syrian pro-government forces are reportedly preparing to enter the city of or into how kurdish militia repel a turkish offensive to washington failed to deescalate the month long conflict between its two allies. a former cia director admits the u.s. does interfere in other country's elections when it is quote for a good cause the comments coming in the wake of the alleged russian meddling saga plus. i mean what is this country done to the majority of the countries in the middle east if you're an american i am i going to be. an iranian american fashion blogger an american t.v. host criticizing u.s. policy in the middle east.

it's two o'clock here in moscow and you're watching r t international with me and welcome to the program syrian pro-government forces are expected to help kurdish militia defend the city of a friend that's according to syrian state media it follows an alleged deal between damascus and the kurds under the agreement troops will help kurdish fighters to repel turkey's offensive in the region of video agency ruptly is film some of their preparations. and middle east correspondent joins me live with more details paula what else do we know. well we are hearing from some and state t.v. that the militias that i lie and with the damascus government are due to enter the athlon region in northern syria in the coming hours now they will assess the kurdish militias as they continue the air to fight against the turkish forces now

this is a fight that has been ongoing for at least a month and has seen casualties on both sides last month we did see and launched the so-called olive branch operation against what it has termed kurdish terrorists now this deal would be between the syrian government forces as well as kurds. are and. i. am. now the fierce fighting has seen multiple casualties including civilians from both

sides civilians inside the afrin region have welcomed the advance of these pro-government forces. which are going to go over there already we are concerned about attempts to partition syria some of the ground that the u.s. has already started to realize on the ground. the u.s. claims that that will only go into the fight i sort of preserve the country's integrity but i think that washington needs to back its workers with actual truth goodness because right now since actions look provocative well the u.s. should use the courage to pursue its own ambitions and that's led to a major conflict in africa. now and then launched its military operation across. the border in northern syria in the region of afghan after the united states announced that it was creating a border security force that would be predominantly complies dobs kurds who the turks consider terrorists now the same time we heard from ankara that they were furious that this so-called terror army was being created right on its border since

then the united states has tried to backtrack but essentially the point of no return has already been reached we are hearing from the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov that the ambitions of the united states have essentially led to this current bloodshed. we are concerned partitioned syria some of us has already started to realize on the ground. the u.s. claims that only going to fight i sort of preserve the country's integrity but i think that washington needs to back its words with action because right now actions provocative but the u.s. should use the code to pursue its own ambitions and that's led to a major conflict in africa. where the. tensions continue to increase on the ground and despite many attempts by the united states to try and deal with the situation it has to now had no effect so we will continue to monitor the situation and see

just how the situation develops ok paula slayer there thanks very much for the update on a lot of our middle east correspondent. a former cia director has admitted the u.s. interferes in other countries elections and domestic affairs when its quote for a good cause. looks at whether double standards are in play. no one likes a spoiler medlars interference especially when it comes to american elections they're hooley pure and spoiled and unsullied or they were before the russians got to them they say but judge not lest ye be judged especially when you have a fetish for getting your fingers into foreign elections when i just don't mess around other people. are only for the very good didn't do

a vine video on those former cia for a very good cause. said the former director of the cia it's funny because and when america does it when someone else's even suspected of doing it no no no no no no bad bad did the russians break the rules or do something bizarre the answer is no not at all said a thirty year veteran of the cia come on the cia route the book on meddling. we've been doing this kind of thing since the cia was created in one thousand forty seven we've used posters pamphlets mailers banners you name it we've planted false information for newspapers we've used with the british called king george's calorie suitcases of cash add to that assassinations coups information warfare hacking and that's just the stuff we know about this the johnson that helped

oversee the cia's exhibit g.'s he'd know the difference is they say when russia does it it's to destroy the woold even when that meddling has no actual impact on the elections as even the justice department just admitted when america doesn't so the greater good democracy and all that you could ask of course how on earth overthrowing democratically elected leaders as the cia has done is helping democracy how sending billions of dollars worth of guns to gulf dictators is helping democracy but don't well the united states has been interfering in other countries elections since the one nine hundred thirty s. and in the caribbean and in latin america when i was in cia in the seventy's and eighty's in europe i would say that the that the cia and the us government basically were interfering in elections almost every election that was taking place

in europe this was just routine that the us wanted a friendly government of a certain type and was willing to do certain things to enable that to happen if we're going to claim that america has the right to interfere behind the scenes in the politics of another country. it's a little hypocritical for then america to say oh yeah russian intelligence has been interfering in american elections. you don't get to have it both ways. in the rain in american fashion blogger has been dubbed an american for criticizing u.s. policies she was giving a t.v. interview to talk about her book on taran street fashion when she was suddenly asked about iran's alleged nuclear program however she turned the question around asking her interviews about american policies in the region here's a snippet from the interview let's talk about what they. may

say we cannot trust iran what are your thoughts i mean i don't think we can trust this country i mean what has this country done to the majority of the countries in the middle east you're an american. as you just heard the host accused category of not sounding like an american when she questioned washington's foreign policy and she spoke to us about the exchange. i was really shocked by by the question of the statement but also i think it also goes back to sort of the place that muslims in america are constantly put themselves in that we have to constantly prove that we're american enough to deserve respect to deserve being bombed or banned which all of which this country and other western countries are also involved in in the middle east and then the second that we sort of criticize the state for what they've actually done redeemed an american car to be also told r.t.

that she's been flattered by the positive comments she's received online tweets range from surprised to praise for the blogger for speaking freely has got to be again commenting on freedom of expression and on going viral. thank you unfortunately i guess after the fact i wasn't too surprised because muslims and people of color in this country and across the west are constantly put in positions where we're constantly kind of being used both as a term as a way of sort of talking about our maybe having to respond for our government policies back abroad but then having to blindly questionably sort of pray allegiance to this country who might be involved in violence in our country. thank you i think that it's sort of these are sort of underlying microaggression that happen every single day and it's not just me that has happened to i was just lucky enough that this was live and i was able to record it and then being able to share

online but this happens constantly every single day all the time for any single person who is a person of color a muslim that they consciously are kind of having to do with micro gresham's that are so normalized within society and so that's why one thing that i really appreciate about sort of the viral of the of this is that people are really standing up now and saying this is not normal this is not ok we shouldn't allow this from happening right at shipping group is facing accusations of selling a number of vessels with harmful place to scrapyards in turkey and india adding to environmental and health problems and violating e.u. law. six.

legs. cut. leg . cut leg. cut cut cut cut . the case is playing out in dutch courts the prosecution is alleging that the

ship's old to be broken apart in india and turkey contained a number of toxic substances which should have been removed and recycled in a safe way it also cites the alleged impact of the chemicals on recycling workers and the environment in those countries have to find a breach of the waste laws is being sought if convicted shipping bosses face up to six months in jail for its part the company has rejected wrong doing the defense for the sea trade group argues the ships are only qualify as waste once they reach their final destination and don't fall under e.u. environmental rules as token india beyond its jurisdiction lack of proper regulation in the industry is one of the problems highlighted by the ship breaking platform and you know the trade is a dutch company and certainly in two thousand and twelve the conditions that the in south asia were well known to any european company so the choice the trade made was

for the highest price. of the higher prices because they do not pay for the proper waste management the proper infrastructure and they use migrant workers that are not trained it's indeed unfortunately is a very common practice more than eighty percent of the world tonnage is currently broken and three total beaches in the world one in india one in bangladesh and one in pakistan this activity causes pollution to see. the groundwater and is also very dangerous for the work is a fall from heights there are explosions they will be crushed by steel plates so it's basically an industry which is very poorly regulated former cia agent turned whistleblower has been released early from prison we look at his case after this break.

global war hawks selling you on the idea that dropping bombs brings police to the chicken hawks forcing you to fight the battles they don't want. to do socks for the tell you that they'll be gossiping probably by itself a little supporters. let them off the bad guys and tell you take you on the cool enough and lets you fight their product. all the hawks that we along with all the walking. manufactured. public wealth. when the ruling classes project themselves.

in the room. welcome back to the program former cia whistleblower jeffrey sterling has been released from prison he revealed cia mismanagement of a classified program to the u.s. senate and was later sentenced under the espionage act to three and a half years so he was freed after serving over two years of that sentence but serving it was not jailed for what he told senators instead he was accused of leaking classified information he shared with the senate journalist his sentence was softer than the usual one thousand years minimum reportedly that was because all the evidence against him was a circumstantial on comi former u.s.

senate candidate who petitioned for sterling's release explains how he ended up being treated as a traitor. there are times reporter james rises and now with the intercept was having about fifty conversations back and forth with geoffrey and then james rise and released a book about two thousand and five called state of war in which he disclosed the cia's botched release of of nuclear plans to iran even jeffrey tried to tell a senate intelligence committee about this information they tried to go after james rise and to find out who his source was just around that same time they arrested jeffrey they dropped the rise in case because obama did not want to go after a reporter because the heat was on obama in the obama administration because he was going after journalists and judge who sentenced and stated that while in the perfect world every criminal case with the decidedly thing direct evidence to all

else to not not possible on in coney confess that they had nothing but full consensual evidence they went and took geoffrey to court the only type of evidence that they had was circumstantial evidence and cia agents saying that it was a disgruntled employee that released information because of his discrimination case jeffrey has maintained his innocence for almost seventeen years neal times which eventually published the story standing still thinks he can say no cover his beliefs on mankind he says that many genesis and difficult and about jeffrey skilling. journalists are never asked about are asking about jeffrey sterling or talking about it and this is a man who has become an invisible man out for about a man who is in my mind a hero of the a.c.l.u. with me been handled this case and so we have to reach out to other types of out which are unable to tell his story. olympic athletes from russia has tested

positive for doping at the winter olympics in south korea the court of arbitration for sport is now reviewing the case with the world anti-doping agency expected to announce the results of a second round of tests later on monday the athlete in question is mixed doubles alexander cushioning at ski he and his wife won bronze in china the first olympic curling medal ever for russian athletes. has more. well right now it is all down to that second doping test and if it happens to be positive that will be a real disappointment for many people i can tell you that here and chang the crowds have literally fallen in love with the russian couple alexander crucial need ski and in us this year brazil are husband and wife they won the country its first ever olympic medal in curling and to watch their family team work on ice was something

inspiring the media went on about them for a few days in a row and they were even compared with mr and mrs smith but now alexander is suspected of taken the infamous drug that hadn't been banned until a couple of years ago it once cost tennis star maria sharapova a year of her career after her team had forgotten to put it on the do not take drugs list and honestly alexander scase if he had made the same mistake or had taken the drug on purpose that would just be ridiculous when the oh they are are under such a close watch here and peeling chang crucially is he has said that he believes someone could have spiked his food or drinks with in any case the international olympic committee have promised to launch a special probe but that will happen after the olympics are over in the meantime

the olympic athletes from russia are getting on with their quest for medals and despite all the pressure despite some of the main stars missing out the zero eight are have secured some bronze in silver and the cross country skiing squad who were teenagers just a year or two ago are doing particularly well with five medals so far no gold though. respect to sports radio host alan moore who says it would have been very unwise of the color to risk using him if they take a burst of energy burst of speed he could work hard because you're curling is a pretty olympic pretty pretty testing sport and self he will be supremely stupid to be caught for. though he has. said that his drink might have in spite of training camp. to see him on like he does he took it however war little bit of

information came out overnight that his former or his coach but said that's all he has he stopped taking the dog back in two thousand and sixteen when it was bad and we have to give him the benefit of the doubt we see a lot of the beast. as a positive we need to find out exactly what happened but again it goes back to you know it will be we said last week sitting as you say not to get caught for dope in the olympics you have to be very very silly and i don't think that christmas is silly. now the capital of libya is in danger of losing its historic heritage due to the current instability in the country an essential science has been neglected and left out in the open a photographer from the city has launched a social media campaign to raise awareness.

i'm a little put in the here thirty third the old city is our history it's our past historically it is the oldest trade of does it really with africa it. would think. it's on the up and even i like to take photos of the old city it's my passion. to remember seeing the no one and fifty there is no restoration of any preservation of ancient buildings and.

instead of also people took part on twitter their bloated photos of the old city taken by me and other people they wrote about the city so there was in fact. the concerns about the historic heritage of libya shared by your desk as well the organization has put five of the country's sites on its world heritage endangered list citing the conflict of fact in libya some of those sites date back centuries and even millennia. the round up of our top stories tonight i'll be back at the top of the i would also do stay with us. thank.

you. no that's just. certain i want to do things or show the phrase really truly be very clear. the way your. management. and the young lady they are then they have. skimmed you need to feel this very. soft yeah i'm them what do you how much. do you

look local do you. mean that with a measure that's often more negative. seemed wrong but all roles just don't call. me old yet to shape our disdain comes to educate and gain from it because the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

time after time to we're going underground ten years to the day that castro resign the presidency of cuba in thirty two years he made cuba or a health care beacon to the world and eliminated homelessness while creating the best education system in latin america all wealth of vibing hundreds of assassination attempts from washington coming up on the show it was the largest demonstration in british history so fifteen years on after opposition to a war with iraq filled the streets of london how is westminster continuing to feed terror right across the arab world we talked to iraqi born british professor summing ramadan his violence defacto backed by the u.k. continues to block the minds of millions and after last night's u.k. version of the oscars we speak to be award winning author miller creator a fictional british secret agent kingsmen who explains why he thinks everything from the state mandated b.b.c. the neo liberal hollywood has been rocked by scandal after scandal but this new

figures show the children are at more risk from armed conflict now than at any other time in the last twenty years we speak to save the children about what needs to be done to protect the next generation all the more coming up in today's going underground but first to more of b.p. the multinational oil company once owned by the u.k. taxpayer releases its energy outlook report detailing its predictions for long term energy trends and projections b.p. the factor has a long history for instance overthrowing a democratically elected leader in the middle east mossad backed in iran and in nineteen fifty three also direct was the president cia and others got rid of them to protect british petroleum interests the shah of iran came in a brutal do. and he was strong. revolution and that is where we are in iran today but in britain that once taxpayer and company is remembered for it being

flogged off by a tory government. and the people. of the station. might . be part of it he would go on to be courted by labour's alleged iraq war criminal leader tony blair that led to the alleged b.p. deal over lockerbie prisoner abdel baset on the ground he convicted of britain's biggest ever terrorist atrocity how did he get it so to get these contracts that is the question because the british deny any quid pro quo between the release of. tracks i said i'm sure so what's the evidence well look in two thousand and four when. he came in from the cold. nuclear. british prime minister paid a number of visits and on his second visit in two thousand and seven. government an

oil exploration deal but if we leave to one side of the deal would eventually end up with a failed state in libya and terror in manchester last year b.p. is still active in what green activists call environmental terrorism in just intruders canada his government just green like the deep water drilling by b.p. off the coast of nova scotia not appreciated much by a grassroots environmental coalition the group marched to a liberal party office where they delivered a letter for justin trudeau asking the prime minister not to give any decision making authority to the petroleum boards which is what the canadian government did last summer twelve endangered north atlantic whales died in the gulf of st lawrence only between four hundred five hundred fifty now remain in the world something probably won't be into more as b.p. reports well this month marks the fiftieth anniversary of the biggest ever demonstration in britain against the war in iraq and b.p. is now the biggest foreign player in the iraq's oil sector.