afghanistan.

and o'clock tuesday morning here in the russian capital thanks for joining us this is international. it has been a whirlwind start to the week for germany after talks on the forming a coalition government collapsed chancellor angela merkel was forced to seek the advice from the country's president and while he advised parties to rethink their disagreements merkel herself says she is ready to head back to the polls if necessary if it isn't but time parties elected to the bundestag have a shared serve their country expect for all parties a willingness to make possible the formation of a government in the foreseeable future if you elections calm i should say that's not something i'm afraid during the election campaign i thought for four year mandate my point of view is that new elections would be the better path. the president will now try to persuade the members of the failed coalition to rethink

their decision and return to talks peter all over now breaking down the developments. the day after the bundestag election in september angola merkel said that she was confident that by christmas she would have a ruling coalition government in place or fast forward through weeks of torture a sit times negotiations with the green party and the pro-business free democrats while the wheels of that coalition health fell off well and truly with christie and of the free democrats delivering the killer blow we have the other one is that we will not abandon our voters for a policy with which we are not convinced it is better not to govern than to govern badly ingrained differences between the parties on key issues such as climate change refugees and the budget saw the so-called jamaica coalition break down.

just hours after coalition talks with the free democrats and the greens collapsed under merkel was turned down by another coalition suitor this time the social democrats martin schultz saying there would be no return to a grand coalition if. on september the twenty fourth the grand coalition lost fourteen percent so it's clear we were shown the red card in view of the election results we are not available to join a grand coalition. without off the table one other option available to angela merkel would be to rule over a minority government most likely with the green party.

but a minority government would be unstable at best and would certainly require horse trading on gargantuan proportions with the other four parties in parliament if the government was to well pass anything more than just time in the chamber it's also worth noting that this would be a first in modern german history and wouldn't exactly fit the profile of the german voters who do love stabilises so where does this leave us the other option would be we go back to the polls for fresh elections. so back to the polls we go well step forward german president frank volt steinmeyer it's predominantly a ceremonial role but when it comes to installing a government that's where the german presidency has executive power it will be up

to mr steinmeier whether he decides that he accepts angle or merkel as the head of a minority government or whether he dissolves parliament triggering elections and for the long serving leader mrs merkel that could well prove to be a storm she doesn't whether it's keep that's really fun for somebody has got to be responsible for that the federal chancellor created this situation she's been in power for what feels like one hundred years and now she should be asking ourselves maybe i have something to do with this situation for americans mrs merkel has failed us it's time for now to take a step back that night at the end of the merkel era began europe's biggest economy is heading into uncharted territory with current polling suggesting that a new ballot wouldn't return any results too different from what we had in september it does seem that there is no immediate solution to the current instability germany is facing and of course the implications that has for the why

do european union peter all of a r.t. berlin. we talked to various political analysts about where germany could be heading next she's between a rock and a hard place anywhere she going to go her days are numbered and it's becoming more and more apparent to other observers that her days are numbered. she will probably if she if they have to go through another election i would guess hazard a number something like twenty nine to thirty percent is about all that will do in other words it's she's going to be in even a weaker position than she is right now i mean ideally the c.d.u. before they go into election should have a new candidate and start it with a fresh face but they're not going to be able to do that very quickly i was surprised that she actually called for fresh elections because i think she will i mean i think she's lost the prime she should step aside she hasn't recognized the fall of the time and some time now or later the reality will.

resign probably for you this is a this is the receipt for it in the end to to make a coalition agree the f.t.p. the c.s.u. c.d.u. was a very very unlikely construct a very strange construct that of course cannot work and we could see that. this is due to the unprecedented situation we don't know if that's going to be new elections but it's going to be new elections for the the f.t.p. and probably also be the opposition party that came into the parliament with the two point six percent of the votes again because this. is quite a silent significant part of the population that's once a change in the immigration policy so i would be surprised if we had fresh elections but apparently stated we are going to have them. this is r.t. international i'm breaking news coming in for you right now vladimir putin has met

syringe with a. president. in soft of the meeting in the past twenty four just being revealed now these are the latest pictures from the meeting of the russian president congratulating the syrian leader with the success of fighting against terror in syria since russia started its military operation of the country at the request of the syrian government two years ago of the territory held by isis old it's been hugely reduced the terrorists no longer holding any major city in the country now we're talking about a flurry of diplomatic activity right now two separate summits on syria ought to be staged this week to put pressure on both sides to end this war and with islamic state more or less finished these days in the democratic opposition to assad in military retreat the three key regional powers russia iran and turkey will meet in the russian black sea resort of sochi on wednesday where you're seeing these pictures from now to discuss how to wind down hostilities and draw up

a political settlement in preparation for the foreign ministers from three countries met in the turkish resort of antalya on sunday where they floated plans for a syrian congress or national dialogue for the breaking news here on international you're seeing the latest pictures now for the last twenty four hours the russian president vladimir putin is the syrian president in softly on his success in the fight against terrorism in his country of syria but. it would seem. just on intemperance the hour here in moscow the executive chairman of google's parent company alphabet has vowed to rank sputnik in order to make it harder for the outlets to reach wydow audiences his comments came out of security forum in canada when. the use of google's ad sense. i had a subscription for google alerts in german language and getting them every day out

of ten results between five and ten every day we have sputnik news which is some russian german program no outlet and when i clicked on them they wanted to rise to a sense this is really necessary to monitor the rise russian propaganda outlets would google its and so we're well aware of this one and we are working on detecting this kind of scenario you're describing and again the ranking the ranking those kinds of sites it's basically put net are the two and there's a whole bunch of coverage about what we're doing there but we're well aware of it we're trying to engineer the systems to prevent it we don't want to ban the sites ati's that in turn chief has the move saying google's own congressional report found no evidence the channel violated or manipulated any of their policies good to have google and very good as defined all logic and reason facts aren't allowed if they come from r.t. because of russia even though we have google on congressional brokered thing they

found no manipulation of their platform on policy violations by rootie well under pressure from the u.s. authorities the tech giant launched an investigation into alleged russian meddling but if found no evidence that r.t. manipulated you tube in any way to get its status of the most viewed news network despite that google dropped us from its you to prime list in the u.s. without any immediate notice or explanation that only came later at a congress hearing where the firm was grilled on why it actually hadn't carried out the move sooner this or sell gado why did cool google get preferred status to russia today a russian propaganda arm on youtube. there was a period of time where russia today qualified really because of algorithms to participate in a an advertising program why didn't you revert artie's preferred status after the

i.c.a. came out in january two thousand and seventeen it took you to september of two thousand and seventeen to do it the removal of r t from the program was actually a result of the as as i understand it is a are is a result of some of the drop in viewership not as a result of any action otherwise so there was there was nothing about our t.v. or its content that. meant that it stayed in or stayed out. again none of these explanations were initially given to our child when we were dropped from you tube as prime list in america as you heard of the reason given by google's representative was a drop in viewership even though as mentioned earlier our channel remains the most viewed news network on youtube. now the unprecedented pressure on our channel began after the u.s. intelligence community mentioned us in its report on alleged russian meddling after that we faced attacks from both the us or thora to use on tech giants aside from

google twitter has banned all of our votes on its platform despite earlier offering us the option of spending millions on political head of the presidential election last week see america was forced by the u.s. justice department to register as a foreign agent and we discussed the pressure on channels faced with political commentator steve malzberg there's been nothing found in the whole russian collusion investigation so far and there's really no meat here when it comes to r.t. and nefarious doings in dealings but that doesn't stop them this is all about the fact that russia is right now the enemy russia has been made the enemy by the left the democrats and by definition the media the media has been nonstop for a year now about evil russia and they want to concentrate on the real problem they certainly have every opportunity to look at what i call propaganda from the leftist

mainstream news media you could go to outlets in my opinion like c.n.n. and m.s.n. b c and a.b.c. news and n.b.c. news and c.b.s. news and you could find what i consider to be fake news taking things out of context leaving out pertinent facts that misrepresent the stories happens all the time every day i see it russia is the corner called bogeyman right now and this is all part of that deal. the international criminal courts requested judicial authorization to investigate alleged war crimes committed during the war in afghanistan among the suspects looking to prosecute us military as well as cia employees that could prove difficult as the us has cut all ties with the court. so american has the story the international criminal court is developing a case on a legit war crimes in afghanistan and seeks a formal investigation the reasonable basis to believe walk why arms against

humanity been committed in connection with the conflict in afghanistan the main focus of the i.c.c. is cases the taliban the afghan government and the u.s. military as for the last of these the prosecutor's office has revealed dozens of instances of torture and ill treatment allegedly carried out by u.s. forces members of u.s. armed forces appeared to have subjected at least sixty one to two hundred persons to torture cruel treatment outrages upon personal dignity one site notorious for abuse in afghanistan is the cia salt pit prison described by the media as a sadistic dungeon with barbaric conditions where torture reigns with little oversight while the evidence has been available to the public ever since secret cia documents were declassified by the u.s. government the cia actually referred to it as enhanced interrogation techniques which included sleep deprivation isolation cold showers and rough treatment but

here's one case. so what are the chances the i.c.c. will eventually bring the u.s. military u.s. officials or the cia to justice actually zero the i.c.c. was created in one nine hundred ninety eight by the rome statute with the u.s.

among signatories but in two thousand and two a year after the u.s. invaded afghanistan the bush administration with the true from the treaty senior diplomat john bolton who finalized the withdrawal later described the move as his happiest moment in government service i signed a letter that removed america's signature from the rome statute that described it in my book is my happiest moment of government service in my life i think the court is fundamentally illegitimate so no matter what comes out of the i.c.c. is prob the international criminal court just doesn't have the jurisdiction to bring those responsible to justice in fact the law goes so far as to say that the u.s. would use military action to forcibly take americans who were arrested out of the hague if they were arrested by the i.c.c. so i think we can certainly predict that any

real. all imprisonment or any remediation against americans for crimes against humanity or war crimes is probably unlikely but i still think the process of going through an indictment of attempting to try americans for these types of crimes is a great advance. well the instability in afghanistan has led to a drastic increase in opium production this year that it's according to a new report from the united nations areas under poppy cultivation having creased by more than a hobson's twenty sixteen and expanded into new territories opium production is nearly doubled over the same period. from the united nations office on drugs and crime outlined the possible consequences of this alarming record and we know and help introduce enough coniston and it is not use of the infamous it's easy to see

it's all legal slease market even after all these huge increase in afghanistan we decided to hold all of the world from anybody in countries of afghanistan then we have huge amount of the we traffic to this that those in the city should consciously and probably least we don't know you know very little hotly it was all very well as we mentioned of political instability is named by the un as one of the main reasons for the alarming change among others are corruption and a lack of security and we asked angela again why the afghan government's counter measures on working. he still finds the. terrorist group. so. please it is clear that he's. the president and talk to.

the solomons. right now twenty twenty past the hour here and more. breaking news for you here on oxy international vladimir putin house met with the syrian president bashar assad in sochi let's get the details now on cross live to watch easer jacqueline bouvier this morning and get some insight on this this was not previously announced jacqueline we've just learned about it now in the past twenty minutes as far as we understand what have putin. to discuss yes so this meeting actually took place yesterday like you said in sochi and in it putin congratulated assad on syria's results and fighting terrorism in his country the two apparently discussed the principles of organizing a political process for settlement in syria saying that it's time to shift the focus from a military one to trying to achieve a political settlement and a political process in the country of syria who can express the i hope that the

fight against terrorism will soon come to an end of course not ignoring the fact that it's not something that's going to happen very quickly in the day it's a long term fight but hoping that as i said earlier the ship the focus can be shifted from a military one to finding a political settlement in the country putin also assure the public that assad is ready to work with anyone and everyone who is has a goal of peace in his country and also then to russia for their support in all of the for their air support in the fight against terrorism in the country they also discussed the creation of deescalation zones in syria which have already been how. but i'm saying that those have really allowed the first real steps to be taken towards sitting down and talking to the opposition in the country and how important those deescalation zones are and of course the russian president also said that russia is really counting on the u.n. to be an active participant in the settlement of syria in the final stages that are to come and of course we also learned that putin is to call trump today i discuss

what this means so it looks like russia is really trying to help reach out between the two countries and find a way to the political settlement in syria. as you say of the russian president calling donald trump today and then in the next twenty four hours are the main representatives of russia iran and turkey having this big meeting in sochi to discuss hopefully a peaceful resolution to the out of the crisis in syria jacqueline thank you. president. designated north korea as a state sponsor of terrorism young yang had been removed from the list by george w. bush almost a decade ago and it. nuclear negotiations the change means one of the most sanctioned countries in the world well face even more restrictions today in stages designating north korea as a state sponsor of terrorists. should have happened

a long time ago should happened years ago this designation will impose further sanctions and penalties on north korea and related persons and supports our maximum pressure campaign to isolate the murderous regime tomorrow the treasury department will be announcing an additional saying shit and a very large one on north korea and this will be going on over the next two weeks it will be the highest level of sanctions by the time it's finished over two week period north korea joins iran sudan and syria on the u.s. black list of countries claim to have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism it means an immediate ban on defense exports to the country along with limited aid and other economic restrictions although the us secretary of state rex tillerson said it's a symbolic move it hands washington mall power to punish a third party countries for ing gaging in trade with north korea. it is very

symbolical the one hand because it just points out that given what how what a rogue regime this is and how brutal this regime the practical effect of it is it on we already have many of these actions in place through the current sanctions that may go disrupt the dissuade so third parties from other taking certain activities with north korea the co-founder of lawyers for peace and demilitarization in korea eric can believes new sanctions will be futile. they banter about the term terrorism a lot because it gets people afraid it is the buzzword since the cold war to justify certain military actions and other actions but frankly the designation violates the very law that it's set to be based upon the united states is frustrated that it can't affect her way to change it wants to see

a north korea without military action that military action isn't an option and so it wants to appear like it's taking further actions but this idea of additional sanctions is probably a bit hollow because there are so many sanctions now in place that i don't see it adding that much more to the debt to make a difference. more than a million dollars of taxpayers' money has been paid out in her rassmann settlements by the u.s. congress this year that is the highest figure in a decade the report released by the office of compliance reveals complaints range from sexual harassment to racial discrimination are some details now with. for almost a month now the u.s. public has been facing an avalanche of allegations of sexual harassment leveled against men in the public eye on an almost daily basis well it turns out that members of congress are no exception a person basically offered me. an opportunity to flirt with him in order to to

excel in my career this member asked a staffer to bring them over some materials to their residence. and the young staffers a young woman went there and was greeted with a member in a towel and this talk it sort of happened over and over and over and finally one day i said you know it knock it off this is just not appropriate it's not right and it's not cool now there's actually a special body on capitol hill set up to deal with the allegations but you might be surprised to learn that some people think this body is actually part of the problem we have a system in place that allows for the harasser to go unchecked doesn't pay for the settlement himself and is never identified so the office of compliance to which a victim must apply or complain is a place that has really been and then abler of sexual harassment it's the american taxpayers who end up footing the bill it's already cost them over seventeen million

dollars in awards and settlements since the office of compliance was established in the one nine hundred ninety s. on top of that the u.s. public doesn't even know what they're paying something the person behind this scheme has admitted needs to change it's the taxpayer basically being charged for the activities of someone a staff person or a member of congress it should be made available to the public so how does this scheme sit with the people who end up paying for it i don't want to pay for i think that the that the that the set whoever the perpetrator is should be paying not the taxpayer. pay for their own defense really i don't think the economy no taxpayer should pay for that they should pay their own way. so who says we have to pay i don't think they should be sued i think they should be prosecuted congress is attempting to rectify this situation with a bipartisan bill so in the future when taxpayers have to cough up the bill they'll at least know who's transgressions it is that they're funding kaleb mop and r. t.

washington d.c. and while the report breaks down the settlements paid over the years investigative journalist david lindorff question. why there is no clarity on how amounts were reached or who the complaints were made against if the members of congress are abusing employees buz ng you know handicapped employees are cheating their employees out of their overtime payments are sexually abusing female employees or i mean maybe there's a female senator who is abusing a male employee any of these kinds of abuses how can they be writing legislation that is supposed to regulate these kinds of behavior by employers in the private sector it makes a joke out of their supposed to efforts to create safe and fear workplaces across the country when they're protecting themselves and hiding the information that's that's the real story that these payments have been hidden you

can't find out who did it or how much was paid. we were talking with more get used to morning worldwide headlines very soon. everybody i'm stephen baldwin task hollywood guy usual suspects every proud american first of all under george washington and r.v. do you see this is my buddy max famous financial guru just a little bit different on this day one guy no no no no no with all the drama happening in our country i'm shooting the road have some fun meet every day americans. and hopefully start to bridge the gap this is the great

american people. that image was quite controversial to a lot of people some people store as a response to some people sort of dangerous threatening whereas other people i think including you store as a symbol of something very different what was it you know. powerful. protecting. us from our freedom.