our feeling here's a quarter you think that after sixteen years the u.s. led mission in afghanistan would finally have something to show for its trouble well here's how the federal authority tasked with overseeing reconstruction sees it . between two thousand and one and two thousand and seventeen years government efforts to save the licensee cure in contested areas in afghanistan mostly failed the us government greatly overestimated its ability to build and reform government institutions in afghanistan a pretty clear picture from cigar the top brass in washington though wants to assure you they have everything under control now looking at a twenty eighteen as president gandhi said he believes we have turned a corner and i agree. the momentum is now with the afghan security forces and the taliban cannot win in the face of the pressures that i outlined you think they're talking about two completely different wars but they've been at opposite poles

before just last year cigar said the u.s. failed to properly mentor afghan forces let alone give them the momentum to beat the taliban with the enormous personal and financial sacrifices already made by afghans in their international partners the country my have relapsed to control by extremists and terrorists and again us generals are reading from an entirely different script. afghanistan special operations forces are becoming the best in the region and the afghan air force is neighboring those ground elements there is more work to be done and it will take time however this remains a very very worthy investment failing or not u.s. military leadership doesn't seem to be that bothered about how much this war is costing either flashback to twenty fourteen cigar reported that afghan reconstruction had exceeded the true cost of the marshall plan you know the us is project to reconstruct all of western europe after world war two yeah it sounds

like a budget busting hefty price tag for american generals though it's a necessary expense to get things just right for a victory we should be seeking to win this war counterinsurgencies take a while i think we have gone a long way to setting the conditions for what generally would usually is the defining factor in winning a counterinsurgency which is to set the conditions for government so that the conditions for the rule of law set the conditions for economic opportunity go back farther to two thousand and nine and things already weren't looking so good then president obama had committed over thirty eight billion dollars to repair efforts in the region and that money was going to who exactly. our office also initiated preliminary inquiry. into twenty three allegations of fraud waste and abuse even then u.s. military leaders optimistically saw the situation as a great springboard for their military campaign i'm not prepared to say that we

have turned the corner but i think we have made significant progress in setting conditions in two thousand and nine and will make a real progress in two thousand tim it takes a lot to keep that optimism up all these years but one thing the u.s. generals might have lost sight of is that if you plan to keep turning corners you'll end up right where you began donald quarter r.t. . there are enough opioids in the waters off seattle on the west coast of america that shellfish there have tested positive for the drugs scientists say it reflects the high number of people in the surrounding area who take the substance but what we eat and what we excrete goes into the puget sound telling me that there's a lot of people taking arctic zero down and you know in the puget sound area it's coming likely from the wastewater treatment plant and here's how it was funded clean muscles were put into more than a dozen locations three of the areas were later confirmed to be contaminated waste

water management cannot filter out the opioids and the muscles are unable to metabolize the drugs but other sea life and may become addicted now this is the first time scientists have discovered the drugs in shellfish their unbelieve it highlights the extent of the national wide opioid epidemic in the u.s. now there have been more than two hundred thousand prescription overdose deaths in the u.s. since one thousand nine hundred between the two year twenty sixteen overdose deaths have almost quadrupled six hundred and fifty thousand opioid prescriptions well that's the number that are dispensed daily on policy research or under kolob me thinks that over prescription is behind the epidemic. the real problem is not that you can detect oxy code on and shellfish the real problem is that over exposing the united states to this highly addictive drug has led to an epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose deaths in the united states doctors are prescribing opioids

for very common problems where opioids should not be prescribed these are good medicines for treating pain at the end of life there are good medicines when used for a couple of days after major surgery but the bulk of the prescribing the bulk of the consumption in the united states is for long term common problems where opioids are much more likely to harm patients than how patients if other countries increase prescribe in the way we did in the united states i'm afraid that they will follow in our footsteps u.s. military soldiers are being linked to torture interrogations in secret prisons in yemen and congress is the month thing under investigation we got the entire story an eighty second. with lawmakers manufacture consent to instant to the public wealth. when the

ruling classes protect themselves. with the financial merry go round to listen to the one percent. we can all middle of the room sick. of the real news. twenty five years ago companies or go public as a way to expand their be a viable corporation you have to meet certain criteria for being a viable corporation and then you are allowed to go public now there are no such criteria so if you're essentially burning. and going bankrupt or using the public marketplace to bail out a losing position. seventy

minutes into the program welcome back claims that u.s. military personnel have been involved in torturing detainees in secret prisons in yemen seeing congress vote to demand the pentagon investigate a u.n. report say suspects up the sites were exposed to beatings and electrocution and sexual violence some were imprisoned in a metal cell in direct sunlight others were denied medical treatment. there are reportedly eighteen secret torture prisons in yemen and neighboring countries the sites are mostly run by one of the main u.s. allies in the region the are a emirates well those prisons were reported in an investigation by the associated

press now there are sources at the pentagon acknowledged that u.s. forces have been involved in interrogations but denied any participation or knowledge of abuse but even if that was the case it could still a point to complicity in torture if american personnel in terror detainees who had been tortured no human rights advocates have condemn the reported methods of interrogation. the u.s. hasn't learned the lesson that cooperating with forces that are torturing detainees and ripping families apart is not an effective way to fight extremist groups. well the united arab emirates has officially denied any involvement in running secret prisons in yemen planes of torturing suspects political analysts say there should be an independent investigation. because not to be an exit you should and then be the investigator you can be the judge and investigate and then execute but this is

what the u.s. is doing basically the u.n. should be doing the job of the u.n. the u.n. should be doing this investigation widely and with the support of the so-called civilized western world which is obviously not so civilized as we have seen with the tortures and as we have seen also with the cover ups this is what the u.s. has been doing all over the world in every base that it has every time they catch someone allegedly someone who is linked to terrorism or at least someone who was against the u.s. imperial demands or requests inside of this country they are treated like animals even worse. billionaire philanthropist george soros is poor millions of dollars into the campaigns of selected district attorney candidates in california at the same time leaked documents reveal he is also spending millions on an empty breaks a group in the u.k. get a bargain looks at how far the billionaire is spear of interest expense and with all

this talk of foreign meddling you would think that the activities of a hungry and billionaire pouring money into american politics might get more mainstream media play george soros is a long time liberal money man and right now he's trying to influence the election of district attorneys across the united states basically he's pouring money into the campaigns of prosecutors he thinks will enforce the law in line with his liberal politics my name is no phillips and i'm running for district attorney got some work and some healing to do to rebuild trust so we can keep sacramento safe forever. now getting supported by george soros isn't always a plus the man has plenty of detractors what is the out of state billionaire funding no with phillips campaign not telling us you know with a. teacher wrong for. george soros has been sticking his nose into politics around the world for decades he

started out funding anti-communist dissidents during the late period of the cold war more recently he's been backing best for britain and anti brags that group in the u.k. we've got one mission and that is to try and stop breaks it george soros is foundations have along with a number of other major donors also made significant contributions to our work indeed through his foundations he's contributed four hundred thousand pounds he's been working to try and repeal the abortion laws in ireland. the activities there and actually been deemed illegal with amnesty international being ordered by the authorities to return his donations that hasn't stopped him or even given him pause in trying to influence the politics of a foreign country that is just another example. well it's like insurance. money did use. very huge amount of matters concerning our citizens and the ocean

surface recently experienced a few setbacks in hungary central european university which is very close to was unaccredited so what did he do to move it over the border into austria george soros has no problem crossing borders moving money and creating a ruckus in order to further his political agenda the man has actually gone as far as to speak of himself and divined i admit i have always hob with an exaggerated view of myself and putin's to put it bluntly i fancied myself as some kind of good omen economic reform alike or even both to a scientist like einstein with all this talk of washington corruption and big lobbyists don't forget about the big man himself george soros is globally oriented and he has no problem going to other lands and telling people how to live their lives. r.t. new york. well american journalist blumenthal believes lobbying in the united states is a way of corruption covered up as business we get kind of a

a cook narrative that leaves out the real source of corruption in washington which is our allies buying influence and taking american policy over the brink in the middle east foreign governments are paying billions of dollars into think tanks. lobbying firms and even hollywood in order to curry favor in the u.s. the term collusion can certainly be applied to this lobbying this is the story i think that everyone in washington is missing out on because it's considered business as usual and it's basically collusion only takes place. a two time foreign minister of italy is among the guests on today's going underground and it starts right after this stay with r.t. international.

join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sport doesn't this i'm show business i'll see you there. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race to piss off and spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk. to. these we continue to discuss only about some commenters of the maastricht. six pockets and we don't we have nothing to give to the next generation and reason

for which to be proud to be utopian these is the reason all of us kept. the other financial for long johns today was all about money laundering first to visit this confession to three different. oh good the good stuff we have our three banks all set up through maybe something in europe something going to america something overseas or the cayman islands or do we do all these banks are complicit in the kleptocracy who decide to give mccomas a camera to do some serious wounds ok let's see how we did well we've got home got a nice laundry watch for max and for stacy oh beautiful jewelry how about a puck on luxury automobile again for a match you know what money laundering is highly illegal here for

a watch because of course. time after time here we're going underground as vladimir putin hosts talks with japanese prime minister shinzo up in moscow coming up on the show the italian job or italian job so s. c.e. representative and former italian foreign minister franco frattini on whether it's really is next to leave the european union as italy's new prime minister is set to help the unemployed and why has the high court granted a challenge to the government over regulation of the media we speak to the alleged con man who says he was interested by the murdoch sunday times to target everyone from the chancellor of the exchequer to the boss of u.k. spy agency m i six plus as the world faces its worst refugee crisis since world war

two the chelsea flower show in london tries to undo some of the legacy of tony blair's war in iraq all the support coming up in today's going underground but first the pentagon may be the biggest employer in the world and perhaps took heart from donald trump's cancellation of june's historic singapore meeting that might have gone some way to mitigate the killing of twenty percent of korea's population by the usa and u.k. but it's closely followed by the chinese people's liberation army walmart mcdonald's and britain's n.h.s. this week u.k. labor leader jeremy corbyn accuse minority government needed to raise it may have trashing europe's largest employer for privatized profiteering the national audit office criticised n.h.s. england scapular contract saying and i quote it's hard to put patients at risk of serious harm corbet allege that thousands have been dropped from the national cervical cancer screening program and two thirds of all general practice doctors are received in correct medical records from privatized contractors to raise them

a said. it was committed to the n.h.s. seventy years since it was created by a labor government we have to ensure that we remain true to our founding principles of the n.h.s. but is free at the point of the notice presumably she wasn't referring to u.k. judges for medicine corbin wasn't convinced from the party that opposed the n.h.s. in the first place. was. far too much noise on both sides of ours twice in two weeks the speaker that was of commons himself under attack in u.k. mainstream media had to intervene as labor leader called and tried to ask questions of the prime minister and this time it was before the prank phone call to boris johnson revealing the foreign secretaries interest in tying corben to vladimir putin the pm though tied corbin to another vladimir lenin they want to overthrow

capitalism was that it would mean finally. going to support it was. now we know when they say very early stein on this issue yesterday's or may says the party which extrapolating from the most recent election results would have a majority of m.p.'s in the british parliament wants to overthrow capitalism in effect she appeared to say the british people supports its overthrow or certainly in italy party is not happy with your liberal capitalism have been on a roll this week just happy conte who is on the record as saying twentieth century ideological schemes are no longer adequate has been named prime minister for more we're joined from rome by italy's former foreign minister now as c special representative franco frattini thanks so much africa for twenty for coming back on the show so who is italy's new prime minister do sepic on to giuseppe culture is a professor in the birth of florence is professor in c.v.

lol he has been studying this. also abroad not only in italy any used to be dubai stress event of the superior counsel of a minister p. judy sherry so all he has some institution or experience to not only an academic when your old boss prime minister berlusconi says that forza italia will vote against this coalition what did you make of that yell yes apparently dalia decided to vote against old dog someone to force a tally of people including miserables corning already said eve there would be some proposals corresponding to the center right program on devon gold in favor of and of course the lego is allow layer of

mr berlusconi is the problem for him and his buyer the the seventeen billion euro oh five star policy for youth unemployment in italy well it is but on debt five star electoral problem words focusing mainly on unemployment used occupation and may be in point of early helping the younger generation to get a legal job while not only was mainly focusing on security illegal migration polity policy or rule of law you know donald trump strategist steve bannon spoke this week saying that it's a bit like a coalition between bernie sanders and donald trump. because of the truth in that and no i don't i don't agree it is an excessive definition of what is the

charge and government there are some points where of course five stars is more troll lefty's oriented while the delete is more rightist oriented byte by id end i'm sure there will be able to find a comma a compromise i don't or my country out of this that will happen but of course it's what the banks are saying around the world what your god younger and antonio to johnny will be looking at the coalition plan if it really means fifty billion euros of tax cuts the leg of policy seventeen billion euros for the poor pension reform maybe costing i don't know fifteen billion euro that pushes italy over the three percent g.d.p. deficit rule of sure you've looked at those calculations to what do you make of it yeah i'm sure first of all press is that much or as the president of the jolly

a republican will be closely monitoring the implementation of the program and also from the very beginning the i would see initiative undertaken by the government of professor i'm also sure you know what professor qantas said air when the designation came in a clear knowledge balance it will be kept as a principle so keeping you. path for italy funny that because prime minister contests before he was named prime minister used to say things very much against the european union now he seems to have softened meanwhile do you think it's sensible that the european commission just as content was softening the stance arguably tells italy it needs more austerity. that's what earlier this week well it is up saluted enough to pre-heat to

kenya's li ask for more austerity for rigidity gives is exactly the opposite of what is necessary not all if for each only afford a majority of european member states nettie's through morning grolsch creating jobs i don't agree with all doors messages coming from brussels i agree with the messages coming from brussels stressing that european commission is the guardian of the treaties so all all the member states including italy have to respect these is fine but please don't say always every minute austerity a steri a stary the disease what inflames era skepticism not only immediately if god younger doesn't listen to you does that make it inevitable italy will leave the

european union no is not possible it has and think of all italy will be it why not be strong members in the european union in next years but having a very clear idea what is in the interest of italia each audio enterprise nurse italia and the younger generation how could we warrick you nor did to make it possible that italian interests coincides with european interests i'm sure you are aware of the so-called scaremongering before the brics it vote here but is it your understanding that given italian borrowing on the bond markets it could not function if if they left the european union given the e.u. interest. auntie's well i hope still you don't is not only one of the beatle artists but you know he deserves shoe port in order to have

a good ol send jobs not the norm but in order to keep distance from brussels these are exactly the exercise we ask for by the grassroots you're speaking to me from the italian capital how sick and tired of the italian public of so-called socialist and so-called neo liberal parties duras need to only now devon would be the sound kind of opposition in the parliament but i don't see really a very strong opposition it need to lead from a socialist and purely liberal party's dairies an opposition which is represented by a force they tell you that part you're travelling in former prime minister berlusconi diaries the opposition of democratic party that by mr mudge there are

rancy but i don't see yet clear turn a cheap governmental policy against its new chorley show i'm led by if i start and leapt if we leave renzi to one side vitally what role does forza retaliate have to play or is it just to an inadequate twentieth century ideology promoter as quanta might speak of it i mean even with media sets media power in italy for their italia didn't do well did it there well i think delaware some phenomena in the recent past people where very much for straight up because of the crisis unemployment reached higher levels despite some. fords from the outgoing italian government ease was that the origin of deep political crises that led to do

a result gulf eyes and delete those parties could be defined as cost ideal logical political movements but nevertheless we do need it traditional political parties the liberals the socialist the christian democrats they could be i would say important to contributions to. the new parliament and so i think it does is the reason why the ruling majority will have to confront is stronger because each of otherwise there would be and bad situation two did they actually meant of each only as a whole frank overtaking thank you thank you very much after the break we speak to a former purveyor of fleet street so tory is dark arts john ford and the alleged

con man for the murdoch sunday times turned leveson inquiry whistleblower and aware of all the flowers gone the lemon tree trust exhibited to garden of the chelsea flower show in london aiming to alleviate the effects of britain's bombing of iraq all this and more coming up in part through of going on the ground. in july twenty second team hunted also to a freelance journalist working with our team to militant shelling in syria. to honor his sacrifice equality has established a holiday all sort of memorial day will recognize will reporters who often risk than the sake of the truth comes through the piece you can submit to your published works in a video or written form until june. twelve. twenty

five years ago companies go public as a way to expand their would be a viable corporation you have to meet certain criteria for being a bible corporation and then you are allowed to go public now there are no such criteria so if you're essentially burning through cash and going bankrupt or using the public marketplace to bail out a losing position. i am a staunch unethically much if i do business in the system it's in the food industry in the one nine hundred ninety s. . but time is taking that in life and what does not have to do with g.m. . is to just get.