ok. the u.k. his government reportedly turns down a request from ecuador to grant diplomatic status to wiki leaks founder julian assange. 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 a military operation of that. and germany refuses to deport a turkish extremist who supported terrorists in syria his prison term is almost up and he could be released next year.

oh this is an international coming to life from moscow on a concrete thank you for joining. the u.k. foreign office has reportedly denied a request from ecuador to grant diplomatic status to julian assange if follows reports the way he read it was found on has been granted an ecuadorian id card as a step towards ending his five year confinement in the london embassy an associate reports 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 just 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 join a staunch had posted on his twitter page wearing t. shirts 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 it with dorian citizenship or somehow change his status when it comes to this very complicated case that has now spans 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 pests and companies in those conditions forever. we're

considering the option of mediation with this intercept that could be to virus that country or individual the only solution 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 behind 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 the swedish and . and 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 for his son to walk out of this ecuadorian embassy where he's been holed up but 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 a lots of questions we're going to obviously be watching this very closely in terms of what is this going to mean for a son just status not just within ecuador but potentially his case beginning to move forward a little bit more former cia analyst john kiriakou told us the decision by the foreign office if confirmed is an attack one or whistleblowers i think that this is

really a continuation of a very dangerous and wrongheaded policy to target whistleblowers julian is one of the biggest international whistleblowers and i think that they really want his head on a platter it's the worst kept secret in washington that julian 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 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. he has asked the u.k. foreign office to comment on the situation with julian a solution and we're waiting for a reply and we'll keep you posted. according germany has provoked controversy after it blocked the deportation of a turkish extremist the decisions likely to give chancellor angela merkel a headache as she struggles to form a coalition government r.t. shala do wednesday as the details. well germany's top court has ruled on

wednesday that a person cannot be deported back to their country of origin if they face torture or inhumane treatment in that country now turkish court has said that germany would need to have appropriate assurances that neither of those would take place if a person was deported 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 could travel 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 of his sentence 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 to liberal liberal. whole. life in our polls and people think your. idea. 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 a speedy 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 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 schulz who previously refused the offer to work with her former german intelligence officer reiner up believes the ruling to keep a potential terrorist in the country may further split the parties. this thing is.

fuel on the fire of anyone and it's not only the the but it's loose in the christian social union and also the christian democrats who voted to have. criminals deported a new ruling of the federal constitutional court to not be received with great pleasure by the public at large. the u.k.'s government has rejected calls for a better system to prevent future prime ministers making the same mistakes as tony blair made over iraq a special committee argued structure investigation should be carried out before taking the country into any conflict they inquiry into the war known as the chilcote reports led to the establishment of the u.k.'s national security council this deals with all national security issues coordinates the activities of the intelligence services and formulates defense strategy the joke that report was

published in twenty sixty the rule the u.k.'s military action in iraq was not a last resort the iraqi leader saddam hussein didn't represent a threat and there was no undeniable evidence of weapons of mass destruction being used by the iraqi government means you german from the stop the war coalition believes it's easy for u.k. m.p.'s to vote for war a much harder for them to deal with the consequences. chilcote was meant to change the whole way in which these decisions were made it hasn't been implemented that hasn't been taken up and i fear that we are going to get another episode like we've had with tony blair in the past and of course it shows that this government just like the blair government doesn't want to be constrained by anybody the decision to go to war can be taken by a toy any clique of people around the prime minister with very little democratic accountability and of course it's very very easy for these employees to vote for

war it's much much harder to deal with the consequences of war as we've seen in iraq and as we as we're still seeing in afghanistan and libya we know the true reason why is finding domestic circumcise you very very difficult indeed at the moment what is easier for governments like this isn't to say well ok we have an enemy abroad and to bolster the case for war. the german army is recruiting an increasing number of teenagers according to the defense ministry more than two thousand under eighteen's join the military last year that's three times more than in twenty eleven germany is one of the few countries worldwide that allows under eighteen's to volunteer only in a non-combat role teenagers can apply if they are seventeen and have parental consent the german military is currently conducting a recruitment drive and officers giving talks in schools across the country the campaign also features an online reality show.

i. i. i. i i. explained. my. the program follows army recruits for twelve weeks it is one of germany's most popular online projects however it's drawn criticism for making the military more attractive to youngsters the un is concerned the recruitment drive specifically targets children the german army has defended its methods insisting the training is done under strict supervision regional m.p. martin doul served from germany's left party is against tony to youngsters. had been a huge campaigns in schools even in kindergartens. to make the army more attractive to young people there have been some schools who have been

working together with the army to put the young students in some kind of camp we support some initiatives called don't corner bundeswehr for example which say that's where that education should take place without. this where the people who are under age to they shouldn't be to. get into the army the united nation already in two thousand and fourteen. the german government to stop this and erase the the h. of soldiers i think this is a problem. but the main problem is if you do a foreign company with this which is based on dialogue you don't need such a strong army all so many soldiers i think that is the main problem behind it. the u.s. embassy in iraq has announced one hundred fifty million dollars were spent 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 are thousands what i'd guess if that's more what does this look like to you mad max. resident evil no this is mosul or rather what's left of it quote a sea of thousands of airstrikes we filmed this a few weeks ago and nothing's really changed from when we were there last this is what the aftermath of a classic strike in mosul look like neighborhoods that numbered in the thousands it's been reduced to a handful. the iraqi army and the u.s. led coalition seem to make sure to not leave a square meter on scorched for a turk of precision i haven't yet seen

a single house in mosul 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 millions 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 enter was little when it was two and it was. doing. well she's a little hungry alice get over it if you know she go to school in the citizen not. what else is there to do in mosul by servants and just it was done in the holocaust and that to mean 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. to one hundred fifty million dollars or about zero point one percent of what iraq needs and no one seems to have seen any of that but as it is you have to teach your most if you are. a good. little wife or. don't love the world jumble don't have surely. love common enough to share here that i would die i should i hadn't this way. now one of the magical should have it now after sharing them to our south we're not five as i had the start of a dallas market and it has not filed many of us said so lucky rather than left to send

a message that the the numbers are an entirely different leagues but the united states spent 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. air strike in iraq at the beginning of the operation very roughly counting fuel flight time cost of bombs made in uncertain military pay was half a million dollars for one of their strike they carried out fourteen thousand their 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. or for some more analysis on this let's bring in david swanson author of war is

a line david thank you very much indeed for joining us well as we heard there in moran's report the u.s. is pledging one hundred fifty million dollars in rebuilding aid for iraq in twenty eighteen do you think that's enough. it's obviously not enough when even the iraqi government is asking for one hundred billion and clearly vastly more than that is needed the cancer epidemics that finally now have the former vice president biden admitting that his son probably died from the open burns of poisons that killed and wounded how who knows how many iraqis you have villages and cities that have been destroyed to save them mosul newly ruined you have protests and fires in baghdad that we don't hear about the way we would if they were in iran and the u.s. government just upped its military spending eighty billion dollars of for no clear purpose other than to proceed with preparations for creating more disasters around

the world like this one it would cost much less to do what's needed to fix iraq then to continue funding a military preparing to create more of them let's also look at the situation on a ground as well i mean top top iraqi officials have previously admitted that corruption is a major problem in the government so how much foreign aid would actually get to the people who need it. it's a big question but the presence of the u.s. troops is not stabilizing the situation is not making it better and the promises we're being given that they're going to be pulled out are contradicted by troops that places like fort drum in new york being told they're going to go the iraqi government needs to sort its things out without any further help from the united states and every attempt to get actual humanitarian aid through even if some of it doesn't reach its targets is better then continuing the so-called

military aid with these token as you've reported less than one percent of even what the iraqi government is asking for when it's also look at look at the u.s. position as well in terms of going forward i mean the u.s. as i saw is being driven out of iraq that's what they're saying so why has the pentagon requested over a billion dollars on the train and equip program that particularly. well there are plenty of stories currently about efforts to hunt out ice soul in various pockets where it's claimed it's been reduced to is so there's not been any claim that deisel is a live in aid it's just that it's been driven out of major cities that have by the way in the process been further destroyed and left in ruins you know that the u.s. military doesn't need a rationale to ask for more money it always asks for more money you know this is this is the business it's in and are mean iraq is part of it's understanding of how

to stabilize iraq iraqis so saturated with weapons they're showing up all over social media military weapons for sale you know the last thing iraq needs is more arming of anybody and also let's look at some of those figures again the pentagon spent over a fourteen billion dollars fighting are still in iraq and say this is since twenty fourteen walski more than their reconstruction aid in terms of how this appears to the public and also in terms of going forward as a as a as a system as a plan what does that say about their priorities. well it's the same as the us priorities have always been since before it was a nation but it's worse than that because the united states across departments so-called defense energy state etc spends over a trillion dollars that year on militarism on war and preparations for war and much of that is not counted when these calculations are made that fourteen billion was

spent on this particular military effort that's backed up by tens and hundreds of billions in infrastructure and personnel around the world and back in the united states a trillion dollars so the hundred billion that the iraqi government wants to undo some of the damage the damage will never be undone is ten percent and again the u.s. upped its spending by eighty billion for no clear reason other than trump wanted it and the weapons dealers wanted it so the money is not lacking it's a question of priorities and funny david very briefly i mean given that the us invaded and occupied iraq how much of a responsibility does the us have to rebuild it in a nutshell. say around ninety five percent with the other five being the responsibility of the allies who joined in and took part of course it now becomes the responsibility of the iraqis themselves and their government to do a good job but it will not be off i do not demolish the country but yes the united

states should answer for its crimes as should all the war makers around the world and we leave it there david swanson author of war is a lie thank you very much thank you. and democrats in the u.s. according for radical action against alleged russian interference senators have drawn up a two hundred page report for the foreign relations 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 at leisure russian meddling the report also suggests preemptive sanctions against so-called state hybrid threat actors and finally social media companies would be required to track down propaganda and make all income from political adverts public political analyst charles will tell told us the report is based on false information. it's really shameful it's fake accounting of history it's not objective it doesn't really have

a 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 won i don't think that that committee reflects. the will of the american people or even indeed the will of congress i think democrats tend to vote as a bloc and this this report which must have been in preparation for many months is yet another tour really use to continue to sell you know the anti russian look there and there are to have an end to sell the russian collusion delusion when a new senate is seated perhaps with a stronger republican trop led majority you're going to see very different reports coming out of the committee. france's minister of culture has attempted to dispel rising concerns about president mark reuss plan to tackle fake news france has no sense said the national media regulator as well as judges would be in charge of enforcing the new law on the one hand you have the c.s.a.

and on the other judges so it's not the executive they will be getting involved macro's proposal to crack down on fake news came a week ago however it immediately sparked a backlash with many doubting the government's not getting involved in the process . of the finish the tween fake news machines and the professional media we run the risk of losing the truth the barriers have been destroyed presidential campaigns and almost all modern democracies have displayed their weakness and our collective failure to come up with a response i will say that the first ones who make fake news are the presidential candidates who do not keep their promises this is the real fake news that should be banned guess who will take care of it is there going to be an anti fake news brigade or something said true and this no here is it not to the press a floor since we go more and more in this direction we forbid everything we're prevented from thinkin so much that we're no longer know how to think for ourselves

. for film i'm almost always come back to george orwell's novel nineteen eighty-four with the ministry of misinformation i really feel like will ready for that and the people outside of it. independent journalist nuclear days says the crackdown on fake news is misguided. even a tall i mean first if it goes to the judges it's not reassuring because most of the judges in france are on the left side because for example they put a few years ago the wall of the idiot saw. on which date they put the victims who are complaining about bad sentences and things because they are on the left they know better so if they have to judge on what is a fake news it will always be the same that are condemned they feed us things which are not true so it cannot speak about propaganda he's the champion of the propaganda that mr michael himself use this is the word these is that the press is

the victim is the first victim of propaganda no we citizens are the first victim of the propaganda that he organizes. now a twitter account claiming to represent the church of satan has caused a stir online the posts are mostly humorous but not everyone to see the funny side .

remarkable how a bank could bad lines in just over half an hour meanwhile for more on or about stories.

that's geysers financial survival they say money to the girl i. want to take it easy this is the central plank of the four dying of the moment kind of problem i know it's a stop to. a cursory glance at 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 the reagan syndrome.

they were going underground as the world commemorates the use of united states weapons of mass destruction against hundreds of thousands of civilians in nagasaki and japan argument not to end world war two but to raise the threat of cold war armageddon coming up on the show the big issue as the monument to austerity in the poorest communities and one of the richest areas on earth continues to cost a shadow across the british imagination we speak to the founder of the magazine of the homeless but about call mom and the national prevention unit. growth just what was going on in the media and. the so. it's bumbling was policy to speak and saw the council terms of popped into my head st obviously awful dog. face to face interview going on the ground from the headlines claims counterclaims in caracas and how the end.