they didn't answer me i had the choice to be in cuba or be here in moscow for some very important thing this past week and i chose to come here to moscow instead of going to cuba well we are very happy it's you're welcome here in this country but for the time being we have to take a very short break we'll be back in just a few moments statement. first. of all those.

georgia shows don't google so diageo on the list first thanks. to my how my custom hust. likely kooky tell you. the first. oh you've grown up old followed. me it to most bridget does a little but drops some some because the she knew. well. was right. and knew that you would just look at it would you for me that's. a good summary of the. movement that they were aiming. towards i mean that one of the most of those in the us to mobile me birds. wonderful to smile at.

what politicians do something. they put themselves on the line. to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or some want to be rich. but you'd like to be first that's what the fuck treatable can't be good that i'm interested always in the why. should. welcome back to worlds apart with jon alpert the american journalist and documentary filmmaker mr alfred day just before the break you were saying that you had a choice of either going to cuba or coming to moscow and each owes most to and i know

that you have something under the table to show as i do have something i have my my my props here if you see this yeah and i can see the name of a legendary russian hockey player just last fifty safo and they say why do you have it if you look at this and obviously we have your name here as well but so so when i was growing up. i didn't want to be a journalist i can tell you how i became a journalist but it was completely accidental my dream was to be a hockey player. but my reality was that i still don't get i wasn't good enough. i was always very enthusiastic but in on town that hockey player but my friend i'm working with on a number of projects one is the first and last hockey game ever on the north pole can you skate really and you've got a year because next year around this time is basically to call attention to the

environmental crisis of the north pole and also the sort of political tensions the arctic countries the vatican. there's one more can remember what it is they're all getting together. i usually do political journalism and i think. right off the bat i can say that this is if you're an unusual experience to have russians and americans doing anything constructive because from my experience the only bickering but it's good that you guys can do something in the in the current environment and i think so and you've been to war and i feel. because of our shared experience and because i'm looking in your eyes i can tell that. when when you go to war as a reporter there is something that happens inside you and it changes you as a person and it compels you more or less for the rest of your life to look for other ways to resolve issues you visited

a number of floors zones but did the one that you remember the most would be a your coverage of the first gulf war for which you were actually fired from and b. c. . it was clearly and correct me if i'm wrong you were specifically fired because you sell and it's a billion deaths all inflicted by the americans that was clearly an act of censorship but i think from my experience at least censorship in different come countries. realize in different patterns have you figured out how it works in the united states. you know if it's affected me in different ways i've had the misfortune of being blacklisted twice i was blacklisted for public television not for war coverage but for a documentary about health care because the documentary pointed the finger at the sort of greedy financial interests that were keeping americans from getting the

best health care. that was it for public television. but this sort of interesting thing about the united states is that sometimes the door opens and door closes and the door open to n.b.c. and i was the only independent reporter to work for any of the coral networks i had total editorial control of my reports which is i have more editorial control than anybody here at r.t. has i think there were a number of circumstances general electric which is. a big powerful country company a company that has a lot of military industrial interests bought and b.c. and from that moment. the gangplank was out for me but i think that i may i may be mistaken but judging from your previous interviews i think it was more specific you went to iraq you filmed the shooters that's where you were not supposed to sell me you managed to smuggle it into a back into the united states in your socks you brought it to the n.b.c.

executives and what did they tell you. that every time i go to the third world i make trouble for them and they're tired of it but if you actually look at the footage what was the problem with your behavior over the actual material that they hear and in fact. the regular news staff was devastated by this and they had all supported me they had seen the footage and were proud that somebody from their team had gotten this despite saddam's attempts to censor me you know we had three babysitters there were three pages of rules and regulations we broke every single rule they tried to kill me on the way out of the country put a gun to my head and spent five minutes trying to pull the trigger to kill me and i got the stuff back and everybody was proud of me and what was there what was on the there was on the film i mean basically the smart bombs were not smart this was what we were being told in the united states during the war that this was the first bloodless war in history the first scientific war in history. and let me tell you

when any country believes that they can make war and not hurt people they become even more dangerous and so it was crucial to show these reports to the american did he actually show it to the american people when they should have seen it during the war one of the tragedies of the war and it's and it's studied in journalism classes there were a number of hand wringing retrospectives about the way in which the press had not fulfilled its duty to the country during the war and they didn't well you know what's interesting to me is that americans like to use the examples of the first and second iraqi contains as something that they regret but i think. any of those things has been repeated recently for example the united states military has just taken over the city of. isis used to claim as its capital it was taken by a very very have the aerial bombardment. practically no building is left

standing in that city there independent reports of thousands of corpses rotting under the rubble and there is still very very little if any coverage on the american networks doesn't that suggest that the system that you encounter baghdad is still in operation these days i can't talk about that because i haven't been to syria i can't talk about those reports because i don't watch the news and when i spend my whole day doing what i'm doing i'm i don't know about you i want to watch a hockey game on t.v. i don't think i've watched merican cast in twenty years. but i didn't even watch my own reports because as soon as i finish with my own reports i was on an airplane going to the next war so i can't comment about that i thought that the way in which the press was treated during the second gulf war because i was embedded for two months in baghdad was respectful was honest and was transparent and it was the three hundred sixty degree difference from the first gulf war first gulf war. the

press was treated like a bunch of dogs in the alley you've been to numerous war zones but you decided against going to syria or for that matter to libya why is that why didn't you want to go there. i'd make a calculus. before i decide to go someplace i would like. i'm happy to take a risk and happy to risk can say i'm happy but i will risk my life if i think that the report that i make is going to change something. and that's the sort of sophisticated combinations of things want to have to be able to get to where i want to go i have to be able to operate with some degree of freedom people's minds have to be flexible enough so that if i come back and i say listen this is what i think the truth really is that the listen to me and i need an outlet and i don't have any of those conditions. when i stop working for n.b.c. i began to do documentaries and sort of let's get on the plane the bells ringing

over in syria i'm going to be the first person in the front the first person back in those days i could beat anyone in the world sure you're good but i could beat you but documentaries is different and documentaries is a long slow or thoughtful process and and there are only so many places that you can show them and we basically make one documentary every two years every three years in the case of cuba to be forty five years the conditions and i felt bad you know because in order to take this risk you have to believe that there's something about the way in which you see the world that is important for other people to know otherwise it's insanity to go to these places and you have to have that burning. burn burn inside you so the first couple of times wars happened without me. like you had to tie me to the mast because but i didn't have any place to show it you

know you weren't there but they were. a lot of coverage of both the syrian and libyan conflict and it was. very much split along the ideological lines because i could see the reports of my western colleagues for example from libya voice with their own this same way or in the same building working you know from the same desk but they would show something totally totally different i mean the reality that i wouldn't even recognize and i'm sure they would say the same things about my reports we are now in the age of propaganda war asbos truth post do you think you could even adapt to this kind of working environment i did pretty pretty good in egypt so i was in the square in egypt for the revolution . i think. it's a pretty good film it played on h.b.o. we didn't win the oscar but we got on the shortlist for the oscar awards and so

made a film from i don't know if you appreciate. my type of way of doing things it was a quintessential film the way in which we do it very well received so. the opportunity to still do exist and you know it's also our responsibilities as reporters to. try and be as honest as possible to not have an agenda. when there's lots of forces pulling us this way and points out what the it's not about having an agenda i think from what i see at least i think many western reporters they come to cuba or they come to syria with the preconceived notion of what the country is and they do their reports from the balconies of the hotel we call them balcony buzzards a little whatever i mean. things to do more things to do this they did and so you know this is. the first report i ever did for n.b.c.

. was the first time i'd ever been in a war zone and i was up in lang's on vietnam the chinese were on the hills shooting at anything that moved and i like a moron i'm walking down the street there with my vietnamese buddies in the church church so you know what i did. everybody else runs for cover i grab the microphone and i do with stand up because that's all it ever. existed and so i said i'm telling them what was obvious i'm here i'm lying son that people are shooting at me and my name is john alpert and i'm working for n.b.c. news i looked at that and i said you know what that's the last stand up on there but i never i never did another one i was so ashamed of myself because all i was doing was copycatting you know they all wear the same clothes they wear the trench coats in the winter they wear the safari suits and they walk around with briefcases and question what the heck is in their briefcases you know what it is speak up and they spend the whole day waiting for the sun to get into the right position they've got somebody standing there with the tray to reflect them they are there on the

balcony well i think so shame on them and here awards to people who go do something different and it's and it's not just the american reporters seen the russian reporters i've seen people like this all over the world and there seems good reporters from every single country who will get dirty and will try to understand what the people are doing well. definitely on that i just. a minute left and i want to ask you perhaps a philosophical question but still i think much of the global tensions still centered around those concepts of freedom democracy tyranny development human flourishing and what always strikes me is how differently they are interpreted in different countries what freedom means to an american is very different from what freedom means to a cuban or to a syrian or even to russians for that matter do you think difference is a genuine do you think we will absolutely be able to arrive. you know some common

understanding of what freedom really. i think it's always good to have differences. but we can't let those differences separate us and what we need to do is. even even though we might look at the world. differently we need to. walk through the world holding hands and talk to each other about our differences like we're doing here today will be a big you know mindful of being branded as a kremlin sympathizer because i think in this day and age even appearing on this network may get you in trouble letting anybody who knows me knows that i've always been my own person and people have respected me for them that's why they invite me to come back time and time again and that's why this project about the first and last hockey game at the north pole which has been indorsed by the united nations that's the other well i certainly do it together and i'll teach you how to skate you want how to skate well but i'll teach you a well i will definitely try my best but in any case i hold that we can discuss

your next project let's say in a year's time in this very studious thank you for being here today i invite our viewers to keep this conversation going on our social media pages as for me hope to see you again same place same time here on worlds apart.

you know world a big part of newton's law and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks.

i'm going to stop them both of us. from the. last time we chased. each one a little carrying twenty kilos of drugs. first offense. they just employees. in. the morning. this is the this is for me. i. mean. i don't know. me. i was running.

around one. of headlines here on r.t. international but u.s. slaps fresh sanctions on russia over the script poisoning in the u.k. the state department saying it is determined that moscow is responsible for the use of a chemical weapon against its. facebook relies on nato and u.s. funded expos to talk all foreign influence on its on the program we take a look at how the state is tightening its grip on social media and what. the u.s. senate invites the head of wiki leaks to testify on alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixteen election. also an easter island tribe are seeking the

return of a sacred stuff you stole. over one hundred years ago we're now on display at the british museum so we. should be returned after so long. and i think you have a. history. here in moscow international all of us here welcome to your news. the u.s. has announced it is imposing new sanctions on russia over the poisoning of double agent. and his daughter back in the u.k. in march saying it holds moscow ultimately responsible with more on that. and. the united states six two thousand and eighteen determined that the government of the russian federation has used chemical biological weapons against its own

nationals despite any new evidence coming to light the us wants to impose sanctions on russia and this is in regards to the form of poisoning of form of double agent sake a script on his door to back in march now the sanctions will be implemented two sets the fish sets will ban licenses for the export of sensitive national security goods to russia including electronic items and these kind of exports have been previously allowed on a case by case basis the second round of sanctions there will be more severe this will be the prohibit us baron colognes the ten minute carrier landing rights which we could affect flights from russia to the us and fed the restrictions on exports and imports as well but the u.s. says they that the second round of sanctions will come into effect unless russia provides reliable assurances that it won't use chemical weapons in the future and

agrees to on site checks by the u.n. but when you say reliable assurances it was last year twenty seventeen years of national community the o.p.c. w confirmed the destruction of all chemical weapons in russia exactly the chemical weapons watchdog verified that the destruction and cofan this in september two thousand and seventeen but we're still waiting for now evidence as to why sanctions of being imposed now and the u.s. has already implemented measures you might remember that around sixty diplomats were expelled by the u.s. last spring when this saga fest escalated but when questions at the press conference the state department officials didn't mention any the reasoning behind the sanctions whether this was because of old evidence or new evidence let's take a listen to what they had to say. where are you getting the conclusion that rush is behind this creep are poisoning i will leave it to others to characterize the

current state of our understanding of the scriptural affair we've been very clear that we agree with the assessment that it was a agent and that the perpetrator was ultimately the russian federation. i'll leave it to others to give those kinds of details of what we currently understand obviously from reading the press it appears that their investigation is ongoing in terms of the scope and nature of the details and its implications but i'll leave that to others the key words there from the officials where a leave it to others to give the details so whether the u.s. wants the u.k. to disclose the evidence behind the attack remains to be seen and the u.s. is now skating around the reasoning at the moment issuing fresh sanctions without fresh evidence and all the while russian officials here in moscow keep asking for transparency for evidence of keeps asking can russia be involved in this investigation and yet we understand the basis of the u.k. as evidence still falls on the quote highly likely stance well the case views on this is how spain highly likely that russia is behind this attack saying that only

russia has the motives the means and the record to target the school policy and moreover as well moscow has repeatedly denied involvement with this offering offering like you said cooperation on the investigation which london has repeatedly denied but so far we know that the chemical weapons watchdog the a.p. c.w. and porton down haven't been able to confirm the origin of the nerve agent we have not verified the precise source but we provided that the scientific information to the government but you have not been able to establish at porton down that this was made in russia as i said it's our job to provide eat you know the scientific evidence that identifies what the particular nerve agent is but it's not our job to see we are actually was manufacture typically your not tell you to look cotton down to say where it is from we haven't yet been able to do that as

analysis nor the o.p.c. w.'s repeat what i did to find the country. of origin of the agent use. in this time and now we're left with this highly likely stance from the u.k. and the u.s. is issuing this fresh round of sanctions but we haven't seen any new information come to light here in the sanctions that the us be imposed on or around august the twenty second in the meantime the u.k. prime minister's office has welcomed the new batch of u.s. sanctions on russia the russian embassy saying it only wants transparency it still asks can we please to be a part of this investigation by the russian embassy calling these sanctions describing them as draconian measures now the sanctions are not being imposed yet but are already impacting the russian economy the ruble nosediving to his lowest since the twenty sixteen crash earlier we spoke to former u.s. diplomat jim he says the new sanctions have very little to do with this group case

. i would go so far to say that the u.s. government like the british government knows very well that the russians were not responsible for this and this is a political demand this is designed to undercut the overtures from the trumpet ministration for president trying to warm relations with moscow with it with russia and this is a way to undercut that by making accusations against russia that are not only false but there's no way they can disprove president trump would like to have a good relationship with russia i think political ploy to conduct and sensually a kind of a warfare against russia and i think the people in the kremlin know that i think they know there is nothing they can do nothing they can say that would satisfy these demands. facebook could have much closer ties to washington than previously thought is now in most of the platform was relying on experts funded by branches of the u.s. government and nato when it comes to tracking foreign influence in the trunk of

explains how's that for a mark zuckerberg nightmare here were his team in front of a horde of suits go and sort these russian bots out sort out the fakes sort them out or did i just paint a good picture of the reality web giants of been facing lately in the past election you. we've seen how foreign actors are abusing social media platforms those images that can be attributed or associated with the russian company lack of resources a lack of commitment and a lack of genuine effort the likes of zogby could have proudly said we're just a platform where independent and sorting out what you call fakes is none of our business but when wall street alarm bells are ringing you know how it can happen with the stocks it could be better to zip it and focus this is an intense year.

see if we stick to f. b. that. began with a. news feed algorithm the trick was to boost posts with let's say pics of your friends cat and sideline all that politics related media stuff haha they say this lead to less views likes and comments under donald trump's posts move it on facebook has evolved from policing offensive content to policing news views ideas it can be anything apart from your friends if people flag them as potential hoaxes we send those to fact checkers and if those factors that is provably false then we will significantly reduce the distribution of that content why do you want to just get off our platform will look as a porn to some of this content can be i do think that it gets down to this principle of giving people a voice eventually though the get off our platform way to sort things out still

prevailed ok and now it's time to meet the fact checkers journalists have found them in a tiny room at these guys h.q. got it at the end of the day facebook's not so happy with that online policeman's hat so zuck and co are outsourcing the digital share locks i'm being serious that's what they call themselves who are let me check where they come from a. link to nato with their help thirty two suspicious pages have already been sorted out the big ship is not turned around overnight. but i think that. it's now given the opportunity to work with them and i hope that in the months when we have at least three other platforms in that we will see. a willingness to collaborate with us to come up with a solution bravo and it's not just facebook or doing just as great one question though.