millionnaire if you can simply drag out the proceedings i suspect that this is just a case of dragging out the proceedings throwing out some some indictments and some still way things not not registering as a foreign agent that. typically is not prosecuted but they're prosecuting it in this case because they're running out of there and they try to make all kinds of claims there simply is nothing there to go after so unless there is something when i read through the indictments that comes out as a surprise and i think this is more about more of a headline grabber than it is anything real substance and indeed it is grabbing the headlines just looking at mainstream media headlines russians charged over us election time bring that even alleged in the headlines so that the striking headlines is going to have a lot of people thinking well that must be something that if winning headlines like

this how does donald trump react to this it's a no the insinuation that somehow the russians helped him in his election victory how does it we spawn does he say nothing can he do anything to come out of this still with some credibility. well i think i think he needs to say show me the proof what have you got that shows that there was something that changed the outcome of the election but nobody seems to be suggesting i want either side the outcome of the election was changed if the outcome of the election was not changed who cares what is the significance of it it's simply irrelevant and so i think i think that is the first thing. but i would demand if i were the president i would say show me precisely what you're talking about don't just give me intelligence assessments i want to know when the facts are that

led to those intelligence assessments because we seen intelligence assessments that have taken this nation off to war for example in iraq it turned out to be absolutely fabricated we had intelligence fabricated it took a still war over kuwait we attacked iraq over kuwait and that was that was absolutely fabricated with the complete knowledge of the of the senate foreign intelligence committee they knew that the witness that they were using to fabricate the evidence was not legitimate and yet it went ahead so i'm not real impressed i want facts i don't want some generalized conclusions. from these intelligence agencies part of their part of their task frankly is to influence foreign relations in

a way that they perceive as being beneficial to the united states and one of the things that they want to do is to undermine donald trump and to keep him constantly on the defensive about russia so that he can. not do the rational language use to reduce the tensions with russia to draw back from the russian border stop running ma armors and ships right up to the are up to the borders russian territorial waters territorial airspace stop doing not stop its might as long as donald trump is on the didn't bounce of about the elections now and it pressures him into going along with the deep state and people who want change and with russia because it allows them to sell weapons and it allows them to increase the size of the military. so i but if

i were the president i would say show me facts don't you're making clues from intelligence agencies because i don't trust those over watch carefully any facts the do emerge behind these charges will bring straight to. appreciate as always the frankness of your assessment of the situation place to speak to virginia state senator richard black thank you and talking to you thank you. also the news now the state secretary of state is in turkey this is in an effort to mend ties with and corrects to the sin has met with president obama as well as the country's foreign minister the nato allies have been up all over washington support the kurdish militias in syria and chris angry that the u.s. backs groups that turkey calls terrorists likes to listen try to ease the tensions by claiming that support is limited but it does not seem to be enough for ankara.

have always been clear with turkey that the weapons provided to the syrian democratic forces would be limited mission specific the provided all experimental bases to achieve military objectives although we demand that this relationship and by that i mean we want them to end all the support given to the syrian arm of the p.k. k. the white. ok let's take a closer look then at the two groups just referred to by the defense minister the p.k. k. that's the kurdistan workers party a group that's been fighting to shortages for more than thirty years both ankara and washington consider them to be a terrorist organization on the other hand american turkey have very different opinions about the syria based kurdish militia group called the people's protections unit saw the y.p. jeep anchor wrote in regards the group to be a branch of the p.k. k. therefore terrorists the us led coalition sees the white beaches being allies in its fight against islamic state in syria in january the pentagon announced that it

was creating a kurdish led security force right on turkey's doorstep in northern syria in response to a launch the military campaign against kurdish militias they're threatening a direct clash with u.s. forces now until a sin arrived in the turkish capital it was met with a large number of protests against his visit and u.s. support for kurdish forces in syria ankara claims any support for kurds is an acceptable branding their forces terrorists in washington argues that its support is limited in that it doesn't pose a threat to turkey. or for a journalist karen lloyd to spin specializing in the middle east and its coverage believes that the u.s. and underestimated the conflict between turks and kurds. seem to have not a really good idea of the situation on the ground today overstretched their position and their relations immensely and the situation you know the relation with the kurdish groups on the other side is not very stable especially because isis

mostly disappeared and they announce it even by themselves that the relation with the kurdish groups now is to have a presence in the area to have influence rex tillerson said this very clearly we have influence over thirty percent of the country we have influence over a lot of people there and over the oil fields of syria he made it clear what is interesting interest is not to support the kurds and not really to have a good relation with turkey but to maintain their own regional interest. the us is relying on kurds while trying to violate the sovereignty of syria and separate a piece of its territory that's the view of russia's foreign minister that was given in a recent interview. we're going to ask you spittles that would you u.s. forces and other units are on the ground in syria illegally without any invitation from damascus actually from the legitimate government or any u.n.

security council mandate when you're getting it's understood that the u.s. probably has some kind of strategy which i think means settling in syria forever with its armed forces they want to do the same now in iraq and afghanistan contrary to all their previous promises they already sparking a situation where a huge part of syrian territory would be separated from the rest of the country violating the sovereignty of the syrian arab republic and this they are creating quite as i local ruling with bodies all the time trying to give them some kind of autonomous composition relying on kurds as i did. demanding justice for those people killed in the massive ground fell far in london last year of chosen an unusual way to stage a protest they borrowed an idea from the oscar nominated film three billboards outside ebbing they had three billboards to send a clear message trucks carrying the words seventy one dead and still no arrests and

how come or paraded across london critics say that questions over construction and cheap housing quality have yet to be answered in the wake of jeans grenfell disaster. were. the activists warn that many housing projects across the country suffer from the same construction problems as the tower and they say author it is a refusing to take any action on the sound of the situation i spoke to a protester behind the billboard campaign. it's been eight months since the ground fell tower tragedy shook the u.k. a twenty four story building was engulfed in flames the lives of seventy one people were lost with dozens more injured numerous campaigns protest demonstrations have taken place since calling for answers justice and accountability most recently

london saw a campaign where several vans went around the center of the british capital with big billboards saying seventy one people dead no arrests how come for more on this we're now joined by one of the co-founders of justice for grunfeld which is a grassroots community group obviously calling for justice and answers about thank you so much for joining us today two hundred ninety seven buildings that people are still moving into tie up and down the country that have the same kinds in the government's response has been to that they should pay for it themselves to take it down. you know lots of the survivors are still in temporary or emergency accommodation for those really and i think you know the survivors and the community i think prosecution of those responsible needs to take place we need to see people in the dark. and they need to suffer the same penalties that any other citizen would do rather than just kind of get them elected officials favorable treatment or

how likely do you think that might happen given it's been eight months already and we haven't seen one name or person be held accountable do you think that is actually going to happen i think we're going to have to mikey humpin and we will continue to come time to make sure that happens how real is the fear that something like this could happen again while this investigation even is still continuing if i was sleeping in one of those buildings i don't think i'd be sleeping at night right now you know you cannot put people in unsafe built ins and why the government isn't reacting to this quickly and right people may your home sure your home is your hyphen you have a right to live it's a human right to have a so. tom we will continue to compain you know look out for other things that we're going to i'm will keep those questions out in the public to mine and when expect the government to respond to most of the public to mine that which is thank you very much for joining us well love officials are continuing to conduct investigations into what exactly happened at grenfell tower that killed all of

those people and it's clear that the local community is going to continue fighting for those answers until they get them and artsy and. it is now a week since the winter olympics in south korea officially began and while there been some very touching stories of mutual hope and support sporting control the c.n.n. they have also been making headlines in particular explained unfortunately with these winter olympics the story has been that every other day yung chang treats the media with some sort of scandal so far perhaps one of the most disgusting ones for me was when a canadian short track speed skater was receiving death threats from the locals after she finished fourth first but then a south korean athlete was disqualified and then her position was upgraded to third place and that's when be ugly things started happening but you shouldn't get the

impression that the olympic games are doomed because in many sports there is such family spirit it's the kind of family spirit that goes first after nationality rivalry politics etc there was one good example when during cross-country skiing competition a russian skier lost a part of his equipment and then an american coach rushed to help him out if the russian sphere had to do this u. turn you don't come back to pick it up that would have been a disaster for the race but thanks to the american coach it didn't happen and we talked to the man of country the cross. ski family is is exactly that it's a family we often benefit from russian or no region coach is giving our athletes a pole in a race and we'll do the same i would say it's very friendly when you walk by a russian athlete or coach will always say congratulations or if we've had a good race they will say congratulations to us three years ago and most of the

entire russian women's team came up to our hotel and had tea and cookies with our owner continued and not many people spoke the same language we know a few words of russian a couple of them they knew some more english than we knew russian but we had a great time and it was one of those moments in my career that i remember well i guess what it comes to pull what i call rivals russia and the u.s. helping each other out in sports it works both ways and here with me i got the chang silver medalist in luge british master who definitely knows what i'm talking about and he's ready to tell us about a story that happened to him a few months ago as far as a distant chris hi again congratulations and what's that story with the russian athlete i guess helping you out yeah thank you very much it was a it was a couple weeks ago where i was having

a very difficult last season people were starting to reach out and help me and there was a specific russian athlete he offered me help like technical help with with my pod with with fiberglass with with aerodynamics and although it didn't work because i'm much larger than he is the fact that he was willing to reach out and help me in such like a desperate time shows that sport can bridge you know cultures it can bridge politics that we can connect on the human level through sports and that's that's really what and bodies the olympics here is that so many countries are coming together connecting through sport and it really shows the power of the human spirit absolutely this is a small little step it takes a lot of people. to get one of these and i can't think simulate enough are thinking about me in just trying to help me out in a time of need i am very close friends with with so many different russian athletes and yes there's been a lot of scandals and i'm really i can't wait for the day that we can move past this and we can just get right back to sport clean sport it's so easy to talk about

negative things but it's really difficult to higher weight these positive situations you know who knows maybe you want to olympics this wall behind us and we'll get right back to you know clean competition and a lot of fun. ok let's stay with sled related sports because russia's team of athletes have added a silver to their tally but it was a medal that might never have been a skeleton competitor nikita triguboff had considered boycotting these games in support of his fellow countrymen bound over doping claims or the reduced team size has meant a lack of coaches at the competition meaning that he had to prepare all visit quitman himself to a group of even had to do the same for his team and. look at the results today on the telephone in a one bronze in the speed skating event worth noting she's one of the younger competitors just twenty three the same as the skeleton silver medalist from russia scared denise spitz off to third place on the podium in his event making

a total of eight medals for the olympic athletes from russia. i. swear the u.n. backed government of libya has reportedly formed a team to assess the damage to infrastructure in the war ravished port city of sirte once and i still strongly old it was a place where terrorists shot some of the most gruesome videos so it was liberated more than a year ago locals still fear for their lives as the threat of jail how this returning to the area looms large or residents continue to wait for life to return to normal. i. think so i think. just because. there's a big mistake. these are everywhere on the ground the food in the in the complex

and actually chandelier is full of completely out of the mashed into the ground. and it's impressive even though it's been destroyed. as you can see here is that the state flag has been drawn on the site it's just. that within a minute the area is completely destroyed and there is no local or international assistance for the population there are fears that ice will return to this ere year again and be entrenched in it after the one year war. people were displaced from this area even after the return the can find their homes because of the past struction there is no house left intact especially because of the ball planes bombing and everyone knows that i still wasn't any moment to say

subcircuits and it's been the terrorist stronghold of the city surrounded by mountains and valleys and noise it's always been that. the president of the red cross has told r.t. not enough international attention is being paid to libya despite the number of devastating crises that have spin suffered by the country. i've been in libya for the last three days and what you can see is that certain parts of the country are of course quieter today than maybe one or two years ago in storage and in other parts of libya fighting is continuing and therefore needs are enormous because of the disruption of basic social services health water sanitation and others impact on civilian population is important is heavy libya is one of those countries with the largest percentage of displaced populations and therefore do humanitarian needs

are important more needs to be done to support the different or thought it is in libya more of course has to be done also to find a political solution within libya so there is for me an unquestioned necessity to put libya much more in the center also off international attention comparable to the attention the international community has other crisis is in the middle east thanks staying with us in our international but with the latest news headlines at the top of the.

come to sophie. shevardnadze as the new powers rise in the world a new apollo global balance is shaping up but is stable enough to prevent a great power conflict in a clear age or hear secretary of defense william perry. without the cold war era two centers of power the world has become leaderless and chaotic. and as threat of nuclear war grows higher accidental tension is building between missions vying for power. to for him to prevent the global order from collapsing nuclear weapons continue to serve as deterrent will delete something people catastrophe. dr william perry it's really great to have you on our program one more time thank you sir always good to be here lots to talk about dr perry so nato expansion to the east actually started during your tenure as defense secretary and you have sad that it

was a mistake and it is probably the root cause of the current u.s. russia confrontation now nato officials insist a ring was and is the number one and russia all of us least sees it as a threat it's always been very open and honest about seeing it at the threat was nato getting closer to russia's borders do you think there could be a direct conflict is it on the cards i think it's very unlikely i think both of our countries recognize that could lead to very serious problems and so i think we will see restraint on both the united states and russia so that we don't need a new conflict the danger is not the door leaders will plan a conflict but the fact that our troops are so close together it might be an accident we might blunder into some kind of contact so that's the danger of the situation not that the intend on either side but sometimes events get out of

control of the leaders so i do think there's a limit to nato expansion. why in your opinion does need to need members like macedonia or montenegro does the lion's operate by the principle the more the better. no i don't think so factor you can argue that. you dilute the effectiveness of the organization if you get too many countries so i think we're probably either the end of very nearly in the end of a two expansion and i think definitely nato has abandoned the idea of expanding into ukraine so that is not a realistic idea of ukraine becoming a member and i think that's not in the cards. i want to talk to a bit about panta gaunts new strategy includes coming up with a low yields nuclear weapon for sake of to terence as they put it while a low yield serve as a nuclear war unable or instead because it's psychologically easier to actually

drop a low yield bomb the people who favor the low yield power to a nuclear weapon both in the united states and in russia argue that it makes. it actually prevents i largely were from the start of a imagine is a need to intermediate stage i don't agree with that i don't agree with either the russians or the americans who favor tactical nuclear weapons i think a nuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon and there ought to be a red line and the non use of nuclear weapons to me the well i have strived for eventually getting rid of nuclear weapons as long as they're used i like to see them limited to t.j. hughes. and not consider the tactic used i do not favor weapons that make nuclear weapons easier to use i want to make them harder to use i want to make them impossible to use now u.s. defense department is planning for a possible war was the china and russia i mean those are just military planners

preparing for eventualities or are you really think that u.s. military wants to fight well i have concerns with that with the doctrine is being evolved today but i do not believe it involves. initiating a war with either china russia their russia now which can be questioned but the rationale is that in case either china or russia precipitate a war for the with the united states we should be prepared for it so i see it is as a defensive rationale but i think what would be focused on instead is working to prevent that kind of a war from ever happening and that's to do with course as much with diplomacy and political actions as it has to do with military actions. dr perry last time we spoke you've said a lot of complimentary things about the u.s. defense secretary chu mattis yeah you know the man personally. has blamed russia for actually trying to stick

a wedge between america and its allies and promise to speak to moscow from a position of force i mean the times are really tense right now no need to emphasize on that how wise is it to be so confrontational at these times and also do you think he's maybe trying to be tough at home where he really things that he can actually get something out of russia by pressure i don't interpret. as exaction should be meant to be being putting pressure on under russia for concessions or i don't see that at all and i think he believes that maybe not correctly but i think he believes that having is stronger defensive posture will make it less likely that we'll ever have it ever have any confrontation with russia or china or any other country. my own view is that much more of the plans on diplomacy and political agreements and i think the office

space the opportunity for for diplomacy and political agreements between the united states or russia is very large today but is not being exploited by either country we have many areas of disagreement ukraine for example. crimea for example. and i understand why it's difficult to have diplomacy to deal with those areas where you fundamentally disagree but there also are many issues which we have in common. neither in nine states in russia want to nuclear war now the united states or russia one nuclear terrorism neither the united states or russia want a nuclear proliferation so we have areas where we have strong and important areas where we have important agreements we ought to be working together in those areas just to solidify our views of which we agree and they come to agreements there so that's a that's a potential this open force that we're not now it's exploiting so i fault both the

russian government and the american government for not taking advantage of those opportunities and moving in so that we work together to good effect of creative diplomacy to make progress in those areas the been there are certain steps that the defense. department takes i would like you to interpret them for me because maybe i'm not understanding i think according to the defense strategy the great power competition with russia and china is outlined as number one concern for the united states not terrorism anymore and that's a that's a judgment that they make and they stated i don't agree with that but it is i understand where they're coming from what do you understand where they're coming from yes they have convinced themselves that. the actions taken by china and russia and turned to building up their own nuclear forces are seen as a threat to the united states. that's a judgment they make which i don't share but it's i don't understand why they. what

they're seeing and why they why they think they need to respond that way but is it not is not a different interpretation of facts it's a difference in how you respond to those facts how you interpret the facts i don't see russia as posing a threat to the united states which is threatening war with the united states i don't see china as threatening war the united states and so i start off with a different fundamental assumption about what these facts me yeah because russians are having a hard time interpret men over the past four years ever since the crisis with russia and the united states began. us has lost ground troops to terrorists in iraq and syria and afghanistan have lost the lives of civilians on the american soil yet not one single russian bullet was shot at an american soldier and for some reason threat for the pentagon comes from moscow i mean what russians don't really get it why. well. i don't share that view i don't believe that

is a fact coming from russia today i believe we have to be vigilant about what might happen in the future in russia or china but i don't see a threat today and then there's the head of the british army cern ikhlas carter and he says that cyber war with russia is a bigger threat to britain their security to british security than terrorism the terror attacks happened on monthly basis in britain last year i mean what is it all ok under control now no terrorist threat any more pressure cyber attack is more dangerous a cyber attack is a real problem for all of our countries for russia and united states and for britain but the cyber attacks can come from terrorism rows from other countries. one of the unique aspects of the cyber threat is that they can come from an individual it can come from a small group and they can come from a nation is not limited like nuclear weapons to a large country that has.