allowing a stream is ice or guys come across the border back into turkey that's you know it's really the huge issue that i think at the moment so america you know i think we want him to think immediately it's quite rich from rex tillerson now to ask for statements now about what's going on but i think. america is has not really played a very dynamic role we'll have to see in the future in a couple of days where they will actually make a move and try and control the situation but i'm not expecting dynamism from from the trump camp who you know we were going to be frankly trumps foreign policies is really a blank sheet of paper martin as i understand it the trip of ministration originally said it was going to establish a security force in the north of syria the kurdish held region backtracked on the idea. there are those who will say that this is what is anti-god nice to see and then created the situation in the first place is that is that the case do you think or is this one being opportunistic. well it is i think he's being

opportunistic and but i also think he's been he's been banging this drum now for quite some time you know ever since trump came into office there was a great expectation from everyone and his aides that there would be a whole new relationship with washington and they would get a lot more support and they would deal with the kurdish issue you could argue the war everyone is doing right now is actually as a direct result of trump backtracking and playing the bluff and essentially cheating this this that the turkish government i mean that the americans haven't delivered on anything and i think the probably the border guard issue really was the straw that broke the camel's back that really was an incendiary decision to make by by the americans we don't even know who these thirty thousand guards are i mean my guess is many of them are extremists that have been caught but have been interned and indoctrinated and given a new job. but to answer your question i think you know we're looking now at steve bannon i spoke to steve baron on the phone

a work week after the coup in turkey in july two thousand and sixteen he asked me who is the most dangerous country in the middle east expect me to say iran i said turkey because turkey has such huge geopolitical ambitions in the region has the means to pull them off and it has a very capricious mercurial leader that is hell bent on really expanding turkey's grip in the middle east and the new and acquiring new friends new partners in that in that role and i think now we're seeing really mr irwin in full swing now is is a new campaign in northern syria against the kurds on one side against the assad forces on the other part of mr presidential election campaign coming up is that really you know what is it is expected to do to drum up this nationalism to get elected and second time around. now what reaction do you expect from damascus especially given that anger has worn in the past that it will shoot down any

turkish military aircraft over syrian territory. he does a really good question here i'm not sure that the syrians are in a position to do that as they may well though push forward with more attacks more ground forces i'm in italy i mean it lip you know this to the whole deescalation zone agreement between turkey and russia i think is now also going to come under the spotlight a great deal now people can be asking the question more well you know what really are the turks doing there are they keeping a safe zone or are they using it for their own regional military ambitions and the moment when they went in in the first place it was quite surprising there was no battle there were no real confrontations with the regional h.s.t. al-qaeda. fighters. played more a role of some sort of

a regional superpower that was creating a humanitarian mission but in the last few days in the last few weeks we've seen that the assad government is patience is snapped in that the forces are going in there's been a lot of bombing going on and so this is really. a tipping point i think in a new syrian war in the next few days if if something can't be done to cool the situation we could be looking into a whole new campaign and here's the problem with that here's the danger if it lip and if the turks used that whole region they've got now which is essentially three provinces because with the taking of this this last small region it's all merge into one block now if they use this block this defeat uses base as a as a platform to launch attacks on whoever on their own they are so government forces or the kurds you know that could be a new region to attract al-qaeda fighters from the whole region all those think all

those fighters think the thousands who went to afghanistan who went to other asian countries and who are hiding in iraq now even though some he went. egypt into the sinai peninsula and other countries in africa could this be a new zone to attract all those fighters back if they arrived in turkey what sort of reaction would they get at the border you know thing i asked the question are we looking at now a new a new campaign that a new ice or a martin just one last quick question if i may i just wanted to know what your personal take is on the one. turkey's foreign policy in general because they seem to be slightly beleaguered not too many friends in terms of western powers is it is it a show. if you can follow ed one i mean you know he if you look at all of the important players in the middle east and i do think is one of them you know how seriously can you take him one minute he's friends with israelis dennys no longer friends then he's back to being friends with them he plays this game with the americans and russians he's looking for new partners all round the region you know he just

developed new relations very critical sudan because there was a tiny island just off sudan's coast which wants to use a new military base so he's really he wants to stir up trouble the region he wants to flex his muscles and show the region that he is an alternative to this polarized setup we've had so long in the middle east or rather with iran and russia and its allies or you're with the saudi and the gulf arab states and america on the other side he says he sort of presents himself to the whole region as a third way and i think becomes a real danger here that the nobody actually stops him because you know the real issue is here is people are talking today about him burning his bridges washington for me that's not the issue i think we should be looking at mr putin you know he has huge ideas about russia helping him with his dreams but how long can russia put up with this this this character this bully this this this this leader that seems to have no limits to how far he will go to make turkey's impressionists

in the region to me seems to be at times he seems to be out of control and martin appreciate your time my guest martin bass the ward winning journalist thank you very much andy thanks to you r.t. correspondent jacqueline alongside me for helping out with this story. now it's move on to some other stories today forget the war on terrorists russia and china but now america's biggest threat that's what u.s. defense secretary james mattis spelled out as in veiled the country's new defense priorities i guess the f. picks up the story. trump's new defense doctrine can probably be summed up in just three words bring it on and to those who would threaten america's experiment in democracy they must know if you challenge it will be your longest and your worst day the war on terror is now secondary the priority is the new great game of good lobel proportions great power competition not terrorism is now the primary

focus of u.s. national security the logic here is that technological and hard power gap between the us and the competition is narrowing and washington simply can't let that happen cannot expect success by the tomorrows conflicts with yesterday's weapons or equipment. investments in space and cyber space nuclear deterrent forces missile defense advanced autonomy systems and resilient and logistic will provide our high quality troops what they need to win. i

that is a new arms race or races a nuclear arms race at me so races side by race space to what has that ever made the world a safer place sure we can have competition and all of that internationally but we should be working more cooperatively with each other because last time i heard the cold war was over what i'm really concerned about is that we're going to be seen. draining i drain resources to something we really really don't need already they're talking about a hypersonic fighter who needs it that really requires billions upon billions of dollars of research and development and again it's really aimed at keeping the defense industry in business it's been said that budget cuts have done more damage to the u.s. military than anything else they say is an attempt to undo that damage that these

are our bishops plans remember the f. thirty five or the columbia submarines lethal weapons at least when it comes to destroying budgets but then that's what friends of fool you know it winston churchill it once said the only thing harder than fighting with the allies is fighting without them the growing economic strength of today's democracies and partners dictates they must now step up and do more. making everyone else pays this much is part of the planners all the fancy toys europeans especially haven't been all that enthusiastic about spending fortunes in defense understandably but then there's a new domain to fight in the cyber world this is a wild west right now as you know people in their bedrooms can be doing things that are causing your bank account dire problems at this point an urgent challenge and the u.s. is going to overhaul and boosted cyber forces giving them greater capability to

deal with the random guys in their bedrooms i think we've got some serious challenges ahead we don't have the resources for the kind of spending that they want to do and i think we need to be a great deal more concerned about how those finite resources are going to be allocated and we need to be meeting immediate threats and that's terrorism. the long term first year in the white house is being marked by a government wide shut down that's after the senate refused to approve a bill to fund the government among democrats over five voted against the main sticking point was trump's refusal to include protection for undocumented young immigrants. the republican leadership do the job they are paid to do today they put politics above the national security everyone thinks of themselves as the leader in that building is going to have to look at themselves in the mirror

and ask are they really being true to the ideals of this country democrats hold or local citizens hostage over their breakfast if we have the divider in chief in the white house this is behavior the structure just loses not legislate. well this is just the latest example of how bumpy the first twelve months for the president of been in takes a look at how trump's tenure has unfolded today. when trouble is sworn in a year ago emotions were running high on all sides. ok. us media described it as a pivotal moment in american history you're not having a terrible terrible dream also you're not dead and you have gone to hell it will be very bad americans and others will now die washington d.c. the establishment is terrified and they should be they call that the trump

revolution trump promised to completely overhaul u.s. foreign and economic policy he promised a brave new world that was cheered by his supporters and dreaded by his detractors as a disco be an apocalypse so a year on where are we well with all this america first rhetoric you might have thought that would have met with less interference in other countries well that's not exactly how it played out tonight i ordered a targeted military strike. and it was another successful event we have many options for venezuela including a possible military option if necessary on the home front some promised a new level of protectionism against mexico and china but the usa is increasingly buying more foreign goods and producing less of its own the trade deficit with mexico is up by eleven percent the trade deficit with china is up by seven percent unemployment is low but so are wages there is record amounts of household debt in

the united states right now and retail stores are closing across the country and here's one thing that didn't change between trump and previous administrations during the election trump talked about getting along better with russia and his detractors called him a kremlin puppet but now one year later things between washington and moscow are about the same as they were before bad for their action by the. congress to put these sanctions in place or the way they do that's the decision they made that made it a very overwhelming. except we may be at an all time low in terms of the relationship with russia this is built for a long period of time now trump promised to drain the swamp of corruption we are going to drill. washington d.c. . but it looks like that swamp is still here and deeper than ever policy stay the same our foreign policy is the same the monetary policy in the federal reserve is the same spending as the same deficits are still rising so there has not

been any significant changes in the direction of our country which i had been hoping for is that he has perpetuated so many of our deeply flawed policies especially in foreign policy foreign policy is a little bit more confusing i am very pleased he's at least made an honest effort that he's reduced the amount of regulations and i think that's one of the reasons we've had an economic boost. and that is that is good and he's made an effort to reduce taxes that's war from perfect but lower taxes less regulation is good and the marketplace is reflecting that oh and don't forget about that wall we're going to build the world we have no choice we have no choice. yeah how's that going we have some wonderful. prototypes that have been put up now despite the president's ambitious timetable for construction it remains unclear

when the wall might actually go up on the surface donald trump looks like a president like no other he's allowed brash he doesn't care about political correctness is even turned twitter into an official white house channel but if you look a little bit closer and judge him by his political actions he's a little bit more the rule than the exception. artsy new york. well term presidency so far has also been marked by a string of quirky catchphrases and diplomatic moves which kept the world and the media guessing what he was going to do next is our take on his tenure throughout the year. elite.

donald trump's oath of office means nothing this is one of the most radical it may not be royal speeches we've ever i'm not going to give you can you speak out or you are faked is. donald trump's incoherence is all a direct result of the potential clues in russia inclusion u.s. officials are growing increasingly concerned about possible russian intrusion. we've just launched fifteen missiles. into iraq where we had just syria. heading towards syria. just got back from the middle east to get saudi arabia is.

going to go to a. meeting with. we are totally prepared for the second option totally destroy north korea is a sick puppy north korean regime is calling the president words a load of nonsense obviously he's a pretty smart cookie. he wish you

a very happy kind of. thinking about what is going on and the love that's all over is you. and all about you recently. and while a growing number of us republican congressman are demanding the release of a top secret intelligence document they believe it reveals political bias against trump in the ongoing russia probe i had that same shock feeling i was like wait a minute this actually happened from our justice department and this f.b.i. that's how serious this is that there has been a real attempt to undermine this president that is the type of information that we need all americans to see immediately the american people deserve they must say they want to know what's in this document sadly much of the mainstream media will

not be covering this today but in this house on this day let us know that indeed we are still one nation under god and willing to protect life. well the content of this secret document is unknown and it's still unclear whether it will ever be released but based on comments made by some republicans it's thought intelligence officials under the a bomb administration were politically motivated during investigations into alleged trump russia collusion democrats were also quick to react to the memo they denounce this content they call the document a profoundly misleading set of talking points which attacks the f.b.i. and gives a distorted view of the bureau the issue also made a splash on social media the hashtag release the memo two was trending on twitter in the united states late friday and it wasn't long until russia was added into the mix as well after a group of researches accused alleged kremlin linked accounts of pushing for the

memo's release on twitter they say the use of the hash tag increased massively over the course of a day among roughly six hundred uses that they're monitoring independent journalist martin summers thinks russia just got caught up in partisan crossfire think the russian linked account seems to have appeared from nowhere the fact that there's a very partisan situation in the us where the f.b.i. quite likely would being used to try and undermine trump i think that's a fairly likely thing that's happened but of course both sides in a digging do this on each other accusing each other of being russian stooges and of course with the world at large what is this and it's becoming increasingly bizarre and ridiculous the allegations are being flung around in the way that they are what's happening now is that the republicans are turning this russia probe on to their enemies by saying we're not sure fact it looks like the democrats have been. playing fast and loose and are not playing by the rules both sides actually probably are cheats that's what i would suggest. ok if you take a very short break more news coming your way in

a moment. if . something did these really important for us. not to be only a common market. as we say to be a community of then don't adopt this view was both proselyte as if you twitted as saw he had to power that through moscow pride stood domine to it why the their way to be unsettling to communities he sees so. in order to overthrow a regime it does take popular discontent and popular mobilization but it also requires actors with in the leadership of the regime who feel that the regime is no

longer serving the national interest you need people in the military or the bureaucracy or both who are willing to see the regime change otherwise they would be able to put down a popular revolt but did not have support at higher levels. prescribe medication is widespread on the u.s. market and a frequent cause of death at that point in my life i just felt like everything with my family was literally coming unglued i had actually planned. to commit some site watch all who has made antidepressants so commonly used we were doing what the doctors told us to do we were being responsible and what the real side effects why it. was chemically altered what i did was done on a cocktail of legal drugs. just because

something's legal doesn't mean it's same. welcome back let's return to our breaking news story this hour just over two hours ago turkey launched strikes on kurdish positions in syria and this is part of a major military operation that has also seen a ground invasion and cross border shelling turkey's general staff says one hundred eight out of one hundred thirteen targets have already been successfully hit the campaign which ankara has deemed anti terror has been named operation olive branch aimed at ousting kurdish militia from africa which. by the full five years syrian opposition fighters have reportedly entered the kurdish enclave from

the ground as president earlier confirmed this country had begun a military ground operation that cross border shelling of the area began friday auntie's policy has been following developments. both say hearing from the turkish media that the turkish military is being supported by turkish aligned syrian opposition rebel fighters and according to a port to receiving on the ground there has been a convoy of buses moving to the area it is understood that the rebel fighters are on those buses and trucks with machine guns now all of this comes as the army says that it is involved in a legitimate what it calls self defense operation that it is responding to fire that it was on the receiving end that was coming from the ass and region in northern syria which is controlled by the kurdish rebels known as the why do you go zone could this syrian rebels now they are aligned with the p.k. k.

that turkey considers a terrorist organization so as such the turkish government considers by extension the y.t.d. terrorists as well now we have seen some of the strikes happening on friday and it does follow days where we were hearing from the turkish president ever one. threats that he was going to start an operation in the acid region there was going to be a ground offensive and as you mentioned this has started in the last few hours this is what adeline has to say. after an operation has a factory been started on the ground this will be followed by a member of the promises of not so nobody has a right to say anything now man bridge is an area that is predominantly arab at the same time it is on the west of the euphrates and it is an area that the turkish government and army have had their eyes on for quite some time urging the kurdish fighters there to pull back. these are pictures of kurdish forces who were supposed to join the border security forces that's

a very because announcement which infuriated anger over the u.s. has since backtracked fighters were being trained by the americans near the northeastern syrian city of sarka unit here consists of five hundred men reportedly the second to have graduated it was announced thirty thousand soldiers would constitute the border security force taken from the syrian democratic forces which include monitors. and just to bring you some information just into operation olive branch in syria in africa is in line with international law or according to the foreign minister he says that they have the right to self-defense to the u.n. charter. to correspond exactly if you join me in the studio now we've talked a bit about these border forces and it's something that seems to really infuriated turkey why is that what really does seem to be the linchpin to this whole conflict really meeting ahead the thing is that these border forces their u.s.

back. and the s.d.f. is allied with the y.p. g. who is in turn allied with the p k k and the p k k in turkey's eyes is a terrorist organization and that's where the biggest complex really seems to be happening here one actually like into the attempt of these border forces to the us creating a terror army on turkey's border now of course since backtracked saying that the announcement that they made about these border forces was simply misinterpreted and that's not the case but again we just have seen all those pictures of the border forces they are there and they do exist so right now that's what the biggest issue seems to be with turkey and these border forces you know we know there's no love lost between the particular and the kurds will see international reaction being then to turkey's intervention into let's remember this is syrian territory well exactly and it does seem despite the fact that everyone has been threatening the. this for about a week now it has been rather unexpected so people are following very closely

turkey said that they sent a letter to syria forming them about the military operation whatever good that does and turkey has them in russian ukrainian and u.s. diplomats all to turkey to receive information about the events that are happening in africa we do know at this point that rex tillerson the u.s. secretary of state has had a conversation already with his turkish counterpart point parts do not know what came out of that conversation as of yet and of course russia has been watching very closely and has called on all sides to back down and show restraint the russian ministry of defense has also come out saying that a lot of the fault doesn't lie with the u.s. and these border forces saying that it's irresponsible of the u.s. to create kurdish you know sections in the country and also be supplying so much weaponry to the country and to the kurds there at this point her turkish backed free syrian army fighters are already on the move to help the turkish army and the s.d.f. has said that they are going to back them up we have not heard from the u.s.

what their plans are what if they're going to be backing up to fighters are not so we'll have to see what happens there ok many thanks to check if you can bring is right now let's bring in a guess just with on this is the director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma nice of you old joshua what ramifications do you think the confines of the kids could have let's remember the extreme really unstable region. well it's really a indication to the united states that they're going to have a tough sledding ahead it's going to be difficult for them to arm the kurds and to develop northern syria as an autonomous region in the face of turkish opposition and turkey is doing this in no small part because just infuriated at the united states it doesn't believe the united states has been censored enough to turkish.