the u.k. government reportedly turns down a request from ecuador to grant diplomatic status to wiki leaks founder julian assange on. the u.s. says it will spend one hundred fifty million dollars rebuilding iraq the city is devastated by the war on islamic state a figure dwarfed by how much the pentagon has requested this year of military operations there. and germany refuses to deport a turkish extremist to supporting terrorists in syria is prison term is almost up and he could be released next year.

if you are watching the headlines here at r.t. international broadcasting live from moscow. the u.k. foreign office has reportedly denied a request from ecuador to grants diplomatic status to julian assange which it follows reports the wiki leaks founder being granted an ecuadorian id card as a step towards ending his five year confinement in the london embassy artie's anastasio as the latest. the mystery of what happens next in this ever complicated tricky and internationally spanning case of julian assange really continues with some developments trickling in this evening here in london where we are in fact outside the ecuadorian embassy and some of the confusion of some of the reports that have been coming out seems to be stemming from first of all it tweets that julian assange had posted on his twitter page wearing a t. shirt with the ecuadorian national colors parking lots of debate and questions online about whether or not this could potentially mean that he has either has been

or is on his way to being granted citizenship those questions of course are yet to be specifically answered by either julian assange himself the founder of wiki leaks or ecuadorian officials what we do know so far is that a son seems to have been issued some sort of national ecuadorian identification number which is easily seen on the ecuadorian web site where this particular number coincides with his full name now the questions there are whether or not this is an i.d. that could potentially be used for him to apply for a quick dorrian citizenship or somehow change his status when it comes to this very complicated case that has now spanned over several years what we do know as this comes following earlier statements from the ecuadorian foreign minister saying that it's really time to move on with his case let's take a listen with the peasant companies in those conditions forever. we're considering

the option of mediation with this they don't have that that could be done virus that country or individual. no solution is possible without international corporations or without that if the u.k. which has expressed interest in finding one well there are lots of questions now about who this potential mediator could be because obviously when it comes to the complications of julian assange being able to actually step out of this embassy. be hind us revolves largely on what his status is in the u.k. because clearly it's been made very clear many times over and over by british officials that even if he does step foot outside the embassy he would be snatched up by them for the simple reasons of having breached his bail when around the time of when his whole case began to unravel so that has been the position of the british officials of course despite having the world seen that organizations such as the united nations have found his detention to be arbitrary that of the swedish investigation that has been going on for quite some time having dropped the sexual

allegations against him there were lots of assumptions there that this would open the door first to walk out of the second jorian embassy where he's been holed up budget obviously all of this has been based largely on the fact that a staunch himself believes that as soon as he walks out he would be extradited to the u.s. which seems to be his biggest fear given the sort of expectation for him to be punished there for his work as a whistleblower with the website wiki leaks having provided so much information when it comes to certain doings of the american government so certainly lots of questions we're going to obviously be watching this very closely in terms of what is this going to mean for songes status not just within ecuador but potentially his case beginning to move forward a little bit more. and for more on this we're now joined by former cia analyst and whistleblower john kiriakou john thank you very much indeed for joining us well as

we've been hearing this. thank you very much well according to the region the foreign office has denied a request for diplomatic status to julian assange why would they do that. well i think they're under great pressure by the american government you know that it's the worst kept secret in washington that julian is is likely slated to begin working his way through the u.s. judicial process if you ever leave the embassy and i think that the americans have told the british under under no. terms should julian be allowed to leave the embassy of his own free will and then move on he should be snatched up in extradited to the united states well there's also the results are other interested parties in joining us out i mean coming back to sweden and the cases that mean the swedish prosecutors they dropped their probe into assad's last year so while the u.k. still set on actually arresting him. well you know i think the official u.k. reason is very weak. nobody nobody in the british foreign office would care if

there were if if his name were julian assange and he were coming out of that embassy if it were anybody else who had overstayed a visa they would take him drive him to the airport and put him on an airplane out that would be the bottom line just to get him out but julian is different and i think that the british are quietly and lately secretly working with the americans to make sure that the julian is arrested and sent to the united states for trial which i think is a travesty and also not bases assigned as always claimed that the swedish prime itself was just the pretext to have him extradited to the u.s. i mean do you think that the americans don't want to miss that why. i really believe that donald trump has extended broke obama's war on whistleblowers especially on national security whistleblowers you know we thought things were so bad underbrush obama and certainly they were i was prosecuted under brooke obama i

was one of eight national security whistleblowers prosecuted under brooke obama but under donald trump we've already seen the arrest and incarceration of reality winter not just has she been arrested but she's been dead by bail and she's been held in a jail a county jail in georgia since june of last year even barack obama did ask that any of us be held without bail so i think that this is really a continuation of a very dangerous and wrongheaded policy to target whistleblowers julian is one of the biggest of the international whistleblowers and i think that they really want his head on a platter and funny joe one question if you could be very brief i mean what do you see as a way out of this deadlock. you know i think that julian just has to try to be as patient as possible the ecuadorian government has to be even more patient than julian and hope that there is a change in government either in the u.k.

or in the u.s. that allow him to just leave the embassy go to an airport and fly to ecuador and we'll leave it that john kerry our former cia analyst and whistleblower thank you very much indeed for your thoughts thank you. well meanwhile the u.s. embassy in iraq has announced one hundred fifty million dollars who will spend this year rebuilding cities left devastated in the war on islamic state but that's only a fraction of what the u.s. has earmarked for its ongoing military operations there what i guess the if as well what does this look like to you mad max. resident evil no this is mosul iraq what's left of it cool to see of thousands of air strikes we filmed this a few weeks ago and nothing's really changed from when we were there last this is what the off the mouth of a classic strike in mosul look like neighborhoods that number has been reduced to

a handful. the iraqi army and the u.s. led coalition seem to make sure to not leave a square meter and scorched earth it took of precision i haven't yet seen a single house and mine still untouched by fighting the neighboring street all but destroyed the street across rubble the street over there it's the same story wherever you look cities and towns that house the medians a devastated hospice even now in mosul you are never far from the stench of rotting bodies or unexploded bombs help reconstruction no one seen any of that module be it the. i did they and all of us will went in to and it is. doing. well she's

a little hungry out get a lot of you know she be going to school in the city doesn't matter. what else is there to do in mosul watch the symbolism just a little don't know hala questions like did you feel that if she ever put it to you . as strange the u.s. had pledged to help and do what it's bombs did they're already helping fund reconstruction iraq says it needs one hundred billion dollars to rebuild and the united states has doubled its pledge to one hundred fifty million dollars and. about zero point one percent of what iraq needs and no one seems to have seen any of that but as it is you had to teach your most if you. are a good. muslim or wife or. don't love them all jumbled don't have surely. love common enough to

share here about how dare i say i hadn't this way. now one of the magical should have it now after shiny. went up five as i had the start of a dallas market and it's on file when t.v. set is so lucky rather than left to send a message that the the numbers are an entirely different leagues what the united states spends on burning isis out of iraq and what the us has pledged to repair the damage it did or entirely in comparable numbers the average cost of a u.s. strike in iraq at the beginning of the operation very roughly counting fuel flight time cost of bombs made an uncertain military pay was half a million dollars for one of their strike they carried out fourteen thousand strikes in iraq alone and after helping turn iraqi cities into this all the complex has one hundred fifty million dollars the equivalent of two mid-sized

passenger jets that isn't going to change many lives in iraq. of more analysis on this let's now bring in nicholas chairs davis also of blood on our hands the american invasion and destruction in iraq nicholas thank you very much indeed for joining us well as we just heard the iraqi government says it needs one hundred billion dollars to rebuild and the u.s. is pledging hundred fifty million how much of a difference will someone that make you think. yes well that. you know that suggests the the us is not responsible for all this destruction but you know we all know the reality is that it was the united states and the u.k. who invaded and destroyed iraq and the history of u.s. funding for reconstruction is really utterly shameful the u.s.

congress in two thousand and three appropriated eighteen billion dollars five years later u.s. general accounting office concluded that only twenty four percent of u.s. reconstruction funds for iraq had ever been dispersed instead what reconstruction did take place in iraq was funded by what was called the development fund for iraq that was funded under a u.n. security council resolution and what that did was to take six billion dollars left over in the oil for food program it took the. assets that had been. the assets that had been taken away from iraq and to saddam hussein return those to use and then it was iraqi oil revenues but a special inspector general found that in fact most huge proportion of that money

was in fact stolen or embezzled by u.s. officials and contractors. so you know we have an absolutely shameful history here what we really should be talking about is the payment of war reparations by the united states and the u.k. to iraq and in the conclusion of my book i discuss that and i said that the best model for. that really is what happened after iraq invaded kuwait. now the un security council resolution set up a. compensation commission that accepted claims from kuwait and kuwaitis and iraq in the end was forced to pay fifty two point five billion dollars to settle one and

a half million claims now that would be an appropriate and just model for forcing the united states and the u.k. to pay what they really to the people of iraq when it's us can we just look at it and we don't sorry we're just oddly. the trillions of dollars ok well the pentagon spends sorry the pentagon spends over fourteen billion dollars fighting i saw in iraq in syria since twenty fourteen vastly more than that reconstruction aid doing what does that say about their priorities. well clearly they have their priorities to bomb and destroy other countries not to rebuild them you know. the seven hundred billion dollar u.s. military budget is. military forces and weapons you know the much. the american people are told that this is about defense.

forces are a force for good in the world what we have seen in the last sixteen seventeen years is that the u.s. military is incapable of actually. conducting a regime change as they put it to remove a bad regime and replace it with a better one and what they are capable of doing with all their weapons is to kill millions of people and to destroy entire cities like mosul and we'll leave it that also nicholas j.s. davis thank you very much and if you think you u.s. democrats are proposing radical new measures against russian influence find out to the break. we put themselves on the line they did accept the reject. so when you want to be

president and you. want to be. to going to be this is what we. really want to get. interesting. this is an amazing story because that we're seeing a real geo political impact a bit going on a g. twenty country g seven countries japan actually the spending power the culture the rise of big going in the millions of people who were buying it in japan the multi billion dollars that they've appreciated in value is causing a genuine effect in their economy and this is going to be the year twenty eighteen . currencies have this geo political influence.

welcome back democrats in the u.s. according to radical action against and edged russian interference senators have drawn up a two hundred page report for the patients committee the measures include the creation of a new into agency cell modeled on the national counterterrorism center the senate has proposed spending more than two hundred fifty million dollars on building institutions in europe and eurasia to counter alleged russian meddling the report also suggests preemptive certain actions against so-called state by big threat time and finally social media companies will be required to track down propaganda and make all income from political ads public. well to discuss all of that we're now joined live by political analyst charles alltel charles thing well let's look at this the no republican senators sign there so do you think any of these measures will be doubted i mean the report is got

a lot of words in it and over two hundred pages when you look at the composition of the committee you have a nominal republican i would argue and senator bob corker i think present drop refers to me as a little bob corker who has his own problems with allegations of corruption and that may be one of the reasons that he decided not to stand for reelection you also have jeff flake a republican on that committee so it's really i don't think that that committee reflects. the will of the american people or even indeed the will of congress i think as you rightly point out the democrats tend to vote as a block in this this report which must have been in preparation for many months is yet another tour really used to continue to sell the you know the anti russian look there and there to have an end to sell the russian collusion delusion we recognize that you will the report calls for an international coalition to counter the kremlin's what they call malign influence operations i mean do you think america would find any allies for such a coalition. well i think you know sadly reports like this get written i mean i did

have a chance i haven't read the whole report but i read the early recounting of history in this report and it's really shameful it's fake accounting of history it's not objective it doesn't really have the proper context and i think serious objective people when they look at this and they try to weigh up the various ways in which we could spend money this won't be one where we put a lot of a behind it and you know while two hundred fifty million is a lot of money in the scheme of our spending six trillion dollars a year on government all told it's really not that much so i doubt this will become an urgent priority for the american government but also not nice on the flip side i mean the second this is say the u.s. government should increase spending in europe and asia to as you just said at least two hundred fifty billion dollars over the next two years to counter what they think is russian influence but do you think the u.s. taxpayers would be happy funding that i don't really don't

and i think we're in a we're his own now in the u.s. we're dollar drop is succeeding in disrupting the status quo consisting of the never trumpeters and antitrust democrats who are on that senate foreign relations committee which are getting a lot is going to happen in two thousand and eighteen i would not bet against this president and his team he's getting this economy in america moving it's going to have a positive impact on the global economy i think he's going to go from strength to strength the republicans will do here savoring republicans will do much better in two thousand and eighteen as my prediction and when a new senate is seated perhaps with a stronger republican crop lead majority you're going to see a very different reports coming out of committee with this and fought each other so i think on the flipper now as as we know the republicans have a slim majority in the senate if the democrats gain control after this year's midterm elections could you see an even more hostile stance on russia. i think you might but i think that's a very large if i really do i don't i don't think i think americans vote with their

pocketbook we've been stuck down under less than two percent per year g.d.p. growth for eight years because incomes are now finally coming back the economy's coming back taxes are going down i think you're going to see a lot of good strong moves from now through november two thousand and eighteen and we're going to vote with our pocketbook and vote for success rather than schemes and slogans and tired you know hackneyed reports. that political analyst charles will tell thank you thoughts thank you. according germany has provoked control to see after it blocked the deportation of a turkish extremist the decision is likely to give chancellor angela merkel a headache and she struggles to form a coalition government r.t. shela dubin ski reports. well germany's top court her has ruled on wednesday that a person cannot be deported back to their country of origin if they face torture or inhumane treatment. turkish court had supported to that country now this case has

been highlighted because of a court case brought by a german born turk who was convicted back in two thousand and fifteen of supporting terrorism the man who's thirty years old had traveled to syria and had supported a terrorist organization in the country including giving funds to that terrorist organization there he received a three and a half year sentence for doing so here in germany but in two thousand and sixteen he was threatened with deportation back to turkey and he decided to appeal that threat and take it to the court system here in this country now he had support from groups such as amnesty who said that if he was deported to turkey because he had links to a terror organization he could be tortured or abused and that man has two thirds it's left to serve and could be released within the next year and that is highly

controversial here in germany because many people fear that he could potentially be a terror threat in the future. the more moderate liberal liberal germany. the bottles all your life and our polls and people of ink your. ideas. so. i'm afraid of the future and germany of course is no stranger to terror attacks the country's been on high alert since the christmas market attack in december two thousand and sixteen which killed twelve people and injured dozens others in just. weeks after that christmas markets attack the german interior minister called for some deportations in cases like this but this ruling could spoke in the wheel of those with anybody now able to claim that if they deported back to their country of

origin they could face inhumane treatment or torture well the ruling comes during merkel's ongoing struggle to form a government following the election in september the chancellor failed to create a coalition with minor parties and she's now conducting negotiations with the leader of the social democrats martin schultz who previously refused the offer to work with her former german intelligence officer outlined are up believes the ruling to keep a potential terrorist in the country may further split the party and this thing is . fuel on the fire of anyone and it's not only the. close in the social union also in the christian democrats who wants to have. criminals deported a new ruling of the federal constitutional court to not be received with great pleasure by the public at large. we'll be back in just over

half an hour with the latest news but for more in the meantime let's watch. not. if these guys get. the. a cursory glance of the media environment could easily give you the impression that the vast majority of journalists studied psychology at university so many are convinced donald trump is not mentally fit to be president or the same journalist

suffering from trump arrangement syndrome. the two thousand and eight economic crisis turns some countries into pigs these are the countries with we curriculum is that needed austerity policies if you are in a situation of low bloat even the recession austerity is a very bad idea it doesn't work and it makes millions of people very unhappy those who are unemployed see their wages decline after almost a decade how good are the results to solve it then usually these are called by the people gathered in which the other of the people with your that are doing it sure it let you get traded be it will be usually at the top level as i mean if a legal. challenge was dealing with this young was always saying it's the sound of you cannot give you a while the same measures still in place to one of the consequences whose two week

i'm blue bird flu dispute over who will first do more of this is the truth the consumer is the consequences are actually quite acceptable to the decision making. a batch or sudden passing i've only just learnt you worry yourself in taking your last bang turn. here at the top to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry for me i could so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each breath. but then my feeling started to change you talked about war like it was again still some are fond of you those that didn't like to question our ark and i secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave

a funeral the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with death this one to. speak. to me now when there are. planes that mainstream media has not make. this is boom bust broadcasting around the world from washington d.c. i'm part chilton. coming up we take a look at north american free trade agreement and the foreman will come to me in light of president trump speak to the farm bureau this week plus our data wrangler pam peck citron the c.e.o. of bendo system is in the house to talk big data in twenty eighteen and ashley

banks looks at the new owner of essence magazine but first let's take a look at the business and financial headlines. china is quietly closing down the mining operations that produce bitcoin another digital currencies roughly three quarters of these operations are believed to take place in remote areas of china due to the cheap electricity in cooler temperatures last week the chinese regulators ordered local officials to create an orderly exit for mining operations the group said mining has used quote huge amounts of resources.